# AAC: 05 Feb 2026 (Q&A) **URL:** \ **Category:** At Any Cost\ **Created:** [February 5, 2026, 11:20pm UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/aac-05-feb-2026-q-a/5091 "2026-02-05T23:20:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mahler](https://omnifora.com/user_avatar/omnifora.com/mahler/32/7_2.png) [@mahler](https://omnifora.com/u/mahler)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 11:20pm UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/aac-05-feb-2026-q-a/5091/1 "2026-02-05T23:20:33Z")
# Episode Information - **Date** : 2026-02(Feb)-05(Thu) - **Links** : - Episode: `e0015` - Transcript: [e0015.vtt](https://aac.cdn.coreyjmahler.com/transcripts/e0015.vtt) - Other Platforms: - Video: - YouTube: - X: - Twitch: - Kick: - Rumble: - Original Broadcasts **YouTube** **X** ---
**Author:** ![mahler](https://omnifora.com/user_avatar/omnifora.com/mahler/32/7_2.png) [@mahler](https://omnifora.com/u/mahler)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 11:20pm UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/aac-05-feb-2026-q-a/5091/2 "2026-02-05T23:20:55Z")
# Episode Wiki _This is the episode wiki — trusted users can edit it._ ## Topics Covered 1. [True and False Brethren](https://omnifora.com/t/true-and-false-brethren/4876) 2. [Lutheran Church with Female “Educator”](https://omnifora.com/t/lutheran-church-with-female-educator/5051) 3. [2/5/26 Q&A questions about Koine Greek](https://omnifora.com/t/2-5-26-q-a-questions-about-koine-greek/5089) 4. What are your thoughts on why the left can organize so easily, often around a single issue, while the right cannot seem to do so, even on a very small scale. I’m thinking about the American context specifically. It seems like there are relevant internal and external factors. 5. Will you start a Bible study? 6. What makes someone “Lutheran”? 7. What are the minimum beliefs that are required for salvation? What level of doctrinal error puts someone outside the faith entirely? And perhaps most central to my question, do you think that someone being in severe error in terms of the law (that is, being correct about the gospel and the identity of God, but being incorrect about some component of what obedience looks like) can on its own lead to damnation? 8. How can Scripture be inerrant if the canon is errant? 9. Thoughts on the Restorationists? ## Topic Timestamps ## Resources ### The Canterbury Tales (and Translations) > **[Text and Translations | Harvard's Geoffrey Chaucer Website](https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/text-and-translations)** ---
**Author:** ![mahler](https://omnifora.com/user_avatar/omnifora.com/mahler/32/7_2.png) [@mahler](https://omnifora.com/u/mahler)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 11:21pm UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/aac-05-feb-2026-q-a/5091/3 "2026-02-05T23:21:03Z")
# Transcript WEBVTT 00:00:01.260 → 00:00:04.040 It is the 5th of February, 2026. 00:00:04.040 → 00:00:05.040 I am Corey J. 00:00:05.040 → 00:00:05.560 Mahler. 00:00:05.560 → 00:00:07.100 This is At Any Cost. 00:00:07.100 → 00:00:09.560 This is the 15th episode. 00:00:09.560 → 00:00:14.560 It is a question and answer episode, and I will go ahead and get right into the questions. 00:00:14.560 → 00:00:19.140 I don’t have any housekeeping matters for this week. 00:00:19.140 → 00:00:25.280 The first question here, I will pull up the actual wording of the question instead of just my summary. 00:00:25.280 → 00:00:34.060 How do we discern between false brethren and those who will be saved as through fire, especially given the current climate? 00:00:34.060 → 00:00:46.860 And so, this is one of those questions that is going to just be relevant for quite some time, given the reality of the times in which we live. 00:00:46.860 → 00:00:51.380 But, of course, this is a reference to the passage in 1 Corinthians, and I’ll pull that up here. 00:00:54.940 → 00:00:59.740 Probably helps if I switch over to Logos, so you all can see that. 00:01:09.768 → 00:01:11.868 I’m on the log, there we go. 00:01:12.988 → 00:01:13.128 So. 00:01:21.727 → 00:01:24.847 So, the reference here is to 1 Corinthians 3.15. 00:01:24.847 → 00:01:31.587 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 00:01:31.587 → 00:01:34.727 And you could also read that as if through fire. 00:01:34.727 → 00:01:37.707 It’s not saying that, you know, purgatory, they try to draw that out of here. 00:01:37.707 → 00:01:39.387 This is not purgatory. 00:01:39.387 → 00:01:41.467 It is exactly what the verse says. 00:01:41.467 → 00:01:46.287 You suffer the loss of the works not being actually good. 00:01:46.287 → 00:01:58.447 So, for instance, those who do things they think are righteous, that turn out not to be righteous, those works, you don’t get credit for them in eternity, basically, is what is being said here. 00:01:58.447 → 00:02:12.787 This is also a reference to a few places in the Old Testament where there’s a reference to God pulling something out of the fire, which is almost a proverb, a proverbial saying, that thing being rescued. 00:02:12.787 → 00:02:30.907 So, one of those would be, I happen to remember this because I just read this passage in Zechariah, but Zechariah 3.2, And the Lord said to the slanderer, of course, the slanderer being Satan, one of his names, the Lord rebuke you, O slanderer, and the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. 00:02:30.907 → 00:02:34.627 Behold, is not this like a brand plucked from the fire. 00:02:34.627 → 00:02:46.427 And of course, it says Jesus here, because the Septuagint uses Jesus, because it’s the same name instead of Joshua, as it is translated in your Bible undoubtedly, if you’re using the Masoretic text. 00:02:47.727 → 00:02:55.827 So, this is a proverbial saying, someone who has been rescued from destruction. 00:02:55.827 → 00:03:08.647 And so, how do we tell those who are not false brothers, but are doing wicked things from those who are, in fact, just wicked? 00:03:08.647 → 00:03:09.967 They’re not even real brothers. 00:03:09.967 → 00:03:13.167 They are going to spend eternity apart from us. 00:03:16.747 → 00:03:23.667 It almost feels like I have to say this every episode, but it remains true, and so it bears repeating. 00:03:24.827 → 00:03:35.147 Part of this is going to be a wisdom call, because you simply are going to have to be able to tell true brothers from false brothers. 00:03:35.147 → 00:03:38.247 Part of this is going to, of course, be works, right? 00:03:38.247 → 00:03:41.727 Because a Christian is known by his works, ultimately. 00:03:42.347 → 00:03:46.347 Yes, it is your faith that saves you, but your faith is demonstrated in your works. 00:03:46.347 → 00:03:54.407 And so you can look at the works of those who are claiming to be Christian, and you can run an assessment on the basis of those works. 00:03:54.407 → 00:03:55.887 It’s not a wicked thing to do that. 00:03:55.887 → 00:03:59.547 In fact, that is using your God-given wisdom. 00:04:00.727 → 00:04:10.847 So if you have someone who claims to be a Christian brother, but everything he does in his life is wicked, and we can, of course, think of the most obvious examples of this. 00:04:10.967 → 00:04:19.727 You have the female so-called pastor in the rainbow stole, saying BLM and all that nonsense, right? 00:04:19.727 → 00:04:23.987 Clearly not your sister in Christ. 00:04:23.987 → 00:04:25.327 That’s the obvious example. 00:04:25.327 → 00:04:27.087 We’re not asking really about that. 00:04:27.087 → 00:04:29.287 That’s not difficult. 00:04:29.287 → 00:04:31.667 Everyone can make that call. 00:04:31.667 → 00:04:39.227 The question is, how do you discern those who are closer to being Christian, right? 00:04:39.367 → 00:04:48.667 They’re better at presenting themselves as Christian, and the better the person is at deceiving, the harder it is going to be to detect him. 00:04:48.667 → 00:04:50.607 That’s sort of how deception goes. 00:04:50.607 → 00:04:55.527 It’s one of the reasons that sometimes what Satan is doing is difficult because Satan is very good at deceiving. 00:04:55.527 → 00:04:57.467 He’s been doing it a long time. 00:04:57.467 → 00:04:59.407 He doesn’t sleep. 00:04:59.407 → 00:05:02.927 He’s better than most human beings at deceiving people. 00:05:02.927 → 00:05:04.847 Most people aren’t that good at it. 00:05:04.847 → 00:05:16.767 And so you can get a pretty good feel for whether or not someone is trying to maneuver you to stab you in the back to be sort of blunt. 00:05:16.767 → 00:05:17.567 You have instincts. 00:05:17.567 → 00:05:19.467 God gave you instincts. 00:05:19.467 → 00:05:21.347 In large part, you should trust those. 00:05:21.347 → 00:05:22.967 They’re not always accurate. 00:05:22.967 → 00:05:26.387 Sometimes they’re 95% accurate instead of 100%. 00:05:27.847 → 00:05:33.467 But you should trust them, at least as a data point in making your final assessment. 00:05:33.467 → 00:05:43.567 And so if someone gives you a really bad feeling, well, those are your God-given senses telling you there’s something off here, there’s something wrong here. 00:05:43.567 → 00:05:45.167 Listen to that. 00:05:45.167 → 00:05:49.027 But the biggest part of it is going to be looking at those works. 00:05:49.027 → 00:05:54.747 If you have someone who is producing good works, who happens to simply be in error, that’s a different thing. 00:05:54.747 → 00:05:56.867 You should want to rescue that brother from his error. 00:05:56.867 → 00:05:58.727 He is not a false brother. 00:05:58.727 → 00:06:00.467 He’s simply a brother in error. 00:06:00.467 → 00:06:02.307 There are many of those. 00:06:02.307 → 00:06:05.687 Most Christians are going to have some false belief somewhere. 00:06:06.387 → 00:06:10.787 It’s not going to damn you if you have some minor false belief. 00:06:10.787 → 00:06:15.487 There’s a question about that later on, so I’ll get into that when I get to that question. 00:06:15.487 → 00:06:16.487 Hopefully get to that question. 00:06:16.487 → 00:06:18.367 There are a lot of questions. 00:06:18.367 → 00:06:31.327 So for the false brothers, it’s very similar to what we have to do all the time in our current social and political climate. 00:06:31.327 → 00:06:32.267 We’re all accustomed to this. 00:06:33.287 → 00:06:43.067 If you are dealing with new people, you don’t go ahead and bring up all of your political beliefs right up front, right? 00:06:43.067 → 00:06:45.347 Particularly if you’re one of us, right? 00:06:45.347 → 00:06:48.507 You’re a guy who’s on the far right, so to speak. 00:06:48.507 → 00:06:56.707 You’re not far right by historical standards, of course, because most of us are pretty moderate by historical standards, even if you would call yourself far right. 00:06:56.707 → 00:06:58.867 A separate topic perhaps, but related here. 00:07:01.447 → 00:07:17.747 You already know how to do this because you know that many times you are going to be dealing with people in society, in your social life, who would cause you harm if you revealed all of the things that you actually believe. 00:07:17.747 → 00:07:21.327 And so you’re already running that sort of assessment. 00:07:21.327 → 00:07:32.667 Unfortunately, you have to run that assessment in the churches as well, particularly these days, because there are many false Christians, there are many who claim the name of Christ and don’t follow Christ at all. 00:07:32.667 → 00:07:33.767 We run into this all the time. 00:07:33.767 → 00:07:47.987 You can see many examples of this, particularly on X, where any number of us at this point will post a Bible verse, sometimes in quotes, sometimes not, and then someone says, well, I don’t believe that. 00:07:47.987 → 00:07:49.607 Well, that’s the problem. 00:07:49.607 → 00:07:53.767 They don’t actually believe what Christianity teaches because they aren’t actually Christians. 00:07:54.947 → 00:08:07.087 And so, use those skills that you have undoubtedly developed with regard to politics and just living your life in society, and translate that into the church. 00:08:07.087 → 00:08:11.567 It’s again unfortunate, but that is the reality of where we are today. 00:08:11.567 → 00:08:17.967 And you can also think of the verses that speak of handing someone over to Satan, right? 00:08:18.767 → 00:08:27.307 Because, ultimately, that is the point of driving someone from that fellowship, is you want him to repent, right? 00:08:27.307 → 00:08:27.537 That’s… 00:08:27.537 → 00:08:29.647 it’s speaking of excommunication. 