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.

Hi 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, it's easy. All you have to do is dial 8772-072276. You can also email me info at carm.orginfo at carm.org, put in a subject line, radio comment or radio question.

One of those, and we can get to it, stuff like that. Yeah, let's see. Oh, and so interesting. Uh huh, okay. Got all cut managers.

All of a sudden my window's doing something strange. I don't even know what that is. Why don't I even worry about it right now?

So there you go. Oh man.

So you ever put together furniture? I have and been doing it lately. And man, let me tell you, man, it's work. It's not as good work as I like doing theology, as I enjoy doing theology. I enjoy teaching and answering questions.

And things like that.

So I enjoy that. And if you have a question or comment about things in the Bible, You want to know how to do something, answer a question, whatever it might be, please. Give me a call. I would love to talk to you. And uh the number again is 8772072276.

And uh look at this. Uh Yeah. Got some stuff here. And um Looking through some options here to talk about some stuff because lately, you know, I've been talking about why. Oh.

or the youth are going to Eastern Orthodox churches. and Roman Catholic churches. They're moving a lot towards EO. I'm trying to figure out exactly why, not just approximately. I want to know why it is they're doing that.

And I've been thinking about it, writing some articles on things like that, and got some ideas, and I can talk about them. But maybe I'll do that a little bit and get into some of the issues that I think are relevant and important inside the Christian church and what we're doing. And so I wrote an article about this a while back.

Well that reminds me of acting. But I got so many things going on.

So many things I'm writing.

So let's see. Youth leaving Protestantism. And I wrote her some articles on this. Oh my goodness, the collars are coming in. I look away and man, they're just all over the place, which is good.

So, there's so much to talk about. Let's get to. Let's get to Mike from North Carolina. Mike, welcome. You're on the air, brother.

Hey, Matt Slick. I'm seeing something all over the news. all over T V this talk about aliens. And some some people are saying they're just demons Some people saying they're falling angels, and then I'm even hearing some Christians say, no, they may actually be aliens. I wanted to know what your thoughts were.

It's mathematically uh basically equivalent to functional zero: that any life would form by chance or any natural processes in the entire universe. There's roughly ten to the to the eightieth particles in the universe. And if every particle was changing its state at maximally, uh at 10 to the fortieth times per second. for 18 billion years. That's 10 to the 138th.

events. And the odds of DNA coming together with a reader of RNA coming through and developing proteins, developing varying enzymes, is something like 10 to the 20,000th power. And that's just on one of the basic cells of the I I read so much on that stuff. And It's just not going to happen that life's going to be. Developing any place out there.

It doesn't work. Mathematics just does not work for that. And there's a lot of mathematicians who've really posed some issues about this. And uh, and stuff anyway, so what are these things that are out there?

Well, they're they're real, they occur. I've been studying them off and on for decades. And listen to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours of material. uh videos and things And let me just say that uh I believe they're demonic manifestations. And the reason I do is because Christians don't get abducted.

And the aliens apparently teach uh that Jesus is not God, reincarnation is true, and we are all divine. and they are interested in um Genitalia. And stuff that goes along with that, with some severe experiences, and people are often exceedingly traumatized. by uh what happens.

So there's a There's a brief so I can go into some more stuff, but uh what do you think of that so far?

Well, I think it's really interesting because. I think the devil could use anything to try to deceive Christians.

Now, there's a lot of people now who are talking about the rapture, Matt. And what I'm hearing people say is that they're going to say. that the rapture is going to occur. But the people who are left behind Are they going to be told that the aliens took away the Christians? Because they were wrong in their belief, or something like that.

Have you heard about that? Yeah, that's the pre-tribulation, one of the pre-trib views. I hold a post-trib. We're going to go through it, so I don't believe that's even a viable option. But that's, you know, if it is true that the pre-rapture occurs, that's one of the things that could be said.

Aliens took them or whatever it is. And, you know, who knows? Who knows? But um I wish that that view would just kind of go away because it's not very well grounded in Scripture. Yeah, I I agree.

I'm I'm I'm post-trib as well. Um, the thing that I was gonna ask you, speaking of post-trib, uh, do you think it's possible? For maybe if there are Christians who are here during, and it sounds like we agree on this. Do you think that Christians could take the mark of the beast and be damned to hell forever? No, you can't lose your salvation.

