WEBVTT 00:00:00.780 --> 00:00:03.620 It is the 13th of February, 2026. 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:04.720 I am Corey J. 00:00:04.720 --> 00:00:08.420 Mahler, and this is At Any Cost. 00:00:08.420 --> 00:00:20.200 Before we get into the questions for this evening, I would like to address something that's related to some previous questions, but also somewhat separate from them. 00:00:20.200 --> 00:00:28.600 I said that I would address the, we'll call it an issue, it's not really an issue, but Ash Wednesday and how it is observed. 00:00:29.380 --> 00:00:35.920 And so, I'm going to start there tonight, as soon as I pull up my actual notes here. 00:00:39.520 --> 00:01:01.000 So, when it comes to Ash Wednesday, there are obviously going to be a number of issues for those who come from primarily the low church tradition, which the distinction between low church and high church, for those who don't know, is basically the degree of ceremony and liturgy and things like that that are present in the church service. 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:05.400 And so, Lutherans, with some exceptions, are high church. 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:07.880 The Roman Catholics are high church. 00:01:07.880 --> 00:01:11.660 The Baptist church down the street is low church. 00:01:11.660 --> 00:01:13.140 That's the distinction there. 00:01:13.140 --> 00:01:19.320 It's not necessarily implying that one is really good because it's high church and one is really bad because it's low church. 00:01:19.380 --> 00:01:25.580 It's sort of the equivalent of, in languages, a lot of times, you'll have a high and a low version. 00:01:25.580 --> 00:01:28.580 And a lot of times, it means geographically. 00:01:28.580 --> 00:01:35.240 So, for instance, low German is called low German because it's from an area that is closer to sea level. 00:01:35.240 --> 00:01:36.860 That's all it means. 00:01:36.860 --> 00:01:42.820 High German happened to become the standard largely because of Martin Luther, but that's a separate topic. 00:01:43.880 --> 00:01:58.280 And so, the first thing that I would say about observing Ash Wednesday, and of course, I'm getting into this because Ash Wednesday is coming up very soon here, but the first thing that I would say about it is that observing the church year itself is good. 00:01:58.280 --> 00:02:03.340 I'm not saying that you have to have one church year for the entirety of the world. 00:02:03.340 --> 00:02:12.440 I don't think you should because, for instance, you are going to have different saints in different nations, and I think that's perfectly fine. 00:02:12.440 --> 00:02:14.880 You can have your own calendar of saints for your nation. 00:02:15.540 --> 00:02:25.940 There are going to be saints that were particularly relevant, particularly significant to your people, that maybe don't matter to someone on the other side of the world, at least not as much. 00:02:25.940 --> 00:02:35.460 And so, the Germans will have different saints from the Americans, will have different saints from the French, will have different saints from, if the church is revived there, the Japanese. 00:02:35.460 --> 00:02:36.900 So, that's fine. 00:02:36.900 --> 00:02:48.680 But the basics of the church year are universal and should be universal because the basics of the church year, of course, and I will link to a church year calendar in the notes here. 00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:53.240 I'll put a note for myself, because I think it's very good to have that. 00:02:53.240 --> 00:02:54.780 And it's nice to have a poster of it. 00:02:54.780 --> 00:03:03.480 I have some posters that I need to get framed, but there's some very nice posters for the church year now, if that is the sort of thing you like to have in your home. 00:03:03.480 --> 00:03:11.740 But the basics are that you have the festival part of the church year and you have the time of the church part of the church year. 00:03:11.740 --> 00:03:12.940 Basically, it's split in half. 00:03:13.600 --> 00:03:20.540 And so, you have the lead up to Christmas, you have Christmas, you have the lead up to Easter, and you have Easter. 00:03:20.540 --> 00:03:22.940 That's sort of a very rough outline of it. 00:03:22.940 --> 00:03:24.360 Of course, there's other stuff in there as well. 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:26.460 You have Epiphany and things like that. 00:03:26.460 --> 00:03:29.700 We're in Epiphany right now, for those who don't know. 00:03:29.700 --> 00:03:32.340 Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. 00:03:32.340 --> 00:03:46.040 And I'm just going to go over how the Western church practices these things, because those of you who have decided to become very interested in the Eastern church have probably already delved into this, and you don't need me to tell you how your tradition practices it. 00:03:46.040 --> 00:03:50.320 And I'm a Western Christian, so I'm going over what the West does. 00:03:50.320 --> 00:04:00.800 In the Western tradition, Lent is the 40-day period, starting with Ash Wednesday, including Ash Wednesday, leading up to Easter Sunday. 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:05.540 Now, that does not include the Sundays in that period. 00:04:05.540 --> 00:04:14.420 And the reason for that, this is actually a distinction between the East and the West, but the reason for that is that Sundays are always feast days. 00:04:14.420 --> 00:04:22.160 The distinction there is that you are fasting in some way, typically, that's part of the observation of the Lenten period. 00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:24.720 You don't fast on Sunday. 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:30.860 It doesn't mean you can't, because if you give up whatever it happens to be, you give up coffee. 00:04:30.860 --> 00:04:45.300 And I went over that in a previous episode, so I'm not going to reiterate all of that here, but you give up something to remind you of Christ and his sacrifice, to serve as just that little impetus to remind you and make you think about these things. 00:04:45.300 --> 00:04:46.040 That's the goal there. 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:50.320 It's not because you're worshiping God and warranting your salvation. 