Lightning Questions

Hello, everyone.

Today is Friday, February the 17th. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon 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 any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

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That's right. We'll read it on the air. We'll say good things about you and your family. I meant we review them as listeners. You don't want that. I'm a harsh critic. That's not true.

That's not true. John, you want to read the verse of the day today? Let's do it. It comes from 2 Corinthians 12, 19. He said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

I love this verse because it flips what the world desires on its head. We want to strive to be the best. We want to strive to be the smartest or the fastest or the strongest. Not that those are bad things to work toward, but that's not what defines us and that's not where our strength comes from. We boast in God's strength that, like this verse reminds us, is made perfect in our weakness. Not only that, but it's a weakness that displays the strength of God. I think nowadays, we're quick to boast in our infirmities, but it's so that we can garner sympathy or so we can put the blame on someone else or so we can tear down some establishment or some organization or some authority figure in life. That's why we boast about how oppressed we are.

What Paul is saying is, listen, I am oppressed and I am made weak and things are coming against me, but I'm talking about it for the glory of God so that you can see how strong God actually is in the face of my weakness. Yeah, absolutely. I've been on Facebook, on our Clearview Today Facebook. I've been looking at the text thread. Which if you're not following us on Facebook, make sure you do that. Clearview Today on Facebook. You can also follow us on Instagram as well for First of the Day images and the video podcast.

And we have a text thread, 252-582-5028, where you can write in and text your opinion, your questions. The fry debate that we had is blowing up. I have noticed that.

It's been like two weeks. A couple weeks ago, we recorded an episode and at the end, ketchup was missing. What do you dunk your fries in?

Ketchup was missing. My wife started all this nonsense, by the way, because she is the one that recommended that. That was a good question. It was a good question. We talked about it. Someone else wrote in, who has the best fries, and they just haven't stopped.

It just has spread like a wildfire. I'm going to try to put an end to the fry debate. I had to threaten to block somebody because they said they dipped their fries in honey. Elizabeth from North Carolina said, I dipped my fries in honey. I saw that.

Here's the only thing I can think of. Did you see me tell her I was going to block her? I did. That is an unusual choice for me, but I have had the hot honey fried chicken from Biscuitville. We talked about that when Stu was on the show.

That is very good. That salty versus the sweet of the honey. I also dunk my fries in milkshake sometimes. We talked about that. That's the salty of the fries and the sweet of the milkshake. I'd be willing to try it. I was joking.

I'm not going to block her. I did think that was pretty gross that she dipped it in honey. I'm going to try to take attention away from the fry debate because it's really heating up. Who's got the best burger? Who's got the best burger you can buy? I would have at one point said Five Guys.

Five Guys is my jam fo' sho'. Very good burger. I think lately it's been Texas Roadhouse. Really?

Yeah. I know that's not a burger place, but I'm not going to lie. I love Texas Roadhouse burgers. I love the burger I really like.

It's a chain restaurant. I really like Red Robin. I think I went to Red Robin once. It was like 10 o'clock.

They were trying to close. I definitely did not like the burger, but I would be willing to give it another shot just because it's probably my fault that burger was bad because they were trying to close down. I like Red Robin. I don't know if I've ever had a burger from Texas Roadhouse. Steakhouse, I imagine it would be good.

It's delicious. Fuddruckers is good. That's a great burger.

I haven't had that in a long time. Ellie and I had one a few years back, but I remember it being a really great burger. Five Guys is a good staple. I don't think nobody's going to choose a McDonald's or a Wendy's burger. You can, I guess, if you want to, but I'm talking nice, thick, good quality burgers. I'd be willing to try Angus Barn. I've heard Angus Barn is superior. Delicious burger. It's like once you've tasted the milk and honey of the promised land, you're not going to go back.

Yeah. I'll see Five Guys. I'll do a Five Guys burger is so filling to me. I'll just do a regular double cheeseburger and no fries at all. Just do the burger and I'm completely satisfied. Five Guys does have a filling burger. Plus, I mean, the fries they give you is like three and a half pounds worth of fries.

It's enormous. That was why when David said that he would do Five Guys fries, I don't really think they're that good. I mean, they're good.

Don't get me wrong. They're very strong. They're very seasoned, real strong. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to think if there's any superior burgers.

