Dr. Sean McDowell is a gifted communicator with a passion for equipping the church, and in particular young people, to make the case for the Christian faith. Sean is an Associate Professor in the Christian Apologetics program at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. On this channel he tackles some of the biggest questions about God, morality, and contemporary culture. Visit www.seanmcdowell.org for more posts and info.
Can you legislate morality? Is secular ethics neutral? Did Jesus really say "never judge"? Dr. Scott Rae, one of the world's leading Christian ethicists and Sean's Think Biblically co-host, is here to work through ten of the most common moral slogans in circulation, and why each one falls apart under scrutiny. Scott addresses all ten in the newly released fifth edition of Moral Choices, updated with new material on the ethics of technology and AI, criminal justice, gender, race, immigration, and gene editing. CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org 0:00 — The slogans, and why they don't hold up 0:55 — Introducing Dr. Scott Rae 1:57 — #1 "You can't legislate morality" 4:31 — #2 "Secular ethics is neutral, religious ethics is biased" 8:41 — #3 "You shouldn't force your morals on others" 12:05 — #4 "Right and wrong are products of evolution" 16:50 — #5 "Religion is private and has no place in public ethics" 18:55 — A word from Logos 19:49 — What counts as a religion? 23:11 — #6 "Morality is subjective taste, not objective truth" 27:38 — #7 "Science can tell us what is right and wrong" 31:19 — #8 "Cultural disagreement proves there's no moral truth" 33:51 — #9 "Jesus said never judge, so don't" 36:37 — #10 "Religious views don't belong in politics" 40:32 — What's new in the fifth edition of Moral Choices 43:25 — Send us your ethics questions Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
J.P. Moreland is one of the most influential Christian philosophers alive and he's spent the last twelve years enduring what most of us never will: a rare genetic condition, more than two dozen cancer surgeries, and two seasons of debilitating anxiety and depression. In this deeply personal conversation, he sits down with me to talk about pain, doubt, and why he says he now has no fear of death. CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell... Instagram: / seanmcdowell Website: https://seanmcdowell.org CHAPTERS 00:00 – The worst physical pain of my life 00:38 – Introducing J.P. Moreland 02:18 – From skeptical chemistry major to Christian 07:49 – Why he chose philosophy of mind 09:19 – Advice for young apologists and thinkers 13:04 – How Talbot shaped Sean 14:11 – Where the church needs thinkers next 16:03 – The most important training: philosophy 19:04 – Distinctions that dissolve bad arguments 23:04 – Two seasons of anxiety and depression 26:17 – "Don't waste your suffering" 30:24 – Depression, the body, and the soul 34:09 – Two kinds of doubt, and how to handle each 37:00 – "When did you last hear a truly new objection?" 40:47 – Afterlife apologetics and near-death experiences 42:15 – Facing death in a hospital parking lot 48:12 – 25 surgeries and a rare genetic condition 54:52 – Sean's own season of pain 58:00 – Faith, politics, and getting removed from a church 1:05:48 – What he's working on now 1:09:46 – Closing Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
God sent an angel to break Peter out of prison. But one chapter earlier, He let James be executed. Same God, same church, same prayers. Why rescue one apostle and not the other? In this message, I work through Acts 12 and the question underneath it: where is God when we suffer? CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) - use code "McDowell" *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
