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 carn.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick Live for answers, taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Hey everyone, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick, and you're listening to Matt Slick Live as usual. If you want to give me a call, all I have to do is dial 877-2072276. I want to hear from you. Give me a call.

And. We got three open lines. We got a caller coming in. Let's see, let's see, let's see.

So I wrote wrote I wrote three articles today. And sometimes articles go quickly, and sometimes they're easy. And other times they're not.

Sometimes I'll say, Oh, I can get this article out in probably two or three hours, and then three days later I'm done. You know, it just happens. They kind of take on their own life there sometimes as they do that.

So, no big deal, but it was three today. I'd already been working on it. I work on things. And then, when I decide to really kind of nail it, then I do. Anyway, that's what I did today for three of them.

All right. If you want, you can email me, and that's at info at carm.org. Info at CARM.org, and you can just give me an email there. And email, just put it in the subject line, radio comment or radio question, and we'll get to it, okay? All right, let's get to Clinton from Virginia.

Clinton, welcome. You're on the air. Wow, do you mean I finally got more than three minutes to talk? That's right, you called in early. Good for you.

That's right. Wow, I told the gentleman at the beginning, I said, Am I good? He goes, You're fine. Uh No, with all the three-minute bedroom, I forgot what I was really calling you for, but. What got my attention was Monday, you had the girl call And she was confused about the Bible, talking about this Christian book she was trying to read.

And he says, No, no, no, don't do that. You need to read the gospel. And yesterday the gentleman talked At the end of the Um he was confused too and you had to give him scripture. And I'm going, is it that much false doctrine out there as far as what these kids are trying to find? Yeah, there's false doctrine everywhere.

Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, full Pelagianism. Name it and claim it, blab it, grab it. Theology. There's a lot of false things out there. The devil is alive and well, working in different religions.

Okay. Right, because after I got through yesterday, I I look on the phone And of course I'm living in my car, don't tell everybody, okay? And I look on my phone and I look at YouTube and all that. And this thing grabbed my attention and I want to get your intake on it. It's called color.

of the cross. It's a it's um it's a video. Yeah. And it's fair. a it says a retelling Of the current dissipation Cruz are taken of Jesus Christ.

based on the idea that he was a black man, whose death was a racially motivated hate crime. And I saw that and I went. You gotta be kidding me. It is called color of the cross. And I actually googled it and it come up and I went, Does it have to be a real movie?

I haven't watched it. I don't want to watch it. But like you say, there's a lot of people that are watching go, Oh no, is this true? Yeah, it's just Dumb. Jesus wasn't a black guy, but there's the black Hebrew Israelites, or the BHI is also called, or black, or they're just called the Hebrew Israelites because they're expanding into other areas.

And they'll teach that. Personally, I don't care what color Jesus was, I care what he's treated. But he was Jewish, and so the Jewish people are not black.

So there's this movement that's come out, and it's a racist movement. The Hebrew Israelite movement is. is just racist. It is so bad. And that's all that cat.

It's bad. Yeah, if you really start if you start digging into history, you find a whole bunch of racial things that have been covered up for forty, fifty years. I mean, I'll start out to follow on some of the stuff that I found out. There's a lot of bad stuff out there. I know, like we were talking about before about The pastor is Um Perfect.

I'm hearing where the pastors really aren't speaking Oh. The Holy Spirit Like in they're not really getting into the doctorine Oh quite They kind of beat around it because I know my church doesn't. I mean Um I hope none of my church members aren't listening to the radio, but if they are, I'll hear it. A pastor and it says in the Bible, you know, he does the Lord doesn't want you to Put marks on your body and cut yourself like tattoos for the dead back in that Old Testament pagan stuff, yes. Uh-huh.

Yeah. So. My old pastor, I call him my senior pastor, he's 81 now, and he just goes to church. He stepped down, the younger guy came in. He's probably maybe in his 40s, early 40s.

Got tattoos all over his hand, all his arms. I think he's got one on his neck. Um He sneaks out and he says, Everybody thinks I was a biker or in prison, but I'm not. All these are religious tattoos. I just look at him and go, Well, I guess you never read the Old Testament, did you?

But anyway. But he doesn't really talk. to get your attention like we were talking about before. It's like you said, reading the newspaper. Yeah.

The only ones that really spoke it was like Billy Ground. Maybe. Give me swagger, he was a doll too. But not too many of them really speak the gospel. That's why I made a joke.

