Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network Podcast. Life Within Us. The theology of marriage. Just a few things.

I was always kind of, you know, it's good, good practical stuff. But I really didn't find in the basis for the theology. What was the theological foundation of marriage? And so I started thinking about that and I've been wondering about it, having ideas about it. And so one of the things I'm thinking about doing is is teaching a course where I go through the ideas of what marriage is, what it's about, in order to get people indoctrinated biblically on the marriage. And one of the things, you know, I'm thinking about things and stuff, excuse me, and so one of the things I've been thinking about is the issue of the doctrine of the Trinity.

I've found over the years that the Trinity is more and more central to all kinds of stuff. And as I'm thinking through things, you know, I look at this and I think about it, when I've done counseling to people, and I'll tell you I've sat on both sides of the counseling table, the best counseling I've had is the counseling that was biblical, theological, based on the character of God. And the worst counseling I've had is just beat up the guy because you're a guy. A lot of times in marriage counseling, that's what it is.

It's the guy's guilty, period, beat him up, move on to something else, and nothing really gets solved. Now, that's not to say that guys aren't guilty of things and women are guilty, too, of things inside of marriage, but it takes two. So one of the things that a lot of people don't get is the Trinity as a basis of theology, excuse me, of marriage, and what marriage is.

It's a covenant. And then there's this issue of position of man and woman, and a lot of women, boy, did they bristle at this. A lot of men do, too. The men have the tougher jobs, but the women, I've noticed, when I've talked and counseled and built Bible studies or brought this kind of stuff up, I think, this is my opinion, you could argue with me, you could say, no, I don't think you're right, and call me up, let me know, you know, 877-207-2276. One of the things I've noticed, in my opinion, now this is subjective, just my opinion, of course, is that a lot of Christian women are so indoctrinated with women's lib theology, women's lib stuff, philosophy, I should say, that they don't recognize their biblical position. And a lot of men don't know what their biblical position is, either. In fact, a lot of people don't know husbandry is an agricultural term, and it had to deal with doing things in a way that was productive and guarding what you were in charge of in the land, the animals, and it was a process. So it's, you know, interesting, husband is like that. Women, on the other hand, because of the onslaught of and the tragedy of feminism, I think it's a tragedy, I don't think women really want equality.

I want to throw this out and see what you guys think. How many women out there do you think want superiority, not equality? Because they want equality, you know, think about this. Then shouldn't they be doing ditch-digging jobs?

Shouldn't they be going out and getting drafted and and doing boot camp and going to war? Shouldn't they do all the high-rise dangerous stuff if they want equality? Or do they just want equality only in the issue of of being a CEO? That's equality. Biblical equality, whoo, that's different. We're equal before God in our relationship with God, but there's a hierarchy in the marriage, and the husband is above the wife, the head of the wife, the head, and that deals with federal headship and representation.

And when I talk about this theological relationship of what it means for the man to be the head and the wife to be in submission to his headship, when I talk about that, I'll tell you, that is where I get the most pushback and the difficulties. I'm going to ask you guys a question out there. I'm going to ask you a question here, and you know, if you're a man, you're a woman, you can answer this question. I'm going to ask you two questions. So, what, you know, if you were to list out a few things, what would they be as far as what it means for a husband to love his wife? What would that mean? And, you know, to be patient and kind and long-suffering and be protective and provide, you know, to do that, because you've got to love, you know, and when I've taught Bible studies, we've gone through the theology of marriage, and, you know, I say to the men, you know, what is this?

You know, tell me about what it means to love your wife, and then we're going to ask the women if we're on track. Be patient. Be kind. Be supportive.

Don't get mad at them. Be protective. Even open doors for them. They like that. Just spend time with them.

Tell them they're great, and you love them, and, you know, just stuff like this. And women, yeah, yeah, there you go. You know, there's a few variations. And then I asked the women, you know, you know, is that right?

And they go, yeah. And then I say to the women, okay, you tell me now, what does it mean to respect your husband? And I'm going to tell you, not a single time when I've asked what that means has a woman gotten it right. I remember once in a Bible study that women just happened to be sitting on one side, the husbands on the other side, it just happened to work that way because we're all sitting around talking about different things before the study, and then they just kind of, it started, they just kind of sat where they were, and it just worked out great.

