Apple | Google | Spotify | Breaker | Stitcher | RSS
Twitter | Instagram
#ForTheHope
***
Lead: In a way, Job’s friend Eliphaz says the right things. But how might he be wrong, and more importantly, what can we learn from that for apologetics?
Intro: Just a reminder that as of yesterday, this daily podcast will focus primarily on conversational Bible reading along the path of The Bible Project’s reading plan. This doesn’t mean we won’t draw out atypical learning moments from what we do together, but keep an eye out for other forms of apologetics training here.
Too, I totally forgot to tell you that there’s a free Kindle book on prayer by the recently homebound Warren Wiersbe — link’s in the Sources and Resources section below.
Sponsor:
Today’s sponsor is….you! If you are getting benefit from what we’re doing together here, would you “pay” for it by spreading the word? Bonus points if you post a link to a blog post somewhere like Facebook. Thank you so much — this is definitely a team effort!
Bible segment:
Passage: Job 4-7
Translation: HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Words: ~1639
Apologetics segment:
The three tests for truth are consistency, empirical adequacy, and experiential relevance. These, alone, are insufficient to evaluate between worldviews, and just to give you context, here’s how Norm Geisler positions them at a pivotal point in his classic work, Christian Apologetics.
The first seven chapters attempted to show that skepticism and agnosticism are self-defeating and the major traditional methods are inadequate to test the truth of a worldview. Another test was offered in this chapter—namely, actual undeniability. If we can establish that all nontheistic views engage in self-defeating statements germane to those views, then we can reject them as false. If we can show that theism is the only affirmable view or that it is undeniable, then it will be established as true. Once this is established to be a theistic universe, whichever form of theism can be demonstrated to best explain all known facts in the most consistent way will be the true theistic view. It is the contention of this work (in part 3) that evangelical Christian theism qualifies as the most systematically coherent theistic view on all three tests: consistency, empirical adequacy, and experiential relevance. (1)
~ Dr. Norman L. Geisler
So this is how this applies to today’s passage:
Job argued that Eliphaz’s doctrine, however orthodox and tidy it might be, failed utterly to answer the hard facts of his experience (6:2–30). Animals only bellow when they are hungry (6:5). Likewise Job hungered for some answers. He cried out for wisdom to deal with the calamities and questions that had filled his life. But he would not accept cheap and phony answers, such as Eliphaz had just given. They were as inspired as unsalted egg white (6:6–7). Job lamented his agonies and identified with the sufferings of people everywhere, especially slaves and day-laborers (7:1–6). (2)
~ David S. Dockery, ed.
Wisdom segment:
Passage: Psalm 136
Translation: HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Words: ~427
The bottom line:
Watch The Bible Project’s video on Job (below) if you haven’t already.
Love you!
-R
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources
(1) Norman L. Geisler, Christian Apologetics, Second Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 136-137. Kindle edition.
(2) David S. Dockery, ed., Holman Bible Handbook (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 1992), 314.
Free Kindle book (don’t know for how long): Prayer 101, Warren Wiersbe