Why don't you become a pastor? What was the last part? I yawned just for a second, and my ears went. What? What did you say, the last part?

Okay. The good part about you being a pastor, I mean, with all the knowledge you've got, you couldn't just got to get a calling. But I mean you would make it interesting.

Well, I'd make it interesting. But I don't know if people would really go and this is just me talking out loud. You know, I thought being a pastor again, and I was. But I don't know if people would like my style of preaching because I'm direct. And I just say the biblical truth and I preach the cross and I give doctrine.

Not not, you know, it's not 80% doctrine. It's one minute or sometimes two, depending on the length of the sermon, where I'll throw things in and explain stuff. But I don't know if people want that. And when I teach Bible studies here, you know, people I teach Bible studies, people don't come, you know.

So I don't know what it is. And maybe it's just, you know, I don't have that calling. I don't know. It's just strange because uh like I said uh Couple of more from Richmond, and you got some of the surrounding counties like Spotsylvania County. And I'm one of the pastors there.

My wife went to the church to where her home grounds were. And the pastor said he got a calling from the Lord to Preach and you go, never preached in my life. Yeah. So anyways, you got help. And this man can rock it, I mean he gets up there if you say he tells the truth.

That's what people need. We need people to tell the truth. Yeah, I just don't like that, you know, hum lo hum stuff, you know, and just everybody yawns, you go to your you go to your Bible study, everybody's like, nobody wants to talk. And of course me, I talk I'll talk the dead up back to life. And that's my pastor.

He goes, do you ever shut up I said How do you good ideas, but nobody wants to answer them because they're free. Everybody's afraid in church to talk. Or act like me. You know, ha ask a question. It's not stupid if you don't know it.

That's right. Well, a lot of people, they just don't know very much, and I don't think pastors generally are really equipping the Christians very well. I think they're doing babysitters. I thought you had to go through a bunch of studying. become all that.

I guess you don't have it there. I'm not sure I understood your question or your statement, but pastors don't have to have seminars. Degree, degree, yeah, right, like degree, the doc's right. And they don't have to have a degree to preach. Because the Bible never says anything that we need to, but God did use a very highly educated individual named Paul.

To write a lot of theology. And being educated is good. But what's happening is across churches, a lot of places, not all, but they'll call seminary cemetery. And there are a lot of bad seminaries out there.

Now, I went to a good one back in the day, but there are just a lot of bad ones out there, too. And so there is a movement in some areas away from deep theology. And this is really shameful. Because we need to be able to understand the difference between justification and sanctification, imputation, propitiation, why they're important and how they relate to the work of Christ on the cross. These are the basics that people need to know, and most people don't.

Yeah, because I hear my pastor goes, you know, well, the church was doing good until the pandemic came. And now there's really nobody coming. Duh, why don't you advertise? I mean, hello? You can't sit there and just Tell the Lord, Lord, can we feed can you fill my church up?

You've got to get some movement. You've got to advertise. Knock on doors like your mom do. Yeah. Could be, you know, it depends what God calls you to do.

I always thought maybe a good idea is Just to have the preacher just prayerfully Uh singularly mindedly speak the truth of God's Word, And Disregard who comes, who does not come. As far as his motivation goes. You know, he should motivate to please God. And if people come, praise God. But the idea of just preaching and teaching the word of truth.

And that's what I want to do. I want to just preach the truth of God's Word. And I don't care what people say. Yeah, I'm right. I mean, 'cause some things you're going to say and people will get offended by it, but you know.

How many Yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, like I tell people, look at Paul. There's a whole section in his letter. All the things that that man did, I mean, I like it when they beat him and threw him outside the gate. Remember, he got him. He won't finish because he walked back in there.

I'm going, like, you know. You want her to preach it? Do you want to go preach no matter what? That's what we need. We need preachers who are going to do that.

But a lot of times congregation members are just not very educated enough. When I've done seminars, and occasionally, I have done seminars for a few years, but I remember one in particular where I was teaching and I did a survey, just an impromptu survey. And there's about 150 people, I think. And I just asked, show me your hands. I'm not going to call on you how many believe in the Trinity.

And they raised their hands. And it says, okay, good. You know, almost everybody. And some people don't like raising their hands.

So, you know, whatever. But it was like 95, 98%. And I said, okay, how many believe that Jesus is God in flesh and the same number of hands? How many think that he is? Is he a man right now?

Put your hands up, yes, and I'm going to ask you, put your hands up, no.

