The Practical Theism Podcast: Recent Episodes
Josh Smith
A place where charitable dialogue takes place on the topics of faith, God, and life. The Christian worldview permeates all aspects of human life and through this podcast we attempt to share about our journey of understanding truth.
Keith Nester shares his amazing insight through many different topics and aspects of his faith journey!
Keith Nester shares his amazing insight through many different topics and aspects of his faith journey!
Satan, The Devil, Hades, The Evil One, El Diablo - the prince of darkness goes by many names, but there is one truth that presides in the life of a believer: He attacks us the closer we draw into the light. But How exactly does the devil attack people? Is it physical? Is it mental? How do we know when we are being spiritually attacked? Dave Brunsman dives into helping us understand this.
What are the corporal and spiritual works of mercy that the Catholic Church talks about? Are they derived from Scripture? Father Leo Patalinghug jumps into these questions, how we see these lived out in the life of the church in today's podcast episode.
See more of Father Leo's work at: https://platinggrace.com/
Join the Plating Grace Academy at: https://academy.platinggrace.com/
Chad Torgenson found his calling as a Spiritual Director with a focus on Ignatian Spirituality. What exactly is a spiritual director? Do you need one? When should you seek one out? These are some of the questions we dove in to ask Chad!
See more of Chad's work at: https://wakingupcatholic.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3hfw4kBOgNDWuvQvn0XijA
Get Chad's Book at: https://wakingupcatholic.com/waking-up-catholic-book/
The Christian faith says that God has a plan for your life. That doesn't mean it is easy to follow that plan! Travis "T-Rev" Carter jumps into action gear showing how listening and stepping with God's plan can open dramatic new opportunities for you.
Find T-Rev on the following places! https://twitter.com/trevmusic https://www.instagram.com/trevmusic
The Cancel Culture has seen a massive rise over the past year. Dave Brunsman dives into a discussion about what the cancel culture is, where we are seeing it today, and how we address it from a Christian perspective.
Saint John Paul II encouraged young creatives to take an active role in evangelization with the new media. Nobody has done this more effectively than Spirit Juice Studios. From working with big names like Bishop Robert Barron to working with local parishes and the USCCB, Spirit Juice Studios is using their talents to spread the gospel. In today's podcast, Rob Kaczmark, owner and founder of Spirit Juice Studios talks about creative evangelization in 2021.
See more of Spirit Juice Studios Work here! https://www.spiritjuicestudios.com/
Spirit Juice Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6zyBe0R9fLOBmv7bu_VW_A
Some Christians seem to have joy, others not so much. Is the Gospel message of Christianity intended to produce joy in the believer? Find out what Father Leo Patalinghug of Plating Grace ministries gives his perspective on this perplexing proposition!
See more of Father Leo's work at: https://platinggrace.com/
Join the Plating Grace Academy at: https://academy.platinggrace.com/
Why can't Catholics and Protestant Christians get along? While there are a LOT of agreements and disagreements, they seem to stem back to this ONE thing. Canadian Catholic Musician and apologist Chris Bray dives into this 1 thing with us today! Learn about it, how to discuss it, and how to move past it to continue the dialogue.
See more of Chris' work at: https://www.chrisbraymusic.com/
All That Catholic Stuff Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKQ7P0TW6_QZC7ozcgxOEYQ
Hear Chris' Music: https://www.chrisbraymusic.com/music
Ignatian Spirituality is a discipline in the spiritual life pioneered by Saint Ignatius of Loyola. This is one discipline that I have personally found very practical applications to daily life and I think everyone should consider trying it to continually renew the inner self. Chad Torgenson of Directional Faith walks us through Ignatian Spirituality in today's Podcast!
See more of Chad's work at:
https://wakingupcatholic.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3hfw4kBOgNDWuvQvn0XijA
Get Chad's Book at: https://wakingupcatholic.com/waking-up-catholic-book/
When was the last time you heard a logical argument for the existence of God? Something beyond simply: Believe! Trent Horn jumps on the podcast to share 3 arguments for the existence of God, showing their strengths and weaknesses. He also teases us up with what he believes to be the best argument against the existence of God. You don't want to miss this!
Check out Trent's stuff at:
https://www.trenthorn.com/
www.trenthornpodcast.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvySGkfy1W8fda287KMj2CA
See Trent's books mentioned in the podcast and more at: http://www.trenthorn.com/books/
Travis "T-Rev" Carter has a story that is enough to break any person down. From the loss of his mother in a brutal death, Travis comes out the other side as a strong believer that God had a plan. Why? Find out.
Travis "T-Rev" Carter has a story that is enough to break any person down. From the loss of his mother in a brutal death, Travis comes out the other side as a strong believer that God had a plan. Why? Find out. Find T-Rev on the following places! https://twitter.com/trevmusic https://www.instagram.com/trevmusic
Many religious skeptics claim that all religion is intended to make good people. Is that right?
