The Importance of Doctrine

Today is Wednesday, July 19th. I'm John Galantis, and I'm here with Dr. Abbadon Shah, and you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have a question for Dr. Shah, anything you'd like to write in, as Jess, we talk about, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com, and you can help us keep the 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 of this podcast, so you can do just that. And Dr. Shah, today's verse of the day is coming to us from Isaiah chapter six and verse one. It says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Can you imagine that vision that Uzziah had?

I try to, and a lot of times, I think it just falls utterly short. I think of this crisis that King Uzziah's death must have brought about for the nation of Israel. And yet, I see God bringing us through difficult times and crises. As bad as they are, and as challenging and as confusing as our circumstances are, it's often a time where God displaces glory to us through those challenges and through those hard times. Just like our nation going through a difficult time, and has been for some time now, this is a great reminder that you want to see God in difficult times, you will get to see him.

And what I like about this passage is Isaiah's response, which shows up in verse five. So I said, woe is me for I am undone. Now that really means that I am dead. I will be destroyed.

I'll be cut off. That's what it really means. And then he says, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, from my eyes have seen the Lord of hosts. Our words are so damning against us, because we say things, we say things flippantly. We say things reactively. We say things angrily, impatiently.

I mean, just name it. We say things without thinking. And we are living among people of unclean lips who do the same thing.

And unclean is not just cuss words, but just lack of faith words. We tend to think that our words don't hold as much power as our actions do. We treat words like they're fickle things that really, at the end of the day, don't mean anything.

But I think we said it a couple episodes back. It's out of the abundance of the heart that your mouth speaks. When you talk, even if it's flipping or you're not thinking it through, you are consciously or unconsciously revealing what's inside.

That's right. So words are so powerful. Words set the course of our lives. Words display what is inside of us. And words can also be those things that will bring a turnaround, bring us back to God.

That's right. You know, today is July 19th, and we were kind of looking across what we do at the top of every month or really a couple months out as we'll get the calendar down. We'll just look at things that may have happened in our nation's history or in Christian history, that kind of thing. And we saw that July 19th, years and years and years ago, at the very beginning of our nation's founding, the Salem Witch Trials. That was one of the days where I think five different people were found guilty of witchcraft. But I think it was July 1692. So when was Jamestown? Was that like 1604? 1607. 1607. So not very long after that, they're trying people for witchcraft up in Salem.

That's right. Samuel Sewall was one of the judges that was on this trial. And what's amazing is that we went to Boston to visit our daughter who is in law school, and her husband is taking classes as well towards his undergraduate. And they really wanted us to see the historical sites. And they took us by this big graveyard, not big in the sense of space, but big in the sense of Sam Adams is there, John Hancock is there, Paul Revere is there. And then, of course, Samuel Sewall. Now, I didn't think much of him until I read on the plaque what it said about him. It said this, Samuel Sewall, 1652 to 1730, and only seven children survived to adulthood, and all are buried here.

So he and his wife Hannah had seven children. Sewall is probably best known as one of the judges at the Salem witchcraft trials. In 1696, he publicly asked forgiveness for his condemnation of those innocent people.

And in 1700, there's something interesting about this guy, because we tend to depict them in movies and shows and documentaries as these old, crickety guys who are just so narrow-minded that they just don't get it. Yeah, they let power go to their heads. Right.

They want to control these young people. And we still do not know for sure what went on in Salem. There may be some truth.

Where there is smoke, there is fire. So maybe there was something going on. Maybe there wasn't.

Maybe there was a little hint of something happening. But anyways, he apologized for that. And then he also, in 1700, published a book called The Selling of Joseph, kind of like an anti-slavery treatise. And he was a compassionate man.

He did not just do that, but he also was part of the anti-slavery movement. Yeah, absolutely. Wow.

That's really cool. July 19th, this day in history. Very important for us to know. We're going to start the show in just a moment. If you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, anything that we can talk about here on the show, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at cleerviewtodayshow.com.

We'll be right 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. 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. If you want to 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.

