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 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.

Everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick, and your list of Matt Slick Live. If you want to give me a call, as usual, all you got to do. is dial eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six Got a bit of a late start on the tech part of this, but there we go. We're catching up.

And if you want, you can also send me an email. That's easy, just to email me at info. At CARM dot org info at carm. Dot org I want to hear from you. Give me a call.

So I was on the uh Internet last night. Doing uh more discussions and uh semi-debates on stuff like that on um. On Roman Catholicism last night. And we had some good discussions. And one of the guys um He wanted, you know, I was reading quotes.

I was reading quotes from the Marion apparitions, how bad they are. And um We could tell he was disturbed by them, but was reticent to accept that they were legit. And um So today I updated my documentation on the site, on all that it is. And you can go to carm.org and you can look up the Marian apparitions, and you can find quotes from Fatima and Guadalupe and what was said. Really bad stuff.

these are demonic manifestations. They really are. And when I say that I don't say it casually, I don't say it Whimsically, I say it because that's what I actually believe when you read these things. But anyway, it was an interesting discussion last night, and I asked the guy. because he didn't want to believe him.

I said, if it's the case that these are really what the Catholic Church has approved. And uh it's really what it says. that Mary says and they say it's really Mary. I said, um How would you feel about that? What would what would you do?

And he didn't want to answer the question because, at first, you know, it is very difficult to accept that these might be true, and if they are, they're very damning. Very bad. And so I finally got him to admit. That if he were to verify, they were verified. uh then it'd be very problematic.

And that that's good. At least he was honest in that. And it would be rightfully so very problematic. Let's get to Mark from Virginia. Mark, welcome.

You are on the air. Thank you, Matt, for having me here, and also thank you for all you do. I'm new. To calm in the sense that I just sort of sort of stumbled upon you here maybe a week ago, and I've been kind of binge watching and listening very carefully to some of the live broadcasts you've recorded.

So again, just thank you for all that you do. And I found myself pretty stimulated and encouraged. By everything, so much so that I was getting ready to order the theology, apologetics, and I think you had a logic. All the in-roots, all the schools that you had there. wanted to start.

studying more. I'm an apologist. I've been I'm a reformed as well in that in that regard. I'm seventy retired airline pilot from American. I'm currently a a safety inspector for the federal government.

And I'm always doing things in regards to apologetics and looking for ways to defend with the the reformed faith with wisdom and precision, love and grace. But also uh But but but to do it. Yeah, I'm seventy years old. I'm just more excited now about the Lord and the Bible than I've ever been in my whole life. I just want to be a.

you know, a better witness as time goes on, that's cool. Man, I love to hear that. I love that. That is so awesome. You know, I'll be 69 in December.

I'm not too far behind you. But I have the same enthusiasm. It's like I'll live for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whatever I can. Oh wow, good.

Okay. You got a question? Your thoughts on? Yeah, yes, sir. The question is: let's say I order the theology portion.

I'm excited about redoing these things here within the next day or so, maybe within the next hour after I talk with you. What might I expect? I am reformed. Thoroughly, and I was wondering what I might expect.

Well, I see a reform slant. in the understanding of theology, because I I really appreciate how you defend uh the faith as well. I find it uh, you know, unfamiliar with a lot of the arguments, at least the the ways you do it. Um Uh and I appreciate all that you do.

So uh I wanted to grow in that regard as well. Wow, I can really help you in that way. Two. I don't know if you know, but I have a Master's of Divinity from Westminster Seminary, and I'm definitely a Reformed. I do remember that in 91, I think you said.

So I've been paying attention to your things, and I think it might be helpful. I'm just not really want to go through the seminary part again, because I feel like I'm just too old at this point. You don't need to. Yeah, it's done. But um So the schools are are not reformed in their direction, but they're definitely not anti-reformed.

And The doctrine that I do support in there in the school of theology is you cannot lose your salvation. And I talk about it predestination and election and just give it a biblical view, and then that's it.

So I try to make them neutral. uh without compromising Scripture. Because not everybody is reformed, and but I want people to understand the basics of the Christian faith, the Trinity, the person and work of Christ, justification, sanctification, things like that.

Now, I could do a school defending reformed theology.

