WEBVTT 00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:04.220 Welcome to the At Any Cost Podcast. 00:00:04.220 --> 00:00:05.080 I am Corey J. 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:05.540 Mahler. 00:00:05.540 --> 00:00:08.640 This is the fourth episode of 2025. 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:11.420 Also, incidentally, the fourth Q&A episode. 00:00:11.420 --> 00:00:15.660 There will eventually be episodes of another kind, hence the numbering scheme. 00:00:15.660 --> 00:00:17.640 Sorry about the slight delay there. 00:00:17.640 --> 00:00:21.860 Apparently, OBS is not currently cooperating with Rumble very well. 00:00:21.860 --> 00:00:24.900 And when I went to activate Rumble output, it crashed the app. 00:00:24.900 --> 00:00:27.820 So I got to restart and reconfigure everything. 00:00:28.520 --> 00:00:30.500 Kick output is also not working for some reason. 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:39.340 I'll look into some sort of re-streaming service instead of the plug-in, since the plug-in seems to be not entirely reliable at this point. 00:00:39.340 --> 00:00:44.200 But everything is live, and it looks like it's all working on X, YouTube, and Twitch. 00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:47.580 So hopefully, you can listen on one of those platforms. 00:00:47.580 --> 00:00:49.080 Shouldn't be any audio issues. 00:00:49.080 --> 00:00:55.020 I reconfigured my entire audio pipeline for this, so everything should be working now. 00:00:55.020 --> 00:00:56.620 Hopefully, there are no problems. 00:00:57.900 --> 00:01:05.760 And so, I may as well just get right into the questions, because I have a number of them, and I don't know if I will get through all of them tonight. 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:09.520 But hopefully, that will be the case. 00:01:11.080 --> 00:01:20.120 So, the first question is about Proverbs 15, specifically verse 27a, which is not in your Bibles. 00:01:20.120 --> 00:01:26.320 You will notice if you are reading from the Masoretic text, but it is in your Bibles if you are reading, as you should be, from the Septuagint. 00:01:27.580 --> 00:01:33.820 As Protestants, how should we interpret Proverbs 15, 27 in the Septuagint? 00:01:33.820 --> 00:01:40.040 By acts of mercy and faithfulness, sins are cleansed, and by the fear of the Lord, everyone turns from evil. 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:42.720 And that is citing to the lexem. 00:01:42.720 --> 00:01:45.220 And he says mainly because of the first half of this passage. 00:01:45.220 --> 00:01:54.300 And so, let me go ahead and pull up that scripture passage, if I can get Logos to cooperate with me here. 00:02:05.692 --> 00:02:08.192 Logos is great when it decides to work. 00:02:27.188 --> 00:02:28.928 There we go. 00:02:28.928 --> 00:02:35.588 For some reason, it did not want to open up this window, so I will swap this over to the left-hand side for us. 00:02:37.728 --> 00:02:41.268 And open up Proverbs 15. 00:02:45.528 --> 00:02:49.848 So obviously, the question here is 27a, 27b, however you want to number that. 00:02:49.848 --> 00:02:54.888 That, again, verse number is not actually a part of scripture, so that's not really relevant. 00:02:55.928 --> 00:03:00.868 But for 27a here, as it's numbered in the nets, which is the version that I'm using here. 00:03:00.868 --> 00:03:07.668 By acts of mercy and by faithfulness, sins are purged, but by the fear of the Lord, everyone turns away from evil. 00:03:07.668 --> 00:03:14.748 And so the question, of course, is how is that compatible with Sola Fide, by faith alone, really is the underlying question there. 00:03:14.748 --> 00:03:23.828 And this is the same question that has been raised by Roman Catholics and others, in objection to what Lutherans and other Protestants teach. 00:03:23.848 --> 00:03:29.008 Usually not based on this, because usually they're using the Masoretic text. 00:03:29.028 --> 00:03:33.588 Usually that is instead James, and so let me pull that up as well. 00:03:34.728 --> 00:03:42.268 That is going to be James, actually we'll start in James 1, and let me see, verse 22. 00:03:44.248 --> 00:03:48.828 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 00:03:48.828 --> 00:03:55.028 For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 00:03:55.028 --> 00:03:59.308 For he looks at himself, and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like. 00:03:59.308 --> 00:04:09.468 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be a blessing in his doing. 00:04:09.468 --> 00:04:16.888 And of course, this is simply pointing out what, you know, I have the Stone Quire Challenge coin. 00:04:16.888 --> 00:04:19.568 I have a few of them sitting on my desk here. 00:04:19.568 --> 00:04:21.068 This one's unfortunately numbered. 00:04:21.068 --> 00:04:27.748 This is 666, which is why it's still on my desk, because I didn't really feel like giving that one to anyone, so I'll just pick up this one instead. 00:04:27.748 --> 00:04:31.528 You know, a good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree bears bad fruit. 00:04:31.528 --> 00:04:36.928 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 00:04:36.928 --> 00:04:38.208 That's what's being taught here. 00:04:38.208 --> 00:04:44.188 If you have a living faith, your faith is necessarily going to produce good fruits. 00:04:44.188 --> 00:04:48.088 If you have a dead faith, then it's not going to produce any good fruits. 00:04:48.088 --> 00:04:51.188 It's going to produce nothing, in fact, because it's dead. 00:04:51.188 --> 00:04:53.168 Dead trees don't produce anything. 00:04:53.168 --> 00:05:04.568 And so the question here, and what is taught here, of course, and I'll go back over to Proverbs here, but by the fear of the Lord, everyone turns away from evil. 00:05:04.568 --> 00:05:14.248 That's a necessary part of the interpretation here, because it is the fear of the Lord that enables you to do these acts of mercy and this faithfulness by which sins are purged. 00:05:14.248 --> 00:05:18.728 And so it's a living faith producing good works. 