Episode Information
- Date: 2026-01(Jan)-16(Fri)
- Links:
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Topics Covered
- Is Dungeons & Dragons Witchcraft?
- Do you think they will eventually recognize the 3rd Reich (or its leader) as Christian to smear us?
- Limited Atonement
- What Do You Think of The “Sharing of Peace?”
- Is Marriage a Command of God?
- To What Extent Can a Woman Be a Deaconess Today?
0:00:00- Dungeons Dragons
0:03:54- Divine Service Peace
0:08:04- Third Reich Narrative
0:14:11- Marriage Mandate
0:23:16- Deaconess Function
0:32:43- Atonement Doctrine
0:42:19- Sabbath Observance
0:53:22- Syncretism Global
Transcript
WEBVTT
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It is the 16th of January, 2026.
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I am Corey J.
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Mahler, and this is At Any Cost.
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And this is the third question and answer episode of 2026.
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I have quite a few questions at this point, actually, in the backlog.
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I don’t know how many I will get to this time, but I do promise that I still have your questions.
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If I do happen to have missed one in a past episode in the chat or elsewhere, feel free to submit that on the forum, and that way I at least have a record of it, and I will get to it in the future.
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And of course, right as I went to click over to start the stream, both of my streaming lights decided to disconnect from my Wi-Fi.
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Curious timing that, but at any rate, they came back.
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So I think I will go ahead and jump into the questions here.
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Let me pull up my list of questions.
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I do see that we have a few questions in the chat already.
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I’ve copied those down for the future.
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I don’t know that I’ll get to them necessarily in this particular episode.
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So the first question for tonight is, not necessarily a light question, an important question, but a lighter topic.
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It is about dungeons and dragons, incidentally.
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Can you talk about dungeons and dragons?
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Is it witchcraft or close to it?
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What about players casting spells in the game?
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Should anyone play it?
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And if so, to what extent?
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The basic answer would be that there’s no problem with playing those kinds of games.
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You could certainly take them overboard, and I think that certainly some of the people who get really into cosplay, for instance, and like dressing up like demons, that starts to be a little questionable.
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We could think of perhaps Elon Musk and his particular hobby.
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But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with those sorts of fantasy games, and typically speaking, although yes, you do often have the rogue player who’s basically a murder hobo.
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But typically speaking, you are fighting against evil in those games.
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You could think of it the same as sort of like the Doom franchise, incidentally made by Mormons.
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But someone asked him how he felt about the fact that he made a game involving the demonic, and he said, the whole point of the game is to kill the demons.
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That’s pretty clear anti-demon message there.
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So I don’t think there’s necessarily a problem with those kinds of games.
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For instance, if you play, I’ll pick a game and perhaps date myself, although everyone knows how old I am anyway.
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But if you play StarCraft or StarCraft II, right?
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Because most of those in the chat probably aren’t old enough to have played StarCraft I.
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No one playing that thinks that he’s a zerg or a protoss, right?
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It’s fantasy.
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You’re deliberately putting yourself into a fantasy universe.
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And so I would say it’s the same sort of as reading fantasy, which isn’t inherently sinful either.
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Are there topics about which you shouldn’t read?
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Certainly, there’s plenty of fiction these days, particularly women’s fiction, that is a moral hazard.
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But Dungeons and Dragons is fine.
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Don’t make it your entire personality, if only for social reasons.
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But I don’t think that it’s sinful to play that sort of game.
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Let’s pull up the next question here.
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My tab decided to disappear, which I have to say is not the most helpful thing that it could have done.
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But I think I will just go to the next question here.
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An easy question, sort of, to answer, although transitioning more to practical theology, we’ll call it.
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A question about how I feel about the passing of the piece, and for those who aren’t familiar with this, this is a practice that is common in really a lot of churches at this point, where basically in the middle of the service, you stand up and greet people and shake hands, and in some churches hug.
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Less so in the German and Scandinavian Lutheran churches, certainly not so much hugging there.
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But to read the fullness of his question, what do you think of the sharing of the piece in the divine service?
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Is it appropriate?
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It seems out of place and just modern.
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From what I understand, it was used in the early church, fell out of use, and then came back after Vatican II.
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I think that’s an accurate historical summary.
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You can certainly see the equivalent of it and sort of an injunction for it in the scriptures when you see the greeting of others with a holy kiss.
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That’s part of that culture, of course.
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Mediterranean cultures are more physical in their greetings than, say, Northern European cultures.
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If you run around kissing everyone in a German Lutheran church, they may have you committed.
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That’s not something that you necessarily do there.
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So I don’t think it really is appropriate where it is located in the divine service.
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And I think that for a number of reasons.
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One, I think that it just breaks up the flow of the service in a way that is seemingly designed to increase levity in a service that should be to some degree solemn.
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And so, I don’t think it’s appropriate in that sense, because it is sort of a break in the service, and it’s a break not just in the structure of the service, but in the nature of the service and in the psychology of the thing.
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There’s something important about coming before God and worshiping God in a serious and solemn manner.
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It’s not that we’re dour and unhappy and the other things of which we’re constantly accused.
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Rather, it’s that you recognize when you’re in the presence of your king, and in this case it’s your king and your god and your savior, when you’re in his presence, you should behave in a certain way.
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So I don’t think during the service it’s appropriate.
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There’s also the aspect of it where it really just kind of turns into a chat club.
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That’s inappropriate for a number of reasons.
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Again, it breaks up the seriousness of the service.
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You’re sort of behaving in an inappropriate social register.
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And there’s also the fact women are commanded to be silent in the churches.
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If you have the sharing of the peace in the middle of the service, are you just going to tell all the women to sit down and not greet people?
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I don’t think that’s appropriate.
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Are you going to tell them to stand up and talk to each other?
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That’s also not appropriate, because they’re commanded to be silent in the churches, which is the gathered church while you have the service ongoing.
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So I think the solution is pretty simple.
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Just have that before the service or after the service, which is really what you would have seen in the early church, because generally speaking, they shared an actual meal.
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It wasn’t just the Eucharist.
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It wasn’t just the Lord’s Supper.
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So it wasn’t just bread and wine.
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Yes, bread and wine were certainly involved, but you had an actual meal.
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That’s the natural place to stand up and greet people and talk and have the social interaction, not as part of the divine service, but yes, it should be part of your church.
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These days, you know, it’s coffee and donuts, or maybe you have something available.
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It’s a little healthier than donuts, I say, as someone who maybe is a little hypocritical there because I always brought donuts to my previous churches.
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But at any rate, that’s the appropriate place for it.
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I don’t think that it should be right in the middle of the divine service.
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It’s just a very weird placement that seems almost deliberately designed to make the service less serious, to introduce levity where it’s not appropriate.
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I guess now that we’ve gotten a little bit into the stream, and YouTube won’t immediately notice, we can talk about the Third Reich, since that’s the next question.
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Do you think they will eventually recognize the Third Reich or its leader, which is to say Adolf Hitler, as Christian to smear us?
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Once the Judeo-Christian narrative starts to crack, they’ll need something else to keep the would-be Christians on the reservation.
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Do you think they might try something like Nazis bad, Nazis are Christian, therefore Christians are bad?
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This has actually been done a number of times, historically.
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This is definitely something that has cropped up, even not just, you know, decades ago, although at this point I guess that would include my lifetime, but even within the past ten years, say, this was something that every so often it would cycle in, particularly on social media, you would get, it was sort of the new atheists and some others like that who would try to use that argument against Christianity because they would say, well, the Third Rite claimed to be Christian, they did all these evil things, and therefore Christians are evil.
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The argument, even if you formalize it a little better, is of course not logically sound, but that hardly matters for rhetoric.
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So the question is, will they try it again and will it be effective?
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I don’t think so because it’s not a very good tactic for them, particularly because all it does is drive those who would never look at the Third Reich and what they actually believed and would simply mindlessly believe the propaganda.
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So whatever they were told in fifth grade, basically, and whatever video they saw, probably Schindler’s List or read the diary of Anne Frank or whatever it happens to be, both admitted pieces of fiction, incidentally.
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One more proved in a court of law, one admitted, because of course Schindler’s List is admittedly fiction.
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It’s not even contended it’s real, much like Knight is also a work of fiction, admitted by the author.
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So you would have people who would believe those things.
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But if you start pushing the Third Reich was Christian, some percentage of those men are going to say, okay, why are they saying that?
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Of course, they’re going to think initially, oh, they’re just attacking Christianity, I don’t care.
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It’s just crazy leftist atheist attacking Christianity, whatever.
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The problem is that that percentage of them will go, hang on a minute, I want to look at this now.
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If they say they were Christian, is there any evidence?
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There’s never that many people who will do it.
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But if you lose 2%, 3%, 5%, that’s a big deal for them when they’re already losing people day by day who are looking at the truth.
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So I don’t know they’re dumb enough to pursue that.
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But it doesn’t mean that they aren’t, because quite frankly, they sometimes do things that are particularly stupid.
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And there’s also the fact that Satan just drives them to do dumb things.
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They are compelled to be evil, and so sometimes they just do things that don’t benefit them, but they do them anyway.
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So it could happen.
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I don’t think it’s likely.
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And I think what’s more likely is that our side continues to push the truth and continues to push back against the false narrative.
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And that is what starts to bring people over.
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And I think they’re going to try to double down on the post-war consensus, the new global religion, and try to conflate that with Christianity and say that you are not a Christian unless you believe X, Y, and Z.
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Never mind the fact that no one pre-1965 believed any of this stuff, right?
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In particular, the one that’s blowing up now, because of course it is interracial marriage.
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Well, until very recently in this country, Loving v.
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Virginia, it was a crime, a punishable crime.
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It was a crime in many historical countries.
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It was a crime in most of the Western world until not that long ago, in this country until very recently.
