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, and you're listening to Matt Slick Live. If you want, as usual, if you want to give me a call, it's easy. All you got to do is dial 8772. 072276, and then we can get to your calls.

We've got a caller coming in. And if you want to email me, that's easy also to do that. You just send an email to info at carm.org. Info at C-A-R-M dot O-R-G. Put a subject line radio comment or radio question, and we can get to them.

Stuff like that. Got some stuff to talk about. Interesting discussion they had last night and how hard people work to deny God. I'll go through that a little bit. And um There's something else, but I can't remember what it is.

It'll come to me later. Let's get to Alan from Virginia. Alan, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt, how's it going?

Oh, it's going, men. It's going.

So what do you got? Uh I got two questions.

So And you give me Can you provide us one question? Can you provide context to Matthew six seven and Matthew six fourteen to fifteen? Wow. of Matthew 6.

Well let's see. I go in there and Context, Matthew 6.

Well, you know, it's a Beatitudes.

So uh That's what's going on. Every time I think of the Beatitudes, I think of the Beatitude Hills. I've been to where he preached them. It's interesting. But at any rate, um Yeah.

Okay. Just a better two.

Well Matthew six, seven and Matthew six, fourteen to fifteen. Yes, ring. Don't use meaningless repetitions as the Gentiles do, but they suppose that they'd be heard for their many words in verse 14. For if you forgive us. others, their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Okay, now what's the question related to him.

So So with Matthew six seven What type of repetition was this? Was it just like repeating the same prayer over and over in private or something like that? He doesn't tell us.

So we can only conclude that repetitious prayer. meaningless repetition. As the Gentiles do? What would be meaningless repetition? Just saying the same thing over and over again, because that's what you do, it's what you're.

religion tells you to do, and you just say it. Be meaningless repetition. Would that would that be a um Uh Uh w what that looks like. Would that lead? you to believe that a habitual prayer of the same prayer is bad then?

Well, it depends. Um Meaningless repeat. Like my wife and I will pray nightly for the deliverance of our children. And So we're pl it's a repetition. But each time we do it, it is heartfelt.

And we don't use the exact words every time we, you know, we address the Lord and ask Him to deliver our children, etc., etc. And though we're repeating things, we're not it's not repetitious.

So well The issue here is is vainglory. You know, when the Catholics and the East Orthodox just repeat a prayer all the time. after a while it's gonna become Meaningless. Mm-hmm. Interesting.

I guess this also goes with it is that The meaningless is if the meaning for the repetition is so that Their herd, whether by other people or by God, because there was previously they were praying. Praying to be seen. I guess that would also go with that. Could be. Could be, it could be could be that.

See, the prayer is is an interaction with God.

Now What if you have a prayer that has been written down, has been Church. For decades, say once a week they do it, once a month they do it, and they offer this prayer and. Uh but the instructions are to to think about About the prayer, like the prayer, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. We can repeat that. And It becomes repetitious.

We don't want it to be that. We want it to be heartfelt.

So we think about these things.

So, vain repetition. meaningless repetition is just saying words for the sake of saying words.

Okay. Yeah.

Okay. Um I guess let's let's go to Matthew six, fourteen to fifteen.

So what What are the contexts? Wh what is what are the contexts? Uh for this. It's the BIA. Because I'm I'm trying to harmonize it with like uh like pipeline Calvinism and stuff like that.

And I'm I'm kind of leaning on the idea that This is for um This is basically another way of saying that you can't. Um fulfill the command. Yeah.

Well Actually That's true. Nobody can fulfill the commandments. perfectly because this isn't something I talk about very often. but to fulfil a commandment is to fulfil all of them. The the summer summation of them is love God, love your neighbour.

So the intention of not lying An atheist can not lie and accidentally keep that aspect of the law. but the whole of the law he cannot keep. And so you love God and live. And you don't lie. because of those things before the cross.

