Matt Slick Live

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It's really easy and you can quit anytime and all that kind of stuff. We don't ask much. We just like to be able to know what we've got so that we can establish budgets. That's what we want to do because we do have, just by way of informing you, I'm yawning right now.

It kind of happens sometimes about this time of the day because I work so much. We have a full time missionary in Turkey and he's going through seminary. We're supporting him while he's going through sem in order to get his degree and he's going to be establishing and has been working in part time too.

Well, part time. He's full time but he goes to school, you know, so we're supporting him in that and he speaks Russian, English and Turkish and another language and so he'll be doing a lot of work later on and we're prepping him for that. We've got a guy in Brazil and that's Carlos and he's teaching me more and more Spanish. You can go to his website which is miapeak.com.

We have a Portuguese guy and he's in Brazil and I can't even remember how to pronounce it. It's defendeofe.com.br or something like that and it's on the CARM website on the left hand side, the navigation. Just go down to international, it'll tell you. It's.org, not.com. Okay, thanks. For Mia Peak.

We used to have.com and now we moved to.org. We have a full time guy in Salt Lake City which I hope to be getting down there. I think we're narrowing down when I'll be getting down there. Probably the first or second week.

That's what it's going to be. There's a UFO convention I want to go to in Laughlin, Nevada which I think is the 13th through and I got to check it out. I'm working things out and I'll announce when I'm going to go down to Salt Lake and spend a few days down there and then go down from there over. A friend of mine might go with me as well.

Let's see what else we've got. We've got a missionary in Africa and we're developing connections with other missionaries down there in Africa as well. We're vetting them very well. One of the things we've done with a missionary in Africa named Joster, a great guy, is we bought him a printer and that is so that he can print up CARM materials and other materials and distribute them. He goes from place to place and he's teaching pastors. Then we're going to have a guy named Moses, looks like he'll be doing the same thing up in Nigeria because our first guy is in Malawi which is the southern part of Africa and in Nigeria is the upper part.

We're working it. I'm just giving you a little bit of a heads up on that. Someone says, do you believe in UFOs and what are they? Slickster, Rob says. People start making fun of my name like Slickster. I'm not sure if I want to respond. If he wants to rephrase the question, that's fine. Slickster is something that a lot of people will say who are mocking me. That's just one of the things. A lot of unbelievers will say that and I just don't respond to them that way.

A lot of times people just say they don't mean anything but that's okay. Hey, we have four open lines. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Why don't you give me a call? Let's talk to Smokey from California.

Smokey, welcome. You are on the air. Well, hey, Matt. How are you doing today? I'm doing all right by God's grace, man.

What do you got, buddy? Oh, yeah, man. Absolutely.

Praise God for that. Yeah. I'm Smokey Sane. I propped into your room a little while ago. Not sure if you really remember me. Not really that big of a deal but anyway, to get right to it. I've been having some debates on my channel and other people's channel lately around Free Grace doctrine. Are you kind of familiar with what I'm talking about?

A little bit, yeah. Okay. So without giving you too much of my position on it or kind of where I'm arguing, I was just curious if I could kind of get your take on it because it links in with the OSAS, the one saved, always saved. There's a couple channels out there that have a particular spin on this where the idea is if you do any type of repentance at all or believe that any type of repentance is needed for salvation or part of the path of salvation, then therefore you are a heretic going to hell by workspace salvation. Now, one of them has posted a video and I kid you not, and I don't need to release the name. People can go search it in Google or just type in the title of the video, you'll find it. The title of the video is literally Live Like the Devil and Go to Heaven, Obey God and Go to Hell. So I was wondering if I could hear your take on this because to me that, well, I've probably revealed my bias now because I think that's insanity but if you could give me your take, I'd appreciate it.

Yeah. When people think they understand biblical theology and then don't learn past a few errors and then they get challenged, what they do is they embed themselves in that error as they try and defend it and become emotionally and mentally committed to it. And then it's very difficult to work with them. So let's talk about what the truth is and then we'll relate it around. So the Bible teaches, and this is Ephesians 1.4, that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we be holy and blameless. That's what it says in Ephesians 1.4. This means that we're chosen by God and that he predestines us to salvation. 2 Thessalonians 2.13 talks about this, Romans 8, 29 and 30.

