Theology in the Raw - Patreon Q&A: What's My Next Book Going To Be About?

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

0:00 Introduction 0:33 Any ideas on your next project after you complete your current book? 3:03 How should speaking in tongues be practiced in our churches today? 9:42 As a pacifist, how do you reconcile God's violent actions and his call to violence in OT and NT? 15:38 Since being saved, when have you felt least certain about the veracity of your faith? 22:07 Is there hierarchy within the Trinity? 24:25 What are you looking forward to the most in the new creation? 27:20 Who is the primary audience in the Sermon on the Mount? The disciples or the crowd? 28:47 Are the qualifications of elder conditional? Some of the "if" statements? 32:00 What would a good Christian response to Nazi Germany in 1935? What do we do if we feel like we're headed toward such times today?  34:06 Is it acceptable to pray imprecatory Psalms for our world leaders? 36:56 Do you believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is my next book going to be about? How should speaking in tongues be practiced in the church today? How do I reconcile God's violent actions and His call to violence throughout the Bible? Is there hierarchy in the Trinity? Do I believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit? And much, much more on this bonus Q&A episode for Theology in the Raw. If you would like to participate in the Q&A episodes by asking questions, by becoming a member of the Theology in the Raw community, you can go to patreon.com forward slash theology in the raw and join the patreon community for as little as five bucks a month and take advantage of several special things we do with the theology in the raw community. patreon.com forward slash theology in the raw. Also, the Exiles Conference is right around the

corner, just a couple of weeks away, April 3rd to 5th in Minneapolis, Minnesota. If you would like to attend the conference, you have to register at theologyintheraw.com. You could attend live in Minneapolis or you can virtually stream it from your library. All right, let's jump into these questions. Ben wants to know, if I have any idea what my next project will be after I finish my book on women and church leadership. Ben, great question. You know, I've been working on this women in leadership book for a while now. What is it?

Three, three and a half years. And it's been a ton. I feel like it's, I've written another PhD dissertation, not that I have something like brilliantly original that's never been, you know, never been said before, but just the sheer quantity of research and writing and re research and rewriting and editing and rewriting rethinking and more research has been just a ton. So I'm actually looking, looking forward to not having another project on my plate for a bit. This Women in Leadership book is a third of a three-book contract. After I submit this manuscript,

I won't have any contracts hanging over my head, which actually sounds nice. I love to write, but there's just something about waking up every single day with a contract hanging over your head. At least for me, it's just it's I feel like I'm never able to kind of fully relax because it's like the way I'm wired. It's like, well, if I have a free, you know, 10 minutes or free hour or a free day, it's like I need to be cranking away at this book. So I'm excited to take a little bit of break. But yes, I do have several ideas of what I want to write on.

break. But yes, I do have several ideas of what I want to write on. I honestly would love to write a book on the annihilation view of hell. I know it's kind of a niche topic. Not everybody is jazzed about reading a book on hell, but this has just been weighing on me for several years now. You know, I've kind of worked out my thoughts on what the Bible says about hell. I do think the Annihilation View is not only correct, but I think it's a really, really strong biblical case for the Annihilation View of hell. And so, I would love to write kind of a shorter book, one that's really accessible, not like a super academic book. I mean, as always, my footnotes will be pretty copious and I'll be interacting with academic sources. But I would love a book that's 150, 180 pages that somebody can kind of just see what is

the biblical case for the annihilation of hell. Yeah, I've got other ideas swirling around in my head, but that's the one that I feel like if I was going to start digging into another project next fall after I finished a women book, then I think that would—right now, I think that would be the one I'm going to pursue. Next question from Brian. From a biblical perspective, how should speaking in tongues be practiced in our churches today? Of course, this assumes that speaking in tongues is a gift that's for today, which I believe all gifts are for today. I don't think that some have been limited

to the first century while others are, you know, more perennial or, you know, not limited to the first century. But my short answer, how it should be practiced, is I don't know. Tongue speaking, you know, occurs several times in Acts, and we have Paul's really difficult chapter in 1 Corinthians 14, and that's largely what we have. We have, you know, what happened in the first century church throughout the book of Acts.

