WEBVTT 00:00:01.180 --> 00:00:05.100 It is the 26th of December, 2025. 00:00:05.100 --> 00:00:06.020 I am Corey J. 00:00:06.020 --> 00:00:10.020 Moller, and this is the At Any Cost podcast. 00:00:10.020 --> 00:00:17.820 This is the eighth episode of 2025, also incidentally the eighth episode of, actually no, this is the ninth episode. 00:00:17.820 --> 00:00:20.980 I was just editing the show art for the eighth episode. 00:00:20.980 --> 00:00:23.620 This is the ninth Q&A episode. 00:00:23.620 --> 00:00:33.860 And I tried to select questions this time that aren't topics that are too particularly heavy, since it is the second day of Christmas, so I figured it would be a little lighter this week. 00:00:33.860 --> 00:00:39.340 I will still be doing an episode next week as well, so we'll dive back into some of the heavier questions then. 00:00:39.340 --> 00:00:47.340 So if you have an outstanding question, as it were, that is a heavier topic, I may not get to it this week, but it will probably be up next week. 00:00:48.460 --> 00:00:54.680 So with that being said, I will leave housekeeping and such for the end, so I will jump right into it. 00:00:55.760 --> 00:00:58.540 The first question is language learning. 00:00:58.540 --> 00:01:06.140 I've been asked this one a lot with regard to German, particularly, and this time it's Greek. 00:01:06.140 --> 00:01:12.980 The question is a little different, and so the answer is a little different for a reason that will be obvious in a second here. 00:01:12.980 --> 00:01:15.380 My son and I have begun trying to learn Greek. 00:01:15.380 --> 00:01:19.840 How would you recommend we do this, and are there any resources you would suggest? 00:01:20.920 --> 00:01:39.800 My first suggestion is going to be just learn modern Greek, because once you know modern Greek, it's going to be trivially easy to read various other kinds of Greek, maybe not ancient Attic Greek or something, but certainly coin of Greek, the Greek of the scriptures. 00:01:39.800 --> 00:01:56.640 And so the other advantage of that, of course, is if you learn the modern version of the language, you're going to be able to access a wealth of resources, and also you'll have access to things that are in modern Greek that you otherwise would not be able to read, which is kind of nice. 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:14.100 And really, the big difference is going to be you're not going to learn the constructed pronunciation of Erasmus or a number of other schools of pronunciation, and so your pronunciation will be different from what, say, a lot of pastors have learned, a lot of priests historically. 00:02:14.100 --> 00:02:16.280 That doesn't really matter, honestly. 00:02:16.380 --> 00:02:27.080 It's sort of the equivalent of, say, learning the ancient pronunciation of Latin, which is what I learned when I was in high school, versus the medieval pronunciation. 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:37.380 So if you, for instance, sing any of the various hymns written in Latin, they're almost always going to be medieval pronunciation instead of classical. 00:02:37.380 --> 00:02:40.940 And so there's some differences there, but they're not big enough to make it difficult. 00:02:40.940 --> 00:02:42.300 Same thing is true with Greek. 00:02:43.320 --> 00:02:47.820 And so, what actual resources would I recommend? 00:02:47.820 --> 00:02:50.020 I think I would say first, podcasts. 00:02:50.020 --> 00:02:54.580 Not just because I'm a podcaster, I guess, and I'm biased, it's not that. 00:02:54.580 --> 00:02:56.720 Listening to the language helps a lot. 00:02:56.720 --> 00:03:20.720 And for most languages now, major languages anyway, there are podcasts meant to help you learn the language, so you can listen to how it is spoken, you can pick up the sounds and start to develop sort of that foundation in your mind, and how the language functions, and you start to build up a little bit of the structure of it as well, because you sort to get a bit of an ear for the grammar and things like that. 00:03:20.720 --> 00:03:27.260 In addition to that, children's books, because you're learning a new language, you should learn it the way you learned your first language. 00:03:27.260 --> 00:03:36.080 Of course, ideally for language learning, immersion, but you're probably not going to pick up your life, move to Greece for five years to learn Greek. 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:36.840 Most people don't do that. 00:03:37.440 --> 00:03:42.880 But, second best is immersing yourself in it as much as you can. 00:03:42.880 --> 00:03:49.140 So, however many minutes, or if you can spare an hour a day, by all means, that will certainly benefit you. 00:03:49.140 --> 00:03:53.660 But make sure it's consistent, even if it's just 15 minutes a day. 00:03:53.660 --> 00:03:55.260 Dedicate that time. 00:03:55.260 --> 00:03:57.740 You're making those neural pathways, you're developing the habit. 00:03:57.740 --> 00:04:01.860 There's a lot of benefit to doing it every single day. 00:04:01.860 --> 00:04:07.480 And so, of course, one of the ways that will be helpful in doing that is any of the various apps that are available. 00:04:07.480 --> 00:04:10.920 I don't like Duolingo for a number of reasons. 00:04:10.920 --> 00:04:12.400 I used it for many years. 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:21.900 I had like a 1200-day streak or something going, and then I just stopped using it because it finally annoyed me enough with all of their nonsense politics, to put it mildly. 00:04:21.900 --> 00:04:24.500 However, there are other alternatives that are better. 00:04:24.500 --> 00:04:26.580 For German, I recommended Babel. 00:04:26.580 --> 00:04:30.360 They do not have a Greek course yet, so you can't use them. 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:40.500 But there's Primsler, which is not going to be free, but they have very good deals usually at the end of the year because people are making the resolutions to learn a new language. 00:04:40.500 --> 00:04:42.200 And so they run discounts. 00:04:42.200 --> 00:04:46.980 You can usually get a year or perhaps even lifetime for a pretty reasonable price. 00:04:46.980 --> 00:04:49.000 Lifetime is probably going to be $200. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:56.460 That tends to be how it goes for language learning companies, with the exception of some of the more expensive ones. 00:04:56.460 --> 00:05:01.100 And then there's also Rosetta Stone, which is a good option for Greek. 00:05:01.880 --> 00:05:07.140 And that definitely has a lifetime deal, sometimes for as little as $80. 00:05:07.140 --> 00:05:08.660 Great option. 00:05:08.660 --> 00:05:12.500 So I would say those are probably the best recommendations. 00:05:12.500 --> 00:05:13.400 That's what I have here. 00:05:13.400 --> 00:05:16.260 So I think that's probably your best way to learn Greek. 00:05:16.260 --> 00:05:19.740 And then once you get up to the level where you can do it, read scripture. 00:05:19.740 --> 00:05:25.440 That's one of my recommendations for learning any language, because you're familiar with it in English. 00:05:25.440 --> 00:05:33.380 And so when you're reading it in another language, you already have sort of that foundation to help you understand what's happening in this language you're trying to learn. 00:05:33.380 --> 00:05:38.100 Same thing if you're trying to learn German, French, Japanese, whatever it happens to be. 00:05:38.100 --> 00:05:44.640 Focus perhaps on one book of the Bible, whichever one you happen to know really well, whether it's a gospel or the Psalms or Proverbs. 00:05:44.640 --> 00:05:46.720 It's probably one of those. 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:53.260 Pick that book and then read it in your new language until it flows naturally for you. 00:05:53.260 --> 00:05:57.140 And then of course, once you've done that, you can start picking up more advanced books. 00:05:57.300 --> 00:05:59.860 Pick whatever topic you like and read about it. 00:05:59.860 --> 00:06:02.940 I have the entire Dune Collection in German, for instance. 00:06:02.940 --> 00:06:10.580 So, it's helpful to read something you've read before in your natural language, your native language, in the language you're trying to acquire. 00:06:13.440 --> 00:06:26.480 The next question is more directly, obviously, Greek is tangentially related to scripture, in this case, but this one is sort of more directly related, a doctrinal or dogmatic question. 00:06:27.820 --> 00:06:37.040 Could you speak on 2nd Maccabees 12, 43-46, and where Catholics get the idea of purgatory slash praying for the dead? 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:41.920 Also, if you could touch on the difference between the Catholic slash Lutheran canons, that would be helpful. 00:06:43.400 --> 00:06:48.740 So, I think I'm going to leave the canon question for next time. 00:06:48.740 --> 00:06:51.620 There were a couple people who asked about the difference in the canons. 00:06:51.620 --> 00:06:54.300 I can give the short answers that Lutherans don't have one. 00:06:54.300 --> 00:06:57.820 You can search the Book of Concord as many times as you'd like. 00:06:57.820 --> 00:06:59.760 We don't define our canon. 00:06:59.760 --> 00:07:07.860 We sort of left that up in the air because Christians have been fighting over certain edge cases, which is to say the apocryphal books, for centuries. 00:07:07.860 --> 00:07:10.260 And we were not trying to settle that during the Reformation. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:14.060 We haven't tried to settle it since, because it just doesn't matter. 00:07:14.060 --> 00:07:15.000 You have the core books. 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:16.820 We all know those are scripture. 00:07:16.820 --> 00:07:19.700 And then the fighting over some of the others is just going to continue. 00:07:19.700 --> 00:07:21.080 That's sort of the short answer to that. 00:07:21.080 --> 00:07:27.140 But to get into second Maccabees here, I will pull up Logos. 00:07:30.320 --> 00:07:32.660 Actually, I think I may just read. 00:07:34.340 --> 00:07:37.480 I will pull up Logos anyway, because I think I'm going to use Logos in a second here. 00:07:37.520 --> 00:07:46.620 But I think I'll just read from my physical copy, because I don't remember which copy of the Apocrypha I happen to have in Logos. 00:07:46.620 --> 00:07:55.100 And I'd like to have this particular one, which if you're interested in the Apocrypha, I definitely highly recommend this volume from CPH. 00:07:55.100 --> 00:08:07.460 As much as I don't really particularly love CPH's pricing and things like that, which is unfortunate, but it's the reality of it. 00:08:07.460 --> 00:08:11.780 Their volumes are very good in terms of the quality of the scholarship for things like this. 00:08:11.780 --> 00:08:13.380 And so it's the... 00:08:13.440 --> 00:08:15.480 I'll put it up for the camera. 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:23.860 It is the Apocrypha with Lutheran edition, they have to call it, of course, but it's just a scholarly edition of it with helpful footnotes. 00:08:23.860 --> 00:08:28.560 But anyway, Maccabees, 12, okay, here we are. 00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:33.860 The header, which of course is not part of the text. 00:08:33.860 --> 00:08:41.360 I wouldn't say part of scripture, because I don't consider Maccabees to be part of scripture, but prayers for those killed in battle. 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:44.860 Then Judas assembled his army and went to the city of Adullam. 00:08:45.280 --> 00:08:51.740 As the seventh day was coming on, they purified themselves according to the custom, and they kept the Sabbath there. 00:08:51.740 --> 00:09:02.060 On the next day, as by that time it had become necessary, Judas and his men went to take up the bodies of the fallen, and to bring them back to lie with their kinsmen in the sepulchers of their fathers. 00:09:02.060 --> 00:09:09.340 Then under the tunic of every one of the dead, they found sacred tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. 