While the Church Sleeps

Hello, everyone. Today is Thursday, May the 25th. I'm Ryan Hild.

I'm Jon Galantis. And you're listening to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearViewTodayShow.com. That's right. You guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, and where you might get your podcasting content from.

We're going to leave a link in the description of this podcast so you can do just that. But before we do anything, we're going to read today's verse of the day, which is Matthew 7, 28 and 29. And so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were astonished at his teachings, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

I love this verse so much because he says that Jesus taught as one who had authority, not as the religious authorities of the day. Right, right. It's kind of calling them out. That's what we like to call subtext.

Right. And these people who you would think would operate with authority, but just were kind of like, this is what the Bible says. This is what God's words are. Kind of like Charlie Brown's teacher.

But then Jesus comes on the scene and he explains these concepts, but he teaches things and he teaches in such a way that the people were captivated because it's the son of God delivering the word of God. Everyone has that person in their life who, at some point in your life, you have had someone come in and speak with authority. This is how it is.

This is what it's going to be. And the people, you know, they toe the line. Now you've always going to have people who want to buck out against authority, but deep down, you know that when someone speaks and they know what they're talking about, it changes. It changes the atmosphere of a room.

Jesus changed the atmosphere of all of mankind, of history itself. Yeah. And I love that subtext that like, they don't have to go out and say, the scribes didn't have authority, but you pretty much imply that when it's next to the son of God, yeah, they absolutely do not have any authority. You doing okay? I'm okay.

I got a tickle in my throat. Good. You're good. Todd is the one having authority, not the scribes. That's right.

That's right. Speaking of authority, I'm going to speak as one who has authority right now. Welcome to the gripe vine. People, I got to tell you, people have been loving the gripe vine.

I've heard from a lot of people. We've got a lot of texts like, Hey, I really, you guys are saying what we want to say on the gripe vine. I actually got called out on my gripes a couple of weeks ago by a church member, but that's going to be my next gripe.

So she needs to watch out. Let's go ahead and pick this gripe real quick. Here's my gripe. Two step verification.

What's the worst? I cannot stand two step verification. For anybody in the audience over the age of like 50 or 60 who don't know what two step verification is, is that like a dance?

Is that what you do at the sock hop? Yeah, like I got this two step verification. Two step verification is when they require two forms of verification as an added measure of security, specifically on like digital media websites, that kind of thing. The problem is, number one, if you haven't set up to go to a specific phone number and you don't have access to that phone number, like if I'm trying to log in on someone else's behalf, which I guess is the whole point of two step verification. I wonder if there's anyone out there who really enjoys using it.

Enjoys? I highly doubt it. They're like, Oh man, I was really worried about my security, but thank goodness for two step verification. Now I've got to open the YouTube app and confirm that this is my Gmail that's trying to access something. What?

No. It's also like someone is trying to log into your account from like Kitrel and it's like, that could be my mom, that could be my sister, that could be anybody. So now they're like, do you want to allow it?

Like, yeah, I guess I'll allow it. But then it's like, all right, you need to send this code to your, we've sent a code to this email address that you no longer use, that you don't have the password for, or we send a code to your mom's email address, the person who's trying to get in, now you have to contact them. And I'm like, they're, they're just trying to watch Netflix for goodness sake. Yep. It's, it's a nightmare. It's awful. If you like two-step verification or you, or you are somebody who works on two-step verification, I'm sorry, but you're wrong.

Yeah. If you're, if you're someone who implements two-step verification, you can stop. You have the authority to change this. You can speak to your supervisors as one with authority and say, nobody likes it. Nobody likes it. Nobody likes it.

Nobody likes it. You know what you did. We're going to get Dr. Sean just a minute for today's episode. I wonder how he feels about two-step verification. I'm sure he doesn't care. I'm sure he absolutely doesn't care. I can't stand it.

I hate it. We're going to grab Dr. Sean for today's episode, but if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028 or visit us online at clearveetodayshow.com. We'll be back after this. Well, good morning, afternoon, evening, Clearview Today listeners. My name is Jon and I'm David. And we just want to take a quick second and let you know about another way that you can keep in touch with Dr. Sean's work. And that is his weekly podcast series, Sermons by Abaddon Shaw, PhD. As a lot of you may know, or maybe some of you don't know. If you don't know, you do now. And if you don't know, then maybe just pop off the podcast. David, I'm just playing. Pop off the podcast.

