29 Questions Answered (Bible Theology, Apologetics)

Revealed Apologetics

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

Welcome back to another episode of Revealed Apologetics. I'm your host, Eli Ayala, and today

00:07

I'm gonna be tackling 29 questions, 29 questions, and these questions were,

00:13

I was speaking, I think in the winter, I was speaking at an event and there were a lot of questions that were sent into me through kind of this app system where I was able to kind of answer some of their questions.

00:26

And of course, there were a lot of questions that I was not able to get to. So I saved those questions and thought that it would be a good idea to cover the unanswered questions at a later time.

00:41

And so this is this later time. So I do that sometimes. Also, I received a list of questions that I was unable to get to, or actually, no, someone sent me a list of questions that he wanted to kind of hear my thoughts.

00:57

And I was like, hey, these are great questions. Maybe I can answer these on one of my live streams. So I'll be doing another set of questions as well in the future.

01:06

So just to give folks a heads up, by the way, okay, if I sound a little weird, okay, two days ago,

01:15

I got one wisdom tooth pulled out and a molar on the same side.

01:21

So it was horrible, okay? So I am on painkillers as we speak.

01:28

So if I sound a little different, that's the reason why. But I'm committed, man,

01:34

I'm here, okay? So I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to tackle these. Unfortunately, I won't be able to take questions from the comments as then

01:43

I would never get through the 29 questions, okay? But I'm gonna hopefully, these questions are pretty good.

01:51

There's some pretty good questions here. And so hopefully I can share some of my thoughts on some of them and folks will find them useful, okay?

01:59

So yeah, that's what's going down. I just came back from Florida. I was speaking down there in Florida in Fort Lauderdale and had a great time down there, got to meet some great people and to speak to young people there.

02:17

And we talked about the armor of God and why it's important, kind of incorporated some apologetics in that as well.

02:23

So again, a lot of people might hear this if you've listened to the show, but if you're looking for a speaker, a teacher or something, someone to teach apologetics, theology or anything along those lines,

02:35

I even preach sermons, things like that. You can hit me up through my website at revealedapologetics .com

02:41

and right there on the homepage, there's a way to reach out to me and we can set something up. So I got a couple of things coming up in the docket too.

02:48

So I'll be speaking in Pennsylvania in June. I think it's June, June or July.

02:53

And maybe in California in the future, not sure.

03:00

We'll see what, it's a fickle thing being a traveling speaker. Sometimes things fall through. Sometimes, hey man,

03:05

I wanna invite you down. It never happens. And then the person calls you like two years later and you're like, oh snap, okay.

03:11

So we'll see, but that's totally a thing. I am busy, but my summer schedule is coming up.

03:17

And so hopefully if someone wants to have me out, let's connect. I love meeting people in person, although I greatly appreciate those who listen in through the

03:27

YouTube channel and the podcast. Well, some good news. So I finished recording my new course.

03:36

And Kenny, you guys might be familiar with the courses that I recorded with Apologia, which

03:41

I highly recommend folks check out. The topics that were covered were presuppositional apologetics applied.

03:49

And so I basically did five lectures. The first one, let me see if I can remember in order. The first one was how to navigate apologetic conversations.

03:57

The second one was presupp applied to atheism. The third one was presupp applied to Roman Catholicism.

04:04

The fourth one was presupp applied to presuppositional Eastern Orthodoxy. And then the last one was presupp applied to the cults.

04:12

Now those are excellent. They're very nicely produced, super professional, but they're around,

04:19

I think each of the lectures around like 20 to 25 minutes, okay? So I had to fit a lot in a short amount of time, but they're still great.

04:25

They came out awesome. The guys over there at Apologia did amazing. However, I recorded longer versions of those with much more information along with some visuals that the

04:37

Apologia videos don't have with my PowerPoint slides and things like that. And so those will be on sale on my website in the near future, hopefully within the next two weeks or so.

04:49

So if someone's looking to kind of get a more immersive experience and it's a way to support what

04:54

I'm doing, I'll let folks know about that. It's a perfect companion to the first set of courses that I offered on the website.

05:02

So I will, people who are on my email list will get all that information and then hopefully folks will find that interesting and we'll sign up and be super, super exciting because I love to teach.

05:16

And so hopefully folks will be able to take those courses and it'll be useful to them.

05:23

All right, well, without further ado, I'm gonna jump in. I can't stay here yapping all day long. I have the 29 questions.

05:29

Let's begin. I don't wanna bore everyone with announces. Am I forgetting anything?

05:35

What else is happening? I'm probably forgetting something, but nevertheless, let's do this here.

05:40

So again, just to give context, these questions were given to me by teenagers.

05:47

These are teenagers asking questions. And so I find a lot of them fascinating and hopefully my answers,

05:53

I gotta keep it somewhat short. I'm just kind of gonna go through these, but hopefully they'll be helpful, okay?

06:00

All right, so the first question, someone asked, is it okay to be with someone who knows the

06:06

Lord and is active in church, but does not make him a number one priority? Does God want me to date him?

06:14

All right, so I think that a Christian relationship should reflect the mutual pursuit of God and his glory as the highest goal, okay?

06:25

So in 2 Corinthians 6, 14, right? Paul urges believers not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

06:31

And again, in this case, this person apparently is a believer, but it highlights this idea of spiritual compatibility, right?

06:39

If a person doesn't prioritize God, then that's gonna lead, that could lead to spiritual compromise and really could hold you back in your relationship with God.

06:46

So you don't jump into relationships kind of willy -nilly, right? We wanna be able to know what we're getting into.

06:55

You wanna get a feel for how spiritually mature the other person is, and that's gonna definitely factor into your decision.

07:03

Again, you gotta be careful because when you get into relationships, you know, the emotions are running. It's very easy to be like, well, you know, it's not a big deal.

07:09

Let me tell you something. Someone who is spiritually immature can be a detriment, okay? Unequally yoked is not simply referencing being with an unbeliever.

07:20

You could be unequally yoked and be with a believer. And there's, you know, you have people who are far more spiritually mature than other people.

07:27

And so you want to kind of find a balance. Now, again, there's gonna be some level of subjectivity in that, right? Okay, but you wanna kind of go into the relationship thinking in terms of compatibility, right?

07:38

And where this person is at spiritually, okay? So that would be my advice there.

07:44

If someone's not making, you know, if you can see that in the person, that they're not making God their number one priority,

07:51

I mean, that might be a red flag, right? Again, no one's perfect. But I mean, if it's so obvious this person's not making

07:58

God a priority, then, you know, maybe that's something that would factor into, you know, the route you take in terms of choosing whether you want to date this individual, okay?

08:09

Hope that's helpful. I hope that makes sense, okay? Okay, so second question, gonna fly through here.

08:16

So how do I know how God speaks to me? That's a good question, okay? How do I know how

08:21

God speaks to me? I don't know whether it's truly God speaking or just noises in my head, okay?

08:27

All right, so that's a good question. All right, a lot of people kind of have a difficult time distinguishing whether God is speaking to them or whether it's kind of just like, is this me speaking to myself, right?

08:40

Kind of rationalizing things, okay? I think it's important to recognize that God primarily speaks through his word, okay?

08:47

And the inspired word of God is the primary way that God speaks to us. Second Timothy 3 .16 through 17, you know, it's divine speech, okay?

08:56

This is the primary way. We gotta be very careful about the subjective aspect of our inner thoughts and things like this, okay?

