What's going on guys? This is David here, the world's best radio engineer and the most humble, and I'm just here to let you know that today's episode of Clearie Today Show and today's secret word is brought to you by Lebleu Ultra Pure Water. Unlike other bottled waters, Lebleu's Ultra Pure filtration system provides water that's free from contaminants and infused with only the essentials your body needs. Make the smart choice today and experience the difference of Lebleu Ultra Pure Water.
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We're going to leave a link in the description so you can do just that. And we're here today in the Clearview Today studio with Dr. Abaddon Shah, who's a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr. Shah, welcome. Welcome. Happy Friday, my friend. It's good to be here, and welcome to you guys. Thank you.
Thank you. The verse of the day today is coming to us from Romans, chapter 12, verse 16. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Mm, talked about humility a little bit yesterday. And Dr. Shah, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this is saying that, like, we're never wise. Like, we don't aspire for high things. I think it's saying, like, you don't accept your own opinion as the final word. That belongs to God.
Who you give credit to is what I am really trying to say here. You know, God has given you good looks. Great. And you feel confident. Great. But I hope you don't walk around saying, look how good I am.
Or look how beautiful or handsome I am, I should say. If you're really smart, great. It's great to have that confidence that when you get up, you can really articulate your points, and you can really remember facts and figures and put things out there, and you can really make your case and convince people and write books and write articles and debate people and win those debates. That's great. But at the end of the day, you should know in your heart of hearts, I am nothing without God.
It's Him. He has blessed me with every talent, every gift I have. Amen.
100 percent. That to me is true humility, knowing the source of our blessing. I mean, think about it. If it wasn't for God, what would we have? Nothing. I'd have nothing at all. We wouldn't even exist.
We wouldn't even be here. My breath, my brainwaves, everything is functioning because God keeps it alive. It's not just that He made me, but He also sustains me. That's right. That's right. So anyways, there's so much I can say.
The point is, humility to me is giving God the praise, the glory, just praising Him for making us who we are. Amen. Amen. Dr. Shah, this is something we have not done in a couple of weeks, but back by popular demand, I do have to tell you, welcome to The Grapevine! Now with theme music, we finally got some theme music.
You may remember this as the lightning round questions theme music. I'm going to find something else in the back. Check it out. Okay, so I got a gripe today.
This is something that we have talked about on the show before but never in this way. Dr. Shah, we're generous over here. We're chivalrous gentlemen, and when we have functions... Mama raised us right. Mama raised us right. Well, see, my mama didn't raise me this way, but I learned it. I learned it because what we do is we're chivalrous gentlemen. When we have functions, we say, ladies, y'all go on ahead and go first.
Yes. We're going to eat after. Now, to rewind a little bit, I'm glad you said that. I came from a family here in the South where the men ate first. That was a rule. The men would all sit and watch football and the kids, whatever, and the women were all in there, and then they'd be done. They'd be like, all right, men, come on and fix y'all's plates. And it was understood there are no women who are going to fix their plates first.
The men would come, fix their plates, go back, then the women. And it wasn't wrong or right. It wasn't chivalrous nor non-chivalrous. That's just the way it was. Was that how it was for you two?
No, no, no. It was women ate first when I grew up. And you were from the South. Yeah. But then again, Charleston is not... Charleston is kind of itself, but it's also kind of like a melting pot.
You get people from all over. Granny, and I'm not joking, Granny would have had a fit if one of the women fixed their plates before. No, it was always be a gentleman and let the women go first. So then when I went into youth group, that's how it always was.
And I never complained. I was like, okay, cool. It's just different.
You put value in different places, and I'm fine with that. Here's what kind of irks my nerves a little bit about what happens here and I think elsewhere is they say, ladies, y'all go on ahead and get in line. They don't get in line.
Yeah, they argue. It's like, no, you go ahead. Or they hesitate and they're like, who's going to go first? And so then you see the men kind of just waiting patiently.
They're still sitting there like, ladies, please, y'all go on ahead and get in line. Ah, I'm going to serve a little. Y'all go ahead.
It's like, no. Get up. Get in the line.
Lady, get your mind up and go get in that line. Put you something on a plate. Because I'm hungry. I'm hungry.
I'm trying to be generous here to you. My patience is running thin and my hunger is rising. I don't see that problem a whole lot with Nicole. Katie is bad about it.
Melissa's bad about it. There's a lot of the women where they're just like, oh, someone's going to go first. I'll serve you. Go ahead. Yeah. Well, see, growing up, it was like that. It was when food is ready, men go first. Yes. Yeah, it was always that way.