Now, after the cross, we don't do those things. Because we've been bought with a price. We're no longer our own. We want to honor the Lord, His historical redemptive work. that we have to look to.

And so um In one sense, a person can fulfill many of the commandments of the Old Testament, say the Ten Commandments. The average person can fulfill them. even an atheist. But on another sense, they can't, because the ultimate standard is not just keeping that law, but for the glorification of God for the right motives as well, because that's part of the overall law.

So it just depends on what aspect you're looking at. All right. Terrible.

Okay. No. How how would you go into what it would like Oh. How would you, I guess, kind of summarize Um if someone asks You, what is Matthew 6:14 and Matthew 6:15? Team meeting.

How would you probably explain it? That it's a generic wisdom statement. What Jesus was doing in the Beatitudes was giving. Wisdom statements, truth statements to covenant Israel. This is a thing that a lot of people forget about.

And They think, oh, it's meant for the Gentiles also. No, Jesus was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 15:24. And so he would have them sit down on green grass. And it's out of Psalm 22:23, though you maybe the Valley of the Shadow as much. And so This is prophetic.

What's happening in the Beatitudes is the manifestation in a generic sense of the kind of wisdom things you're supposed to enjoy.

So if you forgive others of their transgressions, your Father will forgive you.

Now, it's not a conditional statement in that you earn salvation by forgiving people. Because there are statements: you know, if you don't forgive, He won't be forgiven either.

Well, wait a minute. If we take that specifically and legalistically, then we're all in trouble. Because what happens if someone uh sins against me or against you. and you don't forgive them, you forget about it. Let's say you're mad for a day or two, or it's a small sin, and something happens, and you just forget.

Well, then, oh, you didn't forgive him, so now you're going to hell.

So it's not a conditioned response thing that gets you something. This is generic wisdom statements. If you're a true Christian, You you're gonna forgive people. And if you're not forgiving them, you're not going to be forgiven either. There's a standard that of equity.

You're supposed to, you know, as as Jesus says, Uh Do unto others as you want to do to yourself.

So be forgiving, be loving is a manifestation of true faith and true work with the Lord. But if you fail to do it specifically, It doesn't mean you you can't go to heaven. Uh uh it's it's good that's not what the statements we're getting at.

Okay. Interesting. Hmm. Talk before, but I forgot what church you go to. Uh So I used to go to a Reformed Baptist Church.

Right now I'm trying to put 'Cause I have a hard time. uh doing a whole lot of Tasks for God? uh have generally a kind of a focus And so I try to um Right now, I'm trying to learn the Uh High Koina Greek. in order to understand uh the New Testament and um Wow. to be able to actually um articulate um Correct context and meaning to others and for myself.

That'll misrepresent God. That's good.

So Having studied Greek a lot in college and seminary, And now, the things that I use the most in it, just so you know, are parsing. I use parsing a lot, like in Philippians 1.29 to you, it has been granted. And uh so has been granted his perfect pass uh is uh Aorist active indicative. And so aorist, you know, past tense um Passive voice receiving the action, and indicative it's a statement of fact of actuality.

Well, just knowing those things about certain verbs. really is helpful, particularly this passive active voice. because it really sheds a lot of light in information that we don't normally think of. And this becomes relevant when you go to, for example, John 20, 23. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins are forgiven.

Now, that's what the King James basically says. Let me show you something here.

So, whoever sins ye remit, ye that or they are remitted.

So what it's doing is using both in the present tense. This is significant because the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox will say that their churches have the authority to forgive.

Well, maybe, maybe not. But the issue here is that it says: if you forgive, and in the Greek, It's simply the atorist active subjunctive.

So error is past tense, active, you're doing it. And subjunctive deals with possibility.

So if you were to do this kind of thing. is what it's saying. It's a hypothetical, it's a thing. Then their sins But it says in the Greek, have been forgiven, because it's perfect passive indicative. perfect voice, I mean perfect tense.

And pluperfect tense are important.

