WEBVTT 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:08.960 It 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:11.440 is the twenty fifth of September, twenty twenty. 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:13.200 I am Cory J. 00:02:13.200 --> 00:02:16.080 Mahler, and this is at any cost. 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:20.960 This is episode 42, a QA episode, and just a little bit 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:26.880 of housekeeping before I get started here into the questions. 00:02:26.880 --> 00:02:29.920 I was going to announce something, but I think I will save 00:02:29.920 --> 00:02:31.120 that for next week. 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:32.720 There's a little more work to be done on that. 00:02:32.720 --> 00:02:35.360 It won't apply to most of you, so don't be too excited 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:36.160 for that. 00:02:36.160 --> 00:02:42.880 However, applicable to this actual show, I now have a 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:47.200 question board, as it were, for the show for helping me with 00:02:47.200 --> 00:02:50.000 streaming. I am ingesting the chat. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:54.000 I then have an AI agent looking at it, extracting questions, and 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:56.720 then presenting them to an iPad that I have here in front 00:02:56.720 --> 00:02:57.280 of me. 00:02:57.280 --> 00:02:58.880 So obviously I'm testing that. 00:02:58.880 --> 00:03:00.960 This is the first stream using it. 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:04.640 So if it misses your question, let me know. 00:03:04.640 --> 00:03:05.440 It shouldn't. 00:03:05.440 --> 00:03:09.040 It's pretty correctly configured as far as I've been able to test 00:03:09.040 --> 00:03:11.200 it, so I don't think it will miss anything. 00:03:11.200 --> 00:03:13.200 But there's always a chance that it will. 00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:17.360 So just to let you all know, if your question does not 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:19.280 get pulled out for 00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:24.400 future answers or for answer in this stream, it might be related 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:26.160 to that, so let me know so I can fix it for 00:03:26.160 --> 00:03:28.400 next stream. 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:32.240 But that being said, I think that's really the only housekeeping that 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:35.440 I have this week, so I will go ahead and get into 00:03:35.440 --> 00:03:39.440 the questions here. 00:03:39.440 --> 00:03:43.520 The first couple of questions are a little longer and more involved. 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:46.080 It's why I put them off last week to this week because 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:50.160 they're going to consume a decent chunk of time here, I'm certain. 00:03:50.160 --> 00:03:56.800 So the first question is is about individualistic objections to national socialism 00:03:57.040 --> 00:04:01.040 and it's actually six different questions, so I will just take them 00:04:01.040 --> 00:04:02.320 in turn. 00:04:02.320 --> 00:04:06.240 I think I'll just label it as question one with some subparts. 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:11.280 So hopefully the dogs barking outside my window are not coming through. 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:13.360 They probably aren't. 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:16.320 So I'll read the question here. 00:04:16.320 --> 00:04:19.360 I and some of the other right wing guys at church have 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:22.400 been trying to talk to one of the guys who is reasonably 00:04:22.400 --> 00:04:26.240 on side about government care for the poor under a future national 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:28.240 socialist government in America. 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:34.480 He has a highly individualistic outlook on politics Politics as has and 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:36.720 he has various objections. 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:40.800 He his objections in brief are, so I'll just take these in 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:42.720 turn and answer them as I go. 00:04:42.960 --> 00:04:45.760 Someone said the dogs are coming through a little bit, so you 00:04:45.760 --> 00:04:49.280 can go ahead and blame I think that was mostly Gizmo and 00:04:49.280 --> 00:04:52.800 Callie, my female golden retriever, so you know who to blame for 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:57.280 that. But the first question, the first real question here. 00:04:57.280 --> 00:05:00.240 Socialism of any form isn't in the Bible. 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:04.400 The sentiment expressed behind if a man will not work, neither let 00:05:04.400 --> 00:05:08.880 him eat, and the very non egalitarian nature of God's created world 00:05:08.960 --> 00:05:13.360 world are both arguments against it with natural law sealing the deal 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:20.480 for this person who objects and as revealed in socialist experiments. 00:05:20.480 --> 00:05:23.520 So I'm not sure exactly which experiments he means. 00:05:23.760 --> 00:05:27.840 He probably means the USSR, which obviously that's a very different thing, 00:05:27.840 --> 00:05:32.080 right? We're not talking about left wing socialism, we're talking about right 00:05:32.320 --> 00:05:34.880 wing socialism, which is a different thing. 00:05:34.880 --> 00:05:39.360 Always remember starting off before I get into the substanti the substantive 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:43.520 answers here, politics is in a spectrum, it's at least a quadrant, 00:05:43.520 --> 00:05:47.520 right? You've got authoritarian versus libertarian and left and right. 00:05:47.520 --> 00:05:53.040 So you certainly have the more socialist aspects both on the right 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:56.400 and the left wing, not the same thing, certainly. 00:05:56.400 --> 00:06:02.400 You know, National Socialist Germany and Soviet communist Russia are not on 00:06:02.400 --> 00:06:04.160 the same side. 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:06.640 I'm going to close my window because the dogs are being quite 00:06:06.640 --> 00:06:12.320 loud. That should be good enough. 00:06:12.320 --> 00:06:14.240 Most of the window is closed. 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:19.200 So when it comes to socialism not being in the Bible, sure, 00:06:19.200 --> 00:06:21.040 but neither is capitalism, right? 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:26.880 We don't have a particular political theory system design laid out in 00:06:26.880 --> 00:06:30.000 scripture for exactly what we're supposed to do. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:32.800 But we do have some pointers, right? 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:36.560 We have some recommendations from God that can steer us in the 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:37.600 right direction. 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:41.520 And so I'll go ahead and pull up one that should certainly 00:06:41.520 --> 00:06:44.800 come to mind if someone makes this sort of objection. 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:47.840 And I will pull up logos here so we can all look 00:06:47.840 --> 00:06:52.080 at the text. 00:06:52.080 --> 00:07:01.360 Once I get logos logos to actually display the floating window here. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:06.400 There we go. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:10.400 So I'll go to map Matthew for this twenty five starting with 00:07:10.400 --> 00:07:11.600 verse thirty one. 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:14.640 Some of you will of course know exactly where I'm going, right? 00:07:14.640 --> 00:07:16.000 The final judgment. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:18.240 When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:21.360 angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:24.800 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:28.000 people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:31.280 goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the 00:07:31.280 --> 00:07:32.640 goats on the left. 00:07:32.640 --> 00:07:35.520 Then the king will say to those on his right, Come you 00:07:35.520 --> 00:07:39.520 who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you 00:07:39.520 --> 00:07:41.280 from the foundation of the world. 00:07:41.280 --> 00:07:44.880 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty, 00:07:44.880 --> 00:07:48.320 and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed 00:07:48.320 --> 00:07:50.880 me. I was naked and you clothed me. 00:07:50.880 --> 00:07:52.720 I was sick and you visited me. 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:55.040 I was in prison and you came to me. 00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:58.960 Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see 00:07:58.960 --> 00:08:02.320 you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 00:08:02.320 --> 00:08:05.200 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or 00:08:05.200 --> 00:08:06.720 naked and clothe you? 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:09.520 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit 00:08:09.520 --> 00:08:11.440 you? And the king will answer them. 00:08:11.440 --> 00:08:14.400 Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of 00:08:14.400 --> 00:08:18.960 the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. 00:08:18.960 --> 00:08:21.520 So I think pretty clearly we can see here that we do 00:08:21.520 --> 00:08:25.840 in fact have social obligations to those around us, right? 00:08:25.840 --> 00:08:29.040 And you all know the rest of this passage, so I won't 00:08:28.960 --> 00:08:30.240 read that as well. 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:33.200 I could also go to the good Samaritan, right? 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:36.240 He's praised very highly for taking care of someone to whom he 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:40.800 otherwise didn't have any sort of duty, he didn't have a relationship 00:08:40.800 --> 00:08:44.160 of, you know, consanguinity attenuated, right? 00:08:44.160 --> 00:08:45.600 They were distant cousins. 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:49.600 This was someone who was put in his path by God. 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:52.800 He had the opportunity to do good for this man. 00:08:52.800 --> 00:08:57.120 The same thing is certainly true of our brothers and sisters, our 00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:59.520 cousins, in our own nations. 00:08:59.520 --> 00:09:01.280 We have a duty to care for them. 00:09:01.280 --> 00:09:03.920 We do not have a duty just to care for those in 00:09:03.920 --> 00:09:05.120 our own household. 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:07.520 That'll be a later question in this series here. 00:09:07.520 --> 00:09:10.480 It is important to care for those closest to us first and 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:14.880 foremost, and so you don't liquidate all of your assets and spend 00:09:14.880 --> 00:09:16.240 them on foreigners, right? 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:19.760 Or even unspend them on someone across the other side of this 00:09:19.760 --> 00:09:22.640 country in which you live, in your own nation. 00:09:22.640 --> 00:09:25.120 But you do have a duty to care for them. 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:27.440 So part of it, of course, is going to be the resources 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:29.040 that God has given you, I'll get into that as well. 00:09:29.280 --> 00:09:34.880 As well, but there's very clearly a duty in scripture to care 00:09:34.880 --> 00:09:35.920 for others. 00:09:35.920 --> 00:09:39.280 The question of course that this person is asking is whether or 00:09:39.280 --> 00:09:41.200 not that falls to the state. 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:43.440 I will get to that as well in one of the later 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:47.200 sub questions here because he asks about the church versus the state. 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:51.840 But just here at the outset, laying out sort of the framework, 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:55.200 we can very clearly see that whether you want to call it 00:09:55.200 --> 00:09:58.080 socialism or not, and some people certainly object to the word, and 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:01.520 I understand why, it's been poisoned by the left, but whether or 00:10:01.520 --> 00:10:06.560 not you call it socialism, there are affirmative social or communitarian if 00:10:06.560 --> 00:10:10.160 you prefer duties to those in your state, to those who are 00:10:10.160 --> 00:10:12.880 of your fellow nation of your blood. 00:10:12.880 --> 00:10:16.320 So it is in the Bible, quite frankly. 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:17.680 You can't say that it isn't. 00:10:17.680 --> 00:10:21.360 You can say that the formal system that we call socialism, whether 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:25.280 right or left, isn't in the scriptures, sure. 00:10:25.280 --> 00:10:29.760 But again, the only system that's really in scripture is monarchy, and 00:10:29.760 --> 00:10:31.680 it's not fully described, right? 00:10:31.680 --> 00:10:33.600 It's partially described. 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:36.800 God does not give us an exact political plan. 00:10:36.800 --> 00:10:38.560 This This is a matter of wisdom. 00:10:38.560 --> 00:10:41.840 It is a matter of looking back through history, seeing what worked, 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:46.400 what didn't work, what's moral, what's not, what comports with God's law. 00:10:46.400 --> 00:10:49.680 But you can see very clearly in scripture, we do in fact 00:10:49.760 --> 00:10:54.880 have duties, that one might call socialistic or communitarian. 00:10:54.880 --> 00:10:57.280 And so subquestion two. 00:10:57.280 --> 00:11:02.480 Envy and discontentment drive us to want what others have. 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:07.760 That's true, but isn't that actually more a critique of capitalism than 00:11:07.760 --> 00:11:08.880 socialism? Right? 00:11:08.880 --> 00:11:13.040 That's a critique that is certainly leveled against capitalism and In much 00:11:13.040 --> 00:11:15.680 of the academic and other literature, right? 00:11:15.680 --> 00:11:21.360 What ultimately drives economic activity under a capitalist system? 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:22.400 It's greed. 00:11:22.400 --> 00:11:25.520 It's a desire to have more than you currently possess. 00:11:25.520 --> 00:11:28.640 That is in fact the engine of capitalism. 00:11:28.640 --> 00:11:33.360 And so whether it is envy of what someone else has, or 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:36.000 if it is looking at it and desiring to have something of 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:38.800 your own, because right it can be a good impulse or a 00:11:38.800 --> 00:11:39.440 bad one. 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:42.560 It depends what you are doing, it depends on your intent. 00:11:42.560 --> 00:11:45.920 If you see that your neighbor has a nice house, and you 00:11:45.920 --> 00:11:48.560 want his house, right, that's coveting. 00:11:48.560 --> 00:11:49.680 That's a sin. 00:11:49.680 --> 00:11:51.920 There are commandments on that. 00:11:51.920 --> 00:11:55.040 If, however, you look at his nice house and say, I would 00:11:55.040 --> 00:11:57.520 like to also have a nice house, I want to build my 00:11:57.520 --> 00:12:00.320 own house or buy my own nice house, not his, but another 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:02.400 one, that's a different thing. 00:12:02.400 --> 00:12:04.560 You are permitted to do that. 00:12:04.560 --> 00:12:09.840 So it depends on what the intent there is, what specifically you 00:12:09.840 --> 00:12:14.240 want. And discontentment, again, also depends, right? 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:18.320 If it's discontentment, because you're in a legitimately bad scenario, right? 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:21.920 If you're living somewhere the bad winter out of your car, like 00:12:21.920 --> 00:12:26.560 you're living in your car, say Michigan in the winter, okay, discontentment 00:12:26.560 --> 00:12:28.320 is probably reasonable and not a bad thing. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:32.400 You desire to have a better set of circumstances, that can drive 00:12:32.400 --> 00:12:33.040 you forward. 00:12:33.280 --> 00:12:34.880 That's a good thing. 00:12:34.880 --> 00:12:38.800 If instead you have discontentment because you just want more to want 00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:42.160 more, that again is more of a critique of capitalism. 00:12:42.160 --> 00:12:47.440 Because the raw consumerism and just the desire to increase your consumption 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:52.320 and your capital is not really a thing in socialism on either 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:56.000 the left or the right, but it is very much part of 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:58.640 the heart, part of the core of capitalism. 00:12:58.640 --> 00:13:02.880 So this critique really lands against the system I presume he would 00:13:02.880 --> 00:13:07.280 rather defend, not against the system he is attacking. 00:13:07.280 --> 00:13:11.680 So it's going to depend on what exactly you mean by envy 00:13:11.680 --> 00:13:12.960 and discontentment. 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:16.080 If you're using envy in the proper sense, which envy means you 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:20.320 desire something that rightfully belongs to another, then it's a bad thing. 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:24.320 If instead you're using it in sort of the looser colloquial sense 00:13:24.400 --> 00:13:28.320 of I would like to also have nice things, that's not bad. 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:32.480 It's perfectly reasonable to look at the happy family at church and 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:33.920 want to have your own wife. 00:13:33.920 --> 00:13:34.960 It's sinful to want to have 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:37.600 that woman as your wife, right? 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:44.640 It depends on the circumstances and what precisely you want. 00:13:44.640 --> 00:13:48.640 And I would also bring out sort of a generic 00:13:49.920 --> 00:13:55.200 response to this because with regard to national socialism, and I just 00:13:55.200 --> 00:14:00.000 mean right-wing socialism, but that's one we're using specifically here, the desire 00:14:00.640 --> 00:14:05.280 is not just to accumulate more or to have what someone else 00:14:05.280 --> 00:14:08.400 has is what someone else has, right? 00:14:08.400 --> 00:14:13.680 The desire is to create more and better things for your people. 00:14:14.560 --> 00:14:18.000 Not just for yourself, not just for your family, but for your 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:23.520 nation. It is love of others, those entrusted to your care, act 00:14:23.520 --> 00:14:26.320 it out both economically and socially. 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:30.000 That is an adequate way to describe, insofar as there is an 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.560 inherent economic system, the economic system of right wing socialism. 00:14:34.560 --> 00:14:39.440 It's not driven by this naked avarice, this desire to acquire more. 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:42.560 Rather, it's driven by the desire to do what is good for 00:14:42.560 --> 00:14:46.080 your people, and that is going to of course mean work and 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:51.680 economic activity, creating those better circumstances for your own. 00:14:51.680 --> 00:14:54.720 Now, sub question three. 00:14:54.720 --> 00:15:00.240 This interlocutor says I will fight anything that involves forcibly taking money 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:04.400 away from my children or grandchildren to enrich someone else, which is 00:15:04.400 --> 00:15:07.520 what wealth redistribution already does to me. 00:15:07.520 --> 00:15:09.520 So I understand part of this critique, right? 00:15:09.520 --> 00:15:13.520 And obviously we all do, because we all live under current governments 00:15:13.520 --> 00:15:17.360 that are wicked and quite frankly, the current level of taxation is 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:18.560 confiscatory, right? 00:15:18.560 --> 00:15:19.760 It is wicked. 00:15:19.760 --> 00:15:21.600 It's not a good thing. 