MSL: May 8, 2024

CARM

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

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

00:07

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

00:14

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.

00:24

Here's Matt Slick. Alright everyone, welcome to the show, you're listening to Matt Slick Live, I am your host

00:30

Matt Slick. Today's date is May 8th, 2024. I hope you're going to have a good time listening,

00:37

I hope everything's going to work out. And uh, I think that's about it. Now we are on Rumble, we're on Clubhouse, we're on YouTube, are we on anything else?

00:48

Are we on the place? I don't know, fair enough. Anyway, we are, we're at different places. So hey,

00:54

I wanted to give you guys a heads up. So on Friday, May 31st from 4 -6pm at Weber State University, Wildcat Theater, I'll be doing a debate with a

01:08

Mormon, does the Bible teach salvation is by faith or by works?

01:13

Now I'm very technical, okay, I'm talking about this debate title, maybe he's listening, I don't know. So it'll be between myself and David Robinson.

01:21

And if you have more questions, you want to know some questions, the number is 801 -645 -7433.

01:30

And I'll put this information up on the calendar today because I just got it today and we'll do that.

01:36

So I'll be debating with a Mormon, that's right. Now does the Bible, here's the thing, does the

01:42

Bible teach salvation is by faith or by works? Now the or means it's either this one or the other one, but not both.

01:49

And that's the technicality of it, but I'm not going to get super technical about it.

01:56

So he'll probably be saying, you know, faith and works, which is what false religion is saying. I'm sorry, but that's what it is.

02:02

It's false religious to say that. That means the people who believe in faith and works combined don't understand the true gospel, which reminds me about a discussion

02:14

I had last night. So by the way, if you want to give me a call and get in, get on the air, all you have to do is dial 877 -207 -2276.

02:26

Also if you want to email me, you can do that. All you have to do is send an email to info at karm .org,

02:34

info at karm .org and put in their radio question, radio comment in the subject heading.

02:40

That's all you got to do. And then we can get to it. Oh, I got a Whack -O -Mail today.

02:47

So maybe we'll do that on Friday. I love Whack -O -Mails and stuff like that. I do. I enjoy them. All right.

02:52

So yeah. Okay. I can't do the prayer team without the internet. That's right. Joanne's on.

02:58

We know about that. And so just to let you guys know that one of the peoples is having a internet problem because their power's out in their city, one of the

03:09

Karm helpers. So the prayer thing may not go out right away, but you know, things work out.

03:14

Things work out. So there you go. I hope you're all prepping for the zombie apocalypse and stuff because it's biblical.

03:23

The Proverbs says the wisdom of the ants preparing in the summer for the winter.

03:28

It talks about that being wise, good, good to follow. All right.

03:33

We got a caller coming in. We have three open lines. 877 -207 -2276.

03:41

And I have been having lots of discussions. I really like discussing theology with Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, let's see,

03:53

Muslims, go to different rooms and talk and try and point them to the true gospel.

03:59

Try and point them to the idea of salvation is by faith alone.

04:05

The faith that God grants you, which is sufficient faith and works are the result of God's generation regenerating you and that works come out of your regeneration.

04:15

But it's not the works added to the faith that God gives you that makes you saved.

04:21

A lot of Protestants even believe that and it's a heresy. It's a false teaching. Hey, Haps, how you doing, buddy?

04:29

And it's just not, oh, I was to say hello to someone. Robin, Robin, I think it was

04:36

Robin. That's right. I'm bad at this kind of stuff. I have notes and all these kind of things.

04:42

I think her name was Robin on the radio. I'm waving, saying hi. So there you go.

04:51

Anyway, I think we'll just jump on the phone here and then we'll see what happens. If you want to give me a call, 877 -207 -2276.

05:01

Lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, lay, from North Carolina. Welcome down here. Lee. Okay. Thank you.

05:06

All right. Do you want me to repeat the question? Yeah. I haven't heard it yet. What's your question? Okay.

05:14

When Potiphar was told that Joseph had raped his wife, why was he not executed?

05:23

I don't know. Good question. I don't know. Maybe because Joseph had the anointing of God on him and the protective work of God on him.

05:34

Maybe it was because Joseph was so good and so smart, so wise, that he had such favor with Pharaoh at that point, and then he just decided just to imprison him.

05:44

Maybe it was because the law in Egypt then was you didn't execute somebody. I don't know.

05:50

Good question. I'll have to find out what the culture was. Oh, okay. I just didn't know if the

05:56

Egyptians had a law that was ... I know they were probably different than the

06:02

Israelites, but I'm just wondering.

