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 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, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick.

Listen to Matt Slick live. Let's see, today is the 26th of January, 2023 for the podcasters. If you want to give me a call, all you got to do is dial 877-207-2276.

We already have a couple of callers coming in. I want to remind you that we've started a new Facebook group called Apologetic Minds. You can go to Facebook and look.

It has a picture of a brain with words on it. I think there's another page that has that where we did the group. You can check that out if that sounds interesting to you. Let's see, what else?

I think that's that. Oh, and we do stay on the air by your word. If you'd be so kind as to consider supporting us, it's always very helpful because it does take money to pay the bills, to get SSI certificates put in, web work done, things like that. That's what we're doing.

We're trying to get a lot of stuff done. There you go. All right. If you want, you can give me a call. All you got to do is just dial 877-207-2276. The other way to contact me during the show is info at karm.org. If you go there and you were to email me there and say, I got a question on the air. Maybe you don't want to be able to get on the air. You just want to be able to get a question emailed in.

That's one way to do it, info at karm.org. I'm working on an article on the TV series The Chosen. I'll probably release that tomorrow.

I was going to try and do it today, but you know how things are. It's a little sidetracked. I like the series. I like it.

There are people who don't. Even as a Christian apologist, I go in there and I'm going to listen. I'm going to watch carefully. You know what? It's not perfect, but I'll tell you.

I'd rather Christ be crucified, proclaimed, than not. That's what's happening there. That's good.

The Mormons are involved not in the production, but the production is using the Mormon set, from what I understand. That's all right. We'll just see how it goes. Jess has the flu. Okay, pray for Jess.

Pray for Jess. Got a flu in the text there. All right. Hey, let's get on the phones with Anthony from Virginia. Anthony, welcome.

You are on the air. Hey, Matt. Yesterday you were talking to Ryan about epistemology and determining truth. He made a comment about empiricism, where he said, you know, we can't even read the Bible without using our senses. And you kind of just dismissed it as if it's not a problem for what you were saying, because we do need to use our empirical senses to determine truth. And if we didn't have them, we couldn't even read the Bible. The only way we can know the Bible is through our senses.

Okay. Is empiricism the ultimate means by which you gain truth through your senses? It's one of the means by which we determine truth.

Notice I didn't ask that. I'll say it again. Is it the means by which we gain ultimate truth? That's the question. I would say, well, you're phrasing it in a way that it can be properly answered.

It is a way. Yes, it can be. Okay. Hold on.

Yes, it can be properly answered. Okay. So let me ask you a question. I don't know, are you an atheist or what or not? I just, I don't remember.

What are you? I'm a Christian. Okay. So did Jesus rise from the dead? Uh, yes. Okay. How do you know he rose from the dead? That's what's recorded.

Okay. And you read it. So do you believe it based on what your eyes tell you on written words?

Well, yeah, the only way I was able to read it was by seeing the words or hearing someone else say it. So sense perception was a necessary part of that process. So does God open your heart to believe the truth or do you do it of your own sinfully enslaved free will? I believe I accept truth. Truth is realized when it conforms with reality. It's called the correspondence theory of truth and that's very secular. So you don't know what corresponds to reality because you don't know all reality and you don't know what the correspondence relationship would be. So that's a problem.

Well, do you think, do you think God create us in a way where we couldn't determine the reality around us or do you think he gave us, do you think he gave us senses where we wouldn't be able to? Anthony, Anthony, Anthony, Anthony, Anthony, you asked me a question. If you ask me a question, I start to answer. Don't start up with another question. Okay.

You call in, you ask questions. I'll start to answer it. Then you ignore what I'm saying. When is something else?

Come on. So I'm asking you a question. I'm trying to teach you something that your senses are not the ultimate source of knowledge. God is. And you say you read the Bible and that's how you know that Jesus rose from the dead. The knowledge and the belief of that is given to you by God. He opens your heart and mind to believe the gospel.

That's what happens at 16, 16, 14. God opened Lydia's mind, uh, to open, to believe the truth, to believe the words that you were spoken. So you got a problem here.

