# AAC: 15 May 2026 (Q&A)
**URL:** https://omnifora.com/t/aac-15-may-2026-q-a/5386
**Category:** At Any Cost
**Created:** [May 15, 2026, 10:09pm UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/aac-15-may-2026-q-a/5386 "2026-05-15T22:09:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mahler](https://omnifora.com/u/mahler)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2026, 10:09pm UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/aac-15-may-2026-q-a/5386/1 "2026-05-15T22:09:21Z")
# Episode Information
- **Date** : 2026-05(May)-15(Fri)
- **Number** : `e0028`
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### Links
- Episode: [15 May 2026 (Q&A) | Corey J. Mahler Podcasts](https://podcasts.coreyjmahler.com/2026/05/15-may-2026-qa/)
- Transcript: [e0028.vtt](https://aac.cdn.coreyjmahler.com/transcripts/e0028.vtt)
-
#### Other Platforms
- Video:
- YouTube:
- X:
- Rumble:
-
#### Original Broadcasts
**YouTube**
**X**
---
### Author:  [@mahler](https://omnifora.com/u/mahler)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2026, 10:09pm UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/aac-15-may-2026-q-a/5386/2 "2026-05-15T22:09:30Z")
# Episode Wiki
_This is the episode wiki — trusted users can edit it._
## Topics Covered
1. What’s your opinion on the arrest of Chud The Builder?
- `::`–`::`
2. [Age gaps in marriage](https://omnifora.com/t/age-gaps-in-marriage/5381)
- `::`–`::`
3. [Ethnogenesis, the Great Commission, and the End Times](https://omnifora.com/t/ethnogenesis-the-great-commission-and-the-end-times/5383)
- `::`–`::`
4. [Mormon and Amish Influence](https://omnifora.com/t/mormon-and-amish-influence/5380)
- `::`–`::`
5. [Was the Great Commission issued to all Christians?](https://omnifora.com/t/was-the-great-commission-issued-to-all-christians/5376)
- `::`–`::`
6. [Do you foresee a new LCMS Archbishop putting the synod back on a faithful path?](https://omnifora.com/t/do-you-foresee-a-new-lcms-archbishop-putting-the-synod-back-on-a-faithful-path/5370)
- `::`–`::`
7. [Should we use hymns written by women?](https://omnifora.com/t/should-we-use-hymns-written-by-women/5369)
- `::`–`::`
8. what are your thoughts about a 20 year old female pursuing a law degree, have undergraduate degree, next (LSAT). However, concerning marriage and having a family and career?
- `::`–`::`
9. What do you make of papists photos they post of the body of Christ and it’s all bloody? supposedly proof of transubstantiation
- `::`–`::`
10. What is your read on the use of “sanctified”/“made holy” in 1 Corinthians 7:14 in reference to the unbelieving spouses? What are the effects of this sanctification on the unbelieving spouse?
- `::`–`::`
11. Thoughts on Michael Heiser?
- `::`–`::`
12. Must I capitulate to the capitalist system by subjecting myself to debt slavery via mortgage in order to be a homeowner? I have nowhere near enough money for land, and hate renting basement suites.
- `::`–`::`
13. How do we go about predestination, is it as i believe, God sees all possibilities and that is some kind of form of predestination otherwise how would predestination make any sense in a religion Where we are called to repentance.
- `::`–`::`
14. And a slight add on, is the predestination Belief in Calvinism basically Satanic because it makes God a monster as he makes people just to torture in Hell?
15.
---
### Author:  [@mahler](https://omnifora.com/u/mahler)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2026, 10:09pm UTC](https://omnifora.com/t/aac-15-may-2026-q-a/5386/3 "2026-05-15T22:09:42Z")
# Transcript
WEBVTT
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It is the 15th of May, 2026.
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I am Corey J.
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Mahler, and this is At Any Cost.
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This is episode 28, a Q&A episode.
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And I do not believe that I have any housekeeping, so I will simply get into the questions here.
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As soon as I open up my list here.
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Question one, what is your opinion on the arrest of Chud the Builder?
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I pulled this one out because it is relevant.
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It’s sort of an ongoing thing right now.
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I would start off by saying, I don’t always answer questions like this, because a lot of times these things are sort of in flux, and I may not know a particularly great amount about them.
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For instance, I was unaware of this man before recent events, the people tagging me and asking me questions, partly because he’s in Tennessee, and I’m in Tennessee, and I’m an attorney, and he obviously needs an attorney.
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But as I have already said on X, I do not have a Tennessee bar card.
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And yes, there is pro hoc vichay, which basically just means, specifically for this given matter.
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So a court can admit an attorney to practice before the court, even though the attorney does not have the bar card necessary, whatever it happens to be, to practice in that court.
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That’s usually exceptional, and there usually has to be a compelling reason for it.
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There’s no compelling reason to the mind of a court to admit a California attorney in a Tennessee court for a criminal matter, because there are many attorneys who practice criminal law.
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And so no court is going to admit me, pro hoc vichay, particularly because I have not practiced criminal law.
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And so all of the things they would use, all the warrants that would be in favor of that admission are against me.
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So someone asked on X and also in the chat, can I offer legal advice?
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I can offer legal advice.
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It’s not officially legal advice because I’m not a Tennessee attorney, so it would just be generalized advice.
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So you know, attorneys can consult.
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That’s something that you can do as an attorney without necessarily being admitted in the state in which the action is taking place.
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But to get to the question proper, I’ve pointed out it’s not the sort of behavior in which I engage, and I was already fairly clear about that on X what I meant by saying that.
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As you may have noticed, I don’t use expletives.
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I don’t engage in that sort of shocking behavior.
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I don’t do that sort of stuff.
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I don’t necessarily condemn it in all situations.
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I don’t.
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I’ll be explicit.
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I do not condemn it in all situations.
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And I have to give the caveat of all situations, because if you’re doing it in church, that’s inappropriate, right?
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The behavior in which he is engaging, if you ran into a black church and did that, I would object to that, because that’s a totally different thing.
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That’s inappropriate.
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Don’t do that.
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Even though, yes, there are plenty of problems with black churches, many of them teach horrible theology, still, time and place, matter of wisdom, don’t do that.
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Now, is what he’s doing necessarily wise?
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No, from what I’ve seen, it may not be wise.
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But that doesn’t mean that it’s not something that needs to be done, right?
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There’s a certain change in mindset and sort of the contours of how freedom of speech and related matters are enforced or not enforced in the US context.
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And he’s pushing the envelope in what appears to be a useful way.
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Preliminary comment, like I said, I know not that much about him.
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I just did a little bit of research before I hit, start streaming.
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And so I don’t believe that he should have been arrested necessarily, because from what I can see of the information that is already public from what I can actually access, it looks like it was indeed self-defense.
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Did he engage in provocative behavior?
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Yes.
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But are you allowed to do that legally?
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The answer is yes, you are.
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There are certain lines you cannot cross, right?
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You can’t stalk someone, that’s a crime.
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You’re not allowed to stalk people.
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You can’t follow people for blocks, isn’t an appropriate thing.
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Don’t go out and do that.
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But generally speaking, you do have a right to free speech, including in public, as long as you don’t cross certain boundaries, basically as long as you’re not making threats, right?
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And the threats have to be of a certain kind, because there’s a whole area of the law concerned with that, and I don’t want to get into that right now, but there are elements you have to hit in order to actually have it be a credible threat that is actionable and not free speech, right?
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So there are lines there, there’s some gray area, just be careful with that stuff.
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You can look up the test online.
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It’s fairly simple, fairly easy to understand, as a test like that should be.
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So it doesn’t seem to me like his behavior crossed those lines.
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It does seem to me like the other gentleman, we’ll call him, engaged in threatening behavior, and then indeed assaulted him, in the criminal sense of the term.
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Incidentally, also I believe in the civil sense.
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There’s a difference between assault and battery in civil courts.
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Assault is putting someone in imminent apprehension of undue or unwanted contact.
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So if I pretend I’m going to punch you, that could be assault in a civil context.
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Battery is when I actually hit you.
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Incidentally, if I hit you in the back, it’s battery and not assault, because you didn’t see it coming.
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In the criminal sense, we usually mean by assault, actually physical contact, right?
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We mean actually hitting another person, doing something actually physical, not just words.
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And so it looks like the other gentleman engaged in that behavior, and so it would be warranted self-defense.
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That is my initial assessment of it.
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I think that’s reasonable.
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And so does he pose the sort of imminent threat or ongoing threat where he should be incarcerated in order to prevent him from causing additional harm while this matter is being adjudicated?
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I don’t think so.
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It’s being done because he’s a white man and the other man was black.
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That’s the whole reason.
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And as a practical matter that’s related to this, in cases where you have given current conditions, right?
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In cases where you have one of our guys who’s white, who’s clearly being persecuted on account of his race, or is at least being singled out for different treatment on account of his race, you support that guy.
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Period.
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Because it is a strategic matter, not just a moral objective matter.
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It’s a different thing.
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And yes, as someone said in the chat, it’s not even just a two-tier system, it’s a multi-tier system.
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It’s sort of…
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it’s not really the Oppression Olympics as it has been called sometimes, because there are very much privileged groups, and the term privilege gets abused a lot, but it has utility as well.
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It’s a very real thing.
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There are privileged groups with regard to treatment by our legal system, and there are groups that are not privileged.
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And if you’re a white male, particularly a white male Christian, and he does appear to be a Christian, then you are basically devoid of any privilege.
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You are going to get the book thrown at you to use the old saying.
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So, you support your guy, you support our guy, because he is one of us.
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And could he have done something?
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Not in this case, but hypothetically.
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Even if he did something that was foolish, right?
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You still support the guy, because the system is persecuting him in a way because of who he is, because of what he is.
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And so, yes, again, you support our guy.
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I’m not going to give a blanket recommendation of that sort of behavior, but I’m not going to say that it’s necessarily wrongful.
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Like I said in a post on X, I think it is something that needs to be done.
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I think it’s something that’s important, given the reality of where we are now.
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Again, it’s that envelope pushing.
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It’s trying to push things in our direction.
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It is beneficial in the long run.
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And there are guys who are going to do that, and guys like me who are not going to do that.
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So, no, the short answer is, I do not believe that he should have been arrested, and I don’t believe in an objective system that was morally structured following the law, and not just the letter of the law, but also the intent of the law, the spirit of the law.
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I don’t believe he would have been arrested.
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He would have been sent home and said, don’t leave the county.
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That’s just standard procedure for something like this if you’re not incarcerated pending trial.
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Don’t leave the county, stick around.
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We’re going to have an investigation, and then we’ll determine what happened and whether we charge you or not.
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That’s how things should go.
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Of course, optimally, under ideal conditions, this wouldn’t happen, right?
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I pointed that out on X as well.
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Because we shouldn’t have Africans in our lands.
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And so this sort of confrontation shouldn’t even be possible.
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Now, if we had segregation in terms of actual countries, so they over in their lands, us in our lands, right?
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If we had that, then no, you shouldn’t fly over there and harass them, right?
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That would be dumb.
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We’d condemn that.
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But they shouldn’t be here.
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That’s the foundational problem.
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That’s the foundational issue that needs to be resolved.
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Again, don’t go and harass people in church or places like that.
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But free speech is something that we have.
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I think that it is important within certain bounds.
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I don’t think free speech should be unbounded.
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I’m not a libertarian, right?
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I think blasphemy should be illegal and punished.
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For instance, that’s one example.
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But we do have free speech with regard to issues like this, and certain political issues and social issues.
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That should apply most strongly to us, incidentally, because we’re the ones for whom the Constitutional protections were written, right?
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For their progeny, not for these aliens living in our lands.
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But you do need men to actually challenge these things and fight it out in the courts.
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So support him if you’re able to, because he’s going to need support.
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What he’s doing is important.
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Like I said, these things have to be challenged in the courts, and sometimes it will go our way, and sometimes it will not.
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That is a matter of legal and political strategy.
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And he’s not necessarily engaged in that.
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He’s not picking the optimal place to have this confrontation, and then get it into an optimal venue, and then have the appeals path and the right panel.
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He’s not planning all that stuff.
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That’s the sort of thing that you need attorneys on your side to be doing.
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That is something that, for instance, the NRA does.
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I know that for a fact.
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I’ve talked to a number of their attorneys, friends with some of them.
