Lighting Questions

Welcome back, everyone.

Today is Friday, November the 4th, 2022. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. And you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abed Anshah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have a question for Dr. Shah, anything you'd like to write in and suggest that we talk about, send us a text at 252-582-5028 You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. You can follow Dr. Shah on his website, AbedAnshah.com, and you can support us financially at ClearviewTodayShow.com. Every donation that you make goes not only to supporting this radio show, but supporting our countless other ministries that build up the kingdom of God.

That's right. We are so thankful for your partnership. We're thankful for all of those donations that have already come in, our giving partners, and we are thankful for your help in sending this message to the nations. Absolutely.

Thank you so much. Before we start today's episode, we want to remind you about the upcoming elections coming up next week, November the 8th. Wow. They're coming quickly. I know.

We've been talking about it. We want to keep this in front of you because it is so important that you get out there and vote. Many people just decide not to vote.

I don't understand. I'm not educated enough, so I'm just not going to vote. That's an unfortunate reality, to be frank. It's a sad state when many people who just don't exercise their civic duty. I think a lot of people just don't. It's almost a statement of we're so lost anyway, this country is so done that I may as well not even do it. I may as well just contribute to it. Yeah. It's sad. Please, if you need resources, if you feel like maybe I don't know enough to go out there and vote, I don't feel like I'm educated enough, we would be happy to point you to those resources, free resources for you to educate yourself, learn who's who, who's running for which office, and what you can do to make your voice heard.

Go out there on November the 8th and vote. That's right. John? What's up, man? You look troubled today. I'm bummed. What's wrong?

I'm obviously just bummed on it. What's going on? Our listeners, our viewers, those who are not watching the episodes, and if you're not watching the episodes- Let me give you a visual aid so you can get them bummed. If you're not watching the episodes, you can find them on Facebook. Follow us at ClearyTodayShow on Facebook, because if you were following us visually, if you were watching the episodes, you would be able to see the pouty face that I'm looking at right now.

Follow us on Instagram at ClearyTodayShow. John, what? Tell me what's happening. I'm angry. Why are you angry? No, I'm not angry. I'm just kind of bummed. I went to the dentist a couple of days ago, well, yesterday.

Yeah. Yesterday. I went to the dentist and he looked in my mouth.

As they do. He didn't like it. He took an x-ray of my mouth. Actually, it was actually my sister. My sister works- Oh, that's right.

I forgot that. At the dentist office. I can't remember what her thing is. I mean, she's one of the people that cleans the teeth and takes the x-rays and stuff like that. The doctor came in and saw it. He's like, yeah, you got to get your bottom two wisdom teeth out.

Oh, not fun. I've had the top two out, but he was like, it's pretty bad, and he showed me the x-ray and they're just completely horizontal in my mouth. This one on this side, it's already breached the gums and it's completely horizontal. This one is underneath the gum.

He was like, I honestly, I'm torn. I don't know whether to take it out because if we take it out, it's so deep in there. There's roots exposed, there's nerves exposed, and so food gets down in there, it can create even larger problems.

I was like, so let's just leave it in. He was like, well, then you run a risk of it keeping growing into this tooth, infection starting and then you lose both teeth. I was like, what do I, and he was genuinely like, he was like, I know this is not the answer you want to hear from a doctor, I don't know. You got to go to an oral surgeon and get a recommendation from them. I was like, golly, I really do not want to get wisdom teeth surgery, and then he told me and my sister told me and pretty much everyone I've talked to is like, hey, it's no big deal. You can get your wisdom teeth out. It's surgery, but it's not dangerous. There's no real, like, but just, I've never had any surgery before, so I'm like, I don't know. I mean, it's kind of a nerve wracking thing.

You're kind of laying there helpless while somebody's working on you. Yeah. And then also, he recommended Invisalign, so I'm thinking about getting some Invisalign braces.

He said a year and a half, we should be good. From what I've heard, I never had Invisalign. From what I've heard, though, people swear by it. Did you have braces as a kid?

I did. Just on the top, though. I didn't have a full set of braces, but just on the top, and I had a permanent retainer on the bottom. My mom tried to get me to wear braces as a 16-year-old, and she kept telling me, like, you don't want to correct this problem as an adult.

And I remember as a 16-year-old, it just made perfect sense in my mind. I was like, I'm not getting braces. I don't care. I'm happy with my teeth.

I'm fine with it. And I didn't do it. And now, looking back at 30, I'm like, man, if only I could go back and get them as a teenager. If only I would go back and slap some sense into my dumb teenage self.

Gosh, how many times have people thought that, like, in their 30s, like, looking back, man, if I could only, like, reach out and just slap teenage me? Yes. I truly, I was thinking about it on the way home from the dentist yesterday.

I was like, man, I wish I could just go back in time and just get the stupid braces, wear them for a year, be awkward as a teenager when things are already awkward, rather than being an established adult with a show and be like, yeah, I got raky shank. All right, let's talk about our religious liberty. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. So, no, it'll be okay. I'll be praying for him. Thanks.

And listeners, make sure you keep John in your presence. He's heading toward dental work. It's going to be good. Yeah. I don't want to do it, but I want my teeth to...

I don't want to lose teeth because I didn't do it, so I guess I'm just going to do it. It'll be okay. Shoot. Well, it's Friday. We're going to bring Dr. Sean in just a few minutes. With it being Friday, that means we are going to read your questions on the air today. It's lightning round questions day.

So all those questions that you've been sending in to that number, 252-582-5028, we've even gotten some via email, contact at clearviewtodayshow.com. We're going to take some of those, specifically some that are in the political vein, since we're headed toward the elections, and we're going to pose those to Dr. Quest... That's it. You did it again? I did it again. Unbelievable. You did it again.

I did it again. Dr. Sean, not Dr. Questions. Can I just call him Dr.

Questions? I think you have to at this point. I can't. Was that on purpose? No.

That was a complete accident. Absolutely did it again. Dr. Sean, not Dr. Questions.

I'm listed now. I'm stuck and floating. Dr. Sean. Oh my goodness.

I can't believe I did that. By the way, just so we know, because Ryan did mention that, all of you who sent in questions that were not politically charged or just had stuff to do with just Christianity or the Bible in general don't think we're discarding those questions. We hold on to all of them, and we're going to bring them. So if you send in a question, it may not get read for a few weeks, but we are going to read it. Right.

Yeah. So keep listening. Keep listening to those Friday episodes. We will bring those questions back up to Dr. Shaw. Dr. Shaw. Not Dr. Questions.

No. And I might just get him a little hat that says Dr. Questions. I think at this point we have to kind of make it like a character, like his Friday character is Dr. Questions.

Is Dr. Questions. Yeah. I don't know.

Maybe we'll get him like a Riddler suit where it's got questions all over it. Nice. Very cool. Yeah. That infomercial guy. Yeah. You remember that guy? Yeah. What was it? I don't remember. I can't remember his name. Anyway.

Send us those questions into 252-582-5028. We're going to go grab Dr. Shaw, and we'll be right back. What will people say about you when the crisis is over? Will they say that you lived out what you proclaimed all your life? Will they say that your actions matched your confession?

Ultimately, what will God say about you? Not only that, but as a Christian, are you being a lighthouse for others during the storm? Dr. Abadon Shaw and his wife Nicole have composed a book of 30 daily devotions to help you navigate your faith through whatever crisis you may be facing. The book is called 30 Days Through a Crisis, daily devotions to navigate your faith. Our prayer is that as you read this book, God will guide and strengthen you through His word into the image of His Son by the Holy Spirit.

That's 30 days through a crisis, and you can pick up your copy on Amazon right now. Let us know how it's helped you by emailing us at info at clearviewbc.org. And don't forget, you can also support what we're doing at Clearview by visiting us at clearviewbc.org forward slash give.

