Matt Slick Live

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Okay. It's Matt Slick Live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry, found online at carn.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.

Oh, there we go. Everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. Listen to Matt Slick Live. If you want to give me a call, as usual, 8772072276.

All right.

Now. I'll be going to uh Kannapolis, North Carolina. Uh I'll be be there on the 15th. 14th and 15th, I'll be speaking on Islam. But they, because I'm a very doctrine in mind, I'm going to be doing a contrast between Christianity and Islam, and it has to be Friday for an intro level, and then a deeper level on Saturday, the same topic.

And then we're going to be doing panel discussions, Friday nights, Saturday, and dinner discussions and things like that.

So we're going to meet a lot of people. If you are interested in checking it out, you can go to ministry to Muslims.com. The word two, not the number two, ministry to muslims.com and check it out there. All the information is there. I put it on a calendar, but uh, I don't, our calendar isn't, I don't know, it just uh isn't kind of clicking right.

Um, so if you go there, you see all kinds of radio stuff instead of the the calendar thing. And I'll work on that later.

So, uh, there's that, and um, I have no callers waiting right now.

Now, I released a couple of articles today. I'm going to go over a little bit of something. I released a couple articles. One was a taxonomy. of world views.

Now, what the heck is that? A taxonomy is a Yeah. A way of categorizing things, a taxonomy of animals. You might have mammals, you might have amphibians, you might have fish, those kinds of things. Those are broad categories.

And the reason I wrote a worldview of taxonomy is because of the article that I released: Facts and Intelligibility Must Be Grounded in the Trinitarian God.

Now, I'm probably going to be talking about this on On our discussion of Islam, when I get into the more advanced stuff, I'm going to have a handout, that's a plan, a handout, and go through some things.

Now, What I want to do is go over it now a little bit. I want to introduce you, the listeners, to some sophisticated kind of argumentation, but I'm going to see if I can break it down to the average Joe, to see if I can make it make sense to you.

Now there are some difficult concepts, but you know my goal is to make them easy, to make them make sense. That's the goal.

So that's what I'm going to try and do, and I'm going to introduce a few concepts. One of that's interesting. Dynamic rubble is not working. Not working there. That's interesting.

Why would S not working? Uh Okay, we'll just leave that alone. or that saw this one. And maybe you guys can try and figure out the rumble connection, why it's not working that well. I don't know what's going on.

Anyway, okay, so here we go. There is a metaphysical question. This question is twenty five hundred years old. I'm going to lay the foundation of this question out, and then I'm going to introduce a concept. Um And I think it's an interesting concept.

I ran it by somebody today who's philosophically minded, and he said, Yeah, you need grease. I like to do that every now and then just to see if I'm missing something, possibly, you know, just things like that. But anyway.

So there's this problem called the one and the many. I've mentioned it before on the radio, but let me kind of go over it. It's just a an issue based out of a question. What is the ultimate nature of reality? Simple question.

And This problem or this issue has been raised and discussed in philosophical and apologetic circles for 2,500 years.

Now The Christian Trinitarians have a solution to it. I'll tell you what the problem is here in a second. We have a solution to it. And I was thinking about the solution, I was thinking about something else. and I'm going to apply it a different little bit different way.

But nevertheless, here it goes.

So the problem of the one and the many is out of the question: what is the ultimate nature of reality? If the ultimate nature of reality is one thing, it's one or many. then there's a problem. It would mean there's no distinctions between objects like chairs and trees, because they'd all be one thing. That would mean then that what we're perceiving really isn't distinct.

It's just what we're receiving. What we're seeing. And but if everything's one, then chairs and trees are all one substance.

Well, how does that work? And so you can see there's problems with it. If, on the other hand, it's mini, That the universe is comprised of many things, or a plurality. Then There's another problem that arises. We've lost the unity.

and coherence between the particulars.

Now let me explain.

So let's say we're sitting in a church, and there's 100 chairs in this church, and we're sitting in the, or we're standing behind 100 chairs in a church, you and me. You and I are standing there. We're discussing this topic, and I point out the chairs, and I say, See, we have 100 chairs. And we recognize the chairs because each chair is a particular a particular, it's a thing. It's a particular manifestation of a concept.

called it Cherniss.