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That is something they do, right?
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You pick the place where you want to challenge something because you have the optimal conditions to most likely obtain the outcome that you desire.
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I think that this is probably a better venue than many others because it’s in Tennessee.
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Unfortunately, it is not in the, we’ll say, more staunchly conservative parts of Tennessee because he’s in the Nashville area, which is…
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It’s not Memphis.
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It could be worse, but it’s, you know, not…
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Knoxville is a little better where I am.
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So yes, the overall, I don’t think he should have been arrested.
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He has been.
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It’s going to be probably a pretty long fight, and they’re probably going to throw the book at him.
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It looks like they’ve already essentially done that, but they will continue to pursue it.
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So support him if you can, because he’s being persecuted not because of any particular incident, but because the incident gave them the opportunity to charge a white Christian male with a crime and try to make an example of him.
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That’s what’s happening here, because we have a legal system that is not a legal system.
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It is not a matter of justice, it’s certainly not a justice system.
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It’s a matter of injustice and persecution, deliberately aimed at white Christian males.
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Question two is sort of shifting gears, although I guess it’s still a little bit legal-related here.
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How should a young Christian man approach the pursuit of marriage when he has developed a strong interest in a godly young woman who is significantly younger?
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In this particular case, a 23-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl from a conservative Christian family, he’s known her for years.
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This was a friend passing the question to me to ask, to answer it.
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Scripture emphasizes the importance of sexual purity and the value of marriage as a safeguard against immorality.
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In fact, Scripture gives marriage as the only cure for sexual temptation.
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It also shows examples and principles regarding betrothal, parental involvement, and readiness for marriage in patriarchal contexts, for example, the Old Testament narratives and the emphasis on the father’s role.
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Yes, I’ll comment on that in a second here.
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Key questions for my personal situation are, what does the Bible teach about appropriate age differences for marriage?
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Is it advisable to wait for a specific young woman who is not yet of typical marrying age according to our day and age?
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At what age do you think it is appropriate for a girl to marry?
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Or does the command to flee sexual temptation and the practical delay in forming a household council pursuing a similarly godly wife who is closer in age?
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What principles would guide a decision in such a situation, especially in a secular European context?
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The questioner is German.
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Where biblically minded Christian women are rare, and I doubt it will be able to find anyone else soon.
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So, I would start out by noting something linguistically, that many sort of gloss over when reading scripture and other old documents.
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When scripture speaks of marriage, and incidentally, like I said, older documents as well, they speak of two distinct things, actually.
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Because how does scripture speak of marriage?
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It says, for instance, when talking about the flood, right?
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They were marrying and being given in marriage.
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Two different things, right?
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The first is the man.
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The second is the woman.
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Well, women are given in marriage.
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Who’s doing the giving, right?
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Someone has to…
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you can’t have a gift without a giver, right?
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You can’t have, in this case, a wife being given in marriage without someone giving her away.
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That’s the reason we have the ceremony still in a formal marriage ceremony of the father giving away the bride, because the father is the one who has the veto.
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At the very least, he’s supposed to have a veto.
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He should be involved in determining who gets to marry his daughter.
00:15:34.276 → 00:15:43.436
That’s one of the reasons that an unmarried woman should never be outside her father’s house, unless, of course, her father is dead or a criminal or something heinous, right?
00:15:44.116 → 00:15:49.956
Then she is the responsibility of the next closest male relative, who is of appropriate age, right?
00:15:51.036 → 00:15:52.016
That’s how it goes.
00:15:52.716 → 00:16:03.176
So a woman being given in marriage means that, yes, you should absolutely ask her father for permission to marry her, for him to give her away to you as a wife.
00:16:03.616 → 00:16:07.176
So in this case, you have an eight-year gap, right?
00:16:08.376 → 00:16:09.056
I don’t care.
00:16:09.376 → 00:16:11.036
An eight-year gap is not a big deal.
00:16:11.996 → 00:16:20.916
The only way that an age gap starts to be a real issue is when you get into like significant age, you know, 25-year age gap.
00:16:20.976 → 00:16:21.896
Maybe don’t do that.
00:16:22.956 → 00:16:33.156
Partly because as the man, you’re going to die way before your wife if you’re 20 years older than her, because you’re already probably going to die younger, then she will eventually die.
00:16:33.576 → 00:16:35.036
She’s going to outlive you.
00:16:35.816 → 00:16:44.616
You don’t want your wife necessarily to be a widow, at least you’re not intending, because in this case, you’re basically intending for her to be a widow for decades.
00:16:45.376 → 00:16:47.936
In this specific hypothetical, that’s not the case, right?
00:16:47.936 → 00:16:50.216
Eight years is not really a big deal.
00:16:50.976 → 00:17:01.596
No, I’m not saying that you, your friend in this case as a 23-year-old should marry the 15-year-old now, because as a Western European, I think the Western Europeans have been largely right on this.
00:17:01.596 → 00:17:04.296
There’s a little bit of a difference with, it’s the Hodgemull line.
00:17:04.296 → 00:17:07.436
There’s a little difference with Eastern Europe and certainly other parts of the world.
00:17:08.176 → 00:17:18.616
By and large, the marriage age for women in Western Europe has been around 21, 21, 22, 23, sometimes a little younger, sometimes a little older.
00:17:18.936 → 00:17:26.616
But usually, that early, that first half of the 20s is about when women get married in Western European context.
00:17:27.236 → 00:17:30.016
In the East, it’s been, you know, 16, 17, 18.
00:17:31.196 → 00:17:35.296
I know that the age of consent’s a little younger in some parts of Germany, for instance.
00:17:35.976 → 00:17:43.236
But there is, of course, the inaptly named in the US context, Romeo and Juliet laws, which are proximity and age laws, right?
00:17:44.336 → 00:17:48.236
Now, of course, that’s usually for things that are immoral, not necessarily for marriage.
00:17:48.236 → 00:17:51.596
Marriage has different rules, but they’re related laws.
00:17:52.636 → 00:17:56.756
So I think the best advice here is just wait three years and then marry her.
00:17:57.456 → 00:18:05.796
If her father says, yes, if this is, you know, you have obviously, you’ve known her for years, this is a family connection of some kind, right?
00:18:06.436 → 00:18:08.916
Your families know each other, and that is what I’m saying there.
00:18:09.916 → 00:18:11.076
There’s nothing wrong with that.
00:18:11.256 → 00:18:13.276
By all means, it’s probably a good idea.
00:18:13.276 → 00:18:15.596
It just means that, yes, you’re going to have to wait for three years.
00:18:15.836 → 00:18:19.576
And so you have to practice chastity for three years.
00:18:19.576 → 00:18:20.836
That’s what men are supposed to do.
00:18:20.836 → 00:18:23.696
It’s what women are supposed to do as well before marriage.
00:18:24.176 → 00:18:33.936
So, the age of marriage isn’t so much a scriptural command as something that God built into creation itself.
00:18:34.556 → 00:18:37.816
We can see when these things are supposed to take place naturally, right?
00:18:38.056 → 00:18:43.236
We know that there’s an age of sexual maturity for men and for women.
00:18:43.476 → 00:18:48.476
We know that there’s a certain sort of just general maturity, a psychological maturity.
00:18:48.876 → 00:18:57.296
No, I’m not saying that your frontal lobe or your prefrontal cortex or whatever argument they’re using these days has to be fully developed and you can’t marry till you’re 35, right?
00:18:57.296 → 00:18:58.356
That’s ridiculous.
00:18:58.776 → 00:19:05.176
But we know that there are biological realities, including fertility, that factor into this.
00:19:05.456 → 00:19:09.156
And so, yes, women should by and large be marrying in their early 20s.
00:19:09.516 → 00:19:12.056
Men mid to late 20s is ideal.
00:19:13.076 → 00:19:16.956
That is how society works when things are functioning well.
00:19:17.576 → 00:19:33.796
And so, if this friend has managed to find a godly woman, by all means, he should speak to the father, arrange things so that, you know, I want to marry your daughter in three years when it is appropriate to do so.
00:19:35.156 → 00:19:41.256
He may very well respect you for being appropriate, for doing the right thing and speaking to him about it.
00:19:41.916 → 00:19:43.436
But if that works out, great.
00:19:43.436 → 00:19:46.656
You’ve found a godly wife and a great gift from God.
00:19:46.656 → 00:19:49.696
So, I think that’s the way to do that here.
00:19:50.076 → 00:19:55.356
And like you say, finding godly women can be a little bit of a challenge in some parts of the world these days.
00:19:55.656 → 00:19:59.516
So, if your friend has found one, by all means, he should pursue that.
00:20:06.513 → 00:20:07.933
Question three.
00:20:09.713 → 00:20:23.573
Should we understand the devil’s plan to erase or corrupt our understanding of nationhood not only as a means to desecrate creation, but also to delay the Great Commission and the End Times since there may yet be nations not born?
00:20:24.873 → 00:20:38.453
At the time of the order to go and baptize all nations, America was still approximately 1600 years from its birth, so the church at the time could not have known to baptize us specifically, and this would apply to other young nations as well.
00:20:43.945 → 00:20:47.185
And there’s just some reasoning I was reading through quickly before answering the question.
00:20:48.805 → 00:21:00.485
So when it comes to baptizing all nations, I don’t think that the command means to baptize all nations that will ever or could ever be created in perpetuity.
00:21:00.745 → 00:21:03.045
And of course, there’s a limit to that, right?
00:21:03.045 → 00:21:09.465
Because you can’t keep creating novel nations, you’ll eventually run out of stock, out of material.
00:21:09.945 → 00:21:17.585
And you wind up with a massive generalized beige people, really probably darker than beige in reality, just because of the numbers.
00:21:18.205 → 00:21:24.945
But I think it was, you know, you’re baptizing all the existing nations.
00:21:25.185 → 00:21:28.205
You are spreading the word of God to the whole world.
00:21:28.205 → 00:21:31.165
I incidentally think that the Great Commission has been fulfilled.
00:21:31.165 → 00:21:32.385
I think we already did that.
00:21:32.925 → 00:21:36.605
This was a common belief among Lutherans centuries ago.
00:21:36.605 → 00:21:38.085
It’s somewhat fallen out of favor.
00:21:38.585 → 00:21:40.965
There are some of the Church Fathers who believed in it.
00:21:40.965 → 00:21:52.825
There are some who’ve argued it was completed at the time of the Apostles, because the Apostles went to all of the great nations, which is to say all of the main groups descended from the sons of Noah.
00:21:53.345 → 00:21:54.525
So there were those who viewed that.
00:21:54.825 → 00:21:57.985
I don’t think this is an ongoing requirement.
00:21:58.545 → 00:22:00.885
I think we’re still supposed to spread the gospel.
00:22:00.885 → 00:22:05.465
We’re still supposed to bring things into subjection under Christ.
00:22:05.725 → 00:22:06.985
All of that still applies.
00:22:07.005 → 00:22:09.645
But I think the Great Commission, we’ve fulfilled that.
00:22:09.645 → 00:22:15.225
I think we’ve fulfilled that as Europeans during the period of colonialism and conquest.
00:22:16.705 → 00:22:29.085
So the way you can look at this is that any new nation that comes to be, and yes, ethnogenesis is very much a thing, which just means the creation of a new ethne, a new group, a new race.
00:22:30.745 → 00:22:35.345
That’s a very real thing, but they have to come from founding nations, right?
00:22:35.745 → 00:22:39.445
One, more than one in this case, two or more founding nations.
00:22:39.745 → 00:22:48.185
And so, for instance, in the American context, I have routinely highlighted Americans by and large are the product of three nations, historically.
00:22:48.485 → 00:22:56.365
There are some others now as well, and I think people who listen to me recognize, maybe people on X don’t, some of that’s probably malicious.
00:22:56.865 → 00:23:08.965
People who listen to me recognize that I’m not saying that no one else could ever possibly come to America and become part of America and his children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren be American, right?
00:23:09.805 → 00:23:11.945
I’m not excluding the Norwegians, for instance.
00:23:12.565 → 00:23:20.145
I had a handful of Norwegian friends, actually, growing up in Lutheran school, because there was a Norwegian Lutheran church where I grew up.
00:23:21.125 → 00:23:30.105
At any rate, in the US context, you have German, English, Scottish, in varying proportions in different parts of the country.
