Tuesday, March 18th | What Does Romans Have To Do with Prophecy?

You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayshow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayshow.com.

That's right. You guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show. You can share it online with your friends and your family. Leave us a good five-star review on iTunes or Spotify anywhere you get your podcasting content from. Link is in the description below.

Absolutely nothing less than five stars. We are here in the Clearview Today studio with Dr. Abadan 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. It's a good day, my friends. Good to be here. Our verse of the day today is coming to us from Habakkuk 3, verse 18, one of my favorite verses. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. I like this verse a lot, too. Why is it your favorite?

What is it about it? Habakkuk 3, 17-19, people have life verses. That section is mine. I was in seminary. As most seminary students, it was kind of broke and trying to make ends meet and working three jobs and little babies.

Life was difficult. We went to the chapel one day, and there was a band there, maybe a local church band that I had never heard of, but they sang a song written from these verses. And it hit at a time where I really needed encouragement. I really needed that reminder that God was in control. No matter what my circumstances looked like, God still had my life in the palm of his hand. And so I went and read those verses that the song was based on, and I was like, man, I really love that. So I just committed that verse to me. Just one of those life-altering moments. Just a reminder that God's in control no matter what, and he's the source of joy, not my circumstance. Amen, amen.

Yeah, we all need to be reminded of that. I was with some nurses just a little while ago, praying with them. They face difficult times. There's so much our medical staff has to face every day, and it's a very high-stress situation because you're not only dealing with people's health and well-being, but also you are dealing with people's families. And so you have to be giving your best medically, but also you have to give your best relationally.

You have to have a sense of understanding and kindness and all of that. And so I prayed with them, and one of the things that I told them is God is understanding. God cares about you, and God is there for you, and you just need to learn to give things over to him. That's how you're going to be able to keep going.

If not, you can keep piling on, but it gets difficult, and sometimes even to the point of breaking. So keep giving your cares and worries to God. That's right, that's right. In that emptiness, in that despair, I love a verse like this, because it's not just that I joy in the Lord, but it's also I joy because I have the Lord.

Even in the most desperate, despairing, despairing darkest times that you'll ever go through, you still have the Lord, and so there's always that reason to rejoice. It's time for the daily check-in. It's a new segment we've been doing. We're going to check in.

Cha-ching! And it's basically our way of just staying connected with you guys, our listeners. Every day we're going to read messages from someone who's texted into the show. A lot of support for the check-in, Dr. John. People like being able to text in and actually have it read.

We always read your text messages, but now having it as being part of the show, you can always text us as well for your check-in, 2-5-2-5-8-2-5-0-2-8. Today's check-in is coming to us from Jessica P. out of North Carolina. What do you think the P might stand for? Princessica. Jessica. Jessica Princessica. Jessica Princessica writes, Hey, Clevee Today team. I love your show. Listen to it every day.

So glad you saw a lot of success at NRB. Jessica, you don't know the half of it. We're going to be sharing that a little bit later. I've been attending Bible study at my church for a little while now. We're going through the book of Romans. Ooh.

I've been listening to your End Times Prophecy series, Dr. Shah, so I could have some talking points in my Bible study. As she put in parentheses, I don't know if that's cheating. I don't think so. That's okay. You can do that.

You can do that. That's okay, Jessica. But you got to give credit where credit's due, Jessica.

You got to cite all this now. I'm just joking. You mentioned in one of your messages how Romans was written so Paul could educate the Gentile background believers. The Gentile background believers, yes, because he knew that they would be the future of the church.

But why? If Jesus has already fulfilled the Old Testament and the church is under a new covenant, why do we, as Gentiles, need to follow Israel's history? Isn't the old way done for? Thanks for answering.

Hope to hear your answer soon, Jessica Princessica. Good point, but there are several problems with that statement. One is why do we follow the history or the past of a people that we feel like your job is done? Because Paul says in Corinthians, I think it's 1 Corinthians, that what happened in there was as an example for us. So they were playing out life on their stage of Israel to teach us how to live life on our individual stages throughout history.

We all have our little drama to play and to act out. And so they did for us in miniature, in a sense you can say, to teach us how to live life. So it's not just that they came and delivered the goods and the goods was Jesus and now their job is done.

