Monday, September 18th | Welcome Home!!

Hello, everyone. Today is Monday, September the 18th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. 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 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.

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We're going to leave a link in the description of this podcast so you can do just that. The version of the day today comes from 1 Kings 22, verse 5. Also, Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, please inquire for the word of the Lord today. Mm-hmm. Jehoshaphat is one of my favorite kind of obscure characters in the Bible because there's a lot of stuff that he does wrong, but there's also a lot of stuff that he really gets right. I think this is one of them. He understands, even in the face of crisis, there's a story in 2 Chronicles where these three armies are marching against Israel, and he understands right then and there, like, I need to go to the Lord.

I cannot do this on my own. I love that. Please inquire for the word of the Lord today. It's a good reminder for us that we need to constantly be pursuing God and pursuing His will. A lot of times, our temptation is to do things in our own power or in our own strength, because I feel like for us as men, we want to be in the driver's seat.

We want to be the one in control. Oftentimes, that's when things start to spiral out of control, because we're not equipped to deal with what's in front of us. We have this misconception of, you know, God will give you more than you can handle, but that's not anywhere in the Bible. In fact, the opposite is true. God will give you more than you can handle to remind you to rely on Him, to remind you to trust in Him.

That's right. Why do you think we give you a verse every single day so that you're inquiring for the word of the Lord? Whether you want it or not, you are getting a daily dose of God's word.

That's the way it's designed to be. You're back, by the way. I am! Yay!

I didn't even say you're back. How was Greece, girl? Oh, my goodness. How was it, girl? How was it?

And you're up. It was amazing. It was incredible. Just walking around and seeing these ancient sites. We took a trip, Dr. Shaw, myself, and several others from here, from the team, David and Nick included. We took a trip to Greece and followed Paul's first missionary journey. Second missionary journey. Second missionary journey. Yes. So, we went to places first through Greece, is what I meant.

Right, right, right. So, we went to places like Philippi. We went to places like Corinth. We went to places like Thessalonica. It was just unbelievable to walk in the steps of Paul and to see those places.

It just bolstered your faith and made you feel like the Bible was alive. Did you see my family over there? I did!

Like, diving for sponges and stuff. I did ask everyone. I was like, do you know anybody named Galantin? There's none left over there.

No. But we did ask our... Isn't that the annoying guy on that radio show with the glasses? I've heard of him on Clearview today.

He doesn't like yummy for some reason. We did ask our guide over there. I texted you and said, hey, what island was your granddad from? So, we gave her the name of the island, and she said, oh, yeah, I know that island very well.

They're famous for their sponge diving. That's what my grandfather did. Which is crazy. She knew that off the cuff. Dr. Shaw showed her a picture of you, and she was like, yep, he's definitely Greek. You know what's funny? He did that the last time he went in 2017, but then he showed him a picture of my dad, who's more Greek than me, and she was like, him I don't know about. But that one, definitely. That's the one. It skipped a generation, I guess.

It was real intense Greek genes. What was your favorite aha moment? When you're like, this is why I came here.

Gosh, that's tough. There are so many that I feel like were profoundly impactful. Honestly, the further I'm getting from the trip and looking back over pictures, I bought a bunch of books and guides and stuff to help jog my memory.

I feel like it's coming back in waves. But I think the biggest aha moment for me was Mars Hill. I was standing on top of Mars Hill, looking up and seeing the Acropolis and the Parthenon, and knowing that this is where Paul, in Acts 17, gives this famous Men of Athens address. Knowing that we were standing in the same spot, although tons of time had passed, knowing that we were standing in the footsteps of Paul.

That, for me, was probably the highlight. It's crazy to think about how much time has passed. Even in Paul's day, Athens was not what it once was in antiquity. So I think him going there and seeing all this stuff, what it's devolved into.

His heart was troubled for it, I can imagine. Then standing there 2,000 years later and looking around at the lostness and the depravity, I was like, man, it's like not much has changed. You can almost put yourself in Paul's footsteps and feel burdened for the people who were there. And one of the most profound things that struck me as we were walking around is that gods and goddesses and mythology were very much an integral part of Greek culture.

But they still are, although not in the way that they were. So you were walking past souvenir shops and you would see they had a depiction of Zeus in a business suit. Or Athena, who was a businesswoman behind a desk. So it was this marble statue head, but she was wearing modern clothes.

There was little artwork here and there. But I was like, man, these are so infused into culture that I don't know that people are actively going to temples anymore. But they're still very much a part of Greek culture. So that lostness that Paul experienced is still very much there. I think that a lot, especially about our own modern myths. So what I mean by that is there are characters that are so infused into our cultural fiber that thousands of years from now if Christ doesn't return, future civilizations will look back and be like, they worshiped this mouse.

