WWUTT 1785 Q&A Promoting False Teachers, Phil Vischer’s Liberalism, God Made Patriarchy, Song of Songs Books

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00:01

At what point does a teacher become so heretical, you just can't recommend their books anymore?

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What is up with Phil Vischer? And is a husband or father always the head of his household?

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The answers to these questions when we Understand the Text. This is

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When we Understand the Text, a daily Bible study to help you draw near to Christ. That the word of God may dwell richly in you.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Psalm 37. Yes. Beginning in verse 1. Do not fret because of evildoers.

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Be not envious toward doers of unrighteousness. For they will wither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb.

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Trust in Yahweh and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

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Delight yourself in Yahweh and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to Yahweh.

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Trust in Him and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday.

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Sure feels like the days are getting more and more evil. More and more uncertain.

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Perilous. Difficult. Trust in the Lord. Yeah. Continue to trust in the

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Lord. Amen. No matter how bad things get, He will uphold us. Our eternal resting place is not here on this earth, so it's not dependent upon what the economy is going to do anyway.

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We are dependent upon Christ. What I used to always,

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I don't know, like not put an importance on it is the fact that it says delight in the

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Lord first. Yeah. So that's where your heart is, is delighting in the

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Lord, and then He will give you the desires of your heart. Yes, correct.

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So that part's - The desire, your desire is the Lord. Right. And then yes - Precisely.

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The desires of the heart He gives you is Himself. Right. Exactly. Yes. You got it.

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So that's one thing that I've been focusing more on, making sure that's first and foremost in my head, rather than, oh, well, my heart really,

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I love the Lord, but I really like this. It's always the Lord wants me to be happy.

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He'll take care of me, but that's not the desires - He'll give me everything I want. Right, right, right.

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And so that, I mean, it's fleshly desires, no sugarcoating it there, but it was one of those things that I would focus on that rather than the first part of that.

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On Christ. Right. Rather than focusing on Christ. Like my desire should be Him. Yes. So this is the

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Friday edition of the podcast, our Q &A. We take questions from the listeners and respond to them.

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And it's also the first Q &A that is showing up on our new Facebook page.

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The old is passed away, behold the new has come. You finally buckled down.

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I finally just had to do it because there wasn't any way that I tried many, many different ways to reacquire access to that Facebook page.

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I don't know if Facebook intentionally locked me out or not, but we have started this new page and now the address that was on the old page, even that's outdated already because we figured out, we did it through Becky's account, how to set the address of the new

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Facebook page. Yes. So you're going to facebook .com slash when we understand the text. That's the new page.

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Join us there. We're already getting messages from people. Yes. It's amazing. Yeah. It's wonderful.

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I think it's been over a year since I've checked, since I've been able to check Facebook messages. Probably pretty close.

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Yeah. And now here, look at these messages that we're getting. This one from Susan in Pennsylvania, a comment she left on Facebook.

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These short videos are extremely informative. I have learned a lot from when we understand the text and this has helped me to understand

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God as he is portrayed in the scripture. I would recommend this page to anyone who ever has questions about the

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Bible. Oh, that's sweet. That's awesome. Thank you, Susan. Here's one from Carrie, Carrie in California, Carrie.

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I'm going to say it's Carrie. Okay. Hi, Becky and Gabe. I love your podcast. I'm praying for restored health and God's blessings for your family.

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Thank you. Yes. Yeah. It went through everybody, but one person.

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Last man standing. Last man standing. Yes, Gabe. We'll wait to see. It could still get me.

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I don't know. It hit everybody pretty quick. So I think it's out.

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Now you might get hit with somebody else. I always get something else. You guys, six members of the family will all get the same thing.

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I don't get it. But then later, I'll get something nobody else gets. Right. Yeah. Yep. Somehow, my immune system didn't get passed on to the kids.

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Much different. They got your immune system. Yep. I'm just in a world of my own.

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Yeah. I don't know what that is. To care for us. That's right. So I can be the one to care for you and clean up all the messes when everybody gets sick.

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Yeah. Let's not talk about that. But I appreciate those who prayed, because I did say on the podcast last week when you couldn't be on.

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Oh, yeah. Thank you so much for those prayers. This one comes from Michael Riley.

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This one was through the website. So he sent an email through our email link on the webpage, www .utt

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.com. He says, Hello, Pastor Gabe. Do you know of any Christian -driven homepages that can replace my

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MSN homepage on my computer? I am tired of being confronted with secular opinions and news that I have no interest in.

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I hope I'm clear in my request. God bless you and your family. Well, my homepage is the weather.

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So, I mean, it's whatever you want to make your homepage into. You just have a website that you frequent the most often.

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It might be the first thing that you tend to check when you bring your browser up. So maybe you want to make that your homepage.

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And then just follow the instructions. I mean, go through the menu options, whatever browser you use. There will be one on there where you can set the current page as the homepage.

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So every time you bring up that browser, that's the page that comes up. Or you can even have, sometimes

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I've had five or six tabs open at once because I'm working on something. Only. Only.

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Yeah, only. You will have 20 to 30 tabs. But I'm able to narrow down.

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These are only the tabs I need. So I'll have five or six tabs, and I can mark those so that when

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I bring my browser up next time, those same tabs are what opens. Yeah, you just have to know your browser and look for the options that are in there.

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But if you like news. So for example, the MSN homepage is what you have coming up, and it's generally giving you articles.

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You'll probably have latest news, there'll be entertainment news, and then there'll be a weather forecast on the side for you or something like that.

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If you like that kind of a setting, then I'd recommend going to World Magazine's page and just setting that as your homepage.

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Because they're about the most reliable, I think, as far as Christian world, Christian news goes.

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Yeah. World. Let me tell you exactly what the website is, wng .org.

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So if you go to wng .org, or, you know, you can always set wwutt .com.

