Matt Slick Live

A previously recorded Matt Slick show. We had a good weekend and, by God's grace, got to be in a debate. In fact, if you watched it, if you listened to it, watched it, you want to make comments, please feel free to call in and we can discuss it. I debated a Church of Christ guy on, is water baptism by immersion necessary for salvation?

It was on Saturday and it was two and a half. He's a polite guy, but he said to me, what I would have said to him, you're a false teacher and leading people to hell. And he is. And, you know, no animosity meant, it's just that's how we're talking.

But at any rate, if you do teach that you have to be water baptized by immersion to go to heaven, then I would say you're a false convert and you believe in a false gospel. So this is what the debate was about. And I think it went well. I definitely don't think he won. I definitely don't believe that.

He may say the same thing about me, but there were two places that he really fumbled with. And one of them was Romans 4-5, where it says the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies ungodly. His faith is credited to righteousness. And I got him to admit that baptism was a work.

And the one who does not work doesn't do any work. So, you know, what's he going to do? He was stuck on that one. And he came up with something I didn't think was very good exegetically. But really what got him was obvious was Colossians 2-14. And this verse, folks, this verse, Colossians 2-14, is a killer verse. It says in verse 13, having forgiven us all of our transgressions. And verse 14, having canceled the certificate of debt, consisting of decrees which was hostile to us, he took it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

And I asked him, I said, what does the text say? Because when Jesus canceled the certificate of debt, the sin debt, and he agreed it was a sin debt. And he said, at the cross. And I said, okay, so you teach that when you get baptized in water, that's when your sin debt's canceled, right?

He said yes. How can it be canceled on the cross and also be canceled in baptism? Because if it's canceled at the cross, it doesn't exist. A debt that's canceled is gone.

How can it be canceled at baptism? And that one pretty much sank his boat. He wasn't able to deal with that very well. So if anybody wants to call in and comment on both sides, you know, that's fine. There was a couple of guys who said I got decimated, destroyed, couldn't handle anything, et cetera, et cetera.

And you're always going to get that. Nevertheless, I want to hear from you if you want to give me a call. 877-207-22764.

Open lines once you give me a call. All right, let's get to Stan from New Jersey. Stan, you're on the air. Hi, my name is Stan Gewerk and I had a question. Basically, what would be your best argument for how we know for sure that the 66 books in our Bible are the ones that God intended us to have and that no books were deleted, pulled out for the wrong reasons?

A book of Enoch being one of them. What's your best argument? The reason is because that's what we have right now. Okay. Okay. That's what we have, right? Now, let me ask you.

Does God know how to guard his word? I agree. I'm asking for other people. The reason we know it's the one we're supposed to have is because it's the one we do have. It's what God ordained we have. Real simple.

The Roman Catholic Church added seven books in 1846. Okay? Okay, thank you. All right, man. God bless. Okay. All right. Hey, we have four open lines if you want to give me a call, folks.

877-207-2276. Take a deep breath. Let's see. Let's see.

Four open lines. I want to hear from you. A lot of times what happens is at the end of the show we get flooded. So try to spread about. Call in. Call early, okay?

And if you want to talk about Saturday's debate, please give me a call on that as well. Let's get to Kyla from Los Angeles. Kyla, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt.

It's me again. And my question today, Matt, is that people who are, I want to say Christians, that are under a modelism type of church, like Pentecostal, Oneness churches, Jesus only, who kind of deny the Trinity, they just believe in Jesus, Jesus only. Someone just told me that they told me to stop calling them my brothers and sisters in Christ because they're not my brothers and sisters in Christ because they deny the Trinity.

I mean, I know that they're under a false doctrine, but I still thought they were Christians, though. So am I wrong? Well, it's not an easy one to answer. And so let's just talk about possibilities, okay? Let's say there's an individual who doesn't know anything and goes into a Pentecostal church or preaching Jesus in him crucified and receives Christ as Savior.

And he's really regenerated. Is it possible? Yeah, it's possible. And could he still be attending a Oneness church not knowing what the truth is? He just hasn't been exposed to it and be saved.

