# Between the Seasons Bonus Episode - Special Q & A Session.

An episode of [The Bible Journey Daily Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1570210433), 8 Oct 2026, 27 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1728449/episodes/19868942-between-the-seasons-bonus-episode-special-q-a-session.mp3

Send us Fan Mail Save the World Podcast In-depth lectures and interviews on issues affecting the continued survival of human... Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Support the show This podcast is entirely the work of Jeremy R. McCandless... Follow and support me as an independent podcast creator on Patreon. Jeremy McCandless | Creating Podcasts and Bible Study Resources | Patreon To receive my weekly newsletter and keep up to date with all five of my podcasts, subscribe at: Jeremy McCandless | Substack Check out my other Podcasts. My History of the Christian Church: https://thehistoryofthechristianchurch.buzzsprout.com The L.I.F.E. Podcast: Philosophy and current trends in the Arts and Entertainment. https://the-living-in-faith-everyday-podcast.buzzsprout.com The Renewed Mind Podcast. My Psychology and Mental Health Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568891 The Classic Literature Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568906 To visit my Author page on Amazon and view my entire back catalogue of books on both Amazon and Kindle, and now also on Audible, Visit: Amazon.com: Jeremy R Mccandless: books, biography, latest update

## Chapters

- 10:45 \[Ad\] Save the World Podcast
- 11:32 (Cont.) Between the Seasons Bonus Episode - Special Q & A Session.

## Transcript

[0:14] SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone, and welcome to this special episode of the Bible Journey Daily Podcast.
[0:20] SPEAKER_00: This is a special UA episode.
[0:24] SPEAKER_00: It's one of those days where I'm between the seasons and I'm taking a week out to prepare our next study time together where we're going to be working through the book of Philippians, and I've I'm taking this opportunity to answer some of the questions that have come in.
[0:40] SPEAKER_00: It's good to have you with me here today.
[0:43] SPEAKER_00: And if you've been listening along through my Bible daily journey, that journey in the Word, you'll know that I sometimes try and dig a little deeper into Scriptures.
[0:52] SPEAKER_00: The questions, though, naturally start arising and piling up out of that.
[0:56] SPEAKER_00: And in all honesty, when questions come in, that is one of the favourite parts of my ministry.
[1:01] SPEAKER_00: The Bible is a very deep well from which we can drink, and wrestling with these questions together is how we can sharpen one another and all of us grow in our walk with Christ.
[1:12] SPEAKER_00: So I'm never upset or confused sometimes, yes, but never concerned when any question comes in.
[1:20] SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I just fire a quick response back.
[1:22] SPEAKER_00: But there are other times when the questions merit a further consideration.
[1:27] SPEAKER_00: I then send a quick note back saying that this is one really worth discussing in a wider forum.
[1:33] SPEAKER_00: So today I'm going to dive into that collection of listener questions that covers a lot of different ground today.
[1:41] SPEAKER_00: We're going to look at how to navigate the tricky, messy waters of family relationships and how we can love when things can get complicated, and boy, can they get complicated in these days.
[1:53] SPEAKER_00: Secondly, I'm going to do a bit of a deep dive into the historical and biblical foundations, into something often referred to as penal substitutionary atonement.
[2:06] SPEAKER_00: And even I'll try and have a little more less intense look at what the Bible has to say about the shape of the earth.
[2:14] SPEAKER_00: So whether you're listening to me at one time normal speed or you're cranking me up to two times, you know who you are, David.
[2:23] SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you've still taken the time out of your day to join with me.
[2:53] SPEAKER_00: She says, Hello to me and to members of the community.
[2:57] SPEAKER_00: And she says, Hi Jeremy, I have a doctrine I am reviewing which was brought up in my Bible study group.
[3:04] SPEAKER_00: Could you lead me to any study addressing this or any other insights that you might have in regard to penal substitution as to whether it is biblical?
[3:13] SPEAKER_00: Carol says she was told by someone that this doctrine was formed after after the Reformation and is not actually supported by Scriptures.
