Confronting Christianity with Rebecca McLaughlin

Latest Episodes:

Can a Historian Believe in the Resurrection? with Molly Worthen Nov 14, 2023

Show notes

Rebecca McLaughlin is joined by Molly Worthen to discuss how Jesus can transform the life of an academic.Questions Covered in This Episode:

What is your story of how you became a Christian?
What were the main barriers from keeping you from becoming a Christian?
Can you share about your conversation with J. D. Greear?
What pieces of evidence were you surprised by when you researched if Jesus was raised from the dead?
What about the eye witness accounts of the gospels and their accuracy?
What would you say to someone who has an academic background and doesn’t believe in anything supernatural?
If someone said to you, I’m so glad that you believe in Jesus but it's just not for me, how would you respond?

Guest Bio:Molly Worthen is an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a freelance journalist. She received her BA and PhD from Yale University. Her research focuses on North American religious and intellectual history. Her most recent book, Apostles of Reason, examines American evangelical intellectual life since 1945, especially the internal conflicts among different evangelical subcultures. Resources Mentioned:

“The Resurrection of the Son of God” by N.T. Wright

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Knowing Faith | The Family Discipleship Podcast | Starting Place | Tiny TheologiansConfronting Christianity is a podcast of Training the Church. For ad-free episodes and more content check out our Patreon. Produced by⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Good Podcast Co.⁠⁠⁠⁠
Rediscover the “miracle of miracles” in the new Advent devotional —The Newborn King, this Christmas. Use code NEWBORNKING and get30% off your copy at thegoodbook.com today!
Discover Marx and Moody: Two Contemporaries. Two Gospels. Two Tombstones. One Choice, available now wherever Christian books are sold or at MoodyPublishers.com.

Why Are There So Many Rules in Christianity? with Jen Wilkin Nov 07, 2023

Show notes

Rebecca McLaughlin is joined by Jen Wilkin to have a conversation about the ten commandments and why they are important to us today.Questions Covered in This Episode:

What did you want to be when you grow up?
What is an image bearer?
Where do the ten commandments fit into the story of the Bible?
Tell us about the first command and why it is at the top of the list.
How do the ten plagues connect to the ten commandments?
Why would we read and show interest in the ten commandments?
What is the purpose of rules?
Help us think through the commandments that dont intuitively make sense to us today.
Why is the gospel beautiful and compelling?

Guest Bio:Jen Wilkin is an author and Bible teacher from Dallas, Texas. She has organized and led studies for women in home, church, and parachurch contexts. An advocate for Bible literacy, her passion is to see others become articulate and committed followers of Christ, with a clear understanding of why they believe what they believe, grounded in the Word of God.Resources Mentioned:

Genesis 1:26-27, Exodus 20, Genesis 3-4, Exodus 7-11, Matthew 12:48-50, 1 Timothy 5:1-2 Matthew 5-7
“Ten Words to Live By” by Jen Wilkin

Follow Us:
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Produced by⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Good Podcast Co.⁠⁠⁠⁠
Rediscover the “miracle of miracles” in the new Advent devotional —The Newborn King, this Christmas. Use code NEWBORNKING and get30% off your copy at thegoodbook.com today!
Discover Marx and Moody: Two Contemporaries. Two Gospels. Two Tombstones. One Choice, available now wherever Christian books are sold or at MoodyPublishers.com.

Can We Trust the Gospels? with Peter Williams Oct 31, 2023

Show notes

Rebecca McLaughlin is joined by Peter Williams to have a conversation about the trustworthiness of the gospels.Questions Covered in This Episode:

How far off from Jesus's death and resurrection were the Gospels written?
How can people remember the things Jesus said with such great detail decades after Jesus's resurrection?
Why are there differences between the gospels in Jesus’s teachings?
Why do the gospels have a different ordering of events?
Why do we hear about Bartimaeus in one gospel and he doesn't have a name in another?
Do the gospels use names as eye witness evidence?
Can you tell us a bit more about the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15?
Help us think through the historical context clues that the gospels were written in the place they claim to be written.
When Jesus dies on the cross, the curtain in the temple is torn in two. Is there any historical record of this happening?