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And so you have people who are saying that you can’t possibly be a Christian and believe that should be banned or think that it’s wrong in any way.
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Well, what are they actually saying?
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They’re saying that no one born before Loving v.
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Virginia, or at least no one born and not changing his views, so no one who died before it could possibly be saved, because, well, you’re not a Christian if you believe these things.
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It’s completely ludicrous, the same as the slavery issue and so many other things, because we see all of these men down through the centuries of Christendom, who believe these things firmly and were much better Christians than the men we see arguing you can’t believe these things and be Christian.
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I think they’ll keep trying to double down on that, because that’s sort of, they back themselves into a corner, it’s all they can do.
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If they give up any of those positions, the entire edifice crumbles, which is of course their great weakness.
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They can’t lose anything in their little edifice, because it is so weak.
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It’s a house of cards.
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And any link in that chain, if you can break it, you can get people to question the next one.
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It’s one of the reasons why they have to defend interracial marriage so vehemently, because they recognize that that’s a link pretty far back in their chain, because all of the civil rights stuff, and the tolerance so-called for homosexuality, and the legalization of homosexual so-called marriage, all of that flows logically, and legally incidentally, the legal cases are also a chain, from loving the Virginia, from the Civil Rights Act, from all of these arguments about MLK and all that stuff.
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They can’t lose any of that and not suffer significant downstream consequences, so they’ll just keep doubling down, which is of course an opportunity for us.
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The next question, a fairly common sort of area for question, is marriage a command of God?
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And I think the short answer to that is, of course, yes, but not absolutely yes.
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And the reason it’s not absolutely yes is because, of course, there is the issue of celibacy, which is something that is granted to some men.
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But that’s the key.
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It’s granted to some men.
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It’s not granted to many.
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In fact, you probably don’t have it.
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And generally speaking, you should not try to exercise a gift that you don’t have, because it could be sinful, depending on the gift and what it is you’re trying to do.
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So, you know, obvious one would be, if you don’t have the gift of prophecy, and you stand up and say, I’m a prophet, there are some problems here.
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But if you have, if you do not, rather, have the gift of celibacy, and you try to exercise it, you’re going to set yourself up for failure, and you’re going to fall into sexual sin.
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That’s the reality of how that is going to go.
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Because at some point, biology is going to make some demands, and you’re going to have a very difficult time withstanding those demands.
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That is the reality of being a fallen creature.
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It’s not to say that you can’t live a chaste life, even if you do not have the gift of celibacy, because of course you can live a chaste life.
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Being in marriage is chaste.
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But you could even live a chaste life as a single individual.
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But it’s going to come with challenges.
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It’s going to come with very real challenges.
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And you can spare yourself that by using the only cure for the temptation of which God speaks in scripture.
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Other than, of course, self-control, which, yes, you can exercise self-control to a certain degree.
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But when scripture speaks about the solution for sexual sin, it gives marriage as the cure.
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And so there are a number of verses, of course, we can look at for this.
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And I’ll just go over a handful of them here.
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The first one, of course, is Matthew 19, is going to be one of the most important ones, because this is where Christ speaks about the fact that not everyone is given this.
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Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given.
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For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
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He’s not speaking exclusively about physically making yourself a eunuch here.
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This has been dealt with to death in the ancient church.
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So, when neo-pagans and others say that you’re supposed to emasculate yourself in order to deal with the temptation to sexual sin, that is never commanded.
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That is self-abuse.
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That is not something scripture commands anywhere.
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That aside, let the one who is able to receive this, receive it.
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Well, that’s a limitation.
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Not everyone can receive this saying.
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Let the one who is able to receive it, receive it.
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So if you don’t have the gift, don’t try to exercise it.
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Go get married.
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That’s the solution.
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Because if you don’t have the gift of celibacy, the temptation will be there.
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So cure the temptation with the only medicine God provides.
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And so another passage that is related to this, to the unmarried and the widows, I say, it is good for them to remain single as I am.
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But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry.
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And this is one of the key verses here, this part, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
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This is a question of, do you have the gift of celibacy, which is that continent, that self-control?
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And if you don’t, use the medicine God has provided.
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And the way that I always explain this to people is very simple.
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You can tell if you’re celibate very simply.
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Have you ever had a sexual thought about a woman?
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If the answer is yes, you’re not celibate, because celibacy in that sense is basically asexuality.
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You lack that temptation totally.
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God gives that gift to some men because he wants them to perform some task for the church.
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That is something that is given, seemingly exceptionally, it seems like very few men have had it.
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And we certainly know that men who have attempted to exercise it when they don’t have it, have fallen into horrible temptations and horrible sexual sin.
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We all know what happens historically with monasteries.
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It doesn’t mean that all monks are bad.
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I’m not condemning all monks.
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I would condemn monasteries.
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I don’t think monasticism in that form is good.
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Now, if it’s just men who live in retreat for a certain period of time to study scripture and then go back into the world, totally different thing.
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That happened at some points in history.
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That’s fine.
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If you simply unilaterally declare, I am going to attempt to be celibate despite the fact God didn’t give me the gift, you are going to fall into the sorts of sins that plagued the monasteries for centuries.
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Not necessarily the worst kind, but there were certainly problems between monks and nuns down through history.
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That was often what happened.
00:19:26.670 → 00:19:34.390
And that leads to additional sins in some cases, particularly egregious sins in some cases historically.
00:19:34.390 → 00:19:38.710
Don’t try to create your own medicine when God has provided a cure.
00:19:40.990 → 00:19:51.070
And of course, we can go to passages of scripture dealing with marriage as being a blessing from God, marriage as being something that God wants you to enjoy.
00:19:51.070 → 00:19:55.470
And I’ll just go ahead and use the ESV instead of switching over to the Septuagint for this.
00:19:55.470 → 00:19:56.710
It is close enough in this case.
00:19:56.710 → 00:20:02.710
So, let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
00:20:02.710 → 00:20:08.370
Let her breast fill you at all times with the light, be intoxicated always in her love.
00:20:08.370 → 00:20:11.810
It’s hard to say that God doesn’t praise marriage highly.
00:20:11.810 → 00:20:16.290
To say nothing of the fact that the Song of Solomon exists in scripture.
00:20:16.290 → 00:20:19.310
Incidentally, one of the books that I do skip during…
00:20:19.310 → 00:20:24.110
The only book actually that I skip during the Through the Bible in a Year podcast.
00:20:24.110 → 00:20:25.670
If you want to read that, you can read it for yourself.
00:20:25.670 → 00:20:28.250
I’m not going to read it to you.
00:20:28.250 → 00:20:33.870
Later on in Proverbs, he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.
00:20:33.870 → 00:20:36.190
Marriage is praised very highly in scripture.
00:20:36.190 → 00:20:38.310
Marriage is never something Christians should denigrate.
00:20:38.310 → 00:20:40.610
It is not something that should be uncommon.
00:20:40.610 → 00:20:43.630
It is something that should be held in high regard.
00:20:43.630 → 00:20:45.950
It is something that should be recommended.
00:20:45.950 → 00:21:05.470
In fact, the Book of Concord goes so far, and this is something by which Lutherans are, of course, bound, it goes so far as to say one of the duties of the sovereign, of the state, of the government, is to ensure that marriages are contracted among the populace and that those who are not given the gift of celibacy, marry.
00:21:05.470 → 00:21:09.450
That’s assigned as a duty of the state according to Lutheran doctrine.
00:21:09.450 → 00:21:12.590
And I would say also according to the scriptures.
00:21:12.590 → 00:21:20.210
And one of the marks of false teachers here in 1 Timothy, those who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods, right?
00:21:20.210 → 00:21:25.290
We can think of churches that have done that historically, some who do it today.
00:21:25.290 → 00:21:29.690
If you forbid marriage, that is one of the signs of a false teacher.
00:21:29.690 → 00:21:32.470
You cannot condemn marriage.
00:21:34.550 → 00:21:42.390
And I think I’ll end the commentary on marriage with probably one of the most important ones that people often don’t think of, when they really should.
00:21:42.390 → 00:21:45.210
And this is the penultimate one.
00:21:45.210 → 00:21:45.970
I’ll go to that one next.
00:21:46.370 → 00:21:51.890
And God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it.
00:21:53.450 → 00:22:00.970
You cannot, in God’s scheme, so to say, without sinning, fill the earth without marriage.
00:22:01.990 → 00:22:06.870
And the last comment I would make is that Adam walked with God in the garden.
00:22:06.870 → 00:22:09.950
Adam spoke with God face to face.
00:22:09.950 → 00:22:15.270
That’s, of course, Christ, the pre-incarnate Christ, if you want to deal with the timeline issues.
00:22:16.290 → 00:22:19.990
And yet God said, it is not good for man to be alone.
00:22:21.730 → 00:22:34.170
Man who saw God face to face, walked with him in the garden, God called alone, and said, of all the things in creation, that was not good.
00:22:34.170 → 00:22:37.850
That is how highly God prizes marriage and wives.
00:22:37.850 → 00:22:49.990
We should never speak of them in any other terms, because that is how highly God praises it, and the only, again, only medicine God gives for the temptation to sexual sin.
00:22:49.990 → 00:22:52.610
So the short answer is, is marriage commanded?
00:22:52.610 → 00:22:54.710
In almost all cases, yes.
00:22:54.710 → 00:22:57.930
Unless you have the gift of celibacy, which you probably don’t.
00:23:16.043 → 00:23:24.423
I think I will just go with the next one that also is exegesis, go over a few more passages of scripture here.
00:23:24.423 → 00:23:28.763
To what extent can a woman be a deaconess today?
00:23:28.763 → 00:23:30.723
What is the purpose of one today?
00:23:30.723 → 00:23:37.183
To me, it seems as a way to subvert authority, short answer is yes, and slowly get women to be pastors and have authority.
