WEBVTT 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:06.000 It is the 16th of January 2026. 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:07.040 I am Cory J. 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:10.000 Mahler, and this is at any cost. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:15.040 And this is the third question and answer episode of 2026. 00:00:15.040 --> 00:00:17.600 I have uh quite a few questions at this point actually in 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:18.320 the backlog. 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:20.880 I don't know how many I will get to this time, but 00:00:21.360 --> 00:00:24.400 I do promise that I still have your questions if If I 00:00:24.400 --> 00:00:27.120 do happen to have missed one in a past episode in the 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:30.880 chat or elsewhere, feel free to submit that on the forum, and 00:00:30.880 --> 00:00:32.720 that way I at least have a record of it and I 00:00:32.720 --> 00:00:34.320 will get to it in the future. 00:00:34.400 --> 00:00:37.520 And of course right as I went to click over to start 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:41.440 the stream both of my streaming lights decided to disconnect from my 00:00:41.440 --> 00:00:46.240 Wi-Fi. Curious timing that, but at any rate they came back, so 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:52.160 I think I will go ahead and jump into the questions here. 00:00:52.160 --> 00:00:52.880 Let me pull up 00:00:54.640 --> 00:01:01.520 my list of questions. 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:03.840 I do see that we have a few questions in the chat 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:06.800 already. I've copied those down for the future. 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:11.040 I don't know that I'll get to them necessarily in this particular 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:12.160 episode. 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:27.600 So the first question for tonight is not necessarily a light question, 00:01:27.600 --> 00:01:31.040 an important question, but a lighter topic. 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:34.560 It is about Dungeons and Dragons, incidentally. 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:36.560 Can you talk about dungeons and dragons? 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:39.600 Is it witchcra is it witchcraft or close to it? 00:01:39.600 --> 00:01:41.760 What about players casting spells in the game? 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:45.440 Should anyone play it, and if so, to what extent What extent? 00:01:45.520 --> 00:01:50.400 The basic answer would be that there's no problem with playing those 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:52.160 kinds of games. 00:01:52.160 --> 00:01:55.520 You could certainly take them overboard, and I think that certainly some 00:01:55.520 --> 00:01:58.400 of the people who get really into cosplay, for instance, and like 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:02.240 dressing up like demons, that starts to be a little questionable. 00:02:02.240 --> 00:02:06.960 We could think of perhaps Elon Musk and his particular hobby. 00:02:06.960 --> 00:02:10.640 But I don't think there's anything wrong with those sorts of fantasy 00:02:10.640 --> 00:02:16.560 games. And typically speaking, although yes, you do often have the rogue 00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:20.800 player who's basically a murder hobo, but typically speaking, you are fighting 00:02:21.200 --> 00:02:22.720 against evil in those games. 00:02:22.720 --> 00:02:26.480 You could think of it the same as sort of like the 00:02:26.480 --> 00:02:32.160 Doom franchise, incidentally made by Mormons, but someone asked him how he 00:02:32.160 --> 00:02:35.040 felt about the fact that he made a game involving the Demonic 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:37.280 and he said, the whole point of the game is to kill 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:38.320 the demons. 00:02:38.320 --> 00:02:42.000 That's pretty clear anti demon message there. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:44.880 So I don't think there's necessarily a problem with those kinds of 00:02:44.880 --> 00:02:48.480 games. For instance, if you play I'll pick a game and perhaps 00:02:48.480 --> 00:02:51.600 date myself, although everyone knows how old I am anyway, but if 00:02:51.600 --> 00:02:56.160 you play StarCraft or StarCraft II, right, because most of those in 00:02:56.160 --> 00:02:59.360 the chat probably aren't old enough to have played StarCraft I no 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:04.400 one playing that thinks that he's a Zerg or a Protoss, right? 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:05.200 It's fantasy. 00:03:05.200 --> 00:03:08.400 You're deliberately putting yourself into a fantasy universe. 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:11.040 And so I would say it's the same sort of as reading 00:03:11.040 --> 00:03:14.240 fantasy, which isn't inherently sinful either. 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:16.800 Are there topics that about which you shouldn't read? 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:21.360 Certainly, there's plenty of fiction these days, particularly women's fiction, that is 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:22.960 a moral hazard. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:26.160 But Dungeons and Dragons is fine. 00:03:26.160 --> 00:03:30.800 Don't make it your entire personality if only for social reasons, but 00:03:31.040 --> 00:03:35.600 I don't think that it's sinful to play that sort of game. 00:03:35.600 --> 00:03:38.400 Let's pull up the next question here. 00:03:39.600 --> 00:03:43.280 my tab decided to disappear, which I have to say is not 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:47.600 the most helpful thing that it could have done. 00:03:47.600 --> 00:03:47.920 But 00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:50.800 I think I will just go to 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:57.280 the next question here an easy question, sort of to answer, although 00:03:57.280 --> 00:03:58.800 transitioning more to 00:04:00.320 --> 00:04:02.800 practical theology we'll call it. 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:07.760 Question about how I feel about the passing of the peace. 00:04:07.760 --> 00:04:12.320 And for those who aren't familiar with this, this is a practice 00:04:12.320 --> 00:04:15.920 that is common in really a lot of churches at this point, 00:04:15.920 --> 00:04:20.400 where basically in the middle of the service you stand up and 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:25.200 greet people and shake hands and in some churches hug. 00:04:25.200 --> 00:04:29.040 Less so in the German and Scandinavian Lutheran churches certainly, not so 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:30.160 much hugging there. 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:32.240 But But to read the fullness of his question, what do you 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:35.120 think of the sharing of the peace in the divine service? 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:36.000 Is it appropriate? 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:38.080 It seems out of place and just modern. 00:04:38.080 --> 00:04:40.800 From what I understand it was used in the early church, fell 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:43.360 out of use, and then came back after Vatican two. 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:46.080 I think that's an accurate historical subject. 00:04:46.080 --> 00:04:49.600 You can certainly see the equivalent of it and sort of an 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:53.760 injunction for it in the scriptures when you see the greeting of 00:04:53.760 --> 00:04:55.360 others with a holy kiss. 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:59.840 That's part of that culture, of course, Mediterranean cultures are more physical 00:04:59.840 --> 00:05:04.320 in their greetings than, say, Northern European cultures. 00:05:04.320 --> 00:05:08.320 If you run around kissing everyone in a German Lutheran church, they 00:05:08.320 --> 00:05:09.200 may have you committed. 00:05:09.200 --> 00:05:12.320 That's not something that you necessarily do there. 00:05:12.320 --> 00:05:17.120 So I don't think it really is appropriate where it is located 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:18.720 in the divine service. 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:21.440 And I think that for a number of reasons. 00:05:21.440 --> 00:05:24.400 One, I think that it just breaks up the flow of the 00:05:24.400 --> 00:05:29.440 service in a way that is seemingly designed to increase levity in 00:05:29.440 --> 00:05:32.240 a service that should be to some degree solemn. 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:35.760 And so I don't think it's appropriate in that sense because it 00:05:35.760 --> 00:05:35.920 is 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:40.320 sort of a break in the service, and it's a break not 00:05:40.320 --> 00:05:42.800 just in the structure of the service, but in the nature of 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:46.160 the service and in the psychology of the thing. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:50.800 There's something important about coming before God and worshipping God in a 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:52.560 serious and solemn manner. 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:56.960 It's not that we're dour and unhappy and the other things of 00:05:56.960 --> 00:05:59.120 which we're constantly accused. 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:02.240 Rather, it's that you recognize when you're in the presence of your 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:05.280 king, and in this case it's your king and your God, and 00:06:05.280 --> 00:06:08.880 your savior, when you're in his presence you should behave in a 00:06:08.880 --> 00:06:10.560 certain way. 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:13.920 So I don't think during the service it's appropriate. 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:17.200 There's also the aspect of it where it really just kind of 00:06:17.200 --> 00:06:19.280 turns into a chat club. 00:06:19.280 --> 00:06:21.520 That's inappropriate for a number of reasons. 00:06:21.520 --> 00:06:25.040 Again, it breaks up the seriousness of the service, you're sort of 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:27.520 behaving in an inappropriate social register. 00:06:28.080 --> 00:06:31.840 And there's also the fact women are commanded to be silent in 00:06:31.840 --> 00:06:33.520 the churches. 00:06:33.520 --> 00:06:36.480 If you have the sharing of the peace in the middle of 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:39.200 the service, are you just going to tell all the women to 00:06:39.200 --> 00:06:41.600 sit down and not greet people? 00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:43.280 I don't think that's appropriate. 00:06:43.280 --> 00:06:45.280 Are you going to stand tell them to stand up and talk 00:06:45.280 --> 00:06:45.920 to each other? 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:47.520 That's also not appropriate. 00:06:47.520 --> 00:06:50.320 Because they're commanded to be silent in the churches, which is the 00:06:50.320 --> 00:06:52.560 gathered church while you have the service ongoing 00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:59.040 So I think the solution is pretty simple, just have that before 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:03.600 the service or after the service, which is really what you would 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:07.680 have seen in the early church because generally speaking, they shared an 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:08.880 actual meal. 00:07:08.880 --> 00:07:12.640 It wasn't just the Eucharist, it wasn't just the Lord's Supper. 00:07:12.640 --> 00:07:13.920 So it wasn't just bread and wine. 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:17.760 Yes, bread and wine were certainly involved, but you had an actual 00:07:17.760 --> 00:07:21.280 meal. That's the natural place to stand up and greet people and 00:07:21.840 --> 00:07:24.720 talk and have the social interaction. 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:27.200 Not as part of the divine service, but yes, it should be 00:07:27.200 --> 00:07:28.800 part of your church. 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:32.400 These days, you know, it's coffee and donuts or maybe have something 00:07:32.400 --> 00:07:35.600 available it's a little healthier than donuts, I say as someone who 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:39.680 maybe is a little hypocritical there because I always brought donuts to 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:40.880 my previous churches. 00:07:40.880 --> 00:07:44.400 But at any rate, that's the appropriate place for it. 00:07:44.400 --> 00:07:46.880 I don't think that it should be right in the middle of 00:07:46.880 --> 00:07:47.840 the divine service. 00:07:47.840 --> 00:07:53.120 It's just a very weird placement that seems almost deliberately designed to 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:59.120 make the service less serious, to introduce levity where it's not appropriate. 00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:08.320 I guess now that we've gotten a little bit into the stream 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:12.320 and YouTube won't immediately notice, we can talk about the third reich, 00:08:12.320 --> 00:08:14.320 since that's the next question. 00:08:14.320 --> 00:08:17.600 Do you think they will eventually recognize the Third Reich or its 00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:21.440 leader, which is to say Adolf Hitler, as Christian to smear us? 00:08:21.440 --> 00:08:24.720 Once the Judeo Christian narrative starts to crack, they'll need something else 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:27.440 to keep the would be Christians on the reservation. 