I’ve listened to Theocast for years, going back to the Byron Yawn days (I even purchased “A Pilgrim’s Guide to Rest” back in the day). While there were a few episodes recently, especially on repentance and temptation in September 2025, that I found genuinely helpful, my overall experience has been negative.
My main concern is how the podcast handles sin and sanctification. While I affirm total depravity, Theocast often speaks as if that same reality applies unchanged to the believer, with little clarity on our new identity in Christ. Through our union with Christ we are dead to sin, but that is often not how the topic has been approached. The result for Theocast is a flattened view of sanctification where the historic Reformed emphasis on mortification and growth in holiness is largely absent. Now that Justin is gone, I fear any of that clarity or nuance from those September episodes will be gone as well.
Additionally, the broad critique of pietism often seems to dismiss any meaningful emphasis on effort and obedience in the Christian life. There is a concerning tendency to platform voices that deny the third use of the Law (as David Zahl does in “Low Anthropology”) while criticizing more historically grounded teachers. Especially in the most recent episodes where Jon has critiqued Paul Washer, it comes across as if he is purposefully misunderstanding and misrepresenting Paul in order to be critical. This is a trend that I have noticed over the years as they have critiqued John Piper as well.
If this is your primary source of teaching, I would encourage you to be discerning and to seek a more balanced theological diet.
"We have somehow got hold of the idea that error is only that which is outrageously wrong; and we do not seem to understand that the most dangerous person of all is the one who does not emphasize the right things.” - Martin Lloyd-Jones
