Transcript: AAC — 20 Feb 2026 (Q&A)

All transcripts are:

  1. Machine generated.
  2. Not checked for errors.
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It is the 20th 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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This is episode 17.

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It is a Q&A episode.

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And I have a little bit of housekeeping before I get into the questions for tonight.

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I have 12 questions I would like to get through in addition to perhaps some from the chat.

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The little bit of housekeeping is, if anyone from ReStream sees this, please stop signing me out of the plugin in OBS.

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I don't need to reauthenticate.

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I am using the same hardware.

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Just verify it's the same hardware and stop doing that.

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It's very annoying for a service that is supposed to make things more convenient, not less.

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I think that's pretty much all of the housekeeping, so irrelevant for most of you.

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But if someone from ReStream happens to see this, it would be nice of them to fix that.

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So getting right into the questions here.

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This is going to be a little bit of a Bible study tonight, and I'm fairly certain we're going to run a little bit long because of that.

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I don't think those who are watching this on a Friday night are going to object to running a little bit long though.

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So the first topic, it's not really a question, just a topic that I wanted to address.

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No one specifically asked about this, but the issue has come up a number of times, and I posted about it earlier.

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We are at a point now where technology is good enough with regard to faking a person's likeness and voice that you really need to have a discussion, assuming most of those listening to this are on the younger end of things.

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Most of you probably are not in your 50s and 60s.

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Most of you are going to be 20s, 30s, maybe 40s.

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So you're elderly parents in some cases.

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You're not so elderly parents in others, or you're less tech-adept family members, because we all typically have those as well.

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You need to have a discussion with them about the state of technology and how easy it is to get scammed.

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And part of that for elderly parents is going to be awkward, because you may have to take away their debit cards.

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Now, credit cards are probably less of a problem because they have fraud protection, but debit cards and wire transfers and things like that, if you can, you probably need to restrict your elderly parents from access to those things, because they will probably be scammed eventually.

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It's the reality of the situation in which we live right now.

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The scams are getting particularly bad.

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And it's because, like I said, deepfakes, the fake videos and the fake audio, are so good now that even those who know for what to look can be deceived by some of them.

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We're to the point where you basically can't believe your eyes.

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It's going to be a major problem for the courts, obviously, with regard to that sort of evidence.

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Perhaps it's going to bring back the importance of eyewitness evidence.

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But for those who are in a position without, again, elderly parents or less tech adept members of your family, have that discussion with them, basically tell them, never trust anything that's just video or audio because it can be faked.

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And you're not going to have any way to be able to tell if it is fake, because it is that good now.

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If I had been so inclined and desired to do so, I could have made this introduction me but AI.

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I'm never going to do that.

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I don't like using it, so I'm not going to do that.

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But I could have done that to prove the point and then cut in with me.

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And many of you would have been fooled by that, because that's how good it is now if you use the best available tools.

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So, just a couple little tips for how you can help parents deal with this and others in your family.

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Set up a key phrase, a passphrase, whatever you want to call it.

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It doesn't have to be a word.

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It can be a full sentence.

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Because, for instance, you can use a sentence as a password on your computer.

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Your password does not have to be gibberish or one word.

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It could be a sentence.

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It could be the first sentence from your favorite poem, say, something you can remember easily.

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That's part of it.

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You need to be able to remember this thing.

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But set up some sort of phrase where your family knows it, and then you can work it into a conversation to let the other person know it's actually me, because no one else would know it.

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So do make sure it's something no one else would know.

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Don't make it something that's super common.

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Make it something your family can remember, and that someone else will not be able to easily discover.

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Another thing that you can do, this is sort of the second tip here.

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There are additional things, but these are two good things for a starting place.

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Set up a question and answer, but you may be thinking, well, that's like my bank tells me, what's my favorite restaurant, or where were you born?

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Those questions are actually fine.

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Those are totally fine questions.

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You can pick any question you want.

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The key here, the little trick I want to teach you, make the answer unrelated to the question, because then it makes it very difficult, if not almost impossible, to guess.

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So if someone has their question as, what is your favorite restaurant, right?

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Say the answer is purple snow.

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No one is ever going to think of that answer or come across it randomly, but you've now created a pair, a question and answer pair, that is actually quite secure, because no one is going to guess it, and it's unrelated, right?

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That's what you want.

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You want that disconnect.

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The problem is when you use those questions, they're terrible questions, if you give the right answer, because quite frankly, for a scammer who has access to your personal information, say some of your bank records were leaked, or your credit card statements got leaked.

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Well, they might have a pretty good idea of what your favorite restaurant is, if it's the one you've been charging on your card twice a week for 10 years.

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So those questions are not good when you give the real answer.

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When you give a constructed answer, they're very good because then they're basically immune to equivalent brute force, right?

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So just two little tips to help with these things with your family.

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In addition to the one of, just don't talk to people who randomly call and claim to be your son or your daughter or your cousin or whatever it happens to be.

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You cannot do that these days because of where the technology is and how many scammers there are.

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Part of it, of course, is that we need to disconnect certain countries from the internet, but that has not happened yet.

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So, on to the second question for tonight.

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This one from the forum.

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Does your family know about your views?

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And if so, have they shunned you or have they expressed disapproval of your views?

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How do you recommend we deal with our families if they discover without us telling them that we espouse certain viewpoints that they may vehemently disagree with?

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This is quite similar to a question that I answered last time about a man dealing with his wife and her feeling isolated because of her views and trying to find friends that have similar views and things like that.

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So, in part, I would say go back and listen to that answer because that is a big part of the answer to this question.

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But insofar as I am concerned, I'm willing to go so far.

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I usually don't answer personal questions that involve other people.

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That's my general rule.

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But I'm willing to say that I'm on good terms with my family.

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Certainly, there are some extended family back in California who do not agree with my views.

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That's just the reality of it.

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That's not unexpected these days, certainly, given my views, right?

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And the state of our country and propaganda and things like that.

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But no, I'm on good terms with my immediate family.

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We don't necessarily agree on everything, but even if you have a family that is right wing, say, far right wing, right?

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You probably still won't agree on everything.

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That's just the nature of being a human being.

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We are going to disagree over sometimes stupid stuff, sometimes serious stuff.

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But with your family, there are going to be some differences concerning distance.

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If you have your immediate family, particularly if you're living in the same house as your immediate family, you need to get along with them.

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And I would say go read the article that I just wrote on women in defense of women.

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I'll put it in the show notes, because it's similar to some of the things I said there that need to be repeated here.

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There are times when you are dealing with immediate family, particularly in your own household, where winning does not need to be the goal, because winning comes at too high of a cost in those circumstances, because you need to keep the peace.

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That's basically the baseline there.

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You need to keep the peace in the home as best you can.

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You know, insofar as it depends on you, live at peace with all, right?

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So with your immediate family, that's the general rule.

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Or distant family, you can have a little more conflict because you don't live with them.

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You don't see them as often.

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If it's family, you see once a year, and you get into an argument about politics, at your family potluck, maybe don't do that because there's not really any reason to.

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But if you do, the consequences are not as dire, as if you are at enmity with someone who lives literally down the hall from you in the same building.

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That's more of a challenge.

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So, it's going to depend on that immediate versus distant family, and then part of it overlapping with my previous answer from the last episode regarding that man and his wife, just don't bring some things up.

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Yes, your question asks specifically, if they happen to discover them without you telling them, then you have to address it.

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And you should make clear that you value that relationship with your family, with your family members, highly, and you do not want to let politics and social issues and things like that destroy that relationship.

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And so basically, you agree to disagree.

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That is not something that we can do in the larger society, because that's a different arena.

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It's the public square versus the private home.

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In the private home, we can agree to disagree, because keeping the peace is very important.

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And so if it comes up in the way that they have discovered your views, make it very clear, again, that you value the relationship with your family, and you want to live at peace in your home.

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You don't want to be fighting over these things all the time.

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So maybe you set some ground rules.

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We don't discuss X, Y, and Z topic.

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We don't discuss politics at the dinner table.

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There's nothing wrong with that.

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Growing up, that's certainly something my family did not do.

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We've always been discussed religion, politics, social, whatever it happens to be.

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But in many families, you're going to not want to do that, because you don't need to have that sort of strife and fighting in the family, and the stress and things that attend it for many people.

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That's not what the home is supposed to be.

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The home is supposed to be a sanctuary.

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It's supposed to be a refuge from the world.

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And you will not have that if you're constantly fighting over certain things.

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So set bounds.

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There are topics that are out of bounds, or we don't discuss these topics at home, but maybe you go out with your father and have a beer at a bar or something, and then you discuss politics there.

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Maybe that's how you bound it.

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So you can keep the piece at home, but still have the option to discuss it.

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It's going to depend on your circumstances, your family, your tolerance for argument and strife and things like that.

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Some families have a very high tolerance for it, and so you discuss politics at the dinner table.

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Some families have a very low tolerance for it, and so you avoid it totally.

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The goal is to keep that piece in the home and not let these issues that we know are important and that are worth having a knockdown, drag-out, knives-out fight in the public square, obviously I'm speaking about metaphorical in this case, not literal knives, metaphorical in this case, but worth having that sort of fight in the public square, but you don't have it at home.

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These things are different and they should be treated differently.

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The third question, trying to number the questions as I go to make it easier to tag them in the future so people can find things easily.

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This one has a number of subtopics, so I will get into each of those.

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What should devout Christian men in modern America do about the lack of marriageable women?

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I was wondering if you could comment on each of these strategies.

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And so he has a number of strategies here.

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There are seven of them.

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Dating women from other major traditional Christian denominations, for example, Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Presbyterianism.

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So, asking this obviously from given that list has to be a Lutheran or Baptist, which doesn't narrow it too much.

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But temporarily moving abroad, for example, to Eastern Europe, where feminism is not as pervasive.

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Find a European woman who speaks English and bring her back here.

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Dating Anabaptist or Mormon women who grew up under male authority.

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Dating women who have lapsed in their faith yet may still have maintained their purity.

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Dating women with some type of learning disability that has prevented her from attending college.

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I will go ahead and not make the obvious joke there.

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Dating half-damaged women who may have retained some aspects of purity, but not all aspects.

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Dating women who have a small percent of non-white admixture.

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Is this ever acceptable?

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If so, do you have a recommended cutoff?

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In the Stone Quire episode, Entirely Young Man's Life, you seem to advocate approaching baristas and cashiers.

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Yet my experience has been that approaching women already puts you in their frame.

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That is, they see you as needy or desperate.

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Should I just be content with being single, I am at the point where I really think it's better for me to just focus on myself and not actively try to pursue women who don't seem to be interested in getting married anyway.

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So, obviously, a number of sub-questions here and topics to address.

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Insofar as that last bit is concerned, focusing on yourself in the sense of, you know, getting in shape and focusing on your hobbies and having a life is important, because women recognize if you have that or don't.

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And yes, as a man, you don't want to come across as desperate because that gives women the Ick, as they would call it.

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Even if they don't recognize the reality of it, that's just a biological and a psychological reaction women have.

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They can't even control it, so don't get mad at them for it.

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That's just how they are.

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It's how God made them.

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So, yes, focusing on those things and making sure that you have a personality and a life, because a wife is something you bring into your life, that is a piece of it.

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She's not the total.

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She's not the sum of your life.

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She's not everything you have.

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In fact, you should be more of her life than she should be of yours.

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That is how it works when things are functioning properly, which makes perfect sense because, of course, she's the one keeping the home, she's the one taking care of the children, the house, all those things.

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You have more of a life outside the home than she does.

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It's not to say she can't have friends and hobbies and things like that, but the larger chunk of a man's life is outside his home, often.

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Not always, you can have a little bit of a balance there, but you have things you go out and do in the world.

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That's important.

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You need to have that.

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Even if you work at home, you need to have a part of the house set aside for when you work at home, close it off, and don't deal with your wife during certain hours, because psychologically, she is not going to like the fact that it looks like you're just staying home all the time.

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There are some women who can sort of deal with that, and deal with the dissonance there, and not have that reaction, but most women can't.

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And so you need to have that separation.

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For men who go outside and work outside the home, it's not as much of an issue.

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But to get into the specific sub-questions here, dating outside, your particular strain of Christianity is entirely fine.

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I've spoken to the topic before, and the big question is going to be, will she follow your lead?

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Does she recognize that you are the head?

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Does she recognize that you get to make these decisions because you are the one who will answer to God for them?

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And so if she is Presbyterian and you are Lutheran, she has to become Lutheran.

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That is part of the deal if she is going to marry you.

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It is not being unequally yoked in the fullest sense, because obviously you're not just marrying an outright pagan, which is what we get into later here.

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But it is being unequally yoked in a minor sense, because she is going to have a lot of the duties and a lot of the time raising your children.

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Part of that will be instructing them in the faith.

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Now, it is incumbent on you to see that they are instructed rightly, but you will not be the one doing all of that.

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She will do part of that.

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And so you need to make sure that she is teaching the things that you believe, because you are the head and she has to follow.

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And if she's not willing to do that, then you are just signing up for strife in your marriage and suffering in your home.

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So you need to take that into account.

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But yes, it is generally fine to date Christians outside your denomination, outside your tradition.

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That's not a problem.

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The problems arise tangentially related to that.

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If she will not follow your lead, if she will not submit, which Scripture says wives are to submit to their husbands in all things, then you have a very real problem.

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If she was raised as a proper Christian, you shouldn't have as much of an issue.

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Do also recognize, of course, there is the issue that comes alongside that.

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How will her family react to her marrying outside their tradition, outside their denomination?

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Is that going to be a source of strife?

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Generally speaking, this, of course, does not always happen, particularly these days, but historically the woman became part of the man's family.

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And so she had significantly less interaction with her family, her parents, grandparents, cousins, siblings, all of that, because she became part of your family, part of your clan.

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These days, that's not always going to be the case, and it doesn't even necessarily have to be the case.

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You'd like to get along with your in-laws, and she'd like to get along with hers.

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That's how it should be.

00:18:56.560 --> 00:19:13.700
But if her family is going to be very involved in your life, say, her mother is going to do a lot of babysitting, things like that, then it is a very real concern if they are going to cause strife for you in your marriage, because they disagree with you on these issues.

00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:15.860
It's a matter of wisdom.

