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This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class. Today is the capstone episode of this entire class on Restoration Theology. We’re going to put together what we’ve learned so far into a twenty-question diagnostic. The purpose of this method is to evaluate any Christian belief or practice. You can use it on your own doctrines to refine what you believe, or you can apply it to others. In what follows I’m going to run through the method a total of three times. First, I’ll simply list off the twenty questions. Then I’ll take two theological books and run through the method twice more. My hope is that once I’m done with this, you will understand how to use the diagnostic. Ultimately, my prayer is that this method will provide Christians from all kinds of backgrounds a more systematic and comprehensive approach to figure out what to believe. This method is how we do restoration theology–how we restore authentic Christianity. I hope you will find it helpful. Here’s a link to the twenty-question diagnostic.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class. About a year ago I was listening to a podcast that said black plastic cookware comes from recycled electronics. Such plastics are loaded with chemicals like fire retardants and should not be used in cooking. I was thinking about the black plastic spatula our family used regularly. I imagined how each time it was heating up, bad chemicals were leeching into our food. This information caused me to doubt something I had never thought of before. I did some looking around online and found that there were other options. There are metal spatulas, silicone spatulas, and even wooden spatulas. I weighed the merits of each and purchased one. When it arrived by mail, I threw out the old black plastic one. You probably employ this kind of reasoning all the time. However, when it comes to deeply cherished beliefs, we tend to be quite resistant to hearing criticisms or having doubts. We are often unaware of what the other theological options are. Most of us are underexposed to other Christian ways of thinking outside of our group. Today my goal is to convince you that looking at other options and evaluating your own beliefs over against them is worthwhile for you to do. Furthermore, I want to–as always–share a method that you can use to do this process on your own. I believe that when you have the courage to allow yourself to doubt your beliefs, you will benefit by either discarding falsehood or strengthening those that are true.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class. As we continue through our survey of the major branches of theology, we come to the subject of doctrinal precedents. Who has believed a particular idea before? Were there any Christians who held position x in the past? Who were they? If the majority of the church no longer holds to a certain belief, what happened? When I was in high school, I thought history was terribly boring. Learning the names of dead American presidents or about European wars never appealed to me. You may feel this way too. However, right from my first time encountering Christian history, I felt different. Perhaps that was a gift of God. Or maybe it’s because Christian history is family history. I was learning about my ancestors in the faith–the good, the bad, and the ugly. Today you’re going to learn a method to do historical theology. This will empower you to test your beliefs in the laboratory of history and see who held them previously. Such an exercise is important in our quest for doctrinal truth. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class. Restoration Theology is an approach that brings together good hermeneutics and good theology. We’ve talked a great deal about hermeneutics, which how to interpret the Bible well, and now we’re working our way through all the major branches of theology. In previous episodes, we’ve looked at biblical and systematic theologies and now we’re ready to see how analytic theology can help us evaluate our doctrines. Though analytic theology may seem intimidating at first–what with all the symbols and logical operators–it’s actually quite a commonsensical way to approach doctrine. If we boil it down, analytic theology is merely the application of reason to your belief. We all do this all the time. We look at some weird belief and say, “Well, that doesn’t make sense. I’m not going to believe that.” We come up against a different way of putting together scripture and we scrutinize the reasoning. We say, “Hey that argument doesn’t work because of this problem.” Analytic theology provides the tools to formalize this process. And I’m excited to share with you a method to harness the power of this field without having to do years of schooling or spend hundreds of hours reading dry textbooks.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class. Whereas last time we focused on differences and development, today our goal is to perceive the final form of a doctrine. Because restorationists believe God inspired scripture, we recognize that amidst the diversity we can also detect coherence. Although there were many authors, there was only one God inspiring each of them. Today you’re going to learn about how to do systematic theology well. Rather than merely collecting a few texts that support your belief, you’ll also learn what other steps are necessary to put together a robust theological statement. You’ll also learn about the limitations of systematic theology.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class. The Bible is a collection of sixty-six books, written by dozens of authors over centuries. It did not drop from heaven, nor did it arrive all in one generation. No, God slowly revealed the Christian scriptures over time. As a result, we find development within them, which is important to understand when building theology. While next time, we’ll focus on the final form of this or that doctrine, today our focus is on how doctrines change over time. This is nothing to worry about. It’s not a bug; it’s a feature! Afterall, our God is not a stone idol, but the dynamic living God who carefully shapes history to his sovereign ends, generation by generation. Today we’ll begin our first episode in a five-part series, covering all the major branches of theology. Enjoy!   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class. Although one of the most overlooked aspects of hermeneutics, figuring out how to apply scripture to your own context today is extremely important. If you interpret the Bible well, but never ask the question, “How does this affect me?” what good does it do you? Like the scholar of religion who is just curious, you can read the Bible and understand it correctly, but never experience the kind of change God wants for you. Let’s say you want to apply the Bible to your life today. How do you do it? It won’t do to just pick a verse here and a verse there–taking this one literally and that one metaphorically as you like. No, you need a method to help keep you honest and to make sure you’re not leaving anything critical out. Today’s episode is going to equip you to apply scripture to your life today in a methodical way, not only providing some clear guidelines of what to do, but also some problems to avoid.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

