The Freethinking Podcasts

I know we just talked about the Freethinking Argument a couple of episodes ago, but there's been a video making the rounds claiming to have debunked the argument. If you know Tim, he's not going to let that slide! In this episode, we interact with a YouTube video from a guy named the Messianic Manic. Needless to say, Tim doesn't let him off the hook!

Hopefully, by the end of the podcast you'll see that these objections simply don't carry much weight. They're all based on misunderstandings, logical fallacies, or what appears to be simple ignorance of the actual argument itself.

Keep sharing the show with your friends, coworkers, family members, and fellow churchgoers. We want to equip more and more people with good apologetics knowledge so that the church today can be well-prepared to make a defense for the hope that is in them (1 Peter 3:15).

It's the final episode with Dr. Mike Licona where he answers more of your questions on the Gospels. He answers concerns regarding taking the Bible literally, the "I am" statements in the Gospels, as well as his personal outlook on Scripture after his research. These should all be of great interest to Christians, so I'm excited for you all to hear him respond.

This has been an incredibly fun series of episodes to do. Tim and I would like to encourage you guys to read Dr. Licona's work and to follow his ministry over at risenjesus.com. You'll be a better apologist, theologian, and Christian because of it. I know we are.

As always, don't forget to subscribe to the show, share, and leave a rating and review on iTunes. Also, if you want to join in on these Q&A's for next time, be sure to go and join the Freethinking Podcast Facebook group which you can do by going to freethinkingministries.com/facebook.

Mike Licona is back in this episode to answer some specific questions that members of our private Facebook group had in regard to his position on why there are differences in the Gospels. This led to another fantastic conversation that hopefully clarifies Dr. Licona's position even more.

In this episode, you'll learn how Mike views the teachings of Jesus, why he believes we should look to Plutarch to understand why the Gospels were written the way they were, and a host of other things. Tim and I believe that if you take the time and listen to what Mike has to say, you'll find that his positions really do make a lot of sense.

I'm going to keep hammering on it, but if you haven't joined the Freethinking Podcast Facebook group, why not? You're missing out on getting your questions answered by Tim, myself, and our guests like Dr. Licona! Go to freethinkingministries.com/facebook and join now!

You can look at more of Dr. Licona's work at risenjesus.com.

We have another bonus episode for you guys, as we were fortunate enough to get Mike Licona on the show to talk about his work on why there are differences in the Gospels. As some of you might know, his position has received a bit of flak, specifically from a few individuals within the Christian apologetics community. We wanted to give Mike a chance to be heard and defend his position.

This was an incredibly fun episode to record. Mike is an incredibly smart and likable person, and we really think this episode is going to be of great value to you all, especially if you struggle with the issues talked about in this episode.

Don’t forget to share the show and leave a rating and review on iTunes. Be on the lookout for the next episode in this series with Dr. Licona, where he answers some questions that were posed to him by members of our private Facebook group, which you can join by going to freethinkingministries.com/facebook.

You can go to risenjesus.com to look at more of Dr. Licona’s work.

We have a special bonus episode for you guys on Sunday, something that’s a little more “inside baseball” than usual. Today we have Brian Abasciano, a pastor, adjunct professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and President of the Society of Evangelical Arminians on the show with us. He responds to James White on his comments regarding whether or not the word “whoever” appears in John 3:16 in the original Greek.

Brian has written an article on this very topic which can be found on both the Evangelical Arminians’ website as well as freethinkingministries.com/whoever-reads-john-316-can-know-that-whoever-is-really-there/. Tim and I both highly encourage you to read that article and visit their website.

It’s a bit of a longer episode, but because it is a bonus episode we hope you don’t begrudge us the long listen. It’s well worth it! As always, be sure to share the show and leave a rating and review on iTunes. And don’t forget to join the private Facebook group at freethinkingministries.com/facebook.

Evangelical Arminians’ website: http://evangelicalarminians.org/

Articles About John 3:16: http://evangelicalarminians.org/category/scripture-index/john-316/

Another Related Article: http://evangelicalarminians.org/steve-sewell-the-whosoever-of-john-316-identified-atonement-free-will-gospel-salvation/

Finally, we're finishing up the moral argument for God's existence. In this episode, we talk about the second premise and conclusion, primarily focusing on defending the existence of objective moral values and duties. This premise isn't one that is typically denied, but it's a good idea to know how to respond to some objections.

Very few people deny the objectivity of moral values and duties. It would mean things like the horrors committed by Joseph Stalin and the communists were not actually wrong. We merely have a difference of opinion with him. Obviously, this is not true! When pressed, most people will admit the second premise of the argument.

Thanks for supporting and sharing the show. We've got some great episodes coming out for you guys in the coming weeks, so keep telling your friends to stay tuned. If you want to help us out further, leave a rating and review on iTunes! Also, subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

This is turning into quite the series of episodes! We're finishing up this week with our interactions with Erik Wielenberg's proposed model for accommodating objective morality on an atheistic worldview. One of the points Tim mentions is that, on Wielenberg's view, even if successful, morality doesn't seem to matter!

Sure, perhaps his model can accommodate objective morality (though we wouldn't even go that far), but there's no "or else" that makes these proposed "ethical facts" have any ultimate significance to our lives. And that is one of the biggest weaknesses of his view.

As always, go to freethinkingministries.com/facebook to join the exclusive private Facebook group where you can interact with Tim and myself on all sorts of apologetic and theological issues. It's already a lot of fun, so we don't want you to miss out!

Leave that rating and review on iTunes in order to help us grow the show and reach more people! See ya next week!

We're back with the second episode discussing the moral argument for God's existence. Tim deals with a specific objection posed by Erik Wielenberg to the first premise of this argument. Wielenberg is an atheist philosopher at Depauw University, and he purports to have a model by which the atheist can hold to objective morality. Needless to say, this episode was quite interesting!

The objection we talked about in this episode isn't one you're likely to come across in 95% of your everyday interactions, but it doesn't hurt to have a good response in your back pocket either!

Don't forget to join our exclusive private Facebook group at freethinkingministries.com/facebook. You'll be able to interact with Tim and myself and ask all of those nagging apologetics questions you've been holding onto. Also, you'll be able submit questions for some Q&A episodes we'll be doing in the future!

Leave a rating and review on iTunes and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

The Moral Argument for God's existence is one of the most powerful that the Christian has. Tim and I begin discussion of the first premise of the argument in this episode. We talk about Sam Harris' attempt to ground objective morality in human flourishing and conclude that this attempt is unsuccessful.

The great thing about this type of argument is that it's quite simple to learn how to defend. Most people have some sort of intuition about morality, and thus it's easy to find a common language by which to communicate the argument.

Don't forget to join our private Facebook group! If you want to interact with Tim, myself, and other Christians interested in apologetics, then you're going to want to join. Go to freethinkingministries.com/facebook and join in on the fun!

As always, don't forget to leave a rating and review. That helps out a lot!

Finally, we've reached the conclusion of the Kalam cosmological argument. This is Tim's favorite part, as there is so much we can learn about God merely from the conclusion that the universe has a cause. Tim walks you through all of the characteristics of the cause of the universe, which is like discovering God!

The Kalam is such a simple and powerful argument for God's existence. It may seem rather insignificant at first, but after one understands what exactly the cause of the universe must be, it seems it must be a thing like God.

We've got some great topics coming up for you guys in the following weeks. But, we need you to continue to be sharing, reviewing, and listening to the show. That's how we grow and give more exposure to these powerful arguments for God's existence. Stick around and continue loving God with all of your mind!