Lightning Round Questions

Happy Friday, everyone. Today is January the 27th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abidjan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

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We're going to leave a link in the description of this podcast so you can find us and leave us those good reviews. I love reading them. I read them every single day. Sometimes multiple times a day.

Sometimes multiple times a day. Sometimes I put my phone up to the mirror and I just read them and I tell myself everything that you guys say. That being said, y'all stop saying mean stuff about us, man. I don't like that. I don't like that it's mean to me. Please only nice things. Only nice things. That's right. Jon, you want to do the verse of the day today? Yeah, man. This one's kind of obscure.

I don't think you guys... This one kind of comes from a gospel that a lot of people haven't really read a lot. This one's from John chapter three and verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

You know, people laugh about that. Like that's the verse. If you know one Bible verse, that's the verse. But there's a reason for that. There's a reason that one has gained the popularity that it has because that's the gospel.

Yeah, it's everything encapsulated right there. It's the creation of the world. It's God as a sovereign authority. It's his mercy.

It's his justice. It's his holiness. Everything is encapsulated in that one verse. And because most people know this verse, whether or not they attend church on a regular basis, this is a fantastic jumping off point in a conversation about the gospel with somebody. Right, because that seed has already been planted.

It wasn't planted by you, but God in his wisdom and in his sovereignty and providence has planted that somehow in the hearts and minds of most people who have heard that verse. That's right. Yeah. This is a hard shift from John 3.16, but I had an interesting conversation with David over lunch today.

Okay. This is the second time this week that we've had interesting lunchtime thoughts from David. Yeah, lunchtime David just kind of goes buck wild.

He says really outlandish stuff. And David, if you want to turn your mic on at any point and wait in here, feel free. But here's the thing. David has spent years telling me, I don't like sour cream. So you just start to accept that.

Sure. He's just not a fan. He's like, I don't like sour cream at all. I'm like, Hey, that's fine.

That's a perfectly normal thing for people to not like. Personally, I like sour cream. I don't love it, but I'll put it on, you know, my burritos. Yeah. A little sour cream.

No problem. But David, every time I offer him something, he wants some sour cream. No, I don't like it. I don't like it. Okay.

Yeah, that's fine. So it's registered to me today when I saw him eating some, he was putting it in his food. I've seen him eat sour cream multiple times. So I was like, David, you've always said that you don't like sour cream, but I've seen you eating it a bunch and I'm just now kind of realizing that he was like, yeah, I like sour cream in stuff. Yeah. I was like, cream in stuff is good. Yeah.

And so I was like, what do you, what's the alternative? He was like, I don't like just eating it by itself. And I was like, David, nobody does that. Nobody eats sour cream just by himself. And he looks at me and goes, my mom does it. Yeah.

She didn't know that. Just like a spoonful of sour cream out of the tub. Like I think I'll have a quick snack.

Here's some sour cream. Yeah. Like, so I vividly remember and I'm 100% willing to admit this may be like one of those false memories that you make up as a kid.

Sure. But I vividly remember that my mom would take the spoon and then just dip it in the sour cream and then just eat the some of the sour cream. Not like, not like as a snack, like I'm going to take two or three spoonfuls, but just like one spoonful.

Yeah. You know, like people go to like the refrigerator and they'll get like the cottage cheese and they'll just take a couple spoonfuls of the cottage cheese or whatever. I don't do that either. I don't do that.

Oh, I do that. And I'll have like a, like if I'm having cottage cheese in a bowl, I'll just put it in a bowl. But I'm not going to be like spoonfuls of cottage cheese.

Yeah, I'll do spoonful of cottage cheese. But you're saying she did that with sour cream. Yes. Um, I vividly remember that. So I called her to confirm. Apparently that was not true. That was not, that didn't happen. But you're saying it's equally possible that she's lying. Albeit it may be false. I'm saying that it's most likely me misremembering.

But, but my thing is like, that's absurd to say that, that that's, that is a very specific memory to me. That's like saying I really hate salt. Well she did admit that there was a few times, well I just don't like eating handfuls of salt. Well I'm saying that she did admit there was a few times that she would like eat chips and salsa and she would take salsa, put it in a bowl, sour cream and put it in a bowl. Sure. And then she would dip the sour cream like individually on the chip.

Okay. I mean that's fine. With no salsa?