Thanks for listening. Now back to the show. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or you can send us a text at 252-582-5028. We've got Dr. Shaw with us in the studio today, Dr. Shaw, it's Friday. It's finally Friday. It's been two weeks, and we're so grateful. So grateful to our audience, so grateful to our team here, not just John and Ryan, but also our team behind the cameras, behind the audio, the mixers, David and Nicholas. We appreciate them so much as well. And definitely so grateful to our listeners. Amen.

Absolutely. You really don't realize when you switch from a weekly format to a daily format, like how much content... It does not feel like we've put out 10 episodes already. It doesn't. It really doesn't. But like you said, the responses from people are just pouring in through that text message number, through email. I mean, people letting us know, hey, we're loving it.

People sharing with other people. I mean, we have messages coming in from all over. Yeah. Right.

And suggestions as well. Yeah. Like the scripture reference. That's right.

Yeah. We did that. And we're going to do that from here on. Every episode will have a scripture to go along with it. Amen.

And if you guys are very new to the show, if you're just joining us for the first time, you've never listened to the show before. Not familiar with Duck Shaw's work. He's a PhD in New Testament textual criticism. He's a professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and get the snap, the host of today's show. That's good. I love that. The snap.

A little snap, the flourish. The host of today's show. That's right. Well, today is Friday, which means that it is lightning round questions today.

Let's do the verse of the day first. Oh, you're right. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. The verse of the day. I've got it.

I haven't pulled up on everything. I'm so sorry. Verse of the day. Today's verse of the day comes from Psalm 90 verse 12. Okay. So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Wow. I love that verse and I love Psalm 90. We've introduced it here at Clearview as a worship song here recently. And it's one of those songs.

I love doing that because at Clearview, we're very, I don't want to say choosy, but we're very particular about choosy. We want to make sure that our worship is rooted in scripture. There's a lot of worship songs out there that are, you know, they're just, they're what I feel or God, they're how good you've been to me, but they don't have a lot of scripture to back them up. And that's one thing I'm grateful for, especially with you, Dr. Shaw, is that we root so much of our worship in scripture. And all that was to say, Psalm 90 has been one of the songs that has really been impacting the congregation lately. I agree. Yeah, I agree. Love it.

We love it. And make sure you guys check that song out. If you, if you haven't done so already, like I said earlier, I was jumping the gun.

Thank you for reminding me of the verse of the day it happens. Um, I was just really excited about lightning round questions and I understand that because if you remember earlier in the episode, I referred to Dr. Shaw as Dr. Questions, Dr.

Questions. This is the second time you've done it. I know the second time you, the first time I didn't even catch it.

The second time I caught it as it was coming out of my mouth. So you knew that it was true. Dr. Questions. Dr. Questions.

It's like, it's like the Riddler on Batman. Yes. He made the same joke.

I did. Yeah. I think, I think if we just worked toward getting some sort of bowler hat situation with a question mark, I think that would probably be the question mark man. The question mark.

I like that. Dr. Question mark. Dr.

Question mark. Yeah. That's right. Maybe, maybe that's his alter ego.

His first name is Mark and he's Dr. Questions. Oh yeah. That's clever.

That's clever. Write that down. Okay. All right.

Copyright it before anyone else can. All right, well we have a selection of questions. Like we said, we've gotten a ton of those questions in. We do try to take those questions and sort of pick ones that relate to the theme that we've been talking about for this week. For us this week, it's been issues related to the elections that are coming up, you know, next week, we want you to get out there and vote November the eighth, make sure you get out to the polls and vote. So we've pulled questions today that are related to what we're thinking about as far as religious liberty, political stance, things that we discussed earlier in the week, like homosexuality or transgenderism.

So if your question does not show up on today's episode, don't think that we've forgotten it because we save all of those questions, we put them in a database and then we will pull them out as they relate to what we're covering that week. So keep sending them in. Right.

