Matt Slick Live: January 24, 2025

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Another program powered by the Truth Network. It's Matt Slick Live!

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

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When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick Live! For answers, take in your calls and respond to your questions at 877 -207 -2276.

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Here's Matt Slick. Hey everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. Listen to Matt Slick live.

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Hopefully, everything is going okay with you, and boy, busy day today, busy day.

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Let's see if I can get a newsletter out today. Oh man, I'm supposed to do it, and I haven't done it for two weeks, two or three weeks. Just really working hard, and hey, if you want to give me a call, it's easy, same as usual, 877 -207 -2276, and thank you very much.

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Alright, now let's see, we got this, we got that, I'm going to put this over here, we don't have anybody waiting right now, and if you want, you can email me, that's easy to do, just dial an email, dial an email, send an email to info at karm .org,

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info at karm .org, and we just put in a comment section to the subject line, put in a radio comment or a radio question, and we can get to it, alright?

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Oh, hold on, I got to yawn, okay, that was good, good yawn, like I said,

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I always wonder how many people are yawning when I suggest yawning, and they look at the radio and say, stop that, you know,

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I don't know. Alright, so, you know, we've got a lot of stuff going on, and I'm looking,

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I've got radio questions we can get to, we've got a caller coming in, let me kind of just jump into a couple of emails here, let's see what we've got, can you please explain the phrase harmful spirit from the

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Lord mentioned in 1 Samuel 16 .23, oh, wow, 1

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Samuel 16 .23, let me take a look at that, and we'll check it out, I think I already know what it is, so, an evil spirit from God came to Saul, now it says evil there, but it just says whenever the spirit of God came to Saul, they would take up the harp and play it with his hand and Saul would be refreshed and well, the evil spirit, the word is there, so, oh,

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I see, whenever the spirit of God, okay, got it, so it looks as though God has sent a spirit or allowed a spirit to do what he's going to do in order to accomplish the will of God, so we've got to understand theologically, nothing happens unless God permits it to happen, now, there's different levels of permission and God can cause certain events to happen and he can permit certain events to happen and in between those, he can do stuff like there might be a demonic force or a bad spirit or something that's even a good spirit who's going to work calamity and problems on somebody, so it doesn't necessarily mean the spirit is like a demonic force, but it could be that it's actually a good force that God is saying, go get him, go discipline him, go make it trouble for him, all right, because God does that kind of thing, so, those are the two possibilities, if God were to allow an evil spirit to go forth, then it's under the sovereignty of God and the issue and the manner of accomplishing his sovereign will,

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I hope that helps, let's get to John from Indiana, John, there we go, welcome, you're on the air.

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Yep, I'm here. All right, so what do you got, buddy, what's up? And what is the role of the

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Holy Spirit in the rebirth as is described in John chapter 3, verse 3 and also verse 5 and 6.

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Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and born of the spirit is spirit.

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So it seems to be this, the work of the Holy Spirit is he regenerates us, he indwells us and makes us changed internally from non -saved to saved, from non -regenerate to regenerate, as it seems to be what it is, okay.

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Are you there? Yes, thank you, I wanted you to clarify that for other people, because there is a lot of question about what that exactly means.

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Well, what are they, what's the questions, what are they saying? What does it mean and that's it?

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Well, with some people it's more of a works -related thing instead of something that God actually does.

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I think it relates also to, I forget which one of the prophets it is, Isaiah or Jeremiah that says something to the effect, that I shall remove from you hearts of stone and put within you hearts of clay and write my words upon your heart.

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I may not have that exactly right. Yeah, Jeremiah 31, 31, I'm actually studying that very verse in this context now for a couple, three days, yes.

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So, I think that, you know, people need to really understand that it's not something that we ourselves can do.

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It is an act of God through the Holy Spirit. That's correct.

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Yeah, we, there's two kinds of salvation, and I mean that, not that there's really two, but there's only one, but internal and external, and I wrote about this yesterday on, and released an article on CARM, I think it was yesterday

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I did that, talking about the issue of sacramental salvation.

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Sacramental salvation is the sacramental system of being saved in that the church has the authority of the priesthood to administer sacraments, and through the sacramental system, then you can achieve or maintain or regain your saving relationship with God.

