Join us for the newest episode of Apologia Radio in which we spent a little bit of time engaging with some content from an online Mormon apologist named Hayden Carroll. Hayden has a history of misrepresenting his opponents and selling that misrepresentation to other Mormons. We take a few moments to speak to that issue. Tell someone about it!
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Jeff Durbin
Non Rockabotus Must stop. I don't want to rock the boat. I want to sink it. Are you gonna bark all day, little doggy? Or are you gonna bite? Delusional. Yeah, delusional is okay. In your worldview, I'm an animal. You don't chastise chickens for being delusional. You don't chastise pigs for being so. You calling me delusional using your worldview is perfectly okay. It doesn't really hurt. She hung up on me. Desperate times call for faithful men and not for careful men. The careful men come later and write the biographies of the faithful men, lauding them for their courage.
Luke
Go into all the world and make disciples. Not go into the world and make buddies. Not to make corrosives. Don't go in the world, make homies.
Jeff Durbin
Right.
Luke
Disciples.
Jeff Durbin
I got a bit of a jiggle neck. That's a joke, Pastor.
Pastor James
When we have the real message of
Jeff Durbin
truth, we cannot let somebody say they're speaking truth when they're not. Take an amazing journey to a place that will blow your mind and move your mind so you will never be the same again. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. That's Jude, verse three. Verse three. Because there's only. There's not chapters. There's just the third verse. The faith that Was once for all delivered to the saints. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Apologia Radio. This is the gospel heard around the world. I'm Jeff the com ninja. That's Luke the Bear right there. What up, Luke the Cyborg there. Luke the Cyborg elbow. That's. That's serious. That's a weapon. That's definitely a weapon. How's your arm going?
Luke
It's going well. It's going two weeks into rehab from not fun surgery. It's going well.
Jeff Durbin
Yeah.
Luke
So two weeks into four month rehab stunt.
Jeff Durbin
Yeah.
Luke
So it's good.
Jeff Durbin
Yeah, it's a, it's been, it was a pretty, pretty serious surgery. So I mean obviously you've got. It's. It's Robo Bear over here. So everybody, if you're new to Apologia Radio, welcome. I'm so glad you. So glad you're Robo Bear. We need you to make a T shirt. Okay, That's. It's official. Put the T shirt on the store. Luke will do a good job with that Robo Bear. You can just ask AI to do it. It'll probably come with some.
Luke
I've been using AI lately for stuff like that.
Jeff Durbin
Yeah, I'm. I'm actually going to try to make sure at some point here. I'll go to X, go to Grock and see if I can have him do like a robo.
Luke
I'll do it right now.
Jeff Durbin
You do it while I'm talking. Okay. There we go. If you're new to Apology Radio, I want to say welcome. Thank you so much for joining us. We're grateful that you're here. If you would do all the things that YouTube likes do, the likes and the, the shares and all that stuff help people get a hold episode where it's gonna be a shorter episode. Today. Pastor Luke and I have some stuff we have to do. So we're going to take a stab at something and then hopefully in the future do some, some more on this because I think it's an important subject. And so if you guys are new Again, go to apologiastudios.com a p o l o g I a studios dot com. When you go there, you get access to all of the past episodes of Apologia Radio. There's cultists there, there's provoke, there's shiologians. All of that guys is, is years deep and it's all there for your listening pleasure. So go check that out. Also, if you would sign up for all access. When you guys do all Access you in this ministry. So the millions upon millions of people who are hearing the gospel, the people who are getting training and teaching and apologetics and, and, and the word of God, all that takes place through Apologia Studios, through people just like you who are sharing the content, who are part of this ministry with us. They're all access. And when you guys are all access, we want to bless you with even more. So we have the after shows, we have the Ask Me Anythings, we have the Academy up@apologia studios.com. great stuff there. And, and so yeah, there's lots more coming to this year, so have a shorter episode today because we got some things we got to do but wanted to just talk this. You know, right now we're, we're at the time of year that's very special to us. It's an opportunity for us to go to the Mormon Temple in Mesa, Arizona and to engage Latter Day Saints with the biblical gospel, pointing them to the true Christ. And so I've been doing this, this, I, I just realized this last week when I was out of the temple, that this is my 30th year going to the Mormon Temple to do evangelism with the local Latter Day Saints 30 year anniversary.
Luke
That's crazy.
Jeff Durbin
Yeah, it is. So 1996 is when I first went and that's where I also got to meet officially for the first time, Pastor James. And it's been a blessing. The Latter Day Saints are my favorite community to communicate the gospel to. I think the Latter Day Saints are some of the sweetest and greatest people on earth. I was talking to a group of Mormons yesterday, quite a few of them actually just came up to engage. I said they watched the content and they were just very gracious and super sweet and great conversations. But I even said to one of them last night, I said, you know, there's lots of Mormons that I'd prefer to like go out to eat with and hang out with and some professing Christians. And I genuinely mean that. So anyway, it's been a true honor and privilege in my life to have relationships with Latter Day Saints, to engage them with the gospel. I love the Mormon community. And so right now we're in the midst of it. We're going out and just handing out tracts, trying to have conversations with Latter Day Saints and pointing to scripture, pointing to the true God and the true gospel. So this is fresh in our minds right now. And, and so I wanted to gauge a bit today just because it's fresh in my mind. With one online Mormon apologist. His name is Hayden Carroll. Uh, there's, I think two right now that are, are the most prevalent or popular amongst young Mormons. And that would be, uh, Jacob. And he is Henson. He's the one who's debating, uh, Dr. James White tomorrow in Ogden, Utah. I wish. I don't know if they're going to have a link, a live link. I need to ask Jason Wallace if they're going to have a live link so people can watch it live. So Pastor James is debating Jacob on something like, is the God of Calvinism morally reprehensible? And so that's Tomorrow, I think, 1:00pm in Ogden, Utah. And so, yeah, Hayden and Jacob seem to be the younger Mormon apologists that a lot of the younger Mormons are listening to and trying to get help from. And so I thought maybe it'd be good for us start engaging a bit more as we have time. And just so you know, this, this is one of the things people always love to do this like, you know, people do. You haven't.
