Category: Deeper Waters Podcast

The Deeper Waters Apologetics YouTube Channel

What is our new resource? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Since we’re all under quarantine and I finally figured out again how to use my webcam, I decided to do something I’ve wanted to do for awhile and had spent some time talking to David Wood about, and that’s making a new YouTube channel. I have one just for fun videos I make and I have one for the podcast, but now I have one for short apologetics videos.

So what kinds of things do I plan to put up there?

Naturally, I started with a video about affirming the virgin birth, which I do affirm, and last night I did a video book review. I could make some short vids responding to current events in the world of apologetics. However, I do have a few ideas in mind for projects.

Tonight, for example, I plan to start a series for Autism Awareness Month, which is this month, on life on the spectrum. I will be tying this in to Christian apologetics and my personal recommendations on reaching people on the spectrum. I hope a video series like this will be more personal than written works on the topic. I plan on working to see how to incorporate images and other such things into my videos instead of just watching me talking.

I also plan on doing series on video games and apologetics. What theological themes can I find in games? I’m not saying no one else is doing this, but I really have not found it being done. I have been told to put up videos of my own gameplay so I do plan on doing that.

I also plan on doing a series on orthodox preterism. In addition, I want to deal with some of what I call the rapture brigade. These are people that make videos on YouTube about all the signs that the rapture is about to take place. They are always proven wrong, but they never seem to learn and keep making predictions.

Ultimately, I expect a lot of trial and error at the start, but I do hope that this will become something more mainstream in my own work. Social media is being more and more the place to go to make statements and with cable TV about to fade out of existence, people will be watching YouTube more for their information. Sadly also, many people don’t read books so I hope that this will fill in the gap.

As of this posting, there are just two videos up, but we have to start somewhere. Why not go and subscribe and share? With quarantine going on, I definitely plan on doing more of this.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Deeper Waters Podcast 4/4/2020

What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

The past is a funny place. They do things differently there. So it is that they did not see the world we do. They didn’t know about germs and viruses like our world knows about right now. They didn’t know how to explain weather. Until Galileo, they thought the sun went around the Earth. They would never have dreamed of the internet, video games, Alexa devices, automobiles, or anything we have today.

Now seeing how they didn’t have all of that and we have so much more today, why should we take what they said back then seriously? These are modern times after all! You can Google and learn anything that you want to! Modern science has shown us so much about the world! Why would we want to go to another system like philosophy?

Maybe though, just maybe, those who came before us have something that they can teach us. Maybe science and philosophy can work together. Maybe if we go down this path, we can find that we are truly not alone in the universe, not in the sense of extraterrestrial life, though that could be, but in the sense of a God who is out there.

In the 13th century, there lived a monk named Thomas Aquinas who was named the dumb ox by his classmates. His teacher said that dumb ox would roar and the whole world would hear it. His teacher was right. Today, Thomas Aquinas’s philosophy is still shaping the thinking of many people.

It’s not just Catholics either. Protestants like myself can greatly value the teaching of Thomas Aquinas. In order to discuss him and mainly his arguments for God, I am bringing on an up and coming apologist to talk about the issues, something I am prone to do as others did the same for me and still do the same. His name is Gil Sanders.

So who is he?

According to his bio:

Gil studied under Edward Feser for almost three years at PCC, and got his bachelors in philosophy at Cal State Los Angeles. He co-founded a Ratio Christi at PCC, lead a philosophy club, and went on to publish a paper in the CSULA journal. Gil’s special areas of research include philosophy of religion, metaphysics, politics, and ethics. 

We’ll be discussing Thomistic metaphysics, why anyone should care about Aquinas, and how Aquinas gave a convincing argument that God exists. I hope you’re looking forward to this one. We are still working hard on uploading older episodes. Stay tuned!

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Deeper Waters Podcast 3/21/2020

What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Can we trust the Gospels? So many times one of the questions I hear from a skeptic is that if this information was so important, why wasn’t it written down sooner? Of course, there’s a hidden assumption there that in the ancient world, writing something down was the best way to communicate, as if most people could read.

