# AAC: 11 Dec 2025 (Q&A)

**URL:** <https://omnifora.com/t/aac-11-dec-2025-q-a/4795>\
**Category:** At Any Cost\
**Created:** [December 12, 2025, 12:45am UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/aac-11-dec-2025-q-a/4795 "2025-12-12T00:45:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mahler](https://omnifora.com/user_avatar/omnifora.com/mahler/32/7_2.png) [@mahler](https://omnifora.com/u/mahler)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 12:45am UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/aac-11-dec-2025-q-a/4795/1 "2025-12-12T00:45:20Z")

</div>

# Episode Information

- **Date** : 2025-12(Dec)-11(Thu)
- **Number** : S2025E07
- **Links** :
  - Episode: [11 Dec 2025 (Q&A) | Corey J. Mahler Podcasts](https://podcasts.coreyjmahler.com/2025/12/11-dec-2025-qa/)
  - Transcript: [e0007.vtt](https://aac.cdn.coreyjmahler.com/transcripts/e0007.vtt)
  - Other Platforms:
    - Video:
      - YouTube: 
      - Rumble: 

  - Original Broadcasts
    - YouTube: 
    - X:

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mahler](https://omnifora.com/user_avatar/omnifora.com/mahler/32/7_2.png) [@mahler](https://omnifora.com/u/mahler)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 12:45am UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/aac-11-dec-2025-q-a/4795/2 "2025-12-12T00:45:54Z")

</div>

# Episode Wiki

_This is the episode wiki — trusted users can edit it._

## Topics Covered

- [Starting a home church follow-up](https://omnifora.com/t/starting-a-home-church-follow-up/4857)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mahler](https://omnifora.com/user_avatar/omnifora.com/mahler/32/7_2.png) [@mahler](https://omnifora.com/u/mahler)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 12:46am UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/aac-11-dec-2025-q-a/4795/3 "2025-12-12T00:46:12Z")

</div>

# Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:01.000 → 00:00:08.200  
I assume there is audio now, so I will simply re-say what I have already said, for those of you who are not lip readers.

00:00:08.200 → 00:00:09.500  
I assume there’s audio now.

00:00:09.500 → 00:00:12.700  
I know the chat will catch up here in a minute or so.

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Someone said it’s better, so I assume that’s good.

00:00:14.960 → 00:00:17.980  
Okay, anyway, welcome to the At Any Cost podcast.

00:00:17.980 → 00:00:20.580  
It is the 11th of December, 2025.

00:00:20.580 → 00:00:24.860  
This is the seventh episode, also the seventh Q&A episode.

00:00:24.860 → 00:00:28.980  
And I have quite a few questions tonight, 40-something questions.

00:00:29.060 → 00:00:34.320  
I know I will not get through all of those this episode, but it means that I have questions for future episodes.

00:00:34.320 → 00:00:41.580  
And I will, of course, save those, like I’ve done in the past, for questions to which I did not get in other episodes.

00:00:41.580 → 00:00:43.460  
Just a little bit of housekeeping before I start.

00:00:43.460 → 00:00:47.460  
Of course, as always, questions can be submitted on the forum.

00:00:47.460 → 00:00:50.940  
The link should be in the description on all platforms.

00:00:50.940 → 00:00:52.660  
Hopefully it’s there.

00:00:52.660 → 00:00:54.260  
So everything seems to be working.

00:00:54.260 → 00:00:57.620  
Everything’s green on my end, so I will get into the questions here.

00:00:58.180 → 00:01:00.180  
Let me just pull up that first question.

00:01:03.680 → 00:01:06.840  
It’s about good works and unbelievers.

00:01:06.840 → 00:01:17.040  
You have said a few times before that the Lutheran understanding of good works, that they are not counted toward unbelievers, or that they are actually not good works, but instead filthy rags.

00:01:17.040 → 00:01:19.660  
Which is just a quote of scripture, of course.

00:01:19.660 → 00:01:24.740  
But you have also said the weight of sin against God is infinite, so no number of good deeds could make up for it.

00:01:25.480 → 00:01:37.620  
It seems to me that the view in which one’s good works count towards themselves, yet this is an infinite whole, so it’s an impossible task, would be both consistent with Christian redemption, also go over better in the ears of an unbeliever.

00:01:39.800 → 00:01:42.640  
What problems does this view present?

00:01:42.640 → 00:01:46.180  
Why is the more severe form more accurate, and in what ways?

00:01:47.560 → 00:02:08.400  
So, there are a few questions here, and it’s one of those subjects that there’s a little bit of nuance in what exactly is being said and what exactly is meant, because, a different pen here, are good works good in and of themselves?

00:02:08.400 → 00:02:20.120  
The answer to that is both yes and no, and I’ll get into sort of the meta issue here after speaking first about good works proper.

00:02:20.640 → 00:02:27.920  
Because the meta issue is really the question, but there are things that are good in and of themselves, because they are good.

00:02:27.920 → 00:02:30.320  
Everything created by God is good.

00:02:30.320 → 00:02:35.500  
So, human beings in their nature are good.

00:02:35.500 → 00:02:44.960  
Which sounds kind of crazy to Christian ears, because we’re used to thinking about human beings as fallen and sinful, and it’s a different sense of nature.

00:02:44.960 → 00:02:49.300  
It’s in our essence, in the thing that God created, we are good.

00:02:50.580 → 00:02:55.620  
Now, we are corrupted by the fall and by original sin.

00:02:55.620 → 00:03:00.280  
And so, we are not good in that sense.

00:03:00.280 → 00:03:04.640  
Our nature is corrupted, but it is a good thing that was corrupted.

00:03:04.640 → 00:03:10.460  
Similarly, I’m going to take my tea bag out of my tea here before it gets bitter.

00:03:10.460 → 00:03:22.380  
But similarly, with regard to good works, and this gets into the sort of meta issue here, the status of the individual matters.

00:03:22.380 → 00:03:26.400  
This is something that we used to recognize in our laws and elsewhere.

00:03:26.400 → 00:03:44.140  
I’ve used the example before of crimes that are enhanced by the status of the person against whom the crime was committed, which is obviously relevant for sin, because sin, all sin, is committed against God, against you, against you only have I sinned, to use the psalm.

00:03:45.720 → 00:03:53.980  
And so, with regard to certain crimes, the most obvious example, probably the best example, is treason.

00:03:53.980 → 00:03:59.420  
Because there are different kinds of treason, historically at least, because what ultimately is treason?

00:03:59.420 → 00:04:04.480  
Treason is betraying someone to whom you owed a duty.

00:04:04.480 → 00:04:08.180  
Now we have high treason, which is treason against your sovereign.

00:04:08.200 → 00:04:12.780  
Used to be treason against the king, now it’s treason against your country, or whatever it happens to be.

00:04:14.480 → 00:04:16.560  
Maybe you still have a king, depending where you are.

00:04:16.560 → 00:04:24.080  
But you have high treason, and you have petty treason, which is just French for small in this case.

00:04:24.080 → 00:04:27.960  
It’s not petty like, you know, unimportant.

00:04:27.960 → 00:04:34.020  
So petty treason would be treason against someone who is your head, basically.

00:04:34.020 → 00:04:43.800  
Historically the most common one would have been children murdering their parents, usually their father, or a wife murdering her husband.

00:04:43.800 → 00:04:47.780  
That is not just murder, it’s also petty treason.

00:04:47.780 → 00:04:58.800  
Similarly, with regard to sin, because sin is committed against God, the transgress of sin is infinite, which again is correctly stated in that question.

00:04:58.800 → 00:05:03.000  
It’s why you can never pay back the debt that is owed.

00:05:03.000 → 00:05:08.860  
You can never pay back an infinite debt with any amount of finite payments.

00:05:09.600 → 00:05:21.760  
And so, human beings being finite, we can’t ever render an infinite amount to God, which is why Christ had to die, because Christ being God, his death of infinite value.

00:05:21.760 → 00:05:24.000  
So, that balances the scales.

00:05:27.300 → 00:05:41.360  
So, the question then of whether or not a person can do a good work, a truly good work, matters with regard to the status of the individual.

00:05:41.360 → 00:05:50.700  
If the individual is in good standing, as it were, with God, which is to say in Christ, because that’s the only way to be in good standing with God.

00:05:50.700 → 00:05:56.640  
So, if you’re in Christ, you have your slate wiped clean with regard to sin.

00:05:56.640 → 00:06:03.340  
Your sin is not counted against you, because Christ’s righteousness is imputed to you, because you are in Christ.

00:06:03.340 → 00:06:04.200  
It’s an issue of headship.

00:06:05.580 → 00:06:21.080  
Those who are still fallen, those who are still not righteous, according to imputed righteousness, do not have good works, because everything they do is sin, because they are sinners.

00:06:21.080 → 00:06:27.900  
An important point here that I’ve commented on before, I’ve raised it many places, but it bears repeating.

00:06:27.900 → 00:06:32.200  
You do not become a sinner, because you sin.

00:06:34.080 → 00:06:37.360  
You sin, because you are a sinner.

00:06:37.360 → 00:06:45.060  
Now, that’s true of everyone, except Adam, because Adam became a sinner, because he sinned.

00:06:45.060 → 00:06:47.500  
For the rest of us were born sinners.

00:06:47.500 → 00:06:50.840  
In sin did my mother conceive me, again to quote the Psalms.

00:06:50.840 → 00:06:54.280  
And so, we sin because we’re sinners.

00:06:54.280 → 00:07:01.380  
In order for our good works to actually have merit before God, we have to be cleansed of being a sinner.

00:07:02.220 → 00:07:04.220  
Which means we have to be in Christ.

00:07:05.280 → 00:07:09.780  
Those who are not in Christ, therefore, cannot have works that are actually good.

00:07:09.780 → 00:07:14.780  
It’s the distinction between whether something is good per se.

00:07:14.780 → 00:07:17.180  
So, feeding your children is good.

00:07:17.180 → 00:07:19.480  
Starving your children is bad.

00:07:19.480 → 00:07:22.740  
Doesn’t actually matter if you’re a Christian or a non-Christian.

00:07:22.740 → 00:07:25.080  
Those two things remain what they are.

00:07:25.080 → 00:07:27.460  
Good to feed your children, bad to starve your children.