Luke
I just sent it to you.
Jeff Durbin
Send it. Okay, I'll put, I'll put it up in a minute. Is it good? It's great. So this is interesting. And Luke, how many, how many times have we had to have faced this down? Whether it's the atheists or Mormons, somebody will put online somewhere like, I want to debate, I want to debate you at speaking of me. And either I won't see it or we're right in the midst of a bunch of ministry and so we just don't have time to invest something like that. And they'll say, you're afraid of this person, you're ignoring, you're refusing to debate. And let me just say that's the most ridiculous thing ever. If, if you knew the responsibilities we have as pastors, the responsibilities to these other ministries, and especially the responsibilities we have towards end abortion now and just the travel that we've done in the last four months for end abortion now, time away from family investment, time away from church. It's, it's a lot. And so I promise you there is zero fear of facing down of these Mormon apologists. It's just a matter of time. And so usually won't debate you.
Luke
That's usually the. Maybe you've requested that a number of times.
Jeff Durbin
Maybe I'd love to, I'd love to be able to invest the time. And so maybe potentially in the future, maybe that can happen. It just all depends on balancing because I will say I think trying to stop the slaughter of children. The dismemberment of children in the womb has to take precedent over engaging in a public moderated debate with, with anybody. And so as I have time, I will, which I think I've demonstrated. I think I have like five public debates or something like that. And so it's just a matter of timing. But anyway, so a little ways back, we had been given a video of Hayden at the Mormon Temple engaging with actually a member of Apologia Church. And so we had some time, like we can engage with a bit with this one. So we did a short episode, touched on it a little bit. And so Hayden responded to that video. So it's been a little bit of inception going on here. This is, this is the first video is done by Hayden. We responded to that. He responded to our response video. And now we're going to respond to his response video. So we're layers deep in this. It's a little bit of inception again. And so I'm just going to get right into it because we have a shorter episode today. Try to touch on some things best we can in the limited time that we have. So here we. Oops. Okay, here we go. Let's go with there.
Hayden Carroll
So it looks like our friend over at Apologia Church, Jeff Durbin, caught wind of our recent video of me talking to one of his apolog Apologetic pupils and felt the need to make a response video to try to clean up the mess. I thought you guys might enjoy here.
Luke
Go ahead.
Jeff Durbin
The.
Luke
I don't even know what video he's talking about.
Jeff Durbin
Let me just say, let me say, Hayden, one. One thing I'll say, I don't know you personally, but you obviously think very highly of yourself. And, and I can promise you, I rest assured there was, there was no thought in our minds. Did we ever have that conversation? D. This is trouble for us.
Luke
No. I don't even know.
Jeff Durbin
Boy, are we in trouble. We really need to clean up the mess here. I mean, was that ever a part of our conversation even once?
Luke
Not once.
Jeff Durbin
It was like, hey, this is an opportunity to engage a bit with this. It's a Mormon apologist. Let's go ahead and do this. Hayden, you obviously. And this comes out. And I've listened to a few of your talks. I listened to your, your, your Talk on Apologetics 101 or something like that just the other day. And you obviously think very highly of yourself, and that's what I'm noting for sure as we start this.
Hayden Carroll
Bring some of his arguments, plus it's looking like Apologia Studios might be needing a little bit of help with their YouTube view count as of late.
Jeff Durbin
Just. Just. Here's the thing.
Luke
He's the help.
Moderator
Yeah.
Jeff Durbin
So, Hayden, Hayden, we're not going to play this game. You know, if you. Okay, look, look, if. If you wanted to play this game, we could play this game, but we don't think that there's any value in it. But, but I'll go ahead and bite for a second here. If. If you wanted to play this game, then I. Okay, let's. Let's act like children and let's see who has a bigger subscriber count, who has the most views across platforms, whether it's Instagram or X or Facebook or YouTube. I mean, how many. How many subscription subscribers do you have on YouTube, Hayden, how many do you want to play this game? Do you really want to go there? Do you think so highly of yourself that these sorts of attacks are going to be convincing to people who are thinking critically? And so I just say, I said it to you last episode. I said, hayden, do better. Honestly, do better. This is a really poor opening to a response. I'll be honest with you. Right at this point, I don't take you very seriously. And I mean that with as much respect to you as an image bearer of God, but as an apologist, I don't take you very seriously. We're a few seconds in this, into this video. You think very highly of yourself. You got a lot of assumptions about what we're doing, why we're doing it, and it's just childish. You know, their view count is down, and so that's why they're doing this, to get their views up. I assure you, this episode, if we were working for view counts and trying to raise the view counts of our channel, this episode is hurting us. There are so many other issues that we could do to add views if that's what we were doing. If our whole goal was to get higher views, there are ways to do that. Trust me, there are ways to do that. But that's not necessarily something that's like always in the front of our mind. Like, we do want to have an impact on the most people, for sure, but we're not going. You know, this is a really important issue, but this one over here will get us more views. What we want to do is respond to things that will bless the church 100 years from now. And so view counts. I mean, again, if you want to play that game, let's compare view counts. Our Subscription and then our view counts over against yours. How do you think you would fare in that battle, Hayden? It's kind of childish to think about, isn't it? Like if we went ahead and followed suit and said, well, okay, let's do this, let's play this game of view counts, would, would you do well in that conversation, Hayden, or are you acting a bit childish? I think I know the answer to that.
Hayden Carroll
Unfortunately, Jeff only gets through a few moments of our hour long conversation and he stops right as it was about to get when we started talking about what the good news is
Jeff Durbin
he only got through a few moments because believe it or not, Pastor Luke and Pastor Jeff are very busy with our church body caring for our church body, discipling people, equipping people, doing evangelism, trying to save babies, all those things. I can promise you this, and again, I mean this with as much respect to you, you don't rank very highly on our radar of like really critical issues we need to address. And so right now we're doing this because this Mormonism is fresh in our mind right now. We have the opportunity to do this we think it's important to do. But yeah, again, Hayden, what I note most is that you think very highly
Hayden Carroll
of yourself for someone who God predetermined to go to hell. To be honest, I was expecting a lot more from Jeff, a full time leader at his Bible study club. While
Luke
respectfully, this is why we have a hard time having serious conversations with this man. Yeah, because it's just these little shots here and there.
