AAC: 26 Dec 2025 (Q&A)

CoreyJMahler.com At Any Cost
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It is the 26th of December, 2025.

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I am Corey J.

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Moller, and this is the At Any Cost podcast.

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This is the eighth episode of 2025, also incidentally the eighth episode of, actually no, this is the ninth episode.

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I was just editing the show art for the eighth episode.

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This is the ninth Q&A episode.

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And I tried to select questions this time that aren’t topics that are too particularly heavy, since it is the second day of Christmas, so I figured it would be a little lighter this week.

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I will still be doing an episode next week as well, so we’ll dive back into some of the heavier questions then.

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So if you have an outstanding question, as it were, that is a heavier topic, I may not get to it this week, but it will probably be up next week.

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So with that being said, I will leave housekeeping and such for the end, so I will jump right into it.

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The first question is language learning.

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I’ve been asked this one a lot with regard to German, particularly, and this time it’s Greek.

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The question is a little different, and so the answer is a little different for a reason that will be obvious in a second here.

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My son and I have begun trying to learn Greek.

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How would you recommend we do this, and are there any resources you would suggest?

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My first suggestion is going to be just learn modern Greek, because once you know modern Greek, it’s going to be trivially easy to read various other kinds of Greek, maybe not ancient Attic Greek or something, but certainly coin of Greek, the Greek of the scriptures.

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And so the other advantage of that, of course, is if you learn the modern version of the language, you’re going to be able to access a wealth of resources, and also you’ll have access to things that are in modern Greek that you otherwise would not be able to read, which is kind of nice.

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And really, the big difference is going to be you’re not going to learn the constructed pronunciation of Erasmus or a number of other schools of pronunciation, and so your pronunciation will be different from what, say, a lot of pastors have learned, a lot of priests historically.

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That doesn’t really matter, honestly.

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It’s sort of the equivalent of, say, learning the ancient pronunciation of Latin, which is what I learned when I was in high school, versus the medieval pronunciation.

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So if you, for instance, sing any of the various hymns written in Latin, they’re almost always going to be medieval pronunciation instead of classical.

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And so there’s some differences there, but they’re not big enough to make it difficult.

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Same thing is true with Greek.

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And so, what actual resources would I recommend?

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I think I would say first, podcasts.

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Not just because I’m a podcaster, I guess, and I’m biased, it’s not that.

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Listening to the language helps a lot.

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And for most languages now, major languages anyway, there are podcasts meant to help you learn the language, so you can listen to how it is spoken, you can pick up the sounds and start to develop sort of that foundation in your mind, and how the language functions, and you start to build up a little bit of the structure of it as well, because you sort to get a bit of an ear for the grammar and things like that.

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In addition to that, children’s books, because you’re learning a new language, you should learn it the way you learned your first language.

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Of course, ideally for language learning, immersion, but you’re probably not going to pick up your life, move to Greece for five years to learn Greek.

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Most people don’t do that.

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But, second best is immersing yourself in it as much as you can.

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So, however many minutes, or if you can spare an hour a day, by all means, that will certainly benefit you.

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But make sure it’s consistent, even if it’s just 15 minutes a day.

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Dedicate that time.

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You’re making those neural pathways, you’re developing the habit.

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There’s a lot of benefit to doing it every single day.

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And so, of course, one of the ways that will be helpful in doing that is any of the various apps that are available.

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I don’t like Duolingo for a number of reasons.

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I used it for many years.

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I had like a 1200-day streak or something going, and then I just stopped using it because it finally annoyed me enough with all of their nonsense politics, to put it mildly.

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However, there are other alternatives that are better.

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For German, I recommended Babel.

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They do not have a Greek course yet, so you can’t use them.

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But there’s Primsler, which is not going to be free, but they have very good deals usually at the end of the year because people are making the resolutions to learn a new language.

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And so they run discounts.

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You can usually get a year or perhaps even lifetime for a pretty reasonable price.

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Lifetime is probably going to be $200.

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That tends to be how it goes for language learning companies, with the exception of some of the more expensive ones.

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And then there’s also Rosetta Stone, which is a good option for Greek.

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And that definitely has a lifetime deal, sometimes for as little as $80.

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Great option.

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So I would say those are probably the best recommendations.

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That’s what I have here.

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So I think that’s probably your best way to learn Greek.

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And then once you get up to the level where you can do it, read scripture.

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That’s one of my recommendations for learning any language, because you’re familiar with it in English.

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And so when you’re reading it in another language, you already have sort of that foundation to help you understand what’s happening in this language you’re trying to learn.

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Same thing if you’re trying to learn German, French, Japanese, whatever it happens to be.

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Focus perhaps on one book of the Bible, whichever one you happen to know really well, whether it’s a gospel or the Psalms or Proverbs.

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It’s probably one of those.

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Pick that book and then read it in your new language until it flows naturally for you.

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And then of course, once you’ve done that, you can start picking up more advanced books.

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Pick whatever topic you like and read about it.

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I have the entire Dune Collection in German, for instance.

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So, it’s helpful to read something you’ve read before in your natural language, your native language, in the language you’re trying to acquire.

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The next question is more directly, obviously, Greek is tangentially related to scripture, in this case, but this one is sort of more directly related, a doctrinal or dogmatic question.

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Could you speak on 2nd Maccabees 12, 43-46, and where Catholics get the idea of purgatory slash praying for the dead?

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Also, if you could touch on the difference between the Catholic slash Lutheran canons, that would be helpful.

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So, I think I’m going to leave the canon question for next time.

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There were a couple people who asked about the difference in the canons.

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I can give the short answers that Lutherans don’t have one.

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You can search the Book of Concord as many times as you’d like.

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We don’t define our canon.

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We sort of left that up in the air because Christians have been fighting over certain edge cases, which is to say the apocryphal books, for centuries.

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And we were not trying to settle that during the Reformation.

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We haven’t tried to settle it since, because it just doesn’t matter.

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You have the core books.

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We all know those are scripture.

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And then the fighting over some of the others is just going to continue.

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That’s sort of the short answer to that.

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But to get into second Maccabees here, I will pull up Logos.

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Actually, I think I may just read.

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I will pull up Logos anyway, because I think I’m going to use Logos in a second here.

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But I think I’ll just read from my physical copy, because I don’t remember which copy of the Apocrypha I happen to have in Logos.

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And I’d like to have this particular one, which if you’re interested in the Apocrypha, I definitely highly recommend this volume from CPH.

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As much as I don’t really particularly love CPH’s pricing and things like that, which is unfortunate, but it’s the reality of it.

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Their volumes are very good in terms of the quality of the scholarship for things like this.

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And so it’s the…

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I’ll put it up for the camera.

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It is the Apocrypha with Lutheran edition, they have to call it, of course, but it’s just a scholarly edition of it with helpful footnotes.

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But anyway, Maccabees, 12, okay, here we are.

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The header, which of course is not part of the text.

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I wouldn’t say part of scripture, because I don’t consider Maccabees to be part of scripture, but prayers for those killed in battle.

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Then Judas assembled his army and went to the city of Adullam.

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As the seventh day was coming on, they purified themselves according to the custom, and they kept the Sabbath there.

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On the next day, as by that time it had become necessary, Judas and his men went to take up the bodies of the fallen, and to bring them back to lie with their kinsmen in the sepulchers of their fathers.

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Then under the tunic of every one of the dead, they found sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear.

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In other words, they were praying, seeking intercession of foreign false gods in order to help them in battle.

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And it became clear to all those that this was why these men had fallen.

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So they all blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous judge, who reveals the things that are hidden, and they turned to prayer, imploring that the sin that had been committed might be wholly blotted out.

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And the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen.

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He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering.

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In doing this, he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection, for if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead.

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But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought.

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Therefore, he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.

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Now, of course, there are a number of things in that passage, some of which are actually quite useful to Christians.

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For instance, the fact that obviously, you have the anticipation of the resurrection already here in the intertestamental period.

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And so, that was not something new that Christ brought in.

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That was something that was expected already by those who actually believed in scripture.

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And so, the Pharisees obviously were more correct than the Sadducees, at least on that point.

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With regard to praying for the dead, I think there are really two questions there that are related questions, but they have different answers.

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The first one, and the one to which I’m going to object, is, can we pray for the dead that their sins be blotted out?

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Which is to say that their sins be blotted out after they have died.

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I think the answer to that is very clearly no.

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Now, of course, you have the issue of purgatory, which I will get to that.

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And so, Roman Catholics, for instance, believe they’re praying for those who are in purgatory.

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I don’t think they’re praying for those who are in hell.

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There’s obviously a difference there.

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And so, obviously, it would be worse if you were praying for those in hell.

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But scripture does very clearly say that is appointed for man but wants to die, and after that, the judgment.

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So, I think that actually forecloses purgatory as well, but certainly it forecloses praying for those who have already been judged.

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Now, the caveat that I’m going to give for that, and this answer to the second related question is, can we pray for the departed that they didn’t die in impenitent sin?

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There’s a difference there.

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I say we can’t pray, logically, according to what scripture teaches, for those who died in impenitent sin, and then pray they are forgiven after they’ve been judged, because, again, appointed for man but wants to die, and then the judgment.