So the perfect tense is I have eaten, pluperfect is I had eaten.

Well, perfect tense is past action continuing into the present.

So I look at stuff like this. I'll say, oh, you have been forgiven. It's a past action continuing on in the now.

So it's interesting that he says, if you have, if you forgive, if the potentiality for forgiveness, then your sins, they have been forgiven. Why the tense change? And so you see, these are the kinds of things that I'll look into and go, oh, that's interesting. We don't pick up on him generally speaking in the English.

So that's one area that's available.

So that would be more so looking at Uh That would be more so leaning towards You being able to forgive is because you have fruit because you have been saved.

Well, that now see now we're talking.

Now what you're doing is you're trying to understand it from the perspective of Christ. And what you said is within the logical realm of possibility.

So what I'll do Yeah. When I'd look at something like this, sometimes I'll write out, here's a possible understanding. the aorist Uh the air is um active versus the um Excuse me, the uh perfect passive. Why go from aorist active? To perfect passive.

Aris is past tense, but passive is past tense, but Aris is implied the completion in the past, like a pluperfect, but it's not.

So why is he switching? And then when you get into that level, Then you start going, oh, what he's basically saying is if you forgive their sins, their sins have already been forgiven. You're proclaiming which already occurred. Hold on now, we gotta break, okay? Hold on.

Hey folks, we'll 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, and welcome back to the show.

Let's get back on with Alan from Virginia. You still there? Yep.

Okay. I can give you other examples like this too. Matthew 16, 18, if you want. Yeah, sure. I'll um.

I'll make a make a note to link of the radio show to review it later on. Sure.

So The first step In my opinion, of understanding biblical theology is to read what it says. Friend. That's so profound, okay? Why write that down? Read what it says.

Never thought of that. Um And so, as it says Matthew 16:18, I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock. I'll build my church and the gates of Hadi will not overpower it. This is a good example of a different level of of knowing Greek and looking.

So, what you can do is you can look into the Greek, and he says, You know, I say to you, Lego, to you, Soi.

Okay. How do you um Atisu e Petros, that you are Peter. All right. And if you know anything about Greek yet, the Omicron sigma ending is nominative. and nominative masculine singular.

Even though it could be optative also, but it's nominative.

So now we're talking about the subject, Peter. And then Peter says it upon this rock. And now we have. A cognate. Cognate is a dir uh actor, actors, actress, actresses.

Now we have from Petros to Petra.

Now, you have to believe, you've got to do this. You have to come to the Word of God, believing that every single word that is there and is not there. It's for a reason. Absolutely. Everyone that is there.

And the words that are not there are for a reason.

So for example I'll back up. I'll come back to this. In Philippians 1.29 I'll say to people, I'll quote it to them. For TU it has been granted aorist active indicative again, aorist passive indicative. And uh passive indicative.

And so It has been granted for Christ's sake to believe, and people will say that He's granting you the opportunity. That's what it means. That's not what it says.

So people will often insert a meaning into it to make it fit what they think because it makes sense. Don't ever do that. Don't ever do that. You simply say, what does it say? First.

You never subject the Scripture to your understanding, And then say, I'll just Reinterpret it slightly for you to, it has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe, and like uh. I would What's his name? Layton Flowers. We have a discussion with him. I quoted this to him, he says, No, it means he's granted the opportunity for you to believe.

And it was so blatantly Wrong. And I called him on it. I said, That's not what it says. you're making it say what do you want? And he said, What's what it means?

Well, how do you know that's what it means?

So that's a a failure.

So people will do this, for example, Matthew 16, 18. You are Peter, Petros, and upon this rock we both mean rock.

So therefore you are the rock to build a church. Why, if you're a Catholic coming to this, that's what it has to mean. Because the church is built upon the foundation of the basically of Peter. And so it because he's the first pope.

Well, it has to be that Peter's the Pope and that's the rock that it is, is Peter.

So they're done exegeting.

