God Is Not A Theory

Ken Fish and Joel Taylor sit down with John Ruttkay—a close associate of Lonnie Frisbee who traveled with him for roughly a decade through the Jesus People revival, and a longtime friend of Ken’s from the early Vineyard days. Now in his seventies, John is quietly seeing revival break out again, largely off the radar of mainstream and even Christian media.
John reflects on the “zeitgeist”—the spirit of the age—that shaped the 1960s and ’70s and the Jesus Movement that answered it: kids raising kids, an explosion of new believers, and a hunger for the authentic. He unpacks why, at his age, he carries such unusual favor with people far younger—the grandfather and spiritual-father grace a fatherless generation is desperate for—and why the body of Christ needs an intergenerational, kingdom-minded family. From there he tells stories that aren’t making the news: a Halloween-night deliverance of an 11-time Muay Thai world champion, revival spilling onto the Texas A&M campus with students baptizing one another, and a slow, prayer-soaked labor toward awakening in Boston’s universities.
In this conversation:
The “zeitgeist”—the spirit of the age—then and now

The Jesus Movement: kids raising kids and a hunger for the authentic

Why grandparents and spiritual fathers reach a fatherless generation

Recovering an intergenerational, kingdom-minded family of God

Authenticity over the “religious industrial complex”

A Halloween-night deliverance of an 11-time world champion

Revival spilling onto the Texas A&M campus—kids baptizing kids

Slow, prayer-soaked labor toward awakening in Boston’s universities

Comparing the Jesus revival of the ’70s with our moment now

Why there is no retirement in the kingdom

The kingdom will burn you up, but it won’t burn you out—so be present to what God is doing now.
Connect with Orbis Ministries
🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/
❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give
Grow with Orbis
📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish
🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at jo@orbisministries.org
💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.
🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.
Upcoming Event
Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA
💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49

Ken Fish and Joel Taylor welcome back Putty Putman to revisit a message that struck a nerve at the recent Luminosity conference leaders’ luncheon—one so many attendees asked about that they brought it to the podcast.
Putty names the moment the church finds itself in: a painful reckoning across the body of Christ, especially in charismatic streams, alongside a wider culture sprinting away from the things of God. For decades, he argues, the American church’s strategy has been to build a Christian subculture—a Christianized version of American life, with the gap between church and culture kept small. That approach reached many, but it leaves the church with an impossible choice as the culture moves: drift along with it, or recover its calling to be a counterculture. Drawing on Jesus’ own words—a city on a hill, salt, light—Putty lays out what that requires.
In this conversation:
The dual reckoning: scandal within the church and a culture moving away from God

Subculture vs. counterculture—and why the subculture strategy has run its course

What happens to a church that aligns itself to a shifting culture

Why looking like Jesus means standing out—a city on a hill, salt and light

Standing out without becoming a provocateur

Counting the cost on the front side, not as a bait-and-switch

Why a “halfway walk with Jesus” won’t sustain a countercultural life

How being different, paying the cost, and deep roots interlock

A call to leaders: go first, then pour it into everyone who will listen

The day of the Christian subculture has passed. We either learn to be a counterculture—or we disappear.
📅 Hear Putty Putman, Ken Fish, and more at the Heal the Healers conference | Oct 30–31 | Boston, MA. Click here to register: https://healthehealersconference.com/
Connect with Orbis Ministries
🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/
❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give
Grow with Orbis
📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish
🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at jo@orbisministries.org
💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.
🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.
Upcoming Event
Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA
💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49

Ken Fish and Joel Taylor welcome back Dr. Craig Keener—one of the world’s leading New Testament scholars—to discuss his new book, Spiritual Gifts Are for Today: A Biblical Case for the Continuing Work of the Spirit, co-written with Daniel Kolenda of Christ for All Nations.
Written in response to the recent wave of hard cessationism, the book makes a thorough, scripture-saturated case that the gifts of the Spirit are for the church today. Craig and Joel walk through its boldest arguments: why the cessationist hermeneutic, applied consistently, would also throw out teaching, salvation, and the Great Commission; why 1 Corinthians 13 points to Christ’s return, not a closed canon; and the “apostles and oranges” confusion between apostleship and the writing of Scripture. 
In this conversation:
Why Craig and Daniel Kolenda wrote the book now