Jeff Durbin
Where are we? What are we? Just, I mean, 30 seconds or so into your response video and it's just swipe after swipe after childish swipe. Bible study club. Bible study club. Hey, seriously young man, do better. Do much better.
Hayden Carroll
Also considering how often he preaches about Latter Day Saints and our beliefs. But his response video just reminded me that there are no great answers to support his worldview and he is actually giving the strongest position. He has a foundation completely built on totally unjustified presuppositions. Some people have asked me if I'm ever anxious or afraid to speak with hostile credo Christians about our faith. And my answer is is no. The more conversations I have, the more I realize how truly weak the creedal position is and how strong the position is of the restored gospel. So let's see what Jeff has to say.
Jeff Durbin
So we'll get into that and we could do an entire episode right here just on that one point. The restored gospel. I, I will say I do think it's important. And people, you know, this is an important conversation happening right now. It's in a lot of the debates. And I've always felt this way, that it's important for you to steel man your opponent's position. Right. Don't straw man it. Give the best representation of it. And that's not something I think that Hayden affords to, to us for sure. When he was on with Trent Horn, did you see his Trent Horn? He probably didn't see that he was on my Trent Horn. It was, it just was interesting to see a Latter Day Saint and, and a Roman Catholic and then how Hayden was acting towards him. And it was interesting, I think that Hayden wants to straw man someone like Trent Horn' but, or, sorry, steel man his position, but he doesn't quite do that with us. And I think, I think you could do a lot better with that. But we could spend an entire episode on just that one term. Term there. You said restored gospel credo, Christians versus a restored gospel. Just that one position right there. Your whole system completely collapses. You can't claim to be a continuation of the biblical God and biblical revelation and say that there's a restored gospel. And that is something, by the way, that Trent Horn would also tell you that you can't do that. Why? What? There's a number of words from God that are in the scriptures that you could appeal to. Like for example, the one that I just gave at the opening of the episode today. Jude, verse three. Beloved. Although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you, to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Once for all, Once for all. Once for all.
Moderator
All.
Jeff Durbin
And this isn't the only place in scripture that teaches the impossibility of a restored gospel. It was once for all delivered to the saints. You believe that it has gone and then it had to be restored again. That's twice. Okay. And so Scripture would deny that as a possibility. Trent Horn would deny that as a possibility. We deny that as a possibility. Jesus said that he'd build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Apparently it's not something that the Mormon Church can, can, can face down or embrace. Scripture teaches in Matthew or, sorry, chapter 7:13 through 14, that the Son of man would come on the clouds of heaven, that he would come up to on the clouds of the heaven to the Father, and that he was given a kingdom, dominion, authority, and that he, his kingdom and dominion would never Pass away. It's an everlasting kingdom according to scripture, that would never pass away. Isaiah, chapter 9, 6, 7. Of the increase of his government, there will be no end on the throne of David to establish it with justice and righteousness forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this Scripture teaches something entirely different from your system in terms of what is possible with the kingdom of God and with the church. And so this whole idea of creedal Christianity versus the restored gospel, a restoration is not possible because a complete falling away is also not possible. And that's what scripture teaches. Again, there's an entire episode we could do on just that point, but here we go. And so today I wanted to do a show where we're going to engage a little bit with a Mormon apologist interacting with, actually, Austin, somebody who's a part of our church body. And this is with Hayden Carroll and Austin teaching with.
Hayden Carroll
So tell me. So clarify for me what is Sol scriptura and tell me why you believe it.
Pastor James
So, obviously, creeds and confessions are nice when they are. When they match with what Scripture teaches.
Hayden Carroll
Okay.
Pastor James
So they don't necessarily have the ultimate authority over me because, you know, there's been, like, second Council of Nicaea. It's pretty bad.
Hayden Carroll
I'd say the first Council of Nicaea, too.
Pastor James
Yeah. We disagree.
Hayden Carroll
A whole other conversation. How do you adjudicate which. Which councils are correct and which aren't?
Pastor James
When they. What I just said. I said when they line up with what Scripture teaches. But, like, if we.
Hayden Carroll
The councils don't align with what Scripture teaches. Right.
Pastor James
Well, so the first Council of Nicaea.
Luke
Yeah.
Pastor James
You know, was not about the canon, like.
Hayden Carroll
No, it was about the nature of God.
Pastor James
It was about the nature of God, who he is.
Hayden Carroll
Sure.
Pastor James
And then they kind of argued about what day to celebrate Easter on.
Hayden Carroll
Okay, but didn't they say that the Father and the Son were co.
Dominion Wealth Representative
Even.
Moderator
Equal.
Pastor James
Yeah, co.
Hayden Carroll
Equal.
Pastor James
Co. Eternal.
Hayden Carroll
But the text doesn't say that. Right, that's what I'm saying, that the biblical text doesn't agree with that council.
Jeff Durbin
Well, so sola scriptura, the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, being given by divine inspiration, are the sole infallible rule of faith and practice for the church. Sola scriptura. And so really, Sola scriptura is a doctrine that's based upon revelation.