00:23:30.485 → 00:23:35.125
Those are the major three founding stocks of the American nation.
00:23:35.285 → 00:23:36.825
And so you have ethnogenesis.
00:23:37.325 → 00:23:47.585
Ongoing in our case, because it hasn’t really completed yet, but you have more Scots-Irish, for instance, here in Appalachia.
00:23:47.945 → 00:23:51.545
You have more of the English up in the northeast.
00:23:51.765 → 00:23:53.585
In the Midwest, you have more German.
00:23:54.385 → 00:23:56.625
But those are the founding stock.
00:23:57.505 → 00:24:03.385
But that means that you had to have those founding stocks to create the American nation.
00:24:03.645 → 00:24:08.685
Well, all three of those groups, all three of those races, were evangelized.
00:24:09.425 → 00:24:18.225
You don’t have to re-evangelize the American nation just because it’s a new nation created from ones that had already been evangelized.
00:24:19.345 → 00:24:26.585
That had been fulfilled, because the Germans were evangelized, the English were evangelized, the Scots were evangelized, right?
00:24:27.105 → 00:24:40.225
So the American nation was evangelized with regard to our ancestors, after Christ issued the command to baptize all nations, but before the creation of the American nation.
00:24:40.465 → 00:24:43.365
So, like I said, I believe that that has already been fulfilled.
00:24:43.365 → 00:24:53.305
I don’t think that we have to wait until every possible combination of men has occurred on the earth, and then take the gospel to them.
00:24:53.965 → 00:24:55.385
I think that it was fulfilled.
00:24:56.145 → 00:25:02.945
In large part, during the lives of the apostles, but then certainly during the period of colonialism and European conquest.
00:25:06.985 → 00:25:13.085
So, no, I don’t think that, to answer the other part of that, I don’t think that Satan is using it as a tactic to delay the second coming.
00:25:13.085 → 00:25:14.605
I don’t think he can delay it at all.
00:25:15.365 → 00:25:21.265
I’m sure he would love to delay the second coming, because that’s the beginning of the end for Satan.
00:25:21.725 → 00:25:24.485
In his case, an eternal end, which is very bad news.
00:25:24.905 → 00:25:26.705
But he can’t delay that at all.
00:25:28.005 → 00:25:35.405
All he can do is uselessly and impotently gnash his teeth and be angry, and he can cause problems, but he can’t change God’s plans.
00:25:38.765 → 00:25:40.105
Question 4.
00:25:40.385 → 00:25:42.645
Mormon and Amish Influence.
00:25:46.485 → 00:25:58.145
Will predominantly white Mormon and Amish communities in America grow into significant political or social forces due to their in-group preferences and resistance to mainstream cultural influences?
00:25:58.145 → 00:26:00.885
And if so, how should this be addressed?
00:26:00.945 → 00:26:04.085
So the short answer is the Amish will not the Mormons already have.
00:26:05.165 → 00:26:09.905
The Amish will not because they are the hard line Anabaptists.
00:26:10.485 → 00:26:15.885
All Baptists are Anabaptists because Anabaptist just means re-baptizer.
00:26:15.945 → 00:26:18.085
It’s the reason that in German, it’s Vita Toifa.
00:26:18.085 → 00:26:20.165
It’s re-baptizer, literally re-baptizer.
00:26:20.585 → 00:26:31.905
But because English likes to steal words from other languages, we took the Greek, which makes some sense because baptize is a Greek verb, and we just took the Greek for re to do it again.
00:26:32.925 → 00:26:34.725
So it means re-baptizer.
00:26:34.725 → 00:26:47.925
So all Baptists are technically Anabaptists because they would all re-baptize, which is not a thing, but they would all baptize someone who had already been baptized as a child, which is to say they would re-baptize.
00:26:49.085 → 00:26:50.405
They just dropped the anabit.
00:26:51.205 → 00:27:08.025
However, what most Baptists in the US context, which is why it is still useful to distinguish them, dropped was the political views and the social views to a large degree of the Anabaptists, at least the historical ones.
00:27:08.365 → 00:27:21.645
Certainly the crazier groups, but even the Amish and the Mennonites and others weren’t like the crazier groups in history, that literally had to have imperial troops called out to put down rebellions in entire towns because of how bad they were.
00:27:22.225 → 00:27:27.265
Thankfully, the Amish and the Amish couldn’t, because they don’t believe in technology, many of them.
00:27:27.925 → 00:27:31.005
Thankfully, the Amish and the Baptists, generally, are not doing that these days.
00:27:31.945 → 00:27:37.545
So the reason the Amish will not accomplish anything is they still hold to those political views.
00:27:37.545 → 00:27:39.585
They don’t really involve themselves in politics.
00:27:40.005 → 00:27:44.865
They, depending on the group, more or less view holding political office as a sin.
00:27:45.725 → 00:27:49.205
So they’re never going to be a real force.
00:27:49.705 → 00:27:57.365
They are a force to some degree in their own limited area, geographically speaking, culturally and economically.
00:27:57.545 → 00:28:04.205
The Hutterites are particularly economically important, for instance, up in Canada, for certain reasons.
00:28:04.205 → 00:28:08.285
They are okay with technology to some degree, more than the ones we have here.
00:28:08.745 → 00:28:10.165
And so, they are very good farmers.
00:28:10.605 → 00:28:19.305
So economically, they are important, culturally obviously, to some degree, but they are insular, so they don’t have that much influence on things.
00:28:19.905 → 00:28:22.245
Now, the Mormons, very different story.
00:28:23.425 → 00:28:32.485
The Mormons have infiltrated the FBI and the CIA and many other federal and state groups to a very large degree.
00:28:33.125 → 00:28:37.605
They actually have a great deal of influence, more or less behind the scenes.
00:28:38.165 → 00:28:46.325
They don’t have a nut influence yet in order to really have frontmen, a face.
00:28:46.885 → 00:28:59.965
In their own context, which is to say Utah, and increasingly Nevada, parts of California, parts of Idaho, they do have influence there, and so obviously they have their own politicians, they have their own groups.
00:29:00.825 → 00:29:04.405
But on the national stage, you know, they tried, right, Romney.
00:29:05.445 → 00:29:06.945
We all know how well Romney went.
00:29:07.645 → 00:29:08.385
Not very.
00:29:09.045 → 00:29:16.485
So they don’t have the power to do that yet, but they have a great deal of control and influence behind the scenes.
00:29:17.145 → 00:29:40.305
Nowhere near what the Jews have, of course, but they should not be discounted, because Mormons have a lot of money, and they have almost a virulent in-group preference, because they have it in the sense of, if you don’t adhere to everything the Mormon church tells you, you become an outcast, and your own family disown you.
00:29:41.405 → 00:29:44.505
We could argue whether or not that’s what you’re supposed to do religiously.
00:29:45.065 → 00:29:46.125
In some cases, yes.
00:29:46.125 → 00:29:47.265
In some cases, no.
00:29:48.165 → 00:29:50.305
But they are particularly bad at it.
00:29:50.305 → 00:30:12.425
It’s one of the reasons that a lot of times, I’ve mentioned this before, if you manage to get someone out of the Mormon cult, a lot of times the most important part of that is physically relocating that person and giving them another support structure because they will be harassed if they stay put, and all of their support structure will evaporate overnight.
00:30:13.385 → 00:30:22.105
So the Mormons definitely are a force in American politics and American culture, certainly economically in their own sphere.
00:30:23.405 → 00:30:48.845
They are a very real problem going forward for the American right, particularly the Christian right, because they pretend to be Christian, they are very much not Christian, and they will serve as almost a fifth column and certainly an anchor, which is unfortunate, because by and large, the rank and file anyway, maybe not the higher ups, but the rank and file Mormons are very nice men and women.
00:30:49.325 → 00:30:51.785
They generally are hard workers.
00:30:51.865 → 00:31:06.085
There are a lot of things that are great about them, but they’re part of an evil organization that is openly blasphemous, that is anti-Christian, and that is very much our problem, because we allowed it to fester.
00:31:06.685 → 00:31:11.425
We allowed them to flee and set up shop and then expand.
00:31:11.865 → 00:31:18.825
We are to blame for that, because it is our territory, it is the failure of our forefathers, that’s the reason we have Mormons.
00:31:19.285 → 00:31:23.265
That is something that should have been solved long ago and it was not.
00:31:23.605 → 00:31:34.565
It was addressed incorrectly, inefficiently, and incompletely, which is why we have the problem today, and it’s a much bigger problem than it would have been a hundred years ago.
00:31:36.865 → 00:31:39.905
So Amish, no influence.
00:31:42.265 → 00:31:52.045
Population wise, good to some degree, because obviously there are a lot of genetically fit Amish, and they’re basically exclusively white.
00:31:52.045 → 00:31:58.605
So in those terms, good, if you can find an Amish wife, you’re going to have some conflicts there and some problems, but maybe that’ll work out.
00:31:59.085 → 00:32:02.865
Mormons are difficult, because Mormons are going to have influence, they already do.
00:32:04.085 → 00:32:06.705
And it is not to our benefit that they do.
00:32:09.965 → 00:32:12.365
Question five.
00:32:15.065 → 00:32:28.425
Was the Great Commission in Matthew 28 issued to all Christians related to the idea of the priesthood of all believers, or was it more of a directive to those in the office of public ministry, such as the apostles?
00:32:29.305 → 00:32:32.585
And then I’ll read the reasoning here as well, because it’s relevant for this.
00:32:32.945 → 00:32:37.245
I am trying to have a better understanding of the duties of a believer and of the pastoral office.
00:32:37.525 → 00:32:52.985
I am curious how different readings of Ephesians 412 play into this, as older translations include a comma dividing a phrase that seems to indicate that certain leaders are given to do works of ministry, not that all saints are equipped for works of ministry.
00:32:54.945 → 00:32:59.585
This gets into a related question that I am not going to get to this week.
00:32:59.585 → 00:33:03.745
I have it on my list for an upcoming episode at some point.
00:33:04.785 → 00:33:09.585
The issue of the call and Lutheran understanding of what it is, and what is the call?
00:33:09.585 → 00:33:10.245
Who has a call?
00:33:10.245 → 00:33:11.305
Who doesn’t have a call?
00:33:11.385 → 00:33:12.385
Who should be included?
00:33:12.385 → 00:33:12.985
What power?
00:33:12.985 → 00:33:13.925
All that sort of stuff.
00:33:14.185 → 00:33:18.725
That’s why I’m not getting into it this week, because it’s probably going to be relatively involved.
00:33:19.485 → 00:33:32.765
However, as far as spreading the Word of God is concerned, generally speaking, all Christians do have some duty to spread the Word of God, spread the Gospel.
00:33:33.905 → 00:33:39.285
It varies according to the talents God has given you and the opportunities he gives you.
00:33:39.745 → 00:33:51.885
So it may be that you are the father of a household, and that other than that, you have no rank, no control, no influence in society, you know.
00:33:52.825 → 00:33:56.105
You work on your own land, let’s say, let’s give an extreme example.
00:33:56.105 → 00:34:01.625
You’re out in the middle of nowhere, you work on your own land, the only other people you see are the people at your church.
00:34:02.325 → 00:34:03.085
Once a week.
00:34:03.485 → 00:34:12.925
Okay, your duty is to instruct your wife, raise godly children, and do what you can with regard to your church and your neighbors.
00:34:13.305 → 00:34:13.925
That’s it.
00:34:14.725 → 00:34:19.545
That’s the extent of your duty with regard to spreading the word of God.
00:34:20.345 → 00:34:30.525
And so I already went over the Great Commission to some degree, but you don’t have a duty to fly over to Africa or China or somewhere like that and spread the word of God.
00:34:30.925 → 00:34:38.825
God has given you a time and a place and put people in your sphere of influence, entrusted them to your care.
00:34:39.025 → 00:34:43.585
Your duty is to do that, to care for the things God has given to you.
00:34:44.165 → 00:34:54.745
Now, if you are the leader of a nation, you have different duties, because your biggest duty is to see that your entire nation obeys God.
00:34:55.465 → 00:34:59.705
And so I’ve said this before, and it’s worth saying, and I’ll probably say it again.
00:35:00.125 → 00:35:11.285
Don’t necessarily envy the men who obtain an office like president or king or prince or whatever it happens to be.