Should Christians get involved in Politics? Louie Luepke dives into his thoughts on the topic.
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Is Jesus Relevant today in 2021? There are many secular belief systems that want to keep Jesus and religion in particular out of the public square. But with all of the turmoil going on today, is that really what we need? Or, perhaps, is it possible we need Jesus now more than ever before?
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www.practicaltheism.com
With pew research studies showing that there is an increase in the number of the "nones" or the non religiously affiliated, Josh dives into why people are leaving Christianity with RCIA Director Dave Brunsman. Not only that, they discuss what Christians can do to bring people back into the faith through Love.
Jesus commits his spirit to God the father in his last words before he dies. The veil breaks in two. He quotes yet another psalm. Oh and we are supposed to consume the lamb?
Watch it on Youtube! https://youtu.be/EMdpevle7RE
Th 5th and 6th last saying of Jesus is what we are covering today when he comments, quotes and fulfills the Psalm in saying "I Thirst". After taking a sip of soured wine, he claims "It is finished". But what exactly was finished? Let's explore a possibility!
Watch on Youtube! https://youtu.be/5ssAvIu5TsY
Taking a look at Jesus' words on the cross, Eli Eli Lama Sabachtani. What did Jesus mean by it? Also, did God REALLY separate himself from Jesus at this point on the cross?
Watch on Youtube! https://youtu.be/29yYTM9HegQ
In Jesus' declaration of Mary as "woman", Jesus was not being anti women or masagionistic in any way. Rather, he was guiding us to a fundamental connection between Mary and Eve in the garden.
Watch on Youtube! https://youtu.be/zP4ZWT6QRC4
Panic is swarming the globe around the current pandemic that is plaguing our world. It is important as Christians to put the pandemic into perspective and to seek how God is looking to work with YOU through it.
St. Dismas who was the theif on the cross that defended Christ, to which Christ replied "Today you will be with me in paradise." What does this tell us about the nature of salvation, and the penitent man?
Watch it on YouTube! https://youtu.be/i2W2nUWdSIo
While hanging on the cross, Jesus bore the sin of humanity. He uttered 7 last sayings thought, which present keen insight into truths about God, Christ, and the fulfilment of the covenant. In John 23:34, we see the first of these sayings, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do".
Watch on Youtube! https://youtu.be/NkztY-LhJNM
A lot of new age thinking has this idea that we are God. We are God in our life. I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what and who Christians say God is. Is the true "good news" the one of me myself and I? Or is it something deeper?
In today's gospel reading from John 8, we see that keeping the words of Christ produces life not death. When we are the follower of someone, we make a daily decision to heed their advice and follow their teaching. There is something more with Christ though and the commands that he makes. Following truth, is the deepest desire of the heart, but when we rest in that, we find ultimate peace and fullfillment.
In reflecting on the gospel for today, I had a number of thoughts to share about the "Word" of God, how it is not confined to Scripture alone and that our conforming to the Word is what discipleship and sonship is all about. If we are sons and daughters of the covenant family, then as Jesus says, we need to do the work of the Father! Very interesting reflection today! Enjoy.
Jesus made very clear identifications with himself as God when seen through a Jewish lens. In looking at the Gospel reading today from John chapter 8, we see how Jesus is using the old testament scriptures and the Jewish tradition to share with his followers his true identity and also point forward to his crucifixion.
When Jesus sees the men who want to stone the woman caught in adultery in John chapter 8, we see his radical justice at work. He condemns the men who want to judge the woman, pointing to the reality that it is God that judges us, but then the story takes a turn that we might not expect, but it reflects God's justice and his transcended mercy for us all.
The big problem with humanity is our nature. We have a tendency to place all of our focus on the things and goods of this world that cannot ultimately satisfy the soul. But rather, the move that Christianity makes is to place ultimate worship on God, the creator, the ground and sustainer for all of creation. As an infinite good, he ultimately can satisfy the longings of the soul.
Faith is an adventure that is lived out through life! Do you see your faith that way? It can completely transform how you approach your daily life.
I just finished Bishop Barron's book "To light a fire on the Earth" which dives into a bit more of a personal space interview style with Bishop Robert Barron. I found the book to be enlightening, learning more about one of my favorite evangelists, and definitely helped me gain more focus and clarity in my own journey. Highly recommended!
My journey back tot he Catholic Church was marked by a lot of things, but primarily it was marked by an intellectual journey. I was fascinated by the Catholic Intellectual tradition and it made sense of Christianity to me in a way that the faith never had before. I started to see the world through a different lens, the lens of the true Jesus, the true God, that is love and that transformed my thinking. This is the part of my testimony where God's Grace so invaded my life to transform it. While I don't go into all of the doctrinal things that I went through on my faith journey in this video, I hope you enjoy it non the less!
