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, everyone, welcome to the show. Hey, give me a call if you want. 877-207-2276. Today's date. is uh let's see uh april thirteenth twenty twenty six And um Hope you all had a good weekend.

I had a good weekend. I had a good weekend. But before I tell you what happened, not a big deal. Good stuff. You can also, if you are so inclined, you can email me.

That's easy. Just send an email to info at carm.org. Info at C-A-R-M dot O-R-G. Put in the subject line, radio comment or radio question, either one of those, and we can get to it. All right, there you go, nice and easy.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

So I d I did a wedding on Saturday. And um So it went well. It was nice. It was a nice wedding. We did a rehearsal on Friday and then went ran through it a couple of three times.

And the bride and groom, I counseled them several times for premarital. And they're really good folks. They are very casual. You know, things work out, they work out, they don't, they don't. We do this, we do that.

And they're hoping for a slight mess up. They like the idea of a mess up.

Well, yours truly here. I messed up.

So they got a kick out of it, too.

So, um, What happened was, we're up there and I'm reading. I have a text, you know, you got to make sure it's nice, and I'm reading through the text. And I had a thought about saying something. Then I looked back down at my text and I realized I'd lost my place. Then I realized I lost my place.

And then I go, oh, there we go.

Okay. Just for this extra couple of seconds. And then I started talking. Yeah. And I I called her the husband.

It's so. Mm-hmm. As soon as I said it, I realized, oh, man, and she started laughing. And the whole place thought it was funny. Anyway, that was it.

That was a good mess up. And we've got to keep out of it. A lot of fun.

So there you go. You know, like doing weddings, they're enjoyable. Funerals are not, and baptisms are. But it was a good wedding. It took about 20 minutes to do a wedding.

I have a nice. a nice script that I got from another pastor, and I've modified it a little bit here and there. And really enjoy it. It was good. And then they had eats afterwards and and they had dancing and um legal document, you know, for their wedding.

Anyway, there you go. That was it. That was my highlight of the weekend. And then yesterday I watched TV all day well I did a couple of things but uh you know Watched A lot of T V. Oh man.

Sundays. can hardly wait till till Sundays get over so he can get back to work.

So I don't work on Sundays. I take Sunday off from uh karm stuff And my goal is to bring glory to the Lord every day I can. And Sundays are a little frustrating because I go, oh, I got this, I got to write, I got to do that, I want to do this. But I don't. I don't because I need a day of rest, and I know I do, it's good for me, because I use my brain excessively.

And so I enjoy I do the work. Six days a week, and then Sundays I get hard. Man, I got it bad. I can hardly wait till Sunday's over, so I can get back to work. Oh, yeah, I got it bad.

All right. Hey, let's get on the air with Jermaine from California. Jermaine, welcome, brother. You're on the air. Hey, Matt.

I guess I had a question about the Giants in the filiary. Nephilim.

Okay, good. Got it. What do you got, buddy?

Okay, so We read how they were supposed to be destroyed at different portions of scripture, but then. David encounters Goliath and then Goliath has As offspring, and they were supposedly destroyed. But then you hear these accounts. around the world of really, really large people Does the Bible ever say they're completely destroyed, or are we just not given? full context of what that means.

Well, what I would say is that that lineage of Nephilim were wiped out in the flood. They were gone. But it doesn't mean that the angelic realm is going to stop doing what it's doing. And therefore, I suspect that the logical answer is simple as, well, they continued to do their breeding activity with the femmes and the ladies, and continued on, not to the same extent. That's what I would say.

Yeah. Okay. And I think I asked about that before, and I'll pick that up on another show. But I just wonder if a lot of what we're seeing because I see giants today, and I'm not talking about just well, we see the NBA, but I saw Shaquille O'Neill, who's a very like oversized individual And there were a couple of people that stood next to him that he had to look up to, like Yao Ming. And then there's a young man playing in Florida, I think it's Oliver Ryu or something like that.

Can't get the pronunciation. He's He's about seven feet nine and twenty years old and still growing.

So it just kind of occurred to me. I was like, hey, I think we still have giants somewhere in the gene pool here because. These people are excessively large and excessively athletic as well. They're not just stone giant. Yeah.

Yeah, and they brought up Shaquille and you I like watching him. He's such a a great guy. you know, how he is with the kids. And, um He's a great guy. I really like him.

