Hey everybody, it's Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible Hour Podcast, and we are right at the very, very tippy, tippy end of season five on the book of Galatians, where we are considering the legacy of Galatians in the regions to whom it was written. Right now we're fixated on Iconium, this big town with a lot of influence that just happened to find itself in the middle of a Christian crisis, here about 100 or 125 years after it likely received the book of the Bible, the letter that is to the Galatian church. And I think what we're gonna see today is that the book of Galatians, in particular, paid off a second time in sorting out this really significant crisis that was happening right in Iconium's backyard. If you didn't listen to yesterday, it'll definitely help if you catch that one before you catch today's. But either way, I'm gonna have Jeffrey play some music, and we're gonna pick up right where we left off last time around. The Christians in Iconium, they have to answer this. It's in their backyard. The claims are a dividing line. I mean, it's coming in with a sword here, metaphorically. I mean, really, in a lot of ways, maybe this is the first big interloping test that has happened since the Judaizers showed up in the Galatian churches in the first place that caused Paul to write the letter to the Galatians in the first place. Now someone else is coming along, and the message is very different, but it comes with the same kind of expectations, you know, strict adherence to a set of rules. The virgins were to be covered and wear veils, no adornments or jewelry of any kind, a lot of uh really strict restrictions on women, but also they had women leaders and prophetesses in their group. So it was just a very unusual mix of convictions. It kind of defies whatever you and I might imagine about different Christian sects and what conservative and liberal kind of looks like in that regard. Really, the dividing line for the Montanists was just do you believe our prophecies that happen when we are possessed by God, possessed by the Holy Spirit, or do you not? Well, eventually, Montanism is pretty much universally condemned around the Christian world. And at this point, we still hadn't had a lot of the really big councils you might have heard of. Like you've heard of the Council of Nicaea. Well, this is still almost a hundred years away at this point. But as we get into the early 200s, a lot of little local councils start happening. And what do you know? The church in Iconium is strong enough, influential enough, and maybe just maybe has enough of a history with incidents like this that it seems to be the logical place to have a regional council to get everybody together to talk about what they do in the wake of the rejection of the Montanist claims. Now, by the time we have the Council of Iconium, which is in maybe the 230s AD, Christianity has already rejected Montanism, not necessarily as abject heretics who were wrong about every single thing ever. Probably the softest rejection of Montanism would be people who looked at it and were like, yeah, like you're doing things weird and you're departing from what we teach and believe, and some of your views don't really square with what we understand to be scripture or the teachings of the church, ranging all the way to you know, Christians who would have said that is outright heresy. You're doing a completely different thing and your prophecies are false and we completely reject them. So by the 230s, the Christianity's agreed, okay, that's not the real deal. And for the most part, Montanism burned real hot and then it you know tamped down quite a bit by the two thirties, though I think there are, or at least were until the last couple centuries, some little Christian sects in this part of the world still that sort of seem Montanistic a bit in what they do. Whatever the case, this council in Iconium was called and presided over by the bishop of Iconium, a guy named Agrippinus, and they were trying to figure out whether the baptisms that were carried out by Montanist priests counted, or if those were fake and people who got baptized in that particular sect would need to get baptized again. And the decision of the Council of Iconium was that Montanism was far enough afield that if you were a baptized Montanist, you would need to be re-baptized to properly join the actual Christian church. Now, I think all of this stuff is really interesting just because it's interesting. But it's particularly interesting for the conversation you and I are having about Galatians and to the legacy of Galatians to the people in the region where it was written. It's particularly interesting because Iconium had some experience, as I mentioned a minute ago, with exactly what the region affected by Montanism was dealing with right now. Think about what Iconium had gone through and the Galatian churches in general, way back at the time of Paul and the first missionary journey. They heard the real gospel and responded, and a church took root there. Then interlopers showed up and said, No, you're not following enough rules. We have a whole bunch of rules we need you to know about, and you all are you're gonna have to do these extra things. And