FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE ***Q&A with Mr. & Mrs. Calvinist***

Live from the Theo shed in beautiful Callahan, Florida. It's Friday night

Your Calvinist podcast is filmed before a live studio audience and welcome back to your

Calvinist podcast My name is Keith Foskey. This is Jennifer Foskey We are your

Calvinist, mr. And mrs. Your Calvinist It's good to see everyone tonight. And as people are getting logged on We just want to again welcome you to our weekly live show

We've seen that there been some folks who've been commenting even before the show began

And I wanted to make mention of one specific comment. I think it was very thoughtful up earlier

Mb Said please don't burn yourselves out. Lots of youtubers have done this, you know

We've talked a lot about that because we do a lot I do a lot throughout the week with the media ministry and and then of course, we've started doing this weekly live show and We do want to let you guys know there are going to be some weeks that we won't be able to do a live show

Sometimes we have the blessing of having a Friday night Date night.

What's the date? Yeah and On date night. We are not going to try to run back home by 10 o 'clock.

So That is something that we're gonna say. Hey, there's gonna be certain weeks that we don't do it

We have some holiday stuff coming up. So there may be some weeks that we don't do a Friday night live, but we enjoy this

Yeah, and we enjoy getting to interact with you guys Especially with the fetus

Parker Brown who's out there already running his mouth on the comment section. I see you out there, buddy Don't just just know just know

I'm gonna handle you. I'm gonna handle business. I got your phone number I'll just I'll just I'll give you a call later

We'll post it in the comments. That's right. We'll post your Who wants okay. I'm currently

I'm taking bid for Parker Brown's phone number I'll start the bidding at $1

But anyway, it's good to see everybody. Love you guys. Thankful that you're here Want to mention our shirts?

Today we are matching. I'm not wearing a red dress, but I do have a red shirt. I just love it when couples dress alike girl

No, this is our tomorrow we will be walking in the

Callahan parade the Callahan Christmas parade our church has a Float and it is the theme of our float is make

Bible study great again We have a huge banner that talks about what the Bible is that it's an amazing book written over 1 ,500 years written by 40 different authors written in three different languages

But it all has one message and that is redemption through Jesus Christ and we have big banners that go with it

We have a major scene that we're going to have set up No, baby, Jesus, no, no second commandment violations for us, but we do have the manger scene all built

I spent the afternoon with some of the guys from the church building that and I will be posting a video of that tomorrow and So to show everybody what we're doing, but this is the theme and this is why we're wearing these shirts

Even though we are in a little while We're gonna talk a little bit about why I think it's necessary that you do wear red when

I tell you to I Am look yeah, I told you I told you to wear that and you had no choice

Because I am the king of this house. I am I Am the

I am the sovereign of these four I am the sovereign of the double -wide Hey, but before we do that I actually want to Want to talk about a

Christmas gift. I have a Christmas gift that I'm gonna give to my wife early. Isn't that cool? I have something here.

It is a Christmas gift. Close your eyes. Okay, close your eyes. Okay. All right. All right This is my

Christmas gift to my wife. Open your eyes. Merry Christmas What is it? Oh coffee grinder.

Okay. Okay. The reason why I'm giving my wife a coffee grinder is because we are now partnered with With Squirrely Joe's coffee and squirrely

Joe's coffee is Offering a free bag of coffee to anyone who watches our show

You can go into the description of this video and you can find squirrely joe's comm slash your

Calvinist You can go get a free bag of coffee But you do need a coffee grinder to go with it So I bought my wife a coffee grinder to go with our free bag of coffee

Also, if you buy anything in their store and use my name Keith you get 20 % off as a coupon code

So that's pretty cool That's pretty pretty fun and it's nice to have people who are interested in what we're doing and are

Willing to partner with us as I said, all of our partners help feed hungry children Mine, I know that's a terrible that's dumb joke, but I'm gonna keep making it because I think it's funny

We have other partners. We're going to mention throughout today's show Obviously, we want to continue to remind you about tinybibles .com

tiny bibles is our longest running partner And they also offer for the coupon code

Keith you can go right now They've got the Tyndale New Testament 1534 edition available This would make a great

Christmas present along with the smallest Bible in print and the tiny gospel of John These are available encourage you to go check those out

We're gonna talk about some of our other partners later in the show, but I want to get into some serious conversations right now

I want to talk about this whole red dress Fiasco before we get to the questions for today.

We're going to talk about the the current kerfuffle that's happening on the in the

Twitterverse, there's been a lot of kerfuffles lately and Several several of you have asked me to weigh in with my opinion on various of these kerfuffles

I just like the word kerfuffle. Kerfuffle. You've asked me to weigh in and in general I try to avoid a lot of these these deep ditches of negativity, especially when there are

Just things that I think are bad on all sides. I just kind of look at it You know some of it.

I'm not interested in engaging in I want to recommend a video a friend of mine put out this week

Corey wing who is civically minded podcast put out a video with some good thoughts about all of the

Kerfuffle that's been going on. So if you want to hear a good pastoral thought regarding all of that You can go check out his video

He is a solid man of God a good friend and a man who? Will live up to his word when he said he's when he says he's gonna pray for you

So if you don't know that when he prays like he'll he prays like when you ask him to pray for you Like he prays like right then which is which is really great and he writes out his prayers

So I get nice prayers from him sometimes which are really super encouraging so With that in mind.

I do want to talk about the issue with the red dress Now now, what do you know about it

Jennifer? We talked a little bit about it is it where the husband

Should tell tell his be able to tell his wife like what she should what she shouldn't wear Can hear you in fact

I may turn you up just a hair like if the husband wants his wife to wear To greet him when she comes home and wear a red dress.

She should do that because he's asked her to do that Yeah, it's Well it no, it's it's it's not that you're being too simplistic

It's that I I think that they're there The way people have interpreted this has been different and the way people have explained it has been different But the ultimate question is should a wife

Submit to her husband if her husband puts a demand upon her that she wear a certain thing

So, I think I'm I'm really honestly trying to be fair. I'm not trying to over exaggerate the question and I'm also not trying to Soften it too much like like like, okay

You and I both do premarital counseling. Mm -hmm. You do premarital counseling with me. Hey redeemed zoomer.

It's good to see you, buddy Glad you're with us tonight, and he's recently married. So this might be an interesting conversation for him to be

Congratulations. Yeah. Yeah for him to be Listening in on but the question we're talking about this whole red dress thing it's the question of should a husband have authority over what his wife wears and The as as someone who has sat in with me

I've been in ministry for 18 years we've done Countless weddings. I don't know how many weddings we've done.

I can't think of how many there's been Most of them have been in the last 10 years like five years because we've had a lot of people five

You did five in a year. That was a lot and we did all the premarital counseling.

