Discipleship School

“Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.” Popes, reformers, Anabaptists and revivalists have all claimed this sentence. The eight historic interpretations with their sources, the four Greek words argued over since 1939, Leviticus 19:17 and the Qumran reproof rule — and what Matthew’s own congregation would have heard.

Dallas Willard on “the Great Omission”: why the church makes forgiven converts while omitting the making of disciples — the “vampire Christian,” the cost of non-discipleship, and the concrete steps of formation (Vision, Intention, Means) by which grace transforms the whole person.

A 47-chapter pilgrimage through George MacDonald's Lilith — reading every chapter through four lenses (Scripture, scientific, philosophical, metaphysical), tested by the laws of classical logic from a fixed point of reference, with the author and audience of every text.

A 20-minute lesson taking the anatomy of a learning machine — guess, error, gradient, loss, attention, scale — and mapping every piece onto Scripture and the new birth of the Spirit. Nicodemus in the dark, why the loop cannot save itself, and the new heart God alone can give (John 3, Ezekiel 36, Psalm 51). Companion to the sermon Born From Above.

The theological research behind the sermon Spiritual Formation of our Third World Souls — John Barclay's Paul and the Gift on forgiveness in the ancient world, Dallas Willard's Renovation of the Heart, Moreland & Craig on the reality of the soul and Mark 13:32, with the full Greek + ESV scripture thread.

The Bible names the enemy of its final battle with a name from Ezekiel — "Gog and Magog" (Rev 20:7–10). From the exiles by the Chebar canal to the seven churches of Asia: the supernatural north, the "prince of Rosh" mistake, the LXX's eschatological Gog, and whether Gog is the Antichrist — Kline's "antichrist syndrome" tested against the timeline.

Luke times a storm with a single word — "the Fast" (Acts 27:9). Follow that hyperlink into the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16; 23; Numbers 29) through Author, Audience, and Original Context: the two goats, the sacred-space "reset," and the mercy seat (hilastērion) that becomes a Person in Romans 3:25. Read in the Septuagint (LXX) and the ESV.

A Galatians study on faith, transformation, and the Fruit of the Spirit — tracing the Gospel seed from planting through harvest.

A study of the 10th book of The Twelve Minor Prophets — four dated oracles in 520 B.C.E. calling a discouraged remnant to rebuild the temple and trust the Kingdom that cannot be shaken.

A discipleship class on what the soul is, why hell is real, and how God's middle knowledge protects — not destroys — our free choice to love. Author & audience view on Gehenna and the descent of Christ.

A biblical case for the realities that Nobel-laureate physicist Richard Feynman observed in his sixty years of looking at the natural world — from the atomic hypothesis (Heb 1:3, Col 1:17) to Cargo Cult Science (1 Thess 5:21) to Ode to a Flower (Ps 19, Matt 6:28). Romans 1:20 in laboratory dress.

A 12-week study engaging Dennis Zetting's A Quantum Case For God, pairing each finding of modern quantum and string physics (light/omnipresence, wave-particle duality, entanglement, vibrating strings, extra dimensions, time) with the biblical theology of God speaking creation into existence — Genesis 1, Psalm 33:6, John 1:1–3, Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:17.

Why you exist. What it means to be made in God's image. Why the Bible calls God a Father and what He has been after from the very beginning — a family. Tuesdays at 6 pm starting June 2.

A twelve-lesson arc tracing the question of authorized mediation from Jeroboam's calves at Dan and Bethel through Malachi, the silent years, John the Baptist, Jesus the true Mediator, Pentecost, Hebrews, and the Lamb on the throne. Septuagint (LXX) and ESV side-by-side with Hebrew and Greek word studies.

Begin in the Book of Hebrews and follow the thread back through Psalm 110 and Genesis 14 — then out through the New Testament and Second Temple Jewish literature (11QMelchizedek, 2 Enoch, the Genesis Apocryphon, Philo, Josephus, the rabbis) — to Jesus, 'a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.'

Read Acts as a reclamation of the nations divided at Babel (Deut 32; Ps 82). Follow Paul city by city — then settle at Philippi, where he casts out a python spirit and refuses to leave jail until the magistrates 'come themselves,' read through the eyes of its Author (Luke) and first Audience.

Follow the evidence the way a historian would — through the earliest creeds, the writings of Romans and Jews who were not believers, the spade of the archaeologist, and the testimony of skeptics who changed their minds. Engaging Gary Habermas's minimal-facts method, in Septuagint (LXX) and ESV.

Tracing the cup motif from Psalm 75 through Jeremiah, Isaiah, Gethsemane, and Revelation — a juridical thread of divine judgment assumed by Christ.

A word study revealing that pesach means God hovering in protective love — not passing by, but standing guard at the threshold of His people.

Examining Romans 5:12, inherited mortality vs. inherited guilt, and the implications for Jesus' humanity and the fate of innocents.

Full commentary on Romans 16 as Paul's theological portrait of God's family — multiethnic, intergenerational, barrier-breaking.

What God actually requires of His people when they fast — moving from empty religious performance to justice, mercy, and neighbor-love.

A verse-by-verse study of Isaiah 58 paired with Matthew 5–7. Includes Hebrew word studies, Matthew parallels, and Christological conclusion.

Tracing the Hebrew word itsavon from Eden's curse through Joseph's story — how God reverses broken ground, grieving wombs, and fractured families.

A biblical-theological study tracing the Hebrew word itsavon through Genesis. Septuagint analysis, ANE context, Hebrew word studies, and typological reading.

Author & audience view through Dallas Willard's Scandal of the Kingdom — why the soul, not the barn, is the treasure Jesus cares about.

Author & audience view through Dallas Willard's Scandal of the Kingdom — kairos vs. chronos and ten practical ways to buy back our days.

What the Founders actually believed about Jesus, why his name is absent from the Bill of Rights, what Deism is, and how Manifest Destiny turned providence into policy.

Where the 'Rapture' doctrine came from (Darby, 1830), what the early church taught, and a positive biblical theology of Christ's return, the resurrection of the body, and the new creation. Featuring Matthew Halsted, The End of the World as We Know It (IVP, 2023).

How believers should practice Church. Finney and the altar call, the pulpit's history, the Lord's Table's recovery, the megachurch drift — and Moreland's practical blueprint for a War College for the King.

A Gospel harmony walking through the final week of Jesus' earthly ministry — from the Triumphal Entry through the Ascension.

A biblical-theological study connecting the Tree of Life, Jesus as the True Vine, and spiritual photosynthesis — how God's people store His Word and release life-giving love.