Matt Slick Live: December 17, 2024

The following program is recorded content created by The Truth Network.

It's Matt Slick Live! Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry, found online at karm .org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick Live for answers.

Taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877 -207 -2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Show Introduction and Upcoming Schedule

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. Listen to Matt Slick Live. If you want, you give me a call, as usual, the number is 877 -207 -2276. We have nobody waiting right now if you want to call, the first one today.

Today's date is December 17th, 2024 for the podcasters. And I've got a debate in two nights on whether or not Mary, well not Mary, is playing an intercession role in heaven. And it'll be with a Roman Catholic, so I'll be prepping on that.

And we'll see how that goes. Of course, I say no. She's not able to hear millions of prayers simultaneously spoken and thought all over.

The world.

You know, I'd make her into a functioning goddess. And let's see what else. Now next week, next week will be no live radio. And it won't be on until the 1st or the 2nd of January. I'm going to find out which one it is.

Because, you know, it's a 1st. Are they going to be off the radio station on the 1st? And if not, I'll be on the air and I'll find out later. Not a big deal. Hey, look, December is Matching Funds Drive.

If you were to, you know, want to support us and the radio show and the ministry, then all you've got to do is just go to karm .org, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G forward slash donate and all the information is there.

Now maybe you want to know why you should, you might want to support a ministry like.

This.

Let me give you some reasons. One, the Karm website has had 165 million visitors. We have an average, I think it's like, I forgot, I can open up my file and give you more accurate numbers. Yeah, there it is right there.

There's the numbers. We've had 165 million visitors, 93 million returning visitors. And what that means is that 165 different individual computers, that's how they measure it, have come to visit the site.

And of those, 93 million have come back repeatedly. So the site reaches a great deal of people and it's 29 years old. And from that, we've developed other outreaches. So the Karm ministry, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G, the website, and what we're doing now, we're overhauling.

It.

We've got several of us who are going through looking at the articles. We are improving it in all kinds of ways. We had to do this because the search engine optimization algorithms and technology has grown past us and we have to play catch up now.

And that's okay. A lot of websites have to do that when different search engines change how they work and change what they look for. So we're going through and doing that. We have a nice program that we're using that points out issues.

And so that's what we're doing. It takes a lot of work. It's just taken a lot of work. I've not read any new articles for a while because of it. We're just doing that. But also, we've been doing radio now for 20 years.

So on January 2nd, it'll be the 20 year anniversary of me doing radio five days a week. We've been with this network, I don't know, three, four, five, six years. I can't remember. And it's a great group of people there, a great group of people.

I've talked to them over the phone, met Stu in person and others there.

Great.

And I'll be going out, probably going out to Dallas for the National Religious Broadcasting Network. Probably going out there at the end of February to do some more, to meet the people and do stuff. We've got lots of stuff we've got to do.

So there's that. And we also have a newsletter that goes out to I don't know how many thousands of people. We do outreaches on Facebook, X. We have over 20 ,000 people who watch the videos on YouTube.

I don't know how many we have on Rumble because maybe someone could look it up, tell me in the private chat there. But we have Hunt with thousands also. But we've only been on there for a little while compared to YouTube.

And plus we have missionaries in Nigeria. And I don't want to say his name because we're trying to protect him. He's been threatened with death because of the Muslims who are being supported by Iran are going into outskirts of villages in Nigeria and killing people, kidnapping them and holding them for ransom.

And then they use the money to buy more weapons to attack more people. Islam. That's what true Islam really is. People call it radical Islam. That's just not true. It's true Islam. If you read the Koran and the Hadith, it talks about killing and subduing people.

So that's all another issue. And then we have another guy in Malawi. And we support him, not full time, but we support him partially. Other ministries work with him. And on Fridays, we have meetings and we have guys from Africa that come into our meetings and they're usually on a single phone.

And a lot of times electricity is out on their house or whatever it is, because that's just how it is out there sometimes. And they come in on a phone and sometimes they can't even do that. So there's that.

