The Alex McFarland Show-38-The Best of 2022

Hey, everyone, welcome to a special edition of The Alex McFarland Show. As you can already tell by now, I am not Alex McFarland. My name is Mike Segovia.

And I am one of the producers of the show. And I'm joined by our other producer, Jessica Daly. Jess, hello. Hey, how's it going? It's going good.

Glad to be here. You know, Jess and I are covering for Alex today. And we are so excited for what's in store. Yeah, Mike, it's going to be great. We're going to rewind the tape back to some of Alex's best shows of this past year. These are the shows that we saw had the most downloads, the ones that you listeners engaged with the most, and just the shows that had the biggest impact on your lives as well as ours. Yeah, we're going to start off with Alex's very first episode. And it was titled if God is good, why is there evil in the world. Then we will play a few clips from some of the other most popular shows from the year. And before we begin, we want to remind all of our listeners that to hear the full episodes of what you'll hear portions of today, you can find them all on Alex's website.

Just go to Alex McFarland.com and then click the media tab on the right hand side of the page. All right, without further ado, here's the clip of Alex's first podcast titled if God is good, why is there evil in the world? Here's part of the reason that there could be no sin in God, because people say, well, there's evil, there's suffering. Maybe God is bad. You know, maybe God is this cosmic sadist. And there's there's evil and sin in the world, because maybe somehow God is partially evil. I'm sure you've seen the the yin and the yang of God. I want to say this. There is no sin in God.

And I'll tell you why. If God had any fraction of His being that were evil, He wouldn't be eternal, because sin brings death. Sin is that which conspires to death. And ultimately, as the philosophers would say, even non-existence. See, sin is that which conspires to death. But here's the deal. Sin is that which tends toward non-being.

Now you think, what in the world is Alex talking about? Let me explain for a minute. Whenever I'll speak at universities, sometimes students like brazen atheists will say, well, you know, I would rather go to hell because that's where my friends will be.

Usually these are like 20 something white males that have this swagger about them. They'll say, well, you know what, one day it'll be Satan in control. Yeah, woo, Satan is the boss. And I'm going to serve Satan. I've had a student say to me just so foolishly, I would rather burn in hell than bow in heaven.

Let me say this. A universe of pure evil would be non-existent. Sin, death, darkness, fallenness. That's not going to be power. It's not going to be a party. That's going to be eternal death.

C.S. Lewis, now listen to this. And he was not being flippant. He was not trying to be inflammatory. But he said that a universe of just pure darkness and sin and death, it would not be life.

It would not be a party. Lewis said it would be just a damned ghost. And he wasn't using the word damn like a curse word. He was talking about condemnation. If there was any death within him, he would not be eternal.

And yet we know God is eternal life, eternal light, eternal love, purity, justice, righteousness, hope, forgiveness, restoration, all the things for which the human heart longs. That is so powerful where Alex just said there is no sin in Christ because if there was, he wouldn't be eternal because sin brings death. Yeah, I remember when I first heard that part of Alex's message, I had to go back and relisten to it again to fully grasp the magnitude of what he was saying.

I just never heard it explained like that before. One of the things that I really admire and respect about Alex is he doesn't really mess around when it comes to the word. And I love that he just shoots straight and is willing to dive into hard topics that others won't.

Either for fear that it's too complicated of a subject or fear of backlash from a largely corrupt culture. But Alex just has this gift for explaining really complex issues in a way that is one, thought provoking, and two, they're presented in simple and matter of fact ways. Alex doesn't really bully people with his opinions or emotions, and he doesn't try to run intellectual circles around people. He just presents the gospel message in a concise and honest way. Okay, let's switch gears now and move on to a conversation Alex had a few months ago with Eric Metaxas on Eric's latest book, Is Atheism Dead? This episode also really pulled at the heartstrings of our listeners. At a time when people are desperate for truth, it makes sense. I think now more than ever, people are feeling spiritual unrest, and even the ones who don't know it, their souls are looking for Jesus. Eric's passion for ministering to the lost is just so touching.