Eventually, the Gospels were written, but they were written according to most scholars at least 30 years later. Isn’t that a long time? How many of us can remember events from 30 years ago that well? Now I’m 39, and I can remember quite a few things. I remember that on Christmas of 1988 I got Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Brothers 2 for the NES and my parents were surprised I played Zelda first. I just thought Zelda would be more shaping of my identity and I was right.

Some of you who are older might remember other things. You might better remember Challenger exploding or the JFK assassination. Still, we all know memory is not always reliable. People do misremember things. There are several minor details that are different in the Gospels. Could this be an indication that the accounts have things wrong because people didn’t remember?

And what about the telephone game? Don’t we know that if you use oral tradition that things will get messed up? Can we really trust it? Kids don’t get the facts right when they play the game. How can we trust important information to a similar situation?

To discuss these, I’m bringing on a scholar who has studied oral tradition very well. He has written on Jesus and memory and the Synoptic Gospels. He will be with us this Saturday to talk about if we can trust oral tradition with the Gospels or not. His name is Robert McIver.

So who is he?

According to his bio:

Professor Robert K. McIver, PhD has taught biblical studies Avondale University College, Cooranbong, NSW, Australia, since 1988.  Before coming to Avondale, Robert had taught mathematics at secondary and tertiary levels, before changing his career to work as a church pastor.  He holds a doctorate in biblical studies and archaeology from Andrews University, and has published ten books, including Memory, Jesus and the Synoptic Gospels, and Jesus in Four Dimensions, as well as articles in academic and popular journals.  He is married to Susan, and has two daughters and two grandsons.

We are also working on getting shows up for you. I just uploaded a bunch of them this week as the time with the virus is giving me that time I can do that. I hope to be all caught up before too long. Please be watching for this episode.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Deeper Waters Podcast 3/14/2020

What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

One of the questions a parent often dreads hearing from their child is “Where did I come from?” or just the general “Where do babies come from?” It’s a good question, but the really hard question is how do you answer it on a more universal scale. Where does humanity come from? Many people turn to Genesis.

And then the debate begins.

How old is the Earth? Were Adam and Eve real people? Was there death before the Fall? What was the serpent in the garden? Where did Cain get his wife? How did the first humans live hundreds of years as said in Genesis 5? Who were the sons of God? What about the flood? What about the Tower of Babel?

And you thought the first questions kids ask were awkward.

Fortunately, there are those who have addressed these concepts that sadly divide Christians today. While we can be sure the debate will by no means be settled, we can learn what we can and be informed in our own opinions and in what others think. There is a pair that have written the book Origins to discuss this passage, and one of them is on my show Saturday. His name is Douglas Jacoby.

So who is he?

Douglas Jacoby is an international Bible teacher. After serving as a minister on church staff for 20 years, in London, Birmingham, Sydney, Stockholm, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and Washington DC, Douglas has worked as a freelance teacher and consultant. He has engaged in a number of debates with well-known atheists, imams, and rabbis. Douglas is also an adjunct professor of theology at Lincoln Christian University. Since the late ’90s, Douglas has led annual tours to the biblical world.

With degrees from Drew, Harvard, and Duke, Douglas has written over 30 books, recorded nearly 800 podcasts, and spoken in over 100 universities, and in over 500 cities, in 126 nations around the world. The Jacobys have three adult children. Douglas and his wife, Vicki, reside in the Atlanta area.

We’re almost caught up on back episodes. I hope before too long we’ll have all of those up. I’m also actively working on getting the show to be able to be done live. I hope that will make it even better as people can submit their questions during an interview. Please be watching your podcast feed!

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Deeper Waters Podcast 2/29/2020

What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Around the time a young man enters middle school, he starts to go through a physiological change where all of a sudden, those girls who had cooties before immediately become super appealing to him. While he looked at them with disdain before, now he looks at them wanting to know them better. Not only that, their bodies are changing at the same time and a man wants to know what exactly lies underneath all those clothes.

