Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Welcome to the show, Matchlock Live, and let's see, it is June 15th, 2021 for the podcasters, June 15th, 2021.

We have four open lines. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. And I'd like to just let you guys know that there's a kind of a community of people who join during the show in the chat room.

And some are obstreperous, but for the most part, everybody's great. And if you want to participate in that, all you got to do is go to the CARM homepage, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G. Just look in the homepage, you'll see the thing for the show and you can click on it. You can participate. You can type stuff and say hi to people.

Actually, there's some friendships I've developed out of it. So there you go. All right.

Like I said, four open lines, 877-207-2276. And let's see, last night did a discussion debate on total depravity. And I thought it was interesting. I thought it was informative. And if you watched it and you want to comment, give me a call. We could talk about it.

And if not, you have questions about other things. All you got to do is dial 877-207-2276. Oh, one more thing. Prayer ministry, prayer is important, folks. So if you are interested in being prayed for or joining in and being on a prayer team, then just contact us at prayer at CARM dot org.

And one more thing before we get to the callers. Just want to say that we've discovered Google is penalizing CARM website and other Christian websites. It used to be that when you would go to Google and type in the question, what is the Trinity? CARM would be number one or number two or number three on the homepage, on the first page, period.

That's how it was. Now when you go to Google, it's like on the fourth, almost the fifth page. And if you go to Bing and you type in what is the Trinity, CARM's number one or two, Yahoo, the same thing, DuckDuckGo, Dogpile, the same thing. And we know that Google is leftist. And we get a lot to talk about with that. But nevertheless, if you want to find stuff on CARM, all you got to do is just when you go to Google, just type in C-A-R-M in the search and then type in your question and you'll go right to the website.

You can do that. And it's one of the ways to get around that. It's a soft censorship is what they're doing.

CARM was very, very good SEO-wise, search engine optimization, being moved forward and making lots of headway. And now it's being penalized. And we're not the only one. There's other Christian groups that are being penalized. So just let you know about that, okay? Yeah. It's called fairness and also called, that's mockery, or I should say sarcasm.

And it's also unfair. Let's just put it that way. Let's get to Anthony from Oklahoma. Anthony, welcome.

You're on the air. Hey, man. How you doing? Doing all right, man. Hanging in there.

What do you got, buddy? I was talking to somebody at a barbecue and this person told me that the King James Version of the Bible... Yeah, the King James Version of the Bible, yeah. Yeah. Now, you know the King James. This guy told me that King James was a homosexual. Is it true? And if it is true, what do you think about it?

I have no idea. I never heard that. I never heard that before. I never heard that before.

Me either. I looked it up on Google and there's some west sites over there, but I don't know if they're trustworthy, so I wanted to ask you. No, I don't know. I don't know. One of the guys who worked with us, Luke Wayne, he wrote a lot on the King James.

If he's listening, he can call in and get on the air here and tell us if he knows that answer, if that is or is not the case. But I wouldn't be able to tell you off the top of my head. It's new to me. New to me. Yeah, it's new to me, too.

I never heard anything like that. Yeah, there's a lot of idiocy out there, but who knows what that is. And even if he were, it wouldn't mean that the King James Bible is bad. Right, right, right. Yeah.

But I'm not saying he is, but when people say stuff like that, I always ask them. Show me the documentation on that. I'd like to see the documentation. And that's it. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Yep. Okay. All right. Okay.

Because I know God, he always keeps his word in safe hands. He never misleads or lies to anybody. That's right.

He's perfect, but people are not perfect. You got that right. Thank you very much. You're doing a great job of telling the truth and putting the message out there. By God's grace. Thank you very much, and take care, brother.

Well, praise God, brother. All right. Thank you. Okay.

All right. That's Anthony from Oklahoma. Let's get to Tracy from Idaho. Hey, Tracy. Welcome. You're on the air. Hi, Matt. It's great to talk to you.