So people may not like it but that's what it teaches. Now another issue that is part of this discussion is the doctrine of total depravity. Now the Bible tells us, and I'll quote the references with the verses this first time through, but it says in 1 Corinthians 2.14 that the natural man cannot receive the things of God for their foolishness to him. So the unbeliever cannot receive them.

He cannot. And Romans 3, 10, 11 and 12 says all are under condemnation for none seek for God, none do good. In Romans 6, 14-20 it talks about those who are slaves of sin. In Ephesians 2.1 it talks about those who are dead in their sins.

In Ephesians 2.3 it says we were by nature children of wrath. And so when the Bible says that people cannot understand the things of God or receive them, that they're dead in their sins, they don't seek for God, don't do any good works, they're slaves of sin, cannot receive or understand the things of God, then this is the issue that we have to understand is true. And then the corollary to that, because those things are true, then we have verses in the scriptures that say things like we're caused to be born again. 1 Peter 1.3, born again not of our own will, John 1.13. We can't come to Christ unless it's been granted by the Father, John 6.65. We're granted the act of believing, Philippians 1.29, and I can go on and on.

So what we see is a set of verses that speak of man's incapability and another set of verses that talk about God's work in bringing us to faith. Now within that issue, faith and regeneration, which precedes which? So if we were to use five seconds as a time differentiation, in the temporal priority issue, if someone is a believer and then five seconds later becomes a regenerate person, then we would have a believer who's not regenerate for five seconds. I'm not saying five seconds is the right number, but I'm trying to illustrate the idea of a response in time where if a person believes without being regenerate, how is it possible? Because the verses say he cannot, will not, cannot, cannot, cannot. So it doesn't make any sense. So if we reverse it and say that someone's regenerated by God and then later becomes a believer, say five seconds later, then we have a regenerate person who's not a believer for a short period of time. And both of these are logically problematic.

So what I teach is, what Reformed theology teaches is that these things are simultaneous, but one is concomitant and with the logically necessary or logical priorities. Let me explain. I use the illustration of a light bulb. You flip a light switch on and electricity enters that light bulb and when that electricity is there, the light is also there. The light is not the cause of electricity. It's the electricity that's the cause of the light. So the electricity is logically prior to the light. It must be there in order for the light to be there, but both are simultaneous. That's the illustration. Well, if I could, which one are you saying is logically prioritized, if I may?

The electricity is logically prior to the light because though they're simultaneous, the light. No, but I'm saying which in the example you're putting the analogy towards, which is the priority, the regeneration or the regeneration. Oh, I get you.

Thank you. Regeneration is logically prior to faith because God must regenerate to us so that we can freely believe. Um, can I, can I pitch a verse then for a challenge or a mild pushback if possible? Um, and I think it would be Matthew 13, the sower and the seed parable, particularly the portion where it's being explained. Um, and I've been using this as a point of reference actually in some of my arguments with some of the free gracers is there is the person being described who has accepted the message with joy and is elated by it. And then the cares of the world come out and you know, choke them out and it's all, you know, basically they, they never reach a point of, of, of any fruit, you know, or the like, I guess is the way to put it, uh, in terms of the parable. So the doc, the, the pitch usually I hear as well, like we go out soul winning and when we get someone to proclaim Christ or accept Christ, uh, job done, you know, their soul is saved. And I wonder about the idea of this in the parable being presented of a call of, I guess you could say perseverance. You have any thoughts on that?

I wanted to work on the foundation that I laid because truth must always be the foundation upon which the principles that we're going to use. By the way, I'm not a Calvinist to just, to just get that out there. Okay. Okay.

Am I going to hell? Okay. All right. Hold on buddy. Okay.

We got to, we got to break. All right. No, that's fine. Sure.

No problem. Hey everybody. Uh, we have four open lines. If you want to give me a call, please do eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the show. Uh, we have four open lines. Why don't you give me a call? Eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. All right.