00:09:09.340 --> 00:09:16.960 In other words, they were praying, seeking intercession of foreign false gods in order to help them in battle. 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:21.520 And it became clear to all those that this was why these men had fallen. 00:09:21.520 --> 00:09:31.760 So they all blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous judge, who reveals the things that are hidden, and they turned to prayer, imploring that the sin that had been committed might be wholly blotted out. 00:09:31.760 --> 00:09:40.760 And the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. 00:09:40.760 --> 00:09:49.580 He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. 00:09:49.580 --> 00:10:01.260 In doing this, he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection, for if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. 00:10:01.260 --> 00:10:08.300 But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. 00:10:08.300 --> 00:10:12.860 Therefore, he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin. 00:10:14.380 --> 00:10:18.040 Now, of course, there are a number of things in that passage, some of which are actually quite useful to Christians. 00:10:19.220 --> 00:10:28.300 For instance, the fact that obviously, you have the anticipation of the resurrection already here in the intertestamental period. 00:10:28.300 --> 00:10:31.200 And so, that was not something new that Christ brought in. 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:37.420 That was something that was expected already by those who actually believed in scripture. 00:10:37.420 --> 00:10:42.540 And so, the Pharisees obviously were more correct than the Sadducees, at least on that point. 00:10:42.540 --> 00:10:51.440 With regard to praying for the dead, I think there are really two questions there that are related questions, but they have different answers. 00:10:51.440 --> 00:11:02.200 The first one, and the one to which I'm going to object, is, can we pray for the dead that their sins be blotted out? 00:11:02.200 --> 00:11:06.440 Which is to say that their sins be blotted out after they have died. 00:11:06.440 --> 00:11:09.980 I think the answer to that is very clearly no. 00:11:09.980 --> 00:11:14.320 Now, of course, you have the issue of purgatory, which I will get to that. 00:11:15.140 --> 00:11:19.820 And so, Roman Catholics, for instance, believe they're praying for those who are in purgatory. 00:11:19.820 --> 00:11:21.960 I don't think they're praying for those who are in hell. 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:23.640 There's obviously a difference there. 00:11:23.640 --> 00:11:26.180 And so, obviously, it would be worse if you were praying for those in hell. 00:11:26.180 --> 00:11:34.500 But scripture does very clearly say that is appointed for man but wants to die, and after that, the judgment. 00:11:34.500 --> 00:11:44.880 So, I think that actually forecloses purgatory as well, but certainly it forecloses praying for those who have already been judged. 00:11:44.880 --> 00:11:57.700 Now, the caveat that I'm going to give for that, and this answer to the second related question is, can we pray for the departed that they didn't die in impenitent sin? 00:11:57.700 --> 00:11:59.660 There's a difference there. 00:11:59.660 --> 00:12:14.440 I say we can't pray, logically, according to what scripture teaches, for those who died in impenitent sin, and then pray they are forgiven after they've been judged, because, again, appointed for man but wants to die, and then the judgment. 00:12:14.440 --> 00:12:20.940 But can we pray that they died in faith, or they died in felicitous inconsistency? 00:12:20.940 --> 00:12:37.400 So, for instance, these men who happened to have idols or paraphernalia of idolatrous worship on themselves when they died, can you pray that they actually died in faith, that they didn't die believing in this foolishness in which they had engaged? 00:12:37.400 --> 00:12:38.480 I think that's a different thing. 00:12:38.580 --> 00:12:41.740 I think that is probably fine. 00:12:41.740 --> 00:12:50.380 It's certainly fine in the cases of individuals where we don't have any real reason to believe that, say, they died in impenitent sin. 00:12:50.380 --> 00:13:00.060 And so a good concrete example would be we have All Souls Day as one of the days in All Hollow Tide on the calendar, on the church calendar. 00:13:00.060 --> 00:13:13.700 I posted an article about that last year moving things around a little bit because I wanted it to be a more reasonable ordering of things, particularly for the correct doctrinal teachings on these topics. 00:13:13.700 --> 00:13:15.240 But I'll leave that aside. 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:18.140 I'll put a link to it in the show notes. 00:13:18.140 --> 00:13:26.660 So, can we pray for our ancestors in so far as saying, we pray to God that they died having faith? 00:13:26.660 --> 00:13:29.020 I don't think that that is wrongful. 00:13:29.020 --> 00:13:31.140 I don't think that's a sin. 00:13:31.140 --> 00:13:32.860 Should we focus on it? 00:13:32.940 --> 00:13:42.660 Absolutely not, because we should not be obsessed with the dead and the departed and focusing our lives on that, because that will lead us astray from Christ. 00:13:42.660 --> 00:13:50.060 We see that, for instance, probably one of the best examples would be the Malagasy, the people who inhabit Madagascar. 00:13:50.060 --> 00:14:00.060 They are so obsessed with their ancestor worship and this attention to the dead that they often have tombs that are nicer than their homes. 00:14:01.280 --> 00:14:02.920 That's obviously a problem. 00:14:02.920 --> 00:14:05.020 You should not go down that road. 00:14:05.020 --> 00:14:10.680 But taking that one day out of the year on Old Souls Day to pray for the departed, I don't think that's wrongful. 00:14:10.680 --> 00:14:15.900 Because what you're praying is, I pray that they departed in the faith. 00:14:15.900 --> 00:14:17.340 That's completely fine. 00:14:17.340 --> 00:14:26.820 You're not saying, dear God, please go into hell and pull this great grandfather who was an evil, terrible man out of hell. 00:14:26.820 --> 00:14:27.800 I don't think you can do that. 