Big Question – Good News Unlimited: Recent Episodes
Eliezer Gonzalez
Why hasn’t Jesus come back already? This really is a big question, because if there’s one thing that Jesus gave an iron-clad guarantee on, and more than once, it’s that he would come back to earth to take those who choose him as their Saviour, to be with him forever. For example, Jesus said, Do […]
What do Christians mean when they say that they’ve been saved? The reason why this is an interesting question is because people who aren’t Christians have different ideas about what it means to be “saved.” You might be surprised to know that even Christians have different things in mind when they say they’ve been saved! […]
Will artificial intelligence replace God? My son is studying to be a software engineer and he has an interested in artificial intelligence and machine learning. And recently we had a discussion about whether artificial intelligence would ever replace the need for God. I’ve since found out that a little while back, a guy called Anthony […]
Will humanity destroy itself? Since 1947, the members of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists have maintained the doomsday clock. This clock represents the threat to humanity of a global man-made catastrophe. The Bulletin’s board monitors new scientific and technological developments that could inflict irrevocable harm to the human race. In 1947, when the doomsday clock […]
Where is the Ark of the Covenant? The only thing most people know about the Ark of the Covenant is whatever they saw in Stephen Spielberg’s 1981 film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. In this action-adventure film, Harrison Ford plays Indiana Jones, in a race against the German Nazis to find the long-lost ark of […]
Does archaeology prove the Bible? Well, let’s first understand how archaeology works. Wars, natural disasters, and the ravages of time and of humanity have erased much of the archaeological record that once existed. Even today, whole cities lie unexcavated under fields and under other cities due to lack of money and resources. Archaeology is a […]
Radio Version: To what extent should we obey the government? Well, depending on where you live, this could be just a theoretical question, or it might be a burning and intensely practical issue. I want to make it very clear that I won’t get getting into politics in any way. I just want to deal […]
Radio Version: Are there monsters in the Bible? The answer to this question is yes, there are many monsters in the Bible, but they’re not necessarily the monsters you might think. The monsters that the people in Biblical times were afraid of were mainly the ones in the natural world around them. They didn’t need […]
Radio Version: Is there a secret code to understanding the Bible? Well, this is a fascinating question. Yes, there are secrets codes embedded in the Bible, but they’re not the ones you might think. And yes, there is an ultimate code that will totally unlock the meaning of the Bible, and I’m going to tell […]
Radio Version: What does the future hold? Ha! What would you give to know what the future holds for you? I mean, we’ll all be in it… At least we hope so! Now, if we could only find someone who has been to the future, then we could ask them what the future holds, right? […]
Radio Version: What About Abortion? Christians like to characterise themselves as pro-life, and that designation is entirely true. It’s worth remembering that it’s because of Christianity’s historical emphasis on the innate and equal worth of every human life, that today we have the positive qualities in our civilisations such as human rights and equality for […]
Radio Version: What about same-sex marriage? This is one of those very controversial questions in society. The stereotypical divide is that you will usually find religious people on one side of the debate, and people who don’t believe in God on the other. But I actually want to be fair here, and, as a matter […]
Radio Version: Is there humour in the Bible? Of course, there’s humour in the Bible! The Bible was written by around 35 different people. The fact that they were inspired by God didn’t fry their brains or erase their personalities and their sense of humour. Of course, humour is a personal thing, so some Bible […]
Radio Version: What’s so special about the Christian God? People who don’t believe in any God – and that’s the majority of people in our society – tend to lump every “god” together. What I mean is that just because they reject the very idea of god, they stereotype all gods into the one single […]
Radio Version: How do you apply the Bible in the modern world? This is a huge question! Most people out there would say that you can’t because it’s irrelevant. And there have been countless of people who have been turned off the Bible by Christians themselves who haven’t know how to apply the teachings of […]
Was Jesus just a good man? Hardly anyone denies these days that Jesus existed. The evidence for the reality of Jesus is far too strong. However, one of the ways in which Jesus is marginalised in the minds of many is by the idea that Jesus was just a good man. Well, actually, they’re partially […]
