Hey, this is John Galantis from the Cleaview Today Show checking in with you guys to plug our new show, How to Read Biblical Hebrew with Dr. Abadan Shah. It's a video podcast. You can watch it right from your favorite podcasting app, and we're releasing new episodes every single week. You don't have to be intimidated about learning Biblical Hebrew.
We're going to start with the alphabet. We'll start with sounds, basic grammar. We'll work our way up. But our guarantee is this. If you follow this podcast and put in the work, you will be reading the Old Testament in its original language in no time.
Again, that's how to read biblical Hebrew with Dr. Abadan Shah. Links in the description.
Now let's start the show. Sin is not instantaneous. Sin is not random. It is a process that happens over time. And that process is called temptation.
Understanding this and more coming up right now on the Clear View Today Show. 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, welcoming you to another great week of content right here on the Clearview Today Show.
We are so excited that you're joining us here in the studio. Welcome, welcome. This is our lair. Layer kind of layers. Layer's got like an evil.
This is our space. This is our base of operations. Our base of operations. This is the, what is it called? The hall of justice with the justice.
There you go. Yeah. Yeah. This is our fortress of solitude, as it were, 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.
Dr. Shaw, welcome. Oh, from my dentist. Welcome to the lair. My question is: did you hit some comic books before coming up here?
Those are several superhero references in rapid success. I could, I could. We could talk about this the entire half hour, but I don't think the audience wants to hear about it. Yes, I've been reading a lot of Ultimate Spider-Man. Yeah, that's what I do when I go home at night, fix me a little bowl of supper, sit down with Ultimate Spider-Man, and I got to say, I'm enjoying it.
He does have a layer of operations, Aunt May's house. Yes, I was going to say it's his aunt's basement. Dr. Shop, this is getting very silly. Welcome to the show.
I'm glad to be here. We're talking today, you know, on last week's episodes, you know, as we're landing the plane Thursday, Friday. We're in James. We're navigating through this book, which is so helpful and so relevant to things we struggle with, things we're going through today. But we've been talking about temptation.
We've been talking about how when you encounter a trial in life, not only is there a decision, but there's a temptation process and how to confront that temptation. But today, you know, we're going to dig a little bit further into what exactly makes that temptation significant, what the power behind that temptation is. Of course.
So just to recap for the benefit of our listeners and our viewers, we're in James chapter 1, verse 14, where James says, but each one is tempted. He's about to give us the. I guess you can say the sequence, the negative sequence of temptation, how it goes from conception to pregnancy to birth. This is something supposed to be beautiful, right? A birth of a child is supposed to be a joyous moment, a time to just be excited, praising God.
But now imagine that as completely opposite, where it is not something you're looking forward to. This is not a happy moment. This is going to bring Years and years, and even eternal misery. We're talking about the birth of sin.
So, birth of a child, wonderful occasion. Family is happy, everybody's rejoicing. Man, this is great. Birth of sin, not so much, it's exactly opposite. And here's the process.
Okay. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Two people come together, pm. And they love one another. They feel like Each other is God's gift for them.
And they join together in marriage, and now there is. A physical union. Right.
Okay, so with that comes conception, hopefully. By God's grace. And next thing there is a pregnancy. At the end of the term, there is birth. But here, you are drawn away by your own desires and enticed.
The imagery is very matrimonial, but this is a negative implication where it's just you. There's no one else coming into this marriage, this sacred union. It's just you with your own desires. You are marrying them. and you're enticed by them, there's no love here, there's only enticement.
There's only lust here, okay? And what follows then? Then when desire has conceived It gives birth to sin. It goes. Through conception?
Pregnancy? And then birth. Yeah. But it's all in a negative context. in the context of how temptation when given into Leads to sin.
It's sort of appropriate, isn't it? Like, the idea that James is using imagery that's made for the positive, designed to be positive, designed to be beautiful. And it's not like the perfect picture of sin. Sin twists what God has already had for us. It's not like sin just exists as its own thing.
It's a perversion of what God has created. Yeah, a distortion of God's design.
Something else, James, I mean, Jesus pointed out, is that it's not just the act of sin. but is also the thought of sin, That matters.