Well that means that revelation is completely unnecessary because God could just put the truth into our hearts without any necessity of evangelism or anything like that. Anthony, you're not listening. You're not thinking. Okay.

You're reacting. When I ask you a specific question, is God, what's the ultimate source of truth? Is it empiricism? Empiricism, which is the, you said, yes. How do you determine truth?

Well, there's problems with this. If empiricism is how you determine truth, then you're using empiricism to validate empiricism. You're assuming empiricism is validity in order to say it's true.

And if you say, well, it's the senses that I'm looking at, how do your senses are reflecting actuality purely? Third, God's the one who opens the mind to believe the scriptures. You can go to Luke 24, 45, you can go to Acts 16, 14.

I don't believe that. I don't believe God is the one who opens our minds to the scripture. I think we do it when we, when we in our own capacity recognize it corresponds to what's, what's true or real. Okay.

Yeah. Uh, and so when it says that Jesus opened their minds to understand scripture, Luke 24, 45, did Jesus open their minds to understand scripture? Oh yes, but there's probably multiple ways in which that could be understood.

Excuse me. You said you don't believe God does that. I just showed you the scripture where Jesus has gotten flesh, did that very thing. So were you incorrect in your statement? Well, we have to understand what does it mean that he opened their minds? He could mean he blamed it to them in a way that.

Excuse me. Did he, I asked you, does God open the mind? You said, no, you didn't ask for definitions on that. I didn't read you the scripture where it says the exact opposite of what you said. And then when I asked you to agree with the scriptures, then what you do, what does it mean by open the mind? If that's what your concern was, why didn't you ask that when the questioning began?

You didn't. So why is it you're not conforming yourself to reality? You like the correspondence theory of reality. You like the idea that your senses, you are the ones who determines truth by your ability to see what's real.

And if I, if you can read Luke 24, 45 and your senses tell you that the Bible says he opened her mind, understand scriptures, then did Jesus open her mind, understand scriptures? Let me ask you, you already answered it. Let's see if you're consistent.

Did he do that? Yes. Okay. So then you were wrong in your first assessment, but you said, God does not do that. I've shown you now.

He does. Now, do you change your position? Are you changing your position? It could be that Jesus revealed that to them, but no, I'm not because, no, I'm not. Okay.

Anthony, you deny Jesus has gotten flesh. Isn't that correct? Is that true? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm going to, we talked before and I'm recalling who you are. You don't have the mind of Christ. You don't know how to think logically through these things. I'm not telling you stupid. You're not educated enough and trained in certain areas of thought, dealing with epistemology, rationalism, empiricism, epiphenomenalism, deontology, and various issues.

You don't know how to work them together yet because you don't know enough yet. I'm not trying to talk down to you. I'm just saying you need to study these things because you're having a problem here and I'm trying to show you some of the problems.

You're not, you're not listening to what I'm telling you. And then you deny who Christ is. Well, you're obviously not a Christian and you may say, well, you disagree.

Well, you can disagree all you want, but you're not a Christian. So you need to repent and you need to come to the issue here is you need to trust in Jesus. Now let me ask you, can you pray to Jesus and ask Jesus to forgive you of all of your sins? Is that possible for you to do? Yeah, I can.

Will you do it? Absolutely. Now, does that mean that Jesus can hear your prayers and the prayers of millions of people simultaneously? I kind of wanted to make another point about the original question. Does it mean that? Does it mean, we're not going back to that because you need something else. You don't need a bandaid.

You need major surgery. So if you were to pray and ask Jesus and other millions of people doing the same thing, can Jesus hear all of their prayers simultaneously? Yes. So is it creation, a creature able to do that or is God able to do that? Well, I was sure, you know, there are things about spiritual reality we don't understand. It could be that there's some capacity where Jesus has this ability.

Okay. So now you're saying that a man, uh, has the ability to hear millions of prayers simultaneously and understand them. Right.

And know the intentions of their hearts. Is this what you're saying? And he's not God? Is that what you're saying?