00:07:28.960 → 00:07:39.540  
But, the good act, the good work, does not count for you before God unless you are in Christ, because you are a sinner.

00:07:40.820 → 00:07:49.520  
So, it’s sort of two different things there, and there’s a nuance, but it’s important to understand the nature of it.

00:07:50.560 → 00:07:54.080  
To some degree, it’s not something that has to be raised with, say, new believers.

00:07:54.080 → 00:07:56.160  
This is something that’s more meat than milk.

00:07:57.560 → 00:08:06.440  
But, once you progress in the faith, it’s important to understand the reality of how bad and corrupting sin is.

00:08:06.440 → 00:08:11.080  
And anytime you minimize sin, what are you also inevitably doing?

00:08:11.080 → 00:08:15.440  
You’re minimizing Christ’s sacrifice, which you never want to do.

00:08:15.440 → 00:08:42.580  
And so, it is necessary to understand the depth of the depravity of sin, and the corruption of it, and what it does to the individual, and the fact that an individual who is still living in that sin, not to say that those of us who are in Christ are sinless, it’s just not counted against us because of imputed righteousness, but if you are still living in that sin, you cannot truly do anything that is good because you are still a sinner.

00:08:42.580 → 00:08:46.760  
So, for those who are new to the faith, it’s not something on which we should focus.

00:08:46.760 → 00:08:52.140  
No, we can point out that, yes, there are things that are good in themselves because God created them.

00:08:53.000 → 00:08:55.440  
All of the things God created are good.

00:08:55.440 → 00:08:58.440  
The things that God tells us to do are good.

00:08:58.440 → 00:09:01.400  
So, if we do them, we’ve done something good.

00:09:01.400 → 00:09:04.320  
But it’s not counted unless you’re in Christ.

00:09:07.240 → 00:09:09.160  
I believe that answers that question.

00:09:09.160 → 00:09:11.320  
Let me pull up the second question here.

00:09:18.912 → 00:09:23.252  
This is from last week, I carried over a question.

00:09:23.252 → 00:09:31.292  
And I do try to give preference to questions that are on the forum simply because that helps me as I’ve pointed out before, but anyway.

00:09:31.292 → 00:09:37.852  
Was the Tetragrammaton in the Old Testament Hebrew or text, or was it a Masoretic addition?

00:09:37.852 → 00:09:40.832  
If the latter, what is the origin, how did it end up there?

00:09:40.832 → 00:09:54.492  
I don’t have to deal with the if the latter bit, because yes, as far as we can tell, and we do have fairly good proof for this, is the Tetragrammaton was present in the Ur text when that existed.

00:09:55.652 → 00:10:07.952  
So for those who aren’t aware what Ur text means, it just means the actual Old Testament in the Hebrew that God gave to Old Testament Israel that was lost and destroyed.

00:10:07.952 → 00:10:13.992  
Incidentally, the final copies of it destroyed with the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, burned on the temple steps no less.

00:10:14.672 → 00:10:17.492  
So, judgment from God there.

00:10:17.492 → 00:10:20.692  
And the Tetragrammaton, for those who don’t know, it just means four letters.

00:10:20.692 → 00:10:21.412  
It’s just Greek.

00:10:21.412 → 00:10:24.652  
Incidentally, it’s Greek, not Aramaic or Hebrew or anything.

00:10:24.652 → 00:10:30.852  
So YHWH in English, Yod He Vav He in Hebrew.

00:10:30.852 → 00:10:34.612  
And I don’t care if I pronounce this correctly because it’s Hebrew and I don’t care.

00:10:34.612 → 00:10:44.212  
But some of the Septuagint papyri do, in fact, have in Hebrew letters the Tetragrammaton.

00:10:45.532 → 00:11:01.852  
The issue is, as we pointed out in the episodes on the Septuagint and elsewhere, we don’t know the vocalization of it because the Hebrews decided they were going to be more pious than God and not use God’s name.

00:11:01.852 → 00:11:10.652  
They probably thought they were getting around the commandment not to take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain because, well, we’re not using it at all, so we can’t take it in vain.

00:11:10.652 → 00:11:14.892  
Probably their rules lawyering, trying to Jew God.

00:11:14.892 → 00:11:25.332  
But some copies, like I said, of Septuagint papyri do have it, and so we can rely on that, but all it gives us is the letters.

00:11:25.332 → 00:11:28.312  
It doesn’t give us the vowels, so we don’t know what it is.

00:11:28.312 → 00:11:40.052  
But what we do know is that the inspired Greek text translates it as Lord, Kurios, and so we know to call him Lord, God, all these other names that he has.

00:11:40.052 → 00:11:42.692  
So we shouldn’t use that.

00:11:42.692 → 00:11:45.412  
I wouldn’t say that it’s wrong to use the four letters on something.

00:11:45.412 → 00:11:55.652  
For instance, they’re on the cover page of the Book of Concord, but they’re not transliterated, vowels aren’t added, it’s just the four letters.

00:11:56.732 → 00:12:14.972  
Another interesting point with regard to the translation of that, and particularly the Greek, in this case specifically the Greek, there are some texts that have it translated as transliterated into English, IAO.

00:12:14.972 → 00:12:20.752  
So iota, alpha, omega, not the other O, but the last one.

00:12:20.752 → 00:12:27.352  
Which is perhaps interesting because that’s essentially one of the names God uses for himself.

00:12:27.352 → 00:12:31.352  
I am the alpha and the omega, to quote Revelation, the beginning and the end.

00:12:31.792 → 00:12:43.172  
So, sort of an interesting point that is translated sometimes is that as well, which does not sound like, you know, Yahweh or whatever it happens to be, IAO.

00:12:43.172 → 00:12:44.252  
It’s not the same thing.

00:12:44.252 → 00:12:49.152  
I know some people have tried to make that argument, but they honestly don’t even sound similar.

00:12:50.232 → 00:12:53.732  
So, is it present in the Urtext?

00:12:53.812 → 00:13:00.392  
Sure, but still without the vowels, because Hebrews and Abjad, they don’t write down their vowels at all at that point.

00:13:00.392 → 00:13:02.372  
They didn’t even die of diacritics yet.

00:13:04.392 → 00:13:12.492  
The next question, where should a Christian attend church if there are no faithful congregations nearby?

00:13:12.492 → 00:13:17.612  
I’ve answered this one a number of times, but this is one of those that definitely bears repeating, and I don’t know that I’ve answered it in this format yet.

00:13:17.612 → 00:13:19.872  
In fact, I believe I have not, except in passing.

00:13:21.592 → 00:13:30.552  
If you do not have a faithful congregation nearby, you should start a house church, or you should find a house church.

00:13:30.552 → 00:13:31.972  
There’s nothing wrong with doing that.

00:13:31.972 → 00:13:34.872  
House churches are perfectly acceptable.

00:13:34.872 → 00:13:45.352  
If your house church does really well, and grows, and I hope that it does, or the members of the church just have a lot of children, then you can acquire a building.

00:13:45.352 → 00:13:46.812  
Nothing wrong with that.

00:13:46.812 → 00:13:51.392  
If you happen to have a man who is sufficiently competent among you, ordain him.

00:13:51.392 → 00:13:53.152  
There’s nothing that stops you from doing that.

00:13:53.152 → 00:13:56.372  
The congregation calls, the congregation ordains.

00:13:56.372 → 00:14:01.692  
The bishop is not the one that has the power from God to do that.

00:14:01.692 → 00:14:09.792  
The bishop, if you have a system that is an Episcopal system, you have a bishop in your system, then he does that as a point of Christian order.

00:14:09.792 → 00:14:11.852  
It’s a matter of good order in the church.

00:14:11.852 → 00:14:26.652  
But during times like this, that’s not necessary, and it could very well be harmful, probably, because most of the bishops are, in fact, not faithful, sort of regardless of which church body is in view.

00:14:26.652 → 00:14:37.392  
The Roman Catholic bishops are faithless, the Anglican bishops are faithless, the LCMS equivalent of bishops are faithless, so that’s the reality of the situation.

00:14:37.392 → 00:14:39.232  
Start a home church.

00:14:39.232 → 00:14:41.172  
Perfectly acceptable.

00:14:41.172 → 00:14:48.872  
You’re going to avoid a lot of the issues, and eventually, perhaps, then you’ll be able to acquire a church building, maybe from one of these mainline churches as they go under.

00:14:49.992 → 00:14:54.552  
One of the biggest ways in which ELCA currently makes money is selling old church buildings.

00:14:54.552 → 00:14:57.152  
So…

00:14:57.152 → 00:14:59.252  
The next question.

00:14:59.252 → 00:15:02.632  
When did you become a Christian?

00:15:02.632 → 00:15:05.032  
I can answer that one in two words, in utero.

00:15:08.772 → 00:15:12.312  
So for that one, I would definitely say, I was a Christian from the very beginning.

00:15:13.392 → 00:15:17.992  
I was born into a Christian family, raised as a Christian, never been anything else.

00:15:17.992 → 00:15:20.692  
Now, I was not raised Lutheran.

00:15:20.692 → 00:15:26.412  
I did become a Lutheran later in life, but I’ve been a Christian my entire life.

00:15:26.412 → 00:15:29.572  
So…

00:15:29.572 → 00:15:31.312  
The next question.

00:15:31.312 → 00:15:37.392  
For your confident faith daily devotions, which book could I buy to get the same in print form?

00:15:37.392 → 00:15:40.532  
What daily prayer routine addition to daily readings and devotion, if any?

00:15:41.392 → 00:15:56.612  
So, the answer for that, specifically, I read the lectionary, the daily lectionary readings from the Treasury of Daily Prayer, which is very similar to many other daily lectionaries across a number of denominations.

00:15:56.612 → 00:15:58.692  
But it is specifically the Treasury of Daily Prayer.

00:15:58.692 → 00:16:00.832  
I’ll put a link in the show notes.

00:16:00.832 → 00:16:05.312  
And that is from Concordia Publishing House, the publishing arm of the LCMS.

00:16:05.312 → 00:16:18.192  
I am currently reading the Old Testament, so the Psalms and the Old Testament reading from NETS, which is a translation of the Septuagint, which is just the new English translation of the Septuagint.