Hayden Carroll
Sorry, Jeff, did you say that? Sola scriptura is a doctrine based on revelation. Can you please show us when God publicly identified your 66 book canon and declared it as infallible and the ultimate
Jeff Durbin
authority Hayden loves this argument. And Hayden, I'm sorry, this is a very, very weak argument. And if we do end up having a debate one day, I'm going to engage you on this and I'm going to press hard. But also, you just showed your ignorance. And Hayden, you do that often. You show your ignorance. And I don't mean that to take down your dignity. I mean that you are ignorant. You don't know, you don't understand, understand the Fathers. You don't understand church history. You manipulate things, you distort facts. And in this case, you are distorting what I was saying completely, because you just went to a question of revelation about which books belong in the canon, and you did that when I was responding or actually explaining what the doctrine of Sola scriptura is based upon. It's based upon revelation. In other words, words, sola scriptura, the Scriptures alone, or the sole infallible rule of faith and practice, is a doctrine based upon revelation. In other words, that the Scriptures contain the revelation of God. But, Hayden, you're so ignorant about this conversation that you didn't know what I was saying. And if you would listen to what I was saying, you would see that that's precisely what I was talking about, not revelation about which books belong in the canon. You are, you are so fixated on this very bad argum that, let's be honest, you mostly got from Roman Catholics. It's bad when they give it, too. You're so fixated on it, you're just looking for the opportunity to squeeze your chestnut into the conversation. But that's not what I was talking about. This is not a conversation about that I was having there about Sola scriptura and what it is, in essence, about which books belong in the canon. Sola scriptura, at the heart of it, is about revelational epistemology. It's revelational based upon revelation that God has spoken. And that's how I know certainty is found in justification can be given, because these are the words of God and this is the revelation of God. And so you didn't understand, and so you misrepresented. You jumped from one thing, one conversation, into another one, which is one of your favorite arguments. Again, a very poor argument. I dare you to try to bring that to me. And I hope you do. I really hope that you do. But you, you just misrepresented your opponent. So again, Hayden, do better. That's, that's not what I was talking about, about revelation telling us which books are in the King canon. Again, this is one of Your favorite arguments. And so you just had to find a way to squeeze it in there. It's very poor. But that's not what I was talking about. I was talking about the epistemological grounding for sola scriptura. Why sola scriptura? Because it is based upon the revelation of God. And where today do we have access to the inspired revelation of God? Where today do you have access to the inspired revelation of God? And that's not something that just Christians say or Protestants say. Roman Catholics will also acknowledge. Yeah. That these are the inspired words of scripture, the prophets and the apostles in Scripture. And so this is what we have access to, to their teachings about what God said. And so it's revelational. It's based upon the reference point of God doing the speaking. And so sola scriptura, at the heart of it is a revelational epistemology. And the question for the Protestant is, is where do we have access today to the words of Jesus and the apostles? We don't have Jesus physically with us today speaking to us. We're not at his feet guiding us. And he's speaking today, like in the flesh to us today. The apostles all died. They're not living and speaking to us today. So where do we have access today to the inspired words of the prophets and apostles in scripture? And the answer for the Protestant is, is only in the Scriptures. Now, you, you might want to debate that point, and that's fine. But what sola scriptura is at its heart is a revelational epistemology. That's what I was talking about. I wasn't talking about God revealing which books are in the canon. And again, do better if you can.
Hayden Carroll
You'd be the first person on earth to produce such an artifact. If you can't, please don't say that this presupposition that you hold out of necessity is based upon revelation from God.
Luke
God.
Hayden Carroll
God has never taught sola scriptura. You know this, Jeff.
Jeff Durbin
Sure, Luke. I know that God has never taught sola scriptura, and that's why that I say that it's God's standard. Hayden, just you, you've got to do better. You know this. You know this. Is that why I've spent a decades of my life teaching it and teaching it from the scriptures. I mean, if you were serious, if you were a serious person, Hayden, and I don't take you as a serious person. If you were a serious person, you would actually engage with the years of content and teaching that I have on the issue of sola scriptura, where I Go to the text itself and demonstrate from the Bible the biblical standard of God's revelation being supreme, it being the plumb line, it being the standard, the test for truth. You would, you would engage with the scriptures that I go through from the Old and New Testament demonstrating this standard, that it is the revelation of God that is the standard and is the reference point for all of God's people. You would go to those verses and you would try to engage with them, but unfortunately it seems like you're not a very serious person. So you say things like this, Jeff knows that this isn't in the Bible or Jeff knows that God doesn't teach this. Is that why I have entire sermons, an hour long, an hour and a half long, based upon the text of God's word, demonstrating the principle of the primacy and reference, reference point of God's revelation as supreme. And so I don't know, is that why I teach it? And so here's what I'm saying, Hayden, do better. Don't misrepresent your opponent. You need to grow up a little, I think, and I mean that to you respectfully, grow up a little in your engagement with others. Because I think anybody who's serious minded and wants answers and wants a real engagement isn't going to take any of this seriously. I certainly don't. And I want to take you seriously. But after listening to you and watching you over, say, even the last week, I, I just, I, I have a hard time taking you very seriously at all as an opponent. And again, I don't mean to take down your dignity. I mean it with as much respect as I can give to you. But it's things like this, it's the slights, it's the misrepresentations, it's the, it's that Jeff, Jeff knows, Jeff knows the Bible doesn't teach this. Is that why Jeff teaches it all the time to his wife, to his children, to his church body? And he does it from the scriptures? I mean, Hayden, please, please do better.
Hayden Carroll
After stating this absurdity, Jeff moves on to another. He says we can't know moral truth before God tells us.
Jeff Durbin
How do I know with certainty? How do I have justified true belief? How do I have warrant to say like this is true, this is the true ethic and so love your neighbor, eat your neighbor. And so Christians tend to know how they, how do I have warrant to another? So watch again, the misrepresentation. Let me see if you guys caught it. All right, so let me back it up here just a little. Bit and watch the misrepresentation.
Hayden Carroll
You know this, Jeff. After stating this absurdity, Jeff moves on to another. He says we can't know moral truth before God tells us.
