Episode Information
- Date: 2026-05(May)-22(Fri)
- Number:
e0029 -
Links
- Episode: 22 May 2026 (Q&A) | Corey J. Mahler Podcasts
- Transcript:
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Topics Covered
- What do you make of papists photos they post of the eucharist and it’s all bloody? They claim this is evidence of transubstantiation
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- Can you give guidance to any delegates that are going to the LCMS convention? I saw there is a resolution that was brought forward against you and Woe.
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- What is your most supernatural belief?
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- In various episodes you and woe touched on levitical punishments being strong suggestions, but not strictly necessary. I assume however that there is of course no good argument for not simply following them in principle. (bullets replace stones) Thoughts?
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- Follow up to that is why shouldn’t we just execute all adulterers; is the justification given by God for the execution of murderers enough to put it above the equal-in-law/on-paper punishments of adultery and sodomy? (Thoughts on total adulterer death?)
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- See letter, Q2.
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- Q
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- Q
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- Q
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- Q
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- Q
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- Q
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Transcript
WEBVTT
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I assume that you can all hear me now, because there is a weird glitch between sound source and OBS, where if I have sound source enabled, yeah, then OBS throws a fit.
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And I don’t think anyone has yet figured out what exactly the conflict there is.
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At any rate, I will simply start over.
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It is the 22nd of May, 2026.
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I am Corey J.
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Mahler, and this is At Any Cost.
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This is episode 29, a Q&A episode.
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I have just a little bit of housekeeping before I get started with the actual questions here.
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There are some outstanding orders for challenge coins.
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That’s both Stone Choir and Confident Faith.
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Most of those are ready to go.
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I should have all of those out either tomorrow morning or Monday morning, depending on how that goes.
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So if you’re waiting for your order, you’ll have a tracking number in your email.
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If you’re signed up for USPS tracking, if it’s a foreign order or something like that, then you should still get one.
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But if you don’t, let me know and I’ll send one over to you.
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At any rate, you should have those coins in hand in the next handful of days unless you ordered from Europe, then give it a week.
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The only other bit of housekeeping that I had is that next week, I think I am going to go through some of the more involved questions.
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So there’ll be fewer questions addressed, but some longer answers.
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I see some in the backlog there that I haven’t prepared yet because they’re going to be longer.
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They’re going to take up a good chunk of an episode.
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So I’ll get to some of those.
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I think that’s pretty much it for housekeeping those, so I’ll move on to the questions now.
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I see that there are already some questions coming in in the chat.
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I’ll try to copy those as we go.
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So.
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Nothing I need to address right now, but anyway, I’ll move on to the first question.
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Question one, what do you make of the papist photos that they post of the Eucharist and it’s bloody?
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They claim this is evidence of transubstantiation.
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So, I’ve seen these images going around on X in particular.
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That seems to be where they’ve been sharing them recently.
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And without actually knowing anything about what happened, because there’s never really any facts attached to it, nothing substantiated or corroborated, I have no idea what it is exactly they’re doing.
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Generally speaking, my assumption would be it’s just wine on the wafer.
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Wine looks like blood, right?
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Red wine looks like blood.
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One of the reasons that symbolically we use red wine, because Scripture doesn’t say you have to use red wine.
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Incidentally, some places in Germany use white wine.
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There are historical, theological reasons for that.
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But that’s permissible, because it’s not required by Scripture that you use red wine, or white wine, or it has to be Cabernet or something, right?
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It just says wine.
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So the reason historically and today that we use red wine is that it looks like blood.
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It reminds you of what is happening in the supper.
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And that’s a good thing.
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So I think using red wine is probably a good practice, unless you have some specific reason not to do so, which was the case with those German Lutherans at one point.
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And some of them just carried it forward.
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But the claims being advanced, I don’t have any evidence.
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I don’t have any facts.
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So if I were there and I saw something happen, then certainly I would faithfully report that.
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But I haven’t seen that.
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And like I said, they don’t provide facts to corroborate this, go alongside it.
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They’re just weird, naked claims.
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It’s kind of the same as the claims of statues crying and things like that.
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We see this stuff all the time.
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And I’m not saying there are no miracles, but you should have some corroborating evidence that the thing happened is indeed supernatural, because otherwise you wind up embarrassing yourself when it turns out the statue was crying because there was a leaky toilet above it.
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That’s literally happened before.
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I believe that was in Mexico.
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You don’t want to put yourself in that situation, right?
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If you’re going to advance that something is a miracle, make sure there’s no mundane explanation for it.
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If the priest spilled some wine on the wafers, that’s the explanation for it.
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If the wafers instead were isolated, and then the priest spoke the words of institution, and they start bleeding, that’s a totally different thing.
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I haven’t seen proof of that, so as far as I’m concerned, I think spilled wine is the most likely explanation.
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But again, I’m not saying miracles don’t happen.
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God still performs miracles today.
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Lutherans are not cessationists with regard to miracles, or with regard to sign gifts even.
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God just does it less today, because many of those things were meant in the immediate aftermath of the New Testament era to put God’s stamp of approval, as it were, to prove that these were men who were actually empowered by God to go out and speak his truth.
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And today, we don’t need the same thing.
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God’s operating in a different way with us today.
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Question two.
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Can you give guidance to any delegates who are going to the LCMS convention?
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I saw there is a resolution that was brought forward against you and Woe.
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So yes, there are actually several resolutions against us.
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One, at least one, happens to name us personally.
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So, I’ll refrain from commenting on some aspects of that.
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But, if you are going to the convention, you have to realize the men at the convention, by and large, are going to be company men, as it were.
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There will be good pastors, and there will be good pastors who brought along good elders with them.
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For those who don’t know, in the LCMS, the pastor of a congregation goes, and he takes one man with him.
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So, usually going to be an elder, right?
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Or the president of the congregation, someone in a position of authority.
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Doesn’t have to be, usually is.
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There will be a lot of good men there.
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But, at the same time, if you stand up and advocate for Stone Choir, you’ll probably be out of the LCMS, and it won’t be asked to leave, they’ll force you to leave, inside of a few weeks.
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Now, you’d think, oh, the next date.
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No, it’s bureaucracy, it takes a little while to operate.
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But they are still very much in witch hunt mode, and they will try to ruin your life.
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So I wouldn’t recommend that, because I don’t think it’s going to gain you anything or advance anything with regard to the LCMS.
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This is just not going to be a convention where anything particularly substantive is accomplished.
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I think I will refrain from commenting more on that particular subject right now.
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Maybe I’ll comment more on it after the convention is underway.
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But, the general rule is probably just fly under the radar right now.
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That’s the wise thing to do.
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Question 3.
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I guess this is sort of almost a follow-on to question 1, just incidentally.
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You previously mentioned not taking the angelic view of the Nephilim.
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What phenomena do you believe are supernatural or preternatural that others may take a naturalistic view on?
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So, insofar as supernatural views, if I ignore that last clause, as it were, that limiting clause, then obviously belief in God is probably my primary supernatural view.
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Belief in the soul, just belief in the supernatural at all, right?
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So, other than when people take a naturalistic view, I think one of the obvious ones there would be the development of the races of man, right?
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Because there is a spiritual element to that.
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It’s not purely naturalistic, it’s not purely physical.
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And so, you have the genetic component, but you also have the component of how faithful a particular race remained to God, how deeply they fell into demon worship, and that influenced the development of that race over time.
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Then obviously, cultures downstream from race, and then culture reinforces whatever those proclivities were for the given race, you have a feedback loop.
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So, many would try to take that as purely naturalistic, and I think that there’s very clearly a supernatural element to that as well.
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Insofar as other supernatural things are concerned, demons are real, they can do things in the physical world within bounds God set for them.
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I’ve mentioned before, God doesn’t tell us the bounds, so we can’t say, oh yes, a demon can do X, a demon cannot do Y, right, by and large.
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We know the general rule, a demon cannot go further than God has permitted, a demon cannot outright drag you to hell, right, demons can’t do that.
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They tempt you, try to mess with you, do things like that.
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I mean, look at the Book of Job, right?
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That was obviously a special instance, God permitted Satan to do some stuff that he does not normally do, right?
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I look out right now and Satan is not calling down fire on my livestock.
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I can’t actually see my chickens from this window, but it’s not happening, I know that.
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So, as far as supernatural versus naturalistic views, I think that probably just about covers the general range, as it were.
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If you look at the world sort of as an extrapolation from the question, if you look at the world as purely naturalistic, you’re going to miss a lot of things, and also you can’t explain the world, because materialism falls flat.
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There are many arguments that demonstrate this.
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Qualia is probably one of the best one.
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You can go ahead and look that up.
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Basically, it’s your personal experience of something, your interior experience, which is not physical.
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And so, your personal perception, experience of the color red, is your qualia of the color red, or qualia, if we want to use the singular there, which we probably should.
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That is not purely physical.
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And there are many thought experiments that have demonstrably and conclusively proven that.
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So, we know that there are things that are at least supra-natural, right?
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They are above the material outside the naturalistic, which means if you have a purely material science, or a purely material view of the universe, approach to things, your world view, there will be things you cannot explain within that.
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Not least of all, you know, things like the laws of logic upon which you are relying to build up your natural system.
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So, the supra-natural is very clearly real, and you can’t avoid it and have a coherent system.
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Question four and five are related, and then I think I’ll get to some questions from the chat, because I think, like I said, next week I’ll go over some more involved questions, so I’ll do some shorter ones this week.
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Question four.
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In various episodes, you and I touched on Levitical punishments being strong suggestions, but not strictly necessary.
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I assume, however, that there is, of course, no good argument for not simply following them in principle.
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With regard to following them in principle, I don’t think there’s any argument against that.
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So the arguments against it would be, however, practical arguments.
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They would be pragmatic arguments.
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So, for instance, if we were right now, as things stand, to institute a law handing out capital punishment, we’ll take the extreme example, right?
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Handing out capital punishment for blasphemy.
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And we took the expansive view of blasphemy that is found in the Old Testament.
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We would very significantly reduce the population of our country.
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And given the reality of the conditions of the last hundred, hundred and fifty years, maybe even a little longer, I don’t think that that’s a reasonable approach.
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Essentially, you have to give people some sort of warning, as it were, that this is going to be enacted, right?
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You have to say, we are going to punish, going forward, blasphemy with the death penalty.
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Here are the things that are blasphemous.
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Do not do these things.
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The Israelites had that, right?
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Because God gave Moses the law, Moses spoke it to them, the Levites interpreted it and gave it to them, right?
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They knew these things.
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And so, they had fair warning, as it were.
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And yes, you could make the argument, well, everyone knows that God exists and that you shouldn’t, you know, say these horrible things about God, right?
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Okay, that’s different from having an explicit statement of, we are going to punish this in this way, you are hereby warned, right?
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So, I think we have to take that approach.
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I think there is a level of pragmatism when it comes to where we fall on the scale with regard to punishments that are permissible.
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So, we shouldn’t go enacting all of the Old Testament laws with the maximum punishment right now.
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I saw someone mention there’s no audio.
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I assume that’s someone who just started listening to the stream that the audio did not cut again.
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My levels all look fine.
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Hopefully, they are.
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If not, someone in the chat, please tell me.
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So, the follow-up question, question five.
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Why should we not just execute all adulterers?
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And adulteress, as we’re using the generic term there, is the justification given by God for the execution of murderers enough to put it above the equal-in-law slash on-paper punishments of adultery and sodomy.
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One of the reasons that I sort of put this one off a little bit, and I’ve touched on this previously, is that there’s actually a difference in the way the commandments, particularly these two, are listed in the Septuagint versus the Masoretic text.
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One of the lists in the Septuagint actually lists adultery before murder, which would make adultery the 5th commandment and murder the 6th commandment in the Lutheran or traditional numbering, right?
