Matt Slick Live

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. Francis, taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. And may the Lord bless you. Hopefully everything will be fine. Listen to this show today and if you want to give me a call, as usual, we have open lines. We have three today right now. 877-207-2276. You can give me a call and we can blab and yeah, it'd be good, you know. So hey, just to let you guys know, we have something new going on and that is a prayer ministry. So if you want prayer, requests, if you have prayer requests, you want to be prayed about or have something to be prayed about, all you gotta do is just email us at prayer at karm dot org.

Prayer at karm dot org. And there you go, today's the first release of it. Just letting you know. Also, if you are ordering stuff on Amazon, you can easily do that, of course. And if you want to help out any charity you can do, including the Karm charity, the Karm ministry, you can go to smile dot Amazon dot com.

It's a subdomain of Amazon and you can set it up and whenever you check out, just make sure it says smile dot Amazon dot com, not just Amazon dot com. And it'll go to whatever charity you set up. A little portion, not a whole bunch, but just a little bit and every little bit adds up, you know. And also, this Friday on the 11th here of December, we're going to be starting our matching funds drive. So anything new that comes in, if you're already, say, donating $10 a month, it will not be matched. It's already going. But if you were to up it to $12 or let's say you upped it to $15 a month and that extra $5 would be matched. So that's what we're talking about here.

Or if you just give a one-time donation of $20, it'll become $40 or $100, it'll become $200. And that's going to start this Friday on the 11th. Just giving you a heads up on that. We have two open lines, 877-207-2276. Let's get to John from New Jersey. John, welcome. You're on the air.

Hey, Matt. Yeah. So I caught up before last week. So you said it was a little complicated question. You had to get back to me on it. Whatever question that was. So the question was, my cousin got married. And no, it's not, you know, I know God doesn't approve of homosexuality, but the state recognized it as a. Okay. Uh, marriage, a legal thing. So he repented, um, he can't afford to get a lawyer right now to get the divorce. Wow.

So, um, if he repented, God forgave him. Okay. Yeah. But he still, it looks like in a legal sense, even though I don't recognize it as being godly, there seems to be a state recognized, uh, blasphemy. And so, uh, I would think that he would probably have to go through a state sanctioned, um, uh, that are resolution to get rid of it.

So, uh, he's gonna have to just, uh, do what he's gonna do. All right. And, um, of course, I don't recognize. Right.

I understand that, um, the legal thing with eat, but if he came before God and I don't know, it was only when repentance and confession and God forgave him. Right. Of course. Of course. Yes.

Mm hmm. Yep. Okay. All right.

I just wanted to clear that up because. Okay. Yeah. No problem. Yeah. I thought you were saying, I thought you were kind of saying like, no, God ain't going to forgive them because you can't afford a lawyer or something.

No, no, no, no, no, no. He still needs to have that issue resolved, taken care of sin could be forgiven, but the effects of sin continue. So if I were to back into someone's car, let's say, and then I fled and then I realized that's wrong and then I go back and the car's not there and I, but I had the license number and I track it down and I asked for forgiveness. The car is still dented and I got to take care of that. So you see, sin can be forgiven, but the effects continue.

So he's got to take care of that. I would say legal thing. It's like, see, they even say it is like granting that it's legit.

I don't grant that it's legit. It's, it's a blasphemy against the law of God and the state is doing more and more things. Blasphemy against the law of God, like abortion and penalizing Christians more and more for their beliefs. But, um, you know, so Christians are going to find themselves at odds with the state more and more as time goes on and these kinds of difficulties are going to have to be dealt with. So it's a tough one.

But he needs, I think, on a legal sense and only in a legal sense, because the ramifications in our fallen society is that he would have to have it legally resolved. Okay. Right.

Okay. Now, um, I know you got another callers, but I was talking to someone tonight about abortion and he said, well, it's the girls, it's her body. So she, she should be able to have an abortion.

If it's her body, then she has two heads, four arms and four legs if it's her body, but it's not her body. There's another life in the womb. And ask the, uh, the person, uh, if the baby in the womb, uh, one, one hour before birth and one after one hour after, is it the same person?

