Friday, March 22nd | Lightning Round Questions!

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A healthier, happier you is just a click away. With that said, let's start the show. Welcome to Clearview today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. You can find our show online at Clearviewtodayshow.com. You can email us at the same place at contact at Clearviewtodayshow.com. Or if you want to write into the show, send us a text to 252-582-5028. We love hearing from you guys and we'd love to answer your questions on the show.

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Yeah, go ahead. Because it is John's birthday. Happy birthday to me.

I want to say happy birthday to you. Today is March 22nd, which means that our date, the word for John's birthday is coming from 1 John, appropriate, 1 John chapter 3 verse 22. And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. So if you obey God, if you keep his commandments, the things that you ask and receive from him will be granted to you. It doesn't seem like it should be that way because we're so like, no, God's going to do for you whether you obey him.

God's going to just be graceful and gracious and merciful and loving and all that is true. But man, listen, those commandments are there for a reason. He expects you to obey him. He's your father and the commands that he gives you are for your betterment. So there's absolutely nothing wrong with saying, hey, listen, obey God, do those commandments. And if you do them, it's kind of conditional there, then whatever we ask, we receive. And here's the deal, like people will point to this and be like, do you mean that if I obey God, I can ask for a Lamborghini in my driveway? You're asking an absurd question because the more you obey God and the more you grow in your relationship with God, you're going to ask for the things that are good for you.

That's right. It's a maturing process because now that I'm older, I desire and I value the things that are good for me rather than the things that are, and that's natural. That's not something that I've worked hard to maintain that discipline, like I just got to want the right things.

It's just happened. The more that I've grown with God and matured with God, the more that I see now, listen, I don't really want mountains of money in my bank account. I want good times with my children. I want my children to be in church.

I want them to be in a good program where they're learning the things of God. And the more that I see it happen, the more that I want it to keep happening. And so it's sort of something that I've just seen happen and I want more of it to happen. Yeah. Don't forget that all of these Date the Words are coming from the Date the Word app, totally free for iPhone and Android.

You can download that now. Every single day connects today's date to God's Word with the hope of making it more memorable to you. Big thank you to Date the Word as a partial sponsor of today's episode. That's right.

That's right. It's Friday. Time to unwind. Friday. Fri-yay.

Fri-yay. Time to clock out at two and pretend like you're still working up until five. No, no. Don't do that one. I'm going to give you a million dollars, Ryan. Well, if you're going to give me a million dollars, maybe I can't do that. I'm going to give you a million dollars, but any time that you sneeze, you teleport somewhere randomly out into the world. Now, I'll put a few stipulations. No oceans.

No deserts. You will teleport somewhere where there is civilization. There's other people. But getting back home is up to you. Any time that you sneeze. No, I don't think I can.

I thought about it because I was like, well, I got a million dollars, so I can afford airfare and stuff like that. You can hold your sneezes. You can do that like... Only for so long. You can do that thing where you're just like... You know what I mean?

I'll do it again. You know what I mean? Like when you have to sneeze and you don't let it... So is it only if you sneeze out like... Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you plug your nose and keep the sneeze in?

Yeah, you're fine. Yeah, if you hold your sneeze in, you're good. I'd probably take it then.

If that's the case, because that's still a sneeze technically, it just is not coming out and like... Yeah, I'm talking like if you sneeze, you teleport. Gone. Yeah, if I can plug my nose and kind of just... Yeah, I'd take it.

I would take it too. Let's ask Dr. Sean when he comes in. Write in and let us know if you would take that deal, a sneeze, and you're a random face in the world. You start... Even if you never do it, the panic that comes on you when you feel a sneeze... You feel that sneeze?

You already start to kind of dread a sneeze anyway, but when it comes on, you're like grasping. I can't. I can't wind up. I can't do this today. I got a meeting in 40 minutes.

2525825028 or you can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Stay tuned. We'll be right back. Hey. Hey, you. Me?

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Amen. Let's hop back into the show. Welcome back to Clear View 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.

If you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right, and we are here once again in the Clear View Today studio with Dr. Questions, who is also a PhD in New Testament textual criticism. Also, over at Clear View Today, we have Dr. Abbadon Shah, who is also a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, also a professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. I'm not saying that Dr. Abbadon Shah and Dr. Questions are the same person.

What I am saying is I've never seen them in the same room at the same time. That one. That's all I'm saying.