And he had a duck friend. It's insane, because we have way more fictional characters even now all through these ages. But man, it's funny how civilizations work. I wish I could have gone. I'm looking forward to the day when I can travel again apart from having small kids.

Yeah. So this was the first trip that Elizabeth and I have taken like this. I mean, we went on mission trips in college to Guatemala and stuff before we had kids. But since the kids were born, other than going away for a week for a commission trip here at church, we'd never gone on a trip like this. So to be able to go and share that with her and have that time, I mean, it was unbelievable. And to bring it back and show our kids, like, hey, the stuff that you read about in the Bible, mom and dad were there.

And to help them grow their faith. And you know, Dr. Shaw recorded videos. I was recording videos for the students here to be able to bring that back and sort of like, this is what we experienced.

This is why it matters to your faith. Well, that's awesome. I'm glad you're back.

Yes. We're glad to be back. I was kind of worried about the intro today, but you know, you just kind of fall into muscle memory.

It's like riding a bike. So we're going to grab Dr. Shaw. We're going to continue our conversation, talk more about Greece and things that we learned. If you guys enjoyed today's topic, or you'd like to learn more about Greece or travel or what that looks like, send us a text at 252-582-5028. Or you can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com.

We'll be right back. Well, good morning, afternoon, evening Clear View Today listeners. My name is Jon. And I'm David. And we just want to take a quick second and let you know about another way that you can keep in touch with Dr. Shaw's work.

And that is his weekly podcast series, Sermons, by Abbadon Shaw, Ph.D. As a lot of you may know, or maybe some of you don't know. If you don't know, you do now. And if you don't know, then maybe just hop off the podcast. David, hop off the podcast. I'm just playing.

I'm just playing. Keep listening. Dr. Shaw is actually the lead pastor of Clear View Church in North Carolina. Every single weekend, he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live God-honoring lives. Well, one of the four core values of Clear View Church is that we're a Bible-believing church. So every sermon is coming directly from scripture, which is great because that guarantees that there are timeless truths that are constantly applicable to our lives. This is a great resource because whether you're driving, whether you're cleaning the house, whether you're working out, you can always benefit from hearing the Word of God spoken into your life. And God's Word is always going to do something new for you every time you hear it.

Sometimes it's conviction and sometimes it's encouragement. But know that every time you listen to God's Word, you're inviting the Holy Spirit to move and work in your life. You guys can check out the Sermons by Abbadon Shaw, Ph.D. podcast. First and foremost, check it out on our church app. That's the Clear View app. You can get that in the Google Play Store. You can get that on iTunes. But you can also find the podcast on the Apple Podcast app or on our website at ClearViewBC.org. And listen, if you've got a little extra time on your hands, you just want to do some further reading, you can also read the transcripts of those sermons.

Those are available on Dr. Shaw's website, AbbadonShaw.com. And we're going to leave you guys a little link in the description so you can follow it. But for right now, David, let's hop back in.

All right. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, 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. If today's your first time ever joining us here on the Clear View Today Show, we want to welcome you, let you know exactly who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadon Shaw is a Ph.D. 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 AbbadonShaw.com. And let me be the first to say welcome back. Absolutely. It's good to be back home.

Yes, it is. We had the best time for the past 10 days. Ryan was there and so were Nicholas and David in the back. Of course, Elizabeth, your wife went as well. I know she had a great time. And it was not just a tour. This was a time of learning. This was a time of filming as well. We filmed.

I did. And then Ryan did as well on different topics. Mine was more to the congregation for Bible studies and things like that.

Ryan's was, of course, for Bible studies, but more geared towards student ministry and how Paul's journey and Paul's life made an impact on Christians and how his life can still make an impact on students. Right. So you were focused on that as well. So very, very productive time. And I'm so grateful you guys were there. Yes.

Oh, man. It was breathtaking to go around. And of course, Greece is a beautiful country anyway. You have these rich blues from the sky, from the sea, and just kind of seeing the different landscapes and seeing the different cities. And as we were going through, we spent time in various places. Some places we were there for three nights. Other times we were only there for one night. But traveling around to these different places and seeing how Christianity came to Greece and how God used Paul to transform the landscape was just, it makes Scripture come to life. I think one of the things that people tend to forget is that you can hop on a plane and go somewhere, but in order to do what we're doing, you really have to have a contact who's overseas that you've spent time fostering a relationship.

Absolutely. Everywhere I go, I'm looking to build relationships. And not just relationships that I can take advantage of them and say, hey, can I get you as my guide next time? But not relationships that would benefit them, and then relationships that would benefit us. I want to benefit them.

