Transcript: AAC — 13 Feb 2026 (Q&A)

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It is the 13th of February, 2026.

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I am Corey J.

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Mahler, and this is At Any Cost.

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Before we get into the questions for this evening, I would like to address something that's related to some previous questions, but also somewhat separate from them.

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I said that I would address the, we'll call it an issue, it's not really an issue, but Ash Wednesday and how it is observed.

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And so, I'm going to start there tonight, as soon as I pull up my actual notes here.

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So, when it comes to Ash Wednesday, there are obviously going to be a number of issues for those who come from primarily the low church tradition, which the distinction between low church and high church, for those who don't know, is basically the degree of ceremony and liturgy and things like that that are present in the church service.

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And so, Lutherans, with some exceptions, are high church.

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The Roman Catholics are high church.

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The Baptist church down the street is low church.

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That's the distinction there.

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It's not necessarily implying that one is really good because it's high church and one is really bad because it's low church.

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It's sort of the equivalent of, in languages, a lot of times, you'll have a high and a low version.

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And a lot of times, it means geographically.

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So, for instance, low German is called low German because it's from an area that is closer to sea level.

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That's all it means.

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High German happened to become the standard largely because of Martin Luther, but that's a separate topic.

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And so, the first thing that I would say about observing Ash Wednesday, and of course, I'm getting into this because Ash Wednesday is coming up very soon here, but the first thing that I would say about it is that observing the church year itself is good.

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I'm not saying that you have to have one church year for the entirety of the world.

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I don't think you should because, for instance, you are going to have different saints in different nations, and I think that's perfectly fine.

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You can have your own calendar of saints for your nation.

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There are going to be saints that were particularly relevant, particularly significant to your people, that maybe don't matter to someone on the other side of the world, at least not as much.

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And so, the Germans will have different saints from the Americans, will have different saints from the French, will have different saints from, if the church is revived there, the Japanese.

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So, that's fine.

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But the basics of the church year are universal and should be universal because the basics of the church year, of course, and I will link to a church year calendar in the notes here.

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I'll put a note for myself, because I think it's very good to have that.

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And it's nice to have a poster of it.

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I have some posters that I need to get framed, but there's some very nice posters for the church year now, if that is the sort of thing you like to have in your home.

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But the basics are that you have the festival part of the church year and you have the time of the church part of the church year.

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Basically, it's split in half.

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And so, you have the lead up to Christmas, you have Christmas, you have the lead up to Easter, and you have Easter.

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That's sort of a very rough outline of it.

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Of course, there's other stuff in there as well.

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You have Epiphany and things like that.

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We're in Epiphany right now, for those who don't know.

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Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent.

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And I'm just going to go over how the Western church practices these things, because those of you who have decided to become very interested in the Eastern church have probably already delved into this, and you don't need me to tell you how your tradition practices it.

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And I'm a Western Christian, so I'm going over what the West does.

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In the Western tradition, Lent is the 40-day period, starting with Ash Wednesday, including Ash Wednesday, leading up to Easter Sunday.

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Now, that does not include the Sundays in that period.

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And the reason for that, this is actually a distinction between the East and the West, but the reason for that is that Sundays are always feast days.

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The distinction there is that you are fasting in some way, typically, that's part of the observation of the Lenten period.

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You don't fast on Sunday.

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It doesn't mean you can't, because if you give up whatever it happens to be, you give up coffee.

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And I went over that in a previous episode, so I'm not going to reiterate all of that here, but you give up something to remind you of Christ and his sacrifice, to serve as just that little impetus to remind you and make you think about these things.

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That's the goal there.

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It's not because you're worshiping God and warranting your salvation.

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It's not works righteousness, and I'll get into that more, but you don't have to go back to having that on Sundays, but that is traditionally how Western Christians have observed it, because Sunday again is a feast day.

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It is meant to be a celebration.

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Every Sunday church service is a celebration.

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And so that conflict there that you would have if you were fasting and celebrating at the same time, that was not a thing in the Western church, because we simply don't fast in that way on Sundays.

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As I pointed out before, some forms of fasting, completely fine on Sunday.

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I, for instance, hold to the ancient practice of fasting before you receive the sacrament on Sunday.

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Nothing wrong with that, completely fine.

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But then after that, celebrate that as a feast day.

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I think that is the correct practice.

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I'm not saying you have to.

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I think it is good practice.

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And so the 40 days are not including the Sundays in that period.

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40, of course, being a number that is related to how God deals with men and a period of some importance in the life of a person or the life of a nation, history, God's salvation, all these things.

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God likes the number 40 when dealing with human beings.

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You see this all over in the scriptures, all over in the Old Testament.

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And the focus then of this Lenten period in total, not just Ash Wednesday itself, but Ash Wednesday in particular has these elements, would be the nature and the reality of sin, the consequences of sin, which of course is death, death being the wages of sin, and then Christ's redemptive work.

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And the way that we have this, of course, on Ash Wednesday, is that it's hard not to remember that, you know, from dust you came into dust you shall return.

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It says earth in the Septuagint, but taking a little bit of literary license there, you recognize it means the same thing.

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You are the man of dust, the man of the earth.

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That's how mankind was made, formed from the dust to the ground.

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And so, you are reminding yourself, and through that church service, being reminded of the fact that you are of the earth, you are God's creation, but you are also fallen, and you will return to the dust, because you will die, unless God happens to come back right now, in which case, those of us who are currently alive don't die, we're transformed, it's a different thing, but everyone else dies.

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But you have that reminder of Christ's redemptive work as well, because you have the imposition of ashes in the symbol of a cross.

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That's your reminder.

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Yes, I am dust, but my sins have been forgiven by Christ, and so I will be resurrected, I will see eternal life, I will not taste the second death.

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But I want to go over some passages in scripture as well, and I know there's one in particular that those who have, will say, some hesitance with regard to Ash Wednesday and the way it's practiced.

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I will go over that one last, but I'm going to go over some other ones as well.

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So I will pull up Logos here.

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Thankfully, it cooperated.

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Always good to see that.

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And the first one I want to pull up here is, of course, from Jonah, and that's Jonah chapter three.

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Starting with verse five here.

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I will change the names to what you're used to, because this version of, this translation of scripture is very literal to the Greek.

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And the men of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the great among them unto the small among them.

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And the news reached the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne and removed his robe from himself, and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.

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And a proclamation was made, and it was spoken in Nineveh by the king and his nobles, saying, Let people and animals and cattle and sheep not taste anything or feed or drink water.

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And the people and animals put on sackcloth, and they cried fervently to God.

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And they turned each from his evil way, and from the injustice in his hands, saying, Who knows if God will repent and turn from the anger of his wrath, and we will not perish?

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And God saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil ways, and God repented at the calamity, which he said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

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Part of the reason to have a period, a season of penance, a season of fasting, is to recognize that we live in a sinful society, and we desperately need God's forgiveness.

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And these days, it is perhaps even more relevant for those of us living in the West, and for many of us living in America, because much of the audience is going to be American, not all, but much of the audience.

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Our government is incredibly wicked.

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We are living in a society that is incredibly evil, that is doing horrendously evil things, even as we speak.

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Perhaps more of them, because this is Friday night instead of Thursday night, but we live in evil times among evil people.

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That is unfortunate, and it would be great if we could have a king who would proclaim this sort of thing, and we would have a national period of fasting and repentance, calling on God to forgive us our sins and turn from our evil ways.

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But we as Christians, at the very least, we can personally do that, and we can do that in a corporate sense as Christian congregations.

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That's part of what this is.

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You are repenting of your sins, and there's nothing wrong with doing something that demonstrates that in a concrete fashion.

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I'm not saying you have to put on sackcloth and go about gloomy and do all of those things.

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Part of that is going to be cultural.

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We're dealing with a different people here in the Old Testament.

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But the imposition of ashes and reminding ourselves and others, because it serves that purpose as well, of the fact that we are fallen and we are sinful and we need God's forgiveness is a good thing.

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And it is part of making our society Christian.

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Having these sorts of practices in society demonstrates that the very least we want to have a Christian society, even if we currently very much do not.

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Then another example from the Old Testament here in Daniel 9.

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And I gave my face to the Lord God to find prayer and compassion with fasting and with ashes and sackcloth.

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And I prayed to the Lord God and acknowledged him and said, and I will let you read that if you are so inclined.

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And of course, I highly recommend you read through Daniel if you've never read it in the proper translation, which is from the Septuagint, of course.

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But again, you see fasting, sackcloth, ashes as part of repentance and part of calling on the Lord for deliverance in this case.

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And then the final example here, I'll pull from the New Testament.

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This is Luke 10, starting with verse 13.

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Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

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But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.

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And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven.

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You shall be brought down to Hades.

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These are the words of Christ, saying that that is how they would have responded, and it is a good thing that they would have done so.

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That is what we are doing when we observe Ash Wednesday.

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In the traditional way, the church has observed it for well over a thousand years, probably about fifteen or sixteen hundred years.

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This is a good tradition of the church, and I will get into more of that in just a second.

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But I know there's another passage that there are those who, again, don't like Ash Wednesday, or have some reason they believe that they should object to it, and they're going to want...

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I believe it's Matthew 6.

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Let me pull that up.

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Yes, it was.

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Matthew 6, of course, is the one they're going to think of.

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Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven.

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Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

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Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

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But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

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And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.

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Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

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But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door, and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

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And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

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Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him.

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And then skipping ahead to the verse, of course, which people have in mind here.

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And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces, that their fasting may be seen by others.

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Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.

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But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.

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And so, the objection that some people will bring up here is they'll try to say that, well, you're disfiguring your face, right?

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It's not the same thing here that is meant by disfiguring, but they'll try to say, you're doing it to be seen by others.

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You're doing this so you practice your righteousness before other men, and so you have your reward.

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It's not really for God.

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And the problem I have with that is that if you look at the fullness of the context here, the same exact argument could be leveled against public church services.

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Do you object to praying in a public church service?

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Do you object to singing hymns to God in a gathered congregation?

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You're doing it before others.

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The issue here is hypocrisy, as is often the case in scripture, as is often the case when Christ is condemning the wicked Jews, which is part of what he's doing here.

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The issue is not that you are necessarily doing something in public.

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Most of the Old Testament worship of God was conducted very publicly.

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Think of the temple service.

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Was that necessarily hypocritical because it was done in public?

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The answer is no.

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The problem here is if you do these things hypocritically, there is nothing wrong with having part of the practice of your Christianity be public.

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In fact, if you live in a Christian society, and we should all want to do so, part of the practice, part of the praxis of Christianity is necessarily going to be public.

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That's a good thing.

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So, what is being condemned here is not Ash Wednesday, it's not the imposition of ashes, it's not praying in public, it's not singing hymns in public, it's being a hypocrite, it's doing it to be seen by others instead of doing it for the sake of God.

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And that's a matter between the individual and God.

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If you are having the ashes imposed on your forehead so that you can go out and have other people see and say, look at what a righteous person I am, and I could certainly think of, there are some instances where the ashes have been used in a way that is inappropriate.

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You can think of some people who have gone on TV and said some things while wearing ashes on their forehead, that they should have been ashamed to say regardless.

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But the issue is hypocrisy, so don't be a hypocrite.

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But that almost goes without saying.

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And then the final point that I want to make about Ash Wednesday is really a matter of observing traditions and when it is good to do so.

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And the fundamental rule is very simple, very straightforward.

