We like to soften and pacify our sins with cute little Christian names. This is my struggle. This is my personal obstacle to overcome. But we often forget that our sin has very deadly repercussions. Let's talk about it.
Coming up right now, I want to quickly read 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, and thank you for joining us once again for another episode of the Clearview Today Show here in the studio with our host, Dr.
Abadan Shah. If you're listening for the very first time today, we want to say welcome to the show. Thank you for tuning in, and we want to let you know exactly who's talking to you. 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. Shaw, welcome to Clearview Today. It's good to be here. Amen. Welcome, welcome.
You know, we're excited about the show today. Clearview Today exists to bring things into focus.
Sometimes the world can come in with its lies, the world can come in with its opinions and cause some blurring to happen in our views and in our lives. But Clearview Today exists. Dr. Shah comes and brings a scholarly mind and a pastor's heart to bring things into a clearer, sharper focus for our lives. Amen.
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We're going to continue in the conversation about James, Dr. Shaw. But before we do that, is there anything new happening for you in like the scholarly realm and academics? Anything you're working on, papers, articles? We've been diving into James so frequently, we just forget to stop and ask, what's going on?
How are things going?
Well, a lot of things are going on. Of course, everybody knows about the Greek New Testament that is scheduled to come out in the next, I would say, maybe three weeks. Most of our edits are done. Everything is taken care of. And it's just a matter of time before we will have the copy ready to send out.
And I would say maybe three weeks out. Yeah, that's all.
So that's a big one. Of course, we're Doing our podcasts, learn to read New Testament Greek, learn to read Biblical Hebrew. These are big, people are really enjoying them. They're being met with a lot of success and excitement. But they're also a paper I'm writing.
I finished writing a book review a couple months ago on a book that came out last year, and now I'm working on a paper that I have sent out the proposal to ETS. And hopefully, everything goes well. That I'll be presenting that paper come November. Too soon to talk about the topic. Yeah.
I would say so.
Okay. But it's not because I'm trying to keep it from people. I just want to make sure in case the, you know, the committee decides that I need to taper that topic a little bit or take it in a different direction. I want to make sure I don't put a topic out there that will conflict with what they're talking about. Do any papers that you've ever presented stand out as being like more difficult papers, like or papers that made you more nervous than the other ones?
Like do you have one in your mind that sticks out as the more difficult one? There have been lots that way. I can't think of one right away, but I mean, every one of them is difficult because papers are not just introductory articles. You don't just take those papers and introduce the people to a generic subject. You have to.
Talk about something that the listeners or the attendees really want to learn about, know about, and they cannot find their information by just going to an encyclopedia or a dictionary. This ain't like an undergrad book report. No, you have to really give them something very unique. Have you ever seen someone present a paper where they're just summarizing a topic? Oh, yes.
I was in a paper one time and I felt it right away that I had read the information that was being presented. I had read it before, and I was sort of. You know, just quietly listening, and then I saw people. Chatting with each other behind me, and they were, you know, they were saying, Hey, that is an article from so-and-so dictionary. And I was like, thought so, but I don't know why this Gentleman decided to present that as an article, and how in the world did that get accepted?
Do you think there's a chance? But do you think? Yeah, how did this get passed? Do you think there's a chance that he just missed it that he just didn't know or Was he aware that it had already existed? He's like, I'm just going to put this forward as my own.
Well, starting out, PhD students or THM students are trying to enter the world publishing. And so they're just trying to get a proposal accepted. They just want somewhere to present a paper.
So They feel like, man, this is a good topic. And I think there'll be a good attendance. And actually, there was a good attendance for that gentleman's paper. And I think the title may have been a little misleading, if I remember correctly. It was on the papyri.
But. what he ended up reading could be found In an introductory Article on papyri. Oh, no. And so that was not good.
So you preach every single day. We're going to get into James in a second, but this just popped into my mind. I want to ask this. You preach every single weekend. You do this radio show every single day.
You are no stranger to public speaking. You've been public speaking for the better part of 30 years. Do you ever get nervous presenting a paper? Every single time.
So I'm going to give you a million dollars, but it might make the nerves, it might make the nerves a little worse. Every paper that you present in an academic setting, you have to read it as Bob Dylan's singing. Oh, I mean, but it's guaranteed to be a show-stopping paper. Like, it's going to be, it's going to be very impactful.
