Contendsday - Canon of Scripture

Hello, everyone. Today is Wednesday, June the 21st. 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, or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. That's right. You guys can help us keep this conversation going by supporting the show, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from.

We're going to leave a link in the description, so you can do just that. Today's verse of the day is coming at us from Ecclesiastes 7-12, for wisdom is a defense as money is a defense, but the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it. We studied through, I lead the student ministry here at Clearview, and we studied through the book of Ecclesiastes a couple of years ago, through the entire book. It is one of the most fascinating books in the Bible, because it doesn't read like anything else.

It is very unique. Knowing that Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, when he talks about money, he had money. Oh, boy, he had money.

He was lousy with money. For him to say, wisdom is a defense as money is a defense, but the better defense is wisdom, because that's what gives life. That's what leads us to good choices.

That's what draws us closer to a relationship with God. Money is a tool, but wisdom is what gives us life. Well, that's easy for you to say, because you've got money.

When I don't got no money, then you can't say that to me. It's like, dude, okay, you switch lives with some of the richest people you know, I guarantee you, you'll be switching back before the month is out, because money creates different types of problems. Problems that people without money are very, very ill-equipped to deal with.

I'm not saying I'm swimming in green or nothing like that, but I'm saying I've moved up into a different status than I was when I was a young man. I always thought, if I could just get more money, my problems would be solved. Yeah, sure, those problems would be solved. You get different problems. You get bigger money equals bigger problems. Exactly.

Mo' money, mo' problems. That's what they say to me. You know that's what they say. Solomon is saying the same thing. Listen, get wisdom.

In any situation, whether you've got no money, whether you've got all the money in the world, wisdom is always going to be the best defense, because it gives life to those who have it. That's right. I got a text a couple of days ago. I was sitting on this one, because I was really mulling it over in my brain. Just chewing on it. Getting all the flavor out of it. Grant R. Who is one actor... Ew.

Just sucking on a flavor like... Oh, this is good. What is one actor that ruins... Oh, who is one actor, excuse me, that ruins a movie for you? Tom Cruise. Really? Yep. Didn't even hesitate. Didn't have to.

Middletooth himself. Didn't even hesitate on Tom Cruise. Absolutely.

My wife... Now, let me clarify. I do love the Mission Impossible movies. They are great. I did like... What was the movie? Minority Report? Is that the one where the people could see the future? I believe so.

I believe so. That one was pretty good. It's not hard and fast every single time, but if I'm not expecting Tom Cruise in the movie, and I get Tom Cruise, my day is ruined. Ellie and I were in a movie a few years back when they showed the trailer for The Mummy. She had heard there was a Mummy remake, and we were in the theater, and she was like, oh my gosh, this is The Mummy. It's The Mummy.

I was like, okay, okay. She loves The Mummy. Great series of movies. She loves The Mummy.

Love it. She was like, look, look, look, that's The Mummy. Tom Cruise! No!

No! Like, in the theater, she was doing this. She was like, what? Tom, why would they do this?

They threw his behind right in The Mummy movie. Ellie, stop. We're in a theater. She was like, no, I'm not watching this with Tom Cruise in it.

Ellie and I commiserated about that many times. She does not like Tom Cruise. She also does not like Kristin Ritter for some reason. I cannot stand Kristin Ritter.

I like Kristin Ritter. A short second place for me, so Tom Cruise would be number one. Second place for me, Ben Affleck. What's wrong with Ben Affleck? I just can't stand him. I think he's pretentious.

I think he's full of himself. That must have tore you up when they made him Batman. I thought Affleck's Batman was fine. He was fine. Affleck's Batman, for me, was on top of it until Pattinson came out.

Pattinson took it hands down. He, uh-huh. Will Ferrell, for me. Really? Will not.

Zero tolerance. I'm not a big fan of Will Ferrell, but the movie Elf is the exception to that. That's what everybody says. Have you seen Elf? No. Oh, my. I told you.

John. It's zero tolerance for Will Ferrell. Watch the movie. It's not a Will Ferrell movie. The idea you have in your head of a Will Ferrell movie is not Elf.

I understand that same person, completely different feel of the movie. Let's take a break, because I'm already starting to get angry. I feel my blood pressure rising a little bit. Thinking about his fuzzy-headed buffoonery.

