Matt Slick Live

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 carm.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick Live for answers, taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. You're listening to Matt Slick Live. I hope you all had a great day, or a great weekend, I should say, with the 4th of July. Today's date is July 8th, 2024.

So, uh, Hey, I hope you all had a good time. I had a good time, went to some friends' house and watched fireworks. It's kind of an annual thing we do. And it was great. A lot of good time.

A lot of good. Lot of good, it was good anyway.

So, if you want to give me a call, as usual, all you have to do is dial 877-2072276. And you can give me a call there. You can also, if you want, you can email me info at carm.org. Info at carm.org. And just put in a subject line.

Radio comment or radio question. And uh we can get to those. We like to do those. A lot of fun. And uh all right.

Hey, oh, hey, let's get to Juanita. From Michigan, Juanita, welcome here on the air. Welcome. Hey there, Matt. Good afternoon, or evening, actually.

So I'm a non-Trinitarian, just to remind you. I wanted to make sure I understood this correctly. I kind of took it off your website and um to understand I'm writing something. And uh so uh the Trinity proposes that Christ had two natures, one human and one divine. In his human nature, it was the role he played as a man.

He was able to be tempted. He was able to die unlike God.

So Jesus had a human role he played. In his divine nature, he was the same essence as God, divine. He was God simultaneously. although acting as a man, he was not separate, but one in nature and relationship with Scott.

So it's the word simultaneously that kind of has me perplexed. My question actually is what you feel the nature of God is or what is God's essence? That's answered my question.

Well, I can't answer that. No one can. God's essence is simply what His essence is. He's completely other. In theology, we have a phrase: He is wholly other.

W-H-O-L-L-Y. He's completely different than what we are. We can only Get an idea of him based on his self-revelation in scripture and through the person of Jesus. Damn. And just so you know, the wording of your statement wasn't very good, I can offer a correction.

If you want to send it to me, I can polish it up for you if you want. I believe I took it right off your website, but I'll go back and recheck that.

So, but it says in in Christ's divine nature, he was the same essence as God.

So, but we don't know what essence or nature God was, but Christ was that. What about the words omnipotent or omniscient all-knowing, all-powerful? Those aren't what would you term those if not God's essence or nature? What would you term those terms? Those are attributes.

But I was referring to you said the Trinity. Yeah, attributes. You said the Trinity proposes that Jesus has two natures. That's not accurate. It's the Trinity says there are three persons in one God, and the hypostatic union says that Jesus has two natures.

Okay, they're related, but the truth isn't stated.

Okay. That's what I was referring to. Right, okay. I'll go back and check the website.

So the omnipotent and and the all-knowing and everything are attributes of God.

Okay, but what his essence or nature is, we don't really know. It's just the God-nature, whatever it is. He's just God.

Okay. Okay. All right.

Well, you cleared that up for me, thank you. The other two things the simultaneous that that doesn't ring a bell Or I have that wrong in it.

Okay, go ahead. The three persons are simultaneous and distinct. Mm-hmm.

So there could you then would a correct statement be that it the Trinity claims that the three persons are separate but equal? Let's put it this way, and I modified the article, What is a Trinity Today? as a matter of fact. But the Trinity is one being, one essence, one substance, who exists as three distinct simultaneous persons. But each person shares all the attributes of divinity because that's what divinity is.

The question then becomes, how do they have distinction? Because if all the attributes are identical to the divine nature, and each possesses a divine nature, how then can there be distinction? If the identity and the predication, or the essence and the attributes, are identical. And the answer is found in the doctrine of relationship or the economic trinity in that they show distinction. Between, for example, the Father begets, the Son is begotten, and the Holy Spirit proceeds.

So the distinction is understood through the relationship between the persons. That's how we see distinction.

So we can have simultaneous essence, simultaneous natures, simultaneous persons, yet also retaining distinction.

Okay. So then would you say that you could say that they were separate but equal.

Well They're we say that they're distinct. We don't want to say separate. We say distinct. That's the best way to say it, really. They are three distinct simultaneous persons.

We don't want to say separate. I hope I didn't put that on the website anyways. But if I did, I'll change it. But it should be just distinct.

