Restitutio

What do you do when you’ve tried to quit something over and over and still can’t get free? My guest today is Jody Rodriguez who fell into a life of regular substance use from her teenage years onward. By the time she was nearing thirty she had been to jail and rehab but still couldn’t shake her addictions. Then after a second failed drug test, she hit rock bottom and said to herself, “If I don’t change my life, I’m going to die or go to prison.” She needed to take drastic measures to get the freedom she desperately wanted. She couldn’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results. Moving away from home to join a rehab began a sequence of events that changed everything. She got clean, but even beyond that she found God.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Get the transcript of this episode Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Check out Finnegan’s books on Amazon. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

Mina grew up in a poor village in South Korea in the 1950s. She faced many hardships due to her abusive alcoholic father who loaned her to another family to work as a servant. Although Mina escaped from that situation, she found herself in something much worse. She got entrapped by sex traffickers and forced to work as a prostitute. The crushing shame from these experiences followed her through life even after she escaped to America and married a soldier. Only when she became a Christian and started reading the Bible did she find the healing she desperately needed.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Get the transcript of this episode Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Check out Finnegan’s books on Amazon. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

Jeremy Martin is a complicated man. Although raised in a Christian home, he chose a different path. At eighteen years old, he embraced the party lifestyle of drinking alcohol and using drugs of various kinds. Before long, he found himself sucked into a criminal lifestyle, including an eight-year stretch where he earned his living from crime. At 25 he had to flee Arizona in order to escape murder. At this point in the story, I bet you’re expecting me to say something like, “Then Jeremy met God and changed his life and has been faithfully serving him ever since.” Nope. That’s not how the story goes. It’s way more complicated than that. I’ll have to let him explain it. Rest assured though, you’re in for a treat. Jeremy shows us that God doesn’t quit on people, even if people quit on him. He shows us that it’s never too late to start serving God. And he shows us that true satisfaction isn’t found in distractions like marijuana and video games, but in doing good for others.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Read Jeremy Martin’s blog posts as SeekGroveLove Get the transcript of this episode Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Check out Finnegan’s books on Amazon. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

It’s recited in churches all around the world in many languages. It’s the standard by which all modern Christians are measured. It’s an artful and eloquent expression of doctrine. What am I talking about? Of course, it’s the Nicene Creed. But what if I told you that this creed wasn’t from the Council of Nicea in 325 ad. You’d say, “Yeah, yeah, Sean, everyone knows the Nicene creed is really from Constantinople in 381 ad.” Or is it? My guest today is Sam Tideman of the Transfigured Podcast and he has been digging into the historical record concerning the Council of Constantinople in 381. He wasn’t looking for this, but what he found absolutely shocked him. Or, perhaps, I should say, what he didn’t find shocked him. The Nicene creed people say today never got adopted at Constantinople either! What does this mean for the development of the Trinity? When did this creed get formulated and adopted? How does this affect Christians today? Get answers to these questions in today’s episode.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Follow Sam Tideman on his YouTube Channel: Transfigured Check out these other podcast episodes I’ve done with Sam Get the transcript of this episode Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Check out Finnegan’s books on Amazon. Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

What is the true nature of God? How should we understand monotheism? What about heresy? In today’s interview, I ask Dr. Dale Tuggy about his new book, Monotheism, Heresy, and the Bible, published by Theophilus Press. Our discussion ranges from handling proof-texts that call Jesus “God” to the role of logic in sorting out doctrine to how and when it’s appropriate to call a belief a heresy. We also talk about the tendency of Trinitarians to defend their doctrinal convictions by appealing to mystery. In case you don’t know him, Tuggy is an analytic philosopher with a BA from Biola, an MA from Claremont, and a PhD from Brown University. He had a career teaching philosophy and adjacent subjects at the State University of New York at Fredonia for 18 years after which he founded the Unitarian Christian Alliance to help unitarian Christians connect with each other, promote scholarship, host conferences, publish books, and participate in debates.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Get Dale Tuggy’s book, Monotheism, Heresy, and the Bible More about Tuggy at blog Trinities.org and at the UCA website. Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