Now, I could write that very easily. And I wonder if people would like that or not. But uh I do have another website where I promote Reform theology specifically called CalvinistCorner.com. And that's where I really put the reform stuff up there. Because a lot of people aren't reformed, and that's okay.

I don't make a big deal out of it. And we're actually asking for writers now on Carm, and you don't have to be reformed to do that. But you have to agree with the statement of faith and can't violate it and things like that. But yeah, so you know, it's I'm glad to hear you're reformed and uh. Uh I don't know if that helps, you know?

Yeah, yeah, it does. I think the to me it's I I go to a non-reformed church right now, but I I find that um Um It's it's uh it it's a nonessential. I just want to make sure I can get the essentials down. It doesn't have I don't have to preach or teach always the reform thing. It's helpful if you if you understand maybe the the greater depth of scripture, but it's not necessary in regards to Um The Gospel Does that make sense?

Yeah, it's perfect. It is. It's dealing with some of the deeper issues of theological. Precision, and a lot of people just don't go there. And then a lot of people have misrepresentations about what it is.

You know, God's the author of evil, we have no free will, reform is the author, you know, and that's none of that is reformed. But the people will say that. And when I correct them, you know, politely, no, that's not it. Yes, it is. I go.

You know, say, look, I've an M dib from a Calvinist seminary. It's not what you know. Oh, now you're just boasting. It doesn't matter what you say. People like that.

They just I just don't care. But uh So yeah, i anyway, the schools are aimed at being generic. and being useful and being helpful. And so it goes through the basics of the Christian faith. I could go in and modify them because I've learned a lot since I wrote them, I don't know, fifteen years ago.

And it took me six months to write the theology, six months to write the apologetics, and about three. four months to write the critical thinking one.

Socket book. Go through and update 'em. I would really appreciate if you've had books and things like this. I've read a lot in order to get to this point, but to have the operational kind of battlefield uh Discussions, experience that you've had, and which I have not had, but. It would be helpful.

Yes, in fact There's a book. I've written several books. and one of them is called atheistica. It's the premise, it's apologetics.

Okay, I've written a book called Apologetics and Atheism, also. But uh Go to Amazon and find them. But Atheistica might be helpful to you because it has some interesting approaches to apologetics. It's a novel, a novella. And a very rich atheist guy uh buys a newly formed island, you know, the volcanic activity, and he puts billions into it and makes it a a a utopia.

and he invites atheists from all over the world to inhabit this thing. And they have great rules. They have great this and they have great that. The um The super rich atheist guy is super rich because he developed a security system, but he developed a program that attacks his own security system so he can find. Holes.

So, when he creates the island and the utopia that's opened up, he has. an individual whose job it is is to find problems with their system. And he's too good at it. And he undermines what's going on because he's just using logic and he has he's demonstrating that their positions and their grounding doesn't work. And he says, I'm just doing what you told me to do and then you know, the plot twists a little bit and things go bad for him.

And, you know, but you can check it out. It's one it's another way to learn. And we have apologetics dialogues on Karm as well. Real dialogues, except for one, which is on relativism. Everything's relative, everything's not, you know, is not absolutely true.

So I just made it up because, hey, It's relative. And that was where I did that's the only one I did that saw. There's a lot to learn. There's a lot there. Yeah.

Yeah, well, thank you. I'll keep doing that and keep up. I saw all those books, everything you mentioned on Amazon, everything you've written, at least. better available to be looked at by you. And I've learned a lot.

So thank you again for all that you're doing and for blessing me. I can't wait to get started in some respects. And if you ever do print out or kind of write down something in a book form that I know we got Lorraine Bettner. You're familiar with all the stuff here from the reform things, but if you've got something that's current that you I think it would be a massively blessed benefit to the reformed community.

Well, uh I do have on Amazon something called I believe it's on Amazon, called Calvinism. And it's just a manual. And uh And I'm checking to see if it's there. I saw it the other day. I have notes on Calvinism.

But uh Those are uh those are s yeah eight years old. And my notes on Calvinism now are, I don't know, 120 pages.

So, um,. And you know, there's this different stuff and uh You know, it's very defensible. I teach it often, and I have hundreds of verses memorized for teaching it over the years, and boy, I'll tell you. Man, it is such a comforting theological perspective that just puts everything in perspective. It's awesome.

