Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. It's Matt Slick Live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry, found online at carm.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick Live for answers. Taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, buddy, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick, and you're listening to Matt Slick Live. As usual, if you want to give me a call, all you got to do is dial 8772-0722-76. I want to hear from you.

Give me a call. And if you want, you can email me at info at carm.org, info at carm.org. Put in a subject line, radio comment or radio question. And you can find that, and I get them on the air sometimes. And usually on Fridays, because today's Friday, it's often slow.

So maybe I'll get to some of those so we can get into some of the questions and things like that. Also, just want to give you guys a heads up. We have been moving from the old system to the new system on the Carm website. There have been a couple of issues with the schools, and we're working through those to fix them.

So if you have an issue, you can leave us a voicemail. To do that, you just go to the Carm website and go to About, and at the bottom of the page, you'll see the contact information. And we have a new phone number. For the office, and it's been verified at Leeds Voicemails, and you can check it out there.

So, we have, we're really trying to work in order to. in order to uh get more uh to get more better. to get more better, or my daughter would say more gooder. To make things better for everybody who's using the site and little issues that come up sometime. And also, I just want to let you know that if you are so inclined to support the show, that's easy to do.

You can just go to carm.org forward slash. Donate or just go to the Carm site at the top of the page, you'll see the word donate, and you can go set that up. And we ask five, ten, fifteen, twenty dollars a month, whatever you can do. It's you know, just a cup of coffee or two or three, depending. And we use that to help do budgets and the like.

Speaking of which, because it reminds me, we have a Friday meeting. Every Friday we. We have a staff Meeting. And let me get this open up. Let's see.

Here we go.

So we have a guy in Malawi, and he goes out preaching and teaching, but we also have a guy in Nigeria. And uh he w interesting stuff. Uh but uh He was telling us that the Muslims there. Oh man. The Muslims there abducted a woman, And threatened to uh to kill her.

if she didn't say the Shahada. And the Shahada is to say that Muhammad's a true prophet and there's no God but Allah. If you say it, you're a con convert and she wouldn't do it.

So they slit her throat. And I left her body there. And so now the Muslims are going into this area, neighboring communities, trying to get more converts. This is how they're converting people by killing. You know, this is a work from Satan.

The Islamic religion is a satanic religion. Yes, I said it publicly. Oh, I'm Islamophobic. You know, they're Christophic. This religion is not a religion of peace.

You can go to the religionofpeace.com and you can document or see the documentation. In fact, I'm going to go there right now. Thereligionofpeace.com, which has had 48,966 deadly terror attacks since 9-11 in a document. It's what they do. The site documents this.

This is thereligionofpeace.com. And I hope you guys can't hear the stupid dog in the background barking next door. But uh hopefully he'll go away. I think Ugh, take a water balloon and throw it at him.

So, anyway, Moses is the guy who is there in Nigeria. And what he's doing is going into the community where the Muslims are going in and killing people. And he is going to be preaching the gospel and trying to get people not. out of fear to join Islam.

So you can pray for him. It's a serious issue. We've been in contact with Moses. He's one of the missionaries we support. We've been supporting him for a few years now.

He's a great guy. He loves the Lord. He sends us pictures of him preaching and teaching in different venues, different places. He's shown us bullet holes in his home. Where they've shot up his house when they're coming after him.

They have a fat wat against him, they're trying to kill him. And um The Heaths had to flee, and we had to support him in one major move to get his family away so that he could survive.

So the the lovely Muslims, Islam is such a bad religion. Folks, it's a bad thing about this. Their idea of heaven. Is And women And So they want to have the physical pleasures. This is the idea of heaven for them.

that its sensual pleasures been gratified. That's their idea of heaven. Which is obviously invented by some guy in a desert who had too many hormones. floating around. And so he said this is what heaven is.

It's just pathetic. And they teach that there's no Trinity, and they deny that Jesus is God in flesh, they deny the crucifixion, they deny the resurrection.

So when We go preaching and teaching. What we're to do is promote the issue of the resurrection of Christ.

Now, I talked about this last night at a Bible study that we have here at the house. We went to Acts 17, where Paul was at Mars Hill. The Areopagus was there and uh I've been to that. Um Place Mars Hill stood on that hill. Looked up at the temple at Athens.

It's really interesting. I'm so grateful having been able to do that. And so he gave an apologetic, a defense of the faith. And what he did, among many things, is end up with Jesus crucified, he died, was buried, resurrected.

So let me tell you. The resurrection is the proof that what Jesus said is true.

So, what does Satan do? Satan comes in and gets his false prophet Muhammad. And his false followers to believe and teach that he was not crucified. He did not die on the cross, and he was not resurrected.

So Islam Is a religion of the devil because it denies, openly denies the greatest work of love, the greatest sacrifice, the greatest. Demonstration of humility and patience and kindness. which is in the character and the heart of God, and they deny it. And they say that if you want to be saved, you've got to do good works. This is Surah 23, 101 to 103.

You've got to do good works. And if your good works outweigh your bad, then you can make it to heaven and you can have all the relations you want with the 72 virgins and a bunch of wine. And so this is the idea of of of demonic teaching. Saying that the truth of who God is and what He did on the cross is false, and that sensual pleasures are your reward in heaven. This is obviously made up from some guy in a desert a long time ago.

And I will be working more and more against Islam, doing my best to destroy it, work against it. That's what I'm going to be doing. I know there's a lot of Muslims out there who won't like it, but. That's what I'm going to do and and I have been doing and I'll continue to do that.

So I'm going to be working against that false religion, just like I work against Roman Catholicism, which is also a false religion. Roman Catholicism, though it affirms the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, it violates the nature of the gospel by adding works to it, as does the Eastern Orthodox Church. They both deny the true gospel. They both promote a false priesthood, and they both promote idolatry. And they are false religions, they're false apostate churches, they are not Christian churches, and anybody who believes their official doctrines.

Well, when they die, we'll go to hell.

Now this is pretty s uh serious stuff that I'm saying over the radio, isn't it? How many times do you hear someone on the radio talk like that?

Well, maybe not enough. I don't know. Maybe you do. I don't know. But.

I'm here to tell you what the truth is. The truth is the word of God. The truth is found in Scripture. The truth is found in the person and work of Jesus. You need Jesus Christ.

You need to trust in the Lord Jesus, God in flesh, who bore our sins and his body on that cross. He died, and after three days, not three minutes, not three hours, three days, he rose from the dead. And they could put their hands into his side and their fingers into his hands where the crucifixion wounds, where the spear wound was in his side. He rose from the dead in the same body he died. And this is the proof of who he is.

And Paul the apostle says in 1 Corinthians 15, 14 and verse 17: If Christ be not raised, our faith is in vain. The resurrection of Christ is it. It is the proof that what Jesus said and did. Was correct, was true. He is the one who's the Lord God.

He is the one in John 2:19 through 21, who raised himself from the dead. He is the one who's our Lord and our Savior. And all who would deny that are of the Spirit of the Antichrist. All who would deny that He's crucified are. Are on the side of the evil one.

Now there may be people who take Well, take umbrage with what I'm saying. They don't like what I'm saying.

Well, that's fine. Call me up and we can dialogue. We can go through it and I will stand on that. And if God gives me the strength, I may have to die for it. Who knows?

But the thing is, this is what the truth is, and all the people need to hear it. They need to hear what Jesus did. They need to know who He is. They need to know about His resurrection. They need to know that Islam is not a peaceful religion.

It's a religion of dominance. Just think of Islam as a political movement that has religion in it. It's a political, social-political movement that seeks to destroy governments that it moves into and subjugate the people under its political, social, religious system. That's what Islam is: it's a dangerous, evil religion. I've got statistics on stuff.

So don't trust that. And since I'm just knocking over idols of people, Mary In the EO and the RC, knocking that down. She is not someone you should be praying to. You should not be going to any church with a priest that offers re-sacrificing of the blood of Christ at an altar in a church. These are false things.

You should not go to any church as women, pastors, and elders. You should not go to any church that teaches you can lose your salvation and that you have to do good works to keep it. You should not go to any church that teaches baptism is necessary for salvation. You know why I know all this stuff? Because I do this weird thing.

It's a very strange thing I do. I read the Bible. Study it. and believe it. And teach from that perspective.

