MSL: March 13, 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. You're listening to Matt Slick Live.

And if you want to give me a call on this lovely March 13th, 2024, you can just dial 877 -207 -2276.

No, I said dial. That's from the old days. You used to dial a number with a rotary.

A bunch of numbers. So just punch in 877 -207 -2276.

You can also email me if you have a comment or a question, just address it to info at karm .org.

Info at karm, C -A -R -M dot O -R -G. And just put in the subject line there.

Karm question or radio question or radio comment. And I can get to them. And so now I do them.

And we don't have calls coming in. I'll get to them and stuff like that. All right, so today, not a big deal here, but today

I went and did a little bit of shopping. Okay, so just get a little bit of food, nothing big. And so I went to this one store and I'm coming around the corner, driving in, around the corner, and there's a guy standing there with a cross, must've been a seven, eight foot cross.

And he's standing there and there's people next to him. So I go, I'm gonna check this out. He's on the street corner. And so I go,

I pull around and park and then walk over to the corner where he is.

And oh man, this guy, he just loved the Lord. He's been walking all over, he'd been doing stuff and God provides and he was just full of joy just talking about Jesus and how

Jesus is the one who needs to be exalted, gotta exalt

Jesus. So, okay, rumble's not working. I'll check on that a little bit.

Okay, and also I gotta get this setting here too. So anyway, it was really good.

And it was really, it was nice to see and to talk to someone who loved the

Lord and was willing to risk so much to get out there and just serve the

Lord Jesus Christ. So there was this woman and she said that she had stopped by and was talking to him too, but she was not with him and she had a couple of kids.

And so they were supporting him too and so we all got talking. And she said she loves the

Lord and she goes to this one church. I said, wow, what church is it? And she gave me the name of this church.

And now I remembered, I go, oh, I emailed them. It's a church in Boise.

She said she loves that church, it's a great church. She drives 20 miles just to get there every

Sunday. She thinks it's great, she's awesome, she looks forward to it. And I said, do they have women pastors and elders there?

Oh yeah, they have a pastor so -and -so, she blah, blah, blah. And so, you know, because I had actually emailed that church about that.

If I remember correctly, I believe it was that church, I'm pretty sure. And I said, so, you know, in the email,

I'm interested in talking to you about this. Bible says give an answer and I'm asking you about this, why you have women pastors. And so the

Bible certainly seems to put the kibosh on that. So I haven't heard back or I haven't checked to see if they've emailed me back.

I need to do, they did email me, though I will say this, they emailed me and it's a standard, thank you very much, we'll get back to you.

And I haven't checked since, but I'll check. And so I said to her, I said,

I said, you know that women pastors and elders are not biblical. You know, I'm trying to be nice, you know, I mean, I'm just a stranger, she's out there praising

God. And she's looking at me, I says, oh, yeah. I said, look, and I said, here's the verses and I quote her some stuff.

And I said, no, I emailed them asking for, for, you know, a discussion on why they do this.

And I do that with churches every now and then. I say, why do you do this when the Bible says this and this and that and that.

And in fact, I'm checking right now to see if, yeah, let's see if,

I'll look. Yeah, I got some stuff. But there's nothing from them back, which is often the case.

So I could do a research, I can search all my emails. I have a program that allows me to do that very quickly.

And it's very often the case that a church won't email me back. They won't respond.

And I find it really interesting because I'll ask them a question, biblically based, can you please give me an answer according to scripture?

And they don't contact me. They don't write back. It happens like 80 % of the time.

And I think it's because they don't want to deal with what the word of God actually says. I told this lady that 80 % of the churches and denominations that adopt women pastors and elders within two generations, they started proving of homosexuality and stuff.

She's looking at me. I said, yes, it's really high percentage. And they said, because it's just, they're not taking that area of scripture seriously.

So, you know, I gave her my card and she thought that was interesting. But the light changed.

They were waiting a few cycles of light and they had to go across the street. I said, okay, well, nice talking to you. It was really good. It was all smiles.

So I go into the store and I get some stuff and I got to get out of there because I got so much to do all the time.

