Matt Slick Q&A - 11/15/17

Sounds good. Live. All right. Welcome back everybody. I have access to YouTube and I have access to Facebook here so if you guys fire questions and stuff like that, hopefully I'll be able to maybe address some of them and My laptop here.

So my nifty laptop and so why don't there we go. Okay, I'm looking it'll take a few minutes to for things to work out. Let's see. Yeah, it looks like that's it. No, this is live. We've got 24 people. Let me do this.

I'm gonna see if I'm testing it. Make sure I'm getting the right window. I'm fine. Thank you. That's what Nick says. My wife says I'm fine. Yeah, that too that's true neurotic and emotional so Okay, I'm gonna get back over to here come on oh I see you gonna do it this way all right.

So nobody got any questions or comments. You guys got any questions to go? Yes, ma 'am. Okay questions the what room the war okay movie the war room. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that's a that's a bad thing to do.

Okay, okay I've done a lot worse. Yeah. Yeah proper way to address demonic forces by asking the Lord Jesus to deal with them. Yeah. Because what they're doing Inadvertently when they are praying and they address Satan as they're praying to Satan and they don't mean to do that in that sense.

But that's what they're doing. So I remember remember in that film that they did that and we're going no, no, no, no and This is one of the examples of problems that occur When people don't run thing by run things by people who know stuff.

Saying I'm the one but there are lots of people out there who know theology a lot better than I do and They you know, they should run things by here's our script. Here's this. Anything heretical in here do not have a pray to Satan, you know pray to Jesus the Lord Jesus.

Please I'm asking you to rebuke the evil one. That's what I did earlier tonight when I opened up in prayer. And the only time I ever say to anybody you can address him directly is if he's right there directly.

There's a demonic manifestation and they would eat so rebuke you get out of here, you know things like that. That's right there. So it's it's it's wrong to do that exorcism. Yeah, exorcisms are real. Oh, yeah.

Well exorcisms first of all are done in Matthew chapter 12 verse 22 to 32 for one thing. It's done. It's actually it's a biblical thing who can do it a Christian. The Christian Christians have the authority.

Generally, you don't want to do something like that alone. There's no rule in the Bible. You have to have 3 .8 people there and you have to stand up facing north. There's no rules we have the authority as the children of God to call the name of Christ and To as many as received him to them.

He gave the authority the right to be called the children of God. That's John 1 12. So Generally speaking for those I've never been involved with it. But for those I've heard about and seen they generally have a lot one two, three four people involved praying.

Because sometimes there's physical manifestations strength. Abnormal strength manifestations things like that. And so sometimes you just got to be be that strong that way. Christians cannot be demon-possessed though.

But you know if I were to encounter someone who I thought was actually demon-possessed. Depending on the circumstances. I may or may not try it on my own but on one hand Matthew 12 43 or 42 or 43 43 I think it begins the pericope where when a demon is cast out and it goes out in the dry places and Not finding a place to rest.

It comes back and finding the house Clean and empty it then enters. Clean means it's been cast out empty. The Holy Spirit's not there, so that's what I understand it to be and so I would not cast a demon out of someone if they didn't want to become a Christian.

And you need Jesus what you want Jesus? Yes, I do. Okay, let's go, you know and No, I don't want him you're on your own. I'm not gonna cast it out because The scriptures say be worse off. Now, I don't know if anybody would ever you know go of course you'd cast it out.

Well, the Bible says it'd be worth worse. I'm not gonna do that. I Never heard anybody bring that up, but that's me. Cannot be possessed right. Christians cannot be possessed. There are some people who will say You have a trichotomy and dichotomy.

Trichotomy is the person is spirit soul and body. Dichotomy is spirit and soul are basically the same thing and then body. Because spirit soul are interchangeable. I lean towards dichotomy because of the interchangeability.

But whatever and so some people will say well the spirit can be possessed but not the soul. Or the soul can be possessed but not the spirit, you know, or the body could be possessed but not the spirit, you know I've heard of Christians who This is for real in the hyper charismatic movement Southern California.

