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.

Hey everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. Here's the match look live. Hope you're gonna have a good time listening today. And hopefully, we'll have some good callers.

We had some interesting ones yesterday. A couple of obstreperous individuals. That was interesting. And hopefully, you want to call, and we can blah, we can talk if you want. The number is 877-877.

2072276, 8772072276. And if you want, you can email me. That's easy. Just direct an email to info at carm.org. Info at CARM.org.

And hopefully, we can get to you when you send an email, put in a subject line, radio comment, radio question, and we can get to it. Not a big deal. All right, so we have one caller waiting. We have three lines open. I don't want to hear from you, so give me a call.

Let's just jump right on. Let's get to Steve from South Carolina. Steve, welcome. You're on the air. Yay, Matt.

I was calling because I was listening to a show, I don't know if it was yesterday or day before. And you talk and you someone mentioned Christians talking about flat earth. And I've heard that too. And I wanted to get your two-minute Rebut on that. Yeah, Flat Earth is just flat out dumb.

Uh I've tried a lot of science, and I study science, I study stuff, and it's just a dumb understanding of the Bible. It's a faulty understanding. It just doesn't have any merit scientifically, and it's easier to disprove.

Now, proof is different than persuasion. I can tell you how to disprove. By looking at the moon and um So Here's the thing. Imagine a three foot diameter circle. And there's a dome, so stupid, a dome, a literal dome over the three-foot circle tabletop, okay?

And on the tabletop is a map flat earth, and on the dome is just the dome that they often say is their flat earth, whatever. And so that the moon and the sun are basically the same size, and what they do is they orbit around each other, kind of in a circle, up near the upper center of that dome over the thing.

Okay.

So let's just remove the sun just for now and look at the at the uh At the at the moon.

Well If you look at the moon, and imagine this, every single point on the earth, the flat earth, would be looking at the bottom half of the moon. Bottom half, for the most part, I mean, bottom half, and one side might see a little bit more of something towards the equator than another side would, but you'd all be able to see. The same roughly third to roughly an area of the bottom of the moon, no matter where you are, you're going to see the same thing. And So in a flat earth model, Let me put it this way. In a flat Earth model, what they'll see is on one side they'll see one side of the moon left and right, and the other side they'll see a different side of the moon.

So they won't be able to see the same thing. You would be able to see the same thing if the earth was, instead of two feet above it, was 40 feet above it. Then, all directions pointing up, you see the under part, and you see very slight variation of degree of angle of observation. But you'd see the underside. But in a flat earth, you'd see left and right quadrants.

Basically, I didn't say it right the first time. You see one side, and another would see the other side. But that's not what happens. And it just pro it proves the dome model uh is it just proves it's false. It it's that simple.

The moon cruise flat earth is false. I this was what was going through my head was, yeah, when you look at I was thinking that too, like the moon, looking at the moon. And seeing how it looks from here, I didn't go through the motions of trying to use the science to look at it, but I thought. I don't know how we'd see the moon the way we do if we weren't a sphere.

So yeah, it it that that makes sense. Yeah, I could do trig and I could figure out the, you know, by different distances and diameters and things like this, I could figure out the exact angle and stuff and the angle difference, what you might see in a sphere. But in the flat Earth model, you're going to see different sides at the same time. Those on one side, those the other side, see different angles, completely different. But that's not what happens.

And so the only way, yeah, it's just so stupid. It is just so dumb. I've talked to flat earthers and It's just ridiculous. And then there's the uh the parallax issue. It's another one.

Parallax issue is something. And then where does gravity come from? The parallax is so if you and I were, say, out in on a baseball field, And say you're on first base, I'm on second base. And we're looking at the same, but we're looking at the home plate. And we look at each other.

Well We're both going to look at it, at the poem plate, straight on, but our angle between each other. changes and so Parallax is when the Earth is running not running, orbiting around the Sun and you look at the same distant star, it's like looking first base and home base, you know, a half a month, half a year. It takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds for the Earth to go around the Sun.

Well, half of that is six months, and so you'll be on one side or the other side of the Sun, and you can look at the same star and you can figure out what the parallax effect is. The slight angle differentiation of looking at the same point, the same way on first and second base would look at the home plate in relation to each other at a slightly different angle. And this is what's called parallax effect. And um and so parallaxed doesn't work. Uh The minute parallax difference that we see with the orbit of the Earth around the Sun.