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As long as the tradition is not contrary to scripture, and as long as you are not using it in a way that is impermissible, which usually means believing that you are justified by your works, you're permitted to do it.

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And if it is for the sake of good order in the church or in society, then in some cases, you even should do it.

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I'm willing to go that far and say you should do it.

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I have an article on my site on the topic.

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I'll put that in the show notes as well.

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But these are to use the technical term adiaphora, adiaphora, whichever way you want to pronounce that.

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It is Greek translated into English, so use it whatever way you want.

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It's not binding, but in many cases, it is good.

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I would say the practice, the observance of these feasts and festivals in the church year, in the church calendar are good and that we should retain them.

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We observed them for a thousand years, more than a thousand years in Christendom.

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They were part of what reminded people they're Christian, their society is Christian, and it means something to be a Christian.

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And I think that's good.

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So, if you don't want to observe Ash Wednesday, it's not required of you.

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I think that you should.

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I think it's a good thing.

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I think it is part of the practice of Christianity, but it's not binding.

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It's not a sin not to observe it.

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And that's the same with many of these traditions.

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And I want to add a quote from Valter, the founder of the LCMS.

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And, yes, it does condemn Roman Catholicism in this case, but, and some other things as well.

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That's not the point.

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I want you to get the core point of what he is saying about the practice, about traditions, observing these things.

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We refuse to be guided by those who are offended by our church customs.

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We adhere to them all the more firmly when someone wants to cause us to have a guilty conscience on account of them.

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It is truly distressing that many of our fellow Christians find the difference between Lutheranism and Papism in outward things.

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It is a pity and dreadful cowardice when one sacrifices the good ancient church customs to please the deluded American sects, lest they accuse us of being papistic.

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There are many good church customs that have been handed down to us over the centuries, in some case millennia plus.

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They do not become bad because they were practiced by men who held false beliefs.

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The custom itself can be perfectly good and serviceable, and there's a related question I know coming up later in this episode, and I'll tie it back then.

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But the traditions can be good even if the men practicing at times had bad theology.

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The church year is one of those.

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Ash Wednesday is certainly one of those.

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And I think that suffices for addressing Ash Wednesday before it comes up this year, which it will shortly in the calendar here.

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The next question is a shorter one than the Ash Wednesday bit.

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What is the correct position on divorce?

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Can you explain in which cases divorce can be approved by the church, if ever?

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As I understand it, the conservative Roman Catholic position is never, unless your spouse dies, which makes the most sense to this questioner.

00:21:08.786 --> 00:21:11.866
What is the correct or Lutheran position on this?

00:21:11.866 --> 00:21:14.546
And he does say correct Lutheran position.

00:21:14.546 --> 00:21:20.746
So, the position on this, I'm just going to say that this is the correct position.

00:21:20.746 --> 00:21:25.506
I know there are men who would argue with me to some degree, but I think this is very clear from scripture.

00:21:25.506 --> 00:21:34.886
Obviously, the most straightforward, clear thing you can get is that Christ says, in cases of adultery, divorce is permitted.

00:21:35.646 --> 00:21:36.966
Period.

00:21:36.966 --> 00:21:38.946
That's straight from scripture.

00:21:38.946 --> 00:21:43.906
You cannot possibly argue with that and believe what scripture says, what Christ says.

00:21:43.906 --> 00:21:59.966
So, if your spouse commits adultery, you are, in fact, already divorced by the act of adultery, but you are permitted to then legally recognize that divorce, make it official as it were.

00:22:01.186 --> 00:22:05.086
That is permitted in scripture very clearly.

00:22:05.086 --> 00:22:21.866
I would say, and there are a number of theologians who have also said this, there are other things that are tantamount to infidelity, that are tantamount to adultery, and therefore, they are also permissible grounds for divorce.

00:22:21.866 --> 00:22:39.006
I think basically the only one that is ever relevant is abandonment, because there are requirements of spouses with regard to one another, and some of them cannot be fulfilled if you are physically absent.

00:22:39.006 --> 00:22:49.666
And so, abandonment, I believe, rises to the level of infidelity, because one of the things that you are supposed to do is make yourself available for your spouse.

00:22:50.606 --> 00:22:59.126
Not doing so is, I want to say, and it is accurate to say, that it's a mild form of adultery.

00:22:59.126 --> 00:23:02.446
I know there are people who object to that wording, but I could explain exactly why.

00:23:02.446 --> 00:23:05.166
But it is a form of infidelity.

00:23:05.166 --> 00:23:12.326
And so, I would say that abandonment then rises to the level of adultery.

00:23:12.326 --> 00:23:15.366
So, those are basically the two cases.

00:23:15.366 --> 00:23:30.326
I think maybe edge cases that could happen that rise the level of infidelity, but those are the ones that are going to actually happen that aren't just a philosophical experiment, which is very typically useless, often harmful in theological matters.

00:23:30.326 --> 00:23:42.646
So, that's the shorthand for when is divorce permissible, adultery, and things that are equivalent to adultery, which is, in the case of the adultery, the explicit adultery is just what Christ says.

00:23:42.646 --> 00:23:44.766
It's what Scripture says very clear, very plain.

00:23:45.866 --> 00:23:51.626
We are not allowed to change what Scripture says when it says something very clearly like that.

00:23:51.626 --> 00:24:02.746
We are not always required to punish things in the same way as Scripture does, because, for instance, some of the civil law in the Old Testament is not binding on us as Christians, so it's a recommendation.

00:24:02.746 --> 00:24:09.286
But, historically, the punishment in many times, in many places, for adultery has been the death penalty.

00:24:09.286 --> 00:24:18.686
And if the punishment for adultery is the death penalty, the issue of divorce kind of becomes irrelevant, for rather obvious reasons.

00:24:18.686 --> 00:24:31.366
I think we should return to punishing adultery much more severely, possibly even including capital punishment, which, again, makes the issue irrelevant, for obvious reasons.

00:24:32.766 --> 00:24:38.946
The next question is related to marriage, but not about marriage per se.

00:24:40.886 --> 00:24:45.206
In the past year, I have become fully convinced of all you said on Stone Choir.

00:24:45.206 --> 00:24:47.966
My wife is equally persuaded.

00:24:47.966 --> 00:24:58.866
She now feels isolated from making or keeping friends, because every time she brings up, they are replacing us, which is true, or our people, she is called a racist by others in the mom group.

00:24:58.866 --> 00:25:04.166
I nearly banned her from X, so she wouldn't see any more awful news, but she says the people there are her only community.

00:25:05.286 --> 00:25:07.906
Please help me think about this well.

00:25:09.406 --> 00:25:33.466
This is a very real challenge, because obviously, if you know the truth about something, or you have learned some deeper aspect of the truth, and it is something other people do not know, or worse, reject, that is going to estrange you from them to some degree, and that's kind of inevitable.

00:25:34.526 --> 00:25:39.586
I think there are maybe three things that I want to say about this.

00:25:39.586 --> 00:25:46.866
The first one, I would say, we all recognize that we have different friend groups, right?

00:25:46.866 --> 00:25:51.366
I have friends I know from being an attorney.

00:25:51.366 --> 00:25:55.706
I have friends I know from being involved in animal conservation.

00:25:55.706 --> 00:26:01.426
I have friends I know from being a right-wing white nationalist.

00:26:02.746 --> 00:26:11.006
The overlap for just those three groups, I'll just use those three and no more, not necessarily very high in some cases.

00:26:11.006 --> 00:26:20.166
So I'm probably not going to bring up what I've read about nationalist philosophy at an animal conservation event.

00:26:20.166 --> 00:26:32.746
I don't really go to those anymore since moving out of California, but for the sake of the hypothetical, we all recognize we have different groups of friends, and different groups of friends permit different topics.

00:26:32.746 --> 00:26:34.846
There's nothing necessarily wrong with that.

00:26:34.846 --> 00:26:43.086
There are cases in which it can rise the level of, you can't go along with evil, but you aren't necessarily always dealing with evil in these cases.

00:26:43.086 --> 00:26:46.406
So maybe just don't bring up certain topics with certain groups.

00:26:47.666 --> 00:26:52.846
Tell your wife to focus on some of the trivial stuff that's probably being discussed in those groups.

00:26:52.846 --> 00:26:59.786
If they start getting into things where, you know, they're evil, they could be, I don't know what this group is like.

00:26:59.786 --> 00:27:06.026
If it's a group of antifa moms, well, it's a real problem, she needs to not associate with those people because they're evil.

00:27:06.026 --> 00:27:10.046
You can't associate with them without becoming party to their evil.

00:27:10.046 --> 00:27:18.946
But if they're just not involved in this stuff, or they don't know about it, you don't necessarily have to bring them along all at once.

00:27:18.946 --> 00:27:25.506
You can drop little hints and things like that and kind of nudge them in the right direction if you have the skills to do that.

00:27:26.446 --> 00:27:36.286
But don't take the shotgun approach and try to get someone to believe all of the things that you've learned all at once, because it took you time.

00:27:37.526 --> 00:27:43.246
Maybe in this case, not as much time as some, but some people take years, some people take longer.

00:27:43.246 --> 00:27:49.026
You're not necessarily going to bring them up to speed right away, and if you try to, they're going to get shell shock.

00:27:49.026 --> 00:28:01.946
So I think that's the first point I would make is recognize you have different friend circles, and you're going to have to treat the people in them differently, because they are in fact different.

00:28:03.286 --> 00:28:05.126
So there's that aspect.

00:28:05.126 --> 00:28:06.166
That's really kind of the second point.

00:28:06.166 --> 00:28:09.386
The first point is just there are different kinds of truths, right?

00:28:09.386 --> 00:28:16.726
And maybe recognize that not everyone is ready for everything, which is related to that second point of the different friend circles.

00:28:18.106 --> 00:28:31.866
But the sort of final point that I would make is that things are progressing in our direction, and so in some ways, there will be doors that are open for things you can discuss that you couldn't discuss before.

00:28:33.166 --> 00:28:48.206
I think the most obvious example right now is, I don't know if I even want to say the name, because it probably gets you flagged in some way, but the gentleman who owned an island, I think that has opened up some doors for discussion of things that were previously unthinkable.

00:28:48.926 --> 00:29:00.086
You could not even consider broaching the topic of, did you know there are people who kidnap children and drink their blood?

00:29:00.086 --> 00:29:15.406
That would probably have got you some very strange looks, historically, and in fact it would, that you might not get today, because now people recognize that, oh wait, we actually have physical proof that this stuff was happening.

00:29:16.146 --> 00:29:27.346
So, as things continue to progress and trend in that direction, it opens up doors for that, which means you will find those like-minded people, or maybe bring some people along.

00:29:27.346 --> 00:29:33.466
And I guess a fourth point, sort of, you can find like-minded people.

00:29:33.466 --> 00:29:57.406
It is difficult in some places, I don't know what part of the country you're in, please don't tell me, because, you know, don't dox yourself, but if you can find like-minded people, great, so for instance, in your case, if you can find other men who are like-minded, who have managed to bring their wives along, introduce your wives.

00:29:57.406 --> 00:30:02.806
Have them become friends, and do whatever it is they're going to do with their time.

00:30:02.806 --> 00:30:14.246
That's a good thing, and that will help her a lot, even if it's just one or two additional friends, because depending on the kind of person, if you're an introvert or an extrovert, it's going to depend on how big your circle is, right?

