A previously recorded Matt Slick show. It's Matt Slick live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry found online at karm.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. Turn that down. And if you want, you can give me a call. We have five large open lines.
877-207-2276. It's a nice Friday and I hope you're going to enjoy the show. Now, let's see, tomorrow I'm going to be in a debate on the nature and extent of the atonement, and I don't have the information on all the details yet because someone else is arranging it, so I will put it on the Facebook account, CARM Facebook, my Facebook account tomorrow, probably along with Twitter.
It's supposed to happen tomorrow at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. So if that sounds interesting, great, I'll be debating Sam Shimon, I've known Sam for a few years, and he is just a tremendous resource when it comes to Islam. The guy is just, he's phenomenal, but he doesn't affirm certain things and we're going to be debating them. So if that sounds interesting, pay attention to that, if not, no big deal, but that's for tomorrow, and there's something else going on, oh man, I've got to think through my calendar, you know, I've got some other stuff I've got to be speaking at, and let's see, yeah, I'll be doing something on, let's see, Monday night on the Ordo Salutis, the order of salvation, and Patreon video coming up, and oh, then I've got a Wednesday, I've got to be at a local shindig, and I've been doing Q&A to have people there, and so I'll be there about an hour, that's no big deal.
That's here in Nampa, Nampa, Idaho. I think that's it, look at my calendar, that's it, oh hey, look at that, the Halloween's coming up, oh, we'll be talking about Halloween and stuff like that too, and let's see, I think that's it, yeah, okay, hey, why don't you give me a call, we have three open lines, 877-207-2276, make that two open lines, let's get to Nelson from Bakersfield, California, welcome brother, you're on the air, hey man, God bless, God bless, yes, I guess, you know, I know how to call the other day, regarding the same scripture, 9 verse 6, yeah, 9, 6, I remember that, yeah, well, I have a good friend of mine, he's one apostolic Pentecostal, whatever, and he is, I'm trying to explain it to him, this verse, so I would like if you can explain it over the air, cause I can record this to him, so he can understand what this verse means, cause he thinks because it says eternal father, that it, exactly, that Jesus is, you know, the father, it doesn't say he is, yeah, it doesn't say he is the father, it says his name, it says his name will be called, what he's doing, all he's doing is just looking for an excuse to believe his theology, he's reading into the text what is not there, it's called eisegesis, reading into the text, where does it say Jesus is the father, it doesn't say that, a lot of times what they'll do is they'll say where does the bible say that there's a trinity, well you have to show it to them, you know what it's systematically arrived at, which is another issue that he needs to deal with, because they can't deal with it very well, but nevertheless, it says his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, so I'd ask him, do you call his name Wonderful Counselor, do you call his name Mighty God, do you call his name Eternal Father, do you call his name Prince of Peace, that's his name, that's what it says, his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, is it to be taken literally or figuratively, is it to be taken a little bit of both, what is going on, if he's going to take it literally that it means he's the father, then he needs to call his name, his Eternal Father, that would be his name, is that the name of God, Eternal Father, or is the name of God Yahweh, see he's, what they do with a lot of cults, it's a cult, I'm sorry I'm going to say that, but the one that's been accostal is a cult, the reason it's a cult, it's non-Christian and he's a false convert, and I don't mean it to be mean, but I'm just saying it like it is, the reason is because they don't consider the whole of scripture, they're on an agenda to deny the trinity and add works to salvation, they deny the trinity because they misunderstand the nature of God, they misunderstand the Old Testament, the New Testament, they misunderstand a lot of things, and this idea of oneness has been refuted throughout history, it's Sibelionism, was one of the forms of it, yes Sibelionism, and there's been forms of that throughout history, they've been refuted, and so by church councils, by Christian theologians throughout the centuries, this is no different, so if he's going to say that Isaiah 9-6 means that Jesus is the father, then why does it not say that, why does it say his name will be called his name, that's the issue, does he call Jesus Wonderful Counselor, does he call God the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, because all four of these things are said to be the one name, because it's in the singular, it's like saying his one name will be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, that's his name, why does he extract eternal father out of it and then just go with that, when that's not, it doesn't say names, it says name, so he's got a problem here, he's reading into the text that which does not exist, furthermore, if he's going to listen to this, go to, he needs to go to, here, I'm going to do this really quickly. One question with that, because I know him pretty well, and one of the questions that he asked me, and I answered it, but maybe you can elaborate on it, when he says, Jesus says to Thomas, whoever has seen me has seen the Father, and because of that, he thinks that Jesus is the Father.
