Matt Slick Live

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Let's see. What's new to this show? What we do here is answer questions, or try to answer questions on biblical topics and all kinds of stuff. I was just discussing evolution with somebody 12-15 minutes ago in another chat system venue.

So I'd like, I loved it. Last night I was teaching on Roman Catholicism on Clubhouse. I was just on Discord discussing certain aspects of evolution and the problems it has. And now, maybe, who knows what we'll get into here with the callers now. I really enjoy being able to, by God's grace, attempt to answer questions competently.

I'm not saying I always do, but, you know, I always try. So praise God for the opportunity to be able to represent him, and hopefully everything will go fine. All right.

Why don't we just, let's do this. Get on the phone here with Michelle from Missouri. Michelle, welcome. You're on the air. Hi.

I'm a little bit nervous. Can you hear me okay? It's okay. It's all right.

No problem. So I was calling because I have been really afraid the past few weeks if I had possibly lost my salvation. I grew up Catholic, attended a Torah church, a nightmare. I was lost, clearly, then. I learned about salvation by faith alone, in Christ alone, and imputed righteousness in 2019. And I believed it. I had fruit in the beginning.

There were huge things happening in my marriage. But shortly after that, I had Church of Christ family that started really pushing water baptism. And I knew it was wrong, but it seems like it took a stronghold in my mind. And I watched all of your teachings. I listened to all of your debates.

I feel like I think similarly to you with the questions that you ask and just your thought process with the verses. I studied and studied and studied, but I was wrestling over this. I was so nervous. Like, I had a fear of, well, what if it is? And I couldn't get rid of the fear.

And I wrestled over it for over a year. And I was really scared that I was putting faith in the fact that I had been baptized also. And I was praying against that, and I was really worried that that might be happening. And I was afraid I had started out with my faith in Christ, and I now was a Galatians 5.4, falling away, being tempted by someone to put my faith somewhere else. And I just couldn't get peace about this. And finally, honestly, just a few weeks ago, I felt like the Lord, I woke up one day and I, that wrestling and inner struggle over it was gone. But a few days later, a new one started in, and I have been terrified that I fell from grace. I left the faith, all the verses about putting your hand to the plow, not being fit for him, the book of Hebrews, apostasy.

I'm so scared that I started out with my faith in Christ alone and was cut off in Galatians, and now he doesn't want me. Okay. All right. Well, can I ask you some questions? Okay. Yeah. All right. So, have you trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins?

I believe that I did. And then I fell into this. Let's do one thing at a time. One thing at a time.

Let's try this. Do you right now, for the best of your ability, trust in Jesus? To the best of my ability. Okay.

I have a lot of fear, but to the best of my ability. Because I know nothing of me. I know how wretched. I know all that. Okay. So, it's okay. It's okay.

You're struggling. And I understand. I understand. Okay. So, you've looked to Jesus, and then this stupid cult called the Church of Christ comes along.

And, like Satan, sows seeds of doubt in your heart and your mind. A ceremony is what you've got to do. And maybe you went to the ceremony thinking you had to do that, and now you realize you haven't. I didn't. I wouldn't let myself do it, because I knew what Galatians said, and I knew it was wrong.

And every part of me screamed that I wanted to, but I knew it was wrong, and so I wouldn't. Okay. All right. So, what you did was, you did not get baptized in their sense for salvation. Good for you.

And you've trusted it. I don't honestly even have, sorry, go ahead. No, go ahead.

Try. I honestly don't really even have a valid baptism, because I was baptized in the Torah church, and I was baptized Catholic. Okay, well, I'll tell you what. Will you baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

It was a mikvah ceremony that they did. Okay. And nobody put you under.

You don't have to be immersed. They spoke over you. Well, someone, you've got to put yourself under with someone speaking next to you. Okay. I'll tell you what. Let's solve, it's okay, it's okay.

Let's solve a few problems, all right? You've intended to try and get baptized, and things haven't worked out right. Now, do you go to a church right now?

