Thursday, December 14th | What If Jesus Was Never Born

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Absolutely nothing less. It is Christmas after all. Be kind to your radio show hosts.

We're going to leave some links in the description of this podcast so you can do just that. Today's verse of the day is coming to us from Matthew 5-14. It says, You are the light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Lights are a big deal at Christmas. It's a big part of everything that is Christmas, whether you're decorating with candles, or whether you're decorating with LED bulbs, or whatever your configuration of light is. Light is a big deal at Christmas. One of our favorite things to do is drive around with the kids and go look at Christmas lights.

Oh, Ellie loves that. Just drive around and see the different decorations. We've got a lot of people on our street that decorate for Christmas, us included, of course. But just that illumination of light as you're driving down, the darkness isn't quite as dark. And that reminds me of this verse where we are called to be the light of the world, but that light doesn't originate in us.

We talked about this on yesterday's episode. The light does not originate from us, but we are opportunities for the light of God to shine into the world. And the more lights are shining, the darkness isn't quite as dark. And I think we talked about that even earlier this week. The impetus is still on us to be the light, not just to passively let Jesus' light shine, but to also strive to be that light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. I want to shout Jesus from the rooftops, you know what I'm saying? I want to shine his light as far as I possibly can. I don't want to just be like, Jesus, you just shine in me, and however bright it happens, then I'm going to be happy with that. It's like, whatever I can do to shine Jesus' light, God, give me the strength to do it. Give me the drive and the desire to do it in the first place. Talking about Christmas, I think it's one of those things where you were talking about, you and Elizabeth like to decorate the house.

And I don't consider myself a full-blown Grinch, but I would be completely, perfectly fine never putting up lights or decorating the tree or the house. Just let Ellie do it. But she wants that participation.

And now that I've got kids, I've been participating more and more and more and more. I didn't realize this. There are rules to the decorating.

Oh, absolutely. You don't just decorate how you want. You have to decorate it correctly. You have to decorate the way the Christmas matriarch or patriarch says you decorate. There is usually a Christmas captain in this.

Yes, the Christmas captain. And they will set the tone for what is acceptable and what is not acceptable as far as decorations. I was, let's say, harassed. Sure.

It's not the most pleasant word, but it's the word that is most accurate, for years. Get involved with the decorating. I want you to take part in the Christmas decorations. So now I've got kids who are old enough to see my example.

For the first two years of Gavin's life, he was like a little potato, so I was like, I'll just coast. Now I'm like, all right, he's watching me. I've got to get involved. My involvement was not what was ultimately wanted. It was my obedience and my energy to doing what I was told to do. You must adhere to the Christmas paradigm that is established by the Christmas captain. So you're the Christmas captain. I am the Christmas captain.

Okay. Now Elizabeth is not a Grinch. She will absolutely do whatever is needed to make the house beautiful and wonderful. But I'm usually, not usually, I am the one who is leading the charge for the Christmas decorating in the house.

What are some things that you see while decorating? Maybe we can turn this into some advice no one needs. Yeah, I would love to. In fact, you know what, I'm going to go ahead and give us a clean intro. Welcome to Advice No One Needed.

Welcome to the segment of our podcast where we give you advice that literally no one has asked for. This was not planned, but I think we're going to get some impromptu advice about Christmas decorating. I would love to give you some advice, specifically centering around trees. You know, trees are a big part of decorating for Christmas, and people usually default to one of two things. I can't really think of another option than these, but you either go the live tree route where you go and get a Christmas tree. Maybe you cut it down. Maybe you go to a Christmas tree farm where it's cut for you and you bring the live tree in, or you go the artificial tree route.

I'm not here to debate either one of those, both equally valid, wonderful, love that for you, whatever you want to do. We do a live tree, just because that's my personal preference, but nothing wrong with an artificial tree. Artificial trees, you typically will store in a compact container.