Okay. I can see that there would be a distinction between separate and distinct, I think. I'm not quite sure. I'll have to meditate on that. Did you say that the attributes And the essence were the same?

You back a couple of sentences ago, you said something about attributes and essence.

So any object, whether it concrete or abstract. Has a nature. A concrete object is something you can hold in your hand, you can touch, occupy space and time. An abstract object is not.

So an abstract object would be like the laws of logic or the concept of roundedness or things like that. And so they're called, in philosophy, they're called concrete and abstract objects. When something has an essence, it has an ontos. Ontology is a study, it's a metaphysical category dealing with the nature of things, whatever exists. Get the being ontos.

Whatever exists has properties related to the existence.

So you can't transfer the properties of an ontos to something else, a different ontos. It doesn't make any sense. This is why transubstantiation doesn't work. But anyway.

So the attributes of the divine being are he has omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, omnisapience, holiness, a seity, etc. And by logical necessity, each person of the Trinity possesses all those attributes because those are necessary attributes related to the Antos.

Okay, so I just did. I don't want to make a mistake here.

So you're saying that each of the three persons of the Trinity. have those attributes. I think you just said that.

Okay, so each person of the Trinity. Hairs. um are all-powerful, all-knowing. Blah blah blah. The attributes, each person.

Okay, because I thought before you said that. that they didn't.

Okay, I want to make sure that I have this right.

So each person uh of the Trinity has the attributes Which are those things that we were talking about?

Now, how is an attribute different from an essence? Attributes emanate from the essence.

So let's take a bowling ball.

So, a bowling ball, a typical bowling ball, just say a black one, okay? A black bowling ball has mass. And mass relates to weight, but that relates to gravity, but mass, it has density, it has spherosity. Mm-hmm.

And so we can measure. The volume could you say, excuse me, could you say that it exists in time and space then? Yes, it's a concrete object.

So a concrete object would be bowling ball, but a an abstract object would be bowling ballness. Because you could be in a bowling alley, there could be one hundred bowling balls around you, and you're seeing the manifestation of the concept or the abstract object called bowling ballness. and there's particular manifestations of it we call bowling balls. But each bowling ball has to share characteristics common to them, some that are necessary and some that are accidental.

So a necessary quality of a bowling ball is being a sphere. But a non-necessary attribute would be color. One could be black, one could be pink, one could be yellow, one could be colored.

So those are called an accidental property.

So a required par property or an essential property is something that, if taken away, then the ess it's is it it doesn't make any sense because it's necessary with the essence.

Okay, you can't have a square or a pyramid bowling ball. It doesn't make any sense. It's not a bowling ball, it's a pyramid at that point.

So, you can't transfer the properties of a bowling ball, and you can't transfer it to the tree outside. Because each nature has properties related to the nature that are necessary and essential to it.

So basically to restate that again, so the shared essence of the three persons of the Trinity, the shared essence are the attributes that we were talking about. Could that be a correct statement? Yes, they all are divine by nature, and since the divine nature has n necessary characteristics to it or properties, then they all share in those properties necessarily.

Okay. Thank you very much. I'll have to kind of think this over and try to understand our scribbled notes here. Thank you, Matt. Take care.

You also need to study something else, though.

Okay? A doctrine called inseparable operations. Inseparable operations. Are you there still? Yeah.

Okay, so if this is the case, that the Trinity is true, and I know you deny the Trinity, but I'm glad that you wanted to at least understand it. If the Trinity is true, And each person shares all the attributes of the divine nature, then when Christ, who is who He is, He's divine and human, then all the attributes of divinity are also his. And this is called the communication of the properties. or the communicatio idiomatum. That he has the properties of the divine nature communicated to him.

Now, the access to them, it's another topic. We'll get into that right now.

So.

Sorry about that from my drop.

So, this would necessitate then that all members of the Trinity. Which is one being, as one works, that's all who are working. As one thinks it's all who are thinking. And so inseparable operations say that in the one essence of God and the three persons, which are the one essence, we have then the issue of Jesus saying, for example, I can only do what I see the Father do, present tense. This is inseparable because the nature is not divided into parts, but the divine nature.