So, yes, and half the hands went up, and then no, half the hands went up. And then I asked questions on, well, how do you get saved? You know, you have to be good, you got to be sincere, you got to repent of your sins, and that this leads you to salvation. And you know, everybody's going, yeah. You know, it's a false doctrine I just taught them, right?

That's not what saves you. That's what I'm saying. Most of them will save it. Yeah, most of them, if they use the pastor's talk, and you go, What did I say? Most of them go, I don't know what to say.

What you just said was true, right? No, it wasn't.

So most of them in church don't listen. Yeah, most people. I'll appreciate you answering the question and so forth and getting that little bit out on me. I'll let you go so you can have somebody else give you some good old information. All right, well, buddy.

God bless, man. Appreciate it. Thank you for calling, Claire. You too. Bye-bye.

Okay. Okay, bye. You know, we have nobody waiting. Just to tell you a story, when I was in Southern California years, many years ago, 30 years ago or so, I was asked to go speak at a conference, just me as the one speaker, a weekend conference at a hotel. and it was about three hour drive away from Southern California.

and uh said, Sure, you guys that's what you want. You teach apologetics, teach on all kinds of topics. And it was really interesting because we got there Friday night and it was loose, and then Saturday and then Sunday. And then Saturday, and we did different topics. And it wasn't real deep, but it was um Uh deep enough.

And these were pastors and elders, about 40 of them. I want to tell you out of the break. What happened? Very interesting.

So be right back folks after these messages. If you want, give me a call. 8772072276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Hello, Rodwood and welcome back to the show. I'm the gallon with Richard from North Carolina. Then I'll tell you what happened at the conference that I taught once. It was really interesting.

So, Richard from North Carolina, welcome. You're on the air. Thank you very much.

Okay. So what do you got, brother? I don't know if you're willing to do it or not, but yesterday. You mentioned a couple of false teachers and false prophets that are out there. You mentioned a couple of them by name and you actually said they should be called out.

by name. And I'd like to know who else out there Who are they? Who are they? Can you name them? Mm.

Yeah, uh Kenneth Copeland is a false teacher, uh Creft O'Dollar. Jesse Duplantis, Benny Hinn, uh Joel Lostein, Um Bill Johnson to the new Apostolic Reformation is bad. Mike Bickel, International House of Prayer. Todd Bentley. We have uh We have um Joyce Meyer.

She's bad. Kenneth Hagen is bad. Paul Crouch, he's just deceased. And then Stephen Furdick, he's not a very good preacher, teacher. He's more modalistic.

I'm not a very good preacher-teacher.

So yeah, there are there are lots of people like that. Just I I don't have a problem nailing them and and calling them out on it. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Okay, because I know I hear in our church people talk about. false teachers and people out there that that are just out there for money. And I'm like, okay, I I don't know who he is and who isn't. But I know a lot of times some of these people come along on YouTube, YouTube feeds, and You wonder, you know, are are they Preaching the truth or what.

So you kind of shy away from it. I like to know who really to shy away from.

So I thank you very much for that. Yeah, it's easy once you know the truth, once you know what the gospel is, and you understand biblical theology, but it can't be learned in one sitting. Uh people have to study the Word of God and When they understand and believe God's word, then they can recognize these false teachers very quickly and very easily. But most people just are not very educated, don't know.

So, I mean, it's just, you know, 'cause they don't have to study like I do. They can't, you know. And I'm the only one who knows these people are false teachers, okay? Uh there are lots, lots of people who do.

Alright.

Okay. Well, thank you very much. That was my question. Sure, man. No problem at all.

God bless.

So yeah, these are uh I would not uh in fact it wow Let me just say that I think what I'm going to do now is write an article on Carm, Bible teachers. What Bible teachers does Carm recommend we avoid? And um So there are lots. I'm going to do a little bit more exhaustive study. And just give a list of people in their categories like charismatic movement or the name it and claim it people, liberal, moral, and there's lots of them.

And then we have. Modalists and others. A lot of people just don't know who the truth is, what the truth is. And so we have a lot of people who are out there. who have gained a lot of popularity because they're they're wolves in sheep clothing.

They don't know what the truth is. They they uh They're they're false teachers. And Kenneth Copeland, uh, Craft Little Dollar. Jiplantis. These are the ones who teach health and wealth.

God wants you to be healthy. He wants you to be wealthy. Money is a lot of what this sermon is about, prosperity. In fact, I was listening to a local Christian radio station here in the Idaho area. Uh a few days ago.