06:10

Yeah, I don't know. That's a good question. Maybe someone who might just have some information on that, call me up and let me know and say, hey, this is what it was.

06:18

This is why. I don't know. It's a good question, though. Wish I had a great answer for you. Thank you.

06:23

All I can do is give you different levels of ignorance. Thank you. Sure. All righty.

06:29

Bye -bye. All right. Okay. God bless. All right. Yeah, I wonder about that.

06:35

Why didn't he execute? Just put him in prison. Could be several reasons. So I don't know. I wonder what the reason is.

06:42

But hey, we have wide open lines if you want to give me a call, 877 -207 -2276.

06:50

So last night I was on Discord and I go into these rooms. I like to go to these. I go to the

06:56

Catholic rooms. I go to Christian rooms. And people gather because, you know, I'm a public figure and they gather and they fire questions at me.

07:04

And this one guy, this one guy, he thought he had me. I'm like, dude, you know, these people, they try so much to beat me.

07:16

I'm not saying I'm unbeatable. I'm just saying they try. They want to beat Matt Slick. They got to, you know, any other Christian who doesn't believe in Catholicism.

07:23

And so I recorded this verse where it says in 1 Corinthians 4, 6, that you not exceed what's written in the word of God and the basic principle there.

07:30

And so they're they're trying to get me on it. Oh, well, you know, what does that mean that you believe that the book of Matthew is written by Matthew?

07:38

It says, yeah. Well, it doesn't say the Bible is written by Matthew. So how do you know? Well, the church knows, you know, and we had that information and that's how we know it's written by Matthew.

07:48

Well, that's exceed what's written. And I said, well, that's that's your that's your big gotcha.

07:53

Because I said, what does it mean when it says don't exceed what's written? Do you think, you know,

08:00

I'm sorry, we don't know what the book of Matthew has to be written in the Bible in order for it to be true. Well, I guess we can't drive cars and fly planes then either, because it's not written in the

08:08

Bible. So they don't understand what's going on. You know, I said, look, it's a standard of righteousness. It's a standard of truth.

08:14

If it says something, don't go beyond what it says. If it's not saying something specific, then, you know, we're free.

08:21

I mean, that's just the basic principle there. Right. And I can't get your articles articles to come up.

08:27

I don't know. What does that mean, Charlie? You got to put more information in there. All right. So also, then this guy comes up and he said, can you derive this is an interesting question.

08:38

It really was a good question. Can you derive the laws, three laws of classical logic from Scripture?

08:45

That was a good question. And I said, that's a good question.

08:51

I just think about that. Now, the classic laws, the laws of Scripture, the laws of Scripture, the laws of logic are the law of identity.

08:59

Something is what it is and is not what it is not. And the law of non -contradiction, the law of excluded middle, you know, all that.

09:07

I said, and I go, that's a good question. And I started thinking about it. Let me just think atop my head. So I said, maybe, you know,

09:15

I am what God says I am, that I am. That's like what the law of identity is. You know, something is what it is, not what it is not.

09:22

And I said, law of non -contradiction. I said, well, I said, let me think top of my head here,

09:27

Titus one, two, God can't lie. He can't contradict himself. And I said, excluded middle,

09:36

I said, let's think about that one, to take what's true or false. You know, Jesus is the way, the truth. I said, I think maybe we could.

09:42

You know, it's a good question. And necessarily the exact laws. And it's so then the guy started saying, well, where does it say in the

09:54

Bible, like the law of identity and law of this and that? And he said, there, you're exceeding what's written like, man, you guys are so desperate that they have to they have to stretch whatever verse they can.

10:06

And why do they do that? What is up with them? Because it's like, you know, we can't have the

10:12

Bible be the final authority. We can't have it be the standard of righteousness.

10:18

It has to be our church. I'm going to say with an ominous kind of an echo, our church.

10:26

It's really bad because they're brainwashed. I believe the people in the

10:32

Catholic Church and the East Orthodox Church and Muslims are brainwashed, just like the

10:37

Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses brainwashed. They don't know what the truth is. They don't care what the truth is.

10:43

They care what their church says the truth is. And the church replaces

10:48

Jesus. I said that to a bunch of guys last night. And boy,

10:54

I'll tell you, the Catholics did not like it. They don't like when I say stuff like that, you know. And one guy was talking to me,

11:02

I said, no, I believe that if you believe official Roman Catholic theology, that, you know, unfortunately, you can go to hell when you die because it teaches a false gospel.

11:11

I said, I'm not mad at you, it's just my belief. Boy, did he take offense at that. I'm offended by that.