The baby before and after? If he says no, there's all kinds of logical problems with that. If he says yes, then does the mother have the right to destroy that human life one hour before birth?

The answer of course is no. Well, if it's her body, why can't she? What's a human being in there? So human life is not valued simply because of location in the womb or outside the womb. And this is the fallacy of, of immorality that is prevalent.

People cannot think critically. They don't think morally. They think selfishly as so many women do where they will seek to enjoy their sexual pleasures.

They get pregnant and then they destroy the life because they don't want to be responsible. This is, uh, it's an atrocity. And it also goes with the males, with the, with the men who want to have their pleasure and then have the wife, excuse me, have the female, the woman, um, pay the penalty so to speak.

What he gets, so to speak, scot-free. Well, this is the, the fruit of selfishness and lust and, uh, covetousness and all of it wrapped into one to, um, offer euphemisms. It's my body. I can do what I want for the justification of killing the life in the womb. And this is an atrocity. It's a blasphemy. It's an evil. And, um, we can't support it as Christians, even though the fallen pagan world legislates morality and legislates the death of the unborn and the, um, the immorality of homosexual marriage.

And then penalizes the Christians who raise their hands and say, but I object. So anyway. Okay. Wow.

Yeah, that's a lot there. What about Molech? Didn't, didn't something in the Old Testament where they offered their children the Molech?

Yes. Uh, Molech was a God with a head of a bull and horns and the body of a human. And then what the pagans would do, these, uh, Molech people, is that they would... Molech or Moloch?

Am I saying it right? Moloch, Molech, Molech. And what they would do is they would have a bronze statue of Moloch. And it would be open in the middle and they would put, uh, kindling in there and heat this thing up with fire until the whole bronze thing was basically kind of glowing. And the statue had arms folded at the elbow at the waist with the hands out in front.

So palms up. And they would lay their newborn babies on the hot, uh, Moloch pagan idol and sacrifice their young. That's hard.

That's hard. Yeah, it's the same thing that they're doing with abortion. Wow. In fact, I have a friend here who just spent some time driving across different parts of the United States last month, um, on those, with a big, a big truck trailer kind of a thing with, uh, pictures of aborted babies on it. So people can see what they're doing to the, uh, the innocents in the womb. The womb used to be a place of sanctity and, uh, safety, but now when mothers turn against their own young, uh, it's just, it's just, to me, it's horrifying. It's horrifying.

It is horrifying. Do them babies, uh, go to heaven? We probably go to heaven.

All of them probably go to heaven. We got more calls. Sorry, Matt. Thank you. Call back. Get in line. Okay, man. All right.

God bless. Let's get to Ryan from Texas. Hey, Ryan, welcome. You're on the air.

Hey, Matt, can you hear me? Yes, I can. I can. Sure. Hey, uh, appreciate your word, your pro-life words there.

We're expecting a baby in, uh, February. It's hard to hear that, that, uh, a lot of folks feel that way about the, you know, about the unborn. It's tough, you know? Yeah.

Appreciate that. The guilt of inconvenience. Yes. Yeah. They're guilty of being inconvenient. Absolutely.

To kill them. Absolutely. So, yeah, and to circle back, we were talking last week about Catholicism on Thursday, and I think we got cut off. You had referenced, we were talking about how the scriptures, the canon was formed. And you mentioned, you referenced the passage on, you know, my sheep hear my voice and know their shepherd. Yes. Would that also apply to other doctrines besides the canon?

I don't understand the question. So if the early church, if they, if they held other doctrines, such as, you know, the true presence of the Eucharist, baptismal regeneration, fill in the blank, could you apply that passage to those doctrines? Um, the issue of the sheep hearing God's voice can only be determined by what it says in scripture. The scripture's the final authority of all things. The scriptures are what's inspired, not the church fathers, not councils, not tradition.

It alone holds that place of that final authority. And that's what it's talking about when God, when Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice. We know that many of the church fathers contradict themselves as well as each other, so therefore they cannot be the final authority. So all church fathers must be held to the same standard of truth as anybody else, and that is the word of God.

