WEBVTT - Live Q&A with Sean McDowell 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:03.640 Life Audio. 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:07.880 All right, friends, welcome to the Sean McDowell Show. We 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:10.560 are going live to take your questions. We have not 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.840 done this in a long time. I used to do 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:17.080 this almost weekly for a while. We want to bring 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:20.119 it back to you. We're thinking about calling it Talbot Tuesdays. 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:23.680 Today I'm here solo, but I could bring on, if 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:27.840 it's helpful to you, a different talbot professor right now. 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.560 For these three months, we're going to go Tuesday and Thursday, 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:35.080 the second and fourth Tuesdays, and we want you to 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.640 let us know is this helpful. Each week I'm going 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:41.080 to bring on a talbot professor will take your apologetic 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:44.040 biblical theological questions. 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:46.159 And if this is helpful, we're going to keep it up. 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:48.519 So please, I just told my team before we started 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.120 that we're going to read every comment. We want to 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:53.479 know if this is helpful to you. We want to 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:55.440 know if this is interesting, what would you change? Do 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:57.800 you want it every Tuesday? Would you engage? 0:00:58.320 --> 0:00:59.520 If that's the case. 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.120 So, if you're listening to this on the audio later, 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.319 you can email me Sean at Sean McDowall dot org, 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:07.240 or head over to the YouTube page. 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:08.120 And comment there. 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:12.160 All right, we got tons of comments, dozens of questions. 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:14.200 I'm going to dive in, and then we're also going 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.760 to take some live ones if we can. If you 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.680 post your questions in the live chat, I see him 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:22.520 ConA up here on the side. I will take some 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:25.240 of those live questions as well. All right, let's jump 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:28.640 in the first one. No big surprise. Right at the 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.560 top is free will versus predestination. We could spend the 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.399 entire time talking about this, and we won't, but a 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:37.720 couple comments. 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:38.240 One. 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:42.759 This is not just a challenge uniquely for Christians. Every 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.520 worldview has to find and make sense of whether everything 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:51.600 is determined and whether human beings genuinely have free will. 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:53.960 Christians will differ on this. 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:57.680 Some lean more heavily into free will and might be 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:01.880 an Armenian type position. Some lean more heavily into what 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:05.560 would be called a Calvinist worldview, and there's greater and 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:09.280 lesser degrees that people hold those leaning more in towards 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:14.440 God's sovereignty and having a different perspective of free will. 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:17.800 My take, if I had to pick, since I'm an 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:22.320 apologist and a philosopher, I find middle knowledge pretty compelling. 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:26.240 I've interviewed William Lane Craig on this, and basically God 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:30.160 has foreknowledge of not only what will happen, but what 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:35.880 would happen in any conceivable situation, and he places us 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:40.440 in the world knowing and in a sense sovereignly controlling 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:45.480 towards his ends. But we freely act according to our 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:50.960 own desires and will. Now this raises a million other questions, obviously, 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:55.400 but I tend to find that most intellectually satisfying, and 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:57.640 I think it matches up with scripture. 0:02:58.080 --> 0:02:58.520 By the way. 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.440 Last point on this is some people say, well, there 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.919 shouldn't be tensions within scripture when it comes to something 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:07.480 like this. We should have a clear answer. And my 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.400 question is why should that be the case. When you 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:14.080 look at things like physics, light acts as a particle 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:16.760 and then it seems to act as a wave. 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:18.720 We don't know why. 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:23.160 There's a paradox, there's attention there, there's some deeper truth 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:24.160 that we're missing. 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:26.040 So the older I get. 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.840 While I find middle knowledge interesting in promising and one 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:34.320 way to make sense of human free will and God's sovereignty, 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.720 it bothers me less that we can't perfectly solve it, 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:43.720 given that in other worlds like physics. There's also areas 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.600 like light that seem to operate in different ways. If 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:51.440 you disagree, chat give me your comments, throw them in 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:57.720 there and we'll take your questions. I see people from Bakersfield, Singapore, Jamaica, 0:03:57.840 --> 0:03:58.320 New York. 0:03:58.960 --> 0:03:59.400 Awesome. 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:05.080 Love it. Let's take one here from Philos Theos that says, 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:09.360 doctor McDowell, what are your thoughts on oneness Pentecostals. 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:10.000 Now I'm not going to. 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:14.720 Speak specifically on oneness Pentecostals, but from what I understand 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:19.839 of oneness, Pentecostalism is a view that there is it's 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:24.440 a rejection of the Trinity, that God is triune. Now, 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.680 let me just combine this with a question that somebody 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:29.960 posted earlier. I saw as I was skimming through this 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:33.560 before we started. It says this is from Steve and 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:36.840 he says, explain trinity to an unbeliever's the toughest one 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:38.920 to me. So I think in explain what I think 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.239 the Bible teaches about the Trinity will be a general 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:46.480 response to oneness Pentecostalism. Now, a few things about the Trinity. 