00:35:11.985 → 00:35:17.785
They are going to get some very penetrating and perhaps awkward questions from God at the judgment.
00:35:18.645 → 00:35:28.585
Scripture is explicit that teachers have a stricter judgment, but Scripture also says in many places, God is going to judge you according to what you have been given.
00:35:29.045 → 00:35:32.525
And so, and of course, what you did with it or did not do with it.
00:35:33.165 → 00:35:39.765
Leaders have been given a great deal, particularly, say, the leader of the United States, who is the most powerful man in the world.
00:35:40.865 → 00:35:55.765
He is going to have to answer to God for what he did or did not do with regard to the Christian religion and seeing that it is practiced in the lands under his control and lands within his influence, and what he did with regard to false religion.
00:35:56.485 → 00:36:06.825
And that is on top of what he did with the economy and the culture and social and all these other things, because the king is the head of the nation.
00:36:07.685 → 00:36:10.145
He is, in a sense, sort of the avatar of the nation.
00:36:10.525 → 00:36:15.945
He is going to stand before God and be judged for what his nation did or failed to do.
00:36:17.065 → 00:36:21.985
So maybe you don’t envy those men because you probably don’t want that sort of judgment.
00:36:22.325 → 00:36:30.085
Teachers receive a stricter judgment because teachers are standing up and saying, I am speaking on behalf of God when I say X, Y, and Z.
00:36:31.565 → 00:36:33.785
So teachers get a stricter judgment as well.
00:36:34.785 → 00:36:37.365
But this is a matter, essentially, of vocation, right?
00:36:37.365 → 00:36:39.665
The question is asking about vocation.
00:36:40.645 → 00:36:46.665
Your vocation, first and foremost, is your job, right?
00:36:46.845 → 00:36:47.785
And your family.
00:36:49.105 → 00:36:59.885
You have, to some degree, the duty to spread the word of God within the context, again, of the abilities, the influence, the power, the authority, all these things.
00:36:59.925 → 00:37:05.645
These gifts, these attributes, the things God has entrusted to you, the things He has given you to do that.
00:37:05.985 → 00:37:11.125
You don’t have a duty to try to do what God didn’t empower you to do.
00:37:12.705 → 00:37:17.965
In fact, as I’ve said before, it is wicked to try to exercise a gift you don’t have.
00:37:18.325 → 00:37:22.325
We can use the extreme example, which makes it very easy for people to understand.
00:37:22.705 → 00:37:28.785
If God did not give you the gift of prophecy, what do we call it when you stand up and said, God told me?
00:37:30.625 → 00:37:33.085
Well, the best is false teaching, it’s probably blasphemy.
00:37:33.165 → 00:37:36.425
So don’t exercise gifts God didn’t give you.
00:37:38.045 → 00:37:50.865
But again, if you’re ahead of a household, you at least have the duty to see that your wife stays in the faith and that you train her up in the faith, and the same for your children, and then do what you can with your neighbors in your church.
00:37:51.185 → 00:37:53.325
That’s the basic rules there.
00:37:56.625 → 00:37:58.205
But it’s probably worth mentioning.
00:37:58.545 → 00:38:18.305
Even pastors, right, who people view as having this exceptional sort of duty, which they do to some degree, the office gets a little more prestige than it warrants, but they don’t have a general duty to go to other parts of the world and spread the gospel, because God has given them a flock.
00:38:18.845 → 00:38:20.565
Their duty is to take care of the flock.
00:38:21.825 → 00:38:25.745
So, the general rule, take care of the things God has entrusted to you.
00:38:26.765 → 00:38:35.485
Don’t go looking for what the world tells you is really super important, and you should be really proud that you went and spent a week in Africa digging wells or something.
00:38:40.485 → 00:38:49.685
Sort of a tangentially related question here, question six, and then I will try to pull some of the questions out of the chat so I don’t miss them.
00:38:51.525 → 00:38:56.325
Do you have any thoughts on this summer’s LCMS election of Archbishop?
00:38:56.505 → 00:39:00.085
Could the right candidate change the course of the denomination for the better?
00:39:00.565 → 00:39:05.365
I imagine it would be counterproductive for someone with your notoriety to publicly endorse a candidate.
00:39:05.485 → 00:39:06.805
That’s probably an understatement.
00:39:07.445 → 00:39:13.825
But would you say there are any men on the ballot with the potential to bring real positive change at a synodical level?
00:39:17.225 → 00:39:23.025
And then another question, do you foresee a hopeful future, or are we realistically past the point of no return?
00:39:23.705 → 00:39:28.585
So, there are really two answers to this, or I guess one answer with two parts.
00:39:30.565 → 00:39:32.785
We’re not past the point of no return.
00:39:33.405 → 00:39:53.365
So, a good man could certainly stand up, God could stand up a good man, and he could change things fundamentally, return to true teaching, return to scripture and the confessions, and stop borrowing nonsense from the world, you know, condemning racism and stuff.
00:39:55.845 → 00:40:12.705
But that man is probably never going to be a candidate in this sense, because the entirety of the leadership of Synod is constituted such that those men are deliberately screened out at every possible level.
00:40:13.005 → 00:40:16.765
Some of our guys are still sneaking through in the seminaries.
00:40:17.085 → 00:40:27.205
I’m not going to say how many, of course, but some of them certainly are, despite the witch hunts, and there are witch hunts, despite men being called into the offices there and asked if they know Cory Mahler.
00:40:27.745 → 00:40:28.665
That’s happening.
00:40:29.425 → 00:40:32.145
If they listen to Stone Choir, that’s happening.
00:40:32.545 → 00:40:39.305
Despite the fact that if you’re caught with a Stone Choir challenge coin on a seminary campus, you’ll probably be immediately cast out, right?
00:40:39.365 → 00:40:40.225
Those things are happening.
00:40:40.945 → 00:40:51.505
But by and large, I don’t think that the leadership is going to change without something significantly greater than a general synodical election.
00:40:52.085 → 00:41:03.485
That’s going to require change at the congregational level across many congregations, and then forcing the issue up the hierarchy.
00:41:03.925 → 00:41:06.145
It’s not going to happen from the top down.
00:41:06.445 → 00:41:08.165
It’ll be bottom up if it happens at all.
00:41:08.785 → 00:41:16.425
I think that the best way at this point is to continue trying to take individual faithful parishes out of the LCMS.
00:41:17.005 → 00:41:24.525
Join with other faithful parishes in your locality, eventually build that up to regional and the national.
00:41:25.005 → 00:41:29.125
Maybe there will be an opportunity in the future to take back the synod as well.
00:41:29.965 → 00:41:32.705
If that happens, then those congregations can rejoin.
00:41:33.085 → 00:41:35.125
There’s nothing stopping them from doing that.
00:41:35.645 → 00:41:44.805
But, I think right now, the best thing you can do is remove a faithful parish from the LCMS, so that you are not in any way subject to faithless leadership.
00:41:45.845 → 00:41:56.125
Like I’ve said before, thankfully, with regard to the LCMS for current conditions and issues, the LCMS is congregational in terms of polity.
00:41:56.505 → 00:41:58.605
And so, you can just leave.
00:41:59.105 → 00:42:01.465
The bishop doesn’t really have authority over you.
00:42:01.785 → 00:42:05.945
The bishop can’t tell you, you can’t take your church, because your parish probably owns it.
00:42:06.225 → 00:42:10.065
Check your bylaws, make sure they haven’t played any games or shenanigans there.
00:42:10.485 → 00:42:18.605
But right now, leaving the LCMS as a parish is the best path forward, unfortunately.
00:42:19.945 → 00:42:30.425
Because faithless men have taken over, and they absolutely refuse to yield to the word of God or any rebuke whatsoever.
00:42:30.945 → 00:42:34.005
And so their judgment is going to be a fearful thing one day.
00:42:39.473 → 00:42:44.193
And it really is unfortunate, because the LCMS could be the fastest growing church in the world if they would just listen.
00:42:48.333 → 00:42:52.553
Right, I’m going to take some, pull some questions out of the chat right now so that I don’t miss them.
00:42:52.553 → 00:42:53.713
I’ll add them to my notes.
00:43:25.812 → 00:43:33.612
I don’t know that I’ll necessarily get to this question about psychoanalysis this episode, but I will stick it on my list for the future.
00:43:34.712 → 00:43:38.972
I will resist the temptation to make an offhand comment about it.
00:43:59.453 → 00:44:02.313
I will, however, just answer briefly a question from the chat.
00:44:02.313 → 00:44:10.753
This is not an official, as it were, numbered question for the episode, but someone asked about putting the questions somewhere to read them.
00:44:11.433 → 00:44:16.073
They are in the thread on the forum for each episode.
00:44:16.073 → 00:44:17.413
I try to keep that updated.
00:44:18.293 → 00:44:29.813
It’s a wiki, so anyone who is trusted in the sense of how Discourse Software handles that, a trusted member of the community, can edit the wiki if I missed something and pasted something in the wrong spot.
00:44:30.093 → 00:44:34.853
But I do try to keep that updated for each episode, and that’s what I’m doing right now.
00:44:34.853 → 00:44:37.833
I’m copying them over into that so that they are available.
00:44:38.433 → 00:44:43.093
But you can go and find that on the forum for any of the episodes.
00:44:43.093 → 00:44:50.733
I’ll go ahead and drop that into the chat here, see if we can crash my forum software.
00:44:53.613 → 00:44:55.653
Or just really actually overload my server.
00:44:55.653 → 00:45:00.513
The forum software shouldn’t crash, but that’s the link for this particular episode.
00:45:00.513 → 00:45:04.453
So if you just scroll down to the second post, it gives the questions there.
00:45:04.473 → 00:45:07.473
Some are asked on the forum, and so there’s a link to the topic.
00:45:07.693 → 00:45:14.013
Some are from the chat, or from X, or Telegram, or I have a letter sitting here that I probably won’t get to this episode.
00:45:14.013 → 00:45:15.993
Someone mailed me a letter to ask me questions.
00:45:16.373 → 00:45:20.653
A little aggressive with those questions, but I’ll answer them nonetheless.
00:45:20.653 → 00:45:22.093
That’s probably be next week for those.
00:45:24.033 → 00:45:25.513
Question 7.
00:45:28.053 → 00:45:35.913
Is our hymnody a form of teaching within the church, and if so, should we refrain from utilizing hymn texts that were written by women?
00:45:37.073 → 00:45:38.233
And then the reasoning for it.
00:45:38.233 → 00:45:49.373
Our modern Lutheran hymnals all include hymn texts written by women, but historically the corpus of Lutheran hymnody all came from male writers, sometimes with women contributing as translators.
00:45:50.853 → 00:45:55.953
I think the general rule there is that, yes, hymns should be seen as a form of teaching.
00:45:56.673 → 00:46:00.453
And the way that you can look at this is, what is the psalter?
00:46:00.953 → 00:46:02.873
The psalter, by and large, is a hymnal.
00:46:03.613 → 00:46:07.393
All of the hymns in the psalter were written by men, right?
00:46:07.753 → 00:46:15.693
And I know that some are going to be thinking, well, aren’t there things in scripture that were, in fact, written by women and are essentially hymns?
00:46:15.693 → 00:46:16.473
Yes, of course.
00:46:16.813 → 00:46:18.713
There’s the Song of Miriam, for instance.
00:46:19.393 → 00:46:21.813
However, who wrote that down?
00:46:22.333 → 00:46:22.993
Moses.
00:46:23.493 → 00:46:34.213
And so Moses, as a prophet, and also incidentally basically a priest and king at the time, he was giving sort of the stamp of approval, right?
00:46:34.473 → 00:46:39.033
He is the one who ran the assessment of this is acceptable to be included.
00:46:39.373 → 00:46:46.373
And so, and obviously, yes, it’s scripture, so the Holy Spirit is very clearly involved, we’ll say, to understate matters.
00:46:47.333 → 00:46:57.213
And so, I think that would be not the exception, but a way to look at not a blanket or a categorical prohibition on the involvement of women whatsoever.
00:46:57.793 → 00:47:01.013
So, can women write poetry and songs?
00:47:01.113 → 00:47:02.093
Of course, they can.
00:47:02.533 → 00:47:04.193
I’m not going to say they can’t do so.
00:47:05.133 → 00:47:08.913
Most of the best poets and writers have been men, but women can do it as well.