I've used your ministry often to solve some problems and learn about things. I really appreciate it very much. Good.

I'm curious. Where are you in Idaho? I'm going to call, too. We just moved here at the end of February, and we're kind of between Caldwell and Marston. Oh, you're over there. So we have a Caldwell address. Okay. I forgot you lived here.

When we got here, I was looking up stuff like, oh, this is the radio. Oh, you live here. That's right. That's right. I live in Nampa. Yeah, in Nampa.

And teach a study, too. Yeah. We're going to come on over. But yeah. Okay. Yeah, I must do. It's not too far.

I was sitting one night. Yeah, that's right. I love it. It's great. Okay. So I've got a question. It's really for two friends of mine that are Christians, and it's really difficult to find information or guidance. Mostly you look at the Bible.

We pray. They have, and they've had it all their life. And the only thing it falls into is discernment, maybe a gift of discernment.

Sure. They can see spirit. They know when someone's going to die sometime.

Are these women or men? They're both women, and they have different histories, but they've never really searched it out, per se, to look into things. Like I saw a story from Abigail on your site, Dancing with the Devil.

And she looked for it, but she went to Ouija boards and things like that. But they haven't done that. It just is something they've experienced throughout their lives.

Okay. And I'm just wondering how they don't know. Like, is this from God, or is this something they need to deal with?

Is this a demonic thing? Well... I'll give you an example. Let me give you one example. Okay, sure.

Go ahead. The one gal, she sensed that there was something really big that was going to happen. She didn't know what it was. She knew that something was going to happen. She's just praying, reading her Bible. And there's a verse, I think it's in Isaiah. We wrote it down, but I can't find it. It's about the twin towers falling, like two towers falling.

Within a week, the towers fell in New York. And the only thing I can tell her is that when you have that, you should pray. Whatever is happening, for whatever situation, if you don't know it.

Because she did know what it was, specifically. But, so, I'll let you go ahead and give me some answers. I just feel for them. Okay.

We pray, and it's just frustrating. Well, if I were there, let's say that your two friends and you and I were all in a room together, and we were talking. And they were open to a discussion on this. You know, what I would do is ask them the basic questions. I would ask them doctrinal questions. What do they affirm?

You know, the trinity, the deed of Christ. You know, and make sure they're in orthodoxy, in that sense. And then I would ask other questions as well, if they were ever involved in the occult, and if they have members who might be in the occult and stuff.

I would just ask questions, because it doesn't mean that what they're doing is bad. Because, you know, the gifts of the Spirit, there's debate on whether or not they are for today or not, the charismatic gifts. And my opinion is, yes, they are. I don't see any place in Scripture.

I don't see any place in Scripture that necessitates their cessation. And, so, you know, I have no problem with that. I've prophesied. I remember once, I did it in detail, and it came to pass. It had a couple times word of knowledge on some stuff. And, but, you know, so I'm not saying that that makes it true, but I'm just saying I'm familiar, I understand. So it doesn't mean that these women are bad or good. It's just you have to start asking questions and start seeing and, you know, what's going on and, you know, discern. And if they're godly women who put the word of God first, they're not so sure what they're doing is from God, because it's different.

And they want to subject it to the word of God. Well, then, this is all good stuff. And since I've affirmed the charismatic gifts, I would say, well, then, in that case, this is a real low-level examination, of course. I'd say, well, it seems like it might be from God.

So keep a record book and pray through it and talk to your pastor and your elders and stuff like that. Right. Yeah, that's a good, that's good advice for that. Yeah, they're very unusual people.

They, this thing that they have has affected their lives, you know, and they both have different life experiences. But yeah, that's great. That's great advice.

I will, I will look into that and follow that with them. Here's one thing. Do they boast in their gifting? Do they bring it up and it's a focus in their lives? No, it's more like, it's scary, actually. I mean, some of the things they see, you know, they don't know what to do with that as a child or a teenager.

