Dr. Brown Interviews Scientist Hugh Ross (Reasons to Believe); and Biblical Mistranslations and Misunderstandings


[Download MP3]
Dr. Brown interviews Hugh Ross, whose search for truth led him to faith in God, and in his continuing pursuit of truth, sees the magnificence of the Creator unveiled through science. In the second hour, Dr. Brown sheds light on some common misunderstandings/mistranslations of the Bible.

Hour 1:

Dr. Brown’s Bottom Line: The heavens really do declare the glory of God. The universe really does speak of a glorious, extraordinary Creator who cares for us, and created a vast universe so there could be a planet called Earth, where there could be a people that know Him, live with Him, be with Him, and love Him. What an awesome God!

Hour 2:

Dr. Brown’s Bottom Line: Jesus said, “Continue in My word and you will be My disciples indeed. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Truth has been given plainly for all open hearts and open eyes. Let us dive into the truth of God’s word and be transformed, so we can change the world!

Featured Resources:

How to be Led by the Spirit [MP3 CD]

Foundations of Prayer [MP3 CD]

Foundations of Intercession [MP3 CD]


Meet Hugh Ross:

HUGH ROSS launched his career at age seven when he went to the library to find out why stars are hot. Physics and astronomy captured his curiosity and never let go. At age seventeen he became the youngest person ever to serve as director of observations for Vancouver’s Royal Astronomical Society. With the help of a provincial scholarship and a National Research Council of Canada fellowship, he completed his undergraduate degree in physics at theUniversity of British Columbia and graduate degrees in astronomy at the University of Toronto. The NRC also sent him to the United States for postdoctoral studies. At Caltech he researched quasi-stellar objects, or “quasars,” some of the most distant and ancient objects in the universe.

Not all of Hugh’s discoveries involved astrophysics. Prompted by curiosity, he studied the world’s religions and “holy books” and found only one book that proved scientifically and historically accurate: the Bible. Hugh started at religious “ground zero” and through scientific and historical reality-testing became convinced that the Bible is truly the Word of God! When he went on to describe for others his journey to faith in Jesus Christ, he was surprised to discover how many people believed or disbelieved without checking evidence.

Hugh’s unshakable confidence that God’s revelations in Scripture and nature do not, will not, and cannot contradict became his unique message. In this realm, he has written many books, including: The Fingerprint of God, The Creator and the Cosmos, Beyond the Cosmos, The Genesis Question, A Matter of Days, Creation As Science, Why the Universe Is the Way It Is, and More Than a Theory.

Read more about Hugh Ross here, and visit his website, REASONS TO BELIEVE.

Other Resources:

Only Genesis with John C. Rankin [MP3 CD]: The foundations for life and living are found in the book of Genesis, including the power to give, the power to live in the light, the power of informed choice, the power to love hard questions, the power to love enemies and the power to forgive. This class will outline the ten positive assumptions of Genesis, which follow the biblical order of creation: God’s nature, communication, human nature, human freedom, hard questions, human sexuality, science and the scientific method, verifiable history, covenantal law and unalienable rights.

Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus vol. 2 by Dr. Brown: Incisive and direct, this book provides an honest, fair, and thorough discussion of common objections on theological themes. Brown’s answers are thoroughly documented and foot noted.

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Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus vol. 3 by Dr. Brown: This third installment of Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus looks specifically at questions raised about messianic prophecies in Isaiah, Daniel, Psalms, Haggai, and Zechariah.

Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus vol. 4 by Dr. Brown: In this volume of the Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus series, Dr. Brown counters the arguments that the New Testament mistranslates, misuses, and misunderstands the Hebrew Scriptures, also addressing the objections that Jesus or Paul abolished the Law.

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11 Comments
  1. I note this is the second RTB speaker you have had on the LoF. Given that RTB promotes some very controversial ideas, I think it only fair and reasonable for you to have a guest representing the YEC view. There are three big Creationist ministries – ICR, AiG, and CMI – so you shouldn’t have any difficulty finding a qualified YEC speaker.

  2. In the second hour Dr. Brown talked a bit about I John 5:7 and how it was added by a scribe to try to emphasize the Trinity doctrine.

    My question is, Have we seen men through zeal, emphasize the triune, threefold, or three in one
    nature, interaction, or workings of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in such a way as to go beyond what the scripture says about this, thus making a Trinity doctrine that isn’t necessarily what the Bible teaches?

    I was reading a book in which the man wrote that we know the Holy Spirit is a person, and that we know this because of the characteristics that people show, such as jealousy, anger, etc.

    Now those were not his exact words but I believe that was the basic substance of what he was saying. I’ve heard the same kind of things from others that conclude that the Holy Spirit, which is called by them the 3rd person of the Godhead, is indeed a person.

    I on the other hand, was not taught that among the Christian group I had been with for many years, the one I received most of my instruction in the scriptures through, the ones that taught me about the holy spirit and how to receive it, which I did. I know I have received the holy spirit, the gift of God for I did and still do speak in tongues, for real. It is a real spiritual gift of God and it is for today.

    I was taught that God is holy and that God is spirit and that he gives to those that believe in Jesus, the gift of holy spirit which is of his own nature, that is, he gives of that which he is
    and we who do believe in Jesus and have received of the Spirit of God, did receive a measure of it, the measure God has dealt to every man.

    I believe Jesus has the full measure of all that God is.

    Now I thought about the question, “Is the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God, a person?”

    I am aware of the verse that says, “Grieve not the spirit of God.” (Eph 4:30) as well as the verse that says, “Quench not the spirit.” (I Thess 5:19)

    Have you ever seen a person quenched?

