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, and you're listening to Matt Slick Live as usual. If you want to give me a call, it is easy. All I have to do. Is dial 8772072276, and then we can blab all you want.

All right, I got something interesting to say. And maybe a letter to read through. I got that letter right here. You hear that? It's a letter.

I'm going to get to that. But we had a lot of meetings. I've had. About six hours of meetings a day, five or six hours. And long story short, we have an official release date now.

of the new Carm site. The official release date will be october twenty fifth. The reason it's going to be October 25th is because that coincides with the 30-year anniversary of Karn. Carm has been on for thirty years. And October 25th.

And it has had 167 million visitors to the site. We've got 5,000 articles, we've got a lot of stuff there. And we're going to be having, hopefully, we'll have some people call in, not call in, but we're going to have a little meeting, web meeting to hold bit, do an announcement. We'll have guests, we're going to have people talking, and things like that on October 25th next month. For the um 30-year anniversary of Carm.org.

All right, now look, hey, if you want to give me a call, it is easy: 8772-0772. two two seven six. I want to hear from you to give me a call. You can also send me an email. to info At carm.org.

Info at carm carm.org. And you can put in the subject line, radio comment, radio question. We've got a lot of new stuff coming up in the Carm site, there's going to be a lot of new things. It's going to be interesting. All right, now look, I got an email, not an email, but a letter in the mail.

And uh Now I'm not here to make fun of people, but I thought this might be interesting. because uh this is a letter out of out of um out of England. And I got and uh What does the Holy Bible sequel bring? Answer, he brings the Holy Spirit. A gift from our creators.

it brings words of a critter in the form of anagrams. It brings a truth about God, it brings a truth about heaven and hell, it brings smiles, happiness, and joy, it brings the decoding of revelation. It brings the true uh full ministry. you will know your maturity index. You will know yourself more deeply.

You will be introduced to the Trinity marriage called E. The books bring plenty wisdom and knowledge and etcetera. They uh fulfill prophecies of end times, the books do. And your understanding of the good and bad will be outstanding. You'll learn judgment of laughter.

and etcetera. And uh why are these books Important from this particular ministry, which I'm not going to give out and promote it. Answer. Moses brought the letter. This is from this right here.

It's in my hand. This is a letter. I love this kind of stuff. All right. Uh Why are the holy Bibles, why about these books, these something important they're giving?

Answer: Moses brought the law, Jesus brought the morals. Michael is bringing you true full maturity in the Holy Spirit. Michael is. Without the books For this group. people will always be in doubt and will keep asking questions like Is the supernatural true?

And do you have proof that it's True, without the Holy Without these books, you will not know the truth about God, heaven, hell, and the Holy Spirit.

Now, check this out. Without this website and the books, this. Group or individual has produced, you will not know the truth about God, heaven, hell, and the Holy Spirit. That's a pretty grandiose claim. And I'm tapping my fingers 'cause it's annoying, you see?

So uh It's perplexing, I should say. Without the holy, whatever, their books, people will only have hope for the truth. but not the knowledge of the truth. Right here in my hands, okay, right, this paper. This is it.

I'm gonna go over some of this stuff here. It says, Do you spread the news?

Okay, now I go over. And it's got, it gave me this stuff. Let's see, open this up here. Try not to make too much noise. Um A quote from the Bible.

Hold on. And uh it's got some verses. And uh wow. bundles of these books. And then it has an example.

for your curiosity. Take them from the books. Wow, this is this is good stuff. What? No, Paul.

Allah is no friend. Nope. What? Noradrenaline Immigrants are not unhappy. nor Dick.

And the grandmother dotted it. unhappy investigation. Uh Nork? Anagrams are not unhappy, MNK. Let's see, normalize.

Anagrams are not unhappy. Anagram credit.

Okay. Um It's not making any sense. And then uh On the other side of this one of his papers here. Um fulfilled prophecies. It goes through the Bible.

Um Has all kinds of stuff: mustard seed, fine pearl, end of the age. Helper, just listening to scriptures, gospel, revelation. Do spread the news. Good news.

Okay. So I'm done basically done with that. Button that comment.

Now As I've told you guys before in the radio. We're listeners out there. I got some issues, okay. One of them is I delight in heresy. Not that I want people to be heretics, but it tickles my bone.

