WEBVTT 00:00:00.960 --> 00:00:18.560 I assume that you can all hear me now, because there is a weird glitch between sound source and OBS, where if I have sound source enabled, yeah, then OBS throws a fit. 00:00:19.300 --> 00:00:24.500 And I don't think anyone has yet figured out what exactly the conflict there is. 00:00:24.500 --> 00:00:26.160 At any rate, I will simply start over. 00:00:26.520 --> 00:00:29.680 It is the 22nd of May, 2026. 00:00:29.880 --> 00:00:30.640 I am Corey J. 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:32.740 Mahler, and this is At Any Cost. 00:00:32.740 --> 00:00:35.900 This is episode 29, a Q&A episode. 00:00:35.900 --> 00:00:40.220 I have just a little bit of housekeeping before I get started with the actual questions here. 00:00:40.760 --> 00:00:43.580 There are some outstanding orders for challenge coins. 00:00:43.580 --> 00:00:46.200 That's both Stone Choir and Confident Faith. 00:00:46.500 --> 00:00:47.760 Most of those are ready to go. 00:00:47.860 --> 00:00:54.100 I should have all of those out either tomorrow morning or Monday morning, depending on how that goes. 00:00:54.360 --> 00:00:58.820 So if you're waiting for your order, you'll have a tracking number in your email. 00:00:59.220 --> 00:01:05.400 If you're signed up for USPS tracking, if it's a foreign order or something like that, then you should still get one. 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:07.860 But if you don't, let me know and I'll send one over to you. 00:01:08.700 --> 00:01:15.020 At any rate, you should have those coins in hand in the next handful of days unless you ordered from Europe, then give it a week. 00:01:17.400 --> 00:01:24.980 The only other bit of housekeeping that I had is that next week, I think I am going to go through some of the more involved questions. 00:01:24.980 --> 00:01:28.960 So there'll be fewer questions addressed, but some longer answers. 00:01:28.960 --> 00:01:34.100 I see some in the backlog there that I haven't prepared yet because they're going to be longer. 00:01:34.100 --> 00:01:37.140 They're going to take up a good chunk of an episode. 00:01:37.420 --> 00:01:38.680 So I'll get to some of those. 00:01:39.140 --> 00:01:44.300 I think that's pretty much it for housekeeping those, so I'll move on to the questions now. 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:47.480 I see that there are already some questions coming in in the chat. 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:49.040 I'll try to copy those as we go. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:50.280 So. 00:01:56.518 --> 00:02:00.198 Nothing I need to address right now, but anyway, I'll move on to the first question. 00:02:01.338 --> 00:02:08.738 Question one, what do you make of the papist photos that they post of the Eucharist and it's bloody? 00:02:08.758 --> 00:02:11.578 They claim this is evidence of transubstantiation. 00:02:13.118 --> 00:02:17.438 So, I've seen these images going around on X in particular. 00:02:17.438 --> 00:02:19.698 That seems to be where they've been sharing them recently. 00:02:20.058 --> 00:02:36.258 And without actually knowing anything about what happened, because there's never really any facts attached to it, nothing substantiated or corroborated, I have no idea what it is exactly they're doing. 00:02:36.258 --> 00:02:40.778 Generally speaking, my assumption would be it's just wine on the wafer. 00:02:41.498 --> 00:02:43.058 Wine looks like blood, right? 00:02:43.818 --> 00:02:45.058 Red wine looks like blood. 00:02:45.358 --> 00:02:50.758 One of the reasons that symbolically we use red wine, because Scripture doesn't say you have to use red wine. 00:02:50.938 --> 00:02:53.378 Incidentally, some places in Germany use white wine. 00:02:54.598 --> 00:02:56.578 There are historical, theological reasons for that. 00:02:56.578 --> 00:03:05.798 But that's permissible, because it's not required by Scripture that you use red wine, or white wine, or it has to be Cabernet or something, right? 00:03:06.018 --> 00:03:06.978 It just says wine. 00:03:07.498 --> 00:03:13.178 So the reason historically and today that we use red wine is that it looks like blood. 00:03:13.518 --> 00:03:17.598 It reminds you of what is happening in the supper. 00:03:17.598 --> 00:03:18.358 And that's a good thing. 00:03:18.358 --> 00:03:28.238 So I think using red wine is probably a good practice, unless you have some specific reason not to do so, which was the case with those German Lutherans at one point. 00:03:28.458 --> 00:03:29.998 And some of them just carried it forward. 00:03:30.898 --> 00:03:35.238 But the claims being advanced, I don't have any evidence. 00:03:35.258 --> 00:03:36.658 I don't have any facts. 00:03:37.438 --> 00:03:41.518 So if I were there and I saw something happen, then certainly I would faithfully report that. 00:03:42.038 --> 00:03:45.038 But I haven't seen that. 00:03:45.118 --> 00:03:49.218 And like I said, they don't provide facts to corroborate this, go alongside it. 00:03:49.718 --> 00:03:51.418 They're just weird, naked claims. 00:03:51.418 --> 00:03:55.018 It's kind of the same as the claims of statues crying and things like that. 00:03:55.598 --> 00:03:57.518 We see this stuff all the time. 00:03:58.198 --> 00:04:14.558 And I'm not saying there are no miracles, but you should have some corroborating evidence that the thing happened is indeed supernatural, because otherwise you wind up embarrassing yourself when it turns out the statue was crying because there was a leaky toilet above it. 00:04:14.758 --> 00:04:16.458 That's literally happened before. 00:04:16.458 --> 00:04:17.658 I believe that was in Mexico. 