WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.880 It is the 27th of March 2026. 00:00:02.880 --> 00:00:03.840 I am Corey J. 00:00:03.840 --> 00:00:06.080 Mahler and this is at any cost. 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:10.000 This is episode 22, a QA episode. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:13.440 And before I get into the questions for tonight, I'm just going 00:00:13.440 --> 00:00:17.360 to do a little bit of housekeeping, just three things really quick. 00:00:17.360 --> 00:00:19.760 Three questions that are pushed to next week. 00:00:19.760 --> 00:00:21.120 That's the housekeeping. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:24.000 The first is about Japan, China, and India and how religion has 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:28.320 played a role in that and either preserving or degenerating those people. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:32.960 So really a question about Shinto versus Confucianism versus Hinduism. 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:37.520 And then the second is the connection between Jupiter and related things 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:41.760 to that, various pantheons and how they tie into Christianity or corruptions 00:00:41.760 --> 00:00:43.040 of Christianity. 00:00:43.040 --> 00:00:46.400 And then the last one is national socialism and how it is 00:00:46.400 --> 00:00:48.320 consonant with Christianity. 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:51.280 Because I have of course posted before that national socialism was a 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:56.480 translation of Christianity into politics, and I do believe that, so I 00:00:56.480 --> 00:00:59.040 want to treat that at greater length and greater depth, so I'm 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:01.360 pushing that to next week when I have more time to prepare 00:01:01.360 --> 00:01:02.960 it. I didn't have time this week. 00:01:03.360 --> 00:01:06.640 But moving on to the questions for this week, and I have 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:09.520 noted the questions that have come in so far in the chat, 00:01:09.520 --> 00:01:12.400 so I've added those either for this week or next week, depending 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:15.600 on whether or not I'll get to them. 00:01:15.600 --> 00:01:20.240 The first question, rather timely considering just a few days to go 00:01:20.240 --> 00:01:21.440 for this. 00:01:21.440 --> 00:01:22.720 Question one. 00:01:22.720 --> 00:01:25.600 So this year I noticed in my church's app that we are 00:01:25.600 --> 00:01:29.200 hosting a Passover Seder service on Palm Sunday. 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:32.000 However, this is not part of the main service. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:35.200 It is an optional event you can go to later in the 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:38.560 evening. It is alarming me because this seems like a very Judaizing 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:40.080 move. It is. 00:01:40.080 --> 00:01:42.960 They will be hosting a speaker by the name of Murray Tillis 00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:45.120 tiles, I don't know how he pronounces his name. 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:49.920 He is a Jewish Christian, in quotes, that's appropriate, man that runs 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:54.480 an organization called Light of Messiah Ministries, and links to the website. 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:58.400 His whole modus operandi, from what I've read on his site, seems 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:01.920 to be to bind the conscience of Christians to Jews in Israel. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:03.200 That's expected. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:05.680 The nation state, of course, he's speaking of, and that he has 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:07.440 that here as a parenthetical. 00:02:07.440 --> 00:02:10.720 Perhaps trying to make sure that the boomer glue is still adhesive 00:02:10.720 --> 00:02:14.080 and emphasizing the Jewishness of Jesus in quotes. 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:19.040 Also fighting anti Semitism also in quotes is one of their missions. 00:02:19.040 --> 00:02:21.520 I am not sure what to do or say about this. 00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:24.640 If it were just myself, I would be compelled to raise concerns 00:02:24.640 --> 00:02:26.320 to the pastors about this. 00:02:26.320 --> 00:02:30.080 However, I am a member alongside my parents who are very entrenched 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:33.040 there. Many years I only became a member of the church a 00:02:33.040 --> 00:02:33.440 year ago. 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:36.480 My dad has been part of the music ministry for many years, 00:02:36.480 --> 00:02:39.120 and my mom is very involved in small groups. 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:41.920 I do not want to embarrass them or alienate them from their 00:02:41.920 --> 00:02:45.680 peers or the pastors by being the person that sounds the alarm. 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:47.520 I want to keep the fifth commandment. 00:02:47.760 --> 00:02:52.160 I assume he means the the reform numbering, so the fourth commandment 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:53.920 for those of us who are Lutheran. 00:02:53.920 --> 00:02:56.080 Honor thy father and thy mother, of course. 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:59.520 My parents, especially my dad, are quite aware of my weariness of 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:01.840 the Jews and my distrust of them as we talk about politics 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:03.440 and the Jews frequently. 00:03:03.440 --> 00:03:06.400 I am thirty four years old and can look for another church 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:09.360 at any time, but I love being there with my family as 00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:10.320 a whole. 00:03:10.320 --> 00:03:13.840 Side note something that also makes my ears perk up is that 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:18.000 my pastor has been increasingly using the pronoun Yahweh to refer to 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:21.600 God, and this appears to be a fairly recent phenomenon. 00:03:21.600 --> 00:03:25.040 I've also never heard any dispensationalism or Zionist teaching coming out of 00:03:25.040 --> 00:03:28.000 the church are from this pastor, the head pastor. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:34.080 So this sort of Judaizing is kind of taking me by surprise. 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:38.000 This is obviously going to be an issue that is going to 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:41.920 face many and has faced many in the past say ten years 00:03:41.920 --> 00:03:43.360 or so. 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:47.520 There is a very real push to try to keep Christians on 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:51.840 the reservation as it were, to keep Christians believing that the Jews 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:54.400 are chosen in some way they're special and that we have to 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:57.360 support them and blah blah blah. 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:01.760 The first point I would make is that anyone who calls himself 00:04:01.760 --> 00:04:04.560 a Messianic Jew, that's a red flag. 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:09.520 Why is he calling himself a Messianic Jew instead of a Christian? 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:14.320 The handful of Jews after the very early church period, when, you 00:04:14.320 --> 00:04:17.280 know, the first century or two, many Jews converted. 00:04:17.280 --> 00:04:21.440 They did, and then mostly were slaughtered by their brothers for their 00:04:21.440 --> 00:04:26.560 trouble. But after that point, any Jew who converted did not call 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:28.720 himself a Messianic Jew. 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:32.480 He called himself a Christian, and so And so these Jews who 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:35.840 are calling themselves Messianic Jews, all they're doing is hedging their bets. 00:04:35.840 --> 00:04:38.880 They're doing the same thing that Jews have done down through history. 00:04:38.880 --> 00:04:41.600 You control the opposition, you play both sides. 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:44.720 I would never trust someone who calls himself a messianic Jew. 00:04:44.960 --> 00:04:48.880 If he calls himself a Christian, I still have some reservations, and 00:04:48.880 --> 00:04:51.360 I'd like him to be over in Israel being a Christian, over 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:53.040 there instead of here. 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:56.480 And that raises other problems as well, but if he's calling himself 00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:00.400 a messianic Jew instead of a Christian, that is such a major 00:05:00.400 --> 00:05:03.760 red flag that absolutely no he should not be speaking at a 00:05:03.760 --> 00:05:09.840 church. what gives him some sort of authority or 00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:12.720 anything really. 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:15.680 What gives him the teaching ability is it just because he's a 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:17.840 Jew? That's what's being implied here. 00:05:17.840 --> 00:05:20.400 No, being a Jew does not give you the ability to say 00:05:20.400 --> 00:05:21.680 anything about the Christian faith. 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:24.480 If anything it's a handicap and you should say nothing about the 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:25.840 Christian faith. 00:05:25.840 --> 00:05:26.160 So 00:05:27.200 --> 00:05:30.960 in your case obviously there are some other considerations. 00:05:30.960 --> 00:05:34.480 If this is a church where your family has been for some 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:38.080 period of time, in the American context, a lot of times you 00:05:38.080 --> 00:05:40.960 don't have someone who's been out of church for generations, so a 00:05:40.960 --> 00:05:44.480 long time may just be five, six, ten years, whatever it happens 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:45.760 to be. 00:05:45.760 --> 00:05:48.720 Which is not a trivial amount of time. 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:51.280 It is in the grand scheme, but not, you know, for a 00:05:51.280 --> 00:05:52.800 human life. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:53.120 So 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:56.160 do you go to another church? 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:58.640 I think is really the core question here. 00:05:58.640 --> 00:06:02.720 And I think the answer is if they continue down this path 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:06.240 of Judaizing, which is what this is, you correctly recognize that, that's 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:07.760 open Judaizing. 00:06:07.760 --> 00:06:11.440 If they continue down the path, you're going to, for the sake 00:06:11.440 --> 00:06:14.480 of your conscience, have to find a new church. 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:17.040 Because this is probably not going to get better. 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:19.520 It's probably just going to get worse. 00:06:19.520 --> 00:06:24.800 And you're at the age where your parents are probably old Gen 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:27.200 X instead of boomers. 00:06:27.200 --> 00:06:30.400 Right around that age, it kind of depends on some various factors. 00:06:30.400 --> 00:06:33.840 But so six years different for me, my parents are of course 00:06:33.840 --> 00:06:35.840 baby boomers. 00:06:35.840 --> 00:06:38.080 This is going to be an issue for those of us kind 00:06:38.080 --> 00:06:42.320 of in that age range, because if you want to continue attending 00:06:42.320 --> 00:06:44.240 church with your parents, which is a good thing, you should want 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:47.360 to go to the same church as your parents, your siblings, your 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:49.680 cousins, you should want to be with family. 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:51.200 That's a good thing. 00:06:51.200 --> 00:06:51.520 But 00:06:52.400 --> 00:06:55.200 the most important thing is that you're going to a church that 00:06:55.200 --> 00:06:59.040 is actually teaching correctly, that is teaching right doctrine, that is administering 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:01.920 the sacraments, that is an actual church. 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:04.960 So this is going off the rails. 00:07:04.960 --> 00:07:06.640 It will probably get worse. 00:07:06.640 --> 00:07:09.920 That's just the reality here. 00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:13.760 If you raise it with the pastor, right, in this case, multiple 00:07:13.760 --> 00:07:16.240 pastors, you raise it with a head pastor, whatever it happens to 00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:21.040 be, he's probably just going to brush you off and then watch 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:22.240 you like a hawk. 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:24.720 Maybe they won't go after you right away or kick you out, 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:28.560 but they're going to watch you closely, and they may try to 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:29.600 make life difficult for you. 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:31.280 That's just the reality of it. 00:07:31.760 --> 00:07:37.120 you may realize that for better or worse, some men who call 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:40.000 themselves pastors are not in fact Christian. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:45.520 They really only care about the money, the Jews in Israel. 00:07:45.520 --> 00:07:50.720 And if this is a man who has before this not been 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:55.360 Judaizing and now he's suddenly doing so, I would kinda wonder why? 00:07:55.360 --> 00:07:56.800 What changed? 00:07:56.800 --> 00:07:58.880 Did something in his family change? 