What started with one person getting the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Wuhan province of China has now swept over 100 countries around the world, and completely overtaken the news. With the arrival and growth of COVID-19, fear and anxiety are prevalent among so many people, causing social distancing, events being canceled, people being quarantined, and, tragically, over 4,000 deaths worldwide.

In this season of dread and panic, Greg and RD acknowledge that everyone should be aware of what is going on and not put our heads in the sand or cover our ears, but they also affirm that we should not give into fear as we engage with unfolding events in the world, and in our own lives. Both Greg and RD speak from a Biblical perspective in order to join the conversation about COVID-19, but also dive into how we as Christ-followers should respond to fear and anxiety in general. Both communicate that we must place our trust in Jesus, no matter what the circumstances may be in our lives or in the world at large.

For more information on this podcast, visit podcast.fellowshipknox.org 

During a town hall meeting, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was asked, "Is there such a thing as a pro-life Democrat in your vision of the party?" Sanders responded by saying, "I think being pro-choice is an absolutely essential part of being a Democrat." This comment started all kinds of conversations amidst the presidential campaign, and with Christians alike. With that in mind, Greg and RD jump into the conversation of abortion in order to help Christians walk through what RD calls the most divisive topic in politics right now.

To start, RD shares that his wife Emily used to work at a crisis pregnancy center in Wisconsin, so he lets the listener know that this topic is very close to his heart. After sharing that, RD goes on to assert that God is the author of life, so God and God alone gets to decide when a life ends or begins. He also conveys that he's passionate about this because he sees the world viewing Christians as only caring about abortion and homosexuality on the most basic of levels instead of engaging in a conversation about a bigger vision.

Greg chimes in by saying that while the church is heavily involved in birth-to-death ministries, individual Christians can get sucked into conversations about abortion only, and don't consider being pro-life for the entirety of that life. Greg implores the listener to find places and conversations in the world where they can be engaged and provide a bigger vision; that is what will bring about true social justices, he says. Both Greg and RD agree that we as Christians have to be bigger than a political party.

RD references how the early church didn't give in to the political pressures of the day. Instead, the early church was known for their care of the poor and infants. And more than just dispute abortion, the church would take in unwanted infants, as the practice of the day was to literally throw away unwanted babies.

In conclusion, RD stresses that if you've had an abortion, there is room in God's Kingdom for you still, because God is a God of forgiveness, grace, and healing. Greg agrees with this and adds that our vision for why people are important shouldn't come from their status or utility; it's instead their created nature in the image of God that matters.

What exactly does God control in our lives? How much does God know about the future and my choices? If God does know the future, has He always known it, or was there a point when He learned it?

These are the questions that Greg and RD dive into during their discussion of Open Theism.

Right at the start of the conversation, Greg tells listeners that it's important to know that one big reason Open Theism came to be was because people wanted to be able to say that God didn't know that Adam and Eve were going to sin, and that the Fall and sin were a surprise to Him. By saying this about God, Greg explains that it gives people a way to cope with God being a good God yet allowing things like suffering without having to trust in God's sovereignty. However, Greg goes on to explain that this way of thinking completely contradicts Biblical passages like Ephesians 1 and Romans 9.

So what do we do with these questions? Where do we take them? RD and Greg both implore listeners to take them to God; He can handle it. We are never going to understand why God does some of the things He does or allows certain things to happen, Greg admits, because of our finiteness and the way our brains work compared to God. But that doesn't mean that God is not sovereign and good, it just means that God is asking us to trust Him. RD adds to this by telling listeners to submit all thoughts and emotions to God; we have to trust God even when things don't make sense to us, but that doesn't mean that we can't tell God how we feel or bring our questions to lay down at His feet.

In this vein, RD and Greg also consider why we are told in the Bible to pray for people, if God already knows what will happen to them. Ultimately, Greg says that we have to pray for each other because God has told us to, period. We have to trust that God is telling us to for a reason, and just be obedient and trust him, just like with everything in our lives.

This leads RD to examine how we should trust and love God despite not being given the answers to every question we have. Just because we don't understand every facet of God doesn't mean we can't love him, RD says. Greg affirms this by sharing his belief that we will never completely understand or know God. Instead, we will spend all of eternity in Heaven with Him, learning about Him and being in His presence.

Greg and RD wrap up this episode by clarifying that while God is and always will be mysterious to us, that it not something we should be afraid of or cause us to run from Him. Don't despise the mystery, Greg implores, instead embrace it because it's who God is. RD concludes the podcast by referencing the book Hope Heals by Katherine and Jay Wolf, and how the Wolfs had to come to the conclusion themselves that while they may never understand why things happened to Katherine, they can still say God is good.