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Yeah, you know, we're not going to tell you not to. Or pastorgabe .com.

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Anytime I got a new blog, it'll be posted right there. Let's see, another question here, and I don't have another short question.

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So the rest of these are more in -depth questions. But appreciate your comments on the Facebook page.

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That wasn't all of them, either. You can find us at facebook .com slash whenweunderstandthetext.

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If you would like to email a question for the Friday Q &A, send that to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

08:17

This one comes from Rhian in Seattle, Washington, who says, hi,

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Pastor Gabe, I have a question for you about how a pastor should promote other teachers from the pulpit and where slash when you would draw the line in the sand.

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Pastors at the church my husband and I have recently left, but have many dear friends that are still attending, often promote teachers' books, etc.,

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during their sermons, examples being White Fragility, the theology of Martin Luther King Jr.,

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etc. Yeah, I wouldn't attend that church. I mean, they're promoting everything you've mentioned there is heresy.

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Theology of MLK Jr., he denied the resurrection of Christ, and even at some points in his ministry denied the deity of Christ or said that it wasn't important.

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White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo, I mean, she's promoting critical race theory, which is antithetical to biblical

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Christianity, not to mention that she's not a Christian at all anyway. Yeah. So going on with Rhiann's email, recently a pastor was raving about a book written by Luke Timothy Johnson, Lord have mercy, called

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The Real Jesus, and he highly encouraged the members of the body to purchase this book. Well, that particular book is a critique of the

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Jesus Seminar from several decades ago. Okay. The Jesus Seminar was basically,

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I mean, a bunch of liberal theologians getting together and coming up with what they believe the

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Bible really said about Jesus. Oh, okay. My understanding is that Johnson was pretty critical of the

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Jesus Seminar. So that book might be okay, but Luke Timothy Johnson is a

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Roman Catholic. So if you're talking about attending a Protestant church, they shouldn't be promoting that book and say, here, read this.

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He doesn't have an accurate understanding of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone anyway.

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Right. So anyway, the pastor highly encouraged the members of the body to purchase the book.

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He gave no caution about the author, solely a major endorsement of this particular book.

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I had never heard of Luke Johnson, and so I looked him up, and the first article that came up was one he had written where he explicitly advocates the rejection of the clear teaching in scripture regarding LGBTQ issues and calls

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Christians to fully embrace and accept homosexual lifestyles and behavior.

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Well, that comes from their pope. Yeah, he's become more accepting of that. That's true.

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My husband and I met with the pastor after this and asked if he was aware of the views of this theologian.

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He was aware, but stated that due to the doctrine of common grace, oh brother, any teaching slash book that is orthodox or profitable for the church, regardless of where the author stands on other issues, is okay.

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I've not read the real Jesus, so maybe it is not an orthodox book to begin with, but my former pastor seems to believe it is excellent.

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My question for you is, would you agree with this rationale?

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I think I've pretty well established through my comments how I feel about that. When does it become appropriate to no longer read or learn from or promote theologians or authors?

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With so much deconstruction and abandonment of orthodoxy in our current culture, I am struggling to know when to demonstrate grace versus when to say no more.

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I hope this makes sense. Thank you for your ministry. Well, Rhian, there's a very simple principle that I go by.

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You can judge a book by its cover. Yeah. And when

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I say that, I don't necessarily mean looking at the front and the title, although that may be enough to clue you in on whether or not you should read that book, but just read the contents of the jacket and you can probably figure out whether I should even be wasting my time reading this.

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Now, there are certain things that I read that are not sound. I know they're not sound when I start reading it because I want to know what this person's views are.

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What are the issues that I need to know to respond to? And you're able to not let that influence your way of thinking because you're combating.

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You're going in there knowing that you're going to combat most of the content, whereas other people who don't have a good foundation might be swayed by the book.

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Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, they're taking their pastor's word for it. They're trusting their pastor. So if he's recommending something to them.

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Highly recommending, apparently. Not for critique, but for, hey, you need to know this. This is good for you.

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And I don't know why anybody at this point, decades later, needs to be reading anything on the Jesus Seminars.

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I'm wondering, what does that have to do with today? But I mean, maybe it was his sermon series. I don't know. Yeah, well, with Luke Timothy Johnson, you can find where he was explicitly opposed to LGBTQ issues.

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There was a time where he said that to side with homosexual perversion that was rapidly becoming accepted in this culture would be to reject the clear teaching on what the

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Bible says about this. Yeah. But he's now in the place where he's rejecting the clear teaching on the

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Bible about this. Obviously, with the Pope leading the way.

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Well, he's not really. See, the thing about that, though, is Johnson will say that he's not really a staunch churchman, so he's not following the

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Roman Catholic trajectory. He's just simply coming about this on his own. It's all around that.

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Oh, sure. Oh, yeah, on his own. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, he's part of a school that's Emory University.

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I think that's Methodist Episcopalian. I don't think it's Catholic. Okay. So he's a Roman Catholic that has an emeritus position at an

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Episcopalian college. Oh, that's weird. Anyway, yeah, it just kind of tells you he doesn't really have strong commitments to the

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Roman Catholic faith. Fair enough. But he's still Roman Catholic. And, I mean, all that aside. Following the way of the world.

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Yeah. He's embracing passions of the flesh, rejecting clear teaching of Scripture. Yeah. His views are heretical. Yeah. Straight up.

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You can't say of him, well, as long as the book is Orthodox. No, he's not Orthodox. He's Roman Catholic.

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Right. And no matter what the author is trying to write about and persuade you to think about whether it sounds like it should be on point or not.

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If they're not sound to begin with, they're not going to write a sound book for you to follow.

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I mean, you would never in a million years, I mean, unless he was repentant, but at least where he's at right now, you would never in a million years say of Stephen Furtick that he can write a sound

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Orthodox book. Very true. No one would.