You can take from that whatever you will. Dr. Questions, it is Friday, and you guys know what that means, right? Yes. I'm ready. Lightning.

Ready to go. Questions. Lightning strikes every Friday.

That's right. These are questions that you guys have submitted throughout the week. Y'all think we were just playing with that phone number, but that phone number actually goes somewhere, and these are questions that you guys have submitted for Dr. Questions to come in and answer, starting with Emily J. What's the most interesting thing that you've learned lately?

What a great question. Yeah, I know, right? Wow.

Emily, great job out of the gate. Wow. These are all kind of deeper questions, by the way. They are deep questions. Yeah.

There's a lot of things that I've learned in the past, I would say, just a month. We were in Egypt, so that was, to me, was just an amazing, amazing trip. One thing that I had known about the complex in Saqqara, Egypt, was this was built by Imhotep. To me, Imhotep is none other than Joseph.

Right. Joseph built the pyramid, but it was not built as a pyramid. I think it was built more as a tower to be there as a source, almost like a lighthouse, but in the daytime, so people can see and come looking for grain.

So then walking through that hallway, both sides, there are places for the secretaries to sit and take down notes and take the payment for the grain and all that. I knew that around the complex, there were large silos, not silos like sticking out of the ground, silos in the ground. And so I knew it and I wanted pictures of that. I wanted some videos of that, but I didn't know where they were.

And that was the hardest thing. I was like, where are those, but I didn't want to call them silos because that's not what they call them. Right. Archaeologists and Egyptologists nowadays say, oh, these are just massive graves. I'm like, graves? Like from dead bodies? Like you want to throw them down this massive open container, this just like 100 feet deep, but steps leading all the way down? Yeah, why would you lead steps down? Why do I need to go down there into the graves? Shafts everywhere, connecting each of these silos to each other.

Like if one silo runs out of grain, you can open this. Also, isn't that counter to every other bit of Egyptian culture that we know? Even like the lowest of the low, don't they have like resting places? Because the afterlife was a whole thing. Throw them down this massive, very well cut, this shoot in the ground.

It's not a shoot really. It's really just like a gigantic pit. But that's kind of what you were saying, they're all interconnected down at the bottom so that the grain could come up and down and has all the steps. But if it's a grave, it's like, why do I need the dead bodies to be connected to each other?

Yeah, that's a good question. So that to me was probably the most interesting thing I've seen. When I saw it, I was like, yes, I knew what they look like because I've seen pictures. I mean, it's a stone wall, everything steps leading down.

But then standing there and going, oh my goodness, this right here in your face. And that I loved it. You didn't get to see them the first year that you went? First year I went inside that pyramid. Got right.

Okay. In Saqqara, which is a very exclusive thing to get to do. And because of our connection, we were able to do that. So I got to see that and it's unbelievable.

I mean, I cannot begin to describe to you how awesome it is, but did not get to see the silos. And I was like, ah, I got to go back there. And I did. That's awesome. And there it is.

And so that was the most interesting thing I learned was they were right around the corner. Wow. Very cool.

Amazing. Our next question comes from Tyler P. Tyler wants to know, he says, you mentioned in a previous episode that what the early church thought of certain texts was a legitimate criteria for canonicity. Why does their opinions of a text make canon or not? So that is kind of something that you and I have talked about. You helped me with a paper that I was writing on Canon and you were like, these are the five criteria.

And I actually remember thinking this exact same question. Like, it would be like, like, I mean, this is a very silly example and it does not hold up to the Bible at all. But like Star Wars canon, right? There's canon stories and then there's non-canon stories.

And it's like, what if we said what the original, like people who went to see those early movies, what they thought of it depends on whether or not it's canon. I know that does not hold up to biblical canon, but why is the early church, why is their opinion a criteria for canonicity? One of the criteria.

I believe that's probably the strongest one. Now criteria for canonicity, for those of you wondering, is apostleship or apostolicity, antiquity, orthodoxy. And then there's receptivity, which is what this question is saying.

How did the early church receive it? And spiritual value. These are some of those criteria for canonicity.

But receptivity is the key one for me. Because it's not that the Council of Nicaea or Constantinople or Chalcedon came together and said, these are the books we're going to make part of the canon. They'll be included in the canon. It's the use of certain books and the attitude of the people towards those books and the attitude of the bishops and the pastors towards those books is what really made it such that canonical lists were later on developed. So it's not like canonical lists were developed and then the people started using it.

