WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:02.620 It is the 18th of December. 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:03.660 I am Corey J. 00:00:03.660 --> 00:00:06.360 Mahler, and this is At Any Cost. 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:18.160 I think I will probably just jump right into the questions and answers section since there's not really any housekeeping this time, except for the usual sort of things at the end of the episode. 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:25.840 I will assume that the audio is fine for everyone since I don't see any comments in the chat that it is not. 00:00:25.840 --> 00:00:28.160 So I will simply pull up the first question here. 00:00:30.940 --> 00:00:39.640 The first question is relatively long, but a very simple question, straightforward. 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:46.420 So I will just give sort of the Cliffnote version of it, as it were. 00:00:46.420 --> 00:00:52.280 How do we have faith and not doubt is essentially the question. 00:00:52.280 --> 00:01:01.400 And so there are a lot of places in scripture where it says basically, if you have faith and you don't doubt, then certain things will happen. 00:01:01.400 --> 00:01:17.480 This is not sort of a prosperity gospel or therapeutic gospel or any of those various other, I'll be generous and call them heterodoxies, but you have to look at the places in which this is said in scripture. 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:29.860 And many times you're dealing with Christ speaking in parables or speaking in riddles, which he very much enjoyed doing while he was serving in his ministry here on earth. 00:01:29.860 --> 00:01:50.220 And so, for instance, I think it's probably good to start by looking at the fig tree, because when Christ curses the fig tree, and then it withers basically immediately, and then will no longer produce fruit, and so he basically may no one ever eat fruit from you again. 00:01:51.440 --> 00:01:59.340 Does that mean that it is bad for the tree not to produce fruit in an off season? 00:01:59.340 --> 00:02:01.540 The answer for the tree is no. 00:02:01.540 --> 00:02:06.860 The answer for a human being, which is what he's getting at there, is yes. 00:02:06.860 --> 00:02:11.820 It's sort of akin to all of the parables about the thief coming in the night. 00:02:11.820 --> 00:02:25.240 You do not know when Christ is going to return, and so you shouldn't think, well, I'm young, I can sin for 30 years, and then I'll repent and everything will be fine, because Christ could come tomorrow. 00:02:25.240 --> 00:02:27.640 He could come in the middle of this recording. 00:02:27.640 --> 00:02:34.960 And so, probably not in the middle of this recording, there are some signs that aren't fulfilled, but he could come relatively soon. 00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:47.600 So, the point of the fig tree is that you don't put off producing those good fruits, because you are a Christian, and you should be producing those all the time. 00:02:47.600 --> 00:02:54.040 The point is not the tree itself, because obviously trees have a season, God created the seasons. 00:02:54.040 --> 00:02:58.380 It's not bad for the tree itself to not be producing in season. 00:02:58.380 --> 00:03:14.700 And so, with regard to having faith and not doubting, part of it comes down to the measure of faith that God has given you, of course, and you can think of the father who exclaims, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. 00:03:14.700 --> 00:03:16.180 There's nothing wrong with that prayer. 00:03:16.180 --> 00:03:24.140 That's a perfectly legitimate prayer for a man to pray, because the measure of faith that you have been given is a gift from God. 00:03:24.140 --> 00:03:30.520 That's always important to remember that, that your faith is not your own work. 00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:32.720 It is something given you by God. 00:03:32.720 --> 00:03:35.760 Now, you can pray for an increase of your faith. 00:03:35.760 --> 00:03:49.120 Of course, that's part of what you're praying for every time you pray the Lord's prayer and, really, any other prayers, particularly if you're going through the Psalms and use them as a prayer book, which they're sort of a hymnal slash prayer book, so you can use it in both ways. 00:03:50.320 --> 00:04:06.560 But, insofar as not doubting is concerned, basically, don't dwell on, basically, doubts, the possibility of doubts, because you can always find some little thread to pull at with anything. 00:04:07.600 --> 00:04:17.820 And, in basically anything in life, if you start down that path, you're going to destroy whatever the thing is, which is why it's good to use the illustration of pulling on a thread. 00:04:17.820 --> 00:04:24.700 If I find a thread in my scarf and start pulling on it, pretty soon I'm not going to have a scarf. 00:04:24.700 --> 00:04:30.420 Now, granted, this one is wool, and so it'd be kind of hard to do, but you get the idea. 00:04:30.420 --> 00:04:45.800 If, for instance, in your relationship with your spouse, you find something that annoys you about your spouse, and you dwell on it, and you pick at it, and you poke at it, you're going to wind up divorced, and you're going to have done that to yourself. 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:57.520 So, with regard to your faith, don't make shipwreck of your faith by finding some way in order to doubt, because you can always find some way to try to walk away from things. 00:04:57.520 --> 00:05:06.420 Apostasy is very possible, so don't apostatize as sort of the basic thing here, the foundational truth. 00:05:07.440 --> 00:05:33.380 When it comes to having that certainty of faith, you need to be active in your prayer life, you need to read the Word of God, because that is how God interacts with you, and trust in God that he will give you the measure of faith that is necessary to meet the challenges in your life, and to meet the challenges that will be brought up by the world, the flesh, and the devil, with regard to your faith. 