09:03

Now the Holy Spirit definitely guides us in this life, but he always guides us in a way that is in line with his word, okay?

09:12

I think prayer, seeking wise counsel, aligning the impressions that we get with biblical truth,

09:18

I think are gonna be super important in helping us discern God's word. So recognizing the fact that God primarily speaks to us through his word and going there first before we start determining, well, is this idea in my head

09:32

God or not, right? Everything must be compared to the word of God. That is our ultimate standard.

09:39

Our ultimate standard is the objective, external standard of scripture, not the internal subjective feelings that God may or may not be speaking to me, okay?

09:49

I think that's very, very important. Everything comes back to scripture, all right?

09:55

Okay, three, several mainstream churches are very welcoming to the gay community.

10:00

I see a rainbow flag hanging outside some churches. Is this something that is okay?

10:07

Okay, well, we gotta tackle this one. Okay, so the Bible, let me preface it with this. The Bible calls

10:12

Christians to love and welcome people, right, we need to do this. Matthew 22, 39, we're to love our neighbors, these sorts of things.

10:20

However, I think it's clear, and this is not, I mean, people debate it, but I don't think this is a debatable issue at all.

10:26

The Bible teaches that homosexual practices are sinful, right, in Romans chapter one, verses 26 through 27, it speaks of people participating in unnatural, unnatural activity, right, with respect to homosexuality.

10:39

Churches need to speak the truth and love, as Ephesians 4, 15 tells us, but we need to also call for repentance and really preach the gospel of Jesus Christ while remaining firm in what the

10:51

Bible teaches, okay? We live in a very interesting culture today when you disagree with someone that somehow equals hatred, right?

11:02

Or, you know, if I say, hey, homosexuality and the lifestyle of homosexuality is not honoring to God, you know, people might call you like a homophobe or something like that, you know?

11:10

We need to say, well, hold up, I don't have homophobia, I'm not afraid of you, I don't have a phobia of you, but if you're asking me, is this okay,

11:20

I'm gonna give you what the word of God says, okay? And that should be our response. With respect to how we ought to view the issue of homosexuality and things like that, we need to stand on what

11:31

Scripture teaches. Now, the church should be welcoming to people, okay? Homosexuals should be allowed in the church, but they're going to hear the gospel, okay?

11:42

The presence of homosexuals in the congregation are not going to impact the biblical message that we need to be preaching from the pulpit and what we need to be reflecting with respect to just being consistent with biblical teaching, okay?

11:55

So again, it's very interesting that a lot of times we are so concerned with not offending people with our views that when we're concerned with not offending people, we end up offending

12:07

God, and that's a problem, right? We can't be more concerned, okay, about not offending someone else, but then in the process, offending

12:18

God because we are not standing on his truth. And so, yeah,

12:23

I think that's super important, right? We want to stick with the Scriptures, even though it's not popular, we want to stick with what the word of God says, and we don't let any group of people or any, you know, whatever community, whether it's the gay community, the

12:39

LGB, there's so many, I don't even know all of them, they do not dictate what the word of God says.

12:44

We stand on the truth of God's word with respect to those issues, okay? Good question.

12:51

All right, question number four, how would I explain to a non -believer that a just and loving

12:58

God can send people to hell, okay? By the way, I spoke at a conference a while back called

13:10

Rethinking Hell with Chris Date and shared the stage there with Chris Date, Braxton Hunter of Trinity Radio, Michael Jones of Inspiring Philosophy.

13:20

I flew out there to Indiana, and my topic was, is apologetics,

13:25

I'm sorry, is hell a problem for apologetics? That's on my channel, I should have put it in the description if folks wanted to check that out.

13:32

But yeah, this question comes up a lot, right? So I think it's important in answering this question to understand that God's justice and his love are not contradictory concepts, right?

13:42

His justice demands that sin be punished, right? Romans 6 .23, the wages of sin is death, right?

13:50

But of course, at the same time, his love is demonstrated in Jesus, right, who bore the penalty for those who trust in him, okay?

13:56

People who reject Christ choose separation from God and face the eternal consequences. Because God is holy,

14:02

God is just, and God is righteous, that's what he's going to do, okay? This is very important because a lot of times we have a very imbalanced view of God, okay?

14:10

How can a loving God send people to hell? Well, the answer to that, quite frankly, is that because he's not only loving,

14:18

God is also just, he's holy, he's righteous, all these sorts of things that incorporate a fully robust and balanced view of God are going to play into how we answer that question from a biblical perspective, okay?

14:30

The question becomes difficult to answer if the diet of theological education that we're getting from the pulpit and wherever we're learning these things from, if it's giving us a kind of one -sided picture of who

14:42

God is, okay? A lot of people talk about the love of God, not a lot of people like to talk about the uncomfortable aspects of God.

14:51

And so I think a balanced view with respect to the nature of God will help us answer this question easier, okay?

14:57

More easily. All right, question number five, are there any good arguments against Darwinian evolution? Okay, so I do think there are good arguments against a

15:07

Darwinian evolution. Again, I'm not a biologist or an expert in this area. One thing that I think is helpful though, especially if you are navigating discussions with atheists over the topic of evolution,

15:18

I know a lot of people have suggested that evolution is compatible with the Bible.

15:24

You know, you have the theistic evolutionist perspective. To be perfectly honest, I don't buy theistic evolution one bit.

15:31

I just don't, I don't find it convincing at all, the arguments that they use, but that's just me.

15:37

I do believe that you can hold to theistic evolution and be a Christian. I'm not saying that people who are theistic evolutionist aren't

15:43

Christians. I just don't buy the interpretation they offer and I don't think they're treating the text in the way that the text ought to be treated.

15:51

But be that as it may, I do think that one helpful way, and this is where presuppositionalism comes in,

15:58

I think very usefully, is recognizing that when we're dealing with science, and this is especially useful to someone who's not familiar with the science but still is engaging in these sorts of conversations,

16:08

I think it's important to recognize the role of one's presuppositions in terms of how that impacts how the data is interpreted.

16:18

So for example, you take the issue of homological structures, these physical structures that look similar and so people try to draw kind of an evolutionary connection.

16:26

Why is it the case that an evolutionist will look at that data, those homological structures, see similarities, and conclude, look, there's an evolutionary relationship here, and I'm simplifying things.

16:37

Obviously, there's more involved in this. Then you have a Christian who takes the Bible, he believes the

16:42

Bible teaches special creation, and he looks at that same data and he says, oh my goodness, look, these homological structures,

16:48

God created these organisms with similar physical features. You see, you have two people looking at the same data but coming to different conclusions.

16:56

The issue is not the data, the issue is the interpretation of the data. And so when you're looking in terms of arguments against Darwinian evolution, you can go back and forth in terms of, you have people appealing to the lack of transitional fossils, which is something that's expected by the theory, people appeal to irreducible complexity and complex systems like the eye and DNA, which point to intelligent design and all that kind of stuff.

17:20

You could have those discussions, and I think they're important, but really, you don't wanna get into a battle over whose pile of evidence is bigger because the issue is not who has more evidence, the issue is who is interpreting the data correctly, and that's gonna be super, super helpful.

17:35

So coming at an evolutionary issue presuppositionally, I think is gonna be important because it really is a presuppositional issue, right?

17:44

It's looking at data and we are interpreting the data differently because we have different presuppositions. And so I think that would be a helpful way to kind of interact with issues relating to Darwinian evolution, okay?