But uh you're right. Um You know, th what are we going to say? There are apparently uh I've not really seen any skeletal verification, but there's apparently there's there's some uh skeletons that suggest heights of like nine feet. And that's that's humongous.

Now some physiologists say that there's a certain Maximum weight or size that a human person can be due to the heartbeat pressure necessary to. uh force blood up that high. Into the brain and some other areas. And there's apparently a physiological limit. I don't know what that is.

But they say right about that height is physiologically about it.

So, anyway, so. I don't have any problem with them continuing to have looked upon the women and continuing to do what they did. Um in their in their sinfulness. That's what I would think. That's what I think happened.

That's what other theories are. Yeah. Yeah, I have some other theories. I know there's other callers, so I'll bring those up on a separate day.

Now we got no callers witnessing right now. That happens every now and then.

So go ahead. What else you got?

Well, I think it's. I think I may have asked last year sometime about the Sons of God narrative and And I know that different schools of thoughts on that, but There's an assumption that there was some kind of force. But I mean, you if you really watch professional athletes, the NBA, you see these Giant athletic people, they don't have to force anything. If anything, they need security to keep like. The overzealous females away from them.

So it's not all that unheard of for for you know them to kind of mate. Because we have people that see them. Yeah, well it's it's just you see around the world these people that are kind of human spectacles and athletic events. you see people kind of lose their minds and they're they're just trying to get a piece of them.

So, for me, I don't know if it was all force. I think there may have been. A little bit of attraction there. And all you have to do is turn on the college basketball game. and people are losing their minds.

over a lot of the athletes, which you know is understandable, but I just don't know if I completely buy that every single large person was the descendant of some benevolent being I think it's possible that people saw them and wanted to be a part of that. You know, we have people that are attracted to power. Yeah. And uh you know they represent power, so why not? Yeah, that's certainly legit.

You know, a lot of females, a lot of women have are star-struckness, and they want to get close to that in more ways than one.

So maybe there's something going on with that back then because somebody of that stature could be a very good, potentially a very good provider. Uh you know, someone's huge, you'd feel safe and confident around that person.

So, who knows? Maybe there's something to it, and that motivates or that gives some of the reasons why they would do that. I don't know, but maybe. Yeah. Okay.

Okay, and to finish up, I would say: so, does that mean do you believe like the sons of God? uh mentioned in in uh I think inside of Genesis Would that be I mean, would you be of the school of thought that says that those are exclusively angelic beings? Is there possible something else going on there? Because I just think it it warrants further discussion before anyone gets into theological fights with each other. It's like, let's discuss stuff.

Well, I actually am looking at the article that I wrote in 2018, Who Are the Sons of God in the Bible? And the sons, plural, sons of God. And it Every instance that I've discovered in the Old Testament, found in the Old Testament, they're angels. And so in the New Testament They seem to be people. Just a nice switch.

And that's what I would say. That's what that's what I have um of all the instances. Yeah. Yeah, 'cause my my pastor is uh very much against any angelic crossbreeding and he's a very reformed, conservative guy. But I did struggle with everywhere I see sons of God mentioned, it seems to suggest.

something beyond human You know, and I'm just on the fence, just trying to learn. The Bible doesn't necessarily allude to a However, whatever was going on, I'm my own individual thought is whatever was going on, God put a stop to it, and it's not something that's normalized, and I'm good with that.

Well, yes, but also, let me get to this one verse I want to bring up. Get to it. There we go. But in Genesis 6, now I know a lot of pastors will not they do not affirm the idea that fallen angels had relations with women. They say it can't happen.

Well, we can't say it can't. They just can't say it can't. But it doesn't mean it did. But what I think is interesting Is in Genesis 6:9, these are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in all his time or in all his generations, his ancestry.

So there's an indirect support there. But also in as Jesus says in the last as it was in the days of Noah, it'll be again in the days of the Son of Man.

Okay. Well, when you go to Daniel 2, it talks about the The statue, the dream he had, Nebuchadnezzar had, of the gold, silver. Um Bronze and then iron mixed with clay. And the interpretation of it is the fourth kingdom, as strong as iron, iron crushes and shatters, etc. But anyway, I mentioned this before in the radio.