So, clarifying question: does he read the paper sounding like Bob Dylan singing, or does he transform into Bob Dylan on stage? No, no, no, no, no. You are doing a Bob Dylan impression. But I'll give you, since it's a million, you'll have a guitar instrumentalist. Like, there'll be someone there backing you up.
Dr. Abadan Shah as Bob Dylan.
So, a couple years ago, I did a paper on the Ephesians 5:30 variant, which is Christ's body, the church, as flesh and bone.
So, I will be something like introduction: the variant at Ephesians 5:30. You guys know that. Has been a point of contentions for Texas. Is that what I would do? Quiet some time.
Sean Arining as preferred by critical text in A and U B. Yeah, you got to see it. People hold lighters up and they're just into it. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. It'll be a smash hit. You just got to make yourself do it for a million. There's going to be one person who loves Bob Dylan. Who's that?
Is my mentor. I thought that's what I said. Dr. Maurice Robinson. I can see that.
He loves Bob Dylan. I can see that. To be like such a, I don't say bookworm as like a, he's just a very, very studious guy. Yeah. But super into music.
I was not expecting that. Very passionate. I didn't realize that picture. He had a framed picture of himself playing bass in a really cool-looking rock band.
Well, he still plays bass, doesn't he? I don't know if he does it. Like on a group or anything, I don't think that's the house. Yeah, the house probably just picks it up, he picks and probably plays. Very cool, man.
You're a million dollars richer. All right, well, we got to jump into things.
So, we've been in this conversation about backsliding, and there's been so much to tackle here, so much to understand about what backsliding is, what it's not, and the danger that it poses in our lives. And last time, we talked about our responsibility to our brothers and sisters who we might see who are backsliding. How do we approach that? And Dr. Shah, you reminded us that the key thing to do, number one, is pray, and number two, approach with an attitude of humility.
Right. Make sure that you are cognizant of that, you are also vulnerable to the very sin that you're trying to help that person come out of. That could be any sin, that could be a sin of bitterness, that could be a sin of envy, jealousy, anger, lust, greed. Insecurity. Pride, I don't know if I've already mentioned pride, it could be any of those sins.
And if you're not careful, while you're trying to help somebody, they may just drown you in the process. Just like a lifeguard when they go out into the sea. Most times it's at sea that this happens, not as much in swimming pools, where the person who is being. Who is struggling, they will jump on top of the lifeguard and they feel like, man, you can handle this. And I can jump on top of you whether you breathe or not.
It's not my concern. I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about me breathing. You handle yourself. Yeah, you figure it out.
So they'll jump on you. You'll probably be a flotation device, right? Right. That's how they see it. And so.
you know, make sure you are aware of the The dangers inherent in trying to help somebody. But we should do everything possible. To To in humility in wisdom step out and help someone that's right. You know, one of the things absolutely one of the things we talked about yesterday was this fear, this rational fear, this rational concern, I guess, of the person not, you know, if I confront someone or talk to someone about their sin, you know, they're not going to react well. They're probably going to react in anger or defensiveness.
But one thing we didn't really have time to get to was the this tendency we have to justify, to minimize our sin. And, you know, we kind of talked about that in the hook of the show: is that this isn't sin. This is just my struggle. This is my little person. This is my obstacle that God has put in my life.
Soften the language. Because, yeah, because if I soften language, if it's my struggle, well, shoot, everybody got struggles. Right. And I think a lot of times we forget the consequences, the very deadly consequences of sin. Especially the sin in our lives as it relates to the people around us.
Yeah, there may be some people who are listening that are like, oh, I understand the consequences of sin. But Dr. Shaw, just for our listening audience, who maybe we don't have a clear picture on what the consequences of our sin and our backsliding are, maybe we're in that mindset of this is my struggle, or this is my, you know, this is my cross to bear, my burden that I have to deal with. What is really at stake?
Well, it just made me think of the, I've heard Christians say that, like, this is my burden, this is my cross to bear. And it's like, it almost seems valorous. It almost seems like there's some. You sound like a hero. Yeah.
Like, this is my sin that I commit. No, no, no, no. This is my burden to bear. My cross to bear. No, this is your disgusting sin.
Like, disobedience, right? Let's call it what it is. Yeah. And treat it with the appropriate amount of disgust.