How do you know God exists? What reasons do atheists have to doubt God’s existence? Can you arrive at certainty? These questions are among the most significant that you can ask. If God exists, there are huge implications for your daily life. If not, then you can more or less choose your own adventure, making up meaning as you go. My guest today is Andrew Drinkard, the editor and project lead on an interesting book called Debating God’s Existence: Believers and Skeptics in Friendly Conversation, published by Eerdmans. In the interview that follows I ask him about his backstory as well as the story behind the debate this book was based on. We discuss Dan Barker’s argument against God based on the problem of evil as well as Adam Johnson’s argument for God based on objective morality. Then we engage a bit with Drinkard’s own content in the book regarding divine hiddenness. But before getting to the interview, let me say a couple of words about our guest today. Andrew Drinkard is the director of Inspiring Christianity ministries at inspiringchristianity.com. He holds an MA in theological studies and apologetics from Liberty University and is currently completing an MA in philosophy of religion at Palm Beach Atlantic University. His work has been published in the Journal of Classical Theology.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Get Will Barlow’s book, Explore What We Believe Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

Are all your beliefs equally important? If not, how do you rank them? By what standard do you say, “This belief matters” and “This one is less important”? My guest today is Michael Hughes who has been working on these very questions. He’s written a couple of papers addressing levels of evidence. In his more recent work, he’s enumerated a nine-level rating system by which you can judge a belief. At the top of it is “Level 1: beliefs that are essential to salvation” then comes “Level 2: practices that are related to salvation” then “Level 3: beliefs that are undoubtedly true,” then those that are probably true, then those that are possibly true, and so on. As we move down the levels we move from more importance to less. This is a fascinating and fresh approach to ranking beliefs and practices based on biblical confidence. Are they explicitly taught in Scripture? Are they merely implied? Are there many difficult texts or only a few? You get the picture. After Hughes explains his rating system, I pepper him with questions, including gay marriage, marijuana use, Torah observance, and wine vs. juice at communion. For each, he explains how he would approach the belief or practice from a “levels of evidence” perspective. (See below for brief explanations of all nine levels of evidence.)   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. —— Notes —— Level 1: Beliefs that are Essential to Salvation Beliefs and practices which the New Testament explicitly teaches as essential for salvation have the highest degree of certainty and importance, and are confidently emphasised by the church. Anyone who believes th

Are you looking for a biblically-grounded albeit easy-to-read introduction to theology? Well, look no further, because I’m excited to announce the publication of Pastor Will Barlow’s book, Explore What We Believe. He goes through what the Bible teaches about God, humanity, covenants, the kingdom of God, Jesus, salvation, Israel, the church, the spirit of God, the spiritual realm, death, and immortality. He also includes appendices on foreknowledge, time periods, and baptism. Although you can certainly read this book on your own and benefit from it, Barlow designed Explore What We Believe as a discipleship tool for two or three people to work through together. This is perfect for helping Christians of other traditions to learn about what WE believe. It’s also ideal for training your teenagers in the faith. In this interview I ask Barlow about the content of the book and how he sees it being used.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Get Will Barlow’s book, Explore What We Believe Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

I have a new book out and I’m excited to tell you all about it. In order to do that, Anna Brown is hosting Restitutio today and putting me in the hot seat. In this interview, she asks me about Read the Bible for Yourself, a book I’ve been working on for the last three years. In our conversation we talk about whom the book is for and how to use it most effectively. I share about the chapter you won’t want to miss, and I reveal a publishing error that inadvertently promoted marijuana. Wait I thought this book was about reading the Bible. Yes, it is. I guess you’ll just have to listen to the interview to find out the details on that one. Even if you’ve been reading the Bible for years, this book will help you read it better by providing you with key techniques and overviews to make sense of what you read. Anyhow, if you’d like to get my book, it’s out on Amazon.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Get Sean Finnegan’s book, Read the Bible for Yourself Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