Uh Proves that the parallax, a parallel, how to say this. I can see it, I understand it's hard to articulate. The flat earth model, when you have the pa there wouldn't be any any uh parallax effect like that. Uh that would happen because there's no movement around the sun and some other stuff. Anyway, it just doesn't work.

There there's lots of reasons. It's just it's just dumb. It's dumb. Yeah. Before I know.

That's why I haven't spent hardly any time on it. I feel the same way. And I heard you say, oh, I got two minutes to debunk it. I was like, I want to hear that. I don't want to go through all the rigamoral and figuring it out.

Well, I've done it for you. You can go to Carmen and look up what is the flat Earth theory. And then I have a graphic I stole from somebody. It's a great graphic. And it has the Sun and then Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.

And they're all spheres except the Earth, which is a flash disk. Flat disk. It's just dumb. Yeah, I was going to ask next: are they all they think everything else is a sphere except us? Yeah, it's all round.

And then if they say it's round, they all have to be facing us. Yeah. That's crazy.

Okay.

Appreciate your input on that. Man. It's just lamification. You know, flat earth advocates are just lamified. It's just ridiculous.

Okay.

Absolutely. Thanks a lot, man. Appreciate it. All right, man.

Well, God bless, buddy. All right.

Now let's get to Alex from Florida. Hey, Alex. How are you doing, buddy? Haven't talked to you in a while. What's up, man?

I don't know. I'm calling into this show. I must be getting my head checked. Yeah, I guess so. That's right.

It's a big head, too. But there's a lot of empty space up there. What yeah, that's true. Etrid, I do have a big head. Thank you.

Yeah. Hey, how's the little one doing? Little one's good. She's standing on her own. She's.

Almost walking, so thirteen months, almost walking. That's that's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah.

It's fun. It's fun times.

Okay.

Um Yeah.

So my question is, so I'm writing this paper on uh Christ dissension For seminary? And I'm using Psalm sixty eight eighteen. And I kind of wanted your take on it. I've been reading some commentaries on it and kind of interested to see what you think it means.

Well, without having looked at it for a long time, Psalm 68, is Psalm 68 a messianic psalm? Yeah, it's a messianic psalm about Christ ascending. the spirit coming down So, um Yeah. You have led captive your captives. That looks like it's a quote out of Ephesians 4.

Um yeah.

So Yeah, that's right. And uh yeah, it is.

So um Okay, yeah.

So now you're going to get into the issue of what he did, what the issue is of who did he bring with him? Right. Who the captain is. No, no, no, that's not where I'm going. I'm wondering the part about the gifts.

The gifts of men. What do you think that means? You have received gifts among men.

Okay.

Um. God has received gifts among men, or the Christ prophetically has received gifts among men. Even among the rebellious, also, the Lord may dwell there. I don't know. That's good.

I don't know. I don't know what that is. Wow, I stumped you. That's right. That's not too hard.

That's right. Um yeah, well, yeah, I mean you could you could maybe do a little uh research on the bridge and come back to it, but the um One of the One of the Matthew Henry I was reading, he thought it meant The gifts of like evangelists, prophets, teachers. To the church, the gifts of men, like the gifts that are men that. Fill those offices.

So that's kind of what I was leaning towards. I thought that. But it says you.

Okay.

So look. You have ascended on high. You have led the captives. You have received gifts among men.

The you seems to be connected. To the same object.

So here you have you, the object Christ ascending, you led the captives, you have received gifts. Among men. I don't think that's him giving gifts, it's receiving them.

Well, we have the gifts at his birth. I would look into that. What gifts can we give Christ? The only ones I'm aware of would be the frankincense and myrrh and stuff like that. That's a question.

But couldn't that fit with the pastor's properties? Like, those are gifts to the church. He's receiving them.

Well, if he's receiving them, then you'd say that he's receiving them from the Holy Spirit. Coincidentally, this has been a hot topic the past 24 hours in my life. Oh, okay. Yeah, we had a Bible study last night. We went over the Holy Spirit, and something else happened today, and blah, blah, blah.