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:41.500 And there are a number of verses and passages of scripture of the individual cited here, and of course, anyone can go look at that. 00:05:41.500 --> 00:05:46.260 This one happens to be on the forum, and I try to do the ones on the forum first. 00:05:46.260 --> 00:05:51.300 So I think that's sort of the basic answer to that question. 00:05:51.300 --> 00:05:54.120 Perhaps I'll come back to that one at some point in the future. 00:05:54.120 --> 00:06:00.440 I think it's an important question that perhaps I will address in greater depth, so I'll make a note to do that. 00:06:07.893 --> 00:06:16.253 The next question is about pacifism, and particularly with a reference to Dirk Willems. 00:06:16.253 --> 00:06:19.453 I'll just read this one because it's relatively short. 00:06:19.453 --> 00:06:26.713 Among pacifists, one of the great heroes is Dirk Willems, who saved his enemy and got killed as a consequence. 00:06:26.713 --> 00:06:29.733 How do we argue against suicidal empathy? 00:06:29.733 --> 00:06:31.613 Anabaptists claim many martyrs. 00:06:31.613 --> 00:06:35.653 How to differentiate true martyrs from foolish people who got executed? 00:06:36.233 --> 00:06:37.873 And so, a number of related questions there. 00:06:37.873 --> 00:06:46.833 I'll start by just briefly recounting who Dirk Willems is, because many people are not going to know that name. 00:06:46.833 --> 00:06:55.133 There are, of course, many who will, if they're familiar with Anabaptists and their claims, but many others have no idea who that man is. 00:06:55.133 --> 00:07:08.453 So, Dirk Willems was, as you might have guessed, an Anabaptist who was imprisoned for being an Anabaptist, because at the time, in that particular area, it was a crime to be an Anabaptist. 00:07:08.453 --> 00:07:09.853 He escaped. 00:07:09.853 --> 00:07:15.853 And as he was fleeing, his pursuer fell through some thin ice. 00:07:15.853 --> 00:07:21.253 He turned around to help his pursuer and was recaptured as a result. 00:07:21.253 --> 00:07:34.493 Notably, the man who fell through the ice wanted to let him go, but he was reminded it was his duty, he was basically the captor, the jailer, and so it was his duty to recapture him. 00:07:34.493 --> 00:07:39.013 And subsequent to being recaptured, he was burned at the stake. 00:07:39.013 --> 00:07:46.013 So the question would be, in his case, was it right or foolish to do what he did? 00:07:47.033 --> 00:08:01.413 And that one comes down to how you view Anabaptist teaching, because if you come down on the side of Anabaptist teaching, being something that should be punished by the state, then he was a wicked man who needed to be punished. 00:08:01.413 --> 00:08:07.533 And so fleeing punishment for a crime you have, in fact, committed is anti-Christian. 00:08:07.533 --> 00:08:34.953 If you come down on the other side, and you're someone who believes in not freedom of religion, but freedom of denomination, and you think that he should have the right to teach whatever he pleases about scripture, maybe not whatever he pleases, that's a little too broad, but within reason, you think that he should be at least able to disagree, permitted to disagree, without repercussions with regard to the sacraments, with regard to baptism, specifically in this case, of course. 00:08:34.953 --> 00:08:44.093 If you come down on that side, then you're probably going to say, well, no, he was fleeing unjust persecution, and so he's permitted to do that. 00:08:44.093 --> 00:09:13.413 But of course, in both cases, it raises the question of, which is sort of the core of this, the underlying question, when is it your duty as a Christian to stand your ground, even if it results in your death, versus when are you permitted or even required according to wisdom and your duties before God and men, not to do that, not to basically surrender yourself to death. 00:09:13.413 --> 00:09:30.873 And this is partly a wisdom call, but partly not, because it's going to be very obvious if you are called on to confess Christ, and there is going to be very real consequences for doing that. 00:09:32.113 --> 00:09:48.673 So, for instance, if we happen to have a particularly wicked government, which we do, and they start calling Christians before tribunals and saying, renounce God, then you have to confess Christ and go to your death if necessary. 00:09:48.673 --> 00:09:57.113 That makes you a martyr, of course, and I'll get into what a martyr is in a second here, but that makes you a martyr, but that is your duty as a Christian. 00:09:57.113 --> 00:09:58.533 You do not get to deny Christ. 00:09:58.533 --> 00:10:23.473 We are not Muslims, we don't have a bunch of different kinds of lies that we are permitted to tell in order to make our life easier or more convenient, but we're not going so far as the sort of mischaracterization, I would say, of Kant, but the one of which everyone is aware of when you get into this area of discussion with regard to when you have to be truthful. 00:10:23.473 --> 00:10:35.053 The example that is usually used is if a psychopathic killer comes to your door, do you have to say, yes, my wife and children are home and they're hiding in the closet? 00:10:35.053 --> 00:10:35.913 The answer is no. 00:10:36.813 --> 00:10:45.353 And as a Christian, you have no duty to tell that person the truth, because you don't have a duty to tell all truths at all times to all men. 00:10:45.353 --> 00:10:50.053 You have a duty to speak the truth about Christ and never deny him. 00:10:50.053 --> 00:10:53.953 And so that is sort of the dividing line there. 00:10:53.953 --> 00:11:03.633 But with regard to a martyr, a martyr is someone who dies for the faith, who dies because of his Christian faith. 00:11:04.593 --> 00:11:16.133 And you're going to get people who get very nitpicky about that, because they'll say, well, he died because he had political disagreements, but he was also killed because he was a Christian. 