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. Every Christian likes to pretend that we don't get angry, or if we do get angry, we have a very solid grasp and understanding on how our anger works. But is that actually true? Grappling with this and more coming up right now on the Clearby Today Show. 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. Welcome to the Clearview Today studio. We've got a great conversation today through the book of James, continuing our little mini-series on anger in the Christian life.
But before we dive into that, we want to let you know exactly who's talking to you. We're here with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. If you're joining us 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, welcome. Good to be here. Good to see you. Good to see you.
We've been going through the book of James and we're talking about trials, talking about temptations. And yesterday we landed on anger, right? James is talking about when you get angry. And it was funny because we started thinking about it and we started talking a little bit off mic and we started talking about all these other emotions that we feel, right? Helplessness.
We talk about like hopelessness, fear, rejection, anxiety. These are all hard to contend with.
So instead of dealing with those emotions, I'm just going to get mad. Because that's the easy routine. That's easy.
Well, I mean, just think about in your house or anywhere for that matter, when you have certain jobs to do, there are certain tools for certain jobs.
So if I have to screw something in, you know, it requires, let's say it requires a Phillips head.
So I got to go find the Phillips head screwdriver, bring it in. Put that star on it and then start turning it.
Something else requires an Allen wrench.
Well, I have to go find an Allen wrench and then put it inside that hole and then turn it. Oh, there you go, it works.
Something else requires a level or something just to make sure that that window frame is right. But you know, I can fix all of those things with a sledgehammer. Right. Right. And quickly, too.
Yeah. I can take the sledgehammer. That Phillips head screw, I can take the sledgehammer on that Allen wrench door. I can take the sledgehammer on the window. Yeah, I thought you were going to fix that.
Absolutely. I thought you were going to fix the loose socket. It's fixed.
Now there's no socket. There's no socket to be loose. It's fixed.
100%. That's exactly what anger does. I've done it many times. I've taken a sledgehammer when a Phillips head screwdriver was needed. Yeah.
And so, yeah, you can get the job done, but it's going to have a lot of damage. It's going to look ugly and it will have a big. hole right there for you to look at All the time.
So, also the memories that happen because of anger, and you know, in those moments we don't think about it, but then we find all the devastation that we leave behind because of anger. Relationships. break down People get hurt, they are impacted for life. Your testimony is damaged. I mean, so much.
I can go on and on. That's what happens when you use the sledgehammer. That's a great point because, I mean, just carrying that analogy through, if you use a sledgehammer to tap in a screw, not only is that one instance, we're past that problem, like the screw is through the wall at this point, the screw is in smithereens, but now there's a hole that you have to contend with. And until you repair that hole, it's going to be there gaping in the middle. Can you truly ever make it to where the wall didn't have the hole in the first place?
Yeah. And I remember, you know, one of the things that you taught us as we started problem solving here at Clearview as a team is that if you have an idea, if you've got a problem, the first solution that pops into your mind is usually, usually not the one that you're going to go with. Typically, when something like that happens, the very first emotion that pops up is anger. You know what I'm saying? It's just because I don't know.
I haven't parsed this out. I don't know how to feel about it. I'm just going to get mad.
Now, choosing to act on this is sort of in that same vein. When we act that way, we're being barbaric. We're being unreasonable. We're being illogical. And what is needed at that moment is for us to have reason and logic and thinking and understanding.
I mean, that's what James is talking about. Slow to speak, swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. There's a place for anger. There's a place to use the sledgehammer. It may be on a tent peg.
It may be on something else that really requires a lot of force and a lot of strength and weight. That's where it needs to be used. But you're using it in such delicate places. Yeah. Where it's not really doing the job, it's just destroying.
So thinking. Taking the time to think. And that's what's happening in our culture right now. I'm not talking about in parts of the world where people are being barbaric. Right here in America, it's happening where people are quickly blowing up, quickly getting angry.
Why? Because we feel like it gets the job done. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There's definitely been, I've looked at things online that teach you or try to teach you how to have your social media posts go viral, how to get more attention.
