Wednesday, May 3rd | Contendsday Revelation

Welcome back, everyone. Today is Wednesday, May the 3rd. 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 visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028 or email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah, I am too. If you guys want to help us keep this conversation going on the radio, you can do so by supporting the podcast, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes, Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from.

We're going to leave a link in the description so you can do just that. I don't know if this will help perk up your hair, but you don't want to perk up our spirits. Just that.

Is it the first of the day? 1 Timothy 6 says, Now godliness with contentment is great gain. Think about that combo. Godliness with contentment. It's not that God is going to drop your wishes and your desires in your driveway. God's not a cosmic vending machine.

You input a prayer and you get whatever you want. But godliness with contentment is great gain. That's the secret to being satisfied with what you have, being grateful for what you have, not looking at what other people have and, you know, engaging in this. Why don't I and how come they? I'm content with what God has blessed me with and I'm content in my relationship with him. I'm not scared to tell y'all. I'll look at like the rich and the famous, like the Bezos and the Robert Downey juniors of the world and I'll be like, man, why isn't that me?

Why isn't that me? I'm willing to do everything that they're doing if that's just me, if that could be me. And it's kind of like you said, what would happen if we truly realized that the people who are truly wealthy are those with godly character? If we are actually content in what Jesus says that our circumstances should be. Jesus looks at our circumstances. He looks at our lives and he's, I mean, obviously we're still sinful, but he says, hey, you're doing well. You're a good and faithful servant. Why isn't that good enough for me? And what would happen if I were to actually realize that is good enough for me?

How would that change my outlook at life? Yeah, that's a great point. We had someone write in this morning. We haven't had a user submitted question in a while, but somebody wrote in and wants to know, this is Brian K. What's the most embarrassing moment you've had in public? Oh gosh. I think if I had to land on, I've had, I've had a few times where I was embarrassed in public and I'm, I'm willing to kind of make a fool of myself in front of people. That's not something I'm afraid.

Don't agree so fast. No, no. I mean like, like you get up on your like, Oh, a VBS character. And I have to like, I don't know, take a pie in the face. Yeah, I'll do it.

Oh, they're going to tie me up and push me down off the stage. I'll do it. No problem.

I'll do that. That does not bother me in the slightest. However, there was one time when I was on stage in high school, I was my senior year of high school. We were putting on the years musical. It was Joseph and the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Donny Osmond. If you're not familiar with it, it's a great show. And I got chosen to play Joseph.

So I had the big like ballad number where he's singing, uh, you know, as he's in prison in Egypt and there's a, a, a pretty high, high note in there. Uh, so as I'm singing along, it's high school. Yes, I'm a senior, but sometimes voice cracks still happen.

It can happen. There's a crowded auditorium. I had practiced this song and practice this song and practice this song. Um, and there was a pretty significant person there in our local like theater world there where I was growing up. Um, so I get to this high note. I'm like, yes, I've got this.

And just like building and building. And I go for it and I crack. I know it happens.

Oh man. I was like, horrible feeling. I don't have a problem being on stage in front of people acting on a character.

That's no problem. But like I was aiming for that a high note and I just full on voice crack on the high note. I was like, Oh, that's a horrible. And it's kind of like the like climactic moment of the show. It's like the one moment you really don't want to. Yeah.

Yeah. I was like, Oh, well that happens to me during worship sometimes. But I think I get more embarrassed when I'm with people who are acting out or being silly or like, like if I'm the one causing it, I'm probably not self aware enough to be embarrassed that like, Hey, I'm being kind of obnoxious right now.

But when I'm with people who are, that's when I'm like, Oh gosh, I really don't want to be here. Um, I was with a friend of mine who's actually our, we have a, we have a vocal coach here at Clearview. So I went out to eat with him at a Mexican restaurant. Now this guy has a, um, he's allergic to soy. What I mean when I say he's allergic to soy, I mean like anything with like peanut oil, anything with like any of that oil, like deep fried foods, nothing can't have it, which is a lie.

It's more than you think. His, his dietary restrictions are cumbersome to say the least. So he takes me to this Mexican restaurant in Wake Forest and um, this is like the, maybe the second or third time I've ever gone out to eat with him. We usually go to like first watch where everything's like organic and safe, but he takes me to this Mexican restaurant and he orders enchiladas and the guy, bless his heart, the guy does not speak English at all.

Oh no. And uh, he's like, okay, is it enchiladas? And he's like, yeah, but he's like, the enchiladas need to be baked.

