Bradley G. Green is professor of philosophy and Christian theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He holds a PhD from Baylor University, co-founded Augustine School in Jackson, Tennessee, and is a co-founder of Christ Overall.

The conversation evaluates critical theory as a counterfeit religious vision with its own accounts of creation, sin, redemption, and eschatology. Drawing on Cornelius Van Til, Green shows how unbelieving thought oscillates between rationalism and irrationalism; drawing on Henry Van Til, he explains why culture is “religion externalized.” The result is a rigorous, accessible framework for Christians seeking to understand critical theory without caricature and to answer it from the truth of God’s revelation.

Resources

• What Is Critical Theory?: A Concise Christian Analysis
• Bradley G. Green at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
• Christ Overall

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 04:30 Introducing What Is Critical Theory?
• 08:14 Marxism after the failed German revolution
• 10:43 The major Frankfurt School thinkers
• 12:35 Culture, oppression, and the long march through the institutions
• 15:54 Critical theory as a counterfeit religion
• 19:06 What the critical theorists see—and miss
• 21:56 Creation, givenness, and the autonomous individual
• 24:05 Sin relocated from the heart to the system
• 25:18 Marcuse’s vision of sexual liberation
• 29:42 Utopian hope and Adorno’s “Grand Hotel Abyss”
• 33:11 Walter Benjamin and a “messianic rupture”
• 36:45 Repressive tolerance and the authoritarian personality
• 42:35 Van Til on rationalism and irrationalism
• 46:31 Culture as religion externalized
• 49:22 Pastoral and educational applications
• 53:55 Using the book for personal and group study
• 56:20 Conclusion

Participants: Bradley G. Green, Camden Bucey

Kevin is senior pastor of Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, and associate professor of systematic theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte. In this volume, he traces the church’s history from AD 70 to 1415 through twenty significant figures and events.

The conversation explores how Christians can remember faithful men and women without lapsing into hagiography—or reducing the past to a catalogue of failures. Camden and Kevin also discuss monasticism, the preservation of learning and liturgy, Protestant retrieval of medieval theologians such as Bernard of Clairvaux, and the figures who will appear in the forthcoming second volume.

Resources

• Church History for Everyone, Volume 1
• Clearly Reformed

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 00:50 Christ the Center 1000 summit update
• 12:55 Introducing Church History for Everyone
• 15:51 Conversation with Kevin DeYoung
• 17:30 From Sunday school lectures to a two-volume history
• 20:58 Why Christianity is inseparable from history
• 23:48 Church history as family history
• 26:38 Beyond hagiography and “warts only” history
• 30:57 Choosing characters and telling the church’s story
• 35:30 What Protestants can learn from monasticism
• 39:53 Recovering the medieval church
• 43:59 Previewing volume 2
• 46:53 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Kevin DeYoung

Jared serves as Executive Director of the Institute for Reformed Biblical Counseling and as Pastor of Counseling and Teaching at Cornerstone United Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Michigan. He is also a visiting professor of biblical counseling at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary and holds a PhD in biblical counseling from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The conversation also examines tensions within contemporary biblical counseling. Camden and Jared consider the antithesis, common grace, the relation of the book of nature to the book of Scripture, and the danger of either rejecting all extra-biblical knowledge or baptizing secular methods without sufficient theological scrutiny. Throughout, they argue that faithful counseling should serve the church’s disciple-making mission and bring every claim about human life under the authoritative framework of God’s Word.

Resources

• Van Til’s Counseling Movement
• Institute for Reformed Biblical Counseling

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 03:12 Jared Poulton’s path into biblical counseling
• 09:12 What is biblical counseling?
• 17:44 The sufficiency of Scripture and pastoral counsel
• 23:09 CCEF, David Powlison, and Van Til
• 27:29 A Van Tillian foundation and an identity crisis
• 32:48 Competing trajectories in biblical counseling
• 41:02 Robert K. Rudolph and Jay Adams
• 44:02 Three streams that shaped Adams
• 50:57 God is man’s environment
• 55:58 Presuppositions and borrowed terminology
• 61:37 The antithesis and secular psychology
• 67:06 Scripture’s framework for counseling
• 72:59 Common grace and the two-book approach
• 75:56 Counseling in service of the church’s mission
• 77:42 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jared Poulton

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

The conversation turns to Vatican II and Karl Rahner’s doctrine of the “anonymous Christian.” Camden and Mark consider Rahner’s optimistic anthropology, his account of God’s self-communication, and the influence of this framework on Roman Catholic inclusivism. They conclude with a pastoral call to understand Roman Catholicism on its own terms, speak with clarity and charity, and offer the assurance found only in the finished work of Christ.

Mark Gilbert serves in Anglican churches in Sydney. He is a Fellow of the Reformanda Initiative and of the Rome Scholars and Leaders Network (RSLN). His books with Matthias Media include The God Who Saves, The Road Once Travelled, and Stepping Out in Faith. He also hosts Certainty4Eternity.

Resources

• Certainty4Eternity YouTube Channel
• Talking with Catholics About Jesus
• The Nicene Creed
• The Nicene Creed and the Nature of Christian Unity

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 03:48 Mark Gilbert’s journey from Roman Catholicism
• 10:50 The Rome Scholars and Leaders Network
• 15:04 Catholic inclusivity after Vatican II
• 20:36 Institutional and spiritual views of unity
• 26:43 The church as a continuing incarnation
• 28:58 Vatican II and Karl Rahner
• 35:36 Van Til, Rahner, and the image of God
• 45:18 The “anonymous Christian”
• 47:30 Roman Catholicism in a pluralistic world
• 52:06 Inclusivity, gender, and doctrinal development
• 58:19 Rahner, Ratzinger, and competing Catholic trajectories
• 61:28 The Roman Catholic Church as a “sacrament of unity”
• 65:33 Unity in truth and evangelizing Roman Catholics
• 70:14 Resources for churches and small groups
• 72:59 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Mark Gilbert

Ayala recounts his path from a Pentecostal upbringing to Reformed theology and presuppositional apologetics, including the decisive influence of the Greg Bahnsen–Gordon Stein debate. He also explains the origins of Revealed Apologetics and reflects on the opportunities and distortions created by algorithmic media. Throughout the conversation, apologetics is presented as a distinctly Christian calling: intellectual, moral, spiritual, ecclesial, prayerful, and governed by gentleness and respect.

