Episode Information
- Date: 2026-06(Jun)-05(Fri)
- Number:
e0031 -
Links
- Episode: 05 Jun 2026 (Q&A) | Corey J. Mahler Podcasts
- Transcript: e0031.vtt
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Original Broadcasts
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Topics Covered
- Abortion and Eugenics
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- Thoughts on Jared Taylor?
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- Praying for Christ's Return
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- Making sense of the timelines
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- Do you hold a cyclical view of history? If so, and we are in a civilisational winter, is there any way for us today to return to something like medieval or reformation era Christendom (summer/autumn civilisation) without going through the decay of winter and violence of spring?
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- How do you feel about white family’s that adopt third world children and bring them into their nation and family? Would you feel the same way with white families adopting white children?
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- I am really trying to embrace traditional Christian morality, but having immense trouble with Deuteronomy 22:28 (NETS) and can’t help but think this command is incompatible with western morality.
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- I guess a similar vein to Steven’s question above, the (rather unreliable) bleeding virginity test in Deut 22:13-19 is so third-world coded (and common there). How do you approach God commanding this?
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- do we owe a higher duty to our kin in our nation or to fellow Christians who are foreigners in our nation. Our pastor likes to say fellow Christians are our true family.
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- My question is where in the bible does it differentiate between personal enemies and enemies of God or my countrymen? What bible verse should I look to?
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- is George Washington in hell
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- What do you think of Christian Lebanese based on your Biblical racial view? I know some white nationalists are fine with them, some are not.
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- Corey how do you feel about weed for Christians? And also meth / cocaine/ MDMA? Are these ALWAYS banned for Christian use like psychedelics?
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14.Does the bible say anything about what hell would be like for those who have had no time to commit any sin at all (a miscarriage)? Does scripture bear the possibility of people being saved out of hell
- As an expert in Politics, what do you think will be the Fifth era in the US, and what will it mean for Christianity world wide and how do we make the best of whats to come
- The way Cain acted and behaved around God suggests that he saw God as some sort of high ranking human. Not the creator. It just doesn’t add up. sounds a lot like an old story/ fable with a moral to the story. Not History
Transcript
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WEBVTT
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It is the 5th of June, 2026.
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I am Corey J.
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Mahler, and this is At Any Cost.
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This is episode 31, a Q&A episode.
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I do not have any housekeeping this week, so I will just get right into the questions, other than what I already noted in the chat, which is that I have to look over here and check in a tab for the chat, because for some reason, OBS has decided not to load the chat interface despite trying to reload it.
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So anyway, question one for this week is actually not a question so much as a general topic, and the reason I’m going to call it a question is just so that the transcript will be cleaner and the AI that tags things will be able to find it more neatly.
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So question one is abortion and eugenics, and what are the Christian positions on these?
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So I think I’ll actually start with eugenics instead, because abortion can be a form of eugenics, obviously, but it can also be a form of dysgenics.
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And in our current system, it’s more dysgenic than eugenic, but that’s sort of tangential to this.
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So the question is, is eugenics permissible for Christians?
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And the answer is simply yes.
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The question is not whether eugenics itself is per se permissible, morally permissible.
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The question is, what means are permissible?
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Some means are permissible, some means are not.
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And the distinction that I’ve drawn, and I think the best way to think about it, is that active eugenics is morally impermissible, and passive eugenics is generally morally permissible.
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Or at least there’s a question there about moral permissibility, where there’s no question with regard to active eugenics.
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Abortion would be active eugenics.
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Euthanasia, so called, would be active eugenics.
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I’m not, of course, necessarily saying that’s in all cases, because, for instance, I’ve pointed out there is an exception, say, for someone who is in extreme pain, you take the most extreme case, right, a burn victim.
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That’s the one we use, because it’s the hardest case.
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And if you solve the problem there, you’ve kind of solved the line drawing issue, to some degree.
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So, for someone who has severe injuries, for whom we can’t really do anything about the pain, we have no hope of curing this person, certainly, he’s just going to die a painful, slow death.
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We can give him enough pain medication that it will wind up killing him.
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The goal isn’t to kill him.
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The goal is to do as much as we can for the pain.
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So, I don’t think I would call that euthanasia.
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And if you wanted to call it euthanasia, then it would be morally permissible, because the intent there matters, right?
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You’re not trying to kill the person, you’re just doing everything humanly possible to deal with an impossible situation.
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But to highlight the kinds of eugenics that are permissible, right?
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Passive eugenics would be everything that doesn’t run up to and then cross that line of basically killing people, right?
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Homicide is what we’re talking about, morally impermissible under these circumstances.
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So, two forms of passive eugenics we should really talk about that are perhaps the most relevant.
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I know I’ve gone over some of this before, and I’ll probably write a longer piece on it in the future, because it’s an issue that keeps coming up, and it’s been active on X and elsewhere for various reasons.
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I’m sure some of you listening know why.
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So, marriage is one, and then the other is sterilization, sort of opposite ends of the spectrum, really.
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Marriage is a form of eugenics, and this is something people don’t tend to think about, they don’t tend to recognize that it is eugenic, and so, when they hear eugenics, they instantly recoil, and they go, it’s a bad thing, Christians can’t do that, it’s bad.
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Well, no, because Christians are actually commanded to engage in eugenics, because that’s what marriage is.
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And so, having laws regarding who can marry whom is eugenic, as long as the laws are good, disgenic if the laws are bad.
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So, we ban, typically speaking, we’ve allowed it for various reasons, I’ve gone over in previous episodes, the Jews, incidentally, we typically ban first cousin marriage.
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That’s a eugenic policy.
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We obviously ban incest, that’s eugenic policy.
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And so, it would also be a eugenic policy to ban interracial marriage, because of all the various issues that follow on from that.
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See the Stone Choir series on race for more information on that.
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So, we have these eugenic policies related to marriage, and Christians don’t object to those, because we recognize they’re actually good, they’re aligned with what God wants for us in this life.
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Because we have to recognize, sort of, the foundational matter, we are biological, we’re mammals, we are living organisms, and so we are beholden to certain laws of physics, biology of this creation.
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We don’t get to ignore them just because we are also soul.
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Just because you have a soul, because you are a soul, doesn’t mean that you’re not also a body.
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You are that sum of those things.
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So, the second one, the second form of passive eugenics we’re going over now is sterilization.
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And I think this is one that makes some Christians uncomfortable for various historical and other reasons.
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But it’s actually something we engage in all the time, because most likely, those of you listening, currently have pets in your home that you have sterilized, or you’ve taken to have them sterilized unless you happen to live on a farm, then you did it yourself, right?
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Most of us these days don’t do that ourselves, unless you work on a farm.
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Then you certainly have done that yourself.
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You’ve sterilized your own animals for eugenic purposes, or for various other purposes, right?
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For some cases, it makes the animal live longer, or have fewer health problems, or things like that, fattens them up in some cases for feed animals, things like that.
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The problem that some Christians will have, and I’ve had this discussion with a number of Christians, I think they’re wrong, and so I’m going to present what I believe, and I think it is consonant with Scripture.
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Go ahead and test what I say against Scripture.
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I always encourage you to do that.
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I don’t think humans are an exception, and I think that the fundamental problem there is that when you deny that humans are part of this system, or should be part of the system, you’re sort of edging into saying that humans aren’t really biological, that we aren’t really a body.
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You’re kind of edging into Gnosticism.
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You’re maybe in the gray area there.
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I don’t want to be in that gray area.
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So, I firmly recognize, I affirm, absolutely, human beings are animals, in a very real sense.
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We’re more than that, but we’re not more than that in a way that separates us totally from the animal kingdom, from being mammals and all that, right?
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We, not men, but women produce milk, we have body hair, right?
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We’re mammals, all the classic things.
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So, I think that we are also subject to those laws, and we can enact those things with regard to other human beings as well.
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And I think that sometimes it’s actually the more merciful option, because those who say that sterilization is impermissible, well, what are they going to do about those who have some sort of horrible genetic condition that will be passed on, or at least has a very high likelihood of being passed on?
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What will they do with those individuals?
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Well, they have to tell them, you have to be celibate for your entire life, which, of course, is a problem, because celibacy, like we’ve gone over many times, is not something you can choose to be.
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You can choose to be chaste, but good luck with that if God didn’t give you the gift of celibacy.
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If He gave you celibacy, no problem whatsoever.
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Because that’s the only way you’re going to guarantee they don’t pass those things on to a future generation, unless you’re going to try and pair all of them off with someone who is naturally sterile, right?
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Which seems like a weird way to go about it.
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I think it makes much more sense for those who have these terrible conditions.
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We have to care for them.
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I want to be very clear about that.
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That’s the real core problem here, right?
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You have people who argue for abortion and things like that, because they don’t want to deal with the problem, right?
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The child is going to have Down syndrome, is the current controversy that’s ongoing, or whatever, something even worse than that, right?
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Whatever disease it happens to be, we have to care for that child, assuming the child survives the pregnancy, the birth, etc.
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That is incumbent on us.
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That is a moral duty.
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We don’t get to just kill people because they’re inconvenient or costly.
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Now, there’s a line somewhere with regard to heroic measures and wise use of resources, but you don’t get to kill that person.
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That is very clearly crossing a line.
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But I think sterilization is fine, because then you don’t pass on the problem to future generations.
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You don’t continue to make the problem worse.
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And one of the things you can do that is a nice aspect of this, that’s a mercy in this, is then you can pair off the people who have problems, let them marry, let them live as normal of a life as they can, but without passing on those problems to future generations.
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I think that is the most moral solution to the problem.
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And I don’t think that human beings are exempt from the general rules we use to manage populations of other animals and creations.
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We are stewards of creation.
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We are the pinnacle of that.
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We have control over everything.
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I don’t exclude us from that, because I see us as part of the system not sitting atop it.
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And I don’t know how anyone could think you said atop it, right?
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You have to drink and eat and sleep and breathe, and you’re very clearly part of this system.
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You’re not so extraneous to it or external to it or above it that you are separated from it in any meaningful way.
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So I think that sterilization is morally permissible.
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It is a passive form of eugenics.
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And so, the other part of this that I would want to address, having addressed pretty much abortion and eugenics, sort of, essentially, right, in some…
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This is obviously a short version of the overall, not going into great detail.
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We went over it more in a few episodes of Stone Choir, so you can search the catalog for that.
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But the one other topic that I want to address before moving on to the next question is one that is uncomfortable for a lot of people.
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And it is very uncomfortable for people because it implicates a lot of people, and that includes Christians.
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And that is that hormonal birth control isn’t abortifacient.
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And so the use of hormonal birth control is morally impermissible, period.
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It is always morally impermissible, which is one of the reasons, right, you have to do sterilization, not just birth control.