So Chair Nissan. Yes. There. and the idea of particular chairs are there.

So there could be treeness. and particular trees.

So this isn't a big deal. We get the idea, but in philosophy, metaphysics, in Christian thought. These kinds of things are discussed.

So Let's just look at it. Let's say this one, the idea of chairness is the unifying principle of everything.

Well, that wouldn't make any sense because there's treeness and chair-ness, and we have a problem. One thing, one essence is confusing. We have distinctions between chairs and trees.

Alright, well, if that means then chairs and trees, we'll just use those two as an example. Or the ultimate, what that means is that that's what the nature of the universe is: is different things. Then how are they related? Because if they're not related somehow. Then we We're confused.

If there's no way to relate them, Then What are they? Are these things independent of each other? And these Problems relate to truth values. You see Truth requires a subject predicate kind of a thing. I am talking to you.

True. I am male. True. I am an elephant. False.

Statements have the value of truth. They can have truth or not have truth value. And so When we talk about coherence, we're talking about truth. and truth makes sense.

So if I say um I am looking at the tree. or I am sitting on the chair then there's a distinction between myself and the other object. And so we can have truth values, we have truth statements, because there's a distinction. But if everything is one thing, then there's no distinction in truth. uh collapses.

We don't have any way to demonstrate truth. And if everything is separate, like a chair and me are completely ident uh different in essence. then how is it that they have any relationship to each other if you're completely different? And these are the kinds of questions that the metaphysicians have gone through over and over and over for 2,500 years trying to.

Solve this.

So let me state it again. If the ultimate nature of reality is one thing, then there are no distinctions between objects, like chairs and trees, because they would all be one thing. This leads to incoherence and undermines truth values as they relate to particulars, like statements. If plurality is ultimate, then we've lost unity and coherence between particulars, and reality becomes a set of unrelated items, and this also undermines coherence and truth values. This is out of my notes.

Now Here's an issue. Only the Trinity solves this problem. The Trinity is a teaching that in one God there are three persons.

So instead of the ultimate being one or many, the ultimate is equally one and many. The Christian Trinity is one God in three persons. Three persons is the one God. The one God is three persons.

Well, this is really interesting because it's only in the Christian Trinitarian view that we have the one and the many as equally ultimate. as a foundational principle.

Well, with that then, See, we have intelligibility. The Trinity is necessary precondition, for intelligibility, making sense of things. because every non Christian world view Ultimately, reduces to ether Unity or diversity, one or the many, and that's the critical point I want to get to. Thank you. The Trinity solves a problem of the one and the many, because metaphysical discussions can only look at one or many, not equally ultimate, because they don't have a grounding for that.

But we do in the Trinity, God is one and many equally, so we have a grounding in Him. Therefore, there's no distinction between those, no separation. We have coherence in that God is the unifying, so to speak, principle of all truths. But he's also the one who demonstrates distinctions through his knowledge and through manifestations of his created order.

So the Trinity can lay this groundwork for intelligibility. But because a Trinity alone is Christian, it means that all other worldviews must fall either into one or many. If it's the case that they fall into one or many, then all other worldviews are incoherent. and undermine truth values. This is a simple point I'm making.

I may want to go over this in our conference. It might be too much for people. It just depends on how confident I can feel on being able to convey these concepts. And get them to people.

Now, is it useful?

Well, for the average Joe, not really. You have to know the concepts of particulars, the one and the many, essence, things like that, and know how to relate them. But in some of the circles that I I swim around in, There are people who will raise these kinds of issues. And they will do so because the Christians can, for the most part, answer most every objection.

So now they're going to philosophical Uh objections. And issues trying to show problems with the logical coherence of the Trinitarian doctrine, because we are offering the Trinity as a necessary precondition for intelligibility, so now they're attacking the Trinity. And they're getting into various things like indexicals and predication, is of identity, is of predication, and uh um And then the equality of identity among the members, all this stuff. They really get some sophisticated stuff. There are people who argue about this.

Well, I like to get into that kind of discussion.

