Logically Faithful-Beyond Opinion

“If you cannot prove it, then I cannot believe it.” This is a claim many students and people who have swallowed the lie of secularism and scientism. The lie or myth is that only what we can prove with the hard sciences can be true.

In this podcast I interview one of my heroes, JP Moreland who demolishes this ideology in his new book Science and Secularism

J.P. Moreland

J.P. Moreland’s is author of many other books including one of my favorites Love Your God With All Your Mind Having earned a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Missouri, an M.A. in philosophy from the University of California, Riverside, and a Th.M in Theology from the Dallas Theological Seminary prior to earning his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Southern California in 1985. He currently holds the title of Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University in La Miranda California and is a member of the Board of Advisors for the Center on Culture and Civil Society at the Independent Institute. Moreland’s work combines metaphysics, philosophy of mind, chemistry, and theology, and he is known for his defense of the existence of God and thesupernatural, as well as “Old-Earth” creationism (a form of creationism that is somewhat more compatible with modern science than the “New-Earth” version)

Scientism as “the view that the hard sciences provide the only genuine knowledge of reality,” (20). So then claims about the spiritual world or God or love for that matter, don’t have any authority on this view.

Why is this wrong? Read the book. But for now, here are three reasons and JP offers others in this interview.

Reason 1: Scientism is self refuting because the very statement of it, that scientific truths are the only kind of truth, is not a scientific truth! Ironically, it is a non- scientific truth, which also undermines itself

Reason 2: There are many areas we cannot prove with science alone  examples including logic and mathematics (apriori and necessary truths), knowledge of personal conscious states, moral knowledge or knowledge of right and wrong.

Reason 3: Consciousness and physical laws in the foundation of the universe. JP lays out arguments as to why our most intimate thoughts and experiences are not physical thus destabilizing the base of scientism and the very laws which allowed our universe to come into existence are not physical themselves.

Do you believe in three gods? How can you honestly trust the ancient books of the Bible? Is it not a contradiction and paradox to believe God became a man?

In this podcast, I interview my friend, Sam Shamoun.  Sam is a brilliant Christian Apologist to Islam who has been making waves as he participates in debates and refutes accusations and attacks leveled by Muslims Apologists.

Sam is the chief apologist and contributor to the most prominent website on Islam from a Christian perspective in the world, www.answering-islam.org. Additionally, he engages in debates as one of the best-informed apologist alive today, refuting accusations and attacks against Jesus and the Bible.

Consider his work here:

 http://www.answering-islam.org/authors/shamoun.html 

https://www.facebook.com/SamShamoun/

“I’ve doubted the truth of my Christian faith many times; sometimes to the point of almost walking away from it. I’ve asked myself, “Have I been brain-washed? Am I unable to think objectively because I was brought up to believe? What if I’m wrong?” I have the peace Paul describes as being the inward confirmation of God’s Spirit that I belong to Christ (Romans 8:16); at least some of the time. But Mormons also claim to have a confirming peace from God, as do followers of some other religions. Certainly, we all couldn’t be correct if Christianity is true, since many religions contradict themselves. So, how can I know whether my peace is really from God? That’s a tough question.” These are Dr. Licona’s own words.

In this podcast, (scroll down and hit play) I had the privilege of interviewing world-class, New Testament Scholar Mike Licona!

Chapter 1 of the book The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, describes how historians try to find out what actually happened in ancient history.

Mike’s 5 criteria that support the historicity of any event. 

* Multiple, independent witnesses – If several witnesses who aren’t copying each other say the same thing, the event is more likely to have happened.

* Enemy witnesses – If an enemy of the event admits the event happened, it’s more likely to have happened.

* Embarrassed witnesses – If a recorded event is something that wouldn’t have been made up by the author because it is embarrassing to his cause, the event is more likely to have happened.

* Eyewitness testimony – Eyewitness testimony is more valuable than hearsay.

* Early testimony – The closer a source is in time to the events it describes, the less time there was for the story to be embellished and corrupted.

See this brilliant SHORT video about the historical facts of Jesus’s Resurrection

 From Mike’s website https://www.risenjesus.com/im-doubting-thomas 

  Here are the four key actions for dealing with doubt we discussed on the podcast:

* Recognize that doubting is normal.