Like a bin. Yeah, a bag, a box, some sort of, nobody usually stores an artificial tree just out. Yeah. Which means you're going to have to do what's called fluffing the tree. So you've got to spread the branches to make it look like a real tree, even though it's not. Right. The problem I have with artificial trees is that it's almost always a painful process, because the pine needles that are not real will cut you. Right. I mean, if you stick your hand in there, start digging in there, it will cut you.

That's neither here nor there. Real trees have their own headaches with having to water them and make sure they stay alive. But here's my decorating hack. One is going to be for a live tree. One is going to be for an artificial tree. So I'm going to do live tree first, because that's what we do. Live trees are one of the most beautiful, but also most problematic things with decorating a live tree is that they are very dense.

That's true. You can't get into the tree. It is a tree.

Right. You can't get into the tree because it's so full, which is great, but it's going to make lighting the tree a little bit challenging. Here's what you do. When the tree is, especially when it's fresh, you can't do this if it's dried out at all.

It's got to be fresh. Put your lights on there right away. But here's how you're going to light it.

You're not going to wrap. Most people will wrap their lights going up the tree like this. If you do that, it's going to be superficial, and your light strands are going to be visible. What you want is you want lights to be in your tree, but you don't want to see the strands.

Here's how you do that. You light the tree vertically, and you grab the lights, wrap a bundle around your hand, and shove it into the tree. And then you go up to the next, wrap a bundle around your hand, and shove it into the tree. Where does the bundle go? Into the tree. The branches are pliable when it's fresh. It's a soft tree, so you just shove it into the tree. It will hang there, and you get this nice pocket of illumination without all the strands and stuff being visible.

Now, you will need a lot of lights in order to accomplish this. This is your Beethoven's 9th right now. This is your element. I am firmly in my bag. I don't even know what to say to begin to get to the bottom of that, so I'm just going to say thanks for the advice.

Sure, no problem. It's one of the things where if you're going to be passionate about something, be the best at it. And that's what you've chosen to do here today. Ho ho ho.

Do you think people are going to take this advice, or do you think we're going to keep having this Christmas tree struggle throughout the ages? I don't know. I think some people listening are probably like, oh, and that's about it. Yeah, that's about it.

It works for me. Yeah, hey, listen. Whatever. See, I literally, I didn't even put the tree up. Ellie did it. Really? Yeah, Ellie did it.

You guys have an artificial tree. Of course. Of course. Because all I want to do is set it up, plug it in, go get in the chair. I'm the type of person where I want the decorations to be done because I'm living for the moment where I sink into the chair, turn the fireplace on, and then we're good. And then hopefully someone else will organize the Christmas festivities for me. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's good when you have little children. Here's some other unsolicited advice. Go ahead and have some children, because when you have children, your family comes to you. Get you some children. But then your family comes to your house for Christmas. You ain't going nowhere. I got me a baby. Y'all come on to the house. From the moment I wake up, I'm staying in my PJs.

Y'all come into my house. That's my Christmas advice. That didn't seem to work for me. Yeah. Sorry about that.

Yeah. Sorry about that. Truly so sorry.

That's okay. I got a tree. Write in and let us know. If you try those hacks with your tree, let me know.

Jon may not care quite as much, but let me know. I want to know if the hacks worked for you. It worked for me. It works for you.

2-5-2-5-8-2-5-0-2-8. Or if you have Christmas decorating hacks of your own, let us know. I'm always looking for some tips and tricks to make my decorating process smoother. You know good and well past the shot, don't decorate the tree, right?

Nicole knows that. But Nicole and I have had, we've swapped tactics about decorating. I think he decorates.

I think he puts ornaments on the tree, but I don't know how much he's setting up and fluffing the tree. Nicole is the Christmas captain. 100%.

Absolutely. If you're the Christmas captain, let us know in your house. We're going to grab Dr. Shah for the rest of our show. So stay tuned.

We'll be back after this. Elizabeth, my darling bride, what would you say is the most beneficial thing you could do for yourself in the morning? Probably drink an entire pot of coffee when sitting.

