Contendsday!!

Hello, everyone. Today is Wednesday, January the 25th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. And you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions for Dr. Shaw or suggestions for future episodes, let us know by sending us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. And you guys can help us keep this conversation going by supporting the podcast, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes, Spotify, anywhere you pick up your podcast. You can also listen to us on the radio. And we're going to leave a link in the description so you can go to all of those sites and leave us a good review. Nothing less than five stars.

If I see four stars or less, I'm absolutely going to lose my mind. We want to set you up for success because we just love you. Oh, so much.

That's right. And I don't want to act violent towards any of you guys. I don't want to act out of character.

I don't want to be out of sorts over here. So, five star reviews, positive reviews only. Positive feedback only. That's right. That's right. Speaking of positive, Jon, how about you handle the verse of the day? I love it, man. Today's verse is Jeremiah 3.15, and I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Wow. That promise that God will take care of us, and not just that He will take care of us, but that He'll bring people into our lives, bring leadership, godly authority into our lives that will meet our needs, that will care for us, and help us stay focused on Him. We tend to forget that the pastors in our lives and the spiritual leaders that God has put there are anointed by God for a very specific purpose. Like you said, it's a promise that God Himself has given us. So, make sure you send your pastor a text today and say, hey, thank you for doing what you're doing.

Thank you for being who you are, and thank you for your spiritual leadership in my life. I guarantee that it's going to make their day. I was talking to David. He asked me a question, and I said, we've got to save it for the pod.

Right. We've got to save it for the radio show. So, David, if you want to hook the mic up, I'm going to ask you a question.

Shime in, David. All right. First off, what made you think of this? Did you hear this question, or did this just come to you? This just came to me. Wow. Because I thought, for some reason, when we were driving home from lunch, I thought about like, well, I have to wait. I have to frame the question first.

You get a million dollars. Okay. And you can now, from now on, like teleport to your destination.

I already like this. Kitty pride style. Yeah.

Like wherever you want to go. No, not kitty pride. No. Nightcrawler. You lose points for that, honestly. It was nightcrawler.

You lose points for that. Also not nightcrawler, because nightcrawler can only teleport within vision, like where he can see. Really? Yeah.

You have to, you can like teleport. Is he right? Yeah.

He's got to be able to see it, or have been there before. Okay. Go ahead, David. I'm sorry. Come on. I know my X-Men. Okay. Go ahead. Anyways.

I know some things. You have to take your car, you're driving, so you get in your car, wherever you want to teleport, you got to think about it. And then to be able to actually start the teleport, you have to drive off of the nearest bridge. And when your car hits the ground, there's no impact. There's no pain.

There's no any like repercussions. The bridge that you have demolished is actually fine. You just scare the life out of anybody in the car and anybody on the road. And then your car just appears wherever you were trying to teleport to. So if I were going to work, I would go to get on 85, and I would just drive off the bridge. And you would just... And then I would be at work.

...be at work. Yeah. So there's no damage to the car. No damage to the car. The really, the worst case scenario is you just scare everybody. Right. Like if you have your family, nobody... Is there damage to the bridge? The bridge, it looks damaged, like when you do it, but like as soon as you teleport, everything just automatically repairs itself.

Nobody who saw it thinks anything of it. My goodness. This is a disturbing question. Yeah. What happens if I hit another car on the way down? You won't. Oh.

You won't. I think everything is just magically fine. Everything is just fine. It's really just fear. Right. The whole point is... It's like, can you make yourself drive off the bridge? Imagine that you're the car behind you, though.

Like you're driving this, the car probably just tanks off the side of the bridge. So would you do it? Yeah. I think I'd have to. You get a million dollars or you have to pay a million dollars for this ability? No, you get a million dollars.

You get a million and you get to teleport. I take it. I think I would have to do it. I take it.

It would be unsettling. Yeah. Is it any bridge? Like can I do it off the Golden Gate Bridge? It's any bridge.

And the funny thing is, it's not until your car would connect that you actually teleport. So I'm falling the whole way down. The whole fall, you actually are there. Yeah.

I'm there for the whole fall. Man, that's horrifying. Horrifying. It's kind of like Jumper, but with cars. Yeah.

I did love that film. You want just like a shallow bridge. You want to aim for just like a real short bridge. Yeah. You don't want to be like on the Golden Gate Bridge. You don't want to be falling for like 70 seconds. You can't just drive into a ditch.

Yeah. It's got to be a bridge. An overpass. There's got to be a falling bridge. Can I very gently ease myself off the bridge or do I have to like gun it off the side of the bridge? It's whatever makes you comfortable, I guess. Just ease slowly off until the back wheels are just airborne.

