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051 | Ask Anything Q&A | Part 2
203 Plays4 years ago
In this quick question and answer episode Phy chats through Sabbath, sharing the gospel with kids, prayer at mealtimes, women pastors and Marvel movie marathons.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Aim
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Verity. I'm your host, Felicia Mason-Heimer, an author, speaker, and Bible teacher. This podcast will help you embrace the history and depth of the Christian faith, ask questions, seek answers, and devote yourself to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. You don't have to settle for watered down Christian teaching. And if you're ready to go deeper, God is just as ready to take you there. This is Verity, where every woman is a theologian.
Ask Anything Theology Episode
00:00:30
Speaker
It's that time again, you guys. Time for another Ask Anything theology episode. I low-key love these episodes so much because I love anything that's rapid fire and I can kind of get through a lot at once, which is probably saying a little bit about my personality, but I don't know. I feel like you get more bang for your buck because you're getting multiple topics in short little snippets each episode. I don't know. You feel me? You know what I'm talking about?
00:00:59
Speaker
OK, so we're going to cruise through as many as I can get through these questions. I have answered these on my Instagram before, but I wanted to have a more permanent place to put these. And then maybe I'll add a little bit of a bonus personal question and answer towards the end. So let's start with this question.
Theological Perspectives on Identity
00:01:18
Speaker
If we are in Christ, do we no longer have the identity of a sinner in need of grace? I think this is a really good question.
00:01:26
Speaker
And it really goes back to your theological perspective. So typically where we see a lot of this discussion of a sinner in need of grace or saying a sinner saved by grace, you know, in your Instagram profile, et cetera, is in the reformed or Calvinistic community. And that's a lot to do with their salvation theology, which is total depravity, meaning total inability. So little review, if you haven't listened to the Calvinism episode, but Calvinists believe
00:01:56
Speaker
in total depravity, which is more than just original sin. It also means you are totally unable to respond to God's call for salvation because of your sin. Whereas a classical Arminian would say, no, God in his sovereignty has bestowed you with the ability to respond to his call. A Calvinist would disagree. And so because of that, there tends to be more of an emphasis on your state as a sinner.
00:02:27
Speaker
There's other elements, of course, too, but that's a big part of it. So that would be why this narrative, I'm a sinner saved by grace. So I could never have responded to God at all because I'm a sinner. He saved me purely by grace. There was nothing in me whatsoever that was able to respond to him. That's where that phrase usually comes from. So as someone who is a reformed dominion,
00:02:52
Speaker
I do not agree with this statement because I think that consistently throughout the New Testament, we see that we have a changed identity that were adopted as sons, that we are wearing the righteousness of Christ. And so if we are wearing the righteousness of Christ, if we are greeted as saints, as Paul was greeting people in Christ as saints, that's my identity. And so I would rather say it as I'm a saint who sometimes sins. And when I do sin,
00:03:21
Speaker
I have access to the Father through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is it longer? Yes. Is it not as cute in an Instagram profile? Probably. Is it more accurate? In my opinion, yes.
Sabbath Practices and Family Prayer Routine
00:03:36
Speaker
Okay. The next question is, do you practice Sabbath and what does that look like for you? Yes, Josh and I, our family, we do practice Sabbath. And part of the importance of practicing Sabbath is to us that it is one of the 10 commandments.
00:03:49
Speaker
It did not pass away. It just changed when Jesus came as the fulfillment of the theocratic law. So when Jesus came, he took the law to a new level. He fulfilled it within himself. And yet at the same time, in the ushering in of the church, you had a change in how that was practiced. And so very early on, as the non-Jews began to join
00:04:17
Speaker
the Christian church, because of course it started among the Jews. As the non-Jews or Gentiles began to join the church, you end up with a change in how the Sabbath is celebrated. And eventually to celebrate resurrection day, the day Jesus rose from the dead, Sunday became the day where you gathered for church and became the day of rest. And so by the time we get to the Puritans, it's still Sunday that's being
00:04:47
Speaker
celebrated a very strict Sabbath observance on Sunday. And I mean that you go all the way up into the 1950s, most things were closed on Sundays. So all this to say, we observe our Sabbath on Sunday for church history reasons. And part of what we do is we attend church together.
