Why should you give to Deeper Waters? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
I don’t normally do a post like this, but I have had Mike Licona and Ed Komoszewski share their request that people support Deeper Waters, so I would like to throw in my own request. This is a presentation as to why you should support. Some estimates of our needs are ballpark estimates and how much I can do is based on how much you give.
To start with, basic living expenses. As you know if you read my newsletter, my living situation has changed. Since that is in limbo, my hope right now is to get a decent apartment. I need nothing extravagant, but just a simple one can cost around $1,000 a month.
I do not want to assume that anything comes with it. Sometimes they do provide internet and utilities and electricity. I will be going with the worst-case scenario and assuming nothing is included. If any of the above are, then that leaves more for other investments. I think water doesn’t cost that much, but electricity and internet could cost around $100 a month or so each. Again, I’m not sure.
That would also be the same for items like health and auto insurance. My phone service also costs about $90 a month. Fortunately, with that I also get Disney+, Hulu, and some channel called ESPN+. I’m still trying to figure out what that last one is. As for other entertainment, I play Final Fantasy XIV online with some friends and the only streaming services I could consider adding now are DC Universe and Netflix for some specialized programs.
As for groceries, if you have ever seen me in person, you know I am not a heavy fellow. I think saying I spend $100 a month on groceries for food is quite likely. Mike and Debbie Licona can also tell you I am very frugal. I am always shopping for bargains and using digital coupons. I am not the best at cleaning so cleaning supplies are taken at a minimum.
I very rarely eat out. Back in September for my birthday, my parents and sister gave me a combined $45 in gift cards for Subway. I still haven’t used all of them. I would love to be able to eat there more often or even get a fancy tea from time to time at Starbucks, but I hold back for money. Even if I play a video game, I am awfully careful with how I spend my money.
Very little is needed for me along those lines for entertainment. I do pretty much every program I can to get free Amazon credit and if I want to buy a new game, I often do it from there. If someone wants to be generous and buy me a game, that is something excellent to receive. Many of my books come directly from publishers and I try to get others at the library if I can.
Pre-Corona, I would normally see a movie only about four times a year. I would like to have enough to be able to do something enjoyable for myself every now and then, such as if people from church want to go out to eat, I could go and join them. I would rather have my money go towards programs for Deeper Waters.
I got my computer years ago after Allie and I moved to Tennessee. I don’t know when I will need a new one again. I have had to get a new keyboard recently and items like that could be regularly needed. I would like to get enough to be able to do the podcast again. I also hope to find someone who can teach me how to make better YouTube videos.
Not only this, but I need enough to cover my own taxes, to which Debbie as an accountant does those for me, to cover being able to give to the church, and I would like enough on the side to also be generous to others. I don’t remember the last time I was able to buy a Christmas gift for someone besides Allie.
Why should you give? When you give, you set me free to do more research and study. You pay your pastor not because he gives a sermon and does hospital visitation and all the other jobs he does, but so that he can freely do those jobs. The same with an apologist. Giving like this is also a shot in the arm to me. When you give, it motivates me to do further research and study so I can be there to do what needs to be done.
Don’t think you can give a lot? No problem. For example, I have over 3,500 friends on Facebook. If all of them were to give a dollar a month even, I would consider myself rich. I have no delusions everyone will do that, but everyone who gives a little even is helping out.
Please consider making a donation to Deeper Waters. I dream of being free to do more and more for the Kingdom in apologetics. I definitely have no wish to misuse any money you send my way. I strive to be a man of honor in all that I do.
You can also give through a tax-deductible way by going to RisenJesus.com. When you do that, just include in the submission form a note that it is for me or else contact me or Mike or Debbie and tell one of us about that. We will make sure I get the tax-deductible donation.
If you want to donate via Patreon, please check the link at the bottom of this post. Thank you again.
In Christ, Nick Peters (And I affirm the virgin birth) Support my Patreon here.
Why can’t we be friends? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
Many of you know years ago I was a student at Southern Evangelical Seminary. It had been a dream of mine to graduate from there one day. Then while there, I heard about a girl, specifically, Allie Licona, the daughter of Mike and Debbie Licona. That was her name then at least. Today, it’s Allie Peters.
