Matt Slick Live (Guest Host Luke Wayne)

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. It's Matt Slick live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry found online at karm.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick live.

Francis, taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Matt Slick live. I am not Matt Slick. I will be guest hosting this week, filling in for Matt, who we've been able to talk into taking some much-deserved well-earned time off. I am Luke Wayne.

I work with Matt at karm.org, the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, and I've worked with Matt as of this month for six years now here at KARM. And so it is an honor to be on here with you guys and to have a chance to answer some of your questions today. And so you can reach us. The lines are open and you can call in at 877-607...

Enjoying that, watching all kinds of stuff, and just enjoying it. Anyway, got so much to research and do. So hey, look, if you want to give me a call, I want to hear from you. 877-207-2276. I want to hear from you.

Give me a call. Well, okay. And let's see, let's see. We've got a lot of stuff going on here.

Had our Friday meeting last week. And as I asked before, I'm asking again, if you'd be so kind as to consider praying for the missionaries that we have in Africa. We'd really appreciate that if you would. They definitely need that prayer.

And we just value that if you would. By the way, just to let you know, we have open lines. Give me a call.

877-207-2276. And let's see, let's see. So I'm on a 90 day ban from YouTube on my KARM videos thing.

I had a second infraction because I mentioned COVID stuff over the radio. We've got an atheist guy. And the guy's helping me out. He doesn't even realize it. He's sending me quotes, which is exactly what I need.

And I need quotes that support COVID vaccines, and I need support, information that counters. And both of them are documented. Well, why the disparity? And so he's helping me get the other side. He's just a jackboot.

So I'm enjoying that. And last night I had an impromptu discussion with someone in the Eastern Orthodox Church. And I'm going to tell you, he was one of the most difficult people to deal with I've ever encountered.

This guy would speak at 80 miles an hour and throw in stuff at just... Okay. We had a few technical difficulties there. Got disconnected. Apologize for that. This is my first time doing live radio, so you guys can be patient with me.

Forgive me in that. So not sure where exactly I got disconnected, but let's just go ahead and go right to the phones, get to you guys' calls. So got a call from Brad from Iowa.

Brad, you're on the air. What's your question? Yes. So I guess my question is in regards to Deuteronomy 25 verses 11 through 12, just trying to kind of come to an understanding of what... Just as far as, I guess, kind of the punishment fitting the crime, I guess, in this example here, and trying to see... I guess, I don't know how familiar you are with the passage and stuff, but just trying to get some clarification, I guess, on that passage. All right.

So Deuteronomy 25 verses 11 and 12. Yes. All right. So if men get into a fight with one another and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals, you shall cut off her hand.

Is that the verse you're talking about? Yeah. Okay. And your question is whether that punishment is fair in that circumstance. Right. Or just trying to... Because I think I'd read something about...

I'd read something about this... I think this is being the only instance in the Old Testament where, I guess, it was... There was maiming called for, basically, to be able to maim somebody, and more or less just trying to figure out... And then I just had noticed... I don't know if you had noticed this too or not, but I just had looked into just trying to maybe come to an understanding because I guess in the Hebrew word, I guess, for hand, there's two words that were used for hand, and they're not the same words that were used, so I wonder if that could mean something as far as maybe in reference to something else. I don't know, it's just always just kind of... That verse has just kind of puzzled me, I guess, more or less, just trying to kind of figure it out, and especially when there's... I guess the word hand is not used for it to use two different words, and then maybe in relation to... And then kind of maybe trying to tie it in with Jesus saying, obviously, saying if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off from you, obviously we know that doesn't mean literally, didn't know if that had any application or not.

