Matt Slick Live

A previously recorded Matt Slick show. It's Matt Slick live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry found online at karm.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick live. Francis, taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hey everybody, how are you doing today?

I'm doing okay. Thanks for asking and if you want to watch the show, you can. You can get in by going to Skype, not Skype, but Facebook or YouTube. Just type in karm.org. You can watch the show. Not a big deal. A bunch of us are in the chat room there.

We usually get 60, 70, 80 people in there. If you want to join in, you can do that. You can go to karm.org, karm.org.

The right-hand side of any page, it'll teach you. It'll give you the links and all that for getting to the radio and you can watch it if you want and hope you're having a good time listening and hope you're being challenged as well. Now, I just want to say thanks to the people out there who are supporting this ministry. I just found out that there's a lot of people from the Carolinas who are supporting and I just want to say thank you.

Generally, the person that takes care of all that stuff doesn't communicate it to me because I don't want to know who gives what because that's between them and the Lord and just keep my nose out of it. But she did tell me that there's a lot of people from the Carolinas who are supporting and I want to say thank you. We just appreciate you out there listening, supporting and just thank you.

Hopefully, you'll also be prayerfully supporting us because we certainly do need that as well. All right folks, we have five open lines. If you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 877-207-2276. So, let's see what we talk about. I don't know.

Let's see. I went to a discord last night and was talking a little bit. I went into this one room. They'd never heard me before and they were shocked at my voice of all things. I thought that was interesting. Some people thought. I've had people tell me I'm using a voice synthesizer. No, I'm not.

This is my real voice. Then I asked them about why they cuss so much. The conversation didn't really go that well at that point. They didn't care. Let's see what else.

We have three schools. Folks, if you're interested in learning your theology, I really want to recommend that you do. People just don't know what they don't know. I have a warning for you though. If you start studying your theology, then sometimes the sermons you listen to aren't as enjoyable.

It's unfortunate, but that's the case. I was with a friend of mine who I've known for seven, eight years here in the Idaho area. He was going to some of my Bible studies.

Last week, we were talking about it. He said, just like I said, that he went to my Bible studies because I teach here locally, or I did for a while and listen to the radio show, going to CARM and things like that. He went for about two or three years to the studies that I was teaching on a weekly basis. He learned a great deal.

He said that at the church that he's attending, they have a basic doctrine class. He's sitting there. He knows all the answers. He's starting to do a little teaching in there, answering, well, there's this, there's that. That was a really good sign.

I like to hear it. If he was listening, because he works, but if he was listening, I'd say that's a good thing because he's not that bright. I look to insult him all the time.

He dishes it back at me too. But it's one of the benefits of studying your theology. You really start understanding more than what you think. It's like this. If you have 10 seeds and you plant them in the garden, these little seeds, there's not very much to it. You water it, and all of a sudden you've got all these fruit, all this vineage from those little seeds.

They grow into a lot more than what you thought. That's what happens with theology. If you're studying the doctrines of God's great grace and his character and his nature. If you are interested in checking out some of the schools that we have on CARM, all you have to do is go to CARM.org.

On the right-hand side, CARM.org, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G. On the right-hand side of any page, you will find their computer online schools. You can click on that little laptop picture. It'll take you to what it is. Go check it out. There you go.

All right. Why don't we just get on the lines here? Let's get to Ryan from Iowa. Ryan, welcome.

You are on the air. Yeah, my question for you, Matt, is for the end times, will the Christian denominations drop their statuses and join up as one Christian church instead of all these multiple denominations and non-denominational churches? The Bible doesn't tell us, except the things that relate to it. One world government, all the nations that Zechariah talks about will be gathered against Israel.

Now, does all mean every single nation or is it generically all? We don't know. But we do know out of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that there's going to be an apostasy. And the apostasy discussed by Paul there brings in the issue, or he talks about the issue of the apostasy, and the arrival of the Antichrist. So the Antichrist is going to be in power, and he's going to be empowered by the evil one. So we might as well make a case that a lot of the churches, Protestants, are going to go bad. Catholics are already bad, and Eastern Orthodox is already bad. Within Protestantism, a lot of it's going to happen. There's going to be a lot of apostasy.

