Daily Defense Podcast

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#296 “Adding” the Deuterocanonicals - Jimmy Akin Oct 23, 2023

Show notes

DAY 296 CHALLENGE “Catholics violate the prohibition against adding to Scripture (Rev. 22:18–19) by including the Apocrypha (what Catholics call the deuterocanonicals) in their Bibles.” DEFENSE The passage in question does not mean what is supposed, and if it did, it would create a problem for Protestants. The passage in Revelation states: “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in t...

#295 The Time of the Crucifixion - Jimmy Akin Oct 22, 2023

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DAY 295 CHALLENGE “The Gospels contradict each other on the time of the Crucifixion. Mark says Jesus was crucified at ‘the third hour’ (Mark 15:25), and all three synoptics record the darkness from ‘the sixth hour’ to ‘the ninth hour’ while he was on the cross (Matt. 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44), but John indicates that Jesus wasn’t yet crucified at ‘the sixth hour’ (John 19:14).” DEFENSE John uses a different way of reckoning hours than the synoptics. There are four natural points where one could begin counting hours: midnight, sunrise, noon, and sunset. Each has been used by diff...

#294 Church Councils - Jimmy Akin Oct 21, 2023

Show notes

DAY 294 CHALLENGE “Why should I listen to what a Church council says?” DEFENSE “Because Scripture supports the role of Church councils.” Jesus did not reserve teaching authority to himself, but assigned it to the leaders he put in charge of his Church (see Day 281). He thus created a Magisterium (Latin, “teaching authority”) within his Church. Usually this Magisterium is exercised personally—by individuals (originally by the apostles and later by the bishops who succeeded them). However, it is also God’s will that, when the occasion calls for it, the Magisterium be exercised in a coll...

#293 Historical Polytheism - Jimmy Akin Oct 20, 2023

Show notes

DAY 293 CHALLENGE “If monotheism is true, why have most people historically been polytheists?” DEFENSE Several factors play a role in this. First, the relationship between monotheism and polytheism is more complex than often assumed. As we cover elsewhere (see Day 153), many classical polytheists acknowledged the existence of an ultimate Creator, who was not typically worshipped. Instead, they worshipped lesser supernatural beings (Zeus, Apollos, Hera, and so on.). The Judeo-Christian view agrees there is a single Creator and a multiplicity of lesser beings (angels). It disagrees whe...

#292 Why Isn’t Everything Infallible? - Jimmy Akin Oct 19, 2023

Show notes

DAY 292 CHALLENGE “If the Church can teach infallibly, why doesn’t it go ahead and teach everything infallibly?” DEFENSE Because it is not God’s will. Consider a parallel: The New Testament authors wrote under the charism of inspiration (2 Tim. 3:16), which is greater than and includes infallibility. If it was God’s will, he could’ve had them write a single, systematic theology textbook with every proposition he wished to reveal to man carefully explained, yet he chose not to. We can speculate on why, but it is clear he chose not to or it would have happened. If that was God’s will whe...

#291 Appealing to Natural Law - Jimmy Akin Oct 18, 2023

Show notes

DAY 291 CHALLENGE “Christian appeals to natural law are futile. In nature we see animals committing all kinds of acts—such as rape, homosexuality, and purposeless killing—that Christianity considers immoral.” DEFENSE This misunderstands the concept of natural law. Confusion on this point is understandable. We see many “laws” in operation in nature. Some of these are studied by sciences such as physics and commonly referred to as laws (e.g., the laws of gravitation, optics, or thermodynamics). The field of ethology studies animal behavior and, though its findings aren’t as often refer...

#290 The Early Chapters of Genesis - Jimmy Akin Oct 17, 2023

Show notes

DAY 290 CHALLENGE “Genesis 1–11 contains many things that don’t correspond to the modern, scientific understanding of the world (such as talking snakes, a universal flood, and so on).” DEFENSE These chapters pertain to history in a true sense, but they are written according to a set of literary conventions that conveys truth using more symbolism than later passages. The Magisterium has indicated this for Genesis 1, stating, “Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine ‘work,’ concluded by the ‘rest’ of the seventh day” (CCC 337). It has...

#289 Eternal Life - Jimmy Akin Oct 16, 2023

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DAY 289 CHALLENGE “Christians can’t lose salvation. Scripture says, ‘He who believes in the Son has eternal life’ (John 3:36a), and if life is eternal, it can’t end.” DEFENSE This fails to understand both the biblical concept of eternal life and other things Scripture says. A basic truth of linguistics is that you can’t define a term simply by looking at its parts; you must look at how it’s used in practice. To violate this principle is to commit the etymological fallacy (e.g., the word awful is a combination of awe and full; it originally meant something full of awe and that thus insp...

#288 Quoting the Deuterocanonicals - Jimmy Akin Oct 15, 2023

Show notes

DAY 288 CHALLENGE “Jesus and the authors of the New Testament never quote from the deuterocanonical books, so they do not belong in the Bible.” DEFENSE The absence of a quotation does not prove that a book is noncanonical. Jesus and the authors of the New Testament sometimes introduce quotations in a way that makes it clear they regarded the source as a book of Scripture. This is indicated when they use formulas like “scripture says” (John 19:37; Rom. 9:17, 10:11, 11:2) or “it is written” (Matt. 4:4; Mark 1:2; Luke 7:27, etc.). When these formulas are not present, it is not always clea...

#287 Being Born Again in the Church Fathers - Jimmy Akin Oct 14, 2023

Show notes

DAY 287 CHALLENGE “The idea we’re born again or regenerated in baptism is an invention of men that the early Christians would never have heard of.” DEFENSE The writings of the Church Fathers reveal that they believed in baptismal regeneration. We elsewhere cover the scriptural basis for this teaching (see Day 286), and the writings of the Church Fathers confirm that they believed it too. In fact, despite searching, I have been unable to discover any Fa- ther who denied that Jesus’ statements regarding being “born again” and “born of water and Spirit” (John 3:3, 5) referred to baptism...

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