Heard about Christians who every morning when they wake up and sleep. Would cough the demons out of their mouths and out of their souls by coughing them into into rags and Kleenex and throw them in the trash.

Yeah, because demons got in because they're sleeping with their mouth opens. Demons got in there. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, I've encountered it. Yeah the people who yeah, it's like are you serious, you know?

So Since you did a Ouija board stuff. Have you closed that door? Praise God. And how can that green things on your shoulder crawling around looking I don't know I'm just making it up making it up. I got you for a second though.

That's right. Once I was teaching at a high school or some high school kids at some place I was teaching a whole bunch of stuff and there's like 30 kids, you know young like mid-teens ish. And I was telling some of my occult days my stories about seeing demonic manifestations and stuff.

And I was I was watching them and at first they're like this after a while. They're like this. And then they're like it's okay. They've totally got him, right? They are like I'm telling the story and I'm realizing that they're I got them.

I mean, they're totally into this and it's all real and so I'm saying and that You won't believe what happened. No, I like that and these girls. Oh Man, I had him and all the guys are laughing at the girls the girls are they screamed and they're laughing.

We all had a big kick out of it, you know, what is that? You know, I'll do it to my wife sometimes like I still do it after all these years of marriage. Okay in the computer just hit delete. She looks at me.

It's okay. Hit delete. She goes don't do it. It's alright. Works every time okay. Sorry, I'm digressing quite a bit.

You're gonna ask a question go for it. Well when you're dressing between Saying that they're preaching a Different Jesus versus then just Same Jesus, but they're just wrong about yeah.

Yeah, a Mormon is in Mormonism. God is an exalted man for another planet. And so Jesus is the brother of the devil and to us the pre-existence. Well that ontological difference between the Jesus of the scriptures, which is the incarnation of the eternal word.

No, God is no no God man and all that kind of stuff pre-existence from another planet. So that is an ontological descriptive difference so that they're different. So that you can clearly say but what if you have someone who who just doesn't know anything?

They're not saved by doctrine but. But doctrine comes along because person's regenerate. So what I'll do is I just ask people where they're at. You know, why don't believe the Trinity? Okay. Do you know what it is?

Yeah, it's three gods. I've had this conversation with people who are Christians, you know. Well, no, it's not it's not and they don't know. I teach them. No, it's this and this that well. Where's that in the Bible?

Let me show you and they go. Oh. Okay, I believe that so, you know things like that you know, you just when people say they don't believe certain things I ask more questions and maybe they're just they just don't know and.

Then there's this ambiguous kind of you know Gray area. Well, maybe they know maybe they don't know what I generally as a rule will say if they continue to reject the truth. After being taught the truth.

That's a sign that they may not be saved. But it doesn't mean they're not saved because sometimes they could just be resisting it and it might take a few weeks or months. So it's a tough one. Differently.

Yeah, because. Yeah. You got it you exemplified, you know very well how to find out the difference. It's because someone says they believe in the Jesus of the Bible doesn't mean they do so you have to know what the doctrine of Christ is a doctrine of God is and then knowing that that.

You know, for example, Jesus has two natures both God and man and he's the divine nature is eternal and so they'll say no. So then you you point out that point? No. Even though they say they believe in the Jesus of the Bible.

So for example, many people would say to me out there. We believe in the Jesus of the Bible. Really you do. Yes, we do. Can you pray to him? Because the Jesus of the Bible is prayed to can you pray to him?

You have to do something quick and slick. You can't go theologically deep and so. No, we pray to the Father but the Jesus in the Bible the true Jesus is prayed to you know first Corinthians 1 verse 1 and 2 John 14 14, you know, Acts 7 55 through 60.

There's these places where he's prayed to and and so I'll show them that and. You know or quote it to them and they don't know. So they see if you have the Jesus of the Bible you build a pray to him. Just like the real Christians did with the real Jesus in the Bible.