The answer is, well, yeah. Now, I believe eventually he will come out because the truth of God will find its way to present the truth. So in that sense, is it possible?

Yeah, it's possible. But what do we do with those who would say the Trinity's not true, yet they believe Jesus Christ is God in flesh? Well, they can believe that, and I believe that there are people in that level who can be saved, but just, so to speak, just barely. Because the doctrine of the Trinity is not a requirement for salvation. But believing the deity of Christ is, now they do affirm that. And they affirm his resurrection.

All right. Well, let's move a little bit further down the line. What do you do with someone who openly denies a Trinity knowing what it is? Now, that's a different story because people have different levels of responsibility. I believe that people can be saved in ignorance, varying levels of ignorance, and that God will gradually work with them and bring them to a place of truth. I believe that's certainly possible. That's why I think it's technically that they could be Christians inside the Oneness Pentecostal church. But for someone who would know what the Trinity is and continually to resist it, that to me would be an evidence that they're not a Christian, that they're not regenerate.

Furthermore, there are some dots on this line we've got to connect. Because after my debate, for example, the Oneness Pentecostal guy came into our after show room and we talked for a while. And he wasn't very knowledgeable in his own theology, wasn't able to answer difficult questions. But I was going to ask him, who was Jesus praying to? And he said God was praying to God.

And he wouldn't answer any questions further than that, which he didn't know what he was doing. But at any rate, the thing is, in Oneness Pentecostal theology, what they teach is that Jesus said, Not my will, but your will be done at two separate wills. If they're two separate wills, then does that imply two persons?

Now, logically it does, which their logical necessity is to teach what is called a form of Nestorianism. In the body of Christ, basically, are two distinct natures with two persons. The natures is a person, so it's two persons in one body. So the person of the flesh, the human, was praying to the person of the Spirit of God. And that person of the Spirit of God was in heaven, because that's who Jesus was praying to. Now, if a United Pentecostal, Jesus only wanted this person and were to affirm that, then they're denying the true incarnation. And so, at that point, we would say, well, they cannot be Christians, because they are teaching a damnable heresy. So, when someone comes up and says, Are Oneness people saved? There are probably Christians in the Oneness group, but official Oneness theology, if you believe it, you can't be a true Christian. Does that make sense?

Yeah, that was definitely, yeah, it makes sense. Okay, so, last but not least, so you said they can just be ignorant, because the doctrine of the Trinity, you don't need to know that to have your salvation. You just place your faith in Jesus Christ and you can be saved. Yeah, nothing in the Bible says that you have to believe the Trinity. The doctrines of the essentials of the Christian faith are believing in the resurrection, the deity of Christ, one God, salvation by grace through faith, and what the Gospel is.

These are the things, and I can give you the references in a whole bit, and I've written on it on my website. What does the Bible say are essential? And I call those primary essentials, because there are actual statements. For example, Jesus says in John 8, 24, Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. And he says in John 8, just a few verses later, Before Abraham was, I am. He's claiming to be God. So unless you believe that, you can't be a true Christian.

All right? But nothing like that ever is a state of the Trinity. Unless you believe in Father, Son, Holy Spirit, you cannot be saved. It is to say that. But what I call the Trinity is a secondary essential. It's an essential of the faith to properly define what Christianity is. But I call it a secondary in that it does not contain any place in the Scriptures a proclamation that you must believe in a Trinitarian concept.

Oh, okay. Just like the virgin birth, you can't defend the idea that Jesus is God in flesh if you don't have a virgin birth. Well, the virgin birth would be, to me, in my understanding, a secondary essential. It's an essential doctrine. But to the secondary, nothing in the Scripture says you must believe in the virgin birth unless thou believeth that the virgin birth is nothing like that. So I call it a secondary because it's logically derivative and logically necessary. So this is how I divide the essentials up into primary and secondary.

You can go to a website and look up something called the doctrine grid. And I go in there and I lay out a lot of Scriptures and references and explain it. Now, I'm the only one who I know who does that.

