Is God a vindictive bully? Is the God of the Old Testament different than the God of the New Testament? Critics outside the church often accuse the Old Testament God of genocide, racism, ethnic cleansing, and violence. But a rising tide of critics within the church claim that Moses and other “primitive,” violence-prone prophets were mistaken about God’s commands and character. Both sets of critics dismiss this allegedly harsh, flawed, “textual” Old Testament God in favor of the kind, compassionate, “actual” God revealed by Jesus. But are they right to do so?

There’s no better person on the planet to discuss this issue than our good friend and noted apologist, Dr. Paul Copan! Following his popular book, Is God a Moral Monster?, his new book, Is God a Vindictive Bully?: Portrayals of God in the Old and New Testaments, contains brand new content and takes on some of the most difficult Old Testament challenges and places them in their larger historical and theological contexts to help us dispute these emerging claims that are creating a destructive gap between the Testaments.

On today’s podcast episode, Frank and Paul discuss the following questions:

Who are these critics “from without and from within” the Church?

Did Jesus really repudiate the laws of Moses?

What’s the deal with imprecatory psalms like Psalm 137 and “dashing babies against the rocks”?!

What can the Old Testament law still teach us today?

What is incrementalism, and how does God use it?

Does “utter destruction” really mean what we think it does?\

To view the entire VIDEO PODCAST, be sure to join our CrossExamined private community. It’s the perfect place to jump into great discussions with like-minded Christians while providing financial support for our ministry.

Paul’s new book: https://a.co/d/7gB1YLZ

Paul’s website: http://www.paulcopan.com/

If you would like to submit a question to be answered on the show, please email your question to [email protected].

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People are hungry for hope. They want to understand our human condition–its origin, nature, purpose, and destiny. The Christian faith offers hope for individuals and the entire universe, grounded in absolute truth. But how can we effectively communicate to others that Christianity is true, especially the “deep thinkers” who believe becoming a Christian will lead to their intellectual doom?

Dr. Douglas Groothuis is a gifted communicator and Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary. He has the unique ability to challenge the highest-level thinkers while remaining accessible to those who are not as academically inclined. The author of 16 books has written, spoken, and preached on a wide range of topics–and that range seems to keep growing daily!

In this midweek episode, Dr. Groothuis sits down with Frank to discuss the additions he made recently to his most classic and voluminous work, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith, and introduces us to not one but TWO other books he penned this year–Fire in the Streets, and The Knowledge of God in the World and the Word: An Introduction to Classical Apologetics. You’ll quickly learn that Dr. Groothuis is a walking + talking Rolodex of Christian apologetics and can speak knowledgeably on any given topic from lament, propitiation, the ontological argument, slavery, CRT, affirmative action, and everything in between!

To view the entire VIDEO PODCAST, be sure to join our CrossExamined private community. It’s the perfect place to jump into great discussions with like-minded Christians while providing financial support for our ministry.

Dr. Groothuis’ website: https://douglasgroothuis.com/

If you would like to submit a question to be answered on the show, please email your question to [email protected].

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It’s that time of year again! You’re sitting around with family at the Christmas dinner table, and Uncle Joe insists on picking apart your Christian faith. What’s the best way to respond? Ignore him while you play with your mashed potatoes? Or do you try to refute his objections? You know you need to give the reason for the hope that you have, but how can you engage with his statements without starting a family feud?

In this week’s episode of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, Frank explains that every objection to the Christian faith assumes a standard beyond the person who is making the objection and gives examples of simple questions you can ask Uncle Joe (and others like him!) to place a seed of doubt in his assertion that something is wrong with the Christian worldview.

Frank addresses some of the most common objections to Christianity, including:

God does immoral things in the Old Testament

There’s too much evil in the world

Christians are hypocrites and do evil things

Christianity is too exclusive

God doesn’t show himself enough

The Bible doesn’t recognize LGBTQ+ rights

there’s no evidence for God

PLUS–Frank shares testimonies from three people whose lives have been transformed by the Holy Spirit through the work we do here at Cross Examined! As you listen to these amazing stories, we hope you will prayerfully consider donating to the ministry so we can effectively reach even more people with the truth in 2023. Thanks to a group of incredibly generous donors, you have until 12/31 to DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT. For every dollar you donate, another donor will MATCH your dollar up to $150,000. So, if you donate $10, we’ll receive $20. It’s as simple as that!

