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 you're listening to Matt Slick Live. And if you want to give me a call, as usual, It's easy. All you gotta do is dial 877. Two zero seven two two seven six and uh Also, if you want to email, I was just thinking because I think the if I remember correctly, the um The last four digits The last four digits spell On the phone.
I'm pretty sure that's what it is. Anyway, so I just was remembering that.
Okay.
Now, if you want to watch the show, you can do that easily. Just go to rumble.com forward slash Matt Slick Live, all one word. It'll get you to where we are there. And a lot of people come in and chat, and it's a lot of fun. We have a good time there.
And if you want to email me, that also is easy to do. Just send an email to info at carm.org. Info at C-A-R-M dot O-R-G. And Um From the subject line, rate of comment. Radio question, one of those.
We'll get to them. We may get to them today because we've got no callers waiting right now, and that's okay. It usually happens like that towards the holidays, but especially at Christmas. we get less callers and that that's just uh normal. Yeah.
All right, all right, all right.
Now, I had an interesting discussion today. You know, I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. And uh One of the things I've done for so long is you know, uh just do theology and and evangelize and try and teach and things like that. And I was in a room. too tired to work and I just said I'm gonna go in a room and listen and And uh then I ended up uh having a discussion with uh some Catholics.
And a Muslim came in And uh the Muslim He wanted, he just said, Hey, can I have a debate with somebody? And I said, Okay. Let's go. And so I just said, let me ask you some questions then. He goes, okay, fine.
It was a polite discussion. But it was interesting in that what I did was I compared Allah. to uh to Yahweh.
Now I'm going to introduce a concept to you that may or may not be easy to understand. But one of the things I raised to him and it was difficult for him to follow And maybe because it's a new concept, I I don't think he was stupid, nothing like that. I just uh don't think he he was quite understanding. And I had to explain it a couple of times, and then Then he started reacting to it, so he got the point, but there was no real answer.
Well, anyway, here's the discussion. You know, the Bible says in 1 John 4:8, it says, God is love. Just as God is just, justice is part of his nature. Holiness is part of God's nature. His love is part of his nature.
Now, in Islam, God is just, so it's part of his nature, but it never says that God is love. Never says Allah is love. And I said, So this means then that when Allah does something that is what we consider loving, it's not based on His character or His essence, but on His decision. This is critical. In Christianity, if Yahweh Himself is love.
Then, what he does in a loving manner is consistent with his nature, and he can never violate his nature, he can never be inconsistent in how he applies love. Where if Allah does not is not said to be love. then it's not part of his nature. If he decides to act loving, Then where does this standard of love come from? It has to be something that he decides what it is.
If he can decide that love is one thing, then he can decide that love is something else. which means then that Allah could contradict himself. On what love is, what love might be. And since we know from Surah 354 that He's the greatest of schemers, the greatest of deceivers, then this is consistent with the idea that the love of God, a love of Allah, is not an attribute of His nature. But an attribute of his decisions.
And his decisions can then be arbitrary, and he can reverse his decisions and be contradictory. And so I raised this to the Muslim guy. He didn't know what to do with it. He said he'd never heard the argument before. And it's just what I come up with recently as I was thinking over things the past few weeks.
And um And stuff like that. And he said other things. We got into stuff like that. And So then, when he, you know, he couldn't really answer it, and I get it. I I started focusing on Muhammad.
And oh man.
So, um And I had this paragraph I'd written and uh I read it. Islam was started by Muhammad, who claimed to have received his revelation in the darkness of a cave. He married a six-year-old and had relations with her when she was nine. He had many wives, taught that it was okay to beat wives, Said, don't make friends with Jews and Christians. He owned slaves and promoted the killing of infidels.
And let's not forget that Muhammad was a sinner. And I said no. Let's compare that to Jesus. Jesus Never receive any revelation in darkness in fact you claim to be the light. He never married a little girl, nor did he have relations with a little girl.
He did not have a bunch of wives, and he never taught it was okay to beat your wives. He taught to the contrary. He said, Love your enemies. He said love them where Mohammed said you know don't don't make friends with Jews and Christians. And he never promoted the killing of infidels or the killing of non-Christians.
In fact, I said No one ever died in Jesus' presence. And I said, and furthermore, Jesus never sinned.
