Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 195

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, happy Monday. Welcome to Relatable. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I think

00:00:06.660 we can agree now that it's acceptable for us to be listening to Christmas music, to put up our

00:00:11.820 Christmas decorations, and to be excited about the Christmas season, right? There are some of

00:00:16.900 you out there who are like bah humbug until December 24th. You're like, not until Christmas

00:00:22.740 Eve, actually midnight of Christmas Eve, can we even utter the word Christmas? But I would say

00:00:30.080 that most people have accepted at this point that we can be celebrating the holiday season. So I hope

00:00:37.220 that you guys are enjoying that. I would love to hear some of your Christmas traditions. I don't

00:00:42.500 know if we had a ton of Christmas traditions growing up. And so I would really like to establish some

00:00:47.380 now that we have a baby and we're our own little family. And so I would love to hear some of the

00:00:52.660 things that you guys do. That's not what we're talking about today. Maybe I'll talk about it a

00:00:56.580 little bit more because there is kind of a smorgasbord of things that we are talking about

00:00:59.780 today. But the main thing we're talking about are the thing that I want to talk about first,

00:01:03.740 at least quickly, because I saw this kind of circulating on social media and I've seen it a

00:01:07.640 million times and it's important to talk about. And that is why God is referred to as a he and why he

00:01:14.900 is necessarily referred to as he. Believe it or not, there are people who push back on this. And this is

00:01:20.500 not a new thing. People have been pushing back on this for probably decades, but especially when

00:01:25.020 third wave feminism seems to be at its like all time fiercest and ugliest, they are trying to

00:01:31.220 manipulate God into being something that he is not. I heard this myth perpetuated on social media the

00:01:38.520 other day that God was never gendered as male in the Bible, that it was never really he.

00:01:45.780 And that actually was added much later because of the patriarchy. That's not true. We'll get into

00:01:53.820 a little bit of that in just a second. Okay, so we're going to answer a few questions today that

00:01:58.160 you guys have. I get so many emails, so many messages every day, either asking like personal

00:02:03.980 advice or asking me what I think about a particular biblical passage or an opinion that someone has

00:02:09.260 shared on social media or a news story. And I don't have time to be able to answer them all.

00:02:14.380 Although I love, I love to answer you guys. I love to message you guys back when I have the

00:02:20.040 opportunity. I just am not always able to. So today I'm taking some of the questions that you

00:02:24.300 guys have. And one of the questions that I've been asked multiple times, and like I said,

00:02:28.500 I've seen this kind of circulating on social media is, is God necessarily a he in the Bible? And this is

00:02:35.240 different than our typical Theology Monday podcast in which we take, you know, one subject,

00:02:40.180 one theme, one cultural happening. And we say, okay, here's what the Bible has to say about this

00:02:45.060 thing. Here's how Christians from a biblical perspective can analyze this particular topic.

00:02:49.960 We've been going through most misused. Last week we did Matthew 7, 1, judge not lest you be judged,

00:02:55.320 and how that's often decontextualized and misapplied. We've done Psalm 37, 4, delight yourself in the

00:03:01.640 Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. What that actually means, and we will pick back up on

00:03:06.680 that. We're going to do that series here and there. You guys have been sending me a lot of

00:03:09.700 verses that you want to dive into, and I'm excited about that. But today I just want to take some of

00:03:15.020 your, take some of your questions and the things that you guys are interested in knowing a little

00:03:19.700 bit more about or talking about, because I don't always have the opportunity to do that on social

00:03:23.940 media and via email when you send them. So like I said, this idea that God may not be a man,

00:03:31.300 that he could be a woman, you know, the Ariana Grande song, that God is a woman. Of course,

00:03:36.080 I don't think she's talking about like Yahweh there. She is making some kind of weird reference

00:03:41.480 that I don't understand because I'm not cool anymore and I'm just not into pop culture. And so

00:03:47.220 I think it's some kind of metaphor, but I don't know. But this idea, I actually saw Glennon Doyle,

00:03:53.600 you know, she is, was the mommy blogger. Now she's an activist, social media person. Anyway,

00:03:59.820 she, uh, refers to God as she often, and that's kind of part of her brand now. And then I saw a

00:04:08.660 comment the other day that said, not by her, but by someone else saying, you know, God was never

00:04:13.720 really referred to as he, that's something that's a tool, that's a product of the patriarchy. So

00:04:19.420 here's my response to that. Since a lot of you guys have asked me to talk about that. Obviously,

00:04:26.080 that's not true. Obviously it's not true that God was gendered later. Now, maybe there is some

00:04:32.300 historical fact about biblical interpretation that I don't know, but even if that was true,

00:04:37.140 even if God was referred to as they, instead of he until a certain point and they changed it,

00:04:43.400 I'm not saying that's true, but even if that were true, uh, that does not erase the fact that God is