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:25.840 That being said, the critique does not generalize. 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:31.360 The critique is against a wicked implementation of a given system. 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:34.160 And you can say the current system does it, right? 00:15:34.160 --> 00:15:37.520 Well the current system is capitalism doing the same thing to you. 00:15:37.520 --> 00:15:42.320 So the critique is not against socialism per se as a system. 00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:45.680 It is against the particulars of the implementation, right? 00:15:45.680 --> 00:15:49.840 I'm not going to defend a right-wing socialist system that taxes you 00:15:49.840 --> 00:15:51.760 at sixty percent. 00:15:51.760 --> 00:15:54.800 I think it should be a ten percent flat sales tax and 00:15:54.800 --> 00:16:00.320 no other taxes, except maybe on large chunks of commercial property. 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:02.000 There should be a homestead exemption. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:04.160 I don't want to get into all the tax policies of a 00:16:04.160 --> 00:16:07.520 hypothetical future government right now, that's not the point. 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:12.560 But whether it is a right wing socialist system, a left wing 00:16:12.560 --> 00:16:16.640 socialist system, a capitalist system, whatever it happens to be, if the 00:16:16.640 --> 00:16:22.320 taxation rises to the level where it is confiscatory, it's sinful regardless 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:24.160 of the system, right? 00:16:24.160 --> 00:16:28.080 It doesn't matter what the political system is because we're discussing something 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:31.280 that is related but in a tangential way. 00:16:31.280 --> 00:16:34.880 Because any of these systems can set taxes too high. 00:16:34.880 --> 00:16:38.880 That being said, it is important again to look at scripture, which 00:16:38.880 --> 00:16:40.880 I still have open, so I'll just pull it up. 00:16:40.880 --> 00:16:44.880 Right? Of course we're going to Romans this time. 00:16:44.880 --> 00:16:49.040 Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes 00:16:49.040 --> 00:16:53.200 are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect 00:16:53.200 --> 00:16:56.080 is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. 00:16:56.080 --> 00:16:59.440 And remember this is in the context of the Roman Empire, right? 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:00.880 They had taxes. 00:17:00.880 --> 00:17:04.400 You paid your taxes, you are supposed to do that. 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:08.480 Saying that taxes are per se wicked, right? 00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:14.560 The lovely phrase the libertarians just really enjoy shouting at people online, 00:17:14.560 --> 00:17:16.080 taxation is theft. 00:17:16.080 --> 00:17:17.680 That's anti Christian. 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:22.480 You cannot be a Christian and firmly believe and follow that ideology 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:25.200 because it is directly contrary to Scripture. 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:28.320 Scripture says pay taxes to whom taxes are owed. 00:17:28.320 --> 00:17:30.240 You are to pay your taxes. 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:34.880 Now, again, can you object to the type and level of taxation 00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:36.080 in your country? 00:17:36.080 --> 00:17:37.360 Of course you can. 00:17:37.360 --> 00:17:40.640 Particularly when it's like ours, that is wicked, right? 00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:42.960 We pay ridiculous taxes. 00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:44.720 I used to live in Southern California. 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:48.560 I'm well aware of how ridiculous taxes can be. 00:17:48.560 --> 00:17:51.280 Not that I've found Tennessee is necessarily great when it comes to 00:17:51.280 --> 00:17:56.160 certain things when with taxation, but as a general rule, we have 00:17:56.160 --> 00:17:59.520 too much taxation in the United States and the tax rates are 00:17:59.520 --> 00:18:00.320 too high. 00:18:00.320 --> 00:18:04.160 You still have to pay your taxes, but it is perfectly reasonable 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:08.960 to agitate, to work together politically, to knock those tax rates down 00:18:09.280 --> 00:18:11.120 and to remove some of the unnecessary ones. 00:18:11.120 --> 00:18:13.520 There's nothing wrong with doing that. 00:18:13.520 --> 00:18:19.360 But this particular subquestion gets very close in my mind to the 00:18:19.360 --> 00:18:23.120 libertarian argument, and the whole thing smells of libertarianism to me, which 00:18:23.120 --> 00:18:25.920 I'll get into that, my sort of closing remarks for this section, 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:31.760 but this particular subquestion looks like a libertarian objection cloaked in different 00:18:31.760 --> 00:18:32.960 language, right? 00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:37.760 Wealth redistribution it depends what you mean. 00:18:37.760 --> 00:18:42.320 Do you mean taxation that then drives some social programs? 00:18:42.320 --> 00:18:45.200 Well, if you call that wealth redistribution, I'm going to disagree with 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:48.800 you, because that is one of the duties of the state, and 00:18:48.800 --> 00:18:50.880 I will get into that a little bit more. 00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:55.520 If instead you're talking about confiscatory taxation, say the government enacts an 00:18:55.520 --> 00:18:57.600 eighty percent tax rate, right? 00:18:57.600 --> 00:19:00.080 And just takes a ton of your money, right? 00:19:00.080 --> 00:19:02.880 And then just gives it to people who do nothing but sit 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:04.000 around all day. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:06.400 That's a fundamentally different thing. 00:19:06.400 --> 00:19:11.120 Taking care of those who have had misfortune, whether it's illness or 00:19:11.120 --> 00:19:15.840 misadventure, whatever it happens to be To be is fundamentally different from 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:20.000 subsidizing the lifestyle of those who refuse to work. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.240 National socialism does not subsidize the lifestyle of those who refuse to 00:19:24.240 --> 00:19:28.560 work. Right-wing socialism would say you can work or you can go 00:19:28.560 --> 00:19:30.080 in a work camp. 00:19:30.080 --> 00:19:32.560 We are not going to give you free money. 00:19:32.560 --> 00:19:35.440 You have to work because scripture is very clear, right? 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:38.160 He who does not work, let him not eat. 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:43.760 Perfectly consonant with the system if it is structured correctly. 00:19:43.760 --> 00:19:45.120 Question 4. 00:19:45.120 --> 00:19:47.520 If I have to steal a dollar from a richer man to 00:19:47.520 --> 00:19:50.720 feed my wife and children, then perhaps I am not ready for 00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:53.200 a wife and children. 00:19:55.040 --> 00:19:58.720 This one can really only be addressed in a particular set of 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:02.080 circumstances, and so I'll address it in the set of circumstances in 00:20:02.080 --> 00:20:03.600 which we find ourselves. 00:20:03.600 --> 00:20:06.240 Maybe also in the hypothetical future one, right? 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:13.040 Under Under the present government, the present system, if you do everything 00:20:13.040 --> 00:20:17.440 right as a Christian, right, you marry your wife young because you 00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:21.040 should to avoid temptation, scripture's abundantly clear on that. 00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:23.920 You do all the stuff you're supposed to do and not the 00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:25.520 stuff you're not supposed to do. 00:20:25.520 --> 00:20:29.120 You're going to wind up with some number of children north of 00:20:29.120 --> 00:20:30.160 four. Most likely. 00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:31.360 It may be twelve. 00:20:31.360 --> 00:20:33.520 It may be a lot of children. 00:20:33.520 --> 00:20:37.760 Because of the way our current economic system is structured, most men 00:20:37.760 --> 00:20:39.520 can't support that. 00:20:39.520 --> 00:20:42.240 Is that a critique of the men who are doing the things 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:43.520 God told you to do? 00:20:43.520 --> 00:20:46.880 The men who are being faithful to God's word and his design 00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:48.000 for humanity? 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:50.720 Or is it a critique of the economic system that has made 00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:54.240 it impossible for men to be both righteous and 00:20:55.120 --> 00:20:56.720 financially sound? 00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:00.480 I take it as a critique of the system, because of, for 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:05.360 instance, permitting women to work outside the house, which creates artificial competition, 00:21:05.360 --> 00:21:09.120 because of the wealth transfers to which this man rightly objects, because 00:21:09.120 --> 00:21:12.240 of confiscatory taxation and on and on and on. 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:17.040 We all know the reasons it's very difficult to sustain an actual 00:21:17.040 --> 00:21:21.120 family, a proper family, under present circumstances. 00:21:21.120 --> 00:21:25.440 But I don't take that as a critique of a hypothetical national 00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:26.560 socialist government. 00:21:26.560 --> 00:21:30.320 I take that as a critique of the system producing that outcome 00:21:30.320 --> 00:21:37.040 today. Now, under a national socialist, under a right-wing socialist government, you 00:21:37.040 --> 00:21:38.640 would change these rules. 00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:41.600 You don't have women working outside the house, and so you don't 00:21:41.520 --> 00:21:45.840 have this artificial competition between the sexes, which means men draw higher 00:21:45.840 --> 00:21:52.400 salaries. You don't permit essentially what is slave labor for your own 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:52.960 people, right? 00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:56.720 I'm not saying slavery is per se wicked, but I'm saying paying 00:21:56.720 --> 00:22:01.120 slave wages to your own flesh and blood is a wicked thing 00:22:01.120 --> 00:22:01.440 to do. 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:06.800 So we should not have jobs that pay below the poverty level, 00:22:06.800 --> 00:22:08.160 which exists today. 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:11.840 We all know the numbers if you draw the comparisons between the 00:22:11.840 --> 00:22:14.960 value of gold, say back in the 1950s versus today, and then 00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:19.520 compare the minimum wage or even the median wage, right? 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:21.920 That should not be permissible. 00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:27.760 You should not be allowing these large employers to exploit their employees. 00:22:27.760 --> 00:22:30.720 And that of course has turned into a left wing talking point, 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:32.800 right? They're the ones who have sort of captured that. 00:22:32.800 --> 00:22:34.800 It should be one of our talking points. 00:22:34.800 --> 00:22:38.640 Care for the worker and care for the average man is 100% 00:22:38.800 --> 00:22:43.280 something that is consonant with right wing politics and certainly with Christianity. 00:22:43.280 --> 00:22:45.840 You should not exploit your own people. 00:22:45.840 --> 00:22:51.200 So if you design the system correctly, this is not a problem. 00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:55.120 Right? If the man is working full time, he should be able 00:22:55.120 --> 00:22:56.640 to support a family. 00:22:56.640 --> 00:22:58.960 That should be a right wing talking point. 00:22:58.960 --> 00:23:01.120 We should not let the left have that. 00:23:01.120 --> 00:23:04.480 If there is a man who is working full time and unable 00:23:04.480 --> 00:23:08.080 to support a family, then that job should not exist at that 00:23:08.080 --> 00:23:11.600 level, because it is a wicked thing to treat your fellow man, 00:23:11.600 --> 00:23:17.840 your fellow flesh and blood, your kinsmen, in that way. 00:23:17.840 --> 00:23:20.160 Sub Question five. 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:23.120 According to the New Testament, the church must also care for its 00:23:23.120 --> 00:23:24.400 widows and orphans. 00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:26.880 I think if you are outside the church you should have no 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:30.560 recourse. Beyond your physical family, the church should be the only social 00:23:30.560 --> 00:23:31.600 safety net. 00:23:31.600 --> 00:23:33.600 No church, you get a hard landing. 00:23:33.600 --> 00:23:37.200 Again, this just sounds like libertarianism to me, and I will put 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:41.440 up my article about libertarianism in the show notes for this one, 00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:45.440 which against the cry of Cain, because this is Cain, right? 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:48.000 This is Cain saying to God, Am I my brother's keeper? 00:23:48.080 --> 00:23:49.440 Well, the answer is yes. 00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:51.120 You are your brother's keeper. 00:23:51.120 --> 00:23:55.600 And so if you find yourself siding with Cain, I encourage you 00:23:55.600 --> 00:23:58.000 very strongly to reconsider some things. 00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:00.000 Cain was not a Christian. 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:02.400 Cain was the first anti-Christian. 00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:04.640 Cain was the first murderer. 00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:07.520 So you probably don't want to side with that man. 00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:13.760 Now, this is where I wanted to comment on the difference between 00:24:13.760 --> 00:24:15.120 the church and the state, right? 00:24:15.120 --> 00:24:19.040 Does the church have a duty to care for widows and orphans? 00:24:19.040 --> 00:24:22.640 Absolutely. Does the state also have a duty to do so? 00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:24.400 Again, absolutely yes. 00:24:24.800 --> 00:24:28.960 And we can see some of this even in Old Testament Israel, 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:34.000 right? Many of the sacrifices which were a form of welfare for 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:36.800 the nation were provided by the king. 00:24:36.800 --> 00:24:38.240 Where'd the king get his money? 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:43.520 Taxation. So you already see that sort of system in the very 00:24:43.520 --> 00:24:47.920 sort of government instituted by God in the Old Testament. 00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:51.440 So you can't object that it's not in scripture, even in even 00:24:51.600 --> 00:24:55.520 if that is a solid objection, which is isn't always so, because 00:24:55.520 --> 00:24:56.560 it is there. 00:24:56.560 --> 00:25:00.400 You see the state having a duty to care for the poor, 00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:01.920 not just the church. 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:05.520 So there's a division there, which is a wisdom call, and it's 00:25:05.520 --> 00:25:09.680 partly going to come down to essentially how competent the state is, 00:25:09.680 --> 00:25:13.840 right? Because if the state is sufficiently competent to organize these things 00:25:13.840 --> 00:25:17.120 in an effective way that doesn't waste money, that does what is 00:25:17.120 --> 00:25:20.320 good for the people, then the church is going to have less 00:25:20.320 --> 00:25:21.280 of a burden. 00:25:21.280 --> 00:25:23.520 That's a good thing if the church has less of a burden, 00:25:23.520 --> 00:25:27.120 because then the church can focus more on the core things the 00:25:27.120 --> 00:25:28.560 church is supposed to do. 00:25:28.560 --> 00:25:30.320 Think about what they did in scripture, right? 00:25:31.360 --> 00:25:33.760 For distributing food and things like that. 00:25:33.760 --> 00:25:37.520 They had to call additional men because it was actually distracting from 00:25:37.520 --> 00:25:40.640 and detracting from the core mission of the church. 00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:43.200 So having the state do it instead is actually a good thing 00:25:44.080 --> 00:25:46.080 where the state is competent. 00:25:46.080 --> 00:25:49.200 This again is an objection to the current form of the state 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:49.760 that we have. 00:25:49.760 --> 00:25:51.200 We live under wicked governments. 00:25:51.200 --> 00:25:53.920 No one is going to contend no Christian is going to contend 00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:56.000 otherwise. We all know that. 00:25:55.760 --> 00:25:59.600 that is not a critique against government, it is a critique against 00:25:59.600 --> 00:26:01.360 wicked government, right? 00:26:01.360 --> 00:26:05.760 Just like saying if you have a wife, right, and she commits 00:26:05.760 --> 00:26:09.520 adultery, is that a critique against your wife or all women? 00:26:09.600 --> 00:26:13.280 It's a critique against your wife, against the whip the wicked woman, 00:26:13.280 --> 00:26:14.880 the one who committed the sin. 00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:16.640 The same thing with regard to government. 00:26:16.640 --> 00:26:20.080 You don't critique all government because you find an example that does 00:26:20.080 --> 00:26:22.160 something wicked. 00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:24.000 Because it's not inherent to government, right? 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:30.480 Obviously if we're talking about something that's inherent, that's a different thing. 00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:33.920 So sub question six, and then I guess I'll have some just 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:37.440 sort of general concluding remarks on it. 00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:42.160 I would never deny providing for members of my same household, but 00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:44.800 yes, I do not lift a finger to help random members of 00:26:44.800 --> 00:26:48.160 my race race that I do not know, and nor should I 00:26:48.320 --> 00:26:50.080 Ordo Amoris. 00:26:50.080 --> 00:26:54.320 So this is kind of correct but mostly wrong, right? 00:26:54.320 --> 00:26:58.720 Ordo Amoris, obviously, is the order of loves, rightly ordered loves. 00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:02.400 And yes, you have a a core that is your household and 00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:04.160 you have the greatest duty to them, right? 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:06.400 Those under your own roof. 00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:09.680 But you also have duties going out from that, that's the whole 00:27:09.680 --> 00:27:12.320 point of the Ordo Amoris. 00:27:12.320 --> 00:27:15.440 You have the duty to your immediate family, then you have the 00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:18.800 duty to your extended family, then to your even more extended family, 00:27:18.800 --> 00:27:22.560 your cousins, and well your nation is an even more extended family. 00:27:22.560 --> 00:27:24.480 So you have duties to them as well. 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:27.360 And this is where I want to point out, the level of 00:27:27.360 --> 00:27:31.920 your duty is partly dependent upon what God has entrusted to your 00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:36.720 care. So if you have only enough resources to care for your 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:39.760 own family, care for your own family. 00:27:39.760 --> 00:27:44.320 If you have enough resources to help provide meals to those who 00:27:44.320 --> 00:27:46.960 have fallen on hard times, do that. 00:27:46.960 --> 00:27:50.560 If you have the expertise and the free time to help your 00:27:50.560 --> 00:27:52.320 neighbor repair his house. 00:27:52.320 --> 00:27:53.520 Do that. 00:27:53.520 --> 00:27:56.400 We went over this extensively in Stone Choir. 