So it would make sense to say that they might join into a unified kind of conglomerate theological heresy in order to serve the Antichrist. So it might happen. We can't prove it. We don't know for sure, but it might be. Okay.

Are you there? Oh, I think. Okay.

And do you have any more questions that answer it? I'm glad that's it for now. Okay, man. Thanks a lot.

All right. That was Ryan from Iowa. Let's get to Guy from Texas. Hey, Guy.

Welcome. You're on the air. Hey, how are you? How are you doing that? Oh, a little sluggish today, but I'm doing okay. Hanging in there.

What do you got, man? I have a question about Colossians 2 14, and specifically, does it relate to limited atonement in any way? Like, for example, confirming it?

And if so, maybe educate me. Yes, I hold that it does at that point, because verse 13, the last few words says, having forgiven us all our transgressions, verse 14 says, having canceled on the certificate of debt, consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, he'd taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. So I'm going to ask you, what do you think about that? Well, here's a question that then follows. Two questions.

Well, several questions, actually. When is the sin that canceled? And it obviously, the text says it's canceled at the cross. It's not canceled when you believe it's not canceled.

You go to church. When you get baptized, it's not canceled. When you take sacraments is canceled at the cross. That's what the text says.

And a lot of people that will be very surprising to say, well, wait, you send us not canceled when you believe. No, it's not. You're justified when you believe the sin that is canceled at the cross, because that's what it says.

And so it's canceled for those who obviously are the elect. Now here's a question. Can you go to hell if your sin debt is canceled? If you don't have any sin to your account at all, can you go to hell?

And the answer of course is no. There is no sin to be held against you, no judgment to be made if your sin debt is canceled. So since people do go to hell, then did he cancel for everybody? If it's canceled at the cross and it's removed, all of our transgressions, but yet people go to hell, can it be then that he canceled it for everybody?

And logic would say, no, you have to cancel it only for the elect. Okay. Okay. I see. I see now. Okay.

Okay, cool. I was, I was a little confused on that. I knew that, you know, it was a classic section of scripture that was used to, you know, confirm I guess, limited atonement or, you know, one of those sections of scripture. And I just didn't know how, I see you explained it well.

Yeah. It's one of the most powerful verses for that in the entire Bible. I'm the only one that uses it that way. But, uh, you know, it's incredibly powerful when I, I read it years ago and I was pondering it and it really started looking into the Greek. Uh, I was blown away by what it actually says. And the questions that we ask afterwards, it stumps, uh, people all the time. You know, can you go to hell for a cent?

It doesn't count that that's not there. I often have an analogy that I, I bring to the table, uh, with this and it's, uh, it's called coma man, a man in a coma. And he is on his, uh, every month, the first day of the month, he goes to the bank and he, he goes, pays his mortgage and he likes the little journey. And he has, he's made friends with the bank people and that's what he does.

Been doing it for years. And one day on the way to the bank, he gets in a very bad car accident. He ends up in a coma for a month in the, uh, in the hospital. A philanthropist hears about this man's dilemma and medical, ensuing medical bills. And the philanthropist just goes to the bank and pays off his entire mortgage. It's canceled at that point.

Now the man's in a coma. Is he aware that his debt's been canceled? No, not at all. Does his awareness of it make it valid?

No. The legal canceling of the debt is what has occurred and it actually is canceled. So miraculously, he wakes up and miraculous recovery and he, uh, heads out to the bank to go pay his mortgage cause he's late and he hands the teller the check and he says, I was in a coma and he goes, oh, sorry, glad you're here.

Oh, you know, and they're okay. And looks up his account and his accounts paid in full to Telestai, which is, it is finished, which is off all, oh, excuse me, also means it is paid in full. And so the man, coma man says, no, I don't like this. I pay my own debts. He goes, well, sorry, it's canceled.

It's done. And he says, well, here's my check. You know, you could pay it. And he goes, well, we can't, can't take it because a debt doesn't exist anymore.