What it's talking about there, if you go to Hebrews, it talks about what is happening in the nature of Christ, and it says he is the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of his nature, that's Hebrews 1-3, when Jesus says, have I been not so long with you, he who has seen me has seen the Father, because Jesus is the exact representation of the nature of the Father, that's why the prophecy about Jesus being called among the four appellations, the four things in his one name, is the eternal Father. But if he wants to say that Jesus is the eternal Father, then he has to do some homework, he's got to go, for example, he's got to go to Isaiah, excuse me, John 6-38, where Jesus says, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will from heaven who sent me. That's what he says, I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of one who sent me. That means he was sent in heaven.
This is not the flesh, because what the law often says is that Jesus is two parts, he's God and man, and when you go to Luke 22-42, where Jesus was praying to the Father, it says that was the flesh praying to the spirit, this is what I've heard most, mostly from the one that's been accosted when you press him on this, well that's a denial of a true incarnation and that's another topic. So I'll say, okay, look, in John 6-38, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. So who sent him? Who sent him from heaven? Does it say he sent himself? Can't be the flesh and the spirit, because the flesh didn't exist until his incarnation. I've come down from heaven, it's saying he's in heaven to do the will of the one who sent him.
Where? In heaven. So who sent Jesus, the pre-incarnate Christ, to become a man in heaven?
Who sent him? John 6-38 is a tough verse, they need to deal with that. They also need to go to Luke 42, and in there, Jesus is praying, Father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but your will be done. What he's saying there is, Jesus has a will, and the Father has a will. So if he's praying to the Father, is he praying to himself? Well that's what they'll have to say, he's praying to himself. So you pray to yourself, where's that in scripture?
It's not there. But he says, our Father who art in heaven. So he's saying the Father's in heaven in John 6 and Luke 11, Matthew 6 and Luke 11, so our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. So he's praying to the Father in heaven.
If you're willing, remove this cup from me, but not my will, but your will be done. So if we're going to ask him the questions, then who's he praying to? It has to be the Father. Is he the Father? He's praying to himself, but the Father's in heaven.
But he's right there. It makes no sense. But sometimes what they'll do, when pressed, is say that the flesh was praying to the Spirit in heaven. Well if that's the case, then he's not incarnate, is he? That denies the sufficiency of the atoning work. So what I do is I press him, I press him on this, and they just implode because they don't have good answers to the difficult questions. Furthermore, ask him this. Go to Romans 3.28, and he can look it up.
If he's listening to this later, you can look it up. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Romans 4.5 says, but to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is credited as righteousness.
What's credited as righteousness? It's his faith. His faith is.
Notice what it says. To the one who does not work but believes. His believing is what is credited as righteousness.
So ask him this question. In light of Romans 3.28 and Romans 4.5, when it clearly says that we're justified by faith and that he who believes, when he believes his faith is credited as righteousness, then ask the question, are we justified by faith when we have faith? Because the word faith and belief in the Greek are the same word, pistis.
We just use a different form. Belief and faith. That's the same word. So pistis, those who has, he who believes, okay, pistis in the Greek, cognate of it. In him who justifies ungodly, his pistis is credited as righteousness. So the question is, are you justified by faith when you have faith? If he says no, he denies Romans 3.28, Romans 5.1, Romans 4.5. If he says yes, then he's going to have a problem with the idea that according to them in their heretical false teaching, they teach that you have to be baptized to be saved in the name of Jesus. And you have to be baptized because that's where you're regenerated. They go to Acts 2.38, Acts 22.16, 1 Peter 3.21, Galatians 3.27.
