Transcript: AAC — 30 Oct 2025 (Q&A)

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It looks like everything is working, so at least it is working on my end.

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If you are in the chat, please let me know if there's any trouble with the audio or anything like that.

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I don't have any headphones in, since I'm not listening to anyone on my end.

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So with a couple of the questions that I have here, I'll start with, one is, let me pull up the exact wording here, since I don't currently have a way to show it on the screen, so I will just read it.

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Question is, what motivates you?

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Does stone choir keep you pressing forward?

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And the short version is one word, truth.

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Truth is what motivates me.

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My desire is to see that the truth is out there, to see that the truth is defended, and to see that people believe the truth.

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It's one of the reasons that we did the episode on being convincing, for instance.

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It's important not only to portray the truth, not only to deliver the truth, but also to defend the truth in a way that encourages other men to believe the truth.

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And so, primarily, yes, it would be the truth that does motivate me.

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Of course, there's also the fact that I simply have this sort of personality, where I'm not going to leave this sort of thing alone.

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When I encounter something that is false, my inclination is to correct it, or at least figure out why it is false, and then, of course, correct it.

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It's simply sort of a personality trait from a number of different things.

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Part of it is the Germanic ancestry, of course.

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The Scottish adds to it a little bit, too.

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There's a confrontational aspect there.

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There's the fact that I have an intj personality.

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Certainly, I am inclined to care more about the truth than about the fact that it is going to inevitably offend some people, because that's simply the reality of it.

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There will always be those people who are offended by the truth, particularly if you state it in a blunt way, which sometimes you have to do.

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You don't always have to state the truth bluntly.

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Sometimes it's important to be tactful.

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Sometimes it's important to lead people slowly into the truth.

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But a lot of times, it's important to shock people out of the rut in which they have found themselves, or not found themselves in more cases.

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And in shocking them out of that, you can get them to actually consider what it is that you're saying.

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And so, yes, Stone Choir in part does encourage me to keep pressing forward, because obviously it's a very good outlet for talking about these issues that are very important.

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But I would probably be doing this anyway.

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If I weren't doing Stone Choir and I didn't have a public persona, if I didn't have all of my views out there in the open, so my website and my ex-account and all these other things, Telegram, if I didn't have that, then I would probably be practicing law, and no one would know my name outside of the area of law in which I was practicing anyway.

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But that is sort of no longer an option at this point, as most of you probably know.

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The second question, sort of a change of pace and tone here, I guess, is really about two different things.

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One is the morality of suicide, and then secondarily, specifically, the specific case of Hitler's suicide, the morality of that.

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And so I'll start first with the general case.

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Is suicide an unforgivable sin?

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The answer for Christians is pretty straightforward, because Scripture says there's only one unforgivable sin.

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That's the sin against the spirit.

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It's unbelief.

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If you die in unbelief, you go to hell.

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Very simple, very straightforward.

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And so, suicide is not the unforgivable sin.

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I'm just going to pull up Twitter here quickly, X, whatever you want to call it.

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Suicide not being the unforgivable sin means that suicide is not necessarily or per se damning.

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I, quite frankly, firmly believe there are situations in which suicide is the right course of action, not just an acceptable course of action, but the right course of action that will lead into answering the more specific case.

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But it's going to depend on the person and the circumstances.

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So, for instance, if you are a man and you have the chance to fight to the death, say you're in an actual battle, a war situation, then perhaps you should fight to the death.

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But if you are someone else and you are going to be tortured for some indeterminate amount of time, particularly horrible torture, then it may be that the suicide option is the right way out.

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And I know that many Christians don't want to hear that.

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They've been told their whole lives, pretty much mostly in the Roman Catholic traditions, but a few others as well.

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Mostly because they've imported things from Rome on this particular issue with regard to this doctrine.

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Because Rome sort of teaches that it's an unforgivable sin.

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The logic of Rome is that if you commit suicide, you don't have the chance to repent.

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Well, the problem with their doctrine of repentance, and I know that I'm getting off on a tangent here a little bit, but it's important because it's related.

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The problem with their doctrine of repentance is that most likely, we are all going to die having not repented of something.

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Because unless you happen to have the good fortune to die in your bed with a pastor at your bedside to hear your final confession, you're probably not going to have repented of all of the sins you committed, at least that day up to the point you die, because we all commit sins all the time.

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Because don't forget that concupiscence is itself also sin.

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The desire to sin is sin, not just active sin.

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So even if you're bedridden at the end of your life, you're still going to have sinful desires.

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And perhaps you die without confessing those.

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You don't have to confess all of your sins in order to be forgiven.

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Your sins have already been forgiven.

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The issue with regard to confession and sins is when you have an impenitent sin.

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It is something you're holding on to.

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It is some sin that you sort of made your own and decided, no, this one is mine.

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I'm not going to let God have this one.

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I'm not going to repent of this one.

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This is something I want to keep doing.

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That's impenitence.

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That's a different thing.

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And so, suicide does not necessarily damn.

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The logic that Rome employs to argue for that end, to argue for that conclusion, would put basically all of us in jeopardy.

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And that is simply not what scripture teaches.

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Now, in the specific case of Hitler and his suicide in the bunker, and I do believe that he committed suicide, I don't believe that he escaped to Argentina or whatever else.

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I don't really care if people believe one way or the other, I think it's better to believe that he did commit suicide for various reasons, and I think the argument, the evidence, much stronger.

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But that's not the most interesting case there.

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The most interesting case really is Goebbels and his family.

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But in the case of Hitler, I'll deal with that one first, because it's sort of the easier case.

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It's certainly the easier case for people to hear.

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In the case of Hitler, his suicide was the right thing to do.

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And the reason that it was the right thing to do, is because he was the leader of a defeated nation.

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The only thing, literally the only thing that lay ahead of him, was torture being paraded around as a war trophy by the Soviet Union, one of the most evil things ever to exist politically in history.

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Rivals, certainly any of the ancient empires, Babylon, the Aztecs, anything like that, being paraded around by them as a war trophy to demoralize the German people further, and basically everyone else who had fought on that side of the war.

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And quite frankly, they would have probably done horrible things and demoralized the West as well.

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So he had a duty to his people, and his duty to his people necessitated that he preclude them from having that opportunity.

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And that's exactly what he did by committing suicide.

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Now I know that I'm currently streaming this on YouTube.

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I don't have the DVR functionality listed.

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I'm not trying to be monetized, of course, but I'd like not to get a strike.

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But I'm going to be frank about these topics.

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Perhaps I won't stream to YouTube in the future.

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I don't know.

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It depends on their policies and how they view this sort of thing.

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So I'll try not to get too far off into that sort of territory.

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That being said, the next one is the harder case.

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And it's the harder case largely because it's emotional for people.

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It's not because it's the harder case, say, logically or rationally or even theologically.

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It's not that hard of a case.

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But the question is, was it right for Gebel's to kill his family before he committed suicide?

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And really, the question is, you have to take a step back, and you have to look at what is happening in the bunker at that time, in this situation, because what are the options?

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You need to look at your options.

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I'm not saying that consequentialist morality is always correct.

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I'm not saying that deontological morality is always correct.

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I think both of those are important.

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I think you should look at the nature of the act itself, whether the act itself is moral or immoral per se, because sometimes that's true.

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There are certain things you simply cannot do.

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Killing is not one of them, notably.

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Killing is not something that is always per se immoral.

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Murder is per se immoral.

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And so the question is, is it murder or is it not murder?

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Which really comes down to a question of what is a moral warrant for killing?

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And I think in that particular situation, he was right to do what he did, because his options were give his children the cleanest death that he possibly could, or basically hand them over to the Soviets.

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And I won't go into the details, because quite frankly, they're lurid and Christians shouldn't even want to hear them.

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Sometimes it's necessary, because of course we need to realize how evil the world is, and look evil straight in the face, and accept the reality of it.

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But, for various reasons, you can guess some of them, I won't go into the specific details, but we all know what would have happened if his children had fallen into the hands of the Soviets.

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The same sort of thing that happened to so many German and Czechoslovakian and various other women, mostly women, and children in the aftermath of that war.

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The same thing would have happened to his children.

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He was faced with a horrible set of decisions.

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His choices were awful.

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All he had to choose from was kill his own children, or permit them to fall into the hands of monsters.

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I think that he did the right thing, because I think he picked the least bad option, and I don't think it qualifies as murder, because I think there are times where killing is necessary, and I think that was one of them.

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We recognize this to some degree in some places.

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For instance, no one actually objecs to a soft form of euthanasia.

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I won't say no one, of course, because there's probably someone out there who does, but the specific kind that I have in mind is the form of euthanasia, where we basically give someone so much painkiller that death is inevitable.

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And there are times where that's necessary.

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For instance, someone who has a large part of his body burned in a fire, there's nothing we currently, with current medical technology, can do for that person.

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Literally, all we can do is give him as much morphine, or something stronger these days, as possible to try to dull the pain.

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That's it, that's all we can do.

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And in fact, we wind up giving those people so much that we know they are going to die from an overdose, but that is better than the horrendous pain of having third degree burns over 70% of your body.

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And so, is that euthanasia?

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The answer, of course, is yes, because strictly speaking, it is literally the killing of a person, but with a good intent.

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Now, the question, of course, is does it matter if your intent is to kill the person, or if your intent is to relieve pain?

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There's a distinction there, but I don't think it's a distinction that really matters in this case.

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Because if you do something with the intent to do something good, but you know that it will necessarily eventuate in the death of that person, that is essentially morally indistinguishable from that intent to kill.

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If the end is a good end, of course.

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I'm not saying you can do this for a wicked end.

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These are edge cases.

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These are difficult questions to answer for most men.

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I recognize that.