Jeff Durbin
Okay, so the claim from Hayden here is that we can't know moral truth before God tells us. That's his claim. Jeff says that we can't know moral truth before God tells us. Us. Now you played it yourself, Hayden. Listen to what you play from Jeff. That contradicts what you just said. How do I know with certainty? How do I have justified true belief? How do I have warrant to say like this is true, this is, this is the, this is the true ethic. And so, so I said, how do we know? And I'm talking here, and you'd love to take things out of context, apparently, about how we have warrants, warrant, how we have justification, how we have justified true belief. This is a philosophical conversation about epistemology that I'm having about how do you have certainty and justification or warrant about any particular belief. And in this case, I'm talking about ethics. And if you knew my theology, if you were concerned with accurately representing your opponents and what they actually teach and believe, you would know that I believe that there is something called general revelation, and that is that that revelation does get through to every image bearer of God. And you would know that I've taught for years upon years upon years publicly that general revelation is true. General revelation gets through. And that every single image bearer of God knows the true God and they know the basics of what is right and wrong. They have that written within them. They know these things. But the problem isn't that there's a lack of light and they just don't know enough, enough. And that they can't know. It's that they suppress that truth and unrighteousness and they are rebellious against the true and living God, that they are haters of God, they are enemies of God. And so they do know in their heart of hearts that they're to love their neighbor rather than eat their neighbor. They do know that murder is wrong, but they cannot, because of their rebellion, either obey it or even justify it. So this is a, this is a conversation about justification. It's about warrants providing justification and having ground for certainty on these ethical questions. I never said that unbelievers don't know the difference between right and wrong. The problem is not that they don't know. It's that they refuse to know God and they don't want God in their knowledge and they suppress that truth and Unrighteousness. So every, every unbeliever in the world, every lost person in the world world knows that it is against God's command to. To murder somebody, to take their life in an unjustified manner. Everybody knows that. The problem, though, is because they reject God, they develop these complex worldviews to try to live in a world apart from God. But when they develop those complex worldviews, they cannot provide any justification for those moral claims or ethical demands. I hope that you understand that now, and I'm going to play in a moment an example of how that looks and what I was, what I'm getting at. My beliefs here have been consistently taught for many, many years, Hayden. And if you were to commit to do better and to actually accurately represent your opponents, you would know that. Yeah, Jeff's been consistent on this, as he teaches on this all the time. So here we go. Love your neighbor, Eat your neighbor. And so Christians tend to know how they answer that question. Well, you love your neighbor as you love yourselves. Well, why do you believe that? Well, because that's from God himself. Jesus told us that.
Hayden Carroll
So, Jeff, your position is that we can't know moral truth before we hear God say so. But is it
Jeff Durbin
another misrepresentation? It's a question of being able to justify providing an epistemological warrant and grounding for these claims. That's the point. And here's the deal. Look, if you knew anything about Reformed theology and Calvinism, you would know what we believe. I mean, Hayden, I'd ask you, like, what books have you read on Reformed theology or Calvinism or Calvinistic anthropology? What books have you read on what the reformers and many in church history have taught on, on biblical anthropology and general revelation and natural law? Have you read up on this at all? Or are you just shooting from the hip here? Because I see this and I just see a man that just hasn't made enough of a commitment to accurately understand his opponent before he puts out videos leaving a public record of ignorance, which is what you've done here. But here's, here's an example of what I'm getting at. My point was, without God and his word, without biblical revelation, without God's revelation, you cannot provide warrant and justification that's meaningful at all for any ethical claim. That's the point I was making. Making. That's the point I was making, Hayden. Not that unbelievers don't know the difference between right and wrong. It's how do you justify ethical claims? It's an epistemological question, a question of certainty. And so let me get to this.
Luke
Five minutes.
Jeff Durbin
Great. Okay. Wait, like until we're done?
Luke
Yeah.
Jeff Durbin
Oh, goodness gracious. Okay, well, sorry guys, it's. It was going to be a short episode. Okay, I'm going to play, I'm going to play through a debate that I had with Pastor James versus some atheists at the University of Utah a couple of years ago. And here is an example of what I'm getting at in terms of justification. If you reject God's revelation, if you reject God's word, then you have no ground to stand on when trying to justify or provide warrant for ethical claim. So here's the cross examination with these atheists.
Dominion Wealth Representative
So we'll go ahead and start our 20 minutes
Jeff Durbin
now.
Moderator
Thank you, gentlemen. It's a great honor to be here with you and I honor you both and thank you so much for being here with us and doing this. If I could ask you this question to respond to the quote that I had in my opening statement from Dr. Will Provine, the professor of biological sciences at Cornell. He says that because of his views of modern evolutionary biology, it tells us loud and clear, clear. And these are Darwin's views that there are no gods, no purposeful forces of any kind, no life after death. When I die, I'm absolutely certain that I'm going to be all completely dead. That's just all that's going to be the end of me. There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning in life, and no free will for humans either. Could you respond to Dr. Will Provine, given your worldview?
Mr. Anderson
Yeah, I agree with the beginning of that. I do personally believe that when we die, our consciousness most likely does not persist. I would comment on the ultimate versus greater because I think that's very, very important. It is true that questions of meaning are not objective or absolute. And that is an amazing, wonderful thing because again, that means that each of us is able to determine what is meaningful to us and what is important to us. I honor the fact that for many here, Christ and the Bible are guidelines for meaning and purpose and ethics. I celebrate that. You need to be very, use the Bible very carefully. But that is not the case for everyone. The important thing that makes it greater than us individually to answer some of the questions as far as like, aren't there just billions of points of view? Well, yes, there are billions of points of view, but again, we are all part of the conversation. And so in response, yes, even if there is no life after death, even if there is no absolute meaning that means that there is life before death and there is meaning before death.
Moderator
Mr. Anderson, I don't think. I don't think you answered the question, so I'll ask it again.
Jeff Durbin
Please do.
Moderator
He says there's no ultimate foundation for ethics given your worldview.
Mr. Anderson
Yes.
Moderator
No ultimate meaning in life and no free will for humans either. You say that it needs to be meaningful to us. It's at least meaningful to us. Was it meaningful to the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgeway? Was his determination of what was meaningful for him just as valuable or meaningful as you? Your perspective that he was wrong?
Mr. Anderson
Meaningful is different than defensible. I work with murderers and pedophiles all the time. I have a least favorite pedophile.
Moderator
Are they wrong?