That's how I'll word it try and get him to think. Okay. No problem, you know sweat. I Don't know. I do research that it's just something you know camel routes from 3 ,000 beasts.

We're saying that.

Right through compression of weight and carrying a weight in their bones that you know increase. Bone density increases. Well, that just means the ones they found were like that. Doesn't mean that they haven't found all of them or camels weren't domesticated.

There's a lot of counter-issues that could be raised generally speaking. You'll find critics find whatever information they can that suits their position and refuse to see it. Alternate explanations.

They're not objective. So, you know, just do some homework and see that you can find issues like that. Yeah, it's not very much so that's what you might need to write to biblical archaeology review and start asking questions like that.

That's very esoteric. So it's something that might need to be researched in that sense. Yeah could be. Yeah, there's all kinds of questions and that's one of them how you know, they carry the same amount of weight.

You know. How do you know? You know, how do you know they weren't domesticated because the compression wasn't the same. That's it. It's so subjective looking at the evidence, so yeah. That's not true.

No, they found the King Solomon stables they found. I actually was in Jerusalem and saw. Was right next to one of the foundation areas of David's Cat or castle would you call it palace? I was right there and.

That's when the tour guide said look down the hill and you can see the rooftops. And now you can see where Bathsheba would have been. I went. Oh. Yeah, you can. I could see how you could see her naked, you know kind of thing and so it says this.

We've been the tour later. We can watch and.

You never know once I guess you gotta pay extra for that. Oh.

Temple veil, you know. The death of Christ. We said no one saw. And the veil was was rent. Tombs are open and many bodies of the Saints had fallen asleep were raised. Okay. And they appeared to me. Sorry, I would just say to them this is my famous response so was it proof nothing.

Because you can have response have things written in the Bible that don't occur other places and vice versa. Just because something isn't isn't taken all over the place doesn't mean That it's not true.

It's this is this is faulty logic on on their parts. Like sometimes people will say well the killing of the babies in in Bethlehem that would have been recorded all over the place. And I say why would have been recorded all over the place?

Why how big was Jerusalem. Was Bethlehem. How many babies were in Bethlehem at the time. Bethlehem was a small area how many babies were there? 510. I don't know. With the Romans really concerned about something that happened.

I've had in Bethlehem a little sheep herding place. What's the big deal? Was it recorded so it didn't happen really it's faulty thinking in there that are part. It Was in the Bible yeah, but they mean extra biblical stuff, and there are plenty even my website.

There's some archaeological verifications of cities and places and things like that. Inscriptions and stuff there is a lot of biblical archaeological evidence to support a lot. I'm just saying it there really is.

Look to for okay. Sure.

Bethlehem. The census and it's dating itself is dubious. When the Romans ordered a census to register people and properties they did it for administrative administrative.

Okay ask this guy what website is he getting this on. No, he's getting it on website. He's not doing his own research. He's just going to anti-christian websites and citing stuff and saying here this does not deal with it.

It's always doing. Yeah, cuz he's he did trucking he didn't learn it on his own. He got it from his anti-gut they exist out there. All right, so there's census issues. I'm not a specialist on census, but you know if you think about this.

So here's this is really bad, here's Italy and Greece and Egypt here's the Nile the Nile River right here and You know the Rock of Gibraltar and stuff like that. Okay, really bad drawing. Here's Israel.

This is wrong. All right. You had to go around like this. I don't the distances, but we're talking you know a thousand miles two thousand miles I don't know. Maybe someone can look it up that is far to go from here to here across water was expensive and dangerous now one of the things that they did was they allowed the Romans allowed the Jews to worship their own God because there was a Practice in Rome called Cesaro papism and Cesaro papism was worship of the of the Emperor the Jews weren't going to do that.

So the reason bringing this up is because this area right here is very important. Geographically and strategically to get from here to here if you didn't have this a lot of money to go through boats. You walked and this is where you walk because there were deserts here and here and some areas here.