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:32.360 Because I think that violates the very clear teaching of scripture. 00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:41.300 And you're asking God for sort of a special treatment, an exception to his laws and what is right and what is good. 00:14:41.300 --> 00:14:44.820 But praying they died in the faith, I think, is entirely fine. 00:14:44.820 --> 00:14:49.480 And so I think that sort of addresses both the issue there in Second Maccabees related to this. 00:14:49.480 --> 00:14:53.960 There's some other things as well, but and the issue of purgatory. 00:14:53.960 --> 00:15:03.480 But another one that the Roman Catholics like to bring up, I guess I should have left Logos out there, because I do actually want Logos. 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:09.500 Another passage they will bring up is from Second Timothy. 00:15:09.500 --> 00:15:10.200 Let me pull that up. 00:15:17.114 --> 00:15:26.574 They like to read this one, and I'll read it first, and then comment on what it is that they try to do with this passage, and why I don't think it necessarily follows. 00:15:26.574 --> 00:15:35.614 Notably, I don't think it can't follow, I just think it doesn't necessarily follow, and so they can't prop up their doctrine of purgatory on this passage. 00:15:35.614 --> 00:15:41.894 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesephirus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chains. 00:15:41.894 --> 00:15:44.814 But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me. 00:15:45.474 --> 00:15:48.814 May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. 00:15:48.814 --> 00:15:51.994 And you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus. 00:15:53.074 --> 00:16:04.154 Now the argument from the Roman Catholic camp, with regard to this, insofar as purgatory is concerned, is that they try to say that this is implying Onesephirus is dead. 00:16:04.154 --> 00:16:05.834 He's departed. 00:16:05.834 --> 00:16:07.774 I don't think it implies that. 00:16:07.774 --> 00:16:09.054 Can you read it that way? 00:16:09.054 --> 00:16:10.274 Absolutely. 00:16:10.274 --> 00:16:11.954 Do you have to read it that way? 00:16:11.954 --> 00:16:13.214 Absolutely not. 00:16:13.854 --> 00:16:20.374 Because, just because it's in the past tense, doesn't mean that Onesephirus is himself in the past tense. 00:16:20.374 --> 00:16:25.974 It simply means the things being referenced that Onesephirus did happened in the past. 00:16:25.974 --> 00:16:29.894 So, is this a prayer for the dead? 00:16:29.894 --> 00:16:31.514 Not necessarily. 00:16:31.514 --> 00:16:37.514 So, and also, it's worth noting, this is a man who did depart in the faith, if he died. 00:16:37.514 --> 00:16:48.674 But I don't think this props up their doctrine of purgatory, because you don't have to conclude that he's dead, and that he's being prayed for here. 00:16:48.674 --> 00:16:51.594 So, it just doesn't follow. 00:16:51.594 --> 00:16:57.734 This is one of their other big passages they try to use for purgatory, and I just think it's extremely weak. 00:16:57.734 --> 00:17:02.174 You cannot find purgatory in the text in any way that is convincing. 00:17:02.174 --> 00:17:14.654 And I know that somewhere, there are Roman Catholics who are currently screaming, because the other one they like to use is speaking of the purification as if by fire, right? 00:17:14.654 --> 00:17:17.514 And that's talking about the judgment. 00:17:17.514 --> 00:17:29.334 It's not talking about purgatory, and then you're purified by fire in purgatory, and then you get to go to paradise, or well, if you're being purified, you're going to paradise, you're not going to hell. 00:17:30.674 --> 00:17:46.094 But that also just doesn't follow, because if you read that passage itself, it clearly speaks of after the judgment, you go to paradise, or you go to hell, you go to eternal bliss, or eternal torment. 00:17:46.094 --> 00:17:56.294 There's no in-between state, there's no wording there whatsoever, implying that there is a purgatory, somewhere where you are purged of these things. 00:17:56.294 --> 00:18:02.514 Yes, you're renewed when you're resurrected, but you're not renewed in purgatory. 00:18:02.514 --> 00:18:17.014 The doctrine of purgatory, to sort of give the broader picture, is really built up and propped up by Rome because it has historically helped them to sell indulgences and things like that. 00:18:17.014 --> 00:18:24.554 It has been linked to monasticism because obviously you have them believing they have this treasury of merit that they can then sell to others. 00:18:24.554 --> 00:18:35.814 And so it props up the whole Roman system with regard to indulgences and increasing your merit and then storing it up and giving it to others, well, selling it to others. 00:18:35.814 --> 00:18:47.174 Or the Pope giving you a plenary dispensation for whatever it happens to be, saying this particular prayer on this particular day, this particular year, that still happens today. 00:18:47.174 --> 00:18:50.934 So I'm not giving some example that's historical and uncharitable. 00:18:50.934 --> 00:18:53.214 That still happens to this day. 00:18:53.214 --> 00:18:58.094 That's really why you have the doctrine of purgatory, the dogma of purgatory in Rome. 00:18:58.094 --> 00:19:03.774 It's to prop up other things and to facilitate other doctrines to which they adhere. 00:19:03.774 --> 00:19:05.794 It's just not in scripture. 00:19:05.794 --> 00:19:18.514 You can find a couple of passages that if you interpret them in a certain way, they would be consonant with the idea of a purgatory, but they don't teach purgatory, and that interpretation is not necessary. 00:19:18.514 --> 00:19:28.834 And so you can't just read passages of scripture and conclude this one particular interpretation teaches this doctrine basically created out of whole cloth. 00:19:28.834 --> 00:19:31.514 You need to find other places in scripture. 