00:19:15.860 --> 00:19:32.880
You have to investigate this and make sure that her parents aren't going to cause trouble for you, because they are Roman Catholic and think that you are an evil Presbyterian, or whatever it happens to be, or they are Baptist and think that you are an evil baby sprinkling Presbyterian, or whatever they want to call you.

00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:47.760
Make sure you are not signing up for strife there, and you may have to have a very frank discussion with them about how you are going to raise your children and what the boundaries are for what they are permitted to say to your children or not say to your children.

00:19:47.760 --> 00:19:52.300
Because ultimately, they are your children, you are the one who will answer for them.

00:19:52.300 --> 00:19:56.180
So apply your wisdom there, investigate these issues.

00:19:57.380 --> 00:20:03.860
As far as temporarily moving abroad, I obviously don't recommend that, because I don't think men should go shopping for wives in other countries.

00:20:03.860 --> 00:20:06.440
You should marry a wife from your own country.

00:20:06.440 --> 00:20:14.200
Now, is there as much of a problem if, say, I'm not saying go shopping for a wife, but let's say you're English, right?

00:20:14.200 --> 00:20:22.240
English descent, just for the sake of the hypothetical, and you live in the US, and you meet a nice English girl from England, somehow.

00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:25.360
She's hiking, you meet her, however it happens to be.

00:20:25.360 --> 00:20:27.020
Is there a problem there?

00:20:27.020 --> 00:20:29.060
No, there's no problem there, that's totally fine.

00:20:29.060 --> 00:20:30.420
You can do that.

00:20:30.420 --> 00:20:36.860
It's not going to happen that often, but it's not objectionable, because you are ultimately from the same nation.

00:20:36.860 --> 00:20:38.220
Just a little bit of separation there.

00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:44.260
Same thing for if you're German, and marry a German from Germany, versus a German descended person from the US.

00:20:44.260 --> 00:20:48.860
Or again, it's this matter of concentric circles, right?

00:20:48.860 --> 00:20:53.920
You are more closely related to those of your nation, and then of your larger nation.

00:20:53.920 --> 00:21:01.500
So say, in the case of Germany versus Germanics, versus Western Europe, versus Europe, concentric circles.

00:21:01.500 --> 00:21:06.000
You are going to encounter more and greater problems, the greater the distance.

00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:14.720
And so yes, if you are German, and you marry someone who is Chinese, significantly more problems you have created for yourself and your children than if you marry someone who is Dutch.

00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:20.020
Maybe a little bit of tension there, because the Germans and the Dutch are different, but they are not that different.

00:21:20.020 --> 00:21:23.520
The Germans and the Chinese are extremely different.

00:21:23.520 --> 00:21:26.780
So no, I don't recommend going and shopping for wives in other countries.

00:21:26.780 --> 00:21:28.720
Don't do that.

00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:32.500
Dating an Anabaptist or a Mormon who grew up under male authority.

00:21:32.500 --> 00:21:33.200
That's fine.

00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:37.600
There are plenty of Anabaptists, plenty of Mormons here, and they are of our nation.

00:21:37.600 --> 00:21:39.980
So same blood, same race.

00:21:39.980 --> 00:21:40.980
That's completely fine.

00:21:40.980 --> 00:21:49.780
Again, you're going to have the same sort of issues that you had with dating someone from another denomination, but perhaps a more extreme version of that.

00:21:49.780 --> 00:21:55.180
Do recognize that in those communities, typically if someone leaves, they are going to be shunned.

00:21:55.180 --> 00:22:02.340
Now, as you are a man and you're looking for a wife, it's not as big of an issue because again, she is properly joining your family.

00:22:02.340 --> 00:22:04.020
You're not joining hers really.

00:22:04.700 --> 00:22:08.520
And so, the fact that she's going to be shunned is going to be a problem for her.

00:22:08.520 --> 00:22:13.800
That's going to be hard for her emotionally, psychologically, recognize there are going to be hurdles to overcome.

00:22:13.800 --> 00:22:22.920
But as long as you have family who are going to support you and support her, you can probably do that and you'll be just fine.

00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:27.620
You probably want to move away from the Anabaptists of the Mormon community though.

00:22:27.620 --> 00:22:33.860
You probably don't want to live right next door and have stolen one of their women, as some of them will view it.

00:22:35.340 --> 00:22:41.340
The next part, dating women who have lapsed in their faith yet may still have maintained their purity, completely fine.

00:22:41.340 --> 00:22:42.420
Same sort of consideration.

00:22:42.420 --> 00:22:43.420
Bring them back into the faith.

00:22:43.420 --> 00:22:45.240
In fact, you're doing a good thing.

00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:47.000
Bring them back into the faith.

00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:50.000
Make sure that they are willing to follow your lead.

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:56.460
Recognize that maybe you're going to have some challenges there, some struggles because she's had struggles with her faith.

00:22:56.460 --> 00:22:59.400
Make sure your faith is firm enough to be able to support hers.

00:23:00.220 --> 00:23:02.260
So, make sure you're ready to do that role.

00:23:02.260 --> 00:23:09.760
You have to do that anyway as a husband because God is going to ask you, where is your wife when you get to the judgment because you're her head.

00:23:09.760 --> 00:23:12.660
So, same sort of challenge there.

00:23:14.120 --> 00:23:22.960
The question about women with a learning disability, that's going to depend really heavily on what you mean by that because there's a wide spectrum.

00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:31.740
There's a difference between a woman who has really mild autism or a woman who is profoundly mentally retarded in the technical sense, right?

00:23:31.740 --> 00:23:33.520
Wild difference there.

00:23:35.120 --> 00:23:38.940
So, I can't really give a general answer to that one.

00:23:38.940 --> 00:23:44.240
I don't think producing severely mentally disabled children would be wise.

00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:47.560
I think I've been fairly clear about that many times in many places.

00:23:47.560 --> 00:23:55.520
But if it's a woman who has some mild problem, dyslexia or something, something mild, there's no problem there, there's no objection there.

00:23:56.520 --> 00:24:03.920
Again, just recognize that if it's something that has a genetic component, you will pass it on to your children potentially, and so there are risks.

00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:06.140
But, you know, weigh these things.

00:24:06.140 --> 00:24:07.680
Everyone has problems, generally speaking.

00:24:07.680 --> 00:24:15.820
There are very few people who don't have some sort of mild genetic something, or some sort of baggage, right?

00:24:15.820 --> 00:24:21.560
And it obviously depends on how broad you cast that net, how broadly you define it, you know.

00:24:21.560 --> 00:24:24.540
I have gray hair, like, is that genetic?

00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:25.480
Absolutely.

00:24:25.480 --> 00:24:28.380
Some men grow gray much earlier than others.

00:24:28.380 --> 00:24:31.660
I'm 40, and my beard is, you know, half gray at this point.

00:24:31.660 --> 00:24:35.440
So it just depends on how broadly you define these categories.

00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:44.300
The next one, dating half-damaged, in quotes here, women who have maintained some aspects of purity, but not all aspects.

00:24:44.300 --> 00:24:51.720
So basically, these are women who have been not necessarily wildly promiscuous, but have not been entirely chased, I think, is what we're getting to here.

00:24:53.460 --> 00:24:57.320
This is going to be a matter of wisdom.

00:24:57.320 --> 00:25:10.240
Do you have what it takes to deal with a woman who has that baggage, and part of it is going to be baggage that she literally cannot herself get rid of, because it is genetic baggage in some cases.

00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:22.600
There are some things where this is now just part of who she is biologically and psychologically, and she will never get rid of it until the resurrection, the general resurrection, right, in the new creation.

00:25:22.600 --> 00:25:27.480
And so make sure you are the sort of man who can handle that.

00:25:27.480 --> 00:25:31.300
I'm not going to say it's always unwise or it's always bad.

00:25:31.300 --> 00:25:38.880
I did set a general sort of formula for how to calculate that, and you can go find that in my comments archive.

00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:44.820
I won't say it here because it'll probably get the video flagged in some way, but you can go and find that, and I stand by it.

00:25:44.820 --> 00:25:46.520
I think it is a general rule of thumb.

00:25:47.120 --> 00:25:55.380
There are men who can have a fudge factor, deal with women who are a little more damaged, and there are men who can't.

00:25:55.380 --> 00:25:57.140
You know the sort of man you are.

00:25:57.140 --> 00:26:04.860
You know what you can handle, what you can't handle, and whether or not you will be comfortable settling a little bit.

00:26:04.860 --> 00:26:12.500
And do, of course, recognize that women these days are also settling because men are also damaged goods in a lot of cases.

00:26:13.080 --> 00:26:17.660
So recognize that maybe you're damaged goods a little bit too.

00:26:17.660 --> 00:26:22.600
So give her a little grace, a little leeway, and hopefully she will return that.

00:26:22.600 --> 00:26:29.460
But the central part there is recognize that maybe you are the sort of man who can deal with that, and maybe you aren't.

00:26:29.460 --> 00:26:42.460
And if you have a great opportunity to marry a good woman who was maybe a little bit off the reservation in university, not wild party girl, right?

00:26:42.460 --> 00:26:45.840
But maybe she made some mistakes, did some things she should not have done.

00:26:45.840 --> 00:26:47.580
And yes, they're more than mistakes, they're sin.

00:26:47.580 --> 00:26:50.820
But does that mean she can't be a good wife?

00:26:50.820 --> 00:26:52.140
I don't think so.

00:26:52.140 --> 00:27:01.140
You know, if she had one or two serious boyfriends in university, and yes, she slept with them, does that mean that she absolutely can never be a wife?

00:27:01.140 --> 00:27:03.560
No, that would be ridiculous to claim that.

00:27:03.560 --> 00:27:04.280
Is it ideal?

00:27:04.280 --> 00:27:05.060
Absolutely not.

00:27:05.060 --> 00:27:05.700
Of course not.

00:27:05.700 --> 00:27:08.700
Because a woman is supposed to be a virgin on her wedding night.

00:27:09.660 --> 00:27:19.020
And one of the ways you can look at that is that one of the examples that is held up for marriage in scripture is the requirements for the priests.

00:27:19.020 --> 00:27:20.420
And what was the requirement?

00:27:20.420 --> 00:27:26.360
They had to marry a wife of their own race, and she had to be a virgin.

00:27:26.360 --> 00:27:28.940
God's pretty clear about what he wants for marriage.

00:27:28.940 --> 00:27:32.520
And so there is an ideal, but we live in a fallen world.

00:27:32.520 --> 00:27:35.860
And, you know, if you're millennial, you're getting up there in years.

00:27:35.860 --> 00:27:37.120
I know that personally.

00:27:37.900 --> 00:27:42.620
And so maybe there will be a little bit of settling in order to find a wife.

00:27:42.620 --> 00:27:50.660
And you just have to make it through this life that's not fatalist or pessimistic or cynical or whatever it happens to be.

00:27:50.660 --> 00:27:55.140
But I think this is something that we don't really think of enough.

00:27:55.140 --> 00:27:59.320
All you have to do with your marriage is survive for 60 years, right?

00:27:59.320 --> 00:28:06.820
Find the happiness where you can, live a good life together, let small things slide, but recognize that it's really only about 60 years.

00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:09.800
Or if you're a millennial, then maybe, you know, 40 years or something.

00:28:09.800 --> 00:28:14.240
But it's not the highest bar to hurdle.

00:28:14.240 --> 00:28:18.680
And all the problems we have today are gone in the next life.

00:28:18.680 --> 00:28:20.720
You just have to get through this one.

00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:23.380
So keep a perspective on things.

00:28:23.380 --> 00:28:26.120
Don't look for perfection because you won't find it in this life.

00:28:26.120 --> 00:28:28.360
It doesn't exist in this life.

00:28:28.360 --> 00:28:33.320
Find something that is good for you and that you can make into a good life.

00:28:35.660 --> 00:28:43.380
The next sub-question is dating women who have a small percent of non-white admixture.

00:28:43.380 --> 00:28:48.800
I'm sort of tempted to get out my tablet, which I have set up here.

00:28:48.800 --> 00:28:51.640
Of course, now it's decided to disconnect.

00:28:51.640 --> 00:28:52.700
I think it probably went to sleep.

00:28:52.700 --> 00:28:56.580
But I don't think I need to do that because I think everyone kind of understands the percentages here.

00:28:56.580 --> 00:28:57.720
They're pretty straightforward, right?

00:28:58.960 --> 00:29:11.960
So you are effectively half your father, 25% your grandfather, 12.5% your great grandfather, and then, you know, 6.25, 3.125, so on and so forth back.

00:29:11.960 --> 00:29:17.660
So after a certain number of generations, it becomes trivia, if even that.

00:29:17.660 --> 00:29:25.380
So you get people sometimes in the US context, usually they've just had some sort of weird family legend that's a complete wild fabrication.

00:29:25.520 --> 00:29:28.920
Someone said it while he was drunk 100 years ago or something.

00:29:28.920 --> 00:29:31.800
And they'll say, oh, I'm part Cherokee.

00:29:31.800 --> 00:29:35.360
And you do a genetic test, and they're 0% Cherokee.

00:29:35.360 --> 00:29:40.460
Well, let's say you had an ancestor at some point way back who was Cherokee.

00:29:40.460 --> 00:29:42.820
Let's say it's 9, 10 generations ago.

00:29:42.820 --> 00:29:45.100
You are effectively 0% Cherokee.

00:29:45.100 --> 00:29:55.780
So marrying someone who has some small admixture from another race is not going to be a problem, generally speaking.

00:29:55.780 --> 00:29:58.780
Is there a slightly elevated risk of genetic and other issues?

00:29:58.780 --> 00:30:00.960
Of course, that's the reality of it.

00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:16.100
But that doesn't mean that it rises to the level where it would be unwise to marry a woman who has a 16th, a 32nd, whatever it happens to be from some other group.

00:30:16.100 --> 00:30:20.780
Part of it is also going to depend on which other group, because again, it's that matter of distance.

00:30:21.560 --> 00:30:37.580
If you are half-Irish and half-Russian, that is not going to give you the same risk of genetic disorders and psychological stresses that you would have if you were half-Russian and half-Thai.

00:30:37.580 --> 00:30:41.640
It's that distance, it's that incompatibility of the cultures.

00:30:41.640 --> 00:30:42.960
You are going to have more problems.

00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:53.400
And anyone who is of mixed race, who is being honest with you, is going to say, yes, I feel torn between two worlds, because you literally are biologically in yourself, you are torn between those two worlds.