Well, I don't do that. I'll go in and look at Petross, Omicron Sigma. and I'll notice that it says Petra, which is an alpha. which is feminine. But I'm a crown sigma.

O S, I'll do it in For everybody who can listen. The O S is masculine, but the A and the ending is feminine. Why the change in gender? Change in gender is specific.

So my Bible program, for example, it says the word rock. Right there, which is 4073. I'm doing it right now for real. 40734073. I go to my Bible program, type in that number, because it's a Strong's Nut Lexicon number, and it occurs.

Fifteen times in the New Testament.

Now what I'm doing is looking up what's called a semantic domain. I'm going to see what that word means in different contexts. I want to see the range.

So if I were to have the word petra, and I draw a circle around it. On Where would I put, for example, the first occurrence? Uh build a house on a rock.

Well that means if it's a rocket means A stone, you know, an actual rock.

Okay. And if rain fell, the floods came, didn't wasn't found.

So I put that verse, it means rock.

Now I'm just going to jump ahead. You go to 1 Corinthians 10:4. And it says Moses and the people in the wilderness, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from the same from a spiritual rock.

Now that's Petros.

Okay, because it's a direct object, or it's a genitive, excuse me, but it's feminine.

So, okay, no problem. which followed them, and that rock, Pet Tra. That's the exact same word that Jesus said to Peter. It says, and the rock. Was Christ.

So now in that circle, I'm going to put in with Chr it means Christ.

So I've only done two verses, but the semantic domain of the word rock can mean an actual rock. Maybe holding your hand. And a um And in the person of Christ.

So, and then you have rocky soil, which means small, really small rocks. You have Jesus brought and hewn out of the rock.

So now you have this rock, the hewn out of the rock.

Now it's this side of a mountain or something like that, or hillside.

So now you're seeing a what's called a semantic domain. But then you got to be careful. You don't want to transfer. The meaning of one of the word rock, Petra, from one place and transfer it over to here. in Matthew sixteen eighteen So for Example: If I were to do this, I were to say, Well, that one rock is the tomb hewn out of that rock.

So it means The rock means the hillside, let's say.

So I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this hillside I'll build my church. because that's called illegitimate totality transfer. The total semantic range of a word has several meanings, I picked one and transferred it.

So here's another example of this kind of error. Matthew one twenty What 125. Joseph kept her a virgin until Jesus. was born. Then when you go to 1 Corinthians 15, and you look at the word until Um It says for he must reign until he's put all enemies under his feet.

So the Catholics will say In 1 Corinthians 15, 25, the word until means it continues. It continues on in that state because he must reign until he's put all enemies under his feet. No, that means he's going to continue to reign.

So the meaning here, well, let's transfer it over to Matthew 125.

Now Matthew 1.25, he kept her virgin until Jesus was born, means he kept it kept doing a virgin. a virgin on. This is an example of illegitimate totality transfer.

So now we go back to Matthew six, uh sixteen, eighteen. And it says there, You are Peter, and upon this rock I'll build my church.

Well, now if you look at the word Petros and see how it's used, the word Petra, and you'll see there's a gender change, you realize the second one is something other than Peter. Because Petra refers to Christ. in 1 Corinthians 10.4. but also In the previous two verses, Simon Peter answers, Who are you? He says, The Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus says, Flesh and blood not reveal this to you, but What is a cruiser in heaven? He says, Upon this rock I'll build my church, the truth of who Christ is. I know I'm going too quickly, but These are basic exegetical practices. Hold on, we got another break. Folks, we'll 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, everybody, welcome back to the show. Let's get back on with Alan.

Alan, you still there? Yep.

Okay. I gave you a lot there, but uh Does that help? Yes, I think so. I'll have to review it though. Obviously, you seem to have it mostly memorized and I don't, so I would need to review it to get to that point.