Um. So uh The Bible okay uh So, you could say, in one sense, the gifts that we give to God are our praise and our sacrifices, our obedience. What I would do is look to see if the word gifts, and there's different Greek words for gifts, doron, charisma, there's something else. And I'd look them up and see if. Any them are referenced immediately or contextually as something offered to the Lord.

The Lord God or the Lord Jesus, as in a sacrifice of praise. It's sacrifice in that sense, a broad sense, is a gift. I think it's one of the things you have to look at in this because I don't see it as being. Uh Yeah, I don't see this being charismatic. I mean, uh The gifts that he's given to us.

Look, you have received on high. You led the captives. You received gifts, even among the rebellious also. You receive even among her bellies, you receive the gifts. that the Lord may dwell there.

Now this is annoying. The Lord may dwell where? Among people? And that's only in the believers, not the unbelievers.

So, this is a tough one. Hold on, buddy, we got right back. Hey, folks, we got a break. And if you want to stay tuned, please do. We'll be right back after these messages.

And please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Everybody, welcome back to the show. Let's get back on with Alex.

I did some research during the break and I found something. You ready?

Okay, yeah, go ahead. Which, if you were on top of things, you would have brought this up, but.

Well, I only looked at a few so far.

Okay.

The commentary that Paul gives is the one because it's what's really and I'd look at the Septuagint now on this, but it says he lived captive, a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. That's how Paul is interpreting it.

So, even though it's not found originally in the text, I don't think so linguistically, that's how Paul sees it.

Now the question then is, is he using the Septuagint? At this point. And that's what I'd be curious about. Yeah. And the gift is domestic.

Wait, sorry, say that first part again. What was the first part? that you should have known this? No, after that. You said the first part.

You know, the baby came in and I drew a blank. What did you say? What was your with the Paul thing? What were you saying? Yeah, Paul the Apostle is the one.

He quotes it 66.18. 68.18. When He set it on high, let Kativ a host of Kathas, and He gave gifts to men.

So, uh So It does not look like This is really interesting now. Because what 6618 says, you have received gifts among men, you have received gifts among men. You have received gifts among men.

That's what it that's what the NESB says. What is the uh let's see? Where is he quoting that? S the first you told me. No, no, no, it's because Paul quoted it.

Yeah, Psalm 68. Yeah, in Ephesians 4.8. Oh, for it, okay. Um So let me go back let me look at a little bit of research here.

So uh I didn't know you were in seminary. Which seminary are you going to go? Oh, that's right. You're going to John Fran, where John Frayn was. That's the way it part.

That's right. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going. No, we use some of the materials. I'm going to Reformed Baptist Seminary.

Reformed Baptist, they're pretty good. They should be Reformed Presbyterian, but they're not. Yeah, they're okay, right? Yeah, we're not so bad. I guess not.

That's right. So let's see. The ESV, you're training and receiving gifts among men. King James received gifts for men. The Uh R S V.

receiving gifts among men, receiving gifts from among Humankind, L E B. Interesting. And so when Paul references it, he interprets it as he gave gifts to men. In Ephesians 4:8.

So now the question is: what are those gifts?

Now, the Greek word is domata. And let me just do a really quick search: 1390 on my. Holly Bibble program. 1390. It occurs four times.

If you know how to give good gifts to your children, Matthew and Luke say that. Ephesians 4:8 and Philippians 4:17. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek the profit coming from your account.

So. Yeah, it's interesting. You know? Yes.

So what's the con so Psalm you have Psalm sixty eighteen, you receive you would have received gifts.

So that's a messianic about Christ. He received gifts. Then Paul quotes the same thing, but he says that he's giving gifts Yeah. Why would he do that? That's the question.

Well, because God instructed him to do it through inspiration. That's the why.

Now, what does he mean by it?

Well, It could be. Let me just throw something out. Could it be? That the Father or the Spirit gave gifts for the Church. To Christ to give to us.

I just a thought. What's interesting is last night, we have once a month Bible study here. We went over the Holy Spirit, and I began with going through an in-depth doctrine of the Trinity, then getting into the Christology, then pneumatology. And then at the end of all of that, we talked about application. And normally we have, do we do a one-hour to one hour and 15-minute study?

This was two hours. People were interested in it. And we talked about the charismatic gifts, and I believe they're all for today still. And I gave the answer, why, and stuff like that. But that wasn't real focus.