00:08:27.440 --> 00:08:30.800 Do you think they might try something like Nazis bad, Nazis are 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:33.840 Christian, therefore Christians are bad? 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:37.760 This has actually been done a number of times historically. 00:08:37.760 --> 00:08:42.800 This is definitely something that has cropped up even not just, you 00:08:42.800 --> 00:08:44.240 know, decades ago. 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:46.960 Although at this point I guess that would include my lifetime, but 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:51.440 even within the past ten years, say, this was something that every 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:54.800 so often it would cycle in, particularly on social media. 00:08:54.800 --> 00:08:58.640 You would get it was sort of the new atheists and some 00:08:58.640 --> 00:09:02.240 others like that who would try to use that argument against Christianity 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:05.360 because they would say, well, the third Reich claimed to be Christian, 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:08.560 they did all these evil things, and therefore Christians are evil. 00:09:08.560 --> 00:09:11.440 The argument, even if you formalize it a little better, is of 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:15.200 course not logically sound, but that hardly matters for rhetoric. 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:18.400 So the question is, will they try it again and will it 00:09:18.400 --> 00:09:19.920 be effective? 00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:24.960 I don't think so, because it's not a very good tactic for 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:29.680 them, particularly because all it does is drive those who would never 00:09:30.160 --> 00:09:33.120 look at the Third Reich and what they actually believed and would 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:36.240 simply mindlessly believe the propaganda. 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:41.360 So whatever they were told in fifth grade basically, and whatever video 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:44.800 they sh they saw, probably Schindler's List or you know, read the 00:09:44.800 --> 00:09:48.400 diary Van Frank or whatever it happens to be, both admitted pieces 00:09:48.400 --> 00:09:50.800 of fiction, incidentally. 00:09:50.800 --> 00:09:53.920 One more proved in a court of law, one admitted, because of 00:09:53.920 --> 00:09:56.560 course Schindler's list is admittedly fiction. 00:09:56.560 --> 00:10:00.160 It's not even contended it's real, much like Knight is also a 00:10:00.160 --> 00:10:02.800 work of fiction admitted by the author. 00:10:02.800 --> 00:10:06.560 So you would have people who would believe those things. 00:10:06.560 --> 00:10:12.480 But if you start pushing the Third Reich was Christian, some percentage 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:17.840 of those men are going to say, okay, why are they saying 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:20.800 that? Of course they're going to think initially, oh, they're just attacking 00:10:20.800 --> 00:10:21.840 Christianity, I don't care. 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:27.120 It's just crazy leftist atheists attacking Christianity, whatever. 00:10:27.120 --> 00:10:32.160 The problem is that that percentage of them will go hang on 00:10:32.160 --> 00:10:34.000 a minute, I want to look at this now. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:37.360 If they say they were Christian, is there any evidence? 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:40.320 There's never that many people who will do it, but if you 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:45.520 lose two percent, three, five percent, that's a big deal for them 00:10:45.520 --> 00:10:46.560 when they're already losing 00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:50.000 people day by day who are looking at the truth. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.080 So I don't know they're dumb enough to pursue that. 00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:57.200 But it doesn't mean that they aren't, because quite frankly, they sometimes 00:10:57.200 --> 00:10:58.720 do things that are particularly stupid. 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:02.400 And there's also the fact that Satan just drives them to do 00:11:02.400 --> 00:11:03.680 dumb things. 00:11:03.680 --> 00:11:07.440 They are compelled to be evil, and so sometimes they just do 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:11.840 things that don't benefit them, but they do them anyway. 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:12.160 So 00:11:13.520 --> 00:11:14.480 It could happen. 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:16.160 I don't think it's likely. 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:21.040 And I think what's more likely is that our side continues to 00:11:21.040 --> 00:11:25.120 push the truth and continues to push back against the false narrative. 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:27.200 And that is what starts to bring people over. 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:30.000 And I think they're going to try to double down on the 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:33.760 post-war consensus, the new global religion, and try to conflate that with 00:11:33.760 --> 00:11:37.520 Christianity and say that you are not a Christian unless you believe 00:11:37.520 --> 00:11:38.880 X, Y, and Z. 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:43.840 Never mind the fact that no one pre 1965 believed any of 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:44.960 this stuff, right? 00:11:44.960 --> 00:11:47.600 In particular the one that's blowing up now, because of course it 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:49.520 is interracial marriage. 00:11:49.520 --> 00:11:54.480 Well, until very recently in this country, Loving V, Virginia, it was 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:55.600 a crime. 00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:57.680 A punishable crime. 00:11:57.680 --> 00:12:00.480 It was a crime in many historical countries. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:03.120 It was a crime in most of the Western world until not 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:06.640 that long ago In this country until very recently. 00:12:06.640 --> 00:12:09.680 And so you have people who are saying that you can't possibly 00:12:09.680 --> 00:12:12.320 be a Christian and believe that should be banned or think that 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:13.680 it's wrong in any way. 00:12:13.680 --> 00:12:15.200 Well, what are they actually saying? 00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:19.280 They're saying that no one born before loving V. 00:12:19.280 --> 00:12:23.680 Virginia, or at least no one born and not changing his views, 00:12:23.680 --> 00:12:26.720 so no one who died before it could possibly be saved. 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:29.440 Because well, you're not a Christian if you believe these things. 00:12:29.440 --> 00:12:30.960 It's completely ludicrous. 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:34.560 The same as the slavery issue and so many other things because 00:12:34.800 --> 00:12:40.160 we see all of these men down through the centuries of Christendom 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:44.640 who believed these things firmly and we're much better Christians than the 00:12:44.640 --> 00:12:48.240 men we see arguing you can't believe these things and be Christian. 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:51.760 I think they'll keep trying to double down on that because that's 00:12:51.760 --> 00:12:54.480 sort of they back themselves into a corner, it's all they can 00:12:54.480 --> 00:12:58.480 do. If they give up any of those positions, the entire edifice 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:01.280 crumbles, which is of course their great weakness. 00:13:01.280 --> 00:13:06.000 They can't lose anything in their little edifice because it is so 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:08.320 weak. It's a house of cards. 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:12.880 And any link in that chain, if you can break it, you 00:13:12.880 --> 00:13:14.480 can get people to question the next one. 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:18.960 It's one of the reasons why they have to defend interracial marriage 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:24.480 so vehemently, because they recognize that that's a link pretty far back 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:29.280 in their chain because all of the civil rights stuff and the 00:13:29.280 --> 00:13:35.680 tolerance so-called for homosexuality and the legalization of homosexual so-called marriage, all 00:13:35.680 --> 00:13:36.720 of that flows logically 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:42.240 and legally, incidentally, the legal cases are also a chain, from Loving 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:47.120 V, Virginia, from the Civil Rights Act, from all of these arguments 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:49.040 about MLK and all that stuff. 00:13:49.040 --> 00:13:54.480 They can't lose any of that and not suffer significant downstream consequences. 00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:56.480 So they'll just keep doubling down. 00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:00.160 Which is of course an opportunity for us. 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:16.800 The next question, a fairly common sort of area for questions, is 00:14:16.800 --> 00:14:20.000 marriage a command of God? 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:25.520 And I think the short answer to that is of course yes, 00:14:25.520 --> 00:14:28.560 but not But not absolutely yes. 00:14:28.560 --> 00:14:33.600 And the reason it's not absolutely yes is be of course there 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:37.840 is the issue of celibacy, which is something that is granted to 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:39.360 some men. 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:40.960 But that's the key. 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:43.520 It's granted to some men. 00:14:43.520 --> 00:14:47.840 It's not granted to many, in fact, you probably don't have it. 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:51.680 And generally speaking, you should not try to exercise a gift that 00:14:51.680 --> 00:14:56.080 you don't have because it could be sinful, depending on the gift 00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:57.280 and what it is you're trying to do. 00:14:57.280 --> 00:15:00.000 So, you know, obvious one would be if you don't have the 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:02.880 gift of prophecy and you stand up and say I'm a prophet, 00:15:02.880 --> 00:15:04.960 there are some problems here. 00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:08.080 But if you have if you do not, rather, have the gift 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:11.600 of celibacy and you try to exercise it, you're going to set 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:15.040 yourself up for failure and you're going to fall into sexual sin. 00:15:15.040 --> 00:15:18.000 That's the reality of how that is going to go. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:22.240 Because at some point, biology is going to make some demands and 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:26.000 you're going to have a very difficult time withstanding those demands. 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:28.640 That is the reality of being a fallen creature. 00:15:28.640 --> 00:15:32.960 It's not to say that you can't live a chaste life even 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:35.600 if you do not have the gift of celibacy, because of course 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:36.560 you can live a chaste life. 00:15:36.560 --> 00:15:39.920 Being in marriage is chaste, but you could even live a chaste 00:15:39.920 --> 00:15:43.920 life as a single individual, but it's going to come with challenges. 00:15:43.920 --> 00:15:46.320 It's going to come with very real challenges. 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:51.360 And you can spare yourself that by using the only cure for 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:55.360 the temptation of which God speaks in Scripture. 00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:59.440 Other than, of course, self-control, which, yes, you can exercise self-control to 00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:00.800 a certain degree. 00:16:00.800 --> 00:16:06.960 But when scripture speaks about the solution for sexual sin, it gives 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:08.240 marriage as the cure. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:10.240 And so there there are a number of verses, of course, we 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:13.200 can look at for this, and I'll just go over a handful 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:14.640 of them here. 00:16:14.640 --> 00:16:17.600 The first one, of course, is Matthew nineteen is going to be 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:20.480 one of the most important ones, because this is where Christ speaks 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:23.280 about the fact that not everyone is given this. 00:16:23.280 --> 00:16:26.480 Not every one can receive this saying, but only those to whom 00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:28.960 it is given, for there are eunuchs who have been so from 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:32.080 birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:34.720 and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:39.600 of the kingdom of he's not speaking exclusively about physically making yourself 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:40.400 a eunuch here. 00:16:40.400 --> 00:16:43.840 This has been dealt with to death in the ancient church. 