00:23:37.183 → 00:23:39.023
Again, short answer is yes.
00:23:39.023 → 00:23:48.323
I remember Woe possibly saying that deaconesses in the early church would help young women in the community and not be or try to be a pastor in all but name.
00:23:48.323 → 00:23:49.983
That is certainly true.
00:23:49.983 → 00:24:02.003
That is their role, because you can think of the only times where it speaks of the role of women specifically in the church in scripture, and I will get into the scripture passages as well.
00:24:02.003 → 00:24:10.923
But when it speaks of that, it speaks of women in a service role, in a support role, which is the natural role for women.
00:24:10.963 → 00:24:13.583
What is woman a helper fit for man?
00:24:13.583 → 00:24:16.263
That is what woman is to be in the church as well.
00:24:16.263 → 00:24:17.383
She is not to teach.
00:24:17.383 → 00:24:23.003
We know that, of course, because what does scripture say about women teaching?
00:24:23.003 → 00:24:28.663
Well, it says, I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.
00:24:28.663 → 00:24:31.303
Rather, she is to remain silent.
00:24:31.303 → 00:24:34.403
That pretty much precludes her taking on a teaching role.
00:24:34.403 → 00:24:38.483
And so a deaconess, so called, cannot be a teacher.
00:24:40.203 → 00:24:43.223
One of the first problems, of course, is deaconess here.
00:24:43.223 → 00:24:46.063
And let me see if I can, there it is.
00:24:46.063 → 00:24:47.563
So, actually, I’ve already got it typed in.
00:24:47.563 → 00:24:49.023
That’s convenient.
00:24:49.023 → 00:25:01.263
The word here is deaconess, which is a masculine term, incidentally, but it does appear one time in scripture, only once, in the feminine.
00:25:01.263 → 00:25:03.923
And I can say in the feminine because of the context.
00:25:03.923 → 00:25:11.803
And I’ll explain that for those who are less familiar with how grammar works in languages that aren’t English, because English is a little loose.
00:25:11.803 → 00:25:18.483
But in this case, we’re dealing with a second declension noun, deaconess, here.
00:25:18.483 → 00:25:22.383
It is masculine, but it can be feminine.
00:25:22.383 → 00:25:24.703
All you have to do is change the article.
00:25:24.703 → 00:25:28.083
If you change the article, that’s the little omicron here.
00:25:28.083 → 00:25:38.083
If you change the article and make it a feminine noun instead, then you have the feminine version, deaconess, as we would call it in English.
00:25:38.083 → 00:25:40.283
It appears once.
00:25:40.283 → 00:25:51.683
However, the problem is, you don’t have to have the article in Greek, and so in this case, all you have is diakonos, or diakonon, actually, because it’s in the accusative.
00:25:51.683 → 00:26:05.563
It’s in the accusative, but the accusative in the second declension has the same ending in masculine and feminine, which is sort of a long grammatical way of saying, it’s the same word, masculine or feminine.
00:26:05.563 → 00:26:12.143
But you can tell by the context, because of course, I’m speaking of the Book of Romans, the end of Romans.
00:26:12.143 → 00:26:15.763
And so probably helps if I type the title not in Greek.
00:26:16.863 → 00:26:21.443
So let’s go to Romans 16, and of course, we’re talking about Phoebe.
00:26:21.443 → 00:26:25.083
They love to bring up Phoebe, because Phoebe is…
00:26:25.083 → 00:26:34.063
I see that OBS has decided it would like to make part of Logos disappear, so I’ll fix that real quick here.
00:26:34.063 → 00:26:35.743
There we go.
00:26:35.743 → 00:26:40.783
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at San Crea.
00:26:40.783 → 00:26:42.463
And then it goes on.
00:26:42.463 → 00:26:46.323
Notably, it doesn’t say that she’s teaching.
00:26:46.323 → 00:26:50.243
It doesn’t say that she’s doing pastoral anything.
00:26:50.243 → 00:26:55.223
In fact, really all it says of her is that she is a servant of the church and that she is a patron of many.
00:26:55.223 → 00:26:57.843
That’s later on in the same verse.
00:26:57.843 → 00:27:00.343
Servant there is diakonos.
00:27:00.343 → 00:27:03.803
And we know it is feminine because of two things in Greek.
00:27:03.823 → 00:27:09.963
One, it has to agree with Phoebe, of course, sister here is the feminine, because this isn’t a positive.
00:27:09.963 → 00:27:12.463
This is describing this person.
00:27:12.463 → 00:27:19.403
And then there’s also the fact Greek participles, just a verb form, agree with the thing about which they, the thing they’re referencing.
00:27:19.943 → 00:27:23.123
And so, you have that here as well.
00:27:23.123 → 00:27:26.123
So we know this is a feminine use of this word.
00:27:26.123 → 00:27:33.123
Only time it appears in the feminine doesn’t say anything about teaching or authority.
00:27:33.123 → 00:27:42.083
It just means servant, because if we go and look up the word here, I’ll look it up in two, just the two standard dictionaries, which is BDAG and LSJ.
00:27:42.083 → 00:27:46.863
Diakonos, one who serves as an intermediary in a transaction, so that would be an agent.
00:27:47.483 → 00:27:49.743
You have some uses in scripture.
00:27:49.743 → 00:27:54.643
One who gets something done at the behest of a superior, an assistant.
00:27:54.643 → 00:27:55.643
That’s all a servant means.
00:27:55.643 → 00:27:59.543
And so you can think of the men who were serving as deacons.
00:27:59.543 → 00:28:02.643
You have waiting tables and things like that as part of their duties.
00:28:02.643 → 00:28:04.603
They are servants of the church.
00:28:04.603 → 00:28:07.383
They are not in a position of leadership.
00:28:07.383 → 00:28:17.343
It’s not what you think of today when we think of deacon, because the way we’ve transformed it in English, the way we use it, is sort of an elder, a ruling elder in the church.
00:28:17.343 → 00:28:20.383
It depends on your polity and how your church is organized.
00:28:20.383 → 00:28:22.663
Of course, different churches are different.
00:28:22.663 → 00:28:27.363
But that’s not what we’re dealing with in the case of the Greek.
00:28:27.363 → 00:28:30.103
We’re dealing with something completely different.
00:28:30.103 → 00:28:39.583
And for some reason, it decided not to pull that up for all of you, because it pulled it up in the wrong window.
00:28:41.343 → 00:28:43.663
I love when things cooperate.
00:28:46.883 → 00:28:49.263
So, that’s what I want.
00:28:49.263 → 00:28:50.223
Except for it disappeared again.
00:28:58.160 → 00:28:59.840
Minor technical difficulties.
00:29:03.780 → 00:29:08.140
At any rate, there’s Deacon.
00:29:08.140 → 00:29:11.200
I read the definition for you, so quite frankly, I don’t need to have it on the screen.
00:29:11.200 → 00:29:13.680
But the other one will just be LSJ.
00:29:13.680 → 00:29:16.080
See if I can get it to cooperate with this one.
00:29:17.400 → 00:29:20.840
Logos seemingly opens in whatever window it feels like.
00:29:20.840 → 00:29:22.100
The same thing.
00:29:22.100 → 00:29:25.480
Attendant, you can’t have an official of the Templar Religious Guild, that’s an ancient Greek.
00:29:25.480 → 00:29:28.300
We’re dealing with Koine Greek here, so it’s different.
00:29:28.300 → 00:29:31.580
But servile, menial servant.
00:29:31.580 → 00:29:33.580
You’re dealing with a servant of the church.
00:29:33.580 → 00:29:44.660
And so, no, a deaconess is not a way for them to sort of bring women in via the back door to make them into pastors in all but name, which is what is often done in the churches.
00:29:45.960 → 00:29:50.300
It’s very clear what women are permitted to do in the churches, what women are not permitted to do.
00:29:50.300 → 00:30:03.960
If it tells women they have to be silent in the churches, not teach except children or other women, and not exercise authority over men, well, a deaconess can’t be anything, can’t possibly be an office that can do those things.
00:30:03.960 → 00:30:05.100
That would be a violation.
00:30:05.100 → 00:30:14.220
And so that would be eisegesis instead of exegesis, which is an improper interpretation of scripture instead of proper interpretation.
00:30:14.220 → 00:30:16.320
And it also speaks of…
00:30:16.320 → 00:30:17.580
typing in Greek again.
00:30:17.580 → 00:30:21.760
It also speaks of what older women are supposed to do with regard to younger women, right?
00:30:21.860 → 00:30:25.740
When it speaks of the older women, what are they supposed to do?
00:30:25.740 → 00:30:33.300
Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.
00:30:33.300 → 00:30:49.780
They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women, here’s the list for young women, to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands.
00:30:51.360 → 00:30:53.980
That’s the list of what women are supposed to do.
00:30:53.980 → 00:30:58.720
Anything incompatible with that list is not something women are supposed to be doing.
00:30:58.720 → 00:31:00.980
It’s very clear what scripture teaches.
00:31:00.980 → 00:31:17.240
Those who want to make deaconesses into a lesser office under pastor in the church and permit them to teach and exegete, and even just read scripture in front of the congregation, things like that, they are simply defying scripture in order to shoehorn feminism into the church.
00:31:19.440 → 00:31:21.200
God is not a feminist.
00:31:21.200 → 00:31:24.820
Scripture has feminism absolutely nowhere in it.
00:31:24.820 → 00:31:31.780
You cannot possibly faithfully exegete scripture and turn it into a feminist text.
00:31:31.780 → 00:31:40.680
Again, it tells women to be silent in the church, not just not to teach, not just not to exercise authority, but not to speak.
00:31:42.120 → 00:31:45.380
If we just obey that command, a lot of these problems would go away.
00:31:46.340 → 00:31:50.640
Add to that the head coverings and you pretty much get the right picture.