Mr. Anderson
He's very annoying. Yes, they are absolutely wrong, or they are technically intersubjectively wrong.
Moderator
So they're not absolutely wrong?
Mr. Anderson
No, because it's all a conversation.
Moderator
The debate's over, friends.
Mr. Anderson
They are intersubjectively.
Moderator
So you admit, Mr. Anderson, that they are not absolutely wrong. The Green River Killer is not absolutely wrong. Ted Bundy is not absolutely wrong. Child rapists are not absolutely wrong. And you came to debate that your worldview provides a foundation for ethics.
Mr. Anderson
Yes, the humanist perspective does provide a foundation for ethics, because, again, rape is wrong, murder is wrong according to the cultural conversation that we are. All of which apart from.
Moderator
So if a society draws a circle around themselves and says that you can kill and cannibalize other human beings, as long as they're a large enough society that draws a circle around themselves and they determine that it's right, it's right to eat other humans.
Mr. Anderson
Some cultures have believed that, yes, they are part of the conversation.
Jeff Durbin
Is it ethical?
Mr. Anderson
Depends on the context.
Moderator
So killing and cannibalizing other human beings could be ethical in your system?
Mr. Anderson
If you're frozen after a plane crash and our soccer players.
Moderator
No, I think you missed it, Mr. Anderson. I'll say it again. Killing and cannibalizing another human being could be ethical so long as you have enough people that agree with you.
Mr. Anderson
That's not what would make it ethical. It would not be the agreement. It would be the conversation and the navigation and the negotiation.
Jeff Durbin
So because of his worldview, because he rejects God, because he refuses to listen to God's word and stand on God's word, he has to construct some system, some meaningful system, to say rape is wrong, pedophilia is wrong, murder is wrong. He has to. But then he has to, when you get down to his foundations, admit. Well, no, Pedophilia child rape is not actually absolutely wrong. No, murder is not absolutely wrong. It's just. It's a cultural conversation we're having. And so basically he's like, it's not the agreement, it's the conversation we have. Okay, so the conversation we have that. That ends up in the agreement that this is all okay to do. So it's just. It's just a mess. That's what's being spoken to Hayden, that issue, the epistemological grounding, providing warrant and justification, the preconditions of intelligibility for the ethical questions. That's what I was referring to. The issue is an epistemological question that you missed. You missed. And then you put up a video. Video misrepresenting and pontificating and acting like you know what you're talking about. And Hayden, you don't. And this isn't the first time that we've engaged in the last couple of years with Mormon apologists who are. Who are, I guess, want to do this to. To. I mean, there was a video that, a while back that. Where Jacob had. Had. Had misrepresented Michael Heiser and did an entire video misrepresenting Michael Heiser's entire channel teaching. And we responded to that. We refuted that. Is that video still up? I think that it's still up. And so it's just. It's. It's misrepresentation. I would just encourage you to represent your opponent accurately. And so when you do things like this, Hayden, you leave a public record of ignorance and, you know, you can leave your video up. That's. That's fine. But we'll just continue to respond and to show the problems and the misrepresentation. But we're only. What do we get a minute into this video, a minute and a half into this video, and you've demonstrated that you don't know what your opponents believe, that you're willing to misrepresent them, that you're willing to put up videos, shoot from the hip pontificate and pretend like you know what you're talking about when you clearly don't. I mean this with as much respect to you as possible and honor towards you as possible. You. You need to.
Moderator
To.
Jeff Durbin
You need to engage these issues with better study before you do these videos, because all this is. Is just misrepresentation. You are clearly out of your element in this conversation, and I don't mean that to demean you. I mean, clearly you are out of your element because you don't even understand what's being said. And so I think, sorry, this is a short episode today. We had to go. Is it really that fast? What time is it?
Luke
It's 148.
Jeff Durbin
Okay, 148. So I'll let you.
Luke
Well, I just want to address what's going on in the chat. There's only one way to get blocked on our YouTube channel. And if that's, if you come into the chat or you comment on our videos and you're acting inappropriately or acting like a troll, you're going to get blocked. So if Hayden is blocked from our channel, that's because he came into her channel, was acting inappropriately. It's not because we don't want to talk to him. And all y' all in there acting like modern YouTube day nights. It's really real easy. Block, block, block. We don't have to sit here and take this abuse and trolling from all this, from all you guys, okay? It's real simple. It's not a matter of being a coward. It's not a matter of not wanting to talk to him. We've talked to Hayden personally in person at the temple. So this isn't an issue that he made a public video. We're responding publicly. We don't have to entertain any of this nonsense in the chat channel, make people making threats at us and calling us cowards and all this nonsense. So it's really real easy, simple block. See you later. We're not deleting comments when you get blocked. It's gone cyan forever.
Jeff Durbin
This pretty much forever anyways. So I just want that point clear. Also it's, it's another example too of, of just misrepresenting your opponents. Anybody who's serious minded would look at somebody making just childish comments like that about cowards and whatever, you're afraid or something like that. I would just say look at the history. Look at the history of going out onto the street, of going to Mormon wards, of engaging Mormon bishops. I mean, I'm talking thousands of interactions. Look at the history of public debate and engagement. We go out to all kinds of, we go out to the abortion mills and engage with hostile people there. We have people throwing things at us, trying to hit us with cars, pulling guns on us, those sorts of things. And so this whole just very childish like 6th grade call out thing of like you're afraid you're chicken or something like that, like that. I haven't been afraid to engage with the best of the, of the other worldviews for many, many years. And I hope for many, many more to come. And, and I can say that, you know, one, one of the things that I've, I've had as a commitment for years is that engaging in a public debate with Mormonism. I want somebody who's an official representative of the church. I want somebody who represents Mormonism that the church says represents Mormonism. Because I think it's important that this subject is as important to say that, no, I want somebody that's an actual official representative of the church to engage this issue because oftentimes you have these debates with, you know, I don't mean this in any way derogatory. I'm just saying a low level Mormon that's not a representative of the church. If you have that debate, people can say oh, you know, they were wrong and yeah, they lost that debate or yeah, they contradicted themselves, but that person doesn't officially actually represent the church. Anyways. I, I think Walter Martin was right when he engaged in the past with Van Hale that he wanted an official representative of the church. Representative of the church. And I think that that would be very valuable. However, however, we'll look at the schedule, we'll see how things are over the next year. Again, end abortion now is, is for me one of the important, other important things to invest my life in. And God is blessing that tremendously right now. And I think the lives of baby, babies are much more important and valuable to invest this kind of time in. And so, but we'll see, we'll see, we'll see how the, how the Lord allows the next year to go for us and maybe something like that will happen. But I will say that it's going to be for me dependent upon having a worthy opponent who demonstrates that they do care about accurately the representing their, their own opponents. And so yeah, yeah.
