Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. It's Matt Slick live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry, found online at 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. All right, everyone. Welcome to the show.

Man, what a rush job I've had today. I got on a project and I'm going to tell you about it. I want you to, if you're interested, go to the KARM home page and check it out. I've just, I mean, literally a minute ago, released an article.

And I want to talk to you about it a little bit because I think it's going to be interesting. Have you ever wondered, have you ever wondered what the commands of Jesus were? Because it's always gotten me, you know, Jesus says, if you love me, I'll keep my commandments.

And I've always wondered, well, what are those commandments? And periodically I would just kind of do a quick search. I mean, just really fast and say, well, what does he say? Well, what I did today, because one article led to another article led to another article, I really got involved with doing a bit of research. And that's what I did. I spent hours going through what's called the imperative in the Greek.

And imperative is a command. And so what I did was I went through and found the imperatives of Jesus. So I was able to find out whatever he said and went through. And then what I did was I compiled them into an article. And then, there we go, and then what I did was I just released it.

So I've still got to, you know, polish up a couple of things. But I was thinking that maybe some of you might want to check it out. And the reason is because I was really surprised at what I found.

And honestly, I was surprised. You know, so some of the commands, the imperative in the Greek, I went through the four gospels, are such things as abide in Jesus. Because Jesus says abide in me, abide in his love. Ask God for harvesters. Be merciful, according to the parable of the good Samaritan. He says, this is what you're to do. Be on the alert for the return of Christ.

I'm skipping through a lot of stuff. Deny yourself and follow Jesus. Don't judge.

Don't judge according to appearance. Enter to the narrow gate. Give to him who asks of you. Have faith in God and don't doubt. He who has ears to hear, let him hear the parable of the sower. He's actually commanded, listen to the parable of the sower, he says. And so I'm going through and finding all this stuff.

Going, this is really interesting stuff. And my wife came in and I said to her, guess what I'm doing? And I was telling her some stuff and she literally said to me, well, I'm glad you're the one doing it. Not me. I got a kick out of that.

Because so many of the things that are said by Christ are rather convicting. And so here's some more. Let your light shine. Pray and ask and trust in God. Pray in secret. Rebuke a brother in Christ.

Remember Lot's wife. Seek first the kingdom of God. Take communion. Take Jesus' yoke upon yourself and learn from him. Treat people how you want to be treated.

Turn the other cheek. These are some of the things that came out of this article. Now, you may not think that's that exciting, but for me, it really was a treasure trove of discovery. And I really enjoyed doing it. I really worked hard on it. And so I found over 60 things. On my list, I have 62. So you can go to the CARM home page if you want.

And you can look up the article or just click on the link. What are the commandments of Jesus? What is he commanding us as Christians?

Now, let me tell you. There are other commands that I didn't put in there. Commands like when he said he commanded Jesus.

I mean, when Jesus commanded Satan and said, you know, be gone. Well, it doesn't really apply to us. So I didn't put things in there like that, you know, or, you know, be it, let's see what he said to the paralytic.

You know, pick up your pallet and walk. It doesn't apply to us. It's specifically to a specific individual. So I excluded those, but I wanted to find the ones that deal with us and what Christ has for us.

So anyway, that's what I did. And if it's, oh man, yod. Oh boy, if it sounds interesting, all you got to do is go check it out.

All right, just go to the CARM home page and look up or just click on the link. What are the commandments of Jesus? And if it's a podcast you're listening to, because this is March 24th.

If it's a podcast a week or two later, it'll have moved down by then. And you can just look up what are the commandments of Jesus. There you go. Really interesting stuff.

Really convicting too. So, hey, look, we have four open lines. If you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 8772072276. Look at the John from Wake Forest, North Carolina. John, you're on the air.

Yeah. Hi, how are you doing, Matt? Doing great. How are you doing, Matt? Doing okay. Hanging in there by God's grace.