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But can we pray that they died in faith, or they died in felicitous inconsistency?

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So, for instance, these men who happened to have idols or paraphernalia of idolatrous worship on themselves when they died, can you pray that they actually died in faith, that they didn’t die believing in this foolishness in which they had engaged?

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I think that’s a different thing.

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I think that is probably fine.

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It’s certainly fine in the cases of individuals where we don’t have any real reason to believe that, say, they died in impenitent sin.

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And so a good concrete example would be we have All Souls Day as one of the days in All Hollow Tide on the calendar, on the church calendar.

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I posted an article about that last year moving things around a little bit because I wanted it to be a more reasonable ordering of things, particularly for the correct doctrinal teachings on these topics.

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But I’ll leave that aside.

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I’ll put a link to it in the show notes.

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So, can we pray for our ancestors in so far as saying, we pray to God that they died having faith?

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I don’t think that that is wrongful.

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I don’t think that’s a sin.

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Should we focus on it?

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Absolutely not, because we should not be obsessed with the dead and the departed and focusing our lives on that, because that will lead us astray from Christ.

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We see that, for instance, probably one of the best examples would be the Malagasy, the people who inhabit Madagascar.

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They are so obsessed with their ancestor worship and this attention to the dead that they often have tombs that are nicer than their homes.

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That’s obviously a problem.

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You should not go down that road.

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But taking that one day out of the year on Old Souls Day to pray for the departed, I don’t think that’s wrongful.

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Because what you’re praying is, I pray that they departed in the faith.

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That’s completely fine.

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You’re not saying, dear God, please go into hell and pull this great grandfather who was an evil, terrible man out of hell.

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I don’t think you can do that.

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Because I think that violates the very clear teaching of scripture.

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And you’re asking God for sort of a special treatment, an exception to his laws and what is right and what is good.

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But praying they died in the faith, I think, is entirely fine.

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And so I think that sort of addresses both the issue there in Second Maccabees related to this.

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There’s some other things as well, but and the issue of purgatory.

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But another one that the Roman Catholics like to bring up, I guess I should have left Logos out there, because I do actually want Logos.

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Another passage they will bring up is from Second Timothy.

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Let me pull that up.

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They like to read this one, and I’ll read it first, and then comment on what it is that they try to do with this passage, and why I don’t think it necessarily follows.

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Notably, I don’t think it can’t follow, I just think it doesn’t necessarily follow, and so they can’t prop up their doctrine of purgatory on this passage.

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May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesephirus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chains.

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But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me.

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May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day.

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And you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.

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Now the argument from the Roman Catholic camp, with regard to this, insofar as purgatory is concerned, is that they try to say that this is implying Onesephirus is dead.

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He’s departed.

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I don’t think it implies that.

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Can you read it that way?

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Absolutely.

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Do you have to read it that way?

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Absolutely not.

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Because, just because it’s in the past tense, doesn’t mean that Onesephirus is himself in the past tense.

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It simply means the things being referenced that Onesephirus did happened in the past.

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So, is this a prayer for the dead?

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Not necessarily.

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So, and also, it’s worth noting, this is a man who did depart in the faith, if he died.

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But I don’t think this props up their doctrine of purgatory, because you don’t have to conclude that he’s dead, and that he’s being prayed for here.

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So, it just doesn’t follow.

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This is one of their other big passages they try to use for purgatory, and I just think it’s extremely weak.

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You cannot find purgatory in the text in any way that is convincing.

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And I know that somewhere, there are Roman Catholics who are currently screaming, because the other one they like to use is speaking of the purification as if by fire, right?

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And that’s talking about the judgment.

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It’s not talking about purgatory, and then you’re purified by fire in purgatory, and then you get to go to paradise, or well, if you’re being purified, you’re going to paradise, you’re not going to hell.

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But that also just doesn’t follow, because if you read that passage itself, it clearly speaks of after the judgment, you go to paradise, or you go to hell, you go to eternal bliss, or eternal torment.

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There’s no in-between state, there’s no wording there whatsoever, implying that there is a purgatory, somewhere where you are purged of these things.

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Yes, you’re renewed when you’re resurrected, but you’re not renewed in purgatory.

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The doctrine of purgatory, to sort of give the broader picture, is really built up and propped up by Rome because it has historically helped them to sell indulgences and things like that.

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It has been linked to monasticism because obviously you have them believing they have this treasury of merit that they can then sell to others.

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And so it props up the whole Roman system with regard to indulgences and increasing your merit and then storing it up and giving it to others, well, selling it to others.

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Or the Pope giving you a plenary dispensation for whatever it happens to be, saying this particular prayer on this particular day, this particular year, that still happens today.

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So I’m not giving some example that’s historical and uncharitable.

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That still happens to this day.

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That’s really why you have the doctrine of purgatory, the dogma of purgatory in Rome.

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It’s to prop up other things and to facilitate other doctrines to which they adhere.

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It’s just not in scripture.

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You can find a couple of passages that if you interpret them in a certain way, they would be consonant with the idea of a purgatory, but they don’t teach purgatory, and that interpretation is not necessary.

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And so you can’t just read passages of scripture and conclude this one particular interpretation teaches this doctrine basically created out of whole cloth.

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You need to find other places in scripture.

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Scripture is entirely consistent throughout.

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And when we have places where it speaks of the judgment, it says things like, it’s appointed for man but wants to die, and then comes the judgment, and then Christ speaking in Matthew 26 or 27, I think it might be 25, let me pull that up.

00:19:53.234 → 00:19:56.954
I may as well read the passage because otherwise, I’m going to have people who are mad at me.

00:19:58.694 → 00:20:01.194
Yes, it’s the end of 25.

00:20:03.494 → 00:20:12.494
Then you will answer them saying, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

00:20:13.694 → 00:20:16.054
So, there are only two options there.

00:20:16.054 → 00:20:22.014
There’s no third option of purgatory where you go into the purgatory for a little while, and then you go into paradise.

00:20:22.014 → 00:20:23.274
It’s not there.

00:20:23.274 → 00:20:33.174
And it’s nowhere in scripture, nowhere where Christ is speaking about the end times and the judgment, does he give this sort of third option of a particularly nasty waiting room.

00:20:33.174 → 00:20:44.414
So, I know that Roman Catholics don’t like that answer, but it really is just a dogma that they have built up that is not actually based in scripture.

00:20:50.162 → 00:20:51.742
Can answer a quick question here.

00:20:51.742 → 00:20:53.702
I saw someone ask me, how many languages do I speak?

00:20:53.702 → 00:20:55.622
It’s really just English and German that I speak.

00:20:55.622 → 00:20:59.822
I happen to know some Latin and Greek, but I don’t speak either one of those.

00:20:59.822 → 00:21:06.242
I can fluently read Latin aloud, but it doesn’t mean that I can process it that quickly and understand it.

00:21:06.242 → 00:21:08.242
My Latin is not that good.

00:21:11.582 → 00:21:14.222
The next question here, let me pull that up.

00:21:20.020 → 00:21:23.020
Should we pray that our faith not fail?

00:21:25.420 → 00:21:36.920
Says, I’ve heard you condemn the prayer, O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet, which of course, yes, I’m going to condemn that one because you’re not supposed to pray the prayer of, you know, I’d like to be chased, but not quite yet, Lord, right?

00:21:36.920 → 00:21:39.960
That’s praying that God will permit you to continue in sin.

00:21:39.960 → 00:21:42.500
That’s praying for something that’s wicked.

00:21:42.500 → 00:21:46.380
Should we pray that our faith may not fail, but when restored, we strengthen our brothers?

00:21:47.160 → 00:21:51.760
So, there’s nothing wrong with praying that your faith won’t fail.

00:21:51.760 → 00:21:58.520
And in fact, you should be praying for God to strengthen your faith, to give you a stronger faith, a more powerful faith.

00:21:58.520 → 00:22:06.100
Let me open up the small catechism here.

00:22:06.100 → 00:22:13.880
I want to open up the small catechism, because we actually already do pray for this all the time, because we pray for this in the Lord’s Prayer.

00:22:13.880 → 00:22:18.740
There are a couple different petitions where you could say that we pray for this.

00:22:18.740 → 00:22:26.760
But I think one of the strongest ones, of course, is going to be the sixth petition, and lead us not into temptation.

00:22:26.760 → 00:22:27.640
What does this mean?

00:22:27.640 → 00:22:28.660
Answer.

00:22:28.660 → 00:22:40.780
God indeed tempts no one, but we pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us, so that the devil of the world in our flesh may not deceive us, nor seduce us into misbelief, despair, and other great shame and vice.

00:22:40.780 → 00:22:45.640
And though we be assailed by them, that still we may finally overcome and gain the victory.

00:22:45.640 → 00:22:49.620
And so, of course, when we pray that, we’re praying for a strong faith.

00:22:49.620 → 00:22:53.100
We’re praying for God to preserve our faith to the end, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

00:22:53.100 → 00:22:56.720
That is, obviously, it’s a prayer directly from God.

00:22:56.720 → 00:23:01.360
So, praying that our faith will not fail is not a problem.

00:23:01.360 → 00:23:01.840
It’s a good thing.

