Matt Slick Live (Guest Host Luke Wayne)

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. It's Matt Slick live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry found online at karm.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick live. For answers, taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Good evening. This is Luke Wayne filling in for Matt Slick today. He is actually on the road heading down to Utah to join me and some others to do some outreach this weekend, sharing the Gospel outside the Hare Krishna Color Festival, the largest Hindu gathering in the western hemisphere, the Spanish Fork Color Festival. It's a great opportunity for us to share the Gospel with people from the community at large that comes out to the event and to the Hindu culture there.

So we are really excited for this chance that's coming weekend. Matt, again, because of that, is going to be out of the studio for the next two days. So you guys will be stuck with me today and tomorrow, and Lord willing, Matt will be back with you guys on Monday. For those of you new to the show, this is a Christian apologetics call-in show.

The phone lines are open, and you can reach us at 877-207-2276, and I'll be excited to talk with you today and to answer your questions on Christian theology, biblical interpretation, answering objections to the faith, understanding world religions and how to share your faith with people of other beliefs and cultures. I work with Matt at the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. You can find us at CARM.org.

That's C-A-R-M dot O-R-G. I'm most well known, for those of you not familiar with me, most well known for writing CARM's articles on King James-Only-ism. I've actually written hundreds of articles on a wide variety of other subjects, but for whatever reason, that's the topic that stuck with me. And so if you have any questions about the preservation of the Bible, Bible translations, the reliability of modern English Bibles, or the false Bibles of cults and false religions, the New World translation of the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Joseph Smith translation, call in with your questions about Bible manuscripts, things like that. I would love to get in discussions about those things.

I've done a lot of study in that area and would be delighted to have conversations with you. I'm also, as I alluded to, a missionary in Utah. I've been here for nearly ten years now, and so obviously I've spent a lot of time interacting with and sharing the Gospel with Latter-day Saints, or those who would normally be called Mormons. And so if you have questions about Mormonism, about Mormon doctrine, how to share your faith with Latter-day Saints friends and neighbors, I would love to answer your questions on that.

So again, call us at 877-207-2276, and would love to spend some time talking with you guys and speaking to the things you want to talk about today. But that said, all those things are near to my heart. I love talking about all of that. But what got me into apologetics first, way back as a new believer, was my conversations and dialogues that I had with Jehovah's Witnesses. Back growing up in Florida, I had a number of friends who were Jehovah's Witnesses and frequently had them knocking on my door. And even as a brand-new believer, I started stepping out the doorstep and talking to them, listening to what they had to say, and interacting with them. And God really opened my eyes to the need for us to be equipped to go into the Scriptures and really show what we believe and why we believe, for our own sakes of understanding our beliefs better, but also so that we can fulfill the Great Commission and reach others. And those conversations with Jehovah's Witnesses were very transformative for me, drew me into a deeper knowledge of the Scripture, deeper appreciation of the historic Trinitarian biblical Christian faith.

And since then, I've continued in every opportunity I get to share my faith with Jehovah's Witnesses. And one of the ways that I like to do that so often, we want to go straight to some of the core doctrines like deity of Christ, salvation by grace alone through faith alone, and if that's where you're comfortable going straight immediately to with a Jehovah's Witness, do that. Those are the things they need to hear, they need to know who God is, and how we are made right with Him.

But a way to get to that topic that often gets past the script and gets Jehovah's Witnesses, at least in my personal experience too, again, to get off script and to get real with you, is to go to an aspect of the difference between the Jehovah's Witness God and the biblical God that isn't as often brought up with them at the doorstep. And the direction I normally take our conversations is a question so near to the heart of so many people of any background, and that is the relationship of God to human suffering. Why, if there's sin and suffering in the world, why do bad things happen to people?

Yes, we are sinners. But is every instance of suffering something that God's hands are just off of? Or is God sovereign? Does He have a plan, even in the consequences we face in this fallen world? Can we take hope in a God who's truly in control, even in our darkest days? Well, the Bible would teach us, yes we can, that we have a God who is truly almighty, and does not let suffering just needlessly run amok in the world without His hand in it.

He has a purpose. All things do work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. But in the Watchtower literature, or the literature of the Jehovah's Witnesses, you'll find quotes like, God is not responsible for the bad things that happen to people, nor does He make them suffer. Or again, can you imagine a loving mother deliberately allowing harm to her child?