I'm doing 95 and just airborne. You're like shifting into overtime. Yeah. Here we go. Let's get it done. All that said, nobody's ever hurt.

Nothing's ever truly damaged. I guess the people in the car, they just kind of get used to this at a certain point. Right. Yeah. I guess so.

Good grief. I think I'll do it. I take it too. I think I'll do it. Because I mean, worst case scenario, you don't ever use the ability to get a million dollars. Teleporting is just a very overpowered ability that I think a lot of people underestimate.

Like flight, super strength, those are fine, but really teleportation does very few superpowers as practical as teleportation. I think I would do it. I think I'd take it. Yeah. All right, shoot.

Cool. Well, that was a good one, Dave. We've got an exciting episode planned for you guys today with a very special guest. Wait a minute. We don't have a guest on this episode, do we? You're right. You're right. We don't have a guest. Okay.

Let me say that again then. Sorry. We've got a very exciting episode planned for you guys today. We're going to get Dr. Shah, but in the meantime, if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, make sure you send us a text at 252-582-5028 or visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. We'll be right back. Hey, everyone. My name is Ellie.

And I'm David. And we want to take a minute and let you know how we can actually serve you as you're listening to Clearview today. The Bible paints an extraordinary picture of who we are as a church body. The mission of Clearview Church is to lead all people into a life-changing, ever-growing relationship with Jesus Christ. A huge part of leading people is praying for them. A big reason that Christians have unanswered prayers in their life is because they're not praying.

You know, 1 John 5.15 says, and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. If you're listening to the Clearview Today show, we want to know how we can pray for you as well. There's a number of ways that you can get in touch with us at Clearview and share your prayer requests, but the best way is by texting us at 252-582-5028. You can also send us an email at prayer at clearviewbc.org.

Or you can download the Clearview app on iTunes or Google Play. You know, on that app, there's a dedicated prayer wall that helps us to get to know what's going on in your life, how we can pray for you, and how we can take any necessary steps to get you moving in the right direction. Thanks for listening. Let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, make sure you write in and let us know by texting 252-582-5028 Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday. Dr. Shah, welcome to the studio this Wednesday.

I thought you were starting a monster truck around. Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday. Hit Timbalish and Derby on Wednesday. Well, I mean, it could be because we're starting something new, right? We're starting something new on Wednesdays. New and exciting on Wednesday, we'll tell you more about that in just a second. Yes.

Yes. But if you're new, you're visiting with us, this is your first time ever tuning into the show. Allow me to introduce our guest of honor, not even a guest, our host. Host of honor. Our host, Dr. Abidhan Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, a professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Now, that last part is very important because number one, we're starting a new segment.

Number two, because I'm trying to let these people know they can follow his work on AbidhanShah.com, and that's all I'm going to say. Right. I'm done. I love how you turned up the intensity right at the end. The last part.

That last part. As you can see, we're excited about today because today marks the beginning of something new that we're excited to share with you guys, coming to you every Wednesday right here on Clearview today. We're going to begin a brand new theme for our Wednesday shows centered around this idea of apologetics. Yes.

Now, the monkey wrench in the plan is that we don't have a title for this. It's crazy because we were talking about letting the audience choose, and I just thought about contends days. Contends day? Yeah. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. All right.

Well, I was going to kick it to you guys to choose. Contends day. Contends day Wednesday. Even better than contends day Wednesday.

Maybe just keep it to yourself. Dr. Shah, do you want to explain why contend? What does that word have to do with it? And also to let our listeners and viewers know that apologetics was always part of the plan. This was from the beginning.

This is even before we started the first show, the first broadcast. We wanted to apologize, but we wanted to lay out the groundwork and make sure our audience understands our heart. They understand our passion.

They understand our convictions. How much we rely on the word of God as our guide because it's the word of God that is changing lives. How much we emphasize the gospel of Jesus Christ, right?

The death, burial, resurrection of Christ. And so the past couple of months were sort of almost like getting to know us. Well, I appreciate you saying that because I think a big part of apologetics is also trusting the person that you hear as a person. It's not enough. And you've always said this to me. It's not enough just to be correct.

The person you're talking to has to trust you, and I think you've done a fantastic job of building that trust over the course of this. Oh yeah. You guys, by the way.

You guys. So I mean, when you talk about rhetoric, it's like logos, ethos, pathos, right? Logos is the word, the content, ethos, the credibility that you bring to the table. Are you educated? Are you knowledgeable about the subject?

