WWUTT 1610 Q&A Southern Accents, Legacy Switch, God in the Temple, Communion at Home

Southern Accents, Contextualization, and Being “All Things to All People”

Have I made an official switch to the Legacy Standard Bible? Was God's presence in the temple in the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments? And can we do communion in our homes? The answers to these questions, When We Understand the Text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ, that we may walk as Jesus walked. Tell all your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Do you think you have an accent? Yes. You do? You make fun of me all the time. Because I say mirror a lot. Yeah, that's right. You look in the mirror. I look in the mirror.

In the mirror. Yeah, see, I can't even say it like you say it. I still say mirror. I look in the mirror. And I say mirror. Mirror. Yeah. Then when you try to correct yourself, it's just mirror. Yep. You do too.

You say orange. What's wrong with orange? Yeah. Orange. It's not an orange. Orange. There's nothing wrong with orange. It's not an A-R. That's exactly how you say it. It's an O-R. It's like octopus.

Orange. No. Well, we got the baby out already. Usually we're about halfway into the program before we have to do this. So he's in my lap and occasionally he's dropping things and I have to go pick them up for him.

Touch it.

Yeah. There you go, guy. He's not quite doing it on purpose yet. So I'm glad that's not the game. Just lacking coordination.

Yes. So anyway, I was asking this question, if you think you have an accent, because there was a recent video that came out from NAMM in which they were suggesting that in order to be all things to all people, as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, then maybe you have to lose your accent.

And they even suggest that if you have a Southern accent, you're not very intelligent sounding. Oh. Let me play this clip for you here. They've since taken the video down because of all the flack that they were getting for it.

Oh, I can imagine. So this is the North. I bet that didn't go over very well. This is a video from the North American Missions Board. North. What we call NAMM. Sorry. It's like North and South again. That's right.

It's the North versus the South. That's what it is. So I couldn't help myself. I'm sorry. That had nothing to do with it. It was just funny. Now listen to this suggestion, this inference here. Sure. And then I'll tell you where it comes in that it's suggested if you have an accent, you just don't sound very intelligent.

All right. Listen in. Hey, Church Planners.

I want to talk about contextualization. And so, you know, Paul communicates his philosophy of ministry in 1 Corinthians 9, and he says that he becomes all things to all people that he might say, son. And he says that he does it all for the sake of the gospel.

See, Paul is God's, you know, ultimate cross-cultural missionary, church planter, and he best engages his culture. And so when I think about someone that I met, I was in Boston once, and this planter, I asked him where he's from.

He said he was from South Carolina. And I was stunned. I said, did you grow up there? And I was stunned because he didn't have an accent. And I said, what happened to your southern accent? Because I'm a North Carolinian.

And he says this, I got a voice coach when I first moved here and to get rid of my southern accent. Man, you talk about someone being all things to all people so that he can reach people for Christ. This is so critical as we think about who we're trying to reach instead of just thinking about who we are.

We need both. We need to understand the culture around us.

What do they consider to not have an accent? Yeah, right. I mean, what classifies as not having an accent?

Everybody has an accent from somewhere. Everybody.

I mean, maybe you have such a heavy accent that it's difficult to understand. I mean, there are parts in the United States that, you know, they talk with a heavier accent. But really, who doesn't have one?

Now, the funny thing about this, yeah, so he's saying, he's suggesting that you might want to lose your southern accent. Nothing in there about losing your Bostonian or New York or Minnesotan accent, yeah, nothing like that.

Minnesota. Minnesota. I love Minnesota. So while he's talking, this graphic comes up. And it says, according to a 2012 study conducted by the University of Chicago. Chicago. People with southern accents are assumed less intelligent than their northern-accented peers even among children.

Now, here's the best part. The word according is misspelled. Are you joking? It's A-C-O-O-R-D-I-N-G. What?

You can't make this stuff up. It's just so priceless. Oh, boy. Somebody forgot to spell check. Oh, my goodness.

