
Podcast of MoralApologetics.com
Latest episodes

Mar 29, 2015 • 38min
David Baggett on Moral Knowledge (Part 1 of 3)
On this week's episode, we hear from Dr. David Baggett. Dr. Baggett and co-author Dr. Jerry Walls have just sent in their manuscript of God and Cosmos to the publisher. God and Cosmos is a sequel to Christianity Today's 2012 Apologetics Book of the Year, Good God. In Good God, Walls and Baggett offer an abductive moral argument for the existence of God. In God and Cosmos, they focus their attention onvarious secular ethical theories and show why these theories do not provide as robust an explanation of morality as theism. One of the chapters in the book is "Moral Knowledge" and its that chapter we will be discussing today. This is a substantive topic, so we will be dividing the conversation up into three parts. The first part lays out some of the basic issues related to moral knowledge, including what exactly moral knowledge is, the kinds of moral knowledge available, and the general problems associated with saying we have moral knowledge.

Mar 22, 2015 • 35min
Jon Pruitt on Whether It's Good to be Human
On this week's episode, we will be discussing whether or not it is good to be human. We will mainly consider this question from an atheist and Christian perspective. We will see that in order to answer the question, one must first explain what it would mean for something to be good and second what it would mean to be human. What we suggest is that Christianity provides the best explanation of the goodness of humanity.

Mar 15, 2015 • 46min
Brian Scalise on the Nature of Love in Islam and Christianity
On this week's podcast, we hear from Dr. Brian Scalise. Dr. Scalise is an adjunct professor at Liberty University. He teaches New Testament Greek and recently taught an intensive to graduate students on Islam. A few weeks ago on the podcast, Dr. Scalise explained the difference a Trinitarian versus Unitarian understanding of God makes for our understanding of love. This week, we're going to be returning to that topic. In this lecture, Dr. Scalise carefully explains why the Christian Trinity provides an account of love that is richer and fuller than what is possible from an Islamic perspective.

Mar 8, 2015 • 40min
Leo Percer on the Impeccability of Jesus (Part 2 of 2)
This week we are continuing our discussion with Dr. Leo Percer, professor of New Testament and Greek at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, on the impeccability of Jesus. Last time, we discussed the meaning of impeccability and what counts as temptation. This week, we will explore what it would mean for Jesus to be tempted and whether or not he could actually sin. And we will think about what it means to say Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. Finally, we will also discuss the relevance of Jesus’ temptation for our own moral transformation.

Mar 1, 2015 • 37min
Leo Percer on the Impeccability of Jesus (Part 1)
This week, we will be sitting down with Dr. Leo Percer to discuss the impeccability of Jesus. Dr. Percer is a professor of New Testament and Greek at LBTS. One question you might have as we start this series on impeccability is what this subject has to do with moral apologetics. Well, quite a lot actually. For one, whether or not Jesus could sin tells us something about the moral character of God and the kind of being he is. Is God, even as he was incarnate in Jesus, capable of a moral failure? On the other hand, if Jesus was not capable of sinning, in what sense was he fully human? And how could he really be understood to be the ideal man or our moral exemplar? These are important and tough questions.
In this first part of our discussion with Dr. Percer, we will hear what “impeccability” means and explore the nature of temptation. We will also discuss what it would mean for Jesus, as fully human and fully God, to be tempted.

Feb 22, 2015 • 27min
David Baggett on the Love of God and the Doctrine of Election
This week we will be talking again with Dr. David Baggett, co-author of Good God and professor of apologetics at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, about the doctrine of election and the love of God. Besides the main topic, we will hit on a number of related issues, like love and the necessity of free will, and the role that philosophy ought to play (if any) in interpreting the Bible.
Most of this discussion takes place with a critique of Calvinism. Because conversations like these can be so divisive, Dr. Baggett wanted to give a brief statement to explain his motivation and to set the tone for the discussion. Here's the statement:
I hope nothing here causes any discord or division; they’re just some reflections I have about the nature of God as essentially loving and what that seems to imply, and to my thinking they comport with the best biblical exegesis available, though I don’t claim to be a biblical scholar. To me this focus on God’s essentially loving nature seems a crucial part of moral apologetics, but I really do sincerely hope that those who may disagree with me on some of these issues don’t take any offense. It’s surely not intended. Christians of diverse stripes agree on much more than what they disagree about, and as Lewis once said, sometimes one of our disagreements is the importance of our disagreements. At times I’ve overstated the differences, and regret that, but here it’s my intention just to lay out how I see things, how some of the pieces fit together, and folks can do with it as they will. And if they disagree, that’s fine. There’s mental space and ample prerogative to do so, and I won’t be offended. But irrespective of our differences, as believers we all need to learn to love one another, and I only hope what I say here contributes to that rather than detracts from it. These discussions are important, but we’ve got to strive to avoid their becoming needlessly divisive.

Feb 15, 2015 • 60min
David Baggett, "Four Ways God Best Explains Morality."
David Baggett, an author and lecturer on theism and moral realism, delves into how divine influence shapes moral truths. He argues that theism offers a far superior foundation for moral values compared to naturalism. Baggett highlights four key dimensions—moral facts, knowledge, transformation, and the link between virtue and happiness. He critiques naturalism’s inability to address intrinsic values and emphasizes the significance of a theistic worldview in grounding moral obligations and understanding human dignity.

Feb 8, 2015 • 35min
Dr. Brian Scalise on the Doctrine of God and the Ethics of Love in Islam and Christianity
This week on the podcast, we are continuing a discussion with Dr. Brian Scalise. Dr. Scalise has written his dissertation on the different views of God in Christianity and Islam. Important differences for our view of love and ethics follow from the different views of God in each religion. When we build a worldview from the notion that God is absolutely one with no distinction, as in Islam, we get a deficient ethic and view of love. The Christian trinity, on the other hand, provides a robust foundation for a substantive morality and understanding of love. Since God is one nature with three persons, it turns out that God essentially loves others. And it is this key difference that we will be exploring this week. Dr. Scalise will help us see the implications of this difference by pointing out that the highest command in Christianity is to love the Lord while, in Islam, the highest command is to submit to Allah. We’ll also touch briefly on Islam and the Euthyphro Dilemma.

Feb 1, 2015 • 38min
Dr. Brian Scalise on the Theological Implications of Love in Islam and Christianity
In this week’s episode, we hear from Dr. Brian Scalise. Dr. Scalise’s dissertation ” involved analyzing trinitarian monotheism vis-a-vis unitary monotheism. This comparison looked specifically at Islam, Trinity, and human relationships.” The subject of the discussion is the the theological implications for love in both Christianity and Islam. Specifically, we look at what follows from each religion’s view of God. What does Allah’s absolute oneness mean for love? And what does the Christian Trinity tell us about love?

Jan 25, 2015 • 30min
Dr. Fred Smith on Worldview and the Implications for Morality (Part 2 of 2)
This week we are continuing a conversation with Dr. Fred Smith. Dr. Smith is a professor at LBTS and has taught courses on world religions He also has a special interest in worldview and culture. Recently, he published a book, Developing a Biblical Worldview: Seeing Things God’s Way. If you’re interested in what Dr. Smith has to say about worldview today, you might check out the book for a more in-depth discussion.
Last week, we discussed the nature of worldview in general and raised moral difficulties created by various non-christian worldviews. This week, we’ll be hearing Dr. Smith’s response to some objections raised to the Christian worldview and Dr. Smith will help us to see how the Christian answer to the worldview questions (Who we are? Where are we? What is wrong ? And what is the Answer?) will help us turn back objections.