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There’s no option there.
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So, even calling it birth control is kind of misleading, but you all know what I’m talking about.
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The issue with hormonal birth control is that it has a handful of different ways that it acts, a handful of different ways that it prevents pregnancy.
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Some of them are morally permissible, some of them are not.
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And this gets to sort of a fundamental issue here, and I’ll give an illustration just to sort of draw this out.
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Say you have a die, right?
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And you roll it, and four of the options result in something.
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We can even abstract this out one more level.
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Four options result in something good, right?
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You get a cupcake or a coffee or something, whatever.
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Each of those four, totally fine.
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One’s neutral, one is terrible.
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One of the outcomes is horrible.
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Are you going to roll that, having a one in six chance of something horrible?
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Is it happening to you?
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I think probably not.
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If you’re a wise person, you’re not going to do it.
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So, the issue with hormonal birth control, it’s not a one in six chance, incidentally.
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It’s smaller than that, thankfully.
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But some of the methods that it uses to prevent pregnancy are indeed abortion.
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And so it’s murder.
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Now, I’m not going to go over the methods here.
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I have them, I went over them recently to remind myself, but I don’t think I need to go over them, because I’ll save that for maybe a longer piece of writing.
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But the ones that are the real problem, there’s really two main ones that are a problem with regard to being a board of patient, and I’ll just go over those.
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One is that it thins and causes atrophy of the endometrial lining, and that results in lower odds of implantation.
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Well, once you’re talking implantation, right, it’s a zygote.
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It’s already a person, unique DNA and all that.
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And prior to that, it also has a negative effect on the peristalsis in the fallopian tube, which can impact both the ovum, so pre-fertilization, and the zygote, post-fertilization.
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If it happens with the zygote, it is also preventing implantation, which is, again, aborted patient, right?
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So the uncomfortable truth is that anyone who has used hormonal birth control, and that includes the men who have had sexual relations with women who were on that pill, you have engaged in behavior that is tantamount to murder.
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Now, it is not at the exact same level as murder, obviously, because they’re in tant and some other things there.
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But if you risk an outcome, you are morally culpable for the outcome.
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So risking the outcome that is equivalent to murder is indeed to be morally culpable for murder.
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This obviously makes many uncomfortable, because this is something that is very widespread in our culture.
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And the numbers are, quite frankly, staggering.
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I won’t go over them right now.
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I’ll save them for an article.
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But that is an issue that the Church has been negligent in addressing.
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We need to be stronger on that issue, because we are, as a society, committing infanticide on a scale that is incomprehensible.
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Question two is a little bit of a change of pace.
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I recently began to shift my thinking on enemies and allies, thanks to processing the work done by you and Woe.
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Previously, my lines were such that someone who was actively not a Christian couldn’t be really an ally, even if some aims were shared.
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Now I see how someone like Mr.
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Taylor, though I believe agnostic, may actually be a better ally than most Christians, especially most pastors.
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Your thoughts on this, please.
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So, first, I’ll use the specific example of Jared Taylor.
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Jared Taylor is good on many things.
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He’s bad on the issue of the Jews.
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It is what it is.
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He’s done good work, he’s still doing good work, he’s a nice man, he’s a good man, and holds a conference not too far away from here.
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But he is not good on the issue of the Jews.
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So, there are some men who are bad on one specific issue, and good on a lot of other stuff, and it’s just how it goes.
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I can think of some other examples as well, some I’ve spoken with recently, and they’re just bad on certain issues but good on others.
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That’s his Achilles heel, as it were.
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But the more general issue, can we work with those who are not staunch Christians?
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The answer is yes.
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Now, ultimately, what form things should take in the end stage, assuming God gives us the victory, right?
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Those men will have to make a choice, right?
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Leave or become Christian, because we owe that to God.
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You cannot permit false religions to stay in your lands.
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That is an affront to God.
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That is one of the reasons God so frequently destroyed Old Testament Israel, because they permitted that.
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If you permit false religion, if you permit the worship of false gods in your lands, you are cursed by God, or at least you are inviting God’s curse, and God will give you what you want in that case, and that should be not what we want.
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So, can we work with those men?
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Yes, but eventually, they are going to have to make a choice.
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And I think for many of them, it will be a relatively easy choice if it’s made from a position where the church has been restored to teaching true Christianity and is again, masculine assertive and things like that, instead of the corrupt, decadent churches we have today.
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Question 3, Praying for Christ’s Return.
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I know we are not to worry too much about the end times and that we should live each day as if Christ were returning tomorrow.
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Are Christians allowed to pray for Christ’s return to end the fallen world and all of the horrible things going on?
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I think there are really two answers for this.
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The first answer and sort of the core answer is yes, obviously, because we pray for it every day, thy kingdom come.
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We pray for it multiple times a day, depending on how often you pray the Lord’s Prayer, right?
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If you pray it before every meal and when you wake up and when you go to sleep, then you’re praying it at least a handful of days a few times a day, right?
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You are praying for Christ’s return when you pray thy kingdom come.
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So, obviously, it’s fine.
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God taught us to do it.
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It’s the prayer the church has used all along for thousands of years.
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It’s practically the prayer of the church, so yes.
00:17:49.120 → 00:17:55.520
But I would add the caveat that don’t make praying for Christ’s second coming.
00:17:55.520 → 00:18:04.900
Don’t make that sort of focus your core aspect of how you pray and your prayer life and how you look at the Christian faith, right?
00:18:05.120 → 00:18:12.520
Because there are many passages about the troubles of the day being sufficient for that day, things like that.
00:18:12.940 → 00:18:21.880
So, focus on your tasks at hand, what you have to do with the day as it stands, with an appropriate level of planning for the future, right?
00:18:21.880 → 00:18:24.440
We’re not living purely in the present.
00:18:24.440 → 00:18:26.500
That’s something for those with an IQ under 80.
00:18:27.260 → 00:18:41.640
So, focus on the tasks at hand with appropriate planning, but don’t make an obsession with regard to the end times or eschatology, anything even approaching the core or the majority of your faith or your prayer life.
00:18:42.200 → 00:18:50.500
But of course, it is entirely fine to pray for the second coming, the return of Christ, and the end of the wickedness of the world and a restoration of those things.
00:18:50.500 → 00:18:54.980
But obviously, that will happen in God’s timing, regardless of how you pray.
00:18:55.700 → 00:18:59.000
But there’s nothing wrong with praying for that, and certainly we all do every day.
00:19:04.204 → 00:19:05.544
Let’s see the next question.
00:19:09.164 → 00:19:12.804
Question four, making sense of the timelines.
00:19:13.944 → 00:19:18.784
How do you as a Christian make sense of the timelines archaeologists and paleontologists propose?
00:19:18.784 → 00:19:20.364
Is there a conversion formula?
00:19:20.884 → 00:19:31.384
I know creation is approximately 7,550 years old, but I don’t know how to account for the claims of 12,000-year-old human settlements without assuming they somehow survive the flood.
00:19:33.044 → 00:19:36.724
So, artifacts and things could survive the flood, first off.
00:19:37.664 → 00:19:39.084
There’s nothing preventing that, right?
00:19:39.084 → 00:19:42.524
The flood didn’t completely efface and atomize everything.
00:19:42.524 → 00:19:44.104
Some things did survive indeed.
00:19:44.924 → 00:19:53.064
No human civilization survived the flood because all the humans died, but artifacts could certainly survive, just like all the sea creatures survived, right?
00:19:53.844 → 00:19:55.024
The fish didn’t drown.
00:19:55.484 → 00:19:59.284
There’s a reason Noah didn’t have to take all the sea creatures onto the ark.
00:20:00.044 → 00:20:01.444
God took care of that on his own.
00:20:02.244 → 00:20:09.184
But the core answer here really is that radiometric dating is fraught with errors.
00:20:09.184 → 00:20:10.744
It is completely unreliable.
00:20:10.764 → 00:20:27.224
And this has been demonstrated time and time again, where they date things that are known to be extremely young, and they date them really old, or things that are taken from the exact same site, even the same piece of something sometimes, and dated to wildly different dates.
00:20:27.224 → 00:20:28.904
This happens all the time.
00:20:29.084 → 00:20:37.044
There are too many assumptions that go into radiometric dating, and radiocarbon is usually what we’re talking about for things that are this young.
00:20:37.284 → 00:20:43.564
There are too many assumptions that go into it for it to be reliable, and all the times it’s been demonstrated not to be reliable.
00:20:43.884 → 00:20:48.684
We went into this in greater detail in the episode on the age of the Earth.
00:20:48.964 → 00:20:55.424
Now, for that, we were using the Maserati timeline, and now obviously, we would say that it is the Septuagint timeline you should use.
00:20:55.944 → 00:21:04.764
But it ultimately doesn’t matter what years, and we’ve mentioned this as well, because it’s the arguments that matter in that episode, not the specific dates, right?
00:21:05.384 → 00:21:16.104
Because if you’re talking a difference of a handful of thousands of years, that’s not the same problem as someone’s telling you billions or millions or whatever it happens to be.
00:21:16.384 → 00:21:23.044
Now, it’s worth mentioning here, and I’ll mention it because not everyone has necessarily read the article.
00:21:23.464 → 00:21:25.564
I’ll see if I can pull that up here.
00:21:26.664 → 00:21:28.584
I have an article on this on my site.
00:21:28.584 → 00:21:31.544
Let me figure out where Brave has gone on my computer here.
00:21:32.124 → 00:21:44.244
And there is a way to explain the difference in how old the Earth is versus how old it appears to be, right?
00:21:44.944 → 00:21:46.584
And there we go.
00:21:46.984 → 00:21:50.384
It’s this article here, geochronologically speaking.
00:21:50.644 → 00:21:54.444
And so the age of the Earth is both young and old.
00:21:54.704 → 00:22:05.864
And the explanation for that is very easy, typically for the sort of men who are listening to me on this sort of platform, because most of you have probably played a civilization building game, right?
00:22:06.744 → 00:22:14.624
And when you’re playing civilization, for instance, you can choose the age of the planet when you spin up your new world.
00:22:15.184 → 00:22:16.064
Is it that old?
00:22:16.164 → 00:22:18.124
Well, yes, in a sense.
00:22:18.644 → 00:22:24.024
But no, in the sense of if you’re talking about tracing back the timeline, right?
00:22:24.064 → 00:22:27.284
Seconds old versus how old it appears to be.
00:22:27.684 → 00:22:33.984
God made the earth and the entire universe old, because that’s what he wanted to do.
00:22:34.644 → 00:22:45.204
And the best way you can look at this, for sort of a microcosm, an easy example in scripture, he didn’t place Adam in the garden as an infant or, you know, a zygote, right?