11:17

You can't say that. I said, you know, I can. It's my position. If you don't agree with it, then tell me why you don't agree.

11:23

And let's argue from Scripture. You're offensive. What? You know,

11:29

I'm tired of changing diapers on snowflakes. Come on, grow up.

11:35

And I think that I stole that phrase from Charlie. You gave me that phrase, Charlie, remember that? Changing diapers on snowflakes.

11:43

Man, that's a good phrase. My friend Charlie came up with that, so I stole it quickly. And I only have to give him credit when he's paying attention and he knows

11:52

I stole it from him. And otherwise, I can get away with it and make myself sound good. But so anyway.

12:02

So, still getting over the cough and stuff I had from last week. So you know, it's really, it just blows me away.

12:11

It blows me away. Why do people, why do they just not believe the word? Because they want to believe a church.

12:18

Their identity is with a church, their identity is with a sports team, their identity is with the kind of car, their identity is with something, but it's not the

12:26

Lord Jesus Christ. And I said to this one guy, he's looking into Catholicism, he says he doesn't know if it's true or not, but he was, he was defending it as it were.

12:37

I said, let me prove to you, this is what I say to Catholics, this is such a simple thing.

12:43

So let me prove to you that you're more loyal to the Catholic church than you are to Jesus. And he goes, you can't prove that.

12:49

I said, yes, I can. He said, watch this. I said, is Jesus God? And he didn't want to answer.

12:54

I said, is he God? Come on now. He goes, well, yes. I said, okay. Does he forgive sins?

13:01

Yes. Does he have all authority in heaven and earth? Yes. So he can do that, right? Did Jesus say, come to me?

13:06

Matthew 11, 28. He says, yeah. Did Jesus say, ask me anything in my name and I will do it?

13:12

John 14, 14. Yes. So here's my question. If you ask Jesus, you pray to Jesus and you ask him to forgive you of all of your sins, then will he forgive you of all of your sins?

13:27

And this guy stopped and he goes, yeah, I said, then you don't need a priest to forgive your sins.

13:35

Do you? In your church, you have to go into a building to a priest and get forgiveness. Do you? That stopped him.

13:41

And he started defending why you need to go and do it anyway. I said, see, there you go.

13:46

I just proved it because I show that Jesus is enough. But for you, you want something besides him.

13:52

You want the authority of the Catholic church. Proof is different than persuasion. Hey, we'd write back.

13:58

Give me a call. 877 -207 -2276. Be right back. It's Matt Slick live.

14:08

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

14:14

All right. Welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call. 877 -207 -2276.

14:23

And if you want to give me a call. If you want, you can email me at info at carm .org. And just put in the subject line, radio comment, radio question.

14:34

And there you go. All right. So we have no callers waiting. That happens every now and then. What I'm going to do is get to some of the email questions.

14:44

We got a few. Let's see. Without slandering John McCarter, do you think he spoke harshly on PTSD, depression, mental health issues?

14:53

I don't know. I don't know what he said. So only answer if you're comfortable.

15:00

Yeah, I got my feet propped up. I could do that. So what I would do is, if you want to have a question like that, you know, if there's something specific that you have a question about, you have to give us a link and say, here's what he says right here.

15:12

And at this moment, you know, not like a two hour video. He said it in this video. We can't just go through the whole thing.

15:19

So I always ask for people to give me specific information, locations I can check out. So other than that,

15:24

I can't I can't answer. Speaking one language, whatever that was.

15:41

So when we get to heaven, will we be back to the one language? Good question.

15:47

I don't know. I don't know. It's good. But the Bible doesn't tell us. Are we going to get back to an original language, a new language, or do we need language or you'd be able to communicate by thought, intention?

15:59

I don't know. So here's the thing. What was the language that Adam spoke?

16:06

That would be a good question. And I don't know. Was it Hebrew, an early form of Hebrew? I don't know.

16:12

Just don't know. Good question. Now, I wish I had a really good answer, but I do not know what the answer to that would be.

16:20

Bible doesn't tell us. Let's try this. Are random thoughts a sin? When do thoughts become a sin to have?

16:31

Random thoughts. Well, man, what an open door I could see about people, some people

16:40

I know that I get myself in. Don't go there, man. Random thoughts. Who do

16:47

I know who has random thoughts? No, it's just not random thoughts.

16:52

It doesn't mean they're just automatically sinful. I mean, I'll be driving down the road and all of a sudden

16:57

I'll think about a computer. It's like, well, why am I thinking about a computer right now? So, you know, because I'm a nerd, but it's not a sin.

17:06

Now, if I'm thinking something sinful, that's different. Okay. So, you know, yeah.