It's like Cartoon, where that red goes up. Steam starts coming out of your ears. Let's get Dr. Sean to ask him. We're going to see what he says, but if you guys have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or visit us online at clearveetodayshow.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 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, 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. Hey everyone, my name's Ellie. And I'm David. And we want to take a minute and let you know how we can actually serve you as you're listening to Clearview today. The Bible paints an extraordinary picture of who we are as a church body. The mission of Clearview Church is to lead all people into a life-changing, ever-growing relationship with Jesus Christ. A huge part of leading people is praying for them. A big reason that Christians have unanswered prayers in their life is because they're not praying.

You know, 1 John 5.15 says, And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. If you're listening to the Clearview Today show, we want to know how we can pray for you as well. There's a number of ways that you can get in touch with us at Clearview and share your prayer requests, but the best way is by texting us at 252-582-5028. You can also send us an email at prayer at ClearviewBC.org.

Or you can download the Clearview app on iTunes or Google Play. You know, on that app, there's a dedicated prayer wall that helps us to get to know what's going on in your life, how we can pray for you, and how we can take any necessary steps to get you moving in the right direction. Thanks for listening. Now let's get back to the show. 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 today's your first time ever joining us here on the Clear View Today Show, we want to let you know you are welcome. Let you know who's talking to you here today. Dr. Abbadon Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. You can find all of his work on his website.

That's AbbadonShah.com. Dr. Shah, we have a doozy of a question for you today. Grant wrote in. Who? Grant R. I don't know who he is. Grant? I don't know. He's Grant R. from Texas.

That was pretty cool. Oh, okay. Yeah. He wants to know, what's one actor that just completely ruins a movie for you? Oh my goodness. What a question.

I know, right? Grant is full of venom. Calling out the actors. Speaking of venom, Tom Hardy.

No, I like Tom Hardy. I don't know. I mean, you know, there are one of those B movie actors, you know, there you go, oh my goodness, I could have done better than that. So I don't know. It's a tough one.

It's a tough one. I thought of one that I didn't even think of in the top portion. Bill Burr. Why is Bill Burr, huh? Well, he was in Breaking Bad.

He actually did pretty good in that book. Mandalorian. Why in the world is Bill Burr part of Star Wars canon? Why is Bill Burr in the Star Wars canon? That is an insult to me. Like it was directed at me. I've been personally maligned by this casting choice. Mr. Lucas himself disrespected me. Unbelievable.

But you know, speaking of canon, we're going to talk about the canon of the Bible today. Oh, very hokey. Hard twist. I'm going to give that transition off. But I'm still thinking about the actor now. Now I'm stuck. Now I'm stuck there. I'm going to answer these questions.

I'm going to be thinking about that. No actors come to you, like Will Ferrell. Do you like Will Ferrell? I mean, Elf. Elf is great. Elf is the one, everybody. Yeah. I'm not a huge Will Ferrell fan, but Elf is a great movie.

How about, I mean, again, this is from my other life, other days. How about the cowbells? Oh, yeah. I forgot that's Will Ferrell, because I always think Christopher Walken when I think of the cowbell. But then Will Ferrell's the one actually banging the bell. Give me more cowbells. I got to have more cowbells. It needs more cowbells. I'm the cream of the crop, baby. Oh, man.

That's too funny. We're talking about the canon of scripture today. We're talking about what it means.

What does this word mean? A lot of times people think, like, I'm going to load a cannonball into a cannon and shoot the Bible at somebody. That's not what we mean when we say the word canon. If you add an N, it would be. That's true.

That's true. But what is the canon of scripture? And why is it important that we understand how scripture was made into the canon? Well, unlike other religious literatures where one person's imagination of truth and reality becomes the writing for or writings for their religion, you know, the Bible is a collection of God's words through various individuals in various times and in various ways regarding one thing, and that is the coming of his son, God's son, Jesus Christ, to save us.