00:04:50.320 --> 00:05:05.580 It's not works righteousness, and I'll get into that more, but you don't have to go back to having that on Sundays, but that is traditionally how Western Christians have observed it, because Sunday again is a feast day. 00:05:05.640 --> 00:05:08.380 It is meant to be a celebration. 00:05:08.380 --> 00:05:11.480 Every Sunday church service is a celebration. 00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:24.980 And so that conflict there that you would have if you were fasting and celebrating at the same time, that was not a thing in the Western church, because we simply don't fast in that way on Sundays. 00:05:24.980 --> 00:05:29.720 As I pointed out before, some forms of fasting, completely fine on Sunday. 00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:37.360 I, for instance, hold to the ancient practice of fasting before you receive the sacrament on Sunday. 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:39.700 Nothing wrong with that, completely fine. 00:05:39.700 --> 00:05:42.520 But then after that, celebrate that as a feast day. 00:05:42.520 --> 00:05:44.340 I think that is the correct practice. 00:05:44.340 --> 00:05:45.520 I'm not saying you have to. 00:05:45.520 --> 00:05:48.380 I think it is good practice. 00:05:48.380 --> 00:05:53.880 And so the 40 days are not including the Sundays in that period. 00:05:53.880 --> 00:06:09.680 40, of course, being a number that is related to how God deals with men and a period of some importance in the life of a person or the life of a nation, history, God's salvation, all these things. 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:13.600 God likes the number 40 when dealing with human beings. 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:17.820 You see this all over in the scriptures, all over in the Old Testament. 00:06:17.820 --> 00:06:40.980 And the focus then of this Lenten period in total, not just Ash Wednesday itself, but Ash Wednesday in particular has these elements, would be the nature and the reality of sin, the consequences of sin, which of course is death, death being the wages of sin, and then Christ's redemptive work. 00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:52.360 And the way that we have this, of course, on Ash Wednesday, is that it's hard not to remember that, you know, from dust you came into dust you shall return. 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:59.480 It says earth in the Septuagint, but taking a little bit of literary license there, you recognize it means the same thing. 00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:01.740 You are the man of dust, the man of the earth. 00:07:01.740 --> 00:07:05.440 That's how mankind was made, formed from the dust to the ground. 00:07:05.440 --> 00:07:30.320 And so, you are reminding yourself, and through that church service, being reminded of the fact that you are of the earth, you are God's creation, but you are also fallen, and you will return to the dust, because you will die, unless God happens to come back right now, in which case, those of us who are currently alive don't die, we're transformed, it's a different thing, but everyone else dies. 00:07:30.320 --> 00:07:38.520 But you have that reminder of Christ's redemptive work as well, because you have the imposition of ashes in the symbol of a cross. 00:07:38.520 --> 00:07:39.600 That's your reminder. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:50.180 Yes, I am dust, but my sins have been forgiven by Christ, and so I will be resurrected, I will see eternal life, I will not taste the second death. 00:07:51.760 --> 00:08:04.100 But I want to go over some passages in scripture as well, and I know there's one in particular that those who have, will say, some hesitance with regard to Ash Wednesday and the way it's practiced. 00:08:04.100 --> 00:08:08.200 I will go over that one last, but I'm going to go over some other ones as well. 00:08:08.200 --> 00:08:10.280 So I will pull up Logos here. 00:08:11.620 --> 00:08:13.100 Thankfully, it cooperated. 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:15.000 Always good to see that. 00:08:21.090 --> 00:08:27.290 And the first one I want to pull up here is, of course, from Jonah, and that's Jonah chapter three. 00:08:32.946 --> 00:08:36.306 Starting with verse five here. 00:08:36.306 --> 00:08:44.586 I will change the names to what you're used to, because this version of, this translation of scripture is very literal to the Greek. 00:08:44.586 --> 00:08:51.766 And the men of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the great among them unto the small among them. 00:08:51.766 --> 00:09:00.726 And the news reached the king of Nineveh, and he rose from his throne and removed his robe from himself, and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 00:09:01.586 --> 00:09:11.986 And a proclamation was made, and it was spoken in Nineveh by the king and his nobles, saying, Let people and animals and cattle and sheep not taste anything or feed or drink water. 00:09:11.986 --> 00:09:16.506 And the people and animals put on sackcloth, and they cried fervently to God. 00:09:16.506 --> 00:09:27.526 And they turned each from his evil way, and from the injustice in his hands, saying, Who knows if God will repent and turn from the anger of his wrath, and we will not perish? 00:09:27.526 --> 00:09:37.606 And God saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil ways, and God repented at the calamity, which he said he would do to them, and he did not do it. 00:09:39.286 --> 00:09:54.466 Part of the reason to have a period, a season of penance, a season of fasting, is to recognize that we live in a sinful society, and we desperately need God's forgiveness. 00:09:54.466 --> 00:10:06.926 And these days, it is perhaps even more relevant for those of us living in the West, and for many of us living in America, because much of the audience is going to be American, not all, but much of the audience. 00:10:06.926 --> 00:10:09.286 Our government is incredibly wicked. 00:10:09.286 --> 00:10:16.706 We are living in a society that is incredibly evil, that is doing horrendously evil things, even as we speak. 