00:05:07
Speaker
It's really important, especially as we come out of COVID, to begin connecting with your local church body. I cannot stress that enough, how important it is to get back into real life community. Online church is not church. It's a sermon, it's teaching, but it's not church because church is meant to be lived in real life community. And so we try to make that a priority. We've been back in church since November, but specifically January, because November was a little spotty. And after church, we come home.
00:05:36
Speaker
And we usually read, make some lunch, rest around the house. Sometimes we'll watch the chosen or the girls can watch a Bible story. We go outside. We might have people over. We might go to the beach, just really quiet, relaxing things that we can all do together. And then in the evening, Josh and I will plan for the week after the sun has set. The next question is, what is your family's routine for praying at meal times? Who says grace?
00:06:04
Speaker
So we all can say grace. We can all pray at meal times. Sometimes it's Josh. Sometimes it's me. Sometimes it's Adeline or Eva, or maybe it's all of us. We will all take turns. It just depends on the day. We want to create a culture where prayer is very normal. We want to create a culture where everyone is able to pray and feels comfortable talking to the Lord. And that's not just at meal times. That's any time. That's bedtime. That's throughout the day.
00:06:28
Speaker
We teach our girls that anytime they're frustrated or angry or upset or hurting that they can talk to Jesus about that. And so that carries over to our meal times too. Okay, another question about kids. It says, you've talked about how you focus on heaven and not hell with your kids.
Teaching Kids about Salvation
00:06:45
Speaker
Is this in a highlight? Is there a question? And yes, it is on Instagram. I have a highlight where I talk about how we present the gospel to our kids, why we don't use the ask Jesus into your heart terminology. It's right on my Instagram.
00:06:57
Speaker
But regarding heaven and not hell, yes, I have talked about this also on Instagram, and I do think it is in that same highlight. The first thing I want to say is I adhere to an Orthodox interpretation of hell. And that means that I think it's a biblical concept. I think there are things we don't know about hell, but we for sure know that Jesus spoke of a place of separation. He did not affirm the idea that every single person in the world would be saved regardless of
00:07:27
Speaker
whether or not they followed Jesus. He rejected that both in the Gospels and later on in Revelation. And so there is some kind of separation from God, whatever that may look like. So we do affirm that. But here's the thing. When I came to Christ as a child in a Christian home, it was never presented to me as the reason to be saved. It was never presented to me
00:07:52
Speaker
as something fearful. I didn't come to Jesus because I was afraid of hell. I came to Jesus because he was so good, because my parents lived a faith in front of me that was attractive and beautiful. And they gave me answers to my questions. Now, not everything was solved. I had more questions later on in my twenties. I've had questions since then in my thirties, but as a general rule, my coming to Christ had nothing to do with fear of hell. And growing up in the churches I was in,
00:08:21
Speaker
I can tell you maybe one time that I was preached at about a fear of hell, and I was at a independent fundamental Baptist revival with a friend. So definitely did not grow up in that context, and I have a lot of compassion on people who did. All this to say, when we teach our kids about salvation, we're teaching them about the nature of Jesus. We're teaching them about
00:08:46
Speaker
who he is about, about God, about the Holy Spirit, about who they are and how they work and what they're doing in the world. And if they ask what happens when people don't follow Jesus, we say, well, they remain on their wrath. They get to choose to remain there or they get to choose to respond to Jesus's call to them.
00:09:05
Speaker
And so do we talk about it? If they ask, but we're not going into super detail. They're five and three years old. It's, it's something that they can learn about in more detail as they get older. But what they need to know right now is that Jesus is the King. And if they want to live a life that has eternal value and meaning, then he's the one they need to connect with rather than scaring them into salvation because of how. So that's
Every Woman a Theologian Pop-up Shop
00:09:32
Speaker
how we go about it.
