WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:03.360 It is the twenty-ninth of May twenty twenty six. 00:00:03.360 --> 00:00:04.400 I am Cory J. 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:06.480 Mahler and this is at any cost. 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:09.200 I assume that you all have sound now. 00:00:09.200 --> 00:00:12.080 The levels all look correct on my end, so please let me 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:12.960 thank you. 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:15.360 I was going to say please let me know in the chat. 00:00:15.360 --> 00:00:18.720 But at any rate, no idea why OBS is deciding to do 00:00:18.720 --> 00:00:20.480 this, which it occasionally does. 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:24.080 So if you hear panting in the background, that would be Gizmo 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:27.440 who is hiding at my feet currently because we have a storm 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:31.360 starting here and he really does not like thunder and lightning. 00:00:31.360 --> 00:00:34.960 At any rate, now that the audio is working, I can go 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:37.600 ahead and get into the questions here. 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:41.920 Question one some easy questions before I get into something that's a 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:42.480 little longer. 00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:45.840 Like I said, I would get into some more complicated material this 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:49.520 week. Probably a longer answer, we'll take up more of the episode. 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:52.320 But at any rate, question one, an easy one to start. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:55.280 Do you think God will have jobs or careers for us in 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:56.880 the new creation? 00:00:56.880 --> 00:00:59.840 And the person says no reason, just fun to think about. 00:01:00.160 --> 00:01:03.760 And the answer is that yes, you will have something to do 00:01:04.240 --> 00:01:06.240 in the new creation. 00:01:06.240 --> 00:01:13.200 The distinction here would be between labor and work and you're going 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:15.840 to have work in the new creation, which say you're going to 00:01:16.240 --> 00:01:18.560 have something to do, whatever it happens to be. 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:22.160 God originally made us to be gardeners, so certainly that's going to 00:01:22.160 --> 00:01:24.160 be a thing that we'll do in the new creation. 00:01:24.160 --> 00:01:27.280 Some of us already enjoy that, so that's good news. 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:30.560 But God did not God did not create us just to be 00:01:30.800 --> 00:01:33.120 idle. That's not a human life. 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:37.280 That's something fundamentally different from what a human being should be doing. 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:41.760 So there will be work, but it won't be labor or laborious 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:45.760 in the sense of being something we dread having to do, or 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:50.160 something that is, you know, taxing on us, weighs us down, beats 00:01:50.160 --> 00:01:51.600 us down over time, right? 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:53.600 Not that sort of work. 00:01:53.600 --> 00:01:57.200 But work in the sense of something that is productive makes you 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:00.720 feel like you are doing something because you are indeed doing something. 00:02:00.720 --> 00:02:03.840 So that will still exist. 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:09.520 But on a tangentially tangentially related note there, I usually don't say 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:14.880 that much about paradise or about the new creation because so much 00:02:14.880 --> 00:02:16.480 of it is speculative. 00:02:16.480 --> 00:02:20.000 There are some things where we can clearly say that this or 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:22.960 this will not be the case, or this or that will not 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:24.080 be there. 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:27.600 But in many cases, we live in a fallen world and we 00:02:27.600 --> 00:02:31.840 live thousands of years into the fallen world, so it's difficult for 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:34.480 us to understand what a perfect world would be World would even 00:02:34.480 --> 00:02:39.600 be. And God doesn't really give us a ton of specifics about 00:02:39.600 --> 00:02:41.040 the new creation. 00:02:41.040 --> 00:02:43.600 We just know that it will be what he intended it to 00:02:43.600 --> 00:02:47.280 be, so everything that is bad in this creation, due to the 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:49.360 fall, will not be there. 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:52.080 That's why I usually don't say that much on the topic because 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:56.480 it is somewhat speculative generally speaking, because we only know so much 00:02:56.480 --> 00:02:57.200 about that. 00:02:57.200 --> 00:03:00.560 Just like we only know so much about angels and demons and 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:04.000 how they interact with our world and the rules God has set 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:04.960 for them. 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:09.200 God doesn't give us much in the way of details, so generally 00:03:09.440 --> 00:03:12.640 speaking, I don't comment too much on that because it's too speculative, 00:03:12.640 --> 00:03:16.480 I would just be guessing guessing extrapolating. 00:03:16.480 --> 00:03:19.040 It's not certain enough for me to want to make a public 00:03:19.040 --> 00:03:21.200 statement on that kind of thing. 00:03:21.200 --> 00:03:22.320 Question two. 00:03:22.320 --> 00:03:26.800 If an adult convert and his future wife had a miscarriage outside 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:31.280 of wedlock and before they return to Christ, do we have any 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:34.160 way to know if the baby is saved in spite of its 00:03:34.160 --> 00:03:36.880 faithless parents? 00:03:37.200 --> 00:03:42.640 This is a difficult question because there's not necessarily an easy answer 00:03:42.640 --> 00:03:45.200 here. Certainly, we know 00:03:46.160 --> 00:03:51.840 that if you have one believing parent, you can be certain that 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:54.240 God has provided for that infant. 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:56.560 I went over this in a previous episode. 00:03:56.560 --> 00:03:58.960 In fact I went over it last week. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:03.440 Because you have the passages that speak of the unbelieving spouse being 00:04:03.440 --> 00:04:06.880 sanctified by the believing spouse, and then the children are holy because 00:04:06.880 --> 00:04:07.920 of the parents. 00:04:07.920 --> 00:04:13.120 And then you have the passage with David and Bathsheba, where clearly 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:18.000 a child conceived outside of wedlock, and then David as a prophet 00:04:18.080 --> 00:04:20.720 says that he is certain he will see the child again, and 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:22.400 that is comforting to him. 00:04:22.400 --> 00:04:25.760 I have gizmo moving around and now sitting on my feet. 00:04:25.760 --> 00:04:26.080 But 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:31.600 with regard to those who are not believers. 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:37.680 Scripture does not actually state what happens for the children of unbelievers 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:42.960 who die very young, so miscarriage for instance. 00:04:42.960 --> 00:04:44.400 All we can do in that case 00:04:45.440 --> 00:04:47.520 is commend that child to God. 00:04:47.520 --> 00:04:50.720 I don't think it's wrong to pray to God about that child. 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:54.560 I don't think it's wrong to pray for the departed, right? 00:04:54.560 --> 00:04:58.080 Obviously, I'm Lutheran, I don't believe we pray to the departed. 00:04:58.080 --> 00:05:01.520 But I don't think that it's wrong to pray for the departed. 00:05:01.520 --> 00:05:04.480 And it's not a matter, it's not an issue that, you know, 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:05.840 you're praying after the fact, right? 00:05:05.840 --> 00:05:08.160 You're not praying for something in the future, you're praying for something 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:11.520 that's already occurred God's outside of time. 00:05:11.520 --> 00:05:16.160 When you are praying within your frame of reference with regard to 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:19.120 time, doesn't matter to God, right? 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:23.440 So I don't think it's wrong to pray for something like this. 00:05:23.440 --> 00:05:26.080 In fact, I think it's a good thing to do that. 00:05:26.080 --> 00:05:29.520 So the short answer is that we have to leave this up 00:05:29.520 --> 00:05:30.480 to God. 00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:35.920 We don't really have any firm word in Scripture other than God 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:38.640 will do what is perfect and all things work together for the 00:05:38.640 --> 00:05:42.960 good. God knew this individual would come to faith, would return to 00:05:42.960 --> 00:05:44.000 the faith. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:47.280 God knew that that was a child of someone who ultimately will 00:05:47.280 --> 00:05:49.920 be saved, who is a numbered among the elect. 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:54.240 Take comfort in that and knowing that what God will do is 00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:59.040 perfect. We don't know exactly how that works here in time. 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:00.080 And that's fine. 00:06:00.080 --> 00:06:02.240 We don't have to know everything here in time. 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:05.200 We know enough that we can take some comfort from that. 00:06:05.200 --> 00:06:09.760 We just can't be absolutely certain because Scripture doesn't give us that 00:06:09.760 --> 00:06:13.680 answer. And I know that's not necessarily the answer everyone wants to 00:06:14.400 --> 00:06:18.160 hear, but sometimes the truth is what it is. 00:06:18.160 --> 00:06:20.800 It's not necessarily exactly what we would prefer. 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:23.520 But we can again take comfort in the fact that God's plan 00:06:23.520 --> 00:06:26.480 is perfect, God knows all of his sheep, God knows all of 00:06:26.480 --> 00:06:31.200 the elect, and it doesn't matter when how you die, when you 00:06:31.200 --> 00:06:32.480 pray, right? 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:36.560 These things are outside of time from God's perspective, so take comfort 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:39.200 in that. 00:06:39.200 --> 00:06:41.360 Question three three. 00:06:41.360 --> 00:06:45.040 Do you think kindness to animals count as works? 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:48.800 People exist for people and they are who God wants us focused 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:52.640 on. But do you think works extend beyond purely human affairs? 00:06:52.640 --> 00:06:55.520 I guess it's a good question since I currently have a small 00:06:55.520 --> 00:06:59.200 dog sitting on my feet hiding from the thunderstorm. 