All right. Well, 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 find us online at ClearviewTodaysShow.com or if you have a question for Dr. Shah, anything you'd like to write in and suggest we talk about here on the show, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at ClearviewTodaysShow.com. I'm sorry, contact at ClearviewTodaysShow.com. And if today's your first time ever visiting us here on the Clearview Today Show, we want to welcome you, let you know who's talking to you 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 and that's AbbadonShah.com. Dr. Shah, good to see you again. You as well. Absolutely.

Absolutely. We've got a great show for you guys today talking about this Contends Day. You know, this is kind of carrying on in our Contends Day, Wednesday series.

And do you want to kind of just briefly explain, because we've been doing Contends Day for a while, what our Contends series was slash is? Well, basically it's about apologetics, how to defend our faith. As Peter says, always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within us with meekness and fear. And we're talking about doctrine, doctrine that word itself conjures up the idea of old fashioned or divisive or boring or man, you know, you're so interested in deciding how many angels can dance on the head of a pen or all that. These things don't make a difference in people's life. I'm about saving people.

Have you heard people say that? Oh yeah. I'm about kingdom building. I'm in the real world. I mean, I'm down there with people in the trenches.

I just want to go out and talk to people and learn their experiences and lead them into an engaging relationship with. You're a salesperson. Yeah, exactly. Now I don't know what you're saying. Now I'm not against salespeople, because in a sense we're also salespeople, right? But if that's all you're doing without examining the product that you're selling, then what is your, what is the difference between you and some of those people who used to go around selling this little cure-all in this bottle? Oh yeah. Yeah.

The little, um, what are they? The snake oil. Snake oil salesman. Pirelli's miracle elixir sort of thing. Or even just the going door to door, selling the knives or selling the encyclopedia. It's like, I haven't read these.

I don't know anything about these knives. And again, please remember, I love business. I believe in workplace ministry. So I'm not against being salespeople. Great. If you're a salesperson, our prayers are with you, man.

Go out there and sell and support your family and build your business. But when it comes to Christianity, you just can't just do this and say, I don't care about doctrine. Because doctrines matter. They're essential to the gospel and they impact eternity. Well, we've been talking about doctrine a little bit here on the show for the past couple of years. I think even before that, we've been really, maybe these past few weeks, hitting on doctrine hard because people think that doctrine is divisive.

People think it's boring. They think it's like, okay, you're really going to fixate on this little thing. And you got a lost, kind of like you said, playing the, like this, this playing the savior almost of you've got this lost and dying world of people going to hell. And I'm out there trying to get them, I'm trying to get them saved by grace through faith.

But you're over here fixated on this little thing. And that's how people view it when you hit on doctrine hard. Doctrines matter. Now just keep in mind, there are different levels of doctrines.

There are the first rank and the second rank and third rank. You know, Moller, Al Moller has talked about this and Orton has talked about in his books, different works by the way, where they talk about how the Trinity and the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, justification by faith and authority of scripture. These are sort of like the first rank doctrines and then come the second and then the third and all and on.

But even there, I want to caution people because sometimes we relegate certain things to a second or third tier doctrine when what you believe about that also impacts first tier doctrine. That's right. That's right. For example, Genesis, how do you read the book of Genesis?

How do you read the first couple of chapters? You know, if you're reading them as, and these are just, this is really not a literal 24 hour day. Right. This is symbolic. This is symbolic. These are just day age. Just be careful because that sooner or later impacts the doctrine of inerrancy.

Now what are you going to do about that? So even when we divide doctrines on a first, second, third rank basis, we have to be careful because doctrines ultimately are connected. Yeah. They don't exist as the, okay, like here's, here's salvation on the first tier. This is what we all have to agree on. Now there's the second tier. You don't really have to delve into this and we kind of divide ourselves by these and then these third ones really don't matter. But the one, the ones that are third are connected somewhat to this, to this second one. Like you said, like if I accept that this is true on this third level, that's going to implicate that something might be true on the second level that I maybe didn't agree with, but I could sort of see how that is.