So it's very unique. And I will step out on a limb and say this, you know, up until recently, the emphasis put on writings for every religion was not there. And much of it came, I would say, now, of course, Islam had their book, has their book, the Koran. But even that idea of having a holy book came from observing the Jewish people with their holy books or the Christians with their holy books. And, you know, even in the Koran, the Jewish people and Christians are referred to as the people of the book. So they had to have a book. And of course, you know, Mohammed, you know, wrote whatever he saw or heard. So anyways, but other religions, okay, other religions do not have this concept of these are religious books, but we made them into it because we feel like if Christianity has it, if Judaism has it, they should have it too. It's a strong first point to make because you think about it, people would typically, I think people would typically look at that and say, well, that's actually evidence against the Bible because you got sources coming from all over the place, but it actually strengthens the validity of the Bible. It's not one person making all this stuff. This is God working through various people throughout history.

Right. I mean, think about the first five books, right? Traditionally believed to be written by Moses, right? The mosaic authorship, you know, again, I was reading Gehardus Vos and he, his dissertation was on the mosaic authorship of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Well, where did Moses get his information about creation? Where did he hear about how God made the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day? Where did he get his information about Adam and Eve and their sin or the land of, you know, the garden of Eden and how the rivers went out?

Well, of course that information may have been passed down from generations, right? He belonged to the Hebrews and this information was passed down probably from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Maybe it was, came directly to him just the way Peter says, you know, holy men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So maybe directly came as a revelation to him, a special revelation, or it was also passed down to him. We know the genealogical list may not have been just dropped in his head, right? By the Holy Spirit. Maybe those were genealogical documents that were there among the Hebrews and they were passed down and he included them in his corpus.

Again, word of God, word of man, but it's still completely inerrant. So if you really think about that, that knowledge of Seth's family, this is going pre-flood, may have come to the hands of Noah, right? I mean, if you think about that, where do we get the information of how was Noah so many generations removed from Adam?

I mean, who is there? Noah probably knew. Noah is the one who carried that information with him, maybe in a scroll.

I don't know. What did they have? What did they write on? I know post-flood, we know about scrolls and parchments and papyrus and all that, but pre-flood, I don't know what they were writing on, but somehow he carried that information. So some of the information in the Bible is actually coming from pre-flood period, going back all the way to the beginning of time. Because it had to. It had to.

I see what you're saying. How else would that information have reached us? Moses can't just sit there and make it up. He has to get that information from somewhere.

And of course, I can say to some extent, the Holy Spirit spoke to him. But the list, does he have to also speak the list? More than likely, the list is part of a list that was on the ark.

Right. Some sort of genealogical record. And you've said this before, but that kind of record back then, for it to be so well-preserved was remarkable. For it to be so intricately from generation to generation tracing as far back as it did, that's a remarkable thing. So if that existed, it would have been preserved. And I think people remark about how they're like, well, did they really have the foresight to do that? But we do it all the time.

We've got entire websites, like 23andMe. That's people's hobbies is just tracing their lineage. And of course, if they had a promise, an eternal promise from God they were carrying, of course they would trace their lineage. It goes back to what you believe about people in the flood times, pre-flood times, they weren't just these primitive, mindless people that were linking rocks together. They were very much, I mean, they were very smart, very advanced. They were remarkable.

Absolutely. And Genesis 5 talks about, this is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, on and on and on. And then it begins with, in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth, after he begot Seth, the days of Adam were 800 years. Who wrote this down?

How did this information get to us? If everybody pre-flood has died? Well, more than likely Noah carried that information and passed it down to his sons. And then the generations of Shem, who is the forefather of Abraham, right?

Passed it down. Is that where the name Semites come from? Semites, yeah. And he passed it down to his children, Isaac, Jacob, who passed it down to his 12. And in time, right, Moses got that information and included it in the book of Genesis. So some of the information in the Bible is going to pre-flood time. And then some of the information is right after the flood, like Job. Some of the information came from the time of, of course, Moses, Exodus, you know, 1500-1400 BC, and then all the way down to the coming of Jesus Christ.

So such a vast spread. How many years would you say? From the beginning of creation, which is 4000 BC, right? That's about like 4000 years worth of information in there. It's all communicating about this one character coming. And I think it's, it's inspiring because you can look at that at the human element and say, well, that's the world's longest game of telephone ever.