Luke
And I'll just say quickly because it keeps, it keeps coming up here in the chat, like when is Jeff debated an informal informed Mormon apologists, like who determines what an informed Mormon apologist. But the point you just made is very important. Y' all little fellows in there have no idea how many times Jeff has officially requested to debate Mormon officials and they refuse because the Mormon Church will not allow them to speak officially for the Mormon Church. So we've tried many a time and I don't even, you know, I'm confident that if you agreed hating to do a debate that the Mormon Church would not say that you were officially representing
Jeff Durbin
them for their church. Right. Representing them for sure they would not.
Luke
And thank you, Aaron Shafalov. Love You. He's in there. Yes.
Jeff Durbin
Such a great name, brother. Okay, hey, Gabe, let's go to that commercial break real fast. Guys, stay with us. We're gonna have some more comments right after this. So, Gabe, let's go to that commercial. This episode's brought to you by ion layer@ionlayer.com Go and check out the health benefits, the wellness benefits and longevity benefits of NAD treat. NAD is nicknamed the fountain of youth for a reason. You have an abundance of this in your system when you're young. As you get older, it drops off. And now we found a way to get NAD into our systems. They do it through IV treatments, but they're very expensive and it's also extremely painful and difficult. However, Ion Layer found a way to get a high dose of NAD into your system through a medical patch you wear on your arm. You wear it for about 14 hours, you get a high dose of NAD treatment into your system and no pain at all. And it is a fraction of the cost of what you would pay for an IV treatment. In the coupon code, type in Apologia in all caps. They're going to hook you up with a great discount for an already amazingly cost effective product. And they bless Apologia studios and help us to stay on the air and do all these programs with you. Don't forget, also Iron Layer has added a glutathione patch as well as well glutathione, the master antioxidant. Go check out the health benefits of glutathione. I'm doing this stuff anyways. It's blessed my life in tremendous ways. And so if you want to focus on your health, wellness and longevity, nothing better in my mind than ionlayer.com for your NAD and Glutathione treatments. Ionlayer.com don't forget to put Apologia in all caps in the coupon code.
Luke
This video is brought to you by Amtech Blades. We are very excited to be part of the partnering with Amtech. Bill Rapier, long time Navy Seal, DevGur operator, amazing brother and friend. Looking for a battle ax to carry on your person to chop some wood. They've got you covered. Looking for a blade to carry on you every day. Also got you covered. Look at this. I gotta check my mail. What do we got going on here? Oh, look how sharp that is. What is this? Oh, 5% off. You can go to amtechblades.com put apology in the Cue Pack coupon code, get 5% off your order and he will match that and give 5% to end abortion. Now again, amtechblades.com we're grateful for them. Check them out.
Jeff Durbin
Welcome back everybody. Thank you guys for staying with us. Make sure you do all the likes and the shares and all the things that YouTube likes. And don't forget to go to apologia studios dot com. Sign up for all access. Be a part of this ministry with us. Very excited about the next year, Lord willing. We have a lot of plans for a lot of things that we hope will bless the world with the gospel and bless you guys who are part of this ministry with us. Gabe, give everyone this picture on my screen of, of Pastor Luke. This is. You gotta love AI. You gotta love AI.
Luke
It is fun.
Jeff Durbin
Look at, look at Robo Bear. Robo Bear. I love it. And that's. You even got your shirt.
Luke
Yeah, I took that one. It's because I took that. Remember that one? The guy had made the poster for us.
Jeff Durbin
Yeah.
Luke
So I took that picture and then I had him make him.
Jeff Durbin
I love it. I love it. It's fantastic. All right, just quick thing to the super chats, Ridge Swan. I think that's what it says there. It says, Pastor Jeff, thank you for all that you do. I've been, I found my way to reform theology and have been watching all your videos and Dr. James White, God bless you. Hey, thank you. Rich Sweeney Swaney, thank you so, so much for that blessing. And Luke, were there more? There's some more super chats.
Luke
Yes. Sorry, you just. Okay, so there's Go with the gospel. Thank you for. Thank you guys for your love for the LDS people. It is inspiring. Thank you, man. We appreciate, appreciate that.
Jeff Durbin
Hey, by the way, as you go to the next one, last night was a real blessing at the Mormon Temple. I got there around 6:30 or so. I didn't leave till, you know, close to nine. And I was in conversation the entire time surrounded by some return returned missionary and some young Mormons. It was, it was very encouraging because it was just groups of people standing around waiting to talk and then they would come in and engage. Super gracious, super respectful, just a great conversation. I just was so blessed. If you were there last night. You were one of the young Mormons that engaged me and came up. I just, it was an honor to speak to you last night. I had, I had such a wonderful time conversing with all of you last night. It was, it was really a blessing. Many of them said that they, they watch the channel, they listen to the content, they say some of this stuff really challenges them. And so they came up asking just great questions. They were like, well, I've heard you say this and what would you say to this? You know, if I were to respond to you with this answer to what you're saying, how would you respond to that? It was just really, really great. I was just, I went to home just walking on clouds last night just thinking of just what, what a blessing it was to be there with you all.
Luke
Do you want me to read the other one?
Jeff Durbin
Sure. What is it?
Luke
From, from a, from an lds.
Jeff Durbin
Sure, go ahead.