00:04:18.358 --> 00:04:20.638 You don't want to put yourself in that situation, right? 00:04:21.478 --> 00:04:27.098 If you're going to advance that something is a miracle, make sure there's no mundane explanation for it. 00:04:27.518 --> 00:04:31.518 If the priest spilled some wine on the wafers, that's the explanation for it. 00:04:31.998 --> 00:04:42.498 If the wafers instead were isolated, and then the priest spoke the words of institution, and they start bleeding, that's a totally different thing. 00:04:42.918 --> 00:04:49.058 I haven't seen proof of that, so as far as I'm concerned, I think spilled wine is the most likely explanation. 00:04:49.618 --> 00:04:51.478 But again, I'm not saying miracles don't happen. 00:04:51.978 --> 00:04:54.538 God still performs miracles today. 00:04:55.058 --> 00:04:59.498 Lutherans are not cessationists with regard to miracles, or with regard to sign gifts even. 00:05:00.098 --> 00:05:14.618 God just does it less today, because many of those things were meant in the immediate aftermath of the New Testament era to put God's stamp of approval, as it were, to prove that these were men who were actually empowered by God to go out and speak his truth. 00:05:15.078 --> 00:05:17.938 And today, we don't need the same thing. 00:05:18.118 --> 00:05:20.138 God's operating in a different way with us today. 00:05:22.158 --> 00:05:23.298 Question two. 00:05:25.138 --> 00:05:29.878 Can you give guidance to any delegates who are going to the LCMS convention? 00:05:30.378 --> 00:05:33.618 I saw there is a resolution that was brought forward against you and Woe. 00:05:34.518 --> 00:05:37.458 So yes, there are actually several resolutions against us. 00:05:37.638 --> 00:05:41.138 One, at least one, happens to name us personally. 00:05:41.678 --> 00:05:45.198 So, I'll refrain from commenting on some aspects of that. 00:05:45.198 --> 00:05:54.858 But, if you are going to the convention, you have to realize the men at the convention, by and large, are going to be company men, as it were. 00:05:55.138 --> 00:05:59.398 There will be good pastors, and there will be good pastors who brought along good elders with them. 00:06:00.418 --> 00:06:05.718 For those who don't know, in the LCMS, the pastor of a congregation goes, and he takes one man with him. 00:06:06.018 --> 00:06:08.378 So, usually going to be an elder, right? 00:06:08.378 --> 00:06:11.338 Or the president of the congregation, someone in a position of authority. 00:06:11.738 --> 00:06:13.658 Doesn't have to be, usually is. 00:06:14.438 --> 00:06:15.818 There will be a lot of good men there. 00:06:16.158 --> 00:06:29.658 But, at the same time, if you stand up and advocate for Stone Choir, you'll probably be out of the LCMS, and it won't be asked to leave, they'll force you to leave, inside of a few weeks. 00:06:30.298 --> 00:06:31.718 Now, you'd think, oh, the next date. 00:06:31.718 --> 00:06:34.158 No, it's bureaucracy, it takes a little while to operate. 00:06:34.678 --> 00:06:38.938 But they are still very much in witch hunt mode, and they will try to ruin your life. 00:06:39.898 --> 00:06:47.678 So I wouldn't recommend that, because I don't think it's going to gain you anything or advance anything with regard to the LCMS. 00:06:47.678 --> 00:06:53.978 This is just not going to be a convention where anything particularly substantive is accomplished. 00:06:56.098 --> 00:07:00.838 I think I will refrain from commenting more on that particular subject right now. 00:07:00.838 --> 00:07:04.978 Maybe I'll comment more on it after the convention is underway. 00:07:05.698 --> 00:07:09.978 But, the general rule is probably just fly under the radar right now. 00:07:10.838 --> 00:07:12.858 That's the wise thing to do. 00:07:15.518 --> 00:07:16.958 Question 3. 00:07:16.958 --> 00:07:22.518 I guess this is sort of almost a follow-on to question 1, just incidentally. 00:07:24.538 --> 00:07:28.518 You previously mentioned not taking the angelic view of the Nephilim. 00:07:29.118 --> 00:07:36.318 What phenomena do you believe are supernatural or preternatural that others may take a naturalistic view on? 00:07:39.038 --> 00:07:49.678 So, insofar as supernatural views, if I ignore that last clause, as it were, that limiting clause, then obviously belief in God is probably my primary supernatural view. 00:07:50.838 --> 00:07:53.578 Belief in the soul, just belief in the supernatural at all, right? 00:07:53.938 --> 00:08:04.938 So, other than when people take a naturalistic view, I think one of the obvious ones there would be the development of the races of man, right? 00:08:05.378 --> 00:08:08.118 Because there is a spiritual element to that. 00:08:08.118 --> 00:08:11.818 It's not purely naturalistic, it's not purely physical. 00:08:12.338 --> 00:08:28.218 And so, you have the genetic component, but you also have the component of how faithful a particular race remained to God, how deeply they fell into demon worship, and that influenced the development of that race over time. 00:08:28.218 --> 00:08:35.958 Then obviously, cultures downstream from race, and then culture reinforces whatever those proclivities were for the given race, you have a feedback loop. 00:08:36.418 --> 00:08:43.798 So, many would try to take that as purely naturalistic, and I think that there's very clearly a supernatural element to that as well. 00:08:44.838 --> 00:08:54.978 Insofar as other supernatural things are concerned, demons are real, they can do things in the physical world within bounds God set for them. 00:08:55.458 --> 00:09:05.378 I've mentioned before, God doesn't tell us the bounds, so we can't say, oh yes, a demon can do X, a demon cannot do Y, right, by and large. 