So you'd walk across like this. So this is a strategic area, which is why God put them there. It's a whole nother issue. So that would be a central area when The gospel occurred and they could go out everywhere.

But nevertheless, so the point is what the Roman Empire did was gave them a pass on a lot of things. Because of where they were and they were a fish they were strong people so Rome allowed them to serve who they wanted to serve and do various things and.

So that's why they had tax collectors. Because they work in the language of the place at times like that the Jews didn't like it. So how do you know? How do they know what the requirements were a sense of stuff in that sliver of land at that time?

When the Jews were very very prominently concerned with their genealogies. How do they know? So you see there's just so much information these people I've dealt with this kind of stuff before and done research on these kind of questions and You know, it's just they just they only do enough research to find what they want.

They don't do any more and then they go to websites that have a half-baked question. They think is a stumper and then they present it and when every time and this is what I say to them a lot. I haven't encountered him lately.

But what I'll say to them is I'll say you want me to do your homework for you. You think this is a killer question. I've got Hundreds of Bible difficulties answered on the website on the car I said Have you looked at any counter arguments going anywhere or you just find what you want and you just ask it and then you want Me to do your homework for you.

And if I do a homework and I've done this before where I've they've asked a question. I happen to have done the research on that particular issue on the website read it. They don't even they don't go.

Oh, that's that's an awesome answer. They go. Well, whatever. Hey, how about this one? You're not interested in truth. They're not interested in answers. They're only interested in the purpose of trying to destroy the Christian faith.

And that's what I said. Look, I'm not a dialogue with you because all you're gonna do is go to these places and list out whatever people say. And then you're gonna fire Matt and if I can't answer everything then Christianity is not true.

That's not how it works. If I do answer you just ignore it and go on to something else. It's not an issue of truth. It's an issue of motive. This is what you got to deal with with them. A lot of times.

I've had a lot of dealings with people like that. It's a great unfortunate. Okay. This is question the same guy. Yeah, you know what I mean, okay.

The modification of the Bible or biblical canon to suit the Catholic Church Constantine and specifically to eradicate the growing movement of Gnostic Gospels. But given that you see those is to me given that you seem to have a fairly hardline view of Christianity in general I would guess you probably believe the doctrine that those Gnostic Gospels were heretical and cast out of the church for cause.

If That is your belief I would still posit for evidence that it was at the Council of Nicaea that men specifically followers of Constantine. Wow, okay.

The guy you need to tell the guy he needs to start doing some serious homework. Because he doesn't know what he's doing. He is searching for anything and everything to reject Christ. That's all he's doing.

Gnosticism was hinted at in 1st John 4. 1st John 4 was written by John the Apostle. The one who says that Christ has not come on the flesh is not of God. That was a Gnostic principle. In Gnosticism there were different levels of deity and God was so above the material world that he had to have go-betweens in order to manifest himself and have his word and.

So the Gnostics from Gnosis to know hidden knowledge so they would say they had secret rituals and secret this and secret that and yes, there were Gnostic influences and. It was addressed and rejected in the book 1st John.

Particularly in verse John chapter 4 also in Colossians Jesus says in him was all the fullness of deity in bodily form. This is written by Paul the Apostle. John was written by John the Apostle. So the issues refuting Gnosticism were right there and present furthermore Gnosticism said that God could not become incarnate.

But yet the incarnation is clearly taught in the four Gospels and in the epistles. So the idea of Gnostic Gospels later on being rejected because of Constantine is just stupid. It is stupid. Incidentally, I've been to Nicaea.

I've been in the last council of church. I walked in it was cool. It's a mosque. The disciple okay, he's just rambling on the this has already been answered refuted by the fact that the Gospels themselves show the incarnation of God in flesh that refutes Gnosticism.

Colossians does. 1st John does so, you know, he could say what he wants. But the idea that the later movement is the issue isn't the issue. It was already dealt with and refuted by the epistles. Here's one of the things you can do.