Now, a lot of you out there don't have that privilege, don't have that time, don't have that unction. To be able to study it and just go at it. And by God's grace, even at my age, it's 69, I can still do it. And still will continue to do it by his grace.

So. There you go. If you want to comment about anything I've said. Please give me a call, 877-207-2276. If you don't like what I said, please call up.

I'll treat you nicely. We can talk, and you can give me feedback, you can give me comments, you can say you don't know what I'm talking about, and we'll talk about it, we'll dialogue. You can do that. We could talk about women, pastors, and elders, and why they're not supposed to be in the pulpit, and that you should leave churches that have them. You should.

Flat out. Leave them. I could talk about how men need to stand up in the Christian church. We could talk about how they need to establish the truth of the Christian word. And they need to fight against the heresies that creep into the church, but in order to do that, they've got to study that word.

I can help you do that. I can teach you to do that. And if you want. You can give me a call. We can talk about it.

877. 207. Two two seven six. You can also email me info at carm.org. Info at carm.org.

And um We just got a. Yeah, no, I got it yesterday. And put the subject line of your email, radio comment or radio question, and we can get to it. And I think we'll be doing that. We've got a break coming up here in a little bit.

So I've got a. An email coming in, a question for the radio. What's up with the King James only people? What's truly driving this.

Some people have m mistakenly been taught that the King James is the true Bible, and that if you're really a true Christian, you need to study it, it's the best of all, and that modern translations remove certain good verses about Jesus out of it. They are misinformed, and that the King James, as good as it was, is not a perfect translation. It has some mistakes in it. It was translated with basically 12th-century documents. And since the King James was established and translated, they found many more older documents, original documents, that newer translations are translated out of.

And so that's why the newer translations take out some of the verses that were crept in over time in the King James. And the King James people don't know that, and then they say it's a conspiracy and stuff like that. There you go, there's the music for the Break. If you want to give me a call, the number is 8772-07-2276. 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, you can. We have two open lines: 8772-07-2276.

Jermaine, hey, buddy. Hey man, how's it going today? It's going. It's going now. What do you got, buddy?

So I just wanted to offer just a couple of observations from your most recent debate. Oh, okay. Yeah, I actually kind of regret starting it because I have a little OCD and I had to finish it once I started. I uh can't go through the whole thing. Yeah.

But I was gonna ask to Now, I know one comment I hear from a lot of atheists and Most of the authors is They're asking is there any proof of uh Jesus outside of the Bible in I was just kind of curious, is there Proof, I mean of either existence or some other proof. besides besides what scripture has to add, I've seen a lot of it, but I don't see a lot of that presented in debates. I was wondering, like, why a lot of debaters don't go there. Why don't they use more extra-biblical texts that prove Jesus Christ existed.

Well, here's the thing. Proof is for mathematics and logic. It's not for historical events.

Now, generally speaking, in modern times, if we have ten cameras from ten different angles videoing something. that happened yesterday, we can prove something happened in history. But when you discuss the issue of Christ's crucifixion existence 2,000 years ago, no cameras.

So you have to judge. the evidence based on the criteria of the time. Otherwise, to say I want proof he lived and this is the style I want and want modern day system, then that's that's anachronistic. And it's mixing categories of proof styles.

So it doesn't work.

So I say to atheists who say, I want proof that Jesus lived, I said, I can't give you proof. I can prove to you mathematical theorems, I can prove to you logical things, but that's not for historical events like that. I can give you the evidence. that is there. And then they'll say, well, I want it outside the Bible.

Well, why do you want it outside the Bible? Because the Bible consists of eyewitness accounts.

Now, why are you automatically dismissing it? And I know that they want to do something outside the Bible, and I'll say, well, look, if you think that the Bible is not sufficient, you can tell us why it's not sufficient. We can get into that. But if you want extra-biblical material on the existence of Jesus, you can go to Carmen, you can look up the extra-biblical accounts. And there are some.

except the thing is they're not from the eye witnesses and they're decades later. And so then everybody says, well, that doesn't count because not by eyewitnesses, and they're decades later. And I say, exactly. That's why you go to the eyewitnesses in the Bible. What I don't want the eyewitnesses.

Well, then, let's just stop talking because you don't want anything. You're just looking for an excuse to deny evidence. I say the evidence here in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, all this stuff is written there. You could just dismiss it. And you have to justify why dismissing these things is a valid, logical thing for you to do, not a subjective preference of I don't like God.