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Not the reform numbering to which, with which most Americans are familiar.
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So, being Lutheran, I’m accustomed to the Lutheran numbering.
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And the other aspect of that is that if you actually look at the way that Christ himself lists them in Luke, he also lists adultery first.
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It’s one of those things that we’ve all read.
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We’ve read it however many times you’ve read the book of Luke, right?
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And we just go past, we’re like, oh, Christ is just giving an off…
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Christ is God, he’s not just giving an offhand list.
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And yet, he says adultery and then murder.
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This is one of those things where, yes, there’s some tension, as it were, in the text.
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We sort of have to resolve how we’re going to list them and teach them to our children, right?
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I could make an argument either way, very easily argument either way.
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I can make a compelling argument either way.
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I am not going to give a resolution to this.
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I think that it’s partly up to the translators to deal with that issue.
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And so I’m just not going to say that it should be X, right?
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I’m not going to try to bind them to that.
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On a related note, I guess, a little nugget for those who are listening to this.
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Those who are listening to the Through the Bible in a Year readings, you may have noticed that I am not always pronouncing the names consistently.
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That’s deliberate.
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And the reason that I’m doing that is that I don’t want anyone to be able in the future to point to those readings and say, well, he said it this way, and so we should…
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And so I’ve denied them the ability to do that by pronouncing the names different ways.
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I’m also implicitly pointing out the names need to be anglicized in a way that is comprehensible for English listeners, English readers, and so we’re not bound by exactly how the name is spelled in the Greek, because some of the things that the Greeks believe are pronounceable are insane to English ears.
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So that’s the reason that I’m doing that.
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Same sort of thing going on here.
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Translators need to work through this issue.
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But, to get to the specific question of adultery and the punishment of adulterers, and even if you think the commandments are one way versus another, it doesn’t mean that we can’t have capital punishment for both, right?
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Obviously, because God says it’s a capital crime in the Old Testament.
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That, for those who don’t know, the punishment in the Old Testament for adultery is death.
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It’s a capital crime.
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I do think that we should bring that back, because adultery completely destroys nations, it destroys families, it is one of the most destructive things in which a man or a woman can engage.
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Now, that comes with some caveats.
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And the caveats would be this.
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For women, adultery should be a capital crime.
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For men, there are instances where it should be, and where for sort of pragmatic reasons, it should not be.
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So, I’ll give some examples here to draw out that distinction, and then explain a little bit why there’s a difference here.
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I think many of those listening know why, but I’ll explain it nonetheless.
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So, if a man is already married, has a wife, has children, and then sleeps with another woman who is not married, that’s important for this, polygyny is morally permissible.
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And so, there is a solution here that is not capital punishment.
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You still punish the man in some way, you know, public shaming or beating, whatever it happens to be.
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There’s another one, corporal punishment, it certainly works.
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But in order not to deprive the first woman of her husband and the children of their father, and thereby inflict that sort of harm, you have the solution of him having another wife.
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So, there are cases where I think that’s the solution.
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Are there cases where he should be executed instead?
00:19:04.098 → 00:19:05.258
Certainly yes, I think so.
00:19:05.878 → 00:19:11.238
Now, if the woman, the second woman, is instead married, that’s different.
00:19:11.438 → 00:19:13.358
That should be death penalty for the man as well.
00:19:14.158 → 00:19:17.698
The reason for the difference is very simple, that it’s just biology, right?
00:19:18.578 → 00:19:24.418
A woman engaging in adultery has committed something that is never in any way permissible, right?
00:19:24.418 → 00:19:28.158
A woman is not permitted to sleep with a man, not her husband.
00:19:29.098 → 00:19:31.758
Polyandry is never permissible.
00:19:32.178 → 00:19:38.098
So you don’t have that solution, as it were, of here’s your new wife, you have a second wife, right?
00:19:38.098 → 00:19:38.738
You have to marry her.
00:19:38.738 → 00:19:44.758
Obviously, the father of the woman should have a veto and all that sort of stuff, ancillary to the immediate question.
00:19:45.558 → 00:19:50.718
But a woman engaged in adultery, so an adulteress, there’s no solution there.
00:19:50.898 → 00:19:57.738
She has committed a heinous crime for which there is no real fix in this life.
00:19:58.558 → 00:20:12.458
Now, could you potentially have some sort of minor carve out, as it were, for a lesser punishment in the law where her husband forgives her and says, I don’t want the maximum penalty?
00:20:13.378 → 00:20:15.498
Maybe, I think you could argue one way or the other with that.
00:20:15.498 → 00:20:17.158
I’m not saying it’s morally impermissible.
00:20:17.158 → 00:20:22.858
I think that that’s a morally permissible caveat or carve out in the law.
00:20:23.998 → 00:20:31.098
But should it be something we do as a society is a different argument, because there’s the issue of wisdom, right?
00:20:32.078 → 00:20:41.478
If you permit that, then you can create conditions in your society such that men are pushed to be the sort of man who has to forgive that, right?
00:20:41.478 → 00:20:43.778
Oh, you’re not a good man unless you do X, Y, and Z.
00:20:44.498 → 00:20:48.458
If you don’t permit the exception, you can’t run into that problem.
00:20:48.738 → 00:20:57.038
Similar to, and this should come to mind for some of you, certainly, we should have paternity testing for all children born, period.
00:20:57.278 → 00:21:07.378
And the reason you do that is that it is an incentive not to engage in adultery, because you will be caught, at least under those circumstances.
00:21:07.798 → 00:21:18.198
And what it does then is it removes the strife that demanding a paternity test could cause in a particular situation, right?
00:21:18.818 → 00:21:29.458
If you have a man who is, you know, suspicious of his wife for some reason, and she’s totally innocent, and he demands a paternity test, that’s going to do grave harm to the marriage.
00:21:29.698 → 00:21:37.678
Whereas if the state is instead saying, you must have a paternity test, you have no say in this, she’s not going to blame him.
00:21:38.098 → 00:21:40.138
You don’t cause the problem for the marriage.
00:21:40.438 → 00:21:41.578
It’s better policy.
00:21:42.038 → 00:21:44.998
So paternity testing should absolutely be mandatory.
00:21:45.058 → 00:21:51.298
It resolves a lot of problems in society, and you don’t have that potential strife between husband and wife.
00:21:52.738 → 00:22:21.558
But with regard to adultery, yes, my basic stance is that capital punishment should absolutely be on the table, but it should not automatically and always be the punishment, because there should be some, not really exceptions, but, and not even really mitigating circumstances, but mitigating in the sense of there are other considerations that come into the calculus and argue for a lesser punishment in order to reduce harm.
00:22:22.378 → 00:22:25.398
And I think harm reduction is permissible in some cases.
00:22:26.218 → 00:22:39.478
Not at all, because Genesis 9, 6, God doesn’t give us the option, those who commit murder, and obviously that’s kind of thinking of murder one sort of thing there, but those who commit murder, capital punishment, period.
00:22:40.198 → 00:22:43.798
God doesn’t give us the means, so we have freedom with regard to that.
00:22:43.878 → 00:22:51.218
There’s leeway there, but the punishment itself has to be capital punishment, because again, Genesis 9, 6 is abundantly clear.
00:22:51.618 → 00:22:55.318
And I’ve said it enough times on this podcast and elsewhere that I’m sure you all know it by now.
00:22:55.318 → 00:22:57.138
It’s one of those ones we should all have memorized.
00:22:59.958 → 00:23:03.658
Question 6 is actually from the letter I mentioned last week.
00:23:03.958 → 00:23:08.178
I’m just going to read it off the letter because I didn’t type it up yet, and it was actually a physically mailed letter.
00:23:09.078 → 00:23:18.818
I am not going to answer all the questions from it, because some of them, as it turns out, I was reading it before I went live, and some of them are a little more involved.
00:23:19.198 → 00:23:31.018
There’s a question about Mein Kampf and some history and nexus with theology and philosophy, so it’s a little complicated, but hopefully I’ll get to that one next week.
00:23:31.238 → 00:23:37.078
Maybe I’ll go through Mein Kampf at some point and assess that project for the future.
00:23:37.398 → 00:23:42.918
Anyway, the question I’m going to answer is the second question from this letter, and it’s very nice and short.
00:23:42.918 → 00:23:50.518
How can you explain Genesis chapter 30 verses 37 through 39, which gives a very strange story on reproduction?
00:23:50.738 → 00:23:57.958
So for those of you who are familiar with how atheists and others try to argue, this is one they love, right?
00:23:58.258 → 00:24:08.958
This comes up all the time, so I will just pull that up in Logos here, assuming Logos will cooperate, and actually read through it since…
00:24:11.318 → 00:24:12.418
Always better to do that.
00:24:14.478 → 00:24:15.178
Logos.
00:24:16.978 → 00:24:19.318
Okay, so here we have Genesis…
00:24:21.198 → 00:24:22.698
Can we stop doing that?
00:24:24.058 → 00:24:27.898
The numbering is actually the same in this case, for the Septuagint, conveniently.
00:24:27.898 → 00:24:30.198
So, for those of you playing along at home.
00:24:31.818 → 00:24:37.378
And Jacob took for himself a green rod of styrax and walnut and one of a plain tree.
00:24:37.818 → 00:24:41.258
And Jacob stripped white stripes in them, tearing away the green.
00:24:41.678 → 00:24:44.898
And the white that he had stripped appeared variegated on the rods.
00:24:45.258 → 00:25:01.358
And he set the rods that he had stripped in the channels of the watering troughs of water, in order that, when the ship would come to drink in front of the rods, as they came for drinking, the sheep would come in to heat at the rods, and the sheep would produce pure white, and variegated and ash-colored spotted young.
00:25:01.898 → 00:25:04.198
And so on and so forth, you get the idea here.
00:25:05.218 → 00:25:15.618
This is, of course, when Laban is trying to cheat him out of his payment for working for Laban by being what Laban is, was.
00:25:16.918 → 00:25:19.058
Probably, you know, depends there.
00:25:19.058 → 00:25:24.278
At any rate, this is obviously not how natural reproduction works, right?
00:25:25.178 → 00:25:37.618
The color of the offspring of a given creature are not dependent on what they were looking at when the offspring was being created or being born, whatever it happens to be, right?
00:25:37.818 → 00:25:42.078
Your children don’t change color based on the paint in your bedroom.
00:25:42.078 → 00:25:43.558
That’s not how genetics works.
00:25:43.558 → 00:25:44.298
We all know that.
00:25:44.918 → 00:25:46.058
It’s a miracle, right?
00:25:47.038 → 00:25:50.698
This is God punishing Laban and rewarding Jacob.
00:25:51.358 → 00:25:52.358
That’s all this is.
00:25:52.658 → 00:26:01.678
So when people try to look at this and say, oh, that’s not how it happens, it’s the same ridiculous argument as when people find a miracle in scripture and say, well, that’s a miracle.
00:26:01.798 → 00:26:05.538
Of course, it’s impossible according to naturalistic explanations.
00:26:05.978 → 00:26:07.598
That’s the whole point of a miracle.
00:26:09.498 → 00:26:20.918
If there were no suspension or violation of the laws of, you know, physics or biology, genetics, whatever it happens to be, then it’s not a miracle, it’s just unlikely.
00:26:22.098 → 00:26:25.258
This is a miracle, that’s what’s being told here.
00:26:25.958 → 00:26:30.178
This is not the Bible giving you a biology lesson, right?
00:26:30.178 → 00:26:35.318
There are parts of scripture that are a simple recounting of facts, a recounting of history, whatever it happens to be.
00:26:35.638 → 00:26:43.798
And there are other parts where God is telling you, you know, you must do this, you must not do that, there are moral law, there’s all sorts of different stuff in scripture.