And Jesus says in Matthew 24, He says, the coming deceiver to deceive, if possible, even the elect. And the, let me get to that exact verse, if possible. even the elect. Um Now let's see. E even if possible, let's see.

Yeah, here we go.

So false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.

So, false prophets would be like Joseph Smith, okay? False Christs, you know, New Age movement, things like that.

So the elect of God won't be deceived. The elector of the ones Chosen by God from the beginning for salvation, 2 Thessalonians 2:13. Who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4 and 5, who are granted to come to Christ, John 6:65, who are granted faith. John excuse me Philippians 1 29 granted to come to Christ John 6 29 Granted repentance, Second Timothy two twenty five. And so they're the ones whom God is calling out of the world.

and everybody else are posers. and imitators of the truth.

Okay. That's a hard hard position to teach. because it doesn't sound lovey dovey by the blonde haired blue eye Caucasian surfer dude. Image that someone believes in.

So, do you believe in predestination? Are you a Calvinist? Of course. Yeah, I'm a Calvinist. And, you know, but you know, and if you're not, that's okay with me.

I'm one of the kind of Calvinists that I can defend it very, very well. I really can. I know it very well. I know the arguments against it. I know, you know, I know it so well.

But defending it for 36 years, and I mean a lot.

Okay. But if you were to say to me, you're not a Calvinist, I'd say.

Okay. That's nice. As long as you believe in Jesus.

Well, I used to be completely on the other side, and then I started listening to a few guys. I don't know if you're familiar with James White or Jeff Durbin. Yeah, I know him. And yeah, I'm now open to the idea.

So, anyways, I think we have a mutual friend, Jamal. Oh yeah, Jamal's on. Yeah, he is. Him and I both host Truth Talk Live on our On the weekdays, I just finished hosting it. And so I've been listening to you for years, and I appreciate everything that you do.

So I appreciate you taking my call, Mel. Hey man, if you want to know Reformed theology a little bit more, I have another website that I go into it a lot. And if you want to look at it, you can. If not, no big deal. Up to you.

I don't know. The website, I'll look it up now. Yeah, it's called CalvinistCorner.com. And um Calvinist. Calvinistcurve.com.

One word. I put my more advanced stuff in there. And uh. Knowledgecorner.com. Yeah, and I'll check that out.

And if you ever want to come on the show, just let Jamal know, and I'll have you on my show as well, okay? Yeah, just arrange it. I'll come on your guys' show. And see, the good thing about having me on your show is you have plenty of cleanup to do for weeks afterwards. It's a lot of fun.

Good stuff.

Well, you know, it's funny. We actually did a show today, and it was on is Islam the religion of peace? Yeah, piece of your arm, piece of your leg. There you go. But I had a former Muslim who was from Kuwait.

And he converted to Christianity 13 years ago at the age of 41. And he said, it is absolutely not. The religion of peace, and there was an American woman who tried to start arguing with him and saying, No, no, it's okay, there's good, good Muslims. And he said, There are good Muslims. But what he also said, Matt, was he said that if you're a real Muslim, who truly follows the Quran, then you're taught to kill the infidels.

Absolutely correct. That's Sira nine. Yep. And Surah 9 talks about it, Surah 9.5 and Surah 9.29. It says to seek out and destroy and kill the infidels.

Absolutely. I've been telling people for years Islam is an ungodly antichrist religion. And it's not compatible with any uh with any governmental system. Because it's I just say, think of it as a cancer. It gets into a system and grows and metastasizes, makes demands, and then once it gets in power, starts killing the life around it until everybody submits.

That's Islam. That's Islam. Yeah.

So how would you and if you have to take another call, that's fine, how would you preach the gospel to other Muslims? I just say the same thing I'd say to anybody. You need Jesus Christ, God in flesh, died on the cross, rose from the dead. And the basics of that. But they're going to reject that.

And then Surah 4:157, Jesus wasn't crucified. But someone was made to look like Jesus. And I'll say, so who made it look like Jesus was crucified? And say, well, Allah.

So Allah deceived people, didn't he? And I get into this kind of stuff and um and I show them uh errors in the Quran, like uh let man but think from what he's created, he's created from a drop emitted proceeding from between the backbone and the ribs. You know, Surah 86, 5 through 7. And uh call those chesticles, because the seed comes out of the man's chest. And, you know, and there's just ways.

