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So thank you for that. Thank you to Mighty Muscadine for sponsoring this episode. Let's jump in. All of us are hardwired for story. It's the main way that humans communicate.
But the best stories always reveal something about you. Let's dig further into the story today on the Clearview Today Show. You're listening to Clear View today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill.
I'm John Galantis. Welcome to the Clear View Today show. We're here in the studio with our host, Dr. Abbadan Shah, and we want to hear from you today. What's the best story you've ever been told?
Two five two four two nine six zero six nine. Dr. Shah, what are you betting someone's going to be like? The gospel story, the story of Jesus, like the best story, best story that I've ever heard. No, just the best story you've ever been told.
Everyone's going to give the. Sunday school answer the gospel, the gospel story.
So maybe we should caveat apart from the gospel. What's the best story you've ever been told, Doctor Shaw? As human beings, we are wired for story. We we want to hear stories. We want to consume fiction, novels, TV, movies, whatever it is.
We love to tell stories. Yeah, I mean every evening we sit in the living room and then. Inevitably, somebody's going to pick up the remote and click and find some show, some movie, some documentary, and we'll watch a story. What does that do? What does that mean?
But we're sitting here watching, kind of peeking into someone else's life. We're eavesdropping into somebody else's conversation. Why? Because we're just wired that way, I guess. What's your go-to?
What's your favorite? Like you sit down, long day, pick up the remote. What's your go-to? Well, for me, it is either Bonanza, yeah, or maybe Andy Griffith's show. Those are the two that I typically watch.
Yeah, yeah, always good, always good. What's your tried and true? What's your go to? I don't know that I have one. I don't know that I have a singular one that I kind of keep going back to.
I'd like to try different things and watch different things.
So t here is not a t here is not a singular one that I. Fall back on or go to. I kind of always find myself going back to like Star Wars, you know, Lord of the Rings, like the the fantasy sci fi staples. But here lately. I can't believe I'm even saying this because I said I would never say this.
I've been getting into westerns.
Okay, I've I'm turning into my father because I I watched True Grit and loved it.
Now I'm watching Lonesome Dove and I love the movie or the you're reading the book.
So I'm reading the book, but as I'm reading the book, I'm watching up until the part where I'm at.
So I'm watching it slowly. I'm on the very first. I think there's like four little mini episodes. I'm watching the the first one right now. Wow, but I'm.
I'm loving it. I never thought I'd get into westerns, but I am. It's really good. Story captivates us. Yeah, we we like to follow that arc, those characters, that development of the plot, that kind of climactic action, and then how everything is resolved.
And there's a reason that we gravitate toward things like episodic stories because it's nice to have things wrapped up in a neat little bow at the end of the episode. But story touches something much deeper in us, and and you know it actually relates to the way that we study the Bible. Yep, and Jesus give us give a lot. Of stories, and it's funny too because knowing that, knowing how deeply wired we are for stories, I imagine how frustrating it must have been for his his disciples to be like, "Why do you always speak in riddles, man? Why can't you just ever say something straight?" Right.
I mean, and he did. He did get that question in Matthew thirteen. The disciples came and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" So Jesus was telling stories primarily to his. Opponents, and the disciples were confused. Like, why do you do that?
And I can imagine, like, Jesus knowing that, knowing how humans are hardwired for stories. Like, imagine him getting frustrated when the disciples look at him and go, "Why can't you just say nothing plainly? Why do you always speak in riddles?" Yeah, but he was not speaking in riddles to the disciples because here in Matthew thirteen, they asked him, "Why do you speak to them?" In parables, he answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. You can know the mysteries; they cannot. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance.
But whoever does not have, even what he has, will be taken away from him." Therefore, I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, "Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; seeing you will see." And not perceive, for the hearts of this people have grown dull.
So he is he is actively reveal. We talked about this a little bit on a few shows ago. He is actively revealing the truth and also concealing it at the same time. Like he's speaking to them in parables to reveal and conceal the truth of God's plan. That's crazy.
Yeah, you don't think of Jesus doing that, but I mean, I guess if it's a if it's a prophecy, it's got to be fulfilled. Yeah, yeah. It's it's one of the things I think where. We, we can we see story as a means of communication to reveal this really deep truth about life, but at the end we typically get it. You know what I'm saying?
Like you're watching a show, a TV show, or somebody's. You know, revealing this—it's one of those TV tropes where two people having a conversation, whoever's got the upper hand, they start telling a story. You know, I used to be a beat cop long time ago. Used to have punks like you. Blah blah blah blah.
And at the end of the scene, hopefully, if there's a good writer, we get what's being said. But Jesus is saying something that's kind of the opposite. It's like, no no no, I'm speaking in parables so that you will understand. The readers two thousand years from now will understand. But these people aren't going to understand it.