    I suppose this can be a figure of speech attributing a characteristic of something in the physical world, fire for example, to a particular person, or is it an example of attributing a characteristic, an ability to grieve, of a person to a particular spirit?

    Do you remember the TV commercial about a certain brand of candy, where someone got their chocolate in another’s peanut butter, and where the other person said that it was the other person’s peanut butter that got into their chocolate?

    I’d like to get back to this question about whether a person can be quenched or not.

    As I thought about this question, I was reminded of what happened to the wicked witch in the movie
    The Wizard Of Oz, at the end of her apparent existance.

    If I remember this right, Dorothy lit the witch’s
    broomstick on fire with the aid of a burning lamp on the wall, to fend her off, and somehow in all the commotion, someone threw a bucket of water in her direction, hitting the wicked witch in the face, and she melted into the cold stone of the castle floor.

    I was quite a young child when I first saw that and became quite scared because up until that time, I had perceived her as being simply an evil person with some authority over an army of flying monkeys and others as well as having some odd things such as a crystal ball with which she could see things, but I had not perceived her to be some kind of form of an evil spirit, until I saw her melt away and disappear.

    I was always the one who had to be told over and over again that such things are just a story by my parents.

    Now I know that The Wizard Of OZ is just a story.
    I get that, but the point of all this is that this is how people communicate through ideas which are expressed by words and pictures. That hasn’t changed.

    So my question remains, and that is, Is the holy spirit, or Holy Spirit, if you prefer, (the member of the threefold Godhead which we may read of in Matthew 28:19) a person or a spirit, or is he or it both?

    I tend to think of the spirit of God as a spirit, a holy spirit, the one and only Holy Spirit which is the essence of God himself, rather than thinking of the Spirit of God as a particular person of the Godhead.

    It seems to me that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are Godhood, and as the neighbors make up a neighborhood, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit which is Godhood, make up the Godhead, and that this Godhead is of God the Father himself and has been from everlasting, and will endure for everlasting eternity.

    Yet my question remains. Somehow I think I can get by without the answer. I just hope we can all learn to get along whether we perceive the Spirit of God as a person, or as simply being the Spirit of God.

    I can’t see myself being a Trinitarian, using all of the language that I hear Trinitarians use.

    I’m not convinced that such is my calling of God.
    I’m not convinced of that at all, but I don’t know what I shall be. I only know that this is where I am at this time.

    I think God is a lot bigger than our doctrines and that there are things about him I can not at this time comprehend.

  3. Ewan, yes, definitely, we plan to have some young earth creationists on the show! I just bought Jonathan Sarfati’s newest book and noted that he lives in the states now. Definitely in our plans.

  4. Dr. Jonathan Sarfati is an amazing scientist, he’s also a Messianic Jew. That should be a great show, I own a few of his books as well.

  5. “Now I thought about the question, “Is the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God, a person?”” – Ray

    That’d be a bit like saying your spirit is a seperate person from you, the person. I don’t see any reason to utilize such terminology – it doesn’t seem to make sense or add anything practical or usable to life.

  6. I tend to think of the Spirit of God more as a Spirit than a person and it shows in my testimony of the gospel.

    For without the Spirit of God I could not be a partaker of the things pertaining to the kingdom of heaven. The words of Christ were full of this spirit, and those who received Christ received of the things of God which were alienated from them because of sin. Being born again by the word of Christ, through faith, the faith that is in him, I found something within myself that is not of myself, but is of God, for within me, that is, in myself, dwells no good thing, just as the apostle Paul said of himself by the same spirit. But thanks be to God for sending his Son Jesus from heaven into this world for our salvation. By Christ we are saved.

    His final cry from the cross was because of my alienation.

    I was reminded that the KJV is a version and not a literal translation. There are many modern versions of the Bible today and all of them have something to offer.

    It’s good to see what other versions have to offer as sometimes what they have is closer to what was origionally given to us of God.

    I’ve heard that in heaven only Jesus and God are worshipped.

    For those of you who prefer to see the Holy Spirit as a person, how does that play out in your rendering of the gospel, by your testimony?

    I’ve seen it in the Bible both ways.

  7. Dr. Brown,

    I haven’t heard the show (my bandwidth is capped, so I don’t do much downloading of media files), but my understanding is that Hugh Ross has some strange ideas about the Bible’s creation account. I also recall (though maybe amiss) your saying something about Biblical genealogies being incomplete: if this is correct (and my apologies if I’ve remembered wrongly), where in time do you place Adam, and was there life on Earth long before him?

    Thanks,

    Paul.

  8. It would be nice to see FIRE get on board with what God is doing through AiG, CMI and ICR. FIRE Church once watched Ken Ham’s introductory message on video some years ago.

    People get confused by evolution, and it takes time to get the programming out. Once you’ve come out of it, the Word is so clear about it, but it takes time for it to sink in. Some of the biggest opponents of YEC are theistic evolutionists, not atheists.

    Thankfully MLB is open to entertaining YEC views.

    The Jews brought us Genesis 1, and 6 days creationism. The Shabbat is a celebration of 6 days creation. Ex 20:11. Good to see Jews like Sarfati still at it.

    Go MLB!

  9. Hi,

    You cannot argue a person into the Kingdom of God! Unless God regenerates a person, they cannot see the Kingdom of God. The ONLY way to assist a person is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them!

  10. Dr.Brown
    Thank you for having different views on your show. I personally align myself with the old earth view. As long as view does not contridict the Bible I am willing to listen. But let us not throughout a theory because it doesn’t fit your personal theological view. After all Luther was convinced the earth was flat. Great theologian but very wrong on science.

Comments are closed.