A caring parent, on the contrary, would try to alleviate a child's suffering. Likewise, God does not cause innocent people to suffer. Even so, innocent people are suffering. Now strictly speaking, before God, we would have to note, there are no innocent people. Romans 3 23 tells us all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We all deserve punishment. We all deserve judgment and suffering. But even beyond that, is it true that God tries always to take all our pain away and would never cause any person to go through pain or hardship?

The Watchtower continues elsewhere. God neither causes bad things to happen nor incites others to do what is bad. Now if that means that God never incites people to sin, of course not. But does God ever cause struggle, hardship, suffering?

And here's the kicker, the difference between Watchtower theology and biblical theology. In the book What Does the Bible Teach?, on page 108, according to the Jehovah's Witnesses, it says, do you know why people make the mistake of blaming God for suffering in the world? In many cases they blame God because they think he's the real ruler of this world. But the real ruler of this world is Satan, the Devil. You see, Jehovah's Witnesses believe that God has turned over control of creation completely to the Devil, and therefore that's the reason suffering happens and God has nothing to do with it.

He's just presently powerless to stop it. But the God of Scripture is not impotent. The God of Scripture is sovereign, is in control.

We can take comfort in knowing that our suffering is not needless, that there is a purpose in the hard things that happen. Isaiah 45, 6-7 says that men may know that from the rising to the setting of the sun, there is no one besides me. I the Lord, I Jehovah, I am the Lord, I am Jehovah, and there is no other.

The one forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being, and creating calamity. I am the Lord who does all these. You can read in Amos 4, 6-11, when God is speaking in judgment to Israel, But I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places. Yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. Furthermore, I withheld rain from you. While there were still three months until harvest, then I would send rain on one city, and not on another. On another city, I would not send rain. One part would be rained on, and another part would dry up.

So two or three cities would stagger to another city to drink water, but they would not be satisfied. Yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. I smote you with scorching wind and mildew, and the caterpillar was devouring your many gardens and vineyards, fig trees and olive trees. Yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. I sent plague among you after the manner of Egypt. I slew your young men by the sword. God's even taking credit for when their enemies took up swords against them. Along with your captured horses, and I made the stench of your camp rise up in your nostrils. Yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. I overthrew you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze. Yet you have not returned to me, declares the Lord. At this point, Jehovah's Witnesses will sometimes concede, okay, when God is judging or punishing a person or a nation, then he might cause suffering.

But in no other situation would he. But then we go to John chapter 9, a passage very near and dear to my heart. My wife and two of my own children were born blind. And in this case, Jesus' disciples saw a man who was begging on the sidewalk, born blind.

And they ask, who is it? Why is this man born blind? Is that a punishment to his parents?

Or is that somehow a punishment for his own sinfulness, that he would be born blind? Who's being punished? Someone must be punished for him to suffer being a beggar, a blind-born beggar on the side of the road.

Someone must be being punished. But John 9-3, Jesus says, it was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents. But it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. So we see, God had a plan to display his mighty work in the life of this man, and caused him to be born blind, and to go through all his childhood on into adulthood, and then to live the scorn and loneliness and suffering and shame of being a beggar by the side of the road.

He went through physical and emotional struggle and suffering and isolation. And God sovereignly determined that that would happen, so that he could ultimately display his might in him. Now, did the man blame God for that? No, he rejoiced, and was willing to be thrown out of the synagogue so that he could follow this great Messiah, Jesus. He was thankful to God.

The same God who created him, caused him to be born blind, who delivered him from that blindness. So we see that God has a plan, a good plan, even in our suffering, and we can take comfort, even joy in that. But the Watchtower, they teach a God who has no control over the bad things that happen, who has no plan in suffering. All suffering is pointless in their world, because their God is impotent to do anything about it.

It has no purpose, no plan whatsoever in it. Let's see where this really hits. Once we establish, no, the God of the Bible is not your impotent God who's handed his whole creation over to the devil. The God of the Bible is one who truly is sovereign.

Overt suffering. Then we can turn to the Gospel, and after this break, I will show you how this brings the Gospel to light in our conversation with Jehovah's Witnesses. So stand with us, stand with us, and call in with your own questions at 877-207-2276. We'll be right back with you on the Matt Slick Live Show. It's Matt Slick Live! Taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Welcome back to Matt Slick Live.

This is Luke Wayne, a colleague of Matt's filling in for him while he's traveling on ministry. So give us a call here, 877-207-2276. We do have three lines open, and I'm eager to talk to you and answer your questions.

