Matt Slick Live: July 18, 2024

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

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

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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.

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Here's Matt Slick. Hey everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. I hope you're all having a good day.

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I've got a busy one so far. Hey look, if you want, you can give me a call. All you have to do is dial 877 -207 -2276.

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And if you want to give me an email, that's easy to do as well, info at karm .org.

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Just send your email to info at karm .org. Put in the subject line, radio comment or radio question.

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Today's date is July 17th, 2024 for the podcasters. There you go.

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All right. Boy, pretty simple. Working on stuff, working on articles.

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I've got them scheduled out for about a week and a half now. I'm going to work on some other projects in the meantime.

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All right. Why don't we just jump on the line to get on with Travis from North Carolina. Travis, welcome.

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You're on the air. Hey, man, how's it going? This is your buddy in prison again.

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Okay. I do not think the devil wants me to talk to you, man. I tried to call Monday and my tablet died before I could get on.

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Tuesday, my nephew was trying to three -way you and his phone died. Yesterday, I called and as soon as I got through, it disconnected and I couldn't get back through.

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Well, you know. But here you are. The timing's okay. I do have a question, but I wanted to real quick draw your attention to something.

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The prison I'm at in North Carolina now, it doesn't pick up Truth Network, so I'm not able to listen to your show.

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But on our tablets, there is a—we can't surf the Internet, but there's pre -loaded movies, music, games, and educational videos and stuff.

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And there's some pre -tunes and stuff on there, some not so good. We got some John McArthur and some stuff on there like that.

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And I wanted to draw your attention to that educational platform. I don't know if they charge you to upload content, but something maybe you could look at and see if that's something you'd be able to do to upload maybe some of your podcasts or some of your debates on YouTube or something like that so we could get some good

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Bible teachers on there. It's called E -D -O -V -O.

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Okay. Well? I've never looked at it from the outside before, but maybe see if there's somewhere you could upload some of your stuff.

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Okay, we'll look into it. Helping anyone connected to incarceration build better lives. Okay, well, maybe we can have someone, one of our guys, check it out.

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Or me, just put on a list of other things I've got to do. But, yeah, it's—how do we get in there?

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I don't know. I'd like to see. Okay. Yeah, you never know. But, Chad, my question is one that's not really a specific question.

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I just wanted to see if you could speak for a moment to the issue of dispensationalism versus covenantalism and if there's any biblical evidences for covenantalism that you could get me to look at.

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Well, you know, dispensationalists are going to say that dispensationalism is true, and covenantalists are going to say the same thing about covenantalism.

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And in some areas, there's a blend over, a blending, because there are dispensationalists, or dispies,

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I like to call them, who affirm certain aspects of covenant. But generally speaking, the dispensationalists will say things like, there's seven main dispensations, periods of time that are distinguished from each other based on how

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God has worked in the world. So there's the age of innocence,

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Adam and Eve before they sinned, the age of conscience, that's from sin to the flood.

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I think these are arbitrary, but at any rate, civil government. Okay. Sorry about that.

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That's okay. Civil government, Genesis 9 through 11, the time of promise from Abraham to Moses, law from Moses to the cross, grace from the cross to the millennial kingdom and the millennial kingdom.

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And then there's, I'm looking at my article I wrote, there's classical, modified, and progressive dispensationalism.

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And so basically, they're just saying, there are different levels of how much does the church replace Israel, how much is

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God involved, how does he change his work and his dress at different times and groups of people.

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All right. To me, I'm sorry, I just think that's ridiculous.

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I do. Because God works covenantally. A covenant is a pact or an agreement between two or more parties.

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In the inter -Trinitarian communion, obviously they covenanted and agreed to move and work through mankind.

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So the word testament in Latin, testamentum, is the word covenant. Old covenant, new covenant.

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Old testament, new testament. Covenant is based on the word of God, on his commitment to what he says. The Ten Commandments are a covenant document,

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Suzerain vassal treaty pattern of the third millennium B .C. And there's lots of covenant aspects.

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And so I see that covenant is the way to go because it's based on God's word.

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In the beginning was the word. And God said, let there be light. And so I see covenant as being more natural to the character and purpose of God.

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I see dispensationalism as a construct, a filter paper put over a light to filter certain things at certain times, certain ways.

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And so I reject, personally, dispensationalism. That's not to say that there aren't good dispensationalist brothers and sisters in Christ.

