Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 02 11 2025 The Skeptical Theist

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02 11 2025 The Skeptical Theist · Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris

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  Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too
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  Speaker 1: much because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy
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  Speaker 1: for today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect
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  Speaker 1: yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
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  Speaker 1: keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are
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  Speaker 1: going to change all of that. Let's experience God's words
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  Speaker 1: today and receive the power we need to live healthy,
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  Speaker 1: vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host,
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  Speaker 1: author speaker, Elle David Harris.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning, good morning. It is Tuesday. If
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  Speaker 2: at Brewary eleven, February eleven, can you pronounce February twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty five. Hello. My name is Elle David Harris. I
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  Speaker 2: am your host, and this is your Daily Portion where
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  Speaker 2: we give you God's word every single day, and today
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  Speaker 2: is no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson study
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  Speaker 2: series God's Love and Justice, and our caption for today
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  Speaker 2: is the skeptical Theist. The skeptical Theist, I know it
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  Speaker 2: sounds complicated, really, just somebody who believes in God who
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  Speaker 2: is skeptical at times. I'll just keep that right where
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  Speaker 2: it is. We'll get into that in just a moment.
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  Speaker 2: But first I'd like to say welcome to you and
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  Speaker 2: ask you to go over to your Daily Portion dot
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  Speaker 2: com please join our online community. I want you to
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  Speaker 2: click the number seven at that website. I'm not asking
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  Speaker 2: you to type number seven in the feed. I'm saying
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  Speaker 2: when you go to your Daily portion dot com, you're
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  Speaker 2: going to see a seven on the screen. I want
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  Speaker 2: you to hit that number seven and subscribe there at
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  Speaker 2: your Daily portion dot com. This is one of the
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  Speaker 2: ways that we continue to build faith and fellowship. Let's
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  Speaker 2: go ahead and pray, and then we will get underway.
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  Speaker 2: Father and Heaven, thank you for giving us this new day,
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  Speaker 2: and for the love that you have entrusted to our care.
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  Speaker 2: For loving us, and I pray that you will fill
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  Speaker 2: us with your holy spirit, help us to choose not
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  Speaker 2: to be skeptical of you, but to trust you in
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  Speaker 2: every detail of our lives. In Jesus' name, I pray,
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  Speaker 2: Amen and Amen again. The skeptical theist, I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: read directly from the lessons so I don't have to
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  Speaker 2: try to make sense of this caption, and it reads.
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  Speaker 2: One way of approaching the problem of evil based on
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  Speaker 2: recognizing how little we know, is called skeptical theism. The
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  Speaker 2: skeptical theist is one who believes God has good reasons
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  Speaker 2: for acting as he does, but given our limited can
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  Speaker 2: I use that word again, our limited knowledge, we should
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  Speaker 2: not expect to be in a position to know just
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  Speaker 2: what those reasons are. The skeptical theist is skeptical regarding
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  Speaker 2: the human capacity to be aware of or to understand
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  Speaker 2: fully God's reasons relative to the evil that is in
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  Speaker 2: the world one more sentenced. The fact that one does
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  Speaker 2: not know what God's reasons are certainly does not mean
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  Speaker 2: that God has no good reasons. Now, I don't know
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  Speaker 2: why we make up these really complicated terminologies, but the
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  Speaker 2: fact is humans don't know everything. The Bible says very clearly,
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  Speaker 2: like clear language, very clearly, that there are secrets that
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  Speaker 2: remain secrets. These are God's secrets, but what he reveals
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  Speaker 2: to us is for us and our children. Can I
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  Speaker 2: say that again? This is what the Bible says, that
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  Speaker 2: there are some things that are secrets that God keeps
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  Speaker 2: that way, and then what he does reveal is for
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  Speaker 2: us and our children. So as long as we understand
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  Speaker 2: that and trust God, we're good to go. Okay, So
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  Speaker 2: don't worry about the complicated terminology that we use sometimes.
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  Speaker 2: And so Psalms chapter seventy three, the Book of Psalms,
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  Speaker 2: chapter seventy three is really the backdrop of our discussion.
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  Speaker 2: But I want to simplify even that that chapter, because
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  Speaker 2: there are twenty eight verses with eight points. Okay, and
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  Speaker 2: so the first point is, first of all, this is
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  Speaker 2: written by Asaff. There is an introduction and inner turmoil. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: there is an introduction and inner turmoil, as highlighted in
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  Speaker 2: verses one and two. Truly God is good to his
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  Speaker 2: people to such as are pure in heart. But as
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  Speaker 2: for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had
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  Speaker 2: nearly slipped. It's like, whoa, what just happened? What just happened?