No. After I left the Hebrew Church, I thought I had found peace. And we were in the process of maybe trying to find a church, and then this happened, and I did not want to get, me and my husband. And I did not want to get baptized again. So, was this a black Hebrew Israelite church or group? No, no, no.

Just a Torah observant. Okay. Okay. So, what I would recommend you do, maybe Charlie, if he's listening, could put in the link for finding that good church, and I'll tell you where to go to find it. You need to find a good church in your area, and just, you know, go get baptized, okay? In fact, you know what? You think I should?

I'm so afraid to do it out of fear. Okay, here's the thing. Is your husband listening by any chance? No. Is he a Christian?

Yes, he is. Okay. He can baptize you. Well, funny story.

He did one time in our bathtub, but he did not say in the name of the Father. Okay. I tell you what. I tell you what. See, I can give you a lot of theological argumentation for the validity of the baptisms you went through by asking more questions. I'm not going to do that.

Okay. You can just, you know, let's just make sure it's taken care of so you don't have to worry about it. Your husband, if he's a Christian, he can baptize you. He can do it in a bathtub.

He can do it in a jacuzzi, in a pool, in the ocean, in a river. You can do whatever. And you don't have to be ordained in ministry to do that.

Nothing in Scripture says so. So you know what you guys can do is you can talk to him. You can call me at the office here and we can talk, you know, whatever. And you guys can just do your thing or you pray and make sure that your heart's right before God and that you recognize, you know, salvation in Christ alone, not by anything you do. And that you're not so sure about the baptism of the past. You just want to get it right. And that's all you're trying to do before God.

You're trying to be honest before God and right before God. And then he can just say, you know, as you've gone through this, you can just say, I now baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and dunking is fine. I prefer dunking even though I believe in sprinkling and pouring as valid. I just like dunking.

I think it's just cooler, the total part. You know, I like that. And so get dunked under water and guess what? You're baptized. If I was at your house and, you know, you had your bathtub there and your husband was there, of course, and you're dressed appropriately, I'd baptize you the exact same way with the same formula, the same thing.

And it's just as valid. Okay? You can do that with him. What if, like, did I leave the faith? Like, what if I had faith in Christ and then was put away and just, okay. Let me jump into that, okay? So I asked if you trusted in Jesus, all right?

And you said you have. You trusted he's God in flesh, right? He died in the cross. He rose from the dead. You're not putting any faith or hope in anything that you do, right, in order to get right with God.

Is that correct? That's what I was afraid I was doing when I was wrestling over baptism. Okay.

Like, I had this fear that what if I was not touching him. So you know baptism is not necessary for salvation, right? Right. Okay. So have your husband baptize you.

If you can find a church, I don't think a church of elders can do it, but cutie back there. Okay. And then what you can do, oh, that's all right. And what you can do is you've got to understand that you're justified by faith, and your faith is in Christ. Faith is only as good as who you put it in. And you know he's God in flesh, died in the cross, rose from the dead. You trust in him.

Now, if you do that, you have to understand something. Jesus says, ask and it'll be given to you. Seek and you'll find. Knock and it'll be opened. This is Matthew 7-7, okay? And he goes on, for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and him who knocks will be opened. So what you're doing is asking God for salvation. You're asking him for his presence and forgiveness.

You're asking him, okay? And he who asks, it'll be given to him. Or what man is there among you when his son asks for a loaf of bread will give him a stone? The reason he says that is because the way they cook bread back, they don't look like some flat stones that were round. Or if he asks for a fish, he'll not give him a snake, will he?

In the city of Galilee, there's a long, skinny fish that looks like a snake. He's not going to fake you out. You ask for bread, he's not going to give you a stone. You ask for fish, he's not going to give you a snake.

He's saying if you ask him, he gives it to you. If you ask him for salvation. What are the verses about falling away from the faith? Well, those are not about you.

Let's get one thing at a time, okay? Jesus said in Matthew 6, in Matthew 6, in John 6, 37 to 40, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I certainly will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me, that all he has given me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. This is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day. So the ones he raises up on the last day are those who believe in him and who are given to him who he says he will not lose.