And they had a guy on who I'm like, okay, what's he saying? and I'm just listening because I'd never heard of the guy before and he was talking about prosperity. and how God wants you to be prosperous. And well, um what kind of prosperity? Spiritual or monetarily speaking?

And he went on towards the monetarily speaking stuff. This tickles people's ears. If you go to a church where the preacher says, Look, God wants you to have lots of money and cars. Ooh, I didn't know that. And then they rip verses out of context.

Are you going to go back and listen? Because. It's tickling your ears, of course.

Now, me, I'd be preaching: God may want you to have money, He may want you to have health, He may not want you to have money, or He may not want you to have health. You've got to find out what His will in what situation you're in, and for the glory of God. you move towards him uh speaking the word of truth. And if God grants that you have success, then you praise God with him. And if he grants that you do not, then you praise God with him.

You know, it reminds me of my wife, who she passed away seven months ago to tomorrow. And she had a birth problem called LDS, Luis Dietz syndrome. For real, it's LDS, is the short. Louise Dietz, and it's a connective tissue disorder, and she was in a great deal of pain and suffering.

Now, Did she sin that this was the case? No, she's born with it. and uh it it took her life. And so She's in heaven right now, and that's where the prosperity is. That's where the exaltation of her in her good works.

She never denied Christ through the suffering. She energy it was a lot of suffering, folks. Lots. Lots of pain. Lots of pain.

Lots of pain. And uh she never denied Christ. She has entered into eternity. Oh. not with cars and money here on earth.

but with a great glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, as she praised His name. And I remember one time. were in uh where you know, where she was sleeping, in her room. and 'cause she waited to sleep separately 'cause she needed a medical bed and any rate. And so uh We were talking, you know, and she was just weeping in the discomfort, the pain, and the fatigue of all of it, all these years.

And uh we got talking about, you know How her faith is in God, and she just praised Him. She says, Lord, I praise you. I don't understand. I thank you for my salvation. And um but Lord, please heal me.

And this is what she did. And so What is the greater thing to have? Nice cars? What part of money?

Well, the people like Copeland and Dollar and Duplantis and Benny Hinn and Osteen, Meyer. They they tickle ears. They tickle ears. And I'm not saying God wants us all poor, I'm not saying that. He certainly grants people money, and that's fine.

And if you've got it, praise God. No problem at all. But you can't go around as a preacher saying God wants all of you to be wealthy and healthy. It's all about what you get. No, it's not.

And so, this is the kind of thing that I'm always concerned about. And when you know that God has ordained for us, for example, in Philippians 1:29, for to you it has been granted not only to believe, but also to suffer for his sake.

So he grants that we believe, and he grants that we suffer. For the the name of Christ.

Well, what do the health and wealth people say about this? No, God does not ever want you to be happy. I remember a friend of mine. Back in San Diego, and I still remember this, and I mentioned this over the radio many times. I went to a verse.

Oh man, where was that verse? Not gonna see if I find it. It's been a long time since I've quoted it. Exodus 4. Oh, man.

Let's see. Makes let's see I Blind because of the verse: who has made the eye blind and the tongue dumb? Is it not I the Lord? And I gotta find that verse. It's been a long time since I quoted it.

Bible verse: God makes the eye blind. tongue dumb. All right. And you'll find it for me in a quick sec. It is XS411, of course.

So. I remember this very clearly. He was going to a church like that, the popular confession, God wants you successful, etc. And this is what this verse literally says.

Now, the context. is uh Is God wants Moses to speak to Pharaoh. And he's like, I'm not a good speaker. Yeah. Why should I do that?

And I'll tell you what happened. They don't get to the story about the elders and pastors at the conference I spoke.

Well, we got a lot of stuff backed up here. Hey, be right back after these messages. Please give me a call, 877-207-2276. I'll be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking a call at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Welcome back to the show. I was working during the break on a list of people categorizing them and on an article. And I write, which Bible teachers does Carm recommend we avoid? And I've got quite a few actually developing.

And so, because of that, I forgot one of the topics I was going to talk about after the break.

Now, the other one that I do remember is the conference I spoke at. uh about thirty years ago. With about 40 pastors and elders and deacons of one or two or three churches, I think it was. They got together. And after the first day, We had gotten to know each other pretty well.