Links

• Revealed Apologetics
• Revealed Apologetics on YouTube
• Defending Our Hope

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:03 YouTube as the Modern Areopagus
• 3:43 Eli Ayala’s Background and Work
• 8:39 Spiritual Warfare and Apologetics
• 12:47 An Apologetic Awakening
• 17:06 The Bahnsen–Stein Debate and Presuppositionalism
• 20:42 The Origins of Revealed Apologetics
• 25:35 YouTube’s Promise and Peril
• 36:31 Biblical Content, Method, and Character
• 43:13 The Online Apologetics Landscape
• 47:33 Eastern Orthodoxy and Presuppositionalism
• 49:32 Islam and Christian Apologetics Online
• 50:52 Roman Catholic Apologetics Online
• 54:11 Guiding Young People through Online Theology
• 1:01:13 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Eli Ayala

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

The conversation develops a biblical and theological account of conscience from creation to new creation. Ferrari addresses whether Adam possessed a conscience before the fall; the Old Testament vocabulary of heart, kidneys, and clean hands; Calvin’s sensus divini judicii; the Trinitarian basis of human self-awareness; and the effects of justification and sanctification upon a guilty conscience. The episode concludes with practical implications for preaching, counseling, and the Christian life, along with an update on Ferrari’s ministry in Perugia.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 03:12 Andrea Ferrari’s Ministry in Perugia
• 12:43 A New Study Center near the University
• 19:11 The Fall and Redemption of Conscience
• 24:33 Why Conscience Disappeared from Modern Theology
• 28:41 Karl Barth and General Revelation
• 32:12 Did Adam Have a Conscience before the Fall?
• 49:27 Conscience in the Old Testament
• 58:53 Defining Conscience as Perceptual Awareness
• 64:23 Calvin’s Sensus Divini Judicii
• 65:27 The Trinitarian Context of Conscience
• 74:23 The Fallen Conscience and the Imagination
• 80:10 Training the Senses in Hebrews 5:14
• 81:47 The Justified Conscience
• 86:43 Sanctification and the Healing of Conscience
• 93:23 Pastoral Counseling and Preaching to the Conscience
• 100:02 Ministry Reflections and Conclusion

Participants: Andrea Ferrari, Camden Bucey

The conversation turns to preaching, discipleship, the unity of the covenant of grace, Christ-centered interpretation, practical resources for reading the Old Testament, and the need for churches to recover the accomplishment of redemption as the great context for every biblical passage. In the audience Q&A, the panel also addresses ministry in small and struggling churches, church revitalization, and the pilgrim ethic needed for faithful pastoral service.

Links

• Birmingham Theological Seminary
• Reformed Academy

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and panel
• 03:55 Why biblical theology matters
• 09:28 Defining biblical theology
• 15:39 Derrick Brite’s formation and pastoral ministry
• 22:20 Dan Ragusa and the Dutch Reformed tradition
• 26:09 Biblical theology in a diverse congregation
• 30:09 Avoiding moralism and subjectivism
• 31:27 Hermeneutical foundations
• 35:56 The trans-testamental gospel
• 40:24 Christianity, liberalism, and supernatural history
• 43:54 God’s redemptive words and deeds
• 48:37 Christ, the one mediator
• 51:11 One gospel for Abraham and the church
• 52:56 Audience questions
• 53:23 Lane Tipton’s conversion and call to ministry
• 58:40 Teaching people to see Christ in the Old Testament
• 63:25 The exodus at the Transfiguration
• 67:16 Reading passages within the history of salvation
• 73:56 Christocentrism and Christotelism
• 77:11 Biblical theology and small-church ministry
• 82:58 The pastoral shortage and a pilgrim ethic
• 88:10 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Dan Ragusa, Derrick Brite, Lane G. Tipton

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

They consider how Christians can receive technology as a tool under God’s providence without confusing imitation with intelligence, convenience with communion, or productivity with personal worth. The conversation also explores how technology forms its users, why embodied life and genuine relationships matter, and how transhumanism redirects the human longing for life beyond death toward technological self-salvation.

Against both utopian promises and dystopian fear, Thacker points to the sufficiency of Scripture and the hope of the risen Christ. Christians can engage emerging technologies wisely because human identity is given by the Creator, human dignity cannot be earned or erased, and Christ remains Lord over every age.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 01:19 Jason Thacker background
• 03:24 From public policy to AI ethics
• 06:05 Teaching ethics, philosophy, and technology
• 09:53 AI’s anthropological challenge
• 12:58 What has changed since The Age of AI?
• 14:55 Humanizing machines and dehumanizing people
• 19:55 The image of God and human dignity
• 25:39 AI companionship and simulated relationships
• 28:11 How technology forms and disciples us
• 34:00 Embodiment, materialism, and personal identity
• 42:20 Transhumanism and the longing for immortality
• 48:35 Engaging Pope Leo XIV’s AI encyclical
• 53:22 Technology as ecological change
• 54:43 Scripture, Christian hope, and the future

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jason Thacker

The conversation presses beneath policy to theology. Neither markets nor governments escape the effects of sin, and material prosperity must never be confused with sanctification. Christians seek just and prudent arrangements in this age while recognizing that scarcity, exploitation, and disordered desire will not finally be overcome by human construction. The church’s hope rests in the crucified and risen Christ and the consummation of his kingdom.

Topics Discussed

• Economic law, creation, and Christian stewardship
• Private property, labor, capital, exchange, and human dignity
• Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas and Catholic social teaching
• GDP, inequality, and the common good
• Data, privacy, Big Tech, and non-rivalrous goods
• Subsidiarity and Kuyperian sphere sovereignty
• Universal basic income and the economic disruption of AI
• Sin, scarcity, eschatology, and Christian hope

Shawn Ritenour is Professor of Economics at Grove City College and a Senior Fellow of the Mises Institute. He is the author of Foundations of Economics: A Christian View.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Shawn Ritenour

Dr. Beeke explains why meditation serves as a “halfway house” between Bible reading and prayer, how deliberate meditation gives rise to spontaneous reflection throughout the day, and why small, repeated habits often bear their richest fruit over decades. The conversation offers practical encouragement for parents, spouses, pastors, and every believer who desires an integrated life of devotion—one in which home, church, and daily vocation are oriented toward the glory of God and maturity in Christ.

Topics Discussed

• Reformed piety as reverential love for God
• Building durable habits of family worship
• Reading Scripture, praying, singing, and instructing children
• Praying with one’s spouse
• Deliberate and spontaneous biblical meditation
• Carrying the ministry of the Word from church into the home
• Preparing the family for the Lord’s Day
• The long-term fruit of ordinary spiritual disciplines

Participants: Camden Bucey, Joel Beeke

The conversation sets contemporary AI within the biblical story of creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. Bucey and Schuurman contrast Christian hope with technicism—the belief that technology can solve humanity’s deepest problems and build a technological heaven on earth. They also discuss human nature, transhumanism, responsible design, Christian higher education, autonomous weapons, and the need to keep human moral judgment and accountability in the loop. Christians need neither withdraw from technology nor place their hope in it. They are called to serve as faithful, wise architects whose work seeks the good of their neighbors while awaiting the new Jerusalem that comes from God.

