Wednesday, April 23rd | On Faith

You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. And welcome to the show. We got a great conversation on the docket for you guys today. But before we do anything else, we've got to welcome our host.

Always got to show respect. It took me a second to figure out what you said. I was like, what are we talking about?

A doc? What? Oh, on the docket.

Got it. Did I say on the docket? You say we had a great conversation. You were right.

No, you were right. It just took my brain a second. I was like, what are we talking about? Oh, I got a conversation on the docket. But first we got to welcome the doc. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Dr. Abbadon Shah, host of the very nice. It's good to be here. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. We got a great conversation with us today. I wanted to check in real quick. Ryan, you want to read the check in today?

I'd love to. Today's check in comes to us from Jason B from Virginia. Oh my goodness. It's Jason Bourne. You think it's Jason Bourne? I think I think I see.

You know, what's funny is I actually saw this guy break into a store like a bank and I said, Oh my goodness, it's Jason Bourne. Amazing. Hey, Dr. Shah and the Clearview team just wanted to reach out and say thank you. I came across your show on pray.com. Shout out pray.com. Thank you, pray.com or listening on pray.com. During a really tough season in my life, and it honestly felt like God led me here on purpose. Since then, I've been tuning in every day. I like that your show is not just encouragement, it's truth I didn't even realize I needed. Thank you for being bold, for staying grounded in the word and for helping people like me see Jesus more clearly. I'm really grateful for what y'all are doing with a full heart. Jason, possibly Warren.

It's definitely Jason Bourne. Let's just get it out on the, let's just get it out on the show. It's awesome though. Yeah.

Grounded, grounded in truth and helping you with daily living. That's the whole point of the show. Absolutely. That's what we want to do.

We want to be based solidly on the word of God and, and meet you where you are. That's right. And draw you closer to Christ. Amen. That's awesome. Thank you, Jason, for having us.

Absolutely. Thank you, Jason. I want to introduce a new topic or not a new topic, a new segment. This one's called Hot Take. All right, so this is a segment I want to start introducing. I don't have theme music yet, but maybe you could put something kind of spicy right here.

Maybe, yeah, like, ah, maybe some like, uh, like, um, yeah, yeah. Like a little Merengo or like the, uh, what's the one that they do? The, the, it's not the Foxtrot, but it's the, um, the real, the real aggressive. Anyway, not the Charleston. Okay.

So it's called Hot Take. This is tango. Yeah. Uh, tango. Yes.

Maybe you can put some tango music. So I didn't mean to hit you. I'm just really feeling fiery about the hot take. This is a segment where we just kind of air out the, the unpopular opinions where these are the Hills that we are willing to die on.

Right. And I already know I'm a man after Dr. Shaw's heart. I'm going to go first.

This is my hot take for this episode. Okay. For a long time, I've been pretending that Burger King is gross because everybody else in my life told me that it was gross. And I had a hero. He's in this room right now.

He's sitting right there across from me. Yes. Who had the courage to stand up and say, Burger King is good. It's never not been good. We all agree. It used to be good, but Burger King has been good this whole time.

And that hero is Dr. Abaddon. And it made me come out of my shame and out of my hiding and my cowardice to say, you know what? I'm tired of pretending that I don't like Burger King just to please all you. Burger King hands down is one of the best fast food restaurants.

I will fight anybody. Did you, did you feel the whole anti-Burger King pressure for the last decade or so? Yeah. Oh yeah.

I've always loved a Whopper with cheese. I mean, as, as, as dripping soaking, you know, wonderful it is. And then people say it's like, that's horrible, horrible, nasty. I'm like, why? Why? Which part?

Exactly. What part is it? Is it the meat that's gross? Is it the cheese?

Is it the oozing sauce? Cause all of it's good to me. People will be like, no, I'll take a, not a Whopper.

I'll take a, a Big Mac or something. That's good. He lost me there. Burger King is just gross. I think for a while, at least when the, when the anti Burger King push was happening, I was not here in North Carolina.