Has inseparable qualities to it. They belong to the Son, the Holy Spirit. and to the Father. And so the Father that whatever the Son says, he you know, for example, and if you look up at my website, I can do only those things I hear or see the Father do. That's in support of what's called inseparable operations.

So this inseparable operations is a way of explaining and don't take offense at this explaining away the scriptures that Say that kind of indicates that Jesus was not all-powerful or all-knowing? Not necessarily. Hold on after the break, and I'll explain. Oh, deal with that a little bit, okay? Because it's worth talking about.

All right, hold on. Hey folks, we got a b a uh I just read something else. We got a break, so please stay tuned. We'll get back to some more, hopefully, some good advanced theology. We'll be right back.

It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, welcome back to the show. Let's get back on with Juanita. Are you still there?

Cyan. All right, could you rephrase what you said before, and then I can focus on that? I'll make sure I'm getting it clear. Oh, my. We went through quite a bit.

You did help me with a couple of things.

So I guess right now I'm thinking, so you have these terms Or these theories, as far as you know, I'm concerned from my side, inseparable operations and hypostatic union. You know, these were created in order to explain Uh the the Trinity uh theory. But uh what I'm interested, I guess, right now is: is there any scripture to prove or even indicate? That these independent operations, or is there any scripture to back this up? I see, okay, go ahead.

Go to Carm. and just look up inseparable operations. Look up What is the Trinity? Look up Economic Trinity, Ontological Trinity.

Okay. And but you'll have scripture there then that will prove these theories? Absolutely. I will do that, Matt. Thank you very much.

I will look it up. and also look up hypostatic union, okay? Yep. No, I know it's it was cre I don't know who came up with the Hopstead union which explains the you know the two natures as uh the uh the union the the union of the divine and human nature, the the combination, the two natures of Jesus.

So I'm kind of you know That would be monophysitism or eutychinism, but we hold to what's called the hypostatic union.

So you need to, I mean, if you're going to know it, you're going to need to know those terms.

So, okay. There will be scripture, and that's all I'm looking for: is that scripture that will indicate that Christ had two natures. Not that that was.

Okay, wonderful, you got it. Thank you very much. All right.

Take care. Bye-bye. Goodbye. What are you doing? All right.

So I'm she's an anti Trinitarian and she's polite here, and I was answering her question, but I'm really kind of intrigued now. I want to know what she's going to develop because I would a oh, I should have asked her, Hey, whatever you develop, send it to me. I'll I will analyze it and put an article up on Carm. Anyway, if you want to give me a call, 877-20-72276. Let's get to Sean from Japan.

Hey, Sean, welcome. You're on the air. Hey Matt, this is actually Renzo from Japan. We're actually in America right now.

So I thought I would give you a call and ask a question. Sure. Where where are you at in the States now? Uh I'm in Wisconsin. Oh, sorry to hear that.

Okay. I know. We can talk about that another time. I gave the caller the monitor a different question, but I would actually like to ask you about closed communion and what if you think it's biblical or not. Yes.

Close communion is biblical because it says you must discern the body. And there's a warning attached. It's in 1 Corinthians 11. Let's see. Oh.

Let me get to it. I had to move my window over here. 1 Corinthians 11. And what close communion is, for those who don't know, communion is only for those who trusted in Christ, it's not for everybody. And furthermore, uh the table is to be guarded against those who claim to be Christians but are in unrepentant, uh direct uh bad sin.

Okay. So uh So it says in verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 11, whoever eats Or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

So he must examine himself, and in so doing, excuse me, he is to eat and drink the cup. Whoever eats drinks unworthily brings judgment, etc.

So.

From those basic uh Verse as we say that you got to guard it so people don't come in and eat it unworthily.

So you know that I'm a Presbyterian, and I went to a Missouri Synod Lutheran church last week that was near this house, and they told me that even though I'm a Christian, but because I'm of a different denomination from in the Westminster, that they would not administer the Lord's Supper. Do you also believe that that's still that that level of closed communion is still biblical? No, they're they're wrong for that. Absolutely wrong, and I wouldn't tell the other face. In fact, I agree with you.