00:08:29.647 → 00:08:32.967 And I know that someone in the comments will post, well, weren’t you excommunicated? 00:08:32.967 → 00:08:41.487 Yes, by a church that thought that racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism were sins. 00:08:41.487 → 00:08:46.207 Found nowhere in scripture, addressed thoroughly in stone choir and elsewhere. 00:08:46.367 → 00:08:49.587 So, for those who want to look for those, that’s all there. 00:08:49.587 → 00:08:51.907 I can put some of that in the show notes as well. 00:08:51.907 → 00:08:55.867 And obviously, I recognize that happened. 00:08:55.867 → 00:08:57.907 Luther was excommunicated. 00:08:57.907 → 00:09:00.687 Chrysostom was driven from his church at some point. 00:09:00.687 → 00:09:04.407 You can think, of course, of Matthew 5, right? 00:09:04.407 → 00:09:20.807 Your reward will be great in heaven, because these people who are persecuting us today for believing the things that Christians have always believed, well, their ancestors, spiritual or physical in many cases, persecuted the prophets in the same way. 00:09:20.807 → 00:09:26.067 So, blessed are you when they persecute you for the sake of Christ. 00:09:26.067 → 00:09:30.347 And of course, I posted the video of me being challenged by police outside my church. 00:09:30.347 → 00:09:31.167 I’m not hiding that. 00:09:31.167 → 00:09:33.547 I recognize that’s the reality of where we are today. 00:09:33.547 → 00:09:35.987 It’s important for people to see that. 00:09:35.987 → 00:09:52.887 Like I’ve mentioned before, when people ask about, say, confronting their pastor on some particular issue of false doctrine, usually judaizing, but sometimes other things, your outcome may very well be that he calls the police on you and has you escorted out of the building. 00:09:52.887 → 00:09:55.227 So, I tell people, you need to be ready for that. 00:09:55.227 → 00:09:57.247 It doesn’t mean that you don’t do it. 00:09:57.247 → 00:09:58.447 It means you be ready for it. 00:09:58.447 → 00:10:14.567 But to get back to the immediate question about false brothers, exercise the wisdom that God has given you and run the same sort of identify friend or foe analysis that you would in the world at large with regard to social and political issues. 00:10:17.687 → 00:10:18.847 The next question here. 00:10:24.848 → 00:10:27.388 Next question is about the Lutheran Church. 00:10:27.388 → 00:10:29.948 I don’t believe I answered this one previously. 00:10:29.948 → 00:10:34.828 I think I answered something that was similar to it, and so I’m remembering that. 00:10:34.828 → 00:10:39.548 But the question is, I have been strongly considering joining our local LCMS congregation. 00:10:39.548 → 00:10:52.028 I don’t know how many Lutherans in the area I live in, or I don’t know many Lutherans in the area I live in, nor was I raised Lutheran, but I do believe the Lutheran confessions are consonant with the word of God and is the only church I wish to advance being a member of. 00:10:52.028 → 00:10:58.428 One of the obvious things noted after viewing the congregation’s staff is that there’s a female educator. 00:10:58.428 → 00:11:03.348 I would presume this may be a Sunday school or Bible study teacher. 00:11:03.348 → 00:11:08.228 Do you have any advice on how to proceed visiting the church service at this congregation? 00:11:08.228 → 00:11:11.728 Or is this a clear marker to stay away? 00:11:11.728 → 00:11:19.728 So I don’t think it’s necessarily a clear marker to stay away, because it’s going to depend on what educator means. 00:11:21.528 → 00:11:22.208 Could be a teacher. 00:11:22.928 → 00:11:27.388 We have, and in that case, I mean a school teacher, not a Bible study teacher. 00:11:27.388 → 00:11:28.968 It’s a different thing. 00:11:28.968 → 00:11:38.928 In many cases, you’re going to have a school attached to the church, and so if it’s an educator in that sense, that’s not a problem, because it’s going to be a primary school. 00:11:38.928 → 00:11:44.128 They’re going to be teaching children, which women are permitted to teach children, that’s fine. 00:11:44.128 → 00:11:46.828 Women are permitted to teach other women as well. 00:11:46.828 → 00:11:51.068 There’s some limits on that, but that’s sort of a tangential issue. 00:11:52.128 → 00:11:58.708 If you have a woman who is leading the Bible study that is mixed men and women, that’s unacceptable. 00:11:58.708 → 00:12:06.888 If you have a woman who is standing up in teaching and just saying that she’s not acting like a pastor, but that’s really what she’s doing, that’s not acceptable either. 00:12:06.888 → 00:12:13.988 The best way to figure it out is either attend a service or watch one online. 00:12:13.988 → 00:12:25.268 If you’re watching online, you can probably get through things much more quickly, much more efficiently, because you can skip around and figure out if she appears and if she does appear, what she’s doing. 00:12:25.268 → 00:12:27.788 So I would say just do that. 00:12:27.788 → 00:12:29.888 Check the live stream if they have it. 00:12:29.888 → 00:12:33.488 Check their back catalog of stream services. 00:12:33.488 → 00:12:35.988 If they have that, that’s the easiest way. 00:12:35.988 → 00:12:37.908 Or go to a service. 00:12:37.908 → 00:12:42.048 You could email the pastor and see what he says. 00:12:42.048 → 00:12:46.968 That’s also an option, but I think the easiest way is just look at what they’re actually doing. 00:12:46.968 → 00:12:49.148 Women should of course not be doing those things. 00:12:49.228 → 00:12:53.428 I’ve gone into that before many places and many times. 00:12:53.428 → 00:12:57.628 But it’s not necessarily a red flag that she’s listed. 00:12:57.628 → 00:12:59.528 People just like to be listed. 00:12:59.528 → 00:13:00.548 They like to be included. 00:13:00.548 → 00:13:02.488 They like to be on the website. 00:13:02.488 → 00:13:05.088 It may be she’s doing nothing wrong. 00:13:05.088 → 00:13:15.468 There’s a non-trivial chance she’s doing something she shouldn’t be doing, but the only way to figure out which one it is, is to actually look at the service or attend one of the services. 00:13:15.468 → 00:13:18.048 So hopefully it’s a good church. 00:13:18.188 → 00:13:22.488 Hopefully she’s not doing things that God has told her not to do. 00:13:22.488 → 00:13:26.668 But these days, you just have to check. 00:13:28.808 → 00:13:32.248 The next question is about Greek. 00:13:32.248 → 00:13:32.928 Hello, Corey. 00:13:32.928 → 00:13:38.288 I’m early in my Coina Greek journey myself, and greatly enjoyed your Septuagint series. 00:13:38.288 → 00:13:39.488 Thanks for the great content. 00:13:39.488 → 00:13:43.628 I have a few questions about your learning process that would be super helpful. 00:13:43.728 → 00:13:48.028 One timeline, how long did it take you to feel comfortable with your understanding of Greek? 00:13:48.028 → 00:13:50.328 I’ll just answer these sequentially. 00:13:50.328 → 00:13:55.988 I’m not fluent in Greek, and I’m obviously completely fine admitting that. 00:13:55.988 → 00:13:59.768 I am probably quite a ways off from being fluent in Greek. 00:13:59.768 → 00:14:04.088 My German is much better than my Latin is better than my Greek. 00:14:04.128 → 00:14:16.668 But, you know, maybe at this point, they’re about parity, but I don’t need to have the fluency in that sense, because I understand the mechanics of how language works. 00:14:16.668 → 00:14:18.888 I’m pretty good with that part of it. 00:14:18.888 → 00:14:28.168 And so having access to things like Logos, which obviously I pull that up all the time, you can use the language if you understand the mechanics of how a language works. 00:14:28.168 → 00:14:31.368 Obviously, it helps a lot if you know the alphabet, because Greek’s a different alphabet. 00:14:32.728 → 00:14:43.728 But if you know those basics and then you understand language, you can achieve a lot without yourself being fluent, absent access to those materials. 00:14:43.728 → 00:14:51.648 So in terms of the timeline, I can’t give you really an answer because I’m not personally fluent. 00:14:51.648 → 00:15:00.688 The general rule for a language is going to be something like 10,000 hours, I think it is, that you want to invest to reach a certain level of fluency. 00:15:01.548 → 00:15:07.568 It’s going to depend on the distance of the language from your native language and other languages you know. 00:15:07.568 → 00:15:15.528 So for instance, if you know Italian, right, it will take you less time to pick up Latin than Japanese. 00:15:15.528 → 00:15:17.588 So that’s going to partly depend there. 00:15:17.588 → 00:15:25.928 Greek is a little more distant from other European languages, so as an English speaker, it is not something where you have huge overlap. 00:15:25.928 → 00:15:43.068 You already know some of the terms, some of the language, the vocabulary, just because English has imported so much from Greek, mostly Latin and French, right, and obviously French, ultimately Latin, some German, in the case of French being some German, not in the case of English. 00:15:43.068 → 00:15:44.928 English is a lot of German. 00:15:44.928 → 00:15:51.728 But not as much of an overlap in terms of the overall language, English and Greek. 00:15:51.728 → 00:15:56.228 So there’s a lot of stuff that’s going to be new for an English speaker. 00:15:56.228 → 00:16:00.428 Not least of all because English has dropped a lot of the things that other languages have. 00:16:00.428 → 00:16:01.888 Inflection and things like that. 00:16:01.888 → 00:16:04.648 We have very little of that left in English. 00:16:04.648 → 00:16:07.328 Personal pronouns basically the only exception. 00:16:07.328 → 00:16:12.908 The word blonde, which we ultimately Latin, but we took it from the French there. 00:16:12.908 → 00:16:15.648 And so that’s why that E is on the end. 00:16:15.648 → 00:16:18.788 It’s blonde with an E if it’s referring to a female. 00:16:18.788 → 00:16:21.528 It’s blonde without the E if it’s referring to a male. 00:16:21.528 → 00:16:26.768 Everyone forgets that rule, but it’s one of the only things in English we have that’s inflected other than the personal pronouns. 00:16:27.548 → 00:16:32.048 But that’s basically the rough answer for timeline. 00:16:32.048 → 00:16:33.788 Grammar reliance is the second question. 00:16:33.788 → 00:16:35.668 Do you still need to frequently reference grammar? 00:16:35.668 → 00:16:36.328 Yes. 00:16:36.328 → 00:16:52.308 For me, in the sense of referencing a grammar, which is telling me functionally how the mechanics of Greek works, I don’t have to reference it in sense of what most people hear when they hear grammar, because I know that stuff. 00:16:52.308 → 00:16:54.528 I know what the accusative is. 00:16:54.608 → 00:16:58.808 I know what the dative is and the genitive and all of these things. 00:16:58.808 → 00:17:09.188 But in order to actually understand how a particular Greek verb has been conjugated, yes, of course, I’m going to use logos. 00:17:09.188 → 00:17:11.768 But the nice thing about logos is… 00:17:11.768 → 00:17:16.728 I’ll go ahead and just switch back over to logos here for a second. 00:17:16.728 → 00:17:20.128 One of the nicest things about logos is… 00:17:20.128 → 00:17:20.608 Let’s pull up… 00:17:22.568 → 00:17:28.188 Not the nets, because the nets does not have the full thing that I want here. 00:17:28.188 → 00:17:30.028 So we’ll pull up the lexem. 00:17:30.028 → 00:17:38.968 And so one of the nice things here, right, like garments, I click on this and it tells me, of course, it doesn’t show the interstitial menu to you, because why would it do that? 00:17:38.968 → 00:17:45.968 But anyway, if you click on a word, it gives you all the information you need about the word, which obviously very useful. 00:17:45.968 → 00:17:55.388 It also gives it down in the lower left, which it also does not show in the preview for streaming, because why would they implement that? 00:17:55.388 → 00:18:04.268 But with these sorts of tools, you can get a lot done in the language in which you are not yet, anyway, personally fluent. 00:18:04.268 → 00:18:07.288 Methods and resources, the third sub-question, as it were. 00:18:07.288 → 00:18:09.988 What did you use to learn and what was your overall approach? 00:18:09.988 → 00:18:15.628 I have some Greek books, just standard language learning books, and then I’ve used some online tools a bit. 00:18:15.628 → 00:18:27.288 And then most of it has just been looking at scripture, switching back and forth between the Greek and the English and using the available tools in Logos, because the tools are very nice. 00:18:27.288 → 00:18:30.108 And no, this is not an advertisement for Logos. 