It just, I'm like, you know what? The funny bone, the heresy bone, heresy bone. That's what it'd be. It's just like, are you kidding me? I love this kind of stuff.

I can't believe people believe this kind of thing. And I'm not making fun of them. It's just this is an example of the kind of deception that goes on in the world. It's a kind of deception that there, and it's reminded me of another story really quickly. This is true.

So I was in Southern California before I moved up here to Idaho. And I graduated in 1975 from high school. And Tom.

So we had a great professor, mathematics professor. He was really good. And a bald guy, just full of energy and entertaining, and made things easy. He really was a good math teacher. He taught algebra, trigonometry.

I loved trigonometry. I really enjoyed the class. And so, no big, I graduated in 75 and about 1992 or 3. uh that range, I was about one hundred fifty miles south in San Diego. And I was uh basically assistant pastor at a church.

And I was walking around the area. We were meeting in an outdoor mall and running one of the The buildings. And lo and behold, who do I meet? I meet my old math professor from high school, from almost twenty years earlier. And I said, wow, hey, how are you?

You don't remember me, do you? He goes, yes, I do remember you. Yeah, you were good at math. And I said, Well, you know, I thank you. You're a good teacher.

And we got talking. And He says, So what are you doing now? I says, Well, I've graduated from seminary and You know, I do apologetics on the side, you know, trying to get into the pastorate because the internet hadn't really. taken root yet and that w didn't start to caring for another three years.

So I still remember looking at his face. What? when he said, Really?

Well, I do the same kind of thing and wait Really? Wait. What? And he said that he, a couple three years earlier, had been in the shower, however long it was. And he got a revelation from God in the shower.

I'm like. You did.

Okay. And he said the revelation is that I'm to present new biblical truths to people all over. everywhere. And I'm like, okay, that's uh that's interesting.

Okay, so new biblical truths. And you got Revelation in a shower, and I said, okay, and so what are some of these truths? And they were basically new wage things. And I remember Just being dumbfounded by how could someone that intelligent be that deceived. And of course it's a spiritual issue.

But this reminds me of that. I'm also reminded from years ago when we had a letter that I read. Man, it was so much fun. Because on Fridays I would do hate mail and wacko mail. We don't get enough hate mail now for me to do hate mail.

I'd read hate mail. I love hate mail. You're real hate male. And maybe I'll go through some of the old hate mail and read some of it on Karm.

So, uh anyway, um He wrote, uh he wrote, um A letter about their pastor. who was going to be changed on a certain date and he'll be transformed. And he would then attain an atomic body.

So when I read that, I'm like, okay, I got to really focus on this letter. This is good stuff. And then reading it, I decided to put it on the air. People were talking about it to me for weeks afterwards because it was just one of those, hey, you had to be there to kind of see it. It was the first one.

And so uh So Um that this guy was believing that his pastor was Preaching certain things and certain dates, and he gave the date that the pastor's body would be transformed into an atomic body.

So I started having fun with that.

Well, what would happen if Atomic Body Man was having chili? and a couple of hours later, what would happen. Mm-hmm. Better be careful. It goes to the bathroom.

We're going through all kinds of stuff and having a lot of fun. But. It was uh It was really interesting. And so I get these things every now and then, and I particularly enjoy them. Ash as me.

That's just me. Let's get to Bucksman from Dayton, Ohio. Bucksman, welcome. You're on the air. Love your show, man.

Hey, I've got conversations. Of a question that might fit along your category today. Maybe wacky, this would be a wacky call. But it's not real wacky, but I wanted to keep it light hearted. Christians Swaying Um or listening to secular music.

Matt is Is there anything biblical that says We should refrain from listening to to classic rock. or say your worship leader in your church mat. is involved in a secular ba band. He's he's the uh guitar player for, you know, Joey's rock band down the corner. What?

What's your take on that, man? That's Well, I think motives are what's important.

So we use secular money, we use secular government, we use secular medicine. and we benefit from those.

Now music is interesting because it has the ability to get into your heart, into your mind. and influence you.

Now other th things do too.

So the Bible tells us in Romans four eight, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. And so, what he says in Philippians 4:8 is to dwell on those things that are good.

