Monday, March 25th | Dr. Shah’s Book Club!

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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. Or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

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We're going to leave you a couple of links so you can do just that. Today is March the 25th, which means that our date the word is coming from Lamentations, chapter 3, verse 25. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

That's right. You always have to be seeking the Lord. It's an active thing, this Christian life. And that's one of the things I've been learning more and more the longer I've been a Christian is that you're not a passive participant. Yeah. You are actively seeking the Lord and the Lord is good for those who wait for him. It's kind of funny because it's a passive verb and yet it's saying that by waiting for the Lord, you're actively seeking him.

Yeah. That's the active part of the, the, the active role that you take in the Christian life. And God says that he's going to, you know, reward those who are seeking him. That's right.

And we don't like to think about that. It makes us uncomfortable sometimes when we think about God rewarding those for doing something, doing works, but good works are a part of the Christian life. That's right. They're not the means to salvation and we wouldn't say that, but they should be a natural outpouring of your salvation, working that salvation out in you.

So if good works aren't present, you need to look at what it is that you believe. As always, big shout out to the date the word app. In fact, this episode is brought to you in part by the date the word app.

You can download it for free right now on iPhone and Android. Every single day connects today's date to God's word with the hope of making it more memorable for you. Ryan, today is Monday.

It is Monday. You know what that means. It's time for all the small things. I really, if it weren't for copyright, I would put the guitar riff right here.

Can we put, let's just put a similar guitar riff for, for, for, uh, for all the small things. It's going, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. Yeah. That's how you start your Monday off. Yeah, you got to man. I love it.

With a little binkle. Um, so here's one thing that the Lord has given me that I really, really love. I wish I'd brought it in today is if we've talked about my, at this point I would say obsession for Reese Witherspoon, thriller novel.

It's getting, it's borderline unhealthy. So last week was my birthday. I actually found that this is, this is something a little cool.

This is like an added small thing that God gave me to enjoy. Reese Witherspoon and I share a birthday. I remember you told me that and I was like, how serendipitous is that?

That is hilarious. I really hope there's a listener out there with the wherewithal to send these pot, these episodes to Reese Witherspoon. Cause I'm just telling you, we're becoming, I think BFFs over the cosmos.

Reese is connected to you. And she didn't even realize that she was not only am I upset and she's not the one writing these thriller novels. They're just novel books that she liked, which I guess is important. But so our piano player, Sarah, here at Clave View church, all this time has been a silent participant in the Reese Witherspoon book club. And I know it was like she was living a double life and rather than be horrified when I found out, I was elated. So now we've started this thing where I'll read one and that she recommends to me. And she reads one that I've recommended to her.

And we've got like this little book club chat, like, Hey girl, here's the book recommendation. I can't believe grace was going to go to the lawyer's office and tell them that Brody killed Ben. I know, but Ben was her cousin all along.

And it was from a different marriage and they didn't know. I eat that stuff up like candy. Oh my goodness. Anyway, this is kind of a, this is kind of me just saying, I'm looking for more readers into our very newly developed Reese Witherspoon book club.

Hilarious. So the small things, all the small things that you enjoy is that you and Reese share the same birthday or that Sarah was a secret participant. I think both.

I think both. It was the secret participant, but also me and Reese sharing the same birthday. That makes me smile.

Let everything is coming up. Dare I say Reese. I really think it's my goal to meet Reese Witherspoon and just at least hang out for an afternoon and just read books, just go to a coffee shop.

You don't talk at all. You just sit there and read books together. Like Ms. Witherspoon.

I will not come near you. I just want to be in the same coffee shop reading a lot. Hilarious.

That's what I want. Well, that's my all the small things for today. And I love that for you. Write in and let us know what your small thing enjoyment is for Monday. What is your all the small things? What's making Monday a little more palatable for you?

Two, five, two, five, eight, two, five, zero, two, eight, or visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. Stay tuned. We'll be right back. Hey. Hey, you.

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Let's hop back into the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadan 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. Abbadan Shah, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor here at Clear View Church in North Carolina, and the host of today's show, starting the week off right with Dr. Shah's book club. In addition to all of those titles, purveyor of excellent reads.