Right now, Texas Roadhouse has got the best burger for me. Okay. There you go. Yeah. I'll give some thinking on it, but hopefully we'll just stop getting our phones blown up about how much these people love fries. No, I was going to say write in and let us know what your go-to burger is because maybe it's not one that we have.

Yeah. Cookout. Cookout. Cookout? Cookout. Cookout's got a good burger. Cookout does have a good burger. I wouldn't put it up there with the others that we mentioned, but it is good. It is good.

You would take it over like a Five Guys? No. Cookout's just local. Okay. Yeah. Fair enough.

It's local. For sure. I'll give you that.

I'll give you that. Yeah. The best drive-through burger. I would say Cookout. Yeah.

Yeah. But write in and let us know what your go-to burger is. Maybe you have one that we aren't aware of.

Maybe you have some sort of secret knowledge that you want to bestow on us. I also like the urgency in depth. Cookout. Cookout. Cookout. Cookout. Cookout.

Cookout. That was real urgent. Let us know your favorite burger.

252-582-5028. We're going to get Dr. Shaw for our main segment today. We've got an exciting episode planned for you, so stay tuned.

We'll be right back. Hey there, listeners. I'm Jon Galantis.

And I'm Ellie Galantis. And we just want to take a quick second and talk to you about Dr. Shaw's and Nicole's book, 30 Days to a New Beginning, daily devotions to help you move forward. You know, this is actually the second book in the 30 Days series. And the whole point of this devotional is to help us get unstuck from the ruts of life. And when it comes to running the race of life, it matters how you start, but a bad start doesn't ultimately determine how you finish the race. You can have a good finish even with a bad start. And that's where this book comes in. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck.

Instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner, like I know I've done several times. I know that's right. 30 Days encourages you to find your fresh start in God's word. Life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things.

His mercies are new every day, which means every day is a new chance for you to start over. You can grab 30 Days to a New Beginning on Amazon.com. We're going to leave a link in the description box below. And if you already have the book, let us know what you think about it.

That's right. Send us a text, 252-582-5028. Share what God has done in your life through this devotional. Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air. Ellie, you ready to get back to the show?

Let's do it. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com.

If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, make sure you send us a text at 252-582-5028. Dr. Shaw, welcome to the studio today. It's good to be here. Happy Friday, Dr. Shaw. Happy Friday, Ryan. You know what that means?

What's that? It means it's lighting, right? You're getting ahead of the game, Ryan. Come on. I'm excited.

Damn. I'm excited about lighting. Is it lighting or lightening? Lightening. We're not going to ask you questions about professional lighting.

Yeah, but we did install all this lighting, coincidentally enough, on a Friday. Sure. There you go. Before you get a little ahead of yourself, we've got to still follow the rules. I know.

Unfortunately. If you're joining us for the first time, we want to welcome you to the show. Dr. Abidanshah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's episode.

You can follow him on his blog. That's Abidanshah.com. That's right. And just in case you haven't listened to a lightning round episode question yet, a lightning round questions episode yet is the order that those words are supposed to be in. These are questions that have been submitted by you, the listeners, and viewers. So when we tell you to text that number, we really do mean it.

We don't just say in numbers. We like to hear y'all's questions. Right. Yes. So we're going to take these, and we're going to pose them to Dr. Abidanshah.

That's right. And you get to hear your questions answered live on the radio. So make sure, maybe the episode today will jog a question for you or maybe make you remember, hey, I've been meaning to ask that. Send those questions in.

252-582-5028. We've got some really good questions. We also get so many that we tend to try to group them in terms of theme. And so I know you and I were talking earlier. We just finished up our series on love earlier this week.

So we wanted to pick questions that kind of had that love theme. It is February, after all. Right. Yeah.

It's important. That's right. So you want me to take the first one?

Yeah, you can, if you want. I'll take the first one. So this question comes from Ginger B, and she wants to know, Ginger B, she wants to know... Ginger bread. I was going to say, does that mean ginger bread?

Do you know the ginger bread, man? I don't know. Ginger wants to know, why does God love us being we are so unlovable?

Wow. That's a great question. And you know, the further you grow in your Christian life, the longer you live, and the more years you have behind in your spiritual journey, the more you wonder that question. You ask that question, why does God love us being we are so unlovable? Early on in my ministry, or early on in my salvation journey, I should say, really, I felt like, man, God really lucked out when he got me, because now, now I can really...

