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.

Alright everyone, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. Today's date is December 10th. 2025 for the podcasters. And if you want, as usual, all you got to do is give me a call.

Just dial 87720722. Seven six, and you can also email me, that's easy as well. All I have to do in that case is send an email to info at carm.org, info at carm.org. CARM.org and put the subject line: rate of comment, rate of question. All right, a couple of things.

We don't have any callers waiting right now, but I had an interesting encounter just a little bit ago with some Eastern Orthodox people. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. I've been cleaning and Doing all kinds of stuff, considering the events of the past few weeks. And So I was listening in just various rooms, and I'll tell you what happened there. I went to an Eastern Orthodox room.

A very interesting conversation. Unfortunately, it was not a very good conversation because they didn't know how to develop arguments well at all. But nevertheless, there's that. And also, I just want to let you know that we stay on the air by your support. And I understand that a lot of ministries all over the world, well, particularly in the United States, are having difficulty making ends meet.

We're no different. And this is not a a begging plea and nothing like that. I'm just saying that if y you get fed here in the show and you want to support us, please consider that. You can go to carm.org. It's easy to do.

Carm.org. Let me see. We had the new website, so I wonder if the the yeah, there it goes. Forward slash donates. Anyway, carm.org forward slash donate.

And there's a link right there. You click it and it takes you to where you can donate. And we would just ask that you do that, maybe $10 a month. Hope that's not too much to ask. We're trying to get enough people to do that such that we well, you know, we can make it.

Alright, so there you go for that.

Now, I had this conversation. I was in... a uh an Orthodox uh chat room and uh And I I was asking them, can Mary hear millions of prayers? And they said, define prayer.

So I define prayer as that communication we have with God, supposed to be with God, whereby we ask things, we petition, we seek Him out. And he said, That's the wrong definition of prayer. He says, You don't know what that is. I'm like, Well, tell me what it is then. And he said, No, you need to tell me.

And you know, it went back and forth. These guys, they're kind of amateurish in their logic. And that is what prayer is. And I said, Okay, so if that's not what the definition is of prayer, then please tell me what it is. And then this guy gets on and gives a definition, and the definition was what I said.

And it was interesting. And I said, we can finally get on past this a little bit. And I asked, can Mary hear millions of prayers? And of all places to justify, they said yes. They didn't want me to follow through with the questions that would follow I would follow with that, but they don't want to hear that.

And he went to Revelation 5:13, where every created thing in heaven and earth, John is there, it says, And under the earth and the sea and all the things they heard saying to him who sits on the throne, the Lamb of God. He said, So isn't that them hearing everything? And first of all, it doesn't say it's prayer. It's one thing. Another thing, it could be that all people are saying the same thing.

And these are hearing one voice. And a third, I said to them, well, every created thing, does that mean the grasshoppers and the frogs? And they didn't want to they didn't go there. They didn't want They didn't want to answer the question because, well, it was just too intellectually difficult for them to actually address. Because if they're going to use this as a verse to say that Mary can hear millions of prayers simultaneously spoken in thought in different languages all over the world, and this is where they want to go, then I'm going to ask them the question out of the text.

Every created thing, does that mean the paramecium, the amoeba? Does it mean the plants? Does it mean uh birds? Frogs? Snakes?

Does that include them? And they just avoid it. They start accusing me. And uh that I wasn't being uh ser serious. Like you brought this up.

And it was pretty shameful on their end, how they were just not able to deal with the difficult questions. That's often the case with Eastern Orthodoxy. One of the things that I thought was interesting, I'll get to the caller here in a second, is he said I lacked humility. And that I had presuppositions. And I just got a kick out of that.

I lacked humility and I had presuppositions. And I said, well, you have presuppositions. No, we don't. Interesting. But he said that basically he was being humble, which I always thought was good.

When someone knows they're being humble, I think it's good. They should pat themselves on the back for that. That's really interesting. And this was their kind of defense, and for me, it was shameful entertainment. I somehow enjoy that kind of inane repertoire.