He's like, okay, okay. So enchiladas. It's like, but, but they need to be baked that he'd be in the oven. And he's like, okay, I'm in, uh, you want the, uh, you do the enchiladas the lunch.

And so he's going back and forth with this guy and he's not, I can see the guy's not getting, he's just echoing the words back. He's like, you have to bake them. He's like, okay, bake.

Yes. Enchiladas. So I'm like, Hey Michael, I don't think he, I don't think he understands. He's like, no, no, no, no.

We come here all the time. He's like, I want the enchiladas. I want the lunch.

And he starts explaining. He's like, but he said, what happens is I'm allergic to soy. Okay. So I can't have any vegetable oil.

I can't have any of that stuff. So I need the enchiladas to be put in the oven. He's like, okay. So the lunch special, the lunch special.

So finally it's been about like, they've gone back and forth about eight times. So I'm like, all right, come with me. I stand up, take the guy back to his own kitchen and I point to the oven and I say, put the enchiladas in there.

Just put them in there. And he was like, Oh, okay. Okay. And I still to this day, I don't know if he did.

I don't know. They came out and they looked hot and I was like, I guess I hope he did it right. But I was so embarrassed. I was like, golly, he's just like, he's just going back and forth, but he won't give it up and he won't change how he's explaining it.

I was like, and this was only my third time. Like nowadays I probably say, Hey Michael, he's not getting it man. Change up. But I was like, at the time I was like, Oh, I don't, I don't, I don't think he understands you. Yeah. That, that can be pretty embarrassing when you're out with somebody and they like, I mean, you gotta, you gotta order with special restrictions. I understand that.

But like, it's not happening and you're trying to just push for it. And you're like, Oh my God. The ring of miscommunication is just getting tighter and tighter. Yeah.

Yeah. I was uncomfortable for sure. I asked him if I could tell, I almost didn't tell that story cause I was like, maybe he doesn't want to, but he said it was okay. He also said that exact same way to, he was there one time with his family and Michael's son, Simon, asked for the bill and the same guy brought him a glass of milk. He was like, can we just get the bill? And he was like, okay.

He brought him out a glass of milk. That doesn't even, what? Some, some gap in communication at some point. Yep. That was really funny. Oh man. I'm excited to hear what Dr. Shah's, embarrassing moment. We can ask him at the end. We've got a great episode planned for you guys today. We're still in this discussion on Malachi.

We've heard from so many of you about how beneficial this is to helping you understand this tiny little book at the end of the Old Testament, but has so much for us to unpack and learn from. We're going to get Dr. Shah, but if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028 or visit us online at cleaviewtodayshow.com. We're going to get Dr. Shah and we'll be back after this. 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. Shah'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. You know, 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 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 new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right. And if you're joining us for the first time ever today, we want to welcome you to Dr. Abbadon Shah's PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show.

You can find all of his work on his website. That's AbbadonShah.com. That's right, Dr. Shah. It's Wednesday. You know what Wednesday means? Hump Day? It is Hump Day, but it's also something else.

It's kind of more exciting. Kind of rhymes with Wednesday. Contends Day, Wednesday.

Contends Day, Wednesday. Apologetics. I stopped and just spent some time thinking about, you know, what is it that people who are not exposed to Christianity or they've grown up in a different culture, when they come across Christianity or they come across Bible or believers or their claims, what is it that comes to their minds? And I had to really spend some time thinking because I grew up in a Christian home, albeit I grew up in India, but I grew up in a Christian home. I grew up in a pastor's home. I grew up in a theologian's home.

And so it was very easy for me to be like, well, it's obvious, but I had to set everything aside and look at it from an outsider's perspective. And so many of these things that we're discussing came through that time of reflection. I think one of the things that I appreciate is before we did anything, before we ever looked at Genesis or at content, we looked at the text itself. The character of the Bible.

Right. And that was one of the things that you talked about in your book, Changing the Goalpost, is that you need authority in your text. And we talked about that on the last Contends Day was authority. But another thing you talk about is, and I don't think you go into it as deep in this book, but it's revelation. Like how do we get the text? Like where does the text actually come from?

Is it really coming from God or is it, you know, you know, and if it does, how is God give us the text? That's right. That's right. You know, sometimes people say things like, well, just like the Quran is for the Muslims. So the Bible is for the Christians.

Right. And, but they're basically saying is all religions are the same and everybody has their book. Well, that's not true. That is definitely not true. Not all religions have a book.