That's what he says. He will lose none. So let me ask you. Does he give you?

Sorry, go ahead. Can Jesus lose any? My feet really.

You broke up. Can Jesus lose any? No, I'm just afraid. What if I was never given to him to begin with, and I'm just a false convert?

Well, if you were, you wouldn't be worried. If you were, you wouldn't confess who Jesus is truthfully. The natural man cannot receive the things of God, for they're foolish to him. That's 1 Corinthians 2.14. And you're obviously, in my mind, in my estimate, in my understanding, you're obviously saved. You love the Lord, and you're just confused because of what the false teachers have done. You can dismiss them and lean on Jesus. He said he'll lose none.

He won't lose you because you've been given to him by the Father from eternity. Now hold on. We've got a break, and we'll come back.

We'll finish up some more, okay? Oh, darn. Of all the times to hit the wrong stinking button, I just hung up on her. Michelle, please call back. My apologies.

I messed up on that one. I just slapped myself. We'll be right back, folks. It's Matt Slick live. Taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hello, everybody.

Welcome back to the show. Boy, every now and then, I will just click the wrong button. They're right next to each other on my monitor. One is for hold. One's air. One's drop.

One's for hold. I just hit the wrong one. If you're listening, Michelle, please call back. It was just me being a doofus.

I said in the chat room that I was a complete doofus for doing that. Charlie comes in. He goes, emphasis on complete. He can verify it.

At any rate, please call back. I know you're listening. I hope you are. But that kind of issue she's going through, it's a normal thing that people go through when they wonder, and the solution is to not look to themselves but to look to Christ, not to look to their failures and the perfection of their own thoughts because they'll never find sufficiency there, but always look to the work of Christ who is complete and sufficient. Always look to Jesus, what he said, because he said the will of the Father is that Jesus lose none, and Jesus can't fail to do the will of the Father, so therefore Jesus won't lose any, and anyone who has truly trusted in Christ is saved. Sometimes we wonder, well, have I really done this? Well, that's something only you can answer, and it's a question. Have I really done this, or am I thinking I've really done this?

Well, here's the thing. Our hearts betray us, and I have a saying that when I'm talking to God and I get into this loop of am I really thinking this? Am I really repentant enough?

Am I really this enough? Because I think maybe I'm thinking I am, but I'm really not, and maybe I'm thinking if I can say that in my heart and God might hear me, that I might convince him, and therefore am I really doing this? And I just have this thing I say, and I just stop, and I say my heart betrays me.

It betrays me. And then I just look to Christ. I just look to him and say, Lord, I trust you. The best of my ability, the best of my understanding, I just trust in you, and I know he's not going to fake me out and give me something other than what I ask, and that's redemption in him. And so this is what we have to understand. These doubts arise when we start looking at ourselves more than God.

I'm not saying don't examine yourself, but I mean when we look at ourselves so much that we negate the truth of what Christ has said, that he will give a good gift to us if we ask him, we ask for salvation, and that he won't lose us, then we can trust in what he has said, and that's what we need to do. Okay? All right. Three open lines if you want to give me a call. 877-207-2276.

Rudolph from Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome. You're on the air.

How are you doing? Thank you. My question is about Daniel 10-4. Daniel 10-4? Yes. Is that Daniel 10? Chapter 10? Yes. Daniel 10-4.

10-4. When he was having that vision, the vision that he had, he was describing someone that sounded like Jesus from the Revelation, but then the Prince of Persia withheld him, and he said that he waited on Daniel, I mean, Michael, the Prince of angels, to help him. And when I read that, I read it like four times, and there's no way they could be Jesus because the Lord is not going to heal them. Do you know who it is? Who was he seeing? On the 24th day of the first month while I was by the bank of the great river, that is the Tigris, I looked in my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a certain man dressed in linen whose waist was girded by a belt of pure gold of Ufaz. His body was like a barrel, B-E-R-Y-L, I believe it's a stone. His face had the appearance of lightning. His eyes were like the flaming torches, his arms and the feet like a gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words was like that of a tumult.