00:19:31.514 --> 00:19:34.094 Scripture is entirely consistent throughout. 00:19:34.094 --> 00:19:51.274 And when we have places where it speaks of the judgment, it says things like, it's appointed for man but wants to die, and then comes the judgment, and then Christ speaking in Matthew 26 or 27, I think it might be 25, let me pull that up. 00:19:53.234 --> 00:19:56.954 I may as well read the passage because otherwise, I'm going to have people who are mad at me. 00:19:58.694 --> 00:20:01.194 Yes, it's the end of 25. 00:20:03.494 --> 00:20:12.494 Then you will answer them saying, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. 00:20:13.694 --> 00:20:16.054 So, there are only two options there. 00:20:16.054 --> 00:20:22.014 There's no third option of purgatory where you go into the purgatory for a little while, and then you go into paradise. 00:20:22.014 --> 00:20:23.274 It's not there. 00:20:23.274 --> 00:20:33.174 And it's nowhere in scripture, nowhere where Christ is speaking about the end times and the judgment, does he give this sort of third option of a particularly nasty waiting room. 00:20:33.174 --> 00:20:44.414 So, I know that Roman Catholics don't like that answer, but it really is just a dogma that they have built up that is not actually based in scripture. 00:20:50.162 --> 00:20:51.742 Can answer a quick question here. 00:20:51.742 --> 00:20:53.702 I saw someone ask me, how many languages do I speak? 00:20:53.702 --> 00:20:55.622 It's really just English and German that I speak. 00:20:55.622 --> 00:20:59.822 I happen to know some Latin and Greek, but I don't speak either one of those. 00:20:59.822 --> 00:21:06.242 I can fluently read Latin aloud, but it doesn't mean that I can process it that quickly and understand it. 00:21:06.242 --> 00:21:08.242 My Latin is not that good. 00:21:11.582 --> 00:21:14.222 The next question here, let me pull that up. 00:21:20.020 --> 00:21:23.020 Should we pray that our faith not fail? 00:21:25.420 --> 00:21:36.920 Says, I've heard you condemn the prayer, O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet, which of course, yes, I'm going to condemn that one because you're not supposed to pray the prayer of, you know, I'd like to be chased, but not quite yet, Lord, right? 00:21:36.920 --> 00:21:39.960 That's praying that God will permit you to continue in sin. 00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:42.500 That's praying for something that's wicked. 00:21:42.500 --> 00:21:46.380 Should we pray that our faith may not fail, but when restored, we strengthen our brothers? 00:21:47.160 --> 00:21:51.760 So, there's nothing wrong with praying that your faith won't fail. 00:21:51.760 --> 00:21:58.520 And in fact, you should be praying for God to strengthen your faith, to give you a stronger faith, a more powerful faith. 00:21:58.520 --> 00:22:06.100 Let me open up the small catechism here. 00:22:06.100 --> 00:22:13.880 I want to open up the small catechism, because we actually already do pray for this all the time, because we pray for this in the Lord's Prayer. 00:22:13.880 --> 00:22:18.740 There are a couple different petitions where you could say that we pray for this. 00:22:18.740 --> 00:22:26.760 But I think one of the strongest ones, of course, is going to be the sixth petition, and lead us not into temptation. 00:22:26.760 --> 00:22:27.640 What does this mean? 00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:28.660 Answer. 00:22:28.660 --> 00:22:40.780 God indeed tempts no one, but we pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us, so that the devil of the world in our flesh may not deceive us, nor seduce us into misbelief, despair, and other great shame and vice. 00:22:40.780 --> 00:22:45.640 And though we be assailed by them, that still we may finally overcome and gain the victory. 00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:49.620 And so, of course, when we pray that, we're praying for a strong faith. 00:22:49.620 --> 00:22:53.100 We're praying for God to preserve our faith to the end, and there's nothing wrong with that. 00:22:53.100 --> 00:22:56.720 That is, obviously, it's a prayer directly from God. 00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:01.360 So, praying that our faith will not fail is not a problem. 00:23:01.360 --> 00:23:01.840 It's a good thing. 00:23:01.840 --> 00:23:02.480 You should do that. 00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:04.500 You absolutely should do that. 00:23:04.500 --> 00:23:07.580 And you do, if you're praying the Lord's Prayer. 00:23:07.580 --> 00:23:10.820 And then, strengthening your brothers, of course, is part of just being a Christian. 00:23:10.900 --> 00:23:12.640 That's what you do. 00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:14.320 It's iron sharpening iron. 00:23:14.320 --> 00:23:19.680 When you discuss the faith, when you spend time in the word together, things like that, you're strengthening each other. 00:23:19.680 --> 00:23:22.000 And that, of course, is also a good thing. 00:23:25.320 --> 00:23:30.360 See a sort of follow up question here in the chat that I'll just address because I haven't noticed it. 00:23:31.520 --> 00:23:36.960 Is there a purgatory in quotes in this case, in the sense of a holding area per se before judgment? 00:23:36.960 --> 00:23:43.580 In Revelation, it mentions the saints asking how long until Christ returns, and they're told to wait a bit longer. 00:23:43.580 --> 00:23:56.720 I think in the case of Revelation, you're dealing with mostly figurative language, you're dealing with a lot of symbolism, you're dealing with a lot of things that are not literal, because, of course, Christ is not a literal lamb with seven horns and seven eyes. 00:23:56.720 --> 00:23:59.380 So you can tell that's not literal, at least. 00:23:59.380 --> 00:24:13.220 But when it comes to what happens between death and the judgment, I don't get the sense when I read the passages dealing with that, that there's any real elapse of time between the two. 00:24:13.220 --> 00:24:19.780 And I think the best answer to it is that there isn't an elapse of time, because time is tied to this universe. 