00:16:18.192 → 00:16:21.572  
That’s available for free online, or you can purchase a hard copy.

00:16:21.572 → 00:16:24.172  
They’re relatively reasonably priced.

00:16:24.172 → 00:16:28.152  
They’re not great print quality, but they’re good enough.

00:16:28.152 → 00:16:30.652  
The New Testament readings, I just read the ESV.

00:16:30.652 → 00:16:31.692  
ESV is fine.

00:16:31.692 → 00:16:35.592  
I do fix some of the things it does that are, I would say, wrong.

00:16:36.872 → 00:16:43.092  
They’re kind of quirks, more than being wrong, but definitely some of the translators had an agenda.

00:16:43.092 → 00:16:50.932  
And so the biggest one, I never say Gentiles, because Gentiles is not an English word.

00:16:50.932 → 00:16:57.172  
So it’s completely ridiculous that we have it in our English translations of scripture.

00:16:57.172 → 00:17:02.932  
As I put it out before, Gentiles is basically of the nations in Latin.

00:17:04.192 → 00:17:15.612  
Well, we have all the words of the nations, or whatever it happens to be, whichever noun case it is, to the nations, of the nations, from the nations, whatever it is.

00:17:15.612 → 00:17:18.852  
We have all these things in English, it should be translated.

00:17:18.852 → 00:17:27.032  
And so I follow sort of the same thing that Luther did, depending on the context for the term, and there are a couple of different terms there, actually.

00:17:27.032 → 00:17:37.692  
There’s ethnicos and ethnos, but you either have, essentially, nations, heathen, or peoples.

00:17:37.692 → 00:17:41.812  
And really, you can get away with just heathen and nations is sufficient.

00:17:41.812 → 00:17:50.192  
There are a couple of places where it’s kind of awkward in English to say either of those, and so people sounds better, but, or peoples, plural.

00:17:50.192 → 00:17:56.452  
So I do change that when I’m reading, but I just do that on the fly while I’m reading the text, because it’s not accurate to say Gentiles.

00:17:56.452 → 00:17:57.952  
It’s misleading, it’s Judaizing.

00:17:57.952 → 00:17:59.932  
We should not be doing it.

00:17:59.932 → 00:18:13.612  
But other than that, the only other thing that I mentally change, and then obviously speak the corrected form, there are some places where the translators were uncomfortable with the word slave.

00:18:13.612 → 00:18:25.212  
Now, yes, the Greek doulos can mean servant or slave, but it generally has the meaning, at least the nuance, of slave more than servant.

00:18:25.212 → 00:18:37.532  
Not always, because certainly when, and for instance, some of the letters, you have Paul speaking about us being servants of Christ, perhaps that’s a little more servant.

00:18:37.532 → 00:18:47.792  
There are times where Christ is contrasting things, and it seems like servant is perhaps meant more so than slave, but there are also times where very clearly slave is meant.

00:18:47.792 → 00:18:50.572  
And so I will change that if it says servant, I’ll change it to slave.

00:18:50.632 → 00:18:54.532  
And even the ESV, some versions of it, do indeed have slave.

00:18:54.532 → 00:18:58.712  
So that’s something that they have gone back and forth on that one.

00:18:58.712 → 00:19:09.132  
And then finally, for the readings from the Book of Concord, which is the final bit of the Daily Devotions, I use the Reader’s Edition, second edition.

00:19:09.132 → 00:19:12.452  
You probably won’t be able to find the first edition, so it hardly matters which one.

00:19:12.452 → 00:19:14.912  
If you have the Reader’s Edition, it’s going to be the second.

00:19:15.952 → 00:19:29.132  
The reason that I like that one primarily for people is that it’s the one I recommend for anyone who is new to Lutheranism or these theology issues, because it has a lot of helpful material in the book.

00:19:29.132 → 00:19:39.512  
There are essays on various topics, there’s history, there’s context, all these things that even most Lutherans simply will not know.

00:19:39.512 → 00:19:41.012  
At least not all of it.

00:19:41.012 → 00:19:43.212  
And so it’s very helpful to have those materials.

00:19:43.212 → 00:19:52.192  
As anyone who knows what a Reader’s Edition is, not the Reader’s Edition of the Bible, which is just the Bible with all the formatting removed, basically, so it reads like a normal book.

00:19:52.192 → 00:20:02.092  
But a Reader’s Edition of any other work is typically something that is accompanied by explanatory essays, lots of footnotes, helpful materials.

00:20:02.092 → 00:20:06.452  
That’s what the RE2 of the Book of Concord is.

00:20:06.452 → 00:20:14.692  
Now, that’s not the same translation as is available on [thebookofconcord.org](http://thebookofconcord.org), which is the website that I maintain for the Book of Concord.

00:20:15.792 → 00:20:20.812  
That one is the Triglotta English, because it’s in the public domain.

00:20:20.812 → 00:20:23.512  
The Reader’s Edition second is not in the public domain.

00:20:23.512 → 00:20:28.292  
I did ask CPH if they would let me add that to the Book of Concord website.

00:20:28.292 → 00:20:29.372  
They said no.

00:20:29.372 → 00:20:32.852  
So that’s why it’s not available on there yet.

00:20:32.852 → 00:20:34.112  
Maybe one day they will.

00:20:34.112 → 00:20:35.372  
We can hope.

00:20:37.112 → 00:20:39.272  
Next question, sort of related.

00:20:39.272 → 00:20:43.992  
Will you be recording a daily Septuagint version of the Bible in 2026?

00:20:43.992 → 00:20:46.492  
That is currently the plan.

00:20:46.492 → 00:20:49.572  
I think I will probably use the nets.

00:20:49.572 → 00:20:53.932  
There are some quirks in the Lexham edition that I don’t really like.

00:20:53.932 → 00:21:12.092  
But the problem with all the currently existing editions is that they’re either really old, sort of like the original King James, which would be the Brenton edition, and Brenton also does some weird stuff, where sometimes he pulls from the Masoretic for seemingly no reason.

00:21:12.092 → 00:21:13.172  
He just felt like it.

00:21:13.172 → 00:21:15.252  
Maybe he was translating and remembered what he’d read.

00:21:15.252 → 00:21:17.052  
I don’t know what happened there.

00:21:18.352 → 00:21:26.252  
They’re the ones that are very academic, like nets, and to some degree the Lexham, LES2 at this point, the second edition of it.

00:21:26.252 → 00:21:31.072  
And there are none that really flow well as natural English.

00:21:31.072 → 00:21:33.632  
But of course, I’ve critiqued the ESV for the same thing.

00:21:33.712 → 00:21:49.712  
It can be stilted at times, because they tried to make the English follow the Hebrew, which is what they were using, the Masoretic, and in the New Testament, the Greek grammar, which doesn’t work in English, because English grammar is different from both Greek and Hebrew grammar.

00:21:49.712 → 00:21:51.732  
So it sounds stilted.

00:21:51.732 → 00:21:54.552  
So there are problems with all the editions currently available.

00:21:54.552 → 00:21:55.872  
I’m not saying they’re unfaithful.

00:21:55.872 → 00:21:58.432  
The nets basically is very faithful.

00:21:58.432 → 00:22:01.692  
I don’t think I’ve found anything where I truly objected to their translation decisions.

00:22:02.672 → 00:22:10.152  
It’s just stilted because it’s meant to be sort of overly literal in an academic way.

00:22:10.152 → 00:22:29.132  
And the biggest challenge there, for me personally, as I’m going to be reading it aloud, they translate some of the names extremely literally from Greek into English, which makes them unpronounceable, or just they sound completely crazy.

00:22:29.132 → 00:22:36.712  
I can’t remember exactly what it is now, but Nebuchadnezzar is something completely insane in the Nets edition.

00:22:36.712 → 00:22:48.152  
And so I’d have to decide if I were going to just change those mentally as I’m going through from what I know from reading other editions of scripture in English.

00:22:48.152 → 00:22:54.632  
In some cases, you know, you get a list of names, and it’s difficult to do that because maybe you don’t remember them all, and they’re very different in the Greek.

00:22:54.632 → 00:22:57.752  
So there are some challenges there deciding which one.

00:22:57.812 → 00:23:09.332  
But yes, the short answer is, I do intend to do the readings from the Septuagint for the next series, as it were, of the Through the Bible in a Year.

00:23:09.332 → 00:23:10.832  
Probably the Nets.

00:23:10.852 → 00:23:13.832  
Possibly the Lexem, but probably the Nets.

00:23:16.292 → 00:23:19.952  
The next question, question seven.

00:23:21.092 → 00:23:28.092  
What is the best way to prevent my daughters from mixing, please, something specific instead of read the Bible or something like that?

00:23:28.092 → 00:23:35.092  
Of course, I’m going to go something more specific than that, because just read the Bible is not actually going to solve all your problems.

00:23:35.092 → 00:23:38.032  
There are other things you have to do in life.

00:23:38.032 → 00:23:42.472  
They are still really young, so this is entirely preventative, not reactionary.

00:23:44.652 → 00:23:49.132  
I’ll probably write something more substantial on this in the future.

00:23:49.132 → 00:23:53.072  
In fact, I’ll make a note of that, because I definitely should do that at some point.

00:23:54.372 → 00:24:02.672  
But there are some things I can say now, some concrete things you can do, that will be very helpful.

00:24:02.712 → 00:24:06.672  
One, of course, is going to be to inform them of the consequences.

00:24:06.672 → 00:24:10.132  
Inform them their children will be less fit.

00:24:10.132 → 00:24:18.092  
Inform them their children will be less related to them than any random individual they pass on the street, who is of their same race, of course.

00:24:18.092 → 00:24:22.792  
Inform them of all these various problems they are going to encounter if they go down that path.

00:24:23.952 → 00:24:28.072  
Inform them of the reality of domestic violence and other things like that.

00:24:28.072 → 00:24:33.052  
To some degree, you can very well reason with them even though they are teenage girls.

00:24:33.052 → 00:24:34.592  
That’s going to be challenging, of course.

00:24:34.592 → 00:24:37.192  
There are some difficulties there.

00:24:37.192 → 00:24:43.752  
But you can still reason with them, particularly when it comes to talking to them about what will happen to their children.

00:24:43.752 → 00:24:47.072  
They are going to have that natural maternal instinct.

