Does the Role of President Matter?

This episode of Clearview Today is brought to you by Le Bleu Ultra Pure Water.

David, how many bottles of water do you think you drink a day? Well, actually, I only drink Flamin' Hot Mountain Dew, Strawberry Yoo-Hoo, and the occasional Pepto Bismol. Flamin' Hot Mountain Dew? Do they even make that anymore?

Fun fact, no. I have to make my own with McDonald's Sprite, and you guessed it, Texas Pete. I am genuinely horrified to hear that.

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Where's my Mountain Dew? You're listening to The Clearview Today Show with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm John Galantis, and you can find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

If you have a question for Dr. Shah, anything you want to write in, suggest we talk about here on the show, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. You can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show. You can share it online with your friends and your family. Leave us a good five-star review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from.

We're going to leave a couple of links right in the description so you can do just that. Absolutely nothing less than five stars for any reason whatsoever. As you can probably tell, I am alone here in The Clearview Today Studio again. My partner Ryan has abandoned me yet again.

A couple of weeks ago, it was for the mission trip, our annual mission trip to Hendersonville, North Carolina. This week, it's something kind of dumb, like an anniversary or something like that, a week-long anniversary with his wife or whatever. I don't know. It is what it is. I've got a bitter spirit today, and that's just going to have to be what it is. But it's a good thing, because today's verse of the day is actually about just that. The Word of God is on my side with this one.

From Job 7, Chapter 11, it says, Therefore, I will not keep silent. I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. That's what I'm doing today. I'm complaining just out of bitterness and spite and really anguish and hurt and betrayal that I would be left alone to do the intros of The Clearview Today show again for the second week in a row.

Maybe not in a row, but for the second week. But all joking aside, a lot of times, we tend to think that God is too fragile or too distant or too brooding or too vengeful or spiteful or whatever else you want to say for us to be able to speak honestly to him about our dilemmas. Or maybe it's just that we want to appear that we never doubt. We never are angry or disappointed with the circumstances of life.

Whether we think it makes us look irreverent or whether it makes us look doubtful, who knows? But Job isn't like that. The Book of Job is a very interesting study on how to speak to God and how to pray to God in the middle of crisis. Job didn't live in denial about his anguish or his pain or his disappointment with God and how God allowed all of this calamity in his life. Job spoke honestly. Job was honest with God. Job told God about his emotions. He told him about his feelings. He remembered that God had a relationship with him.

This relationship is two ways. It's not just that we have to pretend that things aren't going on in our life to appease God or make sure that God is spoken to with respect and honor. It's to the point where we have to almost lie to him and say, God, thank you for all these gifts. I'm perfectly happy.

Nothing's wrong in my life. On the contrary, God wants us to speak openly with him. He wants us to be real about the chapter of our lives that we're in. He wants us to acknowledge the pain and the disappointment that's overwhelming you.

That's part of asking. That's part of being in a relationship with God is asking him what we need and being honest with him. Then letting him minister to us through all of those hurts and those frustrations and those fears.

The best way that he does that is through the Word of God. That's why we start every single verse or every single episode, I should say, with a verse of the day. Today's verse of the day is brought to you by the Date the Word app.

We're going to leave some information about that right there in the description. As you can tell, I am here again, once again, in the Clearview Today studio, all by myself. I'm not even going to dwell on that, because I don't want the bitterness that's in my soul to really seep out and poison our radio audience.

I don't want it to poison Ryan and Elizabeth, who are off enjoying their vacation. Instead, I'm going to bring out a million dollars question that somebody left me this morning. Here comes the money!

Here it comes, folks. This is the portion of our show where people write in. We love answering these questions, by the way. These are where people write in. I like money! This is where people write in and ask us, for a million dollars, would you do this? This one seems to be aimed right at Dr. Shah, because it's very scholarly in nature.

This is something that I personally don't think I would do. This is coming from Wayne G. right here in North Carolina. It says, million dollars, but every time you make a point, every time you state something, state a fact, you have to cite it.

Let's see, I should have thought of one on the way in. You know that King Henry VIII, he was the King of England. Someone would be like, you need to cite that. It's like, well, I don't have to cite that.

That's common knowledge. No, no, you need to go and cite that before you say that it's true. Now, I either have to recant, or I have to take it back. I'm sorry, I have to recant, or I have to go and search that up and cite it. I got to be honest with you, I think I would probably not take the money, because there are so many things that we say here on the radio show as truth. Imagine having to go and cite every single one. If it's the Bible, you can sort of prepare for it. But every single historical fact, I don't think I would do it. I don't think I'd be able to do it. Would you be able to do it? Write in and let us know.