Or proofread. Right. So, the question's been asked multiple times, why is he targeting southern accents? Why doesn't he say anything else about any other accent? Even the graphic down there says you sound less intelligent if you have a southern accent.

Yeah. We all know the reason why they're doing this. Why? It's because coming up pretty soon, they're going to want to drop southern from southern Baptist. Ah. Got it. Yeah? So, they're targeting all this to make us, make the convention less southern.

Let's get rid of southern Baptist from southern Baptist convention and they'll Because southern's a bad thing? Apparently, according to the way they're throwing their graphics up, that's the way they think about it.

Awesome. You're going to continue to talk like a southerner. It's really quite sad considering how many people in the southern Baptist convention are southern with southern accents. Yes. But we're just all a bunch of dumb hicks to them, I guess.

I don't know what's going on there. Well, that's exciting. So, like I said, they took the video down because

I hope y 'all don't mind my accent. It's starting to pick up some of the Texan, too, here and there.

Yeah, because I used to have a deep southern drawl. You did. I was born in South Carolina.

I lost it for radio. Well, and whenever we go back and you're around your family, you kind of get a little bit, a little bit. And since we moved to East Texas And it's so cute.

I love it. Since we moved to East Texas, I've started picking up some of those Texan words, even. You got excited. You can use your words again. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Now, my kids don't think I'm so strange for saying y 'all because everybody around here says y 'all.

That was a big thing. What did Paul mean in 1 Corinthians 9, where he made this statement, the guy's talking about here, being all things to all people? Paul says, starting in verse 19, for though I am free from all, I have made myself a slave to all so that I may win more.

And to the Jews, I became as a Jew so that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law, as under the law, though not being myself under the law, so that I might win those who are under the law. So an example of this would be that when he was with Jews, he would observe the dietary laws.

When he was with Gentiles, he would eat what they were eating. Verse 21, to those who are without law, as though law, though not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.

Doesn't mean he lived lawlessly. Verse 22, to the weak, I became weak, that I might win the weak, explaining things on a level that the weak would understand. Not speaking in high, lofty language, which Paul certainly could have done.

But helping them understand the word of God. I have become all things to all men so that I may, by all means, save some. So I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

Now, if you're following the advice of this video here, which says that according to a Chicago study, people with Southern accents are assumed less intelligent than their Northern accented peers, even among children.

So you're going to people to try to sound more intelligent?

The only thing that I can see about dumping part of your accent for is just if you have such a heavy accent that it's distracting. Like people are not communicating with you because they're having to ask what a lot, you know, like, what did you just say?

I don't, I don't understand what you just said, you know, like that kind of stuff.

Right. But that, so we're talking, yeah, we're talking about sharing the gospel here and being all things to all people so that you may win some, by all means, all, every opportunity given you to be able to preach the gospel.

But as Paul had said earlier in 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 1 .18, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. Very true. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

So the message sounds foolish anyway, to people who are perishing, it doesn't matter how intelligent you sound. Right. So this has to be about the delivery of the gospel. Just to sound intelligent. Yeah.

I don't get it. If you want to lose your accent, if you think that would be helpful to try to communicate to more people, sure, that's between you and the Lord. But it was more than just that story. It was the graphic down here, which is misspelled to say that people with Southern accents sound like dumb hicks.

Get rid of your accent or you can't come up here and evangelize in the north because. Wrong accent for the wrong place. You need to go. I was going to go pack the car and have a yacht. Wicked smite. I love it.

I love accents personally. I do. I love accents. Yes. Nobody sounds dumber to me because they have an accent. Nope.

I'm more apt to listen to somebody from different places just because of their accent. Yeah. Oh, I love it.

It's just so fun. Yeah. Like you said, I love heading back to where my family lives around South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia, getting to hear all those accents again. It's so wonderful. It's what I grew up around.

Feel like I'm right back at home again. Yep. Then I go visit my family and I come back to Kansas or Texas or wherever else and I'm talking like them. Just pick it up. All right. So let's get to some questions here.

We're answering questions from the listeners on the Friday edition of the broadcast. You can send your questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. Now I'm going to start here with a question that has been in our inbox since November.

