Matt Slick Live

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I'm trying to... I've come across rather different views as far as the Bible, the infallibility of the Bible, with the modern versions. And David W. Daniels has done a lot of research.

And it's a cost for concern because, like the new NASB, would you say it's infallible? Let's talk about what this means first, because a lot of people don't quite get it. Let's talk about inspiration first. Inspiration is a word that occurs once. It's inspired of God, 2 Timothy 3.16, Theopneustos. It only occurs once in the entire Bible. And it's in reference to the Scriptures. So what this means is that the Scriptures that the Church recognizes... The Church does not give us the Bible. It recognizes the Scriptures. So when John the Apostle, for example, finished writing the Gospel of John, it didn't become Scripture if the Church decided it was.

It already was. It's the nature of inspiration of God's work through a person. So we call these original writings, we call them the autographs. That's just what they're called in this discussion. They're called the autographs.

Autographs are inerrant and inspired. There's nothing in them that is bad or false or contradictory, period. All right, now, what happens is the Bible gets copied. And what we mean by that actually is the documents get copied.

Well, the thing about Hebrew in the Old Testament and Greek in the New Testament is that in both... And we'll just talk about the New Testament, for example. But the Greek letters are also numbers. So when you write a word, you're also writing a set of numbers. And so what they would do when they would copy codices or pages, they would copy left to right and line by line, and they would copy exactly one letter at a time.

Not word at a time by memory, but one letter at a time. And so when they did this, they would copy very carefully. And then they would add up the numbers on the copy, because the letters are also numbers, and they have to match with the original. If they did not, say there was a guy sneezed and missed something or whatever it is, then the copy that had a slight error might be a single letter, like the word ha in Greek, which is the word the. It's a single letter with a comma over the top of it. Well, that could flake off, or a person could miss it, you know, people to get tired.

And this didn't happen very often, because they would do these checks. Now, what we have here are the result of this procedure is New Testament alone. It's something like 99.85% textual identical stuff, and all the copies of 6,000 different manuscripts.

It's very, very, very well preserved. Now, we have to ask a question. When Jesus, for example, says I am in John 8.58, ego, Amy. And he says before Abraham was I am. Literally in the Greek, ego is the word I, and Amy is I am. So now what we literally have in the Greek is I, I am. That's what it literally says.

But we don't talk like that in English, we say I am, and that's fine. Now, is it an accurate translation? The answer is absolutely yes. Is it word for word exact? In this case, no.

It's like in Spanish. Can I ask you a question? Go ahead. I don't mean to interrupt.

That's all right. In the NASB, for example, Psalm 78.36. Yeah. God, yeah, it says that they deceived him.

And God can't be deceived. Right. Now, King James, yeah. Now, King James would say that they flattered him.

Yeah, as does the ESV. And they lied. Right. And so the Hebrew word there, I was going to get to this point about translations, okay? Because when we translate, we have to translate something that's accurate. And so what do you do with a word like that? Which is you put two in Hebrew. Well, what it means, and it occurs many times, but it talks about it's persuade and deceive, allure and large, once silly, to be spacious, open.

So what do they say? Now, when they say they deceived, it was like tempting God. Well, God can't be tempted, right? The Bible will say he was tempted. Well, the illustration I use is... So it's okay to use deceive there?

Yes. Because, if you understand what's going on, is that they were trying to deceive him, but it didn't work. And they lied to him. Well, I mean, there's many, many, many... Let's stick with one at a time. Well, okay, so what about when it says the only begotten God? Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

One thing at a time. The verse also says in Psalm 78, 36, and lied to him with their tongue. So they lied to God, they tried to deceive God is what's going on, but it didn't work, because he can't be actually deceived. Just as someone says they tempt God, but God can't be tempted. There's different senses in which temptation can be understood. They tried to tempt him, but he wasn't tempted internally. Well, it doesn't say they tried to deceive him.

I know. Well, I mean, what about the only begotten God instead of the only begotten son in John 1.18? You've got a problem there with only begotten God. Can I ask what church you go to? Well, you're not answering me. I am going to answer you, and I'd like to cater my answers to the person that's answering the question. Do you go to church?

