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.

Alright and welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. Hey, listen to Matt Slick Live. If you want to give me a call, all you've got to do is dial 877-2072276. And today's date is November 18th, 2026.

You can also, if you are interested, you can email me a comment or a question. Just send it to info at carm.org. Info at carm.org. And uh And I can put the subject line: radio comment or radio question. I'm actually.

Going through them right now, looking at the info location. to see if Oh interesting. Yeah, a lot of interesting stuff here. To anyway, to see if there's more questions and stuff, because there's some in there already.

So. I think I'll just get to those. We have nobody waiting right now. And uh Now let's see. There's so many things here to talk about.

All right. If you don't mind me kind of looking and thinking as I'm doing this, trying to figure things out. Hey, uh,. I want to say thank you to everybody who has supported us here at Carm. Um it's made a big difference.

And um I just want to say thank you. The only reason we're able to stay on the air is if you continue to support us. That's just how it is, and it's how it always been. with this ministry. You know, we work hard.

We have people here. In fact, I'll just talk about it a little bit. We have people who have been helping us for a long time. Charlie Spine, for example.

Okay. He's on right now with me. He's not on the air, but he's in the chat room. Not the chat room, but we have a program where we can get into the video and we make notes to each other as it's being sent out. He's in there.

Charlie's the guy, he does social media. He does posts to X and Facebook and other places. And he's been doing this for a long time, but what he also does is during my show. He will place links to articles that I'm talking about or something related to it.

So he's been doing it. He's the guy who read me the quote from Joseph Smith boasting he did more than Jesus to keep a church together. He's the one who started me on the quest of learning apologetics. Then we have Laura, and Laura, she's interesting. How do I say what Laura does?

She. Uh okay. She She's listening. I know she's listening. She helps out, I'll write an article.

And I'll put it up there. And then what she'll do is she'll go through and she'll check the article for grammar and things like that, punctuation. Because you can't edit your own stuff. And And then she'll assign, after it's done, she'll assign an audio thing to it so that people can listen to the audio version of it. And that's good.

And she also works with the schools and does other things. And so those are some really excellent helps. I also have a guy named Pete. He does the behind the scenes work of programming. Working on the site that keeps it running.

We have little issues, we just let him know. And he's very helpful. He's very helpful. Joanne, what she does is she runs the prayer ministry. Uh she's great.

Uh She really helps out a great deal. And she also, in fact, she does a good job because she finds little issues. That Uh, I miss, and others don't miss.

So it's another uh set of eyes to look on things. And she brought us something today about a uh. A capital in a certain place. Does that belong here? We have another writer named Moshe, and he writes articles.

And we did have Dara running the forums. You shut the forums down. We may or may not get them going again sometimes. We'll see. And uh My Oh wow.

Gonna fix that. I'm looking at the staff page, and my wife's name is still there. And so I have to take that off, and I'll do that right now. because she has since gone to be the Lord. And uh Let's see.

And we had uh We had Luke Wayne helping up. We have a missionary in Let's see, in Nigeria. I'm trying to think of how to repeat some of the things that he said, because in Nigeria he was attacked. physically by a pastor about three weeks ago. attacked for preaching that God elects and predestines people.

which is right out of the scriptures, reading scripture and get attacked. He had to go to the hospital. And um But he went back. And made sure that the head of the village protected him. And so Because the guy who attacked him is a heretic.

He's a positive confession guy, prosperity, gospel, stupidity. And does not like the idea that God is the sovereign king.

So he was able to preach and teach, and a lot of people came to see what the scriptures are actually teaching in this area, and that was very good. Very useful, very helpful. And we have a guy named Joster. He's in Malawi. He's going to Zimbabwe.

And where else is he going? He's going to go to Zimbabwe in Kenya. And you Distributes karma material there, as does Moses in Nigeria. We have a guy in Bogota, Colombia. who runs a Spanish version of Carm, and we have David Burrito, Brito, not Burrito, but David Brito, and he does the Portuguese version of Carm in Brazil.