00:06:59.280 --> 00:07:03.200 I think that those definitely count as works because many of the 00:07:03.200 --> 00:07:07.040 things that we have to do are duties that do not pertain 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:08.160 to human beings, right? 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:10.960 We have a duty to care for the natural world. 00:07:10.960 --> 00:07:14.320 We have a duty to care for the possessions that God has 00:07:14.320 --> 00:07:15.120 entrusted to us. 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:18.800 So we shouldn't be destructive, unnecessarily destructive with regard to those. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:23.120 We should treat our things well, not just people. 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:24.320 That includes animals. 00:07:24.320 --> 00:07:27.520 God certainly entrusted the animals to our care, we are supposed to 00:07:27.520 --> 00:07:30.400 treat them well, so you shouldn't abuse your farm animals, you shouldn't 00:07:30.320 --> 00:07:32.960 abuse your pets, you should take good care of those. 00:07:32.960 --> 00:07:35.520 And that does count as a good work because you are doing 00:07:35.520 --> 00:07:37.280 what God designed you to do. 00:07:37.280 --> 00:07:40.720 And a good work is simply doing that which is consonant with 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:41.600 God's will. 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:45.200 So taking care of your pets, treating them well, taking care of 00:07:45.840 --> 00:07:49.440 your other physical things, these are all good works because you're doing 00:07:49.440 --> 00:07:56.560 your duty that God has given you. 00:07:56.560 --> 00:07:58.400 Question four 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.960 How can you argue against race mixing from a Christian perspective? 00:08:04.960 --> 00:08:08.720 I am convinced by natural law, but my family uses Jesus as 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:10.800 a defense for their betrayal. 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:13.280 I want to convert, but this is my hindrance. 00:08:13.280 --> 00:08:17.120 So This one comes up all the time, which I don't mind 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:20.720 going over it again because it's an important question, it's going to 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:24.080 keep coming up for the foreseeable future for reasons that are obvious 00:08:24.080 --> 00:08:25.200 to everyone. 00:08:25.200 --> 00:08:28.320 I'm not going to give the full answer here because you know 00:08:28.320 --> 00:08:31.120 In part the full answer is you know go listen to the 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:34.880 race series on Stone Choir. 00:08:34.880 --> 00:08:37.280 I will link to that in the show notes, so I'll put 00:08:37.280 --> 00:08:40.160 a note here for myself to link to that. 00:08:40.160 --> 00:08:42.560 You can also listen to some of the debates that I've done 00:08:42.560 --> 00:08:45.920 on the topic, so I've gone over it at some length there, 00:08:45.920 --> 00:08:48.720 although some of those were a little technical because of the reality 00:08:48.720 --> 00:08:51.840 of the proposition that was offered by the other side, and it 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:55.360 was more beneficial to accept than reject the proposition for the sake 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:56.880 of the debate. 00:08:56.880 --> 00:08:57.200 But 00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:01.440 I would here at least go over three points, really. 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:04.800 I guess they're really more expansive than three points, but three sort 00:09:04.800 --> 00:09:07.120 of core points I would go over. 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:09.840 Your first point you sort of made already, right? 00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:11.920 You appeal to natural law. 00:09:11.920 --> 00:09:15.120 Well, God is the author of natural law. 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:19.760 So you are appealing to God when you appeal to natural law. 00:09:19.760 --> 00:09:21.280 There's nothing wrong with doing that. 00:09:21.280 --> 00:09:26.480 Christians have long recognized that the natural law is important, the natural 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:31.360 law flows from God's character, flows from God's essence, his nature, and 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:33.840 so you can appeal to the natural law. 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:36.720 God is the author, he's the one who created it. 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:39.360 The way that I've typically said it, and there are other men 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:42.560 who said it as well, God wrote two books, nature is the 00:09:42.560 --> 00:09:47.360 first one, and nature really is the more important one, in a 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:48.320 certain sense. 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:52.080 It's the greater one, because it's the one to which God appeals 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:53.600 when he speaks of his own greatness. 00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:56.880 You can think of the book of Job, right He doesn't appeal 00:09:56.880 --> 00:10:01.120 to prophecy or revelation or anything like that. 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:04.640 He appeals to creation when he is telling Job of his greatness. 00:10:04.640 --> 00:10:09.200 So even God appeals to nature, creation as his greater work. 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:12.800 The way in which scripture is greater, of course, is that scripture 00:10:12.800 --> 00:10:14.080 reveals the gospel. 00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:15.760 Nature does not reveal the gospel. 00:10:15.760 --> 00:10:18.560 You need scripture for that to be saved. 00:10:18.560 --> 00:10:22.000 So it's greater in that sense, but there's nothing wrong with appealing 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:23.040 to nature. 00:10:23.040 --> 00:10:27.680 And when it comes to appealing to nature, I think there are 00:10:27.680 --> 00:10:31.680 a few points you can bring up with someone who has at 00:10:31.680 --> 00:10:37.360 least some shared Christian framework, because if there is a designer, right? 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:40.480 If there's a god and you can find evidence of the way 00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:45.280 he designed something, then you should act in accord with that design. 00:10:45.280 --> 00:10:49.040 One of the strongest points for this is that the peak for 00:10:49.040 --> 00:10:54.960 for for fertility is depending on the group, somewhere between third and 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:56.880 fourth cousins, right around there. 00:10:56.880 --> 00:10:59.520 Sometimes a little maybe a little more out than that, but basically 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:00.880 third or fourth cousins. 00:11:00.880 --> 00:11:03.280 That's peak fertility. 00:11:03.280 --> 00:11:05.760 God designed that into the system. 00:11:05.760 --> 00:11:08.080 God says children are a blessing. 00:11:08.080 --> 00:11:11.280 God is the one who designed where you are going to have 00:11:11.280 --> 00:11:14.720 the greatest number of children produced by a given marriage. 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:18.560 And that is with your somewhat distant not close, obviously, that's a 00:11:18.560 --> 00:11:22.000 different problem but your somewhat distant cousins. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:25.040 Not distant in the sense of like other side of the world 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:27.920 cousins, but third or fourth cousins. 00:11:27.920 --> 00:11:29.600 God built that into the system. 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:31.600 So that's his design. 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:33.600 That's clearly his intent. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:37.760 So not going outside of that and not disobeying and marrying your 00:11:37.760 --> 00:11:38.480 first cousin 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:39.440 Is 00:11:39.520 --> 00:11:39.760 a 00:11:39.760 --> 00:11:43.920 good thing because you are acting in accord with God's revealed will 00:11:43.920 --> 00:11:45.280 in nature. 00:11:45.280 --> 00:11:47.120 So again, appealing to nature. 00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:51.040 You can also use issues like the compatibility of immune systems, right? 00:11:51.040 --> 00:11:53.200 There's a reason foreigners smell weird to you. 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:56.080 It's not just because some of them have bad hygiene. 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:59.040 It's because you're not compatible with them genetically. 00:11:59.040 --> 00:12:01.600 Usually that's to deal with the immune system. 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:05.680 Another thing that God built into the system, and so God has 00:12:05.680 --> 00:12:07.760 revealed his design. 00:12:07.760 --> 00:12:09.520 We should obey his design. 00:12:09.520 --> 00:12:13.200 We should go along with what he clearly wants us to do. 00:12:13.680 --> 00:12:18.640 There's also the fact that scripture is just blunt about this. 00:12:18.640 --> 00:12:21.920 God is the one who created the races of men. 00:12:21.920 --> 00:12:25.280 And not just created the races of men, but set their times 00:12:25.280 --> 00:12:26.240 and their boundaries. 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:29.360 So geographic and temporal boundaries he set those. 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:31.120 Very clearly there in the book of Acts. 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:36.400 And elsewhere as well, because for instance you have when the Israelites 00:12:36.400 --> 00:12:40.640 are coming into the promised land, God says there are certain places 00:12:40.800 --> 00:12:43.760 he will not give them so much as enough to set their 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:48.720 foot upon of certain segments of land because God has given them 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:50.000 to another race. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:53.280 The Edomites or the Ammonites, whoever it happens to be, God has 00:12:53.280 --> 00:12:55.440 given territory to other peoples. 00:12:55.440 --> 00:12:59.120 As long as they remain faithful, they retain ownership of that territory. 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:02.240 Of course there are consequences for faithlessness. 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:06.080 But if God created the races of men, and then he set 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:09.840 their boundaries, he clearly wanted them to be separate. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:12.880 So So when you are marrying outside your race or when you 00:13:12.880 --> 00:13:16.400 are moving to a foreign country, you are actually doing something that 00:13:16.400 --> 00:13:18.400 is contrary to God's will. 00:13:18.400 --> 00:13:22.560 Because God is the one who set those times, set those boundaries. 00:13:22.560 --> 00:13:24.080 He didn't do that idly. 00:13:24.400 --> 00:13:29.200 If he wanted everyone to just turn into one undifferentiated mass of 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:34.320 humanity with no racial distinctions, no national distinctions, he wouldn't have set 00:13:34.320 --> 00:13:35.760 times and boundaries. 00:13:35.760 --> 00:13:39.280 So scripture, very clear on this, that God is the one who 00:13:39.280 --> 00:13:40.480 set these. 00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:44.000 You may have to explain to people that nation and race are 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:45.040 the same thing. 00:13:45.040 --> 00:13:48.720 Some people have trouble with that concept, but they're literally identical. 