I like that word, tumult, I just always did, like a roaring, a tumult. Now I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, while the men who were there with me did not see the vision. Nevertheless, a great dread fell upon them, and they ran away to hide themselves. So I was left alone, saw this great vision, yet no strength was left in me. So you're asking, who was it that he saw? Well, yeah, yeah, it sounds like a description of Christ in Revelation, but it couldn't be because he said that he got help from Michael, and I know it couldn't be the Lord, because the Lord wouldn't need no hope to defeat angels, couldn't be the Lord. Yeah, I don't know who it was, it's a vision, and the thing about visions is they often often use very symbolic imagery to represent something else, like Nebuchadnezzar's statue of the gold and the silver and the bronze and the clay mixed with iron and the feet and what this means. And so here we have another instance of a vision that's occurring. And so I haven't looked at this in a long time, so I really can't tell you too much about it, except to say I don't know exactly what it represents. You're right, there are similarities with the visions of Christ described in Revelation, but it doesn't mean that it is him. So what we have to do is just look and say, well, could it be a representation of Christ and not be Christ as a vision? Could it be a representation of something else? And then what we have to do, what we would have to do is read the immediate context before and after and see if those phrases are used within the book of Daniel and see how they're used so that we can then determine more accurately what is occurring. Okay, it's, yeah, he says he fell into deep sleep on his face to the ground.

Yeah, he's like, wow, you know, and I'm glancing at some commentaries while I'm talking here, looking around, and I don't really see much of what they have to say, except to say that no attempt is made to identify who that is. And that's it. So I won't, you know, I don't know. It's okay to say, Hey, I don't know. All right. All right. Okay. Thank you. All right. Bye-bye. Okay. Okay. God bless.

All right. Let's get on the air with Jayden from Idaho. Jayden, welcome. Welcome to one of the great states of the union.

I want to, thank you, I just want to say, I, I wasn't really going to call today, but my mom told me I should. And the first lady is just totally, you just answered what's going on for me. Are you having the same problem? Same concern?

Oh, similarly. Like I feel sometimes like I'm a false Christian and I feel bad and guilty. Well, what do you feel guilty about? Because I've had some bad thoughts about God.

You did? Well, I can tell you where those come from. Yeah.

Yeah. They come from inside your own heart and your own sinfulness and your own flesh. And it could even, you know, be helped along by demonic forces, but we don't know exactly how or what. I'm not trying to put a weird thing on you, but we don't need demonic forces to think bad things and stupid things because that's what we are down deep. But here's a question. I know.

Why would God love us anyway, even though he knows all that about us, I mean, have you thought about that? I don't know. It's a good question. Yeah.

No, it's a good question. Now I'm quite a bit older than you. All right.

And yeah, I can tell you, I've thought a lot more bad things than you have, and yet I'm still saved. And we've got a break, so hold on, I'm going to hit the right button this time and then we'll come back and talk to you afterwards. Okay.

Okay. Hold on, Jayden. We have three open lines. Everybody, if you want to give me a call, 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, everyone, welcome back to the show.

We have three open lines, if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Let's get back to Jayden from Idaho. Hello. Hey, Jayden, have we ever met?

Because we both live here in Idaho. Have we ever met? Yes.

We have? I've been on your show when you used to be there. Yeah. I was a lot younger then. I'm still pretty young.

I'm still a teenager. Okay. All right. Well, good. I was going to say, I've thought a lot of bad things.

I remember a specific time in my life when bad thoughts about God would just rise up, and I'm like, where are they coming from? What's going on? That's how I'm feeling right now.

Yeah. Well, all I can tell you is what I did. I kept just saying, I just rebuked that in the name of Jesus, and that was it. Just go on with my life. I'd learned something. Well, that's what I keep doing. Well. I keep repenting and asking for forgiveness, and I'm good, and then the thoughts keep creeping back into my mind again, and then it's all over again.

Because you're a sinner. I know. That's it.