So let me review this. Only the Trinity provides the foundation for making sense of things. because it is one in many equally. All other world views reduce reality to either one thing Unity. or many things.

a diversity of pluralism. And so the one thing idea, called monism, that's another word for it, erases real distinctions. And pluralism, there's many things, fragments reality into incoherence.

So The one just compresses everything into one thing, but then does it make sense to have distinctions? But the other view, the many, just says everything's not related. by one essence, so that we have incoherence in both views. The charity solved it. Anyway.

That's what I've been thinking about for days. And I wrote an article and released it. You can go check it out on the Carm homepage. And we'll be right back after these messages. If you want to give me a call, no one's waiting.

877. Mm-hmm. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Alright, everyone, welcome back to the show. Hope that stuff I was talking about earlier was interesting, not too confusing. I like this kind of stuff, and I need to know it because of the circles that I venture into, apologetically. All right, let's get to Ryan from Calgary. You're right.

Welcome. You're on the air. Hi Matt, how are you? Hanging in there, man. Hanging in there.

What do you got, buddy? I was just wondering, in the. There's so much strife, it seems like, between. Um Like when you bring up Calvinism, so I try not to use that word with people, I try to use the doctrines of grace or sovereignty of God. Good.

But um people think we're And maybe I have been in the past a little bit where you've seen that cage stage, you know, that people talk about just because of the passion that you have. Because once your eyes are open to it, it's like you can never not see it again. Once you're reading scripture, It's just everywhere to me now.

So, right. Um, I was just wondering, though, like, I watched uh, we did a Bible study group at one of the brothers' houses and. He had this movie on called, um Oh, I think it was called Amazing Grace, and it had a lot of a lot of older theologians, a lot of them are past now, like RC Sproll and James D. Kennedy and a whole bunch of different guys. And they were talking about the differences between Arminianism and Calvinism, and it just seems like.

Um the Armenianism is so close almost to to work. Like it's that fine line to me, but I don't still think that those brothers are are like heretical. Um Would you agree with that? Yeah, yeah, they're not heretical. We don't, I, I, you know, I was saved as an Arminian and um It didn't become a good idea.

Yeah, I didn't become Christian when I became reformed and understood what I believe are the better doctrines of grace. Espouse there. It's kind of interesting that you bring this up. I was on TikTok last night doing a live, it's called a live session.

Okay. He Was talking about the evils of Reformed theology, evils of Calvinism, and I said, well. Let's talk about it. I mean, you know, and I was explaining stuff to him, and I said, most people, what they'll do is they will misrepresent Reformed theology. You know, say God it makes God the author of evil, or we have no free will.

And I say, No, that's nin none of these are true. It's not our position. It's not what we're teaching. And he asked me questions, and I responded with scripture repeatedly. I said, Well, this is what this says here.

And he actually goes, Wow, you know. Yeah, that's what it says. And I said, Yeah, it's just what it says. And so, you know, and I told him, I said, look, I don't care if you're reformed or not, it doesn't bother me. The issue is, are you a true Christian?

And I said, but at least I want you, if I tell people, I just want you to understand we have good reasons for what we teach and why we teach it. And it's right there.

So much based in scripture. But it's really interesting how much people hate the sovereignty of God. Oh yeah, I agree. It is. I I'm trying to gently like even like sorta just show it to my wife 'cause like um I just I'm just I just think it opens up more um understanding, I guess, in that way than like the Arminian view, because the Arminian view seems to limit God's sovereignty to me.

From what I hear people, because they can't, like, certain people ask questions when we have conversations and then, but why does this? And I'm like, but if you believed. God's truly sovereign, you could actually answer this. It might not make you like the answer, but at least it would answer it. You know what I mean?

And I don't know.

So I just try to be gentle and and gracious, but sometimes it's I don't know. It's just it's just I guess I wanna share it because it's yeah, I don't know, it makes Yeah. I've had so many discussions. Oh, well, yeah, because that's what Ephesians 1:11 says. He works all things after the counsel of his will.

I've met antis before, and I've said, Well, do you believe that God works all things after the counsel of his will? And they won't answer the question. Because I say, according to Ephesians 1:11, do you believe he does? And they won't answer. Because if they say yes, I go, Welcome to Reform Theology.