Smokey is still there. Okay. So I was trying to do was, uh, was sort through some things and get the foundation laid because you have to understand it in order to be able to correct them and to point to scripture to do it right now. When we talk about regeneration preceding faith, regeneration is a logical priority and obviously the temporal priority problem is evident. You know, believer for five seconds, not regenerate vice versa.

If I could steal man is a little bit from your perspective. Would it be that the choice of their regeneration would have been chosen before all of time? Therefore it's kind of a timeless decision and okay. All right. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Their choice.

No, no, no, no, no. Don't make the mistake of thinking that God knows the future choices of people and that's what he bases his election on. Don't make that mistake.

That's a heresy. Okay. Okay.

No, I see what you're saying. Okay. All right. Okay.

Yeah. He chose us before the foundation of the world. Okay. And there's no partiality with God. That's Romans 2 11 and also James 2 two through four.

So he doesn't look at a quality of a person in order to pick that person for any reason. Right. No, I see what you're saying.

Okay. So when we talk about this issue of free grace and hyper grace, um, now free grace is, has a little bit of a different definitions here and there. So we need to define our terms for the viewer. So free grace is the idea that you are saved without any works whatsoever. It's freely by the grace of God.

And that's true. Now some go a little bit too far in what we call hyper grace, that grace just overrides all of everything. You don't even need to repent. Well, the thing is, Jesus told us to repent and God commands everyone everywhere to repent.

Genesis or Acts 17 30. Now can an unbeliever who's a slave of sin, a hater of God repent? The answer is no, because he's a slave of sin, a hater of God. He can do no good.

He can't receive spiritual things, which is why the Bible says in second Timothy two 25, that God grants that we repent. Now, now it's a little more interesting. So you don't see like when, uh, when God is saying, uh, desires that all men to be saved as a connotation or allusion to him, actually at some level, reaching out to all men, maybe all men don't get an equivocant amount of reaching out, but, uh, God in his mercy to want to save all at some level is attempting, uh, to reach out or, or is that different from your view? I guess I need a little clarification there. Well, you're jumping around. Okay.

But we need to, people do it all the time. Second Peter two nine, read the con or three nine, read the context. Okay.

All right. And, uh, cause it says, uh, he's talking to the beloved in the previous verse. He's talking to the Christians or to those who are known. He says, God doesn't want them to be lost. Wants them all to come to repentance. And I can give you other issues that the, you know, if, if that all is meant to be every individual who ever lived, then why would Jesus speak in parables? Uh, and the reason he says in Mark four, 10 through 12 is so people will not be saved.

So there's, it gets more deep. So back to this issue. Now, if they're going to say that hyper grace is there and that repentance is not part of salvation, they're right and they're wrong. They're right in the sense that it's not what brings us salvation, but they're wrong in that it is the result of regeneration. Salvation is the saving of a person from God's judgment. Justification is the declaration of righteousness.

Regeneration is making us new creatures. So Corinthians five 17. So they're related to each other.

They're simultaneous ish, yet they're not the exact same thing. Justification is a legal declaration of righteousness where the righteousness of God is reckoned to our accounts, imputed by faith. And this is Philippians three nine Romans five one.

That's what justification is. Salvation is being saved from the judgment of God. That's who we're saved from. A lot of people think that we're saved from the devil. Well, in one sense we are, but we're actually saved from the righteous judge and his righteous judgment. That's what salvation means for that judgment going to hell. And so regeneration is God indwelling us. John 14 23, you know, second Corinthians five 17 John three three through eight talks about this kind of stuff. Now I'm doing this slowly with you and laying this out. You probably have to go through and listen to this again because you need to understand these scriptures and these things in order to differentiate in this area at the level that you need to be able to talk to them about because it's a more difficult area. It takes more nuance. Well, you know, just so you know, and to present to you real quick, basically the quick line of what I've been arguing is that it's someone who can be finished.

Okay, so here's the thing. What is repentance? But it's the turning. It's metanoel, which means to have a change of mind, but it also is a following of the law where you were lying before. Now you don't lie where you were committing adultery before. Now you don't commit adultery.