00:18:30.108 → 00:18:35.248 I absolutely hate their pricing model, and I think that it’s highway robbery. 00:18:35.248 → 00:18:57.268 But the reality of our situation is that these tools overcharge, and part of it is not their fault to give them credit where credit is due, because of course, this is IP, intellectual property, and so the ultimate owners of these things get to set some of the terms and the prices and things like that, and so they don’t have 100% control. 00:18:57.268 → 00:19:07.028 But my position, as I’ve been very clear all along, long held position, most resources of this kind at least should be free. 00:19:07.988 → 00:19:16.608 The men who are capable of using these resources who aren’t going to get off into crazy trouble on their own with them should have access to these. 00:19:16.608 → 00:19:26.468 If someone is going to seminary to be a theologian, someone who has the skills to do that, he should just have access to all of the materials for free. 00:19:26.468 → 00:19:29.308 You should not be gatekeeping things related to God. 00:19:29.308 → 00:19:31.128 That’s completely ridiculous. 00:19:31.128 → 00:19:33.368 No Christian should want to do that. 00:19:33.368 → 00:19:35.348 But tangential issue there. 00:19:36.768 → 00:19:39.388 The fourth and final subquestion. 00:19:39.388 → 00:19:43.988 You recommend modern Greek pronunciation, very much so, over Erasmian. 00:19:43.988 → 00:19:48.288 However, most Koina materials seem to stick exclusively to Erasmian. 00:19:48.288 → 00:19:49.728 That’s also true. 00:19:49.728 → 00:19:53.908 What’s the best way to learn and practice modern pronunciation for Koina? 00:19:53.908 → 00:19:57.308 So for modern pronunciation, you’re just learning modern pronunciation. 00:19:57.308 → 00:20:00.008 You’re not learning it for Koina, really. 00:20:00.008 → 00:20:04.548 It’s not sort of the difference here. 00:20:05.328 → 00:20:11.928 It’s that Greek hasn’t changed as much as English in the same period of time. 00:20:11.928 → 00:20:14.248 Of course, English isn’t that old. 00:20:14.248 → 00:20:17.368 But it’s closer to say what German has done. 00:20:17.368 → 00:20:24.628 And so I’ve mentioned before, I can pick up a German text from the 1500s and get through it just fine. 00:20:24.628 → 00:20:29.848 There will be some quirks, there are some rules that have changed, there have been some standardizations in terms of spelling. 00:20:30.708 → 00:20:37.528 But by and large, any German speaker can pick up a text from the 1500s in German and read it. 00:20:37.528 → 00:20:41.708 So I have a Luther Bible that’s on my shelf over here from 1545. 00:20:43.308 → 00:20:46.868 That’s not that much more difficult to read than modern German. 00:20:46.868 → 00:20:49.928 English is not the same, because English has changed a lot. 00:20:49.928 → 00:20:52.908 You have Old English, you have Middle English, you have Modern English. 00:20:52.908 → 00:20:57.928 And I’ll put a link to Chaucer in the show notes, for anyone who wants to go and look at it. 00:20:57.928 → 00:20:59.388 You can see how much it’s changed. 00:21:00.568 → 00:21:02.268 For Greek, it’s not as big of a change. 00:21:02.268 → 00:21:09.148 So just learn how modern Greeks pronounce their words, and then read the Koina as if it were modern Greek. 00:21:09.148 → 00:21:10.528 There are some things that have changed. 00:21:10.528 → 00:21:15.968 There’s some spelling quirks and things like that, but you won’t have trouble doing that. 00:21:15.968 → 00:21:22.688 And the reason I recommend that you learn modern pronunciation and not Koina, really it’s kind of twofold. 00:21:22.708 → 00:21:31.508 One, Erasmus just constructed his pronunciation rules, partly because he didn’t want any vowels to sound the same. 00:21:32.988 → 00:21:35.948 The problem is, natural language has things that sound the same. 00:21:35.948 → 00:21:37.168 That happens. 00:21:37.168 → 00:21:44.308 I can think of a number of different vowel pairings in German that are not the same, but sound the same. 00:21:44.308 → 00:21:45.988 And English does the same thing, of course. 00:21:45.988 → 00:21:52.968 English less so because English has a lot of weird sounds from importing other languages and blending them together. 00:21:52.968 → 00:22:03.988 But the second part of the reason would be that you have an entire world of materials available to you if you are learning modern pronunciation. 00:22:03.988 → 00:22:07.188 Because the Greek still exists. 00:22:07.188 → 00:22:08.528 The Greek language still exists. 00:22:08.528 → 00:22:10.808 The Greek language is still in use. 00:22:10.808 → 00:22:18.288 If you are learning Erasmian, that’s not in use because it was never in use, because it was never a real thing. 00:22:18.288 → 00:22:25.928 It was a constructed pronunciation of Greek specifically for use in Biblical studies. 00:22:25.928 → 00:22:33.948 So just use modern Greek because you are going to have more materials available to you, and it will actually be helpful as well. 00:22:33.948 → 00:22:39.848 Because say you want to visit Greece at some point, you will actually be able to speak to people. 00:22:39.848 → 00:22:40.988 Not if you are Erasmian. 00:22:40.988 → 00:22:43.428 They will look at you like you have two heads. 00:22:43.428 → 00:22:46.768 So it just makes more sense to learn modern. 00:22:47.368 → 00:22:56.508 There is no benefit to learning the Erasmian other than you can talk to pastors who also learned it. 00:22:56.508 → 00:22:58.488 But I don’t think that’s very compelling. 00:23:01.248 → 00:23:07.848 The next question, moving on to some of the questions from X, I believe now. 00:23:10.568 → 00:23:15.028 I don’t know that I will get to many of the questions in the chat this time. 00:23:15.028 → 00:23:19.408 I will go through and write them down because I have a lot of questions. 00:23:19.408 → 00:23:23.188 I will not get through all of them this episode. 00:23:27.868 → 00:23:39.768 But the next question, what are your thoughts on why the left can organize so easily, often around a single issue, while the right cannot seem to do so, even on a very small scale? 00:23:39.768 → 00:23:42.288 I’m thinking about the American context specifically. 00:23:42.288 → 00:23:46.628 It seems like there are relevant internal and external factors. 00:23:48.828 → 00:23:57.828 This is very true, and it certainly makes things more difficult in the American context. 00:23:59.708 → 00:24:04.548 Because let’s see, what is the best way to start for the core reason here? 00:24:04.548 → 00:24:10.768 The core reason really is that politics is the identity of the left. 00:24:10.768 → 00:24:17.188 That is who they are, because they ultimately found their life on that. 00:24:17.188 → 00:24:21.468 They don’t have any other coherent organizing principle. 00:24:21.468 → 00:24:25.568 They don’t have something that means more to them than politics. 00:24:25.568 → 00:24:27.908 Politics is their life. 00:24:27.908 → 00:24:30.108 Politics is their core. 00:24:30.108 → 00:24:39.488 And so, it’s going to make it easier to organize people when you are appealing to their highest principle, to speak about principles they don’t have. 00:24:39.588 → 00:24:43.048 But when you are appealing to them in that way. 00:24:43.048 → 00:24:51.808 Versus the right, well, anyone on the right has things that he cares about ultimately more than politics. 00:24:51.808 → 00:24:53.828 And that’s correct, you should. 00:24:53.828 → 00:24:56.628 You care about your family more than politics. 00:24:56.628 → 00:25:00.528 You care about politics because you care about your family. 00:25:00.528 → 00:25:04.288 You care about God more than you care about politics. 00:25:04.288 → 00:25:12.008 You care about politics because you care about God, because you want to bring our politics in line with what God demands. 00:25:12.008 → 00:25:13.868 Ultimately, that’s what Christian nationalism is. 00:25:13.868 → 00:25:17.008 It’s sort of a short summary of that. 00:25:17.008 → 00:25:28.148 But politics is the end goal for the left, because the left is animated almost exclusively by power, which they’re not wrong for that. 00:25:28.148 → 00:25:33.568 They recognize that power ultimately is what matters in these affairs, and that’s true. 00:25:33.568 → 00:25:35.228 The person who has the power sets the rules. 00:25:35.368 → 00:25:38.588 Mike makes right in a certain sense of right. 00:25:38.588 → 00:25:42.388 Not in the sense of ultimate moral good versus wrong, right? 00:25:42.388 → 00:25:48.488 But in the sense that the person who has the power gets to set the terms and say what is right and wrong. 00:25:48.488 → 00:25:49.848 That’s absolutely true. 00:25:49.848 → 00:25:54.428 The left is better at recognizing that than the right, at least these days. 00:25:54.428 → 00:25:58.508 In the American context, there’s another aspect of it. 00:25:58.508 → 00:26:02.108 It’s actually perhaps two facets, same thing. 00:26:03.268 → 00:26:23.628 The first part of it would be that we have this strain of individualism and just sort of being obstreperous almost, just being disagreeable in the US., particularly on the right side of politics, that has been there since the beginning in the American context. 00:26:23.628 → 00:26:41.068 Part of it is going to be constitutional, not uppercase C referring to the document, but lowercase C referring to the people, because just some of the people who came over here from Europe were more like that than average, and it has entrenched over time. 00:26:41.068 → 00:26:53.848 A bit of it’s genetic in our case, partly because we have the Scottish admixture and things like that, people who are a little less agreeable, and Germans aren’t entirely agreeable when it comes to certain things. 00:26:53.848 → 00:27:03.968 So part of it is going to be constitutional in that sense for us, and then entrenched and sort of a feedback loop with how our society has been organized. 00:27:03.968 → 00:27:16.468 And then there is also the fact, the second facet of this, libertarianism has long been a force on the right side of politics in the US. 00:27:16.468 → 00:27:24.348 Left as well, but very minor over there, because left libertarian never really got any traction. 00:27:24.348 → 00:27:34.808 Supposedly right-wing libertarianism has, for many years, decades, been part of the right-wing in the US context. 00:27:34.808 → 00:27:51.708 And so, because of that, and because of the intellectual push they’ve had, they’ve had fairly good funding in some cases, you have various outfits putting out, all these pieces trying to push libertarianism and libertarian thought. 00:27:51.708 → 00:28:02.468 And it gets tied up with the American love of freedom and liberty, regardless of whether or not the person who is advocating for those things knows what either term means. 00:28:02.468 → 00:28:09.548 And because of that fact, it makes it more difficult to get men to follow orders, to fall in line. 00:28:09.548 → 00:28:17.808 And ultimately, if you don’t have people willing to follow orders, you don’t have an actual movement. 00:28:17.808 → 00:28:23.308 All you have is a bunch of people in a room arguing with each other and not cooperating. 00:28:23.308 → 00:28:24.908 That’s the problem the right has. 00:28:25.008 → 00:28:31.328 It is very difficult on the right to be a leader, because most men are not very good at following orders. 00:28:31.328 → 00:28:41.588 They always want to question your orders, which I’m not saying you can’t question the orders of a leader, but there’s a time and a place. 00:28:41.588 → 00:29:00.188 If you’re in the middle of a battle and your commander tells you to do something, unless it is completely and utterly insane, and you know that because you’re in a position to know it, and he isn’t, so unless you have a compelling, truly compelling reason to ask him about his order, right? 00:29:00.188 → 00:29:01.648 You just obey. 00:29:01.648 → 00:29:03.588 That’s what you do as a soldier. 00:29:03.588 → 00:29:08.768 And we are going to have to recognize that we are actually in a war. 00:29:08.768 → 00:29:13.028 It is not simply political disagreement. 00:29:13.028 → 00:29:14.188 It’s a war. 00:29:14.188 → 00:29:19.668 And so in a war, and given that we are in a war, men need to learn to follow orders. 