00:31:50.640 → 00:31:57.460
So obviously, yes, the answer to deaconesses is they should not be a thing.
00:31:57.460 → 00:31:59.580
They’re just not a thing.
00:31:59.580 → 00:32:07.920
You can have women who are serving in certain roles in the church, taking care of children, visiting the sick, the elderly, things like that.
00:32:07.920 → 00:32:09.420
That’s perfectly fine.
00:32:09.420 → 00:32:17.260
That’s a servant, which is the core sense of diakonos, not a leadership role, not exercising authority, because that’s improper.
00:32:17.260 → 00:32:18.540
A woman is not her own head.
00:32:18.540 → 00:32:19.960
She does not exercise authority.
00:32:37.231 → 00:32:43.491
Go to, I think this is the only other potentially exegetically heavy question.
00:32:43.491 → 00:32:46.791
I don’t think I’ll go into the exegesis as much on this one.
00:32:46.791 → 00:32:56.311
I’ve gone into it before, and we’ve touched on it on Stone Choir, so I don’t think I have to go into as much of the exegesis here, so much as just explaining the doctrine.
00:32:56.311 → 00:33:04.431
This is about atonement, basically limited atonement, the reformed conception versus the Lutheran conception of how these things work.
00:33:04.431 → 00:33:13.551
In the 10th chapter of John, Jesus says the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, and to the unbelievers, Jesus says that they are not from his sheep.
00:33:13.551 → 00:33:14.631
True.
00:33:14.631 → 00:33:25.071
How do Lutherans understand those passages where Christ mentions that he gives his life specifically for the sheep or for the church, of which not all are part of?
00:33:25.071 → 00:33:45.911
So basically, the question is, the difference between the Lutheran conception, which is the universal justification, is the term we would typically use, unlimited atonement is a fine way of describing it as well, versus the reformed conception of limited atonement, being the L in tulip, right?
00:33:45.911 → 00:33:52.271
And so, the Lutheran breakdown, I’ll go over the Lutheran view first.
00:33:52.271 → 00:34:06.111
The Lutheran view is that there is the objective, also called the universal justification, and the subjective, also called the personal, which subjective and personal are basically the same word, but slight nuance there.
00:34:06.111 → 00:34:09.371
The subjective or personal justification.
00:34:09.371 → 00:34:17.091
And so, the objective justification is Christ’s work in redeeming creation.
00:34:17.091 → 00:34:23.091
That’s ton cosmon in the words of John 3.16, because it says he redeemed all things, right?
00:34:23.091 → 00:34:25.671
For God so loved the world, ton cosmon.
00:34:25.751 → 00:34:33.371
And incidentally, the same word for universe, which is all things that exist in the Greek mind, in the original Greek.
00:34:33.371 → 00:34:34.571
That’s what it means.
00:34:34.571 → 00:34:43.371
So, he redeemed the world, because it is creation that is groaning together for the coming Messiah, for the restoration, for the renewal of all things.
00:34:43.371 → 00:34:46.491
It’s not just mankind, it’s literally everything.
00:34:46.491 → 00:34:52.171
It’s the mountains, it’s rivers, it’s trees, it’s all of creation is awaiting the renewal of all things.
00:34:53.351 → 00:34:57.171
And so, that of course is what Christ redeemed in his perfect work.
00:34:57.171 → 00:35:02.771
He made satisfaction for all sins, he redeemed all things.
00:35:02.771 → 00:35:10.771
The issue for human beings, because of course, we are made in the image of God, we’re moral agents, we’re the most relevant thing in this.
00:35:10.771 → 00:35:20.471
We are, of course, descendants of Adam, Adam being the pinnacle of creation, the head of creation, which is why all of creation fell in Adam, because it fell in its head.
00:35:21.031 → 00:35:23.031
Not in Eve, but in Adam.
00:35:24.131 → 00:35:30.351
The issue of how justification is applied is the distinction here.
00:35:30.351 → 00:35:42.851
All things are redeemed in Christ, but only those who are in Christ by faith are themselves redeemed in the sense of going to paradise instead of hell.
00:35:42.851 → 00:36:00.971
That is the subjective justification which takes place by the means of grace, which bestow faith, which is the means by which, the instrumental means, by which God applies salvation, the atonement, to you, by which you personally, subjectively are justified.
00:36:00.971 → 00:36:07.711
That is the, I would say, the teaching of scripture, and it is the Lutheran position on the justification.
00:36:07.711 → 00:36:11.331
Someone brought up a hymn, of course, which is always good to see.
00:36:11.331 → 00:36:14.931
So, all things are redeemed in Christ.
00:36:15.311 → 00:36:21.511
The scope of the atonement is unlimited, because it is universal in the fullest sense.
00:36:21.511 → 00:36:27.951
All sins are erased in Christ, because, of course, Christ’s payment was of infinite value.
00:36:27.951 → 00:36:32.011
So, it atoned for all things, being infinite.
00:36:32.011 → 00:36:38.871
But it has to be applied to you by faith, for you to be saved by it.
00:36:38.871 → 00:36:45.291
Which is to say, all of those in hell, their sins have been forgiven.
00:36:45.291 → 00:36:49.531
They do not benefit from it, because they are not in Christ.
00:36:49.531 → 00:37:07.311
The reformed understanding, on the other hand, what they do, and I won’t necessarily get deep into Zwingli and aliocis and all that stuff, because it’s not really the point of the question, kind of is, but at the same time, their view is called limited atonement.
00:37:07.311 → 00:37:15.431
So, they believe that Christ died for the elect, and for no one else, not for those who were in hell.
00:37:15.431 → 00:37:46.631
The reason they argue for this, and I’ll sort of steel man their position, and then tear it down, but the reason they argue for that is because they think, or at least they advance, that it is an insult to Christ, in the sense that his work was not effective for some of those who would be included in it, in the Lutheran and the view of others as well, because if they are not saved, then it seems like Christ failed, right?
00:37:46.631 → 00:37:50.231
We Lutherans don’t view it as Christ having failed.
00:37:50.231 → 00:37:53.451
It’s rather some reject the free gift of faith.
00:37:53.451 → 00:37:55.811
It’s a different thing.
00:37:55.811 → 00:38:02.271
Christ achieved the atonement perfectly in his life, in his work, in his death.
00:38:02.271 → 00:38:05.791
Christ achieved the atonement, the redemption of all things.
00:38:07.211 → 00:38:16.271
Just because some people elect not to benefit from it, because some people reject the free gift of faith, does not mean that Christ failed.
00:38:16.271 → 00:38:18.231
It means those people are wicked.
00:38:18.231 → 00:38:20.951
That’s what that actually means.
00:38:20.951 → 00:38:32.251
We think the other problem with what the Reformed contend is that it does not address all of the verses that speak of Christ having renewed and restored and redeemed all things.
00:38:32.891 → 00:38:36.891
It doesn’t say he redeemed the elect alone.
00:38:36.891 → 00:38:40.531
Like I said, in John 3.16, we’re dealing with the ton cosmon.
00:38:40.531 → 00:38:46.431
We’re dealing with the universe, which is again, all things that exist.
00:38:46.431 → 00:38:48.331
I don’t think they can deal with those verses.
00:38:48.331 → 00:38:55.431
I know that Zwingli talks about his aliases, which basically means you change the object when…
00:38:55.431 → 00:39:10.591
I don’t want to get too deep in the grammar here, but it’s basically you change the target of what the verse is saying in order to align with the fact that it can’t possibly mean all, it has to mean all in the sense of all the elect.
00:39:10.591 → 00:39:15.151
I find that to be an impermissible alteration of what scripture says.
00:39:15.151 → 00:39:19.391
I read all things, and I believe it means all things.
00:39:19.391 → 00:39:20.511
That’s the difference.
00:39:20.511 → 00:39:26.731
And so, to go to the passage that he wanted to specifically have addressed.
00:39:26.771 → 00:39:28.771
Of course, we’re dealing with John here.
00:39:31.851 → 00:39:34.171
I will pull that up on screen.
00:39:37.031 → 00:39:38.391
Okay, so John 10, 11.
00:39:38.391 → 00:39:42.611
I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
00:39:42.611 → 00:39:49.531
And then, of course, it goes on with, he’s a hired hand versus the shepherd, the hired hand runs away, the good shepherd will actually fight for the sheep.
00:39:49.531 → 00:39:52.371
And then, down to verse 26.
00:39:52.371 → 00:40:01.131
I told you and you do not believe, the works that I do in my father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.
00:40:02.191 → 00:40:07.531
And so, the Lutheran interpretation of this is, this is dealing with that subjective justification.
00:40:07.531 → 00:40:11.131
This is also pastoral, in a sense.
00:40:11.131 → 00:40:14.871
Christ is acting in a way as a pastor here.
00:40:14.871 → 00:40:24.571
And so, it is a distinction from dealing with Christ’s work of the atonement itself versus the application of that atonement.
00:40:24.571 → 00:40:33.031
We take this passage to mean the application of the atonement to individuals, and they are called not his sheep because they are not among the elect.
00:40:33.031 → 00:40:35.971
They do not believe, they do not have faith.
00:40:35.971 → 00:40:37.011
That would be the distinction there.
00:40:37.011 → 00:40:38.711
He’s dealing with the sheep versus the goats.
00:40:38.711 → 00:40:41.931
These are goats, so they’re not his sheep.
00:40:41.931 → 00:40:46.271
Their sins are forgiven, but they do not believe, and so they do not benefit.
00:40:46.971 → 00:40:53.731
An example that is sometimes used that isn’t exactly identical, but it is good enough to get the point across.
00:40:53.731 → 00:41:17.891
If I put a million dollars in a bank account, and then I gave you a debit card and the pin, and then you stick it in your desk and forget about it, or you say, I don’t believe you, or you shred it, well, the million dollars is still there, but you don’t benefit from it because of your actions, because of, in this case, your foolishness, but with regard to sin because of your wickedness.