Now, before we jump right to the phones, I just wanted to finish up where we left off for those just joining. We were discussing the contrast between the Jehovah's Witnesses' teaching on God and human suffering, where they believe that God never causes, never has any plan or any purpose in any individual event of human suffering or hardship or trouble or difficulty in life, but God has taken His hand off creation and everything from natural disasters to sicknesses to human acts of violence. Any form of suffering that might happen is all caused by the devil, and God has nothing to do with it. Scripture, however, teaches a sovereign God who does not allow suffering to needlessly happen, but has a purpose in all things. We looked at examples where God uses it to chastise, to punish, to bring people back to Him, where God uses it even in the case of the man born blind in John 9, to glorify himself by showing a great work in this man's life by him being born blind. But as we share all of this with our Jehovah's Witness friends and neighbors, where we ultimately want to get is to the Gospel. The good news that God had a purpose in the ultimate example of violence and human suffering, when the truly innocent, sinless Son of God was beaten, tortured, murdered on a cross.

Jehovah's Witnesses will say a single upright beam. Either way, the reason he was nailed to that piece of wood, the reason he suffered and died there, as Acts 4 27 and 28 says, for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever your hand, your hand God, and your purpose predestined to occur. It was indeed God's plan. Jesus was sent for the purpose of going to the cross and dying. That suffering was not an accident. It was not something out of God's control that was brought about by the devil or merely human evil.

Those humans who did it were guilty for what they did, and yet God had a purpose and a plan in this. The whole Gospel only makes sense in light of the biblical God, who is sovereign in individual instances of human suffering, not the God of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the God of Jehovah's Witnesses, who has no plan in suffering. And so the reason that the Gospel is true and that we can be saved by the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is because the Jehovah's Witnesses are wrong about who God is. Their organization is incompetent to interpret the Scriptures and teach us who the true and living God is.

The God of historic Trinitarian biblical Christianity, the sovereign God who's truly in control, the God of the Bible, the God who sent his only son to die and rise again for all who will repent and believe and put their trust in him, that is the God to whom we must turn and the God we preach to our Jehovah's Witness friends and neighbors. All right, well, that said, let's turn to the phones. You guys can still call in at 877-207-2276, but let's get to Albert, who's been holding for us.

Albert, you are on the air. You mean Robert from Slovenia? Oh, I apologize. I read it wrong. Please forgive me.

Yeah, I can hear you. So this is Robert from Slovenia. I have a question. If you maybe are familiar, if you maybe have any insight about a guy who used to, evangelist, who used to work with living waters by the name of Tony Miana, and I read some things which are a bit worrying, he moved from one church to another, and there are some writings about this, that this might be a downhill for the whole situation. Do you know anything about it? I myself, unfortunately, am not up to speed on all of that. I do have colleagues who have looked into it and have agreed with warnings against continuing to follow Tony Miana.

I cannot vouch for that myself. I haven't studied any of that myself, personally, unfortunately. She wrote even some articles which are good, I guess, for Karm. It's no problem about this.

But yeah, thank you anyway for your answer. And I did read some articles which is not so positive about his move. Yeah, I have heard similar things. Like I said, I'm unfortunately not well read on it myself to be able to speak authoritatively to it. I do believe that his articles that were once published on Karm's website have been taken down since the direction that he went.

I don't believe that he still has articles listed on Karm's website, because of similar concerns over his recent direction. Well, and thank you from calling. God bless you and our fellow believers out there in Slovenia. It's been a pleasure to know you guys are listening to us out there. Well, I try to listen to you guys.

It's a bit strange times, but I can. And I call through Skype, so it's not costing that much. Oh, that's good. I'm grateful to hear that.

Well, it is. Thank you. God bless you, likewise, Robert.

You and your church out there. We're grateful to hear from you. Okay, that was Robert calling us from Slovenia.

Always delighted to hear from our brothers and sisters around the world, be encouraged to hear from people sharing the gospel in other places and who are learning and benefiting from our ministry. Thank you so much for calling, Robert. Again, we've got some lines open. You can call in at 877-207-2276. Now let's turn to Robert.

Robert, we're going to call in at 877-207-2276. Now let's turn to Warren from North Carolina. Hey, how you doing, sir?

Warren, you are on the air. Doing great. Good to hear from you.