And just to let you know, that I'm gonna start and I'm starting to schedule something called Carm Talks. And it is where I'll be interviewing somebody once a week. Uh it'll be video. Um and I'm going to be interviewing people on the topics they want to talk about, whatever they're interested in. And I like doing that.

I like saying what others are interested in, whatever topics it might be. I'm going to be scheduling this out for a while. And one of the things I want to do is interview each of the guys I've just mentioned. Interview Moses from Nigeria and Joster and Carlos and David Brito.

So maybe even Charlie Spine, who knows? If I lower my standards to that level to get Charlie on, he's smiling. He sees me insulting him. And he's smiling.

So when you've known somebody for that long, 46 years, I think we've known each other. 46, 47 years, and so we can insult each other.

So, there you go. There you go. Let's get to Jermaine from California. Jermaine, welcome. You're on the air.

See? Hey, Matt. Speaking of predestination, I know there's different views on it, but I think what's a unique question. For me, the doctrine is is solid. I I don't think anyone really can dispute predestination.

However, understanding it, maybe that's a different thing, but I had a friend who told me that one time he was demon possessed. as a youth and I believe he's a believer And he goes to my church, says solid. Bible preaching church, but The question I had is, because I don't believe that A Christian can be demon possessed. Right. But If you're predestinated And God called you from Before you were able to recollect being called would you being possessed at a time in your life Is it possible you can have that happen and not be a Christian?

At the time you were called. Biblically, it is something that God does before the foundation of the world.

So He chose us in Him. The choosing is the calling of God. And so this happens Ephesians 1:4 and 5 before the foundation of the world. That's the election or the calling that He gives to us. And then some people will say there's an effectual call in the present sense, in that the Spirit will work upon you and draw you out of the world and to redemption.

And uh that's one One view.

So a person, a predestined elected person can be demon-possessed. In that, God has chosen to save that person, but the person is not yet saved. And so they can go through deliverance and various things and become Christian.

So those are. There you go. No, and yeah, I know the question was kind of convoluted, but you pretty much. encapsulated exactly what I was trying to say. Yeah.

These people are They're predestinated, but that doesn't mean they're believers at the time they were they were pulled drawn towards Christ. Right. So this is the mystery that's revealed in Scripture. It says he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

So he chose us in him. In him is Christ. He chose us in Christ. It doesn't mean that God looked into the future to see who's going to pick him. That is humanistic false doctrine.

God bases his choices or based upon your goodness and what he's foreseen faith. This is humanism. It's humanist philosophy. It's not biblical theology at all. And people who believe it need to repent and they need to abandon that false doctrine.

So God chooses people. That's just what the Bible says. And he predestines them. That's what the Bible says. And so those of you who foreknew, he also predestined.

Romans 8.29.

Some think foreknow means to know the future. It's not what it means. It's progonosco in the Greek, to know you ahead of time in a saving way. And I can make the case from that, from Scripture, very easily. And uh So, you know, 1 Corinthians 2:7, but we see God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory.

Ephesians 1:5, He predestined us to adoption. Ephesians 1:11, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will.

So, predestination is a biblical doctrine. When I say the word predestination, I'm just kind of rambling a little bit. But when I say the word predestination to people, I expect a very negative response. And I can only think that this is a demonic manifestation. Not that the people who are negative are demonic, but that a demonic doctrine has permeated the Christian church to the extent that they deny God's election and deny God's predestination.

Because both are clearly taught in scripture. And so the ones who would deny that it doesn't mean they're not Christian. It just means they're in incredible ignorance. And I consider such an abject denial a false teaching. And in some, it's a demonic manifestation because the demonic realm does not want to adhere to God's sovereignty, God's greatness, God's majesty, God's glory.

And so they will reject God's election and predestination. He's a control of all things, which people don't like because they want their independence from God. And they want to say that they're the ones in their wisdom or the ones who made the choice to believe in God up to them. And God knew that they would make that choice, so God predestined them. This kind of egocentric humanist.

