Matt Slick Live: July 9, 2024

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

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

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

Here's Matt Slick. Everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. You're listening to Matt Slick Live. Today's date is

July 9th, 2024. If you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 877 -207 -2276.

And if you want to give me an email, you can send one to info at CARM .org.

Info at CARM .org. And you just put in the subject line, radio comment, radio question.

And then we can get to them. We do it on Fridays a lot. And sometimes it's during the day or during the week when the callers are slow.

So we will see. So the newsletter is going out tonight. And you know what?

People ask every now and then. They ask me to put stuff in the

Amazon wish list. And so, you know,

I do. And I put stuff in there. But the problem is that there's only so many things

I can put in there. There's only so many things I can do. And, you know, staplers and paper and these things.

There's nothing left. So I don't know. We have a printer. We have a desk.

I've got a light behind me. And, you know, lights behind everything here. Even the shadows look good.

Let's see. The only thing that doesn't look good is my face. But we're saving up money for an ugly filter.

And it makes me look good. So it's a cross -media interface for radio. And apparently the ugly filter that I need is like a super level.

So anyway, aside from that, I really can't think of anything. So I do put stuff in there occasionally.

We have an extra camera that I use. But it's kind of expensive, about $230.

And that's just for backup and for dual usage and stuff like that. But I cannot even think of anything else that we need.

I could put some stuff in there just for backups and stuff like that. I could do that maybe. Maybe I'll do that.

I don't know. And if you want to sign up for the newsletter, you can do that by going to carm .org.

C -A -R -M dot O -R -G. And on the bottom of any page, I think it's any page, it says join our newsletter down there.

We don't do anything with your numbers, with your information. We don't do that. It's just for us.

And I wrote a newsletter today. It will go out tonight at 1 a .m. And then people read it on Wednesdays.

And we've got people who, get this, there's a guy named Sam. And he, when

I put little things up on the stuff, little things, very helpful, you know, a bag of rubber bands and various, a stand or a microphone, a small microphone.

You know, he's pretty quick at just getting them. And so I write back these thank you things for emails and stuff like that on Amazon.

You know, a lot of good people out there really enjoying this ministry. And I'm just so thankful that I'm able to help people and do some teaching.

And so may the Lord bless you. There you go. Okay. Hey, like I said, 877 -207 -2276.

Let's get to Jan from North Carolina. Welcome, Jan. You're on the air. Hey, how are you today?

I am fine. How are you? Good. Good. I have a question. I really am trying to understand the

Trinity. But what I really want to know is why is it so important or probabilistic that you believe in a three -in -one unity type of a

Trinity versus three separate equally attributable, good, you know, quality entities?

Why is it so important to believe in the three -in -one? Because God tells us to serve

Him and Him only. This is found in Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments. It's very important.

We find that God says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, et cetera.

You shall have no other gods before me. Don't make an idol for yourself, et cetera. So God wants you to serve

Him and to know who He is. And the reason, ultimately, is because we're saved from God's righteous judgment by the faith that we have in what

He did. So if you have faith, like in a Mormon god who's an exalted man from another planet who has a goddess wife, well, that's not the real

God. So that means faith in that God is the same as no faith because it's useless.

Well, it's not a Mormon. You know, I don't have a Mormon belief. I have a strong faith, but it's just to understand when there's so many, you know, there's so many different types of references to God and the

Son and the Holy Spirit separate. And then, again, as together, there's references to each. And it's hard to know exactly, you know, exactly where it falls.

Well, if you want to know, you can go to my website, karm .org, and just type in the search engine,

What is the Trinity? I've gone to your website and found some good answers before.

I will go back. Yes. Okay. And you could also do a search for an in -depth examination of the

Trinity. So what is a Trinity is one level. An in -depth examination is far deeper. I think

I need more information. Yeah. Go ahead. Between those two, you'll get a lot of information.

All right? And I know what the Trinity is. I've debated it hundreds and hundreds of times over 40 years.

All right? Right. Okay. Well, what piqued my interest was this lady

Juanita who calls you constantly and says that she doesn't believe. And I'm like, what is making her so sure that she doesn't believe?

You know, and you give good information, but she doesn't seem to be falling into the line.