Resources

• Shaping a Digital World: Faith, Culture and Computer Technology by Derek C. Schuurman
• A Christian Field Guide to Technology for Engineers and Designers by Ethan J. Brue, Derek C. Schuurman, and Steven H. VanderLeest
• Wisdom in the Age of AI Conference, Calvin University, October 8–10, 2026
• Magnifica Humanitas

Participants: Camden Bucey, Derek C. Schuurman

Participants: Andrew Miller, Mark A. Winder

The conversation also offers pastoral help for seasons when God feels distant. Feelings ebb and flow, but the Lord’s covenant promises remain sure. Through the personal ministry of the Holy Spirit, Christ meets his people in the ordinary means of grace—the Word, sacraments, prayer, worship, and fellowship—and gathers them as his body. The Christian hope reaches its fullness in Revelation 22:4: the redeemed will see God’s face in the risen and glorified Christ.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Daniel R. Hyde

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

The conversation returns again and again to the living hope of 1 Peter 1:3 and the call of 1 Peter 3:15. Christian apologetics is not chiefly about winning arguments or mastering a script; it is about bearing faithful witness to Jesus Christ, who lived, died, and rose for our salvation. Because the power belongs to God and works through his Word, ordinary believers can speak the truth in love with gentleness, respect, and genuine confidence.

Resources

• Buy the book in the Reformed Forum store
• Free Reformed Academy course: Defending Our Hope

Participants: Camden Bucey, Ryan Noha

The conversation explores Rutherford’s significance as a leading theologian of seventeenth-century Scotland and a commissioner to the Westminster Assembly. Rather than treating Arminianism as merely five disputed points of salvation, Rutherford examines it as a theological system reaching into the doctrine of God, divine simplicity, providence, human freedom, ecclesiology, and the sacraments.

The guests also discuss the challenges of translating scholastic Latin, recovering manuscripts, correcting citations, and preparing a projected twenty-volume edition that will make much of Rutherford’s work available to new readers.

Resources

• The Works of Samuel Rutherford, Volume 1: Arminianism: A Systematic and Theological Response
• Calvin’s Latin Bible
• Ad Navseam — Homer’s Odyssey Three Ways: Recent Translations by Anthony Verity, Emily Wilson …

Participants: Camden Bucey, Chad Van Dixhoorn, David Noe

The conversation also turns to Reformed witness in Italy, Roman Catholicism, and the need to speak the truth clearly and charitably. Camden previews upcoming discussions on Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Catholic social teaching, artificial intelligence, human dignity, and the need for a sound Reformed anthropology in an age of rapid technological change.

Links

• Magnifica Humanitas
• Antiqua et Nova: Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence
• Davidoff of London | A Collector’s Conversation
• Savile Row Surprise Bespoke Commission

Participants: Camden Bucey, Dan Borvan, Derrick Brite, Lee Hutchings

The conversation explores the ordinary means of grace—Word, sacraments, and prayer—as Christ’s appointed instruments for strengthening faith, assuring believers, and shaping the church’s worship. Perkins discusses the reading and preaching of Scripture, baptism as a covenantal sign, the Lord’s Supper as communion with Christ and a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb, prayer as a means Christ uses to sustain his people, and congregational worship as active participation before God rather than religious spectatorship.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Harrison Perkins

Rome does not keep its beauty behind glass. You can wander into almost any old church and find a Caravaggio in a side chapel or a Bernini in a piazza. You do not need a museum ticket to see great art. So much of it is simply there, throughout the city. It was a trip I will never forget.

Carl Trueman recently wrote of his own love of the city in First Things.[1] I appreciate his reflections, and I thought I would share some additional lessons I took away from my time in the eternal city. Together they point to a single conviction: for all its beauty, allure, and warmth toward outsiders like me, Rome cannot give the one thing its nickname suggests: eternal life. It is still a mission field, hungry for the gospel of God’s free grace.

The event was hosted at Breccia di Roma, an evangelical church, for a week of excellent lectures delivered over a near-constant wail of police and ambulance sirens. I had come down to the city with an Italian minister, after preaching at his church in Umbria. I arrived knowing only a few of the scholars gathered there, and those only through their books and podcasts, though I left counting many of them friends.

During one of the sessions, Leonardo De Chirico led us through Leo XIV’s recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, the magisterium’s meditation on safeguarding the human person in this age of artificial intelligence.[2] For another session, we welcomed a Catholic priest from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross to lecture on the relation of church and state (his answer would have scandalized many American Christian nationalists). One morning, on my walk to the church, I even ran into a Dominican theologian I had interviewed years before, and he invited me to join him to see the excavations under St. Peter’s. I have generally found Roman Catholic academics warm and inviting toward evangelicals; there is, it turns out, ample room even for a confessional Presbyterian.

I think I understand why that inclusion comes so easily. My doctoral study focused on Karl Rahner and the theology that remade Rome at the Second Vatican Council. Rahner saw every person as already oriented to grace, a supernatural existential written into the structure of the human, so that the sincere outsider may be an “anonymous Christian.”[3] The Council declared that the one Church of Christ “subsists in” the Catholic Church while acknowledging elements of grace beyond her visible bounds, and that the baptized who are not in communion with Rome are “separated brethren” rather than strangers.[4] Gaudium et Spes, which Leo XIV sets at the very head of his encyclical, teaches that “only in the mystery of the Word made flesh does the mystery of man truly become clear.”[5] This is a generous and confident vision, and it is exactly what makes the invitation so easy. A church certain that it already includes you, that your Protestantism is a deficient mode of its own fullness, has every reason to be warm and none to convert.

But there are no anonymous Christians. Salvation is not a hidden capacity every person already carries. It is given in covenant through the death and resurrection of the incarnate Son of God. It is an eschatological gift that comes as a result of a supernatural redemptive work in history. The “more than human” that transhumanism counterfeits, and that Leo XIV locates in a deifying union, is nothing less than the resurrection body given to those joined to the last Adam, who has become life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).[6] It does not crown a nature already straining upward; it raises the dead. Leo XIV’s communion enables humans to transcend; the gospel raises sinners from death to life.

The gospel proclamation of Christ dying for sinners and being raised for their justification can go strangely unspoken amid the city’s celebrated beauty. It is certainly not neutral. Some of it catechizes precisely against the gospel we preach. There are altarpieces staging the triumph of the Mass over heresy, and a few steps from where we met, in the Chiesa del Gesù, a cherub cheerfully shreds books marked Luther and Calvin. Those Roman churches and their art were not built only to become museums. They were built to teach Catholic doctrine and to move the beholder into accepting it.[7] The form is indeed beautiful, but the beauty here is also an argument, and we cannot receive the one without reckoning with the other.

On my last night two evangelical missionaries took me to a small restaurant near one of their homes, a place they frequent often enough to know the owner and his staff by name. It played like a scene out of Fellini, and I half felt I was watching it from outside myself. While the owner regaled us in language that, as my friends quietly explained, far outran a sailor’s, his parrot did gymnastics in the corner. I have not laughed that hard in years. Trueman is right that evenings like this, good friends, good food, unhurried conversation, and the gratitude they awaken, are among the most humanizing things we are given, and I felt it deeply. For all its excitement, though, the night was never merely for entertainment. We were there to enjoy ourselves, and we did; but for these brothers la dolce vita was never an end in itself. It was subservient to the relationships they had established and the gospel they had come to share.

One of my friends nodded toward the young woman working the kitchen and called her a hero. She had endured a hard employer and a harder life, and still she persevered. It is one thing to enjoy the city for a week and then to move on. It is another to pack up a family and move there to minister to everyday people. He knew her story because he was there, week after week, human to human, for the sake of the gospel of God’s free grace, Christ crucified and raised for sinners. I was reminded that while I was enjoying the city as a tourist on a break from normal life, this was the missionary field my new friends have been cultivating moment by moment alongside faithful Italian brothers and sisters for years.

The first thing I had read on the English version of that restaurant’s menu, hours earlier, was a small phrase meant as a joke: “You shall have no other host beside me.” The animated restaurateur was referring to himself, but in this city the word carries additional weight. The “host,” of course, is also the Eucharistic bread lifted at the altar, and I suspect this irreverent line printed for a laugh meant more than he knew.

So much of Rome is beautiful, and the sweet life is wonderful. Rome offers much, but neither the city nor the Roman Catholic Church that crowns it can give what it does not have. The Italian people need what no piazza and no ornate basilica can finally supply: the good news that God justifies the ungodly. That is why my friends labor in Rome, and why more of us should join them, to plant churches, to train pastors, and yes, cultivating relationships long into the evening, so that Romans might have no other “host” but the one true God, no other mediator than the Lord Jesus Christ, and no other bread than his bread of life. I came home thinking less about the golden afternoons than about that crowded little kitchen, filled with several of the countless Romans whom God is still calling to himself, and to whom he sends laborers bearing the gospel. May he send many more to serve with his people there.

[1] Carl R. Trueman, “Lessons from the Eternal City,” First Things, March 19, 2026, https://firstthings.com/lessons-from-the-eternal-city/.

[2] Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2026).

[3] Karl Rahner, Foundations of Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Idea of Christianity, trans. William V. Dych (New York: Crossroad, 1978); on the “anonymous Christian,” see Theological Investigations, vols. 5–6 (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1966–69).

[4] Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium §8, and Unitatis Redintegratio §3.

[5] Gaudium et Spes §22, cited at Magnifica Humanitas §1.

[6] Geerhardus Vos, The Pauline Eschatology (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1930; repr. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1994), esp. chap. 8; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:42–49. On the deifying union Leo invokes, see Magnifica Humanitas §232.

[7] On the systematic coherence that makes Catholic theology a whole rather than a set of detachable parts, see Leonardo De Chirico, Same Words, Different Worlds: Do Roman Catholics and Evangelicals Believe the Same Gospel? (London: Apollos, 2021).

The discussion centers on five “lively truths” that recur throughout the Puritan tradition: the majesty of God, the beauty of Christ, the severity of sin, the mystery of providence, and the hope of glory. Along the way, Camden and Stephen consider biblical meditation, Thomas Manton, holiness as divine beauty, beholding Christ through Scripture rather than mysticism, affliction as fatherly discipline, and the believer’s blessed hope in the face of death and suffering.

Resources Mentioned

• Reformation Heritage Books
• Thomas Manton, Holy Meditation
• Stephen Yuille, The Sight of Christ
• Stephen Yuille, The Heart Taken Up
• Stephen Yuille, The Fullness of Grace

Participants: Camden Bucey, Stephen Yuille

Participants: Akos Szolosi, Imre Szoke, Robert Tarullo

The conversation traces major themes from John 1:51 and Jacob’s ladder to Matthew’s genealogy, Jesus as true Israel, the Sermon on the Mount, the parables of the kingdom, Peter’s confession, Matthew 24–25, the Great Commission, and the book of Acts. Along the way, York shows how the hope of heaven opened in Christ, the end of exile, the gift of the Spirit, and the church’s missionary calling all belong together in the unfolding work of the risen and ascended Lord.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction from the Reformed Forum classroom
• 0:57 Review of OPC foreign missions and the previous conversation
• 1:51 Focusing on Adam York’s Ethiopia teaching trip
• 3:32 Christianity and the Reformed church in Ethiopia
• 5:36 Ethiopian Mercy Reformed Church and local pastors
• 7:08 Joyful worship with few earthly comforts
• 9:09 Travel, Addis Ababa, and cross-cultural observations
• 10:35 Teaching the Gospels and Acts
• 11:20 John 1:51 and heaven opened in Christ
• 13:39 Why begin with Nathaniel and Jacob’s ladder?
• 15:24 Heaven, creation, exile, and the hope of God’s presence
• 18:47 Matthew’s genealogy and the fulfillment of Jubilee
• 21:02 Teaching biblical theology through translation
• 26:02 Jesus as true Israel in Matthew’s temptation narrative
• 30:21 The Sermon on the Mount and access to God’s presence
• 31:57 The Transfiguration and mountain theology
• 33:30 Parables, mystery, judgment, and the two-age structure
• 38:04 Peter’s confession and the keys of the kingdom
• 42:14 Matthew 24, partial preterism, and biblical prophecy
• 45:17 Watchfulness, imminence, and the blessed hope
• 47:25 Heaven opened, the Great Commission, and Christ’s authority
• 49:17 The Spirit, Acts, and embracing the cross
• 50:15 Teaching Acts while serving in Ethiopia
• 52:13 Praying and serving in foreign missions
• 53:31 Reformed Forum resources and upcoming events

Resources mentioned

• Hope Orthodox Presbyterian Church
• OPC Foreign Missions
• OPC Short-Term Missions
• Reformed Academy