If the bank were to take a payment for a debt that's canceled, then that's illegal. It's also immoral. So if God were to send people to hell when their sin that's been canceled at the cross, then that would be accusing God of immorality.

So we can't have that. So God doesn't waste his blood. It redeems and propitiates those for whom Christ atoned and was given to this, this elevates the majesty of God a great deal. And it puts us in our proper place as humble recipients of the grace of God, not as people who, when the wisdom of their own sinfulness were able to decide that they are the ones who needed God, even though the Bible says that such are slaves of sin, haters of God don't seek for God can do no good and are dead in their sins. So what this does is it brings greater glory to God.

And that's what needs to be done in biblical theology instead of having man-centeredness creep into the church and say, it's up to you, you know, cause God is dressed in a, you know, with God's a blonde hair, blue eyed Caucasian surfer dude dressed in a woman's nightgown asking permission for you to come into your heart and save you. And it's like this stupid praise song I've heard. It says, God, we give you permission. And it's a heresy.

The song is heretical. God, I give you permission come into my life. You know, what arrogant foolishness to say such a thing. I give you permission. Oh man, the arrogance of people.

They don't know biblical theology and they don't know why we're here and what we're created for and who is the sovereign king. So I agree. I agree. All right, man.

There we go. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. All right.

God bless. We have two open lines. If you want to give me a call folks, eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. Be right back after these messages. It's Matt Slick live taking your calls at eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the show. That was Ryan from Texas whom we just lost. If you want to give me a call, we have three open lines.

Eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. Let's get to Randall from West Virginia. Randall, welcome. You're on the air.

Hey Matt, I'd ask how you're doing, but you're doing all right. I've got a first. I want to tell you, last week before I lost my Internet, we were talking about near death experiences. I have a question. But first, I had a near death experience years ago and I was in the tunnel and I was actually speaking. I know it was to God. All I could say was, Lord. And it was like, I was speaking, but you know, not with my mouth, but I called him Lord. He gave me a choice to come back.

Now this happened. It's real. It was so real that I said, after it was over, I was like, I have been afraid of this all my life and this is all it is. It was so peaceful and it was so real that in comparison, when I come out of it, of course I was in the hospital, they thought I was going to die for sure. In comparison, life seemed like a dream to me and I have never lost that perspective. I have always thought how everything, wars, arguments and everything, just are so insignificant because when it comes down to dying, you know, I was there and basically God said, you have, you know, you're all right.

You can go on or you can stay. I was worried about the ones I was leaving behind, but I did see the tunnel. And now after this, the question is, it was so real. I know it was real.

It wasn't a dream. There was a pastor that my son went to his church. And when he told him the experience that I had, that pastor told him that your dad is lying. If he had had that experience, he would be dead. I want to know what you think. Why do people have, especially ministers and things, have such an aversion to near death experiences when by definition, they shouldn't be?

Well, I'm not sure. There's a lot of people in the Christian community that deny all NDEs and I've done research on them. And of course we have to go with the Bible and the Bible says in second Corinthians 12 verse two, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body or I do not know, or out of the body, I do not know God knows such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man, whether in the body or apartment body, I do not know, God knows, was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.

So that looks like an NDE, a near death experience as we would call it, where people seem to leave their bodies and they're aware after their bodies are dying, severely traumatized or something. And they go and they've heard different stories. One of the reasons that a lot of Christians, pastors, ministers, apologists even will automatically negate them is because, well, how do you verify them?

And it seems too mystical and occultic. There are plenty of stories of people who have had these, so to speak, NDEs and there's a great bright light of care and love. And it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're nice, you know, and they come back with this message of all the all the oxen free. And so that quandary scripture, there are documented accounts of people born blind, born blind, never have seen and been in the hospital operation or whatever it is, and had an NDE and they were able to recognize people by voices, and they were able to describe what they saw in their NDE after they recovered.