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No one who has any sense of what Stephen Furtick teaches, talks about, T .D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, any of these.

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Yep. You should never assume that they are going to write an Orthodox book. It's heresy on its face. You can judge a book by its cover.

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Yeah. And in this case, we know enough about those authors to know they don't know the gospel if it bit them in the nose.

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The Lord is. Yeah. So what was the question officially? Oh, yeah. You don't agree.

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Yeah. I don't agree with Luke Timothy Johnson. The question being, when does it become appropriate to no longer read, learn, from, promote theologians or authors?

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Right. That one's a tough one. The first question, yeah. I mean, it can vary by circumstance, but the first question was, would you agree with this rationale?

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I don't agree with the rationale in the sense that the pastor is from the pulpit recommending books that are clearly either heretical or heterodox.

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I'm so irritated with that. Yeah. I don't agree with that at all. Now, I would not from the—

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I don't care about the circumstance. I mean, there's no reason. Yeah. There is no good reason to do that.

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I would not even from the pulpit say, hey, read this heretical book just to get an idea of what's out there.

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I wouldn't even say that from the pulpit. There are certain people I would say that to because I know that they can handle it, but there's others that I'm not going to subject to that because they aren't mature enough.

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So, making that sort of blanket recommendation from the pulpit, I'm just not going to do that. That's irresponsible.

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Yeah. There's people that I've told. They've asked me questions about Jesus culture, or not Jesus culture, Jesus Calling.

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Oh, yeah. Jesus culture is Bethel Church. They're bad anyway. Yeah. But they're still also heretical.

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But Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. So, people will ask me, like, what is really the problem with the book?

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And I've asked. My first question is usually, have you read it? Yeah. And I'll say, you can figure it out.

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Like, if you're sound in your doctrine on scripture within the first two or three devotionals, you're already going, okay, this is silly.

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Yeah. Like, you already know what the problem is of this. Yeah. You're probably feeling it from the first few lines of the book, in fact.

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Yeah. So, there's some that I'm going to say, like, if you want to know about it so that you know how to respond to people who are enthralled with it, then it's a good idea to read it.

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It's a good idea to become familiar with it. When I was a youth leader years ago, I was reading

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Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens because these were the books that my high school students were watching their peers read and having recommended to them.

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Oh, have you read this from Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion? You got to pick this up. And so,

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I was reading it because I was waiting to hear those sorts of arguments pop up in youth group so that as soon as I heard it,

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I could jump into the conversation and go, I know where you heard that from. Yeah. That's from Richard Dawkins' book or something like that.

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So, I was staying up on that so that I knew what everybody else was listening to among their peers and how to help them respond to it.

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I wouldn't necessarily telling the students. There were a few of them. I said, well, I mean, check this out from Dawkins.

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I would even bring the book and I would open it and point to it. Here's the line. Here's what scripture says. Right. So, teaching them how to respond to those arguments.

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It's not that as Christians, we want to be completely closed off to anything that's out there in the world.

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I mean, there are certain things we should never subject our mind to. We don't need to read smut to know why it's bad.

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So, there are certain things we don't need to be entertained by, but other things just as being educated, just being familiar with what's out there.

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I certainly wouldn't say the vast majority of your diet should be reading bad books. Yeah. You definitely need some sound ones in there.

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Yeah. But you think about the fact that Vodie Bauckham has written books responding to critical race theory,

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Owen Stran, Daryl Harrison and Virgil Walker. And these books have read all the other books.

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These authors have read everything else that's out there. They can tell you about white fragility.

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Right. They can tell you what the problems are with. See, they have to know this stuff in order to respond to it. Right. So, if you think that it's necessary for you to help friends or whatever else in responding to some of these common arguments that are out there, then read the book.

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Excellent suggestions of, here, why don't you read this book? If their pastor recommends something, you can be like, here, here's a more sound book.

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But then also read, yeah, yeah, Social Justice in the Gospel by Jeff Johnson or Fault Lines by Vodie Bauckham.

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You're handing them. Yes. Here's the sound doctrine that you need. Here's your actual meat and potatoes.

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I think it's Charles Spurgeon who said, spend time in many books, but live in the Bible. Yes. Spend most of your time in scripture and let the word of God fill you up.

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So, where's the cutoff? Because, I mean, there's some... I don't know. I mean, just to give the listeners a little bit of a,

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I don't know, tidbit, I guess. You don't recommend the older books from the authors who have gone awry today.

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Yeah, I don't. Of what they wrote back in the day, even though that was sound. Yeah. Even though their older books were sound, now they've gone off track and I don't recommend their books at all.

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Yeah. Right. Because people will start looking for that author and they'll find something new and be like, oh, hey, and then be completely off.

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Right. Now, sometimes, I'll say this, sometimes I just don't tell you that. Like, and you meaning the audience in general.

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Okay. I just don't tell you that I'm not recommending that person anymore. I'd rather not even mention their name at all.

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Right. So, they're not getting an endorsement from me and they're also not getting, hey, this guy's a problem, don't have anything to do with him.

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And the reason for that is because they may not have explicitly gone into heresy, but they've at least gone down a certain track that's problematic enough

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I can't use them anymore. Right. Nor do I think that they're beneficial to anybody. If we want to get into an in -depth, one -on -one conversation about it, then

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I'll tell you what the problem is with this teacher and why. In fact, a member of my church just emailed me earlier this week and had asked about a certain teacher.

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And when I responded, I said, I don't talk about that teacher at all. And I'm not going to respond to the question on the podcast because I don't want to give an endorsement of that teacher.

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And I don't even really want to kick up the dirt that tends to float around surrounding this teacher.

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I'd just rather not deal with it. So, rather, the position that I've taken on that is I'm just not going to recommend them at all.

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Your life is edified enough by plenty of other good authors out there that you don't need this guy.