So I hustle, not too fast, but you know, I get it done. And I go into the self -checkout line and there's a guy there and he's working there and he's checking everything and we get talking.

I don't know how we got talking about this, but we got talking about the Lord and he goes to a local church and I asked, you know,

I was just out there talking, you know, on the street out here about this and that. And I said, talk about women pastors.

And I said, does your church have women? He goes, oh yeah. I said, so here

I am again. Say, well, you know, this is what the scriptures teach. I gave him my card and he goes, karm?

He goes, oh, I like that sight. So I said, well, praise God. He goes, yeah,

I've been there a while. I'm gonna have to go back. And I said, well, there you go. And so it was nice.

It was a nice conversation, but it's really irking me. It irks me.

Thou shalt not be irked. You know, I almost wanna say, but I'm irked. Why is it that so many churches and denominations affirm that which is against scripture?

It's just against scripture. So I'm gonna do this like I always do. After all these decades,

I've been doing radio now, I think 23 years. So I'm offering to do a formal debate in person, let's just say at your church, and we'll debate, does the

Bible support women pastors and elders? That's the topic.

It narrows it down to scripture, which is where we need to go. So I have been offering this debate challenge for 20 years.

Not a single person, not a single church has ever accepted the challenge.

Not one. Now why is that? Why is it? Oh, maybe because they know

I'll go straight to God's word and they know that the verses say this and that and they don't wanna face it because they'd rather hold their finger up into the doctrinal wind of secularism and see what popular stuff is around so they can adopt that and go that way.

Is that why? Well, that's what I think. So as Stephen says,

I probably irk them with the question. Yeah. So I guess you could call me an irker.

I irk people. I cause them to become irked. And that'd be fun to have a t -shirt like that.

Dust, how does it do? I irketh thee. You know, I don't know. So we'll see.

At any rate, there you go. And just one of my days, one of my average days.

All right, all right, all right. Hey, if you wanna give me a call, 877 -207 -2276.

And if you wanna email me, info at carm .org, that's

C -A -R -M dot O -R -G. And put in a radio question or radio comment and we'll get to them.

Let's get to Jamal from North Carolina. Jamal, welcome. You're on the air. Thank you,

Click. Appreciate you taking my call, sir. No problem, man. What do you got? Cool.

I wanted to ask about, I think that's Jamal, you're 10, where it's talking about putting down a tree and adorning it with gold and silver.

I got into a conversation with a friend of mine who was using that passage to say that we should not be adorning it with gold and silver.

We should not celebrate Christmas. And after listening to you a while ago, and you're saying that we don't worship any tree and we're not celebrating any kind of pagan rituals.

We're just celebrating the birthday of Christ. But he continued to say, no, look, clearly it says that he put down a tree and adorned it with all silver and gold.

That's going against Christmas. So I said, okay, fine. I'll go to the common denominator, excuse me, the

Bible and next week and see what you have to say about that. All right.

So does Jeremiah 10 forbid Christmas trees? Well, no, it doesn't.

And the reason it does not is because the context here is idolatry.

Because notice what he says. Thus says the Lord, do not learn the way of the nations and do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens.

Although the nations, there we go. All nations are terrified by them.

For the customs of the peoples are delusion because it is wood cut from the forest, a work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.

They decorate it with silver and gold. They fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not totter.

Like a scarecrow on a cucumber field, they are, are they. They cannot speak.

They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them for they can do no harm, nor can they do any good.

So what this is obviously talking about is using this thing of a tree in idol worship and pagan worship.

That's what's going on. And it's not talking about that. Or excuse me, it's not what it is when we have a

Christmas tree. A Christmas tree just says, hey, it's a tree. You don't put presents underneath it. People come around, we celebrate that traditional date of the birth of Christ.

And that's all it is. That's what the difference is. We're not using it as an object of worship or adoration or in a church service. And we don't do those things with gold and silver and bow down and you know, and when

God says, don't worry, it doesn't speak. It can't do anything. Well, why would it say that? Because it's an idol.

That's what that is and it's not an idol to us. Hold on, sorry about that.