Well, there's no way I could inquire that unless I saw those notes, and that was what I was calling for. It would sure be helpful since you've kind of invented that wheel that you've already systematized and the it would give me something to do to To develop familiarity and to develop very quickly.

Okay. Well, I sure would love to have a copy of those notes. Anything that Um I don't know, anything I could do to acquire that or is it I mean I'll get those books probably as well. Yeah, email me at info at carm.org and uh just uh you know you're Mark from Virginia, you want the the reform notes and I'll send them to you, okay? Oh, but that'd be awesome.

I've already done so. You've got my uh note in there. I always look every day in case you I sent something out Friday, so I'll You've got me already in there requesting anything like that. And so I'm already in your info, Carm. Just do it.

Do it again for uh the reform stuff.

Okay, I sure will. Yeah, I sure will. Thanks, man. I'm absolutely inundated, overloaded with work. And I drop the ball frequently.

I can't imagine why. Yeah, you're doing such a great job. I will do that again right now. Thank you for all you do and for your faithfulness to God and His Word. You've really inspired me out here in Winchester.

So, thank you.

Well, praise God, you know? Praise God.

Alright. Yep.

Okay. Yes, sir.

Okay. You too. Thanks, Mira.

Alright, God bless, Mark.

Alright, so my notes are 129 pages. Yeah, so. Uh now look folks, you know.

Well I'll tell you this after the break, cause there's some music. And we'll get back to you. After these messages, if you want to give me a call, the number is 877-207. 2276. We'll be right back.

Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Alright, everyone, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, the number is 877.

two zero seven. You can send me an email at info. At CARM.org info at carm.org, put in a subject line radio comment. I'll read a question.

Now, before the break, we're talking with this gentleman about Reformed theology. And I am very much aware that a lot of people do not like reform theology. They don't they um They don't like it.

Now I've had countless battles uh with Christians over it. I mean hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. Um And uh The reason I hold Reformed theology is because of my personal studies in the scriptures. Uh uh An in-depth study.

Now, I'm not saying if you Don't believe like I do, you're not studying properly. I'm not saying that. I can only tell you that from what I have done over the years. in apologetics in the defense of the Christian faith. And truly Really examining it.

I'm personally convinced of the doctrine of the Trinity. The two natures of Christ, his vicarious work on the cross. His substitutionary legal atonement. that justification, salvation is by faith alone, in Christ alone. Baptism is a covenant sign, not necessary for salvation, but you need to do it.

I affirm that God in the inter-Trinitarian communion before the foundation of the world, chose people for salvation. And this is what upsets a lot of people. because then they'll say that um God chooses people to go to hell.

Well. Maybe. We can go to Romans 9, 9 through 23 and discuss that. And see what God's word says. And when I show people what God's word says in a lot of areas, in a lot of topics.

not just reform theology, but in eschatology. Um Covenant. Justification. Uh I very frequently will c come across people who just argue. And they they argue, in my opinion, against these things.

Because They don't believe God's word. It's just, for me, it's just as simple as that. Uh when When it says, for example, Ephesians 1:4, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. I say, Well, he chose us. In him that is Christ before the foundation of the world.

to behold him blameless. He chose us Good for that. And people say, well, that means he elected them, right? I said, yeah, that's what it means.

So I don't agree with that. It's what it says. And uh They um They seem so frequently to be ready to argue against God's word by setting it against itself. And they'll say, well, if that's the case, then why does he say in John 3:16, God so loved the world? And I bring things up and I'll say, Are you saying then that God John 3.16 c contradicts Ephesians 1.4?

You know, God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.

Well, it says God. God will love the world and what they'll do without realizing what they're doing. is they'll take a pet verse and they'll raise it to the level of supremacy, and all other verses have to fit under it according to it. And of course, they can't justify that any particular verse is the right one to do that with. And then, when I point that out, they don't like that generally.

And when I say you have to harmonize the scripture, not submit one to another, unless there's certain clarification necessities that the scriptural topic warrants. And I said, why don't you believe all of what God's Word says, instead of just those particular verses? that make you We feel comfortable. Because a lot of people, in my opinion, want to follow the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian surfer Jesus, dressed in a woman's nightgown. who's standing at the door of your heart, asking permission for you and your wisdom to let him in.

