Theology For the Rest of Us | Quick Answers to the Questions About God and the Bible

Many people claim to be committed to “science” or claim to be focused on "the evidence” and they demand that every argument and every theory within our natural realm and world solely be argued for (or against) with only secular, natural, and/or physical arguments. This philosophy, called naturalism, is embraced by many people in the Western world today. Many secular progressives (and their contemporary ideological allies) assert things such as "We are committed to evidence" and they make comments like "Christians are only focused on faith, not evidence." However, while this philosophy is prevalent, is this philosophy really sound? And are the naturalists actually being honest in their evaluation of the known evidence? In this episode, Kenny explains why this philosophy of naturalism is flawed and presents quotes from well known naturalists that show the flaws in this philosophy. Kenny presents information from the worlds of physics, biology, cosmology, and philosophy. He quotes from known philosophers, scientists, and writers such as Antony Flew, Richard Lewontin, Thomas Nagel, Edward Hobble, and Stephen Hawking, and David Brooks, demonstrating that naturalism is an irrational and inconsistent worldview.  

Many people claim to be "scientific" or focused on "evidence" when all the while ignoring one important potential genre or stream of evidence, and that is any evidence which may cause people to conclude that there is indeed a God and a supernatural realm. Those people often demand natural or physical explanations for all things in the natural realm. This expectation, which is now prevalent in our society today, is founded upon the ideology of naturalism. In this episode, Kenny explains the history and foundation of naturalism, its re-emergence during the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment, and its impact upon modern philosophy and science.

In this episode, tackles the question about animal death before the fall of mankind. Some Evangelical Christians assert that all death entered the world through the fall of Adam, therefore there could be no animal death before Adam's sin. However, does the Bible actually teach this concept? If this were true, Old Earth creationism would be counter-Bible because this view ordinarily affirms the typical understanding of the fossil records that show animals living and dying long before the appearance of humans. If death entered with Adam, this view would be unorthodox and inconsistent. But is this view actually asserted in the Scriptures? Or is there a totally different way to look at animal death?

In this episode, Kenny interviews author, apologist, podcaster, and philosopher Tyler Vela to talk about the literary framework hypothesis of Genesis 1 as well as Tyler's thoughts about pieces of Genesis 1 being motifs and metaphors that would lead us to believe that Genesis 1 is in large part a polemic argument written by Moses on behalf of Yahweh the creator. Tyler Vela studied Philosophy and English at California State University, Sonoma. He also earned a Bachelors degree in Biblical and Theological Studies from Moody Bible Institute. Currently, Tyler is working towards a Masters of Biblical Studies at Reformed Theological Seminary (Charlotte). Tyler is the host of The Freed Thinker Podcast and blog and is a frequent guest on many Christian and skeptical podcasts and forums. Subscribe to The Freed Thinker Podcast: www.thefreedthinker.podbean.com To check out Tyler Vela's paper: A Historical-Grammatical and Polemical Reading of Genesis 1 Check out The Mentionables Conference. Recommended Reading: The Genesis Debate: Three Views on the Days of Creation (multiple contributors, Foreword by Norm Geisler, Edited by David Hagopian) The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (by John H. Walton) Reading Genesis with Ancient Eyes by John Walton, Ph.D. [YouTube Video/Lecture] The Framework Interpretation: An Exegetical Summary [Blog/Article] Meredith G. Kline on "Space and Time in the Genesis Cosmogony" [Blog/Article]

This episode is very unique because Kenny uses the life of Steve Jobs as an illustration for this point. This episode is a sequel to the previous episode (Understanding Genesis One: Part 1) wherein Kenny gave the audience some history about how Christians have viewed Genesis 1 and where he also challenged the false narrative of uniformity that often is asserted by many modern Evangelical Christians. In that previous episode, Kenny then outlined the two primary ways of understanding and interpreting Genesis 1 (and similar styles of Biblical literature): the concordist view and the non-concordist view. In this episode, Kenny tells about the life and achievements of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. Kenny tells his story in two separate ways, to illustrate the two approaches to Genesis 1.  

