AK47 Season 2 Episode 26: A Pastor's Thoughts on Jordan Peterson

Paul Vanderklay, a pastor in Sacramento and avid Youtuber, comes on the show to talk about Jordan Peterson and the phenomenon surrounding him.  We talk about Peterson's effect on people, his approach to interpreting the Bible, and his views of God.

Listen to the episode here.  If you prefer another platform such as iTunes, Stitcher, or others, click one of the links on the left side of the page.

If you want to support the podcast, click here.

Links to Paul's Content

Paul Vanderklay's Youtube channel.

Follow Paul on Twitter.

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 37

I interviewed Raymond Blaine Stewart (Ph.D candidate in philosophy at the University of Oklahoma) on the topic of singleness in the church, the gift of singleness, what 1 Corinthians 7 teaches about singleness, and how churches can effectively minister to the single people in its congregation.  Raymond's audio sounds a bit distant in the beginning, but it gets better after a few minutes, so don't worry.

Listen to the episode here.

To learn how to support our show, click here.

Books Mentioned in the Show

Getting Serious about Getting Married by Debbie Maken.

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 35

Aaron and I ended up recording for over two hours, so I divided that recording into two episodes.  This is part one.  In this episode, Aaron and I give brief updates on our lives and Aaron talks about some interesting things he's learned from Dr. Hellerman about the ancient world's and early church's view on poverty and homelessness and how that applies to today.

Listen to the episode here.

To learn how to support our show, click here.

Books Mentioned in the Episode

Early Christian Care for the Poor by K.C. Richardson.

The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff.

Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal by Ben Sasse.

12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson.

You are Not Your Brain by Jeffrey Schwartz and Rebecca Gladding.

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 24

Today, I interview Dr. Lydia McGrew on undesigned coincidences as evidence for the reliability of the Bible.  We also talk about a concerning trend in New Testament studies that Lydia calls "Literary Device" theory and the problems with it.

Listen to the episode here.

For more from Lydia, check out her writings on What's Wrong With the World and her personal blog.

For more on the topic we discussed, get her book, Hidden in Plain View.

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 15

I interview Becket Cook on his journey from a lifestyle of gay relationships and Hollywood glamour to a disciple of Christ.  He also gives his thoughts on the biblical exegesis of Matthew Vines and how to minister to gay people.

You'll hear some dogs barking in the background a bit near the beginning, but it doesn't last long and it doesn't overpower the dialogue.

Listen to the episode here.

For more Becket Cook, check out his website.

Things I like: Part 2

In this series, I will recommend things that I happened to come across that I like.  That's about as simple as it gets.

Political Discourse in America

David French writes a good piece on the bad state of political discourse in America today.  People overreact to the smallest things, especially as people replace religious commitment to political commitment.  Political Overreaction is the New American Way.

The SJW

Nathan Robinson writes an interesting piece giving criticisms and concerns about the extreme leftists that are often pejoratively known as "Social Justice Warriors."  Nathan considers himself a leftist, but is critical of this more extreme group.  I don't agree with everything he says, but I find his post fair and balanced for the most part.

Slavery in the Bible

J. Warner Wallace, a cold-case detective and apologist, answers a question on the issue of slavery in the Bible, which is often used to undermine the moral legitimacy of the Bible.

Reading Recommendations for the Winter Break

This article was originally featured on ResistanceTV.

Many of our readers may be students who are still in college.  The nice thing about the university is that there is often an entire month off during this time of year.  This gives one time to read books that one does not have time to read during the semesters.  Even non-students like people working in ministry will be benefited from reading.  These are my top apologetics book recommendations.  I will be focusing on beginners material, but I will also suggest higher level books to move onto once you finish these books.

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller

This book, written by the well-known pastor in New York, is a good introductory apologetic for people who have not exposed themselves to the topic before.  In the first half, Keller responds to various criticisms of Christianity like “How can a good God send people to Hell,” “There can’t be just one true religion,” “How could a good God allow evil,” “Science has disproved Christianity,” and many more.  In the second half, he gets into some arguments for the truth of Christianity.  This book will challenge readers who have never exposed themselves to apologetics before, but it is incredibly readable too.  Those who are more familiar with apologetics may be aided by this book because, as a pastor, Keller can put things in a way that is understandable and relatable to many people.

Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing your Christian Convictions by Greg Koukl

This book isn’t so much about apologetic content as it is about apologetic skill and strategy.  This book is all about how to engaged in a winsome and intelligent way with skeptics of Christianity by asking good questions that help guide the conversation.  Greg also gets into how to deal with people who are much smarter than you, people who are rude and condescending, and other challenging situations.  The content in this book is valuable for everybody and for every discussion you will have, even if you are discussion issues with other Christians, like whether Calvinism is true.

On Guard: Defending your Faith with Reason and Precision by William Lane Craig

Dr. Craig is one of the most well-known Christian apologists of our time.  He has been in countless debates and has written countless books on the defense of the Christian faith, so any book by him is going to be worth looking into.  This book is his most accessible.  He gives several arguments for the existence of God and the arguments for Christianity in particular.

After this: Read Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics by William Lane Craig

Is God a Moral Monster by Paul Copan

Many objections to Christianity are aimed at the apparent moral depravity of the Old Testament.  What do we do about the conquest accounts, slavery, treatment of women, and countless other moral problems in the OT?  Even many Christians avoid the OT because they don’t know how to handle it.  Paul Copan looks at each one of these moral challenges and responds to them.

After this: Read Did God Really Command Genocide? Coming to Terms with the Justice of God by Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan

I hope these resources can get you started.  God bless.

Faulty Assumptions in Biblical Interpretation

This article was originally featured on ResistanceTV.

I’ve noticed that, when non-Christians point out certain apparent contradictions or alleged historical errors in the Bible, those contradictions or errors only appear that way because of some unwarranted assumptions they are making.  Here are a few.

And these you shall detest among the birds; they shall not be eaten; they are detestable: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, the kite, the falcon of any kind, every raven of any kind, the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind, the little owl, the cormorant, the short-eared owl, the barn owl, the tawny owl, the carrion vulture, the stork, the heron of any kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. (Leviticus 11:13-19)

God says that a bat is a bird!  Apparently he’s too stupid to know the difference between a bird and a mammal.

The assumption a person is making when he points this out is that the ancient Hebrews had the same species categories that we do today.  There is no reason to think this.

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. (John 20:1)

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. (Matthew 28:1)

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. (Mark 16:1)

This seems to be a plain contradiction.  They clearly disagree with each other on how many women went to the tomb.  This is another reason to distrust the Biblical accounts.

The assumption a person is making when stating this challenge is that the Gospel writers were trying to give a complete account of every single detail of the event.  There is no reason to think this.  Different people emphasize different things or might leave information out that they do not think is important to the point of the story. I do this when I tell the same story multiple times.

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. (Matthew 2:16)

Herod had kids in an entire village killed, and yet no historical sources from the time even mention this event.  This means that the Gospel writer here likely made up the whole story.

The assumption here is that 1) no extrabiblical writers wrote about it and 2) any historians at the time would have written about it.  As for (1), we still have very little  information on the first century.  We have very few writings from that time.  How do we know that no one wrote about it?  It is simply an argument from silence.

As for (2), why would anyone have written about it?  While the murder of children is a horrible event, Bethlehem was a small, backwater village and it’s not likely that there were more than a dozen children below the age of two.  This would not have been a huge event.  The fact that historians didn’t mention it isn’t shocking. The eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79 was a very large event, but we only seem to have one written account on it from Pliny the Younger.

When people point out historical errors or contradictions in the Bible, try to see if there are any unwarranted assumptions they are making.  In some cases, the passages only appear mistaken or contradictory because of these assumptions.

Note: A good resource responding to alleged historical errors and contradictions in the Gospels and Acts can be found in this series of lectures by Timothy McGrew.

Does Hebrews 11:1 Teach that Faith is Belief Without Evidence or Reason?

This article was originally featured on ResistanceTV.

Faith, what is it?