Well, I could suggest an exercise for you. Seriously. Like take a word and study it. You know, like rock. Or sh Shoe.

or water. or baptism. Baptism. Or um whatever is interesting you, f go, you know, blueletterbible.com. if you want, and find every instance of the word.

One of the things I'll do, and you can go to Carm and you can look it up where I've done these.

Well, this is my habit.

Now they have to do it this way. But I'll do that in my Bible program, my logist Bible program, and I'll say, oh, this is a word I'm going to look. It up like Petra, for example. And I'll export every result because it can give to me in 1.25 seconds, you know, and I'll export it out into Excel. And then in Excel, I will then do stuff to it, and I will then port it into HTML, Hypertext Markup Language, which is just for website stuff.

And then I make it into a table. And then what I do is I just go through and read each one, look at the context, and then make a column. Vertical column to the right of the word, unto this of the verse. And I go, that's what this is about. Like the word all So if you were to go as an example, I'm just telling you as an example.

You know, if I go to Carm. And um Where are my word studies? I think it's under Bible. Nope. Christian Living, Christian Theology, no Bible apologetics, where I have tables and word analysis.

Under apologetics. And then like the word all for example.

Well, I did an analysis of every single instance. And you can as a good example. You can see. Oh, it can mean every individual, not every individual. Just generic things.

totality and expression that uh that's neither about people or Or things. She was not helped at all.

Okay. Things like that. And you go, oh. Wow. Oh, that's interesting.

And you learn stuff. And I find personally This is just me. I have found that that process is one of the greatest ways to learn. God's Word. It is.

I wonder what God. says Not what do I say. You know, in Here's a good good verse for you to practice on. is John three sixteen. Um John 3.16 is a great verse to practice on.

The word love. A gabato.

Well, that means divine love, right? Except that in Matthew 11, Luke 11:41, I think it's 43, the Pharisees agape their high seats. Dude, wait a minute. I thought agabi always meant Divine love.

Well, if it does, then how come the Pharisees loved their high places their sin sinfully? And the word agape is used. Ooh, interesting. Or the word world. Um we said Isn't agape uh loving to the extent of if it's not God uh Idolization.

Could be. Could be. That's what you'd have to do. Verse 43: Woe to you, Pharisees, for you love the chief seats in the synagogues. And Jesus is saying that, and he's using the word agape.

Or a devoto. The verb.

So, when people say to me, agape always means divine love, I say, that's not true. And how did I learn that? by studying it.

So he loved the world, the world. What does world mean? Every individual? Maybe? See how God uses it.

And that he gave his only begotten Son. Monoganes. What does that mean? that whoever You'll find out the word whoever's not in the Greek. It's past half the stew on.

All the believing one will not perish Right? up alooming but have eternal life And then you have the word aionyon. Joey. Ionion, you gotta learn you to do a study on o ionios. And how many times it occurs.

And look at the semantic domain. If you were to do this for one, two, three. five six words in John three sixteen, you will learn a tremendous amount of theology. based right out of what Jesus said. It will shape your theology.

profoundly. And it'll even shape it in ways you don't even know about. until later when you recognize things. Seriously. Yeah.

I'm a little bit. And also, I've done studies with I've done word studies where I I come away going, well I Mm-hmm. I don't think I've really learned anything. I'm not trying to be arrogant. I'm just like, sometimes you go, wow.

Well Uh nothing new really came out of it that I'm aware of.

Okay, great. Go to the next one. And If you were to go to my website and you were to do that, like I said, look up the tables and charts. You'll see how many words I've I've done studies on. And um I could do a count really fast, but quite a few.

Okay. Quite a few.

Okay. Do you think it's possible for someone to understand all the context and the autographs? When you take the context of the autograph, now what you're saying is the context of their original writing. And what do you mean by context? Do you mean cultural?

Do you mean what room were they in? What location? Look, I was in the place where Jerome translated. I was in the very room where he did that.