And where a name persiflage is bantered back and forth, and they can't argue the way out of a wet paper bag. That was the case with them, they weren't able to do it. Hopefully they're listening because I put in my URL to the radio show. Maybe they might call up and we can actually talk about the text without me being muted like they did more than once and over talking so I couldn't complete answers.

Now, why would they be like that if they have the truth and are so confident in it? Let's get to John from Colorado. John, welcome. You are on the air. Yeah.

Hey, Matt. Um John's not my real name, by the way, everybody. It's okay. It's alright.

So, uh they brought the verse I'm talking about. I see the listing of Luke 21, 34 through 36. Yeah. Okay.

So wondering what that means.

Well, let's read it and and see. It says beyond going. Um Yeah.

Well why don't we read it to see? what it says first, okay? How about that? Do that? All right.

Be on guard so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on suddenly like a trap, for it will come upon those who dwell on the face of the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place and stand before the Son of God. I sound a male student, okay?

So I can't tell if it's if You mean does it apply to you? Are you are you worried about this?

Well, when I read scripture, I see these warnings, okay? And this is one of them. There are many others. Yes. And it it makes me get uncomfortable.

Good.

Okay.

Now what? Makes you uncomfortable.

Now what do we do? Why are you in command? Why and why what? Why am I watching? The future is going to happen.

Either way.

Okay.

So uh do you have a specific question? How about that? Well, it's the context of this verse. The return of Christ be ready, guys. Uh-huh.

You must prepare yourself. Yes, and we should.

So I'm I'm not. I'm not good enough. I haven't been a believer. It just says prepare. That's all it does.

It doesn't say you are good enough or not good enough or anything. It doesn't address that. It says be prepared, get ready.

So Why do I have to get ready if everything's okay? Because Jesus says be on guard. Because you're supposed to be on guard against lies, like false teachings of varying religions, like Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnesses or Islam or Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, atheism. evolution, you know. Be on guard.

It's a generic statement that you just want to.

Okay.

So let me ask you, do you believe in a doctrine of the Trinity? Is Jesus Christ God in flesh? All right. Are we justified before God? by faith alone in Christ alone.

I'm not sure about that.

Okay, well then we need to talk about that because it's not. It's one of the essentials of the Christian faith. And if you're worried about things, maybe it's because you don't know what the faith really is in some areas. I'm not trying to get on you, I'm just saying it's possibilities, which is why I test people. I think, well, what do you know?

You know, where are you at? And if you're not sure that you're saved by grace through faith or justified by faith alone, then we need to talk about that because it's one of the basic essential doctrines of the Christian faith.

Okay.

But if I'm justified by faith alone, why all these warnings? Because this is not a statement to any individual, elect individual. It's a statement to covenant Israel. Because the new covenant is ratified with the death of Christ. Hebrews 9:15-16.

And he's speaking to Israel because he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew 15:24.

So he's speaking to Israel. The people under the covenant. And he's warning them about things to come. Generically speaking, he's saying you need to pay attention to what's going on, people of Israel. That's what's going on.

So be on guard, he's speaking to covenant Israel.

Now the question then becomes, does this apply to us? who are not covenant Israel, but Gentiles grafted in by faith. And it does and it doesn't, depending on what aspects you want to look at.

So, we are generically to be on guard. This is a general principle for all people, not just Israel. They'll be weighted down with these things. And it says will come upon those who dwell on the face of the earth. This is in regard to the return of Christ.

So therefore it carries the weight of of um all people.

So generically speaking, be on guard. But if you are on guard, you're okay. All right. So the part where it says Like a trap. What does that mean?

That will not come out. Like a tree. Tree is something that you're not aware of. that it springs upon you and injures you, captures you, or kills you. And so don't be Don't be deceived.

Don't be lackadaisical. Don't be so blind that the trap of evil and all these bad things comes upon you and captures you. Beware. Jesus is saying, study. Know what the truth is.

Study His Word. Study the Scriptures.

Okay? A trap would be something like Mormonism. Eastern Orthodoxy. Roman Catholicism. Atheism.

All right. Islam, these are traps, among other things, these are traps. of the devil. All right. Okay.

Okay.