We're hardwired for that movement. The moral of the story is blank. Yeah.
Now I'm going to apply it to my life. But this intentional concealing, this intentional masking of the or hiding of the truth, I guess is a better way to say that. Doctor Shaw, that serves an important purpose in Jesus's ministry. Absolutely. Yeah.
The word mystery. Let's dwell on that for a little bit because once we understand that, then we can see why Jesus gave the parables. That he did. The word mystery, okay, is the Greek word mysterion. A lot of ink has been spilled on that topic, and and you can read many definitions and Bible dictionaries on the word mysterion, mystery.
But the best one that I've found, if any of our listeners or our viewers would like to do further research. Is Harold Honer's commentary on Paul's letter to the Ephesians. If you go there in chapter one and somewhere around verse nine, he talks about the mystery, and then he points the reader to an excursus on the word mystery, and that to me is. Probably the best definition description of mysteries or mystery in the Bible.
So, what does he say?
Well, among a lot of things that he he writes here, what Hohner is saying is that some scholars have suggested that the word mystery might have come from the mystery religions, and they point to You know the Greco-Roman mysteries, going back to the sixth century BC, with the mysteries of, say, Artemis or Isis or Adis or Dionysus. They they they were mystery religions in the sense of they had these secret rites.
So when they came together, they did certain things that only the initiates would know, but the outsiders would not. That sort of that sort of plays into our like conspiracy brain, right? These secret societies, these Freemasons, these whatever. Yeah, what are they doing behind closed doors? What do they do, man?
What do they do? And you always ask people who are in those groups, "What do y'all do?" They always give you the, "Oh, I mean, it's not anything really." And you are like, "That's what y'all want me to think. That's what y'all want me to think." Yeah, outsiders are forbidden from that knowledge, and you know those kind of things. But this is completely contrary to how. Christianity has worked.
Christianity or biblical faith has never been secretive, even among the Jewish people, or the people of Israel, or the Hebrews. Nothing was ever done secretively.
Now they had the tabernacle and they had the holy of holies, where only the priests could go and things like that. But it was not. Nothing secret. It was happening there, other than this is such a holy place that if an ordinary person would step in who was not a priest who was not designated by God, that that person would die. It was not like we're doing something we can tell you.
It was just the holiness of God.
So someone's listening to this and they say, "Okay, I hear you," but I'm also hearing that Jesus is telling people the crowds. The truth of the gospel in parables, so that they won't understand it.
So, what?
So, is it still is it secretive to some, not secretive to others? How does that whole thing?
So, truly, it comes down to understanding the meaning of the word mystery. Better context: how we get the word mystery is. The Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, we call it the Septuagint. Lex says seventy. It's the Septuagint, and in the Septuagint, we find the word mysterion mentioned repeatedly in one book, and it's the book of Daniel.
Now, we often say Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. It's true. But not completely true, because the Old Testament was not just written in Hebrew, but also in Aramaic. Aramaic.
So the Aramaic is not included in the Septuagint. It is included. It is okay.
Okay. Yeah, yeah. It is included. So if we really were being technical about it, we would say the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Aramaic Old Testament. Gotcha.
But we don't do that. We just say Hebrew Old Testament. Yeah.
But is that is that relevant? That because does the Aramaic play into this mystery conversation? Yes, because the word behind mystery is the Persian word, which has made its way into the Bible. The Persian word "raz," okay, that is the word, and it's an Aramaic word. Aramaic, Persia, they are the same thing.
So this word "raz." Had the idea of a secret plan, more specifically, God's secret plan. That's incredible, and I want to hear more about it. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Let's talk about something you put into your body every single day.
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Now back to the show. Hey, we're back with Clearview today, and we left off on a really great cliffhanger. Doctor Shaw, God's secret plan. What in the world are you talking about, God's secret plan? I thought the gospel was full and free for everyone.
Yeah, it's revealed. Everything's out in the open now. But you're saying that God has the secret. Plan are we privy to that secret plan?
Well, going back to the Aramaic in the Book of Daniel, you find that word "raz," which gets translated to "musterion." I want to read for us a couple of times where it's mentioned. First time you find it is in Daniel chapter two, and to give you a little context, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, and it's a very disturbing dream. It wakes him up. It terrifies him, so he calls all his wise men, his astrologers, his Chaldeans, his soothsayers, and he tells them, "Tell me the meaning of this dream. I will make you rich.
Tell me the meaning of this dream." And they're like, "King, I'm so glad you asked. Please tell us the dream. We'll give you the meaning of the dream." He said, "No, this is going to be different." Tell me the dream, and then give me the interpretation. And they're like, "Oh, King, come on! No one can do that.
