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.

Yeah. Hey everybody, 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, the number is 8772072276. Today's date is April 24th, 2026, for the podcasters.

I want to hear from you. Give me a call. You can also send an email to info at carm.org. Info at carm.org. And feel free to just send me an email, put the subject line, radio comments.

or radio question, one of those, we can get to it and uh Maybe we'll do it today because we, you know, we'll just see how the calls go. All right, now. I've been told. I've been told that people like it when I sit and just do some teaching.

So I think I'm going to do a little bit of teaching on something very simple, very easy. And um Last night I was uh in a chat room. And um I've developed an argument that I think is very solid, very easy. And very useful when dealing with the false religions of Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. And again, I'm going to just tell you: those are false religions.

They're not true Christian churches. Their official doctrines are antichrist in that they teach a false gospel, promote a false priesthood, and promote idolatry. It's just not godly.

Now I will die in that hill. I will defend that. And it reminds me, an East Orthodox guy challenged me. to a debate and I couldn't accept. because uh he was exceedingly rude and condescending in our conversation.

He says, I want to debate you and uh I says, Well, okay, what do you want to debate on? And he said and he just got insulting right away. And just talking down to me, you know, and called me names. And I said, Look, I'm not going to debate somebody who's going to talk like that. He said, That's just part of debate.

You've got to handle it. Can't you handle it? Just have it on record, man. He's just really just a jerk. And so I said, Go away.

And I would have debated him because I wanted to debate the topic. The topic is that the Eastern Orthodox Church is a necessary precondition for intelligibility, which it's not, because I can defeat that easily. But uh he was just rude.

Okay, well anyway, here's the thing. Here's the thing. I was talking to another Eastern Orthodox guy last night. And uh because my internet went down. That's like for an hour, right?

When I'm my science fiction time, it's like a certain time at night. I just sit and relax and watch sci-fi. And the internet went down like, no, not now. And so I got on my phone, my fold phone, and got in a different chat room.

So I might as well do that. And I had a discussion last night.

Now, here, here we go. An Eastern Orthodox guy said his church was the true church, blah, blah, blah. And so I said, well, no, it's not. And because you claim you have apostolic authority.

Now this is an argument I have been running by them for quite a while. they claim apostolic authority. That's what they claim.

So I said, let's go to Matthew 10. You guys can check this out yourself. Anybody who claims apostolic authority, the Mormons, The Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholics, we have apostolic authority. We're the restoration of the apostles. We're the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

All you got to do is go to Matthew 10. Jesus summoned his 12 disciples and gave them authority. over unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease End every kind of sickness. And the apostles were, you know, Simon Peter and Andrew James. And he goes on.

In verse 5, these twelve he sent out, saying, Don't go by the way of the Gentiles, etc. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. And notice what he says in verse 8. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you have received.

Freely give.

So I say to them, if you have apostolic authority, if you're so-called priesthood, Two. It's another thing. That's another thing. I just gotta gotta just Complain about this. False churches, a lot of them, have present-day apostles.

and or p apostolic authority and or priests. And It's it's it's just not found in Scripture. You know, it really just irks me and just it just saddens me to see and to hear th these poor people. Who just believe what their church tells them because their church is the true church, it's the restored church, it's the apostolic church, or whatever it is. Our church is again, I just get tired of it.

And I say, look, If your so called priesthood Or your apostolic succession, whatever it is, has the authority then. Notice that Jesus said the authority was To heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness, and that's in verse 1 and in verse 8, to raise the dead and cleanse the lepers.

So I asked him. Is your your authority, your priesthood. Is it doing that? And the s you know, the answer is no. Yeah.

Now In addition to all this, All the people, this is in Acts 3. All the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's full of amazement. A crowd was gathered. A crowd gathered after the Apostolic Work of Peter and John. They gathered around Peter and John.

Why? Because they were doing the miracles.

So people are gathering around them, okay? And as a direct result, that's Acts 3.11. In Acts 4.4, many of those who had heard the message believed, and the number of men came to be about 5,000.