Now there are a few ways that a man can find this out, other than checking out a book on anatomy. He can either date the girl and seek to marry her and on the wedding night see what that girl looks like underneath, or he can try to seduce her before marriage, or if he doesn’t care about that girl in particular and any girl will do, he can look at porn.

In the past, porn used to be something hard to look at. You had to sneak down to the magazine rack at the store or else go to that hidden room at the video store. A lot of planning would be required in order to get your fix. Well, that was then and this is now.

The age of the internet has brought about pornography so much so that now we have rule 34. If it exists, there is porn of the internet on it somewhere. Pornography is a click away. You can access a woman’s body from any computer in your home.

Or heck, who needs your home? Just take your tablet or phone and you can do the same thing. Teenagers especially now have an easier time getting porn than they ever did before.

It’s had an effect sadly. It’s hard to find a man whose life has not been damaged by porn use. Women have to suffer it too as they are increasingly pressured to match what the young men see in their pornography videos. Not only that, I suspect the reasons I hear so many commercials for ED and see so many products for it is because men have trained themselves to get aroused at pornography videos.

Some men want to help out and in my travels on the internet, I found some of those men. Keep in mind that in saying all of this, I know porn is becoming an increasing problem for women who watch it as well today. I hope many skills can be transferable, but today, it’s looking at men. One such man who wants to help will be my guest this Saturday. His name is Shane O’Neill

So who is he?

According to his bio:

Shane O’Neill has a graduate degree in apologetics from Liberty University’s Rawling School of Divinity and He is the Editorial Director for Proven Ministries. Proven Ministries works with organizations, churches, families, and individuals to see a revival of sexual dignity throughout the entire Bride of Christ. 

We are also working on getting the webcam working so hopefully we can go to YouTube live and Facebook live to do these shows. If you struggle with porn or know someone who does, which is incredibly likely, please be listening to this show. Hope to see you then.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Deeper Waters Podcast 1/25/2020

What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Years ago Pat Buchanan said we were in a culture war and he was not taken seriously. Today, everyone knows he was right and we still are in that war. Different ideologies are fighting it out day by day today. Mostly, it is not so much over politics as it is over sexual issues.

Take a look around and see. Why did the Methodist church just experience a split? Because of the question of homosexuality. What is one of the big rallying cries between Democrats and Republicans? Abortion, which again, has to do with sex. Today, we have questions going on now of transgenderism.

So it is that a reader of the blog suggested that for abortion, I get on a guest who understands culture wars. One who understands it so much that he has a website named for it. They suggested I get C. Michael Jones on and I decided to do so.

So who is he?

According to his bio:

Dr. E. Michael Jones is a world renowned Catholic Historian and author known for his books Libido Dominandi: Sexual Liberation and Political Control, The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit, and The Slaughter of Cities and is preparing to release his latest book called Logos Rising: The History of Ultimate Reality. He is the editor of Culture Wars Magazine, and his books and subscriptions to the magazine are all available online at CultureWars.com.

We are working on older episodes and getting them up quickly. I hope you’ll keep listening. Next month, we will be focusing on love and marriage.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Deeper Waters Podcast 1/18/2019

What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

We live in a strange world. In this world, an actress can stand on a stage holding a golden statue and talk about how she was only able to get to where she is because she had an abortion. The response from the audience of Hollywood celebrities, who don’t know anything about the real world, is applause.

We also live in an age where we say we want to talk about equality so much. Distinctions that we have are being blurred. Gender is seen as a social construct. Being a man or being a woman doesn’t really mean anything. Marriage is no longer seen as between a man and a woman but just between two people who love each other.

We live in an age that says it praises science. Unless you can show something to be true scientifically, there is no reason to believe it. It is philosophy that must take the back seat if we give it any seat at all. All truth must be amenable to the scientific method.

Yet here we have a world where abortion is a constant problem. Safe, legal, and rare goes out the window when a woman is applauded for getting an abortion so she could have an acting career. Not all of us are equal if what is in the womb is not seen as fully human. Science has spoken on the nature of what is in the womb, but then we suddenly go to philosophy at that point.