And there's just no other explanation other than that this, you know, it had to happen. Now that's what convinces me, evidentially, that it's possible and 2 Corinthians 12 2, 2 through 4 certainly eludes the idea that it's possible as well, because it seems to be right there. So, you know, I think people are reticent to accept it because it's potentially problematic, how to handle it. I have studied NDEs over the years, every now and then I'll start reading a book or two and some of the stories are absolutely horrifying, horrifying, and the evil that they are subject to, and then a lot of them become Christians afterwards.

So yeah, there's quite a gambit of discussion for that topic. Yeah, I was a Christian at the time. I did not. Finally, I did not say God, or I did not say Jesus, but I called him Lord when he spoke to me as Lord. But now I looked down, I don't want to go into a bunch of detail, I know you don't have time for it. But when I looked down, when I was given a choice, I looked down and I've seen my body lying on the ground with my sister standing beside, I knew everybody would be crying over me.

I did not want to, I didn't really want to live, I wanted to go on, but I felt, I felt such sorrow for the people that would be crying over me, I made my choice. And, but I'm a stranger to you, other than I've watched the show for several years. But if you knew me, and I can tell you this was real, it was as real as anything more real than life. Yeah, I believe you.

So that's all I have. Yeah, I don't have any problem with it because of 2 Corinthians 12, 2 through 4, where it seems to have happened there. There are countless stories of people where it's happened. I don't see it as contradicting to scripture. It needs to be subjected to scripture, everything does.

So okay. That means you're looking forward to going to be with the Lord, and you're not going to be afraid of dying. Yes, it took that fear away.

It really did. It took that fear away. Well, good for you. So anyway, I thank you and I'll get off and listen to your show and thanks for taking my call. All right, man. Well, God bless and glad you're with us.

All right. Well, that is Randall. We have one open line if you want to give me a call. 877-207-2276. Buddy from Wisconsin. Buddy, welcome. You're on the air.

Hey, Matt. My question is a little bit vague, but in my studies just a few calls ago, I heard you talking about the Greek and I thought I would ask about this. In my studies, I was reading 2 Peter 1.5 and Peter writes that the supplement are faith with virtue. And the original Greek word is aurete.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And I was trying to do a word study on that. Faith? I'm looking at now for this very reason. I want to make sure I'm with you here. 2 Peter 1.5. Yes, sir. Now, this very reason also applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence. That one? Yes, sir.

That's the one. Okay. Okay.

Go ahead. Okay. Sorry. I didn't mean to rush you there.

No, it's okay. No problem. So what was your question? So I was trying to understand. I read the CSP.

The CSP says, I think it says virtue or it says goodness. And so I was trying to compare that. Okay.

So I'll take a look. We got a break. We got a break. So hold on. I'll take a look during the break and we'll be right back.

Okay. Hey, folks, please stay tuned. We'll be right back after these messages. Welcome back to the show, everyone. We're at the bottom of the hour, buddy, from Wisconsin. Are you still there?

Hey, Matt. I'm still here. All right. Okay. So I looked at the word aute and a little bit.

So what's your question though? So my question was, I was trying to understand the word. It looks like it's rarely used in the New Testament Greek. And then I saw in the CSP in Galatians 522, the word, I think it's correct me if I'm wrong, but I think aute is goodness. And when Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit, I was wondering what would be the difference between aute and aute.

Trying to understand it in a practical sense. Agathos is the Greek word for good. And so aute is just goodness. But the word aute occurs four times in the New Testament. Philippians 4.8, 1 Peter 2.9, 2 Peter 1.3, and 2 Peter 1.5. So Peter uses it three out of four times.

And then Paul uses it once. So it just means, all I can tell you is what the lexicons are telling me. Superiority or being pleasing to God, the superiority of God revealed in the work of salvation. It also is the virtues as a force or energy of the Holy Spirit accompanying the preaching of the gospel.

So that's one lexicon. Another one, let's see, lunita, I don't know if you know about these, the quality of moral excellence. If there's any moral excellence, et cetera, then imitate these things. One who is called to his own glory and moral excellence, 2 Peter 1.3. It is possible, however, that aute denotes the manifestation of divine power. It seems to kind of have the idea that there's a movement of God in that excellence that we manifest.