Radio Version: Is being a Christian all about following rules? If you listen to a lot of the critics of the Christian faith, you’d probably think that Christianity is all about following rules. And that’s the reason why a lot of people don’t want to be Christians. Who wants to live simply being told what […]
Radio Version: What does the Bible say about sex? Surprisingly, the Bible has quite a lot to say about sex. And, perhaps even more surprisingly, the most important thing it has to say about sex is that its good. This might come as a bit of a shock to people who think that Christianity is […]
Radio Version: Is there life after death? This really is a big question, isn’t it! I don’t think there’s a person alive who hasn’t wondered about this. It is striking that throughout history, across every religion and culture, there appears to have been a strong belief in life after death in some form or another. […]
Radio Version: If Christianity is special, why is it special? Well, it’s pretty obvious that I think that Christianity has something special going for it. At the end of the day, I’m not a Christian for no reason. There are a lot of people who say that all religions are basically just the same, but […]
Radio Version: Is it true that Jesus is the only way to God? Let me answer this question like this: if what Jesus says is true, then he is. I know that’s not necessarily a popular thing to say in a pluralistic society in which the popular thing to say is that whatever you believe […]
Radio Version: Are there good reasons to go to church? For most people this isn’t a big question at all. They can’t see any reason why they should go to church at all. Some may have gone to church as kids, and grown out of it, or left because of they didn’t like what they […]
Radio Version: Do our lives really matter? Recently I was speaking to good friend, and he opened up to me and told me that he was wondering what the purpose of his life was, and whether his life really mattered. This is a question that I’ve been asked more often than you might think, in […]
Radio Version: Why are so many movie villains Christian? At the height of the Cold War back in the 1970’s and 80’s, the villains in the movies were always Russian. Things have changed today. Have you noticed how today, often the villains in Hollywood are Christians. They’re typically portrayed as people who are brainwashed fanatics. […]
Radio Version: How old is the earth really? For atheists, and also some Christians, this isn’t really a big question. They are comfortable with the view that the earth is approximately four and a half billion years old. However, many Christians still hold the traditional view that the earth is around six thousand years old. […]
Radio Version: Why aren’t we getting more miracles today? When you read the stories in the Bible, you get the impression that miracles are happening all the time. So, why don’t we see miracles now, and if you believe that we do, then why aren’t they so frequent? I think that we have a wrong […]
Radio Version: What happens to those who have never heard the Gospel? I believe that God is love. If that is so, then how can he condemn everyone who has never heard about Christianity, and who basically never had a chance. Because the reality is that there are a lot of them. Just think it […]
Radio Version: Why do bad things happen if God is good? This question assumes that God being good means that nothing negative will ever happen to us. And that assumption just doesn’t hold true. A mother can be good and create negative consequences for her child. In fact, it’s part of her being good and […]
Radio Version: Where can you find the holy grail? The so-called holy grail is the stuff of legends. Literally. It’s history’s greatest treasure hunt. King Arthur’s knights went on quest to look for it and so did Monty Python. So what is the holy grail? Well, the holy grail is meant to be a cup. […]
Radio Version: Is your brain to be trusted? That’s a surprising question isn’t it? But it’s an important question because we all really rely on our brains. We don’t usually doubt that what our brains are telling us is right? Imagine if the information you’re getting from your brain is wrong. What could you trust […]
Radio Version: Are Genesis and science compatible? Genesis is the first book of the Bible. It describes how God created everything and it’s got some pretty big miraculous happenings in it. Most people today would say “nah you can’t make Genesis agree with science” but it’s not really so simple. It depends on how you […]
Radio Version: Are miracles real or not? One of the reasons why people laugh at Christianity is the idea of miracles being real. I mean, how could the sea part and let people through on dry land? How could someone walk on water? How could water turn into wine and how could? And here’s the […]