17:56

Hope that's helpful, all right? And folks, while I did say that I'm not taking questions in the comments because I have to get through all these, if you find my answer is useful, let me know.

18:05

And I'll say, hey, that was a great answer. Oh, hey, I have something to add, or hey, I totally disagree with you. Those are all fine and acceptable responses there.

18:15

So, all right, let's see here. So question number six, someone asked, do you think the

18:21

Garden of Eden was a myth? I've heard people say it was more figurative and not literal, okay?

18:27

So just to be blunt, right? So I think the Bible presents the Garden of Eden as a historical place, okay?

18:32

Genesis describes it as the location where Adam and Eve lived. Jesus and Paul reference it as a real place. I mean, you have references in Matthew 19, four through five,

18:40

Romans five, 12 through 14 in the New Testament. It is spoken of as a real place. There's no reason for me to think that it is not a literal place.

18:47

But you wanna be careful too. So in logic, there is a fallacy known as the false dichotomy.

18:53

Someone says that you're presented with two options for something, but in reality, there's more than two options, right?

18:59

Is it figurative or is it literal? Well, you could have a third option, namely that it can be both.

19:05

There's a sense in which it's referring to a literal place, but it also has a broader kind of maybe figurative or symbolic application, right?

19:13

So they can be both. And I think it's very interesting that some concepts within the

19:19

Bible have those elements to it, right? Where we're talking about something that's literally true, but there's also some figurative aspects to it.

19:25

And I don't think that's a problem at all. But just to answer the question directly, I do think that the Garden of Eden was an actual place, all right?

19:34

Excellent questions. Number seven, we're plowing through these. All right, number seven, this person says, could there have been a creation before us and will there be another after?

19:46

All right, so, and then this again, this interesting question because it's kind of related to, you know, some people hold to like the gap theory.

19:53

You know, there's a gap of time between Genesis chapter one, verses one and two, okay?

19:59

I don't hold to a gap theory. I don't think that we should place gaps where it's not implied in the text.

20:05

That's just me. I know that there are some arguments that people use. To be perfectly honest, I don't buy it personally, okay?

20:12

But the Bible doesn't provide, as I understand it, evidence of a creation before our current one, right?

20:18

So Genesis one describes the creation of the heavens and the earth. And in Revelation 21, it speaks of a new heaven and a new earth that God's gonna create in the future.

20:25

And so there's no indication of any creation before the one that's described in Genesis, okay?

20:31

And I know people kind of make that argument, you know, in Genesis one about the chaos and all that kind of stuff.

20:37

I don't think that that warrants a view that there was a creation prior to the creation that is recorded for us in the first chapter there, okay?

20:48

All right, question number eight. We'll see how long these painkillers last, whew.

20:54

Can scientific explanations of creation and destruction of species or dinosaurs coexist with biblical truths?

21:01

I don't know if I understand that question. Can scientific explanations of creation and destruction of species coexist with the,

21:09

I think so, if I understand the question. Yeah, scientific findings and the Bible, yeah, they can coexist in the sense that they're compatible, right?

21:20

Yeah, see, here's the thing. People will say something to the effect that science conflicts with the

21:25

Bible, okay? I wanna clarify, this is important, okay? I don't think science conflicts with the

21:32

Bible. I think certain interpretations of the data conflict with the

21:38

Bible, okay? And this is where the presuppositional issue comes in, right? So it's not that science, that there's this thing called science and it just flat out contradicts what the

21:48

Bible teaches. Things must be interpreted, right? Evidence must be, the data must be interpreted in a certain way and then used as evidence to support whatever thing you're trying to demonstrate, okay?

21:58

That's so important. This is why I place such a great emphasis on presuppositions. They literally are the determining factor of how we understand human experience and the things that we come in contact with in terms of data and how we look at the natural world and how we understand the natural world.

22:15

All of that is going to be filtered through a worldview lens, okay? And so that's gonna impact what we say about those things.

22:22

So I think it's important to keep that in mind. All right, question number nine. Question number nine is, shouldn't a church service be ornate in order to replicate the practices of worshiping

22:34

God in the tabernacle? That's an interesting question. No, I think while it's true that in the

22:44

Old Testament, the tabernacle was very ornate, right? I think my understanding of the

22:51

New Testament, I think the New Testament emphasizes, I think simplicity in worship, okay?

22:56

Jesus teaches that true worship is in spirit and in truth, John 4, 23 through 24, okay?

23:03

So while churches can use liturgical elements to reflect beauty and all these sorts of things, I think simplicity and sincere devotion from the heart are more important than what things look like, okay?

23:15

There's nothing wrong with ornate churches and ornate services, but I think God is more concerned with the posture of one's heart, okay?

23:26

And that's really, I mean, a fancy building with all the decorations and the bells and whistles,

23:32

I don't think is what is key. I think it is the heart that is the issue.

23:39

All right, question number 10. What arguments are there for why the Apocrypha is not included in Protestant Bibles? Well, Protestant Bibles, yep, we exclude the

23:46

Apocrypha. These books were not part of the Hebrew canon by the Jewish people. We even might point out that they lack internal claims of divine inspiration within themselves.

23:57

And the New Testament, I think, yeah, the New Testament authors didn't even quote from the Apocrypha. So this is a big discussion.

24:04

Of course, this is wrapped up a lot in discussions and debates between Protestants and Catholics. It is not included for us because we hold to the

24:13

Jewish canon. And of course, it was added to the canon from the Roman Catholic perspective in the 1540s, which was really a result of the

24:22

Protestant Reformation, which I think is an interesting kind of context for those books to be added, given the things that were being debated at that time.

24:30

But yeah, I don't think that the Apocrypha belongs in the canon of scripture, nor do I acknowledge the authority of the

24:36

Roman Catholic Church to declare that they ought to be considered canonical, okay? Now, there is a whole history behind that discussion, and I understand that there are more sophisticated arguments that people use, but just kind of in a thumbnail sketch, those are my thoughts on that.

24:51

Good question. All right, question number 11. Question number 11.

24:57

How can I communicate with God more often and build a personal relationship? What are the key aspects and dynamics of this relationship?

25:05

Isn't that a good question? This is from teenagers. That's super cool. Teenagers asking these questions.

25:11

These are super important questions. Now, when I answer this question, I'm not claiming that I've mastered the art of all these things, right?

25:18

We all have our struggles in kind of personal spiritual formation, but here's some key aspects that I think are important, okay?

25:26

Obviously, prayer, okay? Regular communication with God is going to be key in the growth of our relationship with God.

25:32

The less we communicate with God, the more stifled we're gonna become, right? Prayer is our lifeline to God, okay?

25:38

Prayer, coupled with, of course, Bible reading and Bible studying. I make a distinction between reading your

25:44

Bible and studying your Bible, okay? Studying your Bible is something that we do that's much more in -depth, right, than just passively kind of just reading the words on the page.

25:52

We wanna read the scriptures. We wanna grow in the knowledge of God's word because growing close to God, I think, is a union between praying, right?

26:05

We are in communication with him, and that communication and relationship is bolstered when we also know more about him.

26:12

So the intellect, knowing the facts about God, coupled with allowing those facts to enrich our understanding of our dynamic relationship with him,

26:21

I think goes a long way in strengthening, right? The more we know someone, the closer we're gonna grow, right?

26:26

God has given us the source to know him, the scriptures. And so Bible study is gonna be key. Prayer, Bible study.

26:32

I think another aspect is consistent fellowship, participating in the local churches. Hebrews 10, 25 makes reference to.