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And I recognize that most Christians are not particularly fond of these sorts of answers.

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But, when you are involved in that sort of war, or when you have horrendous burns all over your body, it's certainly an edge case.

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And there are going to be times where there are no good options.

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There's not going to be, this is obviously the best and the moral option, we have to do this.

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It's going to be a set of terrible options, and you have to pick the least terrible one.

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And I don't think that as Christians, we are prohibited in all cases, from enacting euthanasia.

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I do think that we don't get to do it because someone is sad, or someone is in a little bit of pain, or someone is going through a rough spot in life.

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In those cases, we have better treatments, we have things we can do for those people.

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The person who's in a bunker in Berlin in the 1940s, surrounded by the Soviets, doesn't have another option.

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The person who has third degree burns over 90% of his body, doesn't have other options.

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There are times where there are, again, no good options, and you have to do the best thing that you can do in the situation with what you have been given.

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We'll check the replies here and see what else we have.

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First one that I see here, X is not the best platform for trying to do this live, but, what is the best way to answer slash refute the God is not finished with Israel mantra?

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We have touched on this in a number of different episodes, of course, undoubtedly the one on dispensationalism, chief among them, but also dealing with the Israelites, Hebrews, Jews, et cetera.

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The question of whether or not God is done with Israel, and of course, here we mean ethnic Israel, which is, say, the Jews, Old Testament Israel, which the problem with Old Testament Israel is it no longer exists, of course.

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God destroyed it.

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Christ was very clear, destroyed in 70 AD.

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That was the end of Old Testament Israel.

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That was actually the final destruction of the last bit of surviving Hebrew, incidentally.

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That was when the scrolls were burned on the temple steps.

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But how do we deal with the question of whether or not God has some future return of the Jews to the land?

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Was that a fulfillment of prophecy?

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And, of course, the answer is no.

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And we all know that the answer is no.

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But how do we get those who believe that that was prophecy, a fulfillment of prophecy, to see that it was not?

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And part of that is, of course, properly defining Israel.

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If we don't properly define Israel, we are going to find it difficult, virtually impossible, to get anywhere on any of these issues.

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Most people, when they see Israel, think the Jews.

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They simply think, oh, every single time it says Israel, it must be the Jews.

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And that's simply not true.

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If you actually read through the Old Testament, and pay attention to what is being said in the Old Testament, clearly, many of the times, it's not the Jews.

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In fact, quite frankly, probably most of the time, it's not the Jews.

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Israel has always been the believers.

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Israel has always been the Israel of God, those who are believers in either the Messiah who was to come, or now, the Messiah who has come.

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And so, the true Israel is not the Jews.

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It's never been the Jews.

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For a period of time, you had Old Testament Israel, and the purpose of Old Testament Israel was very specific and very limited.

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It was the fulfillment of the promise of a Messiah from the line of Abraham, of course, through the line of Israel, through the line of David.

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That was fulfilled.

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That's it for the Jews.

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That was the only promise they had.

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Now they had other contingent promises, conditional promises, and that's one of the big things here.

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There are many who will say, well, all of these promises, look at all of the promises that God has for the Jews, and yes, let's look at them.

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They're conditional.

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They say, if you are faithful, if you follow my rules, if you follow my commandments, if you do not worship other gods.

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And then look at what usually comes after that as well, because usually what follows those promises is all of the curses when you don't obey.

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In fact, oftentimes, the curses are longer.

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The curses are more extreme.

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God goes so far as to say that he will walk contrary to them for evil.

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God threatens to destroy those who do not obey him.

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The same thing applies to us.

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Incidentally, when you start to read the Old Testament correctly, one of the things that you get to see is that so much of this, so many of these things, apply to us today.

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These are not just promises and curses for some people in the distant past living over there, and this doesn't have any meaning for us, right?

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No, this has meaning for us, because those are the very same sorts of promises and curses that apply to us if we are faithful or faithless.

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And so when someone tries to basically get rid of all these promises that apply to the church, that apply to Christians, what they're really doing is they're saying, oh, the Old Testament doesn't apply to me.

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It's a sort of weak form of Marcionism, saying that the Old Testament is a different sort of book.

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It's for a different people.

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It's a different God, right?

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That's the God of Old Testament Israel.

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My God as a Christian, right, is the New Testament God.

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That's Jesus.

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He's a nicer God.

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He's not the fire and brimstone God of the Old Testament.

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And that's just not true.

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That's entirely false.

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It's the wrong way to look at these things.

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And so the short answer really is you want someone, if he's willing to do so and capable of doing so, to look at the actual promises in the Old Testament.

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You will find that basically all of them, except for the promise of the Messiah, are contingent, are conditional.

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They're not a blanket promise.

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God is just going to do all these great things for you, regardless of what you do.

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Those are not the sort of promises that God makes.

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Because those who receive good things from God are those who are in Christ.

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And the way you're in Christ in the Old Testament, of course, is belief in the Messiah who is to come.

00:19:49.867 --> 00:19:54.447
And our belief today is in this Messiah who has come.

00:19:54.447 --> 00:19:58.927
But all of these promises, all these good things apply to you only if you are in Christ.

00:19:59.567 --> 00:20:04.387
God does not give good things to evil people.

00:20:04.387 --> 00:20:09.467
That's not to say, I'm not saying, you know, prosperity gospel or nonsense like that.

00:20:09.467 --> 00:20:12.167
Because, of course, no Christian believes that.

00:20:12.167 --> 00:20:13.667
That's clearly false.

00:20:14.727 --> 00:20:16.467
Do bad things happen to good people?

00:20:16.467 --> 00:20:17.487
Yes.

00:20:17.487 --> 00:20:19.287
Do good things happen to bad people?

00:20:19.287 --> 00:20:19.647
Yes.

00:20:19.647 --> 00:20:22.007
There is a sort of natural good in the world.

00:20:22.007 --> 00:20:24.507
You know, the rain falls on the wicked and the righteous alike.

00:20:25.527 --> 00:20:38.687
But, the promises of long-term good, the promises of all of these blessings down through generations, do not apply to those who are wicked apostates who worship other gods.

00:20:38.687 --> 00:20:39.867
And we see that.

00:20:39.867 --> 00:20:42.147
Look at the various nations of the world.

00:20:42.147 --> 00:20:49.227
The ones that apostatized very early on, and worshiped demons for thousands of years, are clearly cursed by God.

00:20:49.227 --> 00:20:59.487
They are much worse off than those of us who belong to nations that were faithful for much longer, and then were faithful again when the New Testament reached us.

00:20:59.487 --> 00:21:01.687
Faithful for a thousand years.

00:21:01.687 --> 00:21:03.107
Fifteen hundred years.

00:21:03.107 --> 00:21:05.327
Almost two thousand years in some cases.

00:21:07.727 --> 00:21:15.627
And so, when someone brings up Israel, it's important first to point out that Israel is not the Jews.

00:21:15.627 --> 00:21:17.687
Israel is the Israel of God.

00:21:17.687 --> 00:21:20.547
And of course, you can look at Romans for that.

00:21:20.547 --> 00:21:21.507
There are various places.

00:21:22.007 --> 00:21:36.587
I know that sometimes, they will try to argue with regard to Romans that those who are of Israel but not of Israel are believing Jews versus unbelieving Jews.

00:21:36.587 --> 00:21:38.387
That's clearly not what the text is saying.

00:21:38.387 --> 00:21:52.127
What the text is saying is that you have Jews who are Old Testament Israel, physical descendants of Israel, ethnic Israel, and you have the church.

00:21:52.127 --> 00:21:54.087
You have spiritual Israel.

00:21:54.087 --> 00:21:56.127
You have the Israel of God.

00:21:56.127 --> 00:22:05.827
Not all of those who are descended lineally by blood from Jacob, from Israel, belong to the Israel of God.

00:22:05.827 --> 00:22:07.767
We very clearly see that.

00:22:07.767 --> 00:22:12.567
Look at what God does to many, if not most, of the Israelites in the Old Testament.

00:22:12.567 --> 00:22:19.027
He sets them on fire, He plagues them with disease, He sends snakes after them, He swallows them up with the earth.

00:22:19.027 --> 00:22:20.727
These people did not go to paradise.

00:22:20.727 --> 00:22:23.507
These people do not all get into heaven.

00:22:23.507 --> 00:22:33.507
And so, when it says, all Israel will be saved, well, it can't mean ethnic Israel, because not all of ethnic Israel was saved.

00:22:33.507 --> 00:22:38.087
In fact, probably most of them in the Old Testament went to hell.

00:22:38.087 --> 00:22:44.387
If you look at the times they were faithful, the times they were faithful were tiny slivers compared to how often they were faithless.

00:22:45.207 --> 00:22:57.407
And so, when you see things saying, all Israel will be saved, it clearly can't be ethnic Israel, because if it were ethnic Israel, God would be a liar.

00:22:57.407 --> 00:22:58.407
And God is not a liar.

00:22:58.407 --> 00:23:01.887
God is always telling the truth.

00:23:01.887 --> 00:23:08.887
So, if Scripture says that all of this group will be saved, it can only possibly mean those who have faith.

00:23:08.887 --> 00:23:10.607
It can only possibly mean the Church.

00:23:12.087 --> 00:23:31.907
Now, on a purely practical sort of note, you're going to find it very difficult to get most of those who have been steeped in dispensationalism for a long period of time, particularly baby boomers, which is very relevant for many of those who listen to Stone Choir, because many of those who listen are millennials.

00:23:31.907 --> 00:23:33.307
I'm also a millennial.

00:23:33.307 --> 00:23:35.647
And so, your parents are baby boomers.

00:23:35.647 --> 00:23:48.127
And they have probably heard dispensationalist talking points, probably not from a strictly dispensationalist church, but from a Baptist church or a non-denominational so-called a megachurch, whatever it happens to be.

