Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. It's Matt Slick live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry found online at CARM.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick live.

Francis, taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right. Hey everyone.

Welcome. And if you're listening new, my name is Matt Slick is my real name and works great for radio. This is a Christian show. So if you want to call in, you have questions about the Bible, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, Unity by Islam, Atheism, Evolution, Logic. We talk about all kinds of stuff here. We've been doing this for a long time.

The four open lines 877-207-2276. And just want to let you know that we stay on the air by your support. We ask $5 a month.

I just like to mention that every now and then. $5 a month keeps us on the air. If you're so kind to think about that. So we're trying to get a few people. I'll get my wife too. She keeps track of the numbers and see how many people have signed up for $5 a month. We're trying to get a thousand and that way we can help pay the bills.

Real simple. And the radio station costs $2. Pray for this ministry and pray for the radio station.

I know Stu, the owner, and he's a good guy. You'll hear him on ads every now and then. And he loves the Lord. His goal is to further the kingdom of God using radio. There's a lot to it.

We've talked about a few things and over the months, over the years, I guess you should say. And he's a good, Godly man. He loves the Lord and wants to serve him.

And let's just say his Lord is standard for me a little bit, but that's all right. Get in and preach and teach about the word. So hey, look, if you want to give me a call, four open lines, 877-207-2276. Let's get to Brian from Texas. Hey, Brian, welcome. You're on the air. Hello, brother.

I've always enjoyed talking with you. Um, my question, my question is, uh, what, what do you think is the best book? I know the Puritans wrote a lot of good books, but sometimes they're, they're writing style is kind of hard for me to read, but what do you think the best book on compatible?

Wow. Um, I don't know how to answer that because I don't read books on compatibilism. Uh, I've not gone through them. What I do is go through systematic theologies and I'll read a book on philosophy or the philosophy of Christianity, something like that. Like, um, uh, let's see, you know, I'll get Wayne Grudem's book on, uh, um, systematic theology. And as far as compatibilism goes specifically, I'm trying to, there's something in the back of my head, but I just can't bring it forth to try and make, uh, get a title out of there. But when I, how I started compatibilism is real simple. I go on the web and, uh, I want to see arguments for and against compatibilism.

And for those who don't know what that is, compatibilism is the position that our free will and God's sovereign, uh, election, predestination and work are compatible, hence compatibilism. And so, uh, what I do is I go through scripture and I read varying articles on stuff and I debate it and that's how I, I, uh, let's just say perfect, I guess my, if I could dare say of my arguments on compatibilism, if you want to talk about it somewhere, we can, but that's about all I can tell you is go through some good systematic theologies. And, um, there is, you know what I'm going to get this, I get a bunch of Kindle books and I know that there's going to be some in there that, uh, systematic theology by Wayne Grudem is one. And let's see, how about, let's see, uh, foundations for Phyllis, uh, philosophical foundations for Christian worldview. You could read through that.

Also, I would go to, uh, pre-suppositional apologetics by Greg Vonson. I don't know if it's going to have anything in there on that specifically, but it might. And, um, and I think that's, there's that.

So let's see. And a related question is, have you ever got, had a chance to read, uh, Norman guys were both chosen by God and what was your opinion of that book? You know, I think I went through it 25, 30 years ago and I don't remember, but, uh, I've heard his arguments before and read some of them and I'm not impressed.

Uh, I was not impressed by them. I don't think he covered the basis sufficiently. And I think he is a hamstrung by his non-reformed perspective.

There are just certain things in the Bible that are just reformed. And for people who deny them, I think that that, uh, well, demonstrates total depravity, but I think it really hamstrings you to be able to go down and, and understand other issues as well. Um, he's a great guy. I'm going to be honest.

I'm going to be honest with you. I don't, I don't like it, but the more I read the Bible, the more I, you know, it's pretty there in black and white, you know, yeah. Well, you know that God's in ultimate control and all that. Yeah. And, uh, my proof of compatibilism is I asked questions, I say, did Jesus have free will? And, uh, yes. Was it constrained by anything sinful?