And the number one thing almost always is, and they won't say it in such straightforward, blunt language, but the name of the game is make people angry. If you make people angry, they will share, they will engage, they will comment, they will fire back. And then people get to arguing, and all of a sudden, you're popular on the internet because you know how to make people mad. I feel like anger often accomplishes, maybe there's more than just two, but landing on two outcomes in whoever the anger is aimed at. It either elicits a similar emotional response, like if I get angry at you, you're going to get angry back at me.
And then we are just in this anger war, or it just shuts. The person down. Like you're this tirading monster. I'm just, I'm going to give you a wide berth because I'm scared you're going to blow your top. Yeah, yeah.
And none of those things make for a healthy relationship. Whether you're doing that in your family, whether you're doing it in your office, whether you're doing that in your community, they do not make for healthy, long-lasting, prosperous relationships. And that is, I just feel like that is being so funneled into our community right now, like with a fire hydrant. It's being funneled into our community through social media, through, through. TikTok reels constantly seeing fights, constantly seeing people punching each other's lights out, or calling each other some of the ugliest names.
And I'm not saying that those things never happened before. Of course they did. But now every single one of us are constantly being exposed to, being bombarded with, being assaulted by these things. It is making a difference in our way of thinking. It is making a difference in the way we see people.
It is making a difference It's not just how we treat people out there. On the road. or in the grocery store, We're in a line somewhere, but it's in how we're treating people right here in our homes. That's right. That's right.
So, this subject about anger. If you're listening, if you're viewing, don't discard it. Don't change the channel. Don't find another podcast. Maybe you need to hear this.
Yeah. Because God is speaking to you. And don't do that thing that I feel like 99% of Christians do, whereas they say, well, this was righteous anger. And they find some way to make it holy. They find some way to make it like, no, no, no.
This is like me acting like Jesus when he flips the table over. I'm mad at a righteous cause. Therefore, this anger is completely over. I don't think so. Yeah, I've seen so many people try to do that.
Well, you know, Jesus got angry, God got angry. Yeah. And and if you're very pleased with your life right now, Just go and change this podcast. Move on to something right. If life is just ACEs, if it's just sunshine and rainbows and puppy dogs for you.
Yeah. And if your family around you is very happy with the way you've been behaving lately, maybe change. Yeah. Don't listen to this anymore. But if they're not.
If things are not right, if right now there is that pebble in your shoe, it means something is not right, then it's time for you to submit to what God's word has to say. And that's why we're going through the book of James because we're not giving just opinion ideas. Get to the Bible. My ministry is based on the Bible, the Word of God. If the Bible says it, it matters not what your opinion says.
That's right. That's right. That's right. It doesn't matter what my opinion is. How do I see the world issues?
How do I see psychological and emotional problems? How do I see spiritual problems? I see it through the lens of the Bible first and foremost. Rest will come. That's right.
But the Bible is primary. If it's not, If you cannot begin with the Bible, Then please don't even talk to me about it. There you go. There you go. And on this matter of anger.
James says in James chapter 1, verse 20, For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. The wrath of man. That's very significant, right? Because it doesn't say wrath at all. It just says the wrath of man.
Well, now, wait a minute. We said on yesterday's episode that. Ain't got a God experiences anger. God displays anger.
So us getting angry is tied to our emotional capacity that God has given us. Right. So how does our anger. Differ here? How is our anger not?
Acceptable. Because God is righteous, God is holy. He stands for things that matter. We get easily threatened or frustrated or stressed out, or somebody doesn't do exactly what we want them to do when we want them to do it. Right.
The core of our anger is selfishness. The core of God's anger is holiness. Right. Big difference. Yeah, I think about that when God got angry with his people, or when you see God getting angry in the Bible, it's not because he's threatened, like, oh, if they worship other gods, then they may leave me and I won't be God anymore.
Like, he's not threatening zero of his concern because he is God. There is no other God. Right. I mean, there might be demonic beings behind those gods, but there is no other God. Right, that's right.
But with us, like our anger is always out of fear or out of resentment. Yeah, it's always focused on me. Who am I? You know, when we talk about righteousness, I want to spend some time there because when he says the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God, what is the righteousness of God? Because.
The righteousness of God something we need to understand if that's what we should be producing. Because wrath gets in the way. The wrath. Destroys the righteousness of God in our lives, not the righteousness of God as in existing in the world. in eternity.
That's that will always be there no matter what you and I do today and tomorrow.