They go to these various verses, which I can deal with. But the thing is, if we're justified when we have faith, then we're not justified when we get baptized because it's by faith. So if he denies Romans 4.5, then he's adding a word to salvation. And he's denying what it says in Romans 4.5, which is a further example of being a false convert. Okay.
Have him call me. And one last thing regarding the same question, would this fall in the same category when Paul says, I believe that you've been deceived as he was deceived by Satan? Oh, yeah. Believing in a different Jesus?
Absolutely. Well, yes, he is. He has a different spirit? He's believing in a different gospel. His gospel is a gospel of faith and works.
See, work is anything you do. Now, I'm going to show you something here. Let me go to Galatians 5.
This is really important. Galatians 5, 2. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he's under obligation to keep the whole law. You've been severed from Christ. You are seeking to be justified by the law.
Now, wait a minute. What he's saying there is you do one thing, circumcision, that means you're being justified by the law. Circumcision was a representation of the law. They might say, well, that's not what baptism is.
Well, really? Let's go to Colossians 2, 11 and 12. And in him, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you also raised up with him.
Paul relates circumcision and baptism together. He relates them together. Now, let me show you something else. There's a lot here.
Oh, there's so much. I can go, too. I'll do this thing after the break to Romans 4, 11, and then we'll kind of wrap it up.
I mean, I can go a lot more, but that's going okay. Hold on, buddy. Hey, folks. We'll be right back after these messages. We have one open line, 877-207-2276, be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.
Here's Matt Slick. Hey, welcome back to the show, everybody. Nelson, are you still there? Yes. All right, I was going to go to Romans 4, 11 before the break, which says this, and talking about Abraham. He received the sign of circumcision, the sign of circumcision. Now, remember, what Paul has done in Colossians 2 is relate circumcision with baptism. Baptism is the circumcision of the flesh.
Baptism is the spiritual circumcision of the heart, I should say. When he talks about circumcision, he says, and Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had while uncircumcised. So what circumcision is, is a seal of the righteousness of the faith. In other words, it was a seal of that which already was there, the righteousness of faith. Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of faith, which he had while not circumcised.
So we go to Colossians 2, 11, in him you are circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you are also raised. It's a seal of the faith you already have. That's what circumcision, that's what baptism is. It's a sign and a seal of what is already there. That's why we get baptized after we believe, normally speaking, unless you're a covenantalist.
It includes infants, and that's a whole other topic, but this is what we're talking about here. Now, when we go back to Galatians 5, what he's saying there, if you receive circumcision, you're under obligation to keep the whole law. If you receive the sign and the seal of your faith, why do they want to do that circumcision? They want to do that as an act of obtaining righteousness by keeping a ceremony, which is, in this case, a circumcision. Baptism is a ceremony, so what they're risking by saying we have to be baptized, quote unquote, in Jesus' name in order to be saved, they are risking the very thing that Paul is talking about here in Galatians 5. See, we're either justified by faith when we have faith, or we're not justified by faith when we have faith. They would deny justification by faith. It's a non-Christian cult when it's been accostal, okay? And then, one last thing with this, because I might have misrepresented you.
Real fast, because we've got people waiting. Yeah, referring to Isaiah 9-6, are those titles or no? It says, what does it say? It says, those are his one name. His name would be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. It says name in the singular, not names. Why would it say his name? In Hebrew, the names mean something, like Methuselah, when he dies, it will come, okay? So Noah means peace, or rest. So his name, it's like Indian names. Where's Running Bear?
Well, he's out there with prancing deer, okay, whatever, all right? So it's an inside joke for some people. So that's what's going on. His name would be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
It's a way of describing them and their characteristics, their behavior, what they're about, and things like that. That's what's going on. So, you know, Isaiah, you can just do a search, you'll see, okay? Okay, sounds good, Matt, thank you very much. Okay, God bless. God bless.