You know, that's what we teach. It's right there. And so many times they won't answer it. I've even had cases, many cases, where I've said, well, that's not what form theology teaches. And they say, yes, it is.

And I say, well, no, it's not. We don't teach that. Oh, yes, you do. And I'm like, where'd you get this? Oh, it's common knowledge.

Yeah.

Well, do you have any documentation? No, it's all everybody knows it. And I said, well, look, I have a master's of divinity from a Calvinist seminary. I know what it teaches. And they say, oh, now you're just boasting.

Like, dude, you know. I'm just telling you, I'm qualified to tell you. I'm trying to do it sometimes. Yeah.

I'm just trying to tell you I know what it is, and that's not what it is. And if I tell you why I know I'm qualified, then you just attack that. I mean, sheesh.

So there's just a lot of people. Yeah, we can kind of. No. Just a lot of people who hate the idea that God is sovereign and they're not. And then they've been brainwashed by some wackos to think who get in there early and say, Yeah, Calvinism says there's no free will, it's all determinism, and God hates everybody.

And no, it's not what we teach.

So yeah. Uh-huh. And uh i actually you touched on that. Do you have a minute if I go into the free row a little bit? Sure, go ahead.

Okay. 'Cause I was wondering, like, I would always say Um, like, correct me if I'm wrong, please. Um That w I would say we have a will, but it's not free in so much as to say that. It's either in bondage to sin or it's or it's been freed if we're truly born again by the Spirit. Then we can do, then we're actually able to repent and like believe and those things.

Whereas I think they would say, No, no, you can still do that on your own. And I'm like, but I don't see that in scripture. I see that God has, like, when He talks to Nicodemus. And he says the wind blows where it will. And so it is of the Spirit.

We don't know where it comes from, where it's going.

So it's a miraculous work that God does on our heart, right? That's amazing. I think that's, I don't know, I don't know how he does it. He's God. That's right.

He's a sovereign. And one of the things I'll do a lot of times is I'll quote scriptures and they'll agree and I'll go, welcome to Calvinism. I'll do it over and over and over. They get miffed. Because they go, that's not what it is.

Yes, it is. And, you know, I'll say, God grants that we have faith. They said, no, it never says that. Philippians 1:29, it's been granted that we believe, you know, and I'll, you know, I'll whip things in. I'll say, you know, I'll say, well, I believe that God appoints people to eternal life.

He goes, He would never do that. And I said, I'm just quoting Acts 13:48. And I'll do this repeatedly to the point where they don't want to. Yeah, many are appointed to eternal life. That's right.

That's right. As many as had been appointed, believed. Yes. Like, it says no one seeks for God, so what are we doing worshiping God in churches on Sunday then? If we're not no one seeks for God, we have to be changed.

So and it also says we're dead in sins. We're not like drowning or we're really struggling. We're dead.

So. We need to be alive again, which You know what Darminianism does is it offers something called prevenient grace. Prevenient grace is the grace that comes before that enables you to retain a neutrality between good and bad, and then it's up to you. And so they take the soda. It's not in the Bible.

I say it's in 2 Moronicals, or next to 2 hysterectomy. It's just not there. And so. Right. And I'll say, look, it just.

God's a sovereign one. Wha why why do you have a problem with that? And because the man-centered theology is so prevalent in scripture, I mean, it's not scripture, but it's a heresy, uh, in churches today. You know, they serve the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian surfer dude, you know, and yeah, it's up to you. Yeah.

That's right. And also I heard I heard such a great statement that I think um Like, kind of ends the debate in a way, not to win, but just to make it clear, kind of in a way, like.

Okay, if the Armenian would say, okay, there is a hell, and we'd be like, Yeah, amen, there is. That's the way God made it, and people go there, and will go there. And then also you say, Jesus died for Oh, sorry. There's a break.

Sorry, we just got a break.

Okay, no worries. I can answer all those objections. I've been doing it for 35 years. But hey, buddy, we got to go.

Okay, men? Call back if you want to talk more about it. All right.

Okay. Hey, folks, be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. It's the bottom of the hour. If you want to give me a call, the number is 8772-07-2276. And if you want to email me, you can do that as well. Send an email to info at carm.org, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G.

