Friday, August 11th | The City of Brotherly Love

Hello, everyone. Today is Friday, August the 11th. 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 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. You can share it online. Leave us a good five-star review on iTunes, Spotify, absolutely none of that four-star mess. I will find you and I will scold you dreadfully.

We are going to leave a link in the description of this podcast so you can do just that. Today's verse of the day is coming to us from Psalm 71 18. Now, also, when I'm old and gray-headed, O God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation, your power to everyone who is to come. We talked about the 1 Samuel verse from yesterday.

This verse, I feel like, is in the same vein. This person is old and gray-headed and has spent their life, but the psalmist is saying, Don't forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation. I have a goal.

I have a mission. Stay with me, God, until I'm able to accomplish that. It's a prayer for a life that's well-lived. It's a prayer that, like you said, I still have something to do. It's to declare your strength to this generation. That's what we're trying to do as well on this radio show.

Declare the strength of God, the goodness of God, his power to everyone who's to come after us. We're fairly young. I'm 31. You're 30. 34.

Golly! Hey, easy. Sorry.

Sorry. I'm only three years older than you. That's the thing. There are still people who are coming up after us. Even to the people who are on our generational level or even beyond, God's goodness is new every day.

There's always something new to discover. That's our heart behind it. Amen. All right. I've got one for you. Dane S. wrote in on Tuesday. Dane has been firing with the suggestions. I love it. Keep them coming. Thank you, thank you, thank you. He didn't write it on Tuesday, but we read it on Tuesday.

He did text in this morning, and I wanted to read this one. Million dollars. That's a lot of money.

Any time you spend a single dime of that money, anytime you just spend any money at all, confetti is going to rocket out of your ears and your nose like a cannon. Does the sound come with it, too? Put the Grunt Birthday Party sound right here.

It'll sound just like this right here. That would probably be inconvenient sometimes, but I feel like I would take that. I'd take it, and I would make it like a party trick. Like, hey, guys, watch this.

You buy a scone, everybody watch. It's violent, but it doesn't hurt. It's just really forceful.

Confetti out the ears, confetti out of both nostrils. It's a pain to clean up. Would you take it?

Yeah. I would make a list of all the stuff I wanted to purchase, and then I'd drive to the dump and make all those purchases, and then not spend any more money. I definitely don't spend money at home. Definitely don't spend money anywhere here where I'm responsible for cleaning it up. But if you use your business card or whatever, it's not your money.

You get a million, but if you spend your money... There you go. That's a good idea. Just put it in a separate account. Put it in a separate account and then only use that for one-time purchases. That's a good way to do that. If you buy a home, let's say you buy a half a million dollar home, that's one, but it's just one confetti rocket, and it doesn't hurt. It's kind of fun.

You might end up liking it. It's just cleaning it up. I would say, do it somewhere you're not going to be responsible for cleanup. Yeah. Go to the dump. I'd take that. I would take that. Knowing that, I feel like you could mitigate it.

I feel like you could work your way around it. I just imagine, in the South, a lot of the dumps around here have ornery old men. They just want to sit in that little outhouse, that little cabin all day, and they see a guy just rocking confetti, and they're like, Hey! Hey! You have to run away. You can't do that here! I just bought groceries!

See ya! Yeah, Dane, I won't do it, buddy. I would definitely take it. We're going to ask Dr. Sean in just a second. I'm curious to know what his response would be. I think he's not even going to understand. He'd be like, Oh my goodness. Yeah, he'll take it.

Yeah, absolutely. If you guys have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send those in to 252-582-5028, or visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. 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. Send us a text at 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. Or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028.

That's right. If today's your first time ever visiting us here on the Clearview Today show, we want to welcome you. Thank you for tuning in.

Let you know exactly 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. That's AbbadonShah.com. Do you want to pose the question to Dr. Shah from earlier today? I kind of feel silly. Today's question, Dr. Shah, was a doozy.