00:04:49.840 necessarily a he, why? Because he's not just he, he is also Lord. He is also King. He is also Prince of

00:04:57.920 Peace. He is also father. He is also these very specifically male terms. And why is that? Why

00:05:06.180 is God a he? Well, he is father because, uh, there is a human need for a father that is unlike our need

00:05:15.980 for a mother and God himself fills that need. There is a need for a leader in a King that is

00:05:21.980 different than a need, uh, for a queen or the role that a queen can fill. There is a need for a Prince

00:05:29.920 of Peace that is, uh, different and more dynamic than anything, uh, a female character of the same

00:05:37.740 equivalent could offer. It is important that God is a male because male is represented as headship in

00:05:43.360 the Bible and he created it that way. Adam is created first. Eve is created out of Adam. Um,

00:05:50.060 Christ is depicted as a warrior, as a savior. That is a man. Of course, we know that God made flesh.

00:05:55.540 Jesus came down as a real human man. God is a male for a reason. It's so funny to me that all of these

00:06:01.360 people so concerned with misgendering won't, uh, apply God's preferred, uh, gender pronouns to himself.

00:06:10.540 Yes. God is a male in the sense that he refers to himself as a father, as a King, as a Prince of

00:06:18.860 Peace, as a Lord of Lords. Uh, this is absolutely necessary and there's really no way to get around

00:06:25.820 it. My thing is if that triggers you, if you are triggered by God being a father, then there

00:06:32.780 probably, and I say this truly lovingly, you've probably got daddy issues that you need to deal

00:06:38.540 with yourself. Like there are probably some heart issues in there. If the idea of God being a loving

00:06:44.060 father and a sovereign King triggers you or throws you off. And I mean, trigger sincerely, like if that

00:06:50.520 makes you angry or if that offends you, then you need to probably dig into your own heart and see what

00:06:57.800 past pain, uh, you might be dealing with from, I don't know if it's your father or the men in your

00:07:02.840 life or what idols you're holding onto. If your idol is feminism, yes, it's going to be very difficult

00:07:08.600 for you to see God, the authority, uh, of heaven and earth, the person that you are subject to.

00:07:16.220 It's going to be hard for you to see him as a man. And I'm not saying that God, the father is a man as

00:07:23.060 we, as we see him, but he refers to himself in, uh, these, uh, in these male ways. Uh, that would

00:07:32.120 be very hard for you if you have an idol of feminism, but I would encourage you to let go of

00:07:38.480 that. And I would encourage you to see actually the beauty and the grace and the mercy of viewing God

00:07:43.920 as he depicts himself in the Bible, that maybe there's actually a void in your life, um, of the

00:07:51.100 kind of fatherly love that God gives us and demonstrates throughout scripture. So this is

00:07:57.820 not even a point of contention that Christians should entertain. It's not even interesting to

00:08:03.700 say, well, maybe God was gender fluid. Maybe, you know, Jesus was gender fluid. Some people have

00:08:10.440 argued that some people have argued that Jesus is effeminate. All of that is utter blasphemy. All of

00:08:15.360 that is trying to make God in our image rather than remembering that we are made in his image because we

00:08:20.420 are made in his image because he is the authority, because he tells us what is and what isn't, what's

00:08:25.560 true, what's false, what's good. And what's bad. We can look at God's word and trust that he is who

00:08:30.300 he says he is. Again, it's not just about, Oh, did someone, you know, 2000 years ago change the word

00:08:37.040 they to he it's how God refers to himself throughout the Bible and what his fatherness, his kingship

00:08:43.300 actually represents as not just the head of the church, but the head of the universe. That is why that

00:08:49.760 is important. Man is depicted as the source of woman in Adam and Eve and Jesus as the head of the

00:08:58.800 church. And that is a male role in the same way that a husband is the head of the wife. Christ is

00:09:06.060 the head of the church. That is purposeful. That is purposeful. And again, that goes into kind of the

00:09:12.300 conversation that we've had about the importance of biblical marriage, that biblical marriage is not

00:09:17.060 just a matter. We didn't just get that from a few random verses that speak about homosexuality. We

00:09:22.220 get that from the beginning of Genesis, how God defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

00:09:27.280 And we also see that reiterated in the new Testament as a reflection of Christ and the church. The male

00:09:33.480 and female dynamic is necessary for Christian marriage. We see that reiterated over and over again

00:09:39.280 throughout the Bible. And in the new Testament, all the way into revelation, we see the gospel,

00:09:44.460 spiritual, spiritual, eternal significance of that specific dichotomy of a male and female

00:09:50.000 in covenantal marriage and that representing Christ in the church. So it's much bigger than,

00:09:55.800 again, people either saying, oh, they're just a few pronouns or they're just a couple of verses

00:09:59.800 about what marriage is. If you are looking at the Bible with the question of how can I fit this

00:10:06.300 scripture into my worldview, you're always going to come up with kooky stuff like that.

