Hi, I'm Dr. Abidan Shah, and I'm excited and honored to become one of the newest featured leaders on Pray.com. It's a privilege to be part of a platform dedicated to encouraging and strengthening people in their faith.
Our mission at Clearview Church is to lead all peoples into a life-changing, ever-growing relationship with Jesus Christ. And so, I'll be on Pray.com sharing Biblical insights, devotionals, and messages that I hope will inspire and challenge you to live out your faith with confidence. Whether you're seeking wisdom, encouragement, or a deeper understanding of Scripture, I'm looking forward to seeing you all on Pray.com. Download the Pray.com app right now and join this incredible community of believers with us. Together, we will grow closer to God and strengthen one another through His Word.
And don't forget to support Pray.com by sharing it with your friends and family. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abidan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill.
John Galantis. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, if you want to write in for one of our daily check-ins, you can send us a note to 252-582-5028. Or email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. That's a good five-star review on iTunes or Spotify.
Absolutely nothing less than five stars. Got a great show for you guys today, talking about how to give up the good in this life in pursuit of the eternal. But before we do that, Dr. Shah, welcome to the show. It's good to be here. And this studio right here. It's the, it's the two-dio. Yeah.
It's the studio 2.0. Very nice. Yeah, yeah. Two-dio. You like the, you like the two-dio?
Yeah, sure I do. So anyways, for those of you who do not know, we've been working in this makeshift studio for the past just two days. Yeah, just two days. Two days. And we'll probably be in here tomorrow.
And, and this joke you just heard was the third time. Yeah, we've been having some technical difficulties in the studio. But, but these guys have really done a great job in setting this up. And the next show will be in our upgraded studio. Yes, that's right.
That's right. Nicholas, who is our video engineer, video switcher, really our kind of, kind of co-producer here on the show, has really taken a lot of ownership. And he kind of set this up for us. And he's upstairs right now.
I just went upstairs to get this empty cup of coffee for the joke of drinking it. And I got to tell you, it is looking really good. Yeah, it'll be awesome. Really, really exciting.
Really, really great. Well, speaking of things that will be really great and are coming in the near future, Dr. Shah, ETS is on the horizon. I know ETS is far out, but the deadline for your paper upcoming is... ETS is in November?
Yes, it's always in November. Gotcha. The annual meeting. For those of you who may not know, ETS is Evangelical Theological Society. It is a gathering of people who, number one, hold to the inerrancy of scripture. And secondly, they hold to the Trinity, the Father, Son, Spirit, Three and the Eighth One. And they come together and they present papers in their respective disciplines and scholars will interact with them and PhD students will read papers and PhD students will interact with them.
It's a great, great setting and has been for decades. I have read paper there for, I mean, so many years, but you have to present a topic and then there's a committee that will then decide, is it a good enough topic and is it relevant? And then they will tell you that your paper has been accepted. So you submit the proposal before you submit a paper. They don't need to see the paper before you submit the proposal.
Right. And many times, you know, you want to make sure that it's accepted before you, you know, start drafting it. Not unless you really believe that your topic is viable or maybe it's a chapter in a book that you're writing or a paper that you're presenting or maybe even your dissertation. So it is one that you will do anyways. So, yeah, in that situation, you may already have the paper.
But typically you propose a topic and then they will look it over for like a month or so and then you'll hear back. Nice. This year is very interesting because I believe it's the 1300th year of the, of the, of the Council of Nicaea. Wow.
The anniversary. Remember it was 325 AD. So a lot of people, a lot of people will be doing papers on the Council of Nicaea? Right.
And I'm doing it from a text work perspective where I'm looking at various early artifacts that have kind of like intimations on the Nicene Creed. Okay. Cool. That's cool.
Is that, is that something they were like, wait, they were like, hey guys, try to make your papers about the Nicene Creed or it's just, it's just kind of a fortunate thing you want to be able to do on the 1300th anniversary? Oh, there's something they want you to do. Got you. But it's not limited to that.
So if you do something just completely different, let's say you write a paper on the end times, you know, some prophecy. Okay. You can do that. That's not a problem.
As long as they feel like it needs to be, it is, it needs to be accepted. Right. Right. That's really awesome.
Very cool. I want to jump into the check-in. I want to jump into the, to the topic, but first I feel like we got to talk about what happened at lunch.
Sure. With the Le Blue guy, right? I don't. You didn't see what happened? Dr. Shaw saw what happened. I saw that he was here. Yeah, no, he came and refilled. Okay. So Dr. Shaw saw what happened.
He already knows what's happening. It was just a dramedy of terror. Oh no, a dramedy? It's like a comedy of errors. This was a dramedy of terror. So this, so Le Blue is a sponsor of the show, right?
