WEBVTT 00:00:00.540 --> 00:00:02.880 It is the 3rd of July, 2026. 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:04.140 I am Corey J. 00:00:04.140 --> 00:00:06.680 Moller, and this is At Any Cost. 00:00:06.680 --> 00:00:08.400 This is a Q&A episode. 00:00:08.980 --> 00:00:21.600 It is episode 34, and I was fairly busy this week, so I didn't prepare any of the longer questions, but I will get to the pending ones, at least, on whatever pops up in the chat. 00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:31.240 I know that obviously it's a holiday tomorrow, and so probably not as many people are going to tune into this, certainly, live, but that's not exactly the point of these anyway. 00:00:31.900 --> 00:00:43.860 As I don't have any housekeeping, I will just go ahead and move in to the questions, and I believe everything is working, so everything should be fine. 00:00:44.180 --> 00:00:49.600 Hopefully the music did not continue playing over my introduction there. 00:00:49.900 --> 00:00:51.460 Looks like it might have tried to do that. 00:00:51.460 --> 00:00:58.580 At any rate, the OBS plugin is working this week, so I should be able to see chat, which is great news and novel. 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:02.840 Question one, sleep in paradise. 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:04.540 Will there be sleep in paradise? 00:01:04.540 --> 00:01:07.600 Is the need for sleep a consequence of the fall? 00:01:08.060 --> 00:01:11.640 Is it significant that man must sleep one third of his day? 00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:21.520 So, this is one of those questions where I have to start by saying, I don't know, absolutely certain, right? 00:01:23.800 --> 00:01:30.840 However, I think that we can look at a very clear verse in scripture about sleep. 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:33.800 There's one that I'm sure has already come to mind for some of you. 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:35.840 Let me go ahead and pull that up here. 00:01:36.940 --> 00:01:39.040 I'll pull it up on the screen as well. 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:52.100 Psalm 127 in the Masoretic Numbers, so 126. 00:01:52.100 --> 00:01:57.220 Let me pull that up, transition to that. 00:01:58.160 --> 00:01:58.620 Okay. 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:06.300 Psalm 126 in the Septuagint Numbering, 127 in most of your Bibles if they're based on the Masoretic. 00:02:06.760 --> 00:02:16.620 And verse 2, It is in vain for you to rise up early, to get up after sitting down, O you who eat bread of pain, when he gives sleep to his beloved ones. 00:02:17.940 --> 00:02:20.640 Now, admittedly, there are two ways, right? 00:02:21.640 --> 00:02:32.540 You can interpret it just on its face, and take it and say, okay, sleep is a gift from God, it's a blessing, it's a good thing, therefore, it will still exist in paradise, because good things are not destroyed. 00:02:33.500 --> 00:02:43.060 But, I will admit that you could look at it, I think this is the weaker argument, but I'm just saying it for the sake of completeness, I think it is the weaker argument. 00:02:43.340 --> 00:02:48.560 You could look at it as sleep being a good thing within the bounds of this fallen creation. 00:02:48.740 --> 00:02:52.060 So, a blessing to man in his current state. 00:02:53.120 --> 00:03:02.620 I don't think, like I said, I don't think that's the stronger argument, I think the stronger argument very clearly is that sleep is a good thing, it's a blessing, and it will still exist in paradise. 00:03:04.060 --> 00:03:12.000 And for those of us who don't like sleep, and I'm certainly in that camp, I hate sleep, it interrupts things, it's obnoxious, it feels like a waste of time. 00:03:14.040 --> 00:03:16.240 For us, it will be a different thing. 00:03:16.320 --> 00:03:28.400 Because just like everything else in this life, where it's with strings attached, or caveats, things in paradise are perfect, and so sleep will be exactly what God intended for it to be for man. 00:03:29.220 --> 00:03:40.080 I don't like it personally, because if I'm working on a writing project, or some task, whatever it happens to be, I like to get very much into the thing, and get it. 00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:46.980 Now, obviously, there are things that take multiple days, or weeks, or months, or even years, and I don't have a problem breaking those up. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:51.980 But if it's something that is going to take 20 hours of dedicated effort, I would rather just get it done. 00:03:52.360 --> 00:03:55.280 And the necessity of sleep breaks that up. 00:03:55.280 --> 00:04:01.500 And so, of course, to other things like taking your pet out, eating an exercise, eating. 00:04:02.420 --> 00:04:05.100 But that's sort of a personal preference. 00:04:05.100 --> 00:04:06.040 Not everyone is that way. 00:04:06.040 --> 00:04:08.820 But I do think that most likely sleep will still exist. 00:04:08.820 --> 00:04:11.060 I think it's a good thing, it's a blessing from God. 00:04:11.340 --> 00:04:16.580 It just won't have the negatives that it has here in time, in this creation. 00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:20.000 I'm not saying time won't exist in the next creation. 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:22.660 Measurement of change is basically a measurement of time. 00:04:23.580 --> 00:04:25.900 So, question two is about Babel. 00:04:27.380 --> 00:04:32.380 By what means do you believe God dispersed the nations at Babel? 00:04:32.380 --> 00:04:41.640 Migration is the normally used, is the normal explanation for the dispersion, but I have heard divine interpretation used as well. 00:04:43.580 --> 00:04:47.300 I have heard that maybe once or twice. 00:04:47.340 --> 00:04:51.800 That's sort of an edge opinion, we'll call it. 00:04:51.960 --> 00:04:53.500 It does not come up very often. 00:04:53.500 --> 00:04:58.000 I'll pull up Genesis 11 here. 00:04:58.680 --> 00:05:02.540 And the question is the narrative of the Tower of Babel. 