So what do you got, man? Good. Well, I have a question that came up in a discussion in our small group last night that had to do with a passage in Acts where the prophet Agabus came and gave Paul a prophecy about what was going to happen to him in Jerusalem. If you look a little further where that actually happened, some of the details are a little wonky, if you will. And so there's, I guess, a controversy over the, is Agabus wrong, in his prophecy. So I guess my question is, first, what's your take on that, if you're familiar with it? Let's look at it first, because we do two questions, always forget the second one.

Or the first one, it depends. So what's the issue with Agabus? I'm looking at the text in Acts 11. I think it's closer to, is it 21? I don't know. Unfortunately, I'm driving at the moment, so I don't have the text in front of me.

Well, it says, Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a famine all the world. Okay, so that's the first one. There's one later on, I think, again, it's in 21, about one through four or something like that. Okay. Again, I'm guessing. Okay. But he's on his way, he's failed, failing towards Jerusalem. And the prophecy itself. Okay.

And Paul's belt around his feet and hands, and the Holy Spirit says in this way that the Jews will bind you. Okay? Right. Yeah. And turn you over to the Gentiles.

And if you look, I think it's maybe down in 30-ish. Yeah. You know, people will provoke both together. The Jews really want to just kill the guy, rather than turn him over, and it's the Romans that bind him. Now, the overall gist of the prophecy comes true, he ends up in the hands of the Romans, but those couple of little details kind of raise the controversy about, well, gee, could Agabus be wrong, and what does that mean for prophecy in general in the New Testament? Well, I'm surprised, I don't see any problem. I don't see a problem. If I knew more specifically exactly what the issue is, and exact which verses, because I had done a lot of analysis over the years of Bible difficulties, and I have a section on Carm called Bible Difficulties, and sometimes people will send them in, and I say, exactly what verse, or two verses, or whatever it is, and exactly what's the issue.

And that's what I always need, I can focus on it like a laser beam, oh, this is the issue. So it says, Agabus said in Acts 21, 8, and coming to us he took Paul's belt and bound his feet and hands and said, this is what the Spirit says, in this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the man who owns his belt. And you're saying then that it wasn't the Jews who did it, but it was the Gentiles. That's the first one, and the second one is that they will bind him, okay. That's the first one.

Does that mean that's the difficulty, or does it mean that's the first verse? No, that's the first statement that gets made by Agabus, which when we compare to what happens later on, where he said the Jews were going to bind him, it's the Romans who actually bind him later on. Okay, but it was the Romans who actually did it. Right, yeah, they stomp their way into where they're beating Paul, and when the Jews see that they're there, they stop beating him, the Romans take possession of Paul, and they bind him with two chains. Okay, let's see, let's go take a look at something.

Okay, so let me ask you a question here, because I'm already working on an answer and something to think about. Who nailed Jesus to the cross? Well, essentially we all did, we all are sinners, but the guys who actually held the hammers and the nails were the Roman soldiers. Okay, I agree with you, and this is what it says in Acts 2.23, he's talking, Peter's talking to the Jews, men of Israel, verse 22, listen to these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man tested you by the God, etc. This man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. Now it's not a prophecy, and so the question is, was Peter correct when he said, you did this? The answer of course is, well, yeah, but he knows that they're not the ones who actually had the nails and the hammers in their hands and did it, but by their work, they're the ones who arrived at and achieved the nailing of Christ to the cross, and they're guilty of it. We have in the Bible a means of understanding that to be said that you've done something, but actually it's done by somebody else. It's right there in scripture, that principle. So maybe that applies over to the Agabus thing as well. I'm just saying, off the top of my head, here's a possible response. Okay.

I mean, I can buy that. I don't think there's anything, somehow in the end, that there's anything wrong, per se, right? I mean, God is sovereign even over his own word, and it's up to us to interpret it properly. We let the scripture interpret the scripture.

And so there's a pattern in the scriptures that shows, there's a word for it, I don't know if it's called, there's like a synecdody, you know, they have these weird words where something is used in place of something else, like simile, and things like that, so someone might know what that is. So it could be that that's what's going on, but I'm going to look at it, okay, because now I've got it written down in my notes what the issue is. Okay. What was your second question?