I'd say that's a close second. The best thing you can do for yourself is to start every morning with a daily devotional. Only be the one to talk about. Well, as it turns out, we have two. Right now, you can unlock the power of daily inspiration, wisdom, and spiritual growth in our devotional series, 30 Days Through a Crisis and 30 Days to a New Beginning. Written by our pastor, Dr. Abaddon Shah, and his wife, Nicole, the 30 Days devotional series is designed to reveal new biblical truths every single day.

That's right. And every day is a new revelation to guide you on your Christian journey toward a more meaningful and purposeful life. You can pick up your copy today from our website.

That's ClearviewBC.org, or you can grab both books on Amazon, Apple Books, and Audible. That's 30 Days Through a Crisis and 30 Days to a New Beginning by Abaddon and Nicole Shah. And don't forget, these are only the first two in an expanding devotional series, so keep your eyes peeled for future installments. Thanks for listening.

Now, let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abaddon 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. We are here live in Clear View Today studio. We're not really live, but we're here. We are live. Yeah, we're alive.

We're live on location, but this is not a live. Alive. Alive.

In the Clear View Today studio with Dr. Abaddon Shah, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism. Dr. Shah, I need to know Christmas decorations. Now, your tree has been up since last Christmas. It's alive. It's alive. It's alive. It's alive. It's alive. It's alive. It's alive. It's alive. It's alive.

Some would say it's got a turn of life because it has been up since last Christmas. Nicole, I know your wife didn't take it down at all. No, she doesn't take it down anymore.

She just changes the lights on it. So she- Sure, that's a seasonal tree. You would say she's the de facto decorator of the tree? Yes. Okay.

Yes, always has been. Does she have a template or is she just like, I'm going to put up wherever it looks good? Like, put the tree anywhere? Or like, does she put decorations on the tree?

The method of decorating the tree. Because that can be, depending on who you are, that can be a very delicate procedure. I heard someone really gets particular about that. My man's got some, my man's got methods. Me. I'm talking about me.

My man's got templates. See like, some people want their kids to help them. Some people want their kids to leave and go away.

You don't have the kids' help? I didn't know that. The way that they help is very strategic. What do you mean is all? I mean that I decorate how I want it decorated and then the ones that don't matter, I go give them the ornaments. Also, let me just add that they have trees in their room that they can decorate however they want.

What? They have trees in their room? Yeah. I mean, they're just a little small. Like, they're about that tall. They're real narrow trees.

Small Christmas trees in your home? Absolutely I do. I didn't. Wow. He is the reverse Scrooge. A hundred percent. The inverse Scrooge. Yes.

I am anti-Scrooge. So, so I guess, I guess does Nicole have a method or is it just like, I'm just going to do whatever makes it look pretty? Um, she, she has, um, put some of the more recent ornaments towards the top and things like that, where you can really see them, um, and you know, things like, so she works on that. Like, like, but then there are times that she, she's put things like towards the window and I mean, honey, unless somebody climbs up on a step ladder, they're not going to see that ornament. Well, it's, it's okay. I was like, no, that ornaments is like a really cool ornament.

Let's put it up in the front, like bring it out towards the living room side of things. So that's what I was going to ask. Do you weigh in on it or are you just like, Hey, whatever looks good to you. A little bit.

I do weigh in. Yeah, I got you. And when growing up, our family was growing up, um, Nicole would get everything going.

I would put up a camera and we would record the entire putting up the tree, um, process and the kids would help out and I'd be in there. Nicole is one of those like, like she's looking for Christmas ornaments in the summer. So like we'll go on our staff retreats in May and they're already where we go.

Like Turkey, Greece, India, Israel, Egypt. I mean, she's looking for an ornament. Yeah. Like if I'm in Egypt, Christmas is the last thing on my mind, but she's like, Oh, I'm getting some, some Christmas. It depends on the person, but some people have a very like thematic tree. Like this is all red and white or this is all like, you know, rustic kind of burlap and twine. But some people have like almost like a scrapbook of their year or their, you know, years past of like different places you've been or different events like, um, that's how Nicole's tree is. That's how y'all's tree is. That's how our tree is as well.