17:14

And when do thoughts become a sin? When they're against scripture. That's a simple thing.

17:21

You start thinking things you shouldn't think of. You shouldn't do that. So it's not good.

17:28

All right. So, all right. 877 -207 -2276.

17:37

Let's get to Jason from Arizona. Jason, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt.

17:44

I've been Carl in the last couple of months. You've been helping me with my Reformed theology.

17:49

I've learned a lot, and it's really cemented a lot of the theology from Reformed teaching.

17:58

And I thank you for that. My question today was, in Romans 9 -11, it states that the election of God continues unchanged, that it's immutable,

18:10

His selection, His choice. And I was thinking, since believers in Jesus are the vessels of mercy, that this election that's immutable,

18:22

He'll never change His mind to revoke the gift of eternal life.

18:31

Your thoughts? That's correct. Great.

18:39

Great. I just, that's pretty much the only thing on my mind today.

18:44

I just wanted to hear you respond to that. Well, let's put some flesh and blood on this. Pardon? Let's put some flesh and blood on this, okay?

18:52

This is for Christians, because a lot of Christians don't believe and openly reject the idea of God's eternal election of people.

19:01

So let's just use simple logic. Now, God knows everything. Now, before the universe was existing, before He created anything, the

19:10

Trinity is the only thing that existed. And God knew Himself exhaustively.

19:16

There's nothing new about Himself to learn. He's complete and sufficient in and of Himself.

19:22

This has to do with what's called a seity and His complete knowledge of Himself. All right.

19:28

This means that anything that might exist, before anything did exist, anything that might exist could only exist if God brought it into existence.

19:39

Just the way it is. He would know all potentialities, all things that might exist that have potential.

19:48

And then, out of these potentialities, He would bring into existence by His decree,

19:54

His creative work, a set of existence. He would do that. One of the illustrations

20:00

I have for people is a piece of paper that's white, no lines on it, and there's a dot in the middle.

20:07

And you take a pencil and you squiggle the lines out to the edge from the dot, out in different directions. Make them squiggly, loopy, whatever you want, out to the edge.

20:15

And each one of those lines represents a possible existence timeline of the universe, of mankind, whatever you want to call it.

20:24

Because God can change what He wants in any place along the line. He can make me wear a red shirt today instead of a blue shirt.

20:33

He can do what He wants. He can cause a bird to fly and distract me and make me go that direction, this direction.

20:39

He can do whatever. He's the sovereign control. Doesn't mean we don't have free will, but anyway, that's another topic.

20:45

So, whatever line, you draw a thousand lines from that dot on out.

20:52

Each one is a potential existence of the universe. Whatever one that He thinks of that might have all the ramifications in it, and all the actualities that could only exist, because if He brought this into existence, then those things could exist.

21:06

He would know all of that. So, He picks one of those lines, and that's the one

21:11

He brings into existence. That means that whatever God has decided will happen along that line of possible existence, that timeline, is going to happen.

21:23

And people don't like this. They don't like it because they want autonomy from God. They want their free will independent of God.

21:30

But the free will choices, if you take one of those lines, and you were to expand that line with a microscope, go down into it, and there you're walking around.

21:40

And you have free will that draws a circle around you. That's your lifetime, and your free will choices are in there.

21:47

Well, that can only exist if God brings everything else into existence. And we can't say that our free will choices are independent of God, because then

21:55

God wouldn't know what they would be and how they would come about. It can't happen. But yet we're free, just as Jesus was free.

22:03

He had free will, He's God in flesh. But He also could only do the will of the Father who sent Him, John 5 .19, John 5 .30.

22:09

So anyway, this means that along that line, God has chosen people to save.

22:17

But here's the thing. Now we have to go back to the piece of paper before any lines existed.

22:22

And the only thing that existed is that dot, God. That means then that out of His mind, and as any of these lines in different directions,

22:32

He can save whoever He wants, whatever reason He wants, by your prayers that influence Him somehow, someway, as James 5 talks about, or not, or whatever.

22:41

They're actors we don't know. And the election of those dots along that line are the saved by definition.

22:48

They have to be numbered. They have to be set from eternity when He brings things into existence. There's no way out of this.

22:54

Now hold on, we've got a break, and we'll get back and talk about it a little bit more. Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages.

23:02

Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877 -207 -2276.

23:14

Here's Matt Slick. Alright everybody, welcome back to the show. As soon as we get Jason hooked back up, we'll get him back on the air, and we'll get him on, and we can talk about areas.