00:09:34
Speaker
Hey guys, quick break to let you know that the Every Woman a Theologian pop-up shop is opening this weekend. That's right, it's opening on Thursday, June 24th to our email list and Friday, June 25th to the public. If you've never shopped with us before, basically how it works is the Every Woman a Theologian shop opens once a quitter with all new designs. We bring back a few of the favorites, like our Student of the Heart of God t-shirt,
00:10:04
Speaker
But other than that, they're all brand new designs that we custom make and work with ethical companies to provide to you. We usually choose some kind of theological theme, and this time we're focusing on a theme from Revelation on every tongue, tribe, nation, and people, talking about how we are all made in the image of God. It kind of goes right along with our new Revelation Bible study.
00:10:29
Speaker
which I wrote and will be launching in this shop in both print and e-book editions. We also are working with several companies to provide a candle with chosen candle company, a custom theologian blend coffee from tag coffee company, and some gorgeous earrings from Abby B made. There's so much more in this shop. I can't wait for you to check it out. You can do so by either signing up for my email list on FeliciaMasonheimer.com and clicking the newsletter tab.
00:10:59
Speaker
or waiting until it's launched to the public and we announce it on social media Friday. We're so excited for this launch, you guys, and all of the products that are in it. And I hope you are just as excited as we are. Okay. Next question is, is it necessary to share the gospel as part of hospitality? This is because I was talking a lot about hospitality recently and why it's important. It's a gospel mandate. But does that mean that every time you have somebody over for cookies and tea, you have to share the gospel?
00:11:29
Speaker
No. So the gospel should be such a part of who you are as a person that you can talk about it casually, just as a part of who you are, but you're not feeling like you're forcing it. The Holy Spirit will lead that naturally if it comes up in the conversation. What you need to do is be in the word, be growing in your faith, be in relationship. And then as the Lord wants to bring that up or plant a seed in someone's life,
00:11:58
Speaker
They'll use you to do it, but you don't have to make it weird.
Understanding the Book of Revelation
00:12:02
Speaker
Okay. Next question is how to cope when the book of Revelation scares you. Avoiding it isn't okay. So I would agree avoiding isn't okay because this book is in the Bible for a reason and you really want to nail down why it scares you. What about revelation scares you? And I bet even without knowing you, I have the answer. You probably were taught revelation in a very specific context.
00:12:28
Speaker
or with a very specific end times theology. And if you haven't listened to the episode about end times theology, go back and listen to that. And I have broken down four different views of it. If you're scared of revelation, it may be because you were taught a view that the end times are coming right now. There's going to be massive suffering in war. You're going to, you know, be intensely persecuted, kind of the left behind narrative.
00:12:58
Speaker
And the reality is that's only one of four different options of interpretation for Revelation. Left behind is not accurate to Revelation. It's a fictionalized version of one particular view. And someone who believes that the end times are imminent should be the most hopeful and peaceful person you ever meet. And if they're not, they don't have their end times theology straight. So all of this to say,
00:13:29
Speaker
If you are afraid, how you were taught probably was not biblical. And so it's not your fault. It's that you were taught an unbiblical interpretation of Revelation. And I would recommend hopping in our shop this weekend. This is launching June 23rd. This episode is hopping in our shop this weekend and grabbing my brand new inductive Revelation Bible study. Okay. Last question is, well,
00:13:59
Speaker
second to last because I am going to answer a question about our Marvel movie marathon that we've been doing, but almost last question, women as ministers, is this a secondary issue?
Debate on Women as Ministers
00:14:11
Speaker
Okay. So we've talked about first, secondary and third tier issues. And just the previous episode where we talked about determining core doctrine. So if you want to know about secondary issues, go back and listen to that are women as ministers, secondary issue. So.
