WEBVTT 00:00:00.360 --> 00:00:04.800 Welcome to the third Q&A episode of the At Any Cost podcast. 00:00:04.800 --> 00:00:08.180 This is the 13th of November, 2025. 00:00:08.180 --> 00:00:12.440 Hopefully all of the audio and other issues from last time have been resolved. 00:00:12.440 --> 00:00:14.680 Please let me know if not. 00:00:14.680 --> 00:00:22.180 I know that the audio, the music during the countdown there was playing mono on X. 00:00:22.180 --> 00:00:23.920 I don't know exactly why it was doing that. 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:24.840 I'll solve that next time. 00:00:24.840 --> 00:00:27.460 It seems to be fine on YouTube. 00:00:27.580 --> 00:00:36.280 So, if you experience an audio issue on X, I guess hop over to YouTube, where everything seems to be fine. 00:00:36.280 --> 00:00:39.460 So, no one has mentioned there are any audio issues yet. 00:00:39.460 --> 00:00:41.980 So, I will assume that everything is broadcasting fine. 00:00:41.980 --> 00:00:44.620 Everything seems to be green on my end. 00:00:44.620 --> 00:00:48.380 So, I will do a little bit of housekeeping before I jump into the questions. 00:00:48.380 --> 00:00:50.640 I have a handful of questions already. 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:54.720 If some more pop up in the chat, I'll try to get to those before the end. 00:00:54.720 --> 00:00:57.300 So, I'm hearing that it sounds better on YouTube. 00:00:57.360 --> 00:01:00.680 Yes, hopefully, I went through and read all of my settings in OBS. 00:01:00.680 --> 00:01:04.500 So, hopefully, that is much better this time. 00:01:04.500 --> 00:01:08.140 It's about as good as I can get with my current hardware, so. 00:01:08.140 --> 00:01:22.080 But insofar as housekeeping goes, if you want to submit questions for future episodes, future Q&As, then I linked the topic in the forum where you can go and do that. 00:01:22.080 --> 00:01:26.100 It's actually the category submit, basically one question per topic. 00:01:26.540 --> 00:01:34.360 Other people can vote on it, so that way, if it winds up being a lot of questions, things can rise to the top, and I can get to those more quickly, at least in theory. 00:01:34.360 --> 00:01:39.600 But that is the best way to ensure that I will see your question, and that I will actually get to it. 00:01:39.600 --> 00:01:47.000 I guess I can take my headphones off since I'm not actually listening to anything on my end, so don't need those. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:50.180 The camera can deal with my shiny forehead. 00:01:50.180 --> 00:01:59.280 But the best way to submit the questions, again, is on Omnifora in that category, because that is going to be the guaranteed way that I will see them. 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:02.700 If you submit them somewhere else, I will try to get them as well. 00:02:02.700 --> 00:02:04.720 I will try to write them down and keep them for the future. 00:02:04.720 --> 00:02:09.100 I have a list of questions here that I pulled from other places for tonight. 00:02:09.100 --> 00:02:19.880 And so, without any other real housekeeping for this time, because I think that's pretty much it, I think I've covered it, I will jump right into the questions and start with sort of a serious one. 00:02:19.880 --> 00:02:24.400 I will begin with one that was actually submitted on the forum, because I want to encourage that. 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:43.960 It's easy for me, because the overall goal of this is essentially to create a catalog of questions and answers so that other people can direct people in the future to my answers, instead of having to answer the same question five, six, seven, a hundred times, whatever it happens to be. 00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:45.620 The first question, then. 00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:48.300 This is a bit of a two-pronged question. 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:57.860 I'm in my mid-thirties and have no immediate marital prospects This is primarily due to a hereditary genetic disorder that I have that also affects my appearance. 00:02:57.860 --> 00:03:03.040 Given the severity of it, biological children are completely out of the question. 00:03:03.040 --> 00:03:07.560 I also have occasional stumblings and sexual purity about once every three months or so. 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:10.500 How would you advise in this situation? 00:03:10.500 --> 00:03:14.240 So I guess we'll be starting off with a relatively serious question, then. 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:17.080 And there are really a number of parts to this question. 00:03:17.880 --> 00:03:23.800 I think I will address the last one, as it were, first, because it's sort of the easy one to address. 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:33.100 Not easy in the sense of dealing with the problem on the end of those who have the problem, which is going to be most of those listening, because most of the listeners are going to be male. 00:03:33.100 --> 00:03:35.020 And men in general are just going to struggle with this. 00:03:35.020 --> 00:03:36.660 We all know what the question is. 00:03:36.660 --> 00:03:41.520 And so I don't necessarily need to spell it out and get myself banned from whatever platform. 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:49.800 But generally speaking, the best way to avoid that sort of temptation is simply to remove it as best you can. 00:03:49.800 --> 00:04:14.280 Because insofar as that temptation is concerned, and I've written an article about this, and I've commented on it a couple of times, I'll put a link to that in the show notes when I put this up as a podcast episode, which I will do with high quality audio, because I am recording much higher quality audio on my end, at least as high quality as I can do with the mic that disappears into my beard, instead the one that takes up the full screen. 00:04:15.320 --> 00:04:23.340 That will be a podcast episode released separately, so the high quality audio will always be available after this, now that I've resolved some tech issues. 