But one of the things I've found I think is useful is. And I've got several approaches I use, but I just ask them: are your sins forgiven right now? And they say, insha'Allah, if if if Allah wills. I think you don't know because it depends it depends on your goodness. Are you good enough?

No. And I say, but in your religion, to be good enough, to be guaranteed means die while you're killing someone else. For j for Mu Mohammed. Yeah.

And I say, this is the guy you follow. He married a six-year-old. And again, we go into that stuff. That stuff. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, and you know, and something, and I, and this is what I'm seeing all over the internet, Matt. Is they're saying that all the people all over the world, and you've heard so much about the Epstein files, that they said in Islam, that's just a part of their religion. Of course. Oh yeah. It's a depraved religion, full of depraved stuff.

Men can have four wives and they can have temporary wives when they go around. And whatever the right hand possesses. And that means if they've conquered people, they can take the spoils from among the uh the people. If you know what that means. Yeah.

People have no idea how bad Islam is. No idea how bad it is. It is bad. It's not compatible. If I were dictator of the United States, I would outlaw Islam.

Because it's just like communism coming in to infiltrate. You've got to get rid of it. That's right.

Okay, buddy, we gotta go. More high-phone. Appreciate you, man. Bye-bye. God bless, brother.

Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages. If you want to give me a call. The number is 877-207-2276. We'll be right back.

Okay. It's Matt Slick live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everyone, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, it is easy.

877-20-72276. This could be Andrew from Ohio. Andrew, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, how are you doing, Matt?

I'm being doing okay by God's grace hanging in there, buddy. Hanging in there, man. What do you got?

Well, my question is, is uh great commission uh do you say forward? preach the gospel and advertise them. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then. In the book of Acts We see them baptizing in the name of Jesus.

Right. And you never see anybody baptizing in the name of the Father, Son of And the Holy Spirit. That's all right. Reasoning is for that. Yes, the answer is found in Acts 4, verse 7.

Because it says there Because Ananias, the high priest, was there, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were high priestly descent. When they had placed him in the center, they began to inquire, By what power or in what name have you done this? And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said, Rulers and elders of Israel, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazarene, whom you crucified, this man stands before you.

So In the phrase in the name of means By the authority of this, I now baptize you.

So, if I were to say, if I were to do a baptism, I say, I'm now going to baptize in the name of Jesus. They go, You ready? Ready? Good. I baptize the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Because in the name of means by the authority of the power of, and that's Acts 4:7 shows that. Good point. Um Though must Jokes. Baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. You're muffled a little bit.

You kind of come in and out a little bit.

So say it again. I'm sorry, can you hear me now? Yes, that's better. Can you hear me now? Yes.

All right, sorry about that. Notice that most churches. Baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's correct. But.

Do you think it's unscriptural? I mean, obviously, it's the book of Acts. You can. baptizing the name of Jesus, the water for you showed up as you say, I'm baptizing you In the name of Do you think that would be Yes. If you're in a place because of God's mandate, his command.

Because Jesus specifically said what to do, and so the churches need to do it, and it's just a cultural thing in the name of we're doing this by His by the authority of the it's like the cop says, Stop in the name of the law. It it's the same thing. That's all that's going on there. All right.

So that's all. 'Cause I know modal the the modalist guys day is Want to say that you know the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is Jesus, I guess, right? Yeah, because the oneness Pentecostal is a non-Christian cult, okay? And they don't understand the Trinity, they don't understand their own stuff, they they deny the true God, they deny the true Christ, they deny the true uh doctrine of salvation by grace through faith.

So that's Acts 4, Acts 4, 17, is that what you said? No, Acts 4.7. X47. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it.

All right, brother. No problem, man. God bless. God bless you. All right, now let's get to Peter from Utah.

Peter, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt, thank you for accepting my call. I just got a question about. uh Zechariah thirteen six.

I'm not a KJV only fan at all. It's probably one of my least favorite translations just because I'm a new Christian, so it's kind of hard for me to. Uh understanding all that. But Zechariah 13.6 bothers me in the modern translations. I believe that the KJV has it right.

Okay. And so if you read me. Just thirteen six. Just that verse, you believe like, Oh, that sounds like Jesus. And then you read the verses leading up to it, and you're like, oh, I hope that's not Jesus because it's speaking about a false prophet.