252-582-5028. I'm going to ask Dr. Shaw, because that's sort of his life. That's sort of what he does, is he has to cite every single thing, lest other scholars come and say, I don't think that's true right there. It's the life of a scholar, man. It's just what they have to do. It can be challenging at times, but hey, that's what you get into when you enter that world. Me, myself, I don't think I would take the money.

I don't want to cite every single thing that I propose as true. I want to do what most people on the radio do and just say that it's true and have you believe me, because I'm on the radio. Write in and let us know if you would take the money.

252-582-5028. We're going to grab Dr. Shaw right after this break. We'll be right back. What's going on, listeners? My name is John.

And I'm David. And we hope you are enjoying the podcast thus far. You know, we really appreciate how many of you download the podcast every day.

Right. But we also want to remind you that we are first and foremost a radio show. Clearview Today is actually syndicated through the Truth Network, and we just want to let you know right now that in addition to hosting the all-time best Christian talk show of all time, hashtag Clearview Today, hashtag Clearview Today, the Truth Network also, as it turns out, has an extensive library of Christian programming. We really love everything they're doing at the Truth Network because the whole goal is to encourage, challenge, confront and uplift listeners with the life changing truth of Jesus Christ through Christian talk radio. And listen, we know we are not the only show wanting to expand its audience. So if you have a vision for your show or for your ministry, why don't you consider syndicating your show through the Truth Network because they rely on decades of experience of self-syndication with a full array of features for your long form or short form content. Make sure you visit the Truth Network online today at truthnetwork.com or you can give them a call at 336-759-0363.

Again, that's 336-759-0363. Well, John, are you ready? I was born ready, my friend. Let's hop right back in.

All right. Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. You can always text in, write in, let us know any topics, any questions that you have that you want Dr. Shah to cover here on the show, 252-582-5028. And once again, we are here in the Clearview Today studio with Dr. Abbadon Shah, who's a PhD in New Testament textual criticism that's going to come in handy just a second.

He's also a professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show, Dr. Shah. Someone wrote in here this morning, they want to know for a million buckaroons, for a million dollars, any time you make a statement, this one's kind of rough, I'm not going to lie. I wouldn't take the money. A million dollars, any time you make a statement or you try to tell someone something, even if it's in casual conversation, you have to cite the source. So imagine telling someone in 1775 or whatever, Paul Revere made that famous ride. They were going to be like, you got to cite that.

You're like, wow, I'll be right back. And you got to go find the book, cite it, be like, here, here it is. So you can hardly talk. Exactly, yeah. So do I have to now cite the word hardly and talk as well?

I would say no. I would say it's if you're trying to prove a point. Or make a claim or something like that. You could get around it by being like, I don't know if this is true, but you clearly know these things are true. If you want to assert something is true, you have to cite, you have to cite.

This morning was a beautiful, wait, I have to now quote the web, like the Weather Channel. Yeah, maybe. I would say it's if you're trying to convince somebody that something is true. I don't know, yeah, maybe it's like if you're like, today was a, like if you were like, I bench 185 today. It's like, you got to cite that.

It's like, well, pull up the app. There it is. There it is. Okay.

And how much do I get? A million. I might do it. Really? I might do it. Here's the thing. I feel like I said this in the intro. I feel like you would do it just because that's kind of your life.

Yeah, I do it all the time anyways. Looking up sources and citing things. You know, when I was in the PhD program, the first year, I had to take some, what they call colloquiums, where you have classes or subjects other than your own field. You have to study them like really in depth, but not for a long time because you're really studying your own subject for the long time. But you would like church history.

That's not my subject. Although textual criticism deals with that, but that's not primarily my subject. So I had to like really study it, dig deep. And or philosophy or science. You know, I took heavy seminars in science. For your PhD program. For my PhD colloquiums. For the colloquiums. Okay.

Yeah. And so I had to read like all kinds of books on science. And I was a science teacher, so that was a little, you know, down my field.

But these were like really deep books. Is that what a colloquium is? It's just a kind of offset class almost, or an offset course? It's to help you become more well-rounded as a scholar. So you're not just like a super expert in your field. Other than that, you can't even put your shoes on.