I'm just playing. Keep listening. Dr. Shaw is actually the lead pastor of Clearview Church in North Carolina. Every single weekend, he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live God-honoring lives. Well, one of the four core values of Clearview Church is that we're a Bible-believing church. So every sermon is coming directly from scripture, which is great because that guarantees that there are timeless truths that are constantly applicable to our lives. This is a great resource because whether you're driving, whether you're cleaning the house, whether you're working out, you can always benefit from hearing the Word of God spoken into your life. And God's Word is always going to do something new for you every time you hear it.

Sometimes it's conviction and sometimes it's encouragement. But know that every time you listen to God's Word, you're inviting the Holy Spirit to move and work in your life. You guys can check out the Sermons by Abaddon Shaw, PhD podcast. First and foremost, check it out on our church app. That's the Clearview app. You can get that in the Google Play Store. You can get that on iTunes. But you can also find the podcast on the Apple podcast app or on our website at ClearviewBC.org. And listen, if you've got a little extra time on your hands, you just want to do some further reading, you can also read the transcripts of those sermons.

Those are available on Dr. Shaw's website, AbaddonShaw.com. And we're going to leave you guys a little link in the description so you can follow it. But for right now, David, let's hop back in.

All right. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abaddon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028.

That's right. And if today's your first time ever joining us here on the Clear View Today Show, we want to make you feel welcome and let you know who's talking to you today. Dr. Abaddon Shaw is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show.

You can find all of his work on his website. That's AbaddonShaw.com. Dr. Shaw, I don't know if we had a chance to talk about it today, but since yesterday's episode, people have been blowing up the number. They've been emailing in, they've been texting in. They want to know if I have shirts.

It wasn't centering around the shirts, honestly, although there were a few. But just talking about, you know, we dove into Hinduism a little bit and sort of the comparison between Christianity and Hinduism and the Bible versus Hindu holy writings. When you reminded us yesterday, there's not really a comparison to be drawn there. Well, I want our people to understand that we share these things not in a form of hate or being anti other religions.

No, none of that. We want to educate our people so we know the truth. The truth shall set you free. So you can't go around saying, oh, it's the Hindu Bible, and then there's the Muslim Bible, or then there's a Buddhist Bible. In reality, they are very different in so many levels. Even their own people do not see their holy literature, if you want to say that, in the same way as we see scriptures, the Old New Testament, the Bible. So why not hear the truth and go, okay, painting with this broad brush doesn't help, right? You know, coming up with these artificial categories does more harm than good. So let's not do this. Let's stick with the truth, understand what they consider those scriptures to be, and then why we think the Bible is a wholly different book.

That's right. One thing that I said yesterday that really, really sort of, you know, gripped me was, throughout history, you know, as much as it might seem like a strange concept to us, people have subscribed to this religion, they've they've devoted themselves to these teachings and these, these, these sacred writings for Hinduism. But we're seeing that more and more in Western life in America in one nation that traditionally has been, you know, put forward as one nation under God, right? What what is happening or what has happened with the church that this is becoming more and more prevalent? Well, years ago, I would say 30 years ago, you know, we would talk about pluralism is coming. Inclusivism is coming. You know, the whole idea of the gospel is exclusive, is not going to be as popular one day. Well, the day has come.

I mean, day has already come. We've been living in the in a new age now, where a lot of people from other parts of the world are here. And hey, we welcome everybody. But at the same time, sometimes we have to also stand up for our faith and say, wait, before you start redefining what Christianity is, and what Bible is, and what the truth is about Jesus Christ and the gospel, before you start redefining that and neutralizing all these differences, maybe we have something to say about it. Right. Absolutely. I love how you I love how you frame it, because a lot of people will view apologetics and view standing up for the churches, this lone dog individual thing, but you Full of hatred and malice and, you know, contention and divisiveness.

No, no, no. Yeah. Other people are very bold in expressing what they believe and why they believe and want us to accept them. But the moment we say what this is what Christian Oh, well, wait, you Christian bigots. I mean, you guys are the bane of all our problems.

That's when you go wait, wait, quickly labeled hate speech. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Let us explain ourselves. Yeah, it'll always and it's it's that way, because that's the weapon that the enemy has found is working. But I love that you put such an emphasis on the church doing this. It's not just our job as individual Christians to do it, but collectively as a church, as a body of believers, not just like the local church building, but a body of believers standing up and not losing focus and what Christ has called us to do. That's right. That's right. And we have to do that now.