I believe. And so it looks like the modern translations. changed the word hands, which I d I don't I'm not a fan of. Um do you have any answers to that? Yeah, I'd have to study that particularly just to find out really what's going on.

But generally speaking, you've got to understand it's nothing about the King James. The King James was great when it was translated, and Okay. Uh a 1611 you've never used.

Okay, you've never used it. because if you had, you wouldn't hardly be able to read it. Because original sixteen eleven uh King James is difficult to read because of the language, the the punctuation, the letters, and and everything.

So the version you use as a King James is later, 150 years later, was modified. and adjust it to more modern English at that point. The King James was translated with roughly tenth eleventh century documents. And so it was pretty good. but since the King James has been translated, older manuscripts have been discovered.

way older. Lots of older, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years older. Generally speaking, the older the manuscript, the more accurate. And the reason they say that is because. Uh errors tend to creep in.

A little at a time.

Now, they're very, very, very careful how they copy the manuscripts. But you might have someone copying a manuscript and he just gets tired, he copies a word Arathas, you know, twice, you know, the word good. He might copy it twice in the end of one line, the beginning of another, and later he goes, Oh, man. And so he crosses it out and makes not Agathos. Maybe I'm just making something up as an example.

He writes it in the margin.

Well, 100 years later, someone sees that and says, It's not good? What do you mean not good? Of course it's good. What do you mean not good? And so they put a variant in there.

It's not Agatha that was good. And they're confused of what happens. This kind of thing can occur where a marginal note can be then moved into the text. where a correction was made or an omission was made. Omission can happen.

There's different kinds of errors. And it's like, you know, there's only, well, the Bible is like, our New Testament's like 99.95% technically identical.

So, generally speaking, okay, so when someone tells me they think the King James has it right, I tend to believe they don't. It doesn't it's not correct. And and I agree with everything you said, but it's specifically that verse. Zechariah 13, verse 6, the word hand, or in the NASB 95, it's. Arms.

But then you click on that Hebrew word and see every time it's translated, it's like 99% of the time. It's the word hand. But right there, they for some reason change it to arms. Yeah, you change it to like chest, someone else change it to like back. And to me, it looks like they change it because it looks like they're talking about Jesus.

And arms are way different in your hands and way different in your chest. Way different than your back. And so it looks like KJV has it right. And when you sit, just. Just 'cause my wife says Spanish, I looked at her translation and they all say uh monos, ha ham.

Okay. Yeah, I like speaking Spanish with people, it's fun. Let's see. And I'm looking Oh, I got the wrong thing on you. Do you get what I'm saying now?

Oh, yeah. It's just that one word. I believe. Okay. In fact, in the NSB it says arms, and then there's a note that says literally, it says hands.

So, you know, I love the NSB. I know, every now and then I'll go, why did they do that? What's the reason for that? Um And so Uh Let's see. It's uh It's a semantically broad word in Hebrew.

Alright, so, like the word green in English, I use this as an example, the word green. What does green mean? And whenever what you say, I'm going to say wrong because it has like 12 different meanings. Oh, hold on, brother. We got a break.

Okay, hold on, okay.

Okay. Hey folks, we write back after these messages, please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All Robin, welcome back to the show.

Let's get back on with Peter from Utah. Peter. Hey man, did a little bit of research. All right.

Did some more research. And. The word occurs 1600 times. in the Old Testament. And it's translated as hand And the word by be why?

Consecrate Uh power. Them? Places, wow. Tenons, what I'm not sure what that means. Uh the um anyway, has different meanings.

But we don't want to uh then you know take the meaning in one place and shift it to another place.

So I was reading through the King James says between your arms And NIV says on your body. It's an interpretive paraphrase, the NETS is on your chest, ESV on your back, literal is between your hands.

So Between your arms, between your hands, which is why some of them say the wounds are on your back. because the King James is saying looks like it's I think the King James, I think, is more accurate here.

Now that I'm looking at it, between your. uh hands literally. But it can be other things too. And so uh That seems to be what it is, okay? Between them, between the two.

Yeah, no, and that's and that's why I think they changed it, because if you just read that verse, that sounds exactly like Jesus, right? He had wounds on his hand. And so I don't think, but it's talking about idolatry and false prophets.