Well, that actually takes us right into the very last scripture in the book of James, which is James chapter 5 and verse 20. James says, Let him know talking about the person who is going out to rescue somebody. Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
So, yes. Once you have been forewarned, be careful, be humble, you are susceptible, you are vulnerable to the very sin that you're trying to help a brother or a sister come out of.
Now Don't just sit back and play it safe. Do step out and help that person. and that requires courage. That requires Fearlessness. And what will happen when you do that?
Well, you will save a sinner from the error of his way and save a soul from death. Save a soul from death. Does that mean that a person who is sinning? Is going to physically die. That could be.
In the New Testament, in the Old Testament, we have several examples of believers who sinned and they were punished by death. Old Testament, you see that happening in the wilderness. Right when they built the golden calf, many of them were punished By death, God struck them. Then the ground opened up and swallowed them. Then Achan, who stole things from Jericho when he was not supposed to, and hid him in his tent, and his family were killed for that very sin.
So yes, in the Old Testament, in the New Testament you also see that. Ananias and Sapphira. They were lying to God about their tithing, they were lying to God about their gifts.
Now, they could have kept the money for themselves. But the fact that they lied and said that we are giving everything when they were not. They died. Of course, Ananias died first. And then when The men of the church picked him up and buried him.
It's kind of very odd. that his wife didn't even know. And when she shows up, Peter asks her the same question. And. She also lied.
And the same men, young men who had taken her husband out to the cemetery carried her dead, lifeless body to the grave.
So the question comes up, do people die today Because of sin, does God strike people to death? When they sin, And the answer is no. He said, Wait a minute. Didn't he do that in the Bible? Yes, he did.
Many times God did certain things in the Bible to be an example for us.
So that we would understand how seriously God takes sin. Yeah. Uh Paul talks about that. In Corinthians, I believe that things happened to the people of the wilderness, the Hebrews who were going through the wilderness into the promised land. Many of the things happened as examples.
Mm-hmm. Does that mean today We need to say, God, give me manna from heaven and I will spend my life serving you.
Well, you can pray all you want to, you can have all the faith you want to. But there's not going to be any bread falling from heaven. You can strike any rock. Water's not coming out. You can speak to the rock.
water is not coming out.
So what is the lesson there? Those things happen to them as an example for us. That we depend on God for our sustenance. Not just physical nourishment, but also spiritual nourishment. We depend on God.
And you cannot store up Bread For the next day, or the day after, or a month from now.
Well, how does that apply to our spiritual lives? You cannot. store up spiritual bread For next day and next month, and so on, each day give us this day our daily bread. Yeah, yeah, good point.
So, these are important principles that happen to help. Us today, and people in the biblical times as well. Learn about God, His ways, and what He requires of us. Yeah, I think that's a great point because a lot of us. Because we know that, you know, we know that God is not going to strike us dead for our sins because I've sinned many times in my life and He's not going to, I think maybe that.
Contributes. I think we're missing the follow-through. You know what I'm saying? As Christians, we're missing the follow-through of. Because I'm not dying.
My sin doesn't have deadly consequences. Right. And we did a great series on the book of Romans a while back that I think a lot of people should go back and listen to if you're joining for the first time or if you've just started listening to the show recently. Great, great series on how death works as a physical, as a, as a force, you know what I'm saying? As a spiritual force.
We often think like, oh, it's just, my sin is going to make my life run a little worse. It's like putting the wrong oil in my car. It's just not going to run as good. Yeah. Dr.
Shaw, what can we do to kind of recapture that idea of the painful consequences of sin? When, when, I mean, if we're being honest, there are some times that we sin here on earth and there aren't immediate painful consequences. consequences that we experience. I would say most of the time there aren't. Yeah.
I would say almost Almost one hundred percent of the time, they're not. Why am I not saying one hundred percent? Because I'm not God. I don't know what God may be doing.
So most of our lives we sin, but death doesn't come. We can deny God in the church. We can deny God on the pulpit and we don't die. We can cheat God, steal from God, we're not going to die.
So that should tell us that what happens In the Old Testament and the New Testament, it is simply to warn us and say, This is how seriously God takes sin. Of course, His grace is there, He forgives, He wants you to come back to Him, He wants you to repent. But this is how seriously he takes sin. That's right. Don't presume.
On God's patience. and mercy and long suffering and compassion. Don't presume on that. Treat him as if that could happen to you right now. Yeah.
