Episode Information
- Date: 2026-07(Jul)-03(Fri)
- Number:
e0034 -
Links
- Episode: 03 Jul 2026 (Q&A) | Corey J. Mahler Podcasts
- Transcript: e0034.vtt
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Topics Covered
- Sleep in Paradise
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- Babel dispersion: Immediate, migration, both, or other?
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- where do you chronologically place Job? Why is God letting Satan dictate how Job should be tested?
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- What is your take on the members of hitlers party who betrayed and tried to assassinate him? ( im thinking of the elite German general Erwin Rommel)
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- Is it better to go to a Reformed church that confesses true things about race and society or a Lutheran church that preaches against them but believes true things about the sacraments?
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- did Noah and Japheth speak PIE
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- Is James 1:13 in conflict with the idea of God allowing Satan to tempt us?
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- How do we reconcile a love of country with the reality of the Nation we live in? Can we?
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- There is a transgender person at my workplace and I am being forced to use its pronouns. What is the Christian thing to do here?
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- I left a comment a few days ago about my cousin and his wife adopting a Mexican child. Would you say that I have a duty to my blood, being my voiding, over my disdain for he and his wife’s poor choice to aid in the displacement of my and his children?
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- How can we combat predatory Bible apps/sites like BibleHub that present anonymous translations and commentaries as the Word?
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- On a related note, do you &/or Woe plan to do a breakdown of your critiques of the American revolution, or is that already scattered across your corpus of work?
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- Was Gen 34:25-31 prescriptive?; what legitimizes collective punishment outside specific justified racial annihilation?; How should Christians view Tulsa, Rosewood, and such massacres?
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- Speaking specifically about the Berean Standard Bible. I had no idea what that was until someone told me they used it. The funding is very opaque
- Should we be mourning as nineva did this weekend?
- What’s your opinion on zoos? Is it morally justifiable
- How did 1) The pre-Noah races diverge so far as to create the difference between Ham’s and Japheth’s wife in 1k years (1/2)
- How did the millions of species from insects to mammals in the amazon all evolve out of a set of parents species in that fit in Noah’s Ark, in just 5000 years? It’s difficult to make sense of that
- At what point do you think it’s a good idea for someone to move? Seeing the massive influx of foreigners in parts of America (Dallas) I’ve lived that I’ve considered moving to Poland. Any thoughts?
- You’ve mentioned Jews must repent of their blood. Do nons/mixed do not at this current state?
- Given that God cannot will evil, why is he described as the one who hardens Pharaoh’s heart (during the plagues)?
Transcript
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WEBVTT
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It is the 3rd of July, 2026.
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I am Corey J.
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Moller, and this is At Any Cost.
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This is a Q&A episode.
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It is episode 34, and I was fairly busy this week, so I didn’t prepare any of the longer questions, but I will get to the pending ones, at least, on whatever pops up in the chat.
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I know that obviously it’s a holiday tomorrow, and so probably not as many people are going to tune into this, certainly, live, but that’s not exactly the point of these anyway.
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As I don’t have any housekeeping, I will just go ahead and move in to the questions, and I believe everything is working, so everything should be fine.
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Hopefully the music did not continue playing over my introduction there.
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Looks like it might have tried to do that.
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At any rate, the OBS plugin is working this week, so I should be able to see chat, which is great news and novel.
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Question one, sleep in paradise.
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Will there be sleep in paradise?
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Is the need for sleep a consequence of the fall?
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Is it significant that man must sleep one third of his day?
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So, this is one of those questions where I have to start by saying, I don’t know, absolutely certain, right?
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However, I think that we can look at a very clear verse in scripture about sleep.
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There’s one that I’m sure has already come to mind for some of you.
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Let me go ahead and pull that up here.
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I’ll pull it up on the screen as well.
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Psalm 127 in the Masoretic Numbers, so 126.
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Let me pull that up, transition to that.
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Okay.
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Psalm 126 in the Septuagint Numbering, 127 in most of your Bibles if they’re based on the Masoretic.
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And verse 2, It is in vain for you to rise up early, to get up after sitting down, O you who eat bread of pain, when he gives sleep to his beloved ones.
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Now, admittedly, there are two ways, right?
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You can interpret it just on its face, and take it and say, okay, sleep is a gift from God, it’s a blessing, it’s a good thing, therefore, it will still exist in paradise, because good things are not destroyed.
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But, I will admit that you could look at it, I think this is the weaker argument, but I’m just saying it for the sake of completeness, I think it is the weaker argument.
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You could look at it as sleep being a good thing within the bounds of this fallen creation.
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So, a blessing to man in his current state.
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I don’t think, like I said, I don’t think that’s the stronger argument, I think the stronger argument very clearly is that sleep is a good thing, it’s a blessing, and it will still exist in paradise.
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And for those of us who don’t like sleep, and I’m certainly in that camp, I hate sleep, it interrupts things, it’s obnoxious, it feels like a waste of time.
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For us, it will be a different thing.
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Because just like everything else in this life, where it’s with strings attached, or caveats, things in paradise are perfect, and so sleep will be exactly what God intended for it to be for man.
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I don’t like it personally, because if I’m working on a writing project, or some task, whatever it happens to be, I like to get very much into the thing, and get it.
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Now, obviously, there are things that take multiple days, or weeks, or months, or even years, and I don’t have a problem breaking those up.
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But if it’s something that is going to take 20 hours of dedicated effort, I would rather just get it done.
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And the necessity of sleep breaks that up.
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And so, of course, to other things like taking your pet out, eating an exercise, eating.
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But that’s sort of a personal preference.
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Not everyone is that way.
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But I do think that most likely sleep will still exist.
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I think it’s a good thing, it’s a blessing from God.
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It just won’t have the negatives that it has here in time, in this creation.
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I’m not saying time won’t exist in the next creation.
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Measurement of change is basically a measurement of time.
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So, question two is about Babel.
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By what means do you believe God dispersed the nations at Babel?
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Migration is the normally used, is the normal explanation for the dispersion, but I have heard divine interpretation used as well.
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I have heard that maybe once or twice.
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That’s sort of an edge opinion, we’ll call it.
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It does not come up very often.
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I’ll pull up Genesis 11 here.
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And the question is the narrative of the Tower of Babel.
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Very short, so let’s go ahead and read it.
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And the whole earth was one lip, and there was one speech for all.
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And it came about as they moved from the east, that they found a plane in the land of Sinar, called Shinar in most of your Bibles, and settled there.
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And one person said to the next, Come, let us make fire.
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And the brick became stone for them, and the clay for them was bitumen.
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And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top shall be as far as heaven.
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And let us make a name for ourselves before we are scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
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And the Lord came down to see the city in the tower, which the earth had built.
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And the Lord said, Look, one race and one lip of all, and this they have begun to do, and nothing that they undertake to do will now be wanting from them.
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Come and let us go down and confuse their tongue there, so that they will not hear, each one, the speech of the next.
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Scattered them abroad from there, over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city and the tower.
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Therefore, its name was called Confusion, because there the Lord confused the lips of all the earth, and from there the Lord God scattered them abroad, over the face of all the earth.
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So it obviously does not explicitly state God used X means.
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However, it very strongly implies it.
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And that’s confusion of language.
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And incidentally, it’s worth noting two things.
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First, I’ll note the little bit of irony here, because God does like irony, he does employ it.
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And tower into the heavens.
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What does God have to do to look at it?
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Come let us go down and look at this thing.
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God’s mocking mankind’s effort to build a tower into the heavens, because God, who resides in the heavens, has to come down to look at it.
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That’s God mocking them, and it’s ironic.
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But, and I would point out here is the context, is obviously chapter 11 comes after chapter 10.
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Chapter 10 is the table of nations, and anyone who’s really paid attention, that seems out of order, right?
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Because the table of nations doesn’t come to pass.
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These nations don’t really come to pass until the Tower of Babel.
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This is a telling of what happens with the sons and the grandsons and the great-grandsons, etc., etc., of Noah after the Tower of Babel, after the dispersion.
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Obviously, some of these men are around at the time of the Tower of Babel, right?
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And there’s some argument, one way, argument, other way, about which individual was involved, and most of that’s speculation.
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But the fact that the table of nations comes before the Tower of Babel kind of gives us our hint here, because God is telling us what is going to happen, the means that he is going to use, and how he is going to employ those means, the narrative of the Tower of Babel.
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Because what does he do?
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Because what does it say about these tribes, right?
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So, for instance, here in verse 31, these are the sons of Shem in their tribes according to their languages.
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That’s the means that God uses to disperse them, and he does it according to their race, according to the race of man, and then the subraces according to the grandsons of Noah.
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And so, in the context there, please remember, the verse and chapter numbers don’t really exist, they’re for our convenience.
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In the context there, it’s pretty clear that the way that God divided up the earth and spread people abroad was that he simply made it impossible to eradicate, and they naturally drifted apart.
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I do happen to agree with Luther and some other exegetes that Japheth seems like he wasn’t really as involved here.
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It seems like it was really mostly the sons of Ham and the sons of Shem, at least some of them helping him.
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And it’s from archaeology and history pans out as well, and also from what little we get in scripture, because the sons of Japheth kind of leave the narrative early on, which maybe is an indication, because they left earlier.
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I agree with the exegetes who think that.
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I think that Japheth was obedient.
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I think he was loyal to God, and God commanded and moved north.
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And you can also see, then, the fact that European languages are less confused, as it were, less distant from one another than many languages in other parts of the world.
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You know, you’re not going to really be able to speak, say, Chinese and converse with someone who knows Arabic.
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Is that the case necessarily if you know German and Dutch?
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The answer is no.
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Is it the case necessarily even German and English?
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You can kind of get by with German and English because the core is still the same.
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There’s more overlap, more similarity among the languages of the sons of Japheth.
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And so I think that that is a reasonable conclusion.
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It’s not explicit in the text, but I think there is sufficient warrant for it.
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But to answer the question directly again, I believe that he just used the standard means that is the standard interpretation.
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Confusing their languages caused them naturally to separate and move apart from one another.
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And I will make a note before I get into the chat and some other questions that I have here.
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I did notice when I was setting up the stream and such that there are pending questions in the comments on the streams.
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I will try to get through at least some of those, not necessarily in this episode, but I will into my notes for future episodes so that those don’t get lost.
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As always, if I don’t notice a question at some point, go ahead and ask it again.
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There are too many notifications, I don’t notice them all.
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So I’ll look at chat first, and then I will go ahead and look at perhaps some of the other questions from the backlog on the forum.
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So one of the questions from chat, where do you chronologically, this is question three, where do you chronologically place Job?
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Why is God letting Satan dictate how Job should be tested?
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I will go ahead and paste this into…
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Lose the question.
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Granted, I can always just go and pull it from the transcript later, but it’s nice to have it.
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So it’s really two questions, but I’ll go ahead and answer them both as question three.
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Chronologically, I agree with Woe.
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I believe that Job is the one who is interacting with the ancient Israelites when they’re coming out of Egypt, crossing through that territory into the Promised Land, into Canaan, into Palestine, whatever you want to call it, depending on what it’s been called down through history.