Radio Version: Does the Big Bang prove creation false? What the Big Bang is is a model that describes how the universe expanded from an extremely hot dense early state into what we see today. It’s a bit hard to get your head around it but it wasn’t an explosion from a single point in […]
Radio Version: Does the Bible have naughty bits in it? Absolutely. There’s some very naughty bits in the Bible. Even that phrase “naughty bits” reminds us of the way that sex became a taboo subject in Christian tradition, that actually we shouldn’t call them naughty bits, because contrary to what you might think, sex isn’t […]
Radio Version: Why Is The Behaviour of Some People In The Bible So Bad? Let me be right up front here and agree that there’s some pretty bad behavior in the Bible. Now, it’s atrocious. Yes, the Bible has it all. A while ago, I watched part of a television series based on the stories […]
Radio Version: Is the New Testament untrustworthy due to it’s bias? This is actually one of the objections against the Bible that I hear the most from people who argue against Christianity. And what they’re saying is that you can’t trust what the Bible says about the life the death and the resurrection of Jesus […]
Did Jesus really rise from the dead? The entirety of the Christian faith stands or falls on the question of whether Jesus really did rise from the dead! Contrary to what you may thought before, the resurrection of Jesus is actually one of the best attested events in ancient history. Historians are like lawyers. They […]
Radio Version: Can Christians fight in war? I’ll be right up front here and tell you that there are different views within Christianity about this. Many Christians believe that you shouldn’t bear arms in war under any circumstances. That view is called pacifism and it has a very long and illustrious tradition within Christianity. Pacifists […]
Radio Version: Has Christianity oppressed women? Well, the short answer to this question, if you look back through history and even today in some ways is yes. But the longer answer, which is the more thoughtful, and accurate answer is that it’s not so simple and that Christianity has actually done far more good for […]
Radio Version: Why were many ancient Christian writings left out of the Bible? I’ve often found that people who ask why some Christian writings were left out of the Bible, they have some kind of a conspiracy theory in mind. Typically in these conspiracy theories the villain of the piece is the roman emperor Constantine […]
Radio Version: Why did Jesus have to die on a cross for God to forgive us? This is a really big question. The death of Jesus on the Cross is at the very heart of the Christian faith. And it is also the reason why some people can’t accept it. It’s because they haven’t understood […]
Radio Version: Do all religions point to the same God? It’s a common thing to say that all religions are all the same: they’re just different ways of pointing to the same god. And there are some common analogies that are used to illustrate this. One analogy is of four blind men who encounter an […]
Radio Version: Is God a narcissist? Basically, what people mean when they ask this question is, why does God ask us to praise him and worship him? It’s a question that comes logically to people who haven’t been brought up in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. And the reason is because they don’t have a concept of […]
Radio Version: Why is Jesus nicer than the God of the Old Testament? It’s not unusual for people to like the God of the New Testament much more than the God of the Old Testament. I mean, they seem so different! The God of the Old Testament goes around handing out laws and punishments, and […]
Radio Version: Has Noah’s ark been found? This is actually a really big mystery. Noah’s ark is the world’s most famous cargo ship. The Bible says God told Noah to build in order to save himself, his family, and the animals of the world during the worldwide flood that the Bible describes. At the end […]
What is human consciousness and where does it come from? You get up in the morning and look at your messy morning self in the mirror and decide that you are going to be a better human being today than you were yesterday. That’s human consciousness at work. And where it comes from is one […]
Do aliens exist? As a child, I was convinced that aliens existed. I was right into UFO’s and that kind of thing. I kept a scrapbook in which I glued articles from newspapers and magazines of supposed alien sightings. The issue of aliens in the Bible is an interesting one. On the one hand, there […]
Radio Version: Is religion just a crutch? Yeah, I’ve heard this idea; that religion some kind of a crutch for the weak and the ignorant. This idea kind of says that people who are fearful or uneducated rely on religion to avoid facing the harsh realities of life and to avoid taking responsibility for their […]
Radio Version: Is evolution real? I realise that I’m way out on a limb here, because most people in our society would think that evolution is a proven fact of science and that it’s the reason why we’re all here. But I don’t believe that’s the case at all. Now, I can understand why we […]