I want to be the best possible connection for them for a steady stream of visitors. What was it like when you landed in Thessalonica or Thessaloniki? Yeah. What was that like when you saw it for the first time? Man, I mean, I have a recording of it on my phone, just the plane touching down, and just this feeling of anticipation, this excitement landing on the ground. You have in your mind what's laid out ahead of you. You have the itinerary in front of you. You know, we're going to this city, and we're visiting this, and we're seeing this. But there's nothing that can prepare you for actually walking in those steps and being in those places and just growing and learning. I mean, I've learned so much. I would get back to the room at night, and we'd back up all the footage and pictures and everything.

But we would also just talk and write things down and look through notes. I feel like there's so much that we're still processing and still absorbing from the trip. It's interesting to see, I think, how Paul is going through this journey. You guys didn't travel to his places in his chronology.

You kind of went. So piecemealing it together, this thing that we're filming, coming out of it, like Thessalonica, what are some of the things that really stood out to you most of all in that city? Because I know that's where you visited out the Alexander the Great statue.

Yeah, right on the seacoast. So Thessalonica, I've been there several times now. It's a very old city. I mean, this is going back to the time of, I would say, even pre-Alexander the Great. I mean, you're going into the 6th, 7th, 8th century. And then in time, Philip of Macedon had this city who was Alexander the Great's father. So there's a lot of history behind it.

And so going through the city, sometimes you just have to pinch yourself and go, this place is not just from the time of Paul. This place goes back to the time beyond, name the people like Homer. This is going back to 7th, 8th century BC. 7,800 years before Christ. 7,800 years ago, all right, just think for a moment, America has not even been found.

No, not even a thought in everyone's mind. Yeah, we're in the medieval time. We're coming out of the Norman Conquest.

This is a whole different world. So that's a long time that this city was standing there already. That's incredible. And I saw some shots of you specifically talking to the camera in front of the Alexander the Great statue, but then I saw an underneath shot, like a worm's eye view of you standing and you're in the immediate foreground, but then you see this massive statue of Alexander on the horse. And I was like, holy cow, that looks incredible. It's a tremendous monument. I mean, it's just breathtaking to behold.

And just to think about, you know, you can almost look. And the thing that struck me, I think the most was to see that there's a modern element to the city, too. I mean, they have very updated things, and you're walking around the city, but like you said, Dr. Travis, it is a very old city. So you kind of look through and you see, like, oh, there's some ruins there. Oh, here's a really old cathedral and a really old basilica. And just see those things side by side. I mean, just the modern and the ancient kind of next to each other. If you squint your eyes a little bit, you can be like, I feel like Alexander could just kind of come strolling down the street right there. Or, you know, Philip of Macedon rides in, or like Paul walking through the streets. You have this sense of history almost playing itself out in front of you. I know in 2017, you were up on the, because the Agora is down in this pit.

But this year, did you get to go down in it? No. Unfortunately, things move slowly in Greece. Really? Yeah, they do.

So back in 2017, it was the same thing. Can't go down there because we're still working. They're like, oh, okay. All right. This time I was like, oh yeah, we get to go. Can't go down there because it's still working. Wow. Still in progress. I didn't know.

Yeah. But the museum was sort of open because I saw some couples going in there and so I was like, oh, it's open. Let's go there.

But we didn't have time, but I would have loved to have gone into the museum. But it's, it's, but the ancient side of Thessaloniki is not very big. I would say maybe two football fields, right? Would you agree with that?

Yeah, not very big at all. So you're in the football fields and you're basically walking on the outside of balcony type thing. And so you're looking down into this Agora. And the most important thing for me is the Bema.

The Bema that is on, if you're coming from the, I guess the south side of the city, I guess, there's a Bema in the middle of the Agora. And more than likely Paul walked up that Bema and spoke. Because if he's talking in the marketplace, just like Hyde Park in London where they have the speaker's corner. Like if you want to have something to say, you can get up there and speak. This is a freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want to and that's your time. And so the Bema is that place where people could walk up and speak.

That's incredible. We're getting this idea of freedom of speech from there. Yeah. You have this platform.

You've been given this platform, use it because you have a limited time and then you have to get off. And that Bema up there is more than likely. And it's still standing there. Same thing in other places like Varia and Philippi Church. The Basilica A had the Bema as well. Wow.

Yeah. We saw the Bema in Corinth. And to know these are the steps that Paul took. It's not just like you're looking at it through a picture or you're looking at these kind of stones that are in a museum. I mean, just to see it and to be able to walk in some places, to be able to walk up those steps, it does a profound thing for your faith.

