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 everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. Listen to Matt Slick Live. If you want to give me a call, all you gotta do is dial 877-207-2276.

We have nobody waiting right now. Also, you can email us at info at karm.org. Also, I just want to let you know that we're trying to get over to Rumble. Rumble is like YouTube, except without the ridiculous restrictions. Now, YouTube is incredible. I look at YouTube all the time. I really do.

I use it for a lot of research and I've just learned so much off the vids. We say things here sometimes, or I say things I should say sometimes, that a lot of the politically correct people don't really care about or care to hear. We talk about COVID and stuff like that, the Biden crime family and the demise of our country. In fact, we can talk about that. I'm just telling you, we're moving over to Rumble. If you want to check it out, you can do that. Just go to Rumble. I'm distracted. Sorry about that. If you do that, it would be very helpful because you can also donate.

That's not the reason why we're looking at it, but we're looking at it for freedom reasons, being able to speak without censorship. That's rumble.com. You can sign up and you can watch us, follow us.

The link for it is on the CARM home page, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G. You can check that out. We're getting about five to ten signups a day. That's pretty good. I like that. It's working nicely and we're slowly gaining, just like we did with YouTube, but we're doing it here this way.

Rumble.com, check it out. All right, everybody. I want to hear from you. Give me a call. Don't make me come out there.

877-207-2276. I've been working more with AI stuff, researching it, as well as utilizing some of the stuff, researching graphics production, voice production, and things like that, let you know what I find later on. I'm very interested in it. Well, one, I'm a tech nerd, but also for the fact that there are certain warnings associated with artificial intelligence. We've got to be careful about it, particularly when people with artificial intelligence get in power, like Pelosi and Biden and things like that.

The AIs there that are working, they're not always what they're cracked out to be. So there you go. Having said that, as you can tell, I don't trust the people in power. I don't.

That's pretty pessimistic, but that's what it is. All right, so I want to hear from you. 877-207-2276.

I want to thank you for your article below. I was approached by them. Who is them?

The World Mission Society Church of God. Oh, really? And respectfully refuted them at every turn, but they're completely immune to reason. That is correct. It's scary. Happy to see you. Very strong and sound analysis. You may also want to check out. They have something similar.

The World Olivet Assembly. See, there you go. There's another something you got to check out. And what I do is I put them on a list of stuff I've got to research. Oh, let's see. There we go.

World Olivet Assembly. I'll just put that right there as a list of things I've got to research. You know, I enjoy researching. I enjoy just doing this. I do. I enjoy just providing information for people. I was talking to my wife about this last night about the goals, you know, here to educate.

And so I'm kind of curious, you know. Maybe you could give some feedback here. You can call me up.

We could talk about it or you can email me. But I'm trying to figure out a way to provide a set of teachings, video teachings that are quick and succinct and easy. Where Christians can learn. You know, I've watched a lot of videos. They have a lot of videos from a lot of ministries and I'm not knocking them. Praise God. There's a lot of ministries that teach a lot of good stuff.

And there are. But my style is a little bit different in that I just want to get right to the point and to say this is what it is. And so I've been thinking about developing what I call the two-minute seminary where each lesson is two minutes or less. So I've been working on an outline, been working on some ideas for graphics, working out some other ideas. I'm going to do some more research, but I want to start here in a week or two or three voicing some stuff and putting itself either in a PowerPoint or video. I don't know.

I haven't got it all worked out yet, but I'm going to develop it. And I'd like to know also something else. Here's something that's really important. Just generic questions. Now, of course, I answer questions.

That's what I do. But those kind of questions that are most prevalent for people, particularly those who have complaints about God, Christianity, they don't understand things. Maybe you're one of them. Maybe you don't understand who God is. You wonder about why God allows evil in the world. You can email me these kind of questions. And what I could do is I get enough of them, I can put them in groups, and then answer them in kind of a sequence where one builds on another and answer questions in a succinct way. Now, a lot of times what I'll do, even when people call me up here, I'll just say, I don't know. I don't know how to answer that one. And maybe sometimes it's because I just don't know the answer. Other times it's because the Bible doesn't tell us. And I just say, well, I don't know how to answer it.