It also came from our good friend, Dane S., right here in North Carolina. Really? Again? Yep. He wrote in for the Tuesday show. He wanted to write in again. This one, as they say, is a humdinger.

This one was Bo Diddley. It said, you get a million dollars, but if you ever spend any of it, confetti rockets out of your ears and out of your nose. It doesn't hurt. It's a party sound. It goes, you'll do it? Yeah. What is it again? Just like here, put the grunt birthday party sound again. It's just like.

It's just like confetti cannon. When do they come out again? Whenever you spend that money. Whenever you spend any of that million. Not any money, but any of that million that you get. Yeah. So if you buy something on the church card or Nicole's card or whatever, it is what it is. Glad to. If it's like your personal money you spend, like you buy groceries, confetti just.

I'll do it. You know, the million dollars will help alleviate that sum. That kind of softens the blow of people's opinions. But, fear is what we're talking about today. We're continuing our series on the different churches in the book of Revelation. We've heard from so many of you about how these radio shows are helping you understand God's word more deeply. Today, we come to the church in Philadelphia. Now, I didn't know that Jon spent time in Pennsylvania.

I didn't know that he spent time up there in that region. This is the sixth city that Jesus sent a letter of warning to the church in that city, Repent Rails. This city was Philadelphia. But this city reminds me of an earthquake that we experienced right here in Henderson, North Carolina. That's crazy, because this is the last place that I would have ever expected to feel an earthquake.

I remember being in elementary school and learning grade school science about earthquakes. They were like, well, they're really common here. I was like, oh, we're good.

I'll never feel one of them. Yeah, we're golden. Yeah. But if you remember, August 23, 2011, all up and down the East Coast. I'm talking about way down in Florida, going all the way north as far as Canada, and then west towards the Mississippi River Valley. People experienced these aftershocks. This was because there was an earthquake in Mineral, Virginia, which is outside of Richmond.

I believe it was northwest side of Richmond. It was about 3.7 miles under the ground beneath the earth's surface. But the tremors are what come before the earthquake.

The aftershocks were felled all up and down the East Coast. But if you think for a moment, even though it was not very damaging, $200-300 million in damages, compared to the West Coast earthquakes, it was nothing. Still, imagine living through an earthquake. Imagine if you were constantly, if I can use the word, terrorized by earthquakes.

How would your personality be? Right. Just fearful. I mean, you'd be scared every moment of the day. You'd have no sense of control, because like we said, fires, lightning.

You can do certain things to prevent it. An earthquake, what can I do? Nothing. Now, y'all saw, I know you guys did, saw the videos and the pictures at Prayin in Asia Minor, Turkey. You saw those massive, they looked like pancakes, like a pancake stack that just fell over. Can we drop the picture in the video right here, just so they can see it? Yeah.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. This pancake stack looking column, it just has toppled, and you see these pieces just lying. Imagine if you were living in that part of the world, you would not be comfortable inside a house.

No. You wouldn't want to go inside. You'd rather be in a tent somewhere, where if that tent were to collapse, nobody gets hurt, except it's kind of discomforting. Other than that, not a big deal. Keep that in mind when we walk through this letter of Jesus to the church in Philadelphia.

Let's do it. I'm just trying to put myself in that mindset of just constant fear. You never know when an earthquake is going to strike. You never know if this house that you built and carefully put together, or this business that you crafted, suddenly it's just, there it is.

It's gone. You can't have any peace, because it's always in your mind. It's always in the back of your mind.

That feeling in the pit of your stomach, at any moment, this could be gone. Then with those earthquakes, you usually have people who died. You identify those earthquakes with the demise of certain people in your life. The one in AD 17, that's the one where my grandfather died.

AD 23, that's the one where my nephew died. A lot of tragedy there. Let's go back for a moment and focus on the city of Philadelphia.

It's situated about 30 miles further east of Sardis. Philadelphia means? Brother love.

