Monday, January 15th | MLK Day

This episode of Clearview today is brought to you by Mighty Muscadine. Ryan, are you looking to boost your immune system? I'm so ill that I fainted right before we turn the show on.

I hate to hear it, but I do think I have a solution. Introducing Mighty Muscadine, king of the super fruits. Sounds like a superhero. Well, these guys are practically superheroes. Every single one of their products are packed with organic polyphenol content, essential micronutrients, and I'm telling you, these grapes are just dripping with antioxidants designed to strengthen your body's defenses.

It's going to help you stay resilient all year round. And these guys have everything. They have grape juice. They have all natural energy shots, protein powders. They've got seed oil, toothpaste, body lotion, shampoo.

And here's the best part. You can use promo code TODAY, that's T-O-D-A-Y, to unlock exclusive savings at checkout. Again, use promo code T-O-D-A-Y at checkout to enjoy a significant discount on your purchase of Mighty Muscadine products. And every single dollar you spend using that promo code helps us here at the Clearview Today Show. So don't miss this opportunity to supercharge your health and well-being with the incredible power of Mighty Muscadine. Visit their website now, that's MightyMuscadine.com, and experience the difference firsthand. Remember, that's promo code T-O-D-A-Y.

A healthier, happier you is just a click away. That said, let's start the show. You guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show. You can share it online with your friends and your family. You can leave us a good five-star review on iTunes or Spotify.

Absolutely nothing less than five stars, mind you. We're going to leave a couple of links in the description so you can do just that. The verse of the day today comes from Proverbs chapter 1, verse 10. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Bro, easy. Easy, right? Easy advice, easy to follow.

Not true at all. Because that's the thing about sin, man. It is so enticing.

It looks so good. Yeah, sin wouldn't be effective if it wasn't tempting. Yeah, if it was like the black, oozing, ugly, like Spider-Man symbiote sludge that we know it actually is. If that's how it looked, I just wouldn't go near it.

I would never go near it at all, but it looks so good. The simplicity of Solomon's advice to his son, and then by extension God's advice to us, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Just watch, take inventory of where you are, who you're around, what you're doing. If what you are doing could be interpreted as sin, don't do it.

It reminds me of Ross from Friends. It's like, I was tricked into all those things. The advice is don't let them trick you. The advice is don't consent. Don't go along with it. Because ultimately that choice does belong to you.

You are the one who has agency over your sin. That's right. You know, 2024, going pretty well. We're in the third week of 2024.

We are. I was talking with David earlier about our, not our demographics, but what do you call our analytics? Listenership. Yeah, listenership. And did you know we're in the top 50% of podcasts on all of Buzzfeed? Really? That's Buzzfeed, Buzzsprout.

Buzzfeed, wait a minute, what? Yeah, we got a top 10 list on how to be the top 50 pod. No, we're in the top 50% of all podcasts. That's awesome.

We are live. I did not know this. We are in 25 countries. Are you serious? That's dead serious.

I can see if David will pull them up later, but we are in 25 different countries. That's insane. I had no idea. Because here's the thing, we're syndicated on the East Coast.

Right. But the podcast is going way further than I thought. Yeah, I love that. Hey, if you're listening from another country, number one, thank you for listening to our show. Number two, write in and let us know where you're listening from.

That's awesome. So, being in North Carolina, it makes sense that our reach goes to North Carolina first and foremost. You want to know what our... David actually showed me this earlier. You want to know what our fourth most listened to city is? Our fourth most listened to, what is it? It's Anaconda, Montana.

Huh? It's Anaconda, Montana. Anaconda, Montana.

What is that? What is Anaconda, Montana? That's the most awesome name for a town I've ever heard. Anaconda, Montana. That's a cool name for a town. We're running short on time for the intro, so let's go to a break and get Dr. Shaw in here, but Anaconda, Montana is our fourth most listened to city. There must be some sort of revival, some Clearview Today revival going on in Anaconda, Montana.

It's a tongue twister. Hey, if you're listening from Anaconda, Montana, thank you. Write in and let us know. We're going to grab Dr. Shaw. I can't wait to share that with him.

That's awesome. It's going to be fun. Write in and let us know.

Or you can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. Stay tuned. We'll be right back.

You can worship God in any situation. In the car, at home, in the gym, while cleaning your house, wherever you are, we'll be right there with you. You can check us out on Apple Music or on Spotify, anywhere digital music is consumed. We've got a few singles out right now. We have an EP out as well, and right now, at this moment actually, we are working on our first ever full length original album.