00:27:56.400 --> 00:28:00.720 The things entrusted to your care, which includes not just the monetary, 00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:03.840 but that's certainly part of it, but also your skills, your free 00:28:03.840 --> 00:28:05.520 time, things like that. 00:28:05.520 --> 00:28:09.040 Your garden could overproduce one year, you can give away tomatoes, whatever 00:28:09.040 --> 00:28:10.480 it happens to be. 00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:14.720 According to that level of resources, you should give to your fellow 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:16.960 man. Scripture's abundantly clear on that, right? 00:28:17.840 --> 00:28:22.160 Those who have been given great wealth are commanded in Scripture to 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:25.680 serve the church and to serve their neighbors with that great wealth, 00:28:25.680 --> 00:28:27.440 and they will be judged for that. 00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:30.320 The same with regard to anything that has been entrusted to your 00:28:30.320 --> 00:28:32.560 care. This is the parable of the talents, right? 00:28:32.560 --> 00:28:34.480 The talents are not just money. 00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:38.160 It is all of the abilities, the skills, everything God has given 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:40.960 you, because everything you have is a gift from God, and it 00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:43.840 is a gift from God that is supposed to be used in 00:28:43.840 --> 00:28:47.600 service of family and neighbor and nation. 00:28:47.680 --> 00:28:50.800 Because ultimately your nation is an extension of the family and an 00:28:50.800 --> 00:28:52.240 extension of neighbor. 00:28:52.240 --> 00:28:57.680 So yes, orders applies, but it doesn't terminate at your front door. 00:28:57.680 --> 00:29:04.560 It depends on how much God is entrusted to your care. 00:29:04.560 --> 00:29:07.200 I'll leave the concluding remarks from the questioner. 00:29:07.200 --> 00:29:09.200 If anyone wants to read those, you can go ahead and do 00:29:09.200 --> 00:29:14.000 that. But I wanted to generally comment on this, that two points 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:16.800 that I pulled out that are worth emphasizing. 00:29:16.800 --> 00:29:21.760 Almost all of this critique is libertarian, which is anti-Christian. 00:29:21.760 --> 00:29:23.600 I'm just going to bluntly state that. 00:29:23.600 --> 00:29:26.000 You can't be a libertarian or Christian. 00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:27.200 They're incompatible. 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:29.280 Period. You cannot defend that. 00:29:29.280 --> 00:29:30.880 You cannot argue against that. 00:29:30.880 --> 00:29:32.560 You have to select which one you want to be. 00:29:32.560 --> 00:29:34.320 If you want to be a libertarian, that's your God. 00:29:34.320 --> 00:29:35.760 Ayn Rand is your God. 00:29:35.760 --> 00:29:38.080 I wish you the best luck at the judgment, but I think 00:29:38.080 --> 00:29:39.680 we both know how that will go. 00:29:39.680 --> 00:29:42.800 Or you can choose to have Jesus Christ as your Lord and 00:29:42.800 --> 00:29:45.600 Savior. Choose wisely. 00:29:45.600 --> 00:29:49.440 The other part of this, in addition to the the general sort 00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:52.800 of libertarian critique, is that this is ultimately a critique of the 00:29:52.800 --> 00:29:58.000 current system that is being used as a critique of a hypothetical 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:00.160 right wing socialist system, right? 00:30:00.800 --> 00:30:05.120 All of this lands as a critique against our current government. 00:30:05.120 --> 00:30:09.360 It doesn't necessarily land as a critique against the future hypothetical government. 00:30:09.360 --> 00:30:13.760 Yes, if you have built up a straw man that is essentially 00:30:13.760 --> 00:30:18.160 the USSR, you've just sort of put a stick it uh sticky 00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:21.040 note over it and said, No, this is right wing socialism. 00:30:21.040 --> 00:30:24.320 Okay, sure, you can level this sort of accusation, this sort of 00:30:24.320 --> 00:30:28.320 critique against it, but you're not attacking the real thing. 00:30:28.320 --> 00:30:31.520 So maybe this is a man to sort of address the question 00:30:31.520 --> 00:30:33.280 practically and directly. 00:30:33.280 --> 00:30:35.680 Maybe this is a man who would benefit from actually looking at 00:30:35.680 --> 00:30:39.120 some of the economic writings of the National Socialists. 00:30:39.120 --> 00:30:40.160 There are plenty of those. 00:30:40.160 --> 00:30:43.760 You can in fact find the books from their actual economists laying 00:30:43.760 --> 00:30:46.960 out what they believed, why they believed it, how they intended to 00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:50.000 implement things in the future, how they were implementing things. 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.000 You can look at their success rate over a relatively short period 00:30:54.400 --> 00:30:58.640 of time, miraculous success, you can look at what they actually did. 00:30:58.640 --> 00:31:02.640 So if he has critiques of what they actually did, what they 00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:07.440 actually believed, then sure, address the actual critiques, but these critiques land 00:31:07.440 --> 00:31:14.880 more against again our current economic system and government and really communism, 00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:17.840 left wing socialism, not right wing. 00:31:17.840 --> 00:31:23.120 Hopefully that addressed most of his objections thoroughly so you can get 00:31:23.120 --> 00:31:26.080 somewhere with him in future discussions. 00:31:26.080 --> 00:31:28.160 Question two. 00:31:28.160 --> 00:31:30.960 I just want to look at the chat real quickly here. 00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:34.000 I think it is pulling all the questions well, so I think 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:34.720 we're good. 00:31:34.720 --> 00:31:39.600 Question two is again a series of questions about baptism this time. 00:31:39.600 --> 00:31:43.520 So I will go ahead and go through those now. 00:31:43.520 --> 00:31:46.320 Sub question one. 00:31:46.320 --> 00:31:48.240 I'll read the intro first actually. 00:31:48.240 --> 00:31:50.480 My wife and I are former Jehovah's Witnesses. 00:31:50.480 --> 00:31:55.680 We understand our Jehovah's Witness baptism was invalid and meaningless, non Trinitarian, 00:31:55.680 --> 00:31:59.200 submitted to under false instruction and basically a pledge to the organization. 00:31:59.200 --> 00:32:00.160 That is correct. 00:32:00.160 --> 00:32:03.360 That is the Lutheran stance, that's the traditional Christian stance. 00:32:03.360 --> 00:32:04.960 Same thing with Mormons. 00:32:04.960 --> 00:32:07.760 So just two big groups of the supplies. 00:32:07.760 --> 00:32:09.840 Not the only groups, but two examples. 00:32:09.840 --> 00:32:13.600 We are now facing questions about getting baptized properly. 00:32:13.600 --> 00:32:15.920 So sub question one. 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:21.120 The non-denominational church we've been attending will only admit members baptized as 00:32:21.120 --> 00:32:24.480 believers. This presents no issue for me. 00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:28.160 However, my wife was baptized in the Catholic Church as an infant, 00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:31.680 and we are concerned that re baptizing her would offend God. 00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:35.040 Would it be wrong for her to get baptized to formerly join 00:32:35.040 --> 00:32:40.880 the church we're attending could other circumstances make her Catholic baptism invalid? 00:32:40.880 --> 00:32:44.800 For example, she recalls taking communion on some occasions to the child, 00:32:44.800 --> 00:32:49.040 but she recalls neither finishing catechism nor the ceremony that follows it. 00:32:49.040 --> 00:32:51.680 That's confirmation, just so you know. 00:32:51.680 --> 00:32:54.880 She was taken into the foster care system at age ten, and 00:32:54.880 --> 00:32:57.920 the godparents involved in her baptism did not remain in her life 00:32:57.920 --> 00:33:02.320 to spiritually shepherd her, as they ostensibly promised. 00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:07.920 That's unfortunate on the godparents' note, certainly, but perhaps not surprising given 00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:09.600 the circumstances. 00:33:09.600 --> 00:33:14.480 To answer the core question, do not seek so called rebaptism. 00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:15.680 It is not a thing. 00:33:15.680 --> 00:33:19.600 Her baptism as an infant in the Roman Catholic Church is valid. 00:33:19.600 --> 00:33:24.160 Roman Catholic baptisms, as of today, at any rate, are valid. 00:33:24.160 --> 00:33:26.320 Perhaps in the future they go off the rails fully, right? 00:33:26.480 --> 00:33:29.520 Right, if they start baptizing people in the name of Mary, then 00:33:29.520 --> 00:33:31.600 y no, it's not a valid baptism. 00:33:31.600 --> 00:33:34.880 But as long as they are following the scriptural formula, right? 00:33:34.880 --> 00:33:39.680 Trinitarian, you're baptizing in the name of the actual God, you follow 00:33:39.680 --> 00:33:43.440 the wording in scripture, there's water involved, right? 00:33:43.440 --> 00:33:45.120 It's a valid baptism. 00:33:45.120 --> 00:33:48.720 And the reason for that is that it is God's work, not 00:33:48.720 --> 00:33:50.080 man's work, right? 00:33:50.080 --> 00:33:53.920 If we start thinking that it is man's work, then that's just 00:33:54.400 --> 00:33:55.760 an ancient heresy, right? 00:33:55.760 --> 00:33:57.360 That's Donatism. 00:33:57.360 --> 00:34:03.120 Donatism is essentially the belief that the holiness or the righteousness of 00:34:03.120 --> 00:34:08.080 the individual performing the sacrament is relevant to the power of the 00:34:08.080 --> 00:34:11.120 sacrament. And it's simply not. 00:34:11.120 --> 00:34:13.680 Because it is God who is doing the work. 00:34:13.680 --> 00:34:16.880 He is using the hands of the minister, right, to baptize in 00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:19.360 the case of the infant or to distribute the elements in the 00:34:19.360 --> 00:34:23.200 case of the sacrament of the table, also called communion. 00:34:23.200 --> 00:34:24.960 But God is the one doing the work. 00:34:24.960 --> 00:34:28.800 So it relies on God's power and God's promise, not on the 00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:32.720 minister, or in the case of baptism, any Christian can baptize, right? 00:34:32.800 --> 00:34:34.400 Doesn't have to be a minister. 00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:39.680 Ordinarily and properly, it is in fact in fact your pastor, or 00:34:39.680 --> 00:34:41.760 your priest, depending on what you call him. 00:34:41.760 --> 00:34:43.440 But it could be your father. 00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:46.960 Even women are permitted to baptize, certainly in an emergency. 00:34:46.960 --> 00:34:50.160 It's just not the ordinary course of things, it's not sort of 00:34:50.160 --> 00:34:53.040 right decorum, it's not the proper way to do it, but it's 00:34:53.040 --> 00:34:57.440 still valid, because it is God's work, not man's work. 00:34:57.440 --> 00:35:00.480 So the short answer, of course, is what I already said. 00:35:00.480 --> 00:35:03.440 No. Do not submit to rebaptism. 00:35:03.440 --> 00:35:04.960 It is a wicked thing. 00:35:04.960 --> 00:35:06.320 No one should do that. 00:35:06.320 --> 00:35:08.880 It should not be tolerated. 00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:10.480 Yes, her baptism is valid. 00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:12.880 She does not have to worry about that. 00:35:12.880 --> 00:35:16.000 And like I said, if they start baptizing in the name of 00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:19.440 Mary or something, okay, we can revisit the discussion and point out 00:35:19.440 --> 00:35:22.400 that yes, you now need to be baptized because that was invalid. 00:35:22.400 --> 00:35:23.760 But they're not doing that. 00:35:23.760 --> 00:35:27.200 They are using the ancient formulas, they are doing it correctly, it's 00:35:27.200 --> 00:35:29.200 a valid baptism. 00:35:29.200 --> 00:35:31.120 Subquestion two. 00:35:31.120 --> 00:35:35.280 We have been attending a non-denominational church for about 1.5 years that 00:35:35.280 --> 00:35:39.760 is basically MacArthurite Thankfully they are not pushy about doctrine and have 00:35:39.760 --> 00:35:41.680 yet to even discuss Israel. 00:35:41.680 --> 00:35:47.280 Theologically we are attracted to Lutheranism or Anglicanism, but have yet to 00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:50.160 find one locally that isn't sorely lacking. 00:35:50.160 --> 00:35:55.680 We visited one Wells and one Nalk, NALC, which were extremely small 00:35:55.680 --> 00:35:58.080 and literally dying. 00:35:58.080 --> 00:36:00.480 That is not particularly surprising. 00:36:00.480 --> 00:36:06.080 Majority white, but elderly, few or no children, and the Nalk is 00:36:06.080 --> 00:36:07.120 more feminized. 00:36:07.120 --> 00:36:11.520 They ordain women, despite having a male pastor, in this case. 00:36:11.520 --> 00:36:17.200 Our non denominational church is almost mega sized, very conservative, vast majority 00:36:17.200 --> 00:36:21.760 white, which is extremely rare where we live, and absolutely teeming with 00:36:21.760 --> 00:36:24.880 conservative young families and children of all ages. 00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:28.080 We are raising two boys under four and are incredibly lucky just 00:36:28.080 --> 00:36:31.200 to find a place in our state only ten minutes away with 00:36:31.200 --> 00:36:34.960 so many young white families, which feels essential for how we want 00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:36.160 to raise our children. 00:36:36.160 --> 00:36:41.760 Setting aside my wife's baptism, their baptism application basically expects me to 00:36:41.760 --> 00:36:46.080 profess belief in writing in so called believers baptism. 00:36:46.080 --> 00:36:48.960 Would it be wrong for me to carefully word or equivocate in 00:36:48.960 --> 00:36:52.880 my answer, so they don't just outright reject me or drag me 00:36:52.880 --> 00:36:55.040 into a debate, then reject me? 00:36:55.040 --> 00:36:59.200 Would passing their quiz in this way harm my baptism, or would 00:36:59.200 --> 00:37:02.320 baptism in this church by itself be less valid due to their 00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:04.240 professed beliefs? 00:37:04.240 --> 00:37:04.560 So 00:37:05.840 --> 00:37:11.760 the MacArthurites typically describe themselves as what is called leaky dispensationalism, which 00:37:11.760 --> 00:37:14.560 isn't really a thing, but it's how he described himself, so that's 00:37:14.480 --> 00:37:17.120 how they describe themselves. 00:37:17.120 --> 00:37:22.480 So sometimes they're all in on the Israel stuff, Israel in quotes. 00:37:22.480 --> 00:37:23.600 And sometimes they're not. 00:37:23.600 --> 00:37:26.080 This church appear appears to be one of the ones that's kinda 00:37:26.240 --> 00:37:27.200 not. So 00:37:28.320 --> 00:37:30.560 hard to tell if they will go off the rails in the 00:37:30.560 --> 00:37:36.400 future. Often megachurches that are non-denominational are kind of cults of personality 00:37:36.480 --> 00:37:39.040 and so the head pastor kind of decides everything. 00:37:39.040 --> 00:37:42.400 He determines the direction, the doctrine, the emphasis, all of it. 00:37:42.400 --> 00:37:43.760 That's very often the case. 00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:45.760 Sometimes it's the elders instead. 00:37:46.080 --> 00:37:48.960 Puppeting the head pastor, but usually it's the head pastor. 00:37:48.960 --> 00:37:51.120 I don't know which one it is in your case, you probably 00:37:51.120 --> 00:37:52.720 have a pretty good sense. 00:37:52.720 --> 00:37:55.040 It's probably the head pastor. 00:37:55.440 --> 00:37:58.160 So the question would your baptism be valid? 00:37:58.160 --> 00:38:01.360 The answer is yes, your baptism would still be valid because again, 00:38:01.360 --> 00:38:04.880 same as the first sub-question, it's God's work, not yours. 00:38:04.880 --> 00:38:09.520 So what the pastor believes would be relevant only if he were 00:38:09.520 --> 00:38:13.520 something like non-trinitarian, because then he would be a Unitarian baptism, which 00:38:13.520 --> 00:38:17.760 is not a thing, lowercase B, but if it is a proper 00:38:17.760 --> 00:38:23.200 baptism, Trinitarian, according to how Scripture says you have to do it, 00:38:23.200 --> 00:38:25.280 right? It's valid. 00:38:25.280 --> 00:38:28.560 Even if the church doesn't hold perfect doctrine, thankfully the standard is 00:38:28.560 --> 00:38:32.880 not perfect doctrine, or basically no baptism would be valid because no 00:38:32.880 --> 00:38:34.640 church is perfect. 00:38:34.640 --> 00:38:37.840 So, except for of course the uppercase C church, which is all 00:38:37.840 --> 00:38:40.640 believers, that one's perfect because God is the one who's in charge 00:38:40.640 --> 00:38:41.280 of it, right? 00:38:41.280 --> 00:38:43.280 Jesus Christ is the head. 00:38:43.280 --> 00:38:49.360 Now, should you carefully word or equivocate in your answer so that 00:38:49.360 --> 00:38:51.040 you can be baptized? 00:38:51.040 --> 00:38:53.040 I'm going to give two answers. 00:38:53.600 --> 00:38:57.600 One is I would be a little uncomfortable going that route, but 00:38:57.600 --> 00:39:00.960 the second one is if you can get away with it really 00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:06.160 easily, then maybe just for the sake of peace and helping your 00:39:06.160 --> 00:39:08.960 family, it might be worth it, right? 00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:12.800 Because I don't think that what you're doing is necessarily rising the 00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:14.720 level of a false confession. 00:39:14.720 --> 00:39:17.840 Because if you say that I do believe and I would like 00:39:17.840 --> 00:39:21.280 to be baptized, and as a believer I want to be baptized, 00:39:21.280 --> 00:39:24.400 if they wish to interpret that as a believer's baptism, then they 00:39:24.400 --> 00:39:28.160 are in fact baptizing a believer, but you don't believe in what 00:39:28.160 --> 00:39:32.800 they're calling believers baptism If they're specifically calling you to profess belief 00:39:32.800 --> 00:39:36.000 in believers' baptism, then I would say no. 00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:40.960 In that case, go to the Wells Church or the LCMS Church 00:39:41.040 --> 00:39:44.000 or something and get baptized there. 00:39:44.640 --> 00:39:44.960 So 00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:50.800 I don't like Nalk because they do ordain women. 00:39:50.800 --> 00:39:53.840 So that will probably eventually become an issue for you because they'll 00:39:53.840 --> 00:39:56.880 rotate out your pastor and rotate on a woman or something like 00:39:56.880 --> 00:40:00.560 that. And then you'll have the chaos in your life of having 00:40:00.560 --> 00:40:04.560 to abandon that church and flee somewhere else because what they're doing 00:40:04.560 --> 00:40:05.280 is wicked. 00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:07.360 And just being associated with it is not great. 00:40:07.360 --> 00:40:10.320 The same reason I wouldn't tell someone to go to Elka, right? 00:40:10.320 --> 00:40:15.280 ElkhA has more problems than Nalk, but it has that particular salient 00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:18.720 one, and as I've said many times before, there's no such thing 00:40:18.720 --> 00:40:21.120 as a female pastor or a pastrix. 00:40:21.120 --> 00:40:22.000 It's a whore. 00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:23.200 That's what she is. 00:40:23.200 --> 00:40:25.200 She is a false prophetess. 00:40:25.600 --> 00:40:28.880 So you don't want to be there. 00:40:28.880 --> 00:40:32.640 But it's going to depend sort of on the exact circumstances there 00:40:32.640 --> 00:40:35.360 and what exactly it is they are getting you to confess. 00:40:35.360 --> 00:40:38.800 If they're really pushing hard on the believer's baptism thing, I would 00:40:38.800 --> 00:40:41.040 say don't do that because what you're doing is you're giving a 00:40:41.040 --> 00:40:41.680 false confession. 00:40:41.680 --> 00:40:45.360 You're saying you believe something that you don't believe, and you're denying 00:40:45.360 --> 00:40:47.760 belief in something you do believe. 00:40:47.760 --> 00:40:50.160 So there are a couple more questions here, and I won't get 00:40:50.160 --> 00:40:53.520 into necessarily the rest of what I could say here because they're 00:40:53.520 --> 00:40:56.080 more relevant in the next subquestions. 00:40:56.080 --> 00:40:57.680 Subquestion three. 00:40:57.680 --> 00:41:01.360 This church obviously uses grape juice and holds the memorial view of 00:41:01.360 --> 00:41:03.680 communion, which is Which is disheartening. 00:41:03.680 --> 00:41:06.400 That's all non denominational churches in the US. 00:41:06.400 --> 00:41:10.480 I am now tempted by the following prospect formally join the very 00:41:10.480 --> 00:41:15.760 near Nalk Church and just endure the objectional the objectional stuff objectionable 00:41:15.760 --> 00:41:20.000 stuff. Or join the wells that is thirty minutes away, a burden 00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:22.880 on Sunday at eight AM with a toddler and a newborn. 