I have a disability. I can't go to church. I was with a Baptist. Okay. Do you believe that Jesus is God in flesh?

Just curious. Yes, of course. Okay, all right. Sometimes atheists call up when they do, I'm not calling you that. They sometimes call up and they do that very thing, and they are deceptive. I'm not saying you are.

I get to ask. But there are what's called textual variants, okay? And a textual variant is no one seeing God anytime, the only begotten God in the bosom of the Father. And some say begotten son, but the older manuscript will say God. Well, the problem, and I'm not trying to be, I'm trying, because this is very critical, and most people just are not aware, but to say only begotten God suggests that he wasn't God prior. No, it doesn't suggest that. He wasn't preexistent.

No, it doesn't suggest that at all. Only begotten is a title of authority and position that's transferable. Jacob and Esau had their titles switched, or ephraim and menasse, I should say. One was the firstborn and one was not. Only begotten, here what we have here is monogonase. And it's a contraction of two words, mono and gono, only and beget. And when you contract them together, only begotten, you also get the word unique. And so the word God here seems to be in the oldest manuscripts. And because it says...

I mean, I know you probably have it. I know in seminary, apparently, because the guy that researched this... What's your question? He came from Fuller Seminary. Fuller is no good. Fuller is no good.

Well, I guess it was conservative anyhow. No, no, no. Hold on. We've got a break.

Fuller is a very liberal seminary and they work against orthodoxy in a lot of ways. So hold on. We'll be right back after these messages, folks. Please stay tuned to Open Lines 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. Music It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

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

Let's get back to Miss Anonymous. Are you still there? Yes. All right. So what were you saying? Well, I know the King James.

You know, I would say it's an errand. But it comes from different... It comes from Antiochians. At the received tax... As opposed to the modern version, which comes through the Alexandrians. It says Sinaiticus. So let me ask you, are you doubting God's word now? Oh, not the King James. Not the one that's... No, no, no. Are you King James only person?

Well, I understand that that's the latest product of that line. Okay, I'm asking you a question. Are you a King James only person, which holds to the idea... Ma'am, ma'am, I'm trying to ask you a question.

I'm asking you, are you King James only person, which means that the King James is the only true Bible in English. Is that your position? Is that your position? It either is your position or it's not your position. You just tell me which it is. Well, you have to qualify... Do you affirm that the King James in the English is the only true English translation? That's the question.

You say yes or you say no? That's around to now. That's around to now, yes. Okay. So this is what you're doing. You get in.

In order to try and establish King James only ideology by tackling... Wait, wait, wait. Yes, you are. No, no, no, no, no, no.

No, no, no. Okay, I had to put you on hold because you're not letting me finish my sentences. You're trying to dominate, and I really don't appreciate that on the radio show. So ma'am, I would just ask that you be a little bit more patient and less difficult, okay? Are you there? I'm here. Okay.

See, I had to ask you the same question several times, and whenever I have to ask someone the same question several times, and they hem and haw about it, that causes warning flags to go up. I thought I explained. What you did, what you're doing is attacking a textual variance, and then the modern ones, and you're going with King James. Let me ask you, do you read the original King James? Do you read the original King James?

The original, essentially. No, you don't because the 1611 version you don't read. Do you know? No, I don't.

Okay, ma'am, do you know that it's altered since 1611? Are you familiar with it? Are you familiar with it? Change. Changes.

You're not familiar with it? Yes. Okay, you are. Oh, okay.

I'll give you a homework assignment if you'd like, okay? And this is on a text that the King James Bible absolutely, unequivocally gets wrong in its translation. It's Romans 5.18. See, what you did, I'm a little miffed about this, is you get in and start asking these questions, and I had to ask if you're an atheist, because you're attacking God's word, and then you say, well, the King James is the one. I'm not attacking God. Yes, you are attacking God's word. Yes, you are. Are you aware that modern versions absolutely contradict?