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:04.140 Very short, so let's go ahead and read it. 00:05:04.640 --> 00:05:08.300 And the whole earth was one lip, and there was one speech for all. 00:05:08.420 --> 00:05:16.240 And it came about as they moved from the east, that they found a plane in the land of Sinar, called Shinar in most of your Bibles, and settled there. 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:20.900 And one person said to the next, Come, let us make fire. 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:24.920 And the brick became stone for them, and the clay for them was bitumen. 00:05:25.320 --> 00:05:30.880 And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top shall be as far as heaven. 00:05:31.200 --> 00:05:36.020 And let us make a name for ourselves before we are scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 00:05:36.520 --> 00:05:41.000 And the Lord came down to see the city in the tower, which the earth had built. 00:05:41.400 --> 00:05:51.380 And the Lord said, Look, one race and one lip of all, and this they have begun to do, and nothing that they undertake to do will now be wanting from them. 00:05:51.840 --> 00:06:00.300 Come and let us go down and confuse their tongue there, so that they will not hear, each one, the speech of the next. 00:06:00.300 --> 00:06:06.300 Scattered them abroad from there, over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city and the tower. 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:17.060 Therefore, its name was called Confusion, because there the Lord confused the lips of all the earth, and from there the Lord God scattered them abroad, over the face of all the earth. 00:06:18.420 --> 00:06:23.940 So it obviously does not explicitly state God used X means. 00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:26.700 However, it very strongly implies it. 00:06:27.280 --> 00:06:28.820 And that's confusion of language. 00:06:29.220 --> 00:06:32.400 And incidentally, it's worth noting two things. 00:06:32.400 --> 00:06:38.180 First, I'll note the little bit of irony here, because God does like irony, he does employ it. 00:06:38.400 --> 00:06:41.800 And tower into the heavens. 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:43.940 What does God have to do to look at it? 00:06:43.960 --> 00:06:46.800 Come let us go down and look at this thing. 00:06:47.160 --> 00:06:55.500 God's mocking mankind's effort to build a tower into the heavens, because God, who resides in the heavens, has to come down to look at it. 00:06:55.500 --> 00:06:57.780 That's God mocking them, and it's ironic. 00:06:58.620 --> 00:07:05.760 But, and I would point out here is the context, is obviously chapter 11 comes after chapter 10. 00:07:05.760 --> 00:07:11.460 Chapter 10 is the table of nations, and anyone who's really paid attention, that seems out of order, right? 00:07:12.220 --> 00:07:16.260 Because the table of nations doesn't come to pass. 00:07:16.260 --> 00:07:21.040 These nations don't really come to pass until the Tower of Babel. 00:07:21.520 --> 00:07:31.040 This is a telling of what happens with the sons and the grandsons and the great-grandsons, etc., etc., of Noah after the Tower of Babel, after the dispersion. 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:34.720 Obviously, some of these men are around at the time of the Tower of Babel, right? 00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:42.960 And there's some argument, one way, argument, other way, about which individual was involved, and most of that's speculation. 00:07:42.960 --> 00:08:01.620 But the fact that the table of nations comes before the Tower of Babel kind of gives us our hint here, because God is telling us what is going to happen, the means that he is going to use, and how he is going to employ those means, the narrative of the Tower of Babel. 00:08:02.340 --> 00:08:03.560 Because what does he do? 00:08:04.100 --> 00:08:05.840 Because what does it say about these tribes, right? 00:08:05.840 --> 00:08:12.580 So, for instance, here in verse 31, these are the sons of Shem in their tribes according to their languages. 00:08:13.440 --> 00:08:24.400 That's the means that God uses to disperse them, and he does it according to their race, according to the race of man, and then the subraces according to the grandsons of Noah. 00:08:25.200 --> 00:08:31.400 And so, in the context there, please remember, the verse and chapter numbers don't really exist, they're for our convenience. 00:08:31.840 --> 00:08:42.780 In the context there, it's pretty clear that the way that God divided up the earth and spread people abroad was that he simply made it impossible to eradicate, and they naturally drifted apart. 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:52.920 I do happen to agree with Luther and some other exegetes that Japheth seems like he wasn't really as involved here. 00:08:52.920 --> 00:08:58.000 It seems like it was really mostly the sons of Ham and the sons of Shem, at least some of them helping him. 00:08:58.440 --> 00:09:12.580 And it's from archaeology and history pans out as well, and also from what little we get in scripture, because the sons of Japheth kind of leave the narrative early on, which maybe is an indication, because they left earlier. 00:09:12.580 --> 00:09:14.520 I agree with the exegetes who think that. 00:09:14.520 --> 00:09:17.720 I think that Japheth was obedient. 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:22.140 I think he was loyal to God, and God commanded and moved north. 00:09:22.580 --> 00:09:32.120 And you can also see, then, the fact that European languages are less confused, as it were, less distant from one another than many languages in other parts of the world. 00:09:32.680 --> 00:09:39.760 You know, you're not going to really be able to speak, say, Chinese and converse with someone who knows Arabic. 00:09:40.560 --> 00:09:44.300 Is that the case necessarily if you know German and Dutch? 00:09:44.300 --> 00:09:45.160 The answer is no. 00:09:45.500 --> 00:09:48.320 Is it the case necessarily even German and English? 