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, I am. So now what you're doing is, uh, you're, you're committing idolatry, uh, and heresy. You're denying who Christ is. And then you're saying that this person who isn't a true God, Jesus Christ, what you're saying is now this created being can hear millions of prayers simultaneously from people all over the world, undoubtedly different languages and, um, thought and spoken in the intention of their heart. And so you're given the attributes of God to a created thing. So this is just further evidence of your depravity and your lack of understanding and your lack of regeneration. You don't know who God is. Okay. Well, let me just say one more thing right now. Anthony, if you were to die right now, unfortunately, man, you just go to hell and I don't want you to go there, but I have to warn you.

I'm not mad at you. You sit on the radio and teach a false gospel every single day. When you lie to people, tell them they don't have to obey God. That's what you do. I didn't say that. Yeah. You said they don't have to obey God for salvation.

That's right. They don't. They don't have to listen to me for a second. Shut up. Shut up, man.

He needs to let me finish my sentences. What I'm doing is telling people they don't have to obey God. Keep the law for salvation. Let me, let's see if we can work with this heretic. Anthony.

Okay. So he says, I was teaching a false gospel. What I was going to do was have him tell me what is the true gospel so that we can then say what the truth is and then compare it. So, uh, he doesn't know what he's doing. He is unregenerate. He's unsaved and he's the one who preaches a false gospel. So I need to pray for him. Let's get to Alberto from Georgia.

Alberto. Welcome. You're on the air. Well, good evening, Matt. You have to keep you 100% correct.

In a way. My question is that on 12 verse five through seven, I hear a lot of pastors sometimes, especially the King King only is they say, well, if reserve, you know, the priest of the word through a fire and all that, but he reads that the context refers to them, the first group, people, not word. And also when God, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You said something and they said, and also, no, I got to examine what you just said. So slow it down a little bit and we got a break. So hold on. We'll be right back after the break folks.

Okay. And then we'll get back to what Alberto said and hopefully he'll slow down and we can talk. We'll be right back after these messages. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Let's get back on the air with Alberto.

Alberto, welcome. All right, buddy. Let's try it again.

Where were we at? Okay. What I was saying in Psalm 12 verse five through seven, and especially verse six, where a lot of people tend to say that God preserves when we say them, they think it's a current to the word, but I didn't understand you. We said, I didn't understand you. The, the God preserves his words then something I didn't hear.

What? No, what I'm saying is a lot of people tend to say, um, Psalm 12, six, they think is referring to God's preserving the word, but it's actually the content is referring to preserving the people, them, you know what I'm saying? Them if you read verse five, it says, so the words, it says the words of the Lord are pure words.

As silver tried in a furnace on earth refined seven times. Oh Lord, you will keep them. You'll preserve him from this generation. Okay. And so people are just, you're talking about verse seven, Psalm 12 seven and people are using it to say what?

No, no, no. Verse five referred to the context referred to people, them, not word. God preserves them. Even scholars teach that it's them from two people, not word. Because when God spoke that, what's your question?

What's your question? My question is that some people think that God preserve a perfect, perfect, perfect Bible. The Bible never stopped. Verse never says that perfect Bible, a perfect translation or a perfect, uh, you know, what's your question? The canon was, the canon was enclosed when God was spoken. So my question is, my question is why do pastors or people teach that refer to words? It's not, it's not preserving words, it's preserving people, preserves them. If we read the context, it's verse five.

If we read the context, of the beginning of Psalm 12. Regarding, wait, wait, wait. Okay, Alberto.

It's preserving them. Alberto, can you hold on a sec? Please. I'm trying to ask you a very specific question because you're, you're chattering quickly. Okay.

You're loquacious. Alright. And I have to strain to understand you sometimes. And then you go on from one thing to another thing to another thing to another thing.

And I'm not following you. I need you to say, according to this single verse right here, some people say this, do you think that's valid? I need to, just get right to it. You go on, you add so much that it's hard to understand what you're getting at. So what exact verse do you want me to look at, okay? Okay, the verse, verse five through seven.