00:11:16.133 --> 00:11:18.093 I would say he's a martyr, if that happens. 00:11:18.093 --> 00:11:19.233 This is a hypothetical man. 00:11:19.233 --> 00:11:22.993 I'm not saying this individual, in this case, Willems. 00:11:24.393 --> 00:11:34.473 But whether or not someone is a martyr is a question, essentially, of whether or not he died because of his Christian faith. 00:11:34.473 --> 00:11:53.833 And so perhaps an abstracted political example, an illustration, the Rwandan genocide, if you actually run the numbers as it were, you can make a very strong argument that it was a politicide instead of a genocide. 00:11:53.833 --> 00:12:00.853 Now, does that mean that it didn't have elements of being a genocide even if it were in fact mostly a politicide? 00:12:00.853 --> 00:12:04.033 The answer would be no, it still was a bit of both. 00:12:04.033 --> 00:12:12.933 Regardless of that, I have a particular professor from undergrad who wouldn't want me to make that argument, but he's just wrong if he disagrees. 00:12:12.933 --> 00:12:29.393 When it comes to someone being a martyr, even if there are elements of having died for something else, so you were killed because you were a member of a political party that the ruling class didn't like, but also because you're a Christian, I would say that counts as the person being a martyr. 00:12:29.393 --> 00:12:38.133 Now, I'm not getting into the specific definition that the Roman Catholic Church uses because I don't believe in it, because anyone who dies for the faith is a martyr. 00:12:38.133 --> 00:12:41.653 I'm not going to add additional requirements to that. 00:12:41.653 --> 00:12:53.033 And so, perhaps another ancillary point, but the traditional distinction between a martyr and a confessor is that a confessor doesn't die for the faith. 00:12:53.033 --> 00:12:54.473 He confesses the faith. 00:12:55.233 --> 00:13:07.813 And so, Martin Luther was a confessor of the faith, not a martyr, because he was, in fact, not killed for the faith, despite the fact that both the emperor and the pope tried for quite a while, and they just didn't succeed. 00:13:07.813 --> 00:13:12.793 So, he almost became a martyr many times, but he was not a martyr, he was a confessor. 00:13:12.793 --> 00:13:15.273 Sort of the distinction there. 00:13:16.793 --> 00:13:28.253 And so, when it comes down to assessing whether someone did something foolish or not, it is really that question of did you have to confess Christ? 00:13:28.253 --> 00:13:32.653 Were you called on to either confess or deny Christ before men? 00:13:32.653 --> 00:13:35.413 And if you die for that, you're a martyr. 00:13:35.413 --> 00:13:44.713 If you weren't called on to confess Christ, and you sort of just chose to die, that's probably foolish. 00:13:44.713 --> 00:13:53.913 And so, I'm thinking of the gentleman who decided he was going to sail onto an island full of crazed cannibals, essentially. 00:13:53.913 --> 00:13:57.693 That is definitely more foolish than martyr. 00:13:57.693 --> 00:13:59.573 I don't know that I'd be willing to say that he... 00:13:59.573 --> 00:14:04.113 there's absolutely nothing of martyrdom there, but he shouldn't have done it. 00:14:04.113 --> 00:14:05.013 It was dumb. 00:14:05.013 --> 00:14:06.633 It was foolish. 00:14:06.633 --> 00:14:10.173 That's not the way to evangelize some random tribe like that. 00:14:10.173 --> 00:14:12.473 That's essentially suicide. 00:14:12.473 --> 00:14:15.193 It's not something you should do. 00:14:15.193 --> 00:14:21.653 And then the last question here that I haven't really addressed yet is the suicidal empathy issue. 00:14:21.653 --> 00:14:36.213 And you can't really fix that issue without causing a lot of other problems, because it's not so much an individual issue, it's a structural issue. 00:14:36.213 --> 00:14:50.893 If you don't have a bunch of individuals living around your people who will take advantage of that, it's not a problem to have that desire to help others around you, if you're living in a society that is properly ordered. 00:14:50.893 --> 00:14:55.373 Our problem today is that we are not living in a properly ordered society. 00:14:55.373 --> 00:15:13.433 We are living around some much more than others, unfortunately, for them, but we are living around hostile foreigners who do not have the same morals, who do not have the same concerns, who are going to take advantage of us because of the fact that we have empathy, sympathy, whatever you want to call it. 00:15:13.433 --> 00:15:21.233 I'm not getting into that nest of vipers, quite frankly, with regard to people who think that empathy is a sin. 00:15:21.273 --> 00:15:24.013 It comes down to how you're defining your terms. 00:15:24.013 --> 00:15:35.173 But in this case, can you train someone to care about others and not run some risk of that being exploited? 00:15:35.173 --> 00:15:37.273 I think the answer is no. 00:15:37.273 --> 00:15:44.293 So you have to set up structural safeguards in your society and then it's a good thing to have. 00:15:44.293 --> 00:15:54.453 Now, at the same time, you can certainly train up, for instance, your children, not to simply care for everyone in the world, because you can't do that. 00:15:54.453 --> 00:16:01.213 You have to train them who is your neighbor, care for your neighbor, to whom do you owe a higher duty? 00:16:01.213 --> 00:16:18.893 If you have a higher duty to these people, so your family, for instance, probably the best example, naturally, can you fulfill that duty if instead you run off and pursue foreigners 4,000 miles away who kill you and eat you? 00:16:18.893 --> 00:16:20.253 Well, the answer is no. 00:16:20.253 --> 00:16:32.313 What you've done is you have neglected the higher and greater duty in pursuit of something that is not perhaps a duty at all, which would be sin, at the very least the sin of foolishness. 00:16:32.313 --> 00:16:34.733 And yes, it is sinful to be a fool. 00:16:34.733 --> 00:16:36.753 Scripture is abundantly clear on that one. 00:16:36.893 --> 00:16:38.313 Many, many examples. 