Theology in the Raw

Of all of Preston's favorite church planters, Hugh is definitely at the top of his list. In this podcast, Preston and Hugh talk about simplifying church in a post-Covid-19 world and exploring other ways of integrating discipleship into the marketplace, community, and natural rhythms of life. They also discuss the pros and cons of church services and their effectiveness for helping people live the Christian life.

 In this podcast, John C. Bivona shares a wealth of information about the truth about Covid-19. John is a Senior Biosafety Officer for The University of Chicago – Howard T. Ricketts Laboratory, a Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, as well as a Registered Biosafety Professional with ABSA International (American Biological Safety Association). John was a lead trainer with the Duke Infectious Disease Response Training (DIDRT) Program, funded through an NIEHS-NIH Grant, that was designed to prepare workers at risk of infectious disease exposure. Additionally, he is a certified HAZWOPER/HAZMAT Trainer.

Juli Slattery is an expert in all things related to sex, sexuality, purity culture, female sexuality, true intimacy, and sexual discipleship--a super helpful term she unpacks in this thought provoking episode. Preston and Juli talk about a lot of things in this episode that's not often talked about in church, yet absolutely NEEDS to be talked about in church. This episode will be particularly helpful for females, or anyone seeking to understand female sexuality.

Preston is working through a stack of questions in this Q & A podcast. Would he ever participate in a pride parade? How should gay/SSA Christians build healthy relationships with people of the same sex? What are his thoughts on Vaccines? His thoughts on Robert Gagnon’s approach to same-sex sexuality/marriage?The value of reading books vs. blogs vs. periodicals? What’s the meaning of “the worm shall not die” (Mark 9:48)? How does the parable of the rich man and Lazarus fit in with the Annihilation view of hell? Is corporal punishment (i.e. spanking) biblical? My thoughts on attending a UMC church that’s not taking a clear stance on marriage.

Preston sits down with his good friend and fellow Boise resident John Whittaker to talk about all things related to the church. Church structure, the role of the Sunday gathering, how preaching needs to change, the heightened need for discipleship, and why the LDS church might be on to something when it comes to Ecclesiology.

Justin Brierley is the host of the very popular radio show (and podcast) Unbelievable. He’s interviewed many scholars, theologians, apologists, and atheists. He’s also hosted many debates between Christians and non-Christians--and he’s still a Christian. In this show, Preston and Justin talk about Christianity, defending the fact, the best arguments against Christianity, the problem of evil, atheism, and many other things related to Justin’s very interesting space in Christianity.

In this different sort of podcast, Preston moderates a discussion between Chris Date (Trinitarian) and Sam Adams (Unitarian) about whether God is three in one or just one. Sam argues that there’s one God and Jesus and the Spirit are not that God, while Chris Date believes that God is Trinity--three persons of one divine essence. And both argue from the text of Scripture for their view.

This week in OT in the Raw, Preston discusses the Abrahamic Covenant and how it relates to the gospel, Abraham’s fragile faith, the weird covenant ceremony of Genesis 15, and the startling incident of Genesis 22--“go kill your son.

Preston sits down with one of his "mentors from a distance"--the one and only, Wes Hill. Wes is a celibate gay Christian (or a Christian who happens to be attracted to the same sex and not the opposite sex) and a biblical scholar. Wes and Preston talk a lot about the phrase "gay Christian" and why it's become so volatile in some evangelical circles. They also talk about Wes' most recent book "The Lord's Prayer" and what the prayer means in the context of Matthew's gospel.

This week, we dive into the flood of Genesis 6-9, God’s covenant with Noah, the shady stuff that went on with Noah and his son Ham, and God’s promised seed of redemption named Abram.

Preston reconnects with an old friend from his Ph.D. days in the U.K. Nijay has quickly become a leading N.T. scholar and, as a person of color, is alert to the white-dominated culture of American evangelicalism, especially in the academy. Nijay and Preston also talk about various other scholarly N.T. interests.

This week in OT in the Raw, we continue looking at the fall in Genesis 3, God’s promise of redemption in 3:15, how this promise works itself out through genealogical lines, the story of Cain and Able, and other figures like Lamech, Enoch, and Noah. Oh, and we also talk about angels having sex with women to make huge giants.

Rachel has a fascinating story and a witty pen. She's the director of theological development for the northeast for CRU and is the author of the forthcoming book "Born Again This Way." She's attracted to women, married to a man, and a loves studying and writing about Jesus, the Bible, and Christianity. We talked a lot about her interesting journey to faith and how she's wrestled with her faith and her sexuality.

Preston talks with his friend Jay Kim, who’s a pastor at Vintage Church in Santa Cruz, CA, and the author of the forthcoming book Analogy Church. Jay has been rethinking how we go about using technology in church and how we can break free from being enslaved to technology. Jay and Preston also talk about the unique, post-Christian, hyper progressive context of Santa Cruz and the challenges and opportunities his church faces in this context. 

Questions Covered in Today’s show: -Why has most church fathers and theologians held to eternal conscious torment? -What about the parable in Luke 16 where the rich man was suffering “in torment”? -What about Revelation 20:10-15, where it explicitly says that the devil, the beast, and the false prophet are being tormented “forever and ever”? -Does Genesis 2 really imply that humans are not immortal? -Aren’t the Old Testament passages about judgment thinking of “judgment in this life” and not some kind of afterlife judgment in the next life?