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Interested in taking a deep dive into the biblical text? Join host Dr. Kim Riddlebarger for each episode of the Blessed Hope Podcast as we explore the Letters of the Apostle Paul. In each episode, we work our way through Paul’s letters, focusing upon Paul’s life and times, the gospel he preaches, the law/gospel distinction, the doctrine of justification sola fide, Paul’s two-age eschatology, and a whole lot more. So get out your Bible and join us! Oh, and expect a few bad jokes and surprise ...
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: Corinth was a booming city with lots of new money and great stress upon the power and prestige that goes with it. One way to enhance your public image was to take advantage of those who had something you wanted or needed, or to shame a rival or get a leg up on someone you didn’t like, was to sue them in civ…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: When passing through Ephesus, where Paul was living at the time, members of Chloe’s family informed Paul of a situation in the Corinthian church of such a serious nature that Paul is taken aback. A man in the Corinthian church (presumably known to the church but unnamed by Paul) is cohabiting with his fathe…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: Paul expressed a fair bit of righteous anger in his letter to the Galatians–calling those taken in by false teachers foolish people who have been all-too easily bewitched by false teachers. In 1 Corinthians 4, the apostle again expresses his frustration, speaking sarcastically of those who think of themselv…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: So what will it be? Milk or meat? Are the Corinthians spiritual toddlers? Or are they mature Christians? Since they are being drawn to the factions forming within the church (“I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos”) it is clear that no matter how mature they think they are, in reality they are immature. Their l…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: Paul did not come to Corinth as a typical sage, sophist, or philosopher. He was an unimpressive rabbi and made no attempt to embrace Greco-Roman rhetorical techniques to keep an audience entertained and wanting more. Paul’s mission to the Gentiles was not about him, it was about the message he preached, Chr…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: The cross of Jesus Christ is utter foolishness to those who are perishing in their sins. Yet, Paul tells the Corinthians that through message of the cross God reveals his wisdom and power. In the closing section of the first chapter of his first Corinthian letter, Paul explains how and why the preaching of …
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: Paul has gotten some rather bad news. Members of Chloe’s family (presumably people Paul had known from his time in Corinth) had come to Ephesus (where Paul was currently laboring). They informed him of serious troubles back in Corinth. People were quarreling to the point that factions had developed in the c…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: In the opening 9 verses of Paul’s first Corinthian letter, Paul sets the stage for what is to come. Although he was in Corinth for some eighteen months and knew many of those to whom he is writing quite well, his apostolic authority was being challenged by some in the congregation. Paul must address this ma…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: Paul’s first Corinthian letter was written to deal with divisions in the Corinthian church. He’s received a letter from the Corinthians asking him about how to deal with the Greco-Roman pagans around them, as well as how to handle professing Christians who either did not understand, or implement the apostle…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: I’m very excited to kick off season three of the Blessed Hope Podcast because we are taking up one of the most interesting and challenging letters in all the New Testament–Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. This is a letter which is practical in the best sense of the term and we will spend a great deal…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: The first time I heard the term “optimistic amillennarian” was in seminary, when a student asked one of the professors whether they were postmillennial or amillennial. The professor said he admired much about postmillennialism, but thought amillennialism was the biblical view. But after saying that, he blur…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: The mere mention of the Antichrist conjures up all kinds of spooky movie images, demonic plot lines, and eerie special effects–all designed to play upon our fears of a satanically inspired, menacing figure doing their master’s bidding. The list is long, but a few examples should help–The Omen (with the brat…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: Whenever you discuss biblical eschatology and the end times, you must address the future of Israel and the Jewish people. The subject is greatly complicated by the fact that along with the longstanding biblical debates over Israel’s future, there is also the complicated history of Zionism. The unprecedented…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: From the moment of our Lord’s ascension into heaven (as recounted in Acts 1:8) Christians have expected the Lord’s bodily and imminent return. Both Jesus and the apostles had a fair bit to say about his return as well as those signs which would precede the end. So, from the dawn of the church, until now, so…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: I am not a fan of jigsaw puzzles–I don’t have the patience to put them together, and I am too easily distracted by the shapes of the various pieces. So, I lose sight of the big picture, and then I get frustrated and attempt to jam pieces into the puzzle where they don’t fit. Many people have the same troubl…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: The kingdom of God is a major topic throughout the Scriptures. The kingdom of God refers to the rule or reign of God over all of creation and all of its creatures. The Old Testament speaks of YHWH as Israel’s king, whose kingdom is everlasting. The prophets speak of this kingdom using royal images associate…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: I begin this episode with a personal testimony. I was born and raised a dispensationalist. Our family owned a Christian bookstore. The first Christian book I picked out and read on my own was Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth. Years later, I was challenged by one of our delivery men about the books …