Okay. You'll have to meet them sometime, you know, seriously. I would love, they would love to be able to talk to you because, honestly, it's almost too much.

They actually do, sometimes they are away from people because it's too much to be around people because there's things everywhere. I tell you what, once you set something up and I can drive out to where you are and we can all, you know, just lie up and talk. Oh, that'd be awesome.

I wish we could do that because I think it would really help them tremendously. One thing is, one's in Colorado, one's in California. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah, I'm the only one here, but I don't know, a conference call or something.

Sure. Yeah, I always like to see them. I always like to see them because I don't know if you know, I'm autistic and so I have Asperger's and so over the years I developed the ability to read body language. You know, I'm pretty good at it.

And so I always like to see people and I'm asking them questions to see their reactions, what they do, because it helps me just read people. I agree. But, you know, if it doesn't work that way, it's okay. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That'd be great. I wish we could do that. Well, okay. And I don't know how we could do it. Tell them to come visit you. Yeah, I know.

I'd have to kind of organize it. Yeah, it's only two hours from Egypt. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Well, you sure? No problem. Yeah. All right. Well, God bless, Tracy.

God bless you too. Thank you. All right.

All right. That's interesting stuff. I like that kind of stuff. You know, the Bible does say in, you know, actually I'm going to read it to you. This is Acts chapter 2 and this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel.

It shall be in the last days, God says, I'll pour forth my spirit in all mankind. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my bond slaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth my spirit and they shall prophesy and it will grant wonders in the skies and signs in the heavens or on the earth below. And it's prophetic. And so I, you know, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm in the minority in the reform camp when it comes to the affirmation of the charismatic gifts, but I most assuredly do affirm them.

Uh, I believe there are for today because of what the scripture says. Hey, we have three open lines and a break coming up. If you want to give me a call at 877-207-2276.

We'll be right back after these messages. It's Matt Slick live, taking a call at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, all you got to do is dial 877-207-2276.

Let's get to Alberto from Georgia. Welcome. You're on the air.

Albert. Yep. You are on. Yep. Okay. Yes. Next link. I'm going to a quick comment about the gentleman, about the E.J. homosexuality thing.

I heard about that about 10, 15 years ago. And my quick comment is why would a homosexual command and godly scholars to translate the Bible into English language and also the English language of the Bible condensed homosexuality. So that would be contrary to that accusation. And then my real question is, first Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13. There has no temptation taking you, but such is in common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above you are able. And by will, the temptation also keep, make a way of schedule, you may be able to bear it. My question is, too, is like earlier heard in the break, nobody wants to take responsibility or blame somebody else. But even here, even still here, we wouldn't blame the sinful nature or the flesh.

My question is, people don't want to excuse that they can't bear the temptation. Okay. Alberto.

Alberto. Okay. You call frequently.

I'm glad you do. But when I ask you, what's your question? You got to formulate a question. Okay.

Okay. My question is, why don't people take the door to escape? Why don't they take the what?

Take the what? Why people don't take the door of escape that God offers? People don't often provide or... Why people don't take the door? Okay.

I got you. Why is it that people don't take the door of escape sometimes? Christians, even, because they're sinners like anybody else. That's why sometimes they don't. Sometimes they're weak.

Okay? That's what it is. Well, they just don't want to take the door of escape because they're weak as sinners. They love to sin. Right?

Yeah. Sometimes people get weak. They get tired. Sometimes people just have a moment of rebellion and stuff. Sometimes they are in a deeper rebellion against God.

And that's it. And sometimes people don't even recognize it. There can be people who are saved and saved in different levels of bondage to old sins.

And I know that's a fact. So I know people who have come out of some pretty tough stuff and they're struggling. And they have struggled against their old ways. And sometimes they never have complete victory. And yet they're still saved. So they can fail in those areas as well.

That's what can happen. What about these Christians who, they're never really unaware. They've been in church for years as a monotony, as a religious thing.

