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 we have had such a great week here on the Clearview Today Show. We want to keep it going with 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. Cue the studio audience, please. There it is. Thank you guys. They're so prompt.
Thank you. They're always on time, man. I got to say, we have a punctual studio audience. Dr. Shaw.
Welcome to the show.
Well, thank you. Thank you. Good to be here. Amen. It's going to be a great conversation today.
And just want to remind you guys, before we get started, make sure that you're following Dr. Shah on Pray.com. Yes. That's about this platform. A lot on the show because we have a lot of listeners on this platform.
A lot of listeners, a lot of viewers. It is a great opportunity for you to grow in your faith and to be connected with daily content from Dr. Shah and from Clearview Church. There's something coming out every day on Pray.com. That's right.
So make sure that you're subscribed, that you have push notifications enabled so you're not going to miss a thing. We are probably one of the only featured leaders on Pray.com that can say we actually drop content every single day without fail, by the way. Also, got to say something else for our, oh, gosh, this is. This is a hard conversation to have for our audience over in Dallas. Guess what?
You guys have been dethroned. You are no longer the number one city. Dr. Shah.
So sorry. If you had to guess, who do you think the number one city in America is that consumes our content? Who do you think it would be? What city do you think it would be? Is it Charlotte?
No, Charlotte is on the top five. But it's not number one. Charlotte is number five. It's our number five biggest Chicago. Chicago.
Chicago, Illinois. Chicago, Illinois. It was Chicago. Oh, I love Chicago. Congratulations, Chicago.
You are the number one spot. I think I can get on board with you guys' pizza. I used to never eat it. You know, actually, it's funny. I had a deep dish pizza.
We flew through Chicago for NRB, I think, or maybe it was when we went to New Mexico. I can't remember. Yeah. But we had a deep dish pizza and it was airport.
So, I mean, it's not real deep dish pizza. But even still, I was like, this is actually kind of good. Yeah. It's like almost like a bread bowl of pizza. Paid the price for it later, but it was really good pizza.
So, Dr. Ja, I'm going to tell you our top five cities. This is only on prey. This has nothing to do with our podcast or Spotify or any of that. Just as far as Prey is concerned, our number one city is Chicago, Illinois.
recently dethroned Dallas, Texas. Battling it out for second place in number three is Houston, Texas. Oh. Number four is Atlanta, Georgia. And number five is Charlotte, North Carolina.
Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta, Georgia is our fourth home stomping ground. Yes. I just want to say thank you. Thank you.
If you're listening to us or watching us or watching us on Pray, thank you so much for doing that. We really appreciate you. And we thank God for you. We pray for you. Amen.
And this team is amazing. They really, truly do care. Every single episode, every content that we have is prayed over and thoughtfully put together so that it will benefit you. It'll help you. Stay informed.
It'll help you grow in your Christian life.
So it'll help you be a good witness for Christ in the last world. Amen. Amen. You know, we've got a great leader, too. None of these episodes would be possible if Dr.
Shah was not putting in 20, 30 years of research into every single thing that we talk about.
So the whole goal behind this show, and Dr. Shah, maybe you can speak to this too, is we wanted there to be a reliable source of information for questions that people have. Because now on the internet, you can search for anything and AI will just make something up for you. And that's true. We might not even get facts.
AI is going to make something up. That's exactly right. We wanted Dr. Shah's show, any of his shows, whether it's the sermons, the devotionals, Clearview Today, any of our future shows that are coming out. We wanted those to be reliable.
That was really the one word we wanted to really encapsulate your ministry. Absolutely.
So. A um, I would say an anthropologist, maybe, or maybe more of a um social anthropologist. He, um, his name is Yuval Harari, he's from Israel. And sometime back, he wrote a book, and in this book, he talked about how times have changed. We have gone from being an information age.
to now There's a different age that has already dawned. And Previously it was about how much information we can get. The more the better. Prior to the information age, there was only the select few or the privileged would have access to all the information. Then came the Internet, and with the Internet came this mass volume of information that everyone can access, no matter who you are, where you are, you can access it.