In our modern context, many people think that “faith” means to believe that something is true without evidence or without adequate evidence.  This is something many skeptics will say in order to invalidate the legitimacy of faith.  In The God Delusion, Dawkins says

The dictionary supplied by Microsoft Word defines a delusion as ‘a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence, especially as a symptom of psychiatric disorder’. The first part captures religious faith perfectly. (p. 28)

In A Manual for Creating Atheists, Peter Boghossian says

If one had sufficient evidence to warrant belief in a particular claim, then one wouldn’t believe the claim on the basis of faith.  “Faith” is the word one uses when one does not have enough evidence to justify holding a belief, but when one just goes ahead and believes it anyway. (pg. 9)

To be fair, a reason why many skeptics believe this is because many Christians also perpetuate this view of faith.  In Love Your God With All Your Mind, J.P. Moreland gives this account

A few years ago I conducted a series of evangelistic messages for a church in New York.  The series was in a high school gym, and both believers and unbelievers attended each night.  The first evening I gave arguments for the existence of God from science and philosophy.  Before closing in prayer, I entertained several questions from the audience.  One woman (who was a Christian) complained about my talk, charging that if I “proved” the existence of God, I would leave no room for faith.  I responded by saying that if she were right, then we should pray that currently available evidence for God would evaporate and be refuted so there would be even more room for faith! (p. 26, emphasis added)

Sadly Christians Believe Faith is Shallow

Unfortunately, many Christians do believe that faith is believing something without evidence, but many Christians, especially the ones in apologetic circles, will rightly point out that this is not what faith means.  Faith is compatible with evidence and reason.  Skeptics, however, will respond by citing Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (ESV)

This verse, according to the skeptic, shows that the Bible agrees with their definition of faith, not with the definition of the Christian apologist.  If the Bible itself says that faith is belief without evidence, then that means the Christian is incorrect to say that faith can and even should involve evidence.

The skeptic, however, grossly misuses this verse when she uses it to support her case.  Hebrews 11:1 does not say that faith is belief without evidence, what I will call “blind faith” from now on.  I will give two reasons why this verse does not mean what the skeptic says it means.  First, taking the verse by itself without context does not lead us to the conclusion that it is talking about blind faith.  Second, when we look at the textual context that the verse is in, it cannot be talking about blind faith.

When one reads this verse critically, it is not clear how it means or implies blind faith.  Which part of the sentence suggests blind faith?  Is it “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for” part?  Being assured of things that you hope for is not a necessarily unevidential thing.  Is it the “conviction of things not seen” part?  This is probably what makes the skeptic think that this verse is talking about blind faith, since it says “not seen,” but “not seen” does not mean “no evidence.”  For example, many philosophers and mathematicians believe that numbers actually exist as abstract objects.  They cannot see, hear, taste, or touch numbers, but they still believe they exist because they think there are very good reasons to believe that numbers exist.  Seeing is not the only form of evidence.  Also, astronomers know that there are many other planets in the galaxy revolving around other stars.  These astronomers do not see many of these planets, but they know they are out there because there is good evidence that those planets are there.  They can see the effects the planets and their gravity have on other heavenly bodies that can be seen, like stars.  In both of these cases and in many others, people believe something exist because they have good reasons to believe them, but the evidence does not involve actually seeing the things in question.  The fact that Hebrews 11:1 says “not seen” at the end does not necessarily or automatically mean “no evidence,” so simply citing this verse does not prove that the Bible has the same definition of faith as the skeptic is proclaiming.  This gives us reason to doubt the skeptic’s claim that this verse confirms their belief, but it does not give positive evidence that the verse does not affirm blind faith.  If we look at the context of chapter 11, however, verse 1 clearly does not affirm blind faith.  

If one continues through chapter 11 or Hebrews, one will come across what is called the “Hall of Faith,” where the author of Hebrews lists off a number of people in the past who exhibited great faith in God.  This list of people includes Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Rahab, David, Gideon, and others.  The author of Hebrews would have believed that all of these people saw manifestations of God’s presence, examples of His power, and His faithfulness in keeping promises.  So, to the author of Hebrews, these people would have had a lot of evidence that God exists and is who He says He is.  If the author of Hebrews is teaching blind faith in verse one, he would not be using these people as examples of great faith.  Since he is using these people as examples of great faith, he must not be teaching that faith is blind in verse one.

Since blind faith does not fit into the context of chapter 11 and blind faith is not implied by the language of the verse, this means that the skeptic is wrong to use it as a response to Christians when they say faith is compatible with evidence.