[3:21] SPEAKER_00: Or what the Church Fathers taught.
[3:24] SPEAKER_00: She then concludes and says, Your thoughts are welcome as I look at this doctrine more and its arguments, thank you, and blessings in Jesus Christ.
[3:32] SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you, Carol.
[3:34] SPEAKER_00: It's wonderful to hear from you again.
[3:36] SPEAKER_00: It's not the first time you've reached out, and your thoughts, encouragement, support, and questions are always welcome.
[3:43] SPEAKER_00: And thank you for reaching out for what is a thoughtful, but it is a substantive, it is a substantive question, and it is exactly the kind of deeper study I love to wrestle with round here.
[3:56] SPEAKER_00: And you've hit on one of the most foundational and indeed currently debated doctrines of the Christian faith.
[4:02] SPEAKER_00: The first thing I would like to say is that it is completely natural for believers when they come together to examine these things sometimes when they come up in a Bible study group or in a text.
[4:15] SPEAKER_00: People in many of our modern churches these days come from very different cultural and religious backgrounds.
[4:22] SPEAKER_00: So let me unpack this from what I believe is a biblical perspective, addressing both the historical claim that you mentioned and what I believe the Bible actually teaches.
[4:33] SPEAKER_00: So, firstly, is penal substitution purely a post-Reformation thing?
[4:39] SPEAKER_00: Well, let's have a quick look at the history of it.
[4:43] SPEAKER_00: The claim that penal substitutionary atonement, PSA as some people shorten it to, is in fact, if I may use the word, isn't it was invented after the Reformation is a fairly common critique in some circles.
[4:57] SPEAKER_00: But historically, I simply believe that that perspective does not hold up.
[5:02] SPEAKER_00: What is true is that the Reformers, like Calvin and Luther, systematically codified and clarified this doctrine during the 16th century, but the substance of the teaching, I believe, goes right back to the early church and beyond that, even.
[5:20] SPEAKER_00: The early fathers, those who lived long before the Reformation, figures like Athenaesis, Gregory of Nicanius, and indeed Augustine of Hippo, called Saint Augustine by some, all spoke frequently about Christ taking our place, bearing our penalty and absorbing the wrath of the judgment of God.
[5:42] SPEAKER_00: For instance, in the fourth century, Athenaeus wrote in his work, actually called his examination of the incarnation, he called it on the incarnation, he wrote about how Christ offered his body as a substitute to pay the debt, the debt of death that was owed.
[6:00] SPEAKER_00: I dip into my church history podcast, and particularly there's those episodes you may find helpful.
[6:08] SPEAKER_00: But even earlier than that, even earlier than church history, I would say the concept of a substitute bearing the penalty for sin is actually woven into the very fabric of the Hebrew Bible, what we today call our Old Testament.
[6:24] SPEAKER_00: This is seen most vividly in the sacrificial system of Leviticus, including pictures like that of the sacrificial lamb and indeed the scapegoat, as well as those huge prophetic pictures found in many passages, like that of Isaiah 53, where the servant of the Lord is pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.
[6:48] SPEAKER_00: So, in my estimation, it is thoroughly biblical.
[6:52] SPEAKER_00: Now the word penal irritates some people, but it simply means something pertaining to a penalty or a punishment.
[7:01] SPEAKER_00: Substitution obviously simply means taking the place of another, and atonement talks about making that reconciliation, bringing things back to being at one again.
[7:12] SPEAKER_00: So does the Bible teach that Christ took our penalty in our place?
[7:18] SPEAKER_00: And I believe absolutely.
[7:21] SPEAKER_00: Consider these central texts.
[7:23] SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, it says, For our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
[7:36] SPEAKER_00: This is that great exchange described by the Apostle Paul.
[7:40] SPEAKER_00: He took our sin and its legal consequences, its punishment in other words, and gave us in its place his righteousness.