00:41:17.891 → 00:41:18.971
That’s the distinction there.
00:41:18.971 → 00:41:21.831
And so, we don’t find that there’s any conflict.
00:41:21.831 → 00:41:29.491
It’s just dealing with different aspects of the doctrine, the objective slash universal versus the subjective slash personal.
00:41:43.651 → 00:41:47.171
I think I’ll probably get to at least two or three more questions here.
00:41:47.171 → 00:41:50.231
I think I will get a drink of tea first.
00:41:51.451 → 00:41:57.791
I know someone said the teapot was stealing the show, which it does add to the ambiance, so it is.
00:41:58.831 → 00:42:01.071
But at the same time, it’s nice to have tea.
00:42:01.071 → 00:42:04.251
So, and it does stay warm that way.
00:42:05.671 → 00:42:06.651
Let that cool slightly.
00:42:19.458 → 00:42:23.738
Someone asked about, in the chat, about keeping the Sabbath.
00:42:26.278 → 00:42:41.278
That one, I would probably, as a Lutheran, obviously, I’m just going to go to the Catechism, but you can also just go, of course, to the words of Christ, because the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
00:42:41.278 → 00:42:45.838
You would start there, and then you could point out also that he brings up David.
00:42:45.838 → 00:42:47.178
David broke the Sabbath.
00:42:47.178 → 00:42:51.178
In fact, he broke several rules when he ate the bread of the Presence and did things like that.
00:42:51.178 → 00:42:58.538
And then there’s the fact that the priests who served in the temple profaned the Sabbath, but they were not guilty because of that fact.
00:42:58.538 → 00:43:08.498
The point of the Sabbath, the keeping of a day of rest, is not just to do nothing, right?
00:43:08.498 → 00:43:10.158
That’s the Jewish interpretation.
00:43:10.158 → 00:43:12.118
They think, oh, I can’t possibly do anything.
00:43:12.118 → 00:43:24.738
I have to just sit and do nothing, and I have to set up my oven so that it turns on on its own, and all the weird little things they do to try to Jew God, which is what they’re doing, right?
00:43:24.738 → 00:43:25.978
That’s not what the Sabbath is.
00:43:25.978 → 00:43:35.178
I don’t know why it keeps trying to change the resolution on my browser here, but I will just go full screen on it instead and absolve the problem there.
00:43:35.178 → 00:43:36.498
So, what is the third commandment?
00:43:36.498 → 00:43:44.978
And of course, the Lutheran numbering, the Augustinian numbering, the traditional numbering, those who are of reform, persuasion, or whatever, can renumber it in their head.
00:43:44.978 → 00:43:46.538
Thou shalt sanctify the holy day.
00:43:47.178 → 00:43:48.518
What does this mean?
00:43:48.518 → 00:43:56.798
We should fear and love God, that we may not despise preaching in His word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
00:43:56.798 → 00:43:59.798
That’s part of the observation of the Sabbath.
00:43:59.798 → 00:44:03.538
That is, the small catechism, of course, is meant to be a summary.
00:44:03.538 → 00:44:11.978
It’s meant to be enough for people so that they can understand the core of the Christian faith and be a Christian.
00:44:11.978 → 00:44:14.658
You can be saved if you know just what is in the small catechism.
00:44:16.338 → 00:44:19.478
But there is more to it, and of course, that’s why we have the large catechism.
00:44:19.478 → 00:44:23.598
I won’t read all of it, because the large catechism is, in fact, longer.
00:44:23.598 → 00:44:25.678
So I would recommend you go and look at that.
00:44:25.678 → 00:44:35.858
I will put that in the show notes as well, but it goes over more of it, because part of the point of the Sabbath is it’s a day of rest.
00:44:35.858 → 00:44:41.138
You can see that clearly in the fact that it’s compared to the fact that God rested.
00:44:41.138 → 00:44:42.658
Man is supposed to rest as well.
00:44:43.738 → 00:45:04.898
The biggest part of that, and Luther goes into this in the Large Catechism and elsewhere, staunch Christians who have an unshakable faith, and particularly those who are of upper class, and you’ll see why that’s relevant, don’t really need a Sabbath, don’t really need a day of rest.
00:45:04.898 → 00:45:15.178
Servants, the working class today, those who have a day in, day out, but perhaps a grueling job, need to have time off.
00:45:15.178 → 00:45:20.858
Human beings were not meant to work 24-7 no matter what capitalism may tell you.
00:45:20.858 → 00:45:25.298
And so it is vitally important to give your workers a day off.
00:45:25.298 → 00:45:32.758
God is going to judge harshly those employers who drive their employees too hard.
00:45:32.758 → 00:45:51.918
You are supposed to treat them well, and just because they’re called employees today instead of slaves or servants or whatever term you want to use doesn’t change the reality of the relationship, you still have that position of authority and duty to those people under you, even if you are simply paying them an hourly wage.
00:45:51.918 → 00:45:55.238
Don’t think that your duties end when you sign that check.
00:45:55.238 → 00:45:57.718
That’s not the end of it before God.
00:45:57.718 → 00:46:04.598
So it is necessary to observe these things, but it is not a matter of some of the examples given here, right?
00:46:04.598 → 00:46:07.298
You can particularly think of the things the Jews will do.
00:46:07.378 → 00:46:13.318
I can think of one particularly salient example that may make the point for some of you.
00:46:13.318 → 00:46:18.778
There is a website that has been retailing, and it’s got a physical location.
00:46:18.778 → 00:46:21.458
I think it’s in New York.
00:46:21.458 → 00:46:28.378
Mostly camera gear, but a lot of Mac stuff as well, and all sorts of high-end electronics and things like that for many years.
00:46:28.378 → 00:46:33.938
Very well-known site used by particularly people in the photography industry, but also Apple users and others.
00:46:34.458 → 00:46:37.138
It’s B&H Photo, I don’t mind naming them.
00:46:37.138 → 00:46:43.198
Their website is offline for orders on Saturdays because they’re Jewish.
00:46:43.198 → 00:46:44.838
They think that’s obeying the Sabbath.
00:46:44.838 → 00:46:46.278
They’re giving their server…
00:46:46.278 → 00:46:48.538
Servers don’t need a rest.
00:46:48.538 → 00:46:50.798
Servers don’t get tired.
00:46:50.798 → 00:46:54.038
Servers break down when their hardware fails.
00:46:54.038 → 00:46:56.758
But the Sabbath is not for that.
00:46:56.758 → 00:47:00.438
The rest aspect of it is for human beings and animals.
00:47:01.318 → 00:47:08.138
Not for your server, not for your electricity, not for your gas or the physical road or anything like that.
00:47:08.138 → 00:47:13.718
You give your animals a rest if you have farm animals or other beasts of burden.
00:47:13.718 → 00:47:17.058
There are things that you do that are an aspect of rest.
00:47:17.058 → 00:47:27.678
The other part of it, as was pointed out in the Small Catechism, is that it’s a day set aside in order to have some time to learn the Word of the Lord, to listen to preaching, to listen to teaching.
00:47:28.298 → 00:47:37.978
And the reason that that ties into other things here is because those who do not have the amount of free time that the upper class has, because the upper class has more leisure time.
00:47:37.978 → 00:47:40.818
That’s just the reality of how the world works.
00:47:40.818 → 00:47:45.078
The working class has less leisure time, particularly historically.
00:47:45.078 → 00:47:52.338
Today, it’s a little different in some cases, but that time needs to be set aside to come together and learn the Word of the Lord.
00:47:52.338 → 00:48:02.198
It’s also a matter of good order, because if you just showed up to church at whatever time and day you felt like, probably not going to work very well if everyone does that.
00:48:02.198 → 00:48:04.878
You kind of need a time and a place.
00:48:04.878 → 00:48:12.558
There are different aspects of obeying the Sabbath, of sanctifying the Holy Day, as it says in the Small Catechism.
00:48:12.558 → 00:48:17.058
It’s not a matter of just not doing a bunch of things.
00:48:17.058 → 00:48:19.778
It’s not just take a nap.
00:48:19.778 → 00:48:29.738
It’s not what the Jews think it is, where, like I said before, your oven has to have a weird timer and Sabbath mode and all these things, and maybe you can turn on lights or you can’t turn on lights.
00:48:29.738 → 00:48:36.798
That’s completely ridiculous, which is what Christ points out to them when he says, who wouldn’t pull his ox out of a well?
00:48:36.798 → 00:48:39.578
Come on, it’s ridiculous how they were doing it.
00:48:39.578 → 00:48:42.658
He mocks them for it because it’s so dumb.
00:48:42.658 → 00:48:44.778
That’s not what the Sabbath is for.
00:48:44.778 → 00:48:46.958
It is for something completely different.
00:48:46.958 → 00:48:49.538
And Christ is Lord of the Sabbath.
00:48:49.578 → 00:48:52.878
And again, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
00:48:52.878 → 00:48:58.298
So, observing it is not a matter of just not doing certain things.
00:48:58.298 → 00:48:59.538
It is a matter of resting.
00:48:59.538 → 00:49:01.718
It’s a matter of listening to the word of the Lord.
00:49:01.718 → 00:49:08.058
It’s a matter of treating those entrusted to your care, whether men or animals, well, giving them rest.
00:49:08.058 → 00:49:13.478
It’s all of these things in one, but not in a legalistic way.
00:49:13.478 → 00:49:20.598
Now, that being said, do I believe we should take that commandment more seriously than we currently do as a society?
00:49:20.598 → 00:49:22.998
The answer is absolutely yes.
00:49:22.998 → 00:49:27.578
I think we should go back to having almost everything closed on Sundays.
00:49:27.578 → 00:49:34.938
I think we should go back to having those sorts of restrictions in place, not selling alcohol, things like that.
