Lightning Questions

Today is Friday, November the 18th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. And you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah, any suggestions you'd like for us to talk about in future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

Be sure to follow Dr. Shah on all of his content on his blog, AbaddonShah.com. And you can support us financially by visiting ClearviewTodayShow.com. You'll find a button to donate there. Every contribution goes to feed this partnership that we're building with you. We really want you to see it as a partnership because that's how we view it. Partnering with us to get the gospel out to as many people as possible through this radio show and through countless other ministries. And you guys can help us keep that conversation going by always supporting this podcast. You can share it online.

You can leave us a good review on iTunes or Spotify or really anywhere where you can leave reviews on Facebook. Just posting positive things and sharing the conversation helps to get the message of the gospel out there. And that's ultimately the goal of what this podcast is.

We've been so encouraged by all the positive things we've been hearing from you guys, all the people out in the community, people texting Ryan, they're like blowing your phone up and stuff. I know. Absolutely.

It's good stuff. I mean, it's inconsiderate at some times, but it's like, I'll take that over radio silence. Absolutely. Yeah. Please keep sending those texts.

It's not inconsiderate. Please keep sending those texts. And it's, it's, it's a, I have a way to silence it. So I get those messages, but you're not keeping me up at like 3am. So yeah. And make sure you're following us on social media as well. Facebook and Instagram, we're going to post important updates there as well as images for the verse of the day that you can share with your followers.

So make sure that you are following us on those platforms. And just a reminder that we are in the collection week for Operation Christmas Child. Bring those shoeboxes to your local drop-off location.

You can find that by visiting the Operation Christmas Child shoebox website, as well as printing off any labels that you have. And one cool thing, I haven't mentioned this earlier, but if you print the labels off from the website, you can actually track where your box goes, you can see the, the, the labels you get can't always do that, but if you print one online, if you pay for it online, you can actually track where your box. Wow. That's kind of cool. Yeah, that's kind of cool. So now, now, now you can just like touch base with them and stuff and be like, I want to video Skype my kid.

I don't know if you can do all that, but they have options to where you can, you know, engage in like a pen pal type thing. No, don't be upset. It's okay. They may not have the capability to video or Skype where they want to video Skype my kid, but you can send them a letter. That's fine. I'll send them a letter.

That's fine. That's what I'm Joanne is actually doing that my youngest little girl, her class is doing a Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. So in her shoebox, she put her address and she's like, she wrote a little letter.

She said, please write me back and I'll, I'll write to you. My son's only concerned with getting toys, right? Sure. Trying to teach that too.

So yeah, there's time. Hit them with the verse of the day, man. The verse of the day today comes from Isaiah.

That's not an order by the way. I need to, I need to work on how I transitioned there cause I don't want to like feel like I'm cracking the whip. That's okay. Hit them with the verse of the day if you feel like it. If it pleases you. If it pleases you. If it pleases the table. If it pleases my Lord. Hit him with the verse of the day.

Yes, TV's Michael Caine. I would be happy to. Isaiah chapter 41 verse 10. Fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I'm your God. I will strengthen you.

Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Amen.

I need to hear that this morning. That is, that is some, man, that's some powerful stuff. God's presence with us. I mean that, that is the source of peace. That's the source of comfort in, in difficult times. Yep. Yep. John, what's new with you today? I pigged out on Olive Garden like you wouldn't believe yesterday. This was a hard transition out of Isaiah chapter 41.

Me and my, uh, my good friend David over here behind the board. Sure. Um, we're intermittent fasting. Right. And so we don't eat, I don't eat nothing past 9 PM.

That's very impressive. And then I go all night asleep and then I wake up, I don't eat nothing till one. So Ellie and I went 1 PM. Right. You're not waking up in the middle of the night. 16 hour fast. Yeah.

No. So we went to Olive Garden and I'm not going to lie, I was in a foul mood. I hadn't had no coffee. I had no food.

The baby was whining. Ellie was like, it was, it was like a day off that we had. And she was like, I want to go and visit my brother and then I want to go drop stuff off at Goodwill. And then I want to, uh, return some clothes that we got.

And I was like, cool, have fun. I'm gonna stay here at the house. And you know, of course being married, that's not how it goes. If she has plans. Now you got plans. She wants to spend time with you.

Not at the house though. No, she wants to go and go into the world. So I'm in a foul mood. So Ellie and her wisdom, she's been married going on seven years.

She knows how the game works. She's like, we're going to go get somebody and get some coffee. I was like, no, I don't feel like eating anything.

I don't feel like getting any coffee. So we get to Olive Garden and they're like, you know, can I take your order or whatever? Ellie's like, we want some coffee now. And so the woman was like, please bring it.