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I think that timeline is correct.
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I believe it bears out if you make some fairly minor assumptions, and other than that, just in the scripture because it doesn’t give you all the exact information.
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There are some things where you have to, it can be one man or another, and I think Job is the stronger argument.
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I agree with Woe on that one.
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That’s what we said in Stone Quire.
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We said it elsewhere as well.
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So I think Job is actually the king who came out against the Israelites and did not cross through our territory, and that would have been a righteous thing for him to do because they had just been engaged in idolatry and all sorts of wickedness, and he did not want that for his people.
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Granted, they later on fall to idolatry, but at the time, they were righteous people.
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But why would God let sort of decide how much he can be tested, right?
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That’s sort of the big question from Job.
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There are some other questions there as well, obviously.
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You know, we appeal to it, for instance, for the fact that creation is God’s greater book, because God himself, when he is talking to Job of his greatness, appeals to creation.
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He does not say, look at the things I’ve written, or I have inspired men to write.
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Look at the greatness of my majesty, my glory, my power in creation, because it’s reflected in creation.
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But insofar as the extent of the temptation, that’s always true.
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It’s not just with Satan, because Satan would love to destroy you personally.
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He would love to destroy any Christian personally.
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He probably doesn’t care that much about those who are not currently believers, because sure, they could be more wicked, they could do more evil.
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But as long as they’re not Christian and they’re not doing good, does it ultimately really matter to Satan?
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He has other things to do, right?
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If he has to choose between trying to further tempt someone who is already on the wrong path versus trying to get a Christian to apostatize, it’s kind of better use of his time to mess with the Christian, right?
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But it’s always the case that you are permitted to be tempted, to be tried, to be tested, insofar and only insofar as God permits.
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That is true for every single man.
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It’s just in Job’s case, it happened to be extreme.
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But there are other men who have been extremely tested, right?
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There are Christians who have gone to the lions, there are Christians who have been tested for months, for years, in some cases, to try to get them to renounce their faith.
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God knows how much you can bear.
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And as a Christian, as a child of God, as a member of the elect, God is not going to give you tests that exceed what you can bear, strength to bear up under it.
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In Job’s case, he’s proving a point, and he’s proving a point not necessarily to Job as sort of the primary target, as it were, he’s obviously the primary in the sense of he’s first, but it’s for us.
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Job is written for our comfort, everything in scripture, because everything in scripture is ultimately written for our comfort.
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And of course, it only is for your comfort if you are a member of the elect, right?
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If you are a Christian, if you have faith.
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And I think I’m going to write more on that this coming week.
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I think I will actually type up the…
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I do it for a couple of weeks, I just don’t always type it up and then publish it.
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I think I will do that, and it’s a related subject, so I’ll put that in the show notes for this when I do that.
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So take a look at that.
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But with regard to your temptation, like I said, God is only going to let you be tempted as far as he knows you can withstand.
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He will give you the order to withstand it.
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So he did not permit Job to test him so far that he broke.
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He gave him the strength to stand up under that, and he was proving that point for us.
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It’s a point that ultimately God is in control of all things, and the glory is God’s alone.
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It’s also comforting because we can look at Job and see that no matter how much Satan tried, no matter how great the temptation and the suffering and all those things, God didn’t let Job ultimately fall.
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So, that’s comforting to us because most likely, our temptations, most likely, right, are not going to be as bad as Job, because we aren’t going to have Satan personally trying to ruin our lives, generally speaking.
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Maybe that’s going to be an exception for some individuals, but generally speaking, you’re not going to be tested to the same degree as Job.
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And if God gave Job the same degree as Satan, you’re not going to end up under that sort of testing.
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He can certainly do the same for you.
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So, you can read the story of Job as a gospel promise.
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It is comforting for Christians.
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But yes, it’s certainly…
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You’re going to be tested in this life, right?
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It’s very clear that God disciplines and tests and prunes, right, the plant metaphor, prunes those who are his, so they produce more fruit.
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It’s ultimately for your good, like it says in Scripture, all things work together for the good of those who are called, right?
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I see someone asked the same…
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one of the questions that I did notice in the comment to a video, that one now, and hopefully remember that I answered it when I see it later.
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There’s no way to mark anything as answered in YouTube’s interface.
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So, the only thing you can do is you can reply, and then you can filter by reply, but you can’t just say, I’m not going to reply, like if you’ve answered it previously.
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It’s not a great design.
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It’s very obnoxious.
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Same problem for Stone Quire and everything else.
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But question four, what is your take on the members of Hitler’s party who betrayed and tried to assassinate him?
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Says he’s thinking of the German general Erwin.
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So, traitors deserve to be hanged.
00:18:04.220 → 00:18:05.820
That’s just how that goes.
00:18:06.680 → 00:18:13.360
Now, obviously, that comes with the sort of huge caveat that the person has to be a traitor, right?
00:18:13.600 → 00:18:17.660
It has to be someone whose betrayal would, in fact, be treason.
00:18:18.200 → 00:18:20.920
And, an example, right?
00:18:20.920 → 00:18:33.580
Let’s say you’re living under one of the extremely wicked communist governments torturing Christians, burning monasteries, just generally being as bad, as evil, as wicked as possible.
00:18:34.340 → 00:18:37.660
Would turning against that government be treason?
00:18:37.660 → 00:18:38.480
I would say no.
00:18:38.960 → 00:18:52.380
Because Romans 13, as we pointed out in Stone Choir, I pointed out elsewhere, Romans 13 is polemical, because Romans 13 actually lists the qualifications of what a rightful government will do.
00:18:52.780 → 00:18:56.960
And incidentally, when you list what something will do, you’re also listing what it will not do, right?
00:18:56.960 → 00:19:02.000
Just like the Ten Commandments are both positive, in the sense that there’s an inverse of it.
00:19:02.620 → 00:19:08.000
You know, if you’re not supposed to do X, then you do the things that avoid X, stuff like that.
00:19:08.580 → 00:19:16.620
So in the case of a truly wicked and evil government, it would not be treason, it would not be morally wrongful to oppose that government.
00:19:16.820 → 00:19:23.920
That starts to get back into Magdeburg, go look at, listen to that episode, or read the transcript, whichever you prefer.
00:19:24.640 → 00:19:32.560
But in the case of the National Socialists, yes, those who were trying to assassinate him were definitely in the wrong.
00:19:32.920 → 00:19:36.000
They had a very wrongheaded opinion about the whole thing.
00:19:36.260 → 00:19:42.700
They thought that they could topple their current government and surrender to the Allies and get good treatment.
00:19:43.240 → 00:19:47.180
And we all know what happened to the Germans who surrendered to the Allies.
00:19:47.180 → 00:19:48.760
Many of them were starved to death.
00:19:48.760 → 00:19:50.740
So, they were very clearly wrong.
00:19:50.740 → 00:19:56.240
Granted, that’s hindsight, but I think it was also pretty obvious at the time, considering the behavior of the Allied powers.
00:20:00.280 → 00:20:03.540
And from X here, question five.
00:20:03.540 → 00:20:04.820
Let me copy and paste that.
00:20:05.260 → 00:20:15.280
Is it better to go to a reformed church that confesses true things about race and society, or a Lutheran church that preaches against them but believes true things about the sacraments?
00:20:16.260 → 00:20:17.860
I would probably go to the reformed church.
00:20:17.860 → 00:20:20.200
Just go ahead and give the…
00:20:20.200 → 00:20:24.660
I would not partake of the sacrament, most likely.
00:20:25.480 → 00:20:31.440
And the reason that I say most likely, and I know some Lutherans will bristle at that, but go ahead, have fun.
00:20:32.160 → 00:20:40.200
And the reason that I would say most likely is I think there are two ways you can look at participation in the sacrament.
00:20:40.460 → 00:20:43.340
And I do think the context matters.
00:20:43.340 → 00:21:01.960
So, for instance, if you were at a Lutheran church, a Lutheran church should have closed communion because of what Lutherans believe about the sacrament, and we believe it is actually harmful for individuals to come to the sacrament with wrong beliefs about the sacrament because it is disaffaining the body and blood of the Lord.
00:21:02.420 → 00:21:04.200
So, we practice closed communion.
00:21:05.360 → 00:21:07.470
However, there is also…
00:21:07.470 → 00:21:10.080
you can look at it, for instance, as…
00:21:10.080 → 00:21:13.780
and this is how Lutherans generally look at it, particularly in the Lutheran case.
00:21:14.520 → 00:21:21.100
We are saying that those who participate in the sacrament are giving a public confession of the same things.
00:21:21.340 → 00:21:29.860
And so, that’s why we have closed communion, because you should believe the same things if you are going to participate in the Lord’s Supper at a Lutheran church.
00:21:30.840 → 00:21:32.180
That’s one way you can look at it.
00:21:32.180 → 00:21:37.560
The other way that you can look at it, and I would say that I would be inclined to look at it this way in some cases.
00:21:38.780 → 00:21:48.240
From my point of view, probably certain among the Reformed and maybe certain Anglican churches, I think, would be the ones that would initially come to mind for me.
00:21:49.840 → 00:21:53.780
You can look at it as a confession that these individuals are Christian brothers.
00:21:54.080 → 00:22:05.900
And if I am confessing that these men are Christian brothers, even if I believe they are in error with regard to Jesus, then I wouldn’t necessarily object to participating in the sacrament with them.
00:22:05.900 → 00:22:24.020
I would not admit them to the table in a Lutheran church, but if they invited me to the table in their church, I wouldn’t have that immediate, necessary no response to that, because I think that second argument, that second way of looking at it, the non-Lutheran confession, their Christian brothers, is a legitimate way to look at it.
00:22:24.460 → 00:22:42.380
So, most Lutheran teachers are probably going to say they would just not participate in the sacrament in a non-Lutheran church because of the differences in theology, the difference in doctrine, but I think to some of them, they would see both sides of that.
00:22:42.380 → 00:23:00.500
So, but definitely these days, I would pick the church that is least likely to call the police on you, which in this hypothetical is going to be the reformed church that teaches correctly on race versus the Lutheran church that in this hypothetical teaches against these things, might very well be against you.
00:23:00.500 → 00:23:12.380
So, even if you don’t participate in the Lord’s Supper, if you don’t go to the sacrament of the table at the reformed church, and your conscience obviously is going to lead you as well.
00:23:12.400 → 00:23:15.940
If your conscience is bothered by doing that, then by all means, don’t participate.
00:23:17.960 → 00:23:33.700
Even if you don’t participate in the Lord’s Supper, you’re no longer having that regularly, you still hear the word, you will still hear the fact that you are forgiven, you will hear the gospel, you don’t actually have to have the sacrament every Sunday.
00:23:33.700 → 00:23:37.240
It is better to, it is best to have it at least every Sunday.
00:23:37.360 → 00:23:38.380
That’s how it should be.
00:23:39.260 → 00:23:47.420
But with ideal conditions and under not ideal conditions, I think you just go for the best thing that is currently available.
