You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. My name is John Galantis, and we are here once again in the Clearview Today studio with Dr. Abadan Shah, who's a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr.
Shah, happy hump day, my friend. It's good to be here halfway through the week. Halfway through, man. Any advice for anybody who's been struggling through this week? I know there's people listening that's like, man, Wednesday is the hardest day to get over.
Yeah, but just know that God is still with you. And no matter what you're going through, look to God, keep calling on Him, pray to Him. Prayer is God's gift for us to come and ask for whatever we need. That's true.
So if you need patience, ask Him for it. Verse of the day, Dr. Shah, Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 20. I think this goes along perfectly with everything we've been talking about. Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is he who trusts.
In the Lord. And I think this philosophy really, really, really does not play well in the world of today's greed. And covetousness and pride, and everything that's going on in the world today. Whoever gives heed to instruction proper is. Why do I keep saying that?
Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, is what I'm trying to say. Lots and lots of people out there in the world today that are like, I will not be given instruction. Yeah, it's unfortunate when people think that they cannot be taught. Yeah. And that is a a sign of not only immaturity, but it's a sign of destruction when you cannot be taught, you cannot be corrected.
And please don't be like that person. Be willing to learn, be willing to grow. One of the things that has benefited me, one of the things that have benefited me, is that. I was open to learning and growing and being corrected. And I have been corrected in the past by my mentors.
Some of those corrections I did not enjoy. I did not like. I'll be very honest with you. For the first little bit, it would kind of jar me and often make me want to resent that person. But then in time, you go, Yeah, they're right.
If they didn't care about me, they wouldn't have said anything. True. And so be teachable. Be teachable. Be teachable.
I think that's one of the greatest bits of advice that you've ever given me and that has helped me is that, you know. At the end of the day, no matter what I feel, Is the person who's correcting me, are they right? You know, are they trying to genuinely help me? You told me once: you can either be my coach or you can be my critic. If you're my coach, then I'm only hurting myself by resenting the person correcting me.
That's correct. Yeah. I got a great check-in today. This is a long check-in, but this came from someone who texted into the show directly. We don't always say that on the show, but you know, you guys can always text the show directly, 252-582-5028.
That's the phone number. We love getting y'all's texts. This is a long check-in, but it says, hey, y'all.
So I was listening to Thursday's episode on illegal immigration. This was a couple of weeks back. We did an episode on illegal immigration. And he said, I was listening to your episode on illegal immigration on the way to work. And I had a wow moment when y'all were closing.
And Dr. Shaw was saying to pray for all types of people. And he said, pray for those who are illegal, but who are good people. Because they should have known okay, sorry. Dr.
Shaw was saying to pray for all types of people. And he said, pray for those that are illegal but good people, because they should have known this day is coming where they would eventually get caught. And when he said that, it hit me in the face. Man, this is a mirror image of salvation. Those people just want to have a good life, work hard, stay out of trouble, not bother people, and even contribute positive things to this country.
But they haven't taken that last step. They haven't made. Made the decision to become an American doing it legally. Until then, all that other stuff is great, but they can't fully claim all the benefits of being an American until they do so. And as this enforcement gets closer, they are running out of time.
And so are those that live by their works alone to enter the kingdom of heaven. They may be good people and do wonderful things and may even contribute in a way to God's kingdom, but until they take the final step and make the decision to follow Christ, they cannot claim Christianity and enjoy the rewards that heaven has to offer. And there is a time coming where it will be too late. And looking at this whole situation through that lens, it's no wonder that so many people have a problem with what's happening right now because so many don't understand the gospel. And that is yet another reason why what you guys are doing with this show and your message is so important.
Keep up the good work. That is such an insight in, how do I say it? Insightful comment. And I really appreciate that. And you showed me who that person is.
And I really think a lot of him, love him, and thank you for that comment. Because This is a very difficult time when you see those reels, whether it's on social media or on television, you're seeing people being arrested and you go, Oh my goodness, it's just normal, good people who are just trying to make a life, you know, and you're here trying to arrest them. Man, there are criminals out there. Wait a minute, time out. Those people are criminals.
Yeah, that's exactly right. When you're here illegally, that's called being a criminal.
Now, you may not like that, and I get it, but a nation cannot survive without laws. That's right. A nation cannot survive. I mean, well, if you're going to make laws, then you've got to deal with this.