00:30:14.366 --> 00:30:21.726
But just having a few like-minded friends you can be open and honest with is going to make a huge difference.

00:30:21.726 --> 00:30:23.926
You know that, and it's going to be the same way for her.

00:30:23.926 --> 00:30:33.666
So if you can find those married men who get along with you, and by all means, if they brought their wives along, introduce your wife to them.

00:30:33.666 --> 00:30:35.906
Those will be good friends for her.

00:30:35.906 --> 00:30:37.806
But no, it's a very serious topic.

00:30:37.806 --> 00:30:48.346
And yes, obviously, there is going to be some isolation when you know a truth that other people do not know, and it's an important one that you can't really let go.

00:30:48.346 --> 00:31:05.726
Particularly when you start seeing all of the evil things happening in our society, and you recognize them now, because you're looking at it and going, I know why that's happening, I know who's behind it, I know why that's done, I know why those words and those image, whatever it happens to be, we all know.

00:31:05.726 --> 00:31:08.846
It makes it more difficult not to say something, but sometimes you don't have a choice.

00:31:10.146 --> 00:31:16.206
You can't speak every truth at every instant in every situation.

00:31:16.206 --> 00:31:19.826
Some of these things call for wisdom and self-control.

00:31:22.126 --> 00:31:24.446
But again, yes, it's a difficult situation.

00:31:24.446 --> 00:31:27.626
So do the best that you can do to try to find her those friends.

00:31:27.626 --> 00:31:35.386
And yeah, I do think backing off on social media a little bit is probably extremely good for most people generally, but particularly for women.

00:31:36.106 --> 00:31:45.966
Because women are very subject to those social pressures, and the Skinner box is not good for women, which is just, that's all social media really is.

00:31:48.906 --> 00:32:00.266
The next question is one that I will answer it directly, but also answer sort of a more important, higher level question related to it.

00:32:00.266 --> 00:32:03.986
I heard that our worship practices were taken from the pagan Romans.

00:32:04.466 --> 00:32:05.826
What would you say about this?

00:32:05.826 --> 00:32:09.146
So, this is a question that comes up all the time.

00:32:09.146 --> 00:32:20.466
It comes up with regard to Easter and Ishtar and Christmas and Mithras and Sol Invictus and a thousand different things.

00:32:20.466 --> 00:32:24.366
The first answer is, it's complete nonsense.

00:32:24.366 --> 00:32:34.926
They're trying to connect things that in many cases aren't connected, or they're trying to claim things that are complete and utter insane nonsense.

00:32:34.926 --> 00:32:36.826
I can think of one in particular.

00:32:36.826 --> 00:32:39.906
There was a gentleman in, I believe, it was the 1800s.

00:32:39.906 --> 00:32:54.606
I've forgotten his name now, but he proclaimed himself an Egyptologist, didn't know anything about the subject, and then started saying that basically Jesus Christ was just a narrative of Horus.

00:32:54.606 --> 00:33:02.026
The problem is, he made a bunch of claims about Horus that have literally zero evidence anywhere.

00:33:02.026 --> 00:33:14.086
He just made them up, and now neo-pagans and some others will repeat them sometimes online, but they're just absurd, abject nonsense, literally without a shred of evidence.

00:33:15.186 --> 00:33:20.066
One in particular, not in the case of Horus, but say Mithras, right?

00:33:20.066 --> 00:33:23.366
Someone will try and claim, well, Mithras was born of a virgin, he was born of a rock.

00:33:23.366 --> 00:33:26.206
Read the story, go read the actual thing.

00:33:27.006 --> 00:33:28.346
It's not what they claim.

00:33:28.346 --> 00:33:36.006
So in many cases, just complete and utter nonsense and lies, because they're trying to deceive you, trying to make you doubt.

00:33:36.006 --> 00:33:47.346
But the more important question here than that is, is it wrong to take, so this is the hypothetical case, right?

00:33:47.346 --> 00:33:52.646
Is it wrong to take pagan practices and Christianize them?

00:33:52.646 --> 00:33:54.306
The answer is no.

00:33:54.306 --> 00:33:54.906
Nothing wrong with that.

00:33:54.926 --> 00:33:56.106
We're right back to tradition, right?

00:33:56.106 --> 00:34:00.286
This is the question I mentioned, ties into traditions.

00:34:00.286 --> 00:34:04.086
So I would use the Christmas tree.

00:34:04.086 --> 00:34:05.186
It's one everyone's thinking, right?

00:34:05.186 --> 00:34:07.646
But Martin Luther actually invented that one.

00:34:07.646 --> 00:34:10.166
So the pagans don't even get that one.

00:34:10.166 --> 00:34:17.666
But let's say, for instance, and also it ties all the way back into the first worship of God, which took place in a sacred grove.

00:34:17.666 --> 00:34:20.726
So the fact that we still have trees involved in worship is not bad.

00:34:21.966 --> 00:34:25.806
But let's say, you have some pagan practice, right?

00:34:25.806 --> 00:34:28.126
Gift giving, okay?

00:34:28.126 --> 00:34:34.946
Some Roman traditions, so directly answering the question, perhaps, had some gift giving involved.

00:34:34.946 --> 00:34:38.326
Does that make it bad to give gifts?

00:34:38.326 --> 00:34:39.126
No, of course not.

00:34:39.126 --> 00:34:40.706
It would be ridiculous to claim that.

00:34:40.706 --> 00:34:47.206
So you are permitted to give gifts, and you're even permitted to do it connected with something related to the Christian faith.

00:34:47.246 --> 00:34:48.506
So, Christmas.

00:34:49.786 --> 00:34:55.266
The sin or the problem would be if you do it in connection with a false god.

00:34:55.266 --> 00:35:04.666
There's nothing wrong with giving gifts and also having that as part of your celebration of the reminder of Christ's birth, the greatest gift ever given to humanity.

00:35:04.666 --> 00:35:06.066
Completely fine.

00:35:06.066 --> 00:35:11.846
It is morally permissible to Christianize pagan holidays.

00:35:11.846 --> 00:35:19.226
The issue is that you don't want to shade into syncretism, which happens, so I'll just give an extremely obvious case.

00:35:19.226 --> 00:35:25.446
You have the cult of the dead in the Mexican practice of Roman Catholicism.

00:35:25.446 --> 00:35:27.246
That's not permissible.

00:35:27.246 --> 00:35:30.206
That is actually worshiping a false god.

00:35:30.206 --> 00:35:31.306
That is idolatry.

00:35:31.306 --> 00:35:33.266
That is polytheism.

00:35:33.266 --> 00:35:35.846
That is a problem.

00:35:35.846 --> 00:35:36.766
You can't do that.

00:35:36.766 --> 00:35:42.086
And so it's not a balancing act so much as just there's a line that you cannot cross.

00:35:42.086 --> 00:35:44.166
So you can't worship false gods.

00:35:44.226 --> 00:35:50.186
You can't do things that are inherently in their nature, the worship of a false god.

00:35:50.186 --> 00:35:51.506
So no human sacrifice.

00:35:51.506 --> 00:36:06.506
You can't cleanse that of the pagan element because it is itself pagan in the broad sense of pagan, not European pagan, because human sacrifice was not really a part of European paganism, except little pockets here and there, and very rarely.

00:36:06.506 --> 00:36:14.326
Typically not something that was part of European neo-paganism, paganism, depending on the case.

00:36:14.326 --> 00:36:18.246
But that can't be Christianized, but other things can.

00:36:18.246 --> 00:36:27.706
And so there's nothing wrong with taking a practice and removing the objectionable elements and having it be something that's good.

00:36:27.706 --> 00:36:32.846
Think of it the same way that we deal with furniture or a house or anything like that.

00:36:32.846 --> 00:36:42.226
If you buy a house and it has some damage, let's say smoke damage to the walls, do you knock down the entire house?

00:36:42.226 --> 00:36:44.586
No, you just fix the parts that need fixed.

00:36:44.586 --> 00:36:51.206
The same thing can be done with traditions taking from our ancestors who were not Christian.

00:36:51.206 --> 00:36:52.206
Nothing wrong with that.

00:36:52.206 --> 00:36:54.346
Perfectly morally permissible.

00:36:54.346 --> 00:37:05.226
But the surface level answer is that almost all the claims about relationships between Christian practice and pagan practices are nonsense.

00:37:05.226 --> 00:37:13.386
And the ones in which we do have a relationship there, are usually so superficial that it doesn't matter.

00:37:13.386 --> 00:37:18.746
There'll be something like, well, you just have Christmas in December, because it's related to Saturnalia.

00:37:19.886 --> 00:37:23.226
Okay, so we celebrate at the same time.

00:37:24.306 --> 00:37:25.126
Doesn't matter.

00:37:25.126 --> 00:37:26.146
Means nothing.

00:37:26.146 --> 00:37:27.426
Doesn't mean we have a pagan practice.

00:37:27.426 --> 00:37:28.786
It means we happen to have an overlap.

00:37:28.786 --> 00:37:36.086
And Christ very well probably was born around that time, if you actually look at the evidence in scripture and elsewhere in history.

00:37:36.666 --> 00:37:40.026
So even that one may not be an actual connection.

00:37:40.026 --> 00:37:41.206
It may just be coincidence.

00:37:47.357 --> 00:37:56.457
The next question, I am not yet married, but I would like to know how I, as a man, can keep my marriage and family focused on Christ.

00:37:56.457 --> 00:38:02.117
Besides just going to church and doing family devotions, I am afraid of being spiritually blindsided.

00:38:04.737 --> 00:38:21.417
I don't necessarily want to get into this too deeply because this one could take up a lot of time, but the basic answer to that is that you need to actually invest the time in your wife and in your children.

00:38:21.417 --> 00:38:31.017
You need to know where they are in their faith, what they know about their faith, if they have any doubts or concerns or anything like that, and you need to be there to address them.

00:38:31.017 --> 00:38:33.937
And part of that is just investing the time.

00:38:33.937 --> 00:39:01.137
One of the major problems that we have in the last, say, probably 50, 60 years at this point, is you have had, maybe not quite that much, maybe 40, but you've had those who just pass their children off to the state for X hours per day, for Y years out of their life, and then they send them off to university, and they come back, and they don't believe the Christian faith, and they become a Marxist and all these things, and then they wonder, well, how did that happen?

00:39:01.137 --> 00:39:13.797
Well, probably because you invested 30 minutes per week in your child with regard to the Christian faith, and you handed them over to atheists for, I don't know, 35 hours out of the week.

00:39:13.797 --> 00:39:16.957
What did you expect was going to happen?

00:39:16.957 --> 00:39:23.877
That is not even negligence, it's recklessness, or even something worse, almost wanton.

00:39:23.877 --> 00:39:26.317
So don't do that.

00:39:26.317 --> 00:39:33.877
You have to know what is going on with your children, what is going on with your wife.

00:39:33.877 --> 00:39:36.877
You are responsible for the things that happen under your roof.

00:39:37.837 --> 00:39:42.237
Part of it will be regulating what is permitted in your house.

00:39:42.237 --> 00:39:44.577
Don't allow evil media in your house.

00:39:44.577 --> 00:39:46.617
Don't allow evil books in your house.

00:39:46.617 --> 00:39:49.797
If someone brings in a Ouija board, burn it.

00:39:49.797 --> 00:39:50.037
Right?

00:39:50.037 --> 00:39:52.577
There are certain things you have to do as a father.

