President’s Day

Hello, everyone. Today is Monday, February the 20th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm Jon Galantis. And you're listening to Clear View Today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, 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 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. That's right. And you can help us keep this conversation on the airwaves by supporting it online, sharing it with your friends, leaving a good review on iTunes, Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from. We're going to leave a link in the description to help you do just that.

That's right. And thank you for those of you who have texted. And we really do appreciate those text messages. We do our best to respond to every one of them. Thank you for just sending in questions for the show or things that you've been thinking about, or even just some encouragement like, hey, really love the show today. Great job. We really appreciate that.

Amen. I actually have a review that I wanted to read online. So let me pull up my podcasting app. Is it a good review? Is it positive? No.

Because I don't want to listen to it if it's not. This one is pretty negative. This is from our friend DW, who's been writing in. We've been praying for DW. Thank you, DW.

I loved you on Arthur. I'm so thankful for Dr. Shah, Jon, Ryan, David, and the rest of the team who make Clear View Today possible. Sundays are my favorite day of the week because I know Dr. Shah is going to deliver a powerful message from the Word of God, and I find myself feeling hungry for more throughout the week. But Clear View Today fills that void and more. I feel like I'm sitting right there in the room with Dr. Shah and the team because his messages are so personal and inviting.

I love him and the rest of our Clear View family. If you're hesitant about how you can possibly fit one more thing into your daily schedule, I totally get that. But take 30 minutes for yourself. I promise it will fill your cup just like it does for me. This podcast will teach you and push you to grow closer to Christ. Aw, thank you, DW. That was very sweet. We love you. We love your sweet family. You want to read the verse of the day? I would be happy to. I love the verse of the day today.

I'll tell you why in just a second. It's James 1, verse 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of light with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. I have a really fun story about this verse. This is actually where we got the middle name for our youngest boy. Asher James? Asher James.

He is named for this verse. James isn't a family name for us. He was kind of a surprise for us. We were pretty set on four, and then surprise, we have a fifth. And we had a boy and three girls. For us to have another boy, we were like, wow, that's amazing.

We weren't even expecting that. We wanted the name Asher because of Jacob's children, Asher was the tribe that was overabundant, and Jacob blesses him and gives him the blessing of abundance. He is our abundant child. He's more than we expected. He's a good gift, and we wanted him to always remember that he was a good gift from God to us.

That's where we got Asher James. God is consistent, and we know that. But I think what that verse reminds me is that he's consistently good. It's not just this neutral, otherworldly comfort that we have in bad times God is there just to kind of remind me that everything is going to be okay. There's gifts and there's blessings. Like you said, there's abundance, and that's kind of what that reminds me.

I wouldn't say it's not enough to just be consistent, but I take comfort in God is consistently good. I've been having some crazy dreams. One of them was, we were in Colorado again.

The team in Dr. Shyle, we were hiking through the mountains of Colorado, but it started to become like the mountain pass in Lord of the Rings. We have this random dude with us, and I don't know who this guy is. He's just kind of there in our group. He's like, hey, do you guys dare me to chant and see if we can trigger an avalanche? Dr. Shyle's like, no, please don't do that. He's like, ho, ho, ho, ho, like trying to start an avalanche. Dr. Shyle's like, hey, shh, stop. I'm getting scared because I've got the baby with me. Now Gavin starts to, he's like, ho, ho, ho. I'm like, hey buddy, no, stop.

So then everybody just starts getting scared, and the avalanche never happens because the dream changes. I'm with David and I'm in a field. I'm on a farm, and there's like sheep and baby lambs as far as the eye can see. We're filming Dr. Shyle, and he's doing his thing. This woman comes out who owns the farm, and she's like, hey, y'all can't be filming out here. And so Dr. Shyle's like, no, we got the permit. We paid for the permit for the day.

We can film out here. And she's like, let me see the permit. She's like hostile towards us.

And so we show it to her. She's like, yeah, this isn't going to cut it. And Dr. Shyle's like, what do you mean?