So let's jump right into this interview between Alex McFarland and Eric Metaxas. It's like somebody says to me, Santa Claus is real. I'm not going to actually engage them on whether Santa Claus is real, because I don't think it's worth my time or even their time. I think it's silly.

I think we both know Santa Claus is not real. And I feel that way about the idea that there's nothing but the material universe, there's nothing but nature. Not only is it preposterous, but we all sort of have to know it's preposterous. So it's this kind of incredibly willful decision on the part of some people that they're going to cling to this, which makes our faith in the God of the Bible and in the God of miracles. It makes that look ultra scientific and logical, which in comparison it is. And again, that's the great irony of our epic.

Yeah. And, you know, I think about so many of the atheists that you have interacted with. I mean, it's not so much evidence against theism or Christianity, but it's that the atheists just simply don't want there to be a God because maybe for a myriad of reasons. That's kind of the point. I think if somebody doesn't want to be God, that's fine.

In other words, you cannot. That's the definition of who God is and freedom in him is that he will not. He created us in his image.

We are free. He will not force us to apprehend any reality, including his existence as the creator of reality. He will not insist. So if somebody insists on pushing God away, there's nothing I can do apart from pray for them, show them the love of God as I'm able to. But you can't argue someone into the kingdom. You know, it's like shooting BBs at a tank.

It's useless. God has to intervene because these people have a rigid faith in this atheistic philosophy or doctrine. And if they're genuinely interested in the truth, they will come away from it. But most of them are not.

And until they are, there's really not much to say, at least as I see it. That was just a very small but very accurate glimpse into Eric and Alex's conversation. The cool thing about Eric's book, Is Atheism Dead, is that it's really written for anyone.

Whether you're a skeptic of the gospel message or you know someone who is, or whether you've been in the church for a long time, the book is full of very informative content that will help you truly see the undeniable evidence that points to a creator and a Savior who is of course, Jesus Christ. If you're just joining us, this is producer Jess and Mike here filling in for Alex on this special edition of the Alex McFarland show where we bring you the best ofs for 2022. And we're playing a few clips of some of the most popular podcasts from the year and just kind of recapping the year and what a great year it's been. That's right, Jess, and it's been an amazing year. Also want to let our listeners know that if you're interested in listening to the full episode again, you can head on over to AlexMcFarland.com and then click the media tab at the top.

If you're interested in purchasing Eric's book, Is Atheism Dead, you can find it on his website, which is EricMetaxas.com. Metaxas spelt M-E-T-A-X-A-S. The next episode we're going to play a clip from is episode 23 titled The Rise of the Isms and What You Can Do About It. Mike, this is one of those episodes that really caught me off guard in a good way.

I didn't fully understand what the said isms were based on the title alone. But when I listened to the show, I was pleasantly surprised to hear yet again, more timely and relatable information. Oh, yeah, this was a totally amazing episode when I was going through it and editing it. I just found so much wisdom behind it. And again, that's just who Alex is. He really just brings forth the Word of God in a really understandable way.

So let's go ahead and get to that clip now on this edition of the Alex McFarland show. Think about some of the big isms that characterize our times. Atheism says there is no God. Agnosticism says that we can't know God. Polytheism says there are many gods. Pantheism says that nature is God.

You know, God is all and all that you see around is God. Genesis 1-1 refutes these things. Materialism says that matter is eternal. Naturalism says there's no supernatural origin in the universe.

Relativism, there's no ultimate truth. Well, Genesis 1-1 refutes all of these things. Now, it's little wonder that the skeptics and the liberals have done so much to fight against the literal truth of Genesis. And by the way, for the record, I want to say that I believe the book of Genesis. I believe what God said, that in six days he created the heavens and the earth.

He rested on the seventh day. You know, because the movement of the solar system is so integral to reality. And by the way, how we record time, chronos is the Greek word from which we get our word chronology.

