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The Blue Collar Scholar

Will Reitz

This podcast will cover the topics covered by the history lectures, sermons, and Bible/theology studies of Will Reitz.

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51 episodes
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#411
Yesterday · 29 min
Sermon: A Halloween Sermon
Happy Halloween! Christians may disagree about whether to celebrate Halloween, and how to do so. The celebration of holidays seems to fall into a "freedom of the believer" issue. But Christians should still be on guard against the Devil, not only on Halloween, but always. This episode wrestles with these arguments, and ultimately encourages us to keep our eyes fixed on God.
#410
Yesterday · 46 min
History in My Lifetime, episode 10: End-of-the-World Hysteria
As Halloween approaches, I figured that End-of-the-World predictions might be an appropriate topic for the History in My Lifetime class. Whether it was Y2K, the end of the Mayan long-form calendar in 2012, or any of the dozens of religious teachers and groups predicting dates for the end of the world, ... we are still here. ... Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24:36 that "no one knows that day or hour," but way too many of His followers think they know better than He does and played the game of pred
#409
Thursday · 1 hr 58 min
New Testament, episode 11: The Books of John
The books of the New Testament that are believed the be the newest are also the 5 books that are traditionally believed to be written by the Apostle John. It goes without saying that most secular scholars (and even some Christian scholars) dispute Johannine authorship of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, & Revelation. However, there are some arguments for genuine Johannine authorship of each book. In this episode we dig into each of these books, looking at authorship, structure, genre analysis, and
#408
October 25 · 22 min
Sermon: A Humble Spirit of Teachability & Self-Evaluation
The New Testament tells us 2 facts that are in tension with one another: (1) If you give your heart to Jesus Christ, you are saved (see Romans 10:9). And (2) there is such a thing as false salvation (see Matthew 7:21-23). So what missing ingredient separates the true Christian from the wayward or the false Christian? I contend that it is a humble spirit of teachability & self-evaluation. This sermon analyzes each of those key terms: (1) humility/humble, (2) teachability, & (3) self-evaluation.
#407
October 25 · 59 min
History in My Lifetime, episode 9: Manmade Disasters
From Chernobyl to Bhopal to East Palestine (Ohio) to the Port of Beirut explosion, manmade disasters have been a frequent driver of the news cycle, and have shaped our memory of history that we have lived through.
#406
October 22 · 1 hr 54 min
New Testament, episode 10: Hebrews, 1st & 2nd Peter, and Jude
This episode continues in our journey through the New Testament into the "Catholic Epistles." (Note: Catholic in this context means "universal.") These books also go by the name "General Epistles," as these non-Pauline books were typically distributed widely, instead of going to an individual or to a single church. James is a Catholic Epistle, but we discussed it already because it was a very early epistle. 1st, 2nd, & 3rd John, likewise, are Catholic Epistles, but we will discuss them next week
#405
October 19 · 46 min
Sermon: A Journey with Jonah (The Book of Jonah)
Inspired by my recent sermons that covered the entire books of 2nd John & 3rd John, I thought I'd try my hand at covering a whole book that is a little bit bigger. So this sermon flows more like a Bible study, analyzing the text of the Book of Jonah in order. Sometimes an individual verse is analyzed, sometimes it is a set of verses, but the analysis goes in order, covering the text of the book from start to finish. In the short Book of Jonah we see an imperfect and disobedient prophet who repen
#404
October 17 · 1 hr 7 min
History in My Lifetime, episode 8: Natural Disasters
This episode briefly discusses some of the biggest and most disastrous earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, hurricanes (typhoons/cyclones), floods, tornadoes, and wildfires of the last 80 years.
#403
October 15 · 1 hr 55 min
New Testament, episode 9 - The Final Letters of Paul: The Prison Epistles and the Pastoral Epistles
As the Book of Acts draws to a close, the Apostle Paul is under house arrest awaiting trial before Caesar. It is during this time that he writes "the Prison Epistles," which are Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, & Philippians. (Some scholars like N.T. Wright advance the idea that these books were written during an otherwise undocumented imprisonment in Ephesus about a decade earlier.) After the close of Acts, Paul apparently is released, and he returns to ministry. It is during this time that he
#402
October 12 · 1 hr 51 min
New Testament, episode 8: Luke & Acts