Do you have some time put into this thing so you can really talk about it? And then pathos is not just passion, but what is your heart? If you don't have the right heart, a heart that cares for people, the heart that is desirous to see people come to know Christ, to see lives changed. If not, apologetics will become just cut and dry truth.

It'll become this nothing but black and white, very colorless proclamation. And that's not the true gospel. That's not the preaching or teaching of the word.

There has to be this place of care, genuinely caring for those who are hurting, generally caring for those who are lost. So all that is tied into this idea of content. So when we talk about apologetics, don't think of it just as, hey, you got a problem with Christianity?

We're going to set you straight. Right. Right. That's not apologetics. I love that you brought up that element of care, because a lot of times people think about it just like picking a fight.

Like I'm just ready to fight, I'm ready to fire back with a response, but the real heart behind apologetics is care for the other person, is wanting to understand that the truth of the gospel is available to you, and we have the answers to life's difficult questions. Right. Right. And we answer every question you have, or at least come close to giving you a reasonable explanation.

But at the same time, we do care about people. And that was demonstrated in the way that you conducted the content series, because it wasn't, hey guys, let me pick these topics for you. Send us your questions. Right. It was all user submitted. So the care is there, because the congregation and the people who were texting their questions in, they're the ones who were saying, this is what I've always wanted to know.

This is what I need help with. Yeah. Right. Right. Exactly. Right. I like that. And I think it's so needed in a world that is becoming, you know, removed from Christianity to the point of just hostility.

People really, really don't like the message that we're putting out there. Right. Right.

And that's why 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 15 is the bedrock of this entire series, which is, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with clarity, with forthrightness, with boldness. No. Right. Actually it's with meekness and fear.

That's right. You see how awesome is that meekness and fear. Meekness means there's a sense of humility, that you're just a couple of steps away from that person.

Okay. Maybe your upbringing was in a Christian background. Maybe you are privileged to sit under good teaching or went to a good college or a Bible college or Christian college, and you are able to, you know, your faith is strong and they're not, but have humility. It's all about the grace of God. And then fear of course is also, you know, not just, you know, fear for God, but also a sense of trepidation, knowing that man, it's all coming from God at any moment he can take it away. Yeah. Yeah. I was actually talking about this with Elie the other day.

You know, Elie keeps rigorous notes of all your sermons and there was something you said when you preached this introductory sermon on content, you said the answer to unjust suffering and persecution is not only fearlessness, but an immediate and reasoned defense. And it kind of reminded me of a story you told me of you and you were Nicole's first trip to Greece. Maybe you can kind of speak into the story a little bit, but there was a place where y'all were filming.

I think it was on the Areopagus. Okay. And someone came up to you and was like, hey, you can't be filming here. And you said you knew right then, like, I think you kind of went away and did your own thing, but you told me, you said, I knew right then if I had just immediately responded or if I had not pushed back, but if I had just stood up for myself, he would have gone away and left me alone. Right. And that has always kind of stuck with me, just the immediate response, because I'm the type of person that I'm going to go away and think of all the stuff that I should have said later on.

But having the boldness that you do to have that immediate response, and that response comes from study, that response comes from being prepared and knowing the material so well. Right. So it's a good balance. Absolutely.

Right. So your truth, like the sword of the spirit, should be sharp. It's a double-edged sword, you know, piercing to the division of soul and spirit.

And it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, but also at the same time, compassionate, caring. You know, when Jesus went about healing the sick and feeding the hungry and preaching the gospel, it was all done from a broken heart, you know, his heart went out to them. He was moved with compassion for them. So also Paul, you know, when you read Romans chapter one, you know, people have, you know, there's just thunder on the pulpit with all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I don't think Paul would have really said it that way.

Yeah. He said it more with a sense of sadness. All have sinned and fall short. You come short of God's glory.

God's holiness is what keeps this world functioning and you cannot reach his holiness, but Jesus Christ, God's son came to make a way for you in the sense of mercy there. And that was certainly, you certainly brought that out in your series Contend. We heard from so many people and you could see it on people's faces as light bulbs started going off and you were, you were helping them answer questions they didn't even know that they should ask. You were, you were leading us to answers of questions that maybe had plagued people for years. And it was just, I mean, like you said, John, it was, it was all user submitted. It was all questions that people wrote in and asked us like, Hey, here's something I've always wondered. And the way you set it up is we just kind of, you know, systematically walked through each one of these things. We dealt with that with issues surrounding the text first, and then we actually dove into the book of Genesis and it was, I mean, it was, it was incredible. Why do you think so many of people's problems come from Genesis specifically? I mean that, you know, Francis Schaeffer, right, La Abri and you know, he wrote that book how, what is it was my mind just went blank on me. How then should we live? That's it.