00:23:01.840 → 00:23:02.480
You should do that.

00:23:02.480 → 00:23:04.500
You absolutely should do that.

00:23:04.500 → 00:23:07.580
And you do, if you’re praying the Lord’s Prayer.

00:23:07.580 → 00:23:10.820
And then, strengthening your brothers, of course, is part of just being a Christian.

00:23:10.900 → 00:23:12.640
That’s what you do.

00:23:12.640 → 00:23:14.320
It’s iron sharpening iron.

00:23:14.320 → 00:23:19.680
When you discuss the faith, when you spend time in the word together, things like that, you’re strengthening each other.

00:23:19.680 → 00:23:22.000
And that, of course, is also a good thing.

00:23:25.320 → 00:23:30.360
See a sort of follow up question here in the chat that I’ll just address because I haven’t noticed it.

00:23:31.520 → 00:23:36.960
Is there a purgatory in quotes in this case, in the sense of a holding area per se before judgment?

00:23:36.960 → 00:23:43.580
In Revelation, it mentions the saints asking how long until Christ returns, and they’re told to wait a bit longer.

00:23:43.580 → 00:23:56.720
I think in the case of Revelation, you’re dealing with mostly figurative language, you’re dealing with a lot of symbolism, you’re dealing with a lot of things that are not literal, because, of course, Christ is not a literal lamb with seven horns and seven eyes.

00:23:56.720 → 00:23:59.380
So you can tell that’s not literal, at least.

00:23:59.380 → 00:24:13.220
But when it comes to what happens between death and the judgment, I don’t get the sense when I read the passages dealing with that, that there’s any real elapse of time between the two.

00:24:13.220 → 00:24:19.780
And I think the best answer to it is that there isn’t an elapse of time, because time is tied to this universe.

00:24:19.780 → 00:24:26.760
Now, I’m not saying there won’t be time in the renewed creation, but time is a physical property, essentially.

00:24:26.760 → 00:24:34.840
And so I don’t really want to get into physics and space-time, but time is something that exists as part of the universe.

00:24:34.840 → 00:24:36.920
It does not exist outside the universe.

00:24:37.580 → 00:24:44.060
And so the judgment and the renewal and all these things, those are outside of time.

00:24:44.060 → 00:24:53.000
And so the chronology breaks down if we try to say that what happens between your death and the judgment.

00:24:53.000 → 00:24:54.840
I don’t think there’s a between.

00:24:54.840 → 00:24:58.960
I think you die and you wake up at the judgment seat.

00:24:58.960 → 00:25:02.300
And so, yes, your perception, you’re immediately at the judgment.

00:25:02.300 → 00:25:03.940
I think that is how that works.

00:25:03.940 → 00:25:12.840
And so there’s no need for a waiting room, as it were, because when Adam died, he appeared at the judgment, and when you die, you appear at the same time as Adam.

00:25:12.840 → 00:25:21.840
Because time is not an issue here, because we’re dealing with time in the universe and then something that is outside of it, an entirely different thing.

00:25:24.520 → 00:25:30.400
The next question is about Judaism and how it is a corruption of Christianity.

00:25:31.420 → 00:25:40.900
What are ways by which we can tell that Judaism came from Christianity and is a corruption of it so as to refute the in quotes, Judeo-Christian heresy?

00:25:40.900 → 00:25:44.900
Heresy not in quotes, notably, because that is correct, it is a heresy.

00:25:44.900 → 00:25:49.840
And there are a lot of answers to this one.

00:25:49.840 → 00:25:52.360
There are a lot of different proofs you can bring up.

00:25:52.360 → 00:25:59.980
I think there are three that are probably key and are probably the most likely to get you any sort of traction.

00:25:59.980 → 00:26:12.580
And I think I’ll start with the one that is going to be sort of the hard sell, because it’s difficult for some men to wrap their mind around it because of what they have been taught.

00:26:12.580 → 00:26:43.120
And even if you explain it thoroughly and in a way that is entirely Christian, incontrovertible, unassailable, many men will still reject it because it goes against so many of their presuppositions that they have been taught with which they have been propagandized for probably in some cases decades, particularly if you’re dealing with baby boomers, which, as I’ve said before, if you’re dealing with your parents, baby boomers, maybe some of you grandparents at this point, just don’t.

00:26:43.120 → 00:26:56.660
You’re going to cause yourself nothing but trouble and annoyance and make things more difficult and it’s going to make it hard for you, at least in the sense of a challenge to fulfill the fourth commandment, thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother.

00:26:56.660 → 00:26:57.980
So probably in that case, don’t do it.

00:26:58.080 → 00:27:08.260
But in other cases where you’re trying to do this, by all means, the first of the three then would be pointing out that Adam was, in fact, the first Christian.

00:27:09.280 → 00:27:17.940
And there are two ways that you need to approach this if you are going to advance this argument for someone in order to get him to understand it.

00:27:17.940 → 00:27:22.320
First, you have to point out, what is a Christian?

00:27:22.320 → 00:27:25.680
Seems trivial, but a lot of men have no idea.

00:27:27.020 → 00:27:28.900
How do you define a Christian?

00:27:28.900 → 00:27:33.220
A Christian is someone who has faith in the Gospel.

00:27:33.220 → 00:27:34.880
What is the Gospel?

00:27:34.880 → 00:27:46.980
The Gospel is that there will be or has been a Christ who died for you to wash away your sins, and that if you believe in him, you will be forgiven and have eternal life.

00:27:46.980 → 00:27:53.120
That’s the short version formulated for this particular argument.

00:27:53.120 → 00:27:57.860
That time element, sort of tying into the last question, I guess, but that time element is key.

00:27:57.860 → 00:28:06.480
Because if you died before Christ came, well, now you believe in the Messiah who is to come, who will come in the future.

00:28:06.480 → 00:28:19.340
If, like those of us here, you were born after the Christ was born, lived his life, was crucified and resurrected, well, you believe in the Christ who has come.

00:28:19.340 → 00:28:21.520
And yes, it’s typically better to say Christ than Messiah.

00:28:21.520 → 00:28:29.160
Sometimes I still use Messiah, but it’s one of those words we’re going to retain just because, various reasons, we’ve taken it, it’s fine, it’s ours now.

00:28:29.160 → 00:28:30.640
It’s part of our language.

00:28:30.640 → 00:28:33.300
And we have a wonderful piece of music using it.

00:28:33.300 → 00:28:47.880
That tangent aside, though, when you’re dealing with the Gospel, once you’ve established what it means to be a Christian, you point out, well, where is the Gospel first spoken in Scripture?

00:28:47.880 → 00:28:55.760
It’s first spoken by God in Genesis 3.15, the Proto-Evangelion, because that is the Gospel.

00:28:55.760 → 00:29:01.760
When Adam believed in that Gospel, and keep in mind, Adam smarter than any of us, Adam got it immediately.

00:29:01.760 → 00:29:02.820
He knew what was going on.

00:29:02.820 → 00:29:05.920
He knew what God was saying and the implications of it.

00:29:05.920 → 00:29:16.080
And so Adam believed in the Gospel, spoken to him by God face to face, incidentally, spoken to him by Christ, perhaps ironically.

00:29:16.080 → 00:29:20.040
And so he was a Christian because he believed, because he had faith.

00:29:20.540 → 00:29:24.080
The same as Abraham was a Christian because he had faith.

00:29:24.080 → 00:29:29.300
And so you’re going to get those who will push back against this, and they’ll try to say, well, no, they were Jews.

00:29:29.300 → 00:29:37.600
And no, first off, Adam can’t be a Jew because chronologically, Judah, from whom we get Jew, came long after Adam.

00:29:37.600 → 00:29:53.560
And so if you can get them to recognize that the Old Testament figures who believed in the Messiah who was to come were Christians, great, you’ve made a great point, and you’re well on your way to convincing this person of something important.

00:29:53.560 → 00:30:13.520
But you are also going to have to point out, sort of the second point here, there is a difference between modern Judaism, which is, I’ll get into that in a second, there is a difference between modern Judaism and the Old Testament ceremonial temple religion.

00:30:13.520 → 00:30:19.940
The Old Testament ceremonial temple religion instituted by God, did not justify.

00:30:19.940 → 00:30:26.040
Very clearly, we know that, because we have passages, the blood of bulls and goats cannot wash away sins.

00:30:26.040 → 00:30:28.900
Scripture is very clear about that fact.

00:30:28.900 → 00:30:35.180
And so hopefully, you are not going to reach any sort of contention, point of contention there, any pushback.

00:30:35.180 → 00:30:44.380
But that was to prefigure the things that Christ would do, the sacrifice of Christ, the institution of the Lord’s Supper, the washing away of sins and baptism, things like that.

00:30:44.440 → 00:30:50.220
These are all prefigured in the Old Testament, because God really likes symbolism and typology.

00:30:50.220 → 00:30:54.780
And so you have types and antitypes all over the place in Scripture.

00:30:54.780 → 00:30:58.300
The ceremonial law is not Judaism.

00:30:58.300 → 00:31:11.520
Judaism is not the ceremonial law, because what Judaism is, is a Jewish response to the destruction of the temple and the exile, particularly the Babylonian exile.

