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I'm John Galantis. 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. You can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. That's right. And we're here once again in the Clearview Today Studio with Dr. Abaddon Shah, who's a Ph.D. in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full time pastor and the host of today's show.
You can find all of his work on his website. That's AbaddonShah.com. Dr. Shah, welcome to the show. It's great to be here.
Great to be here. It's the day after Christmas. It makes me kind of sad.
I used to have sad music when I was just. Yeah, it's the day after Christmas. Boxing Day. Boxing Day. I got those Boxing Day blues. You know why they call it Boxing Day?
What's that? I don't know. There was a Christian standup comedian years ago that had a joke like he was they call it Boxing Day because that's the day that people will return all those unwanted gifts and they're not refunded the full amount. So they clock the clerk. Oh, that's why they call it Boxing Day.
I thought it was going to be like boxing up their gifts and taking them back. Yeah, that's what I thought too. I think it originated. It was like the UK or Australia or something. I think it was.
I think it was UK. And I think it's something to do with sending presents to, I think, a needy or somebody like that. I think it was something like that. That sounds right. Could be. Could be. But I know for this, I'm definitely feeling blue.
I'm having to be a blue Christmas. And I think maybe the word of God can get me back on track. And you know that it can. Yeah, it can.
It can. The verse of the day today is coming to us from John chapter 12, verse 26. If anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, him my father will honor.
That's right. You can't go around Jesus to get to the father. Lots of people think that.
And you know what's funny? I say this all the time on the show, but I want to keep saying is that I never really realized what kind of crazy doctrines were out there until we started this radio show. And you start getting exposed to the way people think. And people really, I always thought if, OK, if you're a Christian, it's all centered around Christ. But there are lots of people who call themselves Christians who are like, you know, it's really about God. Like Jesus is God's son. And that's good.
And it's good that he did that. But it's all so that I can have a relationship with God. And I'm like, you're you're literally doing the one thing that Jesus, who is God, said not to do, which is don't bypass me to get to my father.
It's not going to work. That's right. You have to come through Jesus Christ. That's right. And there's no circumlocution. Right.
To try to get to God. I don't know. I don't want to I don't want to be wrong.
I'm going for it. I was like, I was like, it's too easy. Is circumlocution a word? Yeah, it is.
OK, it's a word. Circumlocution is going around. Yeah.
Yeah. If you use it correctly, it's just I was like. I know circumvention. I've never heard of circumlocution. Circumlocution is like talking around. It's there.
I'm looking at it. The use of many words where fewer would do, especially in a deliberate attempt to be vague or evasive. Yeah, that's like a radio host best friend. Well, I should have said circumvent. But I was just starting to throw a fake secret word and I completely lost sight of the true meaning of circumlocution. Circumlocution is like, you know, like abundance of words that you try to confuse people.
And they're sitting there going, I don't know. If you if you have if you're just like any Joe Schmo with a podcast out there, you probably are an expert at circumlocution. You practice circumlocution.
Yeah. Locution. Locution. What is locution? Circumlocution.
I'm guessing it comes from locution. Like words, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Locution.
A word or phrase. Is that where locusts comes from? Locusts. Locusts.
Yeah. If you're locusts, you're real elegant with speech. That's that's what locusts is, right? It's not the secret word you want. So what would be like a false locution? A false like a like a false speech? Yeah.
Like if I'm like. Pseudo locution? Yeah. Pseudo locution.
That's pretty good. Pseudo locution. What were we talking about? I don't know.
About Jesus being. I lost the point. Because Jesus is the word. Yeah.
That's right. And the word is. The word. The word is God.
Is God. So you cannot. Will you say a false locus? Pseudo locus. Pseudo locution. False locution. Yeah. Right.
Pseudo locution. And he's the word. He's not the many words. You know, you need a whole lot of words when it comes to Jesus. So Christmas being over, I did want to ask this. Hold on.
That's a matter of opinion. First of all. What was it? What was it? What was the word? I don't know what the word was. What was the one word?
There were so many. I don't know what the word was. What was the secret word? What was the word?
All right. Let the word. Word wizard tell us. He was. He was. I think it's false siliquence.
False siliquence? But he said. He said it. He said it. Like I was talking about. Yeah.
Helping me say it. False. False. False locution. It's false siliquence. Hold on. False speech. False speech? I just love that you got us to help you with the secret word.
That's the bonus part at that point. That's hilarious. You're like silicous. I thought y'all saw my face when you gave me the word. I was like.