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Right. And then I know that you have recommended a book or two, but you give the caveat, the fine print, that only this book.

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Don't go into any other books. But that's with more sound people. Yeah, right. That's still a certain person

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I'm going to do that with. Very few, very few. So, yeah, just find the sound people who are sound today or who are deceased and they still are sound.

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Yeah, most of what I read anyway are commentaries. I'm not really a rich repository of book recommendations.

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People think I am. You have a lot of books. I do have a lot of books. And I've read something. I've at least read something of all of these books.

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I probably haven't finished all these books, but I've read something of all of them.

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And then the books that Tom recommends and we'll do through various semesters and things like that as pastors, we're supposed to read those books.

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I've been through those as well. They're often equipping books. Yeah. So we're talking about spiritually equipping.

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But most of the things that I read, just as my personal regimen, is mostly commentary.

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And I don't feel like I've read enough commentaries on John. Yeah. So I'm still going to find more commentaries on John.

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I'm going through J .C. Riles right now. You know, and I can't get enough of that. There's still occasional books in there from Calvin or from A .W.

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Pink or something that's more historical that I just haven't gotten to yet. I'll still pick up and want to read those.

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I don't read a lot of new stuff. Yeah. Although Peter Salmon's book that he just recently did on depravity.

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That was one of the better books I read this year. I'd recommend that one. Okay. I can't remember the title of it exactly.

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Hang on. Reprobation and God Sovereignty. Recovering a Biblical Doctrine. There you go.

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There you go. I said depravity. Reprobation. But anyway. Okay.

23:46

Let's continue on with the next question here. I think that was all the questions. I think that was everything

23:51

Rheanne asked. Hope that was helpful, Rheanne. This one comes from Georgia in London. Hi, Pastor Gabe.

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I homeschool and have been using easy peasy all -in -one homeschool put together by Lee Giles.

24:03

Are you familiar with that? No. Okay. I mean, I've heard of easy peasy, but not often enough to know about it.

24:10

Okay. To give like a general review. Yeah. I have no idea. Okay. So Georgia says when

24:16

Phil Vischer, this is the creator of VeggieTales. When he put out the video that, oh, it was

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Lee Giles. Okay. So when Phil Vischer put out a video, Giles shared it for consideration as a valid source on Facebook.

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It was challenged. And we who challenged it simply had our comments deleted.

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He came out with a new streaming service called Mr. Phil TV, which was promoted to easy peasy for a discount.

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If we signed up, people raised concerns again and again, the comments were deleted and some were hidden.

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Many homeschool moms are oblivious to what Mr. Vischer is promoting. And then that's it.

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Then Georgia. So not really a question there. More of a heads up. Yeah. But a heads up of some of the stuff that is being put out there by easy peasy.

25:08

Well, that's disappointing. I mean, Phil Vischer is deeply problematic. Yeah. Hugely problematic.

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In fact, things developed just this past week when Phil Vischer revealed that he believes abortion is okay in some cases.

25:22

Whoa. He's explicitly said so and claims that he has a point of view that's held by the

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National Association of Evangelicals since 1971. That doesn't really give any weight to your argument, because in 1971, the

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Southern Baptist Convention was pro -abortion. I don't hold the position of the

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Southern Baptist Convention in 1971. Yeah. I don't hold the position of the

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Southern Baptist Convention now. Right. They seem to be opponents when it comes to trying to pass anti -abortion legislation.

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So Phil Vischer and his program, The Holy Post, I mean, it's awful. It's crass.

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There are jokes that they say on that show I won't even repeat here. And I've listened to enough of them.

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It's not rated R humor. Well, no, but that's still really disappointing. But it's still really bad.

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I mean, a guy who's done kids shows and his audience is almost 100 % attracted to The Holy Post because they know

26:25

Phil Vischer through VeggieTales. Right. And it wasn't just VeggieTales, though. What else did he do?

26:30

What's in the Bible. Yeah, What's in the Bible. Jelly Telly. Yes, Jelly Telly. Buck Denver. Yes.

26:36

Trying to think if there was another one in there. He did a lot. Yeah. I mean, we subscribed to Jelly Telly for a while.

26:43

We did. Yep. That was disappointing. But the guy's gone liberal and he's going further and further left.

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The more he's actually starting to be transparent and revealing these views that he's kept hidden, so the more he's starting to roll these things out and become more transparent about that, he's getting more and more pushback.

27:02

And it's just going to drive him to go further and further left. Yeah, unfortunately. So it is something to keep your eye on and do try to make others aware of that.

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But I don't know what you can do about Facebook if they delete the comments. Yeah, I don't know what to tell you either.

27:19

I mean, make awareness of it. Get in touch with some of those parents that you see that their comments are being hidden or deleted.

27:27

Confirm together. Contact the organization. I don't know what other steps I can tell you to take simply because I don't know easy peasy.

27:33

I don't even know how it works. Yeah, I'm not sure either. But be sure to use pleasant language, polite language.

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Yeah. Because you've lost the game if you don't, if you're rude off the bat.

27:49

That's right. We've been told to give an answer for the hope that lies within us, but do this with gentleness and respect.

27:55

Yes. 1 Peter 3 15. And as it said in 2 Timothy 2 25, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring evil, correcting opponents with gentleness, and God may perhaps grant repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth.

28:12

Right. And I'm praying for Phil Vischer's repentance. Oh, amen. Because where he's at right now, no one should be following any of the children's materials that he puts out.

28:22

Just no telling where he's going to go with any of that. He came out with a children's Bible back in 2019.

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So there's a kid's Bible now that's been authored by Phil Vischer. Okay. That was before his woke -splosion.

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So he didn't come out. I like that word. Sorry. He didn't really come out as woke in favor of critical race theory and the race politics that he pushes now, which incidentally, the

28:49

Holy Post, it's all over that. It's like Sky Jatani, one of the co -hosts, it's like he lives and breathes race terms.