26:39

The Christian faith is not meant to be lived kind of like as a rogue, right?

26:44

You have those people say, yo, I don't need to go to church, right? I listen to my sermons on the

26:49

TV. I don't need to be there. Hey, listen, not going to church, it's not, you won't go to hell simply for not going to church, but if you profess to be a believer,

27:01

I would wonder why you wouldn't go to church, okay? You'd have to have a really good reason not to fellowship. I think participating in the local church is gonna be super, super important, okay?

27:10

I think another aspect is trying to actively live in obedience to God, living in accordance to God's will, okay?

27:17

While it's true that we're not saved by our works, I think our works is a demonstration of the genuineness of our faith.

27:22

We show our love for God by obeying his word, and that too enriches our relationship with him.

27:29

And of course, just a good old fashioned trust, depending on God in all circumstances, okay? Don't lean on yourself, lean on God.

27:36

Trust in God. The scriptures tell us what God wants us to do, trust and go, okay?

27:42

Doing these sorts of things like prayer, Bible study, fellowship, obeying God, trusting in him, I think are super helpful ways to help build your relationship with him and with others as well.

27:53

As I said before, the Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation. All right, question number 12.

28:02

Why does God allow the suffering of children who aren't equipped to deal with hardships, like debilitating diseases, sexual assault, school shootings, et cetera?

28:12

Oof, oh man. Well, I mean, I don't wanna sound generic, but the fact is, okay, we live in a fallen world, right?

28:21

Suffering is a result of being in a fallen world. God uses suffering in ways that are given to us in scripture.

28:28

The scriptures tell us how he uses suffering, and then there are other aspects of why these things happen that I don't know the answer to.

28:35

But I do know that God uses suffering partially to refine us, to strengthen our faith, to bring others to himself, but in the end, here's the

28:43

Christian hope. Even though I can't explain exactly why God allows these specific hardships,

28:49

I can put my trust in the fact that God will one day wipe away every tear and eradicate all suffering, as Revelation 21 teaches us, right?

28:57

And so we can hope in the future and final victory and destruction of those things.

29:03

But in the meantime, knowing that these things occur, the Bible also gives us commands as to how we are to, how can

29:11

I say this, help to rectify those things. He calls us to protect and care for those who are vulnerable. So if you know that this is a real life situation, then use what

29:19

God has given you in terms of the scriptures and equipping you with his spirit to speak into those things and to fight against suffering and injustice and these sorts of things, knowing that in the end,

29:30

God ultimately will get the glory and accomplish his purposes, even through those difficult, well, kind of that difficult example in that question there.

29:39

Not an easy question to answer. Now I know it's kind of a, somebody goes, oh, I remember speaking at Texas A &M

29:45

University, International University with, I think it was there, Eric Hernandez, who is a good friend of mine, great

29:54

Christian apologist. He's a classical guy, but he's a good friend. He wrote, I think his book is called

30:01

The Lazy Approach to Evangelism. I highly recommend folks pick that book up, The Lazy Approach to Evangelism.

30:06

It's a good book. And I was there sharing the platform with Eric Hernandez, Matt Slick, and a couple of other people that I don't remember their names.

30:14

I'm sorry, it was a long time ago. And I remember someone asked a question similar to this, like why do bad things happen?

30:22

And then the person, at the tail end of the question, why do bad things happen?

30:27

And don't say because we live in a fallen world. And I remember answering, well, I don't like when people try to dictate the answers

30:34

I give, but it's true. The reason why there's suffering is because we do live in a fallen world. Don't ask me a question as a

30:41

Christian and then tell me that I can't give you a biblical answer. The reality is we live in a sinful world. There is suffering.

30:47

This is the result of sin. And so it's not easy to answer these questions.

30:54

And I don't know the specific answers to all of these questions, but sin does play a big factor.

31:00

And of course, I know that the reality of sin is not something that caught God off guard. I think that God works all things out according to his plan, but this is true.

31:10

Sin is a reality. It makes things very difficult and very hard. And so, yeah, it's not easy, but it's true.

31:19

All right, question number 13. If Peter calls his generation evil, are we hopeless?

31:25

My goodness. No, we're not hopeless, okay? Even when things look bad, what is it?

31:32

Post -Tenebrous, looked, right? After darkness, light. I mean, things prior to the

31:37

Reformation looked pretty dark, but again, you had kind of a revival of turning back to the word of God.

31:44

Obviously, I'm not looking at the Reformation through rose -colored glasses, but it was definitely a good thing that the word of God and the authority of God's word became prominent at that time, especially in the dark times that it was during that period.

31:59

So yeah, I don't think our generation is hopeless. Peter refers to his generation as crooked and perverse, right, in chapter two, verse 40.

32:08

He points to the hope, though, through Jesus Christ. Every generation faces sin. They face all sorts of terrible things, but salvation is available to all who repent and believe in Jesus, okay?

32:18

And so if you think about it, as long as the gospel's here, as long as God is accomplishing his purposes, there is no such thing as a generation that is completely and entirely hopeless, okay?

32:30

Thank you, Jonathan Myron. Let's see here, Jonathan. I like your new video thumbnail. Yeah, I was messing around with some

32:36

AI there, kind of made a version of it. That's why I wore the pink shirt. You guys noticed that. Thank you for that.

32:42

Yeah, appreciate it. Let's see here. Number 14.

32:49

Okay, what are some good ways to study your Bible? Now, that's a big question.

32:55

There are a lot of different ways to study your Bible. It depends. I mean, people learn differently.

33:02

I am a big audio guy because it is hard for me, because I'm always on the move, to sit down and read, like with an open book, although I do have my

33:12

Bible. I have my ginormous ESV study Bible. There we go, boom.

33:19

It's a nice leather one. It's very nice, actually. I mean, it's not the fancy kind of, you know, that goat skin, right?

33:26

You got them bougie Bibles. I can't. What's up with that, right? The salvation is free, but a study

33:33

Bible, man, costs a lot of money, okay? And I don't even have the, this is kind of like regular leather.

33:40

It's a nice leather, but it's not like the bougie bougie, you know, the goat skin, you know, made from a little baby goat, you know,

33:47

Dr. James White always brags about his Bibles, where he's like, oh, the cover's so silky smooth, you know, not everybody can be bougie like that, all right?

33:57

But anyway, you can study the Bible just fine without a bougie Bible, okay?

34:02

Anyway, so here are a couple of thoughts. So you can study the Bible in a bunch of different ways. I'm an audio guy, so I like to listen, and then

34:08

I can put on pause. I can think, maybe write a note or whatever, or you can listen while you're reading the Bible, if that's your thing. But when you're actually engaging the text,

34:15

I think contextual study is good, right? So understanding verses, when you take a look at portions of scripture, understanding verses in their immediate and broader biblical context is gonna be super important.

34:25

So when you read a verse or a passage, you wanna ask yourself, well, what does this passage mean in its specific immediate context?

34:31

And then kind of broaden out kind of helicopter view, what does this mean in the broader context of the book or the broader context of the entire scripture?

34:39

Coming at the scripture in kind of a contextual study will help you kind of be able to narrow in on specific passages and then kind of slowly zoom out and see how it fits in the bigger picture.

34:49

I think that's super helpful. You could also do what's called topical studies, right? Explore certain themes across the scriptures, like the atonement or justification or some theological topic, do a study in the scriptures on that topic.

35:06

I think that's super, super helpful. If you're not on that level in terms of, I think my mic turned off for two seconds.

