You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, a 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 Clearview Today Studio. We want to thank you for joining us today, and we are here with our host, Dr.
Abadan Shah. Dr. Shah, if you're just joining us for the first time, he's a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor of Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's episode. Dr. Shah, welcome.
Welcome. It's good to be here. Good to see you. Thank you. Absolutely.
You want to start with our verse of the day, since I think this is an episode that will be kind of hard for all of us, but I think we can start it off right with the Word of God. Absolutely. Verse of the day today is coming from Psalm 34, verse 18. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. I mean, obviously, we're heartbroken.
You know, we're heartbroken over the assassination of Charlie Kirk. And I can't imagine that anyone hasn't heard, but just in case you haven't, you know, Charlie Kirk, one week ago today, actually, Charlie Kirk, who's a very, very, very prominent conservative influencer, was speaking at Utah Valley University. It was the first stop. I didn't know this. It was the first stop on his tour, the American Comeback Tour.
And at approximately 12:23 p.m. local time, a single rifle shot struck Charlie Kirk in the neck. He was rushed immediately to the hospital, but unfortunately, he did not survive those injuries. And in the week that followed, Social media exploded. The news exploded.
It feels like all of America has exploded. And our inbox, Dr. Shah, has been flooded with people asking. Why have we not talked about it on the Clear View Today show? We've posted about it on social media and we've been, we had a time of prayer, but there was a very good reason that we didn't do it on our Clear View Today show.
Do you want to kind of shed that? Absolutely. Well, we were in Greece. We were gone for a two-week tour. I was leading about 24 individuals.
And, John, you were part of that group, and your wife was, and your little two-month-old was with us as well. And it was a wonderful, wonderful time. We had a great first week. We had a great first half of the second week. And it was about Wednesday.
evening, about eleven o'clock.
So uh keep in mind the time difference between Greece and the United States, or at least the East Coast, uh is about seven seven hours.
So About 11 o'clock or 11:30 or so, my phone began to go off with, have you seen. the news, or have you heard And and and at first I was sorta, you know, Packing. For the next day, which was going to be our last day of tour.
So I was sort of tired as it is, and I want to just kind of go to bed. And so I'm like, what are you talking about? And I looked. Charlie Kirk was shot.
Now, about this time, all I knew was Charlie Kirk was shot. It was not that he died. No. And so immediately I went online and I began to search and research and went on social media. You know, that's our source of news nowadays.
And. I saw the video. Unfortunately, I saw the video. And at first glance, I thought it was just AI generated. Yeah.
I hoped it was. Yeah, I was, yeah, I thought it was AI generated. And I said, I think I say I generated because that just looks too real, too much. And And then Very quickly, he got confirmation that yes, he had indeed been shot. In fact, Before I could even and I said, okay, I'm gonna put out a post.
Because people are asking me personally. Hey, have you heard? Have you heard? Have you heard? So I said, I'm gonna put out a post saying we're praying for him.
Yes. And no sooner had I done that. That I think one of you told me that he passed. Yes. The turnaround between those two kind of releases of information was pretty quick.
It was about, it was maybe less than an hour. And you got to also remember, we're overseas very late at night. We're getting it. We're trying to find out all the information that's coming in. Not to mention, like for me personally, I know Dr.
Shaw, we were kind of talking about this the next morning. when there was an assassination attempt on President Trump. It was the same thing. Everybody was saying, oh, you know, President Trump was shot. But it it grazed his ear.
He was Very, very lucky and very blessed. And I, in my mind, I don't know why, but I thought the same thing when someone said he was shot, I imagined he was shot at. It grazed him. And then as more information came out, you started to get that sinking feeling like, no, this is pretty serious. And then, yes, I think within we learned about it around 11.30-ish, 11.45, we were putting the post out.
And then that's when the news came in that he had actually died. And that really hit me hard that night. I went to bed probably about 12:30, 1 o'clock. I was hoping to go to bed by 11 at that time, because I was like, last little bit was done. I ended up like.
Taking my time. Packing for the next day, even though I was done, I was like, I might as well do this, I might as well do that. But I was just sort of. Delaying laying down because it became very heavy very quickly. Yeah.
That. This had just happened. And to somebody who did not deserve it one bit. Yes, that's true. You know, I know there's a lot of rhetoric going on out there, and I've seen some uh Christians or so-called Christians talking about this, and I I really Really question their integrity because they're taking things out of context.