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:51.440 Look back through history, look at the etymology. 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:53.760 They mean the same thing. 00:13:53.760 --> 00:13:56.560 And sometimes people will try to argue about you know ethnicity and 00:13:56.560 --> 00:13:59.120 race, and they're just arguing over Greek versus Latin. 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:01.680 These are all the same terms that mean the same thing. 00:14:01.680 --> 00:14:05.040 And And scripture is also clear on that point, because you'll have 00:14:05.040 --> 00:14:07.520 the race of insert name here. 00:14:07.520 --> 00:14:11.760 Right? Israel is called Israel because they're the race of Israel, descended 00:14:11.760 --> 00:14:13.280 from Jacob, renamed Israel. 00:14:13.280 --> 00:14:14.720 That's the reason they have the name. 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:16.480 So that's a point you can make with someone who has that 00:14:16.880 --> 00:14:18.880 shared Christian framework. 00:14:18.880 --> 00:14:21.520 At least some Christian framework. 00:14:21.520 --> 00:14:24.720 And then the third point I would make would be look at 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:27.680 the consequences of miscegenation. 00:14:27.680 --> 00:14:31.760 And again, God is the one who designed the system. 00:14:31.760 --> 00:14:34.480 God is the one who designed how it works. 00:14:34.480 --> 00:14:40.240 So when you do something within creation and it has negative consequences, 00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:43.440 God is the one who designed those negative consequences. 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:46.640 Miscegenation has negative consequences. 00:14:46.640 --> 00:14:50.800 It leads to health issues, it leads to psychological issues, it causes 00:14:50.800 --> 00:14:54.560 all sorts of problems, and that's a very clear indication that it 00:14:54.560 --> 00:14:56.480 is contrary to God's will. 00:14:56.480 --> 00:15:01.200 So I think if you bring up those three points, if you're 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:03.840 dealing with someone who's going to be honest, if you're dealing with 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:06.560 someone who is going to be open to actually examining the issue 00:15:06.560 --> 00:15:10.880 instead of simply shutting down immediately because they've been trained to react 00:15:10.880 --> 00:15:14.480 in a certain way, you can probably get somewhere. 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:18.080 That's probably the best approach, and it shouldn't be something that prevents 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:21.360 you from being Christian because it's only in the last 00:15:22.560 --> 00:15:27.840 say 50-ish years, maybe a little longer, kind of 1960s, when it 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:32.640 really began in earnest, where you have people who claim to be 00:15:32.640 --> 00:15:37.200 Christian and subscribe to this modern so-called morality. 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:41.520 We've called it the new global religion or the post-war consensus. 00:15:41.520 --> 00:15:43.120 That's not Christianity. 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:44.720 That's a different religion. 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:46.640 It doesn't matter what they call themselves. 00:15:46.640 --> 00:15:50.960 They're not Christians because they don't subscribe to what Christians actually believe. 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:51.280 So 00:15:52.160 --> 00:15:54.640 you're going to have to do some work probably in dealing with 00:15:54.640 --> 00:15:56.880 that. Maybe you can get them to listen to the series on 00:15:56.880 --> 00:15:57.680 race. It is 00:15:58.640 --> 00:16:02.720 just purely factual, dealing with the issues as they exist. 00:16:02.880 --> 00:16:08.160 It goes over the fundamental issues, the Christian perspective, consequences, you know, 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:09.600 where do we go from here? 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:11.520 So again, I'll link that in the show notes. 00:16:11.520 --> 00:16:14.560 I would definitely recommend that you listen to that and then 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:20.000 maybe recommend that your family or others listen to it as well. 00:16:24.880 --> 00:16:30.960 The next question here, a related question, this one's easier to answer. 00:16:30.960 --> 00:16:33.920 And then I'll get into the enlightenment, which may take up a 00:16:33.920 --> 00:16:35.680 little bit of time here. 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:40.720 Question five: Since you want deportations of people who are not white 00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:45.040 in the US, what happens if someone like an Indian born in 00:16:45.040 --> 00:16:48.400 the US doesn't know how to speak a language other than English? 00:16:48.400 --> 00:16:51.680 That person gets deported, but he wouldn't feel like a or he 00:16:51.680 --> 00:16:54.800 would feel like a foreigner in India since he can't communicate with 00:16:54.800 --> 00:16:56.000 other Indians. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:01.120 How would your nationalist political view address this problem? 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:05.280 There are a number of ways I can address this. 00:17:05.280 --> 00:17:07.840 The first one is probably just to be blunt, it's not our 00:17:07.840 --> 00:17:09.920 problem, right? 00:17:10.560 --> 00:17:13.600 Our own people are the ones for whom we're supposed to care. 00:17:13.600 --> 00:17:18.160 So a foreigner who doesn't feel like he's at home in his 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:21.600 own home nation, that's not my problem. 00:17:21.600 --> 00:17:22.880 That's his problem. 00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:23.760 That's his home 00:17:23.760 --> 00:17:25.280 nation's problem. 00:17:25.280 --> 00:17:29.760 So, yes, it may be that his parents or grandparents created the 00:17:29.760 --> 00:17:33.360 problem for him, but that doesn't make it my problem. 00:17:33.360 --> 00:17:37.760 My concern is my people because I have the greatest duty to 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:41.120 family, and then extended family and nation. 00:17:41.120 --> 00:17:43.920 And yes, sometimes nation trumps family, right, when you have to go 00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:46.880 off to war, that's nation trumping family. 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:47.200 But 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:49.760 that's how that works. 00:17:49.760 --> 00:17:53.440 I don't have the same level of duty to the foreigner, even 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:56.640 if he speaks my language and doesn't know his own language. 00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:59.120 That's fundamentally not my problem. 00:17:59.120 --> 00:18:03.680 Now, in this particular case, not really an issue, because plenty of 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:04.880 Indians know some English. 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:08.400 So this particular example given isn't even a real example. 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:11.360 If you speak English, you can get by in a lot of 00:18:11.360 --> 00:18:15.040 countries, particularly living in a city, and then you pick up the 00:18:15.040 --> 00:18:16.240 language. Right? 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:18.800 When you're living there, it's not that hard to pick up a 00:18:18.800 --> 00:18:21.520 functional use of the local language. 00:18:21.520 --> 00:18:23.040 It's not a real issue. 00:18:23.040 --> 00:18:27.200 It's an argument some people try to use, but it's not a 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:28.000 real problem. 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:32.240 And it's not a valid argument against a nationalist policy of deporting 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:33.680 those who don't belong to the nation. 00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:36.160 Because they shouldn't be here in the first place. 00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:37.920 Related to the previous question, right? 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:41.040 God is the one who set the boundaries in the times. 00:18:41.040 --> 00:18:44.480 These people belong in their own lands, not in ours. 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:46.560 And so they should be sent home. 00:18:46.560 --> 00:18:49.600 They can, you know, use Duolingo on the plane or whatever it 00:18:49.600 --> 00:18:51.120 happens to be. 00:18:51.120 --> 00:18:52.160 Use a better app. 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:53.760 That one's not great anymore. 00:18:58.800 --> 00:19:02.160 Going to copy some questions from the chat that I may get 00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:05.920 to today, I may not, but I just want to keep them 00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:08.560 for future reference. 00:19:08.560 --> 00:19:10.400 The next question is 00:19:11.840 --> 00:19:16.000 A longer one because I need to go over some background, it's 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:18.240 just more complicated question. 00:19:18.320 --> 00:19:23.760 Someone asked about the enlightenment and its connection to the American Revolution. 00:19:23.760 --> 00:19:28.320 And so in order to go over this, there's 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:31.760 some background information you have to know. 00:19:31.760 --> 00:19:32.320 Because 00:19:33.840 --> 00:19:38.640 if you don't have the history here and how these things developed 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:43.200 and some of the nuance, the differences between different groups within this 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:48.240 time period, you're going to miss how these things interacted and played 00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:52.000 out and how we wound up with the American Revolution and and 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:57.680 perhaps more importantly, the documents that proceeded from it, and then indeed 00:19:57.760 --> 00:20:01.360 the United States polity as well, because it is very much a 00:20:01.360 --> 00:20:03.200 product of the Enlightenment. 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:06.320 You know, I'm not sort of not bearing the lead here, right? 00:20:06.320 --> 00:20:07.920 I'm not it's not a spoiler alert. 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:10.400 We all know that's where I'm going with this. 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:10.480 But 00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:16.080 in order to start off, you have to understand the enlightenment proper. 00:20:16.080 --> 00:20:22.160 And there are a handful of different regional distinctions under sort of 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:25.520 the umbrella of what we could call the Enlightenment. 00:20:25.520 --> 00:20:29.440 Primarily the Enlightenment, when we speak of it, you know, uppercase E, 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:33.120 we mean English, Scottish, French. 00:20:33.120 --> 00:20:38.560 And in the American context, obviously the Anglo portion, the English-speaking portion, 00:20:38.560 --> 00:20:41.920 is a little more relevant to us just because many of the 00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:45.200 founding fathers had a smattering of other languages, but they were reading 00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:47.120 primarily the English authors. 00:20:47.120 --> 00:20:52.800 Some of them loved the French, Jefferson, Franklin, but mostly they were 00:20:52.800 --> 00:20:55.360 going to read, you know, Locke and others like that. 00:20:55.360 --> 00:20:58.560 Or in translation, of course, because these things were still being translated 00:20:58.560 --> 00:20:58.960 back then. 