So there are some passages we're going back to the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:22 regarding murder, Jesus said, But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Whoever is angry, that's an emotion. You didn't go out there and punch anybody, you haven't cussed at them, you haven't. done any of those things but you're just in your own mind you are angry against your brother.
You're you're bitter. You're you're Just vengeful towards them. It's really funny because a lot of times, like online, you'll see people who have never read the Bible say that, you know, I reject, you know, southern evangelism. I reject conservative Christianity. I want Jesus because Jesus was so like he took the Old Testament and completely did away with it.
He was nothing but love. He was nothing but acceptance. He hung out with sinners and prostitutes. And it's like, do you know that Jesus is stricter than the Old Testament? Like, he to those people, it's, tell me you haven't read the Bible telling me you haven't read the Bible.
The Bible says, hey, you cannot murder people. You can't do that. And Jesus is saying, if you are angry with people, you've already like he's way stricter than the Old Testament is. And if you look at it in the context of lust and adultery, in Matthew 5:28, Jesus said, But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her, Has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Man.
Lust, I mean, just a thought passing through your mind. And you can turn this against a female lusting towards a male as well. Even if that thought passes through, what if my life was with him or with? Her. It's done.
I feel like Jesus had to drive that one home because there's some deniability with the other one. It's like, if you're angry with your brother, then you're guilty of murder in his heart. Because someone like me, I'd be like, well, you know, I don't really get angry that much.
So I guess I'm good. He's like, all right. If you love, I was like, oh, man.
Well, you got me. It's like passing the sentence, like guilty of intent to sin. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Is desire. When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, which means this: if you're already lusting or if you're already murdering that person in your heart, the desire is already there, and sin is a matter of time. Gosh, being tempted is not sin. Entertaining that thought in your mind, in your heart, is sin.
So, can we talk about that for a minute? Because I think a lot of people will skip over that. They're like, if I don't commit the sin, If I don't act then we're okay. Yeah. But Jesus is even saying, you entertaining it, you entertaining the temptation in your mind.
Even if I never act on it, I never cheat on my wife. I never kill someone.
So. A thought passing through your mind. Yeah, I mean, how can you help that? You're living in a sinful world. You are a.
Sinners saved by grace, even though you're a new person in Christ, all old things have passed away, all that has happened, but you're still living in a fallen world. We still have to traverse this life of sin. And temptation. Thoughts may come. But to engage them.
To play with them, to toy with them, that is sin.
So when someone says, man, I didn't do anything, I'm not hurting anybody. Right.
The fact that you are playing and tossing around that thought in your mind, in your heart. Is sincerely. For me, let's just talk about lust. Let's be as downright honest as possible here. If there's another woman other than my wife, and I'm thinking about her And I am looking at her images, let's say, on social media.
and I am imagining myself with that person, Yeah, it's sin. Yeah, it is sin.
So this actually opens up maybe a deeper can of worms than we want to get into today, but there's been a lot of debate surrounding AI because people are using AI to generate explicit images and videos. That's not a real person. Am I sinning? Really? It is sin.
Oh, yeah, I heard it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, I'm not lusting after an actual person. This is a computer-generated image.
This is coming from Christians? Yes. Yeah. Is this actually sin? Yeah, it is sin.
Yeah, it is. 100%. Wow. It is sin. See, this is here.
How powerful this is. This is a book written 2,000 years ago, but it's the breath of God, and it applies very well in 2026. It may apply if Jesus doesn't come back in 3026.
Okay. When desire, it says right here. Going back to James 1:14, each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his. His own design. It doesn't matter if other people are involved in that act.
Yeah. I mean you yourself Is enough. Yeah, I mean, we're on Christian radio. I'm not going to get, I'm not going to get, you know, graphic, but there have been for decades and decades, there have been magazines with illustrations. Bring them to church.
If you don't think it's a sin, let everybody see them. You're not hurting a real person, right? It's just a drawing on a magazine. No, it doesn't matter. No, everybody knows what's up.
I can't believe that. Your desire does not differentiate. Right.
Thoughts are sins. Right.
That's crazy. Yeah. Having a thought pass through your mind, temporarily or momentarily be angry at someone, or just.
Okay, we get it. Immediately repent and say, God, forgive me, forgive me. Lots on my mind. I need your grace. I really need your grace.