00:47:08.913 → 00:47:11.433
And there are some good female poets, for instance.
00:47:11.433 → 00:47:14.333
I’m not going to list them here and now, but there are some.
00:47:15.273 → 00:47:20.013
So, could a woman help contribute to writing a hymn?
00:47:20.833 → 00:47:24.433
I think yes, as long as it is under the supervision of her husband.
00:47:25.013 → 00:47:31.493
So, he would be the one who would have the ultimate authority there, because as her head, he has certainly a veto.
00:47:31.493 → 00:47:37.513
He also has a duty to see that she believes rightly and that the faith is taught rightly in his home.
00:47:38.233 → 00:47:39.273
That’s part of the issue, right?
00:47:39.273 → 00:47:46.013
The head has certain duties, and so it would be usurping the position of the head if the woman just did this on her own.
00:47:47.173 → 00:47:59.713
Incidentally, I do think the same thing is probably true with regard to translators, and every Lutheran knows of whom I’m thinking right now, because you’ve seen her name at the bottom of many hymns, because she translated a lot of German hymns into English.
00:48:00.573 → 00:48:02.833
Translation is not a mechanical thing.
00:48:03.353 → 00:48:18.013
Translation involves a lot of judgment, and so I think that there should be male supervision there as well, because again, this is a matter of teaching in the church, because the hymns are teaching.
00:48:18.693 → 00:48:28.733
That was one of the biggest complaints about the Lutherans from Rome during the Reformation, is that we were singing people into the Lutheran church, because our hymns were teaching the faith.
00:48:28.733 → 00:48:29.773
That’s still true.
00:48:29.913 → 00:48:30.913
Hymns teach the faith.
00:48:30.913 → 00:48:32.993
It’s one of the best ways to teach the faith.
00:48:33.613 → 00:48:34.613
We all know this.
00:48:35.793 → 00:48:44.773
Every single person listening probably knows some song that was used to memorize something at some point in the past, right?
00:48:45.173 → 00:48:49.833
Maybe it’s the states, maybe it’s the presidents, maybe it’s the capitals of the states.
00:48:50.073 → 00:48:55.673
Whatever it is, you probably still know at least some of it because it was set to music.
00:48:56.153 → 00:49:01.073
We learn a lot better through repetition, but also when something is set to music.
00:49:01.733 → 00:49:07.673
So, it’s one of the reasons that, you know, bards historically could memorize these epic poems.
00:49:08.293 → 00:49:09.693
It was partly it was set to music.
00:49:09.693 → 00:49:12.093
It was partly that it had meter or rhyme.
00:49:12.553 → 00:49:14.913
All of these little tricks help with human memory.
00:49:15.933 → 00:49:21.853
So, this is teaching, and no women should not be doing it unsupervised because that’s inappropriate.
00:49:21.853 → 00:49:23.833
It’s usurping that position of head.
00:49:24.233 → 00:49:32.733
It is going around the duties of the husband, and always bear in mind that this is not just a matter of the husband being, I’m in charge and I do whatever I want.
00:49:33.153 → 00:49:40.793
No, it’s God has given the husband a position, and he is going to answer to God for what he did or failed to do.
00:49:41.513 → 00:49:53.273
So, if you are a woman, if you’re a wife, don’t make that more difficult for your husband, because he will have to answer to God for one day for what he did or did not do in that role as your head.
00:49:53.573 → 00:50:00.393
The same thing, of course, is true for all women with regard to your father, at least while you’re in his household, which is to say before you’re married.
00:50:03.033 → 00:50:10.253
And a related question from the chat here, conveniently, what are your thoughts about a 20-year-old female pursuing a law degree?
00:50:11.033 → 00:50:15.133
I assume this is the 20-year-old female in question asking here.
00:50:16.473 → 00:50:22.273
She says she has an undergraduate degree, taking the LSAT next, however concerning marriage and having a family and career.
00:50:22.593 → 00:50:28.393
So ideally speaking, women should focus on family.
00:50:29.693 → 00:50:34.013
Finding a husband, having children, keeping a home, doing those things.
00:50:34.493 → 00:50:37.573
That is what women are supposed to do first and foremost.
00:50:37.573 → 00:50:40.013
That is the highest calling for a woman.
00:50:41.833 → 00:50:45.033
One of the highest callings for a man, of course, is being a godly husband.
00:50:45.113 → 00:50:51.413
It’s not exclusively because men have that sort of dual life in the home and then in the public sphere.
00:50:51.893 → 00:50:55.653
Women are not supposed to have the public sphere part of that in the same way as a man.
00:50:55.853 → 00:51:02.833
It’s not that women are supposed to be, you know, hidden away, seen but not heard or, you know, not seen even in some societies.
00:51:02.833 → 00:51:03.613
It’s not that.
00:51:04.873 → 00:51:12.673
It’s that god has entrusted the oversight and the maintenance of the public sphere to men and not to women.
00:51:13.273 → 00:51:16.353
Women have been entrusted with the private sphere.
00:51:16.633 → 00:51:25.933
And by and large, women are going to have, in some ways, more influence even than their husbands just because of the sheer number of hours they are going to spend with their children.
00:51:26.353 → 00:51:32.693
Men will not spend as many hours with their children while they’re growing up, as will the woman, as will the mother.
00:51:32.693 → 00:51:34.093
That’s just the reality of it.
00:51:34.093 → 00:51:35.053
That’s how it works.
00:51:35.713 → 00:51:37.153
That’s incredibly important.
00:51:38.373 → 00:51:50.913
If no one raises up the next generation in the faith, in the beliefs of the culture, in pride for your race and your nation and things like that, your history, then you have no future.
00:51:51.473 → 00:51:55.333
The nation without mothers has no future.
00:51:55.333 → 00:51:57.293
That is an incredibly important role.
00:51:57.873 → 00:52:08.633
And so, when anyone says that women should do that first and foremost, and that is the highest duty, that’s not in any way saying that, oh, your place is here and you can’t do these other things.
00:52:09.033 → 00:52:15.233
It’s saying the thing that you can do and no one else can do is one of the most important things in human society.
00:52:15.493 → 00:52:18.053
It is more important than being an attorney.
00:52:18.373 → 00:52:23.033
And so, some of those are undoubtedly thinking of Hitler’s speech on women, right?
00:52:23.033 → 00:52:25.573
And that comes to mind because it’s related here.
00:52:26.053 → 00:52:52.033
One of the things that he says in that is when he says a female attorney or a female doctor, that to him, and I agree, I think it’s how every Christian should view this, that to him is not so much an accomplishment or something of which to be proud as the woman who has five, six, seven, eight children because the woman who has the children has ensured that her nation will have a future.
00:52:53.353 → 00:53:07.233
A woman who achieves the absolute heights of academic excellence or career excellence in whatever field but has no children, has achieved less than the woman who has children.
00:53:08.013 → 00:53:09.773
That is the simple reality of it.
00:53:11.893 → 00:53:17.453
So, I don’t necessarily, and I really don’t think that law school is a great thing for women.
00:53:17.453 → 00:53:22.073
I’ve seen what happens to women who go to a law school, and it’s not necessarily great.
00:53:22.513 → 00:53:31.693
Not to insult my female friends who are attorneys or went to law school, but I don’t think it’s good for women.
00:53:32.053 → 00:53:34.813
I think it is destructive in a certain way to women.
00:53:36.513 → 00:53:46.313
And as far as I am aware, the women with whom I went to law school, who are the happiest, were the ones who never practiced law.
00:53:47.713 → 00:54:00.733
They are the ones who got the degree and then for some reason treated that like many women treat a BA and used it to find a husband and then stop practicing or even let their bar card lapse.
00:54:00.833 → 00:54:03.313
And now they are housewives and mothers.
00:54:03.873 → 00:54:07.613
They’re a lot happier because God built women to do that.
00:54:07.893 → 00:54:11.293
We are all happier when we are doing the things God made us to do.
00:54:11.813 → 00:54:16.033
God did not make women to be politicians and attorneys and doctors.
00:54:16.293 → 00:54:18.133
It’s not because women are incapable.
00:54:18.133 → 00:54:22.833
This is something that many men, sometimes on the right, get wrong about these things.
00:54:23.893 → 00:54:32.453
We don’t say that women can’t be, pick something random, cancer researchers, because they’re dumb, because they’re incapable.
00:54:33.233 → 00:54:34.153
That’s not it.
00:54:34.673 → 00:54:43.913
It’s because there are more important things women need to be doing, and there are duties that men have that women do not, and duties that women have that men do not.
00:54:44.473 → 00:54:50.593
And so, again, when we are doing the things God designed us to do, that is when we are going to be happiest.
00:54:50.833 → 00:55:02.393
And as a 20-year-old woman, if you go to law school, right, that’s three more years of your life spent in school, three years of your peak fertility spent in school.
00:55:03.133 → 00:55:15.393
And if you want to practice law, particularly if it’s big law, it varies a little bit depending on the sort of firm for which you want to work, they are going to work you to death for probably at least three years.
00:55:16.593 → 00:55:24.133
And then the load, the amount of work you’re going to have is not really going to change that much as you work your way up that hierarchy.
00:55:24.133 → 00:55:25.413
You’re still going to have a ton of work.
00:55:25.673 → 00:55:37.813
It is going to demand so much of your life during these extremely important years of your life that if marriage and a family are of any importance to you whatsoever, you are trading that for that career.
00:55:38.633 → 00:55:39.733
That is the reality.
00:55:40.433 → 00:55:50.193
I think it’s a foolish trade because maybe you can use whatever your undergraduate degree or something is later in life.
00:55:50.553 → 00:55:57.873
Because when you’re 40 or 50, you still have the mental faculties, you still have the capacity, you still have the ability to do these things.
00:55:58.033 → 00:56:01.953
And I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong for women to go and do some of those things later in life.
00:56:03.593 → 00:56:05.933
But you no longer have the ability to have the children.
00:56:07.413 → 00:56:13.793
These years, because of the reality of biology, I mean, you have children now, or you do not have them.
00:56:14.193 → 00:56:16.993
Sure, maybe if you marry in your 30s, you can get one or two.
00:56:19.093 → 00:56:28.593
Aim higher, want more out of life, because the number of children that is considered normal these days is completely ridiculous.
00:56:29.713 → 00:56:32.073
None of our ancestors would have thought that was reasonable.
00:56:32.533 → 00:56:35.373
A woman who has a full house is blessed by God.
00:56:35.373 → 00:56:39.773
God is extremely clear in scripture that children are a blessing from God.
00:56:41.513 → 00:56:44.013
I don’t know why anyone would not want God’s blessings.
00:56:44.193 → 00:56:45.493
It seems completely ridiculous.
00:56:45.493 → 00:56:47.233
It’s like opting to have a curse.
00:56:47.613 → 00:56:49.113
People do that all the time as well.
00:56:49.473 → 00:56:52.253
Why would you opt into something that is a curse from God?
00:56:52.253 → 00:56:54.313
It seems completely insane to me.
00:56:54.533 → 00:56:55.573
And yet people do it.
00:56:56.973 → 00:56:59.553
And people also avoid blessing from God.
00:56:59.553 → 00:57:07.773
It’s why, for instance, when the issue of contraception comes up, a lot of times I will just start with by saying, God is extremely clear.
00:57:08.413 → 00:57:09.933
Children are a blessing from God.
00:57:11.533 → 00:57:16.453
What you are doing is preventing yourself from being blessed by God.
00:57:18.153 → 00:57:19.113
Why would you do that?
00:57:19.793 → 00:57:27.333
I’m not saying you can’t engage in some sort of, you know, spacing and reason and, you know, planning things out according to wisdom.
00:57:27.333 → 00:57:28.533
That is certainly something.
00:57:28.773 → 00:57:32.413
But totally avoiding a blessing from God, that carries its own curse.
00:57:32.773 → 00:57:42.073
You have brought that upon yourself by getting rid of the blessing, by deliberately taking an action that prevents, in this sense, God from blessing you, right?
00:57:42.073 → 00:57:49.953
God, his power isn’t curtailed by what you did, but he’s going to go ahead and say, if you don’t want the blessing, fine, don’t receive it.
00:57:50.913 → 00:57:54.273
So no, I don’t think that a woman attending law school is a wise decision.
00:57:55.133 → 00:58:01.253
And I think that to be entirely blunt, if your father were doing his duty as a father, he would have already told you that.
