AAC: 07 Aug 2026 (Q&A)

[mahler (Corey J. Mahler)]

Episode Information

• Date: 2026-08(Aug)-07(Fri)
• Number: e0037

• Links

  • Episode: 07 Aug 2026 (Q&A) | Corey J. Mahler Podcasts
  • Transcript: e0037.vtt

  • Other Platforms

    • Video:
      • YouTube:
      • X:
      • Rumble:

  • Original Broadcasts

YouTube

X

[mahler (Corey J. Mahler)]

Episode Wiki

This is the episode wiki — trusted users can edit it.

Topics Covered

1. Do the devil and his minions mimic proper worship?
   • ::–::
2. Roman Catholic to Lutheran Qualms
   • ::–::
3. my question is how does one obtain power in a godly way and maintain it, when maintenance means deception and dealing and managing parties and people that actively seek to destroy you
   • ::–::
4. What is the Christian case for physiognomy?
   • ::–::
5. I had a friend argues that the Lords words “why have you forsaken me” means that is NOT all knowing. I didnt know how to respond to that.
   • ::–::
6. What exactly is speaking in tongues? The church I grew up in didn’t have great teaching on this
   • ::–::
7. How should we respond to miscegenation within the church?
   • ::–::
8. From which denoms’ churches in the USA may a confessional Lutheran accept communion these days? (LCMS churches are hard to come by in some regions. An Anglican church I visited declared in their bulletin that those who believe in Real Presence were welcome to commune.)
   • ::–::
9. PSA
   • ::–::
10. How should Christians approach the field of Psychoanalysis eg writers such as Carl Jung
    • ::–::
11. What is the Christian position on insurance, both as a concept and as the industry exists today.
    • ::–::
12. Q
    • ::–::
13. Q
    • ::–::

[mahler (Corey J. Mahler)]

Transcript

1/2

WEBVTT

00:00:00.340 → 00:00:03.000
It is the 7th of August, 2026.

00:00:03.160 → 00:00:04.300
I am Corey J.

00:00:04.300 → 00:00:06.740
Mahler, and this is At Any Cost.

00:00:06.740 → 00:00:10.580
This is episode 37, a Q&A episode.

00:00:10.580 → 00:00:15.640
I will just check quickly to make sure my levels are good on a couple platforms here.

00:00:17.380 → 00:00:20.840
I’m sure someone will let me know in the chat if my levels are not, of course.

00:00:24.920 → 00:00:31.400
I updated OBS right before starting, so hopefully that will make things a little smoother.

00:00:31.400 → 00:00:53.140
But I don’t really have any housekeeping tonight, except to say that I have been away from my desk for just about a week, so I did not have time to get into any of the more, we’ll say, complex questions on the pending list, so I will probably focus more on the chat tonight, in addition to a few quick questions from the forum.

00:00:53.880 → 00:01:02.440
Before I get into the questions, I did want to note that I did see the question about someone who previously practiced witchcraft, and some things related to that.

00:01:02.840 → 00:01:07.800
I will get into that one next week, because I want to dedicate a little bit more time to that one before I answer it.

00:01:08.360 → 00:01:15.920
But getting into the questions, question one, do the devil and his minions mimic proper worship?

00:01:17.180 → 00:01:28.040
As the devil and his minions only corrupt and not create, correct, do they mimic rightful worship and introduce corruptions and perversions, rather than actually creating new worship methods?

00:01:28.520 → 00:01:33.680
Should we be worried this may have happened in Rome in the East, or that it could be happening in our churches today?

00:01:34.160 → 00:01:37.120
Are there any forms of worship he cannot corrupt?

00:01:38.860 → 00:01:49.200
So, of course, it is correct to stay off the bat that yes, Satan cannot create, and this actually goes to some issues that came up recently.

00:01:49.200 → 00:01:57.200
But this is tangentially related to the issue of original sin, because original sin is not man’s nature.

00:01:57.600 → 00:01:58.760
This was…

00:01:59.420 → 00:02:02.660
The names of the heresies don’t matter that much when they’re ones like these.

00:02:02.660 → 00:02:08.740
You know, everyone knows the big ones, Arianism, things like that, but you can ignore the name, so I won’t even bother to mention it.

00:02:09.520 → 00:02:18.700
But there have been men who have contended, heretics who have contended, that after the fall, the nature of man is original sin.

00:02:19.080 → 00:02:30.060
And the problem with that is it would be to say that Satan is our creator, because it would be to say that Satan is the creator of man’s nature.

00:02:30.420 → 00:02:32.280
And so, that’s obviously false.

00:02:32.280 → 00:02:35.000
He’s not the creator of man’s nature.

00:02:36.860 → 00:02:42.740
Rather, what he has done is he has infused, as it were, a corruption into man’s nature.

00:02:42.740 → 00:02:48.000
There are many ways you can speak about original sin, and that is just a corruption.

00:02:48.000 → 00:02:53.900
It’s a perversion, it’s not a substance, it’s not an actual thing, as it were.

00:02:54.060 → 00:03:01.520
Because every thing is created by God, every substance, every essence, and so those are good.

00:03:01.620 → 00:03:04.300
And so, mankind’s nature, even after the fall, is good.

00:03:04.300 → 00:03:11.200
But to get into the question itself, which is, again, tangentially related, worship is good.

00:03:12.100 → 00:03:18.940
All of the forms of worship of God that God has created, and he has created these forms of worship, they are good things.

00:03:19.460 → 00:03:24.900
Now, we can’t really create a form of worship of God, because it wouldn’t be worship of God, right?

00:03:25.160 → 00:03:28.060
The ways you worship God are things he has told you to do.

00:03:28.060 → 00:03:30.680
You worship God by obeying his law.

00:03:30.680 → 00:03:32.840
You worship God by helping your neighbor.

00:03:32.840 → 00:03:34.960
You worship God with prayer.

00:03:35.240 → 00:03:37.200
These are things God has instituted.

00:03:37.560 → 00:03:42.560
And Satan can corrupt those, he can misdirect them, he can mislead you.

00:03:43.080 → 00:03:47.840
He cannot actually create any form of worship.

00:03:48.760 → 00:03:57.020
So, it’s absolutely correct to say that, yes, the forms of worship he has created are perversions of the ones that God created.

00:03:57.300 → 00:04:03.340
So, a good example here, and it is brought up, there’s some additional text after this question for the reasoning.

00:04:03.340 → 00:04:04.980
If you would like to read that, it’s on the forum.

00:04:04.980 → 00:04:10.420
But, yes, the Asherah and things like that are all corruptions of worship.

00:04:10.420 → 00:04:16.440
In particular, Satan likes to corrupt sort of echoes of worship from all the way back in the garden.

00:04:17.400 → 00:04:27.740
One of the things that is often overlooked in the Garden of Eden narrative, everyone tends to think that it was just one tree in the center of the garden.

00:04:28.320 → 00:04:33.520
The thing is, the word there can be taken to mean tree or type of tree.

00:04:33.760 → 00:04:35.320
So, it may have been a sacred grove.

00:04:35.800 → 00:04:37.720
It probably was a sacred grove.

00:04:38.020 → 00:04:40.080
And so, you don’t have to believe that, right?

00:04:40.080 → 00:04:42.920
It doesn’t change your faith if you believe it or not.

00:04:42.920 → 00:04:50.840
But we see echoes of that in the corruptions that took place in many places, where they planted so-called sacred groves.

00:04:51.220 → 00:04:53.900
And then those were to worship false gods.

00:04:54.140 → 00:05:03.600
So, they were doing something that they heard via telephone, basically, from their ancient ancestors, from what Adam and Eve were supposed to do in the garden.

00:05:03.940 → 00:05:06.680
And Satan turned that to the worship of evil.

00:05:06.760 → 00:05:08.660
Human sacrifice is the same way.

00:05:09.320 → 00:05:12.580
There are a number of ways you can get to human sacrifice.

00:05:12.580 → 00:05:21.880
Either you can corrupt the sacrifice of animals, which was part of Old Testament worship, or you can corrupt the narrative of Abraham, right?

00:05:22.540 → 00:05:23.560
Abraham and Isaac.

00:05:24.360 → 00:05:26.000
That’s essentially what’s happening there.

00:05:26.000 → 00:05:29.440
And so, the logic is almost sound, right?

00:05:29.440 → 00:05:34.200
But it’s sound in that sort of demonic way, where the thing you’re doing is inherently evil.

00:05:34.520 → 00:05:39.420
And so, even if it seems to have a veneer of rationality to it, it’s ultimately wrong.

00:05:39.980 → 00:05:46.480
And the reason that it has that veneer is, okay, if I sacrifice the first of my flocks, the first fruits, right?

00:05:46.480 → 00:05:49.940
That’s giving something expensive, costly, meaningful to God.

00:05:50.260 → 00:05:54.180
Well, what could be more expensive, costly, and meaningful than my firstborn son?

00:05:55.000 → 00:06:03.140
That’s basically the logic of the pagan cults that practice particularly sacrifice of the firstborn son for human sacrifices.

00:06:03.340 → 00:06:09.100
And of course, that’s extremely disgenic among other things, and it’s part of the reason those populations look the way they do today.

00:06:09.860 → 00:06:12.480
But yes, Satan is definitely corrupting worship.

00:06:13.360 → 00:06:21.400
And the way that you avoid it is, you know the kinds of worship that God approves, and you stay within those bounds, right?

00:06:21.400 → 00:06:24.560
God has music in the scriptures.

00:06:25.120 → 00:06:31.720
Now, I do argue, and I believe, that there should be some level of decorum with regard to music, and there’s an article on my website about that.

00:06:32.120 → 00:06:34.120
But music is part of God’s worship.

00:06:35.020 → 00:06:37.000
Liturgy is part of God’s worship.

00:06:37.160 → 00:06:39.200
Look at all of his worship in the Old Testament.

00:06:39.580 → 00:06:40.720
It’s all structured.

00:06:40.900 → 00:06:47.420
It doesn’t mean all worship has to be structured, but the formal worship of God in church should be liturgical.

