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 John Galantis, and welcome to the Clearview Today Show with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. Dr.
Shah, I almost introduced myself as Ryan Hill. I was so used to the cadence of I'm Ryan Hill, I'm John Galantis, I almost said it, even though I know that's not my name. Yeah, I was about to say. Find out more about it. Ryan Clearview Tradition.
He always has the best little pick-me-ups. Let's talk about that a little more. Let's discover it. Let's dive in right here at Clearview Today. I'm like, he always gets it.
He just gets it. We miss him. We miss Ryan. Yes. We do miss Ryan.
Yes, we miss Ryan. We miss David. We miss a lot of the staff. You know, a lot of people don't know this because of the movie magic of radio making, I guess I should say that way, is that you were actually traveling for a good bit. Yeah.
You were traveling for a week and a half. half two weeks? Just about two weeks. Yeah. It began with a conference on biblical manuscripts.
Specifically, for those who are interested in textual criticism and biblical manuscripts, it is a manuscript known as GA 629. It's a diglot, which means there are two languages. Latin is the primary language.
Now, we know the New Testament was written in Greek, but. There are manuscripts where the Latin is more prominent. And the Greek, as hard as it is to believe, was originally the Byzantine text, but it was sort of forced to conform to the Latin text. Does that muddy the waters at all? Oh, yes, it definitely does.
Really?
So that's where you get readings like 1 John 5, which we call Kama Johannium, where it talks about there are three on earth. But then there are some manuscripts because of the Latin influence add that there are also three in heaven. Talking about the Trinity. But you're of the mind that that's not original. It's not original.
I believe it was a marginal reading in the Latin text. I mean, somebody put it in the margin. Almost like Oh, it says here there are three on earth.
Well, there's three in heaven.
So they put it. And somehow that marginal reading. Kind of creeped into or crept into the actual text of the Latin. Is it widely accepted that the three in heaven are not original, or is that hotly debated? No, people know that that's not really original because the Greek manuscripts don't have it.
Other than these few, But these few, there are a few manuscripts that have it. It's not correct. It's not accurate when people say. That because Erasmus did not include it, that somehow these manuscripts were created in the moment. That's not true.
There were some manuscripts there. And Kama Johanium, I'm sorry, the GA six twenty nine is one of those manuscripts that had it. And the reason it had it is because someone altered the text From the Byzantine text, which does not have the comma Johannium, it does not have the three in heaven. part and they conformed the Greek text to the Latin. And they and in the Greek text, it talks about the three in heaven.
Wow. And it's not. But it's only a couple manuscripts. It's only a few. It's a handful.
I would say maybe seven, eight, maybe.
Okay. Yeah. Okay. So pretty much everyone agrees this is not.
So what's the conference? If everyone's more or less in agreement, what is the conference?
Well, it was to sort of understand how manuscripts were corrupted. It's so to understand what to do now when it comes to looking at certain manuscripts. Because for a long time, they looked at the Greek text as if it was unique. Even though they were all agreed that this does not belong, they included it as a unique reading. And I'm sort of paraphrasing for the benefit of our readers or listeners, but.
It does not even belong as a unique reading. Really?
Yeah, because it's really trying to. It's not unique in the sense that it came from like. Close to the writing of the original manuscript. it came much, much later. to conform to the Latin.
Okay. So It doesn't need the status of a unique. It can just, I think, it should be listed in the. In the New Testament Greek apparatus as a Byzantine manuscript, because that's what it was originally. Did Nicole come to the conference with you?
No. Stayed in the hotel? No, she went and traveled around. I picked out some places for her to go, like museums and old churches and kind of sightsee in the town or the city of Leuven. Leuven is a college town, a university town.
So she spent her time just walking around, taking pictures, climbing towers. She had a great time. That's awesome. That was two days. She did a good time.
I had a good time.
So two days.
So the rest of the time you guys were together filming and we're all did you what countries it's crazy to say that but what countries did you visit three three different countries yeah we started with belgium because that's where the conference was in in in in leuven which is about thirty minutes east of Brussels. And so we went to Waterloo, where the famous battle took place, where Nap where Napoleon was defeated by Wellington and the and others. And we filmed there. And then we after the conference went to London. We filmed there.
There are several places I wanted to film in London. I was able to do that. Nice. Christmas play that's coming up 101 Dalmatians. You filmed the intro there.
