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 me. 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. Welcome to Clearview Today with Dr. Abidan Shah. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis, and welcome, welcome, welcome to the Clearview Today studio.
Dr. Shah, good to see you, my friend. You like this shirt? Yeah, I like that shirt a lot. You know, I told you one of the times that I went shopping at Dickner's, I was like looking at all the shirts. I found one that I like that I think now, looking back on it, is hideous.
But I remember FaceTiming Dr. Shah and him being like, look, with your shirts, keep it simple. Get you a powder blue. And I got that powder blue from Dickner's, and that was like four or five years ago, still one of my favorite shirts.
Really? Yeah, you can't go wrong with that. You've got to have, that's a staple, a staple shirt. There's a powder blue shirt, a white shirt, maybe a striped blue shirt.
Those are things that you can quickly go, maybe a checkered gray, checkered shirt, small checks. They're a must. Yeah, oh yeah. And sometimes I think about it and I say, okay, what's today? Oh, I need to meet so and so. That's an important appointment.
I need to be taken seriously. Okay, powder blue. Yeah, you've got to go powder blue, man. Powder blue and some khakis and some brown shoes.
Versatility. Those are the shirts you can kind of mix and match with different suits. You don't even need khaki. You can just go with jeans.
Powder blue and jeans. But this sort of makes it sort of formal. So I could have worn those checkered shirts, like little flannel look, but it won't be the same thing. But putting on this, it's like I'm still in business mode. Yeah, it elevates you to a little bit. It's not quite dressed up like a Sunday, like I'm in a three-piece suit.
Sure. But good powder blue. You know what?
I've graduated to recently. I'm kind of playing the hypocrite today. But jeans that aren't blue. Like you're wearing gray jeans. Green jeans. Mr. Green Jeans.
Mr. Green Jeans right here. Well, today's verse of the day, Dr. Shah, is coming to us from Galatians chapter 3 in verse 28. It says, There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. All one in the family of God. There's no lesser people.
There's no like this tier and this tier, this section and then that section. No, we're all one. There's no like all Christians are equal, but some Christians are more equal than others. You've said it this way before, but the ground is level at the foot of the cross.
That's right. You know, that can be taken, you know, wrongly. And one way people do that is they try to minimize the different roles between men and women, especially in the context of home or marriage or church life. And we need to be careful about that because there are certain roles that God expects the man to be, you know, be the leader of your home. And again, leader does not mean some authoritative, domineering person. Leader means somebody who is a servant, who is the first one to step out and obey God or first one to sacrifice or the last one to, you know, to have to enjoy food or whatever.
You know, you're not the first one to jump in line. So leadership is not just, you know, I'm the boss. So also in a marriage relationship, the man is called to be the head of the household. So once we understand those role differentiations, then we can come to a passage like this and say, but when it comes to knowing Jesus Christ, there is no hierarchy. A wife does not have to go through her husband to get to God. A slave does not have to go through a master to get to God.
It's level. We don't have to go through Jewish people to find Christ. And yet at the same time, we know God has a purpose for ethnic Israel. Romans 9 through 11. We are all saved by grace through faith, but there is a distinction there. And it's not hierarchical. It is more eschatological.
Right, right. I think a lot of times you think about the difference in people's Christian lives too, like a lot of people didn't go through the same things leading up to it. Even though we have these same beliefs and these same practices or whatever, they all end up different.
And I thought today it would be kind of fun to see some people who were trying to do the right thing, right? Specifically getting baptized. We're talking about baptism on the show today. If you saw the title, then you already knew that.
But if you listen on the radio, we're talking about baptism. And Dr. Shoah, you sent me a video that I thought as soon as I saw it, I was like, we have to talk about this on the show. But I also found some more. And so I wanted to show you, if you turn your attention to the screen, I want to just kind of show you.
These are what I like to call baptisms gone wrong. Oh, my. Oh, my. All right, let's watch the first one.