00:26:43.798 → 00:26:44.978
You have to know what you’re reading.
00:26:45.638 → 00:26:47.598
This is what Jacob did.
00:26:48.258 → 00:26:51.578
We don’t know if God told him specifically to do this, right?
00:26:51.578 → 00:26:53.598
We don’t have that here in this text.
00:26:54.218 → 00:26:59.498
But we can assume God probably told him to do this.
00:27:00.058 → 00:27:06.698
If God didn’t tell him to do it, then God simply took Jacob’s ignorance and blessed him nonetheless.
00:27:07.118 → 00:27:07.938
God can do that.
00:27:07.938 → 00:27:09.058
He does it all the time, right?
00:27:09.058 → 00:27:10.458
We’re ignorant of many things.
00:27:10.698 → 00:27:13.038
He still blesses us despite our ignorance.
00:27:13.398 → 00:27:16.938
Despite the fact that we do things that don’t really match up.
00:27:17.458 → 00:27:21.818
So again, just an instance of a miracle, not something that’s difficult to explain.
00:27:22.218 → 00:27:24.698
Just something that atheists try to use as a gotcha.
00:27:25.118 → 00:27:26.058
It’s the same…
00:27:26.158 → 00:27:29.998
It would be the exact same as if someone tried to say, water doesn’t turn into wine.
00:27:30.238 → 00:27:31.878
That’s the entire point.
00:27:32.458 → 00:27:34.238
The entire point is that he’s God.
00:27:34.238 → 00:27:35.418
He’s performed a miracle.
00:27:35.738 → 00:27:43.238
It’s not that if you do something with water, other than, you know, using grapes and yeast, wine results.
00:27:43.458 → 00:27:44.378
It’s a miracle.
00:27:44.378 → 00:27:45.098
So is this.
00:27:47.138 → 00:27:50.638
Let me pull out some questions here from the chat.
00:27:50.638 → 00:27:51.938
Make sure I didn’t miss anything.
00:28:12.100 → 00:28:21.100
Someone asked a question right at the beginning, and all I have is one out of two, as he numbered them, I don’t have the actual question.
00:28:21.100 → 00:28:27.160
So if you would like to post your actual question, I can get to it, otherwise, I’m not entirely certain what you were asking.
00:28:27.540 → 00:28:35.840
But the first one that I see that’s actually a question I can answer, is could someone believe and accept Jesus, but be such an awful teacher?
00:28:36.460 → 00:28:45.120
The example given here is a modern megachurch, or other insane denomination, that this teacher will indeed be damned to hell.
00:28:45.600 → 00:28:54.060
So, can you be such a bad teacher that despite professing Christ, you will be damned?
00:28:55.820 → 00:28:57.780
The answer is there depends.
00:28:57.780 → 00:29:03.060
And the reason it depends is because you have an assumption here in the question.
00:29:03.660 → 00:29:06.640
So it depends on which way you take that assumption.
00:29:07.080 → 00:29:11.740
Is the assumption that he believes in Jesus the real Jesus?
00:29:12.240 → 00:29:18.400
Or is the assumption that he believes in someone he has constructed and named Jesus, right?
00:29:19.800 → 00:29:25.540
Because you can say that you believe in something and then deny absolutely every single tenet of it.
00:29:25.540 → 00:29:27.040
Are you a believer in the thing?
00:29:27.440 → 00:29:28.700
No, of course not.
00:29:29.300 → 00:29:30.400
This is…
00:29:31.140 → 00:29:32.920
We’re right back to No True Scotsman, right?
00:29:33.140 → 00:29:34.620
No True Scotsman comes up all the time.
00:29:34.620 → 00:29:35.960
This is another atheist one.
00:29:36.080 → 00:29:44.720
They’ll try to say that, you know, Christians aren’t Christian because of X, Y, and Z, or something like that, or Christians are like this because I found this one person who did something I didn’t like.
00:29:46.400 → 00:29:56.220
The point of No True Scotsman is that an innate characteristic remains an innate characteristic regardless of other things.
00:29:57.120 → 00:30:03.740
So, you can’t say that a man, right, No True Scotsman would hate Scotch.
00:30:05.020 → 00:30:06.260
That’s an insane argument.
00:30:06.880 → 00:30:08.480
You can say it in jest, right?
00:30:08.480 → 00:30:10.240
We understand there’s a difference there.
00:30:10.560 → 00:30:18.040
But whether or not a man is Scottish, whether he’s a Scotsman, is a matter of his blood.
00:30:18.820 → 00:30:26.240
It was incidentally just at a Scottish festival this last weekend, but, and they did indeed have Scotch, and Scotch is indeed great.
00:30:26.240 → 00:30:31.540
But whether or not he’s Scottish is not a matter of these incidental things.
00:30:31.560 → 00:30:33.420
It’s something innate to him.
00:30:34.000 → 00:30:36.120
I’m male innately.
00:30:36.140 → 00:30:42.740
It’s not a matter of whether I like, you know, steak, Scotch, motorcycles, whatever argument you want to make for whatever group.
00:30:43.780 → 00:30:54.920
An innate characteristic doesn’t change because you assign some arbitrary thing, more or less arbitrary, and then find someone who does not adhere to that.
00:30:55.480 → 00:30:58.940
Now, that’s different from something that is not innate.
00:30:59.280 → 00:31:02.960
For instance, in ideology, religion is a great example.
00:31:03.580 → 00:31:04.560
What is a religion?
00:31:05.520 → 00:31:10.320
It is sort of at a fundamental level, a set of tenets, a set of beliefs.
00:31:10.320 → 00:31:24.520
And so, if the religion claims A, B, and C, and the point of the religion, and the core of the religion is A, B, and C, and if you deny any one of those, you’re not a member of the religion, that’s not no true Scotsman.
00:31:24.900 → 00:31:34.320
Because this is an ideology that is a set of beliefs, and you cannot deny the set of beliefs, and say you believe the very set of beliefs you are denying.
00:31:34.920 → 00:31:37.400
Because again, it’s not innate.
00:31:37.440 → 00:31:42.120
You elect this in the generic sense, you’re not dealing with election, obviously.
00:31:42.480 → 00:31:51.460
And so, you can have someone who claims to be a member of this thing, but is not because of these beliefs.
00:31:51.700 → 00:31:55.680
So you can exclude yourself from a group based on beliefs.
00:31:56.060 → 00:32:01.140
You can’t make yourself cease to be male if you were born male based on beliefs.
00:32:01.520 → 00:32:02.640
That’s not how it works.
00:32:03.540 → 00:32:06.980
You know, you can’t say, my favorite color is pink, well, you’re no longer a boy, you’re a girl.
00:32:06.980 → 00:32:08.200
That’s not how it works.
00:32:09.100 → 00:32:10.880
But it does work that way with religion.
00:32:11.500 → 00:32:26.380
And so, if this hypothetical teacher has someone, has an idol, he has named Jesus, who denies all the things that Jesus taught, and teaches all these false things, well, he doesn’t believe in Jesus.
00:32:26.800 → 00:32:28.060
He believes in an idol.
00:32:28.420 → 00:32:29.380
He is damned.
00:32:30.500 → 00:32:46.240
The other potentiality here, the other potential here would be that you have a man who ultimately does believe in Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus who is God, but has false beliefs.
00:32:46.820 → 00:32:48.580
And that’s true of most men.
00:32:49.380 → 00:32:54.380
Most men have some false beliefs, even if they are Christian, even if they believe in Jesus.
00:32:55.060 → 00:32:56.160
This comes up all the time.
00:32:56.160 → 00:32:57.200
Lutherans have a term for it.
00:32:57.200 → 00:33:19.760
It is felicitous inconsistency, which is to say, despite the false teachings of maybe the church of which you are a part, or even the things you yourself profess, ultimately, in your heart, at the end of the day, you rely on Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you believe that he died for you, you believe in the resurrection, ultimately you’re a Christian, despite these things.
00:33:19.880 → 00:33:25.460
So, felicitously, inconsistent in your beliefs, between what you believe internally and what you profess.
00:33:25.900 → 00:33:29.220
If he’s that man, then he’s saved despite being a bad teacher.
00:33:29.620 → 00:33:33.100
He’s going to have a very awkward conversation with God at the final judgment, right?
00:33:33.100 → 00:33:37.920
Because teachers get the stricter judgment, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s damned.
00:33:39.060 → 00:33:47.640
It may just mean that you don’t receive the sort of rewards that you would have received if you had been a faithful teacher and more faithful in your beliefs.
00:33:47.640 → 00:33:49.560
Because, remember, there are two judgments, right?
00:33:49.940 → 00:34:00.060
There’s the judgment of saved or damned, as it were, and then there’s the judgment according to works, which is for your rewards, crowns, things like that.
00:34:01.080 → 00:34:03.100
I’m not saying there’s, like, different days or something.
00:34:03.100 → 00:34:04.420
God doesn’t have a backlog.
00:34:05.160 → 00:34:11.000
But whether or not you are saved is a matter of whether or not you have faith in Christ.
00:34:11.220 → 00:34:14.640
The rewards you receive are a different thing because those are according to works.
00:34:15.180 → 00:34:20.140
The man who teaches falsely has fewer works, has wicked works that will be burned up, right?
00:34:20.900 → 00:34:25.740
The man who teaches rightly has more good works, just as a general thing, all else being held equal.
00:34:26.460 → 00:34:28.680
So it depends on what the assumption is there, right?
00:34:28.940 → 00:34:41.340
It depends on whether this is a man who has an idol named Jesus, or has a Jesus but some false beliefs that he’s accumulated from the world, and ultimately doesn’t rely on those for his salvation, ultimately still has faith.
00:34:41.700 → 00:34:43.580
That man is saved, the former is damned.
00:34:51.421 → 00:34:54.701
Yes, to the person who said in chat, gremlins got me, the gremlins did get me in.
00:34:54.701 → 00:34:57.281
This time, the gremlins are called OBS and Sound Source.
00:34:58.621 → 00:34:59.201
Let’s see.
00:35:09.703 → 00:35:15.043
A question about infant baptism, which is obviously one that comes up frequently.
00:35:18.023 → 00:35:28.083
The question is, if, I’ll just rephrase it a little bit, if children of Christian parents are saved pre-baptism, doesn’t that contradict the idea that we must be born again?
00:35:28.723 → 00:35:33.603
Secondly, does that not contradict the necessity for infant baptism?
00:35:35.963 → 00:35:48.523
The way that this works, and the way that Lutherans have always addressed this, and Roman Catholics as well, this is not exclusively Lutherans, obviously, Presbyterians, others baptize their infants as well, because Scripture tells you to do so.
00:35:50.843 → 00:35:53.103
You can have faith before you’re baptized.
00:35:53.943 → 00:35:55.403
An infant can have faith.
00:35:55.403 → 00:35:58.343
John the Baptist leapt in the womb, in utero.
00:35:59.423 → 00:36:03.623
He knew his Savior was nearby, was physically proximate.
00:36:04.123 → 00:36:07.403
So, we don’t know exactly how that works.
00:36:08.123 → 00:36:09.643
You can hear things in utero.
00:36:09.643 → 00:36:10.583
We know that.
00:36:11.003 → 00:36:13.043
And there are those who will try to say, oh, that’s impossible.
00:36:13.043 → 00:36:14.483
You can’t make out distinct words.
00:36:14.483 → 00:36:15.263
You can’t do x.
00:36:15.903 → 00:36:23.023
What does Scripture say about you before you are given the free gift of faith, before you are made alive again in Christ?
00:36:23.203 → 00:36:25.623
It says you’re dead in your sins and trespasses.