So I I'm going to introduce myself as a an issue here because I'm autistic and I have eighty decibel ringing in both ears all the time and hearing aids and all that kind of stuff. Um bass sounds are very soothing for me. It's an autistic and related ear problem. And so if I hear bass, my blood pressure drops, my heart rate drops, I'm soothed. And so, some heavy metal has some of that effect, and so by listening to it, I'm actually soothed.

Now, that's an odd thing.

Well, here's the bottom. Never heard of that, but that's an interesting one. Yeah. And in fact, when I get back to the break, I'll tell you about a study that I was told about in that regard, and I'll continue on with this topic.

So hold on, buddy. Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. If you want to give me a call, 877-2777-7777-7777- 2072276. I'll be right back.

It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everyone, welcome back to the show. Buskman from Dayton, Ohio. Are you still there?

I don't hear Matt. Um stop there.

Okay, so uh before the break I was going to just say that I was talking to about this uh in a chat room a year or so ago, and an atheist of all people actually cited a study where certain autistic uh people are benefited by bass sounds and they actually did um therapy work with them. Was it interesting?

So, yeah, I'm autistic. I've been diagnosed with aspirations. All right, so every context is different. And so for me, those sounds are very soothing. And when I'm high.

Highly stressed, I will go to that. and I'm calmed.

Now there are people who have Uh you know, A D H D. It'll give them a certain thing that's supposed to Do some anyway, and if there's medicines that affect people and calm them. All right, well that's not a big deal.

Now, what's the motive though? If the motive is to be induced into and enjoy nothing but secular thought, That's a sin. We shouldn't do that. We should let our mind focus on the things that are good.

So when I listen to certain things, I won't listen to their lyrics. I don't and I avoid certain things that have that kind of thing. And so what I'll I do more and more, I listen to Christian music. Because that's what really I should be listening to more and more. when I'm able to.

And I think that's the idea.

Now, here's a question: What do you do with a pastor, an elder, worship leader who's playing in a secular band?

Well, what's the reason?

Well, you know, different kinds of music. Are just different styles. Like Beatles music in the early 60s was pretty innocuous. Is it sinful?

Well, we can make the case it is if it's not ultimately glorifying God. But, you know, it's pretty cool music.

Now, there are certain songs that are bad. I don't think a Christian should be playing things that are just evil in their intent. I don't think a Christian could do that in a band. I don't think any could be playing anything that is ungodly. I mean that is promoting evil, promoting sin and things like that.

So, is the motivation of the pastor or the person who's playing to be an example, to be a witness, to get into varying areas of society, to try and be. a a good influence. Is that the motive? I think that, that adds a lot to the validity of doing something like that.

So there's just a lot of questions, a lot of issues. We can't say yes, no to everything. We have to look at each circumstance, what's the reasons, what's the motives, and judge with wisdom. That's what I would say. Oops.

That's pretty good.

Now, it sounds like most of that would be towards the leadership position. And that makes a lot of sense, Matt. as they're in a leader as James taught us, you know, don't be don't rush to be a teacher, you will be more strictly judged. That's right.

Now what about the congregant, the run of the mill Christian who Who loves Jesus Christ, who witnesses, but yet he goes and he'll sing Beatles tunes. out in a karaoke Uh drinking a Coke. you know, something like that. Yeah, that's that's another thing. How do you judge the motives and the intentions and stuff like that?

I try not to be legalistic and say, oh, you can't ever do ABC. that you must do certain things certain ways. Yes. there's truth to it, but we've got to be be careful with legalism.

So It's tough because we're told to go make disciples of all nations.

So if we're going to do that. Then we have to be where the unbelievers are. Even Jesus was accused of being a tax-gatherer, a drunkard, and a glutton, a drunkard, and a glutton. Why would he be accused of that? Because he was with those people.

So now we can, you know, okay, what does that say? Does it mean we should never go to a bar? Would Jesus have gone to a bar? No, I can't say yes or no. But what do you have?

I don't know. if he went to where the drunkards were and the gluttons were, He associated with them to some degree. He went to where they were.