So all of a sudden we have people gathering on the disciples in huge numbers. In Acts 5, at the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were taking place among the people.

Okay. many signs and wonders.

Okay. Well, just think about it. You know, I talked to the EO, the R C, the L D S. because they claim to have apostles, apostolic authority and uh priesthood. There's different kinds, but they have that.

Okay. So, at the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were taking place among the people. If they have the same apostolic authority, They should be able to demonstrate the same apostolic authority, right? If they have, we have the authority.

Well, then let's test it. And so The multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number. Multitudes. That means a large amount of people were around the apostles. And the The w they are the legitimate authority, okay.

That's in Acts chapter 5. In Acts 8, Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. The crowds, with one accord, were giving attention to what he said by Philip. There's a crowd.

So crowds are following them. Why was that? Because it says, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. You see? What accompanies the apostolic authority?

The actual miracles, and the result is crowds follow them.

So Where is it? In the these so-called apostolic churches. That have the authority, the restored church. the Eastern Orthodox Church, whatever it is, Roman Catholic Church. where is their apostolic authority?

Now They may say, well, that was only for the apostles. That's convenient, isn't it? Let's go to Luke 5, 24. Jesus says, but so that you may know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, get up, pick up your stretcher, and go home. What did Jesus say was the demonstration of authority?

His authority. They barely do miracles. That's what Jesus says. And in Acts, excuse me, in Matthew 10, He gives the disciples the authority. They're the apostles.

He gives them authority to heal every kind of sickness and raise the dead. We then see that in Acts 3:11, the great crowds gather around Peter and John. 5,000 were converted in Acts 4, 4 and Acts 5, 12 through 16. Multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number because they were seeing the wonders taking place. In Acts 8.

the crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. This and there's more, but this is the demonstration of apostolic authority.

Now here's a question. Does your church have that? If your church claims to be the successor of the true church, the true apostles, with true apostolic authority, Does your church have that ability? Interest? No.

So, what I did with this Eastern Orthodox guy says, Is your priesthood a direct lineage and descendancy from apostolic authority? He says, Yes. I said, Jesus says the apostolic authority is demonstrated by being able to do, among other things, raise the dead and heal every kind of sickness. And we know that that's the case because in Acts people followed them and they were demonstrating this. They were having this ability.

So are great crowds following your priests? No.

Because if they were, we would be hearing about the miracles and the raising the dead and healing of lepers and every kind of sickness in your churches with your authority. I said, why is it we don't hear about it? Why is it not happening? Why? Because you don't have apostolic authority.

Because you don't. I said this to this East North August guy, and somebody in the room just said out, boom. He just goes, boom, because it was so concise, it was so clear. And this Eastern Orthodox guy, the best he could do Was go to 1 Corinthians 14 about the charismatic gifts. There's different gifts for different people.

That was the best he could do. which doesn't have anything to do with what I raised.

So What I showed this guy, and I was saying to him, is his loyalty was not to the truth, but to his church. You got to ask yourself that. Is that you? Are you more loyal to your Church? Or to Jesus, or to the Word of God.

This is a critically Critically important question. Because you see the issue here is eternity. Yeah. You say, well, my church is true, my church is restored. This, my church is the continuation of that, whatever it is.

And Jesus says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, Matthew 12:34.

So. What is your testimony about? Jesus? What's your apostolic authority about? Is it Jesus or is it the promotion of your church?

If it is, you're an idolater. Simple. You're just putting your onus, your eyes, your adoration, your trust on a church. Yeah. He's the one who gave the apostolic authority to the apostles, and that apostolic authority necessitates that they have the ability to raise the dead and heal every kind of sickness.

And the EO, the RC, LDS are not doing this.

Now they might say, I've heard this, well, once back in the 200 years ago, Saint so-and-so did a miracle.

Okay. So, great crowds following? All of your apostles, all of your priests who have apostolic authority, the crowds following, like they were with the apostles? No.

Then sit down. This is so simple, folks. It is so simple. Because you've got to realize something. Both of those churches, all of those churches, the priesthood is essential.