We're the same. So what you have to do is just rest on the word of God. Just rebuke that and move on. It comes again, rebuke it. I know.

That's it. Is there any thought that I could think that he wouldn't forgive me for? No.

You're not going to think that anything that would be unforgivable, and no. Because you're a Christian. You love the Lord. You're just struggling. That makes me feel a lot better. Yeah.

You're just struggling. Yeah. I've written down a lot of verses to help me. Psalm 73, 26, Romans 3, 19. Good. John 10, 27, 30. Good.

Well, how about this? Try Philippians 4, 6 through 8. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure and loving, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there's any excellence and anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. You get to train your mind. And the Bible actually says be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It does. Did you know that? Yes. Okay. That's Romans 12, too.

God's been pointing out a lot of the verses lately. Good. Well, you're just, you're experiencing Christianity, and you're experiencing the difficulties of walking properly. Welcome to the club, all right? Sorry. Okay. You're okay. You're all right.

Don't worry about it. God's not going to reject you. Jesus isn't mad at you. I mean, he saved you knowing everything about you, and he still loves you. Yes.

Okay. Just like your dad, your mom and dad, you could be really a jerk, right, to them. Doesn't mean they don't love you. Doesn't mean they're going to give up on you, right?

And God's infinitely more like that. Okay? All right, Jayden? Okay. Did that help?

Yeah, a little bit. Okay. You think about it, and you call back again. I'm just worried it's going to happen again. Well, then you just turn to Jesus again. Say, Lord, I just trust you. I'm just trusting you no matter what.

But that's what you do. I just trust you no matter what. No matter what I think, no matter what I do, I just trust you. I'm not perfect, but I trust you, Lord. My heart is yours.

My hope is in you. And you just do that, and you move forward. Okay?

Do it all the time. Okay. Thank you. All right. Well, God bless, Jayden. All right.

All right, folks, three open lines. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276, Harry from Richmond, Virginia. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Matt. God bless you. I'm a long-time listener and a first-time caller. And going through a little something here, I wanted to, you know, put it past you and see what you thought. Okay.

I've been married about 30 years, and I have recently decided, with a little coaxing from the Lord, to go to seminary. And I'm kind of excited about that. Which one? Now, here's my challenge that I have. I could ask, which one? What's that? Which seminary?

Concordia, in St. Louis. You're Lutheran? Yes, sir. Okay. LCMS?

What do you assume? Yes, sir. LCMS, specifically. Okay. All right. Mm-hmm.

Well, that was actually the second part of my question. But the first part of my question was, my wife, at one time, I had some really challenging problems with my career and whatnot, and, you know, she's done very well for us. We both worked our whole time. We're empty-nesters now. And part of the challenge with that is, with her job, she's very close to being, you know, to retiring. But if we move right away, you know, we're worried that's going to be, that's going to really affect her career and her retirement. Is that sinful, thinking along those lines? It's not sinful.

Can you give me any scripture to back that, or, I'm just curious what your thoughts were about that. Well, what comes to mind is that you, too, need to make a decision together what you're going to do. How far out is it before she retires and gets retirement coming in? Only a couple of years. So probably, she could be fully vested in, like, three years, four years. Okay.

Is she willing to give all that up? So that would be about the, well, it seems like it's sinful for me to even think about that. You know what I mean? Well, whatever is not a faith is sin.

It seems like it's not a good idea to put that first. Whatever is not a faith is sin. Let me ask you, are you LCMS? I am. Okay. I am. I came to the LCMS church after a, I had a long-term relationship with another church that went south.

Okay. So you're LCMS. I went to an LCMS college, just so you know, and we could talk about all that.

Concordia, in fact, I went to Concordia, actually it's called Christ College, I went to Concordia University in Irvine, California, where I got my bachelor's degree. So in a small world there, we won't talk about better or not better seminaries and things like that. But they will give you, at least it was back then, they offered it to me, but I'm not Lutheran, I'm Reformed.

And so they said that they would give me free tuition to seminary if I would then agree to go into ministry in the LCMS. I don't know if that still is standing there with you. But there's also the option- It is. It is. Okay.