00:58:02.393 → 00:58:11.933
Because you are trading the most important years of your life for something that is far less important than being a wife and a mother.
00:58:14.053 → 00:58:19.773
You will be far happier as a wife and a mother than you would be even as a high-powered attorney.
00:58:25.695 → 00:58:27.475
Question nine.
00:58:31.735 → 00:58:37.815
What do you make of papus photos, the post of the body of Christ, and the body is all bloody?
00:58:38.275 → 00:58:40.735
Supposedly proof of transubstantiation.
00:58:40.735 → 00:58:43.375
I don’t know exactly what you are asking with this question.
00:58:44.195 → 00:58:53.075
So if you would like to follow up in the chat, I can return to this, I guess, but I guess I can just sort of comment on it generally.
00:58:55.035 → 00:59:09.555
Transubstantiation is essentially importing philosophy and a sort of metaphysics into Christian doctrine that is the inverse of what the reform do with it.
00:59:09.815 → 00:59:12.255
And so obviously, in Lutheran, I say both are wrong.
00:59:12.875 → 00:59:24.775
The reform say it can’t possibly be body and bread, and so it has to be just symbolic language, and it has to be bread that merely represents Christ’s body.
00:59:26.735 → 00:59:35.235
The Roman Catholics, on the other hand, say, it can’t possibly be body and bread, and so it must be his body because he said it’s his body.
00:59:35.995 → 00:59:41.535
Lutherans look at it and say, what does Christ say?
00:59:42.195 → 00:59:43.395
What does scripture say?
00:59:43.875 → 00:59:45.115
Scripture is very clear.
00:59:46.115 → 00:59:48.355
This bread, okay, it’s bread.
00:59:48.995 → 00:59:50.275
God said it’s bread.
00:59:50.535 → 00:59:51.615
I believe it’s bread.
00:59:52.115 → 00:59:53.035
Is my body.
00:59:53.675 → 00:59:54.215
Okay.
00:59:55.515 → 00:59:57.335
The bread is his body.
00:59:57.495 → 00:59:58.575
It’s body and bread.
00:59:59.395 → 01:00:00.795
I don’t have to resolve that.
01:00:01.015 → 01:00:09.855
Can I resolve that necessarily rationally in a way that’s going to be comfortable, right, for all human beings, satisfying for human reason?
01:00:10.095 → 01:00:11.015
Not necessarily.
01:00:11.015 → 01:00:14.875
I don’t personally have any problems with it with regard to philosophy or reason.
01:00:15.335 → 01:00:19.755
I think that according to modes of presence and all those things, it makes perfect sense.
01:00:19.755 → 01:00:21.455
But some people are uncomfortable with it.
01:00:21.895 → 01:00:24.175
You don’t have to resolve all mysteries.
01:00:25.155 → 01:00:28.155
In fact, you shouldn’t seek to resolve all mysteries.
01:00:28.595 → 01:00:33.835
You can ponder them, you can think about them, you can read about them, what God has given us.
01:00:34.395 → 01:00:38.035
But ultimately, you believe them because God has said they are true.
01:00:38.555 → 01:00:48.335
And so when Christ says, This bread is my body, this wine is my blood, Lutherans simply say, Both are present.
01:00:49.015 → 01:00:51.335
It’s bread and body, it’s wine and blood.
01:00:51.715 → 01:00:55.955
I don’t have to go farther than that, because God himself has told me it’s true.
01:00:56.395 → 01:00:57.715
That is sufficient for me.
01:00:58.135 → 01:01:04.575
And so we don’t fall off the left side of the horse like the Reformed and say, It has to be bread alone.
01:01:04.975 → 01:01:10.855
We don’t fall off the right side of the horse like the Romanists and say, It has to be body alone.
01:01:11.595 → 01:01:22.475
And we don’t delve into weird metaphysics by saying, you know, the essence and the substance has changed or the substance hasn’t changed, and it’s really only…
01:01:23.095 → 01:01:24.175
We don’t need to get into that.
01:01:24.295 → 01:01:31.975
Once you start importing that sort of philosophy to try to explain away what God has said, you should probably realize what you’re doing is not wise.
01:01:32.995 → 01:01:37.195
So Lutheran simply affirm what God has said in his word.
01:01:37.255 → 01:01:44.435
It is the real presence, it’s the sacramental union, it is to some degree beyond human reasoning, but so is Christ.
01:01:45.035 → 01:01:47.395
He’s 100% God and 100% man.
01:01:47.795 → 01:01:49.235
Go ahead and try and resolve that.
01:01:49.555 → 01:01:54.315
I’m obviously using that rhetorically, don’t go ahead and try to resolve that because you can’t.
01:01:55.035 → 01:01:56.715
We affirm it because God said it.
01:01:57.415 → 01:02:04.035
There are mysteries in the Christian faith, and perhaps it’d be better if we had translated sacrament as mystery, which is what it is in the Greek.
01:02:04.295 → 01:02:05.175
It is a mystery.
01:02:06.595 → 01:02:08.815
So it doesn’t need to be resolved.
01:02:08.815 → 01:02:17.495
It would probably be better if we had translated that as mystery, or at least included the word in some way, so maybe people would have a better mindset with regard to these things.
01:02:18.895 → 01:02:21.555
There are parts of the Christian faith that you do not have to resolve.
01:02:22.455 → 01:02:24.435
And that should be obvious philosophically.
01:02:24.895 → 01:02:28.595
As I pointed out many, many times before, you are a finite.
01:02:28.995 → 01:02:29.975
God is infinite.
01:02:30.095 → 01:02:33.655
You are literally incapable of understanding everything about him.
01:02:33.675 → 01:02:41.055
He is incomprehensible to a certain degree, because he is above and beyond you in a way that itself is incomprehensible.
01:02:42.695 → 01:02:44.015
But he’s omni-benevolent.
01:02:44.215 → 01:02:45.215
That’s a great thing.
01:02:45.215 → 01:02:56.775
We should love that we have a protector god who is so powerful he’s incomprehensible, because he has guaranteed us that we will be preserved regardless of how bad things get, right?
01:02:56.775 → 01:02:59.415
The times are cut short for the sake of the elect, for instance.
01:02:59.875 → 01:03:02.675
Which, I guess, gets to a question coming up here.
01:03:03.315 → 01:03:04.435
Someone asked about election.
01:03:06.515 → 01:03:09.995
But I don’t know what you’re talking about with regard to the photos.
01:03:09.995 → 01:03:12.355
I have not personally seen that argument.
01:03:12.635 → 01:03:14.155
It seems silly to me on the surface.
01:03:14.155 → 01:03:35.195
I don’t know how that would connect, but I know they do try to say that there are strange miracles related to the sacrament in Roman churches, but this is almost always on the level of weeping statues that we later on find out when we’re hooked up to a sewage line or something.
01:03:35.955 → 01:03:40.335
So your faith shouldn’t be based on weird stuff like that.
01:03:40.675 → 01:03:51.255
Your faith is based on the fact that we have God’s Word, we have a continuity of God’s Word, we know that Christ existed, we know what Christ did, we know that he rose from the dead.
01:03:52.735 → 01:04:05.755
That’s the basis of your faith, and then the fact that God has given you the free gift of faith via the means of grace, usually the Word, but if you were baptized as an infant as you should have been, and that as well, that’s the basis of your faith.
01:04:05.995 → 01:04:13.255
The basis of your faith is not a crying statue, or whatever odd claim you get from various corners of the internet.
01:04:16.315 → 01:04:17.855
Let’s see, question 10.
01:04:19.195 → 01:04:27.555
What is your read on the use of sanctified or made holy in 1 Corinthians 7, 14 in reference to the unbelieving spouse?
01:04:29.555 → 01:04:32.835
What are the effects of this sanctification on the unbelieving spouse?
01:04:32.835 → 01:04:33.915
So I’ll open that up.
01:04:39.749 → 01:04:45.049
I think I’ll just go ahead and read it instead of putting it up on the screen, since I think we all already know what it is, and it’s very short.
01:04:45.549 → 01:04:51.389
For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband.
01:04:51.669 → 01:04:55.609
Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
01:04:56.129 → 01:05:00.309
But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so, so on and so forth.
01:05:02.269 → 01:05:14.509
So, the key here, which of course is contained in what I just read, is that the children are considered clean, which is to say holy, which is to say set apart, which is to say they’re part of the church.
01:05:15.049 → 01:05:17.749
This goes back to infant baptism and things like that, of course.
01:05:18.489 → 01:05:28.709
Children are part of the church if they have a believing parent, preferably two believing parents, but one believing parent, very clearly, according to God, is sufficient.
01:05:29.149 → 01:05:30.969
Yes, they still have to be raised in the faith.
01:05:31.229 → 01:05:32.949
Yes, apostasy is possible.
01:05:32.949 → 01:05:34.349
You can walk away from the faith.
01:05:35.289 → 01:05:39.869
But they are, by default, as it were, part of the church.
01:05:40.529 → 01:05:44.969
They are covered by that because they belong to a believer.
01:05:45.449 → 01:05:50.029
Now, again, raise them in the faith, baptize them, do the things you’re supposed to do.
01:05:52.449 → 01:05:56.469
The other part of this, are you saved by the faith of another person?
01:05:56.689 → 01:05:57.589
Absolutely not.
01:05:58.529 → 01:06:09.769
The way that you can be sanctified by your spouse is your spouse exemplifying and demonstrating for you that faith, that Christian belief, and bringing you into the church by that, right?
01:06:09.769 → 01:06:12.989
And this, there are other passages in scripture that speak of this, right?
01:06:13.169 → 01:06:21.689
The good behavior and things like that, winning over your spouse to the Christian religion, which is what you’re supposed to do if you happen to be married to an unbeliever.
01:06:22.069 → 01:06:35.769
You’re not supposed to marry an unbeliever, but if you came to the faith after your marriage, then, yes, part of what you’re supposed to do, one of your key duties as a spouse who is a believer married to an unbeliever, is to bring the unbeliever to faith.
01:06:36.769 → 01:06:42.629
But unless the unbeliever is brought to faith, the unbeliever is not saved by your faith.
01:06:43.009 → 01:06:54.469
So the sanctification can happen in the sense of the other spouse by bringing the spouse into the church, or the sense of the children by being the child of a believer.
01:06:55.409 → 01:07:02.689
So there’s two different senses there, but they’re both right there in the verse, particularly the one about otherwise your children would be unclean, which clearly is.
01:07:03.229 → 01:07:04.589
But as it is, they are holy.
01:07:04.889 → 01:07:11.529
So they’re holy because they’re born to a believer and because this promise is for you and for your children, right?
01:07:11.929 → 01:07:12.829
That’s how God works.
01:07:12.829 → 01:07:14.369
God works through generations.
01:07:14.569 → 01:07:15.869
He works down through lines.
01:07:15.869 → 01:07:17.589
He works through nations, through races.
01:07:18.009 → 01:07:19.669
It’s not so much individuals.
01:07:20.009 → 01:07:25.049
Individuals are important because only an individual can have faith, that personal faith.
01:07:25.649 → 01:07:33.929
But God works via these means, these relationships, particularly lines of human beings down through history.
01:07:35.129 → 01:07:39.029
There aren’t genealogies in history because God doesn’t care, right?
01:07:39.569 → 01:07:46.109
I’m actually going to take a sip of my drink here, which is not the prettiest color, but it tastes good.
01:07:51.828 → 01:07:59.088
And despite the fact that I pointed out the sugar-free syrups in the chat the other day, these are the sugar variety.
01:07:59.088 → 01:08:01.388
I just felt like having something a little sweet.
01:08:04.928 → 01:08:10.808
See, I have a spot for question 11, but no question, so maybe I can pull one from the chat so I don’t have to renumber things.
01:08:21.222 → 01:08:27.142
I don’t see a question in the chat that I’m going to answer this episode.
01:08:27.142 → 01:08:28.702
Someone asked about Michael Heiser.
01:08:30.162 → 01:08:33.102
I’ll just make that question 11, because then I don’t have to renumber my list.
01:08:34.082 → 01:08:35.982
So what do I think about Michael Heiser?
01:08:35.982 → 01:08:43.522
I think that Michael Heiser goes way overboard with what he does with scripture.
