#STRask

Questions about how the new earth ties in with the the teaching that we go to Heaven after we die, whether the Isaiah 65:17–25 passage about the new earth is metaphor, whether people in Heaven are aware of things happening on earth, and the prohibition against communicating with the dead.

Transcribed - Published: 4 June 2026

Questions about responding to the claim that someone who died saving the life of another shouldn’t be punished with Hell, and answering someone who says they don’t need a relationship with God and that if there’s a just God, then we should all be judged according to our deeds.

Transcribed - Published: 1 June 2026

Questions about how God’s divine prerogative in Romans 9 differs from the capriciousness of Allah, why we should bother with evangelism if God draws those whom he draws and no one has a choice, and the role of faith in the elect in Reformed theology if God guaranteed their salvation.

Transcribed - Published: 28 May 2026

Questions about whether or not a human clone would have a soul, when each identical twin receives a soul, whether anencephalic babies have a soul, and whether the fact that scientists can use AI to decode people’s thoughts by analyzing their brain activity disproves the soul.

Transcribed - Published: 25 May 2026

Questions about advice for parents whose daughter was turned away from the faith by the culture, and what to do when you’ve been a Christian for 35 years and are feeling cold to evangelism and a deeper understanding of Scripture.

Transcribed - Published: 21 May 2026

Questions about why people are using the Old Testament laws to condemn people if we’re not under those laws, thoughts on Christians celebrating the feasts of the Law out of obedience to the Lord, and whether we should keep the feasts so we’ll recognize Christ at his second coming.

Transcribed - Published: 18 May 2026

Questions about how to answer someone who says, “Everyone deserves love and happiness,” in response to objections to same-sex weddings, and how to think about same-sex adoption when looking through the lens of the greater good.

Transcribed - Published: 14 May 2026

Questions about how to make a biblical case for God’s good design in creating two genders and the rightness of submitting to his design for our own bodies, and how “gender-affirming” care can be wrong if it’s not discussed in the Bible.

Transcribed - Published: 11 May 2026

Questions about whether the despair portrayed in Psalms and Job is descriptive, prescriptive, or something else, whether the Beatitudes are descriptive or prescriptive, how to meditate on God’s Word, and whether reading the Bible gives us information about God or a relationship with him.

Transcribed - Published: 7 May 2026

Questions about the difference between believing and knowing from a biblical perspective, why it’s considered bad manners to ask for testable, repeatable evidence for the existence of gods, and why Christians don’t prove God exists by asking him to change carbon dioxide into hydrogen.

Transcribed - Published: 4 May 2026

Questions about our best answer when an atheist asks us to prove God exists, how God can be merciful and forgiving without the existence of fallen humanity, and why, if God is complete in himself and already receives glory from the angels, he would create us to witness his glory.

Transcribed - Published: 30 April 2026

Questions about why the Sadducees and Pharisees wanted to kill Jesus and why God doesn’t say anything when we pray to him.

Transcribed - Published: 27 April 2026

Questions about whether 1 Corinthians 3:15 indicates that a person can be saved but have nothing to show for it in the way they live, and whether a lack of good works after salvation means the person is not really saved.

Transcribed - Published: 23 April 2026

Question about the questions we need to answer for our youth to help keep them from walking away from the faith.

Transcribed - Published: 20 April 2026

Question about how to love those who hate us.

Transcribed - Published: 16 April 2026

Questions about whether biblical fasting is food specific or could include things like social media, how the “faith” listed as a gift of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:9 differs from the saving faith given to all believers, and whether it’s biblical for people with a prophetic gift to predict suffering and death.

Transcribed - Published: 13 April 2026

Questions about what to say to a confused four-year-old grandson whose father is telling him there are hundreds of gods, why it’s difficult to persuade a Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness, and how to engage someone who claims to be Christian yet attends a Unitarian Universalist church.

Transcribed - Published: 9 April 2026

Questions about evidence in Scripture that identifies the Holy Spirit as a person rather than the transforming power of God, whether Mark 13:33 means that the Holy Spirit doesn’t know the day of Christ’s return, and thoughts on contemplative prayer and other popular spiritual formation practices.

Transcribed - Published: 6 April 2026

Questions about whether perfect justice requires that the penalty be paid by the offender rather than someone else, and whether the references in Scripture to sharing in the sufferings of Christ are only about persecution for one’s faith or include things like sickness and financial hardship.

Transcribed - Published: 2 April 2026

Questions about whether to attend the wedding of someone who is into the New Thought movement and will have New Age items at the wedding location, whether one should not listen to hymns sung by Latter-day Saints, and how to respond to the Buddhist “Walk for Peace.”

Transcribed - Published: 30 March 2026

Questions about which Bible translation to recommend to an adult who’s new to the Bible, and what resources to recommend to an unbeliever who’s interested in reading the Bible with her son.

Transcribed - Published: 26 March 2026

Questions about how to respond to the criticism that Christianity is narrow-minded and dangerous, and what to say to someone who thinks Christianity is a cult.

Transcribed - Published: 23 March 2026

Questions about whether God’s primary object is to not be found, how one can say God doesn’t make mistakes if the percentage of Christians in the world is so low, and whether the fact that not everyone will be in Heaven is proof that God doesn’t win every battle.

Transcribed - Published: 19 March 2026

Questions about whether the fact that the truth about one’s age changes over time is an argument for relativism, and how to ground virtues like courage in objective reality without relying on circular definitions.

Transcribed - Published: 16 March 2026

Questions about what gives modern Christians confidence that they’ve inherited the Jews’ covenant with God if Scripture explicitly says it was with Israel and not the Gentile nations, and why the Jews were chosen.