"If God is good, why is there pain and suffering?". Today, we have a video of atheist professor Paul Rinzler and I to discuss evil. This is our return to the Cal Poly Veritas Forum for a second year this time on the hardest question in apologetics. Not a debate to be won. A real conversation between two people who disagree deeply and like each other anyway. CHECK OUT:Paul Rinzler - Professor Emeritus at Cal Poly State University https://music.calpoly.edu/faculty/rinzler/index.html WATCH: Are Miracles Real? A Christian & Atheist Explore (Veritas Forum) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cWui4CRfZc CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org CHAPTERS 00:00 – Welcome and framing 00:28 – Sean's opening: four points on evil and suffering 08:19 – Paul's opening: the case from natural suffering 15:43 – A time you experienced pain 21:23 – Is pain part of God's plan? 22:47 – Would a "bad God" explain the world better? 24:04 – Does evil actually exist? 25:47 – Moral evil, free will, and determinism 33:46 – Does the moral project require agency? 36:23 – Making sense of randomness in natural disasters 42:25 – When suffering seems cruel and unnecessary 47:20 – Where do you find hope? 51:21 – What's more powerful: death or love? 54:01 – Advice for students in hard seasons 59:00 – What's the purpose of life for an atheist? 1:02:30 – Can objective morality exist without God? 1:04:46 – Why pursue justice if suffering is endless? 1:08:08 – The biggest doubt about your own worldview 1:10:18 – The question of hell 1:15:02 – Morality, evolution, and caring beyond your tribe 1:20:05 – How do you define love? 1:24:42 – Closing thoughts Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Randy Kay was a biotech CEO and a self-described skeptic who didn't believe in near-death experiences until he flatlined for 30 minutes in 2005 and, in his telling, found himself face to face with Jesus. Now he's collected 140 NDE accounts he says he's vetted more rigorously than any single volume before. Today, I asked the obvious question: does the evidence actually stack up? READ: Heaven Encounters: 140 Near-Death Experiences Revealing the Afterlife by Randy Kay (https://amzn.to/4x1azpF) CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org CHAPTERS 00:00 – "I was cheek to cheek with Jesus" 00:36 – Is heaven real? Meet Randy Kay 01:50 – The near-death experience: septic shock and seven blood clots 03:15 – What Kay says he saw and heard 05:22 – "How do you know it wasn't a dream?" 07:47 – The cost of going public after 14 years of silence 11:49 – Why Christians can be the hardest audience 14:11 – How the book vets 140 accounts 19:32 – What "verifying" an account does and doesn't mean 22:43 – What would signal a story is fabricated 27:05 – Reincarnation, universalism, and hellish NDEs 31:06 – The "core" features of a near-death experience 34:46 – Case: Mike Olson and the lung donor 42:19 – Case: Dean Braxton's 1 hour 45 minutes 45:14 – Case: Jeffrey Porter, the atheist 53:08 – Case: Lisa — a hellish NDE and a rescue 56:38 – The life review and what it implies 59:17 – Randy's own life review: a dying boy's prayer 1:04:23 – NDEs as a second chance 1:04:50 – Answering the skeptic 1:13:49 – Where to find Randy's work Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Giants. A divine council. Demons and the Nephilim. Michael Heiser made the Bible's strangest passages impossible to ignore and sold hundreds of thousands of books doing it. So what does one of the world's leading spiritual-warfare scholars actually think of his work? Dr. Clint Arnold joins me today to say where Heiser gets it right, and where he pushes back. CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org CHAPTERS 00:00 – Why Heiser captivated so many 00:35 – Who is Michael Heiser? Who is Clint Arnold? 02:45 – What makes Heiser's work unique 05:59 – Where Arnold agrees with Heiser 09:35 – The premise of The Unseen Realm: recovering a supernatural worldview 11:12 – Psalm 82, Job 38, and the divine council 14:01 – What "Elohim" actually means 15:21 – Isn't this just polytheism? 18:33 – Genesis 1:26 — "Let us make man" 21:47 – The Deuteronomy 32 worldview and cosmic geography 24:01 – David, Goliath, and the gods behind the idols 26:24 – Bashan, Caesarea Philippi, and "portals" 28:58 – Paul's theology of the unseen world (Ephesians 6) 32:14 – Does this change our spiritual warfare today? 32:32 – Peter Wagner and "strategic-level" spiritual warfare 34:12 – Why Arnold rejects targeting territorial spirits 38:24 – Command vs. prayer — and reprisal in the spirit realm 40:53 – The big disagreement: where do demons come from? 42:46 – The traditional view: a primordial angelic fall 45:59 – Genesis 6 and the sons of God 48:05 – How much weight should 1 Enoch carry? 50:53 – No exorcism in the Old Testament? 