TheHeyPastorPodcast

In this episode I respond to a half dozen or so alleged "irreconcilable contradictions" found between Luke and Matthew in their accounts of Jesus' birth.

In the wake of recent reports of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and Southern Baptist churches there have been several questions and claims made about the way that the teachings of these institutions contribute to the environments that allow and protect perpetrators to commit their crimes.

This is a more full response to the issue of Slavery and Rape in the Bible that was presented by the atheist questioner in the "Questions No Christian Can Answer" response series by The Mentionables. To address this issue specifically, we need to properly understand how we should approach confusing or difficult passages in the Bible in general. www.HeyPastor.orgwww.LHBCMoody.org

What is circumcision? Why was it so important in the Old Testament but not in the New Testament? How is Jesus' death a sacrifice if He didn't really die, and how does His dying pay for our sins?

Pastor Marc addresses a question about loss, where we should turn to in our grief, and offers a reminder of some foundational perspective to help stay grounded in such an emotionally chaotic circumstance.

A charge is often made regarding something someone disagrees with that "there is NO evidence for it." Such a charge was made in recent video I was responding to as part of a project with The Mentionables (www.TheMentionables.org). The question was regarding the flood recorded in the Book of Genesis. There is indeed evidence which seems to support the event of a worldwide flood. Whether one finds it convincing or not, it is certainly not true to that there is "no evidence" at all. Not being an expert on the subject, I turn to creation apologist Steve Schramm to help out with the details. You can learn more about Steve and his ministry at www.SteveSchramm.com.   

In this episode, I respond to a question posed to me in a recent conversation, "How it is possible that love can be a verb when it is a feeling?"

The Bible has a lot to say about fearing God. To some people it seems counter-intuitive that God could be both loving and someone that we should fear. In this episode, Pastor Marc takes a look at what it means to fear God and how that is actually very fitting that we fear a loving God.  

Pastor Marc is joined by Clinton Wilcox of the Life Training Institute (www.prolifetraining.com) to discuss the issue of bioethics. What is it? Why does it matter? And how should we as Christians approach this increasingly relevant topic?

Full event audio (1 hour and 40 minutes) Pastor Marc is joined by David Dover, Kenneth Vaughan and Patrick Chaney at Liberty Hill Baptist Church in Moody, TX. The panel takes questions from the audience on issues ranging from Transubstantiation to The Rapture to The Third Heaven and many things inbetween. Check out www.HeyPastor.org for past events. Events are posted in their entirely, or you can also browse the individual questions to see if something you would ask has already been addressed. 

A common secular claim is that we do not need God to have morality because human beings have empathy, but is  empathy actually able to carry that weight?   Referenced article by Timothy Fox: http://seanmcdowell.org/blog/can-empathy-ground-morality-no

Every now and then the issue will come up of origins, and some people are surprised to find that I am indeed a Young Earth Creationist. A friend recently asked to chat with me about it on his YouTube Channel, and I agreed. You can check out that video here. Also, check out his blog at godsrocker.blogspot.com. Not entirely satisfied with my presentation there, I decided to devote a podcast episode to answering this question. 

Pastor Marc is joined by Cameron Bertuzzi of CapturingChristianity.com for part 2 of a discussion on a growing movement among atheists and skeptics known as Street Epistemology. 00:00 Introduction02:59 What if your initial reason for belief isn’t a good one?07:36 Why doesn’t SE focus on the evidence?15:16 If you didn’t have ____ as evidence, would you still believe in Christianity?21:56 What’s with the amateur psychological-analysis?22:53 So what if your beliefs are based on emotion instead of evidence?23:35 Whatever is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.24:28 What do you do with the idea that people are just indoctrinated into Christianity?32:58 Measuring confidence in your belief34:19 Do you have to be 100% confidence to be a Christian?37:30 The Outsider Test for Faith41:34 A wealth of information available at CapturingChristianity.com 43:13 Helping others stand firm in the face of challenges44:12 Recap and a Concluding Challenge to Street Epistemologists

Pastor Marc is joined by David Dover, Kenneth Vaughan and Patrick Chaney to answer questions from the congregation on issues of religion and the Bible at Liberty Hill Baptist Church in Moody, TX. Full 1 1/2 hour event. The questions will be edited and posted individually at HeyPastor.org.

Pastor Marc is joined by Camerson Beruzzi of CapturingChristianity.com for part 1 of a discussion on a growing movement among atheists and skeptics known as Street Epistemology. They address what SE is, some general issues with the approach, and some specifics on how Christians should react to SE methods. 00:00 Introduction04:21 Cameron Bertuzzi and Capturing Christianity05:46  How did you get turned on to this topic of Street Epistemology?07:53 Capturing Christianity09:51 Defining Street Epistemology12:51 General negative aspects of SE17:10 A word about difficult questions18:35 They're not experts either19:20 SE seems designed to create doubt, not seek truth22:34 People from other religions say the same thing, why think your belief is the right one?32:38 If there is supposedly all of this evidence for Christianity, why are there so many others who can't see it?

Pastor Marc is joined by Nick Peters of Deeper Waters to discuss a question he received about how we can have confidence that the Bible is indeed true. www.DeeperWatersApologetics.com

In this episode from October of 2017, we explore the meaning of Halloween and whether Christians should participate. Then we answer two questions which had been submitted, "Is it possible to never sin?" and "What is the sin that leads to death?"

Pastor Marc responds to a question about which books are included in the Bible and whether there are some that should be in there but are not.

A question gets addressed regarding the Parable of the Good Samaritan, "Did those who didn't help sin by not helping?" Also, we get a lesson in "stick-to-it-tiveness" on an outing to the skating rink.

In this episode Pastor Marc responds to a couple of questions about Jesus' siblings and the prupose of attending church and offers some additional thoughts on The Shack.

In the first official episode, Pastor Marc answers a question about Christianity's relationship to Judaism and offers some thoughts on the book-now-turned-movie, "The Shack".

  Does we really need another podcast from some Who's-This-Guy preacher from the Such-and-Such Church located in Where's-That-Town? Obviously, I thought that it did. Or I'm really bored. Either way, I think it'll be fun. This podcast is a way to be of service to not only my congregation and community, but also to anyone within the reach of the internet who thinks about religious things and says, "huh?"