00:23:48.127 --> 00:23:52.167
They've heard these dispensationalist talking points for decades.

00:23:52.167 --> 00:23:53.767
They bought into them.

00:23:53.767 --> 00:23:56.207
Probably have a study Bible that has the notes.

00:23:56.207 --> 00:24:02.007
So some sort of updated version of Scofield, maybe the Ryrie Study Bible, one of those.

00:24:02.007 --> 00:24:05.627
You are going to find it very difficult to get them to change their views.

00:24:06.967 --> 00:24:19.847
And in some cases, the best thing that you can do is, and this is sort of a practical bit of advice, particularly again, for millennials who have baby boomers as parents, who probably will not change.

00:24:19.847 --> 00:24:24.547
Sixty, seventy-year-old men don't typically make radical changes with regard to their world view.

00:24:24.547 --> 00:24:26.987
It's just the reality of things.

00:24:26.987 --> 00:24:29.567
You still have the Fourth Commandment in play.

00:24:29.567 --> 00:24:30.807
Honor thy father and thy mother.

00:24:33.467 --> 00:24:42.467
You have to work around the fact that you are never going to get, particularly your father, which is true for many men who listen, you're just not going to get him to change.

00:24:42.467 --> 00:24:46.047
And so, do the best that you can.

00:24:46.047 --> 00:24:49.807
If the issue comes up, by all means, you can discuss it earnestly and honestly.

00:24:49.807 --> 00:24:50.787
You can point to scripture.

00:24:50.787 --> 00:24:55.427
You can go through scripture with your father, your mother, whoever it happens to be.

00:24:56.547 --> 00:24:59.607
But don't make it the singular point of that relationship.

00:24:59.747 --> 00:25:02.767
Don't press the point until you alienate everyone around you.

00:25:02.767 --> 00:25:05.107
That doesn't serve God.

00:25:05.107 --> 00:25:07.507
It doesn't serve your parents.

00:25:07.507 --> 00:25:09.907
It doesn't serve the interests of the Commandments.

00:25:09.907 --> 00:25:12.127
And by the way, of course, I'm using the Lutheran numbering.

00:25:12.127 --> 00:25:14.307
So, the Fourth Commandment for us.

00:25:15.887 --> 00:25:19.287
You have to work with what you have in front of you.

00:25:19.287 --> 00:25:22.507
You're not always going to be able to convince people of these things.

00:25:22.507 --> 00:25:24.547
So, are there sound arguments?

00:25:24.547 --> 00:25:25.907
Absolutely.

00:25:25.907 --> 00:25:30.527
And you can just go through scripture, and there's argument after argument after argument.

00:25:30.527 --> 00:25:31.727
Go and read the prophets.

00:25:31.727 --> 00:25:37.167
Look at what the prophets say about Israel versus what the prophets say about the promises.

00:25:37.167 --> 00:25:39.927
And note also, this is an important point.

00:25:39.927 --> 00:25:45.707
I just read through some of the prophets for the Through the Bible podcast last night.

00:25:45.707 --> 00:25:52.227
And many of those promises, when you look at them, can only be eschatological promises.

00:25:52.227 --> 00:25:59.047
They cannot be temporal, because they are speaking about things like, all Israel will believe.

00:26:00.207 --> 00:26:01.767
That's never happened.

00:26:01.767 --> 00:26:05.807
It's not going to happen, with regard to the ethnic Jews.

00:26:05.807 --> 00:26:07.667
They'll never again be removed from their land.

00:26:07.667 --> 00:26:09.567
No one will make them afraid.

00:26:09.567 --> 00:26:17.787
All of these promises are clearly about the New Jerusalem, which is used to mean the New Earth.

00:26:17.787 --> 00:26:20.707
They're talking about the church in the New Earth.

00:26:20.707 --> 00:26:22.527
That is when no one will make us afraid.

00:26:22.527 --> 00:26:31.667
That is when we will no longer have to worry about sickness, about disease, and death, and all these problems, and warfare, and everyone will know God.

00:26:31.667 --> 00:26:34.567
That is consistent language in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

00:26:34.567 --> 00:26:39.087
When it speaks of those things, it is speaking about the Eshketon.

00:26:39.087 --> 00:26:45.627
It's speaking about the New Heavens and the New Earth, not Old Testament Israel, not ethnic Jews.

00:26:45.627 --> 00:27:03.147
And again, one of the reasons that it's important to have this frame in mind when you're dealing with the Old Testament, is that if you are looking at it through a lens of thinking, you know, this is the Jewish book, then you're going to miss what God is saying to you, because God isn't speaking exclusively to the Jews.

00:27:03.147 --> 00:27:08.847
He's speaking to them as well, of course, and it's often very bad news for them, but He is speaking to His people.

00:27:08.847 --> 00:27:13.987
He is speaking to anyone who has ears to listen, anyone who has ears to hear.

00:27:13.987 --> 00:27:16.347
He is speaking to that man.

00:27:16.347 --> 00:27:34.787
And if you have the right mind, if you have the right frame of mind, when you are going through the Old Testament, it will mean more to you, you will get more out of it, because God will be speaking to you through His Word as He intends, instead of having it at this sort of arms distance, this history of a foreign people.

00:27:34.787 --> 00:27:36.367
That's not what it is.

00:27:36.367 --> 00:27:38.167
It is a book for us today.

00:27:38.167 --> 00:27:39.607
It is a book for God's Church.

00:27:46.603 --> 00:27:48.123
Let's see what we have here.

00:27:54.504 --> 00:28:01.304
Following the Septuagint series, do you consider anything from the traditional church to be beyond reproach?

00:28:01.304 --> 00:28:05.164
Has your framework for assessing the validity of things changed?

00:28:05.164 --> 00:28:08.064
Or could anything be subject to scrutiny ultimately?

00:28:08.064 --> 00:28:10.524
For instance, the creeds' confessions.

00:28:11.984 --> 00:28:15.944
With regard to the creeds, there is nothing in the creeds that changes.

00:28:15.944 --> 00:28:19.564
And do remember, the men who wrote the creeds were using the Septuagint.

00:28:19.564 --> 00:28:21.664
So in that case, we have no danger whatsoever.

00:28:22.744 --> 00:28:31.384
With regard to some of the confessions that come centuries later, as Woe pointed out, there will be some questions with some of those.

00:28:31.384 --> 00:28:41.084
Now, personally, I can point out that I have not found anything in the Book of Concord that is actually in jeopardy, anything that changes whatsoever.

00:28:41.084 --> 00:28:47.324
Incidentally, I've been looking at it as I've been reading through it for the Daily Devotions podcast and just my personal reading.

00:28:48.664 --> 00:28:57.824
And all of the references are basically identical in the Old Testament, in the so-called Masoretic, and in the Septuagint.

00:28:57.824 --> 00:29:03.004
Fortuitous, divine intervention, whatever you want to call it, that happens to be the case.

00:29:03.004 --> 00:29:06.364
I am not as familiar with the Reformed Confessions.

00:29:06.364 --> 00:29:07.484
I haven't gone through them.

00:29:07.484 --> 00:29:12.104
I don't read them daily, certainly, because again, I'm not Reformed.

00:29:12.104 --> 00:29:16.804
And so that is going to be a task for men who are from the Reformed camp.

00:29:17.744 --> 00:29:20.504
I think that some of them are going to run into some problems.

00:29:20.504 --> 00:29:24.044
And we'll point it out one of the reasons for that.

00:29:24.044 --> 00:29:30.244
Some of them state explicitly that they believe the Old Testament is in Hebrew.

00:29:30.244 --> 00:29:33.604
And very clearly, we demonstrated that is not the case.

00:29:33.604 --> 00:29:46.124
And so the question for those who hold to those confessions that make those sorts of claims is, can you jettison the part that says the Old Testament is in Hebrew and retain the rest of the confession?

00:29:49.004 --> 00:29:51.924
That's not a question for me to answer.

00:29:51.924 --> 00:29:56.904
That is a question for the men who adhere to those confessions to answer.

00:29:57.944 --> 00:30:02.204
Personally, I would have some doubts about the confessions then.

00:30:02.204 --> 00:30:11.084
I would have doubts about the Book of Concord if one of the first things it said was, the Old Testament is Hebrew, period, you have to read the Hebrew, you have to learn Hebrew.

00:30:11.084 --> 00:30:12.264
It doesn't say that.

00:30:12.264 --> 00:30:15.404
There's actually no enumeration of the books of the Bible, even the Book of Concord.

00:30:15.464 --> 00:30:22.044
That's something for which Lutherans are kind of notorious, but that's simply the state of affairs as it stands.

00:30:22.044 --> 00:30:30.924
So, it's a question for those in camps that hold to confessions that say things about the Hebrew being the word of God.

00:30:30.924 --> 00:30:32.404
Not a problem for Lutherans.

00:30:32.404 --> 00:30:35.864
So, in my case, nothing changes.

00:30:35.864 --> 00:30:40.664
I would just prefer to have a Septuagint in a good English translation.

00:30:40.664 --> 00:30:59.084
Unfortunately, it doesn't exist yet, because, as it turns out, we basically just have some stilted academic ones, and then the Brenton, which is kind of like a weird, almost KJV translation of the Septuagint, but sometimes it uses the Masoretic without noting it.

00:30:59.084 --> 00:31:00.984
I wish we had something better.

00:31:00.984 --> 00:31:01.904
We don't have it yet.

00:31:01.904 --> 00:31:09.244
We will get there, because, again, translating Greek into English is not the most daunting or impossible task in the world.

00:31:10.664 --> 00:31:12.424
Almost anyone can do it.