And making him a racist or a homophobic or whatever, you need to really look in the mirror and ask yourself the question: am I truly? a man or a woman of integrity when I do that. You know, one of the rules that we were taught in our PhD seminars, one of the first seminars we we had to take was this. When you do research and you quote people who disagree with you, who quote you you you reference people on the opposite side of the aisle. you know, compared to your view.
Make sure that you represent them in such a way that if they happen to walk into that room and look at your paper and read it. They should be able to say, Yes, you represented me well. I said that. I said that. You're right.
Now, we can disagree and say you're wrong, I'm right, all that is fine. But at least the representation needs to be accurate. It hasn't been that way. No, it has not at all. It's been a smear campaign.
It's been just, it's really been unsettling to see people's reaction to, you know, after Charlie Kirk's passing, how they are just dragging his name through all kinds of mud, just slinging hate here and at. Anyone who is upset by this. I think you're more onto something than you realize there, because correct me if I'm wrong. But I didn't see this rhetoric when he was alive. I'm sure it was out there.
I'm sure he had people calling him racist and bigot and homophobe and all that stuff. But I didn't see it. I didn't see it, it was not nearly as widespread. And now, after his death, even people who were on his side, people who are Christians, and you would think that stand by those values, are joining into this after he's gone. Right.
Yeah, that's just me. Yeah, because I think it once again they are succumbing to the leftist, radical, sexually motivated uh agenda. They are giving in to that once again. And and it's shocking to me. It's like, don't don't fall for that.
They're using you. They're using you to claim that he was racist when That's not the case. You really need to examine the evidence. That's not the case. If you look at it in the whole context, what he's saying is a person should be judged based on their achievement rather than their skin color.
Because if you don't do that, listen, no society can exist for very long. If you begin to tell people that, hey, based on your skin color, you get to get on the first of the front of the line. Mm-hmm.
Now, that may be fine if you're talking about if you're hungry, go get on the front of the line. I have eaten a little bit. Right. That's fine. When it comes to things like medicine or airplane, right, that's the big thing about his comment about black pilots.
Something that may cost the lives of individuals or a group of people. That's where you have to go. It's not based on your skin color, it's based on your competence. On your merit, you're right. On your merit.
That's what he was saying. And it w it you know, recently It's been taken out of context. Even people who who never even glanced at Charlie Kirk videos now are over there with their little podcast microphones and pontificating on why they believe this and why they believe that and what is. Come on. You know what you're doing is, very honestly, he's helping you.
He's gone and being in heaven. He's helping you have some views on your show. Isn't that funny? Because your name wasn't enough to draw anybody, but his is. Yeah, so come on, man.
Give him some credit. At least say he's like, hey, by the way, a little disclaimer here. Um Charlie Kirk helped me. Oh, yeah, absolutely. If this episode goes viral, which I think it probably will, or if it at least will get more views than it's because of the impact that he laid.
That's right. The thing that really. And Dr. Shaw, maybe tell me what you think about this. Yeah.
So many people So many leaders on the left came out and said, we condemn this violence. We we don't stand for political violence at all. But you've spent the last four or five years calling Charlie Kirk and everybody who you've called them a fascist, you've called them Nazis, you've called them bigots, homophobes. You've had signs at your rallies that say, We kill my heroes, kill fascists. You've promoted violence, but when violence happens, you turn around and say, Wait a minute, this is not what we stand for.
Right. And it really bothers me because I don't see that happening on the right. And when it does happen, most right leaders crack down on that and say, No, that person doesn't represent us. Right. And also, if they did not say, um, You know, this this was not right, even though they propagated this kind of a spirit.
They will say, Well, you know, he said this, hence it happened to him. You reap what you sow, right? And very wrongly using that that term karma. By the way, karma does not mean what you think it means. Just like the Princess Bride movie, you know.
I don't think it means what you think. I don't think it means what you think. You just keep using that word. You just keep using that word. Yeah, it does not mean that, okay?
So you're showing your ignorance in many different ways. Right. What I'm saying here is. What has happened in America has been perpetuated by the left. By the radicals, and now things are happening, and they are very crafty and very cunning in making use of every situation.
Don't let any catastrophe go to waste. That's right. And so they're doing that again. And this time, Kind of flipping the script and making it look like he was a racist. And so now we don't need to celebrate him or we don't need to pay attention to him.