But it says, and I saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men. The construction, from what I understand of the Hebrew, is such that the they isn't people. They will combine with one another in the seat of men.

So, that they are a different group than the seed of man, than humans.

So, this is another supportive verse of the idea that the Nephilim are the fallen angels, the offspring of the fallen angels. And then a. Just a tertiary supporting evidence, and there's no proof in it. It's just interesting. Perhaps There are two classes mainly of fallen forces: the demons and fallen angels.

Now that would make sense if we're to look at it this way: that all the angels who fell before the creation. Before Adam and Eve were made, etc., they would just be all angels and they'd be fallen angels. But what are demons? Demons seem to be desiring To inhabit human bodies. And so some theologians have raised the issue that perhaps they are the offspring, the Between the Which regions I never thought.

A very interesting thought. Ooh, I gotta think about that. The generation of the soul, the spirit. Anyway, the half-breeds between the fallen angels and the humans. That are in human bodies.

When the flood came, they were releasing their bodies and they want to inhabit them. And demons, some people think that that's what that might be. Hey, if you want to hang, hold on, we got a break. Folks, we had nobody waiting. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276.

We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Alright, everyone, welcome back to the show. If you want to call me, it is so easy to do.

All you got to do. Is dial 8772072276. You can give me a call if you want. I want to hear from you. Let's see if Jermaine is still there.

You still there, buddy? Oh, yes, I am.

So This conversation sparked an issue in my mind I'd never really thought about before. And there's a view called traducianism. And that view is that the soul is generated from the parents along with the body. It's passed down through procreation. Life comes from life.

God created Adam and Eve and procreation.

Now, there's difficulties with it. There's several views. Preexistence of the souls is another one. Another one is that God directly creates the soul in the human body. And uh I lean to uh Well, I won't get into what I've given different views.

And so, um Introducing ism though, how can immaterial soul be biologically transmitted?

So we don't that there's a there's weaknesses in every position. But the reason I'm bringing this up If If it's the issue that God is the one who's creating, the soul and unites it to the body, then if the Nephilim theory is true, just hypothetically, then would that necessitate then that God created the fallen Souls. And that would be a problem. That would be a problem.

So, this would lean towards the idea of traducianism. the souls generated from the parents, And if we have uh a fallen angel In a human form, and a female in a human form, of course, and they united and they produced the offspring of the Nephilim. that would uh support the idea of traduceanism. And not the idea of preexistence of souls, as some false stuff hold to, like Mormons. But Tom It got me thinking.

I'm going to have to think through that because if the Nephilim half-breed theory is true. then that would affect The interpretation of traducianism and what's called immediate or disc creationism.

So anyway, think it out loud. Just think it out loud, okay? Yeah, I enjoy that thought, and that's what I love about scripture. There's so many ways to. that we could think about this stuff, but One thing I was wondering, what do you think about Because I know the Bible doesn't necessarily tell us every aspect of what people were into.

You just hear people were worshiping the all and worshiping this and that, but. Do you think it's possible that you have people who were willingly demon possess because we we see those people in our societies right now. And maybe that is where the sons of God kind of comes from if they can use a human appropriate and and that would kind of fix whatever issue people would have with with uh, I guess, angels crossing over to humanity. Yeah. Yeah, and when you ask, are there people who are willingly possessed?

Absolutely, yes, there are. There are people who will give up. uh so much freedom in order to have power, influence, whatever it is. And you can have people in mental states or drug induced states where they will do stuff. But yeah, I I think it's absolutely possible and uh most probable.

It reminds me over the weekend I saw a video of a guy I think it was in England. Um but anyways on the street or some street anyway. He was barking and growling at people. And you know, if if we'd have film of someone who's possessed, You know, maybe just mental. You know, I had mental issues, but man, it was like, woof, that's what it would look like.

You know?

So, who knows? Who knows?

Okay, yeah, fascinating stuff. You got me ready to dig into my Bible now.

So. Good. I appreciate the conversation, Matt. All right, brother.

Well, God bless, man. God bless.

Okay. God bless you now. Bye-bye.

Okay. All right. Well, hey, look, folks, if you want to give me a call, it is easy. All you got to do is dial 877-2072276. I'm sitting right here, and you can do that.

You can. You can also email me at info at carm.org. Info at carm.org, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G. And um Oh, I see another color coming in.