How then should we live? Well, I, I was I want to say 17 years of age, 18 years of age, 18 years of age in college, J term Western civilization class. And I didn't want to sit in that class.

I didn't care for that class, but it was like, you know, I get a couple of hours out of this. And from what I've heard, they watch videos of some, some guy in, you know, these knicker blockers or whatever you call them, you know, those socks that go all the way out. I don't know. Maybe they're not knicker blockers.

I don't know what they are. Anyways. So I sat in that class and Dr. Doug Matthews, our ethics and philosophy professor began, you know, talking and all of a sudden I'm listening to this, this guy and he puts on the screen as a PowerPoint, ideas have consequences. And I was like, well, that's, that's true. I remember dad saying that, you know, growing up, my dad was, you know, big on apologetics and you know, was very good preacher of the word, but at the same time, you know, now I'm away from home. I'm a little disillusioned. I'm not quite sure what's happening, but this man is making sense. And then he said, okay, we're going to watch some videos and some places the videos may not have like Hollywood quality, but don't worry about that guys. This man right here, Francis Schaeffer has some powerful things to tell you. And I began to watch and I'm like, Oh my goodness.

Wow. But I say I bring up Francis Schaeffer because for this reason, I'm sure y'all are wondering like, why are you talking about Francis Schaeffer? The question was why Genesis? Because Francis Schaeffer, I believe was the one who said that if he only had an hour with somebody and this is it, you have to share the gospel with them.

What would you do? And he said, 45 minutes, I'll spend in Genesis and the last 15, I'll tell them about Jesus. And that always stuck with me 45 minutes.

I will. And I think it was Francis Schaeffer who said that, why? Because that's where the problem began. That's where you find who made us. That's where we find out how wonderfully we were created and how sin came in and we fell. And that's where we also find the proto-evangelium, Genesis 3.15, where the seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent.

The prophecy is already given that someone is coming who will reverse the curse. And I don't want to get into all those details of proto-evangelium, but you get the point. Yeah.

I mean, I think that's something that you've always hit hard as long as the 10 years that I've known you, you know, the foundation, how you begin is key because that's going to set up the rest of the thing. And I guess it's true with Genesis, like everything that you find in the beginning in the first book, the problems that are there compounded a bigger problem later and the truths, the spiritual truths that are there carry all the way throughout. Yeah. And our culture is now with all the craziness, the wokeness and this climate change and all the things that people are fighting about, right?

Systemic racism and all this stuff that they're fighting about. If you really go back to the Bible, that's where you find the real problems, the real problems, not the ones sometimes that have been manufactured. Yeah.

So, yeah, I believe Genesis is the place. Do you think it's because people are also rebelling against this mindset that maybe their parents or grandparents had where it's like, listen, if the Bible says it, I don't care what logic says, I don't care what your argument says, I believe it just because it's in there. Do you think some of this new wokeness or some of this desire to get away from that is because of that, because of either a poor understanding of scripture or just an unwillingness to talk about it? Yeah. I think you have a point there.

I would shift it a little bit and say it this way. I think the previous generation has done a poor job. And I hate to say that, okay? So our listeners, if you come from different generations than the millennials or Gen X or whatever, I don't want to just antagonize you, but we've done a poor job. We did not anticipate the culture shifting.

We did not anticipate where we will be today. Part of leadership, as Christians, we should be leaders. You should be able to see where the world is headed, right? You may not have all the details, only God does, but at least be able to say, I think we're headed this way. Let's lay the groundwork here just so we can help our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren stay strong in their faith. And I think that's where really the problem lies, not just that the young generation is tired of Genesis or this idea that in the Bible says that I believe it, that settles it. No, I think it's because we've done a poor job to be rational.

We've done a poor job to anticipate what was coming. And I love that in that first message, you took it back to the authority of God's word. Using the Old Testament and the New Testament, how do we know that even the Bible is true? How do we rationalize that? Because if we mess up there, then that's going to make every other argument fall apart. Absolutely. The Bible is our authority. I mean, that's the bottom line.