So You see, this is just not an easy thing to to deal with. I think intention makes a big difference. I remember I talked to a guy once who his ministry was literally going to bars. He literally would go to bars and he says, Look, man, I can tell you this, but I can't tell most anybody else this. They don't understand.

He'll go. He'll get maybe one little drink and he'll milk it for three, four hours, and he sits there and he prays. For people to sit next to him, they can start a conversation up and talk about the Lord. And he told me, he says, I would be. you'd be amazed at how many Christians had been in there for the wrong reasons.

And he would witness, and they'd go back to some would go back to church.

So, can I fault him for that? Of course not.

So You see, it's just not that easy to say. It's just not that easy to say. But the reason I bring it up, Matt. I uh I prefer to get a uh a young lady, she happens to be a doctor. And she knows I'm a Christian man.

Um I told her, number one, but I was wearing a bracelet that says Jesus loves you. And anyway, we were engaged in conversation, and she brought up. How she's uh She wants karaoke. And I thought Oh, bust me. What better way to meet this young lady?

And I'm not, it's not like I'm trying to date. I. I'm waiting on my wife and I to reconcile or my wife to pass, and then I'll look for my sister to marry. Yeah, that would be Okay. But it's it was just a friendly conversation.

It was something that we both had in common. We both love music. We both Love to entertain and make people happy. And she told me that she does this this focus real well, and I thought.

Well, to to start a relationship that would hopefully lead to me teaching her about the goodness of of Christ. Wouldn't it be cool to go meet her on her grounds now? That's my intention. And I also love to entertain people. I know when I hear the old songs on the radio, that was in my mom's car.

I sing along with them.

Well, it's it's Elton John. It's not Chris Tomlin. You know? And it it takes me back to that time of you know security in my childhood. And I like to reproduce that.

for other people. It's to lift up their spirits to take them back in a time, time. and say, remember this song? And then you break out into a Billy Joel song. You know?

And it's just it's a wonderful uh effect that actually has. But I'm not preaching Christ. when I'm singing Elton John or Yeah, of course you're not. But what's your reason for being there? Is it okay for us to just enjoy secular things for relaxation?

Well, I think the answer is yes. Or in your case, therapy. I've never heard of that from you. That's very interesting. See, because of that, I've learned, because of my situation, I've learned that there are so many variables that.

With people's lives and their situations, I want to know about them first before I say, well, here's a recommendation. Because You know, mine's a good a good example. It's a real example. And I really do have sound issues. I really do.

Charlie's down there. He knows I do. My wife knows I do. I can't. I walk into a room with my wife.

If she's listening to her phone, watching a video, I can't talk to her until she turns it mutes it. Because it overloads me.

Well, it's a real issue.

Now what do you do? Oh, you're just in sin for that. Yeah. Yeah yeah. And we have different people have different issues.

People have different stuff. What's their motive? What's the condition? Find out.

So if this woman loves to do karaoke, Well then, you know What's wrong with that? If she's not participating in evil. No. For me, it would be bad for people for me to go to karaoke. Because if I sing, it would not be healthy for anyone.

So, you see, would not be bad. Let me go. Oh, come on. I bet you're blowing our legs, Matt. Oh, no, I am.

I sing like my voice is just off key, all right? Hey buddy, we gotta go, okay? There's a break, man. Thanks so much, man. Have a good weekend.

Bye-bye. All right, man. You too. Hey folks, we write that count for these messages. Please.

Big turn. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, the number is 877-207.

2276 Drew from Kentucky. You're on the air. Hey Matt, how you doing? Oh, hanging in there. Hanging in there, yeah.

Yeah, bring back Atomic Body Man. I remember that day back in the past. Oh, you heard that? You heard that? Oh.

Matt, I've been a longtime listener. I don't get the call much. I listen to your podcast. What do you think uh because of uh work and life and everything else.

So It's every week I listen to your podcast. A big supporter financially to help you. Love your ministry, always have. But um Enough of that. Yeah, you've been a blessing to me for many, many, many years.

way back in the day when you were in the old network. Um Wow. When they kicked you off of there and you had the the your cell phone up there to the microphone and all that. Um Just doing your show, but anyway, my question: you know, well, do you have a question? You know, that's that's your go-to phrase.

Well, do you have a question? You have a question, yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, of course it got. My question is.

