Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. If you want to give me a call, we have five open lines.

877-207-2276. Thank you very much for listening. I just had a thought. It popped in my mind. Today I was on a chat room and we get discussing the issue of Jesus saying, No man knows the day or the hour, and it deals with the wedding feast norms. I'm going to start doing a little bit of research to document this, because the people who deny who Jesus really is were saying, Where's your proof? It just now occurred to me, there's a lot of people out there who know a lot of stuff.

If you know of any references or documentation from that in the ancient system and the culture, send it to me at info.com.org. I'm going to be doing some research anyway, but you never know. Sometimes people out there just have a tidbit of info, a link, a file, a book that talks about it. I thought that might be a good idea.

Also, I'm working on an article, which I already released, but I'm rewriting it because I wanted to get it out there quickly. Now I'm modifying it about how do we know we're not just brains and vats. So going through that, this is because the atheists like to ask those kinds of questions.

They like to ask them of me and other questions, but I like to answer stuff like that and try to anyway. So there's that. If you want to give me a call, we have five open lines, 8772072276. If you're new to the show, this is the last live show of the year. We're going to be having recorded shows for the rest of the year. I'll be back on live on January 3rd because the 2nd of January is a holiday for the radio station. And by the way, January 2nd will be my 18-year anniversary of doing radio, five days a week. I won't say though, I did lose about three weeks, two or three weeks between network changes, but there you go.

So 18-year anniversary is coming up on January, so praise God for that. And also we have stuff on Rumble and we try to get it on LinkedIn. I need more followers on LinkedIn. I have 91, need 150 in order to simulcast the show onto LinkedIn. So if you have a LinkedIn account, all you got to do if you want to follow me just to help out with the numbers, is just go there and just look for Matt Slick, founder of KARM.org, and it says 91 connections.

I guess that's how many are following. So I don't use it hardly at all, but I'm going to start getting back into it along with some other things, just trying to take care of some stuff. Okay, there we go, leave all the stuff in there. So that's that, we have nobody waiting right now if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. That's what happens when you read something when you're giving numbers.

It messes you up, that's what I was doing. All right, now I won't be on tomorrow because it's a holiday for the radio station, and so today's the last live show of the year if you want to give me a call. Today's the day, and also I want to let you know that we stand here by your support. We're doing a matching funds drive for the month of December. If you want to support us, please consider that. We ask $2.

I'm reading other stuff now, I've got to stop doing that. We ask $5 a month because it's not very much. $5 a month is a big coffee or two coffees for you and a friend kind of a thing, and we're asking that because we don't need a whole bunch, we just need enough. We're not here to make a lot of money, we're here to serve God, and if it's upon your heart to support us, just for $5 a month even, all you have to do is go to karm.org forward slash donate, and anything that you do donate or increase if you're already in the monthly, and if you add anything, it'll be matched, it'll be doubled. Simple, easy, no big deal. All right, I'm going to get to some hate mail because normally I do hate mail on Fridays, but because it won't be on live Friday, I'm going to do some hate mail today. And I'm also going to do some questions, so if you have questions, if you want me to answer a question, all you have to do is go to, just email us, info at karm.org, just info at karm.org, and I will see the emails because I'm looking at the inbox right now. So if you've got any questions, you can email me.

Real simple, real easy. All right, so let's see, let's try a question here and see what's going on. All right, can you explain how we get so many different variations of what Jesus meant by eat my body, drink my blood, or you have no life in you? Why would Jesus say something that could confuse a lot of people? Is this why some of the disciples left after he had said this?

Yes, listening on radio, thanks, and that's in Ohio. He got that about a week and a half ago. So here's the thing, there are variations in what people will say as they claim to understand what Jesus really said in some things. Now, I want to go ahead in the question and then come back. Why would Jesus say something that could confuse a lot of people? I've actually thought about that, and my conclusion is that he says things so that people who have the mind of Christ will understand and those who don't, won't. Now, he says this very thing in Mark 4, 10 through 12 when he says that he speaks in parables so that people will not be saved, so that seeing they will not see and hearing they will not hear.

That's Mark 4, 10 through 12. That surprises a lot of people, but that's the case. So I've often wondered, is it the case that Jesus speaks like this cryptically so that people who are not of him will twist the scriptures to their own destruction, and that's their work, their doing. That's a new concept a lot of people just might not be familiar with, but I think there's some truth in it, so that's one of the things. So when he said, eat my body, drink my blood, what he was saying was, excuse me, I've got to yawn there, what he was saying was nothing that could violate Old Testament law. And a lot of people don't get that. They think, the Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox think that he was being literal, you know, you have to drink his blood.

And that's not what's going on. And so, when he said this kind of a thing, the Bible says in Leviticus 11.14, where is that? No, it's like, drink the blood of any flesh.

And so, that's interesting right there, look at that. You're not to drink the blood of any flesh. And so, this is what Leviticus says. So if that's the case, then Jesus could not have been violating Levitical law by asking the disciples to drink his blood. Because if it really was his blood, Jesus would not have asked them to partake of it.

And it just doesn't make sense to say that it was. And this is in Leviticus 17.14, for all the life in the flesh, its blood is identified with its life, therefore I said to the sons of Israel, you are not to eat the blood of any flesh. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, whoever eats it shall be cut off. So the Roman Catholics, according to this, would be cut off because they say that the bread and wine are actually the body and blood of Christ. So they're drinking the blood of Jesus.

But Leviticus 17.14 says, you're not to drink the blood of any flesh. Well then why would Jesus say what he's saying? Because he speaks in metaphors and exaggerations, hyperboles. He says he is the door, he is the way, he is the truth.

So he speaks like this, and I was reading some pop-up. So he speaks like this because he's speaking metaphorically. The Roman Catholics, unfortunately, have taken it literally, saying it actually is his body and actually is his blood. Well that can't work either, and the reason is because, well I've already told you in Leviticus 17.14, it would be violating that law. Furthermore, they'll say that the sacrifice, or that the blood in the communion, the Eucharist as they call it, is actually the sacrificed body and blood. But when Jesus instituted, he hadn't been sacrificed yet. So how is it to sacrifice body and blood when he says it's my body and my blood?

It's representative of his body and blood is what it is. That's why the communion sign is there. That's what it is. It's a communion sign for covenant of his atoning work. That's what it is.

We're receiving that. And we are identifying covenantally with the covenant sign of what he has done for his people. That's what's going on there. That's why he identifies it and says this is my body and my blood. He's not speaking literally because it's not his body and his blood, for one thing. His body was sitting right there. And as necessary, the human body can only be one place at a time. And Jesus is a man. He's a human.

So he could not be in more than one place at a time. And then the Catholics say, well he can do whatever he wants. Just saying that doesn't mean it's true. And I've had some of them say, well, even though the sacrifice hadn't been offered yet, because Jesus is outside of time, he could make it so. So they give me these arguments that have no bearing and no merit. And they desperately want the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church to be bolstered and accepted in the Roman Catholic Church by Christians.

So anyway, this is part and parcel. And I think another reason that people don't get the truth of who Christ is, particularly in that kind of a thing, is because they're not regenerate. Now as you know, I believe that the Roman Catholic Church officially teaches Antichrist theology, teaches a false gospel and teaches idolatry.

So I've been saying this for years. It doesn't mean that there aren't true Christians in the Catholic Church, but official Roman Catholic theology is Antichrist. It denies the gospel and curses the gospel and promotes Mary to the level of idolatry. And so it violates scripture a lot. And then they try and present themselves as being authentic and true in their interpretations, and they have the authority, blah, blah, blah. So anyway, this is another reason why they have these faulty interpretations, is because Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy don't believe that the word of God is supreme. They believe their church is supreme. They say, we, our church, gave you the Bible, therefore we have the authority to tell you what it means. Which is stupid, because if God inspired, let's just say, let's just say, that when John, John the Apostle, wrote that the Catholic Church was around, which I do not grant, let's just say this is the case, does that mean then that the Catholic Church gave us the Bible?

