Blog

Introduction – What’s Been Going On

2022 to the present has been an extremely painful time for me. I have experienced a lot of loss, pain, and changes to my life, and this has affected the extent to which I can create content for the public. In 2022, I made the decision that I would like to become a vocational biblical scholar, so in 2023, I ended The Cerebral Faith Podcast. I ended it for several reasons; (1) I was working myself into the ground between all the hours I was getting at Dollar General, caring for my sister in light of my mother’s passing ^[1]For those who don’t know, my younger sister has a disorder called Cri Du Chet. She has a very high functioning form of it, but she will never function on exactly the same level as a … Continue reading, in addition to blogging, making YouTube and TikTok content, and other things I won’t mention as you don’t need my entire to do list. I was overwhelmed. I was working myself as hard as a Japanese animator. This was damaging my mental and emotional health. I needed to reduce the workload. (2) I knew that if I went to Seminary to work for degrees, my workload would get worse. I would have to work full-time through school. In my head, I imagined no free time to do anything outside of making money and trying to get good grades. (3) The topical nature of the podcast eventually was its undoing anyway. The more episodes I made, the harder it became to come up with things to talk about. I went over some of these reasons for ending the podcast in its final episode.

Then in 2024, in the light of a certain controversy over a development in my theological anthropology, I wondered if I would have been able to become a vocational Bible scholar at all. I regretted the articles I wrote on that subject. I attracted the most vile ire I have ever received. I have been attacked for controversial beliefs before; however, this was on a whole new level. I was filled with so much hurt and anger that I came dangerously close to walking away from Christianity. Had it not been for the solid evidential foundation my Christian worldview is based on, I might have. But as Christian Apologist Frank Turek has said, “It’s a lot harder to walk away from what you know is true rather than what you think might be true.” As I sat in the ashes in ruined relationships, the thought occurred to me “Is that even what I would want to begin with? I thought God called me to this.” We’ll come back to that second thought in a moment. In my mind, I had done a profoundly foolish thing in writing the articles that stirred up so much irrational wrath in the hearts of so called Christians, and I had concluded that I was deeply lacking in the wisdom department. I had analyzed the possible pros and cons for months. I also prayed that God would lead me to the correct answer. So I thought I had concluded the right choice to make, and yet…..I regretted it. Despite all my deliberation, I still ended up making the wrong choice? How? I concluded that intelligence and wisdom are not the same, and that to gain wisdom, I needed to (1) Ask God for it (see James 1:5-7) and (2) Pursue it. Hence, I began a deep study on the wisdom literature of The Bible. I have read many books and commentaries on the book of Proverbs and sometimes just wisdom in general. One book relevant to mention here is “Decision Making and The Will Of God” by Garry Frieson and J. Robin Maxen.

That next to last one was a crucial book. Garry Frieson and J. Robin Maxen defended the thesis that God does not have an “individual will” for the believer’s life. God does not want you to marry a specific person, move to a specific city, get a specific job, et. al. And to an extent, I never believed God desired for our lives to unfold in such micro-managed ways. God may micro-manage in His sovereign will ^[2]Friesen and Robin are likely deterministic compatiblists based on how they explained God’s sovereignty in its relationship to human agency in chapter 12 of “Decision Making and The Will … Continue reading. When it comes to who we marry (or even if we should get married at all), I’ve never believed in the concept of a “Soul mate”. I also thought you could choose whatever vocation you wanted, or where you wanted to live. The only exception I made is to the “calling into ministry”. If a man felt that he was called to be a missionary, a pastor, or, in my case, a biblical scholar, then you God had a specific will for your life that you could miss or not miss. My view was a bit of a hybrid of what Friesen and Robin call “The Way Of Wisdom” and “The Traditional View” of God’s will. I won’t defend the view here, but I will just say this; This book was not off brand. I saw how many times the word “Wisdom” appeared in the latter chapter headings, and since anxiety over decision making is what I was aiming to resolve in my pursuit of wisdom, I knew this would be part of my wisdom “Study Stack”. ^[3]It isn’t literally a stack though as all the books mentioned so far are either in Logos or Kindle. I actually just take screenshots of the covers of books I want to read on a subject and line … Continue reading Friesen and Robin defend the proposal that God has a moral will for all our lives spelled out in his special revelation; The Bible. There is also God’s Sovereign Will pertaining to what he wishes to to happen in history; how he orchestrates the unfolding of history and human events. He says that these two “Wills” are biblical, but that Christians have unwittingly added a third will; “the individual will”. God’s moral will is discoverable and quite easily so. All you have to do is pick up your Bible and read it. The sovereign will of God is not always discoverable, at least not in the present in the future. You can see the sovereign will of God, if you look to the past whether in the Bible or in the newspaper, but you don’t know it in the present. And this is why it is called by some theologians the “secret” will of God.