Be realistic. Yeah, let's let's get let's get to reality. If he tells a dream, we'll gladly tell you the interpretation. And King's like, "Time's running out. You're wasting time.
One more time. Tell me the dream, then give me the interpretation." And then when they began to hem and haw, he's like, "That's it, kill them all." This dude ain't playing around. Yeah.
So, you know, they began to kill him.
Now, guess who else is in Persia at the time? That'd be Daniel, Daniel, and Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, their names meaning Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. And Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were their Hebrew names. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were more the Babylonian Persian names. And their next was were also on the line because they were the wise men of Babylon.
So this decree goes out, kill them all. They're like, hold on, hold on, hold on, wait a minute, wait a minute. I didn't hear nothing about no dream. Yeah.
So call me in. Daniel goes to the king and he says to the king, King, give me some time. Give me some time to see God's face because only God is the revealer of the Raz, the Mysterion. Men cannot tell you that; He can tell you the dream and the interpretation. Give me some time, King says.
Okay, fine. Take some time. He goes home, meets up with these young men, and says, "Hey guys, we gotta pray." Because we're in trouble, we're going to die. And then in Daniel chapter two verse twenty seven, then Daniel answered in the presence of the kings. He comes back to the king, and in the presence of the king, he he says, "The secret which the king has demanded, the mystery, the mysterion, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king." But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets.
Again, the word is mysterion, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the latter days.
So, there is only one God, and He can tell you what what's going on, King. And then He says, "Your dream and the visions of your bed, of your head upon your bed were these." And then He explains that King. O great king, you saw this colossal statue. The statue was made of different metals. Head was gold, the torso was silver, the belly, the thighs were bronze, and then the legs were iron, and then the toes were a mixture of iron and clay.
And as he was watching this massive statue, a stone that had not been cut out by hands came out of nowhere and struck the feet of the statue. When it did, the feet broke apart. This this mixture of clay and iron feet just cracked and broke up. And as it began to break, the entire statue began to crumble.
So. King, that was your dream. King's like, exactly. What's next?
Well, the the stone became bigger and bigger and bigger, and like a mountain, and took over the entire earth. Even correct. What is the interpretation?
So Daniel began to explain to the king the interpretation. King, this entire image of his statue with these different metals and different parts. Is really the the the history of the world. Gold represented your kingdom, the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian kingdom. This kingdom is going to fall.
God's going to destroy it. But it's going to go into the next one, which is silver, the the Medo Persian Empire. The Medo Persian Empire will also fall apart. And fall into the hands of the brass or the bronze empire. Brass or bronze is Alexander the Great.
The legs being of iron—that's Rome, because Rome moved with the power of iron. The chariots, the sword, their their coat of mail—you know—all of these things were made out of iron. And then the feet. This mixture of iron and clay, which really doesn't mix, somehow will mix and will become a kingdom. Let me just say it this way: in every generation, there has been a mixture of this iron and clay.
In our generation, it is the Islamic East and the woke West, and if you want to throw another. Element in there, it would be the fake right, and this this mixture is it. Is it supposedly that this mixture is the undoing of that civilization because iron and clay don't mix, right? Like means they're not supposed to mix, and yet they come together for a common purpose, that is to shake their fist towards heaven.
So I was going to ask you that the common purpose is destruction, is destruction of the Judeo Christian foundation.
So, in our times, it is Islamic East, walk west, and fake right. And so now we have this this trifecta of of wickedness and destruction that we're having to deal with in our time. Yeah, yeah. This this crumbling foundation. It's interesting too that you know Daniel.
Not one time does he talk about his ability to interpret dreams. He doesn't put the focus on him and my gift and my ability and my experience. He he directs it back to God. God is the one who reveals the mystery. That's right.
That's right. And so he prays, and then he is able to explain to the king, "This is what's going to happen." Is this kingdom is about to go into famine, yeah, and all these things soon? But here, what's happening, King, is that you are getting a glimpse of the end times. Is this same word, this "raz," this mystery, is this same idea present when Jesus is giving his parables? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Is that's why I said. Instead of just saying a mystery or secret plan, this is God's covert operation, where God, the Son, is going to come and destroy this fake unity between. In our generation, Islamic East, walk West, fake right. He's going to break that unity, and in the process, break down all these kingdoms. Yeah, yeah, we're we're going to see that in our day.
You know, Doctor Shah, what does that say for us? You know, what are the kingdoms that you think we're going to see falling because of God's covert operation? We think God's covert operation, just the plan of salvation, that's done. It's been over for two thousand years, but so also today in our lives, what are some of the things that you think we're going to see fall in our time? Let's take a quick break.
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Now let's get into the show.