Okay, well I'm pulling up the Hebrew now, take a look at what you're talking about there, and I admittedly have not studied the Hebrew background of this passage before, but I will do the best I can for you here, so... I was just curious of two words, I believe. I think one of them, or I think the word, I think when it says, you know, and she puts out her hand, I think that's one word, and then when it says to cut off her hand, I think that's a different word that's used, and I just didn't know if that made, as far as the significance of it and stuff, if that made it different, I guess, you know, what you kind of take it as reading it in English to where maybe it's meant something else. I don't know, I just was just kind of curious. Okay, pulling that up, it is an interesting question, I see where you're coming from. I don't know as far as whether the two different Hebrew words, whether there is a major significance or whether synonyms with overlapping meaning are just being used there. I have to admit my ignorance here and say that I can't speak with authority, but I see what you're saying, that's worth looking into.

After the show, that's probably something I will look into, and maybe later this week we can follow up on if I find anything interesting on that. But for now, just taking the passage at face value, while it rubs up against our modern sensibilities of how punishment should be doled out, in this case, striking someone, wounding someone in a way that would damage a man's genitals, remove all generations from his family, especially in ancient Israelite culture, where the land in your clan, your offspring, your family inheritance, so much of the law is concerned with all of that, and so committing a crime that would potentially end this man's line if he hasn't had any children yet to inherit and carry on his family and his clan's ownership of the land, it would be a very serious crime. And so that, the punishment would also be serious, doesn't fit our modern cultural sensibilities, but I do, when we try to put ourselves in the context of the time period and the purpose of many of these laws and carefully preserving the lines of the Jewish people to bring forth the Messiah and all of these things, when we understand that, it really is a more serious crime than it might strike us as. And so, I think this is one of those cases where, yes, it's worth studying some of the nuances of the words, and I will do that, but in the meantime, we let God be God, and if he declares that this was the just punishment for that crime, then that's where I would have to bend my cultural sensibilities to what the word of God says.

Right, no, I totally understand that stuff, and that makes sense. I guess it's just also kind of maybe taken in light, too, with, you know, obviously trying to weigh it with obviously what Jesus said, you know, a clear example of something where he's not calling people to literally take your eye out or cut off your hand and stuff, but obviously the seriousness of it, but also using that if that could be a parallel, you know what I mean? I definitely, you know, there's some parallel in the language there, and I think there's times in the law when it talks about eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, hand for a hand as being a general statement for justice, but in the case, this case law here in Deuteronomy 25 seems to be very specific and literal, and so my impulse, without further study, would be to say that this was describing a literal physical punishment. I gotcha. Again, I can study these things deeper and am very open to being shown wrong on there, but as I look at the context, it seems to be describing a very literal physical circumstance, and I think the punishment here was probably literal and was because of the seriousness of the specific, very specific, crime in this one case, and as you said, this is not the typical punishment that was just thrown out all over the place for all kinds of crimes in the Mosaic law.

There is something very peculiar about the weight of this crime. Okay, I gotcha. Yeah, no, I think the thing that I think is kind of something that just kind of was nagging was just kind of thinking about it in comparison to Islam or something like that, you know? And obviously, the God of Scripture is not the God of Islam, but then you kind of hear something like that and it just kind of, you know what I mean, it just fortunately sparks something like that. Obviously, you know, I'm not trying to say that in any way, but just as far as you think about that, you know, as far as in comparison to what something like Islam teaches, you know?

I'm just trying to kind of more or less... I hear what you're saying, but it is important to remember that, one, again, the contexts are very different on the very specific circumstance within the Mosaic covenant and only this one crime versus this being in Islamic law meted out for a wide variety of crimes and very different circumstances, but Islamic law allows stoning in certain circumstances. But we wouldn't take that and then say, well, therefore, the biblical laws about stoning must be wrong because Islam's wrong.

So there might be times where Islam will take a legitimate biblical punishment and apply it wrong, and apply it in cultures and contexts and places and situations where it doesn't belong, but that doesn't mean we throw out every single instance where that punishment may have had a legitimate and just application. I see. Yeah. Does that make sense? I think it's just more or less... Yeah, no, definitely.