The priesthood is essential. The priesthood is what gives the authority. Their apostolic authority and the EO and the RC, their priesthood is a descendancy, they claim, of apostolic authority, yet they don't have. that authority because it's demonstrated that they don't have it because they don't do the miracles. And this is so critical because in those two churches.

In those two churches, a fundamental foundational principle of their churches is the truth of their priesthood, which necessitates apostolic authority and succession. And so, without that priesthood, the fundamental aspect of their church falls flat. That means our church is false. They don't have the apostolic authority because they're not doing what the apostles said, what Jesus says the apostolic authority was. Therefore, they're false churches.

When I present this to people, and I have many times now. They don't care. They find an excuse They find an excuse. to just tell us how their church is true. All the church is trill.

It has the authority. It is the way. The truth. and the life. and nobody comes to the true God except their true Church.

They replace Christ. In John 14, 6, He's the way, the truth, and the life. But I cannot tell you how many times I've talked to EORC. Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, when they say that their church is what you need for salvation, they don't point to Christ, they point to an organization. That's exactly what Satan wants.

We write back Gapi's messages, please. Stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Everybody, welcome back to the show.

If you want to give me a call, you can. It's easy. 877 207-2276. Let's get to Jermaine from California. Jermaine, welcome, brother.

You're on the air. I had a question about Animal lovers, I don't I don't know if that comes out right, but I have family and friends that love their animals. And I love animals too, but to a point, But I had some relatives who decided to have like an animal funeral. And I I I I thought it was a joke. and I have no problem mourning the animals, but they they have like a full service Okay.

And I kind of felt like I shouldn't show up. And my wife, you know, smartly told me that I should just not go. 'Cause I don't think I could have contained myself. And then they had like animal prayer and it I just wonder, is that going too far Is that against scripture? Yeah.

Wha what do you mean by animal prayer? What was that? I mean like a A prayer to guide on kind of like on behalf of the animal Um Yes, it's really something kind of foreign to me. It was several years ago, but I just don't see praying for For the animals already departed, and it's not like a human soul, so I just don't get it. Yeah, like a full full-on service with uh you know kind of like lightweight officiated and an actual prayer Okay, so a funeral is a formal rite, and they vary immensely around the world.

I remember one of my favorite classes this is true in high school we had a great class on cultural anthropology, and my teacher was this is really a trivia here she was Gidget and Gidget goes to Hawaii and she was the girl in the Three Students Meet Hercules. For real. She was the actress, and she was our teacher. And I just remember that, but she was a great teacher. And so In that great class, we learned all kinds of things and different funeral styles for humans, including burying humans half up to the waist in dirt.

Others put them in trees, some buried them in ground, some put them in huts and burned them. There are different funeral types, but these are all for those made in the image of God. Yeah. An animal is not the made image of God. They have different categories.

So we've got to be careful not to mix categories. And that's really important.

So not the category of human with the category of an animal.

Now On the other hand, we know we have emotional attachments. To our animals. I remember before the girls, my daughters left. we had a certain cat that was uh we called him Luther. And he was a great cat.

He was just Beautiful, wonderful. And we knew that he was at the end of life. And there we contacted a person whose job it was. to uh come over to your house and inject and the cat would just go to sleep. Instead of suffering, it was taken care of that way.

And so what we did was we sat up front and we just lit a candle and the girls, uh, you know, we were all there and we petted him and said goodbye and and the woman did this little ceremony thing and and it was really nice. And you know, uh then afterwards uh when he was He was gone. Um you know, she would she would leave, and it was all done this way.

Now, is that a funeral? You know, it's a little ceremony. Is it wrong? It's not wrong. We're not granting to that.

Animal, an equivalent status of a human being, where people gather around to say goodbye to someone made in the image of God who's now in the presence of God. what we were doing and and uh It's simply just Just grieving the loss of a family member in that sense.

So many people know that your pets are family members, and they will say that, and they grieve when. when you lose one. I I remember once I had a cat named Punchface. of all things. And when he passed away, I wept.