We have to do that now. And again, we love all people. I don't care what religion you are. I don't care what person you are. I love you because God loves you, you know, and and if you were ever in trouble, please tell us we'll help you.

We're here for you. Having said that, when it comes to matters of faith, we do need to express this is what we believe is the truth. And expressing that as truth is not hate speech. It's not bigotry. It's not, you know, intolerance.

None of that. This is what makes us Americans. So, you know, going back in time, back in history, there was a period when the church did not do that. We were too, I don't know, one track or just sitting there with our head in the sand that we didn't do this and we got run over. And, you know, like Aldous Huxley used to say that men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.

Wow. It seems that people don't, people don't fully appreciate the gravity of having a weak church or an unfocused church. You know, if the church is weakened, you know, the vision gets distorted or lost. Results are devastating. We don't feel like they will be.

We feel like it'll all be okay. Yeah. And I have an ulterior motive there. I'll be forced to tell you the foundation of this nation is Judeo-Christian values.

I mean, that's the reason why things work the way they work. So standing up for this is not just, oh, I'm a Christian and I believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, so I have to do this. Okay.

Yes. But I have another motive, which is your freedom. I don't care what your religion is. Your freedom also depends on understanding these truths, whether you hold them or not. This is what this foundation was built on. You can deny that cement concrete works or is real, but doesn't matter. That's what this house is built on. That's what you're standing on right now.

That's what's allowing you to sit there comfortably and proclaim that it's not working and sleep in that house. It's a concrete in the foundation that's holding this up. So I am for the concrete, right? And I'm not against you sleeping in the house.

I'm just, I'm for the concrete. I love that you bring that up because there's so many people who have this, this motivation of rewriting history or glossing over the biblical values that our nation was founded on to spin a new narrative or to, you know, make a more palatable foundation or whatever, to fit whatever agenda. The word for that is multiculturalism.

Okay. I believe we are a multiracial country, but multiculturalism is not as, as wonderful as it's made out to be. I enjoy cultures. I enjoy other people and their traditions and all that. Food, music. Oh, it's great. It's clothing.

Wonderful. But multiculturalism is a, is a different beast. It comes up with the idea that the idea of an American culture is, is not necessary. In fact, it is dangerous and harmful for all people, especially minorities. And I despise that. I don't like that idea at all. That's why I am not for multiculturalism. I'm for multiracial. Everybody welcome.

Multiculturalism is, is, is dangerous. And so, you know, I want to share something here because I shared this years ago, back in 2012. Wow. Long time. Eleven years ago.

Still true today. Yeah. I was asked to talk about, you know, what's wrong with the churches, you know, what's going on and why is our role important and why are we not taking this seriously? And what's going to happen if we keep not taking this seriously?

And I talked about seventh century Christianity in Spain. So maybe for the next 10 minutes, we can quickly walk through this. Absolutely.

Okay. The year is 582 AD and a 12 year old boy is with his uncle on a business trip to Syria. He's coming from Arabia.

He's going to Syria. And while there, he sees churches, he sees, even meets a monk, but he never hears the true gospel. Just the buildings and the shells. That's it. Christians are there.

Tons and tons of Christians are there, but how passionate are they about soul winning, telling people about Christ, living a Christian life? Well, not much. All right. That's 582.

Jump ahead to seven more years. 589 AD. A council is held in Toledo, which is not Ohio, Spain, known as the third council of Toledo. Third church council. What are they discussing? Three reasons for this council. First is the conversion of the Gothic king to true Christianity.

Is that real or not? What do we do with him? Second, 23 condemnations against anybody who followed Arianism and old heresy, which I don't like either. But anyways, that's good.

Third, restrictions on Jewish people. Okay. So that's what's happening in the church.

That's what the church is busy with. Got you. Great. I see where this is going. All right.

Jump ahead. 632 AD. That same 12 year old boy is now 63 years of age. He met many Christians, saw many churches, but he never heard the true gospels. Gospel, what he did see are many contentions, divisions. Instead, he began a religion called Islam. The 12 year old boy, of course, Mohammed. In the process, many were killed. 600, 700 Jewish people were executed. I mean, his, his last words were, destroy the Jews and the Christians, you know, or Allah destroyed the Jews and the Christians. A year beyond, which is what?

632 or 633 now. There's a fourth church council of Toledo. This time, the reason to meet is how can we punish the baptized Jewish people who have gone back to Judaism? These guys are using church resources very well. Oh, here's the council. One year later, we're going to have, here's the response to Islam. Here's how we win them.

