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. Hey everybody, if you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 877-207-2276. I just want to make sure that you guys can give me a call. We had some phone problems the past couple of days, but apparently they're all solved, so hopefully everything will work fine if you want to give me a call.

Alright, you can do that. I want to hear from you. Give me a call. We'll talk.

877-207-2276. Alright. While we're talking about all this stuff, I hope you all have a great holiday. We're going to be taking some days off towards the last week, and we're going to be talking near the holidays.

I'll let you guys know what it is, but we're going to be taking them off near Christmas and also around New Year's, so just giving you a heads up on that. For now, we're on, and we should be on next week and taking questions. I've been writing articles on CARM the past week. We're trying to get some more stuff going.

Did some questions on hell and some other stuff. Alright, there we go. Got the audio fixed. Everything seems to be good, and I guess we're on the air. Now, if you want to call 877-207-2276.

Okay. On Fridays, I like to do hate mail. What I'm going to do right now is just go do some.

If you don't have any calling right now, and it often happens during the end of the year time, December, and it gets slow. People are out there doing their stuff and shopping, and that's okay. That's fine. What I'm going to do right now is get into some hate mail. I love it. There's something wrong with me. I tell my wife that. I go, there's something wrong with me. She goes, amen. I go, okay, alright.

I can live with that. I'm obnoxious. I'm irritating and stuff, and maybe that's why I like hate mail.

I really get a kick out of it. Let me just jump into one. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. This is under the hate mail. Alright. This comment was under your article. Is the Lord's Supper a representation of the sacrifice?

Thought I'd share. What? Sola Scriptura doesn't apply here? These aren't the words of God? You can't have it both ways.

Oh, man. Either inform yourself about what the Catholic Church is, and then present your questions or concerns, or sit down and be quiet. It would well be better that a millstone be tied around your neck rather than lead these into confusion and hell. Now, see, this is interesting because the Catholics, they just assume that their position is always true, that what they teach is right, and that they're full of heresies. I get a kick out of the Catholics and the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Muslims and the atheists in that they're not believing God's word. They're believing what someone tells them God's word says, or in the case of the atheists, they just deny God's word all over. And it's the same mentality. They're right. I'm wrong. Well, I'm rushing on God's word now.

We can debate with the nature of truth and the extent of it, and according to scripture, at least for those who hold to the Bible, at least some of them, but we'll see. Anyway, he goes on. You know there's a demon whose specialty is sowing discord and confusion.

Why not utter a prayer of binding to relieve your poor soul and intellect of its grip? Well, thank you. Oh, that's from someone named Laura. But that was a while back. Oh, no, wait a minute.

That was just a couple months ago. Yeah. So there you go. There's that one. Let's see if I need more. Oh, that's a good one. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Why don't we then just jump on the air and let's check them out. Let's get to Rudolph. Rudolph, welcome. You're on the air. Yes.

Yes, sir. On my question, what is the answer that the Catholic gives because when the mad guy went into the house, they worshiped him and not her? You know, that's a really good point. I never thought of that.

Seriously, Rudolph, I never thought of that. That is a very good point. They bowed down to him, not her.

They dressed him, not her. That's right. That's good. You know, I never thought of that.

Wow, good stuff. Yeah, I'm going to think about that because that's a good question. That is a good question. Why didn't they? So what do you think they're doing? Well, I think that they might say something to the effect of, well, Jesus is more important than Mary. That's what they came to do was to serve him.

And then later on, they learned how important Mary was. They could probably say something like that and things. But that's interesting.

I'm going to think about that. What I like to do is get new things, and then I try it out with the different groups to see how they react to it, see what they say. And I'm doing something new with the Muslims on varying chat rooms.

And so what I'm doing is talking about are all of their sins forgiven right now? And it's really interesting to see what answers I'm getting. I expect them to say, well, no. But there's always people who say things that I just wouldn't expect. That's why I take notes.

And that's happened, and so I get to learn from that. The same kind of a thing might be here to the Catholics. Why didn't the Magi praise and worship and bow down to Mary?