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But in that, I wrote, towards the bottom of that article, I wrote about externalism versus internalism, and in the context, externalism is salvation through ceremony, such as baptism, participating in the

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Eucharist, penance, where internalism, in the context here, is dealing with God's indwelling us, making us more, making us born again.

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And so the difference between external and internal is obvious by the words, but one of them is damnable heresy, and the other is not.

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So the externalism that is replete in the

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Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches is a false gospel. So, because their system is externally noted, externally worked through ceremonies, and you're talking about this kind of same thing, you know, we need to have it internalized, not externalized.

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Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you very much. I think I have another question, but I think

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I will use that for another time. Somebody else may want to get a question.

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Well, we have nobody waiting right now. If you want, you can give me a call. We'll get to whatever you want. It's fine. All right.

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Oh, nobody's waiting. Okay, well, I was having Bible studies in my house here, and I ran into an issue with an individual who said something to the effect, and I'm still trying to get my mind wrapped around it, is that the

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Jews are illegitimate, and they can't prove their legitimacy through DNA.

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In essence, they were saying like they were squatters, and that just completely blowed my mind, and I have no idea where that even comes from.

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I don't know if you have any information on that or not. It sounds like it might come from a movement called the Hebrew -Israelite movement, and the

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Hebrew -Israelite, it used to be called the Black Hebrew -Israelite movement, but they have expanded it beyond just the

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Blacks, but to Hispanics and certain other groups, Indians and things like that, and I'm not saying it isn't with that group, but it basically is the

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Jews that are in Israel now are not the true Jews, but the true Jews of the Black race, and so that's one of the things

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I teach, so it sounds similar to that, but from what I understand, the Jews have kept their lineage alive through telling who their descendants, what tribe they're from, though some have lost it, many have not, and besides,

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God knows. God knows who they are. Yes, yes, yes.

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Well, I think it's heresy, that's my opinion, and I have denounced it as such.

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Good, good for you. All right. Well, I thank you for that.

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Sure, no problem at all. All right. Like they say, when they're having these congregational meetings,

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I yield back, so thank you very much. All right, man. Thanks. Bye. Okay.

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Well, we have nobody waiting right now if you want to give me a call. Oh, interesting.

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I just saw a note. I'll read it in a second. So if you want to give me a call, the number is 877 -207 -2276, and if you want to give me a call, you can.

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It's easy. You can also send an email, info at CARM .org, info at CARM, C -A -R -M dot

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O -R -G. There's a radio question. What do you think of Eli Ayala partnering with Apologia Studios?

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I wish there was enough funds for him to be on CARM. Perhaps CARM's future will be with Apologia, too.

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Interesting. Simon from Norway. Yeah, I know Eli, and so Apologia Studios with James White and, oh,

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I always have trouble with this. What's his name? Oh, man. I've called him many times. We've talked many times.

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Oh, I've got these different names in my head. Someone will type it out here for me, the texture. But at any rate, it's good.

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Eli and I talked about it, and good for him. He's working with them. They're able to fund him to do certain things, projects and things like that, which

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I think is very good. So it's a good ministry, Apologia Studios. So praise God.

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Just praise God for what they're able to do with him. And it's Jeff Durbin.

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That's right. Thanks. So I've talked to Jeff before. We did a seminar together, or a conference, I should say, in Canada.

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That's where I first met him. We had a good time and a good guy and talked on the phone a few times.

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And I've met James White on a few occasions. He's a good guy, too. So they're good folks.

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And I know Eli. We talk on the phone every now and then, and he's a good guy.

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So it's good stuff. Good stuff. All right. All right. Let's get to David from Utah. David, welcome.

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You're on the air. Hi, Matt. Sure. So I caught part of your program the other day, and it was talking about salvation.

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And I think you mentioned something about people asking Christ into their heart, and that that was not the maybe appropriate verbiage, for lack of a better word, as far as a sinner's prayer.

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So I understand that God chooses us first. Yes. So is that kind of the crux of the issue there, that if we're asking

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Christ into our heart, that it's almost like we're giving him permission? Well, there is a heretical song that's written.