I was living in South Carolina. So we experienced an anti Burger King push back there. However, I feel like for us it was, it was more, the establishment is it didn't have anything to do with the food. It was, it was like the place was gross. And I, I feel like I remember that being true, but it might just be, I might just be tricking myself into thinking that way. But the past several times I've been to Burger King, not only has the restaurant been nice, the people have been very friendly. Absolutely. Dr. Shaw's memories also you, I'm sure your memories are rooted in firmly in the nineties when Burger King was the best.

Like fries were unbeatable. Your way right away. Now that was the tagline your way right away now. Yeah.

Am I right? It's like, Oh yeah. Now they, now they've changed it to your way. But still, yeah. Oh yeah. It's been that way for a while. But I re I remember everybody just being like, even your own, your own sons, your own daughters would be like Burger King. It's just nasty.

And I wanted to, for some reason I'm way older than them, but I wanted to be like, so I was like, yeah, I don't like it, but I'm done pretending. That's my hot take for the episode. I will, I will stand on that Hill. I think every week each of us should have a hot take that we can break to the table.

But I want to know what you guys think. Leave it in the comments. Maybe you can text in and let us know what, what your take on the, on the BK lounges. There you go. Love it.

Guys write it and let us know two five two five eight two five zero two eight. Check in with us and also run and give us your take on Burger King. Is it good? Has it always been good?

Is it recently good? Is it, is there like a Burger King Renaissance happening or give us some of your hot takes? Cause I, cause I know there's people out there who believe some crazy stuff and they don't come on here with nothing crazy. Like my hot take is you have to be baptized to be saved.

Don't bring that up. No, we cannot, we can't go with that. That's a cold take. That's a cold take. It's ice cold.

It is rigid. It is in the grave, but send us your hot takes. We'd love to read them on the air. That's right. Don't go anywhere. We're going to take a quick break and be right back with more Clearview today. Hi, I'm Dr. Abidansh Shah and I'm excited and honored to become one of the newest featured leaders on pray.com. It's a privilege to be part of a platform dedicated to encouraging and strengthening people in their faith. Our mission at Clearview Church is to lead all peoples into a life changing, ever growing relationship with Jesus Christ. And so I'll be on pray.com sharing biblical insights, devotionals, and messages that I hope will inspire and challenge you to live out your faith with confidence, whether you're seeking wisdom, encouragement, or a deeper understanding of scripture, I'm looking forward to seeing you all on pray.com. Download the pray.com app right now and join this incredible community of believers with them. Together, we will grow closer to God and strengthen one another through his word. And don't forget to support pray.com by sharing it with your friends and family. Welcome back to Clearview today with Dr. Abidansh Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's right. Dr. Shah, today's verse of the day is coming to us from a book that I know is very dear to your heart, especially right now. It's coming from the book of Romans.

Okay. Romans chapter one and verse 16. It says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for the Greek for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

Yeah, I love that. You know, the operative word there is the word faith, faith. The word in the, in the Greek, the noun is pistis and it's found about 142 times in the letters of Paul. Of course, the verb is found as well. The verb is pisteio and it's found about 54 times. And then if you want to add to that, the adjective pistos, which is faithful, that's found about 33 times in the letters of Paul. And so when you add all this up, I mean, that's a lot of mention of faith, faith, and a believe and faithful. So pisteio, the verb, is it mean, does it mean just to have faith or is it like also to believe, to believe, to believe. Okay.

Very cool. So that really is the center of that verse. What does he mean when he says it is revealed from faith to faith? So when that that's an expression, just like we say from A to Z or from start to finish. That's what it means when it says by faith from first to last.

It's another way of saying faith from you know, beginning to end. Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha.

Okay. You know, a lot of people you know, and I think by now people have realized that we're going through an end times prophecy series here at Clearview. But I think people who are tuning in for the first time may not understand what Romans has to do, especially a verse like this has anything to do with end times prophecy.