It was hard. And uh that's not the only time I wept when you know animals. We get attached. People get attached. And sometimes having a ceremony helps release that attachment.

All right. Should we pray for the animals? No.

They uh we don't There's nothing in Scripture that says that they continue on as their their self same selves into an afterlife. Nothing in scripture suggests that. Nothing in scripture suggests having a ceremony for an animal or not having a ceremony for an animal.

So, what we can just say is, I'd say, because the Bible doesn't say yes or no, I'd say people are free to have a ceremony, you know, and grieve the loss of a you know, so to speak, family member. not a human one, and just go through that emotional um process. And it's helpful. But it should not progress beyond what is related to human necessity, praying for that person in the afterlife. We don't want to do that, which isn't biblical anyway.

But We don't want to do that. We don't want to give certain attributions and rights to animals that belong to God, whatever that might be. And if someone said, Look, we're having a funeral for our dog, you want to come over? No.

No, I I don't grant that status. If you want to grieve, that's your business, but I'm not going to join personally in a ceremony of a funeral of an animal and things like that. It's a little iffy. And uh So I would just say Grieve the lost, do what you got to do, but don't go too far with a funeral and all this stuff. It's just too much.

It's not biblically based.

Okay. Okay. Well, you know, since you put it in that context, I can see that some may generally have a service as a form of grief and missing your animal, but and it is their prerogative. But equating it to a human, yeah, that would be wrong if someone's actually doing that. But You know, if you want to have a dog funeral service with a programs and all that, I guess you can have at it.

But as long as you're not worshiping the creation instead of the creator, I guess. Right. And we don't want to do that. We don't want to just go too far.

Now, what is too far?

Well, you know I just don't know. What I'd have to do is an analysis on what really constitutes a funeral for a person and what are the expectations, and then map those out and see what are the things that are common or not common with an animal. I would say right away. that one of the lack of commonalities would be um Yeah. would be uh The idea of a continuity and continued existence of souls of an animal, nephesh, in the Hebrew, but that's not the case.

We don't have that, we don't see that in scripture.

So once an animal's gone, I believe my opinion is it's gone. doesn't exist anymore. And to have a funeral would not then be for the animal, it would be for the just for the grieving of a of a uh of an owner, you know? And that's okay. I don't I have a problem with that.

Uh Okay. That that's good enough for me.

Well. I hope you have a doggone good weekend, man. Thank you.

Okay. All right. Thanks. But yeah. All right.

If you want to give me a call, the number is 8772072276. You know, I'm reminded from what he said. of a video or picture, a picture I saw. And it was really interesting. There was this man who had, I think it was a German shepherd.

In the water. Maybe some of you have seen it. And he was comforting that animal because it was in his last days and had really bad pain. and it was a grieving process. You know, and I thought that was nice.

Hey, if you want to give me a call, we have Light Open Lines, 877-2072276. the right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everyone, welcome back to the show.

We have nobody waiting right now, so if you want to call, you can. 877-207. 2276. I think what I'm going to do is get us some emails because we've got a few of those. Let's see.

Here's the first one. My question is when we pray, I've heard closing in prayer in Jesus' name. Do we say amen? Is this praying through his name and not to him? In the name of, if you go to 1 Corinthians or Acts 4, 7, it talks about in what power or in what name are you doing this?

And what it was in the name of Jesus is simply a phrase that designates by the authority of and in the work of what he has done.

So that's what's going on there. And he goes on to ask the question: is this praying through his name and not to. Is this a. Is this a way to apply John 14:6? No, that's where it says: no one comes to the Father but through him.

We automatically are coming through Christ, going to the Father through Christ if we're Christians. And so He is our one mediator, 1 Timothy 2:5. We don't need any other. We don't need any Mary. We don't need any priest.

We don't need any dead saints up there in heaven.

So we just go to Christ because He you know He's God.

So, anyway, it's okay to say in Jesus' name, and that's what I do when I pray, and I say in the name of Jesus or whatever, and I say amen and stuff. And it's just a way to pray, and it's okay to do that. That's all right. All right, now let's get to another email. Let's see what this one says.