It's more than that. Their purpose was to shine the light. So we learn from them how to shine the light. We learn how to be God's people. We learn obedience. We learn what to do when we mess up because often the people of Israel or the Jewish people, they went off the deep end and then they had to repent. Sometimes many were not able to repent. They never came back, but many of them did.

So we learn from them so many things. But also there's a problem with that statement because it assumes that that's all God wanted them to do. Deliver the Messiah, deliver the goods, and then you are disbanded. That's not true because there are certain promises that he made with them so that they will deliver the goods. It was not just that do my job. Once it's over, I don't care what happens to you. See how ludicrous that way of thinking is.

Do the job for me and I love you, but once the job's over, you're done. God doesn't work like that. Yeah, it's almost like people think because there's a new covenant, everything is obsolete. It's done. I think when it says done, when she says isn't there a way of doing things done, I don't think it should mean, and maybe correct me if I'm wrong or if there's a better way to word it, that it's erased. You know what I'm saying? It's still there to be learned for. We were doing this.

Now we're doing this instead. But what we were doing still had value. It wasn't as though it's like we have to put up with this for a couple thousand years even though it's evil and incomplete or whatever. It's not evil, but you know what I'm saying. It's not what's going to be one day. Therefore, it's bad and harmful and we should try to eradicate it from history. I guess it's like on the contrary, it's like we need to learn their history because of all the good that they did.

Celebrate those wins, but also learn from those mistakes as well. And also, when we talk about the new covenant, I wanted to read that passage for us. It's a huge misunderstanding to think the new covenant somehow overrides the last one because it says right here, again, the new covenant as opposed to the Mosaic covenant. This is what it says in Jeremiah 31 verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. So it's not just like he's making a new covenant with a whole different people.

No, still with the house of Israel. Right. Because what you just read is talking about the new covenant through Jesus, right?

Yes, through Jesus, but it's coming in the last days. Okay. Okay. Okay. I got you. So it's not the covenant that he said at the last supper, behold, I make a new covenant with you. What you just read is not foreshadowing that. Right.

This is coming from, well, that's connected, but Jeremiah 31, 31 through verse 34 is the new covenant. Got you. Got you. Got you.

Okay. And then it says in verse 34, no more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord, for I will forgive their sin and their iniquity. I will remember no more. So that is the new covenant. You brought up a good point that I hadn't ever considered before, which is that people think that the new covenant has to eradicate all the other ones, but none, but at some point, like you take that Abrahamic covenant that made, that he made with Abraham and then the mosaic cover covenant comes after it. But at that point, nobody thought like, okay, the Abrahamic covenant is done.

Right. And then when the Davidic covenant comes along, nobody thought like, okay, now the mosaic covenant that's done, that's over. So what happened to people where they think Jesus' new covenant now eradicates the old? Is there, is there some sort of agenda behind that? Or is it just poor exegesis? There's an agenda behind it. And then exegesis is used, poor exegesis I would say, is used to sort of cover up the tracks. Gotcha. Support that agenda and maybe mask it where it rears its head.

Makes sense. Jessica, thanks so much for writing into the show. We love hearing from you guys. If you want to check in with us, send a text to 252-582-5028. We'll read your check in live on the air and Dr. Child will be happy to give you some daily encouragement.

Don't go anywhere. We're going to take a quick break and be right back 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, clearviewtodayshow.com, and you can click on that little button that says, Give Today. We're 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 clearviewtodayshow.com or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. Dr. Shah, Jessica was talking earlier when she wrote into the show about liking your end times series messages. And I think a lot of people have, I don't know if I told you this, I don't know if we talked about this on the show, but I definitely told you about it. There were people who were riding by and one of them was a salesman. He was like selling like church insurance or whatever. And he came in and he was like, Hey, just wanted to drop off my car. And I was like, Oh yeah, great. He said, I saw y'all are doing an end times prophecy series.

And I'm not joking. I know we joked about this, that like this would happen, but it certainly happened right in front of my face. I was like, yeah, yeah, it was doing good. He was like, yeah, we're doing end times.

We've been doing end times at my church as well. I was like, okay. He was like, yeah, what, what, what are y'all looking at specifically? And I said, right now we're in Romans. And he was like, huh? I was like, yeah, we're going through Romans 9 through 11. And I remember him, he was like, okay, okay.