And Yuval Harari, again, I don't agree with him on everything. He wrote in one of his books that now the new age is The ability to discern And sh uh sift through all that information to get to the real information. He said, This is the new age. And who will be successful? At one time the privileged were successful.
Then came Everyone who has access to the internet and can navigate are successful.
Now it is people who can sift through this. you know, mass volumes of information and know which is right and which is wrong. To complicate things over the past, I would say, a couple of years, you have AI that has just stepped into the game into the arena.
So, how do you discern when it is Genuine Factual Solid researched information versus something that AI has put together. and filled in the blanks where it didn't have the information? How do you know? Yeah. That's a great point.
As a scholar, as somebody who regularly dives into the field of research, are there any pointers or any tips that you can give us or give our listeners to help Enter into this age of discernment.
So the way I do it. when it comes to researching any subject. I will sit down and begin to Go through the library database.
So, first search or WorldCat, you know, I'll spend hours. Looking to see what is that book that is quoted by. The major proponents Experts in that field. Is this a specific library, or is it just like an online corpus of text?
So if you're part of any university or College system, you would probably have an access to ATLA or to WorldCat, and you get, I mean, millions and millions and millions of sources are there. All you have to do is go through the search bar and type in what you're looking for. Or you can go to the advanced search. Um platform and type in the title, the name, even journals, you know, based on what you're looking for.
So That's where I go. I begin there. And in many situations, if it's my field, which is. the Bible, more specifically New Testament. I know which book to go to right away, and I'm going to go find it.
And then I'm going to look through the footnotes. I'm not looking at the main text. I'm looking at the footnotes to see which books are being referenced.
Sometimes some books even tell you Um basic intermediate advanced level books on that particular topic. I will go to the advanced level once. See which ones are there.
So I will spend days. Just researching to find the right works. Right. And once I have done that, then I begin to Cull through it again to see What do each of them believe? What makes each of them so distinct?
Take for example I am um doing a book review on a On a book that is on the Gospel of John.
Now, by a book review, you don't mean like you're leaving a five-star review on Google. No, no, no. This is an actual journal. This is a journal that has asked me to give a book review on a particular book that just came out in 2025. It's an academic book.
But I think it's accessible to lay people as well. I mean, you can read it if you have a. uh you know decent uh education. It doesn't have to be college. You can still read it.
Right. So, um, To to Evaluate that book. Once I realized what that book was about, then I pulled out from my Big academic dictionaries, that same topic. Once I found that topic, many places I already had read it years ago. Or Depends on how Latest was that book.
Maybe a year ago I had read that article, so I I've looked in their bibliography to see, oh yes, this book is a must, this book is a must, this book is a must. I found those books.
Some of them I already have in my library, some I have access through university colleges.
So and then something I had to buy. Right. I had to buy one book. To be able to review another book. Because that book was key.
So I'm going to spend some time. Not only reading the book I'm reviewing, but also reading these other books and chapters and articles.
so that when I give my review, it will not just be Oh, it's a great book, or I don't like this about it, or the pages were too thin. That's not what they look like. The Amazon guy didn't smile at me when he delivered the cover was not aesthetically pleasing. Yeah. No, this needs to be like: I have to frame that book.
in the right Place in the discussion? Like, where does it fall? Are you allowed to, are you allowed to criticize it? Like, are you allowed to say, like, absolutely? Like, um, Not say bad things about it, but you know, can you say, like, I totally disagree?
I wouldn't recommend this book. Oh, yeah, you can. You can? Absolutely, you can. Wow.
But if you do that, I'm sure the review editor will, book review editor will ask you some more follow-up questions. Gotcha, gotcha. Because you really have to defend it. Yeah, because they don't want to make some.