All right, let's get to Kim from Rural Hall, North Carolina. There we got it. Thank you, Matt. My question is coming from John 14, 23 and John 17, 9. When you hear the phrase, unconditional love by God, is that true? Because in this verse, it would indicate that in 14, 23, Jesus is saying, if you love him, then God will love you, which to me seems like if you don't love him, then God won't love you.
That's not what this is saying. Well, there's a sense in which God loves everyone and there's a sense in which he does not. If you go to Matthew 5, 43 through 48, it says there that God, well, let me just go through it and read it. Matthew 5, 43, and I'll read this so you understand. You've heard that it said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax gatherers do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?
Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect because your heavenly Father is perfect. So Mormons use this verse a lot, Matthew 5, 48, to teach the becoming gods, but it's not about that. It's about loving everybody equally, just as God loves everybody equally in the sense he gives them their provisions, sunrise, rain, et cetera.
He provides for them. That sense God loves everyone. However, if you go to Psalm 5, 5, the boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all who do iniquity.
That's what it says. Psalm 11, 5, the Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence his soul hates. So does God love everyone? Well, then people say, well, what about John 3, 16, God's love the world? Well, what does the word world mean? Does it mean every individual who ever lived?
If so, then why does God say that he hates those who love violence? The word world in John 3, 16 means all the nation groups, because Jesus said he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 15, 24, and when he sent the disciples out in Matthew 10, 6, 9, he sent them out, he said, don't go by the way the Gentiles stay with the sheep of Israel, because he was covenantally obligated to go to Israel. Israel rejected the Messiah, we the Gentiles were grafted in, so therefore he loves the whole world. So it's not just the Jewish people, but all the nations, that's what's going on there. So when we go back to John 14, 23, which I love that verse, because it's where the Father and the Son will come and make their abode in you, I love that, John 14, 23.
So anyway, I'm kind of giving a lot of information there. So if anyone loves me, keep my word, the Father will love him. So the love of God for the saved is conditioned in a saving love upon their faith and trust in Christ, let's just say.
I can expand on that, that's not exactly entirely accurate, there's some nuances there, but for now it'll do. So he loves the ones that are believers, but is he loving the ones who are not? When we go to Romans 9, where it says, Jacob I loved and Esau I hated, and it was not because of anything he saw that they would do. That's what the text says, and he says, I'll have mercy on whom I have mercy, I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion, it's what people will do, say this is about nations, but it's not, it's not, I can refute that very easily.
So this is not an easy topic, so your question is a very good question. So generically, God loves everyone, he provides for them, but specifically there are people he actually hates, as Psalm 5, 5, Psalm 11, 5, Romans 9, 13 state. So when you see in 17, 9 where Jesus says he will only pray for the ones that were given to him, he's not praying for the world, that's what he just said, so those are the ones he loves. Right, now we've got a break coming up, so we'll expand on that a little bit when we get back, okay, because that's an important verse as well. Hey folks, 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 right, welcome back to the show, are you still there, Kim? Yes. All right, as I was saying right there at the break, John 17, 9, I ask on their behalf, I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me, for they are yours. So this is interesting, because what he's doing is contrasting the world with those who are given to him. Well, if you go to John 6, 37, Jesus says, all that the father gives me will come to me, and he who comes to me I certainly will not cast out. This is the will of him who sent me, that all that he's given me I lose nothing. So he's talking about the redeemed.
They're given by the father to the son, this is what it says. So Jesus says, he continues on in the same vein, because that was John 6, 37-40, I was referring to, and now in John 17, it's called the high priestly prayer. Jesus says I ask on their behalf, I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me.
That's who he's asking for. We could make the case that he's not praying for the non-Christians. So he's not, what you're saying, it's possible he is praying for everybody. Well, in this verse, I would say the implication is that he is not. He says, I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those. He says I ask on their behalf.