So that's why I believe the modern translations changed it, which I'm not a fan of because I love the modern translations. Yeah, see, I'm with you. You know, it's like I think the NSB is great, but it's not perfect, and no Bible's perfect. But it's like, why would I do that? Just stay as literal as you can.

If the word, you know, they might want to put the word hands there and then put in a parenthesis.

Some say arms, some say this. And you go, oh, interesting. I wonder why. And it caused you to go check. And that's fine.

Which is like you're calling me up for that. In fact, I like the NASB better than the NIV, but it does bet the NIV does better in some areas than the NSB in the Old Testament. But the NASB is better than the New Testament.

So it's like oh But at any rate, between the arms.

So that's why they're saying between the arms, between thine hands, on your back. Because I think what they're doing is Is there Some trans okay, here's the thing.

Some translations try to be literal and some translations try to be a little bit more dynamically equivalent. I think that's why we have different translations. But I I'm with you on this one. I think the King James got it better than the NESB. Yeah, okay.

Because there's a word in back for Hebrew, and they didn't use that. But the ESB put that in there. There's a word for chest in Hebrew. And but that's not in the verse anywhere. And and so that's what it anyway, yeah.

Just wondering, and it sounds like me and you are in the same boat. In fact, I do have another question real quick. Just check this out really fast. The new King James says arms. How about that?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I've been wondering about this for a couple of days. I have another question, it's kind of off topic, and I know you're probably in a hurry. I did have an orb On my green camera, and it was it's big and it was there for like thirty minutes or an hour. I like wiped my hand on the camera and there was something next to me.

Uh Uh what is that? 'Cause the the first colour kinda reminded me, uh, you talked about aliens and stuff. Uh there I just for you the blood of Jesus, but Well, it's bad. Always look for natural phenomena first. Is there something wrong with the camera?

If it obviously is not something wrong with the camera, something else is going on.

Sometimes the cameras can see things we can't. And there are electrical phenomena. ball lightning that can happen And I always look for natural phenomena first, natural explanations. If all of those are removed, then let's say the orb is seen, and maybe it's once or twice, some other witnesses is verified. Then I'd say, okay, well, maybe something's going on spiritually.

But I only go there after I've exhausted the natural phenomena. And they'd start looking. And they start looking at my neighbors. Are they in the occult any place? Anything bad happening?

You know, maybe the history of the land or American Indians who were doing pagan rituals. I don't know. I I just look start looking for what's called doors at that place and then start praying.

Okay. Okay, well that's that's where I'm at, that's what I'm doing.

Okay, thank you, Matt. You're welcome, brother. God bless, men. All right.

Yeah.

All right, now let's get to Oscar from New York. Oscar, welcome. You're on the air? Yeah, thank you. Uh I was listening to a pastor.

Now he believes that women can be pastors. and spotius is in first Galatians three twenty eight. I'm not quite sure. It is one of the worst verses to use for that because women are not supposed to be pastors and elders, and the guy who said that, that they can be, and went to that verse, Galatians 3:28, could not exegete his way out of a wet paper bag.

Okay, it's horrible. All right, there's neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there's neither male nor female. For you're all one in Christ Jesus.

So suddenly that means women could be pastors. What? See, the phrase in Christ Jesus is federal headship. He's talking about salvation. It's not talking about women, pastors, and elders.

And this pastor if someone had said that to me, if I was in a church and someone used that verse afterwards, I'd go to the pastor and say, Excuse me, have you really looked at the context of Galatians 3.28? And I try and work with the guy. Say, you can't do that, you can't use it that way. Because the previous verse, all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female.

So if he's going to use that, there's neither male nor female, to mean that there's. That there's no neither male nor female in pastoring? What? Is there any people? He's you know, he's just I just would, you know, it's just so many people say so many bad things.

And this is Galatians 3:28, one of the great examples of horrible preaching and teaching about women, pastors, and elders. It's one of the. Yeah, I've heard it before.

So it's bad.

So is he adding to be Bible in a sense? No, he's just he's just uh you know, I think that he's exegeting with one of his frontal lobes tied behind his back. He's not not doing it. He's not doing a rhetoric. He needs to be corrected and he needs to learn what exegesis is, and he needs to stop teaching the false doctrine that women can be pastors and elders.