But now that if, okay, you accept that. Now this first level one is going to be affected too. So yeah, baptism, people may put it in a second level, but now if you start saying that baptism is essential for salvation. Now you've affected this first level doctrine?

Yeah, you've affected the first level doctrine. Because now it's, it's, I have to, I have to receive Christ. I have to accept that his gift for me, but I also have to do something to earn it. So it's like, I accepted him, but I never got baptized. I didn't obey in that way.

And therefore, because I didn't do the right thing, I'm not going to help. So is salvation a free gift or is it by works? Because baptism can become works. So anyway, so here we're, you know, John is talking about these deceivers or the Antichrist. He says in verse seven, this is second John seven, no chapters here. He says, for many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a, what's the first deceiver and the second Antichrist.

Harsh words, really harsh words, but this is a message that we need to hear. And I think John knows that. And he's saying, listen, this is, I'm not going to sugar coat this. I'm not making this, I'm not going to make this palatable because the church needs to know who these people are. And then he says in verse eight, very next verse, he says, look to yourselves that we do not lose those things we work for means when you start diluting the doctrine of the full humanity of Christ, you're beginning to lose those things that we have worked for, but that we may receive a full reward means you're also going to lose your reward.

And groups of people over the course of history have worked these doctrines out so carefully and have gotten together to make sure that it's, it's laid out. It's appropriate that we have a proper understanding of who God is, not because of being right over someone else, but because he's God and he deserves to be known and he wants, he's revealed himself to us for that purpose. And it is critical because the very next verse goes on and says, whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. Now that, I don't know what, yeah. How do I, how do I sugar coat that one? How do I explain that one away? If you don't abide in the doctrine of Christ, you don't have God.

And then go and finish out the last line. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the father and the son. So we're talking about the first rank doctrines of the Trinity and Christology. But the warning is if anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, nor greet him for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

We talked about this a little bit in a previous show. So a strong indictment against those who deny the Trinity and the Christology doctrines. That's what we're trying to get across to you guys is that your doctrines matter and it's not, and even if you're like, well, different denominations can have different this with different that. Just be careful how lenient you're being. Cause I fall into that trap where I'm like, well, let them believe what they want.

They're not hurting my body. And that's something that I'm learning to get over that, no, it matters. It matters what we think about Christ.

Just like it matters what I think about the people in my life. I can't go on believing things about them that aren't true and that they are acting or thinking in ways that they don't. So very quickly, three different groups come to my mind. When we talk about the Trinity or the Christology doctrines, the first are the Mormons church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. Second are the Jehovah's witness people. Both claim Christianity and both claim the Bible as their book, but they alleged that the book has been corrupted. And then they both add their literature to the Bible and claim that it is on the same level. So that's funny to me that I am a Christian, but I think the Bible has been corrupted in some way. So I have to bring another book.

I have to now. It's my responsibility to add on to this book. So the Mormons bring the book of Mormon, the doctrines and covenants and the Pearl of great price.

Isn't there, wasn't there a warning specifically in Revelation, do not do this, do not add on to this book. Right. You know, we have so poor understanding of canonicity.

How did the books come into the canon? Right. There was not a conference that voted on these books. Okay. Let's just take that out of the equation. People often think the Nicene council or Constantinople or, or some other council there that they sat, or Laodicea, they sat down and they voted on these books, not true people.

That's not what happened. These books were being used by the church. They voted by using them. The early church began to use certain books and they did not use the others. And the others are not like tens and twelves and fifteens and twenties, just couple of books like shepherd of Hermes or Epistle of Barnabas or Clement. These are some of the books that were not used on the same level, but then the 27 that we have in the new Testament, just focus on the new Testament, right?

Right. We're not talking about the old Testament. We're not talking about the Masoretic canon or the Septuagint canon. Those are different issues, right? But the new Testament, these books were important and hence I call that the soft canonization. Okay. And these were considered to be it.

And the book of Revelation was kind of like the, the, the caboose that comes in the end. The exclamation mark. Right. This is it.

