Lightning Round Questions

Welcome back, everyone. Today is Friday, May the 26th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, 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 for Dr. Shah 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 this conversation going by supporting the show, sharing it online with your friends and family, letting us know what you think of it, leaving us a good review on iTunes, Spotify, absolutely nothing less than five stars. I do not like that.

That is not cute. But we're going to leave a couple of links in the description of this podcast, so you can do just that. Ryan, do you want to read us the verse of the day?

I would love to. The verse of the day today comes from 1 Peter 3, verses 10 and 11. He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good.

Let him seek peace and pursue it. So easy on paper. So, when you say, hey, don't talk ugly. Keep your tongue away from evil. Just speak good things. It's like, okay. Sure.

No problem. One of, if not the most difficult part of being a Christian, is just keeping your mouth under control. We just got done in Illuminate, our student ministry, reading through and studying through the book of James. Part of James talks about taming your tongue. How the tongue is deceitful. It's like a wildfire.

It has all this imagery. It talks about, of all the wild beasts in the world, the tongue is the one that is unable to be tamed. So often, our words will run away from us. We're like, wow, why did I say that? Why did that come out of my mouth?

Well, it's because what comes out of our mouth is what's in our hearts. If we're going to fix what's here, then we've got to fix what's in here. I love that you just mentioned wild beasts. I'm going to give you three seconds. I just want you to pick the first animal that comes to your mind. Three, two, one. A platypus. Platypus.

Million dollars. But the next wedding that you get invited to, you have to unleash a, I'll say because it's a platypus, no less than 50 platypuses on the ceremony. They're angry.

They are angry. If it had been like a boar or like a bison, I'd just say one. But since it's a platypus, it's like, you got to unleash like 50 angry platypuses on the ceremony. That will be awful because they're venomous, aren't they?

I don't know. I'm pretty sure they're venomous. If they're venomous, then I'll say three. They're venomous, but I don't think they're very fast.

Yeah, I'll say three. Hold on. Or platypus. How do you spell platypus? P-L-A-T-Y-P-U-S. Are they venomous?

Are they spelling big dork? Or platypus is venomous? I actually did spell venomous as a kid.

Didn't do that well. The platypus, yeah, it is. I was pretty sure they were venomous. I'll say three. You've got to unleash three on the wedding. Yeah. Because here's the thing, they're venomous and that's scary, but they're not particularly fast.

So I feel like we could probably take three platypuses high. Do you do it and run away? Or do you just do it and be like, hey guys, I just did this thing. No matter what, it's going to ruin this woman's wedding. It's only ceremony. How about this? I will unleash them and I will say, to the person who can subdue these platypus, I don't know what the plural is, I'll give you $1,000 per animal that you can subdue.

There's only three. Now imagine that you're getting married, you're looking into your groom's eyes or your bride's eyes, and some idiot in the back just goes, hey everybody, I just unleashed three platypuses, but guess what? Whoever catches them gets $1,000 each. It's like, that's fine, but you've still ruined my wedding. I'll pay for your honeymoon. You'll pay for the honeymoon?

Yeah. The bride gets down. The bride just starts tackling the platypus. I might would do that just to see that. I would do it too. I would do it too. What was your animal?

Because I'm imagining that you got here with this before me. If it's a million dollars, I would do a zebra. Something wild. Something kind of crazy. Like a buffalo.

Nice. I feel like a zebra would be a little bit less harmful than a buffalo. Zebra's going to kick. A buffalo is going to get gored by a buffalo. The thing is, it can't be like, oh yeah, I'll just choose a fish and it just flops there.

Then it's like a hundred fish. You've got to ruin the ceremony. It's got to be enough that it ruins the ceremony. I would do a zebra or something.

Just be like, I tried to do something exotic. I thought it would be cute, like a safari, like a wild wedding, but man, it just got out of hand quick. What if you picked puppies? Or you said wild animals. It's got to be a wild animal. Yeah, it's got to be something that's going to, I mean, any animal unleashed on the ceremony is going to ruin the wedding. A thousand sloths on the ceremony. They're just hanging around.

They're just like hanging off the bride. I would do it. Yeah. I'll ruin a wedding with an animal for a million. Sure.

Why not? All right. I'll offer them some money.

Cool. Would you guys take that? I want to know what animal would you unleash on a wedding for a million dollars?

Yes. I know you guys were thinking, as Jon was asking this, tell us what animal it was and if you would unleash on a wedding for a million dollars. A million dollars. That's not a thousand dollars. That's a lot of money. That is a lot of money. Think about your kids now.