00:41:22.880 --> 00:41:26.160 I can certainly understand that not having them myself, but I can 00:41:26.160 --> 00:41:29.600 understand. So that my family can be part of church with real 00:41:29.760 --> 00:41:34.960 baptism and communion, while continuing to regularly attend the non denominational church 00:41:35.200 --> 00:41:38.240 for these social aspects so my sons can actually have friends and 00:41:38.240 --> 00:41:40.160 one day find white wives. 00:41:40.160 --> 00:41:40.960 Would this be wrong? 00:41:40.960 --> 00:41:44.640 There is also an LCMS, also thirty minutes away, which we have 00:41:44.640 --> 00:41:46.800 yet to visit. 00:41:46.800 --> 00:41:50.320 So I think here the course of action I would probably recommend, 00:41:50.320 --> 00:41:52.960 and it thinks I think it's the most likely given what you've 00:41:52.960 --> 00:41:56.080 told me and what I just generally know about these sorts of 00:41:56.080 --> 00:42:00.320 churches. Go talk to the pastor at the Wells Church or the 00:42:00.320 --> 00:42:01.680 LCMS church. 00:42:01.680 --> 00:42:05.600 Tell him the situation in which you find yourself, your concerns, all 00:42:05.600 --> 00:42:06.560 those things. 00:42:06.560 --> 00:42:08.080 He'll probably be sympathetic. 00:42:08.400 --> 00:42:10.240 He should be sympathetic. 00:42:10.240 --> 00:42:15.120 So if that is the case, then you know you can attend 00:42:15.120 --> 00:42:20.000 that church, say, one weekend out of the month, or you know, 00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:23.120 once every six weeks, whatever it happens to be. 00:42:23.120 --> 00:42:28.560 Because you want that relationship with the denomination, with the church that 00:42:28.560 --> 00:42:31.520 has the doctrine that you hold to be true, right? 00:42:31.520 --> 00:42:35.680 You want that, but he should recognize that there is a burden 00:42:35.680 --> 00:42:39.120 there. It is a difficult thing to attend a church that's so 00:42:39.120 --> 00:42:39.600 far away. 00:42:39.600 --> 00:42:41.040 It's not something you should have to do. 00:42:41.040 --> 00:42:45.200 It's just the reality of the circumstances under which we live. 00:42:45.200 --> 00:42:49.920 And then get baptized there, get the sound doctrine, get the instruction 00:42:49.920 --> 00:42:50.560 there, right? 00:42:50.560 --> 00:42:53.760 You can instruct you should be instructing your children and your wife 00:42:53.760 --> 00:42:57.280 at home, regardless of whether you're attending a sound church or not, 00:42:57.280 --> 00:43:00.320 right? That's your duty as a husband and as a father. 00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:04.000 So go through the small catechism, go through the large catechism, do 00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:05.920 all those things. 00:43:05.920 --> 00:43:08.880 And then also attend the other church, right? 00:43:08.880 --> 00:43:11.280 I don't think that that's impermissible. 00:43:11.280 --> 00:43:14.240 You are going to have to be careful with how you instruct 00:43:14.240 --> 00:43:16.880 your children, and you're going to at some point, when they are 00:43:16.880 --> 00:43:20.800 old enough to understand, have to explain to them why you're doing 00:43:20.800 --> 00:43:21.760 this, right? 00:43:21.760 --> 00:43:22.800 They'll understand. 00:43:22.800 --> 00:43:24.000 They'll be happy, right? 00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:25.760 They're have more friends. 00:43:25.920 --> 00:43:29.360 When they're interested in girls, there will be girls around and available. 00:43:29.360 --> 00:43:32.240 And so they'll understand why you're doing it, but you will have 00:43:32.240 --> 00:43:34.320 to explain that to them, and it's going to put a little 00:43:34.320 --> 00:43:37.760 additional burden on you to make sure that they are taught right 00:43:37.760 --> 00:43:40.960 doctrine when they may very well be hearing doctrine that is not 00:43:40.960 --> 00:43:44.240 exactly correct at one of their churches. 00:43:44.240 --> 00:43:50.080 But practically speaking, I think that's probably your best path forward because 00:43:50.080 --> 00:43:50.560 it gets you 00:43:51.680 --> 00:43:56.000 involved in a church that has the right doctrine, but also involved 00:43:56.000 --> 00:43:59.680 in a church that is a reasonable distance from your home and 00:43:59.680 --> 00:44:02.720 actually has you know, membership. 00:44:02.720 --> 00:44:07.120 Which is unfortunate that there are a lack of solid churches like 00:44:07.120 --> 00:44:09.600 that, but it is where we are today. 00:44:09.600 --> 00:44:13.600 There are some new Lutheran churches being started up in a number 00:44:13.600 --> 00:44:14.080 of places. 00:44:14.080 --> 00:44:15.200 I visited some of them. 00:44:15.200 --> 00:44:18.640 They're doing very good work, but they're not everywhere yet. 00:44:18.640 --> 00:44:21.360 So unless you live in a handful of specific places around the 00:44:21.360 --> 00:44:25.520 country, there's no church I can just unequivocally recommend to you. 00:44:25.520 --> 00:44:28.240 If you happen to live closer to an LCMS church, I would 00:44:28.240 --> 00:44:32.160 say join that with the usual caveats I've given before, right, it 00:44:32.160 --> 00:44:35.680 depends on the pastor, check out the congregation, talk to the elders. 00:44:35.680 --> 00:44:38.880 But generally speaking, it's a pretty good option for most people in 00:44:38.880 --> 00:44:40.480 a lot of places. 00:44:40.480 --> 00:44:43.840 Here I think probably that split approach is best. 00:44:43.840 --> 00:44:46.800 So, sub question four. 00:44:46.800 --> 00:44:49.200 While I would love to be a Lutheran in a Lutheran church 00:44:49.280 --> 00:44:53.120 full of young white families, this may not exist near me, and 00:44:53.120 --> 00:44:56.320 it could even be difficult to find in some new place we 00:44:56.320 --> 00:44:59.360 or my children once adults move to in the future. 00:44:59.360 --> 00:45:00.480 That is true. 00:45:00.480 --> 00:45:03.920 Thus it is conceivable that whatever we choose to do now my 00:45:03.920 --> 00:45:06.480 sons could one day face the same dilemma my wife and I 00:45:06.480 --> 00:45:11.120 now face, given the potential for future for limited options in the 00:45:11.120 --> 00:45:14.080 future, would it be wrong for me to hold my sons back 00:45:14.080 --> 00:45:17.760 from baptism until they reach such an age that any future church 00:45:17.760 --> 00:45:22.320 they join would recognize their believers' baptism in quotes, not my quotes, 00:45:22.320 --> 00:45:23.040 his quotes. 00:45:23.040 --> 00:45:26.160 I would do that too, though, and have no cause to demand 00:45:26.160 --> 00:45:32.400 re baptism, thus sparing my sons this silly yet extremely weighty dilemma. 00:45:32.400 --> 00:45:34.480 This one sounds difficult, but it's easy. 00:45:34.480 --> 00:45:35.760 Baptize your children. 00:45:35.760 --> 00:45:39.680 You believe that is a commandment from God, you believe baptism applies 00:45:39.680 --> 00:45:41.760 to even infants, that is correct. 00:45:41.760 --> 00:45:44.080 You should bap you should have them baptized. 00:45:44.080 --> 00:45:48.560 Absolutely. And by the way, you can actually baptize your children at 00:45:48.560 --> 00:45:49.840 home if you need to. 00:45:49.840 --> 00:45:53.040 I think in this case, the join the LCMS or the Wells 00:45:53.120 --> 00:45:56.240 Church and have them baptize there is probably the better route. 00:45:56.240 --> 00:46:00.480 But if it comes down to it, and for whatever reason that 00:46:00.480 --> 00:46:03.760 route does not work out, you can baptize your children at home. 00:46:03.760 --> 00:46:06.000 You are permitted to baptize your own children. 00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:10.480 Just make sure you have the standard witnesses, godparents, things like that. 00:46:10.480 --> 00:46:14.080 Those are a good thing to have because a future church doing 00:46:14.080 --> 00:46:18.800 its due dil diligence will ask them, When were you baptized? 00:46:18.800 --> 00:46:21.280 Do you have proof it actually happened? 00:46:21.280 --> 00:46:24.080 It used to be this was just the church records, right? 00:46:24.080 --> 00:46:28.960 Your local town church had records of every baptism, marriage, death, all 00:46:28.960 --> 00:46:30.400 those things. 00:46:30.400 --> 00:46:34.160 Now we have to maintain some of our own records because it's 00:46:34.160 --> 00:46:35.840 just the system we live under. 00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:38.560 Partly because we have so many different denominations, churches come and go, 00:46:38.800 --> 00:46:41.040 some close down, they don't keep the records. 00:46:41.040 --> 00:46:42.240 It's kind of a mess. 00:46:42.240 --> 00:46:44.640 So make sure you keep that stuff for yourself. 00:46:44.640 --> 00:46:48.560 It is appropriate for a future church to ask when were you 00:46:48.560 --> 00:46:50.640 baptized? Who baptized you? 00:46:51.280 --> 00:46:52.960 What is their affiliation, right? 00:46:52.960 --> 00:46:55.360 Because it could be that you thought you were baptized, but it 00:46:55.360 --> 00:46:58.880 was the Mormons or something, which is invalid. 00:46:58.880 --> 00:47:02.320 But yes, baptize your children, and if they have to go through 00:47:02.320 --> 00:47:05.760 this same thing, then that is unfortunate, but it is the reality. 00:47:05.760 --> 00:47:09.600 Hopefully, we have better churches in place, including in your era your 00:47:09.600 --> 00:47:13.040 area, by the time your children are old enough to run into 00:47:13.040 --> 00:47:14.240 this issue. 00:47:14.240 --> 00:47:20.000 Or if absolutely necessary, you find other like minded men in the 00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.080 larger congregation and start your own church, even if it's a home 00:47:24.080 --> 00:47:28.240 church. That is certainly a permissible option, and it's something people should 00:47:28.240 --> 00:47:33.440 be considering going forward. 00:47:33.440 --> 00:47:36.400 Question three. 00:47:36.400 --> 00:47:38.480 Expecting nothing in return. 00:47:38.480 --> 00:47:40.320 A question about Luke Six. 00:47:40.320 --> 00:47:44.000 What are some ways I can be wise about loaning money or 00:47:44.880 --> 00:47:48.720 to those who ask for there's a missing noun there to those 00:47:48.720 --> 00:47:52.160 who ask for it and not be taken for everything? 00:47:52.160 --> 00:47:55.440 Am I understanding Jesus correctly that I should not seek to seek 00:47:55.440 --> 00:47:58.960 to get back exactly what I gave out. 00:47:58.960 --> 00:48:03.760 This is a verse that is abused by the left and by 00:48:03.760 --> 00:48:07.200 others, and they try to push we're back to socialism. 00:48:07.200 --> 00:48:10.000 They try to push their version of socialism with it, right? 00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:13.440 They try to say that, oh, Jesus commanded you to sell all 00:48:13.440 --> 00:48:15.360 your property and give everything away. 00:48:15.360 --> 00:48:18.480 That command was specifically for that man because Jesus looked into his 00:48:18.560 --> 00:48:21.760 heart and saw that his possessions were his idol Not all men 00:48:21.760 --> 00:48:24.240 have that command, obviously. 00:48:24.240 --> 00:48:27.920 Even the apostles did not sell everything and give it away, right? 00:48:27.920 --> 00:48:29.840 They still had a fishing business. 00:48:29.840 --> 00:48:32.080 They didn't liquidate that and give it all away. 00:48:32.080 --> 00:48:34.720 Christ didn't command them to do that. 00:48:35.040 --> 00:48:38.320 An example people probably generally miss when they're reading through scripture, but 00:48:38.320 --> 00:48:40.160 it's right there on the page. 00:48:40.160 --> 00:48:43.280 So do you have to give away everything? 00:48:43.280 --> 00:48:46.880 Do you have to loan money to absolutely everyone who asks you 00:48:46.880 --> 00:48:47.680 for a dollar? 00:48:47.680 --> 00:48:50.000 No. The answer to that is obviously no. 00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:51.920 Right, we're back to the Order Amoris. 00:48:51.920 --> 00:48:55.760 You have a duty to your family, you have a duty to 00:48:55.760 --> 00:48:58.640 those who are closest to you, and what happens if you just 00:48:58.640 --> 00:49:00.080 give away everything? 00:49:00.080 --> 00:49:02.400 Well, you can't fulfil your duties now, right? 00:49:03.120 --> 00:49:06.240 If you can't fulfil your duties, what you've done is obviously at 00:49:06.240 --> 00:49:09.520 the very least unwise, and probably wicked. 00:49:09.520 --> 00:49:14.080 So when you do lend, right, if you're lending money, that's a 00:49:14.080 --> 00:49:17.200 wisdom call as to whether or not you have the ability to 00:49:17.200 --> 00:49:17.920 do that. 00:49:17.920 --> 00:49:21.920 If it will cause undue hardship for your family, don't do that 00:49:22.080 --> 00:49:24.560 because you have a duty that is higher to your family because 00:49:24.560 --> 00:49:25.920 they're closer to you. 00:49:25.920 --> 00:49:27.280 God entrusted them to your care. 00:49:28.400 --> 00:49:32.160 But if you have the ability to lend that money, you have 00:49:32.160 --> 00:49:36.320 the ability to help others, then yes, lend to your family members 00:49:36.320 --> 00:49:39.040 and your friends and expect nothing in return. 00:49:39.040 --> 00:49:40.800 If they are able to repay, great. 00:49:40.960 --> 00:49:42.720 If they're not, forgive the debt. 00:49:42.720 --> 00:49:45.680 That is the Christian approach. 00:49:45.680 --> 00:49:48.320 And I'm not going to pretend that's an easy thing to do, 00:49:48.320 --> 00:49:52.640 right? That's we're sort of hardwired by our economic system and just 00:49:52.640 --> 00:49:56.960 general human jealousy, greed, things like jealousy in the negative sense in 00:49:56.960 --> 00:49:57.680 this case. 00:49:57.680 --> 00:50:00.480 We're sort of hardwired to not want to do that. 00:50:00.480 --> 00:50:02.960 But some of the sayings of Christ are difficult. 00:50:02.960 --> 00:50:04.560 That is the reality of it though. 00:50:04.560 --> 00:50:07.760 If you lend to a family member, you lend to a friend 00:50:08.240 --> 00:50:11.120 If he cannot repay you, forgive the debt, right? 00:50:11.120 --> 00:50:14.160 You can think of the unworthy servant, right? 00:50:14.160 --> 00:50:17.120 Forgiven the great debt, refuse to forgive a small debt. 00:50:17.120 --> 00:50:22.480 You don't want to be that man. 00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:27.840 And I guess I should probably mention, because I would be somewhat 00:50:27.840 --> 00:50:31.360 remiss if I did not, but Christ was certainly speaking to a 00:50:31.360 --> 00:50:35.760 crowd for whom it would have only been a possibility to lend 00:50:35.760 --> 00:50:38.000 to family and neighbors, right? 00:50:38.320 --> 00:50:44.640 There was no online micro lending to people 5,000 miles away, effectively 00:50:44.720 --> 00:50:46.640 in the unknown parts of the world, right? 00:50:46.640 --> 00:50:50.160 You did not have the option living in Judea or even living 00:50:50.160 --> 00:50:54.960 in Rome to lend to someone living in Uganda or Russia or 00:50:55.520 --> 00:50:57.680 New Zealand, wherever it happens to be. 00:50:57.680 --> 00:50:59.440 So bear that in mind. 00:50:59.440 --> 00:51:03.120 Don't think that you have an obligation to lend to random people 00:51:03.120 --> 00:51:04.160 in the third world. 00:51:04.160 --> 00:51:04.720 You don't. 00:51:04.720 --> 00:51:07.920 In fact it's wicked to do so because you're taking that money 00:51:07.920 --> 00:51:11.280 away from your children and giving it to strangers. 00:51:11.280 --> 00:51:15.840 That is right, telescopic philanthropy, that is a wicked thing. 00:51:15.840 --> 00:51:18.880 You are neglecting your own to feel good about doing something that 00:51:18.880 --> 00:51:20.000 is in fact evil. 00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:21.280 So don't do that. 00:51:27.120 --> 00:51:30.400 Question four. 00:51:30.400 --> 00:51:36.800 Proper and improper actions for deaconesses in the church What can deaconesses 00:51:36.800 --> 00:51:38.160 do or not do in the church? 00:51:38.400 --> 00:51:40.640 What are their duties and responsibilities? 00:51:40.640 --> 00:51:44.080 By deaconess I mean a regular woman who serves the church, not 00:51:44.080 --> 00:51:47.120 the deaconesses who are just females pretending to be pastors. 00:51:47.120 --> 00:51:51.120 Well that's good, because as I mentioned earlier, those are not properly 00:51:51.120 --> 00:51:54.640 called pastors or pastrixes or whatever you want to call them, they're 00:51:54.640 --> 00:51:56.560 something else entirely. 00:51:56.560 --> 00:52:00.400 But the word deaconess just means servant, female servant. 00:52:00.400 --> 00:52:02.160 That's what she is. 00:52:02.160 --> 00:52:04.480 She can clean the sanctuary. 00:52:04.480 --> 00:52:07.520 She can help the pastor shelve books. 00:52:07.520 --> 00:52:09.920 She can serve food at the brunch. 00:52:09.920 --> 00:52:11.680 She can do any of those things. 00:52:11.680 --> 00:52:12.960 She's not a teacher. 00:52:12.960 --> 00:52:15.040 She's not a pretend pastor. 00:52:15.040 --> 00:52:16.560 She's nothing else like that. 00:52:16.720 --> 00:52:18.320 So should we even have them? 00:52:18.320 --> 00:52:19.120 I think no. 00:52:19.120 --> 00:52:22.560 I think it misleads women, it gives them the wrong impression. 00:52:22.560 --> 00:52:26.000 It's making an office that shouldn't exist for women. 00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:28.640 Think what the deacons in scripture did. 00:52:28.640 --> 00:52:30.880 They were waiting tables. 00:52:31.120 --> 00:52:32.160 Much of the time. 00:52:32.160 --> 00:52:32.640 Not always. 00:52:32.640 --> 00:52:34.560 They did some other stuff too, but that's one of the things 00:52:34.560 --> 00:52:35.280 they did. 00:52:35.280 --> 00:52:38.880 So the deaconess is certainly not a higher office than that. 00:52:38.880 --> 00:52:40.080 I don't think we should have them. 00:52:40.080 --> 00:52:42.000 Like I said, I think it is a negative thing. 00:52:42.000 --> 00:52:44.400 I think it leads to a lot of problems in the church. 00:52:44.400 --> 00:52:46.640 Women do not need to have offices in the church. 00:52:46.640 --> 00:52:50.160 I wouldn't have women working in the church in any shape whatsoever. 00:52:50.160 --> 00:52:52.240 No office manager, secretary, none of that. 00:52:52.240 --> 00:52:54.560 It should be men working in the church. 00:52:54.560 --> 00:52:57.280 And men need to step up and do those jobs. 00:52:57.280 --> 00:52:58.800 Part of the reason that you wind up with a lot of 00:52:58.800 --> 00:53:02.160 women is because men have neglected to do the things they should 00:53:02.160 --> 00:53:03.120 be doing. 00:53:03.120 --> 00:53:06.320 That's not to say there aren't women trying to usurp power they 00:53:06.320 --> 00:53:07.040 should not have. 00:53:07.040 --> 00:53:11.120 That is certainly a massive problem all over the place. 00:53:11.120 --> 00:53:14.480 But part of it is invited by men not doing the things 00:53:14.480 --> 00:53:15.920 men need to be doing. 00:53:15.920 --> 00:53:19.760 So the short answer is we should have no deaconesses whatsoever. 00:53:19.760 --> 00:53:24.240 But the slightly expanded answer is if they want to serve the 00:53:24.240 --> 00:53:29.040 church, then that's them from doing that, but don't give him a 00:53:29.040 --> 00:53:34.160 title. Question five. 00:53:34.160 --> 00:53:37.440 Related to an earlier question. 00:53:37.440 --> 00:53:39.840 Can you explain why libertarianism is wrong? 00:53:40.240 --> 00:53:43.280 Especially the slogan I don't care what you do as long as 00:53:43.280 --> 00:53:46.560 it doesn't hurt slash bother me. 00:53:46.560 --> 00:53:51.840 And so definitely see my article that I will be linking to 00:53:52.080 --> 00:53:53.920 the show notes on that earlier question. 00:53:53.920 --> 00:53:55.760 Maybe I'll link it here as well, just to make it easier 00:53:55.760 --> 00:53:57.120 for people to find. 00:53:57.120 --> 00:53:57.280 But 00:54:01.360 --> 00:54:04.480 The beginning of the answer is that yes, I'm my brother's keeper, 00:54:04.480 --> 00:54:08.240 right? That's the answer to Kane's question, you know, am I my 00:54:08.240 --> 00:54:09.840 brother's keeper is yes. 00:54:09.840 --> 00:54:10.640 Yes, you are. 00:54:10.640 --> 00:54:12.720 You have duties to your brother. 00:54:12.720 --> 00:54:17.760 But to answer specifically what you bring up here, right? 00:54:17.760 --> 00:54:19.840 You are part of a society. 00:54:19.840 --> 00:54:22.720 You live with other people in society. 00:54:22.720 --> 00:54:25.760 The things you do affect others. 00:54:25.760 --> 00:54:28.800 The things others do affect you. 00:54:28.800 --> 00:54:31.920 We can take a sort of extreme example, right? 00:54:31.920 --> 00:54:32.240 So 00:54:33.280 --> 00:54:38.240 let's say someone opens up a meth house across the street from 00:54:38.240 --> 00:54:39.360 your house. 00:54:39.360 --> 00:54:44.800 Well, it's his house, it's his life, it's his friends destroying their 00:54:44.800 --> 00:54:48.000 lives. What business is it of yours what he does with his 00:54:48.000 --> 00:54:51.120 body, his time, and his property? 00:54:51.040 --> 00:54:54.080 Well, I think we can all see that it's pretty clearly your 00:54:54.080 --> 00:54:55.360 business as well, right? 