00:30:53.400 --> 00:30:59.040
And so, if you marry a woman who has that, recognize she is going to have those issues, right?

00:30:59.040 --> 00:31:11.500
That's going to be part of her psychological makeup, and the biology as well, because that is how she was made, because her parents made that unwise decision.

00:31:11.500 --> 00:31:18.480
But if it's four, five, six, seven, eight generations back, she is not going to care.

00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:21.320
That's faded into time, it's not going to matter.

00:31:21.320 --> 00:31:24.860
So you're not going to have issues with that.

00:31:24.860 --> 00:31:25.740
Again, is it ideal?

00:31:25.740 --> 00:31:26.460
No.

00:31:26.460 --> 00:31:28.460
But we don't live in an ideal world.

00:31:28.460 --> 00:31:35.220
There are going to be things where you have to give a little bit of leeway, a little bit of grace basically.

00:31:35.220 --> 00:31:36.680
And this is one of them.

00:31:36.680 --> 00:31:42.080
So no, if it's something like that, I don't think it's really worth having that consideration.

00:31:42.080 --> 00:31:44.360
Again, it depends on the admixture.

00:31:44.360 --> 00:31:57.920
You know, someone who is half Japanese is not going to have the same sort of stresses and psychological baggage as someone who is half Ugandan and half, you know, European.

00:31:57.920 --> 00:32:01.340
I'm using European because that's obviously most of the audience and what I am.

00:32:01.340 --> 00:32:04.720
So use wisdom there.

00:32:04.720 --> 00:32:08.760
I've spoken about that a number of times before, touched on it in Stone Choir.

00:32:08.760 --> 00:32:17.940
But yes, once you start getting into 1st 16th, 1st 32nd, 1st 64th, it's practically not even worth considering anymore.

00:32:17.940 --> 00:32:25.420
So I think that pretty much answers all of the sub-questions there.

00:32:25.420 --> 00:32:28.460
Except for, no, I don't think you have to be content being single.

00:32:28.460 --> 00:32:30.620
Just go out and find a woman.

00:32:30.620 --> 00:32:32.680
You're a man, find a younger woman.

00:32:32.680 --> 00:32:34.640
Go date a zoomer.

00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:35.820
Good luck.

00:32:35.820 --> 00:32:39.680
I recognize there are problems, but there are problems with men as well.

00:32:39.680 --> 00:32:40.780
We're all damaged.

00:32:40.780 --> 00:32:41.920
We're all kind of broken goods.

00:32:41.980 --> 00:32:45.100
We're living in an interim generation, essentially.

00:32:45.100 --> 00:32:51.420
So the goal is to get through this, to make a better world for those who come after us.

00:32:51.420 --> 00:32:55.800
And part of that is that there have to be those who come after us to have that better world.

00:32:55.800 --> 00:33:00.680
So go find yourself a 24-year-old and date her.

00:33:00.680 --> 00:33:02.360
That's entirely fine.

00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:14.460
The next question, question four, is about English and the Septuagint.

00:33:16.660 --> 00:33:23.300
Do you think God is preparing to use English as a new scriptural language similar to Greek for the Septuagint?

00:33:23.300 --> 00:33:29.300
Will the future faithful English translation of scripture be used similar to the Septuagint to spread the word of God?

00:33:29.300 --> 00:33:30.660
Thoughts behind the question.

00:33:30.660 --> 00:33:40.620
In your series on the Septuagint, the basic idea was that the scriptures needed to be translated into Greek because it was the lingua franca, which is a term I always find funny.

00:33:40.620 --> 00:33:43.840
This permitted its spread throughout the Greek and Roman empires.

00:33:43.840 --> 00:33:49.080
English is known worldwide now and likely to remain the lingua franca for quite some time.

00:33:49.080 --> 00:33:52.740
Even far-flung tropical islands know some English due to commerce.

00:33:52.740 --> 00:33:54.520
That is true.

00:33:54.520 --> 00:34:00.420
This seems to me like a similar set of factors for why God preserved the word of Greek after he permitted Hebrew to die.

00:34:02.120 --> 00:34:10.960
I might go so far as to say he killed Hebrew, but I don't necessarily know that it is the equivalent for a number of reasons.

00:34:10.960 --> 00:34:22.340
I think that English, I'll start out by saying, I think that the English translation will be the word of God, the sort of official word of God in English for English speakers.

00:34:22.340 --> 00:34:29.720
But I don't think that we're at a point in history, given just the realities of technology and commerce and things like that.

00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:36.180
Where we need to have one language of scripture as the universal one.

00:34:36.180 --> 00:34:43.920
Because, like I said previously, I have a German translation of the Septuagint somewhere in this room.

00:34:43.920 --> 00:34:45.400
I don't know where I've said it.

00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:49.040
But there's no reason the Germans should use English.

00:34:49.040 --> 00:34:50.180
The German is just fine.

00:34:50.180 --> 00:34:54.780
You can translate Greek into German with minimal difficulty.

00:34:54.780 --> 00:34:58.260
And you can do the same thing for French and Dutch and Danish and whatever else.

00:34:59.840 --> 00:35:09.400
So, I think that is what should be done today, because we don't have these prohibitive costs with regard to printing, and everyone can buy a copy.

00:35:09.400 --> 00:35:14.600
You know, unfortunately, the German copy of the Septuagint I ordered from Germany, and so it wasn't cheap.

00:35:14.600 --> 00:35:23.040
But at the same time, it's trivial compared to what these things used to cost, because it used to be a significant chunk of your wages for the year.

00:35:23.040 --> 00:35:31.200
If not more than that, at some points in history, it could have been multiple years' worth of the wages of a day laborer.

00:35:31.200 --> 00:35:38.440
And I just don't think we're in a situation where we have to have English as the one copy used everywhere.

00:35:38.440 --> 00:35:48.320
And there's also the fact that, as a general rule, and I guess this sort of gets into a question for later, but I think I won't address that sub-point then.

00:35:49.660 --> 00:35:57.760
The question is, have we already completed the spread of the gospel to all nations?

00:35:57.760 --> 00:36:14.100
Traditionally, a number of Lutheran theologians and teachers have believed that was fulfilled in the time of the apostles, and then, if not in the time of the apostles, that plus the age of Christendom.

00:36:14.100 --> 00:36:34.500
I am inclined to believe that is true, because at this point, pretty much everyone on the planet has access to scripture in a comprehensible language, except for obviously those who are profoundly mentally disabled or speak some very weird language that doesn't have a ready translation, but even those are extremely uncommon these days.

00:36:34.500 --> 00:36:54.880
And then you're getting, I think, a little too fine in the resolution of nation, nation meaning race, because all the great races of man, which is, say, Europeans, Africans, and Asians, in the broad sense of Asian and the broad sense of race, have the word of God, have been proselytized, have heard the gospel.

00:36:54.880 --> 00:37:00.100
And so I think the Great Commission has been effectively completed.

00:37:00.100 --> 00:37:06.820
So I don't think we need English to pursue that at this point, because I don't think it's something we need to pursue.

00:37:06.820 --> 00:37:12.280
I think we're more in the stage of knocking the dust off our sandals for those who have rejected God.

00:37:13.080 --> 00:37:17.240
Does that mean that we should stop all efforts to proselytize other nations?

00:37:17.240 --> 00:37:18.700
No, I don't think so.

00:37:18.700 --> 00:37:24.780
But I think we should focus only on those who are eager to hear the word and willing to receive it.

00:37:24.780 --> 00:37:30.160
So, you know, I'd like to see Japan proselytized, because MacArthur botched that one.

00:37:30.160 --> 00:37:36.240
And I wouldn't want to be serving his eternity currently, on account of that and some other things.

00:37:36.240 --> 00:37:46.920
But, you know, that is something that we could still do, because many of them are willing to receive the word greatly and happily.

00:37:46.920 --> 00:37:49.280
Whereas some places are not.

00:37:49.280 --> 00:37:51.220
Should we be proselytizing the Jews?

00:37:51.220 --> 00:37:52.260
No.

00:37:52.260 --> 00:37:53.540
They rejected God.

00:37:53.540 --> 00:37:58.420
They have rejected efforts to convert them for centuries, millennia at this point.

00:37:58.420 --> 00:38:07.460
And they spit on God, they hate God, they pray against Christians, they spit on Christians, knock the dust off your sandals and be done with it.

00:38:07.460 --> 00:38:18.060
But the basic answer to the question is, I think we can translate scriptures into every language that warrants it, and so we don't need to have a lingua franca for scripture.

00:38:18.060 --> 00:38:28.840
The English translation will be the translation for English speakers, but I think there should also be an equivalent the translation for German, and for French, and for other languages as well.

00:38:36.807 --> 00:38:55.067
Question five is going to be where we get into the Bible study, and I'm definitely going to run long on this episode because there is a fair amount to go over for this.

00:38:55.067 --> 00:39:11.887
So I will first do some readings of scripture because the question, actually I'll first read the question, but then I will do some readings of scripture to set sort of the background and then give my answer to the question.

00:39:11.887 --> 00:39:16.607
I don't want to be a bother, as I know you are generally not fond of End Times discussion.

00:39:16.607 --> 00:39:17.827
More or less true.

00:39:17.827 --> 00:39:20.727
But I'm curious as to what signs are not yet fulfilled.

00:39:20.727 --> 00:39:26.027
As I have heard you mention over the years, I have been listening that there are a few that remain outstanding.

00:39:26.027 --> 00:39:27.987
And I think that is true.

00:39:28.467 --> 00:39:36.167
But in order to couch that properly, we sort of need to understand what the signs of the End Times are.

00:39:36.167 --> 00:39:38.627
So, I'm going to go through a number of readings here.

00:39:38.627 --> 00:39:39.647
Some of them are a little long.

00:39:39.647 --> 00:39:41.467
This one is going to take a little while.

00:39:41.467 --> 00:39:51.647
But like I said, this is going to be where the Bible study starts, which again, I don't think anyone who's listening to this on a Friday night is going to object to a Bible study.

00:39:51.647 --> 00:39:54.467
So, of course, log off is going to be uncooperative here.

00:39:56.547 --> 00:39:58.587
There we go.

00:39:58.587 --> 00:40:14.787
So I am going to open up both log-offs and the Septuagint, because there are a couple of times where I know I'm going to get different numbering in the Septuagint, and I want to be able to use the one with which I'm familiar just so I can find it more easily.

00:40:14.787 --> 00:40:16.647
We will start with the New Testament, though.

00:40:16.647 --> 00:40:17.827
We'll start with Matthew 24.

00:40:20.167 --> 00:40:26.507
And this will be verses 3 through 14 is what I'll read here.

00:40:26.507 --> 00:40:35.727
As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming into the end of the age?

00:40:35.727 --> 00:40:43.727
And Jesus answered them, See that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray.

00:40:43.727 --> 00:40:45.987
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

00:40:46.487 --> 00:40:51.307
See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.

00:40:51.307 --> 00:41:04.267
For nation will rise against nation, and notably there that could be translated, race will rise against race, it is the same word in Greek, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

00:41:04.267 --> 00:41:07.227
All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

00:41:07.227 --> 00:41:13.067
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.

00:41:13.707 --> 00:41:21.227
And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

00:41:21.227 --> 00:41:37.587
And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved, and the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, or races, and then the end will come.

00:41:37.587 --> 00:41:43.867
And yes, of course, there's the abomination of desolation, which you see next, but I'm just going to read that section for now.

00:41:43.867 --> 00:41:56.167
The next section will be from 2 Thessalonians 2, and I'll read from 3 through 12 for this one.

00:41:57.427 --> 00:42:17.367
Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of god, proclaiming himself to be god.

00:42:17.367 --> 00:42:26.027
Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things, and you know what is restraining him now, so that he may be revealed in his time?

00:42:26.027 --> 00:42:28.967
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.

00:42:28.967 --> 00:42:41.347
Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way, and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

00:42:41.347 --> 00:42:53.747
The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved.

00:42:53.747 --> 00:43:03.907
Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

00:43:07.007 --> 00:43:18.467
And the next section I'll read is from 2nd Timothy, getting a collection of the signs here, for the end times, of course.

00:43:18.467 --> 00:43:20.687
Read 1 through 9.

00:43:20.687 --> 00:43:48.507
But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty, for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

00:43:48.507 --> 00:44:00.987
Avoid such people, for among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

00:44:01.667 --> 00:44:11.087
Just as Janus and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.

00:44:11.087 --> 00:44:17.747
But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

00:44:19.787 --> 00:44:23.027
The next section from 1st John this time.

00:44:29.403 --> 00:44:36.383
Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come.

00:44:36.383 --> 00:44:39.063
Therefore we know that it is the last hour.

00:44:39.063 --> 00:44:45.203
They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.

00:44:45.203 --> 00:44:49.403
But they went out, that it might be complained that they are all not of us.

00:44:49.403 --> 00:44:53.443
But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

00:44:53.443 --> 00:45:00.203
I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

00:45:00.203 --> 00:45:04.303
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?

00:45:04.303 --> 00:45:08.743
This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

00:45:08.743 --> 00:45:11.563
No one who denies the Son has the Father.

00:45:11.563 --> 00:45:14.863
Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

00:45:14.863 --> 00:45:17.603
Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.

00:45:17.603 --> 00:45:23.183
If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

00:45:23.183 --> 00:45:26.523
And this is the promise that he made to us, eternal life.

00:45:27.283 --> 00:45:31.483
I write these things to you, about those who are trying to deceive you.

00:45:31.483 --> 00:45:37.403
But the anointing that you receive from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you.

00:45:37.403 --> 00:45:46.683
But as his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him.

00:45:49.023 --> 00:45:52.883
Just a couple, few more here actually.

00:45:52.883 --> 00:45:59.243
One more from a gospel, and then on to revelation, of course, as you would expect for signs of the end times.

00:45:59.243 --> 00:46:00.883
Next one from Luke.

00:46:02.143 --> 00:46:03.943
I think it's 25.

00:46:03.943 --> 00:46:06.363
Yes.

00:46:06.363 --> 00:46:20.083
And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations, again, or races, in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world.

00:46:20.083 --> 00:46:27.323
For the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then they will see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

00:46:27.323 --> 00:46:34.683
Now, when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

00:46:35.783 --> 00:46:39.563
And then I will read some passages from Revelation.