Shame on us. I know. I'm so sorry. So this is from Conan and I still haven't responded to this question yet. Hi, Conan. Hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky. I know you've been using the LSB, the Legacy Standard Bible.

That's what I just read from 1 Corinthians 9. And I was wondering if you've decided to make the switch from the English Standard Version to the LSB as your primary translation. If so, what do you see as the biggest difference between the LSB and the NASB that made you decide it was worth switching, knowing that you have preferred the ESV over the NASB in the past?

Thank you for all that you do. We continue to pray for you guys and look forward to the next time that we get to see you. That's very kind. Yeah. Hope to see you at the next G3. That would be awesome.

That's where we tend to run into Conan. Now have I made an official switch? Well, no, not exactly. I mean, I am using the LSB more than I'm using any other translation. But when we do our devotions with the kids, we're still using the ESV because their Bibles are ESV.

This past Sunday, I preached from the LSB. And Pastor Tom, Tom Buck, he is preaching from the LSB as well. We're in Ephesians right now. And Tom, who knows Greek, I don't, but he can read the Greek language fluently, he sees that in the LSB, the way that they have laid out the English is closer to what we would actually be reading in the Greek than the ESV or even the NASB.

Really? So especially when you consider Ephesians 1 is famous for Paul's just hugely long run-on sentence there. It's like one sentence from verse 1 to 14. Right. Now the LSB breaks it up a little bit more, but they put the punctuation in the right places according to the words that are being defined there.

Gotcha. Or, yeah, that would be difficult to explain without just actually going through the text. What do you call that? Transition words is one. Like the application of in him, because we see the words in him a lot.

So this past Sunday, I preached in verses 7 through 10, in him we have redemption through his blood. Verse 10 ends with things in the heavens and things on the earth in him. Verse 11, in him we also have been made an inheritance.

So where those breaks happen in the LSB is more accurate to the actual Greek or the original Greek than in the ESV or even the NASB. That's cool. So Tom had noticed that, and so therefore to be the most accurate to the original text, what Paul originally meant to the Ephesians, then we're reading out of the LSB right now as far as the sermons go.

We haven't officially made a switch. Now one of the things, Conan, in response to your question, one of the things that makes me hesitant to make a switch officially, especially as it pertains to teaching in the church, whether I'm preaching a sermon or I'm leading my Sunday school class, most people are still using the ESV and the ESV is also way cheaper.

Right now, while the Legacy Standard Bible is still fairly new, they're more expensive. They're not producing as many. It's the mass production that makes them cheaper. So since the English Standard Version is

Comes in all sorts of colors. There's a lot more variety too in the ESV. That doesn't matter as much, but I love a good, rich leather Bible. So yeah. I mean, basically I make a car payment when I buy a new Bible.

That's good. Yes, you do. You do. We're not making car payments, so I may as well buy a new Bible. Okay. It's in the budget and I'm going to buy a Bible. Just kidding. Okay. So I've gotten my last one.

I got my LSB, the nice goatskin leather, which I wasn't planning on going that nice, but they were out of the cowhide. Of course. So I went, fine. I'll just go goatskin. Shucks.

Yeah, right. I'm sure you were really just affording. Man, I'll just bite the bullet. Go with the goatskin. As long as you share, you know, I'm fine.

That's right. Yeah. So eventually I'm going to get those for my kids as well. We'll be going through the LSB together, but since the ESV is more plentiful than with a lot of the teaching Sorry, this kid's just

He's getting eyes. Incredibly cute. So for that reason, I'm going to stick with the ESV and some more of the teaching areas. Hey, this is being all things to all people. I'm going to use the translation I know that they have, you know?

And then eventually, I think kind of over time, it'll be more in the direction of the LSB.

Well, the kids on Wednesday nights, they're memorizing out of the NASB, aren't they?

That's right. So most of the stuff, if you're using the curriculums for Adventure Club and the Grace to Use curriculum that they distribute for Sunday school as well, I can't remember the name of that, but they're using the NASB 95.