00:22:45.484 → 00:22:55.624
Immediately after he would have been conceived in the way that God created him anyway, he was a full-grown adult, because God made him a full-grown adult.
00:22:55.624 → 00:22:58.244
So how old was he when he was placed in the garden?
00:22:58.664 → 00:23:04.784
Well, he was zero, but also whatever age he was when God made him, whether it’s a hundred or…
00:23:05.084 → 00:23:18.764
The timeline lines up very neatly if you assume at certain ages, like 70, but he was a full-grown, mature adult man in the garden, despite being chronologically, in a sense, zero years old.
00:23:19.104 → 00:23:28.084
So the real answer is that the scientists are simply trying to erase God, and they’re doing it with tools that are not reliable.
00:23:28.084 → 00:23:30.844
So you can just ignore them.
00:23:30.844 → 00:23:41.484
Yes, in some fields, obviously, that’s going to make things more difficult for you, particularly if you’re working in, say, archaeology, but there are Christians working in those fields.
00:23:41.484 → 00:23:43.164
Christians started those fields.
00:23:43.624 → 00:23:50.204
They didn’t find any problems with their belief in Scripture, literal belief in Scripture, and the work they were doing.
00:23:50.204 → 00:23:56.184
So there’s no reason to believe these things were as old as the archaeologists and the paleontologists claim.
00:23:56.784 → 00:23:57.604
They’re just not.
00:23:57.604 → 00:24:00.484
We don’t have the tools to make those judgment calls.
00:24:00.944 → 00:24:02.304
It would be nice if we did.
00:24:03.424 → 00:24:11.604
It would be great if radiocarbon dating were actually reliable, and we could simply look at it and say, this is exactly how old this thing is, because we tested it and it showed that old.
00:24:11.724 → 00:24:12.544
But it’s not.
00:24:12.684 → 00:24:13.924
We don’t have those tools.
00:24:14.484 → 00:24:15.644
I don’t think we ever will.
00:24:15.644 → 00:24:26.044
I don’t think there’s a conceivable way, given the limitations of physics and our current environment, universe, really, to actually create tools to test the age of things in that way.
00:24:27.604 → 00:24:40.104
At the absolute best, maybe you could test a parent age, but even that, I think, is very dicey, which is shown by the fact that we have these instances where radiometric dating is used, and it gives numbers we know are wrong.
00:24:40.464 → 00:24:40.804
Right?
00:24:40.804 → 00:24:50.644
When you test a chicken carcass that you know you put in your backyard five years ago, and it says it’s 5,000 years old, you know the tool made an error.
00:24:50.644 → 00:24:56.384
You know it’s wrong, and so you know it’s not foolproof, and perhaps not even errorproof, which is what I would say it’s not.
00:24:59.384 → 00:25:03.204
The next question, question five here.
00:25:07.104 → 00:25:09.964
Do you hold a cyclical view of history?
00:25:09.964 → 00:25:23.424
If so, and we are in a civilizational winter, is there any way for us today to return to something like medieval or Reformation era Christendom, summer or autumn, without going through the decay of winter and the violence of spring?
00:25:25.484 → 00:25:37.344
I don’t know that I would say I subscribe to a truly cyclical view of history, but at the same time, I wouldn’t say my view is entirely not cyclical view of history, right?
00:25:37.684 → 00:25:46.064
I think perhaps the way to look at it is, I don’t know who originally said it, it’s usually attributed to Mark Twain and others, but it’s one of those quotes, right?
00:25:46.864 → 00:25:48.784
History may not repeat, but it rhymes.
00:25:48.844 → 00:25:52.824
I think that’s probably closer to the truth, and the reason for that is pretty simple.
00:25:53.644 → 00:25:54.984
Human beings are human beings.
00:25:55.664 → 00:26:00.704
We are going to behave in certain ways and do certain things because we are that way.
00:26:01.324 → 00:26:03.724
And so, you’re going to see rise and fall.
00:26:03.724 → 00:26:05.224
You’re going to see these cycles.
00:26:05.224 → 00:26:06.844
You see it in the Old Testament, right?
00:26:07.024 → 00:26:18.364
You get every so often, fairly rare in the case of the Jews, but a faithful ruler rises up, and then maybe his son is faithful, and then you get less faithful, and less, and less, and less, and then apostate, right?
00:26:19.044 → 00:26:20.424
That’s sort of how things go.
00:26:21.924 → 00:26:34.964
That happens also with regard to the secular, as it were, with the rise and fall of empires, but if you look back through history, it’s not like you can predict it exactly, like a hundred years this happens, and the next hundred years this happens.
00:26:35.704 → 00:26:43.144
The Greek empires, the Roman empire, these various empires down through history, the Persians, didn’t last the same number of years.
00:26:43.144 → 00:26:48.444
Some lasted significantly longer, some lasted significantly shorter periods of time.
00:26:49.504 → 00:26:58.804
They had similarities in why they fell, but it’s not exact across those empires, so I think it’s closer to say that it rhymes, right?
00:27:00.184 → 00:27:09.724
But with regard to our current civilization, no, I don’t think that we have to go through some sort of deep, I don’t even think we can, honestly.
00:27:09.984 → 00:27:22.804
But I don’t think we have to go through some sort of deep and desperate and terrible winter, and then the necessary process of indeed violent rebirth that happens in the spring in this sort of system.
00:27:23.384 → 00:27:24.524
I don’t think you have to do that.
00:27:24.524 → 00:27:26.544
I don’t think it has to follow this pattern.
00:27:26.884 → 00:27:29.984
I think that you can skip seasons as it were.
00:27:30.164 → 00:27:46.744
And I think we see instances of that happening in history where you’ll have some civilization where it’s starting to decay and then it resurges, or where it’s fallen into the winter stage and it resurges without that necessarily in this outlook violent spring, right?
00:27:47.644 → 00:27:57.784
I think that we don’t even have the option, sort of speaking in more concrete terms in our case, I don’t think we have the option of that winter and then the spring resurgence.
00:27:57.784 → 00:28:02.724
I think we have to win or the outcome will be truly catastrophic.
00:28:02.744 → 00:28:09.404
So I don’t think that sort of cycle is even an option for us, even if you assume that it is how things actually function.
00:28:12.584 → 00:28:15.684
Question six is about adoption.
00:28:19.084 → 00:28:26.064
How do you feel about white families that adopt third-world children and bring them into their nation and family?
00:28:26.224 → 00:28:30.424
Would you feel the same way with white families adopting white children?
00:28:30.424 → 00:28:32.884
So I’ll answer these in reverse order.
00:28:33.504 → 00:28:34.444
Adoption is fine.
00:28:34.444 → 00:28:41.324
There’s nothing wrong with adoption, and it is a very good way to solve some problems that are just part of being human, right?
00:28:41.784 → 00:28:46.124
Sometimes parents die, and that’s the most obvious example.
00:28:46.124 → 00:28:47.444
You have to do something with the children.
00:28:47.824 → 00:28:55.124
I think that adoption is generally better than just making them wards of the state, which is sort of the only other option, morally permissible option, right?
00:28:55.884 → 00:28:58.404
Some ancient civilizations would have done other things.
00:28:59.284 → 00:29:07.304
As far as cross-racial adoption is concerned, I think at the absolute best is foolish, and usually it is worse than that.
00:29:07.304 → 00:29:09.484
Usually it is pernicious, even malicious.
00:29:10.204 → 00:29:26.744
The reason you shouldn’t do it is that ultimately what you’re doing is you’re stealing that child away from his or her culture, removing the child from what should be his patrimony, and taking him to an alien land and then parading him around like a trophy.
00:29:26.744 → 00:29:27.844
They always do that.
00:29:28.104 → 00:29:32.704
And you can see in their behavior that clearly they’re doing it for the show.
00:29:32.704 → 00:29:34.604
They’re doing it for the good boy points.
00:29:34.604 → 00:29:38.504
They’re not doing it because they actually believe they’re doing a good thing by and large.
00:29:38.504 → 00:29:40.104
I’m not saying there are no exceptions to that.
00:29:40.964 → 00:29:44.384
So, no, you should adopt within your own nation.
00:29:44.384 → 00:29:48.224
And also, there are plenty of children who need to be adopted.
00:29:49.044 → 00:30:08.164
It’s not even an issue that should be discussed, because if you had absolutely no orphans in your society, every single child had a good home, and then maybe you could start talking about, okay, what do we do with helping our neighbor across the way, right, across the border, across the ocean, whatever it happens to be.
00:30:08.724 → 00:30:09.924
We’re not in that position.
00:30:10.164 → 00:30:13.044
We won’t be in that position anytime in the foreseeable future.
00:30:13.384 → 00:30:20.044
And so, as long as there are children to be adopted in your own nation, you absolutely must preference them.
00:30:20.444 → 00:30:23.144
Because again, it’s those concentric circles of concern, right?
00:30:23.604 → 00:30:26.624
Those who are closest to you, God has placed closest to you.
00:30:26.624 → 00:30:27.964
You owe them a higher duty.
00:30:28.364 → 00:30:37.684
So, you can’t decide, oh, I just want to go over here and help these alien children, and then ignore all these children who are actually my own flesh and blood.
00:30:37.684 → 00:30:38.484
You can’t do that.
00:30:38.724 → 00:30:40.164
That’s immoral, it’s anti-Christian.
00:30:40.164 → 00:30:41.704
It is a wicked thing to do.
00:30:42.764 → 00:30:44.024
So, adoption is just fine.
00:30:44.024 → 00:30:49.424
Adoption is a good thing, but don’t adopt children from random countries around the world, and then bring them here.
00:30:49.424 → 00:30:55.804
You’re just causing problems for everyone in order to say, look at how good I am, which is demonstrating you’re not good at all.
00:30:58.224 → 00:31:02.664
Going to look through the chat here, make sure you don’t miss any questions.
00:31:09.309 → 00:31:10.029
Let me see.
00:31:13.629 → 00:31:16.209
Okay, I, question seven.
00:31:16.209 → 00:31:26.929
I am really trying to embrace traditional Christian morality, but having immense trouble with Deuteronomy 22-28, and cannot help but think this command is incompatible with Western morality.
00:31:26.929 → 00:31:27.389
Okay.
00:31:28.309 → 00:31:35.129
So I’m going to copy the question first, so I don’t lose that, and then I will pull up Logos here.
00:31:41.905 → 00:31:45.085
It really helps that we have scripture instead of the confessions.
00:31:46.185 → 00:31:48.825
Hey, it opened a deuteronomy for me, that’s nice.
00:31:51.665 → 00:32:05.285
But if someone finds the girl, the virgin, who is not engaged, and after he forces her, lies with her, and he has discovered, the man who lay with her shall give her fifty silver didrachmas to the young woman’s father, not to her, to the father, and she shall become his wife.