28:56

It's constantly rolling out things like white evangelical males and black church going da -da -da -da -da.

29:03

You know, everything is a demographic to Sky. They divide people up so awfully.

29:09

There's no way that's God honoring. Holy, the Holy Post is not. But anyway, with Vischer coming out with that book in 2019, that was before he went woke, it probably doesn't have a lot of bad stuff in it.

29:21

But at the same time, seeing how problematic his doctrine has been for a long time.

29:27

Yeah. Being that he kept it hidden. Yeah. It's still, the trajectory of that is still going to be off.

29:34

Yeah. I mean, he's not going to be talking to kids about abortion in a children's Bible. Right. But nonetheless, don't support him.

29:42

I mean, you know, don't buy his materials. There are other great things that you can invest in that will help grow your knowledge better.

29:50

Clearly, VeggieTales was not helping anybody grow. Right. It was just Christian entertainment.

29:55

It was clean entertainment. Clean. Nobody's become a better Christian because they watch VeggieTales. It's dumbed down Bible material.

30:03

So you can't mature through that stuff. So my recommendation would be instead to use, you know, go to Reftunes.

30:10

Go to Reftunes .com, get their Pilgrim's Progress book. Yeah. Get their Children's Catechism.

30:16

They now have an Illustrated Baptist Catechism and an Illustrated Westminster Shorter Catechism. Yes.

30:22

Now, we need to be praying for Paul, who has, who's the guy behind Reftunes, because he lost his hard drive.

30:31

Oh, no. A lot of the stuff that he had saved on his computer, it crashed. He's got it at a computer repair place, and they're helping him to recover all of that.

30:39

Oh, man. But I mean, as a guy who's got a lot,

30:44

I've got a lot. I've been doing this longer than Paul has. I've got over 1 ,700 podcast episodes, over 300 videos.

30:53

All of my graphics to lose all of that. I don't even know how I'm recovering it. I remember your computer crashing, like dead.

31:01

There was no revival for that computer. And you took a walk. You had a little walkabout.

31:12

I did not. I mean, there were some - Do you remember that? There were some critical things that I lost, but I did not lose the most valuable things.

31:19

Like to this day, I'm not missing that. Right. Now, this stuff, I've got saved in multiple places.

31:25

Yeah. I've got this laptop, which I just bought this year. So all the stuff up to, let's see, it would have been

31:31

March. I think it was even April before I finally got everything transferred to this laptop. Yeah, I think so. So the other laptop still has all the other stuff on it, just in case.

31:42

I don't back it up every month, but I do it regularly enough that I don't feel like I'd suffer too much if I lost everything.

31:50

Poor guy. But yeah, when I read about that, because he was posting that, that's been a few weeks now.

31:56

He posted that on social media a few weeks ago. I can't imagine. Nope. I can't imagine what that would be like.

32:02

R .C. Sproul also has some really good children's books. And they've even made some into movies,

32:08

I think. Yes. Or short movie clips, video clips, or whatever. Because I think we have the DVD of The Poison Cup.

32:16

Yes. Yeah, those are really, really good. Wonderfully illustrated. Beautiful.

32:21

My goodness, they're some of the most beautifully illustrated books I've ever seen. They're awesome. Yes. Kevin DeYoung's book,

32:28

The Greatest Story. That's another good one. So there are some good things out there. Don't go with the easy guy.

32:35

Just because it's right there in front of you doesn't mean you should grab it. Just because you grew up watching

32:42

VeggieTales doesn't mean your kids should. So yeah, there we go. All right, let's see. Going on to the next question.

32:49

This is from Joshua. Dear Wut, I saw on Twitter that Wut said the following.

32:55

Okay. So this was the Wut Twitter, Wutcom. Twitter .com slash Wutcom. Don't put another dot in there.

33:03

I saw on Twitter that Wut said the following. Neither hierarchy nor patriarchy are sinful, nor are they the result of the fall.

33:12

They are ordered by God. And then the reference there is to 1 Corinthians 11 3, which says,

33:18

I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man. And the man is the head of a woman.

33:24

And God is the head of Christ. So then going on with the Wut post, Adam was the head of his wife before sin.

33:31

Genesis 1 27, 2 18 and 23. She was created second. See also 1

33:36

Timothy 2 13, which says that Adam was formed first and then Eve. And he named her a clear sign of patriarchy.

33:46

And then Joshua goes on to say someone whose name was the blind guide responded with this.

33:52

That was his Twitter name. Oh, okay. The Blind Guide. Okay. So he said, so what do you do with Priscilla and Akilah?

34:01

Because they reverse that order. And scholars point out that as a way of showing that she was more important or the fact that it is

34:09

Chloe's household and not her husband's, which is a reference in 1 Corinthians 1, Chloe's household is mentioned, but not her husband's.

34:17

So Joshua goes on to say, now, I've heard this argument before, and I don't believe it. Surely name order in the

34:24

Bible doesn't have anything to do with who is the head of the household. But I'd still like to hear how you'd respond to this if you have the time.

34:31

Thanks for all you do. Name order has no relevance to headship at all.

34:38

Absolutely none. The Bible is unquestionably clear that the husband is the head of his wife always.

34:46

Now, I'm going to come back to that point here in just a moment. Okay. In Luke 2 16, Mary is listed before Joseph.

34:53

Mary and Joseph. Very true. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.

34:59

That was the shepherds. Mary was a teenager. Is there really any question that Joseph was the head of the household?

35:06

I mean, really? Yeah. Who is the head of this home? Not Mary. In 1

35:13

Corinthians 16 19, it says, the churches of Asia send you greetings. Akela and Prisha, who is

35:20

Priscilla, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. Well, there it's in the context of their household, and Akela is listed first.