Furthermore, in first Corinthians 10, there's something really important. I would ask that guy,

I said, well, let's just say that you're a missionary in a foreign country and a lot of pagans. And up on this one hill is a pagan temple and they sacrifice animals that are pagan gods.

And then you go down in the marketplace and you can buy the meat sacrificed to those pagan gods. Can you buy that meat and eat it?

If he says no, well, then he needs to familiarize himself with first Corinthians 10 where it says, yeah, you can eat that meat because those demonic forces really are not any true gods or anything and it's not gonna hurt you.

So, well, wait a minute. How can we eat meat sacrificed to idols? Well, we're not to do it if it stumbles somebody else, but it's not gonna hurt you,

Paul says. So there's something very specific. This was used in their idolatry services and yet we can buy that meat and eat it.

So I would ask him, in light of first Corinthians 10 and you go to Jeremiah 10 with the tree.

Now, are the people who have trees in their homes, are they worshiping them? No. Sacrificing the idols? No. Well, then it's not a problem.

Hey, we got a break, so hold on a minute, okay? We'll be right back and then comment after that, okay? 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. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the show. Let's get back on the air with, okay, which one was it?

Oh, man, we have, now I'm confused. Let's see, maybe he's gone.

No, it's right there, there he is. Thanks a lot, the producer came to my rescue. Hey, Jamal, it's right there,

I can see it. Yeah, I'm looking at all this stuff. Hey, thanks, Keith, okay.

All right, man, what do you got? Whoa. We were talking about Christmas and Jeremiah 10.

Right. And then you were kind of wrapping up with, I'm sorry? Yeah, that's right, and so I gave an explanation there, and so we're free to use a tree if you want.

You don't have to if you don't want to, but he doesn't have the right to say that it's sinful for you because it's not an idolatrous thing, which is what the context of Jeremiah 10 is, okay?

Right, so he is going to look at some specifics because he can be pretty detailed.

So what can I point to specifically that would say that that chapter is saying that what they're doing is idolatry, and what we're doing at Christmas is not idolatry?

By reading Jeremiah 10, 2, 3, 4, 5, just read it, study it, and you'll see what it says.

They decorate it with silver, fasten nails, hammers, so it won't totter like a scarecrow, but he says they must be carried because they cannot walk.

Do not fear them. They can do no harm, nor can they do any good.

So why would you fear a tree? It's because they represent the pagan idolatry that's going on.

That's what's going on there. And you ask them, is that what's happening when you have a tree in your house?

See, the cross was invented by the Phoenicians, and then the Romans borrowed it, copied it as a means of execution.

Well, the pagans are the ones who invented it. The pagans are the ones who used it to enforce their pagan rules.

So ask them, do you have a cross in your house? Do you wear a cross?

Do you promote the cross? Because that's a pagan origin symbol. And there's a thing called the genetic fallacy.

My neighbor next door is an atheist. He taught me algebra, so therefore algebra's false.

It's called the genetic fallacy. It's a fallacy of logic. The source of something doesn't mean that it is by nature bad.

So if the decoration of the trees was done by pagans, does that mean we can't decorate a tree?

I'm sorry, you decorate any tree, it's a pagan. Well, what if you have a tree in your backyard and you're having a party, a barbecue at night, and you put lights up in the tree, make it look cool?

I'm sorry, you decorated a tree. You're a pagan. So how far do you want to take this?

Okay, and that's the whole point. And you go to 1 Corinthians 10, it talks about meat sacrificed to idols.

And so you can eat the meat sacrificed to idols, but what I normally do with people, I don't tell them about that.

I say, if you were a missionary and you have a temple up there and paganness, would you eat the meat sacrificed to idols?

Would you buy it and eat it? They go, of course not. Then you hit them with 1 Corinthians 10, where it says you can.

And that's 1 Corinthians 10, 25 through roughly 30, okay? So there's another thing.

We're under the new covenant, we're no longer under the law. Now, the only real laws that are reiterated in the

New Testament are nine of the 10 commandments. And the one commandment that's not reiterated is the

Sabbath because Jesus is our Sabbath. So I have an article on this on QARM. So we're not under the law.

We've died in Christ, Romans 6, 6, Romans 6, 8, Romans 3, 3, or Colossians 3, 3.