Okay, we can become very relativistic where. It's almost like if you're going to do this, then you got to do this. Keep doing that. And that's a good way to not get anything done. That's right.
And that's what has been happening in our country where, because there's a lack of Gospel understanding. That's what this person is saying, which I find it very insightful because there's a lack of gospel understanding, which is. All of us are born dead in trespasses and sins. That's right. None of us are worthy.
None of us seek after God. And so we are all condemned to hell. That's right. See, those kind of understandings are not there where all the lines are fuzzy and everything is sort of liquid, that anything flows here and there. There are no hard and fast rules.
Because we don't have the gospel straight. I think it's impacting every aspect of life. I agree 100%. And I think something you said is extremely insightful as well, especially regarding social media. You'll see these clips, these reels on social media, and it's being passed as journalism.
It's not journalism. Everything that you see, and it's kind of sad that it's this way, but I think also it's inevitable. And even with so with us. Anything you see on social media is designed to get a reaction out of you. It's designed to pull on your heartstrings.
It's designed to make you angry. It's designed to get you to buy into that side. And so what you're seeing is not journalism. It's propaganda. It's exactly the word about it.
It's propaganda. So also with us, I wouldn't say that this is propaganda, but just like you said, we are not saying, hey, guys, we're just presenting facts and we're letting you draw your own conclusions. No, we are coming at this from the perspective of the gospel. Right. We are looking at this through a certain lens.
It's just that our lens, we believe truly, is the lens of life. This is how you have to look at things. Life is black and white. That's right. There is truth and there are lies.
There is justice and there is injustice.
So in this situation that's happening across America where people are trying to block ICE agents and all of that, and a lot of emotions are displayed. And how dare you? How are you doing this to these poor people? And I get it. I mean, it's sad because you go, yeah, they'll.
Those people are not out there doing bad things. They're not out there shooting up and killing people and murdering and raping and selling drugs. But. And they've committed a crime. They've committed a crime, which is they're in a country illegally, and that is a crime.
That's right. And my heart goes out to those people, but my heart also goes out to the ICE agents because you're thinking those people are also doing their job. Finally, they're allowed to. You know who should be held responsible? Are all those people who, for the past three, four years have completely thrown the rule book in the trash can?
Yeah. Who have enabled this to happen? Yeah. And so now, when people are doing their job, they're looked upon as being the bad guys. And I find it very funny and ironic.
that they're ranting and raving about their masks. Isn't that what these people were doing for the past three, four years? And everybody else was like, Hey, take them. No, I'm going to put my mask on. I don't want you to see my face.
And now, ICE agents are doing that to protect their families. People are like, Why do they have masks on? Yeah, weren't you guys like the same ones just like tearing LA apart, burning it to the ground, having your masks on? But this is the freedom of the American people. And now, all of a sudden, this is a bad thing.
Well, welcome to the real world where, yes, putting on a mask all the time is not good. I think it's really interesting, and I hadn't really thought about it before until you said this: that this show, everything, and it sounds really obvious, but this show, everything is through the lens of the gospel because that's really the only lens that you can see things through and come to a satisfying conclusion. You mentioned yesterday in these past couple of weeks, as we've been talking about the Protestant, I mean, these past couple of episodes, we've been talking about the Protestant roots in America. Everyone's looking for something, they're looking for truth, and it seems like we keep finding conflict. Conflict, and we keep finding disillusionment and frustration because we're not, we're going to every single source.
but the source, which is Christianity. The gospel. Should be the template through which we see, or the filter through which we see the life around us, the world, the issues that we're facing. The gospel is very simple, which is all of us are born dead in trespasses and sins. We are enemies of God.
God's wrath is upon us.
Okay, so that's. Cut and dry.
Now comes um The fact of God's holiness and God's love coming together. That is the cross. Where God is holy, that He will not compromise with sin, He will punish the sinner. But he gives his son to die on the cross for our sins. Fully God becomes fully man, and he.
takes our sin And in fact, the sin of every human being upon himself on the cross. On the cross, he pays the penalty. of our sin. And when that happens when we come to Jesus and we ask him to be our Savior, we make it personal, like this is my Savior now. You admit to Him that you are a sinner, and you admit to Him that He is the Savior of the world, He is God's way, To forgiveness and hope everlasting, and you invite him to come into your life.
Now it becomes personal at that moment. God applies to you The forgiveness that comes through the cross. God applies to you the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Now you start living the Christian life.