But they're never in the battle of the true spiritual battle. They're not really engaging with anything. You can't say they. Who is the they? There are some who are engaged. Well, in general, the whole church in general, the whole Christian church of Christ, the body of Christ, the majority of them are just going to church as just a routine thing. They're not really engaging with anything.

Alberto, Alberto, Alberto, Alberto, Alberto. You're going to slow down. Okay. All right. Because you're just making these broad statements and we don't know how to respond properly to broad, broad statements that you make sometimes. So you need to have more specific questions. And you have a theme, which I am quite aware of and I tend to agree with, that the Christian church as a whole is not doing what it needs to be doing. And we know that that's the case because America is failing and part of the reason is Christians have not done what they're supposed to be doing. They're too narcissistic.

They're in, they're motivated to satisfy what's in them than to do what's outside of them. And I'm going to be talking about this more. But at any rate, I'm with you, but we can't, we don't know. We're going to be more specific to your questioning. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. But I don't see it really. I've been on track for years and I don't see people on the street doing what church is doing.

I don't see it, to be honest. Hey, where do churches go door to door? I know a church here in the area where they go door to door on Saturdays. Now does it mean that all of them do and it doesn't mean all of them don't or there aren't any or they're the only ones, but we as Christians are supposed to carry out the great commission. And what I think is happening in churches is too much, I always say this the right way because it's the first time I'm saying this publicly is what I'm seeing is a kind of a therapeutic Christianity and narcissistic ideology where worship is to make you feel good, where God is there to help you and the Bible becomes a self help book and he used to cure your problems. It's all internalized, but Jesus gave us the great commission go out into the world and make disciples. And so I think the church at as a whole is doing the opposite of what Christ said to do.

And they turned inward instead of outward. And so they're becoming narcissistic and weak instead of exercising the faith in Christ as they go out into the world making disciples. And now how those particulars work out is another discussion, but this is what I'm seeing. And this is why I think the Christian church as a whole is ineffective because we're not carrying out the great commission.

We're doing something else. We're carrying out the great narcissism in the churches. You know, what can God do for you? How can God heal you?

How can God give you a bigger bank account? Let's go to the church and make me feel good. And it's about how good God can do and how you feel instead of pick up your cross daily, follow after me.

And he goes out into the world. We're to follow Christ out into the world as he goes out forward. And the Bible says in Philippians 1 29 that God has even granted that we have persecutions and sufferings out there as we go. And people don't want those so they sit home and they fill the void with therapeutic Christianity. You know, it's a therapy book, the seven steps to a better whatever. And it's not biblical.

It's not biblical. And this is what Christianity is largely becomes in a lot of areas, at least here in America. So this is what I'm thinking about and formulating. So it's along the lines of what you're saying too. Okay. You're right. Thank you, sir. Thank you for spending time with me. Thank you. All right, man. God bless, buddy.

Okay. Hey folks, if you want to give me a call for big open lines, 877-2072276. Let's get to Scott from Greensboro, North Carolina. Scott, welcome. You're on the air.

Hi, Matt. I want to know what the Bible teaches about brother marrying his brother's widow or vice versa for a woman. Wow. Those are Old Testament laws. He's not supposed to marry.

I just read about this recently, believe it or not. He's not too, I'm trying to remember, because there's nuances about this. There's not to marry. I can't remember. You know what?

Sometimes you just say it and it comes back, but it's not coming back. So I don't believe that he's supposed to marry his brother's widow. But there are cases in the Old Testament where he would in order to bring up seed in the name of his brother. So yeah, it can be done. Hold on. We've got a break. Okay. Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, Scott, are you still there?

I'm still here. All right. So I did a little research during the break and Leviticus 20, 21 says, if there is a man who takes his brother's wife, it is abhorrent. He has uncovered his brother's nakedness. They shall be childless in Deuteronomy 25, five, when brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. So in one sense, it's not allowed.