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:47.440 So when neopagans and others say that you're supposed to emasculate yourself 00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:51.040 in order to deal with the temptation to sexual sin that is 00:16:51.040 --> 00:16:54.560 never commanded, that is self abuse, that is not something Scripture commands, 00:16:54.560 --> 00:16:56.960 anywhere. That aside. 00:16:56.960 --> 00:17:01.200 Let the one who is able to receive this receive it. 00:17:01.200 --> 00:17:03.280 Well that's a limitation. 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:07.680 Not everyone can receive this saying, let the one who is able 00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:09.600 to receive it receive it. 00:17:09.600 --> 00:17:14.320 So if you don't have the gift, don't try to exercise it. 00:17:14.320 --> 00:17:15.360 You'll get married. 00:17:15.360 --> 00:17:16.240 That's the solution. 00:17:16.800 --> 00:17:19.600 Because if you don't have the gift of celibacy, the temptation will 00:17:19.600 --> 00:17:20.400 be there. 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:26.320 So cure the temptation with the only medicine God provides. 00:17:26.320 --> 00:17:29.920 And so another passage that is related to this to the unmarried 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:32.000 and the widows I say it is good for them to remain 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:33.840 single as I am. 00:17:33.840 --> 00:17:38.000 But if they cannot exercise self control, they should marry. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:40.960 And this is one of the key verses here, this part, for 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:44.640 it is better to marry than to burn with passion. 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:50.320 This is a question of do you have the gift of celibacy, 00:17:50.320 --> 00:17:53.840 which is that continence set that's self control. 00:17:53.840 --> 00:17:58.400 And if you don't use the medicine God has provided. 00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:00.800 And the way that I always explain this to people is very 00:18:00.800 --> 00:18:05.040 simple. You can tell if you're celibate very simply. 00:18:05.040 --> 00:18:08.320 Have you ever had a sexual thought about a woman? 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:11.360 If the answer is yes, you're not celibate. 00:18:11.360 --> 00:18:14.960 Because celibacy in that sense is basically asexuality. 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:18.160 You lack that temptation totally. 00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:21.920 God gives that gift to some men because he wants them to 00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:24.320 perform some task for the church. 00:18:24.320 --> 00:18:27.840 That is something that is given seemingly exceptionally. 00:18:27.840 --> 00:18:30.240 It seems like very few men have had it. 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:33.280 And we certainly know that men who have attempted to exercise it 00:18:33.280 --> 00:18:37.360 when they don't have it, have fallen into horrible temptations and horrible 00:18:37.360 --> 00:18:38.720 sexual sin. 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:42.480 We all know what happens historically with monasteries. 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:44.640 It doesn't mean that all monks are bad. 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:46.080 I'm not condemning all monks. 00:18:46.080 --> 00:18:47.440 I would condemn monasteries. 00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:50.960 I don't think monasticism in that form is good. 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:54.800 Now, if it's just men who live in a retreat for a 00:18:54.800 --> 00:18:57.360 certain period of time to study scripture and then go back into 00:18:57.360 --> 00:18:59.200 the world, totally different thing. 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:01.440 That happened at some points in history. 00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:02.880 That's fine. 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:07.840 If you simply unilaterally declare, I am going to attempt to be 00:19:07.840 --> 00:19:12.240 celibate despite the fact God didn't give me the gift, you are 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:16.080 going to fall into the sorts of sins that plagued the monasteries 00:19:16.080 --> 00:19:17.280 for centuries. 00:19:17.280 --> 00:19:22.480 Not necessarily the worst kind, but there were certainly problems between monks 00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:24.640 and nuns down through history. 00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:26.240 That was often what happened. 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:31.920 And that leads to additional sins in some cases, particularly egregious sins 00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:34.080 in some cases historically. 00:19:34.080 --> 00:19:37.920 Don't try to create your own medicine when God has provided a 00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:39.200 cure. 00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:44.880 And of course we can go to passages of scripture dealing with 00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:48.800 marriage as being a blessing from God, marriage as being something that 00:19:48.800 --> 00:19:50.800 God wants you to enjoy. 00:19:50.800 --> 00:19:53.120 And I'll I'll just go ahead and use the ESV instead of 00:19:53.120 --> 00:19:55.520 switching over to the Septuagint for this. 00:19:55.520 --> 00:19:58.240 It is close enough in this case, so let your fountain be 00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:01.520 blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely dear, 00:20:01.520 --> 00:20:02.640 a graceful doe. 00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:05.440 Let her breast fill you at all times with delight, be intoxicated 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:08.000 always in her love. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:12.000 It's hard to say that God doesn't praise marriage highly, to say 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:15.840 nothing of the fact that the Song of Solomon exists in scripture. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:19.200 Incidentally, one of the books that I do skip during the only 00:20:19.200 --> 00:20:22.640 book actually that I skip during the Through the Bible in a 00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:23.840 year podcast. 00:20:23.840 --> 00:20:25.600 If you want to read that, you can read it for yourself. 00:20:25.600 --> 00:20:27.760 I'm not going to read it to you. 00:20:27.760 --> 00:20:30.640 Later on in Proverbs, he who finds a wife finds a good 00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:33.600 thing and obtains favor from the Lord. 00:20:33.600 --> 00:20:36.000 Marriage is praised very highly in Scripture. 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:39.120 Marriage is never something Christians should denigrate, it is not something that 00:20:39.120 --> 00:20:42.400 should be uncommon, it is something that should be held in high 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:45.840 regard. It is something that should be recommended. 00:20:45.840 --> 00:20:48.320 In fact, the Book of Concord goes so far, and this is 00:20:48.320 --> 00:20:51.360 something by which Lutherans are of course bound, it goes so far 00:20:51.360 --> 00:20:54.560 as to say one of the duties of the sovereign, of the 00:20:54.560 --> 00:20:58.640 state, of the government, is to ensure that marriages are contracted among 00:20:58.640 --> 00:21:02.240 the populace, and that those who are not given the gift of 00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:05.040 celibacy marry. 00:21:05.040 --> 00:21:09.120 That's assigned as a duty of the state, according to Lutheran doctrine. 00:21:09.120 --> 00:21:12.240 And I would say also according to the scriptures. 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:15.760 And one of the marks of false teachers here in First Timothy, 00:21:15.760 --> 00:21:19.680 those who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods. 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:23.040 Right, and we can think of churches that have done that historically, 00:21:23.040 --> 00:21:24.960 some who do it today. 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:28.240 If you forbid marriage, that is one of the signs of a 00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:29.600 false teacher. 00:21:29.600 --> 00:21:33.920 You cannot condemn marriage. 00:21:34.320 --> 00:21:37.920 And I think I'll end the commentary on marriage with probably one 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:41.520 of the most important ones that people often don't think of. 00:21:41.520 --> 00:21:43.840 When they really should. 00:21:43.840 --> 00:21:45.200 This is the penultimate one. 00:21:45.200 --> 00:21:46.000 I'll go to that one next. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:48.480 But and God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:53.200 and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:58.480 You cannot, in God's scheme, so to say without sinning, fill the 00:21:58.480 --> 00:22:01.680 earth without marriage. 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:05.120 And the last comment I would make is that Adam walked with 00:22:05.120 --> 00:22:06.720 God in the garden. 00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:09.840 Adam spoke with God face to face. 00:22:09.840 --> 00:22:13.360 That's of course Christ, the pre incarnate Christ, if You want to 00:22:13.360 --> 00:22:16.000 deal with the timeline issues. 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:19.120 And yet God said it is not good for man to be 00:22:19.120 --> 00:22:25.600 alone. Man who saw God face to face, walked with him in 00:22:25.600 --> 00:22:30.960 the garden, God called alone, and said, Of all the things in 00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:33.840 creation, that was not good. 00:22:33.840 --> 00:22:37.680 That is how highly God prizes marriage and wives. 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:40.960 We should never speak of them in any other terms, because that 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:45.760 is how highly God praises it, and the only, again, only medicine 00:22:45.760 --> 00:22:49.360 God gives for the temptation to sexual sin. 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:52.480 So the short answer is is marriage commanded? 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:54.320 In almost all cases, yes. 00:22:54.320 --> 00:22:58.640 Unless you have the gift of celibacy, which you probably don't 00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:18.960 I think I will just go with the next one that also 00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:24.160 is exegesis go over a few more passages of scripture here. 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:28.480 To what extent can a woman be a deaconess today? 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:30.640 What is the purpose of one today? 00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:33.280 To me it seems as a way to subvert authority. 00:23:33.280 --> 00:23:36.240 Short answer is yes, and slowly get women to be pastors and 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:37.040 have authority. 00:23:37.040 --> 00:23:38.720 Again, short answer is yes. 00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:42.240 I remember Wo possibly saying that deaconesses in the early church would 00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:46.080 help young women in the community, and not be your try to 00:23:46.080 --> 00:23:48.080 be a pastor in all but name. 00:23:48.080 --> 00:23:49.760 That is certainly true. 00:23:49.760 --> 00:23:54.000 That is their role, because you can think of the only times 00:23:54.000 --> 00:23:57.440 where it speaks of the role of women specifically in the church 00:23:57.360 --> 00:24:01.360 church in scripture, and I will get into the scripture passages as 00:24:01.360 --> 00:24:06.000 well, but when it speaks of that, it speaks of women in 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:10.320 a service role, in a support role, which is the natural role 00:24:10.320 --> 00:24:10.880 for women. 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:12.000 What is woman? 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:13.440 A helper fit for man? 00:24:13.440 --> 00:24:16.000 That is what woman is to be in the church as well. 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:17.280 She is not to teach. 00:24:17.280 --> 00:24:21.520 We know that, of course, because what does Scripture say about women 00:24:21.520 --> 00:24:26.160 teaching? Well it says I do not permit a woman to teach 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:28.480 or to exercise authority over a man. 00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:31.040 Rather she is to remain silent. 00:24:31.040 --> 00:24:34.560 That pretty much precludes her taking on a teaching role, and so 00:24:34.560 --> 00:24:39.760 a deaconess, so called, cannot be a teacher. 00:24:39.760 --> 00:24:43.440 One of the first problems, of course, is deaconess here, and let 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:45.680 me see if I can there it is. 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:49.040 So actually I've already got it typed in, that's convenient The word 00:24:49.040 --> 00:24:54.800 here is diaconos, which is a masculine term, incidentally, but it does 00:24:54.800 --> 00:24:58.880 appear one time in scripture, only once, in 00:24:59.840 --> 00:25:01.040 the feminine. 00:25:01.040 --> 00:25:04.000 And I can say in the feminine because of the context, and 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:06.880 I'll explain that for those who are less familiar with how grammar 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:09.520 works in languages that aren't English. 