00:09:48.400 --> 00:09:51.480 You can kind of get by with German and English because the core is still the same. 00:09:51.480 --> 00:09:56.800 There's more overlap, more similarity among the languages of the sons of Japheth. 00:09:56.980 --> 00:10:00.440 And so I think that that is a reasonable conclusion. 00:10:00.440 --> 00:10:03.700 It's not explicit in the text, but I think there is sufficient warrant for it. 00:10:04.120 --> 00:10:11.080 But to answer the question directly again, I believe that he just used the standard means that is the standard interpretation. 00:10:11.380 --> 00:10:15.660 Confusing their languages caused them naturally to separate and move apart from one another. 00:10:19.240 --> 00:10:25.000 And I will make a note before I get into the chat and some other questions that I have here. 00:10:25.520 --> 00:10:32.800 I did notice when I was setting up the stream and such that there are pending questions in the comments on the streams. 00:10:33.280 --> 00:10:43.840 I will try to get through at least some of those, not necessarily in this episode, but I will into my notes for future episodes so that those don't get lost. 00:10:44.320 --> 00:10:48.760 As always, if I don't notice a question at some point, go ahead and ask it again. 00:10:49.400 --> 00:10:51.840 There are too many notifications, I don't notice them all. 00:10:52.840 --> 00:11:03.580 So I'll look at chat first, and then I will go ahead and look at perhaps some of the other questions from the backlog on the forum. 00:11:03.920 --> 00:11:10.280 So one of the questions from chat, where do you chronologically, this is question three, where do you chronologically place Job? 00:11:10.680 --> 00:11:15.600 Why is God letting Satan dictate how Job should be tested? 00:11:17.800 --> 00:11:19.540 I will go ahead and paste this into... 00:11:21.280 --> 00:11:22.240 Lose the question. 00:11:23.340 --> 00:11:26.900 Granted, I can always just go and pull it from the transcript later, but it's nice to have it. 00:11:27.540 --> 00:11:31.540 So it's really two questions, but I'll go ahead and answer them both as question three. 00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:33.460 Chronologically, I agree with Woe. 00:11:33.460 --> 00:11:49.500 I believe that Job is the one who is interacting with the ancient Israelites when they're coming out of Egypt, crossing through that territory into the Promised Land, into Canaan, into Palestine, whatever you want to call it, depending on what it's been called down through history. 00:11:50.220 --> 00:11:51.600 I think that timeline is correct. 00:11:51.600 --> 00:12:03.720 I believe it bears out if you make some fairly minor assumptions, and other than that, just in the scripture because it doesn't give you all the exact information. 00:12:03.720 --> 00:12:09.780 There are some things where you have to, it can be one man or another, and I think Job is the stronger argument. 00:12:09.780 --> 00:12:10.900 I agree with Woe on that one. 00:12:10.900 --> 00:12:13.080 That's what we said in Stone Quire. 00:12:13.080 --> 00:12:14.300 We said it elsewhere as well. 00:12:15.140 --> 00:12:30.540 So I think Job is actually the king who came out against the Israelites and did not cross through our territory, and that would have been a righteous thing for him to do because they had just been engaged in idolatry and all sorts of wickedness, and he did not want that for his people. 00:12:30.540 --> 00:12:36.260 Granted, they later on fall to idolatry, but at the time, they were righteous people. 00:12:37.760 --> 00:12:42.820 But why would God let sort of decide how much he can be tested, right? 00:12:42.820 --> 00:12:44.760 That's sort of the big question from Job. 00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:47.320 There are some other questions there as well, obviously. 00:12:48.060 --> 00:12:57.980 You know, we appeal to it, for instance, for the fact that creation is God's greater book, because God himself, when he is talking to Job of his greatness, appeals to creation. 00:12:57.980 --> 00:13:03.080 He does not say, look at the things I've written, or I have inspired men to write. 00:13:06.300 --> 00:13:13.480 Look at the greatness of my majesty, my glory, my power in creation, because it's reflected in creation. 00:13:14.640 --> 00:13:18.600 But insofar as the extent of the temptation, that's always true. 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:24.660 It's not just with Satan, because Satan would love to destroy you personally. 00:13:24.680 --> 00:13:27.220 He would love to destroy any Christian personally. 00:13:27.560 --> 00:13:34.380 He probably doesn't care that much about those who are not currently believers, because sure, they could be more wicked, they could do more evil. 00:13:34.780 --> 00:13:39.540 But as long as they're not Christian and they're not doing good, does it ultimately really matter to Satan? 00:13:40.960 --> 00:13:42.320 He has other things to do, right? 00:13:42.780 --> 00:13:55.360 If he has to choose between trying to further tempt someone who is already on the wrong path versus trying to get a Christian to apostatize, it's kind of better use of his time to mess with the Christian, right? 00:13:56.460 --> 00:14:07.440 But it's always the case that you are permitted to be tempted, to be tried, to be tested, insofar and only insofar as God permits. 00:14:08.040 --> 00:14:09.320 That is true for every single man. 00:14:09.320 --> 00:14:13.060 It's just in Job's case, it happened to be extreme. 00:14:13.060 --> 00:14:15.820 But there are other men who have been extremely tested, right? 00:14:16.020 --> 00:14:25.520 There are Christians who have gone to the lions, there are Christians who have been tested for months, for years, in some cases, to try to get them to renounce their faith. 