All right, brother. Thank you.

Alright, well goblins.

Okay.

All right, now let's get to Dave from Charlotte, North Carolina. Dave, welcome. You're on the air. Hi, Matt. Good evening.

I got a question about in the book of Job, where. where Satan tells God that uh Job only loves him because of the hedge of protection that God puts around him, and then God limited the things that Satan could do to Job. Does that imply that it God is able to bridle Satan or has enough control or only what Satan will allow. That's exactly correct. That's correct.

Nobody or anybody or anything could do anything other than what God either directly influences and causes and works them to do something or permits them to do. He works all things after the catchless of his will, Ephesians 1.11. All right. Okay, okay. And um I was thinking about the the nature of God.

Why would y God will need to to show Satan that they're proven wrong about about about could you help me with that? A lot of times, what is going on when God reveals, like the book of Job. He said, Why do we need to know about this conversation between the evil one and the holy one? Why do we need to know about this?

Well, it's because we need to know God is a sovereign king. We need to know that whether you have health or sickness is irrelevant to the truth of who God is and that you are obligated to follow God and praise Him no matter what. This is the kind of thing that is illustrated in the book of Job.

So hold on, bud. We got a break.

So hold on, all right. Hey, folks, we're right back after these messages. If you want to give me a call, we have three open lines: 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick.

All right, and welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, it is easy. Just dial 877-207-2276. Let's get back on with Dave from Charlotte, North Carolina. Hey you man, you're back on the air.

Okay, now where were we?

Okay.

You were explaining about why Satan and God's capacity to to control Satan and why these things need to be done. I think that's where you were headed. Yes, usually it's for our benefit. Uh now, you know, I know my theology very well, but uh there are just questions that uh I can't answer. I don't believe any theologian can answer.

God is so great in his work. And his decrees from eternity past. That She Uh undoubtedly. No no. Satan would rebel.

and yet permitted it. And this means that even the rebellion of of the Evil One was within what we call the permissive will of God. He permitted it. It was his will to permit it. Why?

One of the reasons is that it then enables the crucifixion. Because sin had to be in the world in order for such an evil to occur, by which we can be redeemed, and the greatest act of love, the greatest act of mercy can be demonstrated out of God's character.

So there's an integration of concepts of possibilities, probabilities. That we could work together and say that God who understands all of them. then will allow writers to Describe or recount certain spiritual realms and certain events.

So why is it that God would say to Satan, Do you see him? They're good to use. You know, Satan accuses God, accuses him. and God gives him permission to harm him.

Now, people may not like that, but hey, God's God, He can do what He wants. And Uh which is the case at the end of the uh The last few chapters, where were you? You know, are you the one who created this? Are you the one who did this? You know, God's giving His celestial rebuke.

Yeah. And so uh We are to benefit from these things. And the issue here becomes the reality of. us being made in his image. who have that freedom.

We are actually truthfully really influenced. but what the scriptures say. We can make decisions accordingly. And these things are for our benefit. And we're responsible for what we see in Scripture and how we apply it.

And so, what's written and what's permitted there is for our benefit. And one of the things we can learn, many things we can learn, but we can learn: well, God's sovereign, even over the evil one. And if something bad happens to us, as we like to call it bad. It's by God's permission But why is God doing this? Why don't we get into the theology of that?

But We have to understand God permits it.

Okay.

Right. Another thing that helps me is I think When we look at things, we have to remember we have a finite human understanding, and God has an all-knowing, infinite understanding. That's right. That's right. One of the illustrations I used to give, not very often anymore, but I don't know why, is there's a ceiling.

You're looking up at a ceiling and you see a thread. that dips down from the above the ceiling, and it dips down Uh where we can see it. It travels a few feet, then goes back up into the ceiling. We can't see what's there. and it does this, and we can see only parts of the threat of life, the threat of God's will revealed to us.

and we don't know all that's behind the scenes. And so Uh this is why we need to trust. Back in seminary, one of the The things that the professor got up and said, He goes, Gentlemen, I'm going to teach you one of the most important things you're ever going to learn in seminary. I remember this moment. Oh, this is good, you know.