So we've died with Christ and those who have died are no longer under the law. That's Romans 7, 1 through 4.

So are we obligated to follow this aspect of the law of Jeremiah? It's just a theological question.

You can ask him. And then again, you go to 1 Corinthians 10. And so, you know, with all of that, that should be a good response for him.

And if he disagrees, have him call me on the show. He is. I would love to.

I doubt he would do that because, you know, he's more of a kind of a,

I don't wanna say low level, but more as a, I guess, person to person debater. He wouldn't want to call a big radio show and have a big audience and go back and forth, you know, that kind of a scenario.

I wouldn't think, but I can always ask. And if you get a call from him, that means he accepted.

But I wouldn't hold my breath though. You know, I'm looking at the chat text and Humbled Clay says, strip the tree, stick it to a pig and roast it.

And well, it's a good, it's a funny comment, but, you know, could you do that?

Well, yeah, but the Bible says, don't eat pig and pork. In the Old Testament, so does he eat pork?

There's a lot of things about this that we could ask questions. See, we're free. If you wanna have a tree in your house, have a tree.

You don't wanna have a tree, don't have a tree. As long as you're not using it for worship or adoration or any object for that, you shouldn't do that.

Well, then what's the big deal? Okay, simple. Yes, sir. And I have some other questions, but I'll call back and get back in line.

Sounds good, man. Okay, sounds good, brother. God bless. All right. God bless. God bless.

Well, that was Jamal from North Carolina. Let's get to Tom from Raleigh, North Carolina.

Tom, welcome, you're on the air. Hi, Matt. Question, sorry,

I may have to run out of here in about five minutes to drive my daughter to volleyball, but I needed to ask you about the

Nephilim, and the Nephilim are referenced in Genesis chapter six, and the sons of God went into the daughters of men and they produced offspring.

My question is this. Is it possible that the Neanderthals are actually the

Nephilim of the Bible? Well, I wanna say no.

Neanderthals have a larger brain capacity than Homo sapiens sapiens.

Furthermore, there was a test done where people took computers and they took pictures of people from different ages and used the computers to figure out how to age them.

So they use it in detective work, police work, this is what the so -and -so might look like by now.

Well, someone said, what happens if you take them two, three, four, 500, 600 years in the future? And guess what they looked like?

Neanderthals. That was a, they went, oh my goodness. Well, that would support the idea of people living a long time.

So what the, it's not the Neanderthals, but I believe Neanderthals were just humans and stuff like that.

And I studied science too, but at any rate, so the Nephilim are the half -breeds and they were giants.

So they were the ones who, yeah, let's just say they're the offspring between fallen angels and women and the flood came and destroyed them.

And some people think that they might be demons because there's fallen angels and there's demons and demons always want to be inhabiting a body of some sort.

So the theory, just a theory that it might be them. So who knows? All right, well, let me ask you this then.

For the dinosaurs, since we don't find DNA in dinosaur fossils, but we do find

DNA in mammoths, for example, is it possible that the dinosaurs were in a pre -existence before God covered the water, the earth with water and recreated it?

No, wait, wait, hold on. We got a break and then we'll get back and I'll show you where dinosaurs are in the

Bible, okay? So hold on a minute, I know you gotta go, but if you have to go, just listen on the radio if you can. 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, buddy, welcome back to the show. Let's get back on the air with Thomas, who's my trustee.

There he goes, all right. Hey, Thomas. I'm here. All right, man, you're back on the air, buddy. All right, so dinosaurs.

We're for dinosaurs in the Bible. Yes, what you wanna do is go to Job 40 and 41.

You can read them on your own. But in Job 40, 15 through 24, behold now the strength of Behemoth, the power in his muscles.

He bends his tail like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are tubes of bronze.

His limbs are like bars of iron. He's the first of the ways of God. Let his maker bring near his sword.

Surely the mountains bring him food and all the beasts of the field play there. Under the lotus plants he lies down.

He converts the reeds of the marsh. Anyway, the lotus plant covers him. And when a river rages, he's not alarmed.