Yes, definitely. Big thank you to, for Le Blue for sponsoring the show. They've got great water, great tasting water. They come and they refill the water coolers at your business. They drop their water off.
They take the empty ones back. So this, this delivery guy was coming to do that. We were sitting at lunch and he had like a whole hand truck full of these like giant water cooler bottles. So David and myself, we got up to help him. And so David opened up the door. He took them into the cafe kitchen and I reached in. I was going to say, I said, Hey, I'll give you a hand.
And he saw my hand coming out and he just reached out and shook my hand. Oh, sure. Okay. I was like, Oh, okay.
Yeah, sure. So he goes back to his work. I'm like, Hey, I'll, I'll give you a hand. He sees me doing it again. And he's like, Oh, I thought you wanted to shake my hand. And so I didn't want him to feel awkward. So I was like, I don't have any problem shaking your hand. Yeah, I'll shake your hand.
So he should, he reaches out and shakes my hand a second time. He's like, he's like, there you go. And I was like, Oh, okay, thank you. And now he starts unloading the things and I'm like, well, I don't know if I should try a third time. So he starts going to put the full bottles down and he's tripping over like the empty bottles that are there. And this is like broom and dustpan.
So I was like, here you go, man. I'll take the broom and dustpan out of your way for you. He goes, Oh, thanks.
He picks up one of the empty water bottles and hands it to me. And I just, I'm holding it in my hand. And I look at Dr. Shah and Dr. Shah's watching this whole thing. And I'm just like, I think I have to disengage. I don't, I got to, I got to get out of here somehow. I was like, I think I just have to disengage. And nobody else saw that was going on, but Dr. Shah saw it. I was like, I was going to disengage. And I just slowly backed out of the room and let him, let him do the whole thing.
It was a lot of series of unfortunate events happening back to back. Have you ever been in a situation like that where like you feel like I'm speaking clearly, but this other person is either not listening. They can't hear me. They're awkward.
They just like nothing. All the time. I didn't know what to do. I just didn't know what to do. That was funny.
It was hard to recover from that. And the guy was, you know, he was, he was great. He was, he laughed, I guess in a sort of awkward way. He was like, he was like, and then ran out and then walked out. He's like, bye guys. I'm uncomfortable, so I'm going to go.
But I like, I like that Le Blue does that, man. They'll come. They're, they're people that are real nice. They'll take the help. They're polite to you. They say, Hey, thank you guys for anything you need.
Let us know. Super nice. Very easy to work with. Very interesting. And the water is good too.
The water is good. And we're not just saying that because they're sponsored. They are very, very good company. That's right. Well, it's time for our daily check-in and you guys can always text us to 252-582-5028. We love hearing from you guys and love to know what's going on in your world.
That's right. Today's check-in is coming to us from Jonathan D over in South Carolina. He says, I just want to send a quick note to say how much I enjoy tuning into your show every morning. It's become part of my daily routine.
Also, I followed Dr. Shaw on Pray.com. Jonathan. Thank you, Jonathan. You're a big supporter of me. You showing love. You showing respect. I appreciate that.
Looking forward to seeing you guys blow up soon. Thanks, Jonathan D. You know, people still don't know you're on Pray.com, Dr. Shaw. Yeah, it's been awesome. It's been a blessing to be on this platform. We've been praying for God to open a door so that we can take what we know and what's happening here. And it's already touching, you know, thousands of people through our radio broadcasts and through our podcasts.
We wanted to go on a bigger platform. And this is how God opened the door. And I'm very excited. I'm very grateful, of course, to the Lord, to our church family, but also to this team.
These two guys, but also the guys behind the video, they're amazing. Fantastic. They're doing a great job. They're great jobs for you.
I couldn't have done it without them. It's easy to chase greatness when you're inspired to. That's right. And when you have a leader who pushes you to be the best version of yourself and the best version of this team. That's right. When you sit under greatness and you sit under, like, actual good biblical preaching.
We've been here 13 years, 12 years. It's really hard to do nothing with that. If you've got something good, you're going to want to get it out there and share it with people.
Absolutely. If you're watching this on Pray.com right now, head on over to Dr. Abbadon Shaw's page. Click that follow button.
That would really mean a lot to us. And if you're not, go ahead and download Pray.com. It's one of the fastest growing Christian media apps out there. It's totally free.
They do have subscription options available if you want some premium content. But make sure you follow Dr. Shaw. That would be a great opportunity for us and for you to grow in your faith. That's right. You can always check in with us.
252-582-5028. Love hearing from you. Jonathan, thank you for writing in.