00:07:58.880 --> 00:08:00.400 Did money exchange hands? 00:08:00.400 --> 00:08:01.920 Why did this happen? 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:06.800 Maybe you can't find out what happened there, but if he's made 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:10.560 that sort of change, the odds of him becoming your enemy, if 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:12.560 you point this out are very high. 00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:16.160 So that doesn't mean that you don't bring this up, it doesn't 00:08:16.080 --> 00:08:18.400 mean that you don't leave and attend another church. 00:08:18.400 --> 00:08:20.160 Maybe you have to do that. 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:22.400 It does mean that you need to keep that in mind there 00:08:22.400 --> 00:08:24.880 may be those sorts of consequences. 00:08:25.760 --> 00:08:29.360 You mentioned that you discuss these things with your parents. 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:33.520 So if you can discuss this with your parents and get them 00:08:33.520 --> 00:08:38.800 to recognize that this is contrary to what Christianity actually teaches. 00:08:38.800 --> 00:08:43.280 It's contrary to what all Christians have believed down through the centuries. 00:08:43.280 --> 00:08:45.840 Then maybe you can get them to leave the church with you 00:08:45.920 --> 00:08:48.240 and you can all together go to a new church. 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:51.040 That would be a certain Certainly a better outcome than you simply 00:08:51.040 --> 00:08:53.840 leaving and going to a new church on your own. 00:08:53.840 --> 00:08:54.160 But 00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:57.760 the baseline here, I think, is that this is probably going to 00:08:57.760 --> 00:08:59.920 get worse, and you're probably going to have to find a new 00:08:59.920 --> 00:09:03.760 church. So if you can take your parents with you, that's great. 00:09:04.800 --> 00:09:08.800 I don't think that you necessarily have to confront the pastor on 00:09:08.800 --> 00:09:13.920 this because the odds that's going to go anywhere beneficial to anyone 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:16.240 are just about zero. 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:20.160 If you feel that you are compelled to do so, if your 00:09:20.160 --> 00:09:22.800 conscience is convicted, you feel that you need to go and tell 00:09:22.800 --> 00:09:26.400 the pastor what he's doing is wrong, this is not Christian, this 00:09:26.400 --> 00:09:29.920 is sinful, you need to stop, you need to desist Then by 00:09:29.920 --> 00:09:31.920 all means obey your conscience. 00:09:31.920 --> 00:09:36.080 But if you don't feel that compulsion to do that, then just 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:39.600 out of an abundance of wisdom, it's probably better not to bother 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:43.280 in this case, because the odds of anything, again, anything positive happening. 00:09:43.680 --> 00:09:45.440 Are basically zero. 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:48.080 This is a pattern that I have seen many times. 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:49.680 I've had people DM me. 00:09:49.680 --> 00:09:51.600 They've DM Woe and others. 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:53.440 This happens a lot. 00:09:53.440 --> 00:09:58.640 So it's where we are today with the churches, and we're sort 00:09:58.640 --> 00:10:02.000 of in a transitional period because we're still building up new and 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:05.520 better churches to replace these old ones. 00:10:05.520 --> 00:10:08.080 But a lot of places you're not going to have one of 00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:10.560 those churches readily available to you. 00:10:10.560 --> 00:10:13.920 And so the boomers still control these churches. 00:10:13.920 --> 00:10:18.640 They've not quite gotten old enough yet to stop being elders and 00:10:18.640 --> 00:10:22.560 pastors. As they retire and live And leave, that presents a real 00:10:22.560 --> 00:10:24.640 opportunity to shift things. 00:10:24.640 --> 00:10:28.160 So, as I've mentioned before, it's tangentially related. 00:10:28.160 --> 00:10:30.320 If you can get on the elder board of your church and 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:33.200 start to shift things away, and then you were probably one of 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:35.760 the ones who has a vote to call a new pastor. 00:10:35.760 --> 00:10:37.440 By all means do that. 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:41.200 That's one way you can return a church to faithfulness, a particular 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:44.080 church body to faithfulness. 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:48.560 But I think here this is a a matter of conscience. 00:10:48.560 --> 00:10:51.920 If your conscience is pricked, then perhaps you have to go and 00:10:51.920 --> 00:10:53.440 confront that pastor. 00:10:53.440 --> 00:10:57.040 Nothing positive will come of it, just letting you know that. 00:10:57.040 --> 00:11:01.360 And if it continues down this path, probably find a new church. 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:06.320 Hopefully alongside your parents, but if not, then attend the new church 00:11:06.400 --> 00:11:09.760 and hopefully over time you can raise the issue with them. 00:11:09.760 --> 00:11:10.960 Maybe they'll see the light. 00:11:14.800 --> 00:11:17.520 The next question question two 00:11:19.760 --> 00:11:24.720 sort of related to question one actually it seems that most governing 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:28.480 church bodies are a shell of their former selves and deteriorating rapidly. 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:31.040 In today's climate, I am struggling to see how this will be 00:11:31.040 --> 00:11:33.600 beneficial for either party in the long run. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:36.880 So the basic question is should we join a church body? 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:40.160 I've answered this one a number of times, but it's always worth 00:11:40.160 --> 00:11:45.440 repeating. By and large, the corporate church bodies, and it doesn't matter 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:48.400 which one you have in mind here, whether it's the LCMS in 00:11:48.400 --> 00:11:52.800 the Lutheran case, or it's any of the various Presbyterian or Reformed 00:11:52.800 --> 00:11:56.640 ones, or it's the Church of England, in our case the Anglicans 00:11:56.640 --> 00:11:58.880 over here, whatever it happens to be. 00:11:58.880 --> 00:12:03.920 They're basically all, if not outright apostate, very close to it. 00:12:03.920 --> 00:12:07.280 At the upper echelons, which is to say the leadership. 00:12:07.280 --> 00:12:10.160 The same thing, of course, is true of the Roman Catholic Church. 00:12:10.160 --> 00:12:14.880 I don't know anyone who's actually a true conservative Christian who likes 00:12:14.880 --> 00:12:17.760 the current Pope or who liked the previous Pope. 00:12:17.760 --> 00:12:20.800 There were a handful who liked the former Hitler youth guy. 00:12:20.800 --> 00:12:23.520 Unsurprising, he was actually good on some things. 00:12:23.520 --> 00:12:23.760 But 00:12:25.680 --> 00:12:30.320 as far as church bodies go, you're not so much joining the 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:33.280 church body as you are joining the local church. 00:12:33.280 --> 00:12:38.960 Now, there are some obvious differences there, some difficulties for those who 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:40.400 are Roman Catholic, right? 00:12:40.400 --> 00:12:44.640 Because when you're joining a Roman Catholic church You're kind of joining 00:12:44.640 --> 00:12:45.920 Rome. So 00:12:47.200 --> 00:12:48.880 that's more difficult for them. 00:12:48.880 --> 00:12:51.440 For those of us who are Protestant, it's not a problem because 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:55.200 what you're really joining, yes, there are some that are episcopal, and 00:12:55.200 --> 00:12:57.440 so there's a bishop over your pastor and things like that. 00:12:57.520 --> 00:13:00.320 That you have a little bit of that over with Protestants in 00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:04.160 the US, not as much, more over in Europe. 00:13:04.160 --> 00:13:09.120 In the Lutheran case, for instance, basically all Lutheran bodies are congregationalist, 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:13.600 which just means the local parish owns the building, the land, leases 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:17.680 it, whatever it happens to be, and the vice president, who is 00:13:17.680 --> 00:13:20.880 a bishop, that's all he is, he's just changed his title, doesn't 00:13:20.880 --> 00:13:22.240 have that much authority. 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:25.520 He can't really tell the pastor you have to do X, Y, 00:13:25.520 --> 00:13:26.560 and Z. 00:13:26.560 --> 00:13:31.920 Now, there are formal ways to deal with disagreements, right? 00:13:32.160 --> 00:13:36.160 For instance, if someone is excommunicated, then it can be appealed and 00:13:36.160 --> 00:13:39.840 then there can be sort of a dispute between the bishop and 00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:40.640 the church. 00:13:40.640 --> 00:13:45.040 But by and large, the parish has some level of autonomy. 00:13:45.040 --> 00:13:48.960 And so what you want to find is a faithful parish. 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:53.200 And once you have found that, then you can help to move 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:57.840 that parish to be more faithful, or if necessary, you can push 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:00.160 for leaving the national body. 00:14:00.160 --> 00:14:03.520 Which is perfectly fine, because then you can join a faithful national 00:14:03.520 --> 00:14:05.920 body at some point in the future. 00:14:05.920 --> 00:14:09.680 Like I've said before, for those who ask me, which Lutheran church 00:14:09.680 --> 00:14:13.040 should I attend I'm in X area? 00:14:13.040 --> 00:14:16.960 You're going to have to check because Because some of them will 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:19.440 be faithful and some of them will have a pastor who's just 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:23.040 a company man who's going to follow whatever synod tells him to 00:14:23.040 --> 00:14:26.560 do. And that guy will stab you in the back. 00:14:26.560 --> 00:14:29.520 So it doesn't mean that there are no good churches. 00:14:29.520 --> 00:14:34.080 It just means you can't look at the sign and know by 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:37.600 what denomination or tradition the sign has on it, whether it's a 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:38.720 good church or not. 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:41.680 Because these days, it may mean very little. 00:14:41.680 --> 00:14:44.320 So is it worth joining a church body? 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:47.760 Absolutely, because there are still good churches, and you should not forsake 00:14:47.760 --> 00:14:50.240 the gathering together of the saints. 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:54.560 Starting up a home church is sort of the extreme option. 00:14:54.560 --> 00:14:56.880 And let me know in the chat if the birds are coming 00:14:56.880 --> 00:14:58.160 through a little bit too loudly. 00:14:58.160 --> 00:15:00.640 I'm in the south and it's spring and the birds are very 00:15:00.640 --> 00:15:02.640 excited, the sun's setting. 00:15:02.640 --> 00:15:07.360 But if you join a church body, you are joining that local 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:10.160 parish, and it may very well be a very good church, and 00:15:10.160 --> 00:15:12.560 that's great if you have that. 00:15:12.560 --> 00:15:15.920 Starting up a home church is the last resort. 00:15:15.920 --> 00:15:19.680 That is, if you don't have faithful church bodies, if they are 00:15:19.680 --> 00:15:24.720 all so apostate around you that you cannot in good conscience attend 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:27.680 any one of them, then start a home church. 00:15:27.680 --> 00:15:29.520 That's basically the hierarchy. 00:15:29.520 --> 00:15:30.720 Find a good parish. 00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:33.440 If none are available, start a home church. 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:35.200 Nothing wrong with starting a home church. 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:36.480 It's just not preferable. 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:39.520 You don't really want to have to go back to 100 AD, 00:15:39.520 --> 00:15:42.960 right? You'd sort of rather have the benefit of all of the 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:47.040 development in terms of the building and the liturgy and all those 00:15:47.040 --> 00:15:50.320 things over the last two thousand years. 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:53.520 But if you have to, start a home church. 00:16:01.920 --> 00:16:03.920 Question three. 00:16:03.920 --> 00:16:06.800 My brother and his wife are pregnant. 00:16:06.800 --> 00:16:10.880 Hopefully just she's pregnant, but with their first child, they did the 00:16:10.880 --> 00:16:16.400 ultrasound, sadly, I don't have a problem with ultrasounds, but that's not 00:16:16.400 --> 00:16:17.200 the question. 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:19.760 And found out that their first child will be a boy. 00:16:19.760 --> 00:16:22.960 Would I be sinfully binding my brother's conscience by telling him that 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:26.240 I believe circumcision is not a wise decision. 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:29.280 Do we know for certain that the procedure of circumcision that God 00:16:29.280 --> 00:16:34.320 commanded the Israelites is not the same procedure that is performed today? 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:36.640 I'll take those in reverse order. 00:16:36.640 --> 00:16:40.080 So we do know that the procedure that was done back then 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:40.960 is not the same. 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:43.680 It was a cutting of the tip of the foreskin, not the 00:16:43.680 --> 00:16:45.520 removal of the full foreskin. 