Shows / The Blue Collar Scholar
The Blue Collar Scholar
This podcast will cover the topics covered by the history lectures, sermons, and Bible/theology studies of Will Reitz.
Episodes
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The Doctrine of Hell (Case for Faith Series)
Hell is easily one of the most controversial and off-putting doctrines in all of Christian theology. In fact, the reality of hell is an objection that many use…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Sermon - God’s Plan Is Always Pushing Forward (12-27-2020)
This sermon was delivered right after Christmas 2020 and talks about the visit of the Magi in Matthew chapter 2. From that passage we learn that (1) God works…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Inclusivity of the Gospel (Case for Faith Series)
Yes, Christianity is an exclusive claim that can not countenance rival truth claims that deny that Jesus Christ is THE singular Savior. And yet, Christianity…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Exclusivity of the Gospel (Case for Faith Series)
All roads lead to Heaven, or so we have been told. Yet, when Jesus talks about this, He says that He is THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life (see John 14:6). So…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Your Day in Court, a short story (Case for Faith Series)
This episode is a presentation of the Gospel in short story form. The short story was written by Will Reitz, the teacher and the host of this podcast. I hope…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Historical Reliability of Scripture (Case for Faith Series)
Can we trust that the testimony of Scripture accurately describes the historical events that it reports? And are there any considerations we should apply when…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Reliability of Scripture (Case for Faith Series)
If the Bible that we hold in our hand cannot be trusted, then the entire Christian faith falls like a house of cards. But the contention of this episode of the…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Is God's Justice Just? (Case for Faith Series)
When we read the Book of Joshua, passages about wiping out entire cities and villages really bother us. And these passages should bother us. But are there any…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Evolution, part 3 (Case for Faith Series)
This episode closes our discussion on evolution on what I tried to make a conciliatory note, admitting much strength in the theory of evolution, and preaching…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Evolution, part 2 (Case for Faith Series)
In this episode, I highlight a few of the biggest weaknesses in macroevolutionary theory. *** An editor’s note on the issue of evolution. This teaching that…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Evolution, part 1 (Case for Faith Series)
The debate between "evolution" and creationism is often heated, with far more heat than light. As I begin to address the issue of evolution, I present a series…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Miracles (Case for Faith Series)
Miracles are a controversial topic because most of us have never seen one, many who claim to have seen a miracle are not telling the truth, methodological…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
A Defense of the Resurrection of Christ (Case for Faith Series)
The Resurrection of Christ is the whole ballgame. If Jesus be not raised, then Christianity is false, and we should devote none of our time to Christ's church…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The Problem of Evil, part 3 (Case for Faith series)
This episode of the podcast concludes our analysis of the Problem of Evil, which is the most prevalent objection to Christian faith. (This lesson was recorded…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The Problem of Evil, part 2 (Case for Faith series)
This episode digs into the problem that any human being has regarding not having the proper perspective to analyze the Problem of Evil. Like a baby receiving a…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The Problem of Evil, part 1 (Case for Faith series)
This episode launches a new Sunday School series based on the Lee Strobel book "The Case for Faith." In this episode, we introduce the Problem of Evil and…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The 1960s, Episode 7: Religious History of the 1960s
The 1960s were a tumultuous decade in many respects, including the history of religion. In this episode, we will talk about the Jesus People movement with in…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The 1960s, Episode 6: The Anti-War Movement
There have been a few times in American history when we felt particularly polarized. Right now kinda feels like such a time, but we take the Bronze. The actual…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The 1960s, Episode 5: The Vietnam War
You all know what the Vietnam War is. So I want to use this summary/preview to give some trigger warnings: (1) At one point in the podcast, I refer to American…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The 1960s, Episode 4: The First Indochina War
This episode and the next episode will cover the war in Vietnam, which is easily the most defining event of the 1960s. The trauma of the war in Vietnam will…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The 1960s, Episode 3: The Assassination of JFK
As I have argued before, November 22nd, 1963, is the day that "the Sixties" as a culturally significant decade began. Before the assassination of President…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The 1960s, Episode 2: John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the first major protagonist of the 1960s, and his tragic death set the tone for one of America's most tumultuous decades. This…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The 1960s, Episode 1: The Cold War
The Spring 2025 class is about the tumultuous decade of the 1960s. In order to understand most of the major events and themes of the 1960s, it is necessary to…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Jesus' Philosophy of Race and Racism
In the final episode of our not-consistently-recorded Sunday School series on the philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, we engage Jesus' teaching, actions, and…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Jesus' Philosophy of Human Sexuality
There are many issues of human sexuality, and Jesus does not address all of them. But he does directly address some issues, such as marriage, divorce, sexual…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Jesus' Philosophy of Suffering
Suffering is terrible, and no one should seek it out. But it happens. It happens to all of us. And Jesus promises us that it will happen to us. This Sunday…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Jesus' Philosophy of Free Will
This Sunday School lesson examines the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels to determine His philosophy of human free will. This Sunday School lesson was recorded…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Jesus' Philosophy of Reality
Christians ought to treat Jesus Christ not only as God the Son, but also as our greatest teacher and philosopher. This Sunday School series delves into Jesus'…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Sermon (2/13/2022) - Jesus Christ, the Great Philosopher
Evangelicals are wonderful when it comes to believing in Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The death, burial, and…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 15: Conclusion
This simple, quick lecture brings our Fall 2024 class on the Book of Revelation to a close.
