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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 Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill, John Galantis, and you can find us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearViewTodayShow.com.
That's right, you guys can help us keep the conversation moving forward by supporting the show. Share it online with your friends and family. Leave us a good five star review on iTunes or Spotify.
Absolutely nothing less than five stars. We're going to leave a couple of links right there in the description so you can do just that. The verse of the day today is coming to you from Proverbs chapter 8 verse 19. My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold, and my revenue than choice silver.
That's right. Wisdom is a big part of Proverbs, and the ultimate expression of godly wisdom is found in the person of Jesus Christ, and everyone who has faith in him, he offers forgiveness and abundance. I think that's the biggest thing that I think about when I think of coming to Christ, is just the abundance of new life. Yeah. I love the tale of Solomon, and God says, I'll give you whatever you ask for, and Solomon, of course, as you know, asks for wisdom.
It's such a good picture. Solomon wasn't a perfect man. He made mistakes, certainly toward the latter part of his life and his choice of many wives and women who weren't his wife, but he offers these wisdom principles through the book of Proverbs as he's like a father teaching his son, and obviously that perfect godly wisdom comes from Christ, and that's available to us as we come to Christ. So if you're struggling to make wise choices in your life, grow in your relationship with God. Prioritize that time spent with him, and as you become more like Christ, you will gain that godly wisdom. That's right, and it's not just avoiding the bad things.
I want to gain wisdom so that I don't make mistakes. That's just the tip of the iceberg. The rewards that come with following Christ are just astronomical. It says all throughout the New Testament, you're going to get an incorruptible crown.
You're going to get a crown of life, a crown of righteousness, a crown of glory. There's so much that comes with following Jesus Christ, and speaking of incorruptible riches, Ryan, my friend, I got a question for you. Oh, here it comes again. Million Dollar Monday. Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money. Yeah, money, money, money, money, money, money.
All right, million dollars, my friend. Anytime you pass an open window, any time there's a window that's open, or not even if you pass an open window, if you're just in a room with an open window. Open like the glass is up? No, the glass is there. You can see through the window.
Like it's just not shut with a curtain. Anytime you can see through a window, there's a clown on the other end, and he's not, he's just waving at you. Is he like scary clown or just clown? It's always a different clown. Sometimes he'll be a scary clown.
Sometimes he'll be a happy clown, sad clown, but it's always a clown. He's not trying to get in. He's not trying to like rattle.
He's not trying to scare you. He's just there and he's just waving. But anytime there's an open window. So there's an open window right there. Yeah.
So like, I look up, he's like, he's just there. Yup. Uh, I'd probably take that. That's going to be unnerving, but I I'd probably take it.
Yeah. The thing about it is I, cause I thought about it and I asked, I ran it by Ellie and she said, is it just me that can see it? And at first I was saying, yeah, that's a good point, but I think it's, it's better if it's like, no, everybody can see the clown. They know he, that you're the reason and they do not want the clown there. I mean, think about it.
Think about being at home and your wife can just see a clown just like, Oh, you know what I just thought about? What? At the back of our sanctuary, there's glass panes in the doors at the glass. Yeah. Yeah.
When I walk into the back of the sanctuary to close service, Dr. Shaw's out there preaching. There's a clown just a hundred percent. He's there. Maybe that changed my answer. Other people seen it.
I think I'm going to, I'm going to take a pass on that one. If you try to interact with him, he won't like, like he'll, he, he's not there. If that makes sense. Like they just see it's, it's a hallucination if you will. Like you can't like, uh, it's a shared delusion. You can't beat up the clown. You can't like drag him out. Yeah.
It's a shared delusion. Uh, I would, yeah. If other people can see it, I'm probably going to say no. I think I would do it.
You think so? I think I would do, I think I would take the money when we were growing up. Um, my mom had a picture of a sad cloud. It was a beautiful artwork, like an oil painting of a sad clown hanging in our hallway. I don't know why. I have no idea why, but I wa I remember walking past this, this clown like every day and it was so unnerving and so unpleasant.