I think, obviously, I just don't understand these things that well and stuff, and just trying to kind of just understand, just learning, I guess, just trying to learn. I appreciate it very much, and like you said, there's a lot of details of what you pointed out that I still have to look up on this, so it's definitely an area that we can all learn and grow in, and so I will legitimately be looking into some of these things more afterwards, but I hope this is kind of a helpful starting point and some things to think about for you as you continue studying it out. Well, we're going to a break right now. Thank you very much, Brad. It was awesome talking to you, and if you've got any more questions, call back again. All right, welcome back to the Matt Slick Live Show. Once again, I am not Matt Slick, I'm Luke Wayne. I work with Matt at the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, com.org, but we'll be with you guys this week and eager to take your questions. So let's get right back to the phones.

We'll go to Michael in Salt Lake City. Hello, Michael, you're on the air. Hey, Luke, how's it going? Going well, going well. Can you hear me?

Yeah, I can hear you. So my question is about the second coming of Christ, and so I was looking into it a little bit and I was watching this video and it was saying how you can know the exact day of the second coming, and the verse where it says, no man knows the day or the hour is referring to the resurrection and the rapture, and those are two separate events. And about the 70 weeks of Daniel and how the Shemitah calendar and how the 70 weeks of Daniel are about to be fulfilled and we're entering into the last Shemitah year, which start... And they're saying the last Shemitah year is beginning this year in June. And so they're saying that, according to the calendar, that Christ is going to come back 2029, and they have an exact day, and I'm just wondering, can you pin that down and is the rapture and resurrection a separate event?

Okay, those are great questions. So the Daniel 9 passage is not laid out to bring us to the second coming of Christ. In fact, it is an astoundingly precise prophecy that brings us to the second coming of Christ. We've got an article on this you can look at on com.org if you look at, does Daniel 9, 24-27 predict the coming of Jesus? And it shows that the Messiah was predicted to come at precisely the time period that Jesus came.

And so when we let it speak as what it really is, it's a powerful evidence for the truth of the Gospel and the truth of the Christian faith. Unfortunately, a lot of people have tried to twist it into something it's not, usually to create the kind of date-setting, eschatological perspectives that you're talking about. But no, Daniel 9 does not give us an exact day. Because when Jesus says no one knows the day or the hour, when he elsewhere says that it's going to come upon the world like a thief, and that it doesn't have to be you like a thief because you can be living rightly and ready for it, not because you can know the exact date, that all of these things are stated clearly, we're not going to know.

Jesus told parables about the servants left behind to care for the household. Not because the idea is the Master's going to come at a time that you're not expecting, and therefore be prepared, believe the Gospel, live for Christ, be unashamed when he comes. The whole purpose of all of these passages is that we don't know when it's going to happen. And so the Shemitah calendar stuff, this isn't the first time a false teacher has used that and set a date, and we've passed all of those dates. That approach to trying to set a precise date for the coming of Christ has failed over and over again.

And this isn't going to be the one guy who finally got it right. That's simply not what this passage is for, or what the Shemitah, the week cycles in the Jewish festival calendar for people who don't know what that is. There's no basis in using that to pin down the day of Jesus' second coming.

Okay, yeah, and that's what I thought, too. So the 70 weeks of Daniel are just pointing towards his triumphal entry, which already happened, right? Yeah, they point forward to him coming to Jerusalem. It talks about him fulfilling sacrifice. All of these things that Jesus came and did are precisely predicted through those 70 weeks. And so again, you can look at the details of that argument, there's a whole lot of things to discuss in it that are beyond what we can do in a short radio call like this. But again, if you go to com.org and look up, we've got an article that lays those things out, written by one of my colleagues who laid out very carefully what all of that's doing, and I definitely would encourage you to go look at that.

And that's a much more proper and edifying way to look to this passage than the kind of end-time speculation that a lot of YouTubers and false teachers will unfortunately do with it. Okay, awesome. I'll check that out. Does that help you, Michael?

Yeah, it does. Thank you. All right. All right, well have a good day.