Shortly after we got married, Mike published his big book on the resurrection of Jesus. Mike was also at the time a visiting professor at SES. However, not too long after that book came out, Norman Geisler accused Mike of denying inerrancy for his position on the resurrection of the saints in Matthew 27.
At that point, I made the decision that I had to step in and I did. Geisler had been a mentor of mine, but this was a ridiculous charge I thought and it was going after family. I decided to step into the ring and take on Geisler, which I hadn’t done before. My ministry partner, J.P. Holding, also joined in.
That meant for me leaving behind SES as well, which was very hard. Academically, I think everyone would agree I was an excellent student. However, since I took on Geisler, I was sure I would not be allowed to graduate anyway.
The inerrancy wars went on for some time but fortunately, I haven’t heard anything from them in awhile. Not too long ago, Geisler passed away also. I was not sure how this would affect the wars, but I knew something would be different. I do know SES still does the apologetics conference, but I haven’t been since the whole thing started.
So what a shock when Gary Habermas sends Mike and Debbie and I an email with announcements from SES. Gary told us to look at the sixth item listed. What do I see?
“Many of you know that Dr. Mike Licona and Dr. Geisler had their rather public disagreements over the nature of the inerrancy of Scripture. Dr. Licona has even debated our own Dr. Richard Howe about this important issue at our National Conference. Regardless of our differences, Dr. Licona is a dear brother in Christ whom we love. His lovely daughter is married to an SES alum, and they could really use our help to cover some very serious medical bills for some very serious and essential treatment. You can learn more about the need and how to give at the link below. Thank you.”
I messaged the person behind putting it up there since Mike told me who it was and I offered my thanks. I made a public post on Facebook and I want to make a more public one here. In our conversation, we both agreed that inerrancy is an important issue, something J.P. Holding and I both hold to, but that we should be willing to better discuss our disagreements.
I really hope that this will be the beginning of many conversations on how we can unite as Christians. I was pleased to see the above not only good words about Mike, but good words about me as an SES alum. Nothing was said about the disputes that we had. Not a thing. After all, if any event was worth putting aside our differences, something like this is.
As I was thinking about writing this, I thought about Peter and Paul in Galatians. Odds are, Peter wasn’t really too happy with Paul when Paul called him out to his face because he was sure Peter was in the wrong. Some scholars posit a major rift taking place between the two.
But if you read other epistles in the New Testament, like 2 Peter, it looks like things were worked out. Peter refers to Paul as a brother at that point. We may not know how they worked out the issue, and apparently that was a major issue, but they worked it out.
I am very grateful to SES for what I consider not just an act of charity, but a kind olive branch as well. This is the way that Christians are to interact with one another really. The inerrancy wars were not good for us, but hopefully the inerrancy peace that could come will be much better. Maybe in the end we still won’t agree, but we can still unite together and as Geisler once said in paraphrase, go after an anti-theist instead of a fellow Christian theist.
Thanks to SES for including us and getting the word out about Allie’s treatment.
In Christ, Nick Peters (And I affirm the virgin birth)
What do I think of Nicholas Kotar’s book published by Waystone Press? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
So we’ve all had it happen to us before. You wake up one day and realize that you’ve found out you’re in a Russian fairy tale. Yep. Happens to everyone at one time another. How do you make it? How do you survive?
Nicholas Kotar is an accomplished novelist who is going to explain this to us. It is quite surprising because many of us have never read a Russian fairy tale before. I know I certainly haven’t. I have read Russian literature, but not the fairy tales.
Kotar goes through many of the characters that you will find in such a fairy tale. The interesting thing to me at this point is that there are recurring characters that show up in these stories. In our fairy tales, there may be recurring themes, but it looks like in Russian fairy tales, the same characters are the villains and the heroes and the aids.
Nothing is as it seems in a Russian fairy tale. The grandmother could be the villain. The idiot could be the one who’s the hero. Many of us might be surprised that the female warrior might be the one who is really the more powerful, and this before any idea of women’s equality.