You stop. Well, that is keeping the law in that sense. Repentance is not what saves us. It's not what brings us to salvation. It doesn't grant us salvation because that would be keeping the law.

If that's what they're talking about, then they're correct. But repentance is a command of God to everyone everywhere. John seven, I mean, uh, act 17 30. So therefore everybody is obligated to repent just as everyone's obligated to be holy.

First Peter one 16. But God grants that we have that repentance. It's second Timothy two 25, just as he grants that we have faith in John one, I mean, Philippines one 29.

So having said all this, here we go. We're freely saved by the grace of God, not by anything we do. Repentance is part of salvation that God grants to us.

And it's a manifestation of our regenerative work. But we don't repent in order to become saved because that would be works righteousness because an unbeliever can't keep the law anyway and it would be turning from the law in order to be saved. But we don't keep our salvation by our keeping the law either. So the hyper grace people fail to understand that regeneration, justification, salvation all occurred together and that since we're saved, we're obligated to repent, which is an evidence of our faith and our trust in Christ. James two 14 through 26. But repentance is not the thing that saves us because it's a compliance with the law. So what they're failing to do is understand this differentiation and they are not detailing what they mean by repentance in which context to bring salvation or the result of regeneration because they're different. Does it all make sense?

It's knitting a bit together. Yeah. I think if I could summarize a bit briefly, it's kind of similar to what I've been arguing is that while repentance is not your, you know, action to salvation, it is the demonstration of your salvation.

Yes. It is granted by God. It's granted by God. Second Timothy two 25. Just as our breathing is granted by God.

Philippians one 29. And so we're able to repent once we're regenerate. The uh, the thing is though, the real reason I wanted to hear your take on this truth to be told, and if you don't mind, maybe if you would allow me to clip this out and put it on my channel because I wanted to show the actual Calvinist, you know, perspective on packing this topic.

This is just the biblical perspective. Right. No, that's fine.

I, and it's just these people are generally not only non-Calvinist but anti-Calvinist. Oh, I'd love to talk to you. So hearing that, hearing that. Hold on a sec. We've got a break. I want you to invite me into that group because it'd be fun. Hold on.

Okay. Hey folks, we have, we have a break coming up. Do you want to give me a call? 877-207-2276.

Three open lines. Give me a call. It's Matt Slick live, taking a call at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Okay.

Smokey. We've been on this a long time, but it's worth it. So, uh, by the way, that was a pretty good answer, but anything else you want to say, I'm happy to hear.

No, no problem. I just want to lay this down because, uh, you know, people need to hear this stuff. See, what's interesting is people say, well, Calvinism, this or that. When I quote the scriptures and I just, that's what I'm doing.

I'm quoting scriptures. I get that response a lot. My question, my response often is, well, isn't that what it says?

That's what it says. And people will react negatively to it. Now, those people in that room, if you want, you can invite me and maybe they can get a conversation, a real conversation with them. You probably know who it is, actually. You've debated in this community before. It's actually, uh, the community where I had the debate was praise I am that I am, his channel. I think you debated on standing for truth channel. They're kind of all part of this group here. So it looks like standing for truth. We agree on some things and disagree on some things.

He seems to be free grace, but he almost takes a close position like what you and I have concluded here. So I, you know, I don't know. We'll tell you what, uh, email me the, the context stuff and I'll go check it out, you know, I debate a lot of people and I can't remember who, who, what, stuff like that. There's so many names.

I even forget my wife's name. You debated snake was right on his channel. I think it was about a month ago or a couple months ago. Yeah, I think I've ever something like that and he didn't do well. Yeah, he didn't do that. Great.

He didn't at all. Yeah, it was really bad. Yeah.

You know, yeah. Yeah, I had, I had, I had fun with that debate. It was a good one.

I enjoyed it. Okay. Yeah. Email me that contact information for the, where the stuff is. Sure.

I'll email you the channel. No problem. You got it. All right, man. Thanks a lot, buddy. Appreciate you, man. Have a good day. God bless you too. God bless.

All right. Wow. Hey, let's get on the air with Orlando from Greensboro, North Carolina. Orlando.