35:31

So if that's going to be your metric of who's the head, then what do you do with that one? Yeah. As for Chloe, so we mentioned

35:39

Chloe. Okay. 1 Corinthians 1, members of Chloe's household have reported to Paul some of the problems that are going on in the church in Corinth.

35:47

She was a matriarch, meaning that she was an older woman with no husband.

35:54

And it was likely the same story for Lydia of Philippi, because we don't have anything mentioned about Lydia having a husband either.

36:00

Could it be that they were widows? That could be. Okay. But they're still matriarchs. Right, right, right.

36:06

The household belongs to them. There's family that's part of the household, and they listen to her.

36:12

Yeah. And there may not be an oldest son that therefore takes charge and everything is possessed by him.

36:18

Okay. So anyway, where there's a husband, he's the head of the household.

36:24

He's always the head of the household, as defined by God. Even if you see a couple where it seems like, as we often say, the woman's wearing the pants in that family, he's still the head of his household, no matter what.

36:36

Now, you may have a household situation where the husband is a total milksop, or he's completely lazy and the wife runs everything.

36:45

There's a member in my family who happens to be well -educated, but he's a total louse.

36:51

He just sits in a room and plays video games all day. He and his wife have three kids, but he doesn't do anything.

36:57

And as far as I know, he doesn't even have a job. And we've had these conversations. He and I have had conversations about this, and I've shared the gospel with him, and I've really put upon him, look, man, you don't understand the urgency in this.

37:13

I mean, you seriously have to count the cost. Jesus says that. Jesus says to consider the cost. Yeah. Who goes off to battle without considering, you know, if he's got the men to be able to win the battle?

37:22

Who starts a building project without thinking about if he has the money and the materials that he needs to finish the project? So before you enter into walking with Christ, you have to consider the cost, because you've got to leave everything and follow

37:34

Jesus. But you don't have time to delay on this. Right. You're married and you've got children.

37:40

You have got to, for your sake and for the sake of your wife and kids who are going to follow you, you need to turn from your sin to the

37:46

Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And after that, he would never have a faith conversation with me again.

37:53

Right. And so we've had these conversations, nothing had ever changed in his life.

37:58

And he is lazy in his house so that he does not lead at all.

38:06

Yet he's still the head of his household, because that is the order that God has established.

38:13

Though he may abrogate his responsibilities to his wife instead of fulfilling those responsibilities like he's supposed to.

38:21

And he might think he's a great feminist man for doing so. Look how, you know, virtue signaling, look at how virtuous

38:27

I can be because I've given all of this power to my wife. Right? No, you're not doing what the family has been or the way the family has been designed.

38:38

You're not fulfilling your responsibility. And the Lord will bring judgment on you for that. Now, your wife and your children are still going to have to answer to God for their own sins.

38:49

But there's going to be a greater weight of judgment that will fall upon the man who did not lead his wife and his children well.

38:57

Now, that doesn't mean that if the husband isn't able to work, that's different. Yeah, that's different.

39:03

Right. Okay, we're talking about an able -bodied man. Just putting that out there. Yes. I mean, we've had, as part of the church that we were in before, which was primarily military, we've had families where the husband was seriously injured and could not take care of himself.

39:18

And that shouldn't make you feel guilty. Right. We thank him for his service.

39:24

Yes, amen. Yeah, and then help the family as we are able. That's a different situation. Different. We're talking here about a man who should be leading his home and is not.

39:33

Chooses not to. Yeah. And even in the situation where you've got a man who's physically unable to perhaps go out and get a job, he can still be the head of his household spiritually.

39:44

Yes. If he still has that mental faculty to guide his wife and his children in an understanding of the scripture, teaching them the gospel, raising them up in the knowledge of God.

39:54

Yep. That's still dad's responsibility. Yep, definitely. So I just thought

39:59

I'd put that. Yeah, I appreciate it. I appreciate it, thinking of that. Just to make sure everybody was understanding correctly.

40:06

Good to kind of add that in there, yes. But once again, a man is always the head of his household.

40:11

The husband is the head of his wife. It doesn't say the husband should be the head of his wife. Right. The husband is the head of his wife.

40:21

Yes. Now, you said you were coming back to something? That was it. That was what I was coming back to. Because the statement that I made at the very beginning was the husband is the head of his wife always.

40:30

Yes. So I came back to that later on. Yeah. Yep. So anyway, name order, which was

40:35

Joshua's initial question, but name order doesn't have anything to do with listing who's more important.

40:41

Right. No. That comes from different cultures,

40:49

I think. And they're imposing the different cultures in the Bible. I mean, there could be something cultural there.

40:54

Yeah. But I mean, you see that Akilah and Priscilla are used interchangeably.

41:00

Mm -hmm. So, well, interchangeably. I don't mean her name could be his name, no.

41:07

But the names will swap. Yes. One will be listed first and the other. Same with Mary and Joseph. Joseph will be listed first.

41:13

Mary will be listed first. Mm -hmm. Now, I went back into the Old Testament to see how often this happened. I did this several years ago because, like Joshua said,

41:21

I've heard this argument before. Right. Yeah, it comes up. So Abraham is always listed before Sarah.

41:26

I think Adam is always before Eve. Mm -hmm. Among the patriarchs, the man was always listed first,

41:33

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But I don't think that's necessarily deliberate. Yeah. Because the stories are about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

41:41

True. In the Gospels, the story of the birth of Christ, Mary is way more central a figure than Joseph is.

41:48

I mean, I think we can all agree on that. We know more about Mary than we know about Joseph. Yeah. Mary was there at the cross when

41:54

Jesus was crucified. Mm -hmm. She was there at the wedding feast at Cana in John 2, telling him, you know, hey, they're out of wine.