I have a whole package. Yeah, because see, look, I got all these, the best of the best, you know, the upbringing and the education, of course, the good looks, but also, you know, all the... You were going to sneak that in there, I almost didn't catch it. You know, the IQ and the EQ, you know, I'm just, I'm intelligent.

And I can also pick up emotional cues. This dude says one more cool thing. He's in. Oh, man.

That's awesome. Yeah. But now the longer you live and walk with God and go through the ups and downs in life, the good times, and also the times of failures and disappointments, that's when you go, I don't understand, you know? And so that's a great question. Why does God love us being we are so unlovable? That's his nature. One of his attributes is love. It's a communicable attribute.

There are incommunicable and then communicable. Communicable are those attributes that he actually shares with us. You know, he has made us in his image. So love, God is love, you know, the Bible talks about that. And so he loves us in spite of who we are.

Show me the worst criminal. Show me the worst person that you know of, you know, just degenerate, horrible, terrible and God still loves that person. That's right. And he gave Jesus his son to die on the cross for that person, Jesus, you know, we sometimes think like God is just grabbing Jesus by the collar and saying, now you go die for them.

No, Jesus loves us enough to come down and willing to give his life for us. That's love. And he said that to his disciples, you know, love one another as I have loved you.

You know, this is the model. And then, of course, you know, first Corinthians 13, Paul kind of breaks down the attribute of love for the Corinthian believers because they were living very contrary to what love is supposed to be like. So it is his nature. And you know, sometimes we say this, this thing, we say that God doesn't need us.

And that's true. A hundred percent for his existence. God doesn't need us at all. He is perfectly fine. Even for fellowship, God doesn't need us.

He's perfectly fine. Trinity had plenty of fellowship, you know, father, son, spirit. Having said that, one reason I believe God made us is because it gives him the opportunity to share his love with us. You know, of course, he can share the love in himself in the three persons. But there's something about loving somebody who doesn't equally and actively love you back. Right. That's why we love little babies, you know, because they're so helpless and they're so innocent.

And so you just your heart just goes out. What can that baby do for you? You know, some people say, oh, he saw me or he's like me or he responds to me. Maybe. I think most times the babies are just like, feed me, change me. Yeah. Feed me, change me.

That's it. So why do we love them so much? Because, you know, we just want to our we are geared that way to pour our love towards somebody who is, you know, helpless, innocent, even unlovable. Yeah.

Wow. And kind of to mirror what you've been saying all of last week and kind of at the beginning of this week is that that is the nature of God coming through. You know, we tend to think that love is this outpouring of positive emotion, that I just care about you so much or that I just feel all this emotion for you.

And if I don't feel that, then I must not love you or you must not be loving me. But God doesn't operate that way. It's part of his nature. And the love that we have is is that nature of God, I guess. It's actually given to us. Amen.

It's action. That's why, you know, we read for God to love the world that he gave his only begotten son, his one only son, his one of a kind son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, and have everlasting life. Right. So he gave. That's right. So that's love. I love that.

It's beautiful. I've got one from Martin S. I've always heard in Bible studies and sermons that there are three types of love, Eros, Fileo, and Agape. But I've also heard about a fourth one, which is Storge, or Stor-hay, I'm not sure how to say it. Storge.

Storge. What is that about? So this is really coming from C.S. Lewis's book called The Four Loves. Okay.

Four Loves is a great book. I read this years and years ago and even heard it on, on cassette tape back in the day. Oh, wow.

It was cassette tape. Wow. So in this book, he talks about, you know, affection, friendship, Eros, charity. So affection would be Storge. Friendship would be Fileo or Fileos. Eros would be Eros, right? The erotic love. And charity is where he puts Agape.

Now there is a place for this. And by no means will I ever say that C.S. Lewis was not a scholar. He was an amazing classicist. He was just, just, just a great giant, a great giant. He was a giant in British literature.

And of course, becoming Christian, he was also an apologist for the faith. But I think here he overplayed that card. Okay. Because yes, to some extent there are differences in those words. Yeah. Right. So Storge, affection, just this kind of a, like a love somebody, just like, let's like a love hamburger kind of thing.

Right. Or friendship means more that Fileo brotherly love, Eros, you know, erotic sexual love between partners, husband, wife, or, you know, whatever. And charity is Agape, the divine kind of love.