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It's, Lord, I give you permission to, you know, it's stupid. But so, yeah, asking

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Jesus into your heart is just not a biblical statement, and it's not a concept.

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See, what you do is you, it's not a concept taught in scripture. You receive Jesus, as John 1, 12, as many as received him.

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To them he gave the right to be called the children of God. And so we receive Christ, and I never say, ask him into your heart.

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What does that mean? Come into my heart. What does that mean? No, the issue here is that we are sinners, and that we are in trouble, and we need the atoning sacrifice that Christ has made.

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So we can ask Jesus to forgive us. That's fine. And we can ask that Jesus live in us.

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That's fine. And we could ask him to be our Lord, and that's fine, too. And you can say that you trust the

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Lord, Jesus Christ, in his death, veil, resurrection, and you receive him and trust in the sacrifice he did on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins.

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That's basically what it is. And just ask Jesus in your heart stuff is just not in scripture. Okay? A lot of noise back there, buddy.

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A lot of noise. Yeah. So in Christ alone, right? Through Christ alone. That's right.

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That's right. And we got a break, buddy, so we got to get going. Okay? All right. Thank you. All right.

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Have a good day. Bye. You too. All right. Hey, right back after these messages, 877 -207 -2276.

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

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Here's Matt Slick. All right, everyone. Welcome back to the show. I just want to let you know that we stay on the air by your support.

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If you like what you hear and you want to hear more of it, please consider supporting us. It's easy to do. Just go to karm .org

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forward slash donate that carm .org karm .org

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forward slash donate easy to do. Also, if you're interested in checking out the the trip in November coming up to Jordan, the

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Bible tour that we've gone, we're going to go with Eric Johnson. He leads groups. It's the third time he's been there.

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I've done three or four trips with him, and they're always great. He does a great job. I've known him for, I don't know, 30 years,

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I guess, 25, 30 years. He's a great guy, and he knows his stuff.

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So if you're interested in that, just go to 2025jordan .com. All one word, no spaces, no hyphens, just 2025jordan .com.

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You can check it out, and it's a good trip. It really is. It's good stuff. Let's get to Jim from North Carolina.

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Jim, welcome. You are on the air. Thank you, man. I think you had a program a couple of weeks ago that centered on souls, and I missed that except for about a minute.

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And I had a couple of questions, and the first question is, I don't know if there's a Bible reference to this.

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I don't think there is, but I would like your opinion if there isn't. But I was born a twin, and my twin brother was still born.

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And I just was wondering, when do you think the soul enters the body?

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Is that conception, or after birth, or do you have an opinion on that, or verses that would address it?

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Well, there's a view called Polynarianism that teaches that God implants a soul at fertilization.

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There's another view that is called Creationism in that sense, context, that says that the soul is generated by the

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Fertilization Act. We don't know which one is the case. So I don't want to say that the soul has any pre -existence.

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False religious systems teach that, but it does not. We don't have a pre -existence. I know the scriptures they use, and they say, blah, blah, blah.

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But in the womb, you don't think there's a—the soul's not created in the womb? Sure. Is that what you're saying? Well, yeah, let's just say it's created in the womb.

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It's in the baby from conception. Conception meaning the very beginning?

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Yes. Okay. That's what

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I hold to. Yeah, I'm just wondering, with my twin brother, would he have a soul, and would

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I see him again? Or, I don't know. I believe you are, yeah. Okay, all right.

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Thank you very much. Sure, no problem. You too, bye -bye.

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All right, now let's get to Jermaine from California. Jermaine, welcome. You're on the air.

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Oh, hey, Matt. I had a question about the whole abortion issue comes up all the time, and I've seen some

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Christian preachers actually—it seems like they're saying they're against it, but then they say you can't legislate morality.

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And to me, I kind of find that argument a little weak because we kind of—in my opinion, we legislate morality every day, but is there any biblical reference that you can think of that actually justifies legislating morality?

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Off the top of my head, biblical references, I don't know, but yes, we do it all the time. Actually, because there are verses in the

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Old Testament. If you have a murderer, he shall be judged. You have adulterers, they'll be stoned.

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So, it depends on what you mean by legislating morality. What we like to say is we are enforcing morality.