Or is God inspiring John to write? So they'd like to take credit for stuff. We gave you the Bible. That's why we can tell you what it really means. Whether you gave it or not does not mean you have the authority to tell us what it is. If I give a book to my daughter and I say, I gave you this, that means I tell you what it means.

Does she look at me like, are you crazy? It depends on what it means based on what the author intended and not what you think it means. Why have the authority to interpret it? Because I gave it to you. It's this kind of fallacious logic that the Roman Catholics are using.

Anyway, I hope that helps. And yes, this is why some of the disciples left, because they understood. They couldn't violate Levitical law. They didn't understand that Jesus was speaking metaphorically. They thought it was literally, and so they had to bail. I don't blame them for that.

They just didn't understand what he was really talking about. All right, now let's try another question. Remember, if you want to, if you want to email me right now to get a quick question I can answer on the air, all you have to do is just go to your email and email a question at info at karm.org. Or what you can do is you can just give a comment to, you know, do you appreciate the show? And if you want to say anything at the end of the year, you can. That would be fine.

Hey, look, there's the music, which means we've got to get going for a break. And the Lord, may he bless you. We'll be right back after these messages, so please stay tuned.

The number is 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. Music It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. Hope you're having a good time. And if you want to give me a call, four open lines.

877-207-2276. Ah, okay, interesting. Okay. Very good, I just got a little note on an email, interesting note. All right, don't know who you are because I didn't put the information up yet.

So welcome, you're on the air. Your name is Kristin. Hello?

Is it me? Yes, Joanne, how are you? I recognize your voice.

You said that we could just call, but I just wanted to tell you and Anu, and Charlie, and Bev, and Laura, and Jenny, and Randall, and the mail from Utah, and Connaught that put me in jail. Merry Christmas, thank everybody on the prayer team. We've really got some warriors, Michael, Conan, we've got warriors and it just humbles me and makes me so, so thankful because I know, Helen, that when I send out that email, I know that it's prayed over. Yeah, well good, we appreciate it. And you run the email thing we do on, I mean not the email, but the prayer service, the prayer thing, which is prayeratkarm.org. And then you send it out to the prayer people. That's right, we sure appreciate it. And then I always, and the prayer warriors sometimes send replies and I send them to the people that have requested prayer. Good. For encouragement.

Alex sends in, you know, it sends the stick that you almost killed and there's the vitamin C concoction. That's true, that's true. That's the way it goes though.

Everything's confidential, that is asked to be, and we get them from all over, we get them from Hong Kong and everywhere. And so it's just an honor and a privilege to be able to go to the Lord and petition for others and to pray with and for others. Well good, appreciate it. And I'm glad you're doing it too, you do a good job. So we appreciate that. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And all of y'all will be in my prayers during the holidays, I hope you get some rest and I'm praying for safety and travel mercies with all this weather coming up all over the United States. And, shoot, it's Christmas, I just want to tell everybody I love them, because I really do. I even love you a little bit, Matthew, a little bit. Well that's good.

But I love them, they're a big bit. She's a good woman, good woman, that's right. Okay, well I'll let y'all go. Okay, well thank you very much. Okay, Merry Christmas and God bless and Happy New Year. You too, well God bless, thanks. Thank you, bye bye. Well that was Joanne and she runs the prayer ministry at CARM.

If you have a prayer request, it's confidential and you can email us at prayeratcarm.org. Really simple, really easy. Four open lines if you want to give me a call, 8772072276. Let's get to Kevin from, I guess that's New York, no, Nevada. Welcome, you're on the air. Sure, Matt, thanks for taking my call again. So today, I wanted to talk to you about the Trinity. Today I got into an argument with a guy that was trying to say the Trinity is God is three separate individual beings that come together in unity as one God, and I said no, that's called atheism. And I tried to tell him that God is three distinct personages, right, three personalities that share one existence, one being. You don't want to say personage, and you don't want to say personality.

Okay, trust me on this. You want to say persons. Persons has the theologically defined significance in relation to the Trinity. Personage is used in Mormonism, so God the Father is a personage as a being of himself who has a body of flesh and bones.

And so we don't use the term personage, and we shouldn't, and see personality without really further getting into that, it's not the best thing to do. What I say to people is just say that God is three distinct simultaneous persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the word person does not mean a body like you and I. A person deals with the issue of awareness, self-awareness, having a will. You can say you and yours and me and mine. These attributes are what compromise personhood, and God is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as the one being. And that's what we say.

Okay, thank you for that. I didn't know how to better explain it because he kept conflating person and being like he thought that they were the same thing. And that's why I tried to show him that everything that exists has being or existence, but not everything has person.

And I didn't know how else to explain that to him. I mean, he still didn't come to correction, but how could you make that distinction to him between person and being? I say we don't say being, three beings, we don't say it. I tell people, if you say the Trinity is three separate beings, that's not the Trinity, you're not representing the Trinity. The Trinity is one being who exists as three persons.

We don't know how that's possible, but that's what the Scriptures reveal. I repeat it, I say we don't say personage, we don't say three beings, we don't say three gods, we don't say three personalities, we say one God who exists as three distinct, simultaneous, co-eternal persons. And I explain what the word person means in that context.

And I do the same thing over and over and over, hundreds of times a year probably, when I teach. Seriously. Okay. And just so I can remember that, can you thoroughly explain, if you don't mind, when you're referring to God, there's three persons, can you explain what you mean by person then? So next time I talk to him I can maybe better explain it to you. Okay, so person comes from the Latin persona, which is a mask that was used in acting. So different actors would play different parts and they would have a mask that they would put over their face and they would speak through the mask.

And the audience would recognize that this person, the actor, was playing a different part, playing a different person. They borrowed the word persona and we get person. What they recognized that brought them to this place of using that word, what they recognized is that the Father speaks and he speaks to the Son.

The Son speaks and he speaks to the Father. So therefore they have distinction because they recognize one another. Just as you recognize me and I recognize you. So we have distinction in our persons.

That's what's going on. The Holy Spirit also has distinction and he recognizes himself in comparison to others, where he speaks in Acts 13, 2 for example, set apart for me. So he recognizes others as well as himself. So the three persons of the Trinity, each are said to be God.

And I can give you the references for that. And each speaks and each has a will and each can love. But they recognize one another. Jesus says he speaks of the Father.

He also speaks of the Holy Spirit whom he will send and the Father will send. There's distinction there. And that's some background. But let me get back to it after the break.

There's more to it. Hey folks, 4 Open Lines. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. Just want to let you know that we stay on the air by your support. And this month we are doing a matching funds drive. And I got to tell you that if you were to send anything via a check to the PO box at the bottom of the CARM website, that if you did that, it has to be postmarked by the 31st in order for it to count for the end of year double matching fund. This is a legal issue so we have to do it that way. So if you want and you want to support us, just send a check to the address. Just go to CARM.org, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G at the bottom of any page is the PO box number.

That's it, real easy to do. Or you can just go to CARM.org forward slash donate and everything needs right there as well. We do ask for support.

$5 a month is what we ask and hopefully it will work out. Alright, let's get back on the air with Kevin. Kevin, welcome. Are you still there? Yes, I am, Matt. Alright. So now, do you understand better the issue of the concept of personhood? Yes. So, this person refuses to change his opinion about God being three individual beings. So, would you say that this person is a false god? Yes.

