Matt Slick Live: September 10, 2024

The following program is recorded content created by The Truth Network. It's Matt Slick Live!

Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry, found online at karm .org.

When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick Live for answers. Taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877 -207 -2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick, and you're listening to Matt Slick Live.

If you want, you can give me a call. The number is easy, 877 -207 -2276.

I want to hear from you. Today's date is September 10th, 2024, and I want to hear from you.

You can also email me if you want the number, or it's not a number, but the address is info at karm .org,

info at karm .org, C -A -R -M dot O -R -G. You can put in the subject line, radio comment, radio question, and we can get to them.

I won't be on the air Friday because I'm going to California to speak at a church, a conference actually at a church,

Yorba Linda, Calvary Chapel, this Friday evening, Saturday, and Calvary Chapel Norco down there as well, so looking forward to that, and I think that's about it.

Let's get on the air with Jermaine from California. Jermaine, welcome. You're on the air. Hi, Matt.

Hey. How are you doing, man? Hello. I'm doing okay today.

Just had an interesting one for you. All right. I know there's this new movie about deliverance out around, and I've heard a lot about it, and I see a lot of people that are charismatic friends of mine, they seem to imply that speaking in tongues is a weapon spiritually, and I politely contended that with Scripture.

I just wanted to hear your take on that, because I don't find anywhere in Scripture where it says speaking in tongues is a, quote, weapon, so I want to hear what you have to say about it.

Well, I'm with you. So where is it a weapon, and what sense is it a weapon? You know, speaking in tongues, there's different interpretations on it.

One is speaking in a known language, and one is speaking in an angelic language, one is speaking in a language you understand, a different language, in tongues, because in the context of not hearing things in the original

Hebrew and or Aramaic with the Jews who were there in Israel at the time, they're hearing things spoken in different tongues, but like, you know,

Egyptian, Syrian, whatever it might be, so that's another possibility, and in the

New Testament where it talks about tongues, that interpretation of tongues, it's like you, I'm with you, it's never said to be a weapon, so I'd like to know what it is they mean by it being a weapon, and what sense, so, interesting, you know,

I don't know. Okay, yeah, I know that's the answer, just some people like to hear it developed,

I think they're implying that supposedly when they're doing these deliverance ministries, how demons don't like speaking in tongues, and therefore it's a weapon, so that's the logic

I've heard. Well, okay, then everything we do spiritually is a weapon, so, you know, tithing, prayer, you know, going to church, singing hymns, praying songs, so,

I think it's too loose of a definition there, so, anyway, okay, yeah, all right, thank you, appreciate it, all right man,

God bless, okay, it was Jermaine, and if you want, you can give me a call, 877 -207 -2276, let's get to Cole from,

I mean, Georgia, Cole, welcome, you're on the air. Hey, Mr.

Matt, how you doing, sir? Oh, hanging in there, oh, hanging in there, so, what do you got, buddy?

Oh, you're yawning, don't do that, don't do that, don't yawn. Yeah, it's been, you know, I've been super busy all day, and it's just,

I got so many things on my plate that I often work up to two minutes before the radio show, and sometimes during the breaks,

I'm writing during the show, I mean, I got, I'm just buried all the time, so, there was my yawn.

You're a busy man, the busy work, busy in the work of God, that's good, that's good. I'm busy, but I need a lot of help, too, but go ahead.

So, here's my question, Ezekiel 1653, it's a simple question, that Sodom, is that the same

Sodom and Gomorrah, or is that a different Sodom? I would think it's the same one.

It says, I will restore their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, along with your own captivity.

So, it has to do with, there's a judgment that was on them, and God's going to restore those areas and or descendants.

Interesting, it says we're daughters, that's interesting. Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters and Samaria.

Yeah, but wasn't Sodom destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah? It's confusing to me.

It says it a couple times in that chapter. Yes, yeah, it is.

That was confusing to me. Yeah, they're destroyed. What I want to know is what sense is it of sister

Sodom? I think it's talking spiritually about those represented by Sodom and Samaria.

So, verse 48, as I live, declare to the Lord, Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had arrogance.