Here's how we spread the gospel. Nope. They have no clue.

This guy just this, sorry, I hate to interrupt, but this guy just said he wants to kill all Jews and Christians. He's like, wait, should we focus on that? No. You don't want to focus on that? No. Okay.

No. Well, let's jump ahead three more years. 836, 636, 836, Arab armies under the flag of Islam have now captured the areas which are modern Iraq, Mesopotamia, and modern Iran, which is Persia.

8636, same year. There's a fifth church council of Toledo. And one of the decrees of the council is that if anyone were to curse the king or plot against him, they would be excommunicated from the church. Your liege. My liege, I hate to interrupt, but the Arabs have conquered much of Mesopotamia and Persia. We have to talk about what happens if you will curse the king.

He called me a name. Okay. So table that.

I understand, but we'll handle that in the 17th council. I am the king. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

He closes the door. Jump ahead two more years. 8638 AD. The Arab armies under the banner of Islam have captured Syria, Jerusalem, and they're getting ready to capture Armenia.

In the same year, 638 AD, there is the sixth church council of Toledo. The reason to meet are to affirm the decrees of the fifth council and once again curse anyone who would plot against the king. Also some restrictions on the Jewish people. My liege, they've taken Jerusalem, my liege. Now we have to talk about the restrictions we're going to levy on the Jewish people. They're literally, I hate to be this way, but they are literally in the holy city. It's theirs now. Oh, I'm going to, he goes to Jerusalem.

I'm going to be one of them. Jump ahead eight years. This is 8646 AD. Lots happened. Arab armies have captured Egypt, Armenia, Asia Minor, which is modern day Turkey.

We were there just a couple of weeks ago. These are all Christian nations by the way. Okay. Cosmos Indicopleustis.

Okay. This, he was an Alexandrian merchant, Alexandria, Egypt, and he, he writes in his book that in sixth century churches were scattered all over these areas. Can you imagine that? Churches all over these areas today, which is the heart of the Muslim world. In the same year, 8646 AD, what do you think is happening? Just a guess. Uh, let me guess. We've, we've had one council. We had, that was the, that was the fourth. We had the fifth.

No, we start with the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth. I think we've got one more council. This is the seventh council of Toledo.

And why are we meeting? Once again, treason was punishable by discrimination. And if any pastor were to speak out, he would be disgraced.

And the only way he would get communion is if he were dying. Does someone have a dunce cap? I'm glad we're talking about the important issues here. Golly, continuing to miss the mark. The map is looking more and more Arab, my leash. It's not looking good. The year is 653 AD.

Arab armies have entered North Africa, which is modern day, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, 653 AD. I wonder what people in the church council at Toledo are doing. It's not going to be to respond to the Arab armies. I can just say, just say, it's not going to be the eighth church council of Toledo. Once again, the King wrote a book of all things.

He wanted the pastors to tell the people. I don't even have a bit. Like I'm just getting, I'm just getting angry.

I'm just sad. One year or two years later, 656, 655 AD. Okay.

Arab armies are busy capturing the Island of Cyprus. Same year, 655 AD. What do you think now? Just go ahead and say it because I already know it.

Go ahead. Council number nine. This was interesting one because if any priests were to have a child by a woman, slave or free, which right there is a problem.

What is that priest doing? That child would automatically be a slave of the church where his father served. Well, thank goodness.

I'm glad we got that sorted out. Also anybody who got converted had to pass the test of Christian festivals in the presence of the bishops to prove their faith. If they failed, they could be flogged or made too fast, depending on the age. The third council was in 589. The ninth is in what?

655. So in almost a hundred years, they haven't made a good decision yet. It's been a hundred years. It's not even just, they haven't made a good decision. They haven't made a meaningful decision. They haven't made a relevant decision. Do you have anything to add there, David?

What do you think is going on with this world? I guess that these guys, they're just trying to focus on what's important. I mean, that's... Well, they're doing a bang up job. They're doing a great job. I got to say hats off to the seventh century church.

I'm really loving it. Yikes, people. 681 AD. Arab armies and the flag of Islam have captured most of North Africa.

Island of Rhodes near Turkey, parts of modern day Afghanistan, and even parts of modern day Pakistan. By now, we just got, our time is running away. So let me just jump ahead. Three more church councils have happened. The church council of Toledo, number 10, number 11, number 12, 656 AD.