00:29:20.228 → 00:29:29.528 That’s going to be difficult on the right side of things in the US context, for all the reasons I mentioned and some others as well. 00:29:29.528 → 00:29:37.688 The left does not have that problem, because again, no animating principle for them, except for politics and power. 00:29:37.688 → 00:29:41.188 So for them, politics is the goal. 00:29:41.188 → 00:29:41.888 It’s the end. 00:29:41.888 → 00:29:44.768 It’s the thing toward which their life is oriented. 00:29:44.768 → 00:29:46.908 For the right wing, it’s not. 00:29:46.908 → 00:30:04.848 And so you have men who are going to have competing principles, as it were, because they want to try and make whatever the leader has said, whatever someone has told them they need to do, consonant with these other things that demand a greater allegiance. 00:30:04.848 → 00:30:09.748 The problem is that all of those things about which you actually care, and I’m not saying they’re wrong. 00:30:09.748 → 00:30:10.848 Again, I’m saying those are right. 00:30:10.848 → 00:30:12.468 You should care about those more. 00:30:12.468 → 00:30:23.348 But all of those things about which you actually care, you can’t get to them, you can’t defend them, you can’t achieve them without the power. 00:30:23.348 → 00:30:27.488 The left recognize that aspect of it much better than the right. 00:30:27.488 → 00:30:42.728 The right needs to get more serious about the fact that if you do not have political power, if you do not maintain political power, and if you don’t crush your enemies when you have political power, you will never achieve all the other things that are more important than political power. 00:30:43.868 → 00:30:46.648 You need the means to achieve the ends. 00:30:47.448 → 00:30:54.408 For us, on the right wing, politics is the means to the ends we seek. 00:30:54.408 → 00:31:01.208 For the left, politics is the end, and so they will do anything to achieve it. 00:31:01.208 → 00:31:09.308 We need to be willing to look at politics and political power in the way that they look at all these other things they’re willing to do to achieve that. 00:31:09.308 → 00:31:11.668 Because otherwise, they win. 00:31:11.668 → 00:31:14.628 The side that wants it more generally wins. 00:31:14.628 → 00:31:23.188 We need to want it more than the left, and we need to be willing to wield it in a way that even they aren’t willing to do, quite yet. 00:31:23.188 → 00:31:31.788 Now, I think they will in the near future if they should have power again, but we need to be ruthless, because that’s politics. 00:31:31.788 → 00:31:36.308 And again, men need to learn to follow orders. 00:31:36.308 → 00:31:48.988 We need to treat it more as if we are, which we are in reality, soldiers in a war, instead of men discussing philosophy around the dinner table. 00:31:48.988 → 00:31:54.728 That’s how politics has been treated by the right wing for many years. 00:31:54.728 → 00:31:57.188 That’s not what it is. 00:31:57.188 → 00:32:00.208 Politics is a knife fight in a bar. 00:32:00.208 → 00:32:07.508 You need to take it a little more seriously than discussing the philosophy of Kant over coffee. 00:32:07.508 → 00:32:15.708 Kant would approve of the coffee incidentally, but we just don’t take it seriously in the same way the left does. 00:32:15.708 → 00:32:21.248 And it’s for a number of reasons, but that needs to change, and it needs to change yesterday. 00:32:25.908 → 00:32:28.568 I have a question here from the chat. 00:32:28.568 → 00:32:31.868 Hi, I’m EO, but I love the podcast. 00:32:31.868 → 00:32:34.708 How do I start to get educated on political science? 00:32:34.948 → 00:32:39.328 What reading material, podcasts, et cetera? 00:32:39.328 → 00:33:00.208 I don’t know of that many podcasts for political science, but if you need, say, the philosophy background for it, there is the History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, is probably one of the better summary podcasts for philosophy to give you. 00:33:00.208 → 00:33:11.508 And at this point, it’s many, many hours of listening, but it will give you sort of the foundation you need for many political ideas, because many political ideas ultimately are philosophical. 00:33:13.568 → 00:33:21.028 So you can pick and choose the episodes that are relevant, listen to the political philosophers instead of others. 00:33:21.028 → 00:33:27.328 But insofar as reading is concerned, that is almost an endless number of suggestions. 00:33:27.328 → 00:33:30.348 But for anyone on the right wing, you probably want to read Schmidt first. 00:33:31.748 → 00:33:33.688 That’s just the reality of the matter. 00:33:33.688 → 00:33:42.568 So definitely read Schmidt, and then looking at what books I happen to have here. 00:33:42.568 → 00:33:44.928 Most of my political science books are actually in another room. 00:33:46.488 → 00:33:53.048 But it’s partly going to depend on what your goal is with reading political science. 00:33:53.048 → 00:33:54.148 Why are you reading it? 00:33:54.148 → 00:33:56.548 Are you reading it to get into politics? 00:33:56.548 → 00:33:57.728 Because then you want practical. 00:33:58.448 → 00:34:01.088 Are you reading it because you just enjoy it? 00:34:01.088 → 00:34:04.408 Then you probably want to go heavier on the philosophy. 00:34:04.408 → 00:34:11.868 So depending on your goal, you’re going to tailor your reading list to that goal. 00:34:11.868 → 00:34:14.968 So if it’s just for enjoyment, then read whatever you like. 00:34:14.968 → 00:34:31.608 But if it is for discussing with other men, it’s because you want to understand this fundamental aspect of humanity and human nature, then go heavy on the philosophy, even more so than the straight political science, as it were. 00:34:31.608 → 00:34:36.548 But the practical side of things, read about actual campaigns that worked. 00:34:36.548 → 00:34:40.728 It’s the same sort of thing that you have over in the military, right? 00:34:40.728 → 00:34:48.348 The military will read about historical battles and what worked or didn’t work, because theory is one thing, but it’s sort of like a battle plan. 00:34:48.348 → 00:34:50.408 It doesn’t survive contact with the enemy. 00:34:51.088 → 00:34:55.228 So, you can read political theory all day. 00:34:55.228 → 00:35:08.628 You’re not going to get a real, deep understanding of how the game is actually played, how the sausage is actually made, until you actually start looking at real campaigns, real politicians, and probably get involved in it as well. 00:35:08.628 → 00:35:15.708 So, tailor your reading list with regard to what it is you want to achieve. 00:35:15.708 → 00:35:21.188 It’s basically the spectrum, his philosophy on the one end, and reading about the nitty-gritty of running a campaign on the other. 00:35:29.578 → 00:35:31.778 Next question is, nice and short and easy one. 00:35:31.778 → 00:35:33.198 Will you start a Bible study? 00:35:33.198 → 00:35:46.018 I have begun the process of revising my notes on Genesis, partly because obviously this time they will be based on the Septuagint instead of the Masoretic text. 00:35:46.018 → 00:35:53.838 And I don’t know when I will start that, but I do intend to at least do a Bible study on Genesis. 00:35:53.838 → 00:35:58.118 I’ll make the video freely available in the audio and whatnot. 00:35:58.118 → 00:36:04.418 I won’t give a timeline on that because again, I have no idea when I will manage to set the time aside and actually get through that and finish that. 00:36:04.418 → 00:36:07.758 But yes, I do intend to resume… 00:36:07.758 → 00:36:10.598 I did a Bible study back at my church in California. 00:36:10.598 → 00:36:13.358 I do intend to resume doing that. 00:36:13.358 → 00:36:19.858 So hopefully in the relatively near future, but I guess we will all see how that goes. 00:36:24.978 → 00:36:29.718 The next question, what makes someone Lutheran? 00:36:33.638 → 00:36:44.018 I actually want to abstract this one out at least one level, I think, because I will answer the question itself, but I think abstracting it out of level is perhaps more helpful here. 00:36:49.158 → 00:36:53.678 My first answer would be, of course, that a Lutheran is just a Christian. 00:36:53.678 → 00:37:08.778 That is, what you should believe about whatever denomination is your denomination, whichever one you claim, because if you think that you’re some other thing than Christian, why are you still that denomination, right? 00:37:08.778 → 00:37:16.178 You are part of your church, part of your denomination, because you believe it teaches the Christian truth. 00:37:16.178 → 00:37:23.018 And so, if you are a Baptist, it’s because you don’t believe that baptism saves. 00:37:23.018 → 00:37:36.038 If you are any number of, usually non-denominational Baptists as well, you probably don’t believe in the real presence, because if you believed in the real presence, you would not stay in one of those churches. 00:37:37.318 → 00:37:50.098 If you don’t believe that the Mass, the Roman Catholic Mass forgives your sins, you’re probably not going to stay in a Roman Catholic Church. 00:37:50.098 → 00:37:57.998 And so, my first answer again is that I am a Lutheran, because I believe that that is simply another word for Christian. 00:37:59.138 → 00:38:18.618 For those who don’t know the history, the Roman Catholics during the time of the Reformation started calling the Protestants Lutherans, because they were trying to say, you follow a man instead of following Christ, perhaps never realizing the irony of the fact that they call themselves specifically Roman. 00:38:18.618 → 00:38:29.858 But leaving that aside, the Lutherans just said, okay, fine, we’ll keep that term, we’re fine with it, because we believe what Luther has taught, and so we agree with that. 00:38:31.578 → 00:38:43.238 But to give sort of the abstracted-out answer to the question and get into some specifics as well, you have different levels at which you can answer that question, right? 00:38:43.238 → 00:38:45.858 And you can do that with any denomination. 00:38:45.858 → 00:38:50.458 And so the first one would be, what is a Christian, right? 00:38:50.458 → 00:38:57.038 Well, a Christian is one who believes in Christ crucified for sinners, right? 00:38:57.038 → 00:39:09.958 You can expand that out, you can talk about all the different points in the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, you can point to the Lord’s Prayer, you can say, you believe the Ten Commandments, and you believe this, that, and the other, right? 00:39:09.958 → 00:39:26.098 You can go through all those specific points, but ultimately, a Christian is one who believes in the Gospel, which is why we can say that Adam was a Christian, because Adam believed Genesis 3.15, spoken to him directly by God, that probably helps a little bit, but perhaps didn’t help with the tree bit. 00:39:26.858 → 00:39:31.818 But believing in the Gospel is what makes a Christian. 00:39:31.818 → 00:39:38.678 But in another sense, there are those who will believe that a Christian is simply someone who attends church, right? 00:39:38.678 → 00:39:42.618 Much of the world says, well, he’s a Christian, he goes to church, he must be a Christian. 00:39:42.618 → 00:39:46.878 That doesn’t make him a Christian, in the ultimate sense of being a Christian. 00:39:46.878 → 00:39:54.898 This gets back into the difference between being something essentially and being something according to believing in the tenets of it, right? 00:39:54.898 → 00:39:59.418 And, you know, it’s the no-true-Scotsman thing again, right? 00:39:59.418 → 00:40:08.198 You’re Scottish because you’re born Scottish, not because you agree with the design of the flag, or you like scotch, or you love golf, right? 00:40:08.198 → 00:40:09.858 That’s not what makes you Scottish. 00:40:09.858 → 00:40:11.498 You’re Scottish because you’re Scottish. 00:40:11.498 → 00:40:13.438 You’re American because you’re American. 00:40:13.438 → 00:40:15.418 That’s something you are essentially. 00:40:15.418 → 00:40:17.698 Christianity is an ideology. 00:40:17.698 → 00:40:21.858 In order to be a Christian, you actually have to believe the tenets of Christianity. 00:40:23.058 → 00:40:26.018 You can’t just say, I’m a Christian, and then you’re a Christian. 00:40:26.018 → 00:40:27.638 That’s insufficient, right? 00:40:27.638 → 00:40:28.558 Think of what Christ says. 00:40:28.558 → 00:40:31.878 Lord, Lord, did we not know? 00:40:31.878 → 00:40:33.438 I never knew you. 00:40:33.438 → 00:40:37.578 So to be a Christian, you actually have to believe in the tenets of Christianity. 00:40:38.618 → 00:40:42.478 By and large, what that means is believing what is taught in the creeds. 