This 15th of August in two weeks, I'll be out in North Carolina speaking at a conference ministry to Muslims. I'll be Friday night. I'll be introducing the idea of a talk I'll be doing on Saturday in more depth: Christianity versus Islam.

So, if you are interested in attending that, and we'll have workshops, and we're going to have in-depth discussions on Saturday, lunch, and things like that, and maybe go out and dinner afterwards. If anybody's there, if you're in that area and you want to do that, that's fine. I'm going to be going up to Lord Welling to Winston-Salem maybe Monday night or Monday, whatever. And there was a pastor, I hate to say this, because I was going to go, then I wasn't going to go.

So, I didn't worry about some emails and stuff. And then things changed.

Now I am going.

So I lost some connection stuff.

So if there's that pastor in Lexington who wants me to come out, let me know. You know, contact me again at infocarm.org because I'll be driving right through there, going up to Winston-Salem and be getting a hotel probably in Concord, that kind of a thing. You know, I know you guys know the area. People have been telling me where to go and what to do. Let's get to Cole from Georgia.

Cole, welcome here on the air. Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, how are you doing? I'm doing all right. Hanging in there, man. So, what do you got, buddy? Um uh well, first of all, I want to say, um, on your trip to North Carolina, uh that God is glorified and that you have a prosperous uh time bringing out his words And that he, you know, that God is with you on that trip and souls.

Even if you get one person, you know, to card. That's glorious.

So I pray that you have a successful trip in the Lord over there. Amen.

Okay, my my question is uh 1 Kings chapter Chapter thirteen. Are you familiar with that chapter? Little bit, yeah. Mm-hmm. So what's up?

Now, I'm I'm gonna tell you what's confusing me. And it don't take much to confuse me, but you know. The the man of God, number one, they never named him. Danny, um Exactly. You know, God tells them to go down the road, don't go the same way you came.

And then this other man of God comes to him, an old older man, and he And he tells him a lie. Gets them to disobey God. Come back there and eat. Then the lion, you know, when he leaves the house, the lion meets him and kills him. But the lion don't it it doesn't kill the uh the donkey.

but it's just sitting nearby its body. Until the man that the old prophet that lied to him. come near and buried them. I mean, it's just I don't I don't get it. I don't get that chapter.

You don't get the chapter.

Okay. Well, what's the problem? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. Okay, but it's just a narrative.

So, what don't you get? What's the problem in there?

Okay. Okay, the biggest problem, okay, okay, God told him, don't go after he prophesied to the wicked king. And his his hand got withered and then he healed. He prayed to God and the God He uh healed the hand. And then the guy took off.

You know, he did what God told him to do. He took off. But then here comes this other prophet that lies to him. He really was a man of God, but he lied to him. That's confusing to me.

You mean it's confusing? Why? Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me see if I can understand the problem, okay?

So are you saying it's confusing that a uh two men of God, one would lie and one wouldn't? and that the other one who believed the lie got punished. Right. Okay. And the other one, he didn't, the one that lied, it seemed like he kept on going and he buried the guy that he lied to.

I'm confused about all that. I really am. That whole chapter. And then and then the guy, they didn't even name it, he didn't even. They didn't even have a name for the guy.

It just says man of God. You know, Elijah got a name. Elijah got a name. But this. I got you.

Yeah.

Okay. So, um,.

Well, it's a narrative, and all we can do is offer ideas.

So the first guy had a clear command from God. and he disobeyed it by listening to somebody else.

So he was judged. And the lion didn't destroy the body, just killed him, and didn't kill the donkey. uh it's signifying that it's just a judgment.

Okay. And the other guy, well, I'm not sure what happened. He just got away with it.

So When God directly speaks to you, He really was a man of God, but why is he lying if he's a man of God? Why is he lying? Yeah, that's a good question. Yeah, he did. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Hold on, you keep jumping in with one thing after a question, and you jump in with another thing else is in one big flow. Flow of questions, and so it's difficult to answer them all. At once.

Okay?

So let's do one at a time, all right?