You know, very nice. Reese Witherspoon has got nothing on us. Oprah Winfrey has got nothing on us. Dr. Shah's book club, I'm calling it right now. That's going to take over the news. That's going to be the new book club.

That's going to be the new thing. Dr. Shah, what is our encouragement for the day for this book club in the month of March? Read.

Amen. Read. Read.

Pick up and read. There you go. Very nice. I love it.

Isn't that what Augustine got saved on? Totally lege. Pick up and read. Pick up and read.

Very nice. So pick up and read. What is the book for the month of March that we are recommending to our listeners today? So the copy I have in front of me actually belongs to David. It's called How Christianity Changed the World by Alvin Schmidt. This was originally titled Under the Influence. And I think you borrowed that book from me one time.

I did. Yes, I've read it. It's very, very good read. It's a great book. He's a retired professor of sociology at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois. And he's the author of several books like The Great Divide, The Failure of Islam and The Triumph of the West. And he was a consulting editor for Dictionary of Cult, Sects, Religions and Occult.

But the one that he's most known for is by Zondervan, How Christianity Changed the World. And it's a great book. It also comes with discussion questions. But I would love to talk more about it.

Yeah. And, you know, I did. You lent me that book a few years back. I had to read it for one of my classes.

I can't remember which class it was. It might have been civilization or something, but it was all about that. And it's kind of funny because we talk on this show a lot about how Christianity has influenced the world and how, you know, we wouldn't have a lot of the things that we have here in the West if it weren't for Christianity and people think we're just coming up with it. We're just making that up.

Like people haven't done this research and actually come to these conclusions. Having grown up overseas, having grown up in India and having the perspective I did, I know that this part of the world, the Western culture has been radically blessed because they embraced Christianity. Christianity came to India a long time ago. In fact, the Jewish people, some of the lost tribes wandered, not Jewish people, I would say some of the lost tribes even prior to them becoming just the Jewish people, just the tribe of Judah.

Prior to that, some of the people of Israel actually, when they were re-assigned and had to leave the land and be replanted, I was going to say, some of them actually came to India and they built their lives, their communities over there. And in time, this sort of fizzled out. What time period do you think that was? Oh, yeah, that's going back seven, eight century B.C. Okay. Okay.

Okay. That's the first B.C. Babylonian? Assyrian exile. Assyrian exile. First exile. Yeah.

Assyrian exile is where they completely recolonized them. Wow. Yeah.

Took them from the land and put them here and there and then brought people from other places. That's what they used to do. Right. In some ways, that's happening even in America. There's a lot of moving and shifting of mass population. And I don't know if I want to go that far into this, but it's one thing to have immigration where people are coming and becoming assimilated.

Right. And quite different where mass population come and they retain their culture. And they do not assimilate into the American culture. They do not make it better. They just keep what they have. In fact, in time, they begin to change and alter what America means and what our foundational founding values are.

But anyways, that's maybe a discussion for another time, but we can cover that in this because I think it still touches on the subject of what we're talking about today. So what is the heart behind the book? Why would I want to pick this up off a shelf? So when this book first came out, Under the Influence, I think it came out in 2001.

That's correct. 2001 is when it came out and I bought a copy of it. It was not required reading for me.

I just found it and I was like, oh, I need to read this. Because I always grew up with the understanding that Judeo-Christian values, when I say Judeo, I'm talking about Old Testament, Christian, I'm talking about New Testament. The people of God, everywhere they went, they made that culture, that civilization better. It does not mean that individual cultures did not have their niche or niche.

They did not have something that they developed or produced or created. They did that because all cultures have had something that they can claim or some things they can claim as, oh, this is something very special of who we are. Jude or music or some art form or even how architecture, different cultures have come up with these things because we're made in the image of God. All human beings, not just saved people, not just believers, not just Christians, all people have been made in the image of God and hence they create things, they build things, make things. But for a culture or a civilization to become excellent, it happens when there are people who follow the living true triune God come into that culture. And part of Alvin Schmidt's argument is he goes into why that's the case, like why it is that Christianity, it's not just that Christianity makes cultures better, but it's why specifically it happens. Yeah. I would focus on Christianity rather than the Judeo Christian, but I would take it further back because Joseph went into Egypt and saved the world from famine.