Right. Philos, Adelphos. Philos, or Philae, is love. Adelphos, brother. Philadelphia is brother's love. It's going back to a historical account, maybe some mythological account as well, of two brothers, Attalus and Eumenus.

They loved each other and refused to let the Romans put a wedge between them. So they were kind of like that example? Yeah. I like that. Like Attalus was in Rome, and somehow the word got back home.

I may have it backwards. Got back home that he was dead, and Eumenus took the throne, because, hey, somebody's got to be in power. So he took the throne. Attalus was still alive. So when he got home, by the way, it's not Atlas, Attalus, he comes back home and Eumenus, instead of saying, oh no, well, I'm the king now.

I mean, it's just how we have to do now. He stepped down and gave his throne back to his brother. And so because of that, they had this name, sort of a commemoration of this love between brothers. That's awesome. I didn't know that. That's a great story.

That's really cool. And if you know anything about siblings, siblings can be wonderful, but at the same time, in many situations, whether Christian homes or not, they can also be a sore subject, a source of pain. Because many times, same parents just can't get along.

Same household, same upbringing, just can't get along. So these brothers did. So that's the name of the city. Now earthquakes, let's focus on that because I can talk a lot about Philadelphia, its history, the Lydian city, and what does that mean and who are the kings, but that's not going to help us to understand this letter. What will help us understand this letter are the repeated damages suffered by this city because of earthquakes, especially the one in AD 17 and AD 23.

Those are close together. Now think about it for a moment. What was happening in AD 17 in Palestine?

What do you think? AD 17. I'm trying to think. AD 30 or thereabouts is when Jesus is on the cross. So 17 would be, I guess that would be Herod's reign or shortly after? Well, if anything, this is about 10, 12 years before John the Baptist took his ministry out in the wilderness.

AD 23, a little less than that. So just about this time, Philadelphia experienced a terrible earthquake in 17 and 23. And for those of you who are interested in this, in trying to understand what happened there, Philadelphia is sitting at a seismically active area. In fact, I would go as far as to say much of Turkey is. Especially the west and the south-southwest part of Turkey, like the one, the earthquake in Antioch on the Orentus river, terrible damage. And a lot of ancient sites are no longer accessible. Maybe next year they say they're going to open things up, but right now it's still pretty bad. And hundreds of thousands of people died. At least that's what people are saying.

We don't know for sure. But the reason it's in this seismically active area is because it is sitting on the Anatolian plate. You know, there are plates underneath, right? Tectonic plates that move. From the south, there is the African plate, which is pushing up. And from the southeast, it's the Arabian plate pushing up. From the north is the Eurasian plate pushing down.

So the only place for the Anatolian plate to go is to the west. And it does. Just this kind of pressure from all sides.

Pressure. And it's scraping. Imagine the big slabs of earth scraping against each other. And it's pushing its way into the sea, towards the Aegean Sea, towards Greece.

Yeah, that's how earthquakes happen. And so, ancient historians, for example, Strabo. Strabo was a Greek geographer, a historian.

His time period is somewhere between 63 BC to 24 AD. And he says this about Philadelphia. He says, in Philadelphia, not even the walls are safe. Golly. You hate to hear that. Can we build a big obelisk?

No. Because it's going to fall. Yeah, that's true.

You think about how that fear shapes their culture. You know what I mean? Like, they can't build this. No tall buildings. No mini stories. Right.

Everything they do has to go through that filter. Yeah. Wooden structures are the best, because we can rebuild them. Yeah, think about that. I know y'all want something to be beautiful and long-lasting, but it doesn't last long in Philadelphia.

So let's stick with this. Now, don't misunderstand. When you go to the ancient ruins of Philadelphia, there are buildings, stone building and big buildings, because the city was originally founded on a grid. I mean, they laid out the city better than a lot of other cities.

I mean, the founders really took time to make it happen. But unfortunately, they didn't consider that these earthquakes are going to keep coming. They were like, yeah, let's build them really nice, and they'll be OK. No, earthquakes kept coming. So Strabo goes on to say that Philadelphia is ever subject to earthquakes.