Okay. Let me uh Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, bye-bye. Pray better. You're welcome. God bless. Yeah, let's get to Stephen from Scotland.

Stephen, welcome, brother. You're on the air. Hey, Ma, how are you doing? Doing all right by God's grace, just dealing with some heresies and some stuff.

So, what do you got, brother? Can you hear me okay? Yes, I hear you fine, yeah. That's right.

Interesting. The reason for my call is King Charles made a speech this week And in part of his speech, he he said, quote, My ministers will also proceed with the introduction of digital ID that will modernize how citizens interact with public services, unquote. And looking through the digital ID, you're going to need it for interaction with government and private sector services, such as helping renters. to quickly prove their identity to the landlord.

So you're going to need digital ID for welfare and other benefits. is going to be required for the right to work checks Um to make sure that we have the right to work in this country. I think originally it was to battle immigration, illegal immigration. This digital ID will be downloaded to your phone. It's not mandatory, it's free.

You on it, you will need to put in your name Your day of birth, your nationality, or residency stated in a photograph. And my question is. For the Christian, where should we stand on this digital ID, brother? Please. Yeah.

Very cautiously stand facing it and not with our backs to it. We don't want them to sneak up behind us and strangle us.

So, this is obviously, for the Christian, a bit concerning.

So, yeah, you put your phone, you have an app, whatever it is, and all your information is in it, and officials can get all they want from you. And if this is implemented, it will then be used for other nefarious things. It's going to be. It just is. That's how people are.

And so, if you have a digital ID, and then you have to show it when you get stopped by a cop, you have to show it when you go to a grocery store, you have to show it when you go to a doctor. Then everything is going to be on this digital ID, however it works, and they will have complete information about everything you do. The problem here, of course, is that the people who have this aren't Christians. And they're going to want to be in control because obviously they know how to Treat us better than we do ourselves because they're smarter and they're wiser than us, just like the Democrats think here in America. Because they're the oh, they're the ones who know all about what's right and wrong and they can yeah, they're arrogant.

Fools. And so Then what will probably happen is a social social Social status will occur whether there's a word for it, they're doing it in China. Where, if you are doing more and more bad things socially, social credit score will be reduced. And so you won't have as many privileges. This is the same kind of thing.

And so, this is very concerning to me, and I will resist it.

Okay? That's all I'm going to be doing.

Alright brother. I'll be realistic. All right.

Thank you so much for your Thank you for taking my call. All right, brother. God bless. Yeah, and they'll make it mandatory and just like Social Security wasn't supposed to be mandatory, but now it is. It's a step by step.

Maybe they get shocked. If we write back after these messages, please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the show.

If you want to give me a call, all you got to do is dial 877-207-2276. You can give me a call if you want. We have nobody waiting right now. A lot of good calls at the beginning. And uh I've been kind of doing a fill in uh between breaks and stuff like that on um Some of the issues of why the youth are leaving Protestantism and going into.

Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism.

Now, I got to tell you, Both of those religions, Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, are false religions. They're apostate. They teach a false gospel. They teach a false priesthood. They have a false Mary.

They have a false Eucharistic view. And they make it so that salvation is attained over a long period of time through cooperation and submission to their particular churches. And this is just false doctrine, it's false stuff, it's false, it's bad. But yet, the youth are going in there. And I've already gone over some of the stuff about this.

I think some of the Protestants need to be aware. Pastors and teachers need to be aware that this is a reality. And that there are things they need to look at, as we all do as Christians in our own lives. What are we doing as preachers and teachers? Are we equipping the saints?

And of Ephesians 4, it says something very important, and I've gone over this before. I'm gonna go over it again because it's what the Bible says. It says he gave some as apostles, in verse 11, Ephesians 4, he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service.

So uh the equipping of the saints. Um Now, let me just ask you, just throw these questions out. Do you feel as though the church you're going to, they're equipping you? Just a question. It's a very wide open, open-ended question.

Do you feel you're being equipped for the work of service? to the building of the body Christ. Do you feel that when you sit in the congregation Are you uh being equipped? for the work of service To God, Okay. and in the body Christ.

to the building of the body of Christ. And that's just a question. And what would that look like?

Well, I don't know. We could get different variables. We get different ideas what that might look like. But it's just a question. Or do you go to church?