Like, of course, somewhere along the line, it had to have gotten messed up because there's like, I can't play a game of telephone for 10 minutes without the message getting completely messed up, let alone 4000 years, 6000 years. But at the same time, God is the one working and moving. And because his word is inerrant, then these words have weight. And I think it's also important that you mentioned that he's working through his people. So it's not that like these other people, like Noah had two other sons and they all went off and made their own people groups. So you, of course, the lies are going to get twisted because God isn't working and moving in them. Right.

Of course. And so when you examine that again, say the Buddhist writings, okay. I say Buddha because we say Buddhist, but it's really Buddhist. Buddha means the enlightened one. But the Buddha, he means wisdom, enlightenment.

Okay. So he was not born Buddha. He was born Siddhartha Gautama from Northern India, which is about sixth, fifth century BC. Like about the time of say Jeremiah, maybe even earlier.

This is when Gautama Buddha was roaming India. And he was born a king. I mean, he was born a prince and his father did not want him to step out of the palace, just kind of like a bubble boy, like a shelter kid. He was trying to protect him because he felt like, you know, getting out into this world, like, just like we do with our kids. We don't want them to get hurt.

Right. But getting hurt is part of life. It's part of how you grow up. And his dad didn't want him to get hurt.

His dad didn't want him to see evil. He just wanted a son. I want you to be just happy. I want you to just live your life to the fullest.

Don't go out. And then at the age of 29, he was already married with a child, by the way. Wow.

Yeah. At the age of 29, he asked his charioteer to take him for a ride. He was exposed to four sides. Let's just focus on the first three. The first three were an old man, a sick man, and a funeral procession. And so he was exposed to all this suffering. And he saw the old man. It's like, what is that? That's crazy.

I'm two years older than he was. And just to be like, what is that? Like, what is that? He looks like he looks human, but it's something's not right. They leave him out in the sun too long. It looks like dried. Like, what's going on?

Like leather. But you know, when you, when you see old age, I don't want to offend anybody who's listening or watching. Okay. This has got nothing to do with you and me. I'm just reporting the story of what happened. Okay. But it's, it's to see life going downhill. Yeah.

Yeah. Like something is wrong. Why do you have wrinkles? What's wrong? Why are you, why are your hair white?

Hands kind of gnarled maybe. Don't go up to people. Like if you're a pastor, if you're working in the church, you do not go up to the older people and be like, what is that? What in the world is that?

You will be looking for another job. I made a mistake of doing that years ago when I first came to this church. And now I'm talking about in 1999. So how many years ago was that? 2019, 2009, 19, 20 years. So it was 24 years ago.

And I thought I was doing the right thing because we had our homecoming, which we don't have anymore because if you leave the church and go away, why should we celebrate when you come back? Right. There you go. There you go. Anyways, just, just my little venting.

So we're having homecoming. I had the naivete to say, all the old people y'all can get in line for us. And they, they kind of reprimanded me. They said, no, no, you should be calling us old. You pretend we're young.

I said, what did I say wrong? I guess I have a little bit of, you know, my, my, my lack of Western understanding came through. I think, I think it's all cool.

I've been Western a long time. I think it was all fine. Hey y'all old biddies, go ahead. And they said, I said, what should I have said? Older people. I said, okay, you're right. You're right. I said, and then we ended up saying elderly people.

Yeah. And then they said, no, that's not, that doesn't sound right either. So then we ended up with senior citizens. All our senior citizens, y'all are up for it.

So I learned, can we get a senior citizen discount? And then the second side he saw was a sick man. I mean, when you're sick, you know, your eyes are red, watery, nose is running, you know, just, you feel so puffy and just, or just so dry. I mean, just, you know, what is, what's wrong with him or her? That's a sick man. That dude is really sheltered. I mean, just like not ever having seen someone who is ill.

Imagine that. He's 29. He has a wife and a kid. He's never seen someone who's ill. And he was on a stretcher too. This person was on a stretcher. He's like, what's wrong with him?

Wow. Messiah, he is sick. What is sick?

He was protected from being sick for 29 years. That is crazy. I mean, that's, that's, you know, and then the third side he saw was a funeral procession.

What is that? Well, Saira, that's what happens when you die. You said, what do you mean die? You're going to die.

So dad's been lying to me. It's like the Easter bunny times like a hundred. You're hit with all the, all the crushing like soul draining sadness of the world.