One of the things I would think about considering if I were you, just to consider, is doing distance learning for a while until she can get that full vesting and then you have that security of income coming in. It's just a good thing, particularly considering how the economy is going and how the left is moving us towards socialism and stuff like that. Now on the other hand, I'm not saying don't go. I'm not saying don't move to St. Louis.

I'm saying that you too have to decide what you're going to do. So I have a suggestion for you. I call a tens chart. And what it is is plus 10 minus 10. And you say a value like for moving is a plus seven.

Hers is a negative seven, let's just say. That comes out to an average of zero. You put a zero in that square. So a tens chart is what my wife and I did to decide where to move to and if we should move when we decided what to do from Southern California and we ended up here in Idaho. But long story short, we did the vertical line for all the cities and the horizontal was all the conditions like rent, food, whatever it was. And we just put a plus and minus. And that really helped us as we added up all the numbers afterwards. It really helped us to be able to decide where our interests were and what the advantages were to different areas.

We couldn't see it from 30 feet up because we just didn't have that ability to weigh all of the information simultaneously and see it all at once. What this was is a method for putting numeric values on certain aspects of decision making. And it worked for us.

It was great. We decided what city to move to. Long story short, Boise's values came up twice of every other city we considered and we ended up here. Anyway, so this is something you've got to consider. So giving up, for example, giving up vesting in two years, she might put negative ten, you might put negative eight, well then that would be a negative nine.

Or you might say zero and it would be a negative, if she puts a negative five, you put a negative two or three. Or whatever it is, if you say moving to seminary is a positive ten, I mean it's definitely a positive to go serve God. If the Lord's calling you to do that, you have to answer that call if you believe he is. So you need to do it prayerfully, you need to do it with the council of elders and things like that and see what the overall council is. If it was ten years out to get the vesting, I'd be like, eh, whatever. Two years? That's, you know, you've got to reach out and touch that almost.

But then you don't want to put monetary gain and security over serving the Lord. So this is just, there's no way to win this easily. Hold on buddy, we've got a break coming up, all right? Hey folks, three open lines if you'd like to give me a call, 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Welcome back everyone to the last segment of the show. We have three open lines if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Harry from Richmond, you still there?

I am, thank you. All right, so I gave you a bunch of information that probably didn't help at all. Actually it did.

It actually affirmed because we've done a lot of introspection, a lot of prayer, and we have done this pros and cons is what I call them. And I guess I was just concerned because if she does, she can transfer to another job out there. It'll just be at a lesser, you know what I mean? It'll be at a lesser grade and, you know, that's, anyway, she's a little bit younger than me, so I want to respect that. But she's following me, she's on board and we're supposed to meet with the, you know, with the board here and both of us are being interviewed. So I think that's pretty cool.

Yeah, it is. So what are you going to do? What do you think you're going to do then? I mean, I've got to go. I've got to answer the call. Okay. I mean, you know, God told me in no uncertain terms, this is what he wants to happen. Then you do it. Almost quite literally. Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. Just one other question I'd like to ask of you. I've heard you talk about, you know, a lot, we agree on a lot of the principles of the Catholic Church. My father-in-law was Roman Catholic and my wife was too.

And we just went through a really difficult time burying him because it was Catholic and it was really difficult. Martin Luther obviously was a Catholic. And you know, so I was just curious, I mean, a lot changed between, you know, the Reformation and you know, the Catholic Church. I'm just curious if you had any insights, especially having gone to a Lutheran seminary. No, I went to a Presbyterian seminary, just so you know.

Presbyterian seminary, but a Lutheran college. Okay, so go ahead. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Did you have any insights of things I should, you know, things I should consider and things I should pray about?

For seminary? Well, I'm just curious. I've never heard you talk about the Lutheran Church. Um, I... You're not going to offend me.

Okay. Lutheranism teaches that you can lose your salvation. And I believe Jesus speaks against that. It doesn't teach that you can lose it easily, though.