[7:49] SPEAKER_00: Galatians 3 13 tells us Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
[7:57] SPEAKER_00: For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs in a tree.
[8:01] SPEAKER_00: So here again Paul explicitly chooses to use legal terms, penal language, talking about Christ absorbing the curse, the penalty due to us.
[8:14] SPEAKER_00: And in the Old Testament, Isaiah 53, 5 says, Upon him, talking about the Messiah, was the chastisement that brought us peace, and that by his wounds we are healed.
[8:27] SPEAKER_00: Now, the Bible uses multiple metaphors to describe the cross and the atonement that took place there, such as ransom, such as victory over the principalities and powers, also placing it as a moral example and talks about reconciliation.
[8:45] SPEAKER_00: Penal substitution, however, is the legal and moral bedrock that holds all of those perspectives together, I would say.
[8:53] SPEAKER_00: Without a substitute, taking our penalty, the justice of God and the mercy of God cannot truly meet at the cross.
[9:02] SPEAKER_00: He did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, writes Paul, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus Christ.
[9:12] SPEAKER_00: That's Romans 3.26.
[9:15] SPEAKER_00: So whilst remaining firm in my perspective on this, I still want to try and offer an encouragement for your Bible study group and maybe some help as how to position this if you're taking this contrary position to some who may be there.
[9:30] SPEAKER_00: It can feel unsettling, of course, when someone challenges a core doctrine, particularly in a Bible study group, but please don't let it shake your confidence.
[9:38] SPEAKER_00: Digging into these arguments ultimately always drives us deeper into the text and forces us to look more closely at what Jesus actually did and indeed accomplished on Calvary.
[9:52] SPEAKER_00: When people object to penal substitution, it's often because they misunderstand it and position it as offering a picture of an angry God arbitrarily lashing out at some innocent victim.
[10:05] SPEAKER_00: But the true biblical picture is breathtakingly different to that.
[10:10] SPEAKER_00: God Himself provided the substitute because he loves us so much.
[10:15] SPEAKER_00: John 3.16 tells us that.
[10:18] SPEAKER_00: And understood that way, the judge then steps down from the bench and agrees to pay the fine himself.
[10:25] SPEAKER_00: So encourage your group to keep studying.
[10:27] SPEAKER_00: Welcome difficult questions.
[10:29] SPEAKER_00: Keep asking those hard questions and let the majesty of what Christ did on the cross anchor your souls.
[10:37] SPEAKER_00: And let me just conclude by saying I wish grace and peace to you and your Bible study group.
[11:25] SPEAKER_00: Okay, next question.
[11:27] SPEAKER_00: And this is a sensitive one.
[11:28] SPEAKER_00: Now I've been asked this question several times in my life, and twice very recently.
[11:34] SPEAKER_00: A few years ago by a colleague of mine whose daughter was transitioning and wanted to be identified as a man, and very recently a woman who I know in a very everyday non-church situation regarding her son, who now wants to identify as a woman.
[11:51] SPEAKER_00: But then also very recently I've been sent a message on the Ask a Question button on my Buzz Sprite website, and this time it was asked by a young man in relation to his brother who was identifying himself as a woman.
[12:08] SPEAKER_00: His question was this.
[12:10] SPEAKER_00: This year he said, My teenage brother has come out as a woman, and I am the only one in the family who doesn't want to call him by his new name.
[12:18] SPEAKER_00: What should I do?
[12:20] SPEAKER_00: Wow, well, thanks first of all for reaching out with such a tender and a difficult question.
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: Whether it comes from a friend or a listener, I know how much pain and confusion but can lie behind a question like that.
[12:34] SPEAKER_00: But I also recognize the deep care that can sit behind a question like that.
[12:39] SPEAKER_00: When a sibling, particularly when a child, changes in a way that feels jarring to your relationship and indeed the whole family dynamic, it creates a very complex, a complex moral, but also a complex emotional landscape.
[12:56] SPEAKER_00: If you're facing this in your everyday life, it's completely understandable that you will feel confused and caught in the middle.