00:31:12.424 --> 00:31:14.684
We want men with the specific qualifications.

00:31:14.684 --> 00:31:20.364
We laid out in the episode, we did on translating the Greek, but it's not something about which I'm concerned.

00:31:20.364 --> 00:31:43.624
It's just inconvenient for me today, because if I wanted to, say, switch to the Septuagint for the daily readings, for the Daily Devotions podcast that I do, it would be somewhat difficult to do that, because I have a number of options that are kind of good, but not one that I can just say, I'm going to read this one now.

00:31:43.624 --> 00:31:51.644
Because the Nets, for instance, gets weirdly academic in some places, and the name translations are kind of crazy in some points.

00:31:51.644 --> 00:31:52.864
A little hilarious, honestly.

00:31:52.864 --> 00:31:59.864
Sometimes they're quite funny, but it's not what I want when I'm reading just to read the Daily Devotions, just to record that.

00:31:59.864 --> 00:32:07.604
And it's not something that you want in your daily reading, because you don't want an academic translation for that.

00:32:07.764 --> 00:32:09.584
I'm not saying an academic translation is bad.

00:32:09.584 --> 00:32:20.644
Like we said in the episode, an academic translation has its place, but it's not the everyday translation we should be using to read when we're just reading the Word of God.

00:32:20.644 --> 00:32:22.244
So, the short answer is no.

00:32:22.244 --> 00:32:58.364
Nothing has really changed for me, except for that desire to read the actual Old Testament in the Greek with the caveat that, yes, I do find myself, if I'm reading it in one of my existing Bibles, which is sort of unfortunate, because I have a decent collection of Bibles at this point, I find that I am cross-referencing constantly to the Greek or translation of the Greek into English, and making sure that things match, making sure that it actually says what it's supposed to say, which, like I said, I have, I don't know how many Bibles, some number of dozens of Bibles, and most of them, of course, are based on the Masoretic text.

00:32:58.364 --> 00:33:19.064
I do have a number of Septuagint translations, but I now have some very nice Bibles that are more shelf decoration than necessarily something I would use, which is unfortunate, but it's the reality of it, because our forefathers decided to trust the Jews when they said, here, this is the word of God, trust us.

00:33:19.064 --> 00:33:24.404
Probably not the best plan, as we went over at length in the Septuagint series.

00:33:25.664 --> 00:33:35.084
As far as the greater question, whether or not things from the Church, from the history of the Church, are reliable?

00:33:35.084 --> 00:33:39.004
Well, the early Church, of course, was using the Septuagint exclusively.

00:33:39.004 --> 00:33:46.324
They didn't even have the so-called Masoretic Text, and so they couldn't have relied on that, because they didn't have it.

00:33:46.324 --> 00:33:52.944
Things that came after the Masoretic Text was brought into the Church, there are some questions.

00:33:52.944 --> 00:34:10.924
If someone is exegeting a passage, and that passage is different in the Masoretic Text from what it should be, what it is in the Septuagint, then that exegesis is probably wrong, probably unhelpful, and something we should ignore.

00:34:10.924 --> 00:34:26.984
And so it's going to be necessary when we look at the older exegetes, but not the really old exegetes, but the older exegetes, it's going to be necessary to assess whether or not they were commenting on a passage that is different between the texts.

00:34:26.984 --> 00:34:37.604
And of course, as we pointed out, and as should be very obvious, by and large, the Septuagint and the Masoretic do actually agree.

00:34:37.604 --> 00:34:41.144
The Jews played games, they did so pervasively.

00:34:41.144 --> 00:34:44.764
In some books, they did so thoroughly.

00:34:44.764 --> 00:34:56.524
But by God's protection by divine providence, much of the text remains essentially identical between the Septuagint and the Masoretic text.

00:34:57.304 --> 00:35:11.384
So, in all of those cases where the text is the same, where we don't have these concerns of, they changed things, they played games, then we can certainly rely on those old exegetes the same way we would before.

00:35:11.384 --> 00:35:24.044
But of course, none of this really changes anything fundamentally with regard to how we treat exegetes, because those who exegete scripture are not perfect.

00:35:24.044 --> 00:35:30.324
They're fallen men, they're imperfect men, they make errors, they make mistakes, they misunderstand things.

00:35:30.324 --> 00:35:33.744
We have to run an assessment when we are reading those works.

00:35:33.744 --> 00:35:39.304
We don't just read them uncritically and say, well, Augustine said it, it must be true.

00:35:39.304 --> 00:35:45.784
Now, in Augustine's case, generally, if he said it, it very well probably is true.

00:35:45.784 --> 00:35:48.304
But even Augustine is not perfect.

00:35:48.304 --> 00:35:50.484
Calvin was not perfect.

00:35:50.484 --> 00:35:52.124
Luther was not perfect.

00:35:53.144 --> 00:36:02.344
Not one of these men was divinely inspired in the sense of being a prophet who could speak without error with regard to the things of God.

00:36:02.344 --> 00:36:08.664
And so it is necessary to cross check these things when we read these exegetes, cross check them against scripture.

00:36:08.664 --> 00:36:10.844
We should always be doing that.

00:36:10.844 --> 00:36:12.984
Now does it mean we can't rely on them?

00:36:12.984 --> 00:36:16.284
Of course not, because many of these men were very gifted.

00:36:16.284 --> 00:36:20.024
They had a gift of intelligence and insight, discernment.

00:36:21.164 --> 00:36:24.304
They knew what they were doing, and so we can rely on them.

00:36:24.304 --> 00:36:34.184
We can look at the things as they interpreted them, and then use the gifts, the skills, the abilities God has given us to assess that in the light of scripture.

00:36:34.184 --> 00:36:36.224
That's always going to be the case.

00:36:36.224 --> 00:36:52.844
It's why when anyone makes the argument that, well, we just have to rely on the fathers, or we have to rely on this theologian or that theologian, that's complete nonsense, because it is always going to be a question of what is reliable and what is true.

00:36:52.844 --> 00:37:01.144
And even if you are saying, well, we just have to rely on Calvin, I'm not beating up on Calvin because I like doing so, it's just because I'm picking him.

00:37:01.144 --> 00:37:04.504
And I saw one of his books on my shelf over here.

00:37:04.504 --> 00:37:11.664
You can't just say, well, we're going to rely on Calvin, because you have to rely on the Word of God, you have to rely on scripture.

00:37:11.664 --> 00:37:14.644
And what are you doing if you say, we're just going to rely on Calvin?

00:37:15.324 --> 00:37:24.184
You've made the same sort of assessment with regard to his reliability that you should be making with regard to what scripture says.

00:37:24.184 --> 00:37:28.624
Now, it may very well be that he has very good interpretations, and he does in some cases.

00:37:28.624 --> 00:37:31.484
As a Lutheran, I can agree with some of the things that he says.

00:37:32.924 --> 00:37:36.384
But you don't uncritically agree with what he says.

00:37:36.384 --> 00:37:53.084
And so, overall, we're still running the same sort of assessment we've always had to run with regard to church fathers, with regard to the Reformation fathers, all of these men down through history, that God is gifted to the church, who had various levels of various abilities.

00:37:53.084 --> 00:37:59.124
We have to assess their work in the light of scripture, because scripture is always the standard.

00:37:59.124 --> 00:38:01.964
That's what we mean when we say sola scriptura.

00:38:01.964 --> 00:38:09.964
We mean by scripture alone, because remember, again, and I've said this before, but it's good to have it here, so it's documented, I guess.

00:38:09.964 --> 00:38:17.504
That's in the ablative, which is something that means absolutely nothing to most people these days, because no one learns grammar anymore, unfortunately.

00:38:17.504 --> 00:38:24.844
And in English, we are a little weird with our declensions, but the ablative essentially deals with means.

00:38:24.844 --> 00:38:28.424
It is the means by which something is accomplished.

00:38:28.424 --> 00:38:33.864
And so when we say faith alone, we're not saying faith alone, we're saying by faith alone.

00:38:33.864 --> 00:38:38.164
You are justified by faith alone.

00:38:38.164 --> 00:38:50.244
When we say scripture alone, we're not saying scripture alone, we're saying by scripture alone, which is to say that all doctrine, all theology ultimately is judged by scripture alone.

00:38:50.244 --> 00:38:54.984
It is not judged by what men argue, what men say.

00:38:54.984 --> 00:38:59.064
Even the most gifted man can err.

00:38:59.064 --> 00:39:01.444
Men are fallen, men make mistakes.

00:39:01.444 --> 00:39:05.964
And so any man must be subjected to the word of God.

00:39:05.964 --> 00:39:14.464
We do that regardless of the text on which he based his argument, in some cases, will his argument be faulty because he used a text that was faulty?

00:39:14.464 --> 00:39:15.744
Of course.

00:39:15.744 --> 00:39:25.844
But in most cases, again, the texts are going to agree in large part, and so we just run the same sort of reliability assessment that we would otherwise run.

00:39:25.844 --> 00:39:28.144
Very little has changed on that front.

00:39:28.144 --> 00:39:37.284
It just means that we have this extra little nuance, this extra analysis to run with regard to those who are exegeting the Old Testament.

00:39:38.264 --> 00:39:44.324
Which is something that we've done down through history anyway, because sometimes you have textual variants and things like that.

00:39:44.324 --> 00:39:46.884
So in large part, no, it hasn't changed.

00:39:46.884 --> 00:40:03.424
In my specific case, my reliance on the Book of Concord hasn't changed, but I do find myself checking the Greek more often than I would have before, because before I basically just would have used a handful of different English translations because obviously I don't know Hebrew.

00:40:03.424 --> 00:40:14.644
I know that the adversaries try to make a big deal of that, but quite frankly, not knowing Hebrew is helpful to exegete scripture, because then you don't have the poison of the rabbis in your mind when you're doing it.