So, what is the righteousness of God? The Bible talks about two ways that we receive righteousness. The first way is when we get saved, we have what's known as positional righteousness.
Okay, we're standing in the righteousness of Christ. We talked about this, I think, in our Romans when we were going through the book of Romans. Absolutely. So when we are saved, You know, God applies to us the righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ. There's a transfer that takes place, He takes my sin.
And he gives me his righteousness. Positionally, I am declared righteous. In Philippians 3:9, it says, and be found in him. Not having my own righteousness. Which is from the law.
But that which is through faith in Jesus, in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.
So if God is looking at me, he sees Christ. He doesn't see that I earned this, that I'm now righteous because of what Christ did, but Christ's righteousness in me. It's yours, it's done. Right. Yeah.
That's a great point. Right. So it guarantees heaven to me. Mm-hmm. Amen for that.
Amen. Yeah, I mean, you and I, as sinners, cannot enter heaven, but we come standing in with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's right. But there is also a practical righteousness. Once we get saved, we have a new nature from God.
we have a new desire to live righteously before God. New desire means I don't want to keep doing the same sins that I was doing before. I don't want to keep being hateful. I don't want to go after lustful things. I don't want to be angry anymore.
I don't want to be bitter. I don't want to be self-centered. Selfish. Those are the things that get in the way of practicing my new nature. Romans 6:13 says, And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin.
But present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of. And Righteousness to God. Yeah. So this is: there's a nature righteousness which is already ours. Right.
But then there's also a practical righteousness which we live out every single day. Also, again, This is something that is gifted to us by God in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are able to do this. Moment you don't. you start living through your own self.
You will go back to the unrighteous ways.
So, when I'm angry, when I'm full of wrath, positionally, I'm righteous before God. I'm still saved. But practically, I'm not acting righteously, I'm not living a righteous life or a righteous moment. That's right. Which goes back to that whole piece about anger compromising your witness, compromising your ability to be an effective sharer of the gospel.
Because if you are just This monster, if you're just yelling and screaming and losing your temper at people, and then you go around and you talk about a God who's loving and a God who forgives. There's a disconnect there. Absolutely. There's a disconnect in the way that you're living and what you're saying that you believe. I even think how much more dangerous it is, because, like, we talked about this a little bit yesterday, but if you are, if you are like a hot-tempered, very outwardly angry person, yes, of course, you're not representing, you're not representing God, you're not living righteously.
But what about that person who knows how to bury their anger, who knows and understands that? Hey, I know I can't go around throwing tempered tantrums, but deep down inside, I'm going to let this poison faster. Oh, yeah, it happens all the time. Yeah. Yeah.
I think about that. Like, I can visually on the outside, exteriorly, represent God, and I can shine His light, quote unquote, to the outside world. But what am I really doing? What is it actually producing? Yeah.
You know what I mean? Absolutely. False or fake righteousness. That's right. And that's not what God wants from us either.
Because sooner or later, even that kind of righteousness, which is really false righteousness, that you're pretending to be all cool and calm, but you are just. One step away from blowing up, but you don't. You have a good handle on yourself. That can do two things. You can only pretend but so long before it You're put in the wrong situations at the wrong time, and then boom, there it goes.
or those around you know you for who you really are. You are a hypocrite. You are an unstable, an unstable person. You do not represent Jesus Christ. He do not represent.
the life that scripture talks about.
So, what does that do to your testimony where it destroys your testimony? And in the process, it also keeps people from going to heaven with you.
So The positional righteousness Gives heaven to us, right? With the righteousness of Christ, we can come into heaven. The practical righteousness takes others to heaven with us. I think that's so important because we think about, you know, my anger is only really hurting me and those who might be closest to me. Who are, if you're listening to this, probably they're already Christians and they're saved as well.
But tying our anger into the gospel message, into the way we evangelize and the way that we witness to people, I think is something that a lot of pastors and a lot of like people who would be giving this message don't talk about. This isn't something they talk about, that your anger may be keeping people, whether it's on the outside or in the inside, may be keeping people from coming to Christ.
Well, I don't know that people think about it, or maybe they just don't want to think about it. Maybe they don't just want to confront that reality. Like, I'll deal with other external sins. Like, I'll stop drinking. I'll stop, you know, looking at women wrong.