42:02

Where was Joseph? We never see Joseph in Jesus' adulthood. Yeah. So he died, you know, somewhere when

42:08

Jesus was younger, most likely. When Jesus is dying on the cross, he says to John, behold your mother, and says to his mother, behold your son, appointing to John that he's going to be the one to take care of Mary since Jesus is dying, rising again, and is going back to the

42:26

Father. Mm -hmm. He doesn't even appoint it to one of his own siblings, one of his half -siblings, his half -brothers, to take care of Mary.

42:33

He appoints it to John. Mm -hmm. So Joseph is clearly not in the picture anymore, had likely died.

42:39

Mm -hmm. And, of course, we, you know, the song of Mary in Luke chapter 1, we see how full of favor she was, how the

42:48

Lord had blessed her. So she's certainly a more central figure in the Gospels than Joseph is.

42:54

Mm -hmm. For that reason, it's not unusual then to see Mary and Joseph listed in that way.

42:59

Right. But it doesn't mean that she's the head of the household. Right. Or that he's somehow given up duties and handed them over to Mary, and she's in charge.

43:08

Mm -hmm. That's not what that communicates at all. Right. You're just reading an author's choice.

43:14

Yeah. And that was what else I was going to mention. Maybe it's the author's, just their way of—

43:22

Yeah, author's preference. Yeah, preference. There we go. Yeah. I don't think there's anything to read into that at all. And scholars who try to say that there is, they're making something out of nothing.

43:31

Mm -hmm. Trying to find a reason to say a woman can be a pastor. That's really what's behind it.

43:38

I'm telling you. The reason why they will nitpick over something as insignificant as the order of names that are listed is because in their minds, they think, hey, woman should be able to be pastor.

43:51

So let's find some ways in the scriptures that we can put her in that position. Manipulate it. The church is dysfunctional without women.

44:00

Oh, definitely. Women are just as instrumental to the function of the church as men are. Definitely. When you go to Romans 16 and Paul is laying out his thanks, his appreciation and gratitude for those people who have served him in ministry and those people that the church in Rome need to recognize and therefore give thanks to as well.

44:23

The first people he mentions are women. Yep. That's the first people on the list.

44:29

They are just as important in the function of the church as men are.

44:34

Yes. But God has designed men for certain roles and women for certain roles. Mm -hmm. And when we step out of our bounds to fill a role that God has not intended us to fill, we're sinning.

44:46

Yes. A man is supposed to be the head of his wife, the head of his children, and that's his responsibility whether or not he asked for it.

44:57

Yep. That's what you got to do, mom and dad. Mom and dad. Yeah, mom and dad. Mom's got to submit to dad.

45:04

Dad, mom, mom and dad. Dad and mom. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, see, I think by nature we just say mom and dad, right?

45:10

It just feels natural to say it that way. Yeah. Yep. I don't know. Just like Mary and Joseph.

45:17

Yeah. I don't have anything to add. We don't often say Joseph and Mary. We say Mary and Joseph, right?

45:23

True. Very true. Doesn't mean anything. All right. I think I got one last question here.

45:29

Oh, no. Did I shut down my list? I did. Hang on. One more question.

45:35

Scrolling down to the very bottom. Dear Pastor Gabe, I am really enjoying the series in Song of Solomon. That's the

45:40

Old Testament series we're doing on Thursday. Oh, he adds, whoops, I mean Song of Songs.

45:49

This is the first time that I've ever been through the book and it has been awesome. I can't wait until the next week.

45:55

I have tried to study this book before, but I've always been pretty put off by the commentaries

46:01

I would read. Either the teacher viewed this as erotic poetry or they allegorized it so much that it was as if this book was about Christ and the church.

46:14

Can you point me in the direction of any good commentaries that I might have missed? Keep your eyes on the prize,

46:20

Chris. No, I tell you what, Chris, the commentaries that I'm going through as I was preparing this study, they all over -allegorized this text.

46:29

But sometimes they will draw a correct delineation into what, for example, the

46:36

Rose of Sharon represents or the Lily of the Valley or when the husband comes in and she visualizes him coming to the wedding as Solomon being carried on his couch or the deer and the antelope that are up on the mountainside and that's how she pictures her man as a majestic stag.

46:57

You know, some of those things, occasionally in the notes, they'll make a cultural reference or they'll give you the exposition of that reference that you can know exactly what it meant to a

47:11

Hebrew at the time that it was written and at the time that they were reading it. Sometimes I have to go through several commentaries to find that.

47:19

You have to comb through it. I do because the commentaries are over -allegorized. They jump straight into this represents

47:26

Jesus who loves the church and the church is the right away that's where they go to. I think that you can make that application in Song of Songs, but it's the secondary meaning.

47:36

It's not the primary meaning. Yeah. The primary meaning is this is poetry about a man and a woman who become husband and wife whose marriage we even see grow up together as we're going to continue to go through Song of Songs.

47:51

Now, it's a long span of time condensed into eight chapters. Yeah. But nonetheless, we're watching a romance blossom and mature.

47:59

That's what we're seeing in this book and it's beneficial first for that and then we see from that the relationship that Christ has with his church because of course, as said in Ephesians 5, marriage is the picture of the way that Christ loves his church.

48:14

Yes. That's ultimate. That's primary. Yes. But the meaning of the text of Song of Songs is primarily about a man and a woman which then gives the illustration of the way that Christ loves his church and that's a mystery revealed in the

48:29

New Testament. That's not something that would have necessarily explicitly been understood at the time of the

48:36

Hebrews because they don't even know Jesus Christ. They don't know not by that name anyway. They don't know

48:41

God incarnate because he's not yet come. Paul talks about that in Ephesians that all of this was a mystery until it was revealed in Christ.

48:50

In 1 Corinthians 2, all of this was mystery that has now been revealed to us in Christ.

48:56

So, there are things that we see on this side of the cross that really were not fully understood in the

49:02

Old Testament and so now it's because we can read the old in light of the new. Right.