We we do for Four weeks minimum of premarital counseling a lot of times more but a minimum of four weeks of premarital counseling that we require

Where we talk about everything from faith to finances to family to all kinds of other issues when we're doing premarital counseling and so the the the issue

When we're talking about has this ever come up? No That's the thing as I was thinking about this question and thinking about the issue

I thought to myself I can't think of a time when this has ever been an issue and we've also done marriage counseling

We've sat in on Marriages that were broken marriages that were crumbling marriages that were going through really difficult times and there's

I've never Seen it be over whether or not the wife was willing to or whether or not the husband was commanding what the wife wore

And and the husband would Or the wife would submit to that but but here's here's here's there's an underlying part of that though, right we've seen yeah go ahead you

I was just thinking where the husband or the wife has demands that are unreasonable

Are you thinking that? well I just I got a little caught off guard because redeem zoomer is looking for 500 ,000 subs before the end of 2024 and now and now

I hate him more than anyone in the world. I Struggled to get 30 ,000 something. He just said he's going for 500 ,000 stuff.

You should send me one of your play Things if you get 500 ,000 subs,

I mean you've got five play buttons I really don't hate you.

I love you, but that's okay that totally distracted me though. I just happened to look over and saw 500 ,000

Okay, all right, let's get back to the series Um, so on the issue of this whole wearing

No problem brother Though the whole issue of what what? What we're wearing or what the what the wife is wearing the underlying issue is what now you said the mission.

That's right What is something that I say? I don't see if you remember this what don't be sorry redeemed zoomer.

I love you I was just playing it's not a problem. Don't be sorry. You're you're awesome Okay Except for your hot takes about Baptists.

Those are not awesome. But okay had to be real for a moment All right. So what is one of the things that I always ask the bride?

When we're doing premarital counseling Can you submit to this man?

That's right. I do well and normally I worded a little bit differently I mean, maybe I say are you ready to submit to this man in any in everything because the

Bible says to submit to him and everything right now obviously Obviously when we talk about submission and everything everything always has a limitation because there's no one calls anyone to submit to a

Husband or to the government or to anything else beyond their submission to God, right?

So if the husband commands a person that commands the wife to sin or call asked the wife to sin then she has no reasonable

Responsibility to submit to him but like right now my daughter is is preparing for marriage and She's going to be married

Hopefully in February all is going to go well and she'll be married and I'll be performing the wedding and I've already asked her

Asked her on several occasions. Are you ready to follow this man's lead?

Are you ready to submit to this man? And if you're not then you're not ready to be married if you don't trust him because that's what this is this is an issue of trust and if you're not ready to trust him and to submit to him and follow him, then you're not ready to be married, right and so There is an issue of submission here

There is an issue where the the subject of submission is is what's at hand however,

I Want to take it from the husband's side now because we talked about submission. That is the wife's responsibility

But I want to take a step back and say The husband has certain responsibilities one.

He is to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her He is to live with his wife in an understanding way and he is to treat her as the weaker vessel meaning he is to cherish her and love her and care for her and I've often described it this way.

I've described the wife as being like a very very precious and priceless vase versus a steel mug

The precious and priceless vase is valuable the steel mug is valuable, but there's a different value because the steel mug has the value of Having the strength and and the and the ability to withstand certain things that the that the that the vase couldn't

But the vase also has value and I would say even in some cases more value the issue there is the issue of the the the the one who's who has the responsibility of leadership also has to have the strength to love his wife well, and so the whole question of Now was is the husband is the wife expected to to wear what her husband commands her to wear?

It that that's never even come into our Vernacular the idea that I'm gonna

I'm gonna command her what to wear the only time I would ever even care what she was wearing is

If it had to do with some issue of modesty and thank thank the Lord my wife has no issue with modesty

It's not a problem with her and You know, but we have talked about like hey, is this you know, how does this look?

You know, is this you know, is this to this or to that we have that conversation But outside of that I don't go around telling her what to wear because I just it's not it's not that I don't have the right to it's just I don't care

I know that she wants to please me in the same way that I want to please her and I made this joke online

I said I want to I I don't I don't necessarily like wearing ties, but she likes it when

I wear ties So I wear a lot of ties and some of you guys have even sent me ties and I've worn some of the ties that you've

Sent me and that's really cool. So the whole issue here of what's that song ladies like a sharp -dressed man?

Yeah, every girl's crazy bout a sharp -dressed man. Oh, yeah so I'm thankful that she likes what

I wear and And I want to wear what what she likes I want to look nice for her in the way that looks nice for her and I think you're the same way, right?

Yeah, and I'll go a step further like Keith works hard He provides for our family if he wants me to wear a red dress blue dress

Orange dress pink dress, whatever. I mean I get to be home with my our babies

Homeschooling and I'm keeping the home that might be a very Controversial thing maybe not with our audience but in the world.

Yeah, I couldn't say that but no No, please say it sister.

Go on girl. Go on Testify, I was like, whatever. He would like me to wear.

I mean, I don't know I This is I would wear whatever and actually this does it make you feel good.

I'm looking I won't look at you Does it make you feel good when I say hey, baby, that look good. Yeah Hey, I like the way that I will tell you this

I Notice that when I tell you hey that look good. You wear it more often.

Yeah, right, right? And when I tell you hey that that's attractive to me or that looks nice to me or that's your color right because red is your color just so happens to be that you're you're you're a

What they call it an autumn? Yeah, it's like reds and oranges and pinks pinks is really very much your color

And so like I'm sorry guys. I'm like you I eyeball my wife's happy No, I I'm I'm the biggest like romantic nut

I I do I I'm I'm I'm blessed to have the wife that I do But I think this this

I think it's a much ado about nothing when we argue about this Whatever people online are arguing about this.

It's just to me if I Don't know what Riz means

We don't speak I don't I don't I don't I don't speak your your Gen Z language

Hey if she wore medieval battle armor you best believe I would be all about that So but somebody just said this

SM said the question in part becomes is this the problem or is the pendulum swinging backwards from Servant leadership now there is a thing going around a conversation about servant leadership does that mean that the husband doesn't really lead and There's some issues that that that have come out about that And there's a lot of there's a lot of conversation online right now about what it means to have authority what it means to lead how is a man supposed to lead and I do think that This is going to look different in different homes because certain men have different leadership styles

But I want to say this tyrant is not a leadership style It's not tyrant is not a leadership style tyrant is a jerk tyrant is somebody

I've seen it I've seen men who are tyrants. I've seen women who are tyrants and neither one of them is precious.

They're both Tough to look at I've seen women who boss their husbands around and I've seen husbands who boss their wives around Neither one of them demonstrated love neither one of them demonstrated a desire for the good of the other person and so That's just right.

There is I like that civically minded the spiritual gift of despotism. Yeah Yeah, so I'm sure that Maybe there's some nuances to this conversation that people would want to get into and I know that I know the players in this

Conversation who are arguing for one thing or another, but I will say this from 25 years of marriage

Until this conversation came up on X me Exercising any authority and what my wife wore was never the battle that we have fought and Quite honestly,

I don't think it is really a battle I think most wives want to be attractive to their husbands.