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 14: Heaven
In this episode, when I am not chasing bunny trails (which is often), we go deep into the Biblical concept of Heaven. We look at both Old Testament and New…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 13: The Other Chapters of Revelation
The Book of Revelation makes a poor chronology. It does some jumping about. And several chapters are enigmatic, far more enigmatic than the book as a whole…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 12: Judgments of God, part 2
This episode picks up our survey of the Judgments of God in the Book of Revelation. There are 21 judgments, which come in three sets of seven: 7 Seals, 7…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 11: Judgments of God, part 1
As the Fall 2024 Revelation class continues, we are proceeding using the interpretation of Revelation as primarily a futurist document. There definitely are…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 10: The Dragon
This episode digs into the Scriptural data for Satan a.k.a. the devil a.k.a. Beelzebub a.k.a. the ancient serpent a.k.a. the Dragon of the Book of Revelation…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 9: The Antichrist
Besides the Devil himself, there is no scarier character in the Bible than the person that the Book of Revelation calls the Beast, and 2nd Thessalonians calls…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 8: The Olivet Discourse & The Great Tribulation
This is a combination of 2 lectures into one. First, we dig into the Olivet Discourse found in Matthew 24-25 (see also Mark 13 & Luke 21). In this, one of the…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 7: The Rapture
Well, any discussion of the End Times requires one to cover the Rapture, which is the least-agreed-upon topic in all of Christian theology. In this episode, we…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 6: The Four Schools of Eschatology
In this episode, I give ample air time to the other Schools of Thought when it comes to Christian Eschatology. I, as the professor, freely admit that I am a…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 5: Introduction to Eschatology
This episode opens up the second section of our Revelation class, as we take a hard turn into eschatology, which is the study of the end times. In this…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 4: The Roman World of John
Well, I hope you like history podcasts, because this episode is a deep dive into the history of ancient Rome, from its legendary beginnings to the reigns of…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 3: Revelation as an Epistle to the 1st Century Church
Our class collectively decided to do a half class this night, as we are 95% KC Chiefs fans and wanted to get home to watch them beat the Baltimore Ravens…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Review of The Graduate (1967)
As part of the class I am taking ("Modern America Since 1968") for the History Master's Degree program at Pittsburg State University, I reviewed the classic…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 2: The Books of the Prophets
When John wrote the Book of Revelation, it was obvious that he was heavily influenced by large swaths of the Old Testament. There are obvious parallels between…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Revelation, Episode 1: Introduction
Greetings! It is time for our Fall 2024 class: The Book of Revelation! We are glad to have you join us in this first lecture of the Fall, where we are…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 28: The Gospel
When our church went into lockdown in early March 2020, we were all expecting the Quarantine to last a few weeks. Well, in the early Fall, we finally started…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 27: The Ten Commandments as a Mirror to Show the Need for Salvation
The Bible makes it clear that "all have sinned & fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) The Ten Commandments are a great mirror to show the reader…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 26: Jesus Christ as the Apologetics Closing Argument
The previous three episodes built a brief apologetic case for the existence of God. Now comes the closing argument, where we present the evidence for Jesus…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 25: The Moral Argument for the Existence of God
This episode makes the positive case that the existence of objective moral values and duties proves that there is a God. This episode also addresses the…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 24: The Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God
This episode analyzes the Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God. Or, rather, the cosmological arguments, plural. There is the Kalam, the Leibnizian…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 23: Apologetics
Apologetics has nothing to do with apologizing, even though "apologetics" and "apology" share similar etymology. Rather, apologetics is the intellectual…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 22: God's Righteous Judgement (Sermon, 8/2/2020)
Most people want to imagine God as a Mr. Rogers-type, friendly deity. And as we all learned in Vacation Bible School, Jesus is your friend. However, He is also…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 21: The Marriage Series Conclusion
Our Sunday School series on marriage comes to an end with several topics that don't warrant their whole lesson: homosexuality, polygamy, and premarital sex…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 20: Unequally Yoked
Diversity is a wonderful thing. But not every incarnation of diversity is inherently good. In the last episode, we saw that interracial marriage is not only…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 19: Interracial Marriage
My wonderful wife and I are part of an interracial marriage. I am proud of that fact. But does the Bible support the institution of interracial marriage? Many…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 18: The Ethics of Divorce & Remarriage
This episode expands on the previous episode and explores what the Bible says about divorce and remarriage.
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 17: Divorce
Divorce is not ideal. It can even be described as an evil. That does NOT mean that those who have been touched by divorce are evil, defiled, unredeemable…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 16: Marriage Series Introduction
This episode starts a new Sunday School series about marriage. This series was done via Facebook Live in the summer of 2020 while we were in lockdown.
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 15: End Times Series Finale
This episode concludes our Sunday School series on the controversial topic of the End Times. This lesson talks about the Millennial Kingdom, Judgment Day, and…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Church-in-Quarantine, Episode 14: The Final Events of the End Times
In this episode, we talk about some of the chapters of Revelation that appear to be out of chronological order. Then we look at the 3rd set of 7 judgments…