Yes. Well, before I go there, the proponents of such, I guess, are Bruce and Grudem, and so that's kind of where I first, oh, look, gee, maybe, you know, well, there's something here. I understand your question. I understand your second question. What's your second question? Oh, no, I haven't, before we got to the second question, I was just going to clarify that the thing about the is Agabus wrong, the proponent of that is Wayne Grudem, and I think F.F.

Bruce. Okay. So I think they're the ones who originally kind of came up with that, so that may help you in your search for answers to that as you get into it. Okay. Let's get back to the break. I guess the second question. Let's get back to the break, and then you can answer a second question, okay? Okay.

Sure. Hey, folks, 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. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, three open lines, 877-207-2276.

Let's get back to John from Wake Forest, North Carolina. You're on the air. All right. Thank you again, Matt.

Appreciate, again, your taking my call and putting up with me over the break. So the second question I had kind of stems from I'm trying to explain to our small group kind of the whole thing of, say, the office of prophet, as Paul says, you know, there's apostles and prophets, and they're given for the equipping of the saints in the church. So there's the office of prophet, but then there's also the spiritual gift of prophecy, and that obviously works a little bit differently, I think, in the New Testament age than the Old Testament age, because, well, first, not too many of those guys actually had the Holy Spirit. Now, every Christian has the Holy Spirit.

So I just kind of wanted to get maybe your thoughts on how that all worked, and maybe you could point me towards some good resources to do some research on that. Well, I'd just like to say that to say they did not have the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament would not be accurate. Well, not as a blanket statement.

Obviously the prophets themselves did, and perhaps a few select others like Saul, but in general it wasn't until after Christ had been resurrected. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Okay, okay.

I'm backing up. All right. So to say that the Old Testament saints didn't have the Holy Spirit is just not a good thing to say. I'm just saying that's it. We can't say that because the Trinity is there in the Old Testament as well as the New, and the Lord Jesus indwells us in the New Testament, and there are some debates about the work and extent of the Spirit, but he's definitely there in the Old Testament, but nevertheless. So Christ is considered a prophet, and there are prophetic witnesses. There are, of course, the major and the minor prophets in the Old Testament. The question is, when Jesus says the Law and the Prophets were until John, John the Baptist, and he says this in Luke 16, 16, what he was saying is that the Old Testament divisions of the Law and the Prophets were proclaimed or taught or it was about and all that up to the time of John the Baptist. He's the last of the Old Testament saints.

Now people will say, well, wait a minute. No, he's in the New Testament. No, he's an Old Testament saint. And what I mean is that the word Testament is actually the word covenant in Latin, and so it's Old Covenant, New Covenant. In Hebrews 13 and Hebrews 9, 15 through 16, it states, hold on, let me clear my throat. It states that the New Covenant starts with the death of the testator, Jesus. So technically speaking, Jesus was baptized under the Old Covenant or the Old Testament time. Now I'm playing with words a little bit because we understand New Testament just to mean Genesis through Malachi. But the Old Covenant time still extended up through the time of when Christ was crucified.

So that's just a point of clarification. So the Old Covenant aspect, John the Baptist was the last of the prophets. He didn't perform any miracles, and he didn't write any scripture. Yet he's considered the greatest of the prophets because he preceded Christ.

It's really interesting, nevertheless. So that Old Testament style prophet is done with because it was until Christ, and since Christ is crucified, the New Covenant is in effect, and the New Covenant includes the charismatic gifts, and the charismatic gifts manifest in different ways, and some of them are in the gift of prophecy. In that context, some people who have that charismatic gift are referred to as prophets, but we don't want to mix them with the Old Testament style prophet because they're not the same kind, the same style, or in the New Testament where someone who utters a prophecy is considered a prophet to a minor extent. So as an example of this, I uttered a prophecy once.