You know, I think about my kids. My kids are in that stage where if they go for that outlet, right? You pop their hand and then they associate immediate pain with that outlet. But what happens that one time where they wander a little too close and maybe they don't stick their finger in, but they're just touching the plastic and I'm not there. That pain doesn't happen.
And they think, okay, so this is okay after all. And we would look at that and say, well, what a silly kid. But that's exactly what we do with our sin. When that immediate pain doesn't come, we go, okay, I guess. Yeah, maybe this is all right.
Maybe God's fine. Yeah, maybe God doesn't know. Maybe God's okay with this. And it's funny because we talked about this in James earlier in the series. We deceive ourselves.
Right. Yeah. Well, it happens all the time. That's why there are a lot of Christians out there who. Especially the ones who grew up in church, grew up with the fear of God, grew up with biblical teaching, grew up with parents who took them to church and taught them the fear of the Lord, the holiness, not to minimize the grace of God, that Christian life is not what you do for God, is what has been done for you.
None of those things. I mean, all that is true. But you still have a sense of fear and awe. What happens when those restraints are sort of removed and they begin to experience the world and they do things that they were forewarned? If you do that, If you do that, God's judgment is going to come on you.
But God's judgment doesn't come. What happens to them in their 19-year-old, 20-year-old, 25-year-old, 30-year-old mind, they go, Mom and dad were trying to scare me. They were simply trying to scare me because I do those things, the very things they said don't do, I do. Nothing happens. Oh.
So All these Christianity stuff is simply Lies, smoke and mirrors, just trying to scare you to be good boys and girls. It's not real. But that's not true. Your parents were right to teach you what they were teaching. But you should have had enough sense to go, yeah, I know.
what they told me may not happen when I do those things. But the potential is there. But even greater The principle is true. Just because I don't die. When I do that thing, does not mean God doesn't hate that sin.
Yeah, that's right. And I think something else you've said, I think you might have said this in Romans. You may have said it when you were preaching through James earlier in the month. That when you expect this cataclysmic consequence, this really obvious Consequence for your sin. You don't notice that.
Day by day, you start taking on a death-like existence. Exactly. You know what I mean? Your days are more, they're just grayer, they're more lifeless. Your joy is gone, and you think that you're getting away with it when really, more and more gradually, your existence is becoming more death-like, your life is leaving you.
Yeah. Right. It may not be spiritual death in the same sense that you're going to die. And be in hell. A place of burning A place where the worm never dies, a place of separation from God.
It's not like that kind of death will happen, but there will be a death-like existence. As if You are at odds with God, your Heavenly Father. Don't have a proper relationship with him. I think that you have just spoken to a lot of people who are listening. I think that there are people who are listening and watching that really resonate with that and maybe haven't clocked it before this moment.
But now they're realizing, as you've said, that death-like existence that believers start to take on. They're realizing, you know, that is how I've been living my life. I've been just kind of quietly existing from day to day, but my life is slowly draining out of me. Like there's a wound, and I'm just slowly bleeding to death. Yeah.
And this sort of Speaks to you, just know that it's not too late for you to turn back. Yeah, that's right. You can turn back right where you are by simply asking God to forgive you, to give you the strength. In fact, Jesus, be my strength, be my grace, be my wisdom. Be my truth, be whatever I need to be able to turn away from this sin.
Because that flamboyant Unrestrained lifestyle is not making you happy. It has already begun the death-like existence in your heart. What are some symptoms of that death-like existence that people who are listening maybe can identify in their lives? People become cynical. They're cynical towards Christianity.
They become very judgmentable judgmental towards other Christians. They become very suspicious of everything they have been taught. They they they they no longer You know, feel the presence of God. Not that God's presence is not there, but they no longer feel because right now they are in this angry mode that they've been lied to, that they've been deceived, or whatever. But they have gone down this wrong path.
So They they are unhappy. And they want others to be unhappy with them. And so if you don't join in with them, then they feel like, ah, you are so you're like the old guard. You you're just standing there protecting the kingdom when the kingdom has fallen apart. And you must gain something from this.
You must be part of the problem. You must be part of the system. If you have those kinds of thoughts about other people, I'm sorry that you've been hurt. But Doing this and behaving this way is not going to bring you back. Yeah, it's not going to give you the peace you think.
That's right. You know, I think about Christians who who are who are bona fide Christians who are going back into the world, right? And how you can't really enjoy either life. Because as a Christian, when you sin, you don't even really get to enjoy the sin that you're committing because you know it's wrong. You know it's of the world and you know you have to now repent, come back.
