Archives

How It Should Have Happened – Ep.366 – The Great Debate – A Synopsis – Part 1

Evil, Miracles, & Atheist Faith Tony’s going to be out for a bit, so the next four episodes will be on the shorter end, but that’s ok. Here, the editor of the book, Joshua Pillows, structures the debate on what might have been the case if Stein had been prepared to deal with Bahnsen’s actual […]

Evil, Miracles, & Atheist Faith – Ep.365 – The Great Debate – Q&A – Part 2

Evil, Miracles, & Atheist Faith We finish off with the debate with the final four questions including evil, agnosticism, the nature of logic, belief, and show that an atheist faith is present and the atheist in this debate stumbles over himself and accidentally admits it – twice. TIMELINE: 00:00 – Introduction 01:27 – Question 3 […]

The Christian God & The Guy From Germany With A Funny Mustache – Ep.364 – The Great Debate – Q&A – Part 1

The Christian God & The Guy From Germany With A Funny Mustache As we come down to the book’s debate proper section we are left with six questions from the audience. Here we cover two which involve asking why is the Christian God the answer out of all the other gods out there. Then we […]

Christians Have The High Ground – Ep.363 – The Great Debate – Dr. Bahnsen’s Closing Statement

Christians Have The High Ground We all know what happens to those who have the high ground. Dr. Bahnsen ends his closing remarks with the key points being that atheist Gordon Stein doesn’t have a leg to stand on. In fact, he’s stealing the Christian’s leg to be able to claim all his worldview points […]

An Atheist Caught Stealing – Ep.362 – The Great Debate – Dr. Stein’s Closing Statement

An Atheist Caught Stealing Dr. Stein finished the debate in his closing in what appears to be on his back heel. Bahnsen has levied that an atheist caught stealing from the Christian worldview allows for the use of science and morality that an atheist doesn’t have justification for. Stein uses his last words to try […]

At Some Point We Have To Talk About TAG – Ep.361 – The Great Debate – Bahnsen’s 2nd Rebuttal – Part 2

At Some Point We Have To Talk About TAG Bahnsen uses the final part of his second rebuttal by letting Stein and the audience know that at some point we have to talk about TAG. The argument that Bahnsen is known for surprised and shocked the atheist who hand waves it away without dealing with […]

Blind Faith Of Atheist Materialism – Ep.360 – The Great Debate – Bahnsen’s 2nd Rebuttal – Part 1

Blind Faith Of Atheist Materialism We’re breaking up Bahnsen’s 2nd rebuttal into two sections as we did with Stein, as there are two major sections both have covered. In this first half, Bahnsen makes the case of the use of blind faith of atheist materialism, in which the worldview has no ability to justify the […]

How Does God Think? – Ep.359 – The Great Debate – Stein’s 2nd Rebuttal – Part 2

How Does God Think? Stein didn’t know what the laws of logic were, knows philosophers don’t agree what they are – but now he’s going to point the finger back at Christians and say they don’t know either. He wants to know how does God think and how do Christians even know that. We Christians […]

Atheist Admits He’s Trapped! – Ep.358 – The Great Debate – Stein’s 2nd Rebuttal – Part 1

Atheist Admits He’s Trapped! Stein has been stymied and this atheist admits he’s trapped when it comes to his inability to justify his use of the laws of logic within the confines of his atheistic materialism worldview. Next week, we’ll look at his attempt to heap that same outcome on Bahnsen and Christianity. TIMELINE: 00:00 […]

Atheist Admits Atheism Can’t Justify Science – Ep.357 – The Great Debate – Bahnsen’s 2nd Cross-Examination

Atheist Admits Atheism Can’t Justify Science A slightly shorter episode due to sickness by the editor but nonetheless still an important part of the Great Debate. Here, Stein, the atheist admits atheism can’t justify science especially when it comes to induction. This issue that David Hume identified the problem with not having justification that the […]

What’s The Atheist’s Metaphysical Basis For Anything? – Ep.356 – The Great Debate – Stein’s 2nd Cross-Examination

What’s The Atheist’s Metaphysical Basis For Anything? While this is supposed to be Stein’s 2nd cross-examination of Bahnsen, we see Bahnsen causes the atheist to stumble by trying to get him to provide the atheist’s metaphysical basis for anything – here specifically for math and the laws of logic. The Christian has a basis, one […]

Atheist Logic By Experiment Or Agreement? – Ep.355 – The Great Debate – Bahnsen’s 2nd Opening – Part 2

Atheist Logic By Experiment Or Agreement? Finishing up Bahnsen’s attempt to help out his atheist opponent provide justification for his use of logic, we look at logic being shown through experimentation or agreement. And like the good Christian Bahnsen is, he provides a good overview and then sinks the foundation of the atheist to claim […]

The Failure Of Atheistic Logic – Ep.354 – The Great Debate – Bahnsen’s 2nd Opening – Part 1

The Failure Of Atheistic Logic Where Stein has claimed that the laws of logic are only agreed upon but useful, Bahnsen is having a hard time accepting that – because it’s wrong. It’s up to Bahnsen to try and make the case for the atheist metaphysical use of the laws of logic. But it’s also […]

More Greek, More Sci-Fi – Ep.353 – 2025 Book Reviews – Part 2

[pl_video typeQW= “youtube id=”Y_PXZTty4XY A Little Greek, A Little Sci-Fi The final half of the list of 2025 book reviews has more Greek, more sci-fi, and more indiepub goodness. Romance in space and space opera, talking pigs and talking frogs, first contact with aliens and first contact with demons, and good church history hymns and […]

A Little Greek, A Little Sci-Fi – Ep.352 – 2025 Book Reviews – Part 1

[pl_video typeQW= “youtube id=”ErkAm-0M8c0 A Little Greek, A Little Sci-Fi 2025 kicked off my goal of reading the great books of Western Civilization. So in typical fashion I read a little Greek, a little sci-fi, and a smattering of everything else. Indiepub still factored into the list with some hits and misses, just like the […]

Andreas Köstenberger Interview – Interview Redux

Andreas Köstenberger Interview Redux Here are two of our interviews with the great Andreas Köstenberger. The first part was discussing his book in response to Bart Ehrman that we did on the show. The second being a join interview with Andreas Köstenberger and his co-author Gregory Goswell on their amazing Biblical Theology book. I have […]

Church History Matters Redux – Interview With Troy Frasier From Revived Thoughts

Church History Matters Redux I absolutely love the people God has brought together in the scope of doing this podcast. One very good friend is Troy Frasier who helps run the Revived Thoughts podcast which takes sermons of the past and gets people to record them so they can be heard now in the present. […]

Atheist Knows How God Would Act If He Did Exist – Ep.351 – The Great Debate – Stein’s 2nd Opening – Part 2

Atheist Knows How God Would Act If He Did Exist Throughout this second part of Stein’s opening, he shows himself to be an atheist who doesn’t believe in God but definitively knows how that god would act if he did exist. Stein attempts to conflate logical contradiction with a psychological ickiness he perceives in the […]

Where Can One Stand To Call Out Evil? – Ep.350 – The Great Debate – Stein’s 2nd Opening

Where Can One Stand To Call Out Evil? For the second opening to The Great Debate, Dr. Stein wants to call out Christians for not having any good proofs and also having a system that allows evil to be present in a world created by God. However, one must ask, where can one stand to […]

Stein’s Assessment So Far – Ep.349 – The Great Debate – Stein’s Rebuttal

Stein’s Assessment So Far Now it’s Gordon Stein’s turn to assess the debate so far. With Stein’s assessment he believes that Bahnsen hasn’t offered anything other than feelings based arguments and non sequiturs. He doesn’t feel the need to offer an explanation for why the universe exists and he sees laws of science, logic, and […]

Bahnsen’s Assessment So Far – Ep.348 – The Great Debate – Bahnsen’s Rebuttal

Bahnsen’s Assessment So Far Essentially round one is over and both debaters are going to give their take of the Great Debate. In Bahnsen’s assessment so far, he finds that Stein has not addressed his main argument for God and has also given up the debate with the idea that the laws of logic are […]

The First Sparring Of The Great Debate – Ep.347 – The Great Debate – The 1st Rebuttal

The First Sparring Of The Great Debate The first sparring of The Great Debate takes place here with the Christian & atheist getting five questions to ask for the other to answer. While we aren’t used to this format, this really lays out the needed back and forth interaction that a lot of debates lack […]

9 More Attempts To Disprove God – Ep.346 – The Great Debate – Gordon Stein’s Opening Statement – Part 2

9 More Attempts To Disprove God Here are 9 more attempts by Dr. Gordon Stein to levy his critiques against traditional arguments for God. With all 11 of them, has there been any that have addressed the claims presented by Dr. Greg Bahnsen? What do you think about these critiques? TIMELINE: 00:00 – Introduction 01:54 […]

Atheist Attempts To Disprove God – Ep.345 – The Great Debate – Gordon Stein’s Opening Statement – Part 1

Atheist Attempts To Disprove God It’s now Dr. Gordon Stein’s turn in the debate. This atheist attempts to disprove God in 11 different ways. However, what seems to happen here is the use of an odd definition for God and an actual need for one more argument – the one Dr. Bahnsen uses. TIMELINE: 00:00 […]

3 Important Claims In The Great Debate – Ep.344 – The Great Debate – Greg Bahnsen’s Opening Statement – Part 2

3 Important Claims In The Great Debate Here is Dr. Greg Bahnsen’s 3 important claims in the Great Debate. The first two are there to sweep away a lot of confusion Dr. Stein and other atheists have when it comes to the type of argumentation presuppositionalists use. Unfortunately, Dr. Stein didn’t seem to be prepared […]

Setting The Stage For The Great Debate – Ep.343 – The Great Debate – Greg Bahnsen’s Opening Statement – Part 1

Setting The Stage We open our 14th book by setting the stage for The Great Debate. We cover the Forward by Eli Ayala and Preface by Joshua Pillows, who give the background for the debate and speakers. Then we dive into Dr. Greg Bahnsen’s opening statement, where he uses most of his time covering what […]

Book 14 Announcement – Cave To The Cross Apologetics

Book 14 Announcement For our 14th book, we dive into one of the great moments for presuppositional apologetics. The debate between Greg Bahnsen and Gordon Stein in 1985 is a seminal watershed moment in apologetics history. Join us, starting next week, as we walk through the debate with the book The Great Debate edited and […]

Christianity Can Integrate With Science – Ep.342 – Scientism & Secularism – The Importance Of Integrating Christianity And Science – Part 2

Christianity Can Integrate With Science Christianity can integrate with science. In fact, the scientific revolution was only made possible because of the Christian worldview and those people who sought to discover just exactly how God ordered the universe. Only post-Enlightenment anachronistic history puts Christianity and science at odds with each other. So, this is our […]

Can Science Integrate With Christianity? – Ep.341 – Scientism & Secularism – The Importance Of Integrating Christianity And Science – Part 1

Can Science Integrate With Christianity? Now that we have knocked down scientism, are Christians left without being able to use science? Is science without the worldview that provided for its justification and moral guards? Why not at all, says J. P. Moreland who provides a foundation for how science integrate with Christianity. TIMELINE: 00:00 – […]

Why God Of The Gaps Is A Bad Objection – Ep.340 – Scientism & Secularism – Methodological Naturalism, Theistic Evolution, & Intelligent Design – Part 2

Why God Of The Gaps Is A Bad Objection While finishing our discussion on why methodological naturalism should be rejected, we deal with another bad objection to Christians having a place in the science world. The charge of believing in a “God of the gaps” is levied at Christians to scoff at their history in […]

The Danger Of Methodological Naturalism – Ep.339 – Scientism & Secularism – Methodological Naturalism, Theistic Evolution, & Intelligent Design – Part 1

The Danger Of Methodological Naturalism Before we talk about how Christianity should integrate science, we need to talk about how NOT to do it. The dangers of methodological naturalism aren’t realized for those in camps like theistic evolution. Here, we look at why methodological naturalism doesn’t work out for those who want to have both […]

Fine Tuning, Consciousness, & Morality – Ep.338 – Scientism & Secularism – 5 Things Science Can’t Explain But Theism Can – Part 2

Fine Tuning, Consciousness, & Morality Finishing up on the 5 things science can’t explain: Fine Tuning, Consciousness, & Morality. In a “physical only” science setting these ideas are best left alone. It winds up either with no reason to hold anyone accountable for anything or the need to discard scientism and possibly let theism into […]

Science Can’t Explain Origin Or Laws – Ep.337 – Scientism & Secularism – 5 Things Science Can’t Explain But Theism Can – Part 1

Science Can’t Explain Origin Or Laws Looking at how philosophy first holds its place over science, we look at five things science can’t explain – but Theism can. Two of those things it can’t explain are origin or laws. That is, the origin of the universe and the fundamental laws of nature. You’d think this […]

Don’t Be Bored, Be Active – Ep.336 – Titus 3:12-15 Sermon

Lairs, Evils Beasts, Lazy Gluttons On vacation this week, so this is my (Patrick’s) message on the final portion of Titus, Titus 3:12-15. With epistle beginnings and endings, sometimes we glance over them and view them as superfluous or boring. But those are just as authoritative and important as any portion of God’s Word to […]

Philosophy’s Authority Over Science – Ep.335 – Scientism & Secularism – Examples Of The Authority And Autonomy Thesis – Part 2

Philosophy’s Authority Over Science Previously, we looked at the authority philosophy has over science, and now we look at philosophy’s authority over science. From what beaker to grab to remembering equations to what to write in that peer-reviewed study, the initial steps one makes and concludes is all philosophical. Those most hurt? Scientists and atheists. […]

Education Is Classical Education – Ep.334 – Martin Cothran Interview

Education Is Classical Education We welcome Martin Cothran from Memoria Press today. Mr. Cothran is a proponent of one of the best educational models that has built the Western world. Education is classical education or it is not education. We discuss what is classical education, why it works, how it teaches both the mind and […]

