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. Welcome back to the Clearview Studio.
We're so glad you're joining us today, and we're so glad to be here with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. If you're listening for the very first time, Dr. Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show, Dr. Shah.
So, good to see you today. Good to see you as well. Thank you, Studio. Very excited to continue the conversation today. That's right.
It's been a great few episodes. Oh, yeah, we've been talking a lot. I've really enjoyed this kind of deep dive into Romans, talking about election, because I think it's something a lot people struggle with. Yes. People get confused about what this means, what it doesn't mean, and it's not a new problem.
People have been talking about this for decades. But these past episodes have, at least for me, have helped shed light on what Paul really means when he talks about election. What I found is a lot of times people have questions but they feel like nobody's answering that question. They answer other questions. That no one's asking.
That's right. And so when we begin to address these issues, whether it's the election of Israel or God's foreknowledge or. predestination or free will Or why does God allow evil to happen in this world. Many, many others have. Through the ages, have given some great defense of the truth, biblically speaking or philosophically.
But every generation needs these kinds of answers. Every generation needs us to talk about them. We're not just going to go off to a library and dust off some old books and find the answers. Right. Of course you can do that, and there's some great books out there.
But we need to have that easily available as you're driving down the road, you're listening to this radio show. Or you'll listen to a podcast, or you're on YouTube. and you run up against this, or you see a prey.com. or Truth Network, somewhere you are hearing this conversation and And it's very important, very helpful. And it's helping a lot of people.
You know, a lot of people, I've mentioned this before, but a lot of people have said, have you ever thought about just doing this as a long-form podcast? And the answer is yes, we have thought about it. But, you know, we like being radio first. And the reason why I think, at least for me, is because you can come back and you can recap the things you talked about. You know, if we did like a big three-hour podcast, it might do well on YouTube, but I don't know as many people would learn a lot from it.
More than coming back and saying, okay, I listened to yesterday's episode. Here's a quick recap of what we talked about yesterday.
Now let's continue the conversation. I think that for learning, revisiting those things and continuing a conversation really helps. Our goal is to come every day to you. That's right. This this Clear V Today team is myself, John, Ryan.
David, Nicholas, and Adam, you know, we come together. Daily to sit down with you and to talk to you and to address things that are important to you or questions that you're thinking, or not even thinking about, but they you should be thinking about them.
So, imagine us as just some good friends who sit down and talk to you. And, um, And and you learn and you grow and you're inspired. And more than anything, I hope it's not. It draws you to love Jesus Christ more and obey his word more and share his gospel more in this world. That's our goal.
Amen. And so, if you're tuning in for the first time today, welcome to the conversation. That's right. Glad that you're here. And before we get started, I want to remind you guys that we have a brand new EP coming out very soon: Cafe Sessions Volume 1.
That's right. If you listen, oh, so I didn't mean to cut it. No, no, I was going to say, we've had albums before. We've released albums full length and then some shorter ones. But this is the very first acoustic.
Yes, that's true. We debate on what to call it, but we have this really nice cafe space. And we say, why don't we just call it the cafe session? It's so good. It's very acoustic worship session, very vibey, very kind of, yeah, it's nice.
That's right. You know, before we get into the conversation, I do have a question for you guys. Midai. That's right. Back to back, did I do that?
Two in a row on your favorite show.
So, Dr. Shah.
Could you please? Because I need you to kind of help me explain this to the people. Could you explain? Because you saw this one happen. You were there for this one.
Could you please explain what Gulab Jamun is? Oh. For those of you who like Indian food, it looks like that. That's right if you're watching it. Those of you if you're watching it on YouTube.
A galab jamun is like this sweet relish, this sweet dish. That is almost like it take a donut. You have the donut hole. Imagine the donut hole. Uh is filled with like crazy.
Creamy sweetness. Yeah, it's not creamy either. It's just dough. It's like kind of soaking in syrup. Yeah.
Yeah. Very sweet. It's very sweet and it has its own taste. It's not just like a donut. It's more than that.
Yeah, true. Donuts are sort of fluffy. These things have some substance to it. Yes. So there's an Indian restaurant that just opened in our town, right?
In fact, I think today was their grand opening.
So Dr. Shah said, hey, let's all go and we'll support this new Indian restaurant. We'll have some good Indian food. This is me. I have not, I've had Indian food once in my life, once, and it was with a family who invited us over and served us stuff.
There was no sit down and order. Right. I didn't realize that before today. I thought you'd had anything. No, never.