00:05:18.728 --> 00:05:25.748 If you don't have the fear of the Lord, which is what faith is, of course, that's one of the things produced by a living faith, is the fear of the Lord. 00:05:25.748 --> 00:05:41.408 So if you don't have that fear of the Lord, then you can't actually commit, you can't do any good works, because it's not a matter of the works themselves being good in themselves, because there are things that are good in themselves, right? 00:05:41.408 --> 00:05:56.768 So taking care of your children, loving your wife, tilling the soil, whatever it happens to be, many good things that you can do in this life that don't require faith, but they are not counted to you as good works if you do not do them in faith. 00:05:56.768 --> 00:06:09.668 Because even the good works of those who are not in Christ are not per se good, because they are not counted to that person unless he is in Christ, because otherwise he is simply a sinner, and everything he does is sin. 00:06:09.668 --> 00:06:25.108 And so, this isn't incompatible with what Protestants teach, and I'll read another passage from James, because I know that there's a Roman Catholic and probably someone else shouting at his screen somewhere, because I didn't read the passage of James that he expects me to read, wants me to read, which is fine, I'll read it. 00:06:25.108 --> 00:06:27.008 It's James 2, starting with verse 18. 00:06:29.908 --> 00:06:33.468 But someone will say, You have faith and I have works. 00:06:33.468 --> 00:06:38.888 Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 00:06:38.888 --> 00:06:41.488 You believe that God is one and you do well. 00:06:41.488 --> 00:06:43.888 Even the demons believe and shudder. 00:06:43.888 --> 00:06:48.488 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 00:06:48.488 --> 00:06:53.888 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 00:06:53.888 --> 00:06:56.688 You see that faith was active along with his works. 00:06:57.268 --> 00:07:00.168 And faith was completed by his works. 00:07:00.168 --> 00:07:08.588 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. 00:07:08.588 --> 00:07:12.748 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 00:07:12.748 --> 00:07:21.288 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way. 00:07:21.288 --> 00:07:26.288 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. 00:07:27.348 --> 00:07:35.888 Again, if you read everything that's actually said here, and don't focus on the little snippet there that I don't even need to repeat because we all know which one. 00:07:35.888 --> 00:07:44.008 If you focus on what is actually said here in context, it's very clear that you have to have faith, but a living faith that produces good works. 00:07:44.008 --> 00:07:47.488 The issue here is whether or not you are a true believer. 00:07:47.488 --> 00:08:01.128 The person who simply pays lip service to Christian faith, to Christ, and says, I believe in Jesus, and then never does any of the things that a true Christian would do, you can tell that he doesn't have a living faith because it's not producing fruit. 00:08:01.128 --> 00:08:02.648 It's a dead tree. 00:08:02.648 --> 00:08:05.888 It's not producing the good fruit, which is good works. 00:08:05.888 --> 00:08:07.908 And so there's nothing incompatible there. 00:08:07.908 --> 00:08:17.188 It's the same teaching we see in James, just in the Old Testament, and conveniently, for whatever reason, the rabbis decided to remove that in their version. 00:08:17.188 --> 00:08:22.588 So there's nothing incompatible with Christian theology, with Protestant theology, in this case. 00:08:22.588 --> 00:08:32.748 And this has been treated a number of times, but very clearly, the baseline, the foundational matter is that a true and living faith will produce good works. 00:08:32.748 --> 00:08:38.448 And so, you cannot be justified by a dead faith, because a dead faith doesn't do anything. 00:08:38.448 --> 00:08:40.208 It has to be a living faith. 00:08:43.208 --> 00:08:49.708 The next question is a slightly different topic, a little technical in a different way this time. 00:08:49.788 --> 00:08:51.608 Let me pull that up here. 00:08:53.948 --> 00:08:57.128 What are the illicit therapy modalities for Christians? 00:08:57.128 --> 00:09:00.028 This is, of course, talking about psychology. 00:09:00.028 --> 00:09:04.428 In a previous Stone Quire episode, I recall you endorsing cognitive behavioral therapy. 00:09:04.428 --> 00:09:07.408 Are there any other therapy modalities that you value? 00:09:07.408 --> 00:09:15.588 I am specifically curious what your thoughts are on internal family systems, and whether its premises are compatible with Christian orthodoxy. 00:09:17.168 --> 00:09:23.908 This one is maybe a little in the weeds for some people, but it's useful, it's a very relevant thing in our modern world, certainly. 00:09:23.908 --> 00:09:33.268 And so when it comes to psychology and the different therapy modalities, you're going to have a handful of different ones that are the main ones. 00:09:33.268 --> 00:09:44.248 There are some minor ones as well, but you have psychodynamics, also called psychoanalysis, more typically psychoanalysis, I think is the one of which people are more aware. 00:09:44.248 --> 00:09:53.988 Cognitive behavioral, as mentioned, the existential or humanist school, the FST, which is the one that is sort of the point of this question. 00:09:53.988 --> 00:09:58.948 Then you have the somatic theories, which basically focus almost entirely on biology. 00:09:58.948 --> 00:10:03.328 And then there are a few other minor ones, like I said, so coherence theory and things like that. 00:10:03.328 --> 00:10:15.908 But insofar as all of these theories are concerned, none of them are without issue for Christians, but all of them have some value. 00:10:15.908 --> 00:10:18.668 I am definitely going to say that some are more valuable than others. 00:10:18.668 --> 00:10:28.848 Certainly, I'm going to say cognitive behavioral is the best school, not simply because I believe it is the most compatible with Christianity, which I do believe that it is. 00:10:28.848 --> 00:10:48.268 I do also think, incidentally, that psychodynamic psychoanalysis can be compatible with Christianity, although not so much in the Freudian sense and not following Freud, a little more following Jung, but specifically purged of his esoteric and just very weird elements, Gnosticism, things like that. 00:10:48.268 --> 00:11:01.668 But insofar as these schools are concerned, if you don't just buy into them wholesale, which there's no reason you have to do that, you can take the good and leave the bad, then there will be utility in all of them, but some more than others. 