Of course not. Uh, so he had free will because he's God in flesh. Yes. Right.

Okay. Well, he came down from heaven not to do his own work with the will of him who sent him. John 6 38 and John 5 19 and five 30 talks about him not being able to do anything out of his own initiative. Yet he had free will. Well, compatibilism says that God's predestination and election are compatible with human free will. Jesus had human free will and, uh, well, he had free will of course, and it was compatible with the predestination of God.

There you go. You know, I don't, I don't tell people could deny that and go with libertarianism at that point and say that, which I think libertarianism is a problem because what I believe about it is that it denies, uh, it denies total depravity and then introduces counterfactuals that can't exist. There's no possible way of certain counterfactuals because libertarianism, the idea is, let me show you something here in libertarianism. The idea of what it is is that the human free will is free and able to be able to make choices that are not restricted by, uh, by sinfulness and that a man's free will is not compatible with God's sovereign decrees and elections. And so therefore God does not, how do we put this?

I want to represent that position, um, properly. Um, it, it does not deny the incapacitation of the will in sinful nature. It says a sinful nature does not incapacitate the will and that it is free, but the freedom that it, it entails is almost a freedom independent of God's sovereignty, even though technically they'll say it's under God's sovereignty, but the sovereignty is that God offers prevenient grace that enables someone to believe and that's how it works and God knows what their outcome is going to be because he knows the future. So then his election and work are based in part on what he foreknows people do under the context of prevenient grace. And I routinely, routinely call that kindergarten theology. It's just, it doesn't work. So, well, well, it's just like when, uh, what I've noticed, like reading through, I was doing a study on heart through the Bible and every time, uh, like in the old Testament, every time, uh, it was in a, some something from a person, an initiative from a person, they always, their hearts always went towards evil.

They always went towards, you know, doing bad things. And whenever something good happened, it was always, you saw that God had touched that person or had moved on that person. So it's just, even in the old Testament narrative, it's just, it's there. Yeah, it is.

Yeah, it is. And, um, what I'd like to say is that libertarianism reduces the majesty and sovereignty of God and exalts man's freedom. And one of the doctrines I teach on is called a sea of tea. And that is the, the characteristic of God's nature that is independent of all things.

He's has no contingency on anything. This means all his knowledge, all his existence, all his power are all within his divine nature before he created anything. Let's just say, I don't know if the number is accurate, but an infinite number. I'll just use the word infinite because it may not be, I don't know, but potentially an infinite number of existences that could have occurred that only were known by God. So they were called potentialities or counterfactuals.

They weren't real, but they could have been under different circumstances. God had an infinite number of these in his mind and chose to bring into existence one timeline in which all things occur. And so God's choice is not dependent upon man's decisions because some of what open theism teaches that God, that the future is open, God doesn't know it exhaustively. So they want to retain human free will as being self sovereign. And what they're saying is it's somewhat independent of God's control and knowledge from eternity. Because if you're, if God's going to know what you're going to do, then you're not free not to do it when it's time for you to do it.

But that doesn't make sense. It's a logical problem on their part. And so what the libertarians do is assume the or they deny, let's just put it this way. They deny total depravity. And then in so doing they deny certain scriptures that say we're incapable and our nature does not permit us to come to God on our own. So the libertarians, from what I've gathered, believe in counterfactuals. In the context of people being able to choose God if they just have the right information. But that's a non-reality given the fall. They can't.

So God has to interact. So if you're following me, but those counterfactuals don't have logical possibility. And so therefore it's not a realistic offering that the libertarians would give to us. And so it's a failure there as well. I don't know if that made sense, but it's one of the major problems in libertarianism.

Yeah, I'm tracking with you. And what I've always thought about like, for convenient grace is, is if everyone is given for convenient grace, but still only some come to God, well then wouldn't that give the glory to the people who come to God? Yes. And if you go to Proverbs 21, one, God moves the heart of the king where he wishes it to go.

So does he know how to turn the heart of people? Yeah. Can he grant people faith? Yes. Philippians 1 29. Can he grant him repentance?