Radio Version: Was Christianity based on other ancient religions? This is one of those myths that gets peddled around, usually by unqualified people who actually know little about ancient religions or about the origins of Christianity. What they say is that the accounts of Jesus recorded in the Bible are just borrowed and adapted from […]
Radio Version: Where did morality come from? Well, for me, that’s an interesting question: because as far as I can see, the atheistic, evolutionary model doesn’t seem to offer any convincing answers. The usual answer from an atheistic evolutionary point of view is that morality is just agreed guidelines for behaviour that individual communities develop […]
Radio Version: Was Jesus a real historical figure? It’s interesting that a recent survey in the United Kingdom discovered that 40% of adults don’t believe that Jesus was a real, historical figure. And the reason why this is interesting, is because qualified historians, whether Christians or atheists, almost universally agree that Jesus actually really did […]
Radio Version: Why are Christians always so serious? Well, they’re not. I know some really funny Christians. But if you know some who are always serious, perhaps they shouldn’t be. The Bible actually says in Micah 6:8, in The Message paraphrase, “Don’t take yourself too seriously – take God seriously.” Look, I do think that […]
Radio Version: Where did life come from? When it comes to this question, Christians will tell you that life was created by God, who is the source of all life himself. And the interesting thing is that when we turn to science to see if it has an alternative view, science actually has absolutely nothing […]
Radio Version: Does the Bible contradict itself? Well, people who believe that the Bible was inspired by God would say, “No, the Bible doesn’t contradict itself.” Meanwhile, people who try to discredit the Christian faith come up with lists of apparent contradictions. That kind of looks like hard evidence to me. So, who’s right? I […]
Radio Version: Where does beauty come from? My wife was born in Australia, but she actually grew up in Chile. When I visited Chile with here, I was amazed at the sunsets over the water. Where I live in Australia, the beaches face the east. You have to get up early to catch the sunsets. […]
Radio Version: Did Christianity invent charity? There’s a lot of things that we don’t think about in our culture. We just take them for granted. And this is one of them: where did charity come from? And what I mean by charity is selflessly helping others. A visible aspect of charity that we see in […]
Radio Version: Was Jesus illegitimate? We don’t hear the term “illegitimate” much today, because it unfairly stigmatises children, but in the past the word “illegitimate” was applied to children born outside of marriage. It was a big deal, especially in traditional cultures like the one Joseph and Mary lived in. When Joseph married Mary, it […]
Radio Version: Why do Christians go on about faith so much? When I was a little kid, just six years old, I had lots of scary nightmares. I thought there were monsters waiting for me in dark corners. My teachers noticed changes in my behaviour, so the principal rang my parents to have a little […]
Radio Version: Did Jesus have a sense of humour? I was surprised the other day when my son said to me, “Dad, I can’t imagine you as a funny guy.” The thing is, I know I used to be a funny guy. I still think I am. I wonder what went wrong! And something else […]
Radio Version: How are Christians meant to live? One of the weirdest characters from history is Simon Stylites, who was a Christian monk who thought that the right way to live as a Christian was to get as far away from the world as possible. So he lived for 37 years on a small platform […]
Radio Version: Does the resurrection of Jesus matter? In this question, you’re going right to the heart of the Christian faith. So I’m going to summarise a million earth-shatteringly important points into just three simple reasons why the resurrection of Jesus is so important. The first one is that the resurrection proves that Jesus is […]
Radio Version: What is Grace? Grace is one of the things that Christians talk about the most. It’s at the very heart of what it means to be and live as a Christian. Grace is still one of the most elusive concepts to define with human words. The reason for that is that it’s a […]
Radio Version: Did the Christian church turn Jesus into God? This is an interesting but misinformed thing that people who try to attack the Christian faith sometimes say: that Jesus was just a normal man and that a long time after his death the Christian church suddenly started saying that he was God. This view […]
How can I be saved? Religion has usually ended up turning the issue of how to be saved into a a very complicated affair. There are all these teachings you need to know, things you have to comply with, and standards you have to maintain! As a result, there are lots of people who don’t […]