Okay. Oh, I remember seeing this one. You've seen this one? No, he's like, if you're listening on the radio, the pastor's trying to fix his hands. I'm running an ear to ear. He's so excited. Yeah. He's trying to fix his hands.
He's like, all right. Here we go. Nice. Hold your nose. Hold your nose. Now, watch this. You've seen this. Yeah, I've seen it. This is like an indoor.
This is like an outdoor swimming pool. It looks like in the church. Praise. Praise. Check it out. Watch this guy. Watch this guy. Yanks the pastor up. Well, I know.
All right, Dr. Shoah, let me ask you this. I know that if that happened, that it would be like, okay, I need to compose myself. Would you be angrier at the guy who like jumped up and made you go under or the guy who like yanked you up by the shirt? Because at first I was like, I thought the guy up on the top. I was like, why in the world is he like straddling the pool? He's going to fall in. To pull the pastor up.
Yeah. I guess they anticipated this big dude getting saved and then being baptized that he is excited and, or they may not have anticipated him jumping up and in the process dunking his pastor, I think they thought he was going to be too heavy to pull back up. They didn't anticipate him jumping up and the pastor losing his grip and falling into the water. He came back up and rocketed up out of the water. And it was like, you could see physics working cause he rockets up and the pastor just goes underneath and the pastor, like you expect him to come back up and the guy just reaches in and pulls him up.
I feel like there was no reason for that. That pastor could have just stood up, but the guy, I'm straddling the pool. I have to look important and make the pastor up. He'd bring him up. So at lunch he could tell everybody, you know, I saved the pastor's life today.
Saved him from drowning. There's a, there's, there's another one I wanted to show you. I thought this one was kind of cute.
There's a little kid getting baptized. Oh, I've seen this one. You've seen this one? The Savior has his Lord and he will demonstrate his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can tell he's nervous cause look at his neck, his neck is like jutted all the way out. Gavin does that. He's been waiting on this day a long time.
And so Jordan, upon the profession of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, I now baptize you in the name of the father and of the son. Have you ever had something like that happen? No, nothing like that ever happened to me.
I mean, that's, I've had one time this lady was scared of the water. And so we are, we had a discussion. We went and looked at the baptistry. Okay. Are you happy with this? Oh yes. Yes. But are you going to be there? I said, yes, I'm going to be there.
Of course. I'll be in the water. There'll be a person here. Your friend is going to be here. And I was like, it's all great. All laid out perfectly.
She goes in the water, comes out scrambling to climb on top of me. Was this a long time ago? This was a long time ago. This isn't our first building. Okay. Okay. This is where I came as a pastor.
This is in, you know, I would say the early 2000s. Oh wow. Does that even count as a baptism? If he dunks himself? I guess so. Self baptism?
Yeah, I don't know. I feel like the pastor should be the one to baptize you. But I can't like go home and like dip myself in a tub and say I was baptized. But the pastor was there. Yeah. The pastor was there.
There was one point, there was one I remember that I really thought was fun. Cause we do, I haven't seen a lot of churches do this, but we do like, you, you light a candle and hand them the candle. And he said, this candle represents the light of Jesus Christ burning brightly in this person's heart today. And one time you gave it to a kid and you remember what he did? Oh yeah. He blew it out.
Yeah. I was like, Oh, you blew it out. And so then he related again and tried to hand it to him and I really thought he was going to blow it out. I was like, don't blow it out.
Birthday cake syndrome. The kid gets, he's like, Oh, it's a candle. Because it was like, he didn't cut them off. He explained what it is.
He said, this candle represents the light of Jesus Christ burning in your heart. Yeah. I was like, you blew it out. There's, there's, there's one more that I wanted to see. Yeah, there it is.
There it is. Oh, there's a bunch of look, look, he's got to compose himself too. He's like, cause I know you've got to start singing, look at his face.
He wants to laugh badly. He does. He's holding it back. Yep.
He's strong. All right. That's all there.
So you can, you can cut that one off. So that video actually goes on for a while and they do get in the back room and they lose it. That's the thing conceptually like, but you can explain everything about baptism.