23:24

Let's get back to Jason. Are you there? I'm here, yes sir. Alright, so my analogy, does that help any?

23:33

Oh, it does, yes. I mean, I really just also wanted to say that I just think it's so glorious, this doctrine of grace, that if people really realize this election, one of the things

23:47

I think that's so glorious about it is that it's immutable. I mean, it continues unchanged, that we believers in Jesus are these vessels of mercy, and he's never going to revoke salvation.

24:04

Is there anything more glorious to utter? Is there anything more glorious to talk about?

24:10

I mean, this is just magnificent, in my opinion. You know, so I just wanted to share that.

24:16

Well, I agree with you. It is magnificent. There is something a little bit more glorious than the truth of God's election.

24:24

That's the truth of God himself. He's glorious. But I agree with you.

24:29

I know what you mean. And it is such a comfort to know that God has chosen us from the foundation of the world.

24:37

Now, we don't know the criteria, and our prayers make a difference, but we know that God has said it, and settled it, and that we can't be lost.

24:46

He doesn't make mistakes. He's called us to himself. He grants that we have faith, grants that we have repentance, and we are given by the

24:53

Father to the Son for safekeeping. And it's just a wonderful thing. Amen.

25:00

My first 23 years of my life, I was told the opposite, that, you know, the

25:09

Lord is changeable towards us, and that's not the truth.

25:14

I mean, his election is immutable, you know, and he does not change his mind about his vessels of mercy, and he doesn't revoke, he doesn't take away our salvation.

25:28

And I was taught the opposite for so long, and now I'm just cementing all of these doctrines of grace into my mind and heart.

25:37

And it's taken some time, Matt, but I'm getting there. Well, good. I'm glad you are, and you're going to learn even more, and you'll be comforted even more.

25:46

But also what will happen, probably will happen, is you will grow in your despair towards the

25:55

Christians who denounce this, and who promote a man -centered ideology, that God exists to save us, to love us, to grant to us his goodness.

26:11

That's humanistic thought. God exists for his own glory, and that we, in the redemptive work of Christ, are for the glory of God.

26:21

And it's a humongous direction change, 180 -degree change in thought.

26:27

And this is why, in some camps of Protestantism, doesn't mean they're not saved, but they reject the idea of God's great sovereignty, because they say, no,

26:36

God would not do that, because my free will is sovereign, and God will respect my free will.

26:42

The humanism that is alive and well in the Christian church is there, and that's one of the problems you're seeing through it, and you're seeing past it.

26:52

I was thinking, Matt, you know how the Lord, he gave the rainbow after the flood of Noah as a sign.

27:02

He said that he will never flood the earth again, and this is irrevocable. And I'm kind of seeing that with election, that it's irrevocable.

27:10

They have both in common. The Lord is not going to change his mind about this flooding the earth again or changing our election.

27:21

I mean, it's just amazing. I'll let you go. I'm just in awe of that, you know?

27:28

Well, here, before you go, I only have one person waiting, but listen to what

27:33

Jesus says in John 6, 37 -40. He says, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me

27:42

I certainly will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

27:51

This is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me

27:56

I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my

28:01

Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day.

28:10

That is election. It's what it is. God gives them to the

28:15

Son. The Father gives them to the Son for safekeeping, and Jesus says he won't lose any. It's the majesty of God, the work of God.

28:23

He doesn't make mistakes, but some people say he does. He could lose them.

28:30

He saves them, but he loses them. Well, there wouldn't be any reason to celebrate if it was mutable, if it was changeable, if the

28:39

Lord could revoke it somehow, some way, but when we're plainly told it continues unchanged, immutable in the 9 -11, the

28:49

Lord won't take away, and you gave those scriptures that kind of prove also he doesn't take away his salvation from his chosen.

28:57

He doesn't give and take back, give and take back, give and take back, and sadly, I think this is what most of the church teaches.

29:05

It's just this give, take back, give, take back thing, and it's not the word of God. It's not

29:11

Reformed theology. That's right. It's man -centered theology. What you're discovering is it's super important that Christian humanism,

29:24

I call it, is alive and well in the Christian church. I'm actually developing a list of issues along this line that I want to do a video on.

29:37

In fact, let me see if I can find this in my notes, Christian humanism. Yeah, it's here.

29:45

I have something that's like this. In a lot of theology, a lot of...

29:52

I'm trying to say this carefully because I don't want to offend people and sound like I'm smarter and more humble than them and wiser than them.