Just ask him. Can you show me that documentation? And what you can do is you can shut him up by just saying look I want that documentation. For example that Jesus taught Thomas this stuff the gospel of Thomas show me the documentation and he'll say, okay I'll go get it.

You won't get it because there isn't any he might have a suit. It's called a pseudo epigraphal document pseudo epigraphal false writing the gospel of Thomas. The church knew what the Gospels were and there's four and there's four for a reason I sometimes I go to explain that but asking us to document that this is What it was that Jesus actually did teach him because the early church certainly didn't accept that.

That the early church was there at a time in place of Christ and the disciples were there and they didn't believe that. Why is this guy believing it now? This is where I get on these people because I have had a lot of dealings with people like that.

They don't care about facts and truth. They only want something to negate Christianity with and when I present answers to them, they ignore it. Dismiss it and go on to something else and that's what I start talking to them.

So you are disingenuous if you really want to have a discussion then let's sit down and have a discussion. And I said I can cross-examine you and let's see how you do. They don't want to do that and they are the troublemakers.

They are I call them trolls. They just troll. That's all they are trolls. So I call you. Invite him. Absolutely invite him. How would he know there's no archaeological evidence. He has to know all archaeological evidence to say there's none and those videos we talked about earlier on Netflix that talk about some of the evidence that's there there is evidence but if it's not going to fit their worldview, you see evidence is an abstraction evidence is a concept and evidence.

If you have a worldview or you have a theory or a desire for something and You don't believe it's gonna work. Put this way. I was watching the Elizabeth Smart thing last past couple nights I guess watch that where she got abducted you know about that she was abducted as an 11 year old girl and Raped at 11 year old and kept for nine months and this guy was just you know.

And the police made a mistake in that they had their eyes on one guy and Some other evidence came out but because they were so focused on this one guy. That they ignored the evidence over here because they were focused and I can understand why because of the profile.

He fit the profile this other guy didn't and so they ignored him as potential and the evidence about him. So this everybody does this everybody's guilty one way or another something like this nobody's perfect, but the thing is the concept is that evidence is an abstraction and Something becomes evidence if we have a mental Framework that it fits into if our framework is altered this way.

It doesn't fit therefore. It's not evidence. And so the issue becomes the presuppositional base to which evidence can and cannot fit. So is this microphone evidence? I love my wife. No, is it evidence that I'm I'm on the internet talking and people are hearing me yes, and So it is evidence in one concept or one context, but not evidence in another and this is how it works so generally at this point what I'll talk about with them is what's your your worldview that requires certain kinds of evidence and What evidence would work and then you start examining that because I found out that these kind of guys They don't care.

They don't care about what the evidence is because a worldview doesn't is shifted such a way that it doesn't matter. The evidence when you give them doesn't work. And so then I just jump on them about that.

I've had so many dealings with people like that seriously. They're irritating you don't care I Tell you what go on your phone go to Google type in evidence Exodus video and just see what comes up and I watched it's on Netflix.

It's a very good documentary done by archaeologists and they have different views on some of what the evidence is. But they do a have you seen that we've got this big wall and then they shift the timeline you ever seen that.

It's really well done and So you can say go look at that go watch it now. Is it evidence? Yes, it is. There's historical stuff. How are you gonna make it fit? Well, some archaeologists don't like it. But there's some compelling Reasons to adopt it but one of the reasons some of the archaeologists don't like it is because they have a committed worldview and So they can't shift because it would mean that what they've held belief to be true.

So many other areas can't be true and If you believe in it There is no evidence for the Exodus because you believe it could not have happened and did not have happened. It's just impossible doesn't matter what the evidence is.

You're gonna adapt In a manner contrary to that. It's a actual cult mentality and there's a phenomenon in psychology called snapping where people will believe something just because they believe it and The people will believe for different reasons.