The Authority Of Philosophy Over Science – Ep.333 – Scientism & Secularism – Examples Of The Authority And Autonomy Theses – Part 1

The Authority Of Philosophy Over Science If you think the atheists are mad and don’t watch our videos before commenting, wait till they don’t see this one! In continuing the argument that philosophy should be considered first before one considers their science, we look at how the authority of philosophy is not only substantiated by […]

Philosophy First! – Ep.332 – Scientism & Secularism – Scientism & 1st Philosophy

Philosophy First! The goal is not to reject science. It’s understanding the failure that scientism provides when it comes to understanding. However, adopting a philosophy first framework provides the foundation for science to function (and the presuppositions needed for the necessary preconditions of intelligibility). So he’s the case for adopting First Philosophy. TIMELINE: 00:00 – […]

Scientism Is Not All In The Head – Ep.331 – Scientism & Secularism – When Science Exceeds Its Reach

Scientism Is Not All In The Head Here’s a case study in which desiring only naturalist scientific explanations won’t get you anywhere – consciousness. When it comes to the mind, one either has to reject the mind and therefore consciousness or reject a purely naturalistic science. Scientism is not all in the head, it seems. […]

Other Sources Of Knowledge – Ep.330 – Scientism & Secularism – The Availability Of Non-Scientific Knowledge

Other Sources Of Knowledge Well, if science doesn’t give us all knowledge, what are other sources of knowledge? Well here are three areas where we not only obtain knowledge but we tend to have more confidence in it – than even science. TIMELINE: 00:00 – Introduction 02:04 – Science Is Showy, Philosophy Is Talky 05:16 […]

Weak Scientism Is Weak – Ep.329 – Scientism & Secularism – Why Weak Scientism Is No Better

Weak Scientism Is Weak Ok, strong scientism is bad because it denies any other field the ability to provide truth and in making the claim it becomes self-refuting. But what about weak scientism which lets a few areas have their claims to help support the Science(TM)? Well even weak scientism is weak and must be […]

Lairs, Evils Beasts, Lazy Gluttons – Ep.328 – Titus 1:10-12 Sermon – Cave To The Cross Apologetics

Lairs, Evils Beasts, Lazy Gluttons We are taking a break for the 4th of July weekend but you can listen to the message I taught on Titus 1:10-12 to my (Patrick’s) church’s college group. Here I discuss the types of false teachers Titus will encounter on the island of Crete and why the Greeks on […]

Presuppositions Of Science – Ep.327 – Scientism & Secularism – Scientism Is the Enemy of Science – Cave To The Cross Apologetics – Part 2

Presuppositions Of Science We look at how scientism destroys science by denying the ability to do science. How is that the case? Because scientism denies the six presuppositions of science. We discuss that here. TIMELINE: 00:00 – Introduction 02:59 – Science Has Presuppositions 04:53 – Presupposition #1 – A World Exists Outside Of Humanity 07:09 […]

Scientism Is Self-Refuting – Ep.326 – Scientism & Secularism – Scientism Is Self-Refuting & Scientism Is the Enemy of Science – Cave To The Cross Apologetics – Part 1

Scientism Is Self-Refuting Now that we’ve defined our terms about scientism, what makes it so dangerous? Here we introduce that scientism is self-refuting. This matters because the claims scientism makes means that it then makes science impossible to do. Moreland gives six presuppositions that actual science rests upon and in upcoming episodes we’ll look at […]

The Ugly Source Of Scientism – Ep.325 – Scientism & Secularism – How Scientism Changed The Universities – Cave To The Cross Apologetics

The Ugly Source Of Scientism Where did scientism come from? What is the ugly source of scientism? Would anyone be shocked to learn that the love of war and government overreach has led to negative outcomes? This includes universities divorcing their ethics lessons from everything but the humanities. Now, the source for moralism in college […]

Scientism Ruins Lives – Ep.324 – Scientism & Secularism – Why Scientism Matters – Cave To The Cross Apologetics

Scientism Ruins Lives Now that we’ve defined scientism, we have to talk about why it matters. How scientism ruins lives of us in our so-called modern world. It is exactly those ideas that the West, western science, and Christianity helped to bake into the culture that are eroding away. It’s almost like a foundation has […]

Defining Scientism – Ep.323 – Scientism & Secularism – The (Scientistic) Air We Breathe – Cave To The Cross Apologetics

Defining Scientism We kick off our book on scientism by doing what we always advocate for – defining our terms. Here, J.P. Moreland is defining scientism and explaining exactly why it is a dangerous ideology. We then go on to list a few examples from the world of politics, social advice, government schools, and even […]

Introduction To Moreland & His Book – Ep.322 – Scientism & Secularism – Forward & Intro – Cave To The Cross Apologetics

Introduction To Moreland & His Book We kick off our book looking at not only the introduction of the book, but the introduction to Moreland and who he is and his background. This is a wonderful reading on the science background of J.P. Moreland and shows us why he’s the guy to write a book […]

Book 13 Announcement – Cave To The Cross Apologetics

Book 13 Announcement Wow, has it been 13 books already? Why, yes it has. Book 13! This week is introduction week and the links to the book are in this description. Hope you can join us starting next week! BOOK LINKS: Scientism and Secularism – Learning to Respond to a Dangerous Ideology by J.P. Moreland […]

Miracle Claims Vs. Hume – Ep.321 – Miracles – Developing Hume’s Skepticism Toward Miracles – Part 5

Miracle Claims Vs. Hume And as we wind down our takedown of Hume, we take one final look at Miracle Claims vs. Hume. We address the valid question about competing miracle claims as well as looking at if the Western worldview has outpaced the belief in miracles. Is it over? Have miracles been knocked out […]

Hume’s Biased Naturalism – Ep.320 – Miracles – Developing Hume’s Skepticism Toward Miracles – Part 4

Hume’s Biased Naturalism Coming into the final episodes of this book, we go after Hume’s naturalism being viewed as unbiased science. In fact, it is biased, can’t help but be biased, and by claiming not to want to take sides in religious debates…takes sides in religious debates. Hume’s biased naturalism has been unchallenged in academia, […]

Hume Humiliated In History – Ep.319 – Miracles – Developing Hume’s Skepticism Toward Miracles – Part 3

Hume Humiliated In History After looking at the science and philosophy of Hume, we now look at his take and impact on history. With looking at how the academy views the science of history we see that Hume is humiliated in history because he helped change what good history actually looks like. We discuss what […]

Agents Enter Into The Picture – Ep.318 – Miracles – Developing Hume’s Skepticism Toward Miracle – Part 2

Agents Enter Into The Picture A little shorter episode this week as this section and the next section have two different focuses. We look at how Hume seems to carve out outside agents enter into the picture to save natural law. The only problem with that is then you leave out those pesky humans to […]

The Bad Effects Of Hume’s Philosophy – Ep.317 – Miracles – Developing Hume’s Skepticism toward Miracle – Part 1

The Bad Effects Of Hume’s Philosophy The bad effects of Hume’s philosophy might not seem apparent on the surface; people have been disagreeing about miracles even as they happen. Yet, Hume supported locking people up in insane asylums who believed miracles happened. And while his support for his movement crumbled while failing to uphold its […]

Circular David Hume & His Critics – Ep.316 – Miracles – Hume and the Philosophic Questions – Part 5

Circular David Hume & His Critics Finishing up looking at David Hume’s Philosophy and we see that Hume is being so circular that you’ll find yourself dizzy. While he redefines miracles, provides circular arguments, and then begs the question, Hume won’t even allow the possibility of a miracle claim to be presented to be considered. […]

Hume Destroys Testimony – All Testimony – Ep.315 – Miracles – Hume and the Philosophic Questions – Part 4

Hume Destroys Testimony – All Testimony Hume is back at it again with destroying more of our ability to know things. Here, we look at how Hume destroys testimony – all testimony. His standard for witnesses is so unreasonable that no witnesses can match it. His description of the normal goings of nature leaves no […]

Can Hume Get A Witness? – Ep.314 – Miracles – Hume and the Philosophic Questions – Part 3

Can Hume Get A Witness? Looking at David Hume’s philosophy on miracles, now we find ourselves not seeing Hume interact with miracle claims, but questioning if someone can even be a witness to a miracle. Can Hume get a witness? It seems his standard is both circular and redefining of key terms. We see that […]

Dismantling David Hume – Ep.313 – Miracles – Hume and the Philosophic Questions – Part 2

Dismantling David Hume We start dismantling David Hume at the best place to start – the beginning. Hume’s definition of miracles, his epistemology, and his claim of neutrality are the best places to see if the foundation of his critique cracks or even fails to support his claims. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 01:35 – Hume […]

The Intro To Critiquing David Hume – Ep.312 – Miracles – Hume and the Philosophic Questions – Part 1

The Intro To Critiquing David Hume We enter our into to critiquing David Hume by setting the stage for what our author will talk about. We do what should always be done with philosophical concepts and that is define our terms! Then we provide some background history to set the stage for giving Hume his […]

Unbiased Ancient Historians & Biased Modern Day Ones – Ep.311 – Miracles – Antisupernaturalism As An Authenticity Criterion? – Part 2

Unbiased Ancient Historians & Biased Modern Day Ones Before we dig into Hume, we finish our discussion on unbiased ancient historians and then bring in the fact that modern day historians tend to be more biased. Both cases interact with miracle claims but it seems that ancient historians tend to deal with those claims in […]

Ye Ol’ Skeptics – Ep.310 – Miracles – Antisupernaturalism As An Authenticity Criterion? – Part 1

Ye Ol’ Skeptics Kicking off our discussion on miracles we go back to Ye Ol’ Times and see if there are any Ye Ol’ Skeptics of miracles claims. Or do we take the Enlightenment unenlightened view that everyone just believed everything and it wasn’t until the Smarty Pants Times did we learn to properly scoff […]

Book 12 Announcement

Book 12 Announcement Here’s the announcement for the next book we’ll be discussing. The way we’re going to cover this one is a little different than the ones we’ve done in the past. It’ll be a miracle – if we ever get through it. It’ll take someone with a Keener eye for sure. BOOK LINKS: […]

Natural Law & Divine Command Response To Woke Theology – Ep.309 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Response Prophetic Ethics – Part 2

Natural Law & Divine Command Response To Woke Theology In our final episode on Christian Ethics – 4 Views, we cover the issues against Woke Theology from both the Natural Law & Divine Command response. Both responders have three big issues with Prophetic Ethics even if there is some agreement with the theory. Thanks for […]

Woke Theology Needs Proper Hermeneutics – Ep.308 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Response Prophetic Ethics – Part 1

Woke Theology Needs Proper Hermeneutics With the final critique of our four ethics we end with the Virtue Ethics’ response to Prophetic Ethics. A very important point made is how Woke Theology needs proper hermeneutics. There is a missing element, according to Virtue Ethics that Woke Theology has and without it it lets other narratives […]

2024 In Review Sci-Fi, IndiePub, & Theology Etc. – Ep.307 – 2024 Book Reviews – Part 2

2024 In Review Sci-Fi, IndiePub, & Theology Etc The final 21 books of 2024 in review. It’s not about how many you read but that you’re reading good books…but also I read to my goal and past it *neener neener neener*! Also, my apologies to anyone whose name I mispronounced. I’m a reader, not a […]

2024 Sci-Fi, IndiePub, & Theology Etc. In Review – Ep.306 – 2024 Book Reviews – Part 1

2024 Sci-Fi, IndiePub, & Theology Etc. In Review We need just a couple more weeks to conclude our Christian ethics book so here are Patrick’s book reviews from 2024. Biography and Indiepub heavy, it was overall a good reading year with just a few bad choices. Have you read any of these or pick any […]

The New Social Justice Monastic Period – Ep.305 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Prophetic Ethics – Part 2

The New Social Justice Monastic Period Finishing up the presentation on the Prophetic Ethics (Woke Theology), we cover the method of the movement. Here, there’s a call for a new social justice Monastic period. One that acknowledges the racism of America and embrace MLK’s call to redeem society and Bonhoeffer’s finding power in a Black […]

Christian Social Justice Ethics – Ep.304 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Prophetic Ethics – Part 1

Christian Social Justice Ethic For our final model of ethics we cover Prophetic Ethics. Here the model is focused not so much on personal ethics but societal ethics. Thus social justice is the ethos for the Christian. Patrick – he…he just doesn’t do that good of a job on being objective here. Tony is always […]

Disagreeing With Divine Command Ethics – Ep.303 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Part 2

Disagreeing With Divine Command Ethics This week we cover with the final two outlooks that do more disagreeing with Divine Command Ethics than Virtue Ethics did. Here, Natural Law Ethics presents some interesting considerations. The Prophetic Ethics…well, there’s a reason I call it Woke Theology. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 01:27 – Natural Law Agrees With […]

Responding To Divine Command Ethics – Ep.302 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Part 1

Responding To Divine Command Ethics We start the response of our third Christian ethical system by having the Virtue Ethics responding to Divine Command Ethics. Here, our V.E. fellow has many good things to say about the D.C. fellow. Three minor issues that could use some shoring up but a major one is leveled. Do […]

Defending Divine Command Ethics – Ep.301 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Divine Command Ethics – Part 2

Defining Divine Command Ethics Now that we’ve defined Divine Command Ethics, our proponent of the model is going to preemptively address four objections to Divine Command to help in the discussion. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 02:36 – Objection 1 – Regress Of Why Do What’s Commanded 05:52 – Answer 1 – Looking At The 2 […]

Defining Divine Command Ethics – Ep.300 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Divine Command Ethics – Part 1

Defining Divine Command Ethics Welcome to episode 300! Thank you to everyone who has watched/listened and joining our book club with us. We appreciate you all. This week we introduce defining Divine Command Ethics. While it seems a simple thing to define, one must take into account things like rightness vs. goodness in morality, what […]