Incidentally, the walls of the houses are cracked. Strabo goes on to say, and most of them spend their lives as farmers in the country, since they have a fertile soil. So because of the volcanoes, the earthquakes, the soil is so fertile, they don't want to leave. They love their city. They love their region. Just that they don't want to live inside of it.

Now I'm going to kind of pause there for a moment. I'm going to talk about earthquakes a little more, but isn't this like many people's Christian lives? It's great to follow Jesus. Man, the peace that he gives you and the riches we have in Christ. I mean, do you have his peace? I mean, do you experience his peace in your personal lives right now? Are you enjoying the riches that Christ has for you?

If we're really honest, it would be no. But yes, yes. I mean, I'm so grateful that God saved me. But so are you living in Christ? I mean, I guess.

Sometimes, you know, we all make mistakes. Does that sound familiar? Yeah. I'm set up like adjacent to Christ. Like I'm near Christ. I don't know that I'm living in Christ. Wow. So the earthquakes and how people in Philadelphia were living and behaving and thinking is very similar to how Christians, because of the earthquakes of life, the tremors of life, the aftershocks of life, we live near Christ. They don't want to get too close.

Yeah. They don't want to go in because it's too much. Too much struggles, too many problems.

Don't want to follow Jesus too much because it brings pain and suffering. It's kind of the similar, like how that constant sense of fear shapes who you are as a person. It shapes your identity. And you don't think that it does because the things that I'm afraid of are separate from me, but really they're not. Yeah.

And the way that you react to those fears or you avoid them kind of shapes the person that you become. Right. So I'll take advantage of the fertile soil, but I will not move into the city and enjoy the security or the safety or all the other activity of the city just can't because it's too dangerous. I'm going to enjoy the fertile soil. And by the way, the fertile soil was really good for vineyards. It's plenty of alcohol.

Oh yeah. Well, how else are you going to deal with all the earthquakes? These people, in fact, one of the emperors had to set a law to say, you cannot add any more vineyards.

Grow some crops. And then Strabo goes on to say, yet one may be surprised at the few that they are so fond of the place where their dwellings are so insecure. And one might marvel still more at those who founded the city.

And why did you guys even go for this place? Why do you even want to be saved when you're not really enjoying the blessings of being saved and yet you want to be a Philadelphian, but you're not going to live in Philadelphia? Right. I hope you guys will remember this because this really helps us understand the letter, the intent of Jesus in warning this church.

Yeah. How interesting that this is the picture that the church in Philadelphia gives. And one of the greatest commands in the Bible and one of the greatest markers for Christians is that we're supposed to love one another. That this is the city of brotherly love. And yet because of fear, the inhabitants of Philadelphia are moving away from it.

Yeah. And it also just, it makes me think of the fact that our faith is supposed to be an active thing that we grow in and that we dive into and we follow in obedience. Not that we charge ahead blindly, just doing what feels good, but that knowing the direction that Christ has set us on and we're hesitating. Like what was the one when they're skirting the mountain, the Israelites, they're not willing to move on at all. You circle this mountain long enough, go forth. This is in Deuteronomy because they had done this prior. And then I think a few years later or 40 years later, they did it again. They found another mountain and it kept circling it. And God had to tell them enough, go forward.

Yeah. So also in this church now, Jesus sees some problems and he begins a letter like he does every letter by giving his credentials and his credentials when it comes to the church in Philadelphia are these, these things says he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. So altogether about three different titles. The first one, the holy one. This is found many times in the old Testament, especially in Isaiah.

It's found about 25 times. Yeah. Isaiah. I think we were talking about this the other day on the way home from Bush gardens, that there's no messianic book like Isaiah other than the gospels. That's why it's called the fifth gospel.

You said it was called like the fifth gospel. I didn't know that. That's pretty cool. What I found interesting, if I can kind of go on a rabbit chase here, that Isaiah has some very stern words against the Jewish people, God's people.

