Contendsday!

Hello, everyone. This is Wednesday, May the 24th. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm Jon 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, or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. That's right. You guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show, 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 of the show so you can do just that. And today's verse of the day is coming to us from 2 Samuel 7, verse 299. That's not right. I don't know who wrote this.

That's what it says. 2 Samuel 7 is a packed chapter. 2 Samuel 7, I think that's verse 29. Now, therefore, let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue before you forever. For you, O Lord God, have spoken it, and with your blessing, let the house of your servant be blessed forever. You ever met somebody that prays and gives God a back door in the prayer?

Oh, yes. Like, they're like, God, if it's your will, if it pleases you, but if it's not, I'm just, you know, forget I even asked. And just all this language, like, God needs an excuse.

Just in case he says no. I want to make sure that I can justify God maybe or maybe not hearing me. Right. And as if God needs us to create an excuse for him.

That's right. But I love this prayer in 2 Samuel, because it reminds us to ask God and ask boldly for things. Because he is, yes, he is God. Yes, he is bigger and more magnificent and wonderful and holier than we could ever hope to be. But he is our Heavenly Father. And he delights in hearing the requests and the prayers of his children. We need to have that attitude, that spirit, that same spirit that, you know, kids have when they come up to their parents. Daddy, can I have this toy? Daddy, can I have this? You know, the answer might be no, but that doesn't mean we love our kids any less.

That's right. And a lot of times we try to act confused or play the play the fool where it's like, well, I don't even know what the answer is going to be. The answer might be no. How am I going to know it's no? You know, it says like right here, you've spoken it, therefore it's going to be. But what if the answer is going to be no?

How do I know which one he said no to, which ones he says yes to? You know what his word is. You know what his word has been given to you.

And if it says he's going to work all things together for your good, then you don't need to know whether the answer to the specific prayer is yes, no, maybe, and a little while because whatever he does, it's going to be for your good. Absolutely. That's the truth he's spoken. And that's, that's what we, we cling to.

Absolutely. Speaking of things clinging, it is hot. What are you, what are you wearing in the studio? What are you, what are you wearing right now? What are you wearing right now? I'm wearing jeans.

I've got, you got the enbies. I mean, this is the rhetorical question because I can see what you're wearing. Like I've got the new balances. I've got the jeans. I thought we've just got a shirt. You got an undershirt. You're wearing just an undershirt. It's an under shirt. It's just a white t-shirt.

I got it. My, so my sister got me for Christmas, got me a pack of like a 10 pack of like white t-shirts, I guess because she hates me and didn't get me a real gift. But I do like the white t-shirts because they're nice and I can wear them under a shirt under like a button shirt if I want to. They're made to be worn under shirts. You can tell that because they're sold in a pack.

Yeah. They're like underwear or socks that are still under a t-shirt. Like, so if there was writing on this t-shirt that was sold on a pack, you wouldn't be like, that's an undershirt.

I would, I would still think that was an under shirt. And here's why. Let me give you, here's the criteria. Is it inappropriate? Uh, it's not great.

Um, here's the, here's the criteria. It's thinner than a regular t-shirt and the sleeves are shorter than a regular t-shirt. They are kind of, they're, they're kind of in the armpit a little bit because it's meant to be worn under clothing, not as an over shirt. But it's not the same thing as underwear. Like if I was sitting here in drawls, that would be kind of bad. That would be, that would be a little too much.

It's, it's, it's like a step away. It's adjacent to underwear. If you were in a white t-shirt right now, would you be embarrassed? Would you be like, you'd be like seen in your underwear? Yes. I feel like I would feel like I was underdressed in a white t-shirt.

Yep. And a white undershirt. What if it's a black undershirt? Here's the deal. So I have a white t-shirt that is like, it's like a v-neck t-shirt sleeves are long, a little bit thicker material.

That's perfectly fine. It's just plain white, right? Like there's no writing on what I've got. No, that's an undershirt because it's thinner. The sleeves are cut differently and it is made to be worn underneath a shirt. You can wear some, some people like in the nineties, it was common to wear like two t-shirts, like a long sleeve shirt under that shirt. Correct. And then a short sleeve shirt over top. They were both big.

I will, I will push back against that on two accounts. Number one, that long sleeve shirt was often still an undershirt. And number two, are we in the nineties? No, we're not in the nineties. We're not in the nineties, but that doesn't mean that this is now underwear because we're not in the nineties. It's marketed as underwear. That's like me putting on a pair of boxers as shorts and saying they're shorts. They are boxer shorts.