00:32:05.285 → 00:32:10.585
Because he humbled her, he shall not be able to send her away for all the time.
00:32:11.725 → 00:32:15.425
And let’s look at, I’m not going to go into the Greek right now.
00:32:15.425 → 00:32:22.025
I would do that usually if I were studying this on my own, but for the sake of the episode, I’m not going to take the time to do that.
00:32:22.025 → 00:32:25.225
I’m not fluent in Greek, so it actually would take me a little time to do that.
00:32:25.925 → 00:32:26.525
Let’s see.
00:32:29.465 → 00:32:31.545
So, 22, not 28.
00:32:35.525 → 00:32:35.945
Okay.
00:32:42.183 → 00:32:49.603
So it’s essentially the same, and it’s good to compare the Nets and the Lexan, because sometimes Nets picks weird archaic terms that don’t make any sense.
00:32:50.183 → 00:32:54.183
Quite frankly, some of their translation decisions are bewildering.
00:32:54.183 → 00:33:03.203
They’ll leave things untranslated, just basically transliterated into English from the Greek, and I’ve had to look some terms up, because they weren’t English words.
00:33:03.203 → 00:33:04.563
But at this case, we don’t have that.
00:33:05.843 → 00:33:10.883
So the question is basically one about sexual morality and things like that.
00:33:11.303 → 00:33:16.663
And I would start off by saying, these are not binding laws on us.
00:33:16.783 → 00:33:21.243
This is civil law for Old Testament Israel, not binding on us.
00:33:21.723 → 00:33:26.563
So we can take these things to be sort of a recommendation.
00:33:26.563 → 00:33:32.403
We can take them into consideration when drafting our laws, but we’re not beholden to them.
00:33:32.583 → 00:33:35.503
We’re beholden to the moral law, and that’s it.
00:33:35.503 → 00:33:43.643
The moral law, the Ten Commandments, the times where God says something, is an abomination to him, not an abomination to the Old Testament Israelites.
00:33:44.083 → 00:33:47.203
I’ve made that distinction before, so I won’t go over it again here.
00:33:49.043 → 00:33:50.903
This is civil law, different thing.
00:33:50.903 → 00:33:54.163
And the ceremonial law is the third type of law, also not binding on us.
00:33:54.163 → 00:33:59.803
We don’t have to do temple sacrifices, and we don’t have to throw the blood of goats on an altar sort of thing.
00:34:00.343 → 00:34:02.263
Christ, once and for all, done.
00:34:02.743 → 00:34:05.863
So no third temple, the Jews should stop trying to do that.
00:34:06.923 → 00:34:08.523
Tangential topic for another time.
00:34:09.223 → 00:34:24.303
But the question is, right, this seems uncomfortable, because this is a man who is overpowering a woman and lying with her, and, you know, he has to pay the bride price and then gets to marry her.
00:34:24.743 → 00:34:26.803
That seems uncomfortable to Western morality.
00:34:27.743 → 00:34:29.503
In part, yes, it certainly is.
00:34:29.503 → 00:34:30.483
This is a different culture.
00:34:30.483 → 00:34:32.963
Shemites are very different from Japhethites.
00:34:33.183 → 00:34:36.503
The Middle Easterners and the Near Easterners are not the same as we are.
00:34:36.963 → 00:34:39.363
So this is civil law for them, not for us.
00:34:40.203 → 00:34:48.743
But there’s more to that, to this verse, that unless you are very familiar with the Old Testament, you’re going to miss some of the things here.
00:34:49.223 → 00:34:53.103
One, the father has a veto with regard to marriage.
00:34:53.543 → 00:34:58.323
So if the father says no, the woman doesn’t have to marry this man.
00:34:58.603 → 00:35:05.723
So if the father is accepting the bride price, the father is saying, this is not actually a bad man.
00:35:06.183 → 00:35:09.303
Maybe there was some untoward stuff going on here.
00:35:09.703 → 00:35:13.143
But this is not necessarily speaking about violent stranger rape.
00:35:13.403 → 00:35:16.483
There are other things in between.
00:35:17.103 → 00:35:19.743
There are extremes here we’re dealing with with spectrum.
00:35:19.943 → 00:35:23.343
That’s at one end, it’s what Western ears hear when reading this.
00:35:23.563 → 00:35:28.723
And then obviously, there’s fully proper marriage and all that, at the other end of the spectrum.
00:35:28.723 → 00:35:30.063
And then there’s a lot of stuff in between.
00:35:30.243 → 00:35:31.363
There’s a lot of gray area.
00:35:32.203 → 00:35:36.683
Don’t find yourself in the gray area if you can avoid it, and you should be able to avoid it.
00:35:37.103 → 00:35:39.143
But part of the other problem is here, right?
00:35:40.003 → 00:35:41.023
Finds the girl.
00:35:41.943 → 00:35:47.283
This is speaking about a woman who is off doing something she shouldn’t be doing somewhere she shouldn’t be, typically.
00:35:47.443 → 00:35:50.663
Maybe not in all cases, but this is a woman who’s off wandering around, right?
Transcript
2/3
00:35:50.663 → 00:35:57.323
You can think of the instance in the Old Testament where one of the Deborah, right?
00:35:57.523 → 00:35:58.443
Or Dina, rather.
00:35:58.443 → 00:35:58.803
Sorry.
00:35:58.803 → 00:35:59.263
Dina.
00:35:59.843 → 00:36:00.923
The rape of Dina.
00:36:00.923 → 00:36:04.283
It’s not necessarily what we would call rape in modern terms.
00:36:05.003 → 00:36:20.583
She was off acting like an unsupervised woman, and in that culture, that implies certain things in availability, which again, different culture from us, not what would happen in Western culture, not what should happen to my understanding, how I believe things should be.
00:36:21.843 → 00:36:22.883
But I’m a European.
00:36:23.483 → 00:36:24.463
I’m not a Shemite.
00:36:25.243 → 00:36:31.843
So what happened there was not what we would call under our laws, rape.
00:36:32.323 → 00:36:43.443
It was something less than that, perhaps something still inappropriate, not something we would condone, but not something that we would punish with sort of the full force of the law for rape.
00:36:43.823 → 00:36:47.823
Different thing, same sort of thing is in view here in large part.
00:36:48.563 → 00:36:53.043
So, because there are other parts of scripture, right, that deal with punishing rapists.
00:36:53.423 → 00:36:55.263
There are other parts of scripture that deal with those.
00:36:55.263 → 00:37:00.823
So if you have parts of scripture dealing with that, this one’s not dealing with the exact same thing.
00:37:00.823 → 00:37:07.663
It’s dealing with a different thing, which is why he’s paying a bride price instead of being stoned or something like that.
00:37:08.243 → 00:37:10.463
And why, again, the father has the veto.
00:37:10.463 → 00:37:16.903
The father is the one who’s signing off on this and saying, no, this man is actually fine for my daughter, which is how it’s supposed to be.
00:37:17.343 → 00:37:19.203
That we should actually have in our society.
00:37:19.363 → 00:37:20.643
The father should have a veto.
00:37:20.643 → 00:37:31.563
The father, we should go back to the traditional way where you ask a woman’s father if you can marry her, because he’s the one who gives her away, because he is her head, he’s the one who has that control.
00:37:31.983 → 00:37:33.383
Scripture is recognizing that.
00:37:33.383 → 00:37:53.483
So the basic, sort of the bottom line point here for Western Christians, civil law not binding on us, different culture, not what we would call violent stranger rape, something less than that, something we would still consider inappropriate and probably punish in our society, and we’re free to do that, because this is not binding on us.
00:37:53.483 → 00:37:54.983
Our laws don’t have to mirror this.
00:38:07.063 → 00:38:16.603
So, someone has a follow-up question that is also from Deuteronomy 22, this time 22, 13 through 19, the virginity test.
00:38:16.603 → 00:38:18.323
I will copy the question here.
00:38:20.683 → 00:38:31.323
I guess a similar vein to Stephen’s question, the one who asked the previous question, the rather unreliable bleeding virginity test in Deuteronomy 22, 13 through 19 is so third-world coded and common there.
00:38:31.323 → 00:38:31.903
That’s true.
00:38:32.423 → 00:38:34.303
How do you approach God commanding this?
00:38:35.423 → 00:38:40.183
So, the test is not actually particularly unreliable.
00:38:40.743 → 00:38:44.003
It can be unreliable under certain conditions.
00:38:44.323 → 00:38:46.903
The one that there’s, there are certain things that are always brought up.
00:38:46.903 → 00:38:54.103
Like if a woman engages in certain sports, horseback riding, for instance, things like that, you can tear the hymen, right?
00:38:54.103 → 00:38:58.543
And then bleeding doesn’t necessarily occur during first intercourse on her wedding night.
00:38:58.963 → 00:38:59.743
That is possible.
00:38:59.743 → 00:39:00.823
That absolutely happens.
00:39:01.023 → 00:39:04.143
There are cases like that, or there’s differences in biology, right?
00:39:05.303 → 00:39:07.763
But I’ll read the passage here.
00:39:07.763 → 00:39:10.223
It’s just 13 through 19, so just this paragraph here.
00:39:11.383 → 00:39:29.903
Now, if anyone takes a woman and cohabits with her and hates her and places upon her specious charges and brings upon her an evil name and says, I have taken this woman, but when I had approached her, I failed to find proofs of her virginity, then the father of the girl and her mother, having taken them, shall bring the proofs of the girl’s virginity to the council of elders at the gate.
00:39:30.183 → 00:39:45.343
And the father of the girl shall say to the council of elders, I gave this my daughter to this man for a wife, but hating her, he is now placing specious charges against her, saying, I failed to find in your daughter proofs of virginity, but these are the proofs of my daughter’s virginity.
00:39:45.703 → 00:39:52.603
And they shall spread out the garment before the council of elders of the city, and the council of elders of that city shall take that man and discipline him.
00:39:52.803 → 00:40:00.023
And they shall find him one hundred shekels, and they shall give them to the young woman’s father because he cast an evil name upon an Israelite virgin.
00:40:00.483 → 00:40:01.843
And she shall be his wife.
00:40:01.843 → 00:40:04.143
He shall not be able to send her away for all time.
00:40:06.103 → 00:40:10.583
So again, this is civil law, same sort of copy paste answer as before.
00:40:10.583 → 00:40:16.803
But with the added aspect of, right, does a woman necessarily bleed on her wedding night?
00:40:17.523 → 00:40:19.603
The answer is no, she does not always bleed.
00:40:20.003 → 00:40:27.963
But this is a law meant to protect women in this ancient culture against wicked men, right?
00:40:28.783 → 00:40:33.163
So, it should be noted, this was also something that was done in Europe.