So is that the context you mean? We had candles around him. Was he in a monastery? In in in a sense, I'm I'm I'm of the opinion that unless God grants it, No single person Um Can And know all of the context for everything and uh the inspired word.

So you're you're And With that. I'm coming to an understanding of Trying to know everything is a fool's errand, and what you should be trying to do. is understand what what God is leading you to understand. And um Obviously. Dude, that is so awesome.

That's exactly right. You can't learn everything. Learn what he's put upon your heart. John 3:16. Oh, I'm going to go study John 3:16, and a month later you're done.

And people start saying, it just means he loves everybody equally. And you go, not necessarily. Not the house of Eloy. That's right. Out of Romans 9.

And 1 Samuel 3:14. And incidentally I just did a count. I did ninety I've done ninety-three word studies. that I've listed ninety three. Like this.

The lights. Yeah.

So It doesn't mean I I well, here's here's another example of something. Like when I did uh I wrote a hundred and eighty two articles against um Uh annihilationism. I learned something really simple in uh punishment. Because there's words colossus, paiduo, temoreo, temeria, and punishment, epitomey. These are just uh the five Greek words, right?

And I did a st worse I did in every single one of them. And guess what I learned? Really simple. punishment is experienced. Simple as that.

The annihilationists say that punishment is non existence. That can't be punishment. because it's not experienced. As simple as that. And So if you go and you look at some of the words that I did, like punishment, epithemia, And you go in and you look, you'll see what I've done: word meaning, strong's number.

And then um like that word only co occurs once.

So Let me go with another one. What I'll I'll do to my So, uh Oh, that one occurs twice.

So I'll put an outline summation of what each one is. I I analyze these things. I go in. and analyze. There's Paiduo also.

And so, like by a duo, correction, one occurrence. Instruction, three occurrences. Punishment experienced while alive, nine occurrences. Or destruction. The annihilationists, for example, will say destruction means you don't exist anymore.

And well, I went well that does it.

So I went and looked it up. And guess what I found out? Not always. Because The wine bag You know, you put new wine in it, and it bursts in an old wine bag, and it bursts.

So it's destroyed. But it's still sitting there.

So they'll say destruction means non-existence.

Well, maybe in some places it does. Maybe in others it doesn't. Or maybe if it's changed form. Yeah.

Change of nature perhaps. There you go. See, now you're thinking. That's what you have to do. That's what happens to your head, your mind, your heart, your soul.

It's shaped by what you study.

Okay. Alright buddy, let it go. All right, ma'am. Thank you, Matt. You're welcome.

Taba. All right. Hey folks, long time for that, but it was really worth it. We'll get to John from Indiana.

Next, please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everyone, welcome back to the show. John from Indiana.

Thanks for waiting so long, buddy, but that was a worthwhile discussion earlier.

So what do you got, ma'am? Yeah, Matt, how are you? Doing all right. I had the great privilege of speaking God's word, so that's great. I I have a question Concerning Genesis two seventeen.

Okay. That was has to do with uh Adam's or or God's instruction to Adam. He God apparently had told Adam that Incredible. Fruit from all the trees and all the vegetation within the garden. Except for that one tree.

So That one tree becomes An object of the which Satan uses to attempt Eve. First and then Adam. Right. And so. The my question is, is Since God allowed for the deception.

Oh, the which he could have prevented. then why didn't he prevent that deception? That's been my question.

Well, there's there's theories about that, and all we can do is offer theories and ideas. Um One is that we're made in the image of God. And Male and female, and so therefore we have what's called the communicable attributes. The communicable attributes are such things as: he loves, we love, he hates, we hate, he thinks, we think. He feels we feel.

Those are the things that can be communicated to us.

Now, his omniscience cannot be communicated to us, he knows all things we don't. It's certain. Along with the communicable attributes is the issue of responsibility. and free will. And so One of the theories is that since we're made in God's image, then the issue of responsibility combined with free will is natural to our condition.