00:06:48.760 → 00:06:52.840
You see the use of written prayers, memorized prayers.

00:06:52.840 → 00:06:54.320
That’s what the Psalter ultimately is.

00:06:54.320 → 00:06:57.500
It’s a combination of prayers and hymns, as we would call them.

00:06:58.240 → 00:07:02.160
Christ teaches his apostles, his disciples, a prayer.

00:07:02.300 → 00:07:03.120
We should use that one.

00:07:03.120 → 00:07:04.140
It’s the Lord’s Prayer.

00:07:04.420 → 00:07:07.140
As a Christian, you should be praying that one multiple times a day.

00:07:07.440 → 00:07:13.500
If God gives you a specific prayer and says, I want to hear this one, you’re not going to create a better one.

00:07:13.740 → 00:07:14.800
He gave you the best one.

00:07:14.800 → 00:07:16.960
It doesn’t mean you use exclusively that prayer.

00:07:17.260 → 00:07:23.660
It doesn’t mean you repeat it mindlessly, but you use it, because it’s a gift from God we can use to worship him.

00:07:24.160 → 00:07:30.060
So as long as you stay within these boundaries that God has set, and your worship is directed toward God, right?

00:07:30.060 → 00:07:31.400
That’s kind of a key here.

00:07:32.040 → 00:07:35.600
You don’t need to be worried about going off the rails with regard to forms of worship.

00:07:35.900 → 00:07:41.860
You worry about it when you start creating your own forms of worship, or you start worshiping something other than God.

00:07:42.500 → 00:07:44.760
So that’s what Satan wants you to do.

00:07:44.760 → 00:08:01.120
He wants you to do something that seems good, and you go off the rails, or he wants you to outright worship another God, even if you’re using something that looks kind of like worship of the one true God, or even would be proper worship, if it were directed at God instead of this other thing.

00:08:05.220 → 00:08:07.960
That’s the witchcraft question, which I will save for next week.

00:08:09.340 → 00:08:10.740
Question two.

00:08:11.860 → 00:08:20.160
This is actually sort of the inverse of a question that I answered in my chat, I think, just about a week ago, a little more than that.

00:08:20.780 → 00:08:21.700
So question two.

00:08:21.800 → 00:08:24.920
I am a Roman Catholic, and my boyfriend is Elsemeth Lutheran.

00:08:25.220 → 00:08:38.400
We intend on getting married, and I am somewhat all right with becoming Lutheran because I feel as though I am submitting to my future husband, and after hearing your episode on the Lord’s Supper and having my boyfriend explain Lutheranism, it makes more sense to me.

00:08:38.780 → 00:08:46.860
I’m scared of becoming Lutheran, however, because when I converted to the Roman Catholic Church, I confessed that it was the one true church.

00:08:47.440 → 00:08:51.560
I’m afraid that converting to Lutheranism would mean I am breaking a confession I made to God.

00:08:51.940 → 00:08:56.320
It doesn’t help that I am being told by Catholics in my church that I will go to hell if I convert.

00:08:56.800 → 00:09:06.800
What reassurance do I have that I will not go to hell if I convert and that I am not wrong in leaving the one true church as they believe it to be, as she believed it to be?

00:09:08.500 → 00:09:22.800
This came up, actually, like I said, in the inverse in my chat recently, because there was a woman asking if she would be wrong to follow her husband and attend the Roman Catholic Church, because he’s Roman Catholic and wants her to attend that church.

00:09:22.840 → 00:09:26.060
And I said, no, and I know there will be Lutherans that are angry at me for that.

00:09:26.640 → 00:09:36.680
And I just admonished her, focus on Christ, Christ is your righteousness, Christ is the reason you are saved.

00:09:36.960 → 00:09:48.700
So, you know, if you’re going from whatever to Rome, don’t go all in on the Mary stuff, don’t go all in on the saint stuff, but there are plenty of very good Christians in Roman Catholic churches.

00:09:49.280 → 00:09:52.060
As a Lutheran, I staunchly disagree with some things they do.

00:09:52.060 → 00:09:57.580
I would go so far as to agree with the confession, of course, that some of the things they do are blasphemous.

00:09:58.160 → 00:10:00.060
That doesn’t mean that I think they’re all damned.

00:10:00.540 → 00:10:07.440
And with regard to going from Rome to Lutheranism, of course, I’m going to say that I don’t have the same doctrinal problems, obviously.

00:10:07.460 → 00:10:08.920
That’s the reason that I’m a Lutheran.

00:10:10.400 → 00:10:13.960
But I would start out by saying, what is the church, right?

00:10:13.960 → 00:10:21.820
And so, as a Lutheran, when you become a Lutheran, you can, of course, appeal to the confession then, which has a very clear statement of that.

00:10:21.820 → 00:10:28.360
We have the Small Called Articles, and that is Article 12 in Part 3.

00:10:28.540 → 00:10:29.640
So, I’ll just pull that up.

00:10:30.720 → 00:10:32.900
And actually, I will just pull this up.

00:10:34.880 → 00:10:37.520
I may as well pull it up in a browser window here, because…

00:10:39.400 → 00:10:42.800
so you can read along if you are watching this instead of listening.

00:10:43.560 → 00:10:58.320
So, in the Small Called Articles, Article 12 of the Church, we do not concede to them, speaking, of course, about Rome, that they are the Church, and in truth, they are not the Church, nor will we listen to those things which under the name of Church, they enjoin or forbid.

00:10:58.600 → 00:11:00.920
And here’s the key part of this that I wanted to really read.

00:11:01.340 → 00:11:09.120
For thank God today, a child seven years old knows what the Church is, namely, the holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their shepherd.

00:11:09.420 → 00:11:13.960
For the children pray thus, I believe in one holy Christian Church.

00:11:14.740 → 00:11:26.040
And holy and Catholic, I know there are some people who will complain about whether you say, the holy Christian or holy Catholic Church in the creed, both have been used for centuries.

00:11:26.440 → 00:11:31.100
The Germans in the Reformation did not start doing Christian instead of Catholic.

00:11:31.460 → 00:11:32.960
I learned it as Katholische Kirche.

00:11:33.200 → 00:11:35.040
I learned it as Catholic Church in German.

00:11:35.240 → 00:11:37.640
When I learned it in German, I learned it in English first.

00:11:38.760 → 00:11:42.720
So don’t let someone take you down that particular rabbit trail.

00:11:42.720 → 00:11:44.240
There’s no real difference there.

00:11:44.240 → 00:11:46.580
But they mean the same thing.

00:11:47.660 → 00:11:49.880
When it comes to the Church, the Church is all believers.

00:11:50.160 → 00:11:56.000
I’ve said this many times before, but it bears repeating probably to the point where people get tired of hearing it, which is good.

00:11:56.000 → 00:11:57.560
They should want to hear it that many times.

00:11:58.180 → 00:12:00.500
Adam was a Christian, never a part of Rome.

00:12:01.040 → 00:12:03.440
David’s a Christian, never a part of Rome.

00:12:03.560 → 00:12:03.840
Right?

00:12:03.840 → 00:12:05.160
And I can keep listing these men.

00:12:05.160 → 00:12:07.140
Abraham, Christian, never part of Rome.

00:12:07.140 → 00:12:10.000
Japheth, when he walked off the ark, Christian, never part of Rome.

00:12:10.360 → 00:12:13.460
His sons, undoubtedly Christians, never part of Rome.

00:12:14.280 → 00:12:18.260
Rome didn’t exist for thousands of years after these men were part of the Church.

00:12:18.480 → 00:12:24.180
So, the Church cannot be limited to Rome, because the Church isn’t Rome.

00:12:24.180 → 00:12:30.560
The claims of Rome, with regard to being the Church, are the same as the claims of the Eastern Orthodox and so many others.

00:12:31.380 → 00:12:32.720
They’re just false on their face.

00:12:33.160 → 00:12:34.340
Because who are the sheep?

00:12:34.740 → 00:12:37.580
The sheep are those who hear the Master’s voice.

00:12:38.000 → 00:12:39.600
Are all the sheep in Rome?

00:12:39.980 → 00:12:43.480
No, because there are true Christians outside Rome.

00:12:43.560 → 00:12:47.920
Even, incidentally, you can use this with Roman Catholics.

00:12:48.120 → 00:12:54.400
Mileage may vary, but Rome no longer says that those outside Rome are necessarily damned.

00:12:54.740 → 00:12:57.720
They gave up on that argument a very long time ago.

00:12:59.340 → 00:13:01.000
The extra ecclesiasticalis, right?

00:13:01.000 → 00:13:02.500
Outside the Church, there is no salvation.

00:13:02.500 → 00:13:04.040
They gave up on that a long time ago.

00:13:04.380 → 00:13:10.200
They specifically said that some Lutherans, they’ll, you know, not say every Lutheran, because they don’t even believe every Roman Catholic is saved, right?

00:13:10.200 → 00:13:13.360
But they will say that some Lutherans are indeed saved.

00:13:13.560 → 00:13:16.280
The same for some Anglicans, some Reformed brothers as well.

00:13:17.160 → 00:13:22.760
So, that is even in Rome, their current doctrine does not say that you are damned if you are not part of Rome.

00:13:23.440 → 00:13:28.940
So, you don’t have to be part of any corporate body to be saved.

00:13:29.220 → 00:13:31.040
You have to be part of Christ Church.

00:13:31.040 → 00:13:35.140
And again, Christ Church is all those lambs who hear the Master’s voice.

00:13:35.580 → 00:13:39.160
So, yes, you can be a Christian and be in a Roman Catholic Church.

00:13:39.440 → 00:13:43.220
You can be in a Lutheran Church, you can be in an Anglican Church, you can be in a Presbyterian Church.

00:13:43.860 → 00:13:45.880
Some have better theology, some have worse.

00:13:46.180 → 00:13:50.260
But one of the things, of course, that comes into it is felicitous inconsistency.

00:13:50.260 → 00:13:56.560
So, if you don’t believe the things these other churches teach that are false, they don’t harm you.