Why? Because it's such a unique book in educating the Gentiles of the first century, especially in the church in Rome, but also churches everywhere. What better book to also educate us because we're not growing up under the old Testament period. We're not like somewhere in, you know, AD 40 or something, or, or BC, you know, or four BC or somewhere there. Like we, we are still living in biblical times. Now we're living in 2025.

World is different. Our understanding of history is, is a very poor, has lots of holes in it, you know, so we don't understand how things work. So what better book to educate the church as well on the chronology of God's events. Right. Because without understanding that we're going to have a very limited view of, of Christ and like just salvation in general, right? Right.

Well, we'll have a very hard time understanding how things work in the end time. Right. But if you understand God's chronology or the timeline of God's events in this world, then you can say, okay, so this, this event right here is in the past, but it's been given as a pattern for something coming in the future. This is an important pattern. These are important parallels. So, um, I mean, that's what Paul does in the book of Romans. Yeah. I was about to say, I think it's funny how, and I was this way too, when we'd start to talk about the end times prophecy series and you say, we're going to Romans.

I was like, oh, okay. But it's true to form. I mean, that was Paul's whole intention behind writing Romans. That's why he wrote the book to the Romans in the first place. Well, you just think about like the, when you, when you neglect that history, you start learning wrong things, right? Like you start gaining all this knowledge. And I think a lot of times we see that in like our culture today, everybody thinks they're educated. Everybody thinks that now I'm just going by actual scholars. I'm more talking about like just people online, people who, you know, if you can record, if you can, yeah, if you can afford theologians. Yes, of course. And what I've really learned is if you can afford podcast equipment, then you're just educated.

Oh yeah. But, uh, uh, it's kind of funny because we ended up learning all these things that are actually wrong. And so reading the book of Romans in light of the end times helps you to see that this is not just doctrine. It's doctrine for the sake of educating us for what's to come in the future. What does that do for the average believer? Understanding that God has, you know, God has always been in control and he is writing this one story. It's not like God was working with the Jewish people.

Now God's working with the church. How does that, uh, I mean, as, as a person who's not Jewish, how does that change my understanding of my perception of the world, my perception of the Bible in times? Yeah, I have to bring my understanding of life and history and the world and the future in line with the Bible.

What most people do is they, whatever system that they are, uh, they have been inculcated in, uh, whatever, uh, historical timeline they have been taught, they try to then fit what we're talking about end times into that system. No, we need a whole different set of, uh, rails. Okay. This train is not going to move on your rails. They will only move on the rails of scripture. So we, what we're doing here is kind of installing the railroad system and then later on the train of prophecy end times prophecy is going to roll on it. Yeah. So the book of Romans is the perfect book to lay out the tracks, like for the rails. Right.

Right. I think like if I'm hearing you correctly, like what I'm thinking about is like how growing up in school, we hear about Charles Darwin, the descent of man, however, how everything evolved from, you know, these single celled organisms or whatever the earth is like billions and billions of years. We all crawled out of the swamp. And so now it's like, okay, we're not willing to abandon the gospel. So we need to fit the gospel into this because this, for some reason we're saying this is true.

This, this narrative that we have heard growing up that we see on TV, uh, that's always there on the internet, everywhere you turn, this is the narrative. Let's see how we can fit end times prophecy into this narrative. Now, what if that whole system has huge faults? Now I believe it does. So how can the end times prophecy fit into a faulty system?

It cannot. So we have to construct a new system. And the book of Romans is the perfect book to construct the new system. Now Paul in writing to the church in Rome, which was composed of both Gentile background and Jewish background believers with the Gentile background believers majority, he was schooling them on their own creation, of course, cosmology, but also on their own history. So in chapter one, he gives them a snapshot of what went wrong with all these great civilizations throughout history and how God is going to judge these nations and civilizations in the end of time. So to help them understand this, Paul explains using the analogy of a, of a staircase.

Okay. The first step on the staircase, the top step is knowledge. What is this knowledge? Well, in Romans 1 18, it says, but what could, what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them.

