3/13/2025 Bible Study at GCC on Proverbs 20:22-21:4. I spoke more this time. So here's some disagreements and agreements:
Proverbs 20:22, can be looked deeper than "vengeance belongs to God". Retribution wasn't quite touched on seriously, though it's not the focus of the verse, it does beg the question, because it's important to not just turn away from all evils.
Proverbs 20:24, Non-Christian view was discussed more: "wanting self-control against God's authority". I tried to focus this from a Christian's perspective, as most Scripture really is targeting Christian listeners, not non-Christians and certainly not for Christians to laugh at non-Christians. Rob rightly pointed to Proberbs 16:9, that a person's active action is still important.
@18:30 Pastor rightly corrected Patty's misunderstanding of verse 25 in reverse: Esau lets go of his birthright. This verse is about claiming something godly, not letting go something godly.
@19:30 Phil rightly used the Acts 5's Ananias with Sapphira's case for verse 25, even though the pastor said it's more about deception. Those who rashly devoted something holy are falsely exercising deception wither one admits it or not. To the pastor's credit on this, the verse is a warning to the seriousness of making vows, the second part of the verse was not "apparent" by Ananias and his wife. However, the entire verse can still be applied to the couple in Acts 5. John Gill would agree with Phil on this verse.
@22:40 Pastor used Martin Luther's example of making vow to become a monk to St. Anne in lightning storm. The pastor seems to want to believe Luther did it out of sincerity, I would agree as Luther did fulfil his vow without a second thought. This is not to justify a praying to a patron saint or being a monk. So I think the pastor used this as a counter example to vain vows.
@23:46 The pastor does not condone marrying a "random" girl just because you got her pregnant, as traditionally imposed. I would say that the pastor is in direct violation of the moral law in Exodus 22:16-17. This disagreement would take a long time and I had a soundbite response/question: "So how is the alternative better, unless doing nothing is always better which is another error". But I did not use that, instead, I foolishly said something based on another assumption, that there's a chance for the child to be raised right despite the fact. I think Phil would also disagree with the pastor as well, if not more in the crowd, but only I, Phil and Nadia spoke up/question the pastor's opinion. @28:50 When Nadia challenged the pastor by piggybacking my response, "What if they meant their vow", she caught his Achilles's heel, because the pastor's response was a bit lame: "They meant it it's good, but this verse is when they don't mean it", as if the pastor was going for either there are fake vows, which is not the context of this verse, or that failure to fulfil a vow invalidate the sincerity at the time of the vow. The pastor is wrong again @29:20 "getting married for cultural reason", the context being the example he gave (so I'm not talking about everyone in the village is married so you must be married), because God does sometimes use cultural pressure as a secondary means of grace to enforce of his precepts, i.e. to maintain a family structure rather than some anti-family orphan upbringing. The fact that "your heart's not there, thus the vow is invalid" is also a stretch. Sometimes holy things can be passively moved by God. Also, the alternative can only be worse anyway (viz. Destruction of society) so man up and learn the vow. Other than Phil and I or Nadia, seems like everyone else's responses really just somehow missed the fact that they are comfortable with abandoning the baby or giving the baby away somehow, for I don't know how else are you caring for your baby rightly before God if you are not a married parents. The pastor would only be right if we are applying absolutely the principle of "other people's business is none of our business" which I would say is unbiblical for a Christian.
@33:10 Nadia rightly brought up Jephthah and his daughter. It seems that the pastor is one opined with the idea that he killed his daughter, which I would also agree.
@43:20 Proverbs 20:30 I can agree with the pastor, that this is not just about spare the rod spoil the child, but also corporal punishment. However, our differences come when the pastor does not condone non-relative's corporal punishment (@48:45). This only raise a lot of obvious questions: Define corporal punishment (i.e. does pushups count? running rounds? writing 20 lines on the board?, etc.), so the government has no right to punish...corporally? etc. I foolishly again to just claim that I was more familiar with corporal punishment when the pastor said [in the modern West] that corporal punishment is a strange thing. I should have worded better, i.e. "we, the East, don't agree the American way, but we also need to play smart by not getting into the legal issues of the West" @46:50 Though Esther's parents are wise to schedule corporal punishment, so not to mix abuse of anger, "despising you" with God's wrath, I do not agree (even after discussing with the pastor briefly after the session) that it was right for her father to apologize while executing the punishment. To quote 2 Peter 3:9 "...not wanting anyone to perish..." or that @1:08:20 "no judge really wants to kill anybody" [shifting to capital punishment--off topic?] being harmed and thus maybe apologizing (or proclaiming "regret") to the criminal for the punishment levied, still do not justify saying sorry or feeling bad or tearing up while executing the judgment. It is not biblical because like God, we do not mix justice with mercy/regret/sadness/apology, and certainly not apology. It actually is a kind of unholiness. Perhaps Rob agrees with me I don't know @1:11:25. Execution of punishment does not imply desire to punish. Apologizing in sorrow and tears does not properly convey the true goal of discipline (erroneously advocating compassion from sinners instead is having sinners own their sins and repent for the grace of God).
Proverbs 21:3 @52:15 Nadia enjoyed bringing up Taylor Swift's line "Band aids don't fix bullet holes. You say sorry just for show", to the pastor's agreement of the use of this example. and even playing it in the car again.
@53:20 Mary pushed beyond the decided last verse of the day to verse 4. I appreciate the pastor @54:10 being honest indicating he's not prepared to answer that after giving a brief explanation. I believe others have expressed praise for this rare character of the pastor as well. @54:03 On verse 4's "plowing of the wicked" Interesting that Elizabeth's Bible version "fallow ground..." is LSB (Legacy Standard Bible) which is from John MacArthur's The Master's Seminary in 2021. And interestingly, the word ניר H5215 for plowing or fallow ground could also mean lamp H5216 (HASB, ESV, NIV).
A comparison of AI: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity.
3/12/2025 So far the best interactive map plotting all battlefields since 2500 BC. Using Wikipedia as source.
Chinese titles for foreigners explained: 老外，洋人，鬼佬 (Cantonese)=白人/诡诈：
The video did not mention 红毛人(Hokkien), but that's self-explanatory.
We spent 3 cents to make a penny. Hence Trump wants to stop it:
Tin Pan Alley, 28th Street between 5th and 6th Ave., historical landmark for music, Mr You had a video at the end of this clip about it (the next video below this is the full version 5 years ago), I should open my eyes next time I come across it, as it's so close to NYGC: