You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan 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 back to the Clearview Today Studio. We got a great week of content planned for you guys.
Lots of great things happening here at Clearview Church.
Some of that stuff we can share with you.
Some is still a little too early, but just rest assured, God's hand is on the Clearview Today Show. We are very, very excited that you're here with us, and we want to welcome our host, 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, welcome to the studio today.
It's so good to see you, my friend. It's good to see you as well. I got to say we had a great weekend here at Clearview, but now we're starting the week off right. Our verse of the day today is coming from Romans chapter 14, verse 20. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.
All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. Dr. Shaw, you said something during a sermon one time that I had never thought about before. And now, since you've said it, I can't stop thinking about it. Most of church fights happen over food.
Something as common as food. That is true. That is true. At the end of the day, people are very, I guess, visceral, I guess you're base. Very base, where they're not thinking high, lofty, philosophical ideals.
They're thinking very low about the belly, about food. Yeah. I mean, you know, that those are some of the moments that you Like, momentarily, wonder if evolution was right. I don't agree with them, but I can see how they got. I can see where you're, I can, I can see where in those moments, I'm like, well, okay, maybe, maybe your argument sounds a little better than I did.
You're not right. No, Bible, Bible tells us the world was created by God in six 24-hour day period. But the way people act, you often wonder. You often wonder if I see Miss Maggie and Miss Ethel arguing and coming to blows over a loaf of banana bread, I'm thinking, maybe, maybe there's something. They're jumping in line to get food when you haven't been in church in months.
And then people who are behind the tables serving, giving them the look like the stink eye. How dare you? We haven't seen scoops potatoes aggressively on their plate. And you know, Goodwell, they didn't bring nothing. They didn't bring nothing at all.
They didn't bring anything to the potlut. And complain that the food didn't taste good, that it was left out too long. People fight over food, man. Why do you think that is? I mean, at the end of the day, we are very simple people and we need help.
It always, always comes back to food. And that's why I think this verse is so cool. It says: don't destroy the work of God for the sake of food. It's the sake of something so simple. Right, right.
Yeah. For the man who eats with a fence. What does that mean? The man who eats with a fence? It means if you are feeling upset about it.
Mm.
Okay. As you're eating, your conscience is getting you, or you're mad at the other person for getting ahead of you, or eating something that you don't like, or not eating something that you feel okay eating. Don't you you're you're just purposely trying to Ruin your spiritual life. You know, we've been talking a lot. We've been doing a lot of episodes on alcohol, specifically like the dangers of alcohol, how we have misinterpretations of how Old Testament and New Testament, even alcohol, ancient alcohol, is somehow comparable to today's, and that's just not the case.
That's not true. Yeah, Dr. Shaw, you presented kind of the comparison between what we have regarded as wine in scripture versus what is, you know, the alcohol content of drinks today, like distilled alcohol, wine, beer, wine coolers, and there's just no comparison. And we left off yesterday with one of the most chilling stories I've ever heard. With Noah and his son.
That was sort of where we left off yesterday. And we were getting really, really into the conversation. Unfortunately, just ran out of time. But do you want to sort of pick up? Because there was another story that we wanted to dive into as well.
Absolutely. For the benefit of our listeners and viewers, before we talk about the second story, I just want to lay out why we even went to Genesis. Genesis, the book is called Bereshit, which in Hebrew, which means the book of beginnings, because it's in the beginning. That's where it comes from, Bereshit. It is more than just the first book in the canon.
It represents the foundation for creation. It it represents it it gives us information of what went wrong with a beautiful creation, the creation that God said it is good. how sin came into the world. Where does Satan fit in? What is the role of The man and the woman.
How They disobeyed God. What reasons they had for disobeying God? Because one of the reasons was food. That's right. It was food that was pleasant to the eyes, good for food, and desirable to make one wise.
Good for food. We usually skip over that one. Yeah, but that again lines up with exactly what you were talking about a few moments ago. And. There are many other things there, other than just the family of Abraham and Sarah, through whom will come the promised one.
It's also. uh giving us the structure For life, the wisdom for civilizations. How can we exist and not self-destruct? One of the things that it talks about is uh against wine. It doesn't explicitly say you shall not drink, but it gives two stories that are very explicit and very horrifying if you pay attention to them.
on the destructive Effects of wine. Especially on the family. The first one we looked at last episode was about Noah. and his sons. His one of his son Ham sodomized him.
And while Noah was inebriated, and he was not. Passed out. He was. Involved in the act. That's very shocking to hear that.