The focus is: you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit. Oh, now I got to check this out.

Now hold on a sec. This is uh Acts 2.38. What the word is getting is Doron there. Let's see the gift. I think it's yeah, it is from Doraon, from Doran.

And so there's Dorma, the Doma, Domati. Doran and Kharismati.

So uh So, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So, what's the gift of the Holy Spirit? It is the movement of the charismatic gifts. That's what that is. I'm really convinced of that because of what Acts 2:38 says, Acts 10:44 through 48, the context of both of them. It's the movement, speaking in tongues, glorifying God.

This is something that the Holy Spirit does.

So here's something we were talking about last night: The Father elects. I'm trying to find a better word than the third case here, the third word. The Father elects, the Son redeems, and the Holy Spirit empowers.

Okay, so we have election, redemption, and empowering. And I'm trying to find a T-I-O-N word to make the, you know, I gotta research it to make it sound better. But uh where the Father elects, the Son redeems, the Holy Spirit empowers.

Now, here's something to think about. We are comfortable, particularly as Reformed individuals, saying election, predestination, redemption, I get it, I understand it. But the empowering of us in the work of ministry. By the work of the Holy Spirit in the charismatic area, people don't want to get into because it's too risky and it's too messy. And so I think a lot of people just exegetically exegetical jenga, you know, let's see if this works, pull this out, put this, make, you know, try and get things to stand as they remove what I think is exegetical necessities.

So What I'm thinking is um That these gifts to men Uh it's to the church. Not just everybody, but there's a church. And we have administrations. There's six human-powered gifts and ten spirit-powered. The nine are found in 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14.

You can go through in Romans 12, you can go through and you can count the charismatic gifts, and there's nine. The tenth is salvation because Romans 6:23 says the free gift of God is eternal life. The word gift is charismati, so it's charismatic.

So that's what it is. And so it's a spirit-empowered work. And which is still going on in the church today, and should be. But if the gifts are all ceased, then I'm going to ask the question: the gifts that He gave to men. Are they retracted?

Are they Taken back? What are those gifts? And if it's the charismatic gift, which seemed to be consistent with Acts 2 and Acts 10, and in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says, do not lack any charismatic gift while you're waiting for the return of Jesus. Up to that time of Christ.

So here's the question. You listen you get Psalm sixty sixty eight uh 18 really opens this door up. Because is he talking about just the gift of sacrifice? or gets a prophecy. Or the gift of um The apostles.

Yeah, I get where you're going. Yeah, I get where you're going. So you could do apostolic sign gift division of analysis. You could do general gifts like administrations and helps and things like that, which anybody can do, and they're not charismatically operated, then you have the charismatic gifts. Then, if you do that and you're going to a Baptist seminary, they probably aren't going to like that exegetical leaning if you did that.

That's why they kept talking about me for 20 years after I got out of seminary. Hey, buddy, there's a music.

Okay.

Gotta get going, babe.

Okay, all right, I'll see you, bud. Hi. All right, say hi to the wife.

Okay.

Yeah. Everybody will 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.

All right, everybody, welcome back to the show.

Next longest-waiting person is Jeff from Maryland, then Carl from Ohio.

Okay, Jeff, you're on. Hey, good evening. How are you doing, sir? Dude, all right, hanging in there. Hanging in there.

What do you got, man? Good, praise God. Yes, sir.

So I had a question about Uh what does the Bible teach about the mark of the beast And how does the amillennial position differ from dispensationalism? Dispensationalism and non-millennialism are different categories. They are views of things, but. Uh What was the first question? Oh, the mark of the beast.

Yeah, sorry. Yeah, I guess what I meant to ask was: yeah, what does the Bible teach about the mark of the beast, and what does dispensationalism view the mark of the beast? Go ahead.

Okay.

So, the mark of the beast is a physical mark, apparently, physical. It goes to the forehead or the right hand, and it is a mark of. It signifies that you identify with and support and are in harmony with the coming political system run by the Antichrist. That's what it is.

Now the number of the beast is 666. What that means Is first of all, man was created on the sixth day. God's a Trinity. 1, 2, 3. Here we have 1, 2, 3.

We have 6es, 6, 6, 6.

