Libsyn Directory

If Dogs Go to Heaven… Why Not My Child? The Question That Broke a Mother’s Heart

Release Date: 05/26/2026

Who Decides What Is Good? Atheism, Genesis & Two Very Different Debates

The Freethinking Podcasts

Two debates. Two very different settings. But underneath both conversations was a surprisingly similar question: Who gets to decide what is actually good? Tim Stratton recently debated atheist Richard Suttles on objective morality and whether our moral experience points beyond ourselves—or whether morality merely seems objectively real. Meanwhile, Josh Klein found himself in a very different conversation with New Age thinker Napah Shadah, discussing the Bible, morality, the Garden of Eden, and the remarkable claim that Jesus was the serpent in Genesis 3. In this episode, Josh and Tim break...

Is Beauty Evidence for God? | Jim Spiegel

The Freethinking Podcasts

Is beauty really just in the eye of the beholder, or does objective beauty tell us something important about the nature of reality and the existence of God? In this episode of FreeThinking Ministries, Josh Klein and Tim Stratton sit down with philosopher and author Jim Spiegel to discuss his book A Thing of Beauty and the case for objective beauty. What does it mean to say that beauty is real rather than merely subjective? Can some works of art actually be better than others? How are beauty, morality, and human flourishing connected? And if objective beauty exists, does it ultimately point...

The Creation Dilemma Backfires on Mormonism?

The Freethinking Podcasts

Does Hayden Carroll’s “Creation Dilemma” successfully challenge traditional Christianity, or does the argument create an even bigger problem for Mormonism? In this episode of FreeThinking Ministries, Josh Klein and Tim Stratton are joined by Taylor from to examine the Creation Dilemma, Hayden Carroll’s () philosophical argument concerning God’s foreknowledge, creation, human freedom, hell, and divine goodness. First, we take Hayden’s argument seriously and ask whether Christians can answer the challenge. Does God’s knowledge that someone will reject Him make creating that person...

Should Christians Forgive Without Repentance? | Counterfeit Forgiveness w/ Teasi Cannon

The Freethinking Podcasts

Does biblical forgiveness require repentance? And have Christians sometimes confused forgiveness with simply “letting go” of what someone has done? Teasi Cannon joins Josh Klein and Tim Stratton to discuss her book Counterfeit Forgiveness and challenge some common assumptions about forgiveness in the church. They explore the difference between biblical and therapeutic forgiveness, whether Christians are called to forgive unrepentant offenders, the relationship between forgiveness and reconciliation, and why unconditional forgiveness can sometimes place an additional burden on victims. The...

Is William Lane Craig a Heretic? The Trinity Controversy Explained

The Freethinking Podcasts

Is William Lane Craig of a heretic for questioning the doctrine of eternal generation? And does his view actually put him outside the boundaries of Nicene Christianity? In this episode, Josh Klein and Dr. Tim Stratton are joined by Tyson James to respond to the recent controversy surrounding Craig’s understanding of the Trinity. Rather than reacting to an isolated soundbite, we dig into what Craig actually argues, why he questions certain formulations of the eternal generation of the Son, and whether those disagreements amount to a rejection of the Trinity—or something far less dramatic....

Are You Just a Biological Machine? | Dr. Joshua Farris on Why Souls

The Freethinking Podcasts

What difference would it make if you really are more than your physical body? Dr. Joshua Ryan Farris of joins us to discuss his new book, Why Souls? A Mirror to the Universe, and why the existence of the soul changes how we understand reality, human identity, consciousness, freedom, equality, and even life after death. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly capable of imitating human thought, an old question has become increasingly urgent: What actually makes us human? In this episode, we explore whether AI can truly think or know anything, why consciousness seems to require a...

What Makes Human Life Valuable? | The Abortion Debate Goes Deeper.

The Freethinking Podcasts

What makes human life valuable—and can a purely naturalistic worldview adequately explain human dignity? Jacob Vazquez of joins Dr. Tim Stratton and Josh Klein to discuss his new book, Sacred or Secular: The Pro-Life Case for Grounding Human Value in the Image of God. Rather than focusing only on whether the unborn is biologically human, Jacob takes the abortion debate one level deeper: What actually grounds the value of human beings in the first place? We discuss consciousness, rationality, human dignity, the challenges these realities pose for naturalism, and why Jacob argues they make...

Can Traditionalism, Annihilationism, & Universalism ALL Be Right?

The Freethinking Podcasts

Can Traditionalism, Annihilationism, and Universalism all be right in some sense? In this episode, Josh Klein and Dr. Tim Stratton sit down with Chad McIntosh to discuss his provocative proposal concerning the nature of hell, the fate of the damned, and what it means to bear (and potentially lose) the image of God. Chad argues for a unique view in which the damned ultimately cease to be human, conscious suffering is not necessarily everlasting, and those who remain are preserved as eternal “monuments” to God’s justice and the significance of salvation history. Along the way, we discuss...