You know, this wisdom, he's got more degrees in a thermometer. You know, this guy's great. And uh he wrote two sentences on the board. There is a God you are not Him. Right.

And you know, it's one of the things I remember from seminary very clearly. I went, of course, that's true. But it is very true.

Okay, it's not only true, it's very true. When you think back even to the beginning of man, as you correctly stated, God knew. He knew the serpent was going to enter the garden. He knew that. He knew Eve was going to be tempted.

He's not caught off guard. It's an amazing God. Yeah. He's not surprised. he is not surprised by anything.

And he permits things. And you know, my wife, uh she passed away recently. And she had a great deal of pain and suffering in the past few uh the weeks preceding. Her her best. And Why did God allow it?

I I don't have an answer. Why did God let her go through so much pain? And I'm serious, a great deal. I don't know. And I don't I'm not mad at God.

I'm not questioning his wisdom. I'm not raising my fist in the air at him. It's just, Lord, I don't understand, but I know you do. And Now my wife's with him and Oh, maybe, you know, theories, you know, maybe because she suffered so much for so long. that and never denied Christ and still praised him.

that her reward in heaven is just tremendously great. I don't know. So, you know, we can just look and think and wonder, but we need to trust him. All the time. Yeah, right, right.

Right. Thank you for that. That's spot on and this gave me a lot to think about. I I appreciate it. And I'm going to keep you in prayers.

I know it's And I I me and my wife have been married ten years and it would I can imagine how difficult it would be if she passed. And she she's a pr she's she's a believer as well, but uh I was just going to keep praying for you and and and hope and and and know that God will g will be a comfort to you in this difficult time.

Well, he has been, and it's a very difficult thing to go through. And I am learning from it because I want to know how I can better minister to others. uh through it. It's one of the things, you know. And it's taught me a great deal.

But our life here is for the glory of God. And we don't have the right to complain. to him. And we need to praise him. and then enter into his presence and Yeah, he's glorified.

It's hard. It's not easy sometimes, but that's what we've got to do.

Okay.

Great. Thank you.

All right. I thank you for your time and answering my questions, and I thank you for all you do. Have a good evening. You too, brother.

Well, God bless. Appreciate it.

Okay.

All right. Well, that was interesting and it was good. I like that conversation. If you want to give me a call, you can. All you have to do is dial 877-2072276.

You can also email me. Info at carm.org, info at carm.org. And you can put the subject line radio comment, radio question, one of those. and we can uh maybe get to them. Let's try Justin from California.

Justin, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt. I had a question about Christmas coming up. I have a family member.

It was very She she's not a believer, she's very manipulative. uh narcissistic And my pastor Wants me to invite her. to church. specifically for the Christmas service. And um I'm kind of wrestling with that.

Because I've I've told them about how manipulative this person is and How She will pretend to be a Christian just to. gain something from people.

So What would be your advice? Should I submit to my elders for that? Wow, good question. Hey, and there's a break, so let's get back to the break. We'll talk about that, okay?

So please hold on. Hey folks, if you want to give me a call, the number is 8772-072276. Be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Well, Robert and welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-277. 2276. Let's get to Justin from California.

Alright.

So Interesting question.

Now first of all, are you still there? Yeah. Okay.

So, um should you submit to the elders? Yeah, you should always submit to the elders as long as they're steering you biblically. Um But now Inviting her to church is a good thing. and all sinners, even narcissists. need to hear the word of God.

And inviting her is just something you do. And you're done. If you've already warned the pastor and anybody else who might be there, well, okay, you've done your part. And what she does is on her, and you never know. Perhaps.

the word of God will will uh sink into our heart. and change her.

So it's not that big a deal, okay?

Okay.

My concern on that was she's taking advantage of people in the churches. Um she'll she'll play the I'm interested in God. until all of a sudden she's now squatting in your house for a year. And it goes away. And so that was my fear for the church.

That obviously, Christians, you want to help. Especially someone that says I'm interested. But then I've just, I mean, she's 40 years old, and she just told me yesterday, I don't like working. I'm going to go find a rich guy to live off of because her ex-husband's in jail and all this stuff.