Enter into all of this my guest this weekend. He is the man behind the Equal Rights Institute. He has been a strong pro-life apologist since he was eighteen years old and has traveled the world giving this message. Saturday, he travels to the Deeper Waters Podcast. His name is Josh Brahm.

So who is he?

According to his bio:

Josh Brahm is the co-founder and president of Equal Rights Institute, a national pro-life organization dedicated to helping pro-life advocates think clearly, reason honestly, and argue persuasively. He has worked in the pro-life movement since he was 18. After 12 years of full-time pro-life work he launched Equal Rights Institute to maximize his impact for the movement.

A sought-after speaker, Josh has spoken for more than 23,000 people in five countries.

Josh’s primary passion is helping pro-life people to be more persuasive when they communicate with pro-choice people. That means ditching faulty rhetoric and tactics and embracing arguments that hold up under philosophical scrutiny.

Josh has been happily married to his wife, Hannah, for thirteen years. They have three sons, Noah, William and Eli. They live in Charlotte, North Carolina.

David Bereit, the National Director of 40 Days for Life, sums up Josh’s expertise this way: “Josh Brahm is one of the brightest, most articulate, and innovative people in the pro-life movement. His cutting-edge work is helping people think more clearly, communicate more effectively, and — most importantly — be better ambassadors for Christ. I wholeheartedly endorse Josh’s work, and I encourage you to join me in following Josh and getting involved in his work today!”

I hope you’ll be tuning in. We are rapidly updating our podcast page after the holiday and I hope to be caught up before too long. Thanks for listening in and please continue supporting the rights of the unborn.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Deeper Waters Podcast 1/11/2019

What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Life is sacred, so many of us think, but we live in an age where that is being questioned. An actress can stand up and win an award and talk about how she had to have an abortion to get where she is and is cheered for saying that. We have reached the age where post-birth abortions are talked about, in some cases even up to the age of two years old. You can even have abortions for your pets if you want to.

Yet there are rumors of change coming. Alyssa Milano can go on a sex strike in regards to things like the heartbeat bill here in my state of Georgia. (Hint Alyssa: Many of us men who are Christians who are anti-abortion don’t care if you don’t want to have sex with us because we already have wives to have sex with or we’re just not interested in women who want to kill their children and children of others.) Pro-life judges have been appointed to the Supreme Court and with two judges who could possibly be leaving the bench soon for various reasons, many pro-abortion activists are getting scared about the possibilities.

Now is a time when we need more and more facts on a side. Christians need to be ready. The good news is, like in many cases, the facts are there. The bad news is that many of us don’t really bother to access those facts. Fortunately, they are there and you can access them easily. Perhaps, one easy way you can access them is opening your phone and listening to a podcast, like my own, the Deeper Waters Podcast, and listening to my guest this Saturday, Trent Horn.

So who is he?

According to his bio:

After his conversion to the Catholic faith, Trent Horn earned master’s degrees in the fields of theology, philosophy, and bioethics. He serves as a staff apologist for Catholic Answers, where he specializes in teaching Catholics to graciously and persuasively engage those who disagree with them.

Trent models that approach each week on the radio program Catholic Answers Live and on his own podcast, The Counsel of Trent. He has also been invited to debate at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, and Stanford University.

Trent is an adjunct professor of apologetics at Holy Apostles College, has written for The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, and is the author of nine books, including Answering Atheism, The Case for Catholicism, and Why We’re Catholic: Our Reasons for Faith, Hope, and Love.

We’re going to be talking about abortion then for January when we look at abortion for Roe v. Wade. I hope you’ll be watching for this new episode. I also hope you’ll be doing what you can in the fight for life.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

End Of The Year Giving

How can you support us? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Since I don’t know for sure what I could write on Monday and Tuesday of next week, I want to be sure to cover this topic now. It’s getting close to the end of the year. Many times, some people want to make that last donation of the year for taxes. I would really like to encourage you to give to us here at Deeper Waters.

We have this web site, we have a podcast, and I have been doing more debates and hope to do more talks soon. If you’re interested, we also have a newsletter that you can subscribe to. We are working hard on getting the podcast up to date.

And who do we depend on for this?