They'll snap for different reasons, but once someone snaps It's very difficult to get them unsnapped. And so it happens not only in religious cults, but also in secular ideologies. And people don't realize that the secularists are not immune to this.

So what they'll do is they'll adopt evolution. They'll adopt Atheism they'll adopt a website that gives them all the tough questions that they like I say see a snap. It doesn't matter what you give me.

That's what this says. It can't be true. And so if you say hey, there's a Netflix video go look it up. It doesn't matter about that because it can't be true. How do you know? And so then you find out that their motives are really skewed.

That's what you got to you got to search for motives at this point. Yes.

So if he lost a war, for instance, with a neighbor, that war was not recorded because it did not reflect that he was a good prince or leader, so the exodus will not be recorded because it did not reflect favorably on Egypt and, you know, the pharaoh.

I mean, they will scratch out other pharaohs' existence because it didn't fit the new pharaoh's point of view. So it's propaganda, not necessarily history. So you have to be careful when you look at their information, you have to remember that light.

Good point. Now his last point that he made, last one, I personally thought was the silliest, but I didn't know the answer to the other ones, I just hadn't heard it before. He said that, how can you believe the complete lack of historical evidence for the exodus, as well as the existence of the flood in the books written thousands of years before the Bible.

So basically, the flood was recorded in history prior to Moses' writings, which didn't happen during Moses' time.

So I can write about Abraham Lincoln, but I wasn't alive when he was there, I can write about him, I can get documents. That's what's the big deal. People don't know that every culture has a flood story, every one of them have a major flood story.

And one thing I'd like to bring up is that the most ancient Chinese culture, you know, 6 ,000 years old, the ancient hieroglyphic pictographic thing for a boat is a boat with a number eight and mouth.

Eight people in a boat. Why eight? That's how many were in Noah's Ark. So we have ancient evidences. He's just going to reject them all. You know, how do you have sedimentary rock on top of mountains all over the world?

This is one of the evidences of the flood. You know, I'd ask him, have you done any counter research to see for answers? No. And I often ask him, do you believe in evolution? Yes. Why? Because it's true.

Have you looked at any counter arguments? Of course not. Ah, so you're really not interested in facts, are you? And they say, oh, you're just dismissing me. I want to have a discussion with somebody I can reason with, not with someone who's religiously committed to their atheistic position.

And I say, if you really want to get into a discussion on truth and the nature of truth, let's have a discussion and I'll show you that your worldview is self-refuting. You know, but they don't want that.

So this is why often I've had, there's a place called Pal Talk. I've had a lot of these discussions over the years, lots, many, many, many, many hours. And so I'm very familiar with this kind of person.

And, you know, it comes in, I'll treat him nicely. But the real issue is, it's not a desire for facts. It's a desire to win and to disseminate false information and insufficient information in order to bolster his position.

It's a motive issue. I've encountered many of them and they often get hostile. But when they're behind a computer, they do. But face to face, they don't, you know, but whatever.

He would also end all of his statements by saying that these things weren't true without any reasonable doubt. Without any reasonable doubt. Who's that? Same guy? Yeah, same guy. Without any reasonable doubt.

How old is this guy? 17? Wouldn't be reasonable in his opinion. Right. That's subjective.

He's older than me. Well, reasonable doubt, you know, that's a subjective thing. You know, I would say, well, I think beyond any reasonable doubt, your IQ is below 100. And, yeah, it's my opinion, but it's beyond any reasonable doubt.

He said historically not true.

Right. Every time he was getting...

Yeah, I was after every one of those points.

Oh, beyond reasonable doubt. Really? Oh, what is reasonable doubt? Oh, wow. Yeah. How old is he? Obstreperous. Yeah, he's just being recalcitrant, obstreperous, obtuse, and has severe myopic rigidity.

How do you spell that? T-H-A-T. Some people go, like, what is that? It's a demonstrative pronoun. What's the problem?