So, it's interesting what's going on there. It's a prophecy, harlotry. It's about idolatry and things like that.

So, it's an allegory is what it is. So, it's an allegory talking about Israel as an abandoned child.

And God is using family language to convey ideas. So, it's not a literal issue of the literal city.

It's what they represent. The pagan nations, pagan alliances, judgments pronounced, things like that.

And they're using comparison. Yeah, I figured that, Matt. But what confused me in 53 where he said he restored

Sodom. I was like, huh? That confused me. Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what that means. It says

God promises that we'll be restored. But maybe it's just as a symbol of God's mercy.

That he's merciful even to restore them. But I don't think it means the actual city.

I think it means, I don't know what it means actually. But, Matt, let me bring one more.

Sure. Can I bring one more point in that Jesus said? Sure. Remember when Jesus said it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom and Gomorrah than you?

Could that tie into that? It could. Because what Jesus was talking about was

Sodom and Gomorrah's sin of homosexuality, LGBTQ, if you want to go that far, was exceedingly great.

And they were destroyed for it. And the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes, their sin was greater than that.

Because they were condemning the Messiah, God in flesh. So it would be more tolerable for the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Than for the wicked judges of Israel who at that time of Christ condemned him and killed him.

That's a much greater crime. So that's what Jesus is saying. Yeah.

Well, thanks very much, man. That was a little head scratcher for me. Okay. Well, thanks a lot.

If you get anything else on it, you know, I listen to you every day. So if you get anything else on that, let me know.

All right. I appreciate that. Okay. Thank you. All right. Sounds good. Okay. God bless.

You know, sometimes people will listen and then, you know, I'm not exactly sure what something might be. You know, that happens.

And they'll sometimes write a response and they'll email me. Have you thought about this? A lot of people are listening and a lot of people have studied different stuff.

So I always appreciate when people do that. So if you have any suggestions on that one, let me know. All right. Let's get to Janet from Raleigh, North Carolina.

Janet, welcome. Hey, man, how you doing? I'm hanging in there.

More hanging than in there, but I'm hanging in there. Keep hanging. Keep hanging. You got to hang in there. Hey, I'm calling because I'm trying to,

I'm following up. I don't know if you remember because you have so many phone calls. But we talked, you looked up a church for me,

Vintage Church in Raleigh. And I was going to go check them out and see how, you know, I can fit in there or whatever.

So anyway, that was about two, three weeks ago. And I did just that for the past two weeks, two

Sundays, I think. I went to church there. And they're the church I was telling you that's very different from myself there.

The median age is like 35 and I'm 60. And most of the majority are

Caucasian and I'm African American. So, you know, it didn't seem like a really good fit except that they are really good on Scripture.

They just seem to be really on point when it comes to Scripture. They stick straight to the text. They don't go all over the place.

They make their point and they're on a mission to discipleship. They're really on that. So you'd be proud of me because I did all those things.

Plus, I'm at the library right now getting ready to go in because I don't have a printer. I'm going to print out the information about finding a church on the

CARM website so that I can go there tomorrow and talk to them about those things that are on that list.

Good for you. I know. I'm going to go. I'm looking at there's a vintage church out there.

I looked it up. Okay. So there's Central, Downtown Durham, and North and Chapel.

Which one is it? Downtown. Downtown. Downtown Raleigh. Okay. So Mike Schillinglaw.

What an interesting name. I'm looking for women pastors. Hopefully they don't have that.

They have women directors. They don't have women pastors. I can tell you that now. They don't.

That's good. Yeah. There's a big thing on that thing, meaning leadership. Good. Good for them.

Go ahead. Okay. You looked it up last time and you said you thought it was safe enough for me to go explore.

When you look up the information online. That's right. So I decided to do that.

Good idea. I'm going to go with their statement of faith too. Yeah. I don't know how

I'm going to fit in or what God is really leading me to do because they're very different from me.

It's not the style of worship that I'm used to or the music that I'm used to, but they seem to be solid on Scripture.

They just really seem to have a good foundation on Scripture. I just got to ask.

I got a reason for asking. You're African American. What kind of church service are you used to going to?

