The Sean McDowell Show

Asking a Mormon Leader My Hardest Questions

I got a tour inside the San Diego Latter-day Saint temple and now I'm following up with an interview with Neal Walton who is a stake president in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in San Diego. Apparently, I was the first Christian apologist who'd ever shown up with a film crew and asked for an interview. We worked through the differences plainly. The Trinity. Whether God the Father has a physical body. Baptism for the dead. Faith and works. Exaltation versus salvation. Whether Jesus is the uncreated, eternal God. Neither of us pretended those are small, and neither of us tried to win. READ: End the Stalemate, by Sean McDowell (https://amzn.to/4eLrUdM) CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) CHECK OUT: Full Mormon Temple Tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfgyW-s5KTE&t=1065s *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org 0:00 — What a stake president actually does 0:47 — "Has an apologist ever shown up before?" 1:20 — No pay, no degree, no formal training 2:05 — The morning I went to seminary at 5 a.m. 2:48 — Losing a four-year-old daughter 3:14 — "If your God is good, why would he allow this?" 4:40 — Did it make you doubt? 5:21 — The verse that settled him 6:26 — Do you have doubts now? 7:51 — What am I missing out on? 9:03 — Temples, service, and interfaith work 10:28 — Pushing back on "one big happy family" 11:01 — "Go straight to the source" 12:04 — Seven questions to gauge whether you love truth 12:21 — I read it. I prayed. I wasn't settled. 12:57 — "So what's my next step?" 14:44 — My dad's story 16:13 — "Son, love truth" 16:44 — Is there evidence behind the Book of Mormon? 17:12 — Questions versus doubts 19:16 — What a Sunday sermon looks like 21:26 — How he defines faith 22:36 — The biggest misconceptions 23:26 — Three distinct beings 25:13 — Where we actually differ 27:20 — The Trinity 28:16 — A physical body, baptism for the dead, faith and works 29:02 — Exaltation, and whether Jesus is uncreated 29:30 — His response 32:36 — Temple recommends and the celestial kingdom 32:54 — "There's order in God's house" 34:38 — He turns the question on me 35:50 — Why I actually came 36:19 — "I don't find it true or compelling — and I think I get it" Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Scott Rae Debunks 10 Common Moral Slogans

Can you legislate morality? Is secular ethics neutral? Did Jesus really say "never judge"? Dr. Scott Rae, one of the world's leading Christian ethicists and Sean's Think Biblically co-host, is here to work through ten of the most common moral slogans in circulation, and why each one falls apart under scrutiny. Scott addresses all ten in the newly released fifth edition of Moral Choices, updated with new material on the ethics of technology and AI, criminal justice, gender, race, immigration, and gene editing. CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org 0:00 — The slogans, and why they don't hold up 0:55 — Introducing Dr. Scott Rae 1:57 — #1 "You can't legislate morality" 4:31 — #2 "Secular ethics is neutral, religious ethics is biased" 8:41 — #3 "You shouldn't force your morals on others" 12:05 — #4 "Right and wrong are products of evolution" 16:50 — #5 "Religion is private and has no place in public ethics" 18:55 — A word from Logos 19:49 — What counts as a religion? 23:11 — #6 "Morality is subjective taste, not objective truth" 27:38 — #7 "Science can tell us what is right and wrong" 31:19 — #8 "Cultural disagreement proves there's no moral truth" 33:51 — #9 "Jesus said never judge, so don't" 36:37 — #10 "Religious views don't belong in politics" 40:32 — What's new in the fifth edition of Moral Choices 43:25 — Send us your ethics questions Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

J.P. Moreland on Suffering, Doubt, and Facing Death Without Fear

J.P. Moreland is one of the most influential Christian philosophers alive and he's spent the last twelve years enduring what most of us never will: a rare genetic condition, more than two dozen cancer surgeries, and two seasons of debilitating anxiety and depression. In this deeply personal conversation, he sits down with me to talk about pain, doubt, and why he says he now has no fear of death. CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell... Instagram: / seanmcdowell Website: https://seanmcdowell.org CHAPTERS 00:00 – The worst physical pain of my life 00:38 – Introducing J.P. Moreland 02:18 – From skeptical chemistry major to Christian 07:49 – Why he chose philosophy of mind 09:19 – Advice for young apologists and thinkers 13:04 – How Talbot shaped Sean 14:11 – Where the church needs thinkers next 16:03 – The most important training: philosophy 19:04 – Distinctions that dissolve bad arguments 23:04 – Two seasons of anxiety and depression 26:17 – "Don't waste your suffering" 30:24 – Depression, the body, and the soul 34:09 – Two kinds of doubt, and how to handle each 37:00 – "When did you last hear a truly new objection?" 40:47 – Afterlife apologetics and near-death experiences 42:15 – Facing death in a hospital parking lot 48:12 – 25 surgeries and a rare genetic condition 54:52 – Sean's own season of pain 58:00 – Faith, politics, and getting removed from a church 1:05:48 – What he's working on now 1:09:46 – Closing Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

The Most Uncomfortable Chapter in Acts? Peter, James, and the Problem of Evil

God sent an angel to break Peter out of prison. But one chapter earlier, He let James be executed. Same God, same church, same prayers. Why rescue one apostle and not the other? In this message, I work through Acts 12 and the question underneath it: where is God when we suffer? CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Transforming Power of Bible Study

CHECK OUT: Logos Bible 60 Day Free Trial (https://logos.com/mcdowell) - use code "McDowell" *Get a MASTERS IN APOLOGETICS or SCIENCE AND RELIGION at BIOLA (https://bit.ly/3LdNqKf) *USE Discount Code [smdcertdisc] for 25% off the BIOLA APOLOGETICS CERTIFICATE program (https://bit.ly/3AzfPFM) *See our fully online UNDERGRAD DEGREE in Bible, Theology, and Apologetics: (https://bit.ly/448STKK) FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter: https://x.com/Sean_McDowell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sean_mcdowell?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmcdowell/ Website: https://seanmcdowell.org Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.