00:24:47.072 → 00:24:50.632  
All women have that until propaganda and the world beats it out of them.

00:24:51.272 → 00:24:53.612  
So, you can appeal to that, and that’s entirely natural.

00:24:53.612 → 00:24:55.652  
It’s a thing that you should do.

00:24:56.772 → 00:25:09.652  
You, particularly in the case of white daughters, you can point out eye color, things like that, things that they simply will not be able to pass on to their children if they marry outside their race, if they miscegenate.

00:25:10.972 → 00:25:26.872  
And obviously, one of the easiest steps you can take, not perhaps easiest, but certainly most effective, simplest, if not in the execution than in saying it, stating it, keep them away from non-whites.

00:25:26.872 → 00:25:34.892  
If you keep them away from them, they’re not going to have the opportunity to fall into that particular sin, that particular path.

00:25:34.892 → 00:25:39.472  
And yes, there are times where very frequently it is sin, so I’m comfortable saying that.

00:25:39.472 → 00:25:39.992  
Not always.

00:25:39.992 → 00:25:48.092  
I’ve explained per se and per quote before, so I won’t go down that rabbit trail here, because that would eat up ten minutes of the time for this episode, and I don’t want to do that here.

00:25:50.232 → 00:26:09.092  
And then I guess the final recommendation, we marry them off early, do not give them that opportunity, that window of time where the world is going to appeal to their irrationality, to get them to do things that they will regret for the rest of their lives, and that have consequences they probably cannot undo.

00:26:10.112 → 00:26:12.072  
Definitely cannot undo in many cases.

00:26:12.072 → 00:26:20.672  
So I think that’s sort of a general recommendation for fathers who have daughters, because of the state of things in the world.

00:26:20.672 → 00:26:21.892  
Marry them off early.

00:26:21.892 → 00:26:23.652  
You’re going to avoid a lot of problems.

00:26:23.652 → 00:26:27.232  
And though I’m not saying, you know, 16, but 21.

00:26:27.232 → 00:26:28.392  
Marry them off early.

00:26:28.392 → 00:26:30.592  
Solve many of these problems for yourself.

00:26:30.592 → 00:26:31.812  
And for her.

00:26:31.812 → 00:26:36.572  
She will eventually thank you when she realizes what you did for her and what she got to avoid.

00:26:38.352 → 00:26:43.652  
But yes, I think I will write something more substantive on that at some point in the future.

00:26:43.732 → 00:26:46.912  
I think that’s something that needs to be addressed.

00:26:46.912 → 00:26:55.312  
And I know that I also need to write something more substantial on interracial marriage and the intersection with theology and morality.

00:26:56.572 → 00:27:00.512  
But for now, next question.

00:27:00.512 → 00:27:10.052  
With usury robbing us all, very true, would there be a realistic way for Christians to pool money and buy out each other’s loans?

00:27:10.052 → 00:27:17.132  
Not necessarily debt forgiveness, but an organization that effectively refinances at 0 percent.

00:27:20.212 → 00:27:28.692  
I can certainly think of ways that you could play games with the financial and legal system and accomplish that goal.

00:27:29.732 → 00:27:35.012  
But you would be shut down by the same financial and legal system pretty quickly.

00:27:36.572 → 00:27:42.972  
So, could you manage to erase a substantial chunk of debt for a certain number of people?

00:27:42.972 → 00:27:44.352  
The answer is yes.

00:27:44.352 → 00:27:50.252  
And you could manage to do that with relatively small amounts of money.

00:27:50.252 → 00:28:02.692  
But it would probably have a negative impact on the credit scores of the individuals you help, which probably won’t matter for many because getting rid of the huge debt is better than retaining the probably not great credit score.

00:28:03.852 → 00:28:05.632  
But certainly better than what it will be.

00:28:05.632 → 00:28:11.392  
And of course, those things rebound as long as you play the game, unfortunately, but it is what it is.

00:28:11.392 → 00:28:15.532  
It’s the reality of the situation which we find ourselves.

00:28:15.532 → 00:28:19.212  
But yes, the issue would be is that you would be shut down.

00:28:19.212 → 00:28:28.632  
And so it would have to be quite a few individuals pursuing this so that they could each get a certain amount of work done before getting shut down.

00:28:28.632 → 00:28:32.452  
Because once you get shut down, they’re never letting you do it again.

00:28:32.552 → 00:28:35.052  
You’ll never get away with that again.

00:28:35.052 → 00:28:42.052  
And it may have financial consequences for the person who is responsible for the entity you set up to do this.

00:28:43.252 → 00:28:49.392  
And they would potentially go after you for fraud depending on how you execute the plan.

00:28:49.392 → 00:28:50.992  
So is it possible?

00:28:50.992 → 00:28:52.812  
To some degree, yes.

00:28:52.812 → 00:28:54.252  
Is it practicable?

00:28:54.252 → 00:28:57.332  
I would have to say probably not.

00:28:57.332 → 00:29:00.112  
We really have to have political power to ban usury.

00:29:00.512 → 00:29:02.552  
And that means the charging of any interest, incidentally.

00:29:02.552 → 00:29:04.432  
Not the charging of unreasonable interest.

00:29:04.432 → 00:29:23.512  
That was a redefinition that came from, I won’t name names here because I’m not looking to get into that theological fire right now, but that came from only a handful of hundreds of years ago, where it was changed from the charging of any interest to the charging of exorbitant or excessive interest.

00:29:23.512 → 00:29:31.132  
The traditional understanding of Christians and the church and the plain meaning of scripture is, the charging of any interest is prohibited.

00:29:31.132 → 00:29:33.532  
Because money is not productive.

00:29:33.532 → 00:29:35.152  
Money is not fruitful.

00:29:35.152 → 00:29:36.332  
Money is sterile.

00:29:36.332 → 00:29:38.912  
It should not produce new money.

00:29:42.192 → 00:29:48.292  
Next question, sort of shifting gears, but not entirely since it’s still politics.

00:29:48.292 → 00:29:51.452  
I’ll take a sip of, perhaps ironically here, I guess, tea.

00:29:56.032 → 00:29:58.512  
And you’ll see why I said ironically here in a second.

00:30:00.272 → 00:30:03.112  
How big of a threat is China to the West?

00:30:03.112 → 00:30:04.912  
Is there a possibility of war?

00:30:04.912 → 00:30:07.732  
And if so, how can it be prevented?

00:30:10.272 → 00:30:20.852  
I think the only reasonable answer to that is that China, currently and for the foreseeable future, is the second greatest threat to the West after the Jews.

00:30:22.512 → 00:30:26.252  
Which is, yes, to say they are a larger threat than Islam, ultimately.

00:30:26.252 → 00:30:34.032  
Now, of course, the Muslims in our lands are a problem, but that’s a very eminently solvable problem.

00:30:34.032 → 00:30:36.952  
Even if some people may find it distasteful, it’s solvable.

00:30:37.972 → 00:30:39.312  
China is a bigger threat.

00:30:39.312 → 00:30:57.292  
And the reason China is a bigger threat is because China has a population of over a billion people who recognize themselves as Chinese, who believe themselves correctly to be Chinese, even though they have a number of different ethnic groups under that umbrella, they’re still all Chinese.

00:30:57.292 → 00:30:59.232  
They’re just not all Han, basically.

00:30:59.232 → 00:31:04.172  
Although more and more of them are as the party policies progress.

00:31:04.172 → 00:31:11.492  
So lots of people know who they are, kind of work together, but at least follow orders to some degree.

00:31:13.772 → 00:31:16.352  
So, are they as innovative?

00:31:16.352 → 00:31:17.072  
No.

00:31:17.072 → 00:31:18.712  
Are they as creative?

00:31:18.712 → 00:31:20.192  
No.

00:31:20.192 → 00:31:25.852  
Do they have the history of being a military power in the same sense as the West?

00:31:25.852 → 00:31:27.012  
No.

00:31:27.012 → 00:31:29.792  
I’m not saying they have no military history, of course, because they do.

00:31:29.792 → 00:31:30.952  
They certainly have fought wars.

00:31:30.952 → 00:31:38.412  
They’ve won some wars, usually against themselves, but they are certainly a threat today.

00:31:38.412 → 00:31:48.412  
And the biggest reason they are a threat today is because of not the technological advantage, but the technological foundation.

00:31:48.412 → 00:32:02.532  
It’s very important to note that basically, the entire world today is reliant on chip manufacturers, fabs, located in Taiwan, which isn’t China, right?

00:32:02.532 → 00:32:04.712  
Except it is China, let’s be honest.

00:32:06.112 → 00:32:13.252  
But the issue is, if China went to take Taiwan, we can’t stop them, not reasonably.

00:32:13.252 → 00:32:18.172  
Now, we could stop them, but it’s in a way that we don’t want to do.

00:32:18.172 → 00:32:21.372  
China knows that, but China is a rational actor.

00:32:21.372 → 00:32:28.012  
Another reason that they’re sort of a threat, because they’re one of the only handful of rational actors on the stage at this point.

00:32:28.012 → 00:32:49.532  
So they recognize, if they go after Taiwan right now, or if they’d gone after Taiwan the past handful of decades, it would possibly precipitate a major conflict, a potentially nuclear conflict, because it’s worth remembering, the parties involved in nuclear powers, and more nuclear powers will get dragged in.

00:32:49.532 → 00:33:01.332  
And there’s always the risk of a chain reaction with Taiwan kicking off a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan, which is just two groups of Indians nuking each other, but it is what it is.

00:33:01.332 → 00:33:07.592  
And China being rational actors, they don’t want to do that.

00:33:07.592 → 00:33:45.472  
They would much rather take Taiwan and have Taiwan be intact, because the biggest point of taking Taiwan from the Chinese mindset, and I don’t sort of want to go into a full graduate level political history and political science course here on China, but the biggest thing for the Chinese with regard to Taiwan is that the fact that the nationalists took Taiwan, were able to flee, and set up shop on Taiwan, take sovereign Chinese territory, is a major loss of face.

00:33:45.472 → 00:33:51.552  
And that is still a thing in Chinese society, all traditional Asian societies.

00:33:51.552 → 00:33:52.652  
There’s some nuance.