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:01.040 It was just a lot harder without AI. 00:21:01.120 --> 00:21:03.200 Took more time. 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:08.320 The focus of the Enlightenment, in short, would be a focus on 00:21:08.800 --> 00:21:12.960 reason, their formulation of reason, so bear that in mind. 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:18.560 Empiricism, so divining things from the natural world, and then what they 00:21:18.560 --> 00:21:20.400 called natural rights. 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:23.600 That's a big part of this obviously because that's where we get 00:21:23.760 --> 00:21:27.520 the Declaration and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. 00:21:27.520 --> 00:21:32.640 That conception of natural rights that is a core part of the 00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:34.080 Enlightenment claims. 00:21:34.080 --> 00:21:39.120 And this is perhaps against some of the claims of traditional European 00:21:39.120 --> 00:21:42.160 thought and even traditional Christendom. 00:21:42.160 --> 00:21:47.280 There was also attendant with this a skepticism toward authority, so particularly 00:21:47.280 --> 00:21:53.360 against the aristocracy, the clerical class, significantly more so against the clerical 00:21:53.360 --> 00:21:57.040 class in the French case than in the American case. 00:21:57.040 --> 00:22:01.040 Partly for historical reasons, partly because to be blunt, Satan was A 00:22:01.120 --> 00:22:03.200 B testing, he likes to do that. 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:06.160 He ran the American Revolution in one way, he ran the French 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:07.520 Revolution in another. 00:22:07.520 --> 00:22:10.560 As it turns out, the American Revolution was the better way to 00:22:10.560 --> 00:22:12.960 go, worked better for him long term. 00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:14.400 France descended into greater chaos 00:22:15.360 --> 00:22:20.080 and kind of as cyclical chaos still stemming from that, but by 00:22:20.080 --> 00:22:25.440 and large the American experiment far more productive overall than the French. 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:25.760 So 00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:32.160 that skepticism that skepticism toward the clerical class was because you had 00:22:32.800 --> 00:22:39.120 the great power of Rome historically in France and the amount of 00:22:39.280 --> 00:22:42.800 wealth and power in society and things like that that were wielded 00:22:42.800 --> 00:22:48.160 by particularly archbishops and others in higher positions than the church. 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:50.800 That made people very skeptical toward them. 00:22:50.800 --> 00:22:54.480 And then there was obviously the relationship of the French crown to 00:22:54.480 --> 00:23:01.520 the Roman Catholic Church, and because of the anti monarchical sentiment, in 00:23:01.520 --> 00:23:06.080 particular the French thinkers of the Enlightenment, it transferred over from there 00:23:06.080 --> 00:23:07.920 into the Church as well. 00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:10.160 Into the Roman Catholic Church specifically. 00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:15.920 Not as much hostility necessarily toward Protestants, because Protestants don't have a 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:20.400 Pope, and typically don't have archbishops, some exceptions, of course, Anglicans and 00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:24.880 others, but it's not the same level of control in society. 00:23:24.880 --> 00:23:28.160 Even the Anglican Church did not wield the sort of power in 00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:31.840 the English context that the Roman Catholic Church wielded historically in the 00:23:31.840 --> 00:23:33.040 French context 00:23:34.080 --> 00:23:39.440 But in addition to what we'll call the Enlightenment proper, which is 00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:43.440 in England, France, and Scotland, that's the core of it, and then 00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:48.800 American Enlightenment is obviously sort of a daughter movement from largely the 00:23:48.800 --> 00:23:50.480 English and the Scottish. 00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:52.560 Some French influence as well. 00:23:52.560 --> 00:23:54.560 But there are two other movements of which you have to be 00:23:54.560 --> 00:23:59.760 aware because they run somewhat in parallel, and there's a feedback, a 00:23:59.760 --> 00:24:03.120 relationship between them and the enlightenment. 00:24:03.120 --> 00:24:06.080 There's more of it with regard to 00:24:07.040 --> 00:24:09.520 one of these movements than the other. 00:24:09.520 --> 00:24:11.600 But I'm going to get up for just second. 00:24:11.600 --> 00:24:12.960 I'm going to release Gizmo. 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:13.360 He'd like 00:24:23.760 --> 00:24:37.040 to do that. 00:24:37.040 --> 00:24:38.880 Released Gizmo, he's 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:39.440 free 00:24:39.600 --> 00:24:40.800 to wander about now. 00:24:40.800 --> 00:24:44.480 So going back to these two movements, you have the Haskelah, which 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:51.120 is the so called Jewish Enlightenment, taking place primarily in Central Europe, 00:24:51.120 --> 00:24:56.640 largely in German speaking areas, but it has some relationship to the 00:24:56.640 --> 00:25:01.360 French as well as to the English Enlightenment movements. 00:25:01.360 --> 00:25:05.920 Not as much overlap there necessarily with the American, but obviously you're 00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:09.760 going to get a connection between that through the English into the 00:25:09.760 --> 00:25:11.360 colonies. Right. 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:16.560 And then the other movement, the final portion of this which we 00:25:16.560 --> 00:25:20.000 have to be aware, is the Aufklärung, which would be the German 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:22.320 version of the Enlightenment. 00:25:22.320 --> 00:25:24.080 Not the same thing. 00:25:24.080 --> 00:25:24.720 Because 00:25:25.760 --> 00:25:28.800 the the Jewish one is sort of similar. 00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:35.280 There's a focus on reason and you know reason on secularization, on 00:25:35.520 --> 00:25:42.720 secular education, and on for the Jews integration into European society 00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:50.320 in order to avoid persecution, and a push for religious tolerance from 00:25:50.320 --> 00:25:54.400 the society, the host society, with regard to the Jews. 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:58.960 You see this push for so-called religious tolerance across the board, all 00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:00.400 of these movements. 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:05.920 Not as much in the German version of it, the Aufklärung, but 00:26:06.080 --> 00:26:10.080 you certainly see it there as well, because for instance in Prussia 00:26:10.080 --> 00:26:15.920 and Austria, you see liberalization of control over the Jews and more 00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:20.080 tolerance. But you certainly see it in the French context, with the 00:26:20.080 --> 00:26:23.600 French Revolution, and in the English context, and then a little bit 00:26:23.600 --> 00:26:26.080 in the American context as well. 00:26:26.080 --> 00:26:31.200 But the distinction with regard to the German version of the Enlightenment, 00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:34.480 it's almost a misnomer to call it the Enlightenment, but it's the 00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:39.680 equivalent intellectual movement happening in continental Germanic Europe roughly the same time 00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:44.160 that the Enlightenment is happening in the Anglosphere and the French. 00:26:44.160 --> 00:26:49.680 The focus in the German context was on reformation instead of revolution. 00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:54.480 So you get the revolutions and the radical changes in some parts 00:26:54.480 --> 00:26:59.680 of the Anglosphere, because obviously you don't have a revolution in England, 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:02.480 really. You have some changes, but it's not the same thing as 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:06.320 the American Revolution or say the French Revolution. 00:27:06.320 --> 00:27:11.760 But you didn't have this just sort of wholesale desire to oust 00:27:11.760 --> 00:27:16.480 the aristocracy and the monarchy, that you certainly found in the US, 00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:19.840 in the colonies, and in France, in the German context. 00:27:19.840 --> 00:27:23.040 In the German context instead, you had 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:28.880 the nobility, the aristocracy, and indeed the monarchy, sort of working with 00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:33.520 the intellectuals, working with the philosophers and others to implement some of 00:27:33.520 --> 00:27:34.560 these things. 00:27:34.560 --> 00:27:39.440 So the rational exploration of some of the sciences and things like 00:27:39.440 --> 00:27:44.720 that, the philosophical examination of some of these things, that sort of 00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:49.760 stuff took place, but in a structured way that did not trend 00:27:50.160 --> 00:27:51.520 toward revolution. 00:27:51.520 --> 00:27:54.560 Obviously until you get into the eighteen hundreds, and that's Marxism, it's 00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:55.760 a separate thing. 00:27:55.760 --> 00:27:59.760 It was very bureaucratic and administrative in the German context. 00:27:59.760 --> 00:28:03.680 Very unsurprising for anyone who is aware of how Germans are If 00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:07.120 you want to get more into that, because typically speaking Americans are 00:28:07.120 --> 00:28:10.880 less familiar with this than they are with the Enlightenment, the sort 00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:14.480 of three thinkers you would want would be Immanuel Kant and then 00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:17.760 Gottfried Leibniz and Christian Wolf. 00:28:17.760 --> 00:28:19.280 Those would be the three thinkers. 00:28:19.280 --> 00:28:21.840 I'll make sure to put that in the the show notes for 00:28:21.840 --> 00:28:23.440 people so you don't have to know how to spell those German 00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:24.000 names. But 00:28:27.040 --> 00:28:27.360 the 00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:32.720 core focus here, of course, is going to be the Anglosphere plus 00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:38.320 French Enlightenment, because that is what influences American thinkers the most. 00:28:38.320 --> 00:28:41.920 Because while there were Americans who spoke German, certainly the first speaker 00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:45.520 of the house was a German Lutheran pastor, son of a German 00:28:45.520 --> 00:28:46.400 Lutheran pastor. 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:48.320 He certainly knew German. 00:28:48.320 --> 00:28:51.200 Most of the founding fathers did not know German. 00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:53.600 They were reading the English materials. 00:28:53.600 --> 00:28:58.960 And so in the American context, what you have perhaps even more 00:28:58.960 --> 00:29:02.880 so, certainly than the British, but perhaps even more so than the 00:29:02.880 --> 00:29:06.240 French, is sort of a classical republicanism. 00:29:06.240 --> 00:29:10.160 This love of the Republic they were obsessed with Athens, right? 