In another sense, it is. And the issue seems to be over the issue of children. If a brother, okay, there's a theological reason for this too. It has to do with the right of redemption, the land of redemption and the progeny because in the culture, if they didn't have any children, they were considered cursed of God. Just the way it was looked at. And so if a husband, two brothers and one brother married a woman and then that brother died, then because there were no children, the surviving brother was to go into his ex, the widow, marriage and raise up children for the name of the brother and the children would be considered the brother's descendants. And so this was a custom that was done and that was when it was allowed.

Otherwise, just to marry somebody else, the brother's wife wasn't to be allowed unless it was at exception. Okay. Okay. I was just curious. My wife and I have been watching some shows and reading about King Henry VIII and his dilemma he was in and so it just kind of brought it to mind. Yeah.

Well, it's an important question and it's in there in scriptures in Leviticus 2021 and Deuteronomy 25.5. So there you go. All right. All right then. Thank you, Matt. All right, man. Well, God bless. Okay.

All right. Hey folks, you want to give me a call to open lines 877-207-2276. Rob from Utah. Rob, welcome. You're on the air.

Hi, Matt. I appreciate your stand for the gospel and the ministry God's given you. By God's grace only, then praise God. So what do you got, buddy? Absolutely. 2 Corinthians 13, 5, it says to examine ourselves and then to prove our own selves.

What do we really prove and how do we know that we sufficiently proved our own selves? Well, he's talking there, you know, he's talking to the Corinthians because the Corinthian church was pretty stinking bad. And he's a Corinthian. That was like saying he was really a vile sinner. I mean, Corinthians were known for their debauchery, their evil, immorality. And so it'd be a real insult. You're just like a Corinthian. Whoa, those are fighting words. And so he's talking about this and people are coming to the faith, but you make sure they're in the faith because they didn't have, like we do, the internet, systematic theologies, phone calls, pastors, and all this stuff that they can go to and ask all these questions.

It was still forming. And so you better examine yourself. Well, what do they examine themselves with? Well, there's main ways. The two main ways are doctrinal and practical. So in the doctrinal, do they confess that Jesus Christ is God in flesh, died on the cross, risen from the dead, salvation by grace to faith alone in Christ alone, stuff like that. And then the practical would be how they work it out in their lives. Are they practicing homosexuality or are they practicing fornication?

Well, if you are, then maybe you're not a Christian, you know. So these kinds of things to examine yourself, to test yourself, to make sure, and that's what should be done. Just it should be. Okay. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Hope that helped. All right, buddy. God bless.

All right. Hey folks, give me a call. Three open lines, 877-207-2276. Let's get to Sandy from Iowa. Sandy, welcome. You're on the air. Thank you.

Thank you. I've never done this before, so I'm kind of nervous, but I have a question about heaven and hell. Not that I don't believe it's real. I believe it's very real, very scripturally found to believe that.

But when it talks about, you know, getting to heaven requires faith in Jesus. So what happens to babies that die? We don't know.

The Bible doesn't say. And my wife and I lost a baby right after, shortly after birth. I've lost two.

You did too? I've lost two. Well, my heart just, you know, it hurts with you. Thank you. Yeah, it's just, yeah.

It's been many years and I've had five others. But it's just something that has always in my mind, I have two children to meet when I get to heaven. And I just believe that, but I would like to back it up with scripture.

But you're kind of saying I can't, right? Well, you see, my opinion is that all children who die in infancy go to heaven. I cannot back it up in scripture.

I cannot prove it. Now, we get into some theological issues and say that covenantal children are sanctified in the parents. We go to 1 Corinthians 7 and it talks about the unbelieving spouse is sanctified through the believing spouse. Then there's a doctrine called federal headship, where the male represents the descendants. And so the children are counted in the father.

