Truthspresso

My wife Chelsea returns to co-host with me for this Valentines Day episode.

What is love?

Dictionaries describe it as a "feeling," "affection," "passion," or "desire."

These are all well and good, but do they fully describe what love is?

The Bible has a lot to say about love that doesn't quite fit these terms.

We see how the Bible defines love as

1. Commanded
2. Sacrificial
3. Selfless
4. Unconditional

The world often gets the cart before the horse. Feelings aren't necessarily the source of commitment. Rather, commitment properly produces feelings.

Sources Cited:

Merriam-Webster, s.v. "love," accessed February 12, 2022, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/love.

Dictionary.com, s.v. "love," accessed February 12, 2022, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/love.

Scriptures Cited:

Matthew 22:35-40

1 John 4:10-11

Ephesians 5:2,25,32

John 15:13

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Romans 5:8

Luke 6:27

Proverbs 10:12

We are continuing and finally concluding a series of episodes comparing Jesus to superheroes. This series will tackle wrong ideas about Jesus from church history in chronological order. A superhero (in this case a super villain) will represent each of these ideas.

This is part 3 of 3 of "Is Jesus Like Doctor Octopus?"

In this episode we cover two takeaways from the monothelite controversy that matter to us today:

1. Monothelitism compromises substitutionary atonement (Heb 2:14-18; 4:15; 5:7-9).
2. The barrage of anathemas against Pope Honorius I who was complicit in the error refutes the Roman Catholic dogma of papal infallibility.

Sources Consulted:

"Third Council of Constantinople," New Advent, Accessed February 6, 2022.

Philip Schaff, ed., "The Sentence Against the Monothelites." Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Accessed February 6, 2022.

Ibid., "Session XVI," Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Accessed February 6, 2022.

Ibid., "The Definition of Faith," Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Accessed February 6, 2022.

Ibid., "The Prosphoneticus to the Emperor," Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Accessed February 6, 2022.

Ibid., "Letter of the Council to St. Agatho," Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Accessed February 6, 2022.

Ibid., "The Imperial Edict Posted in the Third Atrium of the Great Church Near What is Called Dicymbala," Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Accessed February 6, 2022.

Ibid., "The Canons of the Council in Trullo," Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Accessed February 6, 2022.

Ibid., "Excursus on the Condemnation of Pope Honorius," Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Accessed February 6, 2022.

Scriptures Cited:

Hebrews 2:14-18; 4:15; 5:7-9

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We are continuing a series of episodes comparing Jesus to superheroes. This series will tackle wrong ideas about Jesus from church history in chronological order. A superhero will represent each of these ideas.

This is part 2 of 2 3 of "Is Jesus Like Doctor Octopus?"

After a bit of review of our superheroes and the issues, we look at the intricate history of this conflict over monothelitism in the seventh century.

Monothelitism was political position that was intentionally constructed to reconcile the orthodox with the monophysites to unite and strengthen the Byzantine empire.

Some of the orthodox who opposed this compromise doctrine suffered tremendously for the truth. We owe them a debt of gratitude rather than let them slip through the cracks of history.

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In this episode of Truthspresso Express I talk about the Jehovah's Witnesses contention over what Jesus told the thief on the cross: "Today, you will be with me in paradise."

We can observe several points:

1. The word today is unnecessary if it isn't part of the message.
2. The word paradise is also what Paul observed as the "third heaven."
3. According to Jehovah's Witness teaching, Jesus couldn't even be with the thief in paradise.

Scriptures Referenced:

Luke 23:42-43

2 Corinthians 12:2-4

We are continuing a series of episodes comparing Jesus to superheroes. This series will tackle wrong ideas about Jesus from church history in chronological order. A superhero will represent each of these ideas.

This is part 1 of 2 of "Is Jesus Like Doctor Octopus?"

Who is Doctor Octopus?

How are Jesus and Doctor Octopus similar?

1. They both seemingly have a distinct human and "divine" nature.
2. They are both a single person.

How are Jesus and Doctor Octopus different?

1. Doctor Octopus has only one active will: the will of the super arms.
2. Jesus has both an active human will and an active divine will.

Are there Scriptures that show the two wills of Jesus?

1. Jesus had the same divine will with the Father (Joh 5:17-23, see v.19)
2. Jesus had a distinct human will from the divine will of the Father (Mat 26:38-39; Heb 10:7-9)
3. God cannot be tempted, but man can be (Jas 1:13-16)
4. The Son was incarnate so that He can be tempted as a human (Heb 2:16-18)

Scriptures Cited:

John 5:17-23

Matthew 26:38-39

Hebrews 10:7-9

James 1:13-16

Hebrews 2:16-18

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At long last another episode of Truthspresso Express!

After studying a barrage of articles showing contradictory and gaping holes in the narrative to push the V, I present the case for sanity and truth.