00:40:14.644 --> 00:40:22.224
And so I never looked at the Hebrew when I was doing it, except for if I happened to look at a word here or there, sometimes I'd look something up.

00:40:22.224 --> 00:40:24.084
I don't do that anymore, obviously.

00:40:24.084 --> 00:40:30.124
I look at the Greek, I rely on the Greek, because the Greek is the word of God, the Septuagint is the word of God.

00:40:30.124 --> 00:40:32.604
So that small change, yes, I've made that change.

00:40:45.458 --> 00:40:51.358
Referring to the theory of demon worship and racial degeneration, what is your take on the St.

00:40:51.358 --> 00:40:53.358
Thomas Christians of India?

00:40:54.758 --> 00:41:03.638
If you look at many of the statistics for the region of India that is Christian, basically everything there is better.

00:41:03.638 --> 00:41:07.418
The crime is lower, it's cleaner, they're just generally better off.

00:41:07.418 --> 00:41:25.258
And so even in the case of a race that engaged in open and particularly pernicious demon worship for thousands of years, turning to Christ still improved them, still made them better, certainly seems to have stopped them from degenerating further.

00:41:25.258 --> 00:41:28.078
And so the other parts of India are much worse off.

00:41:28.078 --> 00:41:35.938
Perhaps I should have encrypted this stream so Indians can't join, but I'm not watching the comments on X anyway, so it doesn't matter that much.

00:41:35.938 --> 00:41:38.098
They're better off for being Christians.

00:41:38.098 --> 00:41:40.538
And that is the case for basically any population.

00:41:40.538 --> 00:41:43.018
You can look at the Ethiopians in Africa, the same thing is true.

00:41:43.318 --> 00:41:48.138
It's better to be in Ethiopia than many other places in Sub-Saharan Africa.

00:41:48.138 --> 00:41:50.878
They've been Christian for many years.

00:41:50.878 --> 00:42:05.998
Granted, they have a significant Islam problem these days, but they at least had that trade with Old Testament Israel, and so they had access to the scriptures, and so they did have a form of Christianity for a very long time, and they still have Christianity today.

00:42:05.998 --> 00:42:13.518
Incidentally, and perhaps interestingly, they had the same problem with their language that Hebrew had.

00:42:13.518 --> 00:42:14.418
It was an abjad.

00:42:14.418 --> 00:42:35.158
They didn't write down the vowels, and they didn't actually have a full and proper written language until two Greek Christians were captured and sold into the court, who then improved their written language, and basically gave them a way to write down scripture fully in Amharic, which is the language they use, the main language they use.

00:42:40.058 --> 00:42:49.158
Excuse me, the next question, any book collection recommendation to start a home library with, particularly theology or history related?

00:42:50.638 --> 00:42:57.018
That is a difficult one to answer, because there are so many good options.

00:42:58.218 --> 00:43:13.558
I would say, and I know that some people are probably going to disagree with me, because the Lutherans want me to say, oh, you should definitely just grab Luther and the Reform, depending on which flavor of Reform we'll say, whichever their favorite one is, Knox, Calvin, whoever it happens to be.

00:43:13.558 --> 00:43:23.278
I think probably grab the number one book from the best theologian in your particular tradition, in your denomination.

00:43:23.278 --> 00:43:25.338
At least have that on your shelves.

00:43:25.338 --> 00:43:31.638
Read that one, be familiar with it, because you should know what you believe, and you should be comfortable believing it.

00:43:32.778 --> 00:43:39.038
If you're part of a tradition, and you know nothing about what they believe, then there's some questions about why you're part of that tradition.

00:43:39.038 --> 00:43:50.958
Obviously, I'm talking to men who care about theology, who are going to actually do this sort of reading in this study, because the average man is just going to go to church, believe what his pastor and his elders tell him, and there's nothing wrong with that.

00:43:50.958 --> 00:43:57.038
It's one of the reasons that scripture is so clear about what is going to happen to bad teachers, false teachers.

00:43:57.038 --> 00:43:57.958
It will not be good.

00:43:58.918 --> 00:44:05.618
And that's not to say that if you have imperfections in your teaching, you're going to go to hell and be tormented for all of eternity.

00:44:05.618 --> 00:44:14.558
It's to say that you are going to be judged strictly, and maybe you're going to be a door sweeper, or whatever the equivalent is in paradise, because you taught falsely.

00:44:14.558 --> 00:44:16.298
And so, teachers should be terrified.

00:44:16.298 --> 00:44:24.058
The passages in scripture that say that you're going to receive the stricter judgment should scare most men out of wanting to teach.

00:44:24.058 --> 00:44:27.758
Bo and I both very clearly said early on that we have elected the stricter judgment.

00:44:27.798 --> 00:44:32.058
We know that that is exactly what is coming for us when we die.

00:44:32.058 --> 00:44:33.398
I have no illusions about that.

00:44:33.398 --> 00:44:49.138
It's one of the reasons that I'm so insistent on being precise and being consistent and being clear about the things that I teach, the things that I believe, and why I spend the amount of time and effort that I do in order to back them up, because I want to be completely right on these issues.

00:44:49.138 --> 00:45:05.178
Not just because, of course, I have my own concerns about what is coming for me at the judgment, but I also want other men to stand before God with a clean conscience, and with a true confession that doesn't have errors and other problems.

00:45:05.178 --> 00:45:16.758
I want that for all the men who listen to me as well, because I recognize that I am in a position where men listen to me and weigh somewhat heavily the things that I say.

00:45:16.758 --> 00:45:25.418
They are going to hear the words as I choose to speak them, and in some cases just simply believe them.

00:45:25.418 --> 00:45:30.898
And so I recognize the sort of burden, the sort of duty that comes along with that.

00:45:30.898 --> 00:46:00.578
But to return specifically to your question, and I'm looking at just a tiny fraction of my library I have here in my study, most of it's down the hall in another room, but as far as which books I would recommend you grab, again, part of it is going to depend on your tradition, on your denomination, because you should be reading the things from your theologians, because again, you should know why you believe the things you believe, and just knowing the things you believe, first off.

00:46:00.578 --> 00:46:09.618
Certainly have a copy of your confession, know that well, know what it says, know if you agree with it, because if you don't, then you have some problems.

00:46:10.778 --> 00:46:17.718
But more general recommendations, I would definitely say, if you can find it used by all means, do that.

00:46:17.958 --> 00:46:25.898
But grab a PDF copy if you don't want to spend the money, because I hate the prices from CPH and others.

00:46:25.898 --> 00:46:29.398
It's highway robbery, it's terrible, it's anti-Christian.

00:46:29.398 --> 00:46:35.538
But the eight-volume set of Luther's commentary on Genesis is very worth having.

00:46:35.538 --> 00:46:39.918
Unfortunately, it's $45 to $50 a volume, which again, is highway robbery.

00:46:39.918 --> 00:46:44.058
I hate that they do that, but it's just the reality of where we are right now.

00:46:44.058 --> 00:46:46.178
Capitalism has infested the church as well.

00:46:48.118 --> 00:46:55.838
In addition to sort of that Luther volume, then it's going to be which sort of areas interest you.

00:46:55.838 --> 00:46:59.598
If you're more interested in election, collect volumes on that.

00:46:59.598 --> 00:47:02.958
If you're interested in the history of the church, you can grab volumes on that.

00:47:02.958 --> 00:47:04.718
There are great volumes on that.

00:47:04.718 --> 00:47:12.218
You can read some of the church fathers, Eusebius and others who collected and wrote things about the history of the church.

00:47:12.218 --> 00:47:19.458
There is a wealth of information out there, but I want to offer a sort of general recommendation.

00:47:19.458 --> 00:47:23.058
That is, don't just collect books to collect books.

00:47:23.058 --> 00:47:26.078
There's not necessarily anything wrong with that.

00:47:26.078 --> 00:47:30.418
And if they're good books, then maybe building the library so you can one day pass it down, that's fine.

00:47:30.418 --> 00:47:32.118
That's perfectly acceptable.

00:47:32.118 --> 00:47:33.158
There's a reason to do that.

00:47:33.158 --> 00:47:35.638
That's good that some men do it.

00:47:35.638 --> 00:47:39.378
But don't just read books to read books.

00:47:39.378 --> 00:47:41.238
That's not beneficial to anyone.

00:47:41.238 --> 00:47:45.658
If you're doing it with fiction, that's fine, because that's entertainment, that's leisure, it's a different thing.

00:47:45.658 --> 00:47:53.158
But if you're just trying to power through as many theology books as you possibly can, you're going to get very little out of it.

00:47:53.158 --> 00:47:58.238
What you're going to do is you're going to have it go in one ear and out the other.

00:47:58.238 --> 00:48:07.998
That's just the reality of it, because you're not going to be able to retain 50, 60, 70 books a year, whatever it is these people who try to power through book after book after book.

00:48:08.098 --> 00:48:22.618
It is much better to know something well than to have this sort of surface level knowledge of a whole bunch of things, and never actually dive into any of them, and never actually have a deep understanding of any of the topics.

00:48:22.618 --> 00:48:38.178
And so find an area that particularly interests you, figure out which volumes in that area are considered the pinnacle of scholarship in the history of the church, and then move outward from there.

00:48:39.798 --> 00:48:45.878
Basically, take a deeper dive in things, instead of the surface level in which so many engage these days.

00:48:45.878 --> 00:48:52.218
The point isn't to say, you know, I've read, and I realize some are going to say, oh, there's hypocrisy here.

00:48:52.218 --> 00:48:54.458
I don't think that there's necessarily hypocrisy here.

00:48:54.458 --> 00:48:57.758
Yes, I've certainly read a lot.