00:13:57.320 → 00:13:59.000
It’s better if you’re not exposed to them, right?

00:13:59.000 → 00:14:08.860
But if you don’t believe them ultimately, you hold on to Christ and the faith that is the free gift from God, that’s what justifies you, then you’re a Christian.

00:14:10.080 → 00:14:18.300
Just because you’re attending a church that is heterodox, dogmatically, doctrinally, theologically, does not mean you’re going to be damned.

00:14:18.860 → 00:14:21.140
The standard is not perfection theologically.

00:14:21.140 → 00:14:25.300
The standard is the free gift of faith and holding on to Christ.

00:14:25.300 → 00:14:26.560
So, just cling to Christ.

00:14:27.780 → 00:14:34.380
Perhaps you’ll like the famous comment from Luther’s wife, who will cling to Christ like a bird of cloth.

00:14:34.380 → 00:14:36.000
So, just take comfort in that.

00:14:36.620 → 00:14:41.080
You don’t need to worry about going from Rome to a Lutheran church.

00:14:41.080 → 00:14:42.860
You don’t lose your salvation for that.

00:14:42.860 → 00:14:43.840
You’re not damned for it.

00:14:43.840 → 00:14:45.880
You’re still a baptized child of God.

00:14:46.200 → 00:14:47.500
You still have your faith.

00:14:47.620 → 00:14:49.500
You’re just going to have different ceremonies.

00:14:49.960 → 00:14:52.940
Yes, there are doctrinal and dogmatic differences and things like that.

00:14:52.940 → 00:14:55.160
I believe the Lutheran stance is correct.

00:14:55.960 → 00:15:00.100
But anyone telling you that you’re going to be damned for doing that is completely out of line.

00:15:00.100 → 00:15:01.060
That’s inappropriate.

00:15:01.780 → 00:15:10.400
And like I said, I just advised a woman that if she is going to obey her husband in attending a Roman Catholic Church with him, she’s not damned for that either.

00:15:11.780 → 00:15:20.760
Granted, I gave different admonishments in that case than I would going from Rome to Lutheranism, but I’m not going to say that she’s damned for it because she’s not.

00:15:21.500 → 00:15:23.940
Because again, the sheep are those who hear the master’s voice.

00:15:25.560 → 00:15:27.420
Pull up the next question here.

00:15:35.240 → 00:15:40.320
Getting some strange chat messages on another platform, so I will just skip over those.

00:15:42.980 → 00:15:43.540
Let’s see.

00:15:51.760 → 00:15:54.560
Thankfully, the chat, I believe anyway, is working tonight.

00:15:54.560 → 00:15:59.740
That’s why I restarted the stream, because the OBS chat was not working, but I do have it working now.

00:16:00.280 → 00:16:03.020
At least I see messages coming in, so I assume it’s working.

00:16:03.200 → 00:16:06.060
I will pull out the first question here from the chat.

00:16:06.720 → 00:16:20.320
My question is, how does one obtain, this is question four, I should say, how does one obtain power in a godly way and maintain it when maintenance means deception and dealing and managing parties and people that actively seek to destroy you?

00:16:22.800 → 00:16:27.700
You almost have that contained there in, actually, this is question three, rather.

00:16:27.700 → 00:16:30.260
I swapped two questions around on my notepad here.

00:16:32.260 → 00:16:34.140
The AI transcript can deal with that.

00:16:34.140 → 00:16:35.280
It’s their problem, not mine.

00:16:35.280 → 00:16:42.220
But when it comes to power, you sort of answer the question for yourself there, right?

00:16:42.720 → 00:16:46.520
If you have these individuals surrounding you, well, that’s the problem.

00:16:46.520 → 00:16:48.200
The problem isn’t maintaining power.

00:16:48.200 → 00:16:49.760
The problem is how you maintain power.

00:16:50.240 → 00:16:53.200
It’s removing these wicked parties from around you.

00:16:53.200 → 00:16:55.780
And you should think of, perhaps, Proverbs 25.

00:16:56.360 → 00:16:58.320
I’ll pull up the verse here on my screen.

00:16:58.320 → 00:17:00.060
I won’t show it, since we’re just reading one verse.

00:17:01.220 → 00:17:04.560
Proverbs 25, verse 5.

00:17:05.320 → 00:17:10.360
Cut off the impious from the presence of the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness.

00:17:10.360 → 00:17:15.360
Well, there’s the recommendation of how you maintain power properly in a government.

00:17:15.660 → 00:17:16.960
You remove the wicked.

00:17:17.180 → 00:17:19.980
You don’t let them stick around.

00:17:19.980 → 00:17:22.840
You don’t let them cause you these problems.

00:17:23.280 → 00:17:31.340
So, if you have a righteous government, and you have righteous advisors, there’s nothing wrong with power.

00:17:31.340 → 00:17:33.200
Power does not corrupt.

00:17:33.200 → 00:17:34.520
That statement is dumb.

00:17:35.020 → 00:17:40.600
And it’s mostly used by those who want to undermine rightful authority and hierarchy and cause chaos.

00:17:41.020 → 00:17:41.960
So, discord.

00:17:43.560 → 00:17:48.420
And nor does absolute power corrupt absolutely, because that’s perhaps even a dumber statement.

00:17:49.460 → 00:17:54.440
Power may attract the corruptible and the corrupt, but it does not corrupt.

00:17:54.760 → 00:18:05.280
It may give you the ability to give in to corruption that is already present in you, your own predilections, your own perhaps besetting sins, whatever it happens to be.

00:18:05.840 → 00:18:07.620
Money does the same thing, right?

00:18:08.760 → 00:18:14.840
There are certain vices you can’t really indulge if you don’t have the money to indulge them.

00:18:15.480 → 00:18:18.560
So, the same thing is true with regard to power.

00:18:18.900 → 00:18:32.400
But the fact that power does not corrupt means that you don’t have to have this system of elaborate safeguards that you think are going to keep people from causing problems with regard to power, because that’s not how it works.

00:18:32.400 → 00:18:37.380
And also, the safeguards don’t work for other reasons that perhaps get into another time.

00:18:39.400 → 00:18:47.020
But on the other hand, a king is going to deal with the kind of men who are corrupt and attracted to power, and he has to deal with them.

00:18:47.520 → 00:18:51.040
But Scripture is pretty clear about how you deal with wicked men.

00:18:51.640 → 00:18:53.160
If you’re the king, you destroy them.

00:18:53.160 → 00:19:02.720
So you don’t just let them hang around and give you bad advice and cause you problems and torment your people and generally be a nuisance.

00:19:03.500 → 00:19:08.800
You get rid of them, and you make sure that you have righteous men in government doing what is right.

00:19:09.160 → 00:19:09.900
That’s possible.

00:19:09.900 → 00:19:11.580
There have been good governments historically.

00:19:11.580 → 00:19:22.060
There have even been good governments that weren’t Christian governments, because being a Christian is not a requirement to be good in the earthly sense of good, right?

00:19:22.060 → 00:19:25.420
You can obey the moral law without being a Christian.

00:19:25.420 → 00:19:28.280
You don’t get credit for it, because you’re not in Christ, you’re still a sinner.

00:19:29.360 → 00:19:31.300
I’ve gotten to that before, I won’t go to it right now.

00:19:32.160 → 00:19:38.640
But you can be a good person, you can have a good government, you can run your state well without being a Christian.

00:19:39.080 → 00:19:45.720
Being a Christian doesn’t mean that you can’t do that, doesn’t change how you go about doing it, at least not very much.

00:19:46.120 → 00:19:56.580
Because you’re dealing in earthly reality, you’re dealing in fleshly reality, you’re dealing in concrete problems with regard to the kingdom of the left hand, not the kingdom of the right hand.

00:19:56.580 → 00:20:07.260
So, the only people who really think that power is a problem and claim to be Christians are like the Anabaptists who say you can’t, without sin, hold public office and things like that.

00:20:07.260 → 00:20:13.500
And that’s explicitly condemned in the Lutheran confessions and elsewhere, I believe some of the Reformed confessions condemn that as well.

00:20:13.500 → 00:20:18.140
So, it’s just, power and Christianity aren’t incompatible.

00:20:19.100 → 00:20:23.460
There are those who’ve tried to argue they are, but those are bad actors.

00:20:24.100 → 00:20:28.540
They want Christians not to be in power, because they want evil men to be in power.

00:20:28.920 → 00:20:36.080
So, cut off the impious from the presence of the king is the answer from Scripture, and completely sufficient.

00:20:38.440 → 00:20:40.940
So, let me pull up some more questions here.

00:20:40.940 → 00:20:50.280
If more questions come in the chat, I’ll probably mostly focus on the chat tonight, like I said, but I also have quite a list of questions from which I can draw at this point.

00:20:55.260 → 00:20:57.980
What is the Christian case for physiognomy?

00:20:58.640 → 00:20:59.560
There’s a question.

00:21:01.200 → 00:21:25.320
This is one of those questions where I could certainly go into it at some length and in some depth, but to some degree, we really went over that and sort of covered it, not sort of extensively, or certainly not comprehensively, but we covered it in the series on race for stone choir, because obviously that is going to come up in the racial context, generally speaking.

00:21:25.920 → 00:21:40.400
But the reason that physiognomy, and for those who don’t know, it’s basically looking at the physical characteristics of a person and being able to divine or discern things from the physical characteristics back to, say, personality disposition, things like that.

00:21:42.260 → 00:21:47.020
The reason that you can do that is because the human being is a gestalt, right?

00:21:47.020 → 00:21:49.660
You are something that is greater than the sum of the parts.

00:21:50.160 → 00:21:52.340
You are not just your body, your flesh.

00:21:52.340 → 00:21:53.640
You’re not just your spirit.

00:21:53.640 → 00:21:54.580
You’re not just your mind.

00:21:54.580 → 00:22:01.960
You’re all of those together and more for being the sum of those things greater than the sum of those things.

00:22:03.100 → 00:22:11.700
So, there is part of the underlying, the spiritual or the mental reality, that is going to show through in the flesh.

