GOD: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher - The Podcast

221. From God to Jerry to You- A Logic Professor’s Divine Encounter: 9 Spiritual Truths from Moses' Encounter with God

• Jerry L. Martin, Scott Langdon

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What happens when a philosophy professor, known for teaching logic and critical thinking, has an undeniable encounter with God? Dr. Jerry L. Martin was a lifelong agnostic until one day, to his great surprise, God spoke to him. As a philosopher, he had no choice but to investigate.

In this episode of From God to Jerry to You, Jerry takes a deep dive into one of the most pivotal moments in spiritual history: Moses and the burning bush. He unpacks not just what happened, but what it means for all of us. 

Why did God choose a burning bush? What was significant about Moses’ response? And what can we learn from this moment about how the divine reaches out to us today?

With his signature curiosity and philosophical rigor, Jerry distills 9 key lessons from Moses’ encounter- lessons that challenge us to pay attention, trust, and respond when something greater calls. Jerry also reflects on how his own encounter with God mirrored aspects of Moses’ story, from the shock of the experience to the life-altering consequences of obedience and saying "yes" to the divine.

This isn’t just a story from ancient scripture- it’s a blueprint for how spiritual awakenings unfold and an invitation to examine your own encounters with the unseen.

Are you paying attention?

Visit godanautobiography.com for more information and to get your copy of God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher—the true story of an agnostic philosopher who heard the voice of God and recorded their conversations.

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Scott Langdon 00:17: This is God: An Autobiography, The Podcast, a dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography as Told to a Philosopher by Jerry L Martin. He was a lifelong agnostic, but one day he had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions and God had a lot to tell him. Episode 221 

Scott Langdon 01:11: Welcome to God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. I'm Scott Langdon and this week on the program, Jerry returns with another edition of From God To Jerry To You. This time, Jerry talks about his encounter with God and their discussion of the story of Moses and the burning bush. What is it about God getting Moses' attention and then Moses' response that relates to our lives and our responses to God today, in our time? In this episode, Jerry also shares his thoughts about his own encounter with the divine and the implications of being open to responding to such a call. Here now is Jerry Martin. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin 02:13 : You know, when I had my dramatic encounter with God, I became fascinated by other reported encounters. I read them all over the place, up to Joan of Arc. I wrote a whole little manuscript about her remarkable experiences. And what I wanted to know was what can I learn from them? What can we learn from them? And as I read around, one thing I discovered is no encounter was more dramatic or more consequential than that of Moses. He had left Egypt and had found a job in Midian tending sheep. He does not yet have God on his mind, he's just going about his business.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin 03:00: One day, according to Exodus, chapter 3, Moses encountered the odd phenomenon of a burning bush. It is reported that he, “turned to look.” He was not looking for God. A bush is not a place one expects to find the divine, but this bush was one designed to get Moses' attention because it was burning and not consumed. It just burned and burned and burned. Moses turned aside “to look at this great sight,” perhaps merely out of curiosity, perhaps recognizing something miraculous. We don't know. What he did not do is ignore the phenomenon or rush past, too busy to investigate or dismiss it as sunstroke. He paid attention. Then, and only then, when the Lord saw that Moses had turned aside to see, did God call to him. “Moses, moses.” And Moses responded in the language of a soldier reporting for duty, “Here I am.” The equivalent of aye-aye, sir. The voice was apparently authoritative. The voice introduced itself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. He was afraid, but he didn't run away.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin 04:31: From this one example of a divine encounter, we can see several implications. One, you don't have to be looking for the divine reality to find it. It finds you. Number two, it finds you. Number three, it can find you in surprising places. Number four you have to pay attention. Number five you cannot let doubt, discount the experience. Number six the divine reality is authoritative. And seven, it demands a response. Eight, you have to yield to it. And nine, you cannot give in to your fears.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin 05:26: How did my own divine encounter line up with the elements of Moses' experience? Like Moses, I was not looking for the divine reality, it found me. In fact, the experience contradicted, falsified, as I saw it, the naturalistic philosophy on which I had previously taken my stand. In my case, the place was not as unusual as a burning bush. I was on a park bench facing the Lincoln Memorial across the Potomac but there's no reason to think the scene has to be spectacular. Like Moses, I certainly did pay attention. I suppose I would have had every motive to deflect, to block the challenge to my secular worldview, but I did not. I did not let doubt discount the experience. In fact, I never had genuine doubt. I certainly knew that such experiences could be erroneous or even delusional. Whenever I stepped out of the experience, looked at it from a distance, as others would see it, I thought, well, I'd be a skeptic too, but the divine presence was too real for genuine doubt. Like Moses, I experienced the divine presence as authoritative. The voice continued to speak to me, sometimes told me what to do. I always tried to obey.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin 06:55: I had to reorient my life Godward, which involved major changes. You normally live your life in terms of various goals you have in daily life and prudential plans for how to cope with the challenges and move your life forward in terms of your own goals. This was a different kind of thing. I'm now living, not in terms just of my goals but of the divine push on my life. I was fearful, not of God, who was eminently benign in my experience. This radiated that quality of being benign but I was fearful of some of these changes. I thought I'd lose my friends, my standing in Washington, my career, my income. I imagine, “Did you hear what happened to Jerry Martin? He hears voices, thinks God is talking to him.” Nothing is more easily a matter of ridicule and pity. I balanced those fears against another one: the fear of failing to answer a divine call.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin 08:13: The choice between doubt and trust is not just a philosopher's puzzle. It is first a question of cognitive strategy whether doubt or trust will yield the truer and more adequate worldview. I think you learn from an experience first by trusting it and seeing what it can teach you. If you doubt it preemptively, prior to learning its lessons, then I think you're going to have an impoverished worldview. You've set yourself up in advance for that. That's almost what you've chosen. Is you prefer an impoverished worldview, But deeper than that, is an epistemic question, but deeper than that it is a question of how one wants to live one's life. We can shrink from the terror of possible error, the fear of being fools or perhaps of being seen to be fools, and hope to live a safe, parsimonious life. Or we can accept the risk, accept our fallibility, accept that as the price of Maya or of our fallen condition, or even accept it as a blessing. For there's another risk, which we may count greater, of closing ourselves off from that subliminal presence, however faintly discerned. That may be a price too steep 

Scott Langdon 10:02: Thank you for listening to God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. Subscribe for free today wherever you listen to your podcasts and hear a new episode every week. You can hear the complete dramatic adaptation of God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin by beginning with episode one of our podcast and listening through its conclusion with Episode 44. You can read the original true story in the book from which this podcast is adapted, God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher, available now at , and always at . Pick up your own copy today. If you have any questions about this or any other episode, please email us at , and experience the world from God's perspective as it was told to a philosopher. This is Scott Langdon. I'll see you next time.