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. 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. I'm John Galantis, and it must be April Fool's Day or something, because my eyes—surely my eyes are—surely my eyes are deceiving. Unfortunately—I hate to say this, but Dr. Shah is not in the studio today.
What? He's not here. He's not here. But we do have a very special guest, and I'm pleased to announce his return.
I'm pleased to announce—he has been gone for a little while, but unless my eyes are really tricking me this April Fool's Day, he is back. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Dr. Questions. Dr. Questions is in the house.
If I had my little stream deck, I'd put a little applaud there. Dr. Questions, welcome to the show. It's good to be back. It's good to be back. Welcome to the show.
Welcome to the— Dr. Questions, everything's got to be interrogative. Welcome to the show. If you guys have never watched the show before, or if you just haven't watched in the past few months, today is Lightning Round Questions. You want to explain what Lightning Round Questions is? Sure.
Because we haven't done it in a good while. Lightning Round Questions is where we take questions that have been submitted by you, our listeners, our viewers, to that number, 2525825028. We pose them to Dr. Questions.
That's right. And he's going to rattle his answers off in a fast, rapid-fire format. That's why it's called Lightning Round Questions.
That's why it's called Lightning Round. Now, these questions today, these are questions that Ryan and I are submitting. These are not user-submitted questions. These are just questions that Ryan and I thought would be really good. They're deeper questions, not really research-oriented, but just questions that kind of make you think. Maybe if you've got some questions you want to write in for Dr.
Questions, you can do that at that number that Ryan provided. Before we do that, let's do the verse of the day. Let's do the verse of the day. The verse of the day is coming to us from Philippians chapter 4, verse 1. Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved. Dr. Shaw, I know you as a pastor, I know that sometimes it might be hard to feel this way, but man, just the love that Paul has for his church. I think every pastor has that. Like, yeah, sometimes these people might give me trouble, sometimes that might be hard to deal with, but at the end of the day, this is my flock. These are my people. That's right. And the love that I have for my church, it's really, I think it's a very unique sort of love that only really a pastor can understand. Right, and they should, because as a shepherd, for you to despise the sheep, you're in the wrong business.
Right. So, loving your sheep should be a natural thing. It's something that God has built you and made you to do, is love the sheep. That's what a shepherd does. So, and that comes out so clearly in Paul's letters.
Of course, at times he is tough with them, and he will fuss at them, but he still loves them. He will lay down his life for them. That's right, that's right. I remember on some of our staff retreats going through that book, that commentary on Philippians.
Yeah. And I remember that being the thing that was a big, big point, was that Paul, Paul loved all of the church, but especially he had a very special place in his heart. He loved that Philippian church. He loved the Philippians.
That's why I love the book of Philippians, because it's so encouraging. I mean, you get that sense of a father talking to his kids. Right. Just that love, and the stern where he needs to be, but that's the love of a father.
You know, stern where it needs to be in order to correct your kids and lead them on the right path. And I can tell that has transferred to you, Dr. Shock, because we're, you know, for the audience who may not know this, we're working on a documentary right now that you guys filmed, that you, Ryan, David, Nicholas, all filmed when you went to Greece in 2023. Yeah. 2023.
That's right, fall of 2023. And so we went through all these different places that Paul visited. And the one in Philippi, I don't know what came over you guys, but that, that Philippi segment was so amazing. Like I was sitting there editing it like, man, I feel like you really love the Philippian church. You know what I mean?
But David was there filming and I think Nick was there as well. And it was just a great time just walking around in ancient Philippi, filming at the theater, filming at the ancient Basilica, filming in the marketplace. And I just loved it. And I'm grateful. It was a great, great trip. It came through. It was one of those times where as you're walking around, you kind of squint your eyes a little bit and sort of imagine what life would have looked like in Paul's day.
I mean, you see the ruins, but if you kind of squint your eyes and turn your head a little bit, you can almost see like. You see that Paul is there. And Ryan, you were there. You and Elizabeth were there. I think y'all filmed as well.
We did. And you were doing it for the youth. I think it was a great, great place.
It was. A lot of wonderful memories. And you know, man, that love that Paul had, man, that's in short supply these days, man. I don't know if y'all have been seeing what's going on in our nation. I know you can say that for all sorts of stuff, but man, people are not loving.
People are really, people are really, really hateful. I don't know if y'all have been seeing what's going on with Elon Musk. You seen all them Tesla cars? Yes. They're the master chief looking cars that drive down the street. Right. I think they're not great looking cars, but at the same time, I don't know if you've been seeing what people are doing to them. They're really, there's some images.