00:24:19.780 --> 00:24:26.760 Now, I'm not saying there won't be time in the renewed creation, but time is a physical property, essentially. 00:24:26.760 --> 00:24:34.840 And so I don't really want to get into physics and space-time, but time is something that exists as part of the universe. 00:24:34.840 --> 00:24:36.920 It does not exist outside the universe. 00:24:37.580 --> 00:24:44.060 And so the judgment and the renewal and all these things, those are outside of time. 00:24:44.060 --> 00:24:53.000 And so the chronology breaks down if we try to say that what happens between your death and the judgment. 00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:54.840 I don't think there's a between. 00:24:54.840 --> 00:24:58.960 I think you die and you wake up at the judgment seat. 00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:02.300 And so, yes, your perception, you're immediately at the judgment. 00:25:02.300 --> 00:25:03.940 I think that is how that works. 00:25:03.940 --> 00:25:12.840 And so there's no need for a waiting room, as it were, because when Adam died, he appeared at the judgment, and when you die, you appear at the same time as Adam. 00:25:12.840 --> 00:25:21.840 Because time is not an issue here, because we're dealing with time in the universe and then something that is outside of it, an entirely different thing. 00:25:24.520 --> 00:25:30.400 The next question is about Judaism and how it is a corruption of Christianity. 00:25:31.420 --> 00:25:40.900 What are ways by which we can tell that Judaism came from Christianity and is a corruption of it so as to refute the in quotes, Judeo-Christian heresy? 00:25:40.900 --> 00:25:44.900 Heresy not in quotes, notably, because that is correct, it is a heresy. 00:25:44.900 --> 00:25:49.840 And there are a lot of answers to this one. 00:25:49.840 --> 00:25:52.360 There are a lot of different proofs you can bring up. 00:25:52.360 --> 00:25:59.980 I think there are three that are probably key and are probably the most likely to get you any sort of traction. 00:25:59.980 --> 00:26:12.580 And I think I'll start with the one that is going to be sort of the hard sell, because it's difficult for some men to wrap their mind around it because of what they have been taught. 00:26:12.580 --> 00:26:43.120 And even if you explain it thoroughly and in a way that is entirely Christian, incontrovertible, unassailable, many men will still reject it because it goes against so many of their presuppositions that they have been taught with which they have been propagandized for probably in some cases decades, particularly if you're dealing with baby boomers, which, as I've said before, if you're dealing with your parents, baby boomers, maybe some of you grandparents at this point, just don't. 00:26:43.120 --> 00:26:56.660 You're going to cause yourself nothing but trouble and annoyance and make things more difficult and it's going to make it hard for you, at least in the sense of a challenge to fulfill the fourth commandment, thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother. 00:26:56.660 --> 00:26:57.980 So probably in that case, don't do it. 00:26:58.080 --> 00:27:08.260 But in other cases where you're trying to do this, by all means, the first of the three then would be pointing out that Adam was, in fact, the first Christian. 00:27:09.280 --> 00:27:17.940 And there are two ways that you need to approach this if you are going to advance this argument for someone in order to get him to understand it. 00:27:17.940 --> 00:27:22.320 First, you have to point out, what is a Christian? 00:27:22.320 --> 00:27:25.680 Seems trivial, but a lot of men have no idea. 00:27:27.020 --> 00:27:28.900 How do you define a Christian? 00:27:28.900 --> 00:27:33.220 A Christian is someone who has faith in the Gospel. 00:27:33.220 --> 00:27:34.880 What is the Gospel? 00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:46.980 The Gospel is that there will be or has been a Christ who died for you to wash away your sins, and that if you believe in him, you will be forgiven and have eternal life. 00:27:46.980 --> 00:27:53.120 That's the short version formulated for this particular argument. 00:27:53.120 --> 00:27:57.860 That time element, sort of tying into the last question, I guess, but that time element is key. 00:27:57.860 --> 00:28:06.480 Because if you died before Christ came, well, now you believe in the Messiah who is to come, who will come in the future. 00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:19.340 If, like those of us here, you were born after the Christ was born, lived his life, was crucified and resurrected, well, you believe in the Christ who has come. 00:28:19.340 --> 00:28:21.520 And yes, it's typically better to say Christ than Messiah. 00:28:21.520 --> 00:28:29.160 Sometimes I still use Messiah, but it's one of those words we're going to retain just because, various reasons, we've taken it, it's fine, it's ours now. 00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:30.640 It's part of our language. 00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:33.300 And we have a wonderful piece of music using it. 00:28:33.300 --> 00:28:47.880 That tangent aside, though, when you're dealing with the Gospel, once you've established what it means to be a Christian, you point out, well, where is the Gospel first spoken in Scripture? 00:28:47.880 --> 00:28:55.760 It's first spoken by God in Genesis 3.15, the Proto-Evangelion, because that is the Gospel. 00:28:55.760 --> 00:29:01.760 When Adam believed in that Gospel, and keep in mind, Adam smarter than any of us, Adam got it immediately. 00:29:01.760 --> 00:29:02.820 He knew what was going on. 00:29:02.820 --> 00:29:05.920 He knew what God was saying and the implications of it. 00:29:05.920 --> 00:29:16.080 And so Adam believed in the Gospel, spoken to him by God face to face, incidentally, spoken to him by Christ, perhaps ironically. 00:29:16.080 --> 00:29:20.040 And so he was a Christian because he believed, because he had faith. 