We need to kind of be very stoic about all this and talk about gun violence in America or be very stoic about this and also talk about other people who have died for various reasons, whatever they may be. Let's talk about everybody who died. And that that is another way To not face up to what really happened. It's the same critique the left put on the right when people on the left would say Black Lives Matter. And then people on the right would respond with all lives matter, and they couldn't stand that.
They hated that. But now we got to talk about all gun deaths now that Charlie Kirk is. And I get it, it's like, okay, we're going to throw it back at you. Ha ha, I get it. But you're not winning anyone to your calls.
And you know what's funny is people are drastically in droves leaving the Democratic Party. Oh, they are. And especially the younger generation because they are done with it. It is hokey. It's empty.
It has no substance to it. No future in it, no hope in it.
So they're walking away from it.
So there are great days ahead in America. Great days. God is working. And I am praying not for radical left. I mean, I hope I'm also praying for them that they will get saved.
But what I'm saying is, I'm really praying for Christians. to have More courage. That's right. What God told Joshua is also what he's telling us today. Be strong and of good courage.
Let me ask you a question: What would you have done if you were there standing at the borders of the promised land? What would you have done? Which spies would you have gone with? I mean, really, look in the mirror and answer that question. I think many of us would have said, I don't know.
I want to, I want to, but, but there's safety in numbers. Have you seen those giants? I don't know. Y'all go first. Yeah.
I really wonder where we would be. Yeah. I wonder where I would be. Yeah. It's true true.
Where I would be. I would I really go with Joshua and Caleb, or would I be with those tenants? Or would I just be like hiding in the background hoping hoping nobody finds me until everybody starts moving, then I can slowly move behind them. Yeah. The enemy against the advance of truth has always been fear.
That's the tactic of the enemy. That's the tactic to silence Christians because we are very susceptible to fear. We're very susceptible to being silenced by worry, by being silenced by people with a loud kind of comeback. And it's- You see that on social media. Oh, yeah.
Right? Absolutely, you see it on social media. A little intimidation, and all of us Christians, like, oh, ah, psh.
Well, silence. We got to be salt. You know what? Let them have it. Let's just talk.
Can we just please talk about Jesus? In fact, this is why I told y'all not to talk about politics in church in the first place. This is why I told y'all not to do this. And there's still Christians who are doing that, but there will always be people who are going to try to intimidate you when you stand. And I've seen this all over social media.
No one ever has been assassinated for telling lies. No one's ever been assassinated for telling lies. It's when people are confronted with the truth. You know, some people will mock, some people will. will turn against you, they'll rage against you, some people will believe, others will take it into their own hands and they'll silence you.
Right. And it's tragic that this happened. But Dr. Shell, what do you see happening in America in the next five, ten years because of this? I was in a meeting just a couple of hours ago, and this was a great meeting with some of the very important people in our state.
This is the state of North Carolina, for those of you who are listening or watching us. They are from different organizations that support Christian values, biblical values. They support Bringing back those values that made America what it is. Again, when I say that, I'm not saying America is perfect. We have a lot of problems.
We've had them in the past, we have them in the present, we are going to have them in the future. Having said that, this is still a very unique nation, very special nation. It has a very unique foundation. We talk about this all the time. And so these organizations that I Was had the privilege of being there.
They invited me to come and You know, one thing that people said again and again is: there is a powerful move of God happening. I agree. And it's quite awesome to hear that because Just a few months ago, I would say less than a year ago. People were not saying that. Yeah.
Some of us were saying it. And we were saying out of a place of faith, not as much like, I see it. It was more like, I'm trusting God, and God and His Word tells me that something good is coming. And something good is going to happen.
Something good. God is going to send another revival. God is going to send another awakening. I mean, we were saying it kind of like not wishful thinking, but it was more like, I'm trusting God's word.
Now we are seeing that faith. Fate. becomes sight. It's materializing. Where people are turning towards God.
Yeah. I have heard more people. claim their Faith in God in the past three, four days, ever since Charlie Kirk's murder. Than I have seen in all my life. I agree.
Like in a short period of time. Yeah. There's a lot of accounts that I follow online who normally don't post anti-religious things, but they're not overtly religious. But they have come forward and said, hey, I stand with Charlie Kirk. This has caused me to reopen my Bible.
This has caused me to go back to church. This has caused me to rethink about my stance on things. And I think that's just the tip of the iceberg. That's representative of a larger cultural shift that we're seeing. Like you were saying, Dr.