Tie your shoes. Yeah. So it's one of those things they do to give you a little bit, you know, rounded edges, I guess. So that was a tough time because everything you would claim or say in the class, they will say, you have to cite your sources on that. Because I was like, well, this is common knowledge. Like in the early church, you know, when they worshiped on Sunday. And they say, wait, what is your source for that? I mean, didn't they? I mean, isn't that when our practice came from?

Yeah, sure it did. But where do you find that? What early church father said that? Or where do you find that in church history? Did Eusebius say that? Did Jerome say that? Or let's go further back, Irenaeus, Ignatius? Who said that?

Justin Martyr, Origen, who said that? So like, I don't know. Did it feel like, did it feel like, I guess, I don't know. I don't know how a PhD colloquium is different. Cause like in classes, like an undergrad class, you're not like having a discussion.

You're not like having a conversation or trying to advance anything. You're just turning in work. Did it feel like... In a PhD colloquium? No, in undergrad. Oh yeah. Like, like you're not contributing to a larger field or a larger conversation.

You're just turning work in. So is it difficult or did you find it difficult then to have a conversation because I can't make a single point without having to backtrack and find... It's difficult. So when somebody just, you know, shoots off and says something, they look like an idiot. Even if they're right. Even if they're right, but they're just like saying something. Like you can, I remember reading some of the papers because, you know, every time you read a paper, you have to pass out copies so everybody can have it. And I remember reading some of them and they were preaching. They were preaching. Like it was almost like, you know, hiss. And so God wants us to go out and win the loss. This is supposed to be like a scholarly presentation.

Scholarly presentation with footnotes and citations. And it's like moment somebody would do that. It's like, you're not doing good. You're going to get chewed out in a moment. But anyways.

Did you know it was coming? Oh yeah. Yeah. Some of the guys would do that. And they thought like, this is a great introduction or a great ending.

No citations, nothing. That's a big statement. Like, let's just say this way. The Holy Spirit works in powerful ways, even today. And they tried to close it.

Like they'd close us out. And then I knew it. The professor would be like, I know what you're saying here.

And that's, that's great. If you were on a master's level or a bachelor's or you were preaching, but here, how does that fit your subject? And what sources are you citing? I just tried to wrap up.

I did not do that. So it forces you to cite. So does that mean, does that mean when you go to, that's, that's a great point. Does that mean when you go to like ETS and conferences like that, they don't end with no flare, nothing like that.

No, no. Some of the, some of the papers are so dull in their ending and they're supposed to be. So you end with like, not even, not even a, a splat. It's like, this is it.

Just, it's just, they just put the period on and just close the book. This is it. It's kind of like, and that verse says that, and this is what it means. Yeah.

And it should have meant that. The end. The end.

And it's like, wow. Okay. All right. No, you have no conclusion yet.

They put the little things down and go home. Any questions? So, so when you were in your PhD program, correct me if I'm wrong, but you also did a colloquium in American history. Yes, I did. Is that kind of where you fell in love with American history or were you already into that?

I was already into that. I took it on purpose. I took it because I knew bits and pieces of American history really well, but then there were massive gaps in my understanding. In my college level, I took several professors that really inspired me with regards to American history. And so it really got me thinking, because already growing up in India as a Christian, I was already partial to American history because America was a Christian country, Christian nation stands up for Christians everywhere.

So it was already, we were partial to America. And then that class or several classes in American history really got me thinking. I was like, wow, that's so awesome that this nation was founded on principles and values coming from the Bible. That's unique because I know what it looks like when they don't come from the Bible. And the only reason India has sort of made it so far, okay, I'm saying that as clearly as possible, is because they have adopted the English common law in their parliamentary system, the English common law.

If that is taken away, it's chaos, which is what's happening right now, because even though they have it, they're not acting like it. So listening to my professors and my bachelors, it was very inspiring. And then when I went into ministry, I was like, okay, if I'm going to be ministering and pastoring in this context that I need to know the history, the background of the people here, I need to know that.

I cannot just talk about how great God is without telling them how great God is in your context. And then when I came into the masters, there were also some church history, American history classes, American church history classes. Again, I was inspired and Nicole loves American history, world history.

So that also fueled that. And then when the chance came for me to take the PhD seminars, I asked my professor, which, which one should I take? He said, none of them. I was like, really?

None of them apply to none of them are good. Yeah. That was Dr. Robinson that told you that. Yeah.

You can always trust him to shoot straight with you. He's like, take whatever you want. I said, but on textual criticism, I am the text critic and there's no one else. So you're good as far as I'm concerned. Take whatever you like. It was like, if you want to just take anything you want. So I'm like, I'm going to take early American history. Yeah.