00:39:52.577 --> 00:39:53.857
That's going to be a big part of it.

00:39:53.857 --> 00:40:00.017
Just don't pass your children off to others to raise them, and then be surprised at the outcome.

00:40:01.097 --> 00:40:05.237
It's one of those things where there are things in life that require a lot of hard work.

00:40:05.577 --> 00:40:07.537
They have great payoffs.

00:40:07.537 --> 00:40:11.477
They have eternal payoffs, but they require hard work.

00:40:11.477 --> 00:40:13.437
This is definitely one of them.

00:40:13.437 --> 00:40:14.917
So make sure you invest the time.

00:40:14.917 --> 00:40:16.677
Make sure you are available.

00:40:16.677 --> 00:40:20.217
Make sure that they know they can bring these questions to you.

00:40:20.217 --> 00:40:24.317
You don't want to be some figure that's off in the corner, and they're scared to approach you, right?

00:40:24.317 --> 00:40:26.777
You need to be the father and act as the head of the household.

00:40:32.782 --> 00:40:38.022
Make sure that I have my correct numbering here, just for my sake.

00:40:39.582 --> 00:40:44.302
The next question, encouraging RC or EO Christians.

00:40:44.302 --> 00:40:56.442
With the current state of the Protestant churches, how do we encourage RC slash EO people in the Trinitarian faith and higher orthodoxy, especially given that some of them may not be genuinely saved?

00:40:57.722 --> 00:40:59.622
And of course, that applies to Protestant churches as well.

00:40:59.622 --> 00:41:06.202
There's some who are not genuinely saved, so I'm not necessarily picking on the RC or the EO here.

00:41:06.202 --> 00:41:12.722
Because I do believe, even in the case of the Eastern Orthodox, that there are saved individuals in those churches.

00:41:12.722 --> 00:41:41.982
Despite the things that I have said about the Eastern Orthodox on Stone Choir and in my article on it and elsewhere debates, things like that, there are individuals who are saved in those churches, because I brought this up before, and it'll come up many times subsequent to this, but Lutherans have specifically a concept called Felicitous Inconsistency, which means that there are those who, despite the false things their churches officially teach, don't believe them.

00:41:41.982 --> 00:41:54.162
They are felicitously inconsistent, because they don't believe those things, but they do believe that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior, died on the cross, rose again, and that if they believe in him, they will have eternal life.

00:41:54.162 --> 00:41:54.802
And so they're Christian.

00:41:55.702 --> 00:42:04.102
And that is the case for a great many in the Roman Catholic Church and a great many in the Eastern churches as well.

00:42:04.102 --> 00:42:11.882
And I say that for the Roman Catholic Church, because if you believe absolutely everything taught by Rome these days, you are damned.

00:42:11.882 --> 00:42:12.982
Period.

00:42:12.982 --> 00:42:18.922
Rome teaches things that are simply bluntly contrary to the Christian faith.

00:42:18.922 --> 00:42:22.882
They teach that Muslims and Jews are included in the plan of salvation, as they call it.

00:42:23.582 --> 00:42:28.742
You cannot believe that as a Christian, because they reject Christ.

00:42:28.742 --> 00:42:31.802
If you reject the son, you don't have the father.

00:42:31.802 --> 00:42:35.042
If you reject Christ, you cannot be saved.

00:42:35.042 --> 00:42:39.582
And so, I don't believe that most Roman Catholics believe that.

00:42:39.582 --> 00:42:43.602
I think most of them don't even know their church teaches that.

00:42:43.602 --> 00:42:50.082
But to get to the question here, the heart of the question, how do we encourage these individuals and try to bring them along?

00:42:51.122 --> 00:42:56.502
Well, the challenge here is that we sort of need to clean our own house first.

00:42:56.502 --> 00:43:03.282
And I'm almost tempted to bring up, and I'm sure some of you have thought of it as well, but I'm almost tempted to bring up, right?

00:43:03.282 --> 00:43:06.462
If your brother has a speck in his eye, remove the log from your eye first.

00:43:06.462 --> 00:43:10.022
But in this case, it's not a log from our eye and a speck from his.

00:43:10.182 --> 00:43:12.882
We kind of both have a log in our eyes.

00:43:12.882 --> 00:43:14.482
And maybe theirs is worse in some cases.

00:43:14.482 --> 00:43:15.082
Maybe it's not.

00:43:15.082 --> 00:43:29.842
But we need to clean our own house first, because we need to be coming to them in a position of strength and authority, not in a position of you need to do X, Y, and Z, because that's how you could be better.

00:43:29.842 --> 00:43:37.962
I'm not saying that you can't help people when your life isn't perfect, because if that were the standard, no one would ever help anyone else, right?

00:43:37.962 --> 00:43:48.022
But at the same time, you don't want to be the guy who is a drug addict, an enormous mess, crying on camera and looks like a disaster.

00:43:48.102 --> 00:43:55.522
And you all know of whom I am speaking right now, in particular, the example I have in my mind, and then telling people, you need to go clean your room.

00:43:55.522 --> 00:43:58.142
You kind of look ridiculous if you're that guy.

00:43:58.142 --> 00:44:01.362
So we don't want to be him.

00:44:01.362 --> 00:44:04.422
We need to get our own house in order.

00:44:04.422 --> 00:44:08.402
In our case, for Protestants, it's somewhat easier because we can start new churches.

00:44:10.182 --> 00:44:20.142
In the case of the congregation itself, the parish, not in the case of Upper KC Church, that's the church universal of which all Christians are members.

00:44:20.142 --> 00:44:23.102
But we can start new church bodies.

00:44:23.102 --> 00:44:25.342
We're not prohibited from doing that.

00:44:25.342 --> 00:44:31.082
We don't have theological objections to it other than we should do it only when it is necessary.

00:44:31.082 --> 00:44:32.902
It's necessary these days.

00:44:32.902 --> 00:44:34.522
And so we already have some that have started up.

00:44:34.522 --> 00:44:38.962
There are good churches that have started up.

00:44:38.962 --> 00:44:57.262
And as those grow and the wicked churches continue to lose members as they are doing, I brought up before that one of the biggest line items in Elka's budget, for those who don't know, Elka is the branch in the United States that claims to be Lutheran but isn't even Christian.

00:44:57.262 --> 00:45:04.902
And so if you want to criticize Lutherans by all means, please use the LCMS and the Wells, both of which are kind of dumpster fires right now.

00:45:04.902 --> 00:45:05.922
Don't use Elka.

00:45:05.922 --> 00:45:07.122
Elka is not Christian.

00:45:07.122 --> 00:45:09.102
That's hypocritical and unfair.

00:45:09.102 --> 00:45:10.182
Don't do that.

00:45:10.182 --> 00:45:11.602
Don't be that guy.

00:45:11.602 --> 00:45:17.762
But one of the biggest line items for Elka is selling their buildings because they're in freefall.

00:45:17.762 --> 00:45:18.662
They're just collapsing.

00:45:18.662 --> 00:45:28.842
So as those bodies die off and the faithful ones grow in numbers, then we will be in a position where we can start to address some of these things.

00:45:28.842 --> 00:45:31.522
It's mentioned in the Book of Concord even.

00:45:31.522 --> 00:45:42.062
One of the things that Luther points out, because at that time it was very much true, is our churches are daily growing because we are preaching the Word, we are teaching rightly, and God is blessing us.

00:45:42.902 --> 00:45:47.762
And the Roman parishes were being deserted at that time.

00:45:47.762 --> 00:45:51.202
You could point that out in the early days of the LCMS.

00:45:51.202 --> 00:46:01.822
The LCMS was the fastest growing church body, probably on the face of the planet for a period of time, certainly in the US, when they were faithful.

00:46:01.822 --> 00:46:08.402
When you are in that position, you can certainly then go to other Christians and have these discussions.

00:46:08.402 --> 00:46:17.542
It is difficult, at least more difficult, to have them when the room behind you is a disaster, which is what we have right now.

00:46:17.542 --> 00:46:32.402
I'm not saying we stop engaging with the Roman Catholics and even the Eastern Orthodox, but our efforts need to be focused on getting our own houses in order first, because that's sort of the hierarchy of the duties there.

00:46:32.402 --> 00:46:42.462
So if you find yourself in a position where you can try to discuss these things with the Roman Catholics productively, then by all means, do so.

00:46:42.462 --> 00:46:47.762
But we need to focus on our own mess first, as is almost always the case.

00:46:52.222 --> 00:46:54.582
See what my next question here is.

00:47:01.872 --> 00:47:03.752
I can answer a very short one.

00:47:03.752 --> 00:47:05.772
If not JD Vance, then who?

00:47:05.772 --> 00:47:07.032
I don't know.

00:47:07.032 --> 00:47:10.272
I don't think we necessarily have anyone who's particularly good.

00:47:10.272 --> 00:47:15.412
And you are correct to say I don't particularly like JD Vance for some obvious reasons.

00:47:15.412 --> 00:47:23.132
Not least of all that he seems to have been stood up in a somewhat shady fashion, but I don't necessarily have a person.

00:47:23.132 --> 00:47:24.432
You don't always have to.

00:47:24.432 --> 00:47:28.592
You can say something that is bad without having an alternative ready, right?

00:47:28.592 --> 00:47:32.652
You are about to drink a glass of poison, I can tell you don't drink that.

00:47:32.652 --> 00:47:35.312
And if you respond with, well, where's my drink?

00:47:35.312 --> 00:47:38.652
You know, asking me if I have something in the alternative for you to drink.

00:47:38.792 --> 00:47:42.872
I don't have to have a replacement for the poison to tell you not to drink the poison.

00:47:42.872 --> 00:47:46.172
I can still tell you not to drink the poison, because that would be bad.

00:47:46.172 --> 00:47:48.992
Two separate things, related but distinct.

00:47:50.952 --> 00:47:59.892
Someone asked last week when I posted about going, someone said, Mike Pence, that would be somehow even worse than Vance.

00:48:00.792 --> 00:48:03.652
So, Pence is a mess.

00:48:03.652 --> 00:48:07.212
But anyway, someone asked last week, what happens if we go to war?

00:48:07.212 --> 00:48:10.252
Well, that kind of happens on with whom?

00:48:11.332 --> 00:48:16.532
I think he probably meant Iran, just given the context of things today.

00:48:16.532 --> 00:48:23.852
And if we were to go to war with Iran, if you can possibly do so, refuse to go.

00:48:23.852 --> 00:48:26.452
Don't fight the Jews wars for them.

00:48:26.452 --> 00:48:27.692
Don't do it.

00:48:27.692 --> 00:48:29.092
It's evil, don't be part of it.

00:48:29.692 --> 00:48:32.352
That's the baseline answer for that.

00:48:33.672 --> 00:48:36.252
So, as best you can, refuse.

00:48:36.252 --> 00:48:39.872
If there's a draft, absolutely refuse.

00:48:39.872 --> 00:48:43.132
Do not be drafted into a war and go fight for the Jews.

00:48:43.132 --> 00:48:44.472
Don't do it.

00:48:46.512 --> 00:48:49.132
See, the next question.

00:48:49.152 --> 00:48:55.312
I want to get the wording from this one, if I copied it, which I believe I did.

00:48:57.852 --> 00:49:07.452
You subscribe to the concept of biological determinism in reference to temperament and behavioral proclivities people are born with.

00:49:07.452 --> 00:49:10.352
How do you reconcile this with free will?