00:16:45.520 --> 00:16:49.680 There are a number of places in scripture where you can infer 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:53.680 this. Now archaeologically and historically we know that is the case, but 00:16:53.680 --> 00:16:56.800 there are number of places in scripture where there are narratives that 00:16:56.800 --> 00:16:59.440 do not make sense if it were a removal of the full 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:05.680 foreskin. One of the most telling is when Joshua crosses over the 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:10.880 Jordan and they're going toward Jericho to sack Jericho, they have to 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:14.960 circumcise everyone who was wandering in the desert because they weren't circumcised 00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:15.760 on the way the way. 00:17:15.760 --> 00:17:20.000 So, you know, these are thirty, forty-year-old men and others as well, 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:22.960 obviously. Eight days old and up, right? 00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:24.800 These are the men who are then going to have to go 00:17:24.800 --> 00:17:28.160 and walk around the city for a number of days and then 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:30.480 fight and take the city. 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:33.680 If it were the removal of the full foreskin, I think all 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:36.960 the men in the audience recognize, you would need a little while 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:39.600 to recover from that as a 40-year-old man or a 30-year-old or 00:17:39.600 --> 00:17:42.080 a 20-year-old man, whatever it happens to be. 00:17:42.080 --> 00:17:44.720 They didn't really need much time to recover. 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:48.480 Another one would be when the angel of the Lord is pursuing 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:52.880 Moses as he is going from Midian back to Egypt because he 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:56.720 had failed to circumcise his sons while he was in Midian, and 00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:01.920 his wife takes a stone tool and circumcises the sun. 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:04.880 You're probably not going to do that quickly with a stone tool 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:08.720 if it is the removal of the full foreskin, I think that's 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:12.960 pretty obvious that's kind of a delicate operation that requires a degree 00:18:12.960 --> 00:18:15.360 of skill and much better tools. 00:18:15.360 --> 00:18:19.760 So I think taken together it's pretty obvious which sort of circumcision 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:21.680 is in view in scripture. 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:24.880 It's just the removal of the tip of the foreskin or a 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:26.720 cut in the foreskin. 00:18:26.720 --> 00:18:30.160 It's not total removal, completely different thing. 00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:34.560 That is a modern abomination that has been pushed on many in 00:18:34.560 --> 00:18:37.520 the world, particularly Americans. 00:18:37.520 --> 00:18:41.840 So would you be binding his conscience by telling him, say it's 00:18:41.840 --> 00:18:46.160 it's Judaizing, it is impermissible mutilation of your son, something like that? 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:49.280 You are binding his conscience, but I think it's permissible. 00:18:49.280 --> 00:18:52.880 And I think that if you succeed in that, his son will 00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:56.000 certainly thank you later in life when he realizes who did that 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:56.880 for him. 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:00.560 So I don't think that it is objectionable to bind your brother's 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:02.400 conscience with regard to this. 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:04.880 He should put his foot down and say, I am not s 00:19:05.040 --> 00:19:08.720 I am not circumcising my son, and his wife just has to 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:09.760 obey in that. 00:19:09.760 --> 00:19:13.520 So I think that that is not just something that you could 00:19:13.520 --> 00:19:18.160 do, but something that you should do in this case. 00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:22.960 And also the historical argument, this is not something Christians did. 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:26.720 The Greek converts, with very few exceptions, were not circumcised. 00:19:27.520 --> 00:19:31.840 And basically every Christian convert after that was not circumcised. 00:19:31.840 --> 00:19:36.640 This is completely novel and almost exclusive to the American context outside 00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:39.200 of parts of the world that are say Islamic where they practice 00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:46.720 it as well. 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:49.200 Question four. 00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:52.720 I have recently gotten a girlfriend and this woman is everything I've 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:53.760 ever wanted in a woman. 00:19:53.760 --> 00:19:56.080 She wears head coverings and skirts without being asked. 00:19:56.080 --> 00:19:57.920 She wants to cook and do the dishes for me. 00:19:57.920 --> 00:19:59.600 She wants multiple children. 00:19:59.600 --> 00:20:03.840 She's deeply caring and concerning and there are many other things. 00:20:03.840 --> 00:20:06.480 I think she would make an amazing wife, and yet I seem 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:10.320 unattracted or bored, although she is somewhat cute. 00:20:10.320 --> 00:20:13.040 I was very infatuated with her in the first few weeks that 00:20:13.040 --> 00:20:15.520 I met her, but it is not quite the same now. 00:20:15.520 --> 00:20:18.160 I know I would be an absolute fool to throw away such 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:19.040 a good thing. 00:20:19.040 --> 00:20:21.520 I do really like her and I deeply care about her, but 00:20:21.520 --> 00:20:22.480 I have that problem. 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:25.040 Am I just getting used to her in my life and have 00:20:25.040 --> 00:20:28.320 gotten over the initial thrill of finding exactly what I want? 00:20:28.320 --> 00:20:31.440 Am I trying to be emotional about her when I don't need 00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:34.560 to be as a man in parentheses there? 00:20:34.560 --> 00:20:36.000 Will my feelings grow? 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:38.640 Is there just an ebb and flow that I am making out 00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:40.000 to be more than what it is? 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:43.600 I was exhausted the day that I thought this, so perhaps I'm 00:20:43.600 --> 00:20:45.600 overthinking it. 00:20:45.600 --> 00:20:48.720 This touches obviously on a number of 00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:55.760 profound issues, but I think the general takeaway is that there is 00:20:55.760 --> 00:21:00.000 a fundamental difference between infatuation and love, right? 00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:04.640 Now, for some people, there the one can kind of shade into 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:06.800 the other to some degree. 00:21:06.800 --> 00:21:08.960 For men, there's obviously a spectrum. 00:21:09.120 --> 00:21:12.560 Not all men are monolithic in one way or the other, right? 00:21:12.560 --> 00:21:14.800 And this is also going to be racial a little bit too, 00:21:14.800 --> 00:21:18.160 obviously. Germans are not going to behave in the same way as 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:22.560 the Spanish, or certainly as you know, Africans or Asians. 00:21:22.560 --> 00:21:25.760 There are different ways of expressing these things and different ways of 00:21:25.760 --> 00:21:28.080 feeling them to some degree as well. 00:21:28.080 --> 00:21:28.400 So 00:21:29.520 --> 00:21:34.800 perhaps the early th feelings there that you had could correctly, as 00:21:34.800 --> 00:21:37.600 you said, be termed infatuation. 00:21:37.600 --> 00:21:42.560 It's a sort of different thing from building marriage, right? 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:48.960 Marriage is a lifelong, long-term, serious commitment, and it is something that 00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:51.120 is built over a course of years. 00:21:51.120 --> 00:21:54.880 Part of the way you build that is by having children and 00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:56.800 living with this person. 00:21:56.800 --> 00:21:57.440 Now 00:21:58.480 --> 00:22:00.080 you don't need to be 00:22:01.600 --> 00:22:06.400 emotionally tethered in the way that you perhaps desire right now. 00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:09.200 That will develop over time. 00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:12.080 For men, that is going to be something that is going to 00:22:12.080 --> 00:22:15.200 deepen as you spend years Spend years with this woman as you 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:18.880 build your life with her, as she births your children, takes care 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:22.400 of your home, cooks you meals, does all these things, right? 00:22:23.040 --> 00:22:27.040 That is something that is accumulated over time, and we all recognize 00:22:27.040 --> 00:22:30.080 this with regard to almost everything, right? 00:22:30.080 --> 00:22:33.360 You know, I could say I don't actually have a favorite pen, 00:22:33.360 --> 00:22:36.480 but you know, if I had a favorite pen, it's partly going 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:39.440 to be because of how often I've used the thing. 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:41.680 It's not going to be just because oh I found a shiny 00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:42.640 pen, very neat. 00:22:42.640 --> 00:22:44.960 I conveniently picked a shiny one. 00:22:44.960 --> 00:22:47.520 I do have some that I like more than others that I 00:22:47.520 --> 00:22:50.640 write with all the time, and it's partly because I write with 00:22:50.640 --> 00:22:51.120 them all the time. 00:22:51.120 --> 00:22:53.200 I've had them for a long time. 00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:53.520 So 00:22:55.360 --> 00:22:58.400 you shouldn't look at this as a negative. 00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:00.080 This is not a problem. 00:23:00.080 --> 00:23:04.160 Maybe you just if this is, you know, the first serious girlfriend 00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:06.080 you had, then you this is a new experience for you. 00:23:06.320 --> 00:23:11.360 You've not developed sort of the responses and you don't know your 00:23:11.360 --> 00:23:14.720 own internal states with regard to how you're going to deal with 00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:16.960 this new part of your life. 00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:19.840 So So no, I don't think that you need to be concerned 00:23:19.840 --> 00:23:20.640 about this. 00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:23.520 Be glad that God has blessed you with this sort of woman 00:23:23.760 --> 00:23:27.040 and hopefully everything turns out well and you marry her and have 00:23:27.040 --> 00:23:30.800 some number of children, whatever number God chooses to give you. 00:23:30.800 --> 00:23:31.200 So So 00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:35.920 it I think it is important though to draw that distinction between 00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:39.360 sort of the emotional infatuation of something novel. 00:23:39.360 --> 00:23:42.880 Right. It's this it's the level of excitement of opening an Amazon 00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:45.440 box. Ooh, I have new stuff. 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:46.880 Okay, fine. 00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:49.360 That little dopamine hit, great, whatever. 00:23:49.360 --> 00:23:53.680 That's not what sustains, in this case, the most one of the 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:55.200 most important relationships in your life. 00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:58.800 That's not what builds something long term. 00:23:59.120 --> 00:24:00.800 That's a completely different thing. 00:24:00.800 --> 00:24:01.680 It's not nothing. 00:24:01.680 --> 00:24:04.000 It's not unimportant. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.000 But with regard to this, with regard to marriage, I don't think 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:09.600 you have to worry at all about that. 00:24:09.600 --> 00:24:11.040 Just put that out of your mind. 00:24:11.200 --> 00:24:14.240 Particularly if you were tired that day, then by all means sleep 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:16.800 it off and see how you feel the next day. 00:24:16.800 --> 00:24:18.160 But no. 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:22.640 Infatuation is not love, and love is not infatuation, and if The 00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:31.600 infatuation fades, that doesn't mean there's no love there. 00:24:31.760 --> 00:24:34.560 Question five. 00:24:34.560 --> 00:24:38.720 Is there a biblical principle for the punishment of a human judge 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:43.440 who releases a violent criminal who subsequently commits murder? 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:46.720 Similar to Exodus twenty-one, twenty-nine. 00:24:46.720 --> 00:24:54.720 So I'll pull that up. 00:24:54.720 --> 00:24:55.680 Let me 00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:00.160 go ahead and pull that up so everyone can see what I 00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:00.800 see. 00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:06.720 Ah yes, but if the bull was prone to gore before yesterday 00:25:06.800 --> 00:25:09.440 and before the third day and they warn its owner, and he 00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:12.400 does not restrain it and it kills a man or woman, the 00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:17.040 bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall die as well. 00:25:17.040 --> 00:25:20.000 And so of course this is one of the sections that gives 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:22.240 you a standard for 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:25.360 basically prior knowledge. 00:25:25.360 --> 00:25:27.840 If you have knowledge of the nature of nature of one of 00:25:27.840 --> 00:25:30.720 your animals and you know it is prone to hurt people. 