Yes, but they're made to be worn as underwear. I don't, I don't think, I don't think a white t-shirt and it is a white t-shirt, not an undershirt. It's an under shirt is the same as wearing underwear. It's not, I'll give you that.

It's not the same in level of indecency. However, it is underdressed. If I put this same shirt on a woman, like on Ellie, it would be long.

So she wore it out of the house. It's not the length of the t-shirt. It's the length. It's the cut of the t-shirt. Cut of the t-shirt.

If it hugs my body. Cause cause I'm chiseled right now. It's the sleeves. And it's the, it's the material of the shirt. It's the style of the shirt. I see. I just don't, I don't know, man.

I don't know. What if there's writing on it? Same exact same shirt.

We just put writing on it. I, I would still call that an undershirt because of the style of the shirt. It doesn't have anything to do with the graphics. It doesn't have anything to do with the color of the shirt.

You can have a black shirt and if it's cut the same way, same thing. What about a tank? What if I wore a tank top?

I like in the gym. That's all I wear is tank tops. I personally am not a fan of tank tops. Completely appropriate to wear a tank in the gym. That's fine. But go shopping in that same tank. I don't personally, I don't like that. I know some people that's their thing.

That's fine. As a personal matter of preference, I don't like tank tops across the board. If you, for some reason wore a tank top in the gym, for some reason you did. And then you were like, Oh, I've got to go grocery shopping before I go home. You would go home first and change. No, no.

If I would go, but I wouldn't wear a tank top to the gym in the first place. I see. I see. What do I do? This is what, this is what I have today.

And I don't want Dr. Shah to come in and be in like draws. I mean, I would suggest that you find a shirt to cover up. I don't have a shirt. This is the shirt I wore.

Steal one from a bum. Yeah. I hate to resort to that, but you're going to have to, if we want to continue with this episode. Oh, let's continue.

Cause we went to a silly place. We're going to get Dr. Shah. I want to get, I want to get his opinion on this because Dr. Shah is a very well-dressed guy.

He's robbed a lot of bums. Oh man. Oh, okay.

We're going to get Dr. Shah in just a minute. You guys, if you have any questions or suggestions, if you think a white undershirt, so a white shirt sold in the pack rolled together is an undershirt right in and let us know two, five, two. I think I'm being indecent right now. I don't know.

Two, five, two, five, eight, two, five, zero, two, eight. Or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. We'll be back after this. Hey there listeners.

I'm John 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 day 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, 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 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, 252-582-5028. That's right. If today's your first time ever joining us here on the Clearview Today Show, we want to make you feel welcome, let you know exactly who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadon Shah is a PhD, Testament textual criticism professor, 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, I know John's going to pose this question to you later, but I just want to apologize for the attire of people at the table. I just want to get that out of the way.

In advance, we're going to talk about this, and I don't mean to poke and prod early, except yes, I do. So this is like a Top Gun with Tom Cruise wearing the shirt. That's what it looks like. Kind of like the jets. When you're a jet, you're a jet all the way. Or is he in his underwear?

I personally think he's in his underwear. Yeah, you're kind of ruining the ending segment of the show. Sorry about that. I know we've already talked about this.

Ad Nauseam at the beginning. This show is not rated like M. You can watch it at any age. It's literally a white t-shirt for those of you who are joining it. It's an under shirt. If you want to watch the video episode with your children, you absolutely can.

They can see it. It's just an E. By the way, it's funny because the college I went to, up until the 90s, you were not allowed to wear a t-shirt like that. Really? And jeans. Could it be a black t-shirt? Yes. Just not a white one?

Not a white one. Because it was an undershirt? Well, it reminded them of the 60s. I'm sorry. Well, I mean, it is.

Now, see, I came from India where I would not dare wear a white t-shirt like that anyways, because I was like an undershirt. Now, unless it had a lot of things on it. Like if it had like writing or something. All you had to do was write like your favorite team name there. And it's all good.

You're good. You can take a marker and write it and it'll be like, okay, that's fine. But if there's anything else, it was... Is it like bummy or is it indecent? For the school here or are you talking about how I grew up?

Where I grew up still impacted by the British culture. So we didn't wear shorts. Like in public, you wear pants. Wearing jeans is like... Jeans. That is like what working class people wear.

You should not be wearing that. You should be wearing pants. Like slacks? What do you mean by slacks? Like dress pants? Slacks. I thought you said sacks. Slacks, sorry. That primitive. Like burlap sacks, of course.