* Recognize that good evidence exists supporting the truth of Christianity.

* Recognize that absolute certainty is an unreasonable expectation.

* Recognize that faith is more than a feeling or being without doubt. It’s a commitment. For more on dealing with doubt, readers may greatly benefit from the free online book by Gary Habermas titled The Thomas Factor: Using Your Doubts to Draw Closer to God.

For a comprehensive historical case for the resurrection of Jesus, see his recent book The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach.

You are not a body, or a soul in a body, or a body with a soul.  Rather you are a soul and body in psycosomaic unity !  In this podcast I cover 5 reasons why the soul exists and you are not reducible to your body!

There are five reasons for believing we are or have souls.   This is not physical proof; it is, rational proof, or logical evidence to believe in souls.  They are

1) quaila, –Personal Experience 

2) the unity of consciousness,–Unity of Experiences 

3) intentionality, –Aboutness, thoughts 

4) freewill –ability to choose otherwise

 5) personal identity  –what makes you the same being throughout your lifetime?

The full article is in the last post here.  

There have been 307 mass shootings in the US so far in 2017* Where is God in all of this? How can he allow this suffering? How should the faithful face these tragedies?   In this podcast, we address this issue head on!

In all of this remember that God walks with you in your Eden and in your Gethsemane, God walks with you in your exultation and in your affliction. 

FIRST Allow yourself to time grieve. Be with those who are grieving. Cry with them as Jesus said to love your neighbor’s and more radically he said to love your enemies.  Pray for those who are suffering and their families.  Ask God to bless them.

SECOND: God is in charge–not you!  Don’t blame or heap judgment on those who suffer.  He allowed this. But He did not cause evil.  God is fully in charge and these disasters do happen on his watch. Read the bible.  Who sent the plagues in Egypt? Who devastated the world with a great flood?  Who sent a massive storm into the sea when Johan disobeyed God. God is certainly sovereign over evil. There’s a sense in which it is proper even to say that evil is part of His eternal decree. He planned for it. It did not take Him by surprise. It is not an interruption of His eternal plan. He declared the end from the beginning, and He is still working all things for His good pleasure (Isaiah 46:9-10).

But God’s role with regard to evil is never as its author. He simply permits evil agents to work, then overrules evil for His own wise and holy ends. Ultimately He is able to make all things-including all the fruits of all the evil of all time-work together for a greater good (Romans 8:28). BUT what about the innocents? Remember Jesus was innocent.  He still died. This life is not all there is and the point of life is not our pleasure but our holiness.  Remember, Erin Lutzer said it best, the hand of Jesus is on the dial of the furnace of our lives. It does not get hotter or cooler than he allows it. It is his hand on it. Trust that pierced hand.

Remember that God walks with you in your Eden and in your Gethsemane Remember that God walks with you in your exultation and in your affliction

THIRD It would be nice to hear what Jesus would say about this. Well He did address it! In the Gospel of Luke it says that “There were some present at that very time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Jesus response is to not make a judgment on those who died or on why God let it happen.  Jesus emphatically says that these people were NOT worse than others.  Rather he turns the question upside down and back toward the questioner. I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

THIRD  Yes, God allows these things to happen.  It is not for us to ask or granted the answer to why he allows.  It happens on his watch. J.R.R. Tolkien in The Fellowship of the Ring has Frodo say “I wish it need not have happened in my time,”. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” Instead of blaming God when tragedies such as natural disasters strike, we need to turn to Him for strength and let tragedies, of whatever nature, remind us that this world was never intended to be a final home (Hebrews 11:13-16).

What is the Key to Happiness?  What is the one thing we all need to be content and at peace?  Is there such a thing?  Yes and No.  In this podcast, I will cover 5 major areas that can contribute to helping us get closer and closer to this elusive happiness.

In this podcast, I cover the need a for a strong theological grounding for the question of happiness, and where it is truly found.  Mystie Winckler wrote the following summary of Piper’s wonderful grand breaking book “Desiring God”

* The longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good, not sinful.

* We should never try to deny or resist our longing to be happy. [Our desires are not too strong, but too weak!]