00:54:55.360 --> 00:54:58.320 Because you probably don't want to live across from a meth house, 00:54:58.320 --> 00:54:59.440 a meth den. 00:54:59.440 --> 00:55:01.680 You probably don't want your children to do so. 00:55:01.680 --> 00:55:04.800 You probably don't want one of those to exist, period, anywhere in 00:55:05.360 --> 00:55:10.080 society. And yes, there's also the concern of you should actually care 00:55:10.080 --> 00:55:12.080 what happens to your neighbor. 00:55:12.080 --> 00:55:13.360 Cause that man is your neighbor. 00:55:13.360 --> 00:55:15.920 You should care about his health and his welfare. 00:55:15.920 --> 00:55:19.280 You should want the state to intervene and not just shut down 00:55:19.280 --> 00:55:22.240 the evil thing he's doing, but to get him the help he 00:55:22.240 --> 00:55:23.760 probably needs, right? 00:55:24.160 --> 00:55:27.920 I'm not saying you know, drug addicts are innocent, but I am 00:55:27.920 --> 00:55:30.480 saying we have a duty to help them, the ones that can 00:55:30.480 --> 00:55:31.360 be helped. 00:55:31.360 --> 00:55:34.640 Get them the treatment they need and also force them to work. 00:55:34.640 --> 00:55:35.520 That's part of it, right? 00:55:35.520 --> 00:55:38.080 Round up the homeless, force them to work, get them treatment for 00:55:38.080 --> 00:55:41.200 their various ailments which are probably both physical and mental. 00:55:41.200 --> 00:55:45.120 Don't let them just roam free and destroy themselves and everything else. 00:55:45.120 --> 00:55:48.320 You can t treat both sides at that same time. 00:55:48.320 --> 00:55:49.920 You don't have to pick one or the other, right? 00:55:49.920 --> 00:55:52.560 You don't have to be anti homeless to the point of being 00:55:52.560 --> 00:55:55.040 cruel, you don't have to be pro homeless to the point of 00:55:55.040 --> 00:55:58.640 being cruel in a different way. 00:55:58.640 --> 00:56:02.160 But the sort of foundational point there is what I already said. 00:56:02.160 --> 00:56:03.520 You're part of society. 00:56:03.520 --> 00:56:06.320 And what you do affects others and what others do affects you. 00:56:06.320 --> 00:56:08.560 There's no way to disentangle that. 00:56:08.560 --> 00:56:11.360 No man is an island, no man gets to say I am 00:56:11.360 --> 00:56:16.080 a dependent on no one else, I am totally wildly, absolutely independent, 00:56:16.080 --> 00:56:19.040 no one else affects me, I affect no one else. 00:56:19.040 --> 00:56:21.520 Even if you are living out in the woods as a hermit, 00:56:21.520 --> 00:56:22.640 that's not totally true, right? 00:56:22.640 --> 00:56:25.200 You can take the Amish example. 00:56:25.200 --> 00:56:28.960 The Amish are relatively isolated from society. 00:56:28.960 --> 00:56:33.520 Society still affects them, at the very least in a particular way. 00:56:34.400 --> 00:56:38.000 What happens if we stop defending them, right? 00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:42.880 Because it's not the Amish who field soldiers to keep in theory, 00:56:42.880 --> 00:56:44.880 anyway, the border secure and all those things. 00:56:44.880 --> 00:56:47.280 Let's say we live in a functioning state instead of this one. 00:56:47.280 --> 00:56:50.960 But in a functioning state, the Amish are protected by the state 00:56:50.960 --> 00:56:52.960 despite not contributing to it. 00:56:52.960 --> 00:56:56.880 So they are still affected by what happens outside of their isolated 00:56:56.880 --> 00:57:01.120 community. No one is isolated, everyone is interconnected, and so the claims 00:57:01.120 --> 00:57:08.560 of libertarianism are just ridiculous on their face, in particular this one. 00:57:08.720 --> 00:57:09.680 Question 00:57:12.320 --> 00:57:16.720 five, which my tab has disappeared so let me open Question six 00:57:16.800 --> 00:57:18.480 rather my tab disappeared. 00:57:18.480 --> 00:57:24.640 Question six Mother qualities in your personal experience as a son, what 00:57:24.640 --> 00:57:28.000 are the most important qualities a mother can possess can possess to 00:57:28.000 --> 00:57:31.440 raise a boy into a man that will be well grounded in 00:57:31.440 --> 00:57:34.160 his ability to navigate the world. 00:57:34.240 --> 00:57:36.960 And take a sip of my drink before I continue. 00:57:42.720 --> 00:57:45.520 I don't know that I will fully answer this one, and I 00:57:45.520 --> 00:57:47.760 know that there was a comment in my chat about looking forward 00:57:47.760 --> 00:57:50.400 to my answer here, and so don't be too disappointed. 00:57:50.400 --> 00:57:55.280 But I am working on some essays and things about women and 00:57:56.000 --> 00:57:58.560 marriage and things like that, and I'll leave some of it for 00:57:58.560 --> 00:58:02.960 that because some of it requires a little greater treatment in depth 00:58:03.040 --> 00:58:04.880 than I'll necessarily go into here. 00:58:05.120 --> 00:58:08.880 But I can certainly touch on sort of the overarching truth, the 00:58:08.880 --> 00:58:09.920 core of it here. 00:58:09.920 --> 00:58:14.800 And the core of it is, as a wife, one of the 00:58:14.800 --> 00:58:18.160 things you're doing is modeling what it means to be a good 00:58:18.160 --> 00:58:21.680 woman and a good wife for your sons and for your daughters, 00:58:21.680 --> 00:58:25.200 certainly. I don't know if God has blessed you with daughters as 00:58:25.200 --> 00:58:27.600 well, but at least in theory, if God blesses you with daughters 00:58:27.680 --> 00:58:31.200 or has blessed you with daughters, so your hypothetical daughters. 00:58:31.200 --> 00:58:34.960 You are modelling what it means to be a wife and a 00:58:34.960 --> 00:58:39.680 mother. And so that is important for both boys and girls. 00:58:39.680 --> 00:58:43.440 Because in theory, your boys will marry women at some point in 00:58:43.440 --> 00:58:44.320 the future. 00:58:44.320 --> 00:58:46.640 One of the things they'll start looking for is some of the 00:58:46.640 --> 00:58:50.880 attributes you have shown to be good in women in wives and 00:58:50.880 --> 00:58:55.120 mothers. The same thing will be true for your daughters when they 00:58:55.120 --> 00:58:57.600 start taking on those roles for themselves. 00:58:57.600 --> 00:59:01.760 That is sort of one of the fundamental things that you are 00:59:01.760 --> 00:59:05.440 doing in your role as a wife and a mother. 00:59:05.440 --> 00:59:05.760 So 00:59:07.120 --> 00:59:09.920 one of the best things you can do is just be a 00:59:09.920 --> 00:59:12.800 good wife and mother, because they are looking to you as that 00:59:12.800 --> 00:59:16.240 example. They will, of course, look to others as examples as well. 00:59:16.240 --> 00:59:20.720 Sometimes that's bad because sometimes it is looking to Hollywood, which is 00:59:20.720 --> 00:59:22.400 obviously not great. 00:59:22.400 --> 00:59:26.720 But say if you have other couples and their children who are 00:59:26.720 --> 00:59:29.040 around often, they'll look to that as well. 00:59:29.040 --> 00:59:32.160 Children absorb a lot from what is around them. 00:59:32.160 --> 00:59:34.160 That is one of the ways we learn, right? 00:59:34.160 --> 00:59:37.360 They're basically a passive sponge early on. 00:59:37.360 --> 00:59:41.920 So how you model things in your home and how you permit 00:59:41.920 --> 00:59:46.800 things to be modeled around your children is going to influence them 00:59:46.960 --> 00:59:49.680 massively going forward. 00:59:49.680 --> 00:59:52.080 So take that into account. 00:59:52.080 --> 00:59:54.800 Take into account the people with whom you associate. 00:59:54.800 --> 00:59:58.640 Take into account what your children see, how they see you interacting 00:59:58.640 --> 01:00:02.240 with your husband, how you interact with them, because that's their model 01:00:02.240 --> 01:00:03.200 of a mother. 01:00:03.200 --> 01:00:05.760 That's the mental model they're building up. 01:00:05.760 --> 01:00:11.440 So obviously mother is not an unserious or a light office. 01:00:11.440 --> 01:00:13.920 It's a fundamentally important thing. 01:00:13.920 --> 01:00:17.360 And And make sure that you're doing what you should according to 01:00:17.360 --> 01:00:24.000 scripture and the reason, the wisdom that God has entrusted to you. 01:00:24.000 --> 01:00:28.160 And just as a sort of general comment, I won't necessarily get 01:00:28.160 --> 01:00:28.480 into 01:00:30.240 --> 01:00:33.200 right the depth of it that I want to treat with those 01:00:33.200 --> 01:00:36.880 essays instead of here, but there's currently 01:00:38.320 --> 01:00:40.160 I think it's fair to call it animus. 01:00:40.160 --> 01:00:43.520 There's rather a lot of animus between the sexes, particularly among the 01:00:43.520 --> 01:00:45.760 younger generations, to be blunt. 01:00:45.760 --> 01:00:49.680 Particularly with the zoomers and younger, it's happening in Gen Alpha as 01:00:49.680 --> 01:00:52.720 well. And it is a serious problem, right? 01:00:52.720 --> 01:00:56.320 There's no future if the sexes don't get along, at least well 01:00:56.560 --> 01:01:02.560 enough. And God made woman to be a helper fit for man, 01:01:02.560 --> 01:01:05.520 not to be a competitor, not for woman to hate man or 01:01:05.520 --> 01:01:06.560 for man to hate woman. 01:01:06.880 --> 01:01:08.320 Men and women are not the same. 01:01:08.320 --> 01:01:10.560 Don't expect men and women to be the same. 01:01:10.560 --> 01:01:13.600 Don't expect women to act like men or men to act like 01:01:13.600 --> 01:01:20.000 women. That's leftism, that's transsexualism, that's transgenderism, that's complete nonsense. 01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:24.160 Expect women to act like women and men to act like men. 01:01:24.160 --> 01:01:26.160 It's important to model both. 01:01:26.160 --> 01:01:29.600 Your husband models how a man should act, you model how a 01:01:29.600 --> 01:01:30.720 woman should act. 01:01:30.720 --> 01:01:33.120 That is things functioning as they should. 01:01:33.520 --> 01:01:33.840 And 01:01:34.800 --> 01:01:40.560 if we don't do something about that animus between the sexes that 01:01:40.560 --> 01:01:46.400 is just growing unchecked and is certainly fueled by social media and 01:01:46.400 --> 01:01:51.760 is fueled algorithmically deliberately to make people crazy and behave in this 01:01:51.760 --> 01:01:55.920 way. So maybe consider limiting social media access as well. 01:01:55.920 --> 01:01:59.840 If we don't get a handle on that, then we are just 01:01:59.840 --> 01:02:03.760 going to have continually worse problems in the future, and we have 01:02:03.760 --> 01:02:05.360 problems enough now. 01:02:05.360 --> 01:02:07.920 We do not need to add on top of all of the 01:02:07.920 --> 01:02:14.000 challenges we face in a biting hatred between the sexes, who are 01:02:14.000 --> 01:02:17.520 supposed to love one another and make it possible to have future 01:02:17.520 --> 01:02:22.160 generations. Because as a race, you have no future if men and 01:02:22.160 --> 01:02:23.920 women don't get along. 01:02:23.920 --> 01:02:27.200 I think we all understand how biology and all those things work, 01:02:27.200 --> 01:02:33.040 right? There is no next generation, there is no future without marriage. 01:02:33.040 --> 01:02:38.320 So it's important to model that role as a wife and a 01:02:38.320 --> 01:02:38.480 mother 01:02:39.520 --> 01:02:43.360 because if you don't, then your sons are going to have to 01:02:43.360 --> 01:02:45.040 absorb that from somewhere else. 01:02:45.040 --> 01:02:48.080 And it will probably be the culture at large and that will 01:02:48.080 --> 01:02:49.360 probably not work out well for them. 01:02:49.360 --> 01:02:52.080 They will then learn all the lessons the hard way, that it 01:02:52.080 --> 01:02:55.120 is much better to learn them the easy way and the correct 01:02:55.120 --> 01:02:58.400 way than learning them the hard way, and doing it the wrong 01:02:58.400 --> 01:03:01.760 way, and probably making a mess of your life at least for 01:03:01.760 --> 01:03:04.160 a period of years. 01:03:04.160 --> 01:03:06.560 But like I said, I will get more into this in some 01:03:06.560 --> 01:03:10.880 essays that I've been planning, sort of mentally composing in my free 01:03:10.880 --> 01:03:18.240 time. I guess almost a tangentially related 01:03:18.240 --> 01:03:23.040 question in a sense, but question seven. 01:03:23.040 --> 01:03:27.200 You have stated previously that men should only cry at specific times 01:03:27.200 --> 01:03:28.160 and events. 01:03:28.160 --> 01:03:31.520 Occasionally a hymn in church will really get me and cause tears 01:03:31.520 --> 01:03:32.560 to well up. 01:03:32.560 --> 01:03:34.160 Do you find this shameful? 01:03:34.160 --> 01:03:36.720 I weep for Christ's passion and I know there is no shame 01:03:36.720 --> 01:03:37.280 in that. 01:03:37.280 --> 01:03:38.240 Is this different? 01:03:38.240 --> 01:03:40.240 Yes, that's permissible. 01:03:40.240 --> 01:03:42.320 I guess I can just answer that one very quickly. 01:03:42.320 --> 01:03:45.680 It is permissible to maybe don't openly weep as a man. 01:03:45.680 --> 01:03:49.680 That's generally like something horrible has to have happened for that. 01:03:49.680 --> 01:03:52.400 I mean partly yes, I'm Germanic, so I'm going to have a 01:03:52.400 --> 01:03:56.800 certain sensibility when it comes to these things, but Most Americans are 01:03:56.800 --> 01:03:57.520 going to, right? 01:03:57.520 --> 01:04:00.960 Because Americans are mostly English and German, and there's the stiff upper 01:04:00.960 --> 01:04:03.600 lip thing is not just the English, it's the Germans as well. 01:04:03.600 --> 01:04:03.920 But 01:04:06.000 --> 01:04:09.040 openly weeping in church is probably not going to be a great 01:04:09.040 --> 01:04:11.920 plan, but if it you know tears well up, maybe you have 01:04:11.920 --> 01:04:13.040 to wipe away a tear. 01:04:13.040 --> 01:04:14.400 That's I don't object to that. 01:04:14.400 --> 01:04:15.280 That's perfectly fine. 01:04:15.280 --> 01:04:17.120 That's entirely reasonable. 01:04:17.360 --> 01:04:19.440 I would go so far as to say that's even fine if 01:04:19.440 --> 01:04:22.640 that occasionally happens in the theater. 01:04:22.640 --> 01:04:25.280 And to be clear, I mean the actual theater, I don't mean 01:04:25.280 --> 01:04:30.320 the Hollywood slop that nothing they produce warrants that level of emotion 01:04:30.320 --> 01:04:31.280 these days. 01:04:31.280 --> 01:04:35.840 But certain plays, certain operas are w very well designed, and if 01:04:35.840 --> 01:04:38.800 they elicit that sort of emotion, I don't think it's entirely inappropriate. 01:04:38.800 --> 01:04:41.760 And certainly Christ's passion and certain hymns. 01:04:41.760 --> 01:04:45.680 You know, if you've lost someone near and dear to you, say 01:04:45.760 --> 01:04:49.120 in the past year and then we get to All Saints or 01:04:49.120 --> 01:04:54.800 whichever one of the calendar celebrations you use and you know you're 01:04:54.800 --> 01:04:56.880 singing for all the saints and you happen to have a couple 01:04:56.960 --> 01:04:59.920 tears in your eyes, I think that's perfectly reasonable I don't think 01:04:59.920 --> 01:05:05.360 that's shameful or impermissible. 01:05:05.360 --> 01:05:06.640 Question eight. 01:05:06.640 --> 01:05:08.640 I'm going to drink a little more coffee first. 01:05:12.480 --> 01:05:15.280 I don't know to how many questions I will get. 01:05:15.280 --> 01:05:19.040 I don't even know how far we are into this episode. 01:05:19.040 --> 01:05:22.320 I have not been paying attention. 01:05:22.320 --> 01:05:22.960 We are 01:05:27.280 --> 01:05:30.560 More into the episode episode than I thought, but I'll keep going 01:05:30.560 --> 01:05:31.120 for a while. 01:05:31.120 --> 01:05:34.720 I don't have anything else I necessarily have to do in the 01:05:34.720 --> 01:05:37.520 next twenty-thirty minutes. 01:05:37.520 --> 01:05:38.480 Question eight. 01:05:38.480 --> 01:05:42.080 Could you will please elaborate on your tweet that the Great Commission 01:05:42.240 --> 01:05:46.160 has been fulfilled, and that our mission now is to get our 01:05:46.160 --> 01:05:51.440 people onto the ark, especially what the latter part means in practical 01:05:51.440 --> 01:05:54.560 terms. So 01:05:55.600 --> 01:05:57.440 this is one of those where 01:05:58.400 --> 01:06:01.600 I could get pretty deep into it, and I don't always want 01:06:01.600 --> 01:06:05.760 to say this, but maybe I should write an article on this 01:06:05.840 --> 01:06:09.360 or this or maybe I'll shove this one off onto someone else. 01:06:09.360 --> 01:06:11.360 I have a person in mind to whom I may give this 01:06:11.360 --> 01:06:14.240 particular task, if he is so willing. 01:06:14.240 --> 01:06:14.560 But 01:06:15.600 --> 01:06:19.120 I will give the answer from the Lutheran perspective because I am 01:06:19.120 --> 01:06:23.920 most familiar with that, and quite frankly the Roman Catholics disagree, although 01:06:23.920 --> 01:06:29.520 they disagree for polemical reasons, not necessarily for theological reasons. 01:06:29.520 --> 01:06:32.800 And I know some Roman Catholics may object to that, but it 01:06:32.800 --> 01:06:36.880 is the reality of the historical interaction between the Roman Church and 01:06:36.880 --> 01:06:39.680 the Lutheran Church, right? 01:06:39.680 --> 01:06:40.000 So 01:06:40.960 --> 01:06:44.560 one of the polemical lines of attack against the 01:06:45.680 --> 01:06:52.000 Lutheran Church by the Roman Church, particularly in the post Reformation era, 01:06:52.000 --> 01:06:55.680 what would be called the Age of Lutheran Orthodoxy, so maybe the 01:06:56.320 --> 01:07:00.400 two ish centuries after the Reformation, a little later than that as 01:07:00.400 --> 01:07:04.880 well, maybe all the way up through, say, the Saxon migration into 01:07:04.880 --> 01:07:08.960 America, sort of an extension, but that sort of era. 01:07:08.960 --> 01:07:13.760 One of the attacks against the Lutherans by the Roman Catholics was 01:07:14.240 --> 01:07:18.320 surely one of the signs of the true church must be that 01:07:18.320 --> 01:07:23.760 you have foreign missionaries because then you are pursuing the Great Commission. 01:07:24.080 --> 01:07:26.320 That was one of their arguments. 01:07:26.320 --> 01:07:30.960 However, even earlier than that, there were many who had argued, so 01:07:31.040 --> 01:07:33.520 this is not specifically Lutheran, I'm going to go over the Lutherans 01:07:33.520 --> 01:07:37.120 in more detail, but earlier than that, there were those who argued 01:07:37.120 --> 01:07:41.920 that essentially the Great Commission had been fulfilled in one of two 01:07:41.920 --> 01:07:46.480 ways. Usually they argued that it was fulfilled during the apostolic era 01:07:46.880 --> 01:07:51.200 because the apostles had gone to all the great races of men, 01:07:51.200 --> 01:07:56.400 right? And so not every single little subdivision of humanity had been 01:07:56.400 --> 01:08:00.960 reached, but it had gone out to the sons of Shem, it 01:08:00.960 --> 01:08:03.040 had gone out to the sons of Japheth, it had gone out 01:08:03.440 --> 01:08:05.120 to the sons of Ham. 01:08:05.120 --> 01:08:09.600 You even see that fulfillment in the New Testament, right? 01:08:09.600 --> 01:08:13.360 The many of the early converts were formerly Jewish. 01:08:13.360 --> 01:08:14.800 Those are the sons of Shem. 01:08:15.280 --> 01:08:19.840 You have Arabs in the same area, sons of Shem, with Hemitic 01:08:19.840 --> 01:08:22.560 admixture. You have the Ethiopian, right? 01:08:22.560 --> 01:08:23.920 The Ethiopian eunuch. 01:08:23.920 --> 01:08:26.480 Well he goes back to the court of one of the countries 01:08:27.440 --> 01:08:29.600 in Africa, that's Ham. 01:08:29.600 --> 01:08:33.040 You have Rome and you have the Greeks, that's Japheth. 01:08:33.040 --> 01:08:37.600 So you see this sort of fulfillment in the apostolic era, and 01:08:37.600 --> 01:08:41.360 then the additional argument on top of that was that the gospel 01:08:41.360 --> 01:08:45.040 had already been heard by all men, because it was passed down 01:08:45.040 --> 01:08:50.240 from Adam, through Noah, to his sons and the patriarchs of the 01:08:50.240 --> 01:08:53.600 various great races, and had been retained or lost. 01:08:53.600 --> 01:08:56.160 So everyone had the opportunity to hear it already. 01:08:56.160 --> 01:08:58.000 That's one of the two arguments. 01:08:58.000 --> 01:08:58.320 And 01:08:59.920 --> 01:09:02.960 there are those who will point out, and I've highlighted this before 01:09:02.960 --> 01:09:06.720 just to dismiss it, but there are nations that didn't even exist 01:09:07.520 --> 01:09:12.480 when the Great Commission was given by Christ to the apostles, America 01:09:12.480 --> 01:09:13.680 didn't exist. 01:09:13.680 --> 01:09:15.680 America's a distinct nation. 01:09:15.680 --> 01:09:20.320 So is it something going forward in perpetuity every time a new 01:09:20.320 --> 01:09:23.200 subgroup is generated pops up? 01:09:23.200 --> 01:09:24.640 I don't believe so. 01:09:24.640 --> 01:09:29.360 I hold to the traditional Lutheran belief on this, which is essentially 01:09:29.600 --> 01:09:34.240 the two things I explained, with on top of that, you can 01:09:34.240 --> 01:09:38.480 add, if you are so inclined, I kind of have perhaps mixed 01:09:38.480 --> 01:09:39.200 feelings on it. 01:09:39.200 --> 01:09:41.440 I think that it is a strong argument. 01:09:41.440 --> 01:09:44.960 I don't know that it's a necessary component of the argument But 01:09:44.960 --> 01:09:51.040 the colonial period was also a rapid expansion and spread of the 01:09:51.040 --> 01:09:56.880 New Testament era, you know, regeneration, restoration of the gospel message. 01:09:56.880 --> 01:09:58.640 And so I think that even if you don't want to say 01:09:58.960 --> 01:10:02.640 it was fulfilled in the apostolic era, certainly it was fulfilled by 01:10:02.640 --> 01:10:06.800 colonialism in which the sons of Japheth took the gospel to all 01:10:06.800 --> 01:10:10.000 the corners of the world, including little tiny tribes in the middle 01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:11.360 of nowhere. 