00:09:06.418 --> 00:09:16.038 We know the general rule, a demon cannot go further than God has permitted, a demon cannot outright drag you to hell, right, demons can't do that. 00:09:16.338 --> 00:09:19.498 They tempt you, try to mess with you, do things like that. 00:09:19.498 --> 00:09:20.758 I mean, look at the Book of Job, right? 00:09:20.758 --> 00:09:27.218 That was obviously a special instance, God permitted Satan to do some stuff that he does not normally do, right? 00:09:28.378 --> 00:09:31.638 I look out right now and Satan is not calling down fire on my livestock. 00:09:32.298 --> 00:09:35.318 I can't actually see my chickens from this window, but it's not happening, I know that. 00:09:35.318 --> 00:09:44.718 So, as far as supernatural versus naturalistic views, I think that probably just about covers the general range, as it were. 00:09:45.498 --> 00:10:00.258 If you look at the world sort of as an extrapolation from the question, if you look at the world as purely naturalistic, you're going to miss a lot of things, and also you can't explain the world, because materialism falls flat. 00:10:00.818 --> 00:10:03.318 There are many arguments that demonstrate this. 00:10:03.958 --> 00:10:05.558 Qualia is probably one of the best one. 00:10:05.558 --> 00:10:06.638 You can go ahead and look that up. 00:10:06.638 --> 00:10:12.158 Basically, it's your personal experience of something, your interior experience, which is not physical. 00:10:12.718 --> 00:10:22.078 And so, your personal perception, experience of the color red, is your qualia of the color red, or qualia, if we want to use the singular there, which we probably should. 00:10:23.638 --> 00:10:26.178 That is not purely physical. 00:10:26.498 --> 00:10:30.898 And there are many thought experiments that have demonstrably and conclusively proven that. 00:10:31.438 --> 00:10:36.718 So, we know that there are things that are at least supra-natural, right? 00:10:36.718 --> 00:10:53.678 They are above the material outside the naturalistic, which means if you have a purely material science, or a purely material view of the universe, approach to things, your world view, there will be things you cannot explain within that. 00:10:54.618 --> 00:11:02.658 Not least of all, you know, things like the laws of logic upon which you are relying to build up your natural system. 00:11:02.938 --> 00:11:10.978 So, the supra-natural is very clearly real, and you can't avoid it and have a coherent system. 00:11:14.298 --> 00:11:28.218 Question four and five are related, and then I think I'll get to some questions from the chat, because I think, like I said, next week I'll go over some more involved questions, so I'll do some shorter ones this week. 00:11:29.098 --> 00:11:29.878 Question four. 00:11:29.878 --> 00:11:37.158 In various episodes, you and I touched on Levitical punishments being strong suggestions, but not strictly necessary. 00:11:37.538 --> 00:11:43.218 I assume, however, that there is, of course, no good argument for not simply following them in principle. 00:11:45.818 --> 00:11:53.218 With regard to following them in principle, I don't think there's any argument against that. 00:11:53.778 --> 00:12:00.878 So the arguments against it would be, however, practical arguments. 00:12:00.878 --> 00:12:02.818 They would be pragmatic arguments. 00:12:03.218 --> 00:12:14.638 So, for instance, if we were right now, as things stand, to institute a law handing out capital punishment, we'll take the extreme example, right? 00:12:14.858 --> 00:12:17.818 Handing out capital punishment for blasphemy. 00:12:18.498 --> 00:12:23.858 And we took the expansive view of blasphemy that is found in the Old Testament. 00:12:25.058 --> 00:12:28.758 We would very significantly reduce the population of our country. 00:12:29.698 --> 00:12:41.958 And given the reality of the conditions of the last hundred, hundred and fifty years, maybe even a little longer, I don't think that that's a reasonable approach. 00:12:43.058 --> 00:12:50.638 Essentially, you have to give people some sort of warning, as it were, that this is going to be enacted, right? 00:12:50.758 --> 00:12:57.658 You have to say, we are going to punish, going forward, blasphemy with the death penalty. 00:12:58.258 --> 00:13:00.278 Here are the things that are blasphemous. 00:13:00.558 --> 00:13:01.978 Do not do these things. 00:13:03.178 --> 00:13:04.658 The Israelites had that, right? 00:13:04.658 --> 00:13:10.358 Because God gave Moses the law, Moses spoke it to them, the Levites interpreted it and gave it to them, right? 00:13:10.698 --> 00:13:11.978 They knew these things. 00:13:12.218 --> 00:13:14.798 And so, they had fair warning, as it were. 00:13:14.798 --> 00:13:22.698 And yes, you could make the argument, well, everyone knows that God exists and that you shouldn't, you know, say these horrible things about God, right? 00:13:23.518 --> 00:13:34.618 Okay, that's different from having an explicit statement of, we are going to punish this in this way, you are hereby warned, right? 00:13:34.978 --> 00:13:36.718 So, I think we have to take that approach. 00:13:36.718 --> 00:13:44.938 I think there is a level of pragmatism when it comes to where we fall on the scale with regard to punishments that are permissible. 00:13:45.338 --> 00:13:51.978 So, we shouldn't go enacting all of the Old Testament laws with the maximum punishment right now. 00:13:52.618 --> 00:13:54.718 I saw someone mention there's no audio. 00:13:54.758 --> 00:13:58.958 I assume that's someone who just started listening to the stream that the audio did not cut again. 00:13:59.378 --> 00:14:00.938 My levels all look fine. 00:14:01.278 --> 00:14:02.278 Hopefully, they are. 00:14:02.738 --> 00:14:06.558 If not, someone in the chat, please tell me. 00:14:07.418 --> 00:14:09.798 So, the follow-up question, question five. 00:14:12.978 --> 00:14:16.598 Why should we not just execute all adulterers? 