To read those things on the page in scripture and then to be in those places, I mean, words can't describe it. Was Thessalonica the place where they were staying with Jason? Yes. Okay.

Okay. I thought... In fact, we were able to go by...

I'm trying to pull up the itinerary over here. We were able to go by the church, which is considered to be the place where Jason was. Wow.

Yeah. And there's, of course, a Byzantine chapel there now. But on the side of the chapel, inside the chapel, but it's still like the right-hand side, there's a little, tiny, little sanctuary. Very tiny. When I say tiny, I mean, you're talking about no more than maybe five by five. It's very small.

Very small. But that's where you find the original floor of Jason's house. Really? It's still intact.

It's still the original floor. Wow. And so that is the floor on which more than likely Paul stood. Had to.

I mean, he was staying in their home. Yeah. Yeah.

He would have absolutely walked across it from Thessalonica. So you guys landed in Thessalonica. Yes. And then after that went to Philippi?

Yes. Our next visit was... We kind of drove around Thessalonica for a little bit and it was daylight. So she showed us parts of the town, right? And just kind of gave us an idea of how things are here. And then from there, we went to our hotel and all those things. And the hotel was phenomenal. It was. Oh, man.

Like a horseshoe shape. What do you think, Dave? The hotel was... I was like blown away at like the quality of the hotel. And then I know this is going to sound weird.

I don't even... I might have to take this out on air, but my favorite part was the shower. At the hotel? At the hotel?

At Electro Palace? It was a very nice shower. What was it like? It was just like...

The doors close and then it's like a waterfall from the ceiling. Really? Yeah.

One of those rain showers. Oh, wow. It was great. It was great.

We didn't have that. Oh. You just had it in your...

I did. It was nice. It was so nice. The thing for me is that every hotel, there's the view for breakfast. I mean, you go to a continental breakfast and I'm in Holiday Inn and Sweets or something and it's okay, whatever. But you go up on the rooftop. It's a rooftop restaurant. And you look out and you see these mountains and you see... I mean, in Thessaloniki, we saw just the bay right there looking out over the water.

In Athens, we would look out and we could see the Parthenon over in the distance. I'm like, what is life right now? What's happening? You said the hotel was like a horseshoe? Well, it's sitting in like a horseshoe formation looking towards the bay. Wow.

All right. So here's Electra Palace. Here is Hotel Olympian, I think it is. So it's like this. And there's a huge square that is open in the middle. And this is a happening place. So at night you have so many people. I won't say it's like jam packed or anything. There's a lot of people who are just hanging out there eating, kids, teenagers, walking around the shops open, fast food, this and that.

So that's the place where all that happens. And so we really enjoyed staying there. And they had ice cream shops right next to us. Wow.

We were able to go in. Get you some ice cream. Ice cream. At the end of a hard day of filming, stop and get you some ice cream. What is the ice cream like in Greece? So they have the traditional flavors that you would think of, but they also have stuff that's just, I mean, you wouldn't even conceive of it as a flavor. Like they had tiramisu ice cream, they had fig ice cream that we had in one restaurant that was so good. Manuel's of course was my favorite. Dr. Sean and I got the fig and it had like fresh figs in it. That's pretty awesome.

So good. So tell me about Philippi after you leave Thessaloniki. Well, not leave Thessaloniki, but you go to Philippi early on in the trip. What was that like seeing? Cause I know that's like the agora.

You can like walk around and touch stuff and actually walk those streets that Paul walked. For me, it was the second time again. I've been there before, so I knew what to expect. So I was sort of ready when we got there.

We had a little issue with the tickets or our tour guide did. And so she, she was, she's a phenomenal person. I mean, I have really come to admire her. She's a Christian and a phenomenal person. Her knowledge of Greek mythology, Greek history, biblical accounts is just amazing. How much she knows and how much she weaves those things in and out of stories of experiences and accurate. So I didn't know everything about all that she was saying, but the things I did know she was dead on dates, times, people's names. I'm like, how do you remember all those names? And they're not like easy names.

Pericles, Andronicus, forget about the Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Alexander, Lysimachus, Cassander. I mean all these, I know those names, but how do you remember the names that you read them in some history book or heard them in some lecture, but how do you, so she's like phenomenal. But anyways, we got to this site and temporarily she was busy trying to figure out why this ticket is, is not showing up in their system and blah, blah, blah. So she's over there doing that. So I already knew. So we made our way in and began at the theater. And this theater, for those of you who've been to Philippi, you know what I'm talking about? If you don't, this theater was in the process of being built when Paul got there. And more than likely Paul did not go in the theater because Paul arrived there in the winter time and theaters were not open in the winter. But just to know that Paul walked by the theater.