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:52.159 The word trinity is not in the Bible, obviously, friends, 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:53.640 that's irrelevant. 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.479 It doesn't matter there's. 0:04:56.320 --> 0:05:00.479 A lot of truths about God that the Scripture teaches 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:02.880 where we don't find a word for it in the Bible. 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.599 For example, the word a sayity is not in the Bible. 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:10.720 That's actually a word for God's self existence. But many 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:14.360 philosophers and theologians will point towards like Exodus three, where 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:19.200 God reveals himself to Moses. He says I am who 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:26.080 I am, meaning God is the self existent, eternal, uncreated being. 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:30.120 That affirms a sayity even though we don't have the 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:34.880 word a sayity. The same is true with trinity. It's 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:39.400 not the word that matters, it's the doctrine that matters. 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:42.840 So where's the word trinity come from? I believe in 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.159 a church historian could correct me. I think it was Tortullian, 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.080 maybe the end of the second century around that time, 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:53.440 who first coined the term. He's an early church father. 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:58.119 And it's a combination of two words try meaning three 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:03.360 and nity comes from unity. So the trinity is meant 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.080 to be a word that captures what the Bible teaches 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:11.200 about the character of God, that there's threeness in God 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:15.360 so to speak, and there's oneness in God. So oneness 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.880 Pentecostals get the oneness right, but as far as I 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:23.800 understand what they teach, would miss the threeness part. So 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:26.719 what do we mean by the trinity? So actually let 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.720 him take a step back, if that's okay. Fascinatingly, the 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:35.000 earliest philosophical problem that people wrestled with, and this is 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:38.800 according to Frederick Koppelston's History of Philosophy, he said, was 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.120 the problem of the one and the many? On accounts 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:44.480 for the unity in the world that ties everything together? 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.640 And what accounts for the difference? So early Greek philosophers 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.960 are like, everything is water and air and fire and dirt, 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.760 arranged in different fashions. So there's unity, but there's difference 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:59.159 maybe how it's arranged. So when we look in the world, 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.000 we see a lot of there's one body, but there's 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:07.040 many parts. There's one nation, but different members. There's one 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:11.160 cluster of grapes, but different grapes. E plur mis uni 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.520 there's one nation but different states. E plur mish uni 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.920 means out of the many one? So what unifies the 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:24.440 world and what accounts for the difference. The Christian answer 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:28.320 is it's found in the character of God. The oneness 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.679 is that there is one God who exists in being 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:36.040 and nature. That's the oneness, the threeness, or the try 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:41.240 is there's a distinction in persons, one God who eternally 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:45.240 exists as three persons. So I was just teaching my 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:49.120 classyear and I walked over by undergrad class at Biolah, 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:51.520 and I was talking about the trinity. And if I 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.640 said there's one God and three gods, that would be 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:58.400 a contradiction. I said, there's one person and three persons, 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:02.040 that would be a contradiction. That's not what the Bible teaches. 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.760 It affirms that there's one God in being, and yet 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:11.240 the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each divine. Now 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.640 no one debates that the Father is divine. I won't 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:15.960 go into the passages about Jesus. Be good point to 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.680 John one one in the beginning was the word. The 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:24.280 word was with God, and the word Jesus was God. 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.120 So the word Jesus is God. He's divine, but he's 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:32.920 also distinct from the Father. So the Father's God, the 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.439 Jesus is God. And I've been reading this morning. I 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:40.240 read in Act chapter five where Anonius and Sapphire are 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.080 told by Peter when they lie, they lie to the 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:49.640 Holy Spirit, and they specifically lied to God. So the 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:54.000 father's divine, the Son is divine, the Holy Spirit is divine. 0:08:54.520 --> 0:09:00.160 But there's one being in essence. There's three persons who 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:02.120 are divine. Now, the person who wants to explain it 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.720 to an unbeliever, I would I've given up trying to 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:08.640 use perfect illustrations for the Trinity. When I taught high 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:10.560 school years ago, I'd have students come up with them, 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:11.520 and I kid you not. 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:14.000 I had one student, never forget. 