* We should seek to intensify, not resist, our longing to be happy by nourishing it with that which provides the deepest and most enduring satisfaction.

* The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God. Not from God, but in God.

* Happiness in God reaches its consummation when it is shared with others.

* If we abandon the pursuit of our own pleasures, we fail to honor God and love people; the pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part of all worship and virtue.

Theologian J.I. Packer  wrote; “…should we start to seek pleasure rather than God, we would be in danger of losing both.”  He then concludes by quoting an unnamed rabbi; “God will hold us accountable for any neglect we have shown of the pleasures he provided.”[1]

In closing,  Dr John Piper reiterates the theme of this work, he calls “Christian Hedonism”;

The pleasure the Christian seeks is the pleasure that is in God himself. He is the end of our search, not the means to some further end. Our exceeding joy is he, the Lord-not the streets of gold, or the reunion with relatives or any blessing of heaven. Christian Hedonism does not reduce God to a key that unlocks a treasure chest of gold and silver. Rather it seeks to transform the heart so that ‘the Almighty will be your gold and choice silver for you. (Job 22:25)’[2]

I also go over the 5 steps to happiness from TJ Jakes.  This amazing Dallas preacher shared 5 simple I cover in detail.

Thet are listed here:

1. Own Your Own Happiness

“Your kids are not gonna make you happy. Your spouse is not gonna make you happy. Your big

house is not gonna make you happy. Own your own happiness and be responsible for doing those

things that bring joy into your own heart.”

2. Challenge Your Own Story

“People torment themselves by how they see their life. They’ve told themselves a story as if it were

‘the’ truth, when it is really a perspective truth. And sometimes you’ve narrated a story that you

beat yourself to death with. Challenge your own story. Change the way you talk to yourself about

who you are and what happened to you, and what you’re gonna do in your life.”

3. Enjoy the Journey, Not the Destination

“A lot of us delay our happiness [and say] ‘When I get to this level, when I get the degree, when I

get the kids, when I get married, I’m gonna be happy.’ Enjoy the journey. Enjoy the whole step, the

whole process.”

4. Make Relationships Count

“Nature teaches us, there is no fruit without relationships. You cannot be fruitful by yourself, in

business, in home, in life, in church. I don’t care what it is, you are no more than the relationships

you surround yourself with and make sure that those are good ...

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson says that “Faith Helped My Depression”  He wrote that “You’re not the first to go through it; you’re not going to be the last to go through it. And oftentimes — it happens — you just feel like you’re alone. You feel like it’s only you. You’re in your bubble,” he said. “I wish I had someone at that time who could just pull me aside and [say], ‘Hey, it’s gonna be okay. It’ll be okay.’ So, I wish I knew that.”

And it will be Ok if God exists and you love him, as he loves you!  He promised, but not that your life will be a rose garden.  Oh No!

 People who say that only bad people suffer or that only good people make it to heaven have no idea what they are talking about! It is not good people that make it to heaven. Forgiven people make it to heaven, and broken people are the ones who really change their own lives and the lives of those around them”

Both Theists, Christians, Muslims, and atheists are wrong if they think that wickedness and evil, suffering and terror are not allowed personally by God. Every single action in the universe, and if such a thing exists, the multi-universe must be signed off at the desk of God Himself. No rock falls down a cliff in Budapest, no deer crosses a street in the middle of forests of Siberia, no electron circles an atom in Amman, without God allowing it.  Yes, that means that no hurricane, no tornado, no handgun goes off, without God knowing about it.  Job did not say, “The Lord gave and the devil took away!” No, when Job’s 10 children were killed, and all his property and wealth destroyed, he turned to the throne of God himself, saying,

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

I write this with razor cuts on my own wrists and my soul of grief.  Tears flow, when I write that pain, hurt, suffering–and I will say this as academically as I can, sucks!

The Bible clearly asks, “does disaster befall a city unless the Lord has done it (Amos 3:6)? What about a hospital?  Yes, God ordained that too. He must if he exists and is omnipotent and omniscient.