Okay, what about it? Oh, the word, when it says preserves them, it's referring to people, not words. Not words. In verse seven.

You will keep them, you'll preserve him from this generation forever. Yes, it's in reference to a person, yes. Right. But people think it's referring to the word. It's referring to the word, not referring to the word. It's referring to people. Well, because they very often don't study what it actually says.

A lot of pastors out there, what they do is read into the text. Okay, so that's why some do that. All right.

They do. Okay, I got one more question. Okay.

Okay. When people say, when people say, well, being spiritual, well, when the Bible says God's spirit of truth, well, when people use the word, they'll use the word loosely being spiritual, like Oprah Winfrey, the spirit and all that. So that a Christian is thinking of being spiritual is that they think it's really being spiritually true for what's based on the spirit of truth of God, but it's not really mean. So what can you explain the difference between being spirit, so-called spiritual and the spirit of truth of God? Being spiritual and what? And it's being spiritual versus the spirit of truth of God. But people, you know, people tend to say, well, you're spiritual, but what do you mean spiritual? Okay. Um, so, so you want to know the difference between spiritual and something? Okay.

The truth of God, the truth of the truth of God. Okay. Wait a second. Don't do that. Don't do that.

Don't do. Okay. I'm sorry. We're gone.

Okay. I'm just, I can't handle this. It's like, it's like, uh, I just wanted to ask this question. And then he asks and then he goes on and jumps off. I'm like, well, let me focus on what you're trying to get at. And then he goes on to something else.

I'm just done with that. So look at him. Michael from Utah. Michael, welcome. You're on here brother, man. How you doing, man? I'm having a good time over there today.

Yes. It's, it's interesting. So, uh, I'll try. I'm in a text. Like, is it me or is it them? And they're going, it's them. Okay.

Thanks. Cause I don't know. You know, I don't know. It's like, my wife called me and she said, uh, your brother Matt flicks on the radio and he's talking about the chosen and uh, he said he, he enjoys it or something like that. So I wasn't listening when she called in. So she said, maybe you should call him and talk to him because, um, I don't know if you know much about the chosen.

Do you, have you researched a lot of it or not? I've seen every episode. Okay.

Okay. And then you know about the producer and where the money's going and you know, the philosophy behind the show. I don't, uh, the producer Jenkins, he's a Christian.

He's using the Mormon set and uh, the lead who's playing Jesus is a Roman Catholic. I'm aware of that where the money is going. I don't, you mean by that?

Um, what's that? So I, I remember my dad telling me to get on there and watch the show. And so I watched some of the first season and then he, uh, he went on there because he was moved by the show and so he wanted to donate the money and uh, he, he pulled up the website and it led him to, uh, basically to a Dropbox in Provo, Utah where the money was going to go to a production company. And so as he dug into it, you realize that, uh, he was money was going to the church church. I don't know if that's the case, but I do want to know if that's the case. Dallas Jenkins main partner is a, uh, well he's a mega donor and he's, he's a big shot with a lot of dough and he's a latter day thing.

Um, uh, Dallas Jenkins, if you've ever been on his Facebook page just recently, he mocked Jesus Christ so bad. I'm telling you, bro, what's your feelings? Okay. Well that's something I need to know. Okay. So, uh, if that's the case, let me call him because, okay, I don't know about this. So you need to show that for me. Okay. You need to show it to me. I need to do. I don't know.

I don't know exactly how to get, are you on Facebook or what? Okay. Hold on. Hold on. What I'd like you to do is later. Go find it.

Find the exact, whatever it is. If you can take a screenshot or say, here's the, you know, the, the, the page and then you copy the URL and you email it to us at info at calm.org because I need to find that out. Okay. Okay. Well, I just, let me, let me, let me just say this to you real quick. On his Facebook page, he gets into a, he gets into a commentary on there about people and criticizing him.

And, um, he has a thread on there where he's saying the most, the most common question after episode three, what did Jesus whisper to Lazarus? I'll reveal the mystery in the comments. Okay. Well, hold on. We've got to break. Hold on. Hold on.