Divine Command & Woke Theology Critique Of Natural Law – Ep.299 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Responding To Natural Law Ethics – Part 2

Divine Command & Woke Theology Critique Of Natural Law We kick off the second critique by looking at the Virtue Ethics critique of Natural Law Ethics. Here, it seems, that our proponent of Virtue Ethics likes the presentation of Natural Law but gives a couple of critiques to help strengthen the position. Come on! I […]

Virtue Ethics Critique Of Natural Law – Ep.298 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Responding To Natural Law Ethics – Part 1

Virtue Ethics Critique Of Natural Law We kick off the second critique by looking at the Virtue Ethics critique of Natural Law Ethics. Here, it seems, that our proponent of Virtue Ethics likes the presentation of Natural Law but gives a couple of critiques to help strengthen the position. Come on! I want to see […]

The Chief End Of Man In Natural Law – Ep.297 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Natural Law Ethics – Part 2

The Chief End Of Man In Natural Law Now that we’ve introduced Natural Law into our possible options for the explanation of Christian ethics we look at what the chief end of man in Natural Law is. If Natural Law is baked into our nature, how should we go about living and what about making […]

The Law Of Nature Embedded In Humanity – Ep.296 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Natural Law Ethics

The Law Of Nature Embedded In Humanity This week we introduce the Natural Law ethics perspective. Defining Natural Law helps define what humanity is. Proponents view the law of nature embedded in humanity that defines who we are and what we are to do. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 02:28 – Defining Natural Law 06:58 – […]

Divine Revelation & Prophetic Ethics Response To Virtue Ethics – Ep.295 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views

Divine Revelation & Prophetic Ethics Response To Virtue Ethics If you were convinced by Virtue Ethics presentation in the last section, here’s a Natural Law response to Virtue Ethics. While admitting there is some overlap between the two views, it does seem that the Natural Law view points out some big holes that Virtue Ethics […]

A Natural Law Response To Virtue Ethics – Ep.294 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views

A Natural Law Response To Virtue Ethics If you were convinced by Virtue Ethics presentation in the last section, here’s a Natural Law response to Virtue Ethics. While admitting there is some overlap between the two views, it does seem that the Natural Law view points out some big holes that Virtue Ethics tends to […]

What Ought The Virtuous Person Do? – Ep.293 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Virtue Ethics – Part 2

What Ought The Virtuous Person Do? Last episode we covered what the virtue ethic supporter thought a virtuous person would be like, now we cover what actions a virtuous person would take and how to be a virtuous person according to Virtue Ethics. Here we find out what OUGHT the virtuous person do. We also […]

The Goal – Be The Good Person Who Surprises No One – Ep.292 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Virtue Ethics – Part 1

The Goal – Be The Good Person Who Surprises No One The next two ethic models for our IVP Christian Ethics – 4 Views book in the divine command & prophetic ethics introduction. Here are probably the two most controversial models as they tend to make different types of people angry. While divine command ethics […]

Divine Command & Prophetic Ethics Introduction – Ep.291 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Introduction to Four Theories of Christian Ethics – Part 2

Divine Command & Prophetic Ethics Introduction The next two ethic models for our IVP Christian Ethics – 4 Views book in the divine command & prophetic ethics introduction. Here are probably the two most controversial models as they tend to make different types of people angry. While divine command ethics makes non-Christians mad, it is […]

Virtue Ethics & Natural Law Introduction – Ep.290 – Christian Ethics – 4 Views – Introduction to Four Theories of Christian Ethics – Part 1

Virtue Ethics & Natural Law Introduction Welcome to book number 11! We are going over IVP’s Spectrum Multiview book, Christian Ethics – 4 Views. We introduce the layout of the book and dive right in by giving the virtue ethics & natural law introduction. Covering the definition, short history, and foundation derived in Scripture, we […]

Book 11 Announcement

Book 11 Announcement Book number 11 for our two heroes asks some important questions and looks at four different views on what it means to be ethical from a Christian viewpoint. BOOK LINKS: Kindle Paperback Logos ChristianBook.com All episodes, short clips, & blog – https://www.cavetothecross.com https://media.blubrry.com/cavetothecross/cavetothecross.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Cave-To-The-Cross-Apologetics-Ep.289-1-Book-11-Announcement.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | […]

Spooky Stories Of Church History – Ep.289 – Troy Fraiser From Revived Thoughts – Part 2

Spooky Stories Of Church History Troy Fraiser from Revived Thoughts regales us with tales of things that go bump in the night of Church history. History is weird! Coincidences and unexplainable at times and not everything can be dismissed with a wave of a hand as you whistle past the graveyard. Spooky stories of Church […]

Coincidences In Church History – Ep.288 – Troy Fraiser From Revived Thoughts – Part 1

Coincidences In Church History Patrick welcomes back Troy Fraiser from Revived Thoughts! History is weird and there are things that happen that Hollywood writers would be accused of bad storytelling for what actually happens. Troy brings us weird coincidences of Church history that includes a Chinese war, a woman with pants, Vikings, a meteorite, and […]

Satisfying Father Hunger In Education – Ep.287 – Education Policy Expert Jeff Park Interview – Part 2

Satisfying Father Hunger In Education Now that we’ve identified the problem of fathers not being more involved in education and wagging our fingers enough, education policy expert Jeff Park and Patrick talk about small but meaningful steps fathers can take to take God’s command to be leaders of their families when it comes to what […]

The Dangers Of Father Absence In Education – Ep.286 – Education Policy Expert Jeff Park Interview – Part 1

The Dangers Of Father Absence In Education In whatever way you choose to educate your children, if you look around you may notice someone is missing – fathers! Education policy expert Jeff Park discusses the dangers of father absence in their own children’s education. It’s not enough to bring home the bacon, fathers have a […]

One Body, Many Gifts – Ep.285 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Speaking the Truth in Love – Perspectives on Apologetics

One Body, Many Gifts In our concluding chapter to the book, we look at how the Church is one body & many gifts are given in it. Our authors discuss how the differences in apologetic methods might actually be a good thing to respond to both apologists and those they speak to. With that, what […]

Integrating Answering Evil, Miracles, & Jesus – Ep.284 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Reasons For Hope – Integrating Diverse Arguments In Apologetics – Part 2

Integrating Answering Evil, Miracles, & Jesus Concluding with our look at the Integrative Approach we look at integrating answering evil, miracles, and Jesus. What have you thought about this approach? Does it allow each approach to shine or does it falter by including non-working relationships? Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 02:18 – Integrative Approach On The […]

Helping Everyone To Know God & Make Him Known – Ep.283 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Reasons For Hope – Integrating Diverse Arguments In Apologetics – Part 1

Helping Everyone Now the Integrative approach will show how it is helping everyone to know God & make Him known. While not it’s own apologetic approach, our authors show how it can help the four other major approaches answer in different ways when it comes to showing Scripture as truth, combating polytheism, and know that […]

Integrative Apologetics – The Ultimate Approach? – Ep.282 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Contending For The Faith – Part 2

Integrative Apologetics – The Ultimate Approach? We look at the meta-apologetics of the Integrative apologetics approach. While not its own, separate apologetics, our authors believe this type maybe the key to the ultimate approach in apologetics. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 01:12 – Test Case – Integrative Approach Vs. Post-Modernism 03:33 – Integrative Apologetics & Theology […]

Apologetics & Human Knowledge – Ep.281 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Contending For The Faith – Part 1

Apologetics & Human Knowledge With the Integrative Approach to apologetics, the goal isn’t to form a new coalition movement of apologetics but to show that Christians can work best when apologetics & human knowledge are used for defending the truth. What do you think? Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 01:14 – The Integrative Approach Isn’t A […]

Clark, Evans, & Frame Want Us All To Get Along – Ep.280 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologists Who Favor Integration – Part 2

Clark, Evans, & Frame Want Us All To Get Along Finishing up our historical look at the Integrative approach to apologetics we look at David K. Clark, C. Stephan Evans, & John Frame. Their approaches might seem rooted in majorly one camp more than the others but they do encourage all apologists to get along […]

Augustine, Aquinas, Carnell, & Schaeffer – Oh My! – Ep.279 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologists Who Favor Integration – Part 1

Augustine, Aquinas, Carnell, & Schaeffer – Oh My! We come to our final apologetic method, the Integrative Approach. Looking at people from history who held to this type of model we see Augustin, Aquinas, Carnell, & Schaeffer – Oh my! What a line up! Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 01:54 – Precursor Integration Apologists 04:36 – […]

Fideist Strengths & Weaknesses – Ep.278 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologetics & The Subjectivity Of Faith – Part 2

Fideist Strengths & Weaknesses The conclusion of our look at Fideism ends with a look at Fideist strengths and weaknesses. Our authors have made a good case for why Fideism is an apologetic method but what do they think it brings to the table and where it falters? Next time – a SURPRISE method! Timeline: […]

Fideist Apologetics Summarized – Ep.277 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologetics & The Subjectivity Of Faith – Part 1

Fideist Apologetics Summarized Here is the Fideist apologetics summarized to show it as an apologetic model and one to be considered. Covering both the meta-apologetics & questions it answers, here’s the overview before the next episode where we see the strengths and weaknesses of the model. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 02:30 – The Subjectivity Of […]

Your Own Personal Jesus – Ep.276 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Calling People To Encounter God In Jesus Christ – Part 2

Your Own Personal Jesus For the final three apologetic questions answers, the Fideist point to the fact that one has your own personal Jesus. In that when it comes to the problem of evil or miracles or who Jesus is, it should always lead to answers in the personal nature of God and one in […]

Fideist Split Scripture & Christianity – Ep.275 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Calling People To Encounter God In Jesus Christ – Part 1

Fideist Split Scripture & Christianity In looking at how Fideists approach our 6 apologetics questions, we’ll see oddly that Fidiests split Scripture & Christianity as separate from the Word of God & The Christian religion. Also, proof of God comes from knowing God personally. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 01:40 – Fideist Split Scripture & The […]

Fideist Faith Is Experience – Ep.274 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Reasons Of The Heart – Part 2

Fideist Faith Is Experience The final three parts of the apologetic approach of rational Fideists. Here we see for Fideist faith is experience and they don’t look fondly at “the Science(TM)” and even less at history as a set of facts. They aren’t anti-science or anti-history, they just believe in proper avenues and spheres not […]

Fideist Issues With Theology & Philosophy – Ep.273 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Reasons Of The Heart – Part 1

Fideist Issues With Theology & Philosophy Discussing now the meta-apologetics of Fidesim we focus on three areas of truth, theology, and philosophy. We see that Fideists do engage in apologetics but have big issues with theology and philosophy in the way they are used in the other methods of apologetics. While you might not agree […]

Historical Fideism – Ep.272 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologists Who Emphasize Faith – Part 2

Historical Fideism We now move to the historical Fideism of those who would subscribe to the title of Fidist. Søren Kierkegaard, Karl Barth, and Donald Bloesch are the main proponents of the apologetic method that is more to them than “just believe”. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 01:38 – Søren Kierkegaard – The Father Of Essentialism […]

Rational Fideism – Ep.271 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologists Who Emphasize Faith – Part 1

Rational Fideism We open our discussion on the 4th apologetic method with not “just believe” but Rational Fideism. This is one where apologists emphasize faith and we go into what value that adds to the conversation. We also discuss three historical proto-Fideists Tertullian, Martin Luther, and Blaise Pascal. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 03:01 – Can […]

Cave To The Cross Apologetics Ad

Cave To The Cross Apologetics Ad Before we get into our last apologetic method, this week we’re featuring an “ad” for our show from our friends at The Anarchist Bible Study. Check them out, but check us out first. We’ll see ya, next week! https://media.blubrry.com/cavetothecross/cavetothecross.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Cave-To-The-Cross-Ad.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify […]

Pros & Cons Of Presuppositionalism Reformed Apologetics – Ep.270 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologetics And The Authority Of Revelation – Part 2

Pros & Cons Of Presuppositionalism Reformed Apologetics We conclude our section on the third apologetic method by looking at the pros & cons of presuppositionalism Reformed Apologetics. But here’s the real question, are the negatives stated really negatives? Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 02:24 – Strengths Of Reformed Apologetics 03:11 – Strength #1 – Linking Apologetics […]

Summary Of Presuppositional Reformed Apologetics – Ep.269 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologetics And The Authority Of Revelation – Part 1

Summary Of Presuppositional Reformed Apologetics We begin our wrap-up of this apologetic method with a summary of presuppositional Reformed Apologetics. We summarize the six meta-apologetics questions that build the method and then we look at the six apologetic questions all methods should have an answer for. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 01:24 – Summarizing Reformed Apologetics […]

The Centrality Of Scripture For Life’s Big Questions – Ep.268 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Taking Every Thought Captive – Part 2

The Centrality Of Scripture For Life’s Big Questions With the final four apologetic questions for the presuppositional Reformed apologetic method we see these apologists keep going back to the centrality of Scripture for life’s big questions. Is there a God? What about evil in the world? Are miracles possible? Who is this Jesus person in […]

Scripture Is The Foundation For Everything – Ep.267 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Taking Every Thought Captive – Part 1

Scripture Is The Foundation For Everything Now we cover the apologetic questions that Reformed apologetics (presuppositionalism) would answer. Here we look at what presuppositionalists say about Scripture and religious pluralism. To Reformed apologists, Scripture is the foundation for everything. So, of course, we don’t make it too far through all six questions. Timeline: 00:00 – […]

Biblical Standards For Science, History, & Experience – Ep.266 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Christianity In Conflict – Part 2

Biblical Standards For Science, History, & Experience Finishing up our chapter on the meta apologetics of Presuppositional Reformed Apologetics we look at their call for biblical standards for science, history, & experience. We see that Reformed apologetics want to push the antithesis between the Christian and the non-Christian. From this push, the Christian is able […]