00:48:57.758 --> 00:49:13.318
But in part, it has helped me to recognize, and I certainly then have the sort of standing, as it were, to say, it's better to have a deeper knowledge of a handful of things than a trivial knowledge of a thousand things.

00:49:13.318 --> 00:49:19.778
You know, it's the old, a man who's practiced one kick a thousand times, or a thousand kicks one time sort of thing.

00:49:19.778 --> 00:49:24.538
So, that's sort of my general recommendation with regard to these things.

00:49:24.538 --> 00:49:27.478
But of course, the primary recommendation is just read the scriptures.

00:49:28.418 --> 00:49:40.258
Too many men spend a hundred hours a week, whatever it happens to be, that's obviously sort of the far end of things, an exaggeration almost, hyperbole.

00:49:40.258 --> 00:49:46.338
They spend a hundred hours a week reading theology, and then they spend twenty minutes a day reading God's Word.

00:49:46.338 --> 00:49:47.778
Don't do that.

00:49:47.778 --> 00:49:51.938
Spend at least as much time in God's Word as you do in various other books.

00:49:51.938 --> 00:49:53.878
God is the one who's going to speak to you through his Word.

00:49:53.878 --> 00:49:59.138
Yes, he can speak to you through these other men as well, but you want to spend your time with God.

00:49:59.138 --> 00:50:08.358
And a related, a tangentially related thing here, sort of a little off from the question, of course, but pray.

00:50:08.358 --> 00:50:18.618
This is one of those things that I have been thinking about recently, and really for a number of years, but most of us don't pray enough.

00:50:18.618 --> 00:50:25.378
It's one thing to spend hours and hours in God's Word and in theology and discussing it and all of these things.

00:50:25.438 --> 00:50:25.958
These are important.

00:50:25.958 --> 00:50:27.738
They're parts of the Christian life.

00:50:27.738 --> 00:50:30.978
It's important to discuss these things with other men.

00:50:30.978 --> 00:50:32.438
But pray.

00:50:32.438 --> 00:50:39.518
We're supposed to be constantly in prayer, and prayer is part of how we have this conversation with God.

00:50:39.518 --> 00:50:43.138
We talk to God in prayer, God talks to us in His Word.

00:50:43.138 --> 00:50:51.958
And if we're just reading His Word or we're just reading theology, we're missing half of what's supposed to be a conversation.

00:50:51.958 --> 00:50:58.218
We're supposed to have, and I know some men hate to hear this word because it's been so abused in the churches in recent decades.

00:50:58.218 --> 00:51:00.298
We're supposed to have a relationship with God.

00:51:00.298 --> 00:51:01.938
We are.

00:51:01.938 --> 00:51:03.158
And we know that.

00:51:03.158 --> 00:51:06.938
It's not what the modern non-denominational churches and other made.

00:51:06.938 --> 00:51:08.438
I'm not saying that.

00:51:08.438 --> 00:51:10.378
But what does God say He is to us?

00:51:10.378 --> 00:51:12.318
What does He say that we are to Him?

00:51:12.318 --> 00:51:16.138
He's our Father, and we're His sons.

00:51:16.138 --> 00:51:20.158
You're supposed to have a relationship with your earthly father.

00:51:20.158 --> 00:51:22.638
You're certainly supposed to have a relationship with your heavenly father.

00:51:23.178 --> 00:51:33.698
And so, make sure that prayer is part of this, not just reading as many books as possible, or even just spending untold hours in Scripture, and never talking to God.

00:51:33.698 --> 00:51:37.658
At the very least, as I recommended so many times, just pray the Lord's Prayer.

00:51:37.658 --> 00:51:40.338
It's the one that Christ said we should pray.

00:51:40.338 --> 00:51:46.218
And if God Himself says, this is how you should pray, we should at least use it sometimes.

00:51:46.218 --> 00:51:49.718
I personally recommend the traditional way of saying, you know, say it before meals.

00:51:50.258 --> 00:51:52.818
Say it when you wake up, say it before you go to sleep.

00:51:52.818 --> 00:51:55.138
That gives you four or five times a day.

00:51:55.138 --> 00:52:03.738
That's at least a foundation for building that sort of relationship, that right mindset, that right orientation toward God.

00:52:03.738 --> 00:52:09.258
And of course, you're returning thanks to Him for all these things as well, which is a very important part of the Christian life.

00:52:12.658 --> 00:52:21.438
Advice or reading material for long-term political or grassroots work, particularly when things get uglier in America?

00:52:23.718 --> 00:52:28.898
There is a non-trivial chance, of course, that things are going to get very ugly.

00:52:28.898 --> 00:52:34.398
There's also a chance that things will get better, because, of course, miracles exist.

00:52:34.398 --> 00:52:37.338
And I know there are those who will say that, oh, we can't just rely on a miracle.

00:52:37.338 --> 00:52:40.298
Well, every day is a miracle, quite frankly.

00:52:40.298 --> 00:52:45.358
Yes, there are extraordinary miracles, but the fact that I'm still breathing is a miracle.

00:52:46.138 --> 00:52:48.618
The fact that any of us is alive is a miracle.

00:52:48.618 --> 00:52:52.378
The fact that we have faith is a miracle, because that's a specific miracle.

00:52:52.378 --> 00:52:57.178
God actually had to reach down into creation and give you the gift of faith.

00:52:57.178 --> 00:52:59.098
That's a miracle, certainly.

00:52:59.098 --> 00:53:04.298
But with regard to reading material and things like that, get practical books.

00:53:04.298 --> 00:53:08.198
I have an entire section of my library that is just practical stuff.

00:53:08.198 --> 00:53:11.078
I have thank you to the person who sent a new one, by the way.

00:53:11.078 --> 00:53:13.138
I have books on beekeeping.

00:53:13.138 --> 00:53:14.658
I have some books on woodworking.

00:53:14.718 --> 00:53:18.578
I hope I don't have to personally do that, because I'd like to keep all of my fingers.

00:53:18.578 --> 00:53:25.678
I have books on various forms of regenerative farming, both forest and open field.

00:53:25.678 --> 00:53:30.858
It's good to have that practical knowledge, because that's something that's fallen away in recent years.

00:53:30.858 --> 00:53:35.298
Many of us, and particularly with this audience, it's undoubtedly true.

00:53:35.298 --> 00:53:42.418
You get the theoretical knowledge and all these other subjects, but we let the practical things fall to the wayside.

00:53:43.058 --> 00:53:53.518
And I don't think that's a good way to go through life, because it's important to spend time on things that are sort of purely of the mind.

00:53:53.518 --> 00:53:55.898
But we're not just mind.

00:53:55.898 --> 00:53:57.478
We're not just spirit.

00:53:57.478 --> 00:54:00.878
I believe in the tripartite division of man, of course.

00:54:00.878 --> 00:54:01.878
We're also flesh.

00:54:01.878 --> 00:54:02.738
We're also body.

00:54:02.738 --> 00:54:05.338
It's important to have that real anchor into the world.

00:54:05.338 --> 00:54:10.818
And part of the way you can do that is to have things that are concrete in your life.

00:54:11.318 --> 00:54:13.498
I, of course, have chickens, and I have to take care of them.

00:54:13.498 --> 00:54:16.938
I have to go down there and feed them and muck them out, do all those various things.

00:54:16.938 --> 00:54:22.498
It's important to have that tangible concrete relationship and connection to the world.

00:54:22.498 --> 00:54:31.998
And that will also serve you well if things go sideways with regard to our country, because you will have practical skills.

00:54:31.998 --> 00:54:41.018
You will have things that are actually useful, regardless of what society is currently doing, because people are always going to need food.

00:54:41.018 --> 00:55:00.398
If you have books on growing food in the forest, or growing food in the field, and doing it in a regenerative way, doing it in a sustainable way, in a way that is better for not just humanity, not just for the people you're feeding, but also for your land, because don't forget, if you don't take care of your land, well, it stops feeding you eventually.

00:55:00.398 --> 00:55:05.298
We're running into that problem now with huge chunks of our farmland in the middle of the United States.

00:55:06.738 --> 00:55:11.878
If you have those sorts of skills, they're going to be valuable at all times.

00:55:11.878 --> 00:55:22.278
Even today, where we live with relative abundance, if you're able to grow some of your own produce, for instance, it's going to be far better than what you'd get in those grocery stores.

00:55:22.278 --> 00:55:26.878
I know that basically everything that comes out of my garden is better than what I can get at the store.

00:55:26.878 --> 00:55:31.638
Certainly, produce is a world of difference, and the eggs I get are better from the chickens.

00:55:31.718 --> 00:55:43.398
So, having a practical section for your library is incredibly important, with regard to the perhaps specifically political.

00:55:43.398 --> 00:55:57.598
If that is something in which you are interested and you have the capacity to read that sort of thing and dedicate the time and the effort and can see some sort of return on it, classical political theory is the way to go.

00:55:57.598 --> 00:56:05.978
And a huge component of that that is often neglected, and I'm looking at a book on my shelf that I have related to it, rhetoric.

00:56:05.978 --> 00:56:07.538
Get classic books on rhetoric.

00:56:07.538 --> 00:56:29.578
That is a huge part of these things, because if you are doing anything in the political space and you are not able to speak in a way that can actually get men to become engaged, that can get men to listen, not only listen to your words, but listen to your words and want to act, and then go on to act, because of the things that you have said.

00:56:29.578 --> 00:56:34.078
If you can't do that, you are never going to be effective in politics.

00:56:34.078 --> 00:56:48.798
There are men who are geniuses, who know certain areas of whatever it happens to be, regulatory law or some aspect of the government, forward, backward, inside out, upside down.

00:56:48.798 --> 00:56:52.058
They know it better than any man who's ever lived.