You know, we have instances of tongue speaking and then Paul's instructing the Corinthians and first Corinthians 14, but that chapter as a whole is really, really difficult to interpret. So I think anybody should exercise a good deal of caution and humility and saying like, this is how it should be practiced in church today. So we are wrestling with a really difficult topic. Now, as far as I understand it,

there's kind of two main views on what tongue speaking even is. Number one, it is a person speaking miraculously in a known language unknown to the speaker. Maybe like me all of a sudden started speaking in Portuguese or something when I know nothing about Portuguese language. Another view is that it is some kind of private prayer

language that is not a known language. It's noises coming out of your mouth that nobody on the planet would really understand. It's kind of between you and God. Now, I would say pretty confidently that in the Book of Acts, when you see people speaking in tongues, it is a known language. For sure Acts 2 is a known language because Luke, the author, lists the languages that people are hearing people speaking in when he says they're speaking in other tongues. So, that's, to me, I don't think that's really disputed. And I would say the other tongues,

passages, the book of Acts is the same thing. Where it gets a little tricky is in 1 Corinthians 14. And this is where some people would interpret Paul's words as referring to some kind of private prayer language that is not a known language. So, Paul says in chapter 14, oh, I'll read the first few verses here. Verse 1, Paul says, "...follow the way of love and eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God." Okay. Indeed, no one understands them. They utter mysteries by the Spirit. And right there, chapter 14, verse 2, is the main verse that people use, as far as I understand, to say this is a private prayer language. You're uttering mysteries not to anybody else but

to God. But Paul goes on to say in verse 3, but the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening or edification, encouragement, and comfort. Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. So you see a contrast there. Is Paul, this is the big question here in 14-4, is Paul being kind of sarcastic? Is he like, yeah, if you speak in a tongue, if you speak in a tongue in this manner, you're just edifying yourself. But we need to, you know, the implication could be that spiritual gifts are for the edification of the body. And if you prophesy, you're edifying the church. Verse five, I would like everyone, every one of you to speak

in tongues, okay? So, you know, for speaking in tongues. But I would rather have you prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues unless somebody interprets so that the church may be edified. So, here, again, he's saying when somebody's speaking in a tongue, it must be interpreted because tongues speaking—the implication here is that it's for the edification of the church. And then this is where I do, okay, so I do lean toward the view that says Paul is being a little sarcastic here. I don't think he's necessarily endorsing the kind of tongue speaking that's going on in Corinth, where people are uttering mysteries by the Spirit to God. No one's edifying, no interpreter, you know, like, I don't think Paul's embracing that. But again, I want to

hold that. That's kind of where I lean. That's how I best understand the passage. So, I do think tongue speaking is, again, cautiously, you know, if I studied this further, maybe I would change my view. I do think tongues speak in the best biblical cases that it is somebody speaking in a known language, unknown to the speaker. How would this participate? How would this happen in church? I don't know. Like, I've seen people speaking in tongues

in terms of like the, I keep wanting to say like, gibber jabber, but that's really negative. We're trying to be neutral here. Like, noises coming out of their mouth, like they're praying to God and noises are coming out, but it's not a known language. I've seen that before, but I don't think I've ever seen anybody speaking in a language unknown to the speaker,

but known, sorry, yeah, unknown to the speaker, but a known language. Now, let me finish by saying, I've got dear, godly friends who do speak in a private prayer language. Good, godly, wise, biblically faithful, knowledgeable. So this is where I wanna be cautious. I'm just trying to, like, if you just ask me,

just apart from experience, apart from my friends, just what does the text say? My best understanding is that it's a known language, unknown to the speaker. But yeah, I don't wanna say, you know, my good godly friends are, you're unbiblical, or this is wrong, whatever, just because it's a complicated issue,

and I just have not done enough study. And yeah, I'm very open to being corrected with this. Next question, as a pacifist, how do I reconcile God's violent actions and His call to violence throughout the Bible? And then you say, in parentheses, Old Testament and New Testament. Well, first of all, I would begin by saying there is no call for believers to act violently in the New Testament. There's just not. I mean, the only passage that, you know, some, I guess some might go to would be that Luke 22 passage

where, you know, Jesus commands the 12 disciples, I guess it was 11 at that point, to go buy a sword. And then Peter, or somebody's like, hey, look We got two couple swords and Jesus says it's enough and it's kind of really ambiguous What does he mean by it is enough? anyway, I've written about this in my book on non-violence that passage other people point to like the John to the cleansing of the temple, but if you look at the Greek there

There's no evidence that Jesus himself is like whipping people He's using a whip to drive out and it's specifically in the Greek, the animals. But even then that's, you know, that's not a command to believers. That would be something Jesus is doing. But again, I don't think if you look at the Greek closely, we can even make a case where Jesus acting violently there. So all that to say, I do think your question is limited to the Old Testament. Clearly, there is a lot of violence in the Old Testament, some of which is commanded. Now, we do need to make an distinction between the

is and the ought. Some things simply happen, but they're not supposed to happen. They're not a command of God. They're just, of God. Just because Israel goes to war and slaughters a bunch of people doesn't mean God commanded them. But there are some times, he does. There are some times God commands violence. The clearest example is in Deuteronomy 20 when he commands them to go on and not to leave alive anything that breathes during the, I would say, 15th century conquest of the land of Canaan. So, what do I do with that? What do I do with the passages where it's not just an is, but an ought? Here, and I've written, again, pretty extensively on this, about this in my book,

formerly known as Fight, now called Nonviolence. I think I have three chapters just on the Old Testament. We see, so I would interpret these passages along a sort of like a trajectory ethic, whereby certain things are permitted in the Old Testament or maybe even regulated in the Old Testament, but we see God meeting Israel where they're at, but slowly taking them to where He wants them to be. So, and this is not really disputed with several other issues.

