Forging Ploughshares

In part 2 of our conversation concerning the book Beyond Justification (https://wipfandstock.com/9781532678981/beyond-justification/) , by Douglas Campbell and John DePue, John describes the shortcoming of the new perspective, but particularly the programmatic failure of N. T. Wright, along with the unnecessary  divisions which occur between justification, sanctification, revelation and salvation, in justification theory. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

In Part I of this two part conversation, Jonathan DePue, coauthor with Douglas Campbell, discusses their upcoming book (https://wipfandstock.com/9781532678981/beyond-justification/) with Paul, with particular focus on the problem of anti-Semitism in traditional Protestant justification theory. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

The typical understanding of salvation, or the typical Protestant understanding, is that all people recognize God and his righteousness, and experience the incapacity to keep the law. This inability to keep the law is definitive of both the human problem and the solution of the cross of Christ, and this explains the curse of the law. This sermon proposes an alternative understanding of the human problem and a different soteriology, based on an alternative reading of the curse of the law in Romans and Galatians. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Brian, Matt, Jonathan, David, Austin, Jim, and Paul discuss John Howard Yoder's and David Bentley Hart's depiction of Constantinianism and the fusion of Church and State and the disappearance of the church. The only visible Christian is one armored by the gospel, resistant to and not armored by the state.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

The impetus behind Paul’s writing and the work of the Christian life and theology is the conversion of the mind, the transformation of the Subject, the rise of a new form of consciousness including self-consciousness.  God, the essence of reality, is not passively intuited or grasped by sight or images – which by definition remain objects – but God in Christ presents himself for the understanding, to be actively apprehended as part of human decision and judgment. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Brian, David, Matt, Brent, Jonathan, Jim and Paul discuss the armor of peace and nonviolence as the heart of resisting the powers, rather than, in the manner of Hart and Milbank, as a passive nonresistance. This resistance is salvific and the meaning of "putting on Christ." Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Faith brings coherence, intelligibility, and understanding, in the midst of the homelessness of being human. The foundations of culture, of law, of institutions, crumbled at Babel just as they have in postmodernism but faith secures meaning in the midst of this homeless condition. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Brian, Jim, Jonathan, Matt, Brent, David, and Paul discuss the picture of imitation in Ephesians and the New Testament as the basic motif of salvation in the New Testament. Christian imitation is a lived salvation delivering from the rivalry of mimetic desire. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Romans 1:18-32 are not Paul's gospel but the premises of a false Teacher opposing Paul, and in Romans 1-3 he deconstructs these premises, preparing for his conclusion that the law is part of the problem defeated by Christ. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jonathan, Matt, Brian, Brent, and Paul discuss Ephesians 4-5 and the singular lie exposed by Christ creating entry into love. The function of a hostile lie in the reification of culture and religion, as in the work of Peter Berger and Rene Girard, and the necessity of this lies exposure so as to be "rooted and grounded in love" is discussed. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

The Romans may have had a law-based understanding of atonement connected to the notion that sin is simply breaking the law. Paul takes them from this understanding to the notion that sin is bondage to a lie in regard to the law from which Christ delivers through resurrection.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

This is the key conclusion to The Mystery Revealed: The Gospel as Exposure of the Lie of Evil as focus turns to individual participation in creation. As David Bentley Hart points out in All Shall Be Saved, humanity is in bondage, but then as he recognizes in You Are Gods, this bondage does not preclude human participation in self-creation. In this discussion Tim, Jonathan, Matt, Jim, Brent, Matthew, Austin, and Paul discuss the implication of these poles of reality in the encounter with and defeat of evil. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

In Romans 1-3 Paul is giving voice to and refuting a false teacher, yet justification theory takes all of Romans 1-3 as the teaching of Paul, ending up with a contradictory gospel which Paul might call the accursed gospel. By not sorting out the voice of the false teacher from Paul's refutation of this teacher, justification theory imagines the law, human capacity, and human recognition of its need is the precursor to coming to Christ. By way of contrast, Paul believes humanity is in bondage to sin and death and Christ alone delivers and only Christ is the foundation for right understanding. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Ambrose, Matt, and Paul, discuss how the United States, due to the culture of secrecy surrounding the various intelligence agencies and classified history has come to resemble churches that cloak sex scandals or closed societies that keep their citizens in the dark. Ambrose traces this secret history surrounding UFO crash retrievals, such as that which retired Major David Grusch exposed in his testimony to Congress.    Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Luther's justification by faith, though it may have been aimed at an unconditional understanding over and against works-righteousness, melded conditionalism and unconditionalism and injected much of Christian thought and biblical interpretation with this confusion. Romans is the place these two systems collide, and particularly how we read Romans 7 brings out the contrast in epistemology, anthropology, the doctrine of revelation, the understanding of God, and of Christ and atonement. (Sign up for our next class, Romans: Salvation through the Body of Christ A theological study of the faithfulness of God revealed in Christ Jesus as articulated in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Focusing on Paul’s exposition of God making the world right through Christ. Starting September 4th https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings)  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Megan, Shaila, Jess, and Paul continue the discussion surrounding Megan's Women's Chapel, as it has addressed the destructive nature of how women and human sexuality are viewed in teachings surrounding both purity culture and complementarianism as they have become part of church and Christian teaching. (Sign up for our next class, Romans: Salvation through the Body of Christ A theological study of the faithfulness of God revealed in Christ Jesus as articulated in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Focusing on Paul’s exposition of God making the world right through Christ. Starting September 4th https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings)  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.  

Justification by faith can either be understood as the "accursed gospel" of the false teachers or entry into the unconditional good news. The manner in which justification by faith must include every category is worked out in this message. (Sign up for our next class, Romans: Salvation through the Body of Christ A theological study of the faithfulness of God revealed in Christ Jesus as articulated in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Focusing on Paul’s exposition of God making the world right through Christ. Starting September 4th https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings)  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Megan, Shaila, and Jess describe to Paul the Women's Chapel started by Megan as a project through Washington University to provide a space for women to share their church journey through, what is sometimes a stifling and traumatic experience.  (Sign up for our next class, Romans: Salvation through the Body of Christ A theological study of the faithfulness of God revealed in Christ Jesus as articulated in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Focusing on Paul’s exposition of God making the world right through Christ. Starting September 4th https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings)  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.  

Justification and faith have been skewed by a gospel that defines these terms as if the law is the baseline and as if retributive justice defines the work of Christ. In this understanding all comprehend who God is and his requirements, yet they simultaneously are depraved. In this false gospel suffering bring righteousness, forgiveness is granted only after wrath is propitiated, and God's anger is pitted against his love. This is not the Gospel. (Sign up for our next class, Romans, starting in September https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings)  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Matt, Tom, and Paul continue their discussion of the film, Oppenheimer, and discuss the portrayal of sin and evil acknowledged and unacknowledged by the man and the film. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.