01:10:11.360 --> 01:10:15.520 I don't think every weird island people everywhere on Earth has to 01:10:15.520 --> 01:10:18.240 hear the gospel before it's fulfilled. 01:10:18.240 --> 01:10:22.960 I think that's a modern and sort of mercenary interpretation used to 01:10:22.960 --> 01:10:24.800 fund foreign missions and things like that. 01:10:24.800 --> 01:10:27.440 In some cases it's ignorance, in many cases I think there's a 01:10:27.440 --> 01:10:30.080 little bit of malice involved. 01:10:30.080 --> 01:10:35.120 But the Lutheran theologians from the age of orthodoxy, Gerhard is one 01:10:35.120 --> 01:10:38.720 particular example, and there's another one I posted a quote from him 01:10:38.720 --> 01:10:41.920 before I started the stream I posted it on X and also 01:10:41.920 --> 01:10:44.880 on Telegram, but I'll read that as well. 01:10:44.880 --> 01:10:46.080 Ursinus 01:10:46.960 --> 01:10:50.640 These are two examples of men who basically just categorically said that 01:10:50.640 --> 01:10:52.960 the great Commission's been fulfilled. 01:10:52.960 --> 01:10:55.360 This is no longer a thing. 01:10:55.360 --> 01:11:00.720 And Gerhard's argument was essentially that there were three things passed down 01:11:00.720 --> 01:11:06.960 from the apostles to subsequent Christians, and particularly with regard to, say, 01:11:06.960 --> 01:11:07.920 the pastorate, right? 01:11:07.920 --> 01:11:09.200 You have the sacraments. 01:11:09.200 --> 01:11:13.680 But the important one here is whether or not there was that 01:11:14.000 --> 01:11:15.760 generic and general 01:11:16.800 --> 01:11:20.560 command to go to all the corners of the world and spread 01:11:20.560 --> 01:11:21.840 the gospel. 01:11:21.840 --> 01:11:26.640 Gerhard came down hard on the no side because his argument and 01:11:26.960 --> 01:11:30.480 Luther, you also have this in a certain form in Luther as 01:11:30.480 --> 01:11:34.800 well. Their argument essentially is that the pastor has a mediate call, 01:11:34.800 --> 01:11:37.920 and the immediate call is to say that it is to his 01:11:37.920 --> 01:11:42.000 specific congregation and his locality, not to the world generally. 01:11:42.000 --> 01:11:45.440 And so the argument is that that general or universal call to 01:11:45.440 --> 01:11:50.880 the world was passed to the apostles, but not down to future 01:11:50.880 --> 01:11:53.120 clergy, future Christians. 01:11:53.120 --> 01:11:56.560 I happen to think that he is largely right in his argument. 01:11:56.560 --> 01:11:59.120 I might quibble with some things, but I think that is a 01:11:59.120 --> 01:12:01.120 fair general assessment. 01:12:01.120 --> 01:12:03.040 Ursinus went further, right? 01:12:03.040 --> 01:12:07.280 I'll go ahead and read the the translation of his comment. 01:12:07.280 --> 01:12:09.120 His original comment was in German. 01:12:09.120 --> 01:12:12.320 I may find a way to translate that whole document because it 01:12:12.320 --> 01:12:15.840 probably would be useful to have it, but let me pull that 01:12:15.840 --> 01:12:16.320 up. 01:12:19.840 --> 01:12:23.440 So So, one of his comments, and this is going to sound 01:12:23.440 --> 01:12:27.280 harsh to certainly modern Christian years, but this is the sort of 01:12:27.280 --> 01:12:31.280 thing that you heard from theologians in the 1600s, the 1700s, even 01:12:31.280 --> 01:12:36.400 into the 18th and early nineteen hundreds, many heathen peoples are savages 01:12:36.400 --> 01:12:41.600 who have absolutely nothing human about them and are therefore impervious to 01:12:41.600 --> 01:12:43.680 the gospel. 01:12:43.680 --> 01:12:47.760 That's from an Orthodox Lutheran theologian in the 1600s. 01:12:47.760 --> 01:12:50.160 That was the sort of things that they were writing, and then 01:12:50.160 --> 01:12:53.200 today we get condemned for saying, you know, there are differences between 01:12:53.200 --> 01:12:54.800 people groups, right? 01:12:55.280 --> 01:12:57.440 Completely ridiculous. 01:12:57.440 --> 01:13:02.640 But I I do happen to believe that the Great Commission was 01:13:02.640 --> 01:13:03.520 indeed fulfilled. 01:13:03.520 --> 01:13:06.240 I do not think that we have a general duty to go 01:13:06.240 --> 01:13:09.440 to all the corners of the world at this point and find 01:13:09.440 --> 01:13:12.800 every little subgroup of people who speak some pidgin form of a 01:13:12.800 --> 01:13:13.040 language 01:13:14.080 --> 01:13:16.960 and try to get them to believe in the gospel. 01:13:16.960 --> 01:13:19.200 I think that's been fulfilled. 01:13:19.200 --> 01:13:24.800 But with that sort of background in place now, the actual question 01:13:24.800 --> 01:13:28.000 that was asked here is what do I mean by get our 01:13:28.080 --> 01:13:29.520 people into the ark? 01:13:29.520 --> 01:13:32.320 And the reason I gave the background is because it lays the 01:13:32.320 --> 01:13:34.400 foundation of what I mean by that. 01:13:34.400 --> 01:13:37.200 I mean our duty is to our own people, to our own 01:13:37.200 --> 01:13:40.560 blood, to our own race, to our own nation, to get them 01:13:41.600 --> 01:13:45.280 back into the Christian church, which the Christian Church write is the 01:13:45.280 --> 01:13:46.560 greater arc. 01:13:46.560 --> 01:13:49.120 That is the greater ark, it is the one that saves you 01:13:49.120 --> 01:13:52.560 not from temporal death, from from eternal death. 01:13:52.560 --> 01:13:56.720 And so that is our duty now, not to go to the 01:13:56.720 --> 01:13:58.480 furthest reaches of the world. 01:13:58.480 --> 01:14:02.000 Luther, incidentally, in some of his arguments against this kind of stuff, 01:14:02.000 --> 01:14:08.320 used India as the example to furthest India, farthest India, right? 01:14:08.320 --> 01:14:10.080 That's not our duty. 01:14:10.080 --> 01:14:11.600 Our duty is to our own. 01:14:11.600 --> 01:14:13.280 God has put you in a time and a place. 01:14:13.280 --> 01:14:14.640 He has put people in your life. 01:14:14.640 --> 01:14:17.600 He has made you a certain type of person, right? 01:14:17.600 --> 01:14:21.040 You have a race, you have an identity, you have all these 01:14:21.040 --> 01:14:23.440 things that are inherent to who and what you are. 01:14:23.440 --> 01:14:26.160 He has put you where you are, given you the things you 01:14:26.160 --> 01:14:29.360 have, and entrusted certain duties to your care. 01:14:29.360 --> 01:14:34.080 It's not to sail across the ocean and find random people in 01:14:34.080 --> 01:14:36.960 the jungle so you can feel good about yourself and say, look 01:14:37.120 --> 01:14:39.920 at how holy I am and what I've done. 01:14:39.920 --> 01:14:42.640 And the reason people do that is because you know what's very 01:14:42.640 --> 01:14:44.240 difficult and hard to do? 01:14:44.240 --> 01:14:47.840 It's to approach your own people and care about them and try 01:14:47.840 --> 01:14:49.920 to do what is best for them and try to get them 01:14:49.920 --> 01:14:51.920 back into the Christian church. 01:14:51.920 --> 01:14:56.240 It's way easier to sail across the world, get paid to go 01:14:56.240 --> 01:14:59.280 on a vacation, even if it's not somewhere necessarily that pleasant, these 01:14:59.280 --> 01:15:02.240 people still enjoy it, and try to get someone with an IQ 01:15:02.240 --> 01:15:06.160 of seventy to believe you about Jesus. 01:15:06.160 --> 01:15:07.360 That's easier. 01:15:07.360 --> 01:15:09.040 The harder work is here. 01:15:09.040 --> 01:15:12.000 And so people want the easy task instead of the hard work, 01:15:12.000 --> 01:15:15.760 because that one gets them praise, this one gets you hated. 01:15:15.760 --> 01:15:18.800 So pick the harder task because it's the right one, it's the 01:15:18.800 --> 01:15:22.320 one God has entrusted to your care So that is what I 01:15:22.320 --> 01:15:24.080 mean by getting our people into the ark. 01:15:24.080 --> 01:15:27.280 It's not a matter of saving the rest of the wicked world. 01:15:27.280 --> 01:15:29.040 We've done enough. 01:15:29.040 --> 01:15:35.280 Right? Noah preached, prophesied for long enough about the flood that was 01:15:35.760 --> 01:15:38.560 coming, and then he got his people into the Ark and saved 01:15:38.560 --> 01:15:42.080 them. Our duty is to get our own people into the church, 01:15:42.080 --> 01:15:45.920 into the actual Ark and save them, not to go hunting around 01:15:45.920 --> 01:15:48.240 all the rest of the corners of the world for people who 01:15:48.240 --> 01:15:52.400 won't convert anyway. 01:15:52.400 --> 01:15:53.920 Question nine. 01:15:53.920 --> 01:15:58.240 I have been going to my church for almost two years now. 01:15:58.240 --> 01:16:01.760 I haven't become a member or communed because on the altar where 01:16:01.760 --> 01:16:05.280 we kneel there is an assortment of crosses, but there are a 01:16:05.280 --> 01:16:08.160 few stars of Remphan mixed in. 01:16:08.160 --> 01:16:12.400 The church is faithful, the pastor is faithful enough, seems to be 01:16:12.400 --> 01:16:15.680 the crosses seem to be the symbols rather seem to be left 01:16:15.680 --> 01:16:17.680 over from the builders of the church. 01:16:17.680 --> 01:16:18.880 Can I commune on that? 01:16:18.880 --> 01:16:20.800 It feels wrong. 01:16:20.800 --> 01:16:26.000 So the short answer here is Yes, you can commune, and the 01:16:26.000 --> 01:16:27.280 longer answer involves 01:16:29.600 --> 01:16:31.600 I don't want to get into the full answer because the full 01:16:31.600 --> 01:16:35.760 answer is long, but the longer answer is 01:16:36.640 --> 01:16:40.000 the symbol is not always a Jewish symbol, right? 01:16:40.240 --> 01:16:42.560 It's not always Talmudic. 01:16:42.560 --> 01:16:47.440 And there are a few ways to explain that and defend that 01:16:47.440 --> 01:16:52.080 conclusion. One of them is that we have historical use in places 01:16:52.080 --> 01:16:53.920 that were entirely faithful. 01:16:53.920 --> 01:16:57.520 They just happen to have used the symbol for other reasons or 01:16:57.520 --> 01:16:59.280 adopted it with misconceptions. 01:16:59.280 --> 01:17:00.800 That's usually later on. 01:17:00.800 --> 01:17:03.520 That's usually medieval versus early churches. 01:17:03.520 --> 01:17:05.840 But even in the early church, you see this in some places, 01:17:05.840 --> 01:17:08.320 there are Greek churches that we know had this symbol and some 01:17:08.320 --> 01:17:10.400 that still have the symbol. 01:17:10.400 --> 01:17:14.320 And it is not always a wicked thing. 01:17:14.320 --> 01:17:18.080 It has become a wicked thing, so we should no longer use 01:17:18.080 --> 01:17:21.360 it, but it has been used in ways that were not wicked 01:17:21.360 --> 01:17:22.800 in the past. 01:17:22.800 --> 01:17:27.600 Which leads into the second part of my answer, which is why. 01:17:27.600 --> 01:17:30.000 The why is very simple. 01:17:30.000 --> 01:17:34.160 It's a very easy to draw geometric figure. 01:17:34.160 --> 01:17:35.920 Part of it is just that simple, right? 01:17:35.920 --> 01:17:38.320 It's two triangles, one flipped. 01:17:38.320 --> 01:17:38.640 So 01:17:39.920 --> 01:17:42.880 you do have the argument. 01:17:42.880 --> 01:17:45.840 It's kind of supported historically. 01:17:45.840 --> 01:17:48.720 It's not the strongest argument, but you do have the argument that 01:17:48.720 --> 01:17:53.200 it's symbolic of, say, heaven and earth combined with the triangle being 01:17:53.200 --> 01:17:54.880 a symbol of the Trinity, right? 01:17:55.120 --> 01:17:56.480 You have that. 01:17:56.480 --> 01:17:59.040 But you also have it's a star. 01:17:59.040 --> 01:18:02.880 There is symbolism of stars in Christianity. 01:18:02.880 --> 01:18:05.440 It is, again, very simple to draw. 01:18:05.440 --> 01:18:08.560 It's easy to draw with the tools they would have had, right? 01:18:08.560 --> 01:18:11.760 You can draw that with a piece of wood and a chisel. 01:18:11.760 --> 01:18:15.120 You don't need to be very good to draw that particular symbol. 01:18:15.120 --> 01:18:19.040 So part of it is just that it's easy to make, but 01:18:19.360 --> 01:18:23.120 it has become a wicked symbol because of how it has been 01:18:23.120 --> 01:18:25.200 used in subsequent centuries. 01:18:25.200 --> 01:18:27.760 It's not necessarily so from the beginning. 01:18:27.760 --> 01:18:31.600 Was there some wicked stuff in the beginning that was, say, Gnostic 01:18:31.600 --> 01:18:32.560 or esoteric? 01:18:32.560 --> 01:18:35.040 Yes, you get it connected to the key of Solomon, the seal 01:18:35.040 --> 01:18:36.800 of Solomon, and stuff like that. 01:18:36.800 --> 01:18:39.840 But you also have Christian arguments for it saying it is representative 01:18:39.840 --> 01:18:43.280 of the six days of creation, being a six pointed star, six 01:18:43.280 --> 01:18:46.240 being the number of humanity, six being one of the numbers in 01:18:46.240 --> 01:18:50.160 Scripture that has meaning attached to it. 01:18:50.160 --> 01:18:53.360 So is it inherently, you know, 666? 01:18:53.360 --> 01:18:54.880 The answer is no. 01:18:54.880 --> 01:18:57.600 In this case it seems like it's probably innocent. 01:18:57.600 --> 01:18:58.640 Should they have done it? 01:18:58.640 --> 01:19:01.200 No. Did they do it with wicked intent? 01:19:01.200 --> 01:19:03.040 I think most likely not. 01:19:03.040 --> 01:19:06.240 Are you approaching the altar with wicked intent? 01:19:06.240 --> 01:19:07.200 Clearly no. 01:19:07.200 --> 01:19:09.200 Is your pastor doing wicked intent? 01:19:09.200 --> 01:19:10.640 It seems like no. 01:19:10.640 --> 01:19:13.840 So I think it's just an innocent mistake in this case. 01:19:13.840 --> 01:19:16.400 It should not have been used, but it was used for reasons 01:19:16.400 --> 01:19:18.000 that were not wicked. 01:19:18.000 --> 01:19:18.320 So 01:19:19.520 --> 01:19:21.360 can you commune yes. 01:19:21.360 --> 01:19:24.240 Should the symbol be removed if it can be done without, you 01:19:24.240 --> 01:19:26.800 know, destroying the entire altar or something? 01:19:26.800 --> 01:19:28.560 I think the answer again is yes. 01:19:28.720 --> 01:19:31.360 I've been to churches that had the symbol in the stained glass, 01:19:31.360 --> 01:19:34.400 some of which it's been there for centuries, right? 01:19:34.400 --> 01:19:37.040 Are we going to say you have to destroy the stained glass 01:19:37.040 --> 01:19:40.800 because the symbol in the interim has become used by wicked people 01:19:40.800 --> 01:19:42.240 to mean wicked things. 01:19:42.240 --> 01:19:44.160 I think that's overboard. 01:19:44.160 --> 01:19:47.440 Do you explain why it's there so people understand? 01:19:47.440 --> 01:19:49.680 Yes, I think that's your burden going forward. 01:19:49.680 --> 01:19:52.160 But the short answer is yes, I think you can commune there 01:19:52.240 --> 01:19:59.920 and you're not you're not endangering your soul doing that. 01:19:59.920 --> 01:20:01.760 Question ten. 01:20:01.760 --> 01:20:04.640 I can finally get to my board that I've been staring at 01:20:04.640 --> 01:20:07.040 here and not using because I just got through the questions that 01:20:07.040 --> 01:20:11.440 were on my Written pad next to me. 01:20:11.440 --> 01:20:11.760 So 01:20:13.360 --> 01:20:17.440 what is the application of James 2 3 and what is the 01:20:17.440 --> 01:20:19.840 scope personal slash public? 01:20:19.840 --> 01:20:24.720 Is this verse about justice or just how harshly you scrutinize someone? 01:20:25.040 --> 01:20:28.640 So let's go ahead and pull up James 2.3 01:20:43.120 --> 01:20:45.600 Let's actually start with James 2 2. 01:20:45.600 --> 01:20:47.840 So we actually we'll start with 2 1 so we get the 01:20:47.840 --> 01:20:50.240 the full context here. 01:20:50.240 --> 01:20:53.520 My brothers show no partiality as you hold the faith in our 01:20:53.520 --> 01:20:57.120 Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, for if a man wearing 01:20:57.120 --> 01:21:00.720 a gold ring in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a 01:21:00.720 --> 01:21:04.320 poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay 01:21:04.320 --> 01:21:07.600 attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, You 01:21:07.600 --> 01:21:10.160 sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor 01:21:10.160 --> 01:21:14.240 man, you stand over there, or sit down at my feet. 01:21:14.240 --> 01:21:18.080 Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with 01:21:18.080 --> 01:21:19.680 evil thoughts? 01:21:20.480 --> 01:21:22.480 And so first off I would say this is one of those 01:21:22.480 --> 01:21:24.800 cases where, as you can clearly see Clearly see if you read 01:21:24.800 --> 01:21:29.600 the context, including the following verse than the previous verses, then it 01:21:29.600 --> 01:21:31.920 sort of brings the interpretation with it, right? 01:21:32.240 --> 01:21:35.440 You have become judges with evil thoughts. 01:21:35.440 --> 01:21:38.080 If you're doing this for wicked reasons, right, it's oh this man 01:21:38.080 --> 01:21:41.200 can help me pay my mortgage or whatever it happens to be, 01:21:41.200 --> 01:21:44.000 less of an issue back then, but certainly today. 01:21:44.000 --> 01:21:46.320 Then yes, you're doing it for wicked reasons. 01:21:46.320 --> 01:21:49.040 And you're not supposed to show partiality in that way. 01:21:49.040 --> 01:21:51.520 Is partiality always a wicked thing? 01:21:51.520 --> 01:21:54.320 No, you are supposed to be partial to the example I often 01:21:54.320 --> 01:21:56.160 use is your wife, right? 01:21:56.160 --> 01:21:58.560 You're supposed to treat her better than others. 01:21:58.560 --> 01:22:00.960 If you get ice cream, you share it with your wife. 01:22:00.960 --> 01:22:03.280 You don't share it with every person you pass on the street. 01:22:03.280 --> 01:22:04.560 That would be very weird. 01:22:04.560 --> 01:22:06.160 Don't do that. 01:22:06.160 --> 01:22:10.720 So partiality when it is for a wicked reason is a wicked 01:22:10.720 --> 01:22:14.560 thing. Partiality when it's for a good reason or even a morally 01:22:14.560 --> 01:22:17.120 commanded reason is a good thing. 01:22:17.120 --> 01:22:20.080 So here in the church, you're not supposed to show this kind 01:22:20.080 --> 01:22:21.760 of wicked partiality. 01:22:21.760 --> 01:22:25.440 You're not saying we'll treat the wealthy well because the wealthy can 01:22:25.440 --> 01:22:26.320 help us. 01:22:26.320 --> 01:22:29.600 No, because what you're doing in the church is you are welcoming 01:22:29.600 --> 01:22:33.920 sinners to give them the gifts of God, and sinners receive the 01:22:33.920 --> 01:22:37.680 gifts of God, whether they are wealthy or poor, whether they're intelligent 01:22:37.680 --> 01:22:41.440 or not, whatever it happens to be, because God's gifts are available 01:22:41.440 --> 01:22:42.800 to all men. 01:22:42.800 --> 01:22:43.120 So 01:22:44.240 --> 01:22:48.720 this is not a matter of you can't ever show partiality. 01:22:48.720 --> 01:22:51.280 This is a matter of how you are to behave in the 01:22:51.280 --> 01:22:53.280 church with regard to these things. 01:22:53.280 --> 01:22:56.640 You do not get to say to someone, you are worthy of 01:22:56.640 --> 01:23:00.400 salvation because you can pay for the sanctuary renovation. 01:23:00.400 --> 01:23:04.480 You are unworthy of salvation because you can't put anything in the 01:23:04.480 --> 01:23:05.600 coffers, right? 01:23:05.600 --> 01:23:07.360 That's a fundamentally wicked thing to do. 01:23:07.360 --> 01:23:08.160 You can't do that. 01:23:08.560 --> 01:23:12.880 So you have to understand the context that is involved here. 01:23:12.880 --> 01:23:15.440 And obviously it goes on to critique the rich for certain things 01:23:15.520 --> 01:23:18.240 and it's behaviors that are particular to the rich, right? 01:23:18.240 --> 01:23:21.440 The rich are usually the ones going around suing people, because the 01:23:21.440 --> 01:23:24.080 poor can't afford can't afford attorneys. 01:23:24.080 --> 01:23:26.960 That's one of the examples given later in the chapter. 01:23:26.960 --> 01:23:27.280 So 01:23:28.720 --> 01:23:30.800 that critique is particularly for the rich. 01:23:30.800 --> 01:23:33.120 They should hear that and respond accordingly. 01:23:33.120 --> 01:23:35.600 But you have to take the context here of what is being 01:23:35.600 --> 01:23:38.160 said. Don't do this stuff in the church. 01:23:38.160 --> 01:23:41.440 Don't show wicked partiality the same as you should not show it 01:23:41.440 --> 01:23:42.720 in your life, right? 01:23:42.720 --> 01:23:48.160 If you're on a jury, you shouldn't convict someone because he's poor. 01:23:48.160 --> 01:23:50.880 You shouldn't pardon someone because he's rich. 01:23:50.880 --> 01:23:52.560 And you shouldn't do the verse. 01:23:52.560 --> 01:23:53.840 The reverse of that. 01:23:53.840 --> 01:23:56.560 It should be on the basis of the guilt or innocence of 01:23:56.560 --> 01:23:57.520 the party. 01:23:57.520 --> 01:24:01.200 So there's good partiality, there's wicked partiality. 01:24:01.200 --> 01:24:03.760 Bear that in mind when you are reading these verses, right? 01:24:03.760 --> 01:24:05.440 And just think of the easy example, right? 01:24:05.440 --> 01:24:10.240 You're partial to your wife, you don't show partiality according to this 01:24:10.240 --> 01:24:12.560 outward appearance or wealth or something like that. 01:24:12.880 --> 01:24:16.000 When it is not relevant to the matter at hand. 01:24:16.000 --> 01:24:18.080 For instance, salvation. 01:24:18.160 --> 01:24:22.240 Particular critique of the Jews, because the Jews believed that if you 01:24:22.240 --> 01:24:26.400 had enough money to pay for sacrifices and renovations to the synagogue 01:24:26.480 --> 01:24:29.280 and things like that, you were holier and closer to God and 01:24:29.280 --> 01:24:31.520 you got brownie points for it or something. 