Happy New Year! Today is January 3rd, 2020. It’s the start of a new year and a new decade. Hard to believe, but this August will be the 10th anniversary of my very first exposure to Christian Apologetics. 10 years ago this August, I discovered Lee Strobel’s “The Case For A Creator” movie that someone posted on Facebook. That night would change the entire course of the next 10 years of my life. It’s been quite a journey.
But enough nostalgia. You didn’t click on this blog post to hear me reminisce about the past. You clicked on it to know what kind of content I’m going to put out this year. Well, I have put a lot on my plate. To push that plate metaphor, part of me wonders if my eyes were bigger than my stomach. But here’s what I plan to put out this year.
1: A Paper Series on Genesis 1-11
The first 11 chapters of Genesis are the most controversial parts of the entire Old Testament, dare I even say of the whole Bible. As much as some of the bizarre (or unjust as some might say) laws in the Torah seem to us, the Canaanite conquest, or the Elisha she-bear incident, no portion of The Bible draws as much ridicule from skeptics (and causes as much division in the body of Christ) as Genesis chapters 1 through 11. I have written a lot of blog posts on my interpretation of Genesis 1, and also my interpretation of Adam and Eve. One need only go to the Blog Post category page to find them. However, I haven’t really done an in-depth commentary on this entire controversial portion of Genesis. I haven’t talked about these portions of The Bible as much as I wanted due to length concerns.
This will be more in depth than a blog post or even a series of blog posts. They will be pretty lengthy papers written in academic style. By “Academic Style”, I mean that they’ll have an abstract and closing, heavily cite ANE scholars, biblical theologians, and biblical commentators, and won’t be casually worded. However, as in all my writings, I will endeavor to make it digestible to the average pew sitter. It won’t sound like babble when you read about Babel. *rim shot*
I’ll post them here on the blog. However, because they’ll be lengthy, I will have them available as downloadable PDFs so that you can save them to your devices and read them when you have the time, like a mini e-book. I’ve done this before with posts like “The Case For Mere Molinism” and “The Soteriological Case For Molinism”. Both were readable directly from the blog, but you could also click on a DropBox link and download PDFs of them.
2: Take Cerebral Faith To YouTube.
I’ve been thinking of taking Cerebral Faith to YouTube. YouTube seems to be the place to go if you have a message you want to get out to the world. You can have a channel so popular that being a YouTuber can become a living! What better way to show that Christianity is true, is rational, is intellectually satisfying than this platform?
However, there’s two problems; (1) I have never edited videos before, and (2) Technology can be a female dog sometimes, (3) I only have so much spare time.
The former is easily remedied. Just watch a bunch of YouTube tutorials on how to use video editing software and practice until I’ve mastered the craft. I’ve been doing this for about a week now and I’ve gotten quite good at it.
Number 3 can be remedied if I can take Cerebral Faith ministries full time rather than being something I do on the side.
Number 2 is the problem I discovered today. The video editing program Lightworks has gotten to where constantly crashes. I was afraid something like this might happen. Even if I learn how to make videos, it does no good if the technology won’t cooperate. I have to say, the air was let out of my tires as I thought Cerebral Faith Video might get going within a week.
I think the problem is with my computer. I don’t think it can process that amount of data. It does fine if there’s a minimal amount of things on the timeline, but once video clips and stock images start to accumulate, it gets slow and it eventually crashes and the preview lags, etc.
I may have to put off becoming an Apologetics YouTuber until I can get a new computer. I have done everything I can to speed it up, and actually, it now runs pretty fast. I think maybe the problem isn’t speed, but CPU. Maybe it’s just not powerful enough to handle the software.
When I do get a new computer and I’m still having problems, I’ll just try different software. There’s plenty of other kinds of software (even free software) that I can use. Lightworks is not a hill I need to die on. However, I really don’t think it’s the software. Plenty of people use Lightworks and don’t have this problem. Moreover, I’ve noticed the entire computer slows down when I’m using Light Works, as was the case when I minimized Lightworks to go look for a stock image to use. It took forever for Pixabay to load up.
This may be something I don’t do until much, much later in the year.
3: Get My Book “Yahweh’s Inferno” published.
I didn’t want to change my view on Hell, but I’m committed to following the truth where it leads. There are portions of this book that will be the same as A Hellacious Doctrine since some of my positions on things like the problem of the unevangelized are neutral with respect to whether the damned are eternally tormented or annihilated. However, there’s plenty of new material. I spend three whole chapters making the case for annihilationism and I take a different view on what happens to infants who die (hint: It’s the same position Tim Stratton of FreeThinking Ministries and Jerry Walls hold).
My mother is the best proof reader I know. Although I’ve read it a few times myself already, I’m going to have her go over it with a highlighter to catch any spelling errors or typos or grammatical mistakes I may have missed. Then it will be ready to purchase on Amazon.com.
4: Audiobook Of “Yahweh’s Inferno” Exclusive To Cerebral Faith Patrons
Anyone who is a patron of Cerebral Faith can get audiobooks of the books I’ve written. You cannot get these audiobooks anywhere but Patreon. If you’re on the $10.00 tier, you can get one Audiobook per month until you’ve gotten every single one I’ve recorded, in addition to other patron benefits like early access to blog posts and podcast episodes. Audiobook editions of The Case For The One True God and My Redeemer Lives are already available, but Yahweh’s Inferno hasn’t been recorded yet. If you’re on the $20.00 tier, you get all of my audiobooks all at once.
These will be in Drop Box links that will be e-mailed to you. If you want to hear my books read to you in my charming southern American accent, become a Cerebral Faith patron today at www.patreon.com/cerebralfaith.
5: Season 2 Of The Cerebral Faith Podcast
If you’re a fan of the podcast, you know that a new episode hasn’t been uploaded in a while. I haven’t quit, I’m just taking a break. I will put more episodes out in February.
Conclusion
Well, that’s what you can look forward to in the new year. Happy New Year, everyone!
I can’t believe I just found your site; it’s great! Temple-Inauguration view of Creation, Divine Council view of the Invisible Realm, Annihilation view of Hell, Molinst, and Evolution-accepting? Are there many of us? haha!
We are a rare breed! ?
Perhaps u can ask Inspiring Philosophy for help