Seriously? You're going to make me use this word? False. False siliquence. False siliquence. False siliquence. False siliquence. False siliquence. It's also a song by Carson Durango. Huh?
Who is Carson Durango? Never. This has become the. This is. There's a lot of people tuning into Christian Radio right now.
What is going on with this? I wanted to hear about Jesus being the word of God. Jesus is not the false siliquence.
There you go. He's the truth. What do you say?
How do you say it? He's the true siliquence. I think it's false siliquence. False siliquence. Jesus is the true siliquence of the Lord our God. Is the antonym of false siliquence, is it true siliquence? True siliquence? I'm going to type in false siliquence. Variciliquence? Antonym.
Let's see what happens. They said that high school Latin would never come in handy. Really? Is it Latin?
I don't know. So the antonym of false siliquence is right, correct, accurate, authentic, genuine, real, valid, legitimate, and straight. That's antonym for falsified. It autocorrected you. Hey, I got you.
Yeah. You got to make sure it says false siliquence. Not falsified.
Let's go to that. Because I want to have the word liquence in there. Okay. So meaning of false siliquence. Yeah. Deceitful or intentionally misleading speech.
Jesus is not false siliquence. What the hell? What is Colin's dictionary? It's not even giving me that right antonyms.
It's not even giving me any antonyms. Well, that's okay. I'm going to find it after the end.
Yeah, that's all right. For our listeners and viewers, Jesus is not the false siliquence. He is the truth. He is the word.
He is the life. Amen. Should we get Clearview Today T-shirts with false siliquence on it and then have the cross?
Sure. No, no, no. The cross, false siliquence. And the not equal sign?
The not equal sign. Yep, yep, yep. That's what it is.
That's what it is. Coming in the Clearview Today store. Probably. Check back soon.
2026 probably. Guys, don't go anywhere. We're going to take a quick break, but we'll be right back at you with more Clearview Today. Hey, Clearview Today family. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. We're having a great time so far. Listen, if this show has been a source of encouragement and insight for you, we want to take a second and just ask you to consider supporting us financially.
I know that might ruffle feathers a little bit, but think about it. You're listening to this show seemingly because you care about spreading the life-changing message of Jesus Christ to the world. Well, your giving allows us to continue sharing that message with other listeners just like you. Your support is more than just encouragement to us. When you give, you're becoming our partner. You're joining with us to spread God's truth and love to a hurting world. And your gift is a reflection of your faith. And believe it or not, it's going to make an eternal impact in someone's life.
That's right. Giving to the show is insanely easy. All you do is visit our website, cleerviewtodayshow.com, and you can click on that little button that says Give Today. We are so encouraged by everyone who's already giving to the show, and if today's your first time listening, we want to let you know that we appreciate your partnership, and we pray that God blesses you abundantly for your commitment to His work. All right, let's get back to 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 cleerviewtodayshow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right, Dr. Shah, 5 p.m. day after Christmas.
Lots of people coming down off that Christmas high, kind of facing the sobering reality of getting back to what life is, or real life is, if I may venture to say that. There was something that you said from the pulpit that I thought was really, really, really cool. It was really freeing and really liberating, but it was also very sobering, and I wanted to talk about it if we can. You mentioned it was in our next-to-last sermon in your series on the book of Judges, and you were talking about sin specifically, and you said, look, you may have that sin that you struggle with for the rest of your life. You might pray for it to be removed, you may pray for overcoming, but chances are you may have that sin in your life forever, and that's okay. When you said that, I don't know what clicked on in my mind.
I don't know if it was like a light switch, or I don't know if it was just like a literal turning of the mind, but I was like, yeah, that makes total sense, and I've never once, this is just me, I've never heard a pastor say that from the pulpit. Yeah, right. Well, just to clarify what I meant by that, and you know what I meant.
Yes, of course. It's not that you are going to tolerate this sin, or you're going to sit with it and say, this is my pet sin, this is who I am, this is what makes me me. No, to the contrary, this is the battle you will fight. These are the Hivite and the Hittites and the Canaanites that you will battle. These are the Philistines that you have to battle. These are the Benjamites, remember the Benjamites, the people of Israel, the tribes of Israel, the leavened tribes went against the one, I don't know if the Levites fought or not, but it was over a Levite wife that they were fighting. So the people of Gibeah had refused to give up the sons of Belial, these horrible individuals in this homosexual city, where these individuals wanted to sodomize the Levite.
And in the end, she dies, it's a horrible thing. And the wife, they give the wife to them, you know the story in Judges chapter 19 and chapter 20. And so the Levite sends off her body parts all over Israel to every tribe and tells them, look, this is what's going to happen to your wives, to your sisters, to your mothers, come and do something.