That's how it has to be. Right, but we're talking about what the word of God is, so. The word of God is the inspired, written word of God. It's the scriptures. Are you going to tell me that tradition is inspired? No, I'm saying there's competing canon, so how did we get 66? Excuse me. All right. Do you believe the Apocrypha is true?

Possibly. That's why I'm asking the question. And why did Jesus exclude the Apocrypha in Matthew 24, 45, when he talked about the scriptures bearing witness of him. He said the law of the prophets and the psalms, which excluded the Apocryphal books. Also, he said in Luke 11, 43, or 51, he said from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah. He was quoting from the first and last book of the Old Testament at that time and the arrangement that they had. Yeah, but you had a round table with the Catholics.

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. This is what Jesus did two times and Jesus excluded the Apocrypha. Why do you want to include the Apocrypha if Jesus did not?

Yeah, but they discussed this on the round table. Can you answer my question? Can you answer my question? Can you answer my question?

What's that? You don't know what the question was I just asked you? He doesn't provide a list at all. Why does Jesus exclude the Apocrypha? He doesn't, from what you just said. Okay, dude.

Where in there does it talk about excluding the Apocrypha? Hey, guy, guy, think. I want you to think. I am thinking. No, you're not thinking. You're thinking like a Catholic. You're not thinking logically. You're not thinking like a true born again Christian. Hold on and I'm going to tackle you after the break and I'll repeat this because you need to pay attention to what the word of God says. You didn't say what it was.

Not what are false shepherds. I didn't like what you just said. Okay, just hold on. We'll get to you in a minute.

So much heresy, so little time. 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. Welcome back to the show. So Ryan, are you still there? Yes, sir. So why do you want to be a Catholic? I don't. I'm just trying to make a decision here. Okay, you want to make a decision then? Let me give you some information, okay? All right. Quote, the following are examples of the laws of the Church of Rome for punishing those who dissent from her teaching.

Their houses are to be burned. Does this relate to the canon? It doesn't matter what I say about the canon. You're going to come back with any excuse you want to believe the Apocrypha is true. I gave you the answers. You rejected the answers. You rejected it. No, I didn't.

What I said. Paul did not. Jesus did not include the Apocrypha. He rejected the Apocrypha.

Can I talk? Yeah, in Luke 11 51. From what? He said from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah. That's the Old Testament, the scriptures. Did he quote the Apocrypha? Did Jesus quote the Apocrypha?

It didn't. So this came up on the roundtable you did with Catholics a couple of years ago and they pointed out it's the wrong Zechariah. It's the wrong Zechariah. It's a different Zechariah than what you're referring to. It's a different Zechariah. So Jesus is now quoting a different Zechariah? It's a different Zechariah than what you're inferring. Do you believe what they're saying is true?

I checked it out, yeah. It's a different Zechariah. How do they know it's a different Zechariah that Jesus was referencing? How do they know it's a different Zechariah?

Since the blood of Zechariah talks about the person who died in there and it was the arrangement of the canon, 22 books, and the Old Testament at that time, how do they know it's not the same Zechariah? Yeah, I mean, I'm driving. I don't have the reference in front of me.

So you don't have an answer. Why did Jesus then, in Luke 24, 45... Because I'm driving, right? I don't have... Why did Jesus, in Luke 24, 45, say from the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms? Why did he not include the Apocrypha when he's talking about how the Scriptures are about him? So the Psalms there just refers to the book of Psalms? Yeah, the word Psalms refers to the Psalms. The book of Psalms only. He said the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, the three divisions of the Old Testament.

Are you not aware of this? Right, so how does that line up to... Why does that line up to 66 books? I'm not following. Why did Jesus not quote and not include in that the Apocrypha? I don't see that as evidence either way.

Okay, this is what's going to happen. You're going to buy into the lie of the Roman Catholic Church. Because you're not convinced that Jesus himself is true. You want to have an authority that's equal to Christ himself.

Christ himself excluded the Apocrypha, and you want to find reasons to disagree with Jesus himself. So you're not born again, and you're not listening to Christ. What you're going to do is follow the lies of the Roman Catholic Church. That's all you're going to do. Which says this.