00:40:33.183 → 00:40:36.903
This is not something that is totally alien to our ancestors.
00:40:37.343 → 00:40:46.983
Our ancestors would also occasionally hold up the sheet from the wedding bed as proof of not necessarily virginity, sometimes just as proof of consummation, right?
00:40:46.983 → 00:40:50.903
Because the marriage had to be consummated or wasn’t a marriage.
00:40:51.343 → 00:40:53.743
This sort of thing did happen in our society as well.
00:40:53.983 → 00:40:55.503
So this is not completely alien.
00:40:55.523 → 00:40:59.523
God designed this system, this biology, to work in a certain way.
00:41:00.423 → 00:41:02.223
And it does in most cases.
00:41:02.903 → 00:41:07.803
So we’re talking about, asking about in the question, edge cases, right?
00:41:08.243 → 00:41:11.143
When this doesn’t happen, what do we do?
00:41:11.583 → 00:41:13.763
Well, we’re not beholden to this civil law.
00:41:13.923 → 00:41:17.463
So we have other ways to test these things, right?
00:41:17.683 → 00:41:24.763
And our concern would really not necessarily be, I mean, yes, ideally a woman is a virgin on her wedding night.
00:41:25.443 → 00:41:34.863
But the way to ensure that that happens is by her father exercising proper headship and authority and supervision and not letting her be alone with strange men.
00:41:35.323 → 00:41:38.483
That’s how you, it’s sort of chain of custody is what you’re really talking about here.
00:41:39.043 → 00:41:42.823
That’s how you deal with that in a proper society like ours.
00:41:43.263 → 00:41:43.783
It’s different.
00:41:43.783 → 00:41:46.323
We’re dealing with Middle Easterners, Near Easterners, they’re different people.
00:41:46.663 → 00:41:47.883
They behave in certain ways.
00:41:47.883 → 00:41:50.883
God gave them rules taking into account how they behaved.
00:41:51.263 → 00:41:52.883
Again, civil law not binding on us.
00:41:53.863 → 00:41:56.583
The real concern would be with adultery, right?
00:41:56.863 → 00:42:01.923
And we have ways to test for adultery that are foolproof.
00:42:02.203 → 00:42:05.483
So, we don’t have to worry about stuff like this.
00:42:06.323 → 00:42:16.043
So, don’t let these sorts of rules in the Old Testament, in the civil law, serve as some sort of stumbling block or concern for you, because they’re for a different people in a different time.
00:42:16.363 → 00:42:25.563
They’re not binding on us, and at most, they can serve as sort of a recommendation when you read them in context, right?
00:42:25.563 → 00:42:33.643
In the context, so look at how women were treated in other legal codes, in that time, in that area, and then look at what Scripture does.
00:42:34.063 → 00:42:38.623
Scripture is God trying to civilize these people in a very real way.
00:42:39.143 → 00:42:45.303
And so, I’m not saying that like God imposes stricter burdens over time, right?
00:42:45.303 → 00:42:50.103
There’s that old argument in academia that God is like slowly moralizing people.
00:42:50.243 → 00:42:52.723
No, the moral law is unchanging.
00:42:52.803 → 00:42:57.423
And so, if this man lies, he gets punished because lying is against God’s law.
00:42:57.423 → 00:42:58.843
He’s bearing false witness.
00:42:59.183 → 00:43:00.863
That is always against God’s law.
00:43:00.863 → 00:43:15.623
That is an underlying moral law truth here, but the civil law is the punishment, the procedure, those kind of things, not binding on us, and those should be higher in a higher society, in a society of better people.
00:43:16.083 → 00:43:18.003
So we’re not bound by this.
00:43:18.443 → 00:43:21.303
So don’t let this be a stumbling block for you.
00:43:21.663 → 00:43:24.823
Read it in the context because that’s what it is.
00:43:31.323 → 00:43:34.683
Let’s see, question nine.
00:43:34.683 → 00:43:39.103
Let me copy and paste it, so I don’t forget to do so.
00:43:40.543 → 00:43:45.923
Do we owe a higher duty to our kin in our nation or to fellow Christians who are foreigners in our nation?
00:43:46.303 → 00:43:49.083
Our pastor likes to say, fellow Christians are our true family.
00:43:49.083 → 00:43:53.183
So, not to quibble, but it’s important to draw this distinction.
00:43:53.183 → 00:43:55.083
The foreigners are in our country.
00:43:55.223 → 00:43:57.863
They’re not in our nation, because our nation is our people.
00:43:58.423 → 00:44:00.503
So, the foreigner shouldn’t be here.
00:44:01.683 → 00:44:02.663
That’s the fundamental problem, right?
00:44:02.663 → 00:44:05.723
You should always want to solve the foundational issue.
00:44:06.583 → 00:44:15.063
There are too many instances where we have people who want to address the symptoms instead of the disease, right?
00:44:15.423 → 00:44:18.323
And it’s not always bad to treat symptoms, right?
00:44:18.323 → 00:44:20.263
We recognize we do this with our medicine.
00:44:20.263 → 00:44:25.143
We don’t tell people, oh, you’re in pain because you have X, Y, or Z.
00:44:25.423 → 00:44:27.363
We’ll treat X, Y, and Z, but ignore your pain.
00:44:28.123 → 00:44:29.043
We don’t do that.
00:44:29.503 → 00:44:31.203
So, you do have to deal with these issues.
00:44:31.203 → 00:44:32.043
I recognize that.
00:44:32.043 → 00:44:40.203
So, I’m not just dismissing the issue, but fundamentally, the issue is that we have foreigners in our lands.
00:44:40.203 → 00:44:41.743
They need to be expelled.
00:44:42.083 → 00:44:43.583
That’s how you solve this problem.
00:44:43.983 → 00:44:50.563
But to address the question, we owe a higher duty to our own because God is the one who assigned that.
00:44:50.863 → 00:45:01.343
And this is something that most modern pastors, if I’m being charitable, I’d say don’t understand, but really for most of them, they’re just actually malicious.
00:45:02.223 → 00:45:06.163
There are some who are genuine fools, which they probably shouldn’t be a pastor then.
00:45:06.163 → 00:45:07.303
They’re unfit to be a pastor.
00:45:07.303 → 00:45:14.223
But God created the bonds of blood, right?
00:45:14.223 → 00:45:15.323
He’s the one who created those.
00:45:15.323 → 00:45:18.383
God is not absent from this equation.
00:45:18.763 → 00:45:20.743
God is the one who gave you a father and a mother.
00:45:21.043 → 00:45:23.883
He’s the one who designed the system by which you were created.
00:45:24.323 → 00:45:28.163
And he is the one who designed all of these bonds of kinship.
00:45:28.683 → 00:45:35.843
So, it’s not like you’re saying, oh no, I want to go and follow some pagan or whatever.
00:45:36.183 → 00:45:39.863
No, you are obeying the way that God designed creation.
00:45:40.743 → 00:45:43.763
And really, these men, ultimately, it’s a Gnostic argument.
00:45:43.883 → 00:45:49.903
They’re arguing that all that matters is this sort of chosen family, right?
00:45:49.903 → 00:45:57.123
They’re borrowing almost the same language as the left in regard to all their perversions.
00:45:57.563 → 00:45:59.343
And they’re trying to say that it’s Christian.
00:45:59.343 → 00:46:00.563
It’s not Christian.
00:46:00.963 → 00:46:04.083
You owe a higher duty to your own people.
00:46:05.143 → 00:46:06.883
Look at the Ten Commandments.
00:46:06.883 → 00:46:09.183
The Ten Commandments are basically hierarchical.
00:46:10.343 → 00:46:13.663
Honor thy father and thy mother pretty high up there, right?
00:46:14.123 → 00:46:17.263
Right after the ones that deal with God personally.
00:46:18.183 → 00:46:20.943
So that’s how important blood is to God.
00:46:20.943 → 00:46:23.023
That’s how important your family is to God.
00:46:23.363 → 00:46:28.483
You should absolutely care for your own more than foreigners who are in your country but shouldn’t be here.
00:46:29.743 → 00:46:31.363
Doesn’t matter if they’re Christian or not.
00:46:31.703 → 00:46:52.003
And as not really an aside, but a sort of subsidiary point, if they were actually Christian and had been catechized correctly, knew the Christian faith, believed in what it teaches, they would go home because they’re supposed to be among their own kind, not invading our lands.
00:46:52.443 → 00:46:55.743
So, I would question whether or not they are even Christian at all.
00:46:56.543 → 00:46:59.103
They are at the very least certainly not behaving as Christians.
00:47:05.457 → 00:47:12.637
Then we have someone asking about personal versus enemies of God.
00:47:14.317 → 00:47:16.737
Let me copy the question before I read it.
00:47:21.998 → 00:47:27.918
Where in the Bible does it differentiate between personal enemies and enemies of God or my countrymen?
00:47:28.438 → 00:47:30.218
What Bible verse should I look to?
00:47:31.358 → 00:47:35.218
This is not necessarily one where you are going to have a single Bible verse.
00:47:35.218 → 00:47:43.218
There are a lot of different verses for this one, and it is probably a more complicated argument.
00:47:43.218 → 00:47:55.638
I would say, look at the episodes in Stone Quire where we dealt with this, and then I also have an article on my site.
00:47:56.158 → 00:47:58.838
It would probably be easier if I had searched, but there we go.
00:47:59.678 → 00:48:01.798
I have this article, personal or public.
00:48:01.818 → 00:48:05.798
This deals with this exact question.
00:48:06.358 → 00:48:12.818
So I will put that in the show notes, but there are both personal enemies and there are public enemies, right?
00:48:13.238 → 00:48:19.958
And I think the best way to approach this with people is sort of how we generally do things, right?
00:48:19.958 → 00:48:21.238
Take an extreme example.
00:48:21.578 → 00:48:26.918
And so for your personal enemy, the simple version, right?
00:48:26.918 → 00:48:29.178
The sort of mundane, everyday option.
00:48:29.658 → 00:48:37.678
If your neighbor constantly borrows your tools and destroys them, he’s kind of your personal enemy in a certain way, right?
00:48:38.778 → 00:48:40.238
You don’t hate him for it.
00:48:40.238 → 00:48:42.178
You don’t try to destroy his life.
00:48:42.878 → 00:48:44.138
You forgive him for it.
00:48:44.498 → 00:48:47.638
Maybe you don’t lend him your tools in the same way.
00:48:47.798 → 00:48:52.938
You know, forgiving someone is not the same as recognizing they have a penchant for behavior in a certain way.
00:48:53.158 → 00:48:56.598
You can still behave with wisdom, but that’s a personal enemy.
00:48:56.598 → 00:48:57.398
You forgive him.