00:11:01.668 --> 00:11:14.248 And so, just to run through again very quickly, obviously for psychoanalysis, you have the problems inherent in Freud, everyone is kind of aware of those, just stay away from Freud, he was a weird Jew. 00:11:14.248 --> 00:11:34.088 And so, Jung was a better psychologist anyway, better psychiatrist, more intelligent man, but one of the fruits of that particular school would be the Myers-Briggs, which would be the personality typing, and we're all familiar with that, as that has come up a number of times on X, in Stone Choir, elsewhere. 00:11:34.088 --> 00:11:36.288 I'm an int J, we all know that. 00:11:36.288 --> 00:11:46.748 So, that is Jung purged of the esoteric and gnostic elements and boiled down to something that actually has a great deal of utility. 00:11:46.748 --> 00:12:02.688 I would say that after probably IQ, the personality typing is probably the most useful thing that has been produced by psychology, at least in the last, you know, 80 years, give or take, maybe more than that. 00:12:02.688 --> 00:12:17.248 For cognitive behavioral, the problem would be that it tends to lean into being a little too materialistic, but that's not inherent in those theories, so you can simply ignore the fact that many of those who practice it are materialists, are atheists. 00:12:17.248 --> 00:12:28.708 You can integrate cognitive behavioral therapy into a Christian worldview with no problem, because cognitive behavioral therapy does not rely upon, it does not even assume a materialist worldview. 00:12:29.908 --> 00:12:35.928 It assumes the reality of the flesh, which, as Christians, we should do, because the alternative is Gnosticism. 00:12:35.928 --> 00:12:39.688 So I don't think there's any conflict, any inherent problem there. 00:12:39.688 --> 00:12:44.588 Then you have the existentialist or humanist school, whichever term you want to use for that. 00:12:44.588 --> 00:12:54.948 The problem there is that it views man as essentially good, which, as we know as Christians, man is not essentially good, because man is fallen, man is flawed because of original sin. 00:12:54.948 --> 00:13:01.788 And so you're going to have to work that into how you use those theories if you go with those schools. 00:13:01.788 --> 00:13:05.088 I don't know how much those are worth necessarily. 00:13:05.088 --> 00:13:06.568 Some of them maybe have some utility. 00:13:06.568 --> 00:13:09.868 I am not familiar with some of the more recent developments. 00:13:09.868 --> 00:13:16.108 I have not spent a great deal of time reading psychological literature in the last, say, five, 10 years. 00:13:16.108 --> 00:13:25.408 So it's been a while, but I am familiar with all of the groundwork, the history of it, all those things, and I do read papers every so often to stay up to date on it. 00:13:25.408 --> 00:13:39.668 So there may be some more modern theories in some of these schools, of which I am not aware, that may have more utility and may be more compatible with Christianity, but this is sort of the historical overview, the 30,000 foot view, as it were. 00:13:39.668 --> 00:13:46.148 I already said the somatic theories have the problem of being a little too hard line when it comes to materialism and biology. 00:13:46.148 --> 00:13:52.568 They tend to focus on that to the exclusion of the fact that man is more than his body. 00:13:52.568 --> 00:13:53.448 Man is his body. 00:13:53.448 --> 00:13:54.688 You are your body. 00:13:54.688 --> 00:13:55.608 You don't have a body. 00:13:55.608 --> 00:13:56.308 You are your body. 00:13:57.128 --> 00:13:59.848 But you also are spirit and mind. 00:13:59.848 --> 00:14:01.108 You're not just your body. 00:14:01.108 --> 00:14:04.668 And so, that's sort of the problem that the somatic theories tend to have. 00:14:04.668 --> 00:14:27.528 So, insofar as the FST theories are concerned, I don't think that they're necessarily useless, but I would be very careful with regard specifically to the fact that some of them lean a little heavily into dividing up man's psyche into these different parts, they will say, which verge on being different personalities. 00:14:27.528 --> 00:14:36.768 And obviously, the last thing you want to do is train someone to have MPD, which I think is what you can kind of run the risk of doing with FST. 00:14:36.768 --> 00:14:47.088 So, the overall answer is just that, yes, they have utility, but be aware of the deficiencies and calculate those into how you use them in whatever it is that you happen to be doing. 00:14:47.088 --> 00:14:54.608 If you're a trained therapist, whatever it is, jettison the parts that aren't compatible with Christianity and use the parts that are, there's nothing wrong with doing that. 00:14:54.608 --> 00:15:00.408 You are perfectly allowed, it is perfectly acceptable, to take the good and leave the bad. 00:15:03.848 --> 00:15:10.488 The next question, again, shifting gears a little bit, is about Anabaptists in Paraguay. 00:15:10.488 --> 00:15:29.208 And of course, for those who are not familiar with the history, at one point during the 1800s, I don't remember exactly when, but you had a number of German immigrants, there's going to be two different waves here, and I think he's talking about the second, not the first. 00:15:29.208 --> 00:15:34.728 You had two waves of German immigrants who moved to Paraguay, what is now Paraguay. 00:15:34.728 --> 00:15:41.908 And the first group moved to the department that is known as San Pedro, San Pedro, as it would be pronounced. 00:15:41.908 --> 00:15:48.628 I lived in Southern California, where there was a San Pedro, and yes, it was pronounced like that, despite being a Spanish name. 00:15:48.628 --> 00:15:52.848 And that would be the Nueva Germania, was what they were setting up there. 00:15:52.848 --> 00:15:58.428 And then the second wave moved to the department of Bucaron. 