00:04:23.340 --> 00:04:33.520 But to return to the question, the best way again to resolve that temptation, to deal with that temptation, is to avoid it as best you can. 00:04:33.520 --> 00:04:41.100 And so that may be if you are severely tempted by that, put your computer in a common area of your house. 00:04:41.100 --> 00:04:46.220 If you live with someone else, if you don't live with someone else, that may make it a little more challenging for you. 00:04:46.220 --> 00:04:47.480 Have an accountability partner. 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:52.720 I know that that phrase, that term, tends to make some people feel a little uneasy, but it's not a bad thing. 00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:55.740 And I do not mean a woman. 00:04:55.740 --> 00:05:00.960 Absolutely, this is not something for your wife, your girlfriend, whomever. 00:05:00.960 --> 00:05:07.720 This is something you should be sharing with a male Christian friend to keep each other accountable. 00:05:07.720 --> 00:05:10.420 That is the sort of thing that Christian brothers are supposed to do. 00:05:10.420 --> 00:05:13.180 Again, do not share this with women in your life. 00:05:13.280 --> 00:05:18.320 That is going to cause you trouble, it's going to cause her trouble, it's going to make everything worse if you do that. 00:05:18.320 --> 00:05:23.040 And women, if they're being honest with themselves, know that's the case. 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:28.020 So put your computer in a common area as best you can. 00:05:28.020 --> 00:05:31.440 Locking down your computer is actually not going to help. 00:05:31.440 --> 00:05:36.880 And the reason that's not going to help is essentially psychology. 00:05:36.880 --> 00:05:49.920 Because psychologically, if you have to surmount an obstacle in order to achieve some goal, in order to obtain some thing that you want, even if in this case you kind of don't want it, but you also do. 00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:50.840 You know, as St. 00:05:50.840 --> 00:05:54.540 Paul is saying, the very thing I don't want to do is the thing that I do. 00:05:54.540 --> 00:06:01.380 But if you have that obstacle, surmounting that is going to give you a greater psychological reward. 00:06:01.380 --> 00:06:10.020 And in giving yourself a greater psychological reward, a very easily obtained one, of course, because you know how to surmount the obstacles that you put in place. 00:06:10.900 --> 00:06:12.920 That's not going to stop you. 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:25.540 If you surmount that obstacle and get that psychological reward, it's going to reinforce that pathway and make it harder psychologically to overcome what is essentially an addiction, because it is. 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:29.820 It's a dopamine addiction, a serotonin addiction, which is built into human physiology. 00:06:29.820 --> 00:06:35.940 I went over that in the article that I will, again, link in the notes for this and hopefully get through and link it on all the videos as well. 00:06:37.200 --> 00:06:44.080 So, the various systems that make it harder to access that content aren't necessarily going to help you. 00:06:44.080 --> 00:06:53.420 Now, they can help you in not accidentally stumbling into it, which certainly happens easily these days on social media and elsewhere, and perhaps that can be useful. 00:06:53.460 --> 00:07:06.820 But by and large, just make it more difficult in terms of not having your computer in your private space, have it in a public space, or use it only during certain hours, cut yourself off after a certain time. 00:07:06.820 --> 00:07:09.720 It's going to require willpower, of course, but all of these things do. 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:11.740 There's no way around that. 00:07:11.740 --> 00:07:24.600 And so, have that accountability partner, make it more difficult to access these things privately, maybe limit your usage of computer, tablet, whatever it happens to be during certain hours. 00:07:24.600 --> 00:07:42.300 And beyond that, fill your time with something productive, cardio, if you are capable of doing cardio anyway, I don't know what the health issues are in this case, but various things like that can eat up your time and help you not be distracted and not be tempted by these other things. 00:07:43.380 --> 00:07:50.500 And so, to get to the next part of the question, what do we do in cases where someone has a severe genetic disorder? 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:56.520 I don't know how severe this one is, but I'm sort of taking the abstracted case here instead of the concrete one presented. 00:07:56.520 --> 00:08:02.220 So what do you do when someone has a severe genetic disorder, but it does not preclude the libido? 00:08:02.220 --> 00:08:05.840 It doesn't preclude that desire, which is a completely natural desire. 00:08:05.840 --> 00:08:11.100 And so, those who go off the rails and say that, you know, this is an evil thing, it's not part of creation. 00:08:11.100 --> 00:08:12.700 No, it's obviously part of creation. 00:08:12.700 --> 00:08:14.620 God created man and woman from the beginning. 00:08:14.620 --> 00:08:17.860 This is part of how men and women relate to one another. 00:08:17.860 --> 00:08:19.660 Granted, it's supposed to be only your spouse. 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:23.320 But we live in a fallen world. 00:08:23.320 --> 00:08:31.920 But to answer the immediate question, how do you deal with the issue of those who would produce children who would have a severe genetic disorder? 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:36.820 In this case, it's not as much of a problem, of course, because he's saying that children are simply out of the question. 00:08:36.820 --> 00:08:40.220 And I will assume that that's because of the genetic disorder. 