But I do it because of the necessity of answering questions like this. So I'm a little more precise. So anyway, back to the original question. Official one of the Pentecostal theology is not Christian and is down to behind heresy. Anyone who affirms official oneness Pentecostal theology with full knowledge cannot call a brother or sister in Christ.

So normally speaking, don't call a brother or sister in Christ. Oh, boy. All right. Thank you, Matt. All right. Sorry to be the bearer of not bad news but true news.

True news. All right, Matt. Have a good one. Okay. You too. Bye-bye.

All right. Goodbye. Hey, folks, we have five open lines, wide open. No one's waiting. Why don't you give me a call?

877-207-2276. Interested in hearing some of the comments that people might have on the debate. If you want to call up about that. Let's see.

I have a debate next month set up. And let's see. That'll be on the 24th. I'll be debating a guy named Sam Shimon on the doctrine of the extent of the nature of the atoning work. And then on Saturday, the 3rd, I may be having a discussion with a bunch of atheists. Actually, believe it or not, there's a venue called Discord.

And I go on there, and atheists ask me to come into their rooms, create rooms, and even discuss things with atheists. Now, how about that? So, hey, we have four open lines. Give me a call before the break.

877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Welcome back to the show, everyone. Let me just let you know that the COVID thing, the economy shut down, has hurt a lot of people. But it's also hurt us, and we've lost some donors because of it. That's okay.

That's what happens. So let me just ask for an appeal here or appeal to you. Would you be willing to consider signing up on a monthly donation for, say, $5 a month or maybe $10 a month? Because it would really help us. It helps us to make budgets and help pay the missionaries. So if that sounds doable, all you've got to do is go to karm.org forward slash donate.

And there's a thing you can set up, and it's just a recurring. $5 a month is fine. All we need is 1,000 people doing that, and we would be fine.

We wouldn't have to worry about things. Just letting you guys know, karm.org, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G, and it helps keep the radio show going as well, because it does cost money to get on the air here. All right. Having said that, why don't you give me a call? Four open lines, 877-207-2276. Donald from Raleigh, North Carolina, welcome. Hello, Matt. Hello. Can you hear me?

Yes, I hear you fine. Oh, okay. I didn't. Okay. Well, let's see.

Where can we get started? And I don't want to waste a whole lot of time. Well, we've got nobody waiting, so it's okay. Okay, okay.

That's cool. You know, I don't want to blow it at first, but I guess I'll go ahead. Some people say, you know, like Kenneth Copeland, okay, we know him. I want you to be prosperous. Make lots of money, man.

You're going to be rich, and everything you want is going to be yours. Okay. That's not true.

Okay, here we go. I'm totally blind. I've been that way 65 years. No problem. I've adjusted to it.

When you don't got nothing else to adjust to, you don't have a problem, right? Hmm. Okay.

Hmm, said Allen, as he has stopped. So you are blind, huh? I'm totally blind.

It's dark to me all the time, dude. Well, what happened? You said it was like five years ago.

What happened? I said I'm 65, and I said I've been blind all my life. Oh, oh, I get it. Sure. Yeah.

Okay, if somebody else is waiting, then I'll go away. No, there's just some problem. Here's my story.

God meant for me to be blind because, and I feel a little, you know, a little uneasy saying it, but I think he meant for me to be blind. Here we go. I was born in 1955. My mother carried me for six and a half months.

Okay. She was in the hospital for three weeks. When she delivered me, she almost bled to death. He had three units of blood within three weeks, okay, and I was so weak that I couldn't nurse. I'm not playing.

I'm serious. I was born on Monday, July the 18th, okay, and by Thursday, on Monday I weighed three pounds, three ounces. On Thursday, I weighed two pounds, six ounces. So they sent me, I was born in Clinton, on North Carolina, I don't care, and they took me to Wilmington. They put me in the incubator. It had nothing to do with me being blind.

It was because the octave nerves and the iris didn't finish developing. Okay. Am I talking too fast? No, no. That's fine.