It's just sort of like a snapshot of life. So if it doesn't fit the theme, it's not going on your tree. Like if your son comes up to you and it's like, this is my optimist prime, he's going on the tree. That's a great option for your tree. He puts it, he puts it like on the tree, going on your tree, take it off. If he puts it on the tree, you'll take it off. No, if he puts it on the tree, I'd be like, okay, well stay on the tree.

I'm not going to, I'm not going to be so, so callous as to be like, get that off my tree right now. What about Megatron? Megatron is not going on the tree. Optimus prime can Megatron.

He's got to go. Megatron is probably not even coming out of the box if I'm being honest with you. Okay. So decorating the Christmas tree for me is like, that is the thing that puts you in the Christmas spirit that puts you in the mindset. But another thing is shopping for people, shopping for those that you love. And as you are shopping, maybe we want to help you round out that Christmas shopping list. We are starting a brand new segment here on the show every every month. I think we did one already. Yeah. I think this is our second one.

Yeah. Every month we are going to have what is being read on Dr. Shaw's bookshelf. You know, it's not the name of the segment, but I don't think we have a cute name, but it's Dr. Shaw's book club. Here's the thing.

If Oprah can do it, if Reese Witherspoon can do it, we can do it. With books that make art. I hate to say it, but we have better books than they're picking.

That's exactly what I was going to say. If books that are going to enrich your life...Oprah ain't got a PhD, right? No. She ain't got a PhD. No. She's a successful woman. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. But her taste in books may not be, you know, everybody's cup of tea. But if you're listening to the Clearview Today show, more than likely Dr. Shaw's book club is for you. Now, this is not a service where you sign up to get the books. Maybe we'll work on that in the future. Please hold on because this just dropped into my noggin.

If Oprah's taste isn't your cup of tea, let me refer you to the PhD. Oh, my goodness gracious, dude. You're welcome. That's going on her shirt right now. That's going to be available on the Clearview Today store before this episode is even over.

All right. What is today's...What is this month's book, Dr. Shaw? This month's book, Since It's Christmas, I chose to bring up What If Jesus Had Never Been Born by D. James Kennedy. Oh, very nice.

Good question, too. So my introduction to Dr. D. James Kennedy came when I was in college. This is going back to 1992 in our evangelism class. And they had, you know, Dr. D. James Kennedy's gospel plan of salvation and evangelism explosion is what they used to call it, okay?

And I was like, wow, this is pretty good. I don't know who this guy D. James Kennedy is, but he's done a great job of laying it out how to share the gospel. Now, there is no perfect plan of salvation, folks, right? There's no...there is a plan of salvation, which is by grace through faith in Christ alone.

But what I'm saying is the presentation. There are a lot of different plans out there like faith and evangelism explosion like with D. James Kennedy and then several others, sharing Jesus without fear, those kind of... those are different, just kind of helping you share the gospel. But I really was just amazed by D. James Kennedy's plan, evangelism explosion, and then come to realize, oh, wow, wait, this is a very famous preacher, theologian, apologist, and pastor of a pretty large church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And that came about later on that I found out all those things. And so I began to read his books. And one of the books that I read was What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?

And this is after I entered the ministry. This book that he put together with Jerry Newcomb came out in 1994. And I must have read it sometime in like 97, 98, somewhere there. Wow. Yeah.

The revised edition came out in 2001. And it was awesome. Things that I always believed but never had enough proof to substantiate it.

But then reading this book, I mean, it did it for me. It's like Christianity's impact on the value of human life, Christianity's contribution to helping the poor. Now, growing up in India, you see lots of nonprofits, right? You see a lot of orphanages, women's shelters, homes for people suffering with leprosy, those kind of things. And it almost seems like, well, everybody's trying to help somebody. You know, Christians have their places and then the Hindus have theirs and Muslims have theirs.