I still have it. I don't know. Probably not, but uh, I don't know why she had that. I don't know where it came from. I don't know if it was from a family member, but uh, yeah, I grew up with sad clown on the hall, on the hallway wall. I always thought clowns were like funny. Like they were supposed to be like, my mom would take me to like Ringling Brothers Circus and I would love when the clowns came out and I don't know, I don't know if it was because of it. I don't know if it was another movie before that, but somehow people got scared of clowns and I just never jumped on that.
I always thought they were, I always thought they were kind of funny. I don't know. I don't know.
Write in and let us know if you would take that deal. Every time you see an open window there's a waving clown that everyone can see and they don't want him to be there. And they know it's your fault. Yeah. 2525825028 or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. I wonder what Dr. Shaw would say because he's going to see that the whole time that he's preaching. Now we could probably, we could block out the windows, but I don't know if he's going to want that either. Yeah, I don't know. Let's figure it out. Write in and let us know. Stay tuned.
We'll see you after the break. 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. Clear View 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 clear view 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're 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 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 or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right. And here we are once again, the Clear View Today studio with Dr. Abbadan Shah, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism. Dr. Shah, we're going to give you a million dollars cash in hand. But every time you see an open window or you're in a room where there's an open window, there's a clown outside the window just waving at you.
He's just there. If that was like 10 years ago, that would be no problem. Now? Now it's like everybody's made clowns scary. Clowns are creepy now. Clowns are a scary thing now. Clowns were funny. It's like you go to the circus and just see the clowns. Now it's like, it's a horror movie. But like everyone else can see it too.
So like Ryan brought up a good point. The doors have glass windows on it. So if you're preaching, you would just see a clown in the window. He's not trying to get at you. He won't try to come in the room. He's just waving through the window. Not going to take it. I mean, I was on the plane.
This is about maybe two years ago. And my problem is while I'm on the plane, I'll have, the only thing I watch on my plane, well, maybe I'll watch a movie once in a while, but usually it's just a flight. The flight path?
Flight path. That's all I watch. And because I'm going to sleep, I'm going to take my time, read whatever and I'll watch some dumb movie.
Right. But what I ended up doing is watching somebody else's movie. I do the same thing. You catch my screen and you're like. I do the exact same thing.
Yeah. And I sat there and I watched that horror clown movie. Not all of it, because I cannot hear it. But I watched bits and pieces. Finally, I was like, I'll just turn my head. But I was like, oh, it's scary. It's terrifying. But you can't look away.
You're like, I don't want to watch this anymore. But I, my eyes keep going there. Now they put the same kind of filter that we have on our phones. So you cannot see it. Oh, I didn't know they were doing that.
So you have to really go like this. Make it real obvious that you're craning and looking at somebody else's screen. I didn't realize they started doing that. I don't know why I do the exact same thing. Like I typically never, ever watch a movie. I'll either just have it off or like you said, watch The Flight Path.
That's right. But then I'll watch their movie and never once does it occur to me. I can just watch it here. If I really want to watch it, I'll just watch it. If they're watching it, I'm going to be able to find the same movie. But I never do.
Yeah, that's pretty funny. You know, when you encounter people in the plane like that, as you're looking over and trying to see what they're watching, there's an interaction that should take place, but you really don't. But I'm like, hey, what are you watching?
Can you tell me what you're watching on your screen? I don't want to engage people like that. Right, exactly, exactly. But we need to learn how to engage people. We need to learn how to interact with people. And that's important, not just on a plane ride, but it's important in the Christian life as well.
100%. And we had someone engage us, Dr. Shaw. We had someone engage us. In fact, Ryan, I think you know what time it is. Oh, he's about to go off, ladies and gentlemen.
This is the 90s coming at you. Hit it, mailbox. This is coming to us from Sarah P. from North Carolina. This is a long time listener of the show. What do you think the P stands for, Ryan?
Percolator. Sarah Percolator wants to know, Dr. Shaw, the signs and wonders, such as speaking in tongues and physical healings in the New Testament and the early church, were those just for the apostolic age in that particular time? Or are these things still legitimate today? Perhaps Dr. Shaw could address the topic of faith healing. Are ministers given the gift of healing today?
And so this is something that I've often wondered myself. Signs and wonders. People always ask Jesus for signs and wonders, but people still talk about signs and wonders today.