That's how it was for me. And it was never like, look at these superior males walking to the food line, and it was more like, we ladies are having a good time. We're talking. We're having fun. Y'all go ahead and get your food and go sit over there in the living room. We set up all the tables for y'all.
Go and go for it. We're going to be back here. We're going to talk and chill and have fun. So it was never like second class, at least in the circles that I was in.
Yeah, I don't know. It was definitely like a priority thing. Like with Granny, it wasn't like we are second class.
It was just like, those are the men. Those are the head of our families. We value that. This is our sign of respect.
You go first. And I think also here. Yeah. So that's what I was going to say is I have heard like, as a respect, like this is the man, he's, you know, in some of like the rural south, like he's the breadwinner of the family. He's the one who allowed us to have this meal. So let him fix his plate first and then we'll fix our plates. I have heard that mindset.
I can understand that. And I don't think either one is wrong. I know like Dr. Shah, you prefer being the leader to eat last. Yeah, I always eat last. But with the way that I grew up, if it were the case that it was like, hey, as the pastor, as the head, he eats first, I wouldn't question it.
That's very familiar to me because that's what it was growing up. But I mean, I don't know that either one is right or wrong. I like it when people say, let the pastor go first.
OK, I like that because I won't like it. It was like he's the pastor, make him eat last. I think there's something wrong with that church, with that mentality, and there are people who will do stuff like that.
Really? Oh, yeah. Not here, not here, but other places I've seen it where the pastor is just his hired hand.
This chaplain who comes and does his, you know, monthly duties or weekly rituals. And then he's like, get out of the way. You're not that important to us. Unless we need to bury or marry somebody, then we'll call you. But, yeah, I eat last because I kind of take it from armed forces. At least the ones, you know, people I knew who were higher up, they would always stand back and they would let their men go first. Or their, you know, men and women in uniform go first.
And all those high ranking officers would stand in the back. So we don't eat until all our guys have gone to the line, then we're going to walk through. Wow. I learned that from them. Wasn't there one time, this may be a tangential gripe, but wasn't there one time that it was like, hey, ladies go first, ladies go first. And someone on our team, one of the ladies, I'm not going to mention names, went through and made a salad. But it was a bowl of just random, wasn't there? I feel like there was a time where it was like cheese and ham and dressing. And that was all. That was Melissa. It was, wasn't it?
Yeah. It was some sort of Frankenfood type situation. I don't know if we griped about it. I don't remember griping about it. I didn't have a problem with it. I feel like it was like some sort of piecemeal, like Frankenstein's monster, but food. What was the gripe? Just that it was a weird salad? Yeah. Well, like we're like, hey, go first, go fix your plate. And then there's like, you fix some, like some concoction like that. I didn't, I didn't, maybe you griped, I didn't grip about it. I didn't have no problem. I remember her doing that.
I remember being like, that's a really weird salad. My gripe isn't that the women go first. It's my gripe is that the women go first and then they don't go.
They don't go. And you have to, men have to stand there and go, okay, come on. I'm just going to wait until they feel comfortable enough to fix my plate. My stomach's growling. We had a steak lunch today. I was like, y'all need a kid. Yeah, go on now. That's right.
Where's my, where's my grand birthday party here? What? What was the word? Frankenfood. That wasn't your word.
I didn't even hear that. I promise. I heard it say Frankenfood, but that's not the word. I promise it was. Show me the word on your phone. If that was the word, if that was the word, I'm going to be kind of upset. What is Frankenfood?
That's pretty amazing that you made it work. Genetically modified food. But that was not a genetically modified food. Well, I didn't say we had to use the traditional definition. We just had to use the word. Get me in the ad read, get me in the ad read before I throw a tantrum. I just had to use the word.
You will find yourself on the gripe vine with rotten behavior like that. We're going to take a quick break and rehash the rules of the secret word of the day. No, you're supposed to use the word that actually goes along with it.
Not just like, says Walker. I was like, Frankenfood. You can't just, you can't just sneak that in there. The only Frankenstein's monster I see here, sir, is you. I thought Frankenfood meant like, I was like, I heard that, but I was like, because she put these random things together so it became like a Frankenfood. To be fair, I didn't actually read the definition. I just saw the word. So, that is on me.
I didn't read the definition. Anyway, we're going to go into a quick break and we'll be back with more Clearview Today. We'll be back with more Clearview Today. Welcome back to Clearview 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 to 252-582-5028.
Sorting through a bunch of emails today, I found one that I really, really like, Dr. Shah. I think you all know what time it is. Mail time.
I'll take some in a second. Alright, let's hit it with a song. Here's the mail, it never fails. It makes me want to wag my tail.