We've got to break. So, uh, we'll be right back folks. After these messages, please stay tuned.

Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. All right, let's get back to Michael. Okay. Are you there, Michael?

Yes, I am. All right. Okay, man, I'm going to copy the URL and send it to calm.org, but I just, I just wanted to read this for you and let you let you finish the show. But I, I, I know that Christians have got to hear about this because this show's an ecumenical thing. It's trying to bring Christians and Mormons and Catholics all together.

They've got a massive, uh, campaign with, with lots of money and big donors. Okay. Okay. So he gets into a thread on here and he says, I'm about to quote the book of Mormon and he's making a joke. This Dallas Jenkins. And he gets multiple replies and he got the guy on here. His name's elder cyphers and he says, Dallas Jenkins, if you do anything from the book of Mormon on the chosen, it would be awesome if you did a little bit of third Nephi. Absolutely respect for what you do.

Keep bringing the spirit to the show. Dallas Jenkins replies to this guy, elder cyphers, the chosen takes place in the first century. That said, I do think it would be great troll for me to have Jesus on the cross and look down and wink at Joseph Smith walking by. What? That's the, that's the Christian who's making this film and that is mockery of Jesus. It's not a mockery of Jesus. Well, it kinda is. Um, uh, well, it kinda is.

I mean, just imagine you bro. I got you. You using Jesus name that way. I would never hear that from you. I know. And you wouldn't hear it from me either. Yes, I agree.

That breaks my heart, man. Okay. Can I get a word in edgewise please? Okay. So I agree with you. All right.

It's a problem. Now I'm going to, I'm going to read you something. What do you think of this? What then only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ has proclaimed and in this I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice. He was talking about, um, this is Philippians one 18 in Philippians one 18. This is one thing I'm struggling with is what then only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ has proclaimed and in this I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice. For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the spirit of Jesus Christ according to my earnest expectations.

Oh, I got to read it before that story. Sure. Some to be sure are preaching Christ from envy and strife, but some from also from goodwill. The latter do it out of the love knowing that I'm appointed to the defense of the faith. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. What then only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed and in this he rejoices.

Now it's a principle here. This is what I'm struggling with because the main character who plays Jesus is a woman Catholic. I know they're in cooperation with the Mormon church was a non Christian cult and they're using the sets from the Mormon church. So now here's a problem because if it was me doing this, I would have a dilemma to have to deal with and I'd talk to counsel of many people and I would look at this scripture and I'd say because of this and because of another verse where John answered and said, Master, we saw someone casting up demons in your name and we tried to prevent him that he does not follow along with us. But Jesus said to him, do not hinder him for who is not against you is for you. Now the Mormons, of course, they're against Christ. They think they follow Christ, but they don't. Their God is complete false God. We understand that.

And the Roman Catholics teach a false gospel. So now what we have here is a situation, this is what I'm struggling with, is a situation where in order to get the word out and so far the presentation over the airwaves has been pretty good. The sets are excellent. The dialogue is good.

The acting is good. And Christ is being proclaimed. Now we're going to see how things are going to go, but nothing that I've seen so far is of great concern. There's a couple of things like just little things, okay, which literary license, okay. So then I'm wondering, do we say I'm not going to have a Catholic play list. I'm not going to have a rented area from the Mormons. But if I do, then Christ can be proclaimed. Now you see the problem I've got right now trying to say what is and what is not to be. You see the difficulty with what the scripture says?

By any chance? I absolutely agree with the scripture that you quoted. So then the question then becomes, go ahead. Well I was just, all I was going to say is I watched say the first season, and from what I gathered from it, it's not word for word, it's a paraphrase of what people believed the parts that are, they're trying to fill in the empty parts of the Bible. I have no problem with that. Yeah, I think that what it does is it feeds the flesh. It gets people away from the word and to focus instead on the image that they're portraying, which is prevalent in Mormonism and Catholicism. And so it feeds that, you know, I'm in a Bible study and all the guys are talking about the chosen, and I'm over there in the corner going, you just need the word of God. You don't need no television show produced by Paul's churches.