00:10:16.706 --> 00:10:24.126 Perhaps more of them, because this is Friday night instead of Thursday night, but we live in evil times among evil people. 00:10:24.126 --> 00:10:37.886 That is unfortunate, and it would be great if we could have a king who would proclaim this sort of thing, and we would have a national period of fasting and repentance, calling on God to forgive us our sins and turn from our evil ways. 00:10:37.886 --> 00:10:47.766 But we as Christians, at the very least, we can personally do that, and we can do that in a corporate sense as Christian congregations. 00:10:47.766 --> 00:10:49.726 That's part of what this is. 00:10:49.726 --> 00:10:58.246 You are repenting of your sins, and there's nothing wrong with doing something that demonstrates that in a concrete fashion. 00:10:58.246 --> 00:11:03.826 I'm not saying you have to put on sackcloth and go about gloomy and do all of those things. 00:11:03.826 --> 00:11:05.306 Part of that is going to be cultural. 00:11:05.306 --> 00:11:08.206 We're dealing with a different people here in the Old Testament. 00:11:08.206 --> 00:11:20.626 But the imposition of ashes and reminding ourselves and others, because it serves that purpose as well, of the fact that we are fallen and we are sinful and we need God's forgiveness is a good thing. 00:11:21.246 --> 00:11:24.826 And it is part of making our society Christian. 00:11:24.826 --> 00:11:35.786 Having these sorts of practices in society demonstrates that the very least we want to have a Christian society, even if we currently very much do not. 00:11:35.786 --> 00:11:39.626 Then another example from the Old Testament here in Daniel 9. 00:11:42.686 --> 00:11:48.606 And I gave my face to the Lord God to find prayer and compassion with fasting and with ashes and sackcloth. 00:11:49.026 --> 00:11:54.746 And I prayed to the Lord God and acknowledged him and said, and I will let you read that if you are so inclined. 00:11:54.746 --> 00:12:02.146 And of course, I highly recommend you read through Daniel if you've never read it in the proper translation, which is from the Septuagint, of course. 00:12:02.146 --> 00:12:14.166 But again, you see fasting, sackcloth, ashes as part of repentance and part of calling on the Lord for deliverance in this case. 00:12:14.166 --> 00:12:18.126 And then the final example here, I'll pull from the New Testament. 00:12:18.186 --> 00:12:28.086 This is Luke 10, starting with verse 13. 00:12:28.086 --> 00:12:39.626 Woe to you, Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 00:12:39.626 --> 00:12:43.886 But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 00:12:43.886 --> 00:12:46.406 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven. 00:12:46.906 --> 00:12:49.126 You shall be brought down to Hades. 00:12:50.486 --> 00:12:57.766 These are the words of Christ, saying that that is how they would have responded, and it is a good thing that they would have done so. 00:12:57.766 --> 00:13:01.986 That is what we are doing when we observe Ash Wednesday. 00:13:01.986 --> 00:13:09.486 In the traditional way, the church has observed it for well over a thousand years, probably about fifteen or sixteen hundred years. 00:13:09.486 --> 00:13:14.626 This is a good tradition of the church, and I will get into more of that in just a second. 00:13:14.766 --> 00:13:29.466 But I know there's another passage that there are those who, again, don't like Ash Wednesday, or have some reason they believe that they should object to it, and they're going to want... 00:13:29.466 --> 00:13:30.906 I believe it's Matthew 6. 00:13:30.906 --> 00:13:32.606 Let me pull that up. 00:13:35.906 --> 00:13:37.506 Yes, it was. 00:13:37.506 --> 00:13:40.106 Matthew 6, of course, is the one they're going to think of. 00:13:40.106 --> 00:13:48.546 Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven. 00:13:48.546 --> 00:13:56.526 Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. 00:13:56.526 --> 00:13:59.746 Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 00:13:59.746 --> 00:14:09.986 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. 00:14:09.986 --> 00:14:18.886 And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. 00:14:18.886 --> 00:14:22.266 Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 00:14:22.266 --> 00:14:31.226 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door, and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. 00:14:31.226 --> 00:14:38.186 And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 00:14:38.186 --> 00:14:43.426 Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. 00:14:43.426 --> 00:14:47.106 And then skipping ahead to the verse, of course, which people have in mind here. 00:14:47.106 --> 00:14:54.326 And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces, that their fasting may be seen by others. 00:14:54.326 --> 00:14:57.506 Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. 00:14:57.506 --> 00:15:08.306 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. 00:15:09.986 --> 00:15:15.426 And so, the objection that some people will bring up here is they'll try to say that, well, you're disfiguring your face, right? 00:15:15.426 --> 00:15:21.406 It's not the same thing here that is meant by disfiguring, but they'll try to say, you're doing it to be seen by others. 00:15:21.406 --> 00:15:26.046 You're doing this so you practice your righteousness before other men, and so you have your reward. 00:15:26.046 --> 00:15:28.406 It's not really for God. 00:15:28.406 --> 00:15:40.006 And the problem I have with that is that if you look at the fullness of the context here, the same exact argument could be leveled against public church services. 00:15:40.006 --> 00:15:42.766 Do you object to praying in a public church service? 00:15:42.766 --> 00:15:46.426 Do you object to singing hymns to God in a gathered congregation? 00:15:46.426 --> 00:15:48.626 You're doing it before others. 00:15:48.626 --> 00:15:57.766 The issue here is hypocrisy, as is often the case in scripture, as is often the case when Christ is condemning the wicked Jews, which is part of what he's doing here. 00:15:57.766 --> 00:16:02.206 The issue is not that you are necessarily doing something in public. 00:16:02.206 --> 00:16:05.986 Most of the Old Testament worship of God was conducted very publicly. 