00:46:39.563 --> 00:46:45.923
I think one of them I will just recommend that you read, because it's an entire chapter, but starting with Revelation 6.

00:46:51.437 --> 00:46:58.217
When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth.

00:46:58.217 --> 00:47:06.777
The full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.

00:47:06.777 --> 00:47:13.297
The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

00:47:13.297 --> 00:47:30.917
Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb.

00:47:30.917 --> 00:47:35.077
For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?

00:47:38.877 --> 00:47:40.957
Revelation 7 is also relevant here.

00:47:40.957 --> 00:47:48.317
I won't necessarily read this one, but that is about the tribulation, the end times, the period of tribulation where things get worse near to the end.

00:47:48.317 --> 00:47:54.157
And I think the last one that I will read, I'm not going to read Revelation 13 because it's the whole chapter.

00:47:54.157 --> 00:47:55.337
It's about the beasts, right?

00:47:55.337 --> 00:47:56.437
The two beasts.

00:47:56.437 --> 00:48:00.457
And then Revelation 11, I'll read part of that.

00:48:04.157 --> 00:48:11.257
And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.

00:48:12.077 --> 00:48:16.517
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

00:48:16.517 --> 00:48:21.577
And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes.

00:48:21.577 --> 00:48:25.397
If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to die.

00:48:25.397 --> 00:48:38.077
They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they desire.

00:48:38.077 --> 00:48:45.137
And you can read the rest of that section, if you are so inclined, which I do recommend, of course.

00:48:45.137 --> 00:48:48.957
And then, like I said, Revelation 13 is the other section there.

00:48:48.957 --> 00:48:50.037
But what do we pull out of this?

00:48:50.037 --> 00:48:52.377
What are the signs of the end times, right?

00:48:52.377 --> 00:48:57.017
Well, I will break it down into seven categories of signs.

00:48:57.017 --> 00:49:07.137
Some very clearly fulfilled, some pretty much all cyclical in terms of their fulfillment, but some not yet fulfilled, depending on how you exegete these passages.

00:49:07.137 --> 00:49:13.897
And so the first one is wars, rumors of wars, famines, pestilence, earthquakes, those sorts of things.

00:49:13.897 --> 00:49:17.757
These are always with us, they get worse near the end.

00:49:17.757 --> 00:49:19.197
Are they getting worse now?

00:49:19.197 --> 00:49:23.837
Some of them perhaps, we've had some bad pestilence, there's bad famines in some places.

00:49:23.837 --> 00:49:26.417
I don't think earthquakes are necessarily getting worse right now.

00:49:26.417 --> 00:49:32.337
We certainly have wars and rumors of wars, and perhaps we're going to war, we'll see what happens there.

00:49:32.337 --> 00:49:34.637
So is that fulfilled?

00:49:34.637 --> 00:49:44.537
I think sufficiently, it will get worse near the end, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be the end now or very soon, according to this sign.

00:49:44.537 --> 00:49:51.357
The second set, false prophets, again, always an issue ongoing from the beginning.

00:49:51.357 --> 00:49:53.257
You have the Mormons, right?

00:49:53.257 --> 00:49:54.997
You have their false prophets.

00:49:54.997 --> 00:49:57.197
You have various other false prophets.

00:49:57.197 --> 00:50:00.997
Islam started as essentially a Christian heresy.

00:50:00.997 --> 00:50:04.757
False prophets there, abound in that part of the world.

00:50:04.757 --> 00:50:06.077
It will get worse near the end.

00:50:06.777 --> 00:50:09.117
It's pretty bad now, and it's been getting worse.

00:50:09.117 --> 00:50:11.797
So, I think that one counts as fulfilled.

00:50:13.097 --> 00:50:15.397
The third one is the great apostasy.

00:50:15.397 --> 00:50:19.737
You have many whose love will grow cold near the end, who will turn away from the faith.

00:50:19.737 --> 00:50:25.697
And I think that you could reasonably interpret current conditions as being the great apostasy.

00:50:26.837 --> 00:50:41.117
If this is not the great apostasy, I hesitate even to consider how bad things will get when it does occur, because things are pretty bad right now with regard to Christianity the world over.

00:50:41.117 --> 00:50:50.737
And so, we may be in the middle of it, and it may be fulfilled, or the one that is the real one may be even worse.

00:50:50.737 --> 00:50:58.457
The fourth one, antichrists, which again is going to be those who either claim that they are speaking for God and are lying or false teachers.

00:50:58.457 --> 00:51:01.317
Typically, that's what the antichrists are.

00:51:01.317 --> 00:51:02.017
Always with us.

00:51:03.357 --> 00:51:05.057
Get worse near the end.

00:51:05.057 --> 00:51:07.137
Things are pretty bad right now with regard to that as well.

00:51:07.137 --> 00:51:11.477
Plenty of false teachers out there, lying about God, lying in God's name.

00:51:12.637 --> 00:51:15.177
The fifth, the antichrist.

00:51:15.177 --> 00:51:29.637
This one depends upon your exegesis, because there are those who say there is going to be one final antichrist who stands up, declares himself to be God, and then he's the last one.

00:51:30.477 --> 00:51:33.417
He's Satan's man on earth.

00:51:33.417 --> 00:51:34.357
Right.

00:51:34.357 --> 00:51:37.877
So, the Book of Concord says that the popes are antichrist.

00:51:37.877 --> 00:51:47.997
Each one of the popes is a sort of mini antichrist, insofar as he teaches falsely, and says that you have to obey him in order to be saved, and things like that.

00:51:47.997 --> 00:51:52.357
Of course, I hold to that, because I do hold to the Book of Concord as a Lutheran.

00:51:52.357 --> 00:51:57.437
But whether or not there is a final antichrist, I'm sort of inclined towards saying yes.

00:51:57.437 --> 00:51:59.577
And so, that person hasn't appeared.

00:52:00.317 --> 00:52:05.557
I don't think we can reasonably say anyone on the stage right now is acting like that person.

00:52:05.557 --> 00:52:09.177
It doesn't mean he couldn't be that person, but I don't think we have a final one.

00:52:09.177 --> 00:52:14.657
So if you believe there is a final antichrist that is a specific man, not fulfilled.

00:52:14.657 --> 00:52:16.837
That would be one of the answers to the question.

00:52:16.837 --> 00:52:18.517
That hasn't been fulfilled.

00:52:18.517 --> 00:52:20.937
The next one is the cosmic signs, right?

00:52:20.937 --> 00:52:29.117
The moon blood red and the stars falling from the skies and the sun being darkened and things like that, pretty obviously not fulfilled.

00:52:29.117 --> 00:52:32.597
I don't think the blood moon that's coming up counts as the moon turning to blood, right?

00:52:32.597 --> 00:52:34.897
I think it's something more extreme than that.

00:52:34.897 --> 00:52:39.817
And so the cosmic signs have not been fulfilled.

00:52:39.817 --> 00:52:46.637
The seventh and final one here, the two witnesses, prophets, martyrs, all of those things.

00:52:46.637 --> 00:53:10.737
If it is two specific men, and if it's not symbolic of the church and the church age and the church's witness and however you want to exegete that, if it's not symbolic, if it is two literal men who are the final prophets on the earth before the second coming, before the trumpet sound and Christ returns and draws it all to a close, well, they haven't appeared yet.

00:53:10.737 --> 00:53:12.017
I don't see them.

00:53:12.017 --> 00:53:15.877
I think it's going to be very obvious who they are if they are two specific men and they appear.

00:53:15.877 --> 00:53:17.997
So that one also not fulfilled.

00:53:17.997 --> 00:53:23.617
I know some people who have joked that the final two prophets are Woe and I, but I don't think so.

00:53:23.757 --> 00:53:25.357
And I kind of hope not.

00:53:25.357 --> 00:53:27.977
And at any rate, I don't have the ability to call down fire.

00:53:27.977 --> 00:53:31.117
So I don't fulfill the prophecy, right?

00:53:31.117 --> 00:53:33.537
So, no, I don't think that they've appeared either.

00:53:33.537 --> 00:53:36.497
So those would be the signs that have not occurred.

00:53:36.497 --> 00:53:41.937
And so sort of the mini Bible study on the end times, maybe eventually I'll get around to something longer.

00:53:41.937 --> 00:53:47.897
But part of it is because obviously it takes a long time to go through all these verses, and a lot of it is unknown.

00:53:47.897 --> 00:53:49.157
I didn't even get into Daniel, right?

00:53:49.677 --> 00:54:01.617
So the signs that are very clearly not fulfilled would be a final Antichrist, and then the cosmic signs, and the two final prophets.

00:54:01.617 --> 00:54:14.557
I think you can say very clearly those are not fulfilled, unless you take the final prophets as symbolic, in which case it's a relationship to the Church and the Church's witness and persecution, then you can say that one's fulfilled, but the others remain.

00:54:14.557 --> 00:54:18.157
The most obvious and the one that no one can deny, the cosmic signs.

00:54:19.077 --> 00:54:20.757
They aren't occurring right now.

00:54:20.757 --> 00:54:27.797
When they occur, I do not think there will be any way to deny that they are occurring, unless you simply don't want to believe it and hate God.

00:54:30.297 --> 00:54:32.157
The sixth question.

00:54:32.157 --> 00:54:36.597
You mentioned in passing that multigenerational households are more natural.

00:54:36.597 --> 00:54:40.677
How does this work with patriarchy and a son leaving his father and mother?

00:54:40.677 --> 00:54:42.457
Who rules the household?

00:54:42.457 --> 00:54:47.837
It seems to me this creates longhouse conditions, and many say it is Third World favela coded.

00:54:50.237 --> 00:54:52.997
There are a number of aspects to this.

00:54:52.997 --> 00:54:58.777
The patriarch always rightfully, correctly exercises some authority and some control.

00:54:58.777 --> 00:55:10.397
And that's true whether you are under his roof or not, because you should still honor your father even when you no longer live near him, even if you live on the other side of the country from him.

00:55:10.397 --> 00:55:14.137
It doesn't mean you have to obey everything he says, but you still honor him as your father.

00:55:14.137 --> 00:55:16.297
The fourth commandment is still binding on you.

00:55:17.057 --> 00:55:18.497
He's still the patriarch.

00:55:18.497 --> 00:55:22.217
He's still the head of the clan, the tribe, right?

00:55:22.217 --> 00:55:32.437
He still has authority because of that, in the same way that the firstborn has certain privileges for his entire life, because he is the firstborn.

00:55:33.557 --> 00:55:36.357
So, does the father have some authority?

00:55:36.357 --> 00:55:39.637
Yes, regardless of whether you're in his house or not.

00:55:39.637 --> 00:55:48.677
But does the patriarch, does your father or his father, if he's still alive, have the right to tell your wife and your children what to do?

00:55:48.677 --> 00:55:53.997
The answer is no, because you're the head, and so he should come to you and talk to you.

00:55:53.997 --> 00:55:58.597
But once you reach that age of maturity, he should talk to you man to man.

00:55:58.597 --> 00:56:02.217
He's no longer issuing you commands as a father to his young son.

00:56:02.217 --> 00:56:07.137
He is talking to you as another man who has his own household, who has duties.

00:56:07.137 --> 00:56:10.757
He should speak to you in that way, and you still respect him as your father, as your elder.

00:56:11.337 --> 00:56:13.877
Again, the fourth commandment is still binding on you.

00:56:13.877 --> 00:56:26.497
But that power dynamic changes as you age, and once he gets very old, it changes again, because now someone, some other male, has stepped into that role because he can no longer fulfill it.

00:56:26.497 --> 00:56:30.157
You can think of, you know, the priest retiring at 50.

00:56:30.157 --> 00:56:36.497
These days, obviously, you live longer than that, and so you are going to be around much longer.

00:56:36.497 --> 00:56:50.017
But a man who is 80, 90 years old is not going to have the same active role in heading up his clan, his tribe, his extended family, in the way he did when he was 55 or 60.

00:56:50.017 --> 00:56:58.697
So, the power dynamics and the duties and things evolve over time, just because of the reality of being mortal.

00:56:58.697 --> 00:57:00.737
So, does your father have some authority?

00:57:00.737 --> 00:57:02.777
Absolutely yes.

00:57:02.777 --> 00:57:06.437
But does he have the same sort of authority he had when you were a child?

00:57:06.437 --> 00:57:07.897
The answer is absolutely no.

00:57:09.437 --> 00:57:11.537
You have to deal with that and balance that.

00:57:11.537 --> 00:57:14.877
This is part of just living around other human beings.

00:57:14.877 --> 00:57:21.137
But really, the word that is probably more accurate than multi-generational house is compound.

00:57:21.137 --> 00:57:24.757
I know the FBI hates that word, and they probably flagged me for using it.

00:57:24.757 --> 00:57:27.877
But that's the reality of it.

00:57:27.877 --> 00:57:40.797
Having a chunk of land and a number of houses on it, even if you have a big house that's connected, maybe you have a wing with your family, and then your parents on the other side, you don't have to all be in the exact same spot.

00:57:40.797 --> 00:57:43.097
You have to have some separation.

00:57:43.097 --> 00:57:48.877
But leaving your father and mother is not in the sense of being totally disconnected from family.

00:57:48.877 --> 00:57:52.337
That's entirely contrary to everything else said in scripture.

00:57:52.337 --> 00:57:59.557
So we can't possibly interpret it in that way, because that would be to set scripture against scripture, be set God against himself.

00:57:59.557 --> 00:58:06.977
So leaving your father and mother is coming out from under the sort of control they had when you were a child.

00:58:06.977 --> 00:58:11.277
But it doesn't mean to abandon them or physically separate from them.

00:58:11.277 --> 00:58:24.317
It just means that you are now the head of your household, you now have these duties and responsibilities, and your father is going to deal with you as he would deal with another man instead of as a child.

00:58:24.317 --> 00:58:27.897
Yes, you're always going to be his son, but you're no longer a child.

00:58:27.897 --> 00:58:35.277
You're a man and have to be treated as a man, and he has to recognize that, and you have to recognize it as well.

00:58:35.277 --> 00:58:43.237
So no, living in a multi-generational house or particularly a compound of multiple generations of your family is a good thing.

00:58:43.237 --> 00:58:44.777
That is something that should be done.

00:58:44.777 --> 00:58:59.177
And not just because of the fact that then your parents can help with child care, but you can take care of your parents when they get elderly, which is one of the duties of the firstborn, which is why the firstborn received the double share of the inheritance.