You don't have a question then, but go ahead. No, not really, but I believe that God was content for me to be blind. These people that say, you know, God could have prevented it, and I don't know why I'm here, but I am, but they took me to Wilmington. They kept me in the incubator for six weeks and brought me home. It had nothing to do with me being blind. They told me to sleep on a pillow.

My parents let me sleep on a pillow until my time was out, nine months, and I was so weak that my mom had to stick a hole in the medicine dropper because I couldn't, I mean, in a bottle, I couldn't, I couldn't, I didn't have enough strength to drink. So God has meant for me to fear for some reason. Go ahead. Yeah, yeah, obviously. So you've never seen... Well, you should see light.

Okay, here we go. What color was it? It didn't have any color. What did it look like? There's no reference, right? It's light.

There's no, it's impossible to describe it. So why do you think God, why do you think God ordained that you'd be blind? Because he could have prevented me, not he could have, he could have, okay, I'm not, okay, it could have been something, my mom always blamed me on herself, first thought it was her fault. I said, Mom, it's not your fault. I don't, it isn't your fault at all.

It's just what happened. And I say, I think God ordained me to be blind because he could have prevented it. He could have, you know, if he don't want it to, in my opinion, and I read the Bible, and I don't argue with people about it, God can do what he wants to.

I feel that way. He can do what he wants to. He really can. I mean, you say, no, I can't.

Don't tell me he can't. God's above all of us. And Jesus Christ is our way to heaven. I understand all that. Well, the poly confession movement is damaging people's lives, making them feel bad and not true Christians because if you have blindness or sickness or deafness, or whatever it might be, you know, there's sin in your life. And, you know, they've harmed a lot of people.

They really have. Yeah, I can agree with that. But I don't know the scripture and it doesn't matter. But sometimes there's somewhere, I mean, where's the somewhere?

I mean, I could look it up. I've got a braille Bible, but it would take me forever to find it. And I got King James, but I'm not King James only. That's just what I happen to have because someone gave it to me.

Sometimes things happen to us, it's the sins of past generations. That's it. Right. Well, you know, my wife, she was born with something called Louise Dietz. And it wasn't even discovered until the 90s. I mean, as in a condition that anybody could even label, you know.

They didn't even know. And then she is one of the very few in the world that have it. Well, I know. And I've heard you talking on your program, which is cool. I think you're neat, but you're not at the top of the totem pole and you're not at the bottom either.

No. Yeah, that's true. That's true. And I'm just an average guy. I don't look at somebody and say, oh, man, this guy's great.

Man, he's a great one. You're just a human. You just have a lot of knowledge that some people don't have. I just study, that's all.

That's it. I know. I understand it, but it would drive me crazy studying forever and ever and ever. You have Asperger's or Asperger's, however you say that thing, and I don't really understand it. And you've got autism, which is the problem with socializing with other people. So I don't really understand your disease or what you want to call it.

I don't really understand it. But, hey, you don't really understand blindness either because you ain't blind. I put a blindfold on your hide and you'd walk off a deck and crash. Well, you know, actually when I was younger, my early teens, I did volunteer work at a blind organization. And one of the things we did was to go around and put a blindfold on with a cane trying to navigate around the block.

And I almost stepped out of it. Well, that's what they do. Yeah, right. That's cool, dude.

I think you had mentioned that before and I had forgotten. And if you get, like, what they do, like, you were the thing, sort of like Rehabilitation Center for the Blind is basically what it was, sort of, I guess. Yeah.

Yeah, because there's one in every, I don't know if it's every state, but Raleigh does have a Rehabilitation Center for the Blind. And that's what they do to the teachers and instructors. They put a blindfold on your hide, like you're talking on your hide. That's right. Look at this.

You're blind, but you see there's a lot of sighted people who are blind. Yes, sir. And I'm having cold chills all over. I'm about to freeze to death.

What is my favorite? I don't know if I'm able to tell you or not. I won't try to. What? Wait, just hold on.