Most husbands want to be want their wives to think that they're handsome and therefore

I think most people who are sensible want to Present themselves in a way that is attractive to the other person and if that's what's happening, that's good but if somebody's demanding something for Because of because they want to exercise some type of authority and see that their authority is being met

Rather than the good of the other person being exalted or encouraged. I think that's a problem.

So that's our thoughts At least that's my thoughts. I don't know. Yeah Additional thoughts.

No again. I made her wear that shirt tonight though. I will say that yeah, all right, so Let's let's move on to some questions because that one was just a topic of discussion

That wasn't a question that anybody sent in. It was just something I thought was interesting All right, so well, let's deal with this question

Parker I don't think I don't think this is a one of his difficult questions. I think this is an actual question for clarity

What is the delineation between submit and everything and tyrant? All right, let's see this is difficult it in the sense that Someone being a tyrant is someone who is is

Not concerned with the person under his authority that's for me what the definition of a tyrant is a

Tyrant is not someone who exercises authority It is someone who exercises authority without concern for the person over which he has that authority

Right. So when I see elders Exercising a heavy -handed leadership with the church body.

They are tyrants That's not the way the elders are supposed to function when I see a husband who is

Exercising his authority with his wife with no concern for her, but only the concern to see himself put an

Exalted to see himself respected But not concerned about her and her heart and the fact that she is the weaker vessel not considering the fact that she is in fact supposed to be the one who he he lives with in an

Understanding manner so that his prayers may not be hindered right like like that's his command to do that if he's not doing that, he's a tyrant and And and so I would ask this

Jennifer When are you gonna start calling me Lord? Lord did you say something

Lord? Yes. Absolutely. My lord. Yeah. Okay, right then. Absolutely Dude honestly though in our marriage and I know we got a lot of questions to get to tonight

Have we let's be honest with it with the audience, you know, there's a few people watching Have we had issues where we have struggled in this area?

Yeah Okay. Yeah, and Where where are the two areas because I have two in my mind

But I want to see if you if you think the same thing where the two areas that you think we've struggled the most some my submission to you like as Working like when

I was working. Is that what you're thinking? No, not necessarily I'm not looking necessarily for a specific example, even though since you mentioned it there have been times where I mean

Jennifer grew up in a situation where her dad Really ingrained in her a desire for Her to have a job and so her coming home and not working outside of the home was a big deal.

Yes But so she had to that level of trust for her to trust me to provide for her to where she didn't feel

Like she needed to go out and do that. That was like a big deal. Mm -hmm.

That was a big deal But but more so what I was saying with the two things I think there has been an issue with Times where you didn't want to do the things that I wanted to do

That's an issue of submission, but also times when I didn't consider you when

I was exercising my authority So that's where the two sides come in if I don't consider you when

I'm exercising my authority Now that doesn't mean I'm gonna always do what you want me to do Because sometimes

I have to say no, this is what I believe is best for our home This is what I believe is best for our children. This is what I believe is best for our life and At some point you have to trust me because that's what it is guys.

It's an issue of trust it's if If you don't trust your elders in your church

You're not going to be able to function under them. If you don't trust your husband, you're not going to submit to him

Well, right this isn't that so submission is an issue of trust and And again,

I just feel like the times we've struggled the most are times when either you have

Felt like the the direction I was going you had a hard time trusting. It was the right direction right and The times when in those times perhaps

I didn't express to you why? This was the right way and help you to understand why to trust me and again, this is this is

This is 25 years of marriage. I mean real talk real talk. Absolutely.

We're being honest about this so You know, this is this is quite this is quite open for us for us to just talk about the fact that we've we've dealt with issues of submission and obedience as well as Leadership and there have been times where I have been a jerk there have been times where I have had to repent of the way

I have behaved and that's another thing I will say from a husband and wife have been together for 25 years if you've never repented to your spouse over a behavior

Then if you've been married for any length of time and you've not found yourself in a position where you've needed to repent then

There may be an issue there in your heart if you're if you're not willing to admit that you've that you've erred

That you've gone. You've gone in a wrong direction just because you're the authority men Doesn't mean you can't make a mistake and doesn't mean when you make that mistake that you don't have a responsibility to say

Listen I Made him I made a wrong turn. I was wrong I've sinned or I've maybe not sin, but I went the wrong direction and I need you to Forgive me.

I need I need to move forward in a different direction now and Again It's just same with on as the wife to the same thing

And we might be the crux of a lot of the issues that we've dealt not being willing to say, you know,

I'm sorry Yeah, yeah, or just yeah, yeah Of course repentance and ask another person for repentance

To call the other person to repentance. Hey you sinned against me. You hurt me. You've you you did something wrong to me

You you mistreated me. I mean I'm thankful When you are honest with me and you tell me hey

You were wrong or you were wrong and you need to repent and and I mean,

I hope that you're thankful As I know that has gone both ways So again

This this also comes back to the fact that there's nobody in the world that I want to be with more than her There's nobody in this world that I want to spend time with more than her.

I love my kids I love my parents, but if I had a choice to spend time with anybody in the world

It's gonna be her that's number one and so, um, I think she knows that Yeah, I think that I'm you know, so at least second or third on her list

So, all right a lot lot to be said there I just thought it was important You're my number one.

Well, and you know years ago. I thought about writing a book Because I I think that part of part of a good relationship is knowing

Knowing that you are the number one person to your partner and that was that was that was going to be the thesis of the book is

That that the key to a a good marriage and and and you know, obviously

Christ is first and and and worshiping God together Following Christ together ministering together.

All of those things are absolutely essential But if you if you don't think that you are your partner's number one priority if you don't think that you are your partner's the person they want to be with most in the world the person that they have have

As we say in the marriage vows have forsaken all others and given themselves only under her if your partner doesn't think that of you

Then That that causes them to wonder where you are in the relationship.

Do you put your work first? Do you put your friends first? Do you put other people first? You're you know,

I hear people talk about their work wives and stuff like that. That's no guys. Come on And I know that's kind of a joke, ha ha ha no, but still

There's one person in your life. That's more important than anybody else other than Jesus Christ, and that's your spouse and I'm gonna tell you something if that's if she knows that If she knows that nobody else is more important than her.

Nobody else is gonna have a first place nobody else I'm gonna rather spend time with nobody else is

That in my life Then I ain't gonna have to command her to wear a red dress

Is that's not even a that's that's so far into the field of Mediocrity because if I say baby,

I love that red dress man. She's gonna put it on because she knows I love her It's not about Commands.

It's about does she know she's number one? and so That's that's that's important that's important All right so Let's move on to some other questions because we got a lot

And we're 30 minutes in but I said I said I wanted to talk about this tonight If we don't get to all the questions, we don't get all the questions.

This is this is important All right, read me First question number one and by the way, we got questions from our buy me a coffee audience

These are folks who who donate directly to the show and we're thankful for them We have two questions from the buy me a coffee crowd.

So hit me with the first one Okay Should I be concerned that our pastor in a reformed congregation has adopted a preterist idealist framework for revelation?

And how can we extend grace to those who may strongly disagree while focusing on honoring christ and living expectantly?