To view the entire VIDEO PODCAST, be sure to join our CrossExamined private community. It’s the perfect place to jump into great discussions with like-minded Christians while providing financial support for our ministry.

If you would like to submit a question to be answered on the show, please email your question to [email protected].

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In this midweek podcast episode, Frank continues his conversation with high-risk humanitarian Victor Marx and takes listeners on a raw and unscripted journey through several of his latest missions to save women and children from the real-life horrors of sex trafficking. From a tiny village in Cambodia to a church parking lot in Colorado Springs, the manifestation of evil knows no bounds. Even so, God’s forgiveness and love is powerful enough to cover a world of sin and shame, and His standard of goodness is the only way we can recognize these acts of evil in the first place!

Feel free to jump right in or listen as a follow-up to the previous episode. Either way, we pray you will support Victor in his mission to help more women and children find hope and healing in the power of a relationship with Jesus Christ.

To view the entire VIDEO PODCAST, be sure to join our CrossExamined private community. It’s the perfect place to jump into great discussions with like-minded Christians while providing financial support for our ministry.

Learn more about Victor Marx and his ministry: https://victormarx.com/

If you would like to submit a question to be answered on the show, please email your question to [email protected].

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Is it really possible for a person to break the cycle of anger, abuse, addiction, divorce, and unforgiveness? Victor Marx is here to tell us that with the hope of Jesus Christ, you can!

At the tender age of 5, Victor was molested and left in a commercial cooler to die. He endured a childhood marked with physical and sexual abuse, multiple stepfathers, 14 schools, and 17 different houses. Later in life, he used drugs and alcohol to help numb the pain and, after his time in the Marines, was diagnosed with mental illness and PTSD. To most people, it seemed like Victor would never find a way to escape his life of pain and trauma–but God had other plans!

Today, Victor is a husband of 30 years, a father to five, and has used his military background to put his boots to the ground in places like Syria, Iraq, and Cambodia to physically rescue over 45,000 women and children from sex trafficking and other evil. His ministry, All Things Possible, exists to identify, interrupt and restore those affected by trauma all over the world.

In this one-of-a-kind episode, he sits down with Frank to share his personal testimony and explains how only God can bring help to the hopeless and transform the most hardened of hearts. He also shares advice on how to protect your family from sex trafficking in your own neighborhood. Victor’s story is an amazing account of God’s character, power, and presence in our world and evidence that the Holy Spirit is still at work today. Jesus raised the dead, healed the blind, and did so many miracles that all the books of the world could not contain them. But what is the greatest miracle we can all witness in our culture today? A changed life!

To view the entire VIDEO PODCAST, be sure to join our CrossExamined private community. It’s the perfect place to jump into great discussions with like-minded Christians while providing financial support for our ministry.

Learn more about Victor Marx and his ministry: https://victormarx.com/

If you would like to submit a question to be answered on the show, please email your question to [email protected].

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Do Christians have good historical reasons to put our faith in the resurrection of Jesus? Can we really know what happened 2,000 years ago? No one doubts the works of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar or the history written about them, so what makes the historicity of Jesus so special? And what do non-Christian scholars say about the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus?

If anyone knows the answers to these questions, it’s New Testament scholar Dr. Michael Licona! His seminal work, The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, has been praised by many as the most thorough and useful tool to those looking for an in-depth study of the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Mike currently serves as Associate Professor in Theology at Houston Christian University and president of Risen Jesus, Inc. In this special midweek episode of ‘I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist,’ he sits down with Frank to discuss the following topics as they relate to Jesus and the resurrection:

problems with postmodernist history

the uncertainty of historical knowledge

what is a historical fact?

the tools and rules of historical research

how our worldview affects how we study history

objections to the resurrection of Jesus

the intersecting philosophies of science, history, and theology

This is a fascinating and in-depth discussion, and you’ll definitely learn something new! To view the entire VIDEO PODCAST, be sure to join our CrossExamined private community. It’s the perfect place to jump into great discussions with like-minded Christians (including Frank) while providing financial support for our ministry.

Mike’s seminal work: https://a.co/d/iPv6CN6

Mike at Houston Christian University: http://bit.ly/3OPAKdT

Mike’s website: https://www.risenjesus.com/

If you would like to submit a question to be answered on the show, please email your question to [email protected].

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Is it wrong to have doubts about your Christian faith? Many people assume that doubt is the opposite of faith and that wandering among the hard questions of faith will lead us further away from God. True believers, the assumption goes, never waver in their confidence in the fundamental truths of Christianity.