So it's. All by God's grace and mercy. But it is founded upon some rock-solid truths. That's right. I think it's also very interesting that a lot of the people in society today that say, you know, Christianity is just one of many, many, many very equally valid religions, typically those people have never even encountered any of those other religions.
I mean, maybe on.
Social media or on YouTube or on some TikTok video. Right, but have never actually dove into it. One of the things I appreciate about you, especially you being from the East, is that you have, you've not lived them in the sense that you believed them, but you've been around them. You grew up around Muslims, you grew up around Hindus, and you've seen all these Eastern religions. And I always love how readily and adamantly you insist there is nothing like Christianity on the earth.
Definitely nothing like that in the universe. Yeah. You know, for that matter, if I may exaggerate a little bit, because Christianity goes to the heart of the problem. It deals with the real issue.
Now, other religions can identify the heart of the problem. They all know that sin is a problem.
Now, how they go about solving the problem of sin. Is the problem.
So they can tell you what's wrong. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Islam, Hinduism, they all identify that there's a problem. They all do.
So people in the West who are sitting back and saying there is no problem. They are either naive or they're living in delusion. Yeah. Because the world over, probably a little of both. Yeah, the world over, people.
Have identified as a problem. You don't have to be like a sophisticated culture in the sense of academies and scientific institutions, but even take the indigenous population that was here, right? The Native American population. They didn't have academies, but they understood life. They were not foolish people.
They understood what was happening. They knew there was a problem. In the human heart, they knew that. How you go about finding solutions. Is where the problem comes.
And whether you are a North American indigenous person, or you're an African person, or you're Hindu philosophical person, or Islamic medieval scholar, it doesn't matter. You don't have an answer. And sometimes the answer is either God is not as holy and He is cool with what's going on, or just try to find truth inside of yourself. Or just become one with nature, love nature, or. Just do the best you can.
to help others uh or Just live the life to the fullest. And when you die, it's over. When this is man's solution. To the problem. They all identify the problem.
But they don't have Any real solution to the problem. When you were young, you grew up in India in a Christian home, which Christianity back then was, what, very like 0.1% of the population? It still is, if not less.
So you were surrounded overwhelmingly by Muslims, Hindus, a little bit of both? Mostly Hindus.
Okay. But I would say like like India's population would be about 80%. Roughly, Hindus and 20% Muslims. Did it feel roughly? Roughly.
Did Hinduism feel empty to you as a young man? Like when you're surrounded by it? All the religions felt empty other than Christianity. Even though you were surrounded by it. Oh, yes.
Okay. Because you see them up close and personal, and you see some of the things they're doing to find peace and joy and happiness. And they're not bad people. Hindus, Muslims, they're not bad people. But their way of going about trying to find Answers to life's deepest problems is empty and hokey.
And and and and really worthless. Yeah. You're you s you mentioned previously on the show that you know back then in the 80s when you were when you were growing up, you know, Christianity was it was not exactly welcome, but it wasn't outright banned. But your dad saw a day coming for India where it's like, hey, this is going to get bad. Do you think that he saw Christianity getting banned?
From America. Because I would say, like now, it's not banned legally, but socially, it's pretty much understood: Christians stay quiet. You know, stay in your life. He did not see that. He did not say that way.
In fact, I would say he came to as closer to being a prophet than anybody I know. He would always say, America. Is different. He would always say that, I mean, they have a very different way of looking at life. And what he was referring to was the foundation of America.
It's Christian, it's Bible-based, is Judeo-Christian, means Old and New Testament.
So he knew that this nation was founded differently. What he would critique at times was the attitude of people in America about life.
Okay. About problems.
So the big difference is with your dad, he knew that he was situated in a nation that was not founded on Christianity. That's right. He was the outlier. Whereas in America, even though the culture is not reflecting it right now, the foundation is good. Absolutely.
You did it better than I could have done. How do you. How do you fix that? I mean, like, you know what I'm saying? Because we've talked a lot these past couple days about how we've gotten to this place and now, even the upswing where we're kind of coming back.
But as long as the Foundation is good. Do you think that foundation can eventually crack? No, I think, especially right now, where things are coming back to a good place, where people are recognizing, and whether they recognize before or not. Right now, there is a good movement in America to restore America to its Judeo-Christian foundation.
So something good is happening. But I would say What has happened over the years is the culture The further it got away from its foundational values, which is Judeo-Christian values, it became very morally lax. spiritually Empty. And and just ethically Depraved. Yeah.
and one of the things like my dad would often say is, man, American people. I mean, they're sweet and nice. But Their values. What is happening there? And he knew that there were a lot of good American people there, of course, but he was saying that as a culture, as a whole, we are.
Mm-hmm. We we are For example, he would say Man, they get bored so quickly. They get bored in their marriages. They get bored in their callings, they're in their jobs, and their. I'll just find another job.
I'll find another wife. I'll find another husband. I want to find something else. And, you know, that's that's a. A very Western mindset.
Wow. I never thought about that. People indulge. Indulge. Indulging means It's like you know this is going to be harmful.
I don't know. But I'll deal with it. I'll I'll I'll handle it when I when it it's a Western problem, by the way, that indulging is a very Western behavior. It comes from a false Confidence. Really?
Like, I can bounce back. It's, it's, I love the, and I didn't want to cut you off if you were going somewhere else. No, another thing I would say, of course, I mentioned that, you know, people get bored or they're indulging. Another thing that he would often say about the American culture, and I didn't understand that at the time, but coming here, I see what he was talking about. And again, not every American family is like that.
I don't believe every American is like that, especially people in church. I hope they're not. I don't think they are. is uh the randomness. Mm-hmm.
like h everything is predictable and all of a sudden, boom. Unpredictable. Like, how do you mean? Like, is there, like, do you have an example of what you. Like, sudden.
Uncalculated like life choices? Life choices. And you go. Huh. Yeah.
Wow. On what basis did you make that decision? Yeah. I mean, I just More than two. Maybe it does overlap with the boredom and indulgence.
But this, I felt like, is his own category. And he would often say that. It's like, whoo, they make some sudden decisions that. Are like career decisions, relationship decisions, all of the above? Everything, all the above.
Yeah, I guess I could say that. I never really thought about that either. It comes from a place of. A false confidence. Yeah.
Like. That's okay. It'll be all right. I'll be all right. I'll come back from this.
Yeah, and it's not good. Yeah, true, true. It reflects a person. a life in which God is not Their true north. Yeah, good point.
Cause we, you know, we even talked about it earlier. Like, whoever gives heed to instruction properly, you know, instruction prospers. Golly, I can't believe I did it a third time. Prospers. You know, God's instruction doesn't tell you to go out and be random.
It doesn't tell you to go out and just make these sudden decisions on Yeah, there's a word of truth. There's a foundation, and I love that. One of the things that I wanted to talk about as we're sort of wrapping this conversation up. See, this is a radio show. A lot of people think this is just a podcast.
And so we're talking about the same thing episode after episode. And a TV show. And a TV show. That's right. But it's hard because we've got the 30-minute time limit.
You know, this really could have been like a three or four-hour conversation, but just there's no way to do that. But you started this conversation out. A couple days ago, with this illustration of the bus, and we're putting the wrong motor inside the bus. Do you want to just kind of refresh our listeners? Absolutely.
I thought it was a good way to kind of bookend this discussion. Yeah, so Think about America as a bus, a transportation bus. The bus can only move when the right motor is in there. The founding fathers of our nation were not necessarily all were like solid born-again evangelical Christians. Most of them, I believe, were.
But they had Enough understanding and acumen to know that this. experiment that we are putting together will only work If God is the motor. If God is not the motor, it will fall apart. They looked at the French, they looked at the mother country, they looked at other nations that were there for thousands of years, and they knew that America was different. And that bus named America moves on a motor named God.
That's right. That's why in God we trust. That's why God bless America is what we say every time. That's why one nation under God, in a lot of our nations, in our nation's capital, whether it's in the Senate chamber, House chamber, Washington Monument, you find God, God, God everywhere. Because they knew that that motor has to be God.
And not just any God, because it's coming from a Protestant foundation. They were referring to the Judeo-Christian understanding of God.
So Over the years You know, we're coming up on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. There has been a waning away of those values. Those Protestant Worldview. Right. Views.
And so now we are at that place where we were almost bankrupt until. President Trump comes into office, and there's like a huge upswing, right? And people are now going back to Christian values. And so I. I see something good going on.
Yeah. We As we are now seeing good happening, we need to make sure. We need to make for sure that we don't let anyone try to replace that motor. Right. And I think the bus illustration is one of the most appropriate because that's a moving vehicle.