All right. So this is funny that the person would ask this question of me should I be concerned that my pastor has adopted a preterist idealist framework for revelation because um

That's kind of the position I take So if you're concerned about your pastor

You would also be concerned if I were your pastor because this is the same position that I would take

Um, wait a second. Did they go to our church? Yeah Hey Somebody Would that be funny that we've got hey

This is you know, this is actually it is interesting because someone Uh, one of our elders brother.

Mike is teaching through revelation right now And he's teaching it from a partial preterist idealist framework.

And so um My answer to this person Should you be concerned?

Well, the only reason why you should be concerned is if there is no um if the person who's teaching is not

Allowing for any dissent allowing for any disagreement One thing I do appreciate about brother.

Mike is brother. Mike will say listen, this is the position I believe is correct, but I also understand there are other positions and as he's teaching he's talking about these other positions

And he's saying hey, I understand these other positions exist This is why I hold to this position but So long as we understand there's room here for disagreement

Then we're okay If the person who's teaching revelation is saying there's no room for disagreement

This is the only way you can understand it. You have to follow this doom doom doom I don't care whether they're partial preterist or dispensationalist or whatever if anybody's telling you i've got revelation all figured out

Then that's the problem as long as your pastor whoever this is who wrote this As long as your pastor is being

Gracious and saying here's how I came to my conclusions If you disagree

We can still get along because I do think eschatology particularly how we understand revelation fits into that category where we can

Disagree with one another and still as long as we hold to certain Unavoidable orthodoxies such as jesus will return he will return in the future and he will return in glory

Those things and the judge living in the dead, which are the things that are mentioned in the confessions, right?

Those are the things like full preterism would deny that therefore full preterism would be a problem But partial preterism doesn't deny that so it's not the same

Um, those are only those are the only times where I think you should have a grave concern Um is if your pastor does not allow for any discussion or dissension or disagreement

Or two if he's teaching something that would violate Christian orthodoxy christian orthodoxy demands christ will return future return bodily return

He would judge living in the dead How that's going to play out? Different frameworks see it different way.

I'm obviously an amillennialist. Maybe i'm the king of the amillennialists but but Uh outside of that, um, my view on revelation again partial preterist

I've been influenced by certain men, uh, ken gentry being one of them. Um, But I i'm willing to say and I know my brother mike is willing to say we are um

You know, we're we are certainly willing to change our eschatology in the air if jesus were to rapture us tomorrow.

So, uh, You know, we yeah, we're all uh, you know You know that that that's it.

All right, so, uh That's that's my answer to that question Now before we move on to the next question

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All right, jennifer. Let's move on to question number two Okay, so can or should we use chat gpt to make a personal bible study?

Say that again Can or should we use chat gpt to make a personal bible study?

Can we Use chat gpt to make a personal bible study. Uh very quickly.

I do have to address one of the comments Okay, mary mary mm said wasn't r .c.

Sproul partial preterist. Yes He was and thank you for bringing that up because I just talked about partial preterism His book the last days according to jesus is an excellent treatment of the olivette discourse

So if you're interested in how the olivette discourse fits together with partial preterism Check out r .c.

Sproul's book the last days according to jesus. It was very encouraging to me All right.

So can we use chat gpt to make a personal bible study? um I want to i'm going to tell you my answer to this is

When you say make a personal bible study I I kind of I kind of have to think about what what you mean by that because I I don't

I don't know what it means To make a bible study and and i'm not trying to be facetious or silly.

Um Do you kind of do you have any idea what that question might because because Go ahead if you have thoughts because you sound like maybe like a commentary kind of like to put in Something about a certain verse or certain topic to have it read me back to you.

I don't know well, the question goes on it says um It says we wouldn't just use the bible.

We wouldn't just take a bible study from anyone. So what about chat gpt? um It can create bible studies for you with fill in the blanks.

Do you think these would be good? So so it It digs a little deeper. Um I I would not trust chat gpt

To create something for me to study about the bible without Double and triple checking everything that it does which would add so much work to the process that I don't know if it would be valuable however,

I do believe chat gpt can be Valuable As a research tool as long as you are willing to double check what it is saying

So for instance right now, I am teaching a class on early church history

And sometimes I just need some information for the class That is helpful.

So like for instance The first four ecumenical councils of the church beginning with nicaea and ending with chalcedon, right?

Which happened in the fourth and fifth centuries if I just needed the dates for those councils it's easy to go into chat gpt and say

Give me the dates for the first four ecumenical councils boom and I hit boom and it comes up and and there i've got the

First four councils and the dates and a little bit of information about each one and it's nice and it's helpful and it's um

It's it's it's easy to use it for that um but uh

Can it do more? Yes, it can do a whole lot more to legit just said it can do a lot more I know it can do a lot more but i'm just saying as far as like how i'm currently using it

Um, i'm using it as a sort of a quick reference tool like another another way that it's really helpful for me

Is if I can't think of where a bible verse is in the bible And I can only think of like a word or two from it and I just and I just put in like, um

Don't forsake the assembly right and pulls up hebrews chapter 10, right like it knows

What i'm looking for um, and so I find that to be helpful Whereas before I probably would have went to google and done the same thing, but I find this to be helpful so i'm i'm on the fence as far as Do I think it's a useful tool?

I think it's a very useful tool but how much i'm willing to use it is is i'm still kind of in that learning phase but uh

If if if you're going to have it create something for you Then I think you're also going to have to double check because it can make it

Uh, it can give you incorrect information um, there are those who are asking if it's um

Is is mind control? It's I don't believe it's mind control. I don't want to argue with anybody But I think that it is a it's a language learning tool

It it it takes in information it curates information and it and it and it regurgitates information

It's not it's it's interesting how it works. My friend saddam who's a member of our church

He's the one who first showed me uh how to use it and he we were sitting at dinner one night at sonny's and um

He had had us out for dinner and took it taking us out for dinner And he asked me he said hey ask me a bible question

And I said, um, or no, he said ask me a historical question I said what was the what was the issue that brought about the first council of nicaea the the first ecumenical council of the church

And he typed in what you know What was the first ecumenical council of the church and it spit out this thing and he handed it handing me his phone

And I read it and I was like this is this information is accurate Now I know the information is accurate because this is something i've studied if I didn't know

I I wouldn't know whether it was right or not But the fact that i've studied it I was able to look at and I would say wow

Yeah I remember that. Yeah, I remember that night. I came home. I was like, oh, I have a new toy james white recently mentioned that he was playing with grok grok is the um, the x twitter version of of This this ai software and he said he was having a conversation with grok about textual variants

And literally asking questions and talking back and forth like he was talking to a person And grok is really neat.