The solar system moves and we mark time. I'm 58 years old and sometimes people ask me, they'll say, you know, does it bother you that you're nearing 60? No, it doesn't, because really age is only a measurement of how many times you've ridden around the sun. You know, I agree with Augustine. Augustine said the soul doesn't age. So I've taken 58 rides around the sun.

You know, big deal. The real you. The soul most properly said the spirit doesn't age. You are in the eternal now. But we live in this world and, you know, when God spoke reality into existence, you know, time, space, matter, it's all woven together. And Genesis, yes, I believe it. God created in six days, rested on the seventh.

I believe the flood of Noah and everything that the word of God says about our origin, purpose and destiny. You know, God was an eyewitness to the creation moment. Charles Darwin was not. The atheists, the evolutionists were not. So I take God's word for what is the creation account, our cosmology.

I believe what God says. And you look at all these major isms, atheism, agnosticism, polytheism, pantheism. And by the way, there's another ism, while we're drilling down deeply into philosophy, if we indeed are, panentheism. Now pan, P-A-N-T-H-E-I-S-M, pantheism says that everything is God and we are not pantheists. We are theists.

We believe in God and we believe that there is a creation and a creator. You know, there's another ism. Only unbelieving academics can come up with so many nuances about their unbelief. But P-A-N-E-N-T-H-E-I-S-M, panentheism.

You don't hear too much about this anymore, but you probably would be wise to be aware of it. Panentheism says that God is becoming. God has a potential pole and an actual pole.

And sometimes it's called bipolar theism, that it's not so much that God is, but that God will be. Now we know this is completely not the presentation of the living God that we find in the Bible. But it says that God is in matter, but God is becoming what he's ultimately going to be.

We reject that. And so when we read Genesis 1-1, that in the beginning, God created. Well, there's a beginning, there's a point where the physical world was called into existence. There's a cause of the physical world. God, the creator, the Almighty, he created. That speaks of will and intentionality that God chose to create.

He didn't have to. And part of that creation ultimately would involve you. And you can know this God who created the heavens and the earth.

And so, so many isms are shut down right there in the first verse of the Bible. That right there is exactly what I'm talking about with Alex. He just has a way of taking these massive ideologies that scholars argue about, and he's like, wham, here's the truth according to the Word of God.

Yeah, you know, that's so true. And you know, I've had the privilege of knowing Alex and working with him for many years now. It's such a blessing to work with someone like him whose integrity is so sound and whose biblical foundation so sturdy. For our listeners who don't know Alex personally, he's the same, whether he's presenting in front of an audience or on a podcast, as he is up close.

Jess, what's next on the docket? Next, we have Alex's interview with Pastor Dwayne Sheriff on Dwayne's latest book, Counter Culture. This interview encouraged me to look at my own life and assess whether or not I'm going with or against the current of our culture.

I found it to be inspiring and challenging all at the same time, and I hope for you listeners out there, you're able to get something out of it as well. Here now is Alex's interview with Pastor Dwayne Sheriff. Let me read a passage. There's a section of the book called At War with Evil, and it says, we have allowed moral absolutes to be replaced by moral relativity and evolving truth. Now listen to this, folks, from the book by Dwayne Sheriff. History has proven that once you remove God and moral absolutes from any society, death, destruction, and human suffering aren't far behind.

That's really true. And you talk about that these things are of ultimately demonic activity. In the American church, much less in the culture, we don't hear much, if anything, about spiritual warfare, demonic activity. It's important that people get reacquainted and informed, accurately informed about supernatural warfare, isn't it?

Absolutely. And again, the extent of most Christians today in any spiritual war or activity would be to simply pray. But like faith without works is dead, prayer without works, prayer without action is dead. And let me just say this to you, Alex, that I believe is something the Lord revealed and that I wrote a whole chapter in the book on the armor of God.