The themes are also the same in many tales. The hero does meet a character with whom he will have to undergo some trial to demonstrate he’s worthy. Only then can he go on to face the villain and save the princess or do whatever is needed. It’s not always a romantic thing either. One such story involved a boy who was just twelve going and rescuing his mother.
Also, many of these tales do see an influence of Christianity in them. This is interesting since we don’t know exactly when these tales appeared. It could be Russian had no pagan past before their conversion to Christianity that was recorded so they decided they needed to correct that and made one.
Finally, why do these tales matter? That’s the last section of the book and likely the most important one. It’s actually important that fantasy be a part of our reality. Chesterton and Lewis both spoke very approvingly of fairy tales. Maybe we should take them seriously too.
In closing, this is a genre many of us aren’t familiar with, and now I’m left considering maybe I should get familiar with it. Maybe you should too.
In Christ, Nick Peters (And I affirm the virgin birth)
What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
It’s been said that the Shroud of Turin is the most studied artifact ever. This could be so and it would be a fascinating relationship. Jesus Christ is the most written about and talked about figure ever in history so what is claimed to be His burial shroud would be the most talked about item in history as well.
But is the Shroud the real deal? It’s certainly an impressive work, real or not, but hasn’t it already been shown to be a fake? Didn’t we do tests to demonstrate that the Shroud actually originates in medieval times? For many people, that’s a done deal. For some, perhaps there were some problems with the test.
My guest thinks so. He began his walk not really caring so much about religious questions until he came upon a book about the Shroud. From that point on, he was inherently fascinated with it and even joined a monastery where he became an authority on the Shroud and began lecturing on it and attending every conference he could on it.
His path actually got stranger still when he encountered a lady who was interested in the Shroud and thinking they had a destiny together, he ended up leaving the monastery life and marrying her. Together, they did research and spoke on the Shroud. I have even been told that they were instrumental in raising up concerns about the veracity of the Carbon-14 tests.
His name is Joseph Marino and he’s my guest this Saturday.
So who is he?
According to his bio:
Joseph Marino has a B.A. in Theological Studies from St. Louis University and is a long-time sindonologist (one who studies the Shroud of Turin). He has researched, written and lectured extensively on the Shroud since 1977. He currently works at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
In 1977, he saw a book on the Shroud of Turin, which he had never heard of before, even though he was raised as a Catholic. He read the book in one sitting and became fascinated by the subject and proceeded to collect any material on it that he could find. In January 1980 he started living at the Benedictine monastery St. Louis Priory, which later became known as the St. Louis Abbey. In 1986, he attended his first Shroud conference and met for the first time, many of the top scientists and researchers involved. In the early 1990s he felt drawn to the priesthood and was subsequently ordained in 1994.
In 1997 Marino received a call from M. Sue Benford who informed him of her spiritual insights about the Shroud. After many discussions via phone and emails about the Shroud and other spiritual matters, he began to experience God in a whole new way. Joseph felt powerfully drawn to leave the monastery to pursue Shroud research and other spiritual paths with Benford.
Marino believes the Shroud can be shown to be the burial cloth of Jesus, then it would be an interesting archaeological object, however he believes that it’s more important for the spiritual message it can bring. As a former Benedictine monk, and Catholic priest Joseph believes that organized religion has often depicted Jesus as an unreachable deity, whose standards we can never reach. With his work he hopes to show that the Shroud represents a more human Jesus, who is someone we can not only approach, but, as indicated in the Gospel of John, a person we can even surpass in doing great things.
”It is my hope and desire that our work can get this message across, and, it is my belief that this is the destiny to which I’ve been called, which is why I have been given the passion I possess for the Shroud.”
Again, we are catching up on past shows. I hope you’ll be watching your podcast feed. Please also keep supporting the Deeper Waters Podcast any way that you can.
In Christ, Nick Peters (And I affirm the virgin birth)
What’s going on today? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters.
Ten is tin. That might sound like a weird playing of the English language, but it’s actually an accurate statement. I looked it up not too long ago. A marriage anniversary for 50 years is the golden one and 25 is the silver. Ten is the, well, tin.