And so, I'm not going to believe in him. Whah, wah. Give me something more.

Okay. Yeah, and um of course I agree and concur. with all that is I personally think there's a lot Outside the Bible, that does point to the existence of Christ. And I know it's kind of a slippery slope because there's so much in scripture that statistically is impossible for them to have made that up. the accounts, the places, the names, the times.

It's just there's way too much intricate detail for someone to just simply make it up. But I have seen text from Roman letters referencing Christ or seeing you know, other things outside of scripture, even Josephus. We're pointing to who he is and what they thought people believed, which for me is enough to prove that he was who he says he was 'cause other people would think you're out of your mind to believe. in this matter as Lord and Savior, but And that seems to be the theme, but I just don't see it presented in a lot of debates. That's why I was just curious why.

some debaters don't pull more of that stuff up.

Well, you'd have to ask them, but there are other things. Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, mentioned it. I think. Oh yeah, no, I hate when I do that. Josephus.

Did as well. And so I have these listed on the Carm website. And the thing is, if you're in a debate and you cite them, Someone could just say, well, those are not first-hand accounts. In which You know, you could strategically introduce that. They say it's not first hand and counsel.

Well, they could. Let's go to the first one, first hand, which is Matthew and John. and Paul. And Luke and Mark are not first-hand accounts. They are the amanuensis or the scribes of Peter and Paul.

Okay. So Get into that.

Okay. Make sense? Cool. It makes makes perfect sense to me, but of course I'm I'm a believer. I was gonna say I think it's I think that things like, you know, you lose Well you see people whose lives have been transformed.

And but just radically, like people have no reason to lie about why they have a new inspiration to all of a sudden do a one eighty on their lifestyles and they You know, they've never met Christ. To me, that's evidence. Because anybody can Make a claim as to why they, you know, they're doing what they do, but I did hear you in the debate bring up a point about. Muslims having dreams and visions of Christ. Yes, they are.

You know, I've seen that echo throughout the world. I've known people to be incarcerated for many, many years. And they all say the same thing. They all arrive at Christ. And I just wonder.

Are those testimonies? Are they meant I guess, are certain things meant to be anecdotal on purpose? Because it seems like God is doing a work in people's lives and hearts. without the visual evidence people think they need. And it just seems to be purposeful because it seems to be you would have a stronger faith by believing something like that and you haven't even seen them yet, but now you believe.

That's right. And it is happening all over the world.

Okay. And, you know, like I said before, I mentioned it in the debate that people have ambitions and dreams, because I remember I did, all over the world of coming to Christ. But yeah. And there is extra-biblical evidence. My own encounter with Christ when I was 17, I don't offer it as proof.

But there's evidence there.

So the atheists who want this kind of evidence are generally looking for an excuse not to believe.

Okay. All right. And Laura says I could mention that did big thanks. All right, buddy. And, you know, next time I get the call, I want to talk about the Maserak, because for me, that's.

as virtually undeniable, looking out in the sky and seeing what I saw when I was on the other side of the world. maybe want to study it deeper, but What you said? The Mazara, you know, the basically the constellations, I think we had talked about before the constellations. The theory that the constellations were basically the gospel in the stars. Right.

And. Yeah, I've I've seen too many which is good. Bible scholars dig into that enough. And when you see you stare at creation from that vantage point, you see what's going on, it's like they're For me, it's like there's no way Someone just made this up. is pretty inconceivable 'cause it it's very compelling evidence.

And To me, that just cements the fact that we can trust and rely on our Bible when there's a reason We can believe in Christ because it it seems like the whole universe is pointing towards him. Absolutely. You are correct.

Now, there's a book called The Gospel in the Stars that discusses that, and I've got it. Uh and it's by uh gospel by one by Seiss, another one by Who else? I'm looking for another name. I'm trying to remember it. It's been a long time.

There's one by Bullinger as well. Bullinger. That's the guy I remember. Thank you. Yeah, I have that one.

Yeah, good stuff. All right, buddy, there's a break. Gotta take off, all right?

Alright, alright. Hey folks, we write back after these messages. We'll talk to Jeff from Ohio. Got an interesting topic he wants to get to. And please stay tuned.