Hopefully that's going to be out sometime this coming summer. Clearview Worship on iTunes and Spotify is your 24-7 place for inspiration and worship. Follow us today and let God's message of hope, love, and faith be a guiding light in your life.

Amen. Let's hop back into the show. Welcome back to Clearview 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, 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 today on this beautiful Monday morning in the Clearview Today studio with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's Clearview Today episode. Dr. Shaw, people are loving the show, my friend. People are really responding.

Well, that's awesome to hear that. I wanted to, we usually, well, we haven't done this in a little while, but I wanted to read some fan mail that we got today. Fan mail. Someone texted me really on Facebook. I think they were trying to go to the Clearview Today Facebook. They ended up on my personal Facebook, but it was still good to hear. This is Jay from North Carolina.

Okay. Said, so good to find Clearview Today online. You are one of my favorite podcasts on the Truth Network. I quickly shared your podcast on our men's Bible study, which is called Wednesday in the Word. One of our hosts is actually, get ready for this, Mr. Stu Epperson.

And you knew that it was. One of our hosts is actually Stu Epperson. I reached out to Pastor Shaw and he is a member as well.

I hope to see you and Ryan there as well. Jay from North Carolina. That's awesome to hear that. Thank you, Jay. That's awesome to hear that.

Very cool. Thank you, Jay. It's always so encouraging because, you know, we sit on this side of the cameras and we talk and we hear from people that are local who say, man, we love the show, love that episode. But it's nice to, you know, get those reports and get those stats from places beyond where we are. So we're syndicated through the Truth Network. For anyone who's listening to the podcast, we're first and foremost, we're a radio show.

Right. We're syndicated all across the East Coast through the Truth Network. But the podcast goes a lot further.

And we were talking about it this morning, Dr. Shaw, the top five most listened to areas of the United States. David, do you want to read them? Because I was not expecting one of them. Yes. Some of them you would expect.

And then others are maybe a surprise. Sure. All right. Are you ready? I'm ready.

Yes, we're ready. Number one, our very own Henderson, North Carolina. Yay. Makes sense. All right.

Number two, Charlotte, North Carolina. Okay. Okay.

All right. Big market there. Number three. News market.

Number three, Oxford, North Carolina. Okay. Okay. Yep. That's a neighboring town for those who may not know.

All this is in North Carolina. Sure. Number five. I'm going to skip number four. Oh, okay. Number four.

Wake Forest, North Carolina. Okay. Makes sense. Sure. Yeah. Pretty nearby. Lots of Christian.

And these are all sort of like Christian, like the seminaries in Wake Forest. So this all sounds great. Sure.

Number four. Uh-huh. After Oxford. But before Wake Forest.

But before Wake Forest. Right. Anaconda, Montana. Wow. I love it. I love it.

We have more listeners in Anaconda, Montana than in Wake Forest, which is 45 minutes away. That is awesome. So whoever you are, we're so glad that you're listening to our show, watching our show maybe on YouTube.

I don't know. But thank you for doing that. That's awesome. Shout out to Anaconda, Montana. Shout out to our Clearview Today Show family in Anaconda, Montana. I'm so happy. We love you guys. And that's like a lot. That's nothing to sneeze at either. That's a lot of listeners.

Yeah. What I want to know is if you guys would write into the show, 252-582-5028, how on earth did you come across the Clearview Today show? And how did you share it to be in such large numbers?

Please write in because I'm dying to know how that happened. Additionally, if you would like to send us any merch from Anaconda, Montana, we may just wear it on the show. I'll wear it on the show. I will put it on the set. I will do the show live from Anaconda, Montana.

That's really fun. I just like to say Anaconda, Montana. Wake Forest is like 25 minutes, 30 minutes away.

Anaconda, Montana is 34 hours away. Yeah. For this episode, for those of us here in the U.S., today is Martin Luther King Day. That felt weird to say for those of us in the U.S. because we have listeners who are not in the U.S. Yeah. But today is Martin Luther King Day. We're honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And the progress that was made in our nation, we enjoy a nation that is focused on equality and on making sure that people have the rights and privileges that are due them, but it wasn't always that way. And we recognize that there's a lot that has gone into getting us to where we are today. As an immigrant coming to this country, I am amazed at how wonderful this place is. And sometimes people here take it for granted. They don't realize that the freedoms we have, the opportunities we have in this nation are not available in other places.

Even in Europe, Europe is advanced, we know that. But the opportunities we have here that any person can be successful if they try, if they work hard, they work smart, do what needs to be done to get their education or to capture opportunities or to be an entrepreneurial person, the sky's the limit. Now, I know there are still hardships and we can talk about that today.