True. Today we're going to Egypt and enjoying the pyramids. But those pyramids began with Imhotep who was Joseph. He's the one who built the first tower. He was not a pyramid, it really was a tower. David will tell you that, we can even see that today, where it was taken from being just a tower and expanded the base to support it, to make it wider. And that's why it has that step pyramid look. That's why it's a step pyramid look. It looks like if you, maybe we can drop a picture in that you guys took, but it's like literally that wide base and then it's like, it looks like building blocks that children put on top of each other where it's small at the top. And if you go in the perimeter of that complex of this Saqqara pyramid, what you find are massive pits and they're not pits like digging with a shovel pit.

They are silos built, rock solid silos built with steps leading all the way down to store grain. And this is during that seven year famine that Joseph was talking about. And we're talking about 4000 BC. I'm sorry, 4000 years ago, 2000 BC. So well before Christianity, but still still the believers in the living true God, right? Triune God, I would say even making an impact and changing culture for the better. Yeah.

They were making it better. According to some extra biblical sources, it's Abraham who brought the idea of building towers to Egypt, but is that true or false? I don't know, but he was a Chaldean and towers or tower of Babel and all that came from Chaldees, from Mesopotamia. And Abraham, they say, was one of the first ones to come there.

And he brought the idea of how to build those things, maybe. But definitely Joseph made that place better. Then if you go down to Moses, you know, we talk about Moses in Egypt. He was, he was deemed as the Napoleon of Egypt. I mean, some of the things he did conquered the world, made the place amazing, again, God's people.

It's kind of great. Do people really call him the Napoleon of Egypt? Because I'm thinking about when Napoleon actually goes to Egypt and sees all the great things that are there. And does that give Moses any of the credit at all? Well, a lot has changed in Egyptology, but at one time, what they believed was this is the Pharaoh. This is the Pharaoh in training who is really Moses.

They believe that, but then in time, you know, how can we affirm the Bible? So then they have to completely shift the Egyptian chronology. And now it's like this Pharaoh here, Thutmose III, is the Napoleon of ancient Egypt. But actually that's really Moses, he's Thutmose II.

But when Moses ran away, Thutmose III came in power and he took all the credit. It's kind of funny, like they wanted, they need to restructure the entire thing. So it's not to affirm the Bible, but they only go one generation. They just shift it by one generation.

They're like, looks good to me. I don't think they'll ever know. So again, it proves Moses went there and completely transformed our culture. Come down to people like Daniel in Babylon and then later in the Medo-Persian empire, we're a powerful man. Growing up here in the South, I don't really have, and I think Ryan would agree, we don't really have any exposure to other major religions like Islam or like Buddhism or Hinduism.

So maybe we're biased. But from the outside, and maybe you can kind of speak to that as someone who grew up around those things, I don't see where cultures overall have been improved because those religions existed. And I'm not saying necessarily that. Or even those people following that religion. And I believe following the living true triune God existed and were there. They flavored the culture for the better.

Right. And it may have been the case that those presented some cool ideas that people followed for a little while and it changed the way that people think. But I don't know, is there any hard evidence that Islam or any of the other major religions like Hinduism or Buddhism or whatever changed culture for the better or improved it in any significant way?

They did not. I'm not saying for a moment that Islam didn't come up with algebra or Islamic scholars did not have their philosophy or their ability to build some amazing structure. I mean, think about Taj Mahal. Christians didn't build that. Right.

Islamic Emperor Shah Jahan built that for his queen. So yeah, a lot of wonderful things. But to change culture this way, it's only people who came from the book, the Bible. That's a good distinction because it's not just this building, it's not just this monument that was erected. It's a cultural shift. It's changing ideologies. It's changing what people think and how people interact with others, rather than just we built this cool thing.

We talked about this at one point on the show and maybe we can kind of bring it back. But people will draw that false dichotomy. But Islam has its holy text and Hinduism has its holy texts. So what is it about your holy text that changes culture, but these holy texts don't change culture? When you compare them, when you study them side by side, see what they're talking about.

See how they were built and created and then compare them. Christianity is, I mean, it's not even like it's in the same realm anymore. It's in a whole different class.

We have to have a whole nother discussion just to try to classify it with the right. Like for example, people say all religions lead to God. They're just different ways to the same destination. But then if you ever study those religions and ask, what is destination in Buddhism? What is destination is in Hinduism? What is destination in Islam?