00:14:26.300 --> 00:14:28.640 God knows how much you can bear. 00:14:29.160 --> 00:14:41.580 And as a Christian, as a child of God, as a member of the elect, God is not going to give you tests that exceed what you can bear, strength to bear up under it. 00:14:42.300 --> 00:14:57.480 In Job's case, he's proving a point, and he's proving a point not necessarily to Job as sort of the primary target, as it were, he's obviously the primary in the sense of he's first, but it's for us. 00:14:57.840 --> 00:15:04.360 Job is written for our comfort, everything in scripture, because everything in scripture is ultimately written for our comfort. 00:15:04.600 --> 00:15:09.400 And of course, it only is for your comfort if you are a member of the elect, right? 00:15:09.500 --> 00:15:11.040 If you are a Christian, if you have faith. 00:15:11.640 --> 00:15:16.220 And I think I'm going to write more on that this coming week. 00:15:16.220 --> 00:15:18.680 I think I will actually type up the... 00:15:18.900 --> 00:15:22.460 I do it for a couple of weeks, I just don't always type it up and then publish it. 00:15:22.680 --> 00:15:29.520 I think I will do that, and it's a related subject, so I'll put that in the show notes for this when I do that. 00:15:29.560 --> 00:15:31.340 So take a look at that. 00:15:32.320 --> 00:15:38.920 But with regard to your temptation, like I said, God is only going to let you be tempted as far as he knows you can withstand. 00:15:38.920 --> 00:15:41.320 He will give you the order to withstand it. 00:15:41.720 --> 00:15:46.040 So he did not permit Job to test him so far that he broke. 00:15:46.700 --> 00:15:52.260 He gave him the strength to stand up under that, and he was proving that point for us. 00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:59.020 It's a point that ultimately God is in control of all things, and the glory is God's alone. 00:16:00.340 --> 00:16:14.200 It's also comforting because we can look at Job and see that no matter how much Satan tried, no matter how great the temptation and the suffering and all those things, God didn't let Job ultimately fall. 00:16:14.420 --> 00:16:30.180 So, that's comforting to us because most likely, our temptations, most likely, right, are not going to be as bad as Job, because we aren't going to have Satan personally trying to ruin our lives, generally speaking. 00:16:30.180 --> 00:16:37.300 Maybe that's going to be an exception for some individuals, but generally speaking, you're not going to be tested to the same degree as Job. 00:16:37.780 --> 00:16:41.960 And if God gave Job the same degree as Satan, you're not going to end up under that sort of testing. 00:16:42.200 --> 00:16:43.700 He can certainly do the same for you. 00:16:43.700 --> 00:16:47.380 So, you can read the story of Job as a gospel promise. 00:16:47.380 --> 00:16:49.700 It is comforting for Christians. 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:52.380 But yes, it's certainly... 00:16:52.680 --> 00:16:54.460 You're going to be tested in this life, right? 00:16:54.460 --> 00:17:04.200 It's very clear that God disciplines and tests and prunes, right, the plant metaphor, prunes those who are his, so they produce more fruit. 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:11.060 It's ultimately for your good, like it says in Scripture, all things work together for the good of those who are called, right? 00:17:14.100 --> 00:17:15.620 I see someone asked the same... 00:17:15.820 --> 00:17:24.440 one of the questions that I did notice in the comment to a video, that one now, and hopefully remember that I answered it when I see it later. 00:17:27.460 --> 00:17:31.480 There's no way to mark anything as answered in YouTube's interface. 00:17:32.020 --> 00:17:43.220 So, the only thing you can do is you can reply, and then you can filter by reply, but you can't just say, I'm not going to reply, like if you've answered it previously. 00:17:43.880 --> 00:17:45.100 It's not a great design. 00:17:45.240 --> 00:17:46.400 It's very obnoxious. 00:17:47.220 --> 00:17:49.180 Same problem for Stone Quire and everything else. 00:17:49.900 --> 00:17:56.360 But question four, what is your take on the members of Hitler's party who betrayed and tried to assassinate him? 00:17:56.820 --> 00:17:59.500 Says he's thinking of the German general Erwin. 00:18:00.300 --> 00:18:04.220 So, traitors deserve to be hanged. 00:18:04.220 --> 00:18:05.820 That's just how that goes. 00:18:06.680 --> 00:18:13.360 Now, obviously, that comes with the sort of huge caveat that the person has to be a traitor, right? 00:18:13.600 --> 00:18:17.660 It has to be someone whose betrayal would, in fact, be treason. 00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:20.920 And, an example, right? 00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:33.580 Let's say you're living under one of the extremely wicked communist governments torturing Christians, burning monasteries, just generally being as bad, as evil, as wicked as possible. 00:18:34.340 --> 00:18:37.660 Would turning against that government be treason? 00:18:37.660 --> 00:18:38.480 I would say no. 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:52.380 Because Romans 13, as we pointed out in Stone Choir, I pointed out elsewhere, Romans 13 is polemical, because Romans 13 actually lists the qualifications of what a rightful government will do. 00:18:52.780 --> 00:18:56.960 And incidentally, when you list what something will do, you're also listing what it will not do, right? 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:02.000 Just like the Ten Commandments are both positive, in the sense that there's an inverse of it. 00:19:02.620 --> 00:19:08.000 You know, if you're not supposed to do X, then you do the things that avoid X, stuff like that. 00:19:08.580 --> 00:19:16.620 So in the case of a truly wicked and evil government, it would not be treason, it would not be morally wrongful to oppose that government. 00:19:16.820 --> 00:19:23.920 That starts to get back into Magdeburg, go look at, listen to that episode, or read the transcript, whichever you prefer. 00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:32.560 But in the case of the National Socialists, yes, those who were trying to assassinate him were definitely in the wrong. 00:19:32.920 --> 00:19:36.000 They had a very wrongheaded opinion about the whole thing. 