The Complete Sinner's Guide

Description

Josh and I begin the episode with questions for both Robert and Chris like “What set you on your journey with this topic?” and “What is missing from the other side that would convince you of the truth of your opponents position?”

After brief introductions of the two positions, Chris and Robert nuance differences and similarities of their views of the immortality of the human soul, resurrection of the dead and eternal life. After an exciting back and forth, the two get into an exegetical debate on the content of Luke 20:35-36 and the fate of the resurrected righteous!

After hashing out the details of the text we begin to wind down, and end the show with Josh raising one last theological question: “Is the ‘Image of God’ retained in the resurrected wicked?”. Guess you’re going to have to listen to the episode for the answer from both Robert and Chris on this one!

Overall, as Robert put it after the episode off air “A lot of MEAT on them bones!” to which I wholeheartedly agree! This will be the last installment (for a while anway ;) ) of our Conditional Immortality and Eternal Conscious Punishment series! Make sure to check out ALL our episodes on this topic with Chris, Robert and Ross Burns either in CSG’s episode archive or our playlist on YouTube! God bless and enjoy!

Biblical and Extra-Biblical Passages Referenced

*CSG YouTube Videos: *

Rethinking Hell YouTube Channel:

Robert Wiesner YouTube Channel:

Join us on this LIVE edition of CSG for PART 2 of our episode "Divine Permission w/ J.D. Martin"! We had a good conversation off air w/ Dr. Leighton Flowers after releasing the ep. so we invited him on for part 2! Honestly the two explain their positions on the subject of Divine Permission best themselves, so jump into this episode if this is a subject you are currently interested in!!! Great content from all 4 of the participants as we challenge each other in this Christ-like and fruitful conversation!

Personally, I do believe that progress was made in ultimately uniting the two positions of Free Will and Determinsm but more work still needs to be done! Fresh perspectives on this one ladies and gents so give this one a listen and let me know what you think below!!!!

Enjoy and may God bless this conversation!

We begin this episode with some personal testimony from Tyler on what’s currently going on in his family life and how God is using all these things for good! Diving into a passage from Luke, 22:39-46, Josh then leads us in a symbolic exposition of the Scripture, showing Christians Jesus’ example during His most mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausting time of His incarnation, save the crucifixion, the Garden of Gethsemane.

This episode is exceptionally practical for Christians during times of mental, spiritual and even physical suffering, encouraging us all to keep pushing forward and even discipling people during times of tribulation and distress! We never know who’s watching us during times of temptation and suffering. May we as Christians testify to the goodness of God by our actions so people may see the Image of God and Jesus Christ in us and glorify the God of Heaven!

Biblical Passages References:

On this episode of CSG, J.D. Martin (Exploring Theology) joins Joshua Davidson and myself as we seek to answer questions raised by Dr. Leighton Flowers (Soteriology 101) concerning what it means for God to “permit” events that happen in reality from the Reformed/Calvinist perspective. This leads to an in-depth discussion on the topic with answers to questions like “What do Calvinists mean when they use terms like ‘permit’, ‘decree’, & ‘cause’?” and “Do ALL Calvinists hold to what is philosophically known as ‘determinism’?”

After a good 35 min back-and-forth between J.D. and Josh, establishing the fact that some Calvinists do indeed hold to the idea of “contra-causal freewill” (and not the picture that Determinism as a whole paints), we arrive at the question “is the ability to do otherwise a necessary ingredient for moral culpability?” and how does this interact with Calvinism and Reformed Theology. Hint...the answer has to do with us being “in Adam”. Guess you’ll have to check out the episode to hear J.D.’s explanation!!!

Ultimately I believe both Josh and J.D.’s interaction with each other brought A LOT of clarity in this discussion between Calvinists and Non-Calvinists alike. It was friendly, in-depth and like I said, extremely clarifying in answering the questions raised by Dr. Flowers and others on this topic in general! If this is a topic you are currently studying I highly recommend this episode! God bless!

Biblical Passages Cited:

Robert Wiesner is back for part 2 of our discussion on the nature of Hell! We examine Scripture as well as other Second Temple texts like Enoch, Jubilees, etc to answer the question of what happens to the resurrected wicked in Hell! Are they punished forever? Are they annihilated? Are there more questions to be asked? Join us as we dive into this debate concerning Christian eschatology to find out more!

Part 1

In this episode we sit down with Stuart Brogden and Ian Renwick to discuss the differences between New Covenant Theology (NCT) and Mid-Acts Dispensationalism (MAD). We begin with a 10 min opening statement for NCT given by Stuart, followed by Ian's 10 min opening statement for MAD. The two then have an open, free flowing discussion concerning primarily God's redemptive plan and how that works over the course of history!