Participants: Adam York, Camden Bucey, Randy Lee

The conversation explores the global need for theological education, Reformed Academy’s role in serving the church worldwide, and the biblical doctrine of stewardship. The discussion turns especially to Biblical principles of finance: why money must be brought under the lordship of Christ, how Scripture and the Reformed confessions shape our view of possessions, how prosperity theology distorts Christian hope, and why work, generosity, contentment, and vocation all belong to faithful stewardship before God.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction from the Reformed Academy classroom
• 0:39 Global theological education, Uganda, and Ethiopia
• 1:21 Prayer for Peter Stafford and missionary medical work
• 3:21 Reformed Academy and the global need for theological education
• 5:09 Randy Lee’s call to teach personal finance in Uganda
• 6:24 Adam York’s trip to Ethiopia
• 7:28 OPC foreign missions and theological training
• 10:58 Preparing to teach faith-centered finance
• 13:25 Randy’s business background
• 15:26 Biblical and practical resources for finance
• 18:21 Teaching finance and stewardship in the church
• 21:42 Stewardship beyond money
• 26:13 Reformed confessions and finance
• 29:11 Manifesting, prosperity theology, and biblical worldview
• 36:45 Five uses of money
• 40:14 Cultural differences and family obligations in Uganda
• 44:16 Need, want, generosity, and work
• 49:37 Lessons learned in Uganda
• 52:24 Opportunities to serve in foreign missions
• 53:47 Closing resources and Reformed Forum updates

Resources mentioned

• Reformed Academy
• OPC Foreign Missions
• OPC Short-Term Missions
• Ron Blue Institute

Participants: Adam York, Camden Bucey, Randy Lee

The conversation ranges from Calvin’s Geneva and the French Reformed connection to the Scottish Covenanters, the English civil wars, John Witherspoon, the American founding, the 1788 revision of the Westminster Confession, and contemporary debates over Christian nationalism. Along the way, Hart helps us see how questions of church government, civil authority, establishment, liberty, and public memory are bound up with the church’s confession that Christ alone is head of his church.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and the road to episode 1,000
• 2:00 Protestants and Patriots and the Presbyterian question
• 3:10 The project’s origins and teaching the big picture
• 5:12 Calvin’s ecclesiastical ordinances and Presbyterian polity
• 7:26 Was the American Revolution a Presbyterian revolution?
• 10:12 Lumpers, splitters, and Presbyterian identity
• 11:09 Reformed and Presbyterian: why the names matter
• 15:01 Presbyterians, nationalism, and the godly society
• 16:12 Covenanters, national covenanting, and regicide
• 19:31 Geneva, exiles, and the French connection
• 22:26 The true Presbyterian revolutionary moment: the 1630s and 1640s
• 24:21 Why Scotland became a Presbyterian laboratory
• 28:29 Why England and Scotland became Reformed rather than Lutheran
• 30:52 What did Presbyterians want? Church independence and state support
• 34:43 The Glorious Revolution, moderation, and establishment compromises
• 39:15 Regium donum, Canada, Ireland, and voluntary giving
• 42:34 John Witherspoon and Presbyterian moderation in the American founding
• 48:16 Revising Westminster Confession chapter 23
• 55:30 American Heretics, Two Sons of Oil, and anti-liberal Presbyterianism
• 60:30 Further conversations and Protestants and Patriots
• 65:05 Independence Hall, historic preservation, and public memory
• 70:07 Conclusion

Resources mentioned

• Protestants and Patriots: Presbyterians in the Age of Revolution by D. G. Hart
• University of Notre Dame Press interview with D. G. Hart
• American Heretics by Jerome Copulsky
• Two Sons of Oil by Samuel B. Wylie
• Independence National Historical Park

Participants: Camden Bucey, Darryl G. Hart

The conversation considers why the doctrine of Scripture and the work of the Spirit must come before any faithful account of biblical masculinity. Adams unfolds five marks of manhood—righteous living, sacrificial love, dependent leadership, courageous zeal, and humble servanthood—using David’s life as both a positive and negative example that ultimately points to Christ. The episode also addresses contemporary challenges in the church, the need for fathers and elders to disciple younger men, and the importance of presence, faithfulness, and generational responsibility in the home and covenant community.

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Resources mentioned

• Act Like a Man: Understanding the Biblical Call to Masculinity by Matthew Adams
• Christian Focus Publications
• Reformed Forum Events
• Reformed Academy

Participants: Camden Bucey, Matthew Adams

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

Camden Bucey and Ryan Noha sit down at Reformed Forum headquarters in Libertyville, Illinois, for a special ministry update. They discuss upcoming events, new and forthcoming Reformed Academy courses, publishing projects, international translation efforts, and ways listeners can pray for and partner with Reformed Forum.

This update includes information about the OPC General Assembly, the Rome Scholars and Leaders Network, the PCA General Assembly meetup in Louisville, the Greenville Seminary summer seminar on apologetics and evangelism, the Birmingham seminar on discovering Christ in all of Scripture, the 2026 Reformed Forum Theology Conference, and the Christ the Center 1000th episode celebration in Austin, Texas.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and purpose for this update
• 1:14 Upcoming events and the OPC General Assembly
• 2:48 Christian identity and OPC history course
• 4:05 Rome Scholars and Leaders Network
• 5:55 PCA General Assembly meetup in Louisville
• 7:18 Greenville Seminary seminar and Defending Our Hope
• 10:08 Birmingham seminar on Christ in all of Scripture
• 11:43 2026 Reformed Forum Theology Conference
• 14:23 Christ the Center 1000th episode celebration
• 25:37 Reformed Academy: 39 free courses and active students
• 27:52 Reader’s guides from international cohort courses
• 30:13 Why guided reading matters
• 33:32 Reformed Academy community and group study
• 35:20 Courses in production and the need for support
• 38:07 Upcoming Reformed Academy recordings
• 40:02 Companion books and translated resources
• 41:40 Partnership, prayer, and Reformed Forum’s mission
• 44:02 Closing and how to stay connected