Is this something that's still relevant to us? There are two different things happening there. One I would say is regarding the meaning of signs and wonders. What do we mean when we talk about the gift of tongues?
And what do we mean when we talk about the gift of prophecy? That's a whole different issue. Then secondly, are they still operative today? Or have they, as the view is referred to as a cessationist view, that they have ceased to be?
Two different things happening. I believe, and it's a surprise to our listeners, I don't believe in the cessationist view, that it has ceased. I don't believe some of those gifts have ceased. But what I do believe is that our interpretation of those gifts are wrong. So the real question then comes to, or the first question that we have to answer is, what is the gift of tongues? And I go back to the day of Pentecost. When all those people heard in their original language, or in the language of their origin, that I believe is a true gift of tongues.
Where they could speak, maybe not understand what they were saying, but somebody else who is in the vicinity could understand in his or her language, what this person is saying. But this whole thing of speaking in tongues today, where it's like, this is the heavenly angelic language, that's like evidence that you're truly saved in the spirits within you. That's not in the Bible. Well, 1 Corinthians talks about that, but I think it's being misunderstood or misapplied. So I would say, really do your research. And I don't know if maybe we can one day take the time to study 1 Corinthians.
Let me see if I can go and find that. 1 Corinthians 12 talks about not concerning spiritual gifts. Brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. And on and on, Paul talks about different kinds of gifts and the unity and diversity in the body. And then he talks about the greatest gift, which is love. And then he talks about again in chapter 14 about prophecy in tongues and how tongues must be interpreted. He did not say translated. He said interpreted. What is the... You don't need translation.
You don't need translation. You need interpretation. Interpretation and...
I don't know if you say that. Well, the interpreter said this. Interpreter means somebody who is taking what is being said and now explaining it to us. Rather than a translator who's saying, here's what he's saying. These are what the words mean.
Right. Translator is, this person is speaking in French, but you don't understand French. So I'm going to repeat the same thing that this person said, but in English. That's a translator. So if I ask the translator, what does he mean? The translator could say, I mean, I'm just telling you what he said. Right. Got you.
Okay. So 1 Corinthians chapter 14 is not about translation. It's about interpretation. And a key reference in this is 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 21. So you have to go there and see what it's saying because here we are explained what tongues are all about. So let me read that for you. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 21 says, in the law, it is written with men of other tongues and other lips. I will speak to this people. And yet for all this, they will not hear me, says the Lord.
Okay. In the law, it is written. This is 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 21. And it's referring now to Isaiah chapter 28 verses 11 and 12. What was happening in Isaiah chapter 28 verses 11 and 12? God was giving Israel a warning.
And the warning was this. When you hear a foreign language in your street or streets in your neighborhoods, in your shopping malls or shopping centers, in your harbors and roads and highways, when you start hearing foreign languages, you will know God's judgment has come. Of course, this is about the Assyrian invasion, right?
With men of other tongues, with men, not angels, men of other tongues and other lips. I will speak to this people and yet for all that they will not hear me, says the Lord. So the Assyrian will tell you, get moving. And later the Babylonian will tell you, march. And yet the people did not hear God. They were so hard-hearted, they didn't understand God's judgment had come and they were being sent into exile. That's Isaiah 28, 11 and 12.
Okay. So this passage on tongues. What does it have to do with Pentecost? What does it have to do with the gift of tongues in the church? God used this same, okay, this is where we're getting into typology. God is using something that happened back here, which had a predictive element, a prophecy element, which was very near. To also send a message for something that will also come one day after the Messiah has been resurrected 40 days later, the church is born on the day of Pentecost. That's when with men of other tongues, I will speak to this people and yet they will not listen.
Some listened, but as a nation, they did not listen. Is that what you mean by typology? Like this, what happened in the past is applicable to something that's also going to happen? It's not applicable.
It also is the pattern is found again. Okay. It's like it was true in the immediate context. It was relevant then, but it also points to something that's coming down the road. Right.
Okay. So this passage about tongues has an immediate prophetic element, but also has a future prophetic element. The immediate is the exile. Exile, where the Assyrians are going to march into your homes in your cities and tell you, let's go. And the Babylonians will come to the south one day and say, let's go, you're done.