  This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class. There’s no getting around it. The Bible is a historical book. The events it describes occurred in history. What’s more, biblical history isn’t just limited to a single period of time. No, it stretches over thousands of years. As a result, it’s critical that you always remember that you’re reading something from another time and place. You’re reading about people who lived long ago in a place that is far away–at least for most of us. Now, if you’re anything like me, you found social studies, global studies, and history classes totally boring in high school. I never cared to learn much about American presidents or European wars. However, when I came to understand that the historical context was a major key for understanding the Bible, I discovered–to my surprise–a passion for history. Suddenly I wanted to learn about ancient empires and literature. I researched archeology, epigraphy, and paleography. I suppose my awakening occurred because I saw there was a payoff. I wasn’t just studying history to learn random facts about long ago. I was studying to learn how to understand the Bible better, and that made all the difference in the world.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class. What’s the difference between reading the Bible and studying it? Reading the Bible is like surfing on the waves, following the general flow of thought as you go. Studying the Bible is more like swimming underwater, perhaps with scuba gear to enable you to investigate matters thoroughly. Today we’re doing the second one. You’re going to learn how to interpret a biblical text in its literary context using the grammatical-historical hermeneutic. This includes learning about genre, scriptural additives, context, and intertextuality. Our goal is to understand the authorial intent of a scripture so that you interpret it accurately.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class. Would you agree that every translation of the Bible has some sort of bias in it? Even the most literal translations have a good deal of bias baked into them. What can we do? Well, you could learn Hebrew and Greek so you can read the Bible for yourself instead of depending on a translation. Ok, but if you don’t have the inclination, motivation, or time to do that, what can you do? This episode of Restoration Theology is going to take you step by step through an English-only process of detecting bias in translation. You’ll learn a little about the translation process as well as how to spot bias in translation. This is a necessary component in our quest to evaluate doctrines against the text of Scripture.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

This is part four of the Restoration Theology class. The Old Testament, also called the Hebrew Bible, is a collection of 39 books written before the time of Christ. Today you’re going to learn about the three major manuscript families of the OT: (1) the Masoretic Text, (2) the Septuagint, and (3) the Samaritan Pentateuch. Like last time, we’ll go through several of the most significant manuscripts while also covering some of the most exciting stories of discovery. My goal here is simply to familiarize you with the texts upon which our Old Testaments are based, so that when you go to build doctrines later, you’ll be able to understand why textual differences matter and how to navigate them effectively.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