What do you what's your thoughts on uh pastors, teachers, preachers, whatever the title is. Um Preaching and teaching their personal convictions. This is something that. I'm a supervisor at my job and my manager, he's a brother in Christ. And we talk.

Every day about church, about the Bible, about the Lord, and everything else, and we had just Yep. topics we talk about. And that's something I brought up to him a while back. Um about uh You know, too many preachers and teachers at times preach perfectly. personal convictions.

Um What what are your thoughts on that? I just wanted to get your your your ideas on that. If a personal conviction is the same as a biblical conviction, then fine. If the personal conviction is not based in scripture, they shouldn't be preaching it, they should just be saying, Hey, I have in light of this, what I've just been talking about, here's my opinion. And then you can say that and then just go on, but it should not be preached as though it's equal to God's word or anything like that.

Yes, and thank you for saying that because that's been my stance. I teach and I preach. I teach Sunday school and Wednesday night Bible studies, and I preach. at times uh on Sundays And that's been my stance on it. But I know there's just a lot of it that just seems to go out there.

as far as uh personal convictions Being Yeah. And um Like you said, I I totally agree because that's what I would say also is this is my opinion. This is my This is what the Lord has impressed on me not to do. doesn't necessarily mean it's not right for you to do. That's fine.

That's right.

Yeah, and just like you were saying about uh Listening to heavy metal. I'm a metalhead myself, but listening to heavy metal because it does something. Because of your hearing and the things that you have going on in your autism and everything. And it's therapeutic. But yeah, I just wanted your thoughts on that.

And, you know, kind of a. A confirmation, and just to say hey, and thank you for everything that you do for the body of Christ. And for what you've done for me, Uh over the years, literally over the years, uh, as far as your list listening to you and uh I just appreciate you brother. And uh just just be blessed in your ministry. And uh Keep up a good fight for free.

Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate that because I'm glad you're supporting us. We do definitely need that. And uh I'm glad you've been listening for so long that you actually remember Atomic Body Man. Oh yeah, yeah.

It was fun. Way back. Were you laughing when I was going through that? Did it was it funny? Oh, it was.

It was. It was hilarious. And when you said that today, because, like I said, I don't get to listen to live too much. I listened to the podcast after the fact, but just was able to tonight and uh you said about atomic body man and I'm like Oh, yeah. I remember that guy because I even put a comment on the Facebook page.

Oh, yeah, Atomic Body Man. Bring him back. You know, whatever. But that, oh, shit, that was hilarious. Clam.

It was. But again, brother, I know you got other callers. And I just want to say thanks for all of everything that you do. And like I said, you've taught me a lot. Yeah.

has helped me in my ministry and um Just open up scripture. You know, that's what it is. It's about scripture, it's about the word of God. And. But yeah, again, thanks, brother.

I'll let you go. I know you got other callers, and have a blessed weekend. Hopefully, some day, somehow, some way you get into the Southern Ohio, northern Kentucky area. You know, for something. And would love, love, love nothing more than to be able to meet you face to face.

Well, it'd be great. Uh at least the expectation for you would be good. The expectation is better than reality. Yeah, I've seen your face, so you know, I already know. But nothing to be impressed about.

That's right.

Yeah, well no problem brother appreciate it All right. All right. Thanks, Matt. All right. God bless.

All right, brother. Beep. God bless. Oh bye. That's awesome.

Hey, folks, that does remind me: look, we do need your support. I've been doing a detailed analysis, cost analysis of everything. And let me just say: hey, you know, we stay on the air by your support. And if you are interested in me staying on the air, please now. Would be a good time to lend your support.

We're going to be. Assessing things and just do what we got to do. You know, ministries change, ministries go up and down. They include, exclude things. That's just how it is.

So if you like what you hear on the air, please consider supporting us. All you got to do is go to carm.org, C-A-R-M. Dot O R G and another Just forward slash donate, and everything you need is right there. Let's get to Carl from Ohio. Hey, Carl, welcome.

You're on the air. Excuse um how accurate Are the translations reread from the original writings? It depends on how you want to ask the question, and because there's different kinds of Accuracy. Believe it or not.