00:40:42.478 → 00:40:45.018 There’s a reason we have creeds, right? 00:40:45.018 → 00:40:53.478 You have creeds because they’re a summary of the faith founded in Scripture, and they are a short way to explain, what do you believe? 00:40:53.478 → 00:40:57.458 The Apostles’ Creed is the short statement of the Christian faith. 00:40:57.458 → 00:41:01.378 So, that’s ultimately what it means to be a Christian, right? 00:41:01.378 → 00:41:03.778 It’s belief in the tenets of Christianity. 00:41:03.778 → 00:41:17.958 So, to be a Lutheran is to believe in the exegesis of Christianity as set forth in the binding documents of the Lutheran Church, which would be the Book of Concord, which I don’t think I actually have on my desk right now. 00:41:17.958 → 00:41:19.058 I think it’s over here somewhere. 00:41:19.058 → 00:41:32.418 But the Book of Concord is one of the answers to what it means to be a Lutheran, because that is ultimately the definition of Lutheran understanding of the Bible. 00:41:33.438 → 00:41:37.118 So, that is one of the answers to what is a Lutheran. 00:41:38.238 → 00:41:43.498 Do all Lutherans know everything taught in the Book of Concord? 00:41:44.198 → 00:41:45.418 Well, the answer is no. 00:41:45.418 → 00:41:53.098 You can go to my timeline and find me catching pastors, Lutheran pastors, who don’t know things that are taught in the Book of Concord. 00:41:53.098 → 00:41:57.518 And so, does that make them not Lutheran? 00:41:57.518 → 00:41:58.738 I don’t think that’s fair. 00:41:58.738 → 00:42:05.018 I actually don’t believe it would be fair to say that, no, you’re not Lutheran, because you don’t know absolutely everything taught in the Book of Concord. 00:42:05.018 → 00:42:10.798 You can be a member of a church, a member of a denomination at different levels, as it were. 00:42:11.518 → 00:42:19.138 And so, you can be a Lutheran because you believe in what Lutheranism teaches. 00:42:19.138 → 00:42:30.118 You can be a Lutheran because you’re a Christian, and your whole family’s always been Lutheran, and you just attend the Lutheran Church, even if ultimately your doctrinal and theological knowledge is pretty shallow. 00:42:30.118 → 00:42:49.418 In fact, in some cases, that’s probably good for most people, because if you just simply rely on Christ, and maybe you don’t understand the union of God and man in Christ, right? 00:42:49.418 → 00:43:05.358 You don’t understand how the nature of man and the nature of God interact, and how the attributes of one don’t become properly the attributes of the other, but they can be exercised through the union because of the personal, right? 00:43:05.398 → 00:43:07.518 You don’t have to get into all of that. 00:43:07.518 → 00:43:12.298 Most Christians don’t understand all of that stuff, and that’s not what ultimately makes you a Christian. 00:43:12.298 → 00:43:18.858 The same as the very hyper-technical specifics as between, say, Lutherans and Reform. 00:43:18.858 → 00:43:25.418 So, if I were to argue with a Reform theologian, we’re going to get into some pretty hyper-technical stuff. 00:43:25.418 → 00:43:31.658 Do you have to believe on either side and understand all of that to be a Lutheran or a member of the Reform Church? 00:43:31.658 → 00:43:32.418 The answer is no. 00:43:33.478 → 00:43:43.698 And so, the basic definition of being a Lutheran is to know the small catechism and to agree with the small catechism, because that is the basic statement. 00:43:43.698 → 00:43:45.518 It’s what we teach to all Lutheran children. 00:43:45.518 → 00:43:47.878 In fact, they memorize it. 00:43:47.878 → 00:43:51.098 So, that’s another one of the answers you can give. 00:43:51.098 → 00:43:57.878 But you can see there are different answers to this sort of question depending on exactly what it is you mean. 00:43:57.878 → 00:44:10.878 So, at the top level, as it were, the fullest definition of what is a Lutheran is the Book of Concord, because that is what we teach, that is what we hold, that is the statement of Lutheran belief. 00:44:10.878 → 00:44:21.098 But at the basic level, at just a more functional, realistic level, it’s the Small Catechism, because that’s what everyone who joins a Lutheran church is supposed to believe. 00:44:21.098 → 00:44:27.878 In fact, we typically have people explicitly state that they believe the teachings of the Small Catechism when they join the church. 00:44:29.718 → 00:44:33.478 They don’t always have someone say they believe in the entirety of the Book of Concord. 00:44:33.478 → 00:44:42.498 I would hope that at least elders and others in positions of authority would read the Book of Concord and understand it, but again, the average person doesn’t really need to do that. 00:44:42.498 → 00:44:49.278 You don’t need all of the women in your church, for instance, trying to be a theologian and reading the solid declaration. 00:44:49.278 → 00:44:52.578 The children in your church are not going to read it and understand it. 00:44:52.578 → 00:44:54.838 But the Small Catechism, they can understand. 00:44:54.838 → 00:45:12.298 And that’s going to be the same sort of different levels that you will find in any church, because over in the Reformed Camp, how many, maybe some more in some Reformed churches, but how many men in your church have actually read the Institutes? 00:45:12.298 → 00:45:15.658 How many of those who read it understood it? 00:45:15.658 → 00:45:32.338 So, just because someone says he’s a Christian doesn’t mean he is, but just because someone doesn’t understand all the nuances of a particular denomination, a particular tradition, doesn’t mean he isn’t a member of that tradition. 00:45:33.718 → 00:45:46.338 So, yes, it’s not a question where there’s sort of a cut-and-dry, neat answer because it depends on what exactly it is you’re asking and what exactly is being answered in response to that question. 00:45:46.338 → 00:45:48.918 But hopefully, that explains what it means to be a Lutheran. 00:45:48.918 → 00:45:51.958 The basic answer is you believe the Small Catechism. 00:45:51.958 → 00:45:53.298 You want to know what Lutherans believe? 00:45:53.298 → 00:45:54.278 Read the Small Catechism. 00:45:54.918 → 00:45:58.338 You want more information on what’s in the Small Catechism? 00:45:58.338 → 00:46:01.838 Read the Augsburg Confession, the Apology, the Solid Declaration. 00:46:01.838 → 00:46:05.278 Read the Small Call Articles for fun because it’s fun to read Luther. 00:46:05.278 → 00:46:09.218 You can read the Power and Primacy of the Pope if you want to know why we reject Rome. 00:46:09.718 → 00:46:15.058 There are more documents, but the basics are all there in the Small Catechism. 00:46:15.058 → 00:46:17.158 That is the basis of what we believe. 00:46:17.158 → 00:46:20.218 That is the Lutheran exegesis of Scripture. 00:46:20.218 → 00:46:23.838 And I am a Lutheran because I believe that is simply what Scripture teaches. 00:46:24.878 → 00:46:27.138 I am not a Lutheran because I like Luther. 00:46:27.138 → 00:46:30.658 I am not a Lutheran because I am of German extraction. 00:46:30.658 → 00:46:41.258 I am a Lutheran because I believe that what is set forth in the Small Catechism specifically, and in the Book of Concord generally, is consonant with Scripture on all points. 00:46:41.258 → 00:46:42.658 That is why I am a Lutheran. 00:46:42.658 → 00:46:46.558 And so, again, I believe it just means I am a Christian. 00:46:46.558 → 00:46:58.658 We say Lutheran in order to distinguish from other groups because, for better or worse, we are not all united in our understanding of Scripture and in what we teach. 00:46:58.658 → 00:46:59.658 I wish that we were. 00:46:59.658 → 00:47:01.358 It would be better if we were. 00:47:01.358 → 00:47:17.918 We would be able to provide and present a unified front against so much evil in the world, but I would hope that at least we can all agree on some basics and act in a concerted way to try to make things better, right? 00:47:18.618 → 00:47:22.418 Just because we disagree on some specifics doesn’t mean that we can’t get along. 00:47:22.418 → 00:47:30.478 We don’t have to hate the Reformed or the Anglicans, whichever camp the Anglicans ultimately want to be in. 00:47:30.478 → 00:47:31.798 We disagree. 00:47:31.798 → 00:47:36.298 We’re going to keep disagreeing, but we’re Christian brothers and we can work together. 00:47:36.298 → 00:47:48.158 And the same is true of the Roman Catholics, even though, yes, our confession certainly has some choice phrases to say about your pope, but I’ve heard choice phrases from Roman Catholics about the pope as well, so. 00:47:48.158 → 00:47:52.238 Hopefully, that answers the question in a way that is actually useful. 00:47:55.878 → 00:47:58.118 The next one is related. 00:48:00.078 → 00:48:03.738 What are the minimum beliefs that are required for salvation? 00:48:03.738 → 00:48:07.598 What level of doctrinal error puts someone outside the faith entirely? 00:48:07.598 → 00:48:23.678 And perhaps most central to my question, do you think that someone being in severe error in terms of the law, that is, being correct about the gospel and the identity of God, but being incorrect about some component of what obedience looks like, can on its own lead to damnation? 00:48:25.598 → 00:48:37.758 This one again is going to have, I think I can limit this one really to two different levels, instead of getting into something that’s a little longer, a little more nuanced, perhaps. 00:48:37.758 → 00:48:46.598 But there are two different kinds of error, and really only one is truly error, right? 00:48:46.598 → 00:48:50.578 Error is, in this case, a false belief. 00:48:50.578 → 00:48:55.598 It is an unintentional false belief. 00:48:55.598 → 00:49:02.998 It is something that is done with neither the intent to be in error or with knowledge that you are in fact in error. 00:49:03.998 → 00:49:05.758 Those are related, of course. 00:49:06.918 → 00:49:10.698 God does overlook error. 00:49:10.698 → 00:49:16.518 Scripture doesn’t give us the exact contours of that, but it literally says that God overlooks error. 00:49:16.518 → 00:49:19.658 And so, God takes that into account. 00:49:19.658 → 00:49:20.498 God is perfect. 00:49:20.498 → 00:49:26.038 He knows what you knew, when you knew it, the depth to which you knew it, if you were confronted with your error. 00:49:26.038 → 00:49:28.418 He knows all of those little specifics. 00:49:28.458 → 00:49:33.518 And so, his judgment is absolutely perfect, because he can take everything into account. 00:49:33.518 → 00:49:35.258 He knows all of your thoughts. 00:49:35.258 → 00:49:41.318 He has perfect knowledge in a way that no human judge could ever have. 00:49:41.318 → 00:49:50.698 And so, you can rely, of course, on God being perfect in his judgment, perfect in his assessment, perfect in his sentence. 00:49:51.818 → 00:50:03.058 But don’t worry too much about those who are in some kind of error, like the ones you mentioned there, you referenced anyway. 00:50:03.058 → 00:50:06.758 I don’t mean not to worry about them in the sense of trying to get them out of the error. 00:50:06.758 → 00:50:09.778 If you have the opportunity, by all means, try to get them out of the error. 00:50:09.778 → 00:50:21.298 But if someone has mistaken beliefs about the specifics of what it is Christians are supposed to do with regard to good works, right? 00:50:21.298 → 00:50:23.778 That’s not going to damn him. 00:50:23.778 → 00:50:24.398 He’s an error. 00:50:25.378 → 00:50:31.018 Like I said earlier, most men are in error in some way in some things. 00:50:31.018 → 00:50:33.658 Obviously, I’m Lutheran. 00:50:33.658 → 00:50:37.058 I believe the Reformed are in error with regard to election. 00:50:37.058 → 00:50:40.878 I believe the Roman Catholics are in error with regard to transubstantiation. 00:50:42.078 → 00:50:51.458 In turn, the Roman Catholics believe that I am in error with regard to the real presence, the way that the Lutherans interpret that in the supper of the Sacramento Union. 00:50:52.258 → 00:50:59.138 We call it the Sacramento Union because the Reformed believe that we’re in error with our formulation of the real presence. 00:50:59.138 → 00:51:05.678 And so, of those three groups, we all believe the other groups are in error, mutually. 00:51:05.678 → 00:51:11.558 That doesn’t mean that everyone in that camp is damned, or this camp is damned, or all the Lutherans are damned if the Reformed happen to be right. 00:51:11.558 → 00:51:13.458 I don’t believe they are, of course. 