Okay. Now they may have a book now, but that's not how it began. That's not how things got started or that's not how majority of their time in human history was with a book.

I think later on things got consolidated and put together in a book form, but that's not the same with the Bible. Right. So, you know, we need to really think about what people are saying and say, wait a minute, that's not what's really happened. Yeah. I think last week you, or last time we did Contends Day, you touched on general revelation versus special revelation. There's two different ways that God reveals himself to us.

Right, right. We talked about, you know, general revelation has to do with nature, with history, with human nature, you know, that's what it's about. But we need specific instructions, especially regarding salvation. And that's not found hanging out in nature or in history or in human nature. Of course, if he's a history, sacred history, yeah, you can see that in biblical history, but not just regular history.

You don't find the plan of salvation just laid out that clearly, unless you have special revelation helping you find that. Right. So I briefly sort of touched on the 66 books of the Bible and the information that is in them, which is personal, anthropic, analogical.

If you remember that, we covered some of those things. Sometimes it is historical acts like Abraham and Isaac or the Babylonian exile. Other times it is divine speech where God said this, or the word of the Lord came to me. Then of course, a major revelation, which is the incarnation of Jesus Christ, you know, fully God becomes fully man, right?

God, man together. So Muslim apologists, I'm kind of shifting gears here, challenged the biblical claim of special revelation by saying, they say that, you know, they claim that how the Quran was revealed is far superior to how the Bible was revealed. That's often said. And another claim that they make is that the Bible is no longer God's revelation because it has been corrupted by two groups of people, the Jewish people and the Christians themselves. So to answer these charges, you know, we have to compare the events, okay? Compare the events related to the Quran and then compare that with the events related to the Bible.

And also compare the content of the Quran with the content of the Bible. With your dad being a Muslim convert, is this work that he kind of delved into? Is this like he compared the revelations between the two? Yeah, he did that. You know, he studied and years ago, and I'm talking about 2002. So that's like 20 years ago. I was writing a paper on the Trinity as it relates to Islam. Oh wow.

Yeah. And I called up my dad and he sent me a package with his notes and books that he had and books that he had photocopied because, you know, in India, you know, you don't have ready availability due to resources. So he had all these things to be able to study in his context.

How does it compare? So if you go back to Quran and talk about how did it come, it is claimed that it came to one person, a prophet by the name of Muhammad from the age of 40 until his death, which was about 23 years later. So this is the period in which this was given. And this information is not found in the Quran. It's found in the Hadids. And Hadids are the reports of what Muhammad said or did. But not included in the holy text itself. No, they're not in the Quran. The Quran is interpreted through the Hadids, which were collected about 200, 300 years after his death. So these are two separate things.

Okay. Now the Bible doesn't have these kinds of things, separate things, right? The Quran is considered to be the wahi.

Wahi is like the pure revelation of God. It exists in heaven and everything else, including translations, are just interpretations or renditions. So the pure one is the one that exists in heaven and it's in Arabic. So would they say then that the Quran that people would hold in their hands?

If it's English or Hindi or Spanish or German, no, they're not the real thing. But if it is the one in Arabic? Right. They would say this is the one. That is the one. That's the one. Okay.

But because human beings have tampered with it in some way, it's now become corrupt. Or it's a reflection of the actual wahi. Well, the Arabic one is the one. Right. Right. Right.

Okay. So it is, it is considered to be the pure revelation of God. It exists in heaven and everything else, including translation is just an interpretation of rendition. Got it.

I don't want to derail us too much, but if, if scribes have copied the Quran, even in Arabic, like other copies in Arabic from this one proverbial one that existed, they don't account for any kind of scribal error or Well, that's a different issue. We're going to come to that in a minute, because they make a big deal out of the fact that there are no textual corruptions and things like that. But, you know, if you study history, we will come to that in a moment. Okay.

I don't want to get ahead of us. And then there is the ilham. Ilham is God revealing his knowledge into the mind of the person. So there's a wahi, which is a pure revelation of God, exists in heaven. Everything else is just interpretation, especially translation, but ilham is God revealing his knowledge into the mind of the person.

So this is what I would call the biblical doctrine of inspiration. Ilham, not wahi. Under wahi, there is no such thing as the original message or context or the true words of the prophet Muhammad. The Quran is the word.