So that's where most of those texts are. If your kids are in Adventure Club, they're memorizing verses in the NASB. But I think the intention is, since that's produced by the same ministry that has printed the Legacy Standard Bible, eventually all of that material is going to be translated into the LSB as well.

Right. So when that happens, then it's going to make more sense for me to just go ahead and get my kids Legacy Standard Bibles. But right now, I'm going to leave them in their ESVs. We do our family devotions in the ESV.

But as far as the podcast goes, yeah, I think I'm pretty much committed to the LSB now. So from now on, on when we understand the text, that's the translation I'm reading from. Now, Connan's other question was, you prefer the ESV over the NASB, so why would I choose the LSB instead of having made that transition to the New American Standard?

Because we think of the—. Well, you kind of touched on it with the Greek being more accurate.

Yeah. Even in the Legacy, it's more accurate than the New American Standard. So some of those changes—one thing that I did not like about the New American Standard 95 is I felt like it was just a little clunky.

Yeah. It was a little rough. Yeah. As far as—. In places. Yeah. Now, I would do my study from it. I believe that it was the most accurate English translation we had until we're coming out with the Legacy Standard, and now this one's more accurate, which a friend of mine, Michael, the other night, he was making fun of, like, you guys, you're changing your minds every time a new translation comes out.

This one's the most accurate. And then another one comes out, this is the best, most accurate Bible ever.

Hey, we're not perfect, so we've got to keep improving.

Yeah, and when you get the LSB, it says first edition on the bottom, too, so it makes you wonder, well, when they come out with their second edition, this is the most accurate LSB ever. This is even better.

But because I believe the Legacy Standard translators not only had a faithfulness to accuracy, but there's a smoothness in the language there that the NASB 95 just didn't have. That's one of the reasons why, as far as teaching went, I would remain in the ESV, though I was doing study in the New American Standard.

But I highly recommend, really do recommend the Legacy Standard Bible. There are still going to be some things that even people who understand translation are going to go, now, why did they make that decision?

Why did they not go this route with it? It's not like we're looking at this translation thinking this is the translation to beat all translations, because, of course, language changes as well as the English language changes, there will be a need sometime decades later to have to do an update again.

But in the meantime, this commitment from the Legacy Standard crew is to make this translation and stick with this. That's why they call it the Legacy. So just like we have the same King James Bible for centuries, so hopefully we'll be reading the same Legacy Bible for centuries and our grandkids will be reading the same legacy that we were reading.

That's awesome. Yeah, I love it. Thank you so much. Go to steadfastbibles .com if you want to look up a nice leather bound Legacy Standard Bible. I still read from my New Testament. This all of the podcast comes out of this little New Testament, the New Testament Psalms and Proverbs.

It just fits right here on the desk so well. It's so tiny. Yeah, it's cute. And I've gotten really used to the layout. I've gotten really used to turning pages and you see how used the pages are starting to get here now.

Yeah. So I know exactly where the words are. It lays flat. It doesn't try to close on you. I'll turn the page and my eyes will fall on exactly the text that I'm looking for. Now, that was another thing that kind of slowed me from moving from the ESV is because I love my ESV Bibles.

Well, you had a hard time moving from what was it before? The NIV. The NIV. Yeah. Yeah, because you had that one memorized. I did. Like you practically knew the page numbers. Right.

And I'm now having to. So when I had to transition my thinking from the NIV to the ESV, I had to relearn like the phrasing of certain verses. Well, now I'm doing that again. I'm doing that with the LSB.

But one of the things I like about that is it's forcing me to have to really pay attention to the text again. That's true. I can't just get used to, well, you know, I've read that passage a thousand times.

Yeah. So whenever you recite it, you forget what you're saying. Like you don't pay attention to your words. Just, you know, like talking without listening to yourself. Yeah.

So I'm having to focus on the text again. When I did the debate this past Monday with Leighton Flowers, that was out of the English standard version. And again, that was because I figured most people were going to be using that translation.