And so, you know, I had this chalkboard behind me, and I was writing these things out, you know, love and stuff like that. Let's go, okay, women, you know, you're right. What does it mean to respect? And the only one I remember that one of them said was, do what your husband says.

You know, I wrote that down, you know, is that what it is, you know, and these things. They're do what he says, you know, and don't yell at him or whatever. And I said, husbands, is that what it means to respect? And they all said, no. Now here's, what's interesting is that both women and men know what it means for the men to love their wives, but the women don't know what it means to love, to respect their husbands.

Now this is my experience. Maybe some of you women out there might want to call up and say, well, this is what I think it means to respect your husband. And, you know, I'm not going to say right or wrong or, well, maybe I might, depends on what you're given as an answer, but we could talk about it. I think it might be worth it because I think it's lacking in marriage counseling and theological aspects of what that means.

And I could tell you a secret about stuff in relationship to that, uh, which really puts marriage into an interesting perspective. And this perspective is simple. We husbands are to love our wives as Jesus loves us. Now right away, that means we're going to fail because Jesus is now the standard. But it says, women are to submit to their husband's submission is voluntary, not obedience is voluntary to me as they choose to, and, uh, they're to respect their husbands. And what does that mean? Let me kind of give you something after we take a break, maybe because I want people to call up and ask me what you think you can talk about anything and call me up and ask about anything you want. That's fine.

But it's a, it's an interesting thing. I'm thinking about working up a video series on this of half hour increments, where I go through the basics of marriage, the theological aspect of what it is, and in the roles, biblically and theologically of what it says. That's what I'm thinking about doing anyway, if you want to give me a call for open lines, 877-207-2276, I want to hear from you, give me a call and we can blab for now. Let's get to Andy from Utah. Andy, welcome. You're on the air. Yeah, I'm on the air. Oh, yes you are.

Hi, Andy. I was looking at the scripture. I don't have a scripture reference, but I'm just wondering, I was reading the other day about that.

They reference something about, um, so why do they baptize for their dead? I just don't, I never understood what they meant by that scripture and I don't have a passage. Yeah, it's 1 Corinthians 15, 29. Now, 1 Corinthians 15 starts off with the issue with the gospel is, and then it goes into the resurrection of Christ, and then it goes into the, uh, what we call just the, the issue of the resurrection of the body of Christ in general and, and of unbelievers as well. And verse 20 says, but now, uh, it says, but now Christ has been raised from the dead and it goes on in verse like 24, then comes the end and he hands over the kingdom, uh, to God, the father. And he goes, verse 25, he must reign until he's put all enemies under his feet, the last enemy, abolish his death, et cetera, and verse 28, when all these things are subjected to him, then the son himself also will be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him so that God may be all in all. Now, the context you got to understand is that Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep, that's 1 Corinthians 15, 20, that means he's the first one to be resurrected in a glorified body.

And he talks about these various things, Christ, the first fruits of verse 23, then those who are Christ's at his coming, then the end comes, et cetera. And then he says, otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? In other words, not we, not in the Christian church, why did they do it? The unbelievers out there, even they believe in a resurrection, they're checking it. If Christ isn't raised, you know, why didn't they do it?

That's what's going on. It's not talking about Christians doing it. They wouldn't baptize for the dead. So the unbelievers used to baptize people for the dead? Yeah, unbelievers did all kinds of stuff. They did pagan stuff. They would sacrifice animals to pagan gods. They would have temple prostitutes. They had... Oh, really?

Pedestrian, yes. Pedophilia as part of worship. They would baptize people. Baptism wasn't just a thing by John the Baptist. It was done in different contexts, different ways.

They would even do that for their pagan rituals. That's what's going on. Okay? Oh, please save them. I see. All right. We got a break, so we got to go.

Okay, God bless. Hey folks, five open lines. Give me a call. 877-207-2276. You see, because we got nobody waiting right now.

That sometimes happens during the summer, or the summer months, and people start getting out there, and I expect that. But if you're listening, if you've got a question, you want to talk about something, all you've got to do is dial 877-207-2276. I want to hear from you.