How the cessationist hermeneutic, applied consistently, collapses

Why 1 Corinthians 13 points to Christ’s return, not a closed canon

“Apostles and oranges”—apostleship vs. the writing of Scripture

Whether apostolic “foundation-laying” continues today

The strongest argument for cessationism—and the biblical answer

Persistence in prayer, and why some healings are real but not rapid

Navigating scandals and falls with a sound biblical framework

Keeping a cutting edge in the Spirit while working in the academy

Don’t throw out the gifts because some misuse them—correct the abuse, and earnestly seek the gifts, because the God who gives them is not a theory.
📅 Hear Dr. Craig Keener and Ken Fish together at the Heal the Healers conference | Oct 30–31 | Boston, MA. Look it up online to register.
Connect with Orbis Ministries
🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/
❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give
Grow with Orbis
📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish
🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at jo@orbisministries.org
💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.
🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.
Upcoming Event
Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA
💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49

Ken Fish and Joel Taylor are joined by Dr. Sam Storms—theologian, author, and longtime pastor—for a careful, substantive conversation about the doctrine of last things: what Scripture actually teaches about the fate of the unsaved.
Together they define the terms and weigh the views: eternal conscious punishment (the historic position), annihilationism and its modern form conditional immortality, and universalism. Drawing on texts like Matthew 25 and Revelation 14, Sam makes the biblical case for the traditional view while engaging the strongest arguments on the other side with honesty and charity. The conversation keeps returning to a deeper root: nearly every theological error flows from a misconception about the nature of God—and much of modern theology has quietly turned into anthropology, exalting human feeling over God's revealed Word.
In this conversation:
Defining the terms: eternal conscious punishment, annihilationism, conditional immortality, universalism

The key texts—Matthew 25 and Revelation 14—and how "eternal" is used

Why most theological error traces back to a misconception of God's character

How modern theology turned into anthropology—human feeling over God's Word

Why "hyper-grace" and a one-dimensional view of love open the door to universalism

Whether annihilationism logically collapses into universalism

John Stott's honest struggle—and why emotions can't be the standard of truth

Holding conviction with charity toward fellow believers who differ

Why biblical immortality isn't the same as Plato's immortality of the soul

Don't let your preferences be the final word—submit your heart to the authority of Scripture, because bad theology hurts people.
Connect with Orbis Ministries
🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/
❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give
Grow with Orbis
📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish
🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at jo@orbisministries.org
💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.
🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.
Upcoming Event
Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA
💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49

Ken Fish and Joel Taylor sit down with Dr. Joshua Brown—neuroscientist, professor of psychological and brain sciences, and author of Proving a Miracle: Unlocking the Power of Prayer to Heal.
Josh shares the story that set him on this path: at 30, days after his first child was born, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and given little medical hope. What followed was a years-long pursuit of healing prayer—and, eventually, a clean scan. That journey turned a hard-nosed brain scientist into a careful investigator of divine healing, and this conversation models how faith and rigorous inquiry can work together rather than against each other.
In this conversation:
Josh's journey from a brain-tumor diagnosis to a clean scan

What actually counts as a "miracle"—and why precision builds credibility

How placebo and mind-body effects work (and where they break down)

Scientific vs. historical ways of investigating a healing

The randomized clinical trial of prayer—and what it found

Why the hard questions should come from inside the church

Confirmation bias—and guarding against it without losing faith

How our beliefs are shaped by experience, not just Scripture

A brief, candid detour into UFOs, trauma, and discernment

Not everything is a miracle—and if everything is, then nothing is. Precision about what God has done makes the testimony stronger, not weaker.
📅 Hear more from Dr. Joshua Brown and Ken Fish at the Heal the Healers conference | Oct 30–31 | Boston, MA: https://healthehealersconference.com
Connect with Orbis Ministries
🙏 Prayer: https://orbisprayer.org/
❤️ Give: https://subsplash.com/orbisministries/give
Grow with Orbis
📖 Read: On the Road with the Holy Spirit by Ken Fish
🎓 Learn: Enroll in Orbis School of Ministry or contact Registrar Jo McKay at jo@orbisministries.org
💪 Train: Apply to serve on an upcoming overseas ministry trip.
🤝 Connect: Join Ken's private Facebook discussion group, God Is Not a Theory. Send a Facebook Direct Message to Bryan Orbis and a friend request to be added.
Upcoming Event
Illumination Northwest Winter Conference📅 December 3–6, 2026📍 Father's House Church | Longview, WA
💻https://fathershousechurch.com/?page_id=49