No, can't get to that one. Regarding the fall, would any, every human have sinned if placed in the Garden of Eden? I believe so. Yes. Can you explain why it's fair that everyone born automatically inherits sin nature, even though they weren't the one who picked the fruit?

I struggle with understanding, accepting this.

Okay. So Uh there's a lot in here. Um Would every animal have sinned if placed in the Garden of Eden?

Well, there is, where is that verse? I think it's in 1 Peter. I want to say 5:8, but I don't think so. Uh that's not it, that's a roaring lion. Uh elect angels.

That's what I'm looking for, the elect angels. And where is that Bible? Uh Bible verse elect angels. There's a reason I'm going I want to find this and use this as part of the foundation of answering the question. Because as I was reading that 1 Timothy 5, 21, what am I doing?

Man, way off base. 1 Timothy 5.21. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and his chosen angels or his elect angels, his chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias. When I was reading through the Bible and I came across this, it occurred to me, why are they Chosen Angels.

Well, I started thinking about it. Let me just cut to the chase. Lean towards the idea, since God alone is holy. 1 Peter 1.16, He alone possesses the quality and the nature of holiness. That angels don't and we don't.

Holiness is a property of God alone.

So it's a necessary, it's essential property of God. His holiness is identical to his nature.

So he cannot not be holy, it is what he is.

Now. That's a property then that is identical with his nature, which means it belongs to God alone. And if that's the case, angels and humans cannot possess that holiness. That holiness we could look at is one way of saying it is the inability to sin. And this is logically necessary because if it's a nature of God, God cannot sin, he cannot violate his own nature.

We can get into the tautologist's logic conclusions about that, which is still necessarily true, but anyway.

So it's almost like it's incidental or uh what's the word for it? Uh Not incidental when he does it in a big mcquane.

Well, I'm going to do it. I can't remember now. Trivial. It's called triviality in logic. But the triviality does not invalidate the syllogism.

But at any rate, I'm getting into stuff.

So. If The angels I suspect what had to happen here, the angels would have fallen if God hadn't chosen them not to. That their natural state was such that They would have fallen also, and God chose them not to. That's my opinion out of 1 Timothy 5:21. I'm not saying it is right.

But that's what I concluded out of that. Maybe some theologians disagree, maybe they agree, I don't know. But that's my position.

Now why is that important? Because It implies to me that if you don't have that quality of holiness, it's just a matter of time before you fall. before you blow it. Adam and Eve were in the garden. If we were in the garden with an with an unfallen nature, I believe we would have fallen any one of us would have.

because we don't possess the nature of holiness. And so That's just a natural state of what's going to happen to us because we are not God. Only God is perfect, only God cannot violate his own nature. Only God has holiness, we don't possess it, so therefore we can fall and we will. God can't because his nature doesn't permit it.

That's a different ontological category than humanity and angels.

So I believe it would have fallen.

Alright, now. A second part of the question says and everyone Explain White's fair in quotes that everyone born automatically inherits sin nature. I thought about this one as well. And I think the solution is found in the person of Jesus. Jesus is called the last Adam, 1 Corinthians 15, 56.

He is the one who represented us on the cross. He bore our sin in his body on the cross. 1 Peter 2:24. It says, In Adam all die. in Christ all shall be made alive.

That second all can only be those who are in Christ. at the doctrine of federal headship, of representation. Jesus represented us on the cross. In Adam, all die. In Christ, all shall be made alive.

The first all is everybody. The second all is not everybody. Let me say it again. 1 Corinthians 15, 22, In Adam all die. In Christ, all shall be made alive.

In Adam, there's a group called the all. That's every individual who's ever lived, except for Jesus, because he didn't have a. Should nature. And in Christ, all made alive.

So it's like saying all those in Christ are made alive. It's like saying, all those in Adam will die. Because Adam represented his people. just as Jesus represented his, however. I don't believe that Adam repres Adam, excuse me, put it this way, I don't believe that Jesus' representation is because of Adam's representation.