I'm curious. You know how churches are. Martin Luther King said that the 11 o 'clock hour is the most segregated hour of the day, of the week or whatever.

It's true. There's mixed churches out there, but they're not as easy to find.

I'm sure you understand what I'm saying when I say that I go to a typical

African American church where they have music and they make very emotional sermons. They're good sermons, but they're emotional.

When you leave there, you're kind of fired up like, oh, wow. I don't feel that way when

I leave this church. Well, you know, I'm smiling because I have been saying for a long time, and I'm serious,

I was hoping to find a black church in my area where they're reformed. Let's just say some churches are rather subdued and stuff.

That works, but I like a little bit of liveness. That's what

I was thinking, too. Have you ever heard of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship?

Yes. Okay. Well, I was real big on InterVarsity, which was a really great thing back when

I was in college. Anyway, this church was founded by some people from InterVarsity or whatever.

Now they branched out to these different locations. They only had one location when they started, but that's kind of the style

I'm used to, too. So I'm used to both. I'm used to the African American style. I'm also used to a different style where you study and you teach and not necessarily preach.

You kind of teach. They're more of a teaching church than a preaching church. I miss the preaching.

I'm like, ah! But I can't deny the Scripture. Oh, man. There's the break. Hold on.

We'll talk a little bit more because it's a big topic for me lately. Okay. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages.

We'll get back to Janet, but we have four open lines. Three open lines, I should say. If you want to give me a call, 877 -207 -2276.

We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877 -207 -2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Welcome back to the show. Hope you want to give me a call. The number is 877 -207 -2276.

Let's get back on with Janet. Janet, welcome. You're on the air. Thank you.

All right. The reason I said, hold on, because I had an experience when I was in seminary. Okay.

I had a black friend in seminary, right, in San Diego. He goes, hey, man, want to come to my church?

I said, yeah, I'd love to. So my wife and I went. And let's just say that I was accosted immediately with handshakes, smiles, and hugs.

Okay? Oh, I love that. I was like, oh, yeah. And people were just happy.

And oh, hey, praise God. Oh, yeah. Now you go into, let's just say, typically speaking, a white church.

Welcome. There's the cookies are over there. And, you know, it's okay. And so then, you know, the music was, oh, it was awesome.

You know, it was just alive. And they're moving. And I'm having a great time. And my friend's next to me.

I'm just having a great time. And then the pastor comes out to preach. And everybody started applauding. And I said to him,

I said, no, no, no, you can't applaud for this guy. And he goes, you don't get it. He said, they're applauding for the man who's bringing the word of God.

So I started applauding. I started clapping. It was awesome.

I had a great time there. Yeah. Yeah. If I could find a church like that that's reformed.

Oh, yeah. I'm there. That's right. I think that's what's scary for me looking for a church is because I'm like you.

I'm used to all of those things and leaving feeling good. I don't know why I'm drawn to this church. I absolutely don't have any idea except that I do like their location, which is downtown, which they're near the homeless population and all of that.

So the outreach there is really good. But I don't know why. And I keep going and going and going.

I'm like, I don't understand it. Now they have what they call community groups, which are their Bible study groups that meet during the week.

I went to two out of three of their classes to prepare you for that because I'm going to go to all those classes because I want to make sure

I do everything the way that they want you to do it and then go to those Bible studies. So I'm worried about that because the average age is 35 years old in that church, and there's a lot of younger people there.

There's a few older people, but not many. And I talked to somebody. I went to a meet and greet on Sunday before church, and I talked to a guy who was in his 60s, and he had me laugh.

And he said, oh, he goes, I went to the young people's group. He said, you know what? I couldn't hang with him. He says, I'm in a group now.

Everybody in there is 60 and older. That made me sad because I'm like, you know what? I don't think I want to be with somebody 60 and older.

You know? I kind of like thinking about the young people. I mean, there's people that are going to be taking over the earth, and they have the enthusiasm, the drive.

You know, they're not tainted by all the stuff that a 60 -year -old is tainted by. I'm going to end up being in a 35, 20 -year -old

Bible study group. So I worry about that too, Matt. I'm like, what do

I do? Just go. Just go, and you'll be loved, and the people there,

I'm sure, are good. You'll find out. You probably have a gift or quality or something that people need.