Okay. Okay, so Like I said, first of all, the first prophet had a direct Command from God, he disobeyed that, even though he was deceived. He's still under judgment for disobeying God. You got that? Yeah.

Okay. And then the lion's judge the judgment of God was having the lion kill him for disobeying God.

Okay. Yeah, I got that.

Okay, and then The other guy, I don't know what happened to him, I don't know why he wasn't killed. Or was he wasn't uh you know disciplined. Maybe it's because he did not get a direct word from God like the other guy did. and was punished for not obeying the direct word.

So that's the only I could think of off the top of my head. Yeah, you know what? That's pretty good explanation. Yeah, I didn't think about that, but. That's actually pretty good.

It's about the best answer we can get from that. I see. Because the guy, he just wouldn't lie. God, you know, one way or the other, God didn't tell him to do nothing, but he just did it on his own, you know. But he did mention God.

He says, Oh, the Lord told me.

So he lied on God. Oh. Still confused about that capture. Yeah, I can't give you much more than that. Um That's about all I can do, okay?

Yeah, I call you with these periodically 'cause I'm this is this is where I get stuck. I'm reading a chapter a day, you know what I'm saying? And and whenever I get to a place I says, wait a minute, this is head scratching. And believe me, there's a lot of head scratching in the Old Testament. Yes, there is.

Just remember. Remember, a lot of it is just descriptive, not prescriptive. Like you'll have someone do something really bad, and it's recorded.

Well, it doesn't mean that it's approved of, it just means it's recorded. And so it's descriptive, not prescriptive. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking everything in the Old Testament is prescriptive, it's not.

So, what we have here is an account of something that was bad. The basic lesson I'm going to get out of it is if God tells you to do something directly, no one else a true prophet of God is never going to contradict that. It's just how it is. And the guy should have known that and he got punished for it. Showing it to judgment.

The lion who didn't. The only problem with that one, though, Matt, the only problem with that one. The Bible never says that this this prophet that lied to him wasn't a man of God. Yeah But um Yeah, that was something I just have to look into and see. That's all I can tell you.

Okay. That out, you know, check that out. I listen to you almost every day. If you could come up with something, read that chapter. and try to, you know, wiggle around in it and I don't know.

Why did they name the guy?

Well, maybe because they knew he was going to mess up and get killed.

So, what's the sense of naming him, huh? But they named all the wicked kings They got killed. I can't tell you the answer why they did or didn't. That's just what uh what it is that's written.

Okay. Oh, you know what? I just thought up and I'm going to leave you with this. Right after him, Elijah steps on the scene, the next chapter. Maybe he was supposed to be the original Elijah.

It says he messed up. Because he started off doing miracles and giving the word of God, and then he messed up and God replaced him with Elijah. Maybe, maybe, I don't know. I wouldn't assume anything, I would just go through and. Just read.

Okay. Oh, okay.

Well, I just like I like all these Bible I like these Bible studies in the Bible, man. I love it, man, because I you know, we're gonna yeah, I wonder when we get to heaven, you know, are we gonna be hanging out with these guys, you know? Maybe they're gonna maybe we're gonna automatically know what really went on and they might not explain it have to explain it to us. Because I'm gonna have a lot of questions. And it's going to start right in the Garden of Eden.

Now I'm gonna I'm gonna ask Adam and Eve, what were you thinking? Why did you get off of the tree of life? Where'd you go and mess with that tree for? God didn't tell you to mess with it, but here you were. He ain't with the tree alive.

Yes. They had that chance. They had a good chance to do that, and they didn't do it. But anyway, God took the tree away. All right, man.

I'll call you when I get tricked up again. All right.

Sounds good. All right.

All right.

Well, God bless you. Wow.

Okay. So that's entertaining. Hey, if you want to give me a call, the number is 877-207-2276. We have three open lines. Be right back.

Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everyone, welcome back to the show. Last segment of the hour.

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So please consider supporting us. C-A-R-M.org forward slash donate. Thank you very much. Luke from Washington. Welcome.

You're on the air. Hi, man. How are you? Hanging in there, man. Hanging in there.

What do you got, buddy? So uh lot of questions, but I will ask you this start from What Satan means for evil, God means for good, and where is this evil comes from in the beginning? The devil. I'm not sure I understand. Are you there?