It's just the pure spoken word of God. Right. Got it. Right. So we don't claim that for the Bible. Because we would say that God inspired the authors. That's right. And then they wrote. They wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through their personalities, through their knowledge, through their expertise, they wrote, but they were protected from errors. Right.

So, so it's ilham, right? Not wahi. The Quran is considered to be a wahi.

Okay. So keep those things in mind. And then there are debates about the hadiths, you know, going on right now. Also, there are commentaries on the Quran. Since there is no context, not much is left to interpret only application. So also there are differences and many don't interact with each other. So, you know, some of the commentaries are just all over the place.

But, but listen to this. This is coming from the hadith Sahih al-Bukhari 1.3. It says the first revelation that was granted to the messenger of God was the true vision of sleep so that he never saw vision, but the truth of it shone forth like the bright gleam of dawn. Then solitude became dear to him. And he used to seclude himself in the cave of Hira where he would devote himself to divine worship for several nights, talking about Muhammad, before coming back to his family.

He would take provisions for this purpose. Then he would return to Khadija, who was his first wife, and get some more provisions for a similar period until the truth, Gabriel, truth means talking about the angel Gabriel, came to him while he was in the cave of Hira. The angel came to him and said, read. And he said, I'm not one of those who can read, means I'm illiterate. And he continued, then he, meaning the angel, took hold of me and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it anymore, after which he let me go and said, read. When I replied, I am not one of those who could, who can read, he took me a hold of me and pressed me a second time so hard that I could not bear it anymore. Then he let me go again and said, read.

I said, I am not one of those who can read. The prophet then continued, then he took hold of me and pressed me a third time. Then he let me go and said, read in the name of thy Lord, who creates, creates a man, creates man from a clot.

Read and thy Lord is most generous. This is coming from Sura 96 verses one, two and three. And the messenger of God returned with this message, his heart trembling. And he went to Khadija, daughter of Qawilid, and said, wrap me up, wrap me up.

So they wrapped him up until the awe had left him. So this is the account of how Muhammad initially got his revelation. Now Aisha, it says in Al-Bukhari one, two, we find more information about this. He said, Aisha, the mother of the faithful reported that Harith ibn Hisham asked the messenger of God, oh messenger of God, how does the revelation come to thee? And the messenger of God, talking about Muhammad said, sometimes it comes to me like the ringing of a bell.

And that is the type which is the hardest on me. Then he, meaning the angel departs from me and I retain in memory from him what he said. At times, the angel comes to me in the likeness of a man and speaks to me and I retain in memory what he says.

Aisha said, and I saw him when revelation descended on him on a severely cold day when it departed from him, his forehead dripped with sweat. So it is claimed that, you know, Muhammad's illiteracy is the greatest proof of the miracle of the Quran as it is the highest style of Arabic poetry. And also only the Arabic Quran is authoritative.

So, so yeah, you're right. You know, when, when we said if they're holding the Arabic Quran, that's the authoritative one. That's why a lot of times what happens is when my dad would debate and stuff like that, he would open up an English one or Hindi one. They were like, oh no, no, no, no. He can't use that. That's not the one he would. They would do that.

They would do that. And he was like, well, you don't have the Arabic one either. It feels like the Bible has so much more freedom though in its revelation to where it doesn't have all these constrictions to where yes, human beings were instrumental in the writing of this Bible, but we don't view that as a corruption.

You know what I mean? It seems like there's, God is allowing so much more freedom, not like leeway, not like you know, loosey goosey, do whatever you want. But there's so much more freedom and truth in his revelation. The translations are the word of God, as long as they represent the original text, the original language well. That's why we have new and newer translations to get as close as possible to the original text, the original intent. So we don't fuss over, oh, it has to be Hebrew. You don't have a Hebrew Bible and that cannot be the word of God. You don't have the Greek New Testament? That's not the word of God then.

That was my favorite part. I can't read it either. It's in Arabic. I can't read it. It's in Hebrew. I can't read it.

But we know that that's the one. This isn't, but that is. That doesn't make any sense.

It's a lot of hypocrisy there. So they believe that the Quran is authoritative in Arabic. This is a language and it was given and the translations involve interpretation, which can be distorted. School kids are told to memorize the Quran in Arabic. So even in India, or any of these countries, when the kids are memorizing the Quran in the madrasas, you know, that's their Muslim schools.

It's always done in Arabic. Oh yeah. They don't know what they're saying. Wow.