And it does also teach a sacerdotal kind of a system. You should maybe know what that is, but where the sacraments are a means of grace. And then there's the issue of ex opera operata, which is by the doing it is done, where in the LCMS mode, and I took all the theology classes in college, the LCMS mode of infant baptism, I have no problem with infant baptism. I'm a Presbyterian, but not for salvation. But they say that the baby's actually saved in that process. And I just don't see that in scripture. And so there's some issues there that as a reformed five pointer, I would naturally take umbrage with.

That's not to say they're not Christians. I learned a great deal of theology and benefited from the likes of Rod Rosenblatt, who was a bigwig back in there in the theological circles, and others. So if God's calling you to go to the LCMS college and you obey him, but I've got some advice for you what to do to prepare for it, if you're interested in that.

Sure. Start studying Greek and Hebrew now. Start studying Greek and Hebrew now. That's the reason why I didn't do the remote, because they do not, when you're doing the remote classes and the remote track, they don't teach you the Greek and the Hebrew.

They only do that for the MDiv. Are you going to do an MDiv? I am.

Okay. Start studying Greek and Hebrew now. Just get books, start studying on your own, learn the alphabet, learn parsing, learn declensions, learn paradigms. You're going to need it. I'd also recommend you get a computer with a speech program, Dragon Naturally Speaking, so that you don't have to type everything.

You can speak it out, because you're going to have to write paper after paper after paper after paper. When I went to seminary, within the first four days, within the first week, we only went from Tuesday to Friday. By Friday, we were translating Hebrew that fast.

And I didn't have the speech program then, but I would have used it, because I had also something like four or five twenty to twenty-five page papers that were assigned, not to mention basically five hundred pages to a thousand pages to read. So you learn your theology, learn it well, and start prepping on Greek, because if you've been married thirty years, you're probably in your fifties, I'm assuming, right? I am. Late fifties. Okay. So, unfortunately, you're in your late fifties, your frontal lobes are not as pristine as they were back in your younger days. You got that right.

All right. And so, you're going to see these youngins around you just parsing circles around you, all right? And parsing, you know, what is the verb, a me, present active indicative, first person singular. And they're going to ask you stuff like this in Greek, okay? And what's a firta pata in Hebrew? What's the paradigm structure?

How do you do this? It's just, put this way, I learned in seminary that no one ever spoke Greek in the Old Testament back those days. They didn't, they never, it was not possible. They invented Greek to kill people and destroy their brains in the future.

They made it up. Okay, then we'll do it this way, and then we'll do it that way. Verb, nouns can be changed in their form twenty-four different ways. Case, gender, number, start setting it now. You need a head start. Thank you, sir. It's a pleasure talking to you.

It's been a real blessing. I'll continue listening, and I'll let you go for the next call if they need you. All right. God bless, buddy. All right. All right, let's get to Alberto from Georgia.

Hey, Alberto. Welcome. You're on the air.

Yes. Good evening, Max. I thought I was a Christian who has an addiction for smoking cigarettes, right? But then I go to a bar and yell out to everybody, all those sinners, hey, man, I'm a Christian. And I light one up and sit among them, and what they would think of me, consider me a Christian or not, because they'll see me smoking just like they're smoking, there won't be no difference. That's the question. Regardless where I'm at. That's the issue.

You don't want to be in the world so comfortable that people can't tell that you're a Christian. So is it a sin to smoke a cigar? I don't believe so. Is it a sin to have a beer? I don't believe so. Is it a sin to go to a bar?

I don't believe so. Should you do those things? Well, what's the reason for them? If you go to a bar, what's the reason? Is it to hang out with your bud, shoot pool?

Is it a good reason? Is it a good environment? Are the people there cuss and swear? Are you cussing and swearing and they can't tell? Then it's sinful.

Are you going there for the purpose of witnessing and looking for people to witness to? Well, that's a possibility that might make it okay. There's just reasons.