00:25:09.520 --> 00:25:11.920 Because English is a little loose. 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:12.240 But 00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:18.480 in this case, we're dealing with a second declension noun, diaconos here. 00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:22.160 It is masculine, but it can be feminine. 00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:24.400 All you have to do is change the article. 00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:28.000 If you change the article, that's the little omicron here. 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:32.240 If you change the article and make it a feminine noun instead, 00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:36.560 then you have the feminine version, deaconess as we would call it 00:25:36.560 --> 00:25:37.840 in English. 00:25:37.840 --> 00:25:40.160 It appears once. 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:41.200 However, the problem is 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:45.680 you don't have to have the article in Greek. 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:49.680 And so in this case, all you have is diaconos, or diacon, 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:51.440 actually, because it's in the accusative. 00:25:51.440 --> 00:25:56.320 It's in the accusative But the accusative in the second declension has 00:25:56.320 --> 00:25:59.440 the same ending in masculine and feminine, which is sort of a 00:25:59.760 --> 00:26:05.200 long grammatical way of saying it's the same word, masculine or feminine. 00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:07.120 But you can tell by the context. 00:26:07.120 --> 00:26:10.400 Because of course I'm speaking of the book of Romans, the end 00:26:10.400 --> 00:26:11.840 of Romans. 00:26:11.840 --> 00:26:16.640 And so probably helps if I type the title not in Greek. 00:26:16.640 --> 00:26:19.120 So let's go to Romans 16. 00:26:19.120 --> 00:26:21.280 And of course we're talking about Phoebe. 00:26:21.280 --> 00:26:25.600 They love to bring up Phoebe because Phoebe is I see that 00:26:25.600 --> 00:26:28.000 OBS has decided it would like to 00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:33.520 make part of Logos disappear, so I'll fix that real quick here. 00:26:33.520 --> 00:26:35.360 There we go. 00:26:35.360 --> 00:26:39.120 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church 00:26:39.120 --> 00:26:40.560 at Senkrea. 00:26:40.560 --> 00:26:42.160 And then it goes on. 00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:46.080 Notably it doesn't say that she's teaching. 00:26:46.080 --> 00:26:50.000 It doesn't say that she's doing pastoral anything. 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:52.080 In fact, really all it says of her is that she is 00:26:52.080 --> 00:26:54.720 a servant of the church and that she is a patron of 00:26:54.720 --> 00:26:57.520 many. That's later on in the same verse. 00:26:57.520 --> 00:27:00.160 Servant there is Diakonos. 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:03.520 And we know it is feminine because of two things in Greek. 00:27:03.520 --> 00:27:06.880 One it has to agree with Phoebe, of course, sister here is 00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:09.840 the feminine, because this isn't a positive. 00:27:09.840 --> 00:27:12.160 This is describing this person. 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:16.320 And then there's also the fact Greek participles, just a verb form, 00:27:16.320 --> 00:27:19.920 agree with the thing about which they the thing they're referencing. 00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:22.800 And so you have that here as well. 00:27:22.800 --> 00:27:25.920 So we know this is a feminine use of this word. 00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:30.800 The only time it appears in the feminine doesn't say anything about 00:27:31.040 --> 00:27:32.880 teaching or authority. 00:27:32.880 --> 00:27:34.480 It just means servant. 00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:37.200 Because if we go and look up the word here, I'll look 00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:40.560 it up in two just the two standard dictionaries, which is BDAG 00:27:40.640 --> 00:27:41.840 and LSJ. 00:27:41.840 --> 00:27:46.080 Diaconos, one who serves as an intermediary in a transaction, so that 00:27:46.080 --> 00:27:47.200 would be an agent. 00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:49.360 You have some uses in scripture. 00:27:49.360 --> 00:27:53.200 One who gets something done at the behest of a superior, an 00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:55.600 assistant. That's all a servant means. 00:27:55.600 --> 00:27:58.400 And so you can think of the men who were serving as 00:27:58.400 --> 00:28:01.920 deacons. You have waiting tables and things like that as part of 00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:02.640 their duties. 00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:03.920 They are servants of the church. 00:28:04.560 --> 00:28:07.360 They are not in a position of leadership. 00:28:07.360 --> 00:28:10.480 It's not what you think of today when we think of deacon, 00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:14.000 because the way we've transformed it in English, the way we use 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:17.120 it, is sort of an elder, a ruling elder in the church. 00:28:17.360 --> 00:28:20.480 It depends on your polity and how your church is organized, of 00:28:20.480 --> 00:28:22.720 course, different churches are different. 00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:26.480 But that's not what we're dealing with in the case of the 00:28:26.480 --> 00:28:29.920 Greek. We're dealing with something completely different. 00:28:29.920 --> 00:28:35.200 And for some reason it decided not to pull that up for 00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:40.960 all of you because it pulled it up in the wrong window. 00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:43.840 I love when Things cooperate. 00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:48.880 So that's what I want. 00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:53.360 Except for it disappeared again. 00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:03.600 Minor technical difficulties. 00:29:03.600 --> 00:29:08.160 At any rate, there's D Econ. 00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:10.320 I read the definition for you, so quite frankly, I don't need 00:29:10.320 --> 00:29:11.360 to have it on the screen. 00:29:11.360 --> 00:29:13.520 But the other one will just be LSJ. 00:29:13.520 --> 00:29:16.320 See if I can get it to cooperate with this one. 00:29:16.960 --> 00:29:20.400 Logos seemingly opens in whatever window it feels like. 00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:21.840 The same thing. 00:29:21.840 --> 00:29:25.120 Attendant, you can't have an official templar religious guild, that's an ancient 00:29:25.120 --> 00:29:28.160 Greek, we're dealing with Koina Greek here, so it's different. 00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:30.560 But servile, menial. 00:29:30.560 --> 00:29:33.440 Servant. You're dealing with a servant of the church. 00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:36.800 And so no, a deaconess is not a way for them to 00:29:36.800 --> 00:29:40.640 sort of bring women in via the back door to make them 00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:43.440 into pastors and all but name, which is what is often done 00:29:43.440 --> 00:29:45.600 in the churches. 00:29:45.600 --> 00:29:48.720 It's very clear what women are permitted to do in the churches 00:29:48.800 --> 00:29:50.240 and what women are not permitted to do. 00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:53.360 If it tells women they have to be silent in the churches, 00:29:53.360 --> 00:29:58.560 not teach, except children, other women, and not exercise authority over men. 00:29:58.560 --> 00:30:02.880 Well a deaconess can't be anything can't possibly be an office that 00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:03.920 can do those things. 00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:07.360 That would be a violation, and so that would be eisegesis instead 00:30:07.280 --> 00:30:09.040 of exegesis. 00:30:09.040 --> 00:30:13.600 We just say improper interpretation of scripture instead of proper interpretation. 00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:17.520 And it also speaks of typing in Greek again. 00:30:17.520 --> 00:30:20.480 It also speaks of what older women are supposed to do with 00:30:20.480 --> 00:30:21.760 regard to younger women, right? 00:30:21.760 --> 00:30:24.560 When it speaks of the older women, what are they supposed to 00:30:24.560 --> 00:30:30.880 do? Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers 00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:32.960 or slaves to much wine. 00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:35.840 They are to teach what is good, and so train the young 00:30:35.840 --> 00:30:40.480 women, here's the list for young women, to love their husbands and 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:47.840 children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and 00:30:47.840 --> 00:30:50.880 submissive to their own husbands. 00:30:50.880 --> 00:30:53.680 That's the list of what women are supposed to do. 00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:57.280 Anything incompatible with that list is not something women are supposed to 00:30:57.280 --> 00:30:58.400 be doing. 00:30:58.400 --> 00:31:00.800 It's very clear what scripture teaches. 00:31:00.800 --> 00:31:05.920 Those who want to make deaconesses into a lesser office under pastor 00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:08.720 in the church and permit them to teach and exegete and even 00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:12.320 just read scripture in front of the congregation, things like that. 00:31:12.720 --> 00:31:19.040 are simply defying Scripture in order to shoehorn feminism into the church. 00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:20.880 God is not a feminist. 00:31:20.880 --> 00:31:24.640 Scripture has feminism absolutely nowhere in it. 00:31:24.640 --> 00:31:30.640 You cannot possibly faithfully exegete scripture and turn it into a feminist 00:31:30.640 --> 00:31:33.920 text. It tell again, it tells women to be silent in the 00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:38.880 church. Not just not to teach, not just not to exercise authority, 00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:41.760 but not to speak. 00:31:41.760 --> 00:31:45.120 If we just obeyed that command, a lot of these problems would 00:31:45.120 --> 00:31:46.000 go away. 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:48.640 Add to that the head coverings and you pretty much get the 00:31:48.640 --> 00:31:50.400 right picture. 00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:55.520 So obviously yes, the answer to deaconesses is they should not be 00:31:55.520 --> 00:31:57.200 a thing A thing. 00:31:57.200 --> 00:31:59.280 They're just not a thing. 00:31:59.280 --> 00:32:03.040 You can have women who are serving in certain roles in the 00:32:03.040 --> 00:32:07.600 church, taking care of children, visiting the sick, the elderly, things like 00:32:07.600 --> 00:32:09.200 that. That's perfectly fine. 00:32:09.200 --> 00:32:13.680 That's a servant, which is the core sense of Diaconos, not a 00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:17.200 leadership role, not exercising authority, because that's improper. 00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:23.840 A woman is not her own head, she does not exercise authority. 00:32:37.040 --> 00:32:40.000 Go to I think this is the only other 00:32:41.200 --> 00:32:43.440 potentially exegetically heavy question. 00:32:43.440 --> 00:32:46.160 I don't think I'll go into the exegesis as much on this 00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:48.720 one. I've gone into it before and we've touched on it on 00:32:48.720 --> 00:32:52.240 Stone Choir, so I don't think I have to go into as 00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:56.320 much of the exegesis here so much as just explaining the doctrine. 00:32:56.320 --> 00:33:01.360 This is about atonement, basically limited atonement, the reformed conception versus the 00:33:01.360 --> 00:33:04.080 Lutheran conception of how these things work. 00:33:04.160 --> 00:33:07.600 In the tenth chapter of John, Jesus says the good shepherd gives 00:33:07.600 --> 00:33:11.520 his life for the sheep, and to the unbelievers Jesus says that 00:33:11.520 --> 00:33:13.440 they are not from his sheep. 00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:17.600 True. How do Lutherans understand those passages where Christ mentions that he 00:33:17.600 --> 00:33:19.040 gives his life specifically for the sheep 00:33:20.080 --> 00:33:24.720 or for the church, of which not all are part of? 00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:29.840 So basically the question is the difference between the Lutheran conception, which 00:33:29.840 --> 00:33:35.600 is the universal justification is the term we would typically use, unlimited 00:33:35.600 --> 00:33:39.600 atonement is a fine way of describing it as well, versus the 00:33:39.600 --> 00:33:45.760 reformed conception of limited atonement being the L in Tulip, right? 00:33:45.760 --> 00:33:46.320 And so 00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:52.160 the Lutheran breakdown, I'll go over the Lutheran view first. 00:33:52.160 --> 00:33:56.400 The Lutheran view is that there is the objective, also called the 00:33:56.400 --> 00:34:02.000 universal justification, and the subjective, also called the personal, which subjective and 00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:05.840 personal are basically the same word, but slight nuance there. 00:34:05.840 --> 00:34:09.280 The subjective or personal justification. 00:34:09.280 --> 00:34:16.800 And so the objective justification is Christ's work in redeeming creation. 00:34:16.800 --> 00:34:21.200 That's Toncosman in the words of John three sixteen, because it says 00:34:21.200 --> 00:34:23.040 he redeemed all things, right? 