This is a lively episode so be sure to listen carefully to both gentlemen and definitley take some more time to research each position thoroghly if you are still studying these two perspectives! A LOT is covered in this episode but still more must be said! We plan on narrowing down the discussion to specific points in our "pt 2" (sometime in the future, Lord Willing) but overall this is a good introduction to both systems of thought and at least one of the primary points of contention is brought out here!

On this episode of CSG, we invited Robert Wiesner to come on the show to discuss the traditional doctrine of eschatology and Hell known as Eternal Conscious Punishment!

Starting with the Old Testament we reference texts such as Daniel 12 and Isaiah 26 as a starting point for ECP and work our way into the New Testament to really see this theology in it’s fullness! We then discuss Josephus and the eschatological differences between Sadducee’s & Pharisee’s and the concept of “immortality” through universal resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.

Revelation 14:9-11 is then focused on as Robert gives us a great explanation of John’s imagery of God’s wrath for individuals in this text. Then, to complete the picture, we jump right into Revelation 19:1-4 to see the system that is “Mystery Babylon” come to it’s complete ruin.

Much more is discussed in this episode including Revelation 21, challenges made to the Conditional Immortality view, typology, degrees of punishment, and an explanation of a Psuedepigrapha text from 4th Ezra!

I want to personally thank Robert for joining us on this episode! I absolutely had a blast preparing for this and cannot wait until Chris Date joins Robert and I on 7/23 to hash out the arguments made in this episode and more I’m sure that will be raised!

May God bless this discussion and may fruit and edification come forth from it!

Biblical Texts Cited:

Intertestamental Texts Cited:

In this episode of CSG we sit down with the return of the prodigal son himself, CSG's co-host Michael Chandler Keaton to discuss "Open Theism" with special guest Will Duffy!

The overarching theme of this discussion is "Does God know the future?" Mike, Will and Tyler discuss relevent verses pertaining to this topic beginning with opening statements from Mike and Will and then we jump right into Q&A in an open discussion format for the remainder of the time!

In this episode of CSG, David Pallmann and Dane van Eys drop by to discuss postmodernism in general and postmodernism in the Church! What is the Christian response to this ideology? Find out right here!!!

Al Mohler points out that PM actively seeks to deconstruct Truth. Truth is revealed in Scripture by God. Seems to be a direct attack on Christianity.

Hypothetically PM is an attitude of skepticism: irony toward rejection of grand narratives, ideologies and universalism. It criticizes objective notions of reason, human nature, social progress, absolute truth and objective reality. Its predicated on the idea that the reason someone "categorizes" is to marginalize to obtain power. Power is pretty much all there is.

One element of PM states that human nature is merely a social construct. Dr. Jordan Peterson criticizes this notion by explaining that the reason human nature is merely a social construct is so the postmodernist can construct it however they like!

Postmodernism = Deconstructionism, Relative Feeling & leads to Socialism

Metaphysical (hard) pm:

Epistemological (soft) pm:

Subtle ways PM creeps in to the church:

PM is both philosophical and cultural.

What stems from PM:

CRITIQUE:

Regarding morality or truth, ultimately what is "accepted" or "rejected" is utterly arbitrary. This places the person (instead of Jesus) as "God", the determiner of all "truth".

Practical Steps to Combat Postmodernism:

On this episode of CSG we are discussing the human soul! What is the Biblical understanding of what we call the “soul”, is the soul immortal and what are the implications of the soul’s immortality (or mortality) on Judgment Day?? I’ve asked Chris Date, from Rethinking Hell, to join us again on CSG to help give some biblical answer’s to these questions and more!

Passages from both Old and New Testament books as well as extrabiblical literature are examined to develope a more complete understanding of what ancient Jews and the disciples of Jesus Christ understood to be the truth concerning the fate of the righetous and the wicked, after in "the world to come"! Some of the texts expounded in this epidsode include:

Genesis 19

Chris and I also explore what the Bible means by the terms "immortal", "life", & "death", as well as dig into concepts of Greek mythology like "Tartarus"! Eternal Concious Torment arguments are examined as well and addressed in this episode!

For anyone interested in the soul or conditional immortality, this is a great introductory episode to begin your study on this topic! MUCH MORE needs to be said and is in this episode but, Lord willing, God will arrange things in such a way that we will be blessed to continue this discussion in a part 2 episode or with a positve case for the Eternal Concious Torment perspective!

A big thanks to Chris for participating and if you all are interested in more of his videos you can find his YouTube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/rethinkinghell

A.W. Pink quote from "Eternal Punishment":

Charles Hodge quote from his Systematic Theology Vol. 3 p. 759: