Beards & Bible Podcast

Pornography, the Human Brain, and the Pursuit of Intimacy

Pornography is a multi-billion-dollar industry that enslaves millions of people worldwide. In fact, the most searched for terms on the internet every single day are related to pornography. The porn industry’s annual revenue is more than the NFL, NBA, and MLB combined. It’s also more than the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC. 11 is the average age that a child is first exposed to porn, and 94% of children will see porn by the age of 14. 47% of families in the United States reported that pornography is a problem in their home. Pornography use increases the marital infidelity rate by more than 300%.
Pornography is insidious not just because of what it does to a person spiritually (both its creator and consumer), but because of how it actually rewires the human brain. Neurologists are now discovering that regular pornography users possess neuropathways in their brains similar to those found in the brains of heroin addicts. A 2014 study found that men who watched more porn had less gray matter volume—they literally had smaller brains. The neurological damage porn creates is responsible for things like social anxiety, brain fog, emotional numbness, lethargy, depression, loss of interest towards an actual partner or spouse, and erectile disfunction in men as young as 22.
Due to its horrible spiritual, emotional, relational, and neurological affects, why would anybody, especially a Bible-believing Christian, still choose to view pornography? What is it a person is after every time they click? Is it really an erotic experience of sexual arousal that they want? Or, are they in search of something deeper? Something, more profound, yet so incredibly elusive?

Flat Earthers, Myths, & Foolish Controversies

You may think this is a joke- but there’s an actual conspiracy theory going around claiming that the earth is not a sphere. It’s actually flat. Like a pizza, with a solid dome over top. Seriously.
But what about NASA and satellite photography that plainly shows the shape of the earth? Clearly, they’ve been lying to us for decades. Those pictures have been photoshopped. Faked. Staged. Why? Obviously, for the purpose of world domination.
One would hope that Followers of Jesus wouldn’t be duped into such a far-fetched conspiracy theory, but there are Christians that believe the Bible actually teaches that the world is flat. And if you believe secular science over the Bible, you’re disbelieving God.
But does the Bible actually teach that the earth is flat? Does the Bible contradict science or confirm science? How do we give Biblical and scientific rebuttals for those who claim the earth is flat?
 

Pride Month, Biblical Sexuality, and Loving your Neighbor (feat. Corey Trimble)

It’s inescapable during the month of June. Websites, organizations, companies, and people all across America are eager to openly celebrate inclusion, equality, and love as they show their support for LGBT people and ideologies. In the month of June there are pride marches, pride rallies, pride events, and pride festivals in major cities all across the U.S. In 1999, the month of officially designated by then president Bill Clinton as “Gay & Lesbian Pride Month”. From there, a new secular holiday was born. How did we get to a point where celebrating homosexuality and transgenderism became a month-long event that rivals Christmas?
 
The message of tolerance proclaimed by many years ago was that tolerance was, “The practice of recognizing and respecting other beliefs and practices without necessarily agreeing or sympathizing”. Over the years, the definition of tolerance has changed. It now means, “the acceptance of different views and fairness toward the people who hold these different views”. In other words, tolerance now means that anyone with moral opposition towards certain behaviors or mindsets is by definition intolerant, or even a bigot and full of hate. And to express moral opposition towards things like “Pride Month” is classified as “Hate Speech”.
 
Meanwhile, as Christians who hold the Biblical worldview, we’re conflicted and saddened by the open celebration of something the Bible clearly states is a sinful behavior. We love our LGBT friends, neighbors, and family members- but our source of ultimate authority, the Bible, clearly defines sexuality differently. How do we show love to many who belief that our understanding of the Christian faith makes us, by definition, bigots and hate-mongers? How do we hold to the authority of the Bible in the midst of a culture that demands that we compromise? How do we love our neighbor- the way that God has commanded us- in the midst of pride month?

Understanding Israel- the Land, the Promise, and the People.

In John 4:22, Jesus stated that, “salvation is from the Jews”. All that we have has come to us through those who are ethnically Jewish. Our Bible is a Jewish book, and Jesus was a Jewish man. God made in clear to the Jewish people in Deuteronomy 7 that the “Lord your chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” God also promised Abraham in Genesis 12 that from him a great nation would be born that would be a blessing. And God also said that “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you".
If this is God’s promise to the Jewish people, how do we make sense of the secular nation of Israel? Does that mean that no matter what happens, Christians must support the nation of Israel, no matter what political or military decisions they make?
How we make sense of the ethnic Jews that haven’t received Jesus as their Messiah? Are they still chosen by God? And how should we love them and share Jesus with them?

Broken but Beautiful- Why Church is Still Worth it, Even When it Hurts(feat. J.P. Conway)

There is no hurt like church hurt. Moral failures, abuse scandals, doctrinal disputes, financial indiscretions, leadership failures, relational strife- these things threaten (and often succeed) at splitting churches right down the middle and leaving countless Christians wounded, confused, and frustrated. To many, the amount of pain church often delves out makes it seem not worth staying in. Church is messy. It’s broken.
But at the same time, if we love Jesus, we have to continually ask what Jesus loves. In his book, “Broken but Beautiful”, J.P. Conway writes about the “resilient beauty” and powerful, yet often untapped means towards human flourishing the church gives us. Yes the church is broken, but there’s more. She’s beautiful.
How do we show grace in the church towards those who hurt us? How do we pursue unity and love in the midst of brokenness and pain? What do we do when we feel like giving up on church altogether?  