00:16:06.886 --> 00:16:08.586 Think of the temple service. 00:16:08.586 --> 00:16:11.626 Was that necessarily hypocritical because it was done in public? 00:16:11.626 --> 00:16:13.686 The answer is no. 00:16:13.686 --> 00:16:21.866 The problem here is if you do these things hypocritically, there is nothing wrong with having part of the practice of your Christianity be public. 00:16:21.866 --> 00:16:32.626 In fact, if you live in a Christian society, and we should all want to do so, part of the practice, part of the praxis of Christianity is necessarily going to be public. 00:16:32.626 --> 00:16:33.406 That's a good thing. 00:16:34.506 --> 00:16:49.726 So, what is being condemned here is not Ash Wednesday, it's not the imposition of ashes, it's not praying in public, it's not singing hymns in public, it's being a hypocrite, it's doing it to be seen by others instead of doing it for the sake of God. 00:16:49.726 --> 00:16:52.846 And that's a matter between the individual and God. 00:16:52.846 --> 00:17:07.926 If you are having the ashes imposed on your forehead so that you can go out and have other people see and say, look at what a righteous person I am, and I could certainly think of, there are some instances where the ashes have been used in a way that is inappropriate. 00:17:07.926 --> 00:17:16.326 You can think of some people who have gone on TV and said some things while wearing ashes on their forehead, that they should have been ashamed to say regardless. 00:17:16.326 --> 00:17:20.606 But the issue is hypocrisy, so don't be a hypocrite. 00:17:20.606 --> 00:17:23.106 But that almost goes without saying. 00:17:23.106 --> 00:17:37.446 And then the final point that I want to make about Ash Wednesday is really a matter of observing traditions and when it is good to do so. 00:17:37.446 --> 00:17:42.186 And the fundamental rule is very simple, very straightforward. 00:17:43.506 --> 00:17:58.266 As long as the tradition is not contrary to scripture, and as long as you are not using it in a way that is impermissible, which usually means believing that you are justified by your works, you're permitted to do it. 00:17:58.266 --> 00:18:04.846 And if it is for the sake of good order in the church or in society, then in some cases, you even should do it. 00:18:04.846 --> 00:18:07.386 I'm willing to go that far and say you should do it. 00:18:07.386 --> 00:18:09.186 I have an article on my site on the topic. 00:18:09.186 --> 00:18:11.826 I'll put that in the show notes as well. 00:18:11.826 --> 00:18:19.226 But these are to use the technical term adiaphora, adiaphora, whichever way you want to pronounce that. 00:18:19.226 --> 00:18:24.586 It is Greek translated into English, so use it whatever way you want. 00:18:24.586 --> 00:18:28.806 It's not binding, but in many cases, it is good. 00:18:28.806 --> 00:18:38.266 I would say the practice, the observance of these feasts and festivals in the church year, in the church calendar are good and that we should retain them. 00:18:38.266 --> 00:18:42.386 We observed them for a thousand years, more than a thousand years in Christendom. 00:18:42.386 --> 00:18:48.726 They were part of what reminded people they're Christian, their society is Christian, and it means something to be a Christian. 00:18:48.726 --> 00:18:49.666 And I think that's good. 00:18:50.526 --> 00:18:55.706 So, if you don't want to observe Ash Wednesday, it's not required of you. 00:18:55.706 --> 00:18:56.666 I think that you should. 00:18:56.666 --> 00:18:57.746 I think it's a good thing. 00:18:57.746 --> 00:19:02.886 I think it is part of the practice of Christianity, but it's not binding. 00:19:02.886 --> 00:19:06.226 It's not a sin not to observe it. 00:19:06.226 --> 00:19:09.286 And that's the same with many of these traditions. 00:19:10.706 --> 00:19:17.446 And I want to add a quote from Valter, the founder of the LCMS. 00:19:18.206 --> 00:19:23.986 And, yes, it does condemn Roman Catholicism in this case, but, and some other things as well. 00:19:23.986 --> 00:19:24.666 That's not the point. 00:19:24.666 --> 00:19:31.346 I want you to get the core point of what he is saying about the practice, about traditions, observing these things. 00:19:31.346 --> 00:19:35.606 We refuse to be guided by those who are offended by our church customs. 00:19:35.606 --> 00:19:41.726 We adhere to them all the more firmly when someone wants to cause us to have a guilty conscience on account of them. 00:19:41.726 --> 00:19:49.486 It is truly distressing that many of our fellow Christians find the difference between Lutheranism and Papism in outward things. 00:19:49.486 --> 00:20:00.386 It is a pity and dreadful cowardice when one sacrifices the good ancient church customs to please the deluded American sects, lest they accuse us of being papistic. 00:20:02.706 --> 00:20:10.366 There are many good church customs that have been handed down to us over the centuries, in some case millennia plus. 00:20:10.366 --> 00:20:16.366 They do not become bad because they were practiced by men who held false beliefs. 00:20:16.366 --> 00:20:23.646 The custom itself can be perfectly good and serviceable, and there's a related question I know coming up later in this episode, and I'll tie it back then. 00:20:23.646 --> 00:20:31.226 But the traditions can be good even if the men practicing at times had bad theology. 00:20:31.226 --> 00:20:33.406 The church year is one of those. 00:20:33.406 --> 00:20:35.706 Ash Wednesday is certainly one of those. 00:20:35.706 --> 00:20:43.406 And I think that suffices for addressing Ash Wednesday before it comes up this year, which it will shortly in the calendar here. 00:20:45.026 --> 00:20:50.726 The next question is a shorter one than the Ash Wednesday bit. 00:20:50.726 --> 00:20:53.666 What is the correct position on divorce? 00:20:53.666 --> 00:20:58.206 Can you explain in which cases divorce can be approved by the church, if ever? 00:20:58.206 --> 00:21:08.146 As I understand it, the conservative Roman Catholic position is never, unless your spouse dies, which makes the most sense to this questioner. 00:21:08.786 --> 00:21:11.866 What is the correct or Lutheran position on this? 00:21:11.866 --> 00:21:14.546 And he does say correct Lutheran position. 00:21:14.546 --> 00:21:20.746 So, the position on this, I'm just going to say that this is the correct position. 