Stand to Reason Weekly Podcast

Master These Three Informal Fallacies

Greg talks about how to recognize and handle three informal fallacies you’ll encounter in spiritual conversations, then he answers questions about whether Satan knows what we’re thinking and how to respond to a friend who strongly believes the Bible teaches the earth is flat.

 

Topics:

1. Commentary: Master these three informal fallacies. (00:00)
2. Does Satan know what we’re thinking? (43:00)
3. How can I use the Bible to respond to a friend who strongly believes the Bible teaches the earth is flat? (49:00)

Mentioned on the Show: 

• Try This Simple, Three-Step Maneuver When You’re Hit with a Barrage of Objections by Greg Koukl (on the Aaron Rodgers interview)

Punished for Expressing the Christian View of Marriage

Greg talks about a situation where a police officer was forced to quit his job because he expressed the Christian view of marriage on Facebook, then he answers a question about whether parental love is a fair analogy to use when arguing that libertarian free will isn’t necessary for real love.

 

Topics:

1. Commentary: Punished for expressing the Christian view of marriage (00:00)
2. The love we have for God isn’t the same kind of love parents have for children, so is parental love really a fair analogy to use when arguing that libertarian free will isn’t necessary for love? (47:00)

Mentioned on the Show: 

• Iron Curtain Diary by Greg Koukl
• The Primal Heresy by Greg Koukl
• Freedom Fading by Greg Koukl
• Critical Race Theory: Civil Rights Upside Down by Greg Koukl
• The Evening News by Greg Koukl
• The Legend of the Social Justice Jesus by Greg Koukl
• First Liberty Institute
• Georgia Police Officer is Forced to Quit His Job Over Religious Facebook Post by Jorge Gomez
• Street Smarts: Using Questions to Answer Christianity’s Toughest Challenges by Greg Koukl

Related Links:

• God Reforms Hearts: Rethinking Free Will and the Problem of Evil by Thaddeus Williams (on the question of whether libertarian free will is required for real love)
• “Forced Love” Is the Wrong Way to Look at It by Amy Hall

Is It Okay to Use Mockery against Harmful Ideologies?

Greg answers questions about dealing with distractions in worship services, an employer’s inconsistencies on the topic of gender, using mockery against transgender ideology, and whether using apologetics and discernment indicates a lack of trust in the Holy Spirit.

 

Topics:

1. Do you have any thoughts on how I can deal with the distractions of those who are more charismatic in worship than I am? (03:00)
2. Could I use the “sibling rivalry” tactic to show that my company is being inconsistent by saying that gender doesn’t matter and then promoting the idea that they’re a great place for women to work? (12:00)
3. Should Christians support humorous mocking of transgender ideology by conservatives, or does that fall into the category of mocking people rather than just ideas? (27:00)
4. How should I respond to someone who thinks the use of apologetics and discernment indicates a lack of trust in the Holy Spirit? (40:00)

Mentioned on the Show: 

• Submit a question on the Open Mic Line

Related Links:

• Why Not Use Ridicule? by Amy Hall

Thoughts about D-Day

Greg talks about D-Day and thanks D-Day veterans for their service, then he answers questions about indoctrination, what we can do about what’s happening in public schools, whether someone can be responsible for another person being in Hell, and the use of the word “bond-servant” in the New Testament.

 

Topics:

1. Commentary: Thoughts about D-Day (00:00)
2. What would you say to someone who says 9/11, vaccines, and the Vietnam War are all hoaxes about government control, and what is indoctrination? (20:00)
3. Is there something we can do in addition to praying for California and other states whose public school systems are inappropriately bringing sex into the classrooms? (30:00)
4. Can some people be in Hell now because of something someone else did in their lives that convinced them not to be a Christian? (49:00)
5. What is your understanding of the literal vs. the metaphorical uses of the word “bond-servant” in the New Testament? (55:00)

Mentioned on the Show: 

• Submit a question on the Open Mic Line
• D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II by Stephen E. Ambrose
• Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose
• STR U Online Training
• Greg’s Message to His School Board Regarding Proposed Sex Ed Curriculum by Greg Koukl

Related Links:

• How Should We Handle Outrage? by Amy Hall

Are We Claiming to Know the Unknowable?

Greg corrects some of his speculations about Neanderthals from the previous episode, then he answers questions about what “weeping and gnashing of teeth” indicates, the influence of the Jesus Movement, advice for finding a church, and claiming to know the unknowable.

 

Topics:

1. Commentary: Greg corrects some of his speculations about Neanderthals from the previous episode. (00:00)
2. Do the verses that talk about weeping and gnashing of teeth in Hell indicate the people there will still be in open defiance against God, or are those verses referring to suffering? Why would non-believers, who have rejected God, want to go to Heaven? And does the fact that “every knee will bow” indicate those in Hell will have a change of heart? (12:00)
3. How has the American church been affected for the good and the bad by the Jesus Movement of the ’70s, and what’s your advice for finding a new church that’s biblically sound? (25:00)
4. How can we claim to know the unknowable? (48:00)

Morally Velocitized by the Culture

Greg talks about the the danger of letting the culture form us, then he answers questions about how to respond to a family member who says he’s transgender and how Christians should interpret studies that show humans and Neanderthals interbred.