Today marks ten years with the love of my life. It’s been an interesting ten years. Those years have had good times and bad times. We’ve had romantic times and hard arguments. We’ve had love and hostilities at times. In other words, our marriage has been much like anyone else’s in so many ways.
Marriage changes you. You learn about love and sacrifice. You learn what it means to give and what it means to receive. You learn in many ways also what you are really like. Someone said years ago that when you marry, God holds a big mirror right up in front of you and says “This is what you’re really like!”
And in some ways, I have seen what I am like. When I am upset with Allie over something she has done to me or something else in her life, I am reminded before too long “And how are you any different?”
You learn a lot about beauty as well. For me, for several years, I have been a big fan of natural beauty. I still am. I never understood make-up. I never cared for it. Now I’m married to a woman who after marrying decides she wants to study cosmetology. What have I found? I have grown to appreciate what she does with make-up. Why? Because that is her and she is working on bringing out her beauty. I always stress that make-up can never make her beautiful. It just brings out the beauty that is already there.
I have also realized what it means to truly be captivated by a woman’s beauty. A few years ago we were in a Wal-Mart and Allie saw an inexpensive dress and wanted to try it on. I had no objections! I love a woman in a dress and I hadn’t seen Allie in one in years. I’m waiting outside the dressing room and when she comes out, my jaw drops. I can hardly believe that this is my wife.
She still stuns me. We recently got a romper for her and she’s stunning in it. She also recently got this shirt that has a nice lace pattern on the top of it and I just look at her so many times and wonder what on Earth I did to get such a beautiful woman in my life.
That can also bring us to intimate matters. Some guys have the idea that sex is better than intimacy. This is false. You can have sex conceivably with someone and have it just be a physical action and not intimate at all. I have come to see sex as a gateway to intimacy or a result of the intimacy we already have. I have learned to see what it means to respect and treasure a woman’s body. It is always a gift. Anytime I get with Allie is always brand new and I am always amazed by her.
Let’s also talk about our faith in this. Allie has recently been exploring Eastern Orthodoxy. At first, I was not a fan of the idea. Now, my attitude has softened. I’ve come to know her priest well and there is a great mutual respect between the two of us. One thing I like is that he was hesitant about receiving her into the church because he didn’t want to come between our covenant. She’s still not received, but I appreciated that. I consider her priest a friend. I disagree with the Orthodox community still in many ways, but I also see them as my people. I can go to the church and get along and enjoy communicating with the people. They can know I’m the token Protestant and that’s okay.
My wife’s spirituality is something I admire. Lately, she has been reading more of the Bible and I have heard her reading it out loud as she does. This is a new approach to me and I get something out of it. I admire her willingness to set aside this time.
Generally when we pray at night, I lead it, but I really love it when she prays out loud. I’m sure if she’s reading this she’s feeling embarrassed now, but her approach to God is just so real. My temptation is always to talk like a theologian and bring in my theology. She really approaches God like a child.
When God seems absent in her life, she really feels it. When things seem wrong and she’s angry with God, she’s really angry. I get jealous of that sometimes. In either case, she is taking her relationship with God super seriously and I really admire it.
Allie is also a great listener. One of our friends back in Knoxville once said to us together, “Nick. I love you man and you’re a great guy, but if I need an ear I’m going to talk to your wife first because she’s so much better at that.” She is. I don’t dispute that. I say that in our marriage, I’m the head and she’s the heart.” If you need an answer to your problem and want advice, come to me. If you want an ear, come to her.
This isn’t just with her friends. If someone hurts Allie, I’m usually ready to dispense with them and I’m tempted to plan out how my revenge will be. Allie isn’t like that. Recently, someone at our apartment complex hurt her greatly, but I know that if this person called and was in a crisis state, Allie would drop everything she was doing and rush over there and help.
By the way people, with that, if you have a prayer request also, present it to her before me. She will remember it better than I will and when we pray she will remind me of it. She will also take it much more seriously. Allie does have much more of a heart for the hurting than I do.