00:19:36.260 --> 00:19:42.700 They thought that they could topple their current government and surrender to the Allies and get good treatment. 00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:47.180 And we all know what happened to the Germans who surrendered to the Allies. 00:19:47.180 --> 00:19:48.760 Many of them were starved to death. 00:19:48.760 --> 00:19:50.740 So, they were very clearly wrong. 00:19:50.740 --> 00:19:56.240 Granted, that's hindsight, but I think it was also pretty obvious at the time, considering the behavior of the Allied powers. 00:20:00.280 --> 00:20:03.540 And from X here, question five. 00:20:03.540 --> 00:20:04.820 Let me copy and paste that. 00:20:05.260 --> 00:20:15.280 Is it better to go to a reformed church that confesses true things about race and society, or a Lutheran church that preaches against them but believes true things about the sacraments? 00:20:16.260 --> 00:20:17.860 I would probably go to the reformed church. 00:20:17.860 --> 00:20:20.200 Just go ahead and give the... 00:20:20.200 --> 00:20:24.660 I would not partake of the sacrament, most likely. 00:20:25.480 --> 00:20:31.440 And the reason that I say most likely, and I know some Lutherans will bristle at that, but go ahead, have fun. 00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:40.200 And the reason that I would say most likely is I think there are two ways you can look at participation in the sacrament. 00:20:40.460 --> 00:20:43.340 And I do think the context matters. 00:20:43.340 --> 00:21:01.960 So, for instance, if you were at a Lutheran church, a Lutheran church should have closed communion because of what Lutherans believe about the sacrament, and we believe it is actually harmful for individuals to come to the sacrament with wrong beliefs about the sacrament because it is disaffaining the body and blood of the Lord. 00:21:02.420 --> 00:21:04.200 So, we practice closed communion. 00:21:05.360 --> 00:21:07.470 However, there is also... 00:21:07.470 --> 00:21:10.080 you can look at it, for instance, as... 00:21:10.080 --> 00:21:13.780 and this is how Lutherans generally look at it, particularly in the Lutheran case. 00:21:14.520 --> 00:21:21.100 We are saying that those who participate in the sacrament are giving a public confession of the same things. 00:21:21.340 --> 00:21:29.860 And so, that's why we have closed communion, because you should believe the same things if you are going to participate in the Lord's Supper at a Lutheran church. 00:21:30.840 --> 00:21:32.180 That's one way you can look at it. 00:21:32.180 --> 00:21:37.560 The other way that you can look at it, and I would say that I would be inclined to look at it this way in some cases. 00:21:38.780 --> 00:21:48.240 From my point of view, probably certain among the Reformed and maybe certain Anglican churches, I think, would be the ones that would initially come to mind for me. 00:21:49.840 --> 00:21:53.780 You can look at it as a confession that these individuals are Christian brothers. 00:21:54.080 --> 00:22:05.900 And if I am confessing that these men are Christian brothers, even if I believe they are in error with regard to Jesus, then I wouldn't necessarily object to participating in the sacrament with them. 00:22:05.900 --> 00:22:24.020 I would not admit them to the table in a Lutheran church, but if they invited me to the table in their church, I wouldn't have that immediate, necessary no response to that, because I think that second argument, that second way of looking at it, the non-Lutheran confession, their Christian brothers, is a legitimate way to look at it. 00:22:24.460 --> 00:22:42.380 So, most Lutheran teachers are probably going to say they would just not participate in the sacrament in a non-Lutheran church because of the differences in theology, the difference in doctrine, but I think to some of them, they would see both sides of that. 00:22:42.380 --> 00:23:00.500 So, but definitely these days, I would pick the church that is least likely to call the police on you, which in this hypothetical is going to be the reformed church that teaches correctly on race versus the Lutheran church that in this hypothetical teaches against these things, might very well be against you. 00:23:00.500 --> 00:23:12.380 So, even if you don't participate in the Lord's Supper, if you don't go to the sacrament of the table at the reformed church, and your conscience obviously is going to lead you as well. 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:15.940 If your conscience is bothered by doing that, then by all means, don't participate. 00:23:17.960 --> 00:23:33.700 Even if you don't participate in the Lord's Supper, you're no longer having that regularly, you still hear the word, you will still hear the fact that you are forgiven, you will hear the gospel, you don't actually have to have the sacrament every Sunday. 00:23:33.700 --> 00:23:37.240 It is better to, it is best to have it at least every Sunday. 00:23:37.360 --> 00:23:38.380 That's how it should be. 00:23:39.260 --> 00:23:47.420 But with ideal conditions and under not ideal conditions, I think you just go for the best thing that is currently available. 00:23:48.120 --> 00:23:51.400 So, in the hypothetical, go to the Reform Church. 00:24:00.566 --> 00:24:12.066 Sort of a follow-up question here to the earlier question about the dispersion across the world after the Tower of Babel or the Tower of Confusion, whichever name you want to use there. 00:24:13.726 --> 00:24:17.906 And that is, did Noah and Japheth speak Pai? 00:24:18.006 --> 00:24:31.646 Which, for those who don't know, is Procyon, which is the more or less hypothetical parent language of all the Indo-European languages, the ones that are under that large family tree. 00:24:32.406 --> 00:24:36.326 It's reconstructed because, obviously, there are no speakers of it still. 00:24:36.446 --> 00:24:43.086 It is reconstructed from what we know, and obviously what we have from archaeology and things like that. 00:24:43.146 --> 00:24:44.486 It's mostly philology. 