00:36:25.983 → 00:36:32.823
So if you think that you’re any better off than the infant, you need to reread your Bible and pay closer attention.
00:36:33.563 → 00:36:35.683
If anything, you’re worse off than an infant.
00:36:36.043 → 00:36:47.963
The infant doesn’t have the obstinate will of an impenitent adult with a lifetime of sin and hardened heart toward God and a seared conscience and all these other problems.
00:36:48.363 → 00:36:51.243
The infant is not going to resist the Holy Spirit.
00:36:51.583 → 00:36:54.983
An adult has a worse time than the infant.
00:36:55.923 → 00:36:59.423
Because again, the infant is not going to resist God.
00:36:59.643 → 00:37:02.643
The adult probably is going to resist God to some degree.
00:37:03.083 → 00:37:08.683
So, the child may very well have faith already before the child is baptized.
00:37:09.243 → 00:37:14.903
But the reason that we still baptize the child is, one, God told us to do so.
00:37:15.343 → 00:37:25.283
And two, if God has given us a gift, we are going to receive the gift with joy, particularly when the gift has the promise of salvation attached to it.
00:37:25.803 → 00:37:33.643
So, maybe a particular infant has faith in utero, maybe that infant is given faith in the waters of baptism.
00:37:34.223 → 00:37:39.103
You can’t determine which one, so what would it be rational to do?
00:37:39.483 → 00:37:45.503
And that’s even just, you know, ignoring that first part, which is obviously obedience to God is the major point here.
00:37:46.263 → 00:37:58.863
Just in a rational calculation, you still baptize the infant, because we know that you are given faith in the waters of baptism, at least if you don’t already have faith, or your faith is strengthened.
00:37:58.963 → 00:38:01.883
So if the infant has faith, you strengthen the infant’s faith.
00:38:01.883 → 00:38:04.603
If the infant doesn’t have faith, you give the infant faith.
00:38:04.803 → 00:38:07.843
Either way, obeying God, good thing, you still do it.
00:38:09.163 → 00:38:14.923
Scripture very clearly speaks of the child of believers as being sanctified, as being holy, right?
00:38:15.203 → 00:38:26.823
Particularly in the passage dealing with the believing spouse versus the unbelieving spouse, and the believing spouse sanctifies the children, because otherwise your children would be unholy sort of thing.
00:38:27.143 → 00:38:27.723
That whole thing.
00:38:27.723 → 00:38:29.243
Other places in Scripture as well.
00:38:29.523 → 00:38:38.483
But it doesn’t change the fact that you have to be born again, because being born again is obviously faith.
00:38:38.483 → 00:38:39.303
It’s believing.
00:38:39.683 → 00:38:45.803
Baptism is the natural means by which that is done, because you are supposed to be baptized as an infant.
00:38:46.443 → 00:38:50.643
If you are an adult convert, you generally have faith first, right?
00:38:51.423 → 00:38:52.303
That’s how it goes.
00:38:52.723 → 00:38:57.443
Because we are not running around grabbing adults and dunking them on the street.
00:38:57.663 → 00:38:59.683
That’s not how things operate.
00:38:59.683 → 00:39:00.923
That’s not what we should be doing.
00:39:01.403 → 00:39:04.383
With adults, we engage in them in a different way, because we can.
00:39:05.283 → 00:39:07.023
As an adult, I can reason with you.
00:39:07.323 → 00:39:08.683
I can give you the scriptures.
00:39:08.683 → 00:39:10.603
I can do all these different things.
00:39:10.883 → 00:39:12.403
You can’t do that with an infant.
00:39:12.683 → 00:39:21.263
The only means we have, and there are multiple means of grace, the only means we have that works for an infant, as far as we know, is baptism.
00:39:21.503 → 00:39:27.283
We still read the scriptures to our children, including infants, and we leave these things in God’s hands.
00:39:28.083 → 00:39:34.803
This is another one of those instances where we shouldn’t be trying to look for edge cases and exceptions and saying, well, what if, and then…
00:39:35.863 → 00:39:39.763
God has been super abundant with the things that he has given us.
00:39:40.463 → 00:39:42.763
Just accept all the gifts from God’s hands.
00:39:43.143 → 00:39:48.143
Don’t ask God, why did you give me multiple ways to be assured of my salvation?
00:39:48.143 → 00:39:49.543
That’s an insane question.
00:39:51.143 → 00:39:56.303
Why would you ever ask God why he gave you multiple ways to be assured you won’t spend eternity in hell?
00:39:57.363 → 00:40:01.003
If he wants to give me 87 different ways, I’d be very happy with that.
00:40:01.403 → 00:40:02.983
He gave us several means of grace.
00:40:02.983 → 00:40:04.463
I’m glad we have all of those.
00:40:05.143 → 00:40:12.363
And I’ve spoken before of the fact that you have, you know, you’re tripartite, and so your soul, your mind can grasp different things from your body.
00:40:12.363 → 00:40:13.743
Your body can grasp water.
00:40:14.363 → 00:40:19.523
Your flesh can’t really understand the words of scripture, right?
00:40:19.563 → 00:40:20.883
Your flesh understands paper.
00:40:20.883 → 00:40:22.263
It understands holding scripture.
00:40:22.263 → 00:40:25.543
I was going to grab the Septuagint, but it’s actually over here.
00:40:27.023 → 00:40:31.143
So for those who were looking at X, yes, I did go and grab my physical copy of the German Septuagint.
00:40:31.143 → 00:40:34.123
But your flesh can grasp physical things.
00:40:34.323 → 00:40:44.083
And so God has given us physical things with regard to the sacraments, the means of grace, so that the totality, the Gestalt that is man, can grasp these things.
00:40:45.143 → 00:40:45.803
Excuse me.
00:40:47.463 → 00:40:51.803
So, it’s not that you don’t have to be born again, right?
00:40:51.803 → 00:40:53.623
That’s not what’s going on here.
00:40:54.203 → 00:41:05.883
It’s that your children are holy to God, and God has given them that gift in some way that isn’t 100% spelled out in scripture.
00:41:06.203 → 00:41:12.483
What is spelled out in scripture is that faith comes by hearing, and that faith comes by baptism, right?
00:41:12.783 → 00:41:14.083
Baptism now saves you.
00:41:14.683 → 00:41:20.963
The only thing from which it can save you that’s greater than temporal death, which is why it’s compared to the flood, is eternal death by giving you faith.
00:41:20.963 → 00:41:22.903
I’ve explained this before many other places.
00:41:23.443 → 00:41:29.483
So, we don’t know all of the exact nuances of this.
00:41:29.503 → 00:41:36.083
We don’t have this long drawn out formula of if this, then that, if that, then this, and all these exceptions.
00:41:36.083 → 00:41:38.283
We don’t have the tree of decision, right?
00:41:38.963 → 00:41:40.803
All we know is what God has given us.
00:41:41.083 → 00:41:42.523
He’s given us the sacraments.
00:41:43.163 → 00:41:44.263
He’s given us the word.
00:41:44.963 → 00:41:52.483
We know that we use these things because of the means instituted by God to bestow faith on all believers, but certainly on the next generation.
00:41:52.883 → 00:41:57.023
We use them in the way God has commanded, as God intended, and we trust in God.
00:41:57.943 → 00:42:07.863
We know that, for instance, with David, when his son dies, having not been circumcised, he was still able to say, and this is David as a prophet, that he will see him again.
00:42:08.643 → 00:42:20.683
So, we have faith, that God has done this in some way, that these children are given faith in a way that is consistent with God’s plan, because of course it is, because God’s the one designing it.
00:42:20.943 → 00:42:29.283
And so, as believers, we don’t have worry about our children dying before they’re baptized, if they’re very young.
00:42:29.743 → 00:42:34.703
We don’t have to worry about that, because God has been clear in His word that He provides for that.
00:42:34.703 → 00:42:36.643
The children are holy because of the parents.
00:42:37.023 → 00:42:39.463
We have the instance of David, a specific instance.
00:42:39.463 → 00:42:46.983
Even a child in this case conceived in particularly egregious sin, David as a prophet can still say he’ll see him again.
00:42:47.183 → 00:42:56.803
So, you look at the totality of scripture, the way God has laid out, the way this process works, and you simply obey and trust in God.
00:42:57.603 → 00:43:06.243
God’s not saying that there’s some exceptional way like, oh, a little children are totally fine, because, no, you still use the means God has instituted.
00:43:06.683 → 00:43:10.663
You don’t try to find an exception and then rely on an exception.
00:43:10.983 → 00:43:12.123
That’s not the…
00:43:12.123 → 00:43:18.623
Like I’ve explained it before, the way you look at it is, if there’s a cliff, you don’t walk right on the edge.
00:43:19.083 → 00:43:20.983
Now, for those who’ve never been near cliffs, maybe.
00:43:21.403 → 00:43:25.783
I would hope it’s still obvious, but the edge of a cliff is often kind of slippery and crumbly.
00:43:26.143 → 00:43:27.183
Don’t walk right there.
00:43:27.603 → 00:43:30.203
The same thing applies with regard to the things of God.
00:43:31.063 → 00:43:40.983
Use them as God intended, be thankful for the fact that God has given us multiple instead of singular, and rely on God, because he is faithful to his word and his promises.
00:43:41.983 → 00:43:59.343
So, yes, the children or believers are holy, and we don’t have to worry about if they happen to die in that very narrow window between birth and baptism, but we still baptize them, because one, God’s command, two, God’s promises.
00:44:09.065 → 00:44:20.605
Then, I guess, a follow-up question from the same person, sort of, the question about the pericope adultery, which is to say the woman caught an adultery.
00:44:21.485 → 00:44:24.125
And, yes, that is scripture.
00:44:25.585 → 00:44:29.985
We do hold to, Lutherans do generally hold to that, pretty much all Lutherans hold to that.
00:44:30.485 → 00:44:36.445
There’s always that one weird guy somewhere in a corner, but we don’t think that that should be removed from scripture.
00:44:36.465 → 00:44:38.085
There are people who try to make that argument.
00:44:38.085 → 00:44:41.885
So, the question is, what do we take away as a lesson from that?
00:44:41.885 → 00:44:43.825
And I’ll probably go into it in greater depth in the future.
00:44:44.005 → 00:44:48.085
I’ll actually make a note for myself on that, that another list that is eternally growing.
00:44:49.545 → 00:44:54.485
But, excuse me, what do we take away from that?
00:44:54.485 → 00:45:05.185
I think what we said earlier with regard to some of these punishments not being absolutely mandatory, but more the limit that is set, right?
00:45:05.925 → 00:45:09.765
You can punish adultery with a capital punishment.
00:45:09.765 → 00:45:11.285
You can punish it with execution.
00:45:11.285 → 00:45:12.605
It can be the death penalty.
00:45:13.145 → 00:45:14.425
But it doesn’t have to be.
00:45:15.085 → 00:45:22.085
And I think probably the bigger takeaway here, that’s sort of a minor takeaway.
00:45:22.085 → 00:45:23.145
It’s there in the text.
00:45:23.365 → 00:45:33.165
It is obviously part of the argument, if you’re making the argument for civil penalties and the civil law in the Old Testament, and how we should use it as Christians, how we should view it, things like that.
00:45:33.745 → 00:45:44.285
I think the bigger takeaway, though, is that he’s condemning the wickedness of the Jews, who were bringing this woman to him, to try to entrap him and condemn him.
00:45:44.285 → 00:45:45.265
They were being hypocrites.
00:45:45.265 → 00:45:47.145
He’s condemning them for being hypocrites.
00:45:47.665 → 00:45:58.285
The same thing is true of the passage with regard to the Sadducees, and they’re nonsense hypothetical about the woman who was married to seven brothers, right?
00:45:58.445 → 00:46:00.285
And whose wife will she be in the resurrection?