Some academic or some scholar angry somewhere, like, hey, come on, give me a chance. Yeah. If it's really bad, it's really bad. I mean, that's how it goes. Like my book was reviewed, book reviewed in a couple of journals.
A couple of them gave me some good reviews, one did not give me a positive review. But again, I knew who that person was and their Um Convictions regarding scripture were different. Right. And so. Um I was like, okay, I knew you would say something like that.
Yeah. Kind of expected it knowing the source. Right. So, with this particular book, without saying, I'm sure once the review is out, you can say which book it is. But do you enjoy this book that you're reviewing now?
So far, I'm enjoying it because it's taking an angle. that I've I felt like always felt was true. And just did not have enough time or, um, Even motivation to really explore that.
So I never really messed with it. But now it's like suddenly fell in my lap.
So I'm like, okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and spend some time on this topic. And And in the process also l also do some reviewing for myself. Maybe also um Learn a few new things.
So, if the author's listening to this episode with bated breath, rest assured it's getting a positive, at least a semi-positive review from you. Yeah, the author that has no clue that I'm doing. Oh, really? No, zero clue. The person who reached out to you to review it is not the author.
No, they're the editor. Editor of a journal. Got you, got you, gotcha. Will the author eventually know that the review came from you? Oh, absolutely, because my name's going to be there.
Okay. That was my question.
So, when you watch this retroactively, author, when you watch it after the fact, hey, you're very welcome. You're getting a good review. No, no, look, I'm sure you wrote a great, great book. But that kind of goes back to what we're saying: is that when you say something, whether it's in a book review, whether it's in a journal or an article or in a book of your own or even on this radio show, there needs to be some weight and there needs to be some credibility because that's how scholars, that's how scholars operate. And do you ever find that Christians ought to operate that way, but don't?
Meaning that pastors will say something from the pulpit and not care whether or not it holds weight outside of this church. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, of course. And I've done that before back in the day when. We didn't have a broadcast.
It was more just me preaching and they would record my messages and then pass it around. On cassette tapes, and people would buy them, but it was not like Like tons, tens of thousands of them, maybe five per service were bought. And I didn't Not that I didn't care. I always have been very studious in my research when it comes to a sermon, but I did not. spend a lot of time making sure that my exegesis was right, making sure that my My arguments Hung together, making sure that I was not making some blundering mistakes.
So I did not pay that much attention. But then came.
Social media. I began to Facebook Face what do you call it? Facebook Live. Facebook Live. Yeah, yeah.
I began to do that back in 2000, I want to say 10. Oh, you know what we did first was periscope. You remember Periscope? Was that first? I think we did that before Facebook Live.
Okay, okay. Periscope came alongside Facebook Live, and we were doing that. I think Facebook Live was first. Periscope was Twitter's answer, I guess, to Facebook Live. And Periscope is gone, right?
Yes, it's like rest in peace gone. Yeah, golly. I cannot believe that. I used to do. Facebook Live and then on one service, and then go Periscope and the second one.
You're 100% right. I mean, we had good response. There were not that many people on Periscope. But I will usually get maybe Three or four. Yeah.
Yeah, I I would say so. Yeah. Periscope was Periscope was definitely one of those like it was the first experience I remember having with like live streaming, like alongside Facebook Live. But um yeah, it didn't it didn't it didn't last. And it wasn't like we didn't have the right th it just Was not a good platform.
Well, I don't want to say it wasn't good. It didn't catch on. Yeah. Yeah, it just did not get popular, and that didn't make sense.
Some people went to Periscope because they didn't want to deal with all the social media drama on Facebook or Instagram.
So they were like, you know what? Periscope is simple. I get what I want there. If somebody is living something that I'm following, or someone I'm following is living something or streaming something. Yeah.