I've had it at one time, and it was just served to me on a plate.
So I have no clue what to order anything. They said, no, don't worry, it's buffet. I said, that makes me less confident. Because now I've got all this stuff. I don't know what it is.
And they were like, if it, and like all of like Nicole and David and Nicholas, they were like, if it looks good, just get it. And I turned to Libna, Dr. Shah's sister. I said, please help me. I need, you know, I genuinely don't know what I'm looking at.
She said, I will help you. We get there. Uh, we get in line, and that is the very first thing I see.
Now, to me, that looks like a sweet potato. That looks like a yam that's in a ball spot. I can understand that. I was like, okay, that kind of looks like candy yam.
So I said, and it looked good and it smelled good.
So I said, Libna, what is this? She said, that's galabjamon. And I said, Okay, but what is it? She was like, You put it, it's the, it's like a sweet, but you put it on your plate and it is there. Yeah.
I said, Linda, what does that mean? I put it on my plate and it's there. She said, you get it and you carry on. You carry on.
So I said, okay, cool.
So I got four of them. Oh my.
Now. We're not telling you people that this is. They are very sweet. They're good. They're delicious.
How many, genuinely, how many would you say that anybody should eat? No, I mean, growing up in India, mom was like the master of this dish.
So when she made it, I would eat like five or six at a time. Oh, yes. But like, if I'm going to a restaurant here, I would not get five or six. I'll just get maybe one. Oh, I would say two.
Two tops.
So they were also at the very front. Typically, dessert, I would say. It wouldn't be at the back. Yeah. But this was the very first thing.
So I just poured them on my plate. All of a sudden, everybody started laughing. Oh, my gosh. What are you doing? What are you doing, John?
That's dessert. And I was like, oh, well, I don't know. I thought someone's going to help me.
So, anyway, we get to our, I also did not get rice. I didn't know this, that you're supposed to put rice and then that soaks up all the juices, right? To your credit, the curry. The orientation of the plates to the flow of the buffet. I think I was felt a little backwards.
Yes. So, so the plates are here, then we have dessert, then we have the toppings, then the rice.
So, you almost have to get your plate here and work back. I think that's how it was supposed to be, but I didn't know.
So, I put all the curry and like the butter chicken and the paneer on my plate, and there was no rice.
So, now, like, it's just swimming sauce. Like soup. I was like, golly, I think I messed up. But I was like, but I'm not going to come in here because I don't want to draw a lot of attention to this because this is a new place. I might not like this food.
I want to really, this lunch, I want to go under the radar. Bad mood. The very first thing I ate was the um was the uh the dessert. And I was like, I'm not gonna lie, it tasted good, but as soon as I ate one, I was like, oh, this was a mistake to get four. This is gonna sit so heavy on my stomach.
And I looked over at Libna and she was like, Just very happy. She knew what she had done. But you know, the way you put the curry in your plate, you know, it's almost like it was all swimming there. That's how many times you do if you're gonna use just bread.
So, I did use the bread to kind of like mop it up. Yeah, that's what you do.
So that's not wrong.
Okay. That makes me feel good because everyone else's plate looked really clean and orderly and they had their little rice with the little bit of butter. No, that's not necessary.
So, you know, you actually did not do anything wrong other than like getting five of those bizarre. It was not. That maybe wasn't the best. It was Livna did something wrong. Do you think that she misled me?
Do you think she was hoping I would get like a bunch? Because I asked her if it was like, are these like yams? Are these sweet potatoes? And she was like, you put it on your plate and it's there. And I was like, I don't know what that, what is that?
That's not an answer. You pick on her. Yeah. And so she picks back on you.
So it's kind of like. She sure did. She sure did. That's what I was saying. This is her chance to be like, gotcha.
No, as someone who eats a lot of Indian food. Good lunch? Good lunch. I liked it. It was delicious.
I thought it was good. And we're glad to have this. Uh Indian restaurant in Henderson, North Carolina. For those of you who may not know, but if you're in driving distance For good Indian food, you can drive a couple of hours. Yes, seriously.
So you can come to Vance County, Henderson, downtown, and it's an Indian restaurant. It's called the Punjabi Tardika, which is like Yeah, this is Uh describe the word tarka means like a like a zeal, like a passion, like um yeah, this this This Power, I guess. But it's not a state. Yeah. Okay.
Punjab is a state in India. If if you know the Sikhs, Sikhs, you see a lot of them in Canada, but Punjab is their state. Wow.