So, let me type a note here. Let's see, there we go. There we go. All right, let's get to. Justin from North Carolina.

Justin, welcome. You're on the air. Thank you. I just had a question about, you know, I see a lot of stuff about the book of Enoch. And you know, if he walked with God daily, you know, he was Moses, Grandfather.

Well If I keep That out of the King James Bible. Because it's not scripture. And the reason we know it's not Scripture is because God did not work that it be Scripture or recognize it Scripture through the Christian body. The Christians are the ones who recognize the voice of God, and whatever methodology, voting, councils, traditions, whatever it is that came together over all to produce the canon, they never accepted the Book of Enoch. to be uh Canada, okay.

Yeah. I know he had a lot of information about kind of the fallen angels and the network and stuff like that. I was just curious what you thought about it. Yeah, it it's uh It's yeah, it's just not scripture. And it was written intertestamentally.

What that what that means is but uh after the book of Enoch, I mean after uh Malachi, the last book written chronologically in the Old Testament, and there's a four hundred year gap before the arrival of Christ.

Well, the Book of Enoch was written then When Jesus quotes Scripture and references things, he talks about the scriptures that are inspired, that are about him in Luke 24, 44, and he divides them up into the law, prophets, and the psalms. And Enoch was not included in that. The Jews did not include the Book of Enoch, for whatever reasons. They just did not.

So he recognized that the Jews themselves had that methodology, whatever it was, and we don't know. That they recognized scripture.

So it was excluded by Jesus Himself.

Okay. Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate it. Sure, no problem.

No problem at all. I think so.

Alright. God bless.

Yeah. All right, hey, if you want to give me a call, all you got to do is dial 8772072276. Let's get to Ben. From Ohio. Hey Ben, welcome.

You're on the air. All right, thank you. I had a question about First Thessalonians chapter four, verses fifteen through eighteen.

Okay. Just curious if you guys Okay. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive remain until the coming of the Lord will not perceive those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout. We are live or mainly caught up.

I'm quite familiar with these verses, so what's your question about them? Um so Movie die do we wait? to proceed to go into Hammond after he comes? Or I just Kind of want some context. When we die, when a Christian dies, he goes to be with the present in the Lord's presence.

2 Corinthians 5:8 says, Be absent from the body and be home with the Lord.

So, and also go to 2 Corinthians 12, 2 through 4. I know what Paul says, I know a man, whether in the body or out of the body, you do not know. But 14 years ago, he's talking about this. He says, This man was caught up to the third heaven.

So, existing apart from our body is certainly Uh possible. And that's what the scriptures teach.

So we're not tied to the human body in our existence and soul sleep and the fallacies of soul sleep.

So to be absent with the body is to be home with the Lord, 2 Corinthians 5:8.

Now So, what this is talking about, this pericope in 1 Thessalonians 4, is the order of the resurrection. And the return of Christ, there's one return of Christ, not two. And we'll get back to the break. I'll talk about this and how the rapture fits into it and stuff like that.

Okay. Hey, folks, be right back after these messages. We have three open lines. Give me a call: 877-2072276. Be right back.

It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show.

If you want to call me, you have two open lines, 877-20-72276. Ben from Ohio, you still there? All right, so Basically, this is how it works. When we die, if we're Christians, we go be with the Lord. We're not in our physical bodies, we're separated from our bodies.

This is verified as being possible in Second Corinthians twelve, verses two through four. Yeah. When Jesus returns, there's only one return of Christ. This is critical for people to know. There's not one and a half returns, there's not a half return, there's only one return of Christ.

When he returns, those who have died in the faith ahead of time will receive the resurrected bodies, and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together to meet him in the air. And then this is the resurrection for us. And this this occurs like a thief of the night. Which is the next chapter. There's no chapter break in the Greek.

It's just, we just, you know, we put this chapter break there. But it's the day the Lord comes out of the people in the night. That incidentally is also the day that the new heavens and new earth are made. In 2 Thessalonians, in 2 Peter 3, 9 or 10, he says, The day of the Lord comes like a thief in which the heavens are melted. And so They happen at the same time at the single return of Christ.

By the way, okay.

So That Okay, yeah, that okay, that makes much more sense. understood everything that you said beforehand, then we can cross this at I'm a topical thinker. I started going down the rabbit hole and I had to get some clarity, so that's why I called. Yeah. No problem at all, brother.