00:58:59.177 --> 00:59:04.337
Part of the thing that came along with that was, your parents are your duty when they get old.

00:59:04.337 --> 00:59:07.157
You have to provide for and care for them.

00:59:07.157 --> 00:59:09.877
And so, that's one of the reasons that has always been recognized.

00:59:09.877 --> 00:59:17.237
It's in scripture, it's been recognized in European law and elsewhere in the world for basically the entirety of human history.

00:59:17.237 --> 00:59:22.377
The firstborn has duties, the firstborn has privileges, and that is how it should be.

00:59:24.377 --> 00:59:35.357
The seventh question here, hopefully the dog barking does not come through, I have my window open, which is why I'm in short sleeves, because apparently spring has begun here in the south.

00:59:35.357 --> 00:59:40.037
We get up and down little winters, but it was quite warm today.

00:59:40.037 --> 00:59:42.357
It was almost 80.

00:59:42.357 --> 00:59:57.917
The seventh question, what is your response to people who say that the West was so successful purely because of genetics, and that it had nothing to do with it being Christian for so long, and cite ancient Greece or Rome as proof?

00:59:57.917 --> 00:59:59.857
I'm going to take a sip of tea before I answer this one.

01:00:09.307 --> 01:00:16.567
So I would start by pointing out, neither Rome nor Greece was the peak of Western civilization.

01:00:16.567 --> 01:00:22.647
And I know there are people who try to say that, you know, Rome was the height of Western civilization.

01:00:22.647 --> 01:00:32.587
Well, sure, if you want to say, Rome in the sense of the Holy Roman Empire, then I would agree with you, because I would say that was the peak, the true peak of Western civilization.

01:00:32.587 --> 01:00:39.927
And we have been sort of writing on the coattails of that ever since.

01:00:39.927 --> 01:00:44.667
Granted, we're sort of riding it into the ground at this point, because we've not maintained it.

01:00:44.667 --> 01:00:50.047
So I guess you could think of an airplane that still has forward momentum, but the engines have died.

01:00:50.047 --> 01:00:54.807
So, no, I wouldn't say that Greece and Rome were the height of our civilization.

01:00:54.807 --> 01:01:01.207
I wouldn't even say that they were particularly impressive compared to what we achieved under Christendom.

01:01:01.207 --> 01:01:08.587
And you can think of any number of examples, but I would say, obviously, yes, philosophy.

01:01:08.587 --> 01:01:22.447
The Greeks and the Romans contributed a great deal, but much of what we have in terms of modern, formalized, and systematized philosophy was done by Germans in the Holy Roman Empire.

01:01:22.447 --> 01:01:26.627
And then, of course, Prussians as well, which were the inheritors of the Holy Roman Empire.

01:01:27.787 --> 01:01:40.347
But insofar as Greece and Rome are concerned, they still had a number of extremely backwards and immoral practices, and those were not purged until they were Christianized.

01:01:40.347 --> 01:01:53.467
And many of the things that we take for granted today as being part of a proper civilization, I'm going to go ahead and assume the person asking the question is moral, these are things that came along because of Christianity, right?

01:01:53.467 --> 01:01:55.927
We don't expose infants anymore.

01:01:55.927 --> 01:02:03.047
We don't leave out infants we think are not worthy of being preserved in the wilderness to die.

01:02:03.987 --> 01:02:07.647
Now, of course, yes, we have abortion, and that is a great moral evil.

01:02:07.647 --> 01:02:14.007
We have sort of regressed into pagan practice with regard to abortion because that's what we're doing.

01:02:14.007 --> 01:02:15.647
It's child sacrifice.

01:02:15.647 --> 01:02:20.707
It's worse actually than Rome because Rome didn't engage in ritualized child sacrifice.

01:02:20.707 --> 01:02:27.467
They just exposed infants they thought were not worth preserving and other cultures did that as well in that time.

01:02:27.467 --> 01:02:29.407
Human sacrifice was not really a thing though.

01:02:29.407 --> 01:02:38.167
It's one of the reasons they hated the Carthaginians because they participated in human sacrifice because of the relationship to the Canaanites, and that's sort of a whole rabbit trail.

01:02:38.167 --> 01:02:41.067
But that's part of the reason they opposed them.

01:02:42.347 --> 01:02:51.367
So the fundamental point, starting point, is the foundation that Roman Greece were not the height of Western civilization.

01:02:51.367 --> 01:02:54.647
So if you want to look at the height, the height was under Christianity.

01:02:54.647 --> 01:03:06.767
And no, the outcome was not inevitable because of our genetics, because if it had been, our people would have been more advanced in other parts of the world before Christianity.

01:03:06.767 --> 01:03:11.267
And you would see the advance continuing as Christianity is declining.

01:03:11.267 --> 01:03:12.067
What are we doing?

01:03:12.067 --> 01:03:15.427
We're regressing as Christianity falls away.

01:03:15.427 --> 01:03:19.507
Sure, our science is progressing in some very limited areas.

01:03:19.507 --> 01:03:26.367
So rocketry, AI, and a little bit with regard to medicine, which is really mostly just because of AI and computing power.

01:03:27.007 --> 01:03:30.507
But in every other area, we are regressing.

01:03:30.507 --> 01:03:32.567
Look at our arts.

01:03:32.567 --> 01:03:33.987
Is that progressing?

01:03:33.987 --> 01:03:37.007
Would you say that's in a better position than it was under Christendom?

01:03:37.007 --> 01:03:38.387
Absolutely not.

01:03:38.387 --> 01:03:39.827
We have degenerated.

01:03:39.827 --> 01:03:48.507
And that's regardless of which art you look at, whether it is music or the theater or poetry or painting, stained glass, whatever it happens to be.

01:03:48.507 --> 01:03:52.147
I'm always going to be partial to stained glass since it's literally my last name.

01:03:52.147 --> 01:03:54.647
But all of these areas, we have regressed.

01:03:54.787 --> 01:03:56.847
We are less advanced.

01:03:56.847 --> 01:04:01.707
We are less advanced than our ancestors.

01:04:01.707 --> 01:04:05.927
We are degenerate compared to them in every sense of that term.

01:04:05.927 --> 01:04:12.247
And so I don't think that anyone looking to Rome or Greece has a proper understanding of history.

01:04:12.247 --> 01:04:19.387
Because again, I think the height of Western civilization was the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted into the 1800s.

01:04:19.387 --> 01:04:23.867
And then I would say briefly resurged in the mid 1900s.

01:04:24.627 --> 01:04:27.827
That was the last gasp of old Christendom.

01:04:27.827 --> 01:04:37.287
Our goal is to rebuild Christendom, because Christendom was effectively slaughtered as a sacrificial victim in the last century.

01:04:38.367 --> 01:04:42.607
But a nation is not just blood.

01:04:42.607 --> 01:04:44.267
I think this is another...

01:04:44.267 --> 01:04:47.367
This is sort of my second fundamental point here.

01:04:47.367 --> 01:04:49.247
A nation is not just blood.

01:04:49.247 --> 01:04:50.707
And a nation isn't just blood and soil.

01:04:51.267 --> 01:04:54.787
This is always the part that everyone forgets.

01:04:54.787 --> 01:04:58.487
And some people sort of touch on it with regard to culture and things like that.

01:04:58.487 --> 01:05:04.367
But the three elements of what make up a nation are blood, soil, and myth.

01:05:04.367 --> 01:05:09.987
And I don't want to get into it too deeply here, because it's a very complicated topic, and it would take a long time to cover.

01:05:09.987 --> 01:05:14.507
And I'm not even sure that I've necessarily drawn out all the conclusions from it yet.

01:05:14.507 --> 01:05:19.267
But without that myth aspect, you don't have a proper nation.

01:05:19.907 --> 01:05:23.267
And so, you can't disentangle these things.

01:05:23.267 --> 01:05:25.347
They are all part of the sum.

01:05:25.347 --> 01:05:26.987
It is gestalt.

01:05:26.987 --> 01:05:29.567
The sum is greater than its parts.

01:05:29.567 --> 01:05:37.907
The myth of Western civilization, the myth of more properly called Christendom, is Christianity.

01:05:37.907 --> 01:05:43.667
And so, you can't look at just blood and soil and say, well, these two things would necessary...

01:05:43.667 --> 01:05:44.987
Because you can't do that.

01:05:44.987 --> 01:05:56.567
You've removed a necessary element, something that is integral, that cannot be removed from the equation, and then tried to extrapolate out with what is left that is insufficient.

01:05:58.047 --> 01:06:04.807
Western civilization, Christendom became great because of all three of those things.

01:06:04.807 --> 01:06:10.047
Our people, our territory, and our myth, our religion, Christianity.

01:06:10.047 --> 01:06:16.567
And for those who are offended by the term myth, I mean it in a very specific philosophical sense.

01:06:16.647 --> 01:06:27.027
I'm not saying something that is false because myth, in a very real way, is a distilled truth that is greater than a blunt truth.

01:06:27.027 --> 01:06:33.067
I'll get into that at some point to explain it in a more thorough fashion, but just know that myth doesn't mean false.

01:06:33.067 --> 01:06:36.807
When I say myth, I mean something that is true in a fundamental sense.

01:06:36.807 --> 01:06:39.547
And Christianity is a core part of that.

01:06:39.547 --> 01:06:44.127
So I don't think that you can remove that part and then say that it would have been the same outcome.

01:06:44.127 --> 01:06:44.847
It wouldn't have been.

01:06:45.487 --> 01:06:47.827
It would have been something fundamentally different.

01:06:47.827 --> 01:06:52.927
And you get into some of the aspects of can you really draw out a counterfactual right?

01:06:52.927 --> 01:06:54.887
It's a proven negative sort of thing.

01:06:54.887 --> 01:07:09.687
But you didn't have this great takeoff of our civilization in parts of our lands, parts of our territory, that had not been Christianized until they were Christianized.

01:07:11.927 --> 01:07:44.107
And just as one example of that, one of the reasons our science took off and became what it became, one of the reasons that we're doing what we're doing right now, you are all watching someone who is potentially thousands of miles away from you, we can do that because the men who discovered all the fundamental principles that made all these things possible, who made those advances, with very few exceptions, essentially no exceptions early on, believed in God.

01:07:44.107 --> 01:07:55.667
And so, when they went to look at the natural world, they believed firmly they were going to find laws, they were going to find order, because they believed in a divine lawgiver.

01:07:55.667 --> 01:08:04.307
That's the reason that our, one of the reasons that our science took off, and the rest of the world didn't, because the rest of the world did not believe in a divine lawgiver.

01:08:04.307 --> 01:08:14.767
They believed in a bunch of warring, squabbling, minor gods or chaotic gods who did not deal in order, but dealt in caprice and punishment.

01:08:14.767 --> 01:08:23.347
And so, you didn't have that fundamental conception of the world as something that was designed and ordered, and with rules that could be discovered.

01:08:23.347 --> 01:08:32.327
Christianity gave us that, and so Christianity restored that to us, because of course we had it before we fell into paganism, and then were brought back to Christianity.

01:08:33.747 --> 01:08:39.427
But that was a necessary part of our civilization achieving things that others did not.

01:08:39.427 --> 01:08:41.187
The Chinese aren't dumb.

01:08:42.787 --> 01:08:47.627
The Chinese have the intelligence to achieve many of the things we've achieved.

01:08:47.627 --> 01:08:53.167
Maybe not some of the things in the arts, and other things like that, because Confucianism sort of crushed the Chinese soul.

01:08:53.167 --> 01:08:58.027
So whatever they used to be, they're not, because of their ideology, because of their myth.

01:08:58.027 --> 01:08:59.247
And so you can look at it.

01:08:59.247 --> 01:09:01.407
We sort of ran the counter example.

01:09:01.487 --> 01:09:03.407
We ran an A-B experiment.

01:09:03.407 --> 01:09:06.327
You have the myth of Christianity in Europe.

01:09:06.327 --> 01:09:11.607
You have the myth of Confucianism in the East, because the Chinese, again, aren't dumb.

01:09:11.607 --> 01:09:15.187
They have an average IQ that enables them.

01:09:15.187 --> 01:09:21.387
They have a smaller standard deviation, things like that, but they have enough highly intelligent men that they could achieve great things.

01:09:21.387 --> 01:09:23.267
They never did.

01:09:23.267 --> 01:09:33.627
It's only recently when they had been able to benefit from taking all of these things from the West and using them, that they have achieved anything of note.

01:09:34.647 --> 01:09:41.087
So we ran the example, we ran the experiment, and we discovered that, yes, Christianity is a necessary part of the equation.

01:09:41.087 --> 01:09:55.907
So I think that people who try to advocate that it would have been inevitable just because of blood and soil don't understand the issue and are typically just arguing in a mercenary fashion because they don't like Christianity.

01:09:55.907 --> 01:09:57.647
And it's largely because they don't understand Christianity.

01:09:58.467 --> 01:10:07.547
They think that so-called Judeo-Christianity is Christian, and it's not, because Christianity is antithetical to Judaism.

01:10:07.547 --> 01:10:13.927
Judaism is our enemy, and there is no overlap there except for enmity.

01:10:13.927 --> 01:10:19.887
So I think that's really the reason that these people try to say that Christianity was not a necessary part of it.

01:10:19.887 --> 01:10:26.747
It's mercenary, it is seeking an end that is not warranted or justifiable according to history or according to reason.

01:10:28.887 --> 01:10:32.127
So I think that answers that question.

01:10:33.327 --> 01:10:36.407
Definitely going to run a little over this time, like I said, but that's fine.

01:10:36.407 --> 01:10:41.907
So I think I'd like to try to get through the questions I prepared, and then maybe a couple of questions from the chat.

01:10:43.687 --> 01:10:44.167
Was...

01:10:44.167 --> 01:10:45.807
this is the eighth question.

01:10:45.807 --> 01:10:46.887
Make sure to remember to do that.

01:10:46.887 --> 01:10:50.147
Was the second temple legitimate in the way the first was?

01:10:50.147 --> 01:10:52.367
Was God present in it?

01:10:52.367 --> 01:10:57.667
I don't see anything about his entering it like the first, and of course, the ark is gone, correct?

01:10:57.667 --> 01:11:01.687
If he is not there, the tearing of the curtain has a new complexion.