00:08:40.220 --> 00:08:46.740 If it's not because of the genetic disorder, then perhaps my answer to the question, the abstracted one, is more relevant here. 00:08:47.460 --> 00:08:56.260 But, I don't believe there's anything wrong with avoiding having children if you know you're going to pass something horrible on to them. 00:08:56.260 --> 00:09:02.860 I don't think that you have any requirement from God to have children and pass that to them. 00:09:02.860 --> 00:09:05.400 There's nowhere in scripture where that's commanded. 00:09:05.400 --> 00:09:12.100 Now, it says that children are a blessing from the Lord, of course, but there's also a matter of wisdom when dealing with these issues. 00:09:12.100 --> 00:09:18.940 And so, for instance, if you knew that you had, we'll take the extreme, because it's always kind of useful to start there. 00:09:18.940 --> 00:09:20.200 Take the extreme example. 00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:29.660 Say there's a 100% chance that your child is going to suffer horribly and then die six months after being born. 00:09:29.660 --> 00:09:32.260 You probably don't want to bring that upon a child. 00:09:32.260 --> 00:09:36.760 And so, you would take measures to ensure that you do not have children. 00:09:36.760 --> 00:09:41.180 Does that necessarily mean that you can't have a wife? 00:09:41.180 --> 00:09:42.900 I think the answer is no. 00:09:42.900 --> 00:09:48.800 I think this is sort of the short version of the answer that everything else I've said is building up to. 00:09:48.800 --> 00:09:51.320 Find a woman who cannot have children. 00:09:51.320 --> 00:09:52.800 There are plenty of those. 00:09:52.800 --> 00:10:04.420 Just quite frankly, if you marry a woman who is, say, late 30s, odds are she won't get pregnant, even if genetically, biologically, that's a possibility for the both of you. 00:10:04.420 --> 00:10:11.040 Find a woman who cannot get pregnant, who cannot have children, and live your life with her as your wife. 00:10:11.040 --> 00:10:12.020 There's nothing wrong with that. 00:10:12.740 --> 00:10:22.380 There's absolutely nothing wrong with putting yourself into a position where you know you will not have children because you have some morally valid reason to avoid having them. 00:10:22.380 --> 00:10:23.980 And so I think that's the best case here. 00:10:23.980 --> 00:10:31.740 And as you said, in your case, the genetic disorder leads to some issues with regard to your physical appearance. 00:10:31.740 --> 00:10:34.400 There are plenty of women who have those issues as well. 00:10:34.400 --> 00:10:39.860 Now, it may be that what you hear and what some will hear is, I'm telling you to settle, and perhaps that's somewhat true. 00:10:40.740 --> 00:10:42.280 That is the reality of this life. 00:10:42.280 --> 00:10:47.380 Sometimes there's going to be a requirement that certain men settle. 00:10:47.380 --> 00:10:50.420 That is just the reality of living in a fallen world. 00:10:50.420 --> 00:10:52.380 These are issues for this life. 00:10:52.380 --> 00:10:55.960 The goal is to get through this life to the next one. 00:10:55.960 --> 00:11:00.240 This one still matters, and I will never minimize how much this one matters. 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:04.700 But these issues will not exist in paradise. 00:11:04.700 --> 00:11:16.480 And so find a woman with whom you can spend your life, whom you can love as your wife, and then make it to paradise with her, and you will both have restored and perfect bodies then. 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:25.680 So I think that's the best answer for this, and I think that anyone who's in a similar situation, that's sort of abstract that out a level, and then that's the answer to the problem. 00:11:25.680 --> 00:11:36.880 Because if God has not given you the gift of celibacy, and basically no one has the gift of celibacy, there are probably zero people who will ever listen to this, who have been given the gift of celibacy. 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:44.000 And if you don't have that gift, you are going to find it very difficult to attempt to remain chaste. 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:48.360 You're not going to remain celibate because you can't be celibate unless God gives you the gift. 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:49.920 You can be chaste. 00:11:49.920 --> 00:11:56.840 That's going to be difficult to do over a course of many years for any normal human being. 00:11:56.840 --> 00:12:02.900 If you are a man in your late teens, twenties, early thirties, it gets a little easier as you get older, of course. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:15.400 But if you're in that prime territory with regard to biology, it's going to be very difficult to avoid these issues if you don't have the only cure God recommends in scripture, which is a wife. 00:12:15.400 --> 00:12:21.180 And so, yes, it's difficult to find good women these days, but they do exist. 00:12:21.180 --> 00:12:27.500 And don't think that you're going to have to find a woman who's perfect because you're not perfect. 00:12:27.500 --> 00:12:28.900 She won't be perfect. 00:12:28.900 --> 00:12:30.240 No one is perfect. 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:31.260 We live in a fallen world. 00:12:32.040 --> 00:12:35.800 Find a woman you can love and with whom you can spend your life. 00:12:35.800 --> 00:12:40.420 That is the cure for the temptation in this case. 00:12:40.420 --> 00:12:44.600 It is the only cure God recommends, and so it is the only cure we should seek. 00:12:48.980 --> 00:12:52.560 The next question is a little bit easier, a little more lighthearted. 00:12:52.560 --> 00:12:57.500 Someone just asked what my musical tastes are, and the answer is yes. 00:12:57.500 --> 00:12:58.200 You are correct. 00:12:58.200 --> 00:12:59.180 They are rather eclectic. 00:12:59.640 --> 00:13:02.100 I do like Wagner, I do like opera. 