So he's praying to the father, not to analyze this more, but on the behalf of the believers, the ones given to him by the father that he's asking for and about. That's what we're dealing with in John 17. It's really an interesting chapter. People often kind of glance over it, they don't really go into it too deeply.
But it's a really important chapter. Okay? Okay. All right. Thank you, man.
God bless you. Thank you. All right. Sounds good, buddy. Okay. God bless.
All right. Let's get to, boy, it's been a long time. Steven from Texas. Steven, welcome. You're on the air. Are you there?
I did hit the button. Hello? Okay. Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you.
How you doing, buddy? All right. Sorry.
I accidentally had my mute button still on while I was waiting. I have a question for you about Matthew, chapter 5, verse 48. I know that you read it at the beginning of the last call. But the verse is, you, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. And I was just wondering if you could speak to the idea that I was taught that we're not going to be perfect on this side of eternity, but it says kind of like black and white, at least in isolation, that we are.
So how do you reconcile that, and what does that actually mean? God is a standard of righteousness, not us. When we look to God, that's the standard. God says in 1 Peter 1 16, be holy, for I am holy. I can't be holy. You can't be holy. But he says, be holy, because I'm holy. He's saying the reason you're to be holy is because I am. You're to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.
There's another one. You're to be perfect because God's perfect. Doesn't mean you can.
That's what you're obligated to do. Just like Acts 17 30, God commands everyone everywhere to repent, but not everyone everywhere can repent. It doesn't happen, particularly when we know that God grants repentance, 2 Timothy 2 25. So the answer lies in the simple fact that God is a standard of righteousness. When we abandon that, we adopt humanism and secular thought and say man is a standard.
Well, man can't do this, so therefore it can't mean such and such. Well, that's humanistic thought, to say, well, I can't be perfect, or I can't be holy, so therefore it can't mean that God's requiring me to do what I can't do. In other words, God must bow to my ability or inability, and that's the standard now is my ability.
I'm the standard. And that's where heresy comes in. So what he's saying here in Matthew 5 48, you're to be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. And the context is loving everybody. Love your enemies, love your friends, love them all, love them equally.
In this sense, this is what he's talking about here, this is what God is doing. So you're to do the same thing. And I'll tell you, it's not easy.
There's one particular person I'm having to deal with periodically now in some chat context, and I just, I disdain the guy. I do. But I have to pray for him and try and love him. Oh, it's tough.
But this is what we're called to do. Okay? Make sense? Okay. Uh, yeah. All right. You're not a Mormon, are you? No, I'm not. Okay, good.
Because they love you. I was on Facebook, and I saw this verse, and then it was coupled with another verse, Genesis 17.1. And if you read it in the KGB, it says that Abraham is supposed to be perfect, too. And I don't know, I personally thought there's got to be context to this that clears it up because it's not possible, but I wasn't entirely sure how to go about explaining that to someone else. Well, another version of Genesis 17.1 is to be blameless. And so the word can mean perfect, having integrity, complete, things like that. I'm looking at the notes here on my Bible program, so that's what's going on there. And the King James, as great as it is, causes some problems every now and then because of these kinds of statements and things.
But it's easily fixable, and that's all it is. Okay? Okay, cool. All right. All right, man. Well, God bless. Yeah, God bless you, too.
I've learned a lot from listening to your show. Thanks. Good.
Because I'm learning, too, as I teach. All right, brother, God bless. All right. Okay. Take care.
All right. Hey, folks, we have three open lines. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Kelly from Los Angeles, welcome. You're on the air.
Hey, Matt. Hey, so earlier you had a question about oneness theology, and it made me think about my friend who's oneness, and they believe that you have to speak in tongues, you have to tarry for the Holy Ghost, as they say, and receive the gift of speaking in tongues. Now, they have a pretty big congregation. There's over 50 people in there, and everybody that's probably age 11 on up all speak in tongues. So if it's such a false doctrine, why does God keep giving the gift of tongues to give the gift of tongues to them, and not only them, but the new members that come through there? I just wonder, why does God keep giving out the gift? Who says God's giving them gifts? Well, they said that the tongues that they're speaking in, they're all affirmed, like from the pastor and everything, because when I tried it, they told me that my tongues didn't bear witness with theirs.