  Mentionable, The Conference May 18-19, 2018 Greensboro Christian Church 3232 Yanceyville Street Greensboro, NC 27405

There are many different ways to interpret and understand the book of Genesis, especially chapter one. In this episode, Kenny gives some history about how Christians have viewed Genesis 1 and he also challenges the false narrative of uniformity that often is asserted by many modern Evangelical Christians. Kenny outlines the two primary ways of understanding and interpreting Genesis 1 (and similar styles of Biblical literature): the concordist view and the non-concordist view. The concordist interpretations assert that God made the Earth and everything in the natural world using the sequence of events described in Genesis 1. Some proponents of the concordist views take the pieces of Genesis 1 as being literal and others take the pieces of Genesis 1 as being metaphoric, but in either form of concordism, the proponents claim that Genesis 1 is a historical narrative of the sequence of events of all created things. With the non-concordist interpretations of Genesis 1, the proponents assert that Genesis 1 is teaching us about God's sovereignty over creation and His preeminence over the created things, but that Genesis 1 was not written as a precise historical narrative therefore it ought not be interpreted in that manner. Concordism states that the point wasn't to teach us how God did created everything or when He created everything, but instead the point of Genesis 1 was simply to point to the fact that God Himself did it, demonstrating His superiority over the creation and dismisses the notion that created things deserve any worship whatsoever, therefore God ought to be glorified for His wonderful works.

In recent times there has been a new debate about the historicity of Adam. Was he a real man or is the Biblical figure just a metaphoric figure? Was he uniquely created or did he evolve? Does this even matter to modern Christians? In this episode, Kenny gives us several clear reasons why we should believe in a historical Adam and he teaches us why this matters to the Gospel.   Recommended Reading 10 Reasons to Believe in a Historical Adam [Blog Post] Did Adam and Eve Really Exist?: Who They Were and Why You Should Care (C. John Collins) Four Views on the Historical Adam (multiple contributors, edited by Matthew Barrett and Ardel Caneday)  

This episode is unique from most episodes of the podcast because this episode covers content and material from a previous episode, but simply does so in a shorter time (episode 248 is similar, that particular episode was the shorter version of content from episode 247). This episode covers the same content that is covered in episode 249 however this episode aims to cover the same material is much less time (this episode is less than 18 minutes while episode 249 is nearly 47 minutes long). Questions and topics related to the origins of humanity, the age of the universe, and the age of the Earth often come up in debates and conversations whenever Christians are seeking to reconcile the words of Scripture with the ideologies from the world of science. In this episode, Kenny tackles the question, "Should Christians Believe in Evolution?" First, Kenny asserts the importance of clarifying what type of evolution we're actually talking about. There are many different types of evolution, and making sure that we have clear understanding of our verbiage is essential. The two prominent types of evolution that are being alluded to when we're discussing the topic of the origin of species are macro-evolution and micro-evolution. Macro-evolution is the concept that species evolve into other species, a concept for which there is no scientific evidence, just theory. Micro-evolution is the concept that species change and evolve over time within their own kind, a concept for which there is scientific evidence. Secondly, Kenny explains the two types of macro-evolution being asserted by people today: secular (naturalistic) macro-evolution and theistic evolution. The secular (naturalistic) form of macro-evolution is the concept that all living creatures today all evolved from a single cell organism over the course of millions of years, without the help or guidance of any supreme being. The secular or naturalistic viewpoint (also sometimes referred to as the Darwinian perspective) generally disregards the existence of God altogether. This view is rightly rejected by most professing Christians. Another form of evolution that Kenny discusses is the concept of theistic evolution. This form of evolution is the belief that God guided and shepherded the process of evolution to help the process achieve the result that He desired. There is no Scriptural evidence for this view, and this view is logically insufficient in many regards, so Kenny encourages his listeners to reject this view as well.   Recommended Reading: Genesis Unbound (by John Sailhamer) Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design (multiple contributors, edited by JB Stump) Three Views on Creation and Evolution (multiple contributors, edited by James Porter Moreland)