00:29:20.540 --> 00:29:24.080 The same as Abraham was a Christian because he had faith. 00:29:24.080 --> 00:29:29.300 And so you're going to get those who will push back against this, and they'll try to say, well, no, they were Jews. 00:29:29.300 --> 00:29:37.600 And no, first off, Adam can't be a Jew because chronologically, Judah, from whom we get Jew, came long after Adam. 00:29:37.600 --> 00:29:53.560 And so if you can get them to recognize that the Old Testament figures who believed in the Messiah who was to come were Christians, great, you've made a great point, and you're well on your way to convincing this person of something important. 00:29:53.560 --> 00:30:13.520 But you are also going to have to point out, sort of the second point here, there is a difference between modern Judaism, which is, I'll get into that in a second, there is a difference between modern Judaism and the Old Testament ceremonial temple religion. 00:30:13.520 --> 00:30:19.940 The Old Testament ceremonial temple religion instituted by God, did not justify. 00:30:19.940 --> 00:30:26.040 Very clearly, we know that, because we have passages, the blood of bulls and goats cannot wash away sins. 00:30:26.040 --> 00:30:28.900 Scripture is very clear about that fact. 00:30:28.900 --> 00:30:35.180 And so hopefully, you are not going to reach any sort of contention, point of contention there, any pushback. 00:30:35.180 --> 00:30:44.380 But that was to prefigure the things that Christ would do, the sacrifice of Christ, the institution of the Lord's Supper, the washing away of sins and baptism, things like that. 00:30:44.440 --> 00:30:50.220 These are all prefigured in the Old Testament, because God really likes symbolism and typology. 00:30:50.220 --> 00:30:54.780 And so you have types and antitypes all over the place in Scripture. 00:30:54.780 --> 00:30:58.300 The ceremonial law is not Judaism. 00:30:58.300 --> 00:31:11.520 Judaism is not the ceremonial law, because what Judaism is, is a Jewish response to the destruction of the temple and the exile, particularly the Babylonian exile. 00:31:12.100 --> 00:31:17.080 Because what can they not do when the temple is gone? 00:31:17.080 --> 00:31:18.860 Well, they can't sacrifice. 00:31:18.860 --> 00:31:24.660 For Christians, that's not a problem, because we recognize Christ was the sacrifice once for all. 00:31:24.660 --> 00:31:26.860 The ceremonial law is done. 00:31:26.860 --> 00:31:27.960 It served its purpose. 00:31:27.960 --> 00:31:28.960 It's dead and gone. 00:31:28.960 --> 00:31:30.800 God got rid of it. 00:31:30.800 --> 00:31:32.240 That doesn't mean it was bad. 00:31:32.240 --> 00:31:33.160 Doesn't mean it was wrong. 00:31:33.160 --> 00:31:35.340 It means it was fulfilled. 00:31:35.340 --> 00:31:37.320 This is another thing that's sort of tangentially related. 00:31:37.320 --> 00:31:43.860 You get people that don't recognize that once God's fulfilled a promise, he's done what he said he would do. 00:31:43.860 --> 00:31:52.500 Obviously, you can see why that's tangentially related, but the ceremonial law having been closed out and the temple having been destroyed, the Jews can no longer do that. 00:31:52.500 --> 00:31:53.980 So what did they do in response? 00:31:53.980 --> 00:32:00.500 Well, in Babylon, there's the issue of, you know, learning black magic and things like that, and that being distilled into the Talmud. 00:32:00.500 --> 00:32:05.460 But they started to form up the Talmud during the Babylonian exile. 00:32:05.460 --> 00:32:11.980 It wasn't completed and formalized, as it were, until the 500s AD., incidentally, not BC. 00:32:11.980 --> 00:32:24.700 And that's Judaism, because Judaism is based entirely on the synagogue and on rabbinic interpretation, not of the Torah, not of the Pentateuch, but of the Talmud. 00:32:24.700 --> 00:32:32.200 And so one of the sayings about this, of course, is that what Torah forbids, Talmud permits. 00:32:32.200 --> 00:32:35.580 This has been something the Jews have been doing for a very, very long time. 00:32:36.260 --> 00:32:43.220 And so Judaism is a fundamentally different thing from the religion of the Old Testament. 00:32:43.220 --> 00:32:47.620 Christianity has been the only religion that saves all along. 00:32:47.620 --> 00:32:57.280 There was a ceremonial aspect with regard to the practice of certain things in Old Testament Israel for a period of time to prefigure the Christ. 00:32:57.280 --> 00:32:59.080 That was it. 00:32:59.080 --> 00:33:00.500 There's a clear divide there. 00:33:00.500 --> 00:33:01.640 These are not the same thing. 00:33:03.140 --> 00:33:07.780 If you can get them to recognize the truth of that, you will have made a great deal of progress. 00:33:07.780 --> 00:33:10.840 That's going to be difficult in most cases, though. 00:33:10.840 --> 00:33:12.100 So just recognize that. 00:33:12.100 --> 00:33:14.780 But I think most of us know that at this point. 00:33:16.540 --> 00:33:24.800 And I think, really, I sort of made the third point I wanted to make there, contained within the second point. 00:33:24.800 --> 00:33:29.980 And that is, you really have to drive home the fact, and this one is going to be a hard sell. 00:33:31.100 --> 00:33:36.520 You have to drive home the fact that Judaism is not the religion of the Old Testament. 00:33:37.720 --> 00:33:40.500 Judaism is the religion of the Talmud. 00:33:41.900 --> 00:33:43.980 That is the fundamental distinction. 00:33:43.980 --> 00:34:01.520 And so, maybe you can get somewhere by pointing out, I was trying to see if the book is on my shelf here, there is a book by a Jewish academic pointing out all of the places in which the Talmud deals with Christ and blasphemes him. 00:34:01.520 --> 00:34:04.060 And he treats it in a dry academic fashion. 00:34:04.060 --> 00:34:12.640 So, sometimes you can get some purchase by having them read that book and say, here's a Jewish academic saying, this is what the Talmud says about Jesus. 00:34:12.640 --> 00:34:15.980 This is what Jews believe about Christ. 00:34:15.980 --> 00:34:30.500 So, I think those three points are really probably the best approach for dealing with this issue of Judaism being a corruption of Christianity, instead of actually being the Old Testament religion, because it addresses those main points. 