30:00

That's not the case, but a lot of Christians see

30:06

God as the useful God, the utilitarian God, and that His purpose is to love us and to save us and to fulfill

30:16

His love in us and that these are the greatest things, but it's not true. They want

30:23

God to be of value. They want Him to provide for them, to keep them healthy, to guarantee their financial security, to make their lives better, their marriages better because they want

30:36

God to be useful to them. So churches become seeker -sensitive and they start promoting woke ideology and they want to adapt

30:47

God to our culture. And what they want is the seven steps to a better whatever it is.

30:57

Preach from the pulpit or taught from a series of these teachers. In other words, what can

31:03

God do for me? How can He make my life better? This is humanist philosophy.

31:09

It's in the church. And they use Scriptures for God to love the world that He gave His only begotten

31:14

Son. They say, see, this is the purpose of God, to love. No, it's not the purpose of God. Because it's one of the derivative things that God is doing from a greater purpose.

31:24

Because He says in Isaiah 43 .7 that He created us for His glory. And the crucifixion of Christ, the name of Christ, every knee will bow and all this.

31:36

And it says for the glory of God. That's Philippians 2 .11. But Christian humanism is ultimately idolatrous because what they're doing is trying to relate

31:47

God to themselves and how God is to help them and serve them. And they use

31:53

God's love as the focal point about themselves. And this is the heresy, one of the heresies, that is alive and well in the

32:02

Christian church. And so because of this, God would never make people for destruction. But that's exactly what it says in Romans 9 .23

32:11

and Proverbs 16 .4. He won't elect people for salvation because that's not how it works.

32:18

But that's exactly what it says in Ephesians 1 .4. He doesn't predestine people, but that's what it says in Ephesians 1 .5.

32:25

And He won't hate anyone, but that's what it says in Psalm 5 .5, Psalm 11 .5, and Romans 9 .13.

32:32

And then they'll say God loves everyone equally. Well, that's not the truth. He does not. Get into that.

32:37

And He's at the door of your heart asking permission to let you in. And that God leaves salvation to our free will and our wisdom.

32:45

And so you can see the heresy that is in the

32:50

Christian church all over the place, and people don't have the discernment to see it. And I'm gonna be so bold as to say because you are seeing what this stuff is, you're gonna skip a lot of that.

33:02

You're seeing that God is the sovereign king. God is the one worthy to bow before. Not a preacher, not a teacher, and certainly not a doctrine of God's love for us, but God's truth about Himself and that all these other things are derived out of His essence and His greatness.

33:19

And I can go on and I can go on, but... Well, I mean, I really appreciate that,

33:25

Matt. And I've just been basking in the joy of realizing that the

33:30

Lord, He gave me this faith in Christ, and it's immutable.

33:36

And He's not gonna change His mind. And most of my life, I was taught the opposite.

33:41

So I'm kind of giving myself some time to rejoice a little bit and accept some happiness because it's just not what

33:49

I was taught my whole life, but I'm learning it now, praise God, and I'll let you go with that. All right, buddy,

33:55

God bless. Keep calling back, keep calling back, okay. Hey, folks, be right back after these messages.

34:00

Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live!

34:11

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

34:18

All right, buddy, welcome back to the show. Hope the previous conversation was enlightening and challenging as well.

34:24

Let's get to Joanne. Joanne, welcome, you're on the air. Hey, it was a beautiful call.

34:32

I just about hung up because my phone was dead. Mine's not beautiful. Okay. I wasn't thinking

34:40

I can't get on the Internet on my phone to look up, so I can't post in Clubhouse, but thanks to Laura and Charlie for doing that for me.

34:49

Okay. And it keeps popping across our screen. There's been multiple deaths and critical injuries from trees hitting cars in our city.

35:03

What city is that? Everybody that could... North Carolina.

35:09

North Carolina. Near Charlotte. Near Charlotte, okay. Near Charlotte. And so we've really been hit.

35:17

There's trees down and fences down across the street at our neighbors. And like I said,

35:23

I tell you, we don't have any power or nobody, the whole town's out of power and the surrounding towns are out of power.

35:31

All right. So no prayer team, if anybody, if y 'all are listening.

35:38

And Matt hollered to tell you something else, and I can't think of what. Oh, I sent you an info at CARM from Ty in Clubhouse.

35:48

All right. Well, sounds good. Appreciate it. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

35:54

Okay, Joanne. All right, Joanne, thanks. All right. So that's Joanne. Joanne, she works with us and just connecting in.

36:02

She can't watch the Internet because her power's down. Hope that people are not killed in that. I'm looking on the news to see if they have any updates on that kind of thing.

36:13

All right. So let's see. All right, no big deal.

36:19

All right. So what I was talking about earlier, about the sovereignty of God, this is a real serious issue.