Because she's not a Christian. She's not saved. She's not indwelled by God. She doesn't have the true faith.

Simple. Because these things are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2 .14

says that natural men cannot receive the things of God from their foolishness. In Acts 16 .14,

God opens the mind of Lydia to believe the things that were taught by Paul. So she has to be born again.

She has to trust in Christ. Because she has a false god and she's learning ways to defend the false god, what happens is the judgment of God is upon her.

And you can go to Romans 1. Is she a Jehovah's Witness or something then? Is that a Jehovah's Witness belief? It's going to say you go to Romans 1 .18

-32 and you can read how the judgment of God is upon people who preach and teach false things.

So I don't know if she's a Jehovah's Witness or what. Yeah. But it just didn't seem like, you know, the bad thing.

So I was curious. Okay. I'm going to just go to your website and get more information. I don't like to try to speak on things

I don't understand or don't know. So I need to become more informed. But I do appreciate you having the information and I will look at it.

Thank you. Good. I'm glad. It's there for you. Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. I hope you have a good day.

You too. Thank you. All right. God bless. Bye. Okay. Let's get to Isaac from Tampa Bay, Florida.

Isaac, welcome. You're on the air. Hey there. Can you hear me okay? Yes, I can.

All right. Great. First, I want to just say thank you so much for your website. It's been very helpful, specifically with Mormonism.

So recently I had a school project because I'm in school in Lancaster, PA. I live in Tampa, though.

I work in Tampa. And so one of the assignments was to interview one, like another culture or specifically another religion.

So I chose Mormonism because their website is pretty easy to just request a missionary. And so I started doing research on how

I can witness to Mormons, and I came up to your site. And I'm so grateful for that. And when

I was talking in one of my previous discussions, in fact, I've got another discussion coming up at 7 with them.

But long story short, it was so sad to see that an older gentleman in the faith, in the

Baptist faith, had conformed to the Mormon faith because he felt there was more belonging there.

So how do you, I guess you could say like protect your flock. I'm currently in a

Baptist church where I work and reside. So how do you keep your flock?

Of course you use God's word, but how do you show that the other religions are false?

You teach the truth first. What churches need to do is have a regular set of courses that they either use from some other ministry or develop themselves where they go through the basics of the

Christian faith. They need to do this on a regular basis. Most people don't know the basics of the

Christian faith. So you have to know what the truth is in order to recognize what the lies are.

Just like you spend time with real money to recognize counterfeit money. You have to know what the truth is.

So, for example, I'm going to ask, not ask you, but I'll ask a bunch of questions that the average

Christian should know. Okay, like what is the Trinity? What is the economic Trinity?

What's the ontological Trinity? What does it mean to have perichoresis? What is divine simplicity?

What is justification? What is imputation? What is sanctification? What is propitiation?

What's the hypostatic union? What's the communicatio idiomatum? What is security?

What is salvation? What is damnation? Most Christians can't answer but maybe one in four or five of these questions.

And these are the basics. I know some of the words are unfamiliar. But this doesn't take long to learn.

And these are the basics of the Christian faith. They are the basics. These are things that I go over all the time with people.

I've been doing it for decades. So these are the things that need to be known. And pastors aren't teaching across the board.

They're not teaching these things. They're not providing opportunities to learn these things. Because the pastor, in my opinion, God bless him, is just dealing with the issues of the church.

But you're not an apologist like I am. And I know what's out there. And I know what challenges there are to the

Christian faith. And so if you don't know the truth, you're going to be sucked into lies. Thank you very much.

That's helpful. If churches would use it,

I would develop a series with PowerPoint and Word handouts.

Where they could just use it. And I would just ask for donations just to help pay for whatever. And they want to use it for free?

Use it for free. I don't care. Where they could take the PowerPoints and they could take the slides.

And they could go through. In fact, I've already done it. There's a booklet that I have called the

Basic Christian Doctrine. And it's tied in with a PowerPoint presentation slide.

I'd forgotten about it. I've done it about 10 years ago. We've got one on Catholicism as well.

And by going through the basics of the faith, you can learn this stuff. Let me tell you something. When I was at a conference once and I spoke.

I asked people. Let's just say there's about 100 people there. There was about 100. And so this is a good representation.

