Mount Vigil

This is it: the finale of the 5-part series on Revelation, as well as the finale of the 19-part series on the Story of God in the Bible. In this episode, Blaine and Anthony draw together the main threads of the podcast so far: God's design for the cosmos as revealed...

In this series, Blaine and Anthony have argued that Revelation is the theological capstone of the Bible. Nevertheless, because its method of doing theology draws upon the Jewish (rather than the Greco-Roman) tradition, many of its claims go right over the head of...

“While each church receives a message reflecting its own situation, there is one overarching issue: whether or not to compromise. Specifically, will these churches be faithful witnesses both to Jesus and like Jesus (and John!) by refraining from participation in the...

In this episode, Anthony and Blaine continue their Story of God series by returning to the book of Revelation. Questions discussed in this conversation: How does John use the Old Testament? What is the structure of John's Apocalypse? Who is/are the seven spirits in...

“Revelation is not only one of the finest literary works in the New Testament, but also one of the greatest theological achievements of early Christianity.” So says New Testament Scholar Richard Bauckham, and yet few of us experience it that way. In this episode,...

When it comes to anticipating the return of Jesus, two New Testament texts loom especially large: The Olivet Discourse and the Revelation of John. In this episode, Blaine and Anthony discuss the first: The Olivet Discourse from Matthew 24 and 25. On the Mount of...

In this episode, Blaine and Anthony begin a conversation on the culmination of the Story of God: the bodily return of Jesus and the final marriage of heaven and earth. Where to Subscribe Apple Podcasts Stitcher Spotify SoundCloud Google Podcasts Audible Our podcast...

In this episode, Blaine and Anthony discuss the everyday life of the people of God. The Church is a glorious reality; on the ground, it is also a gritty reality. The practice of dying to self is not abstract. It looks like loving real people. It looks like owning our...

The Church is the Bride of Christ, and that, more than any other dimension of Church life, is an eschatalogical reality. It is a fact that anchors the purpose of the Church in the bodily return of Jesus and the final union of Heaven and Earth. In this episode, Blaine...

"If the Church is really supposed to be yours, you'll have to make that much more obvious than it is at present."Joseph Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict XVI, paraphrasing the temptations of ChristThe Church is a vital step in the Story of God. It hearkens back to Eden; it...

In this episode, Anthony and Blaine discuss the Ascension and Pentecost, linking those events as two sides of the same coin in the story of God. In the Ascension, Jesus has anchored our humanity in the heavens. At Pentecost, the Sermon on the Mount and the Old...

In this episode, Anthony and Blaine discuss suffering, surrender, and incarnate spirituality as Jesus’s solution to the World and the Flesh. This is the third installment in a three-part series on Jesus as the crescendo of the Story of God.Also in this conversation:...

In this episode, Blaine and Anthony continue their conversation on the work of Jesus: How, exactly, does Jesus deal with the problem of spiritual oppression? Why does it matter that Jesus reigns supreme over the council? Where is the gate of hades, and what would it...

In this episode, Blaine and Anthony continue their series on the Story of God by arriving, at last, at Jesus. In particular, this show addresses the way in which Jesus deals with sin and death so that the story of Israel, with its law and sacrificial system to manage...

Why did God choose to create the nation of Israel? How was God's decision to create a people where there was no people part of his plan to deal with sin, death, and spiritual oppression? How does the story of YHWH and Israel prepare humanity for the ultimate...

In this special episode, Blaine and Anthony discuss self-examination. Self-examination, or Examen, is a practice that followers of Jesus have used for centuries to see their lives as God sees them, and, therefore, as they really are. The 5 steps of Examen Center...

In this episode we continue our Story of God series by talking about the Fall, or more accurately the Falls. We explore the origins of evil in the world, including the first human sin, the role of depraved spiritual powers, and the descent into darkness that forms the...

In this episode we pick up where we left off in telling the Story of God. We ask the big questions like: What is the meaning of life? Why did God create is? What are we here for? Some of the things we cover in this episode: How babies are like rainbow trout How...

We're interrupting our series on the story of God to talk about the ongoing war in Ukraine and the Church's response to it.Some of the things we cover in this episode: What our fleshly responses and our repentance of those responses looks like How Christians can find...

This is the second in our series on the Story of God. In this episode we discuss the spiritual powers found in the Bible: the Elohim and the Divine Counsel, angels and demons. Our aim is to continue developing the foundations worldview this is not selectively...