00:48:58.338 → 00:49:02.438
A public enemy would be like you’re at war.
00:49:02.438 → 00:49:05.938
Your nation is at war with another nation.
00:49:06.518 → 00:49:10.978
Are you allowed to say, well, I’m not going to oppose them.
00:49:10.998 → 00:49:13.018
I’m going to say, I forgive them.
00:49:13.018 → 00:49:13.638
They can do it.
00:49:13.638 → 00:49:14.458
You can’t do that.
00:49:14.458 → 00:49:15.558
That’s insane.
00:49:16.458 → 00:49:22.058
So almost no one is going to argue that as a Christian, you have to do that.
00:49:22.718 → 00:49:27.518
The only people who will do that would be the Anabaptists, the hardline ones who are actually pacifists.
00:49:28.138 → 00:49:30.178
And pacifism is not Christian, right?
00:49:30.638 → 00:49:31.638
It’s not Christian at all.
00:49:31.638 → 00:49:36.778
Look at the descriptions of God as a God, basically God of war in some cases.
00:49:37.398 → 00:49:39.318
He goes and wipes out his enemies.
00:49:39.318 → 00:49:40.558
He conquers the world.
00:49:40.558 → 00:49:43.078
He’s going to destroy all his enemies when he returns.
00:49:43.598 → 00:49:45.038
That’s not pacifism.
00:49:45.298 → 00:49:49.298
And then the last stage of this, or the last type really, would be enemies of God.
00:49:49.718 → 00:49:51.278
Take the most extreme example.
00:49:51.678 → 00:49:54.758
Are you personally allowed to forgive Satan?
00:49:56.898 → 00:49:58.738
No Christian is going to say yes.
00:49:59.978 → 00:50:05.198
So David Bentley Hart might say yes, but no Christian is going to say yes.
00:50:06.638 → 00:50:07.638
Use that example.
00:50:07.758 → 00:50:13.718
If that doesn’t get through to him, you’re probably going to have trouble getting through to him at all.
00:50:15.478 → 00:50:16.698
That’s just the reality of it.
00:50:16.698 → 00:50:25.138
There are going to be men who will simply not hear the truth, and sometimes the best thing you can do is identify them and then avoid dealing with them.
00:50:25.638 → 00:50:37.358
Because you’re going to waste your time, and they may very well try to destroy your life, because they’ll say you have to forgive your enemies, but they won’t forgive their enemies, because you’re going to be their enemy, and they’re going to try to ruin you.
00:50:38.058 → 00:50:40.338
So, exercise wisdom in that.
00:50:41.098 → 00:50:43.798
I would say the Satan example is probably a good place to start, though.
00:50:44.398 → 00:50:51.798
Because if someone says, yes, I forgive Satan, you have bigger problems, and you’re probably not going to get anywhere dealing with that man.
00:50:52.878 → 00:50:56.098
But definitely read that article, and then listen to the Stone Quire episodes.
00:51:07.316 → 00:51:12.296
Someone asked me to elaborate on a tweet that I posted apparently quite some time ago.
00:51:12.396 → 00:51:14.116
Let me look up when that was.
00:51:15.056 → 00:51:15.856
Real quick here.
00:51:27.373 → 00:51:37.233
I don’t even see the tweet, so I will perhaps save that one for next time, because the tweet’s not even coming up when I search for it, but I’ll save that to my future topic list here.
00:51:39.833 → 00:51:42.333
Someone asking about Nietzsche, basically.
00:51:49.655 → 00:51:51.235
Is George Washington in hell?
00:51:51.735 → 00:51:54.875
Well, that’s shortened to the point, so that’s question 11.
00:51:54.875 → 00:51:56.235
Is George Washington in hell?
00:51:57.435 → 00:51:58.075
I don’t know.
00:51:58.715 → 00:52:07.055
I don’t know enough about his personal beliefs to really make sort of an assessment there, and I’m not even sure I’d be comfortable doing so.
00:52:08.675 → 00:52:16.075
Washington seems to have been Christian, so it’s one of those things, we leave it to the wisdom of God, right?
00:52:16.235 → 00:52:20.295
If you want to talk about men where maybe we have some doubts, we want to talk about Jefferson, right?
00:52:20.295 → 00:52:25.995
Jefferson is the one who’s redacting the Bible to remove the parts that have miracles, to make it into a secular book.
00:52:26.935 → 00:52:31.115
We can have some very firm doubts about Jefferson’s eternal repose.
00:52:31.775 → 00:52:42.075
But men like Washington and others, you have some deism with regard to how they thought, because it was very popular at the time, it infected a lot of the educated class.
00:52:43.615 → 00:52:50.835
It doesn’t necessarily mean that ultimately they disbelieved Christ and disbelieved God.
00:52:52.055 → 00:52:54.475
Lutherans would call this felicitous inconsistency.
00:52:54.975 → 00:52:56.835
This issue comes up frequently.
00:52:57.275 → 00:53:00.735
And so we hope that he was felicitously inconsistent.
00:53:00.735 → 00:53:12.815
We hope that he had some tendencies toward deism and things like that, but that ultimately he did believe in Christ and relied on Christ alone.
00:53:14.215 → 00:53:17.335
So, I can’t say, you know, God hasn’t told me, right?
00:53:17.335 → 00:53:20.515
I don’t know for certain if George Washington is in hell or not.
00:53:20.515 → 00:53:21.655
I hope that he believed.
00:53:24.095 → 00:53:25.955
I hope that he did truly believe.
00:53:27.975 → 00:53:28.575
Let’s see.
00:53:34.609 → 00:53:40.209
Someone asks, what do you think of Christian Lebanese based on your biblical racial view?
00:53:40.209 → 00:53:42.549
I know some white nationalists are fine with them, some are not.
00:53:43.069 → 00:53:55.469
I have commented on this, this is question 12, I’ve commented on this in the past, not necessarily specifically with regard to the Lebanese, but with regard to non-white Christians in other parts of the world.
00:53:55.969 → 00:54:05.469
I would very happily work with them to arm them, supply them, give them logistics, things like that, to help them take over their territory.
00:54:06.009 → 00:54:07.389
Perfectly happy to do that.
00:54:08.009 → 00:54:14.709
But they need to be in their own lands, because we should not have people all over the world, spread all over the place.
00:54:14.709 → 00:54:18.449
That’s Satan’s plan for destroying the distinct nations that are the creation of God.
00:54:19.009 → 00:54:23.149
So they can be allies and friends, but over there, right?
00:54:23.969 → 00:54:26.649
Good fences make good neighbors, that sort of thing.
00:54:27.689 → 00:54:28.829
No, I have no problem with them.
00:54:28.829 → 00:54:30.769
I would never say that we should go to war and destroy them.
00:54:30.769 → 00:54:36.849
I would never go to war with Christians anywhere, who are actually being Christians and behaving as Christians.
00:54:41.089 → 00:54:42.969
Question about Italian fascism.
00:54:42.969 → 00:54:51.689
I think I will save that for later, since that’s obviously a little more in-depth, distinguishing different kinds of right-wing authoritarianism.
00:55:00.596 → 00:55:02.136
Question about drugs.
00:55:02.276 → 00:55:14.096
I guess we’re gonna see if this episode gets delisted on various platforms, which it may very well, since I’ve touched on some subjects that you’re not supposed to, at least not supposed to mention by name these days.
00:55:15.096 → 00:55:21.856
How do you feel about weed, which is say marijuana for Christians, and also meth, cocaine, MDMA?
00:55:21.916 → 00:55:26.676
Are these always banned for Christians like psychedelics?
00:55:26.676 → 00:55:32.436
So I would agree with you that psychedelics are at least almost always banned.
00:55:32.436 → 00:55:39.736
I don’t know if there are maybe some edge cases where they have some therapeutic or clinical utility of some kind.
00:55:39.736 → 00:55:41.376
I think there’s a possibility there.
00:55:42.296 → 00:55:44.636
Mushrooms are very weird, right?
00:55:44.976 → 00:55:50.136
We have only just barely begun studying the various compounds produced by mushrooms.
00:55:50.516 → 00:56:02.996
I’m not willing to go and say that all of them are prohibited on moral grounds to Christians, because some of them may turn out to be extremely beneficial in order to treat certain ailments, particularly psychological ones.
00:56:03.496 → 00:56:16.856
So, I don’t think that if it turns out they’re beneficial for that, that they’re banned, but recreationally, no, you should not be playing with psychedelics because that is just opening yourself up to a world of things you don’t want talking to you.
00:56:18.716 → 00:56:22.496
If you’re so inclined, go read some trip reports from people who’ve taken some of these things.
00:56:22.736 → 00:56:25.296
As a Christian, you should absolutely go, yeah, those are demons.
00:56:26.276 → 00:56:28.276
You’re talking to demons, you met a demon.
00:56:28.856 → 00:56:30.436
You probably don’t want to do that.
00:56:30.996 → 00:56:32.776
It’s not a good way to spend your weekend.
00:56:33.256 → 00:56:39.756
So, ecstasy, cocaine, methamphetamine, they’re extremely destructive drugs.
00:56:40.836 → 00:56:48.876
You know, I’m friends with a number of people who used to be part of the party scene, so ironically, scratch my nose as I say that.
00:56:48.896 → 00:56:53.716
I’m friends with people who used to be part of the party scene, and so, you know, I’ve seen people on some of those things.
00:56:54.176 → 00:56:55.216
They don’t do good things.
00:56:55.816 → 00:56:57.676
Cocaine destroys people’s lives.
00:56:58.116 → 00:57:00.876
Ecstasy can literally burn out your brain.
00:57:00.896 → 00:57:02.496
It causes a number of…
00:57:02.496 → 00:57:06.596
I mean, you can get serotonin syndrome, which is actually fatal in some cases.
00:57:07.156 → 00:57:14.956
I’ve never seen a single person do meth whose life didn’t completely implode, usually in a violent way that ended up in prison.
00:57:15.236 → 00:57:18.376
So, no, those drugs are not good.
00:57:18.376 → 00:57:19.756
Christians should not take them.
00:57:20.736 → 00:57:25.096
Now, does that mean that necessarily there’s no use for any of them?
00:57:26.416 → 00:57:47.956
No, because there are certain types of amphetamines that we do actually use for permissible reasons, like pilots flying very long-haul flights for the military will indeed take amphetamines, not meth specifically, but they will take amphetamines, because if you fall asleep flying a $1.5 billion aircraft, that’s typically very bad.
00:57:48.516 → 00:57:50.776
So, that’s a legitimate use.
00:57:51.376 → 00:58:04.616
There are uses for at least the plant from which cocaine is derived, probably not cocaine itself, that’s sort of a different beast, but the native people there would chew on the plant, and it’s basically like a stronger version of coffee.