The scriptures don't reveal it. So these are some of the things I'm working on and thinking about. And so one of the things we did was we raised funds for a camera, which I got. And I wanted to tell the people. I'm going to be contacting them individually here.

Either emails or voice, I don't know yet. But we raised funds for a camera. And I've been playing with it, looking at it, and it's beautiful.

It's working. In fact, I was telling my wife that the old cameras I had left it with a little bit of PTSD because I was working with them and I couldn't get the lighting right, couldn't get the effect right, had no ISO adjustability, had no this, no that. And I just worked on it. I must have spent 100 hours trying to get things to look good.

I could never do it. And it just gave up. And so we raised money for this one new camera we have, a Canon 90D, which I want to get a second.

But that's another story, another time. And it's working. And I was able to get the lighting right and I couldn't believe it.

I tried a voice thing. It worked perfectly. So it's like it's all solved. And now I have it set and have it ready to the point where I can start doing videos here pretty quickly. So I just want to say thanks to those of you who supported me in that and gave for the camera. It really does help. And it helps my sanity, for one thing, because I've spent so much time trying to get things to work right.

And even though when you see the so-called finished product, you'll go, Matt's got a face for radio. And stuff like that. So, at any rate, there you go.

You're working on that. And I want to say thanks. I want to let people know about that for the people who did donate. I get a look into doing that. Just want to say thanks.

You have four open lines. If you want to give me a call, 8772072276. And if you are interested in watching on Rumble, just go to rumble.com. You can sign up. Or you can just type in karmorg or mattslicklive, I think. Either one of those will work. Maybe some of the guys here in our chat can test it out. Just write in what works.

Put it in the private chat button if you can, one of you guys. And I'll tell people over the air how it works, what the best way is. Wow. See, there we go.

All this stuff. All right. Let's just jump on the calls. Let's get to Chuck from North Carolina. Chuck, welcome. You're on the air. Thank you, Matt. And the ducks are sleeping.

They're going around in the water, so they're not up today. But anyway, first year on 519, the whole world lieth in the power of the wicked one. Could you elaborate on the word lieth?

First, on 519. All right. Lies in the power. Lieth in. L-I-E-S, the verb, but not as in deceit, but to lie down, to be laid down. It's kamai, from the verb kamai.

So I'm looking at it. To be placed or set, to be laid applied, to be laid as a foundation, to be stored up, to set a point in the power of someone. First John 519 is the only place it's used like that.

So the verb is 2749, and what I can do is type in 2749. I can tell you how many times that word is used, 24 times in 24 verses. The ax is already laid at the root of the trees. You are a lighter in the city, a city set on a hill. Come and see the place where he was lying. He was lying in a manger, a baby lying in a manger. Behold, a child is appointed for the fall and rise of many. So it has a nice semantic domain to a point to put in place, to lay something down, to set something in place. In First John 519, the whole world lies or rests in the power of the evil one. The word power is not there in the Greek.

The word power generally is dunamis. So it says the whole world lies in the evil one. Oh, that's terrible. Yeah, it is. Lies in the evil one.

So let's see. What I'm doing is looking in the context, because sometimes what translators will do is borrow a word from an immediate context and place it in there. So I'm looking for the word power or something like it. Previously, all unrighteousness is sin. There is a sin not leading to death. We know that no one who is born of God sins. That's actually an interesting verse, continues to be in sin, is what the Greek is talking about there. But he who is born of God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him.

We know that we are of God. The whole world lies in the evil one. Wow. That's interesting. That's a great explanation.

Praise the Lord, Matt. It actually lies in, the Greek word is en, epsilon nu, en in English, in the evil. Wow, this is interesting. Poneras is the word evil in a moral or spiritual sense.

Poneras. So the whole world, the whole world lies in, literally, literally, it actually lies in the evil. But let me check what this is. This is a date of, okay, that's why.

And so masculine singular date of, so it's the object there. Okay, so yeah, the evil one. Okay. Okay, got it. Okay. Yeah, so no big deal, but that's what it's saying. Okay, the whole world lies in the evil one and that they put the power of. They got me curious about this.