Well hold on, hold on, hold on. So of course a series is going to take liberty by adding dialogue in order to fill in the areas that need to be filled in. I don't have a problem with that. Not everything that Jesus said and did is in scripture. So a series now is proclaiming Christ to millions of people all over the world. Now so far they've focused on his humanity, but in the last few episodes I've noticed and paid close attention to it, now they're referencing his deity. And I said to my wife, I go, that was a claim of deity when Jesus said that. That was this and I'm seeing it.

And I know what to look for. And so now we have an issue. So let's say an atheist teaches you algebra, and he's a bad guy, he's a bad atheist. Should you then reject algebra because an atheist taught it to you?

And the answer is well, no. We have to be careful what's called a genetic fallacy, in that the source of something is bad, therefore what comes out of it is automatically false or bad. We have Mormons, they teach God to keep another planet. We have Catholics who teach that you pray to Mary and that good works get you to heaven. All these are false.

And they're seriously false. What do you do when you want to get the word preached? And these doors are opened up.

Can you build your own set? Can you get all Christian actors? I don't know.

I don't know what problems this guy's had to face, Jenkins had to face to get this working. What I do know is this, that Christ is being proclaimed. And to say that, well, he's only being proclaimed one way is subjective.

I've read some articles on this, and I think some of the criticisms are unwarranted because they're subjective and projecting. I'm paying attention to what's being said, and so far nothing is anti-Christian. And also get this, Mary had childbirth pains. That's against Catholicism. And so I know that a Mormon asked Jenkins, you can have in a post-resurrection, you can have him appearing over in the Americas. And he said, I've got the quote, the answer he said was, here he goes. Oh man, I got it. He said, not in any time soon. And he kind of dropped it at that. That's what he's paraphrasing.

And so, yeah, anyway, I got it in place. So it looks like he knows Mormonism's not true, but he's trying to work to get this taken care of. No, there's also quotes of him flat out admitting that he thinks that Mormons and Christians are worshiping the same Jesus, worshiping the same God. I gotta see those quotes because now let's say he does say that, and I'm not defending him.

Okay, I got you, send it to me. Let's say he says that, alright, does that mean then that no one should watch the chosen? Yeah, I don't think they should, man, honestly. Okay, so would you then say, and this is a question I wrestle with, should you then say because he thinks Mormons are Christians, nobody should see that series at all, and it should not be proclaimed all over the world.

Is that what you're saying? Well, obviously, well, I mean, I wouldn't, so a couple things. I never suggest anybody that I evangelize go to a Latter-day Saints church. I got you, did I ask you a specific question? I asked you a question, no, because Jenkins, if he thinks, but if he thinks Mormons are Christians, should then that mean we shouldn't watch the whole series? Yeah, well, I don't understand why it should replace the word of God. Wait a second, wait a second, I asked a specific, okay, okay, you're not answering the question though.

This is a dilemma. If he believes Mormons are Christians, he's doing so out of ignorance. He doesn't know what the truth is about Mormonism.

Most people, they don't know. It takes some training, and I hope he's listening to this, because in the area of Provo, the radio show goes down there, and he could contact one of the world's experts in the area. He could talk.

I'd even drive down and go on and talk. But the question that we'll come back to after this, should everybody not listen to it if Jenkins thinks Mormons are Christians? That's the question. I'll be right back after these messages. This is not an easy issue, folks.

It's not an easy issue. We'll be right back. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Let's get to Kevin from Arizona. Kevin, welcome.

You're on the air. Hey, how you doing, Matt? Oh, I'm doing. Okay, hanging in there.

So what do you got, man? Yeah, I just wanted to ask you, is it a sin for a Christian to invest in a stock market or a crypto company? No, it's not. The Bible talks about having different sources of income.

I've got an article on that I think someplace in preparation and things like that, having different sources. So I don't have any problem with crypto or stocks, as long as you're not using it in a gambling kind of a way. If you're trying to make money in order to provide for your family, et cetera, that's fine. So you've got to be careful with it, like any investment you make. So investments are okay. There's different kinds of investments.