We're burning everything down and yet they didn't listen. But also it has a prophetic element further down where another, they will again hear people with other tongues and yet they will not listen. And this was the prophecy for the day of Pentecost and beyond. Not just on the day, but continued for a while, where people from other parts of the world were in Jerusalem. And these were not just any people, they were Jewish people. They were the scattered people who came back to celebrate Pentecost.
And while they were there in the city of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down, mighty rushing winds, tongues of fire over their heads in the upper room as they were praying. And then Peter stands up and says, I know, I know you're thinking we are crazy. We are drunk. We're not. This is the middle of the day.
Nobody drinks in the middle of the day. But let me tell you what's happening here. And he begins and tells them the story of Jesus, how Jesus came and how all this happened. And even prior to that, as those people are beginning to talk, there are people there, Cretans and Arabs and Scythians and Egyptians and Greeks who are there. They're not just Scythians and Arabs and Egyptians and Greeks.
They are Scythian background Jewish people, Egyptian background Jewish people, Greek background Jewish people, Arab background Jewish people who are now going, wait, how do they know our language? Now, if I were making this up and you would say, well, I see what you're saying, but I don't know how you're trying to get Isaiah to fit here. I didn't. Paul did. Right.
Right. This is not some contrivance that you came up with right on the show today. This is Paul writing this. 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 21. Paul is the one doing that. And what does he say in verse 22?
This is very important. Somebody needs to read this. 1 Corinthians 14, 22. What does it say? It says, therefore, tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers.
Okay. Tongues are for a sign. It was not what they were saying to help me understand it. They understand it.
They just don't understand why is this man who looks like a Palestinian Jewish person. By the way, I'm not using Palestine in the sense of how he's being used today. Right. Right.
Palestine was the name of the land. Okay. During Roman times. That's all I'm saying. How is this person who by all understanding should not know Scythian?
How is he speaking in Scythian? Yeah. Right.
Well, he is because God gave him that gift. So what does it mean for me? That's the interpretation. He's not saying translate. If you have to translate it, then either Scythian is not your language or you have trouble with your own language.
So that's a great point. They wouldn't have needed a translator because the ones who are hearing it, they understand the language. They just don't understand the why.
The why. Like, how is this guy who's clearly not like me? Why is he speaking my language?
Why is he speaking in a language I can understand? That's interpretation. It's a sign. If this is true, verse 22, tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers. So speak.
That's a huge point. I could be wrong, but isn't that what they say? Like, that's how you know that you're saved. This is for believers to understand that we're saved.
It's just the opposite. It's not just any unbelievers. It's unbelieving Jewish people. Keep in mind everywhere, everywhere there were Jewish background believers in the churches. Even Corinth, even though Corinth was primarily a Gentile church, they still had a significant amount of Jewish population. Everywhere the church was birthed in a Jewish community. That's where it began. Now of course, the Gentiles became a huge part very quickly, but it began with the Jewish people.
Paul always went to the synagogue or he went somewhere where the Jewish people were gathered. He reasoned with them when they rejected him. Some believe, most will reject.
He would begin with the sum and then build on it. More will get saved, but then Gentiles really began to come and then the doors were flung open. They were already meant to be, but now they were really flung open for everybody.
So that's what's happening here. But here's something else in First Corinthians 14, 22, but prophesying is not for unbelievers, but for those who believe. Prophecy here is not for telling, it's forth telling.
Okay, so it's not about predictive stuff. It may be, it may be, it can be, but it's really about here's what's coming in the future. But it's really about thus says the Lord. Okay, so now here's what the Lord has shown me, this grand vision, but here's what God says about what's happening. And I guess that comes from his word. That comes from his word, but at the time, just keep in mind, the word is not complete. So prophesying and even the gift of tongues were very important. That's why I never minimize it because that's how God spoke until the canon was closed. So would you say that prophesying has ceased or not, not completely? What I believe is this. I believe that technically the gifts are still open.
I don't think they're closed very quickly. If you say that, then you have to then, then you have to ask the question, well, what were they then doing for, for, for spiritual food? Right. Well, the eyewitnesses, well, what if they were also dying off? So I believe God was using the gifts of prophecy and the gifts of tongues to speak to the church spiritual truth until the canon was closed. And it's not like it was like no longer working.