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:18.280 It, goes, mister macul I got it a peanut Eminem goes, 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:20.280 there's the shell of the chocolate and peanut. And part 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:21.880 of me is like, creative. The other part of me 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.880 is like, are you serious? We were comparing the character 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:30.760 of God with a peanut Eminem. There's not a perfect 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:35.000 illustration because we're talking about the character of God that 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.760 is unique. I don't think we need a perfect illustration 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:42.800 to an unbeliever, I might say, and this comes from 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:48.079 Millard Erickson's book. He says, there's one what God and 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:53.880 three who's There's one bean who is God and three 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:59.200 persons who share that divine essence. And the try is 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:03.800 the threeeness a per since the entity comes from the unity. So, yes, 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:08.160 it's difficult to understand. Yes, it stretches our imagination, but 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:12.240 I believe because this is what scripture teaches, and I 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:17.000 think it actually helps make sense of the oldest philosophical challenge, 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:21.640 namely the One and the many. All right, I see 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:26.360 a ton of questions come through. My goodness, here's some 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:29.000 practical ones. Here's a ton. 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:30.760 I love this. This is fun. 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:33.400 By the way, let me take one that was submitted earlier. 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.520 Why did Jesus choose the time period he did to 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:41.040 reveal himself. That's a great question. Let me pull up 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:45.240 here Galatians four, I think gives a sense of this. 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.800 Of course, Paul's letter to Galatia. He says, but when 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:52.720 the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:56.960 born of a woman, born under the law. And of 0:10:56.960 --> 0:10:59.839 course the question is what's meant about the fullness of time? 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.079 I think there's a lot of pieces of this. Of course, 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:06.040 theologically and biblically, we could look back about how God 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:11.040 progressively revealed himself over time, through the patriarchs, through the 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:15.040 person of Moses, through the prophets, during the United Kingdom. 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:18.680 God is slowly revealing his desire and his will for 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.000 the people. That's the importance of the story of the 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:26.560 Hebrew Scriptures. But of course, if Jesus is the Messiah, 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.680 the divine Messiah, then the Old Testament is preparing the 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.240 way for the coming of the Messiah. So there's a 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:41.760 certain biblical theological building that's taking place for Jesus to come. 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:45.559 But I also think what's fascinating is that there were 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:49.640 certain structures in place where the message could get out 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:52.720 to the world in a way it couldn't centuries later 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:57.240 or much earlier, namely the Pax Romana. You had peace 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:00.800 in Rome. You had a way for people to write 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:05.840 letters and deliver them hence Paul's letters. You had transportation 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.439 that was possible around the world. So not only was 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:14.560 their biblical and theological precedent and the expectation of a messiah. 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:16.720 And there's people who know this far better than I do, 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.000 but historically there was a very unique window. And I 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.360 looked at this in my work on the Apostles, because 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.080 I remember thinking, do they even have the ability to 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:28.959 get around the world, And there were maps of ships 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.840 that went out and roads that went out around the 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:34.280 world from the Middle East. It's like it all kind 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:38.960 of culminated in that moment theologically and practically for the 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:41.480 message of Jesus. Like it says an acts take it 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:45.559 to Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and the ends. 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:46.000 Of the earth. 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:50.199 They actually had the ability to get that message out 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:52.960 at that unique moment. So I think God was preparing 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:57.080 and orchestrating all those things sovereignly for his message to 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:59.720 get out. All right, let's take a couple more here 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:01.680 and we'll look live. I see a bunch of these 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:04.960 coming in this. This is fun. Thanks for joining us again. 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:07.319 Those of you just join us, we are giving this 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:09.760 a shot to see if you enjoy a live Q 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:12.840 and A here from Tabat School Theology. I'll be completely 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:16.720 honest with you. Thaddeus Williams professor was supposed to join me, 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.920 but I texted him the wrong date. This is completely 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:23.400 on me. My plan is to have another talbot professor 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.600 here with me and we will take your questions together, 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:31.000 and we're thinking about calling it Talbot Tuesdays. So let 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.480 us know if that's helpful. If that's interesting to you, 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:35.960 let us know, and you can even let me know 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.120 what talbot professor would you like me to have on 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.440 there's a chance I could get maybe JP Morland the 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:43.480 legend to join us. Maybe I don't want to make 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:47.800 any promises. All right, let's see man a live. Questions 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:54.520 are rolling in here, my thoughts on oneness, Pentecostals, predestination, 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:58.280 and Calvinism. Of course, let me go back to this 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:01.719 questions here. Honestly, I'll be really honest with Some of 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.720 these questions are really nuanced, and I'd have to prep 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:08.360 to answer some of them. So maybe in the future 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:10.480 I can look at some of the questions that are 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:15.040 written and give you my two cents on it. Let's see, 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:17.560 here's an interesting one. How come we don't have any 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:20.920 stories about Jesus growing up? Was it not as important 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.120 as part of the gospel? Do you think we could 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.560 have learned things about adolescence through his own story? Now, 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.280 of course we could learn things about adolescents from the. 