00:14:16.598 --> 00:14:30.338 And adulteress, as we're using the generic term there, is the justification given by God for the execution of murderers enough to put it above the equal-in-law slash on-paper punishments of adultery and sodomy. 00:14:31.778 --> 00:14:47.498 One of the reasons that I sort of put this one off a little bit, and I've touched on this previously, is that there's actually a difference in the way the commandments, particularly these two, are listed in the Septuagint versus the Masoretic text. 00:14:48.978 --> 00:15:02.738 One of the lists in the Septuagint actually lists adultery before murder, which would make adultery the 5th commandment and murder the 6th commandment in the Lutheran or traditional numbering, right? 00:15:02.738 --> 00:15:07.778 Not the reform numbering to which, with which most Americans are familiar. 00:15:08.218 --> 00:15:11.118 So, being Lutheran, I'm accustomed to the Lutheran numbering. 00:15:13.018 --> 00:15:23.198 And the other aspect of that is that if you actually look at the way that Christ himself lists them in Luke, he also lists adultery first. 00:15:23.398 --> 00:15:25.018 It's one of those things that we've all read. 00:15:25.018 --> 00:15:28.598 We've read it however many times you've read the book of Luke, right? 00:15:29.178 --> 00:15:33.258 And we just go past, we're like, oh, Christ is just giving an off... 00:15:33.258 --> 00:15:36.018 Christ is God, he's not just giving an offhand list. 00:15:36.438 --> 00:15:41.318 And yet, he says adultery and then murder. 00:15:41.758 --> 00:15:45.438 This is one of those things where, yes, there's some tension, as it were, in the text. 00:15:46.138 --> 00:15:51.118 We sort of have to resolve how we're going to list them and teach them to our children, right? 00:15:51.918 --> 00:15:55.398 I could make an argument either way, very easily argument either way. 00:15:55.798 --> 00:15:57.578 I can make a compelling argument either way. 00:15:58.298 --> 00:16:01.598 I am not going to give a resolution to this. 00:16:01.598 --> 00:16:04.958 I think that it's partly up to the translators to deal with that issue. 00:16:05.498 --> 00:16:09.458 And so I'm just not going to say that it should be X, right? 00:16:09.458 --> 00:16:11.478 I'm not going to try to bind them to that. 00:16:12.058 --> 00:16:16.458 On a related note, I guess, a little nugget for those who are listening to this. 00:16:17.218 --> 00:16:24.758 Those who are listening to the Through the Bible in a Year readings, you may have noticed that I am not always pronouncing the names consistently. 00:16:25.358 --> 00:16:26.318 That's deliberate. 00:16:26.698 --> 00:16:35.158 And the reason that I'm doing that is that I don't want anyone to be able in the future to point to those readings and say, well, he said it this way, and so we should... 00:16:35.338 --> 00:16:40.058 And so I've denied them the ability to do that by pronouncing the names different ways. 00:16:40.678 --> 00:16:59.818 I'm also implicitly pointing out the names need to be anglicized in a way that is comprehensible for English listeners, English readers, and so we're not bound by exactly how the name is spelled in the Greek, because some of the things that the Greeks believe are pronounceable are insane to English ears. 00:16:59.878 --> 00:17:02.038 So that's the reason that I'm doing that. 00:17:03.498 --> 00:17:04.938 Same sort of thing going on here. 00:17:04.938 --> 00:17:07.838 Translators need to work through this issue. 00:17:08.898 --> 00:17:21.938 But, to get to the specific question of adultery and the punishment of adulterers, and even if you think the commandments are one way versus another, it doesn't mean that we can't have capital punishment for both, right? 00:17:21.938 --> 00:17:26.218 Obviously, because God says it's a capital crime in the Old Testament. 00:17:27.158 --> 00:17:32.058 That, for those who don't know, the punishment in the Old Testament for adultery is death. 00:17:32.078 --> 00:17:33.418 It's a capital crime. 00:17:34.638 --> 00:17:46.458 I do think that we should bring that back, because adultery completely destroys nations, it destroys families, it is one of the most destructive things in which a man or a woman can engage. 00:17:46.758 --> 00:17:49.258 Now, that comes with some caveats. 00:17:50.218 --> 00:17:51.718 And the caveats would be this. 00:17:52.398 --> 00:17:55.598 For women, adultery should be a capital crime. 00:17:56.478 --> 00:18:04.198 For men, there are instances where it should be, and where for sort of pragmatic reasons, it should not be. 00:18:04.678 --> 00:18:11.738 So, I'll give some examples here to draw out that distinction, and then explain a little bit why there's a difference here. 00:18:11.738 --> 00:18:14.638 I think many of those listening know why, but I'll explain it nonetheless. 00:18:15.658 --> 00:18:29.618 So, if a man is already married, has a wife, has children, and then sleeps with another woman who is not married, that's important for this, polygyny is morally permissible. 00:18:30.478 --> 00:18:36.158 And so, there is a solution here that is not capital punishment. 00:18:36.238 --> 00:18:41.018 You still punish the man in some way, you know, public shaming or beating, whatever it happens to be. 00:18:41.018 --> 00:18:43.258 There's another one, corporal punishment, it certainly works. 00:18:43.978 --> 00:18:58.298 But in order not to deprive the first woman of her husband and the children of their father, and thereby inflict that sort of harm, you have the solution of him having another wife. 00:18:58.818 --> 00:19:01.918 So, there are cases where I think that's the solution. 