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I don't have a problem with that. But I just disagree with that. And I'm a covenantalist, okay?

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All right. Awesome. Well, I greatly appreciate it. I took the address that you gave me the last time

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I called, and I did send you a letter out this past week. If you haven't gotten it by, I'd say tomorrow, by Monday for sure.

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I'll send it to that PO Box 1353. Oh, okay. We usually check that once a week because it's a slow build.

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We just get everything. So probably I'll go get it tomorrow. But okay. Or tomorrow or Saturday.

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Today's Thursday. Well, I greatly appreciate your time, Matt, and I'm praying for you and your family and your ministry, and I thank you for taking my call.

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All right, man. Sounds good. All right. Appreciate it. All right. Hey, everybody.

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If you want to give me a call, all you've got to do is dial 877 -207 -2276.

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Next longest waiting is Jermaine. Jermaine from California.

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Welcome here on the air. All right, Matt. Been a fan for many years. My first time calling.

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Cool. Well, good. Thanks. Appreciate it. Where are you from, California? Just curious. I'm in the

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San Francisco Bay Area. Okay. Yeah, I'm from SoCal. So I'd just like to compare. Okay.

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That's okay. So what do you got, man? Yeah, just I see a lot of near -death experiences online.

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I've watched a lot of them just because I find an interest in them, but I take a lot of them with a grain of salt.

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But a family member of mine in ministry, they have their church watching this stuff, and it seems like they're believing it without thoroughly checking these people out because some of them have been found to be very suspect and suspicious.

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But when it comes to what the Bible has to say about it, I just find it very interesting how there's no intricate detail on hell or these people who claim to have gone and, you know, visited, come out for whatever reason.

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It just doesn't seem to line up with what the Bible says, so I just wanted to hear your take on that. Well, I've been interested in NDEs, near -death experiences, for many years.

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And let me just jump to Scripture first. In 2 Corinthians 12, 2 through 4, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body

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I do not know or out of the body I do not know, God knows, such a man was caught up into the third heaven.

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That's the presence of God. And I know, let's see. Interesting. Something popped up on my screen.

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So I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows, was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak.

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We would call that an NDE. Some do. Because some think that this was

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Paul talking about himself when he was stoned. This is just conjecture. We don't know for sure. He was stoned and maybe had this experience.

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Okay. So we know that you can be in the body or out of the body and conscious after death. All right.

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So, now we go to the NDEs. The first one I ever heard about was about a guy who was a motorcycle dude.

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I don't know if he was a good or bad guy. Probably a bad guy, I think he said. And he was riding down a road at night and a car passed him and he felt a crick in his neck.

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And then he woke up in a green field. He was at night and he woke up in a green field. And what happened was someone had shot him.

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And he got rescued because someone saw the bike go off the edge of the road and called the paramedics, etc.

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And he woke up. He's a quadriplegic now or at least back 30 years ago when I read the story. But what he said was, whether you take it true or false, he said he woke up in this green field and everything was beautiful, smelled great, he could see a great distance.

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And a figure started approaching him. And the closer this figure got to him, the worse he felt.

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And it wasn't because this figure was bad but because the figure was so good. And it was Jesus. And Jesus got close to him and man felt so bad because he's in the presence of holiness that he put his face to the ground.

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Jesus communicated to him to come with me and they went down towards darkness.

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This field went down and this kept going down and down. And he realized he was going to hell.

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And it went down and down. He got stench and he was full of fear. And he got to the place where he saw people in varying forms of decay and agony and damnation.

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And he said the terror that he had was just indescribable. And Jesus just communicated to him.

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He forgot how but just said, come with me. He went back up to the hill where the green was and said, your time's not yet.

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And the guy woke up in ICU. He's a quadriplegic and he said he's the happiest quadriplegic in the world because he knows where he's going now and it's not there.

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So that was my introduction. And I started researching. That's pretty biblical in that he saw bad stuff, he's a bad guy, and he came to Christ.

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Then we have stories of demonic attacks of people. We have stories of people who were in ER and scream out loud,

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I'm in hell. Save me, save me. And then we have stories of people who met

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Aunt Martha, Uncle Joe, and saying, yeah, Mormonism is true.

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Yeah, that's right, Mary will help you and all this demonic stuff. And so there's that.