And it's not exact. But this is what I generally remember. I remember saying, okay, so how many of you here are

Christian? Please raise your hands. You know, like all the hands went up. Okay, great. Praise God. And we're here to learn a little bit about how to defend the faith.

What the Christian faith was. I said, okay, now I'm going to ask you some questions. And you can raise your hands if you want.

And I'm not going to call on you. I'm just going to see. Just take a survey. How many believe that there's only one God in all creation?

And all the hands go up. How many believe in the Trinity? And all hands go up. And how many believe

Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead? And their hands go up. How many believe we're saved by grace? And their hands go up.

Okay, good. Now I'm going to call on you if you ask. Raise your hand. How many can define what the Trinity is?

And two hands go up. I called on one person. And they did okay. You know, okay.

And so I offered a polish of it. Okay, now how many believe that Jesus is a man right now? And about 40 % of the hands went up.

He is a man right now. And I said, does anybody know what verses you would use to show that Jesus is

God in flesh? Basically no hands go up. This is how bad it is in the Christian church. They cannot, for the most part, defend the faith.

They don't know what the faith is. They don't have a good and deep understanding of it. What I love to do, what

I love to do is stand in front of a bunch of people in a seminar and just teach.

And interrelate the theological perspectives revealed in scripture. And show how they're all balanced in and woven in onto one another.

So give people an understanding. And I call it theology in sneakers. Just say, this is one

God. Why is that important? Why is the Trinity important? What if God was one person? What does that mean? What if he was two persons?

What does that mean? If he's three, how does that work? Why is the incarnation necessary? How many natures does

Jesus have? How is the sacrifice of divine value if only the human nature died? And I can bring it all together.

I'm just talking here. But hold on, okay. We've got to break. So hold on, buddy. Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages.

If you want to give me a call, please do. 877 -207 -2276.

We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live.

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

All right. Welcome back to the show. I guess that was Isaac. Hey, you still there?

Yes, sir. All right. So I gave you a lot of stuff there kind of going. But you got any more comments or questions?

No, I really appreciate it. Like you said, we do need a Paul Jackson in the church. I think that's exactly what we lack.

And just, again, a lot of the denominations. Is it okay if I ask you another question?

Sure. Sure, go ahead. Okay. Yeah. The question I've got, too, because I've been really wrestling with the faith is that I grew up in a

Protestant church, you know, non -denominational. And so I really didn't know, like,

Eastern Orthodox and Catholicism until just recently. How would we go about,

I don't know, like, how would we evangelize to them? Or how do we approach them? Because their beliefs are a little different.

They're not a little different. They're a lot different. Now, they affirm the Trinity and the deity of Christ, but their doctrine of salvation is false.

They have a false gospel in that they both add works to salvation and require cooperation with God in works and in effort in order to have grace imputed and reckoned and given to them so that over a long period of time, through the authority and the practice of their church and its priesthood, they hope to be saved from their sins.

It's a false gospel. They also both preach a false aspect of Mary. They teach that Mary can be in many places.

Well, not many places, but they teach that she can hear millions of prayers simultaneously all over the planet, spoken in thought, different languages, all at the same time, and that she can answer them.

And this is a functioning goddess. It's not the Mary of Scripture. They have a false priesthood because in the

Bible there is no New Testament priesthood, that nothing is taught in the New Testament like the priesthood of the

Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church. They both say that their priesthood is the authority. The authority of God handed down through their true church and their priesthood is enabled to administer the graces of God to you through the sacraments.

And so in order to get to the one mediator, Jesus, you've got to go through the mediatory work of their priesthood.

So both of them are false religions, both of them official Roman Catholic theology, official

Eastern Orthodox theology, lead to damnation. That's not to say that there aren't true Christians in there.

But if they believe official stuff, then it's damned.

They're damned. It's damnable heresy. Okay? Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah, it's sad, but it's true. As the old man says.

Let's just say it's sad but true. But that's it. So, Metallica.

So, they need the gospel and I work with different ways. Let me give you something I've developed that's very simple.

I've said it over the radio many times. I use it with Catholics and Eastern Orthodox to try and prove to them that they're more loyal to their church than they are to Jesus.