I'm trying to get my, gather my, I think I'm about to cry. I'm trying to think about it. One of the most things in Scripture that I, Jesus said, blesses are those who have not seen me but yet have believed. That's right.

That's us. And your first thing you're going to see is Him. And that's going to be wonderful. There's a break, but you've got to go. All right, man. God bless. Okay. All right, bye. Thanks for calling. Hey folks, give me a call. WhiteOpenLines, 877-207-2276. Give me a call.

Five open lines. I want to hear from you. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

All right. Welcome back to the show, everyone. We're at the bottom of the hour.

If you want to give me a call, we have three open lines, 877-207-2276. Let's get to Chris from California. Chris, you're on the air. Hi, Matt. How are you? Doing all right, man. Hanging in there. What do you got, buddy?

So I had a question. I'm trying to disciple someone who has autism and has some cognitive developmental issues, and I wanted to know if you know any resources so that he can understand the gospel. As far as autistic ones, no, I don't. I've heard of a couple places. I think it's autism.org.

They have information and stuff like that, or the dot com, and you can check things out. Depending on the level of it, you may need specialists to help. Me, I'm a very high-functioning autistic person. I have Asperger's, and I've compensated by studying people and body language, so for the most part I do very well. But there are others who don't have that skill set to compensate, like my nephew. We don't know what he has, but you could easily label it all autism. He'll never be on his own, so there's a severe case. In fact, I enjoy bragging about him because his name is David, and I always challenge him to video games, and I always brag that I'm going to destroy him, and then he kills me in five seconds or less, and then I always give an excuse why he beat me. It's always an excuse, and he loves that.

He loves that from his uncle, but never do it again. The same thing happens. It goes on and on and on.

It's ridiculous, but at any rate. I just don't have any resources for you. I can tell you this, though, that if he rocks, it's a male probably, right? Yes, he's male. Does he rock back and forth?

No, he doesn't rock, no. Okay, does he touch things very much? He has a fidget spinner.

Okay, he has a fidget spinner. Can he communicate with you normally? Yeah, he's very able to communicate, but he really can't understand other people's point of view. He'll concentrate on something where you say something, he'll concentrate on that particular thing, or if he knows something like a past memory, he'll concentrate on that. It's very hard for him to focus. Then what you do, I would recommend, if it's not like he only does one thing at a time, just write out a series of points, law, gospel, cost, what the law is, and various things about God, and go very, very, very, very slowly. It'll benefit you a great deal in that you're going to have to learn how to articulate some complicated things in a very simplistic way, and it's always a good thing to be able to do.

That's what I would suggest. I think it's autism.org, and you can go there, and maybe they might have some resources. It just depends, because it's a wide variety of issues, autism is, and it's increasing.

It is increasing, yes it is. Hold on the screen, because my ComRex video just died, so I have to get it going. I can't turn you off, because it just wicked, so hold on, man.

I'm going to get the window going back up. While I'm doing that, how old is this guy? He's about to turn 21 in a couple weeks. He's interested in learning what the gospel is? He's grown up in a Christian home, and so his family set it up to where, I'm a new believer myself, only been about a year, and I really wanted to learn how to share the gospel, and this is a good way to learn to do that. I'm really concerned about him, and if he knows, yeah, scripture on how God and his providence would allow him to.

Well, God has his ways, so maybe he'll use you, all right? Okay, buddy? All right, thank you. Thank you so much, man. Okay, God bless Chris.

All right, that was Chris from California. We have four open lines if you want to give me a call, folks. 877-207-2276, Susan from Tennessee. Susan, welcome. You are on the air. Hello, man. How are you doing today? By God's grace, I'm doing really well.

What have you got? That's good. I'm still kind of new into the faith and everything. Last year, last October, actually, I really felt led to desire to seek God's wisdom and stop crying on my own, because that just leads into bad stuff.