We need mixed churches. We really do. We really do. We need to have that variety because we get too comfortable in a tradition or a look or whatever.

You know, I was an assistant pastor. I went to a Dutch Reformed church. My last name was Slick, S -L -I -C -K.

And I went in the first day when I was hired, and the first day they were introducing me, this woman said, well, what's your name?

I said, Matt Slick. And she said, Slickstra? And I went, uh -oh.

She couldn't even get my name right, me telling her, because everything was filtered through the

Dutch mentality. Oh. Uh -huh. And that confused me, and it concerned me.

And they're godly people. They were very godly people, good people. But you know, people just have their comfort zones.

And I think we need to not have so much comfort zones. Yeah. And that's why

I feel led to do what I'm doing now. I'm really out of my comfort zone. You know, I don't get up on Sunday thinking

I'm enthusiastic about going to church. I am, and I'm not at the same time. I'm like, I know I'm not going to hear the music

I want to hear. But at the same time, if I listen to the words and I listen to the message and I listen to the Scripture, I get a whole lot out of it.

I'm like, I can't deny that. I just can't deny it. I'm getting something out of it a lot, you know. So I just continue to go.

They do have a group there that's, what do they call it, a diversity group.

I talked to the pastor there the other day, and he said we have a diversity group. I said, well, fine.

I think that's probably where I'm going to be somehow or another involved in that group because I'm really concerned about the diversity.

But they do have places I can fit in, and I think I have gifts and talents that that church could benefit from if I end up going there.

So that's... Well, I think it's good. I think it's good. Okay. Yeah, I think it's good, and it'll be interesting to see what

God does with you. Yeah, I'm going to work. I don't want to sit on the pews.

I don't want to be a pew person. I really want to get my hands wet and do ministry.

And they're really big on discipleship. They think that everybody should be involved in discipleship, and that's their main thing.

They preach that almost every Sunday. That's good. Good for them. I'm like, well, yes,

I thought you'd be proud of me. So let me call and get an update and tell you how I'm doing. And then, like I said,

I'm getting ready to print off that sheet today so I can go to church tomorrow night and give him that, you know, some things about what to look for in a church that can answer those questions that I have.

Okay. So I'm going to try to do that. I think I'm doing everything that I need to do. Good for you.

Yeah, I'm trying, man. I'm really trying. Good for you. You seem to be doing okay and figuring it out.

I think God's going to bless you. I do. Oh, thanks. Thanks. Thanks for your encouragement. Thanks for that information on karma.

So that's going to be real helpful. So appreciate that. And yeah, I'll keep you.

Yeah, yeah. This is a great resource. I'll keep you updated as things get better. I'll just continue to let you know how things go.

Because I think they're going to get better. I really do. I hope so. Yeah. Well, good. Praise God. Yep.

Okay, man. Well, I will let you go. And then I'll touch base with you later on when something's on fire.

Okay. Sounds good. God bless. Okay, man. Take care. All right. You too. Bye -bye.

Bye -bye. Bye. All right. I like that. That's good. That's encouraging. That is encouraging.

So, hey, look, we have nobody waiting right now. If you want, you can give me a call, 877 -207 -2276.

We have nobody waiting right now. So what I can do is go to some of the emails that we get sometimes.

And I can try and deal with some of those questions, radio comments and radio questions.

So let's get to some of those. All right. While I wait for people to give me a call. All right. Let's see. How about, are there apostles today?

No. Apostles were the ones who saw the Lord Jesus Christ, were called by the Lord Jesus Christ. And now there's different kinds of apostles.

Because in the Bible, believe it or not, there's seven kinds of apostles. Let me see if I can find that information really quickly. Let's see.

Let's see. Seven. I can find that. Kinds of apostles. Let's see if I can find it.

Because there are. Let me see. Let me see. Let me look in my dictionary. Something like that.

Anyway. If I can find it. Yeah. Here we go. There are apostles who were only among the twelve.

They performed miracles. And some wrote scripture. Paul was an apostle. And maybe a unique one.

Because he was commissioned by Christ. But he wasn't of the original. Barnabas is an apostle.