And he goes on. So that's, it looks, and it says, with barbs, can anyone pierce his nose? Can he be caught?

What, when he's on watch? So they're describing something humongous and ferocious.

Now, some say it might be an elephant or a hippopotamus, but it talks about the power of his muscles of his belly and his tail's like a cedar tree, which is huge.

So it's not fitting that. And then there's a water -based scripture in Job 41.

And it says things like, who can strip off his outer armor? Who can come within his double mail?

You know, those mail that the knights would wear, you know, those chain stuff. Who can open the doors of his face?

Around his teeth there is terror. He sneezes flash -forth light.

So this is one of the theories about this creature was able to put fire forward.

And that's where dragons come from. People say that's just myth. Well, there's a beetle, a bombardier beetle that can actually produce fire out of its rear.

Has two chemicals, and when they mix, it flashes, it explodes. It's a defense mechanism.

So it does exist in nature. It goes out of his mouth go burning torches, sparks of fire leap forth, out of his nostrils smoke goes forth as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

And it goes forth, okay? Because of the crashing, people are bewildered when he raises himself up.

The sword that reaches him cannot avail nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

He regards iron as straw, bronze as rotten wood, and it goes on. So what the heck are these things?

Yeah. Furthermore, just so you know, there's the dating method in science is different.

Now people have heard about carbon dating, but it only goes back to about 100 ,000 years. And they're finding carbon inside of coal shales and diamonds, which there should be no carbon -14 because it has a half -life of 5 ,370 years,

I think it is. So after 93 ,000 years, there should be nothing left. Okay. I've heard those same reports.

Right. Well, here's the thing, is that they're finding polystrate fossils, which are trees fossilized through 600 million years of rock layers.

Oops. You find cave drawings of dinosaurs. And there's been tribes out in jungles,

I think of Africa, that when someone showed them some pictures of dinosaurs, they point out in the jungle, all of them point in the same direction, making, you know, pointing out there.

So I don't believe that they are simultaneous. I mean, I don't believe that they were separated by millions of years.

I don't buy that. And then we have dating methods of rock strata, you know, the

Potassium -Argon, and then there's another one. And they get millions and millions and millions and millions of years difference of readings.

So this is not that accurate. I'm just saying, you know. Okay. So in that case,

I've been to Answers in Genesis Creation Museum and Ark Encounter, and they teach that dinosaurs were on the

Ark with Noah. I mean, is that something that we should go along with as Christians?

What do you think? Sure, why not? I don't have any problem with that. You could have the reptiles, and they're cold -blooded, most probably.

And so they would be dormant, largely. And I've written an article about the size of the

Ark and how many animals it could hold if the average animal was the size of a sheep. And it's immense.

It's a humongous amount. There are all kinds of issues here, and I don't have any problem with dinosaurs being on an

Ark. You could have small ones. What's the problem with that? And they sleep, and they're fed and stuff like that, and then they're released.

No problem. Most people don't know this, but 98 % of all species that have ever lived are now extinct.

I remember reading an article once that in dinosaurs, there's like 40 or 60 species, and that's all.

It's all. And so what the heck? And then there's what's called the Cambrian Explosion, which is about 520 million years ago, plus or minus 10 years span.

And the Cambrian Explosion deals with 40 body types that suddenly appear at the beginning of the

Cambrian Explosion, not during a 15 million year period of evolutionary development, but at the beginning.

How do you have 40 different body types suddenly appear in a rock strata? According to evolution, that's a problem.

And they don't have an answer. But if it was a flood, and everything was layered, and that's why, then it wouldn't be a problem.

Okay? Yeah, there's lots to this. Yeah, yeah, I've read that also. Good. All right, well, that's all my questions.

I'm a little surprised about the Nephalem, your answer on that, but I'll accept it. And maybe one day we'll understand why the

Neanderthals were so different than the humans. Still human, yet very different. No, they were very, very, very, very similar.

And you can have, in present genetics, you can have all kinds of sizes of people, brain capacities of people, shapes of heads.

So another thing is, guess how many pool tables it would take? I read this like 30 years ago.

Guess how many pool tables it would take to put all the human ancestor fossils? To lay them all out.