We paid the permit. He was like, yeah, I see it, but this thing will cut it. And Dr. Shyle's like, fine, we'll leave. We want our money back. And she's like, no, that's not how it works, sir.

The permits are non-refundable. He's like, but this just isn't going to work? She's like, it's not going to work.

So Gavin is with me in this dream again. And he just looks at the woman and he goes, this is my sheep. She's like, take it away.

She's like, what? He's like, these are my sheep. This is my sheep. Take it, Gavin.

Take charge. And yeah, like she was, he was like, what are you doing? These sheep are mine, which is a phase he's actually in right now where he'll just grab people's stuff and be like, this is mine. He takes David's hat off his head and be like, this is my hat. Like he'll take my keys and be like, this is my keys.

Just like until you believe like, I'm going to say that this is mine in the hopes that you'll actually get on board and then I can have it. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know, man. I've been having a smart little boy, crazy dreams here lately. Oh man.

I don't know if it's a vision for the future or not, but I don't know if we're ever hiking in Colorado and it's like super snowy. I'm going to be like, be nervous looking around. There's this dude about to trigger an avalanche.

He just started. I was like, also that wasn't chanting. Like, do y'all dare me to start a chant?

No, just out of the clear blue. That's such a middle school thing. Do y'all dare me to do this? No, no one dared you to do that. I'll do it if you dare me.

I'll dare you not to. Yeah. Yeah.

How about that? I dare you not to start an avalanche. Oh my goodness. We've got an exciting show planned for you guys today. We're going to get Dr. Straw in just a minute, but if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text to 252-582-5028 or visit us online at clearveetodayshow.com.

We'll be right back. 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 Abaddon 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. David, I'm just playing. Hop off the podcast.

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. 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 Abaddon 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, AbaddonShah.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. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com.

If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text at 252-582-5028. Dr. Shah, welcome to the studio this Monday. How are you doing?

I'm doing very well. It's President's Day. President's Day. It's the beginning of a brand new week. I don't know why I said it in that cadence.

Brand new holiday. What'd you say? How are you doing? Did you?

Yeah. I don't know why it came out like that. How are you doing? It reminds me of Barbossa in the third Pirates movie where he's like, what are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing?

I don't know. I was feeling apparently piratey today. Today's President's Day. Today's President's Day, not pirate day, so I'll check myself. I'm sorry about that. Well, it's all right.

We'll talk about that later. But for right now, for you guys, especially if you're new, this is the first time you ever tuned into the show. Welcome. We want to let you know who's talking to you today. Dr. Abaddon Shah 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 find all his work on his website. That's AbaddonShah.com. That's right. And on today's episode, we are, of course, talking about President's Day, with that being the holiday that we're celebrating today. Some of you might be wondering, what is President's Day? Why are my kids home from school today? I don't understand what's happening.

Sure. Well, it was not until 1799, after George Washington died, that his birthday, which is February the 20th, began to be celebrated as Washington Day. After that point, they began to celebrate that more as a national federal holiday. So that, you know, some things changed. So it's a kind of a complicated history.

You know, you think, okay, this is what happened and somebody declared it. No, it had a history behind it. And then, of course, with President Lincoln's birthday being February 12th, you know, there was a discussion about, you know, how can we merge those two or do something with that? But then later on, it was not until the 1960s. 1960s, when it officially became President's Day. Oh, wow.

Yeah. So it has a history. It has a legacy. But at the same time, it was not until the 60s that it became known as the President's Day. And then, of course, you know, by the mid 1980s, it became the common term is President's Day. It did not have that title, but now it does.

Wow. And we look forward to it. Right. It seems like it's one of those things where it began like, hey, we really ought to do something to honor this person, to honor George Washington, to honor honor, you know, our late president. And then it just began to slowly take on more of a life like, hey, what if we devote like this to it? What if we kind of formalize it this way?

What if we incorporate Lincoln into it? And then, you know, what began is just sort of a hey, we're going to honor them became hey, this is now a recognized holiday. Right. And it's a it's a sacred office.