00:56:52.058 --> 00:56:57.238
But they are more boring to listen to than watching paint dry.

00:56:57.238 --> 00:57:05.718
They are never going to get anywhere unless they can find a man who can translate that into actually effective rhetoric.

00:57:05.718 --> 00:57:10.258
The Greeks and the Romans understood this far better than most men in modern society.

00:57:10.258 --> 00:57:15.758
There are a handful of political exceptions, some more obvious than others.

00:57:15.758 --> 00:57:18.198
Bismarck is a great one.

00:57:18.198 --> 00:57:23.538
If you are good at rhetoric, you are going to be more effective in most parts of your life.

00:57:23.538 --> 00:57:38.538
It's one of the things that good pastors should certainly study, because even if you're not using it, say, to manipulate people, which of course is one of the things you can do with rhetoric, it's one of the sort of abuse, not always an abuse, but often an abuse.

00:57:40.158 --> 00:57:53.238
Even if you are just trying to get men to listen, to learn something, to pay attention to your words, being able to deliver them in an effective way is going to make you far more effective.

00:57:53.718 --> 00:57:57.738
You are going to actually see returns on your investment.

00:57:57.738 --> 00:57:59.598
You are going to achieve something.

00:57:59.598 --> 00:58:06.378
Because any man can learn a great deal about a particular area, and then go and shout into the void.

00:58:06.378 --> 00:58:11.138
That doesn't accomplish anything, except maybe entertaining him if he's a little strange.

00:58:11.138 --> 00:58:21.558
You have to be able to speak to other men, to convince other men, to get other men to change their opinions, and to follow you if you're going to be a political leader, certainly.

00:58:22.198 --> 00:58:31.138
And so, the short recommendation is practical books, political theory, and rhetoric, included in that political theory.

00:58:31.138 --> 00:58:35.378
Most of these things have been known since ancient times.

00:58:35.378 --> 00:58:39.838
Much of it's contained in scripture as well, because, of course, read Proverbs, read Ecclesiastes.

00:58:41.278 --> 00:58:44.758
But these things are not new, they're not novel.

00:58:44.758 --> 00:58:47.118
These books have existed for a long time.

00:58:47.778 --> 00:58:50.958
We've just neglected to read them in the modern world.

00:58:57.865 --> 00:59:00.705
We'll.

00:59:00.705 --> 00:59:05.925
Not certain how long I will go tonight, but I guess at least another, say, 20 minutes.

00:59:13.227 --> 00:59:16.427
Easy question here, how is Gizmo and how are the chickens?

00:59:16.927 --> 00:59:19.227
They're both doing well.

00:59:19.227 --> 00:59:20.547
They're quite happy.

00:59:20.547 --> 00:59:24.747
Have a new kitten, and Gizmo has very mixed feelings about that.

00:59:24.747 --> 00:59:26.647
But other than that, all is well.

00:59:26.647 --> 00:59:31.867
He's been hanging out in my study, making sure that he's still the favorite, so.

00:59:31.867 --> 00:59:34.907
And sulking a little bit, but he is a Pomeranian, so I did kind of expect that.

00:59:40.181 --> 00:59:45.301
The question about the Russian Revolution when the country was almost entirely orthodox.

00:59:46.601 --> 00:59:50.221
That starts to be a fairly long and complicated topic.

00:59:50.221 --> 00:59:56.421
I think I may save that one for next time, or perhaps the time after that.

00:59:56.421 --> 01:00:01.961
The short answer is, it is always possible to subvert something.

01:00:01.961 --> 01:00:04.881
And Satan is particularly good at it.

01:00:04.881 --> 01:00:12.661
He has always been very effective at finding fault lines or creating fault lines and leading men astray.

01:00:12.661 --> 01:00:19.221
And this is one of the reasons that teachers and political leaders and others are so important.

01:00:19.221 --> 01:00:30.161
And it is important to make sure that they're not just good at their job, as it were, but they actually have right beliefs and want to translate those into policy.

01:00:30.161 --> 01:00:35.141
Because a wicked man who is competent can do an unfathomable amount of harm.

01:00:36.521 --> 01:00:39.241
Stalin was an unbelievably evil man.

01:00:39.241 --> 01:00:43.281
He is undoubtedly in one of the deepest pits of hell right now.

01:00:43.281 --> 01:00:50.421
But he was a very effective political leader, one of the most effective, probably, in history.

01:00:50.421 --> 01:01:02.141
And it is vitally important that those sorts of men are identified and removed by the state, because they can cause untold harm.

01:01:02.141 --> 01:01:13.701
In fact, there were many opportunities leading up to the Russian Revolution, to remove some of those revolutionaries, and the various leaders of Europe neglected to do so.

01:01:13.701 --> 01:01:22.441
They simply watched them, in some cases, aided them, unfortunately, and so tens of millions died as a result.

01:01:23.701 --> 01:01:34.161
And it is a warning to us, that even in a Christian nation, at least a largely Christian nation, there's a question about how deep the faith was at the time, of course.

01:01:34.261 --> 01:01:37.041
Many of them are Christians, I won't deny that for a second.

01:01:37.041 --> 01:01:41.181
There were some very dedicated Christians, many of them died in the gulags.

01:01:41.181 --> 01:01:54.061
But even in a Christian nation, that sort of subversion and wickedness is possible, because there is always evil in the hearts of men, and Satan will always find a way to latch on to that and organize evil toward his own ends.

01:01:54.061 --> 01:01:58.981
It is something against which we have to be constantly vigilant.

01:01:58.981 --> 01:02:01.321
It is part of the Christian life, it's part of being a Christian man.

01:02:02.181 --> 01:02:10.661
There is no rest, as it were, in this life, because you enter God's rest, that's the next life, that's paradise.

01:02:10.661 --> 01:02:11.901
In this life, it's work.

01:02:11.901 --> 01:02:19.061
In this life, it's toil, it's hardship, it's suffering in many cases, and that is the reality of life.

01:02:19.061 --> 01:02:22.521
Of course, there's joy as well, because we still live in God's world.

01:02:22.521 --> 01:02:34.841
God's world is still good, His good gifts still exist, we still have all of the various blessings, but we don't get to rest on our laurels ever, no matter how good it is.

01:02:34.841 --> 01:02:38.421
At the height of Christendom, men became too lax.

01:02:38.421 --> 01:02:42.861
They should have been vigilant to maintain that, and then it would have been passed down to us.

01:02:42.861 --> 01:02:47.121
We would have inherited something far better than what we have today.

01:02:47.121 --> 01:02:48.921
They were not vigilant.

01:02:48.921 --> 01:02:58.281
It is our duty to be vigilant if God puts us in such a position where we again have those opportunities, where we have the blessings our ancestors had.

01:02:58.281 --> 01:03:04.221
It is something that was neglected in Europe during that period, and it caused untold suffering.

01:03:04.221 --> 01:03:06.161
We're still suffering the consequences of it.

01:03:14.038 --> 01:03:21.718
What is your take on why women go to non-denominational churches and men go to traditional churches?

01:03:21.718 --> 01:03:32.778
I sort of answered that one earlier when I posted that the women who are going to the non-denominational churches are largely headless, and that's just the reality of it.

01:03:32.778 --> 01:03:46.478
Women who have a head, an actual head who does what he is supposed to do, are by and large not the ones going to those churches, certainly not the ones who are being shown in the images that have been passed around on X and other places recently.

01:03:47.818 --> 01:03:57.378
Because the men in their lives should be the ones who are leading them to the truth, who are leading them to where they should be, the women are not going to do this on their own, because women are not their own heads.

01:03:57.378 --> 01:03:58.138
They cannot be.

01:03:58.138 --> 01:04:01.738
Definitionally, a woman is not her own head, someone else is.

01:04:01.738 --> 01:04:06.638
And so the question is, who is the head with regard to these women?

01:04:06.638 --> 01:04:12.738
Well, the father is clearly absent in many of these cases, which is a big part of the problem.

01:04:12.738 --> 01:04:17.098
Many of them are at the age where they should have been married already, and so there's no husband to act as the head.

01:04:17.098 --> 01:04:18.778
That's part of the problem.

01:04:18.778 --> 01:04:26.318
And most of them have elected a head that is either the state or some random political figure.

01:04:26.318 --> 01:04:29.058
That's a recipe for disaster.

01:04:29.058 --> 01:04:34.678
God has not given women collectively to be wards of the state.

01:04:34.678 --> 01:04:44.418
A woman is supposed to have a husband, and she's supposed to have a father who's active and involved in her life and has trained her up in the way she should go, and then passes her to a godly husband.

01:04:44.418 --> 01:04:45.938
That is the way things are supposed to be.

01:04:45.938 --> 01:04:51.098
And so these women are headless, and so they're basically running around like headless chickens.

01:04:51.098 --> 01:04:53.018
That's exactly what they're doing.

01:04:53.018 --> 01:04:58.578
The men are not doing that, because a man is his own head once he reaches a certain age.

01:04:58.578 --> 01:05:00.318
And so men don't have that problem.

01:05:00.318 --> 01:05:03.598
That's why you see the women doing these things, and you don't see the men doing them.

01:05:04.698 --> 01:05:08.298
It is a problem on both sides, of course.

01:05:08.298 --> 01:05:14.038
I'm not going to say that you can just blame women entirely, because of course, women aren't their own head.

01:05:14.038 --> 01:05:25.538
And if a woman is not her own head, then the men who have neglected to act as head, who were given that office, that position by God, ultimately they are to blame, and they will answer to God for that.

01:05:25.538 --> 01:05:28.978
Yes, of course, women still answer for their own sins.

01:05:28.978 --> 01:05:34.938
I'm never going to be the one who says, oh, no, women can't sin because women don't have autonomy, or whatever it happens to be.