 

Topics:

1. Commentary: Morally velocitized by the culture (00:00)
2. How should I respond to a family member who told me he’s transgender and I have to use his female name or he’ll break off contact? (32:00)
3. How should we, as Christians, interpret studies that show humans and Neanderthals interbred? (44:00)

Mentioned on the Show: 

• Greg corrects some of his speculations about humans and Neanderthals interbreeding in the next episode (June 9).

Related Links:

• Morally Velocitized by Greg Koukl
• Why Agree to Use Preferred Names but Not Preferred Pronouns? by Amy Hall
• Problems with Preferred Pronouns by Alan Shlemon
• Should You Accommodate an LGBT Person’s Requests? by Alan Shlemon

No Need for Confusion—Faithfulness Is Not Theologically Complicated

Greg talks about five areas—salvation, abortion, gender, marriage, and sex—where Christians are drifting into falsehood because of pressure in the culture and not because of ambiguity in the text. Despite the confusion of many Christians on these topics, faithfulness is not theologically complicated.

 

Topics:

1. Commentary: No need for confusion—faithfulness is not theologically complicated. (00:00)

Mentioned on the Show: 

• Faithfulness Is Not Theologically Complicated by Greg Koukl
• The Story of Reality: How the World Began, How It Ends, and Everything Important that Happens in Between by Greg Koukl
• Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity by Alisa Childers
• Jesus, the Only Way: 100 Verses

Related Links:

• The Legend of the Social Justice Jesus by Greg Koukl

Disagreement Is Not Oppression

Greg talks about the relatively new idea that we can be oppressed through others’ ideology, then he answers questions about whether Christian fellowship is simply brainwashing, the need for epistemological certainty, whether the Bible requires 100% certainty, and why God isn’t as self-evident as 2+2=4.

 

Topics:

1. Commentary: Disagreement is not oppression. (00:00)
2. Does the fact that we derive encouragement and psychological benefit from gathering with other believers show we are simply brainwashing ourselves? (23:00)
3. Should I feel so obligated to truth that if I can’t have epistemological certainty, I should abandon my faith? (29:00)
4. When studying apologetics and philosophy, it seems as though 100% certainty is unachievable, but does the Bible require 100% certainty that God exists? (42:00)
5. Why isn’t the truth of God’s existence as self-evident as the mathematical equation 2+2=4? (37:00)

Mentioned on the Show: 

• Submit a question on the Open Mic Line
• Street Smarts: Using Questions to Answer Christianity’s Toughest Challenges by Greg Koukl

Four Reasons We Can Be Confident the Gospel Accounts Are Eyewitness Accounts

Guest Host: J. Warner Wallace

 

J. Warner Wallace gives four reasons we can be confident the Gospel accounts are eyewitness accounts, answers a question about family planning, discusses how Christian principles cause people to thrive, then talks to callers about the Old Testament prophets and why God created Satan.

 

Topics:

1. Commentary: Four reasons we can be confident the Gospel accounts are eyewitness accounts (00:00)
2. Is family planning okay, or should we put our family size in the hands of God? (24:00)
3. Commentary: The data shows that the principles that cause people to thrive point to the truth of Christianity. (32:00)
4. How did the Old Testament prophets know that what they were hearing was really from God? (38:00)
5. If God wanted us to be with him, why did he create Satan? (51:00)

Mentioned on the Show: 

• Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels (Updated and Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition) by J. Warner Wallace
• Women in Apologetics Conference – June 9–10, Anaheim, CA
• Person of Interest by J. Warner Wallace

A Training Model for Equipping Young People

Guest Host: J. Warner Wallace

 

J. Warner Wallace talks about a training model for equipping young people, then he talks to callers about a argument for the certainty of coming judgment that doesn’t refer to the Bible and how to share the gospel with family members who think they’re already Christians.

 

Topics:

1. Commentary: A training model for equipping young people (00:00)
2. Do you have an “outside-the-room” argument for the certainty of coming judgment? (22:00)
3. How can I share the gospel with family members who think they’re already Christians? (42:00)

Mentioned on the Show: 

• J. Warner Wallace
• Reality Student Apologetics Conference – September 22–23 in Los Angeles, CA; October 13–14 in Seattle, WA; November 10–11 in Minneapolis, MN; February 23–24, 2023 in Dallas, TX; March 22–23, 2023 in Philadelphia, PA; April 19–20, 2023 in Augusta, GA
• STR U Online Training
• Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions by Greg Koukl