How come just Jesus? Why not? I'm going to ask them to see what they say. That's good, man. Good.

I wish I had thought of that. Okay. All right. Well, I'll be listening.

Yeah. Good stuff. Thank you, and God bless you. Well, thank you, man. Good thought. I wish I had thought of that.

That's a good one. Yes, sir. You love me, brother. God bless, Ron. Bye-bye. All right, man. Thanks. Yeah, I love it when people call up and they give me ideas I hadn't thought about.

That is good stuff, so praise God for that. Five open lines, if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. We have nobody waiting right now. Now, I'm going to let you know that this month we're having a matching funds drive, so if you sign up and send us $100, we have a guy who's going to match it. It'll be another $100. So whatever you donate, just consider it being double. That's what's going to happen. And we really do need it at the end of the year, plus where the economy is.

We do need this. And I talked to the guy today, actually, about a half hour ago. We were talking, and he is privileged to be able to serve God this way and to help out.

And so I said, oh, thank you, and we've known each other for a while, and he's a great guy. And you could pray for him, and I don't want to say who it is, unless he says it's okay for me to say, because the glory isn't for now. The glory is for later in the afterlife.

And we glorify our Lord. But this guy is really helping us out, and praise God. So if you were to sign up for, say, $5 a month, which is what we're asking, then what we'll do is just count the whole year, which is $60 for the year, and he'll just give another $60 right there.

And so as you go on with your $5. I forgot to ask him today. Darn it, I thought about it, because he actually donated some to CARM. Well, if it's a matching funds drive, I wonder if he's going to match his own donation. So I forgot to ask him. He'd get a kick out of that.

He'd laugh. So anyway, there you go. All right, there you go, there you go.

So praise God. And if you want to help us out, all you've got to do is go to CARM.org forward slash donate. Just forward slash donate, all the information it needs right there.

So if you're already doing $5 a month and you make it $10, then that extra $5 will be counted. Just letting you know we do need that. Please help us out so we can stay on the air, because, well, we all know how things are going. All right, nobody's calling right now, so I'm going to get on and do some more hate mail. Let's see, I saw you taunting a bunch of high school kids, calling them terrible names. Where does this guy get this?

And vulgar stuff that you would have to be idiots like apparently you punks are. I think I know what this person's talking about. Years ago, when I was standing out in front of a Mormon church at Mormon temples, I'll hold up my sign, ismormonismchristian.com.

And you can check out the website, ismormonismchristian.com. It's up there. And so I talked to these kids, not like 12, 13. They were like 17, 18, 19 range. And we just had a discussion, and I had it on film. And I just said, well, you said this. And they didn't like the answers because they couldn't answer. And people have said I beat up on them. I didn't beat up on them. I just talked to them and answered everything that they had to say. And I've noticed that when I answer people, they get mad at me.

I can tell you stories. I remember this one time, this Mormon, and not all Mormons are like this, okay? I'm not saying it's typical. But I remember this one Mormon missionary.

I was rebutting everything he was saying, quoting his sources, quoting the Bible, using logic. He was just not used to this. And he had balled his fists.

And his jaw was shaking because he wanted to take a swing at me. But people don't like it when they're confronted. And here's the thing. What do people do? They identify with something. Like me, I identify with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I don't identify with a church. This is why if I go to a church and that pastor or that church goes bad, my faith isn't affected because it's not in a local church. My faith is not based in what someone does here on earth. It's based on who Jesus is and the true living God, Jesus Christ, God in flesh, died on the cross, rose from the dead. Not one of the gods from another planet and not the true church that has been restored by the prophet or the prophetess. So many people have done that. So many have said, yeah, our church is the restored gospel, the true church.

Really? What's the name of your prophet? Oh, Ellen G. White or Joseph Smith or Charles Taze Russell or Mary Baker Reddy or Charles Fillmore. These people. Or Muhammad.

We're the ones. So anyway, it's just the same old stuff. Let's see what this person has to say. He says, my God, I guess the Mormon God, I'm assuming, would not condone that type of nonsense.

It wouldn't? Oh, okay. But I guess your God does.