And none of that is biblical. And in my personal opinion, again, I think a lot of churches are teaching false doctrines. Um I do. And I'm not judging all churches. I'm not saying I'm the one who knows what all truth is and everything.

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, what does the Word of God say? You know, women are not supposed to be pastors and elders, for example. I can give the verses for that, I can show it. Right out of the scripture.

I can show why um The Eucharist from the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches is an abominable heresy. from the scriptures because they're violating their teaching that Christ actually violated the law. in their their doctrines. And I show it to them and they don't like that. And then, as I was talking with one guy last night about this particular subject, oh God, you know, he's future, so he can take the future crucified Christ and bring it back to the time when he, you know, are you kidding me?

And um The people that I encounter who are so Stock. in their arrogance and in their pride, to believe certain things that they have been taught and that's just the way it is. And it it's arrogant and it's prideful. My church is true. My prophet is true.

And Then they will claim that their church, their prophet or prophetess. Is the one Or the means by which truth is revealed. And, you know, i and it's just so much deception going on. And when I show people scriptures. Very frequently they just resist.

And and it's normal because people have certain ideas and they relate themselves to certain ideas. And so if I were to say to them, Have you ever looked at the two-age model, for example, in End Times and the Doctor of End Times? They go, What, what's that? A two age model is this age and the age to come, taught by Jesus and taught by Paul. It's right there in scripture.

You ever heard of it? No.

Well, that's what. That's the model that they taught. Um why we haven't heard of it? Or, you know, the uh the famous uh pre trib rapture verses. and that they call him preacher of rapture.

Two men in the field, one is taken, one is left. Luke 17, Matthew 24, and I show people: no, that's the wicked who are taken, and they just laugh. No, it's not. You're an idiot, Matt. You don't know what you're talking about.

So let's read the context. When I read the context to them, then they go, Oh my goodness. You're right. And I said, yeah. Read the context.

You can see what it says. My question is: why is it that pastors can't get that? By just reading the context. What is wrong? That they uh say, oh, that's pretty rapture stuff.

It's not pre-trib rapture stuff. Just read the context. Luke 17, Matthew 24, read the parallels, you'll see. You know, it's just stuff like this. You know, I'm not saying I get all the doctrine right, you know, but I tell you, I study, and there's smarter guys than me who believe things differently than I do in some areas, and that's fine.

But you see, the Bible says each man be must be fully convinced in his own mind. Romans 14:5, at least I can defend why I believe what I believe. And Maybe they can too. We can have our discussions. We can, you know, just go back and forth and discuss things like this so that the listeners can benefit and draw their conclusions, what they think is the better position.

And that's fair.

Okay, and Paul did that kind of a thing in Acts seventeen when he um debated publicly with the people at Mars Hill. And uh Mars Hill, yeah, I've been there. I've actually stood on Mars Mars Hill. Uh And when you look up the up at about a fifteen degree angle, you can see the temple. Uh it's just the the glorious temple that uh so many people have been to.

there that you see in pictures that big uh Parthenon. Anyway, so uh The thing is, you know, What are you guys studying? Do you want to believe that God is a sovereign king or not? If He knows everything from eternity past, and he knows exactly what will occur.

Well then he's in control. And a lot of times people will say, no, no, no, it's up to your free will. It's up to you, up to you. And. I call it me-ism.

It's up to me to decide. It's up to me to apply the atoning work. It's up to me and my wisdom. To decide what I need. It's up to me.

And when I decide to apply the blood of Christ to myself, then it becomes effective. Look at me. Look at what I've done. My wisdom, my ability, and Uh I think that is just arrogance. I do.

God grants that we have faith. Grants it to you. You can't come to Christ without. Unless God grants that you come. Christ.

You know, there's a disparity between thought, beliefs, feelings, and God's Word. Hey, we'll be right back. Give me a call wide open lines. stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, the number is 877-2072276. I want to hear Family give me a call and we have a question. that has come in.

In one of the chat systems that we're uh kind of monitoring during the show, what does it mean when people call themselves a prophet? or an apostle.

Well, it means they're calling themselves a prophet and apostle.

