A Case for Believers’ Baptism by Immersion from Colossians 2:11-12

August 26, 2022August 28, 2022Kirk E. Miller

Paul’s argument in Colossians 2:11-12 assume the following three things:

Believers are baptized.
Those who are baptized are believers.
Baptism is immersion.

Allow me to briefly elaborate on each of these assertions.

1. Believers are baptized

You’ll notice in this passage, as Paul addresses the Colossians, he can assume all of them have been baptized (“you been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him”). It was assumed that believers were baptized, such that Paul can readily appeal to their baptism as part of his argument here. Paul, along with the rest of the New Testament, has no category or conception of an unbaptized believer.

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Experiential Calvinism: A Functional Theology of the Doctrines of Grace (with J. A. Medders)

August 22, 2022August 22, 2022Kirk E. Miller

What are the so-called doctrines of grace? And what bearing do they have on our lives? Jeff Medders joins me to talk about Calvinism and the practical ways it ought to manifest in those who believe it.

Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)

A Christian Assessment of News Consumption (with Jeffrey Bilbro)

August 15, 2022August 15, 2022Kirk E. Miller

In a world in which our consumption of news is increasingly polarized and sensational, and disinformation is all too common, how do we combat such unhealthy habits to form a better relationship with the news? And what, after all, is the news even for? What is a particularly Christian mode of engaging and consuming news? In his book, Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry Into the News, Jeffrey Bilbro provides a theological, even historical, perspective on the function and impact of the news in our lives, a diagnosis of our problem, and a reframing of how we might construct alternative practices.

Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)

Some key concepts and ideas from the book:

“Macademized minds” (or fragmented attention)

Our attentions are overloaded; we are unable to attend in meaningful ways because there’s too much to attend to.

As a result, presentations of the news become competingly sensational in order to compete for our distracted attention.

Thus, we need to develop better habits for shaping what we give our attention to.

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Application Practiced & Application Received (How to Read the Bible, Ep. 19)

August 8, 2022August 8, 2022Kirk E. Miller

Not only do we work to apply the scriptures, but the scriptures do their work on us. So how do we foster a disposition and habit of regularly subjecting ourselves to the scripture’s slow, ordinary, but supernaturally transformative work?

Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)

See all other content in this series.