Now in Greek, the letters are also numbers.

So when you write a word in Greek, like ichthus, the letters are also numbers. They're just the same set for both. And so when you write letters, you're also writing numbers.

So the word ichthus, which is fish, has a value of 1,224.

So that's what it is. So the name of the Antichrist, the letters of his name will add up to 666. That's what that is. So uh It's probably a physical mark.

Some say it may not be physical, it may be spiritual, and that's acceptable exegetically that there's a spiritual mark on the forehead and the right hand. But it says so that you can't buy or sell. That tells me more that it's just a spiritual mark, but that it is a physical something, a mark of the beast, a chip. Who knows what it is?

Some people say a tattoo, some people say an implanted little device like a credit card with a chip that's under it, it just puts under your skin or your forehead, and that's it. Because the right hand or the forehead, right hand is significant, maybe, because in Islam, when you are. You steal, they cut off your right hand.

So, some think that it might have something to do with that, where Islam will be accepted into it. They will join under it. They're looking for the Mahdi, which is their description that fits the Antichrist. But, anyway, so all this is kind of connected together. That's one issue.

Dispensationalism is a view that should be contrasted with covenantalism. Dispensationalism and covenantalism are contrasted, not with Amil.

Okay? I can go into those if you want, but go ahead.

Okay.

Yeah, I was just asking to see if Because I know I'm a little bit familiar with the premillennial dispensational view of eschatology, like the seven-year tribulation and stuff like that. Which I affirm. Go ahead.

Yeah. I affirm it and I'm all mil.

Okay.

Yeah. Okay.

Some on now is a firm, some do not. Yes.

Go ahead, sorry. Yeah, yes.

So do some you're good. Does some um millennialists view like um the mark of the beast like some do they believe it happened in the past or at a different time period? That would be what's called full praetorism. And it's an eschatological position, but it says that the fullness of the prophecies with the arrival of the Antichrist, etc., was fulfilled by 70 AD. with the destruction of the of the temple.

The partial pre-terrist view would say that was fulfilled then, and there will be another fulfillment completely and totally at the return of Christ. That would be partial preterism. And it's kind of similar to a futurist view. That all those events basically are future, and how you interpret them, and that this generation will not pass away. Is that generation spoken of at the end of the age?

Because in Matthew 24:3, they said, They asked Jesus, What is the sign of your coming and the end of the age? And there's three things that they ask for. And I don't think a lot of people get that. But at any rate, there's a lot here. You're asking questions that just touch a lot of issues.

You know? Yeah, yeah, it's um it's interesting. And I know there's some varying views and stuff like that. And I'm starting to get into eschatology a little bit. But yeah, this helps, man.

I really appreciate it. And I know you got to go. One more thing. I would like to ask just one more quick question. Sure.

Luke 1:15. Are you familiar with that verse? I will be in a few seconds. Uh for he will be great in the sight of the Lord, he will drink the wine no wine or liquor, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb. Yes.

Okay, so this is talking about John the Baptist. Mm-hmm, yeah. Um have you ever used um this verse in defense of reformed theology. When it says that John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit, even in his mother's womb. It's not Reformed theology that I would use that for.

I would use it for the idea of the movement of the Spirit and within people, and people could be saved while in the womb.

Okay.

That's what I would do. Why, what are you looking for? If you want something to support what particular view, or what do you want?

Well I I I know I've I've always pointed to this first whenever I'm in the context of talking about like You know, regeneration of the Holy Spirit and stuff like that. Because I believe, you know, the same way you do, I believe that. God's the one that grants saving faith to the elect. And I also believe that he can also do that to infants or even those in the womb. And I think that's a great verse to support that idea.

Sure. And also, Psalm 22:9. You are the one who brought me forth from the womb you made me trust when upon my mother's breasts. Psalm 22:9. You made me trust while I was still nursing, is what he was saying.

So I use that one, too.

Okay.

Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, good stuff. All right, buddy. Hey, thanks, man.

I really appreciate it. God bless. God bless. All right, okay.

Now, next longest waiting is Carl from Ohio. Carl, welcome. You're on the air. Good evening. I heard something from two theologians whom I Totally respect.

Um but this alarm went off of me.

So he said that or they said that um Okay, everybody's name.