00:13:02.100 --> 00:13:15.900 I don't have an opera company here anymore where I can go and attend the opera, but thankfully there are many places online where you can watch very good recordings, and they are quite good quality, and these headphones are actually pretty good quality, so I can do that. 00:13:15.900 --> 00:13:21.200 It's not the same as going and seeing the opera, of course, but it is nice to have the option. 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:25.580 And the other question, sort of sub-question was, do I like metal? 00:13:25.580 --> 00:13:33.400 I do listen to some, perhaps less than the beard would indicate, but I do listen to some metal, and like I said, my musical tastes are quite eclectic. 00:13:33.400 --> 00:13:46.020 As those who have listened to Stone Choir undoubtedly know, the intro and outro are electronica, and so yes, I've listened to some of that, I guess to be the German stereotype there, but yes, eclectic music tastes. 00:13:48.260 --> 00:13:55.540 The next question actually has three parts, really kind of three separate questions, one of which is very lighthearted again. 00:13:56.520 --> 00:14:01.260 Is there any hope for the LCMS is the basic question. 00:14:01.260 --> 00:14:06.080 And I think that the answer to that is it doesn't matter. 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:21.240 And the reason that it doesn't matter is because one of the advantages to being a Protestant, of any sort of flavor of Protestant, one of the major advantages is that we don't believe that the church is a corporate identity. 00:14:21.240 --> 00:14:31.300 We don't think that the church is this physical earthly body that has to be obeyed, has to be followed, you have to be part of this particular thing to be saved. 00:14:31.300 --> 00:14:33.620 Because that's not what the church is. 00:14:33.620 --> 00:14:45.060 The church is all believers from Adam, all the way to whatever man is last standing on the earth at the end of time, and is a Christian. 00:14:45.060 --> 00:14:50.600 All of those believers are the church, because they are the mystical body of Christ. 00:14:50.600 --> 00:14:51.640 That is what the church is. 00:14:52.380 --> 00:14:55.440 And so, does it matter what happens to a particular corporation? 00:14:55.440 --> 00:15:02.600 The answer is, of course it matters, because it's a terrible thing to see a church body go apostate and fall apart. 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:07.720 Particularly one that used to be one of the most faithful ones on the face of the planet. 00:15:07.720 --> 00:15:12.740 Because people think that, oh, the LCMS, it was just the American Lutheranism was never a very big thing. 00:15:12.740 --> 00:15:17.400 And it had almost 3 million members at one point. 00:15:17.400 --> 00:15:19.580 I think it actually had more than that at one point. 00:15:19.580 --> 00:15:25.320 But it had about that many members, it was one of the fastest growing church bodies in the world. 00:15:25.320 --> 00:15:27.600 It was incredibly faithful. 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:31.440 And then the World War era happened, and we all know what happens there. 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:34.560 Particularly when you have German speaking Lutherans. 00:15:34.560 --> 00:15:37.820 And so it's terrible what has happened to the LCMS. 00:15:37.820 --> 00:15:43.980 But it does not ultimately matter if we salvage the LCMS, or if we have to start up new church bodies. 00:15:43.980 --> 00:15:54.620 And I think in many cases, and I've said this to many men in DMs and elsewhere, in many cases, you are going to have to start up a house church, and then from there, over time, it will grow naturally. 00:15:54.620 --> 00:16:01.080 You'll acquire a building, build it, buy it, whatever it happens to be, and you will start another church. 00:16:01.080 --> 00:16:08.400 And then those congregations will group together along doctrinal and confessional lines, and you have a new church body. 00:16:08.400 --> 00:16:10.020 There's nothing wrong with that. 00:16:10.020 --> 00:16:11.300 It is sometimes necessary. 00:16:11.300 --> 00:16:15.040 It's probably going to be necessary under current circumstances. 00:16:15.960 --> 00:16:25.560 Because the odds of running a conquest of, you know, retaking these major church bodies, fairly low odds. 00:16:25.560 --> 00:16:43.180 Because the men who are in positions of power are so entrenched and so contrary to the actual Word of God, so contrary to the Gospel and right doctrine, right teaching, it's probably not worth the effort, and you probably won't succeed even if you manage to expend the effort. 00:16:43.960 --> 00:17:04.700 Now, this comes with a really big caveat, because particularly for those who are from the Roman Catholic view, or some other more, not magisterial, but unitary church bodies, they're not going to see it in the same way that, say, Lutherans in the US would. 00:17:04.700 --> 00:17:05.760 This is, of course, not Elka. 00:17:05.760 --> 00:17:09.260 Elka is not even Christian, so they can go off in the corner with their pride flags. 00:17:10.140 --> 00:17:27.720 But we are congregationalist in terms of our polity, not in terms of our theology or doctrine, but in terms of our polity, which essentially just means that the congregation typically owns the land in the building, or at least rents it, leases it, whatever it happens to be. 00:17:27.720 --> 00:17:30.700 It's not synod, it's not the corporation that owns it. 00:17:30.700 --> 00:17:38.320 Now, make sure that your constitution for your congregation has not been changed so that synod has a whole bunch of power. 00:17:38.560 --> 00:17:39.480 Make sure that doesn't happen. 00:17:39.480 --> 00:17:44.200 But by and large, the congregation owns the building. 00:17:44.200 --> 00:17:48.520 What that means is the congregation could just leave synod. 00:17:48.520 --> 00:17:50.540 The congregation can be completely faithful. 00:17:50.540 --> 00:17:57.200 You can have a faithful pastor, faithful elders, and you can just no longer be part of the LCMS. 00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:00.080 Now that works, that is perfectly viable. 