I actually really did, and it was very detailed, and it came to pass, but it happened once. I've not had any prophecies like that that were detailed except for the one time. It doesn't make me a prophet, and I've had a word of knowledge on someone before, but it doesn't make me as someone who has that gift of the word of knowledge. So God moves as he desires in the context where he desires among the people he desires.

So this makes it a little bit more difficult to define exactly what a New Testament prophet is, because, well, there are those who prophesy, and their judgments or prophecies are to be judged by the church and the elders. So it's really kind of tough in some areas. Does that make sense?

Oh, absolutely. And I think that was one of the issues that I was running into there was, you know, again Paul says, hey, there's this office of prophet in the church, yet there's also the gift, and how they, you know, how they worked together and all that was, well, confusing. It's a little confusing. And so it's a prophetess and a prophet. Now, in what sense were they? It just becomes tough.

It just does. And the way to solve it, I think, is to look at every single word prophet in the Old and New Testament, do an analysis of how they're used in all their contexts, and then see if we can find divisions and characterizations of different kinds. It's like I did with the word apostle, found out there's seven different kinds of apostles.

Jesus is an apostle, there's apostles who did miracles, apostles who did not do miracles, there's false apostles, et cetera. So it's the same kind of a thing to do. Among my many hundreds of other assignments, I've got to get that. Well, okay, as part of that last question, you got any resources you might point me at that, you know, good authors that you are familiar with that would be able to shed some light on that?

Well, to be honest, I don't, because it's not a topic I'm familiar with as far as reading books on it goes. What I always do, seriously, is basically the first thing I ever do when I want to study a topic is not go to a systematic theology or a commentary or a letter book. I go to God's word. That's what I do.

And so that's what I recommend, is you can find a Bible program online and just look up the word prophet, and do your own study. I'm not saying don't read other books on it, but I'm saying you'd be surprised what you can learn and how interesting it becomes sometimes when you do that. But that's what I do, so, you know. All right. Okay.

Well, we'll start there then. Okay. God bless. I appreciate your time and all the stuff that you do, and keep up the good work.

Well, thanks a lot, man. God bless. Thank you. Take care.

All right. Well, that was John from Wake Forest, North Carolina. Let's get on the phone with Adam from Utah. Adam, welcome. You're on the air. Hi, Matt.

I hope you and yours are staying safe and healthy. Well, as much as God's grace will allow us, yeah. I have a friend, a Jewish friend, that I'm trying to witness to, and we're actually talking through text right now. He and I have a difference in opinion when it comes to the Trinity. He thinks that it's a polytheistic mentality. I don't see it that way. And we've been texting back and forth.

I actually was hoping that maybe I could tell you some of the arguments that he was making and see if he has some scriptures to point out. Sure. We've got a break coming up first. But, yeah, I want to hear it. Okay. And we'll talk about it. All right.

Hey, folks. We'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned.

We have two open live at 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live.

Taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hey, everybody. Welcome back.

I'm Matt Slick. Welcome back. To the show, let's get on the line again with Adam from Utah. Adam, welcome. You're on the air. Hi, Matt.

Thank you. Well, as I was saying earlier, my buddy, I decided to talk to him about the Trinity, and he was arguing that it's a polytheistic way to go. He actually, I brought up Elohim, because it's the plural form of God, and I wanted to incorporate that with the Trinity. And he basically took it and said that Jesus said that he didn't know things his Father knew and that he was subservient to God.

Technically, on those accounts, I couldn't really say he was wrong, but he was basically literal in Jesus. I told him that Jesus is described as the Son. He says that if you've seen him, you've seen the Father, and that he's also called the Word.

So I started throwing names out there, and he said something to me, and this is really what I wanted to say to you and see what you had maybe to help me argue that. He wrote me, he said, the Redeemer promise is not divine in any shape or form. There's only one divine being, and that being has never been, not is, not ever will be corporeal. God said that, is there any other God I know not any?

Trinitarianism is just polytheism or triteism, trying to avoid the issue raised by monotheism. So basically, if you want to help me out with that, I told him Yahweh is non-corporeal. So he said he's a what? He's a Jew, he said? Yes sir, yeah, he's a very devout Jew, and I love him to death. Okay, so he's a Jew. He's a Jew.

