![SRS #152 [Video] with Lee Strobel](https://img5.saketami.com/storage/8/kb/re/9a2cd0-019e8a43-a45f-7b3a-bcb8-9bbd93232f44.jpg)
SRS #152 [Video] with Lee Strobel
Added 2024-12-20 21:53:32 +0000 UTCHappy Holidays, everyone! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas. We want to thank each and every one of you for showing up and supporting the show. It has been an incredible year, and we have so much more in store for 2025!
Comments
As a society we had lost our way again. Jesus’s crucifixtion then resurrection was the proof that there is a god and that heaven is waiting for us. WE are given a life, a soul, to live by gods words. WE are not puppets or machines or whatever. It’s up to us to keep ourselves on the right track, living life on earth the way God intended so our soul can go to heaven Those were very tough times. We are in a similar times today IMO.
JIM NEWMAN
2025-04-16 16:01:54 +0000 UTCI went through 3 of his books since watching this episode. Every one is worth the read.
JIM NEWMAN
2025-04-16 15:55:57 +0000 UTCUn Answered Prayers
Stephen Reilly
2025-03-22 17:32:29 +0000 UTCThe question was asked, "Why did Jesus have to die for us to be forgiven?" If he's God, couldn't he just go on and forgive us? I've asked that question since I was a kid. The lack of answers to that and other questions drove me to 20 dark years of atheism. I can't answer the question in a way that would satisfy everyone, but on my path back to faith, I did find an answer that satisfied me. If God is "just" and holds justice to be of great importance, then the books must be balanced. It would be like being the father of a child and just "forgiving" one of your children for seriously injuring one of your other children. You have the power to do so, but would it be in the child's best interest? Socrates pondered this very question centuries before the Christ came to us. Something like, "maybe a just God could forgive sin, but I don't see how." If God is truly just the he is the perfect "balanced equation". It simply is not in his nature to allow the actions of his children to unbalance the universe. A reckoning is necessary. Throughout the history of the Bible, sacrifices were required to atone for our shortcomings. The 613 laws of the Torah were to be transactionally obeyed and payment in sacrifice was required for disobedience. I know it sounds a bit like a comic book, but only the blood of God was a sufficient sacrifice to atone for all the sins of mankind for all time. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross balanced the books for all time and freed our hearts from sin. Giving us the freedom to then gift our hearts back to God and to open them to the Holy Spirit. This is called justification. The spirit will then direct us to the actions and attitudes necessary for the next step, which is "sanctification". Ultimately, God will bring us to him in the final step. "Glorification". It's difficult to put the answer into words in a text like this. At the end of the day, these are large, deep questions and totally above my paygrade, but I prayed for understanding and this is what came to me. As I said, this answer might not satisfy everyone, but I have been completely and totally at peace with this question since it came to me. (After 50 years of searching.) Anyone that would like a more in depth discussion, feel free to reach out. If nothing else, there is peace and joy in honest fellowship.
Veachanderthal
2025-02-17 13:07:09 +0000 UTCWhy did God need payment? Why did Jesus have to die in order for us to be forgiven? Its God . Couldn’t he just decide to forgive us and not require a payment with death? Im not trying to take away from what Jesus did for us all. But God gave me this brain and this brain has questions. I dont understand why JESUS had to die for us to be forgiven
Dirty Dan
2025-01-15 20:13:45 +0000 UTCThis was a great episode! I could listen to stories like these everyday and not get bored. God is good! A few things of note of Shawn ever reads them. 1. God has forgiven you for your past. The devil is the one who holds you back. Don’t let him. 2. Christians can be harsh to each other. Pray for them. My own mother is a Christian and I shake my head at how she responds to the world around her with judgement. We should not judge. 3. Open the Bible and read it. The Bible app has reading plans, I’m currently on day 230 of the Bible (basic instructions before leaving earth) in a year. The Bible is meant to be read. I pray for God to come through in the words that day and they do indeed lift off the page. I recently read “you never came to me to ask what I thought and I created all of this.” Wow. Keep up the good fight! Keep a good news list like Pastor Allen Jackson recommends. I call it the “look what God did!” list.
Terri
2025-01-08 20:57:01 +0000 UTCHey Shawn - I apologize for my pointed comment to the Psychic video if it irked you. I don't want to be one of those that cause you stress when you're trying to do good. I am thankful the videos are finally not bombarding my feed on here though 😂. For some reason, her video kept auto playing when I would start my mornings driving in my truck and it drove me nuts. Finally went away though.
