The Elijah Syndrome

What's in your mouth? Today is Thursday, October 27th, 2022. And I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. And you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Avadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have a question for Dr. Shah, anything you'd like to write in and suggest that we talk about, send us a text at 252-582-5028. We've got a lot of texts already, and we want you to keep those coming again for our lightning round of questions coming up on tomorrow's episode.

You can follow Dr. Shah on his website at abadonshaw.com, and you can support us here at Clearview Church at ClearviewTodayShow.com. You'll have a button there where you can give, and every donation that you make goes not only to supporting our show, but supporting countless other ministries for the building of the kingdom of God. Before we start the show, we want to remind you about the upcoming elections coming up on November the 8th, 2022. John and I are going to be out of the polls in the coming weeks during early voting to interview some of you and see where you're standing on some of these issues. And we want to keep this conversation going until election day because it's so important.

You guys can help do that by supporting this podcast, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes, and just keeping the discussion alive. With that said, John, how are you doing? I'm kind of distracted today. Why are you distracted? I don't know if I want to call out or you don't know if I want to call him out on the air.

I'm going to do it. We got an engineer in the studio, our friend David. Our friend David.

He's on staff here at Clearview Church. Something he is chewing on, and I can hear it in my headphones, and it is driving me crazy. And David, if you want to turn your mic on and tell everybody what you're chewing on.

So here's the funny thing. One of the things that makes you look dumb right now is my mic has been off and not in your ears. But I was hearing it before we started, and I said, what are you chewing on?

And you said three, two, one, episode start. So I want to know what you're chewing on. Get it out of your mouth. Sorry, my mic's not working, and I'm really just fading out. Okay. I'm sorry, Ryan. To answer your question, to answer your question, I was doing fine. Now I'm distracted.

Of course. I feel like it's a bad show. The energy, the room is all off. I feel like I want to take it again, but I'm not going to. I'm going to power through. Speaking of power and through, I started a five day program in the gym. Five days. Five days. Wow. So far I have not been in there five and I haven't completed a single week.

It's a push, what is it, push, pull, legs, upper body, lower body. Wow. Yeah. It's hard. I would imagine so. Because by day three, I'm like, man, forget this gym.

Yeah. Forget my games. Forget this program.

I don't want to be here. And then it's the workout app. It's on the i2, it's on the Apple. It's on the app store. Okay. Here's the thing. I can't say forget the app because it's $120.

It's $120. For the app? Yes. Yes. But it has everything.

I'm talking, Emmy's got video. We're not sponsored by this, by the way. This app is not sponsoring us.

I think they should. Hold on. The app itself is $120. The app is $120. One time? Or is that the subscription?

One time. You can do a subscription, but it's, it's $120 for the app. I got it.

I'm really stressed. Yeah. But it's, I mean, that sounds crazy, $120 for an app, but it really does everything. Like it's got video, it's got every single exercise has videos, like slow motion videos that show you how to do it. It's got, it logs all of your weight.

It logs all of your reps. It law, it's got different programs for beginner, intermediate. I mean, it's, it's advanced. It is a, it is a worthwhile app. That's pretty much a personal trainer. But it is.

It is. And it logs everything for you. It tells you, hey, do this amount of sets, this amount of reps. That's trying to get to this way. And it's got like the videos help because it's got these dudes that are doing the videos.

They're doing the curling. They're doing like the pushing and you know, like, Hey, this is bad form. It's got videos. Like say, don't do it like this.

This is bad form. So everything about it is worth it, but it's $120 and I was like, golly, that's a lot for an app. So it's like, I have to go, right? I can't just be like, you've made that investment, you honor it.

And my wife is like, you're going, you're going to the gym. You're not wasting that money. We'll make sure that you go. Right.

Right. So you have the five day program. How's, how's, I know I asked you yesterday and you, you kind of were talking about the cold, but have you, did you go this morning? I did not go. You didn't go this morning.

No, because of the kids. I did the elliptical. Okay. I did the elliptical at home. I've cut out all my cardio.

Really? And yeah. And I shouldn't be doing that. I should be doing cardio, but I'm not.

We have an elliptical at home that I like to, especially when it's colder, normally I like to run outside, but when it's colder, I just do the elliptical inside. Yeah. Just put something on my phone. You know, skipping my workout makes me feel sad.

Makes me feel isolated, like I'm alone in the world. You know what I'm talking about? I do. And I can tell that you're cleverly segueing into what we're talking about today. This is a great segue. This is a very good segue. This is a very good segue.