00:16:40.133 --> 00:16:46.453 I think that pretty much answers that question, so I will move on to the next one. 00:16:49.253 --> 00:16:55.873 This one is another exegetical question, this one about Colossians 3, 5 through 8. 00:16:55.993 --> 00:17:00.813 So we'll actually just pull that up, since it's the best way to do that. 00:17:04.093 --> 00:17:05.113 Pull up Logos here. 00:17:21.830 --> 00:17:26.690 Logos just likes to add more steps in order to... 00:17:26.690 --> 00:17:29.730 Of course, now it looks like... 00:17:32.290 --> 00:17:33.770 Well, that's an interesting quirk. 00:17:33.770 --> 00:17:43.670 Looks like OBS actually focuses on the individual tab instead of the window, which makes that a little harder. 00:17:43.670 --> 00:17:45.850 Let me see if I can get it to do the right thing here. 00:17:45.850 --> 00:17:46.390 Okay, here we go. 00:17:50.330 --> 00:17:52.970 So, reading from Colossians 3. 00:17:52.970 --> 00:18:00.830 Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 00:18:00.830 --> 00:18:03.470 On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. 00:18:03.470 --> 00:18:06.970 In these, you too once walked, when you were living in them. 00:18:06.970 --> 00:18:11.870 But now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 00:18:13.170 --> 00:18:23.770 And so, the question here, essentially, given the title of this particular post on the Forum, what does it mean to put to death what is earthly in you? 00:18:23.770 --> 00:18:30.410 And I think really, in a large way, the answer to the question, is there in the verse? 00:18:30.410 --> 00:18:36.430 Because when it speaks about that which is earthly in you, it gives the list of things that are earthly. 00:18:36.430 --> 00:18:38.330 It's not an exhaustive list, of course. 00:18:38.330 --> 00:18:40.650 Seldom are the lists in the New Testament exhaustive. 00:18:40.690 --> 00:18:42.930 They're usually illustrative. 00:18:42.930 --> 00:18:51.330 But sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, idolatry, these are the things you are meant to put away. 00:18:51.330 --> 00:19:02.870 And so what it's saying is you have to master the flesh in the sense of the flesh being fallen and trying to pull you away from the things that are good. 00:19:02.870 --> 00:19:12.590 Because the traditional formulation, I used it earlier already in this episode, but the traditional formulation is that you are beset by the world, the flesh, and the devil. 00:19:12.590 --> 00:19:15.550 And you can put those in whichever order you want. 00:19:15.550 --> 00:19:17.690 They're going to differ over time. 00:19:17.690 --> 00:19:20.430 Sometimes you'll be more tempted by the flesh. 00:19:20.430 --> 00:19:24.570 Sometimes you'll be more tempted by the devil, sometimes by the world. 00:19:24.570 --> 00:19:29.870 So, you know, sort of concrete examples, sexual immorality is going to be a temptation of the flesh. 00:19:29.870 --> 00:19:32.050 Pretty obvious on that one. 00:19:32.050 --> 00:19:36.770 When it comes to money, mammon, greed, that's more of a temptation of the world. 00:19:36.770 --> 00:19:38.450 There's a little bit of the flesh in there as well. 00:19:39.530 --> 00:19:45.390 But the other ones here, idolatry, obviously, that's going to be a temptation of the devil to some degree. 00:19:45.390 --> 00:19:49.630 But yes, there's the world as well, because what is the worship of mammon ultimately? 00:19:49.630 --> 00:19:50.430 It's idolatry. 00:19:50.430 --> 00:20:04.870 You've set up another god in your heart, another thing to which you look for all good in your life, and you've made that your god, because the things to which you look for all good are in fact your god, to paraphrase the large catechism. 00:20:06.550 --> 00:20:14.030 And so, when it comes to putting to death the flesh, the things that are earthly in you, it's not that the body is bad. 00:20:14.030 --> 00:20:15.710 Don't ever read it in that way. 00:20:15.710 --> 00:20:18.470 It's not in a gnostic sense. 00:20:18.470 --> 00:20:25.970 It's in the sense of our current flesh is fallen, because in sin did my mother conceive me. 00:20:25.970 --> 00:20:36.690 I'm going to wind up using that verse in almost every episode, seemingly, but our flesh is fallen, because we inherit original sin from our original father Adam. 00:20:36.690 --> 00:20:54.530 It is passed down from generation to generation to generation until the end of this universe, because once we are regenerated in the next life, in paradise, the sinfulness that attaches to this flesh is removed, it's gone. 00:20:54.530 --> 00:20:58.130 We are no longer sinners, and so we will not sin. 00:20:58.870 --> 00:21:11.570 And so, when it comes to this issue of putting to death the things in you that are earthly, it's earthly in the sense of the fallen earth, not earthly in the sense of just fleshly. 00:21:11.570 --> 00:21:16.650 Granted, fleshly can mean either sinful or just of the flesh. 00:21:16.650 --> 00:21:18.890 I'm talking about the latter sense. 00:21:18.890 --> 00:21:23.130 And so, food and drink aren't bad, right? 00:21:23.130 --> 00:21:25.830 Having sex with your spouse, not bad. 00:21:25.830 --> 00:21:28.010 Sexual immorality is bad. 00:21:28.410 --> 00:21:30.330 Drunkenness is bad. 00:21:30.330 --> 00:21:32.790 Gluttony is bad. 00:21:32.790 --> 00:21:34.810 Those are the things that you are putting to death. 00:21:34.810 --> 00:21:39.750 Those are the things that you are disciplining your body to keep it under control. 00:21:40.810 --> 00:21:47.190 So, that's basically the exegesis of that verse, and it really is sort of present there in the verse itself. 00:21:47.190 --> 00:21:51.950 But there's some things on which we can expand to get a fuller sense. 00:21:51.950 --> 00:22:01.370 So, the next question is about the Nicene Creed, really about apostolic succession, but in the light of the Nicene Creed. 00:22:03.530 --> 00:22:06.310 Go back to not having log-offs on the screen, we don't need it there. 00:22:06.310 --> 00:22:09.450 I think everyone knows the Nicene Creed, so I won't pull that one up. 00:22:09.450 --> 00:22:14.870 But, last week you suggested to someone to start their own home church if needed. 