35:40

There we go. Can someone give me a thumbs up if you can hear me okay? Can you hear me okay? Yeah, look at this dude right here.

35:46

Mm -hmm, mm -hmm. Jonathan Myron, I got a goatskin MacArthur study Bible. Go ahead and brag, bro.

35:53

Go ahead and brag. A goatskin. And not everybody can get that goatskin, bro.

36:00

All right. Enjoy it now, you know what I'm saying? I wish I had a goatskin Bible. So, I mean,

36:05

I don't know. If somebody wanted to donate a goatskin Bible to me, I wouldn't fight you. You know, I'd be like, okay, you know?

36:10

And then I could be bougie with you, but a man could dream. All right, so there you go.

36:16

So, contextual study, topical studies, devotional reading, using a good commentary. Obviously, don't rely on the commentary.

36:22

The word of God is pretty clear. And there's a lot of difficult aspects too, but read the Bible for yourself. And if you need a little help, then a good

36:29

Bible commentary would be a good companion in terms of going a little deeper. All right?

36:35

All right. Here's what he says here. This guy, it cost me my whole allowance.

36:41

I know, my goodness. See, now I'm a gamer. I bet you a goatskin Bible would cost more than a

36:47

PS5. That's not of God. That's just too much, man.

36:53

I wish. I have felt one before. So, it's kind of like when you go to those car shows, like people, you know, like I'll tell people,

37:00

I sat in a Lamborghini once, but you know, the security told me, okay, now your time is up, get up.

37:05

That's it. I've held a goatskin Bible, but then, you know, the person was like, all right, give it back. So, there you go.

37:12

All right. So, question number 15. If this is useful to you, man, let me know.

37:20

Show me some love in the comments if you're enjoying this. Is this useful? Is this helpful? Do you like this format where I'm kind of just going through questions?

37:26

I'm interested in what you've got to say. So, let me know what's good. All right? All right, number 15.

37:34

Oh my goodness. I hope this doesn't wear off the painkillers. How does the Bible define what a soul is?

37:42

How does the Bible define what a soul? So, I don't think the Bible gives like an explicit definition of a soul, right?

37:48

But I think, in my understanding, the Bible views the soul as an immaterial aspect of a person, right?

37:54

So, in Genesis 2 .7, man is said to become a nefesh, a living soul, right? After God breathes into him the breath of life.

38:01

So, the soul basically is the immaterial aspect of man, and it encompasses man's emotion, his intellect, his will, basically the inner being of the man.

38:11

So, I think that the soul is the immaterial aspect to man. I would say that man is both physical, he's material, right?

38:19

God formed man out of the dust of the ground, that's the physical, and breathed into man the breath of life, that's the soul.

38:25

Okay? And I personally hold to the position that the soul and the spirit are two different words that refer to the same thing.

38:32

So, I'm not a, what we call a trichotomist, where there's a division between soul and spirit and body and all that kind of stuff.

38:40

I think you have body and you have soul spirit. See, I always say that real quick, soul spirit. So, soul and spirit can be used interchangeably.

38:46

Okay? And I have reasons for that, as to why I hold that view. Interesting topic, though. I think there's a,

38:52

Louis Burkhoff's Systematic Theology has a section on trichotomy and dichotomy with respect to the soul.

38:57

Might find interesting here. All right. Question number 16. How to separate yourself from people of this world and how can one defeat being a lukewarm

39:10

Christian? Okay, so, separating from worldly influences is gonna involve guarding your heart against sin and maintaining your fellowship with God.

39:26

Okay, I'll say that again. So, separating from worldly influences is gonna involve guarding your heart against sin and maintaining your fellowship with God.

39:35

Kind of reminds me of the story where Peter goes out into the Sea of Galilee, where he's gonna, you know,

39:41

Jesus is walking on the water and you see Peter falling into the water because he loses his focus on Jesus.

39:47

I think that story's literally true, but there's a great metaphor there, that if we want to separate ourselves and kind of live the straight and narrow, we need to learn to keep our eyes on Jesus, okay?

39:59

Now, defeating lukewarmness, I mean, when you think this idea of lukewarm, we're kind of like in the middle here.

40:06

We're not doing what we're supposed to be doing. We're not falling off the other extreme as well. I think to avoid being lukewarm, we need to be very intentional, okay, in our walk with God.

40:16

We wanna, it requires intentional devotion, okay? Daily prayer, obedience to God's word, right?

40:24

Accountability with others, right? Is being in the life of the church. All of these things can help us avoid being lukewarm.

40:31

Stay active, be intentional, okay? And be intentional about being intentional if that makes sense, all right?

40:38

All right, number 17, say that a child of God is being led by false prophets and people who are using ministry for their own personal gain.

40:47

Why does God allow this, okay? So, I mean, I'm gonna sound like, you know, a broken record, but false prophets are part of a fallen world, right?

40:58

God allows their presence for a number of reasons. It is a fallen world, of course. You're gonna have false prophets.

41:04

But God allows the presence of false prophets, and you see this in scripture, to test the faithfulness of the believer.

41:09

Check out Deuteronomy 13, verses one through four, right? We're called to discern through scripture and guard against deception, right?

41:17

First John 4 .1. But ultimately, God's gonna judge those who exploit, you know, his purposes and plans for personal gain, right?

41:25

So there are false prophets out there, but God permits it because he permits, you know, for his purposes, sinners to be sinners.

41:35

And even in that, God is accomplishing his purposes through the evil and corruption of people, right?

41:41

That's the sovereign God we serve, okay? Even sinful man, crucified the

41:47

Lord of glory. God used the evil of men to accomplish his purposes of redemption.

41:53

So God has purposes. It involves many things, some of which include testing the faithfulness of believers, okay?

42:00

Check that passage out, Deuteronomy 13, verses one through four. Super helpful in that regard. All right, question number 18.

42:10

Okay, we're moving along, man. I think we'll end at the top of the hour. It's just perfect, okay?

42:16

Right when the medicine is about to wear off. See, I can't even smile all the way. Let me tell you, when

42:22

I got this tooth, well, the teeth pulled out. So the wisdom tooth came out mad quick.

42:29

It just came out, I didn't feel it at all. And then the molar, when they were pulling it out, I was like, ooh,

42:35

I feel that. And so they had to stick the needle in there and numb me up again. They had to do it three separate times.

42:40

And boy, oh boy, man, that hurt. So they ripped that thing out. They opened my jaw, my jaw is sore.

42:46

It was terrible, man. I mean, maybe it wasn't terrible. Maybe I'm just a wimp. That could be it too.

42:52

I'm not a big fan of the dentist. I've never really been a big fan of the dentist, but I have to say that my personal dentist, he did a good job, even though it hurt a lot.

43:01

So anyway, let's go to question 18. Question 18, what are your thoughts on the controversy about God being a she or having no gender?

43:13

Okay, so yeah, so God doesn't have a gender, right? So the Bible refers to God in masculine terms and describes him as father, right?

43:20

It plays all throughout scripture, Matthew 6, 9. But ultimately we know that God is a spirit, John 4, 24, right?

43:26

He's not bound by human gender. And so you even see aspects of God kind of embodying both genders.

43:34

He's described as a mother. He can be described as a father, but he has chosen to describe himself primarily in masculine terms.

43:42

This has nothing to do with his, I just lost my train of thought.

43:52

In other words, he identifies as father, okay? But that is not a reference to gender because God does not have a body, okay?