When it comes, I want to wail mail. My harmony was off today. My harmony was off.
I had them sinuses going on. Did you ever see the old show? You know the show Zoom? Yeah.
Yeah. You don't have the email? F-A-a-double-n-double-e-d-e-double-o-l-double-e-a.
Fanny Dooley likes tomatoes, but doesn't like ketchup. Why do you think that is? F-A-a-double-n-double-e-d-e-d-e. You know what I would do with the mail segment? The email, send it to Zoom. Or Z-mail. You know what? I think we need to have something like that.
Yeah, we can do that. Some kind of jingle like that. Yeah, we want to get rid of the mail. Clues Clues Mail Time is getting a little bit old, and it's very, what do you call it? High maintenance. Yeah. Terry R. What do you think the R stands for?
Um, rhombus. Terry Rhombus, all four sides, wants to know, Dr. Shah, long time listener of the show. I really love the discussions you guys have. I was born into a Catholic family and baptized as a baby.
I guess he probably heard the episode from yesterday, because we talked about that a little bit. That was my mother's idea, being baptized as a baby. That was my mother's idea, and it meant a lot to her.
I never really cared about going to mass, and after high school, I stopped completely. Fast forward 45 years, and I'm a born-again Christian. I found new life in Christ, and I've started... Praise God, Terry. That's exciting. Yeah, praise God for that. I found new life in Christ and started attending church with my son. That's a great, praise God for that. He's getting baptized in a few weeks and wants me to get baptized with him.
I don't really know what to think. Is it necessary if I was already baptized as a baby? My wife told me that being baptized by immersion is better, because that's how Jesus did it, but I don't want my mother, who's still Catholic, to be upset or feel like I'm invalidating what she wanted for me.
What do you suggest? I guess I don't feel strongly either way, but it seems pretty important to my son. Can you shed some light on this? Thanks, Terry Rhombus.
Great question. You've heard us talk about this time and again on this show, which is that baptism does not save you. No amount of water can ever wash away the sin of your heart.
So let's just get that out of the way. Baptism is not necessary to salvation. Baptism is a demonstration of your new status in Christ. When you go into the water, we're talking about Romans chapter 6, you are buried with him. You die with Christ, you are buried with him, and then you rise up to walk in the newness of life. Baptism is simply a demonstration of your identification with Christ.
So let's just start from the beginning and just put that to rest. This is not essential to your salvation. Would you ever use the word optional for baptism? That's a great point. I wouldn't say it's optional, although I grew up in a tradition where it was optional. Really? Yeah, yeah.
I didn't realize that. I grew up in the Christian Missionary Alliance denomination, and it was optional there. As in, like, hey, baptized or not, it's completely fine either way?
Yeah, yeah. My dad focused more on baptism. He wanted people to be baptized because it was commanded by Jesus. Go into all the world, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. So baptism is not optional in the Great Commission.
Right. Also, when you go into the Book of Acts, when people got saved, they were baptized. And it's not just Jewish people who were baptized. It was also an Ethiopian eunuch. Now, we can always make the case that the Ethiopian eunuch was a proselyte. He was one who was converted to Judaism, and from Judaism, it's just a hop, skip, and jump into Christianity. Right.
So maybe you can make that claim. I think he was Ethiopian, and so he was a Gentile. Right. And even Gentiles had to be baptized. Yeah.
And then when you go into Philippi. Yeah, I was going to say Lydia and her family were Gentiles, right? Well, Lydia, we're not quite sure. Okay.
I think Lydia's family was more Jewish. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Because she was from that part of the country known as Lydia.
Okay. I mean, her name is actually kind of a toponym, I guess? I don't know. Like, her name is the name of the place where she came from. So when we went to Turkey, I was able to go to the place where they made dyes, and they made, you know, all the colors that she was selling. She was a seller of purple.
And this is the place, I think it was Laodicea, where they were making dyes, I think. Thyatira? Yes. Thyatira. Not Lydia.
Thyatira. So anyway, so and then Lydia was the area. Right. The region. So it could very well be that her name was the region, but a lot of Jewish people were there. Yeah.
And so she's at the riverside praying because a lot of people went to the riverside to pray because it was part of the purification rite. Right. We've been there. Yeah. I was going to say, we've been to that spot. Ryan has been and stood right there.
Yep. We've been there. Sean and I, we filmed the video in front of that river. Now, the river has actually shifted over time from where it originally was, but they were building the chapel that's there now.
And as they were digging up for the parking lot, they found the ruins of the previous chapel that was there that was built on the spot where Lydia was baptized. Recently? Recently they found that? I was found recently.
I would say maybe 40, 50 years ago. Okay. Okay.