Good. And I just want to ask about the Holy Spirit, because I watched your debate this past weekend on baptism, and I do agree with you that baptism, water baptism, isn't necessary, right? For salvation, right. Right, it's not necessary, but I remember the moment, like I remember the hour when I really believed in God, right? And after I realized that there was nothing I could do in and of myself to ever make it right with God, I remember how much it brought me down. And then after that, I remember Jesus, and it felt like the Holy Spirit was inside of me and made me feel so joyous and so loved. And I guess my question, and I'm not really good with theological terms, but wouldn't that be a baptism in the Holy Spirit, I guess is my question.

I would say yes. Would that mean, like in Acts 2, 38, when it says repent and be baptized, would that be online with that? Well, here's the thing. The context of that Acts 2 is the movement of the charismatic gifts, and a lot of people don't understand that the gift of the Holy Spirit is the charismatic movement. And we know that from Acts 10, 44 through 48, because it says they had received the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles because they were seeing them speak with tongues and glorifying God. And so the baptism there is speaking in tongues and glorifying God. Now, it doesn't say every individual is speaking in tongues or every individual is glorifying God, but it seems to be pretty normal when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. One of the things you will do is to glorify the Lord.

You will trust in the Lord Jesus. And you don't have to speak in tongues. I'm sorry?

I mean, I didn't speak in tongues, but I remember like October it was like so changing of last year because I wasn't into New Age stuff and tarot cards and all that kind of stuff, and God just broke that away. It's gone. See, there's different...

I threw it all out, so I mean it's destroyed. Good. Good for you.

You know, because I mean God is more important than anything to me right now, and I've read through Genesis, through Revelation, and I'm still kind of a baby Christian, so I don't know all the, you know, the big fancy terms, you know what I mean? Well, I tell you what. Are you... Have you been to my website, karm.org? Yeah, I have visited, especially like after your debate.

That's like the first full debate I've ever watched, like that. Okay. Well, on Karm, if you go there, you can look up the Christianity section, the doctrine section, and, you know, I'd like to recommend that you read through a lot of the articles in the Christian doctrine section. Now, I'm always reticent to say something like that because, hey, trust me, I'm right. Believe whatever I write, you know?

I don't want that. I want you to read the articles and check what I've written with the word of God. Just make sure that it's scriptural because that's what you're obligated to do. And if you disagree with something, call me up and we can talk.

But, you know, I put a lot of stuff there. I can't tell you how afraid I am of twisting the scripture anymore because I did it for so long when I was in the tarot cards. Yeah. Like, it scared me. Yeah, looking back on how easy it is to do that, to twist it to the way you want it to be.

Yes, it is. It's really made me very, very nervous about, you know, doing that kind of thing. Well, you will learn.

The Holy Spirit will guide you. And, you know, you've got to check what I say. My last name is Slick. You can't trust me. Check what I say against the word of God.

All right? Just read. Read through the word.

Check it and check it. Stay away from Mormons. Stay away from Jehovah's Witnesses. Stay away from Roman Catholics. Stay away from churches that have the word united in them. Stay away from women pastors and elders.

Just stay away from a lot of the TV preachers because there's a lot of charlatans out there. And just read that word. And I would suggest that you go and check out what I've read, what I've written. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here.

See, I'm the best, but I've been doing this a very long time. And there it is. But go check it out. OK? Got to go.

There's a break. OK. Thank you very much. Well, God bless, Susan. God bless. All right.

God bless. Hey, folks, we have three open lines. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. We will be right back.

Everybody, we have two open lines, 877-207-2276. Yeah. OK. So let's get to Kyle from Charleston, South Carolina. Kyle, welcome. I'm really messing up all of a sudden. What do you got, buddy? Thank you.

I appreciate that. I hate it when you're like waiting and you're holding on and then you think of another question that you want to ask because it's really not there in the next question. But my first one, it's not like anything over doctrine or anything argumentative, but I think it's in Matthew 27. Jesus is dying on the cross. And it describes what to me sounds like bodies raising from the dead. And I've always been puzzled over that.

Is it actually? First of all, who are they? They're the saints who had died.