All that is true. But since James Barr, James Barr wrote this book, The Semantics of Biblical Language, you know, our understanding of how words are used has changed. So sometimes, you know, you read the gospels and a word is used like Storge and Fileo. And it is not the divine love. Like when you talk about Peter and Jesus having that conversation after the resurrection, do you love me? Do you love me?

Do you love me? It's Agape and Fileo. So what was Jesus doing? And if he tried to make a point based on, well, here, he was talking about this kind of love. And then he was talking about this kind of love.

But then there are other passages where it's strictly, no other way, but taken as divine love. And yet the word is Fileo. Eros doesn't come. Eros is kind of pretty, it's said in its way. It's erotic. It's pretty understood what that one is.

But Storge and Fileo oftentimes show up when you would expect only Agape or Agapao. So I would say, yeah, it has its place, but let's not overdo that. Our understanding of etymology has changed. Our understanding of word usages has changed.

English is so poor when it comes to that. I love hamburger. I love my dog. I love my wife.

I love Jesus. Yeah. Are all of those equal? It's the same word. It's not the same way. The way I love my wife is not the same way I love Jesus. And the way I love hamburger is not the way I love my dog. The way I love my dog is not the way I love Jesus. So it's different.

But we just have this one word, love. And I think that kind of goes back to your point from earlier last week. It's not only different modes of affection. It's not different levels of intensity. They're completely different categories themselves. Yeah. And again, when it comes to usages, sometimes they're just used stylistically. And let's not make a sermon out of it.

So I believe in this particular work by C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, I think it's sort of weak. Overreaching a little bit.

It's overreaching. Is it fair to say that that's another word for love, but another type of love altogether? Yeah, I would say so. Really at one time, there are synchronic meanings and diachronic meanings. Synchronic is what that word meant at a particular place in time. Diachronic is how the word meaning has shifted and changed over time. That's why you can do word studies in the Bible, but unless you understand the principles of word study and understand how language has shifted, especially the Old Testament, because New Testament is only a hundred year period, right?

Even less. In the Old Testament, we're dealing with, gosh, we're dealing with like pre-flood, right? I mean, those accounts in Genesis came from somewhere that somebody was hanging onto some records or whatever they passed on bits and pieces of detail to Moses. So language shifted. Language has changed. And unless you think the first language was Hebrew, some people believe that actually. Some very good scholars and apologists like Jonathan Sarfati believes that Hebrew was that first language. That Adam and Eve were speaking Hebrew, like pre-flood? Yes.

Wow. And it has a point, albeit I don't quite agree with it. The point is that some of the names that have been given to biblical places, characters, they're very Hebrew. So the question is, is that a translation of some other language or was the language itself Hebrew? Sarfati and others will say the language itself was Hebrew. And then came all the other languages. I see their point and it's a valid point, but when you study languages and just the history of languages, it's hard to believe that the Hebrew was the first language like in the garden.

Maybe it was. You say, why, why do you struggle with that? Because when you study languages like the Canaanite language is a Phoenician language. The big question is which one came first? Because when you look at the characters, the letters, the formation of those alphabets in Phoenician languages and compare that to Hebrews, the Phoenician stuff is a little more primitive and Hebrew is a little more advanced.

So could it be? And again, I'm being very simplistic here. If any linguists out there just don't be mad with me, I'm just, I'm just kind of, you know, talking about it without my notes in front of me. But just based on how those letters are formed, it seems like Phoenician came first and then came Hebrew.

Right. Some of the, some of the what's in the Hebrew language is sort of derivative from the Phoenician. That's what scholars have concluded. So again, it's not a closed case.

It could very well be Hebrews, the language, Hebrew language, not Hebrews, the language Hebrew would be the first one. And I would be the happiest person in the world if it was. Yeah. True.

No problem there. Yeah. Maybe we can do that later. I know, right? I was like, tell me more.

Yeah. I don't want to dive deeper into this. You know, one thing I'll say before I move on, languages, study of languages, linguistics is such a fascinating field. And I really want to do more and more of that, you know, because you learn so much and you understand so much. There's a scholar by the name, there was a scholar by the name of Cyrus Gordon. He was Jewish. Other than him, I don't know if any scholar that comes close to understanding different languages. I mean, he knew languages like Hebrew and you know, the Egyptian hieroglyphs and Greek and Syriac and Aramaic and Hittite and Ugaritic. You know, once you understand languages and you begin to see the connections of which people came from where and how the stories are being shared and how we have a common story. I mean, we agree with the Bible, honestly. Unbelievable.

