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Absolutely nothing less than five stars. We're going to leave some links right there in the description. We are here in the studio today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, who's a Ph.D. in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full time pastor of today's show. So there's a picture of my son.
So we got monitors all around the studio. There's a picture of my son eating what I can only assume is an onion ring or a curly fry or something. He was sitting there with it. I was like, you know, chew it. He's sitting there with his mouth. Look at his eyes. Just a completely dead expression.
That's like a year and a half ago. Oh, yeah. Dr. Shah, welcome to the show. Happy Friday.
It's good to be here. Friday humor. Friday humor. A little onion ring picture for you Friday. Yeah, a little onion ring picture. I might try to drop that the video.
Very nice. Verse of the day today is coming to us from First Peter, chapter two, verse twenty one. For to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. You know, I really don't like when people say, you know, I'm not Jesus.
You know, God ain't through with me yet as an excuse to sort of keep doing what they're doing. You keep being you, you know, and keep being sinful because at the end of the day, I'm not Jesus. But the Bible calls us to be like Jesus. It says that you follow his steps. You use him as an example. So it's not this thing of I am who I am and God accepts me as I am. It's almost the exact opposite.
I told my students this this literally this past weekend. If you say things like I'm only human to justify your sin. Number one, if you're a Christian, you're a liar. You're not only human. You have the presence of God, the Holy Spirit of God living inside of you. That's right. So you are beyond just human.
You have God's presence living inside of you. That's right. You should you should walk in the newness of Christ, right? Not not the old old you. That's right. You should walk the way Christ wants you to live.
Absolutely. Dr. Shabbat, by popular demand, is the Bible, the action Bible guess it game. We had some people saying that they missed the game. They like playing it at home. A lot of them will be in their cars listening to these clues. I thought you were going to say a lot of them will be in their cars playing it like. Yeah, they got the cards. Keep your eyes on the road.
No, they're like driving with their knees, trying to shuffle and find the right card. So we don't please don't. The the way this game works is I'm going to give these guys 15 hints, probably won't get to all 15, but they're trying to find they're trying to guess the person, place or thing from the Bible. And so the first hint is a very, very obscure.
And then the 15th hit should be fairly obvious. Gentlemen, this is a place. This is a place place.
Nineveh. Yes, actually. No, no. First hint.
Asia's first convert lived here. Oh, my goodness. Oh, oh, oh. Thyatira.
It's not Thyatira. The first convert lived here. Three taverns is 33 miles away. We just did this. Oh, my goodness.
We did this. That's an old one. Claudius lived here. Rome?
Yes, Rome. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. That's terrible.
I cannot believe we're going to lose this. No, you got it. Three out of 15 hints is still pretty good.
Like like a lot of the times people are like getting it around like seven or eight. All right. This is a person. My name means God saves. Jesus. Not not Jesus.
Joshua? No. Well, no.
But yes. My reputation spread to foreign countries. I burned my plow. I raised the dead. Jesus. It's not Jesus. I poured water on a prophet's hands. I gave up.
I threw salt into the spring. I parted the water and Moses is not Moses. I would never get this, by the way. Just so you know, I would never get this in a million years.
I parted the water and crossed over. It's not Joshua? I'm going to say no. I'll tell you. I'll tell you why.
I'll tell you why. I made the stew edible. Oh, this is Elijah? Elisha. Elisha. It's Elisha.
Yeah, he did do that. I was thinking it was like, it's got to be Elijah or Elisha. It cannot be Elijah. It's got to be Elisha. But I was like, no. It's Elisha. The reason that the reason I said I think I didn't mean to hit you. The reason I said I think I think because the names Elisha and Joshua are like kind of similar, right?
Like the same with Jesus is like Yeshua or whatever. So I was like, that's terrible. Yeah, that was it. I would have never got that one. This is a place.
My name means descender. My plane is well watered. Plane. P-L-A-N-E. No. Plane.
P-L-A-I-E. Yeah, that's what I meant. I'm bigger. Batian? Not Batian.
I'm bigger during harvest time. I mean, this is Jordan? Yes. Jordan River. Oh, nice.
Jordan River. All right. I'm gonna do one more. OK. This one's kind of, I'm not going to do that one.