I hope we can show that. I think we can show that online, but people are painting swastikas on the Tesla cars. That's someone's car.
They think they're doing that to Elon Musk. That's somebody's car. That's someone's car. Yeah. Look at that.
And it's a shameful thing because Elon Musk is actually supporting Israel. Right. Right. And if you can't do that over his car, you are ignorant for one, right? And then you're also destructive and you should be prosecuted for that.
Yes, absolutely. That's a crime. That's a hate crime. That's a crime. That's a hate crime. You can't do that. You can't do that to someone's car.
You can't do that in support. So like if you can't see the screen, people are painting, I'm sure people on the left who are upset that of the Elon Musk's position, as far as the white house goes, they're spray painting swastikas, they're bombing cars. Like that's domestic terrorism. Right. Absolutely. That's what needs to happen. Yes.
To the fullest extent of the law. That's what needs to happen to these people. I want you to, I want you to really look at the images and think about this. This is the left. Yeah. Cars are on fire like that and cars are being bombed. This people's lives at risk. That's right. This is how the liberals stand up for justice.
This is how they show the love of the left is they bomb cars and they paint swastikas on people's property. Yeah. That's unacceptable. And for one, ignorant.
I mean, if you know Elon Musk's proposition and has been for quite some time in support for the Jewish people and support for Israel. So I'm not sure what they're talking about. Yeah.
I mean, it's, it's projection. That's what, that's what people on the left, on the left do. Absolutely. I mean this, I think they are antisemitic. Of course.
And so what do you do? You call the person who is supporting Israel, who is standing up for what happened to Jewish people. Now you're calling them Nazis. I'm not evil. You're evil. It's you. It's you.
And it's like, wait, what did you just do? That's grade school strategy. That it is. Yeah. I'm rubber.
You're glue. Yeah. And it's like, what just happened here? Yeah.
That's what they do, man. And it's, it's sad because I think it's just going to keep happening. I don't think it's going to get better anytime soon. I think it will.
I think it will. I think for so long, this kind of behavior was tolerated in America. Now I think people are realizing there will be consequences. Good point. So you did this for the past four years.
It's over. Yeah. And you may be sent up, oh, you may be sent to the, to the big house, to the pokey. The bad kids go into the street teacher's room and they act up like to kind of buck that authority.
But then that's quickly. So I was thinking about like even the situation like I'm in right now where it's like mom is home with the kids all day and they're sort of doing whatever they want. They're like, Hey, don't do that.
But then when dad gets home, it's like, Oh yeah, all right, let me like dad, dad as well and truly home. Yeah. Yeah.
I agree. We guys don't go anywhere. We're going to take a quick break and be right back with our lightning round questions. If you want to check in with us, write in and let us know at two five two five eight two five zero two eight.
We'll read your check in live on the air. And Dr. Shah normally, but Dr. Questions today, we'll give you some daily encouragement. Dr. Shah will be back.
That's right. Hi, I'm Dr. Abidhan Shah, lead pastor at Clearview Church and host of the Clearview Today show. Every day we bring you bold biblical truth to help you navigate life with clarity and confidence.
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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 Clearview Today with Dr. Abidhan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. All right, Dr. Questions.
It's been a long time, but we finally got you back on the show. We've got a lot of questions for you today. Some of these are, a lot of these are just kind of in your opinion, but I want to know, what do you think is the most misunderstood verse in the Bible? Wow. That's a big one. Big one. I would say not just a verse, I would say a section and that is Romans 9 through 11.
Wow. Good point. And that is a big misunderstood passage because it is often used to support the doctrine of election, that you had no choice in being picked and chosen to be saved. And some people were rejected and they didn't have a choice at all in that matter. That I think is a huge misunderstanding because in Romans 9 through 11, Paul is not talking about all Christians believers. He's talking specifically about the call of Israel to be God's people.
That's right. And that's a misunderstanding. Second is, again, it's not a verse, it's actually a whole book. And I would say that's the book of Hebrews because the book of Hebrews, a lot of things that are being said, it sounds like a person can lose their salvation, but it's really the author. And I lean towards Paul being the author of Hebrews is really the author or Paul is talking to second generation Jewish background believers who are slipping back into the old ways or the old tradition with a temple or with the sacrificial system or with the high holidays, whatever they're slipping back. And Paul or the writer of Hebrews is calling them back. If you slip back, there remains no sacrifice for you. This is not about just sinning. This is about don't forsake the assembling. Your parents left the old faith because Judaism without Jesus is empty. Right.