00:14:28
Speaker
I've done a lot of thinking and research on this, a lot of watching different cultural movements and denominations, how they're going about this. I've heard every argument from every side, I feel like, and here is what I think I would offer for some brain food, if you will. If you argue for women ministers based on the idea that the Bible proposes no gender distinctions whatsoever,
00:14:57
Speaker
And if you're arguing, women can minister because you affirm a progressive sexual ethic that denies what has been taught in orthodoxy for 2000 years. And that is your grounds for saying that a woman can be ordained or a woman can be a minister. Or if it's woven in there somehow, there is a greater error at play.
00:15:25
Speaker
There is a greater issue at play. The issue is not women being ordained. It's the sexual ethic and how that's being arrived at biblically. And if the conclusion is women can be ministers or women can be ordained because there are no gender distinctions and because God endorses, you know, this rearranged sexual ethic, then I would say that's a primary issue and it is an error, major error.
00:15:55
Speaker
However, if you argue for women ministers on the basis of first Corinthians and acts and the myriad times that women are mentioned as co laborers in Christ in scripture, or the fact that women were prophets in the old Testament, then I would say the secondary issue because it's being arrived at through the lens of orthodoxy and through the lens of devotion to scripture.
00:16:22
Speaker
and saying, yes, this woman can minister because we see in 1 Corinthians that women were prophesying in the church. That's why there's a whole lecture from Paul uncovering your head in that context. We're seeing that Deborah was a leader. We're seeing that Holder was a prophetess. We're seeing that Anna was a prophetess. What does that mean for today? What does that look like? And if you end up drawing the conclusion, one church draws the conclusion that yes, women can minister.
00:16:49
Speaker
because the meaning of the word authority has to be contextualized alongside these other passages from Paul, I think you can arrive at that conclusion and remain within Orthodoxy. You can also arrive at a different conclusion and be more complementarian in your approach. But the reality is that there are many Orthodox sound teaching churches that have women pastors, women co-pastoring alongside their husbands, associate pastors that are women,
00:17:16
Speaker
doing all sorts of things. In fact, most of your non-denominational churches have women who are pastoring under a different name, under the name children's director, worship leader, et cetera. And so there are many churches, especially charismatic churches actually, that are complementarian. They believe in gender distinctions. They will even believe in a form of complementarianism where
00:17:44
Speaker
You know, the husband is the head of the home and they will still ordain women ministers and women pastors. So riddle me that one. All right.
Marvel Movies Journey
00:17:55
Speaker
I've got to answer my last question, which is our Marvel movie marathon. Josh and I have been watching through all of the Marvel movies. He had seen them all. I had not. I saw like Captain America and infinity wars, which as you may imagine, leaves a few gaps.
00:18:15
Speaker
So we rewatch them in chronological order, which is very helpful to me. I have now watched all of the Harry Potter movies, except the last one. I've of course watched Lord of the Rings many, many times, including the extended editions. And then we watched through Star Wars chronologically. I don't want to hear from you Star Wars fans. What a sin that is. I needed it for my own brain. My own brain needed a timeline.
00:18:43
Speaker
So we watched all of that over the course of the last three years. So now we're almost done with the Marvel series. Josh got this nice little chart that outlined which ones to watch when. And so we just finished end game and I have already seen WandaVision, but I think we're watching it again, but I kind of want to skip it and just watch the new low key show because low key is low key, my favorite character. Sorry, I had to do that.
Closing and Community Interaction
00:19:13
Speaker
All right, you guys, thanks for joining me for this episode. I appreciate you hanging out with me and chatting through these questions. I'm always so grateful when you send them into my Instagram and I can answer them on Mondays. It's kind of the highlight of my week to see what you're thinking about, see what you want to hear more about, and hopefully getting these in audio format is additionally helpful. I hope you have an awesome week. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Verity. You can connect with fellow listeners by following me on Instagram at Felicia Mason-Heimer.
00:19:43
Speaker
or on our Facebook page by the same name. Also visit FeliciaMasonheimer.com for links to each episode and the show notes.