00:15:58.428 --> 00:16:04.788 And I think he's probably talking about that one, because that's where most of the Mennonites went, which would be the Anabaptists. 00:16:04.788 --> 00:16:13.208 And so insofar as that is concerned, you have a population in Paraguay of seven million-ish. 00:16:14.068 --> 00:16:25.508 And you have 400, 500,000 of the German-descended Anabaptists, which a lot of people don't know that that population exists, but it does. 00:16:25.508 --> 00:16:31.628 And so his question, after that little bit of context, I am from the Anabaptist group that left Prussia. 00:16:31.628 --> 00:16:33.108 We are in Paraguay nowadays. 00:16:33.108 --> 00:16:37.208 Sadly, most of our groups still hold to Anabaptists and pacifist teaching. 00:16:37.208 --> 00:16:48.168 Working to change that, given the fact that we separated from Protestants and ultimately from the Germans for unbiblical reasons, which is true, would you say it is our moral duty to repent and seek to reunite? 00:16:48.168 --> 00:16:54.588 Some of our people say, God has put us here to do good in Paraguay, but we don't know what to make of that argument. 00:16:54.588 --> 00:17:00.128 And so I think that I do agree with sort of the argument there at the end. 00:17:00.128 --> 00:17:09.448 I think that you are where God has put you, and yes, there's always the fact where you can look at historically, have our ancestors done things that were wicked. 00:17:09.448 --> 00:17:10.788 That's true for all of us, of course. 00:17:10.868 --> 00:17:17.168 Some more so than others, certainly not all of us are descended from those who murdered Christ, for instance, thank God. 00:17:17.168 --> 00:17:23.748 But insofar as where you are, do good works where you are for your people. 00:17:23.748 --> 00:17:30.408 Like I said, there are four to 500,000 German descended Christians in Paraguay. 00:17:30.408 --> 00:17:31.688 That's a sizable community. 00:17:31.688 --> 00:17:34.608 That's not an insignificant number of people. 00:17:34.608 --> 00:17:47.908 And so yes, you're going to have some challenges in maintaining your culture and your ethnicity, your nationality, your racial characteristics living there, surrounded by this larger culture of millions. 00:17:47.908 --> 00:17:52.048 But at the same time, it's not a trivial number, so that can be done. 00:17:52.048 --> 00:17:55.188 And so maintain your customs, maintain your history. 00:17:55.188 --> 00:18:00.348 Yes, amend the theological errors, which pacifism obviously is false. 00:18:00.348 --> 00:18:02.928 Christianity has never been a pacifist religion. 00:18:02.928 --> 00:18:06.388 Christ is often spoken of as wielding a sword in scripture. 00:18:06.468 --> 00:18:08.688 He comes back on a warhorse wielding a sword. 00:18:08.688 --> 00:18:12.148 So not a pacifist religion. 00:18:12.148 --> 00:18:18.208 Insofar as obviously baptism and things like that, it's the same problem that many Christian groups have with regard to theology. 00:18:18.208 --> 00:18:23.828 And I'll get into that in a later question in this episode, I believe, with regard to the churches of Christ. 00:18:23.828 --> 00:18:25.188 That's what it was. 00:18:25.188 --> 00:18:29.768 But yes, work on the theological and doctrinal problems. 00:18:29.768 --> 00:18:34.288 But I think that where you are is where you should continue to live. 00:18:34.288 --> 00:18:35.348 You have a community there. 00:18:35.448 --> 00:18:38.108 It has fairly deep roots at this point. 00:18:38.108 --> 00:18:42.148 Many of the Germans who live in the United States have been here since the early 1800s. 00:18:42.148 --> 00:18:46.708 And so you've been there roughly as long as a lot of the German population has been here. 00:18:46.708 --> 00:18:52.548 Incidentally, my family has been here longer, but a lot of Germans came over in the 1800s. 00:18:52.548 --> 00:18:55.608 So you have your community there. 00:18:55.608 --> 00:18:57.428 You have your people there. 00:18:57.428 --> 00:19:03.348 I don't think that you have to move back to Germany or move to the United States and integrate into a Germanic community. 00:19:03.928 --> 00:19:06.048 You have that there. 00:19:06.048 --> 00:19:10.548 Do the best that you can with what God has given you and where God has placed you. 00:19:10.548 --> 00:19:28.888 And if circumstances were to change in the future, then, sure, you may have to move somewhere else in the world, but I don't think that Paraguay has many of those problems right now, so you're probably in a pretty good position overall relative to a lot of other Christian groups in the world, particularly Germanic Christian groups in the world. 00:19:28.888 --> 00:19:32.228 So no, I think stay there and do the best you can. 00:19:32.368 --> 00:19:34.848 Be a good Christian there, do well for your people. 00:19:37.268 --> 00:19:58.828 The next question is a question about the development of the modern Jewish population, and I won't get too far off into the weeds with regard to DNA and all those things because I just don't want to do that, and also I don't have all of the setup right now to show all the charts and everything, and that's not really why we're here. 00:19:58.828 --> 00:20:14.228 But to read the question, I don't think the Stone Quire episode on the Jews explained this the best to me, or maybe I didn't pay attention, enough attention, but can you explain how we got from the Israelites slash Hebrews in the Old Testament to the Jews we have today? 00:20:14.228 --> 00:20:25.308 I know that the Israelites were wiped out of existence by the Assyrians, and the kingdom of Judah was deported, but how did we get from Judeans to Pharisees to the Jews we know and love, in quotes, today? 00:20:26.088 --> 00:20:31.868 Can you also explain the Khazars and whether or not today's Jews have anything to do with that theory? 00:20:32.988 --> 00:20:38.508 And so, with regard to the Jews, the history that he has there is correct. 00:20:38.508 --> 00:20:42.808 You have the Assyrian exile, which was the destruction of the Northern Kingdom. 00:20:42.808 --> 00:20:45.848 The Northern Kingdom is the kingdom that was called Israel. 00:20:45.848 --> 00:20:52.428 When you are distinguishing between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, Judah is the Southern Kingdom. 