Yeah, I truly believe that. And I've been to the White House and I've, you know, just stood there. And to me, that's the second most important place that I've been to in my life. The first one being the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. And then, of course, the White House. So it was very special.

When you guys went to the White House, what was the thing that I guess stands out the most in your mind, the thing that was the most memorable, the most iconic about being able to kind of go through and see everything? You know, people may disagree with me, and I understand. But I believe America is the most powerful nation on the planet, even now in 2023.

It is. And the man who sits, you know, in that office of the President of the United States, is the most powerful man on the face of the earth. Now, it is a task that comes with certain responsibilities, certain, you know, I don't know, a burden that is there on their shoulders. And understand, you know, there are checks and balances in our system that keeps that person from just doing whatever they want to do. Having said that, he's still the most important person. And how that person thinks and how that person believes, and how that person behaves and acts upon information and crisis and success, whatever, is the way not only is the country goes in that direction, but the entire world follows in that direction. Again, there are a lot of conspiracy guys out there who may completely disagree with me and talk about Bilderbergs or whatever, whatever.

So you know, that's your problem. But I would say the President of the United States is the most powerful man on the planet. Something you just said that I kind of wanted to touch on, because this is something you've said to me, and you've said from the pulpit, and I think you've said it, you know, just in life. But I think especially here in 2023, we tend to put so much focus on groups, and groups of people, marginalized people, oppressive people, whatever it is, we tend to think only in groups, so much so that we've lost the individual. And I know that you've said this, and ever since you've kind of said this and taught me this, I've started thinking this, is that we follow a leader. There's something to be said about an individual person who is leading the charge or leading the nation. And I think just what you said hit the nail on the head. How does that person think?

Not his group of people or this group over here, how is he going to lead them, but how does this person think and lead? And that's very important. What you just said is very, very important. Now, just before people jump up and say, it's not about that, it's about the team, it's about the group. You're right. That one person has to think that way.

It's not just me. It's the team. It's the group.

You get what I'm saying? So yes, it is that person. But how that person thinks makes a difference. If that person thinks it's all on me, I'm the one.

Well, very quickly, you're going to find yourself being alone and solitary and making tons of mistakes and having everybody turn against you. But when you as a leader think that it's not me, it's this team, it's a group that we're together going in this journey towards this vision, then you have success. But that person has to think that way. So what you said is so key, that it's a team, it's a group.

Of course it is. And the president has to think that way. I know that's something that I really admire about you, Dr. Jha, and your investment into politics and history and American history and understanding and being able to communicate those values that our nation was founded on. What inspired that in you or pushed you in that direction? What made you see the need behind that?

My dad. Growing up in India, where you are living in a non-Christian majority country, Christians are like 0.1% and then born again Christians, if you're talking about evangelical Christians, that percentage is even less. It's important to be involved in politics because it may make a difference in your ability to worship. It's going to make a difference in your ability to follow the dictates of your conscience. So my dad was involved in local politics. And we have an episode coming out next week on the importance of being involved in politics as a Christian.

Looking forward to that. But I know in a couple of days you have a talk coming up about the different generations of people. When I say generations, I mean the next generation, why? Do you feel like it's one thing where these newer generations don't really look at the president as a person who has to lead? It's almost like, because the way I see it, it's almost like people think as long as this person is a good person, then I'm going to vote for him and I'm not going to vote for them if they're a bad person. Even if that bad person is a great leader and makes good, wise decisions as far as leadership goes, it's almost like a popularity contest in these days. That's who gets to be presidents who's the most popular. Right, right. No, no, I think you're right. The way I like to think is in a Christian majority country, because I think, yeah, I know, I know the statisticians are out there and they're saying, you know, Christians are no longer the majority.