00:25:30.720 --> 00:25:33.680 So perhaps we can think of a certain species, certain breed of 00:25:33.680 --> 00:25:34.720 dog here. 00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:37.760 But if you have an animal that is known to injure, and 00:25:37.760 --> 00:25:40.800 then it goes and does that, it is a different thing from 00:25:40.800 --> 00:25:45.200 if the animal just suddenly spooks and does something, right? 00:25:45.200 --> 00:25:49.840 And so I think that there is somewhat of a parallel we 00:25:49.840 --> 00:25:53.360 can draw out there, but I would think maybe go to Exodus 00:25:53.360 --> 00:25:53.840 twenty 00:25:54.800 --> 00:25:58.000 Let me find the verse. 00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:02.640 Yeah. Starting with verse six, I think, is going to be a 00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:04.240 little more on point here. 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:07.200 You shall not pervert judgment of a poor man in his trial, 00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:11.040 from every unjust thing said you shall keep away, an innocent and 00:26:11.040 --> 00:26:14.480 just person you shall not kill, and you shall not acquit the 00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:18.080 impious person for the sake of bribes, and you shall not take 00:26:18.080 --> 00:26:22.240 bribes, for bribes blind the eyes of those who see and corrupt 00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:23.680 just matters. 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:24.000 So 00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:28.640 judges are put in a particular position of authority and they have 00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:31.520 duties both to society and to God. 00:26:31.520 --> 00:26:35.120 And And when they fail in those duties, yes, I think it 00:26:35.120 --> 00:26:35.440 is 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:40.800 the higher magistrate, so whomever that happens to be, he then has 00:26:40.800 --> 00:26:42.800 a duty to punish them. 00:26:42.800 --> 00:26:45.920 So our system kind of makes it a bit of a hash, 00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:49.520 quite a mess as to which individual is supposed to punish whom, 00:26:49.520 --> 00:26:51.920 right? Who has authority over judges. 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:56.000 Okay. But that doesn't mean that just because we've tried to attenuate 00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:58.560 things that God's going to go, oh, your system is confusing and 00:26:58.560 --> 00:27:00.720 complex. You're morally excused. 00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:02.240 That's not how it works. 00:27:02.240 --> 00:27:07.200 Kinda ties back into the vice presidents and the LCMS calling themselves 00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:09.280 vice presidents instead of bishops. 00:27:09.280 --> 00:27:10.960 You're still getting a bishop's judgment. 00:27:11.040 --> 00:27:13.680 Doesn't matter what you call yourself or put on your business cards. 00:27:13.680 --> 00:27:14.320 So So 00:27:15.280 --> 00:27:19.680 yes, a judge who releases a violent criminal, knowing him to be 00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:24.080 a violent criminal, has perverted justice and should be punished by the 00:27:24.080 --> 00:27:25.680 higher magistrate. 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:27.920 And I think that that runs all throughout scripture. 00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:33.040 All of the places that deal with justice and God's care for 00:27:33.280 --> 00:27:37.520 you know the poor man who can't receive justice or his hatred 00:27:37.520 --> 00:27:40.960 of those who pervert justice for the sake of the wealthy, which 00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:43.440 is also in play here, right? 00:27:43.440 --> 00:27:47.280 Because you have all these organizations that advocate for not punishing the 00:27:47.280 --> 00:27:49.600 guilty. That's the same thing as a bribe. 00:27:49.600 --> 00:27:52.560 Just because money didn't exchange hands doesn't mean it doesn't count as 00:27:52.560 --> 00:27:53.360 a bribe. 00:27:53.360 --> 00:27:57.680 Because you still have the social perks and all of the articles, 00:27:57.680 --> 00:28:00.560 the op-eds and New York Times and things like that, right? 00:28:00.560 --> 00:28:02.240 Those are also bribes. 00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:07.440 Morally speaking, and so that thread that runs all throughout of scripture 00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:08.160 is very clear. 00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:15.920 Yes, judges that pervert justice must be punished. 00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:17.840 Question six. 00:28:17.840 --> 00:28:21.360 If the following three things had to be ordered from most important 00:28:21.360 --> 00:28:25.040 to least in deciding where to move, how would you rank them? 00:28:25.040 --> 00:28:28.880 Assuming only a single option is possible without the other two 00:28:29.760 --> 00:28:32.560 Land or self-sustainability is the first. 00:28:32.560 --> 00:28:37.760 The second is church community that is compatible, so for the family, 00:28:37.760 --> 00:28:41.360 and three is to be near your aging parents. 00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:46.800 The problem that I have in answering this one, and I guess 00:28:46.800 --> 00:28:50.320 I don't need the logos window up right now. 00:28:50.320 --> 00:28:52.320 The problem that I have in answering this one is it would 00:28:52.320 --> 00:28:55.360 depend on if you're asking me as me or me as a 00:28:55.360 --> 00:29:01.520 hypothetical man, because you know, the hypothetical man, well do you have 00:29:01.520 --> 00:29:04.480 a wife and children for whom you have to care? 00:29:04.480 --> 00:29:09.280 Then obviously self sustainability, land, that's going to rank higher for that 00:29:09.280 --> 00:29:10.000 man, right? 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:13.840 I don't have that particular set of duties. 00:29:13.840 --> 00:29:17.040 And so that is going to rank lower in my case, although 00:29:17.040 --> 00:29:20.160 I moved to Tennessee in part so there there's land. 00:29:20.160 --> 00:29:20.480 But 00:29:21.680 --> 00:29:25.840 I think it's going to depend on where you are in life 00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:30.960 and what you have that has been entrusted to your care. 00:29:30.960 --> 00:29:34.640 So if you're a single man, then obviously being near to your 00:29:34.640 --> 00:29:38.240 aging parents to care for them is going to rank higher because 00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:41.520 you don't have competing duties. 00:29:41.520 --> 00:29:46.000 But I think the overall answer here to ignore the restrictions on 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:49.520 the question, but to give the the answer that I would actually 00:29:49.520 --> 00:29:54.480 give. Find somewhere that you would have good employment, whether that is 00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:57.040 land and self sustainability. 00:29:57.040 --> 00:30:01.280 I've mixed feelings on you the whole homesteading thing because if society 00:30:01.280 --> 00:30:04.880 collapses are you really going to provide for everyone around you and 00:30:04.880 --> 00:30:06.000 defend it and all that? 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:10.080 But that's a sort of tangential discussion. 00:30:10.080 --> 00:30:14.080 But find somewhere that you can live provide for yourself, those entrusted 00:30:14.080 --> 00:30:16.880 to your care, move your parents with you. 00:30:16.880 --> 00:30:19.920 If they are your aging parents and it's to the point where 00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:22.960 you need to take care of them, they probably don't have that 00:30:22.960 --> 00:30:26.160 many of their friends left around them just because of the reality 00:30:26.160 --> 00:30:27.760 of age of age. 00:30:27.760 --> 00:30:31.520 So move them with you so they'll be near their grandchildren if 00:30:31.520 --> 00:30:33.520 God has blessed you with grandchildren. 00:30:33.520 --> 00:30:37.200 And if there is a good church, great, if not, start one. 00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:38.160 Same answer as always. 00:30:38.160 --> 00:30:40.960 Start a home church if you can't find a good church. 00:30:49.600 --> 00:30:50.720 Question seven. 00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:52.320 I was just looking briefly at the chat. 00:30:52.320 --> 00:30:53.440 I see there are some questions. 00:30:53.440 --> 00:30:54.960 I may note those for next time. 00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:58.800 I may not get to them tonight. 00:30:58.800 --> 00:31:02.720 Bolsheviks aside, do you think any explicit deals were made with the 00:31:02.720 --> 00:31:06.240 devil by any of the allies in either world war, as opposed 00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:10.400 to merely his usurious children. 00:31:10.560 --> 00:31:14.560 I don't know that there were any sort of explicit deals with 00:31:14.560 --> 00:31:15.120 the devil. 00:31:15.120 --> 00:31:20.640 I don't know that there was any demonic rituals involved? 00:31:20.640 --> 00:31:22.640 Other than, of course, the fact that you had a lot of 00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:26.880 Freemasons and their rituals are demonic, so that's sort of the easy 00:31:26.880 --> 00:31:29.200 answer is yes because. 00:31:29.200 --> 00:31:32.240 But was there anything sort of above and beyond that? 00:31:32.240 --> 00:31:32.800 I don't know. 00:31:32.800 --> 00:31:36.080 I don't I'm not aware of any particular evidence for it. 00:31:36.080 --> 00:31:41.520 I do know that there is a lot of involvement in the 00:31:41.520 --> 00:31:46.800 demonic and the occult with regard to the early foundations of computers 00:31:47.120 --> 00:31:51.040 and also on certainly the part of the Americans, probably the Russians 00:31:51.120 --> 00:31:53.120 as well, the space race. 00:31:53.120 --> 00:31:58.560 Because for instance, the head of JPL was good friends with Crowley. 00:31:58.560 --> 00:31:58.880 So 00:31:59.920 --> 00:32:03.200 for those who know the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, one 00:32:03.200 --> 00:32:07.360 of the most advanced for that particular area of research, and then 00:32:07.360 --> 00:32:14.080 Alistair Crowley basically created his own version of Satanism and demon worship. 00:32:14.080 --> 00:32:15.920 So yeah. 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:18.720 There's definitely stuff involved there after the war. 00:32:18.720 --> 00:32:20.880 I don't know if there was anything explicit during the war. 00:32:20.880 --> 00:32:23.360 There was a lot of weird stuff going on during the war 00:32:23.440 --> 00:32:29.920 though, so it would not surprise me in the least. 00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:31.440 Question eight. 00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:35.120 I guess this is actually related to the previous one tangentially. 00:32:35.120 --> 00:32:38.400 You've brought up 40k a couple times, so I'm curious what your 00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:40.640 involvement with the hobby is or was. 00:32:40.640 --> 00:32:42.880 I actually have never played 40K. 00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:44.880 I haven't played the games, incidentally. 00:32:44.880 --> 00:32:49.280 I've just picked up some of the lore as it were from 00:32:49.280 --> 00:32:53.360 being around others who have played the games and both the computer 00:32:53.360 --> 00:32:54.800 games and the tabletop. 00:32:54.800 --> 00:32:58.720 So it has a lot of interesting themes in it. 00:32:58.720 --> 00:33:03.920 So I think probably despite seemingly despite the intentions of the creators, 00:33:03.920 --> 00:33:06.560 it really does have some pretty strong Christian themes in it. 00:33:06.560 --> 00:33:10.880 But that's just going to come through for a creator, an author 00:33:10.960 --> 00:33:14.640 living in a Christian environment, because you're steeped in it. 00:33:14.640 --> 00:33:15.920 You can't avoid it. 00:33:15.920 --> 00:33:20.800 So but no, I haven't personally played any of it. 00:33:20.800 --> 00:33:24.320 I don't really want to get into a hobby that is going 00:33:24.320 --> 00:33:25.680 to take up more space and time. 00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:27.120 I have enough and it's expensive. 00:33:27.120 --> 00:33:30.080 I have enough of those as is. 00:33:30.080 --> 00:33:31.200 Question nine. 00:33:31.200 --> 00:33:37.280 From a Lutheran slash Christian perspective, is xenotransplantation, which then in parentheses 00:33:37.360 --> 00:33:41.680 explained, using animal organs like pig hearts, kidneys, and human patients ethically 00:33:41.680 --> 00:33:45.920 acceptable. How should Christians balance caring for human life with concerns about 00:33:45.920 --> 00:33:49.280 stewardship of animals and crossing natural boundaries? 00:33:49.280 --> 00:33:52.400 And more broadly, how should Christians think about this in light of 00:33:52.400 --> 00:33:55.360 the modern pursuit of extending human lifespan? 00:33:55.360 --> 00:33:59.360 Does this reflect faithful use of medicine or a problematic desire to 00:33:59.360 --> 00:34:01.440 push beyond God given limits? 00:34:11.440 --> 00:34:16.880 Well, without this sort of medical treatment, you would not have Stone 00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:19.600 Choir, at least not in the form that it took. 00:34:19.600 --> 00:34:22.080 Not my case, but in Woe's case. 00:34:22.080 --> 00:34:22.400 So 00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:25.040 I don't have an objection to it. 00:34:25.040 --> 00:34:28.800 I don't think that it is immoral or unethical. 00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:32.400 After all, we use animals for many different things, right? 00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:35.840 We use them as draft animals, we use them as companions, we 00:34:35.840 --> 00:34:38.480 use them for food, certainly, you know. 00:34:38.480 --> 00:34:41.200 I have chickens, I eat the eggs. 00:34:41.200 --> 00:34:44.320 I haven't slaughtered any of the chickens yet, but I certainly eat 00:34:44.320 --> 00:34:48.560 the eggs You know, I'm wearing clothing that came from animals, things 00:34:48.560 --> 00:34:48.880 like that. 00:34:48.880 --> 00:34:53.280 They didn't have to die for my clothing, but God gave all 00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:56.000 of the animals to us for our use. 00:34:56.000 --> 00:34:58.960 And yes, we have to steward them, we should not abuse them. 00:34:58.960 --> 00:35:01.680 I think that animal welfare laws are good. 00:35:01.680 --> 00:35:04.080 I think that we should have stricter ones. 00:35:04.080 --> 00:35:08.400 Now, I will note, I do not believe in animal rights. 