Restitutio

Having looked at what the theory of evolution teaches last time, today we're going to think through how well evolution fits with the bible. Will Barlow covers two main scriptural objections that young earth creationists bring against evolution before exploring three more issues that arise from the perspective of old earth creationism. How does Genesis 1 fit with evolution? Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZysp0JF3CA&feature=emb_imp_woyt See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Notes —— Genesis 1 and Evolution • Review of evolution• YEC and evolution• OEC and evolution• Non-literal views and evolution Review of evolution Misconception #1: “It’s just a theory!”Misconception #2: It means to explain how life beganMisconception #3: Evolution says that humans evolved from apesMisconception #4: Evolution is a progression from simpler organisms to more complex organisms YEC and Evolution How does YEC view evolution? • In short, YEC reject the theory of evolution• YEC make both Scriptural and scientific arguments to defend their position - we will focus on the Scriptural arguments for now Scriptural Objection #1 “Adam and Eve are no longer the first humans, and original sin goes out the window. This does irreparable damage to the biblical redemption narrative. The Bible says that death came into the world because of man’s sin (Romans 5:12) and that all of creation labors under a curse because of sin (Romans 8:22). Scripture also says that Christ is the last Adam, come to redeem us from the sin brought into the world through the first man, Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45).” “If Adam were a mythical figure, which is what evolution demands, even in a Christianized form, the entire parallel between the two Adams and the kinsman redeemer concept is destroyed. By advocating evolution, theistic evolutionists are undermining the very tenets of Christiani

Having taken a short break from our Scripture & Science series, we are back. Today begins a series of three episodes exploring evolution. Whether you believe in evolution or not, it's important to understand what the theory claims and how evolutionists reason. In this episode, Will Barlow briefly explains how evolutionists explain the gradual change from one species to another. He dispels four common misconceptions and delves into the genetic insights popularized by Francis Collins who is both an evolutionist and a Christian. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDi6QRlyfSE&feature=emb_imp_woyt See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Notes —— Biochemistry and Evolution • Common misconceptions with evolution• General framework of evolution• Modern evolutionary theory Common misconceptions with evolution Misconception #1: “It’s just a theory!” • Often, opponents of evolution will state that it is a theory (and use that term pejoratively)• However, evolution does account for much of the scientific evidence and has made many successful predictions Definition of “theory”“A scheme or system of ideas or statements held as an explanation or account of a group of facts or phenomena; a hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is propounded or accepted as accounting for the known facts; a statement of what are held to be the general laws, principles, or causes of something known or observed.”-Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show of Earth, pg. 9 Common misconceptions with evolution Misconception #2: It means to explain how life began • Often, opponents of evolution attack the beginning of life problem• However, evolution does not attempt to account for the beginning of life; this is the theory of abiogenesis Misconception #3: Evolution

Renowned Historical Jesus Scholar and Princeton Theological Seminary Professor, Dale Allison's life changed forever when he was just sixteen years old. In fact, he has chronicled nine profound spiritual experiences throughout his life. These extraordinary moments of transcendence led him to a comparative study to learn more about what is happening to people all around the world in our time. The result? A book that catalogues and describes weird encounters with angels in white, sudden terminal lucidity, near death experiences, and even encounters with evil spiritual entities. This is not the typical sort of book written by someone who has made a career of scholarship within a guild that generally prefers naturalism and reductionism to the miraculous or inexplicable. Nonetheless, now tenured and sitting atop a mountain of published successes--and without concern about his career--Professor Allison feels free to explore his own numinal episodes as well as those of a staggering number of others--most of whom keep such experiences to themselves. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://youtu.be/H4_ZSJH6SRs —— Links —— Get the book we discussed, Encountering Mystery For more about Dale Allison, see his books on Amazon Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Questions —— You begin your book by telling three personal experiences of the transcendent. Were you worried what people would think about you as a distinguished scholar of Jesus and the New Testament, especially among the more secular-minded elements in the academy? You remark on the difficulty of acquiring accurate statistics on mystical experiences because people tend to keep their encounters private. Why is that? And yet, they seem to be increasing, or at least reported more (see p. 21) You talk about a small piece of paper that you keep in your desk draw that chronicles nine experiences you've had between 1979 and 1999. Do you think it's important for people to maintain their memories of extraordinary events? Honestly, your little piece of paper reminded me of Blaise Pascal's night of fire. He sowed it into his house jacket and it was only discovered after he died. Why do you think there's so much shame a