00:22:14.870 --> 00:22:17.590 That got me thinking about apostolic succession. 00:22:17.590 --> 00:22:24.010 The Nicene Creed contains the line, we believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. 00:22:24.010 --> 00:22:25.550 What does apostolic mean here? 00:22:25.890 --> 00:22:30.370 Being based on the teaching of the apostles, but not successive passing of office. 00:22:30.370 --> 00:22:33.030 And yes, that basically is the sense here. 00:22:33.030 --> 00:22:39.030 The apostolic succession is not the laying on of hands. 00:22:39.030 --> 00:22:51.510 And one of the ways you can actually look at this is, there are instances in the New Testament when the Holy Spirit is received via the laying on of hands. 00:22:51.510 --> 00:22:54.190 And there are instances where that is not the case. 00:22:54.870 --> 00:22:57.710 You can look at one of the cases with a centurion. 00:22:57.710 --> 00:23:03.230 There are a number of centurions in the New Testament, unsurprisingly, for various historical reasons. 00:23:03.230 --> 00:23:10.130 But you have an instance where the Holy Spirit falls on these individuals as they hear the word. 00:23:10.130 --> 00:23:12.030 There's no laying on of hands. 00:23:12.030 --> 00:23:14.690 Now granted, this is not apostolic succession. 00:23:14.690 --> 00:23:17.990 We're not talking about bishops or anything here. 00:23:17.990 --> 00:23:21.550 But it's an important distinction to recognize. 00:23:22.390 --> 00:23:26.650 It is not necessary to have the laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit. 00:23:26.650 --> 00:23:32.990 It is not necessary to have the laying on of hands to have apostolic succession. 00:23:32.990 --> 00:23:36.750 Because apostolic succession is a matter of teaching. 00:23:36.750 --> 00:23:45.690 It is a matter of following the doctrine of the apostles, which is to say Christianity, to obey the New Testament, what it teaches. 00:23:45.690 --> 00:23:49.710 Because what is the most important tradition that we have from the apostles? 00:23:49.770 --> 00:23:51.630 Well, it's the New Testament. 00:23:51.630 --> 00:23:59.190 It's the thing that they wrote down under the inspiration of the Spirit and passed on Christianity to us. 00:23:59.190 --> 00:24:02.230 That's what you have to follow to have apostolic succession. 00:24:03.270 --> 00:24:07.370 I know that there are churches, of course, and I'm just going to decline to name them here. 00:24:07.370 --> 00:24:12.090 You all know which ones I mean, because they're the only ones that make the claim. 00:24:13.290 --> 00:24:15.890 Modulo, a couple of exceptions. 00:24:15.890 --> 00:24:23.930 But you have churches that will try to claim that they have a direct line traced back all the way to the apostles. 00:24:23.930 --> 00:24:30.110 And the simple fact of the matter is, there isn't a single church that can actually truthfully make that claim. 00:24:30.110 --> 00:24:41.730 There's a pretty significant gray area where they can kind of argue that maybe this man knew this man and this man knew that man, but not really. 00:24:42.310 --> 00:24:43.690 There's no concrete proof. 00:24:43.690 --> 00:24:44.510 They can't prove it. 00:24:44.510 --> 00:24:46.610 They don't have any proof of it. 00:24:46.610 --> 00:24:54.010 And that's not cause for concern, because apostolic succession is not the laying on of hands. 00:24:54.010 --> 00:24:55.310 It's not the physical. 00:24:55.310 --> 00:25:02.270 The spirit is not transmitted with a physical touch of one man giving another man the backslap. 00:25:02.270 --> 00:25:07.990 And I'm not being dismissive or, you know, dealing with holy things in a light way. 00:25:08.310 --> 00:25:12.530 You can call it the holy backslap, because that's basically what they're trying to argue. 00:25:12.530 --> 00:25:22.110 And now, were it something that were necessary, were this something that were a sacrament instituted by God and necessary to the faith, I would never speak about it in that way. 00:25:22.110 --> 00:25:23.690 But it's not. 00:25:23.690 --> 00:25:29.490 Because, again, what is succession is teaching the doctrine of the apostles. 00:25:30.870 --> 00:25:36.790 Was Paul an apostle before he had hands laid on him? 00:25:36.790 --> 00:25:37.610 The answer is yes. 00:25:38.770 --> 00:25:42.390 Now, of course, there are those who will try to argue, well, it was because he got it from God directly. 00:25:42.390 --> 00:25:44.030 Well, but okay. 00:25:44.030 --> 00:25:48.010 At the very least, we've established the laying on of hands is not necessary. 00:25:49.450 --> 00:25:51.550 That's very clear from scripture. 00:25:51.550 --> 00:25:56.990 Just the same as it's not necessary for receiving the Holy Spirit to have the laying on of hands. 00:25:56.990 --> 00:25:58.350 I'm not saying it's a bad thing. 00:25:58.350 --> 00:26:03.090 There's nothing wrong with it as a tradition, but it's not necessary. 00:26:03.090 --> 00:26:06.290 And so, no, there's nothing wrong with starting up a home church. 00:26:06.370 --> 00:26:14.170 You're not breaking with tradition, and you're not causing problems with the guard to apostolic succession. 00:26:14.170 --> 00:26:20.510 Do bear in mind that most of the early churches were in fact home churches, because they were meeting in secret. 00:26:20.510 --> 00:26:25.670 Sometimes they were literally meeting in the tombs, and not all of them had an apostle present, certainly. 00:26:31.178 --> 00:26:40.338 The next one is sort of shifting gears, I guess, to the political, although also with a religious element still, unsurprisingly. 00:26:41.738 --> 00:26:48.918 You have stated on many occasions that you believe we will win because God has made promises to Japheth, which is true. 00:26:48.918 --> 00:26:56.838 To play devil's advocate, isn't it possible that these promises have already been fulfilled and that we truly are in the last days? 00:26:58.218 --> 00:27:03.878 There are really two questions there, and I'll answer them in order, as it were. 00:27:03.878 --> 00:27:17.478 The first one is whether or not there's a possibility that those promises, and of course, we're speaking about Noah's prophecy, whether or not those promises have been fulfilled. 