In this episode, James speaks with Laura Gallier author of the Delusion Series, a set of fictional novels highlighting the spiritual struggles that are too often lost when we consider the issues we face in today's world. James and Laura discuss Laura's story, her new book, and the other ministries with which Laura is involved. 

For more information on Laura visit www.lauragallier.com

To purchase Laura's book visit amazon.com. 

In this episode, James speaks with Laura Gallier author of the Delusion Series, a set of fictional novels highlighting the spiritual struggles that are too often lost when we consider the issues we face in today's world. James and Laura discuss Laura's story, her new book, and the other ministries with which Laura is involved. 
For more information on Laura visit <a href="http://www.lauragallier.com">www.lauragallier.com</a>
To purchase Laura's book visit <a href="https://amzn.to/3IFvgzX">amazon.com</a>.

Christians shouldn’t just think. They should think Christian. Join Dr. James Spencer and guests for calm, thoughtful, theological discussions about a variety of topics Christians face every day. The Thinking Christian Podcast will help you grow spiritually and learn theology as you seek to be faithful in a world that is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny Christ.

Find more from James at https://www.thinkingchristian.org/.

Christians shouldn&rsquo;t just think. They should think Christian. Join Dr. James Spencer and guests for calm, thoughtful, theological discussions about a variety of topics Christians face every day. The Thinking Christian Podcast will help you grow spiritually and learn theology as you seek to be faithful in a world that is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny Christ.
Find more from James at <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/">https://www.thinkingchristian.org/</a>.

Christians shouldn’t just think. They should think Christian. Join Dr. James Spencer and guests for calm, thoughtful, theological discussions about a variety of topics Christians face every day. The Thinking Christian Podcast will help you grow spiritually and learn theology as you seek to be faithful in a world that is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny Christ.

Thinking Christian: Clear Theology for a Confusing World

Christians shouldn&rsquo;t just think. They should think Christian. Join Dr. James Spencer and guests for calm, thoughtful, theological discussions about a variety of topics Christians face every day. The Thinking Christian Podcast will help you grow spiritually and learn theology as you seek to be faithful in a world that is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny Christ.
Find more from James at <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/">https://www.thinkingchristian.org/</a>.

Dealing with our Delusions- A Conversation with Laura Gallier

James Spencer and Ashish Varma continue the series on what narrows the church's vision with a look at inversion — what happens when an interpretive grid quietly takes over the authority that belongs to Scripture itself.

The conversation moves from the hermeneutical spiral (nobody comes to the text from nowhere) to the passages most of us never work: the command not to destroy fruit trees in Deuteronomy 20, God giving the land little by little in Deuteronomy 7, the instruction not to dispossess Moab in Deuteronomy 2, and the "remember the poor" tagline at the end of Paul's account of the Jerusalem council. James and Ashish ask what those texts do to confident readings of conquest, Christian nationalism and dominionism.

They also walk through how heresy was actually decided — Augustine and Pelagius, Nicaea in 325 and the deliberate loosening of that language in 381 — and why the young-earth reading of Genesis 1 owes more to a social moment than to the text. Plus: Acts 7, Aquinas, and why interpretations should be written in pencil.

Chapters (approximate, from speaker turns — verify against the final cut):

00:00 What inversion is: when the grid outranks the text

03:22 The hermeneutical spiral — no one reads from nowhere

09:30 Beach muscles: the books we never work

12:11 Deuteronomy 20 and the fruit trees

16:03 Galatians and "remember the poor"

20:11 Deuteronomy 2, dominionism, and the limits question

29:06 Acts 7: Stephen and the opposite error

33:18 How heresy was actually decided 

42:23 Nicaea 325 → 381 and loosening the language

47:15 Genesis 1, young earth, and the social moment

59:40 Brokering gaps, creativity, and writing in pencil

Follow and subscribe

Subscribe to Thinking Christian: https://episodes.thinkingchristian.org 

Website: www.thinkingchristian.org 

James Spencer and Ashish Varma continue the series on what narrows the church's vision with a look at inversion &mdash; what happens when an interpretive grid quietly takes over the authority that belongs to Scripture itself.
The conversation moves from the hermeneutical spiral (nobody comes to the text from nowhere) to the passages most of us never work: the command not to destroy fruit trees in Deuteronomy 20, God giving the land little by little in Deuteronomy 7, the instruction not to dispossess Moab in Deuteronomy 2, and the "remember the poor" tagline at the end of Paul's account of the Jerusalem council. James and Ashish ask what those texts do to confident readings of conquest, Christian nationalism and dominionism.
They also walk through how heresy was actually decided &mdash; Augustine and Pelagius, Nicaea in 325 and the deliberate loosening of that language in 381 &mdash; and why the young-earth reading of Genesis 1 owes more to a social moment than to the text. Plus: Acts 7, Aquinas, and why interpretations should be written in pencil.
Chapters (approximate, from speaker turns &mdash; verify against the final cut):
00:00 What inversion is: when the grid outranks the text
03:22 The hermeneutical spiral &mdash; no one reads from nowhere
09:30 Beach muscles: the books we never work
12:11 Deuteronomy 20 and the fruit trees
16:03 Galatians and "remember the poor"
20:11 Deuteronomy 2, dominionism, and the limits question
29:06 Acts 7: Stephen and the opposite error
33:18 How heresy was actually decided&nbsp;
42:23 Nicaea 325 &rarr; 381 and loosening the language
47:15 Genesis 1, young earth, and the social moment
59:40 Brokering gaps, creativity, and writing in pencil
Follow and subscribe
Subscribe to Thinking Christian: <a href="https://episodes.thinkingchristian.org">https://episodes.thinkingchristian.org</a>&nbsp;
Website: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org">www.thinkingchristian.org</a>&nbsp;