But overall, there are so many people all over the world who do not have the basic freedoms that we have in this nation, that do not have it. Growing up in India, my growing up years in India were wonderful, I can't complain. It was great. I had good friends, good neighborhood, the church. We faced persecution time to time, but overall it was great. But nothing like here. Nothing like how my children are growing up or have grown up here in America. Over there, there was a sense of despair that you will never get beyond a certain place. Wow. Was that thought or was that just kind of understood?

That was understood. A certain station in life you will never move past because you're born that way. Because you are born in a caste or you're born in that part of the country or those tribal villages, that's as far as it's going to go for you. Or if you were born in a higher caste because of certain systems that you will not be able to move forward. It was not unusual back in the 80s, and I believe it was in the mid-80s, where students were burning themselves, setting themselves on fire, killing themselves because they were from the higher caste and the system was sort of rigged against them. So both ways, there was a lack of opportunities for the higher caste and the lower caste.

I was just going to say, that's surprising to hear. You think about the caste system and you think about those from maybe a lower caste who are sort of despairing that they can't have greater opportunities for them or for their kids. But that surprises me to hear those born in a higher caste because of the lack of opportunity. There was also the reverse prejudice that happened.

And so that wasn't good either. If you really need to judge a person, you have to judge them by their conscience. And Dr. King, we're going to talk about that, talked about not the color of my skin, but the content of my character. Over there, it may not be the color of the skin, but it's your caste system.

You're being judged by your caste system, whether real low or real high. Well, I love that you have the outlook and the opportunity to speak in the way that you do coming from the East and coming to America and seeing the ideal and then being able to actually live in both worlds. Because I know growing up here in the United States, I grew up a very privileged life and I was told all the time, you can do whatever you want to do.

Whatever you put your mind to, you can do. And when you grow up that way and that's all you ever hear, to you, that's the default. Everybody on earth is told that. And that's not true. It's not true. And that was something that I had to be taught, even relatively late in life.

I mean, they taught us about Martin Luther King in school, but to have a personal relationship with someone who grew up on the other side and said, hey, listen, you can be told that, but you really, to hear firsthand accounts, I think, makes all the difference in the world, at least to me. Yeah. I'll also want to clarify because sometimes people say, well, look at you. I mean, you came from the other side of the world and you're able to do this. But why can't people here climb up the ladder? Why can't they pull themselves up by their bootstraps? And Dr. Martin Luther King had said one time in an interview, they asked him the same question. Why can't people just pull themselves up by their bootstraps?

He said, well, it's easy for you to say that to a man who has no boots. Right. That's right. That's very true.

I think that's very hard hitting because if you are in that situation where you don't even have boots, how are you going to pull yourself up by your bootstraps? So as believers, we need to have the right perspective. And so that's what we're going to talk about on the show today. Absolutely. That's right. And growing up in America and growing up kind of on this side of the civil rights movement, I often forget how recent it is in history.

You think about racism and prejudice and then things that are described where there's like segregation in schools and different water fountains and things like that. To me, that's a long time ago. That's way, way in the past. But I mean, my parents remember that.

That's just one generation back. Yeah. You don't think about that, that they actually lived through it. There's people in our church who lived through it, who know that, who saw that firsthand. That's right.

That's right. So we as believers, we as people who believe in the word of God, the inerrancy, the inspiration of the word of God, we as people who believe in the atonement, the penal substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. We as believers who believe in the Trinity, Father, Son, Spirit, three and yet one. We as believers who believe in the exclusivity of the gospel, that it's only through Jesus Christ that we can come to God. We believe that there is a real heaven and real hell. We believe that salvation is by grace through faith.

We believe that salvation is eternal life. I mean, all these things we're right on, but let's also be right on this part, that we need to love our neighbor as ourselves. And how can we do that? Now, I'll say again that compared to the rest of the world, sometimes America gets knocked down a lot, but compared to the rest of the world, a lot of progress has been made in our country through nearly 400 years of injustice. A lot of progress has been made. Go to some other parts of the world, it's not even remotely close.

No, no, none, none, none. But work still has to be done. That's right. And it's still a talking point to this day. And you kind of, it's like you said, you don't really know, and a lot of Christians don't know where to fall on it, you know, because it's like, okay, that's done. It's in the past. The ramifications are still being felt. Well, to what degree? I don't know how much I can speak on it. I don't know how much, I just don't know. Sometimes people overdo it, and sometimes they underdo it. They don't know, am I speaking too much? Am I saying too much about, hey, we need to have more understanding and compassion and a sense of awareness of how somebody feels because of the color of their skin?

