A Word About God

David Bentley Hart is one of the leading voices in the recent resurgence of universalism. Compared to his extreme intelligence and brilliant writing, Nate is a dum-dum. However, no matter how smart Hart may be, anyone armed with half a brain and (most importantly) the Word of God, you can start to see that when it comes to his belief that all people will be saved and hell is simply some sort of personal experience we go through on earth, welp...even this dum-dum can see that he's flat-out wrong. 

In this episode, Nate reviews Hart's book, That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell and Universal Salvation. What we see is that Hart's attempt to support universalism relies on taking Bible verses out of context (or ignoring other ones altogether), pretending that universalism was a valid belief in the historical church, and, mostly, on making people who disagree with him look dumb. 

Up next in our theological journey is an overview of the doctrine of Christ. Who was Jesus, really? Was he really God? Could it be that he was just a really good guy? Was he really man? Could it be that he was just God pretending to be a man? Does it matter? Spoiler alert...it does matter...a lot. All this and more on this episode of A Word About God. 

Back on theology train! This week, Nate goes over the doctrines of creation and how sin came into the world in what's called the "fall". Although there are a few different theories out there as to how God did it, the Bible is clear that He DID it-creation, that is. And when He did it, it was good. Unfortunately, it didn't stay that way, and after the rebellion of mankind, things went downhill fast, and we found ourselves in desperate need of a savior. 

In this special episode, Nate has a video chat with Joe Musten, vocalist for Advent and Torn and drummer for Beloved and The Almost (this guy can basically do it all) to talk about his Instagram page called Wisdom of the Cross. Each week, Joe posts old paintings/pictures of the cross and shares a devotional about how the cross, no matter how ugly, violent, or defeating it looks, is the only place where we as Christians can find true victory, salvation and wisdom. Of course, we start talking about the hardcore scene for a while too. Make sure to look up @widsomofthecross on Instagram, and go follow all of Joe's bands, and join us in prayer that (Please, God!) live music will happen again someday...

Continuing on in our dialogue about racism and reconciliation, Nate interviews his friend Doug. Doug moved from his home in Ghana fifteen years ago, and has been figuring out how to live in North America ever since. Doug brings a great balance to firmly finding his identity in Christ, rather than in racist opinions of him, but also refusing to ignore the hurt and suffering that his brothers and sisters in North America are going through. Nate also concedes that Black Panther was a good movie. At one point Doug laughs so loud that the microphone cuts out, but if you know him, that's not surprising. 

A Word About God unflinchingly stands on the truth that all people are created in the image of God, and therefore, all people have intrinsic worth. While all lives do matter, at this point in history and with the recent events, it is vital to affirm that black lives matter. In light of all this, we will be dedicating the next series of episodes to interviewing some good friends who are people of color in order to get their perspective on issues of racism, police brutality, reconciliation and the role of the Church and the Gospel in all of this. 

In this episode, Nate interviews his good friend Kyle Jones. Kyle calls Christians to focus on Christ, the Gospel, and the compassion of Jesus when dealing with these issues within the Church. 

This week, we tackled another theological topic-the doctrine of Scripture. What does it mean that the Bible is the Word of God? Can we really trust that the Bible is without error? What happens if something in life seems to contradict what the Bible says? In a world filled with anger, turmoil, and racial injustices, Nate talks about how the Bible is the only place we can turn to to affirm that there is such things as right and wrong. 

In this episode, Nate answers some follow-up questions from our discussion on the doctrine of God. Also, Nate addresses the whole topic of wearing masks in public during a pandemic. How should Christians be handling this whole thing? Should we fearfully wear them? Should we obstinately refuse, and smack people with an American flag instead? There's also some random thoughts about coffee. And a new intro song. 

This week Nate kicks off our series on theology for normal people by taking a look at the doctrine of God. What does it mean that God is three in one? Do Christians worship more than one God?  What do the names of God tell us about Him? Is this topic way over Nate's head? The answers to these questions and more in the latest episode of A Word About God Podcast. 

In this episode, Nate kicks off a new series on (surprise, surprise) theology! Now, more than ever, it's so important for Christians to actually know what they believe about God, humanity, sin, Jesus, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the Church, the end of the world (no, it's probably not right now, sorry Hal Lindsey) and all of that good stuff.