00:20:52.508 --> 00:20:59.108 You can look at a map of modern-day, so-called, Israel, and see that Jerusalem is in the South. 00:20:59.108 --> 00:21:02.828 Jerusalem, part of Judah, Southern Kingdom. 00:21:02.828 --> 00:21:07.728 The Babylonian exile did not destroy Judah. 00:21:07.728 --> 00:21:12.988 Now, it did not do anything good for Judah, certainly, and that's sort of where they started firming up their Talmud. 00:21:12.988 --> 00:21:16.828 So, historically, that has been beneficial to basically no one. 00:21:16.828 --> 00:21:20.508 But the Babylonians did not destroy them as a people. 00:21:21.208 --> 00:21:29.168 The Babylonians deported many of them to Babylon, some stayed in Judah, but then many of them returned later on. 00:21:29.168 --> 00:21:46.048 And then what you have, and why we have them now in Europe and everywhere else in the world, is they migrated out of Judea during the time of the Roman Empire, and then also subsequent to the destruction of Judea by the Romans, because the Romans did not kill them all. 00:21:46.048 --> 00:21:47.148 The Romans didn't destroy them all. 00:21:47.148 --> 00:22:00.148 Many of them escaped, granted, a huge chunk of the population did not, as judgment from God, but they had already spread out in the diaspora before Rome destroyed them. 00:22:00.148 --> 00:22:02.828 And so, they spread from there. 00:22:02.828 --> 00:22:14.548 But to answer the question about the Khazar theory, the Khazars, some of them, we know, converted to Judaism, at least some of the upper echelons of their society. 00:22:14.548 --> 00:22:16.888 We don't have evidence of a wholesale conversion. 00:22:17.168 --> 00:22:22.768 We don't have evidence of a mass integration of them into the Jewish population. 00:22:22.768 --> 00:22:26.128 And we don't have evidence of a mass migration of them. 00:22:26.128 --> 00:22:31.308 And so, theories that depend on those claims don't have sufficient warrant. 00:22:31.308 --> 00:22:36.788 But more importantly than that, perhaps, is the fact that we do have the hard evidence of DNA. 00:22:36.788 --> 00:22:50.988 And so, if you look at, for instance, the Y DNA, which say the male DNA of Jews, the male sex chromosome, they are Middle Eastern and Southern European. 00:22:50.988 --> 00:22:56.848 There's some overlap there with Southern Europeans, not Northern Europeans, not the Khazars, but some Southern Europeans. 00:22:56.848 --> 00:22:59.828 Because, of course, they migrated during what time? 00:22:59.828 --> 00:23:04.388 The height of the Roman Empire, and so Italy, Southern Europe. 00:23:04.388 --> 00:23:10.088 And so, the groups for Y DNA would be J1, J2, E1, B1B. 00:23:10.088 --> 00:23:15.768 And additionally, you can look at the mitochondrial DNA, which, of course, is the maternal DNA. 00:23:15.768 --> 00:23:18.068 That's also Middle Eastern and Southern European. 00:23:18.068 --> 00:23:23.708 And so, the Khazar theory just doesn't pan out from the evidence that we have. 00:23:23.708 --> 00:23:37.408 They are related to the populations from that part of the world, from Judea, from ancient Israel, but they have some admixture from Southern Europe and a couple other places as well, in many cases. 00:23:37.408 --> 00:23:38.928 They are miscegenated. 00:23:38.928 --> 00:23:41.668 That is a curse from God, that is a judgment on them. 00:23:41.868 --> 00:23:44.968 That is one of the ways in which God has cursed them. 00:23:44.968 --> 00:23:48.048 But they are very much related to the ancient people. 00:23:48.048 --> 00:23:50.728 And if you look at the Old Testament, they behave in the same way. 00:23:50.728 --> 00:23:58.788 They're doing the same thing today that they did in the desert while they were wandering, that they did while God was blessing them in the promised land that they have done again and again and again. 00:23:58.788 --> 00:24:08.588 Despite the number of prophets that God has sent to them, despite how many times God has punished them and then relented, they are very deeply cursed and they've always behaved this way. 00:24:09.388 --> 00:24:14.208 So, particularly the theories that try to say that Europeans are the real Jews, completely laughable. 00:24:14.208 --> 00:24:15.128 We don't behave like that. 00:24:15.128 --> 00:24:19.948 Look at our ancestors and how they behave versus how the Jews in the Old Testament behave. 00:24:19.948 --> 00:24:21.448 I don't want to be related to those people. 00:24:21.448 --> 00:24:24.348 Why would anyone want to be related to them? 00:24:24.348 --> 00:24:25.408 It's complete nonsense. 00:24:25.408 --> 00:24:27.468 The evidence just doesn't pan out. 00:24:27.468 --> 00:24:31.668 So, hopefully, that answers your question about the Jews and how we wound up with them. 00:24:31.668 --> 00:24:41.528 Just basic migration under the Roman Empire and then diaspora, also partly subsequent to the Babylonian exile and partly after the destruction of Judea. 00:24:41.528 --> 00:24:51.488 And unfortunately, Christian princes in Europe were wicked enough, stupid enough, but wicked enough to permit them to settle in their lands for a number of different reasons. 00:24:55.628 --> 00:25:01.548 The next question is about Zechariah, but before I do that, I'm going to have a sip of tea here. 00:25:01.548 --> 00:25:07.148 The problem of not having a co-host when you're doing a solo podcast is you can't just have someone else talk for five minutes. 00:25:13.283 --> 00:25:16.623 Try not to get tea in my mustache there. 00:25:16.623 --> 00:25:22.243 So the next question, Zechariah 14 and Isaiah 65. 00:25:22.243 --> 00:25:25.063 Let me read the question here. 00:25:25.063 --> 00:25:36.903 Where or how does Zechariah 14 fit into an all millennial view verses 16 through 19 in particular, and what of Isaiah 65, 16 through 25? 00:25:38.663 --> 00:25:40.963 So again, I will pull up Logos for this. 00:25:44.943 --> 00:25:45.623 Since that will. 00:26:02.241 --> 00:26:06.881 I don't think that I will read all of Zechariah 14. 00:26:06.881 --> 00:26:09.521 Well, I'll read some of it. 00:26:09.521 --> 00:26:10.061 We'll see. 00:26:10.061 --> 00:26:11.541 Maybe I'll wind up reading the whole thing. 