Ask Dr. E

Q: Hi Dr. Easley! I listen to your show each week with my mom. I am a 19 year old freshman in college. My question is does the bride have to take the husband's last name according to the Bible? What is the significance of the husband's last name and not the bride's last name? I look forward to hearing your response! Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontex...

Q: Hi Dr. E! During communion, does the bread and wine change into Christ’s body and blood? If not, why do Catholics believe that? Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontext.com.

Q: My 7 year old son wants to be baptized. How do I know he’s ready?  Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontext.com.

Dr. E responds to a recent comment made by Pope Francis. On Sept 13 Pope Francis to students in Singapore at an interreligious meeting at Singapore's Catholic Junior College said, "God is God for all, and if God is God for all," he said, "then we are all sons and daughters of God. All religions are paths to reach God," said Pope Francis. "They are—to make a comparison—like different languages, dif...

Full Question: Hey Hanna and Dr. E. I love your podcast. I have a quick question. Do we pray to God, do we pray to Jesus, or do we pray to both? To read the show notes, click here. Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontext.com.

Full Question: My name is Samuel and I’m taking an evangelism class. One of our assignments was to role-play a believer and unbeliever with someone. I was playing the believer, and the lady playing the unbeliever asked me, ‘What does it mean that Jesus is the Lord of your life?’ I didn’t know how to explain that without using ‘Christianese’ like ‘get saved’ How should I answer that, and what are s...

Full Question: Acts 15:5 says: “But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.” Since these ‘believers’ thought that salvation came by faith in Christ plus being circumcised and following the Law, were they really saved? To read the show notes, click here. Call or text us your question...

Full Question: How is it possible to lie to the Holy Spirit? Are true believers even capable of this? What does scripture say about it? To read the show notes, click here. Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontext.com.

Full Question: What do you think about Christian families raising their kids to believe in Santa? To read the show notes, click here. Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontext.com.

Full Question: I’ve started studying the temptation of Christ, focusing on the Scripture Jesus uses to rebuke Satan. The first verse, from Deuteronomy 8:3, was longer than I expected and includes more than just the reference to bread. However, I’m really stuck on the second verse Jesus quotes: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve’; (Luke 4:8). All my Bibles reference...

Full Question: Deuteronomy 17 mentions not taking many wives so we are not led astray.  Where does it direct to have just one wife?  It seems in the Old Testament that men are allowed to have more than one wife but women must be monogamous. To read the show notes, click here. Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontext.com.

Full Question: I have chronic pain from chemotherapy damage to my nerves. Is there one thing that you learned in your three-year study of Job that helped you with chronic pain? To read the show notes, click here. Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontext.com.

Full Question: Was Mordecai “out of the will of God?” In a current study of Esther, one commentary described Mordecai as ‘out of the will of God’ because he stayed behind in Babylon. I have never heard this take on the uncle/cousin of Esther. Your thoughts, Dr. E? To read the show notes, click here. Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontext.com.

Full Question: Who are you voting for and how should Christians vote? What does the Bible tell us about making wise political decisions? Links Mentioned: Dr. Jeff Myers on inContext Jason Yates on inContext Dr. Cal Beisner on inContext David Closson on inContext Dr. Brian Baugus on inContext To read the show notes, click here.

Full Question: Should Christians participate in Halloween? Are we making a big deal out of nothing or are we engaging something that is evil? To read the show notes, click here. Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontext.com.

Full Question: Messianic Judaism puzzles me. You have Jewish religion, you have Christianity, then you have something created in between the two in the 1960’s with that said is messianic Judaism a valid thing--this is all weird to me. Didn’t all the apostles that were Jews convert to Christianity (believers in Christ)? Am I right in saying that they never went back to their Jewish traditions and J...

Full Question: A work colleague of mine, and Church of Christ preacher on the side, often debate theology.  The biggest debate topic is the idea of that musical instruments do not belong in the church; a well known tenant of the Church of Christ.  I ask him what about David and his harp? And he quotes Amos 6:4-7. He says there is no mention of instruments AFTER Amos, so they shouldn’t be used in w...

Full Question: I am currently reading through Judges and came across the passage in 9:23 “Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem, dealt treacherously with Abimelech,” Since we have all sinned in the sight of God and are deserving of punishment, does this verse give credence to people who believe their struggles and trials are all some sort of...

Full Question: Was Simon the magician in Acts 8 saved or was his faith fake? Can we know for sure? To read the show notes, click here. Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontext.com.

Full Question: When reading about “the new heavens and a new earth,” in Isaiah 65:17-25, I read, in verse 20, about the youth will die at the age of one hundred and the one who does not reach the age of one hundred will be thought accursed.” I wonder if this is support for the idea of a millennial kingdom, or does this refer to some other time? Because it speaks of death, I imagine it is not speak...

Full question: I send out a weekly email with 1 Bible verse, 1 quote, 1 question each week…. Recently I sent out an email that included Mark 1:35 and I wrote a little commentary that said: If the God-man (remember He was FULLY God and also fully man) needed to get up early in the morning, get away from all the people, and spend time in the presence of His Father-- HOW MUCH MORE DO WE?! I got an em...

Full Question: How do I know that I love God? I read the Bible daily, I pray, practice spiritual disciplines, do all the things a Christian “should do” but how do I know that I really love God and am not just doing all those things because I know I’m supposed to or because I’m trying to earn His favor? To read the show notes, click here. Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at qu...

Full Question: What form is God the Father? If Jesus is the bodily man form, the Spirit is the spirit form, what is God the Father’s? Does He also have a body? To read the show notes, click here. Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontext.com.

Full Question: A friend of mine went out with a guy who believes that books like the book of Enoch and the suffering of Moses should be read along with the scripture and thus be treated as inerrant. Is this a new thing or have people always tried to include these books in scripture? Obviously in Catholicism they add books to the bible, so I’m guessing this is a similar situation. I’ve heard the te...

Full Question: Michael, thanks for doing everything you do. Was curious to get your thoughts on AI. I’ve used Chat GPT and it’s almost like having a smart personal assistant. It’s also terrifying. I also see trailers for movies about robots taking over the world and it’s like... the warning signs are there - what are we thinking by moving forward even more so with this?! To give an inanimate objec...