Yes. 2 Timothy 2 25. So prevenient grace is simply that grace that comes before that enables someone to be in a neutral position by which they can then choose God freely, their own free will. My question then is, this is why I call it kindergarten theology. I ask those who promote, who promote, I should say, um, libertarian or excuse me, prevenient grace. I'll say, why does one person believe in God with prevenient grace that another one does not? And well, that's because of her free will.

Okay. Then why does one person's free will believe with prevenient grace? Another one does not. And they can't answer the question, but we in the reform can, can God grants that we have faith. Philippians 1 29. And the faith is in that we have is in Christ. John 6 29. Here's the answer. So because of their theology, they can only go so far down the theological road and we reformed can go down even further and say, well, here we go. Here's the answer.

Got that behind me, but they can't get that far because they're hamstrung by prevenient grace or libertarianism. Okay. Yes. Thank you for your time. All right, man. I hope it helps.

Yes, it does. All right. Sounds good, buddy. Okay. All right. Okay.

Interesting. So people can't hear me on, I'll work on that. Let's get to Alberto from Georgia. Alberto, welcome. You are on the air. Well, good evening.

My question is, is, is my true security based on my perseverance or endurance to keep my, to keep myself secure. I got some novel versus the poultry notes. No, we'll get back after the break. I'll talk about that life.

Not dependent on your goodness. Hey folks, we have four open lines. If you want to give me a call 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

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

For those who are listening, I'm going to next break, I'm going to try different cable and see if I can get a different cable to work on the sound issue. So we'll see. All right.

Four open lines. If you want to give me a call 877-207-2276. Alberto, are you still there? Yes, sir.

I'm still right here. All right. Now, so does your salvation depend upon your perseverance, right?

Perseverance or endurance? I got some Bible voices to quote to you, if you can answer. Okay. Okay.

The first one is Luke 962 and 2 Peter 2.21, 2 Peter 1, verses 5 to 10. Don't turn back. Don't do this.

Don't do that. Yep. Mm-hmm. So you want to know, does your salvation before the infinitely holy God depend upon your ability to stay saved, right? To stay faithful? Yeah, my eternal security, yeah. Okay. Well, there is a...

Perseverance or endurance? There is a sense in which you are responsible to believe. There's a sense in which God is the author of your belief. We know from Philippians 1 29 that God grants that you have faith.

We know that Jesus says the faith that God grants you is in him, is in Jesus. That's John 6 29. We also know that we're caused to be born again, 1 Peter 3 or 1 3. And we know that God grants us repentance, 2 Timothy 2 25.

Now, here's the thing. If Jesus bore our sin in his body on the cross 2,000 years ago, and you and I are saved presently, if we were to lose our faith and then go to hell, then that would be sin that's not paid for. And if that's the case, how could Jesus have saved us if all of our sin wasn't paid for?

It doesn't make sense. Some people say that what God does is he, when you believe you're saved and all your sins up to that point are forgiven, and then it's up to you to remain faithful. Well, then it would be up to you also to somehow get your sins forgiven, because if all of your sins are forgiven up to that point, and then it's up to that point when you believe you're supposed to continue to believe, and that's how you stay saved, then it would also be the case that you have to constantly repent of your sins, confess your sins, and do other things in order to be right with God. And this would mean then that you maintain your salvation through a series of repentance actions, of prayers, of confessions, and it would be a constant ongoing work throughout our entire lives. Now some people, because of this, say that they get to the point where they don't even sin anymore, and the arrogance there, boy, I'll tell you. But at any rate, furthermore, if Jesus said that he came to here, that all that the Father has given him, he will lose none, then it's not possible for us to be lost, otherwise Jesus would have failed to do the will of the Father. So, to what extent do you remain faithful?

Well, you actually do. You choose to continue to believe, but you do so because you're regenerate, though God has enabled you with the capacity to continue to believe. You continue to believe, but the continuing to believe is not how you maintain salvation. It's simply a continuous state of existence by which the regenerate live in a relationship with Christ. Their sins have already been forgiven, all of them, because Jesus has to forgive all their sins to be saved, otherwise they can't be saved. And that means past, present, future sins to an individual. So, in that sense, God is the one who keeps you. He won't let you stumble to the point of losing faith, if that's even possible.