Hello? Hello? Yes. Okay. I'm not sure I understand your question, okay?

Are you there? No, the question is what Satan means for evil, God means for good, where is this evil come from? The devil. The devil does say that's you're quoting Genesis 50-20. All right.

So And it's in the context of Joseph and how Joseph was sold into slavery, and it worked out that he saved the Jewish people, the people of Abraham's house. Oh, through the famine that came for seven years. And so when it was disclosed how God had worked to save his family, he said, You meant it for bad for evil, but God meant it for good. That's really what it is, okay?

So that's Genesis 50-20.

So another question. What was Adam's age when he was born? His age when he was born was zero.

So that means he has a child infancy and all those No, you didn't ask that. He said he goes through infancy of death. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You didn't ask that. You said what was his age?

You didn't say his physical mature state. His age was zero because he was created, and right away, as soon as he's created, his age is zero. That's how many years he's living. We measure age by how many years.

Okay?

So, did he go through childhood, infancy? Did go Adam go through ch infancy in childhood? No. No. He didn't.

He was created mature and complete, just like God did with the created order. And I believe or I lean towards the idea that he was about 33 years old and in that mature state. And the reason I say that is because Jesus was crucified when he was 33. He's called the last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15, 45.

So I just draw a conclusion that it probably was related to that age. I can't prove it. I won't die in that hill. It's just something I lean towards. And I could be wrong, but that's.

Just you know all of the views, okay? And also one more question. They're talking about free will too much. But what is the distinction between free will and free choice and predestination? How is it related?

Free choice. When people ask you questions like this, you have to ask them to define their terms. I do this a lot. And I'll be talking with someone, and they'll say something. I'll say, what do you mean by that?

Because I think I may understand, but they may not, or vice versa. And so free agency and free will seem to be the same thing, but not necessarily.

So that's why I would ask, what do they see as a difference?

Okay. Are you there? Free choice and free will are different.

Well, they're different in spelling. Look, it just means the issue is: how do you define them?

Okay. So for free will and free agency, they're they're kind of inter interchangeable phrases.

So it just depends on what they're meaning.

Okay. Then what is free agency then? Free agency Well, it would depend on who's asking the question and what context, but generally speaking, Free will is just the ability to make choices. And a lot of people will say that God makes you neutral in your free will. Free agency.

is the the idea Could be the idea of just acting in a manner consistent with your desires. But both of these are interchangeable.

So you see it's just a little bit difficult to to really get into it very very much.

Okay. Are you there? Yes, sir. Yeah.

So I don't know. Those are different. Libertarian free will is different than compatibilist free will. Libertarian free will. kind of moves towards the idea that the human free will is neutral.

And that uh God really can't know exhaustively and determine your free will choices, otherwise, you're not free. Where compatibilism would say that God can exhaustively know your free will choices and you can make choices and are compatible with the sovereignty of God.

So uh compatibilism is the biblical position. Libertarianism is human philosophy imposed on the scripture. And the reason I say that is because Jesus is God, God has free will by definition. He's God in flesh, yet he said he could only do what the Father commanded him to do.

So he was, his freedom is compatible with the sovereignty of God.

Okay. Mm-hmm. Make sense? Uh yes. Thank you.

Yeah.

So when I have discussion, if someone were asking me, Matt, what's the difference between free will and free agency? I'd say, well, I would just go on the web and look. And see if the terms are used interchangeably, see if there's something that the questioner has just stumbled on that we're not aware of. they're generally they're used interchangeably. And I would just ask for clarification of the question or the intention of the question.

And then if if the if I need to, then I'll say, well, you know, let me go research it and I'll write an article on it or something like that.

So, you know, that's a kind of thing, okay? Do you have any article about free agency? I have stuff on free will, compatibilism, libertarianism.

Okay. You know, did Adam have free will? Things like that.

Okay. Okay, thank you.

Okay, it just depends on the context and how it's used.

Alright?

Okay. All right, well blessed. Hey, we have nobody waiting right now. If you want to give me a call on the last five minutes of the show, you can. It's easy.

eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. And we don't have any waiting.