How much can I say on that? Other times it's like, well, can we not just move on? Can we just move forward?

I don't have any prejudice in my heart. Can we just move on? Why am I being held responsible for something that happened 100 years ago or 200 years ago?

Why me? I didn't do that. I don't think like that. And that's great. I understand what people are saying, but we as believers should move forward at the same time stop and look back for a while and go, what happened?

How did it happen? And then if we don't do it, listen, no matter where you stand on this issue, just know this. If you don't do it, the world always shows up and picks up the microphone and starts talking. If we don't talk from the word of God, the world will always take that microphone.

You better do it. I appreciate that approach so much, Dr. Shah, because you're absolutely right. I mean, if we as the church, as believers, if we stay silent, there's people who are going to step in and they're going to fill that void. They're going to fill that silence. And then we say, oh, they're wrong. They shouldn't do that.

They're dividing us as a nation. Okay, well then what do you have to say? Right. Well, I don't have anything to say.

Why didn't you step up to the microphone? I don't have anything to say. So say something. Right.

But make sure what you're saying is true. So of course, today we remember the godless, inhumane way that American people treated their fellow human beings, human beings made in the image of God. We're talking about slavery. Of course, slavery first came to the American soul going back to 1619 with the founding of the Jamestown colony.

So it's one of the first things that unfortunately, sadly came into this country. And for the next 250 some years, it would continue to develop and grow and create wedges of division made of bigotry and prejudice and racism and cruelty. So all this went on.

It was terrible. And then came the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. And based on that, it was self-evident, certain self-evident truths that all men are created equal.

I love what you've said. And you've said this on the show in the past that slavery happened not because of the founding fathers, but in spite of their vision. Their vision was always that all men were created equal. And people will use that as a counterattack that, no, this nation was founded on injustice. Yeah. Right.

And that's not true. They knew that that fight was coming. If you read their writings, you'll know that.

If you don't, and if you just go by talking points and just go on the internet and find whatever, OK, well then, no reason to talk to you because you're talking out of ignorance. But if you read their letters, they knew that there was a fight coming. And they knew that right now, winning against Britain was the first fight. Let's win that. Let's be united against this enemy.

And then we can move forward for the next fight. And so they could have easily said, only those who are of European descent, they were not stupid. They would have written that. They could have easily written that. See, I read history.

I spent time reading primary and secondary documents of ancient times or medieval times or Elizabethian times. I mean, I've read those documents. They knew how to talk like that. But on purpose, they said all men are created equal. All men meant all men, not all white men.

They meant all. But they knew that if they fought today over this thing, they will never be able to have a nation together. I just thought about them being like, we know that that fight is coming one day. And then fast forward to Lincoln sitting there, and the fight lands right on his lap.

And he's like, oh, man. Well, many others. But yeah, of course, he's the big name, big person. Because by that time in the 1860s, there were 4 million slaves in the United States and making up one third of the total population of the South, which is sad to think about. Yeah, that's true. And again, if you're listening and you're like, well, you know, this and that benefit of slavery, you know, they were here or in Africa it was bad and all, you cannot use those arguments.

It's not, maybe they sounded good at one time, but it doesn't sound good if you really pay attention to that. Yeah, it's just a way to alleviate guilt. It's not an actual argument.

You know what I mean? Like, who would actually, who in their right, I don't know that I would want to listen to an argument from someone who legitimately thinks slavery is good to have and beneficial. It's like lesser of two evils argument. It's not really an argument. Right.

Right. And of course there are a lot of discussion over whether civil war just over slavery or states' rights. And I understand that and I believe states' rights are important, very important. And so, but we're talking about slavery today, so I'm focusing on that. But then as we know that vision of all men created equal had to be developed and it happened with the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln and then again in 1964 with the congressional passing of the Civil Rights Act, a lot of those freedoms were beginning to be realized.

And that's kind of where Dr. King comes into today's discussion. That's right. That's right.

That's right. And so people will look at those, those timeframes, you know, with the Declaration of Independence in 76, 1776, and then not no other progress being made in liberating this until 1863. And that span of years, and then again in 1964, we're almost like a hundred years in between each thing. But that shows the wisdom in the leaders of our country. That shows the wisdom in like at the right time these things were brought to the forefront. Could it have happened earlier?

Maybe. But, you know, that demonstrates, do we want to fight this fight right now or do we want to fight this fight later when it would be better suited? And it even shows to me like our collective morality as America that for 200 years we're not letting this drop.