See, here you go. I say something, and you ignore it and go to something else. I'm not attacking God's word. I'm trying to defend it. You're trying to defend it? Well, then why don't you answer my questions directly instead of pushing an agenda?

You say you're trying to defend God's word. No, no, no. I'm not. Okay, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. We're done.

If she continues to interrupt me like that, I'm just not going to continue with that, and it's too bad, because we could have had an interesting conversation, but I don't have much patience with people who just want to continually interrupt. Let's get to Michael from Raleigh, North Carolina. We lost Michael. Let's get to Oliver from Maine. Hey, Oliver.

Welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Mike.

Sorry, Matt. How are you? I'm okay.

How are you? Good. So I had a question about some struggles I've been going through with doubt.

All right. I'll do my best to explain it, because I don't completely understand it, but for some reason, out of nowhere, doubts have just been hitting hard for the last four months. I've debated all sorts of people online.

I've never had a struggle with answering questions. I'm pretty sure I've seen everything. Well, not everything, of course, but the argument that comes up against God I thought I'd probably come up against in the meantime. But for some reason, doubts just hit, and they're based off of nothing.

So I was just wondering if there's any wisdom you could give in this, anything from the scripture, because I don't understand what's happening. Well, can I ask you some questions here? They're a little diagnostic, if that's okay. So can I ask how old you are? I'm 21. 21. All right.

And are you living on your own? I actually was just recently married. Oh, really? Good. Congratulations.

Originally married. Good for you. Thank you. All right.

Is your wife a Christian? Yes. Okay. And are you going to church? Yes.

Can I ask what kind? I'm sorry? I'm actually a deacon at the church where I go. Oh, okay. Wow. Wow, good. Can I ask what kind of church, like A.G., Baptist, you know?

It's a Baptist church. Okay, okay. Okay, so the reason I was asking the questions is not to get too personal, but this is going to sound a little off, but bear with me, all right? The male brain is not fully matured until about the age of 25. I'm not disregarding your issues. We're going to talk about something here. And it's just the way it is, okay? The female brain is developed around fully about 22, 23 years old. Okay, it's just the way it is. And so a lot of times what happens is for no reason we'll start thinking things at that age. And it's like, where did that come from?

And what am I feeling like this? It doesn't make sense. This is part, in part, it's part of what happens with the male brain. There's also a phenomenon called, and I'll just see if this happened to you, usually happens in the late teens in males, if it happens at all. It's called disassociation.

And it's when you kind of feel as though you're there but not there at the same time. Did that ever occur to you? Just curious. Well, actually that's kind of funny. Something similar to that.

Back in high school I'd get messed with quite a bit and I eventually learned to just shut my emotion off. Oh, interesting. All right. And what's interesting is that this started with I couldn't feel my face.

And then it went into, yeah. Okay, good. Well, I've given you that other information because I want you to understand that sometimes what you're going through is just normal.

And I'm not going to talk about the other stuff too, but sometimes it's just normal because we're guys and we're not fully developed mentally. Don't tell your wife I said that because she'll use it against you, okay? All right? All right. Not that my wife ever would, you know, because she still thinks my frontal lobes aren't fully developed, but that's another issue. Okay, so we've got a break.

It's a good point. And then we'll get into the spiritual aspect of it about feeling your religion, so to speak, okay? We'll get back, all right? Okay. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Okay. Hey, welcome back, everybody.

Oliver, are you still there? Yes. Okay. All right, so I gave you some background stuff, just something to think about because that can be helpful, believe it or not. But here's something else. Feeling your faith is good and bad.

If your faith is dependent on your feelings, then it's not dependent upon the resurrection of Christ. And sometimes what God does is He allows us to go through a desert. And if you imagine walking into a desert, you've got your hat and your backpack full of stuff, your canteens, and you're walking across this long desert.

And by the time you get out, you're not carrying much because you're exhausted. And it's kind of like that when we enter a spiritual desert. God sometimes doesn't speak to us.