44:00

He is a universal spirit, John 4, 24. He's a spirit, an everywhere present spirit.

44:06

So he's not limited by kind of a physical makeup or anything like that. So any terms that are gendered terms that are used for God is not meant to be taken in kind of a wooden literal way, okay?

44:21

Let's see here, let me see here. Dentists are just short of the devil.

44:30

Oh my goodness. Will you end the stream when the 29 questions end or will you answer love chat questions after 29?

44:37

We'll see how I feel, man. We'll see how I feel. Maybe I'll take a couple afterwards, okay?

44:43

I'm a teacher, so man, I'm talking all day. So, but we'll see what's up. I'll see how I feel afterwards and then

44:48

I'll, if you have a couple of questions, I'll try my best to answer them, all right? All right, so let's see what's up over here.

44:53

So we are on question 19. Why do you think it's easy for everyone to make fun of Christianity, but the second someone says anything about any other religion, it's deemed offensive?

45:06

That's a good question. I don't know what's up with that. You know, people make fun of Christianity in the movies and media and then when someone makes fun of Islam, oh my goodness, right?

45:22

All hell breaks loose. Yeah, I think that's an interesting, I don't know the answer to that question.

45:28

I know that obviously Christianity is obviously gonna bump up, bump into kind of the society's values of today, right?

45:37

The gospel is a contentious thing, but I don't know why people pick out

45:43

Christianity specifically, yeah, not sure. That's a good question.

45:50

Oh, it's stumped me, right? Let's see here. Number 20, what does the

45:57

Bible say about healing deliverance ministries done by ministers across the world? Is it unbiblical as many people follow these ministries?

46:05

So, okay, so while the work, I'm gonna say this, while God can work through healing and deliverance, right?

46:13

Ministries focused solely on those things I think can be problematic if they're focusing on those things at the expense of sound doctrine, okay?

46:22

True ministries, true godly ministries are going to prioritize the preaching of the gospel and everything they're gonna do is gonna be aligned with biblical principles.

46:31

So when we look at these healing and deliverance ministries, they often have kind of sketchy theology.

46:37

People say, oh, you're just being too theological and blah, blah, blah. Listen, the Bible gives us standards to test.

46:44

The Bible tells us to test all things, we're gonna test all things. When people overemphasize one aspect of ministry to the exclusion of say, like those foundational doctrinal truths, there's gonna be a problem.

46:54

But if a ministry is standing square on the word of God and they're engaging in prayer and all these sorts of stuff,

47:03

I think that's in line with scripture. Now, it depends when you're talking about healing and things like that. Is this kind of a spiritual gifts issues?

47:12

Is this an issue of like cessationism and continuationism? I'm not sure if that's what they mean and that kind of opens up another discussion, but we'll leave it right there.

47:21

There's a lot to speak to that specific topic. All right, number 21, when people claim to have seen a glimpse of heaven or hell, is there legitimacy in that?

47:31

How would you use discernment when hearing the stories? I would use discernment in hearing those stories by comparing everything said with the scriptures.

47:41

Scripture alone is gonna provide reliable knowledge about heaven and hell.

47:47

Personal experiences don't always reflect biblical truth. There are some crazy people out there, man.

47:54

There's people who say some crazy stuff. I went to hell. There was this one book that was really popular back in the day. It was called

47:59

The Divine Revelation of Hell. Okay, matter of fact, let me get the author up here.

48:05

Let me see if I could find this book. It's probably still Divine Revelation of Hell.

48:17

Boom, by Mary Baxter. This came out a while ago. This is when I was little.

48:22

This book was popular, okay? Now, this woman, she wrote this book.

48:27

I remember reading this book, and it was so detailed. You would be petrified, like, oh my goodness, right? Yeah, don't worry.

48:39

I meant live, not love. Hey, if you have love chat questions, I mean, I don't know what that means, you know what

48:44

I'm saying? But if you have a question, I'll try to answer it. No worries, man. I do that all the time, too, when

48:50

I text. I do voice to text sometimes, and the wrong thing comes out, and I'm like, oh, snap. I need to be careful.

48:57

Anyway, in this book, Divine Revelation of Hell, this woman described hell as being in the shape of a human body.

49:07

Now, it's interesting, because I don't think hell is shaped as a human body, and even if it was, it's interesting that she is giving information about hell that is not itself given in scripture, and so how do

49:22

I test someone who is making claims like this, if the Bible is my standard, but they're giving extra biblical material,

49:29

I mean, then you run into some problems there, right? So everything with respect to heaven and hell, we're gonna have to test things against the word of God.

49:37

Is it impossible that God can take someone to heaven or take someone to hell or whatever?

49:42

No, it's not impossible, but that don't mean we ain't gonna believe everybody who claims to have been there, right? Everyone these days, right, everyone and their mother has been to hell or heaven, right?

49:51

Coming out with a new book. By the way, this author, Mary Baxter, who wrote the Divine Revelation of Hell, it was a very popular book at the time, okay?

49:59

And of course, when it was popular, guess what? The sequel came out, Divine Revelation of Heaven, of course, right?

50:08

And there's Divine Revelation, there's a whole series, is there, let me see, Divine Revelation of Hell, there's

50:14

Divine Revelation of Heaven, Divine Revelation of Heaven and Hell.

50:20

I don't know if that's a different one. It is a different one, it came out different. Okay, you got, hold up, time out.

50:26

So you have, I'm looking here, so Divine Revelation of Hell and then there's

50:31

Divine Revelation of Heaven and then there's Divine Revelation of Heaven and Hell.

50:37

What in the world? Divine Revelation of Prayer, Divine Revelation of Deliverance, Divine Revelation of Satan's Deceptions, Divine Revelation of the

50:48

Spirit Realm. Man, I just, I did not know there were that many renditions of that book,

50:58

I guess. If it's successful, you know, okay, I don't know what to say. You gotta test these things against the word of God.

51:03

That's my advice for this question, okay? All right,

51:08

I know, you know, a lot of these stories are very captivating too because the way people describe them, you know, with so much detail and all that kind of stuff, it's very easy to be captivated by that.

51:17

But you need to be grounded in the word of God, right? Because then we can't be led by someone's experiences and allow those experiences to trump what the scriptures say, right?

51:27

Scripture is sufficient, all right? We don't always have to be looking for kind of the more details and these interesting stories and experiences and things like that, okay?

51:37

All right, number 22, how can you tell if you're lukewarm? Okay, this is a very practical question.

51:44

So lukewarm Christians basically lack spiritual zeal, right?

51:49

And you kind of become indifferent to God's word or indifferent to spiritual growth, things like this.

51:55

And I think it's important that we come to recognize through self -examination, right? To identify when we're like that, okay?

52:03

The Bible says to examine yourself to see whether you're in the faith, right? So I think it's important that if you are concerned that you might be lukewarm, take a minute to examine yourself, have you become indifferent towards the things of God, right?

52:19

And then allow your recognition of that fact, if that's in fact the case, to kind of press the reset button and recalibrate a little bit and get back in it.

52:30

And what I mean by that is leave your indifference behind and work towards growing closer to God, prayer, scripture reading.

52:39

These are spiritual disciplines, which means they're not always easy, okay?

52:45

Disciplines are learned, you have to train yourself and discipline yourself to do these things. But if it is important, you will do it, right?

52:52

And if the spirit of God is in you, you're gonna do it. You're gonna feel the conviction to do it, okay?