00:22:11.700 → 00:22:13.640
And it’s not just a one-way street.

00:22:13.980 → 00:22:21.660
It’s a feedback loop, because as the flesh becomes degenerate and corrupt, it influences the soul and the mind as well.

00:22:21.660 → 00:22:28.300
We don’t know exactly how that works, because God didn’t tell us, and we don’t have instruments to test the soul.

00:22:28.700 → 00:22:34.800
But we know that it happens, because we can look at populations, we can look at history, we can look at individuals to some degree.

00:22:34.800 → 00:22:42.800
Yes, they’re outliers with regard to individuals, but when you’re speaking about these things, you’re talking about more like population level statistics, things like that.

00:22:43.480 → 00:22:52.020
We can look at those realities and see that, yes, you can actually tell, to some degree, things like criminality and intelligence from how a man looks.

00:22:53.020 → 00:23:09.600
And that’s perfectly in line with how God designed the world, because insofar as you deviate from what God wanted you to be, now, the deviation is not due to you personally, exclusively, because much of it is due to the wicked actions of your ancestors, right?

00:23:09.600 → 00:23:14.200
And the fact we live in a fallen world and accumulating corruption, degeneration, things like that.

00:23:14.720 → 00:23:23.160
But the way that you look and the degree to which that deviates from what God, again, wanted you to be is the result of sin.

00:23:23.820 → 00:23:26.440
And that sin does not affect just the flesh.

00:23:26.440 → 00:23:28.980
Again, it affects also the mind and the spirit.

00:23:29.720 → 00:23:31.300
Soul, whichever term you want to use.

00:23:31.440 → 00:23:35.760
And so those go hand in hand, down through history.

00:23:35.760 → 00:23:43.520
And so you can look at it physically in a person’s features, how far he is from that thing, and extrapolate it to the mind and the soul.

00:23:43.900 → 00:23:45.800
And generally speaking, the connection holds.

00:23:46.080 → 00:23:47.680
Like I said, there are outliers.

00:23:47.680 → 00:24:00.780
We’re talking more about population level truth here than individual, because an individual could have, you know, a mutation during the very early stages of pregnancy, right?

00:24:01.020 → 00:24:06.560
You can have some very unfortunate mutation that can lead to something that that individual severely disfigured.

00:24:07.280 → 00:24:19.100
That’s less an issue of physiognomy, which should be applied more to that population level truth, as it is just bad luck, essentially, in the Christian sense of luck, which I won’t get into right now.

00:24:19.140 → 00:24:27.420
But yes, absolutely, physiognomy makes perfect sense for Christians, aligns with what we know about God’s creation, and is a valid tool.

00:24:28.480 → 00:24:36.140
It’s not the absolute source of all truth, but that’s never the case with any of this stuff, but it is a source of truth.

00:24:39.720 → 00:24:47.760
Just copying some things into my notes here, so that I will have those in the show notes.

00:24:50.040 → 00:24:51.880
Well, I have to make someone else do it.

00:25:06.440 → 00:25:13.120
And someone jokingly asked me, so I will not number this question, but is studying German grammar a good way to exacerbate hair loss?

00:25:13.120 → 00:25:23.740
I think probably there are worse languages for that, but I guess it depends on if you enjoy German or not, because stress will actually cause you to lose more hair, so.

00:25:25.640 → 00:25:27.780
Jokingly, I guess perhaps the answer is yes.

00:25:30.140 → 00:25:33.200
Pull up my backlog of questions here.

00:25:46.900 → 00:25:49.020
To decide if I want to answer this question right now.

00:25:51.300 → 00:25:53.020
I’ll give a preliminary answer to this one.

00:25:53.020 → 00:26:01.780
I may not answer it fully, because this is one of those complex ones that I may address at a greater length in the future, but I…

00:26:02.060 → 00:26:03.420
Question five.

00:26:03.420 → 00:26:12.260
I had a friend argue that the Lord’s words from the cross speaking of Christ, why have you forsaken me, mean that he is not all-knowing.

00:26:12.260 → 00:26:14.440
I did not know how to respond to that.

00:26:15.460 → 00:26:20.580
So, let me just drop that into the show notes here.

00:26:23.380 → 00:26:30.060
That was not Christ saying that he didn’t understand what was going on.

00:26:30.080 → 00:26:35.020
That was Christ doing really one thing, but in two senses.

00:26:35.200 → 00:26:53.660
It’s fulfilling prophecy, because this was prophesied of the Christ, that he would be forsaken, he would be cursed, he would become a curse for us, and he would suffer the punishment that was rightly ours, which is what he was doing during his entire earthly ministry, which we call the state of humiliation, but certainly in intensity with his sacrifice on the cross.

00:26:54.540 → 00:26:59.480
This came up in a recent debate, perhaps, and one side was very wrong about it.

00:27:00.280 → 00:27:09.840
So we do not know the exact specifics of how this works, right?

00:27:10.580 → 00:27:19.400
How is one person of the Trinity forsaken, and how does he become the propitiation for our sins on the cross?

00:27:21.400 → 00:27:25.320
We can say some things about it, but we can’t understand it fully.

00:27:25.680 → 00:27:33.360
Because when you try to understand this fully, what you get into is the intimate details of the incarnation itself, right?

00:27:33.360 → 00:27:38.620
This is something into which the angels long to look, and cannot because they can’t understand it.

00:27:39.260 → 00:27:42.480
That sort of truth is reserved for God.

00:27:42.740 → 00:27:44.380
It’s something we can’t fully understand.

00:27:44.380 → 00:27:52.900
We can see and we can believe God that Jesus Christ is fully man, fully God, one person, two natures.

00:27:53.420 → 00:28:02.340
We can affirm the things that are said in the creeds and that are pulled directly from scripture, and then we have to accept their limitations to our reason.

00:28:03.220 → 00:28:12.860
The reason that Christ had to be the payment for our sins on the cross, and the reason that it is ultimately penal substitutionary atonement, which I may get into.

00:28:13.220 → 00:28:16.680
I know I have a pending question about that as well somewhere here.

00:28:17.740 → 00:28:23.760
The reason that Christ had to do it is because the debt of sin that we owe to God is infinite.

00:28:24.920 → 00:28:28.500
The only thing that can pay an infinite debt is an infinite sum.

00:28:29.160 → 00:28:33.020
We, being finite, can never pay an infinite amount, right?

00:28:35.000 → 00:28:39.740
Say you’re working for $10 an hour, which isn’t unusual in the US., unfortunately.

00:28:39.780 → 00:28:40.760
Say you’re doing that, right?

00:28:40.880 → 00:28:43.080
How long would it take you to pay an infinite amount?

00:28:44.500 → 00:28:46.740
Make it $1,000, make it $1,000,000 an hour.

00:28:47.060 → 00:28:52.480
It will still take you eternity, because you are finite, and you’re doing something that is finite.

00:28:52.860 → 00:29:05.140
Christ, being fully God, was infinite, is infinite, and so his sacrifice fulfilled the law, the righteous demands of the law, in your place, and you are counted righteous when you’re in Christ.

00:29:05.560 → 00:29:21.500
So, he is forsaken in the sense that he is cut off and punished in our place and for us, and that’s all we need to be able to say about his words, because that is what he was doing at the time.

00:29:21.500 → 00:29:24.440
We don’t have to understand exactly how it worked, because we can’t.

00:29:24.460 → 00:29:32.080
This is the infinite God doing something that is above and beyond us, and we thank him for it, because he did it for our sake.

00:29:33.180 → 00:29:35.820
So, it’s not saying that he’s not omniscient.

00:29:36.460 → 00:29:41.560
This is a fulfillment of prophecy, and a fulfillment of what was necessary for our salvation.

00:29:45.000 → 00:30:00.380
But yes, this is one of those things that the Arians tried to bring up and argue that Christ was not truly God, which the problem, obviously, as I just explained, if he’s not truly God, his sacrifice wouldn’t be of infinite value, and like, then he’d just be another guy.

00:30:01.320 → 00:30:05.800
If I die on a cross, it doesn’t benefit you no matter what I say, right?

00:30:05.800 → 00:30:07.020
Because I’m just a man.

00:30:07.620 → 00:30:09.500
He has to be both man and God.

00:30:15.080 → 00:30:16.560
Just make a note for myself here.

00:30:48.600 → 00:30:50.720
Excuse me, someone asked me a question about Nietzsche.

00:30:50.720 → 00:30:52.160
I think I will save that one.

00:30:54.040 → 00:30:59.100
People trying to make me get into the polemical topics comparing John Calvin and Nietzsche.

00:31:05.660 → 00:31:13.020
I already answered the question about speaking in tongues previously, so I’ll just comment briefly on that one here.

00:31:14.120 → 00:31:21.300
Speaking in tongues is a gift from God, and it is one of the sign gifts that accompanied the early part of the Church.

00:31:21.300 → 00:31:23.220
This is question six, if I didn’t say that.

00:31:23.940 → 00:31:27.920
And it was made basically to give God’s imprimatur, right?

00:31:27.920 → 00:31:37.960
To give God’s stamp of approval on the apostles he had chosen to spread his word and other men who were speaking his truth at the time amongst the early Christians in the early Church.

00:31:38.980 → 00:31:43.800
The sign gifts are much rarer these days because they fulfilled their purpose in the early Church.

00:31:44.020 → 00:31:46.520
God is just not doing that as much anymore.

00:31:46.520 → 00:31:48.580
It’s not to say that there are no miracles.

00:31:49.000 → 00:31:50.320
Lutherans are not cessationists.

00:31:50.320 → 00:31:51.460
There are cessationists.

00:31:51.460 → 00:31:52.360
I think they’re wrong.

00:31:52.360 → 00:31:55.740
I think they’re obviously wrong, but we aren’t.

00:31:56.600 → 00:32:06.300
So could God suddenly give you the ability to speak Romanian if you had the opportunity to talk to a Romanian group about Christ?

00:32:06.400 → 00:32:07.600
Sure, he could do that.

00:32:08.500 → 00:32:14.200
These days, I guess he doesn’t really need to, since we have live translation, but it would certainly show something, right?