The intro has been filmed in Regents Park.
Okay, that's the park from the story. Absolutely. Nice. Like, like when you see who are the main characters? I can't remember the humans' names, but Pongo and Lolo.
Purdy. Purdy. Purdy, yeah. Those are the dogs.
So the human characters kind of fall into the water. Right, they want to say Roger is the Roger's name, Roger and Anita. Yeah, you're right. That's it. That's it.
So years since I've seen that, yeah. Roger, you know, he's like on this bike, and Pongo is like dragging him away, and he falls into the lake. That's where you filmed? We filmed the lake too. That's fantastic.
We were on the bridge where they meet. Where they meet? Yes, we filmed there. Wow. Filmed at Roger and Pongo's apartment, The Bachelor Pad.
We filmed right outside. Wow. Yeah. I didn't know that one. Oh, yeah.
That's really cool. Remember the scene where he is looking out the window and he's seeing all these different dogs walking by and he's trying to find the mate for his in the live-action version? No. Oh, in the cartoon? In the conversation?
It's definitely been like at least 20 years since I've seen that movie. Maybe.
So we filmed right outside the apartment complex. Wow. That's awesome. It's going to be a great time. We're going ahead and telling you right now, getting early advertising out.
101 Dalmatians Christmas play happening at Clearview. And children are going to be in the play. This is a lot of kids. There's going to be at least 101 kids. Maybe not that many.
Well, I'm glad you had a great chip. And, you know, that was one of the blessings that we were able to get a lot of episodes done so that, you know, a lot of people didn't even know that you were traveling. They haven't missed a beat. And now they're ready to continue in Nehemiah. Yeah.
You know, we've been continuing this story in Nehemiah. We talked on yesterday's episode about your reputation, how these guys came after Nehemiah and how they damaged his reputation, or they tried to damage his reputation. He didn't take the bait. He didn't rise to it. He didn't get angry.
He didn't fall for their. Trap. And now in chapter seven, we see this sort of narrative shift. Right. Because now.
Nehemiah is challenging the people to give, to give money. You know, just like you said in the opener, we think just because God is behind the work, if God is blessing, then the money will just fall out of the sky. No, it's not going to be like that. Brick and mortar are not going to mysteriously and miraculously appear in a parking lot. You still have to give.
People still have to sacrificially give. And then you have to plan. You have to budget. You may have to take a loan and go and buy the materials and hire the right people and get the permits and then build. We've had to do that many times.
We're doing it right now. That's right. There's a building that's being renovated and reconstructed, and it's going to be amazing for our student ministry and children's ministry. But you've been in ministry for a long time. And so you've been sort of, I don't want to say playing the game, but I guess that's sort of the.
You've been in this world. You've seen how this goes. And if you're not. Business-minded as a leader, do you think it's easy to sort of overlook that or to just be like, I get discouraged? Like, I don't understand.
We're doing this for God, and it's just not happening magically. Yeah, there was a time where. For a brief period, I felt that way. But I grew up in a pastor's home, and I grew up with a dad and mom who worked very hard to see the church grow. And they were people of faith, they were people of incredible faith, but they still had to trust God and wait upon God and get people to understand the need for certain projects to happen and certain buildings to be built.
Like I remember as a little boy watching the extension of our church. I remember the old church. And then I remember one day dad talking about it's time for us to extend our church. we need double the seats. And I was a little kid.
I mean, this is under 10. I mean, I would say I was probably four or five years old. Were you excited? I I was to the best of my ability, I was excited. And then the day came where it was a big launch and everybody was making their promise or their what's the word I'm looking at their con like their their pledge.
Yeah, yeah. Their their pledge of how much they will give. And dad even had this I can see it right now. This Cardboard Slot like thing. And in the slot you could put in A quarter.
Like tons of quarters. And if you add up all those quarters, it would come to about. A hundred rupees or something like that.
So, even children could pledge, could give their contribute. And I remember getting one from my dad, and I said, How does this work? He said, Well, every time you earn something, you get it as a quarter, and you put it, you slide it into this little pocket here. And you keep adding those quarters into these slots. I said, How much is that?
Well, if you do it all, And it just like rows and rows and rows and turned over and rows and rows and rows. It comes to about 100 rupees. I said, Well, I want to do it. He said, okay, it may take some time. It may require you to do some work and earn some money to give.