And if it's natural to our condition, then God would let us. Be tempted.

so that we could You go to derivations of that. Let us be tempted. To demonstrate the. Um the nature of freedom and responsibility that we have having been made in his image. That's one possibility.

Another possibility is by allowing Allowing the temptation to occur and the fall to occur, then the greatest act of love can be demonstrated by God. And God is love, 1 John 4.8, and Jesus says the greatest act of love is to lay your life down for your friend. John 15, 13.

So theoretically, The greatest act of love can be and is chosen to be demonstrated by God. and the self-sacrifice. On the cross. But that couldn't occur unless a world occurred. in which there was sin.

So God allowed sin, one theory is, in order to perform the greatest act of love. And along with that, to glorify himself, because it is the greatest act of love and justice that is manifested wholly and completely in that action. There's also another reason to demonstrate that sin is sinful. Sin is bad. and see what the consequences occurred, famine, plagues, and things like that.

And then another theory is that um Oh I use this to top my Tip my tongue, I just lost it as I was going to say it. There's another one, maybe it'll come back to me. But there are lots of things that have been offered like this as to why. That God would do. Oh, yeah, yeah.

With knowledge, I remember, with knowledge comes responsibility.

Now, God knows things, we know things. God has wisdom, we have wisdom. But God's knowledge is perfect and complete, His wisdom is perfect and complete.

So he has omniscience, all knowledge, and omnisapience, all wisdom. We don't. And so one of the another possible reasons is to demonstrate God's wisdom. You need to trust what he says. And so he's The culmination of sin in the world will lead to death and destruction, Genesis 2:17.

And so It's a proof that God is right. He's been right the whole time.

So, there's a lot of combined issues and reasons that we could offer as to why God allowed. The serpent came into the garden, tempt her, and she fell.

Okay. You there? Are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Yeah, I'm here.

I'm listening to you. The uh the uh The one thing I'd heard about it as a kind of a simplification of. of what you said that God have allowed for the deception in order to offer man another choice. choice between good and evil. Um Is is that is that a viable kind of an explanation?

I think that's within that possibility to offer them. I think. That the choice between good and evil as an offering offered two. Is a necessary part of being made in God's image. God also has been tempted.

In Psalm 110, I think it is 16, it says they tempted God in the wilderness.

Well, God can't sin.

So they offered the temptation to him.

Now his inability to sin is related to his nature. which is holy. We don't possess holiness. not by nature, because it's a characteristic of God alone.

So We are able to sin because we have the free will to be able to rebel against him, and we do. And so it's a manifestation of the free will. free will without wisdom. leads to foolishness. And so Okay.

Of course. Make is that In this scenario, That God is offering mankind. Uh Choice between Life and death, or what you might say, good and evil, which good leads are. Excuse me. Evil, choosing evil our sin leads to death.

Uh that is both of a physical nature and of a spiritual nature.

So if you When it comes to John chapter 3, where Nicodemus and Jesus was having a discussion. Or to which Nicodemus didn't say much, but I think apparently Jesus all right too. Nicodemus and knew what his need was, which is Pretty much got to do with all of mankind. And he told Nicodemus You must be born again. or he shall not enter into the kingdom of God.

And he says that I think it's three 3-3 and 3-5, where he reiterates that, because in between, There's a question of which Nicodemus asked. concerning how can I be born again.

So it Re-enter my mother's womb, go through the whole birth process all over again. Jesus, what are you talking about? But you get to John 3.16. And in John 3:16, of course, that's a well-known verse by a lot of people. But in ZON 316 There is uh the words whomsoever will Does not that imply Uh the choice.

Yeah.

It doesn't say that in the Greek. It said it doesn't say whoever. It just says all the ones believing, all the believing ones. Prith potapostun in the Greek. all the believing ones.

Okay, so what's the difference between what the Greek says and what the English says? What's the difference? A lot of times when people will say, they'll say whoever means that you have a moral choice. Not necessarily. It could mean that.