Thanks a lot. Hey, you too, you too. That was Michael in Salt Lake City. Now let's go to Alberto in Georgia. What are you doing, Luke? Alberto, you're on the air.

How's it going? Good evening, Luke. Fine, sir.

Thank you very much, sir. Second-hand call. Yes, my question is, why do Christians write Christian books or Christians quote this phrase? Why do bad things happen to good people when Jesus said in Matthew 7, 11, and Luke 11, 13, you being evil know how to give good care to your children, so if Jesus calls them evil, why do people want to call themselves good? I mean, the fact of the matter is, yeah, that's not the right way to phrase bad things happen to good people. To be charitable to Christians who might say it that way, I think what they're trying to say is, why do bad things happen to people who, when we look at their lives, seem to be cleaner and living better in a lot of ways, and then there are people who seem to be committing worse sins that don't have the same bad things happen to them. Why are the bad things that happen in life not in proportion to your degree of badness, or something like that? But I don't think, to be charitable, that those Christians are trying to say that there are truly good or righteous people. But I would agree with you, that isn't the right way to say it. Why do bad things happen to good people? Because other than Christ, there are no good people. You are correct on that.

But again, I think people who use that phrase are using it more colloquially. They're not talking about truly righteous sinful people. Yeah, because bad things happen to us because that's the consequences of sin. That's what comes with the territory, you know what I'm saying?

That is certainly true in the sense that sin has brought our suffering into the world, and yet it is true that sometimes sin is not in direct proportion, or suffering is not in direct proportion to our sinfulness. Oh, we're coming up on another break. Can you stick with me, Alberto, and we'll talk about this a little bit more afterward?

Yes, I'll stick like glue right here. All right, all right. Okay, guys, we'll be right back with you to finish Alberto's question about suffering and sin, right after this break. Welcome back! For those just joining us, I am Luke Wayne, I work with Matt Slick at the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, filling in for Matt this week, and we'll be excited to be taking to your call.

So let's get back to Alberto from Georgia. All right, Alberto, so we were talking about this issue of sin and suffering, and agreeing that there are no good people, that human sin is why there is suffering in the world. But it is important to recognize what Jesus warned people about. And that is, for example, he talked about when the tower of Siloam fell on some men, and there were people saying that, oh, that terrible thing happened to them because they are more sinful than everyone else, and Jesus said, no, repent lest something happen to you as well.

And so we should not look at the suffering of others and say that that proves that they are more sinful or worse than the rest of us. Similarly, I myself, my wife was born blind, as were two of my children. And so John 9 is a passage that has always been extremely meaningful and helpful to us, when Jesus and his disciples are walking and they see a man who was born blind, and the disciples ask, why was this man born blind, was it his sin, was it his parents' sin?

What's going on with this? And Jesus responds, it was neither his nor his parents' sin, but that the glory of God may be shown through him. And so he was a grown man by this point, Jesus does end up healing him, of course, but prior to that, he had lived his whole life as a blind man in a culture where that was, today we have so many accessible things with braille and cane travel and infrastructure that make life for a blind person much, much easier. But back then, as we see with this man, he was left to beg. He didn't have those opportunities, it was a life of hardship for this man, right up until that point where he was held. Why did he have to go through all of that?

It wasn't punishment for anything. He went through all of that so that the glory of God could be shown through him. And my wife and my children hold on to that truth. And so it is true that the only reason there's any suffering in the world is because of sin, but sin isn't always, or suffering, isn't always in proportion to our individual sinfulness. And sometimes we suffer for reasons other than the direct consequence of our sin, or even the direct consequence of the sins of those around us. But even though, yes, that suffering exists because there's sin in the world, and when Christ consummates fully his kingdom, there will be no more suffering, no more tears, no more sickness, no more death. In the meantime, there are times where that suffering is in our life, not because we're being punished for any specific sin, but instead because God is using that suffering to bring about his glory and a greater good.