That's what I wanted to know. So he's a Jew. All right. All right, so I wrote down some stuff. Now you always have to start with definitions. Ask him what the Trinity is. Define what the Trinity is. If he's going to say the Trinity is polytheistic, then say please define it, and if he can't define it, he doesn't know what it is, then why would he say it's polytheistic?

You have to ask him to start demonstrating that what he believes is correct. So when people tell me that, they'll accuse me, they'll say, well you believe in three gods, and I say no I don't, and they say yes you do, and I say no, I know what I believe. And I say, you say the Trinity's three gods, and they'll say yes, I say show me, or define for me what the Trinity is according to what the Christians say it is. Because it's what the Christians say, not what you say it is.

What you say it is isn't what it is. We want to, you know, what does the Christians say? So this is a very critical question, because the Trinity is a teaching that God, there's only one being who exists as three simultaneous co-eternal persons. By definition, the Trinity is monotheistic, by definition. And if you were to deny that, and he's just not arguing against the God of Christianity. And what I have done many times is say to them, well I agree with you that polytheism is wrong, and I agree with you that three gods is wrong, but I don't believe in that.

I don't believe in the three gods. They go, well that's what it means, that's not what it means. And I go back and I argue with them, say, you don't understand what the issue is, it's not three gods, by definition, it isn't.

I have to hammer it into them over and over and over again. All right, that's what you've got to do. I actually wanted to talk to him about the Redeemer, because he said the Redeemer is not going to be divine. Well hold on, let me run through stuff. Let me run through stuff, okay? Sure. Because you said some things.

Please. I've got some notes for you, all right? So he's a Jew. Thank you. Take him to Genesis 19-24, and this is what it says in Genesis 19-24. Now the word I'm going to use here is Lord, which is Yahweh, so I'm going to say the word Yahweh, because that's what it says in the Hebrew. Then Yahweh rained Sodom and Gomorrah on Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven.

See, take a look at that. And don't say anything, just say, can you read that verse? Yahweh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven. See what he says. If he says, are you trying to show me the Trinity, then you've got him. You can say, so you then see this verse, and you conclude the Trinity out of it?

I didn't say anything, I just, you know, I asked you to read it. Yahweh rained Sodom and Gomorrah on Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven. That's going to explain, you know, what does it mean? Explain it.

And if he says it's a figure of speech, say, well, that's what you're going to say, but that's not what it says. Then you want to go to Amos 4, 10 through 11, which says this, God speaking, I sense a plague among you after the manner of Egypt. I slew your young men by the sword, along with their captured horses, and I made the stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils, yet you have not returned to me, declares Yahweh. I overthrew you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. What?

Wait a minute. Yahweh's talking, and he says he overthrew them the way God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet you were a firebrand snatched from blaze, yet you have not returned to me, declares Yahweh.

What's going on? Why would God speak like this? Why would God speak like this in a plurality?

And there's other things I can show, and I ask Jews in the Old Testament to explain, and they have problems. There's others, but these are quick, all right? You with me so far? Yes, I am. I can't hear you. What? I can't hear you.

You got to speak up. Are you there? I'm sorry, but I, yes sir, actually, I was hoping that you could give me the address for Amos again. I missed that one. Amos 4. Amos 4, 10-11.

Okay, so you want to go Genesis 19, 24, and cross-reference it with Amos 4, 10-11. Okay? Thank you.

Yes sir. Now, why did Jesus not know certain things? Well, if he were a good Jew, he would know that when Jesus says, no man knows the day nor the hour of his return, if he was a good knowledgeable Jew, he would know that that is in reference to the wedding feast.

I'll give you the brief context. The wedding feast was when a father and another father of two different families would arrange for a son and a daughter to marry each other, and the betrold would take about a year. And then they would have, at the end of this time, they would have a wedding feast.