I believe Adam's representation is due to Christ's representation. That the only way for us to be saved and to be justified. and redeemed. That is a necessary quality, I believe, in the redemptive work of God.

Well, if that's the case, that's the principle of truth. even of which Adam must fall under. He has the ability to represent all mankind, And he did. When he fell, we fell in him.

Now, some people don't like this. And I'm going to go to Romans 5:19 here and read you a verse because this is important. for as through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners It says there, the many were made sinners.

Now, by the way, notice how I said earlier I said, in Adam, all die, in Christ, all should be made alive. The same word all occurs twice, but it means different things in the same sentence. Check this out in Romans 5:19 on the phrase the many. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous. Paul does this thing where he uses the same phrase to represent two different groups.

It's right there. Right there, and I can go to other places where he does that.

So the many were made sinners, they were made sinners.

Now that is the Greek word katisthisthane, and it's the air's passive indicative. What that means is, Aeorus has pass tense, passive means it happened to them. In other words, When Adam fell, We fell in him. and his sinful nature is passed down to us And the the necessity of his representation means that somehow, some way, the sin of Adam is reckoned to our account. On the reverse, the righteousness of Christ is reckoned to our account.

Philippians 3:9, We have a righteousness not our own, the righteousness not derived from the law, but that which comes from God through faith.

So I believe that the reason Adam was able to represent us is because Jesus represented us. that the necessity of federal headship of male representation of those who are in him, physically and spiritually, necessitates that those in participate in the benefit or the deleterious work, the harmful work, of the of the representative head. And so, this is why I believe what I do. Hope that made sense.

Now, the guy goes on and he says: is it fair? To ask the question, is it fair? Implies that there's a standard of righteousness that is applied to God. Is it fair for God to do such and such? That means, inadvertently, I believe there's a standard of fairness that I have to apply to God, which means God that is a subject to the fairness that you think is necessary.

And this is a false position to hold. The only r way we can know what is fair and right is by looking at God, not what we consider, not what we intuit or feel. We have to look at God as the ultimate standard of what is fair, what is right, what is good. And so we have to ask the question: not is it fair, but Please help me understand how it's fair. because it is.

Because God's done this. We have to be careful that we don't subject God to our our ideas, our inclinations, our intuitions, our preferences, our desires. We don't want to do that. If we do, we'll end up being Catholics, East Orthodox, or Mormons. Hey folks, 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. Alright, and welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, the number is 8772-07-2276.

It's easy to do.

Alright, we got nobody waiting, so I guess I'm going to be forced to do some more emails. Let's get to that. Here's an email, that's an interesting one. Um What are some of the claims of presuppositional apologetics? That's a good question.

And so um it motivated me to want to write an article.

So I'm putting it in my list of things to do. And I it's the problem with a radio show is that I keep coming up with good article ideas. And this makes it up to, let's see, one thousand six. 1006. That's how many questions I have to work on.

Whoa, so much heresy, so little time.

Alright, anyway.

So here's a question. What are some of the claims of presuppositional apologetics?

Well, what is presuppositional apologetics? Apologetics is the defense of the Christian faith. And presuppositional means that we presuppose certain things, and when we do, everything falls in place. And that's it, as simple as that.

So here's some points, okay? Everyone has presuppositions. No one is neutral. This is critical. No one possesses neutrality.

Alright.

So uh We all have assumptions, we all have ideas.

Now, one of the things in Christian presuppositionalism is that the Christian worldview is what is necessary for intelligibility. You can't make sense of things apart from the Christian faith. And this gets really involved because we can get into the Trinitarian essence. The Trinity is a necessary precondition for intelligibility. It deals with the issue of universals and particulars, the issue of the one and the many.

And it provides the foundation in which the universality of the laws of logic and abstract entities can exist and we can recognize them and participate in them. I know that most of you just gave up, but Yeah, those are big words. And they're fun saying them too, but uh That's something I'd have to unpack and explore. I wish I could do this at seminars and teaching people at churches on this stuff, but you know, they don't need it. No, they don't need that.