And my family takes great comfort in that. I think all believers should take great comfort in knowing God's sovereign plan, even in our individual suffering. Does that help you, Alberto? Yes sir, because a lot of people make bad decisions and bring suffering to themselves, too. You know what I'm saying?

That does sometimes happen, absolutely. Yep. All right, thank you sir, thank you, Alberto, God bless you, keep it a great day. No problem, Alberto. All right, okay. We'll talk to you later. All right. Bye-bye.

That was Alberto from Georgia. We are now going to Jamal in North Carolina. Jamal, you're on the air.

Hi, Mr. Luke, it's a pleasure to talk to you, Philip. Yes, can you hear me? I can hear you now. How's it going? Oh, whew!

Yeah, I know for a second. I'm doing well. I hope you all are doing well. I have a very good answer to Mr. Alberto there. I thought it was going to be quick, kind of one or two liners when I'm done, but you went deeper than I anticipated, but it was good hearing that answer.

I think Mr. Matt Slickler would be pleased. I have two separate questions, and I'll try to get it out quick. The first one is kind of a cautionary thing, I just want to toss it out there just to see if there's anything with this. There's a language learning app called Babbel, and you know, teaching people how to learn different languages. Well, it has that name, similar name of the Tower of Babbel, so I was kind of wondering from my first question if there's anything to that, if it's safe to download that, or if there's any kind of implications along with that. I haven't looked at that specific language app before. My assumption would be it's named that because that's where the language originally comes from.

Human language began. The whole reason we all speak different languages is because of the Tower of Babbel, and so even if it's a secular company, I'm not saying it's a Christian group or they have any, I don't know, I haven't looked at the app, but they're probably drawing on that story. And so if it's a language learning app, so I'll look at them real quick, do you know, is it a religiously affiliated thing, or is it just a language learning app? I think it's just a language learning app.

I don't think they have any kind of way to do that. My guess is it's just a clever play borrowing from the biblical story that whether the founders of the company take it seriously or not, the truth is, historically, that is where the diversity of human language stems from. And so yeah, I don't think the name Babbel would inherently discredit the app for Christians to use, but I can't comment on the quality of the app.

I've never looked at it. Gotcha. Gotcha.

All right. My second one is, I hear some people saying we don't need to get involved in politics, we don't need to get involved in environmentalism, we don't need to get involved in daily operations of, you know, daily life, God's got to take control. I've asked a similar question to Matt's book before about getting involved in politics, but I've heard people talk about this in general, well, we don't need to do anything, God's got to take control.

Well, my thing, my response is, you know, with just my limited amount of knowledge, well, God said we are to be good stewards, but I was wondering if you could kind of expound on that, if possible. Yeah, there's certainly nothing in scripture that would forbid Christians from being directly involved in the political process, and living in a republic that utilizes democratic processes and a lot of its political functions, there's a good in Christians having our voice in those issues, so I certainly wouldn't agree with the idea that Christians should stay out of politics entirely. I think there can be a worldly way of doing politics that we should certainly avoid. There is a worldly fixation on politics over the things of the Gospel that we can be tempted to fall into, and so I would understand cautions in that direction, but no, I certainly wouldn't say that we should be uninvolved when there are unjust laws. Christians who know the Word of God ought to be proclaiming the unrighteousness of those laws and calling our elected officials to repentance. And in a place where we're free to run for office, Christians who are so-called and have the opportunity to do so locally, state level, or even federally, get involved in the process. By all means, it's not an obligation for every single Christian to get as involved in politics as is humanly possible. That can be a distraction from other godly aims, but I certainly believe that there are unrighteous laws, and Christians should not remain silent in the face of wickedness, including wickedness carried out by politicians and representatives. Amen to that, brother. Does that answer your question?