[13:04] SPEAKER_00: Of course you want to love your family member, but you also feel a pull between your experience of the life you've lived with them up to that point, perhaps in a parent's case, being there present when that child was born as that particular sex, and your convictions tells you that, but you also desire to keep the relationship with that person intact.
[13:29] SPEAKER_00: So how do we walk this difficult line without compromising the truth?
[13:33] SPEAKER_00: And at the same time without destroying the relationship.
[13:37] SPEAKER_00: Well, I think the only way we can approach this is to look at how Jesus interacted with people who themselves were in tangled, difficult human situations, different to this but still extremely complicated situations, and how we can find a way forward through listening, grace, and expressing love in the way He did.
[14:00] SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, we must access the power of listening.
[14:04] SPEAKER_00: One of the most practical pieces of advice I can give is this, and that is to start by listening.
[14:11] SPEAKER_00: Often when we're locked in a disagreement with a family, our instinct is to argue or to try and correct or to push back and put our point across.
[14:20] SPEAKER_00: But when we stop trying to force our perspective and simply choose to listen, truly attending to the other person when they speak without immediately reacting means that something can begin to shift.
[14:34] SPEAKER_00: This isn't about compromising what you believe, it's about following the example of Jesus.
[14:39] SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself spent a great deal of time asking questions, answering questions, and listening to people before he ever tried to correct them.
[14:50] SPEAKER_00: When your aim is genuinely to understand your child or your family member and to seek and maintain, to seek reconciliation and maintain a good relationship, you remove that frantic pressure of having to fix everything immediately in a single conversation.
[15:06] SPEAKER_00: You can then lay down that very unhelpful weapon of defensiveness and instead pick up the biblical posture of a servant.
[15:17] SPEAKER_00: And that means the most important thing is to try and look at the situation through the eyes of Jesus.
[15:25] SPEAKER_00: Now, when we look at the New Testament, Jesus was, of course, remarkably skilled at holding two things together simultaneously, the unwavering truth of the love and law of God, and at the same time profound, inclusive, and welcoming grace.
[15:40] SPEAKER_00: Think of how Jesus interacted with people whose lives were misunderstood, messy or complicated, or at odds with the cultural and religious norms of his day.
[15:50] SPEAKER_00: Whether it was a Samaritan woman at a well, a woman caught in adultery, or a man called Zacchaeus, up a sycamore tree, Jesus didn't condone everything about their lives, nor at the same time did he compromise his message.
[16:06] SPEAKER_00: But he did step into their space and sit with them and listen to them and look them in the eyes and treat them with an inherent human dignity that on many occasions completely disarmed them.
[16:20] SPEAKER_00: You see, grace doesn't mean pretending that everything is simple or that we agree with every choice everyone makes, but love does mean refusing to treat a family member as an adversary.
[16:31] SPEAKER_00: Jesus taught us to love our neighbours, and let's be honest, there is no neighbor closer to us than a child or a sibling.
[16:40] SPEAKER_00: But finally, let me say it is important in all this to make sure from the beginning you set your aim right.
[16:47] SPEAKER_00: If you want to know what to do next and how to check the long-term internal compass of what you're aiming for and get that aim straight.
[16:58] SPEAKER_00: If your aim is just to win an argument in the moment or prove a point or force compliance, you're going to likely only drive any wedge that is there even deeper.
[17:08] SPEAKER_00: But if your aim is truly anchored in long-term reconciliation, wanting what is ultimately best for that family member and indeed their soul, which means your long-term relationship across the span of your entire life or lives, then a different path can open up for you.
[17:27] SPEAKER_00: As the Gospels remind us, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you.
[17:34] SPEAKER_00: And if your heart's desire and your aim is set ultimately to love as Christ loves, then you can trust that God will give you the right words and the right timing, and indeed the patient needed for what might be a long-term journey.
[17:48] SPEAKER_00: You don't have to force that outcome today, right now.