00:34:23.040 --> 00:34:27.120 For God so loved the world, Toncosman, and incidentally the same word 00:34:27.120 --> 00:34:30.720 for universe, which is all things that exist in the Greek mind 00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:34.480 In the original Greek, that's what it means. 00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:38.720 So he redeemed the world because it is creation that is groaning 00:34:38.720 --> 00:34:42.320 together for the coming Messiah, for the restoration, for the renewal of 00:34:42.320 --> 00:34:43.200 all things. 00:34:43.200 --> 00:34:45.840 It's not just mankind, it's literally everything. 00:34:46.400 --> 00:34:50.560 It's the mountains, it's rivers, its trees, it's all of creation is 00:34:50.560 --> 00:34:52.960 awaiting the renewal of all things. 00:34:52.960 --> 00:34:56.400 And so that of course is what Christ redeemed in his perfect 00:34:56.400 --> 00:35:00.080 work. He made satisfaction for all sins. 00:35:00.080 --> 00:35:02.560 He redeemed all things. 00:35:02.560 --> 00:35:05.840 The issue for human beings, because of course we are made in 00:35:05.840 --> 00:35:09.760 the image of God, we're moral agents, we're the most relevant thing 00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:10.640 in this. 00:35:10.640 --> 00:35:14.800 We are, of course, descendants of Adam, Adam being the pinnacle of 00:35:14.800 --> 00:35:18.400 creation, the head of creation, which is why all of creation fell 00:35:18.400 --> 00:35:20.800 in Adam, because it fell in its head. 00:35:20.800 --> 00:35:23.760 Not an Eve, but an Adam. 00:35:23.840 --> 00:35:24.880 The issue of how 00:35:25.840 --> 00:35:30.160 justification is applied is the distinction here. 00:35:30.160 --> 00:35:35.600 All things are redeemed in Christ, but only those who are in 00:35:35.600 --> 00:35:40.800 Christ by faith are themselves redeemed in the sense of going to 00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:42.640 paradise instead of hell. 00:35:42.640 --> 00:35:46.960 That is the subjective justification which takes place by the means of 00:35:46.960 --> 00:35:51.040 grace, which bestow faith, which is the means by which the instrumental 00:35:51.040 --> 00:35:56.800 means, by which God applies salvation the atonement to you, by which 00:35:56.800 --> 00:36:00.800 you personally subjectively are justified. 00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:03.680 That is the, I would say, the teaching of Scripture, and it 00:36:03.680 --> 00:36:07.280 is the Lutheran position on the justification. 00:36:07.440 --> 00:36:10.320 Someone brought up a hymn, of course, which is always good to 00:36:10.320 --> 00:36:11.600 see. So 00:36:12.880 --> 00:36:17.600 all things are redeemed in Christ, the scope of the atonement is 00:36:17.600 --> 00:36:21.360 unlimited because it is universal in the fullest sense. 00:36:21.360 --> 00:36:23.520 All sins are erased in Christ. 00:36:23.520 --> 00:36:28.560 Because of course, Christ's payment was of infinite value, so it atoned 00:36:28.560 --> 00:36:31.760 for all things, being infinite. 00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:36.560 But it has to be applied to you by faith for you 00:36:36.560 --> 00:36:38.640 to be saved by it. 00:36:38.640 --> 00:36:43.120 Which is to say, all of those in hell, their sins have 00:36:43.120 --> 00:36:44.960 been forgiven. 00:36:44.960 --> 00:36:49.200 They do not benefit from it because they are not in Christ. 00:36:49.200 --> 00:36:54.320 The reformed understanding, on the other hand, what they do, and I 00:36:54.320 --> 00:36:58.400 won't necessarily get deep into Thingli and Aleosis and all that stuff 00:36:58.480 --> 00:37:00.880 because it's not really the point of the question. 00:37:00.880 --> 00:37:04.000 Kind of is, but at the same time. 00:37:04.000 --> 00:37:07.120 Their view is called limited atonement. 00:37:07.120 --> 00:37:12.080 So they believe that Christ died for the elect and for no 00:37:12.080 --> 00:37:13.200 one else. 00:37:13.200 --> 00:37:15.200 Not for those who are in hell. 00:37:15.200 --> 00:37:17.680 The reason they argue for this, and I'll sort of steel man 00:37:17.840 --> 00:37:21.280 their position, and then tear it down, but 00:37:22.320 --> 00:37:25.920 The reason they argue for that is because they think, or at 00:37:25.920 --> 00:37:30.480 least they advance, that it is an insult to Christ, in the 00:37:30.480 --> 00:37:35.200 sense that his work was not effective for some of those 00:37:36.480 --> 00:37:39.520 Who would it be included in it in the Lutheran and the 00:37:39.520 --> 00:37:41.200 view of others as well? 00:37:41.200 --> 00:37:44.880 Because if they are not saved, then it seems like Christ failed, 00:37:44.880 --> 00:37:49.760 right? We Lutherans don't view it as Christ having failed. 00:37:49.760 --> 00:37:53.440 It's rather some reject the free gift of faith. 00:37:53.440 --> 00:37:55.520 It's a different thing. 00:37:55.520 --> 00:38:00.880 Christ achieved the atonement perfectly in his life, in his work, in 00:38:00.880 --> 00:38:02.160 his death. 00:38:02.160 --> 00:38:06.880 Christ achieved the atonement, the redemption of all things. 00:38:06.880 --> 00:38:11.440 Just because some people elect not to benefit from it, because some 00:38:11.440 --> 00:38:15.440 people reject the free gift of faith does not mean that Christ 00:38:15.440 --> 00:38:18.080 failed. It means those people are wicked. 00:38:18.080 --> 00:38:20.720 That's what that actually means. 00:38:20.720 --> 00:38:25.200 We think the other problem with what the Reformed contend is that 00:38:25.200 --> 00:38:28.560 it does not address all of the verses that speak of Christ 00:38:28.560 --> 00:38:32.640 having renewed and restored and redeemed all things. 00:38:32.640 --> 00:38:36.560 It doesn't say he redeemed the elect alone. 00:38:36.560 --> 00:38:39.440 Like I said, in John three sixteen, we're dealing with the ton 00:38:39.840 --> 00:38:44.880 cosmon, we're dealing with the universe, which is again all things that 00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:48.160 exist. I don't think they can deal with those verses. 00:38:48.160 --> 00:38:51.360 I know that Swingli talks about his aliosis, which basically means you 00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:54.000 change the object when 00:38:54.960 --> 00:38:57.120 I don't want to get too deep in the grammar here, but 00:38:57.120 --> 00:39:02.240 it's basically you change the target of what the verse is saying 00:39:02.240 --> 00:39:05.680 in order to align with the fact that it can't possibly mean 00:39:05.680 --> 00:39:08.800 all, it has to mean all in the sense of all the 00:39:08.800 --> 00:39:14.000 elect. I find that to be an impermissible alteration of what scripture 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:19.120 says. I read all things and I believe it means all things. 00:39:19.120 --> 00:39:24.080 That's the difference, and so to go to the passage that he 00:39:24.080 --> 00:39:28.320 wanted to specifically have addressed, of course we're dealing with John here. 00:39:31.600 --> 00:39:36.720 I will pull that up on screen. 00:39:36.720 --> 00:39:38.320 Okay, so John ten eleven. 00:39:38.320 --> 00:39:39.440 I am the good shepherd. 00:39:39.440 --> 00:39:42.320 The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 00:39:42.320 --> 00:39:44.400 And then of course it goes on with he use a hired 00:39:44.400 --> 00:39:47.200 hand versus the shepherd, the hired hand runs away, the the good 00:39:47.200 --> 00:39:49.360 shepherd will actually fight for the sheep. 00:39:49.360 --> 00:39:53.600 And then down to verse twenty-six I told you and you do 00:39:53.600 --> 00:39:56.320 not believe, the works that I do in my Father's name bear 00:39:56.320 --> 00:39:59.600 witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not 00:39:59.600 --> 00:40:01.840 among my sheep. 00:40:01.840 --> 00:40:05.600 And so the Lutheran interpretation of this is this is dealing with 00:40:05.600 --> 00:40:07.520 that subjective justification. 00:40:07.520 --> 00:40:12.560 This is also pastoral in a sense, Christ is acting in a 00:40:12.560 --> 00:40:14.720 way as a pastor here. 00:40:14.720 --> 00:40:19.840 And so it is a distinction from dealing with Christ's work of 00:40:19.840 --> 00:40:24.400 the atonement itself versus the application of that atonement. 00:40:24.400 --> 00:40:27.920 We take this passage to mean the application of the atonement to 00:40:27.920 --> 00:40:31.680 individuals, and they are called not his sheep, because they are not 00:40:31.680 --> 00:40:35.680 among the elect, they do not believe, they do not have faith. 00:40:35.680 --> 00:40:36.960 That would be the distinction there. 00:40:36.960 --> 00:40:38.720 He's dealing with the sheep versus the goats. 00:40:38.720 --> 00:40:39.760 These are goats. 00:40:39.760 --> 00:40:41.600 So they're not his sheep. 00:40:41.600 --> 00:40:45.520 Their sins are forgiven, but they do not believe, and so they 00:40:45.520 --> 00:40:46.640 do not benefit. 00:40:46.640 --> 00:40:51.200 An example that is sometimes used that isn't exactly identical, but it 00:40:51.200 --> 00:40:53.440 is good enough to get the point across. 00:40:53.440 --> 00:40:56.640 If I put a million dollars in a bank account, and then 00:40:56.640 --> 00:41:00.640 I gave you a debit card and the PIN, and then you 00:41:00.640 --> 00:41:02.880 stick it in your desk and forget about it, or you say 00:41:03.040 --> 00:41:05.840 I don't believe you, or you shred it. 00:41:05.840 --> 00:41:10.240 Well, the million dollars is still there, but you don't benefit from 00:41:10.240 --> 00:41:14.560 it. Because of your actions, because of, in this case your foolishness, 00:41:14.560 --> 00:41:17.600 but with regard to sin because of your wickedness. 00:41:17.600 --> 00:41:18.960 That's the distinction there. 00:41:18.960 --> 00:41:22.640 And so we don't find that there's any conflict, it's just dealing 00:41:22.640 --> 00:41:27.920 with different aspects of the doctrine, the objective slash universal versus the 00:41:27.920 --> 00:41:29.520 subjective slash personal 00:41:43.280 --> 00:41:46.320 I think I'll probably get to at least uh two or three 00:41:46.320 --> 00:41:47.120 more questions here. 00:41:47.120 --> 00:41:51.120 I think I will get a drink of tea first. 00:41:51.120 --> 00:41:55.120 I know someone said the teapot was stealing the show, which it 00:41:55.120 --> 00:41:58.560 does add to the ambiance, so it is. 00:41:58.560 --> 00:42:00.960 But at the same time it's nice to have tea. 00:42:00.960 --> 00:42:05.200 So and it does stay warm that way. 00:42:05.520 --> 00:42:19.200 Let that cool slightly. 00:42:19.200 --> 00:42:25.920 Someone asked about in the chat about keeping the Sabbath. 00:42:25.920 --> 00:42:29.760 That one I would probably as a Lutheran obviously, I'm just going 00:42:29.760 --> 00:42:31.600 to go to the catechism, but 00:42:32.560 --> 00:42:37.440 you can also just go, of course, to the words of Christ, 00:42:37.440 --> 00:42:40.720 because the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the 00:42:40.720 --> 00:42:44.320 Sabbath. You would start there, and then you could point out also 00:42:44.400 --> 00:42:45.760 that he brings up David. 00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:48.560 David broke the Sabbath, in fact he broke several rules when he 00:42:48.560 --> 00:42:50.960 ate the bread of the presents and did things like that. 00:42:50.960 --> 00:42:53.280 And then there's the fact that the priests who served in the 00:42:53.280 --> 00:42:57.040 temple profaned the Sabbath, but they were not guilty because of that 00:42:57.040 --> 00:42:57.360 fact. 00:42:58.240 --> 00:43:04.080 The point of the Sabbath, the keeping of a day of rest, 00:43:04.080 --> 00:43:06.000 is not just to 00:43:06.880 --> 00:43:08.000 do nothing. 00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:09.920 Right? That's the Jewish interpretation. 00:43:09.920 --> 00:43:12.080 They think, oh, I can't possibly do anything. 00:43:12.080 --> 00:43:14.880 I have to just sit and do nothing and I have to 00:43:14.880 --> 00:43:17.680 set up my oven so that it turns on on its own 00:43:17.760 --> 00:43:20.560 and all the weird little things they do to try to Jew 00:43:20.560 --> 00:43:22.480 God, which is what they're doing. 00:43:22.480 --> 00:43:26.000 Right. That's not what the Sabbath is. 00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:28.720 I don't know why it keeps trying to change the resolution on 00:43:28.720 --> 00:43:32.640 my browser here, but I will just go full screen on it 00:43:32.640 --> 00:43:34.880 instead and absolve the problem there. 00:43:34.880 --> 00:43:36.400 So what is the third commandment? 00:43:36.400 --> 00:43:40.400 And of course, the Lutheran numbering, the Augustinian numbering, the traditional numbering, 00:43:40.400 --> 00:43:43.840 those who are of reform persuasion or whatever can remember it in 00:43:43.840 --> 00:43:44.720 their head. 00:43:44.720 --> 00:43:46.960 Thou shalt sanctify the holy day. 00:43:46.960 --> 00:43:48.320 What does this mean? 00:43:48.320 --> 00:43:51.520 We should fear and love God that we may not despise preaching 00:43:51.520 --> 00:43:55.840 in his word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn 00:43:55.840 --> 00:44:00.480 it. That's part of the observation of the Sabbath, that is, the 00:44:00.480 --> 00:44:04.080 small catechism, of course, is meant to be a summary, it's meant 00:44:04.080 --> 00:44:10.080 to be enough for people so that they can understand the core 00:44:10.080 --> 00:44:11.920 of the Christian faith and be a Christian. 00:44:11.920 --> 00:44:13.920 You can be saved if you know just what is in the 00:44:13.920 --> 00:44:14.960 small catechism. 00:44:15.920 --> 00:44:18.160 But there is more to it, and of course that's why we 00:44:18.160 --> 00:44:19.520 have the large catechism. 00:44:19.520 --> 00:44:22.320 I won't read all of it because the large catechism is in 00:44:22.320 --> 00:44:23.440 fact longer. 00:44:23.440 --> 00:44:25.600 So I would recommend you go and look at that. 00:44:25.600 --> 00:44:27.520 I will put that in the show notes as well. 00:44:27.520 --> 00:44:31.760 But it goes over more of it because part of the point 00:44:32.080 --> 00:44:35.600 of the Sabbath is it's a day of rest. 00:44:35.600 --> 00:44:38.080 You can see that clearly in the fact that it's compared to 00:44:38.080 --> 00:44:40.960 the fact that God rested. 