But when you actually really do research, guess what you find? They are using the model set by Christians to do the same thing. We've done, I know we've done episodes on that in the past where we've looked at how Christianity has shaped Western culture to the point where it would be unrecognizable without Judeo-Christian values. Oh, yeah. That's right.

Yeah. Nonprofits is very much a Christian idea. It comes from Jesus's parable of the Good Samaritan. Why would somebody who, you know, they were sworn enemies would help somebody who was left for dead? And that sort of laid the foundation for a lot of these ministries through the ages, not just recently, but through the ages when there would be a pandemic or a epidemic, really, in a village or a town or some region.

While everybody was rushing out, Christians were rushing in to help the people. See, it's the misattribution, I think, to human goodness. People think, well, of course, people are always going to do that because humans are innately good. That's not the case.

Yeah. I mean, I can look at myself in the mirror, and that's proof enough for me, like humans are not naturally good. Well, the Bible shows us that over and over again. Because of our fallen nature, because of our inherited sin, we will choose sin every time.

Without that gospel, without the presence of God inside of us, we will choose wickedness. That's right. That's right. And those who do exhibit that without, like you said, Dr. Shutt, those who do exhibit that in the world without having the grace of God are only copying what they've seen work over here.

They're trying to create almost like a fake, like a facsimile of the real thing. Yeah. Kind of going off the subject here, but some years ago, I'm talking about 20 years ago, I saw this man on TV, and he was speaking. And he was Muslim.

He was an American Muslim. And he was talking about the relationship with God and how personal it is, how deep it is, and how he feels his presence, and I'm like, wow. Not that I'm changing my mind, but I'm like, that's pretty amazing that this man is saying a lot of things that we say today, like we have said. That's what I believe about my relationship with Jesus Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

That's right. And then I'm like, wait, let me do some research on this guy. Who is he?

Research. He was some Baptist pastor who renounced his faith and became Muslim. Wow. Wow.

Unreal. So what he was saying up there, he was not describing Allah. He was actually sharing Christian doctrines. I'm not sure where he stands with God and whether he's saved or not.

I mean, I don't know. But I'm like, that's not Islam. Yeah, as someone who grew up as the son of a Muslim convert, you know, because me, I would hear someone talking about that and I'm like, I have no frame of reference at all.

Well, that sounds kind of similar. Yeah, but you, having grown up, your father converted from Islam to Christianity. So you know instantly when you hear it, that's not what that is. That's not the same religion.

What is that from the Princess Bride? Yeah, you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

So it's like you're using those languages, but I don't think you know what they mean because they mean this. I wonder if that's what like non-Christians, when they hear Mormons talk, they're like, okay, yeah, that's Christianity. And the Christians are like, no, that's not true, that man does not speak for us. So going back to D. James Kennedy's book, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born, the next chapter is Christianity's contribution to education, then Christianity's impact on the founding of America, very powerful chapter, helped me a lot to direct my thinking. I won't say this book is comprehensive, neither did D. James Kennedy say that, but I think it, in a sense, sowed the seeds of who I am and why I believe what I believe.

The truth was there. So a lot of characteristics that today we know are because of Jesus Christ coming into the world, I think they were originally given to all peoples, but in time they lost them. All this about the value of human life was lost, helping the poor was lost, education, Christianity's impact on the founding of America, that's a different situation, but Christianity's contribution to civil liberties, Christianity's impact on science, on economics, on sex and family, on health and medicine, morality, arts and music, all these things I think originally were given by God to all people, but they began to lose it and the world went under the cover of darkness until Christ came and when the gospel began to spread again, when his disciples went everywhere, these things came back into culture.