You know, just a bunch of men. And it was great, a great conference. And I was asking them questions and they were asking me questions and I was teaching varying topics and it was going really well. And then it turned into a different kind of a serious discussion. About spirituality, their spiritual maturity, various things like this.

And it was good. And I'm not saying I'm Mr. Spiritual. But I started asking them questions, and I discovered something very interesting. I'm never going to forget this.

And um Long story short, it came down to this, is that I asked him questions. I said, I said so um How many of you spend uh time praying with your family? You know, shouldn't just lose your hands. And, you know, the hands went up. I said, okay, how about just let me ask, you know, say, you know, average of say three minutes a day you know, a day, average.

You know, and no hands went up. Oh, my goodness. How many of you? Read the word of God on a regular basis. And about half the hands went up.

Okay, interesting. How many of you uh do devotions with your family? And you know You know, it's how how many d have done devotions like in the past month. and basically one or two hands went up. And I said, okay.

Interesting. And this is, you know, it was interesting because I was surprised by the lack of spirituality from these Christian leaders. And So, I asked him some more questions. We got into some more discussions. It was really interesting because I had to give them a a mild rebuke.

Now, I'm not, please understand. I'm not saying, oh, look at Matt. You know, he's got it all down, he knows everything. No, no, no, no. I certainly have my faults.

But here in this context of what we were talking about, it became very obvious that these men wanted to learn how to defend the faith, but they weren't even doing this in their own homes. and they weren't establishing their their or trying to. establish the regular studies with her their family. And they weren't doing this kind of a thing. And I I rebu rebuked them politely but firmly as a man would speak to another man.

And I I asked them, I said, Why would you think that uh God's gonna bless you in studying the the Word of God if you can't even lead your own family? And this is the kind of conversation we had. And I thought at one point That they were going to rise up, so to speak, and tell me to keep quiet. But I didn't care if they did or didn't because I was just telling them the truth. And to my utter surprise, they thanked me.

They actually thanked me. And they said, you know, you're right, we needed to hear this. And I was impressed. They were good men, and they took the criticism well, and they desired to recommit to. To following the Lord and leading their families and having devotions.

One of the things I also asked him: I said, You don't have to have all these verses memorized, but I said, How many have you got 100 verses or more memorized? And you know, none. No hands went up.

Okay, how about fifty? And they went down twenty-five. And I said, How about ten? And, you know, about a quarter of the hands went up. And I said, you guys probably know a lot more than you realize.

I mean, it's not a common question to get asked. How many do you have memorized? People don't keep a count. But I suspect you probably know a lot more than you realize. But the fact is that so few I told him, so few of you raise your hands.

Even comes to the issue of ten verses in the Bible. And I said, let me see. How many have been Christians more than 20 years? And most of the hands went up. And I said, this is pathetic.

I said it with a smile. And I said, look, you've got to do better. Yeah. But anyway, this was interesting because that showed me something. And then another little side note is When I was in college, I had so I my major was uh social science.

And I got my bachelor's in social science, and I had a theory that the more doctrine you knew, the better evangelist you would become. And so I had to develop tests and I had to develop a s questionnaire and do an analysis and all this stuff. And I got an A in the course. And my thesis was wrong. In that, the evidence did not support my idea.

And the professor said, that's perfect. That's not a problem, because that's exactly what we do. We find out things like our evidence does not support our idea, or it does, or modify things and move on. He says it's exactly how research works. All right, well, it was a very enlightening class.

I'm glad I had it. But here's one of the things I learned: because I'd gone to Calvary Chapel, where Chuck Smith was the pastor. And you know, I went there for years. and I only lived when I was on campus only lived, you know, three miles from it uh as a crow flies. And so I got permission to pass out a questionnaire.

This is where the research came in. I found out that I was wrong. But anyway, I asked a lot of questions about their doctrinal knowledge, and one of the things that I learned was that 80% of the Bible-study people, about 200, 80% of them, were functioning Roman Catholics in their doctrine of salvation. My jaw just dropped. I couldn't believe it.

And I went back to the Bible study leader at Calvary Chapel. I. at Big Calvary and um I say, hey, look what they have, the information. I made a deal that I'd give him the information, what I found. And he said, sure, no problem.

And he was very gracious, very generous. And I said, look, 80% of people here are functioning Roman Catholics. They believe you've got to do good works and be sincere, and that's what gets you saved and keeps you saved. and his eyebrows just shot up. And he couldn't believe it.

He goes, Oh, my goodness. I said, I know. It's bad. He goes, Yes, it is bad. He thanked me for that information.