53:33 – Luke 10 and "I saw Satan fall like lightning" 56:14 – Arnold's one big addition to Heiser 58:16 – Should you read Heiser? 59:04 – Spiritual warfare at Talbot Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Talbot New Testament scholar Dr. Alan Hultberg joins Sean McDowell to sort out what Scripture says, walk through the three major views, and ask the question everyone wants answered: are we close? Hultberg starts by clearing away the "Left Behind" imagery most of us absorbed from movies and kids' Bible storybooks, then lays out the three positions evangelicals actually debate explaining what separates them, how each handles the tribulation, Israel, and the timing of Christ's return. CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) CHAPTERS 00:00 – The pop-culture rapture vs. the Bible 00:45 – Meet Dr. Alan Hultberg 01:06 – What is the rapture? (1 Thessalonians 4) 02:08 – Common misconceptions 04:15 – Is there even a debate that a rapture happens? 06:20 – View 1: Pre-tribulation 09:37 – Pre-trib, dispensationalism, and Israel 11:18 – Whatever happened to mid-tribulation? 11:41 – View 2: Pre-wrath 16:13 – Imminence: can there be signs? 18:32 – View 3: Post-tribulation 20:38 – How each view handles Israel 23:55 – The view Hultberg holds — and why 30:19 – The rapture through church history 33:48 – Where scholars land today 35:06 – Piecing together the whole end-times sequence 46:03 – "Newspaper in one hand, Bible in the other"? 48:33 – Signs and imminence, together 51:02 – Where to go deeper 52:42 – Closing thoughts FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Can we actually know Jesus is coming back or is this just a matter of blind faith? In this conversation, bestselling author and pastor John Bevere joins me to talk about his new book The King Is Coming. John makes for why Christians can have confidence that Jesus is returning, why he sees Israel's reestablishment in 1948 and the recapture of Jerusalem in 1967 as escatologically significant, his reading of the Hosea 6 timeline, his view on the rapture and the tribulation, and why he believes we're living in the generation that may see Christ's return. 00:00 Intro and the central question 01:51 Why John avoided this topic for four decades 06:33 How could a modern person believe Jesus returns in the clouds? 12:09 Have previous generations been wrong, and what makes this one different? 19:23 The biblical framework for John's view on the season of Christ's return 25:13 What the end-times sequence looks like — apostasy, revival, rapture, tribulation 28:30 The case for the pre-tribulation rapture 35:18 Why John waited 42 years to teach on this 41:42 Pastoral application — the wedding garment and being ready 49:48 Speculation on AI and end-times scenarios (conjecture) 55:21 Why the book has resonated with so many leaders CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) READ: The King Is Coming: It's Time to Prepare for the Return of Christ by John Bevere (https://amzn.to/4vuexXk) *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Children who have near-death experiences make for unusually strong evidence and almost nobody has studied them. In this conversation, near-death experience researcher Dr. Steve Miller returns to walk through what we actually know about children and NDEs. We get into the case from Dr. Melvin Morse's peer-reviewed work (the drowned girl who came back describing exactly what her family was wearing and doing at home), the documented patterns from Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross's cross-cultural research, the children Dr. Diane Komp watched die at Yale that turned her from atheism to faith, and a few accounts from Steve's own circle of people he knows and trusts. *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Sean McDowell is a professor of Apologetics at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. He has earned two Master's degrees in philosophy and theology and his Ph.D. in Apologetics and Worldview Studies. He is the author, editor, or co-author of more than 20 books, including "More Than A Carpenter," "Chasing Love," "End the Stalemate," and "The Fate of the Apostles." Sean has one of the top apologetics YouTube channels with over 340k subscribers. He is an internationally renowned speaker and he is on the teaching team at his home church in southern California.