Now, what does it mean? Uh there are different kinds of prophets. Uh there's false prophets, there's true prophets, there's prophets in the sense of the Old Testament. They wrote scripture and did miracles, there's prophets in the New Testament sense of 1 Corinthians 14, which apparently they could prophesy. And it was a charismatic gift that was given to the church.

So if they call themselves that, um Uh I'd be careful. The same with apostles.

Now, there are different kinds of apostles, at least seven. Jesus is called an apostle. There's false apostles. There's apostles that do miracles, write scripture apostles who don't. And generally speaking, an apostle just means someone who was sent, and from apostello, to send.

So when people call themselves an apostle, That's, you know, or a prophet or a prophetess. I'm really reticent to acknowledge that. Particularly since there are different kinds of apostles, and one of the apostles categories. is uh that to be that you had to have seen the risen Lord.

So I ask people to call themselves apostles, and I've met a few. Say, have you seen the risen Lord? Uh no.

Okay. Um what kind of an apostle are you? You know, I'm just just asking questions. I'm the kind of apostle that tells people what the truth is, and that, you know, okay, all right.

Okay. And so I have a lot of um Let's just say doubts. Let's just say about prophets and apostles today. Let's just say that.

Now that doesn't mean that in the church you can't have someone who can make a prophecy. I believe the charismatic gifts are around for today, so I think it's possible, but I don't acknowledge. Apostles today. I don't. I have been called an apostle by a few people over the years.

I'm not bragging, I'm not accepting that title. People have said I'm apostle. Apostolic in the sense that I go forth, establish truth, refute error, you know, write corrections. And I go, well, I understand why you're saying that, but no, that's just called an apologist. It's just someone who defends the faith.

That's all that is. I'm not an apostle. And, um, You know, I wouldn't accept that title. Doofus maybe, you know, I would you know take something called Doofus in a store, I look. Yeah.

You know, but um not an apostle.

So there you go. Hey, look, why don't you give me a call? 877-207-2276. You can give me a call. We have nobody waiting right now.

So, what I'm going to do is I'm stretching and my back is really hurting today. Because I heard it uh I don't know how I heard it, but I did. Oh, here that is tr um another little uh Question came up. What do you think is the strongest argument against sola scriptura? And why don't you think it works?

The strongest argument against sola scriptura? I don't know if there is a strongest. They're all wooing. Lame. Um The common one I hear is that the Bible says, listen to tradition.

And uh They say, So therefore it's tradition, you gotta listen to. And I say, yeah, but Jesus also said, You, the Pharisees who had the Who had, let me get to that verse. If it was a verse, I actually try to memorize. Let's see if I got the address right. Let's see if I got it right.

John 21 23 Because I remember addresses and um Oh, yeah, that's right. Let's saw on the error of sacred tradition. Yeah, that's right. That was a different verse. But anyway, nevertheless.

So, um They'll go to 2 Timothy or 2 Thessalonians 2:15, or Paul says, listen to the traditions. And I'll say, Well, okay. Um the tradition that he's talking about is the return of Christ. That's the whole context of Tekken Tessilians 2. What's going on right there?

And I says, How come you don't know that? You should know that. Or you're just taking a verse out of its context, which is what they do all the time when they want to say that their church is true. My church is true to that's tradition. We gave you the Bible.

Our church is true. You got to trust what we tell you the Bible means because we have the authority. Our church is true, it's the way, the truth, and the life. And nobody comes to God but through our church. It's this kind of idiocy that is promoted by a lot of people who go to Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.

Both of them are false churches, by the way. I have said it, I'll continue to say it, they're false churches, they're not true Christian churches. They teach false gospels. And so, nevertheless, um Uh So, tradition is something that they want to hold to because they don't want to believe in the sufficiency and authority of God's Word. Because if they had to believe in that, then they couldn't believe in their church.

It's that simple. It's that simple. Because say take Mary for example, Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholicism. Um Maybe I'll slow down here. They'll just kind of ramble.

And teach about some stuff. Let's see, so in Catholicism. Let me open up my file here and let's give an example of something. What I'm going to do is read some of the titles and stuff like this from the Roman Catholic Church about Mary. and what they say about her.

And I don't get into all that too too much. But they call her the mother of God, ascended into heaven bodily. She's conceived, never she. Is she Sometimes you never send. We'll get into that, but anyway.