Friesen and Robin defend the proposal that an individual will of God is not only not discoverable, it doesn’t exist. Not for most people anyway. I have come to agree with their conclusion on the basis of their biblical argumentation. What I appreciated about this book is its thoroughness. This book took me quite a while to get through. It has 22 chapters, a concluding chapter, and even two appendices. it not only looks at the issue of whether or not there God specifically wants you to, say, be a missionary or a pastor (or a biblical scholar), but it also shows ways to live out the alternative view which the authors call “The Way Of Wisdom”.

(1) In areas where God commands, we must obey. (2) In areas where no explicit command is given, we are free (and responsible) to choose, (3) In the circle of freedom, God gives us the wisdom we need to make good choices. (4) When we have chosen what is moral and wise, we must trust the sovereign God to work all the details together for good.

I had already been suspecting that even my “soft” view of the “Individual Will Of God” might have been mistaken, but Friesen and Robin convinced me. In light of this, I now knew that I had the freedom to choose what to do in life that would best serve God and my neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40).

Changing Course – My Dream Career Would Be A Nightmare

Although a part of me still regrets my decision to write those articles, in a way, it might have been God’s way of saving me from a nightmare career that would suck every last ounce of love for studying his word that I have. So what should I do? In light of my regret, I realized that had I know what would occur, I would have made different choices. To make a well informed decision, the key is in the name; information. You must have adequate information before you can properly discern which course of action you should take. So, in order to figure out whether vocational biblical scholarship would even be right for me (or whether I had a romanticized view of the job), I would need to gather info. What’s it like to do this? What’s it like to get a professorate? What’s it like in the daily life of the John Waltons and N.T Wrights of the world? It did not take long for me to come across information that made me go “Nope! Nope! Nope! GEHENNA NO!”

I direct you to a video made by Egyptologist David Falk called “Six Reasons Not To Become A Biblical Scholar (And One To Be)” There are, as the title suggests, six factors, all of which deterred me. But what bothered me the most were reasons 1 and 3 in the list. First, let’s say that I get into a school, do the work, and come out with a degree. Once I graduate, the odds are stacked against me that I would be able to actually USE my degree! In Falk’s words, becoming a vocational Bible scholar is “not unlike winning the lottery”! Wait, what? Ok, but let’s say lady luck is on my side, or let’s say you believe I had “the calling” of God to do this (because I’m totally like Moses or Paul) so I end up becoming Professor Minton at Fill-In-The-Blank Seminary. Well, one of my toxic traits is being committed to the truth at all costs and tipping over sacred cows in the church. I agree with Martin Luther’s proverb “Peace if possible, truth at all costs” and Carl Sagan’s proverb “If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.” The whole time I’ve been doing Cerebral Faith, I have had a large degree of intellectual autonomy. Yes, I’m accountable to my local church and fellow believers, but if I came to an unpopular conclusion, then the worst case scenario is that I would just have to find another church. My very livelihood wouldn’t be on the line. And yet, as David Falk said in the linked video above;