I played around with grok. So, um so Again, I think I think it can be a useful tool

Asking it to create a bible study for you might not be something I would do But then again, I I write my own bible studies because I enjoy that when i'm teaching through the bible

I like to start with the text. I don't start with a computer Jennifer knows this I have a

I have a I have a printed bible Normally, I have a couple of them Um, including my greek text and I just I hand write the text and I try to make connections before I ever read

Any commentary or before I ever read any bible study material or I ever go to any concordance or anything like that I'm trying to make connections in the body of the text first And that's how

I teach hermeneutics. I always start with what the text says. It doesn't mean what it doesn't say So start with what it says

Um, the person who taught me this was dr. Howard Hendricks. He taught me to always begin your bible study with observation

And observe observe observe observe and when you think you've observed enough go back and observe some more

Because the more you spend in observation The better you'll be in interpretation

And you're better you'll be in your application so, um So I I don't think starting with uh

I don't think starting with Chat gpt is the best way place to start, but that's just again

Certainly a place you can go to get good information in certain respects And I guess if you're well versed in it, like you said, yeah

If you yeah, if you know the subject well, and you're just trying to get information It can be helpful

All right. Okay I feel the call to become a pastor, but I just don't know where to start

Okay, well jennifer you cannot become a pastor because you are a lady and so uh you

Better back off that train. No Now this is this was one of this is one of our emails this week

Someone sent an email said I feel the call to become a pastor. They said they're reformed again.

These emails are longer We're just summarizing them and um, he wants to know

Essentially where to start if you want to become a pastor um this is this is something that is difficult because A lot of people see the calling to ministry as very subjective rather than objective right

So they they they talk a lot about a feeling right? I feel called to minister or I feel called to preach

And there there is certainly a call an internal Feeling or an internal call that goes along with ministry

Uh, I tell the story oftentimes about how when I preached my first sermon Uh on the sunday after 9 11

I knew Coming down from the pulpit that this is what god Wanted me to do for the rest of my life and ever since that day i've never really questioned what god wanted me to do

This was what god had equipped me to do this was what god had called me to do that was how

I knew um but There is an objective side to ministerial calling and that is the the objective side of one

Do you meet the qualifications set forward by scripture? And two does the church affirm the calling

That that god has placed on your life and so those two objective things

Must go along with the subjective part and so um

This is why I say it's not just a feeling Guy'll say I feel called to preach and he's had 14 wives and he's got 13 illegitimate children

And he's living with a woman. He's not married to yeah, you're not called to preach buddy. I don't care how you feel Right.

So that's not even right. I mean Am I exaggerating? We met guys, right?

Who's literally living with their mistress? Yeah, but god called me to preach No, he didn't

I promise you he didn't right like like that's not even an option so, um the the uh, the the internal Some would say subjective calling

Is um must be affirmed by an objective calling and the first objective calling is do do you meet the qualifications of scripture?

And two do you um, does the church that you are ministering in recognize your call to ministry so Here is some ways to get started uh, first of all

Have a conversation with your pastor If you're asking me how do I become a pastor? I don't know where to start first place.

You need to start is having a conversation with your pastor Tell him that you believe this is something god has uh is is placed in your heart

God is calling you to and begin the process there Because his job would be then to see if you meet those qualifications and to walk with you through them

Because you might have questions about things like what does it mean to be a husband of one wife? What does it mean to you know to uh,

To fit these qualifications you may have questions about that and that's your pastor's job to walk you through those things

I did write a book. It's called biblically functioning church where I walked through the qualifications. What does it mean? uh, but at the same time that is something that is is

You need to walk through with someone you need to have someone discipling you through that And then you need to um pursue the church recognizing that call um because the church is ultimately the ones who are going to To to call you that yeah, please before those two things though First you need to find out where you're what your wife thinks right?

That is a very good point And I actually was going to say that but i'm glad you did because uh, this is one of those times

Where I do think that your wife's input is going to be huge And in our church when we reach out to a man to be an elder or a deacon

We first meet with him, but then we second time we meet we meet with him and his wife

Because again, there's no one in his life that is supposed to know him better and there's no one who could affirm or someone who could

Not affirm him more quickly than his wife If I meet with a man and his wife says I don't think this is what god's called him to do

That's a huge red flag for me Now you might say. Oh, well, she needs to just submit to him and get in line. Yes.

She knows him better than anyone And so if she doesn't believe god's called him to this Then that's gonna that's gonna raise some real question marks for me

Why doesn't she affirm him in this? What is it about his life that she believes does not qualify?

That's that's going to be a big question. She doesn't want to be a pastor's wife Yeah, and that and and there is part of that too being a pastor's wife is a difficult job and um

It's interesting. I talked about this. I don't really have time to get into it tonight But I talked in a previous episode about why there's a qualification for elders why or deacons wives but not elders wives if you interpret the uh,

I think it's verse 13 of first seventy three to be talking about the wives of deacons and I said ultimately it's because wives are going the wives of deacons minister alongside their husbands and In a way that the wives of elders don't

Jennifer is my wife and she is the pastor's wife of the church But she doesn't serve with me in the same way a deacon's wife can serve with him.

They can serve together But there are certain things that I do that she is not doing. She's not going to pastor preach with me

Um, she's not going to bear the burdens that I bear The same way that I do and I protect her from that a lot of what

I do in ministry is protecting her From having to bear all the burdens that I bear because that's not her job and so um

That's that's that's key in this is she's got to recognize also is she

It is her husband who is now going to be taking this role as pastor And is going to be

I mean how many times jennifer? How many times have we been? Literally getting ready to go do something very important to us that I have had to stop and go do something else

Because it was ministry related I can't even count how many and i'm not talking about i'm not talking about going into a business meeting guys

I'm talking about somebody died. Yeah I'm talking about somebody's Somebody's child is in the hospital and I am thankful that I have a wife who literally understands why

I keep an extra set of clothes in the car Because if I need to go to the hospital at a moment's notice i'm going to go to the hospital in a moment's notice

And she knows and she has trained the kids to understand That that's daddy's job

And again, I don't walk away. I want you to understand. I don't walk away from my family for trivial things, right if somebody

Stubs their big toe and they're in the er because they stub their big toe I'm, probably not going to leave my kid's birthday party for that But I have had to leave situations in life

Because somebody was dying I mean not exaggerating. No And I have had to spend

Days away from my family because I had to be in the hospital with families who were themselves suffering And having a wife with you

Who knows that? And understands that and will support that is a huge part of ministry

So jennifer's right. Have you talked to your wife? So again And that's part of the qualifications

Objectively, do you qualify? Objectively, does the church recognize your calling? Does your wife recognize your calling?

And so that's where it starts that's where it starts, all right Okay A lot of uh

A lot of seriousness in that a lot a lot to think about Okay, we're getting uh

We just have a few more. Yeah, we have a few more I mean, we've got a bunch of questions that came in through x we're not going to get to all those tonight

Um, but all I like to try to get to all the email questions. We only got a few more So let's let's go into the next email question.

Are you a nestorian? Why or why not? I want to know

I want to know right now if redeem zoom are still watching so redeem zoomer if you're still out there

This is this is on you In case you're not if you're if you don't know this this question about nestorianism

Is specifically on redeem zoomer and the reason is um

He has uh I don't know if it's been recently but within the last few months there have been

Conversations that he has had and he's mentioned about certain people being the story and specifically

Referencing john macarthur and saying john macarthur is a nestorian because he denied Uh, mary as the mother of god, right?