I've got a good Christian friend, and he does the stock market. He knows it really well, and he's made money out of it. Now, he's not doing it as the thing, and he's all living over it, and that's all his life is about.

No, he just makes choices, and he waits a year or two, and he watches how they're doing. And gradually, he's making money, not a whole bunch, but he's doing it, and he's able to pay a couple things off and things like this because of it. But he's lost money too. And so it's like putting money in the bank. The way the inflation rate is going, here's a question.

The inflation rate is going, if you put $1,000 in the bank, in a year, it's equivalent to like $950, that kind of a thing. So is it smarter to put money into silver, for example, or gold, where it'll stay constant? So which one is better? Well, it depends on what your motive is and depends on what your goals are.

So this is a tough one to answer, if you hear what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah, it is. So I have some crypto, and just watch it and see what it does. And not very much, okay?

And not very much. So I do that, and just see. Okay? Yeah. All right, man. Okay, buddy? All right, thanks, mate. All right, God bless. Okay. All right, let's get to Ron from Wake Forest, I think it's North Carolina.

Welcome. You're on the air. Ron. I hope we're not having problems. He's got a little note here on Act 238, which I'd love to talk about. If he is going to come up, and let's see if he does. Ron, are you there? Let's see.

I don't know. Want to put him on hold, and then we'll get to, it looks like, we'll get to Joe from Arkansas. Hey, Joe. Welcome. You're on the air.

Hey, Matt. I want to piggyback on the question you had earlier about The Chosen. I don't know if you're seeing some of the G3 guys did a podcast on this recently, and actually said that the show was a violation of the Second Commandment. And one of the speakers on there basically said that because the First Commandment basically forbids idol worship, the Second Commandment essentially means that we should have no images of God whatsoever.

So I wanted to get your opinion on that. Yeah, it says, it's what it says. You shall not make for yourself an idol, okay, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the water under the earth, any likeness. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity in the fathers and the children of the third, fourth generation. Okay. So I don't like any images of Christ in my home, and I don't want, I just, because of this. However, notice what it says. They're going to go to the Second Commandment, and this is probably going to prevent me from ever speaking at G3. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness, that's all right, any likeness of what's in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the water under the earth. So we can ask these guys.

Let's take this literally. Do you have any images in your house of fish? Do you have any sculptures of oceans? Do you have any pictures of birds? Do you have anything in your house? Any likeness of what's in heaven? Do you have anything of the stars, of the moon? Do you have any pictures of this in heaven above or the earth or the water on the earth? Do you have anything? Do you take a picture of a landscape, a sunset?

Is it in your house? And they'll say, well, Matt, that's ridiculous. And I'll say, well, okay, well, why is it? Because we're not bowing down before it and worshipping it. That's the point. Because the chosen. I totally agree. It seems to ignore the entire second part of the statement, which would be tied into the images themselves, if I'm understanding you correctly. That's right.

It's an issue of worship and adoration. And so, you know, I've watched every episode of the chosen. I like it. I do.

I like what's being presented. And I've struggled with some things, because I know that they're working with the Mormon church in order to get this thing done. And I'm struggling with that, because I don't like that. It's a non-Christian cult. But what Paul says really sticks with me. And he says, in Philippians 1.15.

And I have to think, because my reaction is don't have anything to do with them. Don't have anything to do with the Mormons. They teach a false god, a false Christ, a false gospel.

And it's true. They think they believe the truth, but they don't. So it says, some, to be sure, preach in Christ even from envy and strife, but some from good will. So he's saying there are people who do it from envy and argumentative, striving ways. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I'm appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, rather than pure motives. But then, only in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ has proclaimed it, and in this I rejoice. Now wait a minute. Let's just say we take somebody, that we find out that someone who is funding the chosen is, let's just say an atheist, who wants to get all the credit for it.

Look, I funded it. Should we then say we can't watch it, because that's the case? Because selfish ambition? And Paul says, I rejoice, and even in that, Christ is proclaimed.