“Biblical studies departments are very political, risk-averse, and despise people who make waves or disrupt the tranquility of the community. I used to tell people the three rules for getting through grad school; know the system, jump through the hoops, and don’t make waves. Unfortunately, when you become part of the academy, the first two drop off, and the third becomes paramount. It’s one thing to be a grad student but working in the academy is an entirely different game that demands a different skill set. Academic departments demand a nebulous requirement euphemistically called ‘collegiality’ Collegiality is the ability to ‘fit in’ and what we mean by fitting in is that you will work diligently in the department without inviting controversy, without drawing attention to yourself, and without making any waves that could disturb the rest of the faculty.

if you think as a Bible scholar that you will be defending the historic Christian faith, think again! If you take any stand at all for the historic Christian faith (whether your institution believes in it or not), you will be thrown under the bus at a moment’s notice and driven out because you have disturbed the peace and tranquility of the community.” ^[4]David Falk, “Six Reasons Not To Become A Biblical Scholar (and One To Be)”. — https://youtu.be/Bv8MJ2zwB-Y?si=O9YmGMaSEYlctaV0

I don’t think I have to say more on this point.

So What Now?

Back in October, I went on a trip to North Carolina with my Pastor and church. I rode with my pastor in the van. We had gone up there to help rebuild Halls Chapel Baptist Church, which had been devastated by Hurricane Helene. On the way home, I told him about my concerns. I told him “Honestly, if I could just continue to study and teach The Bible for the rest of my life, I’d be happy with that. I wouldn’t care what that looks like.”

One Piece fans will understand the subtle reference in the feature photo. In light of a devastating defeat and tragedy, Captain Luffy put his pirate adventure on pause to train with Raylee, Gold Roger’s former first mate, to become stronger. Since he had been separated from the rest of his crew (they literally were sent flying in different directions by Bartholomew Kuma), he had to get the message out to them that they would not, as previously planned, regroup at Sabaody in 3 days, but would regroup in 2 years. Through a series of cunning events, Luffy ended up getting his photograph in the newspaper where “3D” on his arm was crossed out and “2Y” was written underneath it. The rest of the Straw Hat pirates understood the subliminal message and decided to spend 2 years training where they were currently were. And cue the time skip.

I have decided that the next 4 years of my life, I will “train” with my Teacher (Matthew 23:10). For most of my Christian life, I’ve been running around trying to do everything I could for The Lord. I was like Martha. Going, going, and going, and eventually getting overwhelmed. I think the *wise* thing for now is to assume the position of Mary. I need to spend some time sitting at the feet of Jesus and soaking up every word that He has to say. (see Luke 10:38-42).

This isn’t goodbye, or at the very least I don’t intend for it to be. When I come back, I want to start a new podcast. I’m thinking of calling it “Cerebral Faith Bible Study”. This will be different from the previous podcast in that it will not be a topical podcast primarily about Christian Apologetics. I will teach through entire books of The Bible, and only occasionally do a topical episode or two. For this reason, I need to take some time away to study more. I want to know the word of God so intimately that if all The Bibles in the world were destroyed, I could reconstruct it in a “Book Of Eli” fashion. And not just memorize it, but understand it, and to know every different interpretation of every passage and why I land on one instead of the other. Recently, I woke up groggily quoting scripture. It was Romans 6:23 and I can’t remember why I was reciting it. Perhaps I was having a dream that involved a theological discussion. I want the word to be that intricately connected to me. I want Psalm 119 to be my song. After intense study for a few years, I feel like I will be equipped to do this kind of podcast.

But make no mistake; I am not learning for the sake of the podcast. That is only my secondary motivation. Even if I don’t see you in 4Y ^[5]I’ve learned the hard way not to boast in my future plans, as James warns against in James 4:13-14. I’ve gone through intense spiritual warfare that most people outside of my closest friends don’t even know about. I am now no longer in the habit of forgetting my unseen enemies. I am as convinced of the existence of Satan as I am of God. They are in an intense custody battle over me (cf. 1 John 3:10). The offensive part of The Armor of God is the Sword of The Spirit (Ephesians 6:10-17). God’s word is truth (John 17:17). Every word of The Bible is breathed out by God. As 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (NIV)

