The Deacon Frederick Bartels Show

In this episode, I discuss some of the views of Alex O’Connor. He’s a self-professed atheist, or perhaps an agnostic. He thinks there are contradictions in the gospels. And he thinks Matthew invented the story about the rising of the saints after Christ’s resurrection found in chapter 27 of his gospel. It is this specific claim that I’ll discuss. Thanks for listening. If you like this content, please subscribe, leave some comments, and share it with others. Thanks!

In this episode I’ve compiled a few clips from a video on Cross Examined’s website involving a question and answer session with Frank Turek. It features a discussion Frank had with an Orthodox Christian. The Orthodox Christian man raises a lot of important questions that deal with the root of the Protestant dilemma, specifically, how do we know that any particular person’s interpretation of the Bible is correct? Or how do we know that any particular Protestant community’s teaching is correct? Let’s listen to a few clips and I’ll offer some commentary as we go along. I want to say at the outset that I’m not trying to pick on Frank. I believe he’s sincere and a descent guy. My purpose here is to highlight problems and to try to help people cut through the confusion and get at what’s really true.

Is the earth flat? Well … there is only a very small minority of people who think that it is. Based on tons of scientific evidence, the vast majority of people believe the earth is a sphere. I’m not going to go through the overwhelming scientific evidence for the roundness of the earth, or that it orbits the Sun, etc. I don’t think most people need to hear about that. But I am going to talk about interpreting the Bible correctly. Because, believe it or not, there are Christians who believe the Bible teaches that the earth is a flat disc supported by pillars. And, since the Bible is the inerrant word of God, it must be true that the earth is flat, they say. So, stay tuned. By the way, if you like this content please subscribe, leave a review and some comments, and share it with family and friends. Thanks!

It’s Friday in the Octave of Easter in the Year of our Lord 2026. In this episode, we’ll discuss the resurrection of Christ and what it means for our future as Christians, namely, the resurrection of the dead at the end of time when Christ returns. If you like this content, please subscribe, leave a review and some comments, and share it with others. Thanks!

It’s Friday of the Lord’s Passion. On this sacred day we remember our Lord’s passion and death on the cross. In this episode, we’ll explore the Roman practice of crucifixion as an exercise of capital punishment. We’ll look at what it entailed and some of the reasons why the Romans engaged in this form of executing criminals. And we’ll briefly reflect on what Jesus’s crucifixion means for us. If you like this content, please subscribe, leave a review and some comments, and share it with others. Thanks!

The Virtue of Temperance In episodes 9 and 13 the cardinal virtues of prudence and justice were discussed. If you missed those, consider listening to them first. In this episode, we’ll look at the cardinal virtue of temperance. It’s often the case that temperance is associated only with drinking alcohol in moderation, but it actually has to do with moderating the use of all created things. So, what is this virtue about, what does it mean to practice it, and why is it important in our lives? These are some of the topics we’ll address in this episode. If you like this content, please subscribe, leave a review and some comments, and share it with family and friends. Thanks!

What is the virtue of justice? In this episode, we’re going to look at the virtue of justice, which is one of the four cardinal virtues. If you like this content, please leave a review and some comments, and share it with others. Thanks!

Are UAPs and Aliens Demons? That’s a question some people are asking, especially as official military footage and congressional testimony have brought unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs, as they are called today) back into the public spotlight. Some Christians and others are convinced these sightings must be fallen angels or demons masquerading as strange craft flying or hovering in the sky. But does the evidence actually support that conclusion? And does Catholic and Christian theology require us to believe that? More to the point, is it reasonable to hold that position? That’s what we’ll be discussing in this episode. And we might drill down further into the UAP question in future episodes. If you like this content, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with family and friends. Thanks!

The novelist Flannery O’Connor once made this comment at a dinner party about the Eucharist: “Well, if it’s a symbol, to hell with it.” Is the Eucharist merely a symbol or is it something far greater? What has the Catholic Church always believed about it? And how should we interpret Jesus’s teaching in John’s gospel, chapter six? In this episode we’ll explore those questions and more. By the way, if you like this content please leave a review, some comments and share it with others. Thanks!