Thank you, that's what I thought. Now, here's a question you've got to ask. Ask the person, does that person believe Jesus Christ is God in flesh? He would say that he does, yes. Well, if he doesn't, you know, he's not a Christian, obviously.

And so, these are some of the questions. When people deny the Trinity, then you have to ask about Jesus and then the gospel. Now, sometimes people can deny the Trinity out of their ignorance. They think it might mean three separate gods. And I've talked to people before over the years, you know, and they'll say, well, I don't believe in the Trinity. I'll say, well, what's the Trinity? Well, it's three separate gods. I say, well, I don't believe in that either. What?

What do you mean? You're Trinitarian. Yes, I am, but that's not the Trinity. No, it's not. You said three persons, that means three gods. No, it doesn't.

And then we've got to go on and teach them, you know. And once, I remember very clearly, someone said, I deny the Trinity. I don't believe it's true. And I said, okay, well, is the Father called God? Yes. Is the Son called God? And the guy says, yeah. The Holy Spirit called God? Yes. Do they speak to each other?

Yes. I said, that's how we get the Trinity. And he goes, well, I don't believe it. But you disagreed to all the premises.

That's how we get it. And he was really puzzled by that. And I said, you just agreed to the very system that we go to in the Scriptures to find out what the Trinity is and if it's true, you would just agree with all of it. Well, I still disagree with the Trinity, but you just agreed with the premises that were used to derive the Trinity. So he was confused and unwilling.

That doesn't mean God's not going to work on him, but that's one of the approaches I'll give as well. Okay. You there? Hello? Yeah, I'm here. I was just listening to you.

Okay. So when someone denies the Trinity, you've always got to ask, who's Jesus then? Is he God in fact? Well, see, he would say he's not denying the Trinity. He says that I have a misunderstanding of what the Trinity is because in his might you can't separate being from person. So if the Father is a person, he must also be a being. If the Son is a person, he must also be a separate being. If the Holy Spirit is a person, he must also be a separate being.

So he would say that the Trinity is three beings that come together in unity as one of God. Yeah, he's a humanist. He's judging truth by his own understanding and his own definition of what a person must be.

That's what he's doing. And humanism is creeping into the church more and more. People will judge truth based on their own experiences. Mormonism does this, for example. You pray by the Book of Mormon. My experience tells me that it was God, so therefore it's God and it doesn't make it so.

So that's one of the things I'll show. I'm trying to deal more with that with people, to show them that what they're doing is adopting a humanistic philosophy when they're tackling the issues of God. I say, you're not listening to what God's word says. And if they want to say that each one is three gods, then I say, show me. Show me what it says are three gods.

And then you go to Isaiah 43, 44, and 45. You should read those three chapters and just underline all the verses in those three chapters that say there's only one God, none before, none after. God doesn't even know any other God.

So I would say, well, if you say there are three gods, why does God say there aren't any? So now what do we do? You've got to ask him. Yeah. I don't know. I'm going to try talking to him again.

He's a very frustrating individual because he's older. And he knows everything. I don't know. I don't hear anything. So anyway, I'll tell you what. I'm going to hang up in a little bit.

If, Kevin, you have more you want to add, just call back, okay? Because then we had a problem with the calls. I don't know.

Not sure. And if someone wants to call to make sure we don't have phone problems again, let me know. Let's see.

And what I can do is I can get to another email. I'll get another email. All right. Let's see. So email questions, radio questions, we've got one here. Let's go.

Let's see. Do modern day Jews worship the same God as Christians even though they deny that God is triune and her Talmud humiliate and... 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.

Francis, taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hey, everyone. Welcome to the show, Matt Slick live, and I'm your host, Matt Slick. Let's see, for the podcasters, it's March 21st, 2022, and we have five open lines if you want to give me a call.

877-207-2276. I can hear from you. We can talk.

Anything on apologetics, Christian theology, and things like that. And if you want to... There we go.