It's like a wedding without a bride, a bridegroom, really. So let's come back. So those are two, I would say, probably the most misunderstood. I think I might would agree.
That's right. Our next question is, what's the biggest challenge facing the church today? Wow, great question. I would say the biggest challenge facing the church today is that we believe what people say about us. Okay.
If we believe that the church is dying, because that's what the world says. Oh, I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying.
Yeah. Then we will start living that way. We're dying.
We're dying breed right now. If we believe that the church is, you know, man, this is an old organization kind of stuck in their ways, then we're going to be an old organization stuck in our ways. But if we believe that we are the body of Christ, if we believe that we are a living organism, then we're going to live that way. We're going to grow. We're going to mature. We're going to bear fruit. We're going to do things that will be directed by our head, and our head is not the pastor. The head is Christ. So I would say that's the biggest challenge, that we listen to what the world says about us, and we follow it.
What's one theological hill that you would die on? Inerrancy of scripture. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Like it has no, does that go along with inspiration and authority, or are those two separate issues for you? They're separate, but they're related.
Got you. Inerrancy is that the Bible does not have any errors, okay? Inerrancy's definition is the scriptures in their original autographs, and when properly interpreted will prove to be wholly, W-H-O-L-L-Y, to be wholly true in everything that they affirm, whether it has to do with life, social, moral, or whatever issues, right?
Scientific issues. It'll prove to be wholly true when studied in their original context and properly interpreted. So I believe inerrancy, and I could have said justification by faith is also a doctrine on which the church stands or falls, but if you don't have scripture, then what happens? That's true. Then why would you?
Yeah. Because I don't find justification written in the sky or deep in the ocean. Yeah, it's in the scripture. If you had 30 seconds to share the gospel, what would you say?
Wow, that's a great question. Should we time it? You can if you want to. All right, hang on. I got it. 30 seconds. I would say I would spend the first 20 seconds, and tell me when the 20 seconds is up. Here. Ready? Go.
Okay. The 20 seconds would be, this world was created by a holy and a righteous God, and it was beautiful and perfect, but sin came in and everything fell, and with that came the curse and we are caught in sin, condemned to die. But God did not leave us to die.
He sent his son to take our sin and our death. 25 seconds. That's pretty good. Really? Nice. Very nice. Okay.
That was really good. So that's how you share the gospel in 30 seconds. Yeah.
If anything, I would add, all you have to do is believe in him. There you go. There you go. That's five seconds more. You can easily do that.
Even 30. Great. Good job. What's a Bible story that always convicts you? Wow. The Bible story that always convicts me, man, there's so many there.
So many there. There is a passage in the Bible, and I think it's talking about Abraham, if I'm not wrong. It says, he staggered not at the promises of God. That is a verse worth finding.
And that always gets me because... It's Romans 4.20. Okay.
Romans 4.20. If we can read that. Sure. This always gets me because we often stagger, talking about Abraham, right? We often stagger, we often stumble instead of truly trusting and obeying God without any regard to feelings or whatever.
We stagger. So can you read that passage? Sure.
Sure. I'll start in verse 16. It says, therefore it is a faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us. Verse 17, as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed, God who gives us life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did, who contrary to hope in hope believed so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken. So your descendants shall be.
This is getting towards it right here. In not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. Wow.
Waiver not. Yeah. So I think another translation has it, he's staggered not. I think NIV says staggered. And I think I love that because we often stagger, we often stumble, we often do the double step. It's like, oh, am I, am I in, am I out, am I in, am I in many, and it's like, oh, Abraham did not do that. Isn't that beautiful? It says, uh, uh, no, it's not, it's not enough. One of the translate, I did search stagger and it does say that it might be the essence.
Yeah. So I would say that is one that convicts me because I want to examine my heart and say, do I stagger at times? Do I stumble?
Do I waver? Uh, in fact, um, you know, I'll be in England soon and I want to go by the grave site of Reese Howells. Reese Howells was a man of prayer. Reese Howells was a Welsh man and he, uh, you know, just trusted God and his word and this was his life verse.
And on his grave it says he staggered not at the promises. Amen. I love it. I would love to do that as a church, as a team, as clearly today's show. That's right. Stagger not, don't, don't waver, step out and complete faith in the living true triune God.