I recognize what I’m assuming here. It is hard.  I’ve wept with my cousin when his brother, father of four drowned in the Lake Michigan, as he fell off a cruise ship. I was with others as they as they stood helplessly as their child suffered and died slowly from cancer.  I’ve watched on the verge of madness as an elder I dearly loved, died slowly and how he refused to see his own sins and repent before he died.

Yes, God is supreme Lord over over all the universe, including the hurricane in Texas and the pain over my dear friend’s broken marriage.

Are we really to believe that God allows these things to happen?  How can we not, if God exists?   God cannot be God unless all things are under his authority. All things and I mean all things.  John Piper argues that all things include…

This ‘all things’ includes the fall of sparrows (Matt 10:29), the rolling of dice (

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson says that “Faith Helped My Depression”  He wrote that “You’re not the first to go through it; you’re not going to be the last to go through it. And oftentimes — it happens — you just feel like you’re alone. You feel like it’s only you. You’re in your bubble,” he said. “I wish I had someone at that time who could just pull me aside and [say], ‘Hey, it’s gonna be okay. It’ll be okay.’ So, I wish I knew that.”

And it will be Ok if God exists and you love him, as he loves you!  He promised, but not that your life will be a rose garden.  Oh No!

 People who say that only bad people suffer or that only good people make it to heaven have no idea what they are talking about! It is not good people that make it to heaven. Forgiven people make it to heaven, and broken people are the ones who really change their own lives and the lives of those around them”

Both Theists, Christians, Muslims, and atheists are wrong if they think that wickedness and evil, suffering and terror are not allowed personally by God. Every single action in the universe, and if such a thing exists, the multi-universe must be signed off at the desk of God Himself. No rock falls down a cliff in Budapest, no deer crosses a street in the middle of forests of Siberia, no electron circles an atom in Amman, without God allowing it.  Yes, that means that no hurricane, no tornado, no handgun goes off, without God knowing about it.  Job did not say, “The Lord gave and the devil took away!” No, when Job’s 10 children were killed, and all his property and wealth destroyed, he turned to the throne of God himself, saying,

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

I write this with razor cuts on my own wrists and my soul of grief.  Tears flow, when I write that pain, hurt, suffering–and I will say this as academically as I can, sucks!

The Bible clearly asks, “does disaster befall a city unless the Lord has done it (Amos 3:6)? What about a hospital?  Yes, God ordained that too. He must if he exists and is omnipotent and omniscient.

I recognize what I’m assuming here. It is hard.  I’ve wept with my cousin when his brother, father of four drowned in the Lake Michigan, as he fell off a cruise ship. I was with others as they as they stood helplessly as their child suffered and died slowly from cancer.  I’ve watched on the verge of madness as an elder I dearly loved, died slowly and how he refused to see his own sins and repent before he died.

Yes, God is supreme Lord over over all the universe, including the hurricane in Texas and the pain over my dear friend’s broken marriage.

Are we really to believe that God allows these things to happen?  How can we not, if God exists?   God cannot be God unless all things are under his authority. All things and I mean all things.  John Piper argues that all things include…

This ‘all things’ includes the fall of sparrows (Matt 10:29), the rolling of dice (

I have a secret to tell about many deep and spiritual people. It’s a dark secret many of us do not wish to talk about.  Many of us wish it was not there.  Many will pretend it is not there. But the fact of the matter is that it is universal and epidemic.  It is real and affects most of us in profound ways.

We doubt God.  We struggle. We hurt, we cry, we bleed.  The Bible is full of real stories of real people who doubt too. And God left these verses, chapters, and stories of these people to remind us that He can handle our doubts–and yours too.

Never mistake the silence of God for the absence of God

It is echoed in the Psalms:

“But I, O Lord, cry out to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. O Lord, why do you cast me off? Why do you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 88:13-14, NRSV).

“Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1, NRSV.  And in Psalm 30, he laments God’s hiding after a time when the psalmist had confidence: “When I felt secure, I said, ‘I will never be shaken.’ O Lord, when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed” (Psalm 30:7, NIV).

Psalm 44 expresses it: “Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast us off forever! Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?” (Psalm 44:23-24, NRSV).

I have had many intellectual struggles where God seemed absent.

At times, it feels like you are talking to the ceiling in your prayers.  Cricks is all I hear.