Then I can go and and listen to it. Other than that, I don't need to look see everybody's birthdays and anniversaries and pet p pictures and food, selfies. I don't need to see that. Studying, we've talked about like engaging in WorldCat and Atla using these resources. What was it like to dig into research before those were available?
Or before they were available to you. The internet. You know what I mean? Like, I was born before the internet, but I don't have any memory of a pre-internet world. Like how 1992.
Okay. I barely remember before we got internet. I remember not having a computer in the house, but I think like emailing, AOL, like all that stuff was around. It was just getting started. But like I said, I don't remember I don't have any memory of having like...
This was pre-internet life. Not any like. Like Profound memories, anyway. I remember it very well because not only did I do some research back when I was in India at school. But also, when I came here in 1991, there was no internet.
Right. Now, computer. Um I mean internet was there But it was nothing like what we have today. Right. So We had a computer lab and I still remember walking in there, taking intro to computers and JU's dial-up.
No, there was no such thing. No, okay. And if there was, I was not aware of it.
Okay. So. How did it work for me? I'm sitting there, and there was another person over there, and this person said hi to me and it popped up on my I was like, How did you do that? You know, that's so.
I think that was the internet, what I would say. Or some kind of networking was happening. Like instant messaging? The instant messaging, probably. I don't remember going on the internet.
There was no such thing for me. Yeah. So you're still like chasing down books, still doing absolutely going to the. Catalog. In the library and pulling those shelves out and looking through those, fingering through those book cards and then finding the right one.
And then Pulling it out and then Copying what we need. I mean, I wish we could have a camera like I have right now. I would have taken a picture of what back in the day it was like writing down the call letters of that book. You ever chase a dead end? Like, what do you mean?
Like, like, you're, like, you're getting a book and you're going through all these bibliography, and then you're finding those books and. Being like, yeah, this is not getting me where I need to be. Or this. is going off in a completely different direction than I need to. One of my first papers that I did, and this has nothing to do with library systems or online access, but one of my first PhD Papers was S just to see if we could do research.
And uh The title, if I'm not wrong, was Egyptian Egyptian history According to, no, I'm sorry, Egyptian historians, I think it was, according to early. Greek. Historians So what Greek historians thought about Egypt Egyptian history? Historian.
So I was like, really?
So I'm like, okay.
So I began to do all the research, you know, pull down Herodotus and all these people to see when they talk about Egyptian historians, and very little came up. I was like, wow. I must not know what I'm doing. Until we got to class, like, oh yeah, we were just trying to see if you can uh how how how rigorous can you get when it comes to researching.
So they gave you a fake prompt? Oh. Yeah, it was like, oh so maybe there are Greek historians who talked about Egyptian historians. Early it's called early Greek historians, I mean, Egyptian historians, according to early Greek historians, so not even like the late ones. I mean, we're talking about like.
From fifty. 5th, 6th century BC, talking about. Egyptian historians. Wow. So it was just a dead end.
Speaking of. But intentionally, so it was just meant like a.
So you didn't actually have to write the paper. I wrote. I found some stuff. Yeah, yeah. I found some stuff about it.
And I put together, I was like, this is so meager. They knew what they were doing, but they still had you write the paper. Yeah, and I wrote it. It was like a page and a half, two pages. It's funny because, you know, talking about research pre-internet, I think about your professor, Dr.
Robinson. I remember when he was moving, we went over to help him pack. Right. And he had just a ton of books. And he was like, take what you want.
And I was like, oh my goodness. And I remember you being like, hey, get this is a gold mine right here. You don't even understand. You're standing in a literal gold mine of knowledge. But I remember he was working on his computer and I like turned to look over.
This dude was working on like. Windows 93. It was like it was DOS. Yeah, it was DOS. I don't even think it was Windows.
He's still working on DOS. It was the black screen with the green text. Yeah. He still works with DOS. That was the craziest thing.
I bet he gets a lot done. Yeah, he does not, he said, I don't miss anything. I don't need anything. I like this just the way it is. It gets me what I need.