That's right. Next question is what's the most dangerous false teaching in modern Christianity? Great question. I would say right now, at least at this point in history, that sexual sins don't matter, especially the sin of homosexuality is not a big deal. Good point. Because if you read the book of Romans, homosexuality is the last step on the way down.
That's right. And so we need to clarify that. Yes, every sin is sin, but yes, there is a gradation in sin. I mean, certain sins are worse than others in the impact not only they have on the culture and society, but, uh, but the way God sees them, they're heinous to him. In fact, he pushes you down that road when you begin to reject him.
Yeah. And so I would say that's one of the big false teachings right now, uh, swarming around the church. And if you're looking for some great resources on the book of Romans to understand those things, go ahead and navigate over to AbbadonShah.com and check out the end times prophecy series. Yes, I did say end times prophecy and the book of Romans. You need to go there and check it out.
Or if you're on pray.com, go ahead and go to his page as a featured leader and you'll find them under the both sermons and video sermons by Dr. David. That's what I was going to say. I'm really glad you pointed that out. We now have separated out the sermons and the video sermons.
Lots of people have been asking for that. Yep. So there you go. What's one habit that every Christian should develop? The habit of, um, every morning getting up and spending time in God's word and prayer. Amen. Yeah. I would say, uh, begin with, um, some section of the Old Testament and then two minutes go to some section of the New Testament, two minutes, or you can spend five minutes on each and then spend about a good five minutes, 10 minutes in prayer. So 15 minutes a day will be, will make such a difference in your life.
Yeah. The kind of on the coattails of that one, what's one habit every man should develop? I would say spending time praying with other men.
I think it's, it's so wonderful. At our church, we began this practice of coming together every Tuesday morning at six o'clock and our team gets here and they get here before I do. They set things up and they get up and sing the way, I mean, John sings, uh, and sometimes David, sometimes, um, Adam will sing and it's early in the morning and I'm so grateful for their dedication.
They get up there and sing and I can see men around the room, 30, 40 of them singing together. What a great way to begin that time. And then we get in our groups and spend good 15 minutes in prayer.
Of course, prior to that, one of the gentlemen will get up and they will do a quick devotion and then we spend about a good 10 minutes in prayer. Man, what a, what a great way to begin a week. You're not just doing this on your own. You're coming together. You're worshiping God.
You're hearing a good word and not just by a pastor, but one of our fellow brother in Christ and, and then you are spending time with a group of men and praying. That's right. That's a great, great habit to develop. I would say. Amen.
What's one thing Christians should stop arguing about? Oh, let's see. Christians in America or Christians all over the world? Maybe both. Go ahead. Yeah.
I would say Christians in America. One thing we need to stop arguing about is, um, is whether or not God is using president Trump. Good point. In my opinion, I think he is. Yes.
In a good way, he's using him in our country. I would say right now, man, a lot of good things are happening. Amen. I would agree. A lot of good things are happening.
So, uh, I believe as Christians, we need to stop arguing over that and get behind what's going on. Ooh, this is a heavy question. If you could have one last conversation with your dad, what would you say? Oh, wow. One last conversation with my dad. You know, in some, some ways I already did when he called me the last, well, there was the last time we talked and then there was a time prior to that in the, in the time prior to that, he, he told me he was very proud of me. Wow. He said, you're doing a great job. It's just, just great.
You're doing so many things right. And he told me that and I, and I think he knew what was coming because his health was sort of going downhill. Um, so when he said that to me, I felt like, yeah, this maybe, maybe not.
Right. And then things were fine. And then we had one more conversation, but I needed his advice and he talked to me and um, that, that, that was great. But I remember that previous conversation, the second last conversation was more impactful when he told me, oh, you're doing great. Everything you're doing is so right.
I'm so proud of you for that. Wow. Now, dad typically wouldn't say that. Really?
Yeah. He wouldn't say, and he would say that at times, but not every conversation. You're doing a great job, son.
I'm so proud. Not, not always. It was like a special thing for him to say. It was a special thing to say because, um, by, by not saying that he was driving me to keep achieving. Right. Not that I was trying to please him or seek his approval. No.
He was just like, keep going. Right. Cause sometimes, you know, some approvals are not good. Right. Right.
Hey, you're doing great. That may not have the impact that I'm hoping it would have. Right. But he knew, but I think, but also like he knew that you weren't doing it for him.
You were doing it for God. Right. So it was like, if I, if I hold off, he's going to achieve even more because that's the type, that's the type of person you were. Right.