00:51:15.078 → 00:51:20.018 Because ultimately, the core of the faith, as I said earlier in the episode, is Christ crucified for sinners. 00:51:20.138 → 00:51:22.398 Do you believe in the gospel? 00:51:22.398 → 00:51:24.198 I’m never going to be a gospel reductionist. 00:51:24.198 → 00:51:28.678 I’m not going to say nothing else matters, because all truth is one. 00:51:28.678 → 00:51:31.518 All error is bad. 00:51:31.518 → 00:51:34.378 All error is a moral failing. 00:51:34.378 → 00:51:35.698 It’s not just an intellectual failing. 00:51:35.698 → 00:51:38.318 It is a moral failing to be wrong. 00:51:38.318 → 00:51:46.818 And so, I’m never going to trivialize or minimize that, but I am similar not going to say that you’re damned because of it, because that’s not what scripture says. 00:51:46.818 → 00:51:47.658 It’s not what God says. 00:51:48.718 → 00:51:51.878 God says we should try to be perfect, right? 00:51:51.878 → 00:51:54.258 Be perfect as God is perfect. 00:51:54.258 → 00:51:57.378 But scripture is also very clear that we can’t do that. 00:51:57.378 → 00:52:01.038 That’s one of the reasons we need a savior, because we’re not perfect. 00:52:01.038 → 00:52:11.438 Christ paid that price for all of our sins, for all of our errors, but we should desire to believe correctly. 00:52:11.438 → 00:52:17.178 We should desire to do the things that God has commanded that we do, and not do the things he has commanded we not do. 00:52:18.538 → 00:52:22.618 It does not mean that we are damned when we fail, because that’s just sin. 00:52:22.618 → 00:52:25.318 Sin is missing the mark, right? 00:52:25.318 → 00:52:26.158 We are going to sin. 00:52:26.158 → 00:52:30.198 We are going to continue to sin, even if we are Christians. 00:52:30.198 → 00:52:32.538 That’s one of the reasons we pray the Lord’s prayer, right? 00:52:32.538 → 00:52:34.258 Forgive us our trespasses. 00:52:34.258 → 00:52:37.998 We need to pray that all the time, because we’re always committing some kind of sin. 00:52:37.998 → 00:52:41.518 We have the inclination toward sin, which is, yes, itself sin. 00:52:41.518 → 00:52:43.858 I know the Roman Catholics are going to disagree with me. 00:52:43.858 → 00:52:45.418 Concupiscence is sin. 00:52:45.418 → 00:52:48.198 Desiring to do that which is wicked is sin. 00:52:48.198 → 00:52:51.438 Acting on it is another sin. 00:52:51.438 → 00:52:54.618 We recognize this in our law as well, in some cases. 00:52:54.618 → 00:53:00.018 For instance, the conspiracy to commit a crime is a crime. 00:53:00.018 → 00:53:03.178 Committing the crime is another crime. 00:53:03.178 → 00:53:05.758 Committing it as part of a conspiracy may be a third crime as well. 00:53:05.758 → 00:53:08.498 So we recognize this in our positive law. 00:53:08.498 → 00:53:15.918 It’s not just something that we recognize in the moral law, because the positive law, in some ways, does flow from God’s moral law, and it should do so. 00:53:18.038 → 00:53:30.778 But the second aspect of this is once your error has been rebuked, if you persist in that error, it is a different thing. 00:53:30.778 → 00:53:34.898 It can then transform into impenitent sin. 00:53:34.898 → 00:53:37.098 That’s when you are in danger. 00:53:38.518 → 00:53:46.158 Now, you have to recognize here that there are, again, two different sort of aspects or paths here, right? 00:53:46.158 → 00:53:49.898 On the one hand, let’s say you rebuke someone. 00:53:49.898 → 00:53:58.018 You bring up a passage of scripture, you say, what you just said disagrees with this passage of scripture, you’re wrong. 00:53:58.018 → 00:54:02.818 Well, he has two ways he can, he has multiple ways he can react, but two key ways he can react. 00:54:02.818 → 00:54:14.738 He can agree with your interpretation and recognize he’s wrong, or he can disagree with your interpretation and not, we’re going to say you’re right for the sake of the hypothetical, and then not realize he’s wrong. 00:54:14.738 → 00:54:17.938 Well, there’s a difference between those two, right? 00:54:17.938 → 00:54:25.298 Because in the one case, he’s still wrong, but he’s not willfully wrong. 00:54:25.298 → 00:54:28.278 So it does depend on the intent. 00:54:28.278 → 00:54:30.258 Intent matters. 00:54:30.258 → 00:54:35.918 It matters in our civil courts, it matters in our criminal courts, it matters in God’s court. 00:54:35.918 → 00:54:39.158 Because if you intend to do evil, that is worse. 00:54:39.998 → 00:54:43.558 If you do evil knowingly, it is worse than doing it accidentally. 00:54:44.878 → 00:54:49.238 So if someone is rebuked and doesn’t believe you, right? 00:54:49.238 → 00:54:50.498 For whatever reason, he doesn’t believe you. 00:54:50.498 → 00:54:56.538 He doesn’t understand your argument, he thinks that you’re insane, he thinks you’re evil, whatever it is, he’s still in error. 00:54:56.538 → 00:55:02.878 That’s different if he goes, I see what that says, that’s not my God. 00:55:04.238 → 00:55:05.698 That’s where you’re in danger. 00:55:06.658 → 00:55:09.278 That person is now in danger of damnation. 00:55:09.278 → 00:55:16.318 He is in danger of hellfire if he is just rejecting part of scripture because he doesn’t think that’s his God. 00:55:16.318 → 00:55:17.118 God’s not like that. 00:55:17.118 → 00:55:18.578 God wouldn’t do that. 00:55:18.578 → 00:55:21.138 You don’t get to disagree with God in that way. 00:55:21.138 → 00:55:33.798 And so when you read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and you see very clearly that God burned Sodom and Gomorrah to ash for sodomy, for homosexuality, for specifically male homosexuality, right? 00:55:33.898 → 00:55:36.198 You see that clearly in the pages of scripture. 00:55:36.198 → 00:55:38.218 There is no denying that. 00:55:38.218 → 00:55:42.318 If someone reads that and then says, I don’t believe that. 00:55:42.318 → 00:55:43.038 That’s not my God. 00:55:43.938 → 00:55:50.478 God would never burn a city because of the sexual wickedness of the inhabitants of that city. 00:55:51.518 → 00:56:00.158 That man is in danger because that man is reading the plain word of God, the clear word of God, and rejecting the clear teaching. 00:56:00.158 → 00:56:02.178 That is immense danger. 00:56:02.918 → 00:56:03.978 And so, it depends. 00:56:03.978 → 00:56:21.578 The answer to your question, ultimately, is that it depends on the nature of the error, and it depends on the intent behind the error, because intent can transform something from error into willful wickedness, into impenitent sin. 00:56:21.578 → 00:56:37.758 Now, to answer another aspect of the question that was definitely asked there in the question, there’s a difference between rejecting core parts of the face of faith and being in error about ancillary matters. 00:56:37.758 → 00:56:41.458 Not unimportant matters, but ancillary matters, right? 00:56:41.458 → 00:56:51.758 So if someone thinks, for instance, that the moral law, let’s say even less than that, someone who’s confused about the difference between the civil law and the moral law, right? 00:56:51.758 → 00:57:04.258 He looks at the Old Testament and says, well, they have these punishments for these crimes, and these sins are treated in this way, and this is an abomination, and that’s this, and doesn’t understand it, perhaps. 00:57:04.258 → 00:57:08.298 That’s a different thing from saying, I don’t believe Jesus was God. 00:57:09.678 → 00:57:11.698 You’re not saved if you don’t believe that Jesus was God. 00:57:11.698 → 00:57:12.398 You can’t do that. 00:57:12.398 → 00:57:15.278 You can’t reject a core tenet of the faith. 00:57:15.278 → 00:57:19.378 And one of the best ways to look at that is, again, the creeds. 00:57:19.378 → 00:57:21.818 Look at what is in the Apostles’ Creed. 00:57:21.818 → 00:57:27.018 Anyone who rejects any part of the Apostles’ Creed is in danger of hellfire. 00:57:28.158 → 00:57:46.398 If someone just doesn’t understand the distinction between the civil law and the moral law in the Old Testament and thinks that, well, that was then and this is now, granted, without hopefully getting into thinking God changed, you can’t do that, but if he’s just confused, that’s a different thing. 00:57:46.398 → 00:57:47.478 It’s still sin. 00:57:47.478 → 00:57:48.358 He’s still in error. 00:57:48.358 → 00:57:54.158 He needs to be rebuked, but that alone is not going to damn him. 00:57:54.158 → 00:58:07.198 So there’s a distinction there, a very important distinction between the core tenets of the faith and things that are not core to the faith, but again, all truth matters, and so the error is still sinful. 00:58:07.198 → 00:58:19.518 He should not remain in that error, and once rebuked, then it can become impenitent sin, which is one of the reasons that sometimes for certain men, it’s better not to know, right? 00:58:19.518 → 00:58:23.498 Because if they know, then, well, now you’re responsible. 00:58:24.578 → 00:58:28.758 Now that you’ve been rebuked, you have a duty to do something in response to that rebuke. 00:58:28.758 → 00:58:31.418 Whereas before, you were simply in error. 00:58:32.558 → 00:58:38.498 But the overall answer to the question is, it depends on a lot of specific moving parts. 00:58:38.498 → 00:58:52.138 It’s similar to what you would have in any given criminal case, because of course, ultimately, when you start looking at how scripture is, sin is a crime, God is a judge in a criminal court. 00:58:52.138 → 00:58:53.558 That’s one of the best ways to look at it. 00:58:53.558 → 00:59:05.358 And I constantly run into things in theology where I can use a legal analogy that is directly on point, if not virtually identical. 00:59:05.358 → 00:59:06.578 It’s the language that God used. 00:59:06.578 → 00:59:14.078 I know the EO particularly don’t like that fact, but God’s the one who calls himself a judge. 00:59:14.078 → 00:59:15.998 God’s the one who calls it a judgment. 00:59:16.918 → 00:59:19.578 God’s the one who treats these things as a crime. 00:59:19.578 → 00:59:21.838 God’s the one who has a court. 00:59:21.838 → 00:59:27.638 I mean, Satan acts as a prosecuting attorney till he was cast out of heaven anyway. 00:59:27.638 → 00:59:32.838 It’s very clear that this is conducted in a legal manner. 00:59:32.838 → 00:59:38.518 Even the way that we are saved, think about it, you’re not made righteous in this life. 00:59:38.518 → 00:59:40.238 Yes, there’s a process of sanctification. 00:59:40.238 → 00:59:48.838 You’re improved somewhat in this life, but you are declared innocent by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice. 00:59:51.278 → 00:59:52.418 These are legal terms. 00:59:52.418 → 00:59:55.258 We’re dealing in legal theories here. 00:59:55.258 → 00:59:57.758 That is simply the way that scripture speaks about these things. 00:59:57.758 → 00:59:59.618 It’s the way that Christ needs to think about these things. 01:00:05.406 → 01:00:07.986 The next one is also a short question. 01:00:07.986 → 01:00:12.546 How can scripture be inerrant if the canon is errant? 01:00:12.546 → 01:00:16.506 And I think there are really two questions here, so I’ll answer both of those. 01:00:16.506 → 01:00:21.106 The easy one is that the canon of scripture is not errant. 01:00:22.506 → 01:00:24.406 Can’t be. 01:00:24.406 → 01:00:30.686 And the reason for that, of course, is that God is the author, ultimately the author of the canon of scripture. 01:00:32.566 → 01:00:40.206 Nothing God has written or caused to be written by the hands of men, via inspiration, is in error. 01:00:40.206 → 01:00:41.866 It is inerrant. 01:00:42.046 → 01:00:45.146 I’m trying to capitalize that I, go ahead. 01:00:45.146 → 01:00:48.006 It is perfect in all particulars. 01:00:50.066 → 01:01:02.626 The other part of this, and really perhaps the more interesting question, right, the underlying question that causes people trouble, how do we know what the canon of scripture is? 01:01:02.626 → 01:01:04.906 And we’ve got into this before a little bit. 01:01:04.906 → 01:01:08.766 Lutherans don’t have a canon of scripture, and so that’s sort of the easy answer for the Lutherans. 01:01:08.766 → 01:01:12.906 We just sort of say, we don’t have one, and then we scuttle out of the room, right? 01:01:12.906 → 01:01:15.406 Leave everyone else to fight over it. 01:01:15.406 → 01:01:22.586 Which is, it has its time and its place, but how do we know which books are in scripture? 01:01:22.586 → 01:01:24.386 In part, scripture authenticates scripture. 01:01:25.486 → 01:01:29.386 Scripture has crossed references all over the place. 