I'm going to look it up in text comparison and see what it says. So if you want to hold on, I'll tell you when we get back. Maybe talk a little bit more. Hey folks, if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. We have four open lines. Give me a call. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Welcome back to the show.

We have three open lines, 877-207-2276. All right, Chuck. Okay, you still there, Chuck? Yes, sir. All right, so you got me looking at this. And so I'm a little curious grammatically because of the power one. So it lies in the power of the evil one and that's the dative and the power of the evil one. Dative, which is the indirect object.

So I gave a book to the man. To the man would be what's called the dative case in Greek. So it's the indirect object. I gave a book, a book would be the direct object, accusative, and then the dative is the indirect object, to the man. So I'm just talking out loud because of the evil one.

So lies in, that's why they do it. I get it now. The whole world lies in and then it's dative, so it's the evil one is the indirect object. But that's really interesting. Direct object, yeah, direct object.

Explains a lot, doesn't it? Indirect object, sorry, it's a dative case, which means something, so the power of the evil one. That's why it's doing it like that. I get it. That's why the word power is implied because this is the dative, which is the indirect object. Okay, now it makes sense. Okay, good. So now I see why they do that. Now what's really interesting is why John would write that way.

So he says that and it's an implication of the skill and the style that people know linguistically naturally. Okay, I get it. So anyway, the ESV says the power of the evil one, the King James, lieth in wickedness. That's cool. The world lies under the sway of the wicked one, another one says the power of the evil one, NIVs has controlled the evil one and seeded in wickedness, dual raves. All right, that's really interesting. That really is interesting. Well, one day we'll be in heaven, Matt.

The Democratic Party is going crazy, but how about you get to your next caller? Thanks a lot for that great explanation. Sure, no problem, Matt. No problem at all.

Okay, Matt. Whoops, sorry about that. Yeah, thanks. And Jesusfreak48, thanks for your $5 grant. We appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Appreciate that. Really, we do. So that means that you guys can donate if you like what we're doing here on the air.

It helps us stay on the air. So he's really got me intrigued about this verse when I look at it in the Greek. We know that we are of God and that the whole world lies in the evil one.

And so it needs a direct object because it's an entity. Yeah, so I was talking to somebody, I had lunch with somebody today, and we got talking about stuff. And so, you know, here's kind of an issue I have to deal with here. We talk theology, we talk about various things that people have needs of, and so much of it is dealing with darkness and problems and sin. And one of the concerns I have about this show is that it can become depressing because there are so many people calling.

I'm not blaming the people. But these are dire needs and serious issues. And some people talk about the nature of the Trinity and things like that, but more and more we're dealing with contemporary issues and how our Christian life relates. And so just the way things are going, we're in trouble.

And I just do hope that by God's grace, well, that he provides through it. I'm going to leave it at that for now because there's so much to be able to be said about that. Let's get to Travis from North Carolina. Travis, welcome.

You are on the air. Hey, man. How's it going? It's going, man.

Hang in there, Travis. Welcome back. I ain't caught in a couple of days, man.

I've been trying to work and stay busy. I didn't want you thinking I went back for a while. That's all right, man. No worries. I'm getting ready to pull in church, actually, so I just had a second I wanted to catch you, though. Sure.

The online schools that you do, whenever I first heard you talk about them on the radio, you said that if the situation was really where somebody couldn't pay for it but really wanted to learn, you could probably help them out. If my situation is coming home, I don't. Absolutely.

And I didn't want to run up a big cab and not do something I'm not going to use. No, don't worry about it. And I think the other two schools I'm pretty adept on, but I really wanted to do the one on apologetics. I'll tell you what, what I want you to do is just e-mail us and just say that, talk to me on the radio, and Matt said I'll give you all three schools. And that's it, okay? That's all I've got to do. Okay. All right, we'll see you.

What e-mail? Just info at karm.org. Okay. And we'll be glad to do it. It doesn't cost us anything to do that, okay?

All we have to do is just put some codes in. It's done. It doesn't cost us.

So it's free to