In the meantime, the son, who was engaged now, was to build a new room onto the father's house. The custom was that everybody would know when the wedding was going to be because they had to travel distances, prepare wine, prepare fatted calves, and things like that. But the idiomatic expression was when the friends or the groom would say, when will the father tell you that you can go get the bride, because it was a custom for the father to say, go get the bride.

And he would say, no man knows the day nor the hour. It was an idiomatic expression used in respect to the father. It is a Jewish custom. And this is why he said that.

It doesn't mean he doesn't know. It's showing the customary reverence to the father. And this is what Jesus is alluding to in the wedding feast. And you could bring this out to him and say, you don't understand even your own Judaism history. But this is why Jesus said what he said. Now, he was under the law, Galatians 4 says, which is why he had to obey God the father. And you go back to Genesis 19, 24, the Lord rained firebread stones from the Lord. Well, how many Lords are there?

And you can hammer him on this. Are you a part of the Lord? Are you saying there's two Lords? Now when he says, there's no place where the Savior is divine, just go to Isaiah 43, 11. I, even I, am Yahweh, and there is no Savior besides me. Now we know that Jesus is considered to be the Savior, and God says there's no Savior beside himself, and he himself is divine.

So therefore, Jesus is claiming to be divine. That's a roundabout way of showing it. All right? Okay. Have him call me.

I like that a lot. Yes, sir. Have him call me, and we'll discuss things. Okay?

Have him call me on the show. All right? You know, I actually took it to the covenant that God made with Abraham, and then how he made it with himself, that Abraham wasn't part of that covenant, and that God is the one that does that, and he fulfilled that covenant all the way to David. And King David, he made a more unconditional covenant. There's more to talk about. There's more to talk about, because there are logical issues with God not being a plurality. If he is a plurality, then he can manifest true personhood.

But if he's not, he can't manifest true personhood. That's another discussion. If you want to call back later tomorrow, we can talk about that, because we can go over some issues. Okay. Thank you, Matt, very much. Thank you. Have a good day. You too. God bless.

All right. That was Adam. Let's get on the phones with James from Philly. Hey, James. Welcome. You're on the air.

Hey, Matt. I have a question. Sure. Can you check out hispanfellowship.com? Okay.

They were my pastors years ago, maybe 15 years. I'll tell you what, we've got a break. So hold on, okay? Okay.

I'll see if I can find it during the break. All right. God bless. We'll be right back. We have an open line. So I'll be right back after these messages. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, man. Welcome back to the show. Let's get back on here with James from Philly. Hey, James. Welcome.

You're on the air. Yeah. So my question was, hispanfellowship.com? I checked them out. It's Ministries International. I was wondering if they were a cult. I checked them out during the break, and they don't have a doctrinal statement, so it's hard to tell what they believe. But they do have women pastors and elders all over the place.

I would not trust them anymore, and I could throw an elephant. When you don't have a statement of faith, and then you have a link on dream interpretation, and then you have prophetic words all the time, and you don't declare what you affirm and what you deny, and you have women pastors and elders, then it's potentially cultic. I don't think it is, but I would just definitely stay away from it. Okay? Yeah, because I went there when I was younger. I went over this with you for years, for about four to five years. I played on the worship team there.

It was just some weird stuff going on there, so I wanted your opinion on that. So my second question was, if someone is addicted to porn, are they going to go to hell? You can have different addictions and still be saved, but you will lose rewards.

You might be taken out by God early. Just because someone's addicted to it doesn't mean they're not saved. You could have someone who is a drug addict, who's addicted to something, and then get saved and he's still addicted, and he's got to deal with the consequences. So I wouldn't say, no, you can be a Christian. It's okay to be addicted. I'm not saying it's okay.

I'm just saying technically speaking, just because of that doesn't mean you're not a Christian, but it does mean that if a Christian is addicted, that he or she will be struggling against it and doing what he or she can do to resist it, and gradually, God's grace will work through, and that person will manifest that salvation that's in that person. Okay? All right.

That's all I have right now. Thanks, man. I appreciate it.

Hear my prayers, man. All right, man. God bless. Thanks.