And they all gather, they gather as one man, 400,000 of them. And then they pray and they go up against the people of Benjamin because the Benjamites refused to give up, along with the city of Gibeah, which was a Benjamite city, refused to give up those evil men. So now justice is indivisible, right?
Cannot be divided. All of them are guilty and there's a civil war. But what I want us to understand is that even though it seemed like the people of Israel were the good guys going against the bad guys, the Benjamites, it's the good guys who lose. They lose the first time, they lose the second time. Then the first time they pray and go, second time they encourage themselves and then they pray and then they go, third time they pray and fast and yes, after that point, God gives them victory.
But what I want us to understand is they lost. So also in our personal lives, there's a civil war that goes on. It's over our pet sin. Now whatever that sin may be, the sin may be anger, the sin may be insecurity, the sin may be apathy, the sin may be lust or greed or pride or envy, whatever that sin is. Yes, certain sins, the walls of Jericho come down, just like that.
Having done nothing, the walls come down on the seventh day as you march around. Some sins you have to fight and fight and fight. And as Paul tells us, and I think as Paul, I think as Hebrews tells us, that you have not yet struggled in the sense of shedding blood.
Right. Like the real fight hasn't even begun. Real fight has not even begun. You haven't even drawn the first blood.
And you're saying, I don't know, no, the fight hasn't even happened. So the whole point I'm saying here is that certain sins, we're going to struggle and it's okay. Not that sin is okay, the struggle is okay. And when you said it, it clicked something inside for me because I really, really, really learned with analogies and with illustrations and the Jericho one I felt was perfect because those quick, early victories that God won for the Israelites, I can see that becoming a template. That's how it works. That's how God is going to win victories here.
And isn't that a lot of Christian praise songs are? Yes. Yes. Just like Jericho. Just like Jericho.
Those walls are coming tumbling down. That happened one time. Right.
Let's maybe not make that the template for every struggle at all times and all places. And you know what? People do that. People, even non-Christians do it. They're like, well, if God could, God, look, look what he did in Jericho. Look what you claim he did with Jonah or with all these people. There's these supernatural fixes that he can do.
Why won't he do it? And then even the song do it again is like, I believe you're going to do that again. God's like, no, that is just to get you started.
But after this point, once they cross over the Jordan, they are in Jericho, Jericho. Okay, here it is. Now burn the entire city. Don't take anything from it because everything has to be destroyed. All right. Now move on.
Let's go to city number two. Now you can take the city. Now you can keep things. Now you can, you know, so there's a difference there.
That's true. So also in our personal lives, certain sins in the, in the beginning of our Christian battle, they come crashing down. But many sins, you will have to fight them. I 100% grew up with the mindset of like, if you, uh, and I mean, this was taught, if you, um, if you prayed enough or if you believed enough, like you, you just wouldn't struggle with that sin anymore, um, that, that would have been resolved, that would have been worked out in you. And I agree with John, like when you said that from the pulpit, Dr. Shaw, that was, it was, it was almost like, yeah, comforting in a way, like I have permission to, to stretch struggles.
No, there, there should be a battle. There should be a fight against sin and I should be sinning less than when I, you know, when I was a young Christian, but it's okay that that sin is persistent. It's okay that you are continuing to deal with that sin time and time again. Why do you think that there is that misunderstanding that when Christ comes in, all sin just flees?
I think it's partly because of misunderstanding of certain biblical passages. So be you perfect as your father in heaven is perfect. You are a new creation in Christ, all things that pass away behold all things that become new.
So we take those passages and we think, oh, there it is. That's the ideal. That's what I should be.
That's what I should be. But what you don't realize is once you begin to flesh it out, you realize, yes, you should be perfect. But it's a process.
It's not immediate. Yes, you are a new creation in Christ, which means the fact that you're willing to battle against that sin says that you are different. It's not that you have victory over that sin. It's the fact that you're willing to battle against it. Some days the battle is real. Some days you want to defend that sin.
Some days you feel that sin is your little blankie. I love it. This is mine.
You cannot take it away. It comforts me. It soothes me. It makes me who I am.
You know, ladies or even men, I just need to have a good cry, you know? And it's like, no, that's not healthy for you. Okay?
Yeah, you can do that. And it may be temporarily okay, but in the long run, it really challenges the goodness, the faithfulness, the calling of God in your life. So doing this may feel good in the moment, but it's not good. So battle against it. Right.