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  Speaker 2: He's he's struggling, is what is going on? And so
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  Speaker 2: he's getting trying to get a grasp of what is
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  Speaker 2: actually going on when there are things that don't function
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  Speaker 2: in the way that he anticipates. And I think Paul
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  Speaker 2: grappled with that discussion about believing in God at least,
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  Speaker 2: and then somehow he found that there was something else
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  Speaker 2: working in his life. And so in Romans chapter seven,
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  Speaker 2: verses twenty two and twenty three, for I delight in
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  Speaker 2: the law of God according to the inward man. But
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  Speaker 2: I see another law in my members, warring against the
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  Speaker 2: law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to
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  Speaker 2: the law of sin. Now, Asaf didn't say that this
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  Speaker 2: is what was going on that last part with him,
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  Speaker 2: but it says to the law of sin, which is
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  Speaker 2: in my members. This is just to highlight the discussion
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  Speaker 2: about this internal dissonance, the friction that goes on in
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  Speaker 2: people's minds at times when we believe intellectually what God
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  Speaker 2: is saying. And some people, while they say that they believe,
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  Speaker 2: we say we believe, sometimes struggle when certain things just
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  Speaker 2: don't pencil out, whether in our own character but in
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  Speaker 2: this case in society around us. And then comes the
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  Speaker 2: envy of the wicked's prosperity, so verses three through twelve
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  Speaker 2: of chapter seventy three of the Psalms. It describes the
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  Speaker 2: prosperity of the wicked, and Asaf's envy. It's like what
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  Speaker 2: he wanted to know, like why is it that they
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  Speaker 2: seem to prosper but I'm not having the same prosperity.
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  Speaker 2: And then in Job chapter twenty one, verse seven, the
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  Speaker 2: Bible reads, why do the wicked, live, become old, yes,
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  Speaker 2: and are mighty in power. So there's this struggle trying
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  Speaker 2: to understand thinking that it's a one to one correlation.
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  Speaker 2: If you're if you do good or you do well,
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  Speaker 2: then fill in the positive blank. If you don't live
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  Speaker 2: well or don't do good, then follow with the negative blank. Well,
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  Speaker 2: that's not always how things work, at least not on
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  Speaker 2: the surface. Okay. And then comes and then comes self
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  Speaker 2: reflection on personal suffering in Psalm chapter seventy three, verses
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  Speaker 2: thirteen and fourteen. All day long, I have been plagued
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  Speaker 2: and chastened every morning. That's part of the thought, part
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  Speaker 2: of the thought. And then in Jeremiah chapter twelve, verse one,
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  Speaker 2: the Bible reads, righteous, are you, o Lord when I
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  Speaker 2: plead with you? Yet, let me talk to you about
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  Speaker 2: your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
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  Speaker 2: Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? Okay? Now
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  Speaker 2: we go to number four, insight from the sanctuary experience. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: so now there is some light coming in from the
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  Speaker 2: sanctuary verse thirty five, verse seventeen of chapter seventy three.
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  Speaker 2: Until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I
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  Speaker 2: understood their end and so he was concerned and confused.
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  Speaker 2: And then God took his mindset, ASA's mindset into what
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  Speaker 2: I call the inner sanctum, like God is showing him
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  Speaker 2: through the plan of salvation as illustrated in the Sanctuary,
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  Speaker 2: the very presence of God. What this really means in
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  Speaker 2: Isaac and in a Exodus chapter thirty three and verse fourteen,
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  Speaker 2: it's it reads, and he said, my presence will go
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  Speaker 2: with you, and I will give you rest. If you
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  Speaker 2: want rest unto your soul. Ah, if you want to
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  Speaker 2: have the kind of trust that you need, then follow
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  Speaker 2: God into the sanctuary, into his presence, where there is
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  Speaker 2: light and salvation. Oversimplifying, of course, and then there is
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  Speaker 2: a realization of what happens to unrepentant wicked people. In
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  Speaker 2: Psalm chapter seventy three, verses eighteen through twenty, it describes
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  Speaker 2: the sudden destruction of those who are unrepentant. The Bible
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  Speaker 2: shows also in Luke chapter twelve and verse twenty. But
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  Speaker 2: God said to that kind of a person full this
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  Speaker 2: night your soul will be required of you. Then whose
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  Speaker 2: will be these things which you have provided? Okay, and
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  Speaker 2: so there's so much more, But the bottom line is
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  Speaker 2: that this person who does not understand God's will does
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  Speaker 2: have the privilege to trust God enough and wait for
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  Speaker 2: the outcome. Make it a great day.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us listening.
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  Speaker 2: Friends.
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  Speaker 1: Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but by
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  Speaker 1: every word that comes from the mouth of God. This
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  Speaker 1: has been your daily portion with El David Harris. Make
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  Speaker 1: it a great day. Yeah,