And I'm just throwing questions out. You go to church and Is it a babysitting time? Is it a fun time? Is it a convicting time? Is it some, you know, as you go over a period of time, you know, you can't judge a church by one sermon and stuff like that.

But you're going there. Are the sermons overall? Are they equipping you? Are they changing you? Are they affecting your mind, your heart, your walk?

And we are supposed to do this. In the sense that, as preachers and teachers, we're supposed to correct false teachings, we're supposed to promote a person on Jesus Christ. But notice what it says. That Paul says that he, that's God, gave some as apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers.

Now the pastors and teachers are governed by a single definite article in the Greek, the word the in the Greek.

So it says in the Greek: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. And so the prophets and apostles are, we could get into this another time, they're done.

So now we can have evangelists. But how many of you know evangelists? This is what we're supposed to have in the Christian church, evangelists. And some as pastors and teachers. And I think pastors and teachers are: it's easier to be a pastor-teacher than it is to be an evangelist.

An evangelist is tough work. You know, I've known a guy here in the local area, he's an evangelist, and he travels. And not saying you all have to do what he does, the way he does, but he's an evangelist, and he's told me stories, and sometimes his heart. And you go out and stand in front of the crowds, you preach the gospel, and do what he can to equip Christians and teach. And that's just part of it.

Well, Does your church have Have evangelists. Is there a does your church have pastors?

Well, yes. Does your church have teachers?

Well, yes. Does it have evangelists? and you're looking around at each other.

Well, we're supposed to have that, apparently, right? And all of this is for the equipping of the saints, to equip. Get him ready. to equip them. And the Greek word there is uh kurtatismon.

to equip And to make make fully ready. To make fully ready is one of the ways that it's rendered.

Okay, so The saints are us, the believers. Is this happening in your church? And the reason I'm bringing this up is just a thought. Because why is it that the EO and the RC, East Orthodox, Roman Catholics, why are they gaining members?

Well, maybe it's because God Maybe he's taken his blessing off the Protestants because they're. not teaching his word? Who knows? You know, maybe I know pastors who are teaching the Word of God and do a great job. I know.

But I mean, overall. You know, there's churches all over the place. It is your church equipping you for the work of service.

Now The work of service, you have to know your doctrine. You have to be able to Understand your positioning in Christ and what your position in gifting is in the body of Christ. That's what it means.

So basically Here's a question I ask. I got people: Do you know what your your spiritual gift is in the church?

Now, let's say I'm in a group of people, and I'm talking about that, and I say, you know what, your spiritual gift is. And, you know, I try to be very polite about it. I don't want to make anybody feel bad or, you know, that's not the goal. I'm just trying to stir them up a little bit and get them to think, you know. Say, okay, so uh uh let me just ask you.

Um Do you know what your spiritual gifts are in the church? And, you know, I say, if you want, raise your hands if if you say you know, and if you don't have to, I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. because that's not my job and they can feel uncomfortable not there. And so, uh, you know, your hands might go up. A few.

I would say, say ten people. I'm teaching a Bible study, let's say ten people. You might have two or three go up. And that's about the percentage I see. Say, okay, well, now, how many of you have been Christians for longer than 10 years?

Let's just say, you know, usually most of the hands go up.

Okay. Well, don't you think that maybe by ten years you should know what your spiritual gift is? And I'm trying to be very polite. I'm not trying to make anybody feel bad. You know, and because it's easy to do that in that kind of circumstance.

I'm going to say, look, maybe you don't know. Because you haven't really asked God to reveal it to you, or you haven't taken chances to find out, or maybe the church you're going to isn't encouraging you to find out what your charismatic I mean, not your charismatic gift, excuse me, but your spiritual gift is. And I just ask the questions because sometimes we get comfortable. where we are. We get comfortable sitting in a church.

The same old kind of sermons, the same old people that come up, the same pastor who's teaching the same stuff. may go to the same restaurant afterwards with the same friends. And we're comfortable in this. And this kind of comfort just brings Apathy. and weakness.

because we get comfortable. And God Well some of us may b may know this one. He make us uncomfortable to improve us. to change us, to root some things out of us.

Well, you know, we could be praying, you know, God, would you please? And you say carefully, make me uncomfortable. And what I mean, Lord, is use me. And teach me how to endure the challenges that come with it. And you know, I always want to encourage people to find out what their gifts are and not to feel bad if they don't.