How do we reconcile firing tens of thousands of healthy workers for not taking a V with expecting others to work even while symptomatic from the very contagion that the V is supposed to prevent? Our society has seriously jumped the shark. "The Science" has become a secular gospel of conformity, not actual health care.

Sources Consulted:

Adriana Gomez Licon and Jennifer McDermott, "US hospitals letting staff members infected with COVID stay on the job," Stars and Stripes, January 10, 2022.

Andrew Miller, "Hospitals across the U.S. turning to foreign nurses as healthcare workers are fired over vaccine mandates," yahoo! news, January 8, 2022.

Carolyn, Crist, "Mayo Clinic Fires 700 Employees for Refusing COVID Vaccine," WebMD, January 6, 2022.

Jordan Boyd, "Canadian Ronald McDonald House Threatens To Evict Unvaccinated Child Cancer Patients And Their Parents," The Federalist, January 12, 2022.

Natasha Persaud, "Kidney Transplant Recipients Benefit From Fourth COVID-19 Vaccine Dose," Renal & Urology News, January 18, 2022.

Scripture Cited:

Isaiah 59:14

Keith Heltsley, co-host of the Quest For Truth podcast, interviewed me and my brother John to talk about Jehovah's Witnesses and our book When the Watchtower Knocks: Discussing an Encounter With Jehovah's Witnesses.

The interview was originally recorded on November 10, 2021 and was aired on Quest For Truth on November 15.

Quest For Truth and Truthspresso are both member podcasts of the Christian Podcast Community, a part of Striving For Eternity ministries.

Also check out these resources!

Life Truth Network with Keith Heltsley and Nathan Caldwell

Quest For Truth episode 345: Discussing Jehovah's Witnesses with Daniel and John Mynyk

Quest For Truth episode 309: Superblian and Superhero, Daniel Mynyk

When the Watchtower Knocks: Discussing an Encounter with Jehovah's Witnesses by Daniel and John Mynyk

Chelsea and I continue and close our two-part series about New Year's resolutions from a Biblical perspective.

We begin with three weird and unusual New Year's resolutions that people have made.

Then we continue our assessment from the Bible about the kinds of resolutions that Christians should make. We should reflect about how Christianity looks at life differently from the world:

1. Christians shouldn't think in cycles but in permanency and about eternity
2. Christians should resolve to make changes now and from now on

Sources Cited:

Byron Udell, "15 Most Unusual New Year's Resolutions," AccuQuote, December 22, 2017.

Scriptures Cited:

Hebrews 9:25-26

2 Peter 3:3-4, 11-13

Proverbs 28:13

Galatians 5:1

Ephesians 4:28-29

1 Timothy 4:8

1 Peter 2:1, 11

1 Peter 4:2-4

Isaiah 40:28-31

Romans 6:21-22

Chelsea and I recorded this episode late at night closing out the year 2021.

We discuss the history of New Year's resolutions. The roots go back to ancient history!

We hash some statistics about how many people make resolutions, what they're about, and how successful (or unsuccessful many are).

We then look at what the Bible says about resolutions and making rash promises. The secular world is often flippant and rash with empty pledges. Christians should be slow to make promises and take their own words to heart as the Bible says "Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No' be 'No.'"

Sources Cited:

Amanda Capritto, "The history of New Year's resolutions and celebrations," CNet.com, December 1, 2020.

Sarah Pruitt, "The History of New Year’s Resolutions," History.com, Updated December 30, 2015.

"New Year’s Resolution Statistics (2021 Updated)," Discover Happy Habits, Updated November 13, 2021.

Alyssa Flores, "Top 10 most common New Year’s Resolutions and how to stick to them," Kris 6 News, December 30, 2021.

Catherine Choi, "New Year’s resolution statistics," Finder.com, Updated December 4, 2020.

Scriptures Cited:

2 Corinthians 1:17-18

James 5:12

Romans 7:18

Ecclesiastes 5:2

Chelsea and I throw our hats in the ring to examine the lyrics to the song "Mary, Did You Know?" by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene.

We group lyrics into these categories:

1. Did Mary know Jesus would rule the nations?
2. Did Mary know Jesus would perform miracles?
3. Did Mary know Jesus would save people from their sins?
4. Did Mary know Jesus would be divine?

We also cover a few more ancillary questions about what Mary could have known.

Mary did, in fact, know a lot about Who her son would be.

We close by assessing how we could see a lot of good from the song directly and indirectly and what truly matters about what the song tells us about Jesus.

Scriptures Cited:

Luke 1:28,30,32-33,43

Luke 2:32,35,48-50

Luke 4:18

Psalm 2:7-8

Psalm 72:8-9

Isaiah 61:1

Isaiah 42:7

John 2:3-4

Matthew 1:21,23

Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 35:4-6

Sources Cited:

Bob Smietana, "'Mary Did You Know' Writer Mark Lowry Good-Natured Over Song's Controversy," December 19, 2021.