It's a semantic domain range of meanings. And so people often will just assume certain values. God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe, that means you have free will choice. Where'd it say that in there? And I ask these questions of people.

They don't like me asking those kind of questions. because it causes them to think. And to defend their position. They just assume certain values. And after they're done trying to defend the idea that whosoever means that you have a libertarian free will, which is a whole nother theological.

Um Pandora's box, I was just saying. I'll then show them the Greek. And it doesn't say whoever. That's the Greek word hos. What is there is posopistuon.

It says, for gospel of the world, that All the one believing. It just says the one who believes. It's all it says.

Now you go to other places and you find out that God grants them, we believe.

Now whoa whoa whoa If he grants that we believe. Then the ones who believe are the ones granted to believe. My God. And then Jesus that's John Philippians 1 29 to you it has been granted to believe. Aterus passive indicative.

This is an earlier discussion. And then I go to John 6.65 and it says, you cannot come to me unless it is granted to you from the father. Then I ask a question to people. You say John three sixteen means it's free will choice, all right? If that's the case, then I've got questions.

I've got questions. Why is it that if it's that, it's just up to your free will, that God is the one who grants you that you believe, and He grants that you come to Christ?

So, if it's just a libertarian style, I explain what libertarian free will is to them, if that's just what it means. then why are those other verses there? And I try and get people to put a broader view of Scripture on their plate and look at all of it at once, instead of just taking one verse, deciding what it means, and once they've decided, then they interpret the rest of the Bible in what they've decided it means. Club button. In regards to this subject, Yeah.

Then 2 Peter 3.9 Mm-hmm. What's all to be said? God is not slow. and keeping his promise was patient, wanting that none should perish. And that all should come to repentance.

Yep.

Uh so there's some there's some disconnect here somewhere that I'm having trouble putting together. Oh, see, that's good, that's excellent. It's exactly the right attitude. There's a disconnect. You're confused.

So, what's the solution? I don't know yet. I've got to study it. And so that and I have a solution. But I have several solutions to that.

But um One of the things is I'll do, and people will quote me that, 2 Peter 3:9, and I'll say, don't forget 1 Timothy. Two four. He wants all to be saved, right? And I'll say, now let me ask you a question. I'm not setting scripture against scripture, I'm just trying to get you to think.

so that you include all of Scripture in. And I ask, and I sometimes will say, I want to ask you a question. It's a trick question. I want to trick you. but not in a malicious way.

I want you to see something. And I ask him, Is it okay if I try and trick you? And you know, and and they they say, Yeah, sure, go ahead, you know, 'cause they know it's not a malicious intent. And I'll say, okay. If it's the desire of God simply that He wants everyone to be saved.

There's several questions I could ask, but one of them is: then why did Jesus speak in parables in Mark 4:10 through 12? See, he spoke in parables he tells us, so they would not be saved. And say, how do you harmonize those? And a lot of times people just can't do it because their theology isn't very deep. And that's not a mocking, condemning thing.

It's because they've really not been taught much theology from the pulpit. and they don't understand how to put things together. And I you know I try and help them. And then I'll ask another question. I'll say And this stumps them all the time.

See, does God know how? To save anybody with their free will, not violating their free will. This God who knows all things, that He knows what it takes. to save anybody? And they go, Yes, then why doesn't he do it to everybody?

And they're stuck. Adam Yeah, but hey, we gotta get going 'cause our music's gonna go here in a few seconds.

So Okay, well, I think we're out of time. Yes, we are. Call back tomorrow. See, these are just. things to think about that cause people to study more.

they learn more. That's all I'm trying to get people to do. All right, buddy, we gotta go, okay? Hey. Bye.

Thank you. All right, John, God bless. Interesting show today. Oh. This is what I do in Bible studies with people.

That's why they go, well, we don't want you coming back anymore. It's a Hey folks, I'll be back tomorrow by God's grace. Talk to you then. Another program powered by the Truth Network.