So I use the, when people ask me this question, I use the phrase in Spanish, I'm hungry, which is Yo tengo hambre, and which is literally, if we're to literally translate it, it's I. I have hunger. That's the literal translation. Yo tengo ambre. But we don't translate it like that literally.

The more we say What's an accurate translation from the original?

Well an accurate translation would be I I have hunger.

Well, that's very accurate. It's very literal. Another accurate translation is, I'm hungry. That's also very accurate.

So, you see, even though they're different, both are very accurate because one is a literalness, but one is by the intention.

Well, then, what do you do? You know, I grew up in Southern California and was familiar with the surf culture a little bit. And one of the phrases back in the day was Craven grinds. just a colloquial term which meant I was hungry 'cause you grind food with your with your teeth, so I'm craving grinds.

Well, is that accurate? If you're talking to somebody and they're hungry, he says, Look, dude, I'm craving grinds, man, big time. I I don't ex I say it's hungry.

So, all of those are accurate translations depending on the intention into the. Result.

So here's another issue. And it's a more complicated one. When I was in seminary, we had a translator come through, and if you were familiar with the place where Jesus says, build your house on the rock.

So that it won't be you know got away.

Alright, that's what it means: on the solid rock, and it's a pun, and things like that, not on the sand, it would be washed away. They were translating in a culture. Into a language of a culture where they had seasonal flooding. And It was like a third world country. And if you built your house.

your shack, whatever it is, on a rock, it will be swept away. Because the rocks were flat and he had no way of drilling into rocks.

So, if you wanted your house to be secure during the floods, you took large, long, huge bamboo poles and you drove them deep into the sand foundation so that when the floods came, Your house was secure.

So the literal translation is build your house on the rock. The functional translation is build your house on the sand. Because both carry the same meaning for what the culture would understand.

So you see how this can become difficult.

So what they did was they translated that Build your house on the sand because they wanted the intention to go through, and then they included a note. The original Greek says this and explained it briefly why they did this. and so that readers could understand, oh, we get it. And so, what is the intention of the translation?

So, when you say which is accurate, I'd say, what do you mean by accurate? And you can see why I'm asking the question, you see?

Okay, well, I mean, I get understanding of what the Bible says. I mean, I have to spirit throws into me. I get perfect understanding. Because someone, my pastor friend, He kind of put it in a way where I can't really he said something. How did he say it?

I can't quote him entirely. Basically, he said when man got to it, the Bible has been changed.

So now he's making me feel like I can't trust him. I'm reading. Damn, that's not true. That's not true. I agree with you.

I mean, you kind of seem like, you know, potato, potato, tomato, tomato. you know, same thing, but maybe state it a little differently to get understanding. Let me explain something about the Bible and the original writings.

So, John wrote John. And I've got a break coming up. I'm going to explain this after the break, okay? This will be helpful for you. It'll be helpful for others about the reliability of the Bible.

Hey folks, please consider staying tuned and listening to this. I think it would be useful. May the Lord bless you and be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. Carl, are you still there? Yeah. Alright, so I was going to give you an example of something, and this is accurate.

Okay, um A lot of people don't know this. But Greek and Hebrew in the New Testament, Old Testament, They have one set of characters that they use for both letters and numbers.

So when you're writing letters, you're also writing a set of numbers. We can understand that and relate to that in that zero and an O are the same, an I and a w and or an L, depending on the form, and a number one are the same.

Okay, so well we have no problem if we're to write IO. Is it IO or is it the number 10?

Well, context reveals it and we have no problem with that whatsoever.

So the same thing go goes with the issue of of Greek, for example. When John the Apostle wrote the New Testament, he wrote a lot of words. He also wrote a lot of numbers, because words, the letters of the words, are also numbers.

Well, why is that important? Because When you would copy the documents, you're copying letters, but you're also copying numbers. which means as they would copy a horizontal line, from the original to the copy, What they would do, then, is add up the numbers of the original, the numbers of the first line. And they'd add up the numbers of the second line, of the first line of the next copy. And if the numbers were exact, they could continue.

Or they might do a whole page and then just do an addition uh and then then do the the numbers. Uh check. It was a very interesting way of of of checking.

Now, when they would copy, they wouldn't just say, Hey, Bob, what do you say? Oh, I think he said this.