Be right back after these messages. The number to call is 8772-07-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

All right, everyone, welcome back to the show. It's at the bottom of the hour. If you want, you can give me a call. The number is 877-207-2276. Look at the Jeff from Ohio.

Jeff, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, thanks for taking my call, Matt. I I just wondered if you had uh heard of a certain uh belief. It's based on Misinterpretation of the scripture.

And I've seen it most prominently online among, well, white South Africans Known as kinism. Yeah, I know what I know. Yes, I know what it is. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, i you know, in fact I I'm sorry, go ahead. Yes, I know what kinism is.

So, you want to ask about it and what it is, and is it biblical or not?

Well, I j I was curious, you know, if you had heard about it, and I just wondered, you know I I'm no big Bible scholar, but I just don't see in the scripture any prohibition against intercolor marriage. Right. Well, let's define what cadaism is, because people may not know what it is. All right. So folks, kin, you know, you keep to your own kin, your own...

kind And so kinism is a movement that you're not supposed to marry outside of of supposed races like black and white. You've got to stay within your own race, your own culture. That's called kinism, and it's not biblical.

So uh It's just that it's just not biblical. I've written an article on it. If you go to carm.org, you can read the article, What is Kinism? and is it biblical? And no, it's not.

Okay. So I agree. All right. Well, there you go.

Okay. But I'm just wondering, I mean, how do they what do they how do they misinterpret I mean, how do they come up with it? In fact, I saw one article by a South African missionary who claimed it was a form of adultery even. Yeah, you know, he doesn't know what he's talking about.

So the thing is, the Bible does not support that, and it's just a racist ideology. It's all it is. Kinism is like uh the Black Hebrews light movement is a racist based uh system. And uh that but We don't have anything to do with it. We as Christians ignore it, get rid of it, refute it.

And uh And so marrying outside your skin color, I only believe there's one race. I don't believe in three races. I don't. Mongoloid, Caucasoid, and Nigroid. Those are the three main categories.

Those are the Genetic kind of concentrations, but there's only one race, the human race. And we're different sizes and colors. That's it.

So that's what I view.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Yeah.

Alright. Everybody 'cause everybody came from Adam. Everybody came from Adam. He's the progenitor of the true race, which is the human race. That's it.

And we come out of Adam. and we're different colors. Different sizes. I'm more doofusy than a lot of guys. But it came out of Adam.

All right. Are you there? Yeah. Okay. Makes sense?

All right. So this kinism is just a racist stuff that needs to be condemned.

Okay. All right, better. Thank you. You're welcome. God bless.

All right, folks, if you want to give me a call, you can. The number is 87720-72276. And I want to hear from you, give me a call. You can also email me at info at carm.org. Info at carm.org, and you can put the subject line radio comment or radio question, and we can get to the mini that we have uh sitting here waiting right now.

And uh Let's see. And here's something that a lot of people, I'm going to suggest something that when you submit a question, Because I'm reading them on the air, if you have a 300-word question, I can't do it. What I would suggest is simply write your question out to begin with. What is kinism? Is the Trinity true?

And then explain your question or why you're asking. Because a lot of times it's just difficult. Like I'm looking at something right now and it must be 100 words and I can't scan it while I'm talking because we don't want dead air in order to find out what the question is. Oh, here's a short one. Look at this.

How does the day of the Lord refer to 1 Thessalonians 4.16? I'm trying to understand your position on nomillennialism.

Well?

Now that is a good one. That's good. When you go to 1st. Timothy. I mean, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, it says this.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel. And the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

So that's what's going on. That's the rapture, the return of Christ. And it goes on just three verses later. And and version 4, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief of the night.

So the day of the Lord. is that day of the Lord himself when he descends from heaven with a shout. The day that Christ comes back. It's the day of the Lord, which is also the day that the new heavens and new earth are made, the same day as the rapture. And when you have that, The Premillennial position of a literal thousand-year reign.

just crumbles away. I know it irritates a lot of people. No, it says a thousand. In Revelation 20, so it must be a thousand. Look at the context and see if there's any figurative usage right there.

It's like All right, let's get to Chris from North Carolina. Chris, welcome. You're on the air. Matt was shaking bacon, man. How are you doing?