00:23:48.120 → 00:23:51.400
So, in the hypothetical, go to the Reform Church.
00:24:00.566 → 00:24:12.066
Sort of a follow-up question here to the earlier question about the dispersion across the world after the Tower of Babel or the Tower of Confusion, whichever name you want to use there.
00:24:13.726 → 00:24:17.906
And that is, did Noah and Japheth speak Pai?
00:24:18.006 → 00:24:31.646
Which, for those who don’t know, is Procyon, which is the more or less hypothetical parent language of all the Indo-European languages, the ones that are under that large family tree.
00:24:32.406 → 00:24:36.326
It’s reconstructed because, obviously, there are no speakers of it still.
00:24:36.446 → 00:24:43.086
It is reconstructed from what we know, and obviously what we have from archaeology and things like that.
00:24:43.146 → 00:24:44.486
It’s mostly philology.
00:24:44.986 → 00:24:49.326
But I don’t know if they spoke Pai.
00:24:49.326 → 00:24:54.446
I think there’s a pretty strong argument that Japheth probably spoke something that was roughly like Pai.
00:24:55.146 → 00:24:57.466
I don’t know what happened in Noah’s case, right?
00:24:58.006 → 00:25:02.706
I don’t know if Noah was suddenly to a bunch of his grandchildren.
00:25:02.886 → 00:25:08.466
That may have been the case, or Noah may not have been around, depending on the exact timeline here.
00:25:09.106 → 00:25:19.566
But I think it’s pretty likely that Japheth spoke something roughly like Pai, or what Pai would be if we were able to reconstruct it perfectly.
00:25:20.386 → 00:25:21.826
I think that’s a strong argument.
00:25:21.986 → 00:25:23.446
Obviously, it’s not in scripture.
00:25:23.446 → 00:25:27.346
You aren’t bound to believe this, but I think there’s a very strong argument for it.
00:25:27.346 → 00:25:30.206
I think it is correct to conclude that.
00:25:56.459 → 00:26:02.459
A follow-up question about…
00:26:04.479 → 00:26:05.159
Let’s see.
00:26:05.579 → 00:26:07.339
Related to the question about Job.
00:26:07.339 → 00:26:13.299
So question seven, is James 1.13 in conflict with the idea of God allowing Satan to tempt us?
00:26:14.059 → 00:26:15.959
So let’s pull up James 1.13.
00:26:29.795 → 00:26:32.415
Let’s get Logos to, there we go.
00:26:33.695 → 00:26:39.635
So I think we’ll just go ahead and read that paragraph, I think, is sufficient.
00:26:41.055 → 00:26:49.255
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
00:26:49.675 → 00:26:57.395
Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
00:26:57.675 → 00:27:01.675
But each person is tempted when he is tempted by his own desire.
00:27:02.135 → 00:27:08.415
Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.
00:27:09.435 → 00:27:12.915
So, I think the answer to your question there is really in the subsequent verse, right?
00:27:13.835 → 00:27:20.895
You are ultimately tempted by your own concupiscence, your own original sin, your own inward desire, and sin is evil.
00:27:21.075 → 00:27:28.435
The only exception, of course, being Adam, who was in a state of perfection, and so his will is not tarnished in the same way that ours is, right?
00:27:28.435 → 00:27:41.215
Human will exists in a number of different states, and that would be Adam before the fall, and then us after the fall before regeneration, and us after the fall after regeneration in the eternity, right?
00:27:41.895 → 00:27:47.895
We’re dealing with Christians after the fall, so regenerated but not perfected.
00:27:48.415 → 00:27:54.255
And so we still have concupiscence, we still have that desire to sin, and Satan plays on that, right?
00:27:54.255 → 00:27:59.535
We have sinful desires, Satan fans the flames and tries to cause problems there.
00:28:00.255 → 00:28:03.715
God doesn’t tempt anyone, right?
00:28:04.575 → 00:28:12.535
But God will permit you to be tempted, God is not going to say, hey, you should sin.
00:28:12.875 → 00:28:14.315
That’s not what God is going to do.
00:28:14.315 → 00:28:19.255
But he does permit the devil to do that, and God is in control of…
00:28:21.015 → 00:28:21.895
has him on a leash.
00:28:21.895 → 00:28:24.935
He’s only allowed to do as much as God permits him to do.
00:28:25.695 → 00:28:26.575
So I don’t think those…
00:28:26.575 → 00:28:27.895
There’s no real conflict there.
00:28:28.015 → 00:28:36.055
It’s saying that God is not the cause of sin, which we know that God is neither the cause of sin nor does he cause others to sin.
00:28:36.175 → 00:28:39.275
So he’s not the source of sin, and he doesn’t cause you to sin.
00:28:40.655 → 00:28:43.275
That’s just the standard teaching of basically…
00:28:43.455 → 00:28:46.355
Well, it is the standard teaching of all Christian nominations.
00:28:46.595 → 00:28:51.475
Some are a little wobbly on exactly how they interpret that interaction and how the human will works, right?
00:28:51.915 → 00:28:56.915
It’s the bondage of the will question and how far that extends or does not extend.
00:28:57.215 → 00:29:00.075
How much free will you have?
00:29:00.295 → 00:29:13.135
The quick rundown of that, the Lutheran answer, of course, and I believe the correct answer according to Scripture, with regard to spiritual things, before you’re regenerated, you have no free will because you’re dead in your sins and your trespasses and corpses don’t act.
00:29:13.995 → 00:29:19.435
After regeneration, you cooperate with the Holy Spirit in sanctification.
00:29:20.215 → 00:29:25.315
Justification in your regeneration, it’s monergism, you play no role, it’s God alone.
00:29:25.315 → 00:29:29.575
Monergism just means monogism, only one actor, right?
00:29:29.855 → 00:29:31.035
God is the only actor.
00:29:31.435 → 00:29:38.855
Synergism means that working together, acting together, because it’s just with plus work.
00:29:40.275 → 00:29:44.655
So with sanctification, you are working with the Spirit.
00:29:45.195 → 00:29:50.235
With justification, it is God alone, mono, working, mono ergos.
00:29:50.595 → 00:29:57.175
So let me make sure I put that one in the show notes.
00:30:01.435 → 00:30:07.535
I think I got the current questions from chat, so let me turn to some of the other questions I have here.
00:30:10.875 → 00:30:16.055
Let me have YouTube studio refresh, so that I lose where I had them.
00:30:16.375 → 00:30:17.075
That’s helpful.
00:30:35.688 → 00:30:39.548
I think I will probably go through the comments and try to get to those, perhaps.
00:30:40.568 → 00:30:43.128
I just answered this one, I found this one.
00:30:43.128 → 00:30:45.988
And there’s still no way to flag it as having been answered, so.
00:30:53.376 → 00:31:03.996
I’ve actually got most of those questions, so I’ll pull up my backlog here that I have on the forum, get through some of those, unless something else comes in in the chat.
00:31:04.256 → 00:31:07.376
I don’t know if I’ll go the full hour, necessarily.
00:31:08.736 → 00:31:11.416
Tomorrow’s a holiday, let people go early, right?
00:31:12.856 → 00:31:14.056
Let myself go early.
00:31:36.832 → 00:31:39.532
I’ll pick a hard question, just because it happened.
00:31:41.472 → 00:31:48.132
Question eight, how do we reconcile a love of country with the reality of the nation we live in?
00:31:48.132 → 00:31:49.292
Can we do so?
00:31:52.252 → 00:31:58.852
And that’s an important question, because obviously, we currently live in a wicked country, right?
00:31:58.852 → 00:32:13.232
Perhaps as a family, considering tomorrow is the 250th anniversary of the United States, for anyone who is listening from the rest of the world, but doesn’t happen to know that, I feel like you probably have by now, you’ve probably seen it in the media.
00:32:13.772 → 00:32:20.572
At any rate, I think part of it is the distinction here between country and nation.
00:32:20.792 → 00:32:25.332
You use both terms, but those terms should not be used interchangeably, because they’re not equivalent.
00:32:25.892 → 00:32:36.592
And so, your country is the political entity, your nation is your race, it’s blood and soil and myth, which I’ve gone into that before.
00:32:37.792 → 00:32:40.392
Your nation, you cannot choose.
00:32:40.392 → 00:32:48.812
You kind of can a little bit, because obviously, you could emigrate, you can immigrate, there are things like that, without touching on the morality of whether or not you should.
00:32:50.272 → 00:32:54.312
And so, you love your nation, because your nation is a gift from God.
00:32:54.872 → 00:32:58.472
You are what you are intrinsically, because that is how God made you.
00:32:58.752 → 00:33:08.072
Your people are your people, they are yours, the same as your parents are yours, because they gave birth to you, your mother gave birth to you, your father was involved earlier, right?
00:33:08.852 → 00:33:26.352
So, your nation you must love, because your nation are the people who are closest to you, the people God has entrusted to your care, and those who do not care for your own family, and your nation’s an extended family, and particularly those of their own household, are worse than an unbeliever.
00:33:26.352 → 00:33:28.432
So, you don’t want to run afoul of that.
00:33:29.672 → 00:33:31.692
But when it comes to sort of the…
00:33:32.212 → 00:33:34.252
It’s really kind of a patriotism question, right?
00:33:34.252 → 00:33:37.792
But with regard to the country.
00:33:37.792 → 00:33:38.652
And even that’s a…
00:33:40.172 → 00:33:43.212
Because patriotism is derived from the Latin for father.
00:33:43.732 → 00:33:50.572
And so, to love your patrimony is to love your forefathers, is to love your nation, is to love your race.
00:33:51.372 → 00:33:57.692
But in the usual sort of lay sense, as it were, the generic use of the term patriotism with regard to a country.
00:33:57.692 → 00:34:01.072
So, the United States, to love your nation in the United States.
00:34:01.912 → 00:34:13.012
I think you love your nation in so far as it is a representation or an outgrowth of your people, and you do the best you can to try to improve it.
00:34:13.952 → 00:34:17.792
That doesn’t mean that you can’t critique your country when it does evil things.
00:34:17.792 → 00:34:24.492
In fact, it’s often you do that as a Christian man, at least if God has put you in a position to do that.
00:34:24.972 → 00:34:34.752
And so, I don’t think given the current set of conditions that we necessarily have to love the United States, because the United States has done an immense amount of evil.
00:34:34.752 → 00:34:36.752
It is still doing an immense amount of evil.
00:34:37.032 → 00:34:47.252
It is bringing in hostile foreigners every day to destroy us, destroy our nation, make our lives more difficult, make the future significantly more difficult.
00:34:47.972 → 00:34:55.292
And so, we can love the good things about our country, and the good things in the history of our country.
00:34:55.592 → 00:34:57.972
And even the good, there are good things that exist today, right?
00:34:58.152 → 00:35:16.592
There are good things about the United States, but ultimately, the focus of our care, our concern, should be our nation, and bringing the country, the political entity, back in line with being an expression of the will, and something that seeks the good of the nation, of the race.
00:35:17.672 → 00:35:26.452
So, can we fill a love of country in the absolute sense with what our country is currently doing?