This is part four of the Restoration Theology class. Last time we covered the importance of using the Bible to build our beliefs. But what is the Bible? Well, it wasn’t written in American English or in the West or in recent history. The Bible is a library of books written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Still, that doesn’t quite answer the question of what the Bible is. Let’s just focus on the New Testament (NT) for a moment. The NT contains twenty-seven books written in Greek. But that still doesn’t tell you the whole picture. In fact, when you pick up a Greek New Testament (GNT), you’re looking at a scholarly reconstruction of what textual specialists think the earliest recoverable form of each word of the original New Testament is. This reconstruction is based on thousands of little decisions of textual critics who have at their disposal thousands of handwritten GNT manuscripts. It’s a little complicated, but you need to know what’s going on. Eventually in this class we’re going to get around to building and evaluating doctrines based on the Bible. Sometimes manuscript variations have a great bearing on doctrine. So, you need to know this stuff. What I’ve done in this episode is put together a narrative, marching through history to see not only what the most important kinds of manuscripts are, but also their exciting stories of discovery. I hope you will enjoy learning about this important field.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

This is part three of the Restoration Theology class. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about communicating with people who don’t come from my background, it’s that assumptions matter. It’s important to know what I’m assuming and what the other is assuming so we can have meaningful dialog. In our episode today, we’re talking about two presuppositions that restorationists bring to theology: primacy and perspicuity. These two are key footings upon which we will build the foundation of restoration theology. For some of you, what I have to say will seem obvious and unnecessary to spell out while others may find themselves disagreeing with the restorationist approach. Whatever the case may be for you, all I ask is that you hear me out.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

This is part two of the Restoration Theology class. Restorationism–the impulse to restore authentic Christianity–is not new. Before diving in to learn how to build a proper restoration theology, we owe it to those who have come before us, to remember how we got here. Although we generally take for granted our freedom to dissent from the governing authorities and the unprecedented access to information we have today, our advantages are the result of centuries of struggle. Today we’ll contextualize modern restorationism as the climactic end of a chain of events stretching back five centuries, which I hope will give an appreciation for the pedigree of restorationism and inspire you to carry forward that work.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes from Restoration Theology Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

This is part one of the Restoration Theology class. How do you know what to believe? Have you ever been frustrated when hearing multiple perspective on a doctrine and weren’t sure which to believe? There are so many denominations out there, each with its own statement of faith and traditions. How can you be sure that the beliefs you inherited are really true? Will you be satisfied if I just say, “Trust me. I’m a pastor. I’ve been to seminary. Don’t trouble yourself with figuring out doctrine. I’m the expert; you’re the layman. Just believe whatever I say.” How would you feel about that? Maybe if you know me and you’ve been a longtime listener to this podcast, you might be fine with that. That is, until someone else, equally intelligent, equally credentialled, and equally as persuasive comes along teaching a contradictory doctrine. Call me a stickler, but topics as important as what to believe about God, yourself, and salvation are way too important to leave to blind faith. I’m not saying you need to become an expert or get a Ph. D., but you do need to know how the process works. Ultimately you are responsible for your beliefs not me or the thousand other podcasters out there. You. Welcome to Restoration Theology, my brand-new class designed to guide you through a comprehensive and systematic method to evaluate your beliefs. I’ve been working on this class for the last few months, but really, I’ve been preparing for this class for over two decades as I’ve pursued education in biblical studies, biblical languages, church history, and theology. I’m so excited to share with you what I’ve learned and guide you through the process of figuring out what to believe. My focus for this class is not on telling you what to believe, but on teaching you a method to figure out your beliefs for yourself.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes from Restoration Theology Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Journey-Recover-Central-Scripture/dp/1666785954/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2FJGCNSR7G38Q&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JypriWWPC-GVWXm0PL-DRybibkB2NFH7tttWygMCAt4Hwig5z0boPYJkGm5cN2RFytsJ88H6mR4ypK4SbBTmj9T2AnOTXfnIMTgN0h59C9_CZMUuMt5tIXTO_d2MGY7yuahMsrBkz4JXn6udyr7cRdVw534d_Nv-wSaWa4TiCIDjQmOlcRR_olR0NBMn2GgHG9MCUzptWLpsEvdWY7bzrPRQJT5i9gYkRI3wd_Jc9I4.b5b9OlbBzZi3HMnM4voqFi6i7xx-njRkkv1urDn31sE&dib_tag=se&keywords=kingdom+journey&qid=1733426202&sprefix=kingdom+journey%2Cap