So how is it then that Muhammad is a better prophet? A greater prophet than Jesus. If Jesus is the one who fulfilled the requirements of God. perfectly in everything. Muhammad did not.
How is it that Muhammad is better than Jesus? Yeah. And he stumbled over that one as well. What I'm trying to do, an end of discussion ended after that pretty quickly. What I was trying to do is show uh a few things.
that the God of Islam is inferior to Yahweh. the God of Christianity. that Muhammad is inferior To Jesus. And I didn't get the chainance, but the issue of Islam itself as a religion being inferior to Christianity. And After this guy left, I discussed that just a little bit.
And I pointed him, this one guy, to the website the religion of peace dot com. That's uh a a website that documents the atrocities of Muslims. I think it's uh how many is I'm gonna go to that site right now. And let me do this really quickly. Religion of peace.com.
48,595 deadly terror attacks since 9-11. I remember it was in the twenty thousands. And so since 9-11 terrorist attacks by by Muslims.
Now What why is that? What is it about Islam that teaches violence? What's Surah 9, which says to kill the infidels? Yeah, yeah. And um So I brought this up after this one Muslim guy had enough and he left.
And others, they looked at the website and they're like, Are you kidding me? I had no idea it was that bad.
Well, yeah.
So here's the point: is that the God of Islam is inferior to the God of Yahweh. And one of the things I brought up also was the issue of love. and humility. can uh because is Allah humble and he said no Allah can never be humble Mm-hmm. And we discussed humility for a while, and I read some stuff out of the Bible about humility, you know, putting others first before yourself as a form of humility.
And I said, Can allah do that? And he says, No.
So Allah can't be humble. and he can't be loving or he can't love Or I actually said the greatest act of love was to lay your life down for his friend, you know, as Jesus said in John 15:13. And I said, God can't do that. He said, Of course not. I said, so your God cannot do the greatest act of love, but Yahweh can.
And Allah can be outdone by a creature. If a man or a woman, mother, father, whatever, gives their life rescuing their children or somebody else's children and dies in the process, it's an incredible act of love. Even creatures could do the greatest act of love, but Allah can't. And what I try to do is show the inferiority of Allah. and the inferiority of Muhammad And then that's when he had enough.
It was an interesting discussion. And I may put together an article on this, I don't know. I got so many articles to write. But what I've been doing, I've not been working on the website very much because I've been. Cleaning.
You ever got into this mode? Where you start cleaning the house.
Well, because my wife passed away recently, um. One of the things I decided to do was start cleaning. And uh just go through the I've been working now for a week, basically, week solid. Just cleaning and cleaning. Trash barrels full.
Went to the dump yesterday with a friend of mine, brought a trailer over, and just really been cleaning. And you know what? It's kind of cathartic. It's cathartic to uh Oh interesting, Rumble's not working. Interesting, I don't know why.
So uh It should be working. I did everything right. But at any rate. uh in in the uh codes for it.
So, unless there's something new I don't know about that came up. Anyway, let me get back on track.
So, cathartic cleaning and Uh I even vacuumed today. Vacuuming, I vacuumed. And so that to me is, boy, that you're cleaning now. Of course, I don't vacuum as well as most people, but I vacuumed.
So And then, and you know what's really weird here? I'm just rambling, but You know I live in Idaho.
Okay, and it is December. And I had the front door open. and I have a T-shirt on and I'm outside and it's perfectly comfortable. We're having a heat wave here for December. And also, the humidity here is so low that you really don't feel cold.
If it's 40 degrees, it feels like 50, 55. That's what it feels like. It's just interesting here. And so it was really comfortable. Isn't that weird?
I wonder how it is where you are. All right, so there you go.
Some rambling. If you want to give me a call, it is easy. All you have to do is dial 8772072276. If you want to give me a call, you can. And since we have nobody waiting right now, what I'll do is get to some emails and some questions from the emails.
I could do those. And also, I just want to let you guys know. That uh that we stay on the air by your support. And what we've been doing each December is having a matching funds drive, but. This December hasn't worked out that way.
But I just do want to say that we do need that support. I think $10 a month. is pretty reasonable. And we're trying to get one thousand people to do that. And if we can do that, we can then keep our head above water.
People are having financial difficulties, and we've lost a lot of little donors. Small donors, a lot of them, and each person's probably thinking, you know, $10 isn't going to matter.