00:32:14.200 → 00:32:15.700
The miracle would prove something.

00:32:15.700 → 00:32:18.600
So that does, at least can still happen.

00:32:18.780 → 00:32:21.280
God’s not, you know, his arm isn’t foreshortened.

00:32:21.560 → 00:32:23.240
He isn’t unable to do that.

00:32:23.700 → 00:32:27.860
But the admonitions in scripture are important with regard to speaking in tongues.

00:32:27.960 → 00:32:30.400
One, tongues are human languages.

00:32:30.400 → 00:32:31.660
That’s what tongue means.

00:32:31.860 → 00:32:38.760
It even means that in English still, it’s just an archaic sense that has fallen out of usage amongst most modern English speakers.

00:32:39.180 → 00:32:41.960
But right now, I’m speaking the English tongue.

00:32:42.500 → 00:32:45.200
Earlier, I said a couple of words in the German tongue.

00:32:45.620 → 00:32:46.780
It just means language.

00:32:47.040 → 00:32:53.020
So someone just gibbering incoherent nonsense is not speaking in tongues.

00:32:53.040 → 00:32:54.860
He’s gibbering incoherent nonsense.

00:32:54.860 → 00:32:57.400
We have mental wards full of people who do that all the time.

00:32:57.900 → 00:32:59.200
They’re not speaking in tongues.

00:32:59.760 → 00:33:04.240
Paul admonishes things to be done in order and not to do it unless there’s an interpreter.

00:33:04.540 → 00:33:07.840
Well, if there’s an interpreter, you’re interpreting a human language, right?

00:33:08.340 → 00:33:18.840
So, that’s really all speaking in tongues is the Pentecostal churches get it wrong because they want to have some sign of some kind that makes them feel special.

00:33:19.440 → 00:33:24.440
And right, a wicked generation seeks for a sign, so don’t fall into that trap.

00:33:54.440 → 00:34:00.380
I don’t remember if I answered this one previously or not.

00:34:02.220 → 00:34:03.440
So, I will answer it.

00:34:03.440 → 00:34:12.040
I know I’ve touched on many questions similar to this one, but I’ll go ahead and answer it just in case I have not answered this specific one in the past.

00:34:12.040 → 00:34:12.880
It’s a quick one.

00:34:12.880 → 00:34:17.920
Question seven, how should we respond to miscegenation within the church?

00:34:18.540 → 00:34:30.040
So, the general answer to this is that it is not really the place of the church to deal with it, because this is something that is handled by the state.

00:34:30.320 → 00:34:35.760
This is the left hand of Christ, not the right hand of Christ, first and foremost.

00:34:36.020 → 00:34:40.380
And so, this should be the Christian prince handling this, which just means the rightful ruler.

00:34:41.080 → 00:34:48.420
Preferably, it is a monarch instead of a president or a prime minister as we currently have, but you do the best you can with what you have.

00:34:49.660 → 00:35:00.980
Within the church, I don’t think that it is wrongful if a church restricts, and I think that actually a church should, restrict membership, actual membership.

00:35:00.980 → 00:35:10.860
So, in the case of men, voting membership, if that’s a thing in your church, which I think voting is fine for certain things, not for everything, but to restrict that to members of the nation.

00:35:11.160 → 00:35:14.280
And that’s one of the things that was done in National Socialist Germany.

00:35:14.660 → 00:35:19.080
Only members of the nation could be members of, at least certain of the churches.

00:35:19.740 → 00:35:24.980
You could attend if you were not a member of the nation because you weren’t cut off from word and sacrament.

00:35:25.400 → 00:35:29.360
A Christian who is a different race isn’t a non-Christian.

00:35:29.840 → 00:35:33.400
You can be a different race than a Christian, you’re just a Christian of a different race.

00:35:33.820 → 00:35:40.860
So, whether or not you’re in the country is a question for the kingdom of the left hand of Christ, for the magistrate.

00:35:41.400 → 00:35:52.040
But the magistrate should say that you can’t be member of the church, an actual member of the church, which I hope everyone knows the difference between a member and just attending.

00:35:52.600 → 00:35:55.040
So, you can’t be a member of the church without being a member of the nation.

00:35:55.040 → 00:35:56.280
That’s perfectly fine.

00:35:56.280 → 00:36:07.900
I have no problem with individual churches these days enforcing that, because granted, modulo, talk to your attorney on that one, but the state’s not going to enforce it right now.

00:36:08.280 → 00:36:24.400
So, this is something that you address by dealing with membership at the church level, because that’s the only thing the church has in this area, is again, primarily a matter for the magistrate, not for the priest or the pastor, or the bishop for that matter.

00:36:28.040 → 00:36:35.920
I see someone just joined the forum, so I will go ahead and approve that, just in case he wanted to ask a question that way.

00:36:37.280 → 00:36:38.900
Then I’ll pull up the next question here.

00:36:40.460 → 00:36:44.700
The chat on my end has not refreshed for a little bit, so I don’t know if it’s working.

[mahler (Corey J. Mahler)]

Transcript

2/2

00:36:44.700 → 00:36:53.280
I’m also going to pull up the chat in the web interface for Restream to make sure that it did not suddenly stop working again.

00:36:55.720 → 00:37:00.340
Tech gremlins, they are unending.

00:37:05.020 → 00:37:11.580
And the web interface shows one-tenth of the messages I’ve received so far.

00:37:11.580 → 00:37:12.120
That’s helpful.

00:37:13.200 → 00:37:13.700
Great.

00:37:17.500 → 00:37:21.400
I will just keep pulling from the backlog of questions in that case.

00:37:38.840 → 00:37:45.040
I have quite the backlog of difficult questions at this point, some of which have to be worded carefully in how I answer them on a live stream.

00:37:48.740 → 00:37:50.400
Someone asked about my favorite gun.

00:37:50.460 → 00:37:54.800
I’ve answered that one before, but I do generally like either 9 mil or 10.

00:37:57.920 → 00:37:58.940
Other ones are fine.

00:37:58.940 → 00:38:02.980
I’m not going to be the crazy guy who’s, you know, hiking with a desert eagle.

00:38:04.280 → 00:38:07.680
I’m not quite a boomer, I’m half the age of the boomer, so.

00:38:17.240 → 00:38:21.260
I’ll go ahead and answer a question about communion.

00:38:21.740 → 00:38:28.440
So since maybe it’ll be a theme tonight of making certain amongst the other Lutherans annoyed with me.

00:38:36.900 → 00:38:43.240
From which denominations churches in the USA may a confessional Lutheran accept communion these days?

00:38:44.980 → 00:38:48.060
LCMS churches are hard to come by in some regions.

00:38:48.060 → 00:38:49.120
That is very true.

00:38:49.560 → 00:38:55.400
An Anglican church I visited declared in their bulletin that those who believe in the real presence were welcome to commune.

00:38:58.220 → 00:39:14.860
Historically, and in the overwhelming majority, Lutherans are going to tell you, do not commune at other churches, because it is viewed as one of two ways, really.

00:39:15.280 → 00:39:50.420
One would be assent to their theology of the real presence or the lack of the real presence, and say the case of the Baptist, and therefore would be you making a false declaration publicly, or it would be condemned as giving your approval to their false dogma, their false theology, and so it would be rejected on the grounds of potentially leading brothers astray by you holding out an affirmation of what they believe, or at least not condemning it in the way that people think that you should, right?

00:39:52.060 → 00:40:03.220
So, the issue there, I understand why they make that argument, but at the same time, I don’t think that it is always necessarily wrongful.

00:40:03.220 → 00:40:06.520
I think, ultimately, to give you the short answer, I think it’s a matter of conscience.

00:40:07.240 → 00:40:14.300
You shouldn’t commune at a Baptist church because they flatly deny the real presence, so you don’t party to what they’re doing.

00:40:14.980 → 00:40:17.560
The Anglicans are one of the edge cases.

00:40:17.640 → 00:40:20.340
One of the reasons I picked the question, because you mentioned the Anglicans.

00:40:20.720 → 00:40:23.200
So, I wouldn’t give a blanket condemnation.

00:40:23.200 → 00:40:25.320
I’m not going to say it’s wrong for you to do so.

00:40:25.780 → 00:40:27.160
I think it is a matter of conscience.

00:40:27.160 → 00:40:49.020
And I think the difference there is whether you view it as you are holding out or assenting to their dogma with regard to the real presence, or if instead what you are doing is emphasizing, I believe these men are Christian brothers, and I am partaking of the Lord’s Supper with Christian brothers.

00:40:50.100 → 00:41:04.700
And you’re not making that statement about their dogma, their theology, their stance on the real presence, because obviously we do disagree with the way the Anglicans formalize it, because theirs is sort of more like the Reformed than what we believe.

00:41:05.100 → 00:41:06.900
So there’s a difference between what we would…

00:41:07.420 → 00:41:18.100
If we were being very specific, we would call it the sacramental union to distinguish our belief from the Reformed view of the real presence, but they do believe in a form of presence.

00:41:19.140 → 00:41:22.000
So that’s basically what my answer would have to be.

00:41:22.280 → 00:41:33.820
It’s a matter of conscience, and do you view it as assenting to what you believe is error, as a Lutheran, or are you rather affirming that you do indeed believe they’re Christian brothers?

00:41:33.820 → 00:41:37.040
Because I think both of those views are legitimate.

00:41:37.840 → 00:41:52.880
Ideally, yes, you attend an LCMS church, and you don’t have this problem, but if you’re attending an Anglican church, I’m not going to say that you’re just flat out condemned because you communed there, because you still have that faith in the proper understanding of the real presence.

00:41:53.480 → 00:41:54.700
The elements are there.

00:41:55.060 → 00:41:57.240
The words of Christ are spoken.

00:41:58.320 → 00:42:00.540
What Christ told us to do is being followed.

00:42:00.880 → 00:42:07.800
And to some degree, whether those other men believe something that is an error or not is between them and Christ.

00:42:08.580 → 00:42:13.160
So, if you view it as participating in their error, refrain.