Hey, look, Matt, this is my fa This is my first time calling, and it doesn't feel right to say sorry for your loss because you haven't lost her. You know exactly where she's at. I'm just going to say sorry for your separation, temporary.

Okay, that's a good way to put it.

Sorry for the separ temporary separation of my wife and myself. You know what's interesting? I've had two nights in a row, I've had dreams with her. Yeah. Really?

Yeah, interesting. Yeah. I've had two dreams. Yep. Yeah.

You wanna elaborate?

Okay. Well, the first one was really kind of interesting, the first dream, because it's going to sound odd, but I was in this dream with my wife walking through a mall. We ended up going to a church, talking to the pastor in a mall. And I remember my looking at my wife saying, but this can't be real because I know she's dead, she's gone on be the Lord. And I remember thinking in my dream, I remember testing myself: is it real?

But it's real. But I remember thinking, but it can't be because she's gone. I went through the my dream. And then last night I had a dream I know. I had a dream last night that she was teaching children music.

But she's never done.

So, yeah. There you go. Maybe I'll have another dream. My dream. Maybe.

Maybe she'll out with another dream, she's slapping you upside the head, you know, that would be more realistic. Than non-realistic. Do it. Oh, man.

Well, Matt, oh, I forget what I called about. Um,. Um When Jesus was talking to the Sadducees and Pharisees, and they tried to hook him with the question about the woman. uh that was married to a man and then he passed away and I think the brother married her and on and on. And he said, You do err not knowing the scriptures 'cause in heaven we'll be like the angels.

We will not marry nor will we be given in marriage. Um And my question is. Where did the desire from that Angels in Genesis coming down and having conjugal visits. With The women on earth, and that's where the nepheline came from, and all that. Um So where did a desire to do that come from?

Well from within, within themselves.

So, the demonic fallen realm is full of evil. And a lot of people think that they're rational, that they are just, well, you know, I'm on the bad side of things. Let me see how to do this. And they have to reason things out. No.

Think of them as insanely evil. They were in the presence of God, they rejected him. There's a. searing of their conscience And they work. To thwart the will and work of God.

And one of the things they could do. Is to try and destroy the messianic line to um destroy the Messiah.

Now here's a possibility. If the Messiah does not come, Then God has failed in His promises, and the demonic hordes could raise the objection that they can't be judged by a God who fails. Because the judgment's coming.

So it could be the possible motivation that they know the judgment's coming because of their great sin. And the Nephilim, the half-breed between the fallen angels and women, was an attempt to destroy the messianic line in order for, in a strange way, self-preservation, so the Messiah would not be born. That's that's one possibility.

Okay, okay. Because where I'm getting at, we will not have that desire in us. Fuh. for lack of a better word, conjugal visits. Basically, The Bible doesn't say yes or no to that, but I'm going to just step on the side of yeah, we won't have that desire because there's not going to be marriage in heaven, and conjugal stuff is only in marriage, so we won't be in marriage state.

So that logically would seem to say that there won't be there.

Okay. Exactly. That was kind of my train. That was my train of thought. I hear the break coming up.

Matt, thank you so much, man. All right, Freddy, bye-bye.

Okay, God bless. Hey, folks, be right back, and we're going to get to Oscar from New York next. If you want to give me a call, we have three open lines: 877-20722. 7-6, we'll be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Everybody, welcome back to the show. Hope you're enjoying it. If you want to give me a call, you can join in. The number is 8772-07222222222222.

7-6. Let's get to Oscar from New York. Oscar, welcome. You're on the air. Yeah.

I have a little puzzle here. If we have a choice in salvation, why does God have to draw us to Jesus? That's a good question.

So God draws us, John 6.44, and God grants that we have faith, Philippians 1.29. Jesus says, You can't come to me unless it's granted to you from the Father, John 6, 65.

So it also says that as many as had been appointed to eternal life. believed. Acts thirteen forty eight.

So we have a bit of a not a paradox. But some people are thinking, wait a minute, it's either God draws us and grants us faith and grants equit. or we had to believe on our own. and both of those are not exclusive. In the sense that He draws us, but He grants that we believe, and we do the believing.

So let me back up here and give you an illustration of something. I need to talk about what's called temporal and logical priority.