He said, okay. So how long was that colloquium? How long do they typically last? I took two actually. I took two early American history colloquiums.

Are they like a semester? Yeah. One was more American history.

One was more American church history. Okay. Okay.

And so they were like a semester at a time. Okay. So, so that kind of, cause, well, that kind of leads into what we're talking about because these past couple of episodes, we've been talking about your new book, 30 days praying for America. And these are, this is a 30 day devotion.

It's 30 day devotion. That's, that's solely dedicated to helping America heal, get back to our Christian values and have the common people, not just Christian, primarily Christians, but also hopefully the lost kind of understand that our nation was built on these values and talking about leadership and talking about America. It's sort of inevitable that we're going to end up at the office of the president because you can't get higher in American leadership than that. Right.

Right. You know, it's been a couple of weeks. We were going to do an episode right after the debate, but we decided we wanted to wait a couple of weeks, let everything die down, let everybody meme it to death as they've been doing. Everybody had something to say on the debate and yet at the same time we were all kind of saying the same thing.

Like this is almost incomprehensible to what American politics, like compared to, compared to the colloquiums that you had to do like with PhD and scholars and stuff. How do you think that debate would have gone? I mean, like that kind of presentation would have gone, is it even comprehensible? One of them, I would say was pretty disastrous. One of them was, I was, I didn't know what to say. I feel like one of them just won by showing up, like just by being there and being cognizant.

I don't think they won, they just showed up. It was, it was very poor and it was sad because we are the leader of the free world. America still is a city, a nation above any other nation in the world on so many levels. And I will say that unapologetically because of the values for which it stands, because how the world looks to us.

All right. We can talk about America, this and America, that, and all the problems here, but let someone attack someone somewhere and they're like, oh, are you going to do something? And then sometimes when America does do something, and I'm not saying every American foreign policy has been great.

Okay. I will be the first to say that. And I'm sure people here would say that too, but the world expects it. They look to America, even in parts of the world that are, you know, death to America and all these slogans that you see, even that part of the world, when things go really bad, they start looking for that aid. They're looking for, not just for the aid, but the moment they see the American flag and the troops show up. Now I know the media portrays one thing and there are bullies out there who will make sure that the common people are not upfront saying we're so grateful America is here, but talk to the troops.

Talk to the troops who, who showed up in Iraq or Afghanistan or in Africa or other, or even in Europe or South America, talk to the troops and they will tell you when they show up, the people are so happy, so glad that they're there. Now what shows up on the media or what shows up on Twitter and other places may be a different thing because that's where the bullies win. That's where sometimes the leftist liberal media wins. But in reality is the common people are like, oh, America's here.

At least we'll get some justice, some help. Everybody's going to stand for us. So the person who leads America should be someone exceptional. I think that's a great point to make and maybe you can kind of dive into that a little bit because we've said it on the show many, many, many times, but do you want to just talk about the value of leadership? Like as America, we are a collective. At the same time, you can't take away a strong authoritative leader and expect things to just still work just because we're all going to come together.

There's a misunderstanding and it's everywhere. It's in business, it's in church, it's in the community, it's right now in politics, which is the leader doesn't matter. We just all have to come together and work out a solution.

Unfortunately, life doesn't work that way. You got to have a leader. You have to have people who stand up and say, okay, let's do this.

And of course it is permission based. It's consensus based. It's not just like a dictatorship. You do get the consensus of the people. You do get the support of the people.

You have to hear the voice of the people and say, this is what people are looking for. And yet we know what's the best decision in this. That's why it's a republic. We are constitutional republic, democratically elected constitutional republic.

That's who we are. So by republic, we mean we are electing people who we believe understand life, understand law, understand the greater good, and we are trusting them with making that decision. If it's just a democracy, which means whatever people want, we'll do it for them. Can you imagine how terrible this world would be if it's all democratically based? I don't know that we would have an America. I don't know that we would have had America since its founding.

I don't think it would last a hundred years. No, it's a republic and the best places have been republic. Greece for a while went democratic and what happened to them? Look at that.

They lost everything. So republic means we have come together to vote for a person who is going to represent us and make the best decision for us because we believe that that person is going to be a person of integrity. That person will have our values in mind. The person will work in a way that will enhance our standard of living and not just one person or one group or one strata of society, but it's going to enhance the values or the standard of living for every person, the rich, the poor, the middle class.