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: We are beginning a new series on the Blessed Hope Podcast, “The Future.” In this series we will wrestle with the question “what does the future hold for God’s people?” What historical events and biblical prophecies remain to be fulfilled before Jesus returns on the last day? How are we to interpret the vari…
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Send us a Text Message. Season Two Postscript – Where Do We Go from Here? We’ve completed season two of the Blessed Hope Podcast, fifteen episodes in all, in which we covered Paul’s two Thessalonian letters. The season two series was entitled “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven, taken from 2 Thessalonians 1:7, a text which captures Paul em…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: As Paul comes to the end of his second Thessalonian letter, he still has much to say to the Christians in Thessalonica. But the most important thing the apostle does when concluding his second letter, is to remind the Thessalonians of his prayer of thanksgiving on their behalf. Paul hopes this will be of gr…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: Soon after Paul sent his first letter to the Thessalonian Christians, the apostle received word that someone in the congregation was teaching that the day of the Lord had already come. Composing his second Thessalonian letter to correct this error, Paul makes it abundantly clear that anyone spreading such a…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: There is little doubt that one of the most interesting, controversial, and a constant source of on-going speculation is the doctrine of the Antichrist. Indeed, there has been so much written about the Antichrist by Christians–both ancient and modern–and so many references made to the Antichrist in film and …
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: Paul has already written one letter to the Thessalonians to clear up the confusion in their midst about the Lord’s return on the last day. Paul has instructed the congregation that should anyone die before the Lord’s return, they will not miss out on any of the benefits secured for them by Jesus Christ (inc…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: Since the Lord will return suddenly and unexpectedly, what are the Thessalonians to do until Jesus’s return? Paul has already encouraged them earlier in his letter, telling them that they are doing well despite the persecution and on-going threats they were receiving from Jews and Greco-Roman pagans in Thes…
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Send us a Text Message. Date-setting has been a problem for God’s people since the days of the apostles. Church history is full of the accounts of those who, for whatever reason, attempted to figure out when Jesus will return, set dates, and then miserably failed to predict the unpredictable. Two recent examples should suffice. Edgar C. Whisenant p…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: As a baby boomer, I grew up during the Cold War, when the threat of nuclear war was real and constant. In 1948, Israel became a nation and many Jews began returning to their ancient homeland. The “Six Day War” of 1967, fought between Israel and a confederation of Arab states, sure made it seem as though the…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: The greatest event in all of human history was the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The most hoped for event in humanity’s future is Jesus Christ’s return when he will raise the dead, judge the world, and bring about the new creation. Since the moment Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and the attendi…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: In chapter four of his first Thessalonian letter, Paul addresses the issues surrounding what it means to turn from idols to serve the true and living God. Paul is concerned with how these new Christians in Thessalonica “walk in the Lord” – that is, how they ought to live the Christian life in contrast to th…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: Paul was forced out of Thessalonica after three short weeks among them. Paul truly desires to return (he’s writing to the Thessalonians from Corinth) but so far has been prevented from doing so. Paul attributes this unfortunate circumstance to the activity of Satan and so explains why he sent Timothy instea…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: In chapter two of Paul’s first Thessalonian letter, Paul defends himself against accusations raised by those who had driven him from the city. Paul is not just another itinerant philosopher who wanders throughout the land seeking to tickle ears and gain a following. Paul’s conduct in Thessalonica was blamel…
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Send us a Text Message. Episode Synopsis: There is one thing a congregation dislikes even more than stewardship Sunday–a sermon on the wrath of God. To proclaim that the wrath of God is coming upon the whole world (and it is) is be thought of as some sort of fundamentalist with the misguided faith of a snake-handler, or the mind-set of a Jihadi ter…
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Send us a Text Message. Synopsis of Episode Three: In the opening verses of his first Thessalonian letter, Paul sends warm greetings to those from whom he has recently departed. This departure was not of his own doing. After spending three Sabbaths in Thessalonica with this newly organized church, Paul was driven from the city by a “rentamob” organ…
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Send us a Text Message. Synopsis of Episode Two: “Paul’s Theological Categories” Paul was converted about 33 AD when Jesus appeared to him on the Damascus Road, revealing to Paul the content of the gospel he was to preach. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians was written around 50 AD, just short of twenty years after his conversion. By this tim…
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Send us a Text Message. Synopsis of Episode One: “An Introduction to Paul’s Thessalonian Letters” We are about to embark on a study of Paul’s Thessalonian letters. Our season two series is entitled “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven" (from 2 Thessalonians 1:7), a text which captures Paul emphasis in these two letters upon the key event in…