Well, it's really about the omniscience of God, Him being all-knowing, all-knowing.

Okay, God is all-knowing. Like, is he all-knowing or is He partially all-knowing?

So, they said that. Everybody's name is written in the book. Yeah, yeah, I'm being sarcastic. They say everybody's name is written in the book of life, and then when they die rejecting Christ, then their name is blotted out.

So I said, okay, so God doesn't know whose name is going to remain in until they die. and then their name is blotted out. Is that true or false?

Well, it's logically possible.

Now, when I say logically possible, we're saying it's possible because there's no inherent self-contradiction within the statements.

So, but something that's logically possible doesn't mean it's true.

So, it could be. Excuse me, it could be that. The name is is in the book uh and it is a reference to the way that varying cities and towns back in the ancient Near East would keep people and when they're when they died, they crossed the name out. Couldn't erase it because their ink is stuck. They would cross it out.

So their name was blotted out, so to speak, crossed out. And it doesn't mean it exists anymore. It could be an allusion to that. It could be that it's just a reflection of final judgment. Of those sort of laws.

So there's different ways of looking at it. When people go to this verse and then they try and make absolute valuable doctrines out of it, I say, no, you can't do that because there are logical possibilities, exegetically possible, that also could be the case. And so you may lean towards one and map it in accord with other verses, but you've got to be careful by just making an assertion on something that's very symbolic. Yeah, because it made me think that, okay, God doesn't know who's going to be in until they die. And who's going to be out?

I'm like, well, is he all-knowing?

So object to Christ. That's what I'm saying. They rejected Christ when they die, and now he's saying, okay.

Okay, well, hold on. Look, this kind of stuff irritates me, not you. This kind of thinking really bothers me. You ask him this question.

Okay, so God doesn't know who's going to really be his or not, and death wits away to the blot him out of the book of life later.

Okay, so then did Jesus bear their sin? Yes.

Well, which sins did he impute? But his nose.

Well, how could he not know? It's dumb. Now you're undermining the nature of the atonement. And you have to abandon penal and substitutionary atonement. You have to go into something like the recapitulation or the Christus Victus theory, which just basically is a leaking sieve of theological oopses.

Okay, okay. All right.

mister Sleep, that's all I need to know. You have a great evening. You two, brother. God bless. All right.

Okay, now, who's next longest waiting? That'll be Germain from North Carolina. Jermaine, welcome, you're on the air. Hey, but a man just uh Wanted to ask you about all the uh Muslims and I see some Jews as well. come into fake recently Oh.

I I know you've had many encounters with these folks, but I was just curious. Hold on, man. Particularly with the Muslims.

Sorry, we got a break. This is a good topic. We're going to get on after this because of the break.

So hold on, brother. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages. I hope you want to still listen. Please stay tuned. Be right back.

It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody, welcome back to the show.

Let's get back on with Jermaine. Hey, Jermaine, you're back on, buddy. All right, Matt. Yeah, the topic I wanted to discuss was I know it's a lot of Muslims and Jews coming to faith, but It seems like with um with some of the Jews it's pointing to Jesus that they they didn't recognize as Messiah And then with the Muslims, I find something in particular of A lot of them who've never met each other Seem to proclaim that they've had visions and dreams of Jesus and things that intrigued them. I know a lot of people are necessarily used to hearing that.

But when you start to see a trend It just makes me wonder what's going on. And I see a lot of people who some even maybe near deaf experiences or or just visions, whatever way God's reaching them. Why in particular Just for the Muslims, why do you think, as so many of them would be having these dreams and visions, like, why would God use that method? Sure. Because a lot of times, if they have a Bible or they meet someone evangelizing them, they can be killed because of the.

Oppression and violence that's inherent in Islam. It's not a religion of peace, it's a religion of violence. Go to Psalm 9. I mean, not Psalm 9, but. Surah 9 for that.

which is uh I think it's the second and the last server. Written. But anyway, so they're having visions and dreams by the thousands and thousands. I've known this for years. Al Jazeera has stated it.

Iran has the biggest underground Christian church. and all of the Middle East. In Iran, there's an oppressive regime. Where people are, I've got to be careful because there might be children at this time coming home with their mom and dad or whatever out, but where bad things happen to people according to Islamic law. Executions of varying kinds with varying genders, that a particularly fairer one.