00:35:08.400 --> 00:35:13.120 I believe that we have duties with regard to the natural world. 00:35:13.120 --> 00:35:16.080 It's not that the animal has a right that we are violating, 00:35:16.080 --> 00:35:18.080 it is that God has given us a duty that we are 00:35:18.080 --> 00:35:22.800 violating, so really it's worse because you're disobeying God, right? 00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:25.360 You can think of the Psalms, of course, against you you only 00:35:25.440 --> 00:35:26.880 have I sinned. 00:35:27.040 --> 00:35:27.360 But 00:35:28.960 --> 00:35:32.880 I do think that we should translate those things into our positive 00:35:32.880 --> 00:35:37.520 law and that we should have strict laws protecting animals with regard 00:35:37.520 --> 00:35:41.120 to their treatment and slaughter practices and things like that, we should 00:35:41.120 --> 00:35:44.080 absolutely ban kosher and halal. 00:35:44.080 --> 00:35:47.680 Animals should not be kept in cages their entire lives. 00:35:47.680 --> 00:35:52.320 We should care for the natural world as stewards, like God intended 00:35:52.320 --> 00:35:53.600 for us to be. 00:35:53.600 --> 00:35:57.760 But I don't have any objection to using, and it's really fairly 00:35:57.760 --> 00:36:00.240 limited, what you can use from an animal and a human being 00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:01.600 for a lot of reasons. 00:36:01.600 --> 00:36:05.840 Granted, if you decellularize and then you can use that matrix in 00:36:05.840 --> 00:36:08.480 order to build it back up that has more potential than just 00:36:08.480 --> 00:36:10.720 straight using the organ. 00:36:10.720 --> 00:36:12.400 But I'd object to it. 00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:15.280 And also we're slaughtering the pigs anyway, if we can use another 00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:18.800 part of the pig, that's great, then we're being less wasteful. 00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:21.680 So I don't think that we're crossing a boundary there. 00:36:21.680 --> 00:36:24.400 I think it's perfectly morally permissible. 00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:30.240 Insofar as using technology to extend human life is concerned, I don't 00:36:30.160 --> 00:36:34.480 think that God has said you have to die before you reach 00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:36.000 X age. 00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:38.800 Right. The ages that are given in scripture are sort of a 00:36:38.800 --> 00:36:42.560 ballpark of God decreasing human lifespan from what it was in the 00:36:42.560 --> 00:36:43.920 age of the patriarchs. 00:36:43.920 --> 00:36:44.320 So So 00:36:46.080 --> 00:36:50.880 can we extend our lifespan without violating something God has imposed? 00:36:50.880 --> 00:36:53.680 I think within reason, yes we can. 00:36:53.680 --> 00:36:56.720 I don't think we're going to wind up reaching the level of 00:36:56.720 --> 00:37:00.080 an in you know indeterminate lifespan. 00:37:00.080 --> 00:37:02.160 Notably, you can't be immortal. 00:37:02.160 --> 00:37:04.160 Because immortal means you can't die. 00:37:04.160 --> 00:37:08.960 Indeterminate means you are not going to die just by aging, by 00:37:08.960 --> 00:37:13.680 senescence, but you could still bu die by acute trauma, right? 00:37:14.080 --> 00:37:16.960 If a train hits you, you're still going to die, even if 00:37:16.960 --> 00:37:18.960 you wouldn't die from old age. 00:37:18.960 --> 00:37:22.320 So I don't know if we can perhaps get there at some 00:37:22.320 --> 00:37:24.800 point with advances in medical technology. 00:37:24.800 --> 00:37:27.680 Maybe that's possible because we've kind of figured out a lot of 00:37:27.680 --> 00:37:29.920 the things that contribute to aging, right? 00:37:29.920 --> 00:37:32.880 Build up a plaque in the brain, the loss of the telomeres 00:37:32.880 --> 00:37:34.480 of your DNA, things like that. 00:37:34.480 --> 00:37:34.800 So 00:37:36.080 --> 00:37:40.880 I don't think that we are playing God when we are making 00:37:40.880 --> 00:37:42.400 these marginal improvements. 00:37:42.400 --> 00:37:47.520 If we get to the level where we can actually administer some 00:37:47.520 --> 00:37:51.280 treatment that makes you have an indeterminate lifespan. 00:37:51.280 --> 00:37:55.360 You will simply live as long as you possibly can until you 00:37:55.360 --> 00:37:58.080 die by misadventure, basically. 00:37:58.080 --> 00:38:00.400 I think that's a different discussion. 00:38:00.400 --> 00:38:02.560 I think then we've probably crossed a line. 00:38:02.560 --> 00:38:04.640 I don't think we should go that far. 00:38:04.640 --> 00:38:08.480 But if we can extend the human lifespan by 10, 20 years 00:38:08.800 --> 00:38:13.920 just by, you know, various measures that maintain our health and cut 00:38:13.920 --> 00:38:18.080 down on the various burdens of disease and things like that. 00:38:18.080 --> 00:38:20.320 I don't think that's morally impermissible. 00:38:20.320 --> 00:38:22.720 I think that that's probably a good thing. 00:38:22.720 --> 00:38:27.600 And in part it's undoing a little bit of the curse of 00:38:27.600 --> 00:38:30.160 the fall, and I don't think that's wrong. 00:38:30.160 --> 00:38:33.760 Because if you were going to say that's wrong, you'd also say 00:38:33.760 --> 00:38:37.440 that spreading Christianity's wrong, because that's undoing the curse of the fall, 00:38:37.440 --> 00:38:38.880 in a small way. 00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:43.280 Or recultivating parts of the world that have been overtaken by noxious 00:38:43.360 --> 00:38:46.640 plants and animals, that's undoing the effects of the fall in some 00:38:46.640 --> 00:38:47.760 small way. 00:38:47.760 --> 00:38:49.440 I think that's permitted. 00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:50.960 Is there a boundary there? 00:38:50.960 --> 00:38:51.760 At some point, yes. 00:38:52.080 --> 00:38:54.240 So are there legitimate moral concerns? 00:38:54.240 --> 00:38:57.840 Absolutely. I just don't think we're there yet. 00:38:57.840 --> 00:39:00.880 But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be thinking about them because the 00:39:00.880 --> 00:39:04.000 last thing you want to do is have the technology, be able 00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:07.200 to flip the switch, and have never asked the moral question about 00:39:07.200 --> 00:39:08.800 whether or not you should. 00:39:08.800 --> 00:39:12.960 So that's something about which we should be thinking because clearly our 00:39:12.960 --> 00:39:14.880 science is headed in that direction. 00:39:14.880 --> 00:39:17.280 I just don't think we're very close to it. 00:39:17.280 --> 00:39:23.920 So for the smaller things like transplanting organs, repairing damage to things, 00:39:23.920 --> 00:39:26.480 you know, cleaning out plaque in the brain if we manage to 00:39:26.480 --> 00:39:28.800 figure out that technology, I think that's all fine. 00:39:28.800 --> 00:39:31.120 You know, no one wants their parents to get Alzheimer's. 00:39:31.120 --> 00:39:34.240 I think it's fine if we develop that sort of technology, it 00:39:34.240 --> 00:39:40.000 can solve those problems. 00:39:40.480 --> 00:39:44.000 A question from a previous episode that I said I would get 00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:46.240 to, and I think I'll get to it now. 00:39:46.240 --> 00:39:51.520 Question 10 is about polygyny, so I'll just address that briefly. 00:39:51.520 --> 00:39:56.880 When it comes to polygyny, there are really two separate classes of 00:39:57.520 --> 00:40:01.360 questions. The first is really monolithic. 00:40:01.360 --> 00:40:03.600 There's only one question under that umbrella. 00:40:03.600 --> 00:40:05.440 Is it morally permissible? 00:40:05.440 --> 00:40:08.800 And of course I'm answering from a Christian worldview, because I don't 00:40:08.720 --> 00:40:11.120 think really most other worldviews say no. 00:40:11.120 --> 00:40:13.760 Christianity also doesn't say no. 00:40:13.760 --> 00:40:20.720 Polygyny is morally permissible, and we know this because it's never condemned 00:40:20.720 --> 00:40:21.840 in Scripture. 00:40:21.840 --> 00:40:25.920 Right? There are those who will try to go to the restrictions 00:40:25.920 --> 00:40:28.320 on Israel having a king, right? 00:40:28.320 --> 00:40:31.200 He should not acquire many wives for himself because they will lead 00:40:31.200 --> 00:40:32.400 his heart astray. 00:40:32.400 --> 00:40:38.560 Okay. Many wives for himself is different from having three, four, five, 00:40:38.560 --> 00:40:40.160 whatever it happens to be. 00:40:40.160 --> 00:40:44.480 God was saying don't be Solomon because God, when he was giving 00:40:44.480 --> 00:40:48.160 those restrictions, knew what Solomon was going to do. 00:40:48.160 --> 00:40:51.360 Notably, God doesn't condemn what David does. 00:40:51.360 --> 00:40:54.720 David has some number of wives, I don't remember exactly how many, 00:40:54.720 --> 00:40:58.000 it's probably like twenty total, because he also has some concubines and 00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:02.640 others. So there's a pretty big difference though between 20 and a 00:41:02.640 --> 00:41:03.680 thousand, right? 00:41:03.840 --> 00:41:09.040 Because David had David had around that many, 20-ish, and Solomon had 00:41:09.040 --> 00:41:12.160 a thousand, if you include the wives and the concubines. 00:41:12.160 --> 00:41:13.760 That's obviously a problem. 00:41:13.760 --> 00:41:15.360 That's led your heart astray. 00:41:15.360 --> 00:41:19.360 You have now focused on something pretty obvious what you're focusing on 00:41:19.520 --> 00:41:21.600 instead of God. 00:41:21.600 --> 00:41:21.920 So 00:41:23.520 --> 00:41:27.920 another important part of this, and actually first I'll expand on the 00:41:27.920 --> 00:41:31.760 the morality of it because before I get to the the second 00:41:31.760 --> 00:41:35.920 part, which sort of the practicality, God tells David, and this is 00:41:35.920 --> 00:41:38.640 a key part of the argument, this is the one where you 00:41:38.640 --> 00:41:43.680 can basically shut down anyone who believes in scripture with this. 00:41:43.680 --> 00:41:49.040 When God takes the wife of Uriah the Hittite, right, Bathsheba. 00:41:49.040 --> 00:41:51.520 When sorry, when David takes the wife of 00:41:53.600 --> 00:41:55.440 when David takes Bathsheba, right? 00:41:55.440 --> 00:41:59.680 When he commits that string of sins, God sends the prophet to 00:41:59.680 --> 00:42:05.440 him. And the prophet says, in God speaking through the prophet, if 00:42:05.600 --> 00:42:08.480 these things that I had given you, and what he lists would 00:42:08.480 --> 00:42:14.560 be the house, the kingship, the wives, plural, if these things had 00:42:14.560 --> 00:42:17.440 not been enough, if you had asked me, I would have added 00:42:17.440 --> 00:42:21.440 as much more to you, meaning more of these things, a bigger 00:42:21.440 --> 00:42:25.280 kingdom, more power, more wives. 00:42:25.280 --> 00:42:28.960 God offers to David that he would have given him more wives 00:42:28.960 --> 00:42:30.800 if he had simply asked. 00:42:30.800 --> 00:42:33.680 God can't offer anything that is sin. 00:42:33.680 --> 00:42:38.400 So if God is ever offering a man more wives, polygyny cannot 00:42:38.400 --> 00:42:39.200 be sin. 00:42:39.200 --> 00:42:43.040 It's very simple, and it's something people just breeze through that part 00:42:43.040 --> 00:42:45.760 of Scripture, don't pay any attention to what's going on, and so 00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:49.120 they miss that it's very clearly teaching you something here. 00:42:49.120 --> 00:42:52.640 And so is polygyny morally permissible? 00:42:52.640 --> 00:42:55.280 Yes. And to be clear about the terms for those who aren't 00:42:55.280 --> 00:43:01.520 as familiar with them, Polygamy is having multiple spouses, multiple sexual partners. 00:43:01.520 --> 00:43:05.040 Polyandry is a woman having multiple husbands. 00:43:05.040 --> 00:43:07.920 Polygyny is a man having multiple wives. 00:43:07.920 --> 00:43:10.480 Polygyny is the only one that's morally permissible. 00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:13.440 A woman can never have multiple husbands. 00:43:13.440 --> 00:43:16.720 A woman is the wife of one man, period. 00:43:16.720 --> 00:43:19.280 And there are many places in scripture that touch on that that's 00:43:19.520 --> 00:43:21.120 really not even up for debate. 00:43:21.120 --> 00:43:24.800 I don't think anyone's going to argue against that one. 00:43:24.800 --> 00:43:27.760 The second question is the practicality. 00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:30.800 Gonna have a sip of tea before I get into that. 00:43:39.760 --> 00:43:43.280 So the practicality is different because 00:43:44.160 --> 00:43:47.760 polygyny is morally permissible. 00:43:47.760 --> 00:43:49.360 It is not morally required, right? 00:43:49.360 --> 00:43:51.200 We're not fundamentalist Mormons. 00:43:51.200 --> 00:43:54.080 We're not saying that you must have multiple wives or you don't 00:43:54.000 --> 00:43:58.480 get your own planet, whatever it happens to be. 00:43:58.480 --> 00:44:01.920 If it is necessary, if it is good for society, then it 00:44:01.920 --> 00:44:04.000 can be permitted in society. 00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:08.000 But society can also ban it, because it is not morally required. 00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:11.200 God does not say you must permit it, God says you may 00:44:11.200 --> 00:44:12.640 permit it. 00:44:12.640 --> 00:44:18.640 So, if for instance you have a large war, more men die 00:44:18.960 --> 00:44:22.080 than women in most wars. 00:44:22.080 --> 00:44:26.320 You don't need that many men to replenish a population. 00:44:26.320 --> 00:44:27.760 You do need a lot of women. 00:44:27.760 --> 00:44:32.160 And so if you have one man for every ten women because 00:44:32.160 --> 00:44:36.480 you had a disastrous war, polygyny is one of the ways that 00:44:36.480 --> 00:44:38.160 you solve the problem. 00:44:38.160 --> 00:44:39.920 It's a temporary solution. 00:44:39.920 --> 00:44:43.680 And you can also see, just by virtue of that example, it's 00:44:43.680 --> 00:44:45.760 sort of a solution to a problem. 00:44:45.760 --> 00:44:48.080 It should not be considered the norm. 00:44:48.080 --> 00:44:52.320 Because the ideal, which is a different thing, the ideal is one 00:44:52.320 --> 00:44:54.880 man, one woman for life, right? 00:44:54.960 --> 00:44:57.920 And then hopefully you die relatively near so that one doesn't have 00:44:57.920 --> 00:45:00.080 to outlive the other for ten years or whatever. 00:45:00.080 --> 00:45:01.840 That's the ideal. 