Yeah, it's one thing if he's just like unconscious and has no clue what's happening. Yeah. He was a righteous man before God, but he was involved. The next day he realized what had happened to him. And you can imagine how terrible that must have been to realize, oh, That was my son?
Yeah. Oh my gosh. Wow. Oh my gosh. That you can just, you know, we don't even like to talk about this because it's so.
So awful and so wrong on every level. Especially considering this is the story of Noah, you know, our children's story. Yeah, this is Noah and the Ark with all the cute animals and the rainbow and stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
In children's church. Right. And here is that story.
Now, there are scholars who disagree with that, and they say it was, no, it was just because he was mocking his father. And this is, and but then when you read the whole context, you realize it's more than just mocking because Noah, the next day, gets up and realizes what his son had done to him.
Somehow. It came back to him what had happened. Yeah, well, you pointed it out on Friday's episode. This was what had been done to him. Like the Hebrew implies there was an action done to him.
Oh, absolutely, there was an action. Yeah. Yeah. And again, people disagree because they don't like it. It's so uncouth.
It is so.
So terrible. I mean, who wants to think about that? I know in our culture, you have parents abusing your children sexually, and it's a terrible thing. But here, it was the other way around. Again, we want to make sure.
Our listening audience, our viewing audience are forewarned. Yes, yes. We've put a disclaimer at the beginning of this episode as well. That's right. So we want to make sure you know that.
But if you have a problem with this one and you say, no, no way, no how, I am not going to give into this one, there was no. rape by a son of his father. Then let's go to the second instance, which is just ten chapters later in Genesis chapter nineteen. That's not a long time. It's not.
And here you have another father With his two daughters. Keep in mind, this is Lot and his two daughters. As they were fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah, the angels were telling them, Leave now, leave now. His wife turned back, turned into the pillar of salt. But the daughters and their father, Lot, they run into the hills.
They should have gone further out. If they were really wise, they would have gone to Abraham and said, Can we please come back to you? I've always wondered that: like, why didn't I just go back to Abraham? You struck out on your own and it clearly didn't go well. Just go back to Abraham.
And so, of course, as you know, Genesis 19:31.
Now the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come into us, as is the custom of all the earth. Come. Let us make fa our father drink wine. And we will lie with him. That we may preserve the lineage of our father.
Wow, hm.
So they made their father drink wine that night, and the first born went in and lay with her father. And he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Does that mean he was passed out? Couldn't have if he's going to be involved in a sexual act. Right, right.
Yeah, he's at least conscious, he's at least participating, has to, but he's out of his mind. Right, we don't want to get into too many details, but he has to. Right, yeah. The next day, the younger daughter repeated the same act with the father.
So, so here's what's always confusing me about this story. I wanted to get to this point before I brought this up, but like they've just escaped. Probably the worst catastrophe of their entire lives, seeing Sodom and Gomorrah. Like they've seen fire and brimstone come down from heaven and wipe this place out. Then they witness their mom look back and turn into a pillar of salt.
At some point, you would think in your mind, God is not joking around about sexual sin. He's not playing games. Like, this guy is serious. To then go into the hills and be like, I think we can really, I think we might can make this work if we just get our dad drunk and rape him. I think we'll be okay.
I can't believe it. Goodness. I definitely thought so. Like, follow, like, following all of that catastrophe, I think I would be scared to death. I would probably be celibate the rest of my life.
Yeah. Honestly. I'd be like, I don't even want to chance it.
Well, there are reasons they have, right? Of course, that reasons is like, well, we need. We need children. We need the future generations to come.
So they gave some kind of reason, but still, look at what they did. Are the people of Lot an offshoot of Abraham? Like, like Abraham is the lineage of the Jewish people. Right. Does Lot's line go off into something else?
I mean, you have, yes, you do.
So Lot was Abraham's nephew.
So. there you have that first connection. But then Through his two daughters, he had the Moabites and the Ammonites. two groups of people that were a constant source of Trouble. To Abraham's descendants.
They were enemies. Oh, 100%. Yeah. Because when you know that they know Where you came from. Yeah.
We can trace all this back to the unsavory acts of Lot's daughters. And when Moses even puts it in the Bible, if for some reason it wasn't handed down in like the campfire stories, I think I might be angry too. I'd be waging wars. Hebrews, they put it in there. I'd be waging war.
I think I'd be waging war. We wanted our lineage to be like we were kings going back to ancient times. No, we what? And all of this. Did it put it in the book?
The very first book. The very first, like, that's how the Bible starts. Not even, not even at midpoint. It's not even halfway through the first book yet. Like, first book of the Bible.