Yeah. I was wondering if you had maybe a scripture or two I could toss out to them in case they want to say, well, show me the Bible, yada yada yada. Like I say, well, yeah, it says here in the Bible that we can be engaged in politics, daily life, just overall improvement of society. I was wondering if you had any kind of Bible scriptures I could use in that argument. Well, off the top of my head, I don't have one simple proof text, but I would just look at the entire thrust of the Bible, that we see, let's say we take the New Testament for simplicity, we could obviously point to godly kings and wicked kings in the Old Testament and that the prophets were sent to rebuke those kings and call them to righteousness when they were leading the people wickedly. The whole Old Testament clearly shows the context, but you could say, all right, well, that's kingdoms of Israel, things like that, the theocratic government, we're in a very different context today. Well, if we look at the New Testament, we still see John the Baptist calling out Herod because of his sexual immorality. We see the Apostle Paul testifying before kings. So we're going to go into a break.

I hope that answers your question, but I think the whole model of scripture shows that politicians are not exempt from Christian preaching, and we ought to be involved in calling them to righteousness and how they use their office. Amen, God bless, thank you. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Welcome back to the show. Once again, for those who are just joining us, my name is Luke Wayne. I'm filling in for Matt Slick this week, who we have been able to pressure into finally taking some well-earned and overdue time off. So this week I'll be with you answering your questions. We do have an open line, so you can call in at 877-207-2276 with your questions.

We would love to take those. So in the meantime, let's get back to the phones. David in Virginia. David, you're on the air. Yeah, hi.

I don't have a question. The reason I'm calling is I heard part of your conversation with Alberto, I believe, about why do bad things happen to good people. And Matthew, I believe the apostle Matthew, recorded this—I'm in a car, I couldn't pull up my Bible—but I think he recorded Jesus healing a blind man, a beggar who was blind, who had been blind from birth. And Jesus sat on the ground— Yeah, Alberto and I, that's in John chapter 9, we talked about that very passage, yes, I agree, that's a very important one for this subject.

Yeah. Well, that answers the question. Because Jesus said, his disciples afterwards said, that why was this man blind? Was it because he sinned or his parents sinned? And the man was born blind.

He couldn't sin in the womb, I don't think, maybe it's possible. But Jesus answered, he said he was blind so that I could heal him and bring glory. Because when the blind man went to where Jesus said to go to wash your face, he was walking around and some of the people there said, aren't you the guy that's blind? And they said, no, wait a minute, it can't be you. And he said, yes, I'm the one that was blind, but a man healed me, his name is Jesus. And they asked him, well, where is he?

And he said, I don't know. But that brought God the glory. Does that make sense, what I said?

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And again, we can't swing that too far the other way and say that no suffering happens as a chastisement or punishment for sin. That biblically, certainly there are situations where people are suffering because of their sin, and the right response to that is to repent. But Jesus, in that and several other situations, did make it very clear that suffering is not always a direct response to the specific sin of the person who's suffering. Though generally, again, sin is the reason that suffering is in the world. But yeah, absolutely, interestingly, God created a perfect world. He didn't create an imperfect world. But Adam and Eve, in their disobedience, brought sin into it, and that started the denigration of the world. But we have free will.

I can get in a car and go too fast and hurt myself. There's all kinds of ways bad things can happen, and of course God's in control. But I just think that it's interesting that Jesus would say, you know, I took something bad here and turned it into glory. And when I studied that and read that, I went, Hallelujah, that just fits the way that I think God's attitude is. It's deeper than just, God took something bad and turned it into glory, but it says the reason he was born blind is so that God could be glorified through it. And so it was God's sovereign will that that man be born blind, so that God could be glorified through it. But is that, do we then say, well, that's the same for every person who's blind? Well, no, the apostle Paul was struck blind for a very different reason.

The false prophet Elmas in Acts 13 is struck blind for a very different reason still. And so the New Testament shows us that these instances of affliction and suffering have different causes. There's no one simple answer to why do bad things happen. That we have a sovereign personal God who's governing creation and governing human history, and he has numerous reasons for believers and unbelievers alike to go through the things that we do. Part of our suffering, that I've learned, is to make us better. Our faith, there's a better way for things for us who are Christians. It's better for us than the Old Testament saints who had to sacrifice animals and had to do different things. This is better for us because our faith is not in something we do, our faith is in Jesus.