00:27:17.478 --> 00:27:23.558 The answer is that they have, but not fully, because there's no end point. 00:27:24.778 --> 00:27:28.178 The promise to Japheth is that he will be Christendom. 00:27:28.998 --> 00:27:31.978 He will dwell in the tents of Shem. 00:27:31.978 --> 00:27:41.578 And there's a little bit of hostility there in the actual grammar, if you look at the Greek terms used, and the context, of course. 00:27:41.578 --> 00:27:46.558 But with regard to being Christendom, that is an ongoing promise. 00:27:46.558 --> 00:28:01.038 That is from basically the New Testament era, as soon as the scriptures and the gospel reach Greece, and then spread from there to the rest of the Roman Empire, and then the rest of Europe, of course. 00:28:01.038 --> 00:28:04.198 It's from that point to the end of time. 00:28:04.198 --> 00:28:08.938 And so there's a partial fulfillment, but not the full fulfillment. 00:28:08.938 --> 00:28:10.558 We see this all the time with prophecy. 00:28:10.558 --> 00:28:17.538 There's often either a cyclical fulfillment, or a repeated fulfillment, or a lesser and then a greater. 00:28:17.538 --> 00:28:18.978 That's sort of what we have here. 00:28:18.978 --> 00:28:35.578 There is the major fulfillment, in a sense, with regard to the centuries during which Europe was Christendom and Europe was ascendant, and then there is the not yet fulfilled, with regard to the future. 00:28:35.578 --> 00:28:38.818 Because it is an open-ended promise, an open-ended prophecy. 00:28:38.818 --> 00:28:45.318 There's no end date to it, except for, of course, the expiration date of this universe itself. 00:28:45.318 --> 00:28:49.278 And so, the next question would be, are we in the last days? 00:28:49.278 --> 00:28:53.978 Well, I actually already pointed out in this episode that there are some signs and things that have not been fulfilled yet. 00:28:53.978 --> 00:28:57.398 And so, are we in the last days? 00:28:57.398 --> 00:29:00.858 Maybe, but are we in the ones that are right at the end? 00:29:00.858 --> 00:29:02.838 No, we're not yet. 00:29:02.838 --> 00:29:07.758 Because there are things that must take place before Christ's return. 00:29:07.758 --> 00:29:15.838 Now, there aren't a lot, certainly, if you look at the way that things are going and how many things have been fulfilled. 00:29:15.838 --> 00:29:19.798 But not a lot is still some. 00:29:20.878 --> 00:29:24.738 So, are we in the absolute last days? 00:29:24.738 --> 00:29:25.758 I would say, no. 00:29:25.758 --> 00:29:33.678 And personally, I also don't think this is not necessarily like, you should believe this, or you must believe this. 00:29:33.678 --> 00:29:35.518 It's just my personal belief with regard to this. 00:29:35.518 --> 00:29:38.558 This is take it or leave it, choose whatever you like. 00:29:38.558 --> 00:29:42.098 I don't think that we're in the last days. 00:29:42.098 --> 00:29:44.018 I think we will see a resurgence. 00:29:44.018 --> 00:29:47.738 I think that God is not quite done with this universe yet. 00:29:48.878 --> 00:29:54.378 I could be wrong on that, and I guess we will simply see. 00:29:54.378 --> 00:30:04.498 But as sort of a tangential issue, there are always those who want to discuss, if we're in the last days, is this the tribulation? 00:30:04.498 --> 00:30:06.618 Has Satan been unchained? 00:30:06.618 --> 00:30:09.278 You know, all these related questions. 00:30:09.278 --> 00:30:11.518 And to some degree, it doesn't matter. 00:30:11.518 --> 00:30:16.858 Of course, it matters in the sense that we kind of want to know what the ground rules are right now. 00:30:17.818 --> 00:30:19.738 Is Satan off his leash? 00:30:19.738 --> 00:30:21.978 Is he allowed to do whatever he pleases? 00:30:21.978 --> 00:30:23.238 Are we in the tribulation? 00:30:23.278 --> 00:30:27.398 Are things going to get significantly worse than they already are? 00:30:27.398 --> 00:30:30.398 It would be nice to know those things, certainly. 00:30:30.398 --> 00:30:46.238 But at the same time, the way that I've always pointed out is that just because we aren't in the last days, so say you lived in the 1300s, you're nowhere near the last days, obviously, because we're living in the 2000s. 00:30:46.498 --> 00:30:49.278 And so, they were nowhere near the last days. 00:30:49.278 --> 00:31:00.238 Well, at the same time, they were, because there isn't a man listening to me right now who is more than, at the absolute most, 80 years away from the grave. 00:31:00.238 --> 00:31:06.238 Okay, modulo advances in technology that may be giving you an extra 40 years. 00:31:06.238 --> 00:31:09.918 Maybe, that's pretty optimistic at this point. 00:31:09.918 --> 00:31:14.558 You are close to the end days, because the end days are the final judgment. 00:31:15.198 --> 00:31:18.238 Well, you are close to the final judgment, because you are mortal. 00:31:18.238 --> 00:31:27.158 And so, you should always live as if you are not really far away from the last days, because you personally are not. 00:31:27.158 --> 00:31:37.698 And in a very real sense, it doesn't matter to you, if this universe is close to the last days, because you will always be close to the last days, because again, you are mortal. 00:31:42.858 --> 00:31:45.618 And I do notice there have been a few questions in the chat. 00:31:45.618 --> 00:31:58.458 I don't know that I will necessarily get to those tonight, because I have quite a few questions in my list, as is, but I will note those down and add them to the growing list. 00:31:59.878 --> 00:32:05.198 So, the next question is actually about Bible translation versions. 00:32:05.198 --> 00:32:07.098 This one's a specific version. 00:32:08.438 --> 00:32:13.558 It asks if I have any thoughts on the anointed standard translation. 00:32:13.558 --> 00:32:16.978 And I had actually not seen this one before. 00:32:16.978 --> 00:32:18.858 Apparently, it came out not that long ago. 00:32:18.858 --> 00:32:21.178 I say not that long ago, 30 years. 