And I did. And I remember. Yeah. You know, filling all the slots and then taking it to my dad and saying, Here it is. Wow.
And he said, Okay, and let's see. He's like, Yep, you did it. And guess what? That is 100 rupees. You have contributed 100 rupees to the building, to the extension of our church.
Wow. You still remember that to the day? I remember that. I remember that very clearly. In fact, it had a.
This cardboard-looking thing had a place. For the whole time That we were making this pledge and fulfilling our pledges to the church, to the Lord. You know, that that's something that has continued, that tradition has continued here at Clearview, because We encourage our kids to give. We encourage, even if it's just quarters, if it's nickels, if it's pennies, this heart of giving that's contributing to a larger mission, which is the church sometimes during the turkey race every Thanksgiving, or they do in Ijwana, they have the missions, the kid-to-kid missions that VBS does. But it's.
Encouraging children and in extension, the church family to be giving, to be contributing. For those of you who do not know the chicken or the turkey race, it's our Iwana kids who will raise funds by the chores or their allowance or whatever way, and they give money, and then we take all that money. and buy turkeys for a a Local ministry that we have between churches. It's called Acts. That's right.
Area Christians Together in Service. And we Cook the turkeys, the men of our church will take the money given by our children. Go buy turkeys, and we have like, I don't know, 70, 80 turkeys, if not more. There's a lot. It's a lot of turkeys.
And men will get here on the night before Thanksgiving. And they will Be here until like 1:30. Oh, one, two, maybe sometimes three in the morning. Because they grill out too. They grill burgers and fries for each other.
It's a big, big, it's a big event. Yeah. And last year we had probably the most men. I think we had like 50, 60, 50. 70 men.
It was a lot. And they'll cook the turkeys. And then the next morning. Our student ministry, our young people, middle school, high school. they come together and they will package everything.
And take it to Acts. And give it to the people. And you do a great job of promoting all of that visually, and not just so the community can see, but so that the children. Who gave to it, who gave their quarters and their nickels, can see that this person on Thanksgiving got to eat because you gave. Absolutely.
All of these men came and were able to do this because you gave. Absolutely. And we want our children, our students, to sacrifice because Thanksgiving is a day where we say, oh, This is a family time. This is a. Be at home time.
To the contrary, our men are here serving. To the contrary, on Thanksgiving morning, our students are here going to our local food kitchen and helping people. That's right. That is the spirit we need to have. That's right.
And somehow we hide behind, oh, this is family time. I need to be with my family. This is not a time for church. And so then you say, okay, well, we're going to make it even easier on you. And all we're asking is that you contribute, you donate, you give.
And even then, people are, not people really here, but just in general, people are like, what? You're going to ask for my money? First, you asked me to serve.
Now you just want my money? Like, what is with you guys? And I don't know where this comes from, Dr. Shaw. Maybe you can shed some light on this, where in the West, where people are objectively blessed.
I'm blessed beyond measure. We feel like the church shouldn't be asking us for our money. The church shouldn't be talking to us about how to manage our money. And that's just not biblical at all. Absolutely.
It's biblical, is what Nehemiah is teaching us here.
So if you go back to the text for a moment, and I'm reading here from Nehemiah chapter 7 and verse 70. Listen to what he says. And some of the heads of the fathers' houses gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury one thousand gold drachmas. 50 basins.
and five hundred and thirty priestly garments.
Some of the heads of the fathers' houses gave to the treasury of the work twenty thousand gold drachmas and two thousand two hundred silver minas. And that which the rest of the people gave was 20,000 gold drachmas. Keep in mind, I'm going to keep reading this in a moment. Keep in mind, these are people who came back from exile.
Now Contrary to what we often think, they were not slaves in Babylon. They were not slaves in Persia. They were given the opportunity to live in Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar and others, and later on by Cyrus, to flourish, to thrive, to thrive, to climb the ladder.
So it was not like, oh my goodness, we're in Persia or we're in Babylon and we are like slaves. No, they were given the chance to work hard. But even then, You are living such unpredictable lives. away from home. In a foreign land, trying to build yourself up, as we say in America, trying to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
So you have worked very hard, blood, sweat, and tears, to earn the money, to amass the wealth you have. Only to turn around and give it away like this? This was sacrificial. That's right. And so, do you think we've lost that in America?