And that is what you need to pray. But you're like. I got a few minutes. I am going to spend my time thinking about that person. I'm going to bring up that person again.
In a negative Angry. hateful context. Yes, you are sinning. You are actively in the act of sinning. There is no two ways about this.
This is not temptation. You are actively Having a sexual relationship with that person, or you're actively taking a knife and plunging it into the side of that person. That's right. That's right. It's sin.
Yeah, that's not something that we can say, this is something I fell into. It's like you said, you're choosing what you think about. Yeah, right. You're choosing to engage in it because you feel like, of course, no one's ever going to see it. That's right.
And so let's continue this. This process of birthing. When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Means now, this child, again, we're going back to the imagery of a love marriage relationship with a A woman getting pregnant, and now she gives birth. And man, it's a beautiful occasion for the husband, wife, family, extended family, church family.
You can imagine everybody's happy, excited to see this little child grow up, maybe a boy, maybe a girl. You know, great. But here is a negative. Context where it's sin. And it comes through this this this marriage within yourself.
And it is based on enticement rather than on love. And it's leading to This sin being born, this desire being conceived, and then sin is coming in. And then it says right here. And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Unlike a child that grows up.
through elementary school, Middle school, high school, playing ball, being in theater, being in dance, being an honorable student. Dating somebody, finding someone, marrying someone, having their own family chill. Oh, what a joyful. No, here. This is completely opposite.
Yeah. Sin when it is full grown. means it may begin with Just Tossing lust around in your heart. It may begin with just having that one. antagonist in your life, somebody you just hate.
You know, everybody needs something to hate, someone to hate. It gives them motivation, passion to move forward. But here, you hate that person. Oh, that that child of hate It's gonna grow. and given the opportunity.
You may just kill somebody. Given the opportunity, you will step out of marriage. And do something that will not only embarrass you. Your family, your loved ones, your church family. Your community.
Of course, God. You will do it. Yeah. I think that's the key: given the opportunity. A lot of us, when you're wise, You avoid those opportunities.
But when sin is full grown, it actually causes you to seek them out. I don't know if I'm saying it the right way, but I guess what I'm saying is: I think a lot of times we think that if I engage in this sin in my mind, and then this little tiny sin here, and it keeps growing and growing, I'm not getting caught. Nothing bad is happening.
So I'm still in the clear. We don't realize that the sin is growing. Oh, yeah.
So, this reminds me of something that we often express as parents. You know, there's a sense in which we wish we could keep our kids little. Like, we wish, I wish I could keep my sweet little kids the age that they are. Mine are growing older now. They're, you know, we're in elementary school, middle school.
So there's a sense in which, like, I wish my kids could stay young. I obviously want them to grow up and be successful, but I wish they could stay young. I feel like in a negative side of things, we often feel the same way about our little tiny sin that's in our life. I'll just keep it little. I'll just keep it small.
And that's a good way to say that. It's wonderful and fantastic, but it's going to grow. And there's nothing you can do to control that. Absolutely. And then if you're honest with yourself, If you're given the opportunity, you're going to step out of your marriage.
You're going to strike out against someone in violence with intent to murder someone. We don't talk a lot on this show, especially not explicitly about scandals within the church with other pastors and stuff. But I do wonder some of the names that have been, unfortunately, taken out of the ministry. In recent years, you know, all of these sins that have come out, how did they begin? How small did they start?
And was there the line of thought, like, I had this under control? Yeah. Yeah. Sadly, and our listeners and our viewers probably have seen these in recent months, recent weeks, so many. famous Church pastors, leaders have come out.
with an affair. Yeah. Or some abusive situation that they groom somebody and they abuse somebody and they had them in the whole I mean, it's it's shocking to me. That in 2026 this is happening, but I don't know why I should be shocked. Yeah.
We could have all the cameras in the world. We could have every technology available to mankind and be a thousand years more advanced in technology, and still we would find ways to sin. Yeah. And it's shocking to me, but it shouldn't be. But what I'm saying here is.
Why did these people do what they did? Why did they go down this path. while at the same time serving in a church Leading worship, preaching messages, being a professor in a Christian context. I can only think of that right from the get go something was broken that never got fixed. Right from the get go, there was something inside of them.