And that offends them when I say that. But I say, let me prove it to you. You can't prove it. Yes, I can. Let me show you. I ask them a series of questions.

I say, look, is Jesus God? They say, yes. Okay. Does he have all authority in heaven and earth? Well, yes.

Does he forgive sins? Well, yes. Did Jesus say, come to me all who are heavy laden and I'll give you rest?

Yes. Well, if you were to pray to Jesus, no one else, just pray to Jesus and ask him to forgive you of all of your sins, will he?

And this is when you'll say yes. Sometimes they say yes, but not very often.

What they'll do is they immediately invoke the authority of their church and the necessity of their priesthood and their sacraments.

Well, Jesus set up the church. Jesus set up the sacraments. Jesus set up... I didn't ask about that. I said, can you go to Jesus and just ask him?

Don't do all the other stuff. I just... Can you? And once... This is no lie.

This is no lie. I once asked a Catholic to pray directly to Jesus.

Not to Mary in their intercession in order to get forgiveness. And I said, well, you pray straight to Jesus.

I'm not going to mock you in your prayer. We're in a social room. And he said he would do it.

I said, okay, great. And the first thing he said was, dear Mary, blah, blah, blah. He couldn't even pray to Jesus.

Oh, wow. They're so inculturated into the cult mentality that they can't even just see what the error is.

So anyway, it's what I do. I ask them that. And when they say they have to go to the priesthood, I say, but I didn't ask that.

I said, can you go to Jesus? And sometimes they'll say, yes, you can go to Jesus. And I say, and if you do, will he forgive you of all of your sins?

And if they say yes, which does happen occasionally, I say, then why do you need the Catholic priesthood? Why don't you go straight to Jesus?

Because there is no Catholic priesthood in the New Testament. It's not there. So why are you doing it? And that's one of the ways.

And I give them the gospel. Okay? Yeah. Thank you. That's great.

Yeah. I do it with Mormons as well, and with Jehovah's Witnesses, because I call it the true

Jesus approach. In Mormonism, Jesus is, in 35, 1918, they did call

Jesus their Lord and their God. Or they did pray to Jesus, calling him their Lord and their God. And I say, well, in the

Bible, Jesus is prayed to. And I go to Acts 7, 55 through 60, where Stephen had a vision of God the

Father, the glory of God, and Jesus, and he addressed Jesus. And I said, doesn't he have all authority?

Yes. Well, then why don't you go straight to Jesus? Because they're taught not to. Right. I always point people to Jesus.

Go straight to him by faith and trust in what he did on the cross. But not anything else.

And Mormons can't. Jehovah's Witnesses can't. Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholicism, they, for the most part, can't.

Yeah. Okay? Absolutely. Yeah. And I appreciate that insight as well, because even in the workplace,

I think we're seeing a rise in Christians in the workplace ministering and sharing the gospel.

And so there's a lot of limitations, especially in America. We see that. And so I guess a follow -up question might be,

I know, I believe it's in 2 Timothy, when Scripture talks about, like, you will be persecuted for me, right?

We're called to live like Jesus and be servants of him. And I understand that.

But I think a lot of American Christians have become comfortable. And so how do we almost wake up our church, right?

How do we wake up our church to not adhere to culture, right, and to live a

Jesus -centered life? That's easy. No, it's easy to wake them up. All we need is a good persecution that God's going to send to us because we're not doing what he wants us to do right now.

We're not out there picketing. We're not out there evangelizing. We're not out there doing what we've got to do. So what God's going to do is discipline his church and his people and put them under persecution.

And that will cause them to finally look up to God while they're bowing their knees. Yeah. Okay?

Yeah, that's good. We're too comfortable here in America. We've got so much. We can go to church on a

Sunday and we're not persecuted. Normatively speaking, it's on the rise, but we're not persecuted.

And so Christians think that that's the fullness of the Christian faith, and it's not. Some believe that.

A lot of Christians know this truthfully, that they're to witness or to share the faith, but it's not a priority in their life.

Something else is. Exactly. The priority should be the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the glorification of him, let me show you something here.

This is why this is so important. You go to Philippians 2, starting at verse 5. I'm going to have to read a few verses because it's the last verse that is important, but it's about the gospel.

Okay? Have this attitude in yourself, which also is in Christ Jesus. Oops, there's the break. So hold on after the break.

I'll read this pericope to you and talk about why evangelism is for the glory of God. And that is, we'll be right back.

Okay, buddy? Hey, folks, we're at the bottom of the hour. If you want to give me a call, 877 -207 -2276.

Be right back. It's Matt Slick live.

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

All right, everyone, welcome back to the show. Hey, let's get back on the air with Isaac. Are you still there? Yes, sir.

All right, so I'm going to read this pericope. A pericope is a section of the scripture. It can be big or small. This is

Philippians 2, 5 through 11. Have this attitude in yourselves, which also is in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God anything to be grasped.

But he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

For this reason, also, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father. So, Isaiah 43, 8.

I think it's a 43, 8. 43, 6. And it says that we are created for the glory of God.

All right. And we're created for my glory. Let's see. So, I always try to get this.

Yeah, 43, 7. But anyway, Isaiah 43, 7. We're created for the glory of God.

How do we glorify God? Well, in a lot of different ways, but one of them is the proclamation of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, because it glorifies

God when Christ was crucified, glorifies God the Father. So, when we start preaching that gospel, we start teaching people what it is, whether they accept it or not isn't the issue.

We're bringing glory to God because we're showing the greatness of his sacrifice, the greatness of his love, the greatness of his humility, the greatness of what he has done for us so that we can be saved.

And so the Christians should be doing this because it glorifies God. And if our attitude is to live for the glory of God, it will become less self -centered.

And all that we have and do will be ultimately for God's glory, and that includes preaching and teaching.

All right, okay. Yeah, that's great. Yes, sir, thank you for your help.

All right, big man. Well, God bless. All right, you as well. Thanks again.

All right, God bless. Hey, folks, if you want to give me a call, 877 -207 -2276.

Jim from Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt, I really appreciate you taking my call.

I'll give you a couple of sets of the background right quick.

I'm 85 years old, and I have never seen our country more divided in my whole life than it is right now.

And there are two verses in the Bible that are concerning me, and then I have a couple of questions following that.

But there are two verses. One is Mark 324. If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

And the other is Matthew 1225. Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation.

Well, that's really worrisome right now for me, and I guess I hope probably for everybody. And I don't really understand why it has come to this.

It's all about politics, I think, but it's almost as if, for example, if you're a minister or something, you're trying to win souls for Christ, and if you give your position about politics, whether you're a

Democrat or a Republican, it doesn't matter which, you're going to lose about half your audience before you even get started.

That's how bad it's gotten to be about how people are almost like hating each other over this thing.

So that is really concerning to me. And then my follow -on to that was

I'm trying to find some information out about where is the best place in the Bible to go to find out about the

Antichrist, and is there some things to look out for, and also, is there more than one

Antichrist? Well, there's Antichrists as a concept, and many Antichrists are out there.

You can go to 1 John 2 for that. But if you want to know about the Antichrist, what

I recommend you do is go to Qorum and look up who or what is the Antichrist. There's an article there that I've written, and it goes into who he is.

He's boastful, combative, injured on the head and the arm, no desire for women, things like that.

Ooh, there's a typo in there. And you can go there and check it out. It's just who or what is the

Antichrist on Qorum. Go check it out. How do you spell the page for Qorum? I'm not familiar with Qorum.

How do you spell that? C -A -R -M dot O -R -G. C -A -R -M.

I can just go on the ladder and look that up. Yeah, it's a website

I've been working on for almost 29 years. In October, it'll be 29 years. Wow, okay.

All right, I'll go and look at that. But that's just been worrying me so much about it.

We talk about all the other kinds of things, everything from sins of all kinds, and nobody really talks about this divisiveness.

I mean, if we're trying to follow the

Lord or whatever we might be trying to do, and we lose our whole country so that all these things about abortion, same -sex marriage, all these kinds of things that we're debating on, they won't even count anymore if we don't even have a choice to even speak about them if somebody else is taking over.

Well, that's right. Here's something else you should check out on the website.

The 45 Goals of Communism. You may not think this is related, but it absolutely is.