00:10:10.180 I heard someone the other day saying it was an amazing interpretation. It was this video that

00:10:18.060 was going around and it was this female pastor. So there you go. But she was saying, yes, women are

00:10:24.680 able to lead churches. They're able to, you know, pastor men and all of that. And we actually know

00:10:30.200 that that's forbidden in scripture. And she was saying the reason is, is because, okay, Jesus is the

00:10:37.740 word made flesh. And if Mary delivered the word, then we too are able to deliver the word. We too

00:10:43.900 are able to deliver Jesus. First of all, that's not what that verse means. She actually starts out

00:10:49.340 the video saying, blah, blah, blah, word made flesh. So, you know, you know, when people refer to

00:10:54.240 scripture as blah, blah, blah, that it's probably going to be something very inspired coming out of

00:10:59.760 their mouths next. So not only is that not what that verse means and not what Mary's delivery

00:11:05.740 actually means for women, because it's the Bible doesn't contradict itself. That is obviously

00:11:12.240 incorrect. And that's exactly what happens. That's exactly what happens when we look at scripture and

00:11:18.500 we ask the question, how can I fit scripture into my preconceived notions of what the world is or my

00:11:27.080 own personal worldview or my subjective feelings? How can I be as, as little inconvenience as possible?

00:11:34.020 How can I feel as good about myself as possible? When I look at scripture, how can I avoid repentance

00:11:43.940 as much as possible, avoid sanctification as much as possible? How can I stay as comfortable as

00:11:51.200 possible? If that is your idea, when you are looking at scripture, or if you are trying to fit scripture,

00:11:56.780 certain verses into your worldview, rather than trying to subject your worldview and subject your opinions

00:12:02.880 and subject your feelings and your comfort and all of that to scripture, then we're always going to

00:12:07.660 come up with kooky ideas of, oh no, God didn't really mean that marriage is between a man and a

00:12:12.940 woman. Oh no, God didn't really mean that male and female are different. God didn't really mean that

00:12:17.120 the husband is the head of the wife. God didn't really mean that a woman isn't supposed to teach a man

00:12:23.620 in church or lead a local church. God didn't really mean those things. Surely he didn't really mean that we

00:12:30.740 were supposed to repent from our sins. Surely he didn't mean all of that because God didn't know

00:12:37.540 the things that we would be going through right now. God didn't know how we would feel. God didn't

00:12:41.300 know all of the things that would be popular. So surely God didn't mean what he said in the Bible,

00:12:48.600 right? And then you start getting people saying things like, Paul's not Jesus. Paul's different than

00:12:54.520 Jesus. And what Paul said, we can kind of take it or leave it. That's amazing hubris, by the way,

00:13:01.560 to be able for you to decide what part of the biblical canon has authority and which one doesn't,

00:13:06.800 even though scripture says that everything is, that all scripture is God-breathed. So you get

00:13:12.560 people saying things like that. They separate the words of Jesus from the words of Paul, thinking that

00:13:17.680 that is going to give them an out. Well, that, when people tell you Jesus is not Paul, or when people

00:13:23.540 tell you, you know, Paul's word isn't inerrant. Yes, Paul's word isn't inerrant, but what is in the

00:13:31.300 biblical canon we believe is inerrant because it's fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and therefore

00:13:35.940 it's sufficient for our instruction and encouragement and reproof and all of that. So someone who disregards

00:13:41.640 the words of Paul is not really important or just suggestions or just opinions, they have a

00:13:46.820 fundamental misunderstanding of scripture and a fundamental misunderstanding, I would say, of the

00:13:52.080 Trinity. Because if the word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit and Jesus and the Holy Spirit

00:13:58.500 are three in one with the Father, then Jesus's words and Paul's words, or God through Paul,

00:14:06.700 we don't separate them and say, okay, you know, wine is one we should listen to, one we shouldn't

00:14:12.920 listen to. No, we listen to all of it because it's all God's word. That's why we call the Bible God's

00:14:17.860 word, not just the red letters that Jesus said God's word. We call all of it God's word. And plus

00:14:23.220 it's people think that, oh, if I just read what Jesus said, then I don't have to worry about the

00:14:28.800 sin stuff. Jesus talks about hell more than he talks about heaven. I sometimes wonder if the people

00:14:34.500 who call themselves, you know, red letter Christians who say, let's just focus on what Jesus said, not what

00:14:38.760 Paul said or anything else in the Bible. Like, have you actually read what Jesus says though? He's a

00:14:44.580 pretty intense guy. He's a pretty intense God. He cares about sin. Do you remember the part when he

00:14:50.020 went to the cross? He died for your sin? Yeah, that's how much he cares about it. He died a death