Sometimes it's because of a change we're going through in our bodies, and that happens, or food, and we might have an allergy that's causing us certain things, or it might be new stress, might be getting married and realizing you've got more emotions to deal with than you realize and all kinds of stuff. But sometimes it's just a spiritual thing and God lets you alone for a while. And that happened to me for five years. And I went through this desert for five years. And when I came out of it, the only thing that was left that I was carrying was do I believe that Christ died on that cross and rose from the dead or not.

And the answer was yes, I do. And it was after that that I realized that my faith was too much based on experiences and not in my trust in who Jesus is and what He's done. Because if it's in what He's done and who He is, it doesn't matter how I feel, it doesn't matter where I am, then my faith is strong. And sometimes God will do that to us so that our faith gets purified and perfected and strengthened. It could be what's happening to you.

I'm not saying it is, but it could be. Yeah, and what horrifies me about what... It's been to a point where I physically am in agony because of a spiritual... I feel like I'm going to throw up sometimes.

It's so bad. Does your wife know about this? Yeah, I have some close brothers who know about what I'm going through and my wife as well. Are you sleeping well? Yeah, yeah, kind of.

Are you eating right? Yeah, I think so. If you don't get enough sleep, it can really have a mess-up effect on you. So the magnitude of this is that what's being attacked is like the foundational truth of Christianity. I don't understand why.

It's with the power of an online atheist, which, as I'm sure you know, the arguments are like, no, for no reason in my head. I have no idea why. I'll go and I'll think about it.

I'll go and I'll think about it and examine it. I'm like, what's going on? Why? And it's just like this flimsy argument, but for some... It's not even an argument. It's just the emotion of doubt. And for some reason, it's like it's some 800-pound gorilla holding me in a chokehold.

I don't understand. Well, you have to understand this, that also that there are demonic forces out there. You should read my novel, The Influence.

You can get it on Amazon. But I talk about spiritual battles and things like this in the novel. But sometimes when you deal with those who are against the faith, it can have an injuring effect on you because it's so negative.

And to encounter people who are very negative, there's a demonic attachment to it, and it can affect you. The reason I asked if your wife knows about this is because you need to lean on her in certain areas of spiritual strength. That's why we have spouses. And you're still the spiritual leader.

You need to still be that. But sometimes wives just have insights and abilities that we men just don't get. And you could just say, I'm going to pray with you when you pray for me and things like that. And you just go talk to her and voice it. And a lot of times when you voice something, by voicing it, you're controlling it, and it has no power, so to speak. It's a psychological thing. There are lots of things about this. You're not the only one that's gone through this. Trust me.

Yeah. What I've been really looking for is because a lot of the people I know that I've been talking to haven't quite experienced this. So if there's any scriptures to you to just point me to, I'm looking just to see some scriptures that can help me. Well, try Matthew 7 and Philippians 4.

Okay? Matthew 7 and Philippians 4. And just read through those and see if they help you at all. But you have to start asking yourself, what is your faith based on? Is it based on your feelings, your experiences, or is it based on resurrection of Christ who died on that cross and rose from the dead? Did he really rise from the dead or not? That's what you have to really get to.

Because if he didn't rise from the dead, Christianity is false. Period. It is. That's the hard part of it. I'll repeat those truths in my mind, and for some reason that will just land. Of course. All I can do is repeat those truths. You're a sinner. Welcome to the club. You'll be praying. All of a sudden, where did that come from, some bad thought? And stuff like this.

It's just part of us. And you're going to have to go through it to get to the other side, and you'll be strengthened through it if you keep your eyes on Jesus and that resurrection. Did he rise from the dead? Yes, he did.

The eyewitnesses said so. It doesn't matter what you feel. I'm not saying your feelings aren't important. I'm not saying just disregard them. You need to address them and to deal with it.

But I'm saying in comparison to the fact of his resurrection, your feelings don't have any bearing on that truth. You need to learn how to separate them. It's okay to struggle. It's okay to struggle. It's okay to go through it. It's all right.

You just sound normal to me. Seriously. All right? I've been through it.