Now this may sound a little bit more advanced than what's necessary to answer your question, but I'm going to give you more information.

So temporal priority, here's a light bulb, for example. You flip a switch, Electricity goes into the light bulb, and let's just say five seconds later, the light comes on in the light bulb.

So electricity is temporally first. The light follows later. That's called temporal priority. Electricity is temporally prior to light.

Now let's talk about logical priority. You flip a switch, And as soon as electricity is in the light, The light bulb light is also present. They happen at the same time.

So there's that they're simultaneous, but It's the electricity that is logically prior. What that means is it must be in place in order for light to occur.

So electricity is the cause of the light, light is not the cause of the electricity.

So even though they're simultaneous, one necessitates the other.

Now, the reason I'm bringing this up is because we are regenerated by God. He caused us to be born again, 1 Peter 1:3. John 1:12. And thirteen says But as many as received him, we do the receiving. To them he gave the right to be Come the children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who are born not of the blood, nor the will of the flesh.

nor the will of man. But of God, so the issue we do receive, but then we're born again by what God's action is upon us.

Now some will argue about the order The order of all of this. Let me put it simply. God regenerates us, grants that we have the regenerative work, being made new creatures, 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Caused us to be born again in 1 Peter 1.3. And that's that's like electricity.

Bringing that light, and because we're regenerated, we believe, but yet God also is the one who grants that we believe, Philippians 1:29, to it has been granted to believe. And in the Greek, it's called the aoris passive indicative. And what that means is. It's a past tense action that you receive. from God.

So he grants that we have that faith, but we do the believing at the same time. And this is just a biblical revelation. A lot of people don't accept that. A lot of people will reject it and say, no, I chose God. Then, because of what I did, God made me born again.

And that's not biblical, that's contradictory to the scriptures.

So, what I'm trying to do is make it make more sense biblically. It's a tough one, all right? Who God initiates.

So God initiates. Yes. Yeah, maybe the first move. Because Jesus says, You cannot come to me unless it's granted to you from the Father. John 6:65.

Okay, okay, okay. He said you can't do it.

Well, a lot of people think that, well, no, you can, you just believe.

Well, no, God grants that you have faith. Philippians 1:29. A lot of times when I'm debating this with people who just deny all this stuff, I say, Well, I believe that God grants that we have faith. They go, No, He doesn't. They don't realize.

I'm quoting Philippians 1:29. And I'll even say things like, well, I believe that God chooses us from the beginning for salvation. I think he would never do that. They go, I just go to 2 Thessalonians 2:13. And so I'll do this with people all the time.

They understand exactly what the text is saying, and they openly deny it. And this is from Christians. Because Christians have been taught a lot of stupid stuff from varian pulpits and varian pastors who don't know biblical theology very well. Mm yeah. Oh, thank you very much.

Okay. Okay. Bye-bye. All right. Well, God bless, brother.

God bless. Okay. So, ladies and gentlemen, we have nobody waiting right now. Let me just reiterate what we just talked about. You got to understand something that we are slaves of sin, Romans 6:14 through 20.

That's what the Bible says. The unbeliever is a slave of sin. He does not seek for God. Romans 3:10, 11, and 12. He cannot receive the things of God.

1 Corinthians 2.14. He can't. And the reason is because he's by nature a child of wrath. Ephesians 2:3. Such were you.

If you're a believer now, such That's what you were, such were you. And God in His mercy called you.

Now, people say, no, I don't want to hear this stuff from you.

Well, then turn the channel, I don't care. you know, turn our lift to something else, but I'm gonna tell you what the scripture says. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. That's what the Bible says, Ephesians 1:4. That's what it says.

It says in verse 5, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself. That's what it says. And when I first read these, I didn't like them. Because I made theology out of my own experience. I'm the one in my wisdom who chose Jesus.

And I realized, after reading God's Word, That wasn't the case. It wasn't me in my wisdom. It was God in His grace. And there's a huge difference there. It's God in His grace that leads you to salvation.

Now do you do the believing? Yes, you do. Do you do the receiving? Yes, you do. And God enables you to do it.

And so you do.

So it's really you believing. It's really you receiving Christ. But Be careful. Don't take credit for what God does. I've talked to some people.