00:45:01.840 --> 00:45:06.400 You don't want to have polygyny be a goal. 00:45:06.400 --> 00:45:07.280 That's not what it is. 00:45:07.280 --> 00:45:11.440 You don't necessarily want to aspire to have five, six, seven, ten 00:45:11.680 --> 00:45:18.000 wives. That is a measure that society can undertake if necessary due 00:45:18.000 --> 00:45:20.880 to some other circumstances. 00:45:20.880 --> 00:45:21.200 So 00:45:22.160 --> 00:45:24.720 maybe that's something that'll be relevant in the future. 00:45:24.720 --> 00:45:28.000 But that's the answer is that it's two parts. 00:45:28.000 --> 00:45:31.920 One, it's morally permissible, and two, we probably should not permit it 00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:35.920 as a society unless we have to. 00:45:35.920 --> 00:45:39.840 So it's a question and the answer really, not the question. 00:45:39.840 --> 00:45:43.200 It's an answer that makes a lot of people angry, but it's 00:45:43.200 --> 00:45:45.200 very clear in scripture and 00:45:46.080 --> 00:45:52.480 the reason, ironically, that it makes many in the West uncomfortable, other 00:45:52.480 --> 00:45:55.680 than obviously you have the the male feminists, which who cares what 00:45:55.680 --> 00:46:01.360 they think, they have adopted a lot of the beliefs of their 00:46:01.360 --> 00:46:06.960 ancestors because basically all of the European tribes, particularly the Western European 00:46:06.960 --> 00:46:12.480 tribes, were noted for being monogamous and for not having a whole 00:46:12.480 --> 00:46:15.120 bunch of wise polygyny was not a thing. 00:46:15.120 --> 00:46:18.720 And this was unusual compared to other parts of the world. 00:46:18.720 --> 00:46:23.040 And so that carried forward in our culture, and it's consonant with 00:46:23.040 --> 00:46:27.280 Christianity because it is the Christian ideal, but you have people sort 00:46:27.280 --> 00:46:31.760 of making this argument against polygyny because it just makes them feel 00:46:31.760 --> 00:46:36.080 weird, because it's not something our culture has practiced historically, but it's 00:46:36.080 --> 00:46:40.480 not morally impermissible, because the moral argument is very straightforward, it's very 00:46:40.480 --> 00:46:44.000 clear in scripture if you just read what's on the page, but 00:46:44.320 --> 00:46:48.240 again it's not something we aspire to, it's not something we want 00:46:48.240 --> 00:46:49.280 for society. 00:46:49.280 --> 00:46:52.480 In fact, given that it is usually a solution when you had 00:46:52.560 --> 00:46:56.000 a disastrous war, it's probably something we'd rather avoid. 00:46:56.000 --> 00:46:56.320 So 00:46:58.400 --> 00:47:01.280 And I know that many are going to sort of as a 00:47:01.280 --> 00:47:03.600 tangential subseri question to that, right? 00:47:03.600 --> 00:47:08.240 Many are going to tie it into hypergamy and promiscuity and all 00:47:08.240 --> 00:47:10.160 the problems that we have today. 00:47:10.160 --> 00:47:10.480 And 00:47:11.600 --> 00:47:13.600 it just doesn't tie historically. 00:47:13.600 --> 00:47:15.440 There's no real connection there. 00:47:15.440 --> 00:47:21.040 You don't have the hypergamy and the polygyny and the promiscuity historically. 00:47:21.040 --> 00:47:24.240 It was not part of Western European culture. 00:47:24.240 --> 00:47:28.480 So what we have today is very much a product of enemy 00:47:28.480 --> 00:47:31.360 action. It is abnormal. 00:47:31.360 --> 00:47:34.160 It stands out in history because it is not part of our 00:47:34.160 --> 00:47:35.600 history. It's not part of our culture. 00:47:35.600 --> 00:47:38.720 So there's there's no connection there. 00:47:38.720 --> 00:47:44.720 Usually when people are tying genetic bottlenecks from, you know, hundreds or 00:47:44.720 --> 00:47:46.080 thousands of years ago. 00:47:46.080 --> 00:47:48.320 They're usually looking at the result of a war. 00:47:48.320 --> 00:47:51.680 And there wasn't a genetic bottleneck because one man took all the 00:47:51.680 --> 00:47:52.880 women for himself. 00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:56.720 There was a genetic bottleneck because all the other men died. 00:47:56.720 --> 00:48:00.560 So the same sort of exception I was speaking of with regard 00:48:00.560 --> 00:48:07.680 to when polygyny could be useful for society, or effectively necessary. 00:48:07.680 --> 00:48:12.640 Question eleven, a lighthearted one, the note from the questioner. 00:48:12.640 --> 00:48:16.480 Is hyperborea just neo pagan fanfiction? 00:48:16.800 --> 00:48:21.920 I don't think there's a secret national socialist base under the ice. 00:48:21.920 --> 00:48:24.800 I don't think that that exists. 00:48:24.800 --> 00:48:27.680 We have the technology now where we could detect that sort of 00:48:27.680 --> 00:48:30.480 thing. I know someone could say, well, what if they have technology 00:48:30.480 --> 00:48:31.680 that can shield against that? 00:48:31.680 --> 00:48:32.720 Okay, well. 00:48:32.720 --> 00:48:33.680 I don't believe that. 00:48:33.680 --> 00:48:37.040 I think that a lot of the people who argue for that 00:48:37.120 --> 00:48:41.360 and are not just arguing it in jest, are basically saying the 00:48:41.360 --> 00:48:44.320 world is flat and there's an ice wall and beyond the ice 00:48:44.320 --> 00:48:47.760 wall is where all this neat stuff exists and we're basically locked 00:48:47.760 --> 00:48:49.280 in some kind of purgatory. 00:48:49.280 --> 00:48:50.720 I don't believe that. 00:48:50.720 --> 00:48:53.520 The earth is spherical. 00:48:53.520 --> 00:48:55.760 The earth is not flat. 00:48:55.760 --> 00:48:57.680 That's pretty obvious. 00:48:57.680 --> 00:48:58.640 We proved it. 00:48:58.640 --> 00:49:01.200 We went over it in the episode on conspiracy theories, right? 00:49:01.200 --> 00:49:04.160 There's retroreflectors on the moon, etcetera, etc. 00:49:04.160 --> 00:49:07.200 So no, I don't I don't believe in it to give a 00:49:07.200 --> 00:49:11.440 serious answer to a lighthearted question. 00:49:11.440 --> 00:49:12.560 Question twelve. 00:49:12.560 --> 00:49:17.040 We know that Christianity in Africa actually makes a huge positive impact. 00:49:17.040 --> 00:49:21.280 Would this also be counted as an argument for the truth of 00:49:21.280 --> 00:49:22.800 the Christian religion? 00:49:22.800 --> 00:49:26.080 As nothing else actually makes any kind of meaningful difference there except 00:49:26.240 --> 00:49:27.120 accept Christianity. 00:49:27.120 --> 00:49:29.760 That's very true. 00:49:29.760 --> 00:49:33.600 I will point out that there's a very tiny exception. 00:49:33.600 --> 00:49:40.080 Some Islamic areas in Africa are slightly better off than the animistic 00:49:40.080 --> 00:49:44.320 areas, but only because of the fact that Islam has a tendency 00:49:44.320 --> 00:49:47.360 to chop off your hands when you steal. 00:49:47.360 --> 00:49:49.360 That does make things better. 00:49:49.360 --> 00:49:55.120 So but actually improving people is different, right Stopping thieves from stealing 00:49:55.120 --> 00:49:56.080 is pretty easy. 00:49:56.080 --> 00:49:58.240 Improving men is very hard. 00:49:58.240 --> 00:50:03.600 So I would say that is actually a legitimate argument for Christianity. 00:50:03.600 --> 00:50:08.240 And this ties into the question I said that I am putting 00:50:08.240 --> 00:50:09.200 off for next time. 00:50:09.200 --> 00:50:12.960 So I won't get into it deeply, but there's obviously the fact 00:50:12.960 --> 00:50:19.280 that Shinto has, in the Japanese case, done more for them than, 00:50:19.280 --> 00:50:22.880 say, Hinduism has done for India, right? 00:50:23.200 --> 00:50:28.720 So it's not the case that every other religion is 100% negative 00:50:29.280 --> 00:50:33.280 with respect to whether it improves a population or not, right? 00:50:33.520 --> 00:50:35.120 Some are better than others. 00:50:35.120 --> 00:50:39.120 There is good in some of them, but they are missing certain 00:50:39.120 --> 00:50:42.000 things. And obviously the biggest part for Christianity is they lack the 00:50:42.000 --> 00:50:42.640 gospel, right? 00:50:42.640 --> 00:50:43.840 So they're not salvific. 00:50:43.840 --> 00:50:46.000 They can't justify you. 00:50:46.400 --> 00:50:50.560 But it doesn't mean that all of them are 100% negative. 00:50:50.560 --> 00:50:51.760 Because they're not. 00:50:51.760 --> 00:50:56.320 Insofar as they echo God's truth, they can still be good, which 00:50:56.320 --> 00:50:59.680 is why some of the pagan religions were better than others, because 00:50:59.680 --> 00:51:04.160 they had echoes of God's truth in them, they maintained certain levels 00:51:04.160 --> 00:51:09.120 of order in society and hierarchy, they punished certain crimes. 00:51:09.120 --> 00:51:11.200 Those things are all good. 00:51:11.200 --> 00:51:14.880 But yes, it has certainly been the case that Christianity has been 00:51:14.880 --> 00:51:18.400 the only thing that has ever been able to even remotely civilize 00:51:18.400 --> 00:51:19.840 the African. 00:51:19.840 --> 00:51:22.160 And there are a number of examples of that, right? 00:51:22.160 --> 00:51:25.360 You can think of some of the colonial powers, and there's the 00:51:25.360 --> 00:51:28.000 fact that the Lutheran Church has done a lot of work in 00:51:28.000 --> 00:51:31.680 Madagascar and the people there are a lot better off than they 00:51:31.680 --> 00:51:36.400 were when they were animistic ancestor worshippers and the Roman Catholic Church 00:51:36.400 --> 00:51:37.200 has also done work there. 00:51:37.200 --> 00:51:39.600 I don't mean to discount what they've done as well, but it's 00:51:39.600 --> 00:51:43.360 the biggest example in Africa of the Lutheran Church doing that sort 00:51:43.360 --> 00:51:44.800 of thing. 00:51:44.800 --> 00:51:48.480 So no, I I think that that is a legitimate argument for 00:51:48.720 --> 00:51:55.760 Christianity, sort of the argument from morality, from moral improvement of believers. 00:51:55.760 --> 00:51:57.280 I think that is legitimate. 00:51:57.280 --> 00:52:00.560 Obviously it's not going to be the totality of the argument, but 00:52:00.560 --> 00:52:02.400 that's always true for these arguments. 00:52:02.400 --> 00:52:04.240 I've pointed that out before. 00:52:04.240 --> 00:52:08.080 When you're building up an argument for God or for Christianity, you 00:52:08.080 --> 00:52:09.040 can do it in pieces. 00:52:09.040 --> 00:52:12.320 You don't have to have one monolithic argument that ta da Jesus 00:52:12.320 --> 00:52:13.760 Christ is Lord, right? 00:52:13.760 --> 00:52:15.760 That's not how it works. 00:52:15.920 --> 00:52:21.920 But this is a legitimate aspect of arguing for Christianity, that it 00:52:21.920 --> 00:52:27.200 is the only thing that has been able to create real moral 00:52:27.200 --> 00:52:33.680 improvement in those who are seemingly beyond improvement. 00:52:33.680 --> 00:52:39.040 Question 13 and then I'll do fourteen and I will get to 00:52:39.040 --> 00:52:41.920 couple questions I see pending here in the chat, maybe more than 00:52:41.920 --> 00:52:42.960 a couple. 00:52:43.360 --> 00:52:44.640 Question 13. 00:52:44.640 --> 00:52:50.720 What are your thoughts on Catholic and non-Catholic exorcism? 00:52:51.040 --> 00:52:55.760 I was actually thinking about this question handful of days ago, but 00:52:56.880 --> 00:52:58.880 I don't know that 00:52:59.840 --> 00:53:04.800 I necessarily have a fully fledged position on this. 00:53:04.800 --> 00:53:05.760 My general sense 00:53:06.640 --> 00:53:09.520 is that I think the Roman Catholics have gone too far with 00:53:09.600 --> 00:53:13.200 ritualism and they rely on the ritual instead of God to a 00:53:13.200 --> 00:53:16.640 degree. I'm not going to say obviously, absolutely, because they're still invoking 00:53:16.640 --> 00:53:17.360 God and such. 00:53:17.360 --> 00:53:21.360 They invoke Mary too, which obviously I object to that as a 00:53:21.360 --> 00:53:23.680 Protestant as a Lutheran. 00:53:23.680 --> 00:53:28.640 But I think that non-Roman Catholics, I think that the rest of 00:53:28.640 --> 00:53:31.760 us have actually gone overboard in the other direction. 00:53:31.840 --> 00:53:35.200 Lutherans a little less so because there are actually Lutheran rites of 00:53:35.200 --> 00:53:39.840 exorcism. They are little used these days, and many of them remain 00:53:39.840 --> 00:53:45.040 untranslated in Latin or German in texts that are perhaps even not 00:53:45.040 --> 00:53:47.440 digitized or scanned at this point. 00:53:47.440 --> 00:53:49.600 So a lot of people even know there are Lutheran rites of 00:53:49.600 --> 00:53:50.720 exorcism. There are. 00:53:50.720 --> 00:53:52.320 We carried that over. 00:53:52.320 --> 00:53:54.080 We never abandoned that. 00:53:54.080 --> 00:53:57.600 But I think that the rest of Protestantism sort of abandoned all 00:53:57.600 --> 00:53:58.640 of the ritual. 00:53:58.640 --> 00:54:01.920 And I don't think ritual plays no part in it. 00:54:01.920 --> 00:54:06.560 I don't think that it is the ritual itself that casts out 00:54:06.560 --> 00:54:07.680 the demon. 00:54:07.680 --> 00:54:11.440 But I believe in ritualistic worship of God, right? 00:54:11.440 --> 00:54:13.040 That's what the liturgy is. 00:54:13.040 --> 00:54:16.800 So So I don't think that it is inappropriate or should even 00:54:16.800 --> 00:54:21.600 be surprising that ritual plays some role in casting out demons, in 00:54:21.600 --> 00:54:25.520 exorcism. So I think that it's not that I'm trying to be, 00:54:25.520 --> 00:54:27.120 you know, a centrist and oh both sides are bad. 00:54:27.120 --> 00:54:29.840 No, I just think the Roman Catholics fell off the horse on 00:54:29.840 --> 00:54:33.520 one side, and most of Protestantism fell off the horse on the 00:54:33.520 --> 00:54:34.560 other side. 00:54:34.560 --> 00:54:38.960 So it is an area where I think we have all, as 00:54:38.960 --> 00:54:40.800 Christians, been lax. 00:54:40.800 --> 00:54:43.680 We have stopped taking the demonics seriously. 00:54:43.680 --> 00:54:47.120 We have stopped dealing with these problems that are very real. 00:54:47.120 --> 00:54:49.920 We used to perform a house blessing ceremony, which was basically an 00:54:50.400 --> 00:54:52.480 exorcism and a blessing for the house. 00:54:52.480 --> 00:54:55.360 That was a normal thing, and by we I mean Lutherans. 00:54:55.360 --> 00:54:57.360 That was something Lutherans used to do. 00:54:57.360 --> 00:55:00.240 I know that there are now a handful of Lutheran pastors who 00:55:00.240 --> 00:55:02.880 have started doing that for their congregants and that's great. 00:55:02.880 --> 00:55:03.920 But that should be normal. 00:55:03.920 --> 00:55:06.560 That should be a standard thing that we do. 00:55:06.560 --> 00:55:12.640 That should not be something that we have effectively abandoned, particularly in 00:55:12.640 --> 00:55:16.400 the American context, because we never sort of did a thorough spiritual 00:55:16.400 --> 00:55:18.880 cleansing of this land. 00:55:18.880 --> 00:55:23.520 There were people here worshipping demons, and in some cases pretty horrible 00:55:23.520 --> 00:55:26.000 demons, for hundreds of years. 00:55:26.000 --> 00:55:28.400 We should have taken that more seriously. 