All at one time, just sobering right in that instant. And then the fourth site was of a sadhu, a Hindu sadhu who seemed very peaceful. And so Buddha felt, or, you know, Gautama felt that he needs to be that. And so one night he left, he gave a kiss to his wife and their little baby, I think Rahul, and he stepped out. Just peace out, out the door.

Yep. This was his great renunciation. And he went searching for the truth and even tried to scourge himself.

You know, I don't know why people feel like then you beat themselves. I don't know why, because it's, that's, this is where you find out Christianity is the truth. The Bible is the truth. Sin is our problem and what they're trying to do is get that sin out of them. What we've done in America and the West is we have found so many things, whether it's food or entertainment or lust or pride or greed or selfishness to coat that place called sin. But when you strip that away or when we go through crisis or when we lose love or when we lose our health or when we see the ugliness and bitterness of people or even ourselves, that's when we realize there is a real element inside of us, which is called sin. And it's evil. It is very evil and it only seeks to destroy.

And so this is why they try to get it out. And, and, you know, finally at the age of 35, remember this whole process began at 29 at the age of 35. So six years later, he sat under a people tree. Now people don't think about people as in human beings. People is a name of a tree.

It has this really wide looking leaves and kind of oily like they look like a really beautiful tree. He sat under that tree to meditate all night. He fought against the evil tempter Mara who tried to tempt him, tempt him, tempt him. And as a result, he experienced enlightenment and the path to the end of suffering. And so I guess in overcoming that temptation, he became the Buddha. Yeah.

Okay. The enlightened one. Buddha means I'm enlightened.

And so the path begins, there's so many kinds of Buddhism right now in the world, but the path begins with four noble truths and they're like this. Existence is suffering. Dukkha.

Dukkha means sorrow. So just that you exist. It's just that that's already suffering right there. Unfortunately, that's game over.

Right out of the gate. Suffering is caused by desire. Tanha. These are all Indian words. Tanha.

Tanha means just the longing. Liberation nirvana. And y'all thought it was a group. I thought it was a group. Yeah.

Mr. Cobain himself. Yeah. Well, he tried to liberate himself in the wrong way. Liberation nirvana from suffering and desire is possible. Okay.

I agree with that. The eightfold path is the way to escape. Marg. Eight. Art marg. Art is eight.

Marg is way. The right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. Those are the eight. That's the eightfold path to achieve nirvana. Yeah. Okay. Basically they are morality, concentration and wisdom.

This is how you do this. Those were his noble truths. That was his revelation that he got through resisting that temptation. And again, how do we know all this? I mean, this is kind of glean from writings about him.

So it's not like he always wrote things down. Right. Yeah. It seems like it's just be good.

Just do good and think good and try and hope for the best. But I guess that leads back to our discussion on the Bible. Like what's good? Yeah.

What's good? Right. Where's the benchmark?

What's the standard? Like I can do things that are good for me that will hurt you. Right.

Or that will put you in not such a good position, but is it good? Right. And so this is man's way of answering a God question. God's answer in the old and the new is exactly the same, which is a soul that sin shall die. Going to the New Testament, Paul says, all my good works are like filthy rags. Okay. Now maybe somebody might say, but those are his good works in the sense of what he does for God.

Okay. But then there are other things, passages in the Bible, in the New Testament that also tell us that, you know, we're all born dead in trespasses and sin. So that's what sin is. Sin is death and you cannot get out of it unless God comes and helps you.

Maybe continue this discussion tomorrow. I know we're running out of time, but I really want to get into the canon of the scripture because I think that leads perfectly into why you need canon to begin with. What sets the Bible apart? What makes it different? Exactly. Because everything he did and everything he said is like, it sounds good, but is it true?

We know that it's not true. It's like we have to look at why the Bible is true. What makes the canon of scripture important and necessary? And the question is, do the other religions have a canon at all?

Or have we superimposed a category that only applies to the Bible on other religions and then created one? Do you guys have any questions or suggestions for new topics? Send us a text at 252-58-25028. Of course, you can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com and you can partner with us financially on that same website. We're grateful to all of you who are giving partners and count you as part of our Clear View Today Show family. Love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clear View Today.