We're not that back in the woods. Pants like you mean like slacks? Slacks. Like they had to be made out of wool or cotton or preferably like polyester nylon sort of mixed, you know?

And so hot summer weather, it'd be 1.05 out there but wearing long pants. Oh yes. That was the thing. Because anything else would be looked on upon as... Wow. I'm not.

Okay. Like we had this, you know how every generation will have something. They will, you know, trendy. So the trend, this is in the mid 80s, was to wear these, what do you call those? Overalls type jeans? Suspenders? Suspenders jeans? Not suspenders.

Like overalls. Yeah. And so these brothers in our church, teenagers, I would say maybe like 18, 19, decided to wear that to church one day.

Oh boy. Yeah. And so that was a big discussion among, not inside, in the church service, but afterwards like, I mean, that looks like working class people. I mean, why would they wear that? Like in America, that's where, you know, the farmers wear.

They would wear it on the construction site or in the farm. Yeah. So I remember that as a kid, I didn't have any opinion. Wow.

But now looking back, I was like, wow, they were discussing that. Okay. But the college I went to up until the nineties, you could not have a beard. Wow.

No. No beard. No beard. No fish hair, no white t-shirt. No, no, no white t-shirt and jeans.

Okay. If you wore like a white t-shirt and like slacks, is that okay? Or is it like... That may be okay.

But not the white t-shirt. It's a sign of a rebellion. Yeah. I guess. And we don't want the sixties infiltrate us.

We don't want them to be snapping and combing their hair on the sidewalk. Yeah. For real.

That's the reason. And so finally there was a big hoopla and they were able to kind of rescind that law and be done away with. It is funny cause I was like leaning against the door frame earlier, just breathing on an apple and polishing it. And Ryan was like really upset. I just got my, just in a tizzy, like completely off the handle, just seeing that. Funny, just a reminder, you know, sometimes we are stuck in a different time zone or we're fighting a battle that has already been, people have moved on, you know, and unless it's like very indecent or something like that to go back to it, you know, you can, if you want to like, like the skinny jeans, when the first came out, it was like, Oh my, you are, you've given over. And all of us had men's conferences wearing baggy jeans. They're like falling off. They're so big. They're like four times.

They're like four sizes. Today, the same people are the same people that were fussing about are walking around in skinny jeans and I'm like way to compromise their pants. Way too baggy.

Way too baggy. It's just, you got to choose your battles. You got to decide anyways, what's the show about?

It's supposed to be content today, but Ryan got so what's worth fighting. What's worth defending and what's worth defending. There you go. Is the inspiration.

I'm going to forget how you threw me under the bus, how everything there has a reason I was working it in there. We're talking today about the Bible, specifically what it means that the Bible is inspired. That's a word that we use a lot here at church. We've heard you preach on that, but sometimes people might misinterpret that. They might think, well, yeah, the Bible really is an inspirational book.

And that's not what that means. It's funny because I didn't realize how critically your work hinged on inspiration and how deeply you were involved in inspiration. It was at the last apologetics conference we did in 2022 where you were saying you and you were laying out the different variations of textual criticism and the different methodologies. But you were saying without inspiration, you know, this, none of this really has any, I can't remember exactly how you say it, but it all hinged on the inspiration. And that was what you were trying to, my PhD work is focused on textual criticism. Textual criticism is looking at the various manuscripts or the readings, right? The variants, and then making a decision as to whether or not this one or this one is original. Now don't walk away from this YouTube or this podcast or radio show going, oh my goodness, is the Bible so flimsy that you have to decide between this and that every step of the way? No. Most of the time, I would say 96% of the time, the text is very stable.

We know exactly what the original wordings was because across the board, all manuscripts is the same text. 96%. That's strong. That's huge. And that's not the number that usually gets thrown up at people. No, usually this makes it look like, oh, you know, 80% of the text is flimsy. Yeah. The Bible is not riddled with errors like people would have you believe.

96%. If we had applied that to any other book, we would say with confidence, yeah, this is absolutely what the original text said. Of course, there remains the 4%, but even there, major doctrines, the cardinal doctrines of the faith are not impacted. That's right. That's right. So we're not concerned about the virgin birth, whether it happened or not. Oh, because of this variant reading.

No, it's not like that. Those texts are very well established. The deity of Christ, the humanity of Christ, Trinitarian passages.

Now, again, don't misunderstand. The word Trinity is not in the Bible, but the concept is there. It's there from Genesis, right?