00:18:00.080 --> 00:18:13.780 Taking faithful congregations out of these apostate corporate bodies, and then having entire congregations join new faithful bodies, that is far preferable to having to spin up all new congregations and everything else. 00:18:13.780 --> 00:18:20.740 Much better to take the full congregation and save all of those sheep in there, because many of them have no idea what's going on. 00:18:20.740 --> 00:18:22.340 Do also bear that in mind. 00:18:22.340 --> 00:18:36.400 With regard to faithless congregations, many of the sheep may be faithful, they just have no idea what's going on, or maybe my grandparents attended this church, my parents attended this church, I was baptized in this church, I'm going to keep attending this church. 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:42.700 So, yes, congregations can be saved, but the corporate body probably not and probably not worth it. 00:18:45.320 --> 00:18:53.540 And the second question before I get to the less serious one, although as a German, I can say very serious one, but you'll see why in a minute. 00:18:53.540 --> 00:19:04.500 What about worshipping with family members and friends and others who are not, in this case, Lutheran, but for whatever tradition to which you would hear that tradition? 00:19:04.500 --> 00:19:08.760 Wells has some problems with that, and I think their doctrine is wrong on this point. 00:19:08.760 --> 00:19:11.380 They object to praying with others and things like that. 00:19:11.380 --> 00:19:31.900 But the restriction, this part, I do think is right, that the LCMS has traditionally held, was that you cannot participate in a public worship service as an ordained pastor, because that is showing your tacit approval of the doctrine that we consider to be false. 00:19:31.900 --> 00:19:33.580 I think that's correct. 00:19:33.580 --> 00:19:40.620 I don't think that we should give a sign off in any case, in any sort of way, with regard to false doctrine. 00:19:40.620 --> 00:19:43.220 But, can you pray with a family member? 00:19:43.220 --> 00:19:43.740 Absolutely. 00:19:43.740 --> 00:19:45.800 I think Wells is ridiculous on that. 00:19:45.800 --> 00:19:51.680 Can you go to a worship service at a church that is not your denomination, not your tradition? 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:52.740 I think the answer is yes. 00:19:52.740 --> 00:19:58.640 There are caveats there, of course, because we have to say, they still have to be Christian, obviously. 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:04.740 And so, if you are a traditional Lutheran, should you attend a Roman Catholic Mass? 00:20:04.740 --> 00:20:12.720 The answer is probably no, because we consider their conception of the sacrifice of the Mass to be abominable. 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:15.740 So, you probably should not attend that. 00:20:15.740 --> 00:20:18.400 But, can you go to a Baptist service? 00:20:18.400 --> 00:20:19.720 Sure. 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:26.540 You're going to severely object, of course, if they start talking about the real presence, because they don't believe in it. 00:20:26.540 --> 00:20:32.140 But, the only sort of limitation would be, do not participate in the Lord's Supper, if it is offered. 00:20:32.140 --> 00:20:34.620 At a Baptist church, it probably won't be. 00:20:34.620 --> 00:20:39.320 And even if it is, it's not the real thing, because they don't use wine, and they don't believe. 00:20:39.320 --> 00:20:51.060 So, do not participate in that, because you have to be in unity with your brothers, doctrinally, confessionally, if you are participating in the meal that is that show of unity. 00:20:51.060 --> 00:20:55.400 And so, don't partake of the sacrament of the church, with which you do not believe they're... 00:20:55.400 --> 00:20:57.560 disagree with their doctrine, don't do that. 00:20:57.560 --> 00:20:59.240 But, can you worship with them? 00:20:59.240 --> 00:20:59.800 Absolutely. 00:20:59.800 --> 00:21:00.600 Can you pray with them? 00:21:00.600 --> 00:21:02.420 You absolutely should. 00:21:02.420 --> 00:21:03.680 So, there's nothing wrong with that. 00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:11.500 And then, the third question, the less serious one, or extremely serious one, depending how you view things, is what is my favorite beer? 00:21:11.500 --> 00:21:17.460 And I would say that my favorite beers would be any of the dark ones from Weinstfahne. 00:21:17.460 --> 00:21:18.880 That's probably my favorite brewery. 00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:26.120 That used to be, when I lived in Berlin, it was basically only a handful of tram stops away from my apartment. 00:21:26.120 --> 00:21:43.420 Their Berlin location, obviously not the main one down in Bavaria, but I used to go and have lunch there and go to the museums, because the museum island, all museums are sort of grouped together in Berlin with some satellite ones, but I used to go there and then go to the island and wander around the museums, because it was a very short walk. 00:21:43.420 --> 00:21:44.120 It was very nice. 00:21:44.120 --> 00:21:45.760 So, that's my favorite beer. 00:21:45.860 --> 00:21:48.940 A little tidbit about my previous life, I guess it will be. 00:22:01.433 --> 00:22:05.933 Just a quick question here about whether or not I'm still practicing law. 00:22:05.933 --> 00:22:08.473 The answer to that is yes and no. 00:22:08.473 --> 00:22:10.253 Yes, I am still a licensed attorney. 00:22:10.253 --> 00:22:12.913 Surprisingly, the bar has not opened an investigation into me. 00:22:12.913 --> 00:22:14.433 I know they're going to eventually do that. 00:22:14.433 --> 00:22:22.553 They've sort of been building up to it to sort of excise, particularly in California, excise anyone with so-called far right views. 00:22:22.553 --> 00:22:24.013 I can see where the trajectory is going. 00:22:24.013 --> 00:22:25.813 I know exactly the tactic they're going to take. 00:22:26.233 --> 00:22:28.073 They're not very subtle. 