You need to listen to this. The following are the examples of the laws of the Church of Rome for punishing those who descend from her teaching. Their houses are to be burned. Their bodies exhumed and burned. Magistrates who did not exterminate them were to be deprived of their goods. The fourth council Lateran devoted all heretics to extermination. Pope Innocent III sent an army of crusaders called Holy Warriors to destroy the Albigensins. In a massacre of so-called heretics in France, 24 towns were destroyed and 4,000 prisoners massacred.

During the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, 40,000 were slain at the hands of the Roman Catholics. I've got the documentation if you want it. I'm just trying to ask a question about the canon. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. You don't believe what Jesus says.

You don't believe it. Jesus himself excluded the Apocrypha. He excluded the Apocrypha. And I ask specific questions. Why did Jesus not include the Apocrypha when he was referencing the scriptures about him?

Well, it doesn't reference the other books either, so I don't see that as evidence either way. Hey, I really want you to concentrate. I want you to actually listen to what I'm saying. Jesus was talking after his resurrection about the scriptures that prophesied about him.

That's what he was doing in Luke 24. Let me finish. Let me finish. Let me finish. Let me finish. Well, you've talked for 10 minutes. Can I talk? Okay. All right. He doesn't want to listen.

Folks, so he's gone, so we have an open line if you want to call. But here's the thing is that Jesus himself gave a little Bible study in Luke 24. I was going to explain this to him, but he doesn't want to listen. He's not interested in the truth of Christ. He's interested in what the Roman Catholic Church says, which is obvious. But nevertheless, Jesus was giving a Bible study.

Go to Luke 24 after you get home, pick your Bible up now, start reading Luke 24. And you'll see what Jesus was doing. What Jesus was doing, he was telling the disciples about himself in the scriptures. He says, the scriptures bear witness of me.

That's John 539. This is what Jesus had already said. In Luke 24, 45, he went through those scriptures that bore witness of him because he's giving a Bible study about him, and he went through the law of the prophets and the Psalms. And he specifically excluded, he said it at his own words, he excluded the Apocrypha. Now, if the Apocrypha is scripture, why did Jesus exclude it?

That's the question. Jesus knows and sees God in flesh, and he was giving a Bible study concerning himself. And he purposely excluded the Apocrypha. That tells you something. But this guy, he'll come up with any excuse, as many Catholics do, to follow after, to not follow after Christ, but follow after a pope and Mary and tradition and stuff like that. And it's because they don't have the mind of Christ.

They have the deeds of the flesh. And that's just what it is. I mean, it's just that simple. Let's get to Spence from Raleigh, North Carolina. Spence, welcome. You're on the air. Yes, Mr. Steele. Sure.

Amen. You're on the air, buddy. How you doing, man? How you doing? I'm okay.

So what do you got? Yeah, I've got a question. Me and a couple of friends of mine had an angel debate concerning women and pastoral roles.

Is it biblical? No. Flat out, no. Okay. Okay.

Okay, let me just explain why. Okay. Biblically, all right? Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. First Timothy 2, 12, and 13. Paul says this. I'm going to read it to you.

I have it memorized. I'm going to read it to you slowly because I want you to know. This is what it says. Okay. Paul says, I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet, for it was Adam who was first created and then Eve. So Paul ties this into the created order of Adam and Eve.

That's what he says. Okay. That's First Timothy 2, 12, and 13.

The next chapter, the very next chapter, which is First Timothy 3. Okay. It's a trustworthy statement. If any man aspires to the office of overseers, it's a fine work he wants to do. He must be a husband of one wife.

In Greek, it's anermaeskonikos, a man of one woman. That's what it says specifically. All right. I'm going to get to more. Then he says in verse 15 of the same chapter.

He's giving instruction on how to behave in a household of God. Okay. So we have more to go after the break. So please hold on. Okay. All right. We'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. All right, everybody, just welcome back. Hey, I want to remind you that we have a prayer ministry going now at CARM.

If you want to be prayed for and be on the list, all you have to do is just send an email to prayer at carm.org. It'll be taken care of. We have Joanne who's heading that up. How about that? All right.

Let's get back on the line with Spence. Are you still there? Yes, sir. All right. Now let me read you some more scripture. Okay?

You ready? Okay. Okay. This is 1 Timothy 5, 17. The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. Okay? The elders preach and teach. Yes, sir.