00:34:30.500 --> 00:34:37.680 And you have to drive home that Christianity has only ever been the one true religion. 00:34:37.680 --> 00:34:44.480 And scripture is abundantly clear about that, of course, because I am the way, the truth, and the life, among many other passages. 00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:46.300 There's never been another way to the Father. 00:34:46.300 --> 00:34:54.720 There's never been another way to see forgiveness of sins, to have your wickedness washed away, to be given white robes, to enter into paradise. 00:34:54.720 --> 00:34:56.620 It's always been Christ and only Christ. 00:34:56.620 --> 00:35:01.620 The only question is, do you believe in the Christ who is to come, or the Christ who has come? 00:35:01.620 --> 00:35:07.700 These days, of course, are relevant, because everyone you meet was born after Christ, obviously. 00:35:07.700 --> 00:35:15.140 But when dealing with history, you're going to have those who lived before Christ came. 00:35:15.140 --> 00:35:20.980 And if they believed in the Christ who was to come, they were, in fact, Christians, not Jews. 00:35:21.760 --> 00:35:29.380 And a great way to point that out, of course, is all of the men who came before Judah, who believed in the Christ. 00:35:29.380 --> 00:35:33.600 Many of them are not in the line of Christ, are not part of Israel at all. 00:35:33.600 --> 00:35:38.740 And so, they are Christians still, but they are not Jews. 00:35:38.740 --> 00:35:44.120 They did not follow Judaism, they believed in the Christ, and so their religion was Christianity. 00:35:49.865 --> 00:35:52.925 Sort of a related question here. 00:35:54.605 --> 00:35:59.525 How can I share the word and gospel with others when I am not very social? 00:35:59.525 --> 00:36:07.725 I can walk up to and talk to people with no problem, but my problem is that I'm monotone and robotic, or, in quotes, autistic. 00:36:07.725 --> 00:36:13.505 However, I think that if I try to force myself to be very bubbly, it wouldn't be genuine. 00:36:13.505 --> 00:36:15.465 I'm not going to tell you to force yourself to be bubbly. 00:36:15.465 --> 00:36:17.525 I've certainly never done that in my life. 00:36:17.805 --> 00:36:21.165 So, you don't have to be that. 00:36:21.165 --> 00:36:25.985 There are different approaches to sharing the faith that are going to work with different men. 00:36:25.985 --> 00:36:31.185 And they're going to work in different times and different places, and some men are more suited to them than to others. 00:36:31.185 --> 00:36:35.385 So, there are going to be those who are very good at apologetics. 00:36:35.385 --> 00:36:39.005 There are going to be those who are good at different kinds of apologetics. 00:36:39.005 --> 00:36:42.025 And it is going to depend on the person. 00:36:42.025 --> 00:36:43.445 You have to tailor these things. 00:36:43.445 --> 00:36:53.125 You're not going to find a one-size-fits-all, as-it-were, argument, because that's not how human beings work. 00:36:53.125 --> 00:37:00.025 So, just because you're not particularly social, or you're monotone, or robotic, I've been accused of those as well. 00:37:00.025 --> 00:37:02.185 So, I truly understand. 00:37:02.185 --> 00:37:10.565 But that doesn't mean that you can't find some way to share the faith that will still be very effective with certain men. 00:37:10.565 --> 00:37:21.465 If you're going to take it in that direction, approach it in that way, you're probably going to take it from the sort of intellectual angle, the academic angle, and that can be very effective. 00:37:21.465 --> 00:37:24.925 It's going to be very effective almost exclusively with men. 00:37:24.925 --> 00:37:27.845 You're probably not going to convince any women with those arguments. 00:37:27.845 --> 00:37:30.545 That's just the reality of the fact. 00:37:30.545 --> 00:37:36.865 But that's not a bad thing, because by and large, you probably should be arguing with other men instead of women. 00:37:36.865 --> 00:37:38.865 Topic for another time. 00:37:38.865 --> 00:37:48.225 But, no, I don't think there's a problem with being a little bit reserved or less social when it comes to these things. 00:37:48.225 --> 00:37:55.705 You can absolutely be that kind of man, have that kind of disposition, and still share the faith very effectively. 00:37:55.705 --> 00:37:57.605 Look at some of the apostles. 00:37:57.605 --> 00:38:01.385 They were not all the most upbeat and chipper individuals, certainly. 00:38:01.385 --> 00:38:04.345 Paul was a particularly cranky man from time to time. 00:38:04.345 --> 00:38:09.305 And if you start looking at the Old Testament prophets, you certainly are getting even crankier territory. 00:38:09.965 --> 00:38:18.445 I don't think anyone would say that Elijah or Elisha was upbeat and bubbly, and, you know, any of those things. 00:38:18.445 --> 00:38:19.405 So there's nothing wrong with that. 00:38:19.405 --> 00:38:27.165 Different men have different dispositions, and you're going to find different things are effective in different scenarios with other men. 00:38:27.165 --> 00:38:32.925 Some are going to be convinced by cold calculating reason, and maybe that's what you're good at. 00:38:32.925 --> 00:38:33.645 By all means, use it. 00:38:38.365 --> 00:38:49.765 There's another question here that the person who asked it actually deleted it, but I'm still going to answer it just because I think it is an important question. 00:38:49.765 --> 00:38:50.985 It's come up a number of times. 00:38:50.985 --> 00:38:58.165 I've answered it a few places, but it's always worth repeating it just because there are those who are going to have this question. 00:38:58.165 --> 00:38:59.885 So I'm going to pull up Logos again here. 00:39:01.945 --> 00:39:04.725 And we're going to go to the Book of Acts this time. 00:39:06.945 --> 00:39:11.305 So here in the Book of Acts, we're dealing with the 21st chapter. 00:39:14.245 --> 00:39:14.805 Let's see. 00:39:14.805 --> 00:39:24.865