The Berean Call Podcast

When confronted with uncomfortable questions from atheists and agnostics, cultists and pagans, or skeptics and mystics, do your once-firm convictions begin to crumble and compromise? Do you tend to take flight—or instead, are you able to stand firm and “earnestly contend for the faith”? (Jude 3)

FIND BIBLICAL RESPONSES TO SUCH QUESTIONS AS:

Is There a Difference Between Faith and Belief? • Is It Wrong to Want Evidence of God? • How Do We Deal with Doubts? • If We Can Prove God Exists, Why Faith? • Why Do Christians Accept Only One God? • Who Is the True God? • Can We Know God? • Are God and Nature the Same? • Is It Wrong to Ask God to Reveal Himself? • Is Jesus Half-God & Half-Man? • Is the Bible Reliable? • Is the Bible the Only Book of God? • Were Biblical Prophecies Written After the Events? • Shouldn’t We Examine All Religions? • Can the Bible Be Verified? • How Do We Know Our Copies of the Bible Are Accurate? • Can You Make the Bible Say Anything You Want? • Is the Bible Infallible? • When Was Jesus Born? • Do the Gospels Disagree?

1 JOHN 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

1 JOHN 4:5-6 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

1 JOHN 5:6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

1 JOHN 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

2 JOHN 1:1-2 The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth; For the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever.

2 JOHN 1:3-4 Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.

3 JOHN 1:1-4 The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

Originally published November 1, 2000

When our Lord Jesus Christ was on earth He repeatedly said to those who would listen to His Word, “Come, follow me” (Matthew 19:21; Luke 18:22, etc.). Large numbers of the Jews, because they or a relative or friend had been healed or fed by Christ, followed Him wherever He went: “And there followed him great multitudes of people…and he healed them all…” (Matthew 5:1; 8:1; 12:15; 13:2, etc.). So large and eager were the crowds that He and His twelve disciples “could not so much as eat bread. And…his friends…said, He is beside himself” (Mark 3:20-21).

Christ’s call to follow Him is extended to all mankind. No hint that Jesus was not sincere in saying, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37). What He still offers to all is the same “living water [of] everlasting life” which He offered to the woman at the well (John 4:10-14).

When confronted with uncomfortable questions from atheists and agnostics, cultists and pagans, or skeptics and mystics, do your once-firm convictions begin to crumble and compromise? Do you tend to take flight—or instead, are you able to stand firm and “earnestly contend for the faith”? (Jude 3)

FIND BIBLICAL RESPONSES TO SUCH QUESTIONS AS:

Is There a Difference Between Faith and Belief? • Is It Wrong to Want Evidence of God? • How Do We Deal with Doubts? • If We Can Prove God Exists, Why Faith? • Why Do Christians Accept Only One God? • Who Is the True God? • Can We Know God? • Are God and Nature the Same? • Is It Wrong to Ask God to Reveal Himself? • Is Jesus Half-God & Half-Man? • Is the Bible Reliable? • Is the Bible the Only Book of God? • Were Biblical Prophecies Written After the Events? • Shouldn’t We Examine All Religions? • Can the Bible Be Verified? • How Do We Know Our Copies of the Bible Are Accurate? • Can You Make the Bible Say Anything You Want? • Is the Bible Infallible? • When Was Jesus Born? • Do the Gospels Disagree?

1 PETER 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned [genuine] love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

2 PETER 1:12 For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.

2 PETER 2:2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of [blasphemed].

1 JOHN 1:6-7 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

1 JOHN 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 JOHN 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

1 JOHN 2:21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

When confronted with uncomfortable questions from atheists and agnostics, cultists and pagans, or skeptics and mystics, do your once-firm convictions begin to crumble and compromise? Do you tend to take flight—or instead, are you able to stand firm and “earnestly contend for the faith”? (Jude 3)

FIND BIBLICAL RESPONSES TO SUCH QUESTIONS AS:

Is There a Difference Between Faith and Belief? • Is It Wrong to Want Evidence of God? • How Do We Deal with Doubts? • If We Can Prove God Exists, Why Faith? • Why Do Christians Accept Only One God? • Who Is the True God? • Can We Know God? • Are God and Nature the Same? • Is It Wrong to Ask God to Reveal Himself? • Is Jesus Half-God & Half-Man? • Is the Bible Reliable? • Is the Bible the Only Book of God? • Were Biblical Prophecies Written After the Events? • Shouldn’t We Examine All Religions? • Can the Bible Be Verified? • How Do We Know Our Copies of the Bible Are Accurate? • Can You Make the Bible Say Anything You Want? • Is the Bible Infallible? • When Was Jesus Born? • Do the Gospels Disagree?

In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question: Dear Dave and TA, having recently sat through an Easter service at a fairly large Evangelical church, many things that you have been talking about came to mind. First of all, it was primarily a production, dramatic readings, a large choir, and a full orchestra took up most of the service. It was definitely impressive but hardly convicting.Rather than quoting scripture, Bible content was given as stories. That seems to be the method many churches prefer today, impress the lost, tell them stories rather than present the scriptures that convict them of sin. One last thing before you comment, the Bible story given emphasized Friday as the day Christ was crucified.

Today in this segment, we are going to discuss a subject which probably most of our listeners have never questioned but simply assumed to be true because, well, that’s what they grew up believing and never heard anyone challenge its veracity through the Scriptures. And what I’m referring to is Good Friday, the day most people believe that Jesus was crucified. In fact, most professing Christians around the world hold services on Good Friday in honor of Christ’s crucifixion, and that was certainly my experience growing up Roman Catholic. Nevertheless, we’re going to take a serious look at a biblical basis for Good Friday.

1 TIMOTHY 2:7-8 Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

1 TIMOTHY 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

1 TIMOTHY 4:1-3 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

1 TIMOTHY 6:3-5 If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.

1 TIMOTHY 2:3-4 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have [desires] all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

2 TIMOTHY 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

2 Timothy 2:24-26 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

2 TIMOTHY 3:7-8 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate [disqualified] concerning the faith.

When confronted with uncomfortable questions from atheists and agnostics, cultists and pagans, or skeptics and mystics, do your once-firm convictions begin to crumble and compromise? Do you tend to take flight—or instead, are you able to stand firm and “earnestly contend for the faith”? (Jude 3)

FIND BIBLICAL RESPONSES TO SUCH QUESTIONS AS:

Is There a Difference Between Faith and Belief? • Is It Wrong to Want Evidence of God? • How Do We Deal with Doubts? • If We Can Prove God Exists, Why Faith? • Why Do Christians Accept Only One God? • Who Is the True God? • Can We Know God? • Are God and Nature the Same? • Is It Wrong to Ask God to Reveal Himself? • Is Jesus Half-God & Half-Man? • Is the Bible Reliable? • Is the Bible the Only Book of God? • Were Biblical Prophecies Written After the Events? • Shouldn’t We Examine All Religions? • Can the Bible Be Verified? • How Do We Know Our Copies of the Bible Are Accurate? • Can You Make the Bible Say Anything You Want? • Is the Bible Infallible? • When Was Jesus Born? • Do the Gospels Disagree?