00:58:04.616 → 00:58:06.416
I don’t think that’s necessarily wrong.
00:58:06.936 → 00:58:15.396
Ecstasy shows some clinical use for depression and things like that, so under control as a medicine, I think it’s probably fine.
00:58:16.016 → 00:58:19.016
I don’t think Christians should be using these recreationally, certainly.
00:58:19.216 → 00:58:20.916
And the same thing holds for marijuana.
00:58:21.356 → 00:58:30.516
And the reason that I would say people should not be using marijuana recreationally is not that per se, intoxicants are always bad, right?
00:58:30.516 → 00:58:32.316
Because obviously, I say alcohol is fine.
00:58:32.776 → 00:58:37.956
I actually don’t have a bottle on my desk right now to help one up, but see if I can get banned all at once.
00:58:37.956 → 00:58:40.896
But having alcohol is fine.
00:58:40.896 → 00:58:44.536
Intoxicants are fine as long as you don’t become a drunk.
00:58:45.056 → 00:58:46.616
Don’t become a habitual user.
00:58:46.616 → 00:58:50.016
And so people are naturally going to think, well, why not marijuana then, right?
00:58:50.016 → 00:58:54.016
Because marijuana is, the problem with marijuana is really twofold.
00:58:54.356 → 00:58:59.916
One, it does show longitudinal adverse effects on IQ.
00:59:00.876 → 00:59:04.236
So yes, if you’re a drunk, it does the same thing, right?
00:59:04.476 → 00:59:12.256
The problem is marijuana doesn’t have a safe amount that doesn’t have that effect on IQ if you use it at least for a long period of time.
00:59:12.476 → 00:59:16.236
If you smoked a joint or something in high school, it probably wasn’t a great idea.
00:59:17.496 → 00:59:18.996
It’s not going to make you an idiot, right?
00:59:18.996 → 00:59:21.136
It’s not going to make you literally clinically retarded.
00:59:21.136 → 00:59:21.896
That’s not how that works.
00:59:21.896 → 00:59:25.716
This is longitudinal use over many years, consistent use lowers IQ.
00:59:26.616 → 00:59:29.656
I don’t think it’s wise to use any drug that lowers IQ.
00:59:30.796 → 00:59:32.796
I think that kind of almost goes without saying.
00:59:33.116 → 00:59:52.956
The other aspect, and I think this is probably the more important one for marijuana, is that THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, does indeed show that for those who have a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia, it can actually be the catalyst for making it full-blown active schizophrenia.
00:59:54.696 → 00:59:56.776
I would not roll those dice.
00:59:56.876 → 00:59:59.356
You know, go back to the example I was talking about earlier, right?
00:59:59.356 → 01:00:06.096
If you have a 1 in 6 chance, it’s not 1 in 6, again, it’s smaller, so D100, whatever it is, a 1% chance.
01:00:07.796 → 01:00:08.736
Don’t roll that die.
01:00:10.336 → 01:00:14.896
The outcome is really bad, and we don’t have a way to screen for it.
01:00:14.896 → 01:00:18.016
So we can’t say, you’re safe, you’re not safe.
01:00:18.236 → 01:00:27.496
Sort of like smoking, we can’t say, you’ll get lung cancer, you won’t get lung cancer, so probably consider don’t doing it because of the negative longitudinal consequences.
01:00:28.036 → 01:00:32.016
And in this case, the chance of an actual psychotic break is on the table.
01:00:32.936 → 01:00:34.356
The risk is not worth it.
01:00:34.896 → 01:00:41.276
You know, I understand that people enjoy drugs like that, and I mean, I understand why they like them, right?
01:00:41.456 → 01:00:44.776
You know, downers are enjoyable to a certain degree.
01:00:44.776 → 01:00:50.636
I’ve never done any of these drugs personally, but I can understand the appeal.
01:00:50.696 → 01:00:53.756
I understand the mechanism and the effects and all those things.
01:00:54.736 → 01:00:58.476
It’s just the risk with these ones, much too high.
01:00:58.956 → 01:01:02.956
And I don’t think that you want to run that risk.
01:01:04.076 → 01:01:16.196
So, if you are, the problem, of course, is also that you can be a marijuana user for a period of time, and then I don’t know the exact mechanism of, but it’s like it reaches a critical mass or something, and then triggers the psychotic break.
01:01:16.416 → 01:01:22.316
So, just because you tried it or have smoked it for a number of years doesn’t mean it will never induce schizophrenia.
01:01:22.736 → 01:01:26.496
Now, like I said, genetic predisposition, but we can’t test for it yet.
01:01:26.496 → 01:01:36.916
We don’t know enough about the disease to know exactly what we’re looking for to see how that interaction happens, and whether or not you will be someone who runs this risk.
01:01:37.216 → 01:01:43.856
So, because of that risk, and because of the IQ lowering effects over time, I would say avoid it.
01:01:45.056 → 01:01:51.876
I don’t think that necessarily, like this is some super high-handed end-of-the-world sort of sin, right?
01:01:51.876 → 01:01:54.576
It’s not morally equivalent to murder or something.
01:01:55.116 → 01:01:58.456
It’s just unwise, and Christians are commanded to be wise.
01:01:58.896 → 01:02:07.476
So, take up craft beer or something, you know, something that, you know, is safe, as long as you’re not becoming a drunk.
01:02:08.396 → 01:02:11.676
If you don’t want the calories, take up whiskey, you know?
01:02:12.636 → 01:02:16.876
Or, you know, clear liqueurs if you want almost no calories, right?
01:02:17.956 → 01:02:22.816
But yes, I think that these are definitely unwise to use, at least recreationally.
01:02:23.276 → 01:02:27.556
Again, I do think that there’s utility there with regard to medical application, things like that.
01:02:27.556 → 01:02:29.096
So that research should continue.
01:02:39.137 → 01:02:43.077
Let’s see, I think maybe a couple more questions here, a pull from the chat.
01:02:43.157 → 01:02:47.017
Question, I page scrolled, question 14.
01:02:51.497 → 01:02:57.717
Does the Bible say anything about what hell will be like for those who have had no time to commit any sin at all?
01:02:58.017 → 01:02:59.437
For instance, a miscarriage.
01:02:59.777 → 01:03:04.257
Does scripture bear the possibility of people being saved out of hell?
01:03:04.837 → 01:03:07.117
So I’ll answer those in reverse order because the second one’s easy.
01:03:07.177 → 01:03:07.437
No.
01:03:08.697 → 01:03:12.857
It is appointed for man but once to die, and then comes the judgment, and that’s it.
01:03:13.437 → 01:03:14.197
It’s heaven or hell.
01:03:14.877 → 01:03:16.437
It’s paradise or hell, technically.
01:03:16.817 → 01:03:17.717
We don’t stay in heaven.
01:03:17.717 → 01:03:20.757
We have a body, so it’s a new heaven and new earth.
01:03:21.237 → 01:03:23.237
We’re in the new creation, which we call paradise.
01:03:24.037 → 01:03:30.757
So the question, then, is what happens to those who have not committed any personal sin, right?
01:03:30.757 → 01:03:33.077
Because original sin infects all of us.
01:03:34.697 → 01:03:35.157
Excuse me.
01:03:35.157 → 01:03:39.657
We are all subject to original sin because we are all descended from Adam.
01:03:40.377 → 01:03:43.657
We have all inherited Adam’s sin.
01:03:43.977 → 01:03:49.757
And so, it’s called ancestral sin sometimes, particularly in German sometimes, they’ll be called that instead of original sin.
01:03:49.757 → 01:03:53.697
But, so, that happens to all of us.
01:03:53.897 → 01:03:55.597
All are sinners.
01:03:55.597 → 01:03:56.977
All are guilty of sin.
01:03:56.977 → 01:03:58.777
All are damned without Christ.
01:03:59.577 → 01:04:03.297
Now, the question is, what happens, and the example given here is a miscarriage, right?
01:04:03.977 → 01:04:08.257
Someone who has not, in theory at least, committed any personal sins, right?
01:04:08.257 → 01:04:12.917
You assume that a child miscarried, say, very early on, right?
01:04:12.917 → 01:04:15.137
Maybe, you know, the zygote fails to implant.
01:04:15.277 → 01:04:16.757
The child literally didn’t live a day.
01:04:17.497 → 01:04:18.777
So, what happens?
01:04:20.197 → 01:04:24.317
I’ve gone over this before with regard to the issue of those who die in infancy.
01:04:24.397 → 01:04:28.337
And so, I would refer you back to those episodes, but just briefly in order to answer it here.
01:04:28.337 → 01:04:31.417
You can go back and listen to the longer form answer, as it were.
01:04:33.077 → 01:04:38.117
Children of believers, we can take comfort, given the clear teaching of Scripture in many places.
01:04:38.457 → 01:04:39.477
They are saved.
01:04:40.217 → 01:04:42.317
That’s God’s work, not ours, that of our hands.
01:04:42.317 → 01:04:46.277
But we rest secure that God has provided for them.
01:04:46.277 → 01:04:47.037
They are saved.
01:04:47.957 → 01:04:58.317
For the children of unbelievers, we don’t know, because Scripture does not specifically say what happens to those who die at that age.
01:04:59.237 → 01:05:06.077
And you could take the uncharitable approach, right, and say that, well, they’re sinners, and they never believed, and so they go to hell.
01:05:06.077 → 01:05:07.157
And that may be the case.
01:05:07.597 → 01:05:11.717
I’m not going to sugarcoat it or dance around the point, the answer here.
01:05:11.877 → 01:05:12.837
That could be the case.
01:05:13.317 → 01:05:20.017
But we cannot necessarily say definitively, one way or the other, what happens, because God has not revealed it to us in His word.
01:05:21.257 → 01:05:33.397
All He has revealed to us is that there is most certainly some point where you are certainly damned if you sin and do not believe in Christ, and all are sinners, right?
01:05:34.757 → 01:05:40.777
This is not like the age of innocence or whatever the Baptists try to teach, because that’s the problem.
01:05:41.017 → 01:05:42.297
It’s not in Scripture.
01:05:43.737 → 01:05:46.437
So that’s why we baptize infants.
01:05:46.457 → 01:05:49.357
That’s why we teach infants the faith, children the faith, right?
01:05:49.357 → 01:05:50.597
Infants don’t learn very well.
01:05:51.197 → 01:06:01.797
But because Scripture is silent on this, we put our faith and our trust in the things that God has given us and the things that God has said will give us the free gift of faith.
01:06:01.797 → 01:06:04.997
The things that He has said do save, baptism now saves you.
01:06:05.617 → 01:06:08.637
So we don’t know for the children-run believers.
01:06:10.357 → 01:06:12.477
I would not want to be in that position.