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That's a better way, and we enforce it by laws. So, we want to say that murder is wrong, and so therefore, we have laws against it.

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Now, is that legislating morality? Well, in that sense, absolutely, yes, it is. And we should deal with the issue of abortion because the killing of human life for no fault of its own and no evil that it has done is something that needs to be dealt with.

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It needs to be. Okay? Okay. Oh, yeah,

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I think that's pretty solid. Yeah, I think so. I think so. We need to do that.

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We need to make sure that as Christians, we move our society towards godliness, and it doesn't mean we're oppressive.

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But here's the hypocrisy of the left, is they say any legislation like that is oppressive, but then they force their views on us and punish us for not bowing to the need of their views.

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But if we say, no, we don't want abortion, oh, you're oppressive. So, they're hypocritical liars, and we should not consider their hypocrisy and lies as valid argumentation.

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We need to stick with the will and the word of God and do what we can to remove the holocaust of killing the unborn in the womb.

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Yeah. Okay. We need to do that. Right. And it seems to be a selective morality.

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That's all, you know, I know that kind of would take some other topics. I'll say that for another time.

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Oh, yeah, there's a selective morality going on. People like morals that suit them and make their life better.

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Morality is often a very difficult thing to deal with, because it's hard.

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It's internal. Morality is an abstraction, just like the thinking

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I do of 2 plus 2 equals 4 is an abstraction. You know, find 2 plus 2 equals 4 under a rock, or we can't capture it and hang it on a wall or put it in a freezer.

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It's an abstract thing. It occurs in the mind, the heart -mind area. That's where a moral is, intention.

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And a lot of people don't think this through, but morality involves intentionality. So if I were to slap you because there's a poisonous whatever on your cheek and I'm trying to save you from getting stung, you know,

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I slap you, you know, trying to get, that's okay. But if I slap you because I just don't like what you said, it's you're stupid, you're ugly.

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So I just slap you. That's not okay. And so the intention behind an action has an effect on morality, whether it's moral or not.

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But it does not mean that if your intention is good, when you kill somebody because you don't like their shirt, it's not a good intention.

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I don't like your shirt. I don't want anyone else to suffer with that shirt color. And you kill that person. That's not a good standard.

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It's not a good intention. So our intentionality is not to be such that we are the arbiters of what is morally true.

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That has to come outside of ourselves, outside of us from God himself. And he's the one who sets what the morals are.

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And so he's the ultimate standard of what is right and wrong. And we ought to enforce the morals that God has encoded in us and in varying societies.

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And we ought to move all societies towards a godly, a godly behavior, let's say, which we ought to do.

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Okay. That's right. All right. Yeah. Thanks a lot, man. Appreciate it. Ain't no problem.

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Well, God bless. Okay. All right. Have a good weekend. God bless you. Okay. You too.

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So this idea of morality is interesting. We had nobody waiting right now. I'll just talk about this a little bit more. If you want to give me a call, 877 -207 -2276.

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All right. So morality is intentionally based.

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And it's hard to get into too many things all at once.

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But I'll do this. Well, there's a break. So I'll have to do it after the break.

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If you want to give me a call, the number is 877 -207 -2276.

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

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Here's Matt Slick. Everybody, welcome back to the show. All right. So we had a question.

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We'll get to that first. Maybe we'll get back to the issue of morality and universal abstract entities. Let's get to Rick from Ohio.

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Rick, welcome. You're on the air. Hello, Matt. How's your day going? Always going.

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I'm hanging in there. Well, good. Hey, I have a question for you. Just curious.

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In the beginning, Adam and Eve, when they were in, you know, together and in the garden and whatnot, they did or did not procreate before the fall of Sam.

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There's no evidence to suggest there's no evidence that they had children before the fall.

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Okay. I know people say they did, but no, there's nothing biblical to suggest that.

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Okay. But all right. Well, I just have a different theory on it. What's your theory?

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My theory, I just feel that it would just have been those two that because they were the only two that Adam and Eve would have been the only two that would have created the sin in the world.

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Well, I would think that just sex in general, you know what

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I mean, would have been, I don't know, I would have looked at that as that wouldn't have been, they would have been like together without having that kind of a relationship prior to the fall of man.