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:30.240 Story of Jesus. 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:33.600 I wish we had stories about this. When you get 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.800 into the kind of the second century. In the third century, 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:41.520 you have these apocryphal accounts coming, which are invented fictional 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:46.480 stories about Jesus, like claiming to be God doing miracles 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:49.080 as a child. I think there's a story, maybe it's 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:54.240 the infancy gospel of Thomas of turning a pigeon into clay, 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:56.200 or the opposite, I'm forgetting off the top of my head. 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:59.120 These are invented stories because people are asking this question 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:01.840 in the second century, what was baby. 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:02.640 And young Jesus? 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:06.640 Like I think the main reason why we don't have 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:10.080 more of these stories, it's just the nature of how 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:16.240 ancient biographies were written. So the Gospels are understood by 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:18.600 most scholars, and in my assessment of this, I would 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:22.800 agree with it as an ancient form of biography. They're 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:28.200 not mythical accounts. Hence Luke begins his gospel by saying 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:30.520 many of undertaking a drop and account of the things 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:34.400 that have happened among us, And it talks about investigating 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:38.320 carefully and talking with eyewitnesses, so Theophilis and his audience 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.000 can know the certainty of things that have been written. 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.600 These are historically based accounts. 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:45.360 Now. 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:49.440 The difference is in that time they didn't just write 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.800 books chronically in the story of the Caesars, chronically in 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:57.480 the story of prophets, like our biographies today. If one 0:15:57.520 --> 0:15:59.560 of our presidents writes a biography, we want to know 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.200 is we want to know all the things of their life. 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:06.880 The way biographies were written in the ancient world typically 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:11.200 and generally was to only include a part of somebody's 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:16.760 life if it advanced the theme of the book that 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.360 it was contained within. So I think of the one 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.280 story we do have a Jesus, of course, in Luke 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:26.680 chapter two, Atthew Mark Luke, and this is where he's 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:28.800 in his father's house. I won't read the whole thing, 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.520 but it's in Luke two forty one through fifty and 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:35.880 his family leaves for a day, come back, can't find 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:38.480 him for like two days. It's like three days Jesus 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:41.680 on his own. And at the very end of this story, 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.200 when they finally find them, they're worried. It is why 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:46.200 are we searching for me? He asked them to his parents, 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:48.280 didn't you know that it was necessary for me to 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.960 be in my father's house? But they did not understand 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:56.280 what he said to them. So this story is included 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:01.160 because it's teaching something about people not understanding the person 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:05.840 of Jesus and the identity of who Jesus is. So 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.760 matth Mark Look and John, as interesting as those stories 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.720 would be, felt that it wasn't necessary to tell earlier 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.919 stories of Jesus. Hence they tend to introduce some like 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:20.679 the baptism when his public ministry began. I think that's 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:25.840 really what's at stake here, all right, man, Some of 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.160 these are tough, some of these particular verses. 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:31.040 Here's one. 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:33.399 This is a good question, keeno my identity. 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:34.480 Then I'm gonna switch back to. 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:38.600 The live stream here for a second and see what questions, 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:44.840 oh man, good questions. Let me see here some of 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:51.800 these are tough. Oloha from Hawaii. Nice to have you here. 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.520 What do you think about the Brian Standard Bible translation. 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.080 I've never read it, didn't know it was a thing. Sorry, 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.080 I wish I could comment on that one. I did 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:05.000 hear in class that Scott Adams passed away. I don't 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:06.800 know the story of what happened at the end. Just 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.120 did a video last week about him where he said 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:13.480 he was planning on coming to the faith, and part 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:16.000 of me wants to pause, even though he's passed, and 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:18.240 just pray that he really, in fact did come to 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:21.720 the Lord and repent and understand what the gospel is. 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:24.360 But I don't know the answer to that. 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:35.440 Okay, let me see here which person the trainee should 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:35.960 I pray to? 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:39.159 Oh, this is actually an interesting question, Okay, And then 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:40.879 I'll come back to the ones that were posted earlier. 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.119 Which person the trainey should I pray to each one? 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:49.880 Or different things? So in principle, if it's helpful to you. 