00:31:12.100 → 00:31:17.080
Because what can they not do when the temple is gone?

00:31:17.080 → 00:31:18.860
Well, they can’t sacrifice.

00:31:18.860 → 00:31:24.660
For Christians, that’s not a problem, because we recognize Christ was the sacrifice once for all.

00:31:24.660 → 00:31:26.860
The ceremonial law is done.

00:31:26.860 → 00:31:27.960
It served its purpose.

00:31:27.960 → 00:31:28.960
It’s dead and gone.

00:31:28.960 → 00:31:30.800
God got rid of it.

00:31:30.800 → 00:31:32.240
That doesn’t mean it was bad.

00:31:32.240 → 00:31:33.160
Doesn’t mean it was wrong.

00:31:33.160 → 00:31:35.340
It means it was fulfilled.

00:31:35.340 → 00:31:37.320
This is another thing that’s sort of tangentially related.

00:31:37.320 → 00:31:43.860
You get people that don’t recognize that once God’s fulfilled a promise, he’s done what he said he would do.

00:31:43.860 → 00:31:52.500
Obviously, you can see why that’s tangentially related, but the ceremonial law having been closed out and the temple having been destroyed, the Jews can no longer do that.

00:31:52.500 → 00:31:53.980
So what did they do in response?

00:31:53.980 → 00:32:00.500
Well, in Babylon, there’s the issue of, you know, learning black magic and things like that, and that being distilled into the Talmud.

00:32:00.500 → 00:32:05.460
But they started to form up the Talmud during the Babylonian exile.

00:32:05.460 → 00:32:11.980
It wasn’t completed and formalized, as it were, until the 500s AD., incidentally, not BC.

00:32:11.980 → 00:32:24.700
And that’s Judaism, because Judaism is based entirely on the synagogue and on rabbinic interpretation, not of the Torah, not of the Pentateuch, but of the Talmud.

00:32:24.700 → 00:32:32.200
And so one of the sayings about this, of course, is that what Torah forbids, Talmud permits.

00:32:32.200 → 00:32:35.580
This has been something the Jews have been doing for a very, very long time.

00:32:36.260 → 00:32:43.220
And so Judaism is a fundamentally different thing from the religion of the Old Testament.

00:32:43.220 → 00:32:47.620
Christianity has been the only religion that saves all along.

00:32:47.620 → 00:32:57.280
There was a ceremonial aspect with regard to the practice of certain things in Old Testament Israel for a period of time to prefigure the Christ.

00:32:57.280 → 00:32:59.080
That was it.

00:32:59.080 → 00:33:00.500
There’s a clear divide there.

00:33:00.500 → 00:33:01.640
These are not the same thing.

00:33:03.140 → 00:33:07.780
If you can get them to recognize the truth of that, you will have made a great deal of progress.

00:33:07.780 → 00:33:10.840
That’s going to be difficult in most cases, though.

00:33:10.840 → 00:33:12.100
So just recognize that.

00:33:12.100 → 00:33:14.780
But I think most of us know that at this point.

00:33:16.540 → 00:33:24.800
And I think, really, I sort of made the third point I wanted to make there, contained within the second point.

00:33:24.800 → 00:33:29.980
And that is, you really have to drive home the fact, and this one is going to be a hard sell.

00:33:31.100 → 00:33:36.520
You have to drive home the fact that Judaism is not the religion of the Old Testament.

00:33:37.720 → 00:33:40.500
Judaism is the religion of the Talmud.

00:33:41.900 → 00:33:43.980
That is the fundamental distinction.

00:33:43.980 → 00:34:01.520
And so, maybe you can get somewhere by pointing out, I was trying to see if the book is on my shelf here, there is a book by a Jewish academic pointing out all of the places in which the Talmud deals with Christ and blasphemes him.

00:34:01.520 → 00:34:04.060
And he treats it in a dry academic fashion.

00:34:04.060 → 00:34:12.640
So, sometimes you can get some purchase by having them read that book and say, here’s a Jewish academic saying, this is what the Talmud says about Jesus.

00:34:12.640 → 00:34:15.980
This is what Jews believe about Christ.

00:34:15.980 → 00:34:30.500
So, I think those three points are really probably the best approach for dealing with this issue of Judaism being a corruption of Christianity, instead of actually being the Old Testament religion, because it addresses those main points.

00:34:30.500 → 00:34:37.680
And you have to drive home that Christianity has only ever been the one true religion.

00:34:37.680 → 00:34:44.480
And scripture is abundantly clear about that, of course, because I am the way, the truth, and the life, among many other passages.

00:34:44.480 → 00:34:46.300
There’s never been another way to the Father.

00:34:46.300 → 00:34:54.720
There’s never been another way to see forgiveness of sins, to have your wickedness washed away, to be given white robes, to enter into paradise.

00:34:54.720 → 00:34:56.620
It’s always been Christ and only Christ.

00:34:56.620 → 00:35:01.620
The only question is, do you believe in the Christ who is to come, or the Christ who has come?

00:35:01.620 → 00:35:07.700
These days, of course, are relevant, because everyone you meet was born after Christ, obviously.

00:35:07.700 → 00:35:15.140
But when dealing with history, you’re going to have those who lived before Christ came.

00:35:15.140 → 00:35:20.980
And if they believed in the Christ who was to come, they were, in fact, Christians, not Jews.

00:35:21.760 → 00:35:29.380
And a great way to point that out, of course, is all of the men who came before Judah, who believed in the Christ.

00:35:29.380 → 00:35:33.600
Many of them are not in the line of Christ, are not part of Israel at all.

00:35:33.600 → 00:35:38.740
And so, they are Christians still, but they are not Jews.

00:35:38.740 → 00:35:44.120
They did not follow Judaism, they believed in the Christ, and so their religion was Christianity.

00:35:49.865 → 00:35:52.925
Sort of a related question here.

00:35:54.605 → 00:35:59.525
How can I share the word and gospel with others when I am not very social?

00:35:59.525 → 00:36:07.725
I can walk up to and talk to people with no problem, but my problem is that I’m monotone and robotic, or, in quotes, autistic.

00:36:07.725 → 00:36:13.505
However, I think that if I try to force myself to be very bubbly, it wouldn’t be genuine.

00:36:13.505 → 00:36:15.465
I’m not going to tell you to force yourself to be bubbly.

00:36:15.465 → 00:36:17.525
I’ve certainly never done that in my life.

00:36:17.805 → 00:36:21.165
So, you don’t have to be that.

00:36:21.165 → 00:36:25.985
There are different approaches to sharing the faith that are going to work with different men.

00:36:25.985 → 00:36:31.185
And they’re going to work in different times and different places, and some men are more suited to them than to others.

00:36:31.185 → 00:36:35.385
So, there are going to be those who are very good at apologetics.

00:36:35.385 → 00:36:39.005
There are going to be those who are good at different kinds of apologetics.

00:36:39.005 → 00:36:42.025
And it is going to depend on the person.

00:36:42.025 → 00:36:43.445
You have to tailor these things.

00:36:43.445 → 00:36:53.125
You’re not going to find a one-size-fits-all, as-it-were, argument, because that’s not how human beings work.

00:36:53.125 → 00:37:00.025
So, just because you’re not particularly social, or you’re monotone, or robotic, I’ve been accused of those as well.

00:37:00.025 → 00:37:02.185
So, I truly understand.

00:37:02.185 → 00:37:10.565
But that doesn’t mean that you can’t find some way to share the faith that will still be very effective with certain men.

00:37:10.565 → 00:37:21.465
If you’re going to take it in that direction, approach it in that way, you’re probably going to take it from the sort of intellectual angle, the academic angle, and that can be very effective.

00:37:21.465 → 00:37:24.925
It’s going to be very effective almost exclusively with men.

00:37:24.925 → 00:37:27.845
You’re probably not going to convince any women with those arguments.

00:37:27.845 → 00:37:30.545
That’s just the reality of the fact.

00:37:30.545 → 00:37:36.865
But that’s not a bad thing, because by and large, you probably should be arguing with other men instead of women.

00:37:36.865 → 00:37:38.865
Topic for another time.

00:37:38.865 → 00:37:48.225
But, no, I don’t think there’s a problem with being a little bit reserved or less social when it comes to these things.

00:37:48.225 → 00:37:55.705
You can absolutely be that kind of man, have that kind of disposition, and still share the faith very effectively.

00:37:55.705 → 00:37:57.605
Look at some of the apostles.

00:37:57.605 → 00:38:01.385
They were not all the most upbeat and chipper individuals, certainly.

00:38:01.385 → 00:38:04.345
Paul was a particularly cranky man from time to time.

00:38:04.345 → 00:38:09.305
And if you start looking at the Old Testament prophets, you certainly are getting even crankier territory.

00:38:09.965 → 00:38:18.445
I don’t think anyone would say that Elijah or Elisha was upbeat and bubbly, and, you know, any of those things.

00:38:18.445 → 00:38:19.405
So there’s nothing wrong with that.

00:38:19.405 → 00:38:27.165
Different men have different dispositions, and you’re going to find different things are effective in different scenarios with other men.