We have David and he is in Brazil and he works on the Portuguese site and he converts our articles into Portuguese and he also runs an orphanage. So we're supporting him and he's got 200 kids he's working with and we've been supporting him for, I don't know, how many years he's been doing that.

And so he does the outreach down there. We have another guy named Carlos and he's in Bogota, Colombia. And he runs the Spanish outreach and his English is really good. And so is David, we all talk in English.

And so they run the Spanish outreach or he runs the Spanish outreach and he's been with us 10, 12 years.

I forgot.

We've been supporting him on a monthly basis and they tell us how the Bible studies go and the outreach that they have and the emails that they get from people in those areas and around the world who speak those languages and they're reaching people.

So I'm just telling you this is what we do here at CARM. I work, my wife works part-time with CARM as well. And then we have volunteers, we have volunteers. We have Charlie Spine and I've known Charlie since, sheesh, 1980.

He's the guy who read me the quote from Joseph Smith where Joseph Smith boasts that he did more than Jesus to keep a church together. And he started me studying on apologetics, on Mormonism, and then from there went to Joseph's Witnesses and went to other groups and then, well, here we are.

And he does a lot of good stuff for CARM as well. And then we have Laura and Laura is in Utah and she oversees a lot of stuff and kind of trains people in certain aspects of what we do here at CARM. So she's helpful.

We have Joanne and she runs the prayer ministry and she's on the East Coast and she's a sweetie. And so we have a lot of people gathered around us who are really good. We have another guy named Dave who's in Southern California.

I've known Dave almost as long as I've known Charlie but since 1980. And Dave does a lot of the legal wrangling with CARM when there's legal issues because we've got to make sure we're doing things right and if there's any legal questions we have a lawyer, we have tax lawyers, you know, things like that, make sure things are good.

And so he's also very knowledgeable. Charlie and Dave have been doing this for a long time too. They're not as dedicated to it as I am because they've had other jobs, you know, and done other stuff. They've both retired.

I've been doing this full time for a long time and they're great. They know their stuff. They could take over the radio show easily, either one of them, and do a lot of Q &A and do that.

So we've got a good team.

We have a good team. And we have Dara. And Dara runs the forums. A lot of people don't know we have forums. So if you go to, I think it's forums, what is it, forums .carm .org? Is that what it is? Let me check.

Forums .carm .org. Yeah, that's where it is. And so you can join the discussions that go on there. I don't go there very often. And the reason is because if I do and I say anything, they jump on me like a bunch of ants on something.

They drop on the floor, do this all over it, dog pile, because they want a piece of me. And I just don't, I just don't have time to read everybody's posts. And then I just give up because I got too much to do and I can't follow 18 threads.

Then they claim victory that they beat me because I don't know how to answer them. You know, stuff like this. I get tired of that kind of stuff. But the forums, and there's a lot of good discussions going on there, a lot of good.

Outreach.

So that's good. And plus, we got to, like I said, we got to Facebook, we got to X, we got to, where else do we go to? We go to Clubhouse. I do things, outreaches on Discord. So we're constantly reaching out.

Anyway, having said all of that, when you support CARM, you're supporting all of that, not just the radio. But the radio does, you know, it's a big outreach too, trying to get good theology out there, Bible this and Bible that out there for people.

So you will not see how things are, how your donations make a difference because, well, because there's just a lot of different, a lot of different areas that CARM is involved.

In.

And God is the one who knows, and God's the one who sees, and God's the one who blesses. So if you like what you hear and you want to support this ministry that can reach out to literally millions of people, literally, for very little cost, relatively speaking, then support us.

So I've got two of my favorite emails I got from people. It's like saying, and then we'll get to the callers, I got an email, broken English, one of my favorites. It's a guy from Vietnam and he would take CARM articles and he'd print them up, he'd get in his motorcycle and he'd go up into his scooter, actually go up into the hills of Vietnam.

And then he would walk miles on paths to get to the villages and then teach the Bible and use the articles. That's what he told me he's doing. And that was just awesome. And then another one that I remember was an email from an island chain, this guy in an island chain.