There's one of the things that people don't realize is... Okay, I just rechecked it. Yeah, my ComRex dropped. Dropped.

I don't know why it did. Are we on now? Okay. Okay, back on air.

All right. I don't know where we were. So we had a little tech problem, and what it was was my ComRex on my desk just disconnected. I don't know why. I don't believe it's happened before.

It just did. All I do is hit a button and we're back on. So I don't know how long we were on and what was going on.

So let me get into, redo this question, because I don't know how long it was. An emailer says in the verse, Isaiah 65, 17, it says that God will remember. For I, behold, create new heavens and new earth, and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. All right, so there's different ways of answering this. So here's a question. God says he will remember your sins no more. If God knows all things, how could he not remember them? That's a question.

And the answer is simple. Remembering is something you do on purpose. Forgetting is something you do on accident. So if I choose to remember something I did yesterday, I choose and I make the effort to recall it to my mind. But if I forget something, like where are my car keys? I didn't choose to forget where they are. Because you know how it is, you lose your car keys. Where did I put them? Because it happened to you.

It wasn't a voluntary thing. Okay, here it goes, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Okay, I forgot where my car keys are.

Now where are they? You can't do that to yourself. So remembering is an active thing that you do to bring to mind. And forgetting is something that is accidental, so to speak. You forget and it's not something you do on purpose. So the basic inclination here is that God is saying I'm not going to remember these things. They won't come to mind. He's not going to bring them up. It doesn't mean he doesn't have remembrance or in the ability of having all knowledge. It just means that he's not going to bring them up again and that's what's going on.

Okay, Mark Magnusson. I hope that helps with that one. Now we've got a break coming up here in a little bit. So what I'm going to do, because we have no more emails coming in, info.com.org if you have an email. Remember, this is the last show of the year right here, no show tomorrow. They're taking it off the day off at the radio station.

They're having holidays and the first day they'll be back on live will be January 3rd. So if you have a question or comment and you want to call in the last 15 minutes of the show, please do. And what I'm going to do after we get back from the break is do some hate mail because we do them on Fridays and tomorrow is Friday but we won't be on the air. So I'll do some hate mail and I love those. Have a good time with them. It's a lot of fun for me. But we do have five open lines if you want to give me a call.

877-207-2276. Perfect timing. There's the music and we'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. All right, everyone.

Welcome back to the show. I just want to remind you, we stay on the air by your support. Please consider supporting us with $5 a month matching funds drive, end of the year matching funds drive.

So hopefully you want to do that. All you got to do is go to CARM.org. Forward slash donate. CARM.org forward slash donate. All the information needs right there if you send a check and you can because all you got to do is go to CARM.org. Bottom of any page will be the P.O. Box address and you can mail it in. But it has to be postmarked by the 31st in order to count for this year. And that's how that works.

All right, very simple, very easy. All right, now I did miss a radio question that came in about 15 minutes ago. Jennifer says, I was wondering if you could explain what's going on in Acts 8, 9 through 25 with the sorcerers profession of faith. I was reading a commentary that said that Simon's belief was motivated purely by selfish reasons and could never be considered genuine.

That's correct. And the reason here, check this out, because if you go in there, Peter rebukes him and he says, let's see, you have no portion for your heart is not right before God. So Peter is saying that this man's heart is not right before God. Now when it says you believe, you got to understand there are in the Bible different levels of belief. So we could have like Judas who never was a Christian to begin with. He was never saved because Jesus said he knew those who were not true believers from the beginning. And that was, he was talking about those who left him and Judas is one of those.

And also in 2 Corinthians 7, 10, I think it is, let me see, 7, 10, let's see. Yes, the sorrow that's according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. There's two kinds of sorrow, two kinds of repentance.

Repentance is associated with faith because you have to believe to repent, but you can have false repentance, false faith. And so we have what's called ascension and fiducia. Ascension is mental assent, mental acknowledgement.