You know what I mean? It's like we could have, we could have just said that was 200 years ago. Let's just, what we have works. And it needs to be dealt with.

I think I'm glad those things came to pass. And of course, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was very instrumental in that act. He began his public ministry, for those who may not know about his life, at nine years earlier and a graduate of Morehouse College. He earned a divinity degree from Pennsylvania's Crozer Theological Seminary. Meaning that he attended Boston University where he received his PhD in 1955. I didn't realize he had a PhD until really recently. That's right.

That's awesome. And through prayer and faith in God's power, he brought about a revolution different from any that America had seen before. And he began those through, he, you know, began through those years to do and say things that changed people's minds and hearts, kind of brought an awareness of something is wrong. This is not right.

This division is not right. And of course, he never strayed from leaning on God's word. And as you know, he was assassinated on April the 4th, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

So that's how it worked out. Will I say that everything about his theology was correct? No, I won't say that. I do believe that he believed the truth about Jesus Christ and all that. But at the same time, when it came to the gospel, it was sort of social gospel, which I don't agree with. A little bit of neo-orthodoxy there, theological liberalism there. So I don't agree with those side of things. But to say that, oh, that's completely off, that's not true either.

You have to realize that there is a balance there. And I may not agree with it, but he definitely tried to make a difference for the African-American community. If you were to look at his life and, you know, all the ways that he impacted and kind of helped shape the course for the civil rights movement, what would you say is maybe like the most defined character trait for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?

I believe his ability to speak, right, and speak about nonviolence. Some of that, he got it from Gandhi in India. But where did Gandhi get it from? He got it from the Bible, turned the other cheek. I mean, that's where it came from. So really, he was coming back to the Bible. It came full circle. It came full circle back to the Word of God.

That's where he got it from. And so I believe that call to love even those who may not love you, I think that I feel like was a great mark of his work. That's why I respect him. Would I agree with everything? No, of course not. But do you agree with everything I do or say?

Of course not. There's only one person that you have to say I agree with him completely and have to, and that's Jesus Christ. Right, right.

Amen. Well, you know, I love the way that it kind of comes back full circle to even his famous I Have a Dream speech. It's this vision of the ideal for America.

That's right. It's this vision of, and even you as a young kid living in India saw that ideal played out. Do you think that people would, I mean, because he's a celebrated figure in American history, do you think that people would be as readily receptive to his message today? I believe many times the message gets diluted over the years or it gets hijacked and then people use it for their own purposes or they refuse to listen to it. So I would say ground yourself in the word of God and then listen to it. Whatever agrees, applaud the man, where you feel like, I don't think I can agree with that, discard it, right? I believe God is not just interested in the freedom of black men or brown men or yellow or white men.

God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race, right? And the creation of a society where all men will live together as brothers and all men will respect the dignity and worth of all human personality. So the challenge today is for us to go back to that ideal and reject our woke culture that leans on accusations of systemic racism and things of that nature. We need to realize that's not helping anybody.

That doesn't help at all. And revisit, I would encourage revisit Dr. King's dream of equality for all peoples to judge our fellow person not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their or his character. Amen. That's what I believe. I love it. And I've said it before, the ground is level at the cross.

That's right. Amen. So important for us to remember, especially taking that balanced view when you look back at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, we are not a perfect nation by any means, but we are much better than we have been in the past thanks to the work that people like Dr. King have done. If you guys enjoyed today's episode, if you learned something about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his life, write in and let us know, 252-582-5028. Also write in and let us know where you're listening from.

We talked about that at the top of the show. We'd love to know where you're listening to The Clear Read Today Show from. I would encourage you to visit us online, cleareadtodayshow.com, and you can partner with us financially on that same website, scroll all the way to the bottom and become part of our Clear Read Today Show family by investing in what God is doing in this show. I also want to tell you to visit mightymuscadine.com as well.

Check out their line of products there and use the promo code today, that's T-O-D-A-Y, at checkout, and a portion of your purchase will come right back here to The Clear Read Today Show. Jon, what's coming up tomorrow? Tomorrow we're continuing the discussion of the ideal of America, these religious freedoms that we enjoy. How did we get them? Did God just hand them to us on a silver platter? Did people have to fight for them?

Did people have to sit in courtrooms and argue their case and actually make our religious freedoms a reality that we get to enjoy today? We're going to talk about that a little bit more on tomorrow's episode. Make sure you join us. Love you guys. We'll see you on Clear Read Today.