He performed no miracles. And wrote no scripture. Jesus is also called an apostle. There are apostles in the sense of simply being sent.

It could be the apostles of anyone who was involved in Christ's ministry back then. And, of course, there are false apostles.

But no. There's no true, good, godly, Bible -based apostles for today.

We'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live!

Taking your calls at 877 -207 -2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Alright. Welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, it is easy. All you have to do is dial 877 -207 -2276.

You can also give me an email. That's easy to do. Just send an email to info at carm .org.

Info at carm .org. And put in a subject line, radio comment or radio question.

And there you go. Let's get to Brian from Utah. Brian, welcome.

You're on the air. Yeah. Hi, Matt. Hi. Thanks. I just had a question in regards to your view on the use of contraceptives with intimacy between your spouse.

And this all kind of came up in my mind. I started doing a little research.

The most I can find is that the Catholic Church is pretty positive on not using them and relying on, you know, the female's menstrual cycle and her infertile days to avoid pregnancy.

Whereas it seems like most evangelical churches argue against that and say, hey, look, we can't just assume because there's nowhere in the scripture that says anything against it.

So they don't see it as a problem. And I was just curious your take on it.

Yes. A lot of people will say that contraception is a sin.

I don't see that in the scripture saying it's a sin. So there are different reasons to practice it.

For example, I got fixed because the doctor said the next pregnancy of my wife might kill her because of her condition.

She has a rare condition. It was getting worse and worse. And so the next one might have killed her. So it was, you know, she had birth.

I went and did what I had to do. Well, that's to protect and to help. Okay. Then there's conditions, you know, more difficult conditions.

What if you are in a situation, you and your wife are in a situation where really having a child at the time would not be a good move, would not be a smart move.

It could be that you're on the run from a persecution or something. So there's that as well.

Now, what if you're just a normal man and wife and you want to do that? I don't see any problem with it. I don't see any reason that you're obligated to have a child and that every event between a man and a wife has to be along those lines.

So I don't see it. Now, contraception is wrong when it kills a fertilized egg.

Anything like that is wrong. Yeah. So generally speaking, those are the general principles.

Okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Thanks. You know, I think where I had some hang up was, you know,

I kind of equated it to there's also not anything in the

Bible about, say, people who decide they want to change their gender. And I guess

I don't know where everyone stands, but it seems like a lot of folks in my church and I agree as well as, hey, it's not right because it's not how

God designed you. And so that's why

I kind of have the hang up on this issue.

And it's just been helpful to talk with you as well as a few other people in my church that I trust.

So I appreciate you walking me through it and your thoughts on it.

Yeah, it's an important thing. And I remember sitting in a car with a seminary student,

I think it was right at our senior year or right after, I can't remember. And I was dropping him off at his house with his wife and children.

And he said, we were talking about this, and he said there's no reason ever for a man to get fixed or a woman to get fixed if you're

Christians. And I said, really? And I gave him the situation with my wife. And I said, you know, she has this rare condition and et cetera, et cetera, and she might die from the next one.

And it's to put her life in risk. And it really is. What do I do? And he said,

I never thought of that. Yeah, yeah. It's okay.

When there's certain circumstances, it's okay. And in certain practices,

I've written a lot on sexuality on the website, actually, a lot. So all kinds of topics that people don't want to talk about on the air,

I wrote about. Yeah, yeah, right. Well, thanks,

Matt. I appreciate it. Okay. Nice to speak with you. You're welcome, man.

God bless. Okay. God bless. Thanks. All right. All right.

Well, we have three open lines. If you want to give me a call, it's easy, 877 -207 -2276.

Jen from South Carolina, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt.

How are you doing? Doing all right. Hanging in there. Busy as all get -outs. But, you know, that's just me.

Mm -hmm. That's right. I love it for you. Thanks for all you do. You're welcome.

Okay. So I'm struggling with, so I have a work with,

I work with a co -worker who is a Christian, and we were together last week in Reno, of all places.