In this episode, Kenny tackles the question, "Should Christians Believe in Evolution?" First, Kenny asserts the importance of clarifying what type of evolution we're actually talking about. There are many different types of evolution, and making sure that we have clear understanding of our verbiage is essential. The two prominent types of evolution that are being alluded to when we're discussing the topic of the origin of species are macro-evolution and micro-evolution. Macro-evolution is the concept that species evolve into other species, a concept for which there is no scientific evidence, just theory. Micro-evolution is the concept that species change and evolve over time within their own kind, a concept for which there is scientific evidence. Secondly, Kenny then explains the two types of macro-evolution being asserted by people today: secular (naturalistic) macro-evolution and theistic evolution. The secular (naturalistic) form of macro-evolution is the concept that all living creatures today all evolved from a single cell organism over the course of millions of years, without the help or guidance of any supreme being. The secular or naturalistic viewpoint (also sometimes referred to as the Darwinian perspective) generally disregards the existence of God altogether. This view is rightly rejected by most professing Christians. There have been some prominent secular evolutionist that readily admit the lack of evidence and logical arguments for this naturalistic view, however they still embrace it because the only alternative is creation, and they would rather not embrace that view. Here are some quotes supporting this... "Evolution itself is accepted by zoologists not because it has been observed to occur or is supported by logically coherent arguments, but because it does fit all the facts of taxonomy, of paleontology, and of geographical distribution, and because no alternative explanation is credible... The theory of evolution is a theory universally accepted by zoologists, not because it has been observed to occur... or can be proved by logical coherent evidence, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible." ~D.M.S. Watson, "Adaptation," in Nature, Vol. 123, p. 233 (1929) [sometimes misquoted and often wrongly attributed to Sir Arthur Keith by many young-Earth creationists] "I suppose the reason why we leapt at the Origin of Species was that the idea of God interfered with our sexual mores.” ~Sir Julian Huxley "I'm an evolutionist because I cannot take the alternative." ~Thomas Nagel "I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that. My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and that it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time. One of the tendencies it supports is the ludicrous overuse of evolutionary biology to explain everything about human life, including everything about the human mind... This is a somewhat ridiculous situation... It is just as irrational to be influenced in one’s beliefs by the hope that God does not exist as by the hope that God does exist." ~Thomas Nagel "We should be open to order in nature. Nature is uniquely suitable for life." ~Michael Denton The second form of evolution that Kenny discusses is the concept of theistic evolution. This form of evolution is the belief that God guided and shepherded the process of evolution to help the process achieve the result that He desired.

This episode is somewhat unique in that it covers material from a previous episode, but in a shorter time. This episode covers the same content that is covered in episode 247 however this episode aims to cover the material is much less time (this episode is less than 17 minutes while episode 247 is nearly 45 minutes long). Questions and topics related to the origins of humanity, the age of the universe, and the age of the Earth often come up in debates and conversations whenever Christians are seeking to reconcile the words of Scripture with the ideologies from the world of science. The five views that Kenny talks about: 1- Secular Evolution 2- Young Earth and Literal Six-Day Creation 3- Old Earth with "Days" of creation being metaphoric 4- Old Earth with Gap Theory 5- Old Earth with Historical Creationism In this episode Kenny also foreshadows the content of episode 249 wherein Kenny will tackle a sixth view known as theistic evolution, the concept that God guided and shepherded the process of evolution to the result that He wanted.   Recommended Reading: Genesis Unbound (by John Sailhamer) Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design (multiple contributors, edited by JB Stump) Three Views on Creation and Evolution (multiple contributors, edited by James Porter Moreland) Old Earth or Evolutionary Creation? (multiple contributors, edited by Kenneth Keathley & J. B. Stump,) Ultimate Proof of Creation (Jason Lisle) Old Earth Creationism on Trial (Tim Chaffey & Jason Lisle) Navigating Genesis (Hugh Ross) The Genesis Debate: Three Views on the Days of Creation (multiple contributors, edited by David Hagopian)   Resources to Examine: Creation or Chaos: Modern Science and the Existence of God [DVD series]