You know, I thought we were going to be in Revelation. I want to talk about Daniel. I want to talk about the abomination that brings desolation and all that stuff. The reason we're discussing Romans in end times prophecy is because until you are settled on the role of Israel in the end of times or the Jewish people, you're not ready to study prophecy, right? You can talk about all the rapture and the tribulation or all the millennial and pre-millennial and post-millennial views and tribulation and post-tribulation.

You can talk all about that, but you need to decide and after study is what I'm saying. You need to come to a correct biblical understanding of the role of Israel in the end of times. Are they gone? Have the promises covenants made with Israel have they been abrogated abrogated means have they been corrected and changed? What will happen to the Jewish people in the end of times? Do they are they waiting on any promises or prophecies to be fulfilled? You have to after study come to a solid biblical conclusion on that matter, then your rage is talked about end times.

No other book. I know does that as well as the book of Romans especially in chapters 9 through 11. This is where Paul talks about his heart's desire is for all Israel to be saved and then he says but they can't be because there's a problem they they're blinded and because they're blinded Gentiles have been brought in they have been grafted into the vine, but the vine is Israel and then Paul, you know, among many other things he says about this matter. He talks about how if they're being blinded or they're being set aside is is a blessing to the Gentile world because now we are given the opportunity to to be leaders imagine what will happen when God will open their eyes.

Imagine what their glory will look like and what it will do. What is referring to is the 144,000 in the end times who will be coming from 12 from each tribe of Israel. And so God's going to glorify them. God's going to use them in a powerful way to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, right?