Grandiose, look at me, how good my choices are, kind of an attitude, which is part, in my opinion, part of the apostasy in the Christian church in Protestantism. This is the same theology is already taught in Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, the man-centered heresies that are there. Having said all that, just kind of rambling about it, but I find people very negatively react to predestination. Even though it's taught Acts 4:28, Romans 8.29, 1 Corinthians 2.7, Ephesians 1.5, Ephesians 1.11. It's taught in the scriptures, and I could go through and teach a lot on it, but I just rambled.

Don't even know if I answered your question.

So there you go. No, you answered the question. I just think you thoroughly answered it. If anything, I think this leads into I don't think there's a proper I think predestination is clear, but the understanding is unclear because it's been so convoluted and Men have interjected their own thoughts into what a biblical form of predestination is. But I think you did a great job.

We'll have to explore this topic another time, of course. But yeah, good job, man. Appreciate it. Amen. God bless, buddy.

Always appreciate your input, your questions, and love to meet you sometime in person. It'd be great. Yeah, I am praying on that. And I'm predestinated to a cheeseburger, so I will talk to you later. All right, brother.

God bless. We'll talk to you later. Hey, folks, there's the music. We'll 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.

All right, everybody, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, all you got to do is dial 8772-0722. And you can also send me an email to info at carm.org info at carm.org. I want to hear from you. Give me a call.

Let's. Oh, we got a little bit. I'm going to make a comment. We got a call coming in, but not quite ready yet. I'll make a comment.

One of the things that's interesting is: now I'm a little bit different. You know, I've said that before, and a lot of amen's out there, that's for sure. And I enjoy going into chat rooms and listening.

Sometimes I go in anonymously, listen to what people are saying. And certain areas of theology are more prevalent in certain rooms. And so one of the things I've discovered Which I think is very interesting, is the hatred for God's doctrine of predestination. And the w where I see it most is this hatred. is um In the mockery of predestination by the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholics.

And I'm serious. It's really, to me, it's very interesting. And we'll be talking about something. For example, let me give you an example. I was given the gospel to someone.

And you know, about death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. I was in this room called Calvinism, and So, an Eastern Orthodox guy gets in and he says, He's right in the middle, I'm preaching the gospel. Appealing to this guy to trust in Christ, and this Eastern Orthodox guy gets in. Why bother if he's predestined? Stopped the preaching of the gospel and then would mock the idea of predestination.

And this has happened a great deal. I've noticed most of the mockers are Eastern Orthodox, and then the Catholics are after that. They mock the idea of God choosing people for salvation, which says in 2 Thessalonians 2:13, He chose us from the beginning for salvation. That's what it says, and I quote it to them. And they don't want to deal with the scriptures, they want to mock.

It's really interesting to me. It really is. I think it's just a fascinating actualization of the hatred of the sovereignty of God. And that's what I find a lot, and I think it's shameful, and it's horrible. All right, let's get to Elijah from Pennsylvania.

Elijah, welcome. You're on the air. Hey Matt, uh just just wanted to uh call and talk to you about uh work-based salvation. But uh before before I get to that, I wanted to tell you something funny.

So, I think it was a couple weeks ago I had called you and talked to you about Revelation 22:14 and how textual variant between the King James and all other modern translations, where the King James says that those who keep the commandments will have the right to the tree of life, while all other translations say those who wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb.

Now, After I had got off the phone with you that day talking to you about that, I went over to Sean's Griffin live stream And The funny thing is, is that as soon as I clicked on his video, he had Revelation 22, 14 in the King James on his screen defending it. Really? I started I I yeah, I just bust out laughing. I was like, wow, I I just finished talking to Matt Snick about this same person. Hey, it was predestined.

God works all things. That's interesting. That's good stuff. Yeah, interesting stuff.

Okay. Yeah. And also, he's having a live stream that starts at 6.30.

So if you, you know, after your show today, if you want to join his live stream and have a discussion with him about that, I think that'll be pretty interesting. Because recently in one of his live streams, he said that he wished that people like you and other apologists would join his live stream to have a friendly discussion about these things. But nobody ever joins his live stream.

Well, I don't know about it, so that's why. Why don't you do this? After you're done, email me at info at carm.org v information.