That's why I'm here trying to answer questions, and hopefully, I'm giving you the right answers. That's what I understand it to be. That's my view. And so there you go. That's what I've understood to be.

So, thank you again, and got me out of that rabbit hole. Appreciate it. All right, brother.

Praise God. Amen. All right. All right. God bless.

Thank you. All right. You too. All right, well, we have three open lines. If you want to give me a call, and the number is 877-207-2276.

I want to hear from you. Give me a call. And let's get on the air with Gil from New York. Gil, welcome. You're on the air.

Hi, it's a pleasure. I'm the blind man I spoke to about salvation and Roman Catholic Church. I don't know if you remember that. Gil. Vaguely.

You remember me? I have ringing in my ears. I told you that too. Oh you lucky guy, oh man, you gotta double whammy. Yeah, I can relate to the ring in the ears, but not the blindness, except some stupid blindness.

King David said, It was good for me that I have been afflicted that I might. learning the decrees, I believe, in Psalm one hundred nineteen verse seventy one. Um I want to show you a couple of verses. I don't know exactly where it is in Luke, but it's in the second chapter. It says, She never left the temple but worshipped night and day.

with fasting and Prayer. And then 1 Corinthians 6.19 says, Do you not know? that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you. For you are not your own, you were brought at a price. Would you consider that prayer for us as Um Our identity in Christ is a privilege to speak to God as this woman did.

Yes. We have that privilege of being able to speak to God because of the blood of Jesus who washes us and cleanses us. 1 John 1, 7-9. And so we have that right now because of what Christ did, and we're in Jesus. We died with Him, Romans 6:6, crucified with Him, Romans 6:8.

We're able then to boldly go to that throne. We have that confidence to be able to approach that throne. And so, yes, we have that privilege and that right because of what Jesus did, and we are in Him.

Okay. Speaking of grace, do you believe in hypergrace, that it's mentioned four times in the Bible, in the New Testament somehow? I only heard of that hypergradic. Oh, I think I know what you mean, but what do you what do you hear it to be? Because it's used different ways.

I've heard this phrase different times, different ways.

Well, I just think of the identity in Christ and the fellowship that we have and the grace that we have. as a privilege. Salvation. By his grace, sovereign grace. Um yeah, it was the The hypers grace stuff that I've Heard is that basically the grace of God is so strong upon you that you don't get disciplined, don't need to be disciplined.

You can basically go out and sin and stuff like that. And that is that is erroneous. It it's erroneous. Yeah, Joseph Prince, I think, teaches that. And that's a it's a false doctrine.

It's a false teaching. I wish you could travel these guys' churches and just sit down with them for three hours and say, look, stop teaching this. Teach this. I'm not an apostle, so I can't tell them. But I'll tell you, there's just so much.

There's just so much heresies and dumb thing that people are teaching. Yeah, God disciplines those whom He loves in Hebrews uh Uh-huh.

Well, I don't know if it's for six. Yeah. Yeah, he disciplined. I've been disciplined, that's for sure. Yep.

Same here. Have no fear. Fear the Lord. Yes. That's right.

Okay. There you go. Anything else? No, it's just been a pleasure. I always wanted to speak to you again.

Oh well he might uh be a lighthouse in the sea of noise as a blind person.

Well You know, you're blind physically, but there's so many people blind spiritually, and the spiritual blindness is far worse than the physical blindness. You can see the truth of who God is because God's granted that to you. And then, I don't know if you're born blind or not, but I've always thought: what about those who are born blind?

Okay, you're born blind, and then when you pass, then you're in his presence, maybe. Wouldn't that be awesome if he's the first thing you see? Oh. Wow. Yeah, at first the face of Jesus I will see.

Yes. You will. And what a great thing. What a great thing. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, but God has prepared for those that love Him.

And uh It's um It's a pleasure and a treasure too. Let you know that I didn't know how to read well until I got into the Bible in 1991 when it was first given to me. I started reading at the NIV years ago. I learned how to read good. Yeah.

Good for you.

Well, good for you. You know, I've got a friend he uh he used to work with us at at Carm and he married a a blind woman and and uh you know, she's great. They've adopted kids, they do great things. She cooks, cleans, does everything and uh except drive. And well, I had a girlfriend.