Kind of weird? I just don't think you'll ever, well, you can do it. It's a thing. OK. It's a thing.
OK. I've been hammered. Nail? No, not a nail. Some people consult me.
No, some people trust me. Close. Don't make me. Idol?
Yes, an idol. Oh. Oh, that was easy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. One more. One more.
This is a person. OK. My mother was Salome. I didn't know what I was asking.
You should definitely go with that. Oh, this is, I mean, like John? Yeah, it's John. The next one was going to give it away.
I saw Jesus holding seven stars. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, John and James, right? Yeah, it was John. It was John. James and John.
James and John. The Sons of Thunder itself. Sons of Thunder. That's such a cool name. That's a good one. Yeah, here's the Sons of Thunder right there.
There you go. Nice. The Sons of Thunder. Very cool.
I love that game. They had that intro music whenever they talked to people. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They heard it.
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Thank you for being part of this community. Now 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 ClearViewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028. Dr. Shaw, we talked a little bit yesterday about what it looks like when you start to, maybe even without meaning, to sacrifice the truth of the gospel to get people in the door. Like this whole let's say things that people want to hear just as a hook to get them in, right? We talked about a little bit how Rick Warren was doing that and how other people have done that. And you tend to think that the gospel is not really going to get sacrificed that much.
That's the hope anyway. You sent me an Instagram video and I was like, I knew as soon as I watched it, I was like, there's no way we can't not talk about this. It's of a, I don't even want to say pastor, it's the United Church of Christ minister, Pat Langlios.
And basically she's saying at the end of the day, I don't know if Jesus really was raised from the dead. How did you come across, did this just come across your feed? Yeah, I guess my feed is full of this kind of stuff. I think our phones, like now that we've, because my feed has started to show stuff like this too. I think that once we start talking about it, your phone's like, oh, here's some more content like that. Yeah, right. And it came up and I was like, oh, what is she saying? And so once I began to listen to it, I was like, oh my goodness, this is terrible. Yeah, let's listen to what she's got to say.
She just seems like she's ready to share it. We were asked the question about the resurrection. And the question was, did the resurrection actually physically happened? And if it didn't or did, what does that do to your faith?
Well, I raised my hand. And so for me, I said, well, do I think that it could have happened and did happen? I believe so, because I think God's big enough and has the ability to, and I feel it probably did.
But if I'm to be, you know, scientific or realistic, I don't know. And I say that because there's no, quote, proof, right? There's no, quote, proof. Did it really happen? Did Jesus physically wake up and, you know, Starbucks coffee was on? So what happened? Did Jesus really raise from the dead?
I don't know. But I'm going to tell you this. If Jesus didn't physically raise from the dead and ascend, it doesn't change a thing about my love of God and Christ and Christianity.
You know why? Because I truly believe in my heart of hearts that my faith, our faith is a resurrection faith. Amen. And I know, I know. Here, come to Easter service and hear a heretical sermon.
You are in the right place, right? Dr. Shaw, I didn't know this, but Pat Langlois is more spiritual than the apostle Paul himself. Well, she did go to Wisdom University. To what? She got her doctorate at Wisdom University.
What is that? Wisdom University? I mean, that's what her Facebook page says. Yeah. She went to University of California and did her master's, I think, in sociology, women's studies, those kind of things. Gotcha.
Gotcha. So social sciences, social sciences. So definitely not divinity, but not to say that there are some who have gone to divinity school.
They also talk like that. So, I don't know. I remember there being something in the Bible that says that if Christ isn't raised at Ryan's Googling, that looks like a mall. Wisdom University, let's say it's from Albania and it's an online school. Wow.
All online school. I don't know if that's the same one, but. I just remember something about Paul saying that if Christ isn't raised from the dead, then our faith is meaningless. You mean from 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 14 through 19? I sure did. You want to read it?
I would love to. As she's talking, I was like, I'm pretty sure that the Bible says literally the opposite. 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 14 through 19. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he did not raise up, if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. What is the gain here, Dr.
Shell? Why would you stand up in front of a congregation and say, I really don't know if Christ raised from the dead, but even if he didn't, that's fine? Well, partly, I mean, her church, this Church of Christ is in North Hollywood, California. So maybe she's appealing to her, her listenership or her viewership or her attenders who are definitely for this kind of stuff. Where completely Christianity has been gutted out and there's nothing left other than just, you know, live the good life and try to help people.