[17:53] SPEAKER_00: And finally, remember to practice this grace for the complete journey.
[17:58] SPEAKER_00: Change and healing in families rarely occurs overnight.
[18:01] SPEAKER_00: You might feel a misunderstood at the moment, or you might even be made to feel like the odd one out.
[18:07] SPEAKER_00: And that feeling may exist in your family for a long time.
[18:10] SPEAKER_00: But remember that true relationship is forged in long-term commitment, a long-term commitment to love someone and to love them through the difficult times and things as well.
[18:22] SPEAKER_00: Act towards that person with a vision of the healthy, redeemed relationship you hope to have with them years down the road.
[18:30] SPEAKER_00: Be steady, be kind, but refuse to lie or pretend, but let your speech always, always be seasoned by grace.
[18:39] SPEAKER_00: Now, people who are dealing with this situation today are indeed called to walk a very hard road.
[18:45] SPEAKER_00: But the other thing, the last thing I would say is you don't have to walk it on your own or even in your own strength.
[18:51] SPEAKER_00: So keep your heart open, keep your prayers certainly persistent, and trust that God can work even in the most complex of family stories.
[19:04] SPEAKER_00: Okay, my next question, a straightforward one, on the surface anyway.
[19:09] SPEAKER_00: Someone has wrote written in and said, Hi Jeremy, where in the Bible does it teach or say that the earth is round?
[19:17] SPEAKER_00: Well, hello, whoever you are, they didn't give me a name this time.
[19:20] SPEAKER_00: Thank you for reaching out with what is a rather classic question.
[19:25] SPEAKER_00: I heard it a lot in the 1970s.
[19:28] SPEAKER_00: And I hope you take my answer in the right spirit, but I think it's an interesting question if we approach it without getting too intense about it.
[19:36] SPEAKER_00: It's one of those things people often wonder about, especially when we hear or come across some of those people who teach and cla that the earth is flat and who claim the Bible teaches that ancient flat earth view of the universe.
[19:50] SPEAKER_00: So let's look at what I believe the text actually says about it from a biblical but also a linguistic, a language perspective.
[20:00] SPEAKER_00: The key scriptures, what are they?
[20:02] SPEAKER_00: Well the Bible is primarily we've got to remember the Bible is primarily a book of redemptive history rather than some sort of ancient scientific textbook.
[20:11] SPEAKER_00: But however, it remarkably uses language that aligns, I would say, with the spherical view of the earth, long before modern science confirmed it.
[20:20] SPEAKER_00: And here are the two primary passages people usually point to.
[20:29] SPEAKER_00: Now, in this stunning passage, the prophet Isaiah writes and speaks almost as if from a view from space, and it says, it is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
[20:43] SPEAKER_00: So let me give you a little bit of a grammatical insight into what is going on here.
[20:48] SPEAKER_00: The Hebrew word used here for circle is a word that perhaps sounded something like this, chuk.
[20:56] SPEAKER_00: While our modern term circle is traditionally used to describe a two-dimensional shape, chuk also carries the idea of a sphere.
[21:05] SPEAKER_00: It could be used for either.
[21:06] SPEAKER_00: It could be used for a flat circle or a vault or a compass like roundness.
[21:11] SPEAKER_00: Given the ancient Hebrew did not have a dedicated technical word for a three-dimensional grobe or a sphere, the word ball, a word pronounced dur, emerged much later but wasn't and wasn't used or heard for centuries after when these words were written.
[21:31] SPEAKER_00: Chug was the best descriptor descriptor available for people at the time, and many would say it represents the curved circular horizon that you view when you raise up slightly from a rounded planet, viewed from a distance, when you view our planet where you're able to see a great distance to the horizon or even indeed from above.
[21:53] SPEAKER_00: Now, Job chapter 26, verse 7, talks about the earth hanging in space on nothing.