I went to a Lutheran college, actually, LCMS, Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. You're in the Wisconsin Synod area, so it might have been Wisconsin. They're a little bit even more uppity than the Missouri.

So they had, during college, they had a service where the whole, it was just a long service anyway, where people came together on campus and they had communion and they closed it. They said, if you're not Lutheran, you can't take it. And I went and talked to the dean later, whose name was Dean.

So he was Dean Dean. And I talked to him and I said, Isn't the Bible, doesn't the Bible say communion is for the believers? Yes. It's not for unbelievers. Correct?

Okay. Am I a believer? And he said, Well, yes. I said, so What right? Do you have as a Christian to say another Christian can't take communion?

Unless there's sin, which is no sin. Why what right do you have to say that? And he actually said to me, He goes, You know, that's a good point. And for real, they changed their communion and they opened it up to non-Lutherans. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna change the um he he actually when I was talking to the uh the pastor at this church, he did say he was Missouri synod, not Wisconsin synod. But they were very emphatic about it. I did kind of question what you mean. Yeah, and actually, in on their pamphlet, I'm not going to quote it word for word verbatim, but it does set it on the back. And I'm pretty sure I'm right about this, where it says, we are not judging the faith of the other person, but you are by denying them the the Lord's Supper.

We're not judging the faith of the other person, but we are practicing closed communion, which we believe to be biblical, based on our creedal statements. And it's something like that. But it actually is a judgment and a condemnation to deny somebody. The Lord's Supper.

So even though they think they're not judging, they in fact are. Exactly corrected, and I would have pointed it out to them. And I would have said, Jesus said that this is for those who. who are in the new covenant.

So, am I in the new covenant or not as a believer, someone for whom Christ died? Are you going to deny my right to communion with my Lord and my Savior because? of a catechism? Is it now above or equal to Scripture? Of course not.

You need to stick with Scripture, not the Catechism. At this point.

Now, when you say that to an LCMS guy, even a PCA guy, you can watch what I call. I call it the in the PCA I call it the reform butt shuffle. And then the LCM has to be the Lutheran blood shuffle. I saw it once the first time when I was preaching at a CRC Church, Christian Reform Church, and I was preaching up there and two hundred and fifty people down in in the congregation and and I just had a cough and I coughed, put my hand over the microphone and I coughed and I coughed into the The mic, it just echoed really loud. It was like oops, one of those, you know, just oops.

And I said, wow, sounded like God coughed. And so I said, you know, that got coughed. And that's when I first saw the reform butt shuffle. When every single person in the this is a very traditional church, every single person shifted from one butt cheek to the other, all simultaneously.

So I called it the brick for butt shuffle.

So it exists in the Lutheran church too, the Lutheran butt shuffle. They're slightly upset with that statement.

So Okay. Yeah, well I I unfortunately I did like the guy's uh uh sermon. It was very nice on the Ten Commandments and he was did a very good job at the what they what they call divine liturgy. Hold on, we got a break. Hold on, hold on after if you can, okay?

Hold on, buddy. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages. That's Sean. We've talked many times. We'll be right back.

Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everyone, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276, I want to hear from you.

Let's get back on the airf with Sean. Hey buddy, you still there?

So I'm still here. How are you doing? Oh man, busy during the break working on an answer to the issue of the is of identity related to the is of predication and why it supposedly refutes a doctrine of the Trinity, and I'm showing why it doesn't. Yeah.

Don't A lot of work ahead.

Well, then I think I'll try to do is I'll try to bring a couple of scriptural verses. I'll write them a little email and I'll word it nicely in kind of a subtle thing, but any Bible verse recommendations that you would offer as a rebuttal for him doing closed community against other Christians. Yes, actually, um There's something I've been working on. Uh called uh let me see if I can find it. It's uh the new covenant and Hold on a sec.

Uh let me see if I can get it. going here. The new covenant, where is it? Um I have it over here. And so within it, oh man, I gotta find this.

I know I've got it. But within it I discovered uh some stuff and I want to open it up. It it might take me thirty seconds here to find it. Been working on thing. It might be a good idea um just just for the Carm website to do is denominational Closed communion biblical.

