Episode 120 - Feeding and Caring for the Body

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Books Referenced 

Scriptures Referenced 

Ephesians 5:28-30 “In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.”

1 Timothy 4:7, 8 “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for whole bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

Proverbs 23:20-21 “Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.”

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Episode 119 - The Embodiment of God

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Scripture Referenced

Luke 2:8-14 (ESV)

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!

Philippians 2:5-11 (ESV)

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Links Referenced

Episode 118 - Embodied

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Show Notes

Our bodies are instruments to be played in honor of the King, not weaponized to dishonor God and debase other human beings

Reviewish 

Scripture Referenced

  • Genesis 1 and 2

  • Romans 6:10-12

  • 1 Corinthians 6:20

  • Ephesians 5:28-29

Books Referenced 

  • Embodied by Gregg Allison

  • Love Thy Body by Nancy Pearcey

  • What God has to Say About Our Bodies by Sam Allberry

  • What it Means to be Human, The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics by O. Carter Snead

Episode 117 - Home Team Culture

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Scripture Referenced

Deuteronomy 29:29 

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

1 John 4:16–19

[16] So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. [17] By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. [18] There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. [19] We love because he first loved us. 

Monaghan Home Team Values

  1. Family Mission - follow Jesus to love and serve others, and have him use our lives to seek and save the lost 

  2. Leadership and Influence - We desire to influence others and stand on our own if and where need be. God has gifted and called us so why not lead!?

  3. Life of the Mind - We value logic, thinking, reading, questions and thoughtful engagement with people in culture.

  4. Theological convictions, yet never have lived in a church/Christian bubble - Our kids grew up in NJ in an ideologically and religiously pluralistic culture. We want to resist being captured by the culture but not live in fear of it. We do not think we must hide in a Christian subcultural world. This is ineffective and contrary to our missional calling in Christ.

  5. Excellence and Achievement - Try Hards! Just be Awesome! We are loved by God so we are free to try hard yet fall hard into the sea of grace. It’s OK to fail forward so why not swing hard. If things go wrong we have each other and the deep ocean of the grace of God to catch us.

  6. Openness and Conversations - We are willing to be around for one another in order to listen when we need to vent, bounce ideas off of someone, etc. This has built understanding and friendship in our family.

  7. Humility and Service - We believe that nobody is a big deal but everybody is a big deal. There are no people who are too lofty, or too low, to love. We want to have humble, sober judgment of ourselves and be willing to connect with anyone.

Episode 116 - A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Question of God

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Show Notes

Reviewish

Hitchhiker’s Guide - Recommended Resources for the Road

Scripture Referenced

Mark 8:27-29

27 And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”

Episode 115 - Mere Evangelism with Randy Newman

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Show Notes

Today's Guest

Randy Newman is the author of Mere Evangelism and the Senior Fellow for Evangelism and Apologetics at The C. S. Lewis Institute in the Washington, DC area. He has also taught at numerous theological seminaries and colleges. After serving for over 30 years with Campus Crusade for Christ, he established Connection Points, a ministry to help Christians engage people’s hearts the way Jesus did. He has written a number of books and articles about evangelism and other ways our lives intertwine with God’s creation. He and his wife Pam live in Annandale, VA and are grateful for their children and a growing number of grandchildren. He is also the host of Questions That Matter, a podcast of the C. S. Lewis Institute

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Randy-Newman/e/B001KI1W0S/

Books Referenced

Scriptures Referenced

Mark 10:17-22

17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

1 Peter 3:13-15

13Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.

Episode 114 - He Kindly Stopped for Me

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Episode Video

Show Notes

Scriptures Referenced

  • Ecclesiastes 7:1-6

  • John 11:17-44

Links Referenced

  • Because I could not stop for Death (479) by Emily Dickinson - Poems | poets.org. https://poets.org/poem/because-i-could-not-stop-death-479.

  • “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”– Søren Kierkegaard Source info https://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jorgen/kierkegaardquotesource.html.

Episode 112 - From Good to God

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Show Notes

Links Referenced

Books Referenced

Scripture Referenced

  • Romans 3:10

  • Romans 6:23.24

  • Mark 1:14,15

William Lane Craig’s Moral Argument

MODUS TOLLENS - taking away or denying the consequence.

  1. If P, then Q.

  2. Not Q.

  3. Therefore, not P.

An argument from Objective Moral Values

  1. If GOD DOES NOT EXIST then OBJECTIVE MORAL VALUES do not exist (If P THEN Q)

  2. OBJECTIVE MORAL VALUES do exist (NOT Q)

  3. There GOD EXISTS (Therefor NOT P)

Notice the conclusion is a negation - Not (God does not exist )

The only way to DENY this argument is to demonstrate and ground OBJECTIVE moral values apart from God, OR affirm moral RELATIVISM

Episode 111 - From the Goodness of God

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Show Notes

Scriptures Referenced

  • Luke 18:1-2 [1] And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. [2] He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man (athropos).