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Then there's people who die and they don't see anything. Then there's people born blind and they'll have an operation and they'll have this

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NDE while they're on the operating table. This doesn't happen every time but there's been enough of these blind people where they will afterwards describe what they saw.

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They understood sight then and they recognized people in other rooms by their voices and could describe various things about them.

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There's absolutely no way they could have known this unless there was an actual NDE. So these things are real.

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But what are they? Well, I believe that since the Bible says it's possible to be in the body, out of the body, be with God, I believe it's possible.

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I also believe there's a lot of demonic deception that goes on in that realm and I don't know how to discern which is from the other except to say if it agrees with Scripture, it's true, or permissible, let's just say, and if it doesn't agree with Scripture, it's definitely demonic.

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I can go on more about this but that's the basics. Okay? Right. Yeah, thank you very much.

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That's actually the best answer I think I've ever heard and I 100 % agree with you.

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I'm actually reading a couple of books by some of those medical doctors who are documenting these things.

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My uncle did have an NDE many decades ago. He had a heart attack. He went code three.

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Hold on, hold on, hold on. He refused to talk. We've got a break. I want to hear but I want to hear when you get back, okay?

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I want you to tell me this whole story, all right? So hold on, brother, okay? All right, hold on, man. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages.

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We've got a break coming up and, boy, I want to hear what he has to say. We'll be right back. Please stay tuned.

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It's Matt Slick Live! Taking your calls at 877 -207 -2276.

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Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 877 -207 -2276.

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Jermaine, you're back on the air, buddy. All right. Okay, go ahead and tell us.

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Yeah, I was saying my uncle had a heart attack many years ago. He was in bad health, and he went code blue, and he had to be resuscitated, and he was out.

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So he was clinically dead for minutes, and I know for a fact before this, he was the old school.

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He was an older joint. He was a Marine, had to go to Korea, and everything was action, action, action, and after that event, he changed, and he did describe some things that people were doing that he should not have known because he was literally, you know, being given

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CPR and unconscious, and for many, many years, he just would not talk about it.

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He wouldn't speak, but he absolutely let people know that he was able to see some things. So I have no doubt that these things exist.

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I think it would be very foolish to ignore the overwhelming amount of evidence that there's evidence of a spiritual world, and for me, that spiritual world has to line up with what

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God says in the Bible because that's the only thing I've seen to be consistent because many of these NDEs are all over the place, and there's so many stories that conflict, and some of them even attack

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Christianity. So I throw those out because they get way too weird, and it's not that I don't want to accept.

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It's just they're obvious demonic deception to me, but I was just curious your thoughts on some of these events, these people who go viral.

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I don't believe some of them, but I've seen people get inspired to go after Christ anyway.

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Is it possible God's just using some of these near -death experiences, even if they're false, to give himself glory anyway?

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Well, it could be. He uses false things to glorify him, like people's lies that lead to the crucifixion of Christ by which people are redeemed.

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So it's certainly possible strategically, but there are a lot of those accounts of people having good experiences in their near -death experience that is very unbiblical.

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I'm looking at one of the books I've read. It says this one person saw a light being.

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Quote, I also came to understand that heaven isn't a place that you enter, but a frequency that you attain.

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And also, your own consciousness has to change in order to experience the higher frequencies of love, peace, joy, bliss, and tranquility, which

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I felt a part of. So statements like that, which are New Age, obviously this person was being deceived by demonic forces.

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And there's lots of theories about what happens at death. We have, we had, she passed away, we had a beautiful Christian friend, a woman, and she had a disease, and it took her.

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And they tried everything, but it just didn't, you know. And so on her deathbed, when she's basically incoherent and drugged up, you know, in the last days of her life, but right before she died,

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I mean minutes before she died, she sat up and smiled and was looking forward and was just smiling.

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And just joy on her face, and then she fell back and she died.

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So, our job as Christians is to judge all things by the revelation of Scripture.

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The angel lives in the spiritual realm. We do not know how the connection between the spirit and the body works.

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They can be separated, we know that, because Jesus was separated from his body and was conscious after death.

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And in 2 Corinthians 12, 2 -4, the same thing occurred. So we know that's possible.

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Is it, we ask questions, is it possible that unbelievers, who have not yet had that absolute death, where it's gone, there's no coming back, period, could it be that in that interim moment, that God is allowing them to be deceived and then come back and tell others about a deception.