This is it. This ends. And how interesting that towards the end, he says, if anybody adds or takes away from this book and he's referring to not just the book of Revelation, but also what has come before, because this is the book end, this ends, this is the final chapter that looks to the future. All these plagues and curses in the book will be added to you. Ooh, golly. And so these Mormons and these Jehovah's Witnesses said, nah, I'm going to go for it.

I'm going to add to it. I put their understanding no different than Islam. Really? Oh, and I would say they're all, they're all bedfellows. Wow. Yeah.

Huh. Because that's what exactly what Muhammad did. He, he got all these supposed revelations and he writes this Quran, gives it to his disciples. And how does he see Jesus?

Does he see him as fully God, fully man, the second person of the Godhead? Of course not. What do these people do? Yeah. The same exact thing.

Some exact thing. Even though it's been separated by over 12, 1300 years, same old heresy coming back. We tend, I guess we tend to look at it more favorably because they call themselves Christianity and we just don't dive deep enough into what they're actually doing to think. Because their origins are in the West. The reason that's really as simple as that, because they're like us, we're going to give it a pass. Yeah. Huh. Because they're, you know, like Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, these people coming from Germanic background. So they must not be as bad. I guess I can see that where, where if they look like us and they talk like us, even if they don't think like us, it's okay. We'll, we'll, we'll just call them silly gooses and put them in the corner. Yeah. Just try to ignore that. Still under the Christian umbrella. It's not, yeah, no.

I would even add the third one. Remember I said three, all this oneness Pentecostalism that goes about that says that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are simply different modes of, of the one God. What difference is it than, than Mormonism or Jehovah's Witness or Islam?

That's true. That's what, that's what John said. He said, if anyone comes to you and doesn't bring the doctrine of Christ, that's what they are.

They're false teachers. I don't know what to say to you folks, but there are people that some, sometimes people listen to on the radio, on TV, they're in Christian bookstores coming from a oneness Pentecostalism. That's a heresy. Very much so. That would be part of the Christian realm, right?

We should not include them under the same umbrella. Yeah. It's one of those things, I think, like we said, that people tend to give it a pass, but at the end of the day, the point of this Contends Day series, this Contends Day Wednesdays that we're doing is to give you the tools that you need to not only know and understand, but to combat them, to, to fight against them, or at least to stand firm and not be swayed. You know, that's what, that's what we said. We read that verse that we, that Paul's prayer for us is that we wouldn't be swayed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, right?

Every new thing that comes to you, you wouldn't just go off and be like, well, you know what? That makes sense. Don't even listen to it. That's right. Yeah. Well, my suggestion is we need to understand what they're all about. We need to understand what Mormonism is about. We need to understand what Jehovah's business is about.

And this is, it's a two-part verification. One is the external, external verification of the word of God. And then secondly is the internal witness of the Holy Spirit.

External verification, we're talking about the historical accuracy, the unity, the coherence of scripture of the Bible. And the internal witness of the Holy Spirit is where we know that the third person that God had assures us that this is it. This is the truth about Jesus Christ. That's the role that the Holy Spirit plays. You know, we tend to think, at least I've tend to think in the past that the Holy Spirit is just, he's just there to comfort me. He's just there to kind of guide me and uplift me when I'm feeling down. But I don't think about the fact that he's there to assure me that the word is true. He's there to give me that assurance that everything that he wrote is a hundred percent truth. But that's one of those things I think that people just think the Holy Spirit is something that he's a person that's just there to uplift me and to kind of guide me and make me feel welcome and make me feel good about myself. But he's also here to remind us that the word is true. He's there to assure us and to confirm. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So when we go back to the Bible, let's focus on the external verification of the Bible.

To begin with, we have a hundred percent of the text of the Old Testament and a hundred percent of the text of the New Testament. There's nothing lost. Nothing lost.

People have said that before. It's like, this is lost, that's lost. But this is where the discipline of textual criticism comes in. We have manuscripts that do differ, and there are things missing in one manuscript. But if you go to the next one, and I'm being very simplistic here, but if you compare them and utilize a discipline of textual criticism, guess what?

You can find out what was missing. And this is why I say in the beginning of every episode that Dr. Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism. So when someone like that says, hey, there's not a single thing in your Bible that's not in a manuscript somewhere right now, you can believe it.