In part 2 of my journey, I talk about my time away from the Catholic Church. After making rounds to different non catholic churches and other christian faith traditions, I started to see that not everything was as it seemed. There were inconsistencies in some of the doctrines verses what I was reading in Scripture and this led to even more confusion. Things such as what is the Eucharist? What role do works play in salvation? Do we really go by the bible alone? Do I need to get rebaptized? All of these experiences led to the moment, which we will get to in part 3, which set me ablaze in my journey for Christ.
My testimony is a journey through and through. It is pretty lengthy, so I am breaking it into 3 parts. Stay tuned for more!
I had the opportunity to do my first public talk at The Sower service at St. Clare's in Canyon Country this past week. It was such a great experience! I spoke on What is your identity in Christ? How do you go about seeking out your purpose as a Christian? I hope that you enjoy it!
Setting goals for the new year is hands down one of the best things that you can do for yourself. Even better, set measurable actions that you can accomplish every week and month and make THOSE the barometer of your success!
Fatherhood is a huge topic in todays society whether we want to recognize it or not. A lot of our breakdown in the society today can be derived from a lack of examples. We need to take a deeper look at how we view fatherhood and put the pieces back together.
Blaise Pascal placed a wager when he was alive and argued that it was more logical to believe in God than to not. Can this be a valid way to come to belief?
SmallFoot the Warner Entertainment Group's latest animated movie is filled solid with a crucial element of religious underpinning, and it isnt what you would expect.
One of the most essential aspects about God that theists believe is what we would call teh "non competitiveness" of God. God is not some physical being like the gods of Greek mythology. Rather, God can necessarily invade his creation, without disrupting it!
We all have a tendency to look at God and see him through our own ideal perception sometimes. I dislike this, therefore God dislikes that. This is a dangerous proposition and one that we need to be very wary of when we talk about who and what we mean when we say God. Making God in your own image does nothing to further the conversation about God's existence.
When you look at the basic tenets of Christianity it boils down to the fact that humanity has an issue. There is something that is fundamentally missing from the human dynamism. We were created with a specific intent and purpose, but somewhere along the way we became distant to that purpose. We became disfigured. But Christianity also presents the true solution to getting us back on line.
These are trying times for the Catholic Church with all of the Scandal arising again. But I think that there are some important things that we need to think with while we look at and deal with scandal in the church. And the last thing we need to do, is run away.
God wrote the Bible, that is undisputed among Christians, but in what sense or manner did He do this? To answer this, we have to look at how we know the Scriptures are infallible and inerrant. We break the surface of that question here.
We all have idols in our lives. And they are not the greatest thing to have our attention on because they throw life way out of balance!
How does a covenant differ from a contract? What is involved in God's covenant? Covenant is the primary theme throughout the scriptures and it is vital that we look at God's dealings with humanity through that lens.
Do you live your life in an extreme way? One that stands out to others? That is exactly how you should be as that is exactly what you were made for.
Reading the bible can seem a bit far fetched for some of us. Here are 5 tips to getting more out of your reading from Scripture.
Things have been tough the past few weeks. But today, I am reminded of why I started making these videos - To Share the truth of God as it has made sense to me because it effected a positive change in my life. That is why anyone would and should share their values and beliefs!
Many Atheists claim that the "arguments" for God's existence are not actual evidence. Are they correct?
People believe in God for a whole variety of reasons. And it is not always just because they were raised to do so!
Gnosticism, in particular, manicheism, was an early church heresy that posited that everything int he created universe is bad. What does Christianity speak out aggressively against this?
Christianity REQUIRES a change of your moral life to be a believer. Who says so? Jesus.
People claim Christians are "arrogant" and "are not open to being wrong". How should we take this criticism when understanding arguments for God?
In the Prayer of St. Francis, we hear that through death, you can have life. Eternal life! How can that be?
We have been saying the Prayer of St. Francis each week in church and it is a beautiful prayer of humility and ordering ones life to the divine life. But the last part always confounded me. Through Death, we can have life. How do we make sense of that?
As a Catholic, there are things I just LOVE about protestant churches. Here are a few of them!
Alongside that though, there are also things that I am not crazy about. We will dive into those as well.
After I was convinced that there was a first cause, I was not convinced at the conclusion of the God of Christianity.
This part of my journey was an interesting one. From Atheism, I moved into Deism, before I moved into full Theism as it is classically understood.
There was a point as a Christian where I just couldn't accept all of the beliefs I was trying to figure out. Non belief seemed to be the right option.
But I couldn't stay there. There was too much that still made sense with Christianity that I couldn't sit there and believe that God didn't exist. The logic of the theistic arguments for God just made too much sense.