Think about your future. We could ruin a wedding for the future. For your children, you would. Yeah, I might would.

I might ruin their wedding for their future. Sorry, kids. Here's some money. Oh, me. We're going to get Dr. Sean in just a few minutes for today's episode, but if you guys have any questions or suggestions, or if you want to respond to that question, let us know what animal and if you unleashed on a wedding, send us a text at 252-58-25028, or you can get in touch with us online at clearviewtodayshow.com.

We'll be right back. Hey there, listeners. I'm Jon Galantis.

And I'm Ellie Galantis. And we just want to take a quick second and talk to you about Dr. Shah's and Nicole's book, 30 Days to a New Beginning, Daily Devotions to Help You Move Forward. You know, this is actually the second book in the 30 Days series, and the whole point of this devotional is to help us get unstuck from the ruts of life. And when it comes to running the race of life, it matters how you start, but a bad start doesn't ultimately determine how you finish the race. You can have a good finish even with a bad start, and that's where this book comes in. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck.

Instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner like I know I've done several times. I know that's right. 30 Days encourages you to find your fresh start in God's word. Life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things. His mercies are new every day, which means every day is a new chance for you to start over. You can grab 30 Days to a New Beginning on Amazon.com. We're going to leave a link in the description box below, and if you already have the book, let us know what you think about it.

That's right. Send us a text, 252-582-5028. Share what God has done in your life through this devotional. Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air. Ellie, you ready to get back to the show? Let's do it.

All right. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, 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 to 252-582-5028. That's right. And if today's your first time ever tuning in to the Clearview Today Show, we want to welcome you, let you know who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadon Shah is a Ph.D. in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, and full-time pastor and the host of today's show.

You can find all of his work on his website. That's AbbadonShah.com. That's right. Thank you, TV's Riddler.

We appreciate that announcement. Yeah, riddle me this, Batman. As you can see from the get-up, from the hat, from the tie, from the very stylish blazer. And if you can't see, this is why we keep telling y'all to watch the video version of the podcast. Oh, that's true. Yeah, you guys, if you're listening, you can't see this. And that's on you, honestly.

That's on you, because we keep on telling you. So watch it. Go watch it. If this show existed.

What are you doing? But today's episode is lightning round questions, and a very special lightning round questions. We got a lot of questions, especially after people heard the episode about you and Nicole, the episode when you were in Turkey, and the one where we were talking about your trip through Turkey. All of today's episodes are about Turkey and your trip and travel in general. People really love biblical travel, and I think that they love that you are able to do it to the extent that you do it and bring back so much information, because a lot of people once they heard last Friday's episode. Yeah, a week from yesterday, a week from today is a week ago is when we did that episode.

A week prior. But the emails and the texts have been flooding in. Yeah. So we're excited. We're going to dive into the questions today all about Turkey.

I'm excited. I'm excited, because that's one reason we go. One reason we go is so that we will learn, but bring back information, bring back pictures and videos that will help people who are unable to go. I mean, there's health reasons, finances, or just their circumstances in life.

It's not anything to do with health or finances, but it's just relationships, family dynamics that they can't. And so we bring these things everywhere we go. We film with that passion, with that tenacity. We got to get that shot. We got to be over there. We got to make this happen.

Why? Because we want to bring that video for that person who may not ever go. That's right. But then also we do these trips so that people can go. Because when we go on these tours, we always make contact with people there.

Maybe it's our guide, maybe somebody else on the tour, tour companies, who we can connect with and then come back and say, okay, I think we have a solid person there. Let's go. We can take you there. And we have connections. So that's how we go. We've been to Israel so many times.

That's how we're going to Greece and then hopefully go to Turkey and Egypt next year. I mean, so we're really excited about this. It's an exciting thing. And just to hear your passion and to hear the stories that you bring back, it helps us. It helps us grow in our faith and it helps us to connect with these places and these people of the Bible and let us know that these are real people in real places and these are real things that happen.

And that just deepens our faith and our confidence in God's word. One of the things that struck me the first time I ever went to Israel was just, I think living in the United States, you get a sense of how massive the United States is. But then when I went to Israel, it was so much smaller and yet it's still a country. So Jackson R, he wrote in, he wanted to know, how much of Turkey did you actually get to see? Oh, wow.

Great question. So Turkey can be divided into seven regions. Okay. So you have the Maramara region, which is like right there with Bosphorus or Dardanelles, Hellespont. And if you remember these names, that's where the Aegean Sea through the Sea of Maramara goes into the Black Sea. So that area, that region of Turkey is known as the Maramara region. Then there's a Black Sea region, which is to the north.