I'll read you some of them. Because this was first published in 1961, and it was read into the

United States Congressional Record on January 10, 1963. And I have it listed on the

CARM website. Number four, permit free trade between all nations regardless of communist affiliation.

This is the movement of the communists and the socialists in different countries who have infiltrated

America to try and get it to fall because it's too strong economically and militarily.

So they couldn't defeat us externally. They have to go internally. So it says capture one or both of the political parties in the

U .S. Well, obviously the Communist Party is in control of the

Democrats. The Democratic Party is anti -Christ. It's evil. And the Republican Party isn't too far behind it.

Number 17, get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and communist propaganda.

Infiltrate the press. Control book review assignments, editorial writing, etc. Gain control of key positions in radio,

TV, motion pictures. I mean, it's all true. They promote ungodliness.

They promote evil. They promote adultery, fornication, lying, cheating, stealing, all kinds of stuff.

I watch stuff on TV. I just see it. It's all over the place. We're so used to it. Yeah, the lying is unbelievable.

I don't care which side you're on. Anybody who thinks one side is right and the other side is wrong is naive,

I think, because both sides lie like a rug, I think. Absolutely. Check this out. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

And that's occurring in our schools now with our youth. Present homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as normal, natural, and healthy.

Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with social religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity.

Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools. Discredit the

American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old -fashioned, out of step. Discredit the American Founding Fathers.

Present them as selfish aristocrats. Belittle all forms of American culture. Discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the big picture.

Support any socialist movement. I'm skipping through stuff. Discredit the

FBI. Well, they're discredited. I don't trust them. Infiltrate and control big business.

And we know, for example, that Google is leftist. They're leftist social agenda. Microsoft is right behind them.

Transfer powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. There's already been attempts for that. Discredit the family as an institution.

Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents.

This is happening in school where teachers are then telling the children, Hey, you can be whatever gender you want to be.

You don't have to worry about it. Don't tell your parents. So the parents are not the ones in control anymore. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the

American tradition. It goes on. See, this is what's happening. And the

American church needs to step up. But it won't. It's too busy turning on its air co and watching football.

Well, I understand. I think I understand everything you just said. But that doesn't necessarily help.

The divisiveness here. How are we going to get, how are we going to do, I mean, just everybody hating each other is not going to help at all.

Even if one side has all the right answers and the other side doesn't have any answers, there's got to be some kind of a goal, you know, to unite our country.

The stupidity of the people who try and find solutions have a bag of band -aids. They don't know what the solutions are. They don't root out the problem.

They put band -aids on everything and they think that's what's right. If you really want to fix this country, you have to start promoting

Christianity in the country. Our country was founded on Christian principles. Read the Constitution and the

Preamble. Read them. Oh, I know. I totally, totally agree with that. And what about the

Constitution? What about the division of, I mean, the separation of church and state?

What do you think about that? That was Jefferson. It's not a constitutional thing. Jefferson said that.

Oh, yeah, I thought that was him. Because, yeah, they want the state to control. The religion. But he's starting to do that. And so when they say it's separation of church and state, they want religion being influenced in politics and all.

It's a bunch of crap. Sorry, but it is. We've got to go, buddy. There's a break, okay? All right, man. All right. Okay. Thanks. Bye. Okay.

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

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

All right, everyone. Welcome back to the church or to the church. Oops. To the radio show.

I'm just reading something. So, hey, Chuck from Dayton. Welcome. You're on the air. Are you there?

Uh -oh. Did I do something wrong? No, it should be okay. Let's see.

Hey, Chuck, are you there? Chuck! I'm hearing some noise. Well, let's give it another few seconds, because that's what we do sometimes, and people can talk.

I don't know if there's an issue. Chuck? What's up, Chuck? Hey, if you can hear me, great.

But I don't hear you. So let's try this.

Let's try this. Put him on hold. Now, if the radio guy, if you could reactivate him, maybe

I can try that again. There we go. Let's try that. Okay, Chuck, are you there?

No? I guess we can't hear him. So, Chuck, call back, okay?

Call back, buddy. All right. Let's try that. So, I can't even hang up on him.

Okay, something's up with the thing. So I'll just leave it up to the producer to take care of that.

It happens every now and then. All right. Hey, folks, if you want to give me a call, we have wide -open lines, 877 -207 -2276.

