CS Lewis Has Fallen

Show open without Ben; the docket

Live from the Pathway Studios, Ben is out of town and the hosts run a four-man show. The docket is set from two articles: a Christianity Today piece on the top five heresies among American evangelicals, and a BeliefNet piece on six things Christians like to do that are not biblical. One host frames the whole exercise through the Screwtape Letters — the subtle skew that makes you think you're doing a good thing while drifting off topic.

BeliefNet item one: Christians say things that are not in the Bible

• How should Christians address phrases they believe are in the Bible but actually are not?

The hosts read the BeliefNet article's first item, which quotes Psalm 119:16 and Deuteronomy 11:18-19 at length before warning that Christians commonly say things the Bible never says. Examples surface fast: 'God never gives you more than you can handle,' 'God don't bless no mess,' and the Footprints poem. The hosts argue for careful paraphrase over word-for-word King James delivery (N.T. Wright is credited for making one host's Bible reading better), warn against elevating human wisdom to godly wisdom, and note that even Jude quoted Enoch, which never made the canon. The segment ends with the positive-vibes comedy bit — each host inventing a noise for 'sending a vibe.'

BeliefNet item two: reading horoscopes

The article's second item — reading horoscopes to determine future events — gets a short treatment. One host recounts telling his mother not to do it; another says astrology simply hasn't come up for him in twenty years. The conversation drifts to whether full moons and Mercury in retrograde actually affect people, with a nod to hospital and bar workers who swear the full moon is real, before the hosts move on.

BeliefNet item three: tithing based on a sense of obligation

• Do Christians struggle to give out of a joyful heart rather than obligation?

The longest article discussion: tithing treated as obligation versus joyful generosity. The hosts argue Western Christians are terrible with money because they chase comfort and security instead of trusting God. Stories carry the point: a church adopting an Afghan refugee family of eight with a year of groceries; a man who handed his whole wallet's cash to buy Boova a car without registering the loss; a grandmother who honored God with little and always saw provision. Malachi's 'test me on this' promise is cited as one of the few places God invites testing. Practical notes: plan for generosity, keep a slush fund for it, and don't complain about church spending while eating the donuts other people bought.

BeliefNet items four and five: superstition and drinking to get drunk

• Is drinking in moderation acceptable for Christians, and where is the line?

Item four (superstition) is summed up as idolatry — faith in objects having magical powers — with 1 Peter 5:8 cited as the article's kicker. A long host take argues the devil needs only to convince you there's power outside what God offers; results from magic or divination are sleight of hand or demonic limited power, and you should stay away. Item five (drinking to get drunk) cites 1 Corinthians 6:10; the hosts agree drunkenness is bad but reject legalism — know which kind of drinker you are, hang around people who support it, and recall Ben's Grand Canyon railing example as protection rather than restriction. One host confesses he stole a birdhouse while drinking and returned it the next morning; another host tells how he gave up alcohol entirely at his wife's request two years ago and calls it one of the best decisions he ever made.

Fences: the daughter who turned herself in

Continuing the multi-week 'fences' series, a host tells how his daughter came to him to confess she had misused phone freedom and cut off the path herself, saying she couldn't lie and cover it up anymore — then submitted to whatever repercussions he chose. He kept the phone and asked only that she talk to him before reinstalling the app. The teaching: running into the fence is not the sin; the sin is behind the fence, and the fence doing its job is a success, not a failure. Electricians finding a motor spinning the wrong way during final checks make the same point — you can't stop human inconsistency, you put double checks in so the screw-up doesn't land. Examples: computer in the middle of the house, wife free to look at the phone and gas-station receipts, a weekly Bible study with friends.

State of Theology survey; heresy one: Jesus isn't the only way

• What is a heresy?
• Why is it not possible for God to accept the worship of all religions?

The hosts move to the Christianity Today piece on the 2022 State of Theology survey (Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research): more than half of American adults now say Scripture is not literally true. The show endorses the Bible as God's infallibly written word, noting some of it is poetry and true metaphor without needing word-for-word literalism. Heresy one: 56% of evangelical respondents affirm that God accepts the worship of all religions. The hosts reject it — Judaism and Islam share the Genesis problem of sin but offer no atoning sacrifice; one host tells of befriending a Muslim family, building the relationship while holding that the man's view of Jesus as merely a prophet leaves him without salvation. Evangelism is framed as love, not hatred: the Penn & Teller line — how much would you have to hate me not to tell me? — plus the 'bring them to the light, not save them from the hammer' reframing.

Heresies two and three: Jesus was created; Jesus was not God

Heresy two: 73% agreed Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God — Arianism. One host says he doesn't care about the mechanics of an infinite deity and doesn't think Scripture speaks to it; the other hosts caution not to reduce Jesus to a created being on equal standing with Satan. Heresy three: 43% affirmed Jesus was a great teacher but not God. The hosts draw a hard line here — there are qualifications for being in, and 'checkbox Christians' who grew up going to church at Easter and Christmas aren't exempt from them. Equal standing of the three persons of the Godhead is all you need to know.

Heresies four and five: the Holy Spirit as force; humans good by nature

Heresy four: 60% said the Holy Spirit is a force but not a personal being. The hosts note the Spirit scares people, so they try to confine and predict Him; He is sent as the Comforter, a presence, personified even in Genesis 1. One host recalls a Bible-college fellow who denied the Trinity after reading the Desert Fathers. Heresy five: 57% agreed everyone sins a little but most people are good by nature. The hosts push back — you have met yourself — while resisting full total-depravity overcrank: God created humanity in His image, which can't be total depravity. A Jack Cottrill book (Faith Once For All) is mentioned in this context; the hosts learned of his death days earlier. The segment lands on the real problem: a heavily churched but poorly discipled church, and teachers who cherry-pick. One host then tells his call-to-ministry story: in fourth grade, after watching a Calvinistic-church pastor tell his cheating father 'you're good, don't worry about it,' he decided someone needed to preach the Bible, not that.

Complaint line and plugs

Standard mid-show housekeeping: the Bob Eisenlauer complaint line, (515) 517-0085, call or text — aimed at listeners who find the heresies comforting. Podcast plugs follow (Apple Podcasts, Amazon), plus the Instagram bit: Boova no longer runs the account, Nathaniel got rid of Instagram, and Dan has it but never looks at it.

Dear LFTP: forty-year marriage, ex-girlfriends, and a short temper

• My husband praises the women he knew before me and is harsh with me; where do I go from here?

The one letter: a woman married forty years writes that her husband constantly praises the girls he knew before her in glowing terms and is short-tempered, fault-finding, and harsh with her; when she told him how it made her feel, he said she was sick in the head. The hosts are blunt about him — an intimidating bully and a verbal abuser — but argue she needs Jesus-centered community around her so his words stop penetrating, plus confrontation with the truth and possibly a counselor for the negative self-talk. Secular's answer: get a licensed psychotherapist to work out why she tolerated forty years of this and rebuild her self-esteem. The hosts largely agree with Secular, adding that hurting people hurt people — a line credited to Dan Hudson — while holding that Christians love the abuser enough to show him a way out. The segment also plays on the romance of the past: previous relationships never survived twenty-five years of trials, so the memory is fiction.

Outro

Standard close: streaming plugs, reviews, questions, and the complaint line number repeated. Ben may be out one more week, leaving the 'V squad.' The benediction: be faithful in the means, and God will handle the ends.