00:19:01.958 --> 00:19:04.098 Are there cases where he should be executed instead? 00:19:04.098 --> 00:19:05.258 Certainly yes, I think so. 00:19:05.878 --> 00:19:11.238 Now, if the woman, the second woman, is instead married, that's different. 00:19:11.438 --> 00:19:13.358 That should be death penalty for the man as well. 00:19:14.158 --> 00:19:17.698 The reason for the difference is very simple, that it's just biology, right? 00:19:18.578 --> 00:19:24.418 A woman engaging in adultery has committed something that is never in any way permissible, right? 00:19:24.418 --> 00:19:28.158 A woman is not permitted to sleep with a man, not her husband. 00:19:29.098 --> 00:19:31.758 Polyandry is never permissible. 00:19:32.178 --> 00:19:38.098 So you don't have that solution, as it were, of here's your new wife, you have a second wife, right? 00:19:38.098 --> 00:19:38.738 You have to marry her. 00:19:38.738 --> 00:19:44.758 Obviously, the father of the woman should have a veto and all that sort of stuff, ancillary to the immediate question. 00:19:45.558 --> 00:19:50.718 But a woman engaged in adultery, so an adulteress, there's no solution there. 00:19:50.898 --> 00:19:57.738 She has committed a heinous crime for which there is no real fix in this life. 00:19:58.558 --> 00:20:12.458 Now, could you potentially have some sort of minor carve out, as it were, for a lesser punishment in the law where her husband forgives her and says, I don't want the maximum penalty? 00:20:13.378 --> 00:20:15.498 Maybe, I think you could argue one way or the other with that. 00:20:15.498 --> 00:20:17.158 I'm not saying it's morally impermissible. 00:20:17.158 --> 00:20:22.858 I think that that's a morally permissible caveat or carve out in the law. 00:20:23.998 --> 00:20:31.098 But should it be something we do as a society is a different argument, because there's the issue of wisdom, right? 00:20:32.078 --> 00:20:41.478 If you permit that, then you can create conditions in your society such that men are pushed to be the sort of man who has to forgive that, right? 00:20:41.478 --> 00:20:43.778 Oh, you're not a good man unless you do X, Y, and Z. 00:20:44.498 --> 00:20:48.458 If you don't permit the exception, you can't run into that problem. 00:20:48.738 --> 00:20:57.038 Similar to, and this should come to mind for some of you, certainly, we should have paternity testing for all children born, period. 00:20:57.278 --> 00:21:07.378 And the reason you do that is that it is an incentive not to engage in adultery, because you will be caught, at least under those circumstances. 00:21:07.798 --> 00:21:18.198 And what it does then is it removes the strife that demanding a paternity test could cause in a particular situation, right? 00:21:18.818 --> 00:21:29.458 If you have a man who is, you know, suspicious of his wife for some reason, and she's totally innocent, and he demands a paternity test, that's going to do grave harm to the marriage. 00:21:29.698 --> 00:21:37.678 Whereas if the state is instead saying, you must have a paternity test, you have no say in this, she's not going to blame him. 00:21:38.098 --> 00:21:40.138 You don't cause the problem for the marriage. 00:21:40.438 --> 00:21:41.578 It's better policy. 00:21:42.038 --> 00:21:44.998 So paternity testing should absolutely be mandatory. 00:21:45.058 --> 00:21:51.298 It resolves a lot of problems in society, and you don't have that potential strife between husband and wife. 00:21:52.738 --> 00:22:21.558 But with regard to adultery, yes, my basic stance is that capital punishment should absolutely be on the table, but it should not automatically and always be the punishment, because there should be some, not really exceptions, but, and not even really mitigating circumstances, but mitigating in the sense of there are other considerations that come into the calculus and argue for a lesser punishment in order to reduce harm. 00:22:22.378 --> 00:22:25.398 And I think harm reduction is permissible in some cases. 00:22:26.218 --> 00:22:39.478 Not at all, because Genesis 9, 6, God doesn't give us the option, those who commit murder, and obviously that's kind of thinking of murder one sort of thing there, but those who commit murder, capital punishment, period. 00:22:40.198 --> 00:22:43.798 God doesn't give us the means, so we have freedom with regard to that. 00:22:43.878 --> 00:22:51.218 There's leeway there, but the punishment itself has to be capital punishment, because again, Genesis 9, 6 is abundantly clear. 00:22:51.618 --> 00:22:55.318 And I've said it enough times on this podcast and elsewhere that I'm sure you all know it by now. 00:22:55.318 --> 00:22:57.138 It's one of those ones we should all have memorized. 00:22:59.958 --> 00:23:03.658 Question 6 is actually from the letter I mentioned last week. 00:23:03.958 --> 00:23:08.178 I'm just going to read it off the letter because I didn't type it up yet, and it was actually a physically mailed letter. 00:23:09.078 --> 00:23:18.818 I am not going to answer all the questions from it, because some of them, as it turns out, I was reading it before I went live, and some of them are a little more involved. 00:23:19.198 --> 00:23:31.018 There's a question about Mein Kampf and some history and nexus with theology and philosophy, so it's a little complicated, but hopefully I'll get to that one next week. 00:23:31.238 --> 00:23:37.078 Maybe I'll go through Mein Kampf at some point and assess that project for the future. 00:23:37.398 --> 00:23:42.918 Anyway, the question I'm going to answer is the second question from this letter, and it's very nice and short. 