It is so good to talk to you. So I got a question for you, and I'm going to share an answer with you that I'm not certain I was right about, but I want to get your opinion. So I had a conversation with someone earlier in the week that Jehovah's Witnesses, and they were saying, you know, Jesus was a prophet. He wasn't necessarily, He was God's Son, but He wasn't what we believe He's supposed to be, what He was. And I tried to go back and say, you know, it says that Jesus was God's one and only begotten Son, which I don't have any training in biblical studies, but I said it sounds like to me that He was the one and only holy Son of Jesus.

I'm a son of Jesus, of God as well. All right, I'm hearing the music. We've got to cut to a hard break, but if you can hold for me, I will come right back and would love to talk to you more about Jehovah's Witness beliefs about Jesus. So everybody, we will be right back to talk more with Warren on that question right after this. Welcome back.

I am not Matt Slick. This is Luke Wayne filling in for Matt. He is traveling on ministry, and so we will be, I'll be filling in for him today and tomorrow while he heads down to Utah to join me this weekend for some evangelistic outreach. So be praying for us. We plan on having a lot of great conversations, handing out a lot of tracts.

It promises to be a good and fruitful week, so keep that in your prayers. We will be, phone lines are open, and we'll be continuing to take your calls here. 877-207-2276, and let's get back on the air with Warren from North Carolina, who had some questions related to Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs about Jesus.

Warren, you are back on the air. I am. So I just wanted to get your take on that. My take in my discussion was, you know, I know everybody goes to John 3.16, but I said, Jesus was God's one and only begotten Son, and I just said, that means he's holy, and he was sent for a purpose, and he's my new covenant. I'm God's son too, but I'm different than Jesus. They would agree with the words that Jesus is God's only begotten Son, and that he is uniquely God's Son. But what they mean by that, they believe that he is the first creation. They actually believe he is the Archangel Michael, that he is the highest angelic being, or they would use the word spirit creature. So he is high above every other created thing, but he's still a created thing. He's not an almighty God, capital G God.

They would call him a lowercase G God, in the sense of being a powerful supernatural being. But they do not consider him to be equal to Jehovah, who they think is only the Father. So, biblically, that is, of course, a farce.

It is, it's absolutely wrong. But the way, oh, no, no, no, you open and shared Scripture with them, and every Christian who stops and shares from the word of God has a chance for the Spirit of God to use that and open their heart. But I'd love to give you, in the future, another approach you might use that has often worked for me to at least get the conversation going. And so what I've often done is I will turn to Psalm 102 to start with. And if they've got time, and they'll let me, I sit down and I just read through the whole Psalm with them. And I start by saying, okay, in this Psalm, I think we're going to find a lot that we agree on about declaring who Jehovah God really is. So the prayer opens, hear my prayer, oh, and in most of our translations, it'll say Lord in all capitals, that means it's Yahweh, it's the divine name, it's Jehovah. So we'll say, hear my prayer, Jehovah. Okay, so this Psalm is a prayer to Jehovah God, to the one true, almighty, uncreated God, right? Every Jehovah's Witness is going to have to agree, yes, that's what it is. And so you begin working through it, and we get down later in the Psalm, to where it says, of old, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. Even they will perish, but you endure, and all of them will wear out like a garment, like clothing, you will change them and they will be changed.

But you are the same, and your years will not come to an end. Now we would say, this is a praise uniquely to Jehovah God, and we could not pray this, or sing this, or say this to anybody else, right? We could not say of anyone else, of old, you founded the earth, of the heavens, of the heavens are the work of your hands. Okay, so right now we're in agreement.

But see, here's the thing. Then we turn to the New Testament, and we read in Hebrews 1, chapter 8 through 12, that of the Son, he says, so the scriptures that are about to be quoted, according to the author of Hebrews, the inspired New Testament author, these are talking about the Son. So your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. And, now that one already called him God, but in the New World Translation, Jehovah's Witnesses used, they changed the wording on that.

So we can move past and just move on to the next quote. And so what else is said of the Son, in scripture? You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

They will perish, but you remain, and they will become like a garment, and on it goes. It's quoting Psalm 102, and it says Psalm 102 is talking about the Son, and even identifies the Lord of Psalm 102, which is Jehovah by name. By name. And so when we look at Hebrews, we see that it not only identifies Jesus as a God, as a divine being, but specifically by name identifies him as the Lord of Psalm 102, the one who laid the foundation of the earth, the one who is eternal, that is everlasting, who created and sustained all things. It places him as the almighty, uncreated God. And even in their own Bible, that's still there. Their own translation hasn't erased the fact that that Psalm, the author of Hebrews says that that Psalm was a prayer of praise to the Son.