True. But as far as this podcast goes, yeah, I think the legacy standard is where I'm at. Yep. So thanks for the question, Connan. Yeah. This next one comes from Steven in Tennessee. Hey, Pastor Gabe, I had a question from a random discussion my wife and I had.

In the 400 years of God's silence before Christ's birth. So we're talking that period of silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Did his spirit dwell in the temple? We know with Solomon's temple, this was the case.

But was God's presence in the Holy of Holies in Herod's temple? If his presence wasn't there, were the Israelites just continuing the temple rituals because they were still under the law? Thanks for taking the time.

God’s Presence in the Second Temple and the End of the Old Covenant

So we see in the book of Ezekiel that God's presence leaves the temple and then it never comes back again. OK, his presence never comes back into the temple, even though the temple is reconstructed. You have the second temple period after Nehemiah.

Nevertheless, God's presence never comes back into the temple. And so the Israelites are continuing in the in the temple rituals and everything because they're keeping the law of God. Absolutely. They're still under the law.

And they want to please the Lord. They want to be obedient. Those that are keeping what the law says. Right. But whether his presence is in the temple or not doesn't matter. You still have to obey what it is that God has said.

God's presence never came back into the temple. So what we see in the book of Matthew, after the triumphal entry, Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, he goes into the temple. There's the cleansing of the temple that happened on Monday.

Right. So he gets rid of the merchants and the money changers flipping over tables, driving the animals out that that whole episode happening there. And then he's there in the temple teaching for a couple of days.

And then when he leaves the temple, this is in Matthew twenty three. After the seven woes that he gives to the Pharisees, he leaves the temple and goes up on the side of the Mount of Olives. And then we have the Olivet discourse.

Right. In Matthew twenty four and twenty five. This is really hard to do this and wrangle him at the same time.

I'm trying to stare at you instead of him.

He is really trying to stretch out and squirm. And I'm trying to. Do you want me to take it? Trying to Bible teach at the same time. Yeah. Let me hand him off here. Here we go. All right. It's the it's the exchanging of the baby.

There we go. That's what he wanted. He just wanted you to go to mommy. Can I say. Right. So with Jesus rebuking the Pharisees and then leaving the temple, he never goes back to the temple again. So that was symbolic of when God left the presence of the temple in the book of Ezekiel here, Jesus is doing it.

So he's in the temple teaching. He leaves their presence. The presence of God has left the temple again. And then what what's the episode that we see happen next in the temple? Well, that's the tearing of the curtain with God showing that he no longer dwelled in places built by human hands.

Our fellowship with God was now by faith in Jesus Christ. Right. And we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit change. Right. So that have, of course, that was the earthquake during Christ's crucifixion.

And then the temple curtain tore and, and God's dwelling with his people is through the Holy Spirit in our hearts. That we are given by faith in Jesus Christ. Amen. So thank you for the question, Stephen.

Communion in the Church, Not as a Private Home Practice

We continue on here to Lisa's question. Hi, Pastor Gabe and Becky. Thank you for your wisdom and biblical insight. I have a question that I cannot find an answer to. Is it biblical for women to administer communion to other women in a local church or in a para church ladies gathering?

Is it biblical for a couple to administer communion at a social gathering in their home? In a conversation with a friend recently, she gave me examples of her participation in communion, both of these ways.

It just doesn't seem biblical to me, but I'm not really able to say why. Thank you for considering my question for the Friday Q and A. All right. Let me go back to first Corinthians here again. That's a great question.

So we talked about this a little bit with the instruction that we have regarding the Lord's supper in first Corinthians 11. So starting in verse 17, Paul says, but in giving this instruction, I do not praise you because you come together, not for the better, but for the worse.

For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you and in part, I believe it for there must also be factions among you so that those who are approved may become evident among you.

Therefore, when you meet together in the same place, it is not to eat the Lord's supper for in your eating, each one takes his own supper first and one is hungry and another is drunk for. Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink, or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing?

What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I will not praise you. Okay. Pay attention there to verse 22. What did he say? Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink to eat and drink? What?