So they cancel. And it's been building up. And so I'm just asking for your help and assistance in that. All right, not a big deal. We are trusting the Lord.
He'll put it on the heart of the right people.
so that we can keep this ministry going. And if you want the radio to continue, we definitely need that support. There's some behind the scenes discussions about that as well. All right, let me see. We got some callers coming in and haven't got all the info yet.
Um Let's see, let's see, let's see. I already did that one last month. What? How should we?
Okay, let me go down here. Let me go down to this one here. We're trying to get to. An email that I've not seen for a while. And let's just, in the meantime, let's get to Andrea from North Carolina.
Andrea, welcome. You're on the air. I was just calling to give my condolences. I didn't know your wife had passed. Yeah, two weeks ago, and it was it was very sudden.
It was very sudden. Yeah, I'm so sorry. That's why I was calling today.
Well, I appreciate it. Can you hold if you want? Because we got the break, and I've got to stop. No more questions. No more questions.
All right.
Alright.
Okay, well God bless next.
Alright, hey folks, we write back after these messages. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Everybody, welcome back to the show.
If you want to give me a call, all I've got to do is dial 877207-2276. Let's get to. Herb from North Carolina. Herb, welcome. You're on the air.
Hey, Matt, I had no idea about your wife. I just heard it. And I just want to tell you from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry. I just, I can't imagine what you must be going through, but I know God is with you, and you'll get through this. I've been praying for her to get well for a long time.
I've been listening to you for a long time, and I just it just shocks me to hear that. I just can't believe it. Yeah. It was uh sudden. She she had been declining for a while and then She went in for something to be done, and within twelve hours.
It's not because of the procedure, but it's just that you know they go check her and she was having problems and then they hasp hospitalized her, then intubated. All within 12 hours, it just went bad, and she was on life support.
So Yeah. You know, I've shed a lot of tears, and I know that my wife is now with the Lord Jesus. And she's been a little bit more. Yeah, she's probably pitying me right now. Like, man, he's still stuck there.
So That's how I looked at my dad's death. I thought, who am I to want my dad to come back to this earth with all this sin? He's in heaven. Aden won't come back here. And that's how I feel sure your wife will.
Well, I won't hold you up. I know you don't want to talk about this much. It's got to be painful. But I just want you to know I love you as a brother in Christ, and you'll always be in my prayers, you and your wife.
Well, thank you very much. Really appreciate it and certainly need it. but it's taught me a lot and um I'm I'm far more compassionate now. And that's one of the benefits, so to speak. Always look for a way to glorify God through anything and everything.
And uh Yeah. Yeah. So Well, God will get you through this. You know, we all got to do this one day, and eventually we'll all meet again. This will just be a temporary time.
You know, this is all temporary. The main thing is, the main show is waiting in the sky, so to speak. That's right. We're forward. That's right.
That's right, exactly. All right, Matt.
Well, God bless you and your family, and I'll always keep in my prayers, and I'll call sometime, definitely make some other calls too. I've been real busy and wanting to call you, but I I was going to call you and ask you some biblical questions, but I just had no idea this had happened to you, and I just want to give my condolences.
Well, thank you very much. I do appreciate it. Yeah. It's All right, man. Take care.
Okay, you too. All right.
Take care, bud. Thank you, man. Bye-bye. All right.
All right, let's get to Ron, and then we have more people who want to do condolences. Ron's been waiting for a while, we'll get to him first. Uh Ron from North Carolina, welcome. You're on the air. Yes, sir.
I have a quick question. And I know I've been there and you're talking about the Roman Catholic Church. Why is it that people don't consider that in a An a cult anymore because I know I consider it one, but white people don't generally consider it one anymore.
Well, you know, I actually called Catholicism a cult this morning when I was online. And it is. It's a false religion, just depends on what you define cult to be. But it's definitely a false religion because it teaches a false gospel. False priesthood and a false Mary.
So Yeah, it's uh it's bad. Yeah, it's a very very bad religion.
So is East Orthodoxy. Very bad. Yes, sir. Yeah, I just wonder, because like I said, I've never heard people talk about it a lot. You know, they can, you know, you probably remember a long time ago they're talking about, well, the Catholic people are brothers and sisters in Christ.
and had a I guess went long in the seventies But a lot of people never condemned it. I wonder why.