00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:12.640 The Athenian model was a big thing. 00:29:12.640 --> 00:29:18.880 And so this republicanism focused on derivative from the Enlightenment, the social 00:29:19.040 --> 00:29:22.160 contract, which is to say the consent of the governed. 00:29:22.160 --> 00:29:26.400 And the argument is that the government is legitimate only so long 00:29:26.400 --> 00:29:30.080 as the governed consent to the government. 00:29:30.080 --> 00:29:34.960 We're just going to ignore the fact that that's incoherent, but that 00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:36.720 is how this was structured. 00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:40.240 This was a big part of the thinking in the American context 00:29:40.800 --> 00:29:42.960 subsequent to the Enlightenment. 00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:45.440 This is social contract theory, right? 00:29:45.680 --> 00:29:51.280 And so that suspicion or hostility toward the monarchy, toward the aristocracy, 00:29:51.280 --> 00:29:54.720 also carried over into the American context. 00:29:54.720 --> 00:29:57.920 Perhaps a little easier in the American context, although at the same 00:29:57.920 --> 00:30:02.320 time a little less relevant, because because you didn't have the same 00:30:02.640 --> 00:30:08.480 formalized structure with regard to aristocracy and nobility in the US, in 00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:12.320 the colonies, what would become the US, that you had in England. 00:30:12.320 --> 00:30:14.640 It just hadn't developed yet. 00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:20.720 You had stratification in society, but largely as a result of wealth, 00:30:20.720 --> 00:30:24.880 not necessarily as much a result of family lines. 00:30:24.880 --> 00:30:29.760 Because that just hadn't entrenched yet in the New World, at least 00:30:29.760 --> 00:30:31.840 in the American context. 00:30:31.840 --> 00:30:34.880 And some of the writing that would be most relevant for this 00:30:34.880 --> 00:30:37.600 would be common sense from Thomas Paine. 00:30:37.600 --> 00:30:43.200 He was definitely anti-monarchy, perhaps more so than a number of others. 00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:47.360 He described it as artificial and basically railed against it and just 00:30:47.360 --> 00:30:49.520 wanted to completely do away with it. 00:30:49.520 --> 00:30:53.840 So argues for the state of nature, things like that obviously descended 00:30:53.840 --> 00:30:56.720 from Enlightenment philosophy. 00:30:56.720 --> 00:31:02.320 But key here in his writing, and this was very accessible, many 00:31:02.320 --> 00:31:05.760 men read this because it was very accessible prose, it was in 00:31:05.760 --> 00:31:08.480 English, it was not something that was difficult to read, it wasn't 00:31:08.400 --> 00:31:10.240 in Latin or anything like that. 00:31:10.240 --> 00:31:14.000 He argued for a rite of revolution. 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:20.080 That basically the people, the common people, had a right to rebel 00:31:20.640 --> 00:31:27.040 if certain things, basically these this enlightenment checklist of things, was not 00:31:27.040 --> 00:31:28.880 fulfilled by the government. 00:31:28.880 --> 00:31:32.720 If the government was not was not properly achieving the ends for 00:31:32.720 --> 00:31:37.040 which the Enlightenment argued that government was instituted. 00:31:37.040 --> 00:31:42.880 And you can see the ends in the Declaration of Independence Life, 00:31:42.880 --> 00:31:50.480 Liberty, and the declaration says pursuit of happiness instead of doing essentially 00:31:50.640 --> 00:31:52.080 this is Locke, right? 00:31:52.080 --> 00:31:55.360 But for Locke it's life, liberty, and property. 00:31:55.360 --> 00:31:58.000 And of course, you have property protections as well, but we have 00:31:58.000 --> 00:31:59.360 pursuit of happiness instead. 00:31:59.360 --> 00:32:03.520 It's the same sort of idea, advancing the same arguments. 00:32:03.520 --> 00:32:05.280 It's the same thought behind it. 00:32:05.280 --> 00:32:07.040 It's the enlightenment. 00:32:07.040 --> 00:32:07.680 And then 00:32:08.560 --> 00:32:11.520 subsequent to that, of course, you have the Constitution. 00:32:11.520 --> 00:32:16.160 The Constitution carries forward a great deal of the thinking of the 00:32:16.160 --> 00:32:20.960 Enlightenment, this time pulling in a lot from the French, and in 00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:22.880 particular from Montesquieu. 00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:28.880 So in Montesquieu you find the division of the powers that would 00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:33.680 historically have all resided within the sovereign, right? 00:32:33.680 --> 00:32:37.120 And you can think of Carl Schmidt perhaps as a a contrast 00:32:37.120 --> 00:32:41.120 to this, but within the sovereign you have the right to legislate, 00:32:41.120 --> 00:32:44.000 you have the right to enforce the law, you have all these 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:47.600 different powers, right, and the right to interpret the law, so judicial 00:32:48.080 --> 00:32:49.760 Not in our system, right? 00:32:49.760 --> 00:32:52.960 We have a tripartite division of our government. 00:32:52.960 --> 00:32:56.400 We have the executive, we have the legislative, and we have the 00:32:56.400 --> 00:33:01.920 judicial. So this is from Enlightenment thought, which basically argued that if 00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:04.960 you have this division of power, you can have checks and balances 00:33:05.120 --> 00:33:08.400 and you can stop the power from becoming tyrannical. 00:33:08.400 --> 00:33:12.240 I think those of us living now in this time at a 00:33:12.240 --> 00:33:16.560 distance of some centuries from these men and what they created, can 00:33:16.560 --> 00:33:21.760 see that in fact our government has become more tyrannical, despite these 00:33:21.760 --> 00:33:24.960 supposed limitations, than the kings of old. 00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:27.600 And is certainly doing less for us and is certainly doing more 00:33:27.600 --> 00:33:27.760 evil 00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:30.400 against us. 00:33:30.400 --> 00:33:32.960 So for Montesquieu, that would be the spirit of the laws, would 00:33:33.040 --> 00:33:34.960 be the book if you want to go and look at how 00:33:34.960 --> 00:33:36.720 that sort of developed. 00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:42.400 And then we also have enshrined in the constitution this freedom of 00:33:42.400 --> 00:33:45.840 religion, which is very much like I said, sort of across the 00:33:45.840 --> 00:33:50.640 board. You have the Jewish involvement in the Haskalah, breeding in bleeding 00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:54.880 into these other groups, and then you have this push for tolerance 00:33:54.880 --> 00:33:58.000 of different religious opinions, right, in society. 00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:01.760 This is a deviation from the historical norm of having a state 00:34:01.760 --> 00:34:05.920 church. Even if you were in a country that was divided with 00:34:05.920 --> 00:34:07.360 regard to confession, right? 00:34:07.360 --> 00:34:12.080 You may have some Reformed, some Lutherans, some Roman Catholics. 00:34:12.080 --> 00:34:16.720 Usually in a given area, you would have an established church because 00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:20.640 the ruler of that area was of that religion. 00:34:20.640 --> 00:34:22.160 That was how that worked. 00:34:22.160 --> 00:34:24.560 And then in some cases you have a just a state church, 00:34:24.560 --> 00:34:26.400 right? Anglicanism. 00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:31.360 Even in the US context, you had established state churches. 00:34:31.680 --> 00:34:34.480 This is the beginning of the end of that. 00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:39.280 And so you have what the Founding Fathers almost certainly meant to 00:34:39.280 --> 00:34:42.800 be in their writings do support this, but what they almost certainly 00:34:42.800 --> 00:34:45.520 meant to be a freedom of denomination 00:34:46.480 --> 00:34:52.400 Eventually becomes what we have today, which is, you know, you could 00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:55.200 call it a true or a full freedom of religion, right? 00:34:55.440 --> 00:35:00.560 What they thought, undoubtedly, and this is backed up by Locke, I'll 00:35:00.560 --> 00:35:02.160 mention that in a minute here. 00:35:02.160 --> 00:35:06.400 What they thought is basically you can be Anglican or Lutheran or 00:35:06.400 --> 00:35:13.600 Methodist or Presbyterian or Baptist or whatever, freedom of denomination, freedom 00:35:13.600 --> 00:35:17.920 of tradition, not necessarily freedom of religion. 00:35:17.920 --> 00:35:23.520 So the idea of being, you know, a Hindu or a Muslim 00:35:23.840 --> 00:35:28.080 would have been completely insane sounding to the ears of basically every 00:35:28.080 --> 00:35:30.800 founding father. 00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:36.000 But that is ultimately not what they actually wrote, because the way 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:41.360 they wrote it was freedom of religion, which is unfortunate. 00:35:41.360 --> 00:35:45.840 They could probably have solved some problems we've had subsequent to their 00:35:45.840 --> 00:35:48.800 wording if they had just done a better job. 00:35:48.960 --> 00:35:50.880 For instance, one of the ways you can see this, so like 00:35:50.880 --> 00:35:51.680 I said, Locke. 00:35:51.680 --> 00:35:54.080 Locke has a letter concerning 00:35:55.040 --> 00:35:57.120 toleration, is what the title is. 00:35:57.120 --> 00:35:58.720 Letter concerning toleration. 00:35:58.720 --> 00:36:02.560 And in that, he argues for this freedom of basically conscience and 00:36:02.560 --> 00:36:09.040 denomination, tradition, but he actually explicitly says this doesn't mean that we 00:36:09.040 --> 00:36:13.920 should tolerate atheists and papists, so Roman Catholics. 00:36:13.920 --> 00:36:16.960 That's more in line with what the Founding Fathers had in mind 00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:18.560 when they were drafting this. 00:36:18.560 --> 00:36:21.360 They didn't draft it in that way, and so that's why we 00:36:21.360 --> 00:36:26.240 now have, you know, monkey statues in Texas and things like that. 00:36:26.240 --> 00:36:32.400 But the fundamental point is They were already doing away with Christendom 00:36:32.400 --> 00:36:38.240 by their actions because Christendom requires you to have an established church. 00:36:38.240 --> 00:36:42.240 It doesn't mean that you have to go out and persecute, say, 00:36:42.240 --> 00:36:46.080 every group that is deviant in some way. 00:36:46.080 --> 00:36:50.160 If you have the Presbyterian Church, that might be difficult for the 00:36:50.160 --> 00:36:53.040 Presbyterians to make that argument, so the Anglican will go with them 00:36:53.040 --> 00:36:56.800 instead. If you have the Anglican Church as your established church, it 00:36:56.800 --> 00:36:59.600 doesn't mean that you have to go out and execute all the 00:36:59.600 --> 00:37:00.880 Lutherans, right? 00:37:01.200 --> 00:37:05.680 But there is a fundamental difference when you have an established church, 00:37:05.680 --> 00:37:10.240 you have Christianity as your official state religion, you have ceremonies that 00:37:10.240 --> 00:37:14.720 are Christian, you have all these trappings of Christendom versus what we 00:37:14.720 --> 00:37:15.920 have today. 00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:19.280 The most we get today is sometimes Congress will say a prayer, 00:37:19.280 --> 00:37:22.800 and sometimes it'll be you know a Jewish woman leading the prayer, 00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:26.400 right? That's where you end up when you start doing away with 00:37:26.400 --> 00:37:32.640 all these pillars that supported Christianity, that supported Christendom, that ultimately supported 00:37:32.640 --> 00:37:34.160 our civilization. 