As Matthew 24, 24 says that, you know, if those days be not cut short, no flesh will be left, Matthew 24, 22, and then many false prophets and false Christs will arise and deceive many, if possible, and mislead even the elect. So, it's saying it's not even possible. So, you see, you have to believe, but you believe because you're regenerate and the regeneration is the work of God, yet he granted that you believe, and that can't be undone. Okay? Good. Now, I've got some more, I don't know, some more Bible verses and one more question. Let me get to the same subject, okay? Okay.

Hebrews 10, 38, and 32, 39, Matthew 10, 22. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You just machine gun these at me and it's not going to do any good, okay?

Just numbers and letters. Can you repeat it? No, no, no.

One at a time. He says, my righteous one shall live by faith and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. Now, but we are not of those who shrink back to destruction. You've got to understand the book of Hebrews is written to the Hebrews, the Jews who were having one foot in Christianity, one foot in ancient Judaism and the writer of Hebrews is addressing them accordingly. You don't shrink back, you don't look back like Lot's wife did or the people in the Exodus when they murmured about the past past things. He's bringing this to attention.

Don't look back. Otherwise God, he will have no pleasure in you and it doesn't say there that we lose our salvation because again, otherwise it would mean that Jesus failed to do the will of the father when the father said Jesus has the will of the fathers that he lose none. Can Jesus fail to do the will of the father?

Clearly no. Ok. Ok now, one quick question related to the same stuff. If a Christian is eternally secure like you say in the Bible teaches it, can a Christian still be an apostate? Well, every Christian is an apostate to some degree. Every Christian does not believe in orthodoxy to some degree.

But not in the essentials. So apostasy has a different set of meanings. But if you mean absolutely fall away from the faith and not believe, no they couldn't do that, not be a true Christian. Because 1 John 2 19 says they went out from us because they never were of us.

If they had been of us, they would have remained. So what about if a Christian were to truly believe he's a child of God and he commits a sin even though the church he might attend, the pastor might say or the church members might accuse you of being an apostate, but reality based on scripture, basically you just told me this now, you told me in reality you're not an apostate, but in my confusion you're being one. Well, without specifics. Well not being specific, just a sin. Because like you said some churches, like you said earlier, some churches you know to a certain point and then you have to keep confessing and all that. You have to be myself saying my salvation.

But if you attend a church like that. And I'll be doing what's called an AMA, ask me anything. And so that's where I go into a room, I'm invited in by atheists and agnostics and others and they join in, they just pile in there and then they get in line and they ask me questions and all kinds of stuff, Christianity, evolution, UFOs, whatever it is and we talk. And speaking of all of that, we have five open lines, give me a call folks, 877-207-2276. And for those of you who are new, what this is, you maybe haven't heard about this before, this show, well it's a Christian apologetic.

It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276, here's Matt Slick. Yeah like you say, we were looking at Matthew 22 and I think it's pretty clear that Jesus is showing a demarcation between the things that are Caesars and things that are God. Things are God's you said? Yeah, that's what it says in the verse.

Jesus is God. Right. So, yeah. Yeah, so you keep talking about the lordship of Christ is over everything, this verse seems to show that there is a clear demarcation between the things that are of God and the things that are Caesars. Oh, the things of God and the things of Caesars. So the things of Caesars has to do with the government, right?

Right. Okay, and Romans 13.1, there's no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God. So did God establish those governmental systems? Okay, so you're once again taking something from Romans and imposing it upon Matthew? No, I didn't impose it upon Matthew, I said does Romans teach that God establishes the governmental systems?

Sure. Okay, so is God Lord over what he establishes? Well, according to this, there is a clear demarcation between what is Caesar and what is God's. So is God Lord over all that he creates?