That might be a really good article. I don't think you have anything. That would be a good article. Let me write that down. You got me going here different directions.

So hold on. Let me see. I have a list of. A list of articles. Let's see.

Yeah, if you hear that, folks, it'll be a rough hour after this. I got him going. Yes. How do you word that? It is cross-denominational or sorry, is a denominational closed communion biblical.

Is the nominate denominat National closed Communion. And I think part of the answer could be yes, because we're not going to share communion with Mormons or Catholic, Roman Catholic, Eastern Rite or the Eastern Orthodox or Coptic Orthodox necessarily.

So I think part of the answer would be correct, but then at the same time it would not consider some of those other denominations Christian at all.

So it could be a really nice detailed article, I believe. Oh yes. And uh that's why I changed it to uh is Christian denominational uh Close communion biblical. There you go. Yeah, so what I was doing was working on.

I can't believe I can't find it. That's so strange. I got it someplace. I've been working on the issue of. The new covenant.

And Man, I got so many things going. And so I I I just have a real simple paragraph Wait, where's the new covert? New covenant, new covenant. Let me go over here on the bottom. I think I got my print over here too.

Because I summarize something.

So when they go to Jeremiah 31. 31 on my Bible program. Don't have it there. Hebrews 8:13. You slime ball.

So I talk to my computer, it doesn't do what I want.

Okay, anyway, I have a whole bunch of stuff I've discovered, uh not discovered, but you know, it's already been known. But the issue of the new covenant and uh what's going on with it. There's a lot there. And so it is for everybody. It's for those who have trusted in Christ.

And. That's the and the symbol of the new covenant is the Lord's Supper.

So the question then is: are we in the new covenant as Christians, even across denominations? And the answer, of course, is yes. And the new covenant is for the elect who have been chosen of God. That's what the Bible says in the new covenant.

So.

I can write an article on this, it'd be real helpful. I can just find my information, which I spent hours getting that information together.

Now I'm just gonna find out where it is.

Okay. I think there's a lot even in even in just the Last Supper that I think with the words of Christ that are very clear and powerful as well as the words in Corinthians with from Apostle Paul. And so I think that there's a I think a couple maybe four or five. You know, Bible verses just solidify the case, so I think it'll be fantastic.

So, I'll do some research as well before I write to them. Yeah, in fact, I found the paragraph that I summarized. See, the new covenant was prophesied in the Old Testament. I got all these references. It was fulfilled in the new when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper.

It was ratified with his death. The new covenant replaced the old covenant and included both Jews and Gentiles. Jesus said, the blood of the new covenant is poured out for many. The new covenant sign is the cup Of the Lord's Supper, which represented the shedding of his blood on the cross. Jesus is the mediator of that new covenant.

He's the priest of the new covenant, which is better than the old covenant. And those in the new covenant will have God's law written on their hearts. Their sins will be forgiven. And those who are called will receive the promise of eternal life, and the Lord will be their God. Those last ones.

mean that we're in the new covenant and the symbol of the new covenant is the communion supper and the elements that is and so therefore all who are in that covenant Should be able to take it. And what the Lutherans have done, in my opinion, has sinned. uh against them against you.

Okay. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for your time. God bless you, and I'll keep you in our prayers. All right, God bless.

Okay. Appreciate that. All right, now let's get to. Alberto from Georgia. Alberto, welcome.

You're on the air. Yes, good evening, Matt Slate. My question, did you ever contact Dr. Michael Brown and Craig Cener about the their their pretrip to you know the teachings? No.

You got a lot of wind in your your phone now.

So, no, I haven't. It's not a big deal. I mean, um Oh, I'm doing debate with you. He wrote a book called He wrote a book called Not to Be Afraid at the Enterprise. Not to be afraid of the Antichrist?

Well, I wouldn't be afraid of the Antichrist. Man.

Well, he wrote a book as Yeah, well, I don't know. Yeah.

You should because you should torture you. Hurt your family. He'll control much of the world. He's a servant of the devil.

Now, we should fear him in that sense, but we shouldn't fear him in another sense.

So, I have to know what sense that he's talking about in there.

Okay. I've got a very quick question. You know, the Bible talks about the last trumpet. I always get confused about that verse. will be the last trumpet.