Division in politics isn't a new phenomenon; it's been around since the beginning of politics. However, with the rise of social media affecting politics, the division has been ramped up immensely. One reason we have so much division, Greg thinks, is because so much of the way we vote as a country is fueled on fear and cynicism, instead of forming an opinion based on Scripture and listening to the Holy Spirit.

With that in mind, Greg and RD spend this podcast discussing how we as Christians have to find ways to be engaged in politics without forgetting that we are not created to serve the president, we are created to serve God and His ways.

Early on, RD and Greg show how many people in the Bible either had positions of political power (like Joseph and Daniel) or wrote about politics (like Paul and Peter). It's important to note this, Greg reminds listeners, because the Bible shows us that God has given us a government, and we should be praying, caring, and engaging in it.

As Believers, we have to engage in politics in a way that is Gospel formed, Greg asserts; it's important to be informed and know your opinion on things. Greg goes on to disclose that you have to be able to talk about hot-topic things in love and with respect, with Scripture in the forefront of your mind, because we will only evoke change when we can actually talk about things with each other and share our opinions. RD jumps in to share that we can disagree with each other, but we have to love each other first and foremost.

In talking about sharing your political views and voting based on your beliefs, both RD and Greg are quick to convey that there's a difference between thoughtfully disengaging and abstaining from voting because you're can't, in good conscience, vote for any candidate, and not engaging because you're apathetic or lazy. Jesus calls us to love and serve everyone, RD repeats, including widows, orphans, and the poor, and you have to engage in politics in order to help these people. If you're apathetic, you can't bring about change for anyone.

RD goes on to share that he doesn't think a Christian should fit neatly into any political category. It's not good to pick a side just to pick a side, RD expresses, it's better to think through all topics with Scripture in mind and come to an informed, Biblical decision, even if that means you're split between parties.

Greg and RD close their discussion by affirming that at the foot of the cross, we are all the same.

In his book 'Love Wins,' Rob Bell writes about how hell cannot be a place where God allows people to go to for forever, because how could a loving and good God ever do that? But to reduce hell to that notion shows that there is much missing in your belief of God. God cannot just snap His fingers and say that sin is fine; His holiness will not allow that.

In sharp contrast to the ideas that Bell presents, the New Testament has passages like Luke 13 where the author writes that Jesus commands for people to depart from Him and go to a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. There are other passages where Jesus also talks about hell, such as the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and Matthew's passage on the final judgment. So while some people say that the God of the Old Testament is harsh and unloving but the God (meaning Jesus) of the New Testament is only full of love and compassion, this is simply not true; Jesus talks about hell more than anyone else in the entire Bible.

While some people subscribe to Annihilationism, or the idea that the souls of the damned cease to exist, Jesus also shows in the Bible that because eternal life with Him exists, so must eternal punishment. Greg affirms this by discussing how the Holy Spirit is in us and is restraining us while we are on earth, but in hell, sin will become rampant because the presence of the Holy Spirit will be missing.

After examining texts that show that hell is real, Greg and RD move onto who is going to be in hell and why. They are both quick to mention that the defining thing that sends people to hell is not the idea of who is better than who, or if you committed more sins than others; the defining thing is God's holiness, and if you repent and rely on His salvation or not. With this in mind, it's important to remember that unlike John Milton's view of hell in 'Paradise Lost', hell does not belong to Satan. This idea of hell being Satan's might be an easier notion to swallow, but the truth is that the purpose of hell is to show God's holiness and righteousness. Both RD and Greg point to Dr. R. C. Sproul's book 'The Holiness of God' for a more in-depth look into this concept.

If we think that God will only send to hell those who commit repulsive sins, or someone who commits thousands and thousands of sins, then we are cheapening the love of God, because God is holy and His righteousness cannot tolerate even one "small" sin. The question really shouldn't be how can a loving God send people to hell, it should be how can a holy and righteous God send people to heaven. But as we read in 1 John, those of us who have put our faith in Jesus can be confident in the knowledge that we will be with Him in heaven.

On December 14, 2019, Olive Heiligenthal, the two-year-old daughter of Andrew and Kally Heiligenthal, tragically passed away. Instead of going into mourning, Andrew and Kally reached out to their community at Bethel Church and began praying that God would raise Olive from the dead. According to Bethel's Facebook page, they stated that they were seeking "… a miracle from God to raise [Olive] from the dead. We realize this is out of the norm, but that’s what a miracle is – it’s outside the box of nature and our power." However, after several days of prayer, the Heiligenthals finally ended the call for resurrection.