00:26:11.541 --> 00:26:12.421 It's not that long. 00:26:12.421 --> 00:26:16.141 I read far more every day when recording the devotions and such. 00:26:17.581 --> 00:26:30.641 Behold, days of the Lord are coming, and your spoils shall be divided in you, and I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem for battle, and the city shall be taken, and the house is looted, and the women defiled, and half the city shall go into captivity. 00:26:31.281 --> 00:26:41.741 But the rest of my people shall not be utterly destroyed from the city, and the Lord will go forth and draw up in battle order against those nations like a day of his marshalling in a day of battle. 00:26:41.741 --> 00:27:17.121 And on that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which is opposite Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split, half of it to the east, and half of it to the sea, an exceedingly great chasm, and half of the mount shall incline northward, and half of it southward, and the valley of my mountains shall be blocked up, and the valley of the mountains shall be joined up to Jassel, some of the names in the nets are a little weird every so often, and it shall be blocked up as it was blocked in the days of the earthquake, in the days of King Ozias of Judah, and the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. 00:27:17.121 --> 00:27:21.241 On that day there shall be no light, nor cold weather, nor frost. 00:27:21.241 --> 00:27:29.861 It shall be for one day, and that day is known to the Lord, and not a day, and not a night, and at evening time there shall be light. 00:27:29.861 --> 00:27:37.161 And on that day living water shall come forth from Jerusalem, half of it into the first sea, and half of it into the last sea. 00:27:37.161 --> 00:27:39.981 Even in summer and spring it will be so. 00:27:39.981 --> 00:27:42.441 And the Lord will become king over all the earth. 00:27:42.441 --> 00:27:46.281 On that day the Lord will be one, and his name one. 00:27:46.301 --> 00:27:53.181 One shall go around the whole land by way of the wilderness, from Gabe unto Ramon south of Jerusalem. 00:27:53.181 --> 00:27:55.561 Going to skip a little bit here. 00:27:55.561 --> 00:28:04.281 And it shall be on that day a great panic from the Lord shall be upon them, and each will seize the hand of his neighbor, and his hand will be joined to the hand of his neighbor. 00:28:04.281 --> 00:28:12.601 And Judah will fight at Jerusalem, and shall collect the strength of all the peoples round about, gold and silver and apparel in great abundance. 00:28:12.601 --> 00:28:21.561 And this shall be the overthrow of the horses, and the mules and the camels and the donkeys, and all the animals that are in those camps, according to the Calamity. 00:28:21.561 --> 00:28:25.921 And of course, it goes on in the same way, talking about Egypt and a few other things. 00:28:25.921 --> 00:28:30.701 And the Canaanites shall no longer be in the house of the Lord Almighty on that day. 00:28:30.701 --> 00:28:41.501 I encourage you, of course, to go and read that entire thing for yourself, particularly from the Septuagint, because of course, the Septuagint is better. 00:28:41.501 --> 00:28:44.441 It is the Word of God, and so it is the one we should be using. 00:28:44.441 --> 00:29:05.761 Insofar as, I'll leave the scripture up for now, because I'm also going to read that section from Isaiah, insofar as these sorts of passages are concerned, and there are many of these passages in scripture, it is important to bear in mind that typically, when you are dealing with these passages, they're dealing with the eschaton. 00:29:05.761 --> 00:29:15.581 They're not dealing specifically with any particular battle in ancient times, any particular fight against ancient Jerusalem. 00:29:15.661 --> 00:29:17.721 This isn't ancient Jerusalem here. 00:29:17.721 --> 00:29:24.681 Now, of course, there are times, and to some degree, in typologically, at least symbolically, this is one of those. 00:29:24.681 --> 00:29:27.981 There are times where you have a cyclical fulfillment of prophecy. 00:29:27.981 --> 00:29:36.761 And so you'll have one fulfillment in ancient Israel, and you'll have it looking forward to the eschaton, and that's the true fulfillment. 00:29:36.761 --> 00:29:38.881 You have the type and the antitype there. 00:29:38.881 --> 00:29:41.341 That's the sort of relationship. 00:29:41.341 --> 00:29:50.301 This is dealing with the new Jerusalem, with the Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven, the true Jerusalem, the city of God. 00:29:50.301 --> 00:30:05.621 And one of the ways that you can tell that is that if this were some sort of future battle, as many of those in the Dispensationalist Camper are of course going to try to claim, why on earth do we have horses and donkeys and camels in a modern battle? 00:30:06.721 --> 00:30:08.201 No one uses those. 00:30:08.201 --> 00:30:09.381 No one is going to use those. 00:30:09.381 --> 00:30:16.601 If you had a major battle like this is portraying here, you would not have a bunch of animals in your camp these days. 00:30:16.601 --> 00:30:21.701 This is not going to happen, because that's just not how modern wars are waged. 00:30:21.701 --> 00:30:25.801 Now, I'm not saying that occasionally the Arabs don't try to strap a rocket launcher onto a camel. 00:30:25.801 --> 00:30:27.441 Those sorts of things happen. 00:30:27.441 --> 00:30:29.561 But that's not what this is speaking about. 00:30:29.561 --> 00:30:33.081 And clearly we can see here that this is again eschatological. 00:30:33.081 --> 00:30:34.881 This is talking about the future. 00:30:34.881 --> 00:30:52.341 This is talking about what will happen with regard to basically the serpent, Satan, and all of his armies, all of those who follow him, waging war against the saints, waging war against the city of God, the true Jerusalem, and of course, God triumphs. 00:30:53.521 --> 00:30:57.981 But one of the ways we can look at this is, let me pull up another passage here. 00:30:59.021 --> 00:31:05.381 One of the related passages is, of course, Revelation, is it Revelation 21? 00:31:05.381 --> 00:31:06.921 Is it 21, I believe? 00:31:12.713 --> 00:31:17.333 So, yeah, starting with verse 10, not actually nine. 00:31:17.333 --> 00:31:25.313 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. 