So she's called The Cause of Our Joy, the Morning Star, the Gate of Heaven, the Refuge of Sinners, and things like this. And. That uh Let's see some look at some other things. Like like Mother of the Church, Mother of Mercy, Virgin of the Most Merciful, Mystical Rose. They go on and on and on in their idolatrous appellations about her.

It's it's ridiculous. And So uh that's what the e that's what the Roman Catholics do. I'll just bring this up for an example of something because I'm going to show you something here. And now, what I'm doing is I'm looking in my Eastern Orthodox notes. And I'm going to do the same thing.

Go to Mary the Mary section. She's called the gate of heaven. She grants crowns, she guides on paths of salvation. Mary alone is the guardian and protection of the faithful. It's just so stupid.

She's a mediator. You got to put trust in Mary. She's a protector. Salvation. Through thee we sinners gain salvation.

Yeah. the Eastern Orthodox, the Lenten Triodion. Says that all Eastern Orthodox must implore intercession of Mary, the confession of Mogilla, part one, question 42. You know, it just goes on. bow before images of Mary.

Mary's the right hand of Jesus. Mary bestowed through the icon. Oh, mercy bestowed through the icon of Mary. And then they have prayers to Mary. I can go on and on and on and on.

All right. What they're doing is committing idolatry, and I'm going to go through this a little bit right now, might as well. Might as well. I'm going to go to Exodus 20. And we start reading.

Now, before I do this, I'm going to tell you something that the Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox both say. They say there's a difference between prosceneto and lutreo. or adoration and um Veneration.

So What they'll say is That Their tradition And there Councils. Have revealed what the truth is about her. But it's not found in scripture. and so therefore we're obligated to seek her.

So adoration is for God and veneration is uh for Mary and and saints.

So you adore God. Can you venerate Mary?

Well, what the Bible says is, you shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above, or on earth beneath, or the water below. You shall not worship them. You shall not serve them. And it says you shall not worship them. And uh Or serve them and bow down to them.

Okay, I'm just looking at some notes.

Now here's the thing. The Bible says don't do this. make for yourselves a grand image and you Bow down before these images. It says don't do it. And that's in XS20.

verses 4 and 5. And if I go to Leviticus 26, You shall not make for yourselves an idol Uh or Or shall you set up for yourselves an image or a sacred pillar or figured stone and bow down before them. Don't do it.

Now when I go into the Catholic churches, They're bowing before statues of Mary. In the East Orthodox churches, they're kissing the icons, the paintings of Mary. They're bowing before them.

So they're violating God's Word.

Okay, now why am I bringing this up? Because if you believe just the Bible, you can't do any of that stuff. Nothing in the Bible says pray to Mary.

So The cult mentality, the cult attitude. of what's going on, the cult stuff. The cult thought. that um I'm gonna put this. The mind of the cultist is that they submit to what their overarching church authority tells them to believe, and they must interpret all things through it because it's called snapping.

They've snapped. They have given themselves over to and committed themselves to a certain perspective, namely the church perspective. Not a biblical one, but a church one. And because of this, They cannot have soloscriptura. Otherwise, they can't bow and pray.

and commit idolatry. to their false goddess. of merit. We'll be right back after these messages, please. Stay tuned, be right back.

It's Matt Slick Live, taking your call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call on the last segment, the numbers 877207. two two seven six now Arid A R I D in In uh Oh, what is it?

of Oh man, but And oh man, I'm looking at it. Rumble. Wow. Oh, that's bad. I'm getting older.

In Rumble, he made a comment, and I really like the comment. He says, That's right, the pesky Bible is the only thing in their way.

Now, you know, I really like that because it's true. The Bible is the thing that's in the way of the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. That's why they have to submit it to the tradition of their church and the authority of their church. Therefore, they can believe what they want. And that's how it works.

That's how it works. I'm going to say this again. Roman Catholicism is not Christian. Eastern Orthodox is not Christian. It is not Christian.

Both teach a false gospel. They both teach a false gospel. They both contradict scripture. They're not true churches. If you belong to them and you believe official Roman Catholic or official Eastern Orthodox theology, when you die, you're going to hell.