We've been talking about that here in the past couple of days with upcoming projects that we're wanting to do. But I mean, that's pretty much the heart behind your doctoral work, is that without an authoritative text, how can you have an authoritative theology? Yeah. And you've heard us talk about this on this radio show, about the current battle that is going on over the original text of the New Testament. That's a very important battle. And we as Christians should not remain ignorant of this. We need to be aware of this. We need to understand it. You may not be a scholar in the field, but you can definitely know enough to talk to your grandson who just came back from State College and thinks that mom and daddy and grandma's faith and granddad's faith is just fluff and myth and mythology. And that, you know, there are more variants in the New Testament than even words.

So what do you say to them? Yeah. Well, you said something in your book. Actually, I read the introduction last night, and I got further than I ever got, because I was like, I'm starting to understand this the more we talk about it. But you said something.

I think you closed out your introduction. And you said, listen, people are willing to let these variants go. People are willing to just say, hey, listen, the Bible has variants that may have mistakes, but I'm OK. I still either believe it or I don't believe it. But you said that without an authoritative standard of text, that you can't have, with an unsettled text, you're going to have an unsettled theology.

That's it. Without an unsettled theology, you're going to have an unsettled Christian life. And I was like, wow. You really, I mean, it makes sense, but people just don't think it through that far. That's why you have Christians, quote, unquote, Christians who are talking about this whole, you know, the transgender movement or the homosexual movement as if, that's fine, guys.

That's, I mean, why? As long as a person believes Jesus Christ, no big deal, right? And you're going, no, but it's wrong. Where do you find the standard of wrongness? Well, it's in the scriptures, right?

Of course, it's in life as well, but definitely scriptures are very clear on them. But if you take away scriptures, if you fundamentally dismantle the text, and I'm just talking about the New Testament, but also the Old Testament, then where does authority lie? It just lies in the one who can speak the loudest and the most creative or, you know, the one who can really spin things really well is the one who's going to win. And there are people out there, and it's coming, who are creative and who are loud and who are compassionate and who are charismatic who are going to start vying for some pretty unspeakable things.

And my fear is that we're not going to turn against it until it's too late because we've already gone so far down the rabbit trail based on our own ideas of morality or ethical standards that now when something truly heinous is happening by someone that we would have normally followed, it'll be too late. Which is why I want to go back to something that you said, Dr. Shaw. You used the example of your grandson or maybe your son or daughter coming back from college and saying all these things like, oh, the Bible has errors, it has more variants, and it has words, and you're unsure what to say to them. You need to say something to them. One of the days where you can just be like, well, I'll just let them believe whatever they want to believe. Or threaten them. You can't even threaten them. You've got to engage them in this conversation.

You have to. And apologetics is how you do that. You said yourself, you're not just arguing your case. That's not what apologetics is.

You're giving people hope. Yes. Exactly. Exactly.

And so rational, clear understanding of scripture and issues, and then, of course, a heart that is willing to care. Yeah. Yeah. Is the key. And even this text, you know, and I don't think we have time to get into it, but First Peter chapter 3.15 itself has an issue. You know, the issue is, it is a direct quotation from Isaiah chapter seven. But when Peter says, always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, he's talking about people on the outside who are challenging your faith.

And you are to always be ready to give them a reason for the hope that is in you. You're the insider. They're the outsider. But if you go to Isaiah chapter seven in its context, okay, in its context, it's not the outsider.

How do you understand when it seems like they misquoted or they're misappropriated or misapplied? How do you deal with that? So right there, before you even hit the ground running, there's a problem. Yeah. Amen. We can answer.

Absolutely. I love it. We're excited about Contends Day Wednesdays. If you guys have a better name, feel free to write it in. I don't think that you're going to because that one was a ringer right out of the bag. It literally just came right as we were starting.

That was pretty fantastic. But hey, text in and let us know your questions specifically about apologetics. We'd love to be able to answer those, address them maybe on Wednesdays or we can pose them to Dr. Shah on lightning round questions on Fridays. Send us those questions at 252-582-5028. You can also visit us online at clearyourtodayshow.com and you can support us financially on that same website. Partner with us as we seek to give people the hope that they need and answer the questions that they have.

So I got a question coming in from a Grant B. This one might break the bank. Denny's or Waffle House? Ooh. Wow.

That's a good one. If I have time, Denny's, but Waffle House is pretty cool. I'm with you.

I'm with you. If I'm quick and in a hurry, let's go to Waffle House. If we've got some time to kill, yeah, scoot on over to Denny's.

More choices. I think we first met in a Denny's. Didn't we? No, Waffle House.

Yes, yes, yes. First time we ever met was in a Denny's. That was a good day.

I remember that. Changed my life. Life changed in a Denny's.

In a Denny's. Well, we love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear Read Today. We'll see you tomorrow.