Blake
2024-12-30 21:30:17 +0000 UTCWOW I just finished the episode! Started Christmas Day and just slowed down from family and sharing to focus on the episode. What a great episode and a blessing to watch! Living in Houston I hope my path crosses with Lee one day. One of the best interviews I have watched in a long time around God and Jesus. Shawn never let your faith and the way you practice it be swayed by negative people. We have plenty of worldly problems to be negative about that we can all agree upon but attacking your practice of faith is weak and wrong. God bless you and your family! PS I also hope one day our paths cross also…
Gary W
2024-12-29 23:55:04 +0000 UTCThank you for writing this, because I also saw and thought how he missed an opportunity, probably just not understanding, how to explain why Jesus’ death was necessary. Well put! Jesus’ sacrifice was in line with the law of the covenant and how to sacrifice animals for atonement. Jesus was Jewish and still followed the old covenant and his sacrifice was the start of a new covenant with God.
Jeremiah
2024-12-29 23:33:12 +0000 UTCMerry Christmas Shawn! This episode was a great present to us! Grateful for your curiosity & courage. 🎄❤️💚
Sara Wheeler
2024-12-29 22:56:25 +0000 UTCHi Shawn, during your interview with Lee Strobel, you asked him multiple times WHY Jesus’ death was God’s Plan at all. As you intimated, couldn’t God the Father have just decided to forgive people’s sins based on his mercy? I admire Lee Strobel and think he is a wonderful advocate for the Gospel, yet I think he missed the opportunity to answer the question from the standpoint of God’s immutable character. Let me humbly explain... God’s character shows us in scripture that He is perfectly: knowledgeable, seeing, powerful, eternal, holy, wise, merciful, graceful, truthful, loving, and just. He is all these things together, and these attributes are not a collection, but rather describe the WHOLE character of God – and they are to be taken together. God’s justice exists with his mercy and love and holiness (and all His other attributes). So when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, God’s mercy was shown to them, in that he did not kill them for their sin of disobedience, but rather loved them and only banished them from the Garden and His presence. But God’s justice was also served – He clothed them in animal fur, his first act of sacrifice (justice) for their sin. (Genesis 3). In God’s covenant with Abraham, there was God’s truth and mercy displayed, in that God promised childless Abraham a line of descendants as many as the stars in the sky. But also in this covenant there was justice required for Abraham’s doubt – the sacrifice of a heifer, a goat, a ram, a dove and a pigeon. (Genesis 15) God provided all the Hebrew people with an amazing act of love, grace and mercy – freedom from slavery in Egypt, when he promised to Passover the houses with lamb’s blood on the top and side of the doorframes. The sacrifice of lamb’s blood was the justice required and an active act of faith by each Hebrew family to recognize the one true God, through His power and mercy could do the impossible to rescue them from slavery. (Exodus 12) God then provided the Hebrews a yearly mercy of forgiveness of sins for all the people, having the high priest present sin offerings of bulls and goats for the people on the Day of Atonement, and sprinkling the blood of these animals on the designated holy places, and literally placing the sins of the Israelite people on the sacrificial goats. Leviticus 17:30 tell us “… this day atonement will be made for you to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD you will be clean from all your sins.” This was repeated year after year on the Day of Atonement – forgiveness of sins (mercy) via a blood sacrifice of animals (justice). This is the model – God’s character has to be taken together as a whole, and for God’s mercy, grace and love to be poured out, there needs to be a recognition and demonstration of God’s justice and truth as well. All sin is infinitely repugnant to God, so He set up a way for His mercy and love to operate via a corresponding sacrifice of blood. What I’ve written above are but a few examples of God’s perfect character attributes working together in the OId Testament. Now to Jesus. He was the fulfillment of God’s plan – the ultimate, perfect, and one time sacrifice to take away the sins of the world to fulfill God’s plan of mercy, love and justice for all people. The prophets in the Old Testament even look forward to the Savior who would rescue God’s people. (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Michah, etc). John the Baptist, upon seeing Jesus called him “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus even predicted His death and resurrection 3 times in the book of Mark, and Jesus summed up His mission and God’s plan in Mark 10:45 “… the Son of Man (Jesus) did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”. Jesus’ death on the cross as an act of God’s perfect justice for dealing with humanity’s sin actually becomes God’s greatest gift of love, mercy, and grace to us as human beings. God’s character, taken as a whole is fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Lee Strobel is right that we need to believe and receive this gift of grace, sourced in God’s character (John 1:12). I hope this helps you in your faith walk Shawn, I am rooting for the deepening of your faith, as I’m sure many, many others are as well!!!
Daniel Lahl
2024-12-29 19:53:30 +0000 UTCThat “once saved always saved” is not biblical. The epistles are written to believers and it’s clear that not all will make it to the kingdoms. Salvation is so much more than just saying a prayer and claiming a statement
Elias Garcia
2024-12-29 10:31:56 +0000 UTC
