Restitutio

Many Bible-believing churches are ridged keepers of tradition. They have a statement of faith, a historic confession, or old creeds that determine what people should and should not believe. There’s very little space for people to genuinely ask questions, investigate competing doctrines, and honestly change their minds over time.

Today I’m speaking with Matt Lovegrove of New Castle, New South Wales. If you listened to the interview from last week with Paul Robson, he talked about Matt a bit, since he was the one that introduced Paul to a biblical unitarian perspective.

Matt is a hardwired restorationist. You’re going to hear about his journey from one exploration to another. Sadly, it seems like each time he shed some falsehood and gained more truth, he ran afoul of church leadership.

I think this episode is going to break your heart and make you angry–not at any one villain in Matt’s story, but at the system that continually crushes restorationists under its weight. Churches need to change. Rather than seeking to preserve the status quo at all costs, we need to seek truth whatever the cost.

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Paul Robson was an upstanding Christian leader in a Bible-believing church when his friend upended his world by revealing that he no longer believed the Trinity was biblically true. Although Robson initially reacted negatively to such a departure from the norm, he eventually came to change his mind based on a thorough study of Scripture. What happened next was both tragic and all too common–he was asked the church where he was serving. Having left he is developing websites about doctrine and now has new Bible study app that can help you spot bias in translation.

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Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here

Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.

Get the transcript of this episode

Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

One of the largest and most intriguing blocks of teaching in the Gospel of John is the upper room discourse in chapter 13-17. This block of time begins with the washing of the disciples’ feet (13) and ends with Jesus’s high-priestly prayer (17). In the middle chapters (14-16), we encounter Jesus preparing his followers for his departure. They still didn’t quite understand what was to happen with his arrest, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Even so, Jesus laid out teaching that would make sense for them after he was gone. Much of that teaching centered on the spirit of truth, which was to come after Jesus ascended to the Father.

In what follows we’ll explore three main theories about the holy spirit in John 14-16: (1) the spirit is a person other than Christ; (2) the spirit is a personification; and (3) the spirit is Christ’s alter ego in his heavenly ministry. After considering the first two options, I’ll explain why the last one–that the spirit is a way of talking about Christ’s activity among us while he is in heaven–fits the best.

I originally presented this content in Australia where I had an unfortunate run in with a leech. I had told this story earlier to this audience and mentioned in the talk. I had gone on a “bush walk” and picked up the blood sucker without realizing it. After it had its fill, it released and I continued to bleed for hours, not realizing that leeches inject and anticoagulant. In this presentation, I refer back to this incident, so now you know what I was talking about.

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This talk was originally presented at a Unitarian Christian Alliance (UCA) event held at the Tops Conference Centre in Stanwell Tops, Australia on March 28, 2026. Thanks to the Australian UCA planning committee, especially Matt Bradley, for their hard work in putting on this event.

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Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air

Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here

Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.

Get the transcript of this episode

Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

Have you ever heard the expression “a smoking gun”? It comes from an earlier era of guns when black powder produced a good cloud of smoke each time someone fired the weapon. Originally a smoking gun referred to a situation when someone was caught with the weapon in hand, still emitting smoke. The implication of this is not just that the smoking gun is evidence of the person’s guilt, but that such is conclusive and undeniable evidence.

Today were going to consider the topic of bias in our English Bible translations. I’m going to present to you four independent grammatical smoking guns of Trinitarian mischief in evangelical translations. In each case, rather than rendering the source language into the target language, we’ll see how translators tweak the translation to support the personality of the holy spirit.

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This talk was originally presented at a Unitarian Christian Alliance (UCA) event held at the Cantebury Christadelphian Ecclesia in Melbourne, Australia on March 21, 2026. Thanks to the Christadelphians for providing a venue and giving me access to the recording.

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Download the slides from this presentation

Read the article that inspired this presentation

Support Restitutio by donating here

Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan

Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air

Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here

Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.

Get the transcript of this episode

Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.

This episode is part of the Restoration Theology class.

Today is our last episode in our Restoration Theology class. Believe it or not, not everyone thinks restorationism is great. In fact, most Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, are against restorationism, preferring the confessional approach.

Have you started to face objections and dismissive language when you talk to others about restoration theology yet? If not, you will. Today, I want to familiarize you with the kinds of criticisms they make against us and give you some thoughts on how to answer them.

Then we’ll transition our focus to consider three advantages of restorationism, including that it provides a stable identity, a way forward for unity, and evangelistic opportunities. In the end, I believe restoration theology is not just an excellent way to evaluate your beliefs; I believe it’s also the key to changing the world!

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Check out the other episodes of the Restoration Theology class

Register to attend the Will Barlow vs. Samuel Nessan debate on whether Jesus is Yahweh

Support Restitutio by donating here

Join our Facebook group, follow on X @RestitutioSF or Instagram @Sean.P.Finnegan or Threads @sean.p.finnegan

Leave a 90 second voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play it out on the air

Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here

Get Finnegan’s book, Kingdom Journey to learn about God’s kingdom coming on earth as well as the story of how Christianity lost this pearl of great price.

Get the transcript of this episode

Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library.