00:21:20.746 --> 00:21:25.506 I know there are men who would argue with me to some degree, but I think this is very clear from scripture. 00:21:25.506 --> 00:21:34.886 Obviously, the most straightforward, clear thing you can get is that Christ says, in cases of adultery, divorce is permitted. 00:21:35.646 --> 00:21:36.966 Period. 00:21:36.966 --> 00:21:38.946 That's straight from scripture. 00:21:38.946 --> 00:21:43.906 You cannot possibly argue with that and believe what scripture says, what Christ says. 00:21:43.906 --> 00:21:59.966 So, if your spouse commits adultery, you are, in fact, already divorced by the act of adultery, but you are permitted to then legally recognize that divorce, make it official as it were. 00:22:01.186 --> 00:22:05.086 That is permitted in scripture very clearly. 00:22:05.086 --> 00:22:21.866 I would say, and there are a number of theologians who have also said this, there are other things that are tantamount to infidelity, that are tantamount to adultery, and therefore, they are also permissible grounds for divorce. 00:22:21.866 --> 00:22:39.006 I think basically the only one that is ever relevant is abandonment, because there are requirements of spouses with regard to one another, and some of them cannot be fulfilled if you are physically absent. 00:22:39.006 --> 00:22:49.666 And so, abandonment, I believe, rises to the level of infidelity, because one of the things that you are supposed to do is make yourself available for your spouse. 00:22:50.606 --> 00:22:59.126 Not doing so is, I want to say, and it is accurate to say, that it's a mild form of adultery. 00:22:59.126 --> 00:23:02.446 I know there are people who object to that wording, but I could explain exactly why. 00:23:02.446 --> 00:23:05.166 But it is a form of infidelity. 00:23:05.166 --> 00:23:12.326 And so, I would say that abandonment then rises to the level of adultery. 00:23:12.326 --> 00:23:15.366 So, those are basically the two cases. 00:23:15.366 --> 00:23:30.326 I think maybe edge cases that could happen that rise the level of infidelity, but those are the ones that are going to actually happen that aren't just a philosophical experiment, which is very typically useless, often harmful in theological matters. 00:23:30.326 --> 00:23:42.646 So, that's the shorthand for when is divorce permissible, adultery, and things that are equivalent to adultery, which is, in the case of the adultery, the explicit adultery is just what Christ says. 00:23:42.646 --> 00:23:44.766 It's what Scripture says very clear, very plain. 00:23:45.866 --> 00:23:51.626 We are not allowed to change what Scripture says when it says something very clearly like that. 00:23:51.626 --> 00:24:02.746 We are not always required to punish things in the same way as Scripture does, because, for instance, some of the civil law in the Old Testament is not binding on us as Christians, so it's a recommendation. 00:24:02.746 --> 00:24:09.286 But, historically, the punishment in many times, in many places, for adultery has been the death penalty. 00:24:09.286 --> 00:24:18.686 And if the punishment for adultery is the death penalty, the issue of divorce kind of becomes irrelevant, for rather obvious reasons. 00:24:18.686 --> 00:24:31.366 I think we should return to punishing adultery much more severely, possibly even including capital punishment, which, again, makes the issue irrelevant, for obvious reasons. 00:24:32.766 --> 00:24:38.946 The next question is related to marriage, but not about marriage per se. 00:24:40.886 --> 00:24:45.206 In the past year, I have become fully convinced of all you said on Stone Choir. 00:24:45.206 --> 00:24:47.966 My wife is equally persuaded. 00:24:47.966 --> 00:24:58.866 She now feels isolated from making or keeping friends, because every time she brings up, they are replacing us, which is true, or our people, she is called a racist by others in the mom group. 00:24:58.866 --> 00:25:04.166 I nearly banned her from X, so she wouldn't see any more awful news, but she says the people there are her only community. 00:25:05.286 --> 00:25:07.906 Please help me think about this well. 00:25:09.406 --> 00:25:33.466 This is a very real challenge, because obviously, if you know the truth about something, or you have learned some deeper aspect of the truth, and it is something other people do not know, or worse, reject, that is going to estrange you from them to some degree, and that's kind of inevitable. 00:25:34.526 --> 00:25:39.586 I think there are maybe three things that I want to say about this. 00:25:39.586 --> 00:25:46.866 The first one, I would say, we all recognize that we have different friend groups, right? 00:25:46.866 --> 00:25:51.366 I have friends I know from being an attorney. 00:25:51.366 --> 00:25:55.706 I have friends I know from being involved in animal conservation. 00:25:55.706 --> 00:26:01.426 I have friends I know from being a right-wing white nationalist. 00:26:02.746 --> 00:26:11.006 The overlap for just those three groups, I'll just use those three and no more, not necessarily very high in some cases. 00:26:11.006 --> 00:26:20.166 So I'm probably not going to bring up what I've read about nationalist philosophy at an animal conservation event. 00:26:20.166 --> 00:26:32.746 I don't really go to those anymore since moving out of California, but for the sake of the hypothetical, we all recognize we have different groups of friends, and different groups of friends permit different topics. 00:26:32.746 --> 00:26:34.846 There's nothing necessarily wrong with that. 00:26:34.846 --> 00:26:43.086 There are cases in which it can rise the level of, you can't go along with evil, but you aren't necessarily always dealing with evil in these cases. 00:26:43.086 --> 00:26:46.406 So maybe just don't bring up certain topics with certain groups. 00:26:47.666 --> 00:26:52.846 Tell your wife to focus on some of the trivial stuff that's probably being discussed in those groups. 