00:22:28.073 --> 00:22:30.593 They're not very bright either, but we'll see how that goes. 00:22:30.733 --> 00:22:39.493 I probably won't be the first attorney in California who will be brought up on charges for being racist or whatever it happens to be, but they will... 00:22:39.493 --> 00:22:46.533 I know exactly what they'll do, and I may as well say what they're going to do, not how they'll build up to it, but the way that they will enforce it. 00:22:46.533 --> 00:22:48.693 And the way that they enforce it is this. 00:22:48.693 --> 00:22:55.213 They don't say that, oh, you are a racist, and so we're going to kick you out. 00:22:55.213 --> 00:23:14.833 What they will say is that showing this form of racial discrimination in your online behavior, whatever it happens to be, whatever argument they use, is contrary to the ethics rules with regard to impartiality in representation, something similar to that. 00:23:14.833 --> 00:23:21.853 And so we are going to fine you $50,000, and if you don't pay the fine, you can't keep your license. 00:23:21.853 --> 00:23:33.933 And so your options, of course, then are, well, fight this $50,000 fine, and probably spend a great deal of money doing so, and have to fly back to California, incidentally, in my case. 00:23:33.933 --> 00:23:43.153 Or pay the $50,000, and then they will probably fine you again, unless you delete your entire online presence and give up doing the sort of things that I do. 00:23:43.153 --> 00:23:45.633 And so that's probably coming down the pipeline. 00:23:45.633 --> 00:23:49.853 Perhaps I'll get a Tennessee bar card instead and give up my California one. 00:23:49.853 --> 00:23:51.553 I kind of like having the California one. 00:23:52.473 --> 00:23:53.933 It's my only tie left to California. 00:23:53.933 --> 00:23:59.673 I deliberately severed everything else because I didn't want them to try to tax me, because it's California. 00:23:59.673 --> 00:24:13.733 But yes, I'm still a licensed attorney, and I do practice law to some degree, but it is not exactly beneficial to have my notoriety with regard to practicing law, as you might imagine. 00:24:13.733 --> 00:24:31.353 Except, of course, if you're practicing the sort of law where that benefits, which I'm not, I'm an expert technically in antitrust, or competition laws, they call it in the EU, and not necessarily beneficial to have my reputation because of Stone Quire and other things, and practice law. 00:24:31.353 --> 00:24:34.753 So, yes and no, sort of the answer. 00:24:36.793 --> 00:24:45.313 And the next question is a theology question, and it is what would be my argument against annihilationism? 00:24:45.953 --> 00:24:47.813 And I've answered this one a number of times. 00:24:47.813 --> 00:24:49.913 Before I get into it, I'm going to drink a little bit of tea here. 00:24:58.481 --> 00:25:11.821 So, the answer with regard to annihilationism is that you cannot have annihilationism because the destruction of that which is good is itself evil. 00:25:11.821 --> 00:25:18.821 Now, that's a philosophical argument, and perhaps somewhat of a high level one, but I'll break down what that means. 00:25:18.821 --> 00:25:23.981 With regard to, I guess we'll go with existence of anything. 00:25:23.981 --> 00:25:25.161 You have the transcendentals. 00:25:25.161 --> 00:25:27.101 There are things that are good in and of themselves. 00:25:27.181 --> 00:25:35.221 The transcendentals are convertible, which means that goodness, beauty, and truth, goodness is beauty, beauty is truth, truth is goodness. 00:25:36.461 --> 00:25:46.481 So, human beings existing is good, partly because being is good, being and unity being the fourth and fifth transcendentals. 00:25:46.481 --> 00:25:51.501 But being is good because it is a thing with regard to humanity that is created by God. 00:25:51.501 --> 00:25:54.321 Everything God creates is good. 00:25:55.341 --> 00:26:01.641 And so, the destruction of anything that is good is necessarily evil. 00:26:01.641 --> 00:26:09.201 So if God were to destroy a human being in terms of annihilationism, that would be evil. 00:26:09.201 --> 00:26:13.621 And God cannot commit evil because God is good. 00:26:13.621 --> 00:26:15.921 God is good, God is goodness. 00:26:15.921 --> 00:26:25.301 And so, God actually cannot destroy humanity in terms of annihilating a soul, in terms of annihilating a human being. 00:26:25.301 --> 00:26:28.721 And now, I know there are those who will say, well, you just said God cannot. 00:26:28.721 --> 00:26:44.241 I'm speaking in human terms because if you try to explain these things in terms that are perfectly accurate, you wind up having to circumlocute in just, in crazy ways, trying to explain this in a way that's absolutely perfectly accurate and technically correct. 00:26:45.781 --> 00:26:49.001 Because what I'm really saying is that it's incoherent. 00:26:49.001 --> 00:26:55.401 You can't say God did X and X is evil, because God doesn't do anything evil. 00:26:55.401 --> 00:26:57.061 Everything God does is good. 00:26:57.061 --> 00:26:58.101 God is good. 00:26:58.101 --> 00:26:59.681 God is goodness. 00:26:59.681 --> 00:27:13.501 And so, when I say that God cannot do something that is evil, what I'm saying really is that it's incoherent to assert of God having done or going to do that which is evil. 00:27:13.501 --> 00:27:23.381 So, annihilationism is philosophically incoherent because it accuses God of planning to do that which is evil. 00:27:23.381 --> 00:27:28.381 And then he wouldn't be God, because God is his nature. 00:27:28.381 --> 00:27:35.841 Part of his nature, of course, and of course, I'm speaking in parts, because again, speaking in a human manner, would be the transcendentals, goodness, beauty, truth. 00:27:36.641 --> 00:27:44.161 And so, annihilationism is false, because it is morally, philosophically, logically incoherent. 