Big John is a precious, humble man!! Thank you both for this very edifying interview!!!

Great conversation. I appreciate the unity and humility demonstrated by both of you. “He’s not like most Calvinists. He’s nice.” Truth! 😂

I was blessed by this conversation, gentlemen. Thanks for your humility and openness. It's a great example for younger believers like myself

I went to a Church of God school in middle and high school named Victory Christian Academy. The church it is connected with is named South Gastonia Church of God. The pastor just celebrated his six year old son being born again by the Holy Spirit and just had the privilege of baptising him. Praise the Lord! Much of the staff went to Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee which is where I went for two years. Before it became Lee, it was called East Coast Bible College btw. I know some people in the Church of God who are great, godly people who do not approve of the wild, horrid claims of popular charismatic teachers today. I am now with a Conservative Evangelical Southern Baptist Church but still have warm affections for those in the Church of God, though I am in disagreement in some doctrines and practices. Big John seems like a very genuine, God fearing man and I'm glad you had this interview. I'm a little over an hour from Mooresville but it's cool to know this brother is close by. 😊

@realtalkwithbigjohn5243

2 ай бұрын

Know the church well, I live in the same county

Thanks for having me on your podcast bro Keith. I enjoyed it, i hope to have represented CoG and the Laborers well.

@mattwise1mw

2 ай бұрын

Brother I really appreciated hearing your honest testimony and heart for God. I thank Brother Keith as well. How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.

@dustynewton2662

2 ай бұрын

Mooresville guy right here, my grandfather Marvin "joe" Newton pastored laurel memorial long ago. I really enjoyed the discussion yall! Be blessed

This is a good and humble discussion.

Good on ya, both. Y’all’s interaction was just beautiful.

This was a great podcast guys God Bless Yall To Christ All the Glory

Keith, there is a group of ex-CoG guys who are now reformed/reformed Baptists in and near the Jacksonville area. They're good brothers you would enjoy getting to know. I am part of that group, but I now serve as pastor in a church in Texas.

I appreciate this brother’s heart for the Lord, and his integrity. Learned a lot from this conversation. Thank you both..

@realtalkwithbigjohn5243

2 ай бұрын

Thank you for the kind words, to God be the glory!

Interesting that Big John was a Methodist, and his wife a Baptist, and they end up in a denomination founded by a Baptist preacher and Methodist preacher

I often find these BTs frustrating...sometimes so much I turn them off. I lost some hair listening to the IFB guys. This one was not so. I learned from the guest and the host and found the information helpful. Good work by both for making this both educational and entertaining at the same time, and for showing how differences can be handled respectfully and graciously...how it should be done yet becoming very rare in the social-media era.

Great episode Keith! This was very eye opening. I have a Church Of God (Anderson) background before becoming “Reformed” Baptist, whereas John here is Church of God (Cleveland). The distinctions between Anderson and Cleveland appear to be drastic from what I learned here. These two denoms have very different views on tongues, membership, and even eschatology.

I disagree with the Pentecostal views, but I really appreciated this conversation and Big John! God bless you both 🙏

I grew up Church of God in Eastern NC. I’ve been a Reformed Baptist for 7 years now. Really enjoyed this conversation

Yes! Another Bow Tie Dialogue. Love 'em.

Thanks so much for the outro!

Keith Foskey

Great video!

@ConversationswithaCalvinist

2 ай бұрын

Thanks brother!

I'm really feeling the 80's sitcom intro 😅

Why did my brain immediately think Balki and Larry 😂❤🎉

@ConversationswithaCalvinist

2 ай бұрын

Love Perfect Strangers!

FYI, there are 2 different church of God denominations. One out of TN and another out of Anderson, IN.

@refugechurchofgod5445

2 ай бұрын

There’s also a smaller third one called Church of God, Mountain Assembly. Pretty small thought. The Anderson, IN denomination is not Pentecostal.

That signoff jingle sounded more like Piano Man than an 80s SitCom intro.

Thanks for a podcast with those who have different doctrines than yourself. When the guests you normally have on are basic clones of your doctrinal holdings, the show ends up being a heady and confusing form of shop talk that brings little glory to God Himself and seems to puff up your intellectual need to answer specific Scriptural questions that no one is asking or really even cares about the answers to. I'm not saying this to tear you down, but as a criticism to improve the show. If I didn't like listening to you and find you interesting, I wouldn't be such a faithful viewer. I know it is not that easy to find guests, but I'm sure glad you had John Jones on today. We need to talk about our differences, especially through the eyes of those who perceive the Scriptures in a different way we do. Men of God like you and John take the Scripture to believe the way you do and those things that bring about different conclusions are so valuable to discuss is we ever want the church to come to a deeper unity. There is nothing wrong with debate as long as it is not so heated to cause fractures in our brotherly relationships. I really encourage you to have more shows like this one. It is so obvious men like Pastor Jones speak with the conviction of the Scriptures, having the love of God deep inside himself in such a sincere way and yet have differences with the doctrine you hold about the work of the Holy Spirit in the church today.

@mariowalker9048

2 ай бұрын

Keith does get Lutherans on his show and he had an evolutionist on his show. Most of the people on his show tend to be deep into theology.

@richardsemione7012

2 ай бұрын

@@mariowalker9048 I saw the Lutherans pod cast it was a good one.