Welcome. You're on the air. Hey, what's up, man? Uh, my question deals with, uh, have you ever heard of, uh, 2,520 dates? It's uh, no, I haven't. Uh, in fact, uh, the producer wrote that up on the, on the thing.

So I was looking at it during the break. Um, and there's quite a bit of, can I say something about it? Sure. Oh, okay. It's uh, like seven years of, uh, uh, what Daniel chapter nine talks about, uh, 490 years and then 483 when they kill Messiah. And then you got seven left, which is the tribulation supposedly. Yeah.

And so, uh, if you multiply seven, seven times 360 biblical days, you can come up with the number 2,520. Yeah. Now, most of the denominations will teach you that when Jesus was killed and when he resurrected, we enter into a grace period. Okay. Do you have a question? Are you trying to teach us? Yes, that's the question that deals with that.

It deals. Is it possible that the time did not stop at all? And it being in the, the, the, the last seven years I've been counting since, uh, King artifacts, uh, gave the decree and in a set of days is years. Yeah, it was, uh, you're talking about, you're talking about Daniel, uh, nine 24 to 27. And it's from the issue of the decree from Arctic Xerxes, which occurred on March 14th, four 45 BC in order to, uh, four 45 or four 57, four, four 45, March 14th, four 45, four 57. Okay.

You ready? March 14th, four 45 BC. That's when the decree from Arctic Xerxes went through, went, uh, to have the temple of Jerusalem rebuilt or the, uh, have Jerusalem rebuilt.

So that's when it began March 14th, four 45 BC. And the prophecy is you take the 62 more than one degree, one degree. I'm just telling you, that's what it was. Okay. But my question, another question will be, would there another decree? Hold on.

Hold on. There's different decrees out of Daniel from what you've talked about in those years, the Shebuim being a week of years. And it's correct. It's on 360 days, not 365.

That's correct. Because it was a change in the calendar, roughly around 700 BC all over the world. Something big happened, but then nevertheless, so from that day, when you add, you multiply the days out times the years, which is what it talks about in Daniel, it's a hundred and a 77,000, 173,880 days.

Okay. 173,980 days from the day of the issue of the decree till Messiah comes in. And that's when he came in to Jerusalem on the donkey.

That's when he did that. So it's all fulfilled there and it'll be cut off. Now the next question then becomes the fulfillment of that last half of the week. And some say it's a great tribulation period. Some say it might be seven more years.

That's what it is. So it's not going to be this 5,520 years going on and then lead you up to, I think some say, I remember some researching it really quickly, that this year is supposed to be the rapture or something like that. Right? Yeah, it'll end up on 2028 coming back or 2029, depends on what season was it. Now some Adventist movements talk about Jesus entering into the sanctuary and the heavenlies on October 22, 1844. And some will use that as part of this date stuff. And they need to just stop all of this stuff. They need to stop it because first of all, if the rapture is going to occur, they have a problem because what they're going to teach is, and they all teach this, that I've researched, they all teach this, that there's then going to be a thousand year reign of Christ. That's what they teach. And then the wicked are judged at the end of that thousand years, except that the problem is that the wicked are taken first and taken to judgment before the rapture. That's what Jesus taught in Matthew 13.

So there's problems. Yeah, he takes the tears. He takes the tears first. First gather the tears and bind them to be burned and then gather the wheat into the barn.

And then he interprets it. And he said that at the end of the age, I'll say the reapers first gather the tears. The end of the age is the reaping. And it happened at the end of the age and the first was taken out of the wicked. Out of the kingdom. Out of the kingdom. That means King Christ's kingdom is here.

Some say it has to be a literal thousand years and some say it's a figurative thousand years because the word thousand is used figuratively. And so this puts a big, big problem into the lap of the 25, 20 people. Okay. I'm just researching everywhere, you know. Yeah.

Trying to stay awake and it's over. Yes. Don't put any credence in it. I'd read Matthew 13.

Okay. Read Matthew 13. The reaper, the wheat and the tares. Also Matthew 24, 37 and following and Luke 17, 26 and following. Just start at those verses.