Is it referring to What is the left's trumpet when it talks about it?

Some people say It's like during the future or before the trip, like even when it comes about. When it says about, you know, the processing and all that stuff we talk about. You need more drinks and I edit that. In 1 Corinthians 15:52, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised. That's the first basic, basically, that's the first resurrection.

And then we have the The dead who have died in Christ are the believers who died ahead of the time of the rapture. The last trumpet is when the dead are raised. The last trumpet also. Let's make it short to go. Hold on, I got my notes from something else.

I've got so many things open. Hold on. Let's see. Carn.org. Um.

Okay, hold on. Because when the new last trumpet occurs. I have it all in a chart above I think I did. And it's Last trumpet is when the resurrection occurs, it's also when the rapture occurs.

Okay. So I have the scriptures on there.

So, yeah, yeah. When the last trumpet occurs, it's all it's the same time as the rapture. and the resurrection. But the resurrection is on the last day. which is called the day of the Lord.

So therefore in the last day, which is called the day of the Lord, is when the rapture occurs, which happens at the last trumpet. And also This is at the resurrection. The last trumpet, let's see. Which also is when the rapture occurs.

So the last trumpet is when the rapture. And the resurrection occurs, but also is with the return of Christ.

So the return of Christ isn't a double return, and then seven years later he comes back again. No, they all happen at the same time.

Okay. So the pre-trib believed that he comes only by himself in the clouds. And then the second time he comes back with the saints and the holy angels, while he had the white horse. Right, except on the last trumpet. Is when the resurrection occurs.

That's the day of the Lord. But the day of the Lord is when the new heavens and new earth are made.

So, if the day of the Lord is when the new heavens and new earth are made. which also occurs at the time of the last trumpet. Then the rapture occurs at the last trumpet, which is also the day of the Lord when the new heavens and new earth are made. There's no literal thousand years. It just doesn't work.

Okay. Okay. Oh, you know what I'm saying? It doesn't work. They're believing a thousand years long.

They don't believe me to thousand years. I have a study that I've done. that I think is pretty solid. It's called an examination of this age and the age to come. And you go to Carmen, you can look at them.

And what I've done, what I've taught it. is because uh Have the people. Whoever Sitting there, I say, where does this go? We have two ages: this age and the age to come. And this having put things where it goes, make a chart of their own.

And it comes up with um Something they're not used to. Let's just say that.

Okay, buddy? Check it out.

Okay. All right.

All right.

Thank you. All right, collect you later. Hey folks, we have one person waiting. If you want to give me a call, 877-20-72276. I'll be right back.

It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Everybody, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 877-207. 2276.

Let's get to James from Lexington, North Carolina. Welcome, you're on the air. Thank you, Matt, for taking my call. Uh I have a question. I hear preachers preach all the time.

And they say that you have to ask God to come into your heart to be saved. And I cannot find that scripture in the Bible. I cannot find it. You're right, because it doesn't say any place in order to be saved we have to ask Him into our heart. That is ridiculous theology that is taught from pulpits all across the country, and it is false.

I'm glad that you caught on to it. Yes. Okay. Okay. But with but they'll go to Romans 10 through 9 and they'll read that.

And I understand it. It's believing your heart. Yeah.

But believe When they get to verse 13, they say, For whosoever shall call upon the Lord shall be saved. They do not tell them. what the rest of the chapter says there. You know, how can you believe on something you haven't heard? And how can you hear?

You know, if a preacher hasn't preached, how can he preach unless he's been saved? Right.

So let's put some of this together, okay? Because in John 1 and 12, it says, As many as received him to them, it gave them to be called the children of God.

So we are to receive Christ. We are to believe in Christ. Jesus says, believe in God, believe also in me. John 14:1. We're to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord.

Now, if you're mute and you can't speak, you know, this is not a legalistic thing, but it's a confession that goes forth, the idea. But then, what if you have someone who doesn't have the ability to confess and you're not enough time or whatever? These are just normative things.

So, what we need to do to be saved is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We've got to trust in who He is. He's God in flesh. He died on the cross, rose from the dead, and He bore our sins in His body, 1 Peter 2:24. And we trust in what He did.