Biblical Standards For Theology & Philosophy – Ep.265 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Christianity In Conflict – Part 1

Biblical Standards For Theology & Philosophy We start out looking at presuppositional Reformed apologetics meta-apologetics by covering probably two of the biggest areas of disagreement with the previously covered methods. For Reformed apologetics, there is the call for biblical standards for theology and philosophy and for them to enact themselves out in the exercise of […]

The Founders Of Reformed Apologetics – Ep.264 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Reformed Apologetics – Part 2

The Founders Of Reformed Apologetics We complete our journey of the giants of presuppositionalism and the roots by looking at the biggest founders of Reformed apologetics that are known today. Abraham Kyper establishes the possibility of certainty of faith. Herman Dooyeweerd develops transcendental apologetics. Cornelius Van Til cements presuppositionalism. Gordon Clark takes the strand away […]

Apologists Who Emphasize Revelation – Ep.263 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Reformed Apologetics – Part 1

Apologists Who Emphasize Revelation After covering a couple of apologetic methods that are very similar, are there any that are really that different? Well, entering into the ring is Reformed Apologetics aka Presuppositionalism. Over the next four episodes, we’ll cover this one pretty extensively. First of all, well because we like it and are proponents […]

Strengths & Weakness Of Evidentialism – Ep.262 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologetics And The Interpretation Of Fact – Part 2

Strengths & Weakness Of Evidentialism We conclude our look at the second model of apologetics by looking at the strengths & weaknesses of evidentialism. And like good trinitarians, there are three of each. Some of the weaknesses, also, seem to add credibility to one of our upcoming methods. Hmmmm. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 01:39 – […]

The Meta & The Apologetics Of Evidentialism – Ep.261 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologetics And The Interpretation Of Fact – Part 1

The Meta & The Apologetics Of Evidentialism Today we fly through the meta & the apologetics of evidentialism as it shares a number of qualities with classical apologetics we’ve discussed before. Here we tend to highlight the differences between the two or where the evidentialist tends to focus more of their arguments. Timeline: 00:00 – […]

Evil, Miracles, & Jesus As Evidence – Ep.260 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Presenting Evidence That Demands A Verdict – Part 2

Evil, Miracles, & Jesus As Evidence The final portion of the positive case for evidentialism is on evil, miracles, & Jesus as evidence. Evidentialists have developed 2 theodicies and also a 3 fold test for miracles. They’ve responded to Hume’s critique of miracles. They’ve also developed the minimal facts approach to the Resurrection. Timeline: 00:00 […]

Scripture, Miracles, Prophecies, & Uniqueness Of Christianity – Ep.259 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Presenting Evidence That Demands A Verdict – Part 1

Scripture, Miracles, Prophecies, & Uniqueness Of Christianity Today, we look at four big evidences that evidentialists look at. Scripture, miracles, prophecies, & uniqueness of Christianity are big factors they point to for people to consider. These areas are just thrown at the wall like jello, evidentialists back up their claims with agreed upon criteria that […]

6 Evidences Of Evidentialists – Ep.258 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Evidentialist Apologetics – Part 2

6 Evidences Of Evidentialists Like what we did for the classical apologetic method, here are 6 evidences of evidentialists and their outlook. Not every category is where an evidentialist wants to hang his hat but a good number of them are similar to the classical method with a few that show why the distinction between […]

Faith Founded On Fact – Ep.257 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Evidentialist Apologetics – Part 1

Faith Founded On Fact What distinguishes classical apologists from evidentialists is that the latter wants to show faith founded on facts. There are three main distinctions between the two camps that show just how different they are and where they’re starting from – and going towards. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 01:59 – Using Facts To […]

Sci-Fi, Theology, & Indies 2023 – Ep.256 – Book Reviews 2023 – Part 2

Sci-Fi, Theology, & Indies 2023 Returning for the final set of book reviews 2023 continues the sci-fi, theology, & indies books that I liked, didn’t like, and the really bad ones to stay away from. And I wanted to tell you about them. TIMELINE: 00:00 – Introduction 00:15 – 8 Great Smarts & How Am […]

Theology, Sci-Fi, & Indies 2023 – Ep.255 – Book Reviews 2023 – Part 1

Theology, Sci-Fi, & Indies 2023 Here are the book reviews 2023 that I (Patrick) read and reviewed. Running the whole genre gauntlet for theology, sci-fi, & indies; 2023 was a good reading year. Here are my thoughts. Completely understandable if you skip this episode and the next one. Why 19 books in this episode? Because […]

Cave To The Cross Apologetics – Scott Christensen Interview Redux

Scott Christensen Interview Redux In this redux episode, we talked with Scott Christensen and interviewed him about the book we spent almost a year on, What About Evil? This book does an excellent job of laying out the issue, giving the definitions, the different answers, the issues with other theories, and the answer Christensen has […]

Cave To The Cross Apologetics – Lydia McGrew Interview Redux

Lydia McGrew Interview Redux In this redux episode, we talked with Lydia McGrew (@LydiaMcGrewChannel) and interviewed her about two of her books. One dealt with proof of the Gospel accounts using undesigned coincidences and the other about how Gospels are actually historical accounts and not literary devices that many in “the academy” are going towards. […]

Showing Christianity Is Probably True – Ep.254 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologetics Who Emphasize Fact – Part 2

Showing Christianity Is Probably True In more recent times, there have been continued advancements by evidentialists in showing Christianity is probably true. People like Clark Pinnock, John Warwick Montgomery, and Richard Swinburne have continued the traditions of the evidentialists by engaging in apologetics who emphasize fact. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 00:15 – Clark H. Pinnock […]

The Rise Of The Evidentialists – Ep.253 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologetics Who Emphasize Fact – Part 1

The Rise Of The Evidentialists Our next apologetic method was both a step away from classical apologetics and a response to deism. During the modern period, the rise of the evidentialists came forth. Led by men like Joseph Butler and William Paley, they used apologetics who empasize facts and the use of empiricism. Timeline: 00:00 […]

Weaknesses Of Classical Apologetics – Ep.252 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologetics And The Limits Of Reason – Part 2

Weaknesses Of Classical Apologetics We close out our look at the classical method by looking at the weaknesses of classical apologetics. We are not drumming anyone out of the faith or decrying heretics here. We’re taking a reasoned and logical approach to the method and that’s exactly how classical apologists would want it. Timeline: 00:00 […]

The Summary Of Classical Apologetics – Ep.251 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Apologetics And The Limits Of Reason – Part 1

The Summary Of Classical Apologetics The penultimate episode in which your heroes present the summary of classical apologetics. We take a quick look at the 6 meta-apologetic questions and the 6 apologetic questions of the classical approach. Finally, we look at the strengths of the classical approach. Next week – the negatives! Timeline: 00:00 – […]

The Universe, Evil, Miracles, & Jesus For Classical Apologists – Ep.250 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Classical Apologetics – The Rationality Of The Christian Worldview – Part 2

The Universe, Evil, Miracles, & Jesus For Classical Apologists We conclude the classical apologetic answers with looking at the universe,evil, miracles, & Jesus for classical apologists. We cover the mighty Kalam Argument and the main approach of using free will to explain evil. Then the fact that miracles are not violations of reality is pushed […]

The Rationality Of The Christian Worldview – Ep.249 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Classical Apologetics – Part 1

The Rationality Of The Christian Worldview For the classical apologist, reason is king. It’s available to everyone and is God-given in the universe. As such the rationality of the Christian worldview for the apologist is the path to go down when it comes to the use of Scripture, disproving other worldviews, and arguing for the […]

Classical On Science, History, & Experience – Ep.248 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Classical Apologetics – A Reasonable Faith – Part 2

Classical On Science, History, & Experience We finish up looking at what Classical Apologists say concerning the last three sections of the meta-analysis. Classical on science, history, & experience bring their focus on reason to bear when it comes to the discussion of how these three areas fit into their Christian philosophy. Timeline: 00:00 – […]

Making Faith Reasonable – Ep.247 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Classical Apologetics – A Reasonable Faith – Part 1

Making Faith Reasonable We’ve looked at the history and who has represented Classical Apologetics, we look at the six main apologetic questions all Christian apologetics have to answer. Here, the classical approach looks at the goal of making faith reasonable. How do they do so? By showing there is no conflict between faith and reason […]

Interview On Anatomy Of The Church And State Podcast

Patrick and Tony were invited onto Jeremiah Campana’s podcast Anatomy Of The Church And State. We discussed many different aspects of apologetics and the role it has in the believer’s lives. This was a great way to talk about the summation of many of the books we’ve discussed on our show. It was also a […]

Champions Of The Classical Approach – Ep.246 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Classical Apologetics – Apologist Who Emphasize Reason – Part 2

Champions Of The Classical Approach We finish up our chapter looking at the philosophers of the Classical method of apologetics by looking at two of the champions of the classical approach. Norman Geilser and William Lane Craig are some of the biggest proponents of the classical method (Peter Kreeft sneaks in there too). Timeline: 00:00 […]

The History Of Classical Apologetics – Ep.245 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Classical Apologetics – Apologist Who Emphasize Reason – Part 1

History Of Classical Apologetics Now we really kick off the book by looking at our first of four main apologetic methods – classical apologetics. Our authors define their terms (always a welcome) and provide the history of classical apologetics. We then cover two of the four examples of classical apologists – saving the biggest for […]

6 Meta Questions Of Apologetics – Ep.244 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Issues And Methods In Apologetics – Part 2

6 Meta Questions Of Apologetics Finishing up the overview of our four apologetic methods that will be covered in the book we address how the book will organize, codify, and systematize each method. That’s just fancy talk for how the book will show the different aspects of the apologetics methods. In this episode, we cover […]

4 Types Of Apologetic Methods – Ep.243 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Issues And Methods In Apologetics – Part 1

4 Types Of Apologetic Methods As we move into the second portion of our book we look at the 4 types of apologetic methods that will be evaluated in the rest of the book. Here we introduce briefly the four types and some of the people who held to the views that our authors believe […]

The Next 1,000 Years Of Christian Apologetics – Ep.242 – Faith Has Its Reasons – A Brief History Of Apologetics – Part 3

The Next 1,000 Years Of Christian Apologetics Well after the first 1,000 years of Christian apologetics, it also makes sense that we cover the next 1,000 years. Here we see more responses taking place and the inclusion of philosophy and codification and systematizing of theology. As a result, more apologetics occurs and more ways to […]

The First 1,000 Years Of Christian Apologetics – Ep.241 – Faith Has Its Reasons – A Brief History Of Apologetics – Part 2

The First 1,000 Years Of Christian Apologetics We went through the first 100 years of Christian Apologetics starting in year 0, now we cover the first 1,000 years of Christian apologetics. History and especially Church History is important because to figure out how we are here we have to see the road that led us […]

The Scriptural Mandate For Apologetics – Ep.240 – Faith Has Its Reasons – A Brief History Of Apologetics – Part 1

The Scriptural Mandate For Apologetics As Bible believers, we want to do all the things The Bible says we are to do so as to honor God in the best way we can. So when it comes to apologetics, we’d really like a scriptural mandate for apologetics. Well, not only do we get ones explicitly […]

Defining Apologetics – Ep.239 – Faith Has Its Reasons – Defining Apologetics

Defining Apologetics We kick off our discussion of our next book Faith Has Its Reasons by Kenneth Boa & Robert M. Bowman Jr. with one of our favorite topics – definitions. In defining apologetics we focus on the the four main approaches the book covers and how they’ll be covered. By starting first with definitions […]

Sanctifying The Church & The Family – Ep.238 – Interview With A Pastor – Pastor Josh – Part 2

Sanctifying The Church & The Family Pastor Josh from The Anarchist Bible Study podcast shines some bright lights in places in the Church where we might be missing – or not wanting to look. How can we be actively sanctifying the Church and the family? As a youth pastor as well, Josh gives his State […]

The State Of The Church Address 2023 – Ep.237 – Interview With A Pastor – Pastor Josh – Part 1

The State Of The Church Address 2023 Pastor Josh aka Iowancap from The Anarchist Bible Study joins the program to give his State Of The Church Address 2023. In it, we build on the back of Ligonier’s 2022 State of Theology. Josh talks about why definitions in the church matter and what it means when […]

Book 10 Announcement

Book 10 Announcement Today’s episode is the announcement of our 10th book we’ll be going over. You can pick it up in the links below and join our book club or just drop in and join the discussion each Monday. After the episode on Monday, the episode is broken down into short, topical clips. BOOK […]

The Apologetics Of The Noetic Effects – Ep.236 – Apologetics By John Frame – Appendix – Part 2

The Apologetics Of The Noetic Effects We close Frame’s book for the last time with the conclusion of one of the appendices – a look at the critique Ligonier has about Van Til and his apologetics. We look at the similarities and differences the apologetics of the noetic effects of sin has for each model. […]

Ligonier Vs. Van Til – Ep.235 – Apologetics By John Frame – Appendix – Part 1

Ligonier Vs. Van Til It’s the fight of the century! The boys from Florida against the Dutch Bomber himself! It is Ligonier Vs. Van Til with special guest referee John Frame! Frame responds to the need for defining terms at the start of this debate and shows that conflatating “start with” allows one to begin […]

Atheism And Idolatry – Ep.234 – Apologetics By John Frame – Apologetics As Offense – Part 2

Atheism And Idolatry John Frame closes his apologetics as offense chapter by looking at the two avenues of non-Christian belief – atheism and idolatry. Both parts are interconnected and share common traits. However, atheism tends to remove objective values and relies on the need for evolution to be true. Frame provides some strategies in answering […]

The Irrationalist Rationalist – Ep.233 – Apologetics By John Frame – Apologetics As Offense – Part 1