Can We Know Jesus Rose from the Dead? | Phil Bair

The Freethinking Podcasts

Can we really know that Jesus rose from the dead—or are Christians limited to saying the resurrection is merely the best explanation of the evidence? ⁨ joins us to discuss his new book, The Knowable Resurrection: The Epistemic Case for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Phil argues that the resurrection can be defended with a specific kind of rational certainty through a trilogy of epistemic arguments—an approach that differs from both traditional historical cumulative cases and the Minimal Facts approach. In this episode, we unpack what it actually means to know something, why the...

Leighton Flowers: What Stands Out in Mere Molinism

The Freethinking Podcasts

Leighton Flowers of joined us live to discuss what stood out to him in the second edition of Human Freedom, Divine Knowledge, and Mere Molinism—and one idea he believes the Soteriology 101 audience should seriously consider. Bring your questions, join the live chat, and be part of the conversation! 📘 Purchase the book: 🌐 Visit our website and connect: 🤝 Join our team:

More Episodes

It's Question Time, and today's episode features an engaging question from one of our listeners based on Tim's argument that animals (including beloved pets) go to heaven. If that's true, says this listener, then how is God good if my child who I love MORE than my pet might be going to Hell? Josh and Tim tackle this philosophically, theologically, and pastorally. Want to ask a question?

Go to our website: https://www.freethinkingministries.co...

Check out Tim's Second Edition of Mere Molinism: https://us.amazon.com/Freedom-Divine-...

Check out Josh's Novel: https://us.amazon.com/Fracture-Joshua...

Tim's Article and Argument for pets going to heave: https://www.freethinkingministries.co...

The full e-mail:

I love my dog, but I love my child more. The following may reveal my own selfishness in that I don’t want my child to choose what he desires (a life without Christ). Though I believe in freewill, I am almost to the point where I wish God did not grant it. I’d rather have my child “a robot” in Heaven with God and me than have him freely choose his eternal destination. I am concerned for a day when my son’s sin takes him to the point of a totally seared conscience.

Though my son is not a drug addict, a drug addict gets to the point of addiction when he knows not what he does in harming his own body, mind, etc. Isn’t any sin this way? We know not what we do. We, as fallible creatures, don’t know what’s best for us. Only our Creator knows this, and yet He allows us to choose wrongly?!? Why?!? Why would God take an animal to heaven while allowing a mother or father who would die for their child (a human being made in God’s image, unlike an animal, and “worth more than the birds of the air”) to be separated from him for eternity?

It is said that to have loved and then lost is better than to have never loved at all, but I’m not so sure right now. Pictures and memories of my son’s “innocence” in childhood haunt me. Yet some say God wipes away such memories in Heaven, but don’t you think we will know more, not less, in Eternity? To wipe that child from one’s memory seems diminishing. Even to suggest annihilation (a theory I don’t favor) would not soften the wounds of loss to a mother’s heart. No longer existing seems to delegitimize any life. Even the truth of someday having a better understanding of God’s holiness and justice regarding my own flesh and blood is gut wrenching (I agree we all deserve Hell).

Why are we to lay down our lives for sinners now in reaching them for Christ but will eventually rejoice in jubilation when the time of their destruction comes? Why would God have fashioned such motherly sentiments to unconditionally love and sacrificially nurture if we were to suffer this pain of eternal separation? If God loves me and if God knew my child would not follow Him, why did He bring about a world allowing him to be created? Or to survive infancy? Theoretically, even abortion (God forbid!) would have been a better outcome as, if I’m correct in my theology, such would eventually reunite us. Is abortion a virtue in that all babes are saved from damnation? God forgive the thought!

We are told to be fruitful and multiply, but why even risk having children if there’s a possibility of having even one child…or grandchild or great grandchild or a great-great separated from you forever? Obedience beyond understanding? I don’t want one from my family tree or one acquaintance or even one stranger to be lost! The only remedy I see to this scenario as we are to love even our enemies is universal reconciliation, also a theory I do not favor...because of free will! Can you help me with these excruciating dilemmas? For my sanity’s sake I have to believe all my children will be with God in eternity, but since I don’t believe universalism is biblical, what of those others who will be separated eternally from loved ones? Is the only answer to trust God? Thank you greatly for your time; I appreciate any help you may provide this hurting mama.

➡️ CHAPTERS ⬅️

00:00 Introduction

04:00 What Led to An Argument About Animals Going to Heaven?

05:35 The Reasonable Hope That Pets Go To Heaven Argument

11:00 Introducing Kim's E-mail - I Kind of Wish My Child Was a Robot

16:48 Why Would God Take an Animal and not my Son?

38:55 Will We Not Remember Pain In Heaven?

47:52 We Will Rejoice with Jubilation When People Go to Hell?

53:13 Why Would God Give Me A Child He KNOWS Will Reject Him?

1:04:00 Why Even Risk Having Children If They COULD Go to Hell?

1:10:30 Is Universalism the Only REAL Hope?

1:19:23 Concluding Thoughts