00:33:52.652 → 00:34:00.832  
The Chinese and the Japanese aren’t exactly the same when it comes to losing face, and neither are the Koreans, but losing face is a big thing in Eastern politics.

00:34:00.832 → 00:34:02.892  
It’s not as much of a thing in Western politics.

00:34:03.792 → 00:34:10.412  
We used to have it, to some degree, with regard to honor and loss of honor and slights to honor.

00:34:10.412 → 00:34:13.372  
It’s different in the Asian context.

00:34:13.372 → 00:34:14.712  
Now, there’s also the mandate of heaven.

00:34:14.712 → 00:34:19.652  
I could get into that, but it’s sort of tangentially related here.

00:34:19.652 → 00:34:23.872  
But they lost face because the nationalists were not totally defeated.

00:34:23.872 → 00:34:35.592  
The nationalists took a very important part of China for China’s international reputation in their eyes, and their own view of themselves.

00:34:35.592 → 00:34:38.852  
Now, mind you, the island was not very good when the nationalists took it.

00:34:38.852 → 00:34:41.632  
They have built that up into what it is today.

00:34:41.632 → 00:34:46.072  
Hellscape that the cities are, they’ve still done something impressive.

00:34:46.072 → 00:35:14.432  
And so, China needs to take that according to their own mindset, but also according to their calculations for ongoing conflicts with the West and others, because they don’t simply want the influence of being right next to Taiwan with guns that can shoot Taiwan from the mainland and other things like that, and certainly a massive army that could overwhelm Taiwan.

00:35:15.592 → 00:35:27.692  
They want to have actual control, immediate control over those resources, particularly all of the chip manufacturers, because that controls the modern world.

00:35:29.592 → 00:35:34.572  
The chips in basically everything you’re using were probably made in Taiwan.

00:35:34.572 → 00:35:39.292  
Handful of other places in some cases, but probably Taiwan.

00:35:39.292 → 00:35:46.892  
Some of the things I have here are German made, but the phone on my desk, Taiwan, the chip in it.

00:35:46.892 → 00:35:50.332  
My iPhone, probably Taiwan.

00:35:50.332 → 00:35:57.472  
So the stuff on which we rely, relies on hardware made in Taiwan.

00:35:59.012 → 00:36:10.572  
And so China, if they take Taiwan, is in a position to have a continuing supply of these chips, whereas we would not.

00:36:10.572 → 00:36:19.652  
And this is not something where we can just spin up a new fab and have it ready in five years, or ten years, maybe ten years.

00:36:19.652 → 00:36:35.612  
But even ten years would be a challenge, because the number of men on the planet who actually understand what is going on in those fabs and how to rebuild them would fit on a double-decker bus.

00:36:35.612 → 00:36:37.652  
It is a small number of men.

00:36:37.652 → 00:36:41.352  
China, incidentally, also knows that and has contingency plans.

00:36:41.352 → 00:36:46.932  
You can imagine what they are if they don’t manage to take Taiwan.

00:36:47.992 → 00:36:56.032  
So, yes, China is our biggest actual threat in terms of, you know, near-peer.

00:36:56.352 → 00:37:00.372  
They’re not really a near-peer, but it’s sort of an interesting dynamic.

00:37:01.192 → 00:37:03.072  
They’re powerful enough to be a threat.

00:37:03.072 → 00:37:06.052  
So, they are the biggest threat in that sense.

00:37:06.052 → 00:37:07.132  
After, of course, the Jews.

00:37:07.132 → 00:37:09.092  
The Jews are a threat for a different reason.

00:37:09.092 → 00:37:12.552  
Because the Israeli military is not a threat to us.

00:37:12.552 → 00:37:16.992  
We could wipe them out in three hours if we really felt like it.

00:37:16.992 → 00:37:18.372  
They are dangerous for other reasons.

00:37:18.372 → 00:37:19.552  
Yes, they have nuclear weapons.

00:37:19.552 → 00:37:21.772  
Their nukes aren’t great, but they do have them.

00:37:22.272 → 00:37:25.392  
And they have enough to cause serious damage.

00:37:25.392 → 00:37:37.272  
China is more of a threat because of the industrial might, the population, the ambitions, and a number of dozens of other things.

00:37:38.592 → 00:37:43.652  
The ambitions are sort of a change from the history of how the Chinese viewed the world.

00:37:43.652 → 00:37:47.732  
Because for a long time, and I said I wouldn’t get into the political science stuff, but here I’m going anyway.

00:37:48.612 → 00:37:51.612  
For a long time, they sort of viewed themselves as the center of the universe.

00:37:51.612 → 00:37:52.472  
That was their mindset.

00:37:52.472 → 00:37:54.092  
And so why would I go anywhere?

00:37:54.092 → 00:37:55.452  
I am the center of the universe.

00:37:55.452 → 00:37:56.092  
I am China.

00:37:56.092 → 00:37:58.492  
I don’t need anyone else or anything.

00:37:58.492 → 00:38:11.252  
And then, of course, being conquered by the West a number of times, they recognized that, oh, maybe we’re not the center of the world, and maybe there is a rest of the world out there, and it’s relevant, and it matters.

00:38:11.252 → 00:38:15.272  
So they shifted to have international ambitions.

00:38:16.472 → 00:38:18.472  
That’s playing out a number of ways.

00:38:18.472 → 00:38:36.072  
Another way that China is a threat, of course, is that China has a lot of stuff in our, for instance, electricity grid, that’s a huge vulnerability for us, incidentally, where they could sabotage us at the offset of a war.

00:38:36.072 → 00:38:37.592  
They could shut down our grid.

00:38:37.592 → 00:38:40.832  
That would be a major disadvantage for us.

00:38:40.832 → 00:38:46.552  
The problem with that, and China recognizes this as well, because again, they’re rational actors, they’ve thought this through.

00:38:46.552 → 00:38:48.992  
Well, what’s the game theory here?

00:38:48.992 → 00:38:57.792  
What happens if you’re the United States, and you get dragged into war with China, and China shuts down your electrical grid?

00:38:57.792 → 00:39:16.012  
Well, now you have a huge problem, because from the US perspective, a long war now gives China an advantage, because our infrastructure is damaged, and we probably can’t bring it back online, incidentally.

00:39:16.012 → 00:39:23.992  
If they manage to blow enough transformers and things, we literally do not have the stockpile or the manufacturing capacity to replace them.

00:39:23.992 → 00:39:26.252  
What does that leave us as options?

00:39:28.232 → 00:39:30.992  
Long war gives China the advantage.

00:39:30.992 → 00:39:33.452  
Short war gives us the advantage.

00:39:33.452 → 00:39:42.772  
Well, now you have to go 100%, because now you have to win before those problems with your infrastructure actually become problems for your military.

00:39:42.772 → 00:39:46.192  
It raises the risk of an actual nuclear exchange.

00:39:46.192 → 00:39:47.492  
So the question is, will China do that?

00:39:47.492 → 00:39:49.332  
Do they want to do that?

00:39:49.332 → 00:40:01.452  
I don’t think they want to, but they might run the calculation to decide, we’ll roll the dice, because it maybe looks to them like it would be advantageous.

00:40:01.452 → 00:40:17.132  
So yes, China is a major problem, and trying to address that problem is extremely difficult, because we have allowed them to become the problem they are, because we have invested untold billions of dollars into China.

00:40:17.132 → 00:40:20.372  
We gave them all the technology they have.

00:40:20.372 → 00:40:22.892  
We built their infrastructure.

00:40:22.892 → 00:40:28.492  
We have created this monster, and it is a monster we will eventually have to confront.

00:40:28.492 → 00:40:33.572  
So is there a way to avoid the conflict?

00:40:33.572 → 00:40:35.312  
The only way to avoid it is China collapsing.

00:40:37.012 → 00:40:40.552  
Their ambitions do not stop unless they collapse.

00:40:40.552 → 00:40:43.532  
So, there are a number of ways to do that.

00:40:43.532 → 00:40:52.112  
That is sort of a high-level political issue, and I don’t know that we have the men currently in positions of power who are competent enough to do that.

00:40:52.112 → 00:40:55.112  
But the reality is that, yes, China is a major threat.

00:40:55.112 → 00:40:58.432  
And I know some people are probably listening and thinking, well, about Russia.

00:40:58.432 → 00:41:01.172  
Russia is not really much of a threat.

00:41:01.172 → 00:41:08.932  
Russia has a lot of nuclear weapons, so Russia could cause an immense amount of damage to the world with those nuclear weapons.

00:41:08.932 → 00:41:12.252  
But absent that, they’re not much of a threat.

00:41:12.252 → 00:41:14.232  
Their military is not very strong.

00:41:14.232 → 00:41:15.852  
They can’t project power very well.

00:41:15.852 → 00:41:18.712  
I mean, look at what’s happening in the Ukraine.

00:41:18.712 → 00:41:22.132  
That’s not very impressive for the Russian military.

00:41:22.132 → 00:41:25.512  
So the reality is that Russia is just not that much of a threat.

00:41:25.552 → 00:41:29.672  
They fund PSYOP campaigns and cause problems and sow division and things like that.

00:41:29.672 → 00:41:33.112  
But, you know, the Jews are a lot better at it.

00:41:33.112 → 00:41:35.272  
They’re a much bigger threat than the Russians.

00:41:35.272 → 00:41:40.492  
Maybe Russia deserves to be in the top five, but they are nowhere near China.

00:41:44.052 → 00:41:46.052  
Yes, the next question is also sort of related.

00:41:46.052 → 00:41:55.752  
Do you think there is a genuine chance of victory, which is to say actual states, he says ethnostates here, but obviously, it’s almost a little redundant.

00:41:55.752 → 00:42:11.812  
The case of states is not truly, ethnonationalism is, but anyway, ethnostates arise and triumph globally, the reduction of the Negro invasion, the radical left finally no longer a threat, no more trans agenda, et cetera.

00:42:11.812 → 00:42:16.012  
Yes, I do think we have very good odds of victory.

00:42:16.012 → 00:42:23.392  
I don’t know about global victory for other peoples as well, but I’m not as concerned about them, honestly.

00:42:23.392 → 00:42:24.352  
I’m concerned about my people.

00:42:24.352 → 00:42:26.232  
I’m concerned about us here in the United States.

00:42:26.232 → 00:42:30.292  
I’m concerned about Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Europe.