The Irrationalist Rationalist Blue 42! Blue 42! Plato! Set – Hike! John Frame takes apologetics on the offense in this chapter leading up to the end of the book. Many parts of this chapter refer back to previous chapters and we likewise suggest checking out our previous episodes in the series. Here, Frame wants us […]

John Frame’s Explanation For Evil – Ep.232 – Apologetics By John Frame – The Problem Of Evil A Biblical Response – Part 2

John Frame’s Explanation For Evil Now we come to John Frame’s explanation for evil. He wants to derive the answer not from a faceless god but from the God of The Bible. He doesn’t want just a philosophical answer for evil but one derived from The Bible. Frame wants to not just look at an […]

No Obligation To Answer For Evil – Ep.231 – Apologetics By John Frame – The Problem Of Evil A Biblical Response – Part 1

No Obligation To Answer For Evil We see John Frame call again for us to turn to Scripture to see what he believes is The Bible’s explanation for the problem of evil. Frame surveys many parts of Scripture, both OT & NT, and finds that in the number of places where man asks God why […]

Lacking Explanations For Evil – Ep.230 – Apologetics By John Frame – The Problem Of Evil What The Bible Does Not Say – Part 3

Lacking Explanations For Evil Rounding out this chapter, Frame covers six different theodicies he says are lacking explanations for evil. Frame critiques process theologians, open theists, and even some in his Reformed camp. Timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 01:20 – Character Building Theodicy Issues 05:18 – Stable Environment Theodicy Issues 07:28 – Divine Weakness Theodicy Issues […]

Free Will To Do Evil? – Ep.229 – Apologetics By John Frame – The Problem Of Evil What The Bible Does Not Say – Part 2

Free Will To Do Evil? One of the most subscribed to answers to theodicy is that as humans we have free will to do evil. It is all our fault and God has nothing to do with it but can work with us in our fallen state to bring about His will. And that’s all […]

What The Bible Does Not Say About Evil – Ep.228 – Apologetics By John Frame – The Problem Of Evil 1 – Part 1

What The Bible Does Not Say About Evil While this may seem like familiar territory to friends of the show, it will be interesting to see the similarities and differences presented by John Frame on the problem of evil. Starting out at looking at what The Bible say or more so, does not say about […]

The Bible’s Rationale For The Gospel – Ep.227 – Apologetics By John Frame – Proving The Gospel – Part 2

The Bible’s Rationale For The Gospel Continuing With John Frame’s proof of the Gospel (and therefore Scripture) we turn now to The Bible’s rationale for the Gospel. Here we see that there is a rational basis for belief in the trust that Christians have and then we look at particular claims such as fulfilled prophecy […]

The Bible’s Rationale For Itself – Ep.226 – Apologetics By John Frame – Proving The Gospel – Part 1

The Bible’s Rationale For Itself We now move onto an important apologetic concept for John Frame and that is what The Bible’s rationale for itself is. A defense of the Gospel – the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ resides in the defense of the Scriptures. Frame’s take is presuppositional in nature and also […]

Cosmological And Ontological Arguments – Ep.225 – Apologetics By John Frame – Theistic Argument – Part 4

Cosmological And Ontological Arguments Cosmological And Ontological Arguments are classic theistic arguments. They are some of the most well-known and oldest in the philosophy field. Frame’s approach puts a presuppositional spin to both kinds that bolsters each point better by providing a foundation for the argument. Here, we cover the impossibility of uncaused causes in […]

Knowledge And Design – Ep.224 – Apologetics By John Frame – Theistic Argument – Part 3

Knowledge And Design Moving from the moral argument for God to one of knowledge and design takes us further into the traditional theistic arguments. Here, Frame presents the epistemological nature of a source that is personal and allows us to know things. The alternative explanation does not give us any reason to justify knowledge or […]

Absolute Moral Authority – Ep.223 – Apologetics By John Frame – Theistic Argument – Part 2

Absolute Moral Authority Last week we looked at issues when it comes to thinking moral authority is arbitrary or just happens to be. This week, Frame looks at absolute moral authority and where it comes from. Probably no surprise that God is going to be the source but do we run into circular issues by […]

The Moral Argument For Theism – Ep.222 – Apologetics By John Frame – Theistic Argument – Part 1

The Moral Argument For Theism We jump back into John Frame’s Apologetics book by digging into what Frames to be valuable theistic arguments – even for presuppositionalists. After laying the foundation and critiquing agnosticism, Frame provides the start of what he considers one of the best proofs for God – the moral argument for theism. […]

Biblical Theology – A Canonical, Thematic, and Ethical Approach – Ep.221 – Andreas Köstenberger & Gregory Goswell Interview

Biblical Theology – A Canonical, Thematic, and Ethical Approach We are privileged to welcome back Dr. Andreas Köstenberger and welcome Dr. Gregory Goswell as we discuss their newest book from Crossway Publishing, Biblical Theology – A Canonical, Thematic, and Ethical Approach. We talk with the good doctors about what went into the book and how […]

The Historic Reliability Of The Resurrection – Ep.220 – Scripture Teaching

The Historic Reliability Of The Resurrection We have a special episode coming up and yesterday was Easter so it makes sense to get this episode out now. Thanks for checking out these episodes that hopefully you see the next step we encourage after reading and learning from the books we’ve collected – using them to […]

The Church’s Purpose In Relationship To Each Other – Ep.219 – Scripture Teaching

The Church’s Purpose In Relationship To Each Other This is part two of the mini-series I was privileged enough to teach to my (Patrick’s) church’s high school group. We go from the Church’s relationship to God and move into the Church’s relationship to each other. Topics covered are communion, sharing meals, and fellowshipping with one […]

The Church’s Purpose In Relationship To God – Ep.218 – Scripture Teaching

The Church’s Purpose In Relationship To God Taking a pause from our John Frame book, the next two weeks will be parts one and two of a message I (Patrick) gave to my church’s high school group. This week I cover the Church’s relationship to God. Covering what is church then what is The Church […]

John Frame’s TAG Argument – Ep.217 – Apologetics By John Frame – Transcendental Argument – Part 4

John Frame’s TAG Argument Frame finishes up his critique of VanTil’s TAG argument and one that focuses on a big point of contention of TAG users – the apologetic use of probability and certainty. Then presented is John Frame’s TAG argument in which he offers not to eradicate TAG but offers a 6-point reevaluation of […]

TAG, Trinity, & Negative Arguments – Ep.216 – Apologetics By John Frame – Transcendental Argument – Part 3

TAG, Trinity, & Negative Arguments Within Frame’s critique of VanTil’s version of the transcendental argument, he’s not throwing it all away and Frame’s fair judgment of where TAG emphasizes the rights points are brought out. Here, TAG, Trinity, & negative arguments are discussed to show that TAG is best used, especially from a worldview level, […]

Questioning TAG – Ep.215 – Apologetics By John Frame – Transcendental Argument – Part 2

Questioning TAG Now that John Frame has presented TAG in an overview, he is going to be questioning TAG as what he might consider some deficiencies – or at least in a way that VanTil presents TAG as being the one argument to rule them all and in the light, bind them. This is exactly […]

The Best Argument For God – Ep.214 – Apologetics By John Frame – Transcendental Argument – Part 1

The Best Argument For God “The Transcendental Argument (TAG) is the best argument for God!” You may have heard this claim along keywords like “preconditions of intelligibility” and “by what standard”. However, what makes TAG so powerful is something that is beneficial for not just the apologist or the philosophically minded to know and understand […]

Accepting Evidence – Ep.213 – Apologetics By John Frame – Some Methodological Considerations – Part 2

Accepting Evidence Accepting evidence for a position seems like an easy thing to do in theory. See what’s presented before you and if you properly understand everything you move from unbelief to belief. Ya, well, except it’s definitely not that simple and it’s not how people come to belief, especially about something as big a […]

Apologetics As Proof – Ep.212 – Apologetics By John Frame – Some Methodological Considerations – Part 1

Apologetics As Proof It might sound weird to say that we offer up apologetics as proof when it comes to our faith in God. But what Frame is presenting here is that we sometimes overestimate what we are thinking proof is or isn’t. We’ve let others define what faith is for so long that even […]

Every Thought Captive – Ep.211 – Apologetics By John Frame – The Message Of The Apologist – Part 2

Every Thought Captive We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Corn. 10:5). Those same thoughts about the nature of all reality. The nature of knowledge. The nature of right and wrong. Not only those things but even how we present […]

The Nature Of All Reality – Ep.210 – Apologetics By John Frame – The Message Of The Apologist – Part 1

The Nature Of All Reality The term “metaphysics” might seem like one of those scary words that only the eggheads use (true); the term just means what is the nature of all reality. What is it that makes the things we are and experience the things they are? The Christian worldview necessitates and calls for […]

Evidence & Presuppositionalism – Ep.209 – Apologetics By John Frame – The Basics – Part 2

Evidence & Presuppositionalism Evidence & presuppositionalism have absolutely nothing to do with each other! Well except that all evidence is God’s evidence and so the best use of evidence can be had when an apologist has established their foundation on something that makes sense of them and allows them to exist. The scary thing is […]

The Basics Of Apologetics – Ep.208 – Apologetics By John Frame – The Basics – Part 1

The Basics Of Apologetics We crack open John Frame’s Apologetics book by doing what we like doing best here – defining our terms. With that we find out what the basics of apologetics are and the right way and wrong way we can carry out the command from Scripture to always be ready to give […]

The Need To Clarify And Encourage – Ep. 207 – Apologetics By John Frame – Preface

The Need To Clarify And Encourage Another apologetics book? But why? 2,000 years of Church History and we haven’t said everything we need to say? Well, believe it or not, another apologetics book is needed as it gives us the ability to clarify and encourage. Also, it’s kind of what the Bible tells us to […]

Introducing John Frame & Apologetics – Ep. 206 – Apologetics By John Frame – Preface

Introducing John Frame & Apologetics We begin our next book by introducing John Frame & apologetics. We open to the preface where Frame’s friend and ministry partner Vern Poythress gives us a mini-book in apologetics and what we’ll see in the rest of the book. If we can talk about just the preface for this […]

Patrick’s 2022 Book Reviews – Ep.205 – Read More Books – Part 2

2022 Book Reviews – Part 2 The final reviews of 2022 include some IndiePub, poetry, sci-fi, and theology. Our hope for our ministry is that you pull off those books from your shelf, blow off the dust, and make use of them for God’s glory. You can start at any time and start at any […]

Patrick’s 2022 Book Reviews – Ep.204 – Read More Books – Part 1

2022 Book Reviews – Part 1 For the last two weeks of the year, we’ll be populating the show with books Patrick has read during the year. Some are homeschool supplementals, some are fiction, and – yes, some are even theology. Whether you’re set in your ways of only picking books from the New York […]

Cave To The Cross Apologetics – Redux – Bob Murphy Interview

Bob Murphy Interview Redux The final two weeks of the year will be a year-end roundup of the book Patrick has read and starting the first Monday of the year we’ll be starting John Frame’s Book “Apologetics – A Justification Of Christian Belief”. Today we revisit episodes 47 & 48 with Dr. Bob Murphy  @BobMurphyAncap . […]

Cave To The Cross Apologetics – Redux – J. Warner Wallace Interview

J. Warner Wallace Interview Redux We needed to reschedule some things for our next book so we’re almost thinking of starting Frame’s book at the first of the year. Next couple of weeks, I’m thinking of doing a year-end review of all the books I read this year and see if there’s any interest in […]

9th Book Announcement

Our 9th Book Announcement A very blurry Patrick (if you’re watching the video) announces the 9th book that’s going to be covered on the show. Links are here in the description and we hope you’ll join us as we focus (with Patrick’s camera in focus) on this next book in our book club. BOOK LINKS: […]

The Internal Critique Of Other Religions – Ep.203 – Against All Opposition – Biblical Counterfeit Religions

Internal Critique Of Other Religions With the final chapter of Bahnsen’s book, we look at the internal critique of other religions. The same system we’ve been using with looking at worldviews for other philosophies and worldviews works just as well with religion. In fact, the codification and systematic approach other religions have probably make it […]

Dualism & Other Religions Critiqued – Ep.202 – Against All Opposition – A Quick Course In Comparative Religions

Dualism & Other Religions Critiqued Moving on from atheism to see how dualism & other religions critiqued. Applying the two-step method of providing an internal critique and then giving the biblical answer, we see the arbitrary and inconsistent nature of these worldviews. Platonism with its mind and body dualism and Aristotle with his materialism give […]

All Unbelievers Believe – Ep.201 – Against All Opposition – The Unbeliever Is A Believer

All Unbelievers Believe Continuing with the internal critique of both the Christian and the unbeliever, the Christian comes to see that since God is Sovereign and Creator over all things and all men are made in His Image, it is impossible to rebel so far away from that so as to be outside of God’s […]

Atheist Issues – Mind & Morality – Ep.200 – Against All Opposition – A Critique Of Atheism – Part 2

Atheist Issues – Mind & Morality The problem of induction to do science and the problem of deduction to do logic are used but are baseless in a materialistic atheistic worldview. But that’s not the only issues. Atheist issues mind & morality also arise with great issue. The mind, as opposed to the brain, just […]

Atheist Issues – Induction & Deduction – Ep.199 – Against All Opposition – A Critique Of Atheism – Part 1

Atheist Issues – Induction & Deduction One of the most common worldviews you’re likely to encounter is that of the materialistic atheist. This worldview states that reality is only made up of physical things. There is no supernatural or transcendental realm of objects. Only what’s available to our senses is what is real and that’s […]

Tools To Evaluate Worldviews – Ep.198 – Against All Opposition – Challenges Of Competing Worldviews – Part 2

Tools To Evaluate Worldviews We finish the chapter by looking at some more tools to evaluate worldviews. Finishing up with atomists that want to keep free will we see hedonism and existentialism reign here. Then we take a slight detour to cover those worldviews that say you either can’t know or it doesn’t matter what […]

Three Views Of Reality – Ep.197 – Against All Opposition – Challenges Of Competing Worldviews – Part 1

Three Views Of Reality If there’s one thing we tend to stress on this show it’s that definitions matter. If you can define it then you can classify it. If you can classify it then you’re better able to know where that fits in the conversation about God, His World, and those who exist in […]

Everyone Is A Philosopher – Ep.196 – Against All Opposition – What Is Philosophy?