Excellent interview! Surprised Pastor Keith didnt know who Ruslan was! Definitely a controversial pick. Haha. Awesome discussion brothers. 🙏🙂

@mariowalker9048

2 ай бұрын

They should definitely do a podcast together. Ruslan is known for having guys with different views on his podcasts. He's had tensions with calvinism in the past but he's a bit more softer toward reformed people nowadays.

@Dilley_G45

2 ай бұрын

​@@mariowalker9048well there are a few youtubers that can have friendly discussions with people of different views. I really enjoyed Dr. Jordan Cooper having Gavin Ortlund on his channel. One hour of polite friendly discussion. I watched Ruslan only a few times I think. It rings a bell. There are just too many channels out there

There are many different Churches called Church of God. Which particular one is this?

@realtalkwithbigjohn5243

2 ай бұрын

International Headquarters are in Clevland Tennessee. Church of God is the name of the denomination, I can't speak about any other's named that. If you see a church with Church of God in the name you can look them up online to see if they're in my denomination. If they don't show up online they are most likely unaffiliated, and just carry the name, but are otherwise nondenominational possibly.

I always feel like Noah's raven and his early dove.

If you listen closely you will notice Keith developing an Appalachian twang! Lol

Interestingly in CAMS and MIP there really isn't an in-depth soteriology section. I'm at the same level as Big John as far as not taken the bishop exam yet.

@realtalkwithbigjohn5243

2 ай бұрын

I would agree with you on that. I believe there is room for improvement with the CAMS & MIP

There is nearly 40,000 COG worldwide

I happen to be a pastor in the Church of God (headquartered in Cleveland,TN) denomination.... and I'm a calvinist 😮

@larrykusic8219

2 ай бұрын

COG guy here too…two pointer. Love our reformed brothers.

@caman171

2 ай бұрын

Hoe does that work? It goes against the doctrines stated by the CoG and the Doctrinal Papers and the official statement to be "committed to the Wesleyan/Pentecostal interpretation of Scripture"

@caman171

2 ай бұрын

@@larrykusic8219 which two?

@KennethSaul

2 ай бұрын

​@@caman171welp, for me, I had to make an active choice to accept the path where it seems God had led me to. I personally prefer the term theological determinist to describe my personal soteriology, and I have been forthright with what I believe if I'm asked, but I choose not to make it a point of contention. I am way out in the middle of the desert in a small town in New Mexico, so maybe if I were closer to CoG headquarters there would have been someone who wanted to challenge me on it. But where I'm at the CoG leadership was willing to accept me and I was willing to accept them, for the gospel to go forth 🤷🏻‍♂️

@caman171

2 ай бұрын

@@KennethSaulstill not sure how you could sign the doctrinal statements for being ordained in the CoG since its wesleyan theologically, and Ive never heard of the CoG accepting a pastor who is at such odds with that theology. in fact, most of them would publicly preach against the doctrines of calvinism, esp when it comes to losing salvation and uncoindtional election. now i know there are calvinists who are "charismatic", but thats a different issue

COG does not have to believe pre trib even though most do

@annablackburn5474

2 ай бұрын

Most worldwide?

@refugechurchofgod5445

2 ай бұрын

No. Assemblies of God have more worldwide. COG(Cleveland, TN) is the second largest Pentecostal denomination I reckon. Assemblies being first. The COG has more churches out of the US than inside of it.

Good conversation, but it should have been clarified that brother John is with the Church of God, Cleveland, not Anderson.

I find pentecostal church names funny. Big John actually brought this out. He believes that the church of God was the first pentecostal church.... what was the church in acts? The best any pentecostal church could be was the second. :)😅

@realtalkwithbigjohn5243

2 ай бұрын

You're correct, the first church was definitely Pentacostal 😅

A won't go to a church where a woman is the pastor. I did before but the way they did it was sneaky. At first she would just address the children in front of us before the pastor spoke and I didn't think anything of it. The last time I went she said this isn't just for the kids. That was an SBC affiliated church. By the way I'm a woman.

Correct me if I am wrong but i thought church of god is a cult🤔

@realtalkwithbigjohn5243

2 ай бұрын

Most definitely not a cult, we are considered within Christian orthodox. I list the declaration of faith which is similar to baptist, or Wesleyan

Seems legalistic to me. The claim is always the ifb is this way but pentecostals can be the same way. I'm sure there are some confused Christians in the church of God that are nice people but I'll never step foot in one.

You know, I'd have a dialog with these guys, but as a Mormon, to them, I'm not a Christian, maybe not even human. So there's no point.

@FollowingJesus129

2 ай бұрын

I'm sure these brothers like myself love you with the love of Jesus Christ. But you are not following the true Jesus. The Jesus of the Bible is Yahweh. He's the First and the Last, the Alpha and Omega. Please read a correct version of the Bible without your Mormon presuppositions. Blessings

@chrisjohnson9542

2 ай бұрын

Human, absolutely. All men are created in the image of God. A fellow Christian, no. Mormonism is not Christian. Mormonism teaches in a different God and different Jesus. They use some of the same names but it's very different. For instance, the bible teaches that Jesus is THE God. Not the spirit brother of Satan. God does not have a wife in heaven making spirit babies. That's heretical and antithetical to the bible. The purpose of this message is to point you to the true and living Christ. He is the only eternal life and salvation from sin. I urge you to turn from mormonism and Joseph Smith and trusting in your own goodness and works to trust in Jesus Christ the Son of God who died for sinners. Repent and believe the gospel friend.