We're going to take a quick break and be right back with more Clear V Today. None of this would be possible without the faithful support of listeners like you. When you give to Clear V Today, you're not just supporting a radio show. You're investing in a gospel-driven mission to share the truth of Jesus Christ without compromise. Your financial partnership helps us stay on the air, expand our reach, and continue creating content that encourages, equips, and transforms lives.
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Welcome back, Dr. Shah. During the break, there was something you wanted to clarify a little bit about. Yes, yes. When I went to calculate that in my head, I was going from 325 AD was the council in Nicaea, which is now in modern-day Turkey. But it's not the 1300th year anniversary, it's 1700th year anniversary. That's crazy. Yeah, yeah.
That's great. So this is 2025, so. Yeah. Yeah, 1700. 1700 years ago. Wow.
Amazing. And then, well, the verse of the day is coming to us from Colossians 3, 24, it says, Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. I love those languages, or those verses that have the language of inheritance, of heirs, of adoption, because, you know, adoption is such a beautiful picture of what the gospel is.
That's right. We didn't do anything to deserve this. We weren't originally a part of the family, but we were brought into the family and we received that inheritance. The lowliest of the low, the worst among us, you know, we have that promise of inheritance, of being co-heirs with Christ. I think there's no higher honor, there's no higher privilege than being able to say that I'm a child of God.
And I think there's this perspective that people can have, you know, regardless of what happens to you in your life, you can live with joy. You know, I think that's so, so important for us. Amen.
Amen. And, you know, when it comes to following Christ, he's called us to leave everything behind and follow him. That's right.
Because he is life, he is joy, and once you find that, once you find him, everything else sort of becomes meaningless. That's right. Not that you don't care about your responsibilities or your loved ones, but no, but you have a higher calling at that point. That's right.
I hope that makes sense. That makes you think about your dad, but the idea of leaving everything for following Christ, I mean, what a profound story of someone who did just that, not metaphorically, but literally left everything. You know, the very first episode of The Clearview Today Show we ever did, it would have been really tempting. I had a lot of respect for you, Dr. Shaw, because I thought this really laid the foundation for who you are. Because it would have been very tempting to say, hey, this is the first episode of Clearview Today with Dr. Albert Einstein, I'm going to tell my story. But really, you can't tell your story without telling your dad's story. And so I figured now that we're on Pray.com, the viewership and the listenership is really exponentially increasing. Maybe you want to just tell that story again of your dad's conversion to Christianity. Sure, sure.
Be glad to. Always glad to tell his story because it still inspires both believers and it challenges nonbelievers, especially those coming from Muslim backgrounds. Because my dad grew up in a Muslim home. He grew up in quite a wealthy, affluent, educated, I would say moderate Muslim home. In India?
In India. In that time period, was Islam prevalent? Was that a minority? Was that a majority?
Was it sort of? So this is 1937 is when my dad was born. And this is pre-independence India. So the British were in India for several hundred years. And then in 1947, India was set free. And so there was a partition that took place where most of the Muslims went to Pakistan. And then many of the Hindus came to India, which is modern day India. So prior to that, where my dad grew up, there were quite a few Muslims because he grew up in the south of India. His family was from the Nizam of Hyderabad. So kind of a wealthy family, royalty kind of thing.
So they had a lot of money, land, wealth. There are a lot of stories out there. My great-great-great-grandfather was Times Magazine Man of the Year back in the 20s and the 30s.
That's incredible. Yeah. So he grew up in that era. So yeah, a lot of Muslims around him.
But again, Hindu majority. Right. And so he was raised in a Muslim home until what age? He was about, I would say, 19 some years of age.
19, 20 years of age. So growing up all through his formative years. Oh yeah, he was a Muslim. And when you grow up in a Muslim home, it's not like here in America you grow up in a Christian home, but you may not believe it yourself. You might not go to church.
It's like you're pretty much in that life in those times. We sometimes tend to think that all religions are like how we are in Christianity. You accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, or you get saved, or you're born again. That's not the way it is in other religions. In other religions, you're simply born into that family. And since you're born into that family, you're born into that religion. So there's no change. There's no acceptance or initiation. I mean, they may have some rights here and there, but overall there's no such thing as they got saved. That's interesting. So there's often the push with like children's ministry and student ministry to, you need to, individual, make this decision for yourself.
For the kid, for the student. You need to choose on your own to follow Jesus. It's not about your parents' faith. That's not the way in any religion.
Nobody chooses Muhammad as their Lord and Savior. You just are, because you're born into that. No, no.