It was more like it was no longer needed because the constitution of the church changed. How long can I keep telling a people that you missed the Messiah, you missed the Messiah, you missed the Messiah? I can tell them that, but then if it's like the third or fourth generation now, then it's like, and now I need more truth than just the fact that you missed it.
Well, I wasn't even born then. So I think technically it never says that these things, it says that these things will go away. It does say that, but faith, hope, love abide, these things will seize, but it doesn't say that it will seize then. Right. Right. So it's a, it's a, it is a little complicated. You have to understand that, but, um, it's worth working through and that's what we're doing.
This became the show actually. Well, we have, we have like a couple more minutes, but one of the things you said that kind of struck me and I want to kind of maybe see if you can help me parse this out. If you are, if you're up on the pulpit and you're preaching on the book of revelation and you, the message that you're giving is, Hey, this is what the Lord says is going to happen. Right. Would, is that different from prophesying or is it kind of overlaps? Like, like I'm just preaching the Bible. Just preaching the Bible. Like you're preaching a sermon or revelation. Would you say that's different from prophesying?
Yeah, because prophesying would be something God is showing me that's going to come. Gotcha. Okay.
Here I'm just preaching on prophecy. Okay. Okay. So there is a difference. Got it. Got it. Prophecy has an individual element to it.
Right. Prophecy is where God is opening my eyes to see a future reality and what he will do. And that, that's, that's more God is directing me. But preaching on prophecy would be, I'm taking something here and explaining it to you as to what will, what, what it meant then and what it means today.
So if you, what will mean one day, right? Like if you preach on Jonah, Jonah is a prophet. God revealed something to Jonah specifically. So Jonah is the prophet there.
And then you would just be interpreting to help it. Okay. But this is an important subject because then the question remains like, what do you say to all the people who are so-called speaking in tongues?
Right. Are they demon possessed? Are they, you know, all that. And I don't say that. I never say they're demon possessed. I never, I'll never say that because that's not healthy to say that about people who are saying that Jesus is the son of God. You know, the Bible says that very clear. No one can say Jesus is the Lord without the Holy Spirit. So they're saying Jesus is the Lord. How can I say they're demon possessed? So when people say that, and I know some of my heroes have said it, like, and I'm like, I can't go with you on that.
The John MacArthur at times has, you know, written on that and I'm like, I cannot go that way. What can I say then? I can say they're taken. I think they are taking what happens when emotions begin to take control.
You are so hyped and for whatever reason, whether that reason may be of emotional frenzy or that emotion, emotional high, maybe because you're so caught up in that moment, whatever it is that's causing you now to lose your ability to control your tongue and you're just going with it. Okay. Whatever it is to say that that now is the tongues. I don't think that's accurate.
I agree. That's not correct. We find a similar phenomena in other religion and movements where people do lose their ability to control coherent speech and they begin to then become almost becomes gibberish. Does that mean that they're bad people? Does that mean they're demon possessed people?
As someone said, no, it's just mean a certain psychological phenomena has taken a hold. And it's not what is intended here. That's why it's very hard because even movements like Quakerism and others, they were doing things that you go, I don't think it's hurting anybody, but it's not right.
It's not right. If I were to bring in Sufism into the church, you know, the Sufis, right? What do they do? They spin around. And if I were to say, now, this is the way you get your mind focused upon God, everybody stand up, let's start spinning.
And some people at the end of that spinning session will go, you know what? You helped me clear my mind. And it's like, everything just faded away and it was just me and Jesus.
What do I do now? That's great. That's great.
That's great that you and Jesus were just, and you felt, I repented of my sins and I felt love for him and I want to now go and serve him and tell others about Jesus. Okay. But the spinning around is not biblical.
Is it destructive? I don't know. I mean, but it's not biblical. It's a great point.
It's a great point. Yeah. Thank you to Sarah P. for writing into the show.
Absolutely. Hope that answered your question. If today was helpful for you, write in and let us know, 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Don't forget, you can partner with us financially on that same website. Every gift that you give goes not only in building up this radio show, but countless other ministries for the gospel of Jesus. Lots of great content coming your way the rest of this week. Make sure you guys tune in. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clear View Today.