It's there from Genesis. So all that to say, if we believe that all scripture, passa grafe, passa all, grafe scriptures is given by inspiration of God. Inspiration is coming from that word, God breathed, you know, inspire, but not in the sense of inspire in the sense of motivated, inspire in the sense of breathed by God is if it's given by God, then it's God, since God doesn't make any mistakes, there are no mistakes in the scriptures. And if there are no mistakes in the scriptures, and we cannot go around saying, well, there are contradictions and there are places we don't know and who knows and what, but as long as you get to the heart of what the Bible is saying, we're okay.

No, we have to get down to what the words actually are. If scripture is given by inspiration of God, God doesn't make any mistakes. Then the scriptures have no mistakes. So it is imperative that we find out what the actual scriptures are. Not to have the actual scriptures means there are mistakes.

Right. When Paul was writing that and he said, all scripture is, is, I mean, he meant the New Testament too, I assume, but did he know that the things he was writing were scripture at that point? Or was he referring only to the Old Testament? No, no, he knew. He knew. Great question, by the way, because there are several passages. I'll just give one. Second Peter chapter three and verse 15, where Peter is talking about Paul, he says, and consider that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him has written to you.

Okay. So far it's just about Paul writing scripture that helps them understand God's work of salvation. But wait, what's the next line? As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which some things in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they also do the rest of the scriptures. Rest of the scriptures. So he just called Paul's writings as scriptures. So already by the first century already, while Paul and Peter were still living the reference to their writings was scriptures.

Then there's also, there are also passages where it talks about do not muzzle and ox while it's, you know, threading. These are the words of Christ and they are scriptures. So the gospels became scriptures.

Paul's letters became known as scriptures. And of course, if you read the book of Revelation at the end, it says, and if anybody takes anything out of this book or adds anything to it, anathema, you know, you should be cursed. So Revelation, the last book to be sort of included in the canon was also inspired. So inspiration is a very, very important critical part of our faith. We are people of the book. Growing up, you know, here in the Bible belt, I don't know, maybe, maybe your experience was different, Ryan, but I know for sure I have been exposed to Christianity and really no other religions. But you growing up overseas, I know you grew up Christian in a Christian household, but I'm sure you were exposed to Muslims and Hindus. And do they claim inspiration for their religions?

Do their holy texts claim to be like authored by God or inspired by God? Wow. We need two episodes.

Now we do need two episodes. This is a big question. All right. So let's just back up a little bit. Okay. The idea that other religions can also claim inspiration or inerrancy is something that is taken from biblical studies and applied to other religions. Just the way people do this.

Oh, okay. So in the Hindu Bible, what do you mean by the Hindu Bible? And so in the Muslim holy book, you know, and they don't say Muslim Bible, they'll say holy book or Quran. What it, what they're saying is that just like Christians have their Bibles. So Hindus have their, you know, Gita's and, and the Vedas. And then of course the Muslims have their Quran and then other religions have their holy books. So just like we have our books, they have their books too.

But so much assumption is there. The way the Bible was given, the way the Bible was treated through history is not even remotely close to how people of their own faith saw their own books. Hindus didn't think of their books like, Oh, we're inspired by God. They didn't look at it like that. Some of this is actually coming from the 18th, 19th century British presence in India. Really?

Yeah. That was going to be my question is where did this, where did this comparison originate? Was this people like Christians who were like, just like we have this, this is their version of this. Or is this outsiders who were looking at like trying to apply the same principles across lines? I would say both in the whole comparative religion school, the history of religion school is the source of this problem.

What's the, I guess what's the motivation of trying to compare and find similarity? I would say just to neutralize the gospel. That's what I was thinking to you. Yeah. It says that, okay, you don't have anything exclusive. Christianity is not the only one to offer salvation.

Christianity talks about a savior, but are there other ways? So this is sort of the motivation that came to this comparative school or this history of religion school, which is, which is so misguided. I mean, and I'm saying it very nicely, but they're so off. Even with Islam, there is no comparison because the way they saw the Quran and the way they saw the idea of inspiration and inerrancy, much of that is being developed, was developed much, much later. If you can, if you can diminish what makes the Bible unique and put, give it to someone else and even be able to claim, well, they actually did it first or, or, you know, the Bible is just copying something else.

They, we place a lot of value on originality and if you can take that away from the Bible, then it loses its power. Right. Yeah. I see that.