What nonsense? I mean, Jesus is the one who turned over tables and called people whitewash supplicers. I don't know what this guy is, you know, what he's going to. He says, but I email you boys to invite you down to South Louisiana. And this is a couple of years ago, South Louisiana and can set a date and I'll have a bunch of white devils with me, but we're not going to be aggressive or racist like you guys are in your video. You know what?

I don't know what this guy's talking about, but it's entertaining because we're all of us on car. We're not racist, you know, and stuff. We don't care about that stuff. We just want the gospel preached.

Let me go on. That's what he says, no, we are going to debate our God with whatever it is that y'all call God. Then we both can come away from the meeting with a knowledge of who really followed God's will. Wow. Because there's only one God. So either you boys are wrong or God is one racist dude.

Wow. You know what? This guy does not have his socket set complete, you know. His gasket is misaligned.

His bearing is missing a couple of wheels there. So wow, man, got some issues there. Hey folks, there's a break. Give me a call.

877-207-2276. We'll be right back after these messages. Welcome back to the show.

It's a nice, slow Friday, and if you want to give me a call, all you've got to do is dial 877-207-2276. Hey, if you want to watch the show, watch me sitting here drinking my coffee and joining into the conversation, you can do it by going to Facebook, karm.org, Facebook, and we have it fed out there. It's on Twitter, and we have it on YouTube, and you can go there and chat, and it feeds into what we call StreamYard, and I can see all the chats and all the stuff from the people that come in together from those various things, and so it's a lot of fun, and we have a lot of people doing this. There's over 30 people in the chatting right now, and we have a good time during the breaks especially. People make fun of me, which they love doing.

Oh man, they love it, but we have a good time. Oh, let's get on the phones with, let's see, that would be Herb, hey Herb, welcome, you're on the air. Yes. Are you there? I have a book by Billy Graham, and he says, in the name of Jesus Christ and in the power of his Holy Spirit, the child of God can overcome Satan and his demons. Yes. The demon must be discerned, tested, and rejected by believers. I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't quite understand you, could you repeat that? Yes, let me turn off the radio. Okay.

The demon must be discerned, tested, and rejected by believers. Okay. All right, we're waiting for you to turn the radio off.

Turn off the radio. Okay, we've got something going on in the background there. Okay, go off now. All right. Yes. Do you agree with Billy Graham, a believer with the Holy Spirit can actually also have a demon in them? Oh no, no, demons cannot be in a Christian, they cannot be demon-possessed.

You go to Matthew 12, 43, roughly, for that. Okay. Well, the point being is, you wouldn't necessarily be possessed if you have a demon in you, and if you're a Christian and you have a demon in you, are you demon-possessed?

Yes. If you have a demon in you, that's possessed by a demon, that's what it means. You can be oppressed as a Christian, but not demon-possessed.

Okay? Well, I mean, possessed means, to me, possessed means complete control. Well, maybe not complete, but it does mean definitely that, you know, a person's in there, and I mean, a demonic force is inside of a person, I wouldn't know about complete, but pretty extensively. So I would just say that, no, we cannot be demon-possessed, not as Christians, it's not possible. Okay?

All right. But demon-influenced is okay. Well, it's not okay in that I wouldn't want it to occur, but theologically, yes, all people can be oppressed demonically, have certain things happen that are demonic.

That's certainly possible. Okay? And so, Christians can be demonically oppressed, that means demons can be assigned to them to make their life miserable, things like that. All right?

I could talk more about it, but go ahead. The demon is in the Christian, the physically inefficient. No, no demons are in Christians, nope, nope, all right, demons cannot be in Christians. I was concerned about this because, oh, about 15 years ago, I went to a church for these spoken tongues. And I was born again, but I went up to the altar to pray, and an associate pastor came over and put his hand on my shoulder, and I felt a cloud come through his hand into my shoulder and into my body. And I've been bothered by that ever since, but I guarantee you, I'm born again. There's lots of different phenomena that can occur inside of churches for different reasons and different things, and I wouldn't worry about that if you're speaking in tongues.