Luke
Yeah, this, I mean I already kind of responded to some of this, but it says from thoughtful, thoughtful faith 2020, you and Dr. White should debate Hayden and on the LDS, on the LDS grounding of morality. Or do you just want to talk about us without talking too us?
Jeff Durbin
Well, James is talking tomorrow to Jacob. So again, another, another falsehood. Tomorrow James is debating Jacob in Ogden. So this is just, it's just, it's such a misrepresentation. I just want to say to all my Mormon friends out there, don't follow your Mormon leaders who are engaging in the sixth grade behavior. The insulting, calling people names, you know, calling them out like, you know, are you chicken, are you yellow, are you scared? Those sorts of things. When all, when all of the, the, all of the evidence in the history says exact, exactly the opposite. How many debates does Pastor James have to do with hundreds of the world's best from the opposing worldview before you'll say, you'll stop saying as an argument, they just won't engage with us. I mean look up Dr. James White Mormon debate and see the people that James has debated with. He's debated with your best, the best representations of representatives of Mormonism. And so you know, when you say things like that, it just doesn't match the fact that, and so I just encourage all of you, do better. The childishness, the insulting, the talking about your view counts are down and those sorts of things like it doesn't get us anywhere. It doesn't get us any closer to really understanding each other. It doesn't get us any closer to the truth. I just want to encourage you all like I'm saying to Hayden, do better, do better. We will advance in this conversation if we just commit to not doing those sorts of things. I'm not saying we don't say hard things to each other. I'm not saying that at all. All I'm saying, the childish stuff and these kind of call outs just, they just don't even make any sense. They don't match the facts. And so I encourage you not to do that. So, all right, we have to go. We're really, really running out of time here. So just last things we need to say. Do we need to say anything else about Apologia Studios? Go to the store, get yourself some tracks, get you some swag. Go all. Go all in on that stuff. And then. Sorry, I'm going in a rush here, guys. Yeah.
Luke
And then, of course, Heritage Defense, we're grateful for them. You can go to heritage defense.org and put apology in the coupon code. Get your first one month free. If you homeschool your kids, please sign up with them. And then always, we're grateful for Dominion Wealth. You can go to Reform Money and reach out to them and get a free consultation with them. So.
Jeff Durbin
All right, thank you guys so much for the blessing of. Of praying for us and for being a part of this ministry with us. We love you all. We're grateful for you. And we'll catch you next week right here on Apology Radio. Thank you.
Host: Jeff Durbin (with Luke and occasional comments from Pastor James)
Date: April 3, 2026
Theme: A critical look at contemporary Mormon apologetics, specifically engaging with the claims and style of Mormon apologist Hayden Carroll, and a defense of biblical, “creedal” Christianity’s foundations.
This episode tackles the quality and tone of current Mormon apologetics, focusing on recent online exchanges with prominent young Mormon apologist Hayden Carroll. Drawing on decades of LDS outreach, Jeff and Luke critique Carroll’s arguments and approach, address common misconceptions about Reformed theology and sola scriptura, and emphasize the importance of honest, respectful debate among Christians and Mormons. The backdrop is an ongoing season of outreach at the Mesa, Arizona Mormon Temple, marking Jeff’s 30th year of LDS evangelism.
Challenging the ‘Restored Gospel’:
“You can’t claim to be a continuation of the biblical God and biblical revelation and say that there’s a restored gospel... Scripture would deny that as a possibility.”
([17:56])
The Sola Scriptura Debate:
“Sola scriptura is a doctrine that’s based upon revelation... Where today do we have access to the inspired revelation of God?... Only in the Scriptures.” ([21:05]-[24:02])
On ‘Knowing’ Versus ‘Justifying’ Moral Truth:
“The problem isn’t that there’s a lack of light … it’s that they suppress that truth in unrighteousness.”
([28:30]-[29:55])
Illustrative Debate:
“Because of his worldview… he has to construct some meaningful system. But when you get down to the foundations, he has to, admit: Well, no, child-rape is not absolutely wrong. No, murder is not absolutely wrong. It’s just a cultural conversation.”
([38:51])
Repeated Admonitions to ‘Do Better’:
“Don’t misrepresent your opponent. You need to grow up a little, I think, and I mean that to you respectfully, grow up a little in your engagement with others.” ([25:29])
Rebuffing ‘Cowardice’ Accusations:
“We’ve talked to Hayden personally in person at the temple. This isn’t an issue that he made a public video, we’re responding publicly. We don’t have to entertain any of this nonsense in the chat channel.” ([41:39])
On LDS Outreach:
“The Latter Day Saints are my favorite community to communicate the gospel to... it’s been a true honor and privilege in my life to have relationships with Latter Day Saints, to engage them with the gospel. I love the Mormon community.”
– Jeff Durbin ([05:50])
On Tone and Online Jousting:
“If you wanted to play this game, then... let’s see who has a bigger subscriber count, who has the most views across platforms… It’s kind of childish isn’t it?”
– Jeff Durbin ([13:56])
On the Possibility of Restoration:
“A restoration [of the gospel] is not possible, because a complete falling away is also not possible. And that’s what Scripture teaches.”
– Jeff Durbin ([18:46])
On Sola Scriptura & Revelation:
“At the heart of it [sola scriptura] is a revelational epistemology… It’s based on the reference point of God doing the speaking.”
– Jeff Durbin ([24:02])
On Moral Epistemology:
“Every single image bearer of God knows the true God and they know the basics of what is right and wrong… The problem, though, is because they reject God, they develop these complex worldviews to try to live in a world apart from God. But… they cannot provide any justification for those moral claims.”
– Jeff Durbin ([29:45])
On Debate Invitations:
“I want somebody who’s an official representative of the church… Oftentimes you have these debates with [rank-and-file Mormons]… That person doesn’t officially represent the church.”
– Jeff Durbin ([42:40])
This summary omits all advertisements and non-content sections, focusing on the episode’s principal arguments and the heart of the dialogue between Apologia Radio and contemporary Mormon apologetics.