00:49:34.938 → 00:49:36.598
You should plan ahead for your communion wine.
00:49:36.598 → 00:49:38.858
You shouldn’t have to run out on Sunday morning.
00:49:39.918 → 00:49:42.818
I think it would be good for our society to do that.
00:49:42.818 → 00:49:48.998
It’s good not just socially, I think it would be good religiously, and I think it would be truer to the commandment.
00:49:48.998 → 00:49:52.378
And no, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the fact that we observe it on Sunday.
00:49:52.378 → 00:49:58.778
The reason we do it is because that’s what the ancient church did, and because Christ rose on Sunday.
00:49:58.778 → 00:50:04.478
We’re celebrating the fact that we have a savior who rose from the dead, and that one day we will do the same.
00:50:04.478 → 00:50:08.458
So it’s appropriate to do it on the day he rose from the dead.
00:50:08.458 → 00:50:19.118
And of course, yes, I pointed out before that you can’t really trace back and say that, oh, this day of our week is that day of the week in their calendar.
00:50:19.118 → 00:50:21.478
We don’t have that sort of resolution, historical record.
00:50:21.478 → 00:50:28.538
So you literally can’t trace back to the exact day of the week on which God rested.
00:50:28.538 → 00:50:29.838
You can’t do it.
00:50:29.838 → 00:50:37.858
To say nothing of the fact that you have the problems of the calendar and the problems of the earth going around the sun, which is not an exact number, right?
00:50:37.858 → 00:50:42.258
That’s why we have leap years, and the formula is not just every four years.
00:50:42.338 → 00:50:44.698
It’s much more complicated than that.
00:50:44.698 → 00:50:51.338
So you literally can’t figure out when Saturday was in creation week.
00:50:51.338 → 00:50:56.698
So God is not going to give you a command that is quite literally impossible.
00:50:56.698 → 00:51:08.518
He’s going to give you one that you can aspire to and maybe not reach the standard, because of course, for instance, all of the commandments are aspirational in a sense, because in a fallen world, the way we live today, we can’t possibly reach them.
00:51:09.878 → 00:51:15.978
This is one of those things where you just can or can’t and you literally cannot hear.
00:51:15.978 → 00:51:28.138
You can’t figure out when Saturday was in Creation Week, and so Sunday is the day that we have picked as a civilization, we’ve picked it for very good reasons, we’ve adhered to it for centuries, we should continue to do so.
00:51:28.138 → 00:51:33.358
It is appropriate to do so, so I’m answering sort of the sabbatarian question at the same time.
00:51:33.358 → 00:51:35.598
That is an important aspect of Christendom.
00:51:36.258 → 00:51:42.818
Having this day, this universal day of rest and worship of the Lord.
00:51:42.818 → 00:51:46.678
And I think that’s an important part of our culture we’ve sort of let slip away.
00:51:46.678 → 00:52:00.818
We let capitalism erode it, we decided that being able to have the convenience of buying things whenever we feel like it, and going out and doing all these things on every day, outweighed obedience to God.
00:52:00.818 → 00:52:11.038
So yes, I think we should take it more seriously, but again, it’s not a legalistic thing, it’s just a desire to, as Christians, obey God.
00:52:11.038 → 00:52:18.098
Having been renewed by the Spirit, we should participate, again, synergistically, in sanctification.
00:52:18.098 → 00:52:21.038
Part of that is obeying the commandments as best we can.
00:52:21.038 → 00:52:29.378
I think we could do a better job as a society, as a civilization, with the Third Commandment, or whatever number you want to use in your system.
00:52:30.538 → 00:52:32.018
I’m going to actually finally drink my tea now.
00:52:46.230 → 00:52:50.730
I have a Roman Catholic who thanks me for the work that I’ve done and offered to buy me a pint.
00:52:50.730 → 00:52:56.410
As a German, I’m obligated to accept, so Trappist is always good.
00:52:56.410 → 00:52:58.370
I do like those beers as well.
00:52:58.370 → 00:53:03.730
I am, of course, partial to the German beers, but there are plenty of other good ones from Europe and elsewhere.
00:53:03.730 → 00:53:06.230
Certainly US has good beer now as well.
00:53:07.510 → 00:53:09.770
Think I’ll get a couple more questions here.
00:53:09.770 → 00:53:10.090
Let’s see.
00:53:13.810 → 00:53:22.430
I was thinking about answering this one next time, but I think I will answer it now, a question from formerly Twitter Now X.
00:53:22.430 → 00:53:32.730
Most black African Christians I have met or seen online seem to be far more strongly against witchcraft, the demonic Harry Potter and such, than other Europeans.
00:53:32.790 → 00:53:34.610
Then Europeans, rather.
00:53:34.610 → 00:53:39.870
How does this fit with the idea that syncretism is rife in Africa?
00:53:39.870 → 00:53:50.590
I would start off by saying part of it is selection bias, because statistically, if you run the statistical analysis with the available data, syncretism is much more of a problem in Africa.
00:53:51.070 → 00:53:52.830
It simply is.
00:53:52.830 → 00:53:56.190
There are a number of good books that go over that.
00:53:56.190 → 00:53:57.330
Let me see if I can remember one.
00:53:58.530 → 00:54:03.090
There’s, I think it’s called, I Am Not Afraid.
00:54:03.090 → 00:54:08.290
It was a book specifically from a Lutheran perspective.
00:54:08.290 → 00:54:08.810
Yes, it is.
00:54:08.810 → 00:54:12.690
It is, I Am Not Afraid, Demon Possession and Spiritual Warfare.
00:54:12.690 → 00:54:16.750
If you’re interested in the subject, probably worth grabbing to read it.
00:54:16.750 → 00:54:22.590
You can probably get it cheaper on Amazon than directly from CPH, but find it used, whatever it happens to be.
00:54:22.590 → 00:54:24.590
Find a PDF.
00:54:24.590 → 00:54:35.230
But it deals with the issue of how rife and rampant syncretism is, particularly in this case in the Malagasy Church, the Madagascar Lutheran Church.
00:54:35.230 → 00:54:46.890
This is something that Lutherans have been combating over there, and you have this syncretism with their traditional sort of ancestor worships slash animist religion.
00:54:48.090 → 00:54:51.770
That is a problem that is basically universal in Africa.
00:54:51.770 → 00:54:54.910
Obviously, some countries are worse than others.
00:54:54.910 → 00:54:56.850
You know, Ethiopia is better in some ways.
00:54:56.850 → 00:54:58.610
Ethiopia has been Christian longer.
00:54:59.350 → 00:55:09.450
Ethiopia had trade and a relationship with Old Testament Israel, so they’ve had access to some parts of Christianity much longer than others.
00:55:09.450 → 00:55:13.030
That has benefited them, so they are better off in some ways.
00:55:13.030 → 00:55:16.990
Still not great if you look at the violent crime rates and things like that.
00:55:16.990 → 00:55:27.790
But insofar as syncretism is concerned, it is much more of a problem in the third world, and it’s not just Africa, but Africa is the one that stands out.
00:55:28.490 → 00:55:31.170
Then it is in the western world.
00:55:31.170 → 00:55:33.810
Now, that’s not to say the western world doesn’t have problems.
00:55:33.810 → 00:55:39.550
We have plenty of apostasy and atheism, and yes, witchcraft and things like that.
00:55:39.550 → 00:55:46.630
There are probably more witches in the northeast of the United States, and there are Lutherans, for instance.
00:55:46.630 → 00:55:48.630
That’s a very real problem.
00:55:48.630 → 00:55:50.510
That’s something we have to address.
00:55:50.510 → 00:55:54.990
But syncretism specifically is not a big problem that we have.
00:55:56.610 → 00:55:58.630
We have plenty of other problems.
00:55:58.630 → 00:56:05.610
We have corruption of doctrines, we have liberalism, we have all these things that creep into the churches.
00:56:05.610 → 00:56:09.110
But it’s not really syncretistic practice that is a problem.
00:56:09.110 → 00:56:15.430
It’s really rank apostasy in many cases instead, which you can argue that’s better or worse.
00:56:15.430 → 00:56:16.250
It’s better in some ways.
00:56:16.250 → 00:56:17.630
It’s worse in others.
00:56:17.630 → 00:56:22.410
It’s just a matter of how difficult it is to surmount that in an individual case.
00:56:22.530 → 00:56:34.750
But syncretism specifically is more of a problem in the third world, in these places that are much closer to their ancestral religion, so-called.
00:56:34.750 → 00:56:38.330
Because, of course, the ancestral religion of everyone is Christianity.
00:56:38.330 → 00:56:42.130
When Noah’s three sons walked off the ark, they were Christians.
00:56:42.130 → 00:56:47.210
There were some problems with Ham, but at least he knew the doctrine, at least he knew the gospel.
00:56:47.210 → 00:56:48.310
That had been passed down.
00:56:50.250 → 00:57:04.730
So, that is the ancestral religion of all men, but these corruptions that crept in and became their, quote unquote, ancestral religions, they are much closer to that practice in the third world than in the Western world.
00:57:04.730 → 00:57:08.250
Because we have that separation that was Christendom.
00:57:08.250 → 00:57:14.270
It has since decayed, unfortunately, and collapsed, but it at least gives us a separation from those practices.
00:57:14.270 → 00:57:18.990
And in many cases, the pagan practices of our ancestors have been lost.
00:57:18.990 → 00:57:21.330
We can’t even restore them.
00:57:21.330 → 00:57:26.030
Those in the third world have a continuity because it’s still practiced in many places.
00:57:26.030 → 00:57:32.310
So they can go right back to it because shamans are still around in Africa and elsewhere.
00:57:32.310 → 00:57:37.390
So they have that problem, and we have different problems.
00:57:37.390 → 00:57:43.690
Another aspect of it is also that they have exposure to it in a way that we don’t.