Every detail has to be understood right now. But these are the general kind of things you've got to ask. I don't recommend anybody go to bars personally, but Yes, but the Bible says that 1 Thessalonians 5.20 says it's the appearance of evil. Exactly. And that's the thing.

Exactly right. You do not want to have any appearance of evil. That's why I'm not going to drive in the car with a woman who's not my wife.

I don't want any guests over our house who's a female with my wife not here. I won't do those kind of things. And so if you're going to get a cigar and a beer and you're not coming out of a bar and someone sees you doing that, what are they going to conclude? Well, you can't be responsible for the conclusions, but you are responsible for how you appear. And so therefore, you got to be careful.

So you don't want to stumble anybody through your freedom. And that's the whole point. Okay. Well, what about, do you believe that Christians should drink wine, because Jesus never drank wine.

I believe he drank grape juice and squeezed it from the grape, but he actually had fermented wine. Sure he did. Sure he did. Huh? Okay. There's no problem with that at all. He did? Yeah.

Why not? He made wine and he made it. Can you prove it to me? He made wine and he made it mature. And he created wine in six water pots in John 2. And he's the creator and the world was created in six days. And so God did things in order and the maturity in the things, the animals were already there. They didn't evolve.

The oceans were already there, they all sat. So the wine that he created was mature wine, it's called wine. Furthermore in Proverbs 31 six, it says this, give strong drink to him who's perishing and wine to him whose life is bitter. So the Bible tells us to actually drink as a form of medicine.

That's what it says. Proverbs 31 six, people are surprised by that. So is Jesus going to be making grape juice at the wedding?

Of course not. They didn't do that at weddings. They had wine. Jesus created wine and he was going to drink the supper and they used wine. It wasn't grape juice. It had alcohol in it. It was low level alcohol and the reason was because low level alcohol kept water from going bad.

They didn't have refrigerators. Okay. And that's what they did. Yeah, because there's noise in the background. I know I'm on a public bus, unfortunately. Oh, okay.

Public bus. Okay. Anyway.

Okay. And then I heard in Jewish culture, it's considered barbaric for a person to drink because a strong drink is barbaric. So that's why they call it a part water or a part, you know, one part.

Who cares? What does the Bible say? Give strong drink to him who's perishing and wine to him whose life is bitter. Proverbs 31 six. So Jesus, that's what it says to do. That's the old Testament. And that wine is not grape juice that it was instructed to give.

Is Jesus going to be just making grape juice and just drinking grape juice? Of course not. Okay.

Nothing wrong with having someone. All right. Don't be an alcoholic. All right.

Don't be an alcoholic. No, I know. I know. I know that. I know that.

Moderation and something like that. All right. Okay. All right, buddy. God bless. All right. Thank you for being here. How you doing?

Thank you for taking the call. I just have a big question for you. I need to know how it was possible that the fallen angels got with, you know, got in sexual relation with the women. I saw the angels didn't have no sex, the fight sex.

Can you explain that a little bit? We don't know what angels can or cannot do, but exhaustively, but we do know that they can appear as people and we can't tell the difference. That is, that's a fact because it says we've entertained angels. Okay. Enter. Where is that first? Entertained.

Let's see if we can find this. Hebrews 13 to do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by this, some have entertained angels without knowing it. Now think about this. Hospitality to strangers means you invite them into your house, you feed them, you take care of them, you wash their feet, you give oil for their head. That's what it meant in that culture. And what the writer of Hebrews is saying there, and some people didn't even know that they were actually angels, which means they have full blown hair, they can sweat and everything and they weren't distinguishable. So this is what the Bible is telling us in Hebrews 13 to. So what we know is that the, oh, we're out of time, the Nephilim of Genesis six, go back tomorrow. We'll talk some more about it.

Yeah, that's what I was. All right. Call back tomorrow. We're out of time.

We're out of time. Call back tomorrow. And Earlene, what day is the Sabbath?

The day that you worship on. Okay. Call back tomorrow. We'll talk more about that. Hey everybody. I hope you had a great time listening. The Lord bless you. And by his grace, we're back on there tomorrow. Talk to you then. Bye-bye.