00:55:28.400 --> 00:55:32.080 We should probably exercise every square meter of this land, every square 00:55:32.080 --> 00:55:35.520 foot, whichever measuring system you want to use. 00:55:35.520 --> 00:55:35.840 But 00:55:36.800 --> 00:55:42.160 no, I I don't necessarily say that either one is superior to 00:55:42.160 --> 00:55:45.760 the other I think that we should take it more seriously as 00:55:45.760 --> 00:55:49.360 Christians. It's an area that we need to invest more time. 00:55:49.360 --> 00:55:53.520 And I think having exorcists should simply be a part of being 00:55:53.520 --> 00:55:54.400 a church. 00:55:54.400 --> 00:55:58.400 Not every parish needs one, but certainly you should have a handful 00:55:58.400 --> 00:56:01.280 of them at the level of bishop, whatever it is in your 00:56:01.280 --> 00:56:03.200 particular denomination. 00:56:06.320 --> 00:56:08.000 Question 14. 00:56:08.000 --> 00:56:10.320 Pulling up logos again for this one. 00:56:12.160 --> 00:56:14.800 Your thoughts on John 4 22. 00:56:14.800 --> 00:56:17.920 Jesus tells a Samaritan woman, You worship what you do not know, 00:56:17.920 --> 00:56:21.920 we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 00:56:21.920 --> 00:56:26.640 This is a beloved passage for neopagans and others. 00:56:26.640 --> 00:56:36.960 So let me pull that up here. 00:56:37.280 --> 00:56:41.920 So this is one of those places where the issue is what 00:56:41.920 --> 00:56:43.040 do you mean by Jew? 00:56:43.040 --> 00:56:46.560 Right? Not to go over that whole thing again, because I've gone 00:56:46.560 --> 00:56:48.560 over it so many times that is point to the episode. 00:56:48.560 --> 00:56:51.200 Go listen to the episode of Stone Choir dealing with the term 00:56:51.200 --> 00:56:53.760 Jew and Hebrew Israelite, etc. 00:56:54.000 --> 00:56:56.480 So of course, helpfully 00:56:57.920 --> 00:57:01.040 Lagos does not show you the interstitial, so I guess I will 00:57:01.040 --> 00:57:01.840 bring up 00:57:02.720 --> 00:57:06.400 this instead so we can look at the Greek 00:57:08.880 --> 00:57:09.200 because 00:57:10.800 --> 00:57:14.320 we obviously want to look at the Greek for this. 00:57:14.320 --> 00:57:15.520 What is being said here? 00:57:15.680 --> 00:57:17.360 Help if I pull up the right verse when the 00:57:19.440 --> 00:57:21.440 Not James. 00:57:21.440 --> 00:57:25.600 So when it says Jews there, it does not actually 00:57:26.640 --> 00:57:30.480 in the actual language of scripture, which is to say the Greek 00:57:30.800 --> 00:57:33.200 pull up the Nestleand. 00:57:33.200 --> 00:57:38.720 What it says there is Judeans Udaon. 00:57:38.720 --> 00:57:39.040 So 00:57:40.160 --> 00:57:41.760 does it come from the Judeans? 00:57:41.760 --> 00:57:43.840 And of course I have the interstitial up my screen, but you 00:57:43.840 --> 00:57:46.960 can't see it because helpfully it does not highlight it. 00:57:46.960 --> 00:57:49.440 But if I highlight Jews 00:57:52.480 --> 00:57:56.480 Well, the software is not being cooperative, but the word there is 00:57:56.560 --> 00:57:58.160 of course, like I said, Judean. 00:57:58.160 --> 00:58:00.640 And so what is really meant here, what is he saying? 00:58:00.640 --> 00:58:04.400 That's the point that is important here I want to get across. 00:58:04.400 --> 00:58:05.280 What he is saying 00:58:06.320 --> 00:58:09.200 is that I am the Christ. 00:58:09.200 --> 00:58:13.040 Salvation is from the tribe of Judah. 00:58:13.040 --> 00:58:15.040 I am the Christ. 00:58:15.040 --> 00:58:17.040 I am the lion of the tribe of Judah. 00:58:17.040 --> 00:58:18.800 That's what he's telling this woman. 00:58:18.800 --> 00:58:19.200 And so 00:58:20.240 --> 00:58:25.440 obviously there's the conflict there between the Samaritans, who are the ten 00:58:25.600 --> 00:58:30.640 northern tribes having been miscegenated into something other than Israelite, other than 00:58:30.640 --> 00:58:33.200 Hebrew, by the Assyrians. 00:58:33.360 --> 00:58:36.800 They wanted to worship on their mountain, right? 00:58:36.800 --> 00:58:39.600 This is our mountain, it's in our territory, we want to worship 00:58:39.600 --> 00:58:45.280 here. He's pointing out that the hatred the Samaritans have for Jerusalem 00:58:45.280 --> 00:58:52.160 is wrong because the Christ was prophesied to die in Jerusalem, outside 00:58:52.160 --> 00:58:56.080 the walls, but in Jerusalem, not on the Samaritan mountain. 00:58:56.080 --> 00:58:57.920 So that's what he's pointing out. 00:58:57.920 --> 00:59:01.920 He's pointing out that scripture, when it says that the Messiah, the 00:59:01.920 --> 00:59:04.720 Christ, is going to come from the line of Judah, is speaking 00:59:04.720 --> 00:59:05.200 the truth. 00:59:05.200 --> 00:59:08.240 Salvation is from the Judeans, which is just the tribe of Judah, 00:59:08.240 --> 00:59:10.880 plus some Benjaminites and a handful of Levites. 00:59:11.120 --> 00:59:17.280 And also, you are wrong with regard to hating Jerusalem for the 00:59:17.280 --> 00:59:20.160 reasons you hate it. 00:59:20.160 --> 00:59:23.120 So it it's just one of those things people like to bring 00:59:23.120 --> 00:59:25.840 up and they like to try to argue oh well it's scripture 00:59:25.840 --> 00:59:28.800 is saying the Jews are chosen No scripture is saying that Christ 00:59:28.800 --> 00:59:33.360 came from the line of Judah, which if we didn't have translators 00:59:33.360 --> 00:59:36.000 playing games with these terms would be much clearer. 00:59:36.000 --> 00:59:39.360 It should probably say Judean there, Judean, however you want to pronounce 00:59:39.360 --> 00:59:43.520 it. I always pronounce it like the Latin, but it should say 00:59:43.520 --> 00:59:44.320 that instead. 00:59:44.320 --> 00:59:47.280 They play the same sort of game with the word Gentiles, which 00:59:47.280 --> 00:59:49.760 shouldn't appear in anyone's scripture. 00:59:49.760 --> 00:59:52.640 Because we have the words in English for what that actually is. 00:59:52.640 --> 00:59:57.600 It either means heathen or nations, depending on the context. 00:59:57.600 --> 01:00:02.320 And depending on the word sometimes, because ethnos, ethnikos, but these are 01:00:02.320 --> 01:00:05.680 little games that translators play when they're trying to Judaize. 01:00:05.680 --> 01:00:07.920 And it is a problem we have in pretty much all of 01:00:07.920 --> 01:00:12.640 the translations, but it does open the door for some neo-pagans and 01:00:12.640 --> 01:00:14.080 others to play 01:00:15.200 --> 01:00:19.840 really dishonest games, because most of them actually know the the counter-arguments, 01:00:19.840 --> 01:00:22.960 they're just using it to deceive the weak. 01:00:22.960 --> 01:00:26.400 Which incidentally is what Satan likes to do. 01:00:26.400 --> 01:00:29.760 Now I will try to look through the chat to see if 01:00:29.760 --> 01:00:31.920 we have some questions in the chat. 01:00:35.440 --> 01:00:37.680 Got a sip of tea while I do that. 01:00:47.520 --> 01:00:50.560 My Lutheran church uses Jewish wine. 01:00:50.560 --> 01:00:53.280 Yes, a lot of people love to use the Menishevitz. 01:00:53.440 --> 01:00:55.120 Then there's whatever the other one is. 01:00:55.120 --> 01:00:58.480 I am conflicted between not wanting to give them money but laughing 01:00:58.480 --> 01:01:01.280 at Satan's minions work being used to bless us in the Eucharist. 01:01:01.280 --> 01:01:02.160 Any thoughts? 01:01:02.160 --> 01:01:02.480 So 01:01:03.840 --> 01:01:06.960 The goal of the Jews with creating their wine is to make 01:01:06.960 --> 01:01:10.160 wine that is unfit for the Eucharist. 01:01:10.160 --> 01:01:11.040 That's their goal. 01:01:11.360 --> 01:01:16.160 Because their goal is evil, and generally that's what they're doing. 01:01:16.160 --> 01:01:16.480 So 01:01:17.840 --> 01:01:25.360 is it an invalid sacrament if you use what is effectively mutilated 01:01:25.360 --> 01:01:26.880 and sweetened wine? 01:01:27.120 --> 01:01:29.920 I don't know that it invalidates the sacrament. 01:01:29.920 --> 01:01:32.800 I think it is inappropriate, and I don't think it is something 01:01:33.280 --> 01:01:34.320 we should approach. 01:01:34.320 --> 01:01:37.680 You know, it's the old example I've given so many times. 01:01:37.680 --> 01:01:40.240 Don't stand right on the edge of the cliff. 01:01:40.240 --> 01:01:42.640 You know, stand back a little ways. 01:01:42.640 --> 01:01:42.960 So 01:01:43.920 --> 01:01:47.440 just buy your church a case of wine. 01:01:47.440 --> 01:01:49.360 They're not going to say no. 01:01:49.360 --> 01:01:49.680 So 01:01:50.960 --> 01:01:54.400 have it reserved at the local liquor store and have your pastor 01:01:54.400 --> 01:01:56.240 pick it up if you think he's going to be concerned about 01:01:56.240 --> 01:01:58.240 you personally delivering the case of wine. 01:01:58.400 --> 01:02:02.320 You know, you can buy a full case, it'll be sealed, possibly 01:02:02.320 --> 01:02:04.160 even from the winery. 01:02:04.160 --> 01:02:05.760 Deliver that to him. 01:02:05.760 --> 01:02:08.880 They're probably not going to say no to free wine. 01:02:08.880 --> 01:02:10.560 Most people don't. 01:02:10.560 --> 01:02:14.080 So that's an easy way to get around the problem, right? 01:02:14.080 --> 01:02:18.640 You basically are earmarking your tithe and instead of earmarking it for 01:02:18.640 --> 01:02:21.280 the church to use, you're just using it for the benefit of 01:02:21.280 --> 01:02:21.920 the church. 01:02:21.920 --> 01:02:23.760 That's something you can do. 01:02:23.600 --> 01:02:26.960 You know, I've bought things for my churches before instead of, you 01:02:26.960 --> 01:02:30.080 know, tithing or in addition to tithing just depending. 01:02:30.080 --> 01:02:32.560 So that's a perfectly fine way to solve that. 01:02:32.560 --> 01:02:35.360 They should not be using the Jewish wine. 01:02:35.360 --> 01:02:37.760 They should be using natural wine. 01:02:37.760 --> 01:02:42.720 You can find various explanations of what the Jews do to their 01:02:42.720 --> 01:02:46.000 wine. And then maybe send one to your pastor, he can look 01:02:46.000 --> 01:02:46.880 at it. 01:02:46.880 --> 01:02:49.760 It's going to depend on sort of the relationship you have with 01:02:49.760 --> 01:02:54.480 that pastor and what sort of pastor he is, some of them 01:02:54.800 --> 01:02:55.120 will 01:02:56.400 --> 01:02:59.120 be more open to that than others. 01:02:59.120 --> 01:03:02.800 So if he's open to it by all means, lay out the 01:03:02.800 --> 01:03:05.600 argument for him, but I think the easiest way is just buy 01:03:05.600 --> 01:03:06.640 the wine yourself. 01:03:06.640 --> 01:03:10.320 If that obviously maybe it happens to coincide with exactly what you're 01:03:10.320 --> 01:03:11.120 going to tithe. 01:03:11.120 --> 01:03:13.040 I don't know how much you are tithing. 01:03:13.040 --> 01:03:15.360 I don't know how much the wine is going to cost. 01:03:15.360 --> 01:03:18.160 You don't have to buy super expensive wine. 01:03:18.160 --> 01:03:22.640 Not because communion has to use cheap wine, but because super expensive 01:03:22.640 --> 01:03:24.080 wine is usually a ripoff. 01:03:24.080 --> 01:03:26.400 Just a little tip there for guys who aren't as familiar with 01:03:26.400 --> 01:03:30.080 wine. I think that's probably the best way to handle it though. 01:03:34.480 --> 01:03:36.640 Question sixteen. 01:03:36.640 --> 01:03:38.320 I guess he was question. 01:03:38.320 --> 01:03:39.920 Are Messianic Jews Christians? 01:03:39.920 --> 01:03:41.440 Almost always no? 01:03:41.440 --> 01:03:47.120 Because if they're Christians, they would call themselves Christians Christians, instead of 01:03:47.120 --> 01:03:49.840 calling themselves messianic Jews. 01:03:49.840 --> 01:03:53.200 There's a reason they're calling themselves that, right? 01:03:53.200 --> 01:03:56.960 If a man calls himself something, you should probably listen, he's probably 01:03:56.960 --> 01:04:01.360 telling you something about himself. 01:04:01.600 --> 01:04:04.480 Just going to paste these into my 01:04:06.240 --> 01:04:16.800 thread for the episode here so I have them for later. 01:04:16.800 --> 01:04:22.720 I'm going to save this one about eschatology for next time. 01:04:22.720 --> 01:04:24.720 Question 17. 01:04:24.720 --> 01:04:26.400 Where'd you get the teapot? 01:04:26.400 --> 01:04:30.640 It is from a German company. 01:04:30.640 --> 01:04:34.160 It is oh what's the it's trend glass. 01:04:35.040 --> 01:04:43.680 T-R-E-N-D-G-L-A-S. And it is in the German city of Jena with J-E-N-A. 01:04:43.680 --> 01:04:48.080 It's a city that has made glassware for a very long time. 01:04:48.080 --> 01:04:52.080 And the nice thing about it is that it is Pyrex 01:04:53.200 --> 01:04:54.560 borosilicate glass. 01:04:54.560 --> 01:04:56.720 Pyrex being obviously the trade name. 01:04:56.720 --> 01:05:00.000 It is the real stuff, so it's safe to have, as you 01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:02.480 can see, the candle went out now, but as you can as 01:05:02.480 --> 01:05:06.960 you could have seen, you can apply fire directly, it handles boiling 01:05:06.960 --> 01:05:09.680 water, it can go in the dishwasher, all these things. 01:05:09.680 --> 01:05:11.440 So it's a great option. 01:05:11.440 --> 01:05:15.440 And it's not really actually particularly expensive, even to get it shipped 01:05:15.440 --> 01:05:16.160 from Germany. 01:05:16.160 --> 01:05:20.000 So if you happen to be somewhere on the east coast, maybe 01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:23.760 you can get it shipped from a couple places in New York. 01:05:23.760 --> 01:05:26.720 But other than that, you'll probably have to get it shipped from 01:05:26.720 --> 01:05:29.920 Germany. But like I said, it's not as expensive as you might 01:05:29.920 --> 01:05:32.480 think for what it is, and you'll probably buy it once and 01:05:32.480 --> 01:05:34.080 have it for life. 01:05:34.080 --> 01:05:38.080 Unless you drop it. 01:05:44.080 --> 01:05:47.680 And the tea glasses are also from the same place. 01:05:47.680 --> 01:05:49.440 And the little stand. 01:05:49.440 --> 01:05:54.000 The candles, like I've said before, I this I brought this up 01:05:54.000 --> 01:05:55.200 on X. 01:05:55.200 --> 01:06:01.360 You're going to be have to choose between paraffin wax and beeswax. 01:06:01.360 --> 01:06:06.800 Beeswax is significantly more expensive it is better, it burns hotter, it 01:06:06.800 --> 01:06:12.800 burns cleaner, it doesn't produce the volatile compounds that paraffin wax produces 01:06:12.960 --> 01:06:16.400 that are not particularly great for you. 01:06:16.400 --> 01:06:21.760 But if you're in a well-ventilated room, the difference isn't that big. 01:06:21.760 --> 01:06:22.880 I use both. 01:06:22.880 --> 01:06:24.720 I have both sitting over there. 01:06:24.720 --> 01:06:30.880 But the beeswax is superior. 01:06:37.120 --> 01:06:42.240 I have a question about the verses in scripture that deal with 01:06:42.240 --> 01:06:46.880 wives wives submitting to their husbands, I'm going to note that one 01:06:47.120 --> 01:06:50.240 for next time I want to look at all of the spots 01:06:50.240 --> 01:06:52.400 where it says that before I give an answer. 01:06:52.400 --> 01:06:52.720 So 01:06:54.480 --> 01:06:55.280 add that 01:06:57.600 --> 01:06:58.640 To my list 01:07:08.720 --> 01:07:09.680 Question 01:07:10.720 --> 01:07:14.640 is, eighteen, I believe. 