I have no problem with the continuation of all the charismatic gifts, I think they are for today. I know a lot of people disagree, but just because someone lays their hand on you and you have a sensation that doesn't mean that it's bad, doesn't mean it's good, you always put it in the context, if you're receiving Christ and moving forward with him, that's good. If it was in a cult, like one that's Pentecostal, that would be a problem.

But other than that, I'm not sure what to tell you, okay? So demons cannot be Christian, I mean, Christians cannot be demon-possessed, okay? But they can be demon-influenced. Yeah, and that's just generically stated, yeah, it can be an influence. And what do I mean by that?

Well, I'm not exactly sure. But it says, I think there are just some places in the scripture where Paul was hindered, and the Holy Spirit hindered Paul from going to one place, but there were also demonic forces that were at work as well. And Paul says in Ephesians 6-12, he says, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities, etc. And so we know that that's the case. I mean, all we got to do is turn a TV on, and you can see exactly the demonic influence that's prevalent in our country, for example, and the rise of homosexuality, and the killing of the unborn, and the war against God, and the war against his word, and the promotion of ungodliness, and fornication, and adultery, and theft. We have people who don't behave according to righteousness, and they're in power. And so they're obviously under demonic influence. This is what's happening. Well, okay.

Paul said he was bothered by a messenger of Satan in the flesh. Yeah. But that's just, he's buffeted.

It probably was his eyesight. That's the common assumption. That's the answer. A messenger, a messenger, in all my Bible dictionaries, is an angel. A messenger of Satan would be a demon. Well, yeah. You know, the word angelos is the word angel or messenger.

But you've got to understand that people make a mistake. It means messenger. Angelos just means messenger. Well, it's used of angels. And they say, so an angel is a messenger, all messengers are now angels.

That's not the case. It's like Jesus has called an apostle, and so is Paul, and so is Peter. And there's false apostles as well. So they say the word messenger, which is angelos, has different usage in different contexts.

So you can't say that every time the word appears that it is the same thing, like an angel. So it occurs, let's see, 177 times in the Bible. And it's used, behold, I sent a messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way. That's Mark 1-2. The messenger is John the Baptist.

That's who that is in that context. And let's see, another one. Yeah, that's Mark 1-2. And so, behold, I sent my messenger ahead of you. That's Luke 2-27.

So you see, that's all it means, just a messenger, and sometimes it's a creator being an angel. Okay? All right. We've got to go.

All right, Herb, God bless. Hey, folks, we have two open lines. Give me a call.

877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, but welcome back to the show. Let's get on the air here with Linda from North Carolina. Linda, welcome. You're on the air. Thank you, Matt. Thank you for all you do. Let me give you a heads up that I am parked someplace out in the public, and so you will not hear this background traffic. I'm going to ask my question, and then I'm going to hang up and just listen to you on the radio.

Okay. Joel Osteen, I'm not a part of his congregation or his following, but I have listened to him over the years numerous times, and I have found him to be enjoyable. However, I noticed that he never preaches anything about the cross, about the resurrection.

I never preaches anything. He doesn't get into sin, you know, everything is sort of a smiley face, but he does, at the beginning of his sermon, raise the Bible up as being the supreme author of everything in which he acknowledges the Bible for what it is, the Word of God. And in the sermons that I have listened to him, I have never heard him say anything that I could catch that was not biblical, although his sermons consistently leave out talking a lot about what the Bible says. So my question is, what are things that he has said that are heretical? Why should we consider him not to be a good preacher of the Word? And now we'll hang up and listen to your answer.

Okay, sure. Just so everybody knows out there, I've been to his church, and I sat through his service, and I'll tell you about my experience there. I have film of it, and I need to do an exposé of him and show what was going on in the church. It was a rock concert, laser lights kind of things, these beams of lights and all this great stuff. And when I left, I felt uplifted, I felt good. And the reason is because it was a feel-good message, feel-good this, good music, everything was good, made me feel good.