Okay. This is where the Gauls lived. This is where the Celts that moved down the Danube river, they went there and some went to Ireland. Of course, the others went down to modern day Turkey. Then there is the Eastern Anatolia region, which is where, you know the Ark rested up in the mountains of Ararat. You know, so a lot of people say, well, there's a ship-like structure there. I mean, maybe there is. I can see, I can see Noah's Ark.

Close one eye and squint with the other. Yeah. The best of the best out there. See, I haven't been there, so I can't say.

Okay. So I'm just going by the best of the best who have been there, looked around, who actually believe in Noah's Ark, who believes in a real flood, who believe that the whole world was destroyed in the flood, other than this man and his family. They go there and go, we can't find the Ark right now. Maybe it's there, buried under the mountain.

Maybe it's gone, you know? So, but that's the Eastern Anatolia. Then comes a Southeastern Anatolian region. This is the North of Syria, you know, that part of the world. Then there is the Mediterranean coast region. This is where you find Tarsus.

Let's back up for a second. This is where you find Antioch on the Orentus. This is where Christians were first called Christians. That's part of Turkey. Then Tarsus, or Tarsus, which is where Paul came from, right?

Then you go along the turquoise coast and come up to the Aegean region, which is on the Western coast of Turkey. This is where the seven cities of the apocalypse, or John's revelation, yeah, seven churches. And then we have the Central Anatolian region, which is where cities like Lystra, Iconium, Derby, and if you know anything about Hittite history, go a little bit further north. Gobekli Tepe is all there. So anyways, I know I've talked a lot, but these are the seven regions.

Right, right. And out of those seven regions, how many did you guys get to go to? We got to see the Maramara region a little bit, because we were in Istanbul, so I don't even know if I want to call that. We went to Istanbul. We were not looking for the Maramara region. Albeit, we saw the Bosphorus. We were not able to go right on it. I really wanted to sail on the Bosphorus.

Couldn't do it. Bosphorus, for those who are wondering, is a little gap that leads the Sea of Maramara into the Black Sea. That's Bosphorus. This was very important, because whoever controlled the Bosphorus controlled trade and everything. So hence Constantinople, hence Istanbul. You control this part of the sea.

You control the world. So we saw that. We saw the Mediterranean coast. We saw the central Anatolian just a little bit. And then we saw the Aegean. But we were not able to see the eastern stuff. Maybe another trip.

Very cool. Melissa J. writes in, how touristy is Turkey? Istanbul, Izmir, you know, Kanya, they are big cities. And yes, you can see the influence of tourism in certain parts of the city. Istanbul, just get prepared for that. It's touristy.

But it's worth it. I want to go back to Istanbul and stay there for at least two, three days. How long did you stay in Istanbul? One day.

Just one day. We saw the Hagia Sophia, which was a flagship church of Christianity. This was a church where Chrysostom pastored.

Golden mouth Chrysostom. Massive building. Of course, it was burned in fire through a riot because they had exiled Chrysostom.

It was again burned twice. So the church that is standing there is from the sixth, seventh century. That is mind blowing to think about. Oh yeah, it is. Massive domes.

I mean, if you guys Google it, YouTube people or those who are listening through the radio podcast, whatever, Google it. You'll be shocked to see how beautiful it is. Unfortunately now it's a mosque. Up until four years ago, it was a museum where anybody can go and enjoy it, whether you're a Christian, Muslim, whatever. But you know, it was a mosque. I mean, it was a church converted to a mosque, you know, with the Turks. But then 1920 they made it a museum.

Everybody enjoy it. But then four years ago they made it a mosque again, which is kind of a sad thing. In fact, I had Muslim people in Turkey say, I wish they hadn't done that.

Oh yeah, yeah. It was like, I don't know why. Because everybody could enjoy it, but now it's all restrictions and everything is not good. I was like, well, okay.

It's interesting to hear Muslim people actually say, I wish they hadn't turned this into a mosque. There was kind of a touristy thing that only you got to do with the part. Do you want to talk about the parchment? That was a different one because that was through a connection.

We have some folks who are members of the church and they were able to connect me with their family in Turkey. And so we, I was able to go to, this is very, very interesting because Pergamos or Bergama is the place that perfected the art of making parchment. You have papyrus from Egypt, parchment made out of goat skin. They were found, you know, other places too, but Pergamum really perfected the art of making parchment.