So, what I'm going to do is just kind of get to some emails. Let's do that, jump right in. We haven't done any of those for a while. Let's see. How about this one?

I have exactly one hundred uh questions that have been emailed in, one hundred even.

Alright, so how about this one? What's the response to claims that many biblical teachings are borrowed from pagan religions preceding Christianity? I have a standard kind of approach for that. When someone says Christianity borrowed from other Other religions earlier, I'd say, well, then. You have two issues here.

How would you know that it did? Show me that that is the case. Show me that Christianity actually borrowed from it. Because Christianity is based out of the Old Testament. And it's the fulfillment of the Old Testament.

So, certainly, Christianity borrowed, so to speak, from the issue of Judaism. and the Old Testament. But in Christianity they're one and the same, as the same document of God. And the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament, and uh it it's there. And so the New Testament reveals and clarifies the Old Testament teachings.

So that's what we would say. Then there's another principle I'll ask people. I say, so does it mean though that an earlier An earlier, let's see, how do I say this? An earlier religion. Means that a later one, if they have similar issues, that means a literal, oh, wait, I think this right.

If one came early and there's similar. Teachings between them, then I asked them: Are you saying then that the later one borrowed from the earlier one? That's what I ask. Uh So And they they generally will say yes. And I say, well, then you've got a problem.

Because if you do some research on Chinese characters and Genesis, the book of Genesis. The reason I say this is because in Chinese characters, which is roughly 6,000 years old, That's before so many of the religious systems. I say, your principle is that the newer barred from the older.

Well, then. If you go to uh But you can go to just look up Chinese characters and Genesis. Chinese characters and Genesis. You'll find the article. It's on answersandgenesis.org.

I thought about doing another article, but it's already done. I mean, it's just a good article.

So, the ancient Chinese symbol for boat is a vessel with the number eight and with people, just like Noah's Ark. In fact, when I used to teach and preach at ABC churches, American born Chinese in English, they had a lot in Southern California, they had a lot of ancient Chinese people there, really old people. And I asked them about this and they confirmed it. They said, oh, yeah, the ancient Chinese definitely has that kind of stuff.

So, anyway, the symbol for to covet is two trees. Plus women equals to covet, two trees and a woman. Covered. or to create is speak, dust, life, walk. to uh complete or finish is uh A two plus person.

Let's see. Forbidden is two trees and the word God. These are ancient symbols, right? Garden. Is uh dust, breath.

The number two. an enclosure, That's what garden is: dust, breath, and number two, an enclosure. The symbol for tempter is secret. Man Garden. and then the symbol for alive.

It's the devil. And the tempter is the devil plus trees and cover.

So I say to them The Chinese culture is the oldest one out there. That we know of, unbroken and things like that, it must mean that the other cultures that came after it borrowed from this right here, borrowed from the ancient Chinese system. Therefore, The ancient Chinese stuff is older, therefore it's true, and everybody borrowed from it. And different concepts.

So I use this logic against them, and it really. If it really does, that surprised them.

Okay. So there's an answer for that. I'm not saying it's a perfect answer, but it's definitely a good starting place and it's worth looking at. Seriously, go look it up. Chinese characters and the book of Genesis.

And like I said, in Southern California back when I was did Propolis applied down there, And I'm in Idaho now, but I did that for like five years. I'd preach in probably 40 different churches over the five years. And so. Uh, we'd go to these regular uh Chinese churches, they would have me back over and over and over every one or two months, and I asked them, I still remember that asking them, and uh. They just went through, they did a huddle for like 15 or 20 minutes, and they came back and said, Yep.

And they said they could explain it all, but it was way beyond me. But they said, Yes, it's true. These things are ancient, and they're ancient words, ancient stuff, ancient symbols.

So there you go. May the Lord bless you. The music's going to start. Please keep us in mind in your prayers and in your financial support. We do need them both.

And may the Lord bless you by His grace. Back on your tomorrow, and hopefully, maybe we'll see you if you're out in the area in the Charlotte area of North Carolina. In a couple of weeks, I speak to a conference out there and they'll Lord bless you. And I'll be back on there tomorrow. I'll talk to you then.

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