Okay. That's how the Quran is done. By hearing word of mouth from different people, I have different copies, different ideas, different recitations. I knew Uthman destroyed a lot of the copies and other things that contradicted. But that's another topic.

So, with the Bible, they didn't do that. What they did was one letter at a time, one word at a time. The scribes who would do this did this for a living. Because not everybody could re read and write.

So their livelihoods depended on their accuracy of copying documents, legal documents, for lawyers, for trials, for hearings. For contracts. Their reputations depended on it. They were very, very skilled.

So when these kinds of people were given the job, Copy this document, this biblical document. If they were Christians, it was all the more important. This is the word from John, this is the word from Paul, this is the word from Peter. And so they would do this kind of a thing.

Now This pretty much guaranteed 100% accuracy. Pretty much. But you know what? People are people.

So let's say this guy is writing through a parchment, a piece of paper, and let's just say it's 8.5 by 11. They weren't that big. We'll just use modern size just as an illustration. And let's just say there's fifty lines on this piece of paper. It's parchment.

Well, you and I, wow, he messed up. Crumple, toss, get a new one out of the stack. They didn't do that. necessarily back then. Because a parchment was a long process of preparation for a single sheet, and it was expensive.

That's why they have things called plymp sets. That's where they would erase. A writing on a piece of paper and write over it because they would reuse the same resources because they were hard to come by.

So let's just say a gentleman is doing this, and he's been doing this for three hours. And he's tired. And he's working by candlelight. And he hasn't had enough food that day, whatever the circumstances are.

Now for example, the word ha It was an o an o which is the Omicron in Greek. That's the nominative singular, nominative masculine singular, which means it's the subject and it's singular, and you have a rough breathing mark over, it's a comma over the o.

Well, that's just a single word, the. There's different forms of that word, but that's just the word the.

So what if he was writing and the word the is at the end of a line, And then he goes and he writes the word ha, and he blinks, he shakes his head, he's tired, and he writes again the word ha in the beginning of the next line. The the O symbol. And he continues because it can happen.

Now, when people copy that document, they're now going to copy what's called a scribal error. It's a style of of a Of an airlock and creepy. Yeah. Or maybe it's the word ha is at the end of the line and he sneezes, hiccups, he falls asleep, he wakes back up kind of half drowsy, continues on the next line, and he omits the word ha.

Well, then we have a different kind of ascribal error. And then someone who'd copy that document would copy the scribal error.

So let's just say. that he doubled. the word the in the Greek. on a particular document. and then s someone copies that page three times.

Now you have Four. copies. Yeah, the code. The original error. And now you have three copies of the error, that's four.

Now how many errors is it? One or is it four? Mm. That it's a sit it's it's an issue, right?

So sometimes people will count them.

Well, it's four errors. Not really. It's one error copied. uh three times.

So, how do we count them? That's a serious question. But now in Greek, what's interesting about Greek is ha'agathos anthropos, the good man. Far Agathas anthropos. The A good man.

Well The O S ending A vomic of Agathas Anthropos, both of those, the Omicron sigma ending is the nominative masculine plural. in Greek. And so is the word ha. It's a nominative nominative masculine plural. You don't need the word ha in there.

to carry the meaning. And you don't need the word Agathos or the word Anthropos because the word Agathos is masculine singular. Normative.

So it's good single male. is implied in the Greek.

So, I could get into more of this because I had four and a half years of Greek in college and seminary. And so the thing is that you could have a word missing. And it doesn't change the meaning at all. Does it perfect the meaning at all? You could have a double.

Two words up.

Well, there you go.

Well, we know the guy was tired, we know he copied it twice.

So, what do you do? Just erase that one? No, you keep a record. This is this family of tree, this family tree of documents that was copied, the double, what's called the double O. The bubble za the double za uh error.

On this copyist, we can see his handwriting style, and we can see the documents that came out of it.

Now we know where they were and who did what. This is how intricate this can become. Long story short, We have something like 6,000 supporting Greek manuscripts. And there are something like ninety eight point uh 90. No, it's gonna be 99.5 is the highest I've 99.8 is the highest I've heard, and 98.5 is the lowest I've heard.

as they're textural identical. of all the documents. And then you have another thing.