I mean, I've watched some of her other videos right here and it's LGBTQ kind of stuff I see here as well. So this is a, you know, just a sham. This is just a front to give people the semblance of I am I am Christian. OK, so you cannot tell me otherwise. I am Christian. But really, you're not.
You're you're pretending to be so that you can, I don't know, make a living. I guess so. Yeah, it definitely gives you a good out, because if Jesus really raised himself from the dead, then he's the king of all the universe. And then what he says and his word says goes. But if he was just if he was just some dude who lived and didn't raise, then you can just take what you agree with and use it.
That's right. It's funny because I saw a debate one time and we've talked about this on the show, but I saw a debate that was it was Alex O'Connor was moderating it, but it was Jordan Peterson and Richard Dawkins. I'm a recovering Jordan Peterson fan. You've given up on him. Yes, I've given up on Jordan Peterson. I really genuinely did like him until he started talking about Christianity, because he I think he has a big Christian fan base who is waiting for him to come out and say, I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
And he's never going to do it. He was talking with Richard Dawkins and Dawkins was like pressing him on the on the on the resurrection and on the virgin birth. And he was like, do you think it happened?
And he kept what he said specifically was, I don't I don't know how to mediate the fact value dichotomy in that case. It was asking, does he have a earthly father, a heavenly father? I said the same thing about the resurrection. It's inappropriate to ask a question like that in an attempt to undermine the validity of the entire deep mythological enterprise.
I think it's foolish. And he basically goes on to say, like Christianity was so powerful and impactful that it brought Rome to its knees. Therefore, in that sense, it's real. And they had to stop the show and be like, look, you understand what you're being asked. Do you think he was rose rose from the dead or not? And he finally was like, I don't know. And I feel like that's happening in the church, whereas I thought that was where I kind of gave up.
I was like, OK, I'm going to be done with this guy for a little bit. I feel like a lot of other Christians saw that and was like, I don't know. Maybe I don't know. And I think that's an acceptable answer now. Well, it's been like that for a long time.
I mean, this is old German higher criticism coming through. Right. Nothing new there where completely the resurrection, the incarnation has been debunked, so to speak. And so we have this moral religion. And Jesus, you know, as Schweitzer said, you know, just kind of was just was crushed under the wheels of history. So that's it. It's just myth.
It's just a myth, a story. That's what she's saying is not new. It's just old, liberal Christianity coming through. The problem with stuff like that, though, is it causes people...
Hate to even call it Christianity, but it is. Exactly. Especially with social media now, it causes people to vacillate back and forth between opinions.
I mean, you've got the church that says one thing and then you've got the social media that says another thing. Vacillate? No, I was really close to letting that slide. I have said vacillate before. I really was close to letting vacillate slide.
No, it was vacillate. Really? You got me. You got me. But the point stands. Yeah, yeah.
No, it was a good point. People vacillate back and forth between these two different things, like, hey, I believe the Bible is true, except maybe I'm questioning this and maybe now I don't believe the Bible is true. So what do we do?
How do we, as leaders in the church, how do we, you know, people who are listening, how do you help your loved ones? I would not for a single moment tell you to go argue with such people. Because sometimes we think, oh, I'm going to talk to them. I mean, we had some guy who was going to go argue with someone, you know, over this whole homosexual post that was made.
And John was like, please don't do that. Please don't. Please don't. Because I know what it's like to feel the desire to be right. I know what it's like to want to go online and change somebody's mind. And I'm still learning, I'm not saying that I've arrived to where I no longer want that.
I still do. I still want to argue online and change someone's mind. But it ain't going to happen.
Right, right. And that's a bitter pill, but it's not, it ain't going to happen. The person has already made up their minds and they are an activist.
It's very, very hard to convert an activist. Now, I'm not saying it's impossible, but you've got to make sure you know which angle to come with. You've got to know your stuff first.
If you walk in there trying to be the cool person, the cool guy, let me chit chat with you. Now, unless you are like really prayed up and you are like, I mean, you don't need a PhD to do this, okay? But you are prayed up and you are read up and you are ready to go. I'm going to bring it on. I'm going to talk to you with love and with truth.