Of course, I'm very much aware of that. And also very much aware that he didn't preach any depth at all, that his message was mamby pamby and lacked substance, but because the congregation members aren't aware of biblical theology and the severity and the truth of varying aspects of Scripture and the areas he could have touched, they remained ignorant because this bad teacher keeps people ignorant. He teaches what's called the prosperity gospel. He has a book out called Your Best Life Now. I don't want my best life now. I want my best life when God wants me to have my best life. Maybe my best life, according to God, is for me to suffer for his namesake. And that's what's best in his eyes. But when you start saying your best life now, well then that must mean then that if it's now it's your best, well then does it get worse tomorrow? Or does it only get better and better and every day is best life now?

Well, how can I be the best? You don't judge a book by its cover, but the idea is he wants to preach to make you feel good, to make you feel uplifted. Satan loves to use feelings to deceive people. I feel good about the Book of Mormon.

I feel good about signing this contract. I feel good about whatever it is, the sermon. I watched the people in the congregation as I was there with him, you know, watching him preach. And I went to two different places in there. I took time during the sermon to move to another location.

I just wanted to see. And I wasn't disruptive at all. And the people were full of smiles.

They were happy. And I realized also that they weren't being taught anything. And the caller's right. He doesn't preach repentance or sin, death or resurrection or sacrifice. At least I've not heard that. Now if he has, okay.

But it's certainly not that I've heard. And when I do research on him occasionally, the same kind of complaints come up. He doesn't seem to preach hell or repentance, the cross, resurrection or sin. I heard him once say Mormons were Christians. Now any preacher who says Mormons are Christians is not qualified to be a preacher because Mormonism teaches God came from another planet, has a goddess wife, and they have relations in heaven to make spirit babies that inhabit human bodies at birth in the Trinity's three separate gods and that you're saved from your sins by what you do, by your works. And so this is all a false god, false Christ, a false gospel. And he said, oh, they're Christian.

He couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag. So Joel Osteen is bad that way. So when I was at his church after the service, you know, I never caused any problem. I wasn't there for that.

Just to observe. And a friend of mine and I, we went there and went into the bookstore. The bookstore was bigger than most churches, congregation areas, you know, where the congregation sits. And so we went in there and, you know, I asked a worker there, I said, do you have any systematic theologies? And this is a person who worked at the bookstore.

And he said, systematic theology? He said, well, what's that? I was surprised. How could you not know that you're working there?

That's possible. He was new. I didn't ask. And he just didn't know anything as possible. I said, a systematic theology arranges theology systematically, hence a systematic theology. And there's some good ones out there. And I said, it's just one.

I want to know if you have any, I'd like to see which ones you have because you have, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of books, all kinds of topics. And he says, well, I don't know what that is. Let me go ask the manager. I said, okay. So 20 minutes later, he comes back and he says, no, we don't have anything like that here. And I never forgot that because what it was telling me is that the depth of God's word is not what needs to be taught. It's enough of God's word to make you feel good and basically inoculate you from being effective. So I wouldn't trust Joel Osteen as far as I could throw him. And I'm not saying he's not a Christian, but I'm not saying he is either. It's not my place to judge that because he hasn't spoken damnable heresy.

It's just that, uh, he doesn't preach the depth and the truth of God's word in the issue of repentance and sin and who Christ is and the necessity of sacrifice and things like that. So that's why I don't recommend him and that's why I recommend people stay away from him. Okay. Along with Joyce Meyer, stay away from her. Stay away from Kenneth Copeland. Okay.

They're false teachers. All right. Let's get on the air with Natasha from Richmond. Natasha.

Welcome. You're on the air. Are you there? Natasha.

Hello. Are you there? We'll keep waiting a little bit. Maybe she's having problems. Let me put her on hold here a little bit. Natasha, you're there. Not hearing you. So she wants to talk about Jehovah's Witnesses. We'll get back to her after we try Mark from Salt Lake City. Mark, welcome.

You're on the air. My question is, what's the difference between the kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God? Nothing really. The kingdom of heaven is used in Matthew mainly and it's a Jewish kind of a terminology. The kingdom of God, I think, is used elsewhere. And they're basically the same thing. I did research on this a while back.