And so let's just very quickly talk about what nestorianism is nestorianism is and I have it written down here

Is a christological heresy that emphasizes a separation between the divine and human natures of christ effectively teaching that he exists

As two distinct persons one divine and one human rather than as one person with two united natures it was condemned at the council of ephesus and 431 and then again, it was uh,

The the the hypostatic union which is the definition of two Natures in one person was defined by count the council of chalcedon at 451 so uh, this is an important uh

This is an important question as to What how do we understand the nature?

of christ And I do I do agree With what's known as the chalcedonian definition.

I believe that all four of the first ecumenical councils uh remain

Accurate and authoritative and therefore I believe that what they say is correct

Where the issue rises is in the chalcedonian definition the term theotokos or theotokos

Is used of mary and theotokos is the name is the phrase

Uh that some people translate mother of god Uh, I think it's better translated as god bearer

Did mary bear god in her womb? and the the answer is

Yes that mary bore The god man she bore jesus who is god and man in her womb and therefore

She can rightfully be called theotokos um now this is

The the definition of the chalcedonian definition Does address though where the natures come from?

Um, it addresses and I don't have a copy of it in front of me But I just taught on this literally just taught on this last sunday night in our uh, uh, actually wednesday night in our uh academy class where I talked about how it talks about the the the nature of Divinity coming from the father the nature of humanity coming from mary

It addresses that um mary does not

Produce divinity within her that that's that's something that I think has to be

At least agreed on by all mary's not producing divinity Mary is bearing divinity this divinity though is from god the the uh, uh

The very fact that we talk about Jesus as the god man he is um

We're referring to their The fullness of god in the one person of jesus christ and and let me let me maybe see if I can

Make this simple which it's not but let me just at least try When we talk about the trinity one god in three persons

One essence Three persons or what we call one substance three subsistences

Right father son and holy spirit When we talk about jesus we talk about jesus as one person

With two natures The nature that is divine and the nature that is human.

These two natures are Absolutely united but not mixed in the person of jesus christ

And this is why we could talk about the monophysites who say that christ only had one nature That was a divine nature and they say his his human nature is absorbed by his divine nature

And as as as the ocean absorbs a drop of um, a drop of vinegar

So to the human human nature is absorbed by christ. That's the monophysites and that was considered a heresy there's the meophysites those who consider the the union of nature's creating a

Uh a mixture and and that's what's believed. Uh, Essentially what's believed in the oriental orthodox church

And that is a different belief than the chalcedonian definition the chalcedonian definition says christ has two natures that are united But not mixed

They're united in the one person. So the trinity is one essence with three persons one being three persons christ is one person with two natures and so that is my understanding of uh

Nestorianism And I see there's somebody in the in the in the comments who is arguing for nestorianism.

I appreciate your arguments I i'm i'm not going to address them at this time just as far as uh, because I just said what i'm going to say um

Uh, but that I would I would hold to the chalcedonian definition. Therefore i'm not an historian

I don't think theotokos is a wrong term to use Uh, so long as we understand it within the context of the chalcedonian definition itself

So that's my position And hope it hope it at least in some way made sense

All right before we get to the next question. I got to mention this because we have one sponsor We didn't talk about yet And I can't believe we took this long

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What do we believe this is put out by striving for eternity ministries This is an introduction to systematic theology

It's going to deal with all kinds of different subjects including the subject that we just talked about and that is the nature of jesus christ

And you can get this book with a discount if you use my name keith as a coupon code

Go to striving for eternity ministries Look at the link in the description and you will see

A way to get that book. You don't need chat gpt. Yeah, you don't need chat gpt you need

This book what do we believe? All right, uh And marilda just said i'm looking at your notes from your wonderful class.

Well, thank you. Um, uh, Hopefully the class has been useful to those who've taken it

All right. All right. Um Let's see, okay, let's move on to The next question we're almost done.

Okay, if jesus is incarnate, how can we all be in contact with him at once? Will we all be able to see his face see him face to face at once or will there be a big line?

Recommended resources with biblical speculation on the new earth Okay so the person who wrote this question in is asking about the question of um

The question of what heaven is going to be like specifically answering the question of or asking the question of If christ is remaining eternally in his

In his uh in the hypostatic union, which I believe that he is I Let me let me back up for a moment because i've taught on this before I believe that christ when he rose from the grave rose from the grave as the god man

He's always been he he he he's been the god man Since the incarnation and he will always be the god man and therefore in eternity.

He will continue to be the god man Uh, and so I don't believe there's going to be a time where he sheds that human nature

I believe that he took on human nature and I don't believe he removes that He ascended into heaven bodily.

He's going to return bodily. I believe he is going to reign for all eternally All eternity bodily.

So the question is okay Well, if he's bodily does that limit him in how he relates to us in heaven and I love the picture that was asked

Is there going to be a long line? Are we going to have to stand in line to interact with christ?

um and my answer is A resounding I don't know

And I know that's that's not very satisfying i'm going to tell you some thoughts But right away when it comes to what the new heaven and the new earth is going to be like I can say

We have such precious little information and even the person who wrote this email knows this

Because they said can you give a recommended resource with biblical speculation? Because you know

So little of the bible tells us about what the new heaven and the new earth is going to be like I mean, it tells us that we don't need a sun because the light of the sun the the will be the light, right?

um No more tears. No more. Yeah, there's no more road rage that we yeah, no more road rage.

No more bad wi -fi No more homeowners associations, right the new heaven and the new earth um is going to be

Amazing. Yeah But as far as this question of how will we interact with jesus christ?

I will I will say this The bible says and this is actually effectless cowboy may have beat me to this

Let me read what he says. We're waiting for the second coming of christ. This this has become okay. That's that's not that I thought he said something else.

Okay, sorry because Here's the thing The bible says when he returns every eye will see him

Right like like everyone will see him in his return so If that's the case

His limitations With with having a human nature Will not keep him from being fully visible to all so, um

I think the question that you're asking though is the question of intimate communication

Right, like do I have to stand in line to talk to jesus? Is it going to be like the end of one of these terrible conferences where you have to stand in line to to talk to?

Sinclair ferguson or james wyatt or somebody where there's this huge line and you you know You're going to get two seconds with them and they really you know, they don't have real time to be invested in you.

Uh, uh, no they are I I believe that when we are with with Our god in our glorified state there will be a communion and a union of communication

That will be otherworldly that we won't understand in this life I don't think we're going to be waiting in lines to see jesus in fact

I believe that christ's presence will be the thing that we experience most and it's it's it's one of the things that I I actually

I find a lot of difficulty with because right now

My greatest Relationship is with the person next to me as far as as far as like just relationship, right?

And I have my relationship with with christ and god that is spiritual But my earthly relationship is right here.

This is my primary one. We've talked a lot about this tonight That's going to change in glory.