And at the time, it was two. So there's not a whole bunch of evidence for that.

I've heard that they would all fit in the bed of one pickup truck, is what I've read. Yes, yep, uh -huh.

I'm being generous with two, yeah. And so there are problems. What they do is they produce all kinds of stuff on evolutionary theory based on a tooth, like a pig's tooth, which turned out to be false.

They have Homo habilis, they have Homo efferensis, they have Australopithecines, Theanthropus dassoni, they have all these hominid ancestor lines.

But the problem here is, ultimately, is information transmission and development. Because genetics, deoxyribonucleic acid, which is formed from four nucleotide bond pairs, adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine, these things form to, in the helix, the sugar phosphate helix of the

DNA molecule, and they form information bonds. But these things are so incredibly complex that to have them match inside, well,

I guess I'm going on back there. Why don't you mute yourself, okay. I mean, people just panicked, listening on the radio while they're driving.

So the mathematics of information formation and transference genetically to alterations of new phyla is basically mathematically impossible, given the conditions that have been present and the time durations.

So there's a lot of evidence against evolution, but it's not taught, because the leftists are in control of information.

And that's a serious thing. But anyway, that's another topic, okay? I totally agree with you that they suppress it.

I do not believe in evolution. I was raised believing it in public school, and I completely reject it now.

Yeah, yeah. Micro works, but it's a reduction of the gene pool through predation and environmental pressures, not an increase in genetic information, which is macro evolution.

And genetic information has to be then modified, and it has to be transmitted upon a gene pool.

So the species, if you have thousands and thousands and thousands of breeding pairs of something, then the genetics has to gradually overtake all of it in many different environments.

And the time that it takes for this kind of a thing to occur, I read another article about this, that mathematically it's possible, but the universe has to be 200 billion years old.

There's so many problems. Anyway, okay, buddy, we'll get going. Appreciate it.

All right, Tom. All right, man, God bless. Goodbye. Okay, all right. Yeah, I could talk about that.

I love that stuff. Let's get to Luke from Washington, D .C. Luke, welcome. You're on the air. Hi, Matt.

How are you? Doing all right, man. Hanging in there. What do you got? Hey, a question.

Did Jesus have a fallen human nature? No, he did not. He did not have original sin out of Romans 5 .19,

that through the transgression of the one, the many were made sinners. But this is due to the issue of federal headship, that the male, not the female, represents the descendants.

And so Christ did not fall into the genetic line of male descendancy because he was only born of the

Virgin Mary and not in the genetic line of the father, Joseph. So therefore, he did not have a sin nature and he did not have a fallen nature.

So there you go. Okay? All right, man. We got a break.

Hold on, we got a break. Okay, we'll get back to you after the break. All right, buddy. Hey, folks, 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, everybody, welcome back to the show. Last segment of the hour. Let's get back on with Luke real fast before we get to the callers.

All right, man. What do you got? Hello? Yep. Still there?

Yeah. Yes. Mm -hmm. I'm sorry, what?

That question is difficult to answer. Do Christians, all Christians everywhere, is someone drinking alcohol in a day, in a particular day?

Probably, yes. So I would say, yes, Christians drink alcohol every day. Do all Christians drink alcohol every day?

I don't know. I don't think so. I'm a Christian. I don't. Are they allowed to drink alcohol every day?

Yeah, they're allowed to. Yeah, they can drink alcohol. In Proverbs 31 .6,

I believe it is, it gives strong drink to the one who's perishing and wine to the one who's in distress. So you're allowed to drink alcohol, just don't have it master you.

Don't use it as an excuse to be mastered by something and be addicted. You should do all things with care.

Okay. So the previous question, because Jesus is born in flesh with incarnation, so he's saying that he's not born in sin.

He don't have a sin nature. Right, he does not have a sin nature. That's correct.

Okay. Yeah. So the previous scholar told you, you told him that Nephilim, that was in Job chapter 40.

I know Nephilim is in Genesis six, but in Job 40 and 41, it looks like it mentions dinosaurs, a water -based type and a land -based type.

Okay. All right, thank you, sir. You're welcome. All right. All right.