Well, because I don't know. Maybe they're ignorant of biblical theology. Uh you know, I always say that uh I regularly say that anybody who believes official Roman Catholic theology regarding salvation is damned. Because it's just that pain. Yes, sir.
And it is. So It's a false gospel, among other things. It's as bad. Yes, sir. It is.
Okay.
I'll let you go, but I've been praying for you, brother, and we love you. We'll pray for you. Thank you. I certainly need it. been doing quite well lately, uh relatively speaking.
Uh I know it's because of people's prayers. And that's the way it is? Yes, sir. I have my moments though, but thank you. Yes, sir.
No problem. God bless you now. You too, God bless. All right, let's go to Gerald from North Carolina. Gerald, welcome.
You're on the air. Uh what just looks like. Man, I'm down from the last call. There was some discussion on the Catholic Church, but right in the 70s, that was right after losing John F. Kennedy to an assassination.
So there was a lot of sympathy for the Catholic Church at that time. But I did want to offer my condolences. I just lost my wife a couple few years ago. And just think. You're going to be able to walk in the New Jerusalem on top of Mount Zion or by the River of Life.
and eat twelve kinds of fruit from the trees.
So that's a lot to look forward to, and God is so graceful to bring heaven to earth for that. I'm looking forward to being with him and saying hi to my wife again. Um And just looking forward to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's it. Just looking forward.
So all they can do is praise him, make him. That's it. I'm looking forward. Yeah. But let's see it there's I praise Him for an abundant life, even though there's suffering Through it.
He gives the grace and mercy to get through any kind of suffering that we put up with. outside of the suffering of Jesus to give us salvation. Amen, brother. That is true. That's what he does.
Yeah. Well, love you like a brother and listen to you all the time.
So I missed you the couple of weeks you were out, but I can understand why. Yeah. Look forward to c continue listening to you.
Well, thank you. Really appreciate that. And uh just Thanks. Appreciate it.
Okay.
Have a good evening.
Alright, you two, God bless. Might not do this.
Okay, thanks, Gerald. All right.
Now let's get to Nancy from North Carolina. Nancy, welcome. You're on the air. Okay.
Yes, this is Nancy. I'll keep this short. I've been listening to you for years, but I've never called in and asked a question. I just keep it on the radio to hear other people call in, and you do a great job at answering questions, and I learn a lot. But I just wanted to call and tell you story about your wife, and I've heard you talk about her quite a bit, and she sounds like she was a great blessing in your life.
And I always hear you when you say one of her greatest weaknesses was her choice in men. I wanted to let you know that I think. She did an outstanding job choosing you because I've learned a lot about your character from listening to you on the radio, and I just wanted to call in and let you know that.
Well, you know, You make me think because I can tell you So many times my wife has stared at me with eyelids at half mast while she's rubbing her forehead.
So, you know, she might disagree with you on that last one, but uh. you know, uh it's her greatest, greatest gift or her greatest ability. characteristic that was great was her love for Jesus.
So she's she's a good woman that way. She's a good woman. And I like to tease people and say, if it wasn't for her taste and men, I'd have more respect for her, you know? But um But now she's with the Lord. And I'm I'm grateful.
For her sufferings ended.
So I tell you.
Okay.
Well, I'm sorry again, and you sound like you're doing very well under the circumstances.
So, you know, I'll pray for you and God bless you in the future. Thank you, Brandon. Chicago. Yeah, well, just so you guys know, man, I've wept.
so many times. And that's what it is. And God is there. Lord bless you. Be right back.
It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Alright, everyone, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, it's easy. We have nobody waiting, so it's easy.
8772-0722-76. You can give me a call. Let's get to some of the questions then that people have been sending in.
So I can do that right now. You can also email me a question, and that's easy to do. Just send it to info at carm.org. Info at CARM.org and put the subject line radio comment or radio question, and then we know that's what it's about: radio comment or radio question. We can get to them.
So here's some. Here here's some that have been uh Uh been submitted What's the response to claims that many biblical teachings are borrowed from pagan religions preceding Christianity?
So it's easy to make a claim. But it's another uh to back it up. When people make this kind of an assertion, I say, What's the evidence that you have? You can say it, it doesn't mean it's true. I said, What evidence do you have?