This is where the Jewish people are really more accurately. The people of Israel are going to come back again in biblical prophecy, which is why understanding Israel in light of in times is so important because it's not like that was then this is now no God still has a plan for Israel. God has a plan for his people and we if we're going to understand and grapple with the end times we've got to have that straight in our heads. Absolutely because we're part of that plan and I think I think hearing you explain it like that I'm starting to understand it even more. I think I already understood it from when you preached it but even just talking it through it's like well why do I need to understand Israel even if I believe God has a plan for them God's going to okay God has not forsaken Israel cool but that's them and we are the church but we are it's like you said we're grafted into that vine we're part of that story so it's not like God has a plan for Israel but he also has a plan for us it's one plan yeah that's right and that that makes it make a lot more sense. It would be like a branch of a plant that gets I mean grafting happens in agriculture it would be like a branch that gets grafted onto a plant but it doesn't have any regard for what the plant is that it's now attached to or even me even me being like I was thinking like like you climb up in a tree or something and you start sawing off the branch it's like hey hey don't do that it's like what the branch is gonna fall I'm sawing the branch I'm not sawing me it's like right but if you are sitting on the branch you're gonna fall with the branch no I mean it's just the branch it's all good I'll be fine that's not the way it works yeah that makes a lot of sense yeah so understanding the role of Israel is why we came to the book of Romans and because we're in the book of Romans I felt like we need to get all our foundational doctrines right and those foundational doctrines are found in Romans 1 through 8 and then he goes into 9 through 11 about the role of Israel so we decided to come here and today we're looking at the whole doctrine of faith what does faith really mean especially when Paul says for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith from beginning to end from first to last faith is the key yeah because I think a lot of Christians will look at faith and really oversimplify it like faith is means even when you don't see God you have to just believe and it's like okay true but that's is that really the whole more that's much deeper concept right yeah and faith mean from listening to you preach dr. shop faith is a much more complex not that complicated to understand but a complex and deep doctrine than we give it credit I agree it's not just like I believe even though I can't see I'm still just going to believe right the true meaning of faith is almost like a pendulum that has swung back and forth because that's exactly what has happened with this doctrine among the fathers we're talking about the church fathers there was faith in a doctrine it was known as the rule of faith regular feed a this is more about a set of principles of doctrines in which you're putting your faith in not a person it's not about Jesus down on the cross for my sins and and all that it's more about Jesus died right I trust in that doctrine Jesus is a son of God fully God fully man I trust in that doctrine do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ it'd be like I don't know what that means relationship how do I have a relationship I believe that he is God's son but it's just that he died or that he died to cover your sins either way either way either way okay you're trusting more in certain principles creeds right rules of faith rather than having a relationship that I trust in Jesus man if Jesus was here I would be telling him man I'm trusting in you they would say that's not how the church fathers saw this this saw saw Christian life more as a set of propositions that you are you know ascribing to it's truth that you have to agree to and as long as you as long as you agree with what we're saying you're good and I understand why they had to do that because there were so many you know aberrant and false beliefs at the time like Gnosticism and Stoicism and Neoplatonism these are all wrong beliefs about a secret knowledge you know about a secret savior or another savior so they had to sort of say no here are a set of truths if you are holding to those truths and if you're loyal to those truth then you are saved so in that sense they were looking at it more as faith in a doctrine rather than faith in a person it was like an overcorrection responding to those heresies I would have 100% agree with that okay do you think there are people who fall into that mindset today oh yeah like I believe all the right things I believe this I believe this I believe this do you have a relationship with Jesus what does that mean right yeah because we hit doctrine very we have an entire exclusive series on pray that's about correct doctrine but I feel like ours I mean we we are doing it like we want you to believe these truths so that your relationship with Jesus will benefit right so that you'll flourish not just like you have to believe this or else you're out right right now when it came to the medieval scholastics are coming so let's leave the early years of the church fathers behind and let's go to the medieval scholastics and here we're dealing with something known as known as a census a census means an acceptance of truths and doctrines similar to what we just talked about the fathers a census versus fiduciary fiduciary is a personal trust in God so the medieval scholastics differentiated between a census and fiduciary but they at least they had both but they would differentiate between right gotcha so came down to you know which one is more important kind of thing they would they would argue among themselves yeah okay then the pendulum swung again and this time the emphasis was more on fides qua creditur which means faith to be believed versus faith or fides qua creditur faith which believes so now all of a sudden there's a little tangent going on here faith of fides qua creditur versus fides qua creditur so one is quae one is qua right what does that mean faith to be believed or faith which believes to an average person it's like well i don't really hear much different i mean it's one of the same but it's not one in the same right but and they and they knew that right so how do we see this the reformation comes along and this places emphasis on the fides qua not quae qua which is faith faith which believes meaning your faith believes for you not faith not like faith to be believed which is like here's the here's the doctrine here's the the faith quote unquote believe that but you have a faith inside you that believes right okay again we're trying to emphasize the relational