The meals that they were having together in which there were these class separations, the rich were eating a lot. The poor were going away hungry. He rebukes them for that. If that, if that's what you're doing, go home and eat right in church.

You're doing the Lord's supper and this is what the Lord's table needs to look like. And then he gives instruction in verse 23 for I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was being betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me in the same way. He took the cup also after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Look at and consider some of those statements here in this section where Paul says, when you gather this verse 18 for in the first place, when you come together as a church.

And then verse 20, therefore, when you meet together in the same place. So he's talking about practicing the Lord's table as a church, the eating and drinking that you do that's in your own home. So there's quite a distinction here between where you gather to do those things and where you gather for the Lord's supper.

The Lord's supper needs to be with the body of believers with the gathered all women.

You don't have a church of all women. So that would be that would be throw out right there. Exactly. That's a dysfunctional church.

Right. So if you're all women meeting together, you're. I know. He's tired. He's done. See, this is this is the point where this is where we try to finish the podcast before we get to this point. So. So anyway, and I've made this comment many times, especially when you get those those egalitarians who are saying that, you know, well, you just want to make the church all men.

That's kind of one of the arguments that they make, because then I'd be a dysfunctional church, right? If you have a church, that's all men. You don't really have a church. You have a church. That's all women.

You don't have a church. It's multi-generational.

It's men and women together. It's families worshiping together. Let me have it. Let me. We'll do this switch off again and see if this works. All right. Here you go. Here's daddy. Oh, he's got your cord.

There we go. All right. Come here, Bubba. Just like two more minutes. Can I just finish the thought? Then we'll be done. Two more minutes. You can go home and you can eat. So anyway, that all of that to say, there's where you see the context going on here.

Paul making a distinction between as a church, you're gathering to do this, but when you're going to eat and drink and do all those other things, you go home and do that. You don't do communion at home or in your private Bible study.

You do that in church. This is where church discipline is being practiced. It's where the preaching of the Lord is taking place, the preaching of the word and all of the things that we would know that are characteristic of the church, baptism being practiced, things like that.

That's where we partake in the Lord's table.

So with the husband and wife giving the communion, where was that at? Where was that done at?

Well, I mean, I guess that would be at home as well. So is it biblical for a couple to administer communion in a social gathering at home? Right.

Yep. I couldn't remember if that was at church or if that was at home. Yeah.

So that answers my question. So the specific instruction on the Lord's table is that it's happening at church. Right. Because again, the instruction in Matthew 18, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.

And we gather at church in the Lord's name. Of course, that statement is in the context of church discipline, but that's church. That's right. It's part of church. All right. I hope you're enjoying these little baby sounds here as we're trying to finish the thought, but let me pray.

And then this guy gets fed. Come here, little guy. Just, just the prayer, just the prayer. We're all done. Okay. Heavenly father, we thank you for this time together. We thank you for our beautiful children.

We do indeed. And thank you for the blessings that you give us in an abundance, in a number of ways, especially the family of God that we've been made a part of through faith in Jesus Christ. And may we know as the family of God, how to rightly participate in church, how to call one another to correction, according to your word that we handle the Lord's table and baptism and the preaching of your word in a right and a proper way.

We are always mindful of one another, loving each other, building each other up, edifying the church as we are called to do. And even as we have studied this week, reading out of first Corinthians chapter 14, I pray that you bless this podcast to continue preaching the word faithfully to those who will listen and may we all continue to grow in Christ according to the word of Christ.

It's in his precious name that we pray. Amen. This next one comes from Steven in Tennessee. Hey, pastor Gabe, I had a question about a random discussion. My wife and I had, I have no idea what your discussion was with your wife.

Huh? That's terrible. Okay. Let me try that again. You lost me. It's just funny. It's a funny start. I had a question from a random discussion. My wife and I had. Sure. Okay. I don't know what your wife and I talked about.

Okay. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. That was a bad joke, dad. Okay. Let me try that again. Yeah, you got it. Yeah.