Crucible of Thought Brandon Munday

Today, I had the real privilege of interviewing Zach Lambert, pastor of the Restore Austin church in Austin Texas. Zach showed up on my radar in early 2022 as I began to seriously study the issue of LGBTQ rights and whether it was possible to be a Christian and affirming at the same time. I saw Zach's powerful sermon on the topic, which I'll link in the show notes, and it really impressed me and motivated me to study the topic harder.

I reached out to Zach and asked him if we could speak on Zoom, and much to my surprise he agreed. Pastors are typically pretty busy and he was generous with his time, and we had a great conversation that gave me a sense that the nudging of the Holy Spirit in my heart might really need close attention.

After many months of study I eventually concluded in late 2022 that I needed to be explicit about being affirming myself, so on the National Coming Out Day in October 2022 I posted a lengthy paper detailing my process and reasoning and the results of my own study of the scriptures.

Since then I've continued to study the topic, and I realize constantly that I just don't know as much as I need to if I'm going to be an effective ally and to share my own convictions in a useful fashion. So I reached out to Zach a second time, and once again he graciously gave me an hour of his time. This interview is the result. It challenged me but also gave me a sense that I'm moving in the right direction.

This is Zach's sermon that I referenced:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3d_mhbTwL4

Find us at https://crucibleofthought.com

What's the difference between a powerful testimony, and a sad story that we perceive as condemning the one who experienced it? Often, it's only our dogma. We listen and swing from "that's amazing" to "that's horrible" in moments, based on our preconceptions of how valid that story is. Maybe, though, we can learn quite a bit from people whose stories don't fit our existing framework of understanding.

You can also read this at https://crucibleofthought.com/the-conditional-power-of-testimony/

P.T. Barnum is famously reputed to have said "there's a sucker born every minute." I'd add a modern corollary that says "there's a grifter born every minute to feed those suckers," especially in today's social media world. The recent bridge collapse in Baltimore brought plenty of Barnum's minions out of the woodwork. What can we learn from this?

You can also read this episode at

https://crucibleofthought.com/barnum/

and watch it at

https://youtu.be/ONVeSdXBs_Q

Americans seem to worship efficiency and scale - and American Christians seem to apply Henry Ford's innovations to building Christians, just like he built the Model T. But maybe that's not the best way to advance the Kingdom of God.

This is episode #103 of the Crucible of Thought podcast. You can also read this in text form at https://crucibleofthought.com/henry-ford-christians/

and watch it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zL0ZOvHRbwM

Is God's salvation truly limited to those with right beliefs? Or is Gal 2:20 better translated as living within the faithfulness of God's son? One puts the burden on us to believe correctly. The other rests in the completed work of Jesus. And that covers everyone, not just those who believe the right things.

You can also read this episode at https://crucibleofthought.com/yes-them-too/

Other related posts:


https://crucibleofthought.com/for-two-billion-years/
https://crucibleofthought.com/every-created-thing/
https://crucibleofthought.com/new-series-a-discussion-of-individual-eschatology/

This is part four of a four-part series on the various Christian doctrines of the afterlife.

I grew up in an evangelical church environment, and I don’t think it’s possible for any good evangelical to not know all about heaven versus hell, and streets of gold versus fire and brimstone, and to vigorously defend those concepts and then use them to convince people to repent and believe to avoid eternal punishment. But those views are not universal to Christianity, and I just began to realize this in the last couple years. So I’m making these videos to provide some awareness of the alternatives, and to discuss the doctrinal positions which I believe are probably more correct.

The following link is referenced in this video.

https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-severity-of-universal-salvation/

The text version of this video, with clickable links and all the Bible references in popup form is also available in blog form at https://crucibleofthought.com/a-discussion-of-individual-eschatology-part-4-of-4/

You can also watch this on YouTube at https://youtu.be/3sNnUw7Y4eU