00:27:44.161 --> 00:28:03.881 It just appeals to people, this is sort of stepping back from the philosophical bit of it, but it appeals to people, because it sounds nicer to say that you simply, I won't snap, because it's a bad thing to do when you're wearing a mic, but it's not, it seems nicer to say that you just disappear, you're just gone, that's just the end of it. 00:28:04.461 --> 00:28:08.121 Instead of, you suffer for eternity in hell. 00:28:08.121 --> 00:28:25.561 And to us, it certainly sounds on the surface, until you again delve into that philosophy, it sounds better to simply cease to exist, than to suffer for eternity, but it is actually worse, because it is an evil to destroy something that is good. 00:28:25.561 --> 00:28:36.601 Now, of course, it's better if people actually convert and believe in Christ, and spend eternity in paradise, instead of spending eternity in hell, but annihilationism is false for the reasons laid out. 00:28:36.601 --> 00:28:57.161 But I understand why it is appealing to some people, particularly because if you have, for instance, loved ones who have died, and they did not believe, you know they did not believe, in fact, maybe they hated God, it's much more comforting to some degree on a surface level to say that they were destroyed, instead of saying that they are in hell. 00:28:57.161 --> 00:29:01.081 But that is the reality of it, that hell is eternal. 00:29:01.821 --> 00:29:03.641 Hell is the fire that does not consume. 00:29:18.086 --> 00:29:21.486 I think I have gone over most of the questions now that I had written down. 00:29:21.486 --> 00:29:26.106 I think there were a couple of questions in the chat, so I will get to those. 00:29:28.426 --> 00:29:31.866 What are your thoughts on the Church of Christ denomination? 00:29:31.866 --> 00:29:36.006 I do not have any particular thoughts on that denomination. 00:29:36.006 --> 00:29:37.906 I would have to look into their distinctives again. 00:29:37.906 --> 00:29:42.946 I have not looked at them in many years, so I do not remember exactly what it is that they hold. 00:29:42.946 --> 00:29:45.286 I will look into that and get to that next week. 00:29:46.006 --> 00:29:48.866 So, the next one. 00:29:48.866 --> 00:29:54.846 What is the biblical or wise way to get to the point of Christian white nationalism? 00:29:54.846 --> 00:29:57.486 What are some practical things we can do? 00:29:57.486 --> 00:30:02.666 Insofar as the ideology is concerned, we already laid that out with Stone Choir. 00:30:02.666 --> 00:30:09.626 Now, there are some things that we did not address, of course, with regard to the purely political, because that's a different thing. 00:30:09.626 --> 00:30:13.426 That's not the enterprise that we were undertaking with Stone Choir. 00:30:13.526 --> 00:30:19.606 And so, we addressed the theology, we addressed the doctrine, all the practical parts of that. 00:30:21.006 --> 00:30:28.686 And I have an article that I have partially written on this, and I need to get around to finishing that and publishing it. 00:30:28.686 --> 00:30:35.346 But insofar as the next steps are concerned, the next steps are political. 00:30:35.346 --> 00:30:53.126 Yes, we need to continue doing the things on the theology, the doctrinal front, getting men to believe in the truth, getting men to work together, getting men to form new congregations, or remove faithful congregations from faithless corporate bodies, as gone over a previous answer to a previous question. 00:30:53.126 --> 00:30:58.746 But at this point, we really are in the politics or bust. 00:30:58.746 --> 00:31:00.946 That's the only way forward. 00:31:00.946 --> 00:31:14.506 And I do mean politics in sort of the Schmidian sense, in the more realpolitik sense, not in the sense of necessarily simply electoral politics, because electoral politics is simply a subset of politics. 00:31:14.506 --> 00:31:16.726 It is not the fullness of it. 00:31:16.726 --> 00:31:20.926 And so the way forward is things that are indeed very concrete. 00:31:20.926 --> 00:31:23.806 It is the only way we are going to actually accomplish anything. 00:31:23.806 --> 00:31:26.866 It is the only way we are going to get anything done. 00:31:26.866 --> 00:31:36.186 And part of that, of course, is going to be forming actual political groups and engaging in politics. 00:31:37.246 --> 00:31:45.986 Now, I can't go into all of the details of what all of these things are going to require for fairly obvious reasons to most men. 00:31:47.006 --> 00:31:50.506 But the years ahead are going to be difficult. 00:31:50.506 --> 00:31:51.786 There is no way around that. 00:31:51.786 --> 00:31:55.046 There is no ignoring that fact. 00:31:55.046 --> 00:31:56.106 We have no choice. 00:31:56.106 --> 00:31:58.366 It is our duty to do these things. 00:31:58.366 --> 00:32:02.106 And God has the outcome in his hands. 00:32:02.106 --> 00:32:15.446 I've been very clear about that all throughout, from the very beginning, when I started to be more public with my views on social media, all through Stone Choir, the duty is ours, the outcome is God's. 00:32:15.446 --> 00:32:19.086 So, we don't have to fear what is going to happen. 00:32:19.086 --> 00:32:25.526 We don't have to fear what is going to happen to us, or with regard to our nation, our people, anything like that. 00:32:25.526 --> 00:32:28.766 God has made promises to us, and he will be faithful. 00:32:28.766 --> 00:32:30.406 He will be true. 00:32:30.406 --> 00:32:40.226 It is simply our duty to do our duty, to do the things set before us that we are capable of doing, and that God has given us to do. 00:32:40.226 --> 00:32:43.306 And so, what are the practical things we can do? 00:32:43.306 --> 00:32:56.606 Work together, support each other, be there for your brothers when they need you, because there are going to be men who are going to suffer heavier costs than others, and they need to have a support network there for them. 00:32:56.606 --> 00:33:01.086 We need to stop acting like individuals and act like we are actually in this together. 00:33:01.206 --> 00:33:05.386 We are a group, not individuals. 00:33:05.386 --> 00:33:22.526 We are a race, we are a nation, and we need to support each other, because if we don't do that, then, quite frankly, we deserve to lose, because the group that acts like a group, that recognizes it is a group, recognizes it is a collective, is going to be the one that succeeds. 