Participants: Camden Bucey, Ryan Noha

This conversation explores why Brown’s work remains timely for pastors, elders, seminarians, and church members today. Rather than treating church government as a secondary or merely practical matter, Brown presents the church as a visible spiritual society established by Christ, governed by his Word, and ordered for the edification of his people.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:15 The Nature of the Church by John Brown of Wamphray
• 4:30 John Brown’s life, ministry, exile, and Covenanter context
• 8:40 Matthew Vogan’s introduction to John Brown
• 9:36 Brown’s 32 theses and the Westminster Confession
• 10:54 A majestic view of Christ’s church
• 12:33 The scope of Brown’s ecclesiology
• 15:12 The church as a visible spiritual society
• 21:43 Church and state under Christ’s authority
• 27:08 Scripture and Presbyterian church government
• 30:53 Brown’s polemics against Erastianism, prelacy, and independency
• 35:00 Ministerial authority and edification
• 39:17 The church’s spiritual government
• 42:14 The spirituality of the church
• 44:59 Key insights from Brown’s work
• 46:06 Communion within the visible catholic church
• 52:21 Further reading: Durham, Gillespie, Rutherford, and Bannerman
• 53:55 Final thoughts on The Nature of the Church
• 55:00 Scottish football and closing conversation
• 56:57 Reformed Forum resources and conclusion

Resources mentioned

• Grange Press
• The Nature of the Church by John Brown of Wamphray
• Trinitarian Bible Society
• Christ the Center 682: David Dickson’s Sermons on Lamentations

Participants: Camden Bucey, Matthew Vogan

The conversation challenges the caricature of Calvin as cold or detached, highlighting his attention to the whole person—mind, heart, and will—and his confidence in God’s providence, prayer, Scripture, and the ministry of the local church. Calvin’s letters reveal a model of soul care that remains deeply relevant for pastors, elders, and church members today.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and guest welcome
• 2:01 Michael Mock’s D.Min. project and biblical counseling
• 4:37 Bringing Calvin and counseling together
• 9:49 Calvin’s letters in the Banner of Truth edition
• 14:11 Calvin as a suffering saint who needed counsel
• 17:42 Calvin’s ministry and the care of souls
• 23:18 Calvin’s doctrine of the heart and whole-person counsel
• 27:21 Answering caricatures of Calvin as cold-hearted
• 29:39 Prayer, suffering, and compassionate counsel
• 32:59 Counseling the martyrs in Lyon
• 35:39 Abuse, suffering, and Geneva’s consistory
• 42:01 Discipline, sympathy, and the company of pastors
• 44:24 The church as mother and the context for counsel
• 50:28 Whole-heart ministry and elder care today
• 57:28 If Calvin had time: counsel as pastoral ministry

Resources Mentioned

• Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary
• Letters of John Calvin
• Grace Presbyterian Church, Fresno

Participants: Camden Bucey, Michael Mock

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

What emerges is a deeply encouraging portrait of ordinary, faithful labor. The conversation highlights the need for indigenous theological leadership, German-language Reformed resources, and strong ecclesial communities where believers are not left to grow in isolation. Lucas reflects on discovering Reformed theology and using podcasting and social media to introduce it to German listeners, while Philip describes the theological journey that led his family to move for the sake of a confessional church home. Taken together, these conversations offer a vivid glimpse into the opportunities and difficulties of gospel ministry in Germany today—and a compelling call to pray for theological training, church planting, and lasting Reformed witness.

Links

• Academy for Reformed Theology (Akademie für Reformatorische Theologie)
• Bund Bekennender Evangelisch—Reformierter Gemeinden (or BBERG) — the Confederation of Confessing Evangelical Reformed Churches in German-speaking Europe
• Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

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Chapters

• 0:00 — Introduction from Gießen, Germany
• 3:36 — The Academy for Reformed Theology—history and mission
• 7:23 — How the seminary serves students across Germany and Switzerland
• 13:14 — Why part-time theological training matters in Germany
• 16:53 — A new confessional Reformed denomination in Germany
• 21:43 — What church planting requires: men, people, and finances
• 25:59 — How the seminary is funded and how students manage study and work
• 28:51 — Why Germany needs indigenous Reformed pastors and literature
• 34:53 — Bullinger, suffering, and providence
• 38:56 — Lukas Strauß on becoming Reformed and serving through media
• 49:18 — Podcasting, social media, and explaining Reformed theology in German
• 58:17 — Why Reformed believers in Germany need real church connection
• 1:02:23 — Philip Paul on law, theology, and moving for church
• 1:18:09 — From Calvinism to covenant theology and paedobaptism
• 1:32:46 — Elder service, church commitment, and counsel for German Christians
• 1:39:13 — Reasons for gratitude and prayer for Reformed churches in Germany

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jochen Klautke, Lukas Strauß, Philip Paul

The heart of the episode explores the life and ministry of Cornelius W. Grafton, a remarkable Mississippi Presbyterian pastor whose decades of quiet faithfulness, denominational leadership, educational labor, and pastoral endurance left a deep mark on church life in the American South. Camden and David consider why Grafton has been largely overlooked, what his ministry reveals about ordinary pastoral faithfulness, and how his life still instructs ministers and churches today.

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Chapters

• 00:08 Introduction and guest welcome
• 01:09 Mississippi’s Greatest Minister and today’s topic
• 02:03 RTS Jackson update and the pastoral shortage
• 08:20 David Irving’s connection to Mississippi and Cornelius W. Grafton
• 14:06 Why Grafton has been overlooked in church history
• 18:14 Grafton’s early religious life and spiritual maturation
• 23:58 Education, pastoral formation, and early ministry
• 29:33 Union Church, rural ministry, and a sixty-one-year pastorate
• 36:46 Grafton’s preaching, pastoral rhythms, and churchmanship
• 43:18 Denominational leadership, education, and public influence
• 49:19 Grafton as historian and the unpublished history of Mississippi Presbyterianism
• 54:03 Lessons from Grafton’s life and ministry today
• 59:09 Closing remarks and upcoming Reformed Forum events

Resources Mentioned

• David T. Irving, Mississippi’s Greatest Minister: A Historical Study of Cornelius W. Grafton’s 61-Year Pastorate, 1873–1934
• Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson
• Reformed Academy
• Reformed Forum events

Participants: Camden Bucey, David T. Irving

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

The church is not a mere institutional add-on to the kingdom. Rather, in its inaugurated form, the church is the kingdom of God as constituted by the Spirit of the ascended Christ. The episode also explores the church’s indestructible life, the meaning of the “gates of hell,” the centrality of the means of grace, and the already/not-yet character of the kingdom’s coming. Along the way, Camden and Lane also mark the end of this long-running series on Biblical Theology and preview the next phase of Vos Group on The Teaching of Jesus concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church.