00:26:52.846 --> 00:26:59.786 If they start getting into things where, you know, they're evil, they could be, I don't know what this group is like. 00:26:59.786 --> 00:27:06.026 If it's a group of antifa moms, well, it's a real problem, she needs to not associate with those people because they're evil. 00:27:06.026 --> 00:27:10.046 You can't associate with them without becoming party to their evil. 00:27:10.046 --> 00:27:18.946 But if they're just not involved in this stuff, or they don't know about it, you don't necessarily have to bring them along all at once. 00:27:18.946 --> 00:27:25.506 You can drop little hints and things like that and kind of nudge them in the right direction if you have the skills to do that. 00:27:26.446 --> 00:27:36.286 But don't take the shotgun approach and try to get someone to believe all of the things that you've learned all at once, because it took you time. 00:27:37.526 --> 00:27:43.246 Maybe in this case, not as much time as some, but some people take years, some people take longer. 00:27:43.246 --> 00:27:49.026 You're not necessarily going to bring them up to speed right away, and if you try to, they're going to get shell shock. 00:27:49.026 --> 00:28:01.946 So I think that's the first point I would make is recognize you have different friend circles, and you're going to have to treat the people in them differently, because they are in fact different. 00:28:03.286 --> 00:28:05.126 So there's that aspect. 00:28:05.126 --> 00:28:06.166 That's really kind of the second point. 00:28:06.166 --> 00:28:09.386 The first point is just there are different kinds of truths, right? 00:28:09.386 --> 00:28:16.726 And maybe recognize that not everyone is ready for everything, which is related to that second point of the different friend circles. 00:28:18.106 --> 00:28:31.866 But the sort of final point that I would make is that things are progressing in our direction, and so in some ways, there will be doors that are open for things you can discuss that you couldn't discuss before. 00:28:33.166 --> 00:28:48.206 I think the most obvious example right now is, I don't know if I even want to say the name, because it probably gets you flagged in some way, but the gentleman who owned an island, I think that has opened up some doors for discussion of things that were previously unthinkable. 00:28:48.926 --> 00:29:00.086 You could not even consider broaching the topic of, did you know there are people who kidnap children and drink their blood? 00:29:00.086 --> 00:29:15.406 That would probably have got you some very strange looks, historically, and in fact it would, that you might not get today, because now people recognize that, oh wait, we actually have physical proof that this stuff was happening. 00:29:16.146 --> 00:29:27.346 So, as things continue to progress and trend in that direction, it opens up doors for that, which means you will find those like-minded people, or maybe bring some people along. 00:29:27.346 --> 00:29:33.466 And I guess a fourth point, sort of, you can find like-minded people. 00:29:33.466 --> 00:29:57.406 It is difficult in some places, I don't know what part of the country you're in, please don't tell me, because, you know, don't dox yourself, but if you can find like-minded people, great, so for instance, in your case, if you can find other men who are like-minded, who have managed to bring their wives along, introduce your wives. 00:29:57.406 --> 00:30:02.806 Have them become friends, and do whatever it is they're going to do with their time. 00:30:02.806 --> 00:30:14.246 That's a good thing, and that will help her a lot, even if it's just one or two additional friends, because depending on the kind of person, if you're an introvert or an extrovert, it's going to depend on how big your circle is, right? 00:30:14.366 --> 00:30:21.726 But just having a few like-minded friends you can be open and honest with is going to make a huge difference. 00:30:21.726 --> 00:30:23.926 You know that, and it's going to be the same way for her. 00:30:23.926 --> 00:30:33.666 So if you can find those married men who get along with you, and by all means, if they brought their wives along, introduce your wife to them. 00:30:33.666 --> 00:30:35.906 Those will be good friends for her. 00:30:35.906 --> 00:30:37.806 But no, it's a very serious topic. 00:30:37.806 --> 00:30:48.346 And yes, obviously, there is going to be some isolation when you know a truth that other people do not know, and it's an important one that you can't really let go. 00:30:48.346 --> 00:31:05.726 Particularly when you start seeing all of the evil things happening in our society, and you recognize them now, because you're looking at it and going, I know why that's happening, I know who's behind it, I know why that's done, I know why those words and those image, whatever it happens to be, we all know. 00:31:05.726 --> 00:31:08.846 It makes it more difficult not to say something, but sometimes you don't have a choice. 00:31:10.146 --> 00:31:16.206 You can't speak every truth at every instant in every situation. 00:31:16.206 --> 00:31:19.826 Some of these things call for wisdom and self-control. 00:31:22.126 --> 00:31:24.446 But again, yes, it's a difficult situation. 00:31:24.446 --> 00:31:27.626 So do the best that you can do to try to find her those friends. 00:31:27.626 --> 00:31:35.386 And yeah, I do think backing off on social media a little bit is probably extremely good for most people generally, but particularly for women. 00:31:36.106 --> 00:31:45.966 Because women are very subject to those social pressures, and the Skinner box is not good for women, which is just, that's all social media really is. 00:31:48.906 --> 00:32:00.266 The next question is one that I will answer it directly, but also answer sort of a more important, higher level question related to it. 00:32:00.266 --> 00:32:03.986 I heard that our worship practices were taken from the pagan Romans. 00:32:04.466 --> 00:32:05.826 What would you say about this? 00:32:05.826 --> 00:32:09.146 So, this is a question that comes up all the time. 00:32:09.146 --> 00:32:20.466 It comes up with regard to Easter and Ishtar and Christmas and Mithras and Sol Invictus and a thousand different things. 00:32:20.466 --> 00:32:24.366 The first answer is, it's complete nonsense. 00:32:24.366 --> 00:32:34.926 They're trying to connect things that in many cases aren't connected, or they're trying to claim things that are complete and utter insane nonsense. 00:32:34.926 --> 00:32:36.826 I can think of one in particular. 