00:38:27.165 → 00:38:32.925
Some are going to be convinced by cold calculating reason, and maybe that’s what you’re good at.

00:38:32.925 → 00:38:33.645
By all means, use it.

00:38:38.365 → 00:38:49.765
There’s another question here that the person who asked it actually deleted it, but I’m still going to answer it just because I think it is an important question.

00:38:49.765 → 00:38:50.985
It’s come up a number of times.

00:38:50.985 → 00:38:58.165
I’ve answered it a few places, but it’s always worth repeating it just because there are those who are going to have this question.

00:38:58.165 → 00:38:59.885
So I’m going to pull up Logos again here.

00:39:01.945 → 00:39:04.725
And we’re going to go to the Book of Acts this time.

00:39:06.945 → 00:39:11.305
So here in the Book of Acts, we’re dealing with the 21st chapter.

00:39:14.245 → 00:39:14.805
Let’s see.

00:39:14.805 → 00:39:24.865
And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people, and when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying…

00:39:24.865 → 00:39:32.785
Well that sounds like it’s directly opposed to the things that we have said about Hebrew on the Stone Quar podcast and elsewhere, right?

00:39:32.785 → 00:39:33.705
It does.

00:39:33.705 → 00:39:35.405
Of course it does.

00:39:35.405 → 00:39:43.145
The problem with that is that there are two different senses of that term there, the Hebrew language.

00:39:43.145 → 00:40:03.605
The way that I pointed it out before that should resonate with Americans certainly is, if I were to say that I addressed them in the American language, we don’t really speak that way these days, but if I said that, you would all know full well I didn’t mean American, because that’s not a separate language.

00:40:03.605 → 00:40:04.505
We speak English.

00:40:04.505 → 00:40:06.285
I am speaking English now.

00:40:06.285 → 00:40:19.025
And so, if I said that I addressed you in the American language, what I really mean is that I addressed you in English, because I addressed you in the language of the Americans.

00:40:20.105 → 00:40:35.985
So, in this case, it’s here in the Greek, which I have up now, Ibraidi dialecto legon, which is, this is the article here, the definite article.

00:40:35.985 → 00:40:45.645
So, it’s dative, so it’s in the, in this case, dialect of the Hebrews, or the Hebrew dialect, and then he speaks to them, legom.

00:40:47.365 → 00:40:54.545
So, he’s speaking to them in the dialect used by the Hebrew people at this time, in this place.

00:40:54.545 → 00:40:56.245
It’s Aramaic.

00:40:56.245 → 00:40:57.485
It should be translated Aramaic.

00:40:57.485 → 00:41:00.345
It’s misleading when it says Hebrew.

00:41:00.345 → 00:41:19.025
I have, when recording these things, I’ve said Aramaic, because it’s just confusing for most people to hear Hebrew and not think the Hebrew language, as opposed to the language of the Hebrews living in 1st century Palestine, which is what is being said here.

00:41:19.025 → 00:41:23.305
No one who read the original copy of this letter would have been confused.

00:41:23.305 → 00:41:25.265
Everyone knew exactly what he meant.

00:41:25.265 → 00:41:27.885
Not least of all, because they didn’t speak Hebrew.

00:41:27.885 → 00:41:31.985
They spoke Aramaic and Greek, the language of the letter itself.

00:41:31.985 → 00:41:40.485
But when you see someone being addressed in the Hebrew language in the New Testament, it’s Aramaic, because that was their language.

00:41:41.225 → 00:41:57.685
Their personal, as it were, language as a people, even though many of them had switched to using Greek, Greek was still the language of empire, as opposed to the personal language, the specific language of the people who were Hebrew by blood living in this area at this time.

00:41:58.945 → 00:42:03.405
And so, sort of a, I guess, long-winded way of saying, it’s not Hebrew, it’s Aramaic.

00:42:08.065 → 00:42:11.645
The next question here, let me pull that one up.

00:42:13.785 → 00:42:15.665
Where did Firefox go?

00:42:15.665 → 00:42:16.905
There we are.

00:42:19.685 → 00:42:26.765
The next one is, I guess, the short version is the Mormon Frage, or otherwise known in English as the Mormon Question.

00:42:27.785 → 00:42:30.125
How do we solve the Mormon Question?

00:42:33.125 → 00:42:35.285
Obviously, there’s a very straightforward answer to this.

00:42:35.285 → 00:42:39.725
I guess I can move log-offs at this point, as I’m not using it right now.

00:42:41.485 → 00:42:44.965
Mormonism is a Christian heresy.

00:42:44.965 → 00:42:53.945
Granted, Islam started off as a Christian heresy too, and perhaps there’s a little bit of overlap there, not to be unduly uncharitable, but there’s some overlap.

00:42:55.745 → 00:43:05.725
Mormonism being a Christian heresy, and it’s not heterodoxy, it’s not anything less, it is rank-open, impenitent heresy.

00:43:05.725 → 00:43:11.585
It should be punished by a godly prince in the same way you would punish any sort of rank heresy.

00:43:11.585 → 00:43:15.245
You punish the teachers with capital punishment.

00:43:15.245 → 00:43:22.045
And generally speaking, that solves the problem, because when you strike the shepherd, the sheep flee.

00:43:22.045 → 00:43:27.805
Now, we should not view the rank-and-file Mormons as our enemies.

00:43:27.805 → 00:43:29.025
Absolutely not.

00:43:29.025 → 00:43:35.045
Because the rank-and-file Mormons are, by and large, our brothers and sisters, deeply deceived.

00:43:35.045 → 00:43:37.425
They believe horrible lies.

00:43:37.425 → 00:43:50.685
They are very difficult to evangelize, very difficult to disabuse of the propaganda for a number of reasons, somewhat related to Pentecostalism in that way, because there’s the burning and the bosom sort of thing.

00:43:50.685 → 00:44:01.325
And I don’t want to get into Mormonism too deeply right now, but we want to evangelize the rank-and-file Mormons, because we want them to come over to our side.

00:44:01.325 → 00:44:02.485
We want them to be Christian.

00:44:02.485 → 00:44:04.185
We want to care for our people.

00:44:04.185 → 00:44:06.505
You can think of the words of St.

00:44:06.505 → 00:44:16.725
Paul, when he says that he wishes that his name would be blotted out of the Book of Life, if only he could thereby save his own people, his brothers according to the blood.

00:44:16.725 → 00:44:20.365
And so, that’s the sort of care that we should have for our own people.

00:44:20.445 → 00:44:26.845
And by and large, in the US., Mormons demographically are white.

00:44:26.845 → 00:44:30.325
And so, they’re our problem.

00:44:30.325 → 00:44:31.545
They’re our brothers and sisters.

00:44:31.545 → 00:44:34.325
We need to deal with them as best we can.

00:44:34.325 → 00:44:47.845
But insofar as the high-handed, impenitent false teachers are concerned, so their prophet and various higher-up temple Mormons, people like that, absolutely, it is the duty of the Christian prince to deal with them with the sword.

00:44:47.845 → 00:44:52.825
That is the solution to it, when it comes to open heretics.

00:44:52.825 → 00:44:57.225
And there’s also obviously a lot of political and other issues like that surrounding the Mormons.

00:44:57.225 → 00:45:08.965
Particularly many of them have, I’m tempted to say infested, but perhaps I’ll say they have gone to work for the CIA, the FBI, and related organizations.

00:45:08.965 → 00:45:14.445
And so they’ve infiltrated government, but that’s sort of a tangentially related issue.

00:45:14.445 → 00:45:19.585
But yes, the short answer is they are deeply deceived, but they are our brothers.

00:45:19.585 → 00:45:30.925
We want to bring them out of Satan’s camp, back into God’s camp, but false teachers have to be struck down by the Christian prince who has been entrusted with the sword by God.

00:45:30.925 → 00:45:33.385
And so, pray that God would give us a godly government.

00:45:40.002 → 00:45:44.422
Apparently, we’re going with a little bit of a theme tonight.

00:45:44.422 → 00:45:50.302
The next question is about Elijah and Moses, the transfiguration.

00:45:50.302 → 00:45:52.382
Let me pull that one up real quick.

00:45:54.682 → 00:46:00.822
Do you think Christ was speaking with Moses and Elijah across time when the disciples saw them?

00:46:03.042 → 00:46:05.882
I think that that could be an explanation.

00:46:05.882 → 00:46:07.642
I don’t know that it’s necessary.

00:46:08.562 → 00:46:29.982
I think that time is, of course, not really particularly relevant when you’re dealing with those who have passed from this life to the next, because even if there is time in the renewed creation, right, it’s not our time, because again, time is a property of the universe in which you’re located.

00:46:29.982 → 00:46:32.622
And so time is a property of this universe.

00:46:32.622 → 00:46:36.482
If you’re in the renewed creation, if there’s time, it’s not the same time.

00:46:37.202 → 00:46:52.182
And so, is it Christ speaking to Moses when Moses is standing on the mountain back in time from his perspective here in time, say, when he received the Ten Commandments?

00:46:52.182 → 00:46:59.142
Maybe, it could be, but it would be pure speculation on my part as to say which one of those it is.

00:46:59.142 → 00:47:00.982
I don’t think there’s any reason to believe it is.