Radio Version: What did Jesus wear? What did Jesus wear? The Bible doesn’t give us a neat physical description of what Jesus wore all in one place, but we can pretty much piece together his wardrobe. Jesus wore a mantle, like a large shawl. This was a distinctively Jewish form of shawl that had tassels […]
Radio Version: Is heaven real? Before you even try to answer this question, you have to be on board with a whole bunch of assumptions. You must remember that science deals in facts and observations. Science can tell us about what happens in the physical world where we live, but it can’t tell us anything […]
Radio Version: Has evolution disproved the Bible? So, let me say a few things about evolution. To disprove something, you need evidence. The idea of evolution itself isn’t evidence, and no one has found any actual evidence to prove evolution. What I mean is that we can talk in a general way about how evolution […]
Radio Version: What does it mean to belong to a Christian church? I’ll start with what the church is not, and this might surprise you. The church isn’t a building. It’s actually the people. The Christian church existed long before there were church buildings. The church isn’t a specific denomination. If you look down the […]
Radio Version: Why does God allow suffering and pain? Well, that is the big question, isn’t it? It’s supposedly the biggest weapon that atheists bring out against Christians. One of the assumptions behind this question is that pain is bad. I guess we can all agree with that. But another assumption here is we’d all […]
Radio Version: What is faith? The way that non-Christians and Christians use the word “faith” is different. Non-Christians use “faith” to describe believing something with no evidence. And that’s confusing because when Christians talk about faith, that’s not what they mean that at all. What Christians mean when they talk about faith is more about […]
Radio Version: Did Christians invent the book? Well, they didn’t really invent it. But they were instrumental in the development of the book as we know it, I mean, with pages and covers, and so on. The first books were just scratches on a big stone. Then some smart person discovered that that clay tablets […]
Radio Version: What is the Kingdom of God? I’m a dual citizen. I have both Australian citizenship and Spanish citizenship. (Triple if you count the Kingdom of God.) In Spain they have compulsory national military service when you turn 18. I grew up in Australia, and years ago, when I turned 18 I went to […]
Radio Version: How do you start reading the Bible? When I first started reading the Bible, I read it like any other book. Like, you go to the first page and start reading, right? But every time, I’d give up, because I got stuck in long lists of names and tons of historical details that […]
Radio Version: What does it mean to be a Christian? My idea of what being a Christian is all about has actually changed a lot over the years. When I was younger I thought being a Christian was about going to church and being part of a religious community that believed in the same things […]
Radio Version: How did Christianity begin? Actually, Christianity began in the unlikeliest circumstances. The series of events that kicked off Christianity would be ones that most rational people would probably consider to be the least likely to start a religion. Just think about it for a moment. The Romans had just crucified yet another Jewish […]
Radio Version: Would atheists be better off without Christianity? Many atheists think we’d be better off without religion, and sometimes, specifically, that we’d be better off without Christianity. Usually, when I speak with the more aggressive atheists, they’re so busy trying to debunk Christianity, that they don’t realise that they should actually be thanking Christianity, […]
Radio Version: Is Christianity just the same as other religions? Is Christianity just the same as other religions? No, it most definitely isn’t. There’s several key concepts that set Christianity apart from every other faith in the world. The first difference is that Christianity is a public faith. Most other belief systems are based on […]
Radio Version: Did Jesus fulfil prophecy? Some years ago, I started writing my autobiography. I got through a fair chunk of writing, and now I’m taking a break. I realised how many weird and wonderful twists and turns my life’s had! It’s certainly not going the way anyone really thought it would, let alone me! […]
Radio Version: Was the universe designed? Sometimes you hear the question of whether the natural world of planet earth was designed. I believe it was. But the question of whether the universe was designed is an even bigger question. I guess when you talk about things like “the big bang” and when you consider all […]
Radio Version: Is Christianity responsible for holding back education throughout history? Yes, I’ve heard some people say that Christianity has been responsible for holding back knowledge and learning throughout history. It’s a rather recent complaint against Christianity, because in the past, people knew their history better. In fact, no single group in human history has […]