You can give me a call. All right. Now, I was talking about this issue of marriage, and I want to jump into something. I'm going to risk a little something. I'm telling you, this is probably nothing you've heard before.

Maybe. I don't know, because I've not read books, and I don't know what all counselors say, so maybe you have. If you've been on that side of the fence, or you've got to counsel or be counseled, maybe you've heard some of this stuff.

I don't know. But, biblically speaking, for a man to love his wife is to treasure her, to be patient with her, to be kind to her, to provide her, for her, protect her. Here's something a lot of men don't understand.

One of the things that a wife needs is to be made to feel safe with her husband. Now, because you've got to understand something. We're bigger. We're stronger.

And I could take my wife, I could pick her up, literally, and I can carry her throughout the house. I'm stronger. I'm bigger. She can't do that with me. You know, we're just bigger. It's how it is. All right, now, you can understand a little something.

I want to be very, very delicate in the way I present this. Women have really neat hearts. They do. I mean, I've seen my wife just love our children in ways that I just couldn't. You know, women are just kind of better at being loving and giving and that tenderness. They are. They're awesome. I've seen it with my wife and our children and how wonderful she's been with them.

And I'm serious. Just, I've been amazed. I remember once I came home from work and the house was all disheveled. And there she is breastfeeding and her hair didn't look too good and her clothes are kind of cattywampus. And you could just tell.

It's been one of those days. And there she was. The priority was the children. And I thought it was beautiful.

I thought it was absolutely beautiful. And I remember seeing that, and I still can see it, thinking, oh, that's a good mom. That's a good woman. The priority was the children, not herself and not the house, you know, how it looks. I was at work and she would stay home.

And so, you know, I jumped in and did my part and helped out and, you know, what she didn't have the energy to do. And so women are good at loving. They are.

They're wonderful. They're just better at it. And I certainly can take lessons from my wife in that. But I've got to tell you, men, you've got to understand something about women. They need to be made to feel safe around you. Raising your voice can threaten that. Displaying physicality can threaten it. It should never happen.

My wife needs to feel safe. You've got to understand. I'm going to say this as delicately as I can. They receive us into their hearts. They are vulnerable in that reception.

And there's a physical counterpart to that. They trust. And so we need to be trustworthy.

That's not to say we don't blow it, but that's really important advice. If you're a husband listening and you're thinking about it, does your wife feel safe and confident around you? You know, my wife, we've talked about things and she feels safe and she knows I'll protect her.

I'm a hard worker and things like that. I'm learning how to be more patient and kind. Now, this is part of what it means to love my wife. And I said before, what does it mean for a woman to respect her husband? And women just generally don't get it. They don't understand what that means.

And so let me help you out. Generally speaking, it means to esteem your husband, to hold him in high regard, to honor him, to speak well of him to others, to lift him up and encourage him as a good leader, as a good provider. Now, we're not saying it's a lie because a lot of men out there were pretty bad. But I'm going to tell you women something. It's like this in the church. When women become pastors and elders, which is against scripture, men often are given the excuse in such situations to not do what they're called to do as men. And so if a woman requires in a gentle, loving, feminine way, I'm going to take the word require back, but if she were to esteem her husband and honor him in ways that he would relate to and understand, you'll see him rise to the occasion. Generally, that's what happens. They rise to the occasion not because you're trying to manipulate him, but because you're holding him up. And the higher he's held up, the higher he's going to feel and the more he's going to do. A lot of women don't know what they can do.

You know, a man, let's say he fixes something in the house and she looks at him and says, well, you could have done that better over there. Bang. Done. Doesn't want to help anymore. Doesn't want to do it anymore.

Why? He's done something. He's tried to help. And the first thing is criticism.

And if that's the case, as a wife, you've got to you have to move away from that. It's not easy to be a leader. See, when you're going down a forest and the leader picks a path and it leads to a dead end, in the back, you can say, man, what a moron. What do you do that leader says that you get up here, you do it. Oh, that's a different story. Because if you take the wrong path to a place you've never been before, you're not sure how to lead and you lead and you fail. Are you to be mocked?

No, but to be supported. Women don't realize that to respect their husband means to honor him. And, you know, he tries and doesn't make it something perfect. That's OK. You show him that respect and that honor.

