Biblical Understanding

Last month, I uploaded a video entitled "Refuting Dispensationalism Using Only Three Bible Verses." One of the verses I used to refute dispensationalism in this video was Romans 11:26, where I argued that the salvation of "all Israel" is to be interpreted as a reference to the entire Christian church, featuring both Jews and Gentiles who believe upon Christ, and not the ethnic nation exclusively-speaking.

This particular interpretation was also the one held by John Calvin, as is clearly evident in his commentary on the same passage. Despite this, after reading some of the comments on this video, I realized that there were many who, while agreeing with the overall topic of the video, nonetheless disagreed with the specific interpretation of Romans 11:26 that I presented.

As I began to explore the topic further, I found that the number of available resources (especially on YouTube) providing an in-depth defense of this view were quite lacking. As a result, to conclude the Covenant Theology Trilogy, I decided to dedicate a video to the defense of the particular interpretation of Romans 11:26 that I presented in that initial video -- the same interpretation held by John Calvin himself. Regardless of what interpretation you may ultimately land upon, I pray that this video, at the very least, serves as a quality resource that Christians may turn to for a thorough explanation of this often-neglected view.

1 week ago | [YT] | 40

Biblical Understanding

Contrary to what was stated in last week's post, the final part of the Covenant Theology Trilogy is not quite ready for uploading today. I apologize for the inconveniences this may have caused for those interested.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 21

Biblical Understanding

Stay tuned for next week's video! (The final part of what I'm calling the "Covenant Theology Trilogy")

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 37

Biblical Understanding

Question for all of you: Who do you personally regard as the greatest theologian(s) in church history, and who do you believe are some more neglected/underappreciated theologians relative to their contributions to the church?

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 30

Biblical Understanding

It has been brought to my attention that a prominent Roman Catholic YouTuber recently engaged with one of my videos on the topic of what I've called "Ignatian Presbyterianism," the concept of harmonizing Ignatius of Antioch's descriptions of church government with a standard presbyterian model. The video in question features a number of arguments attempting to demonstrate that the apostolic fathers did not hold to a presbyterian model of church government, but rather favored the model we see in the modern Roman Catholic Church today.

To be clear, I am not a huge fan of direct response videos; I personally find (not all, but most of) them liable to fuel tribalism and spark Internet drama in a way that I strive to distance myself from. Sometimes, however, response videos are necessary and are great to clarify points in question for those genuinely curious. In these cases, it’s the manner in which these response videos are presented and the way in which the opponent is characterized in them that I have problems with, not the concept of the response itself.

My goal is and always will be to keep the focus of my content on the arguments I present and interact with, not on myself or other people as "online personalities." I personally grieve the thought of any of my content causing viewers to become primarily concerned with "their guy/side" dunking on those who disagree with them, videos created with the principal goal of farming views and engagement through clickbait and rage-bait and doing little to nothing to advance a productive dialogue. Whether you agree with me or not, know that I am solely concerned with delivering arguments that allow my viewers to thoughtfully contemplate the beauty of the Reformed/Protestant faith and subsequently recognize the errors of worldviews that contradict it. If I ever fall short of this aim, please forgive me.

With that being said, I had already scheduled to create this video prior to my knowledge of any responses made against my previous videos on Ignatius. Although this is not a direct response to any one individual in particular, I did make sure to respond to specific objections from the writings of the apostolic fathers themselves that I have seen used in responses in an effort to argue against the presbyterian model.

I am aware and cognizant of the fact that this particular video may not be a favorite amongst my Anglican viewers especially. However, despite the obvious disagreement that Anglicans may have over the topic of this video, I can assure you that my critiques (if any, in all honesty) of Anglicanism pale in comparison to the critiques I make of Roman Catholicism and its constant insistence that the early church viewed the bishop of Rome in the same manner as that which is outlined in Vatican I.

Lord willing, I plan to have this video uploaded for view tomorrow night. Thank you all for your interest in the meantime!

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 76

Biblical Understanding

***ATTENTION ALL ANGLICAN VIEWERS OF MY CHANNEL***

In short time, I plan to release some videos featuring citations of the church fathers from prominent Reformation theologians in the classical Protestant traditions. My goal for this project is to highlight how our Reformation forefathers read and understood the patristics during their respective time period, helping us better understand the historical precedent behind our respective traditions and better defend the historical superiority of Protestantism as a result.

