When Jesus was falsely accused of sedition and blasphemy, Pontius Pilate asked him a question which has persistently confounded every thinker before and since: “What is truth?”

Pinning down truth so that everyone can have access to reality has been notoriously difficult. One option is to hold that humans can figure out the truth based upon their own observations and experiences - but the human propensity to be mistaken often demonstrates this theory’s weakness. Another option is to hold that there is no such thing as truth (or, at least, no one can know whether there is or not) - and yet we humans continue to live as though some things are true and worth giving assent to and others are not.

The Christian solution is that no mere mortal can completely know and understand the truth, but that God has made the truth known in the person of his Son Jesus. In other words, any and all truth claims must be tested not against the standard of human experience or common sense, but against the person of the One who claimed to be the way, the truth, and the life.

Hosts: Aaron Mueller and Chuck Rathert

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The cultural trope of the twenty-something guy living in his parents basement, not working, not exercising, and playing hours of video games, is perhaps a caricature, but it touches on a reality that is all too common today: the disillusioned and lonely young man.

Individualism has taught all of us that community responsibility and living life in relationship is unimportant, and guys who have bought into this lie pay the price of loneliness. But in addition, cultural currents which disdain the way God has created men to function (with energy, aggression, logical rigor, and decisiveness) make being a real man in public an almost impossible task. Part of this cultural pushback is, of course, a necessary reaction against the sexual aggression of some men who have felt loosed by the sexual revolution to treat women as objects. But Christianity insists that the solution to the problems of the sexual revolution is not to stifle biological manhood, but to channel the way God has made them in service of their families and community, by providing and protecting.

Hosts: Aaron Mueller and Chuck Rathert

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Sometimes churches close for demographic reasons: a small, rural community whose citizens are moving away will perhaps struggle to keep its churches open. But the primary reason why once healthy churches shrink and die is that they stop recognizing their foundation, Jesus Christ.

The liberal way of ignoring the foundation is to ignore his teachings, his strong Jewish commitment to the way God’s Law reveals God’s own character. The conservative way of ignoring the foundation is to ignore his mission, his desire - not to establish a theological ghetto of like-believing religious adherents - but to use his own people as his body to rescue the cities and neighborhoods where he has planted that particular church. But when God’s people remain faithful to his teaching and his mission, the Christian church grows and flourishes.

Hosts: Aaron Mueller and Chuck Rathert

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If God is indeed infinite, like the Bible says, then it’s clear we can never completely comprehend what this means. After all, if the finite (we humans) could comprehend the infinite it would no longer be infinite. But this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to understand who God is.

Like any other intellectual pursuit (learning new technology, a new language, a new musical instrument, etc.), reaching perfection is never possible, but growth is. In fact, believing in a God who is infinite gives direction to our lives now. Like a road trip whose final destination gives meaning and purpose to the individual turns on the way there, knowing that the final destination for redeemed humanity is a relationship with an infinite God controls how we live now. And God, who is alone infinite and immortal, gives his people the gift of his own immortality by uniting them to his resurrected son Jesus.

Hosts: Aaron Mueller and Chuck Rathert

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Christians often talk about serving the Lord. And while it’s true that the Bible calls his people to serve him with all their hearts, it’s a mistake to think that what this means is that God needs us to meet his needs. So, in what sense is it appropriate to talk about us serving God?

First, since God is God and we are not, he is in charge and we’re not. As such, he is our master and we are his servants. But he doesn’t call us to serve him because he needs us or because there is something missing in him which only his human creatures can fulfill. Instead, the Bible frequently describes God as serving us.

Unlike the rest of the gods in the world, our God does not demand our sacrifice for his sake, but instead he sacrifices himself for us. In other words, he is the kind of Master who serves, subverting what our culture thinks about power and authority and identifying it with self-sacrifice, the heart of which is the self-sacrifice of the God-man Jesus Christ on the cross for the lives of his people.

Hosts: Aaron Mueller and Chuck Rathert

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Music has a power which logic and rationality do not - the power to tap into the human emotional experience. This experience is no less spiritual than understanding and reflecting on the truth of the gospel intellectually, merely different. Music evokes memories that mere words cannot, connecting us to our experience of God in worship from the past. Music taps into our creativity, allowing us not merely to participate in worship but become authors and creators of Christian worship ourselves. And music fires our imagination, allowing us by faith to experience the universal church on heaven and earth as we sing and aids us in longing for the eternal worship of new creation. Chuck and Aaron call the Christian church back to its heritage of strong and heartfelt congregational singing.

Hosts: Aaron Mueller and Chuck Rathert

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What makes the books of the Bible sacred scripture is that they were written by prophets (Old Testament) or apostles (New Testament). The books of the New Testament bear witness to the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, either as a first-hand account of his life, death, and resurrection (we call these the four Gospels) or by reflecting on and applying this Gospel to the life of the Christian communities of the first century (these are the epistles written by Paul, Peter, and others).

These books were not “decided upon” by anyone; instead, the earliest Jesus followers recognized that they were about the historical Jesus and carried his continuing power in the reading of them. Only later, in the fourth century, did the church feel the need to put down on paper an official list of the books they had already recognized as scripture.

Hosts: Aaron Mueller and Chuck Rathert

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After a discussion about how it’s impossible to prove things like whether spirits exist or not, Chuck and Aaron talk about how the Bible describes the spiritual world.

The existence of angels - powerful, supernatural beings whose job it is to serve God - is assumed by the Bible, and there are times when angels interact with humans. Most of us have never had an experience of an angel, but the Bible says that sometimes humans can interact with them without being aware they are talking with an angel. The Bible also describes fallen angels, or demons. These beings have rebelled against God and are determined to do harm to humanity.

Chuck and Aaron discuss the possibility that “hauntings” are actually the work of demonic forces. Ghosts, on the other hand, if they are to be understood as the souls of deceased people, don’t typically inhabit this universe, since the Bible says that it is appointed to each human being to die and then face the judgment. In other words, the souls of the deceased either go to hell or into the presence of Christ. Interacting with spiritual forces under the misconception that they are harmless wandering souls can therefore be a very dangerous thing.

Hosts: Aaron Mueller and Chuck Rathert

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