And you'd be surprised. Men might be confused by that, but they generally tend to rise to the occasion and do more and more and provide more. Because if you beat them down, they're going to want to stay down because they were sinners. When you respect your husband, he becomes more of a man to be respected.

When a husband loves his wife, she becomes more of a woman to love because it works that way. Now we've got a caller and I'm going to give the number out and then afterwards, they will continue teaching on this because there's a little hint of a truth that will help you in this that I can give you. All right. If you want to give me a call for open lines, 877-207-2276. Let's get to Joe from Hamilton. Joe, welcome. You're on the air, buddy. You're on the air, buddy.

Hey, thanks a lot. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. Oh, we got a break. I just heard the music. Hold on, man. We'll be right back. OK, buddy. Sorry about that. All right.

Hey, folks. Be right back after these messages. Please give me a call. Be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Hope you're enjoying my teaching on marriage. If it's something you are enjoying or you like, let me know.

And if you'd like me to do a series on this, I can get more in-depth on it, but I'm just curious. I like teaching, so there you go. For open lines, why don't you give me a call, 877-207-2276. Joe from Hamilton, Ohio. Hey, man. Welcome. You're on the air, buddy. Hi. Thanks again for talking with me. Sure.

So what do you got? Just a question or more of a comment. So right before your program in my local area, there's another guy that comes on the radio and he gives a pretty voice, a pretty aggressive anti-Calvinistic view, anti-predestination, anti-reformed anything. And it's pretty compelling the way he lays out his argument. And then right after him, I think your program comes off and, of course, you're taking a different standpoint. You're going to take the biblical position.

These questions don't come up very often at church, but I often don't know how to deal with both sides of the coin and yet still talk to somebody about Christ or somebody about their faith. Well, I'm not sure who this person is, but why don't you call him up and ask him to do a formal debate with me on Calvinism. I could tell you his name and the name of the program. I'm not wanting to pit one Christian against another. Who is it?

The name of the program is The Narrow Path with Steve Gregg. Oh, yeah. Steve and I have debated before about 30 years ago.

And let's just say that... He's out of California. Yeah, I know Steve. Yeah, we've met.

But it's been a long, long time. He knows who I am. I'd be glad to debate him in a public, in a church, let's do it.

I think it'd be very interesting because I've studied this issue so much for so long that I'm absolutely convinced it's extremely biblical. And I know the counterarguments. I'll deal with it. It's easy. But nevertheless, so what's your question, though? What's your question? Well, how do you talk people through this issue?

What issue? I hear people talk, you know, whether predestination is correct or not. How do you... This is correct. Because I hear... It's in the Bible. But he makes another argument and he says that it's not true. How could he say it's not true?

I'm not that good. How could he say it's not true? Because it's in the Bible.

It's there. When you look at predestined, it says here in Ephesians 1-11, Also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will. That's what we believe predestination is. Where God brings about whatever he wants and works according to his will. That predestination is right there in Ephesians 1-11.

It's Reddit. Or how about Ephesians 1-5? He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself.

Or 1 Corinthians 2-7, we speak of God's wisdom in the mystery, the hidden wisdom of God predestined before the ages to our glory. Romans 8-30, those who be predestined he also called. They're the same group. Yes, sir. I think he takes the approach that everyone's called, everyone's predestined.

No, they're not. Everyone ever born is, I think the word, I don't know, Revenient grace? Prevenient grace. I'm going to tell you, I call prevenient grace kindergarten theology. Oh, really?

Yeah, I do. Let me explain why. Prevenient grace.

I'm going to show you. This is why it's a problem. Prevenient grace. That's the thing that they'll say, oh, prevenient grace.

That's what it is. According to Armenian Wesleyan theology, prevenient grace is the grace which comes before a person's decision to receive Christ. This grace is not based on any person's ability, character, or tendencies, but is freely given by God to a person to aid the person in choosing to receive God's truth via his free will. So it's a grace that God gives to someone, whatever that means. Is it a substance infused into the soul that re-enables them, that puts them back to the ability, like Adam, to have this neutral ability to be able to, of their own free will, receive God or not?