So it's kind of like. repeated pattern You know, so, but you're saying since I already gave the warning, it's kind of washing my hands off of it. Yeah, it's that kind of a thing.

Now, there are instances where the Bible says not to be involved with people and don't help them. And for the person, for example, and uh those who won't work. They don't let him eat. You know, uh those who cause division. those who are disorderly.

Excuse me, Paul. and false teachers and deceivers.

So There are instances where God says, Don't help them, just let them go.

So if you think your sister is in that realm where she is a deceiver, And she's not willing to work or to eat, uh uh to work on her own, then you have nothing to do with her in a generic sense. You know, not don't talk, you know, you never talk to her again, that. But you really have to be that tough love kind of thing.

So, if the pastor says you don't enjoy the church as long as he knows. And and stuff and you you You you guard him because he's then his job is to guard the church and the flock against a narcissistic abuser.

So it's tough, but you know.

Okay.

Okay, no, that makes sense. It's like 2 Timothy 3 about avoiding those that are abusive, and it's like a big list. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of people are I'm thinking about writing an article on this as well.

That's what kinds of people are we told not to support, not to help in scripture. and to avoid them. And we are. We're we're told that. Uh I think I'm going to write an article on that.

Of course I haven't written for a while.

So much is going on. Um Yeah.

Yeah. You know. Yep, that's right.

Okay.

Okay.

So, if she's that.

Okay, that helps. Thank you so much. Can I ask one more question? Sure. Go ahead.

We have nobody waiting, so go ahead. I don't know if you if someone already asked this, but what do you think about the recent Kirk Cameron? The denial of eternal hell? Yeah, um I've talked to Kirk before. And I texted him.

And right when I found out, I haven't heard from him. Who believes so?

So, oops, hold on. I checked on my phone to see if anything had come in. Come on, there we go.

So, uh And uh no, nothing.

So What I'm going to probably do is next is try and contact him a different way. Because it could be a different old phone number.

So it was a few years ago I talked to him.

So um It's a problem. Annihilationism is not true, and it doesn't make someone a non-believer. but it does weaken the righteous judgment of God. And I can get into that. No.

Yeah, it it's problematic. I've written In fact, a few years ago, I started a little bit of a section, a little section on Karm, on annihilationism. And one thing led to another, led to another. I started doing word studies, and I started analyzing every occurrence of each word, like destruction or punishment or whatever it would be, in the Old Testament, the New Testament, because I have skills on the computer with Bible program stuff and all this stuff. And I'd move stuff into Excel and I would categorize it.

I would do all this stuff. I wrote 182 articles, 182 related to the issue of annihilationism. A lot of them were just research, just article. I put them up, you know, so people could look at how these words are. are used.

like Apalumi. Or, in the words, about destruction. And I learned things. And one of the principles I learned is something very simple, I'm just boiling it down. is that punishment is experienced.

If eternal punishment is non-existence, then that's not punishment in Scripture, because punishment's experienced. Always.

So if you're punished by nonexistence, then that's not punishment. Simple. Is one of the things. It seems that that's more a doctrine for the idea like more liberal theologians. Would lean that way.

So if I um Do you feel like a warning? Like that's just what he spoke about publicly.

So we don't what is what does he believe in in secret? Right. And I wish I knew him well enough to be able to talk to him about it. Yeah. Has it also tied with Soul Sleep?

'Cause usually those go hand in hand. Yes, it does, because Let me tell you generically. not all annihilationists affirm soul sleep.

Now, soul sleep has their variations of that as well.

Soul sleep is, in one view, it is that the person continues to exist. in an unconscious inactive state. in the afterlife. But there's logical problems with that. How do you have an inactive existence?

because you have a problem with what's called continuity. And I can get into the logic problem of that.

So there's problems there. And then we apply this to Christ. Because if soul sleep is true for the human, think about this. This is a very serious challenge to the soul sleep position for those who hold to the Trinity And that Jesus Christ is God in flesh, because Jesus has two natures: divine nature and a human nature, it's called the hypostatic union. Mm-hmm.