00:42:30.292 → 00:42:31.592  
That’s basically it.

00:42:31.592 → 00:42:35.232  
I’m concerned about the European parts of the world, because they’re my people.

00:42:35.232 → 00:42:37.732  
They’re the ones for whom I should have concern.

00:42:37.732 → 00:42:41.752  
Again, concentric circles of care for people.

00:42:41.752 → 00:42:42.512  
They’re my cousins.

00:42:42.512 → 00:42:43.112  
I care about them.

00:42:43.112 → 00:42:46.312  
I want what is best for them.

00:42:46.312 → 00:42:49.752  
So do I think that we have chance of a genuine victory?

00:42:49.892 → 00:42:52.012  
Yes, absolutely.

00:42:52.012 → 00:43:09.372  
And I think that God is on our side, because even if it were not true that we were the only actual Christian part of the world, which we still are today, it would still be true that God made promises to Japheth and to his children.

00:43:09.372 → 00:43:11.012  
And God’s word never fails.

00:43:11.012 → 00:43:13.272  
His promises never fail.

00:43:13.272 → 00:43:16.352  
He cannot do otherwise than preserve us.

00:43:17.032 → 00:43:23.732  
That doesn’t mean he preserves us as masters of the entire world, which is where I want us to be again.

00:43:23.732 → 00:43:37.172  
That is our rightful position, but is only our rightful position if we are Christian again, if we obey God, if we deserve that position, because we are faithful to God’s commands.

00:43:37.172 → 00:43:43.352  
God’s promise does not entail that we will be masters of the entire world.

00:43:43.352 → 00:43:51.612  
It entails that we will be Christendom, and so we have to have control of some sort of territory to actually be Christendom.

00:43:51.612 → 00:43:57.852  
But I want a grander victory than mere survival.

00:43:57.852 → 00:44:03.572  
I want a restoration of everything that we once had, and perhaps more.

00:44:03.572 → 00:44:07.332  
That is the position in which our people should be, and so that is what I want.

00:44:07.332 → 00:44:13.072  
But yes, the short answer to the question is, I do believe that there is a chance, and I do believe that we will win.

00:44:16.512 → 00:44:19.072  
The next question, I’m actually going to take a sip of tea.

00:44:19.092 → 00:44:22.092  
I’ll mute my mic so you don’t have to listen to me sip tea.

00:44:34.088 → 00:44:38.668  
I guess there’s another irony here, I’m sipping tea and now I get to talk about the Constitution.

00:44:38.668 → 00:44:46.548  
Little more tangential that time, more abstracted, but how should Christian nationalists view the Constitution?

00:44:46.548 → 00:44:49.568  
How should we go about convincing people to stop idolizing it?

00:44:49.568 → 00:44:52.888  
I think that second part sort of answers the first part a little bit.

00:44:54.728 → 00:45:00.408  
But my problem with the Constitution is exactly what is asked in the second question there.

00:45:00.408 → 00:45:01.268  
People idolize it.

00:45:02.028 → 00:45:04.168  
They have made it into an idol.

00:45:04.168 → 00:45:19.028  
And it’s almost an idol in the sort of traditional, you could call it, but the sort of ancient sense of people are praying to, worshiping this thing with no real thought behind it.

00:45:19.028 → 00:45:21.128  
They’re just doing the thing.

00:45:21.128 → 00:45:29.868  
They’re going through the motions because in this Constitution case, how many men who say they love the Constitution have ever read the thing?

00:45:30.888 → 00:45:35.108  
I’m not even saying understand it, or have studied it.

00:45:35.108 → 00:45:38.268  
I’m saying simply sat down and read it once.

00:45:40.208 → 00:45:43.428  
Ask the next one who tells you he really loves the Constitution.

00:45:43.428 → 00:45:45.928  
Ask him the last time he read it.

00:45:47.008 → 00:45:54.568  
Watch him stumble around and fumble to try and find an answer that isn’t an outright lie, because he probably hasn’t read it.

00:45:54.568 → 00:45:59.228  
I’m not saying that you can’t say that something is good, or you believe it’s good.

00:45:59.668 → 00:46:05.708  
You can’t say, I know it’s good, because you haven’t read it, but if you haven’t read something, you can still believe that it’s good.

00:46:05.708 → 00:46:06.008  
Right?

00:46:06.008 → 00:46:07.428  
There are classic novels.

00:46:07.428 → 00:46:08.548  
Men haven’t read.

00:46:08.548 → 00:46:10.048  
They believe are good.

00:46:10.048 → 00:46:14.248  
So can you believe the Constitution is good without reading it?

00:46:14.248 → 00:46:28.348  
Yes, but if you are going to be one of those men who is so dedicated to the idea of the Constitution, you should probably read the document and at least know what it says, or at least try to understand it, because some of the language is old.

00:46:28.968 → 00:46:30.768  
Men are going to have trouble understanding it.

00:46:30.768 → 00:46:32.528  
Some of the language is legal and technical.

00:46:32.528 → 00:46:34.748  
Men will have trouble understanding that.

00:46:34.748 → 00:46:40.448  
So, how do we deal with the issue is sort of a more difficult question there.

00:46:40.448 → 00:46:43.188  
Obviously, I sort of answered the question with how I view it.

00:46:43.188 → 00:46:44.228  
I think that it is an idol.

00:46:44.228 → 00:46:45.328  
I think that it is a problem.

00:46:45.328 → 00:46:47.148  
I don’t think that it survives.

00:46:47.148 → 00:46:50.008  
It’s not good for us, for our future.

00:46:50.008 → 00:46:51.788  
It’s inadequate.

00:46:51.788 → 00:46:52.808  
Is it per se bad?

00:46:52.808 → 00:46:58.168  
I would even go so far as to say yes, because some of the things that it enshrines do run contrary to Christianity.

00:46:58.788 → 00:47:02.568  
At least in terms of their interpretation.

00:47:02.568 → 00:47:09.268  
I think also in terms of their essence for some of them, because they are an outgrowth of the Enlightenment.

00:47:09.268 → 00:47:14.328  
And the Enlightenment was very much anti-Christian.

00:47:14.328 → 00:47:19.608  
I know Woe is called it the enluciferment, which is kind of more difficult to say, which is why it makes me feel bad.

00:47:19.608 → 00:47:22.088  
But when you write it, it looks very nice in writing.

00:47:22.088 → 00:47:24.168  
It’s just a little difficult to say.

00:47:24.168 → 00:47:31.308  
But really, it’s the same name, because what is Lucifer, the morning star, the light bringer, right?

00:47:31.308 → 00:47:34.588  
So he masquerades as an angel of light.

00:47:34.588 → 00:47:40.228  
Well, the enlightenment, I don’t even need to tell you what that means, because it’s the same words in English.

00:47:41.548 → 00:47:52.408  
So that’s sort of the problem with the Constitution, is that it’s an outgrowth of those views which were almost explicitly, and in some cases, particularly in the French cases, explicitly anti-Christian.

00:47:52.408 → 00:47:59.468  
And so I don’t think that Christians can preserve it in good conscience once they recognize the reality of it.

00:47:59.468 → 00:48:04.148  
And so how do we go about disabusing people of these beliefs?

00:48:04.148 → 00:48:09.908  
How do we go about getting people to stop idolizing the Constitution?

00:48:09.908 → 00:48:13.488  
I think part of it is a generational thing.

00:48:13.488 → 00:48:21.108  
Boomers generate, you know, boomers, again, it comes back to that so often, but boomers love the Constitution, they think.

00:48:21.108 → 00:48:23.288  
It’s the same problem, as I said before, where they haven’t read the thing.

00:48:23.808 → 00:48:27.048  
But boomers love the Constitution.

00:48:27.048 → 00:48:29.108  
Right-wing boomers, of course, I’m not talking about the left.

00:48:29.108 → 00:48:32.468  
The left pretend to love it when they can use it as a cudgel against the right.

00:48:32.468 → 00:48:33.688  
That’s it.

00:48:33.688 → 00:48:37.288  
But they’re always mercenary with their beliefs because they have no beliefs.

00:48:37.288 → 00:48:42.148  
However, younger generations don’t care as much.

00:48:42.148 → 00:48:47.608  
I know that I always say GenX doesn’t exist, which I still say, GenX does not exist.

00:48:47.608 → 00:48:50.268  
GenX is split.

00:48:50.268 → 00:48:52.888  
You have the older GenX, they’re young boomers.

00:48:53.308 → 00:48:57.268  
And you have the young GenX, they’re old millennials, basically.

00:48:57.268 → 00:49:03.788  
There’s nothing that really defines GenX in such a way that I think they should be divided into an explicit generation.

00:49:03.788 → 00:49:11.268  
Also, incidentally, I think chopping people up into generations is an artifact of modernity, and I don’t think it’s good.

00:49:11.268 → 00:49:21.288  
It is the reality, though, because the boomers were a distinct generation, developed in a distinct time with distinct beliefs and all these things that set them apart from everyone else.

00:49:21.868 → 00:49:30.328  
In fact, from everyone else, because they’re set apart from their entire history, because they rejected and denigrate it.

00:49:30.328 → 00:49:32.988  
So, the boomer’s the one to love it.

00:49:32.988 → 00:49:37.368  
Millennials and younger don’t care as much, I say, as a millennial.

00:49:37.368 → 00:49:45.648  
So, do we have a real problem with getting rid of the idolization of the Constitution?

00:49:45.648 → 00:50:02.168  
I don’t think that we have as much of a problem as some might think, because millennials and younger, the men who are going to be open to our ideas at all, who are going to come over to our side, they want to win.

00:50:02.168 → 00:50:06.708  
They want a good future for their children and for their grandchildren.

00:50:07.828 → 00:50:13.228  
They don’t care about preserving this particular document or that particular document.

00:50:13.228 → 00:50:21.808  
If it’s standing in the way of what needs to be done, and what we need to accomplish for our people, I don’t think millennials love any problem burning the thing.

00:50:21.808 → 00:50:23.328  
I wouldn’t.

00:50:23.328 → 00:50:29.768  
In fact, I’ve said publicly, that’s what I do, because burning idols is what God commands.

00:50:29.768 → 00:50:33.248  
So I don’t think it’s going to be a real problem.