That's right. And I know we've talked about this on the show, but hearing you say that from the pulpit, it brought to mind exactly... It was like you said exactly what I had lived, which was some sins were pretty easy to get rid of. Some sins, like once I got saved, I was like, okay, it's obvious I can't do this anymore. I can't look at that anymore.
I can't go to these websites. I can't look at this on TV. And it was kind of easy to give those over because I knew that there was a standard, but my language, cleaning up my language was hard. It was really, really, really tough. And I couldn't let go of it for like a year, year and a half. And I still, even to this day, it's not that I struggle with it in the sense that I still do it, but I still struggle in that I want to express this.
And I feel like in my wickedness or in my old way of thinking, only cussing is going to get my point across and I've still got those. And so the permission to struggle, I think is what helped. You can give yourself not permission to indulge, but it's okay to struggle.
I don't have to be ashamed that the struggle means that I'm not where I should be. One bad day or one repeat of that old sin. Now I'm not talking about a ministry wise, you know, there are certain things that disqualify you. So I'm not going to talk about that, but I'm talking about in personal lives are certain sins that do not disqualify you. So it's not like you can go out there and come in adultery and say, you know, Hey, that's my one sin. So I'm going to go back in ministry now, I have a better understanding, still in battle.
Don't say the Clearview Today show told you it was okay to do that. Yeah. Hey, be patient with me.
God is not finished with me. Right. Right. No, I get to cheat again.
No, no, no, no. Certain sins are certain sins. You know, you say, well, come on, sin is sin. Not when you read the Bible, right? Read Romans chapter one. There's a gradation to how sin gets worse. That's right.
Read what Paul says about sexual sin, sins done against the body are worse. That's right. So all that to say, you know, you need to be careful. Yeah.
Yeah. And I think people need to hear that. You know, I think people need to hear that there is a gradation to sins.
There is a scale. I don't want to use the word spectrum, but there is a scaling of our sins, but that the struggle being part of life, it's part of the Christian life. You told me one time, most of life is just coming back. Yeah, it all works together. Right. Yeah.
I think people really need to hear that and they need to give themselves that permission to struggle. Yeah. Right.
Don't let the enemy discourage you. I think it was Adrian Rogers who used to say, you know, before you sin, Satan will tell you you'll get away with it. Yeah. Yeah. And after you sin, Satan tells you, you'll never get away with it.
Wow. That's a good point. That's a good quote. I like that. Are you sure it was him?
You sure we can't take that? I could be. I could have said it. I didn't say it. That's my sin of lying. That's a pretty good quote. I like that.
No, no. He said, and that's true because Satan will now tell you a million times like, hey, you know, everybody knows, you know, you're just a hypocrite. He loves to tell you that you are a hypocrite. That's true. And fight against that.
Don't give in to those negative thoughts. Don't be given to the voice of the enemy in your life, but on the armor of God, stand. That's right.
That's right. And you're going to have to fight. You know, you're going to, I think that's one of the things that people don't think about the Christian life. I didn't think about that as the Christian life, that it's not an actual fight. It's just a metaphor. It's just all, it's just all kind of spiritual talk, but, but it is a, an actual battle. It's a battle of wills and it's a spiritual battle that's very real.
But that's what Paul said. I have fought the good fight. I finished the race. I've kept the faith.
Fought the good fight. This is what Paul is saying. Paul was not a violent man. He was not out there with knives and, and, and daggers still. He was saying, I'm, I'm in a battle.
What do you think was Paul's battle? Have you ever thought about that? I have thought about it. Like, what do you, what was it though? He, cause he said that, you know, the things I, I want to do, I don't do, but the things I don't want to do, I've always thought about that. Like what was it? What was that struggle?
Who knows? I mean, maybe it would have been, could have been his past of struggling over the guilt of what he had done to his fellow believers. People have said that as maybe others have said, maybe it was his pride. He was such an educated man.
He was so, so good with his words and with his logic and his understanding of scripture. Maybe it was pride. Yeah, it could have been. I don't know. I don't know. Something was there that prompted him to say those words, you know, I'm doing things that I wish I wasn't doing. But I love that. I love that scripture used as well from Proverbs, where it said, the righteous man might fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked will fall by calamity. And it tends to be, it tends to be that, you know, the more times I fall with the same sin over and over, I tend to either feel less each time, like where I'm like, all right, I'm just going to give in, or it's like, I've fallen by the sin so many times, it's almost not worth it to keep up the fight. But I like where it says he's always going to get back up again if he's a righteous man.