Guest Bio:Dr Peter J. Williams is the Principal and CEO of Tyndale House, Cambridge. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he received his MA, MPhil, and PhD in the study of ancient languages related to the Bible. Dr Williams is also an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, Chair of the International Greek New Testament Project, and a member of the Translation Oversight Committee of the English Standard Version of the Bible. He assisted Dr Dirk Jongkind in Tyndale House’s production of a major edition of the Greek New Testament and his book Can We Trust the Gospels? has been translated into 10 languages.Resources Mentioned:

Matthew 5-7, Luke 15, Genesis 33:4
“New evidence for Hipparchus’ Star Catalogue revealed by multispectral imaging”
“The Surprising Genius of Jesus” by Peter J. Williams
“Can We Trust the Gospels?” by Peter J. Williams

What Can We Do With Doubt and Disconnection? with Keith Plummer Oct 24, 2023

Show notes

Rebecca McLaughlin is joined by Keith Plummer to discuss how we can model the love of Jesus to others online and how to engage in embodied community.Questions Covered in This Episode:

Can you share your story of how you became a Christian?
Where would you trace this transformation to?
How has the online experience changed how students are thinking?
How do Christians relate with others online?
What does it look like to have embodied community in your life? How would you recommend someone to develop that community?
Why is it that we want to be loved and heard?

Guest Bio:Keith Plummer serves as Dean and Professor of Theology at the School of Divinity at Cairn University. He holds a BA in Health and Society from Brown University, a MDiv with emphasis in Apologetics from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and a PhD in Systematic Theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He and his wife have two adult children.Resources Mentioned:

“Five Evangelical Leaders” by Christopher Catherwood
“2 Contents, 2 Realities” by Francis A. Schaeffer
“True Spirituality” by Francis A. Schaeffer
“Disruptive Witness” by Alan Noble

How Can We Learn From Leviticus? with Andrew Hile Oct 17, 2023

Show notes

Rebecca McLaughlin is joined by Andrew Hile to discuss why the book of Leviticus is important and what we can learn from reading and studying it.Questions Covered in This Episode:

Where does Leviticus fit into the first five books of the Bible?
When you see the stories in Exodus are you supposed to see them stacking onto the stories in Genesis?
What purpose is Leviticus fulfilling for us?
How do the categories “clean and unclean” operate in Leviticus?
What was the sacrificial system about in its original context?
Was Leviticus written to an audience outside of the priests who were enacting the laws?
How do we understand Leviticus from a New Testament perspective and how do we view the sacrificial system?
How did you become a follower of Jesus?

Guest Bio:Andrew Hile grew up in Durban, South Africa and moved to Dayton, Ohio during highschool. In May 2022, he graduated from Harvard Divinity School with my master’s and, now, he is a doctoral student in Harvard’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, studying Hebrew Bible and Semitic languages. Andrew’s research centers on the composition, writing conventions, and scribal epistemologies behind ritual text production in ancient Israel.Resources Mentioned:

Genesis 2-3, Genesis 15, Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28, Leviticus 10

Can We Live Without Deuteronomy? with Mary Willson Hannah Oct 10, 2023

Show notes

Rebecca McLaughlin is joined by Mary Willson Hannah to discuss the book of Deuteronomy.Questions Covered in This Episode:

What do we miss if we give up reading the Old Testament before we get to Deuteronomy?
What is Deuteronomy about?
How do make sense of a passage like Deuteronomy 2:31-36 in light of the command that Jesus gives to love our enemies?
Can you help us understand Deuteronomy 22:28-29 in the right context?
Do we see a change in God’s character between the Old and New Testament?
How are singleness and marriage both good ways for followers of Jesus to live?

Guest Bio:Mary Willson Hannah (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is the director of women in ministry at Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee. She also teaches Old Testament at Memphis City Seminary. Mary enjoys teaching and training others to teach the Scriptures, especially in the context of the local church. She and her husband, Jeff, love all things Memphis.Resources Mentioned:

Deuteronomy 2:31-36, Matthew 5:28-29, Deuteronomy 22:28-29, Exodus 22:16-17

What in the World is the Trinity? with Christy Thornton Oct 03, 2023

Show notes

Rebecca McLaughlin is joined by Christy Thornton to answer questions about the Trinity.Questions Covered in This Episode:

Has God always been Triune?
Do other aspects of God’s identity change between the Old and New Testament?
Is “let us make man in our image” written in plurality?
If God was triune from the beginning why didn’t He make that clear from the beginning?
Why is the Trinity not more clearly articulated in the New Testament?
How do we know there are just three parts to God?
How can all three parts be fully God and yet not all of God’s fullness?
What differentiates each person of the Trinity?
What exactly does it mean for Jesus to be the Son of God? How is it different from us being sons and daughters of God? How is this different from being a demi-god?
If Jesus is fully God then He is perfect. If He is fully human then He is sinful, by definition, someone who is sinful can’t be perfect. How then can Jesus and God be one and the same?
Who is God the Father? Who is God the Son? Who is the Holy Spirit?
How do we know we aren’t projecting our human understanding and relationships onto God?