Yeah. So like in the Hindu religions book, and I'm taking it from Timothy Tennant who is a, I believe the president, if I'm not wrong, still at Asbury, I may be wrong. But anyways, he's a great religions professor and he said, when it comes to the Hindu religious books, no human authorship and historical origins of the most sacred texts.

So how did you get the, the Hindu writings? And I'm going to mention the names in just a minute. Nobody knows where to come from. Nobody knows. Interesting. Who passed it on?

Did Hindus as collective group of people always know about, did they even know? No. Was there like a Canon? No, it just is. So it's just this, all these things from the past brought together.

Now it's like, Oh no. So the Hindu Bible and you're going, wait, this is so Western. Yeah.

They're trying to take a Western way of looking at scriptures and applying it to another culture, religion and doesn't fit. Like it can be copy pasted over there. Yeah. It's not even like a, you know a square peg on a round hole. This is like taking a banana and trying to squeeze it into a round hole.

I don't know. Or a square peg. This isn't even a peg in a hole. It's two totally different things. Totally different things. And you're trying to fill up, fill your zebra up with gasoline at the gas station.

Like they just absolutely charge your computer with a math equation. That doesn't make sense. Just because there are some similarities, you're trying to make this now categorize them in such a way that it's all the same thing. This is for you. That's for them.

That's for the others. It's just how you grew up When I hear people making that kind of argument, I just know someone who just read an article or watched a show on YouTube or they watched a National Geographic or Discovery Channel or something. Somewhere they watch something and they think they're an expert. Well, yeah, because it's easy to put stuff in categories so that you can understand it and you can categorize them because then I can rise above those categories. Like the foolish Christians believe this and the foolish Hindus believe this and the Islams believe this.

And so they're all in these categories. Now I, as the enlightened individual can rise above that and be, you know, no one can hold me down because I'm an intellectual. And God forbid if any of us even remotely say something wrong or make a little innocent mistake when we were talking about the Bible or history or Christianity or history of Christianity, all of a sudden they jump, wait, wait, wait. And you and you're thinking, but the whole argument you're making is just fluff. It's nothing. I know I made an innocent mistake here. Okay, I'm corrected now. But what you're discussing and what you're bringing up is so not true.

For example, when you're talking about the Hindu religious books, according to them, true knowledge is eternally reverberating through the universe as a resonating sound known as, get ready for this, anhatta sabda or shabda means unstruct sound. Why would you commit to that? It's a commitment. They've committed themselves to believing that this is how truth is. Again, not everybody, I would say probably a very small percentage.

I would even hate to put a number on it, but it's a very small percentage of people who actually even understand this is what is at the heart of Hinduism. When you think about a commitment, I hate to bring up an illustration from the Seinfeld show. This is back in the day when I haven't watched it in a while. George Constanze, known for lying. So Jerry Seinfeld one day asked, how do you do that? How can you lie? His answer is, Jerry, it's not a lie if you believe it. That's right.

That's it. If you really believe it, I'm telling the truth. It's not a lie.

A hundred percent. You just got to say it over and over again and you will start to believe it. Just believe it hard enough and you just might. I know we're out of time, but I think on the next contend, I would love to, because this is something I was thinking about, like the last contend was revelation, how God gives us his word. And I know there's people out there who are thinking like, well, what's the difference between God giving us his word, like giving it to us, revealing it to us, and then inspiring. And I know that would be a good conversation.

So maybe next contend we can jump into that conversation for sure. If you guys enjoyed today's topic, if you have questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online at cleaviewtodayshow.com and you can partner with us financially on that same website.

Click that donate button and join with us as a giving partner as we seek to impact the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, Dr. Shah, final ruling. John's shirt. Is it an undershirt or is it a t-shirt? What do you think? What do you think?

What do I think? I think it's, I think it's an undershirt. I have no problem with white t-shirts. I think the style of your shirt, it's thin.

The sleeves are shorter. I think it's an undershirt. So if I wore this in front of Elizabeth, you would be like, Hey, this is indecent.

No, I wouldn't say indecent. If your kids were wearing it and like someone esteemed came over to your house, you'd be like, Hey, why don't you go put a shirt on? I'm wearing a shirt. No, go put like an over shirt on.

Like some of the collar buttons. You wouldn't wear this to like meet the queen. No. Definitely not.

No, I wouldn't wear this to meet the queen. Okay. No. All right. All right.

Well, I guess the king now. That's true. Okay, cool. I don't know. Let us know guys. We love you. We'll see you next time on Clearview Today.