With no salsa. That's kind of crazy too. I've done that with a chip.

I've done that. No, that's kind of crazy. Chip, sour cream on just a pink tortilla chip. Not just like a bowl of sour cream, but if you are eating like chips and salsa and stuff, you might just maybe once in a while, okay, I'll just get a chip with sour cream on it. Yeah, chips, salsa and sour cream, but not chip and sour cream. That's kind of gross.

I've done that. Anyways, I don't like sour cream by itself. I like it on stuff. In defense of this, I have done like if I'm cooking something or if I'm making something with sour cream, I may lick the spoon.

My mom does that too. But I'm not going to get like spoon full of sour cream. I think that's fine.

I think it's fine. Lick the spoon. It's not pleasant, but if you're just trying to clean the spoon real quick, I guess you can. But I mean, I wouldn't be like, Oh, a little bit of like, if I've got chocolate, I'm like, Oh, this is like a little treat. And I'll lick the, I'll lick the chocolate off. But sour cream, I wouldn't be like, Oh yay. A little sour treat.

A little special something for me. I'd be like, ew, I just put the spoon away. I don't like that.

Yeah. Sour cream is best in stuff, but yeah, he got me. He was like, I don't like sour cream by itself. I was like, who does?

And then finding all this stuff out about his mom, I just was like, this is wild. We got to talk about it on the show. I got some questions. Well maybe that, maybe our listeners have some questions. Maybe, maybe there's someone out there who's genuinely like, I love sour cream by the spoonful.

That's what I want to know. What are your thoughts on sour cream? How much of it do you use? How little of it do you use?

Are you anti sour cream altogether or are you eating it straight out of the fridge? Maybe I got to know. Yeah. Maybe they just do, do, do, do, do, do a dollop of daisy. I was very concerned about you. I thought you were like glitching or something. I was like, what's happening? Do a dollop of daisy. Somebody move the record.

It's skipping. Well guys, we have an exciting show planned for you guys today. It's Friday, so we're going to do another episode of lightning round questions today with Dr. Shah. These are questions that you have been sending in that you want to know his answers to. So we're going to go get him in just a second. But if you have any questions that you've been sitting on, make sure you're sending those in. We love reading them and we're going to use them for our lightning round episodes.

Send those questions in to 252-582-5028 along with your thoughts on sour cream, or you can visit us online at cleaviewtodayshow.com. We'll be right back. Well, good morning, afternoon, evening, Clear View Today listeners. My name is Jon. And I'm David. And we just want to take a quick second and let you know about another way that you can keep in touch with Dr. Shah's work.

And that is his weekly podcast series, Sermons by Abbadan Shah, PhD. As a lot of you may know, or maybe some of you don't know. If you don't know, you do now. And if you don't know, then maybe just hop off the podcast. I'm just playing.

I'm just playing. Keep listening. Dr. Shah is actually the lead pastor of Clear View Church in North Carolina. Every single weekend, he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live God-honoring lives. Well, one of the four core values of Clear View Church is that we're a Bible-believing church. So every sermon is coming directly from scripture, which is great because that guarantees that there are timeless truths that are constantly applicable to our lives. This is a great resource because whether you're driving, whether you're cleaning the house, whether you're working out, you can always benefit from hearing the Word of God spoken into your life. And God's Word is always going to do something new for you every time you hear it.

Sometimes it's conviction and sometimes it's encouragement. But know that every time you listen to God's Word, you're inviting the Holy Spirit to move and work in your life. You guys can check out the Sermons by Abbadan Shah, PhD podcast. First and foremost, check it out on our church app. That's the Clear View app. You can get that in the Google Play Store. You can get that on iTunes. But you can also find the podcast on the Apple Podcast app or on our website at ClearViewBC.org. And listen, if you've got a little extra time on your hands, you just want to do some further reading, you can also read the transcripts of those sermons.

Those are available on Dr. Shah's website, AbbadanShah.com. And we're going to leave you guys a little link in the description so you can follow it. But for right now, David, let's hop back in.

All right. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadan 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 send us a text at 252-582-5028. Dr. Shah, welcome to the studio today. Are you ready for lightning round questions today?

I think I'm ready. I would say TGI Friday because I love these lightning rounds. I love these lightning round questions. I wonder how TGI Fridays has business on other days of the week. Like, who's going to go to TGI Fridays on like a Monday?