So let's just say Bob copied the double th the And Frank, he copied that page right, different scribes at different places.

So now you unearth these documents, both of them, let's just say, they're put in pots. And they survive. And okay.

Well, then you're going through and you see the double the, and you obviously know it's a scribal error. You know it is.

So, when you do a Bible translation, you don't put the, the, you just put the word the.

So now we have repetition of different documents. That overlap each other, and we can tell which is the original writing. Very, very few places where there's actual real serious discussion. And one of them is a comma jahanium, a Furchon. 1 John oh man, 1 John 3.8, 1 John 4.8.

Where it says the the three bear witness, the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, these three are one. And then there's the ending of Mark, Mark 16, 9 through 20. And. the woman caught the adultery.

Okay. Mm-hmm. It's really an interesting study, okay?

Okay. Okay. Okay. You know, I mean, I'm not a Bible scholar.

Okay. I'm like a 101 Christian, okay? But I read a lot. And When he told me that, it was kind of like he was talking, like, well, the Bible's not really accurate anymore. for the album.

But it made me think of like in in and like Ezra. I mean Um like I said, I'm not a scholar like you or like he is.

Well, I guess kind of lucky is. But it made me think of Ezra, like, you know, the Lord moved King Cyrus hard to make a proclamation. And it made me think of uh Proverbs twenty 21:1, you know, in the Lord's hand, the king's heart, it's a stream of water.

Something like that. Isn't God omnipotent enough to make sure? His text is gonna be proper. I'm like, isn't he powerful enough to do that in the man's heart? That was my take.

It's exactly what I say to the Muslims when they say the Bible's been corrupted. They say, are you saying that Allah couldn't keep his word pure? Are you saying that he was outdone by mere people? Yeah, and I turned it back on him and then you know And you're right. And so, but what this proves is it was these documents really are old.

They really did exist back then all over the Mediterranean area. And they're remarkably identical. It's incredible. Nothing comes close.

So now, when we translate some of the things into English, the King James, for example, was using 10th and 12th century documents, basically. That means the copies, the oldest copies they had, because in the 1611 King James Version, right? The oldest copies they have were like four or five hundred years old.

So they copied from what they had.

Well? Since then, A lot more older manuscripts have been discovered. And so now modern translations translate from the older manuscripts. Which means are even more accurate from the the um either towards original. And there's a general rule.

It's not a hard-fast rule, it's a general rule. That The newer the The newer a document is, the more tendency it's going to have to have little things written in it. That are additional. For example, they back up.

So they write the word the twice. And Someone comes along later, a scribe sees that and writes a marginal note. The word the uh is not is not doubled or something.

Well, that's innocuous. People don't understand that. But what if the note was a spiritual comment about ascribal error? About Haugathas Anthropos, the good man. And the word man was omitted, which would be hard to do, it's a big word in Greek, Anthropos.

What if it was a minute? And then he wrote in. For the good are the spiritual ones. Is what the note is for writing for teaching, and a later scribe doesn't know this a hundred years later, picks up that manuscript and copies it and puts that note in. as part of what Scripture is.

where other parallel manuscripts won't have it, that one will. And so the l the general rule is the later that these manuscripts uh occur, copying the fourteen hundreds, fifteen hundreds, sixteen hundreds, the more tendency they'll have for those little scribal additions. The further back you go, the less they are. That's why the modern translations are more accurate. That's why the modern translations don't have as many things in it as the King James does.

Okay?

Okay, I'm really happy that I called you because he was kind of making me feel like. Oh, that maybe there's some doubt there, but you know, the spirit of truth lives in me. I'm like Can't God move a man's heart to do whatever he wants him to do? And it's omnipotence. I'm like.

you know Can man like supersede God? I don't think so. You're right. You got it right.

So there you go. Thank you for it. Thank you, sir. Have a good evening. I love you.

All right, man. God bless. Hey, we got a perfect amount of time here to let you know that we do need your support, folks. Please consider supporting us. All you gotta do is go to carm.org forward slash donate, carm.org forward slash donate, and everything it needs right there.

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And by his grace, we're back on the air on Monday. I hope you all have a great weekend. Go to church. And um We'll talk to you then. God bless.

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