00:35:26.872 → 00:35:41.092
Probably not, but ultimately, our allegiance isn’t to our country first, it’s to our nations, to our people, because that’s created by God, and the country is just a symbol of our love.
00:35:41.092 → 00:35:44.672
So, obviously, the creation of God has to stand, it’s more important.
00:36:03.147 → 00:36:11.147
There’s a difficult question here that I don’t know that I necessarily want to get into tonight, but maybe I will, because it’s an important question, I think it should be answered.
00:36:14.507 → 00:36:26.047
So, and it’s one of those questions where it seems like the right answer is easy, but at the same time it’s not easy because of the consequences of it.
00:36:27.047 → 00:36:30.327
And I don’t think it appealed to consequences, always wrongful, but anyway, question nine.
00:36:31.427 → 00:36:36.067
There is a transgender person at my workplace, and I am being forced to use its pronouns.
00:36:36.607 → 00:36:38.567
What is the Christian thing to do here?
00:36:41.487 → 00:36:59.387
The issue with this is that, ultimately speaking, transgenderism is part of the pernicious, wicked, anti-Christian religion that we could perhaps class under the umbrella of Marxism in the sort of broad sense.
00:37:01.407 → 00:37:02.887
Ultimately, it’s Satanism, right?
00:37:02.887 → 00:37:06.607
But Marxism sort of captures the idea better for most people.
00:37:07.707 → 00:37:16.047
And so, the question then is that, is this a participation in that wicked religion?
00:37:17.367 → 00:37:28.487
I think the answer is yes, because it is a confession against reality, it is a confession against God’s good ordering of creation.
00:37:29.407 → 00:37:43.007
And also, there’s the psychology of it, you’re building up and feeding into the delusions of someone who will probably eventually do something violent to anyone else, as the statistics clearly show.
00:37:44.447 → 00:37:54.667
So, I don’t think as a Christian that you are in fact permitted to do that, because I think it would be counted as something even worse than, say, the pinch of incense to Caesar, right?
00:37:55.127 → 00:37:58.187
Because there were Christians who went to the lions in order to avoid that.
00:37:58.447 → 00:38:01.127
I think this is a better answer than that.
00:38:01.947 → 00:38:08.907
And so, I would say that, practically speaking, because obviously there’s a consideration of the theology, right?
00:38:08.947 → 00:38:11.047
The theology answer, I think, is pretty easy.
00:38:11.487 → 00:38:15.207
Don’t participate in the evil religion of the world.
00:38:16.187 → 00:38:19.987
But the practical considerations, obviously, are more difficult, right?
00:38:20.727 → 00:38:21.627
You are…
00:38:22.327 → 00:38:24.107
We’ll take the extreme example, as it were, right?
00:38:24.107 → 00:38:27.787
Let’s say you’re a father, and you have a whole bunch of young children.
00:38:28.027 → 00:38:29.247
You really need this job.
00:38:29.247 → 00:38:30.947
It’d be difficult to get a new job.
00:38:31.067 → 00:38:34.267
So, it’s the worst case scenario, and you’re going to get fired, right?
00:38:34.527 → 00:38:37.247
If you stand up and do anything about this.
00:38:39.487 → 00:38:41.067
It’s the worst case scenario.
00:38:41.127 → 00:38:43.467
And so, does wisdom play a role?
00:38:43.467 → 00:38:44.527
I think the answer is yes.
00:38:44.527 → 00:38:49.907
Wisdom has to play a role, because in that case, there are those who have been entrusted to your care.
00:38:50.307 → 00:39:04.147
So, if you can just avoid the problem, I think that’s permissible in those circumstances where you are trying to preserve what God has entrusted to your care, et cetera, et cetera.
00:39:05.087 → 00:39:09.827
But, obviously, less of an issue if you don’t have those considerations.
00:39:10.607 → 00:39:18.687
So, the way you can avoid it, right, is you don’t necessarily have to use pronouns.
00:39:20.847 → 00:39:22.287
You can talk around that.
00:39:22.287 → 00:39:23.587
That’s perfectly possible.
00:39:24.167 → 00:39:29.227
In fact, just like you don’t ever have to use another person’s name when you are talking to or about the person.
Transcript
2/3
00:39:29.387 → 00:39:33.787
I have friends that probably haven’t said their names in years, because, you know, just talk to the friend.
00:39:33.787 → 00:39:36.787
You don’t have to announce that you’re talking to that person.
00:39:38.347 → 00:39:48.727
So, if you can get around criticizing wisdom, but not participating in the evil, I think that is a permissible way if you have those sort of countervailing concerns.
00:39:50.407 → 00:39:57.447
The alternative, right, if you think that that is going to be viable in your case, I don’t know even where you are in the world.
00:39:57.447 → 00:40:04.067
So, I don’t know you’re not giving legal advice, despite the fact that I’m an attorney, you know, the usual caveat.
00:40:05.387 → 00:40:10.147
You may be able to go to your HR department and say, this is against my religion.
00:40:10.307 → 00:40:16.327
This is a violation of my religious rights, which you probably have wherever you are if this sort of thing is happening right.
00:40:17.347 → 00:40:21.387
And there’s some protection for that.
00:40:21.427 → 00:40:23.387
I would go to an attorney first.
00:40:24.247 → 00:40:29.687
Have the attorney give you the exact language you’re going to want to use with HR.
00:40:30.147 → 00:40:39.687
You’re building a paper trail, and the reason that you’re building that is that if they fire you in the future, then you probably have a case for wrongful termination.
00:40:40.247 → 00:40:48.047
Attorney versed in your local laws would be able to give you better advice on that, because he would know what sort of case you need and what evidence you need.
00:40:49.087 → 00:40:53.887
I think that’s probably the wisest way to proceed if you can’t avoid the issue.
00:40:54.907 → 00:40:59.627
And who knows, maybe it may actually turn out to your benefit if you get a wrongful termination.
00:41:00.507 → 00:41:07.407
Because, if they just blatantly violate the law, those suits are usually pretty easy, and they usually get you a decent check.
00:41:07.407 → 00:41:13.227
So, maybe you can find some way to punish them for trying to get you to make a false confession.
00:41:13.227 → 00:41:14.427
There’s nothing wrong with that.
00:41:30.438 → 00:41:36.458
I’m gonna pull another question here from X, since I see there’s some questions in the chat, I’ll try to get to those.
00:41:37.458 → 00:41:40.998
This is question 10 now.
00:41:45.998 → 00:41:54.218
I left a comment a few days ago about my cousin’s and his wife adopting a Mexican child, so I assume that’s typo there on the plural.
00:41:55.158 → 00:42:11.138
Would you say that I have a duty to my blood being over my disdain for him and his wife’s poor choice to aid in the displacement of my children and his?
00:42:11.138 → 00:42:15.238
So I assume that means he has other children in addition to the one that he’s adopted.
00:42:17.978 → 00:42:21.998
This is one of those cases because of…
00:42:22.138 → 00:42:24.018
This is sin, I’ll just go ahead and say it’s sin.
00:42:24.018 → 00:42:24.958
You should not be doing that.
00:42:24.958 → 00:42:41.658
When you have your own people are in dire straits, there are many children of your own nation who should be adopted, and you are going out of your way to adopt the foreigner instead, you are failing to rightly care, first and foremost, for those who care, and that is sin.
00:42:42.298 → 00:42:44.418
So what he did was sinful.
00:42:45.518 → 00:42:48.798
And a Mexican child should be a Mexican with Mexican parents.
00:42:49.578 → 00:42:52.658
You shouldn’t be adopting random children from other parts of the world.
00:42:52.858 → 00:42:57.318
Just like I don’t believe people should be adopting Chinese children or Russian children, and stuff like that.
00:42:58.118 → 00:43:00.358
They should be cared for by the government.
00:43:00.358 → 00:43:03.018
What you’re doing is removing them from their own country.
00:43:03.158 → 00:43:05.378
You’re doing harm to your country and their country.
00:43:05.378 → 00:43:17.418
The thing you’re doing is just totally wicked, because you’re doing it for the approval and the praise of the wicked world that says this is a good thing, because we all know ultimately why.
00:43:17.418 → 00:43:26.338
The goal is the destruction of the distinct nations that are God’s good creation, because Satan hates God’s creation, and he will do anything he can to try to destroy it.
00:43:27.478 → 00:43:50.778
So in this case, I’m going to say it’s going to be fact-specific, as it were, because if there are other children in this picture, right, you still want to be whatever, I don’t know what the exact blood relationship is here, so you’re the equivalent of an uncle, basically, because you basically call any other male in the family who’s not a grandpa or something an uncle, right?
00:43:50.778 → 00:43:52.398
You all wind up being called an uncle.
00:43:53.638 → 00:43:55.118
I am an uncle, incidentally, so…
00:43:56.518 → 00:44:18.898
You still care for those other children as best you can, and it doesn’t mean that you’re going to, you know, treat this child poorly or single amount for bad treatment, because the reality is your family, your cousin, has left you in a position where you don’t have a perfect course of action, so you take the best one that you can.
00:44:20.258 → 00:44:21.898
This is their only child.
00:44:22.318 → 00:44:44.798
Then you don’t have to have the same concerns, because there are no other children in the picture, you don’t have the same duties, you have, you know, in theory at least, spoken your piece, told them this was wrongful, you should not have done this, this was deeply unwise, you’ve caused problems, you are increasing the harm to our nation by what you do, and then to some degree, you can cut that person out of your life.
00:44:44.798 → 00:44:48.158
I’m not saying, you know, cut and dry were done forever, right?
00:44:48.538 → 00:44:51.038
But you can sort of withdraw, you can draw back.
00:44:51.338 → 00:45:02.778
That is something that is morally permissible when a family member is doing something that is sinful and refuses to stop, which in this case, they’ve created a where there’s no good solution, right?
00:45:03.138 → 00:45:13.298
Now, if we had a wise and righteous government, they would be deporting people back to their home countries, and then there would be a solution, this would be more easily resolved.
00:45:13.658 → 00:45:19.318
But because of the circumstances under which we currently live, there’s no good solution for you here, right?
00:45:42.958 → 00:45:43.378
Thank you.
00:45:45.338 → 00:45:47.278
Don’t, you know, be mean to this adopted child.
00:45:47.278 → 00:45:49.698
Don’t go out of your way to make his life miserable.
00:45:50.158 → 00:45:55.678
But showing a preference for those who are your own blood is actually what you’re supposed to do.
00:45:56.078 → 00:45:59.258
So there’s nothing wrong with doing that, assuming that there are these other children in the…
00:46:01.418 → 00:46:04.398
I’m gonna take a sip of my drink here before I get to the next question.
00:46:14.740 → 00:46:19.220
Tea would be nice, but I think it’s still 90 degrees outside here, so I do not want tea.
00:46:28.544 → 00:46:32.544
Question 11 is from YouTube.
00:46:33.244 → 00:46:34.744
I’m glad the plugin is working again.
00:46:34.744 → 00:46:35.924
It aggregates everything for me.