Shah, these young men and women who are fed up with liberal ideology and they are turning toward truth, some for the very first time. Yeah, keep in mind, this is all compounded. We were saying the exact same thing. Like Dr. Shah, you just mentioned this.
We were saying the same thing when President Trump won the election. We were saying, listen, we know good things are on the horizon. And we were saying that not because, yay, our candidate won, but prior to that, in those weeks, we were seeing Gen Z was turning to Christianity. Young, especially young Gen Z men. Young men were turning to Christianity in the billions, in the millions, prior to his winning the altar.
Absolutely. We saw that not just in America, but. But also in Europe, I mean, when I say Europe, I'm really talking about England or Great Britain. There's a movement happening over there, too. Mm-hmm.
That's amazing. And so we've seen that even in our personal life. My brother-in-law just rededicated his life to Christ. Not just. Three or four or five weeks ago.
Yeah. And so I think what I'm saying is, I know that's anecdotal, but all these anecdotes put together, millions and millions of anecdotes turn into real data, and that can't be argued. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, just this morning.
I had um A good friend of mine in this community who's a leader in an organization, she texted me with a screenshot of somebody's. Facebook post. And in that Facebook post, this person was. Proclaiming their faith in Christ. And I've known this person a long time, and they're not the type to do that.
In fact, this person said it. herself In that post, that I used to dance with demons. I mean, that's how she was describing her life. And I I knew that. I knew that that she did not You know, have the same thinking like I did about Christianity and faith in Christ and in the Bible and church.
But All of a sudden this This assassination. This murder this unjust Killing of a Christian man. Touched her. in a deep way that My preaching or Some teaching or some witnessing never did. And it did.
And she is. completely turn around. And she's like. I want to live my life for Christ. What would you say to a Christian who maybe struggles with that?
Maybe they're a new Christian and they've not seen God move, and they would say, Does God really do that? You know, does God really use someone's death? To spark revival? Is it worth trading a life for?
Well, absolutely. I mean, I hope no more deaths happen. I hope no more deaths happened. But yes, absolutely, God does that. In fact, God did that in the book of Acts.
In Acts chapter 6, you hear about. There being a conflict between the Jewish and the Gentile background people in the church. in the church in Jerusalem, they're fighting among themselves over food. And In the The apostles who were the leaders of the church, you know, these are men who had walked with Jesus. Their solution was: pick out from among you seven men of good reputation and full of the Holy Spirit.
Right. And one of the seven that was picked out was a man by the name of Stephen. And Stephen was a man of God. Stephen was a man full of the Holy Spirit. Stephen was a man of wisdom, maturity.
And of course, he preached the gospel. And the apostles did that to pick out these seven men so they could devote their time to the word of God in prayer. And Stephen began to preach, and he was arrested for that. And he preached to a huge mob of people, and that mob turned against him, dragged him out of town, stoned him.
Now here's the Interesting part, and some of you all know this story that I'm describing. They took off their robes just to make it easy for them to stone somebody. they took off their robes and put em at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they killed. Stephen.
And as Stephen is dying, he sees the heavens open. He sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he says, Father, forgive them. Just the way Jesus said from the cross. Stephen says, Forgive them. Yeah.
This place of being stoned, he says, Father, forgive them. And next thing you know, the Bible sort of jumps over and two chapters later, You hear pause. Paul. Still breathing threats against the church. Getting letters from the chief priests and the high priests to go out there and drag men, women, and children and kill them.
Everyone who was following the way, that's what Christianity was known as in the first century, the way. And that can be interesting, isn't it? The way. Who are you? I'm a follower of the way.
The way church.
Well they they He was out there trying to kill them. And as he is on on this mission Yeah. Damascus Jesus encounters him. I mean Jesus stops him in his tracks, knocks him to the ground, and he is blinded. And there's a conversation that takes place between Jesus and Saul.
And the conversation is: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Yeah. And I think Paul knew at that very instant. I don't think it was like, I don't know, who. Who is this voice?
I don't know what's going on. Am I just sleeping? Am I hypnotized? Is it a demon? Is it a spirit?
What's happening to me? Am I drunk? Am I drunk? No, no. He knew exactly because he says, Who are you, Lord?
Lord. And Lord is not like, sir. He was saying, Who are you, God? That's right. He knew that this person talking to him was God.
And he knew also that this person. When he said, Why are you persecuting me that this person, God, was was the Jesus. Who these Christians followed. And Long story short, Saul became Paul. Mm-hmm.