00:24:44.986 --> 00:24:49.326 But I don't know if they spoke Pai. 00:24:49.326 --> 00:24:54.446 I think there's a pretty strong argument that Japheth probably spoke something that was roughly like Pai. 00:24:55.146 --> 00:24:57.466 I don't know what happened in Noah's case, right? 00:24:58.006 --> 00:25:02.706 I don't know if Noah was suddenly to a bunch of his grandchildren. 00:25:02.886 --> 00:25:08.466 That may have been the case, or Noah may not have been around, depending on the exact timeline here. 00:25:09.106 --> 00:25:19.566 But I think it's pretty likely that Japheth spoke something roughly like Pai, or what Pai would be if we were able to reconstruct it perfectly. 00:25:20.386 --> 00:25:21.826 I think that's a strong argument. 00:25:21.986 --> 00:25:23.446 Obviously, it's not in scripture. 00:25:23.446 --> 00:25:27.346 You aren't bound to believe this, but I think there's a very strong argument for it. 00:25:27.346 --> 00:25:30.206 I think it is correct to conclude that. 00:25:56.459 --> 00:26:02.459 A follow-up question about... 00:26:04.479 --> 00:26:05.159 Let's see. 00:26:05.579 --> 00:26:07.339 Related to the question about Job. 00:26:07.339 --> 00:26:13.299 So question seven, is James 1.13 in conflict with the idea of God allowing Satan to tempt us? 00:26:14.059 --> 00:26:15.959 So let's pull up James 1.13. 00:26:29.795 --> 00:26:32.415 Let's get Logos to, there we go. 00:26:33.695 --> 00:26:39.635 So I think we'll just go ahead and read that paragraph, I think, is sufficient. 00:26:41.055 --> 00:26:49.255 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 00:26:49.675 --> 00:26:57.395 Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 00:26:57.675 --> 00:27:01.675 But each person is tempted when he is tempted by his own desire. 00:27:02.135 --> 00:27:08.415 Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. 00:27:09.435 --> 00:27:12.915 So, I think the answer to your question there is really in the subsequent verse, right? 00:27:13.835 --> 00:27:20.895 You are ultimately tempted by your own concupiscence, your own original sin, your own inward desire, and sin is evil. 00:27:21.075 --> 00:27:28.435 The only exception, of course, being Adam, who was in a state of perfection, and so his will is not tarnished in the same way that ours is, right? 00:27:28.435 --> 00:27:41.215 Human will exists in a number of different states, and that would be Adam before the fall, and then us after the fall before regeneration, and us after the fall after regeneration in the eternity, right? 00:27:41.895 --> 00:27:47.895 We're dealing with Christians after the fall, so regenerated but not perfected. 00:27:48.415 --> 00:27:54.255 And so we still have concupiscence, we still have that desire to sin, and Satan plays on that, right? 00:27:54.255 --> 00:27:59.535 We have sinful desires, Satan fans the flames and tries to cause problems there. 00:28:00.255 --> 00:28:03.715 God doesn't tempt anyone, right? 00:28:04.575 --> 00:28:12.535 But God will permit you to be tempted, God is not going to say, hey, you should sin. 00:28:12.875 --> 00:28:14.315 That's not what God is going to do. 00:28:14.315 --> 00:28:19.255 But he does permit the devil to do that, and God is in control of... 00:28:21.015 --> 00:28:21.895 has him on a leash. 00:28:21.895 --> 00:28:24.935 He's only allowed to do as much as God permits him to do. 00:28:25.695 --> 00:28:26.575 So I don't think those... 00:28:26.575 --> 00:28:27.895 There's no real conflict there. 00:28:28.015 --> 00:28:36.055 It's saying that God is not the cause of sin, which we know that God is neither the cause of sin nor does he cause others to sin. 00:28:36.175 --> 00:28:39.275 So he's not the source of sin, and he doesn't cause you to sin. 00:28:40.655 --> 00:28:43.275 That's just the standard teaching of basically... 00:28:43.455 --> 00:28:46.355 Well, it is the standard teaching of all Christian nominations. 00:28:46.595 --> 00:28:51.475 Some are a little wobbly on exactly how they interpret that interaction and how the human will works, right? 00:28:51.915 --> 00:28:56.915 It's the bondage of the will question and how far that extends or does not extend. 00:28:57.215 --> 00:29:00.075 How much free will you have? 00:29:00.295 --> 00:29:13.135 The quick rundown of that, the Lutheran answer, of course, and I believe the correct answer according to Scripture, with regard to spiritual things, before you're regenerated, you have no free will because you're dead in your sins and your trespasses and corpses don't act. 00:29:13.995 --> 00:29:19.435 After regeneration, you cooperate with the Holy Spirit in sanctification. 00:29:20.215 --> 00:29:25.315 Justification in your regeneration, it's monergism, you play no role, it's God alone. 00:29:25.315 --> 00:29:29.575 Monergism just means monogism, only one actor, right? 00:29:29.855 --> 00:29:31.035 God is the only actor. 00:29:31.435 --> 00:29:38.855 Synergism means that working together, acting together, because it's just with plus work. 00:29:40.275 --> 00:29:44.655 So with sanctification, you are working with the Spirit. 00:29:45.195 --> 00:29:50.235 With justification, it is God alone, mono, working, mono ergos. 00:29:50.595 --> 00:29:57.175 So let me make sure I put that one in the show notes. 00:30:01.435 --> 00:30:07.535 I think I got the current questions from chat, so let me turn to some of the other questions I have here. 00:30:10.875 --> 00:30:16.055 Let me have YouTube studio refresh, so that I lose where I had them. 00:30:16.375 --> 00:30:17.075 That's helpful. 00:30:35.688 --> 00:30:39.548 I think I will probably go through the comments and try to get to those, perhaps. 00:30:40.568 --> 00:30:43.128 I just answered this one, I found this one. 00:30:43.128 --> 00:30:45.988 And there's still no way to flag it as having been answered, so. 00:30:53.376 --> 00:31:03.996 I've actually got most of those questions, so I'll pull up my backlog here that I have on the forum, get through some of those, unless something else comes in in the chat. 00:31:04.256 --> 00:31:07.376 I don't know if I'll go the full hour, necessarily. 00:31:08.736 --> 00:31:11.416 Tomorrow's a holiday, let people go early, right? 