00:46:01.305 → 00:46:02.945
Christ is condemning them there.
00:46:02.945 → 00:46:10.885
He’s not really so much commenting on marriage as he is condemning the hypocrisy and the stupidity of the Sadducees.
00:46:11.365 → 00:46:13.325
I think we’re dealing with the same sort of thing here.
00:46:13.325 → 00:46:20.945
He’s condemning the wickedness and the hypocrisy of the Jews more than necessarily commenting on whether or not adultery should be punished, right?
00:46:20.945 → 00:46:26.305
Because he’s very clear, in many places, neither jot nor tittle, none of the law will pass away.
00:46:27.005 → 00:46:30.985
Adultery is still one of the commandments, whether it’s the fifth or the sixth.
00:46:31.645 → 00:46:34.005
It is still eligible for the death penalty.
00:46:34.085 → 00:46:37.725
It just doesn’t always have to be a death penalty offense.
00:46:38.085 → 00:46:44.785
And those who are employing it, hypocritically, God is going to condemn them for that, right?
00:46:44.785 → 00:46:46.305
God hates hypocrisy.
00:46:46.305 → 00:46:47.685
God hates lying.
00:46:48.025 → 00:46:55.325
So you don’t want to be the person who is doing the very wicked thing that you’re condemning publicly, right?
00:46:56.345 → 00:47:06.585
You can think of many instances of that, certainly among politicians and others, but you don’t want to be the person who is saying, this adulteress should be stoned.
00:47:07.385 → 00:47:09.645
Meanwhile, you have three mistresses, right?
00:47:09.645 → 00:47:10.525
Don’t be that guy.
00:47:11.045 → 00:47:15.305
You can think of Judah, for instance, in the Old Testament, and a couple of events there.
00:47:16.065 → 00:47:27.605
So condemnation of hypocrisy, and as a sort of subsidiary point, we can draw that certainly you do not always have to punish adultery with capital punishment.
00:47:28.325 → 00:47:34.225
As I pointed out previously, in another episode, the same thing is true with regard to Joseph and Mary, right?
00:47:34.705 → 00:47:40.925
Because engagement was tantamount to marriage, and that was the case in our society as well until relatively recently.
00:47:41.525 → 00:47:51.565
So she would have been eligible for punishment as an adulteress, and yet he’s called righteous for wanting to put her away quietly instead of bringing her before the elders and having her stoned.
00:47:52.245 → 00:48:05.005
Also very clear teaching that you don’t necessarily have to apply capital punishment, because then he couldn’t be called righteous, because then he would be subverting God’s law instead of being merciful while still obeying God’s law.
00:48:06.105 → 00:48:08.745
Because those two are not necessarily at odds, right?
00:48:08.825 → 00:48:09.805
They aren’t at odds.
00:48:11.325 → 00:48:13.145
Mercy is not at odds with God’s law.
00:48:13.145 → 00:48:18.745
God’s law is not at odds with mercy, as long as you properly conceive of mercy, right?
00:48:18.745 → 00:48:22.565
Not the sort of mercy the world thinks where they’re setting murderers free to go and kill again.
00:48:22.865 → 00:48:25.025
That’s not mercy, that’s hatred of your neighbor.
00:48:35.559 → 00:48:39.799
Question about capitalism we have here, so.
00:48:42.979 → 00:48:47.699
Is capitalism really that bad, or is the idolatry of capitalism the problem?
00:48:48.079 → 00:48:54.399
And would slavery basically solve all the problems of the people that put themselves into poverty and single parent households?
00:48:55.279 → 00:49:03.079
Sort of a few related questions there, but with regard to capitalism, it’s sort of distilling a lot of information with one answer.
00:49:04.339 → 00:49:10.639
The episode that we did in Stone Quire on capitalism, capitalist idolatry, I highly recommend that one.
00:49:10.639 → 00:49:15.219
I will go ahead and put that in the show notes for this question.
00:49:16.559 → 00:49:28.639
That’s sort of the longer form answer, but the core of the answer is that there’s a difference between what most people call capitalism and what capitalism actually is.
00:49:29.799 → 00:49:37.119
Capitalism is more extensive than just the relatively free exchange of goods, right?
00:49:37.399 → 00:49:43.039
If I sell you this pen for whatever amount of money, the amount of money is not the point.
00:49:43.319 → 00:49:45.739
If I sell you this pen, that’s not capitalism.
00:49:46.019 → 00:49:49.499
If you buy some of my chickens, that’s not capitalism.
00:49:50.319 → 00:49:53.419
Just because you have a market, that’s not capitalism.
00:49:54.679 → 00:50:04.719
Ultimately, capitalism is essentially the economics of the social theory that is libertarianism.
00:50:05.059 → 00:50:13.959
Because anytime you step outside that sort of maximalist conception of capitalism, you’re no longer really dealing with capitalism.
00:50:13.959 → 00:50:19.579
Then you’re dealing with something else that has overlapping elements with capitalism.
00:50:19.579 → 00:50:24.319
So for instance, a market, exchange of goods, private ownership of property, right?
00:50:24.579 → 00:50:25.579
These things exist.
00:50:26.139 → 00:50:28.539
And those exist in systems that are not capitalist.
00:50:29.679 → 00:50:31.319
This existed in medieval times.
00:50:31.319 → 00:50:34.919
They were not capitalist just because you could own property and goods.
00:50:35.399 → 00:50:42.999
So capitalism can’t claim to have exclusive authority over those or ownership, whatever you want to call it.
00:50:42.999 → 00:50:46.159
Perhaps that’s ironic, but capitalism doesn’t have that.
00:50:46.799 → 00:50:50.199
Ultimately, what capitalism is, is that laissez-faire market economy.
00:50:50.199 → 00:50:51.839
It is the hands-off approach.
00:50:52.259 → 00:50:58.059
And some of the economic thinkers, some economists, are a little more honest about that than others.
00:50:58.859 → 00:51:07.619
So as soon as you, for instance, start regulating the economy, you are deviating from what capitalism and its so-called pure form would be.
00:51:08.039 → 00:51:14.939
Because now you have a regulatory state that has taken some level of control over the economy.
00:51:15.759 → 00:51:17.979
That’s no longer capitalism, it’s a different thing.
00:51:18.179 → 00:51:21.399
There are those who want to call it regulatory capitalism or something like that.
00:51:22.519 → 00:51:31.099
But you’ve really fundamentally violated that core of the claims of capitalism, which essentially is that the market is a god, right?
00:51:31.279 → 00:51:48.059
If you have enough rational actors, which is already a problem here, if you have enough, at least economically, rational actors in a system and enough information, that’s sometimes a caveat there, in the system, then they will make rational decisions that will ultimately be beneficial.
00:51:48.959 → 00:51:52.819
Well, one, that doesn’t actually pan out really ever.
00:51:53.419 → 00:51:56.879
And then two, you always have to regulate that.
00:51:57.139 → 00:52:05.219
And one of the reasons you have to regulate it, and I know this one makes economists, some economists, not all, obviously, makes some economists and others angry.
00:52:06.019 → 00:52:12.899
Regulation is necessary with regard to the market because the market inevitably trends and naturally trends toward monopoly.
00:52:13.359 → 00:52:32.379
And without getting into an economics crash course, as it were, or regulatory law crash course, essentially the reason that that happens, the way that it works, is partly corporations, because the corporation is sort of the ultimate outcome of capitalism, inevitable outcome.
00:52:32.839 → 00:52:37.859
And a corporation, as an economic actor, is always going to outcompete individuals, first off.
00:52:38.339 → 00:52:44.759
And then the corporation, whatever corporation it happens to be, is going to have a number in a given market, right?
00:52:45.319 → 00:52:48.739
One will develop some sort of advantage over time, doesn’t matter what it is.
00:52:49.519 → 00:52:57.219
It could be advantage with regard to a downstream supplier, upstream, whatever it has, doesn’t matter what you’re dealing with it, right?
00:52:57.219 → 00:53:06.399
Distributor, supplier, technology, you just get a good deal on something, you happen to find a good piece of land, any sort of advantage.
00:53:06.959 → 00:53:11.159
That advantage can be used to drive out competition.
00:53:12.379 → 00:53:15.979
And over time, this leads to concentration in the market.
00:53:16.279 → 00:53:24.899
And what you can then do is once you have a certain degree of power within your particular market, you can leverage that into adjacent markets.
00:53:24.899 → 00:53:32.459
This is the general way that monopolies develop, particularly once you get an integrated monopoly, which basically just means upstream and downstream, right?
00:53:32.459 → 00:53:38.819
They’ve got control over the resources they need going into the product, they’ve got control over the distribution of the product once they’ve created it.
00:53:39.719 → 00:53:41.459
They are an integrated monopoly.
00:53:41.999 → 00:53:48.839
And one of the ways you can do this is, say, you have 50% share of a market, right?
00:53:48.839 → 00:53:52.719
And let’s say there is one other competitor, let’s say you’re a duopoly, it’s 50 and 50.
00:53:53.619 → 00:54:03.879
But now you have some sort of relationship with the major, we’ll do the supply of some sort of input here.
00:54:03.879 → 00:54:06.039
I think it’s probably the easiest way to understand this.
00:54:06.599 → 00:54:19.059
You have some sort of relationship with some key supplier of some particular input that is necessary to produce the widget on which these two companies, you and your duopolistic partner, are supposedly competing.
00:54:19.339 → 00:54:20.819
There’s also the issue of corruption.
00:54:21.279 → 00:54:27.199
See the lovely admission of, I think it was the AT&T CEO who said he just didn’t compete with, it was Sprinter Verizon.
00:54:27.219 → 00:54:30.779
Well, we just don’t compete in that market, just bluntly admitted it on national TV.
00:54:31.559 → 00:54:32.659
Basically nothing happened.
00:54:33.019 → 00:54:38.159
But you have some relationship with this supplier of this necessary good.
00:54:38.319 → 00:54:47.699
And what you do is you use that relationship to monopolize the supply, or to drive out your competitor from having access to the supply.
00:54:48.159 → 00:54:52.899
Your competitor can no longer compete with you because your competitor no longer has that access to the supply.
00:54:53.359 → 00:55:04.279
You’ve now become a monopoly and you can use your monopolistic position now to leverage yourself into the, say, distribution or retail market because now you’re the only supplier.
00:55:05.359 → 00:55:08.359
This happens thousands of times a day all over the place.
00:55:08.979 → 00:55:15.519
Not all of these individuals wind up becoming successful corporations over time, but some of them do.
00:55:16.079 → 00:55:27.799
And if you wind up with ones that have enough power and enough money, they become such monopolistic players that you have additional problems like regulatory capture where they take over the entity that’s supposed to be regulating them.
00:55:27.959 → 00:55:29.299
That’s what happened with net neutrality.
00:55:29.299 → 00:55:44.359
Whatever you think about net neutrality, the way that it got repealed was the major ISPs coming together and subverting it by taking over the regulatory agency that was supposed to oversee them.
00:55:44.999 → 00:55:53.319
They took their own personnel, put them in, changed the law, gave them another job when they came back out of having their term in office.
00:55:53.699 → 00:55:54.859
Literally what happened.
00:55:55.799 → 00:56:01.619
Happens all the time in our economy, which is supposedly a regulated capitalist economy.
00:56:02.379 → 00:56:06.339
If it were unregulated, this would be orders of magnitude worse.
00:56:06.599 → 00:56:10.079
And so there’s just the practical matter that it doesn’t exist.
00:56:10.239 → 00:56:14.399
It can’t exist because the market destroys itself absent regulation.
00:56:15.019 → 00:56:18.899
So even if you want a market, you have to regulate it.
00:56:19.039 → 00:56:20.179
And I’m not saying a market’s bad.