I mean, they took it to another level. But through the years, of course, now with paper, nobody, you know, makes parchment much anymore. Yeah. You just make a mistake.

You throw the paper away, try again. Yeah. But parchment is different, you know, so there is this one gentleman who is still living by the way, he's up in his nineties, who took up this, this skill, this art of making parchment. So when he realized he was getting kind of old up in age and this was it with him, this whole craft is going to die.

He looked for some apprentice and he found them, this couple who were willing to study under him and do this. So here's the story. On the last day, second last day, we were with this family and we just kind of, I said, you know, I would love to buy some parchment in Pergamos. And they said, well, let me see, I'm going to make some calls. And they did. They said, yeah, there's one store in the entire city, one store that has it.

And it's part of the arts and culture store of Turkey. And so we went there and this closed. So I was like, ah, well, you know, it is what it is. He's like, oh no, we'll find out. So he calls up some, so they call up some other friends and they find out that this couple right this moment is about an hour North in a village where they have the workshop. So he's like, I just called them. We're going to go see him. I was like, oh really? You're going to watch them make the parchment.

Yeah. So we drove North into Turkey, way off the beaten path, way off anything touristy. I mean, now we're in Turkey. Where's the tour guide at this point? Are they just, well, I, we told the tour guide, you know, Hey, is it okay if I go with this family? Is everything done for the day? He's like, we're done. If you go back, there's nothing's going to go on.

I would encourage you to go with this fan. If you know them. I was like, yes, I know how to setting it up. That's awesome. So we get there our into this village and I'll meet this couple and they show us how she shows us how to make parchment.

These are that like, these are the only people in the world left now. Right. Wow. I want to put a video right here in the, in the timestamps, just so we have a video.

I want to put it, I want to put it right here and drop it here for those who are watching. And then they gave me the tools to do the scraping of the hair. That's incredible.

And it was unbelievable. And we, we, and then we we did all that. I said, I would love to buy some. It's no problem. We're coming back to town in two hours so you can come by.

So this family friend, right. He took me back here. We went coffee, drinking and all that stuff and went back to the shop. This couple came back to town because they live in the town, work in the village, but their shop is in town. And they came back, opened the shop just for us. And I bought like two huge empty parchments. That's incredible. So you still got them.

And here's the interesting point. One of those was made by her mentor. Really? She sold it. She said, yeah, you can buy it. I was like, so I'm going to buy one made by you.

She said, yeah, this is what is my, by me. This one is by Mr. Sohn. So I was like, and he, there was a story on him, a documentary or something like that or discovery.

You can't remember now. That's awesome. So as a textual critic who works with parchment and papyrus, I was in heaven. I was going to say, that's like a kid in a candy store.

How often do text critics get to go and do this thing? That's amazing. Well, that just means that, you know, here at the church, you're going to have to host some of these classes where you teach us what you learned so we can preserve this tradition.

Exactly. It's important. Parker C. wanted to know, other than, other than making parchment, what's one thing that you learned during your trip? One thing, man, that's, that's going to be hard to, to explain. I mean, there's so many things that I learned. One thing that really got me was regarding the apostle Paul, because as we drove through the Taurus mountains, okay, these are massive mountains. You know, I mean, they just run along the coastline, the Southern coastline of Egypt, of Turkey, that the apostle Paul walked through these mountains.

I mean, and this is not just like a five minute walk or 15 minutes or an hour. Hours and hours. And we're on a bus and we're on a nice, comfortable bus. And we're driving hour after hour after hour through these mountains. And to know that this man who had one time persecuted Christians was walking these paths and going to these mountains through those Cilician gates.

Cilician gates was this little opening in the Taurus mountains where you could pass from the South to the North. Imagine Paul and Silas, Paul and Barnabas. Going through all these towns and villages, preaching the gospel. So they had to encounter, I mean, just the hazards of life, right?

I mean, walking. They had to probably encounter some bandits along the way. I'm sure there was something like that. They had to encounter wild animals. Cause I mean, I'm sure they were there.

Nature, temperature, cold nights, hot days. And then they had to encounter opposition in those towns and cities they went into sometimes from their own people, the Jewish people, sometimes through the pagans, like, you know, in Ephesus Diana, the greatest Diana of Ephesus, you know, I mean, they try to stone him and all that. I mean, all this he went through.

And then sometimes his own people turned their backs on him. Yeah. It is kind of that reality check. Like you get off the bus after a long day, but you're still in an air-conditioned bus, but you're like, Ooh, Ooh, mercy on me. So tired. Yeah.