00:31:12.856 --> 00:31:14.056 Let myself go early. 00:31:36.832 --> 00:31:39.532 I'll pick a hard question, just because it happened. 00:31:41.472 --> 00:31:48.132 Question eight, how do we reconcile a love of country with the reality of the nation we live in? 00:31:48.132 --> 00:31:49.292 Can we do so? 00:31:52.252 --> 00:31:58.852 And that's an important question, because obviously, we currently live in a wicked country, right? 00:31:58.852 --> 00:32:13.232 Perhaps as a family, considering tomorrow is the 250th anniversary of the United States, for anyone who is listening from the rest of the world, but doesn't happen to know that, I feel like you probably have by now, you've probably seen it in the media. 00:32:13.772 --> 00:32:20.572 At any rate, I think part of it is the distinction here between country and nation. 00:32:20.792 --> 00:32:25.332 You use both terms, but those terms should not be used interchangeably, because they're not equivalent. 00:32:25.892 --> 00:32:36.592 And so, your country is the political entity, your nation is your race, it's blood and soil and myth, which I've gone into that before. 00:32:37.792 --> 00:32:40.392 Your nation, you cannot choose. 00:32:40.392 --> 00:32:48.812 You kind of can a little bit, because obviously, you could emigrate, you can immigrate, there are things like that, without touching on the morality of whether or not you should. 00:32:50.272 --> 00:32:54.312 And so, you love your nation, because your nation is a gift from God. 00:32:54.872 --> 00:32:58.472 You are what you are intrinsically, because that is how God made you. 00:32:58.752 --> 00:33:08.072 Your people are your people, they are yours, the same as your parents are yours, because they gave birth to you, your mother gave birth to you, your father was involved earlier, right? 00:33:08.852 --> 00:33:26.352 So, your nation you must love, because your nation are the people who are closest to you, the people God has entrusted to your care, and those who do not care for your own family, and your nation's an extended family, and particularly those of their own household, are worse than an unbeliever. 00:33:26.352 --> 00:33:28.432 So, you don't want to run afoul of that. 00:33:29.672 --> 00:33:31.692 But when it comes to sort of the... 00:33:32.212 --> 00:33:34.252 It's really kind of a patriotism question, right? 00:33:34.252 --> 00:33:37.792 But with regard to the country. 00:33:37.792 --> 00:33:38.652 And even that's a... 00:33:40.172 --> 00:33:43.212 Because patriotism is derived from the Latin for father. 00:33:43.732 --> 00:33:50.572 And so, to love your patrimony is to love your forefathers, is to love your nation, is to love your race. 00:33:51.372 --> 00:33:57.692 But in the usual sort of lay sense, as it were, the generic use of the term patriotism with regard to a country. 00:33:57.692 --> 00:34:01.072 So, the United States, to love your nation in the United States. 00:34:01.912 --> 00:34:13.012 I think you love your nation in so far as it is a representation or an outgrowth of your people, and you do the best you can to try to improve it. 00:34:13.952 --> 00:34:17.792 That doesn't mean that you can't critique your country when it does evil things. 00:34:17.792 --> 00:34:24.492 In fact, it's often you do that as a Christian man, at least if God has put you in a position to do that. 00:34:24.972 --> 00:34:34.752 And so, I don't think given the current set of conditions that we necessarily have to love the United States, because the United States has done an immense amount of evil. 00:34:34.752 --> 00:34:36.752 It is still doing an immense amount of evil. 00:34:37.032 --> 00:34:47.252 It is bringing in hostile foreigners every day to destroy us, destroy our nation, make our lives more difficult, make the future significantly more difficult. 00:34:47.972 --> 00:34:55.292 And so, we can love the good things about our country, and the good things in the history of our country. 00:34:55.592 --> 00:34:57.972 And even the good, there are good things that exist today, right? 00:34:58.152 --> 00:35:16.592 There are good things about the United States, but ultimately, the focus of our care, our concern, should be our nation, and bringing the country, the political entity, back in line with being an expression of the will, and something that seeks the good of the nation, of the race. 00:35:17.672 --> 00:35:26.452 So, can we fill a love of country in the absolute sense with what our country is currently doing? 00:35:26.872 --> 00:35:41.092 Probably not, but ultimately, our allegiance isn't to our country first, it's to our nations, to our people, because that's created by God, and the country is just a symbol of our love. 00:35:41.092 --> 00:35:44.672 So, obviously, the creation of God has to stand, it's more important. 00:36:03.147 --> 00:36:11.147 There's a difficult question here that I don't know that I necessarily want to get into tonight, but maybe I will, because it's an important question, I think it should be answered. 00:36:14.507 --> 00:36:26.047 So, and it's one of those questions where it seems like the right answer is easy, but at the same time it's not easy because of the consequences of it. 00:36:27.047 --> 00:36:30.327 And I don't think it appealed to consequences, always wrongful, but anyway, question nine. 00:36:31.427 --> 00:36:36.067 There is a transgender person at my workplace, and I am being forced to use its pronouns. 00:36:36.607 --> 00:36:38.567 What is the Christian thing to do here? 00:36:41.487 --> 00:36:59.387 The issue with this is that, ultimately speaking, transgenderism is part of the pernicious, wicked, anti-Christian religion that we could perhaps class under the umbrella of Marxism in the sort of broad sense. 00:37:01.407 --> 00:37:02.887 Ultimately, it's Satanism, right? 00:37:02.887 --> 00:37:06.607 But Marxism sort of captures the idea better for most people. 00:37:07.707 --> 00:37:16.047 And so, the question then is that, is this a participation in that wicked religion? 00:37:17.367 --> 00:37:28.487 I think the answer is yes, because it is a confession against reality, it is a confession against God's good ordering of creation. 