Two men in the field. One is taken, one is left. It's the wicked who are taken in that context and what are taken is. Yeah, I read that before, yeah.

Okay. And they're taken to a place of judgment. This is consistent with what Jesus says in Matthew 13. He says allow both to go together until the end of the age and the reapers will take them out of his kingdom. First gather the tares. So the first one's taken or the wicked.

They have to fit all of this into their 25, 20 ideology and it's going to be a real problem. Okay. Okay. All right. Thanks, Matt. Okay. All right.

God bless. All right, folks, we have four open lines. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Let's get to Peter from North Carolina.

Peter, welcome. You're on the air. Matt, how are you doing? Doing all right. Hanging in there, buddy.

What do you got? Good. Look, I just heard you talking about Daniel and it's an interesting subject. And, uh, uh, just as an aside before my question, art of Xerxes, Darius, Xerxes, these are appellate tips. Uh, the great King, uh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Darius means the great King. Wait, wait, wait. I have a question. You said they are appellate. What does that mean? Right.

An appellate. It designates a King. You could have two art of Xerxes.

You could mean you could have Xerxes and art of Xerxes. These aren't names that you will find on any inscriptions in Babylon or any other, uh, group. These are a pelleted names, but they don't here. Uh, again, I wouldn't plan on a talk on this. Uh, that's okay. Well, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Okay. So what are you saying that there's different people named this and that, that the decree on March 14th, four 45 VC is the wrong date. Oh yeah.

I think, I think the dates are on too. I mean, I've done it. And as far as I can tell, and I've run every number, I, you know, I come back to four Oh, starting at four Oh four BC. Okay. Um, with Adam and Eve, the garden, but we, again, you and I may disagree about an awful lot of things. I mean, Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter, you need to slow down. And when I, when I want to interrupt, you need to kind of slow down. Okay. So hold on. We've got a break. Okay, buddy.

It's all right. Hey folks, good stuff. Hey folks, four open lines. Give you a call.

Eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the show.

We have four open lines. Uh, interesting day today. So why don't you give me a call? All right.

Eight seven seven two zero seven two two seven six. Let's get back to Peter. Hey Peter, are you there? Yes. All right. I did a little bit of research during the break and there's only one Arctic circus mentioned in scripture. And, uh, uh, so I'm not going to go with the idea that it's just a different ones. Uh, the, uh, commentaries are say just to say there was just one. So, uh, what I'm telling you, what I understand is that, uh, and I, again, I'm kind of off guard.

I'm waiting for my kids to go to soccer now if I could get to the question that I wanted to, but trust me, um, go ahead. Um, a state of Jesus was the King's name. And, uh, uh, again, his wife, Bosch, he was a deal broker by Nebuchadnezzar.

Okay. What's your question? I wonder why I shot wasn't fired when the Babylonian, when the Babylonian empire fell. It's because it is because, um, Nebuchadnezzar believed Daniel. Can you, he believed what Daniel told him. Do you have a question? He believed that the empire would fall, that his children weren't fighters.

Peter, he could not hold it. Peter, any broker, Peter, Peter, I'm not asking you, Peter, I just keep asking you, what's your question though? Okay. Well, the promises of Genesis 16 that Abraham gives and he passes them to, uh, Isaac and then they pass from Isaac to, to Jacob. This is true in the scriptures, right? I don't know. Jacob gets the blessing.

What now? You, we when you say the promises, you don't list them out. And what the references are given to Abraham, the number of the stars of the sky in the stands of the sea, your descendants, you mean his descendancy, right?

His descendants. That was the right, right, right. But again, but this is a particular promise, which again, it didn't, it didn't be fulfilled in Abraham. Wasn't fulfilled. Wasn't not fulfilled in Isaac. Wasn't fulfilled in Jacob.

Wasn't fulfilled. And again, by the time they leave Egypt, these promises pass to one particular person, Ephraim, correct? Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter, you need to provide me scriptures to look at.

You're saying a lot of stuff very fast and I'm not able to look to see the scripture. Okay. So we say, well, again, again, this is pretty common knowledge. All right. We're just going to move along. Okay. Sorry, but we just had to kind of move along there. All right.