I just thought about that. I don't know if I've ever actually been to a TGI Friday. Dr. Shah took us in DC one time. That's right. It was really good.

I had wings for the first time ever. Nice. Delicious. Well, if you guys are joining us for the first time ever, if this is your first time tuning into the show, Dr. Abbadan Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. You can follow his work on his website.

That's AbbadanShah.com. That's right. On yesterday's episode, we talked some about Abraham and Sarah and about being a chain breaker. We thought it was really fitting that we got this text from one of our listeners. From Devin W., D.W. herself. Oh, D.W.

I hadn't thought about that in years. This comes straight from Arthur's little sister. I wanted to tell you that this is kind of interesting, but it's very uplifting, very encouraging. I wanted to tell you that every sermon you preached during Man of Promise, which was the Abraham series that we preached over December, that Dr. Shah preached over December, I should say, has come full circle in our Bible study. I actually understand what I'm reading, and I'm able to apply it in a way I've never been able to. I've read many chapters of the Bible, but I was doing just that, reading.

I never understood or applied anything. Your knowledge and sermons have literally changed my life. One of my favorite things I've put together during my Bible study is how God testing Abraham was a foreshadow to Christ's sacrifice. How Isaac was instructed to carry his own wood up the mountain, just like Christ carrying the cross, and how Isaac's flesh was going to be sacrificed, just as Christ was for us. The fact that the crucifixion happened on the same mountain, right?

Abraham trusting God so much that he would have sacrificed his own son, because he knew God could ultimately raise the dead. I know all of this is not new to you, but I'm literally in awe that I understood it to this level. I hope I'm understanding it anyway. And lastly, the most ironic part of this whole thing, I listened to your sermons years ago, maybe like four years, when we were searching for a new church. My first thought was that you were too deep, way over my head.

For that reason, I classified it as dry and not interesting. But in reality, I was always looking for the feel-good message, that we're simple to understand. I never imagined I would be sitting in Clearview, glued to every word you were saying, and actually understanding. I know this is a long message, but it was on my heart to share all of this.

Me telling you I understand is one thing, but truly explaining it is another. So I hope this encourages you, because it sure lights a fire under me. Signed, D-W. Oh, man. That's pretty cool. Thank you so much. Thank you so, so much.

I know who she is, and I've told her, thank you for taking the time to tell me that. As a pastor, as a professor, that brings the greatest joy to me. I know that now the Word of God is not intimidating, but it's almost intriguing. It's like you want to dive in, because if knowing this is changing my life, how much more is there? Amen. And so the Word of God is powerful. Amen. And I'm excited. I know exactly how she's feeling, because when you finally get something, it really hypes you up.

That's right. You really start to feel on a roll, and you want to just take in as much as you can. It ignites a hunger, and you start to crave God's Word more and more, because you actually understand what you're reading.

It really does. You want to jump into lightning round questions? Yes, lightning round questions.

So these questions are—let me preface before you jump in. You're so excited. Let me just calm down.

Take a breath. Let me set it up, and then you can knock it out of the park. I'm good. So these questions have been submitted by you, the listeners, and viewers by texting that number that we tell you every single episode—that's why we tell you to do it—so you can get your questions answered on lightning round questions on Friday's episodes. If you haven't had the chance to do so yet, make sure you're sending those questions in 252-582-5028. And even if you've already submitted a question, don't feel like you have just one submission. Text us in whatever you're wondering about, if it's pertaining to a particular show, or if it's a question you've always been wondering or always wanted to ask Dr. Shaw.

We'd love to hear from you, and we'd love to get those text messages and have your questions featured on lightning round questions. Now, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to steal your thunder.

It's all right, because I just had a good setup I was excited for. Take it away. I was going to say this question, believe it or not, is from Marshall M., and I'm 90% confident that's not Slim Shady. I'm pretty sure that's not Marshall Mathers. I don't think it is. But 100%, this is from Marshall M. from UNC.

That's North Carolina. He says, is the chosen legit? Is it just me, or is it messing with anyone else's headcanon? Love the podcast. Really enjoyed the Proto-Evangelion episode. Thank you, Marshall. Yeah, I mean, great question.