All right. Titus 1, 5. Paul says, for this reason I left you in Crete that you would set an order of what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you. Namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife. On there, having children to believe, et cetera. So can a woman be a husband of one wife?

Yes, sir. I know she can't, but my friend was telling me that in Titus 1, I think about the 11th verse when it said men were silenced too, as well as women. And I wasn't even thinking about the context of the women being silenced. That men were silenced, as well as women in Timothy. But in Titus, in the first chapter, around the 11th verse, he was saying that men were silenced as well at one particular time.

No. Whenever someone says something like this, you have to ask them, show me the verse. Show me the scriptures.

They can't just say something. I think he said it was Titus 1 and 11, if I'm not mistaken. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the uncircumcision. So what he's doing, that's verse 10, who must be silenced because they're upsetting whole families. He's talking about rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers. He's not talking about elders who have to have one wife, children to believe, must not be self-willed or quick-tempered, addicted to wine, hospitable, loving, must be sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accord with the teaching, etc. And then he goes on, and Owen says, and be able to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict. That's up to verse 9.

Now verse 10. There are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision. So he's talking about the Jews, who are not Christians. He's talking about these Jews of the circumcision who say you have to keep the law to be saved.

They've got to be silenced. He's not talking about elders and just men, and generally he's talking about the evil people, the false teachers need to be silenced. So the person who told you this, he's not reading the context, and he's trying to look for a reason to deny the truth of God's word. You've got to understand something, I'm going to read a verse, this is really important. Most people affirm that this is only against unbelievers, but I don't believe. It's only applicable to unbelievers. Because it says, Romans 1 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth of unrighteousness. So when I see the words all ungodliness, I'm inclined to include the ungodliness of those who claim to be Christian, who will, in their ungodliness, suppress the truth of God's word and support the idea of women pastors and elders. Because the Bible clearly says no. And there's theological reasons for it, which I don't get into very often, but there is, it's based on the very nature of God himself. I teach on this, I get into it, and I lay the foundation of the Trinitarian communion, and then the extension into the family and into the church, federal headship and eternal ordination. So these people, let me put it this way.

I've done a lot of research on this topic, and I spent weeks and weeks researching this and writing a section on it. I discovered that 80% of churches and or denominations that adopt women pastors within two generations are then promoting homosexuality. And the reason is because they're suppressing the truth of God's word in their unrighteousness, which is a moral issue. So they are in sin and rebellion against the word of God, suppressing that truth, and the judgment is that God gives them over. So they can have judgment upon them, even as believers. And it could be false converts teaching this stuff too, not saying your friend is. But I've talked about this so many times over the years with so many people, I just read the scriptures, and it's what it says. And so many people don't want to believe it.

And I suspect that if you were to sneak up behind them outside, when they don't know you're watching them outside, you can see them wet their finger, put it up in the air to see which way the cultural wind is blowing so they can follow it. Instead of the word of God. Just like this Catholic before.

Just want to be Catholic. There's a difference between following God's word and then arguing about what God's word says to make it fit what you want it to be. And that's what's happening more and more in the world when people don't submit to what the word of God says. Now personally, my personal opinion is I don't have any problem with women pastors and elders. But my personal opinion doesn't matter. God's word is what matters, and I will stick with what God says. So now I say that my opinion based on God's word is this, and this is what it is.

So if it was just in my human flesh, I don't care. But it's not. This is what the word of God says. I'm a man of God, and this is what it says, so that's what I teach. And that's what it says. Alright, thanks a lot.

They can argue against the word of God all they want, but it's wrong. Okay? Alright, Spencer.

Alright, thanks a lot. Okay. You know, I'm going to say something here. It's tough being right all the time. You know what? It is.

There's people going, what? What did you just say? I meant to get your attention by that statement, and this is why I said it that way. When you just believe the word of God, you're right. And people get upset with you when you stand on the word of God and say, this is what it says.

Let's read what you say and put it in context. Let's believe what the word of God says. And so you too can say, yeah, it's tough being right all the time.

What I mean is, it's tongue in cheek. When you're standing on the word of God, people are going to deny that truth and accuse you. But you have to stand on God's word, no matter what people might say.