Is that what it is? Well, if that's the case, why does one person's free will, with prevenient grace, why does one person's free will move him to believe but another one does not? Why is that? If God's prevenient grace brings someone to the point of believing or giving them that free will option, then why does Bob believe and Frank does not? It's simple. I think he would say, or I've heard that, or maybe I'm twisting it and I don't need to do that, but grace is there for everybody equally, and then they choose to rebel against it. No, it's not. Where's it good it's there for everybody equally? Where's that? Where's it say in the Bible, God treats everybody equally? Where's that in the Bible? Their chance at salvation is equal.

Who says so? Where's it in Scripture? That God wants everyone to be saved, right?

That's one of the things they'll say. They'll say, well, God wants all people to be saved, and so therefore they'll conclude that because he wants all people to be saved, what it means is that he's going to give equal grace to everybody. Now, what does it mean to give grace?

Is it a pill you take? Is it a substance you infuse into your soul? Is it an amount of whatever it is that God does to you to bring you to a neutral state? Where does it say, I ask people, where does it say what you say in Scripture? Well, you know, 2 Peter 3, he wants everyone to be saved. 2 Peter 3, 9, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. I could do a theological study on the word all right there. But I say, well, then would God ever in any way speak or do something in such a way so people will not be saved?

Because if he wants all to come to repentance, then he would never hinder them from coming to that repentance. Isn't that right? That makes sense, doesn't it?

Yes, sir. Yeah, Mark 4, 10. As soon as he was alone, his followers, along with the Twelve, began asking him about the parables. And Jesus was saying to them, to you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing they may see and not perceive, and while hearing they may hear and not understand. Otherwise, they might return and be forgiven. Jesus says he speaks in parables so people will not be forgiven. Mark 4, 10 through 12. So I ask people, I'm not setting Scripture against Scripture, because I can harmonize both of those verses.

Can you? If you say and you teach out of 2 Peter 3, 9 that God wants everyone to be saved, then your logical conclusion out of that is that he will give this prevenient grace, which is not in Scripture, to everybody to make them equal, right? That means he's not going to hinder anybody, right? Then why does he? Why does he send a deluding influence upon people in 2 Thessalonians 2? So they'll believe a lie.

Why do you do that? Does that mean... Well, I guess it's his choice, it's his decision. Because God's sovereign, not man. Arminianism, look at this. Take a scale and put God on one side and man on the other.

Now, just imagine. So God's, let's say, on the left and man's on the right. I just happened to put my hands up that way.

I'm doing this in front. And so the weight of truth is with God, so bang. All of a sudden, it tilts down towards God. He's the one. He's the heavy.

He's it. In Arminianism, it's a little equality. It's my choice, my free will, my ability. Because God would never, like for example, make the wicked for the day of destruction. He'd never make a vessel for dishonorable use. He always wants everyone to be saved. So therefore, he would never speak in parables so they won't be saved or send a deluding influence on them.

I've debated this countless times, over 30 years. And I've written a document on, I call it the outlines on Calvinism. It's 96 pages. That's with index and with table of contents.

I have it open in one of my computer screens. Is that on your website? No.

You can get it on, the basics you can get on Amazon. But you see, questions. I ask questions. God makes a person, including the person's will, his body, his mind. Doesn't God know how to work at all for salvation?

Of course he does. If God wants everyone to be saved, you know what all he's got to do? If he honestly does ours, every individual will be saved. But yet, he can't violate their free will, as the Arminians say, the sovereignty of human free will.

Because their libertarians are not compatibilists, which I can refute. Now see, if he wants everyone to be saved, if that's what you say, that's what his ultimate desire, then all he has to do, all he has to do is show his glory to them. They'll repent in the presence of his incredible holiness. They'll be undone. They'll recognize their sin. He'll know the judgment's come and they'll turn to Christ.

Then why doesn't God do that? These are questions they don't know how to answer. And other questions. Okay, hold on, we've got to break. Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages. If you want to stay tuned, please do. 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. Thanks again. Sure.

One more comment and one question. I guess on my own faith journey, it was John 644 that kind of went through my eyes that no one comes to the Father unless I draw him to myself. And that implication is God has to do the work of drawing us out before we'll ever be open to the Gospel. What do we view people that reject the whole Reformed or Calvinistic view? Do you still call them Christians or are they so deceived or misunderstood in Christ?