00:47:00.982 → 00:47:03.402
I don’t think there’s any reason to believe it’s not.

00:47:03.402 → 00:47:07.442
So whichever one of those you want to believe is entirely fine.

00:47:07.442 → 00:47:31.562
I am personally more inclined to think that it is simply Moses and Elijah having already been separated from this world and now dealing with the next, the renewed creation, being pulled back for a minute in order to paint this picture of the fulfillment of all things in Christ, because that’s sort of what you’re dealing with here.

00:47:31.562 → 00:47:46.142
And I’m inclined to agree with many of the Church Fathers, and Martin Luther also agreed with this, that Moses and Elijah are effectively representative of the law and the prophets, and Christ is standing there as the fulfillment of those things.

00:47:46.142 → 00:47:49.582
I think that’s probably the best way to look at the transfiguration.

00:47:54.822 → 00:48:02.002
The next question here, I have no running timer in OBS, which would certainly be something I should probably do.

00:48:02.002 → 00:48:05.242
It would be helpful, but I will at least go on to this question.

00:48:05.242 → 00:48:09.602
I don’t know how long I will necessarily go this week.

00:48:10.622 → 00:48:14.222
Wouldn’t want to keep any of you away from your families, if you still have family in town.

00:48:17.342 → 00:48:23.082
I am convinced monergism is the truth taught in scripture, but I grew up in an Armenian church.

00:48:23.082 → 00:48:29.342
It is difficult to keep that theology from creeping back in after screwing up and committing a sin I personally struggle with.

00:48:29.342 → 00:48:33.202
Can you speak to this topic for those of us with this background?

00:48:34.702 → 00:48:48.322
This is sort of an expansive question, so I will start off by highlighting the difference between monergism and synergism, and I guess I will comment very briefly on semi-Pelagianism, which is sort of between the two.

00:48:48.322 → 00:48:50.602
And it’s relevant because that’s what Rome teaches.

00:48:50.602 → 00:48:53.762
They don’t like calling it that, but it’s what they teach.

00:48:55.442 → 00:49:06.762
So there are a couple of different places where the human will and what it is capable of doing at that time in that place is relevant.

00:49:06.762 → 00:49:07.982
A couple of different places where that’s true.

00:49:09.042 → 00:49:12.982
The first is with regard to justification.

00:49:12.982 → 00:49:17.702
And for the first part of this, I’m going to speak specifically about justification.

00:49:17.702 → 00:49:22.002
So ignore everything else, put it out of your mind, this is just for justification.

00:49:23.322 → 00:49:29.062
With regard to justification, what the scriptures teach, and I’m just going to assert the truth here.

00:49:29.062 → 00:49:35.882
I’m not going to argue that, you know, the reform disagree a little bit, the Roman Catholics disagree a lot a bit.

00:49:35.882 → 00:49:39.622
I’m just going to assert what scripture teaches.

00:49:39.622 → 00:49:48.662
With regard to justification, your will can do nothing, because you are dead in your sins and your trespasses, and the dead do not act.

00:49:48.662 → 00:49:51.422
Corpses don’t act, they don’t do anything.

00:49:51.422 → 00:50:01.042
So if you are dead spiritually before you are regenerated, you cannot do anything, you cannot contribute anything toward your own salvation before you are regenerated.

00:50:02.542 → 00:50:04.522
How are you regenerated?

00:50:04.522 → 00:50:15.942
You are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, granting you the free gift of faith that is granted by the means of grace, baptism, and the word of the Lord.

00:50:15.942 → 00:50:21.022
Yes, there’s also the Lord’s Supper, but that is for strengthening your faith once you’re already a Christian.

00:50:21.022 → 00:50:24.982
And so you are regenerated at the same time you’re given faith.

00:50:24.982 → 00:50:29.362
There’s no chronological gap there, there’s not an order of operations, as it were.

00:50:29.362 → 00:50:32.562
Regeneration and faith are the same thing, essentially.

00:50:32.562 → 00:50:33.762
You can go ahead and think about it that way.

00:50:34.042 → 00:50:37.142
It’s close enough to completely true.

00:50:37.142 → 00:50:40.462
That’s monergism, that’s what Scripture teaches.

00:50:40.462 → 00:50:53.622
Synergism teaches that you cooperate with God by contributing works, effort, something, whatever it happens to be in the particular system, toward your justification.

00:50:53.622 → 00:50:56.562
The problem, of course, is Scripture doesn’t teach that.

00:50:57.102 → 00:50:58.242
You can’t do that.

00:50:58.242 → 00:51:00.802
The debt of sin against God is infinite.

00:51:00.802 → 00:51:02.862
I’ve gone into that previously.

00:51:02.862 → 00:51:10.422
And so, you cannot contribute at all, because again, you are dead in your sins and your trespasses.

00:51:10.422 → 00:51:14.442
So, synergism with regard to justification is false.

00:51:14.442 → 00:51:46.002
And then, the last of the three I want to comment on here, I don’t really need to comment on Pelagianism, which basically is just works righteousness, the rank form of Pelagianism, but semi-Pelagianism, which is what Rome teaches, is that due to what they call, that I’m going to say is not in scripture, because it’s not, what they call prevenient grace, which just means preceding grace that comes before, due to that, you are capable of making a step toward God, basically.

00:51:46.002 → 00:51:55.862
You are capable of putting in some initial effort, and then God will come alongside you and provide you the strength you need to continue down the path.

00:51:55.862 → 00:52:06.382
That’s Rome’s teaching, that’s semi-Pelagianism, because you can see, there’s works righteousness, at least at the beginning, but they at least admit that God has to help you, you can’t do it all on your own.

00:52:06.382 → 00:52:18.622
So it’s not rank Pelagianism, which was a heresy condemned universally, essentially, in the ancient church, but it is a form of Pelagianism as well, because they are still saying that you do something.

00:52:18.622 → 00:52:22.842
It is still a form of synergism, it’s just a minor form of it.

00:52:22.842 → 00:52:29.202
Now, justification having been dealt with, there’s the issue of sanctification.

00:52:29.202 → 00:52:38.402
Sanctification is the renewal in which you do participate in this life, working with the spirit.

00:52:38.402 → 00:52:40.122
That is synergistic.

00:52:40.122 → 00:52:50.102
And of course, the difference between monergism and synergism is just manas ergon, soul work, and sun ergon, working together, basically.

00:52:50.102 → 00:52:56.762
So it’s the difference between God being the soul worker and you working alongside and with God.

00:52:56.762 → 00:53:11.582
Very weakly, mind you, you’re the weak horse, certainly, but once your will, your person, once you have been renewed by the spirit, you have been regenerated, then you are actually capable of cooperating with God.

00:53:11.582 → 00:53:25.022
Weakly and in an imperfect fashion, and you will still sin, you will still fall, you’ll backslide, you’ll have all sorts of problems in this life, but you are capable of cooperating in sanctification.

00:53:25.022 → 00:53:28.762
Because you have been renewed, you’re no longer dead.

00:53:28.762 → 00:53:32.342
Because, of course, the greatest picture of that is baptism.

00:53:32.342 → 00:53:38.602
You pass into the water, into death, into the grave, you come up renewed to new life.

00:53:38.602 → 00:53:42.482
It’s regeneration, it’s the resurrection, it’s a picture of the resurrection from the dead.

00:53:43.022 → 00:53:44.862
It is the first resurrection.

00:53:44.862 → 00:53:50.242
And those who participate in the first resurrection do not taste the second death.

00:53:50.242 → 00:53:55.762
So, that’s the difference between monergism versus synergism.

00:53:55.762 → 00:54:02.142
So, monergistic, with regard to justification, God alone acts, because God alone can do it, because you are dead.

00:54:02.142 → 00:54:02.882
You can do nothing.

00:54:02.882 → 00:54:04.442
You are spiritually dead.

00:54:04.442 → 00:54:07.122
You are worse off than a stone.

00:54:07.122 → 00:54:13.602
But with regard to sanctification, you can do things, because at that point, you have been renewed.

00:54:13.602 → 00:54:14.762
Your will has been renewed.

00:54:14.762 → 00:54:20.182
You are actually able to act and do good, to cooperate with God in your sanctification.

00:54:22.262 → 00:54:27.742
And sort of to address the middle point there, it’s not a question, but just to address it.

00:54:27.742 → 00:54:34.022
When you have a besetting sin, just recognize that that’s generally how it is for most men.

00:54:34.022 → 00:54:46.882
Most men are going to have some sin that is a besetting sin, because if you found all of them easy to deal with, then you’re almost attaining perfection, which is difficult to do in this life, which is to say impossible.

00:54:46.882 → 00:54:49.022
No one attains perfection in this life.

00:54:49.022 → 00:54:54.502
And so if you have that sin, depending on what particular sin it may be, just work at it.

00:54:54.502 → 00:55:03.902
Remove whatever you can from your environment that leads you toward that temptation, that makes it more difficult to avoid that temptation, whatever it happens to be.

00:55:03.902 → 00:55:05.322
Don’t despair.

00:55:05.322 → 00:55:07.782
God knows that you’re a sinner.

00:55:07.782 → 00:55:09.102
God knows that you’re fallen.