You know, we're all in this vehicle together. Our lives are at stake. I'm not letting anybody start operating on the motor. Don't start working on them tamper with the motor. Yeah, because the bus is moving and we're on it.
My kids are on it. But see, like people in this nation, especially people I think like me who were born here, have always taken these freedoms for granted. It's not precious to them. And that's why I really appreciate you and your message. And a lot of the times I do bring up the fact that you're from another country because I think it really drives this point home.
Like for you and what should be for the American people, this nation is precious.
So No, I'm not. We should not be. There's this push, I think, to be like, listen, I know that you think God is important and that's what's for you, but you can't force that on everybody. This nation is made up of all different types of people. But really, the truth is, this nation is way too precious to take God out of.
So here's what I say. This. This understanding that This motor is God is not just on a federal or national level, it's also on the state level, it's also on the city level. county level if you would uh We need to recognize that God is the foundation of every uh level of government in America.
So People from other faiths are coming here. People from non-Christian backgrounds are coming here. But that does not mean we can let people tamper with the motor. That's right. People are welcome.
As long as you do it legally, you're welcome. But just know that you cannot mess with that because we've been there before. We're not going to let it happen. Case in point.
Okay, there is a community in Michigan known as Hamtramack. Hamtramack, Michigan, at one time had an all-English population, and then it sort of became Polish with immigration. And then back in the 80s, 90s, more like, it began to change. In the 90s, a lot of people moved into the suburbs, you know, Detroit and other places, where hamtramic began to change and the population became more and more. Uh Immigrant in the sense of coming from Muslim background countries.
Like Bangladesh, like Yemen. Like Bolivia. Many of these were Muslim background people.
Well, Over the years, the city council became more and more Muslim-dominated. Until a couple of years ago, it became fully Muslim. Council. In Michigan. Mid-Michigan.
In Hamtramck.
Now People immediately brought up the issue: oh, wait a minute, all Muslim, y'all are going to introduce Sharia law. Sharia law is coming. Sharia law is coming. Sharia law, by the way, those who don't know, go research that is Islamic law. And people are like, the city council members say, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Y'all are putting us all in one basket. That's not who we are. We're just people, guys. We're just people.
Okay, so people from Bangladesh, they're like, yeah, I don't make my wife wear cover on her face. I'm coming from Bangladesh, or our family comes from Bangladesh, where they already had a woman prime minister. We're not here to subjugate women. We are Muslims, but we don't do that.
Okay, great, great, great, great. Glad to hear that.
So. There are different kinds of Muslims.
Some are here just for a good life.
Some are here for just a good way to make a good life for the children and all of that. Wonderful. Until last year, in March of 2024. The city council unanimously voted to rename one of their main streets Palestine Avenue. Why?
And that's the question. Because in 2023, in October, what happened? Israel was brutally attacked, right? October 7th, where men, women. were killed.
Raped, children were killed, abducted. Even to this day, we're dealing with that. For an all-Muslim city council to say this is okay to do right now. Barely a year later. In March 7th.
Hold on, hold on. That was about six months. Yeah, barely half a year later. There's a problem. Yeah, that's a statement.
So, yeah, definitely. It's not a Sharia law. Yes, Muslims who come to America, not all of them, are coming here just to cause terrorism. But how could people so diverse and yet from Muslim background sitting on a court on a city council board decide to do this? They definitely are not operating from a Judeo-Christian background.
That's 100% true. 100%.
So we need to be aware of these kinds of issues, and we need to educate ourselves, stand up. and make sure that these kind of things don't happen. They're wrong. Dr. Shah, I appreciate you so much for sharing all your heart with us.
I appreciate you guys listening online. Make sure you guys join us tomorrow, same time, same station. We're going to be right here in the studio, diving into another great topic on the Clearview Today show. Thank you again to our sponsors, Mighty Muskadine, and of course, LaBlue Ultra Pure Water. Thank you so much for sponsoring today's show.
And don't forget, you can support us by subscribing online on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from. And you can always support us financially on Abadanshah.com. Thank you to everyone who is giving every single month. It really, really helps us keep the lights on in the studio, keeps the microphones running, and man, just helps everything, helps us just take the gospel of Jesus Christ further and further into all the world. We love you guys, and we will see you tomorrow on Clearview Today.