00:14:56.740 that he didn't have to die. He lived a life that he didn't have to live to pay for your sin. How dare

00:15:01.800 us keep on sinning and rejoice over our sin, celebrate our sin, and try to fit our sin into scripture or try to

00:15:10.600 fit scripture into our sin when he paid the price for that sin already. I sometimes wonder if the

00:15:16.120 people who say, let's just listen to Jesus and not the rest of the Bible have actually listened to

00:15:20.420 Jesus. But like I said, when you go to the Bible and you say, what can I get away with? How can I stay

00:15:27.360 the most comfortable possible? How can I not have any of my feelings or desires challenged at all? You're

00:15:34.920 going to come up with some really kooky theology. But when we go into the Bible and we ask the question,

00:15:40.200 who is God and what is his will, then that starts to change us. That starts to change us. And if we

00:15:47.320 pray for wisdom and we study scripture, we meditate on scripture, then we will change. God will change

00:15:56.000 us from the inside out. That is the power of his word through the Holy Spirit. That's the amazing

00:16:01.920 thing. But if we are using scripture as a means to our either political ends, social ends, personal

00:16:08.060 ends, relational ends, then we won't end up changing. We'll actually end up growing very bitter and

00:16:13.800 confused and disappointed. And very likely we will end up losing faith if, you know, for lack of a better

00:16:19.460 term, losing faith altogether, because the Bible no longer really fits into what we believe anymore.

00:16:26.560 Eventually, you'll say the Bible is not even really necessary for me to build my worldview. If you're just

00:16:31.500 picking and choosing verses to fit into what you what you want to believe. So again, my encouragement

00:16:36.940 is that when we go to the word of God, whether we're, you know, trying to figure out whether or

00:16:41.420 not God really refers to himself as a male for our purpose, whether we're trying to figure out marriage

00:16:46.260 or the roles of men and women, the role of the church and all of that, our question is, who is God

00:16:52.940 and what's his will? And how can we best conform to that so that we can better worship him, which is the

00:16:59.460 sole goal of our entire lives? Okay, now I'm going to answer some of your questions.

00:17:04.740 So here is here's an awesome question that really goes with this. So someone asked me

00:17:10.800 biblical texts to refute the claim that God is sexist. So this is what I like to do when people

00:17:19.660 try to throw something like that at me. And they, they think that they have caught me not this person

00:17:26.700 who's asking the question. But I'm guessing someone asked you this question, and they're trying to catch

00:17:31.700 you in this trap. And people who ask me, you know, isn't God sexist? They're just trying to trap you.

00:17:37.280 They think that they've got you. They don't actually really want to know the answer to it.

00:17:41.800 But what I like to do is to ask questions. So why do you think God is sexist? What makes you think

00:17:48.120 God is sexist? Because what people who, you know, don't like Christianity, who want to disprove you,

00:17:53.540 they, what they want to do is put you on the defense. It's the same thing. If you're trying to

00:17:57.980 have a conversation about abortion, they're putting you on the defense. When in reality,

00:18:03.000 yours is the, yours is the logical, truthful position. So they should be on the defense.

00:18:07.340 Well, you know, why do you believe it's okay to kill a child inside the womb? Or why don't you

00:18:12.540 believe in God? How, how do you think we all got here? Why do you think there's a right and wrong?

00:18:18.140 Really? That's a more fantastical view. And so they should be on the defense.

00:18:21.580 So this question, what I consider an illogical question, kind of crazy question, is, is God is

00:18:29.780 sexist? I want to know, well, what do you mean by sexist? Why, why do you believe that God is sexist?

00:18:34.260 What I'm guessing this person means, not this person who asked, but this person who's being

00:18:38.580 asked this question, I assume. Um, what I'm assuming that they mean is that God prefers men

00:18:46.980 over women. And I'll just be honest with you. I understand. I totally understand this feeling. I

00:18:53.460 do. I'm not going to just pretend like, how could you, how would you possibly think that there's no

00:18:58.460 reason to think that? No. I mean, there is definitely, God does ordain a patriarchy. He

00:19:03.940 does. He ordains a patriarchy, uh, not just in the old Testament, but also in the family. Like the man

00:19:10.140 is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church, like we said, and that is a

00:19:14.980 patriarchy. And that is for our good. That is for the woman's good. God does, uh, or the Bible does

00:19:21.620 say that the woman is the weaker vessel. The Bible does say that women are more easily deceived than

00:19:28.060 men are. And so if you, um, especially for those of us who have been raised, whether we like it or

00:19:34.700 not, guys, all of us, Christian conservative, unless we have just been like hold away from the world and

00:19:41.020 we have never entered into, you know, popular culture at all, we have all been infected by

00:19:47.540 feminism. We have all been affected by feminism. We have all got this idea in our head that I am a

00:19:54.740 strong, independent woman who can do absolutely everything. I can do anything. A man can, I should

00:19:59.540 do anything. A man can actually, I can do better things than a man can. And I want to have an egalitarian

00:20:05.040 marriage. Some people say, I want to have the exact same role as my husband. There's no need for this

00:20:11.660 complementarian stuff. And there are a lot of Christians who believe this. They believe that

00:20:17.240 any kind of difference in role between a man and a woman is inherently unequal. That is why you have

00:20:22.940 people saying that women should be able to pastor a church, despite what first Timothy says about that.

