Asking For A Friend

Special Edition: "The Christ Key" with Chad Bird (August 2025)

In this episode, Duffey interviews pastor, author, and theologian Chad Bird. Chad has a growing audience in the social media world through his content dealing with issues in biblical studies, biblical Hebrew, the Old Testement, and a Christ-centered view of the whole Bible. His podcast "40 Minutes in the Old Testament" has a growing audience as well. In this episode, we discuss one of his books titled "The Christ Key" where he helps the reader navigate the Old Testament with Christian eyes.

You may check out Chad's books here: https://shop.1517.org/collections/chad-bird

 

About our guest:

***Chad Bird is a Scholar in Residence at 1517. He holds master’s degrees from Concordia Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College. He has served as a pastor, professor, and guest lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew. Chad has authored several books, speaks regularly at conferences and congregations, and cohosts the popular podcast, “40 Minutes in the Old Testament.” Chad and his wife Stacy make their home in Texas, where they have been blessed with four children and three grandchildren.

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***BBC Disclaimer: Chad is a Lutheran theologian and would differ on some key Baptistic and congregational convictions that are held by Believers' Baptist Church. This podcast is not a wholesale affirmation of Lutheranism.

E221: Why should Christians today be familiar with the Nicene Creed?

In this episode, Jason and Duffey discuss the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) and the Nicene Creed. This year marks the 1,700th anniversary of the this church council. What do Christians believe about the doctrine of trinity? What do we believe about the person of Christ? The Nicene Creed serves as the classic statement and the orthodox guideline for biblical teaching on the Christian doctrine of God. After listening to the episode, see below for recommended further listening/study.

• Mark Dever, sermon on the Council of Nicaea https://www.capitolhillbaptist.org/sermon/nicea-true-god-from-god/ 
• Gavin Ortlund, exposition of the Nicene Creed https://youtu.be/2KuLiL0Am78?si=_01aAwRZy9TuSLNm 
• R.C. Sproul, on the Nicene Creed https://youtu.be/9QmeBPHOXLY?si=2hB-0bndvaNq0KXt 
• Michael Reeves, relevance of the Nicene Creed for today https://youtu.be/xN0I5RocSdM?si=jJg0ngYBcNg7zjF2 

E220: Book Club #1, Spurgeon the Pastor

Jason and Duffey begin to discuss a book on the pastoral life and theology of the nineteenth-century English Baptist pastor, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. This mini-series will be an on-going series in "book club" style. They will read a chapter and discuss it on an episode each month.

This episode serves as an introduction to the book club, and it covers the book's "Introduction" (pp. 1-10).

If you'd like to read along, you may purchase a copy here: 

Geoff Chang, Spurgeon The Pastor 

E219: How should we think about the divorces in Ezra 9 and 10?

In this epsiode, Jason and Duffey consider a Bible question from the book of Ezra. they discuss questions like:

• How should we think about the divorces that were called for by Ezra in chapter 10?
• Were they legitimate?
• Did God's word demand that these divorces must take place?
• Or did Ezra go too far?
• Are there implications from this passage that we can draw from today in our 21st century context? 

Several online resources that are recommended for further reading by Jason and Duffey are listed below.

• https://learn.ligonier.org/devotionals/problem-of-intermarriage 
• https://learn.ligonier.org/devotionals/putting-away-the-foreign-wives 
• https://www.reformation21.org/blogs/casting-off-of-foreign-wives-a.php 

E218: What is the weekly service preview?

In this episode, Jason and Duffey discuss the weekly service preview that is sent to all of BBC's members each Thursday. The service preview is designed and intended to provide a discipleship resource for equipping the saints in order to make the most out of the upcoming Lord's Day worship service.

E217: Local Pastors Talk, The Pastor and Counseling

In this episode of Local Pastors Talk, Jason leads a discussing on the pastor as counselor. For this discussion, he is joined by three other local pastors from the Emory, TX area. Together they cover questions like:

• Are pastors obligated to provide counsel to others?
• What can pastoral counseling look like in the life a church?
• Are there difficulties and/or dangers in pastoral counselling?
• Should pastors have connections outside the church for referrals in more extreme cases?
• Should pastors cooperate with other local pastors in a given community toward the end of assisting one another in the task of counseling?

Episode guests:

• Pastor Robert Burns (Miracle Faith Baptist Church, Emory, TX)
• Pastor David Banks (Emory Methodist Church, Emory, TX)
• Pastor Richard Kellam (Point Church of Christ, Point, TX)

E216: Depression w/Morris Beene

Our friend Morris Beene is back with us for another episode as we discuss issues relating to biblical counseling within the life of the church. For this conversation, we try to help you think biblically about depression. This episode considers questions like:

• What does the Bible say about depression?
• How can the Bible help address depression?
• Is depression real?
• Can depression be overcome?

E215: Informal Counseling w/Morris Beene

In this episode, Duffey and Jason are joined with a returning quest of the podcast, Morris Beene. Here, they discuss informal counseling within the life of the local church. Formal counseling has its place, and is necessary, but all Christians engage other Christians informally all the time in conversation. This episode is aimed at helping us all have more meaningful, intentional conversations with our fellow believers.

E214: How Can Doctrine Assist Our Evangelism?

For the final epsiode in our series on evangelism, Jason and Duffey discuss several theological issues relating to it. Some of the topics they cover are regeneration, conversion, who God is is, and how He works in salvation. This episode is aimed at helping us all to think theologically and biblically about evangelism. 

E213: What Is Contact Evangelism?

This episode is another entry in our series on evangelism. Jason and Duffey discuss contact evangelism. They talk about what contact evangelism is and ways that Christians may be more confident in one-on-one evangelistic encounters. They explore answers to common practical questions like:

• How should we think rightly about encounters with unbelievers?
• How should we think rightly about presenting the gospel to an unbeliever?
• What sort of expectations should we have?
• Are there helpful strategies for our evangelistic encounters?