They don't do what I do. They don't get online and debate and teach. They just say, can I have a coffee? And that's their apologetics.

So, uh how about this one? I think. Logic requires a transcendental, relational, personal God. That's something that we presuppose in that.

Now, how does that work? The laws of logic, the law of identity, the law of non-contradiction, are universal truths. what must exist for them to exist? since truth is an abstraction, it occurs in the mind. the implication is, a universal mind must be the author of universal truths.

The universal truths are the laws of logic, hence you need a mind to ground those, to justify their existence. Which means you use logic. to argue in apologetics. But that means you presuppose that logic is consistent. That others can understand it, you presuppose that, and you presuppose that things which are not logically true.

cannot be true.

So, for example, it's not logically true that a circle is the same thing as a square.

Well, that's impossible.

So we assume the validity of the law of identity. A circle is a circle, a square is a square, a circle is not a square. And we assume the validity of that statement, the universality of identities, and that something is what it is and is not what it is not. What must be the case in order for that universal truth to have its validity? And that is, it rests in, emerges from, is part of the mind of God.

Things like this. And we can get into more sophisticated things, like which I'll do right now for fun. Say you're studying in a church and with your friend. And Brick and coffee. And you're talking about Chairness and in front of you, you're in the last row, in front of you is 100 chairs, they're all identical.

in this church. What you're observing is what's called a prime uh a primary uh Primary a category oh what's it called primary category primary essence You're seeing a chair, but what is behind it is chairness. What must be the case that Chair Niss Has its actuality, and the particular manifestations of chairness in a particular chair also exist. These are serious questions. It's called primary substance, secondary substances.

So that's what we're looking at in those kind of things.

Now that gets more sophisticated. I won't get into those kind of things. Here's another thing we presuppose in presuppositional apologetics: the uniformity of nature.

Well, what necessitates or what justifies the uniformity of nature?

Well, one of the things people don't know is that science was begun out of a Christian worldview. See, a lot of people thought that if you threw rags into a corner, eventually. bugs will will uh spontaneously form out of them because Well, you know, the flies, maggots, and things like this, and creatures and stuff like that.

So, anyway, the Christians said, no, since God is rational and God is consistent, Then his creation must reflect the rationality and consistency of God.

So there must be another reason. why those bugs start appearing. In a corner full of old dirty rags that have gunk in them and stuff like that. And so it was this good example of the thought that helped lay the foundation for science, because the history of the scientific method is based out of Christian principles. And most people don't realize that.

But that's another thing, another discussion another time.

So, the uniformity of nature: how do you know that gravity works over in the Andromeda galaxy the same as it does here? You don't. How do you know that anything is the same on the other side of the planet? You don't. Because if you don't have a uniforming principle above everything else, you can't trust the Assumption that everything is uniform.

And then, if people say, Well, that's just the way nature works, how do you know that's the way that nature works? Because you're just begging the question or you're just restating the problem. Anyway, the reliability of human reason. Is also a presupposition. And if human reason is to be true, Where do we get human reason from?

Because think about this: we have two people. and Bob and Frank. And Bob thinks that A plus B equals C, and Frank thinks A plus B equals D. Who's true? This is a serious question because if logic and if truth are products of human minds and human minds are different, then you have no way of justifying what is true.

Some people say what is true is what corresponds to reality. It's called the correspondence theory of truth. But the problem with that is epistemologically it's based on empiricism, which means that you are judging reality by your senses, but you don't know if your senses are reliable. And we get into these problems, and these are all philosophical issues. And so if you presuppose the Christian Trinitarian being, then his existence is what is a justifying ground for uh the the our ability to reason uh in ourselves.

Another uh presupposition is The idea of moral absolutes. If there's a moral lawgiver. Because morality is an abstraction. It occurs in the mind, in the heart, not in the hand. You don't hammer a moral truth to a wall.

You can't take a picture of it. Morality is intentionality as well. if I were to slap a person on the face, is it right morally, or is it wrong morally?