also, uh, hey, Galatian churches, your understanding of who speaks authoritatively for Christ is all wrong. You're gonna need to listen to us, so we're gonna challenge all of that hierarchy of authority from the original apostles and all of that. And the result is that you had an unloving, chaotic mess. Then an authoritative character comes in to stabilize the situation and say, no, this is the actual message you received. This is what we actually believed. Let us not deviate from that. Well, doesn't this situation right next door to Iconium here in the mid-100s into the early 200s AD with the Montanists? Isn't it the same thing? People there heard the gospel, they responded to it, churches started up, then some interlopers came along, and some of what they said was probably true, but also they came with a whole bunch of additional rules and were like, you're not being Christian enough unless you do these things. And then they challenged the authority of the apostles and the Christians who'd preserved their message, and they're like, You got to listen to us. If you don't listen to us, you're not spiritual, you're carnal. And then what was needed was somebody to come in and be like, oh, well, hold on a minute here. Here's the actual thing that is Christianity and that we believe. We need to get this thing straightened out. We need to get it confronted. Again, I just think it's so interesting that Iconium would have, you know, if they had a meeting or something that isn't recorded to history of all these highest level bishops in the big churches from the big cities in this area, if they were like, what do we do about Montanism? You just kind of wonder if Agrippinus of Iconium maybe raised his hand and was like, hey, we've actually been through all of this. We've kind of got a bit of expertise. We even have uh we got a book of the Bible here that everybody agrees at this point in history is Scripture. And the legacy of this, I mean, the the this is in our DNA as a church. We know what to do about this. So let's get everybody together and let's address the problem. To me, at least, it does not seem coincidental that of all the significant local churches right around the area influenced by the Montanists, it does not seem like a coincidence to me that Iconium would be the one to step forward and say, We're the place where we need to have this meeting. Come here, we know stuff handed down to us by the original apostles. We've been through this, and we're gonna lead the way in getting this thing sorted out right here. So big picture. As we ask the question, did Galatians win? Did it take? Well, I think the whole Montanist affair in the same neighborhood where Galatians was written to, and how the whole Montanist affair worked out in the 100s and 200s AD says that yeah, Galatians stuck and it served the church there not once, but twice in another similar situation that came up down the road. Maybe you're thinking to yourself, Matt, that is now plenty. I think I think we've got a sense of how Galatians worked out. We're ready to move on to season six of Philemon. And to that I would say tough nuts because there's more stuff here that I want to talk about, and I don't know when I'm ever gonna get to do this again. So we've got a few more days of conversation here, figuring out what the legacy of Galatians is in the region it was written to. But hey, speaking of Philemon, we are getting really, really close. The stickers are out to all of you who support the podcast. That kind of puts a bow on this season. I mean, that's one of the markers of the end of a season here. Thank you, all of you again, by the way. And so we're getting ready to make the pivot. And truth to be told, and I know this sounds silly, but every time we go from one season to the next, there's this little thing inside of me that is afraid that you won't come to the next season with me. And then I'll just be out here in my shed all by myself, talking about the Bible to maybe stuffed animals. I don't know who I would talk to, but I want to keep doing this, and it only makes sense if you're here. So I really hope you're planning on joining me for Philemon here in a few episodes when we get started on that. And I hope you'll invite some new people, invite a friend, invite somebody where you could make this a point of conversation. I am going to sort of reset the depth level once we get to the beginning of Philemon. There's a lot of assumed knowledge accumulated over almost 300 episodes here with Galatians that you know, I just assume you've been here for a while most of the time. And so I know that when we start a new season, we kind of got to onboard people, but also we got to keep moving forward to keep it interesting for you. And I'm taking all of that into account. So I think Philemon will be a great season. I'm so excited about what I'm finding there. And also, I think tonally, we're going to be in a fun place for you and for anybody new who you might bring along. So thanks for considering jumping in with Philemon here in a few episodes. And thanks also for considering bringing somebody along for it. Whew, we're getting close. I can feel it. This is fun. All right, that's good for now. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.