Well, you know, we sometimes fear these empires—the Russian Empire, or the Chinese Empire, or the Middle East, or you know, some of the parts of Europe or South America—and we feel like, man, these these are powerful giants. They will never crack, never never break apart. Not in the face of Jesus Christ, that ro that rock cut without hands. Is Jesus the cornerstone made without hands, and He will come and He will destroy all who will stand against Him, and His kingdom will, of course, never end. Yeah, and so that's that's what's happening in even in our generation.
So, in in this context, then mystery. Is understanding. This God's covert operation in this world, yeah, and that ties back to the whole concept behind parables of you know some will understand, but many will not understand because this is God's covert operation. To whom those, to whom the ones are taking part in it, it's revealed to them, but the ones that are excluded from it, it's veiled. It's it remains a mystery.
And so, for those who are listening today, Doctor Shum, maybe we're listening to a parable on our phones on the way to work. Maybe this is part of our devotional. We're saying, "Oh, I see the point.
Okay, I see what he's saying, but maybe we're not really applying it to our life. Maybe it's it's like it makes kind of sense. I think I see what Jesus is saying, but it doesn't feel like it's got that power in my life. What are some encouragement you can give us?" Well, I would say, you know, when you think about these things and you feel like, man, the Bible is far fetched or it is unrealistic or it is just too much. Just put the Bible to the test.
Everything the Bible said will happen has happened. It mentions dates and places and people that actually lived.
So, just based on the the record of the Bible, in in again and again establishing its veracity, its truthfulness, we can say. That this is going to happen, yeah. You know, this is not wishful thinking. This is not some crutch. This will happen, and so this is what mystery really means.
What's something that I can do today? You know, what? Like if I've if I if this great mystery has been revealed to us, how can I make it apply in my day to day life right now today? Yeah, God's. God is far more powerful than any kingdoms of the of the of the earth.
Sometimes we hear of these powerful emperors and kings and potentates, and we feel almost like an ant, ant about to be stepped on. That we're nothing. We don't have any power, and that is just not the case. We are very powerful because God is powerful. When you are in Christ, you have nothing to fear, and so it may seem like this is just too big.
But in reality, it's not. Yeah, it's a good reminder for us. The same posture that Daniel took is that you know this the the king sort of doles out an impossible task. Tell me, tell me the dream, and tell me the interpretation. Right.
I want you to tell me what my dream was, and everybody's like, "No way, that's not going to happen." But Daniel repeatedly puts it back on God and said, "God is the one who speaks through dreams. He's the one who interprets dreams, and he's the one who's going to give this interpretation. I'm just the I'm just the messenger." And so also with you, you might be facing something incredible. Impossible today. You may be in some situation that you can't see any way out of.
Just know that the mystery of God, this this covert operation that God has in the foundation of the world, He revealed it to you. If you are in Christ, then you have that knowledge. You have God's God has. Doctor Shaw, is it fair to say God has trusted you with that? And so there is nothing that He won't do for you.
So if you are praying, if you are in the Bible, if you are consuming His Word, just know that whatever that situation is, God is going to solve it for you. He's going Going to bring you through it. As we close today, Doctor Shaw, in believers who are listening to this radio show, thinking about God's covert operation and God's God's plan throughout history, this mystery that is now revealed to us, what is our responsibility? What is our job as believers in light of this information that has been communicated to us? It's not to sit back and feel like we are superior to the uninformed, that we have some secret knowledge.
None of those things, because Paul tells us in one Corinthians four two, for he who speaks in tongues or in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. For no one understands him.
However, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. Means, man, you are you are something very powerful, yeah, very important. Having said that, our job is to be humble in in a time like this. I want to read for us here. Is in is in Corinthians, First Corinthians chapter thirteen verse one, and though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
So it comes down to love. If you have all this knowledge of kingdoms falling apart and Jesus coming and destroying. This confederation of evil. Yes, it gives me assurance. Yes, it gives me peace, but also it helps me realize that ultimately God is in control.
Amen. Amen. God is in control. We're called to live by love, not in not in a sense of bragging against other people of some knowledge that we've obtained, but showing in humility, showing the love of Christ to the people that we encounter. That's right, because this knowledge is going to bring knowledge of the stakes.
You know, if you really understand the the gospel of Jesus Christ, then you understand there's eternal stakes here, and so it puts a burden on your heart. It's put a burden on our heart. That's why. We're doing this radio show every single day, is because we believe there's people out there who are going to listen to this. You maybe say like, I don't think anybody listens to Christian radio these days.
I promise you, that is not true. We are getting text messages every day from people who are saying, "Thank you for the show." I'm sending it to this person in my life, for that person in my life. And so, what we want to tell you is, you can take that burden seriously too. God has put that truth, that secret, covert operation of His truth, on your heart for a reason. Listen to it.
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