00:49:10.352 --> 00:49:13.552
For me, anywhere I try to point to free will, it seems to vanish.

00:49:13.552 --> 00:49:16.732
Could an African have done otherwise, as an example, obviously, there?

00:49:17.812 --> 00:49:21.892
I don't necessarily subscribe to determinism.

00:49:21.892 --> 00:49:27.452
I don't think that I would use that term because it's sort of a fraught theological term.

00:49:28.752 --> 00:49:35.312
But I do affirm free will, of course, because I think free will is the way that we deal with the problem of evil.

00:49:35.312 --> 00:49:37.432
I don't think there's any other way to deal with it.

00:49:37.432 --> 00:49:47.072
If you negate free will, then you necessarily make God the cause of evil, and that's morally impermissible, so you have to affirm free will.

00:49:47.072 --> 00:49:52.952
But I don't think that you necessarily have a conflict here.

00:49:52.952 --> 00:49:59.652
I think that biology bounds free will in some ways.

00:49:59.652 --> 00:50:07.712
So I think a good analogy would be looking at, for instance, intelligence.

00:50:07.712 --> 00:50:12.232
Intelligence is set genetically as a range.

00:50:13.392 --> 00:50:22.452
Your environment, so nature, but your nurture, determines where you fall within the range.

00:50:22.452 --> 00:50:27.512
You can't fall outside of it, other than obviously severe brain damage, things like that.

00:50:27.512 --> 00:50:29.872
You can drop lower, you can always do that.

00:50:29.872 --> 00:50:31.912
You can't go higher.

00:50:31.912 --> 00:50:35.612
We don't have the technology for that, even if it's theoretically possible.

00:50:35.612 --> 00:50:41.292
So biology sets that range, and then other things set where you fall within the range.

00:50:42.052 --> 00:50:48.232
I think that there's a relationship there of how free will operates with regard to biology and things like that.

00:50:48.232 --> 00:51:06.412
So one of the examples I've used before, and I think it's a good one for people to bear in mind, is that certain men have proclivities towards certain sins, and there are differences in sin with regard to sex.

00:51:06.412 --> 00:51:15.932
So for instance, and I mean biological sex in this case, men are prone to different sins from those to which women are prone.

00:51:15.932 --> 00:51:19.552
Women are more prone to gossip than men.

00:51:19.552 --> 00:51:24.652
Men are more prone to certain kinds of lust than women.

00:51:24.652 --> 00:51:30.812
So does that mean that men and women don't have free will because they have different proclivities?

00:51:30.812 --> 00:51:32.952
I don't think that it does.

00:51:32.952 --> 00:51:42.272
I think that it influences your free will, it makes it harder to do things, but just because something is harder to do doesn't mean you don't have a choice.

00:51:42.272 --> 00:51:44.532
And I think free will kind of obviously does exist.

00:51:44.532 --> 00:51:49.352
You know, I have a collection of pens sitting here next to me, I could pick up any one I want right now and write with it.

00:51:49.352 --> 00:51:52.952
I can pick whatever color ink I want to use and write with that.

00:51:52.952 --> 00:51:55.132
That's a free choice that I have.

00:51:55.132 --> 00:51:57.852
I have the choice to do this Q&A right now.

00:51:57.852 --> 00:52:01.932
I could hit stop, I could hit the power button on my computer and walk away.

00:52:01.932 --> 00:52:03.772
I could take a sip of tea right now or not do that.

00:52:04.412 --> 00:52:12.912
I think the claims of those who try to go with sort of the hard version of determinism are just patently absurd on their face.

00:52:14.292 --> 00:52:21.392
For many reasons, and I could formalize that argument more, but I think they're absurd to the point where there's no reason to take them seriously.

00:52:21.392 --> 00:52:28.752
Do I think there's a relationship between biology and various things like that and our free will?

00:52:28.752 --> 00:52:34.772
Of course, but I think it's one of influence and bounding, not one of control.

00:52:34.772 --> 00:52:52.452
So, to get to the example then, could an African have done otherwise, which we could think of, for instance, impulsivity and the inclination toward violence, so-called warrior gene, which is very misnamed, but, and of course IQ.

00:52:52.452 --> 00:53:00.992
So, yes, his free will is more severely bounded than yours, most likely, in many ways.

00:53:01.832 --> 00:53:04.592
His influences are heavier, in a way.

00:53:04.592 --> 00:53:09.232
They are going to be greater in the scale with regard to what he can and cannot do.

00:53:09.232 --> 00:53:17.932
And there will be things he can't do, because a person with an IQ of 75 cannot do the same things as a person with an IQ of 150 plus.

00:53:18.972 --> 00:53:24.572
But he still has free will, with, in those bounds.

00:53:24.572 --> 00:53:32.672
Now, another part of this, of course, and this is the part that most modern Christians forget, because it makes them uncomfortable in some cases, most cases.

00:53:33.992 --> 00:53:42.032
Part of the decisions that were free, that have led to the decisions that you can now make, were made by your ancestors.

00:53:44.092 --> 00:53:46.292
And we just have to accept that as Christians.

00:53:46.292 --> 00:53:50.472
One of the reasons we have to accept it is called original sin.

00:53:50.472 --> 00:53:59.512
You do not have the choice not to be a sinner, because Adam sinned, and all men fell in Adam.

00:53:59.512 --> 00:54:06.672
And so you are a sinner, and I've gone into this before, where you sin because you're a sinner, it's not you're a sinner because you sin.

00:54:06.672 --> 00:54:13.812
That distinction is important, because that's the teaching of original sin, distilled down to sort of an axiom.

00:54:15.012 --> 00:54:22.032
Adam sinned and bounded your free will with regard to his decision.

00:54:22.032 --> 00:54:23.612
His decision was completely free.

00:54:23.872 --> 00:54:26.612
He had the choice to sin or not to sin.

00:54:26.612 --> 00:54:30.152
He had the ability to sin or not to sin.

00:54:30.152 --> 00:54:35.272
You do not have that same ability, because you are a sinner because of Adam.

00:54:35.272 --> 00:54:45.872
And so, yes, what our ancestors have done or failed to do has bounded our own free will down through the generations of man that preceded us.

00:54:45.872 --> 00:54:52.092
And so, we do not have the same scope of free will that they had in some cases.

00:54:52.792 --> 00:54:57.492
We are more degenerated in some ways than they were.

00:54:57.492 --> 00:55:01.132
The best example, of course, is Adam being free to sin or not sin.

00:55:01.132 --> 00:55:03.412
We certainly don't have that choice.

00:55:03.412 --> 00:55:12.712
And so, free will is not an absolute thing, because the only will that is absolutely free in that sense is God.

00:55:12.712 --> 00:55:15.812
And, of course, even God, there are things God can't do.

00:55:15.812 --> 00:55:20.492
Not in the sense of potential or possibility, but in the sense of incoherence, right?

00:55:20.992 --> 00:55:22.872
That's the way I've usually explained it.

00:55:22.872 --> 00:55:24.412
God can't sin.

00:55:25.812 --> 00:55:31.652
So, as I sort of got into with that debate with James White, right, I was getting at that point.

00:55:31.652 --> 00:55:36.992
But God has the highest free will.

00:55:36.992 --> 00:55:42.072
God has the absolutely free will in the proper sense of free.

00:55:42.072 --> 00:55:43.472
We don't have that.

00:55:43.472 --> 00:55:45.632
But it doesn't mean we don't have free will.

00:55:45.632 --> 00:55:50.332
It just means ours is bounded and influenced by, for instance, our biology.

00:55:56.581 --> 00:55:59.861
A light-hearted, easy question for this one.

00:55:59.861 --> 00:56:03.601
What is the best Germanic dog breed, and why is it the Dachshund?

00:56:03.601 --> 00:56:05.801
And the person says hi to Gizmo.

00:56:05.801 --> 00:56:07.701
The answer to that is that it depends.

00:56:07.701 --> 00:56:11.561
Just to answer the question a little more seriously than it was asked, I'm sure.

00:56:11.561 --> 00:56:16.581
The Dachshund is a great dog, probably not if you want to go on a 20-mile hike.

00:56:16.581 --> 00:56:21.341
I don't think he's going to carry his own water or his own food, or in fact his own self.

00:56:21.341 --> 00:56:24.261
I think you're going to have to carry him in your pack.

00:56:24.261 --> 00:56:25.281
So it depends, right?

00:56:25.621 --> 00:56:29.181
You want a guard dog, probably not the Dachshund.

00:56:29.181 --> 00:56:33.581
Gizmo actually makes a great guard dog, but obviously his job is to go get the bigger dogs.

00:56:33.581 --> 00:56:38.421
He's not going to do much on his own weighing what he does.

00:56:38.421 --> 00:56:41.921
Incidentally, he also goes in the pack after about mile five.

00:56:46.061 --> 00:56:53.661
And straight from that one to a much more serious one, what is the protocol for handling a parent practicing witchcraft in the house you live in?

00:56:55.721 --> 00:56:59.341
Well, that's a serious question, and also quite the problem.

00:56:59.341 --> 00:57:05.061
I think the most obvious answer is get out of that house if you can.

00:57:05.061 --> 00:57:12.701
If this person is seriously practicing witchcraft in your home, which obviously in the case of a parent, it makes it more of a problem.

00:57:12.701 --> 00:57:13.601
It depends on the age.

00:57:13.601 --> 00:57:15.701
I have no idea how old this person is.

00:57:16.781 --> 00:57:28.721
So if this is, say, your mother is collecting crystals, it's not as serious, just to be blunt, you know.

00:57:28.721 --> 00:57:31.221
Is it something that Christians shouldn't do?

00:57:31.221 --> 00:57:32.521
Absolutely.

00:57:32.521 --> 00:57:33.601
Is it foolish?

00:57:33.601 --> 00:57:34.061
Yes.

00:57:34.061 --> 00:57:36.501
Does it open the door in some minor way?

00:57:36.501 --> 00:57:37.701
Yes.

00:57:37.701 --> 00:57:47.121
Is it as bad as the person who is sacrificing chickens and spraying blood all over and drawing pentagrams and really going whole hog with the Satanism thing?

00:57:47.121 --> 00:57:48.101
No.

00:57:48.101 --> 00:57:53.001
So it's going to depend on what sort of thing this person is doing.

00:57:53.001 --> 00:58:03.321
If you can talk to the parent and say it makes you deeply uncomfortable, maybe the parent will listen, and maybe that's the resolution in this case.

00:58:03.321 --> 00:58:16.941
But if it can't be resolved in that way, I think your best bet, assuming that you are of a reasonable age, which this person at least had access to Twitter X now, get out of the house to get away from it.

00:58:17.021 --> 00:58:21.921
But if it is a serious thing, that is a real spiritual threat.

00:58:22.981 --> 00:58:24.081
And pray.

00:58:24.081 --> 00:58:25.661
Of course, always pray.

00:58:25.661 --> 00:58:27.121
So I'll pray for you as well.

00:58:27.121 --> 00:58:31.181
I hope that that resolves itself in a positive fashion.

00:58:31.181 --> 00:58:33.161
I hope this person stops doing that.

00:58:33.161 --> 00:58:36.441
But I think those are really the sort of two levels to it.

00:58:36.441 --> 00:58:42.861
Talk to the person, see if he or she will stop, and then get away if you possibly can.

00:58:42.921 --> 00:58:44.041
It's real.