The point is. And he would make he rectified it. But the point is We assume too much that the people of God know the word of God and know the doctrines. And I think that pastors and elders are making a mistake. To some degree, by assuming that the people in the congregation actually understand stuff.

The reason I know all these verses and I know all this stuff is because I do it all the time. I mean, when I walked around the block yesterday, two miles, which takes me about 40 minutes. and do twenty minutes a mile, three miles an hour. And I I uh I walk and I have my headset on and I'm in chat rooms. Discussing theology, people asking me questions.

I will go into my VR virtual reality headset and I'll go into rooms, people ask me questions. I'm doing this all the time. I'm writing articles, having to do research. This is why I have it all memorized. Not all, but you know, I have so much memorized.

But if you don't do that kind of a thing, you're not going to memorize it. You're not going to know it. And it's not anybody's fault, it's just the reality of what it is. If you do it enough, you memorize it. If you don't, you know, you don't.

Yeah. And so I think uh I think That maybe one of the problems that we might have in the Christian church is that the Christians just go on Saturday, or excuse me, on Sunday, and they hear a sermon, and that's it. They're not really doing anything during the week. They're not exposing themselves to counter-arguments, to bad theologies, to whatever it is. They're not learning.

Now, I'm not saying everybody has to do that, but I can't help but wonder if this is just kind of how it is. Christians just go to be babysat. Get a good sermon on Sunday, go out and get something to eat, and then they go live in the real world. And that's it. Uh so, you know, like like I'm going to ask you guys, the my audience, you know, uh how many verses do you have memorized?

If you were to be honest about yourself, how many verses do you have memorized? Maybe you can call me up and say, Yeah, I think I got five or ten or fifteen or twenty. And generally speaking, what I've discovered is people know about twice as many as they think they do. Because there's lots of verses. You know, John 3:16, God's love the world.

And so some people have the verses and the addresses memorized.

Some know what the verses say, but don't know where it's located. And that's okay.

So, it just depends on how you want to do memorization, not exact every word, every reference, but you know what is being said. And most people know a lot more than they realize.

So, if you think you know 10 verses, you probably know 20. That kind of a thing.

So, what do you think? Do you know the Word of God? Do you have verses memorized? Are you committing to memorizing any portion of Scripture? Are you asking God to use you?

Are you asking God to equip you? By the pastor and the elders and their churches, by your Bible study reading, are you asking God to use you for the expansion of his kingdom and the glory of his name? I hope you are.

Now, it's not to say everybody has to do that at the same level because moms and dads and stuff like that working jobs, moms staying home, and that's what your ministry is. No problem. But I'm just saying, we as Christians are to do everything for the glory of God. Because we're created for his glory. And so, whatever we're doing, that's what we're supposed to be doing: raising children, being a mechanic, or whatever it is.

And we are to. Give our life's work, wherever we are at that time, to God and say, God, would you please bless it and use me? It doesn't mean you have to witness every day like basically I do, but it means that maybe once a month, that's what God has for you. And that's what He has for you. You don't measure yourself by somebody else, particularly anybody on the radio or a pastor or an elder.

You measure yourself by what God wants you to do.

So you can ask. Ask him. What can he do with you? What can God do with you? I'm going to tell you.

Oh, he can do my marvelous things. He can certainly use broken vessels and create beautiful tapestries, paintings, and works of art with you. Being the instrument. Just trust him and go. Memorize scripture, ask to be used, and get ready for a ride.

We'll be right back after these messages, three open lines: 877-277. 207-2276. Be right back. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Alright and welcome back to the show. Uh Let's get to Jermaine. Jermaine, welcome, brother. You're on the air. Well, hey, Madden, it's been a while.

I'm uh still out of country, but Finally, found the time zone I can call. Good, brother. What what do you got, man? What do you got? Yeah, Psalm 139, where it mentions, you know, when I make my bed in hell, you're there.

and talks about, you know, Dow and the Earth. Please Does that necessarily mean that hell is located within the earth? I know some people hold to that.

Okay. Yeah, I don't know i if it is or isn't. Uh i it would wouldn't surprise me if hell is in the center of the earth. It wouldn't surprise me if uh it's a similar dimension or something. I I don't know.

But when it talks about the depths of the earth, it's in reference a lot of times to the things where they see the dead would go into the earth. And so it became a metaphor for going down into the earth. And then it arose in Jewish culture: the idea of Abraham's bosom and Hades being below us. And so we see this in Luke 16, 19 through 31, with Lazarus and the rich man.