00:20:27.740 Um, and the problem with that, the problem with that is that obviously it's not true. The difference

00:20:37.340 in role between a man, a man and a woman, according to God's word does not mean that God doesn't value

00:20:42.780 the woman. On the contrary, it means that he values her very much. Like if we look at Ephesians 5,

00:20:47.820 for example, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

00:20:52.220 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water, by the word, so that he might

00:20:57.240 present the church to himself in the splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that

00:21:01.640 she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their

00:21:08.440 own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes

00:21:14.740 and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body. Does that sound

00:21:21.180 to you like a God who doesn't care about women, who doesn't care about the wife, instructing a husband

00:21:28.560 to love, to love his wife in the same way that Christ loved the church? Christ died for the church.

00:21:34.740 Christ bled on a cross for the church. Christ sacrificed his life for the church, gave himself

00:21:40.260 up for her that he might sanctify her. In the same way, a husband is to lay down his life for his wife

00:21:46.340 that she might be sanctified. He is committed to her holiness. He is committed to her spiritual,

00:21:51.880 to her emotional, to her physical well-being. He lays down everything for her. That is what the

00:21:59.220 Christian husband is called to. The Christian patriarch of the family is called to. To utter in total

00:22:06.320 submission, submissive authority to his wife. And the wife is also called to submit to her husband

00:22:14.560 as she submits to the Lord. And that is the kind of husband that we want to submit to. It's the kind

00:22:21.300 of husband that is laying down his life constantly for the interests, for the needs of his family,

00:22:27.080 particularly his wife, so that she may be presented as holy, spotless, without blemish before the Lord.

00:22:34.940 And of course, whether or not we have a husband who perfectly emulates this every day,

00:22:39.740 we are still called to submission as wives to our husbands. So if you say the verse that says wives

00:22:52.240 are supposed to submit to their husbands, if you say that, well, that is inherently sexist because

00:22:57.340 he never calls husbands to submit to their wives, read this chapter. It's not the same way. Yes,

00:23:03.380 the husband is the head of the wife. It's not the exact same kind of submission that a husband does

00:23:08.320 to his wife, but it is absolutely self-sacrificial service. That, to me, tells me that God values

00:23:15.460 women just as much as he values men. He just has a different role for them because egalitarianism

00:23:22.140 in marriage just doesn't work out very well. There has to be some kind of headship structure,

00:23:27.700 some kind of authority that says, okay, at the end of the day, I am ultimately responsible

00:23:33.180 for the protection, for the provision, for the direction, for the spiritual well-being

00:23:38.420 of my family. That is the man's role. And we get to rejoice as wives that that's not our

00:23:45.000 responsibility. We have lots of responsibility. We have responsibilities over the children,

00:23:49.380 over things of the home. Not saying that a man can't do anything in the home. I'm not saying that

00:23:54.720 a woman can't make decisions. Obviously, I think that you can probably pick that up from who I am and

00:24:00.180 how I am, if you've been following me for any length of time. But the roles that God has placed

00:24:05.960 for men and women are for our good and are for our protection. And we can try to argue all we want to

00:24:13.600 against the nature that the Bible depicts of women as being easily deceived, as being the weaker

00:24:20.220 vessels. But I think if we laid down our pride, if we laid down our ego for a second, we would say,

00:24:25.400 that's true. Maybe not in every single instance. And I am talking as a very opinionated, a very

00:24:35.780 outspoken, I would say a very strong-willed woman. I can look at something like that. And even though

00:24:41.920 it rubs my pride the wrong way, I realize that it's pride and ego that's stopping me from agreeing

00:24:46.920 with the God of Scripture who created woman. The idea that God is sexist goes against every single

00:24:56.500 thing that we know about God and creation and how he structures things. Even if we look at Genesis,

00:25:03.320 how woman was made, if man was refined from dust and woman was a refinement of man, then we can know

00:25:13.560 that God sees us as glorious image bearers alongside our husbands. We are called Isaiah. We are called

00:25:22.240 the helper to come alongside the man. If we are married, women are made in the image of God. They

00:25:28.780 are valuable. They are integral parts of the church. We see several roles for women within the church in

00:25:34.780 the New Testament as evangelists, as teachers of women and of children, of moms, of we see in Proverbs

00:25:43.300 31, the kind of enterprising and clever and strong and wise and kind woman that Scripture calls us all

00:25:54.220 to be through the power of Christ. And so I would say that Scripture has an extremely high view of

00:26:01.660 women. Can you show me any other world religion that views women, that cherishes women as much as

00:26:08.140 Christianity does? I can't. Certainly not Islam. You're not going to find the kind of reverence

00:26:16.140 for women. And obviously, I mean that in an earthly way, not in a blasphemous way. You're not going to

00:26:20.980 find the kind of preciousness of women in any other world religion except for biblical Christianity.