And he goes, man, we use your stuff here and blah, blah, blah. So I had to look this up and I mean, it was a dot in the middle of the Pacific kind of a thing. I'm like, no way, it's awesome. And so we're just reaching out everywhere and by God's grace, we're trying to improve that outreach as well.

So anyway, there you go. Let's get on with Rusty from South Carolina. Rusty, welcome. You're on the air.

Once Saved Always Saved and the Origin of Islam

Hey, how are you doing, Matt?

Doing all right. Hanging in there, man.

Hanging in there.

What do you got, buddy?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So, OK. One of my first questions is, do you believe once you're saved, you're always saved?

Yes, I do. I affirm that we cannot lose our salvation.

Yes.

Yes.

That's right.

Yes. And I think the same thing because me and my friends talking about it, he said he don't believe in that. He believes you can't lose it. But I remember you saying it a long time ago about if they still do the same thing they used to do, they might really not be saved.

Right. Yes.

OK. Yeah.

And one of the things I ask people, if they say you can lose your salvation, say, OK, what do you have to do to to lose it? And give me a list. I'll say, OK, so what. So then what things you've got to do to keep to not lose your salvation?

And they'll give me a list. And I say, so then you keep yourself right with the infallible holy God by your goodness. Is that it? OK. Yeah.

Yeah. OK. So, OK, with the Korans, while I was looking it up, it said the Korans were made after the Holy Bible.

Yes, about six years after.

Their Bible was made after.

Uh huh. Hold on, buddy. We got a break. We got a break. So hold on. We'll get back to this about the Koran and some stuff.

Yeah. All right.

OK, hold on now. Hey, folks, be right back after these messages. If you want to give me a call, the number is eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. Be right back after these messages.

It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. Here's Matt Slick.

All right. And welcome back to the show. Let's get back on here with Rusty. All right, Rusty, you're on.

Hey, yeah.

Yes.

Mm hmm. Yes.

I want. Yes, I hear you.

Oh, OK. So, OK. So. So from my understanding, the Korans were made after the Holy Bible. Right. From what I was searching, I was wondering, so. But the religion was before Christianity, right?

No, no, no, no. Islam started with Mohammed, who was born, died in 632. I think it was so.

And then he. Yes, yes, you are.

Actually, the Koran. So no, it came afterwards.

OK. OK, so. OK, so they will. So people at my school was trying to say that Christianity is the baby religion.

No, no, no, no. Islam started 600 years after Christianity.

OK, why? Yes. Yet there was looked up in search to try to mimic a lot of stuff from the Holy Bible to try to make it seem like to make it right. It doesn't speak of any angels and the Koran.

Yes. Michael is mentioned. Gabriel is mentioned as some other ones has as well. I try to remember. But yeah, they do mention. They mentioned Mary. She's the only woman mentioned in the Koran. It mentions the Trinity and denies the Trinity misunderstands the Trinity.

It makes lots of mistakes. The Koran is is a is an invention of just a desert guy. And it became popular because of force and threat.

I mean, my my teacher, I kind of figured it out, too, because it was looking up. I was looking it up and they got mad because they were like, OK, OK. They don't want to go through all that. But because I know Islam came from Ishmael, they were saying,.

Well, they can say that they can say that. But there were Arabs around at that time beforehand. So Islam, see, back in the Arab area geographically before the the rise of Muhammad, there was the Abba, which is that that that area that where they have the big cube, they're pretty circles and bows down before and things like that.

There were three hundred and sixty idols in there. And so they were polytheists in the area. Three hundred sixty, three hundred sixty degrees in a circle. And it used to be some of the theology, some there's some evidence that the year used to be three hundred sixty days long.

And it's a whole nother topic that it changed. So so let me tell what happened. OK, so Muhammad came in, Muhammad got strong and he destroyed all but one of the the figures, the idols, what are going to call it in the Koran or got rid of all of them and then said that it was Allah, which is Arabic for God.

And it was for different things. I read different stuff that was the moon. God is the one that that that he focused on. That's why the crescent moon is the is the symbol of Islam. But there's, you know, a lot of debate about this.

But but there you go.

OK. OK, OK. And do all with Mormonism. Do their Bible speak of the angels?