That's all that stuff's in there, man. They couldn't even save it for like a twist ending. Nope. Couldn't even write that up front. It's not an appendix.
Not in like the afterword. It's right in the first book. But what we need to understand is that the element that they use. To deceive their father. Both the first one and the second one was wine.
Now, in Noah's case, he drank it. In Lott's case. He was given. But is there any significance to the fact that, like, the person. Who got drunk was the victim.
Like they weren't like the one. Typically, the narrative we hear is they drank and then they became like a beast and a monster and they oppressed people, but they were the ones who actually got victimized. Right. Is that a significant point? I think the more significant point is for fathers to realize this is what can happen to you.
That's true because both of the victims were a father. And they're supposed to be. Wow. I didn't make that connection until this moment. They're supposed to.
They're my father. They're supposed to be. They're supposed to be the household. Yeah, they're supposed to be the ones in charge. Like you're the adult in charge, and this is happening to you by your own children.
Wow. So, this would be enough for you to go, I don't want it in my life. I'm not going to have it in my home. I'm not going to allow my children to. to be sucked into this.
Are Christians allowed to drink? We still get to, right? We're still allowed to. And I'm serious, I'm kind of joking around, but I guarantee you there are people who hear this and they're like, But we can, right? Like, it's not a sin.
That's all they care about. It's like wow, you missed the whole point. Again, keep in mind, God could have given the 11th commandment, Thou shalt not drink, but then the Bible would be a stumbling block to the gospel of salvation. He wanted people to get saved, and then maybe through that. to the work of the Holy Spirit be sober.
Because God did not say that, and I'm glad he didn't, because imagine how many billions of people would have never come to the living true God, whether pre-Christ or since Christ came. Thank God he didn't put that commandment in there.
So it is the right decision. It is the best of all worlds decision. But at the same time, Enough is given here, right in the first book, to keep people from falling Into this trap of alcohol. But people do it anyways.
Well, so also with people today, like, what do you say to someone who says, okay, I hear you, I hear you. Drink too much. Drink too much. Now, and these kinds of things can happen. But I don't drink too much.
I can drink just a little bit. I can stop whenever I want to. I can stop whenever. Every addict. In the history of the world, has said those words.
Exactly. I would say, go ahead and do it. Right. What's stopping you? Stop it.
See if it works. Yeah, there was a Saturday night sketch. I think it was. Oh gosh, I'm kidd I'm trying to remember. I think it was Bob Newhart, maybe, was the guy.
And he's a motivational coach, but he's looking at the guy, and this guy is sharing all of his problems. Like, he's, I do this, and I don't want to do this, and I do this, and I wish I could stop this habit. And he's like, I'm going to give you a piece of advice. And, you know, this has worked time and time and time again with all of my clients. And he looks at me and he goes, Stop it.
I can hear Bob Dewhart saying that. Just stop it. Joe. S Just stop, just stop that. Really, you know how he draws his words out.
Yeah, I can hear that. But what do you mean? What do you say to someone when they're like, I can do it, I can drink a little bit and I can just put it away? I'm strong. I'm one of the strong ones, Paul talks about.
I would say then keep in mind the weak because that's what this whole argument in Romans chapter 14:15 is all about. Even if you can hold your liquor, just know there are people who can't. They drink for all sorts of reasons.
Some of them drink because they don't like the way they look. And they have insecurities, not just about their features, but also about certain parts of who they are. They don't like it.
So, drinking, in a sense, Um keeps them from thinking about who they are. Then there are people who Had goals in life, but um But those goals never got met. And so they drink, so they don't have to think about. their life being a failure. Not that it is, but that's how they see it.
That's how they see it. Yeah, you're right. Then there are people who look to their past and they see their mistakes, or they look at the mistakes of others, or what. Um Pain others cause them, and they remember and remember, and so instead of that they want to forget. Hence they drank.
There are people who are struggling with The unexpected of life. I mean, the list goes on and on. Their ship never came in, and so they drink. And unfortunately, None of the reasons people drink are ever truly satisfied because All your problems are still there the next day. That's true.
In fact, things do get worse. Alcohol messes up with your sleep.
So now you're tired, you're exhausted.
Now your ability to think and reason is not the sharpest. When you're tired, you end up making decisions that are not helpful to yourself or to those around you. That's true. You don't think about things you should. Alcohol doesn't help anything.
In fact, it's making things Worse for you. That's right. And we haven't even covered the the the addiction side of it. Like let alone all these are the negative effects. But man, all the people who actually get addicted to alcohol and who who can't stop.