01:06:12.477 → 01:06:19.097
So the answer is to be a believer and to rest secure in that and to rest secure the promises for you and your children.
01:06:37.773 → 01:06:43.533
Think I will take this as the last question for this week.
01:06:56.584 → 01:06:58.044
Well, maybe one more.
01:06:58.044 → 01:07:01.064
Someone asked about Cain and Abel.
01:07:03.224 → 01:07:04.484
So question 15.
01:07:05.224 → 01:07:13.964
As an expert in politics, what do you think will be the fifth era in the US, and what will it mean for Christianity worldwide, and how do we make the best of what’s to come?
01:07:13.964 → 01:07:18.184
So at this point, there are really two outcomes that are on the table.
01:07:18.444 → 01:07:19.504
We win or we lose.
01:07:20.164 → 01:07:24.264
And that sort of goes, expert opinion there, right?
01:07:24.264 → 01:07:25.104
Very simple.
01:07:25.104 → 01:07:26.364
It’s going to be tails or heads.
01:07:27.164 → 01:07:40.284
But if we lose, then what we’re looking at, and I have to think about how to phrase my answer so that I don’t get myself flagged for 18 things all at once with one video.
01:07:43.004 → 01:07:46.304
It is a war of annihilation, is what we are currently facing.
01:07:46.504 → 01:07:52.084
And I think the outcome of war of annihilation goes without saying, given that it’s there in the name.
01:07:53.024 → 01:08:02.844
So there is no future for Christianity in the sense we have long enjoyed it over a course of centuries in the sense of Christendom, if we lose.
01:08:04.024 → 01:08:13.744
God will preserve some remnant, but a remnant may be just that, very tiny, sporadically placed, out of power and persecuted.
01:08:13.744 → 01:08:15.344
That’s happened before, it could happen again.
01:08:16.284 → 01:08:20.764
If we win, it won’t be the United States when we’re done.
01:08:21.284 → 01:08:39.384
It will be America still, because the nation will remain, but it will be a different political entity, and that will be very good news for Christians around the world, because then we can actually use the immense might and blessing of this nation that God has given to us to actually pursue God’s ends and support our Christian brothers and sisters around the world.
01:08:39.384 → 01:08:42.324
I have no problem with that sort of interventionism.
01:08:42.324 → 01:08:43.404
I think that’s a good thing.
01:08:43.944 → 01:08:46.764
And I’ve said before, I have no problem with imperialism either.
01:08:47.084 → 01:08:48.444
I think that that can be done well.
01:08:48.444 → 01:08:49.784
I think that can be a good thing.
01:08:50.664 → 01:09:04.164
So, if we win, it will certainly be a good thing for Christianity, and we obviously owe it first and foremost to help our brothers over in Europe, if we get things sorted out here more quickly than they get things sorted out there, which I think is pretty likely.
01:09:07.224 → 01:09:08.164
Question 16.
01:09:09.144 → 01:09:15.784
The way Cain acted and behaved around God suggests that he saw God as some sort of high-ranking human, not the creator.
01:09:16.084 → 01:09:17.364
It just doesn’t add up.
01:09:17.904 → 01:09:23.064
Sounds a lot like an old story or fable with a moral to the story, not history.
01:09:24.124 → 01:09:27.484
So let’s look at Genesis.
01:09:29.604 → 01:09:34.064
So let me pull up Logos here, pull up Genesis 4.
01:09:38.564 → 01:09:41.344
I think this will be the last question for this week.
01:09:48.595 → 01:09:55.235
Obviously, the names in this are very literally transliterated from the Greek, because I’m looking at the nets, so just ignore that.
01:09:55.695 → 01:10:02.135
And she, speaking of Eve, proceeded to bear his brother Abel, and Abel became a herder of sheep, but Cain was tilling the earth.
01:10:02.635 → 01:10:11.675
And it came about after some days that Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruits of the earth, and Abel, he also brought her the firstlings of his sheep and of their fat portions.
01:10:12.075 → 01:10:17.015
And God looked upon Abel and upon his gifts, but on Cain and on his offering, he was not intent.
01:10:17.435 → 01:10:20.895
And it distressed Cain exceedingly, and he collapsed in countenance.
01:10:21.295 → 01:10:24.935
And the Lord God said to Cain, Why have you become deeply grieved?
01:10:24.935 → 01:10:26.895
And why has your countenance collapsed?
01:10:27.235 → 01:10:31.255
And if you offer correctly, but do not divide correctly, have you not sinned?
01:10:31.495 → 01:10:36.015
Be still, his recourse is to you, and you will rule over him.
01:10:37.215 → 01:10:39.015
We’ll skip ahead here a little bit.
01:10:40.895 → 01:10:43.875
For Cain’s response to God, I think, is sort of the key part here.
01:10:43.875 → 01:10:47.235
And Cain said to the Lord, My guilt is too great for me to be forgiven.
01:10:47.475 → 01:10:56.615
If today you are driving me out from off the earth, then I shall be hidden from your face, then I shall be groaning and trembling on the earth, and it will be that anyone who finds me will kill me.
01:10:57.075 → 01:11:02.755
And the Lord God said to him, Not so, anyone who kills Cain will let loose seven acts of vengeance.
01:11:03.235 → 01:11:08.155
And the Lord God allocated a sign to Cain, so that no one who found him would do away with him.
01:11:08.595 → 01:11:13.655
Then Cain went away from the presence of God, and lived in the land of Nod, over against Edom.
01:11:15.355 → 01:11:31.095
So I don’t necessarily know where someone would get the argument that this is about a high-ranking man instead of God, because this very much doesn’t read as sort of how one interacts with a king.
01:11:31.355 → 01:11:36.275
This is something more than a king, something stronger, something more powerful than a king.
01:11:36.895 → 01:11:41.515
And also bear in mind, this is literally the second generation of human beings.
01:11:42.475 → 01:11:44.215
Adam walked with God in the garden.
01:11:44.475 → 01:11:51.275
Adam undoubtedly told his sons, like, this is God, this is not some random man walking around, this is God.
Transcript
3/3
01:11:51.915 → 01:11:55.555
And I don’t think that it would have been something subtle.
01:11:56.195 → 01:12:02.215
I think it would have been very obvious to those interacting with God, this is not just another man, this is God.
01:12:02.495 → 01:12:07.335
And so Cain’s response seems to be extreme.
01:12:07.335 → 01:12:12.955
It seems to be out of the sort of magnitude we would expect if he were simply dealing with a king.
01:12:13.755 → 01:12:21.015
So I don’t know where necessarily you got the idea from, if it’s your own idea from a particular book.
01:12:21.715 → 01:12:27.375
But I don’t think that it necessarily stands up when you look at just even the…
01:12:27.375 → 01:12:30.795
It’s obviously very short text, the Cain and Abel narrative is a short text.
01:12:31.575 → 01:12:36.375
But the way that he interacts seems very clear that he knows he’s dealing with God.
01:12:36.455 → 01:12:38.655
Like I said, Adam would have told him.
01:12:39.295 → 01:12:45.495
Adam walked with God, Adam knew God, Adam knew this man is God, and he would have told his sons.
01:12:45.495 → 01:12:52.255
And also bear in mind, we’re dealing with individuals here shortly after the fall, not long after the fall.
01:12:52.735 → 01:12:55.495
These men are relatively capable men.
01:12:55.795 → 01:13:00.595
They are intelligent, they are probably more spiritually attuned in ways than we are.
01:13:01.715 → 01:13:14.335
We can’t say exactly what the effects cumulatively of the fall are on us versus these individuals, but they probably excel us in a number of ways, excelled us in a number of ways, and probably still will in the new creation.
01:13:14.595 → 01:13:18.855
Not Cain, probably, we probably won’t meet him, but Abel, certainly, right?
01:13:20.095 → 01:13:26.495
So I think it’s pretty clear that he very much knew he was dealing with God, and would not have any doubts about that fact.
01:13:26.955 → 01:13:35.555
And so being driven away from the face, from the presence of God, is such a big deal to him, because he’s being driven away from the presence of God.
01:13:36.095 → 01:13:41.795
Just being driven out from the presence of a king is not that big of a deal, particularly when you’re a farmer.
01:13:42.855 → 01:13:48.135
He could have just set up, you know, ten miles away and started farming again, or whatever.
01:13:48.855 → 01:13:55.315
So I don’t think that from just the narrative itself, you can really justify the argument presented.
01:13:59.475 → 01:14:11.695
So I do see there are more questions in the chat, and I’m just going to have to add them to my growing list of questions, because I think that I’ll probably call it here for this week.
01:14:20.096 → 01:14:23.936
So I think that is going to be it for this week.
01:14:23.936 → 01:14:29.096
If your question is in the chat, I will try to grab it and paste it into my ongoing list.
01:14:29.336 → 01:14:39.016
Like I said, OBS, I, the week that everything goes perfectly fine, I’m going to assume that my house is going to catch fire when I hit record, because nothing ever goes completely right.
01:14:39.016 → 01:14:44.536
This week it was almost, but the chat window in OBS is still spinning, saying it’s loading.
01:14:44.536 → 01:14:47.016
So I’ve had to, that’s why I’m looking back and forth.
01:14:47.016 → 01:14:52.616
I’m looking at the chat over here to try and bring it up, and copy those questions over.
01:14:52.616 → 01:15:01.576
So as usual, the best way to submit the questions is indeed via the forum, because that way it’s on my site.
01:15:01.576 → 01:15:02.596
That is my site.
01:15:02.596 → 01:15:03.996
I do control that and update it and everything.
01:15:03.996 → 01:15:04.896
It’s on my server.
01:15:05.456 → 01:15:07.756
So that way I can organize them more easily.
01:15:07.756 → 01:15:09.996
I can link to them so people can read them and see them.
01:15:09.996 → 01:15:15.956
It just makes things neater, and it’s easier for me and easier for the archive ultimately, which is part of the goal here.
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So, that’s the preferred way to submit questions, but by all means, you can submit them in the chat.
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That’s fine.
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I try to notice those.
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I look at the chat as I’m going through this.
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You can submit them to me via Telegram, via either DM if you happen to be able to DM me on Telegram.
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If not, you can submit them via the Telegram group, or you can submit them on X.
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I try to read through my notifications.
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If I miss it, feel free to tag me again.
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Sometimes X doesn’t show me things because, you know, X.
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At any rate, thank you for those who submitted questions, and thank you for participating in chat and for your time.
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I’m always glad to do this, and I will see you next week.
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Make sure that you have a great weekend and go to church on Sunday.
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Maybe next week I’ll actually manage to do this on Thursday.
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Just sort of depends how my week goes, but Thursday or Friday.
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So at any rate, have a good weekend, and until next week, God bless.