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.080 Fred Sanders is a teacher at BIOL. He's one of 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:57.720 the leading Trinitarian scholars in the world today. Wrote a 0:18:57.760 --> 0:18:59.600 book in the Holy Spirit. If I remember, maybe six 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:01.760 or eight, ten months ago, I interviewed him about this 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:04.280 and we broke it down. So I'm doing my best 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:05.800 to remember what he said in his book in the 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.000 Holy Spirit. But I think what he said and I 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:12.720 understanding scripture is if the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:17.639 are each divine and God, it doesn't seem to me 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:22.800 wrong in principle to pray to Father, pray to the Son, 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.040 or pray to the Holy Spirit. I don't think that's 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.320 a wrong thing you do theologically or biblically speaking. Enough, 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.400 I'm missing something posted here that I'm not thinking off 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.480 the top of my head, and I'd be happy to 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:39.200 revisit it. But I do think we see a pattern 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:43.240 most consistently in the scriptures that we tend to see 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:46.720 the model of praying to the Father in the power 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.720 of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus. That 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:54.160 seems to be a common pattern, that the name, that 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.439 the name of Jesus has given us access to the Father. 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:01.800 We pray through the power of the Holy Spirit, and 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:05.879 we pray to the Father. That's the pattern that I 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:09.960 think we consistently see. But I certainly wouldn't go so 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:13.040 far as to say it's wrong for somebody to pray 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:17.760 to the Holy Spirit, who is God, pray to Jesus. 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:19.919 In fact, I think we have an appeal to this 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:22.600 maybe in the story of Steven if I remember where 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.280 he kind of prays and appeals to Jesus. So I 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:28.200 think that's more of the norm than I consistently see 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:31.480 and the pattern. But I don't think there's something wrong 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:33.720 in praying to the Father or the Son or the 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:38.119 Holy Spirit, since each one is divine. But post and comment. 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:42.399 Let me know if if you see that, if you 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:47.640 see it differently, let me see this one. Okay, here's 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:50.600 an interesting question. Actually I promised I went back to 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:52.359 earlier once and then I'll come to that one. Sorry, 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:59.000 let's see here why there are some tough questions here, Okay. 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:01.959 Let me take this one. VM Sushi, great name. By 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:03.960 the way, it says. 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:07.800 Is Scripture truly the word of God? If so, why 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:13.879 is it open to interpretation? Shouldn't it be timeless? Also, 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:16.600 I believe that there's an intelligent design to the universe, 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:18.720 But how does that lead to the Bible? Okay, this 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:21.240 is two separate questions. Let me take the second one. 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:21.600 First. 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:25.119 I do believe there's intelligent design. I've written a book 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:27.720 on this, come to think of it, with William Dempsky. 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:31.000 It doesn't take us all the way to the Biblical God. 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:35.160 I don't think it's meant to. So there's different arguments. 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:39.720 For example, the kalom cosmological argument thereby ends exist has 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.919 a cause. The universe began to exist, Therefore the universe 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:45.879 has a cause. William Lane Craig lays out, and I 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:48.440 think he's right that if there is a cause to 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:52.760 the universe, this cause must be uncaused, This cause must 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:57.080 be changeless, must be immensely powerful. 0:21:57.600 --> 0:21:58.679 Seems to require a. 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:01.080 Level of intelligence to bring this in. I'm not certain 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:03.320 Craig makes that argument, but I think you could make 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:06.919 that point. Spaceless can't rememor if I said timeless or not. 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:09.360 I think you could make a case that is personal 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:15.320 because other non physical things that are timeless, like numbers 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:19.760 or laws of physics, don't have causal powers. Persons have 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:22.880 causal powers. Now, that doesn't get us all the way 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:26.159 to the Biblical God. Hence many Muslims use the Kalom 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:30.560 cosmological arguments. In fact, many of them formulated it early on. 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:33.560 Now some people say that's a critique of the Clom. 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:33.879 It's not. 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:39.520 It's natural theology. It's only it critiques pantheism because it's 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:43.680 a personal cause universe had a beginning. Critiques naturalism because 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:47.240 it points to a cause outside of and beyond the universe. 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:54.320 It points to God condition consistent with the Judeo Christian tradition. 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:59.560 You could point towards fine tuning, clearly also an immaterial cause, 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:04.240 because it's fine tuning the universe as a whole, also 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:07.520 very intelligent. I think when we point towards things like 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:10.879 intelligent design in the DNA points towards a cause that 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:17.440 itself is immaterial and minimally incredibly smart and intelligent that 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:20.760 can only take us so far. It's not a criticism 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:22.280 to say it doesn't take us all the way to 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:25.800 God of the Bible, it's not meant to all right, 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:27.360 So back to this point. 0:23:27.840 --> 0:23:29.120