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He allows cults like Mormonism to grow, and the false religion of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox to grow, and Islam.

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So, this is all within possibility. Now, again, I just say, judge it by Scripture.

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That's it. Absolutely. Okay. Alright, well, thank you very much,

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Matt. I definitely need to call you years ago. I'm going to go ahead and pour through your materials again, and definitely support your ministry.

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God bless you. Amen. Thanks a lot, brother. We appreciate it. And call back anytime.

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Okay? I sure will. Thank you. Alright, man. God bless. Thanks. Alright, let's see.

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Next longest waiting is Scott from Spokane. I think this is the Scott I know. Scott?

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Indeed it is. How are you doing? Oh, man. It was going to be a good day. I guess that's into that.

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What do you got, buddy? Yeah, well, you know, that's how it is. It's alright. So, what do you got, big man?

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Well, I had something, but since the overwhelming topic is these MDE topics, I'll say something on that, if that's alright.

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Can you get closer to the phone? Because you're distant. Yeah. Give me one second.

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Is this better? Not really. It sounds like you're on a speakerphone and you're seven feet away.

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Oh, I know what's the problem. It's three, two, one. How is this? That's much better.

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Okay, go ahead. Okay, good. So, you know, on this topic, I personally,

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I've died on two occasions from overdose. And when that happened to me,

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I didn't see anything. I didn't see anything. But when I came back from it,

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I do know that it was strange because every single type of emotion the human mind can register came flooding one by one, pure sadness, then anger, then happiness.

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I mean, one by one, just flooding. And so that's my experience with that. But when it comes to a similar thing, which would be,

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I guess it would be MDE, only I was a child and I didn't die or anything, but I was on a ride at the fair when

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I was four, almost five, and I decided to just hop out of the ride in the middle of the ride to go on this other ride that looked interesting.

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I don't know why, but I just did that. And it was on one of those car tracks where a bunch of, you know, real cars are bolted, and it's like a merry -go -round of cars, but they actually drive.

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And I hopped out, and it caught me by the back of the shirt, and I got swung under the car. And I was just being hung on by the back of my shirt, and it was going around and around.

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And the guy who was operating it had those big earmuffs on, and my mom was trying to flag him down to stop it, but he wasn't hearing her.

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So this just kept going for minutes. And she finally got to him and got him to stop. Did she make it?

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Yeah. So while I was under there, I saw an angel.

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And this angel, I don't remember the face so much anymore, but I do remember the hands very clearly.

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And I remember the hair was not long like a woman but longer than mine, and it was blonde -looking, and the hands were very strong -looking, very masculine -looking, but the fingernails, they weren't painted, but they were glossy, like just clear.

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And this angel was over me, and it was in a position as if it were going in for a hug.

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It never touched me. It was just kind of over me. And the ride stopped, and my mom. Sure, I'll hang on.

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Okay, hold on. Good. Hey, folks, well, there's a break. And if you want, give me a call, 877 -207 -2276.

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Maybe you've had an NDE. I'd like to hear from you. Hey, we'll be right back after these messages.

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[♪ music playing ♪ It's Matt Slick Live! Taking your calls at 877 -207 -2276.

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Here's Matt Slick. All right, welcome back to the show. Let's get back on the air with Scott.

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Okay, Scott, welcome. You're back on, buddy. Okay. Okay, and so just to finish up that brief story, basically,

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I got off when the ride was over, and my mom rushed to me. And she said, Honey, are you okay?

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And I was angry with her. And she said, Are you upset with me? What is it? And I was very mad at her.

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And I told her, basically, the reason I was upset is because I felt that she should have came in and saved me from that.

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And I said, Mom, you didn't save me. I said, The angel saved me, but you didn't. And I was kind of upset with her about it, but at the same time sort of blown away by what

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I had seen. And I don't know how I knew, but I knew the angel's name, and I told her what the name was. So that's it.

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That's the story. But really, though, my question has to do with church order, the reason

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I called today. Okay, all right, real fast. What do you got? So I am soon to be becoming a deacon at my church, and we've recently had new pastoral leadership, and it's been great.

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And I was speaking with him the other day at dinner, and the topic of church membership got brought up, and up until this point, we haven't had it.

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And something, I don't know what, has been going on recently to sort of prompt that as maybe something we might want to do or he wants to do and go that way.