Stand on the truth of what he has revealed, not what they want. Let's get to Erica from Raleigh, North Carolina. Erica, welcome. You're on the air.

Hey, Matt. Just a real quick question for you. Do you believe that Christians should have Christmas trees? Now, being very technical the way I am, when you said should, then you're saying that they ought to have them in their homes. No, they ought not. There's no obligation to have them. I don't believe there's any obligation not to have them. I believe that we're free to be able to have Christmas trees in our home if we want to. We don't bow down before them and worship them. We don't serve them. They're just kind of cool.

In fact, my wife likes to have a Christmas tree each year, and sometimes I even help her decorate it because I'm not very good at that kind of stuff, she is. So there you go. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Well, thank you. You're free to do it.

You're free to do it and free not to do it. All right. Yeah. Yeah.

Like according to, what is it, Jeremiah? Mm-hmm. Yeah. They make trees and they bow down to them. That's because of the pagans were doing this as a form of idol worship.

Okay. So the pagans would also have statues in their home of various things. Mm-hmm. Oh, you can't have any statues in your home at all now, right?

What if you have a statue of David, a beautiful statue of David that Michelangelo did, whatever. Does that mean you're pagan? No.

What's going on? Can we eat meat sacrificed to idol? 1 Corinthians 10 says, yes, we can. Even though it was deliberately sacrificed to idols, can you buy it in the marketplace and eat it?

Yes, you can. So is a Christmas tree a pagan thing? No. It's a Christmas tree. No.

You put presents under it and put decorations on it. That's all it is. That's all it means to us. Okay.

We're free. Okay. Yeah. All right.

Yep. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you. All right. Thank you.

That was interesting. You too, God bless. All right. Let's get to Eric from Raleigh, North Carolina. Eric, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt. Mm-hmm. Hi. What are you doing?

Hey. My question is, do we really have free will if we didn't ask to be born? And on top of that, if we don't follow the word of God, we burn in hell forever. Do we really have free will on top of all that? Can you define for me what free will is? Being able to make a decision.

Okay. So I agree, without being forced, right? That's free will. Without being forced, yeah. So if someone gets you in a headlock and forces you to open a door, does that mean you don't have free will anymore, or does it mean only in that instance your free will was violated, but the nature of having free will is still there, right?

Yeah, but at that moment, I would say it's gone. Yeah, but you said, do you have free will? The answer is yes, you have free will. People have free will. Now, God chose that you were born, and if you don't like it, you take it up with him on the day of judgment, while your face is to the ground, confessing his glory and his majesty. You can argue with him all you want.

It won't do any good. But you had another part of the question, so if you don't know the part of the question, hold on, we'll get back to you after the break, and do what the other part of the question was, okay? Hold on.

All right, buddy. Welcome back to the show. Just letting you guys know that on Friday we're going to be starting on the 11th, that 's on 12-11-2020, we're going to be starting the matching funds drive, just to let you guys know about that. So if you want to donate, support us, whatever you give will be matched. And we also have a new prayer ministry at CARM, so if you want to contact us about having something to pray for, all you've got to do is email us at prayer at CARM dot org. All right, Eric, are you still there?

Yes, I'm still here. All right, man. So what was the second part? Oh, something about punishment.

I forgot. What was the second part of your question? Well, basically, if we didn't have to be born, and now we have to live this life to where if you don't follow the word of God, you end up going to hell, and also following the word of God is extremely difficult, or it can be, so it's kind of like you were born into this life, and most likely you will end up going to hell. So in my opinion, it's like, do we really have free will, if that's the case? You still have free will to be able to make a choice, and you can do what you want, but it's not the issue of Christianity being hard, and you won't make it to heaven because it's so difficult. No, it's easy. You trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. It's as easy as anything.

You just do that. You trust in him because you're a sinner. I'm a sinner. You trust in him to escape the righteous judgment of God, and so you trust in Christ.

That's it. Now, afterwards, living as a Christian isn't always easy, but living as a Christian doesn't make you more Christian or keep you out of hell or get you into heaven or anything. It has to do with the work of Christ and your faith and trust in him. So people who go to hell, they're freely choosing to rebel against God. I mean, is it really free, though, free will, because we're in this world, and temptation is at every corner.