But when, when everyone's eyes are on you and when water is introduced, everything is slippery. You're, your thoughts are somewhere else. You're thinking about 11 different things and then you lose your footing. How many people do you think if just ballpark, do you think you've baptized in your life? A hundreds, I would say like, like maybe five, 600 you think not quite five, 600 maybe, maybe four, four or five. I would say a couple of hundred. Okay.
A couple of hundred. Have you ever been pulled under? No. Never been pulled under. Never. Not even like a lake or like a ocean situation.
No. Never been pulled under. So did your dad ever get pulled? Did you ever see any baptisms going wrong in your dad's church? So the way dad would baptize, baptize people in church, it was different. Our baptistry was outside in the church, on the church grounds. So when we were baptized, I have a picture of that.
Maybe I can share with you guys later. So people on the road would stop and watch the baptism. That's cool. Yeah. And they would witness this baptism and then he would preach and people would hear what he was saying. That's pretty cool. He would do the whole service outside?
Not whole service. He would just give the gospel message for like maybe 10 minutes and then the baptism will take place. And people were just amazed like, what in the world are they doing?
But what a hook. I mean like watching baptism right there and then let me explain what you just saw. But then when he would baptize in the villages, this is where people are many times scared of the water and many of them have not seen a big clean body of water to even get in it. I mean, of course there's water there, but it's more like like the rivers and lakes, not even lakes. It's like muddy pools of water that sort of accumulates during the rainy season then goes away in the summer season. So it's enough for animals to drink or something like that. So you're not, you cannot like get in that water and be dunked underneath.
Now other parts of India, there are plenty of pools and lakes and ponds and whatever, but some of the places where my dad had worked, so not much water. So when I have some of those videos somewhere in my office, I mean, he has to slam dunk them in the water. It's almost like, oh my goodness. Just to get them to go under?
Yeah. So you have to do it sudden and you have to do it, just go for it. Because they're scared. They're scared.
And if you don't, if you do it slowly, like we do in our churches, like baptize you in the name of the father or something, the Holy spirit, you don't want to do that because they will run, run from it. It'll be like, you're trying to kill me. So you have to go, um, uh, you know, like surprise them. Yeah. Next. And he just, wow.
And they come out fighting. Yeah. Yep. So it has to be, it almost looks like, oh my goodness, what is happening here? Yeah. Yeah. I'll see if I can find that video one day.
I would love to see that. That's awesome. All right. We'll be right back with more clear V today. Hi, I'm dr. Abaddon shock lead pastor at clear V church and host of the clear V today show every day. We bring you bold biblical truth to help you navigate life with clarity and confidence. We tackle the tough questions, dive deep into God's work and bring a fresh perspective on faith culture and the world around us.
But 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.
Would you prayerfully consider supporting clear V today? No gift is too small and every dollar goes directly towards furthering the message of hope and truth in Christ to give. Just follow the link in the description below and click the give button.
You can make a one time donation or become a monthly partner. Whatever God lays on your heart, thank you for standing with us in this ministry. Together we can make Christ visible. Welcome back to clear V today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That's right. Talking about baptism today, Dr. Shah, today's check in is coming to us from Maria J in Pennsylvania. Wow. New listener in Pennsylvania.
I didn't know we reached that far up north. I guess pray.com. We're all over the place. Shout out to pray.com by the way. Maria J in Pennsylvania.
Hi Dr. Shah. I hope you're doing well. My son has recently rededicated his life to Christ after he was in a terrible car accident. He's been going to another church, which is 100% fine with me, but now he's talking about getting re-baptized. His father and I had him baptized as an infant. It wasn't a huge deal for me because I wasn't raised Christian, but my husband was a devout Catholic all his life. I want to support my son, but something about this just doesn't feel right.
I can only imagine how hurt my husband would feel if he were alive today. I don't know what to say to my son, but a friend of mine listens to your show and said that you had some experience on this matter. Thank you for your time. I look forward to your response, Maria J.