I miss the good old days when my spiritual warfare only amounted to “tearing down arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5). ^[6]See “On Apologetics and Spiritual Warfare” by Bob Perry, September 16th 2021, on CrossExamined.org. –> https://crossexamined.org/on-apologetics-and-spiritual-warfare/ My spiritual enemies are changing, and they are not flesh and blood. For this reason, I need to become the “greatest swordsman in the world”. That means contacting the Spirit who lives inside me and empowers my blade (1 Corinthians 6:19, Ephesians 6:17, 2 Timothy 3:16-17). I will be aiming for sanctification in leaps and bounds during this time, aiming for perfection if it’s possible. And why wouldn’t it be possible? After all, did Jesus just come to free us from sin’s penalty, or its power as well? What kind of Savior is He? But even if I’m not perfect, when I return, you will undoubtedly be introduced to a version of Evan Minton 10 times more godly than I am now. The key, I suspect, is in verses like (Psalm 119:9-10 cf. John 8:32). This won’t be an undertaking just to have my head full of more Bible knowledge. This sabbatical will be a quest to pursue holiness and a closeness with God like I have never before experienced. It will be strict training to crucify the flesh and its sinful tendencies through the truth.

I have rambled on enough. The point is this; although I have not been creating much anyway, you will probably get next to nothing out of me for the next 4 years. But I do plan on returning if I am able, provided if life doesn’t throw any more surprises at me that prevent me (James 4:13-17). When I do, I plan on doing an expositional Bible podcast. The podcast will include apologetic defenses of scripture, exegesis of scripture, systematic theology, and everything you come here to get. It just will not be a topical study of this or that subject as the original podcast was. For those who are Patrons, I pray you don’t leave. I will pause the account so that it doesn’t charge you during this era of silence. If The Lord sees fit and I come back, I’ll reactivate the account. And once you start getting charged again, this time, you will get EARLY early early access. You see, not only will this expository style of presenting to prevent “Podblock”, but I plan on stacking my content so that it doesn’t dry up in times when I can’t devote to creation. And I suspect that it will run for much longer than the previous one. Think about it; if I’ve just wrapped up talking about Mark 10, what should I talk about in the next episode? Well, gosh! Maybe expositing Mark 11!

It’s not my intention for this to be the end. But right now, I hardly have the emotional energy to do this. I can’t even begin to describe all the horrors that came one after another in my life since my mother passed away in 2021. I need to train with Jesus so my fingers will be ready for battle. Right now, I’m just trying to survive emotionally and spiritually. And when things become a bit more stable, and when I have grown in my faith and in my knowledge of the scriptures, then I hope to come back. For the blog, I plan on just uploading transcripts of “Cerebral Faith Bible Study”, the podcast I previously mentioned. Please pray for me as I have no idea how long this onslaught of demonic attacks will endure. Satan wants me dead. For privacy’s sake, I won’t divulge all the information, but some of my closest friends and family know the kind of suffering I’ve been going through. Please pray for me, that the armor of God will not crack until the battle is won. But be encouraged that God is growing me in this valley (see 1 Peter 1:7). I can feel myself becoming different for the better. Through these trials and study of his word, I believe God will make me an even more effective witness for Christ in the years to come. Through the Spirit working in me, my life will become as powerful of an apologetic as the arguments I’ve put up on this website.

One last thing I want to say is that this doesn’t mean I won’t interact with people in the comment section. It also doesn’t necessarily mean that this website will be frozen in time for the next 4 years. I might write articles here and there if I have something to say. But I would prefer not to. I can’t promise I will or won’t publish any new blog posts. Again, I’m trying to be more like Mary, not Martha. But I may have some thoughts about what I’m learning ^[7]Blog articles like “The Gender Of God” and “Finding Meaning In Your Work” are prime examples of articles that have been the result of my study on Proverbs. I just have to get out there. Maybe I’ll try to use my Logos notes as much as possible as an outlet for that. In a way, it’s like I’m trying to reinvent myself and this ministry. I studied apologetics for a while before starting this site. This blog all started because I wanted to jot down what I was learning to share with others (and also so I wouldn’t have to exposit a lot of things in social media debates).