Who drink because they cannot. They're not even thinking about my ship didn't come in, or I don't like the way I look, or I haven't met my goals. No, they drink because this is what I do. I cannot help but do this. If I don't, I'm going to die.
Right. That addiction really is a monstrous thing because it. Ensnares people. I mean, people are, they're locked. It's like they're in jail.
They're in prison. They can't get out of it. Right. Um, If you hear addicts talk about that alcohol, I mean, you shared this in the message, Dr. Charlotte, but it's almost like it calls to them.
Yeah. Yeah, I had a gentleman who was walking out of the service one Saturday night and he said, Look, I really appreciate that message. And I tell you what, I knew I had a problem when I would sit down on the couch in the evening. It would call me. And I was like, wow.
He said, yes, it calls your name. It tells you to come. Wow. Why are you not coming? Yeah, and I think I think the more we you talk about this, the more we reveal certainly the dangers and the effects that alcohol have on our lives and on our societies.
But, you know We haven't even touched, man, there's so much we can get into. I think we got about like 10, maybe, maybe, maybe seven minutes left in the show. But we haven't even touched like the people who drive drunk, the number of accidents that happen. I mean, there are tons of things. For example, Wayne Grudem in his book, Christian Ethics.
He gives us some statistics and they're pretty up to date, so I want to give him credit for that. He says that, and this is coming from the Addiction Center, he says there are 11 million children in the United States under the age of 18 living with at least one alcoholic parent. Wow. You know, parenting is hard. Raising children is hard.
You're tired, you're exhausted, you have pressure and stress of life, work, health, finances. And then on top of that, you're drinking. On top of that, you drink. Imagine the trauma it causes on the children's lives. Yeah, you don't realize you're adding more stress to your children.
Oh, of course. You don't realize you're making everything worse. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Same thing in marriage that happens uh according to the same addiction center of married couples who get into physical alterca altercation.
Some sixty percent to seventy percent abuse alcohol. Wow. Roughly 50% of individuals with severe mental disorders are affected by substance abuse.
Some 37 percent of alcohol users and 53 percent of drug abusers also have at least one serious mental illness. You see kind of a hand-in-hand relationship there. Oh, definitely. You know, we're talking about mental health being a problem in America. I believe it's because alcohol is a problem in America.
I think you're right. I think you're 100% right. And people may say drugs are, of course they are, but the gateway has been alcohol. That's nothing new. It alters your mind.
Exactly. Of all people diagnosed as mentally ill, 29% abuse alcohol or drugs. That's a significant number. 29% it it's not anything to uh to dismiss. No.
That's a significant chunk of people with mental disorders abusing alcohol. And I know just like you questioned a few moments ago, people ask, you know, can I not drink moderately? In the confines of my own home, Paul tells Timothy to drink a little bit for his stomach.
Well, More and more research is proving that that is not the case. Not that what Paul told Timothy was wrong. But alcohol content in today's Modern alcoholic beverages is so high that it's not the same thing as Paul was telling Timothy: take a little for your stomach. Right. And we talked about this on Friday, too: that the results of whether or not there are any benefits, health benefits to alcohol are completely inconclusive.
Yeah, you end up with liver disease, pneumonia, cancer of the esophagus, internal bleeding. That's what's happening. Yeah. But if you want to justify yourself and say, Well, Paul told Timothy, so I can do this, as long as I take a little bit, it helps my heart. No, I think it's today's alcohol, it's not helping your heart, it's causing.
Problems, physical, medical problems. And you said it, you said you said it from the pulpit. If you are looking for reasons to continue to drinking, you may have a problem. Yeah, 100%. You may have a problem.
Yeah. I mean, you're looking for justification to do something that God's word explicitly talks against. You know, and I called up one of my good friends in law enforcement. He actually trains officers in law enforcement. And I asked him, I said, look, help me out.
Because he trained, you teach them. You teach not only Physical hand-to-hand combat or using your weapons, but you also teach them knowledge.
So, can you send me some statistics on alcohol use and abuse? And a couple of hours later, he had it for me. And I want to read a couple of these really quickly.
So, these are numbers coming from North Carolina DMV.
So, this is not the whole country, just the state of North Carolina in 2023. That's right. In 2023, in the state of North Carolina, there were 345 fatal alcohol-related crashes. Wow. That's nearly one per day.
Yeah. It really is gone. Wow. People, those people every day, somebody never made it home. It may be a teenager, it may be a young man, a young couple, somebody who is just beginning life, or it may be somebody in the middle age, somebody, a senior citizen.
We don't know. We don't know, but it's alcohol-related crash. There are many other numbers here. Altogether, the injuries because of alcohol-related crashes is about 8,480. per year.