So yes, one man's death. A brutal killing of Stephen gave life. DuPaul. That's right. I would have loved to have seen the interaction between.
Paul. When he got to heaven and saw Stephen, yeah, oh my goodness, that meeting, I would have, I would have loved to have witnessed what that was like, what Stephen said to Paul, what Paul said to him, how that went. I would have loved to have seen that. Just knowing, like, I mean, the rest of his life, Paul carried that, Paul carried Stephen's legacy with him. Yeah, that's true.
That's true. You know, It reminds me that the gospel has always been met with violence. Yeah. The gospel has always been met with violence and with murder. And I think it reminds me that, you know, Charlie Kirk was not assassinated for bigotry or hate.
He wasn't He was assassinated for the truth. He spoke the truth. Right. And I think there's really Unfortunately, the older I've gotten, the more I'm starting to see it as our world hates truth. Oh, yeah.
It hates truth. We want to replace truth with quote-unquote kindness. Kindness, mercy, compassion, all those things are desirable. And we're going to do it at the expense of truth. And it's not real, genuine kindness.
It is a selfish, self-centered way, a deviant way of thinking that wants to take advantage of you.
So, folks, I want you all to get this. Whoever you are, whether you're listening or watching. All the sexual agenda that's happening in our country. in fact happening all over the world. It is not.
A loving, caring, gentle agenda. This is an agenda to steal children. This is an agenda to capture and to an highlight. Your Your children and grandchildren. That's what it is about.
That's right. And for you to To stop me from preaching, or to say, Oh, you need to be careful, or you, you know, you need to stand as a hedge of protection around me and your pastor and other leaders who are speaking. That's right. Not try to come and stop them. You should be the one saying, hey, look, I'm standing with you.
Let them come. That's true. Because these, these, um, I don't even want to call them fads, but these evil waves of influence will eventually fade away. The gospel is never going to be beaten.
So you don't want to be on the wrong side where you say, you get to the end of your life and say, Lord, I didn't stand up for the gospel, I didn't speak out, but I'm here, I believe.
Well, you can't claim to be merciful and loving and have more mercy and compassion than Jesus. That's right. That's right. Jesus is the one who, you know, talks about marriage being between a husband and a wife. He's the one who carries the Old Testament standards into the new and even ramps them up.
Read Romans chapter one. I mean, the New Testament takes those Old Testament laws and cranks the volume up on them.
So if that's something that Jesus prioritized and that's something that Jesus held up as truth, we can't claim to be more compassionate than Jesus. Absolutely. I want to leave our listeners and our viewers with this thought. And this is the same thought that somebody asked me At the start of the COVID the pandemic. This is back going back to the spring of twenty twenty.
'Cause I asked this person, I said, What do we do? What what should be My strategy, what should be the course of action? Because I told y'all, you know, I think something big is here now. And I'm not I wasn't talking about the disease, although I never said the disease was not real. The disease was real in some level, but there was something else happening.
There was an agenda. Yes, 100%.
Okay, so I asked one of my mentors, what do you think should be. My Plan of action now. that something is coming. He said, You're right, something is coming.
Something big, there's something that's going to. really test our faith? and something that's going to really challenge Uh And some people will never recover from it. And I'm not talking about physical sickness. We're talking about faith.
Some people will never recover in their faith from this. And this person that asked me that question What do you want people to say about you? When all this is over. And that is the very question I believe we need to ask ourselves. With all this that has gone on over the past couple of days with the with with the death and the killing of Charlie Kirk, What do you want people to say about you?
When the dust settles. Because if all they can say about you is that, man, you hunkered down and you were safe. Man, you did not say a word. You played it safe and did nothing. Yeah.
You went into hiding and you took all of us into hiding. If that's what you think Needs to be said about you, please continue the way you are. But if you want them to say, yes, I love the Lord Jesus Christ, I am willing to follow Jesus Christ, this is what it means to be a disciple, then. Start living like one. That's right, man.
That's exactly right. Great advice for us. Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow, same time, same station, and we're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clearview Today show. Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show on iTunes if you want to re-listen.
You can always support us financially at Avadansha.com forward slash give. John, what do you want to close with today? Definitely just want to remind you guys that Cleavy Today is syndicated through the Truth Network. We want to encourage you to check out all of their original programming and make sure that you follow Dr. Shah on Prey.com.
Oh, I didn't even say we passed 50,000. Yes, we did. We passed 50,000.
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