So it seems to be there. So what does that mean on a practical level that we would supply, that we would supplement our faith with this virtue, with this aureté, that it would be a divine defense? Well, every good gift comes from God. Every good gift comes from God.

Every one of them. In fact, our salvation is a charismatic gift. Every good thing that we have comes from God. But yet there's this interaction with us that we can manifest moral excellence, not because we have the capability just because, hey, look how good I am.

No. But because of the work of the fruit of the spirit in us. In fact, just to let you know, I don't know if you're aware of this, but Galatians 5 22, the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. People say there's nine fruits there. No, there's not. In the Greek, incidentally, the word for fruit is karpos, and it's a singular.

The single one fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. Oh, wow. I'm not aware of that.

Yeah. It's karpos, not karpoi. Karpos is masculine, singular, nominative, which means it's one, not plural.

Singular, not plural. So anyway, this might relate to it because the fruit of the spirit is the work of the spirit in us, just as salvation is the charismatic work of God. It's the charisma, Romans 6 23.

So the fact that you're bringing this up, and I'm looking at it, going, hey, that's interesting. There seems to be, at least for the lexicons, partially a hint that what it talks about there is, to some degree, a movement of God's work in us. Now, Philippians 4 8, brethren, whatever's true, honorable, right, pure, whatever's lovely, good repute, if there's any excellence, that's the word, rete, excellence, let your mind dwell on these things. 1 Peter 2 9, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness. So that's the virtue, the moral excellence of God himself. And then 2 Peter 1 3, the godliness through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and excellence. There, I can see why the commentator says it seems to be associated with the power of God, who's called us by his own glory and excellence, and this virtuous something. So there's, I would say that from it, there's an interaction between God's presence in us and our doing of what is right. And that's the good Bible theology. Ok. Ok, so it's upon our faith we build a striving towards him, but also a dependence on him, like all in the same? Absolutely correct. We have a striving towards him as well as a dependence on him. I have never spoken it that way, but I love that phrase.

A dependence on him as well as a striving. It's like justification. Thank you very much, this is really helpful. Ok man, I'm glad, because hey, you actually kind of caused me to learn something there, so praise God. Absolutely.

This is what happens in the study. Thanks man, I appreciate it. Alright man, God bless, buddy. Ok. That was good, I enjoyed that, that was good. Alright, let's get to Guy from Texas, we lost him again, or whatever, whatever.

Let's see, next longest waiting is Kelly from Los Angeles. Kelly, welcome. Whoops. There you go. Now, now you're on the air.

I'm there. Ok. Matt, my question is, is that over the pandemic, I learned, I was able to add two words to my vocabulary, my biblical vocabulary, and it was the words sovereignty and providence. Especially providence, because I had never heard of that. So now I find myself looking for the sovereignty of God in everything it is that, in my everyday life, and that goes to like, if I have an interview somewhere, or if I interview and I don't get a particular job, and doors close and some doors open, and I've even started looking for the sovereignty and what my neighbors may say to me if they say something that's out of the ordinary. Is that, is that, could that be considered like I'm always trying to figure out God, or is it ok to look for the sovereignty of God in everything? Well what it means is you're maturing in your faith.

That's what it means. In all things we have to understand, God works all things after the counsel of his will. All things. And so the death of my son, my wife's Louise Dietz, the coffee that we're low on in the cupboard, the tea that we got in the mail, the envelopes that we got in the mail today, all of these without exception are, they occur by the sovereign will and or permission of God. That means we break our arms, we get in a car accident, we're lazing around and eating donuts while we're watching a good science fiction movie because that's what you should do, is donuts and science fiction go together. These are all under, these are all under the sovereignty of God.

And so what you're doing is you're realizing he's the king, he's the sovereign, and that when things happen it's by his permission. And then the critical issue then becomes what do we do? My wife, as an example, my wife has a lot of problems. Besides stupid as husband does, she also has, I could list, trust me, I could list a whole bunch of stuff. It would take me a full minute to list the medical problems she has. And as she gets older they're getting worse.