Yeah. So saying, so holding off was, was that, that's his way. Another thing is in some sense, uh, somebody told me this and I think that was very helpful. He said, you know, don't worry about calling your dad up and asking his advice on anything. He already told you. He's already told you.
Right. And at first I was like, what do you mean? What if I need advice tomorrow? What do you mean he already told me?
Because of the years of impacting my life, raising me in the way of God, demonstrating what ministry is and how to do it and how to be faithful, whether it's one family or whether there's hundreds of families, just be faithful. All these things that he taught me, I already know the answer. I already know what he will tell me. Wow. You know, so I don't need to have, I mean, it's a great question by the way, but I don't need to have that one more conversation. Right. Right. Because I already had. Yeah, that's great. I have, I can have one any day.
Not physically with him, but I already know how he's going to respond to this situation of that. Amen. What's the hardest command in scripture to obey? Hmm.
I got a list, I got a list on me. Oh wow. This is, this is tough.
What's the hardest command in a scripture to obey? Wow. Wow. I mean, there's, there's so many, again, I was put it back to the great commission, going to all the world, make disciples because it is easy to, to be, you know, satisfied where you are. Right.
But to keep reaching out, keep reaching the lost, keep that focus towards evangelism is very important. Amen. Amen.
So I'm not saying it's necessarily a hard command, but it's one that easily gets neglected. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Especially if you're successful. Yes.
Yes. What's the first advice you've ever received about ministry? I used to work with a gentleman who was, was a great guy, good guy, but he was, he was a storyteller. I mean, and he would make up stuff. He would make up stories. Even the rest of us knew that this is a, this is a fake story here. Fake story coming.
Not real. Yeah. And he was known for that. I don't know why he did that.
Was he like trying to teach a lesson or something or just, he just wanted something to talk about? He was, uh, you know, at the time I was in my early twenties, he was in his, um, I would say late forties, early fifties, early fifties, probably correct. Right. Early fifties. So he would talk about the, the, the battle days of the conservative resurgence, you know, and he would talk about that and how he was a foot soldier in this battle and blah, blah, blah. And so I knew about the conservative resurgence. I had read about it. I had heard stories about, you know, how there was the fight to maintain the integrity of the Southern Baptist Convention and maintain inerrancy as the critical doctrine among Southern Baptists and all that. So there was a lot of battles that were going on. And this guy would tell stories about how he had to stand up to this liberal professor and liberal trustee and some of that was like, I think I'm making this up, but again, a story is great.
It's a great story. But he had been hurt by different churches. And so I remember him telling us one time is like, uh, not to love the sheep. What? Yeah. Not to the flock, the congregation, like, like don't, you know, yeah, you need to like have the shell against.
And I was like, is he still living? We need to probably stand in the beginning of this episode where we read the verse of the day. And it was at the time we were like, should we laugh at this or should we go along with it? And we're like, let's just go along with it. So we will sit around. We used to paint.
I was on the paint crew and he would sit over there and we'd all sit on our little paint buckets around some on the carpet, some on the paint buckets and we'd listen. And I'm like, hmm, that's heavy thing is like, I hope I never do that, that I don't love my people. Yeah. Worst advice you ever received about the ministry. Don't love your congregation.
Don't love your people. Yeah. That's crazy.
Have the shell against them. Yeah. There is a place where you can say, you know, I need to have that sense of detachment so that I can have some sanity. But to say that I should love people that, I don't know if I get that. That's crazy. Like I thought for sure you'd be like, yeah, people told me be slow, hesitate, you know, play it safe.
But it's like straight up. Don't love your congregation. Don't do that.
You need to maintain a distance between you and them. Wow. It's like, okay. Yeah. Maybe not. Well, I can say, I can say. How about no.
Now that, now that you've been my pastor for 13 years, I'm glad you didn't take that advice. Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. And I know y'all love our people as well. All of y'all do. And I'm grateful for you guys. Yeah.
We have to maintain who we are, but at the same time, we don't have to, you know, put a shell around us. That's right. That's right.
That's right. Dr. Questions, thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you for being on the show, my friend. Thank you. I hate that you've never met Dr. Shah, but the moment he comes in, I'm going to tell him you were here.
Yeah. 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, what are you going to leave us with today? Definitely just make sure you follow Dr. Shah on Pray.com. You can give, you can support right there from within the app. It's 100% free. All of Dr. Shah's books are coming to Pray.com. We're finding a way to get those linked on there so you can get them from Amazon, all our original music as well. Thanks for listening to The Clearview Today Show. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today.