So the New Testament therefore teaches specifically that the Son is Yahweh, the Creator, the eternal, uncreated God. So that's the direction that I usually go. My knowledge is small, but I'm also a sponge, and I'm trying to soak it up. So I appreciate what you shared. This to me was probably the greatest conversation I had.

So thank you so much. I am grateful to know that it was helpful to you, and I truly hope that God will bring soon another Jehovah's Witness into your life that you can have that conversation with. Or did you say the guy you were talking to is a friend or co-worker of yours?

He's a co-worker, yes. Okay, well I hope that you and he find this helpful. Did you have any other questions?

I don't, I just really appreciate your time. This was really helpful for me. No problem, no problem. Thank you, Warren. I love talking about it. Thank you. All right, you have a wonderful, wonderful rest of your day. Okay, that was Warren from North Carolina. The lines are still open.

You can call in at 877-207-2276. And again, this is so important that we patiently take the time to open the Word and show people like our Jehovah's Witness friends, neighbors, co-workers, what it says about who God is, and how we, as sinners, deserving of His judgment, can be reconciled to the one true God in the true biblical living Jesus. And so it is so helpful for us to study the Scriptures and pay attention to things like what we just saw, how the New Testament uses the Old Testament, because there are numerous places where the New Testament draws on Old Testament Scriptures in ways that identify Jesus as Yahweh, as Jehovah, as the specific God, the one true living, uncreated God, who brought all things into existence. And so this is what we need to proclaim and declare and demonstrate through the Word to Jehovah's Witnesses, to Muslims, to our Latter-day Saints or Mormon friends. This is the one and only Savior by whom anyone can be justified and reconciled to God.

You know, I'll give you another example. In John chapter 12, verses 37 through 41, we read, But though he had performed so many signs before them, the he here is obviously Jesus, yet they were not believing in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the honor of the Lord been revealed?

For this reason they could not believe. For Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes, and he hardened their hearts, so that they would not see with their eyes, and perceive with their hearts, and be converted, and I heal them. These things Isaiah said because he saw his glory and spoke of him.

And so how does that identify Jesus as Yahweh, Jehovah God? After this break, we're going to take a look at the Old Testament passage he's drawing on. And you guys can call in with your questions at 877-207-2276. We'll be back with you right after this break. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Welcome back to the show. This is Luke Wayne filling in for Matt Slick. I'm a colleague of his at CARM.org, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G. That's the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. I'll be filling in for Matt today and tomorrow, while he is away from the office, actually heading out of town on ministry to do a mission trip doing evangelism outside of a Hare Krishna festival down here in Utah. So be praying for Matt during that time. And in the meantime, I will be here taking you guys' calls.

You can reach us at 877-207-2276, and the lines are open. Now, before we blest for the break, we were discussing how the New Testament uses its references to the Old Testament to point to the deity of Christ, often by taking passages that were about Yahweh, Jehovah, the I Am, the one true God, who created all things and who himself was never created and has always existed, and then using those passages, applying them to Jesus, demonstrating that Jesus is that one true God. We already looked in Hebrews, and then we were looking now in John chapter 12, where it, after talking about how people have not listened to Jesus, have not heard his report, in 1237-241, it then reads from Isaiah two different quotes, and says that Isaiah wrote these things when he saw his glory and spoke of him. And the he in both cases is pointing back to Jesus, who was already being talked about, the one whom the scribes and the Pharisees and the teachers were not listening to and were rejecting. So when did Isaiah see Jesus and speak of him?

Well, one of the quotes is from Isaiah 53, where Isaiah was speaking of Jesus, he was foretelling the coming of the Messiah. But that wasn't a visionary text, he didn't see anything there. The other quote in John 12 there is from John 6, from John 6 to him, which is part of a visionary experience, where John did see someone. But whom did he see? Whose glory did he see? John 12 says that he saw Jesus' glory, but Isaiah 61-4 says, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple.

Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings, and two covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to the other, Holy, holy, holy is the word of hosts! The whole earth is full of his glory, and the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filled with smoke. So whose glory did Isaiah see?

Well, Isaiah says it was the Lord, Yahweh, Jehovah, the Lord of hosts, the one whose glory fills all of creation. John 12 says that Isaiah wrote chapter 6 when he saw Jesus' glory. John is identifying Jesus as Jehovah God, as the one true God of the Old Testament.