01:01:29.386 → 01:01:39.146 And so if you pick something up and find zero references to that thing, and then that thing doesn’t reference any of your part of scripture, you already pretty much know that’s not scripture. 01:01:39.146 → 01:01:41.146 You can pretty much leave that one aside. 01:01:41.146 → 01:01:42.946 Maybe it’s useful, maybe it’s Maccabees, right? 01:01:42.946 → 01:01:48.346 Maybe it’s a book that isn’t part of scripture, but is useful as history. 01:01:48.346 → 01:01:50.586 It’s useful in another way. 01:01:50.586 → 01:01:53.086 Just because something is not scripture doesn’t mean it’s useless. 01:01:54.526 → 01:01:56.946 Plenty of things are useful and not scripture. 01:01:58.646 → 01:02:01.426 How do we know that the canon of scripture exists, right? 01:02:01.426 → 01:02:02.846 What is the canon of scripture? 01:02:02.846 → 01:02:06.726 That’s sort of a fundamental underlying question here. 01:02:06.726 → 01:02:14.806 And it’s the difference between knowing the canon and defining the canon, right? 01:02:15.946 → 01:02:25.806 This is an important point because this gets into sort of the core of some of the objections to scripture and things like that. 01:02:25.806 → 01:02:36.026 The canon of a particular author is defined by the fact that the author wrote the things, right? 01:02:36.026 → 01:02:46.066 And so I can look at my shelves here and say, you know, I have some books by Luther. 01:02:46.126 → 01:02:50.346 We’ll go back to Luther just because I have him on my shelves here. 01:02:50.346 → 01:02:54.486 I have some books by various other authors as well. 01:02:56.286 → 01:03:05.426 What qualifies those books as being part of the oeuvre, the canon of that particular author? 01:03:05.426 → 01:03:07.486 The fact that he wrote them. 01:03:07.486 → 01:03:09.226 That’s it. 01:03:09.226 → 01:03:10.926 It is a book by that author. 01:03:11.266 → 01:03:16.826 It is authored by that author if he, in fact, authored it. 01:03:16.826 → 01:03:22.166 It’s practically tautological, but that’s because it is the essence of the thing. 01:03:22.166 → 01:03:25.746 And so, you’ll have those who will say, how is it that we have this canon? 01:03:25.746 → 01:03:32.266 Because the canon pre-exists, because God is the author of the canon. 01:03:32.266 → 01:03:36.246 How we know the canon is a separate question. 01:03:36.246 → 01:03:38.666 Whether or not it exists is a core matter. 01:03:39.746 → 01:03:59.346 If you believe that God wrote anything, caused anything to be written, then the canon exists independently of whether we have access to it, whether we have all of it, whether we know how to understand it, whether we accurately identify which books belong to it. 01:03:59.346 → 01:04:04.646 For instance, Martin Luther wrote some number of works during his life. 01:04:05.526 → 01:04:13.446 The Weimar Ausgabe, the complete works of Luther in the Weimar edition, supposedly contain everything he wrote. 01:04:14.786 → 01:04:17.446 Could we find something else that he wrote? 01:04:17.446 → 01:04:18.666 Sure. 01:04:18.666 → 01:04:20.746 Could we have lost things that he wrote? 01:04:20.746 → 01:04:21.766 Sure. 01:04:21.766 → 01:04:26.686 That would mean that we have a partial canon with regard to Luther. 01:04:26.686 → 01:04:30.006 We don’t have the totality of his works because we lost some along the way. 01:04:32.106 → 01:04:35.766 If, for instance, we have the Bible, right? 01:04:35.766 → 01:04:42.086 And let’s say a thousand years from now, somehow they lose the Book of Numbers. 01:04:43.426 → 01:04:46.366 Does that mean that Numbers is not part of the canon? 01:04:46.366 → 01:04:56.766 No, because God, being the author of the Book, this time through Moses, but God being the author of the Book, it is part of God’s canon. 01:04:58.226 → 01:05:07.986 Just because, in this hypothetical, our descendants, in a thousand years, no longer have that Book, doesn’t mean the Book ceases to be part of the canon. 01:05:07.986 → 01:05:10.406 It means they no longer have access to it. 01:05:10.406 → 01:05:13.226 It means they now have a partial canon. 01:05:13.226 → 01:05:15.086 It’s a different thing. 01:05:15.086 → 01:05:18.826 And so the canon is inerrant. 01:05:18.826 → 01:05:26.006 Whether or not a particular group has that inerrant canon is a separate question. 01:05:28.246 → 01:05:39.046 And I don’t know that I want to get too deeply into how we know which books are part of the canon, because that’s a long discussion, and it gets somewhat involved, and I’d probably want to bring up a bunch of exhibits and things. 01:05:40.746 → 01:05:49.346 But the existence of the canon is an independent thing from whether or not any particular group at any particular time has the totality of the canon. 01:05:51.926 → 01:05:55.006 Related, but distinct things. 01:05:55.006 → 01:05:57.886 It’s vitally important to keep that in mind. 01:05:57.886 → 01:06:04.826 The canon as it exists with regard to God having authored these things is inerrant by definition. 01:06:06.246 → 01:06:15.266 Whether or not any particular written version of the Bible, printed version, say, the Masoretic text that we have, right? 01:06:15.266 → 01:06:20.926 That’s errant, because the Masoretic text has corruptions from the Jews in it. 01:06:20.926 → 01:06:23.486 And so, does it still contain the Word of God? 01:06:23.486 → 01:06:25.726 The answer is yes. 01:06:25.726 → 01:06:27.346 Is it the Word of God? 01:06:27.346 → 01:06:33.186 I would have to say no with regard to the Masoretic text because of those corruptions by the Jews. 01:06:33.186 → 01:06:35.706 But it contains the Word of God. 01:06:35.706 → 01:06:40.806 And so, it is a partially correct version of the canon. 01:06:40.806 → 01:06:45.506 It is not the perfect version that God inspired. 01:06:45.506 → 01:06:47.166 We have that, of course, that’s the Septuagint. 01:06:48.186 → 01:06:51.686 Thankfully, we have that as well, because God said he would preserve his word. 01:06:51.686 → 01:06:55.946 We rely on God, which is another aspect of this, of course. 01:06:55.946 → 01:07:00.386 And I think I’ll finish this answer here because I don’t want to get too deeply into it. 01:07:02.386 → 01:07:07.626 But God states that he will preserve his word. 01:07:07.626 → 01:07:13.386 If we believe God, then we must believe that he has preserved his word. 01:07:13.386 → 01:07:14.966 Where did he preserve it? 01:07:14.966 → 01:07:16.686 Because it has to be preserved, right? 01:07:16.766 → 01:07:21.726 If it is just unknown somewhere, it’s not in a cave somewhere, right? 01:07:21.726 → 01:07:24.566 It’s the Septuagint, because that’s what God preserved for us. 01:07:24.566 → 01:07:26.686 It’s what God preserved for the early church. 01:07:26.686 → 01:07:28.646 It’s what Christ himself used. 01:07:28.646 → 01:07:32.026 He preserved his word because he promised that he would. 01:07:32.026 → 01:07:36.166 So when we believe God, we believe that he preserved his word. 01:07:36.166 → 01:07:38.986 And we find that he actually did. 01:07:38.986 → 01:07:43.906 Again, one of the minor proofs of the fact that God does exist, it is, he is the God of scripture. 01:07:44.766 → 01:07:48.006 But answer for another time, right? 01:07:48.006 → 01:08:03.246 I think that pretty much addresses how we can know that scripture is inerrant, and in what way we mean that scripture, first at what we mean by scripture, and then second, that we mean that scripture is inerrant. 01:08:03.246 → 01:08:12.326 Because it’s that distinction between the thing existing and a particular instance of it being in error or not, right? 01:08:13.126 → 01:08:18.806 A quick additional example, there was a thing called the Wicked Bible at one point. 01:08:18.806 → 01:08:20.906 It had a single misprint. 01:08:20.906 → 01:08:23.906 It said, thou shalt commit adultery. 01:08:23.906 → 01:08:25.706 That was errant. 01:08:25.706 → 01:08:29.506 It did not mean that there was no inerrant word of God. 01:08:29.506 → 01:08:31.986 It meant the printer made a mistake. 01:08:31.986 → 01:08:38.906 And so, that printing, with regard to that one line, that one word, was in error, it was errant. 01:08:40.086 → 01:08:44.626 But that is a distinct matter from the canon itself existing in being inerrant. 01:08:51.213 → 01:09:04.093 I will save this question about the Restorationist for next time, because it has some subparts to it, and I don’t know that I want to get into it right now. 01:09:05.733 → 01:09:09.093 I will quickly scroll through the chat here. 01:09:10.693 → 01:09:13.313 I don’t know that I will get to all of it, but let’s see. 01:09:21.859 → 01:09:26.919 I have someone saying that as a German from Russia, they preserved the medieval German accent. 01:09:26.919 → 01:09:29.439 That’s probably true with regard to certain regional accents. 01:09:29.439 → 01:09:35.199 Germany, not to the same degree as Britain, but Germany certainly has regional accents. 01:09:36.619 → 01:09:45.679 I know because I’ve tried to talk to a Bavarian before, and no, I know standard German, and I do not know Bavarian. 01:09:48.379 → 01:10:01.899 A quirk of accents, though, we actually have some of the accents in the US are closer to what would have existed centuries ago in Britain because we preserved them and the British did not, which is kind of ironic. 01:10:08.143 → 01:10:08.383 Let’s see. 01:10:30.543 → 01:10:34.723 I think that may be just about it for this week. 01:10:34.723 → 01:10:41.023 I do see some other questions here in the chat that I am going to write down for next time. 01:10:41.023 → 01:10:43.883 I don’t know that I want to get into them necessarily this time. 01:10:49.902 → 01:10:53.162 Someone asked about which internet theologians to avoid. 01:10:53.162 → 01:11:01.842 The answer to that is most of them, because most internet theologians are just not going to be very good. 01:11:01.842 → 01:11:04.202 But that’s true for most theologians, period. 01:11:04.202 → 01:11:12.942 Because most theologians are not lowercase o orthodox, they are usually trying to push some sort of agenda. 01:11:13.982 → 01:11:34.782 Part of that, of course, is they haven’t yet passed through the filter of history, which I don’t want to get into this too deeply right now, but it’s important to recognize that many of the things that have been handed down to us from previous centuries, from previous millennia in some cases, they were things that were worth preserving. 01:11:34.782 → 01:11:37.242 That’s why we have them. 01:11:37.242 → 01:11:43.402 Most things produced in any given era are not going to be worth preserving. 01:11:44.222 → 01:11:53.722 And so, we have Shakespeare, but there are probably hundreds of others whose works were not preserved because they weren’t as good. 01:11:55.322 → 01:11:57.602 To some degree, that’s true of the Greek playwrights. 01:11:57.602 → 01:12:05.462 To some degree, we just lost things due to time and weather and the reality of living in a fallen world where things fall apart. 01:12:05.462 → 01:12:19.462 But you do have to recognize that there is a filter that acts naturally historically because things that are worth transmitting are the things that tend to get transmitted. 01:12:19.462 → 01:12:22.482 It’s not always true, but by and large it is. 01:12:22.482 → 01:12:30.722 And so the reason this is important is because when you’re looking at things in your current era, they have not yet passed through that filter. 01:12:30.722 → 01:12:36.842 And so don’t necessarily look back at history and think, wow, they were so much better at all of these. 01:12:37.842 → 01:12:42.102 No, many times the stuff that was terrible just didn’t get passed forward to us. 01:12:42.102 → 01:12:49.542 And many of the terrible stuff today won’t get passed forward to future generations because it won’t be preserved because it’s terrible. 01:12:49.542 → 01:12:58.922 So just something to keep in mind when you’re looking at what the past has transmitted to us in light of what we have today and vice versa, right? 01:12:58.922 → 01:13:04.142 Don’t necessarily think that the past didn’t produce garbage as well because garbage doesn’t get preserved. 01:13:06.302 → 01:13:08.742 Think of it in a physical sense, right? 01:13:08.742 → 01:13:16.102 Your actual literal garbage, you’re not going to keep around, and then someone in 100 years will have access to it. 01:13:16.102 → 01:13:19.922 But if you have family heirlooms, you probably will pass those down. 01:13:19.922 → 01:13:21.082 The same thing happens with culture. 01:13:33.074 → 01:13:34.234 I think I can answer this one quickly. 