A person who will protect us, who will take steps to make sure that we have the necessary troops or weaponry or whatever we need to deter the enemy from attacking us. A person who values life. So we want to make sure this person will value not just life as in certain kinds of people, but all kinds of people. Also value the life of the unborn, because they're also there. They're also individuals.

At the moment of conception, they are human beings, so values that life. Also a person who does not look down on other people but believes that there's something special about us as a people. Something special about us does not mean that we are better than everybody, but something special means we have a greater calling upon us. Right. Yeah. There's something special about America. There's something that sets America apart from the rest of the world. That's not an evil mindset to have.

No. Also someone who recognizes where we came from. What is that providential, that invisible hand behind our foundation and our existence? Of course, we're talking about God. We're talking about Judeo-Christian values. So when we talk about leadership, we're talking about a person who has these qualities and who is able to work with other people of similar qualities. They may defer with him, they may disagree with him or her, but they can come together and work for the greater good. That's what leadership is.

That's right. That applies on Capitol Hill. That applies at the local city council meeting. That applies in churches. That applies in communities. That applies everywhere.

Great point. It's really no understatement or exaggeration to say that when it comes to the President of the United States, that's one of the most important people in the entire world. And one of the things that Christians do, I feel like they do, I think we're a kind of unique church here in that we talk about politics and we talk about these Christian values in politics, but they say, you know what? Jesus has got this.

God's got it. And America will be just fine. And yeah, we're not happy with the current president, but look, we're just going to pray for him and support him. And it's almost like we're throwing our hands up and just saying at the end of the day, the president doesn't matter. Leadership doesn't matter. That's not true. It's just one of those things where I really appreciate this book, this devotional that you've written with your wife, Nicole.

And for anybody who's listening, we're going to leave the link in the description below. But I don't know that it's ever been this, because I remember even when Trump was in office, everybody seemed united against him, but that wasn't the case. That was not the case.

Definitely not the case. It was the media. It was the left wing media trying to make it to where we all agree left and right that this guy's bad.

I would even add and say this, if you don't mind me interjecting there. It's not just a left wing media. It's a media that has been bought by powers, whether they're powers as in other nations or powers as in other groups that have ill intention towards this nation. True.

Because it's not just a leftist. Of course they are, but it's more than that. Yeah, that's a great point.

If we were back in the 90s, I would say, oh yeah, the media is still left. This is different. This is wicked.

This is evil. That's a great point. That's a great point. It feels like what they tried to paint is actually happening now, where everybody pretty much agrees this is not working, which is, I've got to say, I didn't see that happening. I thought they would stand by it till the bitter end, but it seems as though now everybody, regardless of party, pretty much has come to the understanding this didn't work, which I mean, Hey, we said that almost four years ago.

Yeah. So I guess what is our hope or what is our call really? Well, for one, definitely we have to pray for our nation as Christians, as a belief, as a, as believers, we have to go to God. We have to turn to God and say, God, we need your help. And that may sound naive.

That may sound simplistic, but it is not. Every time in the history of the world, any people have turned to God for answers, especially God's people, God has answered. And that is our only hope.

Turn to God. And then God will of course give us the wisdom, the courage, the discernment, the grace, everything that we need to start looking for those criteria in our book. We have a chapter, this is devotional book, but we have one chapter, which is simply focused on the president.

What are some of the qualities? And I kind of listed that in the beginning, if you were paying attention that we are looking for in the president and we need to pray God send us a person like that. There's a, there's a scripture that you quoted in, in your devotional from Proverbs 27, where it says when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules, the people groan. And if I turn on any news station, if I turn on, there's a lot of groaning.

The American people are groaning. So listen, if you believe the Bible, this is, this is what it is. Well, Dr. Shaw, thank you for this book. Thank you for this episode. Thank you for just your American spirit. I think we have something very unique in you. And I say, we say this a lot and it's not just to, just to make the same point over and over again, but it's to remind ourselves that sometimes it does take an outside perspective.

I was born here, you know, I've, it's very easy to take what we have for granted, but we really do have a very precious nation. And we want this show to be just an extension of that for you guys. If there's, if you liked this episode or if there's anything that you want to write in, maybe comment on, send us a text, two five two five eight two five zero two eight, or you can always email us contact at cleerviewtodayshow.com. Shout out to Ryan, by the way, we didn't even mention Ryan. We miss you buddy, but I know you'll be back soon. Write in, let us know that number is two five two five eight two five zero two eight. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.