00:57:45.330 → 00:57:51.910
You have witches who call themselves witches in the west, but really, it’s usually just weird women who collect crystals.
00:57:53.070 → 00:58:01.570
It’s not good, and a lot of times, they do engage in things that are at least verging on the demonic, but usually it’s a larp.
00:58:01.570 → 00:58:06.490
Usually, they believe in energies and collect crystals and burn sage.
00:58:06.490 → 00:58:12.450
Okay, that’s not good, but it’s not the same thing as open demon worship.
00:58:13.650 → 00:58:17.030
Some of them engage in demon worship, absolutely.
00:58:17.030 → 00:58:24.150
Some of them engage in rank, awful demon worship, things that would be criminal if they were caught doing them.
00:58:24.150 → 00:58:27.990
Absolutely, that happens even here in the United States.
00:58:27.990 → 00:58:38.530
But they have sort of created their own new religion because that stuff didn’t survive the filter of Christendom.
00:58:39.670 → 00:58:53.830
Whereas again, the older practices in the other parts of the world, Africa in particular, but also in some parts of South America, you have this syncretism because the old religions from which they converted never died.
00:58:53.830 → 00:58:55.390
They never disappeared.
00:58:55.390 → 00:58:57.310
The practices never stopped.
00:58:57.310 → 00:59:05.110
You’ve had voodoo going on in Haiti since you had people in Haiti who brought voodoo with them from Africa, of course.
00:59:05.110 → 00:59:08.030
The original inhabitants practiced other things that were also demonic.
00:59:08.870 → 00:59:11.550
And so that’s why you have that problem there.
00:59:11.550 → 00:59:19.550
But that fact that they don’t have the separation means that they have more of a reaction to it when they convert.
00:59:19.550 → 00:59:31.630
Because they have converted away from that thing, then sometimes they recognize the evil of the thing that they gave up, the thing from which they fled, the thing from which they were rescued.
00:59:31.630 → 00:59:37.970
And for a lot of Europeans, a lot of those in the West, we don’t have that anymore.
00:59:37.970 → 00:59:47.270
Because we take for granted all of the good things that Christendom gave us, all the things we inherited from our faithful Christian ancestors.
00:59:47.270 → 00:59:53.790
And there are those who don’t recognize what they have, what their patrimony is.
00:59:53.790 → 01:00:09.190
And so they don’t have the same reaction to seeing evil because they have not had to deal with it in the same way as those who have lived in places where shamanism and human sacrifice and things like that are still practiced, even if in the shadows in some cases.
01:00:10.610 → 01:00:14.050
That is a problem for us to overcome in the West.
01:00:14.050 → 01:00:17.730
It’s a problem for them in that they have the syncretistic tendency.
01:00:17.730 → 01:00:24.190
It’s a problem for us in that people think that water doesn’t exist when there are fish swimming in that water.
01:00:24.190 → 01:00:25.890
So it’s different challenges.
01:00:25.890 → 01:00:36.650
It’s not to say that one is better than the other to have because they pose different challenges, not necessarily easier or more difficult.
01:00:36.650 → 01:00:54.050
In some cases, it can be a little more difficult to overcome the challenges in the West because at least when you go to someone in Africa or wherever else it happens to be, you can say, look at these practices of your traditional religion, look at what God says.
01:00:54.050 → 01:00:55.890
It’s absolutely all incompatible.
01:00:56.010 → 01:01:04.410
You’re doing something that is rankly demonic, and they can look at it, and you can bring them out of that, and they recognize that there’s been a significant change.
01:01:04.410 → 01:01:13.090
It can be very difficult to do the same thing with those in the West, to say nothing of the difference in intelligence because those in the West are going to mount a stronger opposition.
01:01:13.090 → 01:01:16.410
It’s one of the reasons that some people like to go do missions in the Third World.
01:01:16.410 → 01:01:17.630
It’s easier.
01:01:18.950 → 01:01:21.110
They do it because there are a lot of reasons.
01:01:21.110 → 01:01:23.850
I don’t want to get into all of that now, but sometimes it’s because it’s easier.
01:01:24.170 → 01:01:28.050
It’s easier to go deal with those people than it is to deal with your own.
01:01:28.050 → 01:01:29.310
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t deal with your own.
01:01:29.310 → 01:01:32.290
In fact, it’s sinful not to deal with your own.
01:01:32.290 → 01:01:35.350
Because God gave them to you, you should care for them first.
01:01:35.350 → 01:01:40.470
So, I guess that’s sort of a long-winded, perhaps, way of addressing that issue.
01:01:40.470 → 01:01:44.950
But I think it’s worth bringing up all of the different facets of that.
01:01:44.950 → 01:01:54.790
It’s not that they necessarily have less of a problem with that particular kind of demonic activity, as they’ve come out of it.
01:01:54.790 → 01:02:04.250
And so, they personally have a recognition of that problem, whereas we don’t have that anymore in the West.
01:02:04.250 → 01:02:15.130
But it doesn’t mean that they don’t have a problem with syncretism, because statistically, according to the data, if you go deal with people on the ground over there, as it were, they really do have a problem with syncretism.
01:02:15.130 → 01:02:16.590
And it is a challenge for missionaries.
01:02:21.910 → 01:02:26.710
Someone asked about the appropriate marriageable age for a woman.
01:02:26.710 → 01:02:30.310
I’m just going to give the standard Western European answer.
01:02:30.310 → 01:02:38.030
You can go and look at the Haaschnell line if you’re so inclined on Wikipedia, because there is a divide between Western and Eastern Europe.
01:02:38.030 → 01:02:41.750
Eastern Europeans have historically married earlier.
01:02:41.750 → 01:02:44.970
Western Europeans have historically married later.
01:02:44.970 → 01:02:45.990
But it’s still 20s.
01:02:46.670 → 01:02:48.750
And for women, it’s usually early 20s.
01:02:48.750 → 01:02:52.450
It’s like 22 to 25, something like that.
01:02:52.450 → 01:02:54.750
A little earlier is fine, a little later is fine.
01:02:54.750 → 01:02:58.650
Earlier is probably better, because obviously there’s a fertility window for women.
01:02:58.650 → 01:03:04.950
And then men are usually a little later, but still usually either late 20s, early 30s.
01:03:04.950 → 01:03:07.170
That’s pretty much been the historical standard.
01:03:07.170 → 01:03:10.610
It varies a little over time with the centuries, and warfare, and things like that.
01:03:10.610 → 01:03:12.550
But that’s been the standard.
01:03:12.550 → 01:03:18.970
And then Eastern Europe, I can’t remember the exact numbers, but it’s like three to four years earlier.
01:03:18.970 → 01:03:27.170
So, instead of having a 21-year-old and a 27-year-old marrying West, it would be a 24-year-old and a 19-year-old.
01:03:27.170 → 01:03:28.630
That’s not inappropriate.
01:03:28.630 → 01:03:30.390
That’s totally fine.
01:03:30.390 → 01:03:40.350
Obviously, this is coming up because of various things that have happened in the news in the last, say, year, and then other things that have happened with certain individuals in the last, say, few days.
01:03:41.710 → 01:03:50.710
And, no, it is not appropriate to be defending the marriage, will be charitable here, of 40-
01:03:50.710 → 01:03:52.490
and 50-year-old men to 14-
01:03:52.490 → 01:03:54.190
and 15-year-old girls.
01:03:54.190 → 01:03:57.850
That is categorically unacceptable.
01:03:57.850 → 01:04:05.210
That is not something that has ever been standard practice, certainly, in Western Europe, and it is not something for which we should ever advocate.
01:04:06.290 → 01:04:16.290
The reality of it is that you are not an adult until you are at least in your late teens, and probably later than that.
01:04:16.290 → 01:04:21.930
It’s not that you have to be, you know, your brain fully developed and everything, you can’t get married before that.
01:04:21.930 → 01:04:28.510
I’m not saying that, because quite frankly, the research seems to show that maybe it’s not until you’re 30 that your brain’s done fully developing.
01:04:28.510 → 01:04:32.310
No one’s going to seriously, well, okay, some people will, but they’re not serious people.
01:04:32.310 → 01:04:35.410
No serious person is going to seriously say you have to wait until that age.
01:04:37.230 → 01:04:48.030
And God seems to have designed it so that you don’t, because probably the neuroplasticity helps build that relationship in the early years, which then carries you through the rest of your life.
01:04:48.030 → 01:04:52.290
That’s probably part of how God designed the system to work.
01:04:52.290 → 01:04:58.290
So I think the ideal probably is something like 21 for women and 25, 26 for men.
01:04:58.290 → 01:05:02.410
I think having a little bit of gap in terms of age is good.
01:05:02.410 → 01:05:11.890
It helps to reinforce that headship and the authority of the man over the woman, but it shouldn’t be too big of an age gap simply because of the biological reality.
01:05:11.890 → 01:05:16.310
Part of it is, you’re not going to live as long as a man as the average woman.
01:05:16.310 → 01:05:23.950
You probably don’t want to leave your wife as a widow for 10 years, if you can avoid it.
01:05:23.950 → 01:05:26.470
Four or five years isn’t as bad.
01:05:26.470 → 01:05:28.990
She’s probably going to outlive you by that much at least anyway.
01:05:28.990 → 01:05:31.190
So part of it is that.
01:05:31.190 → 01:05:32.470
There’s also the aspect of it.
01:05:33.550 → 01:05:40.250
Yes, the fertility window for women is significantly more important than the one for men, because the one for men basically doesn’t exist.
01:05:40.250 → 01:05:45.710
But you do run into more problems, birth defects and things like that.
01:05:45.710 → 01:05:48.770
The risk increases with the age of the father.
01:05:48.770 → 01:05:51.610
Not as severe as the age of the mother.
01:05:51.610 → 01:05:56.230
You don’t simply lose the ability to produce children when you hit a certain age as a man.