00:42:13.220 → 00:42:16.940
If you view it as affirming they are Christian brothers, commune.

00:42:17.160 → 00:42:18.400
It’s a matter of conscience.

00:42:48.400 → 00:42:52.660
And for that, I would just say, go listen to the episode from Stone Choir for that.

00:42:53.040 → 00:42:55.860
I think we pretty much covered that other than…

00:42:56.980 → 00:43:02.120
I mean, if you want to just a blunt answer, are we sort of in circumstances where that comes into play?

00:43:02.120 → 00:43:04.720
Absolutely yes, which we did say that in the episodes.

00:43:04.720 → 00:43:06.800
I would say go listen to the episode for that one.

00:43:07.420 → 00:43:11.880
That’s not really a numbered question, just a sort of quick aside.

00:43:17.340 → 00:43:22.800
A string of questions about psychology, which maybe I’ll save those for an episode with a theme.

00:43:30.160 → 00:43:32.340
So I can find that question about…

00:43:32.340 → 00:43:37.620
No, I have several questions on X that just showed up.

00:43:45.160 → 00:43:48.380
Some questions on X are from a crazy person, so I will skip those.

00:43:51.320 → 00:43:54.600
No need to burden the stream with those.

00:43:55.620 → 00:43:57.300
I think I will pull up instead…

00:43:57.300 → 00:44:02.560
I had a question from someone about, like I said, PSA, so let me pull that one up.

00:44:13.680 → 00:44:27.160
I sort of touched on this because I spoke in reply to an earlier question about the punishment on the cross, the nature of that with regard to Christ being forsaken, the fulfillment of prophecy.

00:44:29.100 → 00:44:44.320
And I don’t know that I really want to get into the morass of the Eastern misconception with regard to the penalty paid by Christ on the cross.

00:44:44.940 → 00:44:52.420
Penal substitutionary atonement is the gospel, and so denying it is denying the gospel is to be damned.

00:44:52.840 → 00:44:54.700
That is the baseline there.

00:44:55.400 → 00:45:03.820
I guess I’ll just make this sort of a short bit on penal substitutionary atonement that could be question nine.

00:45:04.540 → 00:45:34.400
So penal substitutionary atonement, as the phrase itself kind of rather heavily implies, is that there is a juridical, which is, say, legal or judicial aspect to, core aspect to what is going on with Christ’s earthly ministry, his submission, his fulfilling of the law, and ultimately his death and conquering sin, death, and the devil as resurrection.

00:45:35.300 → 00:45:38.660
And bear in mind, he says, it is finished, so it’s finished on the cross.

00:45:38.820 → 00:45:42.800
After that point, it is his triumph.

00:45:42.800 → 00:45:57.320
That is not yet the state of exaltation, but he has finished the state of humiliation, he’s completed his work, so the descent into hell and things like that are after that state of humiliation, because Christ says, it is finished.

00:45:57.580 → 00:45:59.340
He did not say it’s almost finished.

00:46:00.240 → 00:46:07.240
But with regard to penal substitutionary atonement, the penal part I explained, substitutionary, Christ is the substitute.

00:46:07.860 → 00:46:09.600
Christ is the sacrificial lamb.

00:46:09.600 → 00:46:16.400
He’s taking your place with his perfect life and his death on the cross, because remember, it’s not just the death on the cross.

00:46:16.400 → 00:46:18.840
He fulfilled the law with his perfect life.

00:46:18.840 → 00:46:20.760
That was a necessary part of it.

00:46:20.920 → 00:46:26.720
He had a full earthly ministry, not just one very bad day at the end.

00:46:27.180 → 00:46:28.060
All of it’s important.

00:46:28.060 → 00:46:29.620
It’s all the state of humiliation.

00:46:29.860 → 00:46:32.960
It’s all the fulfillment of the righteous demands of the law.

00:46:34.540 → 00:46:40.880
And you have this juridical language all throughout the scriptures.

00:46:41.400 → 00:46:47.520
The words for it are all legal terms in the Greek, and you can look them up.

00:46:47.800 → 00:46:51.100
I obviously don’t have all of this prepared, so I won’t get too technical right now.

00:46:51.440 → 00:47:00.700
But you can get into the family of words that deals with being righteous, with righteousness, that deals with being justified.

00:47:01.000 → 00:47:03.880
These are legal terms with legal definitions.

00:47:04.140 → 00:47:15.960
And when the Greek-speaking audience of the early church heard these words, they had no doubt what was being said, because the Greek world knew what a court was.

00:47:16.280 → 00:47:18.880
They knew what court proceedings were.

00:47:19.060 → 00:47:24.640
They knew what it meant to be declared guilty or not guilty or whatever it happened to be.

00:47:26.100 → 00:47:28.320
These were not foreign concepts to them.

00:47:28.820 → 00:47:40.800
So the forensic justification as particularly those who oppose the correct Western view like to call it, is actual scripture.

00:47:41.140 → 00:47:47.420
You are not made righteous by virtue of the declaration.

00:47:48.260 → 00:47:51.000
This is not to say that God’s words are ineffective.

00:47:51.000 → 00:47:56.020
It’s not to say that the things that God declares do not come to pass by his having spoken them.

00:47:57.100 → 00:48:03.400
That is the reason that, for instance, the creation, God speaks creation into being.

00:48:04.040 → 00:48:10.640
The problem with the East, and some others as well, is they don’t understand the system that God is using.

00:48:11.180 → 00:48:13.120
Christ is the propitiation.

00:48:13.240 → 00:48:23.280
Christ is the payment for the debt that is rightfully yours because he fulfilled and suffered the things that you were supposed to fulfill and that you should have suffered.

00:48:23.820 → 00:48:29.300
So that’s been paid, but it is credited to you via faith.

00:48:30.340 → 00:48:35.660
And so, faith is the means that God uses to make you righteous.

00:48:36.180 → 00:48:42.740
First, you are made righteous in the judicial sense of declared righteous for the sake of Christ’s work.

00:48:43.220 → 00:48:46.100
Justification, that’s the one and done.

00:48:46.220 → 00:48:50.220
That’s monergism, God did everything, you just benefit.

00:48:50.580 → 00:48:54.900
Then there is sanctification, which takes place in this life.

00:48:55.400 → 00:49:01.380
When you start to believe, you become progressively more righteous.

00:49:01.880 → 00:49:11.380
That does not finish in this life, because you are still burdened by living in a fallen world, among fallen people, in corrupt fallen flesh.

00:49:12.240 → 00:49:19.000
That doesn’t go away until you are finally and fully regenerated in the resurrection of the just.

00:49:19.440 → 00:49:20.860
And then you are glorified.

00:49:20.860 → 00:49:26.780
And so, you can think of the golden chain from Romans 8, and you can write the whole way that it works.

00:49:26.780 → 00:49:30.440
There is the election, there is calling, there is justification, there is sanctification.

00:49:31.360 → 00:49:33.120
That’s the process, how it works.

00:49:33.120 → 00:49:42.820
It plays out with regard to God’s decree of election and eternity past, with the means of grace in time, and then glorification and eternity future.

00:49:43.120 → 00:49:45.020
That’s the short version of this.

00:49:45.620 → 00:49:53.420
And the reason that you have to understand that it is penal substitutionary atonement isn’t just all of the juridical language.

00:49:53.420 → 00:49:55.660
I’m not talking about, you know, three examples.

00:49:55.660 → 00:50:00.100
I’m talking about 80, 90 examples of this occurring in scripture.

00:50:00.100 → 00:50:03.160
This is all over the place, abundantly clear.

00:50:05.500 → 00:50:15.840
You cannot get rid of it because everything else breaks down if you try to make some other theory of the atonement be your core understanding.

00:50:15.960 → 00:50:17.240
And that’s a key point in this.

00:50:18.220 → 00:50:20.960
We don’t deny Christ as Victor.

00:50:21.620 → 00:50:28.200
We don’t deny that Christ is a model of moral behavior and moral living.

00:50:28.520 → 00:50:31.320
We don’t deny these other theories of atonement.

00:50:31.320 → 00:50:33.240
We don’t deny ransom theory.

00:50:33.660 → 00:50:35.220
They’re not the core.

00:50:35.800 → 00:50:39.120
The core is penal substitutionary atonement.

00:50:39.280 → 00:50:47.180
The core is that you are accused by the law because the law has righteous demands placed upon you by God, your maker.

00:50:47.240 → 00:50:48.280
You are his creature.

00:50:48.280 → 00:50:49.480
You owe him that.

00:50:50.020 → 00:50:51.000
You failed.

00:50:51.520 → 00:50:56.120
Having failed, the law has punishments that you should rightly suffer.

00:50:56.420 → 00:51:01.120
You will not suffer them because Christ paid for them as your substitute.

00:51:01.560 → 00:51:03.240
He atoned for them.

00:51:03.240 → 00:51:04.700
He atoned for you.

00:51:05.760 → 00:51:06.860
That’s the gospel.

00:51:07.840 → 00:51:13.360
If you jettison that, you have removed the heart of the Christian faith, and you are no longer Christian.

00:51:14.180 → 00:51:32.120
That is why I find it so important to condemn the dogma, the theology of the East, because their whole thing, mostly among the convertodox in the West, is because they have left their former faith and now hate it, they attack the part that is the core of it.

00:51:32.120 → 00:51:35.160
The problem is they’re attacking the gospel itself.

00:51:35.660 → 00:51:38.340
And that’s the reason that I’ve said bluntly that they are damned.

00:51:38.760 → 00:51:44.020
If you deny that, you have denied Christ and you are damned, period.

00:51:44.400 → 00:51:53.540
There is no way around that you can’t mince words with that, because if you mince words, you are going to damn others by letting them walk the same path.

00:51:54.800 → 00:51:58.800
So, that’s the overview of penal substitutionary atonement.

00:51:58.840 → 00:52:02.000
I’m not going to get into Essence, Energy’s distinction tonight.

00:52:02.760 → 00:52:09.280
Honestly, I don’t really even ever want to get into it because it’s just a morass of nonsensical philosophy.