Radio Version: Does God love me? Everyone wants love. But defining what exactly love is is something that no one in all of human history has been able to do. I believe that’s because there’s something about love that goes beyond the human. Perhaps the biggest problem in trying to understand the love of God […]
Radio Version: Is there genocide in the Bible? My daughter loves babies. After all, she is a midwife! She’s a follower of Jesus, however the other day she came to me and said, “Dad, how is it that God told people to kill babies in the Bible?” Naturally, she couldn’t put together in her head […]
Radio Version: Was Jesus God? There’s plenty of people today who question who Jesus was. That’s nothing new. Back in his day, the most frequent question asked about Jesus was, literally, “Who is this guy?” Like today, back then there were plenty of people who needed to be able to put Jesus in a box, […]
Radio Version: Where did the universe come from? Some people ask the question, “Where did life come from?” But the question of where the universe itself came from is an even bigger question. To many people, the obvious answer is, “The Big Bang.” But then again, what was there before the Big Bang? Why is […]
Radio Version: Has Christianity been responsible for starting wars? There are people who are so anti-God that they say that religion – and often they have Christianity in mind – is responsible for all the wars that people have fought. The first thing that I want to say is that I don’t want to minimise […]
Radio Version: Who was Jesus? Whatever you may think about Jesus, you can’t deny his incredibly positive effect on both the history of the world and on the lives of countless people. There are different views about who Jesus was, but they can be basically boiled down to four key ideas. The first idea is […]
Radio Version: Why doesn’t God reveal himself to me? A friend of mine recently told me she had decided to abandon Christianity. She explained her reason and questioning why doesn’t God reveal himself to us personally? She reasoned that a person who cared about her would call her, or visit, or message her. “So,” she […]
Radio Version: How do you pray? Some years ago, my father died in very sad circumstances. In the days that followed, I was a mess, and I needed time to be by myself. So I went and sat beside the sea. I spent a whole day thinking and praying there. What I most prayed for […]
Radio Version: Did Jesus actually die on the cross? It is not unusual to ask the question: Did Jesus Actually Die on the Cross? Some years ago I was in the Middle East, and I enjoyed several conversations with a non-Christian I met there. He believed that Jesus couldn’t possibly be God, because God would […]
Radio Version: What did Jesus actually teach? My wife and I have been married for more than fifteen years, and I’ve noticed a funny thing. I guess it’s what always happens, but as time goes by, her recollections of what happened in a certain situation are different to mine. There’s no question that Jesus Christ […]
Radio Version: Was Jesus married? In Dan Brown’s 2003 novel “The Da Vinci Code” he claimed that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had children. It’s a novel, but many people believe it is true. But it’s actually not a new idea. It pops up every now and then, and it’s an important question. […]
Radio Version: Do scientists believe in God? If you ask a group of scientists whether they believe in God, you’ll find that some do and some don’t. The popular idea that if you’re a scientist then you must by definition be an atheist, is wrong. Science doesn’t necessarily lead to atheism. The whole notion that […]
Radio Version: Did Jesus really exist? I once read a book that argued that the earth was hollow and that it was populated inside by a super-race of aliens. It even had photos that proved it. It was interesting, but I didn’t believe it. Why? Because all the evidence says that the earth’s core is […]
Radio Version: What is the meaning of life? It’s often when we’re facing a crisis that we ask the questions that matter to understand the meaning of life. Not long ago, I received a phone call from a person who was dealing with a very serious, life-threatening issue. He needed to talk with someone. As […]
Radio Version: Who put the Bible together? The question of who put the Bible together is one that comes up over and over again. The Christian Bible consists of 66 different small books, written over a period of up to 1,500 years, by different authors in different times and cultures. It’s divided into the Old […]
Radio Version: Does God exist? Does God exist? This is the most important question we can ask, because the answer to this question ultimately determines the answers to all other questions. I asked myself this question when I started thinking for myself, when I was fourteen. I’d been brought up as a Christian, but one […]