00:55:09.242 → 00:55:20.162
God knows that you’re going to backslide, that you’re going to fall into these sins, and He is there to pick you up again, and there to come alongside you, and to get right back to the work of sanctification.

00:55:21.462 → 00:55:22.902
That’s an important thing to remember.

00:55:22.902 → 00:55:25.962
Don’t despair because you have sinned.

00:55:25.962 → 00:55:33.002
You’re a sinner because you are living in a fallen world, having inherited original sin, which is not purged from you in baptism.

00:55:33.002 → 00:55:34.642
You still have original sin.

00:55:34.642 → 00:55:36.142
It’s not counted against you.

00:55:37.022 → 00:55:40.342
It’s not removed, but it’s not counted against you.

00:55:40.342 → 00:55:44.622
And so, you are going to continue to sin because you are a sinner.

00:55:44.622 → 00:56:03.842
Yes, in time, through sanctification, you will do less of that, but the thing is, as you sort of get rid of these obvious sins in your life, the Holy Spirit is going to start pointing to other things and going, well, now maybe we should look over here, because there will always be more work to be done.

00:56:04.542 → 00:56:16.202
And so, don’t despair if you have trouble in this life with regard to sin, because you are always going to be fighting against it, you’re always going to be putting to death the sinful flesh.

00:56:16.202 → 00:56:25.302
That’s part of the Christian walk, and it does not end until death and final renewal, when you are actually restored to what God wanted you to be.

00:56:34.897 → 00:56:45.897
The next question, we’re just really kind of following a theme tonight, is about whether or not there are any sins that, by their very nature, extinguish faith.

00:56:45.897 → 00:56:49.237
Let me see if I can actually find the wording here to make sure that I…

00:56:51.977 → 00:56:56.377
That’s pretty much exactly what the wording is, so I think my wording is sufficient for this.

00:56:57.777 → 00:56:59.737
The answer to that is no.

00:56:59.737 → 00:57:05.057
Now, this is another place where you’re going to have a difference between Lutherans and…

00:57:05.057 → 00:57:17.997
Most Protestants are pretty much going to agree on this one, and Rome, because Rome’s distinction with regard to mortal versus venial sins is that mortal sins drive out the Holy Spirit and extinguish faith.

00:57:17.997 → 00:57:20.177
That is generally their formulation of that.

00:57:20.177 → 00:57:27.577
I know that there are some Roman Catholic apologists and theologians who defined it differently, but that’s the general teaching of it.

00:57:27.577 → 00:57:33.797
That’s why they are so concerned about mortal sins, because they believe it extinguishes faith.

00:57:33.797 → 00:57:40.317
A mortal sin is still a bad thing, and Lutheran theologians have used the distinction between mortal and venial sins.

00:57:40.317 → 00:57:50.297
Gerhard basically makes the distinction, a mortal sin is a sin committed against conscience, and a venial sin is a sin committed due to weakness.

00:57:50.297 → 00:57:56.777
And so, obviously, yes, the sin against conscience, the high-handed sin, is worse.

00:57:56.777 → 00:57:59.397
And so, if you want to call it mortal versus venial, fine.

00:58:00.277 → 00:58:04.677
But does it, by its very nature, extinguish faith?

00:58:04.677 → 00:58:06.957
The answer is no.

00:58:06.957 → 00:58:18.977
Now if you persist in it, if you continue to pursue it, if you continue to sin against conscience, yes, you run the risk of searing your conscience, falling away from the faith, and finally apostatizing.

00:58:18.977 → 00:58:22.977
Because apostasy is very much possible, scripture warns about it all over the place.

00:58:22.977 → 00:58:28.457
I know the reform don’t like to hear that, but scripture warns about it, God’s very clear, you can apostatize.

00:58:28.517 → 00:58:37.457
And it’s not because you were never a Christian, because if you were never a Christian, well, it wouldn’t be apostasy, because apostasy is from the faith.

00:58:37.457 → 00:58:43.997
So necessarily, you were part of the faith, you had a living faith, you had a real faith, you were a Christian, you apostatized.

00:58:43.997 → 00:58:45.717
So is that possible?

00:58:45.717 → 00:58:47.977
The answer is yes.

00:58:47.977 → 00:59:00.917
Should you become, you know, neurotic about this, so anxious about it, that you are so obsessed with the danger of committing a mortal sin that you just obsess over that day and night?

00:59:00.917 → 00:59:02.957
The answer is no.

00:59:02.957 → 00:59:05.497
Because are you going to commit sins?

00:59:05.497 → 00:59:10.897
Again, absolutely yes, sort of similar to the last question, the answer to the last question.

00:59:10.897 → 00:59:15.977
And when you do, you repent, and you try again.

00:59:15.977 → 00:59:20.037
And if you fall again, you repent, and you try again.

00:59:20.037 → 00:59:27.297
It is the repenting and the trying again that marks a Christian, because a life of repentance is the Christian life.

00:59:27.297 → 00:59:30.017
A life of perfection isn’t the Christian life.

00:59:30.017 → 00:59:38.457
The men who believe they are perfect are the Pharisees standing up and saying, thank God I am not like that man, a sinner, and a tax collector.

00:59:38.457 → 00:59:42.657
The Christian life is the tax collector repenting of being a sinner.

00:59:42.657 → 00:59:45.997
It’s go and sin no more, of course, but you’re going to fall.

00:59:45.997 → 00:59:46.977
You’re not going to be perfect.

00:59:46.977 → 00:59:52.217
You are not going to be able to resist all temptations all the time, because you are imperfect.

00:59:52.757 → 00:59:56.797
You are living in a fallen world, and it’s a point that is worth repeating.

00:59:56.797 → 00:59:58.337
You are not a sinner because you sin.

00:59:58.337 → 01:00:00.917
You sin because you are a sinner.

01:00:00.917 → 01:00:08.037
Now, there is a bit of a feedback loop there, of course, but because of the fact that you have inherited original sin, you are a sinner.

01:00:08.037 → 01:00:09.217
You have concupiscence.

01:00:09.217 → 01:00:18.857
You have this desire to sin that would not be in you if our first parents had not sinned and brought sin into the world and transmitted it to us.

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And so, you will continue to sin even as a Christian, it is not a cause for despair, it is a cause for trying harder, it is a cause for standing up and giving it another go.

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That is what matters in this life.

01:00:32.297 → 01:00:51.257
You keep trying, you keep fighting against the sinful flesh and the temptations of the devil and the temptations of the world, you use the tools that God has given you, which is obviously his word, the sacraments, other Christian men and women talking to them, spending time in God’s word, and prayer, of course, never forget prayer.

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It is something that we certainly neglect in the modern world because many men have decided it doesn’t really do anything.

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Always be in prayer.

01:00:59.257 → 01:01:04.957
At the very least, as I’ve recommended so many times, pray the Lord’s prayer when you wake up and before you go to bed.

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That’s sort of the starting position.

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Then maybe pray it before meals.

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It is a wonderful thing.

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It is the prayer that God taught us.

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It is the prayer that he wants to hear.

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It is a good prayer.

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It doesn’t mean you don’t pray other things.

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I’m not saying it’s the only prayer.

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I’m certainly not saying repeat it mindlessly 10,000 times a day.

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You know, I just said say it four or five, right?

01:01:26.857 → 01:01:30.437
But that is an important part of your walk with God.

01:01:30.437 → 01:01:34.137
That is an important part of being a Christian, living a Christian life.

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And we pray for the forgiveness of sins every time we pray that prayer.

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And we don’t pray that idly.

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We pray it because we probably sinned in between when we last prayed the prayer and when we’re praying it now.

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Even if it was a venial sin, right, a minor sin, because all sin separates from God ultimately.

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Some sins are worse than others, but all sin separates from God.

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The sin that separated mankind from God, of course, there’s other things involved.

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There’s pride and rebellion, all that, but it was eating a fruit God told us not to eat.

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All sin is infinite in its nature.

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And so if you have some besetting sin, some sin that is clearly a trouble for you, do what you need to do in order to put yourself in a position where you’re better able to resist that temptation, better able to fight against it, and do not despair if you fall into it again.

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Stand up and try.

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That’s it.

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That’s all you have to do.

01:02:32.717 → 01:02:34.477
That’s the Christian life.

01:02:34.477 → 01:02:36.777
Repent, fall, repent, fall.

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That’s how it goes.

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So despair is what you don’t want, because when you fall into that sort of pit, that is when you’re falling into where the devil wants you to be.

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The devil wants you to think, no, I’m too terrible of a sinner.

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I’m a horrible person.

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God could never forgive me again for this sin that I’ve done 487 times this year, or whatever it happens to be.

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It’s false, because Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was of infinite worth.

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And so no matter how many sins you commit, Christ already paid for them.

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Christ knew you were going to commit them when he went to the cross.

01:03:15.557 → 01:03:18.037
Christ knew he was going to pay for those.

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He knew you were going to commit them, not just when he went to the cross, before he was born, in the manger.

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He knew absolutely everything that you were going to do in your life.

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And he still died for you.

01:03:29.957 → 01:03:31.437
He still paid for your sins.