And uh I say, Do you take credit for your unbelieving? That's kind of a tricky question. And some will say, well, of course I do. And others will be a little bit more savvy. We'll say, what do you mean by that?

Well that's the right question. Do you take credit as in it was completely up to you? You're the one who decided. You figured things out. I've had people say yes.

Then I asked him a question, Then why didn't Bob next to you Do the same thing.

Well, because he didn't make the right choice.

Well, why didn't he make the right choice?

Well, because that's his free will.

Well, why does he not choose in his free will? And they can't answer. At that point. I said, I can answer. because it's their nature not to receive.

And the reason you believe is because of God's mercy. This is biblical theology, but you know something? A lot of people hate it. Because It means God's the sovereign king, not themselves. One of the nice things about believing this is it humbles you.

When you realize He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, That we would be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us to adoption as Son, through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will. That's Ephesians one, four, and five I just read. When you start believing that, But you have to, it's what it says. When you start doing that.

Something kind of interesting happens, generally speaking. I've talked to a lot of people this has happened to, where they when they accept it. They're relieved. They realize God has loved them even though they're not worthy of being loved. and that they're secure in what God has done.

Because their salvation doesn't depend on their own wisdom and their ability to make choices. Because they might make a choice to the contrary and they can lose their salvation. They can decide themselves in, they can decide themselves out. And what they do often is Yeah. Abide in a man-centered theology, and then I present scripture to them just as it was presented to me when I was younger.

And it chipped away my man-centered theology, my man-centered, self-centered theology. Because I learned In love God predestined us.

Now people say, well, that's not fair. Real? If you want to say it's not fair. that God chooses some and not others. You can say it.

I just ask, please provide the universal moral standard that you're standing on. That makes you be able to say that. Because if we're Christians and we use the Word of God, that's what it says. If you're a believer out there. You have to understand, Jesus says, you can't come to me.

Unless God grants it to you. You're a believer because God granted it to you. Jesus says, John 6:29, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent. The reason you believe in Jesus and trust in Him is because God. is what who worked it in you.

Jesus says, No one can come to me unless the Father draws him, John 6:44. We know that Jesus says, No one can come to me unless it's granted by the Father, John 6:65. You see the thing is this. We're sinners. And we don't have a we don't even understand how deep That sin goes in our own hearts and minds.

we don't know how bad it really is. But God does. It's so bad. It took the blood of Christ. to cleanse us.

And you know what's really strange? If he still loves us, And we still sin. even as believers. and he still loves us. He still keeps us close to him.

Oh, he disciplines us sometimes. He convicts us at other times. But he's always there. He has loved us from eternity. is I like to say to people if you're saved.

If you're saved, that means the thoughts that God has had of you. in favour of you. are eternal. They are innumerable. God has loved you eternally.

in the number of thoughts that you can't even begin to count. his commitment to you, is perfected Is demonstrated, solidified in the incarnation, the death of Jesus on that cross and his resurrection. But he loves you. not because of you. but because of who he is.

And if you believe that and you know it. Then you can rest in him. Just as Jesus says, Come to me, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28. Give him yourself.

Trust in Him completely. He's loved you from eternity past, from forever ago. And he will never leave you as Kebrew says, never leave you, never forsake you. He will never abandon you. Isn't that comforting?

Isn't that a blessing?

Now, if you're in a church that says you've got to do good, you're going to do good. You gotta follow these rules to keep yourself right. then you're not interesting. Are you? You're not resting at all.

I'm glad that God predestined me from the foundation of the world, because if you look at me now, he wouldn't pick me. I'm glad that God loves me from back then. because I'm not worth being saved. And neither are you. But his love Is what guarantees our place with Him in heaven, His love.

His decision to save health. His humiliation, his sacrifice on the cross. That's where our faith and our hope lies in the person and work of Jesus and His resurrection. And this is what we need to focus on. This is what sermons need to be focusing on.

It's what our lives need to be focusing on, so that we can bring glory to our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen and amen.

Alright folks, there's the end of the show. And by God's grace, we're back on the air on Monday. Hope you have a good weekend. May the Lord bless you. Please pray for this ministry.

We definitely need your support in a lot of ways. And by his grace, back on the air next week, have a great week and a winter. God bless you. Bye. Another program powered by the Truth Network.