00:44:40.960 --> 00:44:43.200 Man is supposed to rest as well. 00:44:43.200 --> 00:44:45.840 The biggest part of that, and Luther goes into this in the 00:44:45.840 --> 00:44:52.640 large catechism and elsewhere, staunch Christians who have you know an unshakable 00:44:52.640 --> 00:44:57.760 faith, and particularly those who are of upper class, as ri and 00:44:57.760 --> 00:45:01.920 you'll see why that's relevant, don't really need a Sabbath. 00:45:01.920 --> 00:45:04.640 Don't really need a day of rest. 00:45:04.640 --> 00:45:07.680 Servants, the working class today, those who 00:45:08.640 --> 00:45:13.600 have a day in, day out, perhaps a grueling job, need to 00:45:13.600 --> 00:45:14.960 have time off. 00:45:14.960 --> 00:45:18.480 Human beings were not meant to work twenty four seven no matter 00:45:18.480 --> 00:45:19.520 what capitalism may tell you. 00:45:20.560 --> 00:45:24.400 And so it is vitally important to give your workers a day 00:45:24.400 --> 00:45:30.160 off. God is going to judge harshly those employers who drive their 00:45:30.160 --> 00:45:32.480 employees too hard. 00:45:32.480 --> 00:45:36.000 You are supposed to treat them well, and just because they're called 00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:40.320 employees today instead of slaves or servants or whatever term you want 00:45:40.320 --> 00:45:44.960 to use doesn't change the reality of the relationship, you still have 00:45:44.960 --> 00:45:48.640 that position of authority and duty to those people under you, even 00:45:48.640 --> 00:45:51.520 if you are simply paying them an hourly wage. 00:45:51.520 --> 00:45:55.120 Don't think that your duties end when you sign that check. 00:45:55.120 --> 00:45:57.440 That's not the end of it before God. 00:45:57.440 --> 00:45:58.560 So it is necessary 00:45:59.440 --> 00:46:02.560 to observe these things, but it is not a matter of some 00:46:02.560 --> 00:46:04.560 of the examples given here, right? 00:46:04.560 --> 00:46:07.360 You can particularly think of the things the Jews will do. 00:46:07.360 --> 00:46:11.360 I can think of one particularly salient example that may make the 00:46:11.360 --> 00:46:12.400 point for some of you. 00:46:13.200 --> 00:46:18.000 There is a website that has been retailing and it's got a 00:46:18.000 --> 00:46:18.720 physical location. 00:46:18.720 --> 00:46:21.120 I think it's it's in New York. 00:46:21.120 --> 00:46:24.800 Mostly camera gear, but a lot of Mac stuff as well and 00:46:24.800 --> 00:46:27.440 all sorts of high end electronics and things like that for many 00:46:27.440 --> 00:46:32.000 years. Very well known site, used by particularly people in the photography 00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:34.160 industry, but also Apple users and others. 00:46:34.160 --> 00:46:36.880 It's BH Photo, I don't mind naming them. 00:46:36.880 --> 00:46:42.880 Their website is offline for orders on Saturdays because they're Jewish. 00:46:42.880 --> 00:46:44.800 They think that's obeying the Sabbath. 00:46:44.800 --> 00:46:48.320 They're giving their server servers don't need a rest. 00:46:48.320 --> 00:46:50.560 Servers don't get tired. 00:46:50.560 --> 00:46:55.920 Servers break down when their hardware fails, but the Sabbath is not 00:46:55.920 --> 00:46:56.640 for that. 00:46:56.640 --> 00:47:01.040 The rest aspect of it is for human beings and animals. 00:47:01.040 --> 00:47:05.040 Not for your server, not for your electricity, not for your gas 00:47:05.120 --> 00:47:07.840 or the physical road or anything like that. 00:47:07.840 --> 00:47:11.680 You give your animals a rest if you have farm animals or 00:47:11.680 --> 00:47:13.440 other beasts of burden. 00:47:13.440 --> 00:47:16.800 There are things that you do that are an aspect of rest, 00:47:16.800 --> 00:47:19.040 the other part of it, as was pointed out in the small 00:47:19.040 --> 00:47:22.800 catechism, is that it's a day set aside in order to have 00:47:22.800 --> 00:47:26.320 some time to learn the word of the Lord, to listen to 00:47:26.320 --> 00:47:29.920 preaching, to listen to teaching, and the reason that that ties into 00:47:29.920 --> 00:47:33.600 other things here is because those who do not have the amount 00:47:33.600 --> 00:47:36.800 of free time that the upper class has because the upper class 00:47:36.800 --> 00:47:37.920 has more leisure time. 00:47:37.920 --> 00:47:40.560 That's just the reality of how the world works. 00:47:40.560 --> 00:47:43.120 The working class has less leisure time. 00:47:43.120 --> 00:47:48.160 Particularly historically, today it's a little different in some cases, but that 00:47:48.400 --> 00:47:51.040 time needs to be set aside to come together and learn the 00:47:51.040 --> 00:47:52.160 word of the Lord. 00:47:52.160 --> 00:47:55.920 It's also a matter of good order, because if you just showed 00:47:55.920 --> 00:47:59.680 up to church at whatever time and day you felt like, probably 00:47:59.680 --> 00:48:02.000 not going to work very well if everyone does that. 00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:04.560 You kind of need a time and a place. 00:48:04.560 --> 00:48:09.120 There are different aspects of obeying the Sabbath, of sanctifying the holy 00:48:09.120 --> 00:48:12.320 day, as it says in the small catechism. 00:48:12.320 --> 00:48:16.960 It's not a matter of just not doing a bunch of things. 00:48:16.960 --> 00:48:19.680 It's not just take a nap. 00:48:19.680 --> 00:48:22.480 It's not what the Jews think it is where like I said 00:48:22.480 --> 00:48:26.080 before, your oven has to have a weird timer and Sabbath mode 00:48:26.240 --> 00:48:28.880 and all these things and maybe you can turn on lights or 00:48:28.880 --> 00:48:29.760 you can't turn on lights. 00:48:29.760 --> 00:48:31.280 That's completely ridiculous. 00:48:31.280 --> 00:48:33.520 Which is what Christ points out to them when he says who 00:48:33.600 --> 00:48:36.160 wouldn't pull his ox out of a well? 00:48:36.560 --> 00:48:39.440 Come on, it's ridiculous how they were doing it. 00:48:39.440 --> 00:48:42.480 He mocks them for it because it's so dumb. 00:48:42.480 --> 00:48:44.560 That's not what the Sabbath is for. 00:48:44.560 --> 00:48:49.120 It is for something completely different, and Christ is Lord of the 00:48:49.120 --> 00:48:52.320 Sabbath, and again the Sabbath was made for man, not man for 00:48:52.320 --> 00:48:53.040 the Sabbath. 00:48:53.040 --> 00:48:57.360 So observing it is not a matter of just not doing certain 00:48:57.360 --> 00:49:00.400 things. It is a matter of resting, it's a matter of listening 00:49:00.400 --> 00:49:03.760 to the word of the Lord, it's a matter of treating those 00:49:03.760 --> 00:49:07.840 entrusted to your care, whether men or animals, well, giving them rest 00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:12.160 it's all of these things in one, but not in a legalistic 00:49:12.160 --> 00:49:17.600 way. Now, that being said, do I believe we should take that 00:49:17.600 --> 00:49:20.560 commandment more seriously than we currently do as a society? 00:49:20.560 --> 00:49:22.720 The answer is absolutely yes. 00:49:22.720 --> 00:49:26.320 I think we should go back to having almost everything closed on 00:49:26.320 --> 00:49:30.480 Sundays. I think we should go back to having those sorts of 00:49:30.480 --> 00:49:34.560 restrictions in place, not selling alcohol, things like that. 00:49:34.560 --> 00:49:36.640 You should plan ahead for your communion wine. 00:49:36.640 --> 00:49:39.040 You shouldn't have to run out on Sunday morning. 00:49:39.600 --> 00:49:42.560 I think it would be good for our society to do that. 00:49:42.560 --> 00:49:45.440 It's good not just socially, I think it would be good religiously, 00:49:45.440 --> 00:49:48.720 and I think it would be truer to the commandment. 00:49:48.720 --> 00:49:51.280 And no, I don't think there's anything wrong with the fact that 00:49:51.280 --> 00:49:52.400 we observe it on Sunday. 00:49:52.400 --> 00:49:55.440 The reason we do it is because that's what the ancient church 00:49:55.440 --> 00:50:00.720 did, and because Christ rose on Sunday, we're celebrating the fact that 00:50:00.720 --> 00:50:03.440 we have a Savior who rose from the dead, and that one 00:50:03.440 --> 00:50:04.400 day we will do the same. 00:50:04.400 --> 00:50:06.960 So it's appropriate to do it on the day he rose from 00:50:06.960 --> 00:50:08.000 the dead. 00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:11.920 And of course, yes, I pointed out before that you can't really 00:50:11.920 --> 00:50:16.000 trace back and say that, oh, this day of our week is 00:50:16.160 --> 00:50:18.880 that day of the week in their calendar. 00:50:18.880 --> 00:50:21.760 We don't have that sort of resolution, a historical record, so you 00:50:21.760 --> 00:50:26.640 literally can't trace back to the exact day of the week on 00:50:26.640 --> 00:50:28.320 which God rested. 00:50:28.320 --> 00:50:29.520 You can't do it. 00:50:29.520 --> 00:50:32.400 To say nothing of the fact that you have the problems of 00:50:32.400 --> 00:50:35.760 the calendar and the problems of the Earth going round the sun, 00:50:35.760 --> 00:50:37.440 which is not an exact number. 00:50:37.440 --> 00:50:41.440 Right? That's why we have leap years and the formula is not 00:50:41.440 --> 00:50:44.080 just every four years, it's much more complicated than that. 00:50:44.560 --> 00:50:51.200 So you literally can't figure out when Saturday was in Creation Week. 00:50:51.200 --> 00:50:54.080 So God is not going to give you a command that is 00:50:54.080 --> 00:50:56.480 quite literally impossible. 00:50:56.480 --> 00:50:59.520 He's going to give you one that you can aspire to and 00:50:59.520 --> 00:51:02.880 maybe not reach the standard because of course, for instance, all of 00:51:02.880 --> 00:51:06.400 the commandments are aspirational in a sense, because in a fallen world 00:51:06.480 --> 00:51:09.520 the way we live today we can't possibly reach them. 00:51:09.520 --> 00:51:10.960 This is one of those things where 00:51:12.560 --> 00:51:15.760 you just can or can't, and you literally cannot hear. 00:51:15.760 --> 00:51:18.640 You can't figure out when Saturday was in Creation Week, and so 00:51:18.640 --> 00:51:21.840 Sunday is the day that we have picked as a civilization. 00:51:21.840 --> 00:51:23.520 We've picked it for very good reasons. 00:51:23.520 --> 00:51:26.240 We've adhered to it for centuries. 00:51:26.240 --> 00:51:27.920 We should continue to do so. 00:51:27.920 --> 00:51:30.320 It is appropriate to do so, so I'm answering sort of the 00:51:30.320 --> 00:51:33.120 sabbatarian question at the same time. 00:51:33.120 --> 00:51:37.760 That is an important aspect of Christendom, having the Having this day, 00:51:37.760 --> 00:51:42.560 this universal day of rest and worship of the Lord. 00:51:42.560 --> 00:51:45.120 And I think that's an important part of our culture we've sort 00:51:45.120 --> 00:51:46.480 of let slip away. 00:51:46.480 --> 00:51:48.480 We let capitalism erode it. 00:51:48.480 --> 00:51:52.080 We decided that being able to have the convenience of buying things 00:51:52.080 --> 00:51:55.040 whenever we feel like it and going out and doing all these 00:51:55.040 --> 00:52:00.400 things on every day outweighed obedience to God. 00:52:00.400 --> 00:52:03.280 So yes, I think we should take it more seriously, but again, 00:52:03.280 --> 00:52:05.760 it's not a legalistic thing. 00:52:05.760 --> 00:52:10.880 It's just a desire to, as Christians, obey God. 00:52:10.880 --> 00:52:16.640 Having been renewed by the Spirit, we should participate, again, synergistically, in 00:52:16.640 --> 00:52:20.720 sanctification. Part of that is obeying the commandments as best we can. 00:52:20.720 --> 00:52:23.520 I think we could do a better job as a society, as 00:52:23.520 --> 00:52:26.880 a civilization, with the third commandment. 00:52:26.880 --> 00:52:30.080 Or whatever number you want to use in your system. 00:52:30.080 --> 00:52:32.640 I'm going to actually finally drink my tea now. 00:52:45.920 --> 00:52:49.200 I have a Roman Catholic who thanks me for the work that 00:52:49.200 --> 00:52:50.720 I've done and offered to buy me a pint. 00:52:50.720 --> 00:52:56.320 As a German I'm obligated to accept, so Trappist is always good, 00:52:56.320 --> 00:52:58.080 I do like those beers as well. 00:52:58.080 --> 00:53:00.720 I am, of course, partial to the German beers, but there are 00:53:00.720 --> 00:53:03.600 plenty of other good ones from Europe and elsewhere. 00:53:03.600 --> 00:53:07.120 Certainly US has good beer now as well. 00:53:07.120 --> 00:53:09.680 Think I'll get a couple more questions here. 00:53:09.680 --> 00:53:13.440 Let's see. 00:53:13.440 --> 00:53:16.960 I was thinking about answering this one next time, but I think 00:53:16.960 --> 00:53:21.440 I will answer it now a question from formerly Twitter now X 00:53:22.160 --> 00:53:26.240 Most black African Christians I have met or seen online seem to 00:53:26.240 --> 00:53:30.640 be far more strongly against witchcraft, the demonic Harry Potter, and such, 00:53:30.640 --> 00:53:32.560 than other Europeans. 00:53:32.560 --> 00:53:34.400 Than Europeans, rather. 00:53:34.400 --> 00:53:38.320 How does this fit with the idea that syncretism is rife in 00:53:38.320 --> 00:53:42.320 Africa? I would start off by saying part of it is selection 00:53:42.320 --> 00:53:47.120 bias, because statistically, if you run the statistical analysis with the available 00:53:47.120 --> 00:53:50.640 data, syncretism is much more of a problem in Africa. 00:53:50.640 --> 00:53:52.640 Just it simply is. 00:53:52.640 --> 00:53:55.920 There are a number of good books that go over that. 00:53:55.920 --> 00:53:57.360 Let me see if I can remember one. 00:53:57.360 --> 00:54:02.880 There's. I think it's called I Am Not Afraid. 00:54:02.880 --> 00:54:07.840 It was a book specifically from a Lutheran perspective. 00:54:07.840 --> 00:54:08.640 Yes, it is. 00:54:08.640 --> 00:54:12.560 It is I Am Not Afraid, Demon Possession and spiritual warfare. 00:54:12.560 --> 00:54:16.640 If you're interested in the subject, probably worth grabbing to read it. 00:54:16.640 --> 00:54:19.840 You can probably get it cheaper on Amazon than directly from CPH, 00:54:19.840 --> 00:54:22.560 but find it used, whatever it happens to be. 00:54:22.560 --> 00:54:24.400 Find a PDF. 00:54:24.400 --> 00:54:30.240 But it deals with the issue of how rife and rampant syncretism 00:54:30.240 --> 00:54:34.720 is, particularly in this case in the Malagasy Church, the Madagascar Lutheran 00:54:34.720 --> 00:54:38.720 Church. Since this is something that Lutherans have been combating over there, 00:54:38.640 --> 00:54:44.320 And you have this syncretism with their traditional sort of ancestor worship 00:54:44.480 --> 00:54:47.760 slash animist religion. 