I'll stop quit smoking, all that kind of stuff. But the anger, I'm going to hold on to that. I'm going to keep it inside. And I don't want to deal with that because that's mine. And that's not healthy at all.
So, what does James say in verse 21? He says: Therefore, lay aside all filthiness. and overflow of wickedness, the laying aside It means to take off. Uh imagine Removing clothes, filthy clothes. You're l taking off the filthy clothes and putting on.
The righteous or the clean garments. What if someone, you know, I wish I'd brought this up yesterday, but what if someone's not at the place where they're ready to, like, like, for instance, Instead of saying, I would perfectly fine to do that, but the only reason I'm getting angry is because people are making me angry. People are doing me wrong. And maybe they actually are correct. People are actually mistreating them, or people are actually toxic in your life.
And the only way I know how to respond is to get angry and to get bitter and to resent these people. What do you do? You know, is that quote unquote righteous anger? I would say. You know, the old adage is still true: when you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, you'll do something.
So if you're sick and tired of souring your relationships, if you're sick and tired of being the person you have been for so long, so long, if you're sick and tired of blaming someone else, If you're sick and tired of defending your bad behavior and always rationalizing why you did what you did and you feel good about yourself, but you and I know, or you and your family knows, or you and your friends know, or you and your church family know, that's not true. We're just leaving you alone because it's not worth fighting with you. then it's time for you to make a change. you have to in your heart of hearts start feeling or sensing that a change needs to happen. But until then, you will keep doing the things you're doing, and people around you.
Pick up the broken pieces and you keep going.
So you have to come to that place that Enough is enough. This is not a good thing. How can I on one hand claim To be full of the Holy Spirit, or claim to be like Jesus Christ, or claim to be a person of the Bible. The word of God. And yet I do these things.
Yeah. Whatever those things may be. There needs to be a recognition and then An action. I hope people are listening to this, because I think There are so many people. Who Just won't do that.
Who won't come to that place? There's plenty who will. Like maybe it's later in life, and they're like, Hey, yes, I need to make a change. I need to get my anger, my bitterness, my emotions, whatever. I need to get it under control.
I think about the hundreds of thousands of people who will just go to their graves without ever fixing this problem. Oh, yeah. I'm confident there's a lot of listeners and viewers out there who, as Dr. Shaw, as you've been talking about this situation, as you've been describing what anger does and how we hold onto it and how it affects us and how it affects those around us. If you're being honest, You know that this is about you.
Yeah. If you're honestly looking in the mirror and how your family is responding to you and how your friends are responding to you, how your coworkers steer clear of you when you've had a bad day, you know that this is about you. You know that there's an issue here with your anger, with your temper, and something needs to be done. Action needs to be taken. Yeah.
It's sad because I, like I said, I really every episode of ours gets you know a few thousand downloads, and that means that there's a few thousand people on iTunes everywhere else. I'm sure it's more. But I think about the millions of people who struggle with this: billions. Yeah. all over the world.
who are just going to continue. Dr. Shaw, what is the hope?
Well, again, go back to the word. It's right here in verse twenty-one, and receive with meekness. Hmm.
Okay, you have to humble yourself. And that is very, very, very hard. This is what got Satan in trouble because of pride and arrogance. He refused to humble himself and he took a stand against God and rest is history.
So, also with us, when we refuse to be humble and acknowledge that, yeah, I messed up. There are times that You didn't mess up. There are times you do mess up.
So you have to receive with meekness the implanted word.
Now, in our next show, we'll talk about the implanted word. But Keep in mind there is the written word. This is the scripture. When you receive the written word, Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. That is the gospel, that Jesus died for you, buried, rose again, and only trusting in him and his sacrifice for your sins that you can be saved.
You receive that written word. It may not be a Bible put in front of you, but that's where it is coming from. At that moment, the word is implanted in your heart. The word is sown in your heart It's not the worst sewn, but it's something like that. We can look at it the next show.
And then the implanted word gives you a desire for the written word. Hmm.
Okay? The implanted word gives you a desire for the written word, and the more you get into the written word, the more that written word is implanted in your heart. It fuels each other. Right. Yeah.
So it begins when you receive the gospel from the written word.