When Your Interpretation Becomes the Authority | Inversion

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/5e27a451-e6e6-4c51-aa03-a7370003783c/clips/1c02c021-428d-4577-8689-b49e01602c7e/transcript

More than half of American Christians now say they trust AI with their spiritual life. That is a problem worth taking seriously, and it is also the reason Logos built its AI the way it did.

Dr. James Spencer talks with Scott Lindsey, an executive director at Logos, about what happens when a Bible study tool is cut off from the open internet on purpose. Scott walks through the three design commitments behind Logos AI: no connection to the open web, so answers come from commentaries and scholarship rather than blogs and forums; cited sources down to the page number, as a check against hallucinated books and hallucinated authors; and no attempt to model the user and tell him what he wants to hear. He also explains the one thing Logos coders have hard-coded the tool to refuse, which is writing your sermon, your paper, or your Bible study for you.

The back half of the conversation is a live walkthrough of Study Assistant and Factbook, including a look at Genesis 6, 1 through 8 and the questions most of us do not know to ask a text. Video listeners will get more out of that stretch, so if you are on audio, the version on YouTube or GodTube is worth your time.

This episode includes a special offer for Thinking Christian listeners. Logos is providing a free 60-day trial at logos.com/thinkingchristian. The offer closes September 8, 2026, and the link is in the show notes.

logos.com/thinkingchristian (expires Wed, September 8th, 2026)

Follow and subscribe

Subscribe to Thinking Christian: https://episodes.thinkingchristian.org 

Website: www.thinkingchristian.org 

More than half of American Christians now say they trust AI with their spiritual life. That is a problem worth taking seriously, and it is also the reason Logos built its AI the way it did.
Dr. James Spencer talks with Scott Lindsey, an executive director at Logos, about what happens when a Bible study tool is cut off from the open internet on purpose. Scott walks through the three design commitments behind Logos AI: no connection to the open web, so answers come from commentaries and scholarship rather than blogs and forums; cited sources down to the page number, as a check against hallucinated books and hallucinated authors; and no attempt to model the user and tell him what he wants to hear. He also explains the one thing Logos coders have hard-coded the tool to refuse, which is writing your sermon, your paper, or your Bible study for you.
The back half of the conversation is a live walkthrough of Study Assistant and Factbook, including a look at Genesis 6, 1 through 8 and the questions most of us do not know to ask a text. Video listeners will get more out of that stretch, so if you are on audio, the version on YouTube or GodTube is worth your time.
This episode includes a special offer for Thinking Christian listeners. Logos is providing a free 60-day trial at logos.com/thinkingchristian. The offer closes September 8, 2026, and the link is in the show notes.
<a href="http://logos.com/thinkingchristian">logos.com/thinkingchristian</a> (expires Wed, September 8th, 2026)
Follow and subscribe
Subscribe to Thinking Christian: <a href="https://episodes.thinkingchristian.org">https://episodes.thinkingchristian.org</a>&nbsp;
Website: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org">www.thinkingchristian.org</a>&nbsp;

AI With Guardrails: Scott Lindsey on Logos and the Future of Bible Study

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/5e27a451-e6e6-4c51-aa03-a7370003783c/clips/96cb0b07-2100-427e-9e7f-b4b001160609/transcript

Institutions confuse their own survival with the work of God. Dr. James Spencer and Dr. Ashish Varma close the diagnostic arc of this series with transaction, meaning the trade a person or an organization makes when preserving the platform becomes more important than the faithfulness the platform was built for. The anchor text is Jeroboam, who sets up worship at Dan and Bethel not to introduce a different god but to keep his people from traveling south. Varma's reading sharpens it: the question is whether Israel gathers around the presence of God or whether God is expected to gather around Israel.

The conversation turns on how easily success gets read as approval. Spencer flags the language of institutions insisting that God needs them to be what they are now more than ever. Varma answers with Habakkuk, where God raises up Babylon in response to injustice and Babylon is still judged for how it behaves, and extends the point to a mission history in which the gospel genuinely spread through colonial expansion that was itself blessed by churches and was still indefensible. Being used is not the same as being approved. Spencer adds Nebuchadnezzar, named as God's servant and punished seventy years later, and the distinction holds: the exile was deserved, the brutality was not.