Now, I've got to be at the airport tonight at 7:30 my time, so I don't know if it'll work out. But uh, I had to pick someone else. I'll pick someone up. But send me the information: info at carn.org, send it to me, and maybe I can get on there and see. What you talking about today or whatever?

I'm looking at it right now. The title of his live stream is called. Christians equal commandments, and on the thumbnail it says, Christians should learn and practice God's commandments.

Well, that's true. It should. As long as it's not for the purpose of keeping one's salvation, otherwise, that'd be heresy. But we should keep the commandments as much as we can.

So, yeah, okay. Good. Yep. Yeah, uh So what do you got, buddy? Um Yeah, um The idea of Uh well you had brought up predestination.

Uh yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right.

So, you know, you talk about the Catholic and Orthodox a lot. You know, you know, one thing.

Well, one thing I find interesting is that Catholics like to say that they're the true church. But um, would you know, you know, you know, I would I would love to ask the Catholics one day, would would would the true church Prevent people from reading the Bible and would they persecute other so-called believers if they don't believe what they're teaching? Like, would they persecute them, chop their head off, and do all this crazy stuff? True Christians wouldn't, but that's what the Catholic Church did. But yeah, that's true.

Yeah. Yeah, you know, you know, it doesn't sound like a true church to me. It sounds like a demonic church. Yes. Just like Islam, Islam is even worse.

But the Catholic Church during the Inquisition did tremendously horrific things. And I recommend that people get Fox's Book of Martyrs. There's a whole section in there about some of the atrocities committed in the name of Christ by representatives of the Roman Catholic Church. Not just one or two, you know, not one or two weirdos. We're talking lots of them were commissioned, and they went out and did some murderous, torturous things to the people who left the Catholic system and became Protestants.

Yeah, so much so I can't even talk about on the radio some of the horrendous things that were done. That's how bad it is. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

Have you ever heard of the argument of the Abel Zachariah argument that Jesus was possibly referring to an actual set uh canon back in his day Yes, it's one of the arguments that I'm familiar with that the canon of the Old Testament was arranged. We had twenty-two books. They had like combined kings and chronicles and things like that, and their arrangement was not Genesis to Malachi like we have, but Genesis to Chronicles. And the argument goes that he was talking about the first and last book in the arrangement of the canon at that time. And so he was that's what yeah, I'm quite familiar with it, yep.

Yeah, and and uh what what what I learned yesterday after googling this, um Is that is that um the the the confusion comes up with with uh Jesus uh saying s son of, I think, Zerekiah, but in I think in Chronicles it says son of Jehoiada.

So that's where like the confusion comes in and that's where like Catholics have a problem with it. But one of the things that I read is that scholars some scholars think that um they're think that like maybe the the original manuscript probably said son of Jehoiada for Matthew twenty three. And they think that maybe there could have been a possible copyist error early on because there's a a extra biblical gospel. I think it's called the uh Gospel of the Nazarene or Gos Gospel of Kaledi that that is very similar to to the Gospels but uh it's just not inspired. And in that early gospel, it said uh that uh So Zechariah, son of Jehoiadah, instead of Berechiah, like the gospel he has today.

So so yeah, there's that. And um Also, Steve Christie, who is a very popular defender of the Protestant canon, said that the last Prophet to chronologically die was John the Baptist, but before the birth of Jesus, the last chronological prophet to die was Uriah the prophet. And he's mentioned of dying in the book of Jeremiah.

So, if Jesus was really talking about the last prophets to die, as Catholics say, then Jesus would have said Uriah instead of Zechariah.

So, him saying Zechariah instead of Uriah, I think leans more towards him trying to talk about a canon instead of Zeus. We got a break. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Oh, Rodwood, welcome back to the show. We had a little bit of an issue there, but that's okay. It happens. Let's get back onto the Liji. You still there, brother?

Yeah, but I'm still here. All right. So you were saying something, we had a break, so uh if you want to continue. I don't remember where we were. I think I was saying that uh Yes, so I said that some scholars think it was an early copyist error for Matthew twenty-three.