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That's what I think. And then I think childbirth and engage. Let's talk a little bit about this.

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Okay. Okay. So how long were Adam and Eve around before the fall?

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We don't know. So it probably was not very long because Satan, of course, would come in very quickly to try and work against God immediately.

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He's not going to wait. So it's going to be very quickly. And he probably came in very quickly.

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So Adam and Eve were made mature. They weren't made little babies that had to grow up.

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So, okay, they're mature, and the devil came in quickly. That's what's most logical.

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And then they fell. And after that childbirth, it'd be with pain. So there you go.

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That's what I would go with. Okay, I guess. So, yeah, because I was thinking that, you know, he would have had to have had some sort of a sexual action towards her, you know, by sight or whatever, you know, lusted towards her or whatever.

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So wouldn't that have been a sin? We have children. We have children listening occasionally. So, you know, I'm sorry.

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Okay. Okay. Yeah. So that's what I was kind of just curious of. So I just don't.

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Because if you try to put down all sin, you know what I mean? Like, and especially in that way, you know, where do you draw the line on that?

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So I don't think that they would have been. I think that it was just those two and then Satan came in. Well, you know, there's different views, but they were made mature.

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Satan came in quickly. He's evil. He works as fast as he can to work against God as much as he can.

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And then birth is talked about. I would go with what just the Bible reveals to us and don't go beyond what's written, which is 1

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Corinthians 4, 6. That's what I would do. Just stick with that. Okay.

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All right. Okay. Just a question. All right. Thank you. All right.

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Have a great evening. God bless you. You too. God bless. All right. Hey, we have nobody waiting right now.

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If you want to give me a call, the number's 877 -207 -2276.

27:28

All right. So I was talking about this idea of morality. It's an interesting concept. A lot of people are just not aware of, don't think of.

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So an abstraction is, we'll call it a thought. An abstraction occurs in the mind.

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Now there's discussions about this. I'm not going to get into too many details and too many tangents. So if I think of my wife, the actuality occurs in that thinking only in my mind.

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It's not outside of me, but God's aware of it, of course, but the thought is in me.

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All right. So that is not a universal abstraction in that it's everywhere all the time.

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But let's talk about a moral. Can a moral have a universal abstract value or existence, which would mean, is it always everywhere?

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Now, wait a minute. What does that mean to have an abstraction? It's like a thought that's everywhere? The only way that's possible is if God himself is everywhere and he is the author of all abstract entities.

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In other words, God is the one who has thought and knows eternally all concepts and ideas, and that we discover thoughts and ideas, the number two, roundedness, heaviness, things like this, as we bump into,

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I like to call them bumping into transcendentals, so that we discover what is morally right.

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Now, these kinds of discussions are very philosophical and they get quite deep. I've had discussions like this with atheists a lot.

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When I ask them a question, I say, is the following statement true or false?

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And the statement is, it is always morally wrong to torture babies to death merely for one's personal pleasure.

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If they say, no, it's not always wrong everywhere all the time, it's okay to do that sometime, then

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I say, please give me an answer where you justify the truth of that statement. Tell me where it is.

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You're advocating that it's okay to do that in certain circumstances. What circumstance would it be? They've never come up with anything.

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Now, if they say it's always true, now what they're saying is there's a universal moral truth that they ought to follow.

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How do you have a universal moral truth or an atheist worldview that is comprised of just basically chemicals, physics, waves, energy, things like this?

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How do you have universal morals and a truth value like this? Where is the bridge between the is and the ought?

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It is wrong, we ought not do it. Or it is correct, we ought to do it.

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Where do you have the is -ought connection in an atheist worldview? I don't see how they can do that.

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Now, I've had them try and tell me how they can bridge the gap between the is -ought.

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It's called the is -ought barrier. And I've never seen any successful attempt. I've seen attempts and I've already been able to poke holes in them.

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So the only way I can bridge them is by positing that the

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God of the universe, who is, tells us what we ought to do. And therefore, the is -ought connection is in his mind, not ours.

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And this is why what is is what ought to be followed, because it's revealed out of his character, and he's a universal being.

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So these are the kinds of discussions I've had with people. I know they're a little bit heady, but I enjoy them.