Yeah, the their Bible is the King James. So, yes, it does. OK.

Oh, really? Uh-huh. Yeah, I know that he just taught me something else.

OK. Yeah, they have four standard works. The Bible, the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenant. And so the DNC Doctrine and Covenants was altered. And a lot of Mormons don't know this, but it's a fact.

And it's documented this history. It is. Mormons is not taught. They're taught to don't ask questions, don't think, don't research. But yeah, the Doctrine and Covenants were altered after it was supposedly revealed by Joseph Smith.

He corrected the the King James. It's called the. Oh, wow. The inspired version. Wow. The inspired version of the Bible. And they don't use it, though, because it's severely altered. And then the price.

And that is so it's a it's a it's got some I can explain all this. But OK, go ahead.

So with a lot. Oh, I was looking at some earlier, too. It says I'm out on Buddhism. So with Buddhism was around when Jesus walked the earth.

Yes, it was before Christianity. Uh huh. Yep. It existed. Yes. Thousand miles away in 2000 miles away, whatever it is.

So that that that that that Jesus will be familiar with them, right? With their religion.

Well, well, there's a yes and no. Yes and no, because the Jews were very cloistered. And what's interesting, a lot of people don't know is that the Jewish nation tried to avoid a lot of paganism and stuff out there.

What's interesting, Christianity and Judaistic thought is what is not in there compared to the polytheistic systems that were around them. And it's really interesting to say, oh, they borrowed from this and that.

No, no, they didn't. And so, yeah. But I'm sure I don't know if I knew about Buddhism or Hinduism. They were around before before Christianity was OK.

OK, OK.

Thank you. You cleared up a lot. OK, so with the one more thing. So with the angels that is mentioned. Should we think of them as angels from heaven or is part of Satan's army?

While we told him in the Bible, we told it.

Talk about an angel. Yeah, no. Yeah.

Forget told that it is not in the Bible that it's not right. OK, so the apocryphal books are not inspired.

I know they spoke of.

Mm hmm. Yeah.

So the angels they spoke of is they could not be from heaven.

Who's they, though?

Which which books are like Tobit, Tobit?

When it mentioned the angel, I think home.

Tobit is Tobit is not scripture. All right. It's added.

Right. Right.

The Catholic Church and the East Orthodox Church. But it's not scripture. All right.

So it mentioned an angel. Oh, I can't think of his name right now. There's a real angel.

Yeah. Yes, I think.

We should find it. Well, it's not Rafael. Sorry.

Rafael. Yes.

Uh huh. Rafael.

So would that be. That's not part of heaven angels, right?

Oh, I wouldn't trust anything it says. I it's not an issue of it.

Right. Right. Right.

OK. OK. OK. Right. OK. OK. OK. Yeah.

Yeah. OK. OK.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

All right. All right, man. Well, God bless.

All right. Thank you. God bless you, too.

OK, we'll see. OK, bye. All right. Now let's get to Tom from Florida. Tom, welcome. You're on the air.

The Kingdom Suffering Violence

Hello, Matt. And thank you for your commitment to Sola Fide. Oh, yeah. Many, many people appreciate it. Listening to you. So thank you. And then please ask your interpretation and teaching on a verse where Jesus says since the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom has suffered violence and violent men take it by force.

Could you expound on that, please?

From what I understand, what it means is that that the hostility of Christianity to Christianity, excuse me, is is there because of demonic forces and secular forces. And it suffers. The Christian faith suffers violence from persecutors of all sorts.

And we're going to break. So hold on. And we'll be right back. OK, sure. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages. If you want to give me a call, the number is 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. If you want to give me a call, the number is 877 -207 -2276. Also, December is our matching funds drive month. If you want to support us, now's a great time to do that.

Whatever you donate will be doubled. So we have a matching funds donor. So if you donate 10, it'll become 20. If you donate 100, it'll become 200. That's how it works. And it's easy to do. Just go to CARM .org, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G forward slash donate.

All right. Let's get back on the air with Tom from Florida. Tom, you still there?

I am. Thank you. Yes.