00:58:44.041 --> 00:58:48.781
Witchcraft, Satanism, those things, they are to a degree real.

00:58:48.781 --> 00:58:52.501
And spiritual evil is real, and it should be taken very seriously.

00:58:52.501 --> 00:58:54.461
It's not a joke, it should not be taken lightly.

00:58:54.461 --> 00:58:57.041
The Ouija board is not a toy.

00:58:57.041 --> 00:59:00.201
Do not buy one, do not have one in your house.

00:59:00.201 --> 00:59:04.421
If there is one in your house, go burn it after...

00:59:04.421 --> 00:59:06.121
Pause this, go burn it right now.

00:59:07.141 --> 00:59:09.281
But those things are real.

00:59:09.281 --> 00:59:10.701
They should be taken very seriously.

00:59:10.781 --> 00:59:13.081
They should never be taken lightly.

00:59:14.901 --> 00:59:18.921
I think now I will look for questions in the chat.

00:59:20.101 --> 00:59:27.861
So the first question I see here in the chat is about Indians and from which son of Noah they descend.

00:59:30.541 --> 00:59:44.261
In the case of the Indians, it is mixed, because they have been at least partially conquered a number of times, and subsequent to the conquest, there has been admixture.

00:59:44.261 --> 00:59:48.921
And so primarily, they are from Shem.

00:59:48.921 --> 00:59:51.841
And the question also asked, how do we know that?

00:59:51.841 --> 01:00:07.361
The way that we know, foundationally, where the sons of Noah went is two, I will go backwards, two, we have tradition, and we have myth and things like that, tracing these things all the way back.

01:00:08.001 --> 01:00:13.061
And then one, we have scripture, because scripture basically tells us where the three sons went.

01:00:13.061 --> 01:00:17.581
Egypt is called the land of Ham, a number of times in scripture.

01:00:17.581 --> 01:00:22.001
Well, that's pretty easy, Ham went south and went into Africa.

01:00:22.001 --> 01:00:27.821
And then obviously, we have descendants of Shem in the Near East, the Israelites and others.

01:00:27.821 --> 01:00:30.141
Well, Shem went east.

01:00:30.141 --> 01:00:31.261
What does that leave?

01:00:31.261 --> 01:00:41.341
Because the three great races of men would be Africans, the Asians in the broad sense or the British sense of the term, and then Europeans.

01:00:41.341 --> 01:00:43.901
Well, that leaves only one place for Japheth.

01:00:43.901 --> 01:00:45.501
So, we know from scripture.

01:00:45.501 --> 01:00:49.121
The Shemites then took the east.

01:00:49.121 --> 01:00:50.941
That includes India.

01:00:50.941 --> 01:00:57.681
But the other way we can do this is we can obviously run genetic analysis these days because we have those tools.

01:00:57.681 --> 01:00:58.881
There's nothing wrong with using those.

01:00:58.881 --> 01:01:06.061
We can run that sort of analysis and figure out these family lines and how they've moved over time and the admixture and things like that.

01:01:06.061 --> 01:01:15.361
So, for the Indians, you have the South Asians would be sort of the predominant group there.

01:01:15.361 --> 01:01:22.781
Then you have the ancient farmer group from sort of Iran and that area.

01:01:22.781 --> 01:01:24.781
You have some admixture from them.

01:01:24.781 --> 01:01:33.141
And then you have the Eurasian pastoralists, sort of the steppe people, which would have been largely from Japheth, who conquered them.

01:01:33.141 --> 01:01:36.981
And you can see this in India today with their caste system.

01:01:36.981 --> 01:01:40.641
You have the Brahmin at the top, and you have the Dalit at the bottom, right?

01:01:40.641 --> 01:01:49.401
You have different groups based essentially on this admixture from the Eurasian populations that came in and conquered them.

01:01:49.401 --> 01:01:52.361
If you have more of that, you're higher up in their scale.

01:01:52.361 --> 01:01:56.881
And so largely Shem but with admixture is the short answer.

01:01:58.521 --> 01:02:02.441
And how we know is from scripture plus genetic research.

01:02:04.481 --> 01:02:07.261
Someone asked about my thoughts on George Rockwell.

01:02:07.261 --> 01:02:10.421
It's of course George Lincoln Rockwell.

01:02:10.421 --> 01:02:12.441
I think he was very good with some things.

01:02:12.441 --> 01:02:20.201
I think he was right that being out there and action and having a face to a movement is very important.

01:02:21.561 --> 01:02:25.681
I wish he'd had better Christian friends, because I think that was something that was very much missing.

01:02:26.441 --> 01:02:35.781
I don't think that nationalism works without the religious element, and I think the religious element has to be Christianity, because Christianity is true.

01:02:35.781 --> 01:02:41.341
And nationalism is also truth, and I've gone over this obviously at length many times.

01:02:41.341 --> 01:02:45.421
Christianity and nationalism complement each other.

01:02:45.421 --> 01:02:48.141
Christianity demands nationalism.

01:02:48.141 --> 01:02:50.821
Nationalism needs Christianity.

01:02:50.821 --> 01:02:56.101
And so I'm not just a nationalist, I'm not just a Christian.

01:02:56.101 --> 01:02:58.381
I am a Christian white nationalist.

01:02:58.381 --> 01:03:00.041
I am a white Christian nationalist.

01:03:00.041 --> 01:03:03.581
I've said before, you can put those adjectives in whichever order you please.

01:03:03.581 --> 01:03:05.701
It remains true.

01:03:05.701 --> 01:03:07.161
I'm a white nationalist Christian.

01:03:07.161 --> 01:03:09.361
You can do it that way if you like.

01:03:09.361 --> 01:03:20.261
So I think he had some good ideas, and I think he did some good things, but he definitely needed some better Christian friends, which I could say that about a number of men historically.

01:03:20.261 --> 01:03:21.141
Nietzsche comes to mind.

01:03:25.921 --> 01:03:28.001
Lovecraft comes to mind.

01:03:30.901 --> 01:03:33.421
Just to name two sort of at random.

01:03:38.121 --> 01:03:41.121
Did you know or get a chance to talk to Aaron D.

01:03:41.121 --> 01:03:42.401
Wolfe before he died?

01:03:42.401 --> 01:03:44.861
He was a Lutheran minister and editor of Chronicles.

01:03:44.861 --> 01:03:45.701
I did not.

01:03:48.801 --> 01:03:51.241
So kind of a short answer, but no.

01:04:02.888 --> 01:04:08.388
Someone said, I read that Jesus was probably born in September, shepherds don't have flocks in the field in December.

01:04:08.388 --> 01:04:13.328
We're not actually certain on that point historically, as to what, I know that point's come up before I've read that.

01:04:13.328 --> 01:04:18.448
We're not 100% certain what they did in the era with regard to their sheep in the dead of winter.

01:04:18.448 --> 01:04:20.848
They may have been in the field, they may not.

01:04:20.848 --> 01:04:23.808
So if they were, December's fine.

01:04:23.808 --> 01:04:28.288
If they weren't, September, it honestly doesn't matter what day of the year Christ was born.

01:04:29.408 --> 01:04:33.428
I know we would all like to know, but we don't.

01:04:33.428 --> 01:04:37.748
We'd like to know the day of creation, but we don't.

01:04:37.748 --> 01:04:41.408
If these things had been necessary for us, God would have told us.

01:04:41.408 --> 01:04:45.448
It would have been written down in scripture in a way that we could actually interpret.

01:04:45.448 --> 01:04:49.668
And I've got into the calendar issues before, so I won't get into those again.

01:04:49.668 --> 01:04:54.428
But God didn't record it because it's not necessary for us to know it.

01:04:54.428 --> 01:04:55.428
We can just pick a day.

01:04:55.428 --> 01:04:55.948
That's fine.

01:04:56.148 --> 01:04:58.228
We're celebrating his birth.

01:04:58.228 --> 01:05:01.188
We're not necessarily so much celebrating the day.

01:05:01.188 --> 01:05:09.228
We're just celebrating the fact that, yes indeed, Christ was physically born at some point, specifically in history.

01:05:09.228 --> 01:05:12.148
So we've picked one on which we all agree.

01:05:12.148 --> 01:05:14.028
Same thing as we picked Sunday, right?

01:05:14.028 --> 01:05:20.228
We all worship on Sunday, not because we have to worship on Sunday, but because we kind of need to know the day to meet.

01:05:20.228 --> 01:05:22.048
And for the sake of order, it should be the same day.

01:05:27.700 --> 01:05:34.500
A question here, have been listening so much to Stone Choir lately, amazing work, thank you.

01:05:34.500 --> 01:05:36.380
How do we organize and make changes?

01:05:36.380 --> 01:05:38.640
Much love from an Eastern Orthodox.

01:05:40.860 --> 01:05:59.200
I've got into this one before, but I'll go over a little bit of it again, because the most important thing in many cases, and part of this is going to be, I see the, there was a donation attached to this, it's in euros, so obviously some of it is going to be a little different depending on where you're located, right?

01:05:59.200 --> 01:06:00.420
There are different considerations.

01:06:00.420 --> 01:06:13.000
There are things I am permitted to say right now, sitting in Tennessee, that if I had said them when I was living in Berlin and the police had found out, I would have been deported.

01:06:13.000 --> 01:06:19.040
And so there are different considerations based on where you are located and your laws and things like that.

01:06:19.040 --> 01:06:22.240
But, so there's that aspect of wisdom, right?

01:06:23.820 --> 01:06:28.100
Local organization is absolutely vital.

01:06:28.100 --> 01:06:35.260
You have to know the people around you, you have to know your neighbors, you have to get to know them, you have to be able to rely on each other.

01:06:35.260 --> 01:06:37.540
That is very important for a number of reasons.

01:06:37.540 --> 01:06:40.920
Not least of all, morally you are required to do that.

01:06:40.920 --> 01:06:44.220
Part of what you should be doing is caring for your neighbors.

01:06:44.220 --> 01:06:49.480
And if you don't even know their names, you can't really care for or about them very well then.

01:06:50.420 --> 01:07:10.940
And part of how nationalist groups have always done well in the past is that they have demonstrated in concrete ways that they have an actual care for their fellow man, that they actually care about their compatriots, they care about their co-ethnics, they care about the people of their nation.

01:07:10.940 --> 01:07:12.480
So do that.

01:07:12.480 --> 01:07:16.600
Do things that are constructive, that are locally focused.

01:07:16.600 --> 01:07:18.480
Help the elderly in your community if you can.

01:07:18.480 --> 01:07:21.940
And they're probably elderly that need basic things fixed around the house.

01:07:21.940 --> 01:07:24.900
That's something that's fairly easy for a lot of men to do.

01:07:24.900 --> 01:07:28.340
You can do that on your day off or whatever it happens to be.

01:07:28.340 --> 01:07:30.500
It could be something as easy as changing light bulbs.

01:07:30.500 --> 01:07:36.420
But if you have a neighbor who's 85, that may be something she can no longer do.

01:07:36.420 --> 01:07:38.300
There are cases like that.

01:07:38.300 --> 01:07:42.920
Or you get to know your neighbor and maybe one day he's unloading feed for his animals.

01:07:42.920 --> 01:07:47.500
I'm giving that example because I'm in semi-rural Tennessee, but it'll be different if you're in a city, right?

01:07:47.960 --> 01:07:52.980
Maybe he needs to move a heavy piece of furniture, whatever it is, be there to help the people around you.