01:11:01.687 --> 01:11:06.267
Are the Levites or the Jews just larping?

01:11:07.967 --> 01:11:18.087
This is a broad topic, and I think I would like to get into it more deeply in the future at some point, but I can certainly answer a lot of it now.

01:11:18.087 --> 01:11:30.607
And the answer is the second temple was legitimate, but it was not as impressive, it was not as holy, it was not the same thing as the first.

01:11:30.607 --> 01:11:36.367
God clearly did not deal with the second temple in the way he dealt with the first temple.

01:11:39.007 --> 01:11:52.627
And sort of the starting point there would be, if you read the Old Testament, this will perhaps be new information for some of you, but I want you to keep this in mind when you read the Old Testament, and you should go and read the parts of the Old Testament that deal in these things.

01:11:52.627 --> 01:12:08.107
When you look at the Old Testament, there are many places in which there is no reasonable way to read what is happening, other than God being physically present.

01:12:08.107 --> 01:12:13.607
And the God who is physically present, of course, has to be Christ.

01:12:13.607 --> 01:12:16.667
The Father is spirit only, the Spirit is spirit only.

01:12:18.147 --> 01:12:21.147
Christ has a physical body.

01:12:21.147 --> 01:12:31.907
And so, when you have a theophany, a physical manifestation, appearance of God in the Old Testament, it is actually a Christophany, that is Christ.

01:12:31.907 --> 01:12:44.267
And I don't want to get into the issue of time, and whether it's the pre-incarnate Christ, or whether it has any meaning for God, but because it's off in the weeds, it's not essential, it's not necessary what we're talking about here.

01:12:44.267 --> 01:12:49.887
But there are times where God is literally physically present speaking to people in the Old Testament.

01:12:49.887 --> 01:13:09.987
Perhaps one of the most obvious examples would be, and this is one that people love to argue about, and I'll keep adding to my list of things to do, but I will write an article on this one at some point because it's important, needs to be addressed, when Aaron and Miriam object to Moses and are basically trying to usurp.

01:13:09.987 --> 01:13:17.067
That's the fundamental point, that they're trying to usurp the authority of Moses, they're insulting God in the process because they're saying, is this really your prophet, God?

01:13:17.067 --> 01:13:18.127
Right?

01:13:18.127 --> 01:13:20.067
They're just behaving like Jews.

01:13:20.067 --> 01:13:26.747
And what happens there is you have, it says God came down in the cloud and spoke to them.

01:13:26.747 --> 01:13:34.627
God's physically present, speaking, that's Christ speaking to Moses and Miriam and Aaron face to face.

01:13:34.627 --> 01:13:40.027
And so you have a physical manifestation of God.

01:13:40.067 --> 01:13:44.747
This time, it's the Tent of Witness, instead of the temple, right?

01:13:44.747 --> 01:13:49.867
The first temple, the tabernacle is what this is, whichever one you want to call it.

01:13:49.867 --> 01:13:59.227
And so you have this presence of God, but you have the same thing happen in some places with regard to the temple.

01:13:59.227 --> 01:14:05.387
God is physically present with Old Testament Israel in these instances.

01:14:05.387 --> 01:14:07.127
It doesn't happen with the second temple.

01:14:08.207 --> 01:14:17.247
It's not that God isn't present in the second temple, but he's not present in the same way, because the Jews have turned against him, they have rejected him, and he has withdrawn from them.

01:14:17.247 --> 01:14:24.487
He is no longer present in the same way with them that he was with the first temple.

01:14:24.487 --> 01:14:28.247
And you can see this in many places in scripture when you actually read it.

01:14:28.247 --> 01:14:30.307
I recommend go read the Book of Haggai.

01:14:30.307 --> 01:14:31.047
You can read the whole thing.

01:14:31.047 --> 01:14:31.767
It's two chapters.

01:14:31.767 --> 01:14:32.687
It takes almost no time.

01:14:33.947 --> 01:14:40.287
And it speaks of the glory of God in the temple, and it speaks of a greater glory that is coming.

01:14:40.287 --> 01:14:44.187
The greater glory in this case is the New Jerusalem, which is to say paradise.

01:14:44.187 --> 01:14:47.667
That is one of the terms used for paradise.

01:14:47.667 --> 01:14:55.467
One of the ways you can see that is that the things said about it cannot be for this world, this fallen world in which sin still exists.

01:14:55.467 --> 01:14:59.427
It's for the new world, the new creation in which sin has been removed and erased.

01:15:00.627 --> 01:15:11.487
But one of the examples here, and perhaps I should have just left up the scripture on my screen there, because I'm going to go back to it.

01:15:11.487 --> 01:15:23.807
But an example that we have, let me pull up the scripture for you here, is in Ezra 6, which of course is second Ezra's 6 in the Septuagint.

01:15:23.807 --> 01:15:32.727
And I think I want to start with, verse 13, perhaps.

01:15:32.727 --> 01:15:35.627
I won't read all of it, because there are some crazy names in this one.

01:15:35.627 --> 01:15:45.727
The person who is going to translate the Septuagint really needs to anglicize some of these names, because Thoth thanai is not a great thing to have to try to say in English.

01:15:45.727 --> 01:15:52.127
But here you have the rebuilding of the temple, right?

01:15:52.127 --> 01:15:59.347
And they completed this house until the third day of the month of Adar, which was the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

01:15:59.347 --> 01:16:08.947
And then you have all of the sacrifices in the next chapter, and what I want you to recognize here, what I want you to notice is that what do you not have?

01:16:08.947 --> 01:16:13.727
There's no mention of the glory of God filling the temple.

01:16:13.727 --> 01:16:21.707
It's not the same sort of presence as you had with the first temple, where you have the glory of God filling the temple in such a way that people can't even enter it.

01:16:22.227 --> 01:16:26.947
And so, for instance, we'll compare this to second chronicles here.

01:16:30.827 --> 01:16:37.227
Pull up second chronicles, which actually I could have just done that in the Septuagint because it is the same numbering in this case.

01:16:37.227 --> 01:16:52.247
So in second chronicles, you have the consecration here, Solomon consecrating this, and then you have the glory of the Lord filling the temple in a way that again, did not happen with the second temple.

01:16:52.247 --> 01:17:01.347
You have the glory of the Lord filling it in such a way that people can't enter into the house because God's presence is so overwhelming.

01:17:01.347 --> 01:17:02.567
They can't be in His presence.

01:17:02.567 --> 01:17:14.747
One of the reasons you have the veil and the high priest can only go in certain times and all these things, because to be in the presence of that sort of holiness as a fallen being is to be destroyed.

01:17:14.747 --> 01:17:25.387
It's why when you have some of the prophets who encounter God, say, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips, and I have seen the Lord God.

01:17:25.387 --> 01:17:29.147
That would strike you dead if you were not sanctified in some way.

01:17:29.147 --> 01:17:38.247
And so, you have the embers and things like that, that sanctify these men so they're not destroyed by being in the presence of a holy God as a sinful being.

01:17:38.247 --> 01:17:41.907
But one that I actually want to read here is from Exodus 40.

01:17:41.907 --> 01:17:42.607
Let me pull that up.

01:17:48.818 --> 01:17:51.298
So this is Moses setting up the tent of witness.

01:17:51.298 --> 01:17:54.318
This is one of the great examples of this.

01:17:54.318 --> 01:18:02.098
And he positioned the gold altar and the tent of witness in front of the veil, and he burnt on it the incense of the mixture, according as the Lord instructed Moses.

01:18:02.098 --> 01:18:10.998
And the altar of the offerings he placed near the doors of the tent of witness, and he set up the courtyard around the tent and the altar, and Moses finished all the works.

01:18:10.998 --> 01:18:14.218
This is Moses setting up the tabernacle, of course.

01:18:14.218 --> 01:18:19.418
And the cloud covered the tent of witness, and the tent was filled with the glory of the Lord.

01:18:19.418 --> 01:18:28.558
And Moses was unable to enter into the tent of witness, because the cloud was overshadowing it, and the tent was filled with the glory of the Lord.

01:18:28.558 --> 01:18:44.178
You do not see this description in scripture of the second temple, because the second temple does not have the glory of the Lord in the same way as the first, because again, the Old Testament Israelites, the Jews rejected God, and so God withdrew his presence.

01:18:44.178 --> 01:18:57.138
It's one of the reasons they were defeated in war, they were destroyed, they had famines, they were sent to exile, the ten northern tribes were completely destroyed, turned into the Samaritans, destroyed through miscegenation, which is what the Assyrians did.

01:18:57.138 --> 01:19:07.458
You had the Babylonian captivity exile of the southern kingdom of Judah, you had the destruction of Jerusalem, you had the burning of the first temple, all these things because they rejected their God.

01:19:07.458 --> 01:19:12.318
I hope that when I say these things, you're recognizing that maybe we should take them as a warning.

01:19:12.318 --> 01:19:22.118
It's one of the chief purposes for having the history of Old Testament Israel documented, is for us to take it as a warning of what we should not do, and what will happen to us if we do.

01:19:24.898 --> 01:19:37.038
But the final part that I want to read for this is from Matthew 27, which of course was mentioned in the question, starting with verse 50, 51.

01:19:40.818 --> 01:19:46.938
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom, and the earth shook and the rocks were split.

01:19:46.938 --> 01:19:51.618
The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

01:19:51.618 --> 01:19:57.018
And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

01:19:57.018 --> 01:20:09.858
When the centurion and those who were with him said, When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, Truly, this was the son of God.

01:20:11.618 --> 01:20:19.478
This is, of course, the crucifixion narrative, and you have this tearing of the temple, of the curtain in the temple.

01:20:19.478 --> 01:20:21.318
Why do you have that?

01:20:21.318 --> 01:20:24.918
This is symbolic, because what does the curtain do?

01:20:24.918 --> 01:20:31.778
It separates the large part of the temple from the holy of holies, from the presence of God.

01:20:31.778 --> 01:20:41.338
And so this is torn into, because now man is in the presence of God, because if you are Christian, you have the Holy Spirit, you can't get closer to God than that.

01:20:41.338 --> 01:20:46.458
And so you have the indwelling of the Spirit, you have the indwelling of God.

01:20:46.458 --> 01:20:53.258
God is no longer separated from his people in the way that he was separated in the Old Testament.

01:20:53.258 --> 01:20:56.638
And so is God present in the temple until this point?

01:20:56.778 --> 01:21:07.098
I think it's very clear that yes, he is, but just not in the same way as he was with the first temple before they betrayed him and lost any status they had.

01:21:09.198 --> 01:21:12.898
This is where God finally leaves the temple.

01:21:12.898 --> 01:21:13.878
He's done.

01:21:13.878 --> 01:21:18.438
He's done with that because, of course, this is the new covenant in Christ's blood.

01:21:18.438 --> 01:21:25.658
And so the old one no longer has any meaning, no longer has any force, there's no longer any sacrifice or anything like that.

01:21:26.218 --> 01:21:29.738
And so the tearing of the curtain is the final straw.

01:21:29.738 --> 01:21:40.178
It is the definitive period, it is God removing his presence from this temple, in this case, the rebuilt one, not the first one, because the first one was destroyed.

01:21:40.178 --> 01:21:45.638
And so it's worth noting the sort of tangential point, no one should try to rebuild this.

01:21:45.638 --> 01:21:48.418
That is an insult to God, that is blasphemous.

01:21:48.418 --> 01:21:50.818
That is something that should never be permitted.

01:21:50.818 --> 01:21:53.558
And so the people we have today who are trying to do that are evil.

01:21:55.958 --> 01:22:05.718
But God sort of put another capstone on this obviously with AD 70 when he came and completely destroyed Jerusalem using the Romans as his weapon of choice.

01:22:05.718 --> 01:22:22.898
But yes, the basic answer to that is that the fullness of the presence of God among Old Testament Israel was in the Tent of Witness, first the Tabernacle, then the first temple, and only in a diminished way with regard to the second temple.

01:22:23.638 --> 01:22:25.658
So, were they right to still treat it as holy?

01:22:25.658 --> 01:22:32.018
Yes, because God's presence is always holy even if it is sort of withdrawn to some degree.

01:22:32.018 --> 01:22:38.498
But it was not the fullness of his presence that they would have had if they'd stayed faithful.

01:22:38.498 --> 01:22:48.358
And I think that is true in a sense of every nation on earth, because God is going to be with his people the more faithful they are.

01:22:48.358 --> 01:22:49.398
It's not a quid pro quo.

01:22:49.718 --> 01:22:56.838
It's not any of the various heresies, you know, prosperity gospel or therapeutic gospel, so called, or anything like that.

01:22:56.838 --> 01:22:58.778
It's God is true to his promises.

01:22:58.778 --> 01:23:07.878
He is promised to be with his people, and he is promised to care for his people and provide for them and do these things if we are faithful.

01:23:07.878 --> 01:23:21.378
So we should take the narrative, we should view all of these things as a warning, as a possibility for us, whether we are faithful and receive the benefits or faithless and receive the curses.

01:23:25.858 --> 01:23:30.518
The next one is just sort of a little comment on something that I said in a previous episode.

01:23:30.518 --> 01:23:32.738
I'm going to take another sip of tea first.

01:23:32.738 --> 01:23:33.798
I'm getting a little cold now, but...

01:23:39.275 --> 01:23:41.055
I'm actually going to refresh my tea because it is cold.

01:23:47.300 --> 01:23:51.240
I guess that answers the question in the chat about what's burning in the background.

01:23:51.240 --> 01:23:53.640
It is a tea candle.

01:23:53.640 --> 01:23:57.120
It is a beeswax tea candle, to be specific.

01:23:57.120 --> 01:23:59.300
The ninth question, great episode.

01:23:59.300 --> 01:24:01.460
I am really glad you are doing this podcast.

01:24:01.460 --> 01:24:02.900
It's been personally helpful to me.

01:24:02.900 --> 01:24:03.980
I have a disagreement.

01:24:03.980 --> 01:24:06.600
It's not hard for Americans to follow leaders.

01:24:06.600 --> 01:24:10.020
It is hard to find the leaders capable of leading Americans.

01:24:10.020 --> 01:24:14.140
If we ever find those leaders, men will fall in line with gusto.

01:24:14.140 --> 01:24:14.960
I think it's a bit of both.

01:24:14.960 --> 01:24:16.640
I think it's fair to say that it is both.