No. The oneness Pentecostal is a non-Christian cult. It's not Christian. They're not Christian at all?
It's a cult. They deny the Trinity. They deny justification by faith alone in Christ alone. They say that you have to be baptized in order to be saved, and that you can lose your salvation if you don't maintain your holiness before God. They require speaking in tongues as a manifestation of salvation.
Let me read you Scripture. This is 1 Corinthians 12.28, and God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they?
All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have gifts of healing, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?
You're just saying the gifting is different for people. Not everyone speaks in tongues, but what they'll say is, no, you have to speak in tongues. And what they'll say is, you know, have you been saved and baptized with the Holy Ghost? The evidence of speaking in tongues from the Holy Ghost. They'll say, Holy Ghost, instead of Holy Ghost, they say the Holy Ghost.
It's just cultural something that gets spread around their corners because they all listen to the same stuff and they drink the same Kool-Aid. And it's a cult, non-Christian cult. Your friend is a false convert. Oh my gosh.
I hope you just didn't use the word in vain. But that's what's going on. Your friend is a false convert in a cult. Because I've called in about one of these Pentecostals to you before, and I know you said that somebody in that denomination may very well be saved and it's up to God to draw them out.
Well, yeah, there could be Christians in Mormonism, there could be Christians in Catholicism, there could be Christians in one that's Pentecostal, but they're not the Christians because of those church groups, in spite of it, and then eventually they'll come out because the Spirit of God bears witness of truth. So your friend is in a cult and a false convert. Now, what you can do is go to Romans, there's several things, I don't know if you heard earlier, did you hear the show earlier when I was talking about this?
I was driving and typing in the chat, doing, okay. Alright, so, one of the things is, I would ask you to memorize Romans 4-5, the address, just memorize the address, Romans 4-5, hold up your hand, Romans, and then you have the 4 and you open your thumb and that's 5. And that's the verse we're going to look at when we get back from the break, okay, and I'll explain how to use that and to try and talk to her. Okay. Okay. Alright.
Hey folks. Okay. We'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. We have three open lines if you want to give me a call.
877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Alright, welcome back everyone.
We have three open lines. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Kelly from Los Angeles. Alright. You still there?
Hello? Are you still there, Kelly? I'm going to give it a little bit. I'm here. Okay. Alright. So there's a lot of things I can teach you on how to witness.
I have a whole section on Karm on Oneness Pentecostal. But here's something that's easy. So Romans, remember, hold up your four fingers, then one more finger, 5.
So 4-5. Romans 4-5. But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. Ask your friend this question. Are we justified by faith? That's the question.
Well, she might give you a whole bunch of answers, I don't know. But go to Romans 4-5. It says his faith is credited as righteousness.
You show that to her. Do you believe that? Do you believe your faith is credited as righteousness? And she has to say yes, because that's what it says. Are you justified when you have faith?
Yes. Are you justified by faith when you have faith? Are you justified by faith when you have faith? Because it says to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his belief, his faith, is credited as righteousness. To the one who believes, when he believes, his faith is credited as righteousness. The reason I'm asking this is because she's going to have to teach that, because one that's Pentecostal teaches, your sins are forgiven when you get baptized. It has to be in Jesus' name, not in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but in Jesus' name. It just occurred to me, too. In Isaiah 9-6, the one that's Pentecostal has no problem taking one part of it literally, when it says the name will be a mighty God, a prince, a priest, a wonderful counselor, and yet when it says baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they don't do that.
Interesting. I'm going to think about that some more. But anyway, so she'll say that you have to be baptized to be saved, and that's when you're justified. Then why does Romans 4-5 say you're justified when you have faith? Ask her that. And then say, are you believing in the truth, if what you're saying here is true? She might go to some baptism verses, then just go to my site and look up the verses.