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And I don't know, I realized last night, I don't know a whole lot about that topic, actually. And I went to CARM, and I read an article you have, but I wanted to hear more of your thoughts on that, just the subject in general, if it's good, if it's, you know.

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Of what? Of church membership. The Bible doesn't have any say about church membership.

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It doesn't address it. Church membership is more of a modern kind of a construct. It's where you sign on the dotted line, sometimes literally, after having gone through a series of classes and or examinations, and then you commit to being in that church.

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You commit to being under their discipline, under their leadership, and things like that. And such a practice of signing and affirming a membership of a particular group is just not found in Scripture.

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Now, it doesn't mean you can't do it, okay, because there are certain benefits to it.

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There are legal benefits, and as things become more litigious, we want to, some churches may provide a set of counseling and things like that.

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And if you're a member, you've already signed a document that says that their advice is meant for this and that, and you can't sue and things like that.

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It's self -protection. And so there's wisdom in that, plus it can lead to a benefit in that it is a way to guard the table, the communion table.

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And some people say only church members can take of it, and then that's a problem. So you see, there's good and bad with it.

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Personally, just my opinion, I won't ever sign up on the dotted line with the church.

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I had to do it once when I was in seminary or right after seminary for ordination and denominational work.

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But, yeah, it was not fun. And so my goal is to never, ever sign up on the dotted line for church membership, unless something changes drastically, but I'm not going to do it, which if it means

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I can go to a church and never preach and teach, that's fine with me. I'm just not going to do that. This is me. Some people love that security and have no problem with it.

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Okay? Okay, because I was thinking about it and reading that article, and everything that it stipulates, it's already basically how it is now.

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I mean, I already submitted to their leadership and, you know, basically across the board, all the things that characterize a membership seems to already be the case, only maybe not as formal.

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But anyways, I was just kind of wondering about that. So thank you. I appreciate it. Okay, just to be clear,

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I'm not saying that it's wrong for them to have church membership procedures. I'm just saying it's not required in Scripture.

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Nothing in Scripture says you have to do that. But they do have the right to be able to establish the type of church structure and procedures that they want to, and they certainly have that right.

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And, like, I'm attending a church that has church membership, but I won't ever become a church member. So, okay?

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Okay. Well, good. No big deal. All right. Yeah, thanks,

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Matt. All right, buddy. God bless, man. God bless. All right. Talk to you soon. All right.

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All right. Hey, folks, we have three open lines, 877 -207 -2276.

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Let's talk to Rebecca from Salt Lake City. Welcome here on the air. All right.

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Hey, folks. Are you there? Rebecca? She's listening. I'm going to take a minute for the stream to come through.

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I'm listening to myself on the delay, and then she's going to hear it. Hello? There you go.

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All right. Rebecca, you're on the air. Okay. Hi, Matt. I've called you a couple of times.

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I don't know if you remember. Anyway, I wanted to tell you about my near -death experience.

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Okay? I'm 75 now, but this happened in 1982.

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I hit a semi. I hit another car. I hit a big semi, and they had to take me out into the jaws of life.

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By the time they got me, I was dead, so they had to resuscitate me. They got me to the hospital, and all my family came from all over the country because they knew

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I was going to die. I did die, and they brought me back, and then the priest was

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Catholic. I'm not Catholic anymore. They gave me the Eucharist, which is the last sacrament.

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Anyway, when I did die, when I came back,

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I didn't see anything, but I felt, I don't know, a peace.

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A peace and a smile on my face that maybe I did see Jesus. Maybe I did walk with him.

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I don't know. They said if I did survive, one of my eyes was popped out because I hit the dashboard, so my head was swollen.

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They put it back, and they said, well, she's going to lose that eyesight. She's also going to be crippled for the rest of her life.

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When I came back, I did not lose any eyesight out of that eye. I'm not crippled.

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The only thing I do have is a little bit of brain injuries, so I am a miracle in that way. Plus, when

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I came back, I felt a lot, a lot of peace. Wow. So that's my near -death experience.

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Wow. Yeah. Yeah, people have said varying things. Some have been absolutely terrified, and some have just said incredible peace.

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There have been people who had great ideas of peace, and they say reincarnation is true and peaceful.

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So, like I said before, we always have to judge everything by what the Scripture says because a great deal of deception can occur in the spiritual realm, particularly people who have been involved in false religious systems, the occult, and things like that.