I know others who have. Okay? We'll call back in a while.

Tell me how you're doing. All right, ma'am. I will. Okay. God bless. Folks, three open lines, 877-207-2276.

Kim from Murrell Hall, North Carolina. Welcome. You're back on the air. Thank you, Matt. I've been listening to Luke, and my question is, why would John the Baptist send his disciples to Jesus and basically ask him if he were the Messiah? Well, for one thing, it's probably because a prophet's not without glory except in his own home.

I forgot what verse that is. But you've got to remember that John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin, and so he knew him, grew up with him. Like, wait, you're the one? It's like if my brother all of a sudden was some super famous world whatever, like, you? How is that possible?

I know you. So it's this kind of a thing, and it's probably what it was. And it might also have been that there's some theories, but it could have been that John was expecting something a little bit different as a lot of people were, a deliverer from the oppression of Rome, and they missed the truth of the Messiah and that he was coming not as a warrior but as a suffering servant. So it could be that as well. But now, Jesus knew that John was filled with the Holy Spirit from the moon. Correct?

Yep. So he knew what his purpose was. He even proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah. So what happened? Did he lose faith?

No. Just because you have the Holy Spirit in you doesn't mean you can't have a doubt or get something wrong. The Holy Spirit was in him and commissioned him and drew him to do a certain thing. It doesn't mean that he's without error. It does not mean everything he does is going to be right and that he's going to understand everything. He wasn't inspired like Jesus was and is. So don't give him too much credit. Of course, he was incredibly blessed.

He's the greatest and the last prophet. But why would he not recognize at one point? Probably because it has something to do with my belief or my suspicion, the issue of familiarity and also of an expectation of deliverance from the Roman oppression.

Because you've got to remember, because he was in jail and he was under duress, it doesn't mean that he's not going to be affected by that. So, okay. You there? Yeah. Well, thank you, Matt. God bless you. God bless you, Kim. Keep calling.

All right. Hey, let's get on the phones with Kevin from Upstate New York right after the break. We'll put him on hold and we'll come back and get to him. Hey, folks, we have three open lines. Give me a call. 877-207-2276.

We'll be right back after these messages. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show.

Two open lines, 877-207-2276. Let's get back on the air with Kevin from Upstate New York. Hey, welcome, man. You're back on the air.

Are you there? Hi, Matt. How are you doing, brother? Doing all right. Hang in there.

Where do you got, man? Yeah. So I have a Christian buddy of mine who is convinced that saving faith is a gift from God. And we'll go to Ephesians 2, it says, for by faith through grace you have been saved as the gift of God, not of sin.

Right? So from my point of view, it's salvation that's the gift. He's saying it's faith and the salvation that's the gift.

What are your thoughts on that? Ephesians 2, 8 sometimes is understood to mean the faith of Christ. But just so you know, God grants that we believe, Philippians 1, 29. And in John 6, 28, 29, our believing is the work of God.

So even our belief is something given to us by God. Okay? Are you familiar with that? No, I thought all humanity had the ability to trust things.

I thought people put their trust in the wrong thing. Nope. Nope.

Nope. So I'll quote those references once the first time through. But the unbeliever is a slave of sin, Romans 6, 14 through 20. He's a hater of God who does not seek for God and does no good, Romans 3, 10, 11, and 12. He cannot receive spiritual things, 1 Corinthians 2, 14. He's dead in his trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2, 1. He's by nature a child of damnation, Ephesians 2, 3. His heart's desperately wicked and deceitful, Jeremiah 17, 9. Okay? Now, how does someone like that who is a hater of God, doesn't do any good, doesn't seek for God, is dead in his sins, a slave of sin, and cannot receive spiritual things, how does he freely choose God?

But he can't. Right? Are you with me? Are you there?

Hello? Yes, I'm here. Okay. Yes, I'm here. So he can't.

All right? Furthermore, and I'll put it all together for you, so just hold on. Furthermore, Jesus says, You cannot come to me unless it's granted to you from the Father, John 6, 65. You cannot come to me unless the Father draws you, John 6, 44.