Well, intentionality has a lot to do with it. If I'm slapping the person simply because I don't like what the person said, that's not a good reason. But if I'm slapping the person to stop that. poisonous bug from biting that person. I'm trying to get that bug off.

That's a good reason. And we can get what makes those good or bad anyway, that's another topic. But the idea is: intentionality relates to moral propriety. Intentionality is part of the element of what makes something right and wrong.

Well, if that's the case, then what must be the case for universal morals, a universal intention and standard, which again is an abstraction. Abstractions occur in the mind, or we should say in the heart. And if we're to say that there's a universal law, of moral truth, then the implication is of the universal lawgiver. what is the necessary precondition for universal laws. The God who is the one and the many.

They want to get into this. If you get into the issue of the one and the many, Here's a question. What is the ultimate nature of the universe? What is the nature of the universe? or reality itself, let's say.

If it's one thing or it is many thing, it's either one or it's not one. It's either one thing or many thing. If it's one thing, then everything is one substance. But if everything is one substance, then you can't justify distinctions. because if everything is one substance, distinctions are illusion.

And therefore, if there's no distinctions, you can't justify truth values because truth values exist by distinctions. You are a man, I am a man, you are a woman, I am a man. There's distinctions. But if everything in the universe or reality is comprised of different substances. many things, then you lose coherence between those objects.

And without coherence, you can't then make logic work coherently between an unrelated set of actualities. And so this is why it's so important that we understand the Trinity, which is one God and many persons, one and many equally, not one or many. This is why the assumption of the Christian Trinity provides a necessary precondition that can solve philosophical problems, logical problems like the problem of the one and the many, and how universals, the idea of righteousness, of redness, of roundness, can have a universal application, but particular manifestations that we can then perceive. What must be behind all of that in order for us to be able to comprehend and relate to those things. I know I'm getting a little technical, but this is part of presuppositional apologetics.

Also, truth itself requires an absolute standard of of mind.

Now, the correspondence theory of truth is that a statement which corresponds to reality is what makes something true.

Well, I don't agree with that. Correspondence doesn't work because it's dependent upon your Your sight and your rationalization, empiricism and rationalism, which are human endeavors. Instead, truth is that which corresponds to the mind of God. That's what truth is. It corresponds to the mind of God, since He knows all truth values and all propositions, and therefore He can tell you what is true, what corresponds to Him, and is all is truth values based on Him, not in our understanding and interpretation of reality, because we can't justify that our particular interpretations of reality are correct.

So even the unbeliever borrows from the Christian worldview. by assuming the validity of logic, the uniformity of nature, that we can actually be rational, we can discuss things. And yet the uh an unbeliever will deny the very foundation that allows rationality and truth values to to be obtained. along with the universals, particulars, the solving of many problems and stuff. And so, without the ultimate foundation of the Christian trinity, we can't justify true knowledge, logic, science, morality, etc.

can't justify those things because there's no foundation. And again, they who deny God's existence, the Trinitarian God, will ground all of these things either in the very nature of reality itself, which we're back to the issue of one and many, which then presents its problems and they can't they can't justify their foundation from that as well. And so when we presuppose the Christian Trinity, Everything makes sense. It's simple. See?

Wasn't that clear? Wasn't that easy everybody?

Well, maybe for some of you it was.

Some of you are now unconscious, and some of you have lost several IQ points. I don't know. But the point is that we have. As Christians, we have an incredible foundation of truth. And this stuff I'm repeating to you is basically derived from Cornelius Van Til, Greg Bonson, and other very sophisticated and highly intelligent Presuppositionalists in the Reformed faith who brought this stuff out, and boy, is it powerful.

I'd love to teach it to people. Anyway, there's the music. I hope you all have a great weekend. May the Lord bless you. May keep you?

And may you just have a good time in church learning and being blessed by the preaching and the teaching of God's Word. God bless everybody by His presence. By his grace, we'll be back on here on Monday, and we'll talk to you then. Have a great weekend. Come bless.

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