Fiducia is heartfelt trust. So what Peter is doing is saying that you believe, but you know, we don't know what kind of belief it is. He believed he got baptized. A lot of people who claim to believe get baptized and they may not know who Christ really is. They may be doing it for the wrong reason.

They're doing it to cover bases. They don't really believe in what Christ did, but they say, yeah, I believe. And so someone who would say, well, that person said he believed, so they would write it down.

Yeah, this person believed. But what we have is a comment, a commentary from Peter in Acts 8, 21. You have no portion in this matter for your heart is not right before God. Repent of your wickedness and pray that the Lord, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. Now, on the other hand, let's just say that he really was a true believer and he made this mistake. Then it doesn't mean he wasn't saved if we're to take this route. But it could mean he'd come under heavy discipline from God and you better pray that it's forgiven you. And because that's what you ought to do, pray that it's forgiven you when you repent and you acknowledge and you confess Christ.

And so he would be. So there's ways of looking at this, not to just make it fit one particular idea, but what we know from the text in Acts 8, 21 is that it says your heart's not right. So the question then becomes, is he really saved? Because Peter goes on, repent of this wickedness, right? Verse 23, I see that you are in a gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity. That's not a Christian. That's not a true believer. So it seems as though the commentary that follows the issue demonstrates what the condition of this guy was. And incidentally, seeking to buy the work of the Holy Spirit is now called simony. That's what it's actually called, simony from Simon.

It's a heresy that exists after his name. All right. Now what I'm going to do is some hate mail.

I love hate mail. And so we're going to do that to kind of go through the end of the year here. There's nobody waiting on the calls because it's slowing down.

It's the end of the year. So this is what one person says. I was looking at your site and listened to your radio on salvation. One of the things that struck me. Oh, yeah, we read that one.

Let's get another one. Do you want proof you ignoramus that faith that works is useless? Yeah, James 2.20. Yeah, that's the proof that faith that works is useless. Yeah, I agree with that. So do you want proof you ignoramus that faith that works is useless? James 2.20.

No problem. Faith that works is useless. So, yeah, now what?

It's not that works save you, you know, but the true faith that you have is going to have a manifestation. That's what's going on there. But I'm an ignoramus apparently. Wow. Let's try this. Let's see. Let's see. It's a big one. Look at this. Oh, man.

Big header. The error I want to report is that your Trinity doctrine is false and a heresy. There's only one God who is Lord. Well, we believe that as Trinitarians.

See, this is what gets me. People don't understand what we actually teach. Jesus is the one Lord. Oh, he's probably going to say Jesus is the Trinity or God, the whole being of God.

Now, if you want to use the word Elohim to promote plurality within the God of the Jews, period, then by default the plural form of Elohim is defined. Trinity is the same as tritheism. No, it's not.

People say that, but they don't understand what they're talking about. It's not the same as tritheism. Tritheism is Mormonism. Trinity is monotheism. Tritheism is polytheism.

Trinity is monotheism. The person doesn't understand what he or she is criticizing. It's unfortunate people do that. Let's get on the phones here with Lisa from Nevada. Lisa, welcome. You're on the air. Thank you.

Okay, ma'am. There's a person who supposedly was a Christian for 18 years and now is agnostic. And she says that she used to be a born-again Christian. So right now she's denying Christ. She is slandering and taking his name in vain because she's saying that God told her to expose some people, some fake Christians, but she's doing it in a very nasty way.

My question is, because I already know Matthew 33, and she comes and says that Peter said it three times, and I told her that it was because he didn't want it to be tortured like Jesus was tortured. But it's not the same case as her. Am I right to believe that she doesn't repent and accept Jesus as good and a failure? And failure, am I wrong to say that since she's been denying Christ, she right now doesn't have a chance? I don't know, because I'm not God. I don't know her heart, but by her truth you may know them, and she's doing terrible things. So what would be your question then?