01:24:31.520 --> 01:24:34.960 So there's also that critique inherent in what is being said here. 01:24:38.080 --> 01:24:41.200 Think I will try to get through a a handful more questions 01:24:41.200 --> 01:24:42.720 here, probably not too many. 01:24:42.720 --> 01:24:45.680 I do believe I have all the questions from the chat though. 01:24:45.680 --> 01:24:49.840 My integration seems to be working quite well, so they're all up 01:24:49.840 --> 01:24:53.840 here waiting for me to accept them and catalog them. 01:24:54.320 --> 01:24:54.640 But 01:24:59.280 --> 01:25:07.760 take a note for myself here. 01:25:14.640 --> 01:25:17.840 Just wanted to refresh and see if it is updating it as 01:25:17.840 --> 01:25:18.400 it should. 01:25:18.400 --> 01:25:20.720 I think it is, so I think we're good. 01:25:21.120 --> 01:25:21.920 Question 01:25:22.800 --> 01:25:27.280 eleven. When it comes to having a monarchy, how should a king 01:25:27.280 --> 01:25:31.440 be decided on in countries without a proper monarchical history? 01:25:31.440 --> 01:25:36.560 For example, Iceland, where its only king has also been the king 01:25:36.560 --> 01:25:38.720 of Denmark. 01:25:38.720 --> 01:25:43.280 And then there's a second related question, but I will take them 01:25:43.920 --> 01:25:48.240 as two separate questions Questions. 01:25:48.240 --> 01:25:52.400 So how you decide on right your first king, as it were, 01:25:52.400 --> 01:25:57.600 or in this case your first local king, is a matter of 01:25:57.600 --> 01:26:00.320 wisdom. It is not something that is dictated in Scripture. 01:26:00.320 --> 01:26:02.880 It is not said you must absolutely do this. 01:26:02.880 --> 01:26:05.840 We are not Old Testament Israel, right? 01:26:05.840 --> 01:26:08.880 We don't have a prophet running around who is going to appear 01:26:08.880 --> 01:26:11.200 with a vial of oil and pour it on a man's head 01:26:11.200 --> 01:26:14.880 and say, Congratulations, these people are your problem now. 01:26:14.880 --> 01:26:18.640 Whether that's a blessing or a curse for the man anointed, you 01:26:18.640 --> 01:26:20.480 know, interpret that yourself. 01:26:20.480 --> 01:26:20.640 But 01:26:22.560 --> 01:26:25.920 we have We have to use the intellectual and other gifts that 01:26:25.920 --> 01:26:29.200 God has entrusted to our care to make this assessment for ourselves. 01:26:29.200 --> 01:26:32.720 That's what our ancestors did when they drew up the various ways 01:26:32.720 --> 01:26:38.400 that they had for selecting their monarchs or approving their monarchs, whatever 01:26:38.400 --> 01:26:39.600 it happened to be, right? 01:26:39.600 --> 01:26:42.720 And we get into this with the the second question, so I 01:26:42.720 --> 01:26:44.400 won't touch on it too much. 01:26:44.400 --> 01:26:47.200 But I think that the way you do it again is that 01:26:47.360 --> 01:26:48.880 matter of wisdom. 01:26:48.880 --> 01:26:51.040 And I think I want to get into this second question to 01:26:51.040 --> 01:26:53.760 give the specifics because I know what it asks already. 01:26:53.760 --> 01:26:58.240 So I will read that next question to get into the specifics 01:26:58.320 --> 01:26:59.920 and hopefully I didn't miss a number here. 01:26:59.920 --> 01:27:03.520 This is question twelve if I numbered my pad correctly and did 01:27:03.520 --> 01:27:04.800 not miss one. 01:27:04.800 --> 01:27:08.480 My little AI agent is thinking about something. 01:27:08.480 --> 01:27:09.920 At any rate the question. 01:27:09.920 --> 01:27:13.040 And since we're on that topic, I'll quickly ask if you consider 01:27:13.120 --> 01:27:17.920 absolute monarchy the ideal form of a monarchical government, or if you 01:27:17.920 --> 01:27:25.360 prefer a more holy Roman Empire like system or Prussian constitutionalism. 01:27:25.360 --> 01:27:32.880 So I am not fond of so-called Constitutionalism, limited 01:27:32.880 --> 01:27:35.040 monarchy, things like that. 01:27:35.040 --> 01:27:38.640 And the reason that I am not fond of that is that 01:27:38.640 --> 01:27:39.840 I think that it is 01:27:41.120 --> 01:27:43.520 really people lying to themselves. 01:27:43.520 --> 01:27:47.040 Because if you believe that a monarch is limited by a piece 01:27:47.040 --> 01:27:50.080 of paper, you are delusional. 01:27:50.080 --> 01:27:54.240 Right? Paper does not limit what a man can do. 01:27:54.560 --> 01:27:59.920 Paper can encourage a man to behave in certain ways, but power 01:27:59.920 --> 01:28:03.440 is what determines what a man can or cannot do. 01:28:03.440 --> 01:28:05.440 Obviously, power moderated by 01:28:06.480 --> 01:28:10.560 morality, honor, cultural systems, all those sorts of things, but it is 01:28:10.560 --> 01:28:13.760 not a matter of what the piece of paper says. 01:28:13.760 --> 01:28:16.880 If the king wants to burn the Constitution and do whatever he 01:28:16.880 --> 01:28:18.800 pleases, then it's a matter of whether he has Whether he has 01:28:18.800 --> 01:28:21.840 the power to do that or not, not a matter of whether 01:28:21.840 --> 01:28:25.200 or not the Constitution says, please don't burn me at the top. 01:28:25.200 --> 01:28:26.560 That's not how it works. 01:28:26.560 --> 01:28:31.440 So I do not believe in constitutional monarchy or limited monarchy. 01:28:31.440 --> 01:28:35.760 I think that the only rational approach approach is absolute monarchy. 01:28:35.760 --> 01:28:39.680 Now, does that mean you can't have a system that has sort 01:28:39.680 --> 01:28:41.200 of safeguards in place, right? 01:28:41.200 --> 01:28:44.800 Like the Holy Roman Empire, the electoral system, in that case, in 01:28:44.800 --> 01:28:48.320 the sense of electors, not in the sense of electoral politics like 01:28:48.320 --> 01:28:49.200 we have today. 01:28:49.200 --> 01:28:51.040 No, I think that that's perfectly permissible. 01:28:51.040 --> 01:28:53.840 I think that's even a wise way to do it. 01:28:53.840 --> 01:28:57.040 In an empire where you do have to devolve certain things be 01:28:57.440 --> 01:29:02.080 you have these different unique peoples all under one monarch, right? 01:29:02.080 --> 01:29:06.160 Because in the Holy Roman Empire you had different nations, different races. 01:29:06.160 --> 01:29:07.920 They were not all the same people. 01:29:07.920 --> 01:29:12.240 You should probably have a unitary king over one single nation, but 01:29:12.640 --> 01:29:15.920 if you have what is effectively an empire instead, and I'm not 01:29:15.920 --> 01:29:20.400 anti-empire, I'm definitely an imperialist when it comes to these things, I 01:29:20.400 --> 01:29:23.760 think that that Holy Roman Empire system is the better way to 01:29:23.760 --> 01:29:28.320 go. But what I mean by an absolute monarch is that ultimately 01:29:28.400 --> 01:29:31.680 if you draw out the logic, the philosophy of it, the morality 01:29:31.680 --> 01:29:36.400 of it, the positive law depends upon the monarch. 01:29:36.400 --> 01:29:40.080 The law flows from the monarch, from his office, not necessarily from 01:29:40.080 --> 01:29:41.040 his person. 01:29:41.040 --> 01:29:42.880 He is the avatar of the office. 01:29:42.880 --> 01:29:44.720 It flows from the office. 01:29:44.720 --> 01:29:49.520 The positive law doesn't just appear from the ether and enforce itself 01:29:49.520 --> 01:29:50.880 on the people, on the nation. 01:29:51.200 --> 01:29:53.600 It flows through the monarch. 01:29:53.600 --> 01:29:57.200 The monarch is supposed to align himself and that law with the 01:29:57.200 --> 01:30:02.960 natural law, but he ultimately is the foundation of that positive law. 01:30:02.960 --> 01:30:05.120 And for those who don't know, I've mentioned it before, but the 01:30:05.120 --> 01:30:08.160 positive law is the written law that governs a country, right? 01:30:08.160 --> 01:30:11.120 Or it can be oral tradition as well, but it is the 01:30:11.280 --> 01:30:13.840 man made law that governs the country. 01:30:13.840 --> 01:30:18.160 It may be consonant with, or identical to the moral law, right? 01:30:18.160 --> 01:30:20.320 Thou shalt not murder. 01:30:20.320 --> 01:30:22.640 But it doesn't have to be identical. 01:30:22.640 --> 01:30:26.320 It is just you are morally obligated to be consonant in agreement 01:30:26.320 --> 01:30:27.440 with the moral law. 01:30:27.440 --> 01:30:32.160 So that positive law flows from is founded on the office of 01:30:32.160 --> 01:30:33.440 the monarch. 01:30:33.440 --> 01:30:37.200 And so I don't think you can reasonably say his power is 01:30:37.200 --> 01:30:41.120 limited because he is the very source of the government in that 01:30:41.120 --> 01:30:43.920 system. And I think that's the rightful way it's designed. 01:30:43.920 --> 01:30:47.680 And also as a Lutheran, in the confessions it does say the 01:30:47.680 --> 01:30:49.600 king is above the law. 01:30:49.600 --> 01:30:52.000 That's literally in our confession. 01:30:52.000 --> 01:30:55.760 So if you want to consider yourself as a Lutheran confessionally bound 01:30:55.760 --> 01:30:59.200 to believe that, I think that we are, go ahead and use 01:30:59.200 --> 01:31:00.560 that as well in your argument. 01:31:00.560 --> 01:31:02.880 Obviously not going to work with someone who's not Lutheran, but for 01:31:02.880 --> 01:31:05.040 someone who's Lutheran, it is in there. 01:31:05.040 --> 01:31:12.560 Melanchthon wrote it, it's in our confession. 01:31:12.560 --> 01:31:17.520 Just looking at the chat for a second here. 01:31:17.520 --> 01:31:19.520 Looks like everything is still good. 01:31:23.280 --> 01:31:26.240 Question 13. 01:31:26.240 --> 01:31:29.520 How do you cope with being smarter than the people around you? 01:31:29.520 --> 01:31:32.880 I really struggle with this despite being only one standard deviation above 01:31:32.880 --> 01:31:33.680 my family. 01:31:33.680 --> 01:31:37.520 Makes me feel like they don't even speak English. 01:31:37.520 --> 01:31:37.840 So 01:31:39.280 --> 01:31:42.000 the good news is if you are 01:31:43.600 --> 01:31:49.120 one standard deviation different from those around you, that's not too big 01:31:49.120 --> 01:31:50.160 of a difference. 01:31:50.160 --> 01:31:54.640 It's really sort of at the three SD mark that you start 01:31:54.640 --> 01:31:59.040 to have real issues conversing across that boundary. 01:31:59.040 --> 01:32:02.480 I have a a thread on this that I did recently. 01:32:02.480 --> 01:32:05.440 I was building up to an argument for the existence of God, 01:32:05.440 --> 01:32:11.120 but it also touches on the issue of genius AI related issues. 01:32:11.120 --> 01:32:13.760 So for one standard deviation, that's not much of a barrier. 01:32:14.160 --> 01:32:17.600 You can very readily talk to someone who is that close. 01:32:17.600 --> 01:32:22.400 Once you start getting into, like I said, three plus, you start 01:32:22.400 --> 01:32:27.680 losing some of that shared vocabulary, there's really kind of a loss 01:32:27.680 --> 01:32:31.280 of a shared language, and it's appropriate the analogy you use there 01:32:31.280 --> 01:32:33.040 of speaking a different language. 01:32:33.040 --> 01:32:37.360 Part of it is compression, how much information you're fitting into the 01:32:37.360 --> 01:32:41.760 same number of words, how much how much each word is carrying 01:32:41.760 --> 01:32:42.960 along with it, right? 01:32:42.960 --> 01:32:44.480 Things like that. 01:32:44.480 --> 01:32:48.640 But like I said, it's it's not as big of a burden 01:32:48.640 --> 01:32:51.200 if it's just the one standard deviation difference. 01:32:51.200 --> 01:32:54.480 You can really communicate with someone who's that far away with relative 01:32:54.480 --> 01:33:00.000 ease. Yes, you're more intelligent than that person, but it's not so 01:33:00.000 --> 01:33:02.560 much more intelligent that it's different in kind, right? 01:33:02.560 --> 01:33:05.920 It's really a matter of degree and not even a huge degree 01:33:06.160 --> 01:33:09.280 So don't focus on that. 01:33:09.280 --> 01:33:12.160 Never focus on how much more intelligent you are than the people 01:33:12.160 --> 01:33:15.120 around you if you happen to be more intelligent than they are. 01:33:15.120 --> 01:33:18.560 It's a gift that God has entrusted to your care. 01:33:18.560 --> 01:33:20.160 It's also a burden, right? 01:33:20.640 --> 01:33:24.880 Because many gifts are a duty, and there is a certain burden 01:33:24.880 --> 01:33:26.320 that is associated with duty. 01:33:26.320 --> 01:33:29.840 There are things that you will have to do that others cannot 01:33:29.840 --> 01:33:32.640 do. You have to do them because God has given you the 01:33:32.640 --> 01:33:34.160 ability to do them. 01:33:34.160 --> 01:33:37.520 Particularly the case when you start talking about you know three, four, 01:33:37.600 --> 01:33:41.920 five standard deviations or something, because then you have a shrinking pool 01:33:41.920 --> 01:33:44.720 of the men who can do the things you can do. 01:33:44.800 --> 01:33:45.120 But 01:33:46.400 --> 01:33:48.400 take it in the right light. 01:33:48.400 --> 01:33:50.880 Understand that it is a gift from God that comes with those 01:33:50.880 --> 01:33:52.320 attendant duties. 01:33:52.320 --> 01:33:55.440 And by and large, don't think of yourself as being, you know, 01:33:55.440 --> 01:33:57.920 something fundamentally different from other human beings, right? 01:33:57.920 --> 01:34:00.800 It doesn't matter how intelligent you are. 01:34:01.120 --> 01:34:04.000 you still enjoy many of the same things as other human beings, 01:34:04.000 --> 01:34:06.880 right? There may be things you enjoy in a way that they 01:34:06.880 --> 01:34:08.400 do not. 01:34:08.400 --> 01:34:11.360 You know, there's some aspects to some of the arts that you're 01:34:11.360 --> 01:34:15.760 going to enjoy in say a fuller or a deeper way, but 01:34:15.760 --> 01:34:20.640 at the same time, you're still going to like food and drink 01:34:21.200 --> 01:34:25.120 and and I I don't just mean alcohol there, but that's included. 01:34:25.120 --> 01:34:28.000 You know, going for a walk or a hike, playing with your 01:34:28.000 --> 01:34:31.120 pets, like all of these things, you're still very much a human 01:34:31.120 --> 01:34:36.160 being. You just happen to have a capacity that is higher in 01:34:36.160 --> 01:34:39.920 a particular way relative to most people. 01:34:39.920 --> 01:34:43.520 And yes, it is different to have the higher intelligence versus just 01:34:43.520 --> 01:34:45.600 being able to run fast or something, right? 01:34:45.600 --> 01:34:46.720 We all recognize that. 01:34:46.720 --> 01:34:52.960 There's something fundamental about the way that intelligence interfaces with, interacts with, 01:34:52.960 --> 01:34:58.000 and modulates the expression of who and what you are fundamentally. 01:34:58.000 --> 01:35:01.440 So it is different in kind from certain other attributes. 01:35:01.440 --> 01:35:04.080 But at the same time you were still very much human, right? 01:35:04.080 --> 01:35:06.400 You have to eat, you have to drink, you have to sleep, 01:35:06.400 --> 01:35:10.400 you get headaches, you get tired, you know, you want a wife. 01:35:10.480 --> 01:35:11.920 Doesn't matter how intelligent you are, right? 01:35:11.920 --> 01:35:14.960 Unless God gave you the gift of celibacy, which he probably didn't, 01:35:14.960 --> 01:35:16.400 because almost no one has it. 01:35:16.640 --> 01:35:19.840 You're still a human being, act like a human being, get along 01:35:19.840 --> 01:35:21.840 with those around you as best you can. 01:35:21.840 --> 01:35:26.400 Don't expect everyone to understand things as quickly as you do or 01:35:26.400 --> 01:35:27.760 as thoroughly as you do. 01:35:27.760 --> 01:35:30.000 It's wrong to demand that of them. 01:35:30.000 --> 01:35:33.280 We used to have some systems in place in society where you 01:35:33.280 --> 01:35:37.760 had some hierarchy and separation and deference and things like that that 01:35:37.760 --> 01:35:41.920 kept some of this stuff sort of it was there, but it 01:35:41.920 --> 01:35:46.400 was understood and society functioned on top of it instead of causing 01:35:46.400 --> 01:35:49.520 that abrasiveness, that friction in daily life. 01:35:49.520 --> 01:35:54.080 But again, one standard deviation is not going to fundamentally make you 01:35:54.080 --> 01:35:57.920 alien or unincomprehensible to other people. 01:35:57.920 --> 01:35:58.240 So 01:35:59.520 --> 01:36:01.840 live your life in the way that you're supposed to. 01:36:01.840 --> 01:36:03.600 Get along with the people around you. 01:36:03.600 --> 01:36:06.400 If you enjoy some things they don't or understand some things they 01:36:06.400 --> 01:36:07.600 don't, so be it. 01:36:07.600 --> 01:36:12.720 That's not going to separate you from them in any truly meaningful 01:36:12.720 --> 01:36:16.880 way. And have some grace for your family members we all should. 01:36:16.880 --> 01:36:19.120 They definitely have to have grace for you, right? 01:36:19.120 --> 01:36:21.760 There's going to be some things you do that probably annoy them, 01:36:21.760 --> 01:36:25.840 so return the favor and overlook some of their foibles as they 01:36:25.840 --> 01:36:27.280 overlook yours. 01:36:43.120 --> 01:36:45.200 I will go ahead and answer this one. 01:36:45.200 --> 01:36:50.000 I've answered it previously, but it's worth addressing again. 01:36:50.000 --> 01:36:53.440 Thankfully no one has corrected me on the numbering in chat, so 01:36:53.440 --> 01:36:56.160 either I have been numbering them correctly. 01:36:56.160 --> 01:36:58.080 I thought that I might have missed one, but I don't think 01:36:58.080 --> 01:36:58.880 that I did. 01:36:58.880 --> 01:37:02.080 Or no one has felt like telling me I missed one or 01:37:02.080 --> 01:37:03.200 no one else is keeping track. 01:37:03.200 --> 01:37:03.840 I don't know. 01:37:03.840 --> 01:37:04.160 But 01:37:06.000 --> 01:37:09.360 I will answer this one, like I said, because it comes up 01:37:09.360 --> 01:37:11.680 all the time and it's worth answering it a few times so 01:37:11.680 --> 01:37:13.920 people can find it more easily. 01:37:13.920 --> 01:37:16.320 Was Moses' wife a Hamite? 01:37:16.320 --> 01:37:22.160 So was she a daughter of Noah's wicked son Ham? 01:37:22.480 --> 01:37:26.640 The answer to this one is that right we have the narrative 01:37:26.640 --> 01:37:31.520 of Miriam and Aaron who are arguing against Moses in the desert 01:37:31.600 --> 01:37:36.080 and they bring up his wife and you know argue about that, 01:37:36.080 --> 01:37:38.720 right? Because he married a Cushite woman. 01:37:38.720 --> 01:37:44.240 Well the problem here is that Cush, or if you use Ethiopia, 01:37:44.240 --> 01:37:49.840 Ethiopian in the Greek, both of those terms aren't univocal. 01:37:50.160 --> 01:37:54.160 They mean a number of different things at a number of different 01:37:54.160 --> 01:37:58.480 times, and we can't say for absolute certainty what it means here. 01:37:58.480 --> 01:38:02.640 It could mean a region, in which case, she was probably a 01:38:02.640 --> 01:38:04.560 Shemite, a cousin. 01:38:04.560 --> 01:38:07.920 In fact, it's probably the wife he had before. 01:38:07.920 --> 01:38:12.480 Or could she have possibly been from the area that had the 01:38:12.960 --> 01:38:14.560 sons and daughters of Ham? 01:38:14.560 --> 01:38:17.760 Sure, there is a possibility of that, I won't deny that that 01:38:17.760 --> 01:38:19.040 is possible. 01:38:19.040 --> 01:38:24.240 However, Scripture does not give us enough information to conclude that the 01:38:24.240 --> 01:38:28.480 woman in that narrative, his wife, is another wife. 01:38:28.480 --> 01:38:32.000 We don't have an explicit statement that he took another wife, that 01:38:32.000 --> 01:38:34.720 he married a second wife, or that his first one died, and 01:38:34.720 --> 01:38:36.480 this is a new one. 01:38:36.480 --> 01:38:41.120 All we have is this term that could be narrow or very 01:38:41.120 --> 01:38:44.240 encompassing because it used to kind of mean like the people over 01:38:44.240 --> 01:38:45.200 that way. 01:38:45.200 --> 01:38:48.960 So if it means that, it covers his first wife. 01:38:48.960 --> 01:38:51.680 So we don't know from what scripture says if he took an 01:38:51.680 --> 01:38:52.880 additional wife. 01:38:52.880 --> 01:38:56.320 Given that we don't know that, it would be wrong simply to 01:38:56.320 --> 01:38:57.440 assume it. 01:38:57.440 --> 01:39:00.960 So I say that the most reasonable assumption is that it is 01:39:00.960 --> 01:39:06.400 that generic or broad geographic sense applying to his first wife. 01:39:06.400 --> 01:39:11.360 Now It's important here to mention, you know, the curse, the leprosy, 01:39:11.360 --> 01:39:13.440 things like that, and why it plays out in the way that 01:39:13.440 --> 01:39:17.440 it does, because people try to use this to argue for interracial 01:39:17.440 --> 01:39:22.000 marriage, or at least to argue against laws against interracial marriage. 01:39:22.240 --> 01:39:24.560 That's not what's in view in the narrative. 01:39:24.560 --> 01:39:26.960 I encourage all of you to go read the narrative after this. 01:39:26.960 --> 01:39:29.920 I will skip doing it here, but I encourage you all to 01:39:29.920 --> 01:39:31.760 read it. 01:39:31.760 --> 01:39:36.080 Why does God curse the woman who objects? 01:39:36.320 --> 01:39:38.160 Well what does God say? 01:39:38.160 --> 01:39:42.320 Moses is God's chosen. 01:39:42.320 --> 01:39:45.360 He speaks with Moses face to face. 01:39:45.360 --> 01:39:49.280 He doesn't contact him in dreams or visions or the usual things 01:39:49.280 --> 01:39:50.640 that he uses for prophets. 