Okay. So the first step is God showing himself to the world, the truth. And that's the knowledge they gain. That's the knowledge about that they gain. It's not just seeing creation. It's not just going out there and going, wow, look at all the beautiful creation. There must be a God. That's true.

But also I think it's a little more than that. It's also God talking to them throughout history. He's talked to different cultures and civilizations and nations. Okay. And what has he been telling them?

He's been telling them that my son is coming. Who'll give his life for you? Okay. So there is knowledge, but unfortunately, what we find is human beings reject this knowledge. It says in Romans 1 19 for what, because what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them.

Okay. And they, it says in verse 21, because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. So they went from knowledge of God to rebellion, rebellion against God, the new God, but they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful. It's, it's, it's hard not to draw the parallel to America from this.

You know what I mean? Like, like they're, they're knowing God. And yet in, in spite of that knowledge, they start rebelling against him. I look out at America right now and I think of all the things that are going on that are shameful, that are, that are evil, that are twisted, right?

And it's hard. It's really difficult not to, and maybe that's what God is wanting us to do. So I don't want to discard it that either, but it's hard not to look at America and say, yeah, I see the exact same thing happening here. Right. It mean you often point to the passages like this as a cautionary tale, like look at where country is headed.

Look at the trajectory. Um, but I love the reminder that God is, you know, God is still in control, but there are people out there who it's not just that they don't know God, they know God, they know that there is a God and they don't care. Right. That's that to me. And I guess it's because of how we were raised, how we were brought up in the world that we, you know, we're living in kind of a ministry mindset, but that's just, that's just baffles me that people can understand that there is a God and just be like, I reject that. I don't care.

Yeah. And we also on this show particularly, we don't just harp on the fact that this nation was founded on biblical values as a way to like just control and say, America is still ours. It still belongs to us. It's to give you guys the hope and, and, and the, the, the hope that where other nations weren't founded on biblical values, God still worked with them anyway, but America was, you know what I mean? We have that great firm foundation to where even if things get really bad, there's still that hope that God would bring us back.

That's right. So we go from knowledge of God and then instead of being grateful to him and trusting him and glorifying him, there's rebellion means I don't need anybody to tell me how to live my life. I get to decide what is truth.

I get to decide what is knowledge and that is rebellion. But the very next step from rebellion, this is Romans chapter one verse 22, professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four footed animals and creeping things. So they went from rejecting God to idolatry. I think that's, that's a, that could be a false red herring for people where they'd be like, well, thank goodness America is not a land of idolatry. And it's like the idolatry of Israel. Yeah. The idolatry of Israel is not the same idolatry of America. Like I'm sure there with all the celebrities and the money and the success and the billionaires and all the things that we worship. Yeah. America is the land of idolatry.

Most people here might not be bound down to statues, but don't think for a second that there are idols in people's lives. Right. A hundred percent. Yeah.

We have all of them. And that could even be vices like alcohol or sex. That could even be something as simple as watching TV or looking at your phone for hours and hours and hours. And all those are part of the vices for which we need to be set free from idolatry. Yeah, that's right. But the next step is sexual immorality. So knowledge rebellion.

Okay. And then after that is idolatry and then comes sexual immorality. Listen to verse 24.

When all this happens, right? Knowledge, rebellion, idolatry. God also gave them up to uncleanness means now God is giving them a push down the step.

Wow. In the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves who exchange the truth of God for the lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the creator who's blessed forever. Amen. So God gave them up. God gave them up to consequences of their sins. God's wrath was hovering over them. It's crazy because a lot of times we think of God's wrath like an earthquake or tsunami or like flames coming down from heaven.

But here it's just God's wrath is just saying God washing his hands off of us. Right. Just allowing this to happen.

Right. That's a terrifying reality. Washing his hands of us. It is because we, because we, a lot of times we sin. I think, I think a lot of times people sin and they'll do it deliberately and then they just wait for the hammer to drop there. They're waiting from like the sky to dark and the lighting bolt from heaven.

It's wild. Yeah. Well, and the next thing that follows after sexual immorality, which by the way is a, is a grievous sin. We think every sin is the same and in a sense that is true, but in a sense that is not true. Yes, every sin is sin. You don't need hundreds of sins of various varieties to go to hell. No, you can just do one sin and that's enough. But at the same time there are certain gradations to sin. Some sins have far greater and devastating consequences than others.