00:52:09.280 → 00:52:13.180
We got into it to some degree in the episode on Eastern Orthodoxy.

00:52:13.820 → 00:52:17.100
I get into it in my article, on my website about Eastern Orthodoxy.

00:52:17.100 → 00:52:19.440
So, listen to that, read the article.

00:52:19.920 → 00:52:21.240
I think that’s sufficient.

00:52:22.560 → 00:52:28.140
It gets to be somewhat technical philosophy that most men don’t ever need to hear.

00:52:28.660 → 00:52:32.100
The short version is just that it creates a real distinction in God.

00:52:32.280 → 00:52:36.180
And for those who don’t know what that is, a real distinction means that God is composed of parts.

00:52:36.400 → 00:52:40.800
If God is composed of parts, he’s not simple in the philosophical sense.

00:52:40.940 → 00:52:52.260
And what you’ve done with that real distinction, if you’ve created multiple deities, because that which is truly distinct isn’t unitary, it’s not one thing, and therefore, you’re polytheist.

00:52:52.580 → 00:52:53.840
That’s the short version.

00:52:54.060 → 00:52:57.180
If you didn’t understand that, it doesn’t matter.

00:52:57.900 → 00:53:02.760
Because unless you are thinking about swimming the Bosphorus, it’s utterly irrelevant.

00:53:04.040 → 00:53:05.080
But it is heretical.

00:53:05.880 → 00:53:07.220
Because it’s polytheist.

00:53:34.540 → 00:53:41.360
My replies on X are full of insane people asking things that are potentially criminal in some of those cases.

00:53:41.680 → 00:53:45.240
So I think I will stick with my backlog of questions then.

00:53:45.960 → 00:53:46.960
Seems like a better plan.

00:53:55.980 → 00:53:58.480
Question about psychoanalysis.

00:53:58.480 → 00:54:02.300
I’ve answered that one previously, so I would just refer to previous episodes.

00:54:02.300 → 00:54:03.680
The short version is that…

00:54:05.220 → 00:54:08.400
Psychology more generally, but psychoanalysts And the analysis specifically.

00:54:08.420 → 00:54:10.580
has valuable insights.

00:54:10.580 → 00:54:13.340
I guess this is question 10, as it were.

00:54:13.440 → 00:54:14.340
But it will be short.

00:54:15.040 → 00:54:18.180
However, cum granos salis, right, take it with a grain of salt.

00:54:18.180 → 00:54:26.640
Because a lot of those men, particularly Freud, were evil, anti-Christian, in Freud’s case a Jew, ungodly men.

00:54:27.080 → 00:54:43.480
And so even if they had some insights that were correct, it’s not necessarily worth sorting through all of the other stuff that is either nonsense or outright wicked, in order to find the bits that had some value.

00:54:44.220 → 00:54:45.260
Jung is different.

00:54:45.860 → 00:54:47.900
There’s a lot of good stuff in his writings.

00:54:47.900 → 00:54:55.780
There’s also some Eastern mysticism and things like that, that are not beneficial, and Christians should generally avoid.

00:54:57.640 → 00:55:14.340
This sort of gets into a larger topic that I don’t want to get into right now, but the short version is just because a man isn’t 100% right, or always perfect, doesn’t mean we can’t benefit from the parts of his work when he was correct, where he did good things, right?

00:55:15.440 → 00:55:23.700
This desire to say, well, you can read that man, but all these caveats, or like, I like his work, but then all these…

00:55:24.640 → 00:55:36.740
It should never be the assumption that a recommendation of something or a lack of a condemnation of something is an implied argument that the man or the source of the book, whatever, is perfect, right?

00:55:37.440 → 00:55:41.240
Again, fallen world, fallen men, we’re not dealing with perfection.

00:55:42.100 → 00:55:50.740
But yes, there are some valuable insights in the field of psychoanalysis, and it’s not all just evil anti-Christian Jews.

00:55:52.800 → 00:55:53.600
But some of it is.

00:55:53.600 → 00:55:56.180
So, you have a conscience.

00:55:56.320 → 00:55:58.120
God has given you that.

00:55:58.640 → 00:56:04.060
Compare what you see to scripture when scripture speaks to it, and rely on your conscience.

00:56:05.000 → 00:56:08.000
And this is only if you have some reason to deal with this stuff, right?

00:56:08.000 → 00:56:12.320
If you have no reason to deal with psychoanalysis, I don’t know why you’d be reading it.

00:56:12.320 → 00:56:15.100
It’s not like it’s a hobby or enjoyable.

00:56:15.980 → 00:56:21.580
And maybe for some men, but I think unless you’re working in the field, you probably don’t need to be reading these things.

00:56:24.400 → 00:56:29.980
And just to make sure that I’m clear, there are things Christians should never read, right?

00:56:29.980 → 00:56:33.020
There are evil works that should not exist and no one should read.

00:56:34.020 → 00:56:36.820
I don’t think that psychoanalysis is in that category.

00:56:43.620 → 00:56:47.480
Immediately scroll and see another question about Nietzsche, which it’s almost the same answer, right?

00:56:47.900 → 00:56:52.860
There’s value, but also insanity and nonsense at times.

00:56:54.320 → 00:56:55.960
Same is true of most philosophers.

00:57:05.000 → 00:57:06.160
Let me see here.

00:57:09.200 → 00:57:17.460
Answer a few more questions since I have not eaten dinner yet, and it is eight o’clock here, so.

00:57:19.660 → 00:57:27.840
But if anyone has any more questions, I would recommend you get them into the chat now, because I think I’ll only answer maybe two or three more for this stream.

00:57:40.900 → 00:57:58.720
And yes, I do know that I have a backlog of some questions from last week, week before last week, but like I said, I have been away from my desk for a week, and did not have time to really get any of that done this past week.

00:58:14.720 → 00:58:16.660
Another question on Eastern Orthodoxy.

00:58:16.700 → 00:58:25.820
I think I’ve probably said enough about Eastern Orthodoxy recently that most men probably have a pretty good idea of my views and why I hold them.

00:58:25.820 → 00:58:33.100
And again, we did the episode on that, and I wrote an article on it, which I will make a note for myself to link that article.

00:58:49.420 → 00:58:51.900
Someone asked about the proper understanding of Ecclesiastes.

00:58:51.900 → 00:58:55.920
I think I’d like to save that one for maybe just a stream specifically on that.

00:58:55.920 → 00:58:58.280
That’s one of my favorite books in Scripture, so.

00:59:03.760 → 00:59:06.080
Of course, my drink is dripping on me.

00:59:18.700 → 00:59:25.740
What is the Christian position on insurance, both as a concept and as the industry exists today?

00:59:26.680 → 00:59:29.680
So, I guess this is question 10.

00:59:32.460 → 00:59:37.940
This is another one of those where, historically, if you were to ask…

00:59:37.940 → 00:59:42.240
Actually, this is question 11, because I answered that question about psychoanalysis briefly.

00:59:43.820 → 00:59:50.520
Historically, and this includes a number of Lutheran writers, in particular, I can think of Walter, CFW.

00:59:50.520 → 00:59:52.400
Walter wrote about this at one point.

00:59:53.500 → 01:00:07.180
Many of them opposed things like life insurance and things like that on the grounds of it being a lack of trust in God and also some of the corrupting aspects of it and things like that.

01:00:08.120 → 01:00:14.500
I would agree with them under the same circumstances in which they were operating.

01:00:15.420 → 01:00:26.280
But today, I think that, generally speaking, it is often a wise thing to insure the things that it makes sense to insure, right?

01:00:26.280 → 01:00:28.900
Like, your vehicle should be insured.

01:00:29.320 → 01:00:38.980
If you are a man who works in a risky job and you are the sole provider for your family, which is often the case, you should probably have life insurance.

01:00:39.960 → 01:00:43.140
You know, I have insurance on various things as well, right?

01:00:43.140 → 01:00:46.720
Like the phone that I’m using right now as my camera.

01:00:47.820 → 01:00:49.040
I have insurance on that.

01:00:49.500 → 01:00:54.740
I don’t think that insurance is necessarily inherently wrongful.

01:00:55.440 → 01:01:07.140
I think that the industry itself is deeply evil, and it operates in a way that is pernicious, undermining, causes all sorts of harm in society.

01:01:08.720 → 01:01:11.960
I can’t change that system myself, right?

01:01:12.300 → 01:01:13.580
I don’t have that power.

01:01:14.060 → 01:01:33.060
So, if I don’t insure my iPhone, right, against damage, loss, theft, and it gets stolen, then I’ve harmed myself in a way that I could have prevented, and I haven’t achieved anything concrete toward some other end.

01:01:33.840 → 01:01:43.420
So, there is a degree of rationality that has to play a role in how we make our decisions here in time under the circumstances under which we live.

01:01:43.920 → 01:01:53.220
So, I don’t, again, I don’t think that given the reality that insurance is wrongful just to own for Christians.

01:01:53.560 → 01:01:56.280
So, yes, I think that there are times where you should insure things.

01:01:56.840 → 01:02:11.980
If we had a proper government that was operated in a better way, I think the insurance field, the entire industry, would be, you would have to call it a new thing almost, because it would be so unlike what we have today.

01:02:12.860 → 01:02:15.800
That would be a goal, a future goal, right?

01:02:16.060 → 01:02:25.420
A Christian government, a Christian prince, should seek to implement those changes, to have the industry be something that is in line with Christian teaching.

01:02:25.420 → 01:02:34.760
So, not practicing usury for one, but that gets into the bigger issue of having to reform banks, because ultimately, we’re talking about banks, we’re talking about insurance.

01:02:36.280 → 01:02:52.620
So, I think that just the summary is again to say, yes, it’s fine to insure the things that make sense to insure these days, but on the longer scale and the grander scheme, as Christians, I think we should oppose the insurance industry as it is formulated today.

01:02:53.080 → 01:02:55.280
So, vote against it, right?

01:02:55.280 → 01:02:57.980
Or advocate against it when the opportunity arrives.