Thank you, man. We're going to bring Dr. Shaw in in just a few minutes. And this morning we're talking about the Elijah syndrome. The Elijah syndrome. I think I had that a few weeks ago. You probably have.

When I skipped, when I didn't go to the gym. All of us go through times in life when we're tired, when we're drained, when we're fearful of what's coming in the future. And the funny thing is those moments usually come right after a major victory in our lives. Yeah. And as we're saying this, I'm sure that there are listeners like, Oh, okay, that, that sounds familiar. Yeah. Or it's, it's kind of foreboding cause it's like, Oh man, my life is kind of going good right now.

What's about to happen? Oh no. Yeah. Elijah went through a time like that, but God spoke to him through a still small voice on the wind. And those, those words are still relevant today.

That's right. And if you guys have any questions or suggestions for new topics for the show, text us at 252-582-5028 if you've experienced the Elijah syndrome in your life, or you think you might have, send us a text. We want you to join in on that conversation, or you can always visit us, visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com.

And Ryan, and today's a very special episode because we are unveiling one of our original songs. Yes, we are. Yes, we are.

Very exciting. Thousands more by Clearview worship. We wrote this song back in 2020, 2021 sometime in there, but it is about the Elijah syndrome. It's about how, you know, we are never alone. Even though we feel like we're isolated, we feel like everything in the world is stacked against us.

God is raising up people, not just that his presence is with us because it always is, but it's also people he's raising up. And it does remind us that we're never alone. It was so much fun tracking that song. It was so much fun writing it with Dr. Shaw and the rest of the team, singing it with you and Elizabeth and David who leads that song. But I'm really, really excited to be able to talk about it on the radio because it's a song that has blessed us. It's blessed the church and I feel like it's going to bless everybody here on the Truth Network. I know that it will. I know that it will. We're excited for you guys to hear that today.

Absolutely. And Ryan, if someone wants to jump the gun, get the song early before we even unveil it, where can they do so? Anywhere. Digital music is sold.

iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, all of those places. We'll be right back after this. So many scholars have even concluded that the original text is hopelessly lost and cannot be retrieved with any confidence or accuracy. If that's the case, how can we claim that the Bible is an errand? To answer these questions, make sure you order a copy of Dr. Shaw's book.

That title again is changing the goalpost of New Testament textual criticism. You can pick up your copy on Amazon right now and let us know how it's helped you by emailing us at info at clearviewbc.org. You can also support our ministry here at Clearview by visiting us at clearviewbc.org forward slash skiv. Thanks for listening. Now back to the show. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com or you can send us a text at 252-582-5028. We just want to say thank you for all those texts we've already received. Absolutely. We love getting those messages from you guys. So make sure you keep sending those in.

That number is live all the time. So make sure you send those messages in. We've got Dr. Shah with us again in the studio today. Dr. Shah, how are you doing on this Thursday?

I'm doing very well. We have gone past halfway point of our first week of daily show. Amen. Amen.

So I'm really excited. I'm already hearing some amazing things, hearing from our audience. Questions are coming in, compliments are coming in, and we're so grateful. We're amazed and grateful to what God is doing. Amen.

That feedback is very encouraging. And if you guys are listening for the first time, if you're unfamiliar with the show, you never heard of Dr. Shah in his work. Dr. Abaddon Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism. He is a professor, Carolina University author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show.

That's right. Let's get into today's topic. Today, we're talking about something that people may not be familiar with. We're talking about something called the Elijah Syndrome. It's this weird spiritual situation where we feel isolated and alone, even after we've just seen God move in our lives.

Dr. Shah, can you shed some light on this? What is this all about? Where did this come from?

And how do we see this creep up in our lives? Well, this actually began in the first year of the pandemic. And we were going through our series on First Kings and studying about it in our converge, which is our young adults class, which I helped lead. And we were talking about Elijah after the great victory he had on Mount Carmel, right? We've been on Mount Carmel before. I think John and I have been, and the guys behind the desk, David and Nicholas have been there. Ryan, you're going there soon. I would love to. You'll be going there soon. I have not been on Mount Carmel, but that is my favorite, by far, one of my favorite sites that you guys have visited and you brought pictures back.

That one is top of the list for me. It is incredible. It is really incredible. And it's even more incredible when you stand on that side, and this is not going up into, inside the place where there's a chapel there.