00:26:30.780 You're just not going to be able to find it. I mean, think about how Jesus treated women. He

00:26:37.680 talked to women that had probably never been talked to respectfully. They probably couldn't

00:26:42.440 remember the last time they had been spoken to respectfully. The woman at the well who had five

00:26:47.180 husbands. Jesus met her at the well, had a conversation with her. The woman who was caught in

00:26:51.440 adultery, who looked at her and said, for any of you who want to condemn her, want to stone her,

00:26:58.880 if any of you haven't sinned, you can be the one to throw the first stone. The woman who had been

00:27:04.220 bleeding for 11 years, who touched him, he turned around and he paid attention to her. He looked at

00:27:11.740 her. He didn't have to do that. She touched his robe and he said that he, or the Bible says that he

00:27:18.300 felt power go out. He could have just kept going. He turned around and he looked at her. Mary, the mother

00:27:23.220 of Jesus obviously has a very significant role. Martha obviously has a very significant role in

00:27:29.060 the Bible. In the Old Testament, we've got Ruth, we've got Hannah, we've got Esther, we've got Rachel,

00:27:34.880 we've got Sarah, we've got all of these amazing, amazing women of the Bible that God saw fit to

00:27:45.140 highlight and God saw fit to use. I don't know any other religion that honors women the way that

00:27:52.380 Christianity does as image bearers of God and as useful vessels for God's work. So God being sexist,

00:27:58.680 it's impossible. It's impossible for God to be sexist. He created us and he created us in his

00:28:04.360 image and he ascribes us value and he gives a lot of value. Okay, next question. Your thoughts,

00:28:13.120 this is totally different and I'm only going to be able to get to a couple because I kind of got

00:28:16.820 super into that one. Next question, your thoughts on Santa Claus. So I was actually talking about this

00:28:21.880 the other day on Instagram because I don't know what exactly we're going to do. There are, you know,

00:28:31.160 there are parents that I've talked to that do Santa Claus and it's perfectly fine. Like I believed in

00:28:35.380 Santa Claus growing up and growing up not for very long. I actually found out when I was six that

00:28:41.420 Santa Claus isn't real because I believed in the tooth fairy, you know, you really just start losing

00:28:46.780 teeth when you're five or six. And I remember there was like something on my window in my bedroom and

00:28:53.920 I thought that the tooth fairy left it. There was like a piece of tape or something. And I remember

00:28:57.680 telling my brother who was 16 at the time, oh, that's from the tooth fairy. And he rolled his eyes

00:29:02.740 and said, that's stupid. And it was at that point that I said, oh, this isn't real. And then I kind of

00:29:10.720 started to connect the dots as a lot of kids do. So I was young, six years old when I figured out,

00:29:15.500 and I was very upset. I remember being mad at my mom that they had lied to me. And I think it kind

00:29:24.040 of like hurt a little bit because we had done all this stuff. Like, you know, I would make milk and

00:29:28.280 cookies for Santa Claus. I would put out fruit on the porch for Rudolph that my parents would like take

00:29:36.920 a bite out of. And so all of these things, of course, in my mind were proof that Santa Claus

00:29:41.860 was real. And you don't really think about the logistics of him making it around the world in

00:29:46.700 one night, because if you're a Christian, you believe in God and you believe that God has

00:29:51.020 supernatural abilities that you can't comprehend. And so at that point, you don't know that Santa

00:29:56.360 Claus can't too. So thinking about all of that, am I, you know, I'm not resentful at all that I

00:30:02.140 believed in Santa Claus. It was perfectly fine. I never had a moment of saying, oh, if Santa Claus

00:30:06.900 is not real, maybe God's not real. I never, I never had that moment. And it was all well and good.

00:30:13.000 Now, I don't know if we will, if we will tell our daughter about Santa Claus. We might in the sense

00:30:21.920 that, okay, here's the story of Santa Claus. And here's who, you know, St. Nicholas was. And,

00:30:29.400 you know, this is something that is a part of Christmas. This is a theme of Christmas,

00:30:34.860 but this is not what Christmas is about. I don't know that I want to start telling her

00:30:39.580 about the existence of someone who's not real, because the Bible does tell us not to lie.