Can you show me where a Christian or a Jewish teaching? was uh Borrowed. or influenced by a pagan culture. Can you show me that? And they just say, well, it's obvious.
Just do your homework, Matt. They always do that. They don't do their homework, they just want me to do it for them. And I say, no, no, no, you're the one who's bringing it up. Do you have anything like that?
And what they'll generally do is they'll say that. uh the religions around them came first. and therefore uh Judaism borrowed from that. And so what I do is I go to a website uh that discusses the issue of uh the ancient Chinese characters. uh for various things like sin and the symbols that are there.
Uh the symbol for sin is like a tree with uh two trees or t a tree with it with a snake in it, and a boat is a boat with the number eight and mouth. Eight people. And I show several things like this, which are right there in the Bible. The same as the Bible. I think temptation is a woman and a tree.
It's really bizarre, this kind of stuff. It's it's these ancient Chinese characters. From 6,000 years ago. And I said, oh, 6,000 years ago, that precedes the pagans, doesn't it? And they said, yeah.
I say, well, if your idea is that what came first Is what is the source of something, then the Jewish culture. The Jewish Chinese culture from 6,000 years ago came first and had these ideas in it, so therefore the pagans borrowed from that. By your logic. And if you can deny that, you're going to deny your whole argument to begin with.
So that's one of the things that I will say and respond to, and it's worked very well. Let's see, another one says, At the tomb, one gospel says there's one man, another says two. John only mentions one woman. Why the inconsistency? The inconsistency is due to the intent.
of the writers to bring about certain points and to focus on certain aspects.
Now they're not contradictory, but they they are not consistent.
Now don't make the mistake of thinking an inconsistency is a problem. Because If a friend of mine and I see an event, And we recount the event, but we're not exactly identical in everything. It doesn't mean that we didn't see the event and it doesn't mean that um the event didn't occur. If my friend recounts uh people with red shirts and I don't, I just don't recount people with red shirts for some reason, and he does, is that an inconsistency?
Well, it depends. Oh. What are you looking for as a consistency? Are you looking for all such details to be the same across different viewers, different people? Or is it okay to say, well, some recognize one issue and others focus on others?
They're not consistent in that sense, but it's not a problem either.
So, this is the kind of issue that we deal with when it comes to topics. like that. How about this one? Let's see. What does it mean to be a disciple?
My first response to that is, I don't know. I'm still working on it. But uh basically, biblically A disciple is someone who follows the Lord Jesus Christ. who studies what he says, studies what he does, and tries to emulate him. Jesus wants us to be compassionate.
kind, gentle, patient. He also wants us to stand up for truth, to stand up. To make judgments about things that are wrong. He wants us to be consistent, to lay your lives down for others, to learn how to resist sin, to learn how to be. A servant to others.
This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, to emulate Him. Imagine yourself. If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, imagine you walking around with him. And you watch what he does, and you watch what he says, and you start imitating what he does and says. And you he's good, so you're good.
He teaches this, so you teach that. And that's what it means to be a disciple. To lend yourself to follow and emulate the one who is your leader, the one who is your discipler. And that's what it means to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus. And you find this out.
by looking in the scriptures. and reading about Jesus and The apostles who wrote on behest of the Lord Jesus, because he gave them the authority to do that. And so you listen to what they say. And also, part of discipleship is to know your theology. You don't have to know it super deep, but you got to know what the Trinity is, that Jesus is God in flesh, that He's a man right now.
Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, not by faith and baptism, not by faith and being good, not by faith in a Eucharistic ceremony and things like this. No, faith is uh by uh By um Well, s salvation is by faith alone, to put it that way.
Okay.
Now let's get to um Okay, I read in your site and other sites that Muhammad thought he had met a jinn. In the cave. In Islamic theology, there's angels, people, and another class of beings called jinn. We get the genie. from Jen.
Anyway, his wife convinced him it was an angel. I haven't found any reference, however, to any books that would be authoritative. I realize that Muslims have changed or fixed the story to make it look legitimate, but the jinn version must have been written down a long time ago. I don't have any documentation on that one. I've heard it many times as well.
But what is interesting, I'm going to have to get this guy on the radio and see if I can get him on as a guest. And he... is uh arguing that Muhammad probably never existed. different sources. like a hundred and fifty years after the fact.
And I'm going to have to see how I can get him on the air and do an interview on it because I think it would be tremendously. interesting and valuable. Let's see what he says.