Please send them in that number two five two five eight two five zero two eight, or you can email them to contact at Clearview today show.com. That's right. But our first question for today comes from Mark B and Mark writes, why aren't other sins taken as seriously as sexual sins? Well, there's a scripture reference that clearly addresses that, but I want to say more about it. But let's read that scripture reference.

It is First Corinthians chapter six and verse 18. Paul says flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. So right there, there is a very distinct warning against sexual sins.

And why is that? Verse 19, Paul clarifies, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own, for you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So sexual sins are not on the same level as say lying or cheating or anger or bitterness. All those things are important and are detrimental to your spiritual life. But sexual sins are on a whole different level. It's interesting that you said that because I feel like the tendency is to the world, the secular tendency is to actually flip that and say, well, sexual stuff is only me. I'm not hurting anyone else.

It's just my life. And we never really think that the Holy Spirit is literally in my body. This is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

It's almost backwards for us. It's that the sexual sins are critical. Hence when we come to Romans chapter one, sexual sins, especially the sins of homosexuality or all of that that's connected to those sins are the last step on the way down.

And it's very important that we treat them that way. Now you may want to argue and say all sin is sin and God doesn't look at it any other way. And that's true when it comes to going to heaven or hell. Of course, every sin is sin.

But when it comes to the consequences, when it comes to the impact they make in our lives or when it comes to doctrine, sexual sins are the worst kind. Isn't it funny how Christians and even non-Christians do that where they'll take something as broad as salvation and make it apply to every single, like, yeah, I don't know. It's just one of those things that you always hear is like, listen, whether you tell a lie or whether you murder someone, it doesn't matter at all to God because all sin is equal. Like no, not even a little bit.

That's right. If you read the Bible carefully, clearly there are distinctions made. Go into the Old Testament, same thing. Other distinctions were made regarding sexual sins being horrendous. Now, of course, idol worship was held to be on that worst standard, but sexual sins were right there with it. Even in the Ten Commandments, when you get towards the bottom side, right, after you deal with God, right, the first three or four commandments about God, and then of course about a family, lying, cheating, whatever, but then immediately it's don't covet your neighbor's wife. Don't do these things.

Don't step outside the bounds of marriage. I think that we fail to take those as seriously as they need to be. Exactly. We don't put the emphasis on them. I mean, even the Bible does.

Right. I mean, you see God taking sexual sin in the Old Testament and even in the New Testament extremely seriously. I mean, He didn't destroy cities over, you know, cheating on your taxes or lying to your neighbor. Or the sin of hospitality. You know, that's what they claim.

The Sodom and Gomorrah was, the crime was hospitality and that's just not true. Yeah. So I got a question here from Karen A.

And this is, I think, directed at you, Dr. Shah. How much time do you spend catching up on the latest political commentary and news? I do it almost every day.

Yeah. There are days that things are very busy, like we're recording today, so there's a lot just going on. But every day I take a moment to just familiarize myself with what's happening in our nation and also in the world. I also try to look towards what's happening in Israel. To me, that's also important. So I make sure I have Times of Israel app open and of course, you know, the various news agencies here and of course, regarding the world. But here's something I've learned, can't trust media all the way.

That's true. You know, lately we've seen that the media has not been very honest. You know, they have been very biased. And so I have to be careful how I listen to what I'm being told. So I listen to the incidents that are happening, but when they get into the commentary side of things, I have to say, no, thank you. I'll make up my own mind.

Yeah. That's one thing I've always liked about you is that there is this, not even ideas, it's just this identity of personal responsibility. It's not anybody else's responsibility to tell me what to think or to tell me how to interpret what's going on in the world. It's my job to stay informed, and I think that's something that I wish I could go back to my younger self and convince myself that caring about what's going on in the world around me is important. Well, I got it from my dad because every morning I remember him, unless he was traveling or somewhere preaching revival meetings or evangelistic crusades, he would be gone for like a week or two weeks at a time. But every morning, about seven o'clock, he would be out in our front yard, which is like we had a garden, beautiful garden, and he would walk around and be reading his newspaper with his coffee or actually was tea, hot tea. He would be drinking his tea and reading his newspaper. And as I was going to school, I would see him do that.