So good. Delicious food. Great atmosphere. It was delicious. It was a friendly staff.
It was very reasonable.
So price-wise, I mean. What would you say, David? David eats a lot of Indian food, probably more than I do. I would say it's better than frogs you'll find in Raleigh-Durham. Yeah, I would say so.
I mean, I've not eaten there before, but I mean, the price did seem really good. And the food was great. I mean, normally I'd be driving like. An hour to pay like 30 bucks, and this was five minutes to pay like $15. Yeah.
I mean, it was good. For a buffet, too. Yeah, half the price. I mean, that's crazy. Yeah, we are not sponsored by this restaurant quite yet.
But maybe we're hoping that people will go eat, enjoy, and try different things. And in the process, um Uh you know, we we'll Appreciate other foods. That's right. That's right. If you go, though, maybe one or two galab jama.
Don't get full. And take it easy on the dessert.
So, is anybody else's stomach really heavy right now? Mine was earlier today because I ate so much at lunch. I got ahead of my plates. I did have two plates. I got to the end of my first plate and I was like, I really want some more.
Maybe I just give it a second. But then the more I said that, I was like, nah, I'm good. You always wait for the first part of the buffet. You never want to be the first person to get up and go get second.
So as soon as someone else does, you're like, all right, I'm going.
So it's, I love Indian food. It's been a while since I've had that.
So I mean, to have a buffet of Indian food, I mean, we'll go. We'll go again. I was glad that my first real Indian restaurant experience was that good. Yeah. Daniel Henderson.
Yeah, right. And the chai was good too. Yeah. They have tea chai. I mean, it's all included.
Yeah. Very cool.
So good. Our verse of the day today is coming to us from Romans chapter 10, verse 3. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
So Dr. Xiao, we have been talk we talked about this a little bit earlier, but we've been talking a lot about election. We've been talking about this idea that does God choose who goes to heaven and who doesn't? And pretty much right off the bat, we said, No, this is an election, it is not even an issue about salvation. This is, you know.
God is going to choose who he works through and all this stuff. And we've sort of tied this into our ongoing discussion in Romans. And we've been talking about the nation of Israel, both ancient and modern, and how this works into this big plan. And so now you go to a verse like this: they being ignorant of God's righteousness, they're seeking to establish their own. We kind of mentioned that yesterday with the Pharisees and Jesus' relationship with them, but not submitting to the righteousness of God.
Is this the standard? of the of the Jewish people that one day will be overcome.
So what Paul is telling the church in Rome Is that Right now it seems Not just shocking, but very confusing that the Messiah of the Jewish people came to the Jewish people. And they rejected him.
Now, please don't misunderstand. It does not mean that every Jewish person rejected the Messiah. Because if that were the case, what is Paul doing? Right, right. Paul was as Jewish as it gets.
Think about the early apostles. or the Apostles or the early Church, they were all Jewish background believers, whether they were Jewish background as in born and raised in Palestine or Jewish background as those who came from the Diaspora, but they were Jewish background people.
Okay. But as a nation as a nation, as a people. they rejected the Messiah. Who are they who rejected the Messiah? The establishment.
The religious leaders, they were the ones who rejected him. Jesus gave a great parable of the king who goes away. Uh to a faraway land. And he leaves his uh workers in charge of the vineyard. And He goes away and the vineyard workers begin to you know, they do the work for a while and then they think to themselves, Well, I guess the master is not coming back.
We can find that parable. The master is not coming back, but So we're gonna We're gonna sorta take charge now. And The Master begins to send. the send some of his representatives. Who are the representatives?
The Prophets.
So it's right here, Matthew chapter 21. It says, Here, another parable: there was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. I mean, this is how God laid the foundation of Israel. And he leased it to vine dressers and went into a far country. Who are the vine dressers?
These are the religious leaders. These are the people who are supposed to lead God's people in God's way, to prepare them for the coming of his Son. Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, all these, or even predating them. I would say predating them. Gotcha, gotcha.
Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and all those people, they were movements that began later on that they sometimes tried to claim that they were from time past, like the. Like they claimed that they were uh part of the the Sadducees claimed that they were part of The priesthood of Zadok from the time of David, you know, stuff like that. Whether it was really true or not, who knows? Pharisees sort of arose later during the post-exilic period when they were back in the. in the country.