Transcribed - Published: 12 March 2026

Questions about why there is no effort towards a neutral interpretation of Scripture that doesn’t take denominational preferences into account, and how so many people in different denominations that believe different things can all claim to be followers of Christ.

Transcribed - Published: 9 March 2026

Questions about how one person could trust another person on the topic of God, how STR obtained information about God that others haven’t obtained, and whether God only matters for the purpose of the afterlife.

Transcribed - Published: 5 March 2026

Questions about responding to an LGBTQ person who says he feels good about who he is, and whether—since we all have sin in our life we don’t consider to be sinful—a practicing homosexual can be born again as long as he sincerely believes his behavior isn’t sinful.

Transcribed - Published: 2 March 2026

Questions about whether or not God hears and answers the prayers of non-believers, and thoughts about a church sign that reads (as if from God), “Just love everyone. I’ll sort them out later.”

Transcribed - Published: 26 February 2026

Questions about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, advice for someone who believes in God intellectually but struggles to understand how to have a “personal relationship” with him, and resources other than Greg’s that teach the wisdom model for making decisions.

Transcribed - Published: 23 February 2026

Questions about why it’s necessary to believe Jesus is God, whether belief in the Trinity is required for salvation, and why one has to believe in the Trinity if the words “Trinity,” “God the Son,” and “God the Holy Spirit” aren’t in the Bible.

Transcribed - Published: 19 February 2026

Questions about how we can know who is teaching the same gospel Paul taught, and whether or not Jeremiah 1:5 supports the idea that we pre-existed in a spiritual form.

Transcribed - Published: 16 February 2026

Questions about Greg placing his faith in his personal assessment of which truth claims best match reality rather than in the revelation of God in Jesus and a personal encounter with the Spirit, and how to fight thoughts that God isn’t real when you know he is real.

Transcribed - Published: 12 February 2026

Questions about the claim that if Christians really want to be open-minded, they need to read and study other religions before committing to Christianity, and with so many paths claiming to be the sole path, what is to be said about those who choose incorrectly?

Transcribed - Published: 9 February 2026

Questions about whether it’s possible there’s a being that’s greater than God and that’s outside of God’s comprehension and omniscience, and how to explain to people who don’t believe in the spiritual realm or the existence of God that we have eternal souls.

Transcribed - Published: 5 February 2026

Questions about whether we should be praying for our souls rather than for material things, why we need to pray about decisions, whether the devil can hear our prayers and tempt us with “answers,” and whether it’s okay to pray for someone’s death rather than healing.

Transcribed - Published: 2 February 2026

Questions about why we should pray if God already knows what’s going to happen, how the effectiveness of prayer is measured, and whether or not things would have happened the way they did if no one had prayed for them.

Transcribed - Published: 29 January 2026

Questions about why we should think Jesus is not a created being, and what it means to say God became fully human if part of being human means not being God.

Transcribed - Published: 26 January 2026

Questions about good books on Christian apologetics, philosophy, and theology with more in-depth information and ideas, and resources to help an intellectually-inclined person with spiritual formation and developing the non-cerebral side of living a Christian life.

Transcribed - Published: 22 January 2026

Questions about whether there’s an issue with churches advertising on social media, whether it’s weird if we pray along with a YouTuber, and whether Christian social media influencers are going against Matthew 6:1–2 when they film themselves doing good deeds.

Transcribed - Published: 19 January 2026

Questions about Christians condemning LGB people just because of how they love, how God can expect someone to be celibate when others are free to marry and have happiness, and why Christians seem to hate people today.

Transcribed - Published: 15 January 2026

Questions about how to answer the challenge that God doesn’t need a “pound of flesh” to forgive sins but can simply forgive, and whether the claim in Romans 10:13 that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved contradicts Matthew 7:21.

Transcribed - Published: 12 January 2026

Questions about whether two logical people can come to conflicting conclusions on a topic without committing a fallacy, how Greg, as a public figure, deals with criticism, and whether or not criticism gets to him.

Transcribed - Published: 8 January 2026

Questions about how to determine which topics at work are worth commenting on, and a good way to respond when you’re in a group Bible study and hear earnest, lifelong Christians talk excitedly about books or content creators that aren’t orthodox.

Transcribed - Published: 5 January 2026

Questions about whether Jesus proved he wasn’t sinless when he overturned the tables, whether Jesus’ response to the Pharisees in Mark 3:22–26 was a bad argument, why Jesus was known for associating with sinners, and to what extent we should follow his example.

Transcribed - Published: 29 December 2025

Questions about what will happen to those who never heard of Jesus or were brought up in a different faith, whether there’s biblical warrant to think a humble, repentant attitude can save people who don’t know Jesus, and where the souls who lived before Jesus go.

Transcribed - Published: 22 December 2025

Questions about how one can justify calling Jesus the Messiah when he didn’t fulfill the Hebrew messianic prophecies, and whether the reason for the virgin birth was just to set Jesus apart as unique or there was a deeper meaning.

Transcribed - Published: 18 December 2025

Questions about whether anyone who tithes is not a Christian and is accursed since Paul says that if you obey one part of the Mosaic Law you’re obligated to obey all of it, and the claim that tithing preceded the Law and therefore remains a principle for the church today.

Transcribed - Published: 15 December 2025

Questions about whether references to demon possessions and exorcisms in the New Testament are literal, how to talk to young children about ghosts, and whether it’s arrogant to think Satan knows your name when he’s a single entity with bigger fish to fry.

Transcribed - Published: 11 December 2025

Questions about why any rational person would have to use any religious book, whether apologetics would be redundant if there were actually a good, unrefuted argument, and how to get enough people interested in apologetics to start an apologetics group.

Transcribed - Published: 8 December 2025