00:31:25.313 --> 00:31:30.313 Its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal. 00:31:30.313 --> 00:31:34.353 This is the Jerusalem of which the Old Testament is speaking. 00:31:34.353 --> 00:31:54.493 When you see these passages about massive end times battles and God coming down to fight for his people and a restoration, and one of the other ways that you can see this is many times in these passages, dealing with eschatological battles and the last day is that it will speak of the last day. 00:31:54.493 --> 00:31:56.793 It will speak of the day of the Lord. 00:31:56.793 --> 00:31:57.393 That's what this is. 00:31:57.393 --> 00:31:59.893 Behold, days of the Lord are coming. 00:31:59.893 --> 00:32:17.853 And another way you can look at this and recognize when scripture is doing this is that it speaks of the consequences of God doing this in terms of all of his people turning to him, everyone having his word in their hearts, everyone believing. 00:32:17.853 --> 00:32:22.273 That's never going to happen in this life on this earth. 00:32:22.273 --> 00:32:23.833 That is the next life. 00:32:23.833 --> 00:32:25.313 That is the new earth. 00:32:25.313 --> 00:32:31.893 That is when the holy city Jerusalem, the true Jerusalem, not the one over in Palestine. 00:32:31.893 --> 00:32:32.953 That one is irrelevant. 00:32:33.753 --> 00:32:40.733 When the true city of God comes down to earth, which that's speaking of the renewal of all things. 00:32:40.733 --> 00:32:53.933 So, if you pay attention to these terms that are used, you can start to notice when something is eschatological, when something is typological, dealing with the new heavens and the new earth, not dealing with ancient Israel. 00:32:53.933 --> 00:33:05.333 Even if, again, you may have that cyclical fulfillment in some cases, where you had a fulfillment for Old Testament Israel, and then you had the true fulfillment in the future for Christians. 00:33:05.333 --> 00:33:08.453 And so, I'll pull up the... 00:33:08.453 --> 00:33:10.133 Is that Isaiah 65 here? 00:33:10.133 --> 00:33:15.193 Yes. 00:33:15.193 --> 00:33:18.993 Pull up the verse here in Isaiah as well, starting with verse 16. 00:33:18.993 --> 00:33:20.193 Actually, I'll start with 15. 00:33:20.193 --> 00:33:22.093 15 is the beginning of the thought there. 00:33:22.093 --> 00:33:27.333 For you shall leave your name for fullness to my chosen ones, but the Lord will do away with you. 00:33:27.333 --> 00:33:32.953 But to those who are subject to him, a new name shall be called, which shall be blessed on the earth. 00:33:32.953 --> 00:33:38.633 For they shall bless the true God, and those who swear on the earth shall swear by the true God. 00:33:38.633 --> 00:33:43.613 For they shall forget their first affliction, and it shall not come up into their heart. 00:33:43.613 --> 00:33:51.253 For heaven will be new, and the earth will be new, and they shall not remember the former things, nor shall they come upon their heart. 00:33:51.253 --> 00:33:53.873 But they shall find joy and gladness in it. 00:33:53.873 --> 00:33:58.573 Because, look, I am making Jerusalem as gladness, and my people as a joy. 00:33:58.573 --> 00:34:02.333 And I will be glad over Jerusalem, and rejoice over my people. 00:34:02.333 --> 00:34:06.693 And no more shall a voice of weeping be heard in it, nor a voice of crying. 00:34:06.693 --> 00:34:12.813 And there shall not be there one who dies untimely, or an old person who will not fulfill his time. 00:34:12.813 --> 00:34:19.093 For the young person will be a hundred years old, and the one who dies a sinner will be a hundred years old and accursed. 00:34:19.093 --> 00:34:22.273 And they shall build houses, and themselves shall inhabit them. 00:34:22.273 --> 00:34:25.653 And they shall plant vineyards, and themselves shall eat their fruit. 00:34:25.653 --> 00:34:27.533 And they shall not build, and others inhabit. 00:34:27.853 --> 00:34:30.213 And they shall not plant, and others eat. 00:34:30.213 --> 00:34:34.413 For according to the days of the tree of life, shall the days of my people be. 00:34:34.413 --> 00:34:37.653 They shall make old, and the works of their labors. 00:34:37.653 --> 00:34:45.293 And my chosen ones shall not labor in vain, nor bear children for a curse, because they are an offspring blessed by God. 00:34:45.293 --> 00:34:48.833 And it shall be that before they have cried out, I will listen to them. 00:34:48.833 --> 00:34:51.673 While they are yet speaking, I will say, what is it? 00:34:51.673 --> 00:34:59.133 Then wolves and lambs shall feed together, and a lion shall eat straw like an ox, but a snake shall eat earth as bread. 00:34:59.133 --> 00:35:03.693 They shall not do wrong or destroy, on my holy mountain, says the Lord. 00:35:04.713 --> 00:35:11.333 And so the very sort of things that I said there, you can see taking place in this particular passage. 00:35:11.333 --> 00:35:13.493 For heaven will be new, and the earth will be new. 00:35:13.493 --> 00:35:14.993 This is the renewal of all things. 00:35:14.993 --> 00:35:20.133 I wish that Lagos would not pop up that interstitial menu, but it does. 00:35:20.133 --> 00:35:26.373 So you see the renewal of all things here, and you can also see it when it speaks about, the lion shall eat straw like an ox. 00:35:26.373 --> 00:35:28.413 This is not something that happens in this life. 00:35:28.413 --> 00:35:30.153 It doesn't happen on this earth. 00:35:30.153 --> 00:35:32.313 That is the renewal of all things. 00:35:32.313 --> 00:35:35.253 That is what is being spoken of here in this passage. 00:35:38.193 --> 00:35:48.773 So the next question was actually one that I said in a previous episode that I would answer because I had not looked into it recently, and I wanted to make sure that I remembered correctly. 00:35:48.773 --> 00:35:55.053 This is dealing with the churches of Christ, and what I think of that denomination. 00:35:55.053 --> 00:35:56.773 Now, is it better than many? 00:35:56.773 --> 00:36:02.853 I think I could start off by saying that yes, it probably is better than a lot of current denominations these days. 00:36:02.853 --> 00:36:13.253 It is going to depend, as is true for almost every denomination these days, in part on your particular congregation, because some congregations are certainly going to be better than others. 