That's just such an odd concept to me is they have to memorize these verses, commit them to memory and regard this as scripture. Yeah. I have no clue what it's saying. I have no idea because the original is in heaven. Yeah. I think that that's kind of a testament to, you know, something you've said to me, and I've said this on the podcast many, many times, but just this love for the text, you know, when it comes to the text, the word of God, I just have a profound desire to know it inside and out. Whereas, you know, in the Quran, you can't really know it. I mean, you really can't.

If the original is in heaven, what we have is sort of a dim reflection. But they believe that the Arabic one is thoracic. Right. But if you don't know Arabic. Right.

What can you do? Yeah. So, you know, God doesn't provide his I mean, God doesn't do that to his people. He reveals himself wholly and openly.

Right. So, you know, unlike the Quran's, you know, unlike the Muslim account of how the Quran came, the Bible is very different. It was written by 40 independent writers. It was written over a time span of 1500 years. It was written in three different languages, Hebrew, Greek, and of course, Aramaic. The writers lived in three different continents, Asia, Africa, Europe.

They had 20 different occupations. There was a king, there were kings, a general, at least two fishermen we know of. Yeah, that's true.

That's true. We got Peter and John, right. A musician, a priest, a tax collector, a medical doctor, a judge. You know, Moses was a shepherd. Solomon was a king. Matthew was a tax collector. Luke was a medical doctor. And Paul was a scholar, missionary, so a tent maker.

And of course, if you add Ruth and Esther, if they themselves wrote those books, I mean, two women wrote books in the Bible. Yeah. Right.

We don't know for sure, but maybe. Yeah. It has a cast of 2930 characters in 1551 places.

Wow. Its message is expressed in all literary forms. There's poetry, prose, speech, lists, apocalyptic literature. I mean, it's found in all kinds of ways. And there were certain qualifications for prophets in the Old Testament.

It's just not anybody doing it. Because, I mean, anybody can say that God's a revelation. But there were certain qualifications. How do you know? Well, if it comes to pass, then you're the one. If it doesn't, you're a false prophet. Believe it or not, a pretty solid test. You get three seconds to a head start.

It better happen. Everybody's looking for a big rock to throw at you. They're like, go ahead, prophesy. And then the New Testament also kind of goes along with that.

You know, holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, talking about the apostles and the prophets. And it was written under so many different circumstances. Joshua wrote while invading Cana. David wrote during a time of war. Jeremiah wrote at the sorrowful time of Israel's downfall.

Peter wrote while Israel was under Roman rule. Making just one story and making it make sense and making it good is very difficult. These are like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of stories.

Over hundreds of thousands of years. It's kind of what they say when they say, I can't remember who I've heard say this, but I've heard plenty of people. Oh, one of our church members said this, who actually works for NASA.

He said it would have been harder to fake the moon landing than it would be to just go to the moon. And that's kind of how I feel like it would have been much, much more difficult to believe that human beings crafted this like centuries long narrative and stitched it together in one council rather than to believe that God revealed this to human beings. And also, you know, think about this way when Muslim apologists say that, you know, it's like, look, we have one man getting all this and you guys, you can't even get your act together and it's all these translations, corruptions. We can get into all those issues.

We can do that. But just know this, a Quran is a text without a context. Where do you get your context? You get it from the Bible. Most of the things, the stories you're referring to are in the Bible. So it's kind of easy to sit on the branch and be chopping the tree down in your imagination, but just know when the tree comes down, you come down with it. But trying to chop the trunk of the tree from a branch up there is impossible. So also you're trying to chop off the Bible.

I mean, Old and New Testament with intricate issues and details and understanding for thousands of years. No, you may be able to chop your own branch down. You can't chop the tree. I mean, just imagine, can you do that?

Sitting up on the branch and you're going all the way to the root? Right. It's not going to happen. It's not possible. It's not possible.

Neither can you do this. If you guys enjoyed today's topic, if it was helpful for you, maybe you have some people in your life who are upholding the Quran or comparing this, weighing out different religions. Hopefully this topic was helpful for you guys. If you have any questions for future topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at clearytodayshow.com and make sure you click that donate button when you're there.

Partner with us as we seek to impact people with the Gospel of Jesus. That's right. We're almost out of time, but Dr. Shah Joanna T wrote in earlier and she wants to know who has the best ice cream. I have to go in with my hometown freeze made. Ellie and I live within walking distance of freeze made and I'm not going to lie, summer is a good time for us. Freeze made has got some great sauce. That's right. Ooh, now I want some ice cream. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today.