How old is the universe? How old is the Earth? These are questions often asked by Christians throughout the world, seeking to understand the origins of humanity while also seeking to reconcile the words of Scripture with the news updates coming from the world of science. In this episode, Kenny challenges listeners to be charitable and diplomatic when tackling this topic. Kenny gives various historical insights that are helpful, and then Kenny gives us five perspectives that are often embraced when people are answering this question and when tackling the sub-topics that often arise. The five views that Kenny talks about: 1- Secular Evolution 2- Young Earth and Literal Six-Day Creation 3- Day-Age Creationist with Era-Long "Days" 4- Old Earth with Gap Theory 5- Old Earth with Historical Creationism   Recommended Reading: Genesis Unbound (by John Sailhamer) Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design (multiple contributors, edited by JB Stump) Three Views on Creation and Evolution (multiple contributors, edited by James Porter Moreland) Old Earth or Evolutionary Creation? (multiple contributors, edited by Kenneth Keathley & J. B. Stump,) Ultimate Proof of Creation (Jason Lisle) Old Earth Creationism on Trial (Tim Chaffey & Jason Lisle) Navigating Genesis (Hugh Ross) The Genesis Debate: Three Views on the Days of Creation (multiple contributors, edited by David Hagopian)   Resources to Examine: Creation or Chaos: Modern Science and the Existence of God [DVD series] Stand to Reason [Website] Institute of Creation Research [Website] Answers in Genesis [Website]

Many people in our world are lacking true joy and satisfaction, longing for "something more" but so many of them end up settling for a sub-par life and sub-par spirituality, simply because they do not know the true source of joy and satisfaction. Furthermore, there are many genuine Christians that do not understand or value certain key doctrines and philosophies simply because they haven't been taught those truths and ideas in a manner that is accessible. In this episode, Kenny interviews pastor and author Jonathan Parnell about these issues and they discuss how Jonathan tackles these trends in his newest book "Never Settle for Normal: The Proven Path to Significance and Happiness." Jonathan is the lead pastor of Cities Church in Minneapolis–St. Paul, where he lives with his wife, Melissa, and their seven children. His book "Never Settle for Normal" is not a self-help book, neither is it just another run-of-mill "enrichment book, but instead it is a Gospel-filled book, packed with transcendent Biblical truths, but written in a manner that can be easily digested by just about any person, regardless of where they are in their faith journey. Jonathan Parnell is also the co-editor of Designed for Joy: How the Gospel Impacts Men and Women, Identity and Practice (2015), and the co-author of How to Stay Christian in Seminary (2014). He has also published a collection of devotional essays under the title, Reading to Walk: Meditations for the Life of Faith (2014). Follow Jonathan on Twitter @Jonathanparnell Check out Jonathan's Website: www.jonathanparnell.com

A frequent (and tragic) trend in modern American Evangelicalism is the devaluing of the importance of quality doctrine and theology. This is evident in many ways in contemporary American Christendom, but fewer moments make this more obvious than when church leaders (and lay people) refuse to objectively (or critically) assess the theology, ideology, and preaching content of many prominent preachers. Many American Christians simply refuse to "pass judgement" on preachers. Is this right or wrong? After several months off from podcasting, Kenny returns to tackle this important (and apparently controversial) topic. How important is theology? How much does doctrine matter? Is it appropriate to judge preachers' based on their theology? Or should we only pass judgement on those whom we know well? And is it possible that theology or doctrine can somehow actually get in the way of ministry? Kenny tackles these questions in this episode, with his ultimate conclusion and statement being a strong, but simple, challenge to all listeners to always objectively exam every church leader's and every preacher's doctrine and preaching content, and to seek to make a rational and fair determination as to whether or not the content and doctrine is accurate or erroneous, and allow those determinations to govern how you interact with or talk about that preacher. Kenny also encourages us to be cautious that we never inappropriately or unfairly assault someone's character.  

More Episodes Coming in January 2018