That never God truly surrendered to God. And I know that in life we will Probably not truly completely surrender everything. I mean, realistically speaking, it's a constant work of growth and grace.
Sometimes up, sometimes down. I hope we will go out on an upswing, but that's not always guaranteed. I've known some great. Men and women of God who on the way out struck out. Not that they were lost, But they didn't end quite well.
Having said that, Some of these people never truly surrendered. They did not have. A sense of I mean, many things were wrong, but one one of the things, a sense of Fear? Yeah. That what they were doing is not a game.
Ministry is not a game. There's something real about this. Is it really a God? There's really. a God who is very holy and were not?
There's a God who gave his only son because that's the only way he could save us. They never understood the gravity of that. They also never understood the gravity of You know. Not giving themselves A break. You know, we give ourselves too many breaks.
Yeah, I believe you on that. You know, what I've been through in life, or what I went through, or the day I've had, or the situations I have to live under, or my marriage is not as good, or my health is not as good, or the junk I grew up in as a child. I mean, we give ourselves so many breaks. And That's when we say I deserve this. I deserve to step out of line.
And have this moment. A moment to satisfy myself, a moment to. give myself a little indulgence. God understands. And even if He doesn't, He'll forgive me.
It'll be all good. It's all good. One of the things I admire about you and have for years and years is there's a there's a very rigid and I don't use that in a in a Connotative way, there's a very rigid stance of at Clear View, we don't look the other way. Right.
You know what I mean? There's nothing that gets brushed under the rug. There's nothing that it's like, hey, there's no open secret. Like, we all kind of know and we keep our mouths shut. Everything is very transparent because I think one of the things I learned about you very early on that I wanted to shape myself for is that it's integrity first, success second.
Right.
And, and, I know that sounds like, oh, well, yeah, that's how it should be, but I genuinely think that it's rare. Yeah. I think it's rare in churches. And I'm not saying that to be like, hey, look at us, we've done it right. Good for us.
But I think the more that I'm seeing this in headlines, the more I'm hearing from people who write into the show and talk about, hey, pray for my church, pray for this, pray for that. I don't think that integrity first, success second. Is a template around in the church at large. Yeah. And it.
It's a little disheartening. It's encouraging at the same time. It's like, God, thank you for giving us a pastor who believes this. I think it's disheartening for the church at large.
Something you said, Dr. Shaw, it really kind of struck a chord with me and is really chilling to think about: is that people treat ministry. Like a game. They treat ministry like, well, this is church life. It's not that serious.
Don't stress about it. Like, we'll be all right. This should be the most serious thing that anyone ever does. This should be the most important thing on anyone's radar because we're dealing in eternities. Absolutely.
We're talking about people's, not just their health here on earth, we're talking about their eternal destination. Why in the world are we not putting every emphasis on integrity, on character, on transparency, on accountability, on what we need to do in order to reach people for the sake of the gospel and maintain our integrity? I think too many of us see sin as just, I have a bad attitude, I just got a bad mindset. I don't think because I have, and I know it's to my own detriment. I have disqualified myself from, I could end up killing someone.
I could mess around with a woman. I've disqualified myself because I think it doesn't apply to me. And I think it's to our detriment that we do that. And it's been, you know, in the past few years where I'm like, no. And I think you said it, Dr.
Shai, it could happen. It could happen to any one of us in this room. It could happen to me. It could happen to you. And the more we disqualify ourselves thinking, oh, I just had a bad day and I'm mad at everybody.
That's what sin is. I think we've lost sight of the destructive power that sin has. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, for time's sake.
What I like about the book of James is that Instead of just beating that person down even more, or exposing them, or nailing them up against the wall, and just saying, you know, here you are, there's a God who's holy, and here how sinful and how terrible you are, he turns it and says in verse 16, he says, Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. means when you do this thing, when you are having this secret sin in your life and you're indulging thoughts of lust or murder or whatever, just know you're deceiving yourself. You're fooling yourself. When you do these things When you go behind closed doors or on your phone or whatever you're doing, you're deceiving yourself. You're not deceiving God, He sees everything.
Yeah, in a sense, temporarily you may be deceiving people around you. And they will be heartbroken when they find out. You cannot deceive them forever. Like that old saying, I think it was Abraham Lincoln, or I don't know, who, you know, you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Sooner or later, people will find out. But the one person you Thank you R. Cool with and no issue is your own self, and you are fooling yourself. When you do these kinds of secret sins, so think about how you're fooling yourself. Number one, you're fooling yourself into thinking that.