You can also give me a call, I mean an email at info at CARM .org,

info at CARM, C -A -R -M dot O -R -G, and put in the subject line, radio question or radio comment.

So one of the callers called in and wasn't familiar with the website. And so this is a radio show, and I've been doing radio now for,

I guess, around 21 years, 21, 22 years, depending on how you count a couple of things, and five days a week for about 20,

I think. I don't know. It doesn't matter. And so a lot of people just think that all that I do is just radio.

Well, the mainstay is the CARM website, C -A -R -M dot O -R -G.

And I've been working on that website for almost 29 years.

So it's big. I've written, I think, around 6 ,000 articles, maybe as low as 5 ,500.

I don't know, but we did 6 ,000. And the site has had 163 million visitors.

So I'm not trying to boast or anything. I'm just saying I've been working on it a long time. We have all kinds of information there. And because,

I like to say this every now and then, I have Asperger's. Oh, man, I've got Asperger's, which is a division or some issue inside of autism.

And a lot of people have issues. So I just say, hey, this is what I've got because I've been diagnosed. And the disadvantage is that socially

I'm not as good as I need to be. That's what Aspies generally are not good that way.

So I make up for it with body language. It's interesting stuff, but okay. Aside from all of that, one of the advantages of it is that I can focus.

And we Aspies tend to have a, you know, not stupid.

And so what I do is I like to take large amounts of information, complicated things, and break them down so people can understand them.

And then when I write, I write like that. I write to the point. To the point.

I just say, hey, this is what it is. And, you know, if you've noticed, you go to other websites, for example, you might read an article.

I did this once. Well, more than once. Go to another website. What is the Trinity? And another website.

And I'm reading, you know, 500 words later they tell you what it is. That bothers me.

That just bothers me. If I go to a website and I type in what is the Trinity, I want an answer.

Well, when you go to the CARM website, you type in what is the Trinity, you get the first paragraph defining what it is. So if you only read the first paragraph and you leave, you've got your answer.

So it's one of the things that I do. And so check out the website. CARM .org.

C -A -R -M dot O -R -G. And just as a way to add this in,

Matt Slick Live is my radio show. And my real name is Matt Slick. Slick is my real name.

S -L -I -C -K. It's my driver's license, birth certificate, et cetera. And there you go.

So it's not a radio name. But it is a radio name. But it's not a fake radio name. It works out.

Matt Slick Live. All right. Having said all of that stuff, if you want to give me a call, 877 -207 -2276.

So the last caller was going to talk about or ask about King James -only -ism stuff.

So maybe I'll just talk about that a little bit. The King James is a great

Bible. However, King James -only -ism is cultic.

It can be in that the attitudes that some people have about the

King James can be a little bit whacked. So some people will say the

King James in the English is just as inspired or more inspired than it is in the Greek. And that's when you scratch your head and you stare at them like, where'd you get that?

And so a lot of people are so loyal to the King James that essentially they are kind of idolaters.

Now, I'm not calling the King James -only person an idolater, but you've got to understand what I'm saying here. They're so loyal to it that it is the way, the truth, and the life.

You can't mess with the King James. It is just simply true. Now, a lot of people who prefer the

King James don't agree with that stuff. They go, no, it's just what I like. Okay, great. No problem. But for the

King James -only -ists who say it is the right Bible, it is the true Bible, and all the other

Bibles are corruptions, blah, blah, blah. That kind of stuff, they just don't have all their textual paws in the litter box.

They need to study. So the King James was done with the

Texas Receptus from 6th century discovered documents. That means by the, excuse me, the 16th.

In the 16th century when the King James was done, it used the best information and manuscript that they had at the time.

But since then, a broader range of manuscripts have been discovered, even older ones.

The general rule of manuscripts is the older is the better. That's a general rule.

And so modern translations like the NASB, the ESB, et cetera, they use more modern manuscripts.

That doesn't mean there's a humongous difference, but it does mean occasionally you'll see some differences.

And those differences can be significant in a couple of places, like Titus 2 .13,

for example, or Romans 5 .18, both of which the King James translates incorrectly. And I will stand on that and go through and show why.

So that's another. And here's another problem with the King James, the archaic language. If thou wist believeth with their hearts, thou wist make.