This is what it is. So we pray each night before we go to bed. And I pray for her, pray for her healing, I pray for her sleep, I pray for her pain level to go down. And I also prayed last night that she would praise God in the midst of all of it. Because she understands the sovereignty of God. She knows that God has allowed this to happen to her for a reason, though she doesn't understand. She's never complained to God. Never, why are you letting this happen to her?

She's never done that. She praises his name through it. And it's a sign of great maturity. And one of the benefits of it is that in heaven, her reward in heaven will be greater because she praises God when things are so difficult. It's easy to praise God when things are going well. But when things get difficult, then we complain and whine, God, where are you? Not realizing that the sovereignty of God is at work even through those difficulties.

And then the issue becomes, how do we handle them? And this is one of the reasons he lets difficulties come to us. To develop us.

To perfect us. As Philippians 1 says, God is faithful through whom we're called. That's 1 Corinthians 1, 9. God, I'm confident that this very thing, that God will perfect in you what he's begun. Philippians 1, 6. And so this is what he's doing in us through our trials and tribulations.

So what you're doing when you recognize the sovereignty of God, you're recognizing a very simple statement. And this is what I, I'll tell you what it is, but in seminary, a professor went up to the board and he said, gentlemen, I'm going to teach you one of the most important things you're ever going to learn in seminary. And I went, oh yeah, this is why I'm here.

Oh great. And he went up to the board and he wrote two sentences. There is a God. You are not him.

And he put the marker down and we talked. And what you're learning is there's a God and he's sovereign. You're not. He is. So what do you do with his sovereignty that works in your life that appears to be both good and bad?

That becomes an issue with you and you are maturing in your faith when you learn this. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. I learned something good today. And I'll take that as a, uh, as encouragement that I'm growing in my faith.

That is awesome. Thank you so much, Matt. All right. God bless Kelly. God bless. Bye. Bye.

All right, folks. We have one open line at 877-207-2276. Be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. We're the last quarter of the hour. Let's get to Heidi from North Carolina. Heidi, welcome. You're on the air.

Hey Matt, thank you for taking my call. Sure. So, um, my question is, um, well, I have several questions to ask. Well, what number one is like, why does my country, especially the Middle East, they hate Israel? Why do they hate Israel? You are so faint.

I'm heart, I'm turning you up a great deal just to hear you. I don't know if the listeners can hear you, but you're asking why do the countries of the world basically hate Israel? Well, uh, I saw the question before the break and so during the break I was able to look a little bit and one of the reasons I believe is because of, of, um, when the Jews crucified Christ and Pilate, uh, was wanting to release Jesus and he said, what should we do with Jesus who is called Christ? They said, crucify him. And he said, why, what evil has he done? But they kept shouting all the more saying, crucify him. And when Pilate saw, uh, what he was doing, uh, this is, uh, this is, uh, innocent blood and the people said his blood shall be on us and our children. And so some people think that this is one of the reasons that Israel has had such a hard time is because of that, that God has said, okay, this is, you know, the covenant people of Israel, but yet there's a, they brought a curse upon themselves, so to speak, the judgment upon themselves because they represented their descendants, which is doctrine of federal headship.

That's one of the theories is the spiritual side. And because they represent the people of God and the great miraculous work of God as a nation in history and they're visibly here, it's a threat to people's atheism, agnosticism and self-righteousness as well. Okay. Yeah, because I know that in the end, like, you know, all in the end of the end of time, most of the countries will be, that's their codes to attack Israel. Right. They're going to attack Israel and Israel's going to win. Yeah.

There'll be some, you know, for the most part they're going to win. But, uh, okay. And one more quick, uh, real fast. Hello? Yes. Real fast.

We have a lot of callers waiting. Go ahead. Okay. Yeah. So if any, you know, the, the first in first Corinthians three, three 12, like if any man builds on this foundation is gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is.

What are those things? Well, it's just those works that are done for the glory of God, according to his word as a standard of the Bible being the standard of righteousness and those things will last. But the works that we do for selfishness reasons and things like that are going to burn up.

It will be, uh, be of no value. Okay. Okay. Well thank you so much.

