14: Deep Thoughts (What the Hell?)

**SPEAKER_2** (0:12)
When's the last time you thought deeply about hell?
Is hell even real? If so, where is it? And how long does it last? And who goes there?

**Dave** (0:23)
Hmm, well, yeah.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:25)
Those are deep questions.

**Matthew Schmitz** (0:26)
Yes.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:31)
Yeah. Dave, are we going to take time during The Chopping Block to preach Hellfire and Dreamstime?

**Matthew Schmitz** (0:35)
Yes.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:36)
No. What we're going to do is talk about the value of thinking deeply and discussing difficult topics. So, welcome to this episode of The Chopping Block, Deep Thoughts. What the hell?
Hello.
What's up? How's your summering and neighboring in MHK going? Hey, thanks so much for all the views on that. And keep going back and sharing it.
Chopping Block episode number 12 So quick update for me. Arts in the Park has treated me well. I got a free Arts in the Park t-shirt. In fact, I won a large Mona Lisa painting as well. I have the photos.

**Dave** (1:17)
Did the eyes fall in? It's a little creepy.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:24)
Hey, on the note of talking summering, did you have a tall grass koozie yet? We still have two extra. If you need one, let us know.

**Dave** (1:31)
Your drink's wonderfully cool.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:35)
So today's topic is not summering in neighboring MHK. All right, so we've lamented the lack of time and space to have conversations that linger on difficult topics that come up in life, in faith, understanding of the scriptures, just maybe questions that keep you up at night, these types of things. When do we actually sit and think about it, let alone talk with others and find a safe place to have those discussions within the church, but even with those outside of the church or who think very differently than you?
Yeah, so one thing we're doing is we're attempting, at least, to have some brown bag lunch discussions, tackling some of those lingering, difficult questions that come up.

**Dave** (2:16)
That's right.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:16)
But in the context of community and presumably a safe place where people have relationship and can handle deep discussion and not necessarily come into the same conclusions.

**Dave** (2:27)
Yeah, and it's not just discussion, like what you think, sharing, pooling our ignorance, but we actually study something that's a little bit higher level, perhaps. We've got something that we're looking at.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:37)
Yeah, we don't want to just have pooled ignorance, which can happen, and we don't want two sides of the discussion throwing bombs at each other. We want to actually think deeply together. So the scriptures call us in Romans 12 to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. And we feel that there's a deficit of that type of transformation of the mind happening in the church.
And that when Jesus calls us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, strength, soul, and mind, that we want to take that seriously. And so we want to grow in our ability to think deeply and address questions.

**Dave** (3:13)
And not just because we know we should, because of the scriptures, it's actually fun.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:16)
Yeah, absolutely. We just wrapped up our first discussion lunch. Dave, you want to share a little bit about our topic? The book is covered.

**Dave** (3:25)
We chose the topic Determinism. Really fun, right? John Lennox, an author and a speaker that we've really enjoyed a lot of his other works and books. He had a new book out called Determined to Believe? It's all about the sovereignty of God, freedom, faith, and human responsibility. Giant topics.
If you've heard of Calvinism, Arminianism, all sorts of isms, a lot of them flow from how you land on some of these questions. What do you think? Is everything pretty much determined for us?
Do we really have a choice in whether or not we sin or choose God? Is God the puppet master that's really making everything happen, including our choices? If so, are we even responsible for our choices, including our bad ones?

**SPEAKER_2** (4:11)
Those are deep questions.

**Dave** (4:12)
Then wouldn't that make God responsible for all the bad stuff, ultimately, depending on how you went? It was a very big discussion.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:20)
Or, you know, when someone's in a car crash, was that caused by Satan? Or is God sovereign? He caused that? Or what?
That's right.

**Dave** (4:30)
Yeah, how far does human freedom go when it mixes in with God's sovereignty? Huge questions. But we really enjoyed picking up the book, reading it together. We kind of went through chapter by chapter and discussed as we went. It was very enjoyable for me.