We've had this question before. We did, and there are people who come from either Methodist background or of course Roman Catholic background or Eastern Orthodox background who have been sprinkled when they were babies and had, you know, had the right of R-I-T-E of infant baptism. And so the big conflict they have is if I do this, am I dishonoring my parents? Am I dishonoring my grandparents? Am I disavowing my faith and that I was not a Christian so far? And I try to remind them that none of that is the case. What is happening here is you're simply following the journey further.
It's not like you are negating the past, but you are continuing to move forward. And I try to explain to them the best I can, your parents baptized you as infants in the hopes that one day you will follow Christ on your own. So this baptism is simply a fulfillment of what they were hoping for you to do.
So you're not negating anything, you're just fulfilling it. She mentioned that her husband was Catholic. Do you think, and I'm just I'm asking genuinely out of ignorance, do Catholics believe that if you baptize a baby that they are saved? Is that a Catholic belief or is it more like, hey, this is just kind of what we do? I think initially this was supposed to be somewhat of a, you know, kind of like a baby dedication type thing.
But then it took on the idea of salvific impact. That's why I ask that because I hear a lot of times people who have this conflict with infant baptism, they're like, well, are you telling me that the infant baptism doesn't count? And I guess the question is, what do you mean by count?
You know, you know, what is what are you asking? Is it is it like valid for your salvation? Is it valid for like a credit for being baptized?
Like what is the actual question? It does infant baptism count as baptism or do I then need to follow it up with being baptized after I've actually accepted because we've done countless episodes on the show about how baptism doesn't save you. And so in that sense, I would say it wouldn't have counted. If you're looking at it to save you, it won't count either way.
But then like at the same time, it's like, kind of like you said, am I dishonoring my mother and father by doing it? And that's not the case. Right.
And there's so many people. I didn't grow up with this. Like infant baptism wasn't even a thing until I came here and started hearing you tell me stories about people who struggled with this.
Yeah. And it depends on the community in which you are. And around here, there's not as many Roman Catholic background people or... But Methodists, of course, they come from that background and they always have that question is, what does that mean now? Am I becoming more of a Christian today?
It's like, no, no, no. You're simply fulfilling what your parents and your grandparents had hoped that you would do. You see, salvation is a personal decision. I cannot be salvified, so to speak, by someone else.
I have to make that decision. That doesn't sound right. Because in Nacho Libre, he definitely dunks the guy under because he's trying to force the salvation.
Because he was kind of concerned about his salvation and stuff. Right. That's a great movie. Yeah. Maybe don't pull your theology from Nacho Libre.
Jack Black's not on the level? No, unfortunately not. Okay. Yeah.
Nacho! I thought Jack Black was a featured leader on Prey. Yeah, no. No.
You're not going to find him. No. Other people cannot do that for me. Right. I cannot do it for them. You know, there are people who want to be baptized for their dead relatives.
Sorry, it does not work like that. Yeah. This is a decision people have to make. You say, well, you know, prior to Christianity, no, prior to Christianity, people still trusted in the one who was coming, the promised one. That's right.
Of course, by the time of Christ, we're calling him the Messiah based on Daniel. But we were waiting for the one. So they individually, they had to.
Yeah. Paul explains that in the book of Romans. You know, he talks about those who were circumcised in the heart.
You know, what does that mean? Means it's not just those who are outwardly Jewish, you have to be inwardly Jewish. So you can be by ethnicity, you can be a Jewish person or as an Israelite, but you have to receive Christ.
And that's what makes you a true Israelite. And that receiving Christ for the pre-cross people was trusting in the promise that one day someone is going to come and pay the penalty of your sins. I don't know why I just had this memory come to me, but I remember I had to write a paper on, so like I had to write a paper. It was like one of those like position papers where they assign you the position. And they gave me, someone else had to write a paper for infant baptism and I had to write one against it.
And I remember coming to you and be like, oh dude, this is easy. Because I remember being like, there's no, I don't know why this thought just came to me. Like just the way it was phrased. It was like, it's, you just don't find infant baptism in the Bible.