Build on the foundation. Yeah. And so the, yeah. Okay. Okay. God bless. Okay.

Actually it's not exactly accurate. I was getting ahead of myself. Now if anyone builds on the foundation of gold, silver, um, precious stones, hay, wood, straw, each man's work at the combat, but I know that is what it says. Okay, good. All right.

Let's get to, let's see. Nelson from Bakersfield. Nelson. Welcome. You're on the air. Hey brother. God bless. Real quick.

I know you have a lot of colors waiting. Uh, just wanted to on second Corinthians chapter two verse 17. If you could pull that up real quick.

Sure. Second Corinthians two 17 for we are not like many peddling the word of God, but as from a sincerity, uh, as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. Yup. Yeah. Oh, that verse. I mean, um, uh, how, how do you, how can we take that verse in a sense as men trying to sell the word of God and making their own profit or in a sense also like, um, people selling Jesus t-shirts and, and they make a little profit, but most of that profit goes to the ministry.

Yeah. You see, there's the issues of the heart. So, um, if someone is trying to make millions of dollars by selling, uh, crucifixes and sacred cloths dipped in water and whatever, uh, that is sinful. Uh, but what if you want to make money in order to keep a ministry running to feed the poor?

Well then that's fine. So it's not the money that's the issue. It's the motivation that is driving you. It's the heart before God.

And so that's it. And, and, uh, but some are peddling the word of God. Um, I believe that a lot of positive confessionists do that. A lot of these teachers on TV peddle the word of God, you know, send your money in your faith seed money, you know, a thousand dollars and God will bless you. That to me is peddling the word of God, you know, send it to, uh, sow a seed. That's right.

And we'll give you this book if you, you know, it's okay to say, well, we'll give you something for a donation, but when it's in the context of you're just trying to get money, that's a problem. I remember a preacher on TV, Jean Scott, and I remember watching him one day. He was very, very, very knowledgeable. He was in LA. Anyway, he, they needed money for some project. I forgot what it was.

It doesn't really matter. And he said, okay, folks. Uh, and what he did was literally, he said, we need, I don't know, I'll just say $5,000 to be $5,000 in order to move forward with the whatever.

I'm not going to teach until we get the money. And he would just sit there and he smoked a cigar and read his Bible. And in 10 minutes, um, uh, they got the money. He goes, good, we're done. That's all we need. Don't send any more for that. We got our need met. And that's what struck me.

He said, don't send any more. We have the need met and we can go on. And I remember that. I went, okay, that's different.

Okay. So, uh, then he went on and he taught. So, you know, it's, it's the motive. Uh, it's the motive.

And, um, it's something I've had to deal with a lot here with this ministry as well. What's the motive. There's always a mixture of motive.

I don't say there's ever a pure motive, but what we always have to do is lay before God always and let him do work. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, thank you very much, brother. And I'll continue praying for you and your wife. God bless. Thank you. Appreciate it.

All right. Let's get to Andrew from Canada. Andrew, welcome, buddy. You're on the air. Andrew, are you there? Hello?

Andrew from Canada. You're on the air. You're on the air. Hi. Hi.

Hi. Um, I was asking, this is, uh, I'm kind of confused when it talks about salvation as a gift. And I was asking, is it a gift or a process?

Because some scriptures, uh, okay. Is the justification part the gift or in general, just eternal life is a gift? Uh, the free gift of God's eternal life. And the word, uh, gift there in Greek is charisma.

Can we get charismatic? It's a gift that comes from God. It's eternal life and the, or this eternal life.

And we will never lose it. So it cannot be lost because it's from God period. So, uh, is salvation a process?

It depends on what is meant. It's a process in the sense that a person could be convicted of the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Spirit, gradually wooed. And then, uh, they finally believe. And that could take, let's say a year.

That could be a process there. But when we talk about justification, justification is a legal declaration of righteousness and it happens instantaneously upon belief. Romans 5, 1.

Okay. Romans 4, 5. So that's what that is. So salvation becoming saved is not a process as Catholicism would, would falsely teach that you go through the process of getting catechized. Then you got to baptize and you got to go do sacraments and you got to go to the mass. And it's a process that you go through in order to maintain your salvation with God.