[22:01] SPEAKER_00: Now, long before satellites took photographs of our blue marble dot floating in the blackness of space, the book of Job, which is by the way one of the oldest books written in the Bible, records this scientific marvel.
[22:16] SPEAKER_00: He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing.
[22:21] SPEAKER_00: So the context into which Job is writing here is the fact that in many ancient Near Eastern creation myths that were current at that time, the earth was believed to be flat and resting on the back of elephants, turtles or pillars, or floating in a vast culture.
[22:39] SPEAKER_00: Ocean.
[22:40] SPEAKER_00: The biblical description of the earth hanging on nothing and suspended in space by gravity, by divine decree, is remarkably accurate to reality.
[22:49] SPEAKER_00: The view of the flat earth is indeed an ancient one, but people who call upon it as an example often choose to forget that the flat earth was meant to be resting on the back of some giant cosmic animal.
[23:05] SPEAKER_00: Anyway, a quick historical note: it is a common modern myth that people in the Middle Ages thought that the earth was flat until Christopher Columbus actually sailed round it.
[23:16] SPEAKER_00: In reality, educated people throughout history, including nearly all the early church theologians and certainly medieval scholars, knew that the earth was a sphere, largely because of Greek astronomy and because of the biblical texts like that from Isaiah and Job I've read that described the Earth as a rounded vault.
[23:36] SPEAKER_00: Christopher Columbus would not have set out to circle the Earth had it not been reasonably agreed that that was possible.
[23:46] SPEAKER_00: The delay, the centuries it took for it to happen, was more a case of developing the technology and the confidence to do it rather than believing that it was not possible, certainly amongst the scientific community.
[24:00] SPEAKER_00: So, if I was to summarise this, we have to be honest and say the Bible doesn't give us a formal geometry lesson.
[24:08] SPEAKER_00: But when it touches on the shape of the earth, it speaks with poetic accuracy that avoids simple, crude, flat earth myths of those ancient surrounding cultures.
[24:20] SPEAKER_00: God's creation is depicted as vast, beautiful, ordered, and wonderfully designed.
[24:27] SPEAKER_00: So thanks again for that question.
[24:30] SPEAKER_00: And there's no such thing as a stupid question, just a stupid answer.
[24:33] SPEAKER_00: So keep digging in the word, and anytime you'd like to send me a question, you can do that through Patreon where these things are discussed, questions are answered, asked, and answered, even sometimes by the community itself.
[24:46] SPEAKER_00: Or I will on occasion do what I do today and dedicate a bonus episode to dealing with exactly those questions raised.
[25:28] SPEAKER_00: Our bonus season of our week of special episodes, bonus episodes between the seasons.
[25:34] SPEAKER_00: I'll return.
[25:34] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to return tomorrow, I think, because it's going to be a Friday when it goes live on the main websites around the world.
[25:42] SPEAKER_00: Patreons, you guys, you get it straight away, as you know.
[25:45] SPEAKER_00: So and what I'm going to do tomorrow, I'm going to do one of those special introductory and overview episodes.
[25:52] SPEAKER_00: My aim, as well as doing the verse by verse, chapter by chapter work through the books, is to also have a playlist available everywhere on Patreon, on YouTube, and all the channels where people can choose to access a single episode that covers each and every one of the 66 books of our Bible.
[26:11] SPEAKER_00: So I think I'll start tomorrow, which will go live on podcast platforms around the world the following Friday from when I'm recording it today.
[26:19] SPEAKER_00: And then I'll launch off into the formal day-by-day journey through the book of Philippians for the next three or four weeks, I would imagine.
[26:29] SPEAKER_00: Okay, thank you again for being with you.
[26:32] SPEAKER_00: Thank you, particularly if you uh prayerfully support this ministry in any way.
[26:38] SPEAKER_00: Please remember I really couldn't do it without you.
[26:40] SPEAKER_00: And I'll see you back here again tomorrow or very soon, I'm I hope, on the Bible Journey Daily Podcast.
[26:47] SPEAKER_00: Bye-bye for now.

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