The New Testament class is arranged so that we examine each book of the New Testament more-or-less in the order that they were written. Having looked at James, the early epistles or Paul, Mark, & Matthew, we are ready to look at Luke & Acts. Chronologically, it is likely that these books were written while Paul was in house arrest in Rome in Acts 28. This episode looks into the author Luke, the recipient of these books (Theophilus), and the unique qualities of the books known as the Gospel Accor
#401
October 11 · 41 min
Sermon: Forgiveness
Jesus makes it clear Matthew 18:21-35 that we all need to forgive others. But we are not naturally forgiving people. Furthermore, forgiveness - by definition - only goes to those who don't deserve it. But there are 6 reasons to forgive: (1) Forgiveness frees you from burden. (2) Your bitterness will not make the situation better. (3) Unforgiveness breeds conflict. (4) Forgiveness may not be justice, but it is mercy. (5) We forgive to be more like Christ. And (6) vengeance is the Lord's.
#400
October 10 · 41 min
History in My Lifetime, episode 7: Major Geopolitical Shifts
For our *** 400th EPISODE *** we have the next installment of our "History in My Lifetime" class lectures. In this episode we briefly go over the major geopolitical shifts that have occurred since the close of World War II.
#399
October 3 · 30 min
Sermon: How To Be the Body of Christ (3rd John)
The Summer 2026 Sermon Series officially comes to an end with this sermon. The First John series became a 1st through 3rd John series because 2nd & 3rd John are so short, and it felt right to cover them, too, so as to be thorough. From the tiny letter of Third John, we learn that to be the Body of Christ, we must: (1) pray for & rejoice with our brothers & sisters in Christ, (2) support missionaries, (3) not be selfish & destructive to the church family, (4) not imitate evil, but imitate good, &
#398
October 2 · 1 hr 47 min
New Testament, episode 7: Mark & Matthew
Each of the four Gospel accounts of Jesus Christ tell a slightly different story. Each tells a coherent narrative that is compatible with the other Gospels, but each author has chosen certain events and details while leaving out others. The "Synoptic Gospels" (Matthew, Mark, & Luke) share a very similar chronology with many of the same details in mostly the same order. By analyzing the differences between the Gospels, it becomes clear that each author is trying to tell a different story about Je
#397
September 29 · 34 min
Sermon: Love vs. Lies (2nd John)
Second John is the shortest book in the Bible. This sermon breaks down the entire book into the following points: (1) God is the Source of grace, mercy, peace, truth, & love. (2) We should love our brothers & sisters, and rejoice in their success. (3) We exhibit love by obeying God's commands. (4) Do not give in to lies. (5) Do not support false teachers in any way.
#396
September 29 · 1 hr 19 min
History in My Lifetime, episode 6 - Generations: Boomers, Gen X, & Millennials
History in My Lifetime is a discussion class. It has become clear to me that much of what drives our discussion is driven by the decades in which we grew up. A person who was a teenager in the early '60s is going to be a very different person from someone who was a teenager in the late '90s. So in this episode we take a look at each decade from the 1950s to the 2020s. Our knowledge, recollection, and experience of each decade is contingent on whether a person is from the Greatest Generation, the
#395
September 25 · 1 hr 30 min
New Testament, episode 6: Romans
Romans is, perhaps, the most important book in the Bible, and the greatest piece of theology writing ever. In this episode we dig into the soteriology (the study of salvation) in Romans. That makes this the most sermon-like of my academic lectures.
#394
September 21 · 51 min
History in My Lifetime, episode 5: SPACE!
There have been several major historical events regarding human exploration of space in living memory. In fact, just about the entire history of humanity in space has happened in lifetimes of people still alive today. In this episode we reminisce about the triumphant events and the tragedies directly related to space, space exploration, and commercial use of space.
#393
September 20 · 35 min
Sermon: Closing Thoughts from First John (1 John 5:13-21)
Our summer sermon series has been going on since the end of May. We have been going through the book of First John, listening to the Apostle John's message to the followers of Jesus Christ in his day. Those messages still very much apply to Jesus' followers today, especially John constant refrain that fellow believers should love one another. Though the series will continue for 2 more weeks — 2nd & 3rd John are so short that we will cover each over the next two weeks — we complete our journey th
#392
September 19 · 1 hr 52 min
New Testament, episode 5: The Earliest Epistles
The New Testament series continues as we begin to examine the texts themselves. The format of this class is to read the texts in the order that they were most likely written. Therefore, before we get to the Gospels, we will look at James, Galatians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and 1 & 2 Corinthians.

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