All right. Let's get on the phone with Christopher from Utah. Hey, Christopher.

Welcome. You're on the air. Hello. Hello. I have two questions, in a way, but I don't know if we have time for the second one.

But the first one is, I was talking to somebody on this app that I use, and pretty much what I do on it. I tell people about God and stuff, and someone told me, why didn't the church teach Christians about meditating? Do you use practice to even practice with other yogi and Buddhists? The Bible teaches meditation. It teaches to meditate on the word of God and meditate on the things of God, let your mind dwell on these things.

It is in the Old Testament, particularly in the Psalms. Okay? So the person doesn't know. All right? Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. My second question is, what do you think of, is it a sin in video games to play a shooting game or something like that?

Well, that's a good question. And so, can you play a game where you're killing other people? The Bible doesn't really tell us, so there's general principles. So we have to be careful when we use violence as a form of entertainment. So like the gladiatorial stuff where they would have Christians be killed, or people be killed and kill each other for entertainment that was sinful.

If we have a game where it's tough, it's a tough one. Because can we just go out there and just do that kind of a thing? I think for some people it might be very sinful, and for some people it might not be. Take for example, what if I get a game like that to do research, literally do research, and I play the game for a while.

Am I in sin? Well, no, because I'm doing research on it. This is what happened. You do this. I don't say these things, and this is what happens. I don't recommend it type thing. What do you do if someone's just doing it for entertainment? Well, that's a tough one, because some people are affected by this, and some people are not affected by this.

So I'll ask questions. Would you do this if Jesus were there with you? Would you want him to participate in this? And at that point I'd say, well, I don't think he would.

And so if he wouldn't, should you? And so it's like UFC, and I've got Christian friends who love to watch UFC, and they like to see the violence, and people beat each other up. And I say to them, I can't participate. I don't watch it. I don't want to gain pleasure out of seeing another person injure another person.

That's for my entertaining value. That's a personal thing. I don't impose it on others, because the Scriptures don't speak about this thing. And so I have to be very careful and not speak where it doesn't speak. So I just say, this is why I won't do that.

And I've had a few Christians be convicted by my statement. Not that that's my goal, but that's just my position. So I don't watch boxing.

I mean, I might see a couple highlights here and there and say we don't. Some skills, because I took martial arts for years, but I did that for the purpose of self-protection. And that's biblical. So there's some gray areas in this, and it's a tough one. And it is difficult.

So I'm not sure exactly how to answer it. Okay? All right? So we've got other callers waiting, so I don't know if we can get to them, okay, buddy?

Okay. Call back in the church. I mean, call back.

I'm reading something. Call back tomorrow, okay? I will. I will. All right. All right.

Folks, let's see. We'll get to Courtney from Ohio. Courtney, welcome. You're on the air. Hi. How are you? I'm okay. So what do you got? Okay. We only have eight minutes left.

I'll get right to it. So my question is, I was listening to a guy on a Christian interview show. They were talking about dreams and vision, and the guy said that because all the dreams in the Bible recorded are from God, therefore all dreams are from God, including nightmares.

That's true. That's a false conclusion, because the statement is all the ones recorded are said to be from God. It doesn't mean that all are said to be from God.

Just the ones recorded are said to be. So what if you're in a drug-induced bad trip, and you have a dream? Is that from God? Well, right. Right.

Exactly. Or someone's been drinking. But I was asking, just from a personal standpoint, I had a really bad nightmare one time. I wasn't drinking.

I wasn't doing drugs or anything, but I didn't think it was from God. Right. So, yeah, that's a problem, okay?

You blew that one, all right? So he had a false conclusion. I can say it that way. Yes, it's a false conclusion. It's not a logically necessary conclusion.

Just because, if it's the case, I don't know if it's the case, but all dreams recorded in the Bible are from God, it doesn't mean that all dreams anybody has are from God. The logic does not follow as a necessity. So he made a logical error to say that. Okay? Okay. All right. Thank you. You're welcome.