So it seems to be a general idea that hell and the fires and things like that were below us, hence in the earth.

Now how literal we to take that, I don't know. But the Bible does talk about those, about Jesus descending into the abyss and into hell. And so it doesn't mean he atoned there like some of the false teachers say.

So, there we go. I mean, it's a big question, you know? Yeah, just just uh I know it doesn't really mean anything either way, but just a fascinating topic to me. I also wonder if If I if it's more of a dimensional type thing, versus like literally within the earth or if if if it's just vigorous beach but you know, either way, really it's just a topic I always wondered about. Yeah.

Yeah, me too. I've thought about it. In fact, It's so pervasive in a lot of Christian thought. When I wrote my first novel called The Influence, is a character, an individual, who's taken downward by a demonic force when he dies. and he goes down, down, down, and he's thrown into the fire.

And so It's just a usage of that imagery that seems to be in Scripture. Generally speaking, these things can be taken literally. But not always. It just depends on the context.

So, since we don't know for sure Um I'll just say it could be down th in the middle of the earth, or maybe not. Or maybe it's just a dimensional thing we don't know about, a spiritual realm we can't have access to, and the metaphor of going down. is uh is because it's the opposite of going up to heaven.

So It's a tough one, and I don't have a great answer for you. I just kind of ramble both sides and say, I don't know, you know. All right, brother. I think uh honestly, I think you did a good job with it. I just it gets weird when people make whole sermons and and uh waste time arguing over things like this, but it is a fascinating topic, so you just have to continue to explore it.

Yes, and one of the thoughts that I think is interesting also is that this place. apparently will be cast out into outer darkness.

So The judgment and the lake of fire cast into outer darkness away from everything. and dimensionality. Maybe it's a place in the universe so far gone that it'll be I don't know. Unreachable, so to speak, which reminds me in science, the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Accelerated rate is just trivia.

And I don't know what the number has been, like a few million years that theoretically, at the rate it's going, that it won't be possible to see any other galaxies because the rate of expansion exceeds the speed of light, or something like this. And as the universe stretches, that it's just going to be impossible to even uh see them. if according to physics. What if hell was cast out there? It was just gone.

I don't it exists, but it's just gone out there. I don't know. They're just thinking.

Okay. All right. Well, yeah, I appreciate you, man. It's good to uh be back on the airwaves and I'm willing I'll get back tomorrow if I can get my time zone right.

Sounds good, brother. All right, man. God bless.

God bless you now.

Okay. Yeah, what I was talking about there was called the cosmological horizon problem. And it's an interesting thing because I love science. Um The universe has been expanding and it creates an observable boundary, a cosmic, called a cosmological horizon, that we can only see so far, and past it we just can't see. And I just want to You know, I think about it sometimes.

There's different models that talk about. This. And one of them that stuck in my mind when I was studying it was that The rate of expansion of the universe is so great, it's increasing. They don't know why. that um Uh Like I said, you only be able to see galaxies.

In a while, because the light just will never get there. Because I don't get it, the rate of expansion exceeds. This at any rate, I'd like to know about it, but uh, what do I know? Let's get to Alberto from Georgia. Alberto, welcome, you're on the air.

Yeah, good evening, Max Lake. My question is: why do a lot of Christians think that when a person commits a sin and he dies an unrepentant sin? that he'll be lost. To me, that's not true because repentance just just restores your fellowship. Repentance doesn't prevent you from losing your salvage or doesn't restore your salvage.

Do you agree with that? Yes, that's well put. A lot of people think that you have to repent of every sin in order to be saved, which means by compliance of the law, that's what keeps you right with God. And repentance is something we ought to do. We're never to just abide in sin and not be sorrowful, not be repentant of it.

But repentance is not what saves us or keeps us right with God, because repentance is turning away from sin. And we're not saying it's okay to sin, but it's not our righteousness that keeps us right with God. It's the blood of Christ that does that. Repentance is simply a manifestation of the regenerative work of God in us, the conviction and work of the Holy Spirit upon us, so that we seek his face and turn from our sin. But the seeking of his face and turning from our sin doesn't keep us right with God, doesn't maintain our position with God.

False religions like Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, do teach that such repentance is necessary in order to be saved and to keep yourself right with God. It's just a quick uh ploy from the devil to make it sound reasonable, that your goodness Is hidden in your repentance, which is needed for salvation. It's a good well, you can't beat sinning all the time and still be saved.