Many of you know about our cat, Shiro. The reason we have him is her. She had that great compassion on him and wanted to give him a home. So far we have also provided one home to a stray cat here by finding someone at my church who took him in. Allie has a great love for animals.
She’s also been getting into cooking. This is something I need to work on because I have a food phobia honestly, which can happen on the spectrum. Therefore, I don’t eat much of what she cooks, again, what I need to work on, but what I need is great. Allie makes the best pizza I know of hands-down. She makes breadsticks that give Olive Garden a run for her money. She’s recently got into fixing grilled cheese sandwiches again and now they have become a staple of my diet. I haven’t had it, but her mentor told her on her first attempt at making chicken alfredo that she had never had some that was as good as what Allie made.
Let’s return to that thing about make-up and talk about her heart there. What’s one of the goals she has with make-up? She wants to be able to go to the hospital to children who have burns or other conditions like that and be able to make them feel beautiful for a day. Honestly, I wouldn’t have thought about something like that. I suspect there are many people in the field of cosmetology who haven’t considered that. For Allie, it’s one of her very first considerations.
So today marks ten years with a woman who is still amazing me after all this time together. I anticipate she’s not done yet. Everything we have gone through has been worth it. Just yesterday I went to the mailbox and saw an anniversary card from my parents addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Nick Peters. It’s a reality. This woman shares my name.
And today, she has shared it for ten years.
Happy Anniversary, Princess! You are the most beautiful woman I know inside and out.
What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
We’ve all had events that changed our lives forever in a bad way. A wife could tell her husband she’s been having an affair or he could tell her he’s an addict to porn. A doctor could say the word “cancer” to patients. A son could die in a car accident.
These events shatter everything we know and require so much to recover from. Another one is a huge accusation of moral turpitude. My guest had just such an event happened. While he had been teaching journalism and living the life of an investigator, he had been accused suddenly of sexual misconduct and the #MeToo movement jumped in. Sadly, after Kavanaugh, I do have suspicions about what happened. My guest lost everything for the time and had nowhere to go.
But then, he used this to start asking bigger questions about life and especially started looking into the story of Jesus. As a result, he became a Christian. Now he’s telling his story in his book about how it happened. The book is Aftermath and my guest is Alec Klein.
So who is he?
According to his bio:
Alec Klein is a bestselling author and award-winning investigative journalist formerly of the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. His groundbreaking investigations have uncovered a wide array of wrongdoing, leading to significant reforms, congressional hearings, changes in federal law, criminal convictions and more than half a billion dollars in government fines. His investigations have also set free several prisoners who were wrongfully convicted of murder and accused of other crimes. And Klein has helped dozens of excessively sentenced women gain their freedom and regain their lives through parole, commutations and pardons.
His first book, Stealing Time: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Collapse of AOL Time Warner, was a national bestseller published by Simon & Schuster. The book was translated into Japanese and Chinese, excerpted in Great Britain and selected as one of the “Best Business Books” by Library Journal and Strategy + Business.
His second book of nonfiction, A Class Apart: Prodigies, Pressure, and Passion Inside One of America’s Best High Schools, also published by Simon & Schuster, was named “One of the Best Education Books of the Year” by the American School Board Journal and translated into Chinese, where it went through several printings.
His memoir, Aftermath: When It Felt Like Life Was Over, was published in 2020 by Republic Book Publishers. It is a story about faith, forgiveness and redemption.
As a consultant since 2018, Klein helped to create and launch an Oklahoma nonprofit that assists wrongfully convicted and excessively sentenced prisoners in regaining their freedom. He devised a system that has helped free dozens of women through parole and commutation, including some who had been sentenced to life in prison. He also helped to create a drug treatment program at a nonprofit in New York to give people a second chance at employment after failing drug screens. Over the past two years, Klein has worked on a pro bono basis to help several other prisoners regain their freedom, while he has consulted on various writing and media projects. He is also the creator and host of the podcast series, Life On The Other Side: stories from prisoners, their families and those helping them find justice and redemption.