00:50:33.248 → 00:50:49.288  
There are those where you kind of have to slow walk them through, well, look at this part, and then look at what scripture says, and then look at this part, and look at what scripture says, and you can kind of get them to recognize, well, maybe there are some problems here, because it’s saying the exact opposite.

00:50:49.848 → 00:50:52.168  
That’s troubling in some ways.

00:50:52.168 → 00:51:14.428  
So you can get some people to understand the reality of this thing in which they have invested a mistaken belief, but in many cases, it doesn’t matter, because it’s that generational divide, the boomers will die off, to be blunt, or at the very least, retire and live a life in retirement, not involved in this stuff.

00:51:15.328 → 00:51:21.548  
So, yes, the Constitution has become an idol, but it’s not going to last, so it doesn’t matter that much.

00:51:23.788 → 00:51:26.628  
Take another sip of tea before I get to the next question here.

00:51:36.941 → 00:51:45.501  
So the next question is about, let me see this here.

00:51:49.961 → 00:51:57.941  
Next question, similar to Gettl’s ontological proof, is there an absolute proof for Christianity specifically?

00:52:00.841 → 00:52:08.021  
So I’m not going to go into Gettl’s ontological proof, modal ontological proof, because, well, there are a number of reasons.

00:52:08.021 → 00:52:09.021  
I just won’t go into that here.

00:52:09.021 → 00:52:13.561  
But is there, in essence, that proves the existence of God?

00:52:13.561 → 00:52:16.141  
Okay, so that’s, absolutely it does.

00:52:16.141 → 00:52:18.141  
It proves the existence of God, it’s entirely sound.

00:52:18.141 → 00:52:20.421  
We can prove God exists.

00:52:20.421 → 00:52:22.001  
And so there are a number of arguments for that.

00:52:22.001 → 00:52:23.801  
There are probably six or seven that I like.

00:52:23.801 → 00:52:25.301  
That’s one of the ones I like the most.

00:52:25.301 → 00:52:31.761  
But is there a proof for the Christian God specifically?

00:52:32.861 → 00:52:41.901  
Because there is a difference between proving God exists and proving Jesus Christ is God, right?

00:52:41.901 → 00:52:44.621  
We all recognize those are two different claims.

00:52:46.561 → 00:52:49.101  
So, I would say yes.

00:52:49.101 → 00:52:56.121  
And the issue is, I don’t know if I want to get into the argument right now, because it takes a while to present.

00:52:56.121 → 00:52:57.961  
But I can give the basic outline.

00:53:00.481 → 00:53:02.061  
There are really two arguments I would make.

00:53:02.061 → 00:53:10.001  
The first argument is the scriptural argument, which is just pointing out all of the things that people who are interested in this sort of apologetics will already know.

00:53:10.001 → 00:53:13.241  
Scripture is very clearly not written by men alone.

00:53:13.241 → 00:53:20.681  
There is an organizing intelligence behind it that exceeds human capacity.

00:53:20.681 → 00:53:29.761  
And so, you have to recognize that Scripture was written by a being that is greater than man.

00:53:29.761 → 00:53:42.561  
That doesn’t prove the Christian God, because it just proves God of some kind wrote Scripture, because you could have a God who wrote Scripture is not the Christian God, right?

00:53:42.561 → 00:53:48.781  
That’s sort of getting into the weeds a little bit, but you can at least prove that Scripture is supernatural.

00:53:48.781 → 00:53:55.621  
And in proving that Scripture is supernatural, you certainly lean toward the Christian God very heavily.

00:53:55.621 → 00:54:04.121  
This is something, for instance, that you cannot do with the Book of Mormon, or with the Koran, or with the Talmud.

00:54:04.121 → 00:54:06.841  
So that would be my first proof.

00:54:06.841 → 00:54:14.261  
And I know that many atheists and agnostics and others, they don’t like that argument, but quite frankly, if they’re an atheist, they can’t understand Gödel anyway.

00:54:14.261 → 00:54:17.541  
So at this point, you’ve already lost them.

00:54:17.541 → 00:54:19.241  
You’re going to need to convince them with some other proof.

00:54:21.241 → 00:54:38.361  
The proof that I personally like the most, and this is actually one that I’ve sort of developed, but the proof that I like the most for the Christian God is that you can actually build up from first principles to the necessity of the Trinity.

00:54:39.441 → 00:54:56.621  
And I do believe that in doing that, coupled with traditional philosophical arguments, so for instance, with regard to God being the good, God being the true, coupled with that, you can prove the existence of the Christian God, the Triune God.

00:54:56.621 → 00:55:02.021  
The basis of the argument would be just sort of an outline form.

00:55:02.021 → 00:55:15.321  
You go starting from probably the infinite regress, I think that’s probably the best one, just to get quickly to the proof of there being an ultimate being, an absolute infinite, which is the best way, I think, to describe God in that philosophical sense.

00:55:16.181 → 00:55:28.521  
Well, once you get to that, then you start asking the question, okay, if this God is unitary, would he ever do anything outside himself?

00:55:28.521 → 00:55:42.321  
And I think the answer necessarily is no, because I think a unitary God would be perfect and contained within himself in such a way that nothing would ever be externalized.

00:55:42.401 → 00:55:46.861  
He would simply exist and be all of existence for all time.

00:55:46.861 → 00:55:50.181  
Time also not existing, but speaking in human terms.

00:55:51.401 → 00:56:07.241  
So then the natural extension from that would be to ask, and I’m giving obviously the rough sense of this, not the full philosophy, but the next question obviously would be, okay, we don’t have a unitary God, do we have a dual God?

00:56:07.241 → 00:56:08.901  
Do we have a God in two persons?

00:56:09.841 → 00:56:20.241  
And I think, again, the answer is necessarily no, because I think that you have the same problem, but abstracted one level when it is only two persons.

00:56:20.241 → 00:56:31.161  
Because with two persons, you have the inner relationship of the persons, imperfection, self-contained, wholly within itself, never externalizing anything.

00:56:31.161 → 00:56:34.181  
It’s simply a back and forth between the two persons.

00:56:34.181 → 00:56:35.621  
So I don’t think that solves the problem either.

00:56:36.861 → 00:56:50.761  
But I think once you get to three persons, you inherently, in the nature of that jump from two to three, solve the problem of the fact that external things exist, which is really the problem I’m getting to.

00:56:50.761 → 00:56:55.141  
And anyone who’s versed with philosophy is going to recognize the problem here.

00:56:55.141 → 00:57:01.641  
But, and by problem, I mean the problem to which I’m offering the solution, not the problem with the argument, which I don’t believe exists.

00:57:04.121 → 00:57:16.141  
With regard to that jump from two to three persons, you have an externalizing of the relationship, because basically you have an imparting of what is in essence movement, sort of a metaphysical movement in this case.

00:57:16.141 → 00:57:25.861  
But you have a movement inherent in the relationship between and among three persons that is not there in the simple back and forth between two.

00:57:25.861 → 00:57:33.241  
And so the three persons of the Trinity explains why we have anything external to God.

00:57:33.241 → 00:57:50.381  
And so if you have the necessity of a triune God for the existence in order to explain the existence of a universe, because the universe being external to God in a certain sense, we know the universe exists, how do we explain that?

00:57:50.381 → 00:58:44.501  
If you can build up that philosophical argument to saying that a triune God provides an explanation for that, and then you sort of come along side that with the argument that God is good, God being the absolute infinite, good having existence in itself, having proper existence, not being sort of parasitic like bad or evil is on other things and getting off of the philosophical weeds, but it’s the nature of the subject, if you can come alongside it with that argument, that it is only the good that has that substantial existence, and then you have the triune god, necessarily a god who is good, god being goodness, we’ve already established that at this point in the argument, you’re dealing with this hypothetical person, then necessarily he is going to leave proof of his existence in creation.

00:58:44.501 → 00:58:55.441  
You are going to be able to find him because the deus absconditus or the hidden god, whatever argument you want to use, that’s not a good god.

00:58:55.441 → 00:59:04.341  
A god who hides himself from his creation, who does not make himself known in some way to the things that he has created, is not a good god.

00:59:04.341 → 00:59:06.221  
That’s the demiurge.

00:59:06.221 → 00:59:17.541  
I don’t believe that exists, and I don’t think it’s philosophically coherent either because you’re saying that evil has a substantial existence, which evil is a deprivation of the good, not an essence in itself.

00:59:17.541 → 00:59:20.681  
And so once you’ve established that, well, then you start looking.

00:59:22.621 → 00:59:24.641  
Are there other triune gods?

00:59:24.641 → 00:59:28.041  
Have there ever been any other triune gods?

00:59:28.041 → 00:59:30.081  
The answer is no.

00:59:30.081 → 00:59:33.261  
The god of scripture is the only triune god.

00:59:33.261 → 00:59:53.941  
And so if you can establish philosophically the necessity of the Trinity, and you can establish philosophically, this one’s the easier part, that the absolute infinite is necessarily good, then you look for the consequences of that in creation, in the world as we find it, and you find only one triune god.

00:59:55.701 → 01:00:04.181  
And I think that that necessarily leads to the conclusion that the Christian god is the only god, is the true god.

01:00:04.181 → 01:00:15.001  
I think it’s absolutely unassailable philosophically, logically, and so anyone who understands Gettel’s proof for the existence of god is going to be able to follow that as well.

01:00:15.001 → 01:00:22.021  
I believe, I firmly believe that, since it takes a certain sort of man and a certain sort of mind to understand Gettel in this case.

01:00:22.021 → 01:00:25.301  
So someone who can do that can certainly follow that proof.

01:00:25.301 → 01:00:31.561  
At some point, I’ll outline it more formally, but that’s the brief version of it.

01:00:34.821 → 01:00:44.501  
So the next question, I think we’ve been going about an hour, so I don’t know if I’ll do one more question or maybe two or three.

01:00:44.661 → 01:00:52.261  
I don’t, apparently OBS does not actually have a running timer.

01:00:52.261 → 01:00:54.721  
That’s a neat feature.

01:00:54.721 → 01:01:00.181  
So, at any rate, I will move on to the next question, at least do one more.

01:01:09.611 → 01:01:14.911  
Do you consider Mark 16, nine through 20 to be inspired text?