36:28

And this is why theology is needed in the Christian church, because without theology, you'll drift towards, well, towards humanism.

36:41

Good theology is an anchor that will keep you from drifting into the man -centeredness of present -day

36:52

Protestantism. Now, the Catholic Church and the East Orthodox Church, they're apostate in a different way.

36:59

The Protestant denominations, you know, a lot of them are going bad. In fact, I watched some video stuff yesterday.

37:05

The United Methodist Church just had a split over the issue of homosexuality. And some of the groups are,

37:13

I don't know all the details, but they're voting, yeah, that homosexuals can be ordained, practicing.

37:19

Unrepentant homosexuals can be ordained in the ministry. You know, that's a blasphemy. This is just an example of some of the bad stuff.

37:25

Then we have, you know, the ilk like Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer and Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland.

37:36

We have so many people, Jesse Duplantis, so many people who are shameful in their teachings.

37:47

They don't understand what the Bible says in the critical areas. And because the church is so anemic, they don't understand theology, that these heresies and these false teachers can abound.

38:01

I remember, you know, it started, well,

38:07

I can't say I know what started, but I started being aware of it back in the 80s.

38:14

And what I would hear, you don't need to go to seminary, you just need the

38:19

Bible. And they would often replace the word seminary with cemetery. You don't need to go to seminary.

38:26

Oh, I mean cemetery. Oh, sorry, seminary. All you need is the Bible. And people would say that a lot.

38:32

And I've heard it over the years many, many, many times. And granted, there are some bad seminaries out there.

38:39

But it was just a, you know, like a canary in the coal mine, you know.

38:46

It was just a warning. It was like, wait a minute, that doesn't make sense. Because we need to understand what the

38:51

Trinity is and what it is not. Otherwise, we don't have the true faith. We need to know what

38:57

Jesus Christ did on the cross, what justification really is. Otherwise, we don't have the true faith. And this is what theology does.

39:04

And higher education is very beneficial to a lot of people. You don't need to have a big degree in order to understand the

39:12

Bible. But you do need to study. And you should study theology. Now, I didn't even think about this, but just in light of that,

39:20

I might as well put a plug in on CARM. We have a school of theology. And it's there.

39:28

You just go to learn .carm .org, learn .carm

39:34

.org. And you can check it out and sign up for that stuff. And we have a school of theology, one of apologetics, and one of critical thinking.

39:41

And so the idea here is for people to learn theology, like monotheism, trinitarianism, what justification is inside of soteriology.

39:55

And then you get into hamartiology. And you get into eschatology.

40:02

So these are all big words, I know. But these are the terms that are used to describe certain categories of biblical examination.

40:12

So soteriology is a doctrine of salvation. Hamartiology is a study of sin.

40:20

Anthropology, the study of man. Theology, study of God. Christology, the study of Christ.

40:27

Eschatology, the study of end times. Lameology is a study of stupid theology.

40:34

There's a lot of stuff out there. And what I want people to do is actually learn the terms and learn the theology.

40:43

It's really helpful. And like the gentleman who called earlier, he's learning biblical theology.

40:50

He's learning about God's election. And he used the term immutability.

40:57

And immutability means that God does not change. He doesn't change. Let me run with this a little bit and teach a little theology.

41:05

So God, he's a trinity. But let's talk about his immutability, which is concomitant with his aseity.

41:14

People go, what are you talking about? Well, listen up. God exists and he's immutable.

41:20

He does not change. His nature is what it is and always will be what it always has been.

41:27

There's no change in his nature. He might speak to people differently and work with people differently in different times, but his nature does not change.

41:36

It's called his immutability. Well, it's important. Because when someone says, well, God changed how he works in the

41:43

Old Testament and New Testament, that means God changed. No, God did not change. So what does it mean then when he works differently with people?

41:51

Oh, now we understand the reason why. And we have to have theology for that. His aseity means that the immutable

41:59

God who does not change is also non -contingent. Non -contingency means that he is self -sufficient.

42:10

He doesn't need anything besides himself for existence. We do. I mean,

42:16

I need air. I need food in order to exist. My existence, my continued existence, is dependent and contingent upon conditions around me that influence me and keep me going.

42:30

And if I were to stop breathing or run out of air or run out of food, I would die. I'm contingent on those things.

42:37

And even more, I'm contingent on God, who is the one who keeps my soul alive, even after death.

42:45

So God alone has aseity. God alone has the independent nature of all things.

42:54

And he is non -contingent. These are important doctrines because out of them other doctrines are learned and they need to teach them.