Today we’re taking a little break from our Scripture and Science class for an author interview. I’m talking with Mary DeMuth who wrote, Love, Pray, Listen, which is about parenting wayward adult kids with joy. Because faith is not genetic, our children get to decide for themselves whether or not they will follow Jesus. Some believe in the home and then stand strong a lifetime. Others, have to go over fool’s hill and after a period of rebellion, come back to the faith with a powerful testimony. Still others, leave and never come back. What’s more, you have no idea what’s going to be the case with your kids. We parent, we teach, we pray, we love, but God has not given us the right to force our adult kids to believe. How do we deal with this? Well, Mary DeMuth has some answers to encourage you and help you maximize the possibility of them coming back to the faith. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts —— Links —— For more about Mary DeMuth, see her website at marydemuth.com Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Questions —— 1. Your book is for the parents of adult wayward children. What made you want to write about this? 2. Share a little about your own story. 3. A lot of Christ-followers with wayward adult children probably blame themselves. What would you say to them? 4. You talk about joy throughout the struggle. How can parents possibly have joy while their children are rejecting God and embracing our culture’s hostile attitude toward the bible and biblical Christianity? 5. Let’s talk about love. Tell us some ways we can love wayward adult children biblically and effectively. 6. What else. Anything else on this? Politics? other secondary issues that parents get fixated on 7. What about prayer? How can we pray for our adult children biblically and effectively? 8. What about listening? How can we listen to our adult children biblically and effectively? 9. <if time> Let’s talk about LGBT issues. How can parents both express love and retain their biblical ethics when their child says, “I’m gay” or “I’m trans”? 10. For those of us who still have our children in the home (like me). What would you say we can do to avoid losing them once they move out? 11. How can people learn more about you?

This episode rounds out three sessions focused on physics. Today we're learning about the incredibly precise conditions required for life to exist in our universe. From the strength of gravity to the properties of carbon or water to the beauty of math and the stars, Pastor Will Barlow enumerates several key ways in which the cosmos is finely-tuned to support life. Next he covers several of the common responses atheists put forward to explain this incredible precision. Barlow briefly responds to each before concluding that the God hypothesis fits the best. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQYtxleTue0 See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Notes —— What is fine-tuning? Fine-tuning is the idea that the existence of life on Earth is due to remarkably precise “settings” in the natural world. • Example: baking a cake vs. baking a “fine-tuned” cake• Example: Finding a watch in a forest Fine-tuning in Scripture Romans 1:20   For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Categories of fine-tuning • Cosmological• Properties of carbon and water• Beauty in math, physics, and nature Cosmological fine-tuning Example One: The Balance between forces • A 1% change in the strong nuclear force would have a 30-1,000 fold impact on oxygen and carbon production in stars• Small changes to gravity would make large life impossible• The balance between gravity and electromagnetism allows for gentler yellow stars like our Sun “The expansion speed, the material content of the universe, and the strengths of the basic forces, seem to have been a prerequisite for the emergence of the hospitable cosmic habitat in which we live.”-Martin Rees, physicist and skeptic Example Two: The Balance bet

Building on last week, Will Barlow continues to describe and analyze issues with the Big Bang Theory. He considers standard biblical and scientific objections brought forward by young earth creationists. After responding to these objections, he shows how each of the main Christian views of origins deals with the Big Bang. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yonfcv5mf6I&feature=emb_imp_woyt See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Notes —— The Big Bang In basic terms, what does the Big Bang theory say? • The Universe began approximately 13.7 billion years ago• Space and matter have been expanding and cooling since then What is the current state of the Big Bang? • We will never be able to travel back in time to observe the beginning• Physicists used high-energy collisions to test hypotheses related to the Big Bang• There is a physical restriction on understanding the first moment of the Big Bang Are there viable alternatives to the Big Bang? • Oscillating universe — Universes expand and contract until the right one pops out• Multiple Universes — Infinite number of Universes exist beyond our ability to observe them• Inflationary models• Hawking’s theory YEC and the Big Bang How does YEC view the Big Bang? • In short, YEC reject several aspects of the Big Bang• YEC make both Scriptural and scientific arguments to defend their positionScriptural Objections What objections do YEC make about the Big Bang from Scripture?“The Bible tells us that God created heaven, earth, and everything within them in the span of six days (Exodus 20:11) and rested on the seventh day. This is the basis for our work week (Exodus 20:8). In contrast, the big bang model claims that the universe and earth formed over billions of years.” “Genesis tells us that God created the stars on the fourth day—three days after the earth was created. In contrast, the big bang

Now that we've considered a bunch of the options for interpreting creation in Genesis, we are moving to look at astronomy. In today's episode Will Barlow moves into his home territory--physics. You'll learn about the weird nature of light, how particles do strange things at the quantum scale, and how the big bang model actually leads to belief in God. If you've ever been curious how to talk to science-minded friends and relatives about belief in God, today's episode should help! Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiRc2q_RFX4&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV1Etu1jXO3jbUQ6CFI-2k6W&index=6 See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Notes —— Overview of Modern Physics • Light• General Relativity• Quantum Mechanics• The Big Bang Light • Perhaps the most interesting and necessary to support life• Comes in many forms• Can act as a wave or a particle (unique!)• Light can act like a wave (ex: sound or water)• Light can act like a particle (ex: basketball)• Light seems to know the fastest path through a material• The speed of light is a well-known quantity and is considered the “speed limit of the Universe” General Relativity • Has been verified enough to use in everyday items like GPS• Gravity can bend light and make “impressions” in space-time Quantum Mechanics • Useful when talking about microscopic things• Shows that electrons do not orbit a nucleus like a planet around the Sun• Gives probabilities for direction and location at any given time Imagine that you reach your hand out to touch a table: • On a microscopic level, what you feel as “solid” is actually the electrons in your hand repelling the electrons in the table• Theoretically, your hand could pass through the table if you could line up the electrons in your hand with the electrons in the table (quantum tunneling) The Big Bang • Some ancient pagans (like Aristotle) believed that the