You are invincible. Oh, you're not. You're fooling yourself into thinking that you will come out of this. And you've been a winner, you'll be a winner again. You may hit a little low, and it's okay, I can bounce back.
You may not be able to bounce back out of this. Yeah, you'll come out of it, but you will not be the same. Yeah. You're fooling yourself into thinking You can try again. But you have no idea how long life is.
You may not get another chance You're fooling yourself into thinking It's all going to work out for the best. No, it may not work out for the best. Because there may be eternal consequences because of what you're doing or what you're about to do. I hope our listeners and our viewers are sort of thinking through these things because you're about to make that decision. You're about to go that extra step.
And maybe the Holy Spirit put this podcast, this radio show, right in your phone, or in your car, or in your office, or wherever you are. Or you're getting ready, and it's in your bathroom, you're listening to it. He put this there so that he would keep you from going over the edge. Because this may be your last warning. Can you speak directly to that person?
Because whoever's listening, they may be driving, they may be cooking, but there's a plan in mind. I'm going to go meet that woman, I'm going to go meet that man. I'm going to buy that weapon. I'm going to do whatever. I'm going to, I'm going to.
Someone's listening to this. I'm going to steal this. I'm going to steal that. Nobody's going to know. Yeah.
Someone's listening to this right now, even though if they don't admit it to themselves, there's a plan in mind. Do you want to just speak to them very quickly? Absolutely. I want to read for you verse 16 through 18 here. Let's read verse 17 because we already talked about verse 16.
You're fooling yourself, by the way, when you are entertaining these plans. Every good gift. And every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow. of tarning. What's the point here?
The point is this. There you go. God has been good to you. Mm-hmm. I'm not saying you haven't had a rough life.
I'm not saying you haven't had ups and downs. I'm not even saying that. People have not mistreated you. All those things may be very, very, very real. But still God has been so good to you.
And the longer I live life, the more I realize God has been good to me. And if he were to take me back 10 years ago, 20, 30 years ago, and said, Do you think God has been good to you? I would have said yes. But I don't think I would have totally understood the gravity of what I was saying.
Now, looking back, it's like God is so good.
So, I want to tell the person who's listening or viewing, or you know. Is focus on God's goodness. Don't focus on yourself. Don't listen to the enemy. Focus on the goodness of God, and the greatest thing that God has done for you is He sent His Son.
to give his life for you. That's her hand. I mean he's been good to you. And you don't deserve it. I don't deserve it.
He's done that. And that's enough for you to stop. Fall on your knees before God, humble yourself, and seek His forgiveness and ask for His help. I mean, that's the best thing you can do: say, God, help me. I'm about to take this step.
Help me. I've done that many times in my life. And every single time God answered you. That's right. Amen.
Man, that is so helpful. Thinking about the goodness of God and what He has done for us and how good He has been to us. That's the cure. That's the antidote. It deserves the course correction.
It deserves its own episode. And guess what? Tomorrow, we're going to talk about that. We're going to dive in because there's so many things that I want to get into. Unfortunately, Just gotta don't have time.
Yeah, also, shout out James 117 is where we got our youngest son's middle name from. Oh, yeah, yeah, Astra James. That's why his middle name is James. Every good and perfect gift. Oh, thumbs down for the father.
I love that. That's really awesome. Yeah, I love it. Love that verse. 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 for making today's episode possible. And don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the podcast anywhere you can find podcasting content. And you can always support us financially at Abadanshah.com forward slash give.
Lots of great things happening on the horizon here at the Clearview Today Show and at Clearview Church. One of the big ones is our apologetics conference on the Byzantine text form coming up on March 28th. It's going to be right here at Clearview Church. It's an all-day conference. There's speakers flying in from all over the world.
Dr. Shao is presenting a paper. All the speakers will be presenting a paper as well.
So we want you to make sure you get your tickets and come here on March 28th. You can find a link in the description to register for the conference. And if you use our special promo code today, T-O-D-A-Y, we're going to give you 20%. Off when you check out. That's right.
We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearbread today.