Many times when we've been there, well, actually, one time we went there, it was closed. So then we started going to the outskirts of the chapel, outside the walls, and we just kind of walk out towards this outcropping, a rock cropping, and it opens up the entire vista to the Jezreel Valley. I mean, just unbelievably beautiful. And so, not only is it beautiful, but it is so significant. This was, somewhere here was that site where Elijah issued that challenge against the 450 prophets of Baal. And of course, there was also the 400 prophets of Asherah, but 450 prophets of Baal.

And remember that big sacrifice? You know, you call your God, and I'll call to my God, and see which one answers. And of course, you can read that passage in 1 Kings, chapter 17, 18, I believe it is, and about how the prophets of Baal beat themselves, and they cut themselves, and they sing and dance all day. And Elijah even taunts them, and he says, maybe a God is asleep. Maybe he's taking a visit. Maybe he's relieving himself.

Maybe he can just sing louder. And they did it, they started singing even louder. And then it all comes to nothing.

Of course, these gods are false gods, false idols. And then Elijah, not only does he call fire from heaven, but before he does that, he drenches the entire altar with water to the point that water is running over everywhere. And so this is what's happening there. Right, and so there's this huge victory that Elijah wins. There's this amazing time of just God moving. But then the lesson, I remember that lesson very well.

It was even two years ago, I can still remember it. The lesson is actually what comes after that moment. Because you think he's riding high, like he's feeling it, but it's actually the exact opposite right after that. Yeah, because, and it is so true, because it's usually right after a high moment in our lives that we are the most vulnerable to crashing. And what I mean by crashing is, I don't know how that happens, but a feeling of fear, feeling of discouragement, doubt, even depression comes over. So you can have a great service, but one comment, one statement, and you come crashing down, and that's all you can think.

Wow. So also, you can have a great concert, wonderful worship time. You can have, you know, 30 people got baptized, and there's this one thing that happens, and you come crashing down. It doesn't have to be one thing that happens. It just can be just the let down, the day after Christmas, where there's nothing. No more presents to open, everything has ended.

This is it. And Elijah goes through that same experience, albeit his is because the word gets back to Jezebel. Ahab the king, right?

He is just a tool, or what I would say, he's useless. And he tells his wife Jezebel of what Elijah had done and how they had executed 450 prophets of Baal. And don't think of these as just nice little prophets who are doing their own little religion, that these were very wicked people, very wicked people bent on sinning and turning people away from God and destroying God's people, people of Israel. And so he goes and tells Jezebel, kind of cries home to mommy, I guess you can say.

You don't know what he did. He did this and he did kill all the prophets. And she's like, okay, I am now really ticked. I'll deal with this man. Now keep in mind, Elijah could stand against 450 prophets of Baal and all these other prophets of other religions and other gods and goddesses as well. And he didn't flinch, he fought. But this one person tells him that I'll deal with you. And he immediately falls into a state of fear.

And I'm talking about fear. I can just imagine him shaking, trembling, his heart beating out of his chest. He begins to perspire and I'm adding these things because I'm just wondering how must he have felt to have to run for his life from someone half a world away. Unbelievable. He's running for his life and he does. And he's hiding here and he's wishing that life was over.

Wow. So this Elijah syndrome is we have this great victory and then this profound low moment afterward. What did Elijah do? What was his response in that moment? What happened as a result of him feeling that intense isolation? Let me say it this way. I think, let's talk about the reason behind him feeling that way. I think the reason behind him feeling that way was he felt like he was the last one standing.

Yes. He felt like all this burden is on me. I have to do this. I have to make this happen. And I'm done and I'm tired and I'm exhausted.

I can't do this. The task is so immense to rally the people of God to fight against this evil pagan queen who is bent on destroying God's people who wants to not kill me. And I have to keep myself alive and at the same time motivate this worthless king to stand up to his wife. I mean, he is just completely burdened down. But I think in that moment, he forgot that God is God. Right.

Not Elijah. Right. He took that on himself. And don't we do that all the time. I know that I do it. I know that I do it. I know that I do it when it's happening. And yet there's something inside of me that just wants that burden. It's a really weird, deep problem that we all have where it's like, I almost want to feel overwhelmed.

I want to feel like it's all on me so that I can feel almost justified in just throwing it in the towel and giving it up. People do that. And it's not something to laugh at. It's not something to dismiss. Right. Because at the root of it is a very horrendous sin. And that is the breaking of the first commandment. Right. Either Lord, you're God, I'm one. Don't make any other gods before me. You're trying to be God.