And the reason is because they teach a false gospel. Their gospel is the gospel of works. The Bible clearly teaches us we're justified by faith alone, in Christ alone, not by faith and work, which both those churches teach is necessary. for salvation. in this heresy.

So you can't believe in them. And then they promote idolatry against scripture. And then they justify it.

Well, we're not adoring, we're venerating. Yeah, and so then they play games with words, and so then they justify for their heresies, and then they expand. And why? Because people don't believe the word of God. People don't believe the word of God, that's what they got to do.

Alright, well if you disagree with me, give me a call and we can talk. But uh I'm gonna say it again. Neither one of those are true Christian churches. Neither one is.

Okay, uh here's a question that came in. Uh what do you think water baptism is for? It is for a designation and identification.

So let me let me show you. Um Let's see, we can go to Galatians. How about this? Galatians. 327.

For all Of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.

Now, what does it mean? What does that mean? It's an interesting statement.

Okay, you baptize into Christ, you're clothed. Uh with Christ. Clothing. What does it mean to be clothed with Christ?

Well, it's kind of it's you know it's symbolism. And he's speaking of the union that Christ has. by faith, not by um by baptism, because faith is what justifies us, and faith is what unites us with God.

So the phrase baptized into is used also in First Corinthians 10. Four, but I'm going to read um I'll read one, two, and three. I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea. This is when Moses part of the Red Sea, you know, and they walk through the on the dry ground. and all were baptized into Moses.

in the cloud and in the in the sea. The same spiritual drink, that rock that drink was the rock, the rock was Christ.

So they're baptized into Moses means that they were they were identified with the work that Moses was doing.

So when we have this phrase baptized into We see that it occurs in the Bible. And uh it occurs in Romans 6.3 also. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into his death? It's an identification with It doesn't mean that baptism is a thing that saves us.

Now, I know about 1 Peter 3:21, we'll go there in a little bit. But they have to understand that baptism is an identification with something and publicly declaring you are uniting with Christ. That's what's going on in baptism. That's why it's a public thing. You're doing before the church and before people and the world that I am now identifying with.

And as a covenant sign, and the work of Christ. the symbolism of what it represents.

Now, some will say, well, no, Matt, you're wrong. It says in 1 Peter 3:21, baptism now saves you. And they'll say, see? It saves you. And I say, well, can you read?

The whole verse. And it says corresponding to that, baptism now saves you. Not the removal of dirt from the flesh. But an appeal to God. What is the baptism?

It's the appeal to God. for good conscience of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So, and it says corresponding to that, baptism now saves you, corresponding to what?

Well Corresponding to that which came before. And what came before was eight people that were saved through Noah's ark, through the flood, by the ark.

So what does the baptism that saves represent? Is it the flood, the flood water, that destroyed people? It killed. The floodwaters did not baptize Noah and his family. They didn't baptize them.

They weren't baptized in the flood. They entered into that ark. That's what it says. Water baptism represents the appeal to God, just as Noah and his family were saved by faith since he built the ark by faith, Hebrews 11.7, and entered it by faith, in which they were preserved through the destructive waters. 2 Peter 3.6 talks about this.

So Anyway, I'm kind of rambling, putting things together here. But you've got to understand something. If you want to know what the truth is, OpenDodge Work. If you want to know what traditions to follow, Open God's Word. Use it as a standard.

If you want to know what you're supposed to do at work, Open God's Word. See what he says about it. Research it, take notes. You know, go online. What does the Bible say about how?

How would it work? Do our jobs. versus old people didn't you go look them up? Read the context. What does the Bible say about being a husband?

or being a wife. What does it say? It has to go look. That's the standard. Because it's what God has given us to the prophets and apostles.

It's inspired. Nothing else is said to be inspired. The scriptures are said to be inspired. Jesus appealed to the scriptures. Jesus came to fulfill the scriptures.

Go to the Word of God. Go read the Word of God. But if you want to believe something other than the Word of God, Well then go to tradition, go to church councils. Do stuff like that. And then that's another thing is people will say Oh, I got a hiccup.

Sorry about that. They'll say that church councils. Their church councils are the true councils. I kind of chuckle. I said, really?