00:30:45.600 And it is a little bit of a lie. It is. I mean, it is. It is a lie. Now, of course, parents tell their

00:30:52.460 kids certain things, explain certain things to their kids in ways that they can understand that might not

00:30:57.880 be the whole truth. But I think Santa Claus is a little bit different than that. You're just kind

00:31:02.380 of straight up making up a story. And I'm not sure that it's right. I know this is going to say some

00:31:09.140 people aren't going to like this, not judging you, but I'm not sure that it's right to kind of,

00:31:15.020 I don't know, manipulate their naivete, their innocence into believing something just because

00:31:23.240 it's fun for a few years. So I don't think that we're going to do it, but parents have done it

00:31:29.280 the right way there. I, like I said, I believed it. And if you have your kids believing in Santa

00:31:34.460 Claus, you know, it's fine. Your kids are going to grow up and thrive and be perfectly fine. And

00:31:41.420 I'm sure it's a whole lot of fun, but there, I think there's probably a balance to it. Like you

00:31:46.720 don't want to be a joy sucker and you don't want them to be the kind of kid that's going to school

00:31:52.000 and being like, yo, here I am rolling up at preschool. Santa's not real. Bye. I mean,

00:31:58.640 you don't want your kid to be that kid. Do you? No. And so I think there are conversations

00:32:02.720 surrounding that and you can talk about the story and all that good stuff. But yeah, I don't think

00:32:07.240 that, I don't think that we are going to, unless something changes my mind, but I don't think

00:32:11.560 that we're going to say, you know, Santa left you these presents. That's also just like a lot of work

00:32:18.080 and a lot of secrecy. And I would, it would probably end up like she would see me putting

00:32:22.500 the presents under the tree and it'd be this whole dramatic thing and ruin Christmas.

00:32:25.840 So I don't want to do that. Um, someone asks me, do newborns go to heaven? So this is a very good

00:32:37.060 question. And I defer to John Piper on this, who is far more learned than I am. By the way,

00:32:43.820 a lot of you ask me what podcasts I listen to. Ask Pastor John is a podcast that I listen

00:32:49.220 to pretty frequently. They're like 10 minute podcasts. Someone, uh, submits a question and

00:32:53.780 he answers it. Um, and he has answered before. I don't know if it was on the podcast or on his

00:32:59.560 website, Desiring God, do newborns go to heaven? Now, the reason why this is complicated is because

00:33:05.420 we believe as, you know, reformed Christians, we believe in something called total depravity,

00:33:11.040 that we are, um, inherently simple, that we don't have to learn sin, that we are, as the Bible says,

00:33:17.260 born in iniquity. We know sin in the core of our being. We are guilty, uh, no matter in,

00:33:25.120 we are guilty automatically, not it's, we're not guilty when we, um, you know, reach an age of

00:33:31.600 accountability. We have sin inside of us from the very beginning. You don't have to teach a toddler

00:33:36.940 how to sin. You have to teach a toddler how to share. You don't have to teach a toddler how to

00:33:41.820 be selfish and to take away a toy or to disobey you or to lie. Like we are born with selfish ambition

00:33:49.000 to look out for our own happiness and our own preservation. And sin is a part of that. And so

00:33:55.460 we believe in total depravity. So the question is, if we believe in that, are newborns, are babies in the

00:34:01.080 womb guilty then? If we are totally depraved from the inside, from, you know, the very beginning,

00:34:07.320 are babies guilty and worthy of hell? And the answer to that, um, according to, I would say,

00:34:14.180 according to scripture, but through what I have learned through the interpretation of John Piper,

00:34:18.420 the answer is no, babies do not go to hell. And the answer for that is because God is just,

00:34:25.860 because God is gracious. And yes, every single soul that ends up with Jesus, uh, in heaven,

00:34:33.060 in paradise, will have to be reconciled by Jesus Christ, uh, without faith in Christ. No one sees

00:34:40.460 God. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the father except through him.

00:34:45.100 And so we believe that God makes a way for these babies who die as infants, uh, children who die,

00:34:52.580 uh, before they are able to comprehend, uh, people with special needs who are unable to

00:34:59.900 comprehend babies in the womb, that God will make a way for them through Christ in a way that we

00:35:06.720 don't fully understand. But because we know that God is gracious and just and good and sovereign,

00:35:12.660 that is what we believe. Um, John Piper, uh, I don't remember the exact title of the article,

00:35:19.440 but I'll try to post it if you guys are interested in kind of digging into his biblical interpretation

00:35:24.480 of that. But the answer is yes, we believe that newborns, this was, uh, you specifically said in

00:35:31.000 this question, two months go to heaven. The answer is yes, absolutely. Um, okay. Last question. Um,

00:35:40.280 two good, two good questions, a few good questions, a few good questions. Okay. I'll,

00:35:50.600 they're quick questions. So I will do a couple of them. Uh, what Bible would you recommend reading?