To whom was God speaking in Genesis 1.26 when he said, “Let us make humanity in our image”? My guest today, Sam Mansfield of Adelaide, South Australia, has found six different answers to this question. In the following interview, I ask him about his recent presentation at the inaugural Australian Unitarian Christian Alliance conference, called “Wrought with Wisdom: How Solomon Understood Genesis 1:26, 3:22 & 11:7.” Mansfield puts forward the deliberative position with a twist.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Read Mansfield’s paper here. Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

One of the largest and most intriguing blocks of teaching in the Gospel of John is the upper room discourse in chapter 13-17. This block of time begins with the washing of the disciples’ feet (13) and ends with Jesus’s high-priestly prayer (17). In the middle chapters (14-16), we encounter Jesus preparing his followers for his departure. They still didn’t quite understand what was to happen with his arrest, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Even so, Jesus laid out teaching that would make sense for them after he was gone. Much of that teaching centered on the spirit of truth, which was to come after Jesus ascended to the Father. In what follows we’ll explore three main theories about the holy spirit in John 14-16: (1) the spirit is a person other than Christ; (2) the spirit is a personification; and (3) the spirit is Christ’s alter ego in his heavenly ministry. After considering the first two options, I’ll explain why the last one–that the spirit is a way of talking about Christ’s activity among us while he is in heaven–fits the best. I originally presented this content in Australia where I had an unfortunate run in with a leech. I had told this story earlier to this audience and mentioned in the talk. I had gone on a “bush walk” and picked up the blood sucker without realizing it. After it had its fill, it released and I continued to bleed for hours, not realizing that leeches inject and anticoagulant. In this presentation, I refer back to this incident, so now you know what I was talking about.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts This talk was originally presented at a Unitarian Christian Alliance (UCA) event held at the Tops Conference Centre in Stanwell Tops, Australia on March 28, 2026. Thanks to the Australian UCA planning committee, especially Matt Bradley, for their hard work in putting on this event. —— Links —— Download the slides from this presentation Read the article that inspired this presentation Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn abou

Have you ever heard the expression “a smoking gun”? It comes from an earlier era of guns when black powder produced a good cloud of smoke each time someone fired the weapon. Originally a smoking gun referred to a situation when someone was caught with the weapon in hand, still emitting smoke. The implication of this is not just that the smoking gun is evidence of the person’s guilt, but that such is conclusive and undeniable evidence. Today were going to consider the topic of bias in our English Bible translations. I’m going to present to you four independent grammatical smoking guns of Trinitarian mischief in evangelical translations. In each case, rather than rendering the source language into the target language, we’ll see how translators tweak the translation to support the personality of the holy spirit.   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts This talk was originally presented at a Unitarian Christian Alliance (UCA) event held at the Cantebury Christadelphian Ecclesia in Melbourne, Australia on March 21, 2026. Thanks to the Christadelphians for providing a venue and giving me access to the recording. —— Links —— Download the slides from this presentation Read the article that inspired this presentation Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class. Today is our last episode in our Restoration Theology class. Believe it or not, not everyone thinks restorationism is great. In fact, most Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, are against restorationism, preferring the confessional approach. Have you started to face objections and dismissive language when you talk to others about restoration theology yet? If not, you will. Today, I want to familiarize you with the kinds of criticisms they make against us and give you some thoughts on how to answer them. Then we’ll transition our focus to consider three advantages of restorationism, including that it provides a stable identity, a way forward for unity, and evangelistic opportunities. In the end, I believe restoration theology is not just an excellent way to evaluate your beliefs; I believe it’s also the key to changing the world!   Listen on Spotify   Listen on Apple Podcasts —— Links —— Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class Register to attend the Will Barlow vs. Samuel Nessan debate on whether Jesus is Yahweh Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price. Get the transcript of this episode Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.