And even when I was in college, I remember him still doing that, so stayed with me. Can you, for the benefit of our listeners, especially as we're headed toward the elections, can you, I mean, you mentioned times of Israel, can you mention some other of those resources that you use to just kind of make sure you're informed that you know what the pulse is, what's going on? Well, I mean, I don't know if I can recommend any particular news site or news apps because right now it's very, very hard to know who is really being objective and fair, especially with regards to Christianity, with regards to Christian values, I would say hardly any more, maybe one or two here and there who are trying to vie for equal status compared to all these media moguls. But I try to listen to all of them or watch them or read quick news alerts. But times of Israel is one of them that I look at because I see, you know, how what's happening in Israel, how things are going on.

It makes a difference. I mean, I still believe God has a plan for the people of Israel. I believe he has his hand upon his people.

And in the end, God will work with ethnic Israel. So so I always try to keep keep a hand on the pulse. Yeah.

My finger on the pulse there to see what's happening. Absolutely. This next question comes from Debbie S. And she asks, What do you believe are the proper boundaries between religion and government?

Wow. Well, I believe that you cannot separate those two. I agree. I believe that when Christianity is in power. And of course, I know there are people who misuse authority or misuse power and are hypocrites.

I wholeheartedly agree that can happen and has happened. But having said that, I believe that in America, there shouldn't be this separation. When you read about that line about the separation of church and state or the wall of separation between church and state that Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist, he was actually talking about the protection for the Baptists under this new government, this new republic, that they will not be persecuted just because they're not Anglicans.

So he was he was telling them, hey, guys, you're safe. And same thing was said against towards the Jewish people as well who were in America in those early mid-1700s that, hey, you're safe, too. You can also practice your faith. So when Christianity is in power, what we found is most of the time, I know there have been times there were persecutions and craziness happening.

So history is messy. But most of the times everybody has freedom. When other sides are in power, it's a matter of time when their freedoms are taken away. All freedoms are gone. So I believe true Christianity makes room for everybody, right?

Makes room for everybody. And so I strongly believe that this nation is founded on biblical values and we need to maintain those values if you want to maintain this union. Yeah, I love that. I want to and I want to kind of plug yesterday's episode.

If anybody didn't listen to Thursday's episode, today's Friday, but if anybody didn't listen to yesterday's episode, I would strongly recommend going back and listening to it because you talked about that very thing where Christian values are under attack. And this is coming from someone who grew up seeing what that attack looks like. It's not people coming to your door and arresting you and taking you to jail.

It's very subtle and it's very technically correct. It's all within the confines of the law and yet it is real persecution. Your privileges, your rights are taken away one by one and then you look back and say, how did this happen? Why can't we do this? Well, because 10 years ago, do you remember what that happened?

So you can't do this anymore. Five years ago, this and two years ago and two months ago, and that's when it's like the frog in the kettle situation, you know, the frog doesn't know the water is boiling. And in the process, he's being burned alive. Yeah. Wow.

I got a question from Larry Kay. What do we do when the rights and that's in quotation marks, the rights of one people group infringe on the religious liberties of another. Again, as I mentioned, you know, the beauty of this country is that there's never been anything like the United States, never has been in the history of our world. And I hold to the 6,000 some year history of our world where this has never happened where a group of people came together and said, we're going to form a place or build a republic where we can worship according to the dictates of our conscience. Right. Never happened.

This is this unheard of. And that's why the Puritans came here, right? That's why the pilgrims came here, I should say, because they wanted to be able to worship according to their own conscience. That's why the different states were founded so that each denomination gets their own state. So, you know, Virginia, you can be Anglican.