It's like a magic ball. Is there some ice cream here? Yeah.

You sit there, I just feel like, Ooh, I deserve this. Yeah. And apostle Paul walking, walking, walking through these mountains. And I mean, and how many times he talks about being whipped and left for dead and sick and shipwrecked and all of that. He went through.

Yeah. I mean, he really loved the gospel. I mean, to do that, he was sold out and he loved the gospel. He was carrying on the mission of God. He was taking the only way, truth and life to the lost world, to his own people. And so that's, that's what I got from, if there's one thing, if you say there's so many things I learned, but if there's one thing I could narrow down to is I pray that God will give me that kind of a tenacity, that kind of a love for Jesus Christ and the lost.

Absolutely. I'm trying to, I'm trying to choose our questions carefully here, cause I don't know if we're going to have time to get through all of them. Michael C., this kind of leads in well to what's coming up here at Clearview and, and you know, hopefully on the Clearview Today show, Michael C. writes, did you visit the seven churches of Revelation?

Ooh, that's a good question. We didn't get to go to all seven. We got to go to four of the seven. Thyatira, Sardis, and Philadelphia.

We just didn't have time, ran out of time, but I'm hoping to go back there. Nice. I was able to read scriptures in the sense of one of those letters to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia in the direction in which those cities were set. Like it was still 20 miles away, but I was like, okay, behind me, 20 miles away is Philadelphia.

So here's what Jesus said to this church in the book of Revelation. So you went to Laodicea, Pergamos, Ephesus, and Smyrna. Nice. Okay. That's awesome. CCH wants to know, how do you find time to film when you're on a guided tour? It's tough. It's tough because I never want to be disrespectful to the guide or to the professor that I went with.

So I always waited to listen to them when they were done and they would give you like, okay, so guys, we have 30 minutes here and 30 minutes and meet us at the bus. I would tell Nicholas, like, I already know this site because I've already studied where things are. So we're going to go there. I want to film this one scripture here. Then I want to go this way. And I'm going to read this scripture.

If you can film me here, then I just want to walk here and get some pictures. You know, sometimes I'd be honest. I mean, it was, it got late. I mean, we had, we had to book it, but most times we were able to get things done because I was planned. I was planning before we left. I mean, I had laid out the sites, the places, what scriptures went there. What is a significant point? Like we even filmed things like, okay, so here is where Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna.

Here is where Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra. There were points where I was like a week or so before you guys left, maybe even like two weeks before you left. And I would come into the office at some point. There were just maps just laid all over the desk with like highlighters and circles on them. It's like, Lee, I didn't, I didn't realize how much, I mean, I guess I do to some extent, but then you start to see it and it's like, wow, there's, there's a lot of research going into this. There are other tourists who do the same thing too. I mean, they study, but not to the extent I do because I'm filming.

They study more in the sense of they want to know where they are. I want to do more than that. I want to know where we are, but also I want to bring something back, you know, so I have to, we have to really work hard. It's a vacation in a sense, but it's really not a vacation.

We're getting away, but we're working our tails off. And Nicole is excellent. She films, she gets the gimbal ready.

Gimbal, for those of you who do not know, is like this, this, this device that balances the camera, the DSLR. So she gets it ready. And when we are, okay, honey, this is where we're going to film. I have to do this.

And sometimes she'll argue with me and say, nah, not that, but I want to, I'm like, just do this one. But overall, I mean, we work great and she's doing all the filming, all the videos you're seeing. They're incredible.

I can't wait for you guys on the Clearview Today show to get to see some of them because they are phenomenal. Pretty amazing. Proud of her.

Proud of her. Probably time for one more question. Mia T. writes, are there any biblical places you haven't been to yet?

Oh yeah. I mean, I haven't been to Jordan. I've been to Petra, but I would love to go further in there. There are places in Israel that I haven't gone to, you know, there are places in Turkey. I mean, I didn't get a chance to see the Ararat Mountains. I didn't get a chance to see the Hittite capital of Hattusa.

And I didn't get to see that or Hattusa. And to me, it's not just biblical history, whether old or new. I also love church history. So in Europe, there are places I want to go see. I want to see Spurgeon's, you know, where Metropolitan Tabernacle used to be. I want to go see Luther's, you know, where he was, Wittenberg. I want to go to all these places still on my list. That would be awesome. Oh man.

That would be amazing. Stay tuned for more information about upcoming trips and you might be able to jump on one of them. If you guys have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com and 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 Jesus Christ. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clear View Today.