And so they see a great deal of oppression and they're disillusioned. And so they're crying out and they're open to God and they're having visions and dreams of Jesus. By the thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands. I've heard that 50,000 churches, not churches, excuse me, mosques have shut down in in uh in Iran. Seriously, it's huge.

It's not being talked about in our news at all, but it's happening all over the place. Yeah, plus, you know, don't forget, they have access to different kinds of satellite TV, like ABN SAT TV.

So I used to work with them quite a bit and do some TV stuff with them. And they would send out their TV stuff over different airwaves, not like CBS, ABC kind of stuff, Channel 7 channel, whatever it is, but it goes over these short bands, these long bands, whatever it is, systems, ABN SAT TV. And they go out. And so people can get this stuff. And they can listen on pirated radios, for example, or varying things.

And then there's ways. For Muslims to get around the bans of certain websites, like my website is banned in some Muslim countries.

Well, there's ways to get around that with VPNs and the MudderTech stuff.

So I mean they're they're they're working it. You know? Okay.

Okay.

And in the case of the the Jews, I noticed that A lot of them and even over in Israel they'll have they'll have people preaching and sp and Especially when it comes from one of their own who speaks the language and who grew up, you know. As I was some form of of Jewish faith, but I take it for granted. We just hear the gospel all the time, but there were people on the streets that actively never. those scriptures were talking about the Messiah already come or they're still waiting for something. Um Is this like kind of I mean, that is kind of a I guess a silly question, but Is this just a spiritual blindness that people even in this day and age are just full of sense of who price is.

Well, don't forget, you know, there's a spiritual blindness that's put over Israel until the time of the Gentiles, and that's in. in Romans 11, 25, 26. But I have a friend, Trevor Rubinstein, and he is telling me he already has told me that there are a lot of Jews becoming Christians. Lots, more now than ever before. In fact, when I was in Jerusalem last time, we went to a place.

Where they had three, four, five, six acres. I don't know exactly how big it was, but maybe ten acres or so, I guess. Where it was a reconstruction of the biblical times back in the time of Christ. and they had uh people whose job it was was to dress up uh in that period style clothing and then tend sheep. And they would do a little bit of gardening.

And they had a woman in a uh A shop making weaving or doing pots, or something, I forgot which, because they're different things that we're doing. And they're just doing it in period style, and we'd walk by and they'd ask questions. I mean, we'd ask questions of the workers and the people there, and they spoke great English. And they're Christians. And they're Jews.

And so we saw this, you know, it was great. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I've had friends who are actually they're they're Messianic Jews and Things like Weinstein and and Rubenstein and They're believers and they've been ostracized and punished for that, but But with them, they recognize Jesus right away.

So I guess you can't always judge. you know by a timetable 'cause the Some of these people are serving. in Christian churches and they're you know, they're still getting it from their family, but they're still preaching to them as well.

So Yeah, that's true. You know, God reaches people in his own time. That's right. And and Trevor he's he's told me that it's just a Magnificent, what's happening? People come into Christ, and what he does is he answers questions.

Another thing he does is around. the the Easter celebration and communion and stuff like this, celebration stuff, churches will have him come out and he will do a seder. and he will go through and explain step by step And he's good. And he came up not too far from here. And so my wife and I went a couple of years ago.

And watched him do a satyr and said, Hey man, how are you doing, buddy? And stuff like that. And he did a great job, you know.

So the seder points to Christ.

So there are a lot of Jews coming to faith. A lot of Jews. Yeah. Sorry, you know, you you know, I would just say finally with the um With the Muslims, I've noticed in particular, and some of the Jews as well, and I guess you can say almost any. other religion that comes knocking on your door I think uh I see the problem As far as conversing, I find a lot of Muslims are willing to converse with people.

Yes, they are. There's so many. There are so many Christians. At least westernized that Don't literally know anything about their Bible. And it's kind of embarrassing at times.

People that should know. You know, I I just feel you're doing a disservice to folks if you don't even know what's in your own book, then you've been. carrying it around and sitting there for decades. And uh you you I mean Well, I wouldn't name names, but I know people who couldn't find The Gospels And and it's like, hey, it's the first few books. Yeah.