Your church councils? I did this last night. When there was somebody who was entertaining the idea. of joining the East Orthodox Church is looking into it. Boy, after I was done with them, he goes, Oh man, I think they got problems I said, Yeah.

So The Seventh Ecumenical Council of 787 AD And I see ya. That's the second council, second Nicene Council. I've been in that very building, I've actually been there twice. And uh Thanks, Art Johnson, for your uh Your your Bible lands tours I get to go on.

So I said to this guy, I go, I'm gonna read you.

some of the stuff. That the seventh ecumenical council said.

Now, an ecumenical council means it's official. and is binding on the church. Because it's ecumenical. And hundreds of people come together and they the bishops and stuff that gather and they have meetings and they decide what we're told to.

Well, my questions are well, how do you know the ecumenical councils are right? How dare you ask that kind of question, Matt? God has said that He will protect His Church there obviously inspired. I say, are the counsels equal to Scripture?

Some say yes.

Some say no. Are your traditions equal to Scripture?

Some say yes, some say no. Muslims say yes to both of those. I say, well, let me read you. To like this guy last night who was looking into EO, Eastern Orthodoxy, I said, Let me read you the Seventh Ecumenical Council. That's what it says.

Here, listen to this. Anathema to those who apply passages of scripture written against idols to holy and venerable. Images. Anathema means curse. In Galatians 1:8 and 9, if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a A gospel that we have not preached, let him be accursed.

The word is anathema. It would have set. Anathema is a curse separation from God.

So it says this is number two Anathema to those who apply passages of scripture written against idols to holy and venerable images. Number three. These are the paragraphs that they have. Anathema to those who do not salute. holy and venerable images.

In other words, you're cursed. If you apply the word of God to the idea that they're images as idols that you bow before, I do that. I apply them to those things. That means they're cursing me. That's what it says.

And cursed if you do not salute holy and venerable images.

Now what do they mean by salute? Because that could have different meanings, but it means to definitely show a grand. uh respect to.

Okay. Anathema to those who call holy and venerable images idols.

Okay, here we go. Ready? The icons? in the East Orthodox Church. are idols.

The statues in the Catholic churches, in the front of the churches that people kneel down before. or idols. I believe those. They're idols and they're blasphemous. uh things that should be removed from all true churches.

But the Seventh Ecumenical Council says I'm cursed for that. Here's another one it says: Anathema to those who teach not diligently. All Christian people to worship and salute the holy, precious, and venerable images of all saints. Did you get that on read again? Cursed Curses upon those who teach that you do not have to worship Salute.

The The images They curse you. Anathema. Damnation. If you do not affirm. diligently.

That all Christian people Should worship and salute the holy, precious, and venerable images of all saints. And it goes on, it says, Anathema to those who hesitate and do not from the heart confess that we ought to worship holy images. This is the wording.

Now This is what the Seventh Ecumenical Council says. And The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church both recognize them. That's true.

So it it's just you know it's just Like, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? How could they possibly? say that.

Well, they do. They do, and they hold to Oh well just Just vile, blasphemous heresies, and then they teach them as truths. They teach them that you're supposed to hold to them, you're supposed to believe in them. And if you don't, you're cursed.

So, you see, when I talk about this and I say the Catholic Church is false, the Roman Catholic Church is false, I say, excuse me, the Eastern Orthodox Church is false, I don't say it because they beat me up or I was wronged by somebody or whatever. That's not it. It's because they teach Heresy. How do I know? Because I do this weird thing.

Read the Bible. And another weird. Dang. Oh, it's weird. Believe what it says.

That's pretty radical. You don't believe? Read. Trust what he says. Trust that God's able to preserve His Word.

Trust that He's able to communicate to us that we can understand what He's actually saying. And believe it. and use it as the litmus test and the standard of truth. and yet were cursed, For those who don't agree and are you supposed to worship and salute from the heart. These Images.

that are not of God. Wow. Well, anyway, folks. This is That's one of the reasons I do what I do. trying to quip Christians.

And have them find who Jesus really is. and what the truth really is. in the scriptures. Not in the Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches or in Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnesses or Islam. in Jesus.

He's the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the Father but through him. May the Lord bless you by his grace. Back on air tomorrow, and Lord William, we'll talk to you then. Have a great evening, everyone. God bless by.

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