Truth and with love. I'm going to go both at you and see what the Holy Spirit will do. Now, if you go with that, of course, that can happen.
But if you go trying to be cool so everybody can say, attaboy, you know, you're the hero. When you start the conversation with somebody who doesn't even begin from the same premise that you do. Yeah, we don't have the same foundation. What conversation is there to be had? I mean, even someone like this woman here, if you're going to someone on the whole, the whole premise is Jesus may not have been risen from the dead and even if he didn't, that's fine.
I'm okay with that. What are you going to bring to the table that's going to change her mind or change anybody's mind? That's a hard pill because I know for me personally, I'm not going in there with the sense that I really feel for the sake of the gospel I got to save this person. It's like, no, I would just want to be right.
I just like to argue and I want to prove to this guy. Or walk away feeling cool and admired by a few people. I mean, if you truly believe that behind what this woman is doing is satanic power, forces of hell, then do you think for a single moment they're happy when you're coming against this? Like even right now with us. So we need to have a prayed up attitude. I mean, if you don't think we do that, this morning at 5.45, we were here. Some of you were here even earlier at Clearview Church praying.
That's right. On Tuesday mornings, our men gather at six o'clock. Now, some of us get here even earlier and we pray. We hear the word, we worship. We sing a song, worship, and then we hear the word and then we spend time in prayer. That's right. Every single week.
Every Tuesday. Yeah, so we are praying and we should pray more. Then we can take on someone like that.
But I can tell you, since we have, I'll say, again, hiding behind Christ in his word, standing on the truth, that I would rather mock that person than try to sit down and argue with them. Oh, yes, 100 percent. Yeah. Mocking is exactly what Elijah did. Oh, yeah. Right?
With the prophets of Baal. Maybe he can't hear you. Maybe he's on vacation.
Maybe he's in the bathroom. There's a good place for making light of someone, especially when they're being actively harmful. I mean, look, I will say this.
I will say this. I never give the left credit, but the left does that all the time. See, we actually have good arguments. The right has good arguments. The left doesn't. But they are very good at if they think you're stupid, they will mock you and get people on their side. And I feel like if they're able to do that and be the heroes of society, well, then by golly, we should be able to do it, too. We have truth on our side.
And just now some of you are like, no, no, no. That's not what Jesus would do. Are you sure?
Yeah, I believe he did it. I believe he called the Pharisees and the scribes. Whitewashed tombs. Brutal vipers.
Brutal vipers. Hypocrites. Yeah. Why do you think he did that and not go toe to toe with them? Why do you think when they came to him and said, so tell us, should we or should we not, you know? Like the whole whose wife is she going to be trying to trap him and stuff?
Yeah, yeah. Jesus did not sit there and argue with them. But he asked him a question. He tricked them. He's like, well, you tell me, John the Baptist. Where was he from? Yeah, right.
From God or from man? Yeah. They're like, y'all come together.
Yeah. Huddle up. Let's talk for him. He didn't take him out for coffee.
He didn't be like, I just want to encourage you right now. Let's go over here. Behind the house.
Behind the alley. What do you think? Yeah. If we say he's from God, then he's going to say, why don't y'all listen to him?
What do I say for man? Well, the people will kill us. We don't know. But you tell us. She's like, I'm not telling you either. Yeah, you're not going to answer me. I'm not going to answer you. Buzz off. Buzz off. Take a hike, Pharisees.
It is funny because we laugh about it, but I think there is a place for that. And I'm wondering, Dr. Shaw, if there's people who are listening to this who are like, well, I get that she's ridiculous, but I've struggled with this in the past. Does it matter? Did he raise from the dead?
And does it matter if he did? Yes, I absolutely did. Okay. So there's so many passages.
I don't know where to begin. I mean, if you ever want to sit down and go over this, there are three messages that I preached. And we'll link them. Yeah. And the first one is called Anastasis. By the way, Anastasis is a Greek word for resurrection. Okay. Anastasis Foundations was the first message that I preached on this. And here I looked at the book of Acts, chapter 24, verse 14. I'm just going to read them for you. Okay.
Yes. Here it says, But this I confess to you, that according to the way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets, I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept. That there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. So while this woman is unsure about the resurrection of Jesus, Paul is saying, I have hope in God that there will be a resurrection. And he's talking about a bodily resurrection. And I think that's so awesome, too, because she doesn't even have confidence in Jesus.