00:46:35.924 → 00:46:36.644
It’s quite nice.
00:46:37.224 → 00:46:37.964
Question 11.
00:46:37.984 → 00:46:46.024
How can we combat Google apps or sites like Bible Hub that present anonymous translations and commentaries as the word?
00:46:48.064 → 00:47:04.764
I’m actually not super familiar with exactly how that pans out, because most of the time, when I’ve used something like Bible Hub, I’ve seen the commentaries and such have said the name of the author.
00:47:05.264 → 00:47:08.444
So I don’t know, I don’t use it that much.
00:47:08.444 → 00:47:11.724
I mostly use Logos, so I use an app.
00:47:11.764 → 00:47:16.144
I don’t know if they’ve added that feature or something.
00:47:16.144 → 00:47:18.764
Let me just look at Bible Hub here real quick.
00:47:20.384 → 00:47:21.884
That will definitely have commentary.
00:47:23.084 → 00:47:23.364
So.
00:47:30.003 → 00:47:42.163
At least for my, I’m not signed in, so I don’t have any custom settings or anything, but it didn’t pop up anonymous commentary, so I don’t know exactly what you’re asking.
00:47:42.163 → 00:47:44.803
If you can ask a follow up question, that might be helpful here.
00:47:45.463 → 00:47:48.383
In so far, I can answer sort of the more general question.
00:47:49.843 → 00:47:52.563
Don’t read random anonymous commentaries.
00:47:52.563 → 00:47:58.903
It’s good to know something about the author, because you at least want to know probably the denomination, the tradition, right?
00:48:01.543 → 00:48:04.343
Presbyterian, you probably mostly want to read Presbyterian authors.
00:48:04.343 → 00:48:08.223
It’s good to read from other, sometimes, from other denominations, too.
00:48:08.703 → 00:48:11.743
I read the Reformed, I read Roman Catholics, I read others.
00:48:11.743 → 00:48:16.463
I don’t just read Lutherans, but you have to be careful what you read.
00:48:17.323 → 00:48:19.963
That’s not just for scripture, not just for common people.
00:48:20.983 → 00:48:31.383
And, excuse me, maybe that’s something that women need to hear more than men sometimes because of the current state of women’s will be charitable, so-called literature.
00:48:32.163 → 00:48:41.503
But, certainly, don’t go reading random, unattributed commentaries on them, taking them at face value.
00:48:42.923 → 00:48:44.103
That goes without saying, right?
00:48:44.103 → 00:48:57.043
Because you have to compare everything against the Word of God and make sure that it is consonant with the Word of God, which is why I encourage people, anytime I say something about scripture, go read it for yourself, see if what I said is in agreement with the Word of God.
00:48:57.303 → 00:48:58.543
If it is, great.
00:48:58.543 → 00:49:02.203
If it’s not, go read it for yourself.
00:49:02.203 → 00:49:03.983
The same thing is true here.
00:49:03.983 → 00:49:11.543
I think most of the apps like Bible Hub and others, the individuals behind them usually seem like they’re well-intentioned.
00:49:11.543 → 00:49:21.543
They’re just sort of of the libertarian mindset of, oh, just read everything, and then somehow, you’ll arrive at a truth, which is impossible, right?
00:49:22.883 → 00:49:34.863
This came up recently with regard to Marxism and someone on X who has deleted her, his, I don’t know, account at this point, partly because of something I said.
00:49:35.463 → 00:49:39.503
But the comment was, you know, go read all of the Marxist literature.
00:49:40.783 → 00:49:42.603
In theory, the argument is you’ll be convinced.
00:49:42.603 → 00:49:44.243
And I’ve read a bunch of it, right?
00:49:44.683 → 00:49:53.343
It’s insane to think that the literature is, but my comment is, it’s insane to think that anyone would read all of that stuff, synthesize it, and then come up with a refutation.
00:49:53.343 → 00:49:54.703
You don’t need to do that.
00:49:55.063 → 00:49:57.223
The same with regard to the Word of God.
00:49:57.723 → 00:50:05.803
Commentaries are useful, but the core of the Word of God is obvious on its face.
00:50:05.903 → 00:50:11.123
There are many doctrines where you don’t need a commentary to explain it to you.
00:50:11.783 → 00:50:13.683
There are things that are more complicated.
00:50:13.683 → 00:50:14.903
There are things that are more difficult.
00:50:14.903 → 00:50:24.623
You know, if you’re talking about the communication of attributes to the person of the two natures in Christ, something like that, okay, yes, a commentary is going to be helpful.
00:50:24.623 → 00:50:31.043
That’s more complicated, insofar as you’re going to look into that and research, as it were, to study that, right?
00:50:32.003 → 00:50:34.623
But for many things in scripture, you don’t need a commentary.
00:50:35.283 → 00:50:38.123
That doesn’t mean they’re not useful, because they certainly are.
00:50:39.283 → 00:50:41.363
But read it with a grain of salt.
00:50:43.263 → 00:50:47.683
But what can be done about them under existing law and existing government?
00:50:47.683 → 00:50:48.203
Nothing.
00:50:48.843 → 00:50:54.103
Under an ideal Christian government, things that are open heresy would be burned.
00:50:54.103 → 00:50:55.183
They would not be permitted.
00:50:55.763 → 00:50:58.723
Blasphemy laws and anti-heresy laws are a good thing.
00:50:59.043 → 00:51:04.143
They’re open and free to do whatever they want.
00:51:23.651 → 00:51:26.691
Looking at the chat for the next question here.
00:51:45.262 → 00:51:50.402
I guess I’ll answer this one since it’s sort of related to the holiday tomorrow, right?
00:51:50.942 → 00:52:01.442
On a related note, do you or Woe plan to do a breakdown of your critiques of the American Revolution, or is that already scattered across your corpus of work?
00:52:02.902 → 00:52:10.542
So, I don’t know that either one of us necessarily intends to do a sort of full breakdown of the American Revolution.
00:52:10.542 → 00:52:22.702
I have some things that I’m writing that are related to it, but more focused on the problems we face today, and where we need to go, because that’s more relevant right now, right?
00:52:22.922 → 00:52:27.202
And so, I know there’s a pending question about, like, the French Revolution, and some stuff like that.
00:52:27.202 → 00:52:35.082
I’ve commented on that a little bit before, and the American Revolution was similar to the French Revolution, except it did not go as far.
00:52:35.422 → 00:52:39.342
It was Satan A-B testing again, and it turns out the American Revolution was the much…
00:52:41.342 → 00:52:47.082
So, I don’t think, overall, that the American Revolution, obviously, was not ideal.
00:52:47.082 → 00:52:48.942
I can certainly say that just bluntly.
00:52:49.522 → 00:52:53.502
Was it warranted is a more nuanced, complicated question.
00:52:53.502 → 00:52:55.022
I don’t want to get into the full answer.
00:52:55.022 → 00:52:58.482
Here’s not even the question, necessarily, but just sort of an overview.
00:53:01.842 → 00:53:05.822
Was the taxation bad enough to warrant revolution?
00:53:06.022 → 00:53:06.362
No.
00:53:07.062 → 00:53:10.782
I’m just going to go ahead and say bluntly, no, the taxation was not.
00:53:11.522 → 00:53:26.242
Was the support the British Crown gave to the Amerindians, who were raping and murdering and causing other mayhem, the colonists’ warrant for revolution?
00:53:26.742 → 00:53:27.822
There, I think, yes.
00:53:28.222 → 00:53:34.062
And so, was there sufficient warrant for what happened in the American Revolution?
00:53:34.482 → 00:53:35.622
I think there was.
00:53:36.242 → 00:53:38.622
Was that the best way to solve the problem?
00:53:38.902 → 00:53:40.562
I don’t think so.
00:53:40.562 → 00:53:47.702
I think that they should have tried politics and diplomacy first, and they should have done more of it than they did.
00:53:47.962 → 00:53:49.622
I recognize they did some.
00:53:49.862 → 00:53:51.622
There were petitions, all of that stuff.
00:53:51.622 → 00:53:53.142
I recognize that took place.
00:53:53.422 → 00:54:12.582
I don’t think they tried hard enough with that, because anytime you’re talking about war, you need to have extremely solid warrant, not just sufficient warrant, because you want to avoid it if at all possible.
00:54:12.762 → 00:54:14.642
There are times where it’s unavoidable, right?
00:54:14.802 → 00:54:22.802
There are times where you absolutely must go to war, you have no choice, and sort of situation in which we find ourselves today.
00:54:23.762 → 00:54:29.282
I don’t necessarily think that things were bad enough yet for that to happen.
00:54:29.682 → 00:54:45.602
I think that probably the clear line would have been, you know, call up militias in the colonies, go to war, and problem, and then gauge your response to the British based on the British response to what you did.
00:54:47.162 → 00:54:52.982
But as for going in depth into the American Revolution, I don’t know that I’ll necessarily write that.
00:54:53.382 → 00:54:55.402
There are plenty of things that have been written about that.
00:54:58.242 → 00:55:03.882
And that answer is sort of the 30,000 foot view of what I believe about it.
00:55:31.117 → 00:55:33.637
I have a question about collective punishment.
00:55:33.637 → 00:55:35.417
I think I’ll go ahead and answer that.
00:55:35.417 → 00:55:39.597
I was tempted to put that off until next week, but I’ll go ahead and answer.
00:55:40.357 → 00:55:41.177
Question 13.
00:55:42.837 → 00:55:48.057
Was Genesis 34, 25 through 31 prescriptive?
00:55:48.537 → 00:55:53.017
What legitimizes collective punishment outside specific justified racial annihilation?
00:55:53.437 → 00:55:57.097
How should Christians view Tulsa, Rosewood, and such massacres?
00:55:57.377 → 00:56:01.437
So I don’t know that I’ll comment on the historical incidents.
00:56:02.077 → 00:56:08.917
By and large, they’re generally blown out of proportion by modern media because they’ve sort of become leftist totems, right?
00:56:09.797 → 00:56:16.077
They’re used to attack whites and lie about Americans, which I of course mean whites.
00:56:16.557 → 00:56:19.537
So that’s the general thing you should think about, though.
00:56:20.197 → 00:56:31.997
Those cases are complete nonsense or they were completely justified, as is the case with some of the historical, we’ll call them extrajudicial killings, because that probably will not get this video banned.
00:56:32.917 → 00:56:37.697
But of course, the passage about which he is asking is the so-called rape of Dina.
00:56:37.697 → 00:56:42.477
And it’s worth noting first off that we call rape is not what happened here.
00:56:42.897 → 00:56:55.997
This is more like the previous episode where I spoke about those verses about a man who lies with a virgin, you know, out in the field, and then has to marry her unless her father objects, right?
00:56:56.797 → 00:56:58.057
This is what’s happening here.
00:56:58.457 → 00:57:04.797
It’s not what we think of the term because it’s something very specific in our culture and particularly in our laws.
00:57:04.797 → 00:57:09.377
And the laws have informed what our culture believes about it because there’s a feedback loop there.