There's so much misunderstanding in Scripture because they refute every verse and it's almost like they have a spirit who... They're arrogant. The people I talk to, they go out of their way to try to make... They're arrogant. Ignorant. They're arrogant. Arrogant.

As well as ignorant. And they don't... Why do I say that? Because ultimately what they're doing is lowering God and exalting man.

That's what it comes down to. I have ways of showing to Arminians their humanism that's woven into their theological perspective. They are like that. Now, I don't care if someone's Calvinist or not. What I have a problem with is when people get on the air and start talking smack about it and causing division in the body of Christ and cause problems.

That I have a problem with. And when Calvinists themselves... I've rebuked Calvinists who've gone in to Arminian groups and said, Oh, you guys are pagans.

You guys are... I say, stop it. I tell them, you stop that. You don't have the right to say that and they're not unbelievers. They believe in the true and living God, salvation by grace through faith. They don't have the doctrines of grace understood like you do.

You can't go judge them and don't do that. Just like I say to the Arminians, you should not be out there talking smack about Reformed theology when you're causing division in the body of Christ, especially when the Bible says we're predestined. And you say, well, no, we're not.

But it says we are. I have ways of tricking them to see things. I can't tell you how many literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours I've spent discussing and teaching Reformed theology. Literally, I can stand up on a stage, you know, a pulpit, and teach on Reformed theology for two hours without any notes. And I'm not trying to brag. I'm just saying when you do something that many times that long, you've got scriptures. I can go through it and I can go through it and I can go through it.

This is how much I've done this. And I am convinced that God is the sovereign King. He's the one. Now, think about this. Joe, just think logically, okay? You're just logic, all right? Does God know everything?

Does he know everything? Absolutely. Okay. First John 3.20. So now what I want you to do is imagine something.

Let's take a little journey together. I want you to imagine a piece of paper, an eight and a half by eleven landscape. It's sideways and it's in front of you. And that white, there's no lines, it's just white. And that is nothingness. The universe doesn't exist. And you put a dot right in the middle. That's God. Now, all that exists is just him. Now, there could be a potential existence of all events, a potential existence. You take a pencil and you draw a squiggly line any direction out to the edge of the paper. Squiggly, you could loop back, you could do whatever you want.

It doesn't matter. That is representative of a potential existence that exists in the mind of God. Now, draw another one, another angle, and another one, another angle, and another one, another angle.

You could put two, three, four, five hundred on there. Are you with me so far? Yes, sir. This means that in this context, what's happening here is an illustration of potentiality. Since God knows everything, he knows all things before the universe is created. He knows all things actual as well as potential. The only thing actual is his own existence.

Everything else is potential. Because he knows all things, he therefore knows all possibilities of everything that could come into existence. Right? Yes, but he can't be sovereign if he doesn't know. Exactly. Exactly.

You're on the right track. Now, so we keep drawing these little squiggly lines, and each squiggly line out from God is an idea, that's not a good word, is a historical thread of all events that could happen if God were to do something this way, or a different direction another way, that they only exist in God's mind. Now, let's take one of those lines. That's the one God chooses to bring into existence. On that line, as other lines, are people's free will choices. We Calvinists, we believe in free will. And the free will choices, does that then mean that everything along that line, which God is now going to determine to come into existence, does it mean it's all under his sovereignty?

Does it mean that? Well, everything is under his sovereignty. Exactly. He's the king. So, whatever comes into existence only exists because God wills that it exists, even sin.

Now, people go, wait a minute. You're saying God wants sin to occur? In one sense, yes.

In another sense, no. Because in his decorative will, he says, let there be light. It's his will to create.

He brings the universe into existence. In his prescriptive will, he says, thou shalt not lie. In his permissive will, he wills to let you lie. So, those lies along that line, those lies that people do by their own free will choice, those are all within the sovereign will of God that he permits them. He desires to permit their occurrence. So, in that sense, he wills them to come into existence, not in a prescriptive sense, but in a permissive sense because only in a permissive sense can anything come into existence.

Period. Now, this means that bad things that occur also come into existence because God has desired to allow them to come into existence. This is by his will. But he's not the author of evil. But he's not the author of evil because it's something that is done by the free will creatures that fell against him. Okay?