But then even as a Christian, you've got the, you can't enjoy the Christian life because you're living a death-like existence. And you can't enjoy the secular life.
So you're just miserable on both sides. Right. Yeah. It's crazy. It's sad, but that's what many people are.
And and then the the moral, social, ethical, or n or unethical agenda of the world is very attractive.
So so many of these people who grew up in one Kind of value system, they jump ship and they begin to advocate for those things that at one time were sin.
Now I am the stalwart. I am the person who leads the charge against all those old values or supposed good values. They're not good, they restrain people, they demean people. They don't value people, so I'm going to stand for those people. All of that is part of a death-like existence.
And maybe that's you. Yeah. So bringing it back to James and bringing it back to this idea that it is, as Christians, it's our, if that's not happening to us, if it's happening to someone in our life, that we have a moral obligation, a responsibility to step in to do that. That's right. Yeah.
And turn them back. Listen again to James chapter 5 and verse 20. Let him know, let her know, that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way or her way will save a soul from death, the deathlike existence.
Now, it could be physical death. That's why I said I cannot say that 100%, but I would go as close as 99.99999% because. God doesn't do those things anymore. If He did, we would all be dead right now. Right.
But He uses them as examples.
So, what can we do? We can look at this passage as the death-like existence that comes over people when they're living in outright rebellion against God or they're walking into some sin. Maybe really. Docile sin, or maybe really a flagrant sin. It just depends.
But there's a death-like existence. You can avoid this. Secondly, and will cover a multitude of sins.
So, It's not just that you right now are Our Skeptical about God, or you are condescending towards other Christians, or you are. You know, you want to spend the rest of your life exposing the old religion. that dominated and controlled you. Just know when you go down that path and think you got to become the hero who leads this charge. There are a lot more sense coming.
So, if I can come along and gently and firmly and biblically and wisely and graciously turn you around. I will prevent a whole lot of sins one day or more. When you see life outside of yourself, when you see how your actions, even your good actions, can impact other people and influence other people, you begin to see the other side too: how your bad actions, how your sin, how your disobedience to God can influence people negatively. And you understand a little bit more like the collateral damage of sin in your life. We are really close to out of time, but Dr.
Shaw, someone's listening to this, they're resonating with this. They know there's someone in their life they're ready to reach out to. Just 30 seconds. What would you say to them? I would say to you, it's not too late to come back.
Think about the prodigal son. He. Came to the end of himself. It says he realized that the servants back home were eating better than what he was eating with the pigs. And so he got up, he said, I'm going to go back and I'm going to apologize to my father.
I'm going to tell him, please let me just be a higher servant. I'm nothing, I'm nobody. And his father was waiting for him. He saw him from a distance and rushed over and hugged his neck and kissed him and brought him in. That's what God wants to do with you.
He's not waiting to judge you or deal with you, He wants to bring you home.
So if you are walking. In send? Going down this road of death and multitude of sins. It's not too late to turn around. Come back and find God's healing and God's grace.
Amen. So loveful. And we hope that you who are listening out there, whether this applies to you or to a loved one, that you take this to heart and you can help literally save someone's life from the right flag exists. That's exactly right. Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow, same time, same station.
We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clear View Today Show. Today's your first time listening to us. Hey, welcome to the Clear View Today Show, family. Write in and let us know where you're listening from. 252-582-5028.
Don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show anywhere podcasting content can be found. And that also gives you a great link to share with your friends and family. And you can always support us financially at Abadanshah.com forward slash gift. That's right. Thank you to everyone who is supporting us financially every single month, making the show possible.
And thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered your copy of the Byzantine Text Form 2026 edition. Just like Dr. Shaw said earlier, it's going to be out in the next few weeks. We cannot wait for you guys to have your copy. And if you want to get this copy and you don't read Greek, you don't have to worry about it because just like he mentioned, we're starting.
A brand new podcast this summer. In fact, I think the next, I think the first episode is going to drop in the next week or so. It's called How to Read Biblical Greek with Dr. Abadan Shah. It's a live lecture series that you can watch for absolutely free on iTunes and Spotify.
Edywerb video podcasts are supported, YouTube as well. But our promise to you is this: if you engage, if you really, really commit this summer to learning and listening to these series every single week, you will be reading your Greek New Testament before the summer's out. That's right. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear Vee Today.
