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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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44 episodes
Avg 56 min
English

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#404
Yesterday · 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
Thursday · 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
Monday · 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.
#391
September 16 · 58 min
History in My Lifetime, episode 4: Terrorist Attacks
For most of us, 9/11 is the biggest single-day historical event we have ever witnessed. So much changed after that terrible day. But 9/11 was hardly the only act of terrorism that has happened in our time. In this episode we survey the major terrorist attacks from Munich to October 7th.
#390
September 15 · 1 hr 43 min
New Testament, episode 4: The Biography of Jesus of Nazareth
The episode 5 lecture in the New Testament class will examine the actual text of the New Testament. Before we do that, let us back up and see an overview of the life of the New Testament's central figure: Jesus of Nazareth. This episode examines Jesus as a religious figure, but also as an actual person in history who lived in a particular place and at a particular time.
#389
September 14 · 31 min
Sermon: Assurance of Salvation (1 John 5:6-13)
All of First John comes to a head in chapter 5, verse 13, when the Apostle tells us that he wrote all of the book so that we can KNOW that we have eternal life. It was not God's intention for us to be on pins & needles, never quite sure whether we've done enough to earn His favor. Rather, once we are adopted into His family, then we are part of His family, period.
#388
September 13 · 45 min
Sermon: How To Handle Strange & Difficult Bible Verses (1 John 5:7-8 & 16-17)
The 5th chapter of John has a couple of passages that are a challenge for Bible translators. In one passage, the Greek text seems clear, but a short clause seems to have been added by a Medieval commentator (the "Johannine Comma" of 1 John 5:7-8) and translators have to decide whether to keep in a passage that is very likely not written by John, but if they translators leave the passage out, it will be controversial. Leaving out the Johannine will lead to accusations of deleting the Trinity, but
#387
September 8 · 1 hr 14 min
History in My Lifetime, episode 3 - American Wars: Vietnam to Iran
This episode is designed to jog your memory and trigger discussions regarding all of the American wars of the last 70 years. Special emphasis is given to the Vietnam War. It was such a drawn-out, bloody, and exhausting conflict. It was sold as part of a great struggle of the democratic West against communism. However, from the very beginning, the War in Vietnam felt like an anti-colonial struggle by the Vietnamese people against their colonizers, especially when they were facing the French in th
#386
September 7 · 1 hr 46 min
New Testament, episode 3 - Context of the New Testament: Alexander the Great, the Apocrypha, & Rome
The final lecture on the context of the New Testament starts with a review of the major Near East empires leading up to Alexander the Great. We then look at Alexander's conquests to understand how Greek culture & the Greek language became so ubiquitous during the times of the New Testament. We see some of the collision of Greek & Jewish culture in the books of Maccabees in the Apocrypha (a.k.a. the Deuterocanonical books). Finally, we briefly examine the history of Rome.
#385
August 31 · 1 hr 53 min
New Testament, episode 2 - Context of the New Testament: The Old Testament
In the introductory episode of this series, we discussed the context of the New Testament within the history of recorded history and written language. In this episode we keep building upon our understanding of the context of the New Testament by taking a long look at the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the primary and most important context for the New Testament. By looking at the Old Testament, we see the Jewish character of the New Testament, as Jesus and His Apostles were, in fact, Jewish

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