You.

Due to my wife’s Social Security, it affects all of our other ability to earn aside from through this means and that is the donations done through Risen Jesus. That means the more you support us, the more we are able to do. If you do get a blessing from the work done here, it is proper to consider taking part in the planting and harvesting of the material.

Go to this page and look on the side where you see something to help support our work. That takes you to the ministry of Risen Jesus, the ministry of my in-laws. Make your donation and get in touch with them or Allie and I and let us know you made a donation and you want it to go to us. It will be tax-deductible.

Your gift gives us encouragement and more ability to function here. The more we get, the more that we can do. It gives us freedom to be able to do the things that we do. When a church pays a minister, they pay him so he can be free also to do all the necessary work in preparation for Sunday and all the work throughout the week, like counseling, visitation, confession in some orders, and other things.

I would like to be able to do more writing projects. Your donation helps with that. It would be great to someday give some pay to anyone who is willing to help with the production and editing of the podcast. Your donations help. It would be great to do some advertising of what we do here. Your donations help with that.

They also give the gift of encouragement. It means a lot to know that you believe in us and want to bless us. Encouragement goes a long way. Years ago, a pastor told me to keep an encouragement folder on my computer for good compliments I get to remind me when I start to lose hope. It’s a good reminder.

All of this works to getting us to our goals of having a bigger platform and more outreach. One hope I have really is to get us on the radio someday with the podcast. As far as I know, our podcast spends more time than any other podcast in the interview process for a more in-depth look and a radio approach would be even more professional and reach more people. Your help is required for that.

So please consider becoming a regular giver to the ministry of Deeper Waters. Just a small amount every month can make all the difference, especially if several people do this. You might think that $20 a month or so is no big deal, but to us, it is tremendous, and if 100 people did that, that would be $2000 a month, something that would be extremely helpful to us.

Thank you again for reading this blog and listening to our show and just caring. Your friendship means so much to Allie and I. We hope you had a Merry Christmas and we hope you have a great 2020.

In Christ,
Nick Peters

Deeper Waters Podcast 12/28/2019

What’s coming up? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

What are the Gospels? I understand that we can say they’re the accounts that we have of the life of Jesus, but what are they? What purpose do they really serve? What did the writers want us to get out of them?

Not only that, what purpose did they serve? How did the ancient people view the Gospels? What did they expect when they read the Gospels? Did they think the authors really believed there was a historical figure who did these things or did they think this was a nice set of novels?

Let’s go even further. What were the writers of these works thinking? Did they have any ideas for the best way to go about telling the accounts of Jesus? What liberties did they have with the source material? Why didn’t they cite source material? What sources did they even use and were they right to use them?

These are questions we can ask when we approach the Gospels. We can also ask then about the reliability of the Gospels. Was memory that reliable? What about the distance in time? What about the Gospels being anonymous?

If only we had someone who had really studied all of these kinds of questions and was an excellent scholar in the field.

Oh, wait. We do have such a person, and he is my guest this Saturday for the Deeper Waters Podcast talking about his latest book (Although he’s sure to have written another one in the time it took me to write this blog), Christobiography. Returning to our show is Craig Keener.

So who is he?

According to his bio:

Bio sketch: Craig S. Keener (PhD, Duke University) is F. M. and Ada Thompson Professor of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. He is author of twenty-eight books (thirty-three volumes), six of which have won awards in Christianity Today, plus other awards. He has also authored roughly one hundred academic articles; seven booklets; and more than one hundred fifty popular-level articles. His IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, which provides cultural background on each passage of the New Testament, has sold more than half a million copies. Craig is the New Testament editor for the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, which won the International Book Award for Christianity and Bible of the year in the Christian Book Awards. In 2020 Craig is president of the Evangelical Theological Society, and he is married to Dr. Médine Moussounga Keener. His blog site is http://www.craigkeener.com/.

Now that the holidays have passed, hopefully, we’ll be able to devote the time to getting the shows back on schedule again. I hope you’ll be waiting. Be there for the next episode of the Deeper Waters Podcast.

In Christ,
Nick Peters