I mean, if you take the Law of Moses and then the Sermon on the Mount, you can see God meets Israel where they're at with the Law of Moses. And then He, you know, the ultimate revelation of God's ethic is revealed in the New Testament. The Sermon on the Mount is just kind of a, you know, captures a lot, the heart of New Testament ethics on many levels. And then there in the Sermon on the Mount, you see direct conflict with some passages that are allowed, you know, sort of certain acts of violence that are allowed in the Old Testament. Jesus says, love your enemy and turn the other cheek and go the extra mile and so on and so forth. And the rest of the New Testament is pretty, pretty, I think it's clear, but some people don't think it's that clear, you know, that

when the topic of violence comes up, the New Testament consistently says this is not something to believers should partake in. Romans 12, 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 3 as well, and other passages. And Sermon on Mount, the life of Jesus, teachings of Jesus elsewhere, and so on. When it comes to God's violent actions, and this is where advocates of nonviolence disagree with each other. Some people say God cannot be violent. Others say, no, God can be violent, but he commands believers not to be violent. And I take that latter view. I think God can do certain things that believers are not to do, if he tells us explicitly. And the explicit passage that I like to point people to is Romans 12 where Paul says,

"'Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear brothers, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, it is mine to avenge. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.

I will repay. On the contrary, if for it is written, it is mine to avenge. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink, and so on and so forth. Here in this passage, you see a direct contrast between God's ability and right to take vengeance, which is the grounds or the reason for believers not to do that. Don't do this because God will,

basically is the thought there. So yeah, I think there's passages in Revelation and other passages where you do, second thing, Thessalonians 2, where it does seem that God is in the final judgment executing what would be considered violence, justified holy violence at the hand of God, whereby, whereas, believers are commanded to not do what God will do in the end. Now, again, people disagree on that. It's kind of debated, but that's where I ended up landing.

So, yeah, again, I would point you to, and as a really short answer to a very complex question, but I would point you to the two or three chapters in my book, Nonviolence, where I tease this out much more thoroughly. Next question, since being saved, when have you felt least certain about the veracity of your faith? What is happening then and how did you grow from it? This is a beautiful question.

When was the last time I felt least certain about the veracity to my faith and what was going on? For me, I feel like a lot of it comes back to my lack of the emotional, existential, or tangible relationship with God. You say, wait a minute, you have a relationship with God? Well, again, tangible, touch, taste, hear, see, feel, an embodied relationship with another embodied person. I don't have that with God. You know, sometimes I wonder, why isn't God just peeled back to heaven, pop His head out of the clouds and say, look, I'm here. Like, it just seems like if God really wanted to be known, okay, I'm speaking freely here. This is bordering on heresy. It seems like if God really

wanted to be known, he could do many things that would do that, you know. The counter argument is, well, he did do that by sending his son and people rejected him. I'm like, okay, but that's still not the same. It's different than peeling back to heavens and shouting from the sky in such a way that people can capture it on their iPhone. Hey friends, I hope you enjoyed this portion of the Patreon Only Q&A podcast. If you'd like to listen to the full-length episode and receive other bonus content like monthly podcasts, opportunities to ask questions, access to first drafts of my research and monthly Zoom chats and more, then please head over to patreon.com forward slash theology in the

raw to join theology in the raw's Patreon community. That's patreon.com forward slash theology in the raw. This show is part of the Converge Podcast Network. Hi, I'm Haven, and as long as I can remember, I have had different curiosities and thoughts and ideas that I like to explore, usually with a girlfriend over a matcha latte. But then when I had kids, I just didn't have the same time that I did before for the one-on-ones that I crave. So I started Haven the Podcast. It's a safe space for curiosity and conversation.

And we talk about everything from relationships, to parenting, to friendships, to even your view of yourself. And we don't have answers or solutions, but I think the power is actually in the questions. So I'd love for you to join me, Haven, the podcast. Hey, so I'm launching a new season on the podcast, The Doctor and the Nurse. World renowned brain coach, Dr. Daniel Amon,

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