00:56:20.179 → 00:56:20.999
Markets can be good.
00:56:20.999 → 00:56:21.679
They’re a tool.
00:56:22.299 → 00:56:26.419
This is related to, when people ask me, what’s your economic ideology?
00:56:26.419 → 00:56:27.779
I say I don’t have one.
00:56:27.939 → 00:56:31.399
And the example I like to give is that I don’t have an ideology of shovels.
00:56:33.339 → 00:56:45.219
If I’m digging a trench to bury, say, irrigation tubing, I’ve been doing that recently, updating some stuff around the property, I probably want a narrow, you know, two inch shovel, right?
00:56:45.219 → 00:56:47.259
Because I’m burying a half inch tube.
00:56:47.879 → 00:56:54.979
I don’t want to get, you know, six, eight, ten inch shovel or something crazy, and dig a giant trench in my property.
00:56:55.299 → 00:56:57.239
That’s the wrong tool for the job.
00:56:58.079 → 00:56:59.799
I look at economics the same way.
00:57:00.179 → 00:57:06.479
I’m not going to say that I have to do X, Y, or Z, because ideologically, I’m beholden to this system.
00:57:06.639 → 00:57:08.019
I’m loyal to this system.
00:57:08.019 → 00:57:09.919
That’s insane to my ears.
00:57:10.439 → 00:57:12.919
It’s a tool to be used like any other.
00:57:13.319 → 00:57:20.619
And so if the market is good in a given area, to solve a given problem, by all means use a market.
00:57:21.399 → 00:57:25.539
But where the market is not a useful tool, don’t use it.
00:57:25.939 → 00:57:29.059
So for instance, there’s such a thing as a natural monopoly.
00:57:29.059 → 00:57:31.839
I know some people hate to hear this, but it’s reality.
00:57:32.099 → 00:57:35.399
And the reason it’s reality is that we are physical beings.
00:57:35.839 → 00:57:43.839
So things that are physical are natural monopolies to a certain extent, some of them fully, some of them partially.
00:57:44.399 → 00:57:49.639
So for instance, if you are a company mining coal, right?
00:57:50.359 → 00:57:53.479
Only one company can mine from a particular mine at a time.
00:57:53.939 → 00:57:59.439
If you had multiple companies mining, you would have a sort of chaos that would look like a mini war.
00:57:59.739 → 00:58:01.659
It just not, it would not work at all.
00:58:02.479 → 00:58:04.699
Another example would be roadways.
00:58:05.079 → 00:58:06.659
Roads are a natural monopoly.
00:58:06.939 → 00:58:07.339
Why?
00:58:07.599 → 00:58:08.759
I have one driveway.
00:58:10.019 → 00:58:20.639
How many different companies, if we privatized our roadways, could build a road to my driveway without just paving the entirety of East Tennessee, right?
00:58:20.639 → 00:58:21.659
The answer is one.
00:58:22.279 → 00:58:29.379
You don’t want a bunch of different providers of that particular good because it would be destructive.
00:58:29.579 → 00:58:30.979
That’s a natural monopoly.
00:58:31.259 → 00:58:39.059
You handle the natural monopoly by regulating it, not by creating a market, because you can’t create a market because it’s a natural monopoly.
00:58:39.319 → 00:58:41.559
These are issues capitalism can’t solve.
00:58:41.559 → 00:58:53.999
Capitalism ignores that they are problems that are inherent to human life, human economic activity, and just tries to hand wave them away by saying, well, if we just created a market for it, it would solve itself.
00:58:54.639 → 00:58:57.439
You can’t, you can’t create a market for that, right?
00:58:57.639 → 00:58:59.399
Are you going to create a market for nuclear weapons?
00:58:59.399 → 00:59:02.499
Like there are certain things where monopoly is a good thing.
00:59:03.519 → 00:59:14.859
So, capitalism, yes, it is indeed that bad, because it’s taking what should be viewed as a tool and elevating it to the level of essentially a god.
00:59:14.859 → 00:59:18.779
Look at the language people use when speaking of capitalism.
00:59:18.979 → 00:59:22.879
Look at the slavish obedience and loyalty they have to capitalism.
00:59:23.459 → 00:59:31.219
They speak of capitalism with more glowing terms and more dedication than they have ever expressed toward any sort of religion in their lives.
00:59:31.839 → 00:59:33.599
And that’s including supposed Christians.
00:59:34.399 → 00:59:38.139
That is the mark of perhaps a cult, but certainly a religion.
00:59:38.859 → 00:59:45.079
And so there’s a reason we called it capitalist idolatry, because the system has become an idol for many.
00:59:45.459 → 00:59:53.379
And it should not be that, because economics, every tool in the economics tool bag is indeed a tool.
00:59:53.859 → 00:59:56.759
It’s not something to which you pledge your undying loyalty.
00:59:58.139 → 01:00:03.079
Then to answer the other part of the question there, that’s sort of the quick view, I guess, of that.
01:00:03.979 → 01:00:05.919
Absolutely, slavery is…
01:00:06.479 → 01:00:07.959
You can call it whatever you want, right?
01:00:07.959 → 01:00:11.679
There are people who are going to object to the term, they balk at, oh, slavery is…
01:00:12.739 → 01:00:16.099
The person who is working for minimum wage is a slave.
01:00:17.079 → 01:00:17.599
Period.
01:00:17.839 → 01:00:19.059
You can call them whatever you want.
01:00:19.119 → 01:00:20.299
You want to call them an employee?
01:00:20.439 → 01:00:20.939
Great.
01:00:21.419 → 01:00:30.339
Employees are treated worse than slaves, because the person who is making minimum wage at some giant corporate job, I’ll avoid naming any particular corporation, right?
01:00:31.419 → 01:00:41.219
That man has fewer guarantees, has a much, much diminished safety net, has nothing provided for him, essentially.
01:00:41.479 → 01:00:43.999
He is worse off than a slave.
01:00:44.539 → 01:00:45.679
Because what did the slaves get?
01:00:45.679 → 01:00:52.139
Well, they got food, they got shelter, they got needful education, not excessive, but needful education.
01:00:52.319 → 01:00:55.739
They were instructed in the Christian faith, when it comes to the American South, at least.
01:00:56.439 → 01:01:02.239
They had a better life than a worker, who was just an employee of a corporation.
01:01:02.559 → 01:01:09.179
And you can even see that by the fact that indentured servants were generally and often treated worse than slaves.
01:01:10.359 → 01:01:13.799
Men are going to have some concern for their property, and slaves are property.
01:01:14.219 → 01:01:21.519
So, just practically speaking, a slave is better off than an employee at that low of a level anyway.
01:01:21.959 → 01:01:29.199
And the reality of the matter is that there are certain individuals who are not going to be able to run all of their own affairs.
01:01:29.439 → 01:01:32.859
So, you really have two potential paths you can take.
01:01:33.579 → 01:01:43.919
To harken this back to the first part of the question, I guess, you can take the capitalist route, right, and say, you know, survival of the fittest, fend for yourself, if they starve, they starve, too bad.
01:01:44.759 → 01:01:46.639
That’s the hard-line capitalist route.
01:01:47.419 → 01:01:49.979
I don’t think that’s compatible with Christianity.
01:01:50.079 → 01:01:55.999
I think it’s also insane and wrong on many levels because it doesn’t value things that are still valuable, right?
01:01:55.999 → 01:01:57.259
Art is still valuable.
01:01:57.459 → 01:01:59.579
Beauty is valuable.
01:01:59.579 → 01:02:03.599
You’re not going to sign an economic value to that and a market.
01:02:03.599 → 01:02:06.539
It’s just insane to even think of trying to make that argument.
01:02:06.539 → 01:02:08.899
I know people have done it and I’ve read the work, but it’s insane.
01:02:10.839 → 01:02:15.919
So the other option, right, is to have their affairs run by someone who’s more competent.
01:02:17.179 → 01:02:25.059
Whether that means that they are, you know, a serf or a slave, whatever term you want to use, that life is better off than the alternative.
01:02:26.319 → 01:02:29.819
This goes back to the issue of egalitarianism, right?
01:02:29.819 → 01:02:30.879
This is what it runs counter to.
01:02:30.879 → 01:02:34.439
People hear this kind of stuff and their ears catch fire and they start screaming.
01:02:34.859 → 01:02:37.059
Because they think, oh no, everyone’s equal and everyone can do…
01:02:37.059 → 01:02:40.659
No, not everyone is equal, not everyone can do the same thing.
01:02:41.199 → 01:02:44.599
Men are inherently in equal because that is how God has made us.
01:02:44.599 → 01:02:47.419
Some men are taller, some men are smarter, some men are more attractive.
01:02:47.699 → 01:02:53.539
There are all sorts of abilities that have a spectrum, and each man falls somewhere within that spectrum.
01:02:53.939 → 01:03:04.959
Someone who does not have the ability to run all of these affairs for himself can still be a very productive, very good, useful member of society.
01:03:05.939 → 01:03:06.379
Right?
01:03:07.219 → 01:03:13.019
You don’t need someone who understands, you know, all these economic issues, right?
01:03:13.579 → 01:03:23.599
Politics and everything else that is supposedly demanded of a modern citizen or a modern capitalist democracy, maybe his job is just to make shoes.
01:03:24.879 → 01:03:39.519
I don’t care if the man making my shoes understands all of the theory behind how different systems of political representation inevitably lead to certain outcomes.
01:03:39.719 → 01:03:40.939
I don’t care if he knows any of that.
01:03:40.939 → 01:03:43.299
In fact, he’s probably making better shoes if he knows none of it.
01:03:45.299 → 01:03:47.819
Specialization is not a bad thing, right?
01:03:47.839 → 01:03:51.039
This is, again, not something that is exclusive to capitalism.
01:03:51.039 → 01:03:53.499
This is something that has been around forever.
01:03:53.979 → 01:03:57.639
You have had men specializing in different things as long as there have been men.
01:03:58.519 → 01:04:00.999
Think of your last name, for many of you.
01:04:01.259 → 01:04:08.399
Your last name probably traces back, in many cases, to the medieval era, and it’s probably an occupational name.
01:04:08.999 → 01:04:11.019
That’s because your ancestors specialized.
01:04:11.019 → 01:04:12.319
That’s how far back that goes.
01:04:12.319 → 01:04:13.819
Capitalism wasn’t a thing yet.
01:04:14.539 → 01:04:23.519
So, yes, we should have some kind of system where those who can’t manage their own affairs are still cared for by society.
01:04:23.799 → 01:04:25.359
I think that is our Christian duty.
01:04:25.359 → 01:04:34.359
Now, part of that is expelling foreigners who should not be here and are a burden on our system, but among our own people, those who are less capable, we should care for them.
01:04:34.699 → 01:04:42.779
We have an affirmative moral duty to do that, and telling them, good luck, and then leaving them to freeze and starve is not permissible for Christians, certainly.
01:04:48.928 → 01:04:50.708
A question about North Korea.
01:04:50.708 → 01:04:52.388
I don’t know that I’ll necessarily…
01:04:53.608 → 01:04:55.088
Well, I’ll touch on it shortly, I guess.
01:04:55.268 → 01:04:59.608
I was going to say maybe I’ll wait for next week, but I’ll touch on it real quick.
01:05:00.448 → 01:05:06.248
So, brief thoughts on North Korea and the Kim dynasty and why you said it’s more Christianizable than South Korea.
01:05:07.028 → 01:05:17.328
So, the general reason that it’s more Christianizable is that, generally speaking, Christianity has been imposed, top down.
01:05:18.008 → 01:05:27.048
That’s true of pretty much all ideologies, very few things historically, and I think I would probably even struggle to think of one example.