I get it. But this country, unlike India, where I grew up, this country, the United States was built upon Judeo-Christian values and the success that we're seeing and the opportunities that we're seeing and the freedoms that we're seeing in this nation is because of these values. So it's very different. So, so yes, we have to be involved in politics, but the way my dad was involved is different than the way we should be involved in America. My dad was involved in the sense of, we got to support this person because she's going to keep our, you know, our freedoms alive, that we can be Christians in a non-Christian country. In America, my goal is to see a government that is not just Christian favor or favorable, but a government that is more in line with biblical convictions, because that solidifies the foundation again and maintains the freedoms that we need. So that's what I think, you know, it's more than just who's in charge.

It's also what they believe. Absolutely. When you are, I guess, considering, when you think about the president, when you think about everything that he is responsible for, everything that he does, all the things that he is involved in, I guess what are some of those essential qualities that should be there in, in a presidential leader? Right. I mean, for one loyalty, you know, you have to recognize the history of this nation. This nation is different than any other nation on the planet of the earth, planet of the earth, on this planet called earth. This nation has a very different beginning and the president should recognize that. Okay. And the president should understand what went into making this happen. Right.

Okay. The providential hand of God in guiding these leaders to choose that kind of, you know, Republican democracy, constitutional Republican democracy, how did they do that? How were they able to get, come to that conclusion? We're not just like the Romans or the Greeks or like even the Indians. This is very different. You know, several years ago, Nicole and I decided to go on a trip. We went a one day trip.

Like we left in the morning and we came back in the evening, like 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock or so. And we went to the homes of three of my favorite founding presidents from the Charlottesville, Virginia area. Wow.

Yeah. And I wrote an article on it in the newspaper called on the trail of the presidents. And we began with Monticello, went to the home of our third president, Thomas Jefferson. That's right. And each year about half a million people come and they visit his home. You know, his home is called an essay in architecture. It was, it's just, was he an architect? Oh yeah. Wow. Oh yeah. He was a builder. Wow.

I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. He was a brilliant man.

My favorite founding father, you know, based on certain things that I've learned about him, I think we're going to see him in heaven. Wow. Yeah.

I think we have too quickly painted some of these guys as deists and some of them were not deists. They had a different way, but that's another topic for another time. Right.

We need to talk about that. But he was a genius of course. And he built this house in his kind of a space saving alcove beds, light maximizing mirrors. He has a polygraph copying machine. He had other appliances.

I mean, this is, we're talking about 1700s and he built this place. Wow. That's amazing. Have you all in this room? How about you, David? Have you been to?

No, haven't been there. I mean, it's just amazing. And you know, of course he goes to France. He learns about what's happening there, the revolution and all that's taking place. And he sends a lot of books and articles and things like that to Madison. He's like, read this, read this, read this, read this. And so walking through his little library there, you know, it's just like, wow, this is, this is where it all happened. You know, this, these are some of the books that he brought back with him from France.

Yeah. Or England. Just into England in that history is unreal. Like, like trying to put yourself in that library and maybe sitting down at the desk and just imagine and drafting out some of the constitution, getting frustrated and crumpling it up, starting again, looking out the window, all pensive and stuff.

I mean, it really can put you in a space where you kind of recognize the gravity of what happened there. Now his contribution was very significant when it came to the Declaration of Independence. Of course, constitution, he helped Madison and all that as well. So if you go to the back of the house, you know, you'll, you'll go to his grave and on the headstone it says, here was Barry Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom and father of the University of Virginia.

Wow. Now the religious freedom is very important because he's the one who knows who's writing the Danbury Baptist and telling them, Hey, I'm going to protect your freedom. From who? Who's going to, who's going to take our freedom away from the established church, right? The, the Anglican church was the ruling church.

And so no other church can be built. And he's the one who said, no, I'm going to open the door so you guys can also have the ability to worship according to the dictates of your conscience. Wow. And they put that on his gravestone that he was the, what did he say? The, the statute of Virginia for religious freedom.

Wow. And his proudest achievement was the University of Virginia. That was, that was a big thing. It was not his governorship or secretary of state or vice-president or even president. It was the university.

And then we moved on from there just about two miles south to, at the time it was known as Ashlawn Highland, but since then the name has shifted to, or has been truncated to just Highland. And this is the home of James Monroe. And, but what got my attention the most was this drop leaf table that is in the entrance hall and the table made from Honduras mahogany was sent to Monroe on behalf of the people of the Dominican Republic.