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Send us a Text Message. In this special episode of Season One on the Book of Galatians, I am offering listeners a free gift! If you have made it through all fourteen episodes of the Blessed Hope series on the Book of Galatians, I am making available to you a free expositional commentary on the Book of Galatians, entitled, “For Freedom!” Instruction…
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Send us a Text Message. We’ve completed our fourteen-part series on the Book of Galatians. But one question remains unanswered. What happened after Paul sent his letter to the churches in Galatia? In Acts 15, we get our answer. The Judaizing heresy became an issue of concern far beyond Galatia. In response, the Apostles and elders of the Jerusalem …
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Send us a Text Message. In the first century Greco-Roman world crucifixion was something that polite and well mannered people didn’t talk about. Considered a cruel instrument of torture and shame, nevertheless, the cross is the one thing about which the apostle Paul chooses to boast–not just any cross, but the cross of Jesus Christ, where the guilt…
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Send us a Text Message. In the sixth and concluding chapter of Galatians, Paul addresses the fallout caused by the Judaizers spying on those throughout the region exercising their liberty in Christ. It should not come as a surprise that the Judaizers would find people engaging in sinful conduct, shame them, and use them as examples of why Paul’s go…
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Send us a Text Message. In the last half of Galatians 5, Paul contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. In comparing the two lists, it sounds very much like the Apostle is describing two warring factions–which he is, the flesh against the Spirit. The works of the flesh are the visible outcome of what it means to have a sinful n…
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Send us a Text Message. In Galatians chapter 5, the apostle Paul is discussing how the Galatian Christians ought understand the implications of their freedom in Christ–especially in the face of pressure to return to works of law as insisted by the Judaizers. To help ensure that the Galatians stand firm against the legalistic error spreading quickly…
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Send us a Text Message. Paul exhorts the Galatians, “for freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” But this is an unlikely assertion for a well-known religious figure like the apostle Paul to make. Most people would expect Paul to shout something like, “try harder, do better, live a godly a…
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Send us a Text Message. Paul understood Israel’s history and the biblical accounts of Moses and Abraham one way before his conversion, and in an entirely different way after. Once Jesus had come, fulfilled his messianic mission, and called Paul to faith, Paul’s understanding of the Old Testament completely changed. In Ephesians 4:21-31, Paul speaks…
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Send us a Text Message. Paul’s question to those listening to the agitators in Galatia is simple but profound. “What has happened to all of your joy?” Paul is referring to that joy the Galatians had experienced together with Paul when he first preached the gospel to them. These people were Paul’s spiritual children. He loved them, and he thought th…
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Send us a Text Message. Paul has made his case that all believing Jews and Gentiles are children of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul has also made the point that the giving of the law at Mount Sinai does not annual the prior covenant God made with Abraham. But, at some point in his Galatian letter, Paul must address the question, “why th…
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Send us a Text Message. To correct the error of the Judaizers–which is to insist that Gentiles undergo circumcision and live like Jews in order to be justified–Paul makes a series of important distinctions in his letter to the Galatians. He contrasts faith and works, the Spirit and the flesh, the law and the gospel, as well as carefully distinguish…
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Send us a Text Message. Paul identifies all those who believe his gospel as “sons of Abraham”–which includes both Jews and Gentiles. But he does not include those who seek to be right before God on the basis of works of the law, which Paul has declared, do not justify. The Judaizers have been spying on the Galatians Christian liberty. Gentile Chris…
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Send us a Text Message. Peter enjoyed table fellowship with Gentiles until men from James pressured him to withdraw from table fellowship with them. Even Barnabas felt the pressure to distance himself from the unclean–those not circumcised. He too grew hesitant to eat with Gentiles. Paul knew that if the Judaizers got wind of this, they would claim…
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Send us a Text Message. Paul was well-known to the Galatians. He came into Galatia preaching the gospel revealed to him by Jesus Christ. The Galatians knew Paul. He stayed with them for a time. He lived with them, he ate with them, prayed with them, and preached to them. When he fell ill, they nursed him back to health and once he had recovered, th…
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Send us a Text Message. What would you do if an angel suddenly appeared to you and proclaimed a gospel much different from that gospel which Paul preached to the Galatians? What would you do if one of your closest friends or a family member encourages you to listen to a celebrity, a life coach, an influencer, or a religious teacher who proclaims a …
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Send us a Text Message. The Apostle Paul preached the gospel revealed to him by Jesus Christ throughout the region we know as Galatia. But soon after Paul left Galatia, he began hearing disturbing reports about false teachers who came into the region, undermining his apostolic office, and challenging the gospel he had previously preached to the Gal…
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