Okay. But she expressed to me that her father is a

Muslim. And I don't know, like, since we were together, it really has been, the

Lord has impressed upon my heart to do something for him, either buy him a

Bible or just reach out to her and say, hey, if he would read a Bible, can

I read it or can I send him one? And she expressed to me that he doesn't read, he won't read, he won't go to church.

And so I'm thinking, of course, I've been praying about this, and the

Lord impressed upon my heart, just maybe write down some scripture, send him a little notebook, and then maybe attach a small little

King James Bible to it and send it off. So I just kind of wanted to, and I don't know a lot about Islam, I do know that they have to acknowledge

Jesus as a prophet, and I just wondered, like, what, if you were in my shoes, what you would do?

Well, it's a tough one. If you could talk to him directly and he's open to having a conversation, that's one thing.

If he's not open to reading anything, maybe you could offer a switch, a deal.

You'll read the Koran if he reads the New Testament, something like that. Or you can tell him, tell me what to read in the

Koran, you know, like, how many rough chapters, and I'll have you read this, and let's discuss both.

That would be one option. The thing that I talk about with Muslims more and more now is the resurrection, is forgiveness of sins, excuse me.

They deny that Christ was crucified, Surah 4, verse 157, they deny that. So they deny that Jesus Christ is

God in flesh, etc., and all the stuff about him, he's just a prophet and all that. But at any rate, so I'll say, are your sins forgiven right now?

And that's the question I ask them, because that's what it all comes down to. And I can tell them that my sins are forgiven right now.

Now, sometimes they will respond by saying that I'm arrogant if I say that. The reason anybody would accuse me of arrogance if I said, oh, all my sins are forgiven right now, the reason they would say that is because they believe that your salvation and forgiveness is based in part on your goodness.

So to say you're saved or to say your sins are forgiven is arrogant because you say you're that good. But then you have to correct them and say, no, no, no.

That's not our position. The position is by faith in what Christ has done only. I would say it's arrogant to say that you could please

God by your own actions in any way, shape, or form. And I'll ask them, if you were to die right now, and you say,

I don't want anything to happen to you, but if you were, where would you go? And that's what

I do with the Muslims now. And they don't have good answers. Oh, if you're repentant, if you're sincere, and I say, oh, you're good enough, you're okay, and you think that.

And that's what I'll do with them. That's one thing. There's another thing I do. But it just depends on the situation and stuff.

But I can give you suggestions. And you can try ideas. You can ask questions.

I've got a question about the Koran. I know questions that are tough to answer for Muslims.

Okay. Do you have something on your website that maybe you could direct me to? Karm .org

forward slash Islam. I've written about 150 articles on Islam. Oh, well, there you go.

Yep. Now, if you want the short version of a lot of stuff, it's just karm .org forward slash cut and paste, just C -U -T, and it'll take you to a page.

And you can see a very, very, very, very, very summarized version of information on Islam.

And it's designed for cut and paste in chat rooms. And there's some things in there that you might find useful. And one of the things you can do is

I ask Muslims, I say, well, why are you Muslim? What's the reason? I'll ask them that.

I'll say, also tell me, why is Islam true? And I say, what are the reasons for this? And you'd be surprised the weak answers that they give.

It gives you opportunities to speak. And of course, there's some good stuff you can do. Okay. All right.

There's the music. We've got to go. Okay. God bless. All right. Thank you. Bye -bye. Bye. All right.

Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live!

Taking your calls at 877 -207 -2276. Here's Matt Slick.

All right, everyone. Welcome back to the show. Let's get back on the air with Elijah from Pennsylvania. Elijah, welcome. You're on, buddy.

Hey, Matt. My question today for you is out of Galatians 520.

And I would like for you to, if you can, pull it up on your screen on the

Bible Hub, the different translations, because I want to ask you about this.

Okay. I know your favorite translation is NASB. And for the very last word in that verse, it says, factions.

Okay. So you've got the NASB 2020, the 1995, and the 1997 version.

They all say factions, but you go to New Living Translation and ESV, it says divisions.

And then when you go to King James and New King James, it says heresies. And then when you go to the

Amplified Bible, it says factions that promote heresies. And when

I read the Amplified Bible, that reminded me of, you know, people like, you know,

Sean and Griffin. They cause divisions through their heresies.