Right now, just because we're rushed. The context is is talking about John the Baptist who's imprisoned and the Jewish nation and stuff. So I believe what Jesus is saying is that the people, the Jewish leaders wanted the kingdom of God, but they wanted it the way they wanted it.

And it was violence being perpetrated against the prophet of God, of the true kingdom, John the Baptist. And so they were taking it by violence. They wanted it that way and not with the peaceful means that Jesus Christ was instituting.

So that's what I believe. OK.

Yes. And thank you very much. I appreciate it. Have a good night.

OK. Well, God bless. God bless. All right. All right. Let's get to Jay from Charlotte, North Carolina. Jay, welcome. You're on the air.

Islam, Christianity, and Legalism

How are you doing, Matt?

Good to talk. Hanging in there, man. Hanging in there. So, boy, a lot of hanging, too. So what do you got now?

You said that you're not going to be on the air next week or something.

That's correct. Not next week. And I'll be back on the first day of will be the January 2nd.

What's going to be on next week?

Reruns or. Yeah. Reruns.

What I was telling your screener there. When the other caller was discussing Islam, I was curious if Islam might be considered like a Christian cult, the technical idea of a cult, not like the where you're insulting them, not calling them a cult, but the idea that if you look at a lot of different things in Islam, you can say, well, well, their roots come out of the Bible and stuff.

I was just thinking now is like even if you'd consider like all of the the way that they conquered the Islamic world through the sword, do you say, well, that comes out of the Bible? That was what happened when the when the Jews went into the.

Well, do you have a question? Do you have a question, though? Do you have a question?

Well, would you consider Islam to be a Christian cult?

No, it's just a false religion. They don't use the Bible, but they do use biblical figures. Some have considered it to be a Christian or a cult offshoot of Christianity because Mohammed came in to Christian concepts and messed them up, used Christian characters, did the same thing.

Old and New Testament. And so some have called it that. OK.

And to me, when I look at different things that Islam does now, they would probably be pretty close to how the Bible was interpreted in the sixth century. And the thought being that.

Well, hold on, hold on. So you tell you how the Bible was interpreted in the sixth century. So what do you mean? How was it interpreted in the sixth century?

Well, I mean, to me, it's like basically the slam on Islam has been that they are basically haven't haven't grown at all since the sixth century. And my thought there is, well, a lot of the things that they do.

Well, I'm confused. Yes, they have grown significantly in the sixth century. I mean, no, no, no.

Not. Not theologically, though.

They've developed Christianity. Hold on. I mean, let me just as Christianity has developed theologically is more has been learned out of the Bible. So, too, in Islam, more of its theology has been developed over centuries.

OK. But they would probably still stick with a lot of the truths that were learned in the sixth century.

Yeah, there were no truths learned because Mohammed was a false prophet. He was a liar. And Islam is simply a false religion. So there's no truth that they learned. But what they did is they bought into the demonic forces and believed lies.

That's what Mohammed.

I would agree with you, which you said that that there are false religion and all that. But they what I'd heard previously was that Mohammed Mohammed had interaction with Christians and Jews back in the day.

And that was how he came into possession of of the Christian knowledge, which he did basically corrupt.

He didn't get there. There's some theories about this. He had definitely some influence from the Jews contact with them. Now, there was an error called Aryanism that was around prevalent at the time. And some people think that he came in contact with some Aryans.

And that's a Christian false based cult. And it denies a trinity and says Jesus is a created thing and things like that. So it looks like that was prevalent in the area, some think, and that he got his ideas from a lot of them and then misrepresented them and the trinity and things like that in the Koran, which he obviously didn't know he's doing.

Right. What I was thinking, though, is like it seems like there's a lot of things that if you were strictly to look at the Bible from a legalistic point there, that there's a lot of things that the Muslims do that Christians don't do.

And maybe that's getting them brownie points with God that Christians are losing out on.

No, no, no, no brownie points. Islam's a false religion of a false god, a false prophet and a false gospel. It's there's no brownie points with them. Well, I don't think the brownie points.