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

31:20

Thanks. So I got a question about maybe application.

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You know, I was listening, talking about morality and, I guess, application of God's law.

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So two things I was thinking of. One would be maybe like the teetotaler movement in the turn of the century, and then in a lot of places, particularly in the

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South, where alcohol was criminalized, right?

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Couldn't buy alcohol. So, you know, in the Bible, it talks about not getting drunk, but, you know, drinking is okay.

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So the question is, did we go too far in applying God's law, kind of like the

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Pharisees? And then the, I guess the other side would be something like gambling.

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I think, I'm not sure if you would agree, maybe gambling is prohibited in the

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Bible, in God's law, yet we got so many states, right, where you can buy lottery tickets and gamble.

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And so we've failed to apply God's law at that area. Thoughts?

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Okay. Yeah. So as far as drinking goes, Proverbs 31 .6

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very clearly tells us this. It says, give strong drink to him who's perishing and wine to him whose life is better.

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Let him drink and forget his poverty. Remember, his troubles no more. So right there is a statement in wisdom literature that it's okay to use alcohol.

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It's in Proverbs. A lot of Christians say that the wine that Jesus made in Cana and John chapter two was just simply grape juice, and that's just not the case.

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So we're not to... Yeah, I don't believe that. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. So did we go too far in outlawing it in certain areas in the past?

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Well, I would say it seemed to because if they're saying that any consumption of alcohol is wrong, then what do they do with the

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Bible? The teetotalers, why were they doing it? And I can understand some of the reasons, but to completely outlaw it was,

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I think, was too far because the Bible tells us to have some of it at certain times.

33:51

So I think that was a violation of Scripture. Yeah, yeah. Now hold on, we've got a break, okay? We'll get back to the gambling thing. So hold on.

33:56

Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages about gambling, and then we'll talk to Sam in Indiana. Did Peter go to heaven?

34:03

We'll talk about that right after these messages. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877 -207 -2276.

34:23

Here's Matt Slick. All right, everyone, welcome back to the last segment of the hour. Let's get back on the air with Norm from North Carolina.

34:31

Are you still there? Yeah, I'm still here. So just the other part of the question was, you know, what your thoughts were.

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Have we failed in allowing so many states to, you know, legalize gambling?

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You know, too far at times on the drinking thing, but, you know, didn't fight hard enough against gambling.

34:57

Okay. So we have to define what gambling is, and then what does the Bible say about it? So gambling is leaving to chance for your provision and security that which belongs to God.

35:14

So, but there's different kinds of and levels of this. So do you gamble when you trusted a doctor to do surgery?

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Yes and no. 98 % no, 2 % yes, maybe it's bad. Who knows?

35:30

There's no perfect way to measure all risks and all options, but what we needed to do is work towards giving our hearts and issues to the

35:42

Lord to lead us and trust us. That's what we need to be doing. Okay. So if we go to Vegas and do gambling in order to gain money to pay the bills, that's wrong.

35:57

Yeah. Right. Now, what if you go there and you just you take 50 bucks because no big deal.

36:10

It's just entertainment. So you lose $50 and then you go away.

36:16

Is that okay? And we can say, well, yes and no. What are you trying to do with it and from it?

36:24

But if it's just a form of entertainment, I can't make the case that it's automatically sinful.

36:30

But, you know, so I went to Vegas or stateside once when

36:36

I was in California. This is true. I don't gamble. I don't go to do those things. But I went with a friend just to keep him company and then we had a good meal and drive back on the way back.

36:45

It was nice. Just good company. And he took a certain amount of money to blow and he blew half of it,

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I think. He said, I'm done. Let's go home. And we had a good time. So anyway, I'm not judging him at all. It's just what happened.

36:57

Well, I went to the roulette wheel just to do it and go red, black, red, black. I guessed internally.

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I guessed 11 in a row. Then I missed one. Then I got nine in a row.

37:09

What are the chances of that? I don't know. Well, it's probably one point five to the what is point five.

37:18

Let me do this. What is point five to the eleventh power?

37:24

Let's see that. What would the odds be? It's wow.

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It's point zero, zero, zero, five, one in like a hundred thousand or so.