The saints who had died in faith earlier, and then they died again later. Wow. OK. I guess I've always wondered, was it spirits or was it physical bodies?

And did they actually go back? OK. I shouldn't have said that. Yeah. The resurrection occurred. And it mentions it in 1 Corinthians 15 also. OK. All right.

The other one is, if I can answer another quick, short question. Yeah, we celebrate our Sabbath on our, I don't even want to call it that. We celebrate our worship service on Sunday morning. I guess traditionally, because that's when the believers gathered, I guess in the first century. And that's when Christ rose from the dead. Does it matter?

I have a very good friend of mine that says we need to celebrate the Sabbath from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. That's the way the, he's not the end. I don't know if that means anything.

If he wants to, that's fine. No big deal. Because the Bible, you need to read Romans chapter 14. The first 12 verses. And you'll see, one day regards one day above another. One man regards one day above another.

Another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind. OK? OK.

I'll read that tonight. Thank you. All right, man.

Romans 14. OK, buddy, God bless. Much appreciated.

Thanks, you too. OK, let's go to James from Illinois. James, you're on the air. Hello, Matt. Can you hear me OK? Yes, I can. Thanks for calling back.

What do you got? Matt, I've been very sick this year. And I am a Christian. But they told me I'll probably be gone by Christmas. I was wondering if you had any words of encouragement or advice for somebody who is dying.

Wow. OK, that's not a question I've been asked before. Well, all I can say is if I was in that position, my hope and my trust would be my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that He would be with me during that time, and that by His grace could He use me to witness to others even in that, and to give me that grace to do that. That's what I would be praying. That's what I have prayed over the years when my death comes. If it's not unexpected, you know, if I'm going to linger a while, that God would allow me to be used and to praise His name in the process.

That's what I would do. Yes, Matt, I am a believer, and I tried to be strong in front of my family, you know, and everything. And, Matt, I pretty much feel at peace.

Good. You know, when I was an assistant pastor at a church in Ontario, California, I'm never going to forget it. I went over to a house of a woman who was dying, and she was in her 90s, and she was bedridden. There was a pastoral visit, and I went and spent some time with her and talked. And I'll never forget what she said, and she said she just wanted to hurry up and go, hurry up and go be with her Lord. She was just looking forward to being with Him, and she was waiting.

I just never forgot that. She was smiling. She was joyous, and she just wanted to go be with Him. She said, all righty, just take me home, Lord.

Ready to go right now. And it took another couple weeks, and she did. Yeah. I was in the hospital off and on for almost six months since last Christmas, and I have all these medical appointments. I'm just all worn out. Now, man, if you didn't understand what I'm trying to say. Yeah, I do. I understand. I think you're going to be around longer, but praise Him through it because you're sending your treasures ahead of you when you do. Okay?

Okay, man. I hope to see you in Heaven. We will.

We'll meet in Heaven. All right? We will, James. Bye-bye. Okay. God bless. All right. Oh, wow. Pray for James.

Yeah, he needs prayer. Let's get to Jan from Virginia. Jan, welcome. You're on the air.

Hey, Matt. Have you had a good weekend? I had a good weekend. I hope you did. Yes, I did.

My question, is that really your question? Please explain. What is meant by Jesus being God in the flesh? I've never heard that before.

Okay. What it means is that in the person of Jesus are two distinct natures, the human nature and the divine nature. So a way to illustrate it could be to have a small wooden box, a small wooden box with a hinge and a lid on it. You can open and close it and you can put things in there. And let's say you put in there an apple and an orange. And an apple is not the same thing as an orange. They're different.

And you close the lid, you'd say within that box are two distinct fruit. And so we would say within the person of Jesus are two distinct natures, the divine nature and the human nature. And that's just what the scriptures teach. I give you the scriptures for that, but that's what the Bible teaches.

Okay. Well, what I have believed without, you know, I don't particularly go to church. And so I've, you know, learned from the scriptures. And that's basically what I believe.