43:02

I wish, I'm just going to say this, it's not going to happen here in Idaho, I wish churches here would have me come in and just rotate through and teach theology, teach a course on theology.

43:15

And different churches would go over there, go over here. I wish churches would have me come out and teach them theology because I've been studying this stuff for decades and I love this stuff.

43:25

And they need to know it. Let's get to Gary from Utah. Hey, Gary, welcome, you're on the air.

43:31

Hey, Matt, I just was going to touch base before your show ends. I'm right on top of what you're talking about there and this just adds on to it.

43:38

I'm sure you know a lot about the five solas of sola scriptura. That's another one, right?

43:44

Yeah. And it's good to be in a church that will teach that as well. But you're right, you nailed it. There's a lot of churches.

43:50

Now, I'm sure there are some churches that are starting to teach more of that. The church I go to is definitely doing that.

43:56

But it needs to be more out there because you don't hear that enough about the scriptura, the sola scriptura one. Right.

44:02

And what that means is that the scriptures are alone the final authority in everything they address.

44:08

It doesn't mean we don't consider church councils or tradition or church fathers.

44:15

But they are all subject to the finality of the authority of the word of God. Yeah. And that's a doctrine that has ramifications because in Catholicism, for example, they deny that.

44:26

Right. And because they deny that, then they pray to Mary and then they teach all kinds of things like purgatory.

44:33

It's not in the Bible. And, you know, all kinds of stuff. That's right.

44:39

It's funny you'd mention that because I was watching a video the other day of Pastor Jeff Durbin and those guys, I apologize, out of Arizona.

44:46

And they were talking to some Roman Catholicism people outside their church or whatever.

44:52

And they were talking about this very same thing. And boy, they were talking about like the purgatory. And I'm just going like, oh, my gosh, how do they not know this is man -made?

45:00

It's not biblical. Then you got people in the comments who are trying to defend the Catholic Pope. I'm just going, oh, my goodness.

45:07

You know? And you deal with that all the time. Yes, I do. In fact, I look forward like when

45:12

I'm done here, you know, with this show and I do some stuff. I look forward to going online and just going into where the

45:17

Catholics are to talk and the Eastern Orthodox and the Muslims. I look forward to going and just interacting with them. I do it. I do that more than I do radio, believe it or not.

45:26

Oh, man. Yeah, because I just love the truth. But I'm always exposed to people,

45:34

Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, who deny sola scriptura, that the scripture is the final authority.

45:40

The church is the final authority to them functionally. Yeah. And then they believe it. I always go in.

45:45

I tell them that same thing you're talking about. And I say, you know, how do they not know? Like I ask them, as I say, do you not know what

45:52

Martin Luther did with the Reformation in the ninety five? And it's almost like they dance around that, like they don't want to talk about that.

45:58

And I'm thinking like, yeah, exactly. There you go. You know. Well, you know, I suspect that.

46:08

I don't know how to say that the right way. I'm not sure if this is the right application, but the second Thessalonians chapter two, it talks about the apostasy that's coming.

46:18

And you know, for the Catholics who think they're the true church. Well, that's that means your true church is going to go apostate.

46:24

And for the Protestants, they call Protestantism is true. That means a Protestant church is going to apostate. So it says the apostasy will come forth and he who who hinders will be taken out of the way.

46:34

That's the Holy Spirit removed from the earth. But the the stopping power is going to be removed.

46:40

Well, I can't help but wonder, has that already occurred? Because there's so much heresy all over the place and the

46:49

Muslim Islamic onslaught and invasion and killing and mayhem that it's doing and the apostasy in the

46:58

Christian church that's occurring all over. Let's say all churches are bad. A lot of them are good. But the general, yeah, it's getting worse.

47:06

Yeah. Yeah. It makes it hard when you got to, you know, we're trying to fight against the cults. And then it makes it hard when we've got to almost like, you know, fight spiritually, of course, against people who are supposed to be, quote,

47:16

Christian. When you look at you go, hmm, you might want to check to see if they're actually in the faith. Like John MacArthur says, check to see if you're actually following Christ's word, you know, being like a relationship with him.

47:26

If you're following what the word says. Right. So it's amazing. Yep. You know. Well, thank you,

47:33

Matt. Before the show ends. I appreciate that. Thank you. All right, man.

47:38

God bless. Appreciate it. All right. Hey, folks, we are out of time. There's the music.

47:44

And by God's monumentous, glorious grace, if he allows to be on the air tomorrow, then please call us then.

47:52

And hopefully you'll have a great evening tonight. May the Lord bless you. We'll talk to you later. God bless. Bye. Another program powered by the