It was like one PM. She was like, I mean, yeah, um, we could, it might be a little bit cause we'll have to brew something. She, what she was saying was we'll have to brew it just for you. She was like, we'll have to brew a pot, but we could get you some coffee.

Ellie was like, that's fine. Bring it here. So they bring it in like the, um, like the big metal chrome like that.

Yeah, you just do it yourself. And I sat there, I literally drank the whole thing over the course of the meal. And I was like, what have I become? I used to drink a cup of coffee like once a week as a treat. Oh, but I drink like three cups then, you know, the big Olive Garden cups of coffee. I drink the, I drink the whole thing sitting there.

Just next time, just stick the straw in the metal. It was, it was insane, but I felt, I'm not gonna lie. I felt so much better. See, your wife knows you. She knew you were not only hangry, but you had a caffeine headache.

Yeah, that's true. Did you, did you ever do that where it was like, like you just abashed by the amount of coffee you drink or at this point you just used to, I mean, like at first I was like, oh my gosh, did we really drink that much? I remember, especially when the twins were little, because having two babies at one time is a lot. I mean, it's wonderful to have, um, they're 10 now.

So I would appreciate it if you didn't remind me, cause that's literally what's coming up for me. So let me, let me, let me clarify, having two newborns at once at one time was, I mean, we were both on 24 seven and I do mean 24 seven. Yeah. Um, so we were just, I mean, we were tearing through coffee and I told Elizabeth, I think the twins are like five months old at this time. Nobody's sleeping through the night.

We, and it's been going on for five months. I said, should we maybe cut back on the amount of coffee we were drinking? And she looked at me both. There were two emotions behind her eyes.

One was, I cannot like hilarious. I can't believe you just said that. Right. And number two, if you suggest something like that to me again, you're going to wake up to a knife.

It's going to be violent, right? I'm choosing for that. So we just kind of like our, our ships just sailed at that point.

So you're at this point, you're like, I'm in the ocean of coffee and I'm not, I'm, I'm fine to drown for that. It is what it is. It's fine. Shoot.

Absolutely. Well, happy Friday. Happy Friday. Well, uh, with it being Friday, we are doing lightning round questions today. So if you have a question or suggestion for new topics, we, again, we're taking those questions and we're compiling them based on subject matter. You'll hear the, some of those questions today, maybe some of the questions that you sent in, uh, but you can send those questions into two five two five eight two five zero two eight or visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com.

We're going to go grab Dr. Shah and we'll be right back. Are you looking for some new worship music to go along with all these amazing shows here on the truth network? But today's your lucky day because Dr. Shah and myself and a lot of the rest of the Clearview staff have been hard at work writing for the last few months and we're very excited to share Clearview's new EP with you Together Forward. Not only do these songs sound great, but each and every single one of them were born from a place of genuine worship and prayerfully written by our team right here at Clearview Church.

It's available right now on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, anywhere digital music is sold. So make sure to pick up your copy today and let us know how these songs are helping you, whether they're helping your worship band in your church or just in the car or around in your everyday life. Email us at info at clearviewbc.org. You can also support the ministry here at Clearview Church by visiting us online.

That's clearviewbc.org forward slash give. Thanks for listening. Now back to the show. Come back to Clearview today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can find us online at clearview todayshow.com or send us a text at 252-582-5028. You're going to learn in just a few minutes why that text is very important because we're going to take those questions that we've received and pose them to Dr. Shah today. Friday lightning round. I did not say Dr. Questions this time.

I just want to point that out. I did not say Dr. Questions this time. We got to get a Dr. Questions costume.

We missed it for Halloween. I've gotten so many remarks like, I heard you're talking to Dr. Questions.

I heard that too. Yeah. How are you doing Dr.

Questions? It's funny how after a mess up on the show, everybody becomes a comedian. I know. I think I could go for this, but you know what? I like Dr. Questions.

I thought it was kind of cute. Well, Dr. Shah, how are you doing this Friday? I'm doing very well. I just want to say thank you to all that you guys do. You know, you do your weekly responsibilities at Clearview Church, but then also you take the time to work on the show. John, you know, crafting out all the show notes and then Ryan, you know, doing all that you do and then also coming along and learning about the topics and asking questions.

Of course, David and Nicholas in the back over there recording the show, multi-tracking and of course filming it as well. I'm just so grateful to you guys. So listeners, I just want to tell you, these are amazing people and I'm just grateful. We're grateful.