You're like, don't say it like that. There is zero New Testament evidence or there is zero internal evidence, something like that. But that always stuck with me. And hearing people talk about this, I remember that, that you just never, ever find it in the New Testament. You don't find infant baptism in the Bible. Well, there are people who will claim that, you know, when the, the Philippine jailer's whole household got baptized, that some of that was infant baptism.
You have to really push the evidence for that. Because if you, you know, connect that with how people were saved, they were saved by an understanding of Jesus Christ and who he was and what he came to do. Then they were baptized. So once you use that as the, you know, test, then I don't believe they baptized children. Well, does it explicitly say that the, does it explicitly say that the Philippian jailer even had babies, had a baby like a child? Well, it doesn't say that. But if your whole household is getting baptized, then more than likely there were maybe children there. That's what I was going to ask though.
I mean, maybe a two-year-old. Even that, like, that's still a maybe, isn't it? Like, for example, if, if you were the Philippian jailer and we said your entire household got baptized, even your kids who have moved out, if they were all under your roof, everybody still may not have been there, may not have been there or just your kids are all grown and old enough to make that commitment. So we have to go by what salvation meant, pre-Christ, post-Christ. Salvation meant a person received Jesus as their savior, as their king. That's what it meant to be saved. So once you apply that rubric, that test, then how can a two-year-old really understand salvation?
Four-year-old, yeah, because I was four years old when my mom shared the gospel with me and I received Jesus as my savior. I got it. Yeah. I may not have understood all the things about justification by, by faith and all that.
I didn't understand imputation. I didn't understand propitiation, but I understood Jesus died for me on the cross and I want to have him in my heart. I got it. Yeah. You said, well, did you understand the righteousness of God and all that? Justification. No, maybe I didn't understand it in terms, but I knew this much that I was not perfect, that I needed someone.
Just that recognition as need someone in my heart is declaring that I am empty without him. Were you baptized as a four-year-old or you baptized later in life? I was baptized later in life.
I was, I want to say I was about 14 years old when I finally was baptized. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah.
Same, same with your kids. They were all in their teens. No, they were baptized earlier. Okay. Yeah.
They were baptized before they were teens. Gotcha. Yeah.
Gotcha. And so, you know, in the same situation, a baby can't repent. A baby cannot believe. And yes, maybe that's a discussion for another day, our baby's saved. But at the same time, baptism, like you said, is a response. It's a response to a choice that you're making. Right. Yeah.
And so, like with Maria, what would you say? Because I definitely don't think he's dishonoring his father or his mother or anything like that. No, definitely not.
Definitely not. I would say encourage your son, encourage him to take that step of obedience. What would you rather them do? Look closer in their journey with Christ or to give up and go, I don't know, I thought I was really getting to know Christ and I was really being obedient, but now I don't know.
I don't want to make family unhappy, so I'm going to stay in the tradition. Okay. But now he doesn't go to church. Exactly.
What's behind? Yeah. Now he doesn't want to be, you know, connected to Christianity. He's there, but he doesn't, he's confused. He is doubtful.
He is just, you know, detached. No, I'd rather him follow Christ. Unless it's a cult or something weird is going on. Of course you don't want that. But if not, I think it's a great thing.
Encourage them. Yeah, I agree. Baptism is such an important part of the Christian walk. I mean, we, you've talked about how you traveled all over the world and seen baptistries from churches that are in ruins, but it shows you that this family tradition has carried throughout the years.
You've even done a paper on the Ethiopian eunuch being baptized. That's right. He was baptized by immersion.
That's right. And so, you know, Ryan went with me to Greece and Ryan Elizabeth, his wife, and Nicole was there. And I specifically wanted them to see some of those baptistries. And when we were in Ephesus, I took them around. I said, look, I'm sorry, in Philippi, by the way, in Ephesus, they have baptistries too. But in Philippi, I said, I want you to see this baptistry. And we went around the corner and there was the baptistry. I mean, still the tiled floor, of course, a lot of has come off, but that's ancient baptistry.