It doesn't matter. Even if it was like a righteous man might fall a hundred times, he's going to get back up. Right. And it may be that some will never get back up in this life till the end. And I've known, and this may shock some people when I say this, there are people who have struggled with addiction, with alcohol. And I knew one person just like that. I mean, this person was just love the Lord. Everything was great, but struggling with this drink and his environment, family environment and help him and all that.
So it was not the best situation, but he died because of that drink. Wow. Wow. But I would fight tooth and nail with anybody who will say that he was not saved because that young man was saved. That's right.
Okay. That's right. He was witnessing to people. He was, he truly got the essence of the gospel.
He said, well, I mean, no, if he was struggling with drink, well, think about it. He was not denying that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. That's what the Bible says. That's right.
Because that is the spirit, the Holy spirit. That's the only way you can make that proclamation. Make a proclamation like that. And he did that very clearly with his life. And yet he struggled with this thing.
That's a good point. He struggled with his thoughts. He struggled with his, and so he died. So what would somebody say who believes in this sinless perfection kind of thing?
Well, they will say, well, he must not have been. And I would say, no, to the contrary, he fought and now he has the victory. That's right.
He's on the other side. But it, but it took that. It took that passing that took that transition to the other side to, to get that victory. He got his victory.
That's right. I love that you put it that way. Now he fought because some, there are some people who would look at that and say he fought and lost, but he didn't, he now has the victory. He's realized the victory in Christ. If anything, it reminds us and awakens us and alerts us to the horror of sin in this world. The reality of sin in this world, the reality of the evil one in this world, the reality of the snare of the evil one, the lures of this world, of our flesh.
That's what it is that we're fighting against. And also, I think also the, this, the hope that you have in God, like think about like when you do fall into those sins and even if you fall into them repeatedly, you start to get this image of yourself where it's like, I'm scum, I'm trash, I'm not worthy. And we think that that's what God wants to hear from us. But he's like, I sent my son to die for you. You know?
So how precious do you, do you have to be for God to send his son to die for you, even if you are struggling with that sin? Right. Yeah. That's a great point. Yeah.
Who are you to call the judgment of God into question? I love that. I love that reminder too, because you know, we can, so just like you said, Jon, we can get so focused on, on negative self-talk and, and, and trick ourselves into thinking that's humility when reality that's pride just flavored a little differently. Right. Pride that has been hurt.
So negative self-talk or something like, you know, just feeling apathetic or feeling down or feeling any of that is, it's also, it works into the hands of the enemy. That's right. That's what you've given to that. That's right. I think about that illustration used in the book of Judges, that one woman, you know, because of that woman, 66,000 people, 66,000 people got, and that wasn't like, Oh wow.
That was really like that got out of hand. No, that was God's justice. Right.
You know what I mean? And I think when, when you preached that it opened people's eyes to, it wasn't just because she was a special woman. That's you, that's you that Jesus died for, you know, that's you that he sent his son for.
Yeah. And one single solitary you, God's son, the second person of the Godhead came, became man, right? Born of a virgin, grew up as a little boy, little teenager, lived a perfect, sinless life. And then he did what he came to do.
That's right. Give his life on the cross for us, suffered at the hands of unjust people and kings and religious leaders and give his life and take your sin and not just yours, but the sin of every human being upon himself. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that you might become the righteousness of God in Christ. So this is what he did for you. This is how special you are.
Maybe there's someone listening, Dr. Shah, and they're saying, I hear you and I, and that sounds great. And I've heard that all my life, but you just don't know what's going on in my heart. You don't know how deeply I'm struggling with this sin. Oh, look, I'm not here to make light of it.
I'm not here to say you need to get over that. I'm just here to say the truth will set you free. And so cling to the truth, the truth of God, the truth that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. So that is the assurance you can have. He who has begun a good work in you will complete it, will finish it. So trust God.
That's right. Hang in there. Amen.
So good. We're going to be here tomorrow. Same time, same station. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clear View Today Show. I'm agreeing with you, man.
I'm agreeing. Thanks again to Mighty Muscadine for sponsoring today's episode. And don't forget, you can support us by subscribing to the show on iTunes if you want to re-listen or you want to share it with a friend. And you can always support us financially at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Jon, anything you want to plug as we close today?
Couple of quick things. We are going live on January the third from the 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. We're going to be live streaming right here on the Clear View Today Show. We want you guys to call in 2525825028. We're going to pray with you on the air. Maybe there's someone in your life who needs prayer. You can have them call in.
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It's on iTunes, Spotify, any way digital music is streamed or sold. That's right. Make sure you guys jump into the conversation tomorrow. Lots of fun to be had. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Theory Today.