That's what's getting me. Because I want to stick with what the word of God says, and I can't ignore Paul's words. And so, if, unfortunately, the doors opened up to use the Mormon set, and a Roman Catholic is playing Jesus, and he's having prayer time with Mary, which is heresy, all these things are heresies, then we could say that that is under the category of selfish ambition, even though it's not. But I mean, the idea of doing it for wrong motives, wrong reason, but yet Christ is proclaimed.

He rejoices in that. And what I'm getting out of that is more important than all those other issues that Christ has proclaimed. And that's what I see out of it, and that's what causes me, ultimately, to say, all right, you can watch it, and have it done and be produced. That's what, so far. Yeah, I'm totally with you.

And if I could just maybe piggyback one more thing onto this, because this is a lot of the criticism I see is really tied to things like this, like the funding or the studio, or maybe things that Dallas himself has said. But is there sort of a relation here in terms of like the materials that we might watch or we might read, and like what we would exclude because it's out of lockstep with us theologically? Right.

You know, where is that needle at in terms of like where do you sit it? Because, you know, if you go too far, I mean, wouldn't that, by default, exclude us from reading the early church fathers or other things? Or listen to secular music, or watching Avatar.

Avatar, you know, it preaches this Mother Earth crap. We shouldn't watch that either. And I'm not saying, okay, therefore we can watch anything and do anything because we don't want to be wholly sanctified. I'm not saying that.

We need to be careful. But this is not such a cut and dry thing. It's just not.

It's just not. If they want to say you can't watch The Chosen because the main actor is a Catholic and he's working with the producer, you know, Dallas Jenkins is working with the Mormon Church. And they say he even, and it's true what the guy said, he winked at Joseph Smith. I don't know what's in Dallas Jenkins' heart. I don't know if he is aware and he's trying to work to get the greater message out.

I don't know. But when Paul says what he says, that he even praises God that those who preach Christ for the wrong reasons, completely wrong reasons, he says, way to go, still, let's get Christ crucified, I mean, preached. That to me is what tells me, okay, the greatest responsibility, the greatest issue is Christ proclaimed, even though there's some negativity associated on the perimeters with it. That's my decision. I would not have spoken at G3 and said that you can't watch The Chosen or that it breaks the second commandment. Because if you're going to be that legalistic, then I'm going to say, let's go through your house and see if there's any images, any reproductions of anything in heaven above or on the earth or in the sea.

And if they say, well, we're not worshiping them, we're not worshiping the image of Christ in The Chosen either. So, you know. Thank you so much, Matt. Greatly appreciate it. Yeah. You're welcome, brother. All right.

So, I've got nobody waiting. You know, I'm going to talk about this a little bit more. I know that a lot of people are going to be polarized by this. And as you know, what I try and do is be as biblical as possible. And it's so difficult to know what the right thing to do and the right thing to say is in every situation. So, when I don't know something, I'll tell you I don't know.

And I'll go research it and find out. What I do know is that Jesus did not stop the people from casting out demons. He said, don't hinder them because they're doing it in the name of Jesus.

Don't stop them. Now, Mormons aren't speaking the name of Jesus. They have a false Jesus altogether. But at least in the Gospel, when we're seeing what's going on here, and Jesus says, don't hinder them. He does say that in Luke 9, 49-50. He says, do not hinder him, for he who is not against you is for you.

All right. And then what Paul says in Philippians 1, 15-18. You know, he says, even though they don't do it for the right reasons, Christ is proclaimed and in this I rejoice.

Yes, I will rejoice. He says it twice. I don't know about anybody else, but personally, I'm forced to then say that that's the greater responsibility. Christ proclaimed, rather than us, let's say, let's not have him proclaimed, because there are some imperfect associations with it in that sense. I could explain more in imperfect, but we're out of time because there's the music.

So you see what the problem is. And if anybody wants to disagree, then please disagree while incorporating Philippians 1, 15-18, because I like to see what you have to say. May the Lord bless you. Disagree or agree, email me info at karm.org. Hey, talk to you tomorrow. God bless.