Alright, let's try another one. Is it biblical to have women lead in song during worship service? It's neither biblical nor unbiblical. It's just not addressed. The Bible says that the elder, pastor is an elder, and deacons also, are to be husbands of one wife.
And so women are not to be pastors, are not to be elders. And I'll do this again. I will agree to debate you. You know, I'll go to your church as long as we have a debate on the topic. Does the Bible support women, pastors, and elders?
And that's what I've been challenging for over 20 years. uh on a semi-regular basis. Not a single individual has taken me up on it. I'll come out to your church if you want, and we can have a nice public debate. Uh we just recorded and moderated.
on the on this topic. I'll just you know, there it is again. I'm offering it again. I've done it hundreds of times. And of course never no one ever takes me up on it.
Why? Oop. Because they know they're going to lose. It's just that simple. Because I'm going to quote scripture and put their feet to the fire.
And um they don't want that.
So that's what I believe. Maybe I'm wrong, but uh Maybe some people actually believe it's biblical to have women pastors and elders. And I say, where'd you get that out of scripture?
So, can women lead in song? I don't see any problem at all with that. They're not in spiritual authority over anybody. But they're just leading. I've known of women who lead the worship service and do a fantastic job.
In fact, I remember a few years ago I was at this one church and this woman, oh my goodness, her. Voice was Perfect. Perfect. I don't think I've ever heard a voice as beautiful. And I was so blessed by the gifting that she had.
It was just tremendously wonderful. As good as her voice was, that's how bad mine is, on the contrary, for singing. It's uh. It's bad. When I sing, oh, yeah, cats run, dogs go to sleep, bugs fly away.
It's that bad.
So, anyway, yes, I don't see any problem with a woman leading song during worship service. It's not a position of authority, it's just a service at that point. And praise God for that. Uh What music, what kind of music is permitted in a church? That's a good question.
What kind of music permitted in church? Or the kind of music that glorifies God?
Okay.
So Now can rock and roll work?
Well it depends. I wouldn't go heavy metal. But for church service, we want a humble attitude of service before God. And I think that there are certain styles of music that lend themselves to that and others that don't. And so I would say that the kind of music in church is that which is reverent.
and glorifies the Lord in lyrics and practice. There's subjectivity in there. But that's in general principle. I'm going to talk about details some other time. Hey, there's a break.
Be right back after. These messages, please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the show.
Last segment of the hour. If you want to give me a call, as usual, it's 877-207-2276. All right, let's get on the air with Chris. From Idaho. Chris, welcome.
You're on the air. The fourth one. Yeah, man, how are you? Good. Have we talked?
We've talked before, haven't we? The guy who lives in Boise? We have, yeah, quite a few times, actually. All right.
Yeah, first off, I'm I'm really sorry. I I heard about the your wife and you know I just want to let you know like I'm praying for you and Um I live in the Napa area and you were talking about doing like a Bible study or something like that. I don't know if you're still doing that, but it's You know, it'd be great just to maybe get together for coffee, or you know what I mean? Sure, that's not a problem. Yeah, on the third Thursday of each month, except for December because of the holidays, uh I have people over at the house and uh we just get together and we talk theology, I teach, answer questions, good fellowship, we insult each other, it's a lot of fun.
You're welcome to join us. Yeah, definitely. I'd be interested in that for sure.
So.
Okay.
All right.
Yeah, yeah. So well, there's questions regarding the um LBS Church. I mean I was I had that conversation with a guy earlier He's uh LBS and use. I've heard of it before, but I don't really understand. And I know that you're pretty well versed in like Mormonism and the beliefs and.
He mentioned the ba he brought up the baptism event, and I've heard of that before. Um And it's somehow linked to when Christ died on the cross and he was. you know, basically there was he was absent He wasn't in heaven. He wasn't in hell for three days. Um You know, so I'm I just wanted to kind of get your input on that.
Well, I was trying to get it.
So the issues are baptism of the dead, and where was Jesus in the three days, right?
Well, uh basically when he died he there was like a period of time where before he a cent of our I think revealed himself to the disciples. I think that's what he was referring to.
So I know that I don't know if there's s some type of He visited the dead? And they had to be baptized or something. Yeah. Oh, okay, gotcha.