01:05:56.230 → 01:06:00.950
But there are considerations for the health of the children and just how many children you’re going to have.
01:06:01.110 → 01:06:17.830
And the simple fact of the matter is, if you have a child when you’re 20 or 25, 26, whatever it happens to be, you are going to be at the peak of your energy and physical fitness most likely in order to raise that child appropriately.
01:06:17.830 → 01:06:26.770
If you’re 55 and you have your first child, you are going to be unbelievably tired throughout the years of raising that child.
01:06:26.770 → 01:06:29.090
You’re going to be 65 when the child is 10.
01:06:31.790 → 01:06:36.470
The biological reality is it is what it is.
01:06:36.470 → 01:06:42.890
And you may find it unpleasant, you may find it harsh, but that doesn’t change it.
01:06:42.890 → 01:06:51.810
So we should be trying to minimize harm is what we’re really trying to do, and to maximize the blessings from God.
01:06:51.810 → 01:06:53.550
And part of that is getting married young.
01:06:53.590 → 01:07:14.370
And also, obviously, I already spoke about sexual temptations and things like that, but if you decide you’re going to live through your 20s and your 30s unmarried, it’s going to be a lot harder for you to stay celibate, to stay chaste, then chaste is more appropriate than celibate there, to stay chaste than if you’re married.
01:07:14.370 → 01:07:15.510
That’s the reality of it.
01:07:15.510 → 01:07:17.350
It’s easier to do that as you get older.
01:07:17.350 → 01:07:20.230
Again, biological reality.
01:07:20.230 → 01:07:24.310
But yes, the marriageable age should be basically 20s.
01:07:24.310 → 01:07:28.930
That is sort of the ideal, at least at this point in creation.
01:07:28.930 → 01:07:36.010
Obviously, it was different back in the age of the patriarchs and things like that, but I don’t personally plan to live to 600.
01:07:36.010 → 01:07:44.270
And I doubt anyone in this chat is going to do that either, despite the promises of the tech oligarchs.
01:08:02.639 → 01:08:04.759
See if there are other questions in here.
01:08:18.878 → 01:08:25.338
Yeah, certainly an aspect of the Sabbath that I could have mentioned, I have mentioned elsewhere, is that some services are necessary.
01:08:25.338 → 01:08:31.158
And I did address that with the fact that the priests so-called profane the Sabbath by working on the Sabbath.
01:08:31.158 → 01:08:34.458
Historically, obviously, we don’t have priests today in that sense.
01:08:34.458 → 01:08:36.418
I’m not saying you can’t call a pastor a priest.
01:08:36.418 → 01:08:38.898
I don’t really care which term you used.
01:08:38.898 → 01:08:42.638
I prefer pastor a little bit, but it doesn’t matter that much.
01:08:42.638 → 01:08:44.978
Necessary services should obviously continue.
01:08:44.978 → 01:08:50.638
We’re not going to shut down our hospitals on the Sabbath because, well, that would kill people.
01:08:50.638 → 01:08:52.238
Probably not good.
01:08:52.238 → 01:08:54.138
You still need police on the Sabbath.
01:08:54.138 → 01:08:56.878
You still need firefighters on the Sabbath.
01:08:56.878 → 01:08:58.458
You need necessary workers.
01:08:58.458 → 01:09:03.378
And there are such a thing, there is such a thing as a necessary worker.
01:09:04.678 → 01:09:10.958
Those people can go to a Saturday service or Friday or Wednesday, whatever it is that happens to fit their schedule.
01:09:10.958 → 01:09:15.698
God is not going to curse you because you are doing necessary work on the Sabbath.
01:09:16.758 → 01:09:18.778
You can think again of pulling the ox out of the well.
01:09:30.275 → 01:09:38.535
I definitely have more questions, but most of them are getting into the sort of long answer.
01:09:38.535 → 01:09:42.375
So I think I may wrap it up here for this week.
01:09:42.375 → 01:09:55.575
I did want to mention, some of the questions I’ve received are going to be longer answers, and I don’t necessarily want them to take up the entire episode for a given week.
01:09:55.575 → 01:10:04.115
I could do that, of course, but that’s not really the goal I like to get through, at least a fair number of questions, at least five or six, instead of two.
01:10:04.115 → 01:10:23.435
But I think what I will probably do, in order to address those, is I will release additional episodes on this same show, but not as a Q&A episode, more a standalone answer to a particular question.
01:10:23.435 → 01:10:30.035
Those will be in the feed for the podcast version of this, which is audio only.
01:10:30.035 → 01:10:36.975
But I think I will also upload them to YouTube and elsewhere, so people can find them more easily, whichever platform it is you happen to use.
01:10:36.975 → 01:10:42.535
Most people are on either X or YouTube, so those are sort of the two key platforms, unsurprisingly.
01:10:43.595 → 01:10:49.335
So for the questions that require a longer answer, I think that’s what I will do.
01:10:49.335 → 01:11:06.415
I think that fits in well with the overall goal, because then I can give the detailed answers for the more complex, the more involved questions, and continue to answer a good number of questions each week in these shows as well.
01:11:06.415 → 01:11:11.615
So if you have a question that is a little more involved, expect to get an answer like that.
01:11:11.615 → 01:11:17.335
I can’t promise a particular time, because it’s really whenever I happen to have the time to get this done.
01:11:17.335 → 01:11:21.315
I do have a fair number of things to get done as well.
01:11:22.835 → 01:11:25.275
Someone said, is it unreasonable to want ten kids from a wife?
01:11:25.275 → 01:11:26.715
I guess I can answer that one in passing.
01:11:26.715 → 01:11:28.735
I don’t think it’s unreasonable, if you can manage that many.
01:11:28.735 → 01:11:30.095
You know, it’s a matter of wisdom.
01:11:30.095 → 01:11:33.035
That’s the short answer for children, is that it’s a matter of wisdom.
01:11:33.035 → 01:11:35.275
Children are a blessing from the Lord.
01:11:35.275 → 01:11:36.615
They’re always a blessing from the Lord.
01:11:36.615 → 01:11:37.815
There was a question on that topic.
01:11:37.815 → 01:11:42.955
I will get into that question either next week or the week after, I believe.
01:11:42.955 → 01:11:48.095
But children are a blessing from the Lord.
01:11:48.095 → 01:11:52.035
You know, the man who fills his quiver with them, the children of his youth.
01:11:52.035 → 01:11:55.615
He will not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
01:11:55.615 → 01:12:06.375
So, no, have as many children as God will bless you with, assuming that you don’t have, you know, some biological issue that you’re going to pass on to them that’s going to kill them in early childhood.
01:12:06.375 → 01:12:08.875
Like, there are wisdom considerations.
01:12:08.875 → 01:12:15.795
But if you have ten healthy children, your wife is able to bear that many, God gives you that many, by all means, go for it.
01:12:15.795 → 01:12:18.155
That’s great to be blessed that much by God.
01:12:19.095 → 01:12:21.395
That doesn’t mean you have to have them one right after the other.
01:12:21.395 → 01:12:26.895
You are permitted to exercise discretion and have gaps between the children.
01:12:26.895 → 01:12:29.115
That’s not sin to do that.
01:12:29.115 → 01:12:32.955
There are sinful methods, but use the ones that aren’t.
01:12:32.955 → 01:12:35.655
The churches recognize that for centuries.
01:12:37.355 → 01:12:43.295
But insofar as, again, complicated questions, long answers, I think I will do that that way.
01:12:44.795 → 01:12:48.495
But I think that’s it for this week.
01:12:48.495 → 01:13:01.755
I will add the other questions that I did not answer from the chat and elsewhere into my growing list of questions, which I think is growing faster than I am answering them, but that’s always how it’s sort of going to be.
01:13:01.755 → 01:13:09.275
I have, on a related note, to some things I touched on tonight, I have an article I’m going to be posting.
01:13:09.275 → 01:13:20.275
Hopefully tomorrow I think I will get it done and posted about the nature of women, the relationship of men and women, because that issue just keeps coming up again and again and again.
01:13:20.275 → 01:13:24.715
I know why, and I’ve explained it before, and it’s vitally important to get it right.
01:13:24.715 → 01:13:29.995
I think it will make feminists very angry, and that’s probably part of the point, and it’s a good thing.
01:13:29.995 → 01:13:32.375
So I will be publishing that.
01:13:32.375 → 01:13:38.155
You can find that on my website, and, of course, Telegram and elsewhere, there will be notifications for that.
01:13:38.155 → 01:13:46.075
So if you want to sign up for the audio only of this for whatever reason, that can be found at podcast.coreyjmoller.com.
01:13:48.075 → 01:13:49.815
You can submit your questions.
01:13:49.815 → 01:13:53.295
There is a link in the description on whichever platform you’re on right now.
01:13:53.295 → 01:13:56.555
It’s also in the show notes for each episode.
01:13:56.555 → 01:14:11.195
Preferably submit the questions on the forum, because it’s just easiest for me, and it helps to organize, and so other people can find them in the future, which is kind of the point to make these accessible in the future, not just as a transitory sort of thing.
01:14:11.195 → 01:14:14.075
I think that pretty much covers it for housekeeping, though.
01:14:14.075 → 01:14:21.855
And I hope you all have a great rest of your weekend, or all of your weekend, if it’s just starting now.
01:14:21.855 → 01:14:24.395
So thank you for your time.
01:14:24.395 → 01:14:26.155
Thank you for those who submitted the questions.
01:14:26.155 → 01:14:30.155
And even for those, if I did not get to your question, I will again in the future try to do that.
01:14:30.995 → 01:14:33.015
And again, I hope you have a good weekend.
01:14:33.015 → 01:14:34.215
God bless you all.
01:14:34.215 → 01:14:36.595
See you next week, hopefully on Thursday.