I've just never called it that. Well, the Bible says in Colossians 2, 9, for in him Jesus dwells all the fullness of deity, that's got the quality of being God, all the fullness of deity, in bodily form, in bodily form. Right. But he's actually filled with the Holy Spirit, which is God. The Trinity is one God in three distinct simultaneous persons. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word which was with God and yet was God, John 1-1, became flesh and dwelt among us, John 1-14.

And so the Holy Spirit was upon Jesus at his baptism in Matthew 3. That's what that is. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much.

You're welcome very much. You have a wonderful evening. Oh, I plan to. I'm not going to be on hold all night. And you have to go, sorry, Jan from Virginia. Okay.

You remember those nights, right? Thank you so much. All right. Well, God bless. Okay.

All right. Let's get to Betty from Raleigh, North Carolina. Betty, welcome. You are on the air. Hello, Pastor. Thank you.

My question. I would like to know what does in the Bible mean, the second death, and when it will become, when it will be? Well, the term second death occurs in Revelation.

And there's debates among Christians on what it means. Some think that the second death is, the first death is when you're born, you're in a fallen nature. And the second death is the judgment and where you're cast out into eternal darkness. Others call the second death the annihilation. And I reject that.

But it appears to be that the second death is the eternal judgment of God upon people, the final destruction, the final movement of God. Okay? Okay. Because it says... After the Armageddon.

I'm sorry, go ahead. Armageddon. You said it was Armageddon? No.

With what? Armageddon. See?

Because of war. Oh, Armageddon. Well, Armageddon is a different thing. And it takes place here on earth. But the second death is the lake of fire.

Okay? So that's what it is. Because it says in Revelation 21, 8, But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstones, which is the second death. So the second death is that final judgment, where people are cast into the lake of fire.

And there's no hope of ever escaping. And that's what Jesus taught. That's what he taught. There are people who don't like it. Universalists and annihilationists.

Universalists say everyone will be saved, and annihilationists say that they will not be in conscious torment forever, and they're going to not exist. And I reject both of those. Okay.

Well, thank you very much, Pastor. Yes. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. God bless. Okay.

Well, folks, we have nobody waiting right now and a couple, three minutes left. So let me just tell you that we could use your support if you are so inclined. Five or ten dollars a month would be great.

All you've got to do is go to CARM.org, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G on the right-hand side. You'll see the donate option. And I'm not begging. I'm not saying, hey, you know, you'll be blessed if you do this. I wouldn't say that.

You might not be. This is between you and God. And if you feel led to do that, then we're just letting the people know that we do have that need. And it's been tough on everybody in the economy, but if you can spare five or even ten dollars a month, that would be greatly appreciated.

It does help us keep on the air. And we're trusting God that he will provide for what needs to be provided for. And, you know, I'm not the kind of guy who's going to say that, you know, get on some emotional plea and put your seed faith here.

I don't believe in that for a second. This is something that if you want to do because you value what the Lord does through me, then please consider that. And if you don't, then don't do it. If you don't have the funds, don't worry about it.

You know, if you just don't feel you're able to and you want to, don't worry about it. It's all okay. All right. And that reminds me, we have three online schools on CARM, one on theology, one on apologetics, and one on critical thinking. And we do charge for those. You're welcome to sign up and check those out. You can also go to the CARM homepage and you'll find them very easily visible there.

But I also like to say that if you want those schools and you cannot afford them but you want them, all you have to do is email us at info at CARM.org and just say you want them but you can't afford them, and we'll give them to you for free. All right. We're not here just to make money. We're here to preach the gospel. We're here to equip the Christians to reach the lost.

That's what I want to do. We have to pay the bills and we have to let the body of Christ know occasionally that that is the case as we continue to pray for the furthering of our gospel. And hopefully in the next few months you never know what's going to happen, the way things are going in our country with so many things that are, well, scary. At any rate, the gospel of God will go forth no matter what. God's in control. Praise God. Hey, there's the music.

Get out of here. May the Lord bless you and by his grace look back on there tomorrow, and we'll talk to you then. God bless everyone. Have a great evening. We'll see you. We'll see you next time.