Now, in the context of Mormonism. Yeah, Mormonism bases their heresy, their false teaching, on 1 Corinthians 15, 29. Which says, Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? One of the things that's really important to understand, Paul doesn't say, Why do we baptize for the dead?
He goes, Why do they do it? Even the unbelievers. Believe in the resurrection. Otherwise, why are they baptizing for the dead? He's not including themselves with them.
He's saying the universality of the resurrection is the point. And so they, and this is what the issue is. The Christians never baptize for the dead. It's the Mormons that Joseph Smith, in his ignorance of scripture, invented this thing and brought it up, and it says you can be baptized. And so in Mormon theology, when someone dies, They go to one of the most of them, almost every one of them, goes to one of the three levels of heaven, because heaven has three parts.
The lowest is terrestrial, then the middle is telestial, and then the highest is celestial. And within the celestial kingdom, the highest are three levels as well. And the first two, I don't know the names of them, I don't know if anybody does, but the highest in the celestial is called the Church of the Firstborn.
So, what happens is you have to be baptized to be saved, this false doctrine. And so to be baptized. Yeah, and we don't. We don't have to be baptized to be saved. We should get baptized, but it's not part of what's necessary for salvation.
So, salvation in Mormonism is universal resurrection as well as forgiveness of sins, where we see salvation as the deliverance from the righteous judgment of God through the blood of Christ and faith and what Jesus did completely and totally. Where Mormonism teaches that God, that Jesus started atoning for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane when He was sweating blood, not on the cross.
Well, they might add the cross into that as well, but I've heard differences within Mormon contexts.
So the idea here is that in the celestial in the afterlife, let's just put it this way, that you need to have baptism in this life in order to progress.
So, their theory is that they'll baptize you in proxy. in their temples. That way it ensures that you're able then to go to a higher place. And proceed in the afterlife. And that's what they do.
And it's a pagan ceremony. 'Cause you know, Mormonism is not Christian, you know, it's just it's not Christian. It just seems like there's a lot of maybe a little bit too far outside of just This basic and simple idea of salvation, maybe. Like, there's, you know what I mean? Like, there's, what was that?
Yeah, of course. Yeah, it's a non-Christian cult, but Mormonism. Yep. Right here. Yeah, it's like they you know, 'cause I think It really has a lot to do with people just don't like the simplicity of Christianity and No.
You know what I mean? There's got to be m more added to it in order to, you know, it kind of. Boost themselves in some way. I don't know what it is. It's like a.
Different people have different motives. You know, if someone just doesn't know anything, and these missionaries come to the door and they say, Yeah, this guy named Joseph Smith, and he had a vision of God and the Father and Jesus. And people go, Really? Ooh, I didn't know that. And they go, well, what happened?
They come to our church, and then they go, and everybody's really nice, and they feel good. And they're told, pray about the Book of Mormon, read through it, and pray to see if it feels good, if the Spirit confirms it. And then they do that. And then they go, Oh, it's from God. This is the this is Mormon well, none of that is biblical.
You know, the idea of Joseph Smith saying God the Father is against Scripture. He dwells in unapproachable light who no man has seen or can see. 1 Timothy 6:16.
So people who are knowledgeable about scripture aren't going to fall for the foolishness of Mormonism. Those who don't know Get in it and they believe it because they don't know any better. And then they get a feeling.
Well, the feeling is from the devil. Because they're denying the true God, they're denying the true Christ, and they're praying about truth instead of trusting God's word on it.
So they're in sin, so they're praying to the author of Mormonism, which is certainly not God. And this is why they get a testimony, it's a false testimony. And many people in the Bible believe things that they know are true, they believe they're true, and they're wrong. Just like the Pharisees, they knew Jesus was false. They had a testimony.
And they were, you know, look what happened to them. Right.
So.
Yeah. I just tell people the truth. Trust God's word. Not Joseph Smith. Right.
I know a lot of something's going on there. Yeah. You gotta Yeah, I don't know what that is. But I'm always concerned that people driving down the road might hear something like that on the radio and then they get distracted because what is that noise in my car? You know, that's what I'm always concerned about.
Yeah, drive into somebody. Yeah, that's right. Right.
No, I. No, I'm just interested in kind of where he's coming from, I guess, you know, because. You know, the thing is, you know, you say it's a terroristy.