00:23:42.918 --> 00:23:50.518 How can you explain Genesis chapter 30 verses 37 through 39, which gives a very strange story on reproduction? 00:23:50.738 --> 00:23:57.958 So for those of you who are familiar with how atheists and others try to argue, this is one they love, right? 00:23:58.258 --> 00:24:08.958 This comes up all the time, so I will just pull that up in Logos here, assuming Logos will cooperate, and actually read through it since... 00:24:11.318 --> 00:24:12.418 Always better to do that. 00:24:14.478 --> 00:24:15.178 Logos. 00:24:16.978 --> 00:24:19.318 Okay, so here we have Genesis... 00:24:21.198 --> 00:24:22.698 Can we stop doing that? 00:24:24.058 --> 00:24:27.898 The numbering is actually the same in this case, for the Septuagint, conveniently. 00:24:27.898 --> 00:24:30.198 So, for those of you playing along at home. 00:24:31.818 --> 00:24:37.378 And Jacob took for himself a green rod of styrax and walnut and one of a plain tree. 00:24:37.818 --> 00:24:41.258 And Jacob stripped white stripes in them, tearing away the green. 00:24:41.678 --> 00:24:44.898 And the white that he had stripped appeared variegated on the rods. 00:24:45.258 --> 00:25:01.358 And he set the rods that he had stripped in the channels of the watering troughs of water, in order that, when the ship would come to drink in front of the rods, as they came for drinking, the sheep would come in to heat at the rods, and the sheep would produce pure white, and variegated and ash-colored spotted young. 00:25:01.898 --> 00:25:04.198 And so on and so forth, you get the idea here. 00:25:05.218 --> 00:25:15.618 This is, of course, when Laban is trying to cheat him out of his payment for working for Laban by being what Laban is, was. 00:25:16.918 --> 00:25:19.058 Probably, you know, depends there. 00:25:19.058 --> 00:25:24.278 At any rate, this is obviously not how natural reproduction works, right? 00:25:25.178 --> 00:25:37.618 The color of the offspring of a given creature are not dependent on what they were looking at when the offspring was being created or being born, whatever it happens to be, right? 00:25:37.818 --> 00:25:42.078 Your children don't change color based on the paint in your bedroom. 00:25:42.078 --> 00:25:43.558 That's not how genetics works. 00:25:43.558 --> 00:25:44.298 We all know that. 00:25:44.918 --> 00:25:46.058 It's a miracle, right? 00:25:47.038 --> 00:25:50.698 This is God punishing Laban and rewarding Jacob. 00:25:51.358 --> 00:25:52.358 That's all this is. 00:25:52.658 --> 00:26:01.678 So when people try to look at this and say, oh, that's not how it happens, it's the same ridiculous argument as when people find a miracle in scripture and say, well, that's a miracle. 00:26:01.798 --> 00:26:05.538 Of course, it's impossible according to naturalistic explanations. 00:26:05.978 --> 00:26:07.598 That's the whole point of a miracle. 00:26:09.498 --> 00:26:20.918 If there were no suspension or violation of the laws of, you know, physics or biology, genetics, whatever it happens to be, then it's not a miracle, it's just unlikely. 00:26:22.098 --> 00:26:25.258 This is a miracle, that's what's being told here. 00:26:25.958 --> 00:26:30.178 This is not the Bible giving you a biology lesson, right? 00:26:30.178 --> 00:26:35.318 There are parts of scripture that are a simple recounting of facts, a recounting of history, whatever it happens to be. 00:26:35.638 --> 00:26:43.798 And there are other parts where God is telling you, you know, you must do this, you must not do that, there are moral law, there's all sorts of different stuff in scripture. 00:26:43.798 --> 00:26:44.978 You have to know what you're reading. 00:26:45.638 --> 00:26:47.598 This is what Jacob did. 00:26:48.258 --> 00:26:51.578 We don't know if God told him specifically to do this, right? 00:26:51.578 --> 00:26:53.598 We don't have that here in this text. 00:26:54.218 --> 00:26:59.498 But we can assume God probably told him to do this. 00:27:00.058 --> 00:27:06.698 If God didn't tell him to do it, then God simply took Jacob's ignorance and blessed him nonetheless. 00:27:07.118 --> 00:27:07.938 God can do that. 00:27:07.938 --> 00:27:09.058 He does it all the time, right? 00:27:09.058 --> 00:27:10.458 We're ignorant of many things. 00:27:10.698 --> 00:27:13.038 He still blesses us despite our ignorance. 00:27:13.398 --> 00:27:16.938 Despite the fact that we do things that don't really match up. 00:27:17.458 --> 00:27:21.818 So again, just an instance of a miracle, not something that's difficult to explain. 00:27:22.218 --> 00:27:24.698 Just something that atheists try to use as a gotcha. 00:27:25.118 --> 00:27:26.058 It's the same... 00:27:26.158 --> 00:27:29.998 It would be the exact same as if someone tried to say, water doesn't turn into wine. 00:27:30.238 --> 00:27:31.878 That's the entire point. 00:27:32.458 --> 00:27:34.238 The entire point is that he's God. 00:27:34.238 --> 00:27:35.418 He's performed a miracle. 00:27:35.738 --> 00:27:43.238 It's not that if you do something with water, other than, you know, using grapes and yeast, wine results. 00:27:43.458 --> 00:27:44.378 It's a miracle. 00:27:44.378 --> 00:27:45.098 So is this. 00:27:47.138 --> 00:27:50.638 Let me pull out some questions here from the chat. 00:27:50.638 --> 00:27:51.938 Make sure I didn't miss anything. 00:28:12.100 --> 00:28:21.100 Someone asked a question right at the beginning, and all I have is one out of two, as he numbered them, I don't have the actual question. 00:28:21.100 --> 00:28:27.160 So if you would like to post your actual question, I can get to it, otherwise, I'm not entirely certain what you were asking. 00:28:27.540 --> 00:28:35.840 But the first one that I see that's actually a question I can answer, is could someone believe and accept Jesus, but be such an awful teacher? 