01:05:27.608 → 01:05:31.888
Very few things have been bottom up, truly bottom up.
01:05:32.288 → 01:05:34.568
And I know there are people who think, what about the French Revolution?
01:05:35.028 → 01:05:38.548
No, the men leading the French Revolution were all scions of noble families.
01:05:39.708 → 01:05:43.128
They were those who had money and idle time and things like that.
01:05:43.128 → 01:05:47.888
These are the men who have the time to go and sit for 25 hours a week in a coffee shop, right?
01:05:48.128 → 01:05:50.868
That’s not working class, that’s not bottom up.
01:05:50.928 → 01:05:52.068
It’s a totally different thing.
01:05:52.748 → 01:05:55.168
So these things are imposed top down.
01:05:55.488 → 01:05:59.008
That’s how most of the Christianization of Europe took place.
01:05:59.308 → 01:06:05.708
The nobles were converted, the kings were converted, and then they made it the official religion of the land, and that’s how it spread.
01:06:06.228 → 01:06:11.068
The bottom up thing did not really work anywhere.
01:06:11.068 → 01:06:11.808
It doesn’t work.
01:06:11.808 → 01:06:13.648
That’s just not how human beings function.
01:06:14.508 → 01:06:16.088
Headship is a very real thing.
01:06:16.808 → 01:06:18.368
So, you can think of the very early church, right?
01:06:18.368 → 01:06:23.148
The very early church did a little bit of the bottom up thing, but not really.
01:06:23.668 → 01:06:24.848
Read through the New Testament.
01:06:24.968 → 01:06:30.808
How many times is it mentioned that you had wealthy individuals or the prominent men in a city who were involved?
01:06:30.928 → 01:06:37.068
They went after those who had influence because those are the ones who move men, who move societies.
01:06:37.708 → 01:06:42.388
That is the reality of it because, again, headship, hierarchy, these things are all real.
01:06:42.388 → 01:06:46.488
And again, certain men have greater aptitude for certain things than others.
01:06:47.288 → 01:07:02.848
So with regard to South Korea versus North Korea, South Korea has basically adopted just full steam ahead the most pernicious form of Western democracy and capitalism.
01:07:03.288 → 01:07:06.848
It is so decentralized with regard to many things.
01:07:06.868 → 01:07:08.568
There’s still centralization of power, obviously.
01:07:08.568 → 01:07:09.888
Money is in the hands of a few.
01:07:10.428 → 01:07:11.828
That always ends up being the case.
01:07:12.648 → 01:07:18.968
But it is so decentralized with regard to a lot of these things, and individualism has taken such firm root.
01:07:19.688 → 01:07:22.688
You know, I’m my own person, and I can believe what I want, and blah, blah, blah.
01:07:23.488 → 01:07:33.728
That is much more difficult to change in any sort of way than is a society like North Korea that still has that hierarchy.
01:07:34.368 → 01:07:48.148
If someone could get to the Kim dynasty and convert that man, whichever man happens to be in control in this hypothetical year, you could convert most of North Korea to be Christian in a generation or two.
01:07:49.228 → 01:07:51.388
That would be very difficult to do with South Korea.
01:07:51.988 → 01:08:07.968
You can manipulate democratic polities with mass media, but you’re going to find it very difficult to get them to fundamentally change, and converting to Christianity is a fundamental change from either of those systems.
01:08:08.808 → 01:08:14.968
So, much more challenging somewhere like South Korea than somewhere like North Korea.
01:08:17.728 → 01:08:27.528
And just the fact that, you know, South Koreans have basically given up having children and families and all that stuff, and all the other lovely things that always seem to go along with capitalism and democracy.
01:08:27.528 → 01:08:31.888
So I think you can look at the fruits of the system as well, to harken back to that earlier question.
01:08:33.188 → 01:08:34.188
North Korea has its problems.
01:08:34.188 → 01:08:36.268
I’m not going to say the system is perfect, obviously.
01:08:36.268 → 01:08:37.468
It has many problems.
01:08:38.008 → 01:08:51.228
But I think it is better off in some ways than South Korea, and I think it could be turned into something actually good, if someone could get to the man in power and make the Christian argument in a compelling way for him.
01:08:58.670 → 01:09:03.450
Okay, the next question I noticed in the chat, I may save for another time, because it’s a question about the American Revolution.
01:09:03.450 → 01:09:04.730
Was it justified or not?
01:09:05.410 → 01:09:06.590
That is complicated.
01:09:06.890 → 01:09:10.850
But then the next part is, how do you stop people from worshipping freedom and enlightenment liberalism?
01:09:10.850 → 01:09:21.210
And that is probably outside the scope of right now, but I will add that to my list of future questions.
01:09:27.873 → 01:09:29.573
Question, what is this, 12?
01:09:29.573 → 01:09:30.313
Question 12.
01:09:30.893 → 01:09:41.333
Should we deal with sodomites as Jesus dealt with the woman that was going to be stoned, as in stop all promotion, that stuff, and take the sin no more route, rather than capital punishment?
01:09:42.113 → 01:09:45.353
Is this like, try to get me banned from YouTube Night, I guess?
01:09:48.053 → 01:09:56.833
That one is very clear in scripture, because there are two different categories of things that are called abomination in the Old Testament.
01:09:57.633 → 01:10:03.073
There are things that are abomination in the words of scripture, to you, speaking to Old Testament Israel.
01:10:04.013 → 01:10:05.593
So, shellfish, right?
01:10:05.593 → 01:10:06.413
Something like that.
01:10:06.913 → 01:10:09.873
And there are things that are abominations to God.
01:10:10.193 → 01:10:19.213
A thing that is an abomination to God is an unchanging violation of the moral law, because the moral law flows from God’s nature, and God is unchanging.
01:10:21.273 → 01:10:24.793
Sodomites are in the abomination to God category.
01:10:25.273 → 01:10:30.413
And so, that is always punishable by capital punishment.
01:10:31.253 → 01:10:34.093
And that is something that is obvious from nature.
01:10:34.093 → 01:10:38.073
God has written that into the conscience, the heart, the soul.
01:10:38.653 → 01:10:41.113
It is obvious in every possible way.
01:10:41.473 → 01:10:46.773
And so, those who are engaged in that behavior are deliberately sinning against conscience and against God.
01:10:47.293 → 01:10:48.513
So, they know.
01:10:49.273 → 01:10:55.213
There is no need for them to be additionally warned because God has built that into creation itself.
01:10:57.653 → 01:11:06.113
So, and there’s just the fact that the amount of harm caused to society, if you take any other route, is so unbelievably immense.
01:11:07.073 → 01:11:20.513
I think if people knew more about, so, healthcare costs and various epidemiology and things like that, they would probably have different and sharper views with regard to this issue, if they had any idea how truly awful it is.
01:11:22.333 → 01:11:25.413
Probably don’t read about that stuff if you have a weak stomach.
01:11:33.430 → 01:11:37.990
Don’t read about the history of San Francisco, recent history of San Francisco.
01:11:41.510 → 01:11:47.430
Let’s see, I don’t know how many more questions I will necessarily do, but I get to a few more, I think.
01:11:48.590 → 01:11:54.730
Question 13, should we view the Vikings as great or honorable ancestors?
01:11:57.130 → 01:12:06.170
So I think it’s fine to look at the Vikings as brave, certainly, as great in that sense, as being great men.
01:12:07.170 → 01:12:09.090
Honorable might be a stretch.
01:12:09.090 → 01:12:14.190
They were pretty nasty, and they typically decided to raid the weak and the vulnerable.
01:12:14.390 → 01:12:19.590
They went after monasteries, unsupervised women, right?
01:12:19.590 → 01:12:20.210
Things like that.
01:12:20.210 → 01:12:22.610
And so honorable might be a stretch.
01:12:22.970 → 01:12:26.270
Were they honorable within their own frame with regard to their own people?
01:12:26.330 → 01:12:26.930
Certainly.
01:12:26.930 → 01:12:30.070
But were they honorable with regard to their European brothers?
01:12:30.070 → 01:12:30.890
I don’t think so.
01:12:31.850 → 01:12:37.590
I think that Christianizing Scandinavia was certainly an immense improvement over their previous behavior.
01:12:39.090 → 01:12:46.230
So, you can look to them certainly as, you know, they were great men, they were strong, they cared about their own people, so they had benefits.
01:12:46.970 → 01:12:53.490
They had positives in terms of who they were, what they did, but with very real drawbacks.
01:12:53.490 → 01:13:01.750
And I think that’s sort of a generally good approach to looking at all of our histories with regard to our ancestors, because they were people, right?
01:13:01.770 → 01:13:05.730
They were real men, they had strengths and they had weaknesses.
01:13:06.190 → 01:13:10.110
We can’t just look at any particular ancestor and think, oh, this person was absolutely…
01:13:10.110 → 01:13:13.950
because there’s no person who was absolutely perfect except for Christ, right?
01:13:14.910 → 01:13:17.550
Some were better than others, certainly some were better than others.
01:13:18.130 → 01:13:25.230
And I think that strength is important because they were certainly doing what is consonant with God’s design for men, right?
01:13:25.510 → 01:13:30.830
God’s design for men is to be strong, to be protectors, to care for their own people, to provide for their own people.
01:13:31.570 → 01:13:35.270
But there are morally permissible and morally impermissible ways to do that.
01:13:36.990 → 01:13:45.990
Ransacking convents and, we’ll say, abusing all of the nuns is not a morally permissible way to provide for your family.
01:13:46.830 → 01:13:50.430
So the Vikings certainly deserve to be condemned for that.
01:13:50.950 → 01:13:53.290
And that’s, you know, that’s written on the heart of man, right?
01:13:53.290 → 01:13:59.030
This is not something that you need to have revealed to you by God and His Word to know this is morally wrong and you shouldn’t do it.
01:13:59.510 → 01:14:06.090
Which is why we can condemn what happens all over the third world today with regard to those sorts of crimes.
01:14:06.430 → 01:14:08.290
It doesn’t matter if they have the scriptures.
01:14:08.290 → 01:14:11.070
It doesn’t matter if they’ve been told God says you cannot.
01:14:11.310 → 01:14:12.850
It’s written on their heart.
01:14:13.230 → 01:14:18.810
And if their heart is so blackened and their conscience so seared, that’s still sin.
01:14:19.590 → 01:14:34.270
It’s concupiscence, it’s still sin, it’s a desire to sin, it is a violation of God’s moral law and the conscience that he gave them, even if they have so seared that conscience by their own wickedness, including generational wickedness, that they can no longer tell right from wrong.
01:14:35.130 → 01:14:45.430
You know, those who are mentally retarded, who have severe intellectual deficits, should not get off the hook when they commit murder and other heinous crimes.
01:14:45.430 → 01:14:46.590
They should still be punished.
01:14:46.610 → 01:14:48.430
That’s not a get out of jail free card.
01:14:48.830 → 01:14:57.610
So we could look to Vikings and similar groups for their positive aspects, while still recognizing that they did things that we should not do.
01:14:57.850 → 01:14:59.970
They did things that were morally impermissible.
01:15:23.325 → 01:15:32.785
I have a part two out of two of the earlier question asking about the destruction of a civilization, the Indus Valley, many years ago in this case.
01:15:33.405 → 01:15:40.985
But the question essentially is, could God have chosen to end them, to save them from being afflicted by wicked races that would come to those regions later?
01:15:40.985 → 01:15:55.965
And so I guess sort of extrapolating that out to the larger question would be, does God sometimes destroy a people, so with a natural disaster, in order to spare them a greater affliction in the future?
01:15:56.565 → 01:16:01.345
And I don’t think that we necessarily have an answer for that.
01:16:01.805 → 01:16:09.445
I don’t think that God gives us an answer in scripture, and I could certainly mount a moral argument one way or the other, right?