00:32:36.826 --> 00:32:39.906 There was a gentleman in, I believe, it was the 1800s. 00:32:39.906 --> 00:32:54.606 I've forgotten his name now, but he proclaimed himself an Egyptologist, didn't know anything about the subject, and then started saying that basically Jesus Christ was just a narrative of Horus. 00:32:54.606 --> 00:33:02.026 The problem is, he made a bunch of claims about Horus that have literally zero evidence anywhere. 00:33:02.026 --> 00:33:14.086 He just made them up, and now neo-pagans and some others will repeat them sometimes online, but they're just absurd, abject nonsense, literally without a shred of evidence. 00:33:15.186 --> 00:33:20.066 One in particular, not in the case of Horus, but say Mithras, right? 00:33:20.066 --> 00:33:23.366 Someone will try and claim, well, Mithras was born of a virgin, he was born of a rock. 00:33:23.366 --> 00:33:26.206 Read the story, go read the actual thing. 00:33:27.006 --> 00:33:28.346 It's not what they claim. 00:33:28.346 --> 00:33:36.006 So in many cases, just complete and utter nonsense and lies, because they're trying to deceive you, trying to make you doubt. 00:33:36.006 --> 00:33:47.346 But the more important question here than that is, is it wrong to take, so this is the hypothetical case, right? 00:33:47.346 --> 00:33:52.646 Is it wrong to take pagan practices and Christianize them? 00:33:52.646 --> 00:33:54.306 The answer is no. 00:33:54.306 --> 00:33:54.906 Nothing wrong with that. 00:33:54.926 --> 00:33:56.106 We're right back to tradition, right? 00:33:56.106 --> 00:34:00.286 This is the question I mentioned, ties into traditions. 00:34:00.286 --> 00:34:04.086 So I would use the Christmas tree. 00:34:04.086 --> 00:34:05.186 It's one everyone's thinking, right? 00:34:05.186 --> 00:34:07.646 But Martin Luther actually invented that one. 00:34:07.646 --> 00:34:10.166 So the pagans don't even get that one. 00:34:10.166 --> 00:34:17.666 But let's say, for instance, and also it ties all the way back into the first worship of God, which took place in a sacred grove. 00:34:17.666 --> 00:34:20.726 So the fact that we still have trees involved in worship is not bad. 00:34:21.966 --> 00:34:25.806 But let's say, you have some pagan practice, right? 00:34:25.806 --> 00:34:28.126 Gift giving, okay? 00:34:28.126 --> 00:34:34.946 Some Roman traditions, so directly answering the question, perhaps, had some gift giving involved. 00:34:34.946 --> 00:34:38.326 Does that make it bad to give gifts? 00:34:38.326 --> 00:34:39.126 No, of course not. 00:34:39.126 --> 00:34:40.706 It would be ridiculous to claim that. 00:34:40.706 --> 00:34:47.206 So you are permitted to give gifts, and you're even permitted to do it connected with something related to the Christian faith. 00:34:47.246 --> 00:34:48.506 So, Christmas. 00:34:49.786 --> 00:34:55.266 The sin or the problem would be if you do it in connection with a false god. 00:34:55.266 --> 00:35:04.666 There's nothing wrong with giving gifts and also having that as part of your celebration of the reminder of Christ's birth, the greatest gift ever given to humanity. 00:35:04.666 --> 00:35:06.066 Completely fine. 00:35:06.066 --> 00:35:11.846 It is morally permissible to Christianize pagan holidays. 00:35:11.846 --> 00:35:19.226 The issue is that you don't want to shade into syncretism, which happens, so I'll just give an extremely obvious case. 00:35:19.226 --> 00:35:25.446 You have the cult of the dead in the Mexican practice of Roman Catholicism. 00:35:25.446 --> 00:35:27.246 That's not permissible. 00:35:27.246 --> 00:35:30.206 That is actually worshiping a false god. 00:35:30.206 --> 00:35:31.306 That is idolatry. 00:35:31.306 --> 00:35:33.266 That is polytheism. 00:35:33.266 --> 00:35:35.846 That is a problem. 00:35:35.846 --> 00:35:36.766 You can't do that. 00:35:36.766 --> 00:35:42.086 And so it's not a balancing act so much as just there's a line that you cannot cross. 00:35:42.086 --> 00:35:44.166 So you can't worship false gods. 00:35:44.226 --> 00:35:50.186 You can't do things that are inherently in their nature, the worship of a false god. 00:35:50.186 --> 00:35:51.506 So no human sacrifice. 00:35:51.506 --> 00:36:06.506 You can't cleanse that of the pagan element because it is itself pagan in the broad sense of pagan, not European pagan, because human sacrifice was not really a part of European paganism, except little pockets here and there, and very rarely. 00:36:06.506 --> 00:36:14.326 Typically not something that was part of European neo-paganism, paganism, depending on the case. 00:36:14.326 --> 00:36:18.246 But that can't be Christianized, but other things can. 00:36:18.246 --> 00:36:27.706 And so there's nothing wrong with taking a practice and removing the objectionable elements and having it be something that's good. 00:36:27.706 --> 00:36:32.846 Think of it the same way that we deal with furniture or a house or anything like that. 00:36:32.846 --> 00:36:42.226 If you buy a house and it has some damage, let's say smoke damage to the walls, do you knock down the entire house? 00:36:42.226 --> 00:36:44.586 No, you just fix the parts that need fixed. 00:36:44.586 --> 00:36:51.206 The same thing can be done with traditions taking from our ancestors who were not Christian. 00:36:51.206 --> 00:36:52.206 Nothing wrong with that. 00:36:52.206 --> 00:36:54.346 Perfectly morally permissible. 00:36:54.346 --> 00:37:05.226 But the surface level answer is that almost all the claims about relationships between Christian practice and pagan practices are nonsense. 00:37:05.226 --> 00:37:13.386 And the ones in which we do have a relationship there, are usually so superficial that it doesn't matter. 00:37:13.386 --> 00:37:18.746 There'll be something like, well, you just have Christmas in December, because it's related to Saturnalia. 00:37:19.886 --> 00:37:23.226 Okay, so we celebrate at the same time. 00:37:24.306 --> 00:37:25.126 Doesn't matter. 00:37:25.126 --> 00:37:26.146 Means nothing. 00:37:26.146 --> 00:37:27.426 Doesn't mean we have a pagan practice. 00:37:27.426 --> 00:37:28.786 It means we happen to have an overlap. 00:37:28.786 --> 00:37:36.086 And Christ very well probably was born around that time, if you actually look at the evidence in scripture and elsewhere in history. 00:37:36.666 --> 00:37:40.026 So even that one may not be an actual connection. 