Yeah. It was very obviously a baptistry. And so baptism was practiced by the Jewish people even before the coming of Christ. The Dead Sea Scrolls community practiced baptism. But many of these baptismal rites were more about purification, cleansing.
But that's not what we're doing. Neither are we baptized according to the baptism of John. Because if you remember, when the disciples, the apostles got to certain places, they said, how were you baptized? By the baptism of John. So, oh, no, you need to know more. You need to understand Jesus came.
This is what happened. The Holy Spirit was given. You need to be baptized in the name of Christ. So baptism of John was more of a baptism of repentance, preparing yourself for the coming of the Messiah.
He's here. But yes, and maybe you can kind of build on this, but in the same way, that doesn't mean that because you need to get baptized by Jesus, that the baptism by John was wicked or wrong. No. It's like, oh, you shouldn't have done that.
You should do this one instead. Right. It's like, no, don't stop there. At that point in salvation history, that was okay to do. But then with the coming of Christ, and remember Jesus himself was baptized, but it was not for his own repentance because he never sinned. He could not sin. His baptism was permitted to be so, so that it may fulfill our righteousness because he is the Lamb of God. He was demonstrating before the world that he was submitted to the plan of God. So he was baptized, but not for his sins. But then after the crucifixion and the ascension, or at the ascension, now the great commission was given. Go into all the world, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.
And lo, I'm with you even to the end of the age. This time, the baptism is not just some purification rite or some repentance to prepare for the Messiah. This is in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is a baptism that says, I am now a believer in Christ, the Son of God, who came as testified by the Scriptures, as blessed by the Holy Spirit. Here I am.
Here's who I'm trusting in. So it took on a new meaning. So this is an old rite that had different meanings by different communities, but John the Baptist gave it a very distinct meaning that applies to our context. But then Jesus gave it a whole different meaning that is even more than John. And then Paul the Apostle explained it in Romans chapter 6 that baptism represents my death, my burial, and my resurrection with Christ. It means, yes, I am being baptized, not by the baptism of John, definitely not the Dead Sea Scroll and other communities, but not John the Baptist either, but the baptism of Christ. And what it means is that I died with him, I was buried, it's a watery grave, but then I have risen to walk in the newness of life, means I am one with my Savior. My Savior is not just my King who goes before me, but He is the one who lives in me. baptism demonstrates that before the church, the body of believers, that, hey, we are one in this together.
Yeah. Amen. Dr. Shah, thank you for walking us through that. It's so helpful in our understanding of what baptism actually is, what it does for us, and the importance of this family tradition that has gone on through the ages. And maybe you're listening to this and you realize, like, I've never been baptized. I think there's people listening who just have never thought that it was an important thing, or maybe they've been baptized as an infant and they thought it was sufficient.
Maybe, Dr. Shah, if you have any words of encouragement for them as well. I would definitely say obey the Lord, because He said, go into all the world, make disciples, baptizing them. So if Jesus told us to do it, let's do it.
Yeah, do it. That's right. And then, not just do it, but understand the meaning behind it for us as believers now, post-cross believers. We're all saved the same way, pre-cross or post-cross, hard to say it. But as post-cross believers, we need to now be baptized with that baptism of identification with Christ. Not repentance, not purification, which never really applied to us because water cannot wash away our sins, but definitely one that says, I am one with my savior.
And throughout the history of the church, Christians all over have followed this family tradition. So, yeah, do you need it to be saved? No. But man, what a beautiful testimony before the watching world. Amen.
That's right. Amen. So important for us. Make sure you guys join us next week, same time, same station. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clear Read Today show. Thanks again to our sponsors for supporting today's episode. 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 cleareatodayshow.com.
John, anything you want to close with? Definitely just say to follow Dr. Shaw on pray.com, all lots of great exclusive content over there. Followers are going up, giving is going up. We appreciate you guys, all of your support. Keep it coming. We've got more content coming for you next week. That's right. Jump into the conversation on Monday. We love you guys. We'll see you Monday on Clear Read Today.