Now the word Of Christ is implanted in your heart. And what is that word? It's probably very basic. That you are now a child of God. Very basic.
that now you have to submit to the leadership of Jesus in your life. The leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Now you are to walk in the Word. It's very simple. For some who have grown up in a Christian home, maybe you went through a wanna, it's a whole lot. The moment you get saved, it's a whole lot that is implanted in your heart. Why?
Because already the work was done. Mm-hmm. So you're like, man, I tell you what, now I know I need to go soul winning. I need to tell people about Jesus. I need to get in the word.
I need to start a Bible study. I really always wanted to study the book of James.
So I'm going to start that at my workplace. And I have notes from back in the day, but man, I didn't pay attention to those notes, but now I have it. And it's great to see how the new creation in Christ works. There's so much more of the implanted word. Right.
But you're going into the written word. And the more of the written word implants, more of the word. Into your heart, and you become more and more like Christ. And It says right here, which is able to save your Souls.
Okay, this is not saving your soul as in salvation going to heaven, because that's also already happened in the context. Context is very, very important when you study the Bible. In the context, this is deliverance From sin and death. Remember, anger is why we're talking about this. Right.
Implanted word. which leads to the written word which put puts more of the implanted one in our hearts. Which goes takes us back to the written word, and it all begins because we receive Jesus Christ, which comes from the written word. All of this. keeps you now from sin and death?
Primarily in this context, a sin of anger. Because on the negative side of what you're, like the negative mirror of what you're laying out for us, just like we've been talking about these temptations, this temptation to get anger, when it's fully conceived and when it's fully born and fully grown, it will lead to death. Absolutely. Absolutely. This saving of your souls is preventing that from happening.
Yeah, it's going full circle. Yeah. Dr. Shah, how do we implant more of the Word?
Well, I would say just get into the Word of God. If you're not saved, you need to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Right, like today. Today, yeah. If you're sick and tired of destroying relationships, hurting people, yeah, there will be consequences if you've done that.
But coming to Christ will not like All of a sudden, put a reset on your life, but now you will have the ability to do things God's way, however, many years you have left. You can do things God's way. That's a great point. I think that should be its own episode. Absolutely.
And then if you're already saved, you already have the implanted word, get into the Bible. Get into the word of God. Genesis to Revelation. Start reading it every single day. Amen.
Dr. Shaw, on the chance, in the time that we have left, there's somebody listening and they have gotten to this point in the episode and they realize, you know, I thought I understood, but I realize now that I don't have a relationship with God. I realize now that I am not a Christian. I've never given my life to the Lord. Do you want to lead them in a prayer as we close the episode?
Just so that person out there who's listening, you can have the implanted word in your life. Absolutely. Right now, right wherever you are, you may be driving down the road. You may be, you know, sitting in a waiting room somewhere, a doctor's office. Maybe you are taking a break from work.
Or just at home, you're just scrolling on your phone, and this podcast showed up, or this program came up on your Pray.com or Truth Network or wherever, or TBN Plus. It's very simple. Ask Jesus to come into your heart. Tell him that you believe that he is God's Son who died in your place. He died so you don't have to die.
And receive him right now as your savior. You need to be saved. That's right. And so pray with me. Dear Jesus, Thank you, for dying on the cross for my sins.
Thank you for rising from the grave. And now I need you to come into my life. Forgive me of my sins. and take over. Help me to live for you.
Help me to follow your word, the Bible. Help me to now live in the power and the direction of the Holy Spirit. Help me, Lord, to serve you and share the gospel with others. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. And if you prayed that prayer for the first time today, we want to hear from you and rejoice with you and encourage you in your walk with God. Write in and let us know at 252-582-5028. We'd love to help you take those next steps as you get more of the implanted word in your life.
That's right. Such a great episode today, 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 show anywhere podcasting content can be found. And you can also support us financially at Abhadansha.com forward slash give. That's right. We got a big, big, big apologetics conference happening March 28th right here at Clearview Church, Henderson, North Carolina. You can get all of the details in the description below.
You can register at conference registration. It's just a little link. You're going to click on it. And if you use our promo code today, T-O-D-A-Y at checkout, we're going to give you 20% off when you check out for your tickets. Also, after the conference, we are making a big, big, big announcement on the show.
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