The devil is like a rolling line, seeking who he may devour at every turn. Let's talk about free will. We have free will. Free will is the ability to make choices consistent with what you are, as you desire, without being forced.

That's it. So if you have temptations, you're freely choosing to fall into those temptations or not. No one's forcing you. You still have free will. You have free will to be able to trust in Christ or not, libertarian. Isn't there demons and Satan at work trying to make you sin? Yes, but you don't need their help, I'll tell you.

You don't need their help to sin. It's in you. Okay. So, let me ask you.

Right. Have you trusted in Christ? I have. Okay. Are you worried about going to hell? Yeah, I am. I am.

Why? Um, I feel because I constantly keep, you know, falling off, you know, the word of God. I keep, you know, sinning here and there. What church do you go to?

Sometimes I forget about God. What church do you go to? Well, before COVID, I went to Raleigh Seventh-day Adventist Church. Yeah, you want to stay out of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It'll teach legalism. A lot of the Seventh-day Adventist groups are cultic in a lot of things they teach and do. You will not be helped there.

They're only going to put more legalism on you and cause the problem to increase. Okay. You can find a Calvary Chapel. Calvary Chapel Church would work. You can find an evangelical free church, a Southern Baptist Church.

They're still good enough. Okay. Stay out of any church with the word United in it. That's a general rule of thumb. Not every church is bad that way, but it's a general rule of thumb.

Stay with me, SDA. I've studied them quite extensively. I know what they teach.

This is not me just saying I don't like them. You know, I'm saying it because they fall in many areas biblically and they teach legalism, which is why you're suffering this way. You need to find a church that will teach you about Jesus. You don't have to worry about damnation as you've trusted in Christ.

You do have to worry about it if you're in a cult that teaches you that you have to be good in order to keep yourself right with the infinitely holy God, which you cannot do. The true gospel is that Jesus Christ died on that cross, rose from the dead. Three days later, he bore our sins in his body on the cross. What we're to do is trust in him and those who do, he will never leave or forsake. We're justified by faith, not by faith in works, not by faith in your goodness, not by faith in your sincerity, not by faith in baptism, not by faith in Saturday worship, but by faith in Jesus Christ. He alone is the one who forgives. If you put all of your trust and your hope in him, you will have peace in your heart and you will know you have eternal life. If you're putting your trust in him and something else in part, then you're always going to doubt because you'll never be good enough.

And this is what cults do. Yeah. I feel, I feel, I feel kind of stuck because despite knowing all that, I still struggle. I still, you know, this world still holds me. Trust me. I did not have a great weekend. Let me tell you.

I did not have a great weekend, okay? And I'm less sanctified than I thought I was and I'm still struggling with a lot of things and I'm almost 64 here. Look, I'm just telling you, welcome to the club, but my hope is in Christ, not my goodness or faithfulness or perfection. That's what you have to have. You have to look to Jesus alone. You either look to him alone completely or you don't.

Cults all teach, false religions all teach. It's God and your ability. It's not.

It's Jesus alone and all you got is faith and you put it in him. That's all you have. Okay? Okay. Okay.

I'll try that. You know, keep my faith and I'll see if I can join another church. Yeah.

Stay with me, SDA. All right. Okay. Go to CARM, CARM.org, all right, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G, my website, and look up the article, What to Look For in a Church, okay?

And you can just call up churches and ask them questions, all right? And if you want, get some and then call me back up in a day or two or three, you know, and we'll go over them a little bit, okay? We'll talk on the air, all right? Okay. All right, man.

That works. All right, buddy. God bless. No problem. All right. Good bless.

All right. That was Eric from Raleigh, North Carolina. Let's get to Albert from North Carolina. Albert, welcome.

You're on the air. Hey, man. How are you, sir? By God's grace, I'm doing well. So what do you got?

Yes, sir. I have a, going through a situation, I got saved in March of this year. My wife has been saved for about two years. Now, the church we go to, it is a Spanish church, it's an assembly of God, and it is Pentecostal.