Now, I'm going to read you something. Oh, man, are you saying, then, that God wills that bad things happen? Bad things happen?

Yes. In the permissive sense of his will, he permits things to happen that are bad because he has made us in his image, the demagio Dei, or magio Dei, and we have this ability of freedom. Our freedom, though, is restricted to our nature. We have free will according to our nature. I can't have free will choice to do what I can't conceive of. I don't have all knowledge, so I can't make free will choices about everything because I don't have all knowledge.

I'm restricted by my nature. And so our freedom is restricted by our nature. But God is not restricted by our free will. He's sovereign over it because it's on that line he chose to bring into existence. Now, that means even bad things on that line will come into existence because it's by the permissive will of God. And get this. Acts 4, 27, 28, for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, gathered against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, that you anointed Jesus, who was gathered, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, those are two individuals, along with the Gentiles and peoples of Israel, now as two people groups, so individuals and groups of people, to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur. Right there. Those verses in Acts 4, 27, 28 tells us that God has predestined in his purpose, he's predestined them to do these bad things, yet they're the ones who are responsible.

And people say, that's not possible. Yes, it is, because then you have to get into what's called the ultimate cause, the proximate cause, and the efficient cause of things. The proximate cause is the foundation. I mean, excuse me, the ultimate cause is the foundation. The ultimate cause of their rebelling against Jesus, the ultimate cause is God, because he brought the universe into existence. And he let Israel exist.

What's that? I thought the ultimate cause of rebellion was sin. No, no, no, I don't understand what I'm saying. The ultimate cause of all things is God. Ultimately, because nothing would exist if God hadn't brought the foundation of the universe, the earth, etc., into existence. Then nothing could occur on earth, because he had to bring it into existence. Now, Adam and Eve were in the garden, right, and God allowed the devil to come into the garden. That is the proximate cause of Adam's rebellion. God allowed Satan to come in. He allowed Adam and Eve to talk to them.

God knew that was going on. He allowed it. He permitted it, their approximate, or the proximate condition. The condition and situation right next to the action.

And what's the action? Adam chose to rebel. He's now what's called the efficient cause. He chose to rebel. But the only way he could choose to rebel, and therefore he's the one who's guilty, is by being in a condition in which the temptation could occur. God is the proximate cause of that, since he brought these things into being. But Adam had free will, though the devil had free will. Free will is the ability to make choices consistent with their nature.

They're not forced. And they came together, and God allowed it to occur, according to his will, on that squiggly line. And yet, Adam is the one who freely chose to rebel, therefore he's the one responsible for his own sin. This is why, in Acts 4, 27, 28, I'm going to read this to you, okay?

This is theology. For truly in this city they were gathered against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur. They were gathered against Jesus to kill him. They were going to kill Jesus. They were going to crucify Jesus. That's what it says.

Okay? Now, in Acts 2, 23, this man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put them to death. Who's the one responsible? The men of Israel. God put his own son on the cross. God ordained it, but who did the nailing?

It was the Romans. But notice, men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus, the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst. Just as you yourselves know, this man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross. Men of Israel.

Who's to blame? The men of Israel. This is biblical theology, I'm telling you. Rarely is this kind of stuff discussed in pulpits or sometimes in other radio shows. Because if they're going to have a human-centered mentality where man's free will is the ultimate standard of what is right and wrong or, I should say, in salvation, and not God's determining, then we're going to have problems. They're not going to go to verses like this. They're not going to show how God predestined, but they're the ones responsible.

The only way to make sense of this is to understand what's called the ultimate proximate and efficient causation. I could teach for hours on this stuff. I've come at it from so many different angles.

I have ways of tricking people in a loving way, tricking them to see things. Look at this. I wish this issue wasn't so divisive. They make it divisive. They need to stop. They're dividing the body of Christ. Thank you.

We need to stop it. All right, brother, God bless. Hey, folks, there we go. Quick hour. Hope that was entertaining. Call back tomorrow if you want. We can talk about the marriage stuff.

I've got a little bit more to teach you on that. May the Lord bless you. Have a great evening. God bless you. Bye. Another program powered by the Truth Network.