What you find it very quickly is they're not talking about the same thing, right? We're talking about salvation. We're talking about forgiveness, redemption, heaven, hell. In Buddhism, it's talking about nirvana, escaping life into nothingness. Hinduism is talking about the Brahma, the emptiness, the nothingness, just escaping life.

Be done with this place. Islam, when it talks about heaven and hell, yes, it has the concepts, but how do you get there and what does it take to be there? It's very different. In fact, in pure Islam, I mean, which comes from the Quran, the idea is everybody's going to hell and then they're purged or they are sort of refined. Or the idea that is also prevalent is of having this this bridge that is made up of something that is finer than the human hair, sharper than a double edged sword or just a sword, and that you have to walk across on it to go from heaven to hell or actually to go from hell to heaven.

You have to cross from hell to heaven. You know, that right there should tell you, you're actually going to hell, right? Right.

And then you're making your way out. Yeah. And the whole idea is not that you can do it, is that without Allah's grace, you cannot do that. Is that what Christianity is? Is that what the Bible, Old and New Testament together? Is that what Moses believed? Is that what David believed? Is that what the prophets? Is that what Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Jesus Christ, Paul, Peter, is that, no, no, not even the, we're speaking a different language. Vastly different. It's kind of, it's kind of interesting too, because I think there's a lot of thinkers and I would even say just like figures here in the West that are sort of championing, championing, championing, that's a hard word to say, they're touting forward this idea of Christianity, but it really resembles what you're saying is Islam.

There's one, I know I won't, I won't mention his name, but he's a very, very, very well respected figure right now. He's really blown up and his whole thing is life is suffering. It's about escape.

It's about finding those little things that you can do in your life. And maybe one of them is God, maybe one of them is Christianity, maybe one of them is just getting your life in order, but it's all about escaping the suffering. And I'm like, there, and people are lifting this person up as a Christian hero.

And we're saying Bible goes as the opposite. Suffering is also sanctifying, fellowship in the suffering of Christ and we are conformed to his death. We're not trying to escape suffering. And I know some people who are praying right now, praying for God, get me out of this suffering, whether it's physical, financial, relation, get me out of it. We're actually saying, yes, do pray for that, but don't forget, God uses suffering to make us more like Christ.

Our goals are very, very, very different. So going back to the subject of Alvin Schmitt's book, I think what Ryan said, ideologically, it begins to change the culture. What Alvin Schmitt says in this book is that, and he's focused more on Christianity, he's not going to Moses, he's not talking about Daniel, he's not talking about Joseph and all that.

That's just what I brought in into this conversation. But what Alvin Schmitt is talking about is how in the Roman Empire, Christians outlawed infanticide, killing of children, they outlawed child abandonment, they outlawed abortion about 8374. They felt like, you know, that baby is made in the image of God, Psalm 139. How can you treat a child like that?

Doesn't matter if the child has special needs, doesn't matter if the child is a girl to do that. His sin. And I'm thinking even now, like the number one response is, wait, I thought Romans actually persecuted Christians.

So how is it they're actually getting those bills passed? And I know we talked about this before, how Constantine, the emperor, became Christian. And it's, that's just that more, and I think he even says it, there's a point, he's like, this is why you can't be a Christian and be out of politics.

You can't be hands off. Because if they had been, what if Constantine had been like, hey, guys, we're going to outlaw this. And they'd be like, oh, let's keep this church and state thing separate from what we're trying to do here.

I hear you. I don't want the babies to be killed any more than you do. But that being said, man, we got to keep church out of our, no, they were like, no, absolutely.

If the emperor is on our side, if he's Christian, then we can influence the world for the better. People have that stance, like you can't legislate morality when that's absolutely not true. Every legislation pushes forward some form of morality. What is it if it's not, if it's not pushing morality, something is right and something is wrong. Right.

I mean, that's morality. Yeah. I mean, you have the edict of Milan where it all began and then by 380 it becomes the state religion, Christianity. And so this is 374 right in that period is when the Christians in Rome, not that they didn't believe that before, they just didn't have the power to make a change. Right.

But when Christianity became accepted and even state religion, now we can debate whether that's a good thing or bad thing, but in this situation, children were saved. Yeah. Right. Amen. Also, Christians outlawed the brutal battles to the death in which thousands of gladiators died.