And that's crazy because a kid can get that. A kid knows it's better to steal a cookie out of the cookie jar than to murder someone. But it's Christians, it's grown Christians that try to say, nope, they're all the same. Well, I mean, I also wonder if it's a way for us to excuse sin, like to make, yes, this is bad, but all sin is sin. God forgives our sins. Sin is sin in God's eyes. Yeah, I think it's a way just to take the shame out of it. So I don't have to feel ashamed about it. If everybody sins and all the sin is equal, then I'm just like you. Then I'm good.

Yeah. So why is sexual sin so important or so bad? Because Jesus said, or Paul said himself that any sin done outside means towards somebody or something like stealing or whatever is done outside the body. Sexual sin is the sin done inside the body.

Okay. When you, when you do those things, whether it's premarital sex or adultery or all the rest, they're all sins done in the body. And we are not just soul. We are also soul and body or heart, mind, soul and body.

It's like sexual self-destruction, right? Right. You know, we are immaterial and material. We only think about the immaterial and we think that's the better part of us and the material.

Who cares? No, the immaterial, the material part of you, the flesh and bones part of you is also very important. It makes you who you are. That's right. So when you commit sin sexually, you are corrupting the, the, you know, the outs, not just the outside, but the inside of who you are.

But the next step on the way down is very interesting. It is homosexuality. It's a step down from just sexual immorality. It's even worse.

Yes. Some people say it's adultery. I mean, it's the same thing as homosexuality. I mean, why do Christians make a big deal? Because the Bible makes a big deal. Listen to Romans chapter one, verse 26, for this reason, God gave them up to vile passions for even the women exchanged natural use for what is against nature. Likewise, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing with a shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of the error, which was due.

Of course, we're talking here about homosexuality. It's crazy. Isn't it crazy? Cause this is Romans. This is the New Testament and people always want to make it out like the Old Testament was very, very strict on homosexuality. And really when you see it, the New Testament seems way stricter.

It's there and it's even worse. Yes. Yeah.

It's kind of crazy people make that distinction. Jesus turns up the volume on that. He doesn't do away with it. He cranks up the intensity.

Yeah, he's not playing around. So there you have the five steps, the four steps, and then there's one more coming, which is self-destruction. So knowledge, rebellion, idolatry, sexual immorality, homosexuality.

And the last step on the way down is self-destruction. Listen to verse 28. This is Romans 1 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over. So God give them up, God give them up and God give them over. So in verse 28, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things, which are not fitting.

And what are these things that are not fitting? There are 23 vices there. And going back to Jessica's question from earlier, if you're still listening to the show, Jessica, this is why it's important to study this because this is not, Paul is not talking to individuals. He's talking to civilizations. This is how cultures and societies and civilizations crumble. And so you look at what happened with the Jewish people and what happened with all sorts of civilizations through history.

It's important to understand that because Paul is laying out the pattern, not only for salvation, but also of how civilizations self-destruct. Yeah. You talked about the stair step on the way down and the way off of the stairs or the way back to the top of the stairs in your message. Do you want to give that to our audience as we close?

Sure. The way back is not necessarily climbing the way back from self-destruction to homosexuality to sexual immorality to idolatry, rebellion, knowledge. No, you come to God.

You reject those sins and come to God. You choose to have revival in your community. You choose to have revival in our nation.

That's how you make your way back. Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow, 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 that 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.

John, anything you want to plug? Yes. On March 17th, big, big day for us here at The Clearview Today Show. Dr. Shai is going to be a featured leader on Pray.com. He's already a featured leader, but it'll all be going live, all of that content, at one time on March 17th.

Make sure you stay tuned for more details on how you can hear all those messages, hear all of these episodes, be encouraged by all of his writing. Also, the website is moving. It hasn't happened yet, but it will be available at Abidansha.com forward slash Clearview Today. Make sure you check it out. You can support us financially over there as well, as well as get all of Dr. Shai's content and his writings. 30 Days of Praying for America is still available right now. All of our original music from Clearview Worship is available as well. So make sure you get that on iTunes, Spotify, and anywhere digital music is sold.

That's right. Lots of exciting things coming up. Make sure you guys join the conversation. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today.