Do you think we've lost that or just in the West? I don't think we have lost it, but I think there are forces around us.
Sometimes, even in the church, but secular forces who want us to lose it. As a leader, do you hesitate to talk about money? Is there like, like, not that it's like, hey, I'm not gonna do it, but do you have that check? Like, oh gosh, I know people like this. I do, I do.
And I am guilty of that because it's not the right thing to do. As pastors, we feel like, man, I don't want to ask people for money. I don't even want to talk about money. But What helped me change in my mind, even still that I struggle with it. Even though I know better, I still struggle.
But what made me know better Is to realise that not to talk about money is to actually... Cause more harm to the people because their attitude towards money is going to shape their attitude towards God. and towards life? and towards security, Two words The future I am not doing them any favors by saying, guys, it's all free. It's all free.
Look, here, here, let me just tell you: we're not going to ask you for any money, okay? All right. Let's just continue. I am not doing them any favor. In fact, I am their worst enemy because money, wealth comes from God.
And God is the source of all of that.
So when we're giving. Our tithes and our offerings to God. We're actually saying, God, we need your blessing in our lives. That's right. So for me to not talk about giving.
For me to succumb to the Tucker Carlsons who tried to To blacklist churches for being money-grabbing, money-hungry people. And I'm far from disappointed. I think most people are done with him. Yeah, it's just a sadness, but now it is to the point that he has become irrelevant. Yeah, well, I was just going to say his career sort of speaks for himself.
Yeah. We don't really have to say anything. Yeah, people don't want to even listen to him.
So, how can he be more shocking with the next show? How can I be more shocking now?
So, he just needs to get saved, is what it is. But him trying to intimidate churches and pastors for encouraging giving.
Sometimes that can work on you and it's like, yeah, maybe I shouldn't say anything. Yeah. And then God says, This is not about you. I think you handle it extremely well because whether it's from the pulpit or whether it's just even among the staff, I know that one thing that you've always encouraged the staff to do, really not even encouraged to say, hey, guys, you need to be tithing. Nicole and I tithe.
You need to be tithing. Not because the church is desperate for your money, but because you need this blessing. I don't hear, I'm sure they do. I don't hear a lot of pastors talk like that, but it's helped my marriage. It's helped my home.
I have seen more blessing come in when Ellie and I have been tithing than when we weren't. Right. You know what I'm saying? And the security that I feel, I'm telling you, even though money is going out, blessing and security and stability has come in. Absolutely.
And I think it's because you weren't afraid to talk frankly. But if you were, you did it anyway.
So pastors, church leaders, don't let.
Some Tucker Carlson or somebody in your church or some person out there intimidates you into. refusing to talk about money. Talk about it because God wants you to talk about it. That's right. Don't let someone question your motives because they're going to do that anyways.
They question Jesus' motives. I mean, come on. They question the Son of God, the second person or the Godhead's motive, and said, You're here for the wrong purpose.
So, you know, people are going to do that. Are you going to let someone like that intimidate you into not preaching the word of God? That's right. And the more you keep silent about it, I mean, maybe you can. I think what people like about you is your transparency and your willingness to talk about it, especially the way that the church is using the money.
We can see all around us there's growth, there's life. There's no question about what it's going to. There's no question in anybody's mind around here about what Clearview is doing with it because we are constantly producing radio shows, producing content, producing films, producing new buildings.
So I think people see a physical representation of our heart, which is growth for the kingdom. And more than anything, and I know you mean this when you said those buildings, it's the changed lives. Yes. Families are following Jesus Christ. Marriages are being healed.
Young people are turning towards Christ, getting into the word. I heard from a mom just this past Sunday night as we were sitting there talking, she said, It's so awesome. I walked into my daughter's room and saw her reading her Bible and taking notes. She said before she came to church here She was done with church. She didn't even want to go to church.
She didn't care for church. Things had happened, and that had sort of made her disillusioned.
So imagine that mother And father, of course, seeing their daughter, Reading The word of God. Yeah. Wow. So Talking about money, don't let anybody intimidate you. And of course, don't be a money-grabbing, money-hungry person who only cares about money.
If that's your problem, then you need to repent before God. You got a different problem. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Okay, that's right.
So make sure you get your motives and your heart right. Having said that, don't let anyone intimidate you. And that's what. Nehemiah does here. That's right.