01:02:57.980 → 01:03:12.280
If God hands you the sword as the magistrate, use the sword against it, but as an individual Christian, it’s a matter of conscience and perhaps even more so than conscience wisdom.

01:03:13.160 → 01:03:17.200
And again, often these days, the wise choice is to insure things.

01:03:35.980 → 01:03:40.860
So I think I will end with one more question from the chat.

01:03:40.860 → 01:03:43.500
This one is from X.

01:03:45.600 → 01:03:51.560
And then I will give my usual caveats and dismiss you all for the weekend, as it were, I guess.

01:03:53.160 → 01:03:56.120
Question, which one is this?

01:03:56.120 → 01:03:58.060
This 11, I’m looking at the wrong list.

01:03:58.800 → 01:03:59.580
Question 12.

01:04:01.420 → 01:04:10.220
Question 12, what is your opinion on going to another denomination if the Lutheran churches in my area do not pass the test of pastoral orthodoxy?

01:04:10.220 → 01:04:26.980
So, if you’re talking about my article, then you aren’t going to find, unless you are very lucky, or you happen to be in one of a handful of places I know in the US., including one that I was this week, which is why I was not in my study and not at my desk.

01:04:27.580 → 01:04:38.480
Unless you’re in one of those areas, you are going to have to deal with pastors who are not completely orthodox, and not in the sense that we would prefer them, be not to the extent we would prefer.

01:04:39.420 → 01:04:41.640
Because they’re going to be wobbly on something.

01:04:41.640 → 01:05:12.140
The standard today is not whether or not the pastor, the elders, the church, etc., whether these things are perfect, but whether they are good enough that you can have Christian fellowship, you can hear the word, you can receive the sacrament, you can do the things you are supposed to do, and the things that you do clearly want, and are supposed to want as a Christian, without endangering yourself, in some extreme cases, or going against your conscience.

01:05:13.020 → 01:05:16.740
So, will your pastor probably say some dumb stuff every so often?

01:05:17.240 → 01:05:18.800
Inevitably, almost.

01:05:20.460 → 01:05:23.280
That doesn’t mean that you have to leave the church immediately, right?

01:05:23.740 → 01:05:25.200
Now, there are lines.

01:05:25.200 → 01:05:26.520
There are obviously lines, right?

01:05:26.520 → 01:05:32.420
If your pastor starts having women do the readings, maybe talk to him about that.

01:05:32.860 → 01:05:39.520
Maybe talk to some of the elders first, so you can go with the elders to the pastor and have a little more clout, as it were, right?

01:05:39.720 → 01:05:45.320
You can put a little more leverage on him, have your Bible verses prepared and things like that.

01:05:46.240 → 01:05:53.320
If your pastor starts having women give the sermon, then you need to leave, because it’s no longer a church, then it’s a brothel, right?

01:05:53.320 → 01:05:54.380
There are lines.

01:05:54.380 → 01:05:58.480
There are bright lines that once crossed, you have to make a choice.

01:05:58.720 → 01:06:04.300
And that is basically, you tell the pastor, you’ve done something that is inappropriate.

01:06:04.300 → 01:06:10.500
This is something that is wicked, it’s sinful, you need to stop, and his response will tell you whether you need to find a new church or not.

01:06:11.420 → 01:06:20.860
Hopefully, if you go to an LCMS church, even though some of them are not that good these days, and the leadership is certainly wicked, there are still good parishes.

01:06:21.160 → 01:06:27.060
And even if they’re not that good, you’re probably going to find one that is acceptable.

01:06:27.500 → 01:06:31.560
The pastor’s not going to step back and have a woman give the sermon.

01:06:31.940 → 01:06:36.220
They still crack down on that in the LCMS, thankfully.

01:06:37.020 → 01:06:48.740
But if you can’t find a Lutheran church in your area, and you are, I assume, Lutheran for this, then yes, I’ve answered this question for many men before.

01:06:49.340 → 01:06:57.020
If you can find a good Anglican church, right, you’re going to have to check the parishes, because Anglicanism in the US particularly is a very broad umbrella.

01:06:57.440 → 01:06:59.840
There are some good ones, there are some terrible ones.

01:07:00.420 → 01:07:04.680
I’ve driven past Anglican churches, flying BLM, rainbow flags, all that.

01:07:04.920 → 01:07:12.740
And I’ve spoken with Anglican pastors who are nearly Lutheran, in the good sense of being nearly Lutheran.

01:07:13.140 → 01:07:15.400
So it just depends.

01:07:16.240 → 01:07:17.580
Same thing with Presbyterians.

01:07:17.580 → 01:07:21.200
There are some good Presbyterian parishes, there are some really bad ones.

01:07:21.640 → 01:07:22.820
I’ve been to both.

01:07:23.140 → 01:07:25.920
I’ve spoken to pastors and elders of both kinds.

01:07:25.920 → 01:07:31.480
So, unfortunately, these days, the best advice that I can give on finding a church…

01:07:31.480 → 01:07:36.480
And I get asked this all the time, but I’ll try if I know about the area, then certainly.

01:07:36.480 → 01:07:49.380
But if I don’t, then the best advice I can give is, whatever tradition you are, find the most conservative version of that tradition in your area, and then start attending parishes.

01:07:49.380 → 01:07:53.780
Attend them for two, three Sundays apiece and make an assessment.

01:07:53.780 → 01:07:59.320
Go out to coffee with the pastor or the elders or a beer, whatever it happens to be.

01:07:59.320 → 01:08:01.960
If you’re reformed, I guess you get the cigars and whiskey.

01:08:03.680 → 01:08:04.860
Talk to these men.

01:08:05.240 → 01:08:07.780
You have to make the assessment for yourself, right?

01:08:07.780 → 01:08:09.440
I can’t make the assessment for everyone.

01:08:09.440 → 01:08:10.460
I don’t have enough time.

01:08:10.460 → 01:08:14.540
I don’t have enough days, hours, well, days in the week, hours in the day, either one.

01:08:15.060 → 01:08:30.140
So do the best that you can, and then pick the church that is good enough, and make it better by being there, and talking to the elders, and talking to the pastor, and pushing things in the right direction when the opportunity arises.

01:08:31.220 → 01:08:34.260
These things don’t get better by good men abandoning them.

01:08:34.460 → 01:08:38.720
They get better when good men stick around and push things in the right direction.

01:08:39.040 → 01:08:41.360
That doesn’t mean that you join a lost cause.

01:08:41.360 → 01:08:42.700
I’m not telling you to do that.

01:08:43.020 → 01:08:52.280
But if there’s a church that’s kind of wobbly, sort of in that gray area, you may be the deciding factor that pushes it back on to the straight and narrow.

01:08:52.660 → 01:08:55.420
And that’s a great thing, and God will bless you for it.

01:08:55.420 → 01:08:57.600
But you have to make the call.

01:08:57.660 → 01:09:00.740
And it is again a matter of conscience and wisdom.

01:09:01.040 → 01:09:06.920
So according to the measure of those things that God has given you, use them to make the best call.

01:09:09.780 → 01:09:13.600
I think that will be it for this stream.

01:09:14.120 → 01:09:18.260
I don’t see any other pending questions in the chat.

01:09:19.960 → 01:09:29.160
If there are pending questions in the chat and I just do not see them, then it is a software thing which would not be unheard of using this software.

01:09:29.280 → 01:09:32.000
But at any rate, thank you for those who asked the question.

01:09:32.000 → 01:09:36.260
For those who have pending questions, I will try to work on some of those this week.

01:09:36.480 → 01:09:40.180
Thankfully, I will be at my desk and have some time to do that this week.

01:09:40.800 → 01:09:52.020
So other than that, if you want to submit questions, the best way to do that is, of course, the forum, that should be linked in the information for the stream or the show notes, whatever platform you happen to be using.

01:09:52.720 → 01:09:55.260
It can be found just by searching for it.

01:09:55.260 → 01:09:57.580
It can be found on my X page, et cetera.

01:09:57.900 → 01:09:59.860
Of course, you can ask questions other ways.

01:09:59.860 → 01:10:08.240
I respond to, I try to respond to the questions in the chat and questions on X and DM and however else people get them to me.

01:10:08.760 → 01:10:12.460
The forum’s the easiest because I can link them in the show notes and other people can find them.

01:10:12.460 → 01:10:24.780
But if you ask them somewhere else, I do try to collect those together into one long list of pending questions which can be found again on the forum in the future topics slash question list.

01:10:26.300 → 01:10:30.260
I think that pretty much covers it for this stream.

01:10:30.260 → 01:10:33.480
Again, thank you for submitting questions and participating in the chat.

01:10:34.120 → 01:10:37.400
I do like getting the opportunity to do this every week.

01:10:37.400 → 01:10:41.840
I at least try to do it every week if I’m not out of town or whatever it happens to be.

01:10:42.720 → 01:10:45.660
I attempt to do it on Thursdays, but it usually winds up being Friday.

01:10:45.660 → 01:10:47.120
It just depends how my week goes.

01:10:47.240 → 01:10:51.160
Given that it is Friday, I hope that you all have a good weekend.

01:10:51.680 → 01:11:00.040
Maybe go out and get in nature a little bit if you happen to be in part of the country that isn’t oppressively hot or actively on fire.

01:11:00.040 → 01:11:03.520
For those of you who are in the part of the country, I was also just there.

01:11:03.520 → 01:11:05.560
That is currently on fire.

01:11:05.560 → 01:11:14.660
I wish you all the best, and I’ll continue to pray for you, and I hope you pray for and check on your neighbors because it’s pretty bad in a few places out west right now.

01:11:14.860 → 01:11:22.720
So, for those of you who are not out west, also pray for our brothers and sisters who are out there in those very bad conditions.

01:11:22.720 → 01:11:25.920
Particularly pray for the firefighters out there trying to get them under control.

01:11:27.260 → 01:11:30.160
But that is it for this week.

01:11:30.520 → 01:11:34.980
Again, I hope you all have a good weekend, and of course, go to church on Sunday.

01:11:35.440 → 01:11:38.200
And until next week, God bless you all.