And he's not alone in this. The author of Hebrews we already saw earlier in the show did this. We see that John did this. What about the little book of Jude?

Just one little chapter. How much theology, how much teaching about the nature of Christ could be there? And yet, in Jude verse 4, we read, For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long beforehand were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of God into licentiousness, who deny the grace of God. Unconsciousness, who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Okay, our only Master and Lord. That's important because the very next sentence, verse 5, says, Now I desire to remind you, though you know all these things once and for all, that the Lord, now who's our only Master and Lord?

Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. Who was the Lord who saved the people out of the land of Egypt, and afterward destroyed those who did not believe? Obviously, that is the great I Am, the God who spoke to Moses through the burning bush, the Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, the Creator of the universe. And yet, Jude says here that it was Jesus, our only Master and Lord, who, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And so the God of Exodus took on flesh, Jesus Christ is the Creator God. Now, in some translations, this becomes even more explicit. If you're reading, for example, the ESV, you'll read, Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

Now what's going on here? The very name Jesus, not just the Lord, but Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. That's Jude, verse 5 in the ESV.

Now where's the ESV getting this? Well, this is where we have a textual variant. The manuscripts we have of the New Testament, many of them say the Lord in this passage. But a number of very early and important manuscripts, as well as the majority of the Latin traditions, the Latin translations, both the Old Latin and the Vulgate, as well as some other witnesses from other early Church Father quotations and ancient translations, all testify that very early on, there were manuscripts that said Jesus, rather than the Lord.

Now, again, when we look at chapter 4, the only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ, it's already abundantly clear that the Lord in verse 5 is Jesus. But what we see in this manuscript difference is that either Jude himself wrote that it was Jesus by name, that saved a people out of the land of Egypt, or the earliest Christian scribes already understood the Lord to be Jesus so plainly that they accidentally, when they were copying, wrote Jesus instead of the Lord. Either way, what you see is this unanimous early Christian understanding that what Jude is talking about here is that Jesus is the God who saved a people out of the land of Egypt.

The great I Am of the book of Exodus. So however you slice the evidence, Jude in any manuscript can't be read as saying anything other than that Jesus is the one true God. And he does so, again, by how he applies the Old Testament accounts to Jesus. In fact, every New Testament author, every single author of the Gospels, of Acts, of the letters, of Revelation, all testify that Jesus is the one true God.

How about another example? Let's take the book of James. James isn't a book that we would normally look to for a question about the deity of Christ, and yet even here, in the very practical, encouraging book of James, his encouragement assumes that Jesus is the God of the Old Testament. Look in James chapter 5, chapter 5 verses 7 through 9. Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets the early and late rains.

You too be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged.

Behold, the judge is standing right at the door. Who's the Lord that every Christian in the New Testament is waiting to come? The Lord Jesus, of course. They're waiting for the return of Jesus. They're waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is clearly a passage about Jesus. But as we continue reading, picking up in verse 10, as an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. The same context, very next sentence. The Lord here is the same Lord that the early Christians were awaiting the coming and the return of, the judge at the door.

Who is that? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. And here James says that the prophets spoke in the name of the Lord, that Lord.

The Lord Jesus is the Lord Jehovah. We count those blessed who endure. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's feelings, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Again, who did Job endure?

Who dealt with Job and showed his compassion on Job after his time of suffering? The Lord. The Lord.

What Lord? Well, according to James, the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jehovah God, Yahweh, the great I Am of the Old Testament, was, is, Jesus Christ. And so we see this plain reality echoed over and over again throughout the New Testament, that Jesus is the one true God.

The deity of Christ is not some later invention by church councils or pagan Roman emperors or Constantine conspiracies. It is a New Testament teaching. Throughout the New Testament, book by book, author by author, what you will see is the assumption at every turn that you can quote the Old Testament scriptures who were about Jehovah God by name, and that you can apply those scriptures to Jesus, because that is who Jesus is. They understood their Lord, their Messiah, their Master, to be who the prophets predicted him to be. When Isaiah said in chapter 9 verse 6, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the weight of the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace, that the Messiah would be the Mighty God and the Father of Time and the Father of Time and Eternity itself. This is who the prophets said that the Messiah would be, and every author in the New Testament believed and trusted and knew that God had fulfilled that promise. That's all the time we have today. I pray that you guys will put your trust fully and completely in that divine, eternal God, the Son, Jesus Christ, our Messiah and Savior, who gave his life and rose again, that you might be saved. Another program powered by the Truth Network.