Online questions? All right. Where is it? YouTube or? Both, but one guy from Facebook, he asked right off the bat. In the beginning, someone was claiming that Jesus' story is just Odin, and he's heard of Osiris before, but never Odin, and would that be the same argument?

Would you use the same argument?

Well, there's two ways to tackle this. One is to go into the particular details and learn about Osiris and Odin, and they've had others, and I've written a couple of them, about a couple of them, and whenever I've done this, I've discovered that the documentation for these others are extremely spurious and not very accurate, and they have been altered and borrowed information from other places.

So one of the things I will do is, the other way, I'll say, so you're saying then that Christianity borrowed from the idea of Odin, or Osiris, or whatever, because they were before Christianity. That's what they all say, that it came before Christianity, and therefore, let's see.

And therefore Christianity borrowed that.

Right, and that's what they're saying. Well, similarity does not mean that one borrowed from another. And so here's an article I wrote years ago, our New Testament themes found in the Old Testament. Oh, because the issues of the Old Testament were written before Osiris, before Odin, before all these others.

And this is what's in the Old Testament, the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God, atonement by blood, baptism, only begotten Son, the creative work, the crucifixion, damnation and salvation, eternal Son, first and last, God among His people, incarnation of God, monotheism, only begotten Son, priesthood of Jesus, resurrection of Christ, return of Christ, sacrifice of the Son, salvation by grace, sin offering, sin offering made outside the camp, sin offering without defects, Son of God, substitutionary atonement, Trinity, virgin birth, and worship of Jesus.

So these themes are in the Old Testament. I've got the references. You can go to the articles and you can see the Old Testament references. So I'll say, look, if your argument is that Jesus is here and Osiris and Odin are before, and therefore this borrowed from here, well, then you have a problem because these concepts are before this as well.

So therefore, by your logic, they borrowed from the Old Testament. We win. That's one of the ways to do that. Go to my website. Go to CARM. Look up our New Testament themes found in the Old Testament.

Just type in the word theme, T-H-E-M-E, and you can find the article and you can see and you can click on things and look. See, I've done the homework.

Okay, here's a quick one. Speak about Dennis Prager. Dennis Prager?

Oh, I was at an atheist convention when he debated a guy, and I thought he did pretty well. He speaks Russian and, you know, he did okay. He's a good guy. Ready for the next?

Yes. Facebook. Nelson Oliver. Hi, Matt. What is your opinion on pastors who have not been trained in seminary leading to a degree?

If they're called of God, they do a good job. They're faithful to the Word. They study. Praise God. They don't need a seminary degree to be a pastor. I think it's helpful to get a degree and learn a lot more than you normally would, but it's not a necessity.

Dodie Mendoza from YouTube asks, Isn't John 17 -16 a good verse to cite to those who deny the deity and eternal nature of Christ?

Okay, John 17 -16. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. For the deity of Christ? I'm not of the world. What does it mean that I'm not of the world? Always define your terms. I would not use that as a verse for the deity of Christ to say I'm not of the world.

What does it mean? And it would probably have to do with the issue of, you know, sinfulness, the carnality of the world. Jesus is not of that. Wouldn't hesitate that he was divine, though. Something I said?

See you guys. God bless. All right. Have you come over to your place sometime and I'll mess all your guys up. All right. Take a can of hairspray and a lighter and go up. That would be a good idea, probably.

Need to tell them not to do that. They need to stop doing that. Why do they need to do that? Well, because the Bible says the pastors are elders. First Timothy 5 -17. And elders would be the Miesguenikos on air or Andre Miesguenikos.

Man of one woman. That's First Timothy 3, 1 -6 talks about that. 1 -5 -7 talks about that in the Greek. The elder, which is a pastor. Pastor is an elder, I should say. Is to be the husband of one wife or a man of one woman.

And so that cannot fit a woman. And so the term pastor is a shepherd and pastors preach. And that's an elder's job. So a woman can't do that. So by calling her a pastor of the children, what they're doing is making two mistakes.