Alright, so this is very, very critical for us to understand at this point. I'm going to go through this slowly and show you why soul sleep is a damnable, potentially a damnable heresy. Potentially.

So I've made some big statements, so let me explain why. potentially So The hypostatic union is the teaching that Jesus has and presently has and still has. two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. called the hypostatic union. the doctrine called the communication of the properties.

In Latin it's the communicatio idiomatum. That means that the attributes or the properties of those two natures are ascribed to the single person.

So Jesus would say, I am thirsty. human property. I'll be with you always. divine property. The person of Christ is comprised of the totality of the properties of both natures.

So Jesus came into existence 2,000 years ago because that's when the union of the divine and human natures occurred, along with the attribution. Or the communication of the properties of both natures to the one person.

So the one person could say, I am thirsty, I'll be with you always, even to the end of the earth. The one person claimed the attributes of humanity as well as divinity.

Okay, having laid this out, if soul sleep is true. And if the notion of the human nature then ceases to be active, Or is in a state of unconsciousness, then to what degree are the properties of humanity still being attributed to the single person of Christ? in the interim between his death and resurrection. Because death for the human is soul sleep, and the soul then in that position becomes inactive, which means the properties. of self-awareness, having a will.

Are not attributed to Christ during those three days, and that destroys the personhood of Christ. Who's by definition the sum of the attributes of both natures?

So if those attributes are there and they're just asleep and there's no activity and no energy being dispensed, because I ask these technical questions, I get way technical that I'm saying here, then how do you know, and how can you defend the continuity of the person of Christ? This is a serious, serious, serious issue. Mm-hmm.

Okay.

So and also the scriptures that plainly say, like absent in the body, present with the Lord and today you be with me in paradise.

So the and it seems like hell is just such a clear doctrine that it seems just to go blatantly against The word of God. It's not like a, I don't know, it's like, it's very concerning that someone would deny the eternal reality of hell. 'Cause that's what Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists do. Right. Now, generally speaking, no heresy is alone.

No heresies by itself. This is why I would like to get on the phone with Kirk and and just talk to him. And And see if he would want to do that. I can go through, maybe through Ray Comfort, and talk to him. I'll offer it, but he may or may not.

So So there it is. And there's the music butter, okay?

Alright, brother. Thanks, man. Appreciate it.

Okay, God bless. Hey folks, if you want to give me a call, we have four open lines: 87720-72276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

All right, buddy, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, it's easy: 877-207. 2276. Let's get to Matt from North Carolina. Matt, welcome.

Hmm, interesting wars. I'm alright.

So what do you got? I I was uh I hear a lot on social media about uh this whole anti-poll movement, uh Oh, teachers want theology.

some, you know, one type of message and Jesus teaches another and I'm sure you've heard this before. I was going to see if you could just elaborate on it a little bit. And I'm going to hang up because I'm driving.

Okay, sure, no problem. Yeah, I've heard this before. And I've never seen any contradictions between what Paul taught and what Jesus taught.

So what I asked them to show me is uh is are any examples.

Now, I've written an article years ago. I wrote it on in 2008. Did Jesus and Paul teach the same thing? And I'm looking at the article right now on the website Carm.org, my site. Both taught access to God the Father is through Jesus.

Both taught that the all are given to Christ. Both taught that the authority, Jesus has all authority. Both taught that. that uh would That they bear witness of Jesus. Both be said, beware of the false teachers, and that people are chosen for salvation, that people are predestined.

Communion supper, both taught the same on eternal destruction, eternal life is through Jesus. False teachers will arise and deceive people. Both taught to follow Christ. That God the Father is not seen. Both taught humility, indwelling of the believer by Jesus, indwelling of the believer by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus at the right hand of the Father, judgment. You'll be judged the way you judge. Justification by faith alone. Law is not removed, but fulfilled to love people. Persecution will come to the believers.

Repentance, turning from sin, resurrection of Jesus bodily, resurrection of people by Jesus. The return of Jesus is with the angels. Sacrifice, Jesus is the sacrifice, excuse me. Salvation is by faith, not by works. They both taught sanctification, avoiding sin.