00:35:55.900 This is my ESV study Bible. As you can see, it's kind of worn out because a, a friend got it for me

00:36:02.640 in 2011 and I absolutely love it. Some people swear by the new King James version. That's fine too.

00:36:09.580 I think that's another good interpretation through American standard version. That's fine too. NIV is

00:36:15.400 just a little bit loosey goosey with the interpretation. And so, or translation. And so

00:36:20.860 I probably wouldn't go with that. I also use this, uh, Hebrew, Greek keyword study Bible that I find

00:36:29.020 helpful. I am still learning how to navigate it. And then I just happened to have my resources right

00:36:34.700 in front of me. I also have, this is, oh, I'm showing this to the camera, by the way,

00:36:40.460 if you are not watching this, you can see it on YouTube. I also have this, uh, systematic theology

00:36:46.100 book by Wayne Grudem. There are a lot of other really great resources. These are not the only three

00:36:51.000 resources that you can use, but these answer a lot of my questions because I have a ton of questions as

00:36:56.840 I'm reading the Bible. If I don't have my study Bible with me, which sometimes I don't, and I read

00:37:02.820 it on my phone. Um, but if I don't have my study Bible with me, I have a million bajillion questions.

00:37:08.480 I ask a ton of questions every time I'm reading because there are phrases, words, sentences that I

00:37:14.180 just don't understand. I don't know how to apply it. I don't know what the context is. I don't know

00:37:17.340 what the original translation was. And all of that is important to me because I really,

00:37:20.840 I really want to know what's true and what's real and what this actually means, not just what I feel

00:37:27.740 like. Um, another question that has nothing to do with that. How do you meal plan? I don't meal plan.

00:37:32.700 I don't meal plan. I wish that I did. Now I'm probably going to get some of you reaching out

00:37:36.660 to me, telling me how I can meal plan, which is totally fine. You can't give me your advice.

00:37:41.360 That's something that I need to do better. So I have been totally inundated with my book

00:37:45.940 that's coming out at the beginning of May. And, um, I am so excited about it, but I am also really

00:37:53.960 excited. And I think I can say this. I'm really excited about it being done. Not because I haven't

00:37:59.540 enjoyed writing it because I have, but it has consumed a lot of my time. And I am in this thing.

00:38:07.640 I'm a perfectionist. I'm not a perfectionist in all things, but I am a perfectionist in this.

00:38:12.660 I've never done something this permanent. When I do a podcast the next week, I can say,

00:38:17.860 Oh, you know, I said this, that was a misspoke or I said the wrong thing, or I thought about this.

00:38:24.100 Here's the correction. No big deal. But a book is so permanent. If I say the wrong thing,

00:38:30.420 then it's just out there and people read it and they maybe don't see my correction or my caveat or

00:38:36.800 whatever it is. And so that kind of freaks me out. And I have like, I've rewritten the same thing

00:38:43.740 over and over again. I've added a million things. I've taken away things and all that. So because of

00:38:49.800 that, I feel like I've just kind of like a little bit been drowning just a tad. But, um, so meal planning

00:38:58.900 has been non-existent. I don't, I can't even tell you what I've eaten for lunch. Cheese? I don't know.

00:39:04.460 So not healthy. It hasn't been, it hasn't been good. And if I were a more naturally organized

00:39:10.480 person, it probably would have been easier, but I'm not something I struggle with. Something I

00:39:17.520 struggle with is being organized. It's always been true since I was little. I could never keep

00:39:21.740 track of my pens, get school supplies at the beginning of the year, two weeks in, lost all my

00:39:25.800 pens and pencils. Still how I am. Just not naturally organized. So maybe one day I'll meal plan. Maybe

00:39:30.980 that'll be one of my goals for 2020. I also want to do a podcast on not just goals for 2020, but, um,

00:39:39.700 how like looking back at 2019, cause I was thinking about all of the beliefs, thoughts that I've had

00:39:46.160 that in ways that you probably wouldn't realize, but I realized have changed in the way that God has

00:39:52.900 sanctified me and rid me of things that I believe that I didn't realize that I believed and how he's

00:39:58.280 convicted me in certain ways. And I want to encourage you to kind of do the same thing. And so I want to

00:40:03.140 talk about like a year in review and also give you tools to think about your, your view too, because

00:40:08.580 I think it's really important as we thank God for all the things that he's done and given us the things

00:40:12.920 that we prayed for that we didn't even realize he answered. Um, I think it's important for us to kind

00:40:17.320 of take a step back and to remember the goodness and the grace that he has shown to us. And also to

00:40:22.640 look forward to the things that he has in store, whatever they may be. Okay. That is all today.

00:40:29.520 I will be back here on Wednesday with some updates on the news and I will see you then.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - December 09, 2019

Ep 195 ｜ Why God Is A ＂He＂

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