01:07:52.980 --> 01:07:56.280
Do things that are constructive, things that are concrete.

01:07:56.280 --> 01:08:05.140
That is important, not just as a nationalist, not just as part of the nationalist movement, but it's important to do that as a Christian and as a neighbor.

01:08:05.140 --> 01:08:08.500
That is what we are called to do, is what we're supposed to do with one another.

01:08:08.500 --> 01:08:14.480
We are supposed to be there to help the people God has put in our lives, and part of that is getting to know them.

01:08:15.600 --> 01:08:19.980
So, doing those concrete and local things is vitally important.

01:08:19.980 --> 01:08:23.020
And then from there, obviously, it scales up.

01:08:23.020 --> 01:08:37.280
It's going to depend on your country, because if you're in a country of 5 million people, that's a lot easier to organize and get something done than a country of however many millions the US is now, 330, 340, whatever it is.

01:08:37.280 --> 01:08:39.540
That's a lot harder.

01:08:39.540 --> 01:08:43.760
So, part of it is just logistics, but things scale up.

01:08:44.620 --> 01:08:59.440
You have the local group, which could be even something as small as your neighborhood, and then you have your town and your city and your county region, however things are labeled and scaled in your area, you need to build out those networks.

01:08:59.440 --> 01:09:09.180
And part of it is identifying the sort of men who can lead at each level in an organization, and then getting them into those positions and supporting them.

01:09:09.180 --> 01:09:13.400
This is one of those ongoing problems on the American right and other places as well.

01:09:14.660 --> 01:09:19.560
We haven't necessarily been particularly great at supporting our guys, and we need to do more of that.

01:09:19.560 --> 01:09:24.020
And I spoke about that in a previous episode with regard to artwork and things like that.

01:09:24.020 --> 01:09:25.920
That's also vital to a movement.

01:09:25.920 --> 01:09:31.280
You need to have the cultural aspect, or else your movement doesn't have a soul, right?

01:09:31.280 --> 01:09:32.440
Effectively is what you've done.

01:09:32.440 --> 01:09:38.500
You've deprived it of that spirit, of that essence that you need to have to actually accomplish something.

01:09:38.500 --> 01:09:40.760
But part of it is of course supporting our guys.

01:09:41.520 --> 01:09:52.060
And that is going to be a matter of if God has given you the means, because I spoke about this in Stone Choir, of course, and elsewhere, you have greater duties to those closer to you.

01:09:52.060 --> 01:09:59.040
So never go ahead and give money to some national level, right?

01:09:59.040 --> 01:10:04.560
Nationalist cause, or leader, individual, wherever it happens to be.

01:10:04.560 --> 01:10:09.920
If doing that would deprive those closest to you of something they need, don't do that.

01:10:09.920 --> 01:10:15.140
Focus on your family, your close friends, your neighbors, those who are around you first.

01:10:15.140 --> 01:10:16.300
You owe them a higher duty.

01:10:16.300 --> 01:10:32.660
But if God has given you the means, then by all means support those who are doing things at the regional level, in the US case, the state level, or the county level, who are doing things that need to be done and need the resources to do them.

01:10:32.660 --> 01:10:34.380
It's the basic rule.

01:10:35.280 --> 01:10:39.900
Use the things that God has entrusted to your care to do your duty.

01:10:39.900 --> 01:10:43.160
If it's money, then use your money to fund things.

01:10:43.160 --> 01:10:48.360
If it's the ability to write well, then use that talent to serve others.

01:10:48.360 --> 01:10:55.620
It is always a matter of using the things that God has given you to do good for those to whom God has entrusted, right?

01:10:55.620 --> 01:10:58.440
Those who are entrusted to your care.

01:10:58.440 --> 01:11:00.060
That's the basics of it.

01:11:00.060 --> 01:11:08.000
It is a matter of scaling up from that local level to the national level and however many levels are in between depending on the size of your country.

01:11:08.000 --> 01:11:17.700
So the best thing you can do is just do those concrete things, and it will help you as well, because you will feel like you are actually getting something done and accomplishing something.

01:11:17.700 --> 01:11:19.420
And I've spoken of that before.

01:11:19.420 --> 01:11:23.740
It is important for men in particular to do something concrete.

01:11:23.740 --> 01:11:28.960
Men don't feel like they've accomplished something if they've just done something virtual.

01:11:31.620 --> 01:11:39.620
There are certain men who can get by because they can understand that, but most men want to be able to look at it and go, I made that thing.

01:11:39.620 --> 01:11:40.820
I did that thing.

01:11:40.820 --> 01:11:43.440
I put a new door on my barn today.

01:11:43.440 --> 01:11:45.300
I put up chicken wire.

01:11:45.300 --> 01:11:47.980
You want to be able to look at something concrete.

01:11:47.980 --> 01:11:49.360
God built us to do that.

01:11:49.360 --> 01:11:51.540
That's part of how God formed us.

01:11:51.540 --> 01:12:03.080
And so there are some men who can go ahead and write something and feel like they truly accomplished something in writing that, but for most men, they want something perhaps a little more concrete than that.

01:12:03.080 --> 01:12:09.540
So going out and helping your neighbor is going to help you as well, because you'll be able to look at it and say, I did that concrete thing for that person.

01:12:09.540 --> 01:12:13.100
I built that section of fence or whatever it happens to be.

01:12:13.100 --> 01:12:17.460
So do things locally and build up from there is the short version of the answer.

01:12:25.192 --> 01:12:25.572
Let's see.

01:12:41.297 --> 01:12:48.077
Is the Platonic or Aristotelian conception of the good more consonant with scripture, which is say truth.

01:12:48.077 --> 01:12:53.037
I will leave that one for next time, I think, because I think that may get a little more involved.

01:12:53.037 --> 01:12:57.917
I wanna think about exactly how I wanna answer that one, but I will write that down, I will note it.

01:13:04.554 --> 01:13:12.094
I do have quite a backlog of questions, but I want to try to get to the chat just for the sake of getting through those.

01:13:13.714 --> 01:13:18.994
I see we have quite the discussion of dogs going in the chat.

01:13:18.994 --> 01:13:23.594
Obviously, I'm going to be partial to Golden Retrievers because I've always had Golden Retrievers my entire life.

01:13:23.594 --> 01:13:26.954
Other than Gizmo, I now have a Pomeranian, so.

01:13:28.774 --> 01:13:30.234
Someone asked about Arabs.

01:13:30.234 --> 01:13:41.874
Arabs are actually dressed in scripture because we are told that they come from Abraham and his Hamite concubine.

01:13:41.874 --> 01:13:43.014
So they're half.

01:13:43.014 --> 01:13:45.674
But obviously, they have been additionally mixed.

01:13:45.674 --> 01:13:55.014
They're in that part of the world where it's a confluence of peoples, and so it's going to depend on which particular group within that large umbrella you mean.

01:13:55.014 --> 01:13:58.554
They've had different mixtures over many centuries, so.

01:13:59.634 --> 01:14:03.534
But they are from both Shem and Ham, originally at least.

01:14:03.534 --> 01:14:12.034
As we pointed out before in Stone Quire and elsewhere, if, say, you had an ancestor, let's say you are a descendant of Shem, right?

01:14:12.034 --> 01:14:19.534
And you had one ancestor who was a descendant of Japheth, but he's 30 generations back.

01:14:19.534 --> 01:14:22.154
You effectively are 100% Shemite.

01:14:22.154 --> 01:14:23.694
That's just math.

01:14:23.694 --> 01:14:27.734
Divide 100 by 2 30 times and see how big the number is.

01:14:28.714 --> 01:14:33.294
I don't have that number in my head, but obviously mathematics plays a role here.

01:14:40.766 --> 01:14:46.846
I think that's pretty much most of the questions from the chat there.

01:14:46.846 --> 01:14:51.426
I had someone ask about the Delamo Mall, and I don't know if he was asking someone else in the chat or me.

01:14:51.426 --> 01:14:54.746
I have not been to the Delamo Mall in a long time.

01:14:54.746 --> 01:14:57.986
That's just a mall in Southern California for those who don't know.

01:15:00.046 --> 01:15:03.446
But no, I have not been there in quite some time.

01:15:06.386 --> 01:15:09.986
Let me pull up my other list of questions here.

01:15:11.586 --> 01:15:17.126
Or let me see if OBS will not freeze on me.

01:15:17.126 --> 01:15:17.546
Come on now.

01:15:24.647 --> 01:15:31.327
Well, Firefox has decided, you know, technology is great sometimes when it works.

01:15:31.327 --> 01:15:36.287
Firefox has now decided to freeze on me, so I can't pull up my other list of questions.

01:15:36.287 --> 01:15:38.227
I think I'm kind of getting near to the end here.

01:15:38.227 --> 01:15:41.007
We've run for about an hour, which is sort of the goal.

01:15:41.007 --> 01:15:46.547
I may run a little longer next week to answer a few more questions.

01:15:46.547 --> 01:15:53.607
I think I will try to do that to get through more, hopefully on Thursday.

01:15:54.127 --> 01:15:59.067
But I will answer, I think, this one last question here.

01:15:59.067 --> 01:16:01.087
I've answered it before, but I'll go over it again.

01:16:01.087 --> 01:16:04.007
So what is your stance on Christian identity?

01:16:04.007 --> 01:16:10.567
My stance on Christian identity is that I would put Christian single quotation marks because it's not.

01:16:10.567 --> 01:16:22.247
Because scripture is abundantly clear that Israel is descended, ethnic Israel, I mean, and I mean the man Israel, Jacob, is descended from Shem.

01:16:24.227 --> 01:16:31.607
Europeans are descended from Japheth, and so we are not ethnic Israel.

01:16:31.607 --> 01:16:38.987
And as I pointed out before, why would you want to be descended from ethnic Israel?

01:16:38.987 --> 01:16:41.007
Read the Old Testament.

01:16:41.007 --> 01:16:43.487
Read how those people behaved.

01:16:43.487 --> 01:16:49.707
This is also a point for proving that we're not Old Testament Israel.

01:16:49.707 --> 01:16:51.527
Look at how Europeans behave.

01:16:52.627 --> 01:16:55.587
Look at how modern Jews behave.

01:16:55.587 --> 01:17:08.987
Which people match the group of people who decided to have an orgy in the desert and worship a golden calf while the physical manifestation of God was on an adjacent mountain?

01:17:10.687 --> 01:17:14.987
I'm going to go ahead and say that my ancestors would not have done that.

01:17:14.987 --> 01:17:17.327
I pointed this out before.

01:17:17.327 --> 01:17:28.727
I firmly believe that if Jesus Christ had appeared to most other peoples in the world, they would have recognized he was at least a god.

01:17:28.727 --> 01:17:37.867
Maybe they wouldn't have understood son of God and all that stuff, but they would have said he is a god and worshiped him.

01:17:37.867 --> 01:17:39.407
Even the Africans would have done that.

01:17:39.407 --> 01:17:47.247
Some tiny percentage of them would have tried to eat him to get his magical power, but anyone else in the world would have worshiped him and not murdered him.

01:17:48.747 --> 01:17:52.407
I don't want to be related to the Old Testament Jews.

01:17:52.407 --> 01:18:02.207
I look at their behavior, I do not see my people, and I look at what scripture says about which group went where, and it doesn't make any sense.