They weren't doing what they're doing. So we're grateful to you as well. I'm having the time of my life. I don't know about you, but it's fun. I look forward to it every week. And we're hearing from people that they are really enjoying this and enjoy you guys joking and stuff and carrying on.

It's all part of the intrigue about the show. That's right. That's right.

Very cool. Well, if you guys are new, if you've never listened to the show before, if this is your first time joining us, Dr. Abbadan Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, a professor at Carolina University, author, pastor, and the hope of the host of today's show. The host of today's show. It's been a long week, gang. It's been a long week.

That's the new one. Dr. Questions, the hope of today's show. I love it. Let's get a little plaque. Jesus is the hope.

That's right. The host of today's show. Well, like we said, today is Friday, so we are going to be doing lightning round questions today. These are questions that have been submitted by listeners, by viewers, by sending them to that text message number 252-582-5028. Or again, some of these have been emailed in to contact at clearviewtodayshow.com. We've even gotten some through social media to make sure that you are messaging us on there as well.

Facebook as well as Instagram. We'd love to hear from you. Love to know what you're getting out of each show's episode and what questions you have for Dr. Shaw.

And that's what Friday's episodes are centered around. So we're going to launch into lightning round questions. All right. Tell them all the names, we protected them. For y'all's anonymity, we gave them fake names.

We have changed your name, so your question may be aired, but it will not have your name to protect the anonymity of our listeners and viewers. So question number one comes from Ronnie W. And Ronnie writes, what starting point could the lay person use when talking to a non-Christian about the Bible? You know, that's a very, very good question. What starting point could the lay person use when talking to a non-Christian about the Bible? You know, I would just suggest getting them to read the Bible. You know, at one time we would tell people, read the Gospel of John.

That's great advice. Get people to read the Gospel of John. Now I'll be forced to clarify, Gospel of John is probably one of the deepest gospels in, you know, in the New Testament. Nonetheless, it is also very simple. So like someone said, it's deep enough for an elephant to drown, right?

But it's shallow enough for a little baby to just wade. So start getting them to read the Bible because sometimes people use all these arguments about, you know, your Bible has mistakes or it was put together by the church to control the masses and on and on, but they've never read for themselves. Exactly.

Exactly. It's one of those things that people do nowadays where it not even just with the Bible, just with anything like the people critique movies they haven't seen. People will critique books they haven't read or shows they haven't watched. And it's like, I think it's a very popular, especially with something like the Bible, which claims authority to want to critique and dismantle this thing without even having read it.

It's to belong to some group or some community or find affinity with some person who is a celebrity who says those things about the Bible or Christianity or Christians or church, but they themselves never have. And so my encouragement to you would be get them a copy of the Word of God and so they can start reading. And once they read, they'll realize very quickly the Bible is unlike any other book and it will read them, right?

The old adage is true. The Bible is the only book that reads me as I am reading it. Wow.

Got another question from Bobby B. If someone claimed to have found the original autographs, could we ever verify their authenticity? I guess if there's like, I guess is there some sort of process that we could use to be like, yep, that was written by Paul himself. But the process is paleography, right? Paleography, study of the manuscripts, also handwriting styles, dating the manuscripts, all this stuff.

It is a very complicated discipline. And we can only come within 100 to 50 years of, you know, the date of that manuscript, the writing of that manuscript. So could we find the original? Yeah, there's always that possibility.

But could we verify it? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah.

Because 2000 years is a long time. Yeah. And then getting everyone to agree. Yeah.

That it's authentic. Yeah. Like the P52, John Ryland's papyri, you know, at one time it was like the age was like 125. And then somebody said, no way, that's gotta be at least the end of the second century. Then somebody tried to put it in the first century. Now it's back at 125 or 150. So it's like, you know, there's so much disagreement because you're talking about that 50, 60 year period.

And it's very hard to date precisely. If we, hypothetically, if we were ever to find one of the autographs, one of the original manuscripts of the Bible, what effect would that have on the Bible, spiritual criticism, biblical translation? What are the ripple effects that we would see from that? Well, one will be, it will make a big difference because I mean, for at least that portion of the New Testament text, the debate is over.

We don't need any conferences, any books. That's the original manuscript. But on the other hand, we will also see that nothing changed because as I mentioned in a previous episode, 96% or 94% just to give a little bit of extra wiggle room, 94% of the New Testament text is essentially intact.

And we're talking about 6%. And even there, we're not talking about massive shifts or major doctrines that will completely dismantle our faith. Like, okay, it's not Jesus Christ, God's son. Okay. He didn't die on the cross.

He didn't rise from the grave. No, nothing like that is in jeopardy. So even if you find the original text, original manuscript, I don't think it'll change anything.