They're back in Judea or or in Judah. And, um You know, you had the Hasmoneans and you had the Maccabees and all that going on, but the people, the Pharisees, felt like we were still not walking with God. The temple. priesthood were were corrupt, so they were trying to do their thing.
Okay, and there's a meaning behind that name Pharisee, too. But I don't want to get into that right now for time's sake. But listen to verse 34. This is Matthew 21, verse 34.
Now, when vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the vine dressers that they might receive its fruit. And the vine dressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. Yikes, what a welcome wagon. Come on, man. This is what the people of Israel did.
To The prophets. to God's people who came. I mean, what did it do to Jeremiah? Think about it. Yeah.
Right?
So threw him down an empty well. Again he sent other servants more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, They will respect my son. Yeah. History has told us otherwise.
But when the vine dressers saw the sun, they said among themselves, this is the air. See, this is a very important. Passage in the Gospels that helps me understand. How the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees saw Jesus. They knew.
That wasn't just like, oops, we accidentally killed the Messiah. Oh man, it turns out he was telling the truth all along. They recognized him. That's the heir, that's the son. Let's get him.
Guess who's given this parable? Jesus. And guess who is he giving it to? To the people who are listening. I mean, these are the Pharisees, these are the scribes.
Uh like it says right here. In verse 23, Matthew 21, 23.
Now, when he came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted him as he was teaching and said, By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? That's when Jesus began the series of parables.
Okay? The parable of the two sons. Parable of the wicked vine dressers. Mm-hmm.
So they knew 100% what he was saying, and they knew who they were crucified. They knew, and this is evidence that Jesus knew that they knew. He's laying it out plain for him. Like, I got you. I know where you are.
So, what is their plan? Listen to verse 38. Come. Let us kill him and seize his inheritance. What?
That's crazy. We're going to get the riches of God. Yeah. How? How does that work?
How are you planning on doing that?
So, here's a question, Dr. Shah, that maybe I'm misunderstanding.
So, I'm fully on board with you that the Jewish leaders understood exactly who God is. What does Paul mean then in Romans 10:3 when he says they're ignorant of God's righteousness?
Well, that's something else entirely? Yeah, the righteousness of God is not just God's perfection. Here, the righteousness of God means God's perfection. Plan of salvation.
Okay. that they have to submit to him. It's not your own righteousness, it's His righteousness, and His righteousness is received when we receive His sacrifice in our place. That's the righteousness of God. They wouldn't have liked.
Here's the gift of righteousness. But he just puts you out of a job. Right. Paul is not saying Paul is not saying, when he says ignorant, he's not saying like that the Jewish people were like, I just don't get this. I don't understand.
Is he saying really they were like. Disobedient to him. I would say hard-hearted.
Okay. That they were not willing to submit to his righteousness. Gotcha. Again. Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees.
Keep all those Contexts in mind when you're studying the Gospels or even Paul's letters. It's about Trying to earn your way to God. that we don't need this man. He's godson. We know that.
But No.
Well we got this. And if you interfere with that, you will die. He's Godson. Once we kill him, then We have to keep maintaining our people, our purity. God wants us to do that, but that's God's son.
Yeah. You may know that, but we're gonna do this anyways. But you don't realise what you're doing. You don't realize you cannot kill him. If you kill him, you're actually.
Are doing the very thing that he came to do, but now. You're guilty. Your blood is upon you. Yes, let the blood be upon our heads. Wow.
They said that. Yes. So what kind of arrogance was that? that caused them in the moment to think We're going to do this and we're right and God's going to approve this. I don't know.
Yeah, I don't either. It's a satanic delusion. Yeah, that's probably the best term I've heard to qualify what that is: a satanic delusion.
Well, it's crazy because sin will mess you up. Sin will get your way of thinking so.
So diluted and so twisted that in the moment, you're. I genuinely think that people. are unaware Quote unquote, of the ramifications of what they're doing. You know what I mean? Like, if I think if people, like, if they're messing around on their wives or they're embezzling money or doing all these things, if they were able to stop and think in the moment, hold on, I could go down big time for this, more than likely they would stop.
But something comes over people, myself included. Like, what's the problem? Pride is pride. It's a terrible, terrible. Pride, the same thing that God Satan kicked out.
Again, I need to be careful how I keep bringing him up because he is deadly. He's even though his power has been broken, he's still powerful.
So, everything we say about him, let it be said with humility, hiding behind Christ and letting Christ do the fight. That's right. That's right. But, yeah, it's pride. Yeah.