Well, according to this, there's a clear demarcation between the two. Okay, here's a question, it's a different question. Is God Lord of all that he creates? That's the question. It's either yes or no.

Sure, sure. And the answer is yes. And since he created the government that is under his lordship and Jesus is God, so is lordship. And so he's not saying that he's not Lord over Caesar, he just says render the Caesar what Caesar is, the things that are God are God. And there is a division between the secular and the sacred.

Absolutely there is. But it doesn't mean the secular is excluded from the Christian's obligation to live properly in the secular realm and submit even the secular authorities to the word of God. Well, if you are correct in your interpretation of Romans 13, that means that God has also established communism, socialism, dictatorship, fascism, and a whole variety of other governmental systems that have been highly destructive over human history. Well, what we're saying here is that God is the one who institutes all systems.

Everything is under his lordship. What is done in them and with them and through them is the failure and responsibility of the individuals. The biblical pattern of government is of representation and private property, self-defense, things like that. This is the biblical position. And communism, as an example, which negates that, works against scripture. But God certainly allows these things to work in his sovereignty. And he is Lord over all of them. And even those inside of the communist rule are to subject what they do inside of communism to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

According to the Bill of Rights, the first amendment of the Bill of Rights, it accomplishes freedom of religion and freedom of speech, correct? Okay. We're back on then. All right.

Thanks a lot, Keith. All right. For those of you like, we had an internet problem on my end. It just quit.

So I had to reboot the router a couple of times and do a couple of computer tricks and hopefully it'll stay up and running. So my apologies for that. Everybody out there, and if you want to give me a call back, you can, 877-207-2276. We were just about ready to just call it and say, I was talking to the programmer, Keith, and he was telling me that, yeah, let's see, we'll get to here and do that. There we go. So, yeah. Anyway, it just happened. Sorry. It just happened.

Those things happen no big deal. All right. Let's get back on. Let's see if I'm back on with Alberto. Are you still there, Alberto? Yes, sir.

I'm still here. All right. Thank you. All right, man. Sorry about that.

My question is- Go ahead. It's okay. When talking about the apostasy, even though if a person is a new believer in a certain church that believes the things you mentioned earlier to keep maintaining your salvation, so if a person in the church misses a sin or a season for a while, then the church member or the pastor might accuse him of being apostate in reality based on what you taught me just now.

In reality, he's not an apostate, but based on their belief system, they might label you or accuse you of being apostate. No, no, no. It's not that simple. You see, there can be different issues here related. So when someone says, a pastor who says someone, but without giving a specific, I can't answer that because it's not specific enough to address. All right?

It's just not. So- And you mentioned the essentials. I know the core, that's in the scriptures. I know that essential core of the Christian belief.

Right. Don't tell me how if a Christian just commits a sin or a season or a sin, you know, the romantic, they might say, the Bible verses I quote you, you quoted me, they don't understand Reformed theology like you do. They automatically will label you as an apostate or accuse you of being apostate. Yeah, like I said, it all depends on exactly what they're saying.

I've done this so much over the years. Someone will say to me, you know, Matt, you're not a Christian. I've had someone tell me that last week.

And I say, why? Oh, because you believe in Reformed theology. I said, okay, so what about Reformed theology makes me not a Christian? Oh, you don't believe that God loves everybody. Well, that has no bearing on whether or not I'm a Christian or not, because nothing in the scripture says that thou shalt believe that God loves everyone in order to be a Christian. So the person has taken something that is not taught in scripture as a necessity and raised it to the level of a system of that necessity.

When I asked them, where's the evidence for that? You'll say, well, God loved the world. And I'll say, okay, so what's the word world mean? And they say, it means every individual. How do you know that? Because God hates the wicked.

Psalm 5, 5, Psalm 11, 5. So if you say the word world means every individual, how do you know that? How do you know it doesn't mean all the nations?

Since Jesus was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and not to the whole world, not to all the nations. And so it just depends, you know, people will say things and they think they understand theology and they don't. And so that's why we have problems like that sometimes. And so that's why I'm saying, well, we need to be more specific. All right.