I think it's the other way around. People instinctively, and I believe it's the Holy Spirit leading them, to certain books and not the others. So those books that didn't get used as much by the early church sort of fell out of, not fell out of favor, but they were not regarded as highly...

They were not regarded as inspired by the Holy Spirit. For example, the Shepherd of Hermes or the Epistle of Barnabas or the Didache or Second Clement. These are wonderful writings, but the early church did not feel like they were on the same level as the Gospels or Paul's letters or John's letters or even the Apocalypse. They felt like, yeah, we can read it and get some benefit out of it, but they don't have the same thing.

I see what you're saying. That's not the end-all, be-all decision, but that is evidence that the Holy Spirit was leading the early church to use certain books over the others. I believe the canon was already set by the late first century because that's when Revelation was completed, somewhere in the 90s. I believe the canon was already set. People knew it. It was not an issue. See, just because everybody didn't write it down, that, hey, this is the canon, this is how it's set, does not mean that it wasn't set.

It's the use. That's true, being widely accepted and then, you know, as people think they're making this giant discovery, like, oh, should this have been part of the Bible? When that wasn't even really a question toward the end of the first century. Do you think John's writing of Revelation closed to the canon? Yes.

I mean, just now there is a line of biblical studies that even when it comes to the book of Revelation, that even considers Revelation as a canonical canon closer. Like, in a sense, it's written to close the canon. Right. That was its function.

That's its function. I don't quite agree with that. I think maybe. I don't think John on the island of Patmos said, okay, now I'm the one, last one surviving, I'm going to write a book that's going to close this canon. I don't think he was thinking quite that way.

And I know a lot of people have, not a lot of you, many scholars have made the argument that it's the canon closer. Right. I don't think he was quite doing it that way. I think he was just writing the apocalypse because it needed to be written, because that was God's word about the future. But if you notice this, one thing he does say towards the end is if anyone adds or takes away from this book, God will add or take away their name from the book of life.

Right. The big question is, was he referring only to the book of Revelation? Or to the entire canon? To the entire canon. See, because that's a great question.

I was thinking when you were saying that, but he mentions this, and I have just always assumed he's talking about the entirety of God's word, but perhaps he was talking just about Revelation. And that's what the canon closing type scholars claim, that that is one. And there are other things they use as well. Right, right.

There are other arguments as well that I don't have time to get into, and I don't have all my information in front of me. Sure, sure. But that's one of the big ones they use. That's the most interesting thing I've learned today, because I didn't realize that. That's my answer to the first question that we asked. Yeah, I did always assume that John was closing the canon on purpose, but perhaps that wasn't the case. When he says that, and if we were spending too much time, we can come back to this later, but when he says that, is there a possibility that he could be, through the Holy Spirit, referring to both? Like, in the immediate context, he's referring to Revelation, but then based on where it's placed in the canon, that it does refer to the entirety of the book?

I would say so, yeah. I can see that. And if you take the canonical theology approach, then you will definitely agree with that and say, yeah, that's exactly, the question is not how do we get these books and which books belong. These books are it, and this book is closing the canon.

I'm going to go with that. That's canonical theology. So, I'm okay with canonical theology. I'm not against it.

I don't agree with all its proponents. I mean, I like Brevard Childs, but I don't agree with everything that he has said. I like John Selhammer, who was, again, big on the canon. He was an Old Testament theologian, but he was big on canonical theology.

I agree with him, but I don't feel like that's the only way to look at the books in the New Testament or the Old Testament. Yeah, very cool. Here's a question coming in from long-time listener Harold B. I saw your panel with Peter Gury on Mark Ward's YouTube channel. I think he's talking about the round table that you did with, I think Dr. Robinson was part of that as well.

That's right. And also... Tim Berg. Tim Berg was there.

Tim Berg was there. Yep, you four. I saw your panel with Peter Gury on Mark Ward's YouTube channel. Could you go into a bit more detail on the postmodern controversy in your dissertation defense?

I think you mentioned there was some back and forth about postmodernism in your dissertation. Also, any chance you guys would ever actually do a live show in Anaconda, Montana? Oh, man. Probably. Well, maybe we may do it. Probably. Just for a fact, Harold B. is not from Anaconda, but maybe we'll do it.

Maybe we'll do that. So, postmodernism, they didn't like that? Or they wanted more of it?