aspect right of faith and that you think that's what the reformation sought to do yes i got relationship rather than just a set of doctrines you sign under here's the dotted line do you agree with all these statements i do all right sign over here great now you're good so the reformation kind of for at least for a time sort of settled that yeah okay like means you're placing your faith in christ not just a set of doctrines because i can see i can see how they would do that where it's like we want you to have faithfulness to god and it's like okay that sounds good i'll do that but martin luther's more like put your faith in christ instead of be faithful to god agree with everything he says and you're good and don't abandon him i mean stick with it gotcha uh the reformation placed emphasis on the beliefs faith which believes side of things martin luther saw the problem with focusing on our faithfulness to god rather than faith in christ right right right is there's a problem there faithfulness to god means it's dependent on you to remain saved it's dependent upon you to make your salvation secure but if you go with faith in christ then it's about him it plays it places the focus where it's supposed to be which is on him rather than what i'm doing for him that's right if we carry that doctrine out faithfulness to god like it's dependent on us if we carry that further is that where we get things like uh being able to lose your salvation and having to having to get absolutely because if it's dependent on me and i fall short then i i've got to make up that ground that's right i imagine that even though martin luther sort of settled this for a time that that wasn't like the end of the debate i'm sure that it came back up eventually that's right it did it did uh going back here once again to luther for a moment um in psalm 130 verse 3 it says if you lord should mark iniquities oh lord who could stand but there is forgiveness with you luther said uh he called this the article means the article by which the church stands or falls the article on which the church stands or falls and he called it the wedding ring that unites us to christ wow wow that's a beautiful picture yes i mean i like that there's so much imagery in that like think about the wedding ring that you have that unites you to that other person yeah you know it's a symbol it's it's it's a constant reminder on your person right i love that but this was not the end of the debate again the pendulum is still swinging people struggle between the essences you know if you remember we just talked about that the essences which is acceptance of truths and doctrine versus fiducia which is more of personal trust in god they kept on arguing about this and some thought that this was the new essences like this that martin luther had settled yeah yeah so the pietist movement and evangelical movement in britain and america emphasized a living personal faith so the very thing that luther sought to do kind of get away from this cold dry dull propositions that you're trusting in to a relationship with christ now luther's doctrine became sort of a you know it replaced it replaced the the cold dry dull right doctor it becomes more personal now right right so that's where you have um you know the enlightenment period comes along where now people are trying to separate faith and knowledge kirkegaard suggested that the leap of faith into biblical paradoxes is what you need to do a public a personal commitment means it's no longer about understanding anything forget about doctrine understanding it's more about just jumping into the arms of god just believe you just accept it just kind of like almost like blind faith right and a lot of people i feel like a lot of christians still do that today where it's like i i don't um i don't it's not that they shun doctrine but it's like look i don't need to know all that if the bible says that i'm good yeah i believe it just me and jesus but i feel like a lot of times though it's like i believe this because i know i know what's gonna happen if i don't believe it so i better just say i believe it yeah right and most people end up doing that until they grow older and things happen in their lives and the threats or the intimidations that their parents or their preachers had put on them when they don't come to pass then they go wait a minute i was scared of this yeah it's like an elephant who's tied up as a baby to a little stake in time you can you don't even have to tie that elephant to that stake you can just wrap that rope around it and leave the elephant is not going to go anywhere because they're used to right they're so conditioned that they will stay where they are right and so some of these enlightenment scholars were suggesting that you know don't even think about what you're doing just kind of jump into the arms of god and that's genuine saving faith that's what faith looks like that's what faith looked like to them wow then then the existential philosophers philosophers come along and they extended this even further to leap which is leap to live authentically which is you know just just be your true self be your true self be who be who you were always meant to be and god and god is going to accept that right as long as you're true to yourself and that was i remember a lot of a lot of messages like that on the disney channel in 90s like that's where the whole follow your heart come right let's say we talked about this recently an episode but follow your heart has been kind of drilled into us from through disney through popular media but i don't want to follow my heart well well that's that's the other thing is it doesn't do me any favors right it doesn't do you any favors and that doesn't just come disney didn't create that you know they're getting that i guess they're getting that from these existential philosophers that came out i'm guessing this is fairly recent with like the existential movement yeah i would say so okay i would say so um so and then evangelicals again responded the same way luther did and the same way some others did which is no no it has to be rational faith let's let's have the personal element but let's not the personal element be devoid of a rational element they have to work together they have to work together kind of brought our balance back okay so yeah this has been a interesting journey for the idea for the doctrine of faith over the centuries do you feel like all these like like even though the pendulum has swung all these views are still out there in some capacity absolute like because i because i can see a lot of these here where it's like okay that was the early church fathers and then this was the reformation and then this is the enlightenment this is the existential but then i still see remnants of all of them because i can think in my mind of at least one or two people in my life who embody each of these different