00:37:34.240 --> 00:37:38.960 Because this is what many of the individuals who were part of 00:37:38.960 --> 00:37:41.600 the Enlightenment did not realize. 00:37:41.600 --> 00:37:47.200 What they were doing relied entirely on centuries of Christendom to give 00:37:47.200 --> 00:37:51.760 them the foundation to pursue these things, but they were undermining that 00:37:51.760 --> 00:37:53.840 foundation with what they were doing. 00:37:53.840 --> 00:37:57.360 They were destroying the very thing on which they were standing. 00:37:57.360 --> 00:38:00.320 And this happens all the time, it happens even today. 00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:04.960 When you argue with atheists and others, they will import the moral 00:38:04.960 --> 00:38:09.680 law, they will smuggle it in, and deny they're doing it, but 00:38:09.680 --> 00:38:13.200 they're relying on Christian morality in their argument. 00:38:13.200 --> 00:38:17.200 And so it comes up all the time in debates where you 00:38:17.200 --> 00:38:20.080 know ask them why is murder wrong? 00:38:20.080 --> 00:38:22.560 And they don't have an answer. 00:38:22.560 --> 00:38:27.920 At best what they'll do is construct something that ultimately is actually 00:38:27.920 --> 00:38:29.760 resting on Christian morality. 00:38:29.760 --> 00:38:33.600 It's resting on the moral law, but they reject the moral law 00:38:33.600 --> 00:38:35.120 at the outset. 00:38:35.120 --> 00:38:39.040 So their argument is self-defeating, it has no foundation. 00:38:39.200 --> 00:38:41.360 This is sort of the beginning of that. 00:38:41.360 --> 00:38:46.320 Many of the Enlightenment thinkers were undermining Christendom and the ability to 00:38:46.320 --> 00:38:50.560 maintain and restore Christendom with what they were pursuing, even if they 00:38:50.560 --> 00:38:52.080 didn't realize it. 00:38:53.440 --> 00:38:56.880 And so the bottom line here, I guess in summary, I don't 00:38:56.800 --> 00:38:59.840 want to go too long necessarily on the topic in any one 00:38:59.840 --> 00:39:00.960 given episode. 00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:03.680 I can comment more on in the future if people have specific 00:39:03.680 --> 00:39:04.880 areas of interest. 00:39:04.880 --> 00:39:06.480 But the United States 00:39:07.520 --> 00:39:11.840 is and particularly with regard to its founding documents a product of 00:39:11.840 --> 00:39:16.080 the Enlightenment and particularly a product of Enlightenment thought. 00:39:16.080 --> 00:39:16.400 And 00:39:17.520 --> 00:39:25.360 the attendant rejection of tradition and traditional forms of governance and how 00:39:25.360 --> 00:39:31.520 authority runs and rights versus duties, all of that has contributed to 00:39:31.920 --> 00:39:35.040 the decline of Christendom. 00:39:35.040 --> 00:39:37.840 It's one of the reasons I am opposed to the Constitution. 00:39:37.840 --> 00:39:40.000 I do not think it is a good document. 00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.640 It is a thing that is descended from and is tied to, 00:39:44.640 --> 00:39:50.320 inextricably tied to, the Enlightenment and all of the wickedness that flowed 00:39:50.320 --> 00:39:52.080 from the Enlightenment. 00:39:52.080 --> 00:39:53.840 You can't divorce them. 00:39:53.840 --> 00:39:58.880 It is something that is fundamentally alien to Christendom and to all 00:39:58.880 --> 00:40:01.200 of our history. 00:40:01.200 --> 00:40:04.800 It's it was Satan A B testing. 00:40:04.800 --> 00:40:09.840 The US system was better in the long run with regard to 00:40:10.080 --> 00:40:12.160 the goals he wanted to achieve. 00:40:12.160 --> 00:40:14.800 The French option was too chaotic. 00:40:14.800 --> 00:40:16.080 It was too violent. 00:40:16.080 --> 00:40:17.920 They went overboard. 00:40:18.160 --> 00:40:20.480 The French kind of do sometimes. 00:40:20.480 --> 00:40:24.720 And so that's why I oppose the way our government is currently 00:40:24.720 --> 00:40:28.640 structured and the documents on which it relies, because they are products 00:40:28.640 --> 00:40:31.680 of the Enlightenment, and I do not think that the Enlightenment is 00:40:31.680 --> 00:40:35.920 something that a Christian can in good conscience support Once you actually 00:40:35.920 --> 00:40:39.440 delve into it and learn about not just the things they were 00:40:39.440 --> 00:40:41.840 arguing, but the consequences of those things. 00:40:41.840 --> 00:40:44.560 Because consequences do actually matter. 00:40:44.560 --> 00:40:47.840 You write fruit tree. 00:40:47.840 --> 00:40:51.120 Good trees produce good fruit Good fruit, bad trees produce bad fruit, 00:40:51.120 --> 00:40:53.840 the enlightenment produce bad fruit. 00:40:53.840 --> 00:40:57.360 So I guess that's the the overview, as it were, of the 00:40:57.360 --> 00:41:02.160 connection between the Enlightenment and the American Revolution and then the American 00:41:02.160 --> 00:41:04.320 experiment that preceded from that. 00:41:04.640 --> 00:41:09.760 And I do want to briefly note there is a distinction between 00:41:09.760 --> 00:41:14.080 the United States, the political construct, and the American nation. 00:41:14.080 --> 00:41:16.880 The American nation should be preserved. 00:41:16.880 --> 00:41:18.160 That is the thing for which we are fighting. 00:41:19.120 --> 00:41:24.160 We're not fighting ultimately for the Constitution, the Declaration, the United States. 00:41:24.160 --> 00:41:27.120 Those are political creations that come and go. 00:41:27.120 --> 00:41:38.640 The nation is what endures, the nation is what matters. 00:41:39.280 --> 00:41:40.400 Let's see 00:41:49.440 --> 00:41:49.600 I 00:41:49.600 --> 00:41:50.960 guess sort of a follow-up question. 00:41:50.960 --> 00:41:53.040 I may as well answer it now since I just went over 00:41:53.040 --> 00:41:53.840 some of this stuff. 00:41:53.840 --> 00:41:54.800 Someone asked. 00:41:55.760 --> 00:41:58.400 Get the exact text here. 00:41:58.480 --> 00:42:01.760 Do you think, this is question seven, do you think a republican 00:42:01.760 --> 00:42:03.840 form of government could be Christian? 00:42:03.840 --> 00:42:07.920 The CSA wrote its constitution on behalf of God, and the Boer 00:42:08.080 --> 00:42:12.480 Republic tied citizenship to race and church membership. 00:42:12.560 --> 00:42:16.640 I think that yes, you can have a republic that is Christian, 00:42:16.640 --> 00:42:20.640 and I think that it can function for seemingly, well, maybe not 00:42:20.640 --> 00:42:26.480 seemingly, but in theory, an indefinite amount of time and remain Christian, 00:42:26.480 --> 00:42:27.520 functional, etc. 00:42:27.600 --> 00:42:30.240 Apparently I've activated my home pod. 00:42:30.240 --> 00:42:34.640 At any rate, I do believe that's possible. 00:42:34.640 --> 00:42:39.040 I think the problem is that as we have seen, the form 00:42:39.120 --> 00:42:44.720 itself inevitably leads to certain forms, certain types of decay over a 00:42:44.720 --> 00:42:49.040 not very long period, couple centuries, give or take, and ultimately I 00:42:49.040 --> 00:42:51.200 think it destroys itself. 00:42:51.200 --> 00:42:57.200 And if you compare that to, say, centuries of Christendom under aristocracy 00:42:57.200 --> 00:43:00.560 and monarchy I think the option is pretty clear. 00:43:00.560 --> 00:43:02.480 And there's also the problem of 00:43:03.440 --> 00:43:06.640 if you're going with a republic, and right, I've said there's no 00:43:06.640 --> 00:43:08.480 real difference between democracy and republican. 00:43:08.480 --> 00:43:11.200 I say that because the one inevitably leads to the other. 00:43:11.200 --> 00:43:12.800 Republics become democracies 00:43:13.680 --> 00:43:15.280 in the due course of time. 00:43:15.280 --> 00:43:16.640 That's just how it goes. 00:43:16.640 --> 00:43:20.640 But let's say you could have a republic that stayed a republic 00:43:20.640 --> 00:43:23.520 with a very limited franchise. 00:43:23.520 --> 00:43:29.120 That's workable as long as you very strictly maintain that limited franchise. 00:43:29.120 --> 00:43:31.040 That's your challenge. 00:43:31.040 --> 00:43:34.160 Because you're dealing in headship, right? 00:43:34.160 --> 00:43:39.920 You're dealing in men exercising authority over other men, over society. 00:43:39.920 --> 00:43:43.280 Certain men are fit for that task and certain men are not. 00:43:43.280 --> 00:43:48.080 So ultimately what you're doing is creating an aristocracy. 00:43:48.080 --> 00:43:53.520 You're just creating an aristocracy that happens to vote for certain things. 00:43:53.520 --> 00:43:57.520 The Holy Roman Empire had a system of voting for the emperor. 00:43:57.520 --> 00:43:59.440 There were electors. 00:43:59.440 --> 00:44:03.840 So these things are not like opposite ends of the spectrum, wildly 00:44:03.840 --> 00:44:11.040 incompatible, you can have elements of voting representation so-called in a 00:44:11.040 --> 00:44:15.840 system that is not itself a democracy or anything derivative from democracy, 00:44:15.840 --> 00:44:17.520 like a republic. 00:44:17.520 --> 00:44:18.560 So can it work? 00:44:18.560 --> 00:44:19.680 Can it be Christian? 00:44:19.680 --> 00:44:23.680 Certainly. I just don't think it's wise, because I think inevitably it's 00:44:23.680 --> 00:44:26.960 going to go the same way as every other one has in 00:44:26.960 --> 00:44:31.680 history We have not yet managed to construct an exception, and I 00:44:31.680 --> 00:44:38.000 don't think that we ever will. 00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:41.360 Going to copy a few questions from the chat here so that 00:44:41.360 --> 00:44:51.120 I can get to them in the future. 00:44:51.120 --> 00:44:54.400 Hopefully the video has frozen on my side, so I assume that 00:44:54.400 --> 00:44:56.400 it's still working since no one mentioned it in the chat. 00:44:56.880 --> 00:44:57.200 But 00:44:58.640 --> 00:45:09.280 tech issues are just a lovely thing. 00:45:23.600 --> 00:45:26.800 I have a question here that's in German. 00:45:26.800 --> 00:45:30.400 I will translate it because I suspect most of the audience does 00:45:30.400 --> 00:45:32.960 not in fact speak German. 00:45:33.120 --> 00:45:39.280 A friend of mine argues that the Old Testament does not show 00:45:39.280 --> 00:45:44.960 people being saved by looking forward to the cross, and therefore finds 00:45:44.960 --> 00:45:49.120 Christian doctrine not truly convincing. 00:45:49.120 --> 00:45:51.360 This is question 00:45:52.320 --> 00:45:55.040 eight. So 00:45:59.120 --> 00:46:01.360 The answer for your friend here would be 00:46:03.440 --> 00:46:06.480 it's going to depend really on how he's approaching this. 00:46:06.480 --> 00:46:11.120 If he's approaching it as someone who is just truly skeptical of 00:46:11.120 --> 00:46:16.080 Christianity, even hostile to Christianity might potentially be the case here, you're 00:46:16.080 --> 00:46:18.560 going to have more of a challenge. 00:46:18.560 --> 00:46:22.320 You have to probably address that in some other way. 00:46:22.320 --> 00:46:26.160 You may want to focus on the New Testament and Christ and 00:46:26.400 --> 00:46:30.320 what the New Testament teaches, and then you can get him to 00:46:30.320 --> 00:46:33.920 believe the Old Testament after he is already believed in the New 00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:35.760 Testament, right? 00:46:35.760 --> 00:46:35.920 But 00:46:37.040 --> 00:46:41.600 to answer sort of the core objection, which you can decide if 00:46:41.600 --> 00:46:43.760 it's going to be effective in your case or not with this 00:46:43.760 --> 00:46:50.640 particular individual, those who were saved in the Old Testament were saved 00:46:50.800 --> 00:46:56.240 because they were looking forward to the Christ who was to come. 00:46:56.240 --> 00:46:58.320 They had faith in the Christ to come. 00:46:58.320 --> 00:46:59.520 Look at Job. 00:46:59.520 --> 00:47:02.480 I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the end he shall 00:47:02.480 --> 00:47:05.520 stand upon the earth, and my eyes shall see him and not 00:47:05.520 --> 00:47:06.800 another, right? 00:47:06.800 --> 00:47:10.800 Obviously I know primarily the Masorite text, but it's quite similar in 00:47:10.800 --> 00:47:13.600 the Septuagint. 00:47:13.600 --> 00:47:17.760 So Job is looking forward to a redeemer who will come. 00:47:17.760 --> 00:47:20.480 He's looking forward to the Christ. 