That's how come I know. Good question, though. No. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Same thing.

Just reading through the scriptures and I just didn't quite understand what the difference was. And when I tried to do a study and I really didn't have time to finish it. So I figured I'd just call you and ask. So I appreciate how you do.

Get a quick and slick answer. Right? There you go. That's exactly right.

I should get a t-shirt that says, I'm quick and slick. And this just people. What the heck? That guy's got problems. Anyway. All right. So there you go, buddy. All right. Sure. What I would like to say if you would allow me to do that is just for all the listeners out there, I mean, help support mass radio show if you're, if you're not currently doing it. I'm a supporter.

I just think it's very important to help our Christian brothers, you know, and get the word out and, and, and just keep doing what you're doing. And that's all I have to say. I appreciate that. I appreciate it a lot. Mark.

I'll send you the check later. Okay. Yeah. Right. Okay.

You too, man. God bless. All right.

I don't know who that is. Um, but that was nice to say we do need that support and all you gotta do is go to carm.org forward slash donate. We asked $5 a month. We don't need a whole bunch, just enough. And we're just letting you know we have that need. Please consider supporting us.

$5 isn't much. All right. Let's get back with Natasha. Let's see if Natasha is still or maybe available. Are you there in Natasha?

Hello? No. All right. I'll put her on hold again. We'll come back to her again and if she can't get through, maybe she can just call right back. All right.

Let's get on the air with kit from Tucson. Hey kid. How you doing buddy? Uh, I'm much better than I deserve. That's for sure.

I nearly completely healed from COVID-19 and so it's been helpful. That's right. You've been fighting about a month now, haven't you? At least three, three weeks.

And most of the time when I was fighting it, and this brings up the question I have, most of the time while I was fighting it, I was praying in bed and something came up. Hold on. We've got a break. Okay.

I want to hear what you've got to say. Hey folks, 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 buddy, welcome back to the show. Last segment of the hour on this nice Friday. And if you want to give me a call at 877-207-2276, let's try Natasha one more time. Natasha, are you there? She had a question on the Jehovah's Witnesses.

I guess not. We'll just hang up on her. She can call back if she wants and let's get to, oh yes, back to Kit from Tucson.

I forgot about that. Hey Kit, welcome. You're on the air, buddy. Hey, um, so here's, here's, here's my question.

It came up while I was in bed crying all the time. Um, obviously the Bible says if you believe in Jesus Christ, you have eternal life. It also, however, says that all liars have their place in the lake of fire and straight up, um, I've lied on many, many occasions, even since becoming a Christian. So what do I do with these passages? Well, you take them, uh, fearfully because if you've lied on many occasions and you're continuing to do that, and that would be a serious issue, but what this is talking about is for those who have rejected Christ, and I know you, I've known you for a while, and you don't do that. Uh, you, you may struggle with stuff just like everybody does, but this is dealing with those who have rejected God, who are abiding in the things that are evil. That's what's happening. Death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire.

That's a second death. But the people who are, go there is the devil, uh, who deceived them is thrown into the lake of fire. And, uh, these are the false prophets, the false teachers, those who've denied Christ. And lying is something that's really important because the Trinity, the one and many, one God in three persons, truth is something that exists because of contrast. Now it's based ultimately in the mind and the heart of God. And he reveals what is true because the statements of truth from God are in regard to objects, to things, to concepts, and it really is from God.

So there's many kinds of objects, many kinds of things. And so truth is something that is in the nature of God, the heart of God. And if we are to participate in lying, what we're saying is that God himself in the Trinitarian context is not the basis of all truth. We're trying to work against what he says and does. This is why, one of the reasons it's a very serious issue.

It actually is an affront to the Trinitarian nature of God. So what do we do if we do this? We uh, uh, we just need to repent and move forward. Okay. No problem.

No problem at all. Just repent and say, okay, you know, I'm struggling with this and you confess it to the Lord and you're not abiding in that lying, you're struggling with it. So I know I've known Christians who had trouble with it. And they say, I don't know why I remember one guy was telling me, I just do it sometimes I came and help it. He said, well, you got to give that to God, you got to work on that. So, okay.