37:39

Anyway, it was rare and then I did it. Anyway, so I told him out of the way.

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He goes, what? Why didn't you tell me? I go, because if I had told you, it wouldn't have worked. So anyway, it was no big deal.

37:54

Two to the eleventh power is what? What is that? That's just one in 2048.

38:02

So the odds of doing that is one in every 2048. Okay. So anyway, it was fun, but whatever.

38:12

I just said, don't risk gambling. The Twilight episode where the guy went and gambled in the one -armed bandit, it ended up killing him.

38:22

Do you remember that episode? You ever see that? No, I don't. I don't. No, I don't. I don't remember that one, but...

38:28

So as Christians, we don't necessarily need to be gambling.

38:39

So that's the question, right? How do we legislate, right? You guys were talking before about legislating morality.

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So we probably need to pick our fights.

38:54

Abortion, obviously, is the biggest fight we should be picking, but how do you decide,

39:02

I guess, is one of the things I was thinking about. What is important, and how should we be pushing

39:10

God's law? Right, and that's just not an easy question to answer. It takes a lot of people and a lot of thought and a lot of prayer.

39:17

No, it's not. Yeah, and so generally, we need to move towards that, and God works through us and through time and space as we pray and move, but society is just a fornicating mess, and so it's a self -pleasure everywhere, and the risk of pregnancy occurs, and then they destroy that life to satisfy their own needs, and this is one of the signs of the degradation of society, when that is your solution, to kill another for yourself.

39:51

Yeah. For your own benefit. Yeah, it is. I know I say this offends a lot of people, but that's what it is, and then, you know, they need to come to Christ, and they need to be forgiven of their sins, like everybody else does.

40:03

Yep, absolutely. All right, thanks, Matt. I'm gonna let you go.

40:09

Appreciate it. All right. Well, God bless. Okay. All right. All right.

40:15

Hey, now, let's get to Sam from Indiana. Sam, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt.

40:21

I've been listening to you for a while, and I just have a quick question, and I'll hang up and listen to your answer. It's okay. You can stay on the air.

40:26

It's no biggie, but go ahead. No, I can't. I got something to do. I can't. Oh, okay. I can listen, but I can't talk.

40:32

Okay, but anyway, I was asked a question today. I've been a longtime Christian, and, you know, I don't know.

40:37

That's gnarly, but I keep studying and reading the Word, and I learned a lot off you, but anyway, I was asked today, it says in the

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Bible, if you deny Christ before men, I will deny you in heaven.

40:52

I can't quote the verse. Well, then, they asked me, well, what about Peter? Yeah, Peter denied

40:59

Christ. Peter in heaven. Yeah, he's in heaven. Yeah. I couldn't think of anywhere where he repented or whatever or was made, whatever you want to call it.

41:08

I believe he's a Christian. Go ahead. How many times did Peter deny

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Jesus? Three times, right? Three times, yep. Right, and so when you go to John, the end of John 21,

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Jesus says to Peter, He says, He says, do you love me?

41:30

Yes. Follow me. Do you love me? Yes. Do you love me? Three times. So, okay, yeah.

41:37

So, what looks like was going on there is, that's actually

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John 21, 15 through 17. So, it looks like what Jesus is doing is reiterating what's going on and counterbalancing it, so to speak, you know, three times.

41:57

Peter, do you love me? Did I know three times, affirmed him three times. Okay. Yeah.

42:04

So, it's, I have no doubt that Peter's in heaven. I'll be neither. I just couldn't, couldn't answer him properly.

42:12

All right. Okay. Well, I thank you for the answer. Sure. No problem.

42:17

All right. Have a good day. God bless. You too. Thanks. God bless. Bye. All right. Let's get to Zach from Washington.

42:24

Hey, Zach, welcome. You're on the air. Hello. Hello.

42:31

Can you close that down? All right. Hey, Matt, thanks for talking with me. I was curious about your view on lordship salvation.

42:42

Define it first. I'm a member of a church. Oh, you're a reformed church. Okay. Uh -huh.

42:49

Yeah. And, uh, somewhat Calvinistic, I would say. And, um, ultimately, it's a big proponent of lordship salvation, which seems to grade against me a little bit.