Professor and philosopher Travis Dickinson disagrees! Instead, he says, our doubts and hard questions about the Christian faith are actually an important way we can express our commitment and love to God. Doubt isn’t our destination, but as Christians, it’s in our job description to ask questions as we approach God with intellectual curiosity in order to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind.

In this week’s podcast episode, Travis sits down with Frank to share insights from his new book, Wandering Toward God: Finding Faith Amid Doubts and Big Questions.

Some of the big questions they address include:

Do we have to be 100% certain that Christianity is true in order to be a Christian?

What’s the difference between “deconstructing” and “wandering with purpose”?

Why isn’t God more obvious?

What does it really mean to have faith?

To view the entire VIDEO PODCAST, be sure to join our CrossExamined private community. It’s the perfect place to jump into great discussions with like-minded Christians (including Frank) while providing financial support for our ministry.

Travis’ book: https://a.co/d/dU3sXHl

Travis’ website: https://www.travisdickinson.com/

SPECIAL OFFER FOR OUR LISTENERS: Use the code EXAMINED to get 30% off the ebook and hard copy (plus free shipping) at ivpress.com, only available from 12/2-12/16!

If you would like to submit a question to be answered on the show, please email your question to [email protected].

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After four years of speaking to rooms overflowing with young people at Reality conferences across the country, Jon Noyes from Stand to Reason has some powerful insights to share on the topic of suicide. Incredibly, over half of all suicides occur among people who have no diagnosed mental health issues. This indicates a couple of things:

1. There are many people who need to be evaluated by a mental health specialist but are not seeking help.

So why is it happening? In this revealing discussion, Jon Noyes speaks with Frank about the most common reason people (churched and unchurched) lose hope today and what we can do about it.

To view the entire VIDEO PODCAST for either of these interviews, be sure to join our CrossExamined private community. It’s the perfect place to jump into great discussions with like-minded Christians while providing financial support for our ministry.

If you would like to submit a question to be answered on the show, please email your question to [email protected].

Subscribe on Apple Podcast: http://bit.ly/CrossExamined_Podcast Rate and review! Thanks!!!

Atheists and skeptics such as Bart Ehrman have enflamed fear and doubt regarding the reliability of the Bible for years by mentioning staggering numbers such as the roughly 500,000 variants found in the Old and New Testament manuscripts. The goal behind these statistics (usually provided without any context) is to undermine our confidence in the Holy Book. Textual critics and scholars, Dr. Peter Gurry and Dr. John Meade are here to set the record straight in their fantastic new book, Scribes and Scripture: The Amazing Story of How We Got the Bible.

In this week’s episode Frank gets down to the tough questions like; How many variants are there really? How much do these variants change or compromise the reliability of today’s Bible? Should we be concerned about people intentionally changing the original texts? How much of this field is simply guesswork? and Can we still believe our modern-day Bible is both inspired and inerrant? Plus, you’ll get a quick overview of the canonization of the Bible we have today. Why were some books included and others excluded? To hear the answers to these important questions make sure you listen to this fascinating interview. To dive deeper into this topic make sure to order your copy of Scribes and Scripture: The Amazing Story of How We Got the Bible HERE, or consider inviting Dr. Gurry & Dr. Meade to your church for their Scribes & Scripture: A Conference on the History of the Bible.

To view the entire VIDEO PODCAST for either of these interviews, be sure to join our CrossExamined private community. It’s the perfect place to jump into some great discussions with like-minded Christians while simultaneously providing financial support for our ministry.

If you would like to submit a question to be answered on the show, please email your question to [email protected].

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In this mid-week bonus episode of the, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist podcast, Frank sits down with legendary philosopher, Dr. William Lane Craig, for a fascinating discussion on the beginning of the universe. Dr. Craig is perhaps best known for his work on the Kalam Cosmological Argument which offers an excellent philosophical foundation (supported by physics) for a theistic creator. What type of theistic creator might that be? Only one meets the criteria! Listen to this great conversation between Frank and one of his greatest influences, recorded at the Evangelical Theological Society Meeting in Denver, CO. Then go subscribe to the Reasonable Faith podcast to hear more from the brilliant mind of Dr. William Lane Craig.

If you would like to submit a question to be answered on the show, please email your question to [email protected].

Subscribe on Apple Podcast: http://bit.ly/CrossExamined_Podcast Rate and review! Thanks!!!