Every decade, I would say, somebody else comes up with another movie or a series on Christ or the Bible, and this is probably the one for our generation. Personally, I would say they've done a great job. They've done a great job. There are things there that you go, well, I'm not quite sure about some of the creative licenses that people have taken and on and on. I get it. I understand that, too. But they're trying to give it a new spin.

They're trying to make it such that it'll be a little different than other people's stuff. Having said that, I think it's good. I think still, it's just me talking, still the best is yet to come. Oh, I agree with that. Still the best is yet to come. And the more that we study the Bible, the more that we understand the biblical history or the New Testament era and all that in languages, I think it's going to get even better.

So yeah, creative licenses are there in Chosen. There are things like, let's see, I think it's Peter is at his home in Capernaum, and he is talking to his wife about daily struggles and the frustrations and all. I mean, it's not in the Bible, but it's there. Then there are things like Nicodemus tries to cast out demons from Mary Magdalene.

Or then there's something about the man who is the head of the wedding coordination in the wedding at Cana, John 2, is Thomas, the disciple. So there are things that you go, huh, what was that? But are they, so far, in my opinion, are they like a threat to orthodoxy? I haven't seen that yet.

So I would say overall seems pretty good. There is this thing where I think people, especially in adaptations, they take creative license to where they feel like they have to add something. And it either comes from not having enough source material or just not seeing the full value, I'll say, in the source material that's there. I think that's something that you do quite well, as you understand, Dr. Sha, I'm speaking to, is that you see the source material. And there's all the surface stuff that we can cover.

There's a couple layers deeper, but there's even deeper layers than that that go back to the Old Testament, that go to just their human condition. I saw that a lot in 30 days, the way you pull stuff out of 30 days to a new beginning. So I feel like a lot of those creative licenses, like you said, they're not necessarily bad or evil. It's just that there's enough source material and there's enough context in what's in the text to make something compelling. Right.

Right. So if you go back to the Jesus, the King of Kings, I don't know if you remember that. You guys probably don't remember the King of Kings movie. That Jesus is almost like the sixties rebel, or he looks like he is about to take down the bureaucrats. He's coming for the establishment.

He's coming for the establishment. Like, why does this guy look like Rich Mullen? Then you have the seventies, eighties, you know, the Jesus film, Jesus, made by crew or campus crusade for Christ at the time. That Jesus is just kind of kind, compassionate, sort of hippie-ish, but he's not acting like a hippie. I mean, he may sort of look like that, but he's just a genuine guy, caring, compassionate, a little firm, but not very relatable. The one from Chosen seems like, I mean, he's taking a dip in the Jordan River and he's splashing them with water. So he seems like more of a Gen Z type Jesus. Yeah.

Like a, let's just enjoy the day, enjoy the sunshine. So those are the kind of things you go, okay, I see good stuff, good stuff. But I think it's for each generation. But I think there's so much there in the source itself. If that ever gets mined and exploited in a good way, man. So I think the best is still out there.

It's still yet to come. I agree. I love that.

It makes me excited for the future. So our next question comes from Elizabeth A. And Elizabeth writes this. She says, I've got it here on my phone, so I'm going to read it. She says, when the Holy Spirit or Jesus is interceding to God for us, when we don't have the right things to pray, are there also prayers for people that aren't being prayed for? Like lost people? Okay.

So that's an age old question, okay? Bailey Smith. I don't know if you guys remember Bailey Smith or not. He was an evangelist, a Southern Baptist evangelist, had a wonderful ministry.

One of his most popular sermons under which I would say thousands got saved was the parable of the sower. If I'm not wrong. Oh no, the weed and the tares. That's the one.

Weed and the tares. And you know, one of the statements that he made in there is that God doesn't hear the prayers of an unbeliever. And so as much as I would like for that to be true, scripture doesn't allow that, okay? God hears the prayers of all people, okay? But the first prayer that he wants to hear from you is a sinner's prayer.

There's a difference there. So he said, do you have scripture to back it up? Well, Psalm 65 and verse two, it says, O you who hear prayer, to you all flesh will come.

Now what do you do with that? Yeah. It's all flesh. All flesh. It's not just people of Zion, it's not just the Israelites or Christians, it's all flesh will come.

Yeah. So God is a God who hears prayers. Now does he answer prayers? I would say according to his will and purpose, he does. And here's, here's what we need to realize that God is gracious.