01:24:16.820 --> 01:24:23.620
Americans are a little less orderly, a little less hierarchical for a number of historical reasons.

01:24:23.620 --> 01:24:25.860
Perhaps that will be cured in time.

01:24:25.860 --> 01:24:40.220
But yes, there is also the challenge of finding the right sort of man who has the abilities and the disposition, the presence, all these things that are necessary for someone who's going to lead Americans.

01:24:40.220 --> 01:24:42.660
And I know there are those who are currently thinking, well, George Washington had all those.

01:24:43.560 --> 01:24:48.180
Was George Washington really leading what we would call Americans at that point?

01:24:48.180 --> 01:24:52.960
Because many of those men would have considered themselves British still.

01:24:52.960 --> 01:25:06.840
Yes, they were breaking from Britain because of the things Britain was doing, but they still would have considered themselves Englishmen, more so than specifically American in many cases.

01:25:08.040 --> 01:25:10.920
So we've had developments since then.

01:25:11.680 --> 01:25:19.220
We are definitely more entrenched in some of our behaviors and our predispositions than we were back then.

01:25:19.220 --> 01:25:24.400
So there are some very real challenges for any leader in the American context, and I think it is both.

01:25:24.400 --> 01:25:37.400
I think there's always the challenge of finding the right man for the time and the place and the people and all those things, but there's also the fact that we are a more difficult people to lead than some.

01:25:37.400 --> 01:25:38.840
You could take extreme examples, right?

01:25:39.960 --> 01:25:44.980
The Japanese are going to fall in line, the Chinese are going to fall in line as long as you threaten them and pay them, right?

01:25:44.980 --> 01:25:47.280
It's a different sort of culture there.

01:25:47.280 --> 01:25:53.340
The Germans are going to follow orders more readily and more strictly than Americans.

01:25:53.340 --> 01:25:57.680
And that's true with regard to the Germans versus the British, or the Germans versus the French, right?

01:25:57.680 --> 01:26:06.300
So different races, different cultures are going to behave differently, and Americans are not the easiest culture in the world to lead.

01:26:07.660 --> 01:26:10.680
Sometimes kind of squabble like drunken cats.

01:26:10.680 --> 01:26:18.420
It's just the reality of it, and the right wing also has a little bit more of it than the left, for a number of reasons I've got into before in previous episodes.

01:26:18.420 --> 01:26:19.800
So no, I do think it's both.

01:26:19.800 --> 01:26:23.420
I don't think it's one or the other in this case.

01:26:26.020 --> 01:26:27.600
The tenth question.

01:26:27.600 --> 01:26:30.560
I asked this in the chat, and I hope you will help me understand.

01:26:30.560 --> 01:26:38.280
You often cite the passage in the Old Testament, where King Josiah rediscovers the law, which was written in Hebrew.

01:26:38.280 --> 01:26:45.140
Hebrew at the time was an abjad, and according to your argument in Stone Choir, cannot be read perfectly without knowing what the text already says.

01:26:45.140 --> 01:26:52.580
For those who don't know, an abjad is a language, a writing system for a language that has only the consonants, not the vowels.

01:26:53.760 --> 01:26:55.300
A number of languages are written that way.

01:26:55.300 --> 01:26:58.140
Ethiopic used to be written that way, for instance.

01:26:58.140 --> 01:27:01.480
How can it be that the scriptures were either fully lost or fully recovered?

01:27:01.740 --> 01:27:02.420
Thanks.

01:27:02.420 --> 01:27:10.500
This one's actually very easy to answer, because if you have the abjad and you have the priesthood, you can read it.

01:27:10.500 --> 01:27:16.460
And if you have trouble, you can ask God, because the priests actually were permitted to do that.

01:27:16.460 --> 01:27:17.860
They could ask God.

01:27:17.860 --> 01:27:19.720
And you could use the…

01:27:20.740 --> 01:27:22.060
There are a couple of different terms for it.

01:27:22.060 --> 01:27:23.700
The urum and the thumim, right?

01:27:23.700 --> 01:27:25.620
You can ask God questions.

01:27:25.620 --> 01:27:35.420
And so if they did not know how to read this, they had an option to directly ask God what they got wrong or what they didn't understand.

01:27:35.420 --> 01:27:51.020
If you just have the abjad and you no longer have the priesthood, which we just went over when that was completely destroyed, then it's no longer of any use, because you don't have the option to appeal to an actual authority when you don't know.

01:27:51.020 --> 01:27:55.380
So you need a full language like Greek, which does indeed have written vowels.

01:27:56.200 --> 01:28:01.460
As any proper language should, the abjad just seems like a crazy way to write things down to me.

01:28:01.460 --> 01:28:04.020
But the basic answer is they had the priesthood still.

01:28:04.020 --> 01:28:06.340
So it was not a problem for them.

01:28:06.340 --> 01:28:28.840
But if you were, say today, you were to discover a pristine, perfect copy of the original Hebrew language, and I mean ancient Hebrew scriptures, preserved in a salt cave somewhere, you found a perfect copy you knew for absolute certainty that it was an exact copy.

01:28:28.840 --> 01:28:32.080
You would not be able to read it because you're under the priesthood.

01:28:32.080 --> 01:28:40.300
So it would not be superior to the Greek in any way because you would have to use the Greek to read the Abjad.

01:28:40.300 --> 01:28:41.400
We'll just use the Greek.

01:28:41.400 --> 01:28:42.240
We have the word of God.

01:28:42.240 --> 01:28:45.340
He preserved it in the Greek for us for a number of reasons.

01:28:45.340 --> 01:28:47.780
We went over in the Septuagint series, and I've gone over elsewhere.

01:28:47.780 --> 01:28:52.380
So yeah, the short answer is just the priesthood existed.

01:28:52.380 --> 01:28:52.880
No longer does.

01:28:55.360 --> 01:29:04.340
And those were the 10 questions that I had written down that I wanted to answer.

01:29:04.340 --> 01:29:08.140
And so I will move on to the questions from the chat.

01:29:09.300 --> 01:29:10.680
Very easy one to start off.

01:29:10.680 --> 01:29:13.640
Someone asked me about the length of my beard, how long that took.

01:29:13.640 --> 01:29:20.160
I have never run the experiment of shaving it and then seeing how long it takes to grow.

01:29:20.160 --> 01:29:20.920
But not very long.

01:29:20.920 --> 01:29:22.080
My beard grows very fast.

01:29:22.860 --> 01:29:25.780
I get a 5 o'clock shadow at about 10 in the morning.

01:29:25.780 --> 01:29:31.200
So I'm very glad that I have never had a job where I had to shave every day.

01:29:31.200 --> 01:29:33.480
That would have driven me insane.

01:29:33.480 --> 01:29:35.260
I would have had to shave at lunch.

01:29:36.760 --> 01:29:41.600
The next question, that was the 11th, this is the 12th.

01:29:41.600 --> 01:29:43.260
Someone just asked about Indian genetics.

01:29:43.260 --> 01:29:46.500
And go listen to the last episode.

01:29:46.500 --> 01:29:48.380
I actually answered that one.

01:29:48.380 --> 01:29:51.400
They are primarily from Shem, but with some admixture.

01:29:52.080 --> 01:29:58.880
It is correct to say that Hindi is an Indo-European language, but it is specifically an Indo-Iranian language.

01:29:58.880 --> 01:30:11.800
And the reason for that is what I went into, thankfully consonant here, what I went into last time, in that some of the admixture for the Indian people is from the Iranian region, from the groups that were there.

01:30:11.800 --> 01:30:13.980
And then obviously also the pastoralist and others.

01:30:13.980 --> 01:30:18.180
But I went into that last time, so just go and listen to the episode from last week.

01:30:20.700 --> 01:30:25.460
And now I will try to scroll through the chat and see other questions.

01:30:33.318 --> 01:30:44.018
With regard to, for example, hatred and other sins, in quotes here, notably, what do you make of the argument that something God does can still be a sin if you do it?

01:30:44.018 --> 01:30:51.538
For example, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, so it is God's to hate, and if you hate, you are putting yourself in God's place.

01:30:52.838 --> 01:30:56.518
There are times where things like that can be sinful.

01:30:56.518 --> 01:31:25.118
The clear example would be, I have to be careful how I say this, because vigilante justice is not always necessarily sinful, but if you have a proper government that is in place, enforcing the moral law, performing its role, assigned by God, then vigilante justice would be sinful, it would be improper, assuming again the government is doing what it should.

01:31:25.118 --> 01:31:34.198
I'm not going to condemn certain instances, we can all think of them, I'm not going to name them, where individuals have done things because the government failed.

01:31:34.198 --> 01:31:39.858
But the question of vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, right?

01:31:39.858 --> 01:31:57.638
Well, you can't read that as saying that men can never punish sins, crimes, whatever it is you're calling them, because that would be to set scripture against itself, because Genesis 9, 6, he who sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed, for man was made in the image of God, right?

01:31:58.318 --> 01:32:02.478
So, God commands vengeance in Genesis 9, 6.

01:32:02.478 --> 01:32:04.338
He commands the death penalty.

01:32:04.558 --> 01:32:07.018
He requires it of us.

01:32:07.018 --> 01:32:12.718
And so, you can't read that as being a blanket prohibition.

01:32:12.718 --> 01:32:16.778
Rather, it is, can be read in a number of different ways.

01:32:16.778 --> 01:32:18.598
Two key ways, I would say.

01:32:18.618 --> 01:32:23.458
One is that you do not avenge yourself, you do not take vengeance on your personal enemies.

01:32:24.398 --> 01:32:29.838
And then, second, is what I would over with regard to vigilante justice.

01:32:29.838 --> 01:32:37.798
It is left to those to whom God has entrusted the sword of the state, assuming everything is functioning as it should.

01:32:37.798 --> 01:32:42.538
So, is it a sin for us to hate?

01:32:42.538 --> 01:32:45.538
Not when we are required to do so.

01:32:45.538 --> 01:32:49.738
Because, you know, David says, do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?

01:32:49.738 --> 01:32:51.138
I hate them with a perfect hatred.

01:32:52.698 --> 01:32:56.478
That's David speaking in the Spirit, a man after God's own heart.

01:32:56.478 --> 01:33:01.378
So, there are things we are required to hate, but this is again, a matter of wisdom.

01:33:01.378 --> 01:33:06.418
This is something where you don't just have a blanket command that you always do this one thing, right?

01:33:06.418 --> 01:33:09.898
Forgive your personal enemies, hate God's enemies.

01:33:09.898 --> 01:33:11.458
You have to do both.

01:33:11.458 --> 01:33:15.478
You don't get to forgive God's enemies, because they're his enemies, not yours.

01:33:15.478 --> 01:33:18.598
He chooses to forgive them or not, not you.

01:33:18.598 --> 01:33:20.398
But he commands you to forgive your personal enemies.

01:33:27.557 --> 01:33:29.657
That was the thirteenth question.

01:33:33.097 --> 01:33:36.297
Let me look for the next one.

01:33:39.437 --> 01:33:44.097
Fourteenth question, assuming I am numbering these correctly, which I believe that I am.

01:33:44.097 --> 01:33:48.357
I should probably note these down so I can add it to the show notes.

01:33:49.537 --> 01:33:51.917
My church is planning a Seder meal.

01:33:53.957 --> 01:33:56.917
You have expressed in the past, this is Judaizing, I agree.

01:33:57.617 --> 01:33:58.217
Glad we agree.

01:33:58.217 --> 01:34:01.537
Is it worth addressing my church leadership regarding this?

01:34:01.537 --> 01:34:08.797
If so, any advice or resources to help pull from when formulating my argument, I attend a Presbyterian church.

01:34:10.177 --> 01:34:14.437
I would have to look into which specific resources for that.

01:34:14.437 --> 01:34:16.837
Let me note that down.

01:34:18.977 --> 01:34:21.577
See that was asked on X, so I can reply to that one later.

01:34:24.737 --> 01:34:28.017
Obviously, yes, Judaizing, don't do it.

01:34:28.017 --> 01:34:44.637
It is sort of a constructed thing that the Jews have created as part of Judaism, not part of the Old Testament practice of the ceremonial religion of the Old Testament, which was not Judaism, not part of Christianity.

01:34:44.637 --> 01:34:46.997
It's not something Christians should be doing.

01:34:47.037 --> 01:34:59.037
It is, it's larping, and it's doing it in a particularly pernicious way because it is giving the Jews legitimacy they do not have.

01:35:00.597 --> 01:35:04.277
So, yeah, don't participate in that.

01:35:04.277 --> 01:35:20.637
Insofar as addressing your leadership is concerned, if you do that, there is a non-trivial chance, I'd say probably about a coin flip, as to whether or not they will take that as a direct assault against them, and choose to persecute you and drive you from the church.

01:35:20.637 --> 01:35:22.737
It may be that's worth doing.

01:35:22.737 --> 01:35:27.097
It may be that that is important enough that you need to do it.

01:35:27.097 --> 01:35:33.497
I would do it if I were in your shoes, because what I would be doing is testing them.

01:35:33.497 --> 01:35:42.897
I would be giving them the opportunity to turn from their wicked path, or to double down and prove that they have decided to be evil.

01:35:42.897 --> 01:35:48.857
And that gives you the information you need to know as to whether you should find a new church or not.

01:35:48.857 --> 01:35:52.717
Because if they are willing to repent of wickedness, that's a great sign.

01:35:52.717 --> 01:35:54.177
Christians commit sins.

01:35:54.177 --> 01:35:57.497
Christians make errors.

01:35:57.497 --> 01:35:59.717
Christians misjudge things.

01:35:59.717 --> 01:36:00.337
That happens.

01:36:00.337 --> 01:36:01.337
We're imperfect.

01:36:01.337 --> 01:36:03.337
We're fallen.

01:36:03.337 --> 01:36:10.637
The issue is whether or not you repent when you are called to repent, when you are informed of your error.

01:36:10.637 --> 01:36:16.077
Because once you have been informed of the error, and then you double down, it is now willful sin.

01:36:16.077 --> 01:36:16.897
It's a different thing.

01:36:16.897 --> 01:36:23.057
And you need to not be in a church that is committing that sort of willful sin, because at that point, they're wicked.

01:36:23.057 --> 01:36:24.477
They're evil leadership.

01:36:24.477 --> 01:36:28.537
You should not want to be under an evil shepherd.