So, you know, this verse seems to be teaching that, you know, people like Sean Griffin, they're still in the flesh because they're causing division in the church, you know, through their heresies.

That even applies to Calvinists and Arminians who will snot on each other and cause factions, divisions among the people of God.

So, yeah. So the word there in the Greek is heresies, heresies.

We get heresies from it. It occurs nine times in the New Testament. So it's referring to a sect,

S -E -C -T, a sect of the Sadducees. So that would be a division.

And that's Acts 5 .17 and Acts 15 .5, a sect of the Pharisees.

And then there's the sect of the Nazarenes in Acts 24 .5. In Acts 24 .14,

it says, and according to the way, that's the Christians, which they call a sect.

So Sadducees, Pharisees, the Nazarenes, and the Christians are all considered sects,

S -E -C -T -S. And then Paul says,

I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion. So we see the word has that meaning in what's called the semantic domain.

It has a range of meaning. In 1 Corinthians 11 .19, for there also must be factions or divisions among you so that the truth can be made known.

So 1 Corinthians 11. Let me get over here. 1 Corinthians 11 .19. I'll see how that is translated to different versions.

11 .29. I know it, 19. That's right, 19. Come on. I've got to get my verse here to go.

Boy, I messed up on typing that one out. All right, here we go. Why is it not working?

1 Corinthians 11 .19. That's strange. Maybe there's a glitch. Let's see.

There we go. All right. So there must be factions, factions, heresies, that's

King James, factions, New King James, factions, R -S -V, L -E -B, differences among you, the

N -I -V -84, factions, C -S -B, and heresies, the Douay -Rheims.

So we can see that factions are divisions, heresies. And then we're talking about the verse here in Galatians 5 .20.

In 2 Peter 2 .1, it says that false prophets secretly introduced destructive heresies.

And this is a doctrinal kind of a division here. So the word, like a lot of words in English, one word can have a variety of meanings.

And that's what's going on there. Okay, so that's that so far. All right, now laid a little bit of foundation down.

So I'm not sure if I answered your question, though. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I just thought it was very interesting because that never popped out to me before until I looked over that again today.

Mm -hmm. Yeah. The factions mean, the heresies or whatever it is?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like especially when I started comparing translations, because I noticed that when

I compare translations, it helps me to understand the Bible more.

Oh, yes. Yes, that's a very good thing to do. That's why I recommend people have the ESV, the

King James, and the NASB, NASB 95 or 220, and just compare them.

That's what I say. Because words can, they mean, a word might have a direct one -to -one correspondence meaning from original language to our language, but not always.

And I'm reminded of an instance when I was in seminary, and I had a guy come in, and he was talking about translation differences.

And it says in the Bible, build your house on the rock so it'll stand, not on the sand, okay?

Well, there was a culture that they were translating into, some language, and they were in the jungle.

And if you built your house on a rock, it would be swept away with the floods because the rocks were flat.

So in order to make themselves secure homes, they would take bamboo, and they would pound it down into the sand, six, eight feet.

And then you'd build a house on the structure of the bamboo, and that was secure. So when you're translating, what do you do?

Do you translate it literally, or do you translate it dynamically, what it's intended to mean?

And so this is just one of the examples of difficulties that can occur in translation. This is why it's good to use different translations, because meanings of words can vary slightly.

And so getting them understood in the corresponding language isn't always perfect.

It's very, very good, though, for the most part. It's not a problem. Okay? Yeah.

Yeah, and I got one last thing I'd like to bring up to you, because I would like to know what you think about this, because I was reading

Genesis 18 and 19 the other day, and I noticed in verse 2,

Lot wanted the angels to come inside with him, but the angels replied, no, we will spend the night in the square, or some translations say, no, we'll spend the night out in the streets.

And I thought about that, and what if the angels really did spend the night out in the streets instead of coming in with him?

I think the story would have went probably quite differently. Those angels would have probably had to kill the men of Sodom, because eventually the men came, and they tried to rape them.

Yeah, there would have been a severe consequence for the people of Sodom, which there was later on.

So the hospitality issue is very critical in that culture. So for us, not so much.