Okay. If you mention the word wicked, doesn't the Bible say God doesn't desire that the wicked shall perish? Yeah, he says that, but it also says he does desire the death of the wicked, believe it or not. A lot of people don't know that.

It actually says that he delights to destroy people in the Old Testament. That's right. Yeah.

I can get my references here. It's not very common to talk about that, but it's there. All right. All right, buddy. God bless, man. All right.

All right. Let's get to Eric from North Carolina. Eric, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, thank you for taking my call.

I've got a pretty basic question. Is it a sin for men to have long hair? And if so, why? No, it's not. In the Old Testament covenant aspect in the culture of the time, it was not right for men to have long hair because it was a symbol of being feminine and mixing the genders. And so they weren't to do that. But Samson had long hair.

So it was a cultural thing that was going on. And so now it's not an issue. If you want to have long hair or short hair, it doesn't matter. I have a good friend who's got really long hair. Well, really long. It's down to his shoulders. So, you know, whatever. He loves the Lord.

He's a good Christian man. So it's not a sin just to have long hair or a sin for women to have short hair because the hair was a crown of her glory. And it was to be covered in the context of the culture to symbolize subjection in the issue of the Lord and in the home.

And a lot of that is rebelled against the subjection issue. But the head covering was a symbol of that submission. So today it's not a symbol of that submission. So we don't have to do that. Okay.

Okay. Yeah, I just hear a lot of preachers talk about, you know, men shouldn't have long hair. And especially in Baptists, they talk about, you know, men shouldn't have long hair.

So I've always wondered about that. So I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Yeah, I like to ask them, where's it say in the Bible that men can't have long hair?

It talks culturally about certain things. And, you know, at any rate, there you go. All right? Okay. All right. Thank you very much. All right. Good. Let's get to Monty from Raleigh, North Carolina. Monty, welcome. You're on the air.

Yeah, Matt. I need some advice. I wanted to translate Greek to English and English to Greek. So I went to a bookstore and the only book I found, it basically was teaching Greek. And at 70 years old, I don't have the wherewithal to do that. What I'm looking for is a book that has the Greek word, and then it gives you the English definition in English.

Try do this. You can get Spiros. His first name is Spiros. S-P-I-R-O-S. And his last name is Zodiotes. It starts with a Z. Z-O-D. Zodiotes.

And he's a Greek scholar, and he has a King James Bible where he's gone through and tied in the Greek words into the dictionary in the back, and you can look it up. That's one option, but there's other options, too. Okay, so hold on.

After the break, I'll tell you what some other options are. Hey, folks, two open lines. Oh, one open line.

877-207-2276. We'll be right back. Here's Matt Slick.

All right, buddy, welcome back to the show. Monty, are you still there? Hello? Monty? Wait a second. Let me hit the right button. Oh, man. Hey, Monty, are you there?

Yes, sir, I'm here. All right. So that's one option, Spiros Zodiotes. Another one is you can get what's called an interlinear.

Have you ever heard of an interlinear? I did pick that word up in my... It was called the Interlinear Bible Ancient Greek Edition. Right. And what it'll do, it'll have the Greek, and underneath it, the English translation of the words. And often, they have what's called parsing, and that means it'll show, for example, the ami, epsilon, epsilon, iota, mu, iota.

That's the first person singular present active indicative of the verb to be. And so you can learn stuff like that there as well. Not that you need it, but it does help. And so there's that, and there's also blueletterbible.org. And you can go through and get a lot of research, a lot of stuff right there, a lot of good information on theletterbible.org. Okay.

Yeah, you've talked about that before. Yeah, it's a good place, good place. Outstanding. God bless you, my brother. God bless you.

All right, man. All right, now let's get to Vicki from Ohio. Hey, Vicki, welcome. You're on the air.

Hi. I talked to you before about lady preachers, and I know that's against God, and I do believe that myself. My nephews have brought in a lady preacher to teach a Bible study where I work.

Now, is it wrong for me to learn from her? She's a woman pastor, and she's being held up in that position as a woman pastor to teach a speech. I would not go to that study except to challenge her to defend her pastorship from scripture.