Right. You're trying to control whatever you're trying to do. And I've fallen through that trap before. And I have to pray and ask God to just take that away from me.

I'm not God. And so Elijah is in this state. He is depressed. He is discouraged. He wants to die.

He wants to, he is scared to death. And in that moment, God appears to him. If you know, he's in the mountains. And he comes to him initially in the wind. And then he comes to him in the earthquake. But he's not in the earthquake. He's not in the wind either. Then it comes to him in the fire. But he is not in the fire either. And then comes the still small voice.

Right, right. What a profound passage where we have all of these mighty displays of nature that you would think that God is gonna speak out of this rumbling earthquake or this howling wind or this great roaring fire. But none of those are what God speaks there.

Still small voice. And I love the way that you wrapped it up in that lesson. And even in what we're about to shift the conversation into because God not only takes it practical. It's not only, okay, Elijah, here I am.

But what else does he do? He says, I'm gonna raise up men for you. I'm gonna raise up people in Israel.

I think in verse 18 it says, yet I've reserved 7,000 in Israel. So he's making it practical for us. And I think that's what kind of led the discussion was that, especially in the midst of 2020, it's that not only, because everyone's preaching, God's with you.

Yes, he is. But God is so much more than that. He's raising up people around you. Absolutely.

7,000 who have not bowed their knees to Baal. Exactly. So that's what the message is from Elijah. And if you notice how interesting that is, that is the same message in the book of Acts, chapter 18, when Paul is in Corinth.

He came from Athens to Corinth. And in Corinth, people are after him. They wanna hurt him.

They wanna discourage him. And so now he is there. And while he is there, he stands for the truth, and I'm sure he is about to go through the Elijah syndrome.

I'm alone in this. And God reminds Paul in Corinth that don't give up. And I've been to Corinth, by the way.

Nice. I've been to ancient Corinth and walked around in the Agora and even stood up on top of the Bima, where Paul must have stood and given his testimony. And you can see the Acro Corinth way up there on top where the temple was.

You know, and so I'm just thinking about how intimidating it must have been. I mean, not today. Today, all you see are ruins.

But back in the day when the Isthomian games were being played there, thousands of people coming from everywhere. And Paul is here, this one Jewish man in the midst of a very strange Greek Roman culture with a lot of ex-military people there and all kinds of people coming in from everywhere. And they're against Paul. They don't like Paul, right? They're after Paul.

And he wants to just give up and give in and just go back. And God tells Paul, I have many people in this city. Yeah, wow. What an assurance to know that the burden is not on you. God is in control, number one.

But he has more people. What an amazing truth. And I think, well, not even I think, I know because I saw it happen and we were part of that, all of us together.

But as he always does, God uses that. And he used that truth in our lives to spark something very creative. And it sparked a song that we came in together and wrote.

I remember after that lesson, you came to David and myself and said, I think this can be a song. I think this truth can be something really spectacular. And that's kind of how I'm going to say it. That's kind of how Thousands More was born. Do you want to kind of talk about Thousands More?

Yeah, absolutely. Because that's where we are in America today. People have lost hope. People have become discouraged. Especially Christians is who I'm talking about. I'm not taking sides.

I'm not gonna get into the political parties and all that stuff. All I'm saying is believers, Christians, those who claim Jesus Christ as their savior and king, we are not allowed to lose hope. We're not allowed to get discouraged.

You say, oh, what do you mean by not allowed? Right. Allowing yourself to get discouraged or feeling burdened or feeling you're alone in this fight against wherever you are or how your community has become and how evil and sinfulness and depravity is coming like a freight train against our culture, our people, our kids, don't get discouraged. God is working.

I mean, even this radio show, I hope it's a source of hope for you. Exactly, exactly. I hope you're seeing that God is raising a new generation.

Absolutely. God is raising more people who are speaking the truth. And so that is the heart behind a thousands more. Yeah, that song really spoke, I think, to a lot of people.

Absolutely, such an important message too. And you know, we're coming up on the end of the show. Typically, this is where we do things like wrapping things up, but I thought it'd be cool if we actually listened to the song. Can we keep that up?

Is that okay? Yeah, let's listen to it. So guys, we want you to remember that this song is available right now on all digital platforms. You can get it on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, anywhere that digital music is available. And we want you to be blessed by this song the same way that God has used it to bless us. Let's check it out. Thousands more by Clearview Worship. ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["Glory and Splendor Swallowed The Mountain Side"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"] ["I Saw Fire In The Sky"]