Yeah. I mean, it's not, it's not something I'm proud of or, or anything that I want to know, how many lies can I tell and still go to heaven or anything stupid like that? You know, it's just, it's just something I noticed I was doing. And then that verse kept coming up and, you know, obviously I don't want to be in that way. Well, we don't lose our salvation because of our sin and we don't keep it because of our goodness.

It's based on Christ. And I know you, you've trusted in Christ and it's very evident. So this is an issue of sanctification and it's something you have to work on. People have trouble, even Christians, they have trouble with smoking, with alcohol, with pride, varying things. And so I'm not saying it's okay to do all these and still go to heaven.

I'm not saying that, but we have to be careful not to be too judgmental about things. And so, um, we need to lay ourselves in our sins before God and make sure that we're trusting in Christ and then ask him to strengthen us in those areas that we're failing in and then continually go to the cross in our failures as we depend on him and rest in him. And it's not okay to sin, but he won't reject us because of our sin.

He has accepted us because of the blood of Christ and our faith and trust in him. And he knew all about you from eternity past and still chose to love you and save you. So these things, though bad, uh, aren't the thing that will separate you from God and you go to hell. Uh, so, but they are things in the area of sanctification that you'd be taken care of. Otherwise God will discipline you.

Okay. Um, I, I think, uh, I think he, he dealt with me while I was sick, uh, knowing that, that, uh, I didn't have anywhere to escape. I mean, you know, and of course that's what the Holy Spirit does. He, he shows us our sin and, and, uh, and the way out, of course, right.

And the way out is by looking at Jesus and recognizing what we do. I mean, it's, it's, it's shameful and I'm the first one to say it's shameful. In fact, I wanted to call anonymously. I just didn't think anybody would buy it because I think, you know, my voice. Yeah, I know your voice. And that's okay too. I would have known. I wouldn't have brought it up. Um, but because it, you know, I saw the information that, you know, where your name and where you're from.

I knew it was you. But, um, yeah, you know, it, I don't, I like to tell people, I gotta be careful when I say this cause I don't want them to take it the wrong way. It's okay that you're a sinner. You know what I mean by that is you don't have to worry about God's faithfulness to you. You don't have to worry about your position with God.

It's not affected by that. So it's okay. On the other hand, it's not okay to be a sinner. We don't want to sin. We don't want to have that be between us and God and not repent of these things. Because as I tell people, if you don't deal with it, God will discipline you. And I know because I've had it happen to me. Be disciplined and I, and this happened back 35 years ago or so, uh, 35, 40 years ago when I was disciplined by God. And I'm still nervous about it.

The effect of it was quite severe. And so, uh, God has his way of dealing with us and sometimes we need those hard lessons to get it through our stupid, thick skulls. You know, well, actually I'm glad that I am nervous about it because if I wasn't, it would mean that I was saying that, that sin is not sinful. And uh, I don't think there is a Christian that, that would say sin is not sinful.

I mean, I would say that's a sign that you're not a Christian. If you don't believe sin is actually sinful, if I'm making any sense, absolutely. Sin is sinful. It's not okay.

It's not okay. We need to repent of it. I, I want people to know that their performance before God is not what makes them right before God. It's faith in Christ.

He's the one who did it all. And what amazes me is that from all eternity, you know, God chose us in him before the foundation of the world, Ephesians one, five, which means he knows all of our sin and he still chose to save us and love us. And to me, that's unfathomable.

How does he do that? And when I look into my own heart, for example, I don't like what I see. There's a lot of wickedness there and yet he loves me. And so that's the attitude and it's because of who Christ is and because of who he is that we can rest. So I'm saying it's okay. You're all right. Now work on repentance. Okay. Yeah. The one last thing I want to say is I want to thank the Karm prayer partners because I know they were praying for us while we were sick and I think we're really on the mend right now.

And so we're very grateful to God and to people who prayed for us. Can I ask you, did you take the vaccine? I did not. My wife did. And she got it much worse than I did. I mean, she got it so bad that there were times that I was checking her every 20 minutes to see if she was even breathing.