01:05:34.938 --> 01:05:37.438
No, women are still responsible for their own sins.

01:05:37.438 --> 01:05:40.318
Eve was still responsible for eating the apple.

01:05:40.318 --> 01:05:46.098
Adam had the greater sin, because he did not act as her head, as he was supposed to do.

01:05:46.098 --> 01:05:50.478
What he should have done is rebuked her and killed the snake, and he didn't do it.

01:05:50.478 --> 01:05:51.898
That's why we have these problems today.

01:05:51.898 --> 01:05:53.738
We have a lack of headship.

01:05:53.738 --> 01:06:02.898
Part of it, of course, is our society is incredibly, deeply wicked, designed in order to make it difficult or nearly impossible in some cases for men to exercise headship.

01:06:02.898 --> 01:06:07.458
But just because something is difficult does not mean we are absolved of the duty to do it.

01:06:07.458 --> 01:06:10.378
And so fathers still have a duty to raise their daughters well.

01:06:10.378 --> 01:06:12.558
Husbands still have a duty to lead their wives.

01:06:12.558 --> 01:06:14.298
And they should be doing so.

01:06:14.298 --> 01:06:18.778
That's why we see this sort of split, because women are headless, and men are not doing what they're supposed to do.

01:06:35.255 --> 01:06:39.695
How familiar are you with Eastern Germany, any places you would suggest visiting?

01:06:40.995 --> 01:06:47.715
I am familiar with Berlin and the surrounding area, and it's worth a visit.

01:06:47.715 --> 01:06:53.155
There are certain neighborhoods that are not great, but they're pretty easy to identify, just don't go there.

01:06:53.155 --> 01:07:05.235
And they're not the ones you want to visit anyway, because as a tourist, you're going to want to be in Mitte, which is the center of the town, Prenzlauer Berg and a couple places like that, which have the restaurants and the museums and all those things.

01:07:05.235 --> 01:07:12.175
So just go to those places, and you've basically seen what you want to see if you just go there.

01:07:12.175 --> 01:07:14.895
Berlin is nowhere near as bad as Paris, for instance.

01:07:14.895 --> 01:07:20.655
I did not particularly enjoy visiting Paris, unfortunately, because Paris is a wonderful city.

01:07:20.655 --> 01:07:24.335
The people currently occupying Paris are not wonderful.

01:07:24.335 --> 01:07:31.775
But Berlin has world-class museums, probably the best museums in the world, despite seemingly no one actually knowing that.

01:07:32.435 --> 01:07:39.575
And they are in large part concentrated in one part of the city, conveniently called Museum Island.

01:07:39.575 --> 01:07:42.795
But there are some others that are spread throughout the city that are also worth visiting.

01:07:42.795 --> 01:07:45.955
So that would be one of my recommendations.

01:07:45.955 --> 01:07:52.035
As far as other parts of East Germany are concerned, I'm less familiar with East Germany, of course.

01:07:52.035 --> 01:07:56.075
I am less familiar with that because I did spend most of my time in Berlin.

01:08:23.076 --> 01:08:32.176
I think that I am going to have to get to some of these next time because they are lengthier answers to some of these questions.

01:08:40.072 --> 01:08:54.472
Given the framework handed to us by the actions of the prophets, for example, Daniel, could it be within reason to agree that prophecy has reached individuals post-Christ even within apostatized nations?

01:08:54.472 --> 01:08:59.172
And how should we as Christians navigate self-proclaimed prophets and their messages?

01:09:01.732 --> 01:09:05.952
I am not a cessationist, because Lutherans aren't cessationists.

01:09:05.952 --> 01:09:07.412
We've never been so.

01:09:07.412 --> 01:09:08.992
That's not part of our confession.

01:09:09.032 --> 01:09:13.072
There are some who are cessationists, not Lutherans, but there are some Christians who are.

01:09:13.072 --> 01:09:17.192
And I'm not saying they don't have no argument whatsoever.

01:09:17.192 --> 01:09:25.372
I don't believe that there are any prophets, except for the final two in Revelation.

01:09:25.372 --> 01:09:27.112
That's a different thing.

01:09:27.112 --> 01:09:39.032
But the problem with a prophet, a so-called prophet, rising up today, would be if he says anything that's at odds with Scripture, he's not a prophet.

01:09:39.032 --> 01:09:43.052
Anything else he says is just going to be repeating what we have in Scripture.

01:09:43.052 --> 01:09:45.972
And so, of what value is he?

01:09:45.972 --> 01:09:52.892
And it seems like most of the sign gifts ended with the Apostolic age.

01:09:52.892 --> 01:09:55.692
So basically, they died at the same time as John.

01:09:55.692 --> 01:09:59.252
That's not to say that God can't hand out extraordinary gifts today.

01:09:59.252 --> 01:10:02.092
I think that he still does in some cases.

01:10:02.092 --> 01:10:05.012
But by and large, we don't see miraculous healing.

01:10:05.572 --> 01:10:08.592
We don't, despite what some TV preachers claim.

01:10:08.592 --> 01:10:11.352
We don't see the dead coming back to life.

01:10:11.352 --> 01:10:26.272
These sorts of gifts that were given out in order to stamp what the apostles were preaching and teaching with God's stamp of approval, with his authority, that was closed in the Apostolic age, largely.

01:10:26.272 --> 01:10:30.112
Again, not in the sense of being a firm closure of God can't.

01:10:30.112 --> 01:10:32.512
I'm not saying that, because certainly God can.

01:10:33.332 --> 01:10:37.152
But I personally do not believe there are any prophets today.

01:10:37.152 --> 01:10:46.072
I think perhaps there are those who are given certain gifts that look a little bit like prophecy, but they're not giving any new message from God.

01:10:46.072 --> 01:10:52.792
God has given us the final word in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

01:10:52.792 --> 01:10:57.532
And as Revelation says, anyone who adds to or subtracts from is cursed.

01:10:57.532 --> 01:11:03.292
And so, no prophet is going to arise that's going to give us anything new, certainly.

01:11:03.292 --> 01:11:14.232
And so, the question would be, again, of what utility would someone saying, I'm a prophet, and then saying the same thing we have in Scripture be, is he a prophet or is he just repeating what we already have?

01:11:14.232 --> 01:11:27.452
Because in the sort of limited sense of prophet, you can say that anyone who is teaching God's word is a prophet, because that's one of the things called a prophet in Scripture, is someone who is teaching God's word.

01:11:28.272 --> 01:11:34.752
But of course, when we think of prophet, and undoubtedly what the question is, is someone who has a new word from God.

01:11:34.752 --> 01:11:36.912
And Revelation clearly forecloses that.

01:11:36.912 --> 01:11:44.192
So, no, I do not think there are any prophets today, and basically they're all at the absolute best scammers.

01:11:44.192 --> 01:11:47.952
They are just making money off of the gullible.

01:11:47.952 --> 01:11:51.712
Some of them are very clearly demonically oppressed.

01:11:51.712 --> 01:12:01.772
I can think of some certain pastors in mega churches in Texas, who I don't know how anyone sits in the pews and doesn't realize that it's an actual demon standing there preaching to them.

01:12:18.921 --> 01:12:34.401
I do think that most of the rest of these questions are going to have to be for next time, because they are, again, longer answers, and I didn't tend to run for about an hour, and I think we're just a bit over that now.

01:12:34.401 --> 01:12:38.441
So, see if there's a short one here.

01:12:39.541 --> 01:12:41.581
Is the crucifix the Lutheran norm?

01:12:41.581 --> 01:12:44.281
The answer to that one is indeed very short and easy, yes.

01:12:45.901 --> 01:12:56.161
Our churches, essentially, always have a crucifix, but the use of the ordinary cross without the corpus, without the body, also very standard.

01:12:56.161 --> 01:13:03.601
You can see behind me, there's both a crucifix and, on this side, actually, also an iron cross there.

01:13:03.601 --> 01:13:07.021
And I'm wearing a necklace that is not a crucifix.

01:13:07.021 --> 01:13:12.201
It's just a cross, incidentally made of Irish marble.

01:13:12.321 --> 01:13:15.041
So, for the Irish listeners, a little...

01:13:15.041 --> 01:13:16.701
a nod to my Celtic brothers there.

01:13:28.392 --> 01:13:40.632
I do not think that I have any other short ones right now, so I think I may bring this to a close for this episode, as it were.

01:13:40.632 --> 01:13:42.832
I will try to do this every Thursday.

01:13:42.832 --> 01:13:45.492
I think that's the goal going forward.

01:13:45.492 --> 01:13:55.572
The overall point is basically to make a library of answers to questions so that I can point people to them instead of answering the same question over and over and over.

01:13:55.572 --> 01:14:03.112
It's much more efficient use of my time and more helpful to others if there's a library and then other people can point to my answers as well.

01:14:03.112 --> 01:14:21.112
So I will make the video of this available, I will make the audio available, I'll run off a transcript so it's searchable, and perhaps figure out how to insert the time stamps into the video so that people can go to the exact question and answer instead of having to listen to the whole thing.

01:14:21.112 --> 01:14:28.272
So thank you for those who sent in questions, and thank you for those who listened to this, and for those who listen in the future.

01:14:28.272 --> 01:14:38.592
And keep sending questions so that I have them for next week, and if you send them earlier, then I have a little more time to prepare to answer them instead of answering them on the spot.

01:14:38.592 --> 01:14:47.712
So for some of the more complicated questions I saw in the queue, as it were, there, I will take the intervening time to prepare answers for those.

01:14:47.712 --> 01:14:54.132
And I think that's all for tonight, so may God bless all of you, and again, thank you for your time.

01:14:54.132 --> 01:14:54.792
Have a nice evening.