We received that sin offering, that sin sacrifice. We put our faith and our hope in Him. That's what it means to become a Christian.

Okay. When I go back to John 3, 16, He said, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. And whosoever believeth not asked him into your home. That believeth on him. Do not pray, but have everlasting life.

Amen, brother. I just don't understand how how the the the pa breakthroughs Are leaders, and they're supposed to teach us. I don't, I just, I've heard that all my life. Yeah.

It's because in America, the preaching of the gospel is pretty watered down.

Okay, it is. Yeah.

It's pretty watered down. And people are ba teaching bad theology all over the place.

So, when I preach the gospel to people.

Okay. Let's see, I'm going to find a certain verse. I should know this, but you know, I don't know all the verses. We're supposed to count the cost, and I believe it's Luke 9. Actually, there's another parallel.

It says, well, I'll explain what I'm going to. When you preach the gospel, it has to be law gospel cost. Law, you know, God says, Don't lie, you've lied, you're a sinner, you're under his judgment. The gospel is that Jesus is the one who fulfilled the law, and if you trust in what he did, he's God in flesh, died on the cross, rose from the dead, all of that.

Okay, and the cost. For which of you in intending to build a tower sit down first it counts the cost. Do you have enough to finish it? You better know what you're getting into.

So they say to people, just ask Jesus into your heart. And remember, the Jesus you're talking about is the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian surfer dude dressed in a woman's nightgown, asking for permission to come into your heart and save you. And this is the crap that's being taught across the country by all kinds of people. And it's false doctrine. And you need to repent of it.

You don't ask Jesus into your heart. You confess him as Lord. You believe and trust in what he has done, knowing who he is, what he's done on that cross, and you better know what you're getting into. You better count the cost. Because it may cost you your life.

It will definitely cost you your pride and a lot of other things in your life. Maybe some friends. You better know what you're getting into.

That's what needs to be preached across the American pulpits.

Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry. I didn't say that. I've heard like I say, I've heard these all my life. And I search and I cannot find her.

And there's there's other verses in the Bible they say is they're like the sea of forgetfulness and stuff like that and It's I can't find it. It says in in the depths of the sea to remember them against you no more. But to be saved, I think Jesus Christ, when he ga died on the cross of Calvary, The Bible says that He died. For the sins of the world For the whole world, he died for our sins of men.

Okay, do we have to ask him to forgive us of our sins if we accept him as believers? Yeah, we should. Yeah, confession and it's good. We ask Him to forgive because Jesus says in John 14:14, ask me anything in my name and I will do it.

So we ask Him to forgive us our sins. Yep. Now, my question is, he did that on Calvary. He paid the sin debt on Calvary and he canceled the sin debt at the cross, Colossians 2:14. Yeah, he canceled.

Okay. Well, it's been a nice topic to you and uh I just wanted your opinion on that, and I. It it's hard for me to I'm a member of a Missionary Baptist Church. And they want me to be a deacon, and I don't know if I can do that or not. Because I hear it.

The pastor said Say these words. practically every Sunday. Let's ask him this. Just ask him, can you please show me in Scripture where it says to ask Jesus into your heart? Must leave it at that.

For now. Yeah.

And you won't be able to find it. Answer. And then if you can't find it. You ask 'em. Why are you saying that if it's not in the Bible?

Yeah.

You have to believe. in faith. You have to have the faith. That's right. Am I correct?

Yes. And also, just so you know, in Philippians 1.29, it's God who grants that we have faith. Yes. Yes. Because without faith, it's impossible to please him.

He was languid, right? Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Okay. Well, uh it's been good talking to you.

Next time. God bless you. And I love your ministry. I listen to you a lot. What good things?

Love to get out here though, to Ohio sometime and meet people. But praise God. Yeah.

Okay, come on.

Okay. What? All right, now let's get over to Andrew from Dayton, Ohio. Andrew, welcome. You're on the air.

Hey, brother Slick, how you doing? Oh, hanging in there, man. Hanging in there. What do you got, buddy?

Well, I had I heard that guy talk about uh closed communion. And you made the comment. to guard it is It is the church's job or the elder's job. pastor's job to guard the table. Is that correct?