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Chapters

• 00:00:08 Introduction and Vos Group finale
• 00:01:06 Save the date for the 1,000th episode celebration
• 00:07:23 Transition from Biblical Theology to The Teaching of Jesus concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church
• 00:09:01 Matthew 16 and the meaning of “my church”
• 00:12:14 Continuity and redemptive-historical newness in the church
• 00:15:28 Pentecost, Acts 2, and the constitution of the church
• 00:21:56 The church after Christ’s ascension and the new mode of life in the Spirit
• 00:29:23 The indestructible life of the kingdom and the gates of hell
• 00:35:29 The means of grace, preaching, and the keys of the kingdom
• 00:36:52 The nearness of the kingdom and inaugurated eschatology
• 00:42:10 The church is not merely instrumental to some higher kingdom purpose
• 00:49:20 The church as the kingdom of God in inaugurated form
• 00:53:20 Pilgrim identity and longing for consummation
• 00:56:42 Closing reflections and upcoming resources

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane Tipton

The heart of the episode focuses on Banner of Truth’s newly expanded edition of Walker’s classic work. MacLean explains why the book has served for decades as an indispensable guide to the Scottish theological tradition, opening up figures beyond the better-known names and tracing major themes in church history, ecclesiology, providence, the atonement, and church-state relations. Together, we reflect on the historical setting of Scottish theology, the value of Walker’s new footnotes and translations, and the abiding importance of visible church unity and Christ’s headship over his church.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and episode overview
• 0:32 Donald John MacLean and the new Banner edition
• 2:25 Westminster Seminary UK and the Reformed Colloquium
• 10:17 Westminster Seminary UK’s move to Oxford
• 16:07 James Walker and The Theology and Theologians of Scotland
• 19:01 The Cunningham Lectures and Walker’s publication history
• 22:29 Why the new edition adds notes, biography, and sermons
• 26:20 Why Scottish theology still matters
• 27:42 Struggle, exile, and the international character of Scottish theology
• 29:29 Patristic influence and later shifts in Scottish scholarship
• 33:31 Providence, concurrence, and difficult doctrinal questions
• 37:26 The atonement, divine justice, and theological diversity in Scotland
• 40:06 The Marrow Controversy and covenant theology
• 43:54 Visible church unity and Scottish ecclesiology
• 51:14 Christ’s headship, Erastianism, and church-state relations
• 55:16 Further reading in Scottish theology
• 57:40 Closing remarks

Resources Mentioned

• The Theology and Theologians of Scotland, James Walker (Banner of Truth)
• Westminster Seminary UK
• The Whole Christ, Sinclair B. Ferguson
• Scottish Theology, John Macleod
• A Scottish Christian Heritage, Ian Murray
• The Fifty Years’ Struggle of the Scottish Covenanters, James Dodds

Participants: Camden Bucey, Donald John MacLean

Together, they reflect on the value of places like Twin Lakes Fellowship, the dangers of pastoral isolation, and the way meaningful friendships can provide encouragement, accountability, and spiritual strength. They also make the case that deep theology is not a luxury for academics or large churches, but a necessity for faithful ministry in every context. This episode is a reminder that pastors are not meant to serve alone, and that rich doctrine and honest friendship are two of God’s ordinary means for sustaining those called to shepherd his people.

Check out the Larger for Life podcast.

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Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and Twin Lakes recap
• 02:55 Pastors Scholars Fellowship and last year’s experiment
• 04:15 Chicago food banter, deep dish, beef, and regional cuisine
• 10:54 Why pastors need deep theology and real friendship
• 12:10 Reformed Forum updates, conference news, and the 1000th episode summit
• 18:03 Sean Morris on discovering Twin Lakes Fellowship
• 21:55 Derrick Brite on how Twin Lakes shaped his ministry path
• 25:01 What’s at stake when pastors become isolated
• 36:19 Ministry networking vs. real pastoral friendship
• 41:57 How pastoral friendships bless wives and families too
• 45:06 Theology, friendship, and sharpening one another in ministry
• 55:36 Why deep theology matters in rural and small-church contexts
• 1:08:46 Theology, worship, and why doctrine leads to doxology
• 1:09:48 Larger for Life, listener feedback, and closing remarks

Participants: Camden Bucey, Derrick Brite, Sean Morris

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

Lee Hutchings serves as senior pastor of Trinity PCA in North Canton, Ohio, a congregation he planted after years of ministry in Mississippi. Ben Kappers serves All Saints Reformed Church in St. George, Utah, as an evangelist under the oversight of Northern California Presbytery, bringing experience from both the Reformed Church in America and the Presbyterian Church in America.

Together they offer pastoral wisdom on planting confessionally Reformed churches through the clear proclamation of Christ, the faithful teaching of Scripture, prayer, and the ordinary ministry of the church. This conversation encourages pastors, elders, and church members alike to labor patiently and confidently, knowing that the Lord is pleased to gather and strengthen his people through his appointed means.

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Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 03:15 Twin Lakes Fellowship, encouragement, and ministry refreshment
• 08:20 Lee Hutchings’s Jackson years and his memorable film-extra story
• 13:10 Ben Kappers’s path from the RCA to the PCA
• 19:25 How the St. George and North Canton church plants began
• 29:40 Trusting Scripture and Christ rather than strategy or novelty
• 34:05 What ordinary means church planting looks like in practice
• 39:20 Slow growth, discouragement, and resisting church-growth pressure
• 46:35 Confessional identity, Mormon context, and knowing the people you serve
• 56:10 Planting for future generations and final encouragement

Participants: Ben Kappers, Camden Bucey, Lee Hutchings

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo

Lane explains why Vos sees this moment as a decisive redemptive-historical transition: The kingdom of God, proclaimed and embodied in Christ, begins to assume its ecclesial form. Together, Camden and Lane discuss the church as the kingdom in its present historical expression, the role of the Spirit poured out from the ascended Christ, and the distinction between the kingdom’s inaugurated and consummated forms.

They also consider how Vos’s teaching helps clarify ongoing theological questions concerning the kingdom of grace and glory, the already-and-not-yet structure of redemptive history, the thought of Meredith Kline, and the strengths and weaknesses of more recent reductionist or two-kingdom approaches.

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Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and transition into Vos on the kingdom and the church
• 01:46 The kingdom as the sphere of blessedness
• 05:39 Caesarea Philippi as a redemptive-historical turning point
• 08:16 Peter’s confession and “I will build my church”
• 10:26 The church as the kingdom in its present historical form
• 15:26 The kingdom in its inaugurated and consummated forms
• 18:10 The kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory
• 22:32 Kline and the “heavenization” of the church
• 26:50 Two-kingdom theology and Christ’s mediatorial reign
• 29:53 Reductionist views of the kingdom
• 36:30 The kingdom, the church, and redemptive-historical development
• 43:45 Measuring the kingdom’s progress in the world
• 49:30 Final reflections and concluding thoughts

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton

In this live episode of Christ the Center, Camden Bucey is joined by Jonathan Master and Matt Holst at Shiloh Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, to discuss John L. Girardeau’s rich and pastoral treatment of adoption. The conversation explores why adoption should not be collapsed into justification or regeneration, how it addresses our alienation from God, and why it matters so deeply for prayer, suffering, assurance, and the Christian life.