From Mothers Against Drunk Driving, this is MAD. And this is going back to 2021. According to the 2021 MAD court monitoring report. This is what they found.
Okay. There was about altogether 120 court monitors who reviewed approximately 33,000 cases across 12 states. And this is what they found. The age profile, 60% of defendants were between ages 21 So just b barely able to drink. Barely able.
21 right out the gate. All those people who are out there saying, I can hold my liquor, your son or your daughter. Is not able to do that. Gender breakdown. 73% of descendants were male, which is very important because men like to imitate somebody.
If they're imitating the wrong people in their lives, this is what's happening. But then again, that it comes back to that guilt. What if they're imitating? Dear old dad. Yeah.
And if dad is an alcoholic, then they are following In their footsteps. You can threaten them. Fuss at them, but if you're not careful and praying, and God is not through His grace bringing a positive balance into their lives. they will go down that path given the opportunity. Blood alcohol content.
45% registered A blood alcohol alcohol content of 0.08 to Point one four And then the lists go on. Let's see, go down here. Uh the the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA. This is part of the Department of Transportation, the U.S.
Department of Transportation. According to this group, every day, about 34 people in the United States die in Drunk driving crashes. Every day, thirty four people, which means one person every forty two minutes.
So by the time this podcast is over, just wait this is a thirty minute show, wait 12 more minutes, and that's someone else. That's another life goal. Yeah. Wait, 42 more minutes. That's another lifestyle.
Another one. Wow. And this isn't necessarily the people who are drinking themselves. This is somebody who could be hit by a drunk driver.
Sometimes you have reports of accidents where the drunk driver walks away, but they've taken someone else's life. That's right. So now they have to live with that. That's right. In 2023, 12,429 people died in alcohol-impaired driving traffic deaths.
In 2023, 12,000 people died. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of people. Very close to the population of inner city. Henderson.
And because they're alcohol-related, I would say by definition, they are every single one preventable. Yeah. Every one. In fact, since 2020. 2019, drunk driving deaths have increased by 22%.
22% increase. In just the past six years? That's almost a quarter of the way to doubling. Yeah. That's insane.
Yep. In 2023, an estimated 360,441 people were injured. Two out of three people will be impacted by drunk driving in their lifetime. That's the majority of people. Yeah.
Two out of three. Two out of three. So between us three, I want to say that two of us. That's true. It may be me and John, or me and Ryan, or John and Ryan, one of the combinations.
Man. The risks of drinking are such that in one in ten drinkers will become alcoholics. 10% of people are alcoholics. 10% of drinkers will become alcoholics. The way I look at it is this.
Think about it. If I were to tell you. Come join me as I go in town. I got to go pick up some food or get some gas. Come join me.
Let's go. Right down the road. But as you're getting in, I tell you, just know that one in 10 times that I drive.
Somebody dies. I am involved in a fatal crash. It's a fatal crash. It means you're not coming back. Yeah.
But it's only the 10th time.
So don't worry about it. Right. It may be one of the times. You just don't know. Hell yeah.
You might need to worry about it. One out of ten. Could be this time. Could be several other times for now. I'm not getting in the car.
I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to get in the car. Why are we drinking knowing that there's a good chance one in 10 will become an alcoholic? True. But, Dr.
Shah, even hearing all this. All of this. I mean, we've been talking about this for four or five days now. But even here in all this, there's still the Trump card. I hear you, Dr.
Shah. Yeah. But didn't Jesus turn water into wine? Got you. Got you right.
Guess what? You need to tune in tomorrow. We're going to talk about this. We're going to talk about this. We're not going to let this one go.
That's right. That's right. Make sure you guys join us tomorrow, same time, same station. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clearview Today show. Thanks again for sponsoring us.
Thanks to our sponsors for sponsoring today's episode. And make sure that you guys support us by subscribing to the show on iTunes. You can always support us financially at Abadanshah.com forward slash give. John, how'll be closing today? Very quickly, coming up on August 15th, we got another live stream, 7 to 9 p.m.
We're going to have that phone number for you shortly. We could not make the regular number work out, but we're going to have a new phone number for you guys to call.
So we want you guys to call, pray with us as part of our 24-hour prayer vigil from 7 to 9 p.m. Make sure you follow Dr. Shah on Pray. We are still pushing for 50,000 followers, hanging around around the 32,000 mark right now. Still very good.
32,000 people have elected to follow Dr. Shah. That's really great. But we want to see that number get all the way to 50. We're going to do a special celebration episode when we reach it.
That's right. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today.