Pennsylvania, you can be a Quaker, you know, just go down the line. So everybody got their own states. Of course, now it's all mixed up and everything is quite different. But it was done so that different people, different denominations can have their own way of worship.

Wow. That's why the Mennonites and the Amish, they all came so they can have their place and they can worship according to their conscience and nobody will bother them. So I believe we need to recognize that, recognize why this nation was built the way it has been. And, you know, as scripture talks about, you know, don't take away those markers of old. Right.

Because you don't know why they're put there and until you know that, make sure you leave them alone. And so that's why I believe this is the greatest nation on earth. Amen. And this is this is our last question of the day, and it is probably one of the most significant questions I think that we can ask, especially related to the upcoming elections. Paul H. writes in and he asks, is losing our religious liberties a serious threat? Oh, huge. Yes. You know, I would say immediately, you know, there's a lot of good people behind the scenes who are fighting for our religious freedom.

There are people there. Thank God for that. You know, I've talked to leaders and politics and leaders in these key places and they tell me, hey, look, I know the world is crazy.

I know things are going crazy, but there's enough of God fearing people behind the scenes who truly love Jesus Christ, who are fighting. And so don't lose heart. So I am not anxious.

I'm not, you know, fearful. I do know God is in control. And I still believe that God has his hands on these United States.

I do believe that. But at the same time, if we don't fight for it, if we don't stand for it, if we don't keep talking about it, just like we're doing on this radio show, why we do this so that we can impact other people to think we have to help. If we're not doing it, who is doing it?

Of course, there are a lot of wonderful people who are talking about it. What I'm saying is we need to be that extra voice that also challenges people biblically to stand for the foundation of this nation. That's right.

That's right. I love that you said that because I mean, that is the heart of what we're doing here. There's a reason that we, you know, clearly today engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We want to engage you.

We want you to take these concepts and take them out. And that's why, you know, we talk each episode about your opportunity to partner with us financially. That's not something that we, you know, just say flippantly.

That's not something we just, you know, throw in there because we need to. It's something we want you to know that you have the opportunity to partner with us, to be team members with us in getting this information out to everybody, to the nations, to the world. You have one life. You know, we all have one life and you know, that's something that it took me a while to kind of get my heart around, but that's something that is instrumental to what we do here at Clearview is that we're making the biggest impact for the kingdom of God that we possibly can.

That's right. Because we only have one life. I want to do everything I can to help make that happen. So if it's giving money, then it's giving money. If it's praying, then it's praying. If it's coming and partnering physically with the local church, then that's what it takes. But whatever it takes, it's not our job just to do it. It's your job as well. And we're all doing it together. So your support means the world to us because we're seeing that the kingdom of God is being impacted. Yeah.

Thank you for being team members in that. Amen. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today's episode.

All the questions today. If you didn't get your question answered today and it's in the bank, make sure, don't fret. We have it in the bank.

Don't worry. We've got it saved. I've got it right here. Here it is. It's right there. Don't worry. There it is right there. And you will hear it on upcoming episodes. But if you haven't sent those questions in, make sure you do that because they do show up every single Friday for lightning round questions, right?

You can text those questions to two five two five eight two five zero two eight, or you can always send them in an email to contact at clearview today show.com clearview today show is clearview today show.com is also where you can go to support us to partner with us financially. Amen. All right. You're up. I'm up.

Last minute advice. Hello. I got 30 seconds. 45 seconds.

It's not going to take long. Hit the other part. If you love Jersey Mike's like I do, I do love Jersey Mike, but you find that you have as a strong, um, a version to ham as I do. If you get the, if you get the number 11, they will sub out pepperoni for the ham. But if you ask nice, they will sub out your pepper.

Try it because I'm telling you the combination of pepperoni and salami with the brown mustard. Nice to die for. I get it every time. Okay. Love it. Number 11 with pepperoni. There you go. You heard it here. We love you guys. We'll see you today.