So what now? Should the congregation at Bethel carry around incredible guilt because they weren't able to raise Olive from the dead? Do we start to believe that God is not as good as He says He is?

On the contrary, Greg and RD firmly share that you have to believe that everything God does is for the sake of His glory, and just like Jesus, you have to say, "Your will be done," believing that God is a merciful and loving God with ways you may never understand because you are not God. Greg and RD also affirm that you have to ask God to refine you through every circumstance you experience, no matter the outcome, and not blame yourself when the outcome is not what you wanted or expected.

The problem comes, Greg and RD assert, when you believe that heaven will come to earth if you pray and believe hard enough, as they did at Bethel with Olive; you are taking God and His will out of the equation. Greg and RD implore the listener to steer clear from the thinking of, "I might have been saved by faith, but it's me who perform my spiritual gifts," as they agree that this way of thinking can lead to over-realized eschatology, or the notion that some of the things that God says specifically about heaven and the future are happening right now on earth.

It's easy to take passages of Scripture such as Jesus telling His disciples that they can move literal mountains with their faith and think that these Scriptures mean that we must do the same today. However, Greg and RD are quick to point out that there is a difference between texts of apostles such as Paul saying, "This is how you need to live to follow Jesus," and stories told in the Gospels showing how Jesus is Lord in every circumstance. A great example of this is the Sermon on the Mount, which should not be taken as prescriptive, Greg confirms, because Matthew put it in his Gospel for the Jews to show that we cannot be righteous before God by our own actions. 

So whether you're a Cessationist or a Continuationist, Greg and RD agree that the point is that every single miracle that has ever been done or ever will be done points back to the cross and the mission of Jesus.

To end the episode, RD and Greg point to an article by K. J. Ramsey about Olive and how, in every circumstance, we must trust God and hold fast to the belief that He is good.

On January 26, Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, along with seven other people, were killed in a tragic helicopter crash after making the decision to fly in foggy conditions. Stunned at the sudden death, fans, friends, and celebrities alike mourned the loss of everyone on board. Bryant had a career in the NBA for 20 years and was considered an NBA superstar, but he was also a family man, having been married to his wife Vanessa Laine for 19 years and having four children together.

In this episode, Greg and RD take time to break down the response to Kobe's death; when a celebrity who seemed to have the world at his fingertips and so much life left to live dies, it reminds the world of how little control we have over our own lives.

From there, RD and Greg pivot from Bryant to talk more broadly about how our current culture approaches death and grief, and how the Bible shows us a deeper and more profound way to approach them. The best example of this is Jesus Himself; throughout His ministry, we see a man who was acquainted with grief and sorrow, who wept, and whose life ended when He was only in His 30s. In all of these things, Jesus models a way for us to confront death, embrace grief as part of our healing process, and hold onto a hope in Jesus that is stronger than death itself.

When John MacArthur responded to a question about his feelings towards Beth Moore by telling Moore to "go home," Christians responded in a number of different ways. Some people took a hard stance on women not being allowed to preach in churches, while others took to Twitter to affirm Moore and her ministry. Moore herself responded via Twitter and said, "I did not surrender to a calling of man… I surrendered to a calling of God… You don't have to let me serve you. That gets to be your choice. Whether or not I serve Jesus is not up to you… One way or the other, I esteem you [MacArthur] as my sibling in Christ."

The controversy of MacArthur's remarks began a conversation among many Christians not only about the place of women in ministry, but how men and women, and husbands and wives, should treat each other in general.

Some Believers have pointed to Titus' words in the Bible, saying that the woman or wife's place is at home, as MacArthur said. Others have looked to Paul's texts and feel that women should stay silent in churches. To these passages, Greg affirms in this episode that we have to take the texts of the New Testament in social context; the early Christians were trying to not stick out or bring about massive social revolutions. Instead, they wanted to be known for how and Who they loved.

With this knowledge, we need to remember to work together as Christians for the sake of the Gospel instead of tear each other apart, or harshly say what some can do and some can't do. From the beginning, God created Man and Woman, Adam and Eve, to work together and be a partnership. We need to remember that it is not an "either or" when it comes to men and women working together in ministry, it's a "both and." It's also not about what we think are our rights or what we think we deserve from God vocationally, it's about what God has called us to individually, for His glory and wisdom. With this in mind, RD confirms that a church has to have ways to grow men and women equally, since they are both made in God's image and thus equally important to bringing the Gospel to the world.