And if the father is not present, then it kind of falls to the mom. And so there's a sense in which children are sanctified through the believing parent. Sanctification doesn't mean that they're saved. Plus David, when he lost his son, he says, I know I shall see him. And so that's a support for, at the very least, covenantal faithfulness of God to the children of them.

Can we extrapolate it out to non-believers? We don't know. And so if children go to heaven, then it's because it's what's right before God. If any of them go to hell, then it's what's right before God.

But we just don't know. And so we have to be careful. But I just hold to that position because I literally carried the body of my son to the grave. And it's an emotional scar that has affected my judgment in that area. And I just rest on the side of God's grace. And when I get to heaven, I'll be corrected.

Or maybe I'm right. And it's up to God, though. But I trust I will see my son again and our miscarriage child. And we had a couple of daughters at the time. We had a miscarriage.

And two or three weeks later, one of our daughters just walked up to us and said, God told me his name was Isaiah. Okay. Okay. All right.

So what are you going to do? Well, thank you. Well, I'll probably wrestle with it the rest of my life. But I choose to believe for now that I will have two children to meet in heaven. And if that's not the case, I believe heaven is a perfect place. So therefore, I won't be thinking about it anymore.

That makes any sense at all. It absolutely makes sense. And you are very wise in that.

Absolutely correct. So good for you. I hold the same position. I appreciate your ministry.

I've never heard it before. And I'm traveling today. And you know, one of those divine appointments. So I appreciate what you're doing and I appreciate your words. And I'm going to go read some more about David. Okay. Well, please do.

You can also go to my website, karm.org, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G. And you can just type in karm, for example, did children go to heaven? And I've written an article on that. Okay. Okay.

I will do that. All right. Thank you very much. You're welcome very much. God bless.

All right. You know, before we get to things, which we will in a second, we've got a break coming up. Let me just say that I know that a lot of people have lost children. And I'm trying to be very sensitive to that.

Having lost a child. And, you know, I just want to say that God is with them. God is with us in our hearts. And the pain is real, just as God the Father watched his son Christ die.

And God knows. And yet somehow, some way, there's always comfort in our hearts when we put our trust in the Lord. As I like to say, you know, I trust him beyond my ability to understand. I choose to trust my Lord and to say he has reasons to permit what he does.

He hasn't given me answers, but it's okay because he's the sovereign king. And that's how we move forward. My sympathy to all of you, all of us who've lost children.

All right. Hey, folks, we have four open lines. Give me a call. 877-207-2276. We'll be right back after these messages.

877-207-2276. Devin from Idaho, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt. Long time no talk. How are you? I'm doing all right, man. Hanging in there.

Where do you go, buddy? So I called yesterday because I was just curious on your thoughts on this. So regarding the paranormal, I was just curious, as long as they're not engaging in it, like through via seances or, you know, like just going, talking to the quote unquote spirits, can they like go to a, let's say a haunted house or an alleged haunted area and just investigate it, but not, you know, talk to whatever's there?

Yeah, you certainly can. So I read, you know, Mormonism and it's a non-Christian religion. I read Jehovah's Witnesses, non-Christian. I read Roman Catholic stuff. You know, it's a false religion system.

So you can study those things as long as you don't practice what it is that they do. And in particular with the occult, having been involved with it before it became a Christian. When you start studying the occult, there's more demonic activity than there is associated with Mormonism.

Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science Unity, Islam, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and things like that. And so you have to be prayed up and ready. Would I go to a haunted house?

Absolutely. In fact, before I moved from Orange County, California to San Diego to go to seminary, one of my brother's really good friends, he never told me this until the day I was little. Dude, why are you telling me this?

Apparently his house was haunted and it has been studied by some of the top paranormal experts. And he was telling me stuff and I'm staring at him. He says, I thought you knew about this. I said, I never knew about this.