types yeah absolutely yeah which is why shows like this and why messages like the one you preach dr char are so important to clarify what do we mean when we say have faith have faith in god have faith believe in your heart what does that truly mean and how does it play out and more more really what does it not mean right and then and then i think other with people listening like maybe they heard themselves like oh yeah i would i would say i just have been following my heart and trying to be true to myself but what is real faith you know if if that's not if that's not a complete i don't know if i'd say it's just wrong or evil but if it's an incomplete view of faith yeah then what is it what am i still searching for well i would encourage that person to turn to romans chapter four in romans chapter four uh we see four things that um paul gives us to explain to us what faith is all about the first thing is that faith excludes boasting again using um abraham as a model it says in romans chapter 4 verse 1 what then shall we say that abraham our father has found according to the flesh for if abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about but not before god so the the a claim that somehow abraham obeyed god and it was credited to him as righteousness uh this thing kind of goes against that there is no boasting there is no because he obeyed right that was his faith and hence he was righteous right because then he can boast about it right i did what was right i did i followed i obeyed so it says in romans chapter 3 27 where is boasting then it is excluded by what law of works no but by the law of faith therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law abraham was counted righteous when he had faith when he believed not when he carried out the obedience that's right that's right and then it again says in similar terms in romans chapter 4 verse 3 for what does the scripture say abraham believed god and it was accounted to him for righteousness maybe it's alluding to genesis 15 1 romans 4 4 not to him who works the wages are not counted as grace but as debt but to him who does not work so faith has that element of does not work but believes in on him who justifies the ungodly his faith is accounted for righteousness just as david so not just abraham is a prototype of faith without works that excludes boasting but also david uh it says blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is the man to whom the lord shall not impute sin so bottom line true faith gives all credit to god i like that and we've been talking a lot on the show about how this has always been the pattern this is always how it's been and i like that i like that a lot of this is coming from the old testament because you're a new testament scholar but a lot of what's happening here is coming from the old testament which really goes to show you that this is one plan yeah not two separate stories that's two separate scriptures it's god it's god telling one story throughout all of history yes amen i love it so beautiful yeah and so there's so much more we can talk about from romans chapter 4 faith has always been the pattern uh faith is available to anyone who's willing to exercise it right romans chapter 4 verses 11 through 12 then it says in verse 13 for the promise again this is romans 4 13 for the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to abraham or to his seed alone or through the law but through the righteousness of faith so in a sense faith guarantees the promise to all and any who will believe i i appreciate that because faith was available to me when i was lawless yeah you know what i mean when i was an enemy it wasn't like okay you have to be one of god's to have faith in him it was available even to the loss yeah and thank goodness for that and then it comes down to verse 14 this is romans chapter 4 for if those who are of the law are heirs faith is made voice and the promise made of no effect because the law brings about wrath for where there is no law there is no transgression therefore it is a faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are the faith of abraham who is the father of us all and the final point here is faith is possible even if there is no evidence and we see that in romans chapter 4 16 therefore it is a faith that it might be according to grace we just read this so that the promise might be sure to all the seed not only those who are of the law but also those who have faith are of the faith of abraham who is the father of us all and then it says in verse 17 as it is written i have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed god who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did who contrary to hope and hope believed so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken so shall your descendants be so abraham didn't see his son but he still believed right so the point is faith is possible even if there is no evidence and sometimes there is no evidence i think a lot of times we like to pretend like the evidence is all there like yes you can dig for it but there are times where god is going to say listen i'm not going to give you all the answers i'm not going to flash the answer neon signs yeah that faith is available to you even though there's no evidence there right and abraham and think about it he did not meet jesus but he saw his day and he saw it and he rejoiced that's right that's right absolutely amen guys make sure you join us tomorrow same time same station we're gonna be diving into another great topic here on the clear v today show thanks again to our sponsor for making today's episode possible and don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show on itunes and you can always support us financially at clearviewtodayshow.com john what do you want to plug as we close today well definitely want to plug our new series discerning doctrine exclusively available on prey.com today we talked about the doctrine of faith if you want to go even deeper there's a upcoming episode on this exact topic what it means to go from faith to faith how the righteousness of god is revealed in our faith so that's going to be on prey in the next couple of weeks but there's lots of episodes available right now make sure you go download the prey app all those uh videos are going to be exclusively on prey.com that's right if you're local and you like tickets to our spring play west of pakos to see possibly dr shaw on stage or maybe maybe it might be it's not i don't know medley putre it might be doctor questions we don't know we don't know but you'll have to find out tickets are on sale now uh the show is coming up on may 3rd and 4th at 7 p.m and then may 5th at 10 a.m tickets are five dollars apiece and if you'd like yours write into the show and let us know two five two five eight two five zero two eight we love you guys we'll see you tomorrow hope they read today