How would you flip the script with people if you weren't talking to pastors now, you're talking to congregants and they're saying, you know, I don't know. I've just got weird feelings. I'm private about my money. I'm s have I struggle with letting go of my money. How would you encourage them?
Read the Bible. And if after reading the Bible, you feel like We are completely wrong about money, and that we should never speak about money, then come talk to us.
Now make sure you have you you are as objective as possible. Here's what you're going to find. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, from Genesis to Revelation, God's people were commanded to give. And they gave above and beyond, and they were blessed. They did not give just to be blessed.
They gave out of obedience. They gave out of a grateful heart. They were cheerful givers. And in the process, they saw that God blessed them. Why did God bless them?
Does God need our money? Of course not. As we like to say here, you need your money. That's right. But by giving to the Lord, you're telling God, God, it's coming from you.
By giving back to the Lord, you say, Well, I'm not giving to the Lord, I'm giving to the church, and I don't know what y'all are doing with it.
Well, that is an avenue through which God uses. That's right. The resources that uses our gifts and our offerings. Yeah, I mean, that's exactly what he did. Like, God did not come down and brick by brick build the walls of Jerusalem.
He used Nehemiah, he used all of those people.
So, also with the church, if you are at a church like Clearview, if your church is constantly building, constantly producing, constantly growing, that's signs of life. And people are drawn to that. And I think, Dr. Shah, maybe you can. You could kind of weigh on this too.
You know, people's lives are being changed because they are coming to where life is. That's right. They're coming to where God is. Yeah, I mean, this, this is. At the heart of what we're doing here, at the heart of what we're doing here is teaching people the word of God.
What is church all about? At the end of the day, it's about change lives Bringing them to Jesus Christ? but also lives that are obedient to God. That's what we're doing. And it requires telling people that It's not just living out a life and people just observe me and somehow somewhere down the road they'll figure it out.
No, we have to tell them.
So a church is a place where we are telling people, telling people the good news of salvation and telling people how to live The life God wants them to live, and it's a blessed life. That's right. It's not a problem-free life. Of course, there are problems in life. It's not a mistake-free life or sin-free life.
Of course, you're going to make mistakes. Of course, you may sin, but it's a life that ultimately all things work together for good. That's right. And that's what we're trying to do.
So, when you give. When you give, when you give your tithes and your offerings, People often tell me, Well, tithes is an Old Testament thing. You know, that's not the New Testament. I'm like, I hear you, brother. But New Testament is tithes and offerings.
That's right. It's above and beyond. Yeah, it's above and beyond. That's right. It's not just this much, it's like everything.
And now to come to the recognition that everything belongs to the Lord, and He allows me to keep 90%.
Now, that's amazing. But when you give to that church, to the local church, like to Clearview. What do we do with that money? Of course, we pay our staff. We pay our bills?
Light air. Repairs, constructions, we do all those things, but then we also make sure that we are using it to spread the gospel. to send people on missions to give to our convention which just uh you know uh disperses that money towards education seminaries and missionaries and and church planters all of that all of that happens when you give that's right to the church that's right you know if you truly are about building the kingdom of god especially in your local church your money is a part of that and it's an unavoidable fact and just like dr sha said it's not even unavoidable as in get used to it because it's just the way things work it's a blessing and it's a way that god is going to bless you dr shah thank you guys thank you for joining us for today's episode of the clear view today show we're going to be back tomorrow with a great episode talking about more of this heart of giving how to give how did nehemiah do it if you're a leader and you're looking for the right way to do it you don't want to miss tomorrow's episode big thanks to all of our sponsors and all of you guys who do support us financially over on pray.com on abadan shah.com thank you to all of our monthly donors we love seeing that list grow more and more and more every Every single week and every single month. We're very, very grateful for all the ways that God is blessing us and blessing you guys as well. A couple of things we want to let you know before we let you go today.
Number one is our Greek New Testament. The pre-order is still open. You can follow the link in the description below. And we want you to follow all of our content that's not just this show. We've got sermons by Dr.
Abadan Shah, how to read biblical Hebrew, how to read biblical Greek, lots and lots of shows over on Dr. Shah's iTunes channel. Link is in the description. Make sure you check it out. But we love you guys.
Dr. Shah, we'll see you tomorrow. Absolutely.