What follows is uncomfortable for anyone who works in one of these places. Institutions may end because their course is run, or because they failed, or in spite of their faithfulness, and outcomes do not tell you which. Spencer, who consults with seminaries and Christian colleges, describes leaders trapped by buildings, accreditation, and systems, protecting a vehicle rather than the thing the vehicle was for. Nobody pursues a doctorate in order to preserve an institution. The question both men land on is whether the model has quietly been substituted for the mission. 

Resources

The diagnosis guide: https://www.thinkingchristian.org/about/framework  

Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman- amazon.com 

Norman Wirzba on creation and nature- amazon.com

Passages referenced: Genesis 6 and 11 and 15, Deuteronomy 8, 1 Kings 12 and 17, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, John 12

Follow and subscribe

Subscribe to Thinking Christian: https://episodes.thinkingchristian.org

Website: https://www.thinkingchristian.org 

Chapters

0:00 What transaction means

2:24 Jeroboam and the shortcut

3:10 Not a different god

7:18 Why it looked legitimate

10:42 Institutional inertia

13:44 In defense of the word lucky

15:36 Habakkuk and Babylon

19:52 Spread and consequence

20:19 Kahneman on luck

22:43 Nebuchadnezzar as servant

26:50 Two theological problems

31:34 Babel and human capability

33:50 The patience of God

35:51 Institutions that simply end

39:35 Ideology defines the questions

41:34 What higher ed is protecting

43:16 Substituting the vehicle

45:38 Faithful in the moment

47:56 Repentance and repudiation

50:15 Walking beside someone bigger

53:19 What comes next in the series

Institutions confuse their own survival with the work of God. Dr. James Spencer and Dr. Ashish Varma close the diagnostic arc of this series with transaction, meaning the trade a person or an organization makes when preserving the platform becomes more important than the faithfulness the platform was built for. The anchor text is Jeroboam, who sets up worship at Dan and Bethel not to introduce a different god but to keep his people from traveling south. Varma's reading sharpens it: the question is whether Israel gathers around the presence of God or whether God is expected to gather around Israel.
The conversation turns on how easily success gets read as approval. Spencer flags the language of institutions insisting that God needs them to be what they are now more than ever. Varma answers with Habakkuk, where God raises up Babylon in response to injustice and Babylon is still judged for how it behaves, and extends the point to a mission history in which the gospel genuinely spread through colonial expansion that was itself blessed by churches and was still indefensible. Being used is not the same as being approved. Spencer adds Nebuchadnezzar, named as God's servant and punished seventy years later, and the distinction holds: the exile was deserved, the brutality was not.
What follows is uncomfortable for anyone who works in one of these places. Institutions may end because their course is run, or because they failed, or in spite of their faithfulness, and outcomes do not tell you which. Spencer, who consults with seminaries and Christian colleges, describes leaders trapped by buildings, accreditation, and systems, protecting a vehicle rather than the thing the vehicle was for. Nobody pursues a doctorate in order to preserve an institution. The question both men land on is whether the model has quietly been substituted for the mission.&nbsp;
Resources
The diagnosis guide: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/about/framework">https://www.thinkingchristian.org/about/framework</a> &nbsp;
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman- <a href="https://amzn.to/3SivBRF">amazon.com</a>&nbsp;
Norman Wirzba on creation and nature- <a href="https://amzn.to/4wJNgk7">amazon.com</a>
Passages referenced: Genesis 6 and 11 and 15, Deuteronomy 8, 1 Kings 12 and 17, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, John 12
Follow and subscribe
Subscribe to Thinking Christian: <a href="https://episodes.thinkingchristian.org">https://episodes.thinkingchristian.org</a>
Website:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org">https://www.thinkingchristian.org</a>&nbsp;
Chapters
0:00 What transaction means
2:24 Jeroboam and the shortcut
3:10 Not a different god
7:18 Why it looked legitimate
10:42 Institutional inertia
13:44 In defense of the word lucky
15:36 Habakkuk and Babylon
19:52 Spread and consequence
20:19 Kahneman on luck
22:43 Nebuchadnezzar as servant
26:50 Two theological problems
31:34 Babel and human capability
33:50 The patience of God
35:51 Institutions that simply end
39:35 Ideology defines the questions
41:34 What higher ed is protecting
43:16 Substituting the vehicle
45:38 Faithful in the moment
47:56 Repentance and repudiation
50:15 Walking beside someone bigger
53:19 What comes next in the series

Why Do Christian Institutions Compromise To Stay Alive?

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/5e27a451-e6e6-4c51-aa03-a7370003783c/clips/86828bfc-4c73-41de-9cf5-b49e01544b9c/transcript

Dealing with our Delusions- A Conversation with Laura Gallier

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Thinking Christian: Clear Theology for a Confusing World

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