Jennifer's not going to be my wife anymore um Jennifer's going to be my sister in christ and we're gonna

We're going to love each other As brothers and sisters in christ forever, but we're not going to be married in the same way.

We're married here That relationship will end and There's part of me that doesn't understand that I don't understand how i'm going to be able to look at her as anything other than My wife and there's a lot of people who argue.

Oh, you're misunderstanding what jesus said I think that's pretty clear what he said when he said they're not going to be married or given a marriage

But You know, I think our relation our primary relationship is going to be with him our primary relationship is going to be with christ

Um, that doesn't mean our familial relationships from the earth aren't going to matter But the primary relationship is going to be the relationship that we have with him

And that communion that we have with him that's sweet and otherworldly and everlasting

And that will increase our joy forever and um But I do have a sign in our house if you've never heard me talk about it um

It's one of the sweetest gifts you my sign and my sign in our living room I I made it for jennifer years ago

It says I know I can't be married to you in heaven, but can I sit next to you when we get there? um

Because that's my heart. I want to be with her as her friend and brother in christ forever um

So so anyway, uh that's um That's my answer

The only other thing I would say is uh, I have not read this book, but a friend of mine read a book on heaven um, it was uh

It was Julie wrote julie read it my friend julie lost her husband a couple years ago

Uh, she's a wonderful sister in christ and we love her dearly And um, she wrote wrote a read a book um

I forget uh It's randy alcorn. Is it randy alcorn's book?

I haven't read it so I can't recommend it from my experience because I haven't read it. She read it She said she got a lot out of it.

So the person who asked him this question I would say at least check it out Um, and I can't endorse all of it because I didn't read all of it

So, uh, but but that might be worth checking out randy alcorn's book, I think it's called heaven, but i'm not certain

All right, two more and then we're done All right. Do you think that possibly there may be a problem of idolatry related to gun ownership in the u .s?

Seriously, this is where we're going No, I knew it was this is this is

I actually interacted with this brother. Uh, he sent me this email. This brother is from Down under mate.

He is from the great cute the great place of australia And he wants to know if us here yanks in the united states

This is i'm destroying this accent Let's see if I can do it better. You do a cute you do a cute accent though.

I well, thank you. Uh, You know all I do these friday nights for so I can flirt with my wife the whole time

That's all this is for you. I have a thousand people watching me flirt with my wife and that's okay uh, uh, um

So It's probably from watching I don't know the watching the news of america, it's like But I mean, it's just shootings all the time.

I don't know. Well what this is from No, the the person who wrote the question in is acting because His concern is that american christians put such a

Big emphasis on gun ownership And this is where I wonder if um,

I wonder if parker is still out there Um fetus, are you still listening if you are, uh, let me know you're still there because he is a great shooter

I don't know if you've seen the videos. Um, but parker is a uh Is an awesome awesome shooter.

He's he's he's uh, I used to come I used to shoot competitively and I still uh have my certification to teach

I teach concealed weapon classes and um, But the state of florida stopped, uh, well, we still do concealed weapon permits, but now it's not as necessary anymore because now we have

Constitutional concealed carry which I think is great So, um people don't have to have a license anymore

So the question is do you think that gun ownership is Is idolatrous can be idolatrous and my answer is

Yes because Just about anything Can rise to a level of idolatry if it is allowed to just about anything can be idolatrous

I've seen people idolize their spouses. I've seen people idolize their children That doesn't mean having a spouse or having children is wrong

But but if you put those people in a pedestal to a position where they are more important than jesus christ

Then they become an idol um but Where this really lines up for me is the question of Is is gun ownership in and of itself?

Wrong is gun ownership in and of itself wrong And I do not believe that gun ownership is wrong for several different reasons one

Firearms To this to this To the dating of this video, which is december 6 2024

We have yet to find a a better tool to overcome the the balance of of of Of two people who have

Uh vastly different either body types or skill sets So for instance if you have one guy that's 300 pounds and he's trained in jiu -jitsu

You got another guy who's 100 pounds soaking wet and all he's ever done in his life is sit in front of a television set

These two men are not going to be able to uh, uh have the small man is not going to have any ability to defeat the big man in any type of physical combat however

If the little man has a gun it becomes a balance it balances out the situation especially if the if the smaller man has trained with the firearm it completely balances out the situation and therefore is a

We we call we call firearms force multipliers Because my wife is much smaller than me no matter how much she trained no matter how much she worked out

No matter how much she were to do Uh training she's probably not going to be able to physically overcome me

Um, especially because I also train in martial arts and things like that So it's going to be very difficult for her to physically overcome me

But a gun is an equalizer and so we recognize that as a tool

And that's the way firearms are to be recognized is they are tools for the purpose of of Establishing a form of equality um

And I know that sounds like a funny way to explain it. But uh, hey some douglas just said it in channel um god made man, but samuel colt made men equal right like and um so there there is a uh, uh, there is something that guns are able to do as far as To the physical benefit of men

Is it is it allows people who would would otherwise be unable to protect themselves.

It gives them a tool to protect themselves Before firearms were invented. It was swords.

It was bows and arrows It was other types of tools men have always used tools for personal protection all the way back to the times when they were using um stones and you know throwing stones at one another, um

Yeah, yeah tent pegs at jl Right. So, um so You notice the first thing

I didn't do when some when somebody says well, what about guns? I didn't automatically run to hunting. I think hunting is great.

I think hunting is very valuable, but I don't hunt I want to hunt if somebody wants to take me hunting i'll go with you

Um, because I would like to do that, but i'm not a hunter. I am a shooter though I train to shoot for personal protection

I don't train to shoot for hunting which means I I train for up close I train for um drawing from a holster

I train from being able to uh, uh being able to Deal with uh stoppages in my firearm being able to change magazines things like that.

All those years comes close Yeah, if the deer comes close So these are the because I because I believe

I have a responsibility to protect my family um uh and I have a responsibility to Provide for them in in in more than just financially

I have I have a responsibility for my family to provide for them financially. I have a

Responsibility to to provide for them spiritually and I have a responsibility to provide for them in regard to their protection

My children should know That when daddy's there, they're safe My wife should know that we're we're out together

She's safe And you've said this before you've said You feel safe With you, yeah,

I mean I want words in your mouth, but yeah, I mean that That is my job is to protect her and so A firearm helps me do that with more competency and efficiency.

Um, so, uh That is why I think guns are important now

There are other things such as tyranny talked about tyrants earlier and tyranny earlier um governmental tyranny

Is a real issue and has to be considered. Um When the government gives us no way to to protect ourselves from anyone including them

Then I think that's a problem and one of the reasons why americans Quote unquote cling to their guns so tightly

Is because we know that it it has been in our history that we have had to fight for our freedom in the past and so, um

Holding on to our guns is sort of holding on to a legacy a willingness to fight for freedom and so, um, so I I think

I think the right to bear arms Is an important right and here here's here's here's

Again this could take all night. I don't want to get too far into the weeds When we talk about The three main the three most important rights from from from American history people always say life liberty and pursuit of happiness.