That's me. I'd go there and say, why are you a pastor? And you're out of order.

And she'll say, I don't want to talk to you, get away from me, blah, blah, blah. And I've done this before. The Bible commands you to give an answer, and everyone did ask you for the reason of the hope that lies within you, 1 Peter 3.15.

So I'm asking you. And her answer is, I know it's wrong, but I do it because I feel this is what I'm supposed to do to help people. And I say, well, if you know it's wrong, yeah.

So she says she knows she's doing it wrong, which means it's sin, and so she's saying she's sinning against God in order to help people. And that means she's okay? Yeah. Yeah, right there. She can't think of a way to wipe her back.

Seriously, it's bad, bad, bad thinking. Okay. Yeah, and the book she's been doing is Rick Warren's A Purpose Driven Life. Why am I here?

What am I doing here? Something like that. That book just makes me nervous anyway. Yeah, and it should. Rick Warren's got some issues. So she's weak theologically, it's compromised issues, and she shouldn't be doing that. Okay?

If you want to do Bible study at work, have a group together, and get me online, and I'll teach them. Okay. All right. Well, thank you so very much.

I didn't feel like it was right, but I thought I'm going to ask Matt. Okay, there you go. All right, God bless. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. All right, now let's get to David from Texas. David, we lost Dave, and genetics of Adam and Eve, which I was talking about last night, actually, on another forum.

Actually, on Oculus, I was on that. Let's get to, I think that's- Hello? Yeah, Paul from Virginia. Hey, welcome. You're on the air.

Thank you. I'm hearing reports that by October, and some people are saying it's due to these fires, these suspicious fires that have taken place at the food processing plant. You know about those. A lot of people don't know about those, about planes crashing into food processing plants in different parts of the country, and mysterious fires burning them down. A lot of people don't know. Yes, and some people go as far to say that we're actually under attack right now.

My question is, they're saying that by October, we'll be getting into a GOG, MAGOG situation, ending or culminating in February, and putting your thoughts on that. Any other God other than him? You're making a mistake of thinking that what God prescribes is also what he ordains in the same sense, because what he's doing in Exodus 20 in the Ten Commandments is talking about the moral obligation of all people, and specifically talking to the covenant Israel, not having any other gods before him. The Constitution, however, is a secular document and says that worship whoever and whatever you want. God even allows that in the Old Testament. He allows people to worship false gods.

That's their choice. Haven't you said before that the Constitution is based upon the Bible? A lot of it was, yes. Well, so the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights is an explicit contradiction of the Ten Commandments, and that still comes from the Bible? The context of the Bill of Rights, of the freedom of religion, was in contradiction and standing against the oppressive rule of a state church from a pagan governmental system out of England.

That's why it was established like that. We have the right of our own free religious expression. It's not a perfect expression of the biblical truth.

Nothing ever is. But God's perfect expression is that all people ought to worship the true and living God, but he certainly allows them not to, as is well evidenced and documented in the Old Testament. Well, but my point is still the same. We have the freedom of religion and freedom of speech according to the Constitution, but we don't have the option of freedom of speech and freedom of religion according to the Ten Commandments. They're an explicit contradiction. Where does it say in the Ten Commandments that you're to stop anybody from worshipping a false god? Thou shall have no other gods before me. Thou shall not take the Lord's name in vain. It's a moral statement. It's the moral statement of moral truth.

That's right. Of what you should be doing. It's called the prescriptive will. Are you familiar with the decorative, prescriptive, and permissive will of God?

Yes, I am. And of course they're explicitly contradictory. Okay.

We've had discussions before, and you think you're logical in a lot of areas and you're not. And the decorative, prescriptive, and permissive wills of God are not contradictory. It's in the Trinitarian context of eternal decrees of God. He certainly permits certain things to occur, just like he permitted the crucifixion to occur, which was a violation of Levitical law. Well, according to the canons of Dorit and the Westminster Confession of Faith, everything that occurs, occurs because God has willed it to occur.