And I think that's so awesome, too, because she doesn't even have confidence that he was raised. Paul is saying not only was he raised, but we also will be raised. We will also be resurrected.
That's right. And then, of course, Jesus talked about the resurrection in Matthew 22, verse 29. He says, You are mistaken, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God, for in the resurrection. And then he goes on and talks about the trick question that posed him, in the resurrection, which means Jesus believed about a resurrection that was coming.
That's right. I think it's so funny. Even there, he's like, You don't even know the scriptures.
You don't even know what you're talking about. And then, of course, Ryan read 1 Corinthians 15, right? You just read that one, verse 16 through 19.
So that, again, talks about this. And then this is not just some New Testament concept. This is also in the Old Testament. It talks about resurrection again and again and again.
For example, in Genesis 22, when Abraham took his son Isaac up on the mountain, did he know what he was about to do? Well, Hebrews chapter 11 gives us a commentary on Genesis chapter 22. Listen to Hebrews 11, 17. Ryan, you want to read that for us?
I would love to. Hebrews 11, 17. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.
Right? And then what does it say? And he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, In Isaac your seed shall be called. Verse 19. Concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from which he also received him in a figurative sense. Concluding that God was able to raise him up. So Abraham, this is way before the physical incarnation of Jesus. Abraham already believed that his son Isaac will be resurrected. Yeah, resurrection from the dead is not some new insane thing that Jesus brought onto the scene. It was always part of God's plan of salvation. That's right.
That's right. So there you have that resurrection is foundational to Christianity. When Jesus came back from the grave, this is a second message I preached called Anastasis Demonstration. He says in Luke 24 38, and he said to them, Why are you troubled?
And why do doubts arise in your heart? I mean, what this person is doing here in that Instagram video, Pat Langlois. It was Langlois. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, she's casting doubt. Yeah. And permitting. Celebrating it. Celebrating it.
Yeah. And to the contrary, when Jesus came back and he said, Why are you doubting? Why are you doubting? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.
You know, right now in Christianity, people are celebrating the fact that you have doubts. That's right. That's right. I saw that.
I saw that even today. Doubts are good. Doubts are great. Doubts are great. Okay. I get it.
Again, this Rick Warren approach, you know, trying to reach people. What do you do with James chapter one? Right.
James chapter 24, where he says, Why are you doing this? I don't like this. I don't like that you're doubting. Right.
And as I mentioned, James one, where it talks about, you know, if you ask God for wisdom, but without doubting, because a person who doubts is unstable, you want God to help you, but you're unstable. Yeah. But it's important for us to talk about stuff like this and to call out wrong doctrine when it's being spouted, because if wrong doctrine is getting so much of the airwaves, I mean, goodness gracious, why shouldn't we put the truth out there for people to hear and latch onto?
Right. Guys, make sure you join us next week. Same time, same station. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on The Clearview Today Show. Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And don't forget, you can support us by subscribing to the show on iTunes if you want to re-listen. And you can always support us financially at ClearviewTodayShow.com.
Jon, anything you want to plug? Three days! SpongeBob style. Three days we're going to be in an R&B. You remember when he landed in the dude's potato salad?
I do not remember that. It took us three days to make that potato salad. Three days! Anyway, we're going to be in an R&B in three days. We're coming to Dallas, Texas.
Make sure you come in. We might even have potato salad. We might have some potato salad right there at the booth.
It's going to be rancid, but you can have some if you want. We're going to be doing live shows from the floor, so make sure you come up and say hi. We might shout out your ministry on The Clearview Today Show. I want to definitely plug Dr. Sean Nichols' book, 30 Days of Praying for America.
These are daily devotions to heal our nations. You can get it on Amazon right now. It's actually book three in a three-book saga. A fourth book is coming out very soon. We're going to announce that. We've also got some original music coming down the pipeline, Great and Awesome is our new single. It's going to be out very, very shortly on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, all the place where our original music under Clearview Worship is currently at.
That's right. Make sure you guys find a place to worship this weekend. We'll see you bright and early Monday morning. We love you guys. We'll see you Monday on Clearview Today.