Sorry, one second. Yeah. What is that? Man, that is. Five stats.
Yeah. That is heresy. And, you know, if the only thing is like It's these Christians Because I I think the Mormon Mormons So, you know, if some of them can have a heart for Christ. They can have a heart. Let me just answer that.
They have a heart for their version of Christ, not the true Christ.
Okay.
So do you think that they will be responsible and sent to hell because of being misled on that? Yes. Jesus says when the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the pit and perish.
Okay, so just because I was kind of thinking about that, that Bible verse, actually. Yeah. So it's sincerity doesn't make you right with God. It's your faith and trust in what Jesus did. Because if sincerity is what does it, then we don't need the blood of Christ.
It's your sincerity. This is Islamic theology. Is your sincerity and your repentance is what gets you favor with God. And this was Mormonism. And they're both authored from the same spiritual source.
You know, it's not God. This is my only problem with it: you think the true Christ, but there's so many different interpretations. Even we. have a certain interpretation of Jesus Christ. It doesn't necessarily that Every specific thing that we believe is true, aligns with what new actually is.
Yes, that's true. Uh but y uh the true Christians don't believe Jesus is the brother of the devil. As Mormonism teaches, that he was begotten through relations between God and his goddess wife, who came from another planet. And the Trinity is three separate gods. Because we're justified by faith.
Because let me answer. We're justified by faith and faith is only as good as who you put it in. We're justified by faith. Faith is only as good as the object. If someone would be so stupid and foolish as to put their faith in me as their savior, such stupidity is not going to get them saved.
They can have all the faith they want. You can have the faith of some false god. And all the faith you want. If so? a false God.
Sincerity doesn't make you right before God. And the only way to be justified before God is by the faith in what Christ has done on the cross, the true Christ. And Jesus says in the last days, many false Christs and false prophets will arise and deceive many. And so he knows there's be false Jesuses, false Christs, false deliverers, false messiahs. Faith is the object.
Faith is the issue. It has to be the true God, which is why we need to know doctrine.
Okay.
Okay, well, you mentioned. I just want to point this out unless you've got to move to a different call, but it was regarding that. that um you mentioned Lucifer being the f the brother of Jesus Christ. We all come from the same spirit. I know, but we all came come from the same spirit.
Yeah. and our interpretations of who the devil is and really his origins Like, we're still in the dark about a lot of that.
So, like, I don't think that that's we're not in the dark. We read the Bible and believe what God has revealed in the scriptures. And you're not in the dark. Read the scriptures. There's only one God in all existence, all place, and all time.
There are not three gods, there's no pre-existence.
Okay.
Well, I know, but there's still a lot of debate on the Trinity that you're talking about here. Like, there's a lot of Trinity. There might be debate on it. But there can be wrong in the debate. That's what debates show: is that one side is wrong.
The Trinity is one God in three distinct, simultaneous, co-eternal persons. And get into the perichoresis, right? But if they're. Go ahead.
Okay, so Well, I was just going to say, Matt, if there's a debate, that means that it's not black and white. It is open for interpretation.
Okay, then I can debate you about the issue of debate. And if that means then that there's no black and white with it, then the idea of debating doesn't have any value because there's no absolutes in it, it's all relative.
So, your statement is ultimately self-refuting. The standard of righteousness is God's Word.
So, study God's Word. The Trinity is taught in the Scriptures. God is a Trinity, not as Mormonism teaches that there's three gods.
Okay.
It's a false religion. Do you understand? Do you believe that Mormism is a false religion?
Well, I mean, that's where I stand at this point, yes.
So it is a false religion. Good. So then God is the God above. He's also a God of righteousness and holiness and judgment. We're almost out of time, which is why I'm going through this quickly.
So you have to believe in the true and living God. Go to Exodus 20 and read: You have no other God besides me. the Mormons have a different God besides the true God.
Okay, there's the Music right out of time, okay, brother? We gotta go. Call back tomorrow. We can talk, okay? Yep, man.
Yep. Okay.
Okay.
And James from Indiana, I want you to call back tomorrow and talk about member. church membership. It's one of my favorite topics. Call back tomorrow, okay? We're out of time.
May the Lord bless you all, and by His grace, we'll be back on there tomorrow, Lord Dwelling, and we'll talk to you then. God bless. Bye. Um Another program powered by the Truth Network.