I would have gone over. But nevertheless, you know, you can do this, but you just have to be well prepared, prayed up and you have to have a team of people willing to pray with you about it for protection because you're stirring the pot when you do that. Yeah. The reason why I ask is also because I work at a school and so I work with children and allegedly there's like three quote unquote spirits that are there and I've actually have witnessed some weird stuff going on. Like I was grabbed a little bit one time when I was serving the kids like, you know, forks and stuff, whatever for their meals and stuff. And then I also saw yesterday when we were doing dodgeball in the gym, I saw a red ball move twice by itself and you have to have some weight to it. You have to literally sit there and wave at it, you know, in order to actually make it move with your own air. So there's no possible way, you know, and I already checked, there was no breeze coming through, so it was weird. Yeah, things like that, I don't put too much credence in, not to say it was or was anything paranormal, but paranormal stuff to see, I've seen stuff, there's absolutely no way that it was just a trick of the eye with witnesses.

But, you know, a ball moving, I don't put anything in that because there's all kinds of factors that can go into physical phenomena. Right, right. So, you know, it's just, people can see. A friend of mine, we went to a Buddhist convention in Anaheim, California, across the street from Disneyland at the Anaheim Convention Center. And the short story is while they were chanting their crud, he and I both felt on our arms, we felt the same thing, we felt as though hands were holding us down and touching us. We both felt it.

It wasn't like just us, you know, the chilly willies, it was a physical pressure and we both felt it and we ended up leaving. And I believe it was a demonic manifestation because of the Buddhist chanting that they were doing. You know, we live in a spiritual world and the physical world is part of it, but it's not the only thing that is there. And we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities of darkness. Ephesians 6, 12 says, so we've got to be careful, we've got to work, we've got to be aware of this stuff. And it's okay to study it, just be very careful. I warn people, if you start studying the occult, you better be ready.

You better be ready. In fact, I'll give you an example of something. When I was doing my section on Wicca, which is occultism, it's a form of witchcraft and very bad stuff, I got a bunch of books in the mail on Wicca and I got them and I prayed over them. I laid hands on them and prayed over them. And that night, I had one of the most horrifying nightmares I've ever had. Woke up, I still don't remember it, looking over at those books and just, you know, Lord, you know, it's begun. And two days later, I was on the freeway and one of my tires exploded.

And then two or three days later after that, I was on the Boise River, got ejected out of the raft and landed, not just in the water, on rocks in the middle of the river, the only place it was. And, you know, it took me a couple months to recover from that. And this all happened very quickly. I had to pray over those books again, you know, and you gotta be careful. This stuff, this stuff is, it'll mess with you. You gotta be ready. Yeah. Yeah. And real quick though, not only has, you know, we see, I saw a ball move, but also there was some of the other people that I worked with and some of the staff of the school, like teachers and stuff, they've had some weird stuff happen too.

So it's not just, you know, me. The one time yesterday they, the staff of my area that I work with, they said that they saw the door open and closed by itself. And one of the kids said that they heard whistling in the cafeteria and there was nobody in there. Well, the thing to do then is check out the location, what the buildings have been done.

Here's how it works. You have to look for doors, past doors that may still slightly be open through people's practices and occult things on that physical location. If there's nothing in the history of the physical location that you can discover, then you have to look outward at people who are involved in the occult who might be, let's just say, doing things on purpose in that location and praying. You can even have people in false religions praying like Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, you know, they could be praying for the work of their God to work in that school or whatever it is, and they don't realize they're praying to demonic forces and could be activating and opening demonic doors in that sense. So it takes some work to work through it. So one of the things that can be done is to pray through the entire building and have people, Christians, do it and anoint a place with oil. You can do it after hours and things like that.

Yeah, that's pretty good for sure. Yeah, I do know, sorry, that I think apparently there was a property that was there before the school was built, and even the construction workers had some weird stuff happen to them, but apparently there was a murder or suicide or something. I don't know the entire story.