Everyone Is A Philosopher Everyone Is A Philosopher! It doesn’t matter your education or lack there of. It doesn’t matter if you are from the West or the East or from Mars. You can not know any Latin or you know how to get angry at the drive-through order taker in a dead language. You […]

Borrowing From The Christian Worldview – Ep.195 – Against All Opposition – Unbelievers Are Not Neutral And Christians Shouldn’t Be – Part 2

Borrowing From The Christian Worldview Not only should we reject the charge to be neutral when approaching any area that pertains to God, but we should also realize that since this world is God’s world and we are all made in His image that even unbelievers are found borrowing from the Christian worldview – and […]

No One Is Neutral, No Not One – Ep.194 – Against All Opposition – Unbelievers Are Not Neutral And Christians Shouldn’t Be – Part 1

No One Is Neutral, No Not One We’re back! Well – Tony is back! You’ve caught up on your book, right? You haven’t been letting it collect dust again, have you? We pick back up with Bahnsen’s book talking about if we should approach the subject of God (or anything) with a neutral standpoint. Both […]

Apologetics Effects Affect – Ep. 193 – Talk Given To The Michigan Apologetics Network

Apologetics Effects Affect Starting next week, Tony and I should be reunited in digital form to continue going through our Greg Bahnsen’s Against All Opposition. I was kindly invited by some new friends at the Michigan Apologetics Network to give a talk on anything that I wished. I talked about how apologetics isn’t an end […]

Fund Students Not Systems – Ep.192 – Jeff Park From The Anarchist Bible Study – Part 2

Fund Students Not Systems Homeschool, private, public, or any other school parent in between should check out and support those groups with the mantra of “Fund Students Not Systems”. Policy expert, Jeff Park (Alberta Parents’ Union & Co-Host of The Anarchist Bible Study) joins me in the second half of the interview. In this section, […]

The Christian Responsibility To Educate Children – Ep.191 – Jeff Park From The Anarchist Bible Study – Part 1

The Christian Responsibility To Educate Children Is it the Christian responsibility to educate children or is it fine leaving that to the so-called experts? While the answer may seem simple enough, we invited an expert on public policy in education and Christian podcaster Jeff Park. He talks about the Christian’s responsibility in educating one’s children […]

Looking Through Church History – Ep.190 – Troy Fraiser From Revived Thoughts Interview – Part 2

Looking Through Church History When we look through Church History we see men, women, build-ups, big events, small events, death, sorrow, and Gospel worship. When we are looking through Church History we see those people and events give us things we enjoy and take for granted today. Troy Fraiser from Revived Thoughts podcast once again […]

Church History Matters – Ep.189 – Troy Fraiser From Revived Thoughts Interview – Part 1

Church History Matters This week I’m joined by THE Troy Fraiser who is one part of the Revived Studio/Revived Thoughts podcast empire. He joins me to discuss why Church history matters and what we can learn from it. What does this have to do with apologetics? The past 2,000 years of the church have been […]

Take Every Thought Captive – Ep.188 – Against All Opposition – Reasoning As A Christian Should

Take Every Thought Captive The Christian is commanded to take every thought to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). It’s not just in the realm of morality or on Sundays. It doesn’t involve just the personal thoughts or the public actions. Every thought is to be conformed to the sovereignty of God. Even our apologetics? Even […]

Facts Don’t Change Hearts – Ep.187 – Against All Opposition – Foundational Faith

Facts Don’t Change Hearts What do you mean facts don’t change hearts? You just build up enough facts on top of someone they can’t help but change their minds. While that might be true of some low investment beliefs think about something like the abortion debate. Does talking about the science of human life at […]

The War Between Faiths – Ep.186 – Against All Opposition – It’s Impossible To Think Without Presuppositions – Part 2

The War Between Faiths Listen you illogical Christian, we can talk about if God exists but you have to not rely on your ultimate standard or any scholar who is a Christian. You can’t rely on anyone philosopher older than 20 years ago because they’ve all been proven wrong and you definitely can’t rely on […]

Where Everyone Starts Thinking – Ep.185 – Against All Opposition – It’s Impossible To Think Without Presuppositions – Part 1

Where Everyone Starts Thinking Give me just the facts and only then will I believe. No. No. Not those facts I don’t like those facts! The idea that one starts with zero assumptions and believes ideas based on just the facts is nice thinking but it’s not how people think. Where everyone starts thinking is […]

All Have Faith In Their Reasons – Ep.184 – Against All Opposition – Faith Or Reason?

All Have Faith In Their Reasons The fight of the 20th century, folks! Who will win in the the two giants in their field? Will it be Faith which seems to be slowing down from its prime? Or is it Reason; the newcomer who claims to be the unfeeling, unemotional piece of iron? There can […]

At The Center Of Every Worldview – Ep.183 – Against All Opposition – Preface & Intro

Center Of Every Worldview At the start of this book is the answer to what’s at the center of every worldview. It’s not the end conclusion we need to begin with. It’s the before we start parts that are important. Halfway is not where we want to begin our apologetics and we don’t want to […]

Book 8 Announcement – Ep.182 – Join Our Book Club

Book 8 Announcement This week we have our Book 8 announcement on what we’re going to cover next! Starting next week we’ll take a deep dive into the book chapter-by-chapter and break down all the hard words, new concepts, and philosophy mumbo jumbo. Join our book club where you can pull up a chair and […]

Why? For God’s Glory! – Ep.181 – Scott Christensen Interview On What About Evil – Part 2

Why? For God’s Glory! Scott Christensen has written an amazing book that is not just a dry, academic look at the question of why evil exists. Why? For God’s Glory! Pastor Christensen joins us to talk about his Greater-Glory Theodicy that places God at the center of the picture of the ultimate story of reality. […]

Free Will Theodicy Failure – Ep.180 – Scott Christensen Interview On What About Evil – Part 1

Free Will Theodicy Failures We have the pleasure of welcoming back to the show our first guest, our first returning guest, and author of the book we recently finished “What About Evil? A Defense of God’s Sovereign Glory” – Pastor Scott Christensen. This was such a great discussion we wanted to break it up into […]

The Greater Glory Effect – Ep.179 – What About Evil? – The Grace And Glory Effect – Part 2

The Greater Glory Effect And now comes the end. The Great-Glory Theodicy showcases the greater glory effect. It is seen in the forgiving nature of the Christian as it reflects the forgiving nature of God. Even the worse of humanity, the most painful, the most destructive nature of man is no match for the grace […]

How Should We Then Live? – Ep.178 – What About Evil? – The Grace And Glory Effect – Part 1

How Should We Then Live? We live in a world infested with evil. We live in a world held in the sovereign hand of God. How should we then live? The Christian life is one led in a moment of three simultaneous instances of sight. We look back on our lives that were in rebellion […]

The Coming Redeemer – Ep.177 – What About Evil? – The Cosmic Redeemer – Part 2

The Coming Redeemer No, we’re not doing The Return Of The King, but we are looking forward to the end of this book as we are looking forward to the end of The Book of the Coming Redeemer. These books will have a single ending unlike a certain 3rd movie you might be thinking about. […]

The Resurrection Explained! – Ep.176 – What About Evil? – The Cosmic Redeemer – Part 1

The Resurrection Explained! Why was the end of the Incarnation of Jesus on Earth important? What does it mean to people before, during, and after the Cross? How does the Resurrection ensure a believer’s redemption? Well, this is the first part of the Resurrection explained! What does it all mean? Everything! With the Resurrection of […]

The Suffering Redeemer – Ep.175 – What About Evil? – The Suffering Redeemer – Part 2

The Suffering Redeemer The Christian story emphasizes a focus on the suffering of Jesus Christ. He is our suffering Redeemer. Being born, living in the ancient Near East, being hungry and poor, and ultimately being nailed on a cross illegally as the most innocent person ever involves suffering. Not only does this not seem to […]

Does God Have Emotions? – Ep.174 – What About Evil? – The Suffering Redeemer – Part 1

Does God Have Emotions? When we talk about Jesus as God and as the Suffering Servant the question of, “Does God have emotions?” is to be asked. Is God able to have emotions like us humans? Is He surprised at the evil He sees in the world? Is prophecy, then, just a lucky guess by […]

Fully Man & Fully God – Ep.173 – What About Evil? – The Peerless Redeemer – Part 2

Fully Man & Fully God Jesus not only is fully man & fully God but He must be both in that full capacity to accomplish everything He must for our salvation. To deny His humanity is to not have a stand-in for humanity. To deny His Godhood is to not have the ability to pay […]

Why The Incarnation Had To Happen – Ep.172 – What About Evil? – The Peerless Redeemer – Part 1

Why The Incarnation Had To Happen The Greater-Glory Theodicy centers on the character of who God is and the reasons He has in glorifying Himself in a world of evil. With that in mind, why the incarnation had to happen was to uniquely and completely deal with all the evil in full. Once Christians were […]

Romans 9 Answers Why Evil Exists – Ep.171 – What About Evil? – God’s Redemptive Glory In Scripture – Part 2

Romans 9 Answers Why Evil Exists The promised chapter on how Romans 9 answers why evil exists is here! Continuing from our look at the Old Testament we look at Paul’s answer to why there exists evil and how God uses it for His glory. We are unable to divorce ourselves from the Old Testament […]

God Redeeming Evil In The Old Testament – Ep.170 – What About Evil? – God’s Redemptive Glory In Scripture – Part 1

Redeeming Evil In The Old Testament One of the goals of the Greater-Glory Theodicy is to find not just the best logical explanation for why evil exists. It is also to see if the special revelation of God details its reason. In this episode we look at how is God redeeming evil in the Old […]

Christianity, Sci-Fi, & Indie Publishing – Ep.169 – Katie Roome From Periapsis Press Interview

Christianity, Sci-Fi, & Indie Publishing We are joined today by Katie Roome who is the founder and writer of Periapsis Press. We sit down and talk about Christianity, sci-fi, & indie publishing. Is there a difference between the genres; and what do they tell us about God’s story and humanity? So we’re talking nerdy today! […]

Was The Fall Necessary? – Ep.168 – What About Evil? – The Fortunate Fall & God’s Greatest Glory – Part 3

Was The Fall Necessary? One of the biggest questions that comes from the Greater-Glory Theodicy is this – Was The Fall necessary? Because that’s what it seems to imply. Well, that’s actually what it comes right out and says. It’s nothing to blush at or be embarrassed about. It’s the necessary outcome for God’s purposes. […]

God’s Glory Seen In Evil – Ep.167 – What About Evil? – The Fortunate Fall & God’s Greatest Glory – Part 2

God’s Glory Seen In Evil Now that we’ve laid out the Greater-Glory Theodicy that Scott Christensen has presented we unpack what it actually does that others don’t. In this theodicy, God’s Glory seen in evil is established. This doesn’t come from a novel, clever way to get around popular theories. This comes from the overall […]

The Greater-Glory Theodicy – Ep.166 – What About Evil? – The Fortunate Fall & God’s Greatest Glory – Part 1

The Greater-Glory Theodicy We’ve knocked down the standard explanations. We’ve established who God is and what He desires. We’ve told His story in history from a story tale. Now, we get to tackle what Scott Christensen believes is the best explanation for evil with all those elements put together – The Greater-Glory Theodicy. In this […]

God’s Purpose With Evil – Ep.165 – What About Evil? – The One True Story – Part 2

God’s Purpose With Evil After setting the scene with Creation and The Fall, we are now able to see what God’s purpose with evil is. Following the story paradigm, we see God’s story played out in the rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. Each part covers an evil plot point where God is able […]

Evil’s Purpose In God’s Story – Ep.164 – What About Evil? – The One True Story – Part 1

Evil’s Purpose In God’s Story What is evil’s purpose in God’s story? To begin to understand the answer we look at the fact that God’s written story, The Bible, is more than just propositions and commands – it is also stories. As it is the first story by the original Author we can call it […]

The Structure Of God’s Story – Ep.163 – What About Evil? – Everyone Loves A Good Ending – Part 2

The Structure Of God’s Story Now that we looked at what myths are and what the monomyth of God’s story is; we look at what the structure of God’s story is – as well as all other stories follow. The shared collective consciousness of humanity reflects what it cannot help – the reflection of their […]

God As The Monomyth Storyteller – Ep.162 – What About Evil? – Everyone Loves A Good Ending – Part 1

God As The Monomyth Storyteller The term “myth” has a colloquial understanding of being made up or fake. But that’s not the true meaning of the word. Myths are stories told in a worldview used to relay information to a group and that story is made to stick. This universal concept derives itself from God. […]

How To Bring Apologetics Into The Church – Ep.161 – Question & Answer

How To Bring Apologetics Into The Church In this episode, we responds to a great listener question about how to bring apologetics into the church. The question is specifically from a pastor’s point of view but we answer it in a way to be useful for the pastor, elder, deacon, Christian teacher, or layperson to […]

God’s Responsibility In The Fall – Ep.160 – What About Evil? – The Challenge Of Moral Responsibility – Part 2

God’s Responsibility In The Fall Continuing to look at God’s responsibility when it comes to evil, we look at God’s responsibility in the Fall of mankind. Both sides of the choice debate have to recognize the Fall as something unique and comes with their own set of questions. Which side is the most consistent AND […]

God Is Free Of Evil – Ep.159 – What About Evil? – The Challenge Of Moral Responsibility – Part 1

God Is Free Of Evil God is free of evil because of who He is and His transcendence over His creation. But is He still considered the “author of evil”? Looking at people like the authors of the Westminster Confessions, Jonathan Edwards, and John Frame we see the Reformed tradition is not caught off guard […]