Yeah, I think that as believers, we should study hard and at least be ready to have the conversation. I agree. And one of my goals is to equip Christians. Equip Christians and reach the lost.

So that's it.

Something simple. Teach the truth. and uh hope that uh Christians can be equipped to do work. That's what a pastor's job is supposed to do. He's supposed to equip the Christians for the work of ministry.

And I wish Christians had that attitude that they were on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ and wanted to witness for Him. I don't understand how anybody can't be on fire for him and wanting to do that. Yeah. Anyway, yeah.

Well, that yeah, that's that's another question for next week if uh you know, the more we'll get so. That's right. God bless you, buddy. Have a good week there, Matt. You too, Jermaine.

God bless, buddy. God bless. All right, I'll be praying for this upcoming thing you got coming up.

Okay.

Thanks. You reminded me of something, so I'm going to ask something on the air here. Hey, folks, just really fast.

So we have a Friday meeting with the ministry every Friday. And uh people from uh Colombia and one guy from Colombia, one guy from Brazil, a guy from Mozambique, another guy f uh from uh Nigeria, we have people in different states here in the country and things like that. We get together. And we talk. And this morning, Our guy from Nigeria said that he and two pastors are going to be going to an area that is risky.

And they're going to preach the gospel there. And there's some known problems in the area because of Muslims.

So uh I'm just going to ask that you'd pray for him. God knows who He is, what His name is. And just ask that the Lord would bless him and the two pastors because they're going next week. Wednesday, I think it is, and maybe the day before after. But anyway, and pray that God would anoint them, God would protect them, God would guide them, the people would come to faith.

And he's out there preaching and teaching the gospel. And working against the false teachings of you gotta be good to be saved and you gotta do good works to keep yourself saved and stuff like this. He's teaching the true gospel out there. Please pray for him, all right?

Well, and uh. God knows who he is. Just lift him up. All right.

Okay.

Let's get to Alberto in Georgia. Alberto, welcome. You are on the air. One quick question. Why shouldn't it be fair for the gay community target heterosexual community preaching the street corners like we do to their community?

No, it's not fair. They should do the same thing. Yeah, listen to me, why? But why you should? Because we if we expose that we try to expose their sin, they have a right to expose our sins too.

It's only fair. Right?

Now I understand.

Well, fairness, as long as they're not violent, they have the right to protest. But if they want to talk about fairness, fairness is based on what is right.

Now what standard of righteousness do they have? None. They just have their own subjective preferences, feelings, and desires. That doesn't make anything. Yeah, but the same thing, when Christians target their community, Christians are not perfect either, they can make sense too.

Right?

It's only fair, right? I'm not sure. I'm not sure what you're trying to get at. It's fair. But see, I think, I just don't think it's a surface-level thing.

I think, well, what's fairness based on and what justifies the idea of fairness? That's how I think. And so if that the alphabet mob wants to start criticizing people, they'd have to do it based on an internal critique, not an external critique. In order for it to be valid. In other words, they'd have to attack Christians based on what the Bible says about Christians, what Christians are to do.

That would be a valid critique. But they can't have a valid critique based on their own Uh immoral preferences.

Okay.

Yeah, but yeah, but but you you just target the moral preferences. But what about all the things we commit? Smoking, drinking, dusting. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. You said smoking, it may or may not be a sin.

Drinking, by definition, is or is not a sin. God even says in Psalm in Proverbs 31:6, give strong drink to the man who's perishing, wine to the one who's in distress. Jesus drank, so it's not automatically a sin. I'm just saying you're going to be more specific here.

Okay, what about men beating their wives up? Christian men watching porn. Yeah, yeah, that would be bad. And the other anybody would have the the natural right to point out the hypocrisy.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

I suppose I will we want to quick question real quick or not? Sure, real f uh. We're out of time. Oh, no, the music's gonna start any second now. I didn't even realize what late time it was.

There's the music. We're out of time, brother.

So God bless. Hey, okay? All right, man.

Boy, I I caught up on you fast. May the Lord bless you by His grace. We'll be back on the air on Monday. I hope you have a good weekend. May the Lord bless you.

All right, don't forget to pray for our guy out there in Nigeria. Exciting the gospel. Everybody. Have a good evening and um See you Monday. Another program powered by the Truth Network.