Nathaniel's book-writing crisis, false teachers, and protecting what matters
- How much Christian writing about Jesus is gasbagging versus genuinely necessary?
- How do you identify false teaching?
Nathaniel is in a crisis after reading N. T. Wright's Simply Jesus, feeling like a dumb dumb next to eloquent writers, which opens a discussion of the hubris of writing books versus the insufficiency of human language, gasbagging, and having plenty of thinkers but not enough hands-dirty workers. The hosts connect it to last week's false-teaching discussion — dangerous teachers elevate themselves, new believers elevate Jesus — then move to pastors avoiding stumbling blocks (Billy Graham never touching offering money, the Mike Pence rule about not giving teen girls rides home) and applying the same protect-what-matters principle to one's own life: purity, marriage, media diet, and not letting familiar things go undefended.
More on Discernment
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'When God is silent': what counts as hearing from the Lord?
- What does it mean to 'hear from the Lord,' and how often should we expect it?
Mike brings a question from his Bible study, whose paragraph heading was 'when God is silent': the author wrote that he experienced God's silence for a couple of weeks and freaked out, and Ben expected a relatable years-long drought story — 'Oh, two weeks.
From No. 603 · Found Out
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Mike frames the question: are more people hearing from God?
- Does it seem like more and more people are hearing from God — and is that real or a lie and a huge distraction?
Ben asks Mike for a two-sentence framing; Mike says listening to the book of Job while mowing made him furious when Bildad 'received a word from the Lord,' turning a bad human argument into an unarguable divine claim.
From No. 597 · Maybe A Word From God
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Does God speak more now? Indwelling Spirit versus prophets
- Does God talk to people as much now as he did in the Old Testament or New Testament?
A host asks whether God talks to people as much now as in the Old and New Testaments. Ben's key distinction: the indwelling Holy Spirit means more people can have the experience…
From No. 597 · Maybe A Word From God
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How to tell your voice from God's: the Bible test and leniency
- How can you tell the difference between you speaking and God speaking?
Ella distills the question: how do you tell the difference between you speaking and God speaking? Her first answer: we have a Bible — what God is telling you is probably already in it ('Ben's gonna have a proud papa moment').
From No. 597 · Maybe A Word From God