Also that that uh Early apocryphal gospel called the Gospel of the Nazarene, I think, says Zachariah, son of Jehoiedim, instead of son of Berechiah. And that the last chronological prophet to die before the birth of Jesus was Uriah the prophet. And that if Catholics, I mean, if Jesus was referring to the last chronological, yeah, last chronological prophet. He would have said Uriah instead of Zechariah.

So I think him saying Zachariah is more evidence that he was talking about the first and last book of the Hebrew canon at that time.

Now, I did research on this before, and so there's two issues with the Zechariah and the other name, Barakiah, and some think it might be a copyist error confusion, or that it was just two references of the same individual, because they sometimes had different names. And so that's one of the things there. But it was the arrangement of the canon at the Old Testament, the first and the last book. And the word for things. This is called a merism, M-E-R-I-S-M.

It means an expression, a figure of speech that represents a totality of something, usually by naming two contrasting parts or opposite extremes. High and low, for example, means everywhere, young and old means everyone, day and night means all time. Richer for poor. And so a merism. That's what Jesus was using there.

Mirrorism.

Okay. Oh, okay. Yeah. I think it's interesting stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. There's going to be a debate coming up, I think, next month between, I Catholic guy named, I mean, not a Catholic, a Reformed guy named Turgentan. Versus a Catholic guy named David Saraz. And he's a defender of the Catholic utero canon.

So they're gonna debate is Matthew 23, I think 35 about the About the Hebrew canon, so so that should be an interesting debate. There's never been a debate on that topic before. Let's see. Yes, that's Matthew 23, 35. The one I have memorized is Luke 11:51, so that upon you may fall the guilt of the righteous blood shed on earth from the blood of righteous Abel, the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah.

whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

So, uh, yeah, it seems to be related to that. Let me see if I have, uh, let's see if I have, maybe it's under that one that I wrote this. JKL Matthew 2335. Trying to see if I have. I don't have it.

Man, that's slime ball stuff. I thought I wrote an article on it and put it in my Bible difficulty section, but I guess I don't. Didn't do it.

So that's something I need to work on. Among other things, I only have. How many do I have now? How many questions? I think I've wanted.

Down to Hold on, I'm scrolling. I'm down to 11. thirty-five questions.

So could I have a two still? Mmm, all right. Anyway, brother, that that's good stuff, man. It's good stuff. And uh you have to check out that debate.

Turton fan's a good guy. All right. Yes. Yeah, I just sent you the link to Sean's Griffin li live stream if you have have time to join and talk to him about the Trinity and salvation and stuff.

Okay. I debated him, but I don't remember what he's about. Is he oneness or what? I just can't remember. No, he's a he's more he he's similar to like the Hebrew roots movement, and he's a he's also a Unit Unitarian and he also believes That you have to follow the Torah and all that stuff.

To be saved. Yeah, he had to make him a non-Christian heretic. Yep. Uh-huh. And uh if he if it's Unitarian.

So, yeah, there's some serious problems there. Maybe I can call in sometime and have a discussion if he's polite enough. But yeah, okay.

Sounds good. Yep, and people. He uh he uh believes in more in uh more apocryphal books than the uh Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and they had the largest canon, but he believes in even more books than it they do. You know, um It's an interesting thing to argue about what books belong in the Bible or not. It's one of the things that EO and the RC want to do.

They want to be able to say, you need to be able to tell us how the Bible's arrived at in order for you to even use it, which is fallacious thinking. I don't have to know how a medicine is produced in order to know how to use it.

So they're fallacious thinking. But lately what I've been doing, instead of arguing about Deuteronomical books and extra books, I just said last time I talked about this with a guy, I said, well, let's just say those books that you have that we don't. Would you then agree that in the canon of Scripture, nothing within it would be self-contradictory?

So instead of saying that is or isn't, I just said, would it be self-credited? And he said, well, of course not. I said, good.

So then what we can do is go to the scriptures and just work from them. And not have to worry about the other stuff. And the guy didn't know what to do with that because I wasn't going to argue his position or against it. I just said, well, let's just work with what we've got then. And went straight into some issues.

And it was very effective.

So, because they want to argue their church has the authority. And we can get into some stuff like that. But, yeah, okay.

