The seventeen list, statements one through nine
The hosts burn through the first nine claims: you do not deserve God's love; you were born a sinner (original sin and the baby-baptism tangent); Jesus rescued you from God (from God's wrath); sending people to hell satisfies God's justice and brings him glory; the big deal about Jesus is punching your ticket to heaven (the Titanic floating-door analogy and Jesus vouches for you); your heart is wicked and cannot be trusted; a godly woman is a submissive one; God gives or withholds favor and blessings based on your performance; even grace has a few conditions. Their running verdict: the statements are worded too broadly and imprecisely to affirm or deny outright, and several seem designed to provoke.
More on Baptism
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Is skinny dipping in the Sea of Galilee sacrilegious?
- Is skinny dipping in the Sea of Galilee sacrilegious?
The hosts debate the hard question: one argues the category of 'sacrilegious' itself is man-made — something is sin or it isn't — and that the congressman's real problem was foolishness, not location (Jesus was in a boat there; it is moving, recycled water).
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Chat questions: what must one do to be saved?
- What must one do to be saved?
- At what point is someone saved?
Reading listener questions from the chat — one host tosses the first to Dan by name — the hosts answer that faith is always the baseline: belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God who died physically and rose physically, since 'demons believe and shudder' too.
From No. 34 · Where Do I Start?
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Dawson: everything feels like a sales pitch
Mike asks Dawson where the church presents community poorly. Dawson: everything feels like a sales pitch now — every invitation defended with ten reasons, which makes people suspicious.
From No. 590 · Theodore Franco
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Baptism Sunday spectacle: mascot, dunk Sunday, inflatables
Ben describes a church advertising a big baptism Sunday complete with a basketball-team mascot, “dunk Sunday,” rides, and inflatables, and asks whether meeting Jesus is really that life-changing or whether churches fluff it up.
From No. 588 · hypokritēs