52:58

All right, let's see here. So number 23, my girlfriend attends a

53:07

Chinese church. Any advice on interracial marriage? Okay, so interracial marriage,

53:15

I think is biblically acceptable, right? As long as the two people, this is gonna be for any marriage, right?

53:21

They're committed to Christ, right? Because I don't think the issue is, you know, interrace.

53:26

I mean, Galatians 3 .28, right? There's neither male nor female, we're all one in Christ Jesus. I don't think that's the issue, right?

53:32

I think the important thing is that in these relationships, we communicate openly. Of course, you wanna respect the different cultural differences and things like this, but the real issue is your mutual spiritual goals as being in a relationship needs to be

53:46

Christ -centered, right? So I think God is concerned, not so much with the interracial aspect of it, but where is

53:53

Christ in that relationship? I think that's very important, okay? Question 24, should

53:58

I keep attending my parents' church? Isn't a community church a better way to be

54:03

Jesus's disciple than a closed cultural church? I think that this person goes to a specific church that is a specific culture.

54:14

Maybe they have Filipino churches, you have churches that are predominantly Indian, or things like that.

54:19

So I think it's within this context here. So I think it's important that while fellowshipping with like -minded believers is important,

54:27

I think finding a church that aligns with biblical teaching is gonna be more important. So whether it's a parent church or whatever church, you wanna go to a church that is grounded in the scriptures.

54:36

So if your parents' church is sound in doctrine, right? They're focused on the word of God, that that's a good place to be, right?

54:44

Just because it's your parents' church doesn't mean, oh, I gotta go somewhere else. Maybe you're in a church, your parents' church is solid.

54:51

You wanna go where you're gonna get spiritually fed, okay, the word of God, okay? So community churches can provide kind of, if you go to a church with like a mixed, it's not filled with one particular people group, that's fine, you're gonna get kind of a diverse experience, right?

55:07

But the real issue is going to be doctrinal integrity. That's gonna be our key point. We want churches teaching things that are in line with scripture.

55:17

Okay, that's gonna be the primary thing, not so much who makes up the church. You know, is it an Indian church? Is it a

55:22

Filipino church? Is it a, you know, a black church or whatever the case may be. The issue is, is the gospel being preached, is the word of God being taught, okay?

55:31

All right, that's right, that's right, Humble Clay. I love that one, okay?

55:37

Let's see here. There you go, grow where you're planted. That's right, grow where you're planted.

55:43

If God plants you in your parents' church and that's where you are, grow there, okay?

55:49

You be faithful where God placed you and if he desires to move you, right? You're gonna grow, you're gonna grow and then eventually he'll pluck you up and put you somewhere else if that's his will, okay?

55:59

Thank you for that, Humble Clay, good stuff. All right, how would, number 25, how would you use discernment and know you aren't just following your heart, okay?

56:11

So again, this is getting back to kind of the same theme, right? So the way I answered the other question. So discernment, which deals with the ability to identify what is of God, what is not of God.

56:22

Discernment is gonna involve comparing your thoughts and your desires against God's word. You gotta be very careful, right?

56:27

We're not just following our heart. Following your heart is not a good thing, okay? Jeremiah 17, nine says, the heart is desperately wicked.

56:34

Who could know it, right? We want to use discernment. We wanna seek wise counsel, pray for guidance. All these things can help prevent our relying simply on our feelings.

56:44

We need to be very careful. Feelings are a very powerful thing, but we don't want to be guided by our feelings.

56:50

We want to be guided by the word of God. I know I sound like a broken record, but it's true. It's true. The more you're filled with the word of God, the more discerning you'll be in terms of being able to identify the difference between God speaking and your own heart telling you, you know, what you're hearing in your mind, so to speak, okay?

57:09

All right, yep, that's true. I'll get this one back up here, man. There we go. Thank you. Thank you, Franklin.

57:15

I appreciate it. Good content, brother. We gotta catch up. Definitely, absolutely, brother. Humbled Clay, the more time you spend in the word, the more your discernment will grow.

57:24

That's right. To master the art of discernment, you must master the truth.

57:31

Isn't that right? Try to be profound with the hand, right? Sound like Bruce Lee or something. To master discernment, you must master the truth.

57:38

That's true. The more familiar you are with the truth, the better position you are to identify error, and the ability to identify error is having discernment, right, when you are able to discern, you could say, hey, this is wrong.

57:49

Hey, this is right, okay? This is of God. This isn't of God. The ability to do that is gonna be based upon your knowledge of the word of God, okay?

57:57

Super, super, super helpful, yes. And then catch a fly with one chopstick.

58:03

I can't do, well, one chopstick? Just one? Not with the karate kid, they used it too, right? Okay, there you go.

58:12

All right, that's a good question here. Okay, so question number 26. But about that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the sun, but only the

58:22

Father. Why does Jesus lack knowledge of the specific timing? Okay, so this is important, okay? So in his incarnation, right,

58:29

Jesus is God become flesh, right, in John 1 and John 1, 14. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was

58:36

God, John 1, 14, and the word became flesh, okay? In his carnation, you have to understand that Jesus voluntarily limited his use of his divine nature.

58:46

We talk about Philippians 2, six through seven. It's a very important passage, you wanna look into that. As the eternal son, okay, he remains fully divine, okay?

58:56

Yet in his human nature, Jesus chose not to exercise certain attributes, including the knowledge of the exact day or hour of his return, okay?

59:07

In scripture, we have kind of two sets of scripture with respect to Jesus. We have the passages of scripture that focus on his deity.

59:15

And then of course, we acknowledge his humanity. Jesus, when we talk about the triune God, for example, we would say that God is one being who exists as three persons.

59:23

But when we speak of the person of Christ incarnated, he is one person with two natures, human and divine.

59:29

And in scripture, you have those passages that reflect the human nature, which shows those limitations. And then his divine nature, obviously he shares, he's equal with the father, you know, so on and so forth, okay?

59:40

So this is super, super important, all right? Within the one person of Christ are these two natures, right?

59:48

They do not intermix or intermingle, okay? This is a mystery. We're not told in scripture metaphysically how this all works, but I do think that that is the teaching of scripture.

59:58

And so there's other things as well with respect to that question, culturally, that will help understand this whole idea that no one knows the day or the hour, but the father, and there's a whole cultural reference with the father preparing a place for the bride and the groom and so forth.

01:00:17

There's some cultural aspects to that question that might be useful too. But just from a theological perspective, you know, Jesus had, he was one person, two natures, and we see the one nature have limitations.

01:00:27

The other nature is said to be, you know, he has divine aspects to him as well. So the man

01:00:32

Christ Jesus is also said to be God. He forgives sins. He takes God's prerogatives.

01:00:39

And I think that's all kind of baked into how we need to understand that question in light of his dual nature, okay?

01:00:47

All right, number 27, six -day creation. Six -day creation, question mark? 6 ,000 -year -old world, okay?

01:00:53

Yeah, so you have some Christians who hold to a literal six -day creation, the young earth perspective, which is kind of based on a straightforward reading of Genesis 1 and 2.

01:01:02

Then you have kind of the old earth creationists. By the way, if you're interested in this debate between the old earth and young earth, the most viewed video on my channel, let me get this up here.

01:01:13

Let me go here real quick. Okay, let's see here.

01:01:18

So Jason Lyle, Hugh Ross, revealed apologetics.