The culture is literally demanding. They're not even asking anymore, but they're demanding unilateral disarmament of our spiritual weapons. If you look at Ephesians 6 and Corinthians 10 and just the weapons of our warfare, those six weapons are under demonic assault today, and to operate in any measure of the armor of God will have absolute oppositions at your door. And because we have been this subculture for so long instead of a counterculture, most pastors even are unwilling to engage with the girdle of truth, that truth is the only hope of the world and deliverance and freedom, and yet we're saturated with lies and believing lies and operating in all these lies.

And if you begin to even expose the lies with the truth, you'll be falsely accused and accosted. The breastplate of righteousness, the war we're in is not just good and evil. It's man's definition of good, eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil versus eating of the tree of the cross and the knowledge of God. God is the only one that knows good. God is the only one that can tell us and define what good is. And once we turn from God, we adopt a good that literally is evil.

It's man interpreting his own definition of good. Speaking of the demonic, Episode 16 was titled The Demonic Realm. It was a whole show committed to helping believers understand what Scripture says about the dark spiritual forces at work behind the scenes.

It's not presented in a way that is frightening or disturbing. Alex really does a good job once again going back to the Scriptures for the most accurate information. This is a topic that so many people have questions about, whether they confess to believing that Jesus Christ is their Savior or not.

So I won't waste any time. Let's go ahead and listen to what Alex has to say about the demonic realm. The Bible emphatically warns that Satan's intent is for the spiritual destruction of people. 2 Corinthians 4, 4 calls Satan the god of this age and a spiritual deceiver, 2 Corinthians 11, 14. Revelation 12, verse 9 says that Satan led the whole world astray, quote, unquote.

Isn't that something? Jesus says that Satan is, quote, the enemy and that hell was made for him and the other demons. That's in Matthew 13, 39 and Matthew 25, 41. But familiarity with Satan is important, and I'll tell you why. Because we are in a spiritual battle.

We really are. You remember the old song, Onward Christian Soldiers. And churches don't really sing that so much anymore, but they really should because we are in a battle. And familiarity with an enemy is crucial for soldiers in war.

And the Bible makes it clear that we are really at war. Now, a study of things satanic should be biblically informed, cautious, and done only with prudent awareness. We're not to be obsessed or think too much about demons. We should be aware of this reality.

But in C.S. Lewis's preface to the Screwtape Letters, a very famous work that C.S. Lewis did, but Lewis wrote, quote, there are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils, said Lewis. One is to disbelieve their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.

They themselves are equally pleased by both errors. Isn't that something that Lewis said? Now, many times in the program we have had on and we've referenced Gary Habermas. And Gary Habermas once in one of our conferences in a Q&A says this. He said the Bible never says that Satan in the spirit world is not real.

They are. But there's a real danger in involving oneself with this topic. The Bible tells us, though, and I encourage students, not to research beyond the Bible.

The quickest way to occult involvement, says Habermas, is too much curiosity, end of quote. So these realities are not to be trifled with. And so scripture basically says, you know, this is real, but let's not focus on that. Let's focus on Jesus. We don't want to focus on the darkness, but on the light.

That was a particularly powerful episode. And you know, what stood out to me is that when Alex said that Satan hates God. So he is really after us. But the great thing about that is for us is that Jesus died for us on the cross and he covered us with his blood. So we are protected. We don't have to fear the enemy. So, friends, if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I encourage you to look into him as your Lord and Savior.

He will save you from all your sins and protect you from the evil one. Yeah, that's so true, Mike. So in that portion of Alex's show that we just heard, Alex references Dr. Gary Habermas.

Alex and Dr. Habermas did an episode together not that long ago, which is also a Best of 2022 show. Here now is episode 14, called Worldview and Apologetics with guest Dr. Gary Habermas. What are some of the major apologetics topics and then specifically why did you hone in on the physical resurrection of Christ? Well, first I've got to tell you, I just saw a note this morning again from another person saying the resurrection is a central topic being discussed today in apologetics. So if you're going to do the field of apologetics, you go to the resurrection. I think the reason for that is if the facts of the gospel are always defined as the deity, death and resurrection of Jesus. And that's the Jesus to whom we say I do when we become a Christian. I say those words I do because that's what the Greek word means to believe.