God’s Work In Evil – Ep.158 – What About Evil? – Walking Through The Bible’s Dark Forest – Part 2

God’s Work In Evil Now that we’ve established the character and nature of God and seen that The Bible doesn’t shy away from attributing God’s control to evil actions of humans, we look at two other aspects of evil The Bible talks about. In divine hardening, we see that God steers the desires of humans […]

Is God The Author Of Evil? – Ep.157 – What About Evil? – Walking Through The Bible’s Dark Forest – Part 1

Is God The Author Of Evil? Is God the author of evil? That’s the question that Reformed Christians must be able to answer especially after dismantling libertarian free will. Here we begin to look at the characteristics God embodies that informs the discussion of his sovereignty over evil. Looking at God’s absolute goodness and holiness […]

What About Compatibilism? – Ep. 156 – What About Evil? – The Transcendent Author Of History – Part 2

What About Compatibilism? We delve into the topic of God’s choosing and man’s choosing as it relates to evil. If you’ve ever wondered, “What about compatibilism? What is it and is it true?” this episode will break down the concept for you. First, we finish up the last two secondary characteristics that stem from God’s […]

God Is Transcendent – Ep. 155 – What About Evil? – The Transcendent Author Of History – Part 1

God Is Transcendent Now that we’ve toppled over the main theodicies that have been preeminent in the discussion of evil; we turn back to what should start off any conversation rooted in the Christian worldview – the character and nature of God. Specifically, God is transcendent. God didn’t just happen upon the universe; He made […]

Divine Judgment & Hell – Ep. 154 – What About Evil? – Working For The Greater Good – Part 3

Divine Judgment & Hell Looking at one of the last main theodicies, we look at the topics of divine judgment & Hell. After laying out the argument from the divine-judgment defense we see that while this argument does have some merit to it, it is not an all-encompassing view of evil. With two interesting problems, […]

Soul Making In The Best Possible World – Ep. 153 – What About Evil? – Working For The Greater Good – Part 2

Soul-Making In The Best Possible World Two of the subset theodicies of the Greater-Good Theodicy are the Soul-Making Theodicy and the Best-Of-All-Possible-Worlds Defense. In these, soul-making in the best possible world gives a purpose to evil existing as a means to an end. From the soul-making side, we see this as a desire in our […]

Greater-Good Theodicy – Ep. 152 – What About Evil? – Working For The Greater Good – Part 1

Greater-Good Theodicy – Good From Evil Looking at another explanation for why there is evil in the world, we turn to the Greater-Good Theodicy. With this, we see a focus on the good that is accomplished as a result of the evil that occurs. From the evil actions of people or evil in the natural […]

Hermeneutics & Practical Bible Study – Ep. 151 – Josh & Jeff From The Anarchist Bible Study – Part 2

Hermeneutics & Practical Bible Study Continuing our discussion from last week, Jeff and Josh from The Anarchist Bible Study and Patrick talk about how hermeneutics & practical Bible study and how to use each in the other. Hermeneutics isn’t important just for pastors, theologians, and seminaries. It is important for every Christian reading his/her Bible […]

Hermeneutics & Apologetics – Ep. 150 – Josh & Jeff From The Anarchist Bible Study – Part 1

Hermeneutics & Apologetics Hermeneutics & apologetics go hand-in-hand with each other. Since The Bible is our ultimate standard that it is important that we read it and interpret it the way God meant it to be. And to communicate it to other people accurately is just as important in our apologetics. Patrick is joined by […]

Gratuitous Evil, Free Will, & Natural Law – Ep. 149 – What About Evil? – Guarding The Sacred Treasure Of Free Will – Part 4

Free Will, Gratuitous Evil, & Natural Law Free Will, Gratuitous Evil, & Natural Law are all topics that are related in the free-will theodicy. Free will must deal with the same implications that compatibilists deal with and that’s the appearance of evil without purpose. We look at the different theories free will theists put out […]

Free Will & God’s Foreknowledge – Ep. 148 – What About Evil? – Guarding The Sacred Treasure Of Free Will – Part 3

Free Will & God’s Foreknowledge The concept of free will & God’s foreknowledge can be a heady concept. We attempt to accurately cover three different answers free will advocates attempt to allow God to have foreknowledge (or not have it). We do our best to break it down while attempting to be accurate to supporters […]

Problems With Free Will – Ep. 147 – What About Evil? – Guarding The Sacred Treasure Of Free Will – Part 2

Problems With Free Will We continue to look at problems with free will in light of the explanation it supposedly gives Christians when it comes to answering the problem of evil. We see why the Reformed position rejects parts of libertarian free will in exchange for soft determinism. Libertarian free will undermines the doctrine of […]

Do We Have Free Will? – Ep. 146 – What About Evil? – Guarding The Sacred Treasure Of Free Will – Part 1

Do We Have Free Will? The free will defense has done a lot in answering the logical problems of evil. While determinism has become more popular in the past decade among academics; the culture at large still has the embracement of free will. But do we have free will? We want to ask, “By what […]

Can God Answer Evil? – Ep. 145 – What About Evil? – Justifying The Ways Of God

Can God Answer Evil? Can God answer evil and the problems caused by suffering? That is what a theodicy attempts to do. It provides a justification for why suffering and evil exist and that God exists as presented. This is a reason why one has to stake a claim in a specific God like the […]

The Battle Of Two Moral Standards – Ep. 144 – What About Evil? – Probing The Darkness – Part 2

The Battle Of Two Moral Standards After finishing with defining our terms we look at ways in which those definitions play out in our worldviews. Here’s where the battle of two moral standards starts to interact and separate. Each side has a burden of proof since each side has a problem of evil. Where the […]

Defining Evil – Ep. 143 – What About Evil? – Probing The Darkness – Part 1

Defining Evil Definitions are one of the most important parts of having any conversation. A lot of times people use different definitions as a result of their worldview. So when it comes to the topic of evil, defining evil is vital. In this chapter, we look at a secular version as well as the Christian […]

Crisis Of Secularism – Ep. 142 – What About Evil? – Theodicy And The Crisis Of Our Secular Age – Part 2

Crisis Of Secularism Picking up where we left off last time; now that the world has shirked off God because of the evil all we are left now with is us and evil. Ut oh. We are in a crisis of secularism. The second part of the modern worldview is the advancing of secularism leading […]

The Enlightenment And Evil – Ep. 141 – What About Evil? – Theodicy And The Crisis Of Our Secular Age – Part 1

The Enlightenment And Evil We ended up going long on this chapter and so we split it up into two episodes so there is a hard cut and no outro at the end of this episode. There’s a lot to cover with the Enlightenment and evil. Where did the problem of evil really become a […]

What About Evil Summary – Ep. 140 – What About Evil? – Introduction – Part 2

What About Evil Summary Along with the answer to the question, “What about evil?”, at the beginning of the book; Scott Christensen also gives us a What About Evil summary of the book too. Here is the chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the book with just a small take on what’s included. Within the book, we get […]

The Answer To Evil…Already? – Ep. 139 – What About Evil? – Introduction – Part 1

The Answer To Evil…Already? Scott Christensen takes the first part of the introduction to his book “What About Evil? A Defense of God’s Sovereign Glory” and does something interesting – he gives you the answer to evil at the start! First, he presents the idea that there does, in fact, exist evil and suffering in […]

TAG Christianity Is It – Ep. 138 – Dr. James Anderson Interview

TAG! Christianity Is It! We have the absolute pleasure of welcoming Dr. James Anderson to the show. We recently went through his book “Why Should I Believe Christianity” which was a presuppositional take on taking seriously the claims of the worldview of Christianity. We also said it was a good give-away book in that it […]

Prelude To Evil – Ep. 137 – What About Evil?

Prelude To Evil We introduce the next book we’re going over. The book is What About Evil? A Defense of God’s Sovereign Glory by Scott Christensen. In this episode, we just go over the prelude to evil. From the Amazon description: “Reconciling the existence of God and evil has been a long-standing conundrum in Christian […]

Prayer Help – Ep. 136 – Interview With A Pastor – Pastor Jim Li

Prayer Help This week we welcome Pastor Jim Li onto the show for some prayer help. Pastor Li pastors in California but is very active in teaching in the Asian churches. As a result, his identity will be hidden today. And with Tony on vacation, you’re stuck looking at Patrick. Good thing we make an […]

If Christianity’s True – Ep. 135 – Why Should I Believe Christianity? – Defying Death & What Now?

If Christianity’s True We conclude Dr. James Anderson’s book by looking at what if Christianity’s true. We discuss alternative explanations to the Resurrection and see that they don’t rise to the occasion. Did Jesus swoon? Have His body stolen? By the disciples? By the Romans/Jewish leaders? Was it all an illusion? There are good reasons […]

Resurrection Proofs – Ep. 134 – Why Should I Believe Christianity? – Defying Death – Part 1

Resurrection Proofs The ultimate moment in history for Christians is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Christianity is true, this event is the most important event for every person who lived, living, or will ever live. Where do Resurrection proofs fit in the Christian worldview then? Through the anticipation of Old Testament prophecy, the testimony […]

Jesus Is God – Ep. 133 – Why Should I Believe Christianity? – God With Us – Part 2

Jesus Is God After looking at the claims made by others about who Jesus is, we turn to Jesus and see what He says about Himself. We can conclude that Jesus is God by His own testimony and the events surrounding His life. We look at Jesus accepting worship, approving the use of the title […]

Who Is Jesus? – Ep. 132 – Why Should I Believe Christianity? – God With Us – Part 1

Who Is Jesus? “Who is Jesus?” is a question that has not only been asked of by Christians and skeptics. That question is an important one to many other world religions, people seeking understanding, people of today and yesterday. A big part of the Christian worldview revolves around the centrality of – Christ, Jesus. We […]

Old Testament Christianity – Ep. 131 – Interview With A Pastor – Dr. Tiberius Rata

Old Testament Christianity Is Old Testament Christianity an oxymoron or do we Christians still have a lot to learn from the Tanakh? Dr. Tiberius Rata is Associate Dean of the School of Ministry Studies and Professor of Old Testament Studies at Grace Theological Seminary. He is the author of several Old Testament commentaries as well. […]

Way, Truth, & Life – Ep. 130 – Why Should I Believe Christianity? – God Is Not Silent – Part 2

Way, Truth, & Life Christianity declares that it is the sole way, truth, & life. But it is not the only origin truth claim in town. Eastern religions, Islam, and Judaism are competing truth claims. They are all mutually exclusive – contradict each other and can’t all be true. So examining what we’ve covered so […]

Written Bible – Ep. 129 – Why Should I Believe Christianity? – God Is Not Silent – Part 1

Written Bible A written Bible is expected and should be wanted. Following the logic that just as we are created beings who communicate in a personal way with language to convey information; we would expect the Creator God to also communicate in a personal way. So not only should we understand that something like the […]

Youth And Apologetics – Ep. 128 – Interview With A Pastor – Justin McCoy

Youth And Apologetics Are today’s youth and apologetics connecting each other to answers and growth in their Christian faith? We welcome Youth Pastor Justin McCoy from Calvary Bible Church in Kalamazoo, MI. Pastor McCoy works with kids and students from birth through college. He gives his take on the role of seminary today and the […]

Ep. 127 – Why Should I Believe Christianity? – God Is There – Part 3

God Is There God is there and there are things in the world that point to him. We finish the chapter covering how reason, the mind, and science all point to God’s existence. While atheists try and make themselves solely about science, we see their lack of grounding a bigger deal than they seem. As […]

Ep. 126 – Why Should I Believe Christianity? – God Is There – Part 2

Moral Meaning Moral meaning values come up when we talk about politics, society, business practices, and other interactions between people and the world. However, when we say that the world isn’t as it should be or that we should do something or we ought not to do something, we are declaring that we believe there’s […]

Ep. 125 – Why Should I Believe Christianity – God Is There – Part 1

God Is There God is real and there are real implications from that truth. When critics attempt to end the discussion of asking for proof that God is real they look for only one type of proof. What they look for is evidential, physical proof. But because of the nature of God, that’s the wrong […]

Andreas Köstenberger Interview – Ep. 124 – Andreas Köstenberger Interview

He’s Written On Everything! We are beyond delighted and honored to sit down and interview Andreas Köstenberger. Dr. Köstenberger was a co-author in one of our recent chosen books, “Truth In A Culture Of Doubt” which was a response to many of Bart Ehrman’s writings and showing that Christianity provides answers to the critical historians’ […]

Salvation – Ep. 123 – Why Should I Believe Christianity – Christianity As A Worldview – Part 3

Salvation – The Relationship Of God & Man Salvation is the third and final aspect of the Christian worldview to cover to set the stage for why one should believe Christianity. We see that God is able to speak and does speak to His creation. And what He says echoes in eternity. Even while being […]

Original Sin – Ep. 122 – Why Should I Believe Christianity – Christianity As A Worldview – Part 2

The Origin Of Original Sin We go from perfect sinlessness to the original sin. But hey, at least we enter the picture finally! One of the things that all worldviews attempt to answer is, “Why are we here?” and “How are things the way they are?” The Christian worldview speaks to both of those things […]

Who Is God? – Ep. 121 – Why Should I Believe Christianity? – Christianity As A Worldview – Part 1

Who Is God? Who is God? Since Christianity is a worldview, we have to understand what that worldview says and where it comes from. Both questions’ answers are found in the revealed nature of who is God. God has the ability and right to be the source of the revelation of Himself. It is found […]

A Faith Test – Ep. 120 – Why Should I Believe Christianity – The Big Picture – Part 2

A Faith Test Is it possible to put truth claims of a faith to a test? Dr. James Anderson showcases a four-fold test for seeing if the whole worldview system of a religion or belief system can be shown to be believable. Not only can this be done in isolation of another belief system but […]

Worldview Of Christianity – Ep. 119 – Why Should I Believe Christianity – The Big Picture – Part 1

Christianity As A Worldview Everyone has a worldview but not everyone realizes it. When considering Christianity, breaking it up into its components allows critics to misconstrue the whole system of Christianity. Since Christianity is an entire worldview outlook, we must look at the belief system as the entire system in total lest we create straw […]

Skepticism – Ep. 118 – Why Should I Believe Christianity – Introduction – Why Believe? – Part 2

Skepticism As Default Approach? Should we approach all claims with skepticism? While it seems like this is the smartest approach it’s not how we approach most truth claims.  So when it comes to Christianity we should have an understanding of our beliefs and our ability to know true things.  Finally, it’s important to understand that […]

Prove Christianity – Ep. 117 – Why Should I Believe Christianity? – Introduction – Why Believe?