Or Hinduism, or Buddhism, or Shintoism, or any other ism that's out there. It's not like that. Wow. So, good life, I imagine?
Oh, great life, great life, great life. His father was the commissioner of police in South India. His father's brothers were with the British service. So, you know, they were a well-off family, very educated.
They have several colleges and universities. They were built by the family, and they're still standing there today. Still there.
Still there. After all these years. Tell me about that name Shah, because there was a bunch of people that we went to in our RV, and they saw your name Abaddon Shah, and they're like, now Shah, that's not like Shah. And you're like, yeah, it's Shah. Yeah. And I remember their faces being like, are you serious? Your dad converted?
Do you want to just kind of explain? So, when you have the last name Shah, S-H-A-H, in India, it can either be people coming from a state called Gujarat, which is the northwest of India, kind of the state north of where Bombay is. Bombay is in Maharashtra, to the north is Gujarat. So there are a lot of people who come from that side of the country from that state who have that last name. But my family did not come from there. Dad came from the south, and that's where he got his last name Shah, which is from that Muslim, you know, kind of royal background. Got you. So people, like when you have the name Shah, people are like, okay, this is a very affluent family. Right.
Once they realize which part of the country you're coming from. Got you, got you. All that to say your dad had it made. He had it made, he had it made. And then through a series of events, some happened when he was a young boy, some happened when he was in college, that he had a crisis of faith. So when he was a little boy, I would say maybe 12, 13 years of age, he saw his grandfather praying.
You know, they pray five times a day, five pillars of Islam, so five times a day. And so when he got up, my father went up to him as a little boy and said, you know, grandfather, God's going to have a special place for you in heaven. Allah is going to have a special place for you in heaven. And when he said that, my great grandfather, his grandfather began to weep. He began to cry.
Tears came down his face and his response was, son, there is no guarantee that I will be in heaven. Wow. Wow. Right. One of those formative memories for your dad. Oh, very much so because that was very shocking to him.
Like what? You do all this and you have no guarantee. Now, those who know about Islam or have, you know, taken a course or studied it for whatever reason, you know that that is true. Yeah. On the day of judgment in Islam, you have to walk across this bridge, pul Sarat. You have to walk across this bridge that is finer than a human hair, sharper than a sword. And you have to walk across from one end to the other. The other end is heaven. Below is hell. So if you, you know, you lose your balance and fall, you go into hell.
That's where the lake of fire is. Wow. Now, you know, nobody can walk on something as fine as a human hair. Right.
And of course, sharper, as sharp as a sword. This is not possible. So the whole point is, unless Allah is merciful to you on the day of judgment, you will not make it. Wow.
And it's an extreme form of sovereignty, I guess you can say, where he can let that person over there that you think is worthless, he can let him go. And you might be, you know, so righteous and so, you know, holy and keeping all the pillars of Islam, you may be sent to hell. You have a guarantee. Wow.
So you do all these things on earth to try to gain some of Allah's favor. You should do that anyways. Right. But at the end of the day, it's just whatever. Yeah, you should do that anyways.
You cannot help for the best, but it's really left up to Allah. Wow. You should do that anyways, is how they see it. I see. Yeah, that's not to merit your salvation. Salvation is completely on his mercy.
Got you. So your dad has that conversation with his grandfather, your great-grandfather, and from there, how do we get to the point of conversion? Well, then there are several other things happen in his life. Like, he was sitting in his dorm room, studying for an exam, and a lightning bolt went from one window to the other and struck a tree. That'll certainly wake you up. Wow. Good gracious. With a loud noise and the tree was on fire.
I can't imagine that. And similar things have happened to other people throughout history where the lightning bolt just barely missed them, but it happened to him. And that made him think, what if I were to die now? What if I were dead?
Where would I be? People don't ask those questions. They just kind of go on and say, thank goodness, I'm okay. But he began to question Islam, which is, yes, it is not as common, but yes, it is. There are a lot of people who question their faith. Many of them continue living in that life.
It is what it is. But then some do follow up and they begin to ask around or read or study or look for answers, and my dad did that. But he tried other religions for us. He didn't want to try Christianity because Christianity is this Western religion that has been created and crafted to dominate the world. So I'm not going to try Christianity because the Bible is corrupted by Christians over the centuries and the church is so evil and they are so corrupt and they're so immoral. We're not going to try Christianity.
So he tried Hinduism and that didn't last long. There is no salvation there. People make it out to be like there is, but there is no salvation. This is mainly philosophy. Well, there is philosophy.
There is the struggle. Like enlightenment or whatever. Yeah, but it's not salvation in the sense of God sending His Son to give His life for you and saving you and loving you and has a great plan for your life and forgiving you and all that.