Now, why did these people do that? They sent it, they sent it as a gratitude for his foreign policy known as the Monroe doctrine. Wow.

Okay. So Monroe doctrine, what does that mean in this policy? Monroe made it very clear that the American continent was no longer available for colonization. So all Europeans, you can come visit, stay, become citizens, but you can no longer colonize. That day is over.

You are not coming up in your ships and dropping anchor and coming here and claiming it for God and country. You're done. This is America. Yeah. That day has done. Yeah.

And any attempt by a European country to do so would be considered a national threat. So don't put any balloons up in our area. None of that. Yeah. So the Dominican Republic sent him that table as a thank you as a thank you for now making it sure that no one will come.

And you know, have you seen those pictures with the, they like on their knees and they holding the flag cross. I claim this land for yeah, no more. Cut it out, bud. You got to go. Monroe says no, no, no.

Monroe says no. And his bold statement secured our national boundaries until today. Wow. The final leg of our journey, we were just moving. Nicole and I were just moving. Okay. So we went from Monticello to Ashland Highland, which is now Highland. And then we went to Montpelier, which is the home of James Madison.

Okay. This is kind of 20 minutes north of Charlottesville. So we had to go further away from here. And James Madison called it his squirrels jump from heaven. Oh, wow. Yeah. It is quite interesting. And when we were there, it was kind of interesting that they were beginning to demolish some sections of the house that had been added on through the century, through the 1800s, that was not part of the presidential home of James Madison. So they were like, they're like, go ahead and take some pictures because after today, this is, this building is not going to exist. That has been standing there for 150 years or a while.

I was like, really? Why are you all taking it down? Because it's, we want to go back as much as possible to the original.

Oh, wow. Because James Madison is far more important than the later occupants. I was like, ah, I hate it because history you got to preserve, but at the same time, if you want to go back to, yeah, James Madison is more important. That's a tough call, but that does make sense to restore it to the original when James Madison was the original occupant.

That's it. And so this is how it all came about. And then, you know, we went upstairs where supposedly Madison sat there and he wrote the constitution, but it's even mine. You know, sometimes I think we give him too much credit for the constitution. It was not just James Madison, it was other people who gave some very important suggestions on how to write that constitution.

Okay. So yes, James Madison, brilliant guy, very helpful. Father of the constitution, maybe, but just standing in that room and just thinking, man, here, he was getting all these suggestions, change this, change that, not that, not put this in there. They came up with an incredible document. Today we're trying to like redefine it. It's like, oh, it's kind of dated.

You're excited. That document is quite amazing. The way they were thinking, they were not just these guys with old powdered wigs and just sitting there, you know, eating, I don't know what they were eating back then, but they knew where this nation needed to head. They knew they had to make room for other people who are coming, even for slavery to be abolished. They knew that. They knew if we fight for it now, we're going to be in trouble, but let's make enough provision there that other people of different background ethnicities can also find their home.

They knew that fight would be won one day. Yeah. So just amazing. So that's what these presidents are all about. And since then we've gone to many, many other places like George Washington's home.

We've been, you know, other places just, it just, I love visiting the homes of the presidents. Wow. Amazing.

I love that. If you guys enjoyed today's topic, hope you learn more about our presidents and about the history of President's Day. If you have questions or suggestions for future topics, let us know by sending us a text at 252-582-5028.

You can also visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com and you can partner with us financially on that same website. We're grateful to you for all of your support and your continued partnership in reaching the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. Dr. Shah, I got a question from Jack T. What's the best advice you've ever been given? By my dad. I think I've given that before here. Here's what my dad told me and I'm telling you the same thing. Stay away from three things. All right. Stay away from wine. Okay. Don't drink. Right. Stay away from women.

It means you can have a, you know, a wife or fiance or girlfriend one day, but don't be like a womanizer and stay away from gambling. Wow. I love that. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clear View Today.