00:36:13.253 --> 00:36:16.793 So what are the distinctives of the churches of Christ? 00:36:16.793 --> 00:36:19.793 May as well run through those so people have some idea. 00:36:19.833 --> 00:36:21.553 They are restorationist. 00:36:21.553 --> 00:36:29.013 They believe that the New Testament is the only rule of faith and practice, and that end practice part is important. 00:36:29.013 --> 00:36:34.813 They do seem to minimize the Old Testament in a way that is not permissible for Christians. 00:36:34.813 --> 00:36:40.693 That is a problem they have, because the New Testament is more important than the Old Testament. 00:36:40.693 --> 00:36:43.973 There's nothing wrong with saying that certain parts of Scripture are more important than others. 00:36:43.973 --> 00:36:45.633 That is certainly true. 00:36:45.633 --> 00:36:48.993 And God himself treats some parts of Scripture as more important than others. 00:36:49.373 --> 00:36:53.693 You can think about how many times God cites to certain books in the Old Testament. 00:36:54.913 --> 00:37:01.953 Another thing that they do is they reject creeds, and you can make that an uppercase C or not, because it's true in both cases. 00:37:01.953 --> 00:37:07.393 It's not that they reject the content of the creeds, but they reject the creeds as being binding on Christians. 00:37:07.393 --> 00:37:20.153 I would, of course, disagree with that as a traditional Protestant, and so would any other traditional Protestant, because at least we can all agree that the apostles, the Nicene, and the Athanasian creeds are binding on Christians. 00:37:20.153 --> 00:37:28.633 And the reason they're binding is not because they're creeds, it's because they are statements that are completely, entirely categorically consonant with scripture. 00:37:28.633 --> 00:37:30.373 They are taken from scripture. 00:37:30.373 --> 00:37:43.333 And I published before, as part of the Stone Choir Notes, various people have gone through and footnoted the creeds to show where they reference scripture and what they teach, and how it is directly from scripture. 00:37:44.013 --> 00:37:50.453 And so, I would disagree that the creeds are not binding because I would say the creeds are binding because they are a restatement of scripture. 00:37:50.453 --> 00:37:53.673 And so, insofar as scripture is binding, they're binding. 00:37:53.673 --> 00:38:06.513 In the Lutheran context, the way that we would usually speak about this, and we usually speak about it with regard to the Book of Concord, the three ecumenical creeds are the first thing in the Book of Concord other than the introduction. 00:38:06.513 --> 00:38:24.493 And so, we would speak of it in terms of, you have the Norma Normans and the Norma Normata, which is just Latin for Norma Normans, the Norming Norm, and the Norma Normata, the Normed Norm, which just means Scripture and the Confessions. 00:38:24.493 --> 00:38:30.393 But it means it in a specific way, because Scripture is the norm that norms all other norms. 00:38:30.393 --> 00:38:40.933 And after a while, yes, the word norm starts to sound like it makes no sense, but Scripture is the standard by which everything else must be judged, and everything else must be consonant with Scripture. 00:38:41.633 --> 00:38:46.873 Everything else must be conformed to Scripture, or normed by Scripture. 00:38:46.873 --> 00:38:57.853 And so we hold to the Confessions, because the Confessions are the normed norm, and they are normed according to the norm, Scripture. 00:38:57.853 --> 00:39:01.913 And so we don't hold to the Confessions because they're the Confessions. 00:39:01.913 --> 00:39:07.233 We hold to the Confessions because they are a true statement of what is in Scripture. 00:39:08.613 --> 00:39:14.793 And so, insofar as they disagree with creeds, I'm obviously going to disagree with them. 00:39:14.793 --> 00:39:18.873 Moving on and back to the Churches of Christ, they're Congregationalist in polity. 00:39:18.873 --> 00:39:22.193 I don't personally prefer a Congregationalist polity. 00:39:22.193 --> 00:39:34.313 I think that these days, it's very beneficial, because if you are part of a body that is going off the rails or has already done so, your congregation can just leave because you own your property, most likely. 00:39:34.913 --> 00:39:43.193 And so, the supervising body, whatever it happens to be, synod, corporate, whatever you call it, can't tell you, no, you can't leave because we own your building. 00:39:43.193 --> 00:39:45.473 That's a problem the Roman Catholics have. 00:39:45.473 --> 00:39:51.493 And of course, they have other problems as well, theologically with doing that, because they can't really leave. 00:39:51.493 --> 00:39:56.433 But as a Lutheran, for instance, there's nothing preventing a Lutheran Church from leaving the LCMS. 00:39:56.433 --> 00:39:57.713 They can do that. 00:39:57.713 --> 00:40:02.593 And so, having the Congregationalist polity is beneficial in a practical way. 00:40:03.293 --> 00:40:09.453 I just don't agree with it necessarily that it is the best way, because it lacks that hierarchy that I do believe has some benefits. 00:40:09.453 --> 00:40:15.333 It just has to be held in check, and constantly checked against the Word of God. 00:40:17.033 --> 00:40:24.893 Insofar as their view of the New Testament is concerned, many of them would hold, perhaps not all, because there's some... 00:40:24.893 --> 00:40:25.813 It's an umbrella. 00:40:25.813 --> 00:40:34.133 There are differences within the Churches of Christ, but many of them will hold that if the New Testament doesn't explicitly authorize it, then you can't do it. 00:40:34.133 --> 00:40:38.373 This is one of the things against which we fought in Stone Choir and elsewhere. 00:40:38.373 --> 00:40:42.353 There are truths that are not contained in Scripture. 00:40:42.353 --> 00:40:43.453 We all know that. 00:40:43.453 --> 00:40:45.533 I'm sitting here looking at my cup of tea. 00:40:45.533 --> 00:40:47.413 There's caffeine in this. 00:40:47.413 --> 00:40:50.573 Scripture doesn't say anywhere that there's caffeine in this. 00:40:50.573 --> 00:40:53.093 Scripture doesn't say anywhere that I can drink tea. 00:40:53.093 --> 00:40:54.253 I'm allowed to drink tea. 00:40:54.253 --> 00:40:55.033