Doesn't mean I believe George Washington's first praise the United States. I believe in the New Testament sense means you jump in with both feet and decide to follow. And it's about the resurrection. Paul said if there's no resurrection, those other two things don't make any difference.

The deed of Christ, the death of Jesus. If he's not raised, he failed in a big way. So but for me, to answer your question, I get asked this on a number of interviews and I'll say, I'll bet you did it just to help people, right? I said, I wished I were that altruistic.

I wished I could say that's what I did. But I went through doubts for all of 10 years and partially for 10 years after that. I didn't even know anything about the resurrection. And one day someone said to me, you know, if Christ was raised to the dead, Christianity is true. I said, well, I hear you, but I think I better check that out. How in the world am I going to know the resurrection happened?

I remember where I was sitting when that comment came up and it's changed my life. So I was doing it to answer my own questions. And I figured, found out bingo, anybody who has questions has the same questions. And they seem to know, Alex, they seem to realize that if Jesus is raised to the dead, that's very momentous for Christianity. So non-Christians, I think, are wanting to know about that too. So how do we help people understand the correlation between the resurrection and the truth of the gospel? If Jesus really did rise from the dead, I mean, what does that tell us and how should that influence our response to the gospel? Well, I think that's a great question.

Look at it this way. In the New Testament, there are over 300 verses on the resurrection. And when you think of the resurrection, you usually think of two areas, either evidence or salvation, those two topics. It's central for salvation. It's central for apologetics. But in Scripture, those 300 verses are related to almost every single area of theology and most areas of Christian practice. In other words, pastoral subjects over and over again in Scripture are centered in the resurrection.

I can sit here and give a bunch of examples right off the bat. I mean, for funerals and for hope and for giving people reason to put one foot in front of the other. All of those are grounded in the resurrection of the New Testament, not to mention ethics as a whole. At the time that you began to write on the resurrection and defend it, were there others that were also kind of having that light bulb come on and say, oh, okay, this is the key. I mean, of all the apologetics topics, this is the most important that Christ did conquer the grave. Or were you kind of at the forefront? Well, first of all, there were already a lot of books out there when I started reading.

So I had a lot to pick from. But I don't want to say intuitive. That's too easy or too mystical. But Christians realized, because I read Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul says twice, if Christ is not raised, our faith is vain. Well, the New Testament virtually never says your faith is vain. That's the I do part, the walking with Jesus.

It doesn't say that that's vain. But Paul said if Christ has not been raised, you've got nothing to walk with him about. But it's also true that when you talk to believers, they will simply concede. I'll often ask them at the beginning, do you think the resurrection will be significant for your search? And they'll say, well, I think it's baloney.

But if it happened, yeah, I don't know anybody else who claimed to have been raised to the dead. I mean, you know, it's worth looking at. Now, right after that portion of audio you just heard, Alex asked Dr. Habermas about the credibility of the four gospels for the sake of time. We can't play that part of the interview, but it was one of the best podcasts I personally heard this year. So I'd really encourage you to go to Alex's website and listen to the whole thing if you haven't already. Well, everyone, Mike and I had such a great time stepping in as guest hosts for you today. It's been a journey for us as producers to be interwoven into this whole process of creating these shows for you alongside of Alex, and then to now be able to reflect back on all of our favorite moments of the year.

Yeah, Jess, this has been a lot of fun. Thank you, Alex, for having us on and thank you, listeners, for joining us for today's special episode. To find out more about Alex and the work that his ministry does, or to go back and listen to the full episodes of what you heard snippets of today, go to AlexMcFarland.com and you'll find all the information there.

Again, that's AlexMcFarland.com. All right, Mike, thanks so much for hanging out with me today. This was a great time and I was so excited to go over and reflect on the year of 2022 and all of the high points for Alex and his ministry. Yeah, it was totally amazing. And we want to say Happy New Year to all of our faithful listeners out there. And we pray God's many blessings upon you and your family. Thanks again for listening to another edition of The Alex McFarland Show.