From 2011 to 2018, Klein ran The Medill Justice Project, a national investigative journalism center at Northwestern University. A full, tenured professor from 2008 to 2018, Klein led an investigation that discovered exculpatory information, prompting a federal judge to release an Illinois prisoner a decade before her release on a first-degree murder conviction, which was overturned. Other investigations Klein oversaw led to the exoneration of a Miami man who had been convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Klein also directed a probe that freed an Oregon mother who had faced more than 30 years in prison. In addition, Klein led an investigation in which a Louisiana inmate was released from solitary confinement after more than 36 years. Over the years, Klein has fought and won Freedom of Information Act appeals and access to records in state and federal courts as part of his investigations.
Under Klein’s guidance, The Medill Justice Project earned recognition nationally and internationally for its investigations, photography, videos, podcasts and website, including nearly 100 awards in seven years. Among them was a national Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the first in Medill’s history, an Investigative Reporters & Editors award, a Sigma Delta Chi award and a Sunshine Award from the national Society of Professional Journalists. Klein also oversaw investigations that were honored with a regional Edward R. Murrow Award, Peter Lisagor Awards, local Emmy nominations, Eppy Awards from Editor & Publisher as well as awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, the Online News Association and others. Klein was also named to the Northwestern University Associated Student Government’s annual Honor Roll after being selected from a campus-wide nomination process and chosen from nearly 1,200 nominations of faculty and administrators. He was also recognized as one of six Medill faculty members by the Multicultural Student Affairs for being significant and influential people in their lives, based on an annual survey.
As a Washington Post investigative reporter from 2000 to 2008, Klein wrote a groundbreaking series on the little-known but widespread practice of reusing single-use medical devices in the United States. The stories documented patient injuries and device malfunctions and showed how the industry has eluded comprehensive oversight and is comprised of several entrepreneurs who have run afoul of federal authorities. The series, which won the Society of American Business Editors and Writers award for special projects, prompted an investigation by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s investigative arm, congressional hearings and industry reform.
Klein also wrote a three-part series for The Washington Post about the world’s big three credit-rating firms, showing how they dominate an important part of global finance with little oversight or accountability, how the rating system is subject to manipulation and conflicts of interest, and how the credit raters use strong-arm tactics to generate business. His series, a first-place winner in Washington’s Society of Professional Journalists, prompted an investigation by the New York attorney general, congressional hearings and the passage of federal law to strengthen government oversight of the industry.
Among his other stories at the Washington Post, Klein conducted a yearlong investigation of AOL’s takeover of Time Warner. His investigation, based on hundreds of confidential AOL documents, showed how AOL secretly inflated its revenue to pull off the largest merger in U.S. history to create the biggest media company in the world. His investigation sparked investigations of AOL by the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Klein’s series also prompted the company, then called AOL Time Warner, to launch its own internal investigation of its accounting, which led the company to admit that it had improperly reported at least $190 million in advertising revenue, causing it to restate two years of financial results. The company agreed to pay $510 million to settle criminal and civil allegations that its AOL division improperly pumped up revenue before and after its merger with Time Warner. In the wake of Klein’s investigation, several top AOL executives were forced to resign, several business partners involved in AOL’s schemes were indicted and convicted on fraud charges and the AOL division that was the focus of his investigation was disbanded. For his coverage of AOL, Klein won the Gerald Loeb Award, business journalism’s highest honor. He also won awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in project reporting and the Virginia Press Association in news writing.
Klein has won a number of other awards and fellowships, including at the East-West Center and the Poynter Institute. Klein, who also worked as a reporter at the Baltimore Sun and Virginian-Pilot, is a frequent guest speaker, having presented at the National Press Foundation, the American Press Institute, the Society of Professional Journalists, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the Asian American Journalists Association, the South Asian Journalists Association, Unity: Journalists of Color, and various newspapers and other media outlets, schools, associations, clubs, conferences and education groups throughout the country and the world, including Japan, France, Canada and South Africa. Klein has been a guest lecturer at several colleges, including the University of California at Berkeley, George Washington University and New York University. He was also selected as a business writer-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Klein has given a series of Webinars to professionals throughout the country and abroad. Klein has served as a judge for the Society of American Business Editors and Writers awards and other journalism contests and has appeared on several television and radio programs, including CNN, CNBC, CBS and NPR as well as the BBC and TV Asahi. .