Yeah. This is not a question that someone submitted, but it's something that was posted to me, I think once on one of the discussion boards I had to do in college where it said, if we did find one of Paul's letters that was not in the official Canon and it was verified a hundred percent just by some quirk of fate, we knew this is a hundred percent Paul's writing. Would it ever be considered, would the Canon ever be considered being opening again to add that letter?

Is there any way that we could say that that letter was inspired? The principles or the criteria of canonicity that scholars, not everybody agrees on this. Okay. There are various views on canonicity. How did the church decide or did the church decide or was it decided for them?

Right. But where I land is that it was sort of based on apostolicity, right? It had to be an apostle or a, or a close associate of an apostle antiquity. It had to be old, you know, so it's not something coming out of the third, fourth century.

It has to be from the first century period. And we know that by how the church fathers quoted, how it's found in manuscripts, all of that orthodoxy, it has to be in line with the core doctrines of our faith, receptivity. Did the early church receive it? Like keep that, keep that in mind receptivity, cause we're gonna come back to that. How was it, how was it received by various people at different points, different places in the early church and then spiritual value? Did it bless them? Because, you know, we also had the shepherd of Hermes and the Pacific of Barnabas, but it did not have the same spiritual value that the 27 books of the new Testament did right now.

Let's go back to receptivity. That's a very important principle because it was written and it was used. It was utilized by the early church, the way they treated those 27 books. And we have to glean that they didn't write.

Nobody wrote a document and said, this is how we treated these 27 books. We just have to glean that from the way they talked about it, how the church fathers talked about it. That is a very important criteria in determining canonicity. So I would not abandon that. So if we find something today and we're like, oh my goodness, this is genuinely Pauline. This is genuinely written by Peter. Okay.

But please don't abandon the criteria of receptivity. Right. Because if it was genuinely written by them, the Holy Spirit wanted that to be used in the church. So it never got used in the church. There's probably a reason for that.

Right. It never got used in the church. Nobody found value in it. Peter wrote it and then tucked it away in some prison wall or something.

I mean, what happened there? Now receptivity is a very important ingredient or a criteria in determining canonicity. That's true. Our next question comes from Devin R. And this is based on an episode that has already aired this week where we talked about different variants in the manuscripts that we have of scripture. Devin writes, does the existence of variants not prove that there are errors in the Bible?

Yeah. I mean, again, we're talking about errors. Are we talking about errors in the sense of supernatural errors, you know, like not having miracles in the Bible? Are we talking about mistakes in the sense of Luke calls it that region one thing and in reality, based on historical documents, geographical information that that's Luke was wrong. That's one kind of error. And the more we read the Bible, the more we realize those errors don't exist. Are we talking about contradictions where Paul says one thing and Peter says one thing or Paul and James, that could also be considered an error. Here we're talking about a different error, right? We're talking about error in the sense of missing text.

I would say, as I mentioned before, 96% of the text, 94 to be very generous is essentially intact. So we're talking about very few places. And even there, yes, one scholar may say, I believe the preposition needs to be there. One scholar may say there, there is no need for the preposition. Does it impact some doctrine?

Of course it does. So don't listen to people who say none of those variants are significant. No, those variants are significant. That's how your Bibles are different versions because they are significant. The NIV is different from the NKJV because they are significant, but they're not enough to be called errors. Errors unfortunately is a technical term in textual criticism that I wish we could go back and redo that and call it something else. We can't do that. But something else I want us to consider for a moment.

Can I go over these? It's the fact that the church gave freedom to the people to copy the manuscripts for their personal use or for the church use, for their community use. They gave them that freedom.

That tells you a lot. The church was not afraid. When I say church, I'm not talking about the Roman Catholic Church or the Holy Orthodox Church or whatever.

I'm just talking about church as in the people in charge. They did not try to control the masses to say, this is our text and you dare not tamper with it. People made copies. That's why most of the errors existed or came about in the first couple of centuries when people were just taking that word, I want the Bible. Can I just please make a copy? You can make a copy. Of course, they introduced errors in it or made mistakes because some of them were not very good scribes, but they just wanted the word of God for themselves. That's a good point because a lot of times you think about these expert scribes and certainly there were some, but we don't think about the people who are just like, man, I really want a copy of God's word. I'm just going to write this down.

I just want it. Yeah. And you don't think about the heart behind the church allowing it to happen because they knew that that was the commission to spread it.

And for someone like Bart Ehrman to come along. And by the way, he also mentions that argument. He always says that. He also says, always says, yeah, the scribes are very diligent, but then the way he argues, it seems like it doesn't seem like it when I got to reading your book. But most of the people when they were copying, they were not trying to cause bring about mistakes or bring errors in the text.