Yeah, that's incredible. That this is a structure that Paul would have looked on. He would have seen it. Even if he didn't go there, he would have been seeing, it's kind of, it's kind of cool. Like Paul saw what I'm seeing and I saw what he's, I'm seeing now what he saw.

Yes. The theater, the theater was really cool because there's, there's, there's ruins and there's rubble and there's the kind of columns over here and there. But the theater is largely, I mean, most of it is intact. So you walk in and you can sit in the seats and you can look down and you see the, the area where the actors would have been and you, and you look down and, and our tour guide actually like reenacted a small little Greek tale for us while we were there. So just kind of sitting there and knowing that, you know, people were here many, many, many years ago.

It connects you with history. For me, just kind of walking in and seeing, I didn't know, this is my first time to go to Greece. I didn't know what to expect. But just to kind of walk in and just see everything so accessible. I kind of expected, you know, we can walk through, but everything's gonna be roped off and you can look at it, but you can't like walk through it. No, we're walking on these steps. You're walking on those, on the actual slabs. You're sitting on the actual seat. You're touching ancient carvings, you know, not someplace you're not supposed to touch other places. I mean, you cannot help but touch them. It's just there.

Okay. And they're letters on them. And these are ancient inscriptions going back, not just a hundred, 200 years, 2000 plus years.

History, history becomes much smaller when you hear that. And then you go around the corner and there's a baptistery. You remember that baptistery David? The baptistery was actually pretty cool because it's like you look in and it's the tiles that were there. Like it wasn't like, this is, this thing is like, this could have possibly been there.

It's like, no, these are tiles. And she explained each color, like this is actually from this place and this is from this place. And they added it all together. And I think either the baptistery or the bimah were just my favorite just to see, to see you standing on the bimah or to standing like next to the baptistery.

And when you come out of that, that baptistery you go down the North of the Basilica A and then you turn to the left and go to the place, which is considered to be the place where the jail was. And we were able to stand there and look at it. Yep.

You can look into it. There's a, there's a cell there. I mean, you just look in and you can almost picture Paul and Silas there in jail, in chains. And you know, that was, that was pretty profound for me was looking at the jail. Yeah.

Yes. So we came out of there and immediately went to the site where the baptism took place. Now keep in mind, there's a chapel there. There's a Basilica there, not a Basilica, there's a chapel built in the fashion of a Basilica where today people can go and have baptisms and there was one wedding there, I think as well. So this goes on there and it is very near to the actual Basilica that was built on the site of the baptism, where Lydia's baptism took place.

So when they were building the parking lot for this Basilica that today is used for baptisms and all that, they actually found the ruins of the ancient Basilica. Really? Yeah. Wow. So I guess they halted production on the parking lot?

Oh yeah, of course. And this Basilica, this Basilica is very interesting because the stones in them, y'all remember what they were? They were sarcophagus.

They were gravestones that came from a local graveyard. They were brought to, initially to the battle of Philippi between Marc Anthony and Octavian on one side and Cassius and Brutus on the other side. Cassius and Brutus had murdered Julius Caesar.

So there was a big battle, a war I guess, between Marc Anthony and Octavian and Cassius and Brutus. And so they came, they chose the battleground of Philippi to wage that battle, but it was real muddy and slimy there. So they took all these gravestones so they can make a path to get to each other's armies.

Huh. And so they found those gravestones. Well, after the battle was done, which is, you know, about a hundred years prior to Paul's coming there, then they took those gravestones and used them in building this Basilica where Lydia's baptism took place several hundred years later.

So these, these great, how did we know that there was a great show? Because those are the same gravestones that were taken to the battle of Philippi, which is not very far from there. And then later on reused in this Basilica.

But going back to Lydia's baptism, it was awesome to go by the Orentus River or Zygactics River and just dip my hand in there and pick up some of that water. I knew the water had changed, of course, we know that, but just to be able to do that and know that this is the place that the first convert on the European side was made. The first European Christian. I wouldn't say the first European because she was not a European. She was from Tyre.

But the first convert on European soil was made. Wow. Well, I could keep talking about Greece for the next few days. I know we're out of time on today's episode, but we're going to have to really rush to the next episode. We're going to communicate everything that we got to see and experience. But if you guys enjoyed today's topic, if you have questions about Greece or what it would look like for you to maybe check it out one day, maybe some sites to visit, let us know by sending us a text at 252-582-5028. Or, you can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. And don't forget that you can partner with us financially on that same website. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today.