So it says in verse 39, if we can just kind of look at this parable for a second, because this sheds a light on Romans chapter 10. Mm-hmm.
So they took him. and cast him out of the vineyard. I mean, that's exactly what they're going to do to Jesus. They will t take him out of the city. Right?
And killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine dressers? They said to him, he made them answer. Notice who's answering. He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vine dressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.
Ah, there it is That's the church God took it from the religious leaders and gave it. to fishermen and tax collectors and prostitutes. And and even to some Pharisees.
some priests and some Sanhedrin members.
So, don't think it was just like given to all common people and became some socialist movement. No, God gave it. took it from The leader.
So they still did the temple worship the next Sabbath. They were there. After killing Jesus. After killing Jesus, but the temple was, the veil was torn. Yeah.
Wow.
And it was a very thick veil. It was torn now, but they were still there trying to do their thing. And then it says here in verse 42. Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the scriptures? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone?
This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken. but on whomever it falls it will grind him to powders.
Now When the chief priest and Pharisees heard his parables. They perceived that he was speaking of them. It's like in you ever played Metal Gear Solid when something happens, the little exclamation mark. Yeah. And then they wanted to kill him right then.
They were like, Kill him, kill him. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitudes because they took him for a prophet.
Well, it also goes to your point, Dr. Shaq, because it says clearly the chief priests and Pharisees. They perceived that he was talking of them, not he was talking to the nation of Israel, not that he was talking to the entire Jewish population, he was talking to these specific people. That's right. And given to a nation does not mean another nation other than the Jewish nation.
No, they had become the identity, the face of the Jewish people. And what Jesus was saying to them prophetically is that you will no longer be the face of Jesus. the people of God. They will be. They do not mean the church.
They do not mean the. Greeks and the Persians and the Arabs and the Africans or the Indians. No, the other nation. Are The Jewish people. The common man.
The common people. And common does not mean just the tax collectors and the fishermen and the prostitutes that Jesus often. befriended for the gospel. Uh but Those who were not caught up in this religious Mafia. That's what they were.
They had become the religious mafia. Given to those who would call on the name of the Lord, who would trust in Jesus for salvation. Who would humble themselves? And so, what Paul says here in Romans chapter 10 is very true. He says, For I bear them witness that they have zeal for God, but not without according to knowledge, just like the Pharisees.
Verse 3: For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. That's what the Pharisees and the scribes were doing. And in verse 4, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. They refuse to believe, but. uh the common people were willing to believe.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
And what did they have to do? It's very simple. Paul goes on to say in Verse eight and nine, but what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth, in your heart. That is the word of faith which we preach.
That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, And believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
So believe And confess, confess, and confess. And believe. You cannot have one. and not the other.
So believe in your heart. Jesus is God's Son who gave his life for you. He was buried, but he rose again the third day. But then confess it. Don't keep it a secret.
Don't say this is my private faith. I don't have to tell anybody about it. I'm just going to keep it to myself. You have to confess it. Mm-hmm.
Confess it to God, confess it to people. That's right. And if you confess it, Then you also need to believe it. You cannot go around saying, Well, I'm a believer, I'm a child of God, I received the Messiah. But you don't really believe that in your heart.
In your heart, you're doubting in your heart. You have a contingency plan that if this doesn't work, I may still go back to my works. Cannot do that. And so It says in verse 10: For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Guys, make sure you 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 to our sponsors, LaBlue Ultra Pure Water and Lee Muscadine, for making today's episode possible.
And if you're interested in sponsorship, we'd love to talk to you some more about what that would look like for you and for the Clearview Today Show. You can send us an email at the contact at clearviewtodayshow.com, or you can text in or call us at 252-582-5028. Make sure you subscribe to Dr. Shaw's content anywhere you get your podcasting content from, iTunes, Spotify, Prey.com, Apple Podcasts, wherever you can find podcasts. That's where we are.
And make sure you tune on the radio too.
So we have a lot of radio listeners for primarily a radio show. That's right. You're tuning on the radio. You can also support us financially at Abadanshah.com forward slash gift. John, what do you want to close with?
I think you covered it all, man. Just want to say, if you guys are listening or looking for some more Christian Talk radio shows, if you just can't get enough, I want you to go on and check out some of those shows over on the Truth Network. You know, they're who syndicate us and they're great guys. They have lots and lots and lots of 24-7 Christian Talk Radio on their app and on the airwave.
So make sure you check out the Truth Network today. That's right. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Twitter Today.