49:07

That we recognize more easily that Song of Songs represents the relationship of Christ and his church.

49:15

You know, there were certainly Hebrews that read that and saw this is how God loves Israel. Yes. But it wasn't understood

49:22

Christ and his church. Right. Those commentaries that will talk about that, that jump right into that, they're going too quickly into application.

49:31

So, in other words, you haven't found any commentaries that are like spot on. Um, I would say

49:37

John MacArthur's notes in his study Bible, John MacArthur's study Bible, they're really good. Okay. The notes in the

49:43

ESV study Bible, same thing. I think they're both really good in helping you to see the pictures and the images for what they represent without jumping into the application too quickly.

49:53

I think every commentary on BibleHub, if memory serves, if you go to BibleHub, you type in a verse and you hit comment, then it gives you a list of like 12 different commentaries.

50:03

Okay. I want to say that every single one of the ones that they typically reference, they're all immediately jumping into the

50:09

Christ connection. Got it. Without understanding the proper context, which this is exposition, understanding what the original author was writing to his original audience.

50:18

When you're jumping right into the Christ connection, that's not what the original author was writing to his original audience.

50:24

Right. That's application. That's when you draw the line from this, from the time and place in which it was written to Christ in the cross and then from there to modern application.

50:35

But yeah, they're missing steps. They're skipping steps when they go there in the commentaries. I understand your frustration,

50:42

Chris, because I've had that same frustration. Yeah. Now, I happen to see, I've not read this yet, but I happen to see that Phil Johnson just posted on social media this week that there's a new book out that's

50:54

Charles Spurgeon's sermons on Song of Songs. That has now been newly edited and compiled in a book.

51:02

I can't tell you the name of that book, though. Hang on. Let me see if I can find it. I'll just pull up Phil's Twitter page.

51:09

Phil, we're snooping. We're snooping on your Twitter page here. Phil Johnson.

51:16

I might be banned from Twitter, but I can still look at everybody's Twitter pages. Here it is. Okay. It's called

51:22

The Fairest of Ten Thousand, Sermons on the Beauty of Christ from the Song of Solomon, Charles Spurgeon, 1834 to 1892, compiled by Barbara Spurgeon, edited by Dr.

51:34

Don Kistler. All right. There you go. Yep. From Northampton Press.

51:41

Now, that is, oh, the foreword is by Phil Johnson. Look at that. Well, there you go.

51:46

Now, that might be an advanced copy that he's holding and took a picture of there, but you could still go to Northampton Press's website and see if it's on there.

51:53

You could preorder it. Yeah. Or something like that. I bet you that would be a great book. I'll have to find that out myself.

51:59

I would love to add that to my copy or to my library. I'd love to add a copy to my library. There you go. There we go.

52:05

Well, babe, we made it an hour. We did an hour program for our first Q &A on the new

52:13

Facebook page. Yay. Thanks for joining us. Yeah. You got anything else to add?

52:19

Thank you for your prayers. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Absolutely. So, I'm still working on that building project at home.

52:26

Yep. Trying to move the studio at home. That is a work in progress. It rains on Wednesday.

52:32

Yeah. I've got to get to a certain place in this project by Wednesday, because we're expecting rain. It's been dry around here for a long time.

52:39

It has. Humid, but dry. Yeah. The rain has been holding. It really hasn't been that humid either, but not like it usually is in East Texas.

52:48

Yeah, that's true. But the rain's been holding off. I have to get to a certain part in this build by Wednesday before it rains.

52:55

So, be praying for me as I continue. Or we're going to be buying some tarps. Yeah. I'll just stand out there and catch raindrops.

53:03

No! Wave my arms around like this. Maybe it'll keep the raindrops off.

53:08

Okay, let's pray. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to be able to do this, to receive questions from the listeners, to comb the

53:17

Word of God for timeless truth, to understand what you have to say to us through your Word.

53:22

Thank you for giving us your Holy Spirit that we may discern spiritual truths and pass those things on to a people who are spiritual.

53:31

I pray that even through a ministry such as this, the gospel of Jesus Christ would be proclaimed.

53:37

He who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the grave, ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.

53:49

All who believe in him will be saved and have everlasting life. May we hear that gospel message, be convicted of our sin, and follow the

53:57

Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We thank you for your goodness to us.

54:04

Teach us to praise your glorious name all the more and have the courage to stand even in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation, holding out the

54:14

Word of life. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Make fly!

54:33

Yep. This is when we understand the text.

54:38

A daily Bible study to help you draw near to Christ. That the word of God, that the word of God may dwell in you richly.

54:45

I can't. My mouth is not working. Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah. Bluh, bluh, bluh, bluh, bluh, bluh, bluh, bluh, bluh.

54:52

Blah. Blah. Rubber baby buggy bumpers. Rubber baby buggy bumpers.

55:00

Sit on a potato pan -o -tis. What? It's the same thing spelled one way as it is in the other.

55:11

I'm not even going to mentally try to do that. Sit on a potato pan -o -tis, sit on a potato pan -o -tis, sit on a potato pan.

55:26

That's one of Mr. Hayes's. That's just so nonsense. You know, we talk about how nonsense story problems are in math.

55:35

You've never done vocal exercises in choir. Right? Six slick snakes slid up the sli...

55:42

Slide? Something about slithering. Six slick snakes.

55:50

But that one's... anyway. This is when we understand the text.

55:58

A daily Bible study to help you draw near to Christ. That the word of the... word of God...

56:04

You can do that. You can do the word of the Lord. Oh, man. It's all good.

56:15

I don't improvise. Okay, this is... I ain't got me giggling.

56:22

Oh, you're recording. I was just practicing. Yeah. You weren't supposed to notice that.

56:30

Hi! That's my voice going up and down like that.

56:38

I thought you were still typing away. Nope. All right. Now I gotta quit giggling.