Yeah, absolutely. Because we have the decorative will, the prescriptive will, and the permissive will. Nothing occurs unless it's by the will of God. If that is true, then all evil, all sin, and all suffering is because God is responsible for it. No, no, no, no. Now you need to study the difference between ultimate causation, proximate causation, and efficient causation.

Doesn't matter. If everything occurs, it occurs according to the will of God. Do you understand what the differences are between those three things? Yes, I do. Okay, can you explain what the difference between the proximate and the efficient cause is right now? Well, as I said, I understand them, but I'm not going to describe it. My point is still the same. Okay, so apparently you don't know what they are, and you have to understand these.

The difference between the efficient and the proximate causation is one of culpability. So you need to study this. It's an issue that we discuss in Christian theology and apologetics, and it's a level. You're intelligent, and I'm not mocking you.

You are. You should be able easily to understand these things and then see where the issue lies. And you also should look up on Carm the issue of who numbered Israel, because David numbered Israel, Satan moved him to number Israel, the anger of the Lord moved him to number Israel, and yet David was the one responsible who sinned. Well, nonetheless, if the Westminster Confession of Faith is correct in saying that all things occur according to God's will, then God is responsible for all evil, all suffering, and all sin. Well, the Bible says that God works all things after the counsel of His will. Do you agree with that verse in Ephesians 1-11, God works all things after the counsel of His will?

Well, if that is true, then there is an explicit contradiction. Did you agree with the statement that God works all things after the counsel of His will? Do you agree or disagree with that statement of Scripture? Does the Scripture say that?

Yes, it does. Okay, then you have to admit that God works all things, even evil things, according to the counsel of His will, correct? Well, again, if you're going to talk about logic, which is what I'm talking about, then that is logic is what I'm talking about. That is what I just asked you, and I'm asking you to answer it. Also, having been obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to its purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will, does all things include evil things? Sure, of course. Okay, so then He works even evil things after the counsel of His will.

So the problem you have is not understanding the difference between the ultimate cause, the proximate cause, and the efficient cause, as well as the decorative will, prescriptive will, and the permissive will. This is where you study these, the problems will become evident, and you need to study them. We need to move along because we've got a break coming up, okay?

So Ryan, study those. That's what you need to do. Alright, let's get on to CJ from Boise, hey, welcome, you're on the air. Yes, sir. Alright.

Alright, we've got the break there. So, middle knowledge, okay, so what's the issue with it? So, my kind of question is, so I am also, like I said, reformed and also an apologist, which I've talked to, Mullen, quite a lot, and a lot of apologists I hear, who are also reformed, seem to have this huge issue with the idea that God could possibly know the counterfactual, but it seems to me like I almost just grant, sure, Mullenism could totally exist, because I feel like it only works on a reformed model. Mullenism has problems.

Well, because it uses libertarian free will and imposes that into the foreknowledge of God, and that's a problem, because it denies total depravity. Well, and so I do understand that there is issues there, right, but to kind of illustrate what part of my problem is, could you, well, are you familiar with the genre of alternate history? Yeah, you mean fiction, yeah.

An alien group comes in and takes over Nazi Germany, and yeah, there's a novel about that, it's supposed to be really good, yeah. Yeah, I'm actually quite a fan, and some of them, right, they'll just be kind of regular, like they just want to ask a question, like, you know, what if Napoleon didn't follow Waterloo or something like that, and they just make a fiction out of it, right, and the point is that these guys are really good at history and all that, they can speculate on this counterfactual. It seems to me like, as man could speculate on that counterfactual, that God would know that counterfactual.

Well, let's back up, let's back up. So, before the creation of the universe, God has existed, and he has all knowledge, there's no place where he can gain knowledge under any condition, and the condition includes any possibility of existence, which ultimately couldn't exist unless God decided to bring it into existence. So, before anything was made, before God made anything, he knew all things that were potential. The only thing actual at that time was himself, and so he would know in the interscenitarian eternal communion all things about himself exultably. He would therefore also know all things potential. Another program powered by the Truth Network.