First, Petey

About First, Petey

These episodes are drawn from a growing collection of essays I've written on Christian apologetics. taking up questions at the intersection of Scripture, Church history, and theology, with the aim of bringing clarity where there is confusion, depth where there is surface-level understanding, and posing thought provoking questions to challenge pre-concieved notions in pursuit of the truth. The heart of this project is not simply argument for argument’s sake, but a genuine search for truth: truth about God, about the Church He founded, and about how faith speaks into the real world we live in. Some episodes will take on long-standing theological debates, others may address modern challenges or misconceptions, and still others will look at the wisdom of the early Church Fathers and the Saints throughout history, our brothers and sisters in Christ whose voices still guide us today. This is, in a sense, a public journey of faith, an invitation to think carefully, to wrestle honestly, and to seek truth with humility. Faith is not a straight line, nor is it free from questions, struggles, or moments of uncertainty. To be a Christian is to stand in the tension between what we already believe and what we are still learning, between the truths we confess and the doubts that quietly press in. This project is not about pretending those struggles don’t exist, but about bringing them into the light where they can be faced with honesty and courage. My hope is that by listening you will come to see more deeply, not just into arguments or ideas, but into the truth of the faith that has sustained generations before us. The goal is not to erase every uncertainty, but to let even our questions become stepping stones that lead us closer to Christ Himself. Because at the end of every honest search, we find not simply an idea or a system, but a Person, the One who is the answer, who has revealed Himself fully in Christ and continues to make Himself known through His Church.

Publisher

Daniel J. Abbott

Category

religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

20 Sept 2025

Latest episode

2 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

42 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   2 Oct 2026

   #42 Intro to "Subjective Faith: Private Judgment and the Collapse of Protestant Authority"

   Every Protestant denomination claims to follow the Bible. Calvinists, Arminians, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Anglicans, and non-denominational Christians all appeal to Scripture... yet... they often arrive at mutually exclusive conclusions... So... who is right? And more importantly: by what authority does anyone decide? This episode introduces Subjective Faith: Private Judgment and the Collapse of Protestant Authority, a series examining whether Protestantism can escape the problem of private judgment. If every visible authority remains subject to the individual’s interpretation of Scripture, then is the Bible truly functioning as the final authority... or is the individual interpreter? Can Protestantism provide a final, binding, objective mechanism for resolving doctrinal disputes? Or does every appeal eventually return to “the Bible as I understand it”? This series argues in three parts that Protestantism is intrinsically, fundamentally, and inescapably subjective.

2. 

   31 Jul 2026

   #41 Does Baptism Save You? 1 Peter 3:21

   Does baptism actually save? In 1 Peter 3:21, the apostle Peter says plainly: “Baptism… now saves you.” But across (modern) Christianity, that verse is interpreted in radically different ways. In this episode, we put the three major views of baptism to the test: the historic sacramental view, the covenantal means-of-grace view, and the symbolic ordinance view. Which one best fits the text? Which one requires the least rewriting? And how did the early Church understand baptism before the Reformation? We also explore Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, Titus 3:5, John 3:5, the thief on the cross, and the typology of Noah’s ark.

3. 

   19 Jun 2026

   #40 The True Church, According to Scripture, History, and Reason (Complete Series)

   The True Church, According to Scripture, History, and Reason (Complete Series) brings together the full argument from Episode 30 through Parts 1–9 into one six-hour deep dive on one of the most important questions in Christianity: What is the Church that Jesus Christ actually founded? The series begins with the question of why “I just follow Jesus” is not enough by itself. If Jesus founded a Church, gave it authority, commissioned apostles, preserved doctrine through teaching, and prayed that His followers would be visibly one, then Christianity cannot be reduced to a purely individual relationship with Christ detached from the Church He established. From there, the series builds step by step. First, we examine the true Church according to Scripture, looking at the biblical marks and rubrics that define what Christ’s Church is supposed to be: apostolic, visible, authoritative, united, sacramental, missionary, and enduring. Then we take those same biblical categories and test them according to reason, asking which model of Christianity can actually sustain unity, doctrine, authority, and continuity without collapsing into private interpretation or denominational fragmentation. Next, we turn to history, especially the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament, including the Didache, First Clement, and the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, to ask whether the earliest post-apostolic Church looks more like modern Protestantism, restorationism, or Catholic/Orthodox Christianity. The series then addresses Great Apostasy claims and restorationist arguments, asking whether it is Scripturally/Historically/Logically plausible that the Church Christ founded disappeared, defected, or became essentially corrupt for centuries before being restored much later. From there, the focus narrows to one of the most contested issues in Christian apologetics: the papacy. We examine the papacy according to logic, Scripture, and history, asking whether Peter is singled out in a structurally meaningful way, whether he is associated with symbols of governing authority, whether he functions as a principle of unity in moments of dispute, and whether his commission appears to be personal only or office-shaped. Across the full series, we explore topics like apostolic succession, Church authority, sola scriptura, visible unity, the early Church Fathers, the Great Apostasy theory, restorationism, the role of Peter, Matthew 16, the keys of the kingdom, the seat of authority, and the historical development of the early Church. (If the 6 hour runtime didn't give it away) This is not a quick soundbite or a surface-level denominational comparison. It is a long-form argument tracing the question from Scripture, to reason, to early Christian history, to the claims of Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism, and restorationist movements. The central question is: If Jesus founded one Church, gave it authority, and promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against it, where is that Church today?

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

4.8 / 5

9 ratings

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