Last week Joshua Michael Smith began sharing his testimony from childhood to his college years when he changed his mind about Jesus's identity. In part two he talks about cage stage unitarianism--where one seeks to confront everyone about this important truth regardless of their interested or antagonism. Smith shares how he matured while continuing to work within Assemblies of God and Baptist churches in Tennessee. Then we broach the topic of youth ministry. Smith explains why it is so important and what he hopes to accomplish as the new youth ministry coordinator at Living Hope.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

—— Links ——

• Visit Guthrie Grove in Pelzer, SC Aug 11-14
• Check out these other interviews about people leaving the Trinity to embrace a biblical unitarianian understanding of God.
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read Sean's bio here

Joshua Michael Smith grew up in northern Florida in a Baptist church. In this interview he shares his journey of faith, including how came to Christ as well as how he ended up in ministry training at Word of Life before earning a bachelors at Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga. While there, he began questioning his received doctrinal package based on the Bible. As a result, he came to discover the human Messiah of scripture and courageously embraced this new understanding despite the consequences. This is part one of his story.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://youtu.be/bMDi7DMGPsE?si=ABYRX2wrLdNbiOFv

—— Links ——

• Check out these other interviews about people leaving the Trinity to embrace a biblical unitarianian understanding of God.
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read Sean's bio here

Many believe there is 400 years of silence between the Old and New Testament. My guest today is Professor George Athas, director of research and senior lecturer in Hebrew, Old Testament, and Early Church History at Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia. He's the author of Bridging the Testaments, which covers four major periods, including Persian, Hellenistic, Hasmonean, and Roman. By studying the four centuries before Christ you can gain key insights to help you understand both the Old and New Testaments. You will discover that God was still speaking all the while.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aWT83oT2ts

—— Links ——

• More about George Athas here
• Check out his book: Bridging the Testaments
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read Sean's bio here

Christians have approached the first chapter of Genesis differently over the centuries. There are those who hold to young earth creationism, day-age theory, gap theory, and progressive creationism, just to name a few. Oftentimes defenders of a particular view will provide biblical, scientific, and historical evidence for their position. Our focus today is on the use of church history to find witnesses for this or that view. Rather than cherry picking a quote here and quote there, it's better to read ancient Christians in their own context to be sure we are interpreting them correctly.

My guest today is Dr. Andrew Brown, a lecturer in OT and Hebrew at Melbourne School of Theology. He did his thesis on the creation week in Genesis 1 and 2 and has written a book called Recruiting the Ancients for the Creation Debate. In today's episode he shares his concerns and recommendations for handling our historical sources wisely.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX2P-ksSIHw

—— Links ——

• More about Andrew Brown here
• Check out his book: Recruiting the Ancients for the Creation Debate
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read Sean's bio here

Scholars and pastors regularly point to specialized "technical" language in Paul's epistles to make the case that Paul was intentionally subverting Roman power by applying to Jesus terms that the ancients commonly applied to the Caesars. My guest today has done the hard work of analyzing the inscriptions, coins, and material remains of several key ancient cities to see how they talked about the Roman emperors in the New Testament period. In our conversation he shares his own journey to become an independent scholar as well as how his research offers a corrective to what many are saying about imperial divine honors.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErL9D90JL7k

—— Links ——

• More about Clint Burnett here
• Check out his book Paul & Imperial Divine Honors
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read Sean's bio here

Something is going on in New Zealand...and I'm excited to tell you about it. In today's interview I speak with Zach Mayo who along with his wife, Kayla, were serving as youth pastors at an evangelical church when they came to change their minds on the doctrine of the Trinity. Now they're organizing a conference to unite one-God believers in New Zealand and invite folks from Australia and beyond to come.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://youtu.be/U27POf3dKnI

—— Links ——

• To register for the upcoming conference, use this link
• Get in touch with Zach Mayo at zkmayo@outlook.com
• See other testimonies of people who left the Trinity and came to believe in the biblical unitarian Jesus
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read Sean's bio here

Kermit Zarley was a professional golfer who had an interest in studying the Bible about the end times when he came across a disturbing verse. Reading Jesus's words in the Olivet Discourse, he noticed that only the Father knew the day and hour of the end. Neither the angels nor the son of God were privy to it. As a good trinitarian evangelical, Zarley was familiar with the dual natures idea, but just couldn't square that with the scripture. If Jesus was God in his being, he knew everything. Why did he say he didn't know the time of the end? Surely, Jesus couldn't be lying! This conundrum set Zarley down a path of research and investigation for many years until he slowly uncovered a different way of understanding Christ. Although he knew going public with his new belief would result in ostracism and rejection, he went ahead with it anyhow. This is his story.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://youtu.be/3bZ7t2Z-ql8

—— Links ——

• Take a listen to my previous interview with "Servetus the Evangelical" from 2009
• Get in touch with Kermit at kermitzarley.com
• Read his blog at Patheos
• Check out his books on Amazon
• See other testimonies of people who left the Trinity and came to believe in the biblical unitarian Jesus
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read Sean's bio here

From her childhood in a Jewish family to a 7-year stint with the Jehovah's Witnesses to attending evangelical churches, Susanne Lakin never felt comfortable with the doctrine of the Trinity. She signed up to attend Phoenix Seminary, a conservative evangelical school, thinking they would help her finally get to the bottom of it. She was willing to agree to the idea, thinking, surely, studying with scholars like Wayne Grudem, the prince of evangelical systematic theology, would answer her questions and settle the issue for her once and for all. Amazingly, the opposite happened. This is her story.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

https://youtu.be/W35IRYHjfP8

—— Links ——

• Get in touch with Susanne at livewritethrive.com
• Check out her theological book about annihilationism: Hell No
• Get Leeland Ryken's book, God's Word in English
• See other testimonies of people who left the Trinity and came to believe in the biblical unitarian Jesus
• Get the transcript of this episode
• Support Restitutio by donating here
• Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF
• Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air
• Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.
• Who is Sean Finnegan? Read Sean's bio here