01:39:50.960 --> 01:39:52.720 He speaks to him face to face. 01:39:52.720 --> 01:39:57.200 Moses is chosen in a particular way above and beyond basically any 01:39:57.200 --> 01:39:59.040 other prophet. 01:39:59.040 --> 01:40:03.760 And then Miriam and Aaron are trying to usurp his office. 01:40:03.760 --> 01:40:08.160 They are insulting God by insulting his chosen prophet. 01:40:08.160 --> 01:40:13.520 Miriam is cursed because what she does is against God. 01:40:13.520 --> 01:40:17.600 It's not because she is speaking against Moses' wife or anything like 01:40:17.600 --> 01:40:21.600 that. It is because what she is attempting to do is usurp 01:40:21.600 --> 01:40:25.280 that office and question the authority that God has given to Moses, 01:40:25.280 --> 01:40:28.080 which again is an insult to God. 01:40:28.080 --> 01:40:30.400 They're punished for insulting God. 01:40:30.400 --> 01:40:33.040 It falls on her because he's the priest, and to curse the 01:40:33.040 --> 01:40:35.520 priest is a whole different thing. 01:40:35.520 --> 01:40:40.400 But it is that usurpation, it is that insult to God, that 01:40:40.400 --> 01:40:42.640 is what is in view in the narrative there. 01:40:42.640 --> 01:40:45.600 It is not a narrative from which you draw out rules about 01:40:45.600 --> 01:40:46.640 marriage, right? 01:40:46.640 --> 01:40:51.280 Standard interpretive rule, you use passages that actually That actually address the 01:40:51.280 --> 01:40:57.040 subject instead of passages that tangentially maybe involve the subject, which is 01:40:57.040 --> 01:40:58.720 probably not even in view here. 01:40:58.720 --> 01:41:00.720 So did Moses marry a Hammite? 01:41:00.720 --> 01:41:05.280 The answer is almost certainly no, but scripture does not tell us 01:41:05.280 --> 01:41:10.480 explicitly because it doesn't tell us if he had you know it 01:41:10.640 --> 01:41:12.240 we don't know if he was a widow. 01:41:12.240 --> 01:41:14.720 If the first wife died, scripture doesn't tell us. 01:41:14.720 --> 01:41:17.280 If he married a second, scripture doesn't tell us. 01:41:17.280 --> 01:41:21.840 All we know is this term that is equivocal is used of 01:41:21.840 --> 01:41:25.760 this wife in a mercenary way to attack Moses that is an 01:41:25.760 --> 01:41:27.120 insult to God. 01:41:27.120 --> 01:41:30.160 So it's not an argument for the people who want to say 01:41:30.160 --> 01:41:31.600 interracial marriage is fine. 01:41:31.600 --> 01:41:33.840 It's not an argument for those of us who want to say 01:41:33.840 --> 01:41:35.440 that it shouldn't be permitted. 01:41:35.440 --> 01:41:43.360 It's not an argument either way on that topic. 01:41:43.360 --> 01:41:46.080 Some of the questions that have come in are going to take 01:41:46.080 --> 01:41:49.120 me longer to address, so I will definitely be saving those for 01:41:49.120 --> 01:41:55.760 next week, or a future week at least. 01:41:59.200 --> 01:42:00.480 Let's see. 01:42:00.480 --> 01:42:03.440 Maybe answer one or two more questions this week, I think. 01:42:03.440 --> 01:42:04.800 I'll try to see what's 01:42:07.600 --> 01:42:09.040 well I can certainly 01:42:10.400 --> 01:42:13.440 This one spells my name my last name incorrectly, but I'll still 01:42:13.440 --> 01:42:14.400 answer it, so 01:42:20.320 --> 01:42:22.560 Question 15. 01:42:22.560 --> 01:42:26.480 Do you believe angels still work on the earth today? 01:42:26.720 --> 01:42:28.160 The answer is yes. 01:42:28.160 --> 01:42:30.720 I do believe that angels are still active. 01:42:30.720 --> 01:42:33.520 Demons are still active too, demons being fallen angels, of course. 01:42:33.520 --> 01:42:36.320 I think you probably mean the good ones in this question. 01:42:36.320 --> 01:42:41.440 Yes, angels are God's agents on earth, they do his bidding, and 01:42:41.440 --> 01:42:44.000 part of what they do is protect believers, right? 01:42:44.000 --> 01:42:46.880 Michael is the archangel of the church. 01:42:46.880 --> 01:42:48.160 Incidentally, 01:42:49.200 --> 01:42:53.520 that means that Satan is now the archangel of the nation of 01:42:53.520 --> 01:42:56.480 Israel. So maybe I'll get into that in the future. 01:42:56.480 --> 01:42:58.880 But yes, angels are still very much active. 01:42:58.880 --> 01:43:02.080 They are, and there are more of them than of the demons, 01:43:02.080 --> 01:43:08.160 thankfully. But it is worth mentioning God does not give us a 01:43:08.160 --> 01:43:13.040 great deal of information about what exactly angels and demons are or 01:43:13.040 --> 01:43:14.560 are not permitted to do, right? 01:43:14.560 --> 01:43:16.560 We don't have a rule book for them. 01:43:16.560 --> 01:43:20.000 Don't go trying to investigate or create your own. 01:43:20.000 --> 01:43:22.080 God has not given us that knowledge. 01:43:22.080 --> 01:43:24.480 You're not going to find it. 01:43:24.480 --> 01:43:27.120 Particularly not by talking to demons, right? 01:43:27.120 --> 01:43:30.880 Sometimes Roman Catholic exorcists think that they can talk to demons and 01:43:30.880 --> 01:43:33.440 get the rules for how they interact. 01:43:33.440 --> 01:43:35.520 Not a wise thing to do. 01:43:35.520 --> 01:43:38.720 Right? The father of lies and his minions probably not going to 01:43:38.720 --> 01:43:41.200 tell you the truth, at least not in a way that's going 01:43:41.200 --> 01:43:52.480 to be helpful. 01:44:01.360 --> 01:44:04.320 I see the question about interest in economics. 01:44:04.320 --> 01:44:06.800 I don't want to make the last question for this particular stream 01:44:07.200 --> 01:44:09.120 a question on usury. 01:44:09.120 --> 01:44:11.920 I'm tempted to, but I think I will forego that 01:44:36.880 --> 01:44:40.480 I think well I'll end on a related question to Yusuri, I 01:44:40.480 --> 01:44:45.200 suppose. Are the Jews cursed from birth with a hardened heart? 01:44:45.200 --> 01:44:49.280 Can you speak on heart hardening or point me to some content 01:44:49.280 --> 01:44:50.720 you made on the subject? 01:44:50.720 --> 01:44:56.160 Is it like Pharaoh where he sins then his heart is hardened? 01:44:56.160 --> 01:44:57.040 And so And so 01:44:58.560 --> 01:45:02.240 this is question sixteen. 01:45:02.240 --> 01:45:08.160 Should I set that to start? 01:45:08.160 --> 01:45:12.080 And so a hardened heart and a seared conscience, right, are very 01:45:12.080 --> 01:45:14.400 much related things in scripture. 01:45:14.400 --> 01:45:17.680 And it is worth pointing out, as he said here, and I've 01:45:17.680 --> 01:45:19.840 pointed out elsewhere a number of times, right? 01:45:19.840 --> 01:45:23.520 Pharaoh hardens his heart first, God confirms him in his choice. 01:45:23.520 --> 01:45:27.360 So for those who try to use Pharaoh as an example of, 01:45:27.360 --> 01:45:31.120 say, double predestination or something, if you read the actual narrative, it 01:45:31.120 --> 01:45:32.800 doesn't support that conclusion. 01:45:32.800 --> 01:45:36.400 Because God didn't just predestine Pharaoh to have a hardened heart and 01:45:36.400 --> 01:45:38.080 to be damned. 01:45:38.080 --> 01:45:41.120 God does not desire that any should not be saved, right? 01:45:41.120 --> 01:45:42.240 Scripture is abundantly clear. 01:45:42.240 --> 01:45:45.520 It explicitly says God desires that all should come to repentance and 01:45:45.520 --> 01:45:46.320 be saved. 01:45:46.320 --> 01:45:48.000 God's not lying when he says that. 01:45:48.080 --> 01:45:53.040 He's not making it up, he's not being facetious or whatever. 01:45:53.040 --> 01:45:56.240 He legitimately means he wants all men to be saved, but you 01:45:56.240 --> 01:45:59.840 have the option to reject the free offer of salvation. 01:45:59.840 --> 01:46:04.320 You are well within your power, within your free will, to elect 01:46:04.320 --> 01:46:05.600 to be damned. 01:46:05.600 --> 01:46:05.920 So 01:46:09.440 --> 01:46:14.160 Now, are the Jews hardened from birth? 01:46:14.400 --> 01:46:17.840 There is an aspect of that where the answer is yes, because 01:46:18.800 --> 01:46:21.520 there are genetic components to this, right? 01:46:21.520 --> 01:46:23.200 Election in view of headship. 01:46:23.200 --> 01:46:25.200 See the episode of Stone Choir. 01:46:25.200 --> 01:46:26.320 We went over this at some length. 01:46:26.320 --> 01:46:28.720 I will actually make a note to myself to 01:46:30.160 --> 01:46:32.640 go ahead and add that into these show notes. 01:46:32.640 --> 01:46:32.960 But 01:46:33.840 --> 01:46:38.080 when it comes to sort of genetic proclivity to certain sins, that 01:46:38.080 --> 01:46:39.200 is very much a thing. 01:46:39.200 --> 01:46:41.520 And for some people it is going to be more difficult to 01:46:41.520 --> 01:46:42.000 overcome that 01:46:43.120 --> 01:46:46.800 and to believe in Christ, to believe in the gospel, because they 01:46:46.800 --> 01:46:50.800 have that genetic proclivity to reject it. 01:46:50.800 --> 01:46:54.880 Now layered on top of that, and in this case, probably even 01:46:54.880 --> 01:46:59.680 stronger than that just genetic proclivity to be you know quarrelsome and 01:46:59.680 --> 01:47:01.200 all the other things, right? 01:47:02.160 --> 01:47:07.360 The average Jew is taught from birth that everyone is not Jewish 01:47:07.440 --> 01:47:09.280 is out to get them. 01:47:09.280 --> 01:47:11.040 They're taught to be paranoid. 01:47:11.040 --> 01:47:13.200 They are taught that they are special. 01:47:13.200 --> 01:47:14.960 They are God's chosen people. 01:47:14.960 --> 01:47:17.520 Everyone else is not even fully human. 01:47:17.520 --> 01:47:21.840 They are allowed to exploit the Goyim however they want, and so 01:47:21.840 --> 01:47:27.040 on and so forth, and it just compounds their entire life. 01:47:27.040 --> 01:47:32.800 And so trying to convert a Jewish adult, you are You are 01:47:32.800 --> 01:47:39.200 working against decades of the most pernicious and thorough indoctrination that probably 01:47:39.200 --> 01:47:44.080 exists on the face of the planet, outside maybe some extremely efficient 01:47:44.080 --> 01:47:45.440 cults, perhaps. 01:47:45.440 --> 01:47:45.760 But 01:47:47.280 --> 01:47:52.320 That has so seared and hardened their hearts, seared their consciences, hardened 01:47:52.320 --> 01:47:55.840 their hearts, that you will probably find it impossible to overcome that. 01:47:55.840 --> 01:47:58.640 That's why basically no Jew ever converts. 01:47:58.640 --> 01:48:01.520 There are those who will claim they converted, and then you will 01:48:01.520 --> 01:48:05.760 notice, given the opportunity, they will immediately stab you in the back. 01:48:05.760 --> 01:48:07.360 Because it wasn't a real conversion. 01:48:07.360 --> 01:48:10.000 They're conversos, it was mercenary. 01:48:10.000 --> 01:48:14.160 That is a problem that Christendom has had for centuries, and people 01:48:14.160 --> 01:48:17.360 have to keep learning this lesson, because apparently we can't just learn 01:48:17.360 --> 01:48:20.640 the lessons of our forefathers the easy way, by reading about them, 01:48:20.640 --> 01:48:23.840 instead of making the same mistake, and learning it the hard way 01:48:23.840 --> 01:48:27.920 again. Does that mean no Jew can ever be converted? 01:48:27.920 --> 01:48:28.800 No, of course not. 01:48:28.800 --> 01:48:30.240 God can work miracles. 01:48:30.240 --> 01:48:31.360 Everything's a miracle. 01:48:31.360 --> 01:48:33.120 God is able to do that. 01:48:33.120 --> 01:48:37.200 But by and large, God works through the natural means he has 01:48:37.600 --> 01:48:40.640 instituted, in this sense I mean the sacraments, right? 01:48:40.640 --> 01:48:44.320 They are also supernatural, but they are natural in an essence in 01:48:44.320 --> 01:48:48.480 a way, because God is working through his word and water, spoken 01:48:48.480 --> 01:48:49.200 word, water. 01:48:49.200 --> 01:48:53.200 water. He's working through wine and bread and the Word. 01:48:53.200 --> 01:48:56.960 God works through means to bring people to saving faith. 01:48:56.960 --> 01:49:00.240 He does not zap you with lightning and give you belief. 01:49:00.240 --> 01:49:01.600 Right? That's not how it works. 01:49:01.600 --> 01:49:03.840 We're not enthusiasts, we're not crazy. 01:49:04.560 --> 01:49:09.120 Now, can a Jew read God's Word, read the New Testament, or 01:49:09.120 --> 01:49:13.040 even the Old Testament, if God opens his heart, right, softens his 01:49:13.120 --> 01:49:15.600 heart, unsears his conscience? 01:49:15.600 --> 01:49:18.240 But yes, it's going to take that miracle to do it. 01:49:18.560 --> 01:49:22.880 And like I said, if you look back through the pages, the 01:49:22.880 --> 01:49:26.640 annals of Christendom and try to find Jews who have legitimately converted, 01:49:26.640 --> 01:49:29.600 you will find a handful, but you will be able to count 01:49:29.600 --> 01:49:33.680 them on one or two hands, and you will have fingers left 01:49:33.680 --> 01:49:40.080 over. So is their conscience seared from birth due to genetics? 01:49:40.080 --> 01:49:42.800 Not seared in the sense of making them unable to believe, their 01:49:42.880 --> 01:49:46.640 heart isn't hardened in the sense they can't come to faith, but 01:49:46.640 --> 01:49:50.320 you have to take into account that it's not just being born 01:49:50.320 --> 01:49:54.320 with genetic proclivities, it's being born into a system that will then 01:49:54.320 --> 01:49:54.880 indoctrinate 01:49:55.760 --> 01:49:57.920 you for twenty years. 01:49:57.920 --> 01:49:58.640 Or more. 01:49:58.640 --> 01:50:01.680 Your entire life you're going to get that sort of indoctrination if 01:50:01.680 --> 01:50:04.160 you stay in the little Jewish bubble, right? 01:50:04.480 --> 01:50:06.400 And that's the reality of it. 01:50:06.400 --> 01:50:08.720 So, you know, purely hypothetical, right? 01:50:08.720 --> 01:50:13.360 You take a Jewish infant, raise him in a Christian family where 01:50:13.360 --> 01:50:19.760 there is zero Jewish influence whatsoever, would he still revert to default 01:50:19.760 --> 01:50:21.040 settings as it were? 01:50:21.040 --> 01:50:24.320 No, I think that potentially you would have a Christian in that 01:50:24.320 --> 01:50:28.720 case. We're not exactly going to run that social experiment, right? 01:50:28.720 --> 01:50:30.800 I don't think anyone is suggesting that we do that. 01:50:30.800 --> 01:50:32.560 I don't think anyone's suggesting it would be wise. 01:50:32.560 --> 01:50:36.800 And also, you can't do it because because there's still the access 01:50:36.800 --> 01:50:38.000 to the Jewish influence. 01:50:38.000 --> 01:50:42.240 In the hypothetical, you would have to have such control over conditions 01:50:42.400 --> 01:50:44.880 that there would be no way for him ever to learn that 01:50:44.880 --> 01:50:48.400 he was genetically Jewish or what that even meant. 01:50:48.400 --> 01:50:53.040 So the reality is, is it purely genetic? 01:50:53.040 --> 01:50:56.560 No. But is it such that their conscience is seared and their 01:50:56.560 --> 01:50:57.680 heart is hardened? 01:50:57.680 --> 01:51:01.360 Yes. And that is why basically no Jew ever actually converts to 01:51:01.360 --> 01:51:04.720 Christianity. Which is a tragedy. 01:51:04.720 --> 01:51:08.000 It is an evil and it is a tragedy, but it is 01:51:08.000 --> 01:51:12.000 one that they have brought on themselves through centuries of wickedness. 01:51:18.720 --> 01:51:23.280 On that happy note, I think that I will call the stream 01:51:23.280 --> 01:51:27.280 for this week because we have definitely run a little bit over 01:51:27.280 --> 01:51:27.760 on time. 01:51:27.760 --> 01:51:28.800 I don't mind doing that sometimes. 01:51:28.800 --> 01:51:30.800 It's perfectly reasonable. 01:51:30.880 --> 01:51:31.200 But 01:51:32.160 --> 01:51:33.840 I think that will be all. 01:51:33.840 --> 01:51:36.320 Thank you for those who contributed questions. 01:51:36.320 --> 01:51:39.520 And of course the questions in the chat, I have them up 01:51:39.520 --> 01:51:40.160 here on my 01:51:41.680 --> 01:51:45.360 iPad, so I will be triaging those as it were after the 01:51:45.360 --> 01:51:49.840 stream. I'll be adding them to my future list going forward. 01:51:49.840 --> 01:51:54.240 That seems to have worked as intended, so if it did not, 01:51:54.240 --> 01:51:57.120 which is to say if you do not see your question in 01:51:57.120 --> 01:51:59.040 the future questions 01:52:00.240 --> 01:52:04.560 topic on the forum, or answered in this stream, of course, then 01:52:04.880 --> 01:52:07.840 by all means please submit it again so that I can see 01:52:07.840 --> 01:52:10.320 it and please tell me it did not get picked up so 01:52:10.320 --> 01:52:12.240 I can figure out why that happened. 01:52:12.240 --> 01:52:15.760 I don't think it missed any, but there's always the possibility. 01:52:15.760 --> 01:52:19.600 Which raises the topic of how do you submit questions. 01:52:19.600 --> 01:52:22.400 Well one you can submit in the stream of course as I've 01:52:22.400 --> 01:52:25.760 mentioned. I am looking at those and it's being pulled out by 01:52:25.760 --> 01:52:29.280 my AI agent in the background so hopefully it got all those. 01:52:29.280 --> 01:52:32.160 The preferred way of course is on the forum. 01:52:32.160 --> 01:52:34.640 The first questions I went through in this stream and the first 01:52:34.640 --> 01:52:37.520 questions I will do in every stream will be those from the 01:52:37.520 --> 01:52:42.400 forum. I give them priority because those questions are the best way 01:52:42.400 --> 01:52:45.040 for me to organize things because I can link to them in 01:52:45.040 --> 01:52:48.160 the episode and then people can read the question in the future. 01:52:48.160 --> 01:52:50.000 I don't have to pull out the text and make sure I 01:52:50.000 --> 01:52:51.360 don't lose it and all that stuff. 01:52:51.360 --> 01:52:52.960 It's just the cleanest way to do it. 01:52:52.960 --> 01:52:54.160 It's the best way to do it. 01:52:54.160 --> 01:52:55.680 It helps me keep things organized. 01:52:55.680 --> 01:52:58.560 It keeps a database going forward for people to look at the 01:52:58.560 --> 01:53:01.440 questions and see how I've answered them, which is part of the 01:53:01.440 --> 01:53:03.760 point of doing the QA stream. 01:53:03.760 --> 01:53:06.800 That being said, submitting them in the stream is fine in the 01:53:06.800 --> 01:53:10.240 chat, submitting them on X, which shows up in the chat is 01:53:10.240 --> 01:53:13.040 fine, telegram, whatever it happens to be. 01:53:13.040 --> 01:53:15.600 You know, if you're a friend of a friend, by all means 01:53:15.680 --> 01:53:16.480 send it that way. 01:53:16.480 --> 01:53:18.480 Write me a letter, whatever you want. 01:53:18.480 --> 01:53:20.960 I try to get to all of those questions. 01:53:20.960 --> 01:53:24.800 That being said, if I do not see your question, if it 01:53:24.800 --> 01:53:28.880 is disappeared from my view because whatever platform you're using decides I 01:53:28.880 --> 01:53:32.080 don't need to see it, that does happen, particularly on X. 01:53:32.080 --> 01:53:35.040 If that kind of stuff happens, by all means, please submit it 01:53:35.040 --> 01:53:37.200 again. I didn't just ignore your question. 01:53:37.200 --> 01:53:39.040 I probably literally didn't see it. 01:53:39.040 --> 01:53:42.560 As I've mentioned a number of times, my DMs on X are 01:53:42.560 --> 01:53:46.160 not a good way to do this anymore because my DMs on 01:53:46.160 --> 01:53:47.600 X don't really work anymore. 01:53:47.600 --> 01:53:51.040 I open them, they scroll, the scrolling freezes, half the time they 01:53:51.040 --> 01:53:53.840 crash, it locks me out sometimes. 01:53:54.080 --> 01:53:56.080 They're basically useless to me now. 01:53:56.080 --> 01:53:58.320 So please use one of the other methods. 01:53:58.320 --> 01:54:00.960 But at any rate, again, thank you for those who submitted questions, 01:54:00.960 --> 01:54:02.400 thank you for participating in the chat. 01:54:03.040 --> 01:54:05.520 It is always good to get the chance to do this. 01:54:05.520 --> 01:54:08.800 And I try to do this on Thursdays, but really it usually 01:54:08.800 --> 01:54:10.000 winds up being Friday. 01:54:10.000 --> 01:54:12.720 I pick Thursday because it depends how my week goes. 01:54:12.720 --> 01:54:15.920 If it goes, I guess well and I have Thursday open, I 01:54:15.920 --> 01:54:18.560 do it Thursday if not winds up being Friday. 01:54:18.560 --> 01:54:22.400 So it being Friday evening, I hope you all maybe those on 01:54:22.400 --> 01:54:24.240 the East Coast don't go out now, it depends. 01:54:24.240 --> 01:54:26.320 I guess if you're in your twenties it's nice to go out 01:54:26.320 --> 01:54:28.640 now, but have a good weekend. 01:54:28.640 --> 01:54:30.400 Go out and do something in God's creation. 01:54:30.400 --> 01:54:31.600 It's finally cooling off here. 01:54:31.600 --> 01:54:34.240 It's why I have my window open for the first time since 01:54:34.240 --> 01:54:35.520 summer began. 01:54:35.520 --> 01:54:37.200 So go out and enjoy God's creation. 01:54:37.200 --> 01:54:39.760 Always good out good to do a hike or something on the 01:54:39.760 --> 01:54:44.720 weekend. Just enjoy the cooler temperatures and the creation that God made 01:54:44.720 --> 01:54:45.680 for our enjoyment. 01:54:45.680 --> 01:54:48.640 It's not just for his glory, it is also for our enjoyment 01:54:48.960 --> 01:54:52.640 as his avatar, as his idol, as his symbol, his 01:54:53.920 --> 01:54:58.240 spokespeople, basically, his head of creation. 01:54:58.240 --> 01:54:59.920 So go out, enjoy that. 01:54:59.920 --> 01:55:00.960 Have a great weekend. 01:55:00.960 --> 01:55:04.800 Go to church on Sunday and I will see you all next 01:55:04.800 --> 01:55:07.200 week. Until then, God bless God bless 01:55:16.800 --> 01:55:17.120 you 01:55:18.720 --> 01:55:19.680 you. 02:00:10.880 --> 02:00:11.280 no, no, 02:00:11.360 --> 02:00:53.200 dump. 02:00:53.200 --> 02:00:54.720 Okay.