00:28:36.460 --> 00:28:45.120 The example given here is a modern megachurch, or other insane denomination, that this teacher will indeed be damned to hell. 00:28:45.600 --> 00:28:54.060 So, can you be such a bad teacher that despite professing Christ, you will be damned? 00:28:55.820 --> 00:28:57.780 The answer is there depends. 00:28:57.780 --> 00:29:03.060 And the reason it depends is because you have an assumption here in the question. 00:29:03.660 --> 00:29:06.640 So it depends on which way you take that assumption. 00:29:07.080 --> 00:29:11.740 Is the assumption that he believes in Jesus the real Jesus? 00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:18.400 Or is the assumption that he believes in someone he has constructed and named Jesus, right? 00:29:19.800 --> 00:29:25.540 Because you can say that you believe in something and then deny absolutely every single tenet of it. 00:29:25.540 --> 00:29:27.040 Are you a believer in the thing? 00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:28.700 No, of course not. 00:29:29.300 --> 00:29:30.400 This is... 00:29:31.140 --> 00:29:32.920 We're right back to No True Scotsman, right? 00:29:33.140 --> 00:29:34.620 No True Scotsman comes up all the time. 00:29:34.620 --> 00:29:35.960 This is another atheist one. 00:29:36.080 --> 00:29:44.720 They'll try to say that, you know, Christians aren't Christian because of X, Y, and Z, or something like that, or Christians are like this because I found this one person who did something I didn't like. 00:29:46.400 --> 00:29:56.220 The point of No True Scotsman is that an innate characteristic remains an innate characteristic regardless of other things. 00:29:57.120 --> 00:30:03.740 So, you can't say that a man, right, No True Scotsman would hate Scotch. 00:30:05.020 --> 00:30:06.260 That's an insane argument. 00:30:06.880 --> 00:30:08.480 You can say it in jest, right? 00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:10.240 We understand there's a difference there. 00:30:10.560 --> 00:30:18.040 But whether or not a man is Scottish, whether he's a Scotsman, is a matter of his blood. 00:30:18.820 --> 00:30:26.240 It was incidentally just at a Scottish festival this last weekend, but, and they did indeed have Scotch, and Scotch is indeed great. 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:31.540 But whether or not he's Scottish is not a matter of these incidental things. 00:30:31.560 --> 00:30:33.420 It's something innate to him. 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:36.120 I'm male innately. 00:30:36.140 --> 00:30:42.740 It's not a matter of whether I like, you know, steak, Scotch, motorcycles, whatever argument you want to make for whatever group. 00:30:43.780 --> 00:30:54.920 An innate characteristic doesn't change because you assign some arbitrary thing, more or less arbitrary, and then find someone who does not adhere to that. 00:30:55.480 --> 00:30:58.940 Now, that's different from something that is not innate. 00:30:59.280 --> 00:31:02.960 For instance, in ideology, religion is a great example. 00:31:03.580 --> 00:31:04.560 What is a religion? 00:31:05.520 --> 00:31:10.320 It is sort of at a fundamental level, a set of tenets, a set of beliefs. 00:31:10.320 --> 00:31:24.520 And so, if the religion claims A, B, and C, and the point of the religion, and the core of the religion is A, B, and C, and if you deny any one of those, you're not a member of the religion, that's not no true Scotsman. 00:31:24.900 --> 00:31:34.320 Because this is an ideology that is a set of beliefs, and you cannot deny the set of beliefs, and say you believe the very set of beliefs you are denying. 00:31:34.920 --> 00:31:37.400 Because again, it's not innate. 00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:42.120 You elect this in the generic sense, you're not dealing with election, obviously. 00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:51.460 And so, you can have someone who claims to be a member of this thing, but is not because of these beliefs. 00:31:51.700 --> 00:31:55.680 So you can exclude yourself from a group based on beliefs. 00:31:56.060 --> 00:32:01.140 You can't make yourself cease to be male if you were born male based on beliefs. 00:32:01.520 --> 00:32:02.640 That's not how it works. 00:32:03.540 --> 00:32:06.980 You know, you can't say, my favorite color is pink, well, you're no longer a boy, you're a girl. 00:32:06.980 --> 00:32:08.200 That's not how it works. 00:32:09.100 --> 00:32:10.880 But it does work that way with religion. 00:32:11.500 --> 00:32:26.380 And so, if this hypothetical teacher has someone, has an idol, he has named Jesus, who denies all the things that Jesus taught, and teaches all these false things, well, he doesn't believe in Jesus. 00:32:26.800 --> 00:32:28.060 He believes in an idol. 00:32:28.420 --> 00:32:29.380 He is damned. 00:32:30.500 --> 00:32:46.240 The other potentiality here, the other potential here would be that you have a man who ultimately does believe in Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus who is God, but has false beliefs. 00:32:46.820 --> 00:32:48.580 And that's true of most men. 00:32:49.380 --> 00:32:54.380 Most men have some false beliefs, even if they are Christian, even if they believe in Jesus. 00:32:55.060 --> 00:32:56.160 This comes up all the time. 00:32:56.160 --> 00:32:57.200 Lutherans have a term for it. 00:32:57.200 --> 00:33:19.760 It is felicitous inconsistency, which is to say, despite the false teachings of maybe the church of which you are a part, or even the things you yourself profess, ultimately, in your heart, at the end of the day, you rely on Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you believe that he died for you, you believe in the resurrection, ultimately you're a Christian, despite these things. 