The 10th one was, we cannot sell Christian slaves to the Jewish people. Man, I got to say, man, hats off. The seventh century churches, they look, they got an eye on what's important and they're making it happen. This is like standing back as a parent and watching your kid continue to make bad choices. It's like the house is on fire and they're like, I got to just make one quick sandwich. Yeah, hold on.

And it gets very interesting. And one pastor had freed his slaves and distributed his money to the poor in his will. That was unlawful. He should not have done that. There's something good. And now they're being punished for it.

The 11th one, which was 675 AD bishops cannot buy their positions. All right, fine. If they did no big deal, two years exile, go live on the beach somewhere, but they can keep their position. Should you get paid to go live out there and you can keep their position? If you use money, if you illegally bought your position, we're going to send you on a vacation.

I love that for you guys. And I think that's important. Should we address the Muslim armies literally spreading across the continent? No time for that.

12th one, but just to let you know, Jewish people could be persecuted by confiscating their things and you could use violence against your slaves. Fair. That's fine.

They literally, I hate to be this way, but my brother was taken by Muslim armies like literally last week. I'm sorry. The council is adjourned.

Okay. We're adjourned. The year is now 702 AD. Muslim armies, which are a mixture of Arabs and North Africans, because now they're all part of this movement, have destroyed the North African church. You know, the places where Augustine, Tertullian, all these kinds of people were there.

You know, it's kind of gone. Christians have been killed or enslaved. The Arabs claim that they had to fight 10 wars to eradicate Christians among the Berbers. There were as many as 3 million Coptic Christians and 5 million Berber Christians. Now the Muslim population is now 1% of the total population of the world. Since the last church council, there have been, are y'all ready for this?

They could get somebody. How about you guys in the back? How many more councils have gone by, do you think? Six. Six church councils of Toledo have gone by 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.

They went to eight. They had this whole period, they've had 18 councils. And the topics of discussions have been things like including treason against the king, doctrinal matters need to be believed and not discussed, and whether Christ had one will or two. And of course, Jewish people. We still don't like them. Notice that there was no response discussed to the increasing threat from invading armies and the Muslim faith. Nope.

So we'll talk about that. What year is this now? The year is about 711 AD. Where do you think the Muslim armies are? Please tell me they're at Toledo. Right on the doorstep, on the gates of Toledo, and they're ready to invade.

Imagine that! You didn't do anything, the previous councils, and now they're at your doorstep. They look out the window like, where'd these guys come from? Were they there all this time?

Should we do something about this? And if it wasn't for a man by the name of Charles Martel, who stopped the Moors at the Battle of Tours in 732 AD, all of Western Europe would have fallen into Muslim hands. Wow. Hats off to Charles Martel for real on this. I mean, the whole point is this, while the church sleeps. That's why I appreciate this radio show so much. Like, we have fun and we goof around, but at the end of the day, we do—and I know this is your heart, Dr. Shah—we feel that there's a responsibility to talk about these truths of God and to stand up for the truth and fight for it. Not just to talk about silly things or even just get caught up in arguing these little doctrines that people get so upset about. It's good to stand for the truth and it's good to say those things, but when it's time to really talk about what's important, I know that's where this show shines. Our goal in this show was not to tell you that Islam is a threat or we should be violent and fight back. It's not to say that you cannot have church meetings.

No, of course, none of that. The lesson is this. When the church loses its sight of what is their mission. Right now, many denominations are arguing over things that the scripture is very clear about. You can end all these business meetings very quickly if you stand for the truth. You can be as merciful as possible to people. You can work with sinners, but at the same time, you have to stand for the truth and you're wasting your time.

Okay, well, God's going to take your lampstand away. Right. What do we need to do as the church? To wake up, to mount a response to the world around us, and to bring the hope of the gospel to bear on people. That's our heart here in this radio show.

That's what we want to equip you as our listeners to do as well. That's true. That was Crusades times.

That's never going to happen here in America. Well, okay. They didn't think that. Time's changed. People don't. Those people in Toledo didn't think.

They thought they were safe and they thought they had time. Man, such great information for us. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, or if you have questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

You can partner with us financially on that same website. Every gift that you give goes not only to building up this radio show, but countless other ministries for the gospel of Christ. I want to end with a quote from a Mr. Donald Gray Barnhouse. I love this quote. I saw this this morning.

The angel rolled away the stone from Jesus' tomb, not to let the living Lord out, but to let unconvinced outsiders in. Beautiful. Wow. Praise God. So good. Love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clearview Today.