43:02

Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait. It seems like adding something. Yes, it is. A reformed church that you're going to is saying that you need to have lordship salvation, which means you have faith in Christ and that you have to submit to him in every area of your life as well in order to be a true

43:18

Christian. That's what lordship salvation is. That's correct. Okay. So if you don't submit to him in every area, are you no longer a

43:26

Christian? Yeah. And that's the problem I have. Right.

43:31

So you're a reformed brethren there. I would disagree. They need to repent of that. They need to stop thinking that.

43:38

Okay. And, you know, depending on if you're representing them accurately. But the idea that Jesus is automatically

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Lord, we don't make him Lord. God made him Lord acts too, but we don't make him Lord.

43:51

And he is Lord by the very nature of him saving us. And once he saves us, he works more and more in sanctification to make us more like him and experience his lordship more and more in every area of our life.

44:05

Now, here's another question. So what percentage of lordship are you giving Jesus in your finances or in your movie watching or in your driving habits?

44:15

Let's pick driving habits. Okay. So do I always obey the speed limit?

44:21

No, heck no. I grew up in Southern California driving. And if you did the speed limit on the freeway, that was dangerous.

44:29

It was dangerous. So you had to keep up with traffic and you had to move. And so that's what you do.

44:37

So is he the Lord of my life and driving? Well, how much?

44:43

80%. I guess you're not a Christian because the standard now is how much you're giving lordship to him.

44:50

And then the next thing you know, you're keeping yourself right with God by how good you are. And so this is the problem with lordship salvation.

44:56

And you need to talk to them to talk to the elders and see what's going on there. And I'd be glad to get on the phone with you with them to talk about it to help them get in line with a better a better view.

45:08

Okay. Thank you so much for that. I appreciate that offer. Could I ask you just briefly about Hebrews 1214 because that's a passage they often cite holiness without which no one will see the

45:21

Lord. Okay. And I think we have just a difference in interpretation on that. I'm curious to know your view.

45:27

It says, pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the

45:33

Lord. It's the Greek Hagia Sophia. And it's basically it's holiness and that's fine. So I would ask questions, where do they get this holiness?

45:42

Where's this holiness? Is it internally generated? Or is that externally granted? Holiness belongs to God.

45:49

We don't make ourselves holy. And we don't comply with God to make ourselves holy. But we comply to God because we're submitted to him and he is our

45:58

Lord. That's how it works. It sounds to me like you have some legalistic Calvinists here.

46:06

Legalists. Yeah, it happens. Okay. And, you know, I love they don't like what

46:12

I pretty much guarantee they wouldn't like talking to me because I believe in the continuation of the charismatic gifts. And that's that generally turns off a lot of people very much.

46:22

They then say I'm violating scripture, violating the candidate. You know, they don't even think these things through. They just react and say, no, it's not the case.

46:29

Let me explain and stuff. So they tend sometimes people like that tend to get legalistic.

46:35

And then you have a club in the church where you're in the club that is in Lordship Salvation.

46:44

And then you're over there and you get this judgmental kind of thing going on. It can happen in reformed churches.

46:50

Okay. All right. Yeah. I'll be glad to. Seriously, I have a conversation, you know, over the phone with them, get them on the phone, get them on the phone kind of thing, arrange it.

47:01

I'd be glad to do that. It wouldn't bother me to say, well, let's define it. And what do you think the parameters are and what things must we keep?

47:09

And how much of this Lordship is, are we obligated to adhere to in order to keep ourselves right with God?

47:16

That's the question that's going to be asked because then if they say, well, you got to do this and this and that, well, you might as well be a Roman Catholic then.

47:22

And they don't like that when I talk like that to them. Yeah. They get upset. So, okay.

47:30

Hey, there's the music. We got to go, buddy. So good question though. Thank you, Matt. Talk to them and call me on Monday.

47:37

Let me know if, you know, if you talk to him, what happens if you do. All right, buddy. God bless. You got it,

47:43

Matt. God bless. Thank you, sir. You too. Hey, folks. No, you won't be right back. When I say that, I'm going to hear the music.

47:49

We'll be back Monday by God's grace. Hope you have a great weekend. God bless everyone. Another program powered by the