When people die young, I realize that there is more to my purpose in life.
Avicii, arguably one of the greatest EDM artists of the century, passed away on April 20, 2018. Tim Bergling was a 28 year old passionate musician with several hit singles. This passion and desire for the good, the beautiful and the truth in everything that he worked for is something that is innate within all of us! Life is too short, live it radically!
The Greatest Showman has a number of distinctly CHRISTIAN themes laced throughout the story.
This is one of my favorite films within the past 6 months, and it was very interesting to me all of the very distinct CHRISTIAN themes that were laced throughout the film! What do you think?
Do these bad people make the claims of Christianity wrong? We have all seen it. Bad Christians. Hypocrites. People that say YOU should do one thing, and then do another.
Find out 5 ways that you can talk well in conversations an avoid the headache of an argument!
Have you ever been in an engaging conversation online and everyone is super charitable and loving in their discussion of a hotly debated topic? Probably never right? We have all been there, when there is an emotionally charged discussion with violent language, name calling, and anger involved. But does the dialogue have to go that route?
Who was Jesus and what did he come to do on earth?
At Easter, we celebrate God breaking into the world becoming one of us. The story is bizarre as much as it is unique, but Christianity stakes the claim that this action by God was necessary for our salvation. The Death of Jesus was arguably the most controversial death ever. Listen to the story again as we go through this holy week.
A lot of people claim that tradition invalidates Catholicism from being truly Christian. However EVERY Church has tradition!
Individualism is on the rise and collectivism is steadily disappearing from our culture.
With social media not having any intention of slowing down, we have seen a very sharp drop off in the familial and community units. With a self focus on the self and a drop off in interaction with others, how do we see this plaguing society?
Christians are leaving the church in droves. How do you bring a Christian back to Church?
Everyone knows someone who has fallen away from the faith. There are often a lot of emotionally driven reasons for someone to stop believing. But it begs the question, how to we get those who have fallen away to re-engage with the faith?
Christianity is one of the smartest religions in the world. There is such genius in it! In particular the Catholic tradition.
One of the key things that Jesus brings to light with the incarnation is the Christian belief that God is a father. He is not just some distant being in the universe, but ultimately and eternally paternal in nature. This is very different from the Deistic and even some theistic views of God. Ultimately, Jesus reveals the divine fatherhood, through the divine sonship. This should change how we view God and interact with him.
Yesterday was Fat Tuesday, today we had Ash Wednesday. A lot of people misunderstand Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent. Is there any point to the season? Is there any reason for Ashes? We wanted to dive into a little bit about that today!
Relativism is a belief system that is rampant throughout our society. But can this stand up to scrutiny?
Apathy and Relativism doesn't just plague the world, but the church as well. How do we avoid it?
What was God thinking when he created the heavens and the earth? Or more importantly, you and me? What is the bigger picture of humanity? Why do we exist? What is the meaning of life?
Christians all the time say that God is love, but what does that really mean? Here is one perspective on the topic!
Is sola scriptura accurate and all that the Christian needs to identify the tenets of their faith? How do we deal with the hundreds of interpretations that come out of biblical interpretation?
Catholics have a bit of a different approach when it comes to understanding how the Sacred Scriptures fit into the faith. Sola scriptura is fundamentally wrong and flawed because it is not logical, workable, or historical.
Faith Alone is wrong because it is UNBIBLICAL and can turn you away from real Christianity!
Sola Fide, can Catholics affirm this when properly understood? As one of the prominent marks of the reformation, Sola Fide is nearly undisputed as the doctrine that came out of the reformation as the doctrine on which the reformers felt the church falls or stands. Is this accurate? How do Catholics deal with this? Learn why faith alone when understanding it the way so many Protestants understand it is wrong and why faith alone is not correct. It goes against scripture!
Sola Gratia, Grace alone was one of the 5 sola principles that came out of the reformation. Is this really a big dividing block between Catholics and Protestants? Can Catholics actually affirm this if it is properly understood?
Sola Christos was another mark of the reformation. Can Catholics actually affirm this position?
This October we commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Have things changed? Was the split necessary? Throughout this month we are diving into the 5 solas that spawned from the reformation. Today we tackle Sola Deo Gloria.
Why do some Christian denominations baptize infants and some do not? Is there a purpose behind it?
Are you a complainer or a contributor? One of the largest obstacles to growth in a church or organization is this very thing: people or would rather complain than contribute.
Is Faith opposed to reason? Believe it or not we use faith every day. Learn why faith is not opposed to reason, but why we need to see them working together.
After 500 years from the time Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the Whittenberg Door in Germany, we still see dividing lines between Catholics and Protestants. But are things really as far apart as they seem?