Yes. Okay, so say they have a church service on a Sunday morning, and then after a service, they're going to have a A Tribunion. How how would you suggest the elders, the pastors, the church to guard the table because At that point, you're going to have a lot of visitors, you're going to have all different types of people in the congregation. Is what you do. There's two levels here.

One is you just verbally say this is not for the unbeliever. You are not to participate in this. If you do, you're eating judgment to yourself and condemnation. Please don't take. If you haven't trusted in Christ as Lord and Savior, then it's not for you.

Don't do this. And the other thing is, if, and this is where you've got to be more careful when you say stuff like this, because you might know of an individual in the congregation who might be in a very bad sin. Let's say there's a man and a woman, wife, husband and wife, and let's just say there's a pretty bad sin going on, and one of them is not repentant, and they're in church.

Well, by that time, the elders have come together and said you can't take communion. Because they're in, say, unrepentant state, let's just say. Very being very generic here. Then, what you could say, what they say is also from there, you know, it's not for the unbelievers. Also, if you are under judgment, and the elders of any church that you go to say you're not to have this, then you're not to take it here either.

And so you guard it verbally. You can't look into people's hearts and you can't know everything about everybody.

So aside from that, there's really not a whole bunch to do. Except if the elders see a couple who goes up that they know is under discipline, and they do this anyway, then they're to be disciplined all the all the more. And if they continue in such rebellion, then uh the elders need to take uh uh a more stern action, like going to publicly to the church and then telling the church b members what's going on about these coupl this couple or whatever.

So just depends, okay? I was just wondering because of uh church discipline and If we discipline someone as a church body and their unrepentant and it says they should not eat anymore with them. and they're dismissed from even congregation because they're in open send or rebellion. And then that same person that's an open send rebellion of one church goes to another church. And each of that table because it's the prerequisites is only you must be a believer it kind of goes against uh church discipline and caused a schism in it.

I I It seems to me. Yes, that's one of the things. I think there could be a danger with. Far as, you know, like the other guy was saying, he wouldn't allow another person from a different denomination.

Well, He doesn't know you. He doesn't know really Your walk with God, you could be under discipline, you could be uh. a Satanist that just lies out of his teeth and says he's a believer I was just curious how you could how you thought something. Yeah, that's why a verbal guarding is basically what you're uh responsible to do. And so like you said, you know, you can't know the hearts of individuals.

And so, if I'm going to another church out of state, and I'm going in there and they have a communion service, and I did this recently, the communion service, I'm going to take communion. I did digit a few years ago, I think. You know, I'll take community. They don't know me. But, okay, it was between God and myself at that point.

If I was under discipline for some strange reason at a church, I'm going to hold off because I'm under the eldership at that point. But so you do believe that the elders say. Say, Jimmy is in fornication and he won't repent, and he's had the terrible pride, and all these things are going on. You do believe that the elders in the church can. uh discipline him to a factor of like You cannot eat of the table, period.

That's correct. I believe that too. And I just I just think that this idea of close I would call close communion is kind of what you're believing. And that kind of Okay. The Lord's table, in my opinion, because here you are saying.

I'm going to withhold it from this individual because I know what's going on with him. But then I open it up. to the possibility of others Yes. I know I know you're guarding it verbally and you don't know men's hearts, but at the same time it's You can withhold it from one person, but another person that you don't know that just came off the street. Correct.

You're just taking their word for it and you're you're you're You're making the Lord's table, you're defiling it, in my opinion. Yeah, the elders are not defiling it. They've done their due diligence by saying this is not for everybody, et cetera. They're getting the parameters. It's all they can do.

Yeah.

And that's it. I mean, no system is perfect because we're people. But God knows. Yeah.

And God will deal with it.

Okay? We'll be back. Go clear the music.

Okay. Call back tomorrow. Call back tomorrow. We can talk some more about it. It's an important topic.

All right.

Appreciate you. All right, man. God bless. Hey folks, sorry about that. We're out of time.

This is a fast hour. And I hope by God's grace, back on here tomorrow. May the Lord bless you. Talk to you then. God bless.

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