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But good. I'm glad you called and let us know. I appreciate that. Yes, it was very peaceful, and I loved it, and I came back.

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I mean, I'm a walking miracle, thanks to God, thanks to our Heavenly Father.

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Well, good. So I just wanted to tell you that, Matt. Okay, praise God. Thank you.

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Bless you. All right. All right. Appreciate that. Bye -bye. Okay, bye. All right.

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Well, we have nobody waiting right now, but I do have a story to tell you, okay? A friend of mine told me once, but before I get to that,

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I want to get the number out. If you want to give me a call, we can talk about anything, okay? You've got questions. It doesn't have to be on this kind of topic, but the number is 877 -207 -2276.

31:52

Give me a call if you want. All right. So I had a friend. We've kind of lost contact. I just tried to contact him recently.

31:58

He's had a lot of health problems. I hope he's still with us, but he was a paramedic during 9 -11, and that's one of the reasons he's...

32:06

We don't know if he's still around because he got a lot of cancer stuff from being in right there on Ground Zero and rescuing people and working on stuff and all the asbestos and stuff.

32:17

And I think he said he had 22 guys who were there with him or something, some team or something, some group.

32:22

He and one other guy are the only ones left alive. This was a few years ago when I spoke with him. But at any rate, he said something very interesting.

32:29

He was a paramedic in New York City area for two years, and he would go into drug houses where people had died, and he would go in with his partner, and they would go in and triage people who were still alive, who were already gone, or whatever it is.

32:45

And he said on 11 different occasions, or it happened 11 times, many different occasions, he said he would approach somebody.

32:55

They were dead. He could check. And he went to the next person dead, another person alive, working on trying to keep this person alive.

33:01

And 11 different times, a dead person would sit up and speak and say,

33:10

You can't have him or you can't have her. He's mine. And he would fall back down.

33:18

And variations of that statement were made. And he said it happened 11 different times. So, you know, do with that as you want.

33:27

There's a lot of, you know, to talk about in that range. But he said it happens with injectables.

33:34

It only happened with people who were injectable, which means intravenous drug use. Well, just so you know, the

33:40

Greek word for sorcery, contacting evil spirits and things like that, sorcery, the

33:46

Greek word is pharmakia. All right. We have Mike waiting from North Carolina.

33:51

We get to him right after the break. 877 -207 -2276.

33:57

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

34:15

Here's Matt Slick. Everybody, welcome back to the show. Last segment of the hour.

34:20

If you want to call me, 877 -207 -2276.

34:25

Let's get to Mike from North Carolina. Mike, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt. Good evening.

34:32

Good evening. Good evening. So what do you got? The near -death experience, about 20 years ago,

34:44

I had a growth in my stomach. They had it removed. They sewed my stomach back together.

34:50

Well, about two years ago, when they sewed it back together, it ripped back open.

34:57

Okay. And I didn't feel any pain, discomfort, but I was bleeding out. And anyway,

35:05

I had a near -death experience. I had two surgeries in the first day, and they called a priest in on the second one with my son and my sister.

35:23

Okay. Because they didn't think I was going to make it. Okay. And the priest said a prayer, and I just remember

35:31

I was filled with the spirit. I had no fear, and I just told her, fear not, believe only.

35:40

Told her. Who's the her? Was the priest. A woman priest.

35:47

Interesting. Yeah. In the hospital, I didn't know her. Yeah. And I made it through the surgery.

35:58

I've recovered. Everything's good. But just in that moment, when

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I was faced with, I mean, I knew I felt the life slipping out of my body. I mean, the blood was draining.

36:11

I was bleeding internally, and I just, I had absolutely no fear whatsoever.

36:17

Did you see anything? No. No, okay. I didn't see anything.

36:22

I didn't, you know, write. They had already sedated me when they did that prayer, and I just remember telling her, and I remember the look on her face when

36:33

I said that. It almost stunned her. Okay.

36:39

Because my son and my sister were in, like, deep despair, and I just,

36:48

I wasn't. Anyway, but no, I didn't see anything.

36:54

I came, I woke up from the surgery. It was during COVID. I was on a ventilator for three or four days.

37:02

I had to wear a colostomy bag for, like, six months, but now that's gone. I'm healed up.

37:09

I'm doing good. I just wanted to give the father a shout out.