So Yeah. All right, Matt. It was nice talking to you. I'll talk to you probably sometime next week. Yeah, man, God bless.

Appreciate it. Okay. Okay, well, God bless. And let's see, we don't have anybody waiting right now.

Now, a thought came into my mind here. I'm going to get to it in a little bit. But if you want to give me a call, you can. We have wide open lines: 877-207-2276. I cannot believe it.

It's almost twenty tail already. Man. Man, time flies. All right, here's one of the things that I want you to think about this. This is Bible time.

This is study time. I answer questions. I try and teach theology. I try and teach apologetics, the defense of the Christian faith. And if you're listening, hopefully you're interested in a little bit of that.

Not a whole bunch, but you know, some stuff. One of the things I've been doing with the EO, Eastern Orthodox, and Roman Catholics, the RC, EONRC, is. I've been discussing this issue of the canon. They love to bring up the issue that the Bible was given. By their true church, blah, blah, blah.

And that's how we know what books belong in the Bible, because their church gave it to us. Yawn. Anyway, so uh They then try and say that I don't have the authority to use God's word because I don't have the authority to recognize what it is. And all this is fallacious thinking. And so I set him up and I asked him questions.

I say, well, is it your church that determined what the Bible was? And this is a an easy question because I can see the bobber in the pond. and I just threw the bait in with the bobber.

So is it your church? that is the he has the authority to give us the cannon, you know and they say yes, you know, boom, there goes the bobber. Let's find a sinker. Here it goes. And they say yes.

And I said, okay, well, where did it get the authority to do this? And It's an interesting question. I get different answers.

So They'll say, well It's it's we know it through history.

Some type said that and I said What do you mean?

So your authority comes from history?

So, whatever history it is, so how do you justify that? Whatever history is, gives your church the authority to recognize the canon to tell us what it is. And they can't answer the question because it doesn't make any sense to say history.

Some will say, tradition. And I say, okay, so tradition is what gives you the authority. To recognize a canon, they say yes, some say yes. I see, and Where's the authority to say that tradition is the authority? What about authority is where do you get this idea of authority?

Now, they don't want to answer past that because if they go to the scriptures and say the scripture talks about authority. or tradition I should say. I'd say, Oh, so you appeal to the scriptures then? And so they recognize this problem that they're in and they try and wrestle out of it. And I say so tradition.

So do you have an infallible list of traditions?

Well, no.

So how do you know what tradition is true? What's your standard you compare a tradition by? Is it the tradition that is tradition?

So it's circular. Is it your church says it's true? But we haven't even asked what makes your church true and what's the authority granted to your church and where do you get the the where do you get the notion that they have authority. Because they always, and the answer to all these questions means they have to go back to Scripture.

Now, some will say, well, God gave it to us. And I'll say, can you show me where God gave it to you? to your church. You know, did you have a telephone line to God?

Well, how does it work? And it's interesting because I give them the scripture and they don't want to admit that they use the scriptures for their final authority in order to say what the authority is by the scripture, which is circular and self-refuting. We'll be right back after these messages, please. Stay tuned. It's Matt Slick Live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick.

All Robert, welcome back to the show. Last segment of the hour. Just want to let you know that we do stay on the air by your support. Please consider supporting us. All you have to do is go to carm.org, and at the top of the page, you'll see the word donate.

It's easy to set up, and we do need that support. We have been struggling lately, and you know, we're just letting people know. And if you don't want to support, that's okay. We'd ask you to pray for us. But we do ask $10 a month.

And if you can do that, that would be super helpful because we can then make budgets and decide what we can and can't do. And, you know, things like that. And if you can do more, great. If you can do less, great. Doesn't matter.

We are trusting God and letting you know as well. Let's get to Anthony from North Carolina. Anthony, welcome. You're on the air. I'm at Ali.

It's going, man. Hanging in there, buddy. What do you got? Good. Good, good question.

I wanted to get your thoughts on how do we hold the doctrine of providence. Together with Philippians two thirteen. Um you're kind of thinking, you know, you're kind of looking at life through like what is kind of a cheesy example. But like, is this God's providence? Is that God's providence?