How Can I Prove Christianity? If one were to go about trying to prove Christianity, how would one do that?  The first question to ask is really, “Why should anyone believe anything at all?”. In the introduction to James Anderson‘s book, we look at that and why believe Christianity in particular.  Is all truth relative?  […]

ANNOUCEMENT – Book 6 Reveal

Transcend- Whatsit?! Transcendental Argument. Starting March 29, we’ll be starting this book – https://amzn.to/2PzTp2U This book simply lays out the arguments backing up the beliefs of Christianity and explores what Christianity really claims, and shows the underlying reason and consistency behind these claims. If you’ve looked into getting into presuppositionalism or try to understand the […]

Ep. 116 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Reasons To Believe

Rose From The Dead? Rose From The Dead! Jesus rose from the dead. That’s the claim of The New Testament. We close our book with a look at the response to this claim from Bart Ehrman’s challenges to it. Was Jesus even buried? Did the disciples hallucinate the resurrected Jesus? Did the disciples just make […]

Ep. 115 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Are Many New Testament Documents Forged? – Part 3

Apocryphal Books Of The Bible? Are there lost, Apocryphal books that should have been included in The Bible? Finishing the chapter on how the New Testament should include the authentic books that are there, we look at why not other books. Why do we include only the 27 books and not 12 others or Gnostic […]

Ep. 114 – Are Many New Testament Documents Forged? – Part 2

Who Wrote The Bible? Who wrote The Bible? The next two claims of forgery against the New Testament are the allegations of illiterate authors & false attribution to authors. Were the NT writers too illiterate to write their documents & couldn’t find another way to get their ideas down to be disseminated to others? Is […]

Ep. 113 – Are Many New Testament Documents Forged? – Part 1

Fraud In The Bible? Fraud in The Bible by the New Testament authors? Say it isn’t so! Not really. The claim that anonymous authors, centuries after the life of Christ and the apostles were the real authors of the Christian Scriptures is false. In fact, without a full-on skeptical presuppositional worldview, one could see just […]

Ep. 112 – Were There Many Christianities? – Part 3

We look at the final two claims that later church councils formed Christian orthodoxy and that the Canon of the NT was a weapon used to keep out competing Christian communities.

Ep. 111 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Were There Many Christianities – Part 2

Continuing our look at the Walter Bauer hypothesis, we look at 3 more claims about early Christian orthodoxy. Were the leaders too biased to be good witnesses and chose what teachings made it in? Then the claim that central church leaders won by force of will what beliefs came out on top. Finally, moving into […]

Ep. 110 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Were There Many Christianities? – Part 1

We begin by looking at the theory of Walter Bauer. Bauer theorized that there were many early Christianities that existed at the start and each one had their own set of orthodoxy. The only real orthodoxy that rose to the surface was by those who used their collective might to assert their will and dominate […]

Ep.109 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Are The Biblical Manuscripts Corrupt? – Part 3

Finishing up the chapter on having confidence that we have The Bible as originally written, we cover the last three claims from Bart Ehrman. We show the complexity of early Christian scribes and the systems they developed. We see how hard it is to get in the mind of an actual scribe but see that […]

Ep.108 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Are The Biblical Manuscripts Corrupt? – Part 2

Covering the first three claims Bart Ehrman makes about the corruption & untrustworthiness of the New Testament, we see that nuance is needed. Not having the original manuscripts, loss of original readings, and textual variants are claims that play well to a particular audience. Yet, when we look at the details we actually see a benefit to many of the alleged “issues”.

Ep. 107 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Are The Biblical Manuscripts Corrupt – Part 1

The Bible was not beamed into the minds of robot authors and the copying of the original texts were not divinely protected so that no error could be made in the copy. Doesn’t seem like that startling of a message. However, Bar Ehrman became popular on the message – which is quite odd. So we cover the topic of how the New Testament came to be and how scribes, manuscripts, and textual variants help us to have confidence that we have the Word of God preserved in the text of The Bible.

Ep. 106 – Battlefield Of The Mind by Joyce Meyers One Shot

Ever since the inception of Christianity, Jesus & the Apostles warned against false teachers and the need to identify them. It is important to see what that looks and compare what’s said to what God says. So Lauren from Tulips & Honey Podcast and Patrick from Cave To The Cross Apologetics slog through the entirety of Joyce Meyer’s book “Battlefield Of The Mind”. This…this was something.

Ep. 105 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Is The Bible Full Of Irresolvable Contradictions – Part 4

Looking at the final three claims of Bart Ehrman when it comes to the Bible having contradictions that make it a non-trustworthy historical story. We look at the difference in chronology and details and see that Ehrman’s claims don’t really add up to contradictions. We also look at Ehrman’s biggest claim in that Jesus was never thought of as being God or claimed to be God. It was only later, that His followers made those claims. We look at the internal critique which shows just the opposite.

Ep. 104 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Is The Bible Full Of Irresolvable Contradictions – Part 3

Finishing the chapter dealing with alleged contradictions, we look at a few allegations Bart Ehrman makes. We look at the claim that Matthew & Paul contradict each other when it comes to salvation & The Law. We also look at the somewhat odd claim that there are some harmonizations that can’t be made with certain events of the New Testament, one of them being the trial of Jesus.

Ep. 103 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Is The Bible Full Of Irresolvable Contradictions – Part 2

We look at Bart Ehrman’s claim that the authors of the NT have contradictory points of view on major issues. We cover three test cases of the Gospel writers and show that the alleged contradictions have logical explanations when viewed historically and fairly. Timeline Breakdown: 00:00 – Introduction 01:06 – Claim 1 – The NT […]

Ep. 102 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Is The Bible Full Of Irresolvable Contradictions – Part 1

Introducing the chapter on the subject Bart Ehrman is known for, we look at the presuppositions Ehrman has that comes at a price of exclusion of other Bible scholars. The circle Ehrman draws around the “correct understanding of the Bible” seems to come from a place of his own choosing. He also establishes his own criteria for infallibility and speaks out against The Bible when it fails to meet his standard. We cover just the introduction to the chapter before getting into the five claims addressed in the rest of it.

Ep. 101 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Is God Immoral Because Of Suffering – Part 2

Covering the second part of Bart Ehrman’s critique of the Bible’s explanation for the existence of evil and suffering, we cover a few critiques of the critiques. Ehrman doesn’t seem to like the reasons the Bible gives and doesn’t find them satisfying. He also finds them contradictory. There are answers there and hopefully, this gives Christians better motivation to understand the doctrines they hold to in order to be able to give answers to someone even if they are as prolific and impressive as Ehrman is.

Ep. 100 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Is God Immoral Because Of Suffering – Part 1

Responding to one of Ehrman’s lesser-known book, “God’s Problem”. We discuss the introduction to some of the problems Ehrman raises and dig into the first objection of is there a contradiction of God being sovereign and God being good with all the evil and suffering in the world. Ehrman is not much known for him being a theologian or a philosopher so an odd subject for him to tackle. However, this is a subject which everyone comes to ask themselves about and should ask if their worldview gives a consistent argument to explain the existence (or non-existence) of evil and suffering.

Ep. 99 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Introduction

Covering the introduction, we cover a bit more of Bart Ehrman and his work. Ehrman claims Christian scholarship has presuppositions going into the subject of New Testament scholarship. Ehrman, however, also has presuppositions whether he admits them or not. We also talk about the desired one should have to present alternative viewpoints in scholarship and present them in the best light to respond to them. Finally, we suggest a few additional free resources.

Ep. 98 – Truth In A Culture Of Doubt – Preface

A short episode to introduce our new book “Truth In A Culture Of Doubt” by Andreas Köstenberger, Darrell Bock, and Josh Chatraw. The Preface covers why the book is being written and why the critique is against Bart Ehrman, one of the most well known critical scholars of the New Testament.

ANNOUCEMENT! – Our 5th Book Revealed

Here’s an Amazon link to our next book – https://amzn.to/2JX62lL that we’ll be starting on November 16. One of the current, most popular names in New Testament scholarship is that of Bart Ehrman.  Ehrman has made a name for himself by going from evangelical believer to skeptical agnostic.  He has also written many popular-level, New […]

Ep. 97 – Greg Koukl Interview

We have the great pleasure of welcoming Greg Koukl onto the show. We recently finished up walking through his book “Tactics” (https://tinyurl.com/yxjxf5s5) and he was gracious enough to come onto the show and talk about it with us.

Ep. 96 – Tactics – More Sweat, Less Blood

We close out Greg Koukl’s book “Tactics” with a final charge to be a better ambassador for Christ. We cover some tips and some challenges that will help us go out and deliver the Good News.

Ep. 95 – Tactics – Mini Tactics

Before we get to the conclusion of Tactics by Greg Koukl, we want to cover five mini tactics at the end. We talk about applying Jesus’ own words to a conversation, how to handle name-calling, embracing true but irrelevant objections, using better descriptor words than religious words, and the power of just saying, “So?”.

Ep. 94 – Tactics – Inside Out

If (or since) the Christian message is true, there are certain outcomes that stem from that starting point. One of those is that all people have in them the Imago Dei or “Image of God” and are imbued with certain universals. It is one of the reasons presuppositionalists want to speak to that realization when talking with unbelievers. With this inside quality making its way outside in people’s thinking and action, we can use this tactic to speak to that.

Ep. 93 – Tactics – Just The Facts, Ma’am

Believe it or not, sometimes Christians know what they’re talking about. We cover the tactic to use and not to be a jerk about it. We also cover a few examples like responding to Christopher Hitchen’s “God Is Not Great”, Dan Brown’s “The DaVinci Code”, abortion is murder, & Bible translation.

Ep. 92 – Tactics – Rhodes Scholar

A little longer episode today but one that is important. There are times when you, Average-Christian-Person have to respond to people who have “Dr.” before their names, a bunch of letters after, and are called “scholars” and “experts”. The question is, how do we respond to claims made by so-called scholars or true scholars that may speak out against Christian claims (or any claim really)? Well, here are a few ways we can.

Ep. 91 – Shea Houdmann Of GotQuestions.org Interview

We are pleased to be joined by the creator and CEO of GotQuestions.org – Shea Houdmann!  We talk about Shea’s journey to create one of the best depositories of answers to Christian answers on the whole internet.  We talk about what the work is like and how it’s done.  We also talk about the questions they get the most and the weirdest ones.

Ep. 90 – Tactics – Steamrollers

Because we live in a lot of interactions online, we seem to be going away from the interaction types where you speak and I listen THEN I speak and you listen.  In the day of response videos, reaction to only headlines, and wanting that “mic drop moment”, we sometimes encounter people who want to steamroll the conversation.  Here are some tactics on how to gracefully handle those moments.

Ep. 89 – Tactics – Taking The Roof Off

In this section, we look at evaluating the lens through which people see the world – through their worldview. Greg Koukl suggests that we, for the sake of argument, adopt their worldview and see where it might take us. Evaluating worldviews is a staple of the presuppositions model and a strong tool in a dialogue between opposing worldviews.

Ep. 88 – Tactics – Sibling Rivalry & Infanticide

For the third part of the tactic on identifying arguments that self-destruct, we look at two different ones.  We look at arguments that when held up next to each other aren’t allowed to exist at the same time and be consistent.  The other is arguments who have an underlying assumption that knocks out the claim.  We cover a few examples in there as well.

Ep. 87 – Tactics – Practical Self-Destruction

We looked at when arguments fail because they contradict themselves.  Now we look at when arguments don’t formally contradict themselves but they still fail due to practical reasons.  We have to remember, that the tactics here are to help engage in a dialogue and not used to make the other side feel like a failure.  Our goal is to give the Good News, not to “win”.

Ep. 86 – Tactics – Views That Self-Destruct

The next tactic to use when talking to someone about your faith is one that we’ve seen in our previous book by Nancy Pearcey “Finding Truth”. That is looking at what someone is saying and seeing if their own statement contradicts itself. Sometimes this is called the internal critique and if it contradicts itself it can be easily dismissed.

Ep. 85 – Tactics – Turnabout – Defending Against Columbo

So now that we have all parts of the Columbo down, can it ever be used against us?  Well, that’s what we want!  The tactics are there to have a good, helpful conversation!  However, there are times when the third part – ask leading questions – are neither leading anywhere or actually legitimate questions.  How do we combat that?  Would you be surprised to learn – the Columbo tactic?!

Ep. 84 – Tactics – Columbo Steps 3 – Using Questions To Make A Point & Perfecting Columbo

Completing the Columbo Tactic we see why it is such an important and versatile tactic. Now it’s time to use it. What can we do before getting into conversations and after? What style of presentation should we take? Who is our real audience? All questions to ask and learn to ask now. The episode link […]

Ep. 83 – Tactics – Two Reliable Rescues

Before getting to the third part of the Columbo tactic, Greg Koukl stops to inform us of two encounters we may have using the tactic. One encounter is with a surly professor who wants to decry Christianity but make you back up your side when you object. The other is the person who knows a lot more about the subject being discussed than you. Your hosts can relate to these encounters.