She passed away about four years ago, maybe five. And I was able to teach her about Christ the second day that we met, and her life changed. She went from suicidal to you know, having faith in Christ. Her name was Nancy, so Praise God. She was so good to me.

Yeah. Well, good praise God for that Well, good for you. You were able to witness and get the best. N Nancy means grace. Oh, I didn't know that.

Yeah. Okay. Yep. Okay, well appreciate it. I think my name means Doofus or something like that in Greek.

Well, God is alive and well, and His Word will work for us. Thanks be to God. Amen, brother. Amen, brother. Thank you.

Right. Right, God bless. All right. There you go. Now, hey, we have three open lines.

If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Look at the George from Ohio. George, welcome. You're on the air. Uh Hi, really enjoying the show.

And I called about your comment. Earlier, about soul, you know, souls entering the body. But before I go there, I just want to say that last caller was so good that. Um Well, he made me remi he reminded me of of going to heaven. You said, I guess, That oh, it was him that quoted that what we see in heaven, you know, what we're going to see in heaven is.

is just beyond uh beyond you know imagining or s I don't remember. I'm I'm terrible at that remembering scripture. But I've I've thought about going to heaven, what it would be like, and like we wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't need arms or legs or you know, because I don't think there's gonna be a whole lot of walk in there. But and I don't even know if we're gonna I don't even know if we're gonna need eyes. But one thing you want to say up.

We'll be able to see it. I can tell you why. I wonder if it'll be like telepathically or I mean, who knows, you know? But one thing I do want to say about go ahead. I want to go too far off that track because it's worth commenting on.

He created us in his image, and God sees, we can see. He hears, we can hear. And so our abilities reflect his, and this is natural to us to be in that state. The reason that people who are blind or deaf when they're born is because the effect of sin in the world has its just ramifications, deleterious ramifications. And so we will be able to be with the Lord, and we will have our resurrected glorified bodies, and they're going to be pristine.

They're going to be really great. And um it'll help be fine. I love what you said to him, which was, I hadn't thought about, but so well, so true that. those of us who do have sight, but there are so many of us who have sight that do that are spiritually blind. Of course, Jesus said as much, that you have eyes and cannot see and have ears and cannot hear.

And it's so, so very true. I really appreciate your response. That was beautiful. One last thing I want to say about heaven was: I believe dogs. are the greatest representation of what it will be like in heaven because when they when Papa comes home, they will wiggle and jump up and down like no other animal I've ever oh, cats Cats look at you like, where you been, slave?

You know, I've never had an animal that loved me as much as a dog. And I just think we might be. I don't, you know, but the reason I called was, you said something earlier about you thought that souls were developed in the body. I think that's what you said something. I was saying there's different views.

That's all. Hey, hold on, we've got a break, and we'll get back, we'll continue, okay? There's the music. Hey, folks, oh, we've got the last break of the hour. If you want to give me a call, it's easy.

877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everyone, welcome back to the show.

Last segment of the hour, if you want to call me, 8772-07-2276. Let's get back on with George from Ohio. George, welcome, brother. You're back on. I just wanted to clarify from what I know of the scripture is that the soul is not.

He's not uh Formed when the body is formed. Uh if if the scripture uh If where in scripture it says That God knew us from the beginning of before the foundation of the earth. which is a long time ago. Yeah, but what do you think that means? That we preexisted?

He knew us.

Well, I mean, there was no other us other than our soul at that time, right?

Okay, so here's the thing, we did not preexist. We did not have a preexistence. when he says he knew you, like Jeremiah one five, He knew you. And when God knows us, it's speaking salvifically. He knows us in the sense of We are saved.

And before we're even born, he has known the ones whom he has elected and chosen for salvation. That's Ephesians 1, 4, and 5. He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we'd be holy and blameless. That is salvation. He's chosen us for that before the creation of the world.

So when He says, I've known you, or I know you. That means you're saved. And that word in Greek is gnosko. to know and progonosko is for know. And it says in Romans 8:29, it says, Those whom he foreknew, he also.

predestined. They're the same group. The foreknown ones are the predestined ones. Most people reject this. Because they Don't submit to biblical theology.

That's why I quote the references all the time. They need to submit to what God says. That's what they need to do. But anyway, that's what's going on. That's what it teaches, okay?