I didn't know if you meant like since your like 2017 trip. No, no, no. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They built the ruins. I mean, they halted production on the parking lot because they're like, hey, there's ruins here. We've got to figure out what this is.
Wow. They built a nicer one. We went inside there too.
We sat and we took pictures and all that. And there's a baptismal, kind of like a little infant baptismal pool there. But anyways, all that to say, not just that person, but others with a Philippine jailer more than likely was not a Jewish person. He was probably a Roman background person and he was baptized. His whole family was baptized that night. Right. So all that to say baptism was practiced by the early church, both Jewish people and Gentiles were baptized.
It was under Jesus's commandment, the great commission to go into all the world, be baptized. So all this tells us that it is something we should do. Yes. Yes. I remember when we went, not just when we went to Greece, but watching you and hearing you record those videos in front of different ruins of different baptistries that you find all over the place. I mean, we were all walking through the ruins of Philippi. Yep. And I remember I crossed over and I went over to the other side. Yeah.
That's the guy that's come with me. The ruins of a baptistry. And I love the emphasis that you place and that we place here at Clearview on baptism, because I think sometimes, especially Christians today fall into that trap of, hey, you know, baptism isn't what saves you. Baptism.
And there's, we hear a lot of that rhetoric. It becomes optional. Yeah.
It becomes an optional thing. But baptism was always part of conversion. It was always part of like you, you get saved and then you get baptized. Right.
That's the trajectory. And it's not, it's not that it's a sin not to get baptized, but I like that we push people to get baptized. And when I say push, I mean really encourage, strongly encourage people to get baptized. Because Christians should encourage other Christians to obey Jesus, you know. But the obedience is to a purpose and the purpose is so that we may learn what it means to be one with Christ. That is one truth about the Christian life that I struggle with.
I do. That I am one with Christ. That his power is in me. That it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
It is one truth that I struggle with every day. And so baptism is that visible demonstration that hopefully I should go back to again and again and remind myself that this is who I am. All things have passed away, behold all things have become new. That I am a new creation in Christ.
That I was crucified with Christ. I no longer live. Right. Galatians 2 20, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
Right. You see, this is that fundamental truth of Christianity, that I am dead. The old me, of course, right? The old me is dead and the new is Christ. So when I am prone to sin, I have to remind myself, I cannot give myself permission because I don't belong to myself.
Right. I have died and I'm buried with Christ. When I am struggling with something, I have to remind myself that I don't have to dig into my own resources to provide for myself, it's Christ in me. When I need something in my life, everything is Christ in me. That's the hope of glory, Christ in me, I can go on and on. So baptism is more than just, hey, if you did it, you got to obey, whether you understand it or not, you just got to obey. I think it's more than that. I think it's obey so that you will understand and apply the rest of your life.
Yeah. And in the case of Terry Rhombus here, you know, I don't know, and maybe you can kind of shed some light because I think he was a pastor. You've probably had this exact same conversation with countless amounts of people because there's tons of people who come from that Catholic background where they were sprinkled or they were baptized as a baby. And now they're maybe worried that if I get baptized, this invalidates the first.
Oh no. But if you accept that baptism doesn't save you, then can one baptism invalidate the other? Like if I came to you tomorrow, Dr. Sean, and said, hey, I was baptized by immersion at 15, but I'd like to get baptized again. I know that it has nothing to do with salvation, so one doesn't cancel out the other. I would say, do you understand what baptism means?
Do you understand your personal, right? Communion is our corporate identification with Christ. When we are together partaking of the bread and the cup, we are together partaking of Christ as a family meal. He is the main course.
He is the one we're feeding upon. So when we take part of the cup and the bread or the bread and the cup, we are demonstrating our together oneness with Christ. Baptism is my personal oneness with Christ. So for a person to feel like this may invalidate, it's invalidating nothing. Because salvation is not hinged on baptism. So your mom or your uncle or your dad or your granddad or your great-great granddad or whoever it is or your cousin or your son or your daughter who may have left this life too early, they may have died without being baptized and they never got to that understanding or they lived in a culture or a denomination where this was not practiced. Does that invalidate their salvation?
No. It could be that they did not appreciate and understand and apply the truth of personal identification with Christ. There's a big difference with that. Yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah, the stakes are much different. Or they may have understood and never practiced baptism, which I hope was the case. Because there are Christians out there who've never been baptized, but they understand what identification with Christ means.
Yeah, that's a great point. So I don't think it's essential in the sense of I will lose my salvation or I don't have salvation. I think it's essential in the sense that if you don't do that, you're missing out on the opportunity to learn a very important truth, a precious truth of Christianity. Is it too far to say that it's an incomplete Christianity? It's an incomplete life.