00:57:10.297 → 00:57:12.777
I won’t read the passage because everyone’s familiar with it, right?
00:57:13.037 → 00:57:18.157
You have Dina goes out, wanders around, does things a woman’s not supposed to do in a strange city.
00:57:18.497 → 00:57:22.537
A man sleeps with a woman and then says, I love her, I want to marry her.
00:57:22.537 → 00:57:25.977
And they say, only if you are circumcised.
00:57:25.977 → 00:57:30.417
And so, they get circumcised, and then they slaughter them all when they’re sore from being circumcised.
00:57:31.697 → 00:57:46.157
So, Israel later on, Jacob, renamed Israel later on, when he is prophesying about his sons, because not everything he says is a blessing, he condemns them for this.
00:57:46.457 → 00:57:48.057
He condemns them for it here as well.
00:57:48.057 → 00:57:50.637
He says that they’ve created a stink among the people.
00:57:51.017 → 00:57:58.417
So, clearly, he is a mixed bag, so he’s not necessarily always a source of absolute truth, right?
00:57:58.817 → 00:58:04.537
But he’s a mixed bag when he is speaking about the future of his sons in Egypt.
00:58:04.957 → 00:58:12.077
And so, in that case, it’s pretty clear that this is not what you’re supposed to do.
00:58:13.197 → 00:58:22.317
They overreacted, and the problem again that we have is we don’t use that term, we don’t use it in the same way that they do.
00:58:22.957 → 00:58:27.037
And in fact, it’s not even necessarily called rape here, right?
00:58:27.657 → 00:58:33.577
So if you have that mindset, you think, oh, well, then what they were doing was probably still a little excessive, right?
00:58:33.577 → 00:58:42.597
Because they killed everyone in the city, not just the responsible party and, you know, maybe his father who was involved in this is the king’s son, so on and so forth.
00:58:44.277 → 00:58:45.277
They went too far.
00:58:46.617 → 00:58:48.537
What they did was not morally permissible.
00:58:49.637 → 00:58:56.577
We’re not looking at the same sort of situation today because we’re looking at an invasion by foreign armies.
00:58:57.197 → 00:59:00.997
This is not because they are cousins here.
00:59:00.997 → 00:59:08.977
We’re not totally different situations, so it’s not prescriptive, it’s descriptive, which is to give the short answer to question there.
00:59:09.117 → 00:59:23.017
The difference between the two, for those who aren’t aware, is prescriptive passages are saying, God wants you to do this, they’re commanding you to do something or not to do something, depending, are just describing history.
00:59:23.837 → 00:59:44.077
There’s lots of descriptive stuff in scripture that is definitely not something you should do, because there are descriptions of human sacrifice, there are descriptions of worshipping idols, there are plenty of descriptions of prostitutes, there are many things in scripture that are not prescribed, because they are not something you should do.
00:59:45.237 → 00:59:46.377
This is descriptive.
00:59:47.297 → 00:59:50.957
It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t punish those who do these sorts of things.
00:59:50.957 → 01:00:05.077
Certainly, we can punish them, but you don’t usually annihilate a city, because someone didn’t go through the proper chance to ask to marry your sister, because that’s really what’s going on here.
01:00:05.637 → 01:00:10.237
So they’re condemned very clearly by a prophet in scripture.
01:00:10.517 → 01:00:12.057
So, no, this is not prescriptive.
01:00:15.877 → 01:00:23.397
But insofar as, like I said, viewing historical, extrajudicial, any of those were absolutely justified in the American context.
01:00:23.677 → 01:00:31.097
And if you read the actual factual accounts of what those individuals did before their life was cut short, they deserved it.
01:00:40.320 → 01:00:43.620
Person who said, sorry about the typos, mobile app is terrible, I absolutely agree.
01:00:44.280 → 01:00:52.780
And that’s why I usually check things three times, to try not to have weird typos when I post on X.
01:00:54.380 → 01:00:55.420
Doesn’t always work out.
01:00:56.080 → 01:00:58.540
I have few typos, but they exist.
01:01:05.875 → 01:01:10.235
One asked me about speaking at an RTTL event.
01:01:11.495 → 01:01:16.115
You can go ahead and just have Arvold message me.
01:01:16.875 → 01:01:21.655
We’ve spoken before, so if that’s something, he can go ahead and just let me know.
01:01:28.776 → 01:01:31.436
A follow-up to the commentaries.
01:01:32.756 → 01:01:37.456
The question is specifically about the Berean Study Bible, or Berean Standard Bible.
01:01:37.456 → 01:01:39.356
I actually don’t know which.
01:01:40.596 → 01:01:43.876
I had no idea what that was until someone told me they used it.
01:01:43.876 → 01:01:45.616
The funding is very opaque.
01:01:47.136 → 01:01:48.476
I’ve heard mixed things about it.
01:01:48.476 → 01:01:49.956
I don’t know enough about it personally.
01:01:49.956 → 01:01:50.796
I don’t use it.
01:01:50.796 → 01:01:52.076
I don’t have a copy of it.
01:01:52.076 → 01:01:54.156
I have a PDF, but that hardly counts.
01:01:54.496 → 01:01:57.096
I have it in Logos, but I don’t really use it.
01:01:57.096 → 01:01:59.216
So I don’t have a firm opinion on it.
01:01:59.216 → 01:02:03.916
I use it one way or the other, because I just don’t know enough about it.
01:02:04.136 → 01:02:11.436
So if you find that something about it pricks your conscience, then go ahead and avoid it.
01:02:11.436 → 01:02:13.176
There’s no reason you have to use that one.
01:02:13.176 → 01:02:15.976
There are plenty of good study Bibles out there.
01:02:16.356 → 01:02:19.056
The Lutheran study Bible is excellent.
01:02:20.936 → 01:02:27.996
There are some things with which I disagree in the footnotes, but very few and usually minor, and nothing about core doctrines.
01:02:28.536 → 01:02:33.896
The footnotes, the essays, explanatory materials are generally quite good.
01:02:34.196 → 01:02:37.476
So I can definitely still recommend that one.
01:02:37.796 → 01:02:57.056
And I would actually recommend the volume as well, which I thought was on my desk, maybe it’s not, because it has explanatory essays and information about the history and things like that, that a modern reader will not have as part of his information, his knowledge store, because we’re not living in that context.
01:02:57.056 → 01:03:01.936
And so that’s very helpful for a modern reader to have those explanatory materials.
01:03:02.316 → 01:03:08.476
So if you want to read the Apocrypha, I would definitely say grab the study version from CPH.
01:03:09.036 → 01:03:11.956
Better if you can get it secondhand, so it’s actually reasonably priced.
01:03:13.416 → 01:03:18.336
But it’s also fairly well made, which is nice, because not everything from CPH these days is easy.
01:03:18.576 → 01:03:22.296
As we know with every book, we have sort of a hierarchy of volumes.
01:03:22.296 → 01:03:23.536
Some are good, some are crap.
01:03:30.577 → 01:03:38.317
It’s a few more questions, I think, and then call it a night, so people can go out and enjoy the early fireworks, I’m sure, starting, I can hear them starting here.
01:03:38.937 → 01:03:48.057
I go check on my dog, since he, he’s not in the study with me right now, and he hates fireworks, so.
01:03:50.477 → 01:03:58.357
Sort of been a two-for-one for him tonight, because we had a little bit of thunder and lightning earlier, and now we have fireworks, and he likes neither of those things.
01:03:59.257 → 01:04:04.677
Question 16, question 15, rather, I should answer that one first.
01:04:04.857 → 01:04:08.137
Should we be mourning as Nineveh did this weekend?
01:04:09.877 → 01:04:11.657
I think we should do that in the future.
01:04:12.197 → 01:04:14.637
This weekend is the 250th.
01:04:14.637 → 01:04:19.597
I think it is right to celebrate our nation, focus on celebrating.
01:04:20.237 → 01:04:22.897
Our nation is older than 250, right?
01:04:23.157 → 01:04:25.217
Because it’s the United States, it’s 250.
01:04:25.697 → 01:04:31.857
Our nation was here significantly before the Declaration of Independence was written and signed.
01:04:32.377 → 01:04:35.037
But no, I think go ahead and celebrate.
01:04:35.037 → 01:04:40.517
There are times, you know, think of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, right?
01:04:40.517 → 01:04:43.057
There are times to mourn and times to celebrate.
01:04:43.197 → 01:04:45.197
This is a time to celebrate, not a time to mourn.
01:04:45.197 → 01:04:49.797
So I don’t think focus and dwell on the bad right now.
01:04:49.797 → 01:04:55.457
Go ahead and focus and dwell on the good, and enjoy time with family and friends and fireworks and all that stuff.
01:04:55.737 → 01:04:57.577
That’s what should be done this weekend.
01:05:03.250 → 01:05:08.030
A follow up question someone asked about my answering of a question on adultery.
01:05:08.030 → 01:05:08.790
Did I answer that one?
01:05:08.790 → 01:05:10.610
I did answer that in a previous episode.
01:05:10.870 → 01:05:12.530
I don’t remember which episode.
01:05:12.530 → 01:05:20.770
I think it’s an old enough one, the transcript should be up on the website, so you can go ahead and search, and it should be listed easily.
01:05:21.350 → 01:05:23.310
Also, it will be listed, it should be listed.
01:05:23.310 → 01:05:24.090
I won’t say will.
01:05:24.390 → 01:05:29.150
It should be listed in the show notes where I have the questions listed.
01:05:29.730 → 01:05:32.450
I know I don’t know all the questions from last week.
01:05:32.450 → 01:05:38.090
That was earlier than that, because my draft got lost because the browser crashed.
01:05:38.910 → 01:05:41.630
But that one I did answer.
01:05:41.630 → 01:05:45.330
I answered about what should be done with adulterers and how they should be punished.
01:05:49.990 → 01:05:51.630
Someone is asking about zoos.
01:05:51.630 → 01:05:54.190
That has actually come up a number of times recently.
01:05:54.190 → 01:05:56.310
I had someone ask about that in person recently, too.
01:05:56.750 → 01:05:58.290
I like zoos.
01:05:59.190 → 01:06:04.450
I think that they should definitely be improved in many cases.
01:06:04.450 → 01:06:09.710
I was a member of the San Diego Zoological Society for many years.
01:06:10.050 → 01:06:12.310
And San Diego has an excellent zoo.
01:06:12.310 → 01:06:13.350
It actually has two parks.
01:06:13.350 → 01:06:24.150
There’s the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Safari Park, which is out where it is unbelievably beautiful area, great for a lot of the animals out there.
01:06:24.650 → 01:06:34.850
Because of the breeding program at that zoo, at those two parks, not just the one park, there are animals that we probably wouldn’t have today without those programs.
01:06:35.770 → 01:06:40.330
Now, obviously, problems in the wild that we should perhaps solve.
01:06:40.330 → 01:06:56.050
Zoo is at least a stopgap measure, and I think it’s one of the only real ways that you are going to get the mass of people exposed to these animals, to nature, to learn about these things, and have that developed care for the natural world.