And I, I, and because he built a computer program and all that stuff to do his research.
So I don't need all these other stuff. Yeah. It accomplishes what he needs. And then if it's not broken, don't fix it. Yeah.
What do you think the lesson is for us, for Christians who are relying on AI, chat GPT? Google. To find all our biblical answers. I would say you're fine to do that. You're fine to.
Turn to AI. You know, some kind of a um, what's the word I'm looking for? Like, you, you, you shun any, any new technology. Oh, like a Uh like a h a low date? Is that what you said?
Huh? Luddite? Luddite? I don't know what that is. I don't know.
Never heard of that. Yeah. I have no idea what that is. Yeah, I don't know what that is. Hold on.
That's correct. Let's ask AI. But like anti-tech, anti-development, anti-new Just like tried and true, this is like a traditionalist. Yeah, Luddite can refer to a member of a 19th-century English movement of textile workers who protested by destroying new machinery, or more broadly, a person who is opposed. What have you been watching on watching, David?
Luddite. Yeah, that's weird. That's your vocab word for the daddy. The dude can't.
Well, never mind. I'm not even going to go there. I'm not even going to go.
So, yeah, don't try to be like that. Like, I'm so countercultural that I'm going to. Wear clothes from a whole different era. And if you want to do that, and that gives you some kind of energy, maybe go and do it. But feel free to use technology.
I believe in using technology. I believe in getting the best of the best when it comes to technology. Y'all know that. That's true. I can verify that.
When you have two people of equal strengths and equal gifts and talents, what will set one apart from the other is technology.
Now, if you get spiritual on me, you know, of course, God. But what I mean by that. Don't Jesus Jukas. Yeah, I'm not. Talking about in a spiritual sense, but if you had to put two people side by side.
Equal gifts, equal talents, equal strengths. Technology is going to prove to give you the upper hand. That's true. Also, I believe that when it comes to your own Um Feel free to use technology, but make sure, make sure that when it comes to key issues, subjects, that you don't rely on AI. That's right.
Don't rely even on just. just information on the Internet. I mean, my blog is on the Internet, right?
So I I have to be careful when I say that. That's great. I hope you come across my blog and find some very valuable information and use it. But I also hope that she will go And do some research on your own. That's right.
If you're preaching from the Old Testament, it is imperative that you have Some of those Dictionaries, those academic dictionaries. of the Old Testament. IVP has put them out. They're on the Pentateuchs, the prophets, the writings. You know, go get those dictionaries.
Whatever subject you're dealing with, you'll find. An article on that. Right. Get the Anchor Bowel Dictionary. And so many Thousands of articles.
You want to know about the Phoenicians? They're there. You want to know about the Amorites? It's there. You want to know about the The Ethiopian Unique.
Who's the eunuch? Where was he from? It's there. There's a lot of information that is available. Go research.
And depends on How serious you want to be. Look at the bibliography. That's true. Look in the footnotes. Mark em out.
And if it's a book worth having in your library that you can come back to again and again. Buy it. Yeah. I do that all the time. If I see a book, I don't just go randomly buy books.
I can even stand it when people go through some of these, um Book stations, you know, you leave a book, get a book, oh, the little lady. Yeah, I mean, I mean, that's great. I think it's a wonderful thing. I steal from them all the time. I am like.
I don't have time to randomly pick out books that somebody threw in there. In my line of work. No, no, I'm with you. I'm with you. You know what I mean?
For fiction, it's all good, but I would never, for research, go look at it. No, no, no. It really will be a waste of time because you're looking in the wrong places.
Well, it's just people who have the books that you're looking for are probably not going to be getting ready for them. Right. Yeah. It's a random number generator as far as knowledge is concerned. There's absolutely no reason to do that way.
Right. So I would say. Make sure you do those kind of research. And then, if you feel like, okay, this is worth having. on my bookshelf that I can you know Just reach out and pull it out and read it, then by all means, man, save some money and buy that book.