01:16:09.445 → 01:16:13.345
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
01:16:14.305 → 01:16:17.605
And God is certainly the author of life.
01:16:17.605 → 01:16:19.225
He holds your life in his hands.
01:16:19.845 → 01:16:25.785
And if you want to think of that in sort of the fates holding the threads, God’s the one holding those threads.
01:16:27.385 → 01:16:33.245
He’s permitted to end your life whenever he chooses to do so, or to prolong it as long as he wants.
01:16:33.805 → 01:16:37.305
And as all are sinners, all are subject to death.
01:16:37.305 → 01:16:41.885
And so you can’t say God’s in the wrong for ending a particular life at a particular time.
01:16:42.625 → 01:16:45.245
So could he do that, morally speaking, right?
01:16:45.245 → 01:16:49.185
Could he do that to spare some greater wickedness in the future?
01:16:49.365 → 01:16:50.925
Yes, absolutely, he could do that.
01:16:51.745 → 01:16:52.645
Does he do it?
01:16:52.945 → 01:16:53.645
I don’t know.
01:16:54.285 → 01:16:58.005
Because that would be to be God, it would be to know the future, right?
01:16:58.785 → 01:17:02.065
And you can speculate any sort of way there.
01:17:02.785 → 01:17:10.965
You know, are you spared from some truly heinous treatment in the future because you happen to have an aneurysm six hours before it happens?
01:17:10.985 → 01:17:12.425
God could certainly do that.
01:17:13.705 → 01:17:16.065
So all of the elect will certainly be saved.
01:17:16.065 → 01:17:17.825
Scripture is abundantly clear on that.
01:17:18.305 → 01:17:21.345
Could God use that as a means to ensure that?
01:17:22.405 → 01:17:22.825
Sure.
01:17:23.285 → 01:17:38.785
I think that’s probably somewhat in the same vein as God saying that the end times, the tribulation, the truly horrible parts of the end times will be cut short so that the elect will be saved for the sake of the elect.
01:17:39.645 → 01:17:41.265
I think that’s kind of in the same vein.
01:17:41.625 → 01:17:46.365
So possible, but I can’t say that God has done it or God does do it.
01:17:46.425 → 01:17:48.945
I just don’t have that knowledge.
01:17:49.005 → 01:17:50.125
God has not given me that knowledge.
01:17:50.125 → 01:17:51.865
He hasn’t revealed it in his word.
01:17:52.165 → 01:17:53.265
It would be speculation.
01:18:03.390 → 01:18:09.210
Someone asked about gender roles, I just want to let you know that I will add that to my list.
01:18:09.330 → 01:18:15.670
I don’t know that I’ll get to it right now, but I will add it to my future topic list.
01:18:16.010 → 01:18:20.410
Hopefully get to it soon, since that list is indeed growing.
01:18:30.975 → 01:18:35.255
We’ll get to at least one more question here, I think.
01:18:40.195 → 01:18:46.075
I have some things I have to do tomorrow, so I’m not going to run too late, and I want to get those coins and things finished so I can mail those out.
01:18:46.915 → 01:18:55.775
So question 14, you mention a lot in your posts when we win, this is a question from X, is there any group or activity I can do to help us win?
01:18:55.915 → 01:19:02.595
And so that’s going to depend on where you are in the country, your free time, to some degree, things like that.
01:19:03.095 → 01:19:07.115
I have mentioned the Patriot Front, they’re doing good work, I believe that.
01:19:07.115 → 01:19:14.915
I attended their national convention, I’ve spoken with many of them, they’re doing good work if they’re in your area, and they probably are, that’s a good option.
01:19:15.295 → 01:19:24.735
There are other regional groups in many parts of the country, so you just have to look at which guys are doing good things in your area and partly exercise your judgment, right?
01:19:25.455 → 01:19:32.215
There are groups that are probably less wise to join, but there are good groups out there.
01:19:32.215 → 01:19:34.815
Is there some level of risk in all of this?
01:19:34.815 → 01:19:35.475
Of course.
01:19:35.875 → 01:19:37.695
And there’s no avoiding that.
01:19:38.115 → 01:19:41.135
Let’s just be completely frank, we’re in the middle of a war, right?
01:19:41.435 → 01:19:48.915
It doesn’t feel like it in the same way that if you’re in a trench being shot at does, but it’s no less life and death.
01:19:49.595 → 01:19:59.235
And so taking on some risk in order to advance these sort of things is going to be necessary for many, if not for all of us, right?
01:20:00.035 → 01:20:01.935
I’m taking some risk doing this, you know?
01:20:01.935 → 01:20:02.795
This is my face.
01:20:02.795 → 01:20:06.695
I’m answering questions that the world doesn’t want answered.
01:20:06.695 → 01:20:14.055
I’m saying things people, particularly people on the side of the aisle, as it were, it’s not aisle, it’s the other side of the battlefield, don’t want to hear.
01:20:14.055 → 01:20:17.715
I’m saying things that people send me death threats for saying it.
01:20:17.955 → 01:20:19.915
There’s a level of risk involved in this.
01:20:20.295 → 01:20:22.495
There’s going to be a level of risk involved in all of this.
01:20:24.575 → 01:20:25.815
So, be wise, still.
01:20:25.815 → 01:20:27.295
I’m not saying be reckless.
01:20:27.295 → 01:20:29.335
Don’t go out there and do something insane, certainly.
01:20:29.695 → 01:20:32.855
But there are groups out there that are making positive change.
01:20:32.855 → 01:20:38.995
They’re raising the level of consciousness of these issues, which is very important.
01:20:39.015 → 01:20:45.175
You need to get people to actually think about these things, recognize they’re ongoing, recognize the reality of these problems.
01:20:45.175 → 01:20:46.115
It’s very important.
01:20:46.835 → 01:20:48.035
And there are groups doing that.
01:20:48.335 → 01:20:51.875
So do we currently have an overarching group?
01:20:51.915 → 01:20:56.795
Like, you know, a main group that is the one running everything?
01:20:57.335 → 01:21:08.375
No, we don’t have a national, at risk of being repetitive, a national nationalist party, not a real formal one with any real power at this point.
01:21:08.915 → 01:21:09.955
We’re just not there yet.
01:21:10.495 → 01:21:23.375
But there are certainly constructive things that you can be doing, groups you can join, you can start forming those networks, those relationships, and depending how things go in the future, maybe they’re useful one way, maybe they’re useful another way, this sort of depends on how things play out.
01:21:24.195 → 01:21:26.335
Definitely join one of those groups.
01:21:26.335 → 01:21:30.295
It’s good, particularly as a man, just to have that brotherhood.
01:21:30.335 → 01:21:31.655
That’s something men need.
01:21:32.175 → 01:21:33.695
Men’s groups are important.
01:21:33.915 → 01:21:40.055
Men’s organizations, societies, and many of those were shuttered in the last hundred years.
01:21:41.035 → 01:21:52.995
It is not good that probably Gen X, Millennial, Z, it’s really the groups that really has been most affected, are just not joining organizations of any kind.
01:21:52.995 → 01:21:54.615
That’s not natural for human beings.
01:21:54.615 → 01:21:55.575
It’s not a good thing.
01:21:55.935 → 01:21:57.135
You need that camaraderie.
01:21:57.135 → 01:21:58.455
You need that brotherhood.
01:21:58.775 → 01:22:04.495
So find a group you can join, and be active in that group.
01:22:04.495 → 01:22:08.615
There’s also the fact that, of course, you can be active in your church, and you can be active in your local community.
01:22:08.875 → 01:22:09.895
You should know your neighbors.
01:22:09.895 → 01:22:10.835
You should know their names.
01:22:10.835 → 01:22:13.195
You should know some stuff about them.
01:22:13.635 → 01:22:14.755
Be there to help them.
01:22:15.535 → 01:22:16.555
That’s also part of this.
01:22:16.595 → 01:22:22.315
Part of being a Christian, and part of being a nationalist, is caring for your own people.
01:22:22.735 → 01:22:23.735
And that starts locally.
01:22:23.735 → 01:22:24.835
That starts with your neighbor.
01:22:24.955 → 01:22:31.835
So if your neighbor needs help putting up a chicken coop, whatever it happens to be, it’s not a mercenary example, my chicken coop’s fine.
01:22:32.015 → 01:22:34.995
But if your neighbor needs help with that stuff, by all means, be there for him.
01:22:42.405 → 01:22:49.025
I think that may be it for this week.
01:22:49.025 → 01:22:51.425
I see there’s another question about infant baptism.
01:22:51.425 → 01:23:00.225
I would refer you to the episode, this is from X, I would refer you to the episode on infant baptism, episode on baptism, of course, dealing with infant baptism.
01:23:01.125 → 01:23:07.585
And there’s also from the book of Concord, Luther has an excellent section on infant baptism.
01:23:07.585 → 01:23:09.045
I’ll link that in the show notes as well.
01:23:09.885 → 01:23:15.545
I’ll link that under the previous question that was about baptism and infants and things like that.
01:23:17.725 → 01:23:21.145
So, I very highly recommend, I recommend everyone read that, it’s very well written.
01:23:21.485 → 01:23:26.105
You will certainly get something out of reading it, even if you ultimately don’t agree with Luther.
01:23:26.545 → 01:23:33.145
Luther is at the very least enjoyable to read, which is more than can be said for certainly some theologians.
01:23:34.485 → 01:23:37.785
I know there are more questions in the chat, but I think I’m going to call it here tonight.
01:23:37.785 → 01:23:43.565
I will go through and copy those before I close this out, assuming OBS is cooperative.
01:23:44.525 → 01:23:49.205
At any rate, thank you for those who submitted questions, and for those who participated in the chat.
01:23:49.225 → 01:23:52.105
I do try to get to all the questions at some point.
01:23:52.365 → 01:23:58.885
I have an ongoing list, and a growing list as it were, for future topics or questions.
01:23:59.185 → 01:24:00.085
That’s on the forum.
01:24:00.085 → 01:24:05.145
You can find that in the information for the stream and in the show notes.
01:24:05.605 → 01:24:10.705
The show notes and the audio-only feed and all that sort of stuff is at podcast.coreyjmaller.com.
01:24:12.645 → 01:24:16.225
I realize it’s probably helpful if I give you the actual website so you can find that.
01:24:16.845 → 01:24:19.125
So if you want audio-only, that’s there.
01:24:19.565 → 01:24:22.365
It is a little higher quality audio than the stream.
01:24:22.625 → 01:24:25.705
So for those who don’t care about video, you can get a little better audio.
01:24:26.125 → 01:24:28.285
But again, thank you for submitting those questions.
01:24:28.285 → 01:24:30.785
I like getting the opportunity to do this every week.
01:24:30.785 → 01:24:39.565
I know that many of you like the opportunity to ask these questions, get some clarification on things that we went over in Stone Choir, Post On X, whatever it happens to be.
01:24:40.205 → 01:24:45.065
And I will continue doing these for the foreseeable future, so feel free to submit questions.
01:24:45.065 → 01:24:53.685
The primary method is, and the preferable method as well, is the forum, but you can submit those via Telegram or the chat.
01:24:53.685 → 01:24:55.445
I do try to aggregate those.
01:24:55.765 → 01:24:59.285
Again, if I miss your question, it won’t be in the list.
01:24:59.845 → 01:25:00.765
Get it to me again.
01:25:02.105 → 01:25:10.625
So, I think that’s it for this week, and it is Friday evening, so I hope you all have a rest of your weekend, the balance of your weekend, a good weekend.
01:25:11.045 → 01:25:14.885
Go to church on Sunday, and I will see you next week.
01:25:15.565 → 01:25:17.165
Until then, God bless.