What's your question? Well, because I know the situation with Peter, and I know why he did it. But this person is saying that she's excused because Peter did it, and because she's got 18 years proposing walking with Jesus. So she says she's excused because Peter denied him, it's okay for her to deny him.

Is that what you're saying? Exactly, and she was 18 years supposed to be a born-again Christian. Then, if she's going to claim to imitate what Peter did, Peter then professed that he was the Lord in John 21, and then Peter went out to be a disciple maker, and he was crucified upside down. So is she like Peter?

I would ask her, are you like Peter? Are you trying to use his sin to justify and excuse your own? Is that what she's trying to do?

I think that's what she's doing. Yeah, and so we have the record of a man who fell, who failed, but Christ never rejected him. What he's doing here in Matthew 10 is talking generically to those. If you're going to deny him, he's going to deny you.

Now, that's not to say that if someone is under duress. In fact, I actually know somebody who has a mental condition that he needs medication for. So he's a little bipolar and has some issues and some struggles, and I'm not mocking, I'm not pointing any fingers, I understand that people have issues. And so he got really angry at God recently, and he's been following God. He got really angry at God and said this and that, and I mean very bad. I wasn't worried because I believe he's a true believer, and he came back and he repented, and he goes, I can't believe I said this stuff.

Well, I get it because he's in this condition where there's highs and lows, and it's very difficult for him. So, if he were to have denied Christ, does that mean all of a sudden he's not a Christian? And then he accepts Christ again, and now he's back in, and he goes back in and out? This isn't what's going on here. A lot of people misunderstand what is the intention. If you are in a continued state of just denial of Christ, he's going to deny you before God.

That's what he's talking about. It's not a one-time thing, and then they have an excuse to do or not do something. That's what they have to figure out and don't understand, okay?

I gave her 1 John 2.19, because I guess to me she's not a true born-again Christian, because when you're a born-again Christian, believe me, I mean, you know, you never leave Christ. This is something that a lot of people don't understand, that when you have a relationship with God, it's impossible. It's impossible, you know, to stop having the relationship. It's like, I have my kids. I'm not going to say in the future they're not my kids. I never loved them.

I love them, and no matter what they do, maybe it might be wrong, I will always love them. So comparing to Jesus, that he would never fail us, and he never fails us. So how is that people don't understand that once you've got a relationship with him, it's impossible to, and he said that you're never going to perish, and there's nobody who can snatch you from his hand.

Right. So I told her that verse, and she says that that don't apply to her. Yeah, she's looking for an excuse to deny and to be in her sin, and God's given her over to it.

So what I would do is tell her that her denial of Christ will be like a guillotine upon her neck on the day of judgment. Her heads are going to roll. It's going to be bad.

Give them a visual to remember. Don't just say you're going to be in a bad place. God's going to be mad at you. It's going to be judgment.

I have to give people a visual. Your soul will be on the chopping block, and as you have denied him, so just like a guillotine coming down upon you, will separate one part from another, your soul will be separated from any hope of ever finding the truth of who Christ is, and ever being saved from this judgment. And you will fall into condemnation eternally. As a guillotine destroys life, so yours will be destroyed. But you're going to experience that destruction and eternal awareness away from God.

That's the destruction God talks about. So I think that imagery carries more weight. People can see it, and they can hear it and almost taste it. So this is the idea that I like to do with people, to hopefully get them to see. But you never know.

Hope there's the music. We're out of time. Okay. All right. Well, thanks. Thanks, Lisa.

God bless. Have a great New Year. Thank you. Have a great Christmas. All right.

Hey, folks, that is it. It won't be on the air until January 3rd. May the Lord bless you. Have a great Christmas.

Have a great holiday. And just remember that the Lord is the King. Jesus Christ is King. He's Lord. And put your faith and your trust in Him in all things. God bless. We'll talk to you next year. Another program powered by the Truth Network.