Doomsday Prepping, Isolationism, & the American Redoubt

The end of the world. As Christians we believe it’s coming. Society as we know it will someday collapse, empires will fall, and the earth itself will dissolve as King Jesus returns in victory to establish His Kingdom and recreate a new earth and new heavens. But what will that collapse- that day of doom- look like? And how can we be ready?
For centuries, people have been predicting the end of the world or some other global catastrophe like a nuclear war, earthquake, or massive societal collapse. Many have tried to prepare for it. Doomsday preppers, as they are called, are known for stockpiling food, weapons, and other supplies as they await the end. Some Christians have gotten swept into the doomsday prepper movement because of the belief that they must physically prepare for Armageddon, the return of Jesus, or World War III. The American Redoubt movement is a migration movement that encourages like-minded people (mostly conservative Christians) to relocate to the Inland Northwest so they can be in a geographically safe area and make that area more conservative. Advocates of this movement encourage Christians to live off the grid, homeschool their children, grow their own food, raise livestock, hunt and fish so they can be self-sustaining in the event of a full-scale societal collapse.
But what about the great commission? Is Jesus’s vision for His people in the last days for them to isolate, or to go into the unbelieving world with the message of the gospel?
We know that Jesus is coming back, and the earth as we know it will someday come to an end, but should Christians be preppers? Does the Bible say anything about doomsday prepping?

The Enneagram- Gospel Tool for Self-Discovery or Elaborate Gnostic Deception?

In 2016, Ian Cron (an Episcopal priest) and Suzanne Stabile wrote “The Road Back to You”, and Zondervan publishing released the book, “Sacred Enneagram”. The enneagram, a supposed tool of personality analysis, was then unleashed and has become one of the most popular, widespread and celebrated teachings in the evangelical church in recent years. There are Enneagram books, podcasts, blogs, trainings, YouTube videos, Social Media pages- one pastor even preached an entire SERMON SERIES on the 9 types, where he found characters from the Bible, guessed their type, and taught the Enneagram using the Bible.
But where did the Enneagram come from? And why is it true? Is it based in science? Psychology? Personality theory? Or….something else?
The origins of the Enneagram are a bit…complex, to say the least. But we do know is that its roots are based in esoteric thought, mysticism, sacred geometry, new age teaching, and it gets even weirder. Things like automatic writing and strange revelations from an angel, or spirit guide named “Metatron”.
Do you want to know where it comes from? Do you want to know what it really teaches?

Immigrants, Refugees, Sojourners, and Aliens- what the Bible says (and doesn’t say) about Illegal Immigration and a Christian’s Response.

In Exodus 23:9, God says “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.” It’s clear from reading scripture that God desires for His people to be compassionate, kind, and understanding towards those who come to another country seeking safety or greater economic opportunity for themselves and their families. But what if an immigrant comes to a country illegally?
Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 instruct all people to follow the laws of a nation. Therefore, breaking a country’s immigration laws is clearly understood to be sin. But what if a prosperous nation like the U.S. doesn’t have compassionate or reasonable immigration laws? Are we therefore justified in supporting those who break the law because of the Bible’s command for us to show compassion, justice, and mercy to the alien and foreigner?
How are we to respond as Christians to illegal immigrants on an individual level? Is loving, showing compassion, and having mercy on them the same as promoting, enabling, or excusing illegal immigration?

Can you Dig it? Archeology, The Holy Land, & Evidence for the Biblical Text (feat. Amanda Hope Haley)

The Bible is an amazing book. It’s actually a collection of 66 books written over a 1600-year period by 40 authors in 3 languages, on 3 continents. Amazingly, these 66 books share a common storyline, a common theme, and a common message. But it was written a long time ago in a world very different from the one we live in now. So how do we know about the world as it was at the time of the Bible?
The biblical text and other written records are the most important pieces of information we have about the history of ancient biblical peoples. But these records alone have left many unanswered questions. That is where archaeology comes in. Excavations of ancient sites across the land of the Bible, Israel, have provided bits and pieces that give us clues to the past and help grasp a better understanding of the world as it was when the Bible was written. We sometimes find that the picture we get in our heads when we read a Biblical passage isn’t entirely as accurate as we thought. And we gain a deeper appreciation and better understanding of the context and background that forms the Biblical text.
Does modern archeological confirm what people find in their Bible? Or does it contradict what we read in the Bible? How can archeology help us become a better student of the Bible?

When Leaders Fail Us, Christian Cancel Culture, & the Danger of Celebrity

The headline is far too common- prominent Christian pastor, evangelist, or leader caught in an affair, financial indiscretion, double life, or leadership failure- leaving countless wounded, confused, hurt, angry and almost everyone questioning, “how did this happen? Why did this happen? And Why didn’t we see it coming?” The anger is justified. The confusion merited. The questions fair. That leader is responsible for their sinful, duplicitous decisions and should be held accountable.
And…then there’s the world of the internet, where hot takes regarding any leader’s moral failings abound via tweets, YouTube videos, and all manner of online content. Commentary is offered and blame is cast on everyone and everything. Everything regarding the leader and their ministry is churned up, questioned and called into scrutiny- every sermon ever preached, every book ever written- even their own salvation and relationship with Christ. After they have been thoroughly scrutinized, gutted, examined, blamed, and called out, that figure and all of their contributions to the church at large are decisively and forever cancelled in a terminal act of judgment- never again to be known for anything other than their failures and sin.
But is this how it’s supposed to be when a leader fails us? Are we to decisively and finally “cancel” them and all their work, or is there another response we can give? And if we didn’t cancel them, wouldn’t that just be justifying and excusing their sin?  What are we to do with our questions, confusion, hurt, disappointment, and anger? Is there any hope of redemption or any road back for a leader who’s fallen?