Where it's actually going to do anything for you in eternity. But but just with the different things that I mean, as far as divorce or different things like that, where Christianity, maybe not true Christianity, but but the the Christian culture around us has accepted divorce lock, stock and barrel.

But I don't believe that that is something that Islam would say that they approve of that or accept it such as it is in the Christian world.

Well, it's in the no, it's not the Christian world. It just doesn't accept divorce like that. It's going to remember Christianity is diluted in America in a lot of areas. And so there are people who claim to be Christians that get divorced.

So that's just not a good representation. However, in Islam, a man can divorce his wife by saying, I think it's four times I divorce you and then they're divorced. You can just say it, but she can't. Yeah.

So they do have that in Islam.

All right. And I wasn't aware how that worked for them, but OK, Matt, it was great talking with you. God bless you. Have a great day. Love your program.

All right. Well, God bless. Thanks. All right. Hey, if you want to give me a call, it is easy to do. All you have to do is dial 877 -207 -2276. We've got nobody waiting right now. So I'd like to let you know that I'll be doing a zoom meeting tonight.

Let's see. I'm looking at the notes at mostly on at 8 p .m. Eastern time in a zoom meeting to discuss total depravity. So let me ask the guy right now, will this be live for others to see? Watch. All right.

Or is it just a discussion? So I've been invited to a discussion group on total depravity. So we're doing that. Don't know if it'll be broadcast outside or not or what. I don't know if the guy's doing it private and edit it later.

So we'll find out. He's texting them. And there's that. And if you want, you can give me a call. It's easy. 877 -207 -2276. You can also email me. And to do that, just send an email to info at CARM .org.

Info at CARM .org. In the subject line, please put in radio comment or radio question and we can get to it, stuff like that. So that's interesting. All right. All right. I'm looking at stuff. I've got some emails that we've gotten from people.

I can get to some of those. Got some radio questions. And look at that. We've got some, we've got a lot of, you know, I get some emails from like the same person. It's just constant emails from one or two people.

Look, check this out. This is an email. The Gospels found in 1945 are true except Judas and Gnostic Gospels, Luke, Thomas, John, Philip, Mary Magdalene are all true. Judas was a host for Satan. His gospel is a lie, says Cindy.

They're probably talking about the Dead Sea Scrolls. And always, you know, I get a kick out of people who just say things, you know, Luke, Thomas, John, they're all true.

How do you know that?

There's no evidence for it. You don't reason. You just make a statement and they go on. Not very good way to do something like that. Hey, there's the music. We'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned.

877 -207 -2276.

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

The Reliability of the Gospels and a House Filled with Spiritual Activity

All right, everyone. Welcome back to the show. Last segment of the hour on this lovely day. So I just found out that it'll just be this discussion, excuse me, that I'll have in about an hour and 15 minutes.

It's not going to be live. It's going to be prerecorded. We're going to do it and then he's going to edit it and then release something later. So that's what's going on. So it won't be for everybody to watch.

There you go. Just letting you know. And Thursday night, I'm having a debate and we'll give more information on that. Where, what, when, where and all that on is Mary, on Mary's intercessory role in heaven.

Is she an intercessor in heaven? You know, I wish Catholics would just stop turning her into a goddess. I just wish they would. Well, she's not a goddess. You know, she's, yeah, she's a goddess. So I wish they would stop that.

But hey, you know, that's what idolaters do. You know, they don't submit to God's word. They submit to what their church tells them.

All right.

So there's that. And also this is, December is matching funds drive month. So like I was saying there, if you want to support us, it's easy. Just go to karm .org forward slash donate. Whatever you contribute will be doubled.

Just letting you know.

It's easy.

And there you go. So we have nobody waiting right now. I think what I'm going to do is get to some of the emails and we'll check them out.

Here we go.

Hello, Matt. It's been a long time. I have a question or a few that I feel is very important. I'm going to respond by Christian shouldn't. I want to be able to respond as a Christian should, but I'm not sure how to defend this.

Okay.

So her husband thinks that their dog is seeing a spirit or something. She's a certain kind of dog and isn't even afraid of a mountain lion. She has no fear. Every once in a while, she's terrified in a certain spot in our house.