They were just trying to copy it so they can have it. Right. Now compare that with Islam. What do we know about Islam? And just in the first century, there were so many, you know, texts of the Quran. They were, they were written on parchment and, and, and ivory and, and written on doorpost.

I mean, here and there, everywhere. And the decree went out from the caliph at the time that all of these have to be destroyed and there will be one text. And the scholars, you know, the Muslim leaders, I would say more specifically, they made sure that was only going to be one text.

None of these were very in business. We're not going to be like the Christians who have all these different variants and texts and all that. Well, look, I'd rather have the freedom for people to copy God's word than to artificially control the process.

Because that's not faith. That's called recension, right? And textual criticism is called a recension. What they have is a recension.

And in, in, in our Christian, you know, textual criticism or the New Testament textual criticism, it's not a recension. It's just a freedom. Right. Right. So anyways, no, I mean, I think that's a great point because it does, it illustrates the faith that you have that even with all these variants, I'm willing to dig and find the truth and still believe in God and still believe that God's word is, and I don't have to artificially protect this text. Exactly. It gives a heart to it. It gives a personality behind it. Like the, yes, there is a variant in this manuscript and that manuscript, but what you don't see is the father who was copying down God's word to redo his children. That's right.

You don't see that. Exactly. And, and just that trust that was there that, Hey, yeah, just know you may make mistakes, but that's the reason behind that. And in, in spite of all that, for the text to be 94% essentially intact, you try doing that with anything else.

That's a great point. I got one from Nicole L. How did you get involved in textual criticism? Oh, wow. I shared that story in one of our previous episodes or maybe, maybe on a different show.

We talked about how I got to meet Dr. Maurice Robinson who was on the show yesterday. Oh yeah. That's right.

That's right. From yesterday. So I was in seminary my first semester and I was working with a company called globe communications installing cat fives. This has been cat fives. The first coming out in 1996, all the businesses were going into, you know, having cat fives. And so the business was booming. I knew the owner of that company.

Oh wow. And so I got hired to work and, and so working part time, I had to be at work at a certain time and I really needed this morning class in Greek so I could do the class and then go off and work until six, seven o'clock to make a living to support my family. And all the Greek classes were closed and I had met Dr. Robinson at the orientation and it was really nice and all that.

And so I'm walking from the registrar's office and I run into Dr. Robinson. He said, Hey, everything done? I said, yes, but I was really hoping to take Greek with somebody in that early morning time so that I could go to work. He said, well, you could take my class. I said, well, I tried. Your class is closed.

Oh, well come with me. And he took me to the registrar's office right then and there. I remember that like it was yesterday and said, this student needs to be in my class, go and open my class and add him to it. Wow.

And it did. Week after week I would sit there and listen to all this and he would talk to us and he would talk to us like we knew the subject. I can assure you there was probably one student I knew in that class who knew what Dr. Robinson was talking about. And that was Ed Gravely, a friend of mine who also did his PhD under Dr. Robinson.

In fact, Robinson only had two students. You and Ed Gravely? Ed Gravely. Wow. Yes. Anyways. Wow. I learned. That's awesome.

That's awesome. Well, unfortunately that is all the time we have for questions on today's episode, but keep sending those questions in to 252-582-5028. You can email us at contact at clearviewtodayshow.com. Follow us on social media. You'll see those questions pop up. We may just have your question on next Friday's episode. Again, just because we don't air on one Friday, don't think that we're not going to show another Friday. We try to group them.

Today was mostly about textual criticism and things like that, but we try to group them based on a particular thing. And don't forget that same website clearviewtodayshow.com. You can support us financially. Every time that you partner with us financially, you're making an impact for God's kingdom. That's right. Thank you. Absolutely. Dr. Jha, do you have any last minute advice for our listeners? Sure. I do. Get organized.

Very true. Get organized. Go ahead, Jon.

You were about to say something. I was going to say that helped me a great deal. I write down every single thing.

I don't know if you can see it on the camera, but I write my wife goes in and populates it for me. That's advice changed my life, changed my entire life. It is so, so, you know, when I, when I was early years watching people who were achievers, like writers and producers, just to see how in the world do you do that? They were organized. They had a pattern.

They had a, they had a set way of doing things. And if you do that, it's amazing. I mean, I'll share maybe another show. We'll talk about that.

Let's do it. He's right though, man. He's right. It'll change your life. It'll change your entire thought process.

Get organized. I love it. We love you guys. We'll see you next week. I'll clear you today.