Today we are going to cover gap theories and John Walton’s temple idea. Will Barlow explains how gap theories work, including the classic idea that there’s a gap of billions of years between Genesis 1.1 and 1.2 as well as the modified version. After explaining the pros and cons for these views, he briefly explains John Walton’s theory that Genesis 1 solely focuses on function not physical creation. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Check out the early Christian quotes about the Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew here Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Notes —— Gap Theory There are various versions of Gap Theory: • Standard – multiple options here • Modified (“Preparing the Garden”) Pros of Standard Gap Theory Here are some pros with the standard formulation of Gap Theory: • It takes the word “day” literally as a 24-hour period • It fits directly with scientific evidence for an old Earth • It looks to the text (both in Genesis 1 and remote texts) to reach conclusions Internal Evidence Genesis 1:2   The earth was [or became] without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. “Was” or “became”? • Generally, in Hebrew, the verb “was” is unnecessary when talking about simple existence Genesis 23:17   So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, was made over “Was” or “became”? • Some scholars suggest that the verb is needed for

We've been considering the various options for interpreting the creation account in Genesis. Last time we looked at two young earth theories and today we'll survey three old earth perspectives, including the day age theory, modified day-age theory, and a non-literal approach. For each Will Barlow explains the basics and offers a gentle critique. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2y2H1PrJ34&list=PLN9jFDsS3QV1Etu1jXO3jbUQ6CFI-2k6W&index=4&t=180s See below for notes. —— Links —— We are doing follow-up discussions to these episodes on YouTube. Check them out! See other episodes in this Scripture and Science Class Check out Barlow’s previous podcast episodes Learn more about and support the church Barlow and his team are starting in Louisville, KY, called Compass Christian Church Find more articles and audios by Barlow on his website: Study Driven Faith Check out the early Christian quotes about the Hebrew version of the Gospel of Matthew here Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Notes —— What have we seen so far? • Genesis was written to a group of ancient people coming out of slavery• The questions that they were asking of the text are different than the questions that we ask Many views of Genesis 1Perhaps the easiest way to divide them is: • Young-earth views• Old-earth views• Views compatible with either Old-Earth Views • “Day-Age” and modified “Day-Age”— Hugh Ross, Gerald Schroeder• “Theistic Evolution” — Francis Collins• Gap and modified gap — Scofield Bible• “Day-Age” and modified “Day-Age”— Hugh Ross, Gerald Schroeder• “Theistic Evolution” — Francis Collins• Gap and modified gap — Scofield Bible Day-AgeThere are various versions of Day-Age: • Standard• Earth-bound perspective (Hugh Ross) Pros of Standard Day-AgeHere are some pros with the standard formulation of Day-Age: • Generally, the sequence of events seems like it could be a plausible representation from an ancient person’s perspective of the scientific order of events• In the Bible, “day” can mean more than one 24-hour period Examples of Lo

Have you heard of the Gospel of Thomas? What about the Gospel of Philip or Judas? Although most Christians are only familiar with the four Gospels contained in the Bible, ancient Christians wrote quite a few other Gospels as well. How do we know which Gospels are to be trusted? My guest today is Dr. Simon Gathercole, professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of Cambridge. His new book, The Gospel and the Gospels, puts forward a commonsense historical methodology to determine which Gospels are most reliable. Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsGhQVsPdvs —— Links —— Get your copy of The Gospel and the Gospels from Eerdmans or on Amazon More about Simon Gathercole here. See also my interview with Aaron Shelenberger: Episode 444 Resurrection Objection 1: Unreliable Gospels? More podcasts on apologetics here Support Restitutio by donating here Designate Restitutio as your charity of choice for Amazon purchases Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here —— Interview Questions —— Dr. Gathercole is professor of NT and early Christianity at the University of Cambridge. He's got degrees from Cambridge and Durham university, where he studied under James Dunn. Before we jump into the book, what was that like studying under Dunn?Well, today, we're talking about your book The Gospel in the Gospels. Writing this book must have been a monumental task. It's 576 pages, hundreds of footnotes, published by Eerdmans, how long were you working on this project? Share a little about the process.Many don't know there were other Gospels that didn't make it into the New Testament. Outside of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, what other Gospels are there? What are they like?How can someone access these other Gospels? Would you recommend the Lost Scriptures by Bart Ehrman or The Complete Gospels by Robert Miller? or your own volume?You've done a lot of work on non-canonical Gospels over the years. What drew you to them? What about them makes them worth studying?Some say the four canonical Gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John--are not special or authoritative, but merely the ones favored by one group of Christians who managed to seize power and suppress all others. How common is this belief in the a