Like without falling into speculations, but then not also becoming hyper focused on our efforts I hope that makes sense. Yeah, well, let's just determine our definitions first. Providence is the doctrine of the teaching in Christianity that God is involved in maintaining, governing, working through all of creation and providing what we need.

So that's a generic kind of of a definition.

So that providentially, you know, he grants to the unbelievers good jobs and good families. He grants to the believers those things as well. And So in Providence, He preserves the order of creation. He preserves the regularity of nature. He and we cooperate a lot of times with the providential work of God.

He has primary and secondary Means by which he accomplishes his providence. He can do a direct intervention or he can do a passive permission. This works freely with human free will and other things. He works in governments, he works in culture, he works in environments and things like that.

Okay, so those are just some of the information I just needed to kind of get through.

So the idea of providence.

Now, you mentioned Philippians 2:13. which says that uh God is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

So I'm not sure. I understand. What is the question quite yet as it relates to Clique 213 in Providence? Could you restate it? Yes, so uh when it says, for it is God who works in you, is that working?

Providentially. Or is that working something regulated to just believers. If that makes sense.

Well, it says for it is God So, then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who's at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So, to work out your salvation does not mean you work to obtain salvation. Work out what you already have, manifest the saving work that God has already accomplished in you, and do this with fear and trembling. In other words, with great reverence to God, He is the one that you answer to. And it doesn't mean a laissez-faire attitude with God, but with fear and trembling, it deals with the awe and respect that is due to God. Then it says, For He is at work in you.

Now, the context of the work is in regards to your Christian life.

So, He's talking specifically to the believers here: it's God who's at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

So, we are the subjects of God's sovereignty, of His will in us and through us. and that's what the point of Philippians 2, 12 and 13 is, okay? Got it.

So it's not really, yeah, so it's not really having anything to do with Providence in that way. It could, because He's works, God has worked in you both to will and to work.

Well, in you, you know, He's bringing us through things. He works in us with patience and grace and increase of faith, conviction of our sin. But these things are usually done in a context.

So in marriage, for example, when my wife was still here, Mm-hmm. You know what m my wife Um God bless her. It tested my patience sometimes. And I had to do cross-examination, excuse me not cross-examination, but self-examination of my motives, my failures, successes in relationship with her. And so, you know, to work it out.

It's part of what it means.

Well, in the context here of my marriage. And we have context at work, we have context at jobs, you know, and friendships and different situations. And so, The working in you is always contextually in the environment that you're in, so they. go together. naturally and necessarily.

but he's mainly talking here about God convicting you, uh teaching you, humbling you internally. But all of that occurs in real time and places in the providential provision of God. Mm-hmm. Yep, yep, that answers it. Yeah, that context piece is what I was looking for and that definitely helped.

Okay, good.

Well, good, brother. Yeah, thank you. Good stuff. Right. Well, God bless.

Okay. So we have nobody waiting right now. If you want to give me a call, the number is 877-2072276. All right, so I was talking before the break, before the call, about authority. And one of the things I'll do, and this is something to think about: what's your authority?

Now, your ultimate authority should be God, that whatever God says, He is what we call the terminus. There's nothing beyond God, there's nothing equal to God. He is the ultimate, nothing beyond him, nothing equal to him.

So, God is the ultimate authority.

Now, I'll talk to people about this, and I'll say, where is it that God has Communicated his authority to us because we don't have a phone, we can call him up and say, Hey, God, we've got a question for you. And he answers, it doesn't work like that. And I say, where is it that he's given us what his will is and the provision? And where is it? And of course, it's in the Old and New Testament.

Now some will say, well, it's in the the person of Jesus, which is true. And I say, and where do you get this information about Jesus? In the written word. A lot of times when I'm questioning people, they know that I'm trying to point to God's Word. And this is so fascinating to me.

I'm pointing to God's word, and they want to avoid God's word. I'll say, is it not true? That the word of God is equal to the authority of God because it's inspired of God. And they don't want to answer the question. And the reason is so many times because they want their church.

to be the authority. And that's the functional truth in the EO and RC. in that their churches are the authority. Their churches tell you what the Scriptures mean. Where does their church get the authority?