You come into my house, I'll help you out, and we'll do stuff. And you might take off. But back there, individuals and household individuals were required culturally to help out passersby if the passersby needed a little bit of help, because if you didn't, and then the passersby found out that you weren't helpful, they would go someplace else and speak ill about you and that culture, that town.

Well, that would mean then a lot of people would avoid that town when word got around that you weren't very nice. Well, that could be an economic disaster for towns, because they were loosely connected economically.

So there's one of the many reasons. So in that culture, he said,

No, no, no, you can't stay there, you've got to come in. Because we know, I'm going to go out and do this.

I'm going to go in a hotel, and I'm hoping that my friend might say, No, we've got a spare room.

And you're supposed to be polite and say, I'll do this, hoping that they will want you to do something different.

And this is probably what's going on here. We're going to spend the night in the square. No, no, no, you can't do that. You've got to come with me. Okay, we will.

That kind of politeness. All right, so that's probably what a lot of it was, too. All right. Yeah, do you have anybody else waiting?

Yeah, but that's okay. Go ahead, one more quick one. Yeah, so in,

I think it was Genesis 18, Abraham was interceding for the people of Sodom, and he got down to the number of 10.

You know, 10 holy be found. Will you spare the city? And God said, Yes. And when

I counted a lot, and the rest of the people that were with him, I think I counted six.

I didn't quite get to 10. And so the story doesn't tell us if there were four other people who were holy in that town.

Also, so my question would be, do you think that's why God destroyed the city?

Because he didn't find 10? Or could it be God destroyed the city because the men of Sodom tried to rape the angels?

And that's just extremely disrespectful to do. Well, it's not only disrespectful, it's incredibly sinful for anything, that kind of sexual immorality is what happens when people's passions are allowed to be enculturated and approved by society.

Then the society tumbles downhill into the abyss and the trash heap. So, you know,

I never thought of that. That's a good point. You counted how many there were, and there were six. That's what you counted.

And not 10. I believe that there had been 10, that God would not have destroyed the city. That's what

I believe. Because he said if he finds, if I find 20 or 40, you know, whatever it is, 40, 30, 20, 10.

And each time God, I won't for that, I won't for that. He meant what he said. So there weren't even 10 righteous people, true believers, et cetera, in the entire area.

That's a good, interesting point, because that's a really good point. I'm really glad you brought that up, because you really got me thinking about it.

That just shows you what happens to an area geographically, politically, culturally, when sexual boundaries are broken down.

Look what happens. Everybody becomes corrupt. Yeah. Interesting stuff.

Okay. It was a nice talking to you. I'll be calling you again soon.

All right, man. Sounds good, buddy. God bless. All right. God bless. That's a really good insight.

I like that. I actually counted it. I'm going to have to do that myself sometime. Alberto from Georgia. Welcome, buddy. You're on the air.

Yeah, good evening, Masley. My question is how come when people just get recently saved by ex -porn stars, ex -rappers, they already see them already becoming the position of pastors when they're not properly prepared or educated under a pastor who could train them properly in expositional preaching and theology and doctrine.

For example, my friend told me that Danny Yankee, he got saved. He's an ex -recorder, best rapper in Puerto Rico.

He told me now he's already a pastor already. I've seen other videos on the Internet that people who are ex -porn stars are already pastors.

What do you think about that, that people just automatically accolade positions in churches? Well, I don't know the timeframe of what it is, if they've been discipled and for how long, if they feel the calling and there's a recognized calling externally.

There's a lot of factors. But generically speaking, the

Bible tells us not to lay hands on people suddenly. And the context has to do with ordination and being called to ministry.

So such people who come out of incredibly bad moral conditions often are, when they're saved, they're saved dramatically.

Very, very dramatically. And they study incredibly. And they are blessed by God incredibly.

And so they develop very quickly. And so sometimes people will say, well, then you're called.

And it doesn't qualify them just because of that. And we're out of time, but we can discuss that more on conditions and other things.

Plus social acceptance and excitement of having someone switch into the Christian side so they get elevated.

So there's a lot of reasons that aren't biblical. But anyway, there we go, buddy. We're out of time. May the Lord bless you all.