Now, in the beginning, of course, I didn't know what it was, because I was just trying to get it for my wife. Question is that I've started helping the church out, ushering in and so on. Now, the pastor's asking me to save my beard. I believe that their doctrine is that they look at the outside person, the appearance person, and he tells me that I should be obedient if I don't obey the pastor, then I'm disobeying God, and I do not, I don't believe that in my heart.

Okay, let me help you out, okay? My strong recommendation is that you leave that church as soon as possible. The assemblies of God is going south, and they are moving more and more into error, okay?

They are, and so they also are overly focused on charismatic gifts, which I affirm the charismatic gifts, okay? It's not a problem, I mean, it's biblical, but they're a little bit too much. They teach you can lose your salvation, and this guy is requiring that you submit to him telling you how to wear facial hair.

I would say, can you show me that in the Bible, maybe it's in the book of Second Nonsensicus, because it's not there. You've got a beard, wear the beard. Beards are manly, not a problem, and there is no necessity, biblically, for you to shave your face and have a beard. I would love to build a girl a goatee, I like the idea of a goatee, but my wife won't smooch me if I have a goatee, so she wins, okay? But so what?

I've got a good friend who's got a beard, I have friends who have beards, no problem. So they're leaning towards women pastors and elders stuff, and other things, and now they're moving. I'll tell you stuff, I just do not trust the assemblies of God as being a good proper healthy denomination to be in. Correct. I just, so, go find a better church, okay? Oh yeah, I will, thank you Matt.

And I'd recommend you go to the CARM website, look up the article, what to look for in a church, and it'll give you the things to look for, and to watch out for, okay? Correct. Okay, sounds good. Thank you, Matt.

Okay, and tell your pastor to call me up on the radio, and I can ask him to give biblical warrant why you shouldn't have facial hair, I'd love to see that one. Yeah, only if he spoke English, huh? Hey, put a lot of Spanish on the poco, si quieras a dar como. Okay, okay, alright. Alright. Understand me. Okay, buddy. Alright, Matt, thank you. Okay. Have a good one. Alright. Bye. Alright, let's get on the phones with Carl from South Carolina, Carl, welcome, you're on the air.

Hi, Matt. Hey, Matt, I gotta ask a question on, you know, as Christians we're supposed to plant seeds or so, and encourage people in Christ, but, you know, we're not responsible for salvation, but in prayer, should we ask the Father to deliver them to Christ? Yes. That's what I always say in a prayer for salvation in when you're praying for people who aren't saved. What I do is, since I'm a little bit more theological, I will say, I'll say, Lord, if they've not been elected from the foundation of the world, can you please elect them from the foundation of the world? What I'm saying is, I don't know how it all works, Lord, you're the one in control, please save them. And when I'm asking for God's divine intervention, yeah, ask Jesus to save them, ask the Spirit to save them, to convict them, ask the Father to save them, ask God to save them, absolutely.

You plant seeds and you are absolutely correct. You don't believe someone, you're not the cause of someone's salvation. You may be the instrument, but not the cause, God is the cause of salvation.

Right. The other thing is, in that thought process, still the Father is the one who elects people for salvation. Jesus is the tool to what he has done for us. They were elected in Christ. It has to do with the eternal nature of the doctrine of federal headship and the relationship that only people can be saved in Christ. It's a specific term, in Christ, in him. It means federal headship and representation, which has occurred eternally.

Hey, Matt, can I ask one more question, out of people who aren't believers and say that, oh, so-and-so is a good person and they do good things, is it okay to say, well, anything that Jesus said, anything that is good comes from God, in that sense, can we say, well, the Lord still is working through that person, you know, they may not be saved, but is any good deed from a person, say a non-believer, is that still a reflection or from God? Ultimately, yes. Ultimately, yes. Okay? We don't have time to get into it right now because of the break. Call back tomorrow so we can talk about the nature and that kind of stuff. Okay? All right, man. I've got to go, but sorry about that. Hey, sorry, Todd from Texas, Tyson from Virginia, and Rick from Iowa, I'd love to talk to you guys tomorrow. If you want to call back, may the Lord bless you, and by his grace, we're back on here tomorrow. We'll be right back.