They're going to say from God, where do you document? That it has that authority from God. Just saying it. doesn't mean that you have it. You need something outside of yourself.

To recognize or to establish authority. If the church says on its own authority it's establishing what truth is, well then it's not an authority based in God, now is it?

So I'll ask them, where is it that where do you document and establish that your church has authority? And again, they do not want to admit that it's scripture. Personally. I think this is evidence of the lack of regeneration of an individual. I think it's evidence that they're brainwashed in thinking that their church is the true church.

And that their church is what you have to submit to for salvation. I think this is cult mind behavior. I think it's bad. And so what I'll do is I'll work with them and I'll try and get them to understand that it's the Scripture. And it takes me 10 to 20 minutes usually.

questioning, working with them, plugging holes in their arguments, or poking holes in their arguments. I should say, and try and get them to the place of trusting God's Word, or at least admitting God's Word. And when I finally do this to them, they're resentful. Because now They've got a problem because now what they'll do is they'll say, okay, it's in the scriptures, but our church tells you what the scripture means. Where did your church get the authority to interpret scripture?

And I keep Bringing them back to the scripture. How do you know? What the scripture is.

Now, one of the arguments they'll say is: well, Matt, how do you know your interpretation of scripture is correct? And I'll say Well here's the problem with your question. If you are asking, how do I know my interpretation is correct? Then are you then saying that there's not any way to know? If I have the right Interpretation or not.

Because if you don't know if I have the right interpretation or not, don't have a method, you couldn't say it was right or wrong.

So to ask how I know means that there has to be a means by which you can know. What is the method that you would know I'm right or wrong? if you say it's your church. How do you know your church is correct? If You are appealing to scripture to say your church is true.

How do you know your interpretation of scripture is true about your church? And so the problem falls back on them. Most people don't think like this, don't think very critically, and most people just assume that their church is the true church. And I say that with a mocking tone, and the reason I do it is because I've heard this so many times. Morning missionaries, our church is the true church.

Jehovah's Witnesses, our church is the true church. Christian Science, our church is the true church, Roman Catholics. Our church is the true church. We're Eastern Orthodox. Our church is the true church.

I get this so many times. Our church is the true church. And I'll say, oh, another true church. But what do you do with the true church as it contradicts you? Are they true as well?

And how do you know which authority to go with? Because it's your true church. And so. Really what it comes down to is that most people don't recognize that they themselves are trying to be an authority by which they say their church is the authority. Because, in order to assume or to ascertain that their church has the authority, they have to interpret scripture.

so that their church then has the authority to interpret Scripture. And I, you know, scratch my head. I say, Do you hear what you're saying? Where did you get the authority to do this? And they don't like the logic that I use against them.

And so sometimes if you listen clearly, you can hear gaskets blowing in their brains. Because the pressures got to them, and then they insult me, or they change the topic, or say I don't have any authority, etc. And I go to John 11:35, where Jesus wept, and I say, You know, I'm going to interpret this. Jesus wept because Lazarus died and he went to the grave and he wept. I'm going to say, what I think it means is.

Jesus wept. He cried. Am I right or am I wrong? And they don't want to answer that question because obviously I'm right. But if I'm right, how can I interpret the Scripture apart from their authority?

You see The False Religions want to you to submit to a church organization. And its authority rather than Jesus. The Spirit bears witness of Christ. It points you to Jesus, Jesus points you to Him. The Father bears witness of Him.

Go to Christ. Any group or any individual that says you have to follow a tradition or a church or a prophet to be in the truth. Is a cult, a false teaching group because the Holy Spirit, who bears witness of truth. Points you to Jesus. And that's what you can use to test all people.

Are they pointing you to Christ and Him alone? Are they pointing you to a church in which Christ serves them? There's the music. May the Lord bless you by His grace. We'll be back on the air on Monday.

Hope you have a great evening, everyone. Great weekend. May the Lord bless you. God bless. Talk to you later.

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