In preparation for this, I myself have already read the entirety of John Calvin's "Institutes of the Christian Religion" and plan to read the entirety of Martin Chemnitz's "Examination of the Council of Trent" beginning in September. As great and robust as these two works are from the Reformed and Lutheran traditions respectively, I would love to feature a similar work from the Anglican tradition as well (if such a resource exists). At this point in time, I am not familiar of such a work from the Anglican tradition that provides large-scale patristic citations in the way Calvin and Chemnitz do in their respective works.

If there are any resources from the Anglican tradition that you're aware of fitting this mold that you would recommend for this study, please let me know in the comments below! Thank you in advance!

1 month ago | [YT] | 109

Biblical Understanding

I thought I'd share some highly-interesting quotations I came across in recent studies of mine regarding Ignatius of Antioch and his view of church government. As I've argued in previous videos, Ignatius's distinction between bishops and presbyters is not the same distinction of the offices that we see in the modern church today. As a result of this distinction, Ignatius's view is easily harmonized with the Presbyterian model that is found throughout the New Testament and the rest of the apostolic fathers.

Despite what popular-level apologetics on YouTube may otherwise like us to think (especially coming from the Roman Catholic perspective), the scholarship on issues such as this is highly complex and multi-layered (and far from unanimously supporting the modern Roman Catholic view). As Dr. Stewart demonstrates in this particular example, it is faulty to assume that Ignatius advocated for a monoepiscopal church government simply because he uses the word "bishop" without considering the grander context of his writings explaining why he uses this term in the first place (a classic example of the word-concept fallacy). Ignatius is much more of a Presbyterian than you might like to believe!

"On balance, I have preferred to see Ignatius as simply the episkopos of a single Christian community, simply because the descriptions that Ignatius gives of worship within the Asian congregations seem to reflect the worship of a single Christian household, and because his insistence on a single meeting would seem to reflect a mindset formed in a single congregation rather than a group of congregations meeting separately by necessity...a frank confession of uncertainty surely is preferable to the past confident assertions of Igantius's monepiscopate based solely on mistaken assumptions regarding the nature of aboriginal systems of Christian leadership. Ignatius provides no evidence for the formation of monepiscopacy in Antioch..."

Source: "The Original Bishops: Office and Order in the First Christian Communities" by Alistair C. Stewart (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2014)

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1 month ago | [YT] | 31

Biblical Understanding

‪@CanonAndCreed‬ released an absolutely phenomenal video this morning on the topic of Presbyterial Apostolic Succession. These days, the term "apostolic succession" is far too often thrown around as an objection to Protestantism, when in reality, the historical understanding of apostolic succession actually vindicates the truth of classical Protestantism over and against Rome and the East.

As ‪@CanonAndCreed‬ demonstrates in this video, church history doesn't just support the validity of Presbyterial Apostolic Succession; it actually demonstrates that the Presbyterian understanding of apostolic succession has been the proper articulation of apostolic succession all along, going back to the apostles themselves.

Check out the video and subscribe to him if you haven't already!

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 18

Biblical Understanding

New video filmed and editing underway!

Based on the reception of my first video on the topic, it became very clear to me that the covenant theology/dispensationalism distinction is an area that many people find important and are seeking more information about. Of course, I believe promoting the Reformed view of covenant theology provides the solid structure of biblical interpretation that many are longing for, hence this follow-up video.

Lord willing, it will be uploaded tomorrow night before the weekend.

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 37

Biblical Understanding

For those that may have missed it, my friend ‪@RevDonBaker‬​ uploaded an excellent video yesterday explaining the relationship between covenant theology and dispensationalism, which featured a wonderful articulation of the Reformed view in a comprehensible manner. As was evident to me in the reception of my own video from last week, this is a topic that continues to remain quite relevant in the Christian world. It is apparent that many Christians see great value in considering how we ought to think about this topic from a biblical perspective, and ‪@RevDonBaker‬'s video serves as yet another valuable resource for shedding light on exactly that.

For those looking for resources for further study on the topic (and Reformed theology in general), check out ‪@RevDonBaker‬'s video, and subscribe to him if you haven't already!

https://youtu.be/McRNTFQfTsg?si=MOFF1...

2 months ago | [YT] | 17