01:01:25

Okay, so the most viewed video on my channel as of now is the moderated discussion, the discussion

01:01:38

I moderated, between Hugh Ross, old earth creationist, and Jason Lyle, young earth creationist. It's got 54 ,000 views.

01:01:45

And it is a super awesome discussion. As a matter of fact, let me actually put this in the,

01:01:55

I'm gonna share, we're gonna copy, we're gonna go here. I'm gonna put it right there in the comments here, okay?

01:02:00

You can check that out. I highly recommend listening to that discussion. It's super engaging. I tried to get

01:02:06

Jason Lyle and Hugh Ross to have an open discussion instead of kind of like a formal debate, you know?

01:02:12

So it's much more lively and kind of I moderate between them. Highly recommend it. So it's there in the comments there.

01:02:20

Shane, thank you so much for those kind words. I appreciate that. Shane says, Eli, you've been a huge blessing to me in my studies on apologetics.

01:02:27

Just wanted to say thanks and may God bless you. Thank you so much. I appreciate that.

01:02:33

Okay, let's see here. All right, let's see. Question 28.

01:02:40

Oh, this one's a doozy. Okay, so, all right. Okay, does the idea that the

01:02:47

Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son have a stronger biblical case than the idea that the

01:02:53

Holy Spirit only proceeds from the Father, okay? So now this is, again, a little bit of history here.

01:02:59

This was wrapped up in the controversy between the Eastern Church and the Western Church, okay? In 1054, you had this big split.

01:03:06

A big part of that was an issue known as the Filioque Clause, okay? So the Filioque Clause basically states that the

01:03:13

Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, okay? And passages that are often used to support this is passages like John 15, 26,

01:03:24

Romans 8, 9. But of course, you have the Church in the East who would say something along the lines that the

01:03:30

Spirit only proceeds from the Father, okay? Now, both positions, whether you're from the

01:03:35

East or the West, you're gonna affirm the full deity of, or the full divinity of the Holy Spirit, okay? That's not really the issue.

01:03:40

But the doctrine of the Filioque, literally, it means, and the Son, okay? That's the Filioque Clause.

01:03:46

And it affirms the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, okay?

01:03:52

And so I hold to that position. I hold that it is the Father and the Son that send the

01:03:57

Spirit, okay? We know that Jesus sends the Spirit because it says it explicitly here. Jesus says in John 15, 26, but when the

01:04:06

Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the

01:04:11

Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me, okay? And then in John 16, seven,

01:04:18

Jesus says, if I go, I will send him to you, right? So Jesus is saying, I will send him to you.

01:04:24

Who's the him? Well, it's the Paraclete, it's the Spirit, okay? I think that these verses clearly state that the Son is involved in sending the

01:04:31

Holy Spirit, okay? And in some way, he is actively participating in the

01:04:37

Spirit being sent, okay? And of course, the Spirit is also called the

01:04:42

Spirit of Christ. And so several passages in scripture identify the Holy Spirit with Christ. You got Romans 8, 9, which is a reference there to the

01:04:50

Spirit of Christ. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Galatians 4, 6 speaks of the

01:04:57

Spirit of his Son. And then of course, you have to understand the unity of the Trinity itself, okay?

01:05:02

And the functions and roles that each of the persons play, okay? So again, that's a big question.

01:05:10

You know, there's more to that. Obviously, there's a whole historical discussion there, but good question nonetheless.

01:05:16

And for 29, our last question, we made it. We made it right here. We're at the top of the hour.

01:05:22

Why did Jesus choose to come 2 ,000 years ago and not now?

01:05:28

If he came now, what could be the method of his death? That escalated really quickly there, so.

01:05:36

Okay, so I want you to pay attention to this, all right? Why did Jesus choose to come 2 ,000 years ago and not now?

01:05:44

God the Father sent his Son, okay? God is all -knowing. God has purposes.

01:05:50

All of history unfolds the purposes of God and the things that he seeks to accomplish.

01:05:55

So God sent his Son, the almighty, all -knowing, all -purposeful

01:06:01

God sent his Son, as Galatians 4, verse four says, when the fullness of time had come.

01:06:07

And so the exact timing was in accordance with God's sovereign plan for salvation. His death on the cross fulfilled

01:06:13

Old Testament prophecy. He was resurrected to secure redemption for all who believe. I think that the all -knowing

01:06:19

God sent his Son precisely when he was meant to come. Okay, so yeah,

01:06:27

I don't know what his modern method of death would be. I mean, this is kind of like the hypothetical, right? There's no way for me to know what it might be.

01:06:34

It would have to be either by some, you know, modern means, you know?

01:06:40

But I think when the time was perfect, right, in line with what God wanted to accomplish, that's when he sent his

01:06:46

Son in the fullness of time. So again, we're gonna go with the all -knowing

01:06:52

God when to send, you know, the all -knowing Father knows when to send the Son, okay, to accomplish the purposes that he desired to accomplish.

01:07:01

All right, so, whew, those are the 29 questions, okay?

01:07:07

If there are any questions, I will take a few. So I will give a couple of minutes, well, maybe a couple of seconds.

01:07:14

If there are any questions, I'll look through here, see if anybody, if there is a question,

01:07:20

I will try to take it. If not, we'll wrap things up. Let's see here, do, do, do, do, do, do.

01:07:31

So Christian Monarch, I would be a deer in headlights to some of these questions. Well, some of the questions are hard, yeah.

01:07:37

When you've been doing this for a while, not that I've given, you know, not that I'm the guru of questions, you know, I'm not the Bible answer man or anything like that, but, you know,

01:07:44

I've worked with young people a lot. A lot of these questions, you kind of hear, they get rotated in, right?

01:07:49

So some of them are familiar. And then other times I'm kind of like, yo, that's a good question, bro.

01:07:55

I don't know. Let's see here. All right, so it doesn't look like there are any questions.

01:08:01

That's okay, all right. That means my voice will be saved from,

01:08:07

I know I have to save my vocals, my vocal cords. All right, well, before we kind of close off here,

01:08:13

I want to remind people, the second part of my course will be releasing, will be available to sign up in a couple of weeks, hopefully within the next two weeks.

01:08:22

If that's something that you folks are interested in, I would greatly appreciate the support. If you appreciate what

01:08:28

I'm doing, signing up for courses, purchasing the online conferences that I offer on my website, those are super helpful ways, or even just donating.

01:08:37

If you feel led to donate any amount, all of that helps to pay the bills. And so that's all good.

01:08:44

And if you don't have any financial contributions, your prayers would be greatly appreciated as well. My goal is to teach and equip, and so hopefully you found the content useful to that end.

01:08:55

Be sure to share it with your friends or family, church, anyone interested in these sorts of things.

01:09:02

And I hope it is a blessing to all of you. Well, my next live stream, I think you guys will find this very interesting, okay?

01:09:10

My next live stream is going to be next Monday, and it's going to be entitled,

01:09:16

The Traditional Arguments for the Existence of God Precept. So in my next episode, I'm going to talk about how to take the traditional arguments for God's existence, like the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, the moral argument, things relating to the resurrection of Jesus.

01:09:31

How can we understand that within a consistent presuppositional framework? So I'm gonna try to tackle that question, because I know that's something that people are interested in, okay?

01:09:40

But until then, that's it for this live stream. Thank you so much, guys, for listening in. I greatly appreciate you guys.

01:09:46

I didn't plan this too far out. I kind of just decided today I'd go live. That's been so busy.

01:09:52

And of course, going to the dentist and all that kind of stuff and traveling. So that's it for this episode, guys.