Cause now we're just having a lot of problems even communicating. So let's get to John from North Carolina. John, welcome.

You're on the air. Hey, God bless man. I hope you're doing well. I'm doing all right by God's grace.

What do you got buddy? I was wondering if you could give your opinion or your position on whether or not election is a major or a minor issue. And I asked because I've been engaging in a lot of conversations with people who are advocates of fruit with them, but then they'll go to say that unbelief is not forgiven. They'll say that all things forgiven, but you'd have to choose. So it'll be unforgiven.

So it seems like a major issue. Unbelief is forgivable because there are many people who were atheists and unbelievers who then became Christians later on. Unbelief is not the unforgivable sin. Unbelief is not unforgivable.

Okay. So that they'll say what they want to say is unbelief when you die with unbelief. That's unforgivable. Where does it say unbelief when you die in scripture?

No. The issue is the unforgivable sin is Matthew 12, 22 to 32. It's saying that Jesus did his miracles by the power of the enemy.

That's what blasting the Holy Spirit is. This idea that unbelief itself is unforgivable is just not true. So what they're saying is unbelief when you die won't be forgiven.

All they're saying is you died without receiving Christ and that's it. So would you agree that election is a major issue or would you consider it a minor issue? It depends on which context. I guess essential. Is it an essential or a non-essential? It's a non-essential.

Or the unconditional election. It's a non-essential regarding the essentials of the Christian faith. It's not listed as an essential.

And I've done research on this. The Bible, I categorize it into two areas. Primary and secondary essentials. Primary essentials of the faith are those essentials that are declared essentials. For example, Jesus says in John 8, 24, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. So unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. That's an essential doctrine. You've got to believe he's God in flesh.

If you don't, you're going to die in your sins. And so there are several like that, that the scriptures have. And I have an article on this, essential doctrines. And they're monotheism, that one true God, the gospel message, Jesus' resurrection, justification by faith, and Jesus is God in flesh.

These are the main primaries that have a statement plus a warning. The secondaries are like the doctrine of the Trinity, for example. There's no statement in the Bible that says you must believe, unless you believe that there's one God in three persons, you can't be Christian.

It doesn't say that. But the Trinity is derivatively essential because it's describing the true nature of God in his attributes and his nature. The virgin birth is the secondary essential because you can't justify the incarnation without it.

Now election is never said to be an essential doctrine, and nor is election even hinted at, as far as my studies go, as being a secondary essential, in that you derive its necessity. Now the Bible does teach it. I mean, it flat out does. Anyone who denies it, it's, what are you doing?

But it's what it teaches. But there's nothing in there with a warning or derivatively necessary to say that it must be the case, unless people want to put it under the category of justification by faith alone. Then you might be able to make the case in that. But I'm being gracious right now, okay? Yes, sir. I appreciate the clarification. Okay.

If that did help then, because I wasn't sure if it did. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Have a good evening. Okay. All right. We'll go. God bless. All right. You too.

All right. Let's get to Mike from Utah. Hey, Mike. Welcome. You're on the air.

Hey, Matt. Hey, I had some interesting thoughts on Daniel. And I was wanting to get your thoughts on the end of Daniel, with chapter 12, where it talks about the, I think it's 1,290 days, if I'm remembering right after the abomination of desolation is directed in the holy place. Do you believe that was fulfilled with the Maccabees, or do you believe that is something yet to be fulfilled? I suspect it's going to be yet to be fulfilled. Okay.

Got it. I lean towards that. And the reason I've studied eschatology is because people have asked me so many questions. To be honest, it's not one of my interests. I just, it's like, whatever. Fair enough.

It's very interesting to me. Yeah, it is. So the question, because 1,290 days, right? So you can take that 1,290 days divided by seven.

3.07. Okay. Keep going. Sorry. Right.

And it comes out to 184, but it's three, then times 3.5. And then that gives you the, I think they say the mid-year tribulation issue. Yeah. Correct. Yep.