We put them in context and show you how those people who teach that baptism is required in order to have your sins forgiven are actually false teachers, teaching something false. Okay? Wow. Okay.
Thank you so much, Matt. That's a lot for me to chew on for today. I think I've had my mind blown enough.
Okay. Well, you know, here's the thing. When you have truth, you know what is error. The more truth you have, the easier it is to recognize error.
And so this is why on the radio, what do I do? I go, what does the Bible say? Here's the verses. Look at the scriptures. It's verse, verses, verses. As much as possible, I go to the word of God and teach out of the word of God. That's why I try and memorize the addresses.
That's why I continue to work to memorize scripture, because I want people to trust the word of God and not some guy named Slick on the radio. Okay? Exactly.
That's right. Okay, man. Thank you so much. You're welcome so much. Well, God bless.
Keep calling back. Okay? Bye-bye. Okay. All right. Bye-bye.
Bye. Hey, folks, we have four open lines. Give me a call, and about 10 minutes left on the show, 877-207-2276. Jackie from Colorado, welcome. You're on the air. Hi. Hi.
So what are you doing? I had a question. My mom, she was telling me that she was going to do a Bible study with her church, and it's by Beth Moore. And I think I heard about her that she's with the prosperity gospel, but do you know anything about that? Yes. If I were a pastor of a church, I would never let her material be used to be taught from.
Never. Unless she repents of some of the false things she's teaching. Now, she has trouble exegeting scripture properly. When she goes to the word, she doesn't understand proper biblical principles of understanding scripture.
Now, in a lot of areas, she does well, and in a lot of areas, she does very badly. Now, you can go to my website, karm.org, and look up Beth Moore, which is what I've got my article right now, and I'm looking at it. And so she will take verses out of their context and just do damage to them. But also, there are some things she teaches.
She says this, for example, I'm reading from the website, it's documented, okay? This is, for example, Praying God's Word, Breaking Free from Spiritual Strongholds by Beth Moore, page 37, okay? So she says, God wields incomparably great power for those who choose to believe. Read it again, incomparably great power. More than enough to break the yoke of bondage, our belief unclogs the pipe and invites the power to flow.
What? So our belief unclogs the pipe of God's great power and allows it to flow, or invites it to flow. See, this is a humanistic thought, it's New Age stuff.
I could take this sentence and put it into a New Age conference, and just read through New Age material and put this in, nobody would be able to tell the difference at all. She promotes what's called contemplative prayer, and she does this. This is in one of her videos, I have it documented. She says, a true lover of God once spoke about practicing God's presence. To me, that's such a part of contemplative prayer. Well, what is contemplative prayer? It's a form of Eastern mysticism that's been creeping into the Christian church and is coming in through Roman Catholicism. It's a way of trying to communicate with God by emptying one's mind, focusing on a word or phrase, and practicing the presence of the divine through inner, silent contemplation. So in other words, you sit, empty your mind, focus on one little thing. This is exactly what I used to do in the occult when I was trying to summon spirits. I mean, exactly what I would do.
I would empty my mind, focus on one thing, and let it be the focal point while I waited. This is occultic. It's exactly what I would do in the occult before I became a Christian by God's great grace. Here's a huge mistake she makes in this video on God's vision for the church she's teaching on stage. It's a video, I'm describing what the video says, she has women sitting in small groups on stage who represent different religious groups within the church. They are United Methodist Church, which is bad, United Methodist Church. If there are people who are Christian in there, it's because of something that went wrong in the United Methodist Church.
That's how bad they are. A missionary Baptist Church, which I don't know anything about, a Catholic Church, and the Abundant Life Church, which is charismatic. It's not stated if she includes a Catholic Church as being in their denomination, but that's the concern. She has them listed as Christian denominations. In other words, she doesn't realize Catholicism is not true Christianity. Catholicism violates Scripture. It teaches idolatry in the form of worshiping and adoring Mary and praying to her, and it adds work to salvation.