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He paid for each and every one of them, even before you committed them.

01:03:35.797 → 01:03:38.137
So there’s no reason for despair.

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You can be chagrined, of course.

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You can hate that you fell into that temptation, that sin again.

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But use that to drive you forward.

01:03:45.917 → 01:03:49.017
Use that to be angry at the devil and the fallen flesh.

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Use that to fight against those temptations and stand up and try again.

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That’s what matters.

01:04:07.238 → 01:04:09.638
I think maybe I’ll answer one more question.

01:04:09.638 → 01:04:11.938
I think I’m at just a little over an hour.

01:04:11.938 → 01:04:14.298
I have, I do actually have a timer.

01:04:14.298 → 01:04:18.778
It’s just very tiny at the bottom, and not 100% accurate.

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So, let me see if there’s a short one here.

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Looks like, unfortunately, I answered the short ones last week, and those were the easy ones that took me mere seconds to answer.

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So, I think I may call it here for this week.

01:04:45.708 → 01:04:51.608
I don’t see any short questions in the chat, which I could just answer quick.

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Let’s see.

01:04:52.028 → 01:04:55.008
How does a person simply believe in the gospel of faith?

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What could a person do to accept the gospel as true without being able to prove the details of the story?

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That’s not necessarily a simple question, but I think I can give a relatively simple answer before I close out this episode for this week.

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I answered it to some degree in the answer to the question about justification, about monergism, because faith is a gift.

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Faith is not something that you can make yourself have.

01:05:25.788 → 01:05:27.428
Faith is something that God gives you.

01:05:28.688 → 01:05:40.488
That doesn’t mean you can do nothing, because just because you are spiritually dead before you’re renewed doesn’t mean that you can do nothing, because obviously you are still biologically alive, right?

01:05:40.488 → 01:05:46.888
And so even if you are not a Christian, even if you do not have faith, you can read the scriptures.

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You can go to church.

01:05:48.248 → 01:05:50.388
You can listen to a sermon.

01:05:50.388 → 01:05:53.228
You can do those things.

01:05:53.228 → 01:05:59.668
Those things are where God has said that he is going to meet you and will give you the free gift of faith.

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And so all you have to do is do those things.

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God will fulfill his part.

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God is always going to follow through with what he has promised.

01:06:08.728 → 01:06:19.268
And so even if you can’t prove the details, every little minutia of all of the various stories in scripture, that’s not the point.

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I’ve highlighted this before, and I think this is where I’ll close out answering this question in the episode.

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There’s a difference between how you approach proving scripture to be true with an unbeliever versus a believer.

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I’ll deal with the unbeliever first.

01:06:36.628 → 01:06:47.848
With an unbeliever, you point to all of the things in scripture that are so highly consistent over so many authors and such a great period of time and all those things like that, right?

01:06:47.848 → 01:06:51.608
All the apologetics with which we are, many of us anyway, are quite familiar.

01:06:52.428 → 01:07:02.928
And so, you can point to external sources as well, various historians, you can point to Tacitus, you can point to Josephus, hostile witnesses.

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You can point to these various things that corroborate what is present in scripture.

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You can point to the proofs of archaeology and things like that.

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What you’re doing is you are trying to prove the reliability, at least of parts of scripture, to this person who doesn’t believe on the basis of things that person holds to be at least presumably true.

01:07:26.988 → 01:07:28.548
At least they bear some weight, right?

01:07:28.548 → 01:07:37.508
Archaeology, digging these things up, finding various engravings and carvings that have the names of people who are present in the Old Testament, for instance.

01:07:37.508 → 01:07:39.548
Many of that has been found.

01:07:39.548 → 01:07:43.248
And so, with an unbeliever, you approach it in that way.

01:07:43.248 → 01:07:51.528
Because what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to prove the reliability of scripture as an historical document, essentially.

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You’re trying to prove it like you would any other history, any other non-fiction book.

01:07:56.528 → 01:08:01.108
Now, with a believer, you approach it fundamentally differently.

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Because as a believer, you have already been given the free gift of faith.

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You already believe in God.

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You know that this is his book.

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You don’t believe God’s book because Tacitus said, that some of these things happened in the way the book says.

01:08:19.468 → 01:08:28.348
Or because Josephus, a Jewish historian, says that some of these things happened in the way, and at the time, that scripture says they happen, right?

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That’s not why you believe the Bible as a believer.

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If you have the free gift of faith from God, you believe the Bible because it’s God’s word, and you believe in God.

01:08:38.388 → 01:08:41.988
So you believe the book because you believe the author to be truthful.

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Now, that even works with human authors, but the benefit, of course, of God is that God does not lie ever.

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God is perfect.

01:08:49.848 → 01:09:00.088
Everything God writes is exactly, perfectly true, whether he writes it himself, the Ten Commandments, or he inspires authors to write it for him.

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And so there’s a difference in the order of the operations, as it were.

01:09:04.568 → 01:09:10.868
You are proving externally to inward with regard to those who are not believers.

01:09:11.468 → 01:09:19.428
You are really going sort of the opposite direction with those who are believers, because you are pointing out, you already believe in the author of this.

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He’s infinite.

01:09:20.428 → 01:09:22.008
He is truth.

01:09:22.008 → 01:09:23.008
He cannot lie.

01:09:23.008 → 01:09:23.928
He does not lie.

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Everything he says is true, and so you can rely on his word.

01:09:27.168 → 01:09:35.368
But with regard to a person who doesn’t have faith, it is a matter of just read the scripture, go to church.

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God will do what he has promised to do.

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He will meet you in these things.

01:09:38.928 → 01:09:42.788
He will give you the free gift of faith, because God does not lie.

01:09:42.788 → 01:09:45.708
God always follows through with everything he has said.

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Not a single one of his promises has ever proven false.

01:09:49.548 → 01:09:55.448
So that’s sort of the difference there between the unbeliever versus the believer.

01:09:55.448 → 01:10:05.768
And so, no, it doesn’t matter if you can prove every single detail of every single part of scripture, because as a believer, that’s not why you believe that’s true.

01:10:06.588 → 01:10:09.148
It’s because you trust the author.

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But with the unbeliever, yes, you use the external sources because you’re doing a fundamentally different thing.

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You’re trying to convince a skeptic versus someone who already has the fullness of the reason to believe in scripture.

01:10:22.388 → 01:10:29.408
I’m not saying that it’s useless to teach Christians about the archaeology and all these other things, because of course, that can help to shore up your faith.

01:10:29.408 → 01:10:49.828
You can look at this and go, I believe this because it’s the word of God, but it’s certainly comforting that everything I see in secular history, as it were, agrees with scripture, that philosophy agrees with scripture, that you can mount a philosophical defense of the existence of God and the goodness of God and all these other things.

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It’s helpful to have those.

01:10:52.088 → 01:11:04.408
But by and large, those are things that you use with those who are unbelievers, because you are trying to knock down their objections to the faith, so that they will be open to believing in the faith.

01:11:06.848 → 01:11:12.328
And I think that is where I will close it out for this week.

01:11:12.328 → 01:11:24.448
I will do the quick bit of housekeeping, just mention that the place to submit questions should be in the description of the video on whichever platform you’re watching it.

01:11:24.448 → 01:11:31.768
It will certainly be in the show notes for the podcast version of this, and I do put out a podcast version.

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The podcast version is the audio from this, just put out by itself every week, and that has a little higher quality.

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But by and large, it’s just nice to have the audio available as well.

01:11:46.168 → 01:11:48.888
There is a transcript and all things like that.

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If I put out episodes that are not Q&A’s, they will probably just be in the podcast feed, not necessarily a live stream, as it were.

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Just not the point of that.

01:11:59.568 → 01:12:01.888
So I think that pretty much covers the housekeeping.

01:12:01.888 → 01:12:06.048
The reason for the forum, of course, is because it is more helpful.

01:12:06.048 → 01:12:12.448
One of the reasons that I’m doing this is to build up the catalog of questions and answers so they can be pointed to in the future.

01:12:12.448 → 01:12:23.848
Much easier to do if it’s centrally located instead of my running around trying to find it on this thread and that thread and this stream and these comments and all these other places, right?

01:12:23.848 → 01:12:26.948
It’s just easier for me and for future users as well.

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But I think that pretty much covers it for this week, and I will do the Q&A next week on Thursday.

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I do not believe that that conflicts with anything because that is the first, right?

01:12:41.888 → 01:12:43.728
Yes, that is the first.

01:12:43.728 → 01:12:52.728
I will not be overindulging on New Year’s Eve, and so I won’t have to call off on the first, but I will do the next Q&A on Thursday of next week.

01:12:52.728 → 01:12:56.108
And I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

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Merry second day of Christmas because, of course, Christmas season is not over yet.

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We are looking forward to Epiphany next, but we are still in the season of Christmas.

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And so I hope that you have at least some of your decorations up still and didn’t tear them all down immediately after Christmas day.

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So go and enjoy the rest of the evening, whatever is left for you, whichever time zone you’re in, with family, friends, whoever happens to be around.

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Merry Christmas.

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God bless.

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I look forward to talking to all of you next week.

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Thank you for submitting questions, and please submit your questions for next week.

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See you in a week.