We’re now in the season of Lent, which began on Ash Wednesday. The whole point of Lent is to orient our lives to Christ and foster greater love of God and neighbor. Lent is also a penitential season in which we practice the Lenten disciples of fasting and abstinence from flesh meat.   With that in mind, in this episode we’ll talk about the Church’s fasting and abstinence laws. By the way, I’m trying to grow this podcast. So, if you like this content, please leave a review and some comments and share it with family and friends. Thanks!

The cardinal virtues are essential for building self-mastery and living a life of excellence in freedom. In the Catholic tradition, four cardinal virtues are identified. These virtues are called “cardinal” because they serve as a “hinge” for the other human moral virtues. In this episode, we’ll explore the cardinal virtue of prudence. I’m trying to grow this channel, so if you like this content, please subscribe, leave a review and some comments, and share it with family and friends. Thanks!

Is the Catholic Church important? Is it necessary? Is it the plan of God and willed by God? Is it founded by Christ himself? On the other hand, are Catholics merely one group of Christians among hundreds or thousands of others who all have equal claims on the truth about what God has revealed? These are some of the topics we’ll explore in this episode. If you like this content, I’d really appreciate it if you leave a review and some comments, and share it with friends and family. Thanks!

What is the God of the Gaps Error, and why is it important for Christians to avoid it? In this episode, we’ll discuss what this error is and why it’s a problem. I’m trying to grow my channel, so if you like this content, please subscribe, leave a review and some comments, and share it with family and friends. Thanks! I really appreciate it.

What if I told you that in one of the deadliest explosions in human history—an explosion so powerful it erased an entire city in seconds—eight men were only about 8 blocks away from the blast-center, and these men walked away almost completely unharmed? No serious burns. No radiation sickness. No cancer. And their home? It was still standing after the blast. Sounds impossible… yet it happened. In this episode, we’ll explore what happened and talk about why these men might have survived. If you like this content, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with others. This episode uses AI voice technology to provide narration for Fr. Hubert Schiffer, another priest, and Dr. Stephen Rinehart, based on their testimony recorded on Wikipedia's page.

Have you ever asked yourself, “If God is good… why is there so much suffering in the world?” Why do innocent people suffer? Why do children get sick or die? Why do wars, violence, and injustice seem to be everywhere? These aren’t just philosophical questions. They’re deeply personal . Almost all of us have experienced loss, pain, or injustice in some form. And for many people, the problem of evil becomes one of the biggest obstacles to faith in God. So today, we’re going to look at this question from a Catholic and Christian perspective—not to pretend we have all the answers because in many ways evil is a mystery, but to see how the Church helps us understand suffering, evil, free will, and ultimately, hope. If you like this content, please leave a review and some comments. And share it with family and friends.

One of the most quoted—and most misunderstood—statements Jesus ever made is, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” It’s often used as a conversation-stopper, a way to avoid moral accountability, or even to suggest that Christians should never call out wrongdoing. But when we read Jesus’ words in context, a very different picture emerges. In this episode, we’ll look closely at what Christ actually teaches in Matthew chapter 7. Far from abolishing moral discernment, Jesus warns against hypocrisy, pride, and rash judgment, while still calling his followers to truth, humility, and loving correction. The goal is not condemnation, but conversion—not silence in the face of sin, but charity rooted in truth.

This episode explores what it means to say that Mary is the Mother of God and why it’s important to grant her that exalted and singularly unique title.

Perhaps you’ve experienced some dark road of suffering or tragedy and asked, “What does it all mean?” “Is God helping me, and how will all of this turn out?” Maybe you’ve asked, “How can any good come of it?” If you’ve been in that kind of place, this episode is for you.

This episode explores the three stages of prayer in the Catholic spiritual tradition.