01:08:44.862 → 01:08:54.142
That being said, in saying that I think he goes overboard, does imply, and I am making explicit, I don’t think he’s entirely unwarranted about all of it.
01:08:55.042 → 01:08:56.302
I read some of his stuff.
01:08:56.662 → 01:08:58.002
I didn’t find that compelling.
01:08:58.882 → 01:09:09.002
I would liken it to perhaps once saved, always saved, and the sort of universal atonement, you know, that all shall be saved, is the name of the book.
01:09:09.002 → 01:09:10.202
I would liken it kind of to that.
01:09:10.202 → 01:09:16.082
That’s David Bentley Hart’s, the author of that one, and I wrote an essay critiquing that one.
01:09:16.702 → 01:09:17.862
Obviously, he’s wrong.
01:09:18.042 → 01:09:20.022
Scripture does not teach that all will be saved.
01:09:21.302 → 01:09:37.742
But with regard to Heiser, I think what he really does is he takes some parts of Scripture that are often ignored, and then he goes too far with them, because God doesn’t tell us that much about these subjects, and so you get into speculation almost immediately.
01:09:38.862 → 01:09:45.142
Which is why I don’t really address them in any depth, because God hasn’t told me.
01:09:46.242 → 01:09:56.682
I can’t discern it from nature, so I can’t just acquire the information, the knowledge myself, and God has not revealed it in His word.
01:09:57.462 → 01:10:06.302
So to give a specific example, the word archon appears in many places in Scripture, obviously in the Greek.
01:10:07.482 → 01:10:17.302
So there are rulers, and there are other ranks as well of angels, and others listed in the Scripture, but we aren’t told anything about them.
01:10:18.002 → 01:10:27.742
So we know they exist, we know they do something, we know from Job that God has a council, but that’s about all we know.
01:10:28.662 → 01:10:34.302
And so given that that is all we know, and also incidentally, I think he misinterprets that verse in the Psalms.
01:10:35.402 → 01:10:38.742
Given that’s all we know, we can’t really do anything with it.
01:10:40.122 → 01:10:46.042
So, another aspect of it, something we do actually know, we know there’s such a thing as a national angel.
01:10:46.382 → 01:10:50.562
There’s an angel responsible for any given nation.
01:10:51.002 → 01:10:59.062
Now, with regard to ethnogenesis, and the creation of new nations, and things like that, and miscegenation, all that, we’re not told how that works.
01:10:59.062 → 01:11:01.902
And so anything on that would just be speculation.
01:11:02.522 → 01:11:11.302
I do think that, for instance, there is a national angel of America, because America is a very distinct nation, an important nation, when God is permitted to endure.
01:11:11.702 → 01:11:16.462
So I think that there probably is a national angel for America.
01:11:17.382 → 01:11:23.662
We know that, you know, we see Scripture speaking of the sons of God, right?
01:11:23.662 → 01:11:25.282
Numbered according to the sons of God.
01:11:27.022 → 01:11:29.802
Tying these things together, it seems clear there’s a national angel.
01:11:29.802 → 01:11:35.082
Then you have, you know, Michael and the national angel of Persia are mentioned, and things like that.
01:11:35.682 → 01:11:36.862
So we know that’s real.
01:11:37.622 → 01:11:40.842
But beyond that, we’re not told anything about it.
01:11:41.502 → 01:11:50.382
So are the nations that went well and truly off the rails into demon worship, did their national angel follow Satan?
01:11:50.382 → 01:11:52.122
Is that part of the equation there?
01:11:52.922 → 01:11:58.062
Are those of us who are part of nations that were more faithful, did our national angel remain faithful to God?
01:11:59.182 → 01:12:06.782
I think you can reasonably argue that, but you can’t conclude it is necessarily true because scripture is silent on the issue.
01:12:07.242 → 01:12:13.022
We know there are faithful angels, we know there are fallen angels, and we know according to Revelation that one-third fell.
01:12:14.162 → 01:12:21.122
Beyond that, it’s speculation, and so I think the big problem with Heizer is that so much of it is speculative.
01:12:21.322 → 01:12:36.202
He goes off the rails into stuff God has not revealed to us and that we simply have to go, this is what God said, I believe what God said, and I’m not going to go beyond that because all of this territory is uncertain.
01:12:38.782 → 01:12:44.062
We shouldn’t desire to investigate these mysteries that have not been revealed to us.
01:12:44.062 → 01:12:57.022
You can ponder things that are a mystery, but when you’re trying to develop something concrete about things that must be revealed for you to know them but have not been revealed, that’s dangerous territory.
01:12:57.502 → 01:12:59.402
That’s the sort of thing Satan wants you to do.
01:12:59.742 → 01:13:11.922
He wants you to focus on something that is fundamentally unknowable to you, because that is a waste of your time and effort that could be spent on something that is actually concrete and constructive with regard to the Christian faith.
01:13:12.362 → 01:13:15.402
Ponder the Psalms instead of reading Michael Heiser.
01:13:16.082 → 01:13:17.402
Much better use of your time.
01:13:21.322 → 01:13:23.542
Question 12.
01:13:29.022 → 01:13:36.082
Must I capitulate to the capitalist system by subjecting myself to debt slavery via mortgage in order to be a homeowner?
01:13:36.582 → 01:13:40.542
I have nowhere near enough money for land and hate renting basement suites.
01:13:42.422 → 01:13:44.962
The answer, the short answer, these days is pretty much yes.
01:13:45.862 → 01:14:08.102
You are, unless you come from wealth, which you do not, as your question reveals, or have a family member who can loan you the money or something like that, and be a Christian and not charge you interest, unless those opportunities are open in your particular case, mortgage is the only way to go these days, because that’s the way our system is constructed.
01:14:08.682 → 01:14:16.142
It is unfortunate, it is wicked, but Christians are permitted to use the imperial laws, as the saying goes.
01:14:17.362 → 01:14:25.582
So that’s probably the only way you can actually manage to own property in this day and age.
01:14:26.202 → 01:14:31.062
And yes, you probably would rather be paying on a mortgage than just paying rent.
01:14:31.642 → 01:14:34.022
I don’t object necessarily to renting.
01:14:34.122 → 01:14:35.242
I want to be clear about that.
01:14:35.462 → 01:14:43.782
I think that for many people, that’s probably a great way to go, because the reality is, there are advantages to renting.
01:14:43.902 → 01:14:54.542
I’ve rented before, I rented in undergrad, I rented in law school, I don’t rent now, so that’s why, you know, I can put as many holes in the wall as I want, and no one can tell me no.
01:14:55.002 → 01:14:58.862
The problem is, I have to fix all the holes in the wall.
01:15:00.562 → 01:15:11.462
I had to fix, at three or four in the morning, whatever it was, a leak in the pipes, because I woke up to get some water, and I heard hissing in the wall.
01:15:12.242 → 01:15:13.622
That’s my responsibility.
01:15:13.622 → 01:15:23.062
I can’t just call a landlord and say, Hey, by the way, there are advantages to renting, there are advantages to owning, there are drawbacks to each as well.
01:15:23.582 → 01:15:25.922
For some men, it makes more sense to rent.
01:15:26.322 → 01:15:29.442
For some men, it makes more sense to own your own home and property.
01:15:30.142 → 01:15:33.682
You know better than I do which kind of man you are.
01:15:34.962 → 01:15:39.342
That being said, rent prices should be much, much lower.
01:15:40.302 → 01:15:45.222
And being a landlord should not be someone’s full-time occupation.
01:15:46.762 → 01:16:01.422
Unless it’s in the sense of you are the person who is orchestrating, upkeeping the property, making sure you comply with all the various laws and safety measures, and dealing with the surrounding property, the land, the landscape, all that stuff.
01:16:01.422 → 01:16:04.062
If you’re doing all that stuff, that’s an actual job.
01:16:04.062 → 01:16:05.302
That’s a constructive job.
01:16:05.882 → 01:16:12.102
If you just own a bunch of land, and you’re sitting there collecting passive income, that’s all you do.
01:16:12.742 → 01:16:17.702
You are not being a productive member of society, you are not working to earn your bread, and that should not be allowed.
01:16:17.862 → 01:16:18.982
That’s impermissible.
01:16:19.642 → 01:16:24.202
So rent prices should be lower, so should mortgage as well.
01:16:25.222 → 01:16:34.022
Our system is, as you say, incredibly corrupt and wicked, but the reality is, yes, you’re going to have to take out a mortgage in order to actually afford a home.
01:16:34.442 → 01:16:42.302
Unless you come from money, in which case, you would not be asking me the question, because you would just have been gifted the home by your parents or something.
01:16:46.062 → 01:16:47.462
See, question 13.
01:16:51.662 → 01:16:54.882
I think I will do two more questions.
01:16:54.882 → 01:16:59.662
I’m not going to run to two hours this time, but running a little bit over doesn’t bother me.
01:17:02.082 → 01:17:06.602
And if it bothers anyone, they can just stop watching, so that’s not a problem for anyone who’s listening.
01:17:07.542 → 01:17:08.302
Question 13.
01:17:09.102 → 01:17:11.002
How do we go about predestination?
01:17:11.002 → 01:17:13.442
This is the one I mentioned earlier, which is why I wanted to get to it.
01:17:14.522 → 01:17:20.342
Is it as I believe God sees all possibilities, and that is some kind of form of predestination?
01:17:20.342 → 01:17:26.262
Otherwise, how would predestination make any sense in a religion where we are called to repentance?
01:17:26.262 → 01:17:34.802
And so, what you’re speaking of, at least for Lutherans, would be intuitu fidei, which is to say in view of future faith.
01:17:35.042 → 01:17:40.002
And I say future in parentheses there, because future is not actually in the Latin, but it’s what’s implied.
01:17:40.782 → 01:17:47.602
That’s the view that God looks forward in time, sees that you will believe, and then elects you in eternity because you will believe in time.
01:17:49.302 → 01:17:54.702
I know there are some people who defend that view, and there are two different ways of looking at that view.
01:17:55.562 → 01:18:00.522
One is Orthodox Lutheranism, one is what we would not call Orthodox Lutheranism.
01:18:01.702 → 01:18:17.022
One is that God, knowing all things, knows that in the future, he will give you the free gift of faith, and so in view of the free gift of faith that he will give you in time, he elects you in eternity, which is really just arguing about the order of operations, right?
01:18:17.802 → 01:18:28.502
Does God logically, because obviously time is not a matter here, but does God logically elect you first and give you faith in time, or does God decide to give you faith and that numbers you among the elect?
01:18:29.182 → 01:18:32.062
I think it’s simultaneous personally, so I don’t think there’s any…
01:18:33.242 → 01:18:34.962
arguing about it seems insane to me.
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It’s arguing about how many angels fit on the head of a pin, right?
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This is what someone with too much time on his hands tends to argue.
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I think that the key difference here, and this kind of ties into question 14 as well, so maybe I’ll save some of this for question 14.
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Yeah, for question 14, it’s how we view election, what election is.
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That’s my preliminary answer for question 14.
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But for this one, election is a mystery.
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It is another one of those mysteries in Scripture.
01:19:08.482 → 01:19:11.862
We do not know exactly how all of this operates.
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What we do know is enough for us to be secure in our faith, in our future, in our eternity, because God has said that the times of tribulation near the end are cut short for the sake of the elect.
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None of the elect will be lost.
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Christ will lose none of the sheep out of his hand.
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Those who are elect will certainly be saved.
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If you’re elect, your name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
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All of this stuff is in there in Scripture.
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And we know that God does this in time because he elected in eternity past and he accomplishes this in time via the means of grace.
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By giving you faith via the word, via baptism, and then strengthening your faith via the sacrament of the table, right, the Lord’s Supper.
01:19:56.382 → 01:19:57.382
That’s how it works.
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So just because you are called to repent doesn’t mean that predestination is incoherent.
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It’s part of God’s system.
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You sin, you fall, you repent.
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But the reason you are able to do that is because God gave you the free gift of faith via the means of grace because you are numbered among the elect.
01:20:24.422 → 01:20:28.702
And now I want to get to question 14, because that is a second question from the same person.
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But it’s the most important part of this, because it’s how you view election that matters.
01:20:34.922 → 01:20:45.062
And in order to have that right framing for this, you need to understand what election is, how you class it sort of into which bucket it goes.
01:20:45.662 → 01:20:48.942
So, question 14, and a slight add-on.