00:47:20.480 --> 00:47:24.640 That is the case with every single one of the Old Testament 00:47:24.640 --> 00:47:26.320 men who is called righteous. 00:47:26.320 --> 00:47:29.280 They are called righteous because they are looking forward to the Christ 00:47:29.280 --> 00:47:30.800 who is to come. 00:47:30.800 --> 00:47:34.640 For us now, we can look at the Christ who has come. 00:47:34.640 --> 00:47:35.920 We have that advantage. 00:47:35.920 --> 00:47:37.680 We know the history. 00:47:37.680 --> 00:47:40.080 They were looking forward in expectation. 00:47:40.080 --> 00:47:43.040 We can look back and see that it happened, and then look 00:47:43.040 --> 00:47:46.080 forward in hope of the resurrection. 00:47:46.080 --> 00:47:46.400 So 00:47:47.840 --> 00:47:52.640 my question really would be: I don't what would he say is 00:47:52.640 --> 00:47:54.560 the religion then of the Old Testament? 00:47:54.560 --> 00:47:57.280 What is it that they were actually doing, because 00:47:58.160 --> 00:48:01.760 the sacrifice of the animals and all that stuff was pointing forward, 00:48:01.760 --> 00:48:05.040 as the New Testament is very clear, the blood of bulls and 00:48:05.040 --> 00:48:06.720 goats does not wash away sin. 00:48:06.720 --> 00:48:09.520 It's only the blood of the Lamb of God that washes away 00:48:09.520 --> 00:48:14.080 sin. So So the ceremonial stuff in the Old Testament is all 00:48:14.080 --> 00:48:15.360 pointing forward to Christ. 00:48:15.360 --> 00:48:18.960 It didn't actually that doesn't forgive your sins. 00:48:18.960 --> 00:48:22.400 That makes you right with God with regard to your social standing 00:48:22.400 --> 00:48:26.080 in the Old Testament, in Old Testament Israel, but it is only 00:48:26.080 --> 00:48:28.400 the blood of Christ that can wash away sins. 00:48:28.400 --> 00:48:32.480 And you can see this, for instance, with David, when David does 00:48:32.480 --> 00:48:35.840 what he does with Bathsheba and Uriah. 00:48:35.840 --> 00:48:39.760 There's no sacrifice for that. 00:48:39.760 --> 00:48:45.120 God doesn't provide any sort of system for when you get a 00:48:45.120 --> 00:48:46.800 man's wife pregnant and then murder him. 00:48:47.040 --> 00:48:51.760 Right? God doesn't say that that costs X number of goats. 00:48:51.760 --> 00:48:56.400 But the prophet, Nathan, going to David, says, God has put your 00:48:56.400 --> 00:48:56.800 sin away. 00:48:56.800 --> 00:48:58.160 Well, what is the only way you can do that? 00:48:58.160 --> 00:49:01.280 Well, look at what David says in the Psalm, David is looking 00:49:01.280 --> 00:49:04.080 forward to the Christ, right? 00:49:04.080 --> 00:49:06.080 And David calls him Lord. 00:49:06.080 --> 00:49:08.240 Jesus himself brings up this point. 00:49:08.240 --> 00:49:14.240 How can David call Christ Lord when Christ is modulo some number 00:49:14.240 --> 00:49:17.840 of generations, a son of David, right? 00:49:17.840 --> 00:49:21.680 It's very clear from the Old Testament, and certainly once you get 00:49:21.680 --> 00:49:25.600 the New Testament to interpret the Old Testament, that the religion all 00:49:25.600 --> 00:49:29.520 throughout Scripture is is the Christ. 00:49:29.520 --> 00:49:33.360 It is the forgiveness of sins in the name of Christ, by 00:49:33.360 --> 00:49:36.400 his blood, his perfect life, his perfect sacrifice. 00:49:36.400 --> 00:49:38.640 And you can see this all the way at the beginning with 00:49:38.640 --> 00:49:45.680 the Proto-Evangelian, when God speaks the gospel incidentally to Satan, but also 00:49:45.680 --> 00:49:48.480 to Adam and Eve standing there. 00:49:48.480 --> 00:49:52.720 That is the gospel, all the way back, in the garden, in 00:49:52.720 --> 00:49:53.520 the beginning. 00:49:53.520 --> 00:49:56.160 It is the Christ who will come, who will crush the head 00:49:56.160 --> 00:49:59.040 of the serpent, who will destroy death and the devil. 00:49:59.040 --> 00:50:01.760 It is the same religion all the way from the first to 00:50:01.760 --> 00:50:03.520 the last page of Scripture. 00:50:03.520 --> 00:50:06.880 So if you have a follow-up question or your friend has maybe 00:50:06.880 --> 00:50:10.800 a clarification of what exactly his objection is, I'll be happy to 00:50:10.800 --> 00:50:14.000 answer that in greater depth in some future episode. 00:50:14.000 --> 00:50:17.120 But I think that's probably the starting place is to point out 00:50:17.120 --> 00:50:21.040 the clear places in the old testament where you have men who 00:50:21.040 --> 00:50:27.280 are relying on faith in a savior as opposed to works. 00:50:27.280 --> 00:50:30.400 Because David is probably one of the best examples because there was 00:50:30.400 --> 00:50:34.320 no possible work he could have done to absolve himself of that 00:50:34.320 --> 00:50:57.920 sin. His only hope was the Christ. 00:50:57.920 --> 00:51:03.040 Having to scroll through the chat in the web interface because OBS 00:51:03.040 --> 00:51:06.240 decided I shouldn't have the chat load. 00:51:17.120 --> 00:51:21.680 Okay, I think I pulled out most of the new questions from 00:51:21.680 --> 00:51:23.840 chat. I don't know that I will get to all of them 00:51:23.840 --> 00:51:24.240 this week. 00:51:24.560 --> 00:51:26.800 But I think I'll answer a a couple more questions here. 00:51:26.800 --> 00:51:28.720 Maybe pull some from the backlog. 00:51:28.720 --> 00:51:31.440 Try to get through a little bit of that. 00:51:31.440 --> 00:51:34.960 I know that someone asked about baptism and infants. 00:51:34.960 --> 00:51:36.560 That was last week. 00:51:36.560 --> 00:51:38.480 I'm not going to get to that one this week, but I 00:51:38.480 --> 00:51:42.320 will make sure to prioritize that one for next week just because 00:51:42.480 --> 00:51:44.640 baptism comes up all the time. 00:51:44.640 --> 00:51:49.200 Obviously, I would recommend listening to the episode on baptism from Stone 00:51:49.200 --> 00:51:52.640 Choir. I'll link that in the chat in the show notes rather 00:51:52.800 --> 00:51:54.480 as well. 00:51:54.640 --> 00:51:58.800 But I will comment on that next week. 00:51:58.800 --> 00:52:02.320 In the interval, if the person who asked that question is currently 00:52:02.720 --> 00:52:08.640 listening. I would highly recommend reading from the large catechism Martin Luther's 00:52:08.640 --> 00:52:10.080 comments on infant baptism. 00:52:10.080 --> 00:52:11.520 He does an excellent job. 00:52:11.520 --> 00:52:15.680 You can read it in maybe ten minutes, if that. 00:52:22.320 --> 00:52:26.000 I was going to save this next one for next week, but 00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:28.240 I think I'll just go over it now because it's it's ultimately 00:52:28.240 --> 00:52:30.560 not a particularly difficult question. 00:52:30.560 --> 00:52:36.800 It's just one that gets muddied because of certain modern modern Christian 00:52:36.800 --> 00:52:39.600 groups. Question nine. 00:52:39.600 --> 00:52:41.600 What exactly is speaking in tongues? 00:52:41.600 --> 00:52:44.960 The church I grew up in didn't have a great teaching on 00:52:44.960 --> 00:52:47.600 this. That's true with most churches. 00:52:47.600 --> 00:52:51.600 They generally don't touch on it very well, and they really should, 00:52:51.600 --> 00:52:53.120 particularly in the American context. 00:52:53.120 --> 00:52:55.120 It's not as big of a problem in some well, okay. 00:52:55.440 --> 00:52:56.960 In Europe it's not as big of a problem. 00:52:56.960 --> 00:53:00.800 It's certainly an issue in Africa, South America, some degree in Asia. 00:53:00.800 --> 00:53:03.040 Asia's not as bad as those two. 00:53:03.040 --> 00:53:07.520 Speaking in tongues is speaking in a language you have no reason 00:53:07.600 --> 00:53:10.480 and no right, no way to know, right? 00:53:10.720 --> 00:53:15.520 So if I suddenly started speaking French right now, that would be 00:53:15.520 --> 00:53:16.880 speaking in tongues. 00:53:16.880 --> 00:53:19.920 Hopefully that doesn't happen because I doubt any of you know French. 00:53:19.920 --> 00:53:20.240 But 00:53:21.120 --> 00:53:27.360 speaking in tongues is not speaking in some angelic or heavenly language 00:53:27.600 --> 00:53:29.360 that no one understands. 00:53:29.360 --> 00:53:32.960 And yes, I recognize there are some verses touching on that Paul 00:53:33.040 --> 00:53:37.600 in the most common one people bring up is is being sarcastic. 00:53:37.600 --> 00:53:41.360 Paul is actually sarcastic in quite a few places in Scripture. 00:53:41.360 --> 00:53:45.200 So for the people who try to condemn sarcasm, too bad God 00:53:45.200 --> 00:53:46.240 likes it. 00:53:46.240 --> 00:53:48.560 Christ himself uses sarcasm. 00:53:48.560 --> 00:53:52.720 But speaking in tongues is a sign gift that God gave to 00:53:52.720 --> 00:53:56.080 certain individuals for basically two purposes. 00:53:56.080 --> 00:53:57.920 The first is the sign part. 00:53:57.920 --> 00:54:01.360 It's proving this person is speaking the word of God chosen by 00:54:01.360 --> 00:54:02.960 God to do this thing. 00:54:02.960 --> 00:54:06.480 The sign gifts were a big part of the church in the 00:54:06.480 --> 00:54:10.240 early years because God was putting his stamp of approval on this 00:54:10.240 --> 00:54:13.120 to begin the spread of Christianity. 00:54:13.120 --> 00:54:15.120 He's pulled back on that. 00:54:15.120 --> 00:54:16.400 I'm not a cessationist. 00:54:16.400 --> 00:54:18.480 Lutherans do not teach cessationism. 00:54:18.480 --> 00:54:21.280 So the sign gifts have not totally stopped. 00:54:21.280 --> 00:54:23.680 They're just not as common these days. 00:54:23.680 --> 00:54:28.080 Because God already achieved what he wanted to achieve with them. 00:54:28.080 --> 00:54:31.760 He does not operate in that way currently, at least not as 00:54:31.760 --> 00:54:35.840 frequently. But the second part, of course, is just the practical part. 00:54:35.840 --> 00:54:37.200 And you see that, right? 00:54:37.200 --> 00:54:41.440 Pentecost. You see individuals speaking in a language that is the native 00:54:41.440 --> 00:54:43.440 language of those around them. 00:54:43.440 --> 00:54:47.040 And they're saying, We understand what is being said because it's in 00:54:47.040 --> 00:54:47.680 our tongue. 00:54:47.680 --> 00:54:49.280 That's all they're doing. 00:54:49.280 --> 00:54:49.600 So 00:54:50.560 --> 00:54:56.960 If someone suddenly stands up and starts speaking in X language, and 00:54:56.960 --> 00:54:59.760 there's a group of people who understand it, okay, that's speaking in 00:54:59.760 --> 00:55:01.600 tongues. That can still happen. 00:55:01.600 --> 00:55:03.920 It's just not very common these days. 00:55:03.920 --> 00:55:07.440 But it's not the people who stand up and start speaking gibberish, 00:55:07.440 --> 00:55:10.560 right? That's a totally different thing. 00:55:10.560 --> 00:55:14.800 And that's the issue is you get these groups that go overboard 00:55:14.800 --> 00:55:21.040 on trying to exercise sign gifts that were a very common thing 00:55:21.040 --> 00:55:24.080 in the early church and not today. 00:55:24.080 --> 00:55:27.520 Not having these is not a sign you're not a Christian, right? 00:55:28.080 --> 00:55:30.240 Not all Christians speak in tongues. 00:55:30.240 --> 00:55:33.200 Not all Christians have the gift of prophecy. 00:55:33.200 --> 00:55:36.800 These are things that God gives to whom He wills for reasons 00:55:36.800 --> 00:55:38.480 that are His own. 00:55:38.480 --> 00:55:41.920 So don't try to speak in tongues. 00:55:41.920 --> 00:55:46.160 If God gives you that gift for some reason, you'll know. 00:55:46.160 --> 00:55:49.920 It's not something that you start, you know, stand up and start 00:55:49.920 --> 00:55:53.040 blathering. That's on the level of like automatic writing. 00:55:53.040 --> 00:55:55.360 That's almost communion with demons. 00:55:55.360 --> 00:55:57.600 That's not something Christians should be doing. 00:55:57.600 --> 00:56:01.680 But the short answer is that speaking in tongues is human tongues, 00:56:01.680 --> 00:56:05.120 and tongues is just an older way of saying language. 00:56:05.120 --> 00:56:07.760 We still use that sometimes, it's just not as common in modern 00:56:07.760 --> 00:56:08.480 English. 00:56:24.800 --> 00:56:28.000 I'm very tempted to answer this question on the national debt, but 00:56:28.000 --> 00:56:30.560 I feel like it's going to run fifteen or twenty minutes, so 00:56:30.560 --> 00:56:33.120 maybe next maybe maybe a future episode. 