01:06:56.650 → 01:06:59.650
So, I think it’s good for children to go to zoos, but the animals should be treated well.
01:07:00.350 → 01:07:11.170
It should be designed by those who understand the animals and try to build something that is, if not obviously entirely natural, at least doesn’t cause the animal stress, is good for the animal.
01:07:11.430 → 01:07:17.110
They should be treated well according to, you know, what you do and do not permit visitors to do.
01:07:17.450 → 01:07:19.230
People shouldn’t be throwing things at them.
01:07:20.230 → 01:07:23.450
There are some very bad zoos in the world, but there are also some very good ones.
01:07:23.830 → 01:07:25.690
I definitely think zoos are overall a good thing.
01:07:44.119 → 01:07:48.299
Someone asked two related questions about evolutions.
01:07:48.299 → 01:07:53.179
I think I’ll just go ahead and answer those generally instead of specifically.
01:07:53.179 → 01:07:56.059
Let me go ahead and paste those into the show notes first.
01:07:59.019 → 01:08:11.919
So the question is, how did we get from, you know, Adam and Eve, right, to the wild differences among humanity today?
01:08:11.919 → 01:08:15.719
Or really more accurately, how did we go from Noah to the wild differences?
01:08:15.979 → 01:08:27.599
It doesn’t actually take that long for evolution in the sense that evolutionists mean, because obviously that’s a very specific thing, and it’s not what we generally believe.
01:08:28.439 → 01:08:40.379
Now, can you get to the point where two members, obviously not the members themselves, but their progeny down the line, are so far distant from each other that they can no longer interbreed and produce?
01:08:40.839 → 01:08:56.919
In theory, that could happen, but I think the degeneration necessary for the distance to be so great that they would no longer be able to reproduce would mean they wouldn’t be able to reproduce anyway because they would be too degenerate, too corrupted genetically.
01:08:57.619 → 01:09:04.839
But to answer the question, like I said, it does not take that long for these things to entrench.
01:09:04.839 → 01:09:07.099
You can get from…
01:09:11.219 → 01:09:16.219
I don’t know how far I want to go into this question because it gets not complicated, but it takes a while to explain.
01:09:16.219 → 01:09:34.279
I think probably go listen to the episode that we did, the episode, the series that we did on Race for Stone Quire, particularly the episode about the fundamentals and genetics and all that things, how that works, because that’s a longer explanation instead of taking the time to restate that here.
01:09:35.819 → 01:09:41.159
It’s through information loss, which is the fundamentally important point to information gain.
01:09:41.279 → 01:09:42.699
That’s never been demonstrated.
01:09:43.239 → 01:09:52.819
And it’s also theoretically impossible, but without getting into that philosophy, you start off with an individual or individuals, because it’s Adam and Eve, right?
01:09:52.979 → 01:09:55.559
Who have, they’re pluripotent, as it were.
01:09:55.779 → 01:10:12.019
They have the possibility in their genome to create all of the offspring, and then modulo some harmful mutations that have occurred along the way, and corruptions that end in things like, you know, cancer and missing limbs and things like that.
01:10:12.019 → 01:10:19.019
Because obviously, that’s not evolution in the sense of something changing and getting better, that’s just a loss of information, right?
01:10:20.259 → 01:10:24.459
Your genome no longer produces your left arm, you’re not better off.
01:10:25.219 → 01:10:51.919
So what happens is that loss of information, that’s how God designed it, you have the parents of the species start off with all the possibility, and then because of selective breeding down through the generations and the loss of information, have certain attributes that entrench, certain phenotypes being an expression of the genotype that express themselves in and entrench in certain subpopulations.
01:10:52.679 → 01:11:01.779
To give a concrete example that’s easier to grasp than the explanation itself abstracted out, European, Africans, or not.
01:11:02.039 → 01:11:04.499
That is due to that loss of information.
01:11:04.699 → 01:11:09.899
You are not going to go from an African to a European, no matter how many generations you have.
01:11:10.059 → 01:11:21.439
You’re not going to go from a European to an African, no matter how many generations you have, because that loss of genetic information is what created those distinctions in those populations.
01:11:22.559 → 01:11:26.719
Adam and Eve had the genetic potential for both.
01:11:27.899 → 01:11:28.779
That’s how that happened.
01:11:28.779 → 01:11:30.459
And it happens quite quickly.
01:11:30.779 → 01:11:38.999
And the best way to look at how quickly it can happen would be to look at professional dog breeding programs.
01:11:39.599 → 01:11:53.419
We have created, obviously, just through selective breeding, God created the material, but we have selectively bred dogs over a course of only a couple centuries in some cases to be wildly different breeds.
01:11:54.039 → 01:11:57.679
So, this is not something that takes a great deal of time.
01:11:57.679 → 01:12:01.919
It is certainly something that is possible in the time scale presented in scripture.
01:12:06.659 → 01:12:10.739
But the key part, bear in mind, like I said, one-way street.
01:12:11.319 → 01:12:19.499
You are not going from a Pomeranian, my dog that’s downstairs probably on half about the fireworks, back to whatever the proto dog was on the ark.
01:12:20.199 → 01:12:21.619
That was a one-way trip.
01:12:22.639 → 01:12:28.119
That’s just how God designed it, because obviously he designed the species to do exactly what he wanted us to do.
01:12:28.759 → 01:12:31.519
Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.
01:12:31.859 → 01:12:45.059
And so that loss of genetic information leading to those specializations and differentiations among the subspecies made them fit for different niches along different parts of the planet.
01:12:45.419 → 01:12:47.039
It all fits in with God’s design.
01:13:00.289 → 01:13:07.229
This one, because someone just asked thoughts in the LCMS selection, I am not even really paying attention to it because I don’t think it ultimately matters at this point.
01:13:08.389 → 01:13:18.229
Like I said, all of the currently existing denominations are going to go under, and we’re going to have to build new churches, new bodies, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
01:13:18.849 → 01:13:22.729
These things, at this point, they are too corrupt, and they’re too far gone.
01:13:40.921 → 01:13:48.701
I think I will answer one more question for tonight, since we’re basically at the hour mark now.
01:13:48.701 → 01:13:51.601
So, a little bit over, but I tend to run just a little bit over.
01:13:52.921 → 01:14:00.721
And if there are any additional questions that pop up in chat between answering this one in the end, I’ll try to put them in for one.
01:14:01.741 → 01:14:03.681
That’ll get my closing comments, as it were.
01:14:03.961 → 01:14:04.621
Question 18.
01:14:05.221 → 01:14:16.781
At what point do you think it is a good idea for someone to move, seeing the massive influx of foreigners in parts of America, Dallas in this case, I have lived that I have considered moving to Poland?
01:14:16.781 → 01:14:17.541
Any thoughts?
01:14:19.021 → 01:14:23.361
So, I guess there are really two things here, right?
01:14:25.001 → 01:14:36.641
There’s the, when is it wise to move question based on the invasion, changing demographics, things like that, problems in wherever it is that you live.
01:14:38.481 → 01:14:39.501
I’ll answer that one first.
01:14:40.561 → 01:14:45.441
The Poland question, not the Pol question in this case, but the Poland question, this.
01:14:48.001 → 01:14:51.081
I think that it is a matter of wisdom.
01:14:51.321 → 01:14:53.121
And obviously, I moved, right?
01:14:53.121 → 01:14:54.781
I lived in Southern California.
01:14:54.781 → 01:14:57.021
I now live in East Tennessee, so I did move.
01:14:57.081 → 01:15:03.581
I moved, granted, I moved back to Ben for 300 years or something here in the hills.
01:15:03.581 → 01:15:20.861
But I think there are times where it is the wise call, it is the wisdom call, which you are commanded to exercise as a Christian, the measure of it that God has entrusted to you to use on behalf of yourself and others, and of course, his word for you.
01:15:21.321 → 01:15:28.821
There are times where that demands that you move from an area because it is no longer safe for you, for your family, whatever it happens to be.
01:15:29.781 → 01:15:34.981
I think that was the case when I moved from Southern California because it was just, kept getting worse.
01:15:35.401 → 01:15:46.821
California has its own problems, Southern California has massive demographic problems, getting better, they were going in the wrong direction, this is a better place to be, because of the reality on the ground.
01:15:47.461 → 01:16:04.061
So, if areas like Dallas, and I know some parts of Texas are certainly having massive problems, if those areas are becoming untenable to live there, and your duty to your family, and you have duties to yourself as well, right?
01:16:04.821 → 01:16:09.981
God does command you to take care of yourself, then I think that wisdom would say you should move somewhere else.
01:16:11.041 → 01:16:12.181
Should it be Poland?
01:16:12.441 → 01:16:22.221
I think the answer is no, because in theory, if you’re asking this question, you are an American, and so you should move to the United States, and America is your homeland.
01:16:22.501 → 01:16:29.441
Now, if you’re asking about Poland, because, you know, your parents are Polish immigrants, and you’re first generation here in America, okay, fine, you can move to Poland.
01:16:29.561 → 01:16:30.881
In your case, that makes sense.
01:16:31.221 → 01:16:33.621
I don’t get that feeling from your question, though.
01:16:34.081 → 01:16:37.321
So, I don’t think that you should abandon the United States.
01:16:38.001 → 01:16:40.681
I don’t think that that is the right word.
01:16:40.881 → 01:16:44.461
And to be clear by the United States, I mean our territory and our people.
01:16:44.821 → 01:16:49.741
I don’t think the United States, as a political entity, is going to survive the next 20 years.
01:16:50.541 → 01:16:53.101
At least not in any recognizable form, right?
01:16:53.681 → 01:17:05.861
So, no, you shouldn’t move to Poland, if you are an American, but you can move to an American territory to get away from those problems as best you can under present circumstances.
01:17:06.261 → 01:17:09.041
I don’t think that’s an unwise or an impermissible thing to do.
01:17:10.381 → 01:17:24.441
But making the wild leap of moving to a truly foreign country, let’s say in this case, you’re not, right, a first-generation Polish person living here, I think that that is what you should be doing, because you’re not Polish.
01:17:24.481 → 01:17:26.041
Why would you be living in Poland?
01:17:26.841 → 01:17:27.801
And should they even admit you?
01:17:27.801 → 01:17:35.481
They probably shouldn’t even admit you, because the same as we shouldn’t be admitting foreigners here, they should be doing it there.
01:17:36.541 → 01:17:39.481
And granted, you know, there’s the small influx.
01:17:40.641 → 01:17:42.781
Some of our European brothers is fine.
01:17:42.781 → 01:17:43.921
That’s a different thing.
01:17:44.221 → 01:17:50.361
But we shouldn’t be letting random foreigners come here and live here and just pretend that they’re American.
01:17:50.681 → 01:17:53.681
And the Europeans shouldn’t be doing that with their countries either.
01:17:54.761 → 01:17:56.261
And the Japanese shouldn’t be doing it.
01:17:56.261 → 01:17:57.241
The Koreans shouldn’t be doing it.
01:17:57.281 → 01:18:02.581
People have their own lands entrusted by God, who set the boundaries in the times of the nation.