Guest Bio:Christy Thornton is Assistant Professor of Christian Thought and Associate Director of PhD Studies and Director of ThM Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She has served with the International Mission Board in North Africa, and is currently a covenant member at the Summit Church. She has contributed to The Gospel Coalition, Christianity Today, and numerous other publications.Resources Mentioned:

Genesis 1-4, John 3:16

Will AI's Become “I”s? with Max Riesenhuber Sep 26, 2023

Show notes

Rebecca McLaughlin is joined by Max Riesenhuber to have a conversation about the ethics and morality of artificial intelligence.Questions Covered in This Episode:

What first interested you about neuroscience?
Can you talk about recent advancement in AI and where we might go?
Do we have a moral responsibility to artificial intelligence beings?
What do you say to scientists who say that humans are just computers in a flesh case?
What is moral truth?
Do you think we need to be concerned about the ethical direction that AI’s are taking us?
What is the good side of artificial intelligence?
How did you become a Christian?

Guest Bio:Max Riesenhuber is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Georgetown University Medical Center and Co-Director of the CNE. His research uses computational modeling, brain imaging and EEG to understand how the brain makes sense of the world, and how these insights can be translated to neuromorphic AI and augmented cognition applications. Max obtained his Master’s degree in physics from the University of Frankfurt, Germany, and his PhD in computational neuroscience from MIT. He has received several awards, including Technology Review’s “TR100”, one of the “100 innovators 35 or younger whose technologies are poised to make a dramatic impact on our world” and an NSF CAREER award.Resources Mentioned:

“Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro
“The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind” by Mark A. Noll

Can You Meet the Messiah at Harvard? with Mark Shepard Sep 19, 2023

Show notes

Rebecca McLaughlin is joined by Mark Shepard to discuss his story of how he started following Jesus.Questions Covered in This Episode:

Tell us more about your upbringing when it comes to faith.
Was there a time in your life where you just didn’t believe in God?
Most of my Jewish friends identify with the cultural and tradition but don’t believe in God. Did you identify with that?
How did you first become interested in Christianity?
Was there anything in particular in the Bible that grabbed you?
Tell us how you responded to the idea that you are actually deeply sinful?
How have you found faith in Jesus has helped you navigate success and failure?
How would you say that Christians can better understand the University? And how can we help people in the University who aren’t Christians understand Christianity?

Guest Bio:Mark Shepard is an associate professor at Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). His research studies health care markets, with topics at the intersection of health, industrial organization, and public economics. Mark received a PhD in economics from Harvard University and an A.B. in applied math from Harvard. He is married to Annetta Zhou and they have two daughters. Resources Mentioned:

Matthew 5-7, Mark 10:41-45, Ephesians 2:11-22, Jeremiah 29:7

Will We Be Single Forever? with Dani Treweek Sep 12, 2023

Show notes

Rebecca McLaughlin is joined by Dr. Danielle Treweek to have a conversation about singleness and marriage.
Questions Covered in This Episode:

What is the spiritual climate of Australia?
What are the health benefits of regular participation in church?
What does the subtitle of your book, “Retrieving an Eschatological Vision for the Contemporary Church” mean?
When you say “the life to come,” what do you mean?
Why are you gonna be single forever?
Help us understand how we got to our current viewpoint on singleness.
How are we currently idealizing and idolizing marriage?
What does the New Testament say about sexual immorality?
How might those of us who are married help to reclaim the value of singleness?

Guest Bio:
Dr. Danielle Treweek is a Christian theological researcher, author and speaker whose ministry focus lies in resourcing Christian individuals & communities on biblical singleness, sexuality, theological retrieval, worldview formation & other related topics.Resources Mentioned:

Matthew 22:30
“The Meaning of Singleness” by Danielle Treweek
“Marriage, a History” by Stephanie Coontz
“No Greater Love” by Rebecca McLaughlin

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