So is it up to the person's individual free will to be able to come to God? So, Matt, doesn't Jesus say, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself? Yeah, John 12, 32. And the reason he said that is because the all men is not just the Jews, because Jesus was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 15, 24. He was not sent to the whole world.

He was only sent to Israel. It's a covenant. Covenant aspect. You don't know the theology yet.

I'm just giving it to you with the references, and I'll put it together, okay? And this is new theology for a lot of people, but I'm giving you scriptures, and this is what often happens. I'll teach this, and people say, no, it's wrong, and I'll give them the scriptures, and they look them up, and they say, no, that's what it says. So Ephesians 1, 4 says, just as he, that's the Father, chose us, called the elect, in him, that's Christ, before the foundation of the world. So God the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Furthermore, God grants that we believe, Philippians 1, 29. He grants that we come to repentance, 2 Timothy 2, 25. He causes us to be born again, 1 Peter 1, 3, and we're born again not of our own will, John 1, 13.

Okay? So let me put this together for you. I'm giving you the scriptures. I teach this to people all the time, and the first time they hear it, they're like, no way. But they have to accept it if they want to believe the scriptures, because that's what it says. And so here's the thing, that whether you like it or not, God grants that people believe, and he doesn't grant it to everybody. And he works his will upon people whom he chooses. That's Romans 9, 9 through 23. And so he says he has mercy on him, he has mercy. He has compassion on him, he has compassion.

It does not depend upon the man who wills or the man who runs, but upon God who has mercy. That's Romans 9, 14, and 15, and 16, sorry. But I don't know, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth because it just sounds like Calvinism.

Well, that's exactly what it is. Isn't that interesting, I'm reading the scriptures and you come up with Calvinism? Yeah, I'm not a Calvinist.

I'm not an Armenian either. Yeah, I'm a Calvinist, not that that means it's right or wrong or anything, but this is why I hold the doctrines of grace, because of these scriptures. You see, but here's the thing. We cannot come to God on our own because we're slaves of sin. This is why Jesus says, you cannot come to me unless it's granted to you from the Father, John 6, 65.

That's what he said. You can't unless God grants it to you. What translation says he grants it? You can go to NASB and that's John 6, 65.

Is that what it says in the Greek though? I can look it up right now if you'd like. Oh, that'd be great.

Yeah, yeah, that'd be great. All right. And so I know a lot of people don't like this and I understand that. That's how I was when I first read it.

I believe in predestination, but I don't hold the same views like a Calvinist would. That's okay. We can talk about that sometime.

The word in Greek for grant is didome, which means to grant or to give or to put there so that it's had. All right? Okay. I'm going to have to look more into that. Sure, but here's the thing.

I'm going to put the rest of it together for you. Apparently, the more we preach, the more people get saved. Apparently, the more we preach and teach that gospel, the more people are elected by God for salvation.

I don't understand how that works, but it does. We have to understand that we don't serve the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian surfer Jesus dressed in a woman's nightgown setting the door of your heart asking permission for you and your wisdom to let him in. It's not what the Scriptures teach, period. What I've quoted you is Scripture, and over the years, many, many people who've heard me teach this have been converted to it because that's just simply Scripture. You have to understand that God chose us in him before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1.4. That's what it says. He grants us repentance, 2 Timothy 2.25.

The jet back there, huh? What God does is he calls us to himself, and he grants that we come to him. It's not up to the unbeliever's wisdom because the unbeliever is a slave of sin because what happens is in the Christian church there's too much of an idea that man is sovereign even over God, that man's will is the final determiner, and it's not the case. That's why the Bible says, and I can read it. I'll just read it to you. We receive Christ because God enables us to do it, and then we freely choose him.

I'll explain that. This is John 1, 12, and 13. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to be called the children of God, even of those who believe in his name who were born not of the blood nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man but of God. You see, talking about being born again, and it's not by our will but by the will of God. So what happens is he changes us. He makes us born again. He causes us to be born again, 1 Peter 1, 3. And then we're freely able to choose God, and we do. So we actually do receive Christ. We do trust Christ. It's real.