Exactly. Well, it's really interesting. And I guess one thing that you add, I guess, further to the thought is on the day that no man knows the hour, all those things, I find it interesting how God keeps giving really specific numbers. And I do feel like that lean to, he wants us to understand the week, month or year is the way I like to tease it. But you know, the day and hour, are we supposed to try to understand when we're getting really close within the year and looking forward and preparing in those ways? Yes, we are supposed to be preparing. And that phrase, no man knows the day nor the hour has to do with the wedding feast.

It's an idiomatic expression. It doesn't mean that he didn't know the day nor the hour, but it, he's talking about the father's sovereignty and right to say when they will get the bride. So there is that, but here's an issue. If we don't know, that's supposed to know the exact day of the rapture, which I think is biblical position.

Okay. If the rapture happens at the beginning of the tribulation, then all you got to do is just add seven years to that and you get the return of Christ. And you'll know the day of the return exactly. And then that's not supposed to be knowable. So that's an issue.

There's all kinds of issues. I'm post-trip. Okay, good.

Good for you. Well, you know, since we've got nobody waiting right now, what do you think of this stuff about the first ones taken out of the wicked? Okay. So that's a really interesting one. You were talking about that with the Matthew, the wheeze and tears.

Yeah. So the, the one, the reflection I've had on that is he's talking about the children and the way that he talks about it, you think people, but I find it puzzling how he's talking about it. You know, the parable just before is this parable, the sower and the, but it's, it's these ideas because there's no people that were alive at the time of Christ when he was giving that parable that are alive today. So I've looked at that parable.

It's technically not correct. It's been teaching about incorrect ideas and correct ideas being gathered and burned, you know, through the power of the Holy Spirit burned down. Well, I don't see that as being, um, just so you know, everyone back then is still alive today technically, but I know what you mean.

You mean physically alive. Um, so Jesus presented another parable, the kingdom of heaven, maybe compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, et cetera. And then the enemy slight, uh, puts tears in there and he says in verse 30, allow both to go together until the harvest. And in the time of the harvest, I'll see the reapers first gather up the tears and buy them in bundles to burn them up. And then he goes on and he interprets it.

I'm sorry about that. Yeah. And he says, uh, the one who he in verse 37, the one who sows the good seed, the son of man, the field is the world. The good seed are the sons of the kingdom and the tears are the sons of the evil one. And the enemy is the devil. And the harvest is at the end of the age.

The reapers are angels. So as the tears are gathered up and burn with fire, verse 41, the son of man will send his angels. They'll gather out of his kingdom, all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness.

So, and then throw them into the, into the furnace. So that seems to be when it's going to occur, when they're, they're thrown into judgment, um, at that day. Are you with me there?

I hear you. And that's that. I just, I, uh, like I said, I, as I read that, the thing that strikes me is that the sons and children in the world, when you relate it to the other parables that are given, right. You know, kind of bookending that parable, um, were the, were the places that the seeds are being planted as the good things and the bad things are being planted. He's just further illustrating that Satan also plants incorrect ideas. There's good seeds, which is good ideas. The seed being the word of God.

That's not what it is. Yeah. No, the tears are the sons of the evil one. The good seed are the sons of the kingdom. Those are people.

That's Matthew 1338. Okay. Yeah.

Yep. I get you. Okay. Thanks for your time, Matt. All right, man.

God bless. All right, let's get to Jamie really fast. I got, I don't know, 40 seconds.

Jamie. Sure. Are you doing all right? I've got a hustle here.

What do you got buddy? Well, the thing about the diet, the, uh, the air is being taken out of first or whatever. Yeah. The idea.

Well, at least, at least for me, uh, being, uh, thinking the dead are actually not alive when they die. Um, we got a, uh, so they would die. We're at the end of the show. Call back tomorrow. Let's talk about it. Okay. All right. Okay. Sorry about that.

Just the way it is. Hey folks, right at time, may the Lord bless you. And by his grace, look back on there tomorrow.

And tonight I teach a Bible study on baptism. And so you can watch online. If you want to do that, it'll be 9 PM Eastern time. Check it out. God bless. Bye. Another program powered by the truth network.