00:32:21.178 --> 00:32:24.838 But that's not that long in the grand scheme of things. 00:32:24.838 --> 00:32:26.258 Time flies. 00:32:28.058 --> 00:32:30.538 But the question is what I think about it. 00:32:30.538 --> 00:32:32.478 It says that it's not based on the Masoretic. 00:32:33.418 --> 00:32:35.878 It's based on the Septuagint. 00:32:35.878 --> 00:32:46.098 And it's touted as the translation for whites, which I don't like that framing. 00:32:46.098 --> 00:32:55.138 Not because I have a problem necessarily with, you know, tailoring something to a particular group, because if you translate something into German, you're kind of tailoring it to the Germans. 00:32:55.138 --> 00:32:58.478 Same for French and Dutch and Russian and everything else. 00:32:58.478 --> 00:33:04.378 And so in that sense, you are tailoring it to a particular race when you're translating to the language of that race. 00:33:04.378 --> 00:33:11.938 Now in the case of English, English has become the lingua franca, which is a mildly amusing term at this point in history for a number of reasons. 00:33:13.858 --> 00:33:24.958 But if you're translating to English, you're still very much targeting the Anglo-Saxon race, essentially, and our very large diaspora at this point. 00:33:24.958 --> 00:33:28.138 So I went ahead and looked at the version. 00:33:28.138 --> 00:33:30.118 I didn't read a huge chunk of it. 00:33:30.218 --> 00:33:32.898 I read basically a bit of Romans. 00:33:32.898 --> 00:33:35.078 I was not particularly impressed. 00:33:35.078 --> 00:33:47.598 It does some weird things and is very heavy-handed with what is essentially Christian identity, which is not Christian and also gets the identity wrong usually. 00:33:47.598 --> 00:33:50.058 So great deal of irony in that. 00:33:50.058 --> 00:33:51.538 I would not recommend it. 00:33:51.538 --> 00:33:53.438 Don't use it. 00:33:53.438 --> 00:34:04.938 Quite frankly, I don't think there's anything really wrong fundamentally with the ESV or the NASB or the NKJV or any of the others with regard to the New Testament. 00:34:04.938 --> 00:34:09.598 Because obviously in the New Testament, they're based on the Greek because there's nothing else. 00:34:09.598 --> 00:34:10.778 It's only Greek. 00:34:10.778 --> 00:34:12.318 It's only ever been Greek. 00:34:12.318 --> 00:34:16.538 You have crazy people off in the corner arguing that Matthew was originally Hebrew. 00:34:16.538 --> 00:34:18.398 Well, we don't have any transcripts of that. 00:34:18.398 --> 00:34:20.198 We don't have any pieces of papyri. 00:34:20.198 --> 00:34:23.058 We don't have anything because it was and it's written in Greek. 00:34:23.118 --> 00:34:25.998 There's plays on words and things that work only in Greek and not Hebrew. 00:34:25.998 --> 00:34:29.218 But the New Testament is Greek. 00:34:29.218 --> 00:34:32.718 Everyone agrees on that except for some crazy people. 00:34:32.718 --> 00:34:36.518 So all of these translations are based on the Greek in the New Testament. 00:34:36.518 --> 00:34:39.118 So it's just fine to use any of them. 00:34:39.118 --> 00:34:44.018 With the tiny caveats that I've mentioned before, basically the word Gentiles is nonsense. 00:34:44.018 --> 00:34:48.278 And so when you see Gentiles, just read nations. 00:34:48.278 --> 00:34:50.778 Ninety five percent of the time, it means nations. 00:34:51.398 --> 00:34:56.538 Every so often, it means member of the nations or something very close to nations. 00:34:56.538 --> 00:35:03.458 But sometimes it means heathen, which is a word we don't use that much anymore, which just means unbelieving nations. 00:35:03.458 --> 00:35:04.038 That's all it means. 00:35:04.038 --> 00:35:10.858 So just read nations when you see Gentiles, and you basically got there. 00:35:10.878 --> 00:35:23.598 One other thing that I will mention with regard to the New Testament, certain translators play games because they're Judaizers, is really what it comes down to. 00:35:23.598 --> 00:35:37.778 But so, for instance, one of the times when Paul is addressing one of the groups of Jews that want to kill him, it says that he addresses them in the Hebrew language, is what some modern translations say. 00:35:37.778 --> 00:35:42.658 Well, the problem is what it actually says in the Greek is addresses them in the language of the Hebrews. 00:35:44.078 --> 00:35:45.578 This is an important point. 00:35:45.578 --> 00:35:50.718 Those sound exactly the same, and they can be the same in a certain way. 00:35:50.718 --> 00:36:02.918 But what is meant when you say in the language of the Hebrews is the language that is used by the Hebrews at the time, which means Aramaic. 00:36:02.918 --> 00:36:04.638 That's what it's saying. 00:36:04.638 --> 00:36:06.738 We would just say Aramaic. 00:36:06.738 --> 00:36:23.838 But you could look at this, for instance, there are a number of different times down through history where a population has adopted a foreign language and it has become the language of that population, that entire population. 00:36:23.838 --> 00:36:27.518 You can look particularly at the peoples we colonized. 00:36:27.518 --> 00:36:38.438 And so if you were to say, the language of this group is X, it doesn't mean that X is the language that corresponds to that name. 00:36:38.438 --> 00:36:40.798 So, for instance, American. 00:36:42.738 --> 00:36:46.018 We, yes, speak American English, but we speak English. 00:36:46.018 --> 00:36:47.938 We don't speak American. 00:36:47.938 --> 00:36:49.778 We speak English. 00:36:49.778 --> 00:36:56.618 And so you wouldn't say, the language of the Americans, that sounds weird to our ear. 00:36:56.618 --> 00:37:00.158 And so they should not have translated that way, because what they were doing was Judaizing. 00:37:00.158 --> 00:37:04.218 They were trying to imply that he was speaking Hebrew, which he wasn't. 00:37:04.218 --> 00:37:06.098 He was speaking Aramaic. 00:37:06.098 --> 00:37:10.478 So that's one of the only other little nitpicky things that I would say with the translation. 