Now let's get to next longest waiting is Derek from Virginia. Derek, welcome. You're on the air.

Hey, Matt, I'm a new listener. How are you today? Oh, I'm doing all right, man. I've got the great privilege of being able to talk to people about the

Lord. So what do you got? That's right. Yeah, I caught your radio coming home from work and I've been listening for the last couple of days and it's been a real blessing.

Well, by God's grace, because I'll tell you, if you knew me in person, you would not be impressed. It's bad.

It's the same here. Yes, I got a question. I guess my question is about healing.

I guess it was about 16 years ago, I lost my mother to pancreatic cancer. And I was raised in church and I've known the

Lord all my life. And I can scarcely think of anyone who has prayed over more than my mother.

And I know you've dealt with loss. I think I was listening the other day, you lost your son. I think you said your wife dealt with some kind of pain issue or whatever.

But my question is, there's a verse in the Bible and I'm paraphrasing. I think it's James. It's like, it says, is anyone sick among you?

Bring them to the elders and pray over them. And I think it's a prayer of faith.

The person could be healed. And I struggled with this for a while because like you said, she passed away.

And my sister, which is a wonderful Christian woman, she was basically telling me, well, Derek, maybe you lost your mother.

Maybe that was her healing. Maybe that was God healing for her, by her home going.

And just kind of wanted to get your take on that. Does this verse apply to us today?

Or was this applied to people back in the times of Christ?

It applies today. And the question is, what does it mean? So different theologians have offered different explanations.

And what's interesting about it, it says, is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the

Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. And the

Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, they'll be forgiven him. But what? Well, what?

Why do you throw that in? And then it says, therefore confess your sins to one another. So is this an issue then in the context of sickness due to sin?

And so with the elders coming in, then it looks like they are aware of a sinful issue.

And so they are anointing, he's being forgiven, et cetera. And then he's healed.

So because of this, some say, well, it just has to do with just physical things and anything.

So my wife has a very rare condition and my son died from a very rare condition.

So these conditions occur and people get pancreatic cancer, they get lung cancer, brain aneurysm.

All right, so is God obligated then to heal everybody who prays this?

Well, no, if that were the case, no one would ever die. And we got problems there. So this is for the will of God.

Now in Exodus 4 .11, Moses is talking to God. He says, I'm not a good speaker, et cetera, et cetera.

You sent me to Pharaoh, I'm not very good at this. And God says, who makes the eye blind, the tongue dumb and the ear deaf?

Is not I the Lord? He's saying that he's in control, don't worry about what you're saying. But in this process, he talks about God actually making people sick.

People say, well, that's never the case. Yes, it is. Because he said so in Exodus 4 .11. Okay, now wait a minute, what about that?

Well, if God makes someone sick, there's gonna be a reason for it. Not just an arbitrary, hey,

I'm gonna slap this guy down. So then if you're praying against what God's will is for that, now what do you do?

So you see, this is not an easy topic. So what we do is we move forward by faith.

We say, Lord, would you please heal? Like I pray almost every night, but 99 % except last night

I forgot. But I pray for my wife and her healing. We pray together each night.

She's out of state right now and I pray for her and she's still not healed. Well, that's not my business.

I mean, it is, but you know, God's the one that heals. And so I pray in faith and she does too.

And we're waiting for that healing. And if God takes her home to heal her, then that's the answer.

And if he doesn't, but in the meantime, she's praising God through everything about it. That's more glory for God and a greater reward for her.

So this is a hard one to, yeah, it's a tough one. And I've seen good, I mean,

I've seen a lot of good that has come out, you know, from my mother's passing. I mean, it was several people have actually come to know the

Lord through it. And we've actually, there's a girl at church who's dealing with the same type of cancer. And I've seen so many good things that have, you know,

I can see God's handiwork in his fingerprint on that. And it's a lot of good that comes out of it.

Yeah, there is. And so the tough thing for us is to live through it and by faith, pray for healing, expect healing, and trust

God when it doesn't happen and praise God either way, if it does or doesn't. That's right.

It's amazing. Well, I'll be praying for your wife and pray things go well for you and keep up the good work on the show.