00:54:47.760 --> 00:54:51.680 That is a problem that is basically universal in Africa. 00:54:51.680 --> 00:54:54.640 Obviously, some countries are worse than others. 00:54:54.640 --> 00:54:58.400 You know, Ethiopia is better in some ways, Ethiopia has been Christian 00:54:58.400 --> 00:55:04.640 longer. Ethiopia had trade and a relationship with Old Testament Israel, so 00:55:04.640 --> 00:55:09.360 they've had access to some parts of Christianity much longer than others, 00:55:09.360 --> 00:55:10.720 that has benefited them. 00:55:10.720 --> 00:55:12.800 So they are better off in some ways. 00:55:12.800 --> 00:55:15.520 Still not great, if you look at the violent crime rates and 00:55:15.520 --> 00:55:16.800 things like that. 00:55:16.800 --> 00:55:22.320 But insofar as syncretism is concerned, it is much more of a 00:55:22.320 --> 00:55:22.640 problem 00:55:23.520 --> 00:55:26.880 in the third world, and it's not just Africa, but Africa is 00:55:26.880 --> 00:55:31.040 the one that stands out, than it is in the Western world. 00:55:31.040 --> 00:55:33.760 Now, that's not to say the Western world doesn't have problems. 00:55:33.760 --> 00:55:38.400 We have plenty of apostasy and atheism and yes, witchcraft and things 00:55:38.400 --> 00:55:39.280 like that. 00:55:39.280 --> 00:55:44.080 There are probably more witches in the Northeast of the United States 00:55:44.160 --> 00:55:46.400 and there are Lutherans, for instance. 00:55:46.400 --> 00:55:48.320 That's a very real problem. 00:55:48.320 --> 00:55:50.400 That's something we have to address. 00:55:50.400 --> 00:55:56.160 But syncretism specifically is not a big problem that we have. 00:55:56.160 --> 00:55:56.960 We have plenty of 00:55:57.840 --> 00:55:58.720 other problems. 00:55:58.720 --> 00:56:00.880 We have corruption of doctrines. 00:56:00.880 --> 00:56:02.720 We have liberalism. 00:56:02.720 --> 00:56:06.160 We have all these things that creep into the churches, but it's 00:56:06.160 --> 00:56:09.040 not really syncretistic practice that is a problem. 00:56:09.040 --> 00:56:12.800 It's really rank apostasy in many cases instead. 00:56:12.800 --> 00:56:15.200 Which you can argue if that's better or worse. 00:56:15.200 --> 00:56:17.440 It's better in some ways, it's worse than others. 00:56:17.440 --> 00:56:19.760 It's just a matter of how difficult it is it is to 00:56:19.760 --> 00:56:26.320 surmount that in an individual case, but syncretism specifically is more of 00:56:26.320 --> 00:56:29.200 a problem in the third world. 00:56:29.200 --> 00:56:34.480 In these places that are much closer to their ancestral religions, so-called, 00:56:34.480 --> 00:56:38.000 because of course the ancestral religion of everyone is Christianity. 00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:41.760 When Noah's three sons walked off the ark, they were Christians. 00:56:41.760 --> 00:56:44.560 There were some problems with Ham, but at least he knew the 00:56:44.560 --> 00:56:46.960 doctrine, at least he knew the gospel. 00:56:46.960 --> 00:56:49.200 That had been passed down. 00:56:49.840 --> 00:56:54.160 So that is the ancestral religion of all men, but these corruptions 00:56:54.160 --> 00:56:59.920 that crept in and became their quote unquote ancestral religions, they are 00:56:59.920 --> 00:57:03.840 much closer to that practice in the third world than in the 00:57:03.840 --> 00:57:08.000 Western world, because we have that separation that was Christendom. 00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:12.480 It has since decayed, unfortunately, and collapsed, but it at least gives 00:57:12.480 --> 00:57:14.240 us a separation from those practices. 00:57:14.240 --> 00:57:18.160 And in many cases, the pagan practices of our ancestors have been 00:57:18.160 --> 00:57:20.720 lost. We can't even restore them. 00:57:20.720 --> 00:57:23.680 Th those in the third world have a continuity because it's still 00:57:23.680 --> 00:57:25.520 practiced in many places. 00:57:25.520 --> 00:57:28.880 So they can go right back to it because shamans are still 00:57:28.880 --> 00:57:32.160 around in Africa and elsewhere. 00:57:32.160 --> 00:57:37.120 So they have that problem and we have different problems. 00:57:37.120 --> 00:57:40.320 Another aspect of it is also that they 00:57:41.200 --> 00:57:45.040 have exposure to it in a way that we don't. 00:57:45.040 --> 00:57:49.120 You have witches who call themselves witches in the West, but really 00:57:49.120 --> 00:57:51.760 it's usually just weird women who collect crystals 00:57:52.800 --> 00:57:54.400 It's not good. 00:57:54.400 --> 00:57:57.280 And a lot of times they do engage in things that are 00:57:57.360 --> 00:58:01.360 at least verging on the demonic, but usually it's a LARP. 00:58:01.360 --> 00:58:06.000 Usually they believe in energies and collect crystals and burn sage. 00:58:06.400 --> 00:58:09.440 Okay, that's not good. 00:58:09.440 --> 00:58:13.280 But it's not the same thing as open demon worship. 00:58:13.280 --> 00:58:16.800 Some of them engage in demon worship, absolutely. 00:58:16.800 --> 00:58:20.640 Some of them engage in rank, awful demon worship, things that would 00:58:21.360 --> 00:58:23.920 be criminal if they were caught doing them. 00:58:23.920 --> 00:58:27.840 Absolutely that happens even here in the United States. 00:58:27.840 --> 00:58:28.160 But 00:58:29.440 --> 00:58:31.360 they have sort of created 00:58:32.320 --> 00:58:38.080 their own new religion because that stuff didn't survive the filter of 00:58:38.080 --> 00:58:43.280 Christendom. Whereas again, the older practices in the other parts of the 00:58:43.280 --> 00:58:47.520 world, Africa in particular, but also in some parts of South America, 00:58:47.520 --> 00:58:52.400 you have this syncretism because the old religions from which they converted 00:58:52.480 --> 00:58:53.680 never died. 00:58:53.680 --> 00:58:55.040 They never disappeared. 00:58:55.040 --> 00:58:57.040 The practice has never stopped. 00:58:57.040 --> 00:59:00.880 You've had voodoo going on in Haiti since you had people in 00:59:00.880 --> 00:59:04.800 Haiti, who brought voodoo with them from Africa, of course. 00:59:04.800 --> 00:59:08.560 The original inhabitants practiced other things that were also demonic. 00:59:08.560 --> 00:59:11.440 And so that's why you have that problem there. 00:59:11.440 --> 00:59:15.840 But that fact that they don't have the separation means that they 00:59:15.840 --> 00:59:19.440 have more of a reaction to it when they convert. 00:59:19.440 --> 00:59:24.960 Because they have converted away from that thing, then sometimes they recognize 00:59:24.960 --> 00:59:28.400 the evil of the thing that they gave up, the thing from 00:59:28.400 --> 00:59:31.600 which they fled, the thing from which they were rescued. 00:59:31.600 --> 00:59:34.560 And for a lot of Europeans, a lot of those in the 00:59:34.560 --> 00:59:37.920 West, We don't have that anymore. 00:59:37.920 --> 00:59:42.240 Because we take for granted all of the good things that Christendom 00:59:42.240 --> 00:59:47.280 gave us, all the things we inherited from our faithful Christian ancestors, 00:59:47.280 --> 00:59:49.440 and there are those who don't recognize 00:59:50.560 --> 00:59:54.800 what they have, what their patrimony is, and so they don't have 00:59:54.800 --> 00:59:58.800 the same reaction to seeing evil because they have not had to 00:59:58.800 --> 01:00:01.280 deal with it in the same way as those who have lived 01:00:01.280 --> 01:00:05.680 in places that Cases where shamanism and human sacrifice and things like 01:00:05.680 --> 01:00:10.320 that are still practiced, even if in the shadows in some cases. 01:00:10.320 --> 01:00:13.760 That is a problem for us to overcome in the West. 01:00:13.760 --> 01:00:17.600 It's a problem for them in that they have the syncretistic tendency. 01:00:17.600 --> 01:00:20.880 It's a problem for us in that people think that water doesn't 01:00:20.800 --> 01:00:23.840 exist when there are fish swimming in that water. 01:00:23.840 --> 01:00:25.680 So it's different challenges. 01:00:25.680 --> 01:00:29.360 It's not to say that one is better than the other to 01:00:29.360 --> 01:00:36.400 have, because they pose different challenges, not necessarily easier or more difficult. 01:00:36.400 --> 01:00:39.440 In some cases, it can be a little more difficult to overcome 01:00:39.440 --> 01:00:42.320 the challenges in the West, because at least when you go to 01:00:42.320 --> 01:00:46.960 someone in Africa or wherever else it happens to be, you can 01:00:46.960 --> 01:00:52.720 say, Look at these practices of your traditional religion, look at what 01:00:52.720 --> 01:00:53.680 God says. 01:00:53.680 --> 01:00:55.920 It's absolutely all incompatible. 01:00:55.920 --> 01:00:58.960 You're doing something that is rankly demonic, and they can look at 01:00:58.960 --> 01:01:01.600 it, and you can bring them out of that, and they recognize 01:01:01.600 --> 01:01:04.160 that there's been a significant change. 01:01:04.160 --> 01:01:07.280 It can be very difficult to do the same thing with those 01:01:07.280 --> 01:01:09.760 in the West, to say nothing of the difference in intelligence because 01:01:09.760 --> 01:01:12.880 those in the West are going to mount a stronger opposition. 01:01:12.880 --> 01:01:15.120 It's one of the reasons that some people like to go do 01:01:15.120 --> 01:01:16.320 missions in the third world. 01:01:16.320 --> 01:01:18.480 It's easier. 01:01:18.640 --> 01:01:21.280 They do it because there are a lot of reasons, I don't 01:01:21.200 --> 01:01:23.600 want to get into all that now, but sometimes it's because it's 01:01:23.600 --> 01:01:26.080 easier. It's easier to go deal with those people than it is 01:01:26.080 --> 01:01:27.680 to deal with your own. 01:01:27.680 --> 01:01:29.280 That doesn't mean you shouldn't deal with your own. 01:01:29.280 --> 01:01:31.920 In fact, it's sinful not to deal with your own. 01:01:31.920 --> 01:01:35.040 Because God gave them to you, you should care for them first. 01:01:35.040 --> 01:01:36.720 So I guess that's sort of a 01:01:37.920 --> 01:01:40.400 long-winded perhaps way of addressing that issue. 01:01:40.400 --> 01:01:43.600 But I think it's worth bringing up all of the different facets 01:01:43.600 --> 01:01:44.720 of that. 01:01:44.720 --> 01:01:50.240 It's not that they necessarily have less of a problem with that 01:01:50.240 --> 01:01:54.960 particular kind of demonic activity as they've come out of it and 01:01:54.960 --> 01:02:01.280 so they personally have a recognition of that problem whereas we don't 01:02:01.200 --> 01:02:03.920 have that anymore in the West. 01:02:03.920 --> 01:02:07.120 But it doesn't mean that they don't have a problem with syncretism 01:02:07.200 --> 01:02:11.200 because statistically according to the data, if you go deal with people 01:02:11.200 --> 01:02:13.440 on the ground over there as it were, they really do have 01:02:13.440 --> 01:02:14.960 a problem with syncretism. 01:02:14.960 --> 01:02:21.520 And it is a challenge for missionaries. 01:02:21.520 --> 01:02:25.840 Someone asked about the appropriate the appropriate rather marriageable age for a 01:02:25.840 --> 01:02:30.080 woman. I'm just going to give the standard Western European answer. 01:02:30.080 --> 01:02:32.080 You can go and look at the Hajnal line if you're so 01:02:32.080 --> 01:02:37.600 inclined on Wikipedia because there is a divide between Western and Eastern 01:02:37.600 --> 01:02:41.600 Europe, Eastern Europeans have historically married earlier. 01:02:41.600 --> 01:02:46.400 Western Europeans have historically married later, but it's still twenties. 01:02:46.400 --> 01:02:48.800 And for women it's usually early twenties. 01:02:48.800 --> 01:02:52.240 It's like twenty-two to twenty-five, something like that. 01:02:52.240 --> 01:02:54.640 A little earlier is fine, a little later is fine. 01:02:54.640 --> 01:02:58.480 Earlier is probably better because obviously there's a fertility window for women. 01:02:58.480 --> 01:03:02.240 And then men are usually a little later, but still usually either 01:03:02.240 --> 01:03:04.480 late twenties or early thirties. 01:03:04.480 --> 01:03:06.960 That's pretty much been the historical standard. 01:03:06.960 --> 01:03:09.920 It varies a little over time with the centuries and warfare and 01:03:09.920 --> 01:03:12.560 things like that, but that's been the standard. 01:03:12.560 --> 01:03:15.520 And then Eastern Europe, I can't remember the exact numbers, but it's 01:03:15.520 --> 01:03:18.720 like three to four years earlier. 01:03:18.720 --> 01:03:23.520 So So, instead of having a 21-year-old and a 27-year-old marry in 01:03:23.680 --> 01:03:27.040 West, it would be a 24-year-old and a 19-year-old. 01:03:27.040 --> 01:03:28.480 That's not inappropriate. 01:03:28.480 --> 01:03:30.080 That's totally fine. 01:03:30.080 --> 01:03:33.280 Obviously, this is coming up because of various things that have happened 01:03:33.760 --> 01:03:37.440 in the news in the last say year, and then other things 01:03:37.440 --> 01:03:41.680 that have happened with certain individuals in the last say few days. 01:03:41.680 --> 01:03:42.000 And 01:03:43.120 --> 01:03:48.080 no, it is not appropriate to be defending the marriage, we'll be 01:03:48.080 --> 01:03:54.240 charitable here, of forty and fifty-year-old men to fourteen and fifteen-year-old girls. 01:03:54.240 --> 01:03:57.600 That is Categorically unacceptable. 01:03:57.600 --> 01:04:01.040 That is not something that has ever been standard practice, certainly in 01:04:01.040 --> 01:04:04.240 Western Europe, and it is not something for which we should ever 01:04:04.240 --> 01:04:09.520 advocate. The reality of it is that you are not an adult 01:04:09.680 --> 01:04:15.200 until you are at least in your late teens, and probably later 01:04:15.200 --> 01:04:16.000 than that. 01:04:16.000 --> 01:04:18.800 It's not that you have to be, you know, your brain fully 01:04:18.800 --> 01:04:19.920 developed and everything. 01:04:19.920 --> 01:04:21.440 You can't get married before that. 01:04:21.680 --> 01:04:24.560 I'm not saying that, because quite frankly, the research seems to show 01:04:24.560 --> 01:04:27.280 that maybe it's not until you're thirty that your brain's done fully 01:04:27.280 --> 01:04:30.880 developing. No one's going to seriously well, okay, some people will, but 01:04:30.880 --> 01:04:32.160 they're not serious people. 