Now, can you? And the answer is yes, yes, you can, actually, because we all sin every day and we're still saved. But repentance is not the thing that keeps us right with God. It's the the blood of Christ. The word of Christ is our mediator.

That's correct.

So even that of Pentecostal Armenianism. uh denominations that peach of albinism. He's that too.

Some do, some do, and and they're they're teaching false doctrine. If anybody teaches that it's your repentance that keeps you right with God, they need the gospel. They probably well, they may not be saved.

Now, the reason I say they may not be saved is because people can be saved in different levels of ignorance.

So, if someone says to me, for example, they don't believe in the Trinity, I don't say they're not a Christian. I say, well, what do you think the Trinity is? Let's talk about it. And I found people who have denied the Trinity, but they didn't know what it was. And then when I explain it, they go, oh, well, yeah, I believe that.

And so we have to find out what their position really is.

Sometimes people think mistakenly, they've been to a church where it says, you've got to repent. You can't just abide in sin. And they've not thought this through because a lot of the preachers and teachers don't teach them how to think these things through.

So I don't know. Yeah. Yes, you're actually correct. A lot of preachers just say a lot of things in the pulpit and people are not going to believe what they say and they don't question their preachers.

So they don't they don't take the time to research it, a topic at home.

So whatever their preacher says, they just eat it up. But the preacher said, he's the man of God. That's what they assume everything he's saying is correct, and that's not true. That's right. That's why I it'd be good if I was a pastor because no one could trust a guy named Slick.

They had to verify everything with scripture. See? That'd be good. That's right. That's right.

You know. Yeah, I I learned this from my Reverend Slick. Yeah. People go, What? It would just be a natural stop.

You know, you got to make sure he's not leading you with a name like that. You can't trust him. That would be good. You know, that'd be good. Everybody, check it with the word.

Yeah, you're a slippery slick guy. That's right. I am. I'm slick. People, they tease me about my last name, and I'll say I'm the slickest guy I know, or I'm slicker than you, you know, whatever.

And we have fun with it. Uh but yeah, yeah.

Okay, no problem, brother. God bless, man. God bless.

All right, you too. God bless.

Keep your great work, sir. Hey, thanks. By God's grace.

So yeah, you know um We are obligated as Christians to study. And I know that the people 100 years ago, man, they knew their Bible. They took their Bible seriously. Christians knew a lot of stuff. They knew a lot of stuff.

I think the level of Christianity academically knowledgeable issues and areas has really decreased. I think it's because we teach a a comfort gospel. A comfort gospel. I'm not saying we've got to be uncomfortable. I'm just saying when all you get is pablum, well, then you're going to become weak, you know?

Whah, wah, if something doesn't go your way. And you think God's punishing you because maybe you lost your job and lost your house, and you never know. You just never know. We have to think. on on longer terms.

Longer terms. Eternity is the thing we need to be concerned about. What is God bringing you through right now? And why is he bringing it through? You throw it.

Just think it's for your edification, and for God's glory. If you can think in those terms and you cannot figure out what it is that he's doing, that's okay.

Sometimes the will of God is not to know the will of God. Let me say it again.

Sometimes the will of God is that you not know what his will is.

Sometimes we've got to walk by faith, Habakkuk 2:3. I mean, 2-4. The just shall walk by faith. We trust God, we go forward. If you're in a difficult situation, ask God to open your heart to why that is the case, what you need to learn through it.

And ask him. And trust them beyond your ability to understand. It's not easy sometimes. Trust me, I know. Been through a lot of stuff.

I got stories. I got stories. I got stories that have cost, you know, my decisions to trust God have cost me dearly. And I mean a lot, not just a little. A lot.

and a lot of problems for years because of it. Trust in Christ. But that's it, that builds us up, and we enter into heaven having glorified our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's more important than what we possess and how we are here. But it is important.

what we do here. It's very important. That's why we have to temper it. With submitting to the will of God in all things and then seek to glorify Him and don't be afraid to make mistakes as you try and glorify Him and you mess up. Praise God.

Welcome to the club. All right. Seek the Lord Jesus. Move forward and try and bring glory to Him wherever and however you can. And sometimes it'll happen a lot, and sometimes just a little bit.

And sometimes not at all for a little while. But that's okay. God has His plan and He uses us according to His glory. All right, there you go. We're out of time, 15 seconds.

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Have a great one, everyone. God bless.

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