01:18:02.207 --> 01:18:18.767
Christian identity is just a rehashed and repainted version of British Israelism, and it is as nutty to believe that we are descended from those people as to say that there are supposedly lost tribes that went north and became Britain.

01:18:20.227 --> 01:18:28.147
Also, worth pointing out, the Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom.

01:18:28.147 --> 01:18:35.907
They did not exile them, they did not disperse them, they destroyed them through miscegenation.

01:18:35.907 --> 01:18:42.227
The ten northern tribes are gone, which is important for understanding eschatology and things like that, right?

01:18:43.187 --> 01:19:09.627
Those who try to say the 144,000 revelation are literal, don't know the Old Testament, because the Old Testament says the Assyrian exile was the Assyrians taking people out of the northern kingdom and moving them to other parts of the Assyrian empire, incidentally not north into Europe, that's not where their empire was, and then taking people from other parts of their empire and putting them into the northern kingdom, and then encouraging intermarriage.

01:19:09.627 --> 01:19:14.067
That's how the Assyrians destroyed conquered peoples, through miscegenation.

01:19:14.067 --> 01:19:16.747
And so what happened to the northern kingdom?

01:19:16.747 --> 01:19:18.427
They became the Samaritans.

01:19:19.847 --> 01:19:24.787
They're no longer Israelites in the ethnic sense.

01:19:24.787 --> 01:19:32.887
And so those who think that, you know, dispensationalists and other things like that, oh, there's some future for ethnicists, there isn't because they're gone.

01:19:32.887 --> 01:19:35.767
They were destroyed as a judgment from God.

01:19:35.767 --> 01:19:42.047
So we're not descended from them because they're gone, and they're also from a different son of Noah.

01:19:42.047 --> 01:19:47.947
So, no, I don't think that Christian identity makes any sense whatsoever, or is Christian.

01:19:47.947 --> 01:19:55.027
I think it is a very weird larp, and I don't know why anyone would want to be related to those people.

01:19:55.027 --> 01:19:57.527
I mean, they could theoretically convert.

01:19:57.527 --> 01:19:59.567
I don't think any of them will.

01:19:59.567 --> 01:20:01.167
I certainly don't want to be related to them.

01:20:01.167 --> 01:20:10.747
I am very much glad that I am descended from Japheth, from the Germanic line of Japheth.

01:20:10.747 --> 01:20:15.427
And the greater promises, this is also another aspect of it that I think is ridiculous.

01:20:15.427 --> 01:20:27.947
These people just don't know the Old Testament, but another ridiculous part of it is that they want to have some sort of ethnic promise they think is still outstanding for Old Testament Israel.

01:20:27.967 --> 01:20:29.967
One, there's no such promise.

01:20:29.967 --> 01:20:43.067
And then two, the greatest promise in Scripture after the Gospel itself is the promise to Japheth, that he would dwell in the tents of Shem, which is that Japheth would become Christendom.

01:20:43.067 --> 01:20:47.127
Why would you want to be descended from Shem when Japheth has the greater promise?

01:20:48.667 --> 01:20:54.307
I'm not saying you can't be saved as a Shemite because of course you can, but Japheth has the greater promise.

01:20:54.307 --> 01:20:56.287
Japheth is the first born.

01:20:56.307 --> 01:20:58.447
Europeans are Japheth.

01:20:58.447 --> 01:21:00.307
I'm happy to be what I am.

01:21:00.307 --> 01:21:03.367
I don't need a LARP as an Old Testament Jew.

01:21:03.367 --> 01:21:04.127
That's ridiculous.

01:21:04.127 --> 01:21:07.867
I'm not going to wear a tiny hat, even though it might cover the bald spot.

01:21:07.867 --> 01:21:09.187
I'm not going to wear the tiny hat.

01:21:09.187 --> 01:21:10.267
That's silly.

01:21:10.267 --> 01:21:11.447
I don't want to be that.

01:21:11.447 --> 01:21:12.347
It's not Christian.

01:21:12.347 --> 01:21:13.727
I want nothing to do with it.

01:21:13.727 --> 01:21:15.927
I wish they would just be Christians.

01:21:15.927 --> 01:21:18.507
I recognize the impulse they have.

01:21:18.507 --> 01:21:24.507
They want to reject the philo-Semitism of the modern so-called church, but it's not the church.

01:21:24.507 --> 01:21:26.527
It's a bunch of heretics.

01:21:26.527 --> 01:21:36.007
Read the actual scripture, look at what it actually says about the sons of Noah, and accept the fact that you have been blessed to be a son of Japheth.

01:21:36.007 --> 01:21:38.387
You should be proud of your people and their history.

01:21:38.387 --> 01:21:45.687
You shouldn't want to pretend to be descended from some other line that is not as blessed and in many cases is cursed.

01:21:54.167 --> 01:21:58.127
Someone brought up the Israelites being white.

01:21:59.507 --> 01:22:14.187
I don't think that's wrong because you lowercase the W, because when scripture speaks about individuals who are part of Old Testament ethnic Israel, it does speak of them in terms that relate to light skin.

01:22:14.187 --> 01:22:29.547
But as I pointed out many times before, and this is unfortunately something people have very hard time grasping, because they don't know history in this case, many people in the Levant are even today fair-skinned.

01:22:29.547 --> 01:22:33.347
Fair skin is not exclusive to the sons of Japheth.

01:22:33.347 --> 01:22:36.327
That is not something that only we have.

01:22:36.327 --> 01:22:45.867
There are fair-skinned Koreans, there are fair-skinned Japanese, there are fair-skinned people in Syria, right?

01:22:45.907 --> 01:22:47.207
These people exist.

01:22:47.207 --> 01:22:50.127
And so, Christ, probably fair-skinned.

01:22:50.647 --> 01:22:53.027
I would go so far as to say, he was fair-skinned.

01:22:53.027 --> 01:22:56.587
Probably had light brown hair, fair skin, but we would consider tanned.

01:22:56.587 --> 01:22:59.507
So, you know, southern Italian kind of look.

01:23:01.367 --> 01:23:08.547
People don't understand how populations have migrated and things have changed in the intervening 2,000 years.

01:23:08.547 --> 01:23:16.167
Because do remember, the Arab conquest swept through that part of the world, and changed many of those populations.

01:23:16.167 --> 01:23:25.567
So, when these people are described as fair-skinned, or being able to blush, or having red hair, things like that, it doesn't mean they're European.

01:23:25.567 --> 01:23:30.567
It means that they are people from the Levant prior to the Arab conquest.

01:23:30.567 --> 01:23:36.927
Which, of course, they were, because we're talking about thousands of years prior, or at least a thousand years depending on the people.

01:23:36.927 --> 01:23:38.207
So, that's part of it.

01:23:38.887 --> 01:23:51.587
There's a difference between white in the sense of fair-skinned and white, uppercase W, in the case and the sense of descendant of Japheth, which is to say European.

01:23:51.587 --> 01:23:53.327
Different things.

01:23:53.327 --> 01:23:57.807
So, it's one of those cases where people just aren't very careful with their terms.

01:23:57.807 --> 01:24:02.767
There's nothing wrong with saying that Jesus is white in the case of fair skin, because I think that he was.

01:24:02.767 --> 01:24:09.627
I think that our understanding of population genetics and the words of scripture do support that.

01:24:09.627 --> 01:24:16.967
But he was not white in the case of European, in the sense of European, because he wasn't descended from Japheth.

01:24:16.967 --> 01:24:17.907
He was descended from Shem.

01:24:25.322 --> 01:24:36.642
My camera is slightly blocking the comment, but I think I have an Italian here saying that he's Southern Italian descent and has back hair, which, understandable, that part of the world.

01:24:36.642 --> 01:24:43.362
But I think that I will call it here for this episode.

01:24:43.362 --> 01:24:44.922
Someone asked me my thought on Bob Matthews.

01:24:44.922 --> 01:24:46.542
I don't know who that is.

01:24:46.542 --> 01:24:49.202
So I have no thoughts on him.

01:24:50.942 --> 01:24:54.802
So I think I will call it here for this week.

01:24:55.022 --> 01:25:00.522
I may run a little longer next week to try to get through a bit of the backlog I have.

01:25:00.522 --> 01:25:03.002
I would like to prepare a couple more of those questions.

01:25:03.002 --> 01:25:09.902
I know that I have some outstanding questions, but some of you have asked ones that are going to take a while to answer properly, which I do want to do.

01:25:09.902 --> 01:25:13.282
I don't want to just give a cursory answer.

01:25:13.282 --> 01:25:20.862
So I will push those to future episodes so that I can answer them more extensively, more completely.

01:25:21.962 --> 01:25:24.662
But again, I think I will call it here for this evening.

01:25:24.822 --> 01:25:27.202
Thank you for those of you who contributed questions.

01:25:27.202 --> 01:25:30.782
Thank you for those who participated in the chat.

01:25:30.782 --> 01:25:33.222
And I guess I will add one quick one.

01:25:33.222 --> 01:25:35.362
People ask about the Americas.

01:25:35.362 --> 01:25:36.862
Largely sons of Shem.

01:25:36.862 --> 01:25:38.882
Go ahead, run the genetic analysis.

01:25:38.882 --> 01:25:40.902
You can see they're related to Asians.

01:25:40.902 --> 01:25:41.762
That's the answer for that one.

01:25:41.762 --> 01:25:45.362
I'll just answer that really quickly here as I'm closing out.

01:25:45.362 --> 01:25:49.042
But thank you for participating in the chat, for submitting questions.

01:25:49.042 --> 01:25:53.702
If you would like to submit questions, omniforda.com should be a link in the description.

01:25:53.702 --> 01:25:56.282
In other places, it'll be in the show notes as well.

01:25:56.282 --> 01:26:09.262
For those who don't know, if you don't necessarily care about the video, if you just don't want to stare at me for an hour, by all means, there is audio only that I make available, usually two or three days after the show is streamed.

01:26:09.262 --> 01:26:11.482
And so if you want that, you can have that.

01:26:11.482 --> 01:26:17.222
It is generally a little higher quality when I remember to hit record on that.

01:26:17.222 --> 01:26:20.682
So I think that pretty much closes it out.

01:26:20.682 --> 01:26:26.762
If you want to submit questions elsewhere, I do try to collect them and answer them.

01:26:26.762 --> 01:26:36.302
But if you submit them on the forum, that is particularly helpful for me, because then I can keep them organized and point people to the answers more easily in the future.

01:26:37.722 --> 01:26:40.642
So that is it for this week.

01:26:40.642 --> 01:26:43.242
And I guess Lent is coming up.

01:26:43.242 --> 01:26:44.422
And so we went over that.

01:26:44.422 --> 01:26:57.262
And so you can be prepared to observe Lent in whatever way it is that you have chosen for your own personal observation of that, along with the historic practices of the Church.

01:26:57.262 --> 01:27:03.182
And I wish you all a great weekend, since it is Friday now instead of Thursday, which is sort of my original goal.

01:27:03.182 --> 01:27:10.982
But I hope you have a great rest of your weekend, and may God bless you all until I see you next week.

01:27:10.982 --> 01:27:16.122
I will of course continue to torment our enemies on X in the interim.

01:27:16.122 --> 01:27:22.722
They are very angry with the current thread I have going, that I have no intent of stopping anytime soon.

01:27:22.722 --> 01:27:27.722
So, again, thank you for your time, and have a great evening and weekend.

01:27:27.722 --> 01:27:28.102
God bless.