Klein, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University, is the author of several staged plays, a novel and the foreword to an edition of Show Me The Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication, a textbook adopted at universities across the nation.
Born in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., and raised in New York City, Klein is the son of a Japanese artist and an American journalist.
We have also caught up on some more shows and I have uploaded them. More will be coming very soon. Thank you for listening.
What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
The Trinity is one of those doctrines that Christians get out when they need to deal with Jehovah’s Witnesses, but they don’t pay much attention to elsewhere. It’s a shame because the Trinity is a birthright of Christians. It is a teaching that can change everything for us if we let it.
While Jehovah’s Witnesses will say it is a late development, it is all over the pages of the New Testament. One such place is in Romans. Paul moves back and forth from the Father to the Son to the Holy Spirit. Does a Trinitarian understanding help us in any way here? What difference does it make?
To discuss this, I have brought on a friend of mine who got in touch with me who recently wrote a book on this topic. He is a New Testament scholar and very well informed and also known as the Greek Geek. I can also assure listeners that if for some reason we cannot do the show, it will indeed be his fault. (Inside joke for those who understand it.) His name is Ron C. Fay.
So who is he?
According to his bio:
Ron C. Fay did his undergraduate work at Calvin College (now Calvin University), where he majored in Physics/Math and Classical Greek. He earned his M Div and PhD from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), where he was the New Testament Department Scholar. He has taught at both TEDS and Liberty University, at the School of Divinity, as part of the New Testament faculty. He has taught from Junior High to doctoral level courses. He spent 7 years in the pastorate as well. He currently teaches for both Liberty and the Stony Brook School. He has published on Paul, Greco-Roman Backgrounds, John, and Luke-Acts and is coediting the series Milstones in New Testament Scholarship with Stanley E. Porter. His book Father, Son, and Spirit in Romans 8: The Roman Reception of Paul’s Trinitarian Theology was just released.
Romans is a great treasure for Christians and we will be diving into it. Prepare yourself to see the Trinity in the book through new eyes. We have also recently uploaded several episodes and are catching up on others so hopefully, we will be up to date soon.
What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
Superheroes are really popular in our culture. While Batman and Superman and others have been around for decades, they still have new fans coming up every single day. New movies featuring them are constantly coming out and television series have been produced regularly.
These aren’t the only ones certainly. There are many more heroes such as the Avengers and other members of the Justice League and then the Justice Society and plenty of heroes that stand alone in their own right. I grew up also watching Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers and those series have stuck with me to this day.
We live in a culture that loves superheroes. We want someone to come in and right the wrongs and stop evil and for many of them, we also like the moral compass they live with. Batman has a rule of not killing and in the second season of Arrow, the Green Arrow also took on that rule. If anything disappointed me severely in Man of Steel, it was when Superman killed Zod. The Superman I always knew did not kill, at least directly.
Yes. Superheroes can do many things, but unfortunately, they are also fictional so they can only do so in a fictional universe, even if that universe is meant to be ours. However, with all the things that they can do, there is one thing they cannot do.
Superheroes can’t save you.
Many superheroes despite having qualities that are Christlike, cannot provide salvation. If we looked to superheroes like they were the Messiah, we would believe many false things. What if our idea of Jesus was like superheroes? What if we formed our Christology that way? This Saturday, my guest will be someone who has considered that and written a book on Christology using superheroes to illustrate his point. The book is Superheroes Can’t Save You and the author is Todd Miles.
So who is he?