  • Romans 2:12-16 [12] For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. [13] For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. [14] For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. [15] They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them [16] on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

  • Psalm 34:8  [8] Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

  • Mark 4:9 [9] And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

  • Luke 20:22-26 [22] Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” [23] But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, [24] “Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” [25] He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” [26] And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent.

Books Referenced

Links Referenced

Episode 109 - The New Science of Morality

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Show Notes

Links Referenced

American isn’t split in half, its divided into four by Caroline Mimbs Nyce

Quotations

This new-synthesis view of morality has four basic elements: (1) a Humean mind-focused sentimentalism, (2) a Darwinian evolutionary account of why the mind has the traits it does, (3) a human interest–based utilitarianism about morality, all embedded within (4) a strident naturalism committed to empirical study of the world. (Science and the Good, 86, 87)

Innovations in neuroscience are important because they help us answer basic questions about morality, namely why you might be concerned with the goals and well-being of people besides yourself. In the new moral science, it turns out that people “have special kinds of neural populations that make concern for others very natural.” (Ibid. Later quotation from Paul Thagard, Ther Brain and the Meaning of Life (Princeton University Press, 2010)

The moral law is not imposed from above or derived from well-reasoned principles; rather, it arises from ingrained values that have been there since the beginning of time. The most fundamental one derives from the survival value of group life.

Frans de Waal, The Bonobo and the Atheist (New Yokr: W.W. Norton and Company, 2013), 228. Quoted in S&G, 88.

Once ethics is viewed as a social technology, directed at particular functions, recognizable facts about how those functions can be better served can be adduced in inferences justifying ethical novelties.

Kitcher, “Naturalistic Ethics without Fallacies,” Preludes to Pragmatism: Toward a Reconstruction of Philosophy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012,) 315. Quoted in S&G, 90.

One strain of naturalism seeks to provide empirical explanations for all of reality by fitting it into a domain of interacting physical particles.38 This would render purely metaphysical or transcendent accounts of reality not only unnecessary but unthinkable. S&G, 91, 92.

“Level Three” findings would provide scientifically based descriptions of, say, the origins of morality, or the specific way our capacity for moral judgment is physically embodied in our neural architecture, or whether human beings tend to behave in ways we consider moral. Evidence for these sorts of views doesn’t tell us anything about the content of morality—what is right and wrong—but they speak to the human capacity for morality and in that sense are interesting. (S&G, 100.)

Episode 108 - A Critical Comeuppance

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Quotations

The explanations for our existence that used to be provided by religion went first, falling away from the 19th century onwards. Then over the last century the secular hopes held out by all political ideologies begin to follow in religions wake. In the latter part of the twentieth century we entered the postmodern era. An era which defined itself, and was defined, by its suspicion towards all grand narratives. However, as all schoolchildren learn, nature abhors a vacuum, and into the postmodern vacuum new ideas begin to creep, with the intention of providing explanations and meanings of their own.

Douglas Murray, The Madness of Crowds, page 1.

We are going through a great crowd derangement. In public and in private, both online and off, people are behaving in ways that are increasingly irrational, feverish, herd-like and simply unpleasant. The daily news cycle is filled with the consequences. Yet while we see the symptoms everywhere we do not see that causes...Murray, 1.

People in wealthy, Western democracies today could not simply remain the first people in recorded history to have absolutely no explanation for what we are doing here, and no story to give life purpose. Whatever else they lacked, the grand narratives of the past at least gave life meeting. The question of what exactly we are meant to do now — other than get rich where we can have whatever fun is on offer — was going to have to be answered by something.

The answer that has presented itself in recent years is to engage in new battles, ever fiercer campaigns and evermore niche demands. Defined meaning by waging a constant war against anybody who seems to be on the wrong side of a question which may itself have just been reframed and the answer to which has only just been altered.

The unbelievable speed of this process had principally been caused by the fact that a handful of businesses in Silicon Valley (notably Google, Twitter and Facebook) now have the power not  just to direct what most of the world know, think, and say, but have a business model which has  accurately been described as relying on finding ‘customers ready to pay to modify someone else’s behavior’ Murray, 1-2.

Episode 107 - Morality in Motion

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Show Notes

Books Referenced

Quotations and People Referenced

All page numbers are from Science and the Good

Hugo Grotius (1583-1645)

They hoped that by insisting on observable evidence to support moral claims, they would offer a way to temper some of the most violent conflagrations of human unsociability” Page 39

So he was still a moral realist and thought we just we arrived at morality by studying “what is in accord with the kind of society of rational beings that we all want.” Page 40, and even even introduced the concept of rights.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

“As he put it, ‘for these words of Good, Evil, and Contemptible, are ever used in relationship to the person that uses them: there being nothing simply an absolutely so; not any common rule of Good and Evil, to be taken from the nature of the objects themselves.’  Instead, the moral law is whatever human beings make it to be through consent and convention.” Page 42.

Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794)

“In the same manner, by analyzing the faculty of experiencing pain and pleasure, men arrived at the origin of their notions of morality, and the foundation of those general principles which form the necessary and immutable laws of justice; and consequently discovered the proper motives of conforming their conduct to those laws, which, being deduced from the nature of our feeling, may not improperly be called our moral constitution.” Page 45

David Hume (1711-1776)

Hume’s empiricism, by contrast, led him to conclude that moral evaluation simply expressed a person‘s feelings and attitudes with respect to a person or situation. Such sentiments were the sum and substance of  moral life, and they could never be connected to any objective, mind independent moral order.” Page 52

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

“The creed which accepts as the foundations of morals “utility“ or the “greatest happiness principle“ holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure.” Page 61

Nietzsche, The Madman, 1882

Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? 

Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov (1879,80)

Ivan Karamazov claims that if God does not exist, then everything is permitted.  If there is no God, then there are no rules to live by, no moral law we must follow; we can do whatever we want.

Episode 106 - Good Problems and Necessary Goods

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Show Notes

Books Referenced

Science and the Good by Hunter and Nedelisky

“Roughly put, moral laws flowed from the nature of things,” Page 28

“The ethical theories of the scholastics grounded morality in natural laws, which were alleged to be graspable by consideration of the essence of things – that is, by appreciating the ends to which things were made.” Page 32

“The resolution is found in the cultural logic they follow. As they would have it, even if there isn’t anything we objectively “ought” to be doing, we still have to decide, on some basis, how to live and what to do. Without any real ethical standards, we look to social objectives as guides. The project, then, it’s about how science and technology can help us achieve these social goals. The role of science is to reveal how our moral psychology and neurochemistry work—or can be put to work—towards achieving those goals.

The problem is that the social objectives are, in the end, morally arbitrary, reflecting either fluctuating social tastes or the whims of those in power.” Page 21.

Links and Media Referenced

Scriptures Referenced

  • John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

  • Mark 10:18 - And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Episode 105 - A Good Witness

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Show Notes

Scriptures Referenced

Colossians 4:2–6

[2] Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. [3] At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—[4] that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. [5] Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. [6] Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (ESV)

Episode 104 - Previewing the Good

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Episode Video

Show Notes

Books Referenced

James Davison Hunter, Paul Nedelisky, Science and the Good – The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality

Scripture Referenced

John 14:15 (ESV)
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” - Jesus

Romans 2:13–16 (ESV)

12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

Psalm 34:8–10 (ESV)

8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!  9  Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! 10  The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Episode 103 - The Refuge of the Church

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Show Notes

Link Referenced

Ray Ortlund, Immanuel Mantra!, Immanuel Mantra on Vimeo

  1. I'm a complete idiot.

  2. My future is incredibly bright.

  3. Anyone can get in on this.

Scripture Referenced

A Call to Love

8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies-in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. - 1 Peter 4:8-11

A Call to Give Grace

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. - Ephesians 4:29

A Call to Truth

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. - Ephesians 4:25-28

A Call for Patience and Forbearance

12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. - Colossians 3:12-14

Episode 102 - The Refuge of Home

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Episode Video

Show Notes

Links Referenced

Scripture Referenced

  • Working and Sharing - Ephesians 4:25-28

  • Household Care - 1 Timothy 5:3-8

  • Bearing One Another’s Burdens - Galatians 6:1-5

  • Weep with those who Weep, Rejoice with those who Rejoice - Romans 12:15-18

Episode 101 - Resisting Misinformation

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Show Notes

Scripture Referenced

  • The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.  - Proverbs 17:24

  • The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him. Proverbs 18:17

  • Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.  Proverbs 14:29

  • The fruit of the Spirit is...self-control - Galatians 5:22

  • Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things Philippians 4:8

  • Specific to Gossip and Lies

    • You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. Exodus 23:1

    • There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19

    • With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered. Proverbs 11:9

    • A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. Proverbs 16:28

    • Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler. Proverbs 20:19

  • Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned. Titus 3:1-10

Links Referenced

Books Referenced

A Suggested Flow

  1. Suspend Belief in order to take time and to be discerning, ask the appropriate questions

  2. Keep a Cool Head and De-Value Hot takes if the take could be wrong - in your anger, do not sin - Ephesians 4

  3. Do not chime in and spread things you do not, and cannot know to be true - gossip is a sin

  4. Verify Truth Claims 

    • Multiple attestation by known people/sources (not bots or anonymous trolls)

One important feature of the latter approach is its emphasis on addressing the spread of disinformation not by assessing whether content itself is true or false but instead by providing social media users with accurate information on people’s identity. It’s a commonsense approach that’s been adopted in modern-day political advertising. Leave it to the public to decide what is true. But let them make that decision based on an accurate understanding of who is speaking. And in the twenty-first century, let the public know whether it’s a human being or an automated bot that’s doing the talking.

Brad Smith, Tools and Weapons, 103

    • Look for a unity among the voices of reliable sources( Can they be sued for publishing falsehood?)

    • Are they from a variety perspectives not simply an echo chamber - what do ideological allies and opposition say? Where do those sources agree?