What do you do when God's justice, His love, or His goodness stops making sense? In this episode, biblical scholar Chad Bird joins me to talk honestly about wrestling with faith's hardest questions. Chad shares his own journey through failure and a dark night of the soul, and brings deep biblical insight to the tensions many of us are afraid to name—God's sovereignty over calamity, the nature of hell and divine justice, and what eternal life in Christ actually means. This is a rich, thoughtful conversation for anyone who has ever doubted and wondered whether their questions disqualify them. They don't.
In this episode Chad answers:
1. Isaiah 45:7 says God “creates calamity.” What does that mean—and does it mean God creates moral evil? 2. “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated”—what does that mean? What did Esau do for God to hate him? 3. How should we understand the violence God commands or is directly associated with in the Old Testament—and what would you say to someone who says, “I can’t worship a God like that”? 4. Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive.” How do we reconcile that promise with the many sincere prayers that seem to go unanswered? 5. Why has the doctrine of hell become such a debated and touchy topic—and how should Christians approach questions like eternal conscious torment versus annihilation with both grace and truth?
Timestamps:
00:00 — Introduction to Chad Bird and his journey
11:34 — Chad's dark night of the soul
23:54 — Exploring difficult biblical questions
35:32 — Understanding God's nature and justice
47:56 — The concept of hell and eternal life
59:11 — Encouragement for the questioning believer
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