To help having a well-rounded conversation around these topics, Greg and RD bring in their wives, Jen and Emily, to the episode.

Jen, Greg's wife, shares that she grew up in a ministry family, and felt the call to ministry when she was in her 20's. When she started studying the Bible for herself, she tells listeners that she found freedom as a woman in ministry, and has had lots of encouragement from men in the church to think outside the box in ministry and lead in lots of different ways. Jen explains that it's not about "the cause," it's about serving Jesus.

Emily, RD's wife, shares that she is passionate about keeping the "main thing" the main thing, and doesn't want to focus on women's ministries, but instead she wants to focus on Jesus and His ministry. She explains that she has had people in her life who have fostered and encouraged her to be a leader in her own individual way.

Throughout their conversation, RD, Greg, Emily, and Jen keep coming back to the idea that society has formed a lot of what Christianity has taken on as gender roles. For example, there is nothing Biblical about who has to do what in the home and in a marriage; society has put ideas in our heads like the wife has to stay home and cook dinner, and the husband handles the money. In our culture, this is what submission in a marriage looks like, but this is not what Biblical submission looks like. 

Do we go straight to heaven when we die? Will everyone we love be there? What does heaven look like? What will I look like in heaven? RD and Greg tackle all these questions and more in this episode.

In the early days of Christianity, many people picked up ideas and ideologies from things like Greek mythology and popular opinions of the day. For example, the idea of Gnosticism entered the Roman world and tried to twist our understanding of who Christ was. So a lot of our societal understanding or way of thinking about heaven is actually incorrect. Heaven is not a place of clouds and harps and angels with wings flying around like it's depicted in movies. In fact, the phrase "go to heaven when you die" is not even in the Bible. While we don't know everything or even a lot about what heaven looks like from the Bible, we do know that heaven is a place where we will be with God; Jesus told His disciples that He was preparing a place for them there. We also know that this place is where we will go (at least for a time before the New Heavens and New Earth) when we die, as Jesus tells the man on the cross next to Him.

While we know these things about heaven, the Bible doesn't seem concerned with what heaven looks like or how it functions; the Bible is much more concerned about us being aware of our eternal reality and putting our trust in Jesus no matter what. Throughout the Bible, we are told that we should be living for the Kingdom now, because the Kingdom is where God rules and reigns forever. Our life with God now is preparing us for our life with Him later in the Kingdom.

Once Greg and RD set these thoughts and facts about heaven straight, they take the time to answer some common questions they receive about heaven.

34:52 - Will I get an answer or know why this particular thing happened to me?

Paul says that in heaven, we will know as we are known. While there is nowhere in the Bible that explicitly states that God will answer all of our questions in heaven, this passage from Paul does lead us to believe that we will understand why things happen to us because God will explain it to us.

40:02 - Will this particular person be in Heaven?

We know that all those in Christ will be with Him in heaven. Through stories in the Bible like that of Abraham, we can see that it is more about believing God's promise and about believing God saves you than about if someone lived before or after Jesus was alive. So if someone believes that it is God alone who saves them and puts their trust in Him, then they will be in heaven.

42:10 - What's going to happen with the New Earth? What will heaven be like?

All we really know is that the New Earth will be God setting things right. However, we can read books by authors like Randy Alcorn to get an idea of what the New Earth could be.

43:58 - Will we know each other in heaven? And what will we look like? Will we have jobs in Heaven?

We know that the disciples knew who Jesus was in His resurrected body but besides that, we don't know exactly what we will look like. We can guess that the New Earth will look something like what we have now, except perfect.

1. Creationism: What are the differences of opinions, how do we handle them, and what are the things we must believe (1:45)
2. What do we mean when we say “God’s glory" (14:49)
3. What are our favorite book of the Bible and why (21:34)
4. Suicide (25:33)
5. What does it mean to have a personal relationship with Jesus (34:34)
6. The differences in Bible translations (38:52)
7. Enneagram (42:28)
8. God as “she” (47:05)
9. Can someone be Christians and hold non-Christian positions (49:55)
10. Do babies go to heaven (54:27)
11. How do you deal with feeling overwhelmed by culture, and when it seems like justice is absent (situation in Syria, sex trafficking etc) (57:29)
12. Universalism, Narnia, and Tash (1:05:13)
13. Podcasts RD and Greg are listening to / Christmas movies to watch (1:12:17)