And this is what this book is sort of about. We really see that, I think, in the differences between, I guess, Eastern and Western culture where Christianity really took off. I don't know, because when I think about the differences between East and West, I always think of Cold War era, but you having grown up in the 80s in the East and then coming to the West, do you still think that difference where there's not Judeo-Christian values here and there are Judeo-Christian values here, is the difference still pretty observable?

Oh yeah, yeah, I travel and I can see that. I can see cultures where Christianity is the foundation and cultures where it is not and there is a big difference, big difference. Christianity coming into this world, or Christ coming into this world, not only brought us salvation and the fulfillment of the promise that people were waiting on, but it radically changed our world. Now, of course, our world has problems, America has problems, but I think if we return to the truth, we will see that softness coming again in people, the care, the concern coming again, the love for our brethren comes back. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Right now, even in our nation, the love your neighbor as yourself is not where it needs to be.

That's right. It comes back and it comes back when we bring Christ back at the forefront of our culture. And D. James Kennedy, by the way, I'm just sharing a little bit about him. He was an amazing, amazing person, one of my heroes in the faith. Unfortunately, he died at the age of 76, this is back in 2007, and I was heartbroken when I heard that. I was like, oh, he died too soon. But he made a big difference with, of course, through his preaching, not shouting, screaming at all. I mean, even I am far more animated than he was.

Really? Oh, yeah. He would just stand behind a desk and he would wear his long robe. I mean, he was a Presbyterian, so he would stand behind there and he would just speak very carefully and simply and have depth to it and then call people to salvation and people get saved.

Wow. But he was an amazing preacher, though. Very good preacher.

And I still listen to him time to time, and I'm still amazed at how good he was at what he did. He's one of those examples of that different type of charisma, you know what I mean? Where you don't have to get up there and shout and scream and make a huge spectacle to get your point across, because what you're saying is so deep and so true. It's not even that it's in spite of itself, it's that that brings about a different type of charisma. And I think you capture that a lot, because you are animated, but it's not in a way that is distracting or gimmicky. You're animated in a way that I believe what I'm saying so much that this is what comes out. And that's why your preaching catches on so much, especially in our area.

As we are approaching Christmas, thinking in terms of what if Jesus had never been born, what are some ways that we can keep Christ in full view, both for ourselves and for other people around us this Christmas season? Yeah, everything by design. Don't just live your life. Don't just do things. When you get up in the morning, stop and think what this day is about. I do that.

In fact, I do that even before I go to bed at night. I will stop and I will think about, okay, today it has ended, tomorrow I have this, this and this. And then I'll go to my notes and see, okay, there's this, this and this that I have to accomplish along with what is on my calendar. But wait, how can I then let Christ shine through me?

How can I anticipate some of the troubles and trials and the unexpected that may run into me? Okay, I'm ready now. So I need to choose this course of action.

I mean, just the way when we travel, we have to plan, right? Okay, so, okay, it's going to get hot. Let me make sure I take some shirts that are nice and cool cottony. Oh, it's going to get cold. Let me take my heavy jacket. It's not cold right now, but it's going to get cold or it's going to rain.

Let me take an umbrella or whatever. So we plan. Why don't we plan our day? Why don't we plan the Christmas season? Let's think through every morning.

It takes maybe a minute max, if that. Today's this day. I have this, this and this, and I have to accomplish this, this and this. So this is where I'm going to think today. And the days I do it, it's a life lived on purpose for Christ. The days I don't, it gets chaotic. I've been there. You can feel that difference. Make that difference in your life this Christmas season.

Keep Christ as a focus and live on purpose every day. I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. Maybe you learned something. Write in and let us know. 252-582-5028. If you'd like to pick up a copy of What If Jesus Had Never Been Born, send us a message. We'll tell you where to pick up a copy of that book. Jon, what's coming up on tomorrow's episode? Tomorrow is an incredibly important episode, probably one in a million, and I'm not even joking. Tomorrow is a one in a million sort of episode. We've got an incredibly special guest coming. Make sure you tune in tomorrow on Clearview Today Show. You're not going to want to miss it. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today.