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Is the predestination belief in Calvinism basically satanic because it makes God a monster, as he makes people just to torture them in hell?
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And I don’t worry about, you know, offending any of the Reform listeners here, because you Reform know exactly what Lutherans believe about the Calvinistic formulation of double predestination, as we call it, and some of you do as well.
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You know what I believe, because the Reform tend to read a little more than most other groups.
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And so you probably know the Lutheran view because you’ve probably seen it contrasted in your literature on predestination.
01:21:26.962 → 01:21:28.922
So yes, I do think that the Reform are wrong.
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And I believe that the Roman Catholics are wrong in this as well, because they sort of minimize election.
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They sort of goes under the rug for them.
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The Reform pay a little too much attention to it.
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The Roman Catholics pay a little too little attention to it.
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The right way to view predestination is this.
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Fundamentally, you have to start with predestination or election.
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The terms are interchangeable.
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We tend to use election more than predestination.
01:21:55.742 → 01:21:57.562
The Reform tend to use predestination.
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It is gospel, not law.
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So if you look at election and you view it as cause for despair, you’re viewing it wrongly.
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You are viewing it as law.
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It’s not law.
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So if you view it as, what does it matter what I do in life?
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Because if God did not elect me in eternity past, then I cannot possibly be saved.
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That’s not how you look at it.
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Because it’s gospel.
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It’s not law.
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The reason it is gospel is because the right way to look at election and the way that Scripture teaches it…
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Go read all the verses about election.
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Go ahead and test what I am saying here.
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See if what I am saying is consonant with the Word of God.
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The way that Scripture speaks of election is in terms of security.
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It’s in terms of comfort because it is gospel.
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How you should view election is this.
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Yes, I have fallen.
01:22:53.942 → 01:22:55.182
Yes, I have sinned.
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And you know, I have sinned again.
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Maybe it’s a besetting sin.
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It’s a particular sin that you’ve fallen for a thousand times before.
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You look at it by saying, yes, I’ve sinned.
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Yes, I’ve fallen.
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However, God has elected me unto salvation.
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He gave me the free gift of faith via my baptism, via the word.
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He has bestowed upon me this great gift, and he will certainly see it to fruition.
01:23:23.062 → 01:23:27.582
And he has assured me of that in his word, and that doctrine is called election.
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Election is comfort to the saints.
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And for those who are outside the church, who do not have faith, it doesn’t matter what it is, because they don’t believe in it either way.
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They are not going to believe that it’s law, they are not going to believe that it’s gospel, because they do not have faith.
01:23:44.362 → 01:23:56.162
And so anyone who has faith and reads the doctrine of election, reads the verses that treat the doctrine, recognizes this is gospel, because it is God saying, He will not lose me from His hands.
01:23:56.722 → 01:23:58.602
This is nothing but good news.
01:23:59.002 → 01:24:05.562
It’s not law, it’s not a cause for despair, it’s a cause for comfort in times of tribulation and testing and trial.
01:24:05.922 → 01:24:09.122
It is when you look at your life and you see, my life’s a mess.
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I have all these different sins that I commit.
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I don’t read the scripture as much as I should.
01:24:14.982 → 01:24:16.702
I don’t pray as often as I should.
01:24:16.702 → 01:24:19.642
I keep doing this thing that I shouldn’t be doing.
01:24:19.742 → 01:24:22.342
I have wicked thoughts and all these other things, right?
01:24:22.342 → 01:24:26.902
All the things that Satan is trying to whisper in the back of your head saying, you’re a horrible person, you’re going to hell.
01:24:27.302 → 01:24:28.542
He wants you to despair.
01:24:29.022 → 01:24:31.442
What God says in his word is, don’t despair.
01:24:32.442 → 01:24:34.082
One, it is finished.
01:24:34.262 → 01:24:35.822
Christ already did all the work.
01:24:36.082 → 01:24:40.302
There’s nothing left for you to do that is necessary for your salvation.
01:24:41.002 → 01:24:42.162
Good works are great.
01:24:42.302 → 01:24:43.582
Good works are rewarded.
01:24:43.622 → 01:24:46.722
They will not save you, because it is finished.
01:24:46.802 → 01:24:50.182
It was finished on the cross, already done for you.
01:24:50.722 → 01:24:51.682
And then, election.
01:24:52.302 → 01:25:02.002
Even though you fall, even though you sin because you are still in the fallen world, sinful flesh, you are still tempted, the devil is at your hand, all these problems that you have, right?
01:25:02.802 → 01:25:17.602
Your flesh, the world, the devil, all of these sources of temptation and sin and trespass, they will not ultimately drag you down, because God has promised that what he began, he will see to completion.
01:25:18.442 → 01:25:19.462
That’s election.
01:25:19.642 → 01:25:21.082
That’s a gospel promise.
01:25:21.162 → 01:25:23.762
That is a source of comfort for Christians.
01:25:24.202 → 01:25:34.882
And anyone who teaches about election in any other framing is fundamentally abusing the word of God by taking what God meant for comfort and turning it into a cudgel.
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That should never be done.
01:25:36.702 → 01:25:44.742
It is why that distinction between law and gospel is so fundamentally important for Lutherans, because it is the entirety of how you divide God’s scripture.
01:25:45.522 → 01:25:50.682
It’s not a matter of trying to number covenants and parse things and put them into little buckets.
01:25:50.822 → 01:25:57.682
It’s a matter of, is this God telling you what you must do, or is this God telling you what he has already done?
01:25:58.882 → 01:26:04.422
The law is what you must do, and what you cannot do, because you are imperfect, you are fallen, you are sinful.
01:26:04.422 → 01:26:06.142
You cannot fulfill God’s law.
01:26:06.342 → 01:26:08.642
You cannot be perfect as God is perfect.
01:26:09.782 → 01:26:14.142
The gospel is God saying, Yes, my law is real.
01:26:14.482 → 01:26:17.982
Yes, you must repent, because you have transgressed it.
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But I already completed the work.
01:26:20.882 → 01:26:22.562
I gave you the free gift of faith.
01:26:22.702 → 01:26:30.522
You are covered by the blood of Christ, and you will be saved, because your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and it has been there from eternity past.
01:26:32.742 → 01:26:41.862
Those must not be confused, because if you make the law into the gospel, that’s a workspace religion, that’s an entirely different thing.
01:26:41.862 → 01:26:43.322
That’s every religion of the world.
01:26:43.322 → 01:26:44.022
That’s the Jews.
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You want to go be in there, can’t go to a synagogue.
01:26:46.482 → 01:26:51.402
And you can’t turn the gospel into a law, because then you’ve done the same thing.
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You have destroyed the comfort of the Christian religion.
01:26:54.922 → 01:26:59.922
You have destroyed God’s promise that you will be saved, because He is the one who has done the work.
01:27:00.282 → 01:27:03.542
And you have instead made it into a new law to obey.
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And you won’t, because you can’t.
01:27:07.242 → 01:27:09.162
It is important to keep those distinct.
01:27:09.462 → 01:27:19.482
You must rebuke the sin and the sinner with the law, but then you must comfort him with the gospel, because the gospel is, as it says, the good news.
01:27:20.042 → 01:27:22.202
It is finished, Christ did the work.
01:27:22.462 → 01:27:29.082
So yes, do good works, but you can do them, because God has already given you a new heart.
01:27:29.422 → 01:27:30.782
God has renewed you.
01:27:31.182 → 01:27:32.962
Yes, in time, it is not complete.
01:27:32.962 → 01:27:36.942
It is complete at the resurrection, the general resurrection of the just.
01:27:38.522 → 01:27:41.782
But you can do good works, because you are covered by Christ’s blood.
01:27:42.262 → 01:27:47.422
They will not save you, but they will be credited to you, because of Christ’s work.
01:27:48.062 → 01:27:50.282
So, election is gospel.
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That is the fundamentally important point.
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That is the framing of it.
01:27:54.842 → 01:27:59.822
And if you keep that in mind, you will not go off the rails.
01:28:00.342 → 01:28:03.462
That’s what happens with theologians who don’t keep that in mind.
01:28:03.642 → 01:28:12.042
They develop some other system, some other edifice, some other doctrine, and build it up, but they’ve started with a fundamentally false foundation.
01:28:12.322 → 01:28:15.382
And so everything they build on it is ultimately wrong.
01:28:16.142 → 01:28:24.102
Even if maybe some little piece of it, they happen to accidentally get right, the entirety of the thing is built on sand instead of the rock.
01:28:25.322 → 01:28:26.982
So go and read God’s word.
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Go and read the verses that deal with election.
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See if what I have said is consonant with God, what he has said, what he teaches in his word.
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You’ll find that it is, because election is not law, it’s gospel, it’s meant for the comfort of the saints in times of tribulation and testing, while in this world that besets us with temptations to sin constantly.
01:28:50.282 → 01:29:05.702
And again, even though you may fall, and you certainly will, God has already finished the work, and you will be preserved into the end, because God is the one who guarantees it, God is the one who sees it through, and God cannot fail.
01:29:16.423 → 01:29:19.543
I do see that there are some more questions in the chat.
01:29:19.543 → 01:29:24.283
I am going to copy and paste those for a future episode.
01:29:24.403 → 01:29:36.023
Probably going to have to do another long-ish episode just to try to catch up, because the future topic slash question list is getting longer, faster than I am answering them.
01:29:36.623 → 01:29:44.963
However, for tonight, because I think about an hour and a half right now, maybe a little less than that, I think I’m going to call it here.
01:29:45.663 → 01:29:49.043
So, again, as always, thank you for those who submitted questions.
01:29:49.043 → 01:29:51.103
Thank you for participating in the chat.
01:29:51.483 → 01:29:54.683
Always glad to answer these questions once a week.
01:29:55.203 → 01:29:56.223
Generally once a week.
01:29:56.243 → 01:29:57.803
Only skipped one week so far.
01:29:58.943 → 01:30:10.083
Hopefully, next week, I will actually have mounted the blackout curtain that I purchased so that I will not have the sun trying to blind me as I record, as I’m sure some of you noticed me trying to bob and weave to avoid the sun there.
01:30:10.763 → 01:30:15.383
At any rate, if you have questions, the best way to submit those is always via the forum.
01:30:15.603 → 01:30:18.923
There are links to that in the description of the video.
01:30:19.363 → 01:30:22.883
There will be links in the show notes, links to the show notes as well.
01:30:23.823 → 01:30:29.743
I try to publish these afterward, within the week afterward, let’s be honest.
01:30:29.863 → 01:30:35.063
I try to do it a little earlier than that, the day or two, but within a week afterward, I publish the episode.
01:30:35.063 → 01:30:42.043
It has a link to the show notes on the forum, and that is the audio only for those who don’t need or want to watch video.
01:30:42.043 → 01:30:54.143
I know there are some who want something a little less bandwidth-intense, or listen to it while you’re out mowing or something, as those who have a lot of acreage of grass know mowing takes rather a long time.
01:30:54.843 → 01:30:56.883
At any rate, that’s how you can submit questions to me.
01:30:56.883 → 01:31:06.323
I do also try to collect them from the chat, from X, from Telegram, other places, but the forum, as always, is the easiest for me and for others looking for the answers in the future.
01:31:06.963 → 01:31:08.943
There are transcripts and other things there.
01:31:08.943 → 01:31:18.963
I’m a little behind on the transcripts because I had a slight issue with a cellular carrier not sending me my two-factor authentication, so I couldn’t log in to my account.
01:31:19.303 → 01:31:23.663
Anyway, that’s been resolved now, so I’ll get that backlog of transcripts cleaned up.
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But I think that’s it for this week.
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So I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
01:31:29.303 → 01:31:37.863
It’s, of course, Friday night, so I guess go out and have a good time tonight, for those of you who are in a little earlier time zone, it’s already nine o’clock here.
01:31:37.863 → 01:31:41.183
Not that old, it’s not that late, but have a great weekend.
01:31:41.243 → 01:31:44.763
Go to church on Sunday, and I will see you all next week.
01:31:44.783 → 01:31:48.443
Maybe we’ll make it on Thursday for once, or maybe it’ll be Friday again.
01:31:49.223 → 01:31:50.763
If we’re honest, Friday’s more likely.
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But have a great week, and God bless you all.
01:31:54.283 → 01:31:55.063
Till next time.