Nonetheless, it was one of the favorite books. That is pretty crazy. I mean, if you read it and you go, oh my goodness, if somebody else said that it would have been very antisemitic. But God is the one who's just letting them have it for their disobedience, for their vagrancy and for their flip floppiness.

It's whooping time. Yeah. God is just letting them have it. At the same time, it is so full, so chunk full of messianic promises that the Jewish people love the book of Isaiah.

Wow. So it's like on one hand, you can feel God's discipline. On the other hand, you can also hear the promises that there's a better day coming. There's a day coming when all the promises made to Israel will be fulfilled. There's Isaiah.

There's a chapter in your book that kind of talks about that. And the book's not out yet, but it's talking about when Jesus stood up in the temple and he chose to read, and he chose to read specifically from Isaiah concerning who he is as the Messiah. I just thought about that as you were reading that, talking about Isaiah being the fifth gospel and how the Jewish people related and responded so deeply to that book. Yeah. And so Holy One, that title, found about 25 times in the book of Isaiah.

I'm going to give you just three. Isaiah 1.4, they have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel.

They have turned away backward. Isaiah 12.6, cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst. In your midst. So the Holy One is not God as a whole, but Jesus specifically. Well Jesus is applying it to himself and what he's saying here in his credentials and his opening words to the church in Philadelphia is that he is the God in Isaiah. So he's not some divine being, or he is not just someone who stepped on the stage of history and now he is starting off and we're making him God. No, he said, I am that God that 7, 800 years ago was prophesied through Isaiah. In Isaiah 30.15, for thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest, you shall be saved. And that's the title that Jesus invoked.

And so that's one. Then the second one is he who is true means trustworthy. So Jesus is the genuine, the real Messiah. He is the one they can trust.

The one that was promised. This Messiah was promised to you. You've trusted in it all this time. Now I'm here.

You can trust me. But now the third title in this credentials is the one that really applies when it comes to the whole earthquake background and what Jesus is really saying, which is one who has the key of David. Now, what does key imply? You can unlock it. Yeah. There's a lock that needs to be unlocked.

Right. And that there is a door. So he said, I have the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens. Again, it is coming out of Isaiah. Isaiah 22.22, which is? The key of the house of David, I will lay on his shoulder. So he shall open and no one shall set. It's almost the exact same thing. And he shall shut and no one shall open.

Now let me say this very quickly because our time is running away. This is not a little key that you and I carry, you know, a key to our house or cabinet or car, truck, whatever. This is a key big enough to be laid on your shoulder.

Wow. So in ancient times, keys were much more than just what opened a door. Keys were symbolic of authority. Keys were symbolic of power. And so here, what God is saying to the house of David is that I will take that key, which was given to Shebna. If you read the context in Isaiah, Shebna was a palace administrator for King Hezekiah of Judah. And he was building his own kingdom there, even to the point of building a tomb for himself among the kings of Israel.

I mean, this was a very arrogant man, kind of very presumptuous, like, Hey, yeah, I'm in, I'm in, I'm the one, I'm the guy. Yeah. I'm going to make it happen here. And I'm going to do build my kingdom while I'm at it. And God is like, no, I'm going to take the key away from you and give it to Eliakim, who's going to replace him. And he will have the key to David. So God sent word to him through Isaiah. That's right.

I got you. And he's applying it to himself to say, no longer is a key only in the hands of the people of God, that he is the one who has the key. It's access to God's kingdom.

Or is it represents God's access. Absolutely. Yeah. Wow.

So amazing. We're going to get into the actual problems that Philadelphia is experiencing on Monday's episode. So make sure you come back and listen to that. But if you guys enjoyed today's episode, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-58-25028. Or you can visit us online at cleareadtodayshow.com. You can partner with us financially at the bottom of that page.

Every gift that you give goes not only to building up this radio show, but countless other industries for the gospel of Jesus. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clearview Today. We'll see you next time.