And when we are reborn, he comes into us, and he's with us. And our faith in him turns us, gets us to have his faith, which is better than the saints in the Old Testament's faith, where they, of course they were given credit for it, Abraham was given credit for his obedience and for his faith, and there's a lot of other instances where they were given credit for it. But we have Jesus in us, and it's his faith, not our faith, our faith is not worthy of anything, but with Jesus, then we have his faith, and that's what I believe he does. Our faith doesn't earn or merit anything, but we put our faith, we put our trust in Jesus' perfect righteousness, what he has done on behalf of all who believe. And so yes, it's not that our faith itself merits or earns something, but our trust in Christ. As the ultimate example of someone suffering, not for their own sins, Jesus did nothing deserving of the cross, but he took our punishment, stood in our place, bore the wrath that we are due, he took the punishment for all who will repent and believe, all who will put their trust fully and completely with the empty hand of faith in Jesus Christ. And it's the ultimate picture of suffering turned into glory, is the gospel itself. That God uses suffering in our lives, but God himself, the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, the very Word of God, stepped out of heaven, took on flesh, lived a human life, all of our hunger and suffering and weariness and want, all the things that tempt us to sin, he faced it without sin. Lived the righteous life we could never live, and clothed us in that righteousness.

In light of that, our suffering not only makes sense and finds its context, but one day will all be wiped away if we will put our trust completely in his ultimate suffering on the cross for us. So thank you, Harry, for your thoughts and bringing those things up. I appreciate your call. Yes, sir.

All right. Okay, that was, I'm sorry, I said Harry, that was David from Virginia. Now we're going to Harry from Virginia. Harry, you are on the air.

Oh, we lost Harry. Okay, so we got about five minutes left in the show, and so I think I want to spend a little bit more time as we close out on this subject. One of the great subjects that transcends culture, time, and place is this question of human suffering. And so, as we've talked about already on the show today, first and foremost, suffering entered the world because of sin.

Death and thorns and sickness and affliction and all of our hardship came because we rebelled against God, and creation groans, awaiting the day of the consummation of what Christ has already perfectly accomplished on the cross, but will bring about in that whole fruition, on the day of his triumphant return when he sets this world right, punishes wickedness forever, raises his people from the dead, and brings about the consummation of his kingdom. But in the meantime, we live in a world of suffering, and that suffering doesn't always make sense to us. And there are whole books of the Bible, Job and Ecclesiastes that wrestle with these questions, prophets like Habakkuk that don't understand these things and wrestle with what it is that God's doing, and they all push us back to the same reality, the same truth, the same answer, that we can't always know the exact reasons for the specific suffering that we or someone else is going through, but we can know the character of God. We know that God is in control and that he has a good and glorious reason for why he allows and even brings about the suffering this side of eternity in this sinful, fallen, sick world. And when we don't understand the reason for his specific suffering, a specific instance of pain and affliction, we can rest in the very character of God himself, trusting him, resting in him through it, knowing that in the end, even if he never reveals to me why some specific thing happened, I know who he is, and I know his reasons are good. And I can turn to him, grow in my faith through that. But we are given some reasons why believers who are striving to follow God, to rest in the Gospel, to cling to the cross, yet still have suffering in our lives, and I go back over and over again to passages like James 1, that says that if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. Most people stop there and just think, okay, I pray for wisdom, God gives me wisdom. But they don't read the rest of the passage to see how God gives us that wisdom. It says that he does so through that suffering, that we are not to be double-minded, but we are to, when we ask, receive the instruction he'll give us through the trials and troubles and tribulations he brings in. And that's what we rest in. That's all the time we have for today. I hope this has been an edifying time for you guys, and we look forward to taking your calls again tomorrow. God bless you all. God bless you.