37:14

In my time of despair, when I thought my life was going,

37:22

I really didn't have any fear whatsoever. Well, good. Well, good.

37:28

Interesting story. Well, thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah, man. I'm a fairly new listener, too.

37:35

I just discovered you probably about a week ago. Okay. But I enjoy the show.

37:42

Keep doing the good work. Well, so far you enjoy it. I say things a lot of people don't like sometimes, but we'll see how you are after a month.

37:52

I've got a pretty thick skin, so, you know. I will.

37:59

I'll keep listening, and if you say something, I'll try to let you know. All right, man.

38:04

Sounds good, buddy. All right. God bless. You have a blessed night. Yes, sir. You too. All right.

38:12

So, we have nobody waiting right now. We've got ten minutes left in the show, and if you want to give me a call, 877 -207 -2276.

38:25

Also, I have another story. I mean, just have stories, you know.

38:30

We could talk about these things. There's the story of when my mom passed away, and my dad was there with her, and he told me this.

38:39

Now, it's just what he said, that there was a moment before her death, like the day before, that she addressed my father, who was standing at the foot of the bed back towards a wall in hospice.

38:58

And my mom said to him, who's that man standing next to you?

39:04

And my dad looked, and there's nobody there. He says, well, who is it? He goes, that man, he's there.

39:11

And now, you know, hallucination, maybe. Did she see something?

39:18

Maybe. You know, I can't say yes, no, but they're just the stories, you know, just stories. And there's some other stories my mom's got that I've told people every now and then.

39:26

I was like, are you serious? But there are things. Like I said, I've read books on this topic, and some are from a

39:33

Christian perspective, but a lot of these NDEs are from a non -Christian perspective. Something's happening.

39:40

Something definitely happens, but not everybody experiences this, so what is it?

39:46

That's a good question. And as I said once again, you must always judge them by Scripture. Now, 2 Corinthians 12, 2 through 4, talks about what apparently is an

39:56

NDE, where maybe it was Paul, in the body or out of the body, he did not know, but such a man was caught up to the third heaven, to paradise, and saw things and experienced these things.

40:09

Now, this also just coincidentally refutes annihilationism or soul sleep,

40:15

I should say soul sleep, the idea that when you physically die, that you go into a state of unconsciousness, non -awareness, and somehow your soul is still existing, and yet there's just no activity.

40:27

I don't understand how that works logically. But the idea of someone being apart from the body and conscious would refute the idea of soul sleep.

40:36

Furthermore, it gets into the issue of Christ, who was separated from His physical body in the interim between His death and resurrection.

40:43

There's some logical problems with annihilationism and soul sleep when it comes to that. Both of those are false teachings.

40:50

But nevertheless, I digress. So hey, look, if you want, you can give me a call at 877 -207 -2276 if you want to talk about NDEs, or whatever else you want to talk about is fine.

41:04

And so, since we don't have anybody else waiting, I think what I'm going to do is, let's see, get to some radio questions that we have.

41:15

We'll just see how this goes. Oh yeah, I got an interesting email where a guy said he's a former born -again

41:21

Evangelical Christian. He's now an advocate for science and non -supernatural worldview. He says he's developed what he believes to be the best method to defeat the apologetic arguments of Evangelical Christianity.

41:33

Please read the attached article. You're welcome to give feedback. I actually scanned the article. It was full of holes.

41:40

And so I told him, you didn't define your definitions. So we define your terms.

41:48

And then he made illogical or non -logically necessary conclusions based on things.

41:54

And then what he did was, without justifying it, he required, he was talking about the resurrection of Jesus, he required evidence.

42:02

But the evidence that he required was not the evidence of historical value. It was of a different kind.

42:07

So he's made a category error in that. It's really interesting to me why so many people work against God.

42:13

Now, I wrote an article and released it refuting the idea where an atheist said that Jesus was transgender.

42:22

And upon my talking to that gentleman afterwards, he changed the argument and said that God was transgender.

42:30

And I said, send me the argument. I have it. I'll probably work on it tomorrow. I'm going to release it in a week and a half or so. But just, what they'll do is, so many people, what they'll do is they automatically just make certain assumptions.

42:42

Now, everybody's entitled to make assumptions. You have to have assumptions. Otherwise, you can't have a worldview.

42:48

You can't work with things. The question isn't whether or not we make assumptions. Everybody does.