Well, I don't remember talking about that with them. But when I first proposed my dissertation topic, and this is going back to 2003, it was rejected. I said that my dissertation will cover the postmodern deconstruction of the New Testament text. And I was looking at Bart Ehrman at the time.

I was looking at David Parker and Eldon Epp. And I said, I'm going to look at them through the lens of postmodern philosophy. Not necessarily postmodernism when it comes to literature. Postmodernism when it comes to literature is Jacques Derrida, all those French guys.

And I was saying, that's different. That's a literary postmodernism. But then there's a postmodern philosophy which says anything and everything goes. Right. There is no objective truth.

There's no objective truth. It's sort of the next step beyond relativism. Right. But they turned it down and they just couldn't see it past the literary side.

Right. So I said, okay, fine. I will then talk about the shift in textual criticism, in New Testament textual criticism in the past 30 years.

And they were sort of okay with that. And then an article came out where Dan Wallace, who is the head of CSNTM, Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts in Dallas, Texas, a theological seminary where they take high quality pictures of manuscripts and photographs and all that. And he wrote an article and he called all these people postmodernists. Right. Let me guess. Met with thunderous applause.

People loved it. Now, Dan Wallace is not a text critic, but he has done enough work that I cannot say like, hey, you don't get to talk about textual criticism because he's done so much work in the field. In a sense, he is now in a way. Yeah. Right. So I re-proposed it and I said, okay, Dan Wallace says it.

What do you guys think? And they're like, well, hmm, yeah, we'll get back to you. And then they came back and said, okay. And then there was a shift in the PhD directors. Another PhD director came and he said, oh, no, no, it's postmodernism. Are you talking about like a literary, like Foucault and all? Like, no, we proved this.

We explained this that even Dan Wallace recognizes in an article now four years ago. Yeah, it's postmodern philosophy. Right. Yeah.

No, no. So do they control what you write about in a sense? They want to make sure that whatever is being written and researched coming from their institution is legitimate. It's not something that is being duplicated somewhere else. Right. Or has been done before. And it's not based on false premises.

So I get what they were doing, except I explained it. It's a philosophy. Right.

Here's a scholar and his article, guess what, it showed up in the Evangelical Theological Society Journal. Yeah. So I'm like, and so both myself and my professor, Dr. Maurice Robinson, we were sort of disgusted.

Yeah. So did you end up dropping the whole postmodern angle altogether? I had a whole chapter of 30 pages on postmodernism. And they just... And I had to take it out. So 30 pages of all the work, footnotes, discussion, everything had to come out. And I had to go with like, okay, so these people have changed their views because they wanted to.

Is it worth publishing in a future work? Yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah.

I'm definitely going to do that. Yeah. Now that we don't have that overhead. Yeah, that's right. That's right. So our next question comes from Jonathan W. Jonathan says, if we discover new writings from the Apostle Paul today, would they be considered for being canon? I don't think so.

I believe the canon is closed. And it goes back to our previous discussion regarding the use of the church receptivity. The early church has already demonstrated which books they were using, which books were important to them, which books they consider to be at a higher level.

They may not have been able to verbalize their views as the bishops did at the councils. Okay. So when you read the Nicene Creed and all that, I mean, it is put together with some of the most brilliant minds of their times.

I would put any of them today. Oh, yes. Articulate. And they are brilliant. Yeah. They're smart. They're not like people coming out of the caves. Yeah, right. You know, the hunter gatherers trying to come up with the Bible. Yeah.

No, no, no. They were people who studied in their universities, right? Yeah. I know the concept of university came much later, but they were studying in the school of Alexandria School in Antioch. I mean, they were well versed in their field. But they had their own way of writing things down. But even prior to that, the church by the use of certain books and not the others had already demonstrated which ones had God's spirit all over it and which ones didn't. So for us to come up with a book today that we find in the sands of Egypt or somewhere hidden away in a monastery, sorry. We don't have any mention of that kind of a book. True.

Just because even if it was proved that an apostle wrote it, there's so many other criteria that have to be considered. Why did it never get mentioned? Yeah. Right. True.

Why did it never get mentioned? True. Ryan L. wants to know if you had to pick just one, what is your biggest 10-year goal for your academic work? Wow. 10-year goal. Or if you want to go, I would say just long-term goal, even if it takes longer than 10 years.

I want to write a book on inerrancy because inerrancy as an issue will never go away. I mean, this issue began in the Garden of Eden, as God indeed said. That's a good point. The attack against the word of God has always been there. True. And it is much stronger now than it's ever been, in my opinion.