00:33:22.526 --> 00:33:23.586 I want that to be us. 00:33:27.346 --> 00:33:29.986 What version of the Bible would you recommend I read? 00:33:29.986 --> 00:33:32.126 Is the NIV okay? 00:33:32.126 --> 00:33:36.146 The current answer to that is basically just read whatever version you have. 00:33:36.146 --> 00:33:41.346 There are plenty of good, modern ones in English with regard to the New Testament. 00:33:41.346 --> 00:33:48.726 With regard to the Old Testament, they are basically all based on the Masoretic, and so go see the series that we did for Stone Quire and the Septuagint. 00:33:48.726 --> 00:33:53.806 But there are translations of the Septuagint into English. 00:33:53.806 --> 00:33:55.406 They're more or less good. 00:33:55.406 --> 00:33:56.566 They have various problems. 00:33:56.566 --> 00:34:01.106 The Lexan, for instance, is very stilted in some places because it's sort of academic. 00:34:01.106 --> 00:34:12.726 The Nets is also a little bit stilted in some places because they're extremely literal, to the point where some of the name translations are pretty funny because they're just so ridiculous. 00:34:13.746 --> 00:34:19.326 I can't even think of some of the best ones because they're just so crazy that I don't have them memorized. 00:34:19.326 --> 00:34:20.666 It's fine to read. 00:34:20.666 --> 00:34:21.386 It's accurate. 00:34:21.386 --> 00:34:26.826 It's faithful to the underlying Greek, but it's not a very good English translation because that wasn't the purpose. 00:34:26.826 --> 00:34:30.406 That one was meant to be for study, so that's fine. 00:34:30.406 --> 00:34:39.846 The Brenton is antiquated because it's sort of the KJV, the original KJV version of the translation of the Septuagint into English. 00:34:39.846 --> 00:34:42.546 So they all have some problems. 00:34:42.546 --> 00:34:47.806 We have some other ones in the pipeline, hopefully some of those will be very good. 00:34:47.806 --> 00:34:50.026 Eventually, we will have a definitive answer. 00:34:50.026 --> 00:34:53.446 This is the English translation of the Septuagint. 00:34:53.446 --> 00:34:54.466 Read this. 00:34:54.466 --> 00:34:58.706 But insofar as the New Testament is concerned, plenty of great options. 00:34:58.706 --> 00:35:00.786 NASB, NIV is fine. 00:35:00.786 --> 00:35:01.726 It's not my favorite. 00:35:01.726 --> 00:35:02.766 It's not bad. 00:35:02.766 --> 00:35:06.066 ASV, ESV, all sorts of options. 00:35:06.066 --> 00:35:07.006 Pick the one that you like. 00:35:07.006 --> 00:35:08.826 Pick the one that you have. 00:35:08.826 --> 00:35:09.626 Read it. 00:35:09.626 --> 00:35:11.386 The best thing you can do is read it. 00:35:11.386 --> 00:35:13.146 I typically am reading the ESV. 00:35:13.286 --> 00:35:23.046 It just happens to be the one that I have probably too many copies of, but for the Daily Devotions, for the Through the Bible series, I read the ESV. 00:35:23.046 --> 00:35:26.606 Next year, I will switch to some translation. 00:35:26.606 --> 00:35:39.046 Hopefully, there's a good one by then, or I'm going to have to do some edits, which is going to make it a lot longer for me to record every day, but I'm going to switch to reading a translation of the Septuagint for the Old Testament portion. 00:35:39.046 --> 00:35:43.266 I'll probably keep reading the ESV for the New Testament, because it's fine. 00:35:43.266 --> 00:35:53.006 I make some edits on the fly, mentally, when I'm going through it, because, for instance, the word Gentiles should not be used, because that's weird. 00:35:53.006 --> 00:35:56.966 We just kept a Latin word around, because it's Judaizing, that's the reason. 00:35:56.966 --> 00:36:06.806 But the word means either heathen or nations, depending on the context, and seeing, as I just said, both of those words, we have them in English. 00:36:06.806 --> 00:36:07.606 It should have been translated. 00:36:07.606 --> 00:36:08.646 It should not have been left in the Latin. 00:36:09.706 --> 00:36:10.686 Luther didn't leave it in the Latin. 00:36:10.686 --> 00:36:18.966 When he translated into German, when he translated from the Greek into the German, he didn't randomly translate into Latin instead. 00:36:18.966 --> 00:36:24.626 He used the German words for heathen and nation, which is what we should be doing in English. 00:36:24.626 --> 00:36:25.806 And some minor things like that. 00:36:33.323 --> 00:36:36.763 If I got a full ride scholarship, should I continue to go to college? 00:36:36.763 --> 00:36:41.623 Also follow up, what are your recommendations for someone possibly seeking ordination? 00:36:41.623 --> 00:36:44.603 Should I keep this stuff under wraps or what? 00:36:45.663 --> 00:36:48.223 I'll answer the second one first. 00:36:48.223 --> 00:36:54.643 It is going to depend partly on the church body in which you are seeking ordination, but the general answer is yes. 00:36:54.643 --> 00:37:08.423 You should hide your power level, as it were, because they are going to persecute you, they are going to drive you from the church, and they are going to try to destroy your life, if they can, if they figure out what you actually believe. 00:37:08.423 --> 00:37:16.983 Because most of the church corporations, the large bodies, are run by evil men, and they want to do evil things. 00:37:16.983 --> 00:37:34.223 So, if you are pursuing ordination in one of those bodies, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that, because in some cases, some of the seminary classes, not all, there are bad professors certainly, some very bad professors, in some traditions, in some seminaries. 00:37:34.223 --> 00:37:36.023 Some of them are still good. 00:37:36.023 --> 00:37:39.163 And so, you may very well get a worthwhile education. 00:37:39.163 --> 00:37:46.263 Is it necessarily worth your time, probably money, in order to go to seminary? 00:37:47.323 --> 00:37:48.863 Maybe not. 00:37:48.863 --> 00:37:51.563 You can do a lot of that studying on your own. 00:37:51.563 --> 00:37:53.303 There are plenty of good resources. 00:37:53.303 --> 00:37:59.943 You can go and basically be tutored by a very good pastor, if you can find a good pastor. 00:37:59.943 --> 00:38:02.703 There are still good pastors out there. 00:38:02.703 --> 00:38:03.443 That's probably... 00:38:03.443 --> 00:38:05.803