They both appealed to Scripture in the Old Testament and present then at the time. Both taught that sin is a legal debt and the sinful nature of man. These are the 31 things that I discovered by looking through Paul and Peter's teachings that they do teach the same thing. When people tell me, oh, they contradict each other, I say, show me. Show me.

If they're going to make an assertion like that, please show it to me. I want to see. And this is what motivated me back in 2008 to check and to ask and to look. And uh I wrote it on December oh, how about that? Tomorrow, the anniversary of the article, December 11th, 2008.

So uh there you go. And that's what I would do.

Now, just here's a general principle when people ask things like this. or make a statement. Uh we don't want to be too Obnoxious about it, but but just generally say, Okay, can you give me an example? And I want to know. Um and uh you know so they uh they often fail.

They often fail to uh to produce any real contradiction.

So I I please ask them. And if you want, you can go to my website, carm dot org. and you can look up the article Did Jesus and Paul teach the same thing? And the answer is yes. And so I'll turn them on in the article and I'll say, well, I did my homework.

Have you done yours? What's the context of these supposed contradictions? If you have something, show it to me. I want to know. And that's what I do, and that's how I handle them.

Okay? All right. So we have wide open lines, 10 minutes left in the show. If you want to give me a call, 877-2072.

Now I said earlier a little bit ago That um There are people that the Bible tells us to avoid.

So during the break, I started doing some research, and I have a lot of tools.

Okay, I can do pretty quick research, I can find things, I know tricks. And plus, I just know some verses too that are just memorized and things like that.

Okay.

The kinds of people to, and I mentioned on the earlier call, one of them is people to avoid is those who won't work. Let him let him not eat. Um Okay. Here's one that a lot of people don't realize is the case: those who cause division in the body of Christ. If you cause division, the Bible says avoid them.

If you don't want to entertain or support those who cause division of the body of Christ, now this is a serious one. And the reason is I'm going to just say that Uh a lot of times people who are Christians will attack varying aspects of Christian thought within Orthodoxy, like Arminianism or Calvinism or Pre-Trib Rapture, post-trib rapture. And It's okay to say we disagree, and here's why, but you've got to be careful that you don't cause division in the body of Christ in so doing, and that's the problem.

So, we want to avoid those who cause such major, serious division. We want to avoid that. Let's get to Steve from Utah. Steve, welcome. You're on the air.

Yeah, Matt. Hey, I've got a Question: I heard you talking, I believe it was last week, about um Uh the word fellow him. And Yeah. I remember somewhere along the lines And I don't know if this is a true statement or not. That The word Elohim is me is plural.

Yes. And I remember hearing it or reading it someplace, and when you were talking about Elohim, Could the Elohim be Referring to the Trinity, if the word Elohim is plural and isn't plural. Yes, it is plural. It's plural in its form, Elohim, and the word in Hebrew for face, you know, our face with our eyes, nose, and mouth, is panim. It's also plural.

So just because it's plural doesn't prove Trinitarianism. It lends a support to it.

So, the way we would look at Trinitarianism and the plurality of God is: you know, you could look at the word Elohim.

Okay, it's interesting. You know, and there are singular forms of the word God too in Hebrew, like el. And um And the word Elohim, incidentally, let me see. I want to get in. Oh, I've got the wrong wrong thing here.

I'm going to tell you how many times. The word Elohim occurs. In the Old Testament, and that is number 430, and it occurs. 2599 times. It's no big deal.

So the thing is, what are the contexts of them? And even the unrighteous judges are called Elohim in Psalm 82.

So uh Anyway, it has to b a broad meaning.

Okay.

So when we come to the plurality of God, the word Elohim is plural. And we can learn from that, and just a launching point, but it doesn't prove the Trinity. Is the word God. But the word face is panim. Does it mean we have plural faces?

Yeah. So just because something's plural in its nature, in its form, Okay. isn't the best argument to go to. It's just a supportive argument, okay? Uh um All right.