Paragraph 2068, the Catholic Catechism says, you obtain salvation through faith, baptism, and the observance of the commandments. It teaches heresy. God shows Beth Moore a vision of the church. This is what she says here, quote, I see God doing something huge in the body of Christ.
I do not know why. I had the privilege to get to travel around and see one church after another, one group of believers after another, interdenominationally all over this country, but I've gotten to see something that I think is huge. I'll also suggest to you that I'm not the only one. Tonight I'm going to do my absolute best to illustrate to you something that God showed me sitting on my back porch. He put a picture, I've explained to you, before I'm a very visual person, so he speaks to me very often in putting a picture in my head, and it was as if I was raised up looking down on a community as I saw the church in a particular dimension. Certainly, not all dimensions, not even many, but in what we will discuss tonight, the church as Jesus sees it in a particular dimension. So I'd be like, my eyebrows would be going, what?
You said what? You're now rising up above, having a vision as to the way Jesus sees things in a particular dimension, not all dimensions, what? She's equating the picture in her mind with the revelation of God, and she says this, as we study, we may see several examples of him, Christ, posing a question that only he could answer. Christ certainly uses that teaching method with me. Sometimes he'll cause me to dig through scripture for a question he seems to initiate. Other times the question may come as a personalized whisper in my heart, quote, Beth, why are you acting that way? Often my answer is, I don't know, Lord, can you tell me why?
If I really search his heart sooner or later, he'll give me insight into my reactions. I can go on. Let me tell you something. I don't make doctrine out of experience. I believe, I had two instances where I believe that God spoke into my heart, and I can talk about in detail both of them. Just two in 40 years, I remember them very clearly. I remember where I was. I remember what I was doing, and I remember that I was taken aback. This is a serious thing, and I don't talk about it very often because this is, is it really of God? I believe these things were, and I would be willing to have them cross-examined, but I don't go around saying, hey, God told me, he just tells me, and I get this vision in my heart. I was up in the air looking down at the church, and it was Jesus told me because I'm just asking these questions, and he says, why are you not like, oh, I'm having a conversation with Jesus. Let me tell you, when you have the very presence of God giving you a word or something in your mind or your heart, you remember it, and it's not casual as it is with her. Here's one more thing that she says, what God began to say to me about five years ago, and I'm telling you, it is in me on such a trek with him that my head is still whirling over it.
He began to say to me, quote, this is God saying to her, I'm going to say something right now, Beth, and boy, you write this one down, and you say it as often as I give you utterance to say it. My bride is paralyzed by unbelief. My bride is paralyzed by unbelief, close quote, and he said, quote, again, starting with you, close quote. And now she continues, because we can do a lot of finger pointing around here about why revival is not happening here and there.
Let me tell you something, revival will always happen with faith. She can't say that. But now she says God is personally speaking to her and giving her words. He sees writing them down, these are the very words of God to her.
You need to be very, very careful. I'm not saying God can't speak to us. I'm not saying that God can't speak to our hearts and make us aware of things. But I'm going to tell you, if I was up at a conference speaking and I had to speak about the two instances where God spoke to me, where I believe he did, I do, and I believe that I would be saying it with caution, with reverence, and I would be couching it in, I do not make doctrine out of experience. Don't look to me as someone who gets a word from God. I'm not that. These things shaped my life.
They had profound effect upon me. This is how it's supposed to be in the presence of the real God, not casual stuff. Stay away from Beth more, okay? We're out of time. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome, Jackie.
God bless. All right, everybody. Hope you have a great weekend. Someone cares.
He has so little time. May the Lord bless you, and by his grace, we'll be back on there tomorrow, oh, actually on Monday, and we'll talk to you then. Have a great weekend, everyone. We'll see you. Have a great weekend, everyone.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-02-01 14:54:00 / 2024-02-01 15:14:22 / 20