Thank you, man. I've love the show, buddy. God bless you.

Okay, well God bless. All right. Well, they have nobody waiting right now. If you want to give me a call, that is easy to do. All you've got to do is dial 8772-072276.

Now, um,. Uh I'm just adjusting in my chair here a little bit.

So I had the privilege of doing a wedding, like I said, on Saturday. And one of the things that stuck out in my mind as I was doing the wedding, and here's an interesting problem I have when I do Yeah. Oh man, because I wanted to start preaching, you know, and but that's not what people are there for, they're there for the wedding, and uh, there's so much in my head, and one of the things I'll do when I read my text, I have a Bible open, my pages are in the Bible, I'm reading through that, and and um. And I speak about marriage being a covenant. A pact or an agreement between two or more parties, and there's so much attached to it.

And I had to strain sometimes. Don't get into it. Don't do it. And I even said during the sermon, I think I said, I said, look, I said, there's so much I want to talk to you all, you know, the congregation about what this is and how important it is, but we don't have the time right now. This is about their wedding.

But I want you to understand how serious this is. And I actually turned to them at one point and I said to them, because we'd had marriage counseling, I said, you know. How much I've taught you, how serious this relationship is in your covenant of marriage. And they both nodded: that's right, absolutely. Because it is serious.

And why is it so serious? Because it's based on the mind and the heart of God. He is the one who originates the idea of covenant. A covenant is a pact or an agreement between two or more parties. Yeah.

And uh And so we have to understand the theology that's behind that. We have to understand the theology that comes out of the very heart and mind of God. This was awesome. is what God is doing. And I love to be able to teach about it, love to be able to preach about it.

I've been actually praying now that the door will open up for me to be able to preach. But.

So I'm at Costco yesterday. I did a little bit of grocery shopping. I don't do carm work, but I'll do a little shopping and stuff. And I overheard a couple talking about a candle, and it was this humongous candle. And I'm looking at it, it's a big candle.

They were saying, look how big it is. And I just jumped in. I always like to do that because I have my shirt on that says Tetelestai, which is in Greek, it is finished, which I want to be able to maybe have an opportunity to witness. That's why I do like 90% of what I do when I'm out there. I always look for an opportunity to witness.

And so he said, Yeah, it's a big candle. And we got talking. And it turns out they're both hardcore Christians. She had a cross on. Her name was Tiffany, and his name was Justin, I remember.

And he looked at my shirt and he said, That's the Greek for it is finished. And I'm staring at him, like, wow, how'd you know that? And he studies apologetics. I said, really? You study apologetics.

And we got talking right there in the hall between the racks, you know. And I said, You study apologetics? He goes, Oh, yeah, I love apologetics. And I said, Oh, well, so do I. We get talking.

And after a while, he's staring at me and he asked me my name, and I said, Matt. Right, he goes. Videos? I said, yeah. He goes, I watched you.

And so it was fun. And we had great conversation, great conversation. But I always looked for opportunities to teach. Always to witness about the Lord Jesus, always everywhere, even during a wedding ceremony. And that one I have to hold back.

Don't get into it. Don't do it. I had a little bit of a paragraph I read, made me. Satisfied the need to teach theology and equip Christians, but it's this part of the ceremony. They like that part.

We went over the whole ceremony before how they approved everything. Ah, just Just pleasure of being able to uh Could do those kinds of things. It's really nice. Let's get to Oscar from New York. Oscar.

Welcome, butter, you're on the air. Thank you. Yeah. My question about divorce and remarriage, like is is remarriage a sin? Or is it the most that is the same?

Neither are automatically sin.

Now, God allows divorce. In us, in our lives. for different reasons. And one of them is adultery, the other one is abandonment.

So he allows that, all right? And God issued a writ of divorce to Israel.

So I'm trying to find that verse. It's in Jeremiah, I believe it is. I've got so many verses in my head, and some of them just don't stick as well as I'd like. I'll find it. But Israel was committing spiritual adultery, so God issued a certificate or a writ of divorce.

Let's see if I can find it. Writ. Nope, how about certificate? Let's see if I can find the. Oh, I'll find it.

Anyway, so he did that. But we have the right. of divorce If the spouse commits adultery or the spouse Abandons. But we don't have the obligation. There's a difference between the right to do something and the obligation to do something.