I would say incomplete understanding of Christianity. Okay, okay. Gotcha. Because everything is yours. Right.
You just have this big gaping hole in your knowledge and in your application. So you would say, Terry, get baptized. I would say, Terry, get baptized, but also understand what baptism means. Gotcha. Gotcha.
That's what I would say. That's a great point. And that's what we walk people through here.
I mean, whether they're adults or whether they're kids. We've got a lot of kids that get baptized here at Clearview. We've got a lot more kids coming up getting baptized here at Clearview. But we walk all of them through, like, this is what baptism is. Because we want them to have that understanding of, you know, this is your personal identification with Christ. Sometimes you see, and maybe Dr. Shah and Ryan, you probably see this way, way, way more than I do, but sometimes you see parents who almost don't want their kids to get baptized because they feel like they don't understand. Like they try to put a limit or a cap on, I don't think you quite get it yet, so we're just going to hold off on being baptized. What they're talking about not getting is not the identification truth. What they're talking about not getting it is, are you truly receiving Jesus as your Savior and as your Lord? Because your life is going to change. You're not going to do the things you used to do.
You're going to live by God's grace in your life. Do you truly understand that? I just don't think he does. He's only four. How can you understand all that? Or he's only 14.
He doesn't understand because I see the other things that he does or she does. So people are hesitant to let their young ones be baptized because they feel they won't understand some aspect of submitting to Christ. What we're saying here is you get baptized so that you will understand a very important aspect of your Christian growth and Christian life. It isn't that this baptism counts towards something, so I'm invalidating it by doing it correctly the second time or something like that. You know what I mean? It isn't that it's like a check in your book that, okay, I did it.
I followed the step. Now it counts towards something else. And then there are people who say, well, kids don't get it. How do you expect a kid to understand identification with Christ? They don't even know how to spell that word.
They don't know how to unpack such a rich doctrine. Good point. That's what the rest of your Christian life is about. You were baptized.
This is what it means. That's such a great point. Rather than saying, now that you understand, we got grown folks sitting in church who don't understand identification with Christ. They understand what it means to be saved. They just don't understand what it means that it's no longer I who live because those same grown folks fuss and complain at deacons meetings. Those same grown folks have been robbing God and not tithing and giving their offerings.
The same grown folks don't serve one bit in church, but they're saved. You just don't get it. Good point.
You don't understand it. Good point. Make sure you guys join us tomorrow. Same time, same station. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clearview Today Show. I'm sorry, not tomorrow because we're on Friday. Yeah, we're on Friday. Make sure you join us Monday. You can replay an episode tomorrow, I guess, if you're missing us on a Saturday. How do you do that?
By subscribing to the show on iTunes. I'm so glad that you asked. You can support us by doing that.
It really helps us keep the conversation alive. Share that episode with your friends and loved ones. Big thank you to Blue Ultra Pure Water for sponsoring today's episode, the thirst quenching party in your mouth. That's pretty hell, man. I wish you hadn't said it like that.
I wish I hadn't said it like that either. Yeah, we just lost our sponsor. I just got the email.
I hated it as it was coming up. Just lost the sponsorship. And you can always support us financially at ClearviewTodayShow.com.
Jon, anything you want to plug? I did, but now I just want to end the show as quickly as possible. Well, I need to hear that. Hey, listen, we're going live. We're going live on January 3rd for our 24-hour prayer vigil. We're going to be doing a two-hour live stream between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. We want you guys to be able to call into the show, 2525825028. We will pray with you right here on the air of the Clearview Today Show. If there's anybody in your life that needs prayer, make sure you call. You can give them that number as well. We love to be serving you in that way. We also want you to pick up Dr. Sean Nicole's book, 30 Days of Praying for America, Daily Devotions to Heal Our Nations, available on our nation, I should say, just one nation, available on Amazon right now, as well as our debut album, Heaven Here and Now, available on iTunes, Spotify, and where digital music is sold. That's right. Make sure you get it.
Share it with a loved one, too. It's a modern technological world that we have today. Everybody wants great worship music. Yeah. And there's some time for Christmas.
That's right. Make sure you guys join us. Have a wonderful weekend. Find a church family to plug in and serve. And, hey, talk to your pastors about getting baptized. Talk to your church leadership about getting baptized.
Set that up for you, for a loved one. And if you have more questions about baptism, we'd love to answer those on the Clearview Today Show. Make sure you guys jump into the conversation on Monday. We've got another great week of content coming your way. We love you guys. We'll see you Monday on Clearview Today.
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