Undeceptions with John Dickson

A remarkable event occurred on this day at 11:30am, 25 June, 1788. The 21 year old convict, Samuel Peyton,  entered into eternity courtesy of the hangman's noose. 

But unlike many of his convict comrades who suffered a similar fate, Peyton left behind a testament to his belief that, even in death, he was “firmly relying on the merits of a Blessed Redeemer.”

Listen in for one of the most heartfelt stories of repentance Australia's colonial history has to offer, as well as a pointer to a Christian hope that still holds true today.

Rachel Gilson says she grew up knowing two things instinctively: she was romantically attracted to women and Christians were NOT ok with that. 

Smart, sophisticated, with a love for big ideas not small minds … Rachel Gilson sounds like she’s the poster girl for that common critique of Christianity - that it’s unhelpful and unhealthy for those with lesbian, gay, or bisexual orientations. But that is not her story.

Rachel discovered that it was possible to walk a round that led between her same-sex attraction and a love of God. Her conclusions, including her life choices will surprise you. 

Yet Rachel’s quest to understand God and His opinion of her desires provide one of the most provocative, interesting and inspiring stories Undeceptions has had privilege to present.

LINKS

• For more on Rachel Gilson, check out her web site.
• And while you're clicking, have a look at the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
• Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
• Undeceptions would like to encourage you to check out Zondervan Academic's latest publication, Collected Essays of N.T. Wright, 3: volumes: Interpreting Scripture, Interpreting Jesus, and Interpreting Paul
• Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
• You can click here to sign up for the Life In Wartime podcast with David Robertson and Stephen McAlpine.
• Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
• Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.

The end of the second season of Undeceptions is drawing night, so it's time to start unpacking all of the questions we've collected.

This episode John Dickson tackles everything from is the Old Testament History to is the New Testament a re-write of Jesus' real perspective?

If you enjoy listening to hosts squirm, you'll love season's two's Undeceptions Q and A.

LINKS

• Both atheistic evolutionists and literalistic creationists want you to read Genesis the same way, but is there a different take on the foundational book of the Bible? John asks Professor C. John Collins, Professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary, in the Undeceptions episode Six Days.
• Undeceptions brings to life the forgotten women of the early church so we can learn just how significant the fairer sex were for the spread of the Gospel with international expert Dr. Lynn Cohick in our episode Remembering Women.
• Studies continue to show that most people have a fairly positive view of the founder of Christianity. But that’s a long way from accepting that there’s any history - let alone relevance - in the alleged events of Easter. John tackles the top questions in Easter Myths.
• While you're clicking, have a look at the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
• Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
• We encourage you to especially check out Zondervan's new book, 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity by John Lennox.
• Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
• You can click here to sign up for the Life In Wartime podcast with David Robertson and Stephen McAlpine.
• Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
• Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.

This episode, we’ll be zooming in on the early Christian women, for whom we have good evidence, and who had a profound impact on the church and its teaching in their time.

Our guide is Dr. Lynn Cohick, who's written books on the topic, including Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through the Fifth Centuries (co-authored with Amy Brown Hughes) and Women in the World of the Earliest Christians.

She paints a vivid picture for us of what life in ancient Rome might have been like for the first women to hear the gospel.

LINKS

• For more on Dr. Lynn Cohick, check out her web site.
• And while you're clicking, have a look at the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
• Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
• A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
• Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
• You can click here to sign up for the With All Due Respect podcast with Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit
• Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
• Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.

Greg Sheridan cut his teeth at the legendary news magazine, The Bulletin, before moving on to the national daily newspaper, The Australian, where he’s been the foreign editor since 1982.

John catches up to talk to him about Christianity's struggles in Australia and why, of all times, he would choose to out himself as a believer.

However, Greg is not so glum on the future and underlines that because the faith is beholden to no particular political party it has the ability to reinvent itself that is more inline with its roots.

LINKS

• For more on Greg Sheridan, check out his web page at The Australian
• Check out the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
• Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
• A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
• Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
• You can click here to sign up for the Salt podcast with Jenny Salt
• Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
• Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.

Ian Hutchinson is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

Among many, many other things he wrote the standard monograph on measuring plasmas, Principles of Plasma Diagnostics. That's right, he literally wrote the book on plasmas.

He’s also a fellow of the American Physical Society, a fellow of the Institute of Physics, and of the American Scientific Affiliation.

And… he believes in miracles - healing, resurrection, all of it.

Find out why.

LINKS

• For more on Professor Ian Hutchinson, check out his web site.
• Check out his book, Can A Scientist Believe In Miracles? by Ian Hutchinson
• And while you're clicking, have a look at the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
• Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
• Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
• You can click here to sign up for the With All Due Respect podcast with Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit
• Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
• Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.

It’s a popular misconception. If science is your guiding light, you’re going to see the world a particular way. And if you hold to religion well, you’re going to imagine the world a particular way. At least that’s how it seems.

But Alister McGrath is the Professor of Science and Religion at Oxford University, and he makes a pretty convincing case that, while science and religion are fundamentally different, they remain complementary. 

So what does Alister do with the all the objections scientists throw at him? Play them back with a perfectly straight British bat. Tune in and tally the score for yourself!

LINKS

• For more on Dr. Alister McGrath, check out his web site.
• Check out the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
• Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
• A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
• Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
• You can click here to sign up for the With All Due Respect podcast with Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit
• Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
• Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.

Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin is a learned, feisty academic who's not afraid to confront the challenge that this two thousand year old faith has run its course.

Claims of institutionalised homophobia, that religion is bad for us, and scare tactics surrounding the teaching of Hell - they all surface in this episode.

Faced with the most challenging questions of the day, Dr. McLaughlin offers a spirited defence of Christianity that John Dickson thinks amounts to the best answer to troubling questions since Tim Keller's Reasons For God.

LINKS

• For more on Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin, check out her web site.
• Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard questions for the World's Largest Religion, by Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin
• Check out the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
• Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
• A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
• Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
• You can click here to sign up for the With All Due Respect podcast with Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit
• Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
• Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.

What do you do if you devote your entire life to one religion, then slowly realise you belong somewhere else?

This episode isn’t an exploration of a forgotten piece of history, a tricky topic, or an ethical dilemma, but a story, plain and simple about a search for personal peace, which is just what our anxious world needs right now.

Rahil Patel was one of the Hindu world's leading evangelists, who spent decades establishing temples all over Europe and Russia, until one day he woke up to discover that his heart belonged to someone else.

LINKS

• Rahil Patel's web site
• Found By Love: A Hindu Priest Encounters Jesus Christ, by Rahil Patel
• Check out the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
• Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
• A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
• Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
• You can click here to sign up for the Salt podcast with Jenny Salt
• Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
• Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.

It’s Easter, and billions of people pause to contemplate the death and resurrection of Jesus. Alongside them are plenty of folks who look at Christ quite differently.

Studies continue to show that most people have a fairly positive view of the founder of Christianity. But that’s a long way from accepting that there’s any history - let alone relevance - in the alleged events of Easter.

We had a lot of fun looking at the Christmas Story through the lens of history. We thought it would be good to do the same for Easter. Bring on all of your questions about the historical authenticity of this central Christian celebration, and listen to what happens when they collide with the evidence of history.

LINKS

• Check out the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
• Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
• A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
• Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
• Click here to listen to the FULL interview with Dr. Chris Forbes, courtesy of The Centre for Public Christianity
• You can click here to sign up for the With All Due Respect podcast with Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit
• Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
• Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.