00:33:19.880 --> 00:33:25.460 So, felicitously, inconsistent in your beliefs, between what you believe internally and what you profess. 00:33:25.900 --> 00:33:29.220 If he's that man, then he's saved despite being a bad teacher. 00:33:29.620 --> 00:33:33.100 He's going to have a very awkward conversation with God at the final judgment, right? 00:33:33.100 --> 00:33:37.920 Because teachers get the stricter judgment, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's damned. 00:33:39.060 --> 00:33:47.640 It may just mean that you don't receive the sort of rewards that you would have received if you had been a faithful teacher and more faithful in your beliefs. 00:33:47.640 --> 00:33:49.560 Because, remember, there are two judgments, right? 00:33:49.940 --> 00:34:00.060 There's the judgment of saved or damned, as it were, and then there's the judgment according to works, which is for your rewards, crowns, things like that. 00:34:01.080 --> 00:34:03.100 I'm not saying there's, like, different days or something. 00:34:03.100 --> 00:34:04.420 God doesn't have a backlog. 00:34:05.160 --> 00:34:11.000 But whether or not you are saved is a matter of whether or not you have faith in Christ. 00:34:11.220 --> 00:34:14.640 The rewards you receive are a different thing because those are according to works. 00:34:15.180 --> 00:34:20.140 The man who teaches falsely has fewer works, has wicked works that will be burned up, right? 00:34:20.900 --> 00:34:25.740 The man who teaches rightly has more good works, just as a general thing, all else being held equal. 00:34:26.460 --> 00:34:28.680 So it depends on what the assumption is there, right? 00:34:28.940 --> 00:34:41.340 It depends on whether this is a man who has an idol named Jesus, or has a Jesus but some false beliefs that he's accumulated from the world, and ultimately doesn't rely on those for his salvation, ultimately still has faith. 00:34:41.700 --> 00:34:43.580 That man is saved, the former is damned. 00:34:51.421 --> 00:34:54.701 Yes, to the person who said in chat, gremlins got me, the gremlins did get me in. 00:34:54.701 --> 00:34:57.281 This time, the gremlins are called OBS and Sound Source. 00:34:58.621 --> 00:34:59.201 Let's see. 00:35:09.703 --> 00:35:15.043 A question about infant baptism, which is obviously one that comes up frequently. 00:35:18.023 --> 00:35:28.083 The question is, if, I'll just rephrase it a little bit, if children of Christian parents are saved pre-baptism, doesn't that contradict the idea that we must be born again? 00:35:28.723 --> 00:35:33.603 Secondly, does that not contradict the necessity for infant baptism? 00:35:35.963 --> 00:35:48.523 The way that this works, and the way that Lutherans have always addressed this, and Roman Catholics as well, this is not exclusively Lutherans, obviously, Presbyterians, others baptize their infants as well, because Scripture tells you to do so. 00:35:50.843 --> 00:35:53.103 You can have faith before you're baptized. 00:35:53.943 --> 00:35:55.403 An infant can have faith. 00:35:55.403 --> 00:35:58.343 John the Baptist leapt in the womb, in utero. 00:35:59.423 --> 00:36:03.623 He knew his Savior was nearby, was physically proximate. 00:36:04.123 --> 00:36:07.403 So, we don't know exactly how that works. 00:36:08.123 --> 00:36:09.643 You can hear things in utero. 00:36:09.643 --> 00:36:10.583 We know that. 00:36:11.003 --> 00:36:13.043 And there are those who will try to say, oh, that's impossible. 00:36:13.043 --> 00:36:14.483 You can't make out distinct words. 00:36:14.483 --> 00:36:15.263 You can't do x. 00:36:15.903 --> 00:36:23.023 What does Scripture say about you before you are given the free gift of faith, before you are made alive again in Christ? 00:36:23.203 --> 00:36:25.623 It says you're dead in your sins and trespasses. 00:36:25.983 --> 00:36:32.823 So if you think that you're any better off than the infant, you need to reread your Bible and pay closer attention. 00:36:33.563 --> 00:36:35.683 If anything, you're worse off than an infant. 00:36:36.043 --> 00:36:47.963 The infant doesn't have the obstinate will of an impenitent adult with a lifetime of sin and hardened heart toward God and a seared conscience and all these other problems. 00:36:48.363 --> 00:36:51.243 The infant is not going to resist the Holy Spirit. 00:36:51.583 --> 00:36:54.983 An adult has a worse time than the infant. 00:36:55.923 --> 00:36:59.423 Because again, the infant is not going to resist God. 00:36:59.643 --> 00:37:02.643 The adult probably is going to resist God to some degree. 00:37:03.083 --> 00:37:08.683 So, the child may very well have faith already before the child is baptized. 00:37:09.243 --> 00:37:14.903 But the reason that we still baptize the child is, one, God told us to do so. 00:37:15.343 --> 00:37:25.283 And two, if God has given us a gift, we are going to receive the gift with joy, particularly when the gift has the promise of salvation attached to it. 00:37:25.803 --> 00:37:33.643 So, maybe a particular infant has faith in utero, maybe that infant is given faith in the waters of baptism. 00:37:34.223 --> 00:37:39.103 You can't determine which one, so what would it be rational to do? 00:37:39.483 --> 00:37:45.503 And that's even just, you know, ignoring that first part, which is obviously obedience to God is the major point here. 00:37:46.263 --> 00:37:58.863 Just in a rational calculation, you still baptize the infant, because we know that you are given faith in the waters of baptism, at least if you don't already have faith, or your faith is strengthened. 00:37:58.963 --> 00:38:01.883