01:07:14.640 --> 01:07:15.440 I believe. 01:07:15.440 --> 01:07:16.800 Yes, question eighteen. 01:07:16.800 --> 01:07:20.560 Do you have any thoughts on why certain degeneracies such as bikinis, 01:07:20.560 --> 01:07:26.000 nudity, fry copper, culture, free body culture nudity, same sort of thing. 01:07:26.000 --> 01:07:29.360 Took such a stronghold in the West to an extent surpassing even 01:07:29.360 --> 01:07:32.240 the third world, is it just liberalism? 01:07:32.480 --> 01:07:34.800 I think that it is largely liberalism. 01:07:34.800 --> 01:07:40.800 It is partly a rejection of Christianity. 01:07:40.800 --> 01:07:46.960 Not entirely though, because for instance in Germany, nude sunbathing and things 01:07:46.960 --> 01:07:51.440 like that have a pretty long history really back into the pagan 01:07:51.440 --> 01:07:55.200 times and just never really went entirely away. 01:07:55.200 --> 01:07:58.880 I'm always a little bit conflicted on it, partly, you know, German 01:07:58.880 --> 01:08:03.040 blood, but It obviously is better if we tamp down on those 01:08:03.040 --> 01:08:06.480 things and at the very least don't have coed 01:08:07.920 --> 01:08:09.280 nude anything. 01:08:09.280 --> 01:08:11.520 That's obviously a temptation. 01:08:11.520 --> 01:08:12.080 It's a problem. 01:08:12.080 --> 01:08:16.800 We should not be advocating for that in Christian societies. 01:08:16.800 --> 01:08:21.040 I don't object to you know spas that have separate facilities for 01:08:21.040 --> 01:08:23.440 men and women if you don't have to wear a swimsuit. 01:08:23.440 --> 01:08:24.320 I don't object to that. 01:08:24.320 --> 01:08:25.840 I don't care. 01:08:25.840 --> 01:08:26.880 That's not a problem. 01:08:26.880 --> 01:08:29.040 Over in Europe, a lot of times those are co-ed. 01:08:29.040 --> 01:08:32.480 I don't think that's permissible in a Christian society. 01:08:32.480 --> 01:08:33.760 I don't think we should allow that. 01:08:33.760 --> 01:08:36.640 I think we should certainly tamp down on that. 01:08:36.640 --> 01:08:36.960 But 01:08:37.840 --> 01:08:40.560 I do think that it basically just took hold because of 01:08:41.840 --> 01:08:48.800 the post-war rejection of Christianity, sort of reactionary movements, trying to say, 01:08:48.800 --> 01:08:52.080 look at how advanced and liberal and free we are. 01:08:52.240 --> 01:08:53.360 Look at all the liberty we have. 01:08:53.360 --> 01:08:56.320 Particularly you saw a lot of that in say East Germany, where 01:08:56.320 --> 01:08:59.120 they're trying to say, look at how free we actually are. 01:08:59.120 --> 01:09:02.240 The West says that we're enslaved and really it's the capital, you 01:09:02.240 --> 01:09:03.360 know, all that stuff. 01:09:03.360 --> 01:09:03.680 But 01:09:04.720 --> 01:09:07.360 no, it's by and large not good. 01:09:07.360 --> 01:09:09.280 And it's something that we should 01:09:10.160 --> 01:09:14.960 We should largely ban in a Christian society. 01:09:14.960 --> 01:09:17.120 And I know that there are going to be people who object 01:09:17.120 --> 01:09:17.440 to that. 01:09:17.440 --> 01:09:19.200 You know, I like I said, I have some mixed feelings on 01:09:19.200 --> 01:09:21.600 it, but at the very least, if you're going to have some 01:09:21.600 --> 01:09:25.440 of that in your society, then clearly have it sex segregated. 01:09:25.440 --> 01:09:28.800 I don't think that's objectionable. 01:09:28.800 --> 01:09:31.040 I don't think that's as much of a an issue of, you 01:09:31.040 --> 01:09:32.240 know, modesty or whatever. 01:09:32.240 --> 01:09:35.120 I think that's mostly an issue of men and women not being 01:09:35.120 --> 01:09:39.440 in mixed company in inappropriate attire because only your spouse should see 01:09:39.440 --> 01:09:40.800 you like that. 01:09:40.800 --> 01:09:44.560 So yes, there should also be public decency laws with regard to 01:09:44.560 --> 01:09:49.440 swimwear, particularly for women. 01:09:49.440 --> 01:09:53.040 And someone mentioned that, you know, we have beautiful women, so that's 01:09:53.040 --> 01:09:53.520 part of it. 01:09:53.520 --> 01:09:54.400 It is. 01:09:54.400 --> 01:09:56.960 Because you know, that's the reality of it. 01:09:56.960 --> 01:10:00.080 There's some parts of the world where you would definitely not want 01:10:00.080 --> 01:10:03.440 to see everyone naked. 01:10:03.440 --> 01:10:04.400 Question 01:10:05.520 --> 01:10:08.960 twenty no, it's question nineteen rather. 01:10:08.960 --> 01:10:11.760 Why do we hear so much about German occult practices during the 01:10:11.760 --> 01:10:13.600 war? That's a very easy answer. 01:10:13.600 --> 01:10:16.640 Post-war propaganda, and during the war as well. 01:10:16.640 --> 01:10:22.480 Atrocity propaganda was a very common and popular thing, particularly by the 01:10:22.480 --> 01:10:26.480 British, and they did this particularly against the Germans, but against others 01:10:26.480 --> 01:10:30.640 as well, and obviously it was Jewish involvement, particularly in the American 01:10:30.640 --> 01:10:34.880 context, but also in the British context for propaganda to gin people 01:10:34.880 --> 01:10:37.440 up to get ready to go to war. 01:10:37.440 --> 01:10:40.000 It's all nonsense. 01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:44.080 And the only thing that they had was they could point out 01:10:44.080 --> 01:10:47.920 that, you know, the SS had nighttime rallies with torches and oh 01:10:48.000 --> 01:10:49.280 look, it's paganism. 01:10:49.280 --> 01:10:50.480 It's not paganism. 01:10:50.480 --> 01:10:52.640 It's having fire at night, it's a bonfire. 01:10:53.040 --> 01:10:55.120 Is it paganism when you go to the beach and have a 01:10:55.120 --> 01:11:02.080 bonfire? It's such It's so incredibly transparent and dumb, but it works. 01:11:02.080 --> 01:11:05.760 Because if you can hammer home a simple point with propaganda, even 01:11:05.760 --> 01:11:08.320 if it's a lie, many times it will be effective. 01:11:08.320 --> 01:11:09.760 So that's why you hear so much about it. 01:11:09.760 --> 01:11:12.800 But if you start to dig into it, it all evaporates because 01:11:12.800 --> 01:11:15.120 there's no evidence for it. 01:11:15.120 --> 01:11:17.680 You start finding Christianity everywhere you dig. 01:11:27.360 --> 01:11:30.240 Guess I should put that into the show notes. 01:11:30.240 --> 01:11:37.280 I remember I answered that one. 01:11:37.360 --> 01:11:41.200 I think that is probably about it for this episode, but I'll 01:11:41.120 --> 01:11:43.680 see if there's maybe one more I can answer quickly. 01:11:52.960 --> 01:11:56.240 I I did see the question about Galatians 3.28 for that. 01:11:56.240 --> 01:12:00.880 People rightly mentioned it's about salvation, but also the episode on Galatians 01:12:00.960 --> 01:12:03.280 3.28. I just go listen to that. 01:12:03.280 --> 01:12:04.640 We covered it quite thoroughly. 01:12:04.640 --> 01:12:08.080 I've covered it elsewhere as well, but it is one hundred percent 01:12:08.080 --> 01:12:08.960 about salvation. 01:12:08.960 --> 01:12:14.080 It's not about obviously anything else, because then we would have to 01:12:14.080 --> 01:12:16.240 say that men and women don't exist. 01:12:16.240 --> 01:12:18.960 And no one is really arguing that. 01:12:18.960 --> 01:12:21.200 That's the case with regard to salvation, right? 01:12:21.200 --> 01:12:23.600 You can be saved if you're a man or a woman, if 01:12:23.600 --> 01:12:27.680 you are racially X or Y, and you can sub out whatever 01:12:27.680 --> 01:12:28.160 you want there. 01:12:28.160 --> 01:12:29.200 You don't say Jew or Greek. 01:12:29.200 --> 01:12:31.680 You can say Russian or German, you can say German or Japanese. 01:12:31.680 --> 01:12:32.960 Same thing works. 01:12:32.960 --> 01:12:36.560 And obviously slavery free hierarchy. 01:12:37.040 --> 01:12:41.680 Condemning in part the beliefs of the time, which basically thought that 01:12:41.680 --> 01:12:44.960 if you were higher up the hierarchy and therefore had greater wealth 01:12:44.960 --> 01:12:50.400 and resources you could contribute more to whatever, buy a synagogue, open 01:12:50.400 --> 01:12:53.760 a synagogue, build something, and then you were more holy because you'd 01:12:53.760 --> 01:12:54.880 done that thing. 01:12:54.880 --> 01:12:57.040 That's also part of what's being condemned there. 01:12:58.560 --> 01:13:00.240 And I think I will use 01:13:01.280 --> 01:13:05.360 this as the last question for this episode. 01:13:05.360 --> 01:13:10.160 If God uses terraforming to punish us in our lands, the Sahara, 01:13:10.160 --> 01:13:15.200 locking up India, does this suggest God found something particularly wicked in 01:13:15.200 --> 01:13:22.240 Antarctica? So for that, that's question twenty unless I misnumbered something 01:13:22.240 --> 01:13:26.160 there. I don't think that it means God found anything particularly wicked 01:13:26.640 --> 01:13:33.360 there, because it seems like God intended for the climate cycles and 01:13:33.360 --> 01:13:38.080 the particular way that heat distributes in on our on our planet, 01:13:38.080 --> 01:13:39.120 around our planet. 01:13:39.120 --> 01:13:41.600 It seems like that was part of his intended design. 01:13:41.600 --> 01:13:47.120 So I don't think Antarctica was intended to be a lush rainforest. 01:13:47.120 --> 01:13:50.400 I think that it was intended to be basically the air conditioning 01:13:50.400 --> 01:13:51.360 for the planet. 01:13:51.360 --> 01:13:55.360 So So I think that's just how God designed Earth to be. 01:13:55.360 --> 01:14:00.880 I don't think it was punishment for wickedness and perhaps the Sahara 01:14:00.880 --> 01:14:02.640 is punishment for wickedness. 01:14:02.640 --> 01:14:07.280 The Himalayas are sort of a containment zone, but God built the 01:14:07.280 --> 01:14:11.600 geography of the world in such a way that people groups naturally 01:14:11.600 --> 01:14:15.120 spread and then spread out in certain geographies, right? 01:14:15.120 --> 01:14:18.400 You spread up to the mountain range, you spread out to the 01:14:18.400 --> 01:14:20.000 sea, things like that. 01:14:20.000 --> 01:14:23.840 And as we pointed out a number of times in Stone Choir, 01:14:23.840 --> 01:14:28.560 if you look at the Earth from the satellite view, you can 01:14:28.560 --> 01:14:33.760 actually see all the natural nations instead of the artificial ones, because 01:14:33.760 --> 01:14:38.160 you can see the geographic boundaries that are real as opposed to 01:14:38.160 --> 01:14:42.320 the man-made lines that are fake that are artificial. 01:14:42.320 --> 01:14:48.080 So clearly the subcontinent is meant to be separated from others. 01:14:48.080 --> 01:14:52.560 South the sub-Saharan Africa is meant to be separated from others. 01:14:52.560 --> 01:14:56.480 That's why there's a giant desert that you can't cross without, you 01:14:56.480 --> 01:14:59.200 know, very high odds of dying even today. 01:14:59.200 --> 01:15:02.960 All of these areas, and then the various mountain ranges and things 01:15:02.960 --> 01:15:04.560 like that. 01:15:04.560 --> 01:15:08.320 We should account for those natural boundaries more than we do, and 01:15:08.320 --> 01:15:10.560 we should respect them more than we do. 01:15:10.560 --> 01:15:14.000 But no, I don't think that Antarctica was particularly wicked and so 01:15:14.320 --> 01:15:16.400 it's covered in ice and inhospitable. 01:15:16.400 --> 01:15:19.200 I think it's just part of how God designed the the air 01:15:19.200 --> 01:15:20.720 currents and things to work. 01:15:20.720 --> 01:15:23.440 You can look up a map of how the the airflow works 01:15:23.520 --> 01:15:27.040 and all the the cold masses versus the warm masses and things 01:15:27.040 --> 01:15:27.920 like that. 01:15:27.920 --> 01:15:32.160 In my case, I particularly have the example of I used to 01:15:32.160 --> 01:15:34.880 live on the west coast right near the beach. 01:15:35.280 --> 01:15:38.720 Despite what you may think about Southern California, you think that oh 01:15:38.880 --> 01:15:41.920 Southern California, always sunny, warm paradise. 01:15:41.920 --> 01:15:47.120 The water's cold because it comes down from the North Pole. 01:15:47.120 --> 01:15:50.480 Whereas here on the East Coast, I'm not coastal at this point, 01:15:50.480 --> 01:15:54.240 but I've gone and visited the beaches, the water is very warm 01:15:54.240 --> 01:15:56.720 because it comes up from the equator. 01:15:56.720 --> 01:16:01.520 So that's basically there's a giant climate battery, as it were, that 01:16:01.520 --> 01:16:05.200 just makes sure that certain parts of the earth are hospitable when 01:16:05.200 --> 01:16:06.880 they would not otherwise be. 01:16:06.880 --> 01:16:11.440 And so a good example of that is that continental Europe is 01:16:11.440 --> 01:16:13.920 much more temperate than you would think it would be if you 01:16:13.920 --> 01:16:16.400 just looked at the latitude. 01:16:16.400 --> 01:16:19.760 And the reason for that is basically the jet stream. 01:16:19.760 --> 01:16:22.320 So I think that's just how God designed the planet and how 01:16:22.320 --> 01:16:23.440 things work. 01:16:26.160 --> 01:16:31.680 If I missed any questions, I will try to get to them 01:16:31.680 --> 01:16:32.240 next time. 01:16:32.240 --> 01:16:37.200 If I don't add your question to my ongoing list of questions 01:16:37.200 --> 01:16:41.440 to answer in the future, then excuse me, please let me know 01:16:41.440 --> 01:16:43.680 so that I will add it to that. 01:16:43.680 --> 01:16:45.440 That can be found on the website. 01:16:45.440 --> 01:16:49.280 You can go to the website that's in the description of any 01:16:49.280 --> 01:16:50.320 of these videos. 01:16:50.320 --> 01:16:53.440 That's the best way to submit the questions because I go to 01:16:53.440 --> 01:16:56.720 those questions first, and then I know that I have answered them 01:16:56.720 --> 01:16:59.520 or not answered them, I can mark them as answered as well. 01:16:59.520 --> 01:17:02.080 And it's the easiest way for other people to find these things 01:17:02.080 --> 01:17:03.200 in the future. 01:17:03.200 --> 01:17:08.080 But if you comment in the chat or on Telegram or X, 01:17:08.080 --> 01:17:12.880 I try to find those as well and amalgamate those, aggregate those 01:17:12.880 --> 01:17:13.760 into my thread. 01:17:13.760 --> 01:17:16.400 But if I don't notice it, it won't be there. 01:17:16.400 --> 01:17:17.840 Please let me know. 01:17:17.920 --> 01:17:22.000 So thank you for those who submitted questions, and I'm glad that 01:17:22.000 --> 01:17:25.360 I was able to answer these questions this week, as every week 01:17:25.360 --> 01:17:29.440 so far, and I look forward to answering the questions for you 01:17:29.440 --> 01:17:30.160 next week. 01:17:30.160 --> 01:17:33.200 It's Friday of course, so I try to do this on Thursdays, 01:17:33.200 --> 01:17:35.120 but often it winds up being Friday. 01:17:35.120 --> 01:17:38.400 So have a great weekend and go to church on Sunday. 01:17:38.400 --> 01:17:41.200 Until I see you all next week, may God bless you. 01:17:41.200 --> 01:17:43.680 Have a nice evening.