Okay, well is there a singular form to that word Elohim? Yeah, I believe it's just the word L, okay? Yeah. All right. Well, yeah, it was just an interesting thought that came to mind.

So I just thought I'd bring it up and see what your thoughts were.

So, yeah, oh, yeah, I'm aware of it and used it many times that way. And uh In other words, I was gonna say, I wasn't sure, but I just checked, but Eloh. is uh is is uh the singular form of Elohim. But I've seen the word El.

Okay.

But it's Eloh, and Elohim is the plural form.

So, yeah.

Okay.

All right, Matt.

Well, hey, I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Sure, no problem at all. All right, well, God bless.

Okay.

God bless you. Bye. All right, thanks. All right, let's get to Bradley from North Carolina. Bradley, welcome.

You're on the air. Okay, I had a question about the um Singing um Hymns and songs in church, worship. Music, you know. And I run across a video on YouTube and it said that, um That if you sing the wrong songs and you know the wrong hymns in church. It has put a lot of people into hell, is you know, they've lost their salvation because of that.

Oh, that's that's from the the uh that's that that teaches for the book, uh Second Hysterectomy.

Okay.

What? Yeah, it's not a biblical teaching. Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice, and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish. And that's John 10, 27. And in John 3, 16, God so loved the world and gave His only begotten Son, whoever would believe in Him would never perish, but have eternal life.

Jesus equates eternal life with never perishing. Singing a wrong song doesn't make you saved or not saved.

Okay.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. It might be just a sin, just like the rest of the sins that we commit, right? But we're forgiven for those, right? Yes, and we are. And it doesn't mean it's okay to sin, but we need to be careful what it is that we sing.

And most hymns are godly. But I remember back when I was doing pulpit supply, I can't remember which particular hymns, but we'd go to different churches back in Southern California. I must have preached in 30, 40, 50 churches, I don't know, just a lot of churches. And I remember a couple of instances singing a hymn that they had chosen. And remember, the lyrics went, that's not biblical.

That's not good theology. But he didn't say anything 'cause uh I had to preach and and uh and stuff like that. But um So it happens. It happens with hymns and with praise songs. One of the praise songs I loathe.

is uh I I've got it someplace, but it says where the lyrics are I give you permission. The the person is giving God permission. to work in her life. What arrogant foolishness that such a lyric is. Foolishness.

It's stupidity. But if you sing that, does it mean you're not Christian? No, it just means you're singing a stupid, heretical song. I Lord, give you permission. Give me a break.

given God permission. You know, it just means oops, like just like you said. the hundred other things that we're doing all the time.

Okay.

God still loves us.

Okay, well, I'm going to get off of here and let somebody else on, but I appreciate it a lot. Hey, no problem at all. Thank you.

All right. Bye-bye. Bye. We have nobody waiting, so let me just kind of talk about this a little bit. We've got a couple of minutes left in the show.

Ladies and gentlemen. Do you believe you can lose your salvation? If you are concerned about losing your salvation, That's one of the signs that you are saved. Dead men. Don't struggle.

But those who are alive struggle against their sin, and it's one of the signs that they're alive in Christ.

Now can you lose your salvation? It's a debated topic within Christianity. And though I have met many people who believe you can lose your salvation, I have not. said that they're not believers. Unless They then say, That you keep your salvation by how good you are.

Now that's a problem. But aside from that, Can we lose our salvation? I don't believe it's possible. And the reason is because in John six, thirty seven through forty, When I read what Jesus says, He talks about He says, All that the Father gives me will come to me. and the one who comes to me I will not cast out.

I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me I lose nothing. but raise it up on the last day. The will of God the Father is that Jesus not lose any. If Jesus loses some, that he's failed to do the will of the Father, which is impossible.

Now, some people say, well, you're going to lose yourself. But that's not what the the issue is, Jesus says. if he can lose them. You don't lose yourself any more than you save yourself. your salvation and Securities in Christ's work.

not your own.

So Rest in him. There's the music. I gotta go. May the Lord bless you by His grace. We'll be back on here tomorrow.

More glowing. And we'll talk to you then. Have a great evening, everyone. God bless. Another program powered by the Truth Network.