It sort of goes back to what we were talking about earlier, because you mentioned that your blog is on the internet, but for For the most people, I would assume and I would hope that you are not a random blog that people are coming across. You know, that you're my goal is that people would hear you here, develop this trust. That you know what you're talking about, or at least at the very least, you're going to point them in the right direction for them to do their own research. And then, when they come across your stuff later, now Abadan Shah, Dr. Abadan Shah, is a name I trust.
It's a trusted resource, as I said. That's exactly right. That's sort of the goal behind all of this. And I think with platforms like Prey and some other platforms we'll be announcing here very soon, and Truth Network as well. We've got us has allowed us to do that.
Yeah. Yeah. What is your hope, Dr. Shaw, for a new generation of scholars that are maybe listening to the show that are coming up, who are going through maybe college, maybe seminary right now, who are kind of on the cusp of diving into that world? Don't buy into the lie or the fallacy that people don't want to know more information.
They do.
Now, of course, people want it to be. It to be simple and applicable, definitely. But don't fall into the mindset that is often propagated that they're not interested in that. Man, they just want you to speak from your heart and they just want you to apply it to their personal lives because they're struggling with the struggles and the nitty-gritty of life. Don't worry about all this scholarship and academia.
That's not always the case. That's true. It's They're hungry for it. They want to know.
Now, of course, every message should be prayed over and Preached in a way that common people can understand and apply it. To wherever they are in life. But at the same time, Don't be afraid to go. Go deep. That's true.
To dig deeper. You wouldn't believe how many messages that we get from people every single week asking for us to go deeper into a lot of these issues. A lot of times I just point them to episodes that we've already done, but there's tons of times where we'll talk about things because people have this desire, like you say. Yeah, I mean, I'm getting ready to preach a message on Romans chapter 9. You know, we're talking about the role of Israel in end times prophecy.
And people just assume that, oh, yeah, Paul says it, not all Israel is Israel. Come on, what else is there? But when you begin to read it and study it carefully, you begin to realize there's so much, much more that many of us have not even scratched the surface. That's right.
For example, Paul's understanding of time. Was he talking about a linear historical time? Or was he talking about apocalyptic time? Right. The time has already begun for the end of time.
I mean, there's so much there. And and so For those who are willing to dig, they will find more and and kind of goes along with that proverb You know, it's the glory of God to hide a matter. It's the glory of kings to uncover it. Amen. So I hope you can Be a king.
and uncover. The deep things that God has placed in this world. Beautiful. That's awesome. Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow or make sure you join us next time for on Friday.
Make sure you join us next time, same time, same place. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the QB Today show. Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. The Blue Ultra Pure Water and Mighty Musketer. I'm getting tongue-tied.
It's okay, man. Let's breathe. Breathe. And don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show on iTunes if you want to relisten or share it with a friend. Also, don't forget about Pray.com.
We mentioned at the top of the episode. Make sure that you're subscribing. And it's a Dallas that got demoted. Dallas got demoted.
Sorry to hear it. You can just spread the word to your friends so you can claim that number one spot. But shout out to Chicago for taking that. We'll send a little gift basket to the city of Dallas itself if you do. It'll be deep, distributed.
Oh, there you go. Add a little bit of insult to injury. And you can always support us financially at Abadanshot.com forward slash. Yeah. John, what do you want to close with?
Just want to say thank you all for making this happen. You know, we talked about doing a big celebratory episode for our 50,000 follower count. We probably still will do that. But definitely, like Dr. Shush said, just want to say thank you.
Thank you for watching. Thank you for supporting us financially. Thank you for supporting us with your spirit and your heart and, like Dr. Shush said, your desire to keep learning more. It's that desire that we want to keep learning.
Uh producing the show for.
So we thank you for that and we love you and we're with you. Amen. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clear Wee Today.