01:36:28.537 --> 01:36:40.137
So, I would probably say it would be a good idea to go ahead and address your leadership, but bear in mind that you may very well be driven from your church because of it.

01:36:40.877 --> 01:36:46.657
So, there is some wisdom there that needs to be applied.

01:36:46.657 --> 01:36:48.357
There's an issue of wisdom.

01:36:48.357 --> 01:36:56.877
If you have a wife, children, others entrusted to your care, bring that into your calculus.

01:36:56.877 --> 01:37:06.977
Don't just do this, and consequences be what they are, because then you have other considerations, because God has entrusted things to your care, God has given you duties.

01:37:07.877 --> 01:37:15.997
If you are a single man, then it's probably a different thing, because the worst they can do is harass you and cause you trouble, which is not nothing.

01:37:15.997 --> 01:37:25.977
I'm not trying to trivialize that, but it's not as weighty of a consideration in this case as if you have others under you entrusted to your care.

01:37:25.977 --> 01:37:30.257
But I will try to look into some sources on that.

01:37:30.257 --> 01:37:32.577
I don't necessarily have any of that off the top of my head.

01:37:32.577 --> 01:37:41.237
The biggest thing would just be God fulfilled all of the things in the Old Testament, but why are you still participating in them?

01:37:41.237 --> 01:37:49.177
Ask them if they would be comfortable sacrificing a goat or praying over a goat and sending him into the wilderness.

01:37:49.177 --> 01:37:50.997
That's no longer a thing.

01:37:50.997 --> 01:37:54.317
That was never a thing for those of us who are not part of Old Testament Israel.

01:37:54.317 --> 01:37:56.497
That was the ceremonial law.

01:37:56.497 --> 01:37:59.317
We're Christians, we don't do that stuff.

01:38:02.957 --> 01:38:04.477
Someone asked me about determinism.

01:38:04.617 --> 01:38:14.657
I think I will note that for later and not get into that right now because that is a can of worms.

01:38:14.657 --> 01:38:24.797
I can certainly say go read the article that I wrote on fate, because I think that's probably a good starting place for my position on those issues.

01:38:37.862 --> 01:38:43.702
Someone said, hibiscus tea, it's actually earl grey, but at least you got, there's an herbal component in it.

01:38:54.652 --> 01:38:56.792
The 15th question.

01:38:57.912 --> 01:39:02.832
Why myth and not worship as the third pillar of civilization?

01:39:02.832 --> 01:39:08.892
I can sort of answer that one quickly because I would say worship is under myth.

01:39:08.892 --> 01:39:11.752
It is part of the practice of the myth.

01:39:11.752 --> 01:39:21.612
It's sort of the myth, perhaps you could say concretized or actualized into society, into the culture itself.

01:39:21.612 --> 01:39:28.992
Because worship is part of the culture, which is going to be an outgrowth of all three of those components, blood, soil, and myth.

01:39:28.992 --> 01:39:35.912
And so I think that myth is the umbrella, the overarching reality, and worship is part of that.

01:39:35.912 --> 01:39:39.752
I don't think worship is the umbrella itself, rather it is a sub-component of it.

01:39:46.630 --> 01:39:57.510
The next question, and I think perhaps the last question for this episode, I didn't actually run quite as long as I thought I would, but an hour and 40 minutes, give or take.

01:39:57.510 --> 01:39:59.470
Have you heard of the Wisconsin Synod?

01:39:59.470 --> 01:40:05.810
There is a, I have to turn to the side here because my camera's in my way, there is a lot of them around here.

01:40:05.810 --> 01:40:13.090
I assume you mean wells, which yes, I've heard of wells, and the LCMS and wells have similar problems.

01:40:14.130 --> 01:40:38.510
The LCMS has a little bit more protection against it with regard to individual congregations, partly because of the side, partly the size rather, and partly because of the bureaucratic structure of the LCMS, whereas wells is going to very quickly follow wherever the leadership of wells is going, and they're not going good places.

01:40:38.510 --> 01:40:41.990
I have not been particularly impressed with what I have seen from them.

01:40:42.490 --> 01:40:45.990
And I'm not saying I like the LCMS leadership either, obviously, I do not.

01:40:45.990 --> 01:40:48.930
Matt Harrison and I are not friends, let's say.

01:40:50.350 --> 01:40:54.370
So wells is going to have the same problems as the LCMS.

01:40:54.370 --> 01:40:55.990
It's going to depend on the leadership.

01:40:55.990 --> 01:41:07.170
Maybe they're good congregations, but I think in the wells context, good congregations will have more trouble with standing evil demands, wicked demands from sinned leadership.

01:41:07.170 --> 01:41:19.310
Whereas in the LCMS, you're going to have a little more leeway, you're going to have a little more wiggle room for dealing with and avoiding whatever sinned would like you to do.

01:41:19.310 --> 01:41:26.890
And my recommendation stands as, if you are a Lutheran church, leave your sinned.

01:41:26.890 --> 01:41:36.790
Join up with faithful Lutheran bodies outside of the LCMS, Wells, the existing structures, because not one of them is good.

01:41:36.790 --> 01:41:38.390
And I'm not just condemning Lutherans here.

01:41:38.390 --> 01:41:41.810
I am specifically condemning Lutherans here, but not just Lutherans.

01:41:41.810 --> 01:41:47.890
I don't believe there's a single faithful corporate church body in the United States.

01:41:47.890 --> 01:42:03.070
They are all wicked, they all have leadership that are going after the world and the approval of the world, and all of the various things that have come along with it, all of these false doctrines, all of these various forms of wickedness.

01:42:03.070 --> 01:42:05.550
So, leave.

01:42:05.550 --> 01:42:15.990
You have the advantage, speaking to Protestants, you probably own your building, you probably own your land or rent it, whatever it happens to be, lease it.

01:42:15.990 --> 01:42:20.530
Your overarching corporate body doesn't own your building.

01:42:21.930 --> 01:42:24.010
You're not a Roman Catholic.

01:42:24.010 --> 01:42:39.550
Roman Catholics can't leave, regardless of what evil thing the Pope does, because the Pope owns their building, the Pope commands everyone in the leadership above them, the Pope can remove their priest, so on and so forth.

01:42:39.550 --> 01:42:52.450
In the LCMS context, Lutheran context, or the Presbyterians, or Baptists, Baptists probably don't have an overarching body anyway, but if you have an overarching corporate structure, they don't have that much control over you.

01:42:52.450 --> 01:42:58.150
You can leave, you can remain faithful, regardless of the evil things they're doing.

01:42:58.150 --> 01:43:00.710
So just don't be part of it.

01:43:00.710 --> 01:43:12.910
And whatever you do, do not rewrite your bylaws so that in the case of a split or anything like that, your property reverts, or whatever language they use, to the corporate body.

01:43:12.910 --> 01:43:25.390
That is one of the sneaky things they've been trying to do to try to enforce control over congregations, sort of control they do not have, because of the way these things have been structured in the US context.

01:43:25.390 --> 01:43:28.030
So take advantage of the structure we have.

01:43:28.030 --> 01:43:31.010
Whether it's good or bad could be debated.

01:43:31.010 --> 01:43:32.370
I don't think our structure is great.

01:43:32.370 --> 01:43:35.290
I don't like congregationalist polity.

01:43:35.290 --> 01:43:38.090
But it has benefits today.

01:43:38.090 --> 01:43:42.550
Take advantage of those before it winds up being a problem for you.

01:43:42.550 --> 01:43:46.330
Don't wait until Synod tells you to do something evil.

01:43:46.330 --> 01:43:49.810
Get out from under them before they try to do that to you.

01:43:51.350 --> 01:43:55.770
So, that's my general recommendation, and sort of a brief comment on the LCMS vs.

01:43:55.770 --> 01:43:56.090
Wells.

01:44:01.580 --> 01:44:21.280
And I think the last question I will answer tonight, notice down, if you get excommunicated with a family in tow, is it permissible to have communion with your wife in a house church until you find a new church?

01:44:21.280 --> 01:44:28.580
So if it's just your wife or just your wife and children, I would say that probably is just the other side of don't do it.

01:44:29.440 --> 01:44:37.240
Because the Lord's Supper is supposed to be something for the gathered church.

01:44:37.240 --> 01:44:48.380
And yes, where two or three are gathered in my name, and we'll count your wife as separate for the sake of this and not go with the headship count versus the individual body count, I guess, as it were, here.

01:44:48.460 --> 01:45:00.500
So, yes, God is present, yes, Christ is present as he promises, but it is supposed to be the gathered church that partakes of the sacrament.

01:45:00.500 --> 01:45:16.460
And so, get together with two or three like-minded men, go ahead and ordain one of you as being the head of this home church, and then by all means, have the Lord's Supper as part of what is now your church service, because now you have a home church.

01:45:17.620 --> 01:45:21.400
But I do think that it is proper to form that home church.

01:45:21.400 --> 01:45:39.340
I'm not saying you have to have a legal document or anything like that, but I do think it is proper to take that step of forming a home church first, instead of using it in a way that, if you're Lutheran, you'll be familiar with the confession, say, as a form of private practice or private devotion, which is something that is not how it should be used.

01:45:39.340 --> 01:45:40.860
It's not how it's intended to be used.

01:45:40.860 --> 01:45:43.080
It's not how it's spoken of in the scriptures.

01:45:43.780 --> 01:45:49.820
So, take the time and the effort to form that home church.

01:45:49.820 --> 01:46:05.380
And, yes, it's a good thing that you want to have the Lord's Supper, and you think that it is not a good thing to go without it for a period of time, but you're not going to be damned because you don't have the Lord's Supper for a few weeks or a few months or even a few years.

01:46:05.380 --> 01:46:07.680
Preferably don't go that long, you know, form a home church.

01:46:07.680 --> 01:46:14.660
But it is not absolutely necessary that you have the Lord's Supper, every week.

01:46:14.660 --> 01:46:15.340
It's a good thing.

01:46:15.340 --> 01:46:16.560
It's a good thing to have every week.

01:46:16.560 --> 01:46:20.500
I'm glad that we have moved to having it that way in the Lutheran Church.

01:46:20.500 --> 01:46:23.380
There were historical reasons that that wasn't the case in some places.

01:46:23.380 --> 01:46:33.260
But I do think it's good to have it every week, but it is not absolutely necessary in the sense that you have to worry for your soul because you have not had it in a few weeks.

01:46:33.260 --> 01:46:40.760
So form the home church and worship together and have the Lord's Supper as part of that worship.

01:46:40.760 --> 01:46:41.780
That's how it's meant to be used.

01:46:41.840 --> 01:46:49.820
It's meant to be the gathered church participating in the body and blood of our Lord and Savior as the gathered church.

01:46:52.600 --> 01:46:57.540
I think that I got through all of the questions in the chat.

01:46:57.540 --> 01:47:01.660
If I missed one, by all means, add it to the forum.

01:47:01.660 --> 01:47:09.160
I know that there are some outstanding questions, and I created a thread on the forum where I will be adding those so people can see.

01:47:09.160 --> 01:47:14.440
Maybe if I noticed your question, I will have added it to that thread.

01:47:14.440 --> 01:47:17.760
So if you do not see it there, that means I missed it.

01:47:17.760 --> 01:47:20.540
Please add it to the requests category on Omnifor.

01:47:20.540 --> 01:47:26.340
There's a link in the description, regardless of on which platform you are watching this.

01:47:26.340 --> 01:47:30.660
So that is the best way to submit questions because that helps me to organize them.

01:47:30.660 --> 01:47:32.200
Then I can mark them as red.

01:47:32.200 --> 01:47:34.880
When I remember to do that, I try to do that.

01:47:34.880 --> 01:47:39.980
And I can tag them in the individual episode where I answered them.

01:47:39.980 --> 01:47:43.560
So it's easier for people to find them in the future and things like that.

01:47:43.560 --> 01:47:45.500
But that is just the preferred way.

01:47:45.500 --> 01:47:53.120
If you ask in the chat or on X or wherever else, I will try to note it down, write it down, add it to a future episode.

01:47:53.120 --> 01:47:55.840
But like I said, I know there are some outstanding questions.

01:47:55.860 --> 01:48:12.820
One in particular I know people have wanted me to answer is I had a viral post on X about beauty, which was not necessarily my intent, but that is sort of how it went, about the nature of beauty and the morality and how you index these things.

01:48:12.820 --> 01:48:18.940
And I want to do that one as a standalone episode, so I'll release that as at least audio.

01:48:18.940 --> 01:48:26.320
I'll post it on YouTube and elsewhere as well, probably just with an image, because I'm not going to record video necessarily for that one.

01:48:26.320 --> 01:48:41.440
But I want to do that one as a standalone, because it's going to be longer form, and it is an important question that bears careful addressing, because of the reality of the transcendentals and the nature of God and things like that.

01:48:41.440 --> 01:48:46.380
I'm not going to get into it right now, obviously, but I do remember that one has been asked a number of times.

01:48:46.380 --> 01:48:47.380
I will get into it.

01:48:47.380 --> 01:48:48.880
I will answer that one.

01:48:48.880 --> 01:48:51.960
It is on my to-do list.

01:48:51.960 --> 01:48:56.520
But I think that is going to be it for this week.

01:48:56.520 --> 01:49:00.120
I did get through the questions that I had prepared and then some other ones from the chat.

01:49:00.880 --> 01:49:07.140
So, again, if you have questions, please do submit those on the forum, preferably, but other places are fine, too.

01:49:07.140 --> 01:49:11.840
Thank you for those of you who submitted questions and for those who participated in the chat.

01:49:11.840 --> 01:49:20.080
It is always nice to have the opportunity to answer these questions, and I'm glad that all of you find this useful enough, at least, to join me on a Friday night.

01:49:20.080 --> 01:49:23.100
So, I hope you have a great rest of your weekend.

01:49:23.100 --> 01:49:26.160
Make sure that you, of course, go to church on Sunday.

01:49:26.160 --> 01:49:31.480
And until hopefully Thursday, I would like to do it Thursday instead of Friday next week.

01:49:31.480 --> 01:49:36.900
Until Thursday, I hope that God is with all of you and continues to bless you.

01:49:36.900 --> 01:49:41.880
So, God bless, and have a great evening and a great weekend.

01:49:41.880 --> 01:49:42.400
Till next week.

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