Like I said, it's been a blessing. I've been listening to it the last couple of days. Well, good. Yeah, praise

God, man. And I wish I had better answers for questions like that, but sometimes I just don't.

It's tough, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it is. All right.

All right, brother. Okay, God bless. Thanks, sir. God bless you. All right.

All right, now let's get to Amy from Wyoming. Amy, welcome, you're on the air. Hi, Mr.

Schleich, thanks for having me again. No problem. So, I'm a person that I believe what the

Bible says is true. And I don't really, but I'm also a person that questions why a lot.

Not always what, but just why. I like to know why for things. So, is there any evidence you can put forth of a why, because I believe in the triune

God. So, why when Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, did he say, if it be your will, pass this cup from me?

And then again, on the cross, why he asks, why have you forsaken me? Why is that even important to include?

To show his humanity? Yeah, that's part of it. The why have you forsaken me is a quote from Psalm 22, verse one, where the crucifixion is actually spoken about in that particular verse.

And if you read Psalm 22, which is 1 ,000 years BC, then you can see, oh, he's talking about crucifixion.

The forsaking is a poetic kind of a thing to look at because it's dealing with the tragedy and the pain and the suffering that Jesus is going through.

So, he has two natures, a divine nature and a human nature.

And we call this the hypostatic union. So, what's going on here is that each nature has a will.

This is called dithelitism. And yet, the two wills.

Dithelit, no, I'm just kidding, I'm sorry. I'm just kidding, I'm sorry, go ahead. And the two wills are in the one person.

And Jesus, as a single person, has one will. How this works, we don't know. But what we do know is that Jesus would say things like,

I'm thirsty, I'm hungry, I'm tired. Because he's manifesting the attributes of humanity.

Well, within that, we could ask questions. You know, he's on the cross, he doesn't wanna go through the pain.

Why wouldn't he? Because it hurts, it's painful, it's serious. And so, this is the natural thing that he's gonna be saying because, yeah, it's part of what he has to go through.

It's a simplistic kind of a way of looking at it, but there you go, okay? Okay, good enough for me.

That helps? Yes. Yes, sir, thank you so much. You're welcome so much.

All right, well, God bless. Okay. Bye. Okay, bye. All right, now let's get back to Jamal from North Carolina.

Hey, Jamal, welcome, man. We got about two minutes or so. What do you got, man? Okay, I have two questions.

I just thought about it right now, so I apologize to the screener. One of them was about having church at home, online, versus going to the building, but I wanna swap that out for this one.

There was a church that had a main pastor who was a male, but they had female pastors for other roles, like youth ministry and women's ministry and things like that.

Is that acceptable? No, they should not be called pastors because they're not pastors.

A pastor is an elder, and that's out of 1 Timothy 5 .17. 1

Timothy 5 .17 talks about the pastors being an elder. And Titus chapter one and 1

Timothy three, an elder is to be a husband of one wife. So by default, a pastor can only be applied to a male.

So to say a woman is a pastor of this and that is a misuse of the biblical term and a failure to understand proper biblical theology.

Can she be a director? Of course. Can she work like that and do stuff over the kids or whatever it is, maintenance and that?

Of course. But she should not be addressed as a pastor because she isn't one. And so the problem here is that, oh, she's just a pastor of youth ministry or whatever they wanna call it, of children's ministry.

Oh, okay. And then someone goes to another church and there's a woman pastor, senior pastor. Well, they had a pastor to that old church.

So I guess it's okay. Sure, sure, right. And it gets bad. Yeah. Okay. All right.

All right, well, thank you very much, Mr. Slick. And God bless you and your family. And I'll also be praying for your wife as well.

Take care, sir. Hey, thanks a lot, Jamal. Really appreciate it. God bless. All right.

I like his questions. He has good questions. Now we're about out of time. There's the music gonna start any second and I hope that you enjoy the show.

And may the Lord bless you. I just hope he blesses you greatly tonight.

I don't know why I said that, but I just, I'm asking for that. And so by his grace, we'll be back on the air tomorrow and hopefully we'll talk to you then.

God bless everybody. Good night. Another program powered by The Truth Network.