You're a big help. Okay. Thank you. Bye-bye. God bless.

Okay. God bless. Let's get to Ken from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Ken, welcome. You're on the air. How you doing, Matt? Doing all right. What do you got, buddy? Hey, a lot of noise behind you. All right. So what do you got? Okay, I'm outside. Can you hear me? Yeah. Uh-huh. Hey, here's what I got.

How much time do we have left? I don't know. Just what's your question?

My question, well, I have multiple questions, but right now I was calling about when you said Jesus didn't know, when they asked him when will you return, his disciples, and he said, well, hey, not even, he said, I don't even know. I'm familiar with it. Oh, no. What's your question? I'm familiar with it. What's your question now?

Okay, if he's God, why he didn't know? Did you hear me talk about this? Yeah, I just heard you. That's why I'm calling.

There's the answer. Then I heard you talk about just the dream. You said dreams ain't from God. That's another person.

Ken, Ken, Ken, Ken, one thing at a time. So I didn't say dreams were not from God. I said you can't say all dreams are from God. So be logical here.

So if you heard me talk about the wedding feast issue, that's what Jesus was referring to. Then that's the answer. Okay.

That's not the answer, Matt. Okay. All right. So what we'll do now is go to Ethan from Philly again.

Ethan, welcome. You're on the air. Wow. You remember. Can you hear me? Yes, I hear you, ma'am. What's up, buddy?

Sorry. Um, so I, I did, I know we got four minutes, I want to make it quick. Um, I'm getting ready to ask questions to this person, one of the female pastors from the black church, and I'm really hesitant about attending this church. I wouldn't. And, um, so, so my, my question is going to be, what's their opinion on why, why about that?

Why do they think that, do they believe that that's doctrine really correct? And I wanted to see, I mean, what do you think I should ask them? Okay. I mean, I know it's not doctrinally correct. Okay. So what you need to do is go to CARM, all right, and look up, uh, look up the, look up under, let's see, it's, where is it? It's in, um, Christian living, I believe.

No, it's not. I've got a lot of stuff here, women pastors and elders. It's, uh, I got so many things going on. I'll just type in women pastors. So, uh, you need to find, there's an, there's a, something I've got for you to be able to print up and that's why I'm trying to point it to it.

So now, okay, here we go. Email this to churches that are firm women, pastors and elders. So it's an email, but you can also just print it up. And what it does is it lists the scriptures and it quickly States what the issues are.

It's very brief. Okay. Okay. So I would do that. Thank you. Yeah. Email is called email this to churches that are firm women, pastors and elders, uh, but you can print it up of course and, and bring it with you and other articles because it has to do with women in ministry under, it's in the section apologetics. Okay. So that's what I would do for the apologetics section and be ready because they are wrong for doing that, for having women pastors and elders.

And I have found over the years that by, um, by bringing this up with people, I've discovered that people get very upset about this. They don't like to talk about it. And why is that link not working properly? Women in ministry, women hyphen in hyphen ministry. So it's calm.org forward slash women in ministry. And you can see a lot of the articles that are written there. Okay. Just type in women in ministry and there'll be that man.

There's a lot there. Women are not to be pastors and elders and you need to hold them accountable to it and say, here's the word of God. Could you please give me an answer? First Peter three 15 says, give an answer to everyone to ask you. I'm asking you to give me an answer.

Why you do this? When the Bible clearly speaks with the contrary. Thank you. In fact, there's, that reminds me, there's a video that's went around a couple of years ago where a man went to a church and maybe someone could send me that video link and there was a woman preacher and he got up with this group of women and said that it was not her place to do that according to the scriptures. And they physically assaulted him. Women physically were hitting him.

Not that they could damage him, but they were doing that. It was, it was incredible. Yeah. And they get people just, you have a blessed day. Thank you so much, Matt.

I really enjoyed it. God bless buddy. Hey folks.

That's that. We're out of time. May the Lord bless you. By his grace, we're back on there tomorrow and hopefully we'll talk to you then. God bless. Bye. Another program powered by the truth network.