We are not alone, even atheists and skeptics alike also struggle with this, claiming that “if God just reveled himself to me, I would believe in him.”  Really?

J.L. Schellenberg in his book Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason, argues as follows:

1) If there is a God, he is perfectly loving.

2) If a perfectly loving God exists, reasonable nonbelief does not occur.

3) Reasonable nonbelief occurs.

4) No perfectly loving God exists (from 2 and 3).

5) Hence, there is no God (from 1 and 4).

CS Lewis wrote after God took his new wife with cancer:

“When you are happy, so happy you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be — or so it feels— welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence.” ― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

It can also be called the “Dark Night of the Soul.” A book by this title was written in the 16th-century by the Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic Saint John of the Cross. It’s that period of time in a believer’s life when God seems distant and silence to us and his silence is very loud!

Mother Theresa’s book, which was published after her death in 1997, Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta talks about the problem too. She wrote Calcutta Archbishop Ferdinand Périer the following, her words are heart-breaking!

“There is such terrible darkness within me as if everything was dead…In my heart, there is no faith—no love—no trust—there is so much pain—the pain of longing, the pain of not being wanted. I want God with all the powers of my soul—and yet there between us—there is terrible separation. I don’t pray any longer.’ “Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The child of your love—and now become as the most hated one…You have thrown away as unwanted—unloved…So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them—because of the blasphemy—If there be a God—please forgive me…I am told that God loves me,

Something I will never forget happened to me in my first year at Eastern Illinois University. The professor said something that altered my life that day, and I did something that I would regret for the rest of my life! That professor was a strange one, but strange ones make a difference in the world, so I took his class.  He was called the cave man because college rumor was that he lived in a cave. He also did not wear shoes.  In this podcast, I talk about it all and open my heart to you about my own doubts and how you can deal with your doubts without dismissing them.

He started the class by saying that he will be proving that the Bible is a book full of myth and folklore.  He said that anyone who believed otherwise would have his beliefs shattered like a glass of wine all over the pavement.

So I stayed and began to research and establish evidence that he might not be as right as he thought he was.  No. That is not what happened. I fled like a zebra from a lion! I dropped the class.

I escaped because I was a coward.

However, that event was a major turning point for me.  It changed me.  Now I run to the hard questions, towards lions, instead of running away from them!

RUN INTO THE HARD QUESTIONS NOT AWAY FROM THEM: B/C honest doubts can lead you through back door of truth-and to a stronger faith

Doubt can lead to great faith. Those who suffer doubt the most can become the most honest of people.  One of the most influential philosophers and apologists alive today is William Lane Craig, he wrote that “Any Christian who is intellectually engaged and reflecting about his faith will inevitably face the problem of doubt.” [William Lane Craig, Hard Questions, Real Answers (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2003), 31.]

There is a great deal of importance of that evidence makes but there are limits to it.  There is only so much evidence we can pursue, we also have to learn to trust the legitimate authority of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Most of our doubts can raise their heads for a variety of reasons and most of them are not intellectual. We might doubt that God is good or that the Bible is telling the truth, but many of our doubts come from deep pain or sorrow or disappointment that may come from betrayal or other such stabs in the heart like a painful divorce, the death of a child loss of job.

If you doubt you remember these principles in this podcast, that helped me:

1) You are not alone. Greater men and women than us have deal with it! Jacob, Abraham, Moses, and even Jesus struggled with questions they could not answer!!

2) Absolute certainty is absurd. You will never exhaust the answers to all the mysteries of theology or life. You have to come to a point where you will trust and follow.

3) Read great literature to help cultivate your imagination: What you put in your soul matters and it has fruits!

4) Be in Community. Most importantly, surround yourself with good people who you can share your struggles with and see how they made it through. You are the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

Remember, Faith is a verb. It is more like a choice, a commitment not an emotion!

=========

In this podcast, as with season 2, I address questions podcasters have.

Mark writes “I want to believe in God, but I struggle with Christianity because I am gay.  And am I going to hell??”

In this podcast, I answer his question!

Homosexuality Resources:

* J.D. Greear : Same Sex Attraction and the Bible

*

Christopher Yuan on How to Engage Today’s Gay Marriage Debate

* Joe Dallas,