According to his bio:
Todd Miles has been a follower of Jesus from a young age. A native of Oregon and resident of Portland, he is married to Camille. They have six children, Natalie, Ethan, Levi, Julius, Vicente, and Marcos. Todd is a Professor of Theology at Western Seminary where he teaches Theology, Hermeneutics, Biblical Theology, Church History, and Apologetics. He currently serves as an Elder at Hinson Church. Prior to working at Western Seminary, he was employed as a research engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Todd is an alumnus of Oregon State University (BS and MS in Nuclear Engineering), Western Seminary (MDiv), and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (PhD in Systematic Theology). Todd enjoys “all-things athletic,” “all-things Oregon State,” and reading military history and biographies. Todd is the author of many published articles and books, including Superheroes Can’t Save You: Epic Examples of Historic Heresies and A God of Many Understandings?
We’re still working on getting caught up on shows. I plan to upload several of them soon. Thanks for your patience and I hope this episode will greatly help you.
What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
Comics have always been a part of my life. I don’t mean the superheroes, although I did read Archie and TMNT and, of course, Nintendo comics growing up, but mainly comic strips. I still check to see the new Fox Trot every Sunday.
Peanuts was always an important part of that. I loved the adventures of Charlie Brown and Snoopy. I would regularly go to the library and check out Peanuts books for my reading and can still quote numerous strips to this day. I still need to watch the movie someday.
Peanuts also often had a decisively religious tone to it and not just religious, but specifically Christian. Linus was a brilliant young theologian who knew the most obscure Scriptural references and would bring to Sunday School items about the Dead Sea Scrolls and their impact on textual criticism. Charlie Brown’s fire truck just couldn’t compete.
And who can forget the first Charlie Brown Christmas special? The event that makes it for so many of us is that scene where Linus tells us what Christmas is all about by quoting Luke 2. To this day, over 50 years later, this show is still a classic.
But didn’t Charles Schulz abandon Christianity later in his life? Didn’t he become a secular humanist? What did he do in his comic strips exactly with Christianity? Is there anything we can learn from this?
To discuss these matters, I have brought on the author of A Charlie Brown Religion. I was looking for a good biography of Schulz one night and saw that one of the Schulz family members endorsed this one. It’s hard to argue against that recommendation! The author’s name is Stephen Lind and he’s my guest this Saturday.
So who is he?
According to his bio:
Stephen Lind is an assistant professor of business at Washington and Lee University where he teaches courses on the entertainment industry and business communication. He has presented on his research worldwide – from academic conventions to Comic-Con. He holds a PhD in rhetoric from Clemson University, an MA in communication from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a BS in speech (minor in philosophy) from Liberty University.
I hope you’ll be looking forward to this episode. I’ve always enjoyed Peanuts as I said so expect some of my fanboy to come out in this one. Let’s get set to talk about Snoopy and Charlie Brown!
What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
How do we know Christianity is true? We normally look straight at the resurrection of Jesus. How is it that we can know this happened? I mean, we can point to so many apologists who argue for the resurrection, but what do non-evangelical scholars say about it?
A lot of Christians might have a hard time going through a big book such as one by N.T. Wright or Mike Licona. Fortunately, there is a smaller work out there now and one that humorously and effectively gives the data. This one looks at what scholars on the other side say and argues point by point, even taking on a pastoral approach at times, for the resurrection of Jesus.
I got the book recently and went through it and found it a very enjoyable read and one that will be educational for many Christians. With such a book as that, the natural goal then is to decide to do a show about it, which is what I decided to set up. The book is the Bedrock of Christianity and the author will be my guest this Saturday. His name is Justin Bass.
So who is he?
According to his bio:
Justin W. Bass has a Ph.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary in New Testament Studies. He has formally debated Dr. Bart Ehrman, Dr. Richard Carrier, Dan Barker and Mufti Hussain Kamani. He currently lives in Amman, Jordan serving refugees through an NGO and he is Professor of New Testament at Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary (JETS). Dr. Bass’ latest book is The Bedrock of Christianity: The Unalterable Facts of Jesus’ Death and Resurrectionreleased April 8, 2020. He has also written The Battle for the Keys: Revelation 1:18 and Christ’s Descent into the Underworld. When he is not working, he is reading, watching movies (usually TheLord of the Rings), and spending time with his high school sweetheart Allison Bass and their two kids Arianna (10) and Christian (7).
Twitter: @DrJustinbass
YouTube Channel: DrJustinBass
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