We don't talk like that. I remember when I was a new Christian and I didn't know which version to use.

I memorized a verse or two out of the King James and I quoted it to somebody in Southern California.

Southern California is like a beach community, you know, and surfers. Like, hey, dude, man, you hanging, man, and all that stuff.

A grimy man just snaked me totally. And so you'll get that kind of conversation. So you won't talk to them and say, for thou wist shall believeth.

They look at you like you're a moron. I remember that experience once, and I thought, I'm never going to do that again.

So I went to a more modern translation that didn't have archaic language. Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't use the

King James for that reason, but I just didn't want a barrier that was there. Also, if you hold a

King James -ism -only -ism stuff, it can inadvertently cause problems and divisions in the body of Christ.

Because it can say, one person can say, well, we have the true Bible in the King James. You don't.

And this kind of thing can cause problems. And there's lots of issues there.

So I'm just saying there's part of the issues of the King James -only stuff. But most people who prefer the King James that I've met, they're great people.

They don't hold to those wacko views. They just like the King James. And that's fine. No big deal. Let's get to Sherry from North Carolina.

Sherry, welcome. You are on the air. How are you? I'm fine.

How are you? I'm doing great. My question is, what

Bible is the best one for us to learn more from? Well, it depends.

Because a translation can have a different purpose or a different focus. The NASB, for example, seeks to translate from the original into the

English as literally as possible. But sometimes that can be a problem.

Because, for example, it doesn't say it this way. But you could have a phrase in the

Hebrew where it says, God cleared his nostrils at them. What that means is he got angry with them.

And so if you translated it literally, you wouldn't understand. So there is a sense in which we want to have a bit of interpretation about what a text literally means and other things.

Personally, as an apologist, I prefer a Bible that is as literal to the original as possible.

But some people may not prefer that. They may want a Bible that is designed to carry the same original meaning and carry it over into the

English a little more smoothly. So they might prefer, in that case, the

ESV. So, you see, they're both good.

But the NASB, in my opinion, is better than the ESV because of the needs that I have.

But someone might say the ESV is better than the NASB because of the needs that they have.

Both are legitimate concerns and needs. So you have to ask yourself, what do I desire most?

Which Bible meets that goal the most? And I do recommend people have three translations.

NASB, ESV is good, and then another one. You can do the King James if you want, or the

NIV or something like that. And compare all three. Right, because I'm totally blind, so I have to figure out which one is best for me not being able to see.

So I have to figure out which one is better for me to download on my phone to listen to. Well, what's your goal?

Do you want to be as literal as possible, or just kind of get the main thing across? I just want to make sure

I'm living the right way for Christ. Just get the ESV. ESV is good, and it's fine.

The Lexham English Bible is also good. Lexham. Oops, that thing over here.

I think that's the right one. Let me do this. Let's see. The LEB.

I think it's called the LEB. Let me go here. Let's do something. Let me do this.

1 Kings 8 .60. And the

LEB, which I wish the NASB does. The LEB is what I was talking about. It takes the word

Yahweh from the Hebrew and transliterates it into the English Yahweh. Most Bibles don't do that.

They have the word Lord, capital L -O -R -D. I wish they would do Yahweh. So the

LEB is really good that way. It does stuff pretty literally. Right.

Okay. I hope that's helpful. Oh yeah, oh yeah.

I've been believing in the Lord for a long time because when I was a little girl, I was shot with a pistol.

And that's how I lost my vision. So I totally believe there is a God and Jesus too.

Because a lot of people think that when you obsessively have an accident like that, they think you're in a state of shock and you don't recall things.

But I particularly recall someone sitting beside me and I felt their arm around me. But it was pitch black dark by then because I could see 20 -20 before I got shot.

And then after, I felt somebody with their arm around me whispering in my ear and I thought it was the neighbor.

And come to find out years later, it wasn't. Wow. We should have people call in and tell us their encounters with unusual things like that.

With the hand of the Lord is there. Yeah. We got to go. There's the music. So there you go and may the

Lord bless you. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Well, God bless. Bye.

Hey folks, we'll be right back. Well, not right back, back tomorrow. Have a good evening and morning. God bless. Another program powered by the