42:54

The question is, does your worldview justify such assumptions? Like, people assume the universality and validity of the laws of logic.

43:02

All right? What worldview are you operating from by which you can then justify that this statement is true? Or are you just assuming it without justification?

43:10

And if your worldview can't account for it, there's a deficiency in that worldview. The Christian worldview, for example, can account for the universality of the laws of logic.

43:19

So just things like this. And when people often tell me, but that's science. It has to be the validity of science.

43:25

And I'll say, well, science is based on philosophy. It's based on the philosophical assumption of uniformitarianism as well as the universality of laws of logic.

43:35

And I won't get into all those things right now. But they think they're being scientific when they're actually being philosophical. And they don't know the difference a lot of times.

43:43

People need to do more critical thinking when it comes to stuff like that. Let's get to Craig from Salt Lake City.

43:49

Craig, welcome. You're on the air. Hi there. Hey, I had a,

43:57

I don't know if it's near death, but it was a death experience where I got hit on my motorcycle in Salt Lake City on a busy street by the

44:07

Alderview Hospital. I was heading north and a lady was heading south.

44:14

And as I entered 13th East a couple miles before that, I kept hearing, I mean,

44:19

I heard a voice that said, slow down. And I thought it was the Holy Spirit.

44:24

And so I was testing it, looking around. There was hardly anybody there on the roads at that time. It was about eight in the morning, which

44:31

I thought was unusual. And then I heard slow down again. And I thought it was the enemy trying to, you know, impersonate the

44:41

Holy Spirit. And anyways, he told me three times and I didn't listen. And then on the fifth time, all of a sudden, this lady just appeared at the intersection and she just turned right in front of me.

44:54

Everything went in slow motion. And I thought, well, if I lay it down, she's going to hit me. Now if I turn to the right, she's going to hit me and then run over me.

45:01

And then I thought, oh, no, I'll just hold on. I remember lifting my legs up so, thinking that they wouldn't hit the handlebars and brake on them.

45:10

And then all of a sudden when I was in midair, I felt an energy pull me one way and then another way. And then all of a sudden, bam, something hit me in the face.

45:18

And I thought, whoa, that had to be the engine on the bike that was so hard. And then

45:24

I was laying there for a minute and all of a sudden this peace came over me. And I was looking around and I thought, oh, my gosh,

45:33

I could be here forever. This is the most amazing feeling. And I wasn't in any pain at all.

45:40

And I was staring up at the sky and I was looking directly at the sun. And right while I was looking at the sun, right next to it came another sun that was bigger and brighter than our sun.

45:52

And all of a sudden my mind expanded and I just remember saying, Jesus, his light is brighter than the sun.

45:59

And then it came and it stopped about as high as a telephone pole length is and it turned into a portal.

46:07

And then I had a feeling that I could go or not go.

46:13

And I was looking for a light in there and I didn't see one at first. And then all of a sudden I saw the light at the end of the tunnel and then

46:20

I said, oh, I can go. And all of a sudden, boom, it just took me off and I ended up in the heaven.

46:28

And it was interesting because it was a cave and heaven was right on the outside of it.

46:34

And the Lord was there and an angel. And we were talking and it was amazing because everything that was spoken, it was done like mental telepathy, like I knew what they were going to say.

46:49

I understood it and I knew kind of like secrets. It was really weird, which when

46:54

I came back, those things were taken away and I just remembered the other things. But as I was,

47:02

I stepped out into heaven and they said, welcome, Craig. And it was so bright that I couldn't see.

47:08

We have 20 seconds before the music starts. Just let you know. OK, but go ahead. OK, well, long story short, he asked me if I wanted to stay and I said yes.

47:17

And then I felt guilty and then I wanted to talk to him about it.

47:22

But he knew that I needed to go back and he sent me back and I dove into my body. And when

47:29

I sat straight up, I don't know how long it's been because there is all these people were there and the paramedics. And you got to say, hey, there's the music.

47:38

We got to go. We got to go because there's just the end of the show. Maybe go back in their time. I talked a little more about it, but I appreciate that.

47:45

I love talking to people who have had these experiences. Write it down. A lot more miracles that happened. So I can come back tomorrow.

47:52

OK, man. God bless. Hey, folks, we're out of here. May the Lord bless you. And we'll talk to you tomorrow. Another program powered by the