01:13:34.234 → 01:13:41.954 To what extent is German and the Luther Bible still valuable for theology and Lutheranism, even though Luther didn’t make use of the Septuagint? 01:13:41.954 → 01:13:44.734 He actually did make use of the Septuagint. 01:13:44.734 → 01:13:47.094 He spoke Greek, he had access to it. 01:13:47.094 → 01:13:52.034 He just did not rely on it to the extent that he should have, which is to say, exclusively. 01:13:52.034 → 01:13:56.574 It is based in large part, the Old Testament, on the Masoretic text. 01:13:57.594 → 01:14:00.234 So does it still have utility? 01:14:00.234 → 01:14:00.834 Of course it does. 01:14:01.714 → 01:14:07.934 Should we want to replace it with a Bible that is based on the Septuagint? 01:14:07.934 → 01:14:09.034 Absolutely. 01:14:09.034 → 01:14:12.094 And I also don’t have that currently on my desk. 01:14:12.094 → 01:14:15.814 There is already a version of the Septuagint translated into German. 01:14:15.814 → 01:14:17.494 You can buy it today. 01:14:17.494 → 01:14:19.794 We already have that in German. 01:14:19.794 → 01:14:21.154 We have some options in English. 01:14:21.154 → 01:14:22.514 None of them are great yet. 01:14:22.514 → 01:14:28.634 Hopefully the one that is coming out, I believe it’s supposed to be next year, will be a good option. 01:14:28.634 → 01:14:29.594 But it already exists in German. 01:14:30.214 → 01:14:36.254 The Septuagint de Deutsch is, I have a physical copy of it somewhere, somewhere in this room. 01:14:36.254 → 01:14:38.534 But you can buy it, unfortunately. 01:14:38.534 → 01:14:42.234 This is another one of those cases where it is overpriced. 01:14:42.234 → 01:14:49.494 It is 100 something dollars to get a copy of it delivered to the US, unfortunately. 01:14:49.494 → 01:14:51.874 But it’s available. 01:14:51.874 → 01:14:53.294 It does exist. 01:14:53.294 → 01:14:58.814 That’s what I would say you should use if you want to study scripture in German, not necessarily the Luther Bible. 01:14:59.474 → 01:15:07.594 The Luther Bible, of course, has historical utility in the sense that you can look at the development of the German language, and it’s one of the major sources of that. 01:15:07.594 → 01:15:08.694 So it has that usage. 01:15:08.694 → 01:15:13.254 But no, my position is the same in any given language. 01:15:13.254 → 01:15:17.014 We should be relying on the Septuagint, not on the Masoretic text. 01:15:17.014 → 01:15:20.594 We should not be using the Hebrew, period. 01:15:20.594 → 01:15:25.114 Same thing is true in German, as is true in English, French, Japanese, every other language. 01:15:25.834 → 01:15:36.554 So it has utility, but not what we should be using to study scripture, particularly when we already have the Septuagint translated in German. 01:15:41.948 → 01:15:45.208 I think I will answer one more question. 01:15:45.208 → 01:15:52.088 If my backlog starts to get too long, I’ll just run for, you know, 90 minutes at some point, or two hours, and get through some of the backlog. 01:15:52.088 → 01:15:56.188 But for now, I’ll leave some questions for next week. 01:15:56.188 → 01:16:07.568 Regarding concupiscence, is it a sin if some part of you desires sin, but you would still morally abstain if given the opportunity, if your steadfastness would overcome your desire? 01:16:09.668 → 01:16:19.768 I kind of touched on and answered that one, but to be more explicit, yes, it is still sin, because the desire to sin is sin. 01:16:19.768 → 01:16:24.128 But it’s just like the example I gave with the legal example, conspiracy. 01:16:25.768 → 01:16:30.108 Creating the conspiracy may very well be a crime. 01:16:31.208 → 01:16:39.108 Usually, you have to have an act in furtherance of the conspiracy, not just talking about it, but depends on the law of where you are. 01:16:39.108 → 01:16:43.928 Creating the conspiracy, making it a concrete thing, is a crime, probably. 01:16:43.928 → 01:16:45.108 I’m just going to say it is a crime. 01:16:45.108 → 01:16:49.568 I’m always going to give the attorney answer, because I don’t want someone saying, oh, you gave me bad legal advice, right? 01:16:49.568 → 01:16:50.968 It’s not legal advice. 01:16:50.968 → 01:16:53.128 I’m not teaching you criminal law right now. 01:16:53.128 → 01:16:57.268 But the conspiracy, for the sake of our hypothetical, is a crime. 01:16:57.268 → 01:17:01.548 Doing something in order to pursue the conspiracy, probably also a crime. 01:17:02.848 → 01:17:08.688 Committing the actual crime that was the point of the conspiracy is a crime. 01:17:08.688 → 01:17:13.128 Committing it as part of a conspiracy is a crime. 01:17:13.128 → 01:17:15.488 The same thing with regard to sin. 01:17:15.488 → 01:17:23.608 The desire to sin, because it is a desire to act contrary to God, is sin. 01:17:23.608 → 01:17:30.648 Doing something concrete in order to try to obtain the sinful end is a sin. 01:17:30.648 → 01:17:34.228 Obtaining the sinful end is a sin. 01:17:34.228 → 01:17:36.808 Not repenting is a sin. 01:17:36.808 → 01:17:40.708 Persisting in that sin is a sin. 01:17:40.708 → 01:17:48.268 And so I don’t want it to be to the point where you get neurotic about the law, and, oh, I’m a terrible person, and I’m sinful, and I can never do anything. 01:17:48.268 → 01:17:49.248 Don’t do that. 01:17:49.248 → 01:17:51.268 Don’t despair. 01:17:51.268 → 01:17:58.968 I’m not going to say that’s a sin, but it is, but don’t despair, because, of course, the sacrifice of Christ is of infinite value. 01:17:58.968 → 01:18:01.468 God has already forgiven all of your sins. 01:18:01.468 → 01:18:03.808 He knows that you are a sinner. 01:18:03.808 → 01:18:05.948 He knows you’re going to continue to sin. 01:18:05.948 → 01:18:11.228 He knows the sins that you are going to commit five years from today. 01:18:11.228 → 01:18:12.508 You have no idea what those sins… 01:18:12.508 → 01:18:17.468 Well, you probably know some of those sins, but many of those sins, you have no idea what they are yet. 01:18:17.468 → 01:18:19.348 You may not even recognize them at the time. 01:18:19.348 → 01:18:21.248 God knows each and every one of them. 01:18:21.248 → 01:18:26.808 Christ knew each and every one of them when he went to the cross, and you are forgiven for those already. 01:18:26.808 → 01:18:44.068 Yes, of course, pray the Lord’s prayer, ask God for forgiveness, repent, which properly means to turn away from that sin, but don’t despair because of the fact that, yes, you’re going to sin a lot in this life, and you basically can’t 100% avoid it. 01:18:44.068 → 01:18:48.288 The Christian life is not a life of perfect avoidance of sin. 01:18:48.288 → 01:18:54.868 The Christian life is a life of repentance for sin, because we live in a fallen world. 01:18:54.868 → 01:19:09.628 And a fundamental aspect of this, that most people get wrong, because it doesn’t seem intuitive at first, but you have to understand a little bit of Christian theology to know why this is the case. 01:19:09.628 → 01:19:13.448 You are not a sinner because you sin. 01:19:14.488 → 01:19:17.308 You sin because you are a sinner. 01:19:20.328 → 01:19:30.728 If you understand original sin, that is the conclusion, the natural, inevitable, necessary conclusion of understanding original sin. 01:19:30.728 → 01:19:41.808 And unless you arrive at that conclusion, that understanding of why you sin and the interaction there, the direction of the causation, you don’t understand original sin until you get to that. 01:19:43.208 → 01:19:47.988 And so, again, you sin because you are a sinner. 01:19:47.988 → 01:19:55.408 You are a sinner because our federal head, Adam, fell and took everyone and everything with him. 01:19:55.408 → 01:20:01.848 You are restored in Christ, but you are not perfected in this life. 01:20:01.848 → 01:20:19.608 Because justification, that juridical, that legal declaration that you are wiped clean, you are slated to wipe clean, you are innocent, you are forgiven for the sake of Christ, that is once and done. 01:20:19.608 → 01:20:24.008 It was finished on the cross, it’s applied to you when you are given the free gift of faith. 01:20:24.008 → 01:20:43.148 Sanctification is progressive in this life, and final sanctification, complete, perfect sanctification, not in the reformed sense, but in the sense that I think you all understand what I’m saying, that sanctification happens at the resurrection, at the second coming, if you’re still alive when it happens, right? 01:20:43.148 → 01:20:49.808 So you are not going to be perfect in this life, but that’s not the point of the Christian life. 01:20:49.808 → 01:20:57.408 So don’t despair just because, you know, concupiscence is sin, so that desire to sin is sin, and then pursuing it and committing it and hiding it. 01:20:57.408 → 01:21:06.828 And your instinct, your immediate reaction, should always be to turn to God and ask for forgiveness. 01:21:06.828 → 01:21:07.728 Don’t hide from God. 01:21:08.708 → 01:21:10.268 God hates that. 01:21:10.268 → 01:21:12.288 Don’t do that. 01:21:12.288 → 01:21:18.128 You don’t have to look at God and say, I can’t come before you because I’m this unholy wretch. 01:21:18.128 → 01:21:19.208 I’ve done this horrible thing. 01:21:19.208 → 01:21:21.608 I’ve fallen into this particular sin. 01:21:21.628 → 01:21:24.728 Yet again, I’ve done the thing that I hate to do. 01:21:24.728 → 01:21:26.648 Think of the words of Paul. 01:21:26.648 → 01:21:33.788 I do the very thing I do not want to do, and I do not do the thing I want to do because of the sin that is in me, right? 01:21:34.928 → 01:21:36.668 Turn to God, that’s what God wants. 01:21:36.668 → 01:21:41.208 God wants you to turn to him and ask for forgiveness and try again. 01:21:41.208 → 01:21:44.368 Pick yourself up, turn to God, try again. 01:21:44.368 → 01:21:47.068 Don’t despair, don’t think that, oh, I’ve fallen for it again. 01:21:47.068 → 01:21:48.988 No, that’s what Satan wants. 01:21:48.988 → 01:21:54.768 Satan wants you to wallow in it and keep thinking about how terrible and awful you are and focusing on that. 01:21:54.768 → 01:21:56.208 Focus on the cross. 01:21:56.208 → 01:21:58.288 I could point behind me, look at the cross. 01:21:58.288 → 01:21:59.668 That’s the answer. 01:22:01.448 → 01:22:02.308 All of your sins are forgiven. 01:22:04.468 → 01:22:06.548 That’s what you should do as a Christian. 01:22:06.548 → 01:22:11.968 So yes, concupiscence is sin, but that sin was also forgiven at the cross. 01:22:14.328 → 01:22:21.528 And I think that I will probably call it there for this week. 01:22:23.588 → 01:22:32.548 Once again, just as sort of a little bit of housekeeping here at the end, you can submit questions on the forum, [omniforum.com](http://omniforum.com). 01:22:32.548 → 01:22:36.608 There’s a request category specifically for this. 01:22:36.608 → 01:22:41.148 If you happen to put in another part of the forum, I’ll move it, it’s not a big deal. 01:22:41.148 → 01:22:47.708 But that does help me to try to organize these questions and link things so people can find it in the future. 01:22:47.708 → 01:23:00.248 If you ask questions in the chat or on X, wherever else you happen to ask them, Telegram, I do write those down, try to collate those as well and get them into the show at some point. 01:23:00.248 → 01:23:17.088 If you have asked a question and it has been a while and I have not answered it, referenced it, said I’m going to answer it, something like that, by all means, I don’t object to you reminding me, perhaps it slipped through the cracks, perhaps you asked it and it got hidden or suppressed or something that happens on X all the time. 01:23:17.088 → 01:23:22.928 I try to find things and their moderation team to be charitable has hidden it from me. 01:23:22.928 → 01:23:24.888 So bear that in mind. 01:23:25.888 → 01:23:28.248 But thank you for those of you who submitted the questions. 01:23:28.248 → 01:23:29.328 Thank you for your time. 01:23:29.328 → 01:23:31.668 I am glad I was able to answer the questions for you. 01:23:31.668 → 01:23:34.948 Hopefully, I answered the questions in a useful way. 01:23:34.948 → 01:23:39.428 If you have a follow-up question, by all means, feel free to ask that as well. 01:23:39.428 → 01:23:51.208 And I finally managed to get this on a Thursday instead of a Friday, so I won’t say just yet to have a good weekend, but survive Friday and then have an excellent weekend and go to church on Sunday. 01:23:51.208 → 01:23:55.028 I will see all of you next week, and may God bless you in the interim.