That doesn't exist. People think all religions are basically the same thing in a different garb. That's not the truth.
When you line them up side by side, it's evident that there are huge discrepancies. Yeah, there may be religions, but this right here, Christianity, which is, of course, based on Old Testament and New Testament, it's a whole different thing. And then you have, he tried Buddhism. Buddhism is basically atheism.
There's nothing there about God. It's simply trying to kill desire. He tried even communism because this is about, you know, the time of the fifties where communism was growing in, especially in the third world countries where people were poor or they were finding, you know, freedom sort of, you know, kind of like the anti-colonial spirit mixed with communism was now really in vogue. And so he tried communism.
He put on the red bandana and, you know, went to the streets protesting and, you know, fight the system. But that didn't satisfy. So finally somebody told him to read the Bible. In fact, one of his cousins, who was already a Christian, he had suggested that. But now my dad took him up on it, read the Bible, came to John 3 16, right? The same passage. And it's like the light came on for him. It's like the doors were flung open. He knew this is it.
This is what I've been searching for. And here it is. This is not something that the Bible creates a desire in you.
No, the Bible simply answers the question that God has placed in your heart. That desire is already there. It's there.
You can't feel it. Right. And if you even remotely acknowledge the desire that there is something, God will send the next truth. But it wasn't as easy as just choosing to follow Jesus. Because I'm assuming in a Muslim home, that's not something you can just switch over to.
No, you can't do that. And so even though it was a moderate home, educated home, you know, sometimes people think it's like all Muslims are basically the same, you know, coming from the same background. That's not true. Some come from very open-minded societies. Some come from a very closed-minded society.
Some are very rules-based and some are more laxed. He came from more of a laxed-type family. Nonetheless, when he told his father that, his father gave him an ultimatum. That either he renounced all this Christian stuff or else when he wakes up in the morning, because this conversation took place at night, and he is still there, then it's not going to be good for him. Did his father know about all of the other religions that your dad had tried? Well, the thing is, again, you know, there's so much I can go into. Maybe another time we can talk about that.
Sure, sure. He didn't grow up with a dad who was, like, you know, iron-fisted, like, this is how it is and that's how it's going to be. No, it was other than this new Christian stuff that his son was doing, they were pretty... They were pretty cool with it, like, as long as you're... Yeah, like, not that you would change religion, but yeah, he's learning this and learning that. It's okay.
He's a young man. You have to learn these things and you have to, what, you became a Christian? That was... You got baptized? Yeah. You're going to follow Jesus now? Okay, but the break's on. Yeah.
If you do that, you will leave my home. Yeah, and they were serious. That wasn't just, like, an idle threat. He was serious. His mother, on the other hand, was sort of, like, trying to, you know, mediate between her husband and her son. It was really his stepmother.
His mom died when he was very young. So, it was kind of like, I have to leave everything. And so, imagine that. That night, he walked out of his home, you know, out of his room at his house, and he looked up at the sky and said, God, I'm following you because I've found the truth. I have found eternal life. This is what I was created for. This is what everyone has been created and you've been calling everyone and I am responding. But the moment I respond, I lose my family.
This is not fair. And then God, not in an audible voice, but just in his heart, asked him a question, which is, are you trusting me that I can take care of you in the life to come? And my dad responded, yes. That's why I'm following you. Then if you can trust me with a life that you've never seen, why don't you trust me with a life you can see? I will take care of you in this life.
Follow me. And so, my dad left everything that night and he stepped out by faith and it's a long story. Yes, he lost everything, but in the process, he gained it all. That's right.
Yes, right. He understood, even as a young man, the value of forsaking the temporary in pursuit of something that he knew was eternal. And I mean, I can't imagine, because I think for us, a lot of times, it's like, well, man, I don't really have a whole lot to lose.
I mean, yeah, I've got my family, but it's pretty safe here in America. But man, to give up wealth and riches, everything, give up everything and walk out into the night, I want to say, by God's grace, I could do it, but I don't know. I love hearing that story of your dad because, I mean, that's the definition of counting the cost. And I would love to maybe do an episode on this another time, but imagine him thinking, me doing this is going to create a church one day in America. Me doing this is going, I'm one day going to have a son.
We're going to establish a church and from nothing, this church is going to be built up and touch the rest of the world. Online and in person. I can't imagine. What a legacy.
Right. Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow. Same time, same station. We're going to dive into another great topic here on the Clear View 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, or like we've told you, make sure you're following Dr. Abbadon Shah on Pray.com. And you can always support us financially at ClearViewTodayShow.com. That's right. We'll see you guys tomorrow on Clear View Today.