01:18:02.581 → 01:18:05.861
So geographical and chronological boundaries.
01:18:06.381 → 01:18:09.281
And those should be respected and defended.
01:18:09.881 → 01:18:19.301
So if you want to move somewhere else in America to get away from some of those problems because they’re becoming too much of a problem to continue living there, by all means, go ahead.
01:18:20.821 → 01:18:22.441
And I’m not saying that just because it’s Poland, right?
01:18:22.441 → 01:18:25.461
If you asked about France or Russia, I’d say the same thing.
01:18:42.290 → 01:18:44.070
I, I’ll answer two more questions just because they’re here.
01:18:44.570 → 01:18:45.950
We’ll run over a little bit, it’s fine.
01:18:47.070 → 01:18:50.590
People can watch this whenever they want, or tune out if they are done for the evening.
01:18:50.750 → 01:18:51.470
Question 19.
01:18:51.550 → 01:18:54.630
You have mentioned Jews must repent of their blood.
01:18:55.210 → 01:19:02.990
Do non-whites or those who are mixed not need to do the current time or in their current state?
01:19:03.450 → 01:19:07.850
So, the short answer to your question is no.
01:19:07.950 → 01:19:11.750
You don’t need to repent of being African, right?
01:19:11.790 → 01:19:17.110
You don’t need to repent of being Korean, or half Korean and half African, right?
01:19:17.110 → 01:19:18.190
You don’t have to repent of that.
01:19:18.190 → 01:19:33.670
That’s what I have said, and Woe has said, and the reason that we have continued to teach that Jews have to repent of being Jewish is because Jewish identity is rejection of Christ.
01:19:33.990 → 01:19:44.950
That has become so central to who and what they are that you can’t possibly be a Christian without ceasing to be a Jew as far as is possible.
01:19:45.290 → 01:19:55.330
And just so that those who are uncharitable don’t decide to attack my answer here, I’m not saying they get to live here once they repent of that and become Christian.
01:19:56.110 → 01:19:59.330
They’re still alien, they’re still foreign, they shouldn’t be here.
Transcript
3/3
01:20:00.190 → 01:20:29.450
But in order to become a Christian, which is certainly better for them and what they should do and what I would prefer that they do, virtually none of them will, but what I would prefer that they would do is repent of being Jewish, turn away from the wickedness of their people because they have made their racial identity and just become a Christian who has Hebrew ancestry or Israelite ancestry, whatever they want to call themselves.
01:20:29.450 → 01:20:32.170
I think Hebrew is probably the fine term to use.
01:20:32.490 → 01:20:37.870
Or, you want to say Palestinian, that’s not inaccurate either because they’re pretty closely related.
01:20:39.270 → 01:20:54.350
So, repent of being that is because their identity as a race is the hatred of Christ, is the hatred of God, and you have to reject that pretty obviously to become a Christian.
01:20:54.690 → 01:20:59.510
You can’t hold on to hatred of Christ as a core part of who and what you are.
01:21:00.370 → 01:21:03.210
To be a Christian, at least not without being a liar.
01:21:11.887 → 01:21:24.287
And the final question is sort of a quick question, as he says, and it’s one of those ones where I almost want to give the easy answer, as it were, but I’ll go ahead and give the longer answer.
01:21:24.567 → 01:21:35.947
I won’t do the full exegesis here because that takes a while, and I actually have that in some notes when I finally get back to my class that I was working on for the Old Testament, hopefully soon.
01:21:36.247 → 01:21:43.067
But question 20, given that God cannot will evil, why is he described as the one who hardens Pharaoh’s heart during the plagues?
01:21:45.067 → 01:21:56.527
My first answer to that, the initial way that I always answer that when it comes up, and it comes up relatively frequently, or at least it has in the past, go read the narrative.
01:21:58.887 → 01:22:01.987
Who hardens Pharaoh’s heart first?
01:22:03.507 → 01:22:04.227
Pharaoh does.
01:22:04.847 → 01:22:06.207
Pharaoh hardens his heart.
01:22:36.647 → 01:22:40.447
I will go ahead and confirm you in your wickedness.
01:22:40.447 → 01:22:52.207
God is not the one who, in some cases, some people will try to say that, you know, oh, well, God didn’t let Pharaoh repent, and God damned him, and he was…
01:22:52.907 → 01:22:59.707
Right, people try to make it into a double predestination sort of thing, and the narrative, the text, does not support it.
01:23:00.127 → 01:23:07.847
What it does is confirm Pharaoh and his wickedness, lets Pharaoh continue on his merry way, dancing along down the road to hell.
01:23:08.867 → 01:23:16.447
God isn’t the one who says, you’re Pharaoh, and I damn you, because your number came up wrong, or I flipped a coin.
01:23:16.447 → 01:23:17.527
That’s not how it works.
01:23:18.347 → 01:23:20.967
Pharaoh sins, and he’s sinned.
01:23:21.187 → 01:23:22.207
Does God harden his heart?
01:23:22.207 → 01:23:22.947
Yes, he does.
01:23:23.387 → 01:23:29.127
And there are times where that happens, just as you can sear your conscience, or you can harden your own heart.
01:23:29.727 → 01:23:32.467
So, don’t do that.
01:23:32.587 → 01:23:48.067
It’s one of the reasons that I will many times point out to people, don’t try to do the like, deathbed confining, like get out of jail free card, oh, I’ll live a dissolute life, and be a horrible person, and do all this stuff, and then I’ll repent on my deathbed, and I’ll get into heaven.
01:23:49.127 → 01:23:50.247
You could die tomorrow.
01:23:51.727 → 01:23:54.067
God could stop giving you chances to repent.
01:23:54.927 → 01:23:57.727
God doesn’t have to give you an infinite number of chances to repent.
01:23:58.887 → 01:24:02.367
So, don’t try to game the odds like that.
01:24:03.387 → 01:24:14.927
The same as I’ve often described things in terms of, use hiking metaphors, but if you are hiking along a cliff, you don’t hike right on the edge.
01:24:15.587 → 01:24:17.627
You don’t get as close to the cliff as possible.
01:24:17.627 → 01:24:20.287
You stay back from it.
01:24:20.327 → 01:24:21.187
Safety buffer.
01:24:21.627 → 01:24:32.467
The same thing with regard to sinful behavior and things like, don’t come as close to the sin as you possibly can without committing it, because eventually you’re going to stumble over that line.
01:24:33.467 → 01:24:36.227
So, don’t try the deathbed confession.
01:24:36.687 → 01:24:42.107
Don’t harden your heart like Pharaoh did, because maybe God is giving you additional chances to repent.
01:24:42.567 → 01:24:43.767
God doesn’t have to do that.
01:24:43.887 → 01:24:45.127
It’s not required of him.
01:24:46.347 → 01:24:51.627
Pharaoh heard the word of God from Moses and said, Nope, no thank you.
01:24:52.227 → 01:24:53.107
That’s on Pharaoh.
01:24:53.667 → 01:24:54.987
He’s the one who made the choice.
01:24:55.727 → 01:24:58.687
He chose, he chose damnation.
01:24:59.167 → 01:25:03.407
And that is unfortunate, because he had a chance.
01:25:04.747 → 01:25:12.747
God does not begrudge anyone, faith, God does not begrudge anyone the chance to be regenerated.
01:25:13.907 → 01:25:16.487
I’m obviously a Lutheran, I don’t believe in double predestination.
01:25:16.487 → 01:25:19.587
God does not make anyone for the purpose of damning him.
01:25:21.007 → 01:25:25.687
Men are damned because of their own sin, because of their own impenitence, because of their own hardened hearts.
01:25:26.127 → 01:25:30.427
Not because God did not desire that they would be saved, because Scripture is abundantly clear.
01:25:30.747 → 01:25:33.927
God desires that all men would come to repentance and be saved.
01:25:34.147 → 01:25:35.227
And that means all men.
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So I think that will be it for this week.
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I’ll just go ahead and answer this last question, because I see it briefly and I answer quickly.
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Are you making class on the Old Testament?
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Before COVID hit and I moved, I was teaching a class on Genesis at my church.
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So I have a bunch of notes for that.
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I got through, I think, chapter 40 in my…
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You know, I was pretty much done.
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And I had some work to do on some things, but at this point, I do want to refresh the notes because I was not relying on the Septuagint at the time, which I certainly should have been doing, but I hadn’t done Stone Choir yet.
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I had to do some research.
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And my notes are still pretty well solid, but there are some things where I would like to note some differences that should be there in my notes.
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So, I had the class on Genesis that I was teaching.
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Those notes were largely done, but like I said, I want to go through those, refresh them.
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Hopefully, I will get the time to do that and then start recording sort of short lectures, as it were, one per chapter, perhaps.
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And I’ll just put those on YouTube and my site and elsewhere.
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That’s the goal.
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And I did have a little bit of Exodus already done as well.
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I didn’t just start with Genesis.
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I was working on both at the same time.
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Hopefully, I do get back to that when I have the time to do so.
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But at any rate, that is it for this week.
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Thank you to those who submitted questions.
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It’s always good to be able to answer these.
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Thank you for participating in the chat.
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And if I missed your question, by all means, please ask it again.
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Go ahead and put it on the web site, which is always the best way because it’s my site.
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And then I can keep the show notes and things updated.
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Anyone participating on the forum who has been participating for a while can edit the show notes.
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So if I missed something, please feel free to add it.
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Go right ahead and do that.
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That’s why it’s editable as a wiki.
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But if you don’t want to sign up for the forum, really fine.
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Again, it’s my site, so you’re not giving your information to some random third party.
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It’s just me.
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And I don’t care if you use fake information.
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Have fun.
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But if you don’t want to use the forum, go ahead and ask on Telegram or X or in the chat or the comments, and hopefully I will notice it.
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If I do notice it, I have an topic slash thread on the forum for the pending questions.
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If it’s there, I noticed it.
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If it’s not there, I probably missed it.
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Like I said, I have tons of notifications.
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Some things just slip by.
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If I missed it, please ask it again.
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It’s not that I’m avoiding it.
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I just didn’t see it.
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Or in the case of X last week, I had some people ask questions on a thread, and then X sent them into the void.
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These things happen.
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At any rate, I hope that you all have a great 4th of July, and I will give my usual caveat that I give, the sort of warning, useful for those who are watching the stream, perhaps too late for those who are not watching the stream.
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Try to have the same number of fingers when you go to church on Sunday that you have right now.
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Fireworks are great.
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Fire is fun.
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I’m not saying don’t have fun.
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Just, you know, wear eye protection if necessary and some gloves and be careful.
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God doesn’t want you to hurt yourself.
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It’s better for your people if you have all your fingers when you’re done with the weekend.
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But have fun.
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I have fireworks.
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I’m gonna go set some off, not right now, but tomorrow.
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Modulo, keeping the dog away from the explosions.
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But do be careful and arrive at church on Sunday and you should go.
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With the same number of digits you have now, whether it’s ten or fewer, depending on your past history as a woodworker.
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At any rate, have a great weekend and God bless until next week.
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I will see you all then.