That's damnable heresy. So, okay. Okay. All right, buddy. Thank you very much. You're welcome very much. All right. God bless. Let's get to Guy from Texas.

Guy, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt.

Twice in one show. I got in line and called back. Hey, I'm blessed.

What do you got? Yeah. Yeah.

So I have a quick question. I'm exploring Reformed theology. I'm definitely Calvinistic.

Okay. So by definition, if you're Reformed, you're Confessional, you're Covenantial. Now, typically, again, by definition, are most guys who are Reformed or girls, are they Amillennial? No, I don't know.

I don't know if most are or not. Most Reformed people that I know lean towards Amillennialism, but a lot are Premillennial and some are Postmillennial. Okay.

Okay. So I didn't know if that was just listening to some other solid Reformed pastors. They're giving me a by definition of what Reformed actually is. Well, there can be...

I'm sorry? I was going to say, Reformed deals with the issue of the five points and T-U-L-I-P. But within Reformed theology, you can have those who believe in the charismatic gifts like I do.

And you can have those who do not believe in charismatic gifts. I have friends who are Reformed or like that. I'm Covenantial. I have a Reformed friend who's Dispensational. So I have another guy who's Pre-Trib-Rapture. No, no, Premillennial. And I'm Amillennial. So there's a mixture. Okay.

Okay. I was just getting your perspective. From what I understood, if you're a Dispensationalist, but yet you're a Calvinist, you wouldn't necessarily be called Reformed. You'd be just Calvinistic. Generally.

That's kind of what I've heard too. Reformed generally holds to Covenantalist and Amillennialist. And usually Cessationist.

And usually Cessationist. Exactly. But I'm in the Reformed camp, but I'm a Continuationist. Yes, yes. Now, as far as getting into a little bit of eschatology with that, as far as Amillennial. So where does the rapture fall into Amillennialism? Right before, well, towards the end of the millennium. That's all.

Towards the end. Okay. So someone who is Amillennial would say, okay, yeah, the rapture's probably true. And it's going to happen. I believe it's going to happen.

It's going to be at the end of the millennium. Yeah. I believe it.

And I believe the first ones taken are the wicked because of what Jesus says in Matthew 13. I've listened to your whole argument on that. And man, at the end of that, I was like, me too. Yeah. You were very, very convincing. It's what it says. That's right. In fact, I need to get that and have that and put that on my computer because that was, yeah, I love the way you explained it. And it was just like, it was great. Yeah.

I'm just exploring Reformed theology, you know, because so many people are like, oh, I'm Reformed, but they're just really Calvinistic. Yeah. We'll tell you what, buddy. We've got one caller waiting with one minute left.

So we'll get to that caller, but keep calling back. Okay. All right, man. God bless. Okay. All right. Let's get to Cynthia from New Jersey. We have about a minute left in the show.

What do you got? I'm just so confused with the story you gave about the debt being canceled, the man in the coma. So then that means that the debt was paid for everyone, whether they know it or not. If the debt's paid for...

I just get so confused over this. Well, if a debt's paid for, it cannot be held against them, right? Right. If it's paid for, it doesn't... So if Jesus paid the sin debt for everybody who ever lived, then that means the sin debt's gone for everybody who ever lived. That's what it means to pay a debt. But you have to acknowledge that it was paid, or you still keep trying to pay it yourself. It was paid 2,000 years ago. So we weren't even alive then, and it was paid. I understand it was paid, but not for all.

I don't get the Calvin teaching about debt for the elect only. Right. Oh, we're out of time. Can you call back tomorrow?

We have more time. We can talk about it if you want. Okay. Call back tomorrow. Yes, sir. Okay. Hey, folks.

That'll be a challenging question tomorrow if she calls back, and I hope she does. May the Lord bless you, and I hope that if you disagree, you open the Word to see what it says. Not what some guy in your radio name slick says, okay? May the Lord bless you. By His grace, we'll be back on here tomorrow. We'll talk to you then. God bless. Bye.