That's not it It's life liberty and property Life liberty and property and the reason why it's life liberty and property

Is because those are the three things that produce freedom Those are the three things that produce the the a man's ability he has to have the ability to live

If a government takes away his ability to live kills him that that that is something that that's denying him freedom, right?

That's taking away his freedom liberty literally means freedom But the idea not only liberty to to live but liberty to speak his mind and think the way he wants to think

And then finally because you can't make a man think it's something he doesn't think I can't think what

I don't think right and the government can't make me think what I don't think they can tell me to think It but they can't make me think it

And when they say you have to think this thing, even though you know, it's wrong That's a problem and that's violation of liberty, but property is so important a man's property again and look at the commandments

The sixth commandment do not commit murder Right. That's life right

The eighth commandment do not steal right that is

Property I own what I own And you don't have the right to it

You don't have the right to come and take what is mine and I have the right to protect what is mine That's very important and um

So these are just Why do I think guns are important a ton of reasons? Most importantly

I have to protect her I have to protect my children and the guns provide me force multipliers tools to use in that protection

Um, so that was that was a long story to get around to I think guns are important But I but I also think men can men can make idols out of anything.

So the question about can they be idols? Yes Um, and you you mentioned in your email.

Well, a lot of people speak about their guns with an immense pride. Well I think there's a history there that has to be considered the the willingness to fight for our country the willingness to fight for our freedom is

Is important And it's part of who we are. So it is going to it is going to be spoken about with a certain sense of gravitas

All right, i'm trying to keep my eye on the comments and I I don't see I i'm not sure where we are now

Last question of the night and then we're done. Uh, so let's do it What is your opinion on observing advent both personally as well as corporately?

This is a great question to end on um And one that I have actually somewhat

Somewhat shifted on over the years, uh, because our church did celebrate advent for for many years um

With with all of the trappings of it We had the four advent candles and the christ candle and we would light each candle each week

And if you're not familiar with what advent is this is part of what's known as the liturgical calendar the liturgical calendar is

A calendar which has been established throughout the centuries as a way of recognizing certain seasons in the christian year the two most uh, uh the the two the two days most recognized are

Easter and christmas which are celebration of the resurrection and the incarnation And the time leading up to both

Have been recognized as seasons For remembrance and seasons of special observation

So the the the time leading up to easter is typically recognized as lent

The time leading up to christmas is recognized as advent the word advent means arrival or coming

And so the idea is the celebration of the celebration of the arrival of christ

In his first arrival his first advent and looking forward to his second advent the four weeks of advent are marked by four specific

Themes hope peace Love and joy, uh, not always in that order.

I think love and joy and love are got out of order but Typically you light a candle for each one of those each week and then at the final christmas eve time

You you light the christ candle and this is the season of advent um

Years ago, we used to do all of this um but uh

The issue is I I I came under some conviction at one point

Where I recognized that we were we were celebrating advent But we weren't celebrating lent and I kind of got to the

I kind of asked myself I said well is it right to do one and not the other? and is it is it good to do one and not the other and so that that became a question that that we

We talked about I did a whole video on why we don't do lent and um

And yet I recognize that there are people who do who are uh, protestant who celebrate lent.

There's protestants who celebrate advent um But I said, you know, we we don't do the one so we're we maybe we should not do the other

And since then we our church hasn't done the candles, but we still recognize the season as being distinct

We say this season is the season that we're celebrating the incarnation and we're looking forward to the incarnation

In the same way during the season leading up to easter. We're celebrating the resurrection so Here's something else that has to be considered and this is important And that is the issue of what's known as the regulative principle of worship the the regulative principle of worship is

That worship should be Regulated by scripture and and and particularly

That you should not do things in worship that scripture doesn't command And I talked about this when

I had Matthew Everhart on my show because we talked about the subject in his book worship tainment.

We talked about these the questions of What should we do in worship?

And there are elements of worship that should always be a part of all of our worship services

The elements of worship are described for us in scripture things like prayer prayer should always be a part of our worship

Things like the reading of scripture should always be a part of our worship There are things that we would probably say are elements of worship

Aren't necessarily told that we have to do them, but they are they are told in scripture There are elements of worship things like singing

This is that that's an important element of worship. We do that How do we sing? What do we sing?

One of the questions that we didn't get to tonight was whether or not we should sing exclusive psalms I don't believe we should

I don't believe that the scripture commands the exclusive singing of psalms But the for those who do they're typically pretty passionate about it

But I disagree with their arguments and i've listened to them and i've talked about them um So let me let me finish up by simply saying this.

I think it's okay for a church to To have an advent celebration.

I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with it. But those who practice a

Regulative principle model where they're only doing what the scripture commands typically won't do liturgical calendar things

Because those things are not commanded in the liturgical calendar or those things are not commanded in scripture so if you're in a church that's saying we're not going to do advent because we're

We're a regular principle. That's the reasoning why but if you're in a church that does do advent like Advent's practiced in a lot of churches uh

And they think it's fine It's I don't think there's anything wrong with it necessarily. It just it's going to be dependent on your leaders and um

And here's the other side of it If your church doesn't do it and you want to do it personally because that was the other part of the question Can you observe it personally?

Absolutely. There's nothing wrong with that There's nothing wrong with celebrating the incarnation and i'm a huge christmas guy.

I am a huge christmas guy I love celebrating the incarnation and i'm loving the fact that i'm going to be opening

My new bible series of expositions in the gospel of john

Starting next week and that puts me in john 1 1 to 3 On the sunday before christmas, so that's great for me.

They gave me this post. Yeah, it's awesome. It's awesome All right. Uh so I I I think that's as far as we want to go tonight

We have some questions came in through through x and twitter I think some of you said i'm I didn't get to your question and i'm sorry

We do got a big day tomorrow. We got a big parade coming. So we got it. We got to wrap this up. We're we're both

Uh, i'm old. She's beautiful. I'm tired and uh, you know, i'm tired Uh, but thank you guys for being with us

And thank you for continuing to support us continuing to watch the show. We love y 'all And uh anything you want to add before we close out?

Is there anything you saw that we need to address? No, I don't think so. Okay. Well, I will say this jacob asked a question

What about churches that never sing psalms? I don't think that's good either I don't believe in exclusive psalmnity But I also don't believe in excluded psalm which means that you exclude the psalms

I think the psalms should be part of our worship because the apostle paul tells us that we should speak to each other

With psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and so I definitely think we should include psalms in our worship

So i'll close with that And I will say thank you for saying them if you ever come to sovereign grace family church

Oh, I got to put this one up there. She said your wife is beautiful. She is She is and somebody else left that comment earlier

You are beautiful and i'm thankful for you and i'm thankful for you guys So god bless you again if you enjoyed the show.

Thank you Um, and thank you, uh marilda for saying that if you enjoyed the show hit the thumbs up button

If you didn't hit the thumbs down button twice Thanks for listening to your calvinist podcast