Manage episode 514835989 series 3694983
Start with the biggest question on your mind late at night: not how life works, but why you have life at all. From the Areopagus in Athens to our own cultural crosswinds, we follow Paul’s bold claim that God made the world, made humanity, and made every nation from one man—then pressed that truth into the deepest layers of identity, sin, and hope. The thread is simple and disruptive: if Adam is real, the gospel’s architecture holds together with clarity; if Adam is only a metaphor, the logic of sin, death, and redemption frays at the edges.
We explore why a literal Adam and Eve matter for more than debates—they guard human dignity, expose the ugly history of racial “progress” narratives, and align with what genetics actually shows about our shared family. Along the way, we look at the rise of theistic evolution inside the church and the quiet habit of weighing Scripture in the scales of “nature,” instead of reading nature in the light of Scripture. Not to dismiss scientific insight—science explains how matter behaves—but to admit its limits: it cannot tell us why the universe exists, why love binds conscience, or why death feels so wrong. Purpose comes from a voice, not a lab report.
We also sit with Paul’s second claim: God sets the seasons and boundaries of nations. That truth rescues us from panic and from the illusion that we must save history, while calling us back to our true work—witness, neighbor-love, and trust. And because God is near, not far, seekers who grope in the dark can finally find what reason alone cannot name. One race, united in sin by the first man; one hope, offered by the Last Adam, who creates a redeemed people from every language and land.
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Stephen's latest book, The Disciples Prayer, is available now. https://www.wisdomonline.org/store/view/the-disciples-prayer-hardback
Chapters
1. God’s Nature: All-Knowing, All-Present (00:00:00)
2. Observation Isn’t Revelation (00:02:30)
3. Paul in Athens: Introducing God (00:04:10)
4. One Man, One Race, One Creator (00:06:50)
5. Adam’s Fall and the Last Adam (00:10:30)
6. Evolution’s Racist Legacy and Genetics (00:14:20)
7. Theistic Evolution in the Church (00:20:10)
8. Scripture vs. Nature as Authority (00:26:30)
9. Paul Confounds Greek Origins (00:31:00)
10. God Sets Nations and Boundaries (00:34:40)
11. Groping for God and the Gospel (00:38:00)
12. Science Explains How, God Explains Why (00:41:00)
309 episodes