But we can't do it unless God grants these things to us. I'm just not convinced of that, man. I'm sorry. That's okay. I need to look into that more because I do believe in free will.

So do I. But my biggest problem with, I guess what you call it, hyper-Calvinism, is they have regeneration preceding faith. Yes, it does precede faith. And that's why I would call that heresy. No, it's not heresy. Let me explain why. Regeneration must precede faith logically, not temporally. So let me explain. When Calvinists talk like this, they often don't explain it well enough.

Let me explain what it is. So I use an illustration of a light bulb. Let's say I turn a flip of a light switch on and five seconds later, the light comes on. So that's temporal priority. The electricity is there five seconds before the light comes on.

This isn't exactly how it happens, but I want just an illustration. So temporal priority means that one thing causes another, and then later on, there's an effect. If regeneration precedes faith temporally, then we have a regenerate person who's not a believer.

And that's a problem. If we say that faith precedes regeneration, then you have a believer who's not regenerate for a period of time, and that's a problem. The logical issue is this, that regeneration precedes faith logically, not temporally. And the illustration, again, with the light bulb. When you flip a switch, the electricity is in that light bulb, and when it's there, light is also there. Electricity is the cause of the light. It's not the case that light's the cause of the electricity.

So electricity is logically prior, but they're simultaneous, but it's logically prior, which means it must be in place in order for light to be there. Regeneration must be in place in order for belief to be there, but they're both simultaneous. That's what we mean by regeneration precedes faith.

It's a logical procession, not a temporal one. Well, I know from the mind of God that he knows everything, so he ultimately knows who will be saved and who wasn't. So that's how I look at his choosing, is he ultimately knows who will be saved. No, it's not because he looks into the future to see who's going to pick him, because no one will. That caught her to Scripture.

No, no, no, no. That's not what I'm saying, Matt. I'm saying he's always known. He didn't have to look in time to find out things.

He just always knows all things. Are those people going to pick him because it's just their sinfully enslaved free will that enables them to? Well, the Bible says it's faith come by hearing the word of God, so they hear the word and they respond to it.

Yes, that's right. Romans 10, 9 and 10, 10, 13, and also Romans 1, 16, the gospel is the power of God. But what we're talking about here is this issue of God knowing. The reason he knows is because he works all things after the counsel of his will. Nothing occurs without his permission and without his sovereign decree.

Nothing. And so the fact that we believe is because God grants that we have that ability. That's Philippians 1.29. That's what it says, okay? Yes, I'll read it.

I'll go do a study. It says, For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. That's what it says. It's given to you. It's granted. And the word is karidsumai, we get karisma.

It's similar. It's granted. It's given to you. You said that's Philippians 1.29? Yes, it's been given to you, granted to you, all right?

I've been discussing this for about 30 years. Yes, I believe it says given. Yeah, that's fine. It's given to you to believe, right? Granted is one. The ESV says granted. The King James says given. A new King James says granted.

The RSV says granted. I would stay away from the King James if you want to do serious study, by the way. Seriously. I mean, the King James is my favorite translation. Yeah, and you'll find in study that the King James will, it's a good Bible, but it'll let you down in serious areas of theological examination. Romans 5.18 is one of them.

What I would suggest, and this will, I mean, there's so much here, okay? But Romans 5.18, the King James is wrongly translated. Very much so. But it's correct in the NASB.

And I can call you back sometime and I'll explain why and what it means and the theology attached. There's a lot of new stuff here and it's just new and that's okay. It's all right, man. You've got to work through it. All right? It's all good. Okay, buddy.

We're out of time. All right? Okay.

You there? Okay. All right, man. God bless. Okay. Hey, folks.

We're out of time. God bless. God bless. And Chad, let's talk about Halloween, okay? And Greg about John the Baptist tomorrow.

Give me a call and we'll talk about those tomorrow. Hey, God bless everybody. Have a great evening. Have a great evening.