And I mean, I was really in distress over, you know, she can die of this. So my doctor never recommended any vaccine to me. And so I never got any vaccine. She did get the vaccine. And like I said, she got it a lot worse than I did.

Yes. I've been hearing that people who are getting really sick with it are the ones who have taken the vaccine. I've been hearing that. In fact, I'll tell people, and this is what gets me kicked off of things for saying this, but I can go to the CDC website. I can run people through it on how you can check out and see what doctors over the country and around the world have reported the CDC and how many vaccine deaths are related to all vaccines combined since the 60s, excluding COVID vaccines.

And excluding them is like 9,000. And that past two years, it's over 26,000 from COVID vaccines just in two years related to the vaccines. So I will say I thought something this week that says the people that are the most vaccinated are actually the ones that are having the toughest time with COVID-19. And I saw that on YouTube, and it was a medical doctor that was just going through the CDC list of who's getting it right now and who's dying of it right now. I was surprised that YouTube let that up.

Yeah, I'm surprised because the Nazis who work there don't want information out there. But yeah, you can tell how high they are. Like people that have gotten the five vaccines, you know, all the boosters and everything. For some reason, they're having a much tougher time with it than people who never got a vaccine at all or didn't get the boosters.

That's right. And taking the vaccines between you and your doctor and your God, you do what you want to do. I'm not saying don't. Yeah, I don't know what I would have done if my doctor had told me to get it, but he never did tell me to get it, and he knows I haven't gotten it. If my doctor said get a vaccine, I'd say, nope, I'm not doing it.

That's it. Well, yeah, I'd argue with him. If my doctor told me to get it, I would at least talk to him about it and not just blindly do it.

But no, he's never recommended it because I have other health issues. Yeah, you do. That's right. Well, I would never take it. That's just me.

I'm not going to take it. Anyway, I would say the Karm Prayer Partners are a very valuable resource. Yes, they are. That's right. Joanne does a great job with it.

Yes, she does. Well, praise God, brother. Okay.

Yeah, so thank you for answering my question. It really, really haunted me for days, and it should have. I'm glad it did.

I'm glad it did. Excuse me. It's a saying that you're alive in Christ. Okay. Is that right, brother? Yeah. All right, brother.

Absolutely. All right. Okay. God bless. All right. Yeah, God bless you. Okay, that's good. Yeah. He and I share the stage sometimes and bring chat rooms to talk about the Lord. He's a good guy. All right.

Let's try this. John from North Carolina. John, are you there? Yes. There you go.

I'll make it real quick. I know you're running low on time, but a caller earlier was talking about Joel Osteen, and he gave your opinion. I wonder what your opinion is on Todd White and Dan Mohler.

I don't know the second one, but Todd White, stay away from. Okay. Okay. Well, actually, Dan Mohler is the person, the mentor, the one that got Todd White saved. Well. So he's kind of like his pastor. Yeah. That's, I don't know who the, like I said, I don't know, I beg all your comment, you know, I've researched Todd White, and I would never go to his church.

I would never, would not do that. I know he teamed up with Kenneth Copeland a year or so ago as well, and that kind of, that's red flags automatically. Right. And there's lots of stuff researched and taught about him. And see, what I want to do is sit with these guys and just ask them doctrine questions.

Just go through a list of questions for these guys, you know, I'm nobody, it won't happen, but it would be great to have a page on CARM where we've actually interviewed these guys and they've asked, answered, say 50 questions, but they won't submit themselves to that. Well, you know, the Bible says that. Well, thank you.

Give an answer. All right, buddy. God bless.

Hey, folks, we're out of time. May the Lord bless you. Remember, we're having a matching funds drive for the month of December. Whatever you donate will be doubled, and you can just help us out if you want.

Go to CARM.org forward slash donate. It's all right there. And may the Lord bless you. Have a great weekend. And by his grace, we're back on the air on Monday and we'll talk to you then. Have a good one. God bless. This is a program powered by the Truth Network.