00:37:29.407 --> 00:37:43.007 And also, there's the psychology of it, you're building up and feeding into the delusions of someone who will probably eventually do something violent to anyone else, as the statistics clearly show. 00:37:44.447 --> 00:37:54.667 So, I don't think as a Christian that you are in fact permitted to do that, because I think it would be counted as something even worse than, say, the pinch of incense to Caesar, right? 00:37:55.127 --> 00:37:58.187 Because there were Christians who went to the lions in order to avoid that. 00:37:58.447 --> 00:38:01.127 I think this is a better answer than that. 00:38:01.947 --> 00:38:08.907 And so, I would say that, practically speaking, because obviously there's a consideration of the theology, right? 00:38:08.947 --> 00:38:11.047 The theology answer, I think, is pretty easy. 00:38:11.487 --> 00:38:15.207 Don't participate in the evil religion of the world. 00:38:16.187 --> 00:38:19.987 But the practical considerations, obviously, are more difficult, right? 00:38:20.727 --> 00:38:21.627 You are... 00:38:22.327 --> 00:38:24.107 We'll take the extreme example, as it were, right? 00:38:24.107 --> 00:38:27.787 Let's say you're a father, and you have a whole bunch of young children. 00:38:28.027 --> 00:38:29.247 You really need this job. 00:38:29.247 --> 00:38:30.947 It'd be difficult to get a new job. 00:38:31.067 --> 00:38:34.267 So, it's the worst case scenario, and you're going to get fired, right? 00:38:34.527 --> 00:38:37.247 If you stand up and do anything about this. 00:38:39.487 --> 00:38:41.067 It's the worst case scenario. 00:38:41.127 --> 00:38:43.467 And so, does wisdom play a role? 00:38:43.467 --> 00:38:44.527 I think the answer is yes. 00:38:44.527 --> 00:38:49.907 Wisdom has to play a role, because in that case, there are those who have been entrusted to your care. 00:38:50.307 --> 00:39:04.147 So, if you can just avoid the problem, I think that's permissible in those circumstances where you are trying to preserve what God has entrusted to your care, et cetera, et cetera. 00:39:05.087 --> 00:39:09.827 But, obviously, less of an issue if you don't have those considerations. 00:39:10.607 --> 00:39:18.687 So, the way you can avoid it, right, is you don't necessarily have to use pronouns. 00:39:20.847 --> 00:39:22.287 You can talk around that. 00:39:22.287 --> 00:39:23.587 That's perfectly possible. 00:39:24.167 --> 00:39:29.227 In fact, just like you don't ever have to use another person's name when you are talking to or about the person. 00:39:29.387 --> 00:39:33.787 I have friends that probably haven't said their names in years, because, you know, just talk to the friend. 00:39:33.787 --> 00:39:36.787 You don't have to announce that you're talking to that person. 00:39:38.347 --> 00:39:48.727 So, if you can get around criticizing wisdom, but not participating in the evil, I think that is a permissible way if you have those sort of countervailing concerns. 00:39:50.407 --> 00:39:57.447 The alternative, right, if you think that that is going to be viable in your case, I don't know even where you are in the world. 00:39:57.447 --> 00:40:04.067 So, I don't know you're not giving legal advice, despite the fact that I'm an attorney, you know, the usual caveat. 00:40:05.387 --> 00:40:10.147 You may be able to go to your HR department and say, this is against my religion. 00:40:10.307 --> 00:40:16.327 This is a violation of my religious rights, which you probably have wherever you are if this sort of thing is happening right. 00:40:17.347 --> 00:40:21.387 And there's some protection for that. 00:40:21.427 --> 00:40:23.387 I would go to an attorney first. 00:40:24.247 --> 00:40:29.687 Have the attorney give you the exact language you're going to want to use with HR. 00:40:30.147 --> 00:40:39.687 You're building a paper trail, and the reason that you're building that is that if they fire you in the future, then you probably have a case for wrongful termination. 00:40:40.247 --> 00:40:48.047 Attorney versed in your local laws would be able to give you better advice on that, because he would know what sort of case you need and what evidence you need. 00:40:49.087 --> 00:40:53.887 I think that's probably the wisest way to proceed if you can't avoid the issue. 00:40:54.907 --> 00:40:59.627 And who knows, maybe it may actually turn out to your benefit if you get a wrongful termination. 00:41:00.507 --> 00:41:07.407 Because, if they just blatantly violate the law, those suits are usually pretty easy, and they usually get you a decent check. 00:41:07.407 --> 00:41:13.227 So, maybe you can find some way to punish them for trying to get you to make a false confession. 00:41:13.227 --> 00:41:14.427 There's nothing wrong with that. 00:41:30.438 --> 00:41:36.458 I'm gonna pull another question here from X, since I see there's some questions in the chat, I'll try to get to those. 00:41:37.458 --> 00:41:40.998 This is question 10 now. 00:41:45.998 --> 00:41:54.218 I left a comment a few days ago about my cousin's and his wife adopting a Mexican child, so I assume that's typo there on the plural. 00:41:55.158 --> 00:42:11.138 Would you say that I have a duty to my blood being over my disdain for him and his wife's poor choice to aid in the displacement of my children and his? 00:42:11.138 --> 00:42:15.238 So I assume that means he has other children in addition to the one that he's adopted. 00:42:17.978 --> 00:42:21.998 This is one of those cases because of... 00:42:22.138 --> 00:42:24.018 This is sin, I'll just go ahead and say it's sin. 00:42:24.018 --> 00:42:24.958 You should not be doing that. 00:42:24.958 --> 00:42:41.658 When you have your own people are in dire straits, there are many children of your own nation who should be adopted, and you are going out of your way to adopt the foreigner instead, you are failing to rightly care, first and foremost, for those who care, and that is sin. 00:42:42.298 --> 00:42:44.418 So what he did was sinful. 00:42:45.518 --> 00:42:48.798 And a Mexican child should be a Mexican with Mexican parents. 00:42:49.578 --> 00:42:52.658