So I have the right to defend myself for my faith. If someone attacks me because of my faith, I have the right to defend myself. I don't have I I'm not obligated to. I am obligated to defend others, but that's another topic.

So divorce, excuse me, adultery does not necessitate divorce. But those are the grounds that it that it's allowed. Divorce and I mean uh adultery and abandonment.

Okay. Oh, okay.

So Yeah Uh-huh. If so let's say if let's say a man and a woman are there and she commits adultery and uh he's willing to work on it, she uh doesn't want to m doesn't care and she divorces him, he's freedom remarry. And if he does remarry, it's not a sin.

Okay. Oh okay.

Okay, thank you. Thanks very much. Thank you. Again, we'll back. Oh, okay.

All right. Bye.

Now, this is a big question. A lot of people will say there's no grounds ever for divorce. Yes, there is. God Himself divorced Israel. And I gotta find that first.

Sometimes Charlie beats it to me. He finds these and he types them in. Let's see if he did that. And uh I gotta pay attention to the comments here. Charlie's pretty good.

He works in the background a lot. And he will do stuff.

So, uh Let's see, Bible verse, God divorces I'm going to find it. Israel. I believe it's in Jeremiah. I do believe it's in Jeremiah. We'll find out.

And I thought I had it right there. Let's see. I know what I'm going to do. Look here. Israel.

And uh Yeah, Jeremiah 3.8. There it was.

So Jeremiah 3.8 The Lord Himself actually divorced himself from Israel because of their unfaithfulness and treachery towards him. as Jeremiah 3.8, because of their spiritual adultery.

So The interesting thing is God is going to be involved, at least symbolically, in the wedding ceremony, the bride and the groom, the church is the bride, the groom being Christ.

so there's a spiritual sense in which the divorced will become remarried. In that loose sense, with God Himself.

So, divorce is not automatically sinful. And a lot of times it is sinful. If it's not based on abandonment or adultery, then it's sinful.

Well, people have asked me this question. What do you do if, let's say, a husband is physically abusive. And I'm going to use generic terms in case kids are around. Listening. What do you do then?

Well Um I like the idea of her brothers and cousins coming over and having a talk with him, and then she nurses him back to health. Aside from that, she should um file charges. and uh bring him uh Uh before the before the courts for any physical abuse. and before the church, if it claims a bit Christian. And if this is something that she does not feel will be rectified.

he has in a very real sense broken his covenant. in that he is to protect and provide, and if he does the opposite of that, he's broken his covenant. And so I would say that that would fall under the purview of abandonment. Because when you abandon a husband or wife, they abandon each other. particularly if a husband bans it his wife.

It means that he's no longer protecting her, no longer providing for her. And to do that physical thing is is the same. And so it's a very serious issue. And at the very least, they need to be separated and counseling. And then if it happens again, which man just makes you so mad.

But then Yeah, I would even as a minister of the gospel, I'd say you know divorce is an option here. and maybe even recommend it. Because She, and it works both ways, but she is free to be able to defend herself, and a physically small person can't physically defend herself. but she can defend herself. in different ways.

and the courts are one of the ways that that it could be done.

So there's a lot we could discuss about those kinds of things and uh there's delicate issues.

So uh divorce, like I said, is not automatically sinful. There are grounds for it. the the one who is sinned against, you know, uh i is is innocent if that person has uh remained faithful and is not abandoned, not committed adultery, and yet the other part the other person does a divorce, then the one who is divorced is is free to remarry. And um That's it. There you go.

All right. And you know, like a widower would he would be free to marry again. A widow would be free to marry again. It's not a sin for someone who's lost a spouse to get married again. It's not sinful.

And you're free to do that as well. As long as it's a a good biblical marriage, that kind of stuff. All right. Okay. All right, so there we go.

The music's going to start any second. Just want to let you guys know. Hey, we stay on the air by your support. Please consider supporting us. We certainly do need it.

The way to do that is go to carm.org forward slash donate or carm.org and just look at the top of the page for the donate link and then you can check it out from there. It's easy to do and we would appreciate it. Five or ten, fifteen dollars a month is plenty. Hey, may the Lord bless you and by his grace, we'll be back on there tomorrow and We'll talk to you there. Have a great evening, everyone.

God bless.

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