This is 8404. Yeah. Wow. I mean, I love boxing. But, you know, but battle to the death. Yeah. Like, imagine Mike Tyson and Holyfield are down in the ring and you're like, all right, we're not leaving here until someone's dead.

Someone is not leaving. Kill him. I mean, thumbs down. Kill him.

And Christians said, Jesus died for that man. Yeah. Yeah.

Can't do that. That's right. They abolished human sacrifice among the Irish depressions, the Lithuanians and others. I mean, they had human sacrifices. And Christians said, well, this is a tradition. Well, we're going to change that. Yeah. And I think it can't be a tradition anymore. Yeah, absolutely.

And there's another. And all of those examples, it's like someone could say, well, that's true, but that was all in ancient times. But what was the example you were bringing about in India where the women were expected to, they were expected to jump on the funeral pyres and that was not that long ago, was it?

No, that's about 100 some years ago. And in fact, in some parts and pockets of India, it was practiced up until recently. But who knows, some parts, they still might be doing it. It's still happening. It doesn't get publicized. Yeah.

I doubt it. But, but anyways, the whole point is that Christianity is coming, brought such changes in the culture. I mean, pedophilia, yeah.

Grown men with young children. It's Christians who outlawed that. That's right. Polygamy. Talk about the Western world, they're bringing it back. Yeah, they are. That's true. Right?

I mean, it's like, no, you can't do that. They outlawed the practice of burning alive widows in India in 1829 when the British were in India. The missionaries are the ones who worked against that.

And Albert Schmitz talks about that. They began compulsory education for all children in European countries. So prior to Christianity really permeating the culture in Europe, children were just means to provide food and means to living. Yeah, they weren't, they weren't, it was not a priority to get them educated. Yeah. It wasn't a requirement.

Like when I see a child wandering the streets in a school day, my thought is, wait a minute, why aren't you in school? Right. Yeah, something's wrong here. You need to be in school. Yeah.

What are you doing here? But it used to be the fact where they were like, why in the world would they be in school? Right. We don't, we can't, we can't.

In fact, they should work in the coal mines, go in places where we can crawl in. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Golly.

Well, make these fine jewelry with their little hands. That's, I mean, that's what kids did. It's insane. It is, it is weird to think about because it's so, I have no frame of reference other than reading it in books or whatever and just kind of someone telling me that it's true, but knowing that it's reality and knowing that Christians saw that, knowing that Christians put a stop to that, I think makes it come alive even more.

You know what I mean? And it's such a, such a great reminder for us as believers. I mean, are we doing things and are we involved in things to change the world around us? And you know, one of the things we talk about here at Clearview Church is how are we going to change the world? And it's grandiose.

Sure. But I mean, what's, this is what we say all the time. What's stopping us? If God is truly on our side and if God works through Christians to change the world, then what's stopping this radio show right here from changing how the world is run for the better, for the good of God's kingdom? I mean, if someone is going to do it, God's going to do it through someone. Why not us?

Why not you? Listening to this show right now, how can you be part of it? Is it, is it partnering with us? Is it by partnering with your local churches? Is it by getting involved? Is it by reading these books that Dr. Shaw's recommending to you? There is some way that God is going to use you to impact the world.

The question is, do you want it? If this is your first day here, welcome, we're glad that God brought you to the Clear View Today show. Want to encourage you to check out that book, How Christianity Changed the World, but also check out the Clear Read Today show online, cleareetodayshow.com. Become part of what God is doing through this show. We truly believe this show is going to impact the nations with the gospel and we want you to be a part of it.

That's right. And you can do that by scrolling to the bottom, click that donate button and become part of our Clear Read Today show family. John, what's coming up on tomorrow's episode? Tomorrow we are going to have special guest Nicole Shaw joining us right here on the Clear View Today show with her husband, Dr. Avada Shah, because we are going to be looking at marriage and family.

We did that a little bit last month. We're going to be talking about some of the things that marriages and families have to go through in this life, but it's all for the better because God has a plan for your marriage. Make sure you're here with us tomorrow.

That's right. We love you guys. We'll see you in the Clear Read Today. We'll see you in the Clear Read Today.