Theophilus Podcast

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

If Jesus obeyed the Father, does that mean the Son has always been subordinate to the Father?

In this teaching, we examine the doctrine of eternal Sonship and the modern debate surrounding Eternal Functional Subordination, Eternal Subordination of the Son, and Eternal Relations of Authority and Submission.

Historic Nicene Christianity confessed Jesus Christ as “begotten, not made” and homoousios with the Father, meaning that the Son eternally and completely shares the one divine essence. Eternal generation therefore describes the Son's relation of o...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

If the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are genuinely distinct, does that mean God is a society of three divine individuals?

In this teaching, we examine one of the most important distinctions in classical Trinitarian theology: the difference between the ontological Trinity and the economic Trinity.

Ontology concerns who God eternally is in Himself. Economy concerns how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit reveal themselves and act within creation and redemption.

Scripture reveals the Father sending the Son, the...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Is the Trinity a contradiction?

In this teaching, we examine one of the most common challenges to historic Christianity: how can Christians confess one God while also affirming the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as distinct and fully divine?

The doctrine of the Trinity does not claim that one God is three gods or that one person is three persons. It affirms one divine essence eternally existing in three distinct persons. The question, then, is whether that distinction is logically coherent...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Is a Triune God Foreign to the Hebrew Bible?

Is the Trinity a later Christian invention, or does Jewish Scripture already contain categories that make a triune understanding of God possible?

In this teaching, we examine the Hebrew Bible and Jewish interpretive traditions to ask whether the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is fundamentally foreign to Jewish monotheism.

We begin with the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4 and an important distinction. Scripture clearly teaches that there is one God, but the...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

How can the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each be fully God without Christians believing in three gods?

In this teaching, we explore what Christians mean when they confess one God in three persons, distinguishing between the unity of the divine essence and the genuine personal identities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We begin with the biblical foundations of that confession and explain the theological vocabulary of essence, nature, and person. God’s unity does not mean three separate di...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Did the early Church invent the Trinity at the Council of Nicaea?

In this teaching, we trace the historical development of Trinitarian doctrine from its biblical foundations through the early Church Fathers and the major councils of Nicaea in AD 325 and Constantinople in AD 381.

Christianity emerged from Jewish monotheism, yet the earliest Christians also confessed Jesus as divine and spoke of the Holy Spirit in ways that could not easily be reduced to an impersonal power. The challenge was not simply...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

How did we get the Bible, and who decided which books belonged in it?

In this teaching, we examine the historical development of the biblical canon and the dating of the New Testament writings.

Also available through YouTube Music as an episode of Theophilus Podcast.

The Bible did not appear as a completed book, and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were not created by a fourth-century church council. They emerged within the apostolic age as Gospels, Letters...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Why do ancient translations matter, and what can they tell us about the Bible we read today?

In this teaching, we examine the Septuagint, Masoretic Text, Dead Sea Scrolls, and what ancient textual witnesses reveal about the Old Testament.

Also available through YouTube Music as an episode of Theophilus Podcast.

The Septuagint is the ancient Greek collection of translations of the Jewish Scriptures. Produced within the Greek speaking Jewish world, it became part of the scriptural environment inherited by...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

What should Christians do when a biblical passage appears scientifically impossible, morally troubling, or historically strange?

In this teaching, we examine how historical, cultural, literary, theological, and scientific context can help us approach some of Scripture's most difficult passages without dismissing the Bible or forcing the text into assumptions it was never intended to carry.

We begin with Genesis and the questions surrounding Noah's flood, extraordinary human lifespans, ancient numerical patterns, and the mysterious appearance of the Nephilim both before and...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

How should Christians actually read the Bible?

In this teaching, we examine biblical interpretation, historical and cultural context, the limits of a purely plain reading, and the relationship between Sola Scriptura, Prima Scriptura, and the use of sources outside the biblical text.

We begin with a simple but important distinction: the Bible was written for us, but it was not originally written to us. The biblical authors wrote within real historical settings, using languages, customs, idioms, literary forms, and cultural assumptions...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

What happens to Christian faith when something you believe turns out to be wrong?

In this teaching, we explore how Christian faith can survive difficult questions, intellectual challenges, and growth without losing its foundation.

Using the image of a living tree, we examine different levels within Christian belief. The roots represent God as the ultimate ground of reality. The trunk represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ at the center of the apostolic proclamation. Major branches represent historic doctrines defining Christian orthodoxy...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Has the Church replaced Israel?

In this teaching, we examine the relationship between Israel and the Church, the doctrine commonly called supersessionism or replacement theology, and the biblical question of whether God's covenant promises to Israel remain significant after the coming of Christ.

We begin with the Abrahamic covenant and God's promise that through Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed. From there, we examine Israel's covenantal role, the prophetic expectation of restoration, the ministry of Jesus, and...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

What happens when we die, what is the final destiny of the wicked, and when will believers be gathered to Christ?

In this teaching, we examine death, judgment, and eschatology as parts of one connected biblical story, including the intermediate state, resurrection, final punishment, Christ’s return, and the gathering of the elect.

We begin by asking whether the dead remain conscious or experience what is commonly called soul sleep. The biblical descriptions of Sheol, Samuel’s appearance to Saul, the rich...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

In this teaching, we explore salvation, sanctification, perseverance, apostasy, and what Scripture means when it speaks about salvation as something already received, presently experienced, and ultimately completed in resurrection.

Also available through YouTube Music as an episode of Theophilus Podcast.

We begin by distinguishing justification, sanctification, and glorification. Justification concerns our standing before God through the finished work of Christ. Sanctification concerns our continuing conformity to Christ. Glorification is the completion of God's saving work when believers are raised to embodied...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

What makes a human being a person?

In this teaching, we explore the biblical doctrine of the image of God, the major Christian models of human nature, and the relationship between spirit, soul, body, consciousness, and personhood.

Also available through YouTube Music as an episode of Theophilus Podcast.

We begin in Genesis with the imago Dei, examining humanity as both created in God's image and called to represent Him within creation. From there, we compare trichotomy, dichotomy, and naturalism...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Welcome to the teaching series of D. Gene Williams Jr., PhD, and Defend the Word Ministries.

In this introductory video, I explain the approach behind the research and teaching you will find on this channel. We will explore theology, biblical interpretation, apologetics, philosophy, science, church history, and the difficult questions that often emerge when these disciplines intersect.

Also available through YouTube Music as an episode of Theophilus Podcast.

My goal is not to defend a position simply because it...

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

Why do I use an AI digital twin to present my teaching?

In this short video, I explain how a digital representation of my appearance and voice helps bring years of research, writing, and ministry to people who may prefer listening to reading a lengthy academic paper.

Also available through YouTube Music as an episode of Theophilus Podcast.

These teachings draw from my own papers and present arguments and conclusions I personally hold. I remain responsible for what is...