That's also something crazy to me. In the case of the Indians that were here in the area, a lot of the tribes and stuff were involved heavily in animism, which is very occultic and, you know, spirit guides, animal spirit guides, this is very seriously occultic, and so those can open up doors too. You know, when I talk about this on the radio, it sounds wacky, but having been involved with it, having seen things, over the years I've read and studied and am aware of things, you know, in this, and when I teach on it in a church, I have to get permission from the staff, the eldership, to make sure that I can say certain things. I tell them, this is what I'll talk about, you know, because it's a serious thing. And once when I was doing, one of my favorite stories is I was teaching a kind of a youth group, college and career group, and I thought it was a high school group, that's right, high school group, and they were fascinated. I was telling them stories, I'd already had permission to tell all the stories and the whole bit, and they, you know, these girls and guys were in the front rows, they were just entranced with the stories I was telling them, and I paused, and they were all just, everybody staring, and just to do it, I pointed forward at the girls and went, and yelled out, What's that?

And they all screamed, and everybody laughed, because it was, you know, it was fun. So, okay. Yeah, I've definitely had my fair share of weird stuff in my life, you know, that's why, you know, it's interesting to me, and I enjoy like watching speech videos and stuff, you know, because it's just, it's something that I've also witnessed too. Yeah, it's a powerful thing, be careful.

I would go into it and study it. I would go to those places, I'm called to do those kinds of things, but for the average Joe, you better be ready. Yeah, you better be ready. All right? Yeah, all right. God bless, man. All right, Devon. All right. Interesting topic.

And yes, folks, before I was a Christian, yep, I was involved in the occult, necromancy, astral projection, aura reading, energy movement, spiritism, table tilting, all kinds of stupidity, and wow, I got stories. Okay, let's see, let's get to Jay from Rochester, New York. Jay, welcome, you're on the air. Matt, you think you're so slick, what's up? Hey man, how you doing, buddy?

Doing good, doing good. All right, sure. All right, I think it's a ridiculous question, because it's another one of those attacks against the Reformed theology, against baptism in general, but also against once they've always saved doctrine. I'm hearing a lot about this argument that the doctrine of eternal security was something that was fairly new to the church, like something introduced after August being, so on and so forth. I think I talked briefly to you about this when you had your open room the other day, and you said the same thing, not what I would have said. You said, well, what about the Bible?

I mean, what about the you know, the Bible talks about eternal security and predestination, so I just want to get a little bit more in-depth response to that question. Yeah, I've mentioned, or I've had that as well, particularly Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, because they like to put so much credence in the early church. So what I'll say to them is, I'd like to take them to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, where it talks about the arrival of the Antichrist, and Paul says there, he says, did I not tell you these things?

Don't you remember this? And he's saying this because now he has to write it down. So they're already getting things wrong right away. Even when the Apostles are still there, the oral tradition that he had given them wasn't sufficient.

It had to be written down. So when people say the early church fathers didn't believe this, I'll say, well, I don't know if that's the case, because I have to look and see about early church fathers and what they did or did not believe in certain aspects, because now I'm finding out the early church fathers believed in charismatic gifts, and I'm going to research that. So I say, look, you can't say, ask them, have you read all the church fathers? Well, no. Have you researched it? Well, no.

Then don't tell me this is the case. And besides that, Jesus taught eternal security, John 6, 37 through 40. So go back to what Jesus says, and I show it to them. Of course, they always want to argue with Jesus. No, he didn't.

Yes, he did. And I show it to them. So, you know, it's just people who are trying to find the idol to bow before, and they want to be secure in their idolatry with their early church fathers. But the church fathers are the ones.

You've got to go with them, not the Bible. Oh, I'm out of time. Call back tomorrow, OK, buddy? Call back tomorrow, buddy. OK, no problem. And I'm slicker than you are, so there. Oh, let's see.

Jay and I go back a ways. Hey, folks, by God's grace, we'll be back on here tomorrow. May the Lord bless you. Have a great evening. We'll talk to you tomorrow. God bless. Bye. Another program powered by the Truth Network.