00:37:10.578 --> 00:37:18.638 But other than that, by and large, any modern translation in English of the New Testament is going to be fine. 00:37:18.638 --> 00:37:24.518 The Old Testament is a different matter, but I've gone over that previously, so I won't repeat that here. 00:37:28.258 --> 00:37:31.998 The next question, sort of a practical one. 00:37:31.998 --> 00:37:35.358 How ought men to find good husbands for their daughters? 00:37:35.358 --> 00:37:38.398 That is a load-bearing prepositional phrase, if ever there were one. 00:37:39.198 --> 00:37:42.198 Since sending them to college is so foolish. 00:37:43.338 --> 00:37:50.998 Yes, I'm going to agree, of course, that sending them off to college is incredibly foolish these days, and pretty much always has been. 00:37:50.998 --> 00:37:52.438 It's not advantageous. 00:37:52.438 --> 00:37:59.718 It is designed basically to destroy women, and also the university system in the process. 00:37:59.718 --> 00:38:01.658 Discussion for another time. 00:38:03.298 --> 00:38:08.998 But the question then is, how do you find husbands for your daughters, basically, to keep them out of trouble? 00:38:08.998 --> 00:38:13.478 Because if you marry them off younger, you're going to avoid a lot of the issues. 00:38:13.478 --> 00:38:15.158 Simple fact of the matter. 00:38:16.338 --> 00:38:23.578 I would say, first, you want to look at how God has designed the system to work ideally. 00:38:23.578 --> 00:38:29.078 And we went over this in Stone Choir a little bit, and I've addressed it elsewhere as well. 00:38:29.078 --> 00:38:46.858 But if you look at the way God designed the system, and I'm just going to speak about Europeans at this point, because talking about the third world with all of the inbreeding and other problems is a whole can of worms I just don't want to get into, and it's not relevant, quite frankly, to answering the question for this audience. 00:38:48.818 --> 00:39:00.998 With regard to marriage, you're going to look at the way God has designed the system, and the best indicator we have for that is peak fertility, because children are blessing from the Lord. 00:39:01.778 --> 00:39:12.318 Marriage is partly, not even necessarily primarily, but partly, for the creation of children, the propagation of the species. 00:39:12.318 --> 00:39:15.298 So, what is peak fertility? 00:39:15.298 --> 00:39:21.038 Peak fertility for white populations is essentially third or fourth cousins. 00:39:21.038 --> 00:39:26.058 Now, some people hear third or fourth cousin, and they think, ah, I don't want to marry my relative. 00:39:27.298 --> 00:39:30.598 Okay, your third or fourth cousin is pretty distant. 00:39:31.838 --> 00:39:43.418 I could pull up a chart, I think, but let's see if I have a cousin chart for those who aren't familiar with how this works. 00:39:44.558 --> 00:39:50.578 So, it sounds like, you know, third or fourth cousin is closely related, but it's not. 00:39:50.578 --> 00:40:12.518 When you're talking about problems with consanguinity or inbreeding, whichever term you want to use for that, you're really talking about first cousins, and a lot of places in the Western world have banned first cousin marriage, and we should all ban it, because it is not a good idea, that one is a bad idea. 00:40:12.518 --> 00:40:21.478 But when you get out to third or fourth cousin, you're not talking about any of those problems with being too closely genetically related or anything like that. 00:40:22.898 --> 00:40:36.978 You're talking about the way God has designed it, because you are meant to marry people within your own nation, and by the time you start getting out to a certain number of cousins, you basically out to the edges of your own nation. 00:40:36.978 --> 00:40:47.178 And so you want to look for places where you can find someone who is that level of related to you to be a husband for your daughters. 00:40:48.318 --> 00:40:54.698 Now, historically, the way that that's going to work is that you're going to have... 00:40:54.698 --> 00:41:02.578 This is probably going to be a little bit small on the screen, but I guess I will put a link to it in the show notes. 00:41:03.878 --> 00:41:20.338 But historically, with regard to trying to find a spouse for your daughters, you're going to have a lot of good options because you'll have extended family, you'll have family get-togethers, you'll have all these opportunities in order to find someone who is compatible. 00:41:20.338 --> 00:41:23.118 There's nothing wrong with talking about compatibility. 00:41:23.118 --> 00:41:26.758 Some of that grows over time, but some of it should be there at the beginning. 00:41:26.758 --> 00:41:31.738 You had opportunities to find compatible individuals for your daughters. 00:41:31.738 --> 00:41:34.978 That is somewhat challenging today for a number of reasons. 00:41:34.978 --> 00:41:41.838 One of the chief reasons is that most people have so few children, and so there are simply fewer individuals available. 00:41:42.858 --> 00:41:56.378 And there's also the issue of many of them have gone off to university, and then they have moved away, they've gone out of state, they're 5,000 miles away from their family, they're living in a foreign country, whatever it happens to be. 00:41:56.378 --> 00:41:58.638 That makes things more challenging. 00:41:58.638 --> 00:42:06.018 And so you're going to have to do the best you can with what is available to you. 00:42:06.018 --> 00:42:15.638 Part of that is going to be spending the time, investing the time and the effort in simply having the connections that make it possible to know who is available. 00:42:15.638 --> 00:42:24.178 Just knowing how many men are around who are the right sort of men and the right age. 00:42:24.178 --> 00:42:29.358 The age is, of course, broader for men than women, but part of it is building up those connections. 00:42:29.358 --> 00:42:40.558 This is something that, historically, was one of the duties, as it were, of women, because the women were the ones who kept track of what was going on in the extended family. 00:42:40.558 --> 00:42:48.738