I really enjoyed this one. I was waiting for the thread to be uploaded at 8am this morning. I always look forward to listening to then new episodes on my drive to work and so I leave early taking a longer scenic drive on Thursday.
I do believe that one thing I don’t recall really being brought up, though is that I don’t necessarily believe that God is prevented from doing something due to not having a physical body. In scripture we see that God and the Angel of the Lord is one and the same but distinct just like Christ and God. God could physically inject himself into our world and do something. But he chooses not too. Not because he lacks love, but because he’s created a world where there is free will. Free will can’t exist if God controls everything and so he allows us to make choices. Some people make evil choices and some people make good choices. Additionally God does not undermine free will of wicked men and women because it would collapse everything. Weeds among wheat. Some evil men have caused things that resulted in good things and without those things happening the good would not have either. That’s not saying God uses evil to make goodness, but that because he fixes us free will, and some people choose to do evil that evil affects people in different ways and some of those ways results in goodness.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.biblegateway.com/passage/%3Fsearch=Matthew%2B13:24-43&version=NASB&interface=amp
We also see from romans 9 that occasionally God will accent the condition of someone’s heart to actively bring about a change. Like with Pharaoh. He did not make him choose evil, but because he was already choosing evil, he hardened his heart with the knowledge of what would result. It’s a combination of not altering free will, but definitely influencing it.
But it’s a great podcast. I’ll listen to it again and definitely the book is added to my growing list.