So language is a lot of fun. So our next question comes from Rebecca G. Rebecca says, did God truly hate Esau? Yikes, that's a big one. I guess you're quoting from Malachi, you know, Jacob, how I love and Esau I have hated, you know, and again, very tough to understand. My big problem is Jacob, I have loved, right? Forget about Esau, I have hated. God should hate all of us for how we are and how we behave. Whether we cannot help it or whether it's our choice, either way, we're not nice people.

That's a good point. You always think about God being a God of love. It's wrong for him to hate, but it's almost the opposite.

Why are you favoring and why are you loving Joseph when, like the first question said, we're all unlovable. I love that it's linked to that first question. Yeah, it really is. I had never thought of it like that. It's almost like you're asking the wrong question sort of thing. Yeah.

Yeah. I would say yes, but if you look at the context in which Malachi was given, okay, so let's go there for a second, if you don't mind. So kind of get the content because if you remove the context and just take it for whatever it is, then we get into a lot of debates that are more systematic theology debates when really they should be biblical theology debates. So if you go to Malachi chapter one, starting in verse one, the burden of the Lord to Israel by Malachi, I have loved you, says the Lord, yet you say, in what way have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord, yet Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness. Even though Edom has said, we have been impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places. Thus says the Lord of hosts, they may build, but I will throw down. They shall be called a territory of wickedness, a people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever. Your eyes shall see and you shall say the Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.

Now context, context is this. The people of Judah, right, Malachi is writing to that time period, one of the last word of God before the silent period, they had become sort of cynical. They had become very bitter towards God. And they were saying things like, you keep telling us you love us. How?

Why? I mean, for one, you scattered us all over the world. And then some of our families are now stuck in Babylon. Others are back in Judea or Jerusalem, and our temple is barely standing. And you know, it's nothing like what Solomon had.

I mean, you love us, prove to us. If you keep the context in mind, that's when God says, compare this with how Esau is. You think your situation is bad?

Compare that with Esau. What do you see? You see everything laid waste. You see his heritage laid waste. You see jackals of the wilderness all over the place. And you're telling me that I don't care about you.

Look at how good you have it. I brought you back. I preserved you as a people. So God is actually chastising them because of their bitterness and their doubt and their questioning. And they're interrogating God. They're putting God on the stand and saying, prove to us that you love us. And God said, look around and see your brother. See the other line that came down from Isaac, Esau.

See what do you think? And sometimes we need to do the same thing. When we have bitterness coming in our heart or resentment or this feeling of why not me and how dare, just really examine yourself in light of how others are. I do that sometimes. Not to make myself feel better in the sense like I'm better than them, because I'm not. None of us are. But doing a little bit of surveying around, you'll realize, man, I have it so good. God has been so good to me. And it takes away that whole, why am I not loved and why don't you care about me?

And if you cared about me, you would, you know, it's like, oh, you know what, I don't deserve anything. Right. Wow. So we've been talking a little bit about doing a series on Malachi here on the show. I think, I think, you know, this may be the start of something really cool because now I really want to take this Malachi conversation a little more forward because, and when you, when you really study it and the imagery behind it, you're blown away at how God is intense and passionate in his love towards us.

Okay. So he's not this, this deity who just sits there just like, oh, I love you. No, it's just, he is passionately coming after us to love us. That's right. That's right.

Passionate pursuit. Oh man. So cool. So before we go to our regular closing, I do want to say a quick congratulations if I could. Absolutely. To our good buddy Mike S. Mike S. Mike S. Right here in North Carolina.

And his wife just had the baby. Yay. And so we're not going to mention any more names or things like that because this is that time to celebrate.

They got to do that. But we just want to say you guys, we love you. We thank you for your support. You always encouraging us and sending us funny things and questions and all that. Your family is a blessing. It really is. And we pray that this baby will be healthy and follow the Lord one day.

And I know your other one is too. So we're so happy. So happy. Amen. We love both of you guys. Thank you for your support.

Like Dr. Shaw said. We're so thankful for your support. It means more to us than you know. If you enjoyed today's topic, or if you have questions you'd like answered on an episode of Lightning Round Questions, make sure you send those in to 252-582-5028. You can also visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com and you can partner with us financially on that same website. Every gift that you give goes to reaching countless others with the message of the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clearview Today.