01:01:14.911 → 01:01:23.311  
If Mark 16, 16 is regarded as not inspired, does this weaken the Lutheran doctrine of baptism?

01:01:23.311 → 01:01:33.591  
Well, I do think that they’re inspired, so I’m not sure that it would be relevant with regard to weakening the case for baptism.

01:01:33.591 → 01:01:36.571  
I can answer it in the hypothetical, I guess.

01:01:36.571 → 01:01:43.811  
If that part of Mark, and I’ll read the verse, so people who are unfamiliar with it know what I’m talking about here.

01:01:43.811 → 01:01:45.551  
Many of you will already know it, of course.

01:01:45.551 → 01:01:50.271  
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

01:01:50.271 → 01:02:04.691  
Of course, we use that in our apologetics for the sacramental understanding of baptism, because it says whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, which of course leads into the Lutheran position of, is baptism necessary?

01:02:05.191 → 01:02:09.091  
Yes, but not absolutely so, but yes.

01:02:09.091 → 01:02:12.371  
I’ve explained that before, so I won’t go into that now.

01:02:12.371 → 01:02:30.811  
If, as some argue, some try to say that the longer ending of Mark is not actually inspired, Lutherans don’t believe that, Roman Catholics don’t believe that, I don’t think Anglicans believe that, I don’t know how many have it in their confessions that the longer ending is part of Mark, or things like that.

01:02:31.391 → 01:02:39.331  
We don’t have a canon in our confessions as Lutherans, so, which sounds weird to some people, but it’s just how we’ve always done things.

01:02:39.331 → 01:02:50.531  
If you assume, for the sake of the hypothetical, that this is not in scripture, this is something that was added by someone else at some point, and it’s not inspired, it shouldn’t be there, right?

01:02:50.531 → 01:02:52.331  
I don’t think it weakens our case for baptism at all.

01:02:52.331 → 01:03:10.711  
I don’t think that this verse is necessary to the Lutheran case for baptism, because there are many other texts that deal with baptism specifically in a more expansive fashion than this one, because this sort of mentions it almost in passing, right?

01:03:10.711 → 01:03:16.511  
It’s important, because it’s straight from the mouth of Christ, and of course, all scripture is breathed out by God, right?

01:03:16.511 → 01:03:23.191  
But some portions are more valuable to us in certain circumstances than others.

01:03:23.191 → 01:03:25.131  
Some are more important than others.

01:03:25.131 → 01:03:26.371  
I’m perfectly comfortable saying that.

01:03:26.531 → 01:03:31.031  
Some books of scripture are worth more than others.

01:03:31.031 → 01:03:40.231  
But in this case, there are plenty of other places that address the doctrine of baptism, the nature of baptism as a sacrament.

01:03:40.231 → 01:03:43.371  
I don’t think you need this one to build the argument.

01:03:43.371 → 01:03:48.831  
Because, yes, there’s something to the power of cumulativeness, right?

01:03:48.831 → 01:03:58.891  
That’s what I was doing with James White in that debate and why he got so uncomfortable when I kept asking those questions about things God cannot do, because it’s hammering home the point.

01:03:58.891 → 01:04:10.031  
And so that’s part of the tactic when dealing with baptism, of course, because you can just keep listing these verses about baptism that very clearly teach it is not just water.

01:04:10.031 → 01:04:11.611  
It is not something that man does.

01:04:11.611 → 01:04:14.351  
It is something that God does.

01:04:14.351 → 01:04:19.431  
This one is important, but it is not necessary.

01:04:19.431 → 01:04:21.971  
There are other verses that do more for our argument.

01:04:22.111 → 01:04:23.471  
So, I don’t think it weakens the argument.

01:04:23.471 → 01:04:25.071  
It’s the short answer.

01:04:25.071 → 01:04:33.911  
If this were hypothetically not part of scripture, we could lose this and still have our doctrine be the exact same thing that it currently is with regard to baptism.

01:04:36.251 → 01:04:38.511  
Let’s see what the next question is.

01:04:38.511 → 01:04:39.611  
Next question is a short one.

01:04:39.611 → 01:04:41.251  
I’ll answer this as well.

01:04:41.251 → 01:04:43.431  
Were the Khazars ethnically Jewish in any way?

01:04:43.431 → 01:04:46.971  
I did touch on this in a previous episode.

01:04:46.991 → 01:04:51.071  
But we’ll answer it again, and then just link to that as well.

01:04:52.831 → 01:04:55.751  
The short answer is no.

01:04:55.751 → 01:04:56.751  
They were not.

01:04:56.751 → 01:05:00.591  
Now, did some Jews integrate into the population?

01:05:00.591 → 01:05:02.471  
It seems like yes.

01:05:02.471 → 01:05:08.291  
And did some of the upper class convert to Judaism?

01:05:08.291 → 01:05:09.651  
Yes.

01:05:09.651 → 01:05:14.731  
Do we have any evidence for a wholesale conversion of the people to Judaism?

01:05:14.731 → 01:05:14.831  
No.

01:05:15.591 → 01:05:20.831  
Do we have any evidence for a wholesale migration of that group?

01:05:20.831 → 01:05:21.771  
No.

01:05:21.771 → 01:05:26.011  
And are the Jews Kazarian?

01:05:26.011 → 01:05:26.711  
No.

01:05:26.711 → 01:05:34.651  
You can look at their genetics, you can look particularly at Y DNA, you can look at all of this evidence, and incidentally mitochondrial as well in many cases.

01:05:34.651 → 01:05:38.031  
So it’s not just the male line, it’s also the female line in some cases.

01:05:38.031 → 01:05:47.511  
Although with admixture, largely actually from southern Europe, Italy, in many cases, not from Eastern Europe, not from Kazzaria.

01:05:47.511 → 01:05:57.211  
But you can look at the DNA, you can look at the hard evidence, and they actually come from the Middle East, the Near East.

01:05:57.211 → 01:05:58.011  
That’s where they’re from.

01:05:58.011 → 01:06:01.751  
So they are related to the ancient Israelites.

01:06:01.751 → 01:06:03.191  
And you can see that also in their behavior.

01:06:03.191 → 01:06:06.591  
They behave the same, it’s the same people, they’re doing the same things.

01:06:06.591 → 01:06:10.591  
They’re still giving God the middle finger and trying to ruin everything around them.

01:06:11.211 → 01:06:13.111  
That’s who they’ve always been.

01:06:13.111 → 01:06:14.411  
And it is who they will always be.

01:06:20.343 → 01:06:22.803  
Let’s see what else we have here.

01:06:28.528 → 01:06:32.408  
I think that may be it for this episode.

01:06:32.408 → 01:06:47.588  
There are more of the questions here that I have, of course, but I will not get to all of them tonight since we got through a handful here, not quite half of the 40-some-odd questions that I have going.

01:06:47.588 → 01:06:51.048  
But I think I will call it here for tonight.

01:06:51.048 → 01:06:56.408  
It’s been over an hour so far, and I try to keep these to, you know, an hour, hour and a half maybe.

01:06:56.408 → 01:06:59.708  
Just depends on the questions and how long I go.

01:06:59.708 → 01:07:05.868  
If it’s a more complicated answer, then I like to answer a few more questions so that it’s not just one really long answer.

01:07:05.868 → 01:07:14.968  
But I will prepare answers to some of these because some of these are going to take a little bit longer, and some of them I think I have to look at some things.

01:07:14.968 → 01:07:19.248  
I have some questions about things where I haven’t, like translations of scripture I’ve never looked at.

01:07:19.248 → 01:07:22.608  
So those I’ll have to prepare the answers for next time.

01:07:22.608 → 01:07:24.848  
But I think I will call it here.

01:07:24.848 → 01:07:26.668  
Don’t want to keep any of you too long as well.

01:07:26.968 → 01:07:32.088  
So, thank you for your time, and thank you for those who submitted questions.

01:07:32.088 → 01:07:34.888  
Again, questions can be submitted on the forum.

01:07:34.888 → 01:07:36.148  
That is the preferred method.

01:07:36.148 → 01:07:41.488  
The link should be in the description for the video, regardless of which platform you’re using.

01:07:41.488 → 01:07:45.048  
And it’s also linked in my Telegram chat and elsewhere.

01:07:45.048 → 01:07:48.788  
So, I think that is it for this week.

01:07:48.788 → 01:07:54.468  
I will be back next week, probably right about the same time, to answer more questions.

01:07:54.468 → 01:07:55.528  
That’ll be episode eight.

01:07:56.388 → 01:07:57.568  
So, again, thank you for your time.

01:07:57.568 → 01:07:58.528  
Thank you for the questions.

01:07:58.528 → 01:08:02.248  
Thank you for those who submit questions for the next episode.

01:08:02.248 → 01:08:11.128  
I don’t know if I will get to them necessarily, if there are additional questions, because I still have so many to answer, but I will just keep adding them to the list.

01:08:11.128 → 01:08:16.308  
And if you submit them on the forum, then other people can vote on them, and so they can sort of rise to the top.

01:08:16.308 → 01:08:19.908  
I’ll try to prioritize those ones, unless they’re, again, something insane.

01:08:19.908 → 01:08:22.268  
But it’s mostly been avoided thus far.

01:08:22.268 → 01:08:23.568  
The questions have been very reasonable.

01:08:24.208 → 01:08:30.488  
They’ve been good questions that I think it’s important to answer them and have the answer available for people.

01:08:30.488 → 01:08:36.648  
As always, the audio will be available probably tomorrow, maybe Saturday.

01:08:36.648 → 01:08:38.868  
Just depends on when I get that done.

01:08:38.868 → 01:08:44.528  
The audio is a little bit higher quality than the stream, simply due to bitrate restriction and things like that.

01:08:44.528 → 01:08:51.128  
But the audio-only version can be found at [podcast.coreyjmoller.com](http://podcast.coreyjmoller.com).

01:08:53.328 → 01:08:57.408  
That’s also my website, incidentally, without the podcast in the front.

01:08:57.408 → 01:09:00.148  
And I think that pretty much covers it for this week.

01:09:00.148 → 01:09:03.188  
Again, thank you to all of you, and have a great evening.

01:09:03.188 → 01:09:04.768  
I will see you next week.

01:09:04.768 → 01:09:05.128  
God bless.