Along the way, the panel reflects on Girardeau’s life and ministry, Adam’s original sonship, Christ’s filial obedience, the believer’s inheritance in Christ, and the comfort of knowing God not only as Judge, but as Father.

This is a warm and theologically substantial discussion on one of the most beautiful and neglected doctrines in Scripture.

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Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and live recording at Shiloh OPC
• 01:45 Why discuss John L. Girardeau on adoption?
• 03:12 Who was John L. Girardeau?
• 09:52 Why adoption is such an important doctrine
• 14:05 Why adoption has been neglected in Reformed theology
• 17:50 Courtroom and family room: justification and adoption
• 23:19 Adam’s original sonship and what was lost in the fall
• 27:07 Christ’s sonship and key Christological distinctions
• 33:14 The pastoral comfort of adoption
• 37:33 Adoption, suffering, and inheritance
• 41:17 God’s name on his people and the hope of glory
• 43:24 How adoption transforms prayer
• 50:11 The Father’s generosity toward his children
• 53:04 Final reflections and conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jonathan Master, Matt Holst

Participants: Andrew Miller, Mark A. Winder

The discussion begins with Matt Adams’s article “Grassroots Presbyterianism ≠ Congregationalism” and expands into a broader exploration of Presbyterian ecclesiology. Along the way, the panel considers plurality and parity of elders, the role of presbyteries and general assemblies, the importance of connectionalism, and the ways accountability serves the peace, purity, and unity of the church.

They also reflect on differences in ecclesial culture among the PCA, OPC, and URCNA, discuss overtures and church courts, and offer practical encouragement for ordinary church members who want to be active, faithful Presbyterians in their local congregations.

Matthew Adams serves as Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Dillon, South Carolina. In addition to his pastoral ministry, Adams serves as a council member for the Gospel Reformation Network and co-hosts the podcast Larger for Life.

Ben Ratliff serves as Associate Pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, Mississippi. Ratliff is also a co-host of the podcast Polity Matters, where he helps lead conversations on Presbyterian polity and church government.

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Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction
• 01:49 Why Presbyterian government matters
• 03:12 Grassroots Presbyterianism is not congregationalism
• 08:56 Why the confusion persists
• 11:02 Different Presbyterian cultures: PCA, OPC, and URCNA
• 14:25 Overtures, church courts, and how change happens
• 22:27 What Presbyterianism is
• 25:50 Plurality, parity, and connectionalism
• 32:48 Accountability, freedom, and the well-being of the church
• 39:27 How church members can participate
• 48:36 Polity Matters, Larger for Life, and final thoughts

Participants: Ben Ratliff, Camden Bucey, Matt Adams

Drs. Bucey and Master explore Vos’s foundational distinction between biblical theology and systematic theology—and why both are indispensable for faithful exegesis and preaching. Biblical theology, which Vos himself preferred to call “the history of special revelation,” reads Scripture as the organic, progressive unfolding of God’s redemptive acts in history—from the protoevangelium in Genesis 3:15 to the consummation of all things in Christ. That redemptive-historical framework opens up notoriously difficult passages (Hebrews 6, the unforgivable sin) in ways systematics alone cannot. The conversation also covers Vos’s two-age eschatology, his key works (Biblical Theology, The Pauline Eschatology, Grace and Glory, The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church), and the question of why Vos remained at Princeton when Machen and others departed.

Be sure to subscribe to the Dead Presbyterians Society podcast from Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction: Camden at Greenville Seminary
• 1:08 Greenville Seminary Launches Confessional.org
• 3:47 Geerhardus Vos: Bridge Figure Between Princeton and the Continent
• 9:03 What Is Biblical Theology? The History of Special Revelation
• 13:49 Why We Need Both Biblical Theology and Systematics
• 16:33 “You Cannot Do Either Without the Other”
• 22:19 Why Did Vos Remain at Princeton?
• 27:48 Vos’s Key Works
• 31:39 The “Vibe of Vos”: Redemptive History in Practice
• 37:44 The Two-Age Eschatology: Already and Not Yet
• 40:33 Closing Remarks

Participants: Camden Bucey, Jonathan Master

At the heart of the conversation lies a powerful biblical framework: we are in Christ while also being conformed to his image. Romans 8:29 declares that God predestined His people to be conformed to the image of His Son—a settled identity and a lifelong trajectory of growth. Poythress unpacks how 2 Corinthians 3:18 reframes the secular obsession with “manifesting” into the biblical practice of beholding Christ, the true mechanism of transformation. The episode also explores the church as a “thick community” designed for the kind of multi-dimensional, embodied relationships that curated online personas can never provide. For pastors, elders, and anyone seeking maturity in Christ, the takeaway is both liberating and compelling: the Christian life is a matter of becoming what you already are in Christ.

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Chapters

• 00:07 Introduction
• 08:50 Master and Sub-Identities
• 13:53 Identity as a Theological Issue
• 16:58 Romans 8:29
• 21:22 Manifesting vs. Beholding
• 28:09 The Means of Grace
• 32:19 Thick Communities
• 41:12 Authenticity
• 46:14 Work, Sexuality, and Politics as Functional Religions
• 51:12 Becoming What You Are in Christ
• 56:29 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Justin N. Poythress

Dr. Letham explains why it matters that the acting subject in the Gospels is the eternal Son, who assumes a true human nature without change in his divine person. From there, they engage contemporary confusions—especially biblicism that isolates Scripture from the church’s confession—and they address the claim that Christ was “adopted” at the resurrection, showing how such proposals unravel both orthodox Christology and the gracious character of adoption for believers.

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Chapters

• 00:07 Introduction
• 02:04 This Book within the Trilogy
• 04:36 Christ and the Center of Christianity
• 11:05 Reading the Bible in Isolation
• 16:44 The Ecumenical Councils After Chalcedon
• 26:44 The Pre-Existent Son
• 30:24 Christology from Below
• 35:54 The Doctrine of Adoption
• 44:48 Twin Errors of Christology and Soteriology
• 53:15 An Exhortation to Re-Examine the Historical Confession of the Church
• 56:19 Conclusion

Participants: Camden Bucey, Lane G. Tipton, Robert Letham

Participants: Rob McKenzie, Robert Tarullo