00:56:33.200 --> 00:56:35.440 I won't necessarily say next week because I don't know that I'll 00:56:35.440 --> 00:56:38.080 get to it, but I will put a a star next to 00:56:38.080 --> 00:56:38.960 it as it were 00:56:43.760 --> 00:56:47.120 I think I will end with a question about 00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:53.200 concubines and surrogacy. 00:56:53.200 --> 00:56:57.760 So question ten. 00:56:57.760 --> 00:57:02.480 The old testament contains concubinage and the use of slave women as 00:57:02.480 --> 00:57:04.080 surrogate mothers. 00:57:04.080 --> 00:57:08.000 Where do these concepts stand in terms of the moral law? 00:57:08.480 --> 00:57:15.120 So obviously, the clear examples, probably the two best examples of this 00:57:15.280 --> 00:57:18.000 would be Abraham and then of course, you 00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:19.120 know, Israel, 00:57:19.120 --> 00:57:22.800 right? Who has two wives and two concubines. 00:57:22.800 --> 00:57:26.240 Abram has a number of wives slash concubines. 00:57:26.480 --> 00:57:28.800 First off, a concubine is a wife. 00:57:28.800 --> 00:57:30.720 That's important to understand. 00:57:30.720 --> 00:57:34.000 And I can't remember the exact place now in scripture where it 00:57:34.000 --> 00:57:36.000 actually states that. 00:57:36.000 --> 00:57:37.680 I would have to look for it. 00:57:37.680 --> 00:57:39.280 I the verse is not coming to mind. 00:57:39.280 --> 00:57:41.280 But there is an there is a place in scripture where that's 00:57:41.280 --> 00:57:42.560 explicitly stated. 00:57:42.560 --> 00:57:44.480 A concubine is a wife. 00:57:44.480 --> 00:57:50.080 And a concubine is just a wife of lower social standing in 00:57:50.080 --> 00:57:52.160 a given context. 00:57:52.160 --> 00:57:54.160 We don't have that anymore. 00:57:54.160 --> 00:57:55.920 That's That's a good thing. 00:57:55.920 --> 00:57:59.360 That was something that was very common in the Near East and 00:57:59.360 --> 00:58:02.720 the Middle East, still happens in those parts of the world, sometimes 00:58:02.720 --> 00:58:03.680 in Asia. 00:58:03.680 --> 00:58:07.120 It happens in imperial courts sometimes, things like that. 00:58:07.120 --> 00:58:08.160 It's not a good thing. 00:58:08.160 --> 00:58:12.480 It's not part of God's intended design, it's not how things should 00:58:12.480 --> 00:58:13.760 generally work. 00:58:13.760 --> 00:58:18.880 Now, if a man, say a king has multiple wives, will one 00:58:18.880 --> 00:58:22.640 wife probably have higher social standing than his other wives? 00:58:22.640 --> 00:58:25.280 Certainly. The one who bears the heir. 00:58:25.280 --> 00:58:27.440 That's fine, that's normal. 00:58:27.440 --> 00:58:32.000 And polygyny is not morally impermissible, so you can't say that's wrongful. 00:58:32.000 --> 00:58:36.560 But But as a general rule, monogamy is the best system. 00:58:36.560 --> 00:58:40.400 That's why when I have said polygyny is morally permissible, the only 00:58:40.400 --> 00:58:44.080 real exceptions I've said where society should permit it is where you 00:58:44.080 --> 00:58:45.760 have a very compelling reason. 00:58:45.760 --> 00:58:46.560 The two most obvious 00:58:47.440 --> 00:58:51.360 the king who needs to produce an heir and after a war 00:58:51.440 --> 00:58:53.120 if a bunch of men die. 00:58:53.120 --> 00:58:54.000 Right? Because 00:58:54.000 --> 00:58:56.480 then you have a lot of women and not as many men. 00:58:56.480 --> 00:59:00.240 God made the system so that you can recover from a war. 00:59:00.480 --> 00:59:02.080 Those are basically the two exceptions. 00:59:02.080 --> 00:59:05.280 There's some more than that, but those are the the core ones. 00:59:05.280 --> 00:59:05.600 So 00:59:08.160 --> 00:59:13.760 as far as slave women and surrogacy and things like that, that 00:59:13.760 --> 00:59:16.080 is not part of God's design, right? 00:59:16.080 --> 00:59:16.720 That is 00:59:17.680 --> 00:59:18.320 Now 00:59:19.200 --> 00:59:22.640 there are two sort of different aspects of this because you do 00:59:22.640 --> 00:59:24.560 have the case of, say, Abram, right? 00:59:24.560 --> 00:59:28.720 Sarah gives the slave woman to Abram and then he has children. 00:59:28.720 --> 00:59:30.400 That's a different thing. 00:59:30.400 --> 00:59:33.280 Because what that is, is he has a wife. 00:59:33.280 --> 00:59:36.240 She's a concubine in this case, so she's lower social standing because 00:59:36.240 --> 00:59:40.640 of the reality of that time and place, but she's still a 00:59:40.640 --> 00:59:45.280 wife. You don't get to have children with your slave women and 00:59:45.280 --> 00:59:46.800 they're not your wives. 00:59:46.800 --> 00:59:49.120 Scripture has provisions for that as well. 00:59:49.120 --> 00:59:51.200 She's to be treated as a wife. 00:59:51.200 --> 00:59:55.040 So these are not things that we should be practicing as society. 00:59:55.040 --> 01:00:00.000 Just because something is not morally impermissible does not mean it is 01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:04.560 wise. There are things you're allowed to do that are still stupid. 01:00:04.560 --> 01:00:04.880 So 01:00:05.920 --> 01:00:08.400 we should not bring back concubinage. 01:00:08.400 --> 01:00:13.280 We should not have, you know, slave women as mothers for children, 01:00:13.280 --> 01:00:14.400 things like that. 01:00:14.400 --> 01:00:19.040 God's ideal system, the way that he wants things to run, is 01:00:19.040 --> 01:00:21.760 monogamy. One man, one woman. 01:00:21.760 --> 01:00:23.760 That's the ideal. 01:00:23.760 --> 01:00:28.080 That is the goal for society we should aim for that. 01:00:28.080 --> 01:00:33.280 Now, again, there are those exceptions when there are extreme circumstances. 01:00:33.280 --> 01:00:36.960 But just because there are exceptions does not mean we should permit 01:00:36.960 --> 01:00:38.560 those things all the time. 01:00:38.560 --> 01:00:41.520 Just because you have to do certain things in a time of 01:00:41.520 --> 01:00:44.320 war does not mean you want to have them in times of 01:00:44.320 --> 01:00:48.880 peace, when things are operating as they should instead of how they 01:00:48.880 --> 01:00:50.000 must. So 01:00:51.280 --> 01:00:52.880 sometime, and it's also worth mentioning 01:00:53.920 --> 01:00:58.720 the general rule, the interpretive rule, I've mentioned this many times, but 01:00:58.720 --> 01:01:02.560 there are parts of scripture that are descriptive, and there are tar 01:01:02.720 --> 01:01:07.680 parts of scripture that are prescriptive or proscriptive, depending. 01:01:07.920 --> 01:01:12.160 Just because something is contained in Scripture doesn't mean it is something 01:01:12.160 --> 01:01:13.680 you should do. 01:01:13.680 --> 01:01:16.640 There are things that are statements of the moral law, they are 01:01:16.640 --> 01:01:20.560 unchanging, they're God's will, you must obey those But there are other 01:01:20.560 --> 01:01:23.520 times where it says, you know, what the men in Sodom and 01:01:23.520 --> 01:01:25.440 Gomorrah were doing. 01:01:25.440 --> 01:01:27.120 That is descriptive. 01:01:27.120 --> 01:01:28.960 It is describing something that happened. 01:01:28.960 --> 01:01:32.080 It is not telling you how you should behave. 01:01:32.080 --> 01:01:35.680 So obviously, yes, you have Abraham, right, in the case of a 01:01:35.680 --> 01:01:38.560 man who's called righteous and he is blessed with these things. 01:01:38.560 --> 01:01:44.880 So polygyny, again, morally permissible, not something society should desire, because it 01:01:44.880 --> 01:01:50.080 is not beneficial and we're not nomadic herders who need a bunch 01:01:50.080 --> 01:01:52.720 of children in order to keep their flocks, right? 01:01:52.960 --> 01:01:55.200 Different social conditions. 01:01:55.200 --> 01:02:00.000 It's not that social conditions change the morality, it's that social conditions 01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:00.240 change 01:02:01.200 --> 01:02:04.640 what where we fall on the spectrum, as it were, of things 01:02:04.640 --> 01:02:06.720 that are morally permissible. 01:02:06.720 --> 01:02:12.240 So again, just because polygyny is something that God permits does not 01:02:12.240 --> 01:02:15.520 mean it is ideal, does not mean we have to permit it. 01:02:15.520 --> 01:02:19.280 Sort of like we don't have to have the exact same punishments 01:02:19.280 --> 01:02:22.080 for crimes as Old Testament Israel. 01:02:22.080 --> 01:02:25.280 We can in some cases, we don't need to in all cases, 01:02:25.280 --> 01:02:29.600 except, of course, murder because Genesis 9.6. 01:02:29.600 --> 01:02:32.880 So the general rule is no, don't don't bring these things back. 01:02:33.680 --> 01:02:37.680 don't try to make the political right wing into some weird little 01:02:37.680 --> 01:02:40.160 cult of guys who are all arguing we should each have ten 01:02:40.160 --> 01:02:41.360 wives, right? 01:02:41.360 --> 01:02:43.360 We're not fundamentalist Mormons. 01:02:43.360 --> 01:02:45.440 That's not the goal. 01:02:45.440 --> 01:02:46.560 That's not good. 01:02:46.560 --> 01:02:48.960 That would be destructive for society. 01:02:48.960 --> 01:02:51.680 And it's just not how we should do things. 01:02:51.680 --> 01:02:52.000 So 01:02:53.760 --> 01:02:59.120 I think that pretty much sums it up for this week. 01:02:59.200 --> 01:03:02.080 Got to got to more questions than I thought it would actually, 01:03:02.080 --> 01:03:05.520 since the Enlightenment one ran a little long, but the others were 01:03:05.520 --> 01:03:10.800 not as long, so I think I will call that here and 01:03:10.800 --> 01:03:13.760 go see how Gizmo is handling the storm. 01:03:13.760 --> 01:03:16.720 At any rate, thank you for those who submitted questions. 01:03:16.720 --> 01:03:18.960 I always enjoy doing this every week. 01:03:18.960 --> 01:03:21.680 So thank you for those who participated in the chat. 01:03:21.680 --> 01:03:26.000 If I missed your question, I did see some questions that went 01:03:26.000 --> 01:03:30.400 past, some were repeats from previous questions. 01:03:30.400 --> 01:03:35.600 There is a future topics list on the forum, and you don't 01:03:35.520 --> 01:03:36.880 have to sign up to see that. 01:03:36.880 --> 01:03:40.800 If your question is not on there, then I do not have 01:03:40.800 --> 01:03:41.680 it. I missed it. 01:03:41.680 --> 01:03:42.480 It went past. 01:03:42.480 --> 01:03:43.120 I didn't. 01:03:43.120 --> 01:03:44.800 Whatever happened. 01:03:44.800 --> 01:03:50.240 In that case, please submit it via the forum, preferably, because that's 01:03:50.240 --> 01:03:52.320 the easiest way for me to keep things organized. 01:03:52.320 --> 01:03:56.800 But certainly in the chat, Telegram, X, wherever else, I try to 01:03:56.800 --> 01:04:00.240 aggregate those, put them into the topic list so you can see 01:04:00.240 --> 01:04:01.520 if your question is there. 01:04:01.520 --> 01:04:04.480 Again, if it's not, submit it to me in some way. 01:04:04.480 --> 01:04:08.560 I'm not intentionally ignoring your question, just Sometimes it goes by in 01:04:08.560 --> 01:04:09.840 the chat and I don't see it. 01:04:09.840 --> 01:04:11.920 Or OBS just doesn't show it to me. 01:04:11.920 --> 01:04:13.360 That's happened too. 01:04:13.360 --> 01:04:17.600 I for instance went to look earlier for a couple questions that 01:04:17.600 --> 01:04:22.080 were posted via X previously, and I actually had to go to 01:04:22.080 --> 01:04:26.960 restream the platform I use to stream to multiple platforms because X 01:04:27.280 --> 01:04:29.680 just sent them into the void. 01:04:29.680 --> 01:04:32.240 They're nowhere to be found on the platform. 01:04:32.240 --> 01:04:33.840 So that kind of stuff happens. 01:04:33.840 --> 01:04:37.200 At any rate, thank you for your time and the questions and 01:04:37.200 --> 01:04:38.960 for your participation. 01:04:38.960 --> 01:04:41.440 And I look forward to doing this next week. 01:04:41.440 --> 01:04:44.560 Until then, it is of course Friday, so enjoy the rest of 01:04:44.560 --> 01:04:45.200 your weekend. 01:04:45.200 --> 01:04:48.160 Go to church on Sunday and God bless you. 01:04:48.160 --> 01:04:52.080 I will see you all on Thursday or Friday, depending on which 01:04:52.080 --> 01:04:58.880 one. Have a nice evening.