But if you've been a Christian for a long time and you don't know your gift, you need to find out. You need to find out and look in your environment. Are you going to a church that is not encouraging you, finding that stuff out? Are you going to a church that's making you feel comfortable? Are you going to a church that convicts you occasionally?

Not every single sermon, you know, you come out feeling beat up. But I mean, you know, every now and then, you know, you should come out of a church going, ooh, that hurt. Every now and then that should happen, right? Because it's the Word of God that we're being spoken of of. to or from.

And so is this happening? These are questions you have to ask yourself. Are these things happening? And If you say to yourself, well, no, none of this is happening, maybe. Maybe you might want to ask God to, you know, get involved.

With the church, or in you. Maybe you're just missing it, and the pastor is trying to equip, and you're not listening. You know, it's possible. Or maybe the pastor's not equipping. And you just don't know he's not because you don't know what the Bible says he's supposed to do.

Who knows? Be all kinds of stuff. But the thing is, we as Christians. are to be equipped by the pastors and teachers. or to be equipped for the work of ministry.

And that's one of the things I try and do on the radio and on the website and teaching and things like this, is to equip Christians to help them understand the Christian faith and how to defend the Christian faith and how to promote the Christian faith. I try and equip Christians.

Now, I'm not claiming, I'm the great equipper, blah, blah, blah. No, no, no. But, you know, I've done this a lot and for a lot of years, and I've learned a few things, and I want to. To help others to know what I think is from God according to Scripture. and point them towards the Lord Jesus Christ, not a church.

Don't point them towards a church. You always point someone to Jesus. And then you say, no, if you have a good relationship with Jesus, then you have to find a good church. Not find a good church so you can have a good relationship. That's what the cults do.

Oh, the church is where you gotta find the truth. Their church, our restored true church, our apostolic church, blah, blah, blah. You know, they point to the church. The church, the church, the church. It's not about Jesus, it's about the church.

And that's one of the signs, warning signs. And here's a question to ask. And uh even think about in your in the sermons you're listening to. In the sermon, now Sunday's coming up. Think about this.

is the pastor Is the pastor starting with the Word of God?

Now I don't mean it has to be within three and a half seconds. I mean, is he starting with the Word of God? It might take a minute. You might have to introduce something, it might take a little bit of time, but is that what he's starting with? Or is the main gist and introduction a story?

A story to prepare you for the Word of God.

Now, sometimes it's necessary to do that, but is this the norm? is a story or a joke. or something that is uh enjoyable for you to uh hear and be entertained by. And then you get to God's Word. If that's the case, and it happens a lot, get out of that church.

Just get out.

Okay, because it's not opening up the Word of God and starting from the Word of God.

Now, when I preach, I'm not saying, look at me how I do it, I'm just saying the way I feel convicted by the Lord personally. is when I get up to the pulpit, I say within a minute, never longer than a minute, depending what the topic is, I'll say, turn in your Bibles too. To these verses, read the scriptures, go into the scriptures.

Now, this is what the Bible says. And I stick with what the scripture says. And I don't go off on a tangent. and make you feel good about something and come back to the Word of God maybe later and give him a moralistic sermon. I I think that's atrocious.

So You know, we have to really understand What is it that the pastor is teaching us? Is it biblical? And is he equipping us for the work of service in the body of Christ? Because that work of service is twofold. to God?

and to your fellow believer. To God and your fellow believer. To God, you know the truth, so you can worship him in truth. and you can help your fellow believers to know the truth as well. And maybe some of the work of the ministry is knitting caps for babies, helping your friends move.

whatever it is, to be there when they're sick, to help them. because you're learning what it means to be loving as well. Not just these doctrines, but the doctrine of love, the practice of love and empathy. These are part of the things we need to be equipped. To serve God and to serve our neighbors, to serve our brethren in the body of Christ.

Anyway, I'm just trying to stir the pot a little bit. And uh see what you think. And I'm hoping that people will be more inclined To wonder and consider the truths that we need to hear in order to be equipped for the work of service. Amen. All right, brothers and sisters, may the Lord bless you and by his grace.

Back on there tomorrow. We'll talk to you then. Have a great evening. Yeah.

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