Every day, some kind of an attack comes. My desire to work in textual criticism was to help me focus on the word, which sort of happened, but also it was because I knew there was going to be an attack against the word of God, albeit through textual criticism. And so when you attack the word of God using textual criticism as your basis and people don't know how to defend the word, I mean, many of them end up just falling by the wayside when it comes to their faith. So I want to write a book that looks at systematic theology, that looks at all the history of church fathers, looks at the theologians in the past and where they stood and then come down and give people solid basis and then focus in on textual criticism and show how inerrancy works. Do you think that'll be like your work? What I mean by that is like Wayne Grudem, I'm sure, has written lots and lots of books, but if you say Wayne Grudem, you think systematic theology.

Do you see the work on inerrancy being your one? Like the magnum opus. Yeah, sort of.

I would like to, because I mean, that would be a magnum opus. Well, I like that because it's like you said, that's never not going to be an issue, and it's surprising to me how many Christians don't regard God's word as inerrant. What a problem. It is. What a huge problem. It really is. We've got time for maybe one more question.

It's coming from Daniel C. Who is your go-to author for spiritual development slash godliness? Wow. I mean, I have so many, so many. Right now, I mean, of course, we went to Egypt, and I had always wanted to go by and see Oswald Chambers' grave.

Oh, yeah. And I knew it was in Egypt, and he was in Cairo because he was a chaplain for the YMCA, especially ministering to the troops from New Zealand and Australia. And I was like, I want to go there. I want to go there.

So I got all the information, got everything together, talked to our guide friend. I said, hey, man, I really want to go here. He said, I've never heard of it.

I said, it's a world. Really? Yeah, he never heard of it. Wow. Never heard of it. I would not have thought that.

Am I right, David? That's insane. He did not hear of it.

Wow. And we drove through the streets of Cairo, and he had to stop several times and ask people. Like, every time we went, he was like, honestly, I'm just now finding out about this place. Like, I don't know where I'm looking. So we drive and stop, and he'd be like, it's not here.

I'm sorry, guys. I've never been here before in my life. And then we finally began. And I was looking at the GPS, and I said, look, this graveyard is a British war cemetery, and it's near this place and that place. And he said, yeah, that place that you just mentioned is this right here. I'm like, OK, so then this cemetery should be on the back. He's like, OK, we're going. That's where we're headed now. And we came around, and I saw it because I had seen pictures. Not many.

I mean, just one or two pictures on the internet. That's it. And I was like, that's it.

He's like, oh, yeah, I know. It's here. I already talked to the gardener a few moments ago, and he's waiting for us. Wow. Walked in. I mean, it's a pristine cemetery.

Beautiful. Big old cross in the middle. And then the gardener already knew. He's like, not many people come here, but a few who do come look for Oswald Chambers' grave. I was like, can you take us there? He's like, absolutely. That's really awesome. And he took us around, and I'm like, I cannot believe it. Here it is.

Mahatma's for his highest. Wow. There's the man. Amazing. Very cool. So awesome.

Dr. Questions, thank you for answering the lightning round questions today. Thank you guys for sending those questions in. We encourage you, if you have questions that have gone unanswered, or if you have been listening to the show for a while and you're like, man, I really wish they'd talk about this, write in and let us know. We love hearing from you guys, and that's what gives us fuel for our lightning round questions on Friday.

That's right. You can send those questions to 252-582-5028. You can, of course, visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com, and you can partner with us financially on that same website. Scroll to that bottom, click that donate button, and become part of our Clearview Today Show family as we together reach the nations with the gospel of Jesus. John, it's Friday. What encouragement do you want to leave with our listeners? As always, make sure you find a place to worship. We are going to be coming back at you strong on Monday of next week. We've got a lot of things we want to talk about in March, especially as we are marching towards Easter. We're going to be celebrating the resurrected Jesus Christ.

Make sure you come celebrate with us if you're local. If not, you can always join us on the radio. You can listen to Sermons by Dr. Abaddon Shah on any podcasting platform.

I think it's actually Sermons by Abaddon Shah PhD, but that will be in the description of this podcast. That was cute. Marching toward Easter. Did you do that on purpose?

No, I didn't. Marching toward Easter. Marching onwards to Zion, the beautiful city of God. That was nice. Amen. We love you guys. Have a great weekend. We'll see you today.