01:04:32.160 --> 01:04:34.480 No serious person is going to seriously say you have to wait 01:04:34.480 --> 01:04:36.880 until that age. 01:04:36.880 --> 01:04:40.560 And God seems to have designed it so that you don't, because 01:04:40.560 --> 01:04:45.920 probably the neuroplasticity helps build that relationship in the early years, which 01:04:45.920 --> 01:04:48.080 then carries you through the rest of your life. 01:04:48.080 --> 01:04:52.160 That's probably part of how God designed the system to work. 01:04:52.160 --> 01:04:55.760 So I think the ideal probably is something like twenty-one for women 01:04:55.760 --> 01:04:58.080 and, you know, twenty-five, twenty-six for men. 01:04:58.080 --> 01:05:01.280 I think having a little bit of gap in terms of age 01:05:01.280 --> 01:05:02.080 is good. 01:05:02.080 --> 01:05:05.120 It helps to reinforce that headship and the authority of the man 01:05:05.120 --> 01:05:08.960 over the woman, but it shouldn't be too big of an age 01:05:08.960 --> 01:05:11.680 gap simply because of the biological reality. 01:05:11.680 --> 01:05:14.240 Part of it is, you know, you're not going to live as 01:05:14.240 --> 01:05:16.320 long as a man as the average woman. 01:05:16.320 --> 01:05:19.760 You probably don't want to leave your wife as a widow for 01:05:19.760 --> 01:05:21.120 ten years. 01:05:21.120 --> 01:05:22.880 If you can avoid it. 01:05:22.880 --> 01:05:25.920 You know, four or five years isn't as bad. 01:05:25.920 --> 01:05:28.400 She She's probably going to outlive you by that much at least 01:05:28.480 --> 01:05:30.960 anyway. So there's there's part of it is that. 01:05:30.960 --> 01:05:33.120 There's also the aspect of it. 01:05:33.120 --> 01:05:36.960 Yes, the fertility window for women is significantly more important than the 01:05:36.960 --> 01:05:40.160 one for men, because the one for men basically doesn't exist. 01:05:40.160 --> 01:05:40.400 But But 01:05:41.280 --> 01:05:45.680 you do run into more problems, birth defects, and things like that. 01:05:45.680 --> 01:05:48.480 The risk increases with the age of the father. 01:05:48.480 --> 01:05:51.360 Not as severe as the age of the mother. 01:05:51.360 --> 01:05:54.480 You don't simply lose the ability to produce children when you hit 01:05:54.480 --> 01:05:58.640 a certain age as a man, but there are considerations for the 01:05:58.640 --> 01:06:00.800 health of the children and just how many children you're going to 01:06:00.800 --> 01:06:04.800 have. And the simple fact of the matter is, if you have 01:06:04.800 --> 01:06:09.200 a child when you're 20 or 25, 26, whatever it happens to 01:06:09.200 --> 01:06:12.240 be, you are going to be at the peak of your energy 01:06:12.240 --> 01:06:17.440 and physical fitness most likely in order to raise that child appropriately. 01:06:17.440 --> 01:06:21.760 If you're 55 and you have your first child, you are going 01:06:21.760 --> 01:06:26.560 to be unbelievably tired throughout the years of raising that child. 01:06:26.560 --> 01:06:30.080 You're going to be 65 when the child is 10. 01:06:30.800 --> 01:06:33.520 The by The biological reality is 01:06:34.560 --> 01:06:36.400 it is what it is. 01:06:36.400 --> 01:06:41.040 And you you may find it unpleasant, you may find it harsh, 01:06:41.040 --> 01:06:42.960 but that doesn't change it. 01:06:42.960 --> 01:06:43.280 So 01:06:44.160 --> 01:06:47.680 we should be trying to minimize harm is what we're really trying 01:06:47.680 --> 01:06:51.680 to do, and to maximize the blessings from God. 01:06:51.680 --> 01:06:53.520 And part of that is getting married young. 01:06:53.520 --> 01:06:57.520 And also, obviously, I already spoke about sexual temptations and things like 01:06:57.520 --> 01:07:01.120 that, but if you're going to live through your twenties and your 01:07:01.120 --> 01:07:05.600 thirties unmarried, it's going to be a lot harder for you to 01:07:05.600 --> 01:07:10.720 stay celibate, to stay chaste, than chaste is more appropriate than celibate 01:07:10.800 --> 01:07:13.440 there, to stay chaste, than if you're married. 01:07:14.080 --> 01:07:15.360 That's the reality of it. 01:07:15.360 --> 01:07:17.200 It's easier to do that as you get older. 01:07:17.200 --> 01:07:20.080 Again, biological reality. 01:07:20.080 --> 01:07:24.160 But yes, the the marriageable age should be basically twenties. 01:07:24.160 --> 01:07:26.400 That is sort of the ideal. 01:07:26.400 --> 01:07:28.800 At least at this point in creation. 01:07:28.800 --> 01:07:31.520 Obviously, it was different back in the age of the patriarchs and 01:07:31.520 --> 01:07:35.760 things like that, but I don't personally plan to live to 600, 01:07:35.760 --> 01:07:37.920 and I doubt anyone in this chat is going to do that 01:07:37.920 --> 01:07:44.880 either. Despite the promises of the tech oligarchs. 01:08:02.320 --> 01:08:05.520 Let's see if there are other questions in here. 01:08:18.560 --> 01:08:21.520 Yes, certainly an aspect of the Sabbath that I I could have 01:08:21.520 --> 01:08:25.120 mentioned, I have mentioned elsewhere, is that some services are necessary. 01:08:25.120 --> 01:08:27.280 And I I did address that with the fact that the the 01:08:27.760 --> 01:08:31.920 priests so-called profane the Sabbath by working on the Sabbath historically, obviously 01:08:32.000 --> 01:08:34.320 we don't priest today, in that sense. 01:08:34.320 --> 01:08:36.720 I'm not saying you can't call a pastor a priest, I don't 01:08:36.640 --> 01:08:38.480 really care which term you used. 01:08:38.480 --> 01:08:41.360 I prefer pastor a little bit, but it it doesn't matter that 01:08:41.360 --> 01:08:44.960 much. Necessary services should obviously continue. 01:08:44.960 --> 01:08:48.160 We're not going to shut down our hospitals on the Sabbath because 01:08:48.240 --> 01:08:50.400 well that would kill people. 01:08:50.400 --> 01:08:52.000 Probably not good. 01:08:52.000 --> 01:08:55.520 You still need police on the Sabbath, you still need firefighters on 01:08:55.520 --> 01:08:56.720 the Sabbath. 01:08:56.720 --> 01:09:00.960 You need necessary workers, and there are such a thing, there is 01:09:00.960 --> 01:09:04.160 such a thing as a necessary worker. 01:09:04.160 --> 01:09:08.320 Those people can go to a Saturday service or Friday or Wednesday, 01:09:08.320 --> 01:09:10.800 whatever it is that happens to fit their schedule. 01:09:10.800 --> 01:09:14.720 God is not going to curse you because you are doing necessary 01:09:14.720 --> 01:09:16.240 work on the Sabbath. 01:09:16.560 --> 01:09:19.040 You can think again of pulling the ox out of the well. 01:09:29.920 --> 01:09:34.880 I definitely have more questions, but most of them are getting into 01:09:34.880 --> 01:09:38.320 the sort of long answer. 01:09:38.320 --> 01:09:42.160 So I think I may wrap it up here for this week. 01:09:42.160 --> 01:09:47.760 I did want to mention some of the questions I've received are 01:09:47.760 --> 01:09:52.080 going to be longer answers and I don't necessarily want them to 01:09:52.080 --> 01:09:55.280 take up the entire episode for a given week. 01:09:55.280 --> 01:09:57.760 I could do that, of course, but that's not really the goal 01:09:57.840 --> 01:10:00.400 I'd like to get through a at least a fair number of 01:10:00.400 --> 01:10:04.160 questions, you know, at least five or six instead of two. 01:10:04.240 --> 01:10:04.560 But 01:10:05.440 --> 01:10:08.880 I think what I will probably do in order to address those 01:10:09.040 --> 01:10:15.840 is I will release additional episodes on this same show, but not 01:10:16.160 --> 01:10:19.040 as a QA episode, more 01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:23.040 a stand-alone answer to a particular question. 01:10:23.200 --> 01:10:27.920 Those will be in the feed for the podcast version of this, 01:10:27.920 --> 01:10:29.760 which is audio only. 01:10:29.760 --> 01:10:33.520 But I think I will also upload them to YouTube and elsewhere 01:10:33.600 --> 01:10:36.160 so people can find them more easily, whichever platform it is you 01:10:36.160 --> 01:10:36.960 happen to use. 01:10:36.960 --> 01:10:39.840 Most people are on Are on either X or YouTube, so those 01:10:39.840 --> 01:10:43.520 are sort of the two key platforms, unsurprisingly. 01:10:43.520 --> 01:10:47.680 So for the questions that require a longer answer, I think that's 01:10:47.680 --> 01:10:49.040 what I will do. 01:10:49.040 --> 01:10:53.040 I think that fits in well with the overall goal because then 01:10:53.040 --> 01:10:57.840 I can give the detailed answers for the more complex, the more 01:10:57.840 --> 01:11:03.200 involved questions, and continue to answer a good number of questions each 01:11:03.200 --> 01:11:06.240 week in these shows as well. 01:11:06.240 --> 01:11:09.360 So if you have a question that is a little more involved, 01:11:09.360 --> 01:11:11.360 expect to get an answer like that. 01:11:11.360 --> 01:11:14.960 I can't promise a particular time because it's really whenever I happen 01:11:14.960 --> 01:11:18.160 to have the time to get this done I do have a 01:11:18.160 --> 01:11:22.320 fair number of things to get done as well. 01:11:22.320 --> 01:11:25.280 Someone said is it unreasonable to want ten kids from a wife? 01:11:25.280 --> 01:11:26.960 I guess I can answer that one in passing I don't think 01:11:26.960 --> 01:11:27.680 it's unreasonable. 01:11:27.680 --> 01:11:29.440 If you can manage that many, you know it's a matter of 01:11:29.440 --> 01:11:32.480 wisdom. That's the short answer for children is it it's a matter 01:11:32.480 --> 01:11:33.040 of wisdom. 01:11:33.040 --> 01:11:35.040 Children are a blessing from the Lord. 01:11:35.040 --> 01:11:36.560 They're always a blessing from the Lord. 01:11:36.560 --> 01:11:37.760 There was a question on that topic. 01:11:37.760 --> 01:11:41.040 I will get into that question either next week or the week 01:11:41.040 --> 01:11:42.880 after, I believe. 01:11:42.880 --> 01:11:47.840 But children are a blessing from the Lord. 01:11:47.840 --> 01:11:50.720 You know, the man who fills his quiver with them, the children 01:11:50.720 --> 01:11:51.760 of his youth. 01:11:51.760 --> 01:11:54.000 He will not be put to shame when he speaks with his 01:11:54.000 --> 01:11:55.600 enemies in the gate. 01:11:55.600 --> 01:11:55.920 So 01:11:57.200 --> 01:12:01.280 no, have as many children as God will bless you with, assuming 01:12:01.280 --> 01:12:04.320 that you don't have, you know, some biological issue that you're going 01:12:04.320 --> 01:12:06.000 to pass on to them that's going to kill them in early 01:12:06.000 --> 01:12:08.880 childhood. Like there there are wisdom considerations. 01:12:08.880 --> 01:12:11.600 But if you have ten healthy children, your wife is able to 01:12:11.920 --> 01:12:15.120 bear that many, God gives you that many, by all means, go 01:12:15.120 --> 01:12:15.680 for it. 01:12:15.680 --> 01:12:18.720 That's great to be blessed that much by God. 01:12:18.720 --> 01:12:21.120 That doesn't mean you have to have them one right after the 01:12:21.120 --> 01:12:25.840 other. You are permitted to exercise discretion and have gaps between the 01:12:25.840 --> 01:12:28.880 children. That's not a sin to do that. 01:12:28.880 --> 01:12:32.560 There are sinful methods, but use the ones that aren't. 01:12:32.560 --> 01:12:37.200 The church has recognized that for centuries. 01:12:37.200 --> 01:12:42.640 But insofar as again, complicated questions, long answers, I think I will 01:12:42.640 --> 01:12:44.560 do that that way. 01:12:44.560 --> 01:12:47.280 But I think that's it for this week. 01:12:48.320 --> 01:12:52.320 I will add the other questions that I did not answer from 01:12:52.320 --> 01:12:57.040 the chat and elsewhere into my growing list of questions, which I 01:12:57.040 --> 01:12:59.840 think is growing faster than I am answering them, but that's always 01:12:59.840 --> 01:13:01.760 how it's sort of going to be. 01:13:01.760 --> 01:13:05.840 I have on a related note to some things I touched on 01:13:05.840 --> 01:13:10.400 tonight, I have an article I'm going to be posting hopefully tomorrow 01:13:10.480 --> 01:13:12.640 I think I will get it done and posted. 01:13:13.040 --> 01:13:17.680 about the nature of women, the relationship of men and women, because 01:13:17.680 --> 01:13:20.160 that issue just keeps coming up again and again and again. 01:13:20.160 --> 01:13:22.880 And I know why, and I've explained it before, and it's vitally 01:13:22.880 --> 01:13:24.400 important to get it right. 01:13:24.400 --> 01:13:28.400 I think it will make feminists very angry, and that's probably part 01:13:28.400 --> 01:13:30.080 of the point and it's a good thing. 01:13:30.080 --> 01:13:32.320 So I will be publishing that. 01:13:32.320 --> 01:13:35.360 You can find that on my website and of course Telegram and 01:13:35.360 --> 01:13:38.000 elsewhere there'll be notifications for that. 01:13:38.000 --> 01:13:42.160 So if you want to sign up for the audio only of 01:13:42.160 --> 01:13:47.920 this for whatever reason, that can be found at podcast.coreyjmoller.com. 01:13:47.920 --> 01:13:49.760 You can submit your questions. 01:13:49.760 --> 01:13:52.560 There is a link in the description on whichever platform you're on 01:13:52.640 --> 01:13:56.320 right now, it's also in the show notes for each episode. 01:13:56.320 --> 01:14:00.480 Preferably submit the questions on the forum because it's just easiest for 01:14:00.480 --> 01:14:03.440 me and it helps to organize and so other people can find 01:14:03.440 --> 01:14:06.320 them in the future, which is kind of the point to make 01:14:06.320 --> 01:14:10.160 these accessible in the future not just as a transitory sort of 01:14:10.160 --> 01:14:14.000 thing. I think that pretty much covers it for housekeeping though. 01:14:14.000 --> 01:14:17.520 And I hope you all have a great rest of your weekend 01:14:17.840 --> 01:14:21.840 or all of your weekend if it's just starting now. 01:14:21.840 --> 01:14:24.320 So thank you for your time. 01:14:24.320 --> 01:14:26.160 Thank you for those who submitted the questions. 01:14:26.160 --> 01:14:28.480 And even for those if I did not get to your question, 01:14:28.480 --> 01:14:30.720 I will again in the future try to do that. 01:14:30.720 --> 01:14:32.800 And again I hope you have a good weekend. 01:14:32.800 --> 01:14:34.080 God bless you all. 01:14:34.080 --> 01:14:35.200 See you next week. 01:14:35.200 --> 01:14:37.200 Hopefully on Thursday.