00:37:40.026 --> 00:37:41.206 It may just be coincidence. 00:37:47.357 --> 00:37:56.457 The next question, I am not yet married, but I would like to know how I, as a man, can keep my marriage and family focused on Christ. 00:37:56.457 --> 00:38:02.117 Besides just going to church and doing family devotions, I am afraid of being spiritually blindsided. 00:38:04.737 --> 00:38:21.417 I don't necessarily want to get into this too deeply because this one could take up a lot of time, but the basic answer to that is that you need to actually invest the time in your wife and in your children. 00:38:21.417 --> 00:38:31.017 You need to know where they are in their faith, what they know about their faith, if they have any doubts or concerns or anything like that, and you need to be there to address them. 00:38:31.017 --> 00:38:33.937 And part of that is just investing the time. 00:38:33.937 --> 00:39:01.137 One of the major problems that we have in the last, say, probably 50, 60 years at this point, is you have had, maybe not quite that much, maybe 40, but you've had those who just pass their children off to the state for X hours per day, for Y years out of their life, and then they send them off to university, and they come back, and they don't believe the Christian faith, and they become a Marxist and all these things, and then they wonder, well, how did that happen? 00:39:01.137 --> 00:39:13.797 Well, probably because you invested 30 minutes per week in your child with regard to the Christian faith, and you handed them over to atheists for, I don't know, 35 hours out of the week. 00:39:13.797 --> 00:39:16.957 What did you expect was going to happen? 00:39:16.957 --> 00:39:23.877 That is not even negligence, it's recklessness, or even something worse, almost wanton. 00:39:23.877 --> 00:39:26.317 So don't do that. 00:39:26.317 --> 00:39:33.877 You have to know what is going on with your children, what is going on with your wife. 00:39:33.877 --> 00:39:36.877 You are responsible for the things that happen under your roof. 00:39:37.837 --> 00:39:42.237 Part of it will be regulating what is permitted in your house. 00:39:42.237 --> 00:39:44.577 Don't allow evil media in your house. 00:39:44.577 --> 00:39:46.617 Don't allow evil books in your house. 00:39:46.617 --> 00:39:49.797 If someone brings in a Ouija board, burn it. 00:39:49.797 --> 00:39:50.037 Right? 00:39:50.037 --> 00:39:52.577 There are certain things you have to do as a father. 00:39:52.577 --> 00:39:53.857 That's going to be a big part of it. 00:39:53.857 --> 00:40:00.017 Just don't pass your children off to others to raise them, and then be surprised at the outcome. 00:40:01.097 --> 00:40:05.237 It's one of those things where there are things in life that require a lot of hard work. 00:40:05.577 --> 00:40:07.537 They have great payoffs. 00:40:07.537 --> 00:40:11.477 They have eternal payoffs, but they require hard work. 00:40:11.477 --> 00:40:13.437 This is definitely one of them. 00:40:13.437 --> 00:40:14.917 So make sure you invest the time. 00:40:14.917 --> 00:40:16.677 Make sure you are available. 00:40:16.677 --> 00:40:20.217 Make sure that they know they can bring these questions to you. 00:40:20.217 --> 00:40:24.317 You don't want to be some figure that's off in the corner, and they're scared to approach you, right? 00:40:24.317 --> 00:40:26.777 You need to be the father and act as the head of the household. 00:40:32.782 --> 00:40:38.022 Make sure that I have my correct numbering here, just for my sake. 00:40:39.582 --> 00:40:44.302 The next question, encouraging RC or EO Christians. 00:40:44.302 --> 00:40:56.442 With the current state of the Protestant churches, how do we encourage RC slash EO people in the Trinitarian faith and higher orthodoxy, especially given that some of them may not be genuinely saved? 00:40:57.722 --> 00:40:59.622 And of course, that applies to Protestant churches as well. 00:40:59.622 --> 00:41:06.202 There's some who are not genuinely saved, so I'm not necessarily picking on the RC or the EO here. 00:41:06.202 --> 00:41:12.722 Because I do believe, even in the case of the Eastern Orthodox, that there are saved individuals in those churches. 00:41:12.722 --> 00:41:41.982 Despite the things that I have said about the Eastern Orthodox on Stone Choir and in my article on it and elsewhere debates, things like that, there are individuals who are saved in those churches, because I brought this up before, and it'll come up many times subsequent to this, but Lutherans have specifically a concept called Felicitous Inconsistency, which means that there are those who, despite the false things their churches officially teach, don't believe them. 00:41:41.982 --> 00:41:54.162 They are felicitously inconsistent, because they don't believe those things, but they do believe that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior, died on the cross, rose again, and that if they believe in him, they will have eternal life. 00:41:54.162 --> 00:41:54.802 And so they're Christian. 00:41:55.702 --> 00:42:04.102 And that is the case for a great many in the Roman Catholic Church and a great many in the Eastern churches as well. 00:42:04.102 --> 00:42:11.882 And I say that for the Roman Catholic Church, because if you believe absolutely everything taught by Rome these days, you are damned. 00:42:11.882 --> 00:42:12.982 Period. 00:42:12.982 --> 00:42:18.922 Rome teaches things that are simply bluntly contrary to the Christian faith. 00:42:18.922 --> 00:42:22.882 They teach that Muslims and Jews are included in the plan of salvation, as they call it. 00:42:23.582 --> 00:42:28.742 You cannot believe that as a Christian, because they reject Christ. 00:42:28.742 --> 00:42:31.802 If you reject the son, you don't have the father. 00:42:31.802 --> 00:42:35.042 If you reject Christ, you cannot be saved. 00:42:35.042 --> 00:42:39.582 And so, I don't believe that most Roman Catholics believe that. 00:42:39.582 --> 00:42:43.602 I think most of them don't even know their church teaches that. 00:42:43.602 --> 00:42:50.082 But to get to the question here, the heart of the question, how do we encourage these individuals and try to bring them along? 00:42:51.122 --> 00:42:56.502 Well, the challenge here is that we sort of need to clean our own house first. 00:42:56.502 --> 00:43:03.282