Right. Now there are differences, and that's where scholars discuss, write papers, have seminars. They do all these things to make sure we make our case for that particular word or that phrase that is missing in this manuscript. But it's there in this one. And which one is accurate? Should the text be there or should it not be there?

Those are the things we discuss. But either way, the text is either above the line or below the line. If you know what I'm talking about, if you have a Greek New Testament, the text above the line is what the editors have picked. But let's say you defer with them, but just look down. Under the same verse, you'll find the alternate reading. Okay, well, what's your case for it? So either way, you have the text somewhere.

So 100% is there. Something else, both the Old Testament and New Testament make tons of references to lands and regions, kings and rulers. Like this morning in my devotional time, I was reading from Amos and it talks about the prophecy against the Amorites. And I studied about the Amorites. You know, these were the people who were in the land of Canaan. And when Joshua came, he had to drive them out and all that stuff. And they did some and didn't do the other. But I just wanted to read on them. So I got my Anchor Bible dictionary and I began to read on the Amorites. Who were they? Where they came from?

And the Mari tablets that were discovered in some of these archeological sites. It's amazing. These people are real. Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the things the Bible does is it tells you all of these places to give itself that credibility. Yeah.

Mountains, valleys, rivers, buildings, monuments, everything, events and dates, treaties and policies, customs and traditions. They're all real. We can verify them.

I've been to many of these places. That's right. That's right.

In Israel, in Egypt, in Jordan, Greece, Turkey, I've been there and these places actually exist. That's right. And I can go on and on. But the most important verification of the Bible is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There's something happened that was prophesied. That's right. And then something happened and then it was verified.

That's right. And it turned all of those disciples that were afraid and that were kind of trembling, it turned them all into martyrs. They every single one. They saw him. They died. You would have to tell me that every single one of them, apart from John, 11 men died separately for something they knew was a lie.

Yeah. And it's much more than just any ordinary person, like a family member or friend or some personality. But this is a person that the entire Bible, the Old Testament is testifying and prophesying about.

And he fulfills these prophecies right down to the last one. And he comes back and tells you, you see this? That's me. You see this? I told you.

You see this? It just happened. Well, I have to die. You have to kill me.

There's no way I'm going back on that because I know what's coming on the other side is going to be way greater. That's right. So when it comes to the external verification of the Bible, let's talk about the unity and the coherence of the Bible. So 40 different authors writing over, I would say, good grief, at least 1500, if not 2000 years.

Wow. And they're from all over the place, three different continents, Asia, Africa, Europe, all kinds of occupations. I mean, there are sheep herders, kings, fishermen, fishermen are there. Scholars are there. Rabbis are there.

Okay. Go into the Old Testament. You have a Moabite woman. We don't know for sure if Ruth wrote the book of Ruth.

I tend to think that maybe she did, named after her. Esther, a young Jewish girl who is living in exile, the beauty queen. And they're all talking about this one person and the person is who?

Jesus. That's right. So there is unity. There's coherence.

And I can go on and on. Yeah. And maybe we can look at this on another episode that this unity and this coherence is a hundred percent not found in other religious books. And that includes other quote unquote, Christian books, like the book of Mormon or the latter day saints or the Jehovah's witness literature. It's not the unity and the coherence.

We're talking about the watchtowers, the Bible and track society, a new world translation, all these things that do not have this. Yeah. And someone's, I'm sure someone's out there is like, well, can you go further into it? We absolutely will. We're going to have to do it on another episode though, because we are out of time. But if you enjoyed today's episode and you want to hear more, and I know you do, let us know by sending us a text message at 252-582-5028. You can also visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. And don't forget, you can support us financially on that same website. That's clearviewtodayshow.com. Every single time you give, every time that you donate, you are helping us get the message of Jesus Christ into the airwaves. And there's someone in your life right now who needs to hear that Jesus is Lord and that he loves them and he wants to save them. So make sure you share the show with them. We love you. We'll see you tomorrow at Clearview Today.