You know, he lets the rain fall on the just and the unjust. You know, the Bible does talk about that too, right? So on the day of judgment, when people will stand up and say, Hey, now, wait a minute, wait a minute. I never heard of this Jesus stuff. I grew up in the heart of India in, you know, 400 AD. I never heard of Jesus. Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute.

I grew up in the heart of the Hittite empire in 1800 BC. I never heard of this Jesus stuff. I didn't know there was someone coming. Did you ever remember praying for your little child who was sick? Do you ever remember praying that I would get you out of that financial problem? Do you remember praying in the middle of that battle when you said, God, if you get me out of this, I'll follow you? Well, you got out, right? Your child got healed, right?

That financial problem got resolved, correct? Well, that was me because the next prayer should have been, God, since you did that for me, I'll follow you the rest of my life. God would have showed them Jesus Christ. So I know I'm going a long winded way to answer a question. So God hears all prayers on a day of judgment. People have no idea.

God will be proven just and gracious and merciful and perfectly just in sending people to hell because he never accepted his gift of eternal life. Wow. Wow.

I got one from Harold B. Why do people like Bart Ehrman devote their lives to New Testament textual criticism if they don't believe it? That's a great question. That's a great question.

If you don't believe it, why would you do it? This is, yeah, I can understand it being your hobby, but your whole life devoted to studying something you don't think is true. Yeah. That blows me away. I agree.

That's mind blowing. You're simply dismantling rather than constructing anything. Right. Right. And what you dismantle, I think they may try to convince themselves into thinking, my dismantling is actually setting people free.

Okay. It's not really setting them free, you're just destroying their faith. And so they consider themselves liberators, which to me is you're really bound.

You need to be set free, but they think they're setting other people free. Wow. Sin. Sin. That's what sin does.

Do you know of any other, I know Bart Ehrman is the one we always go to, but are there any other notable New Testament textual critics that are not believers? Oh yeah, there are more out there. I mean, each year I try to go to the ETS, Evangelical Theological Society meeting, which is a national organization, but there's a counterpart, which is the SBL, Society of Biblical Literature. So ETS usually begins, I would say, on Tuesday, Wednesday, something like that, if I'm not wrong, goes to like Thursday, and then there's a daybreak, and then SBL begins. There's a world of difference between those two. Really?

Yeah. At the ETS meeting, you'll have prayer, you'll have this, that, and the other. SBL is strictly whatever their subject is, whether it's theology or textual criticism or languages, linguistics, and it's just study for study's sake.

I haven't been to an SBL yet. I want to go, and I will go this year, hopefully, but you learn a lot, don't get me wrong, you learn a lot, but at the same time, it's like, wow, there is no gospel here. It just seems empty, just so, I'm pouring myself into this, but it's just hopeless. It's like a bunch of knowledge that I'm not going to do anything with.

Like history professors is what they come down to. Yeah, that's a good comparison. This next question comes from Randy M., and this is pertaining to, we talked a little while ago about Abraham and his interactions with this character, Melchizedek. So Randy asks, was Melchizedek a pre-incarnate Christ?

Wow. Great question, old problem, as to Melchizedek's genealogy, because it says in Hebrews, I believe, chapter seven and verse three, let me see if I can read that because that usually is used as the launching pad on this, it says, I'm going to read it in verse one, Hebrew seven, verse one, for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the Kings and blessed him to whom also Abraham gave a 10th part of all first being translated king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, meaning a king of peace. And then it says in verse three, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the son of God remains a priest continually. So based on that, people have said, no father, no mother, no genealogy, no beginning of days, no end of life.

Come on. That's Jesus. What does it say in the very next verse? Now consider how great this man was to whom even the patriarch gave a 10th of the spoils and indeed those who are the sons of Levi. Now here's where you get the clue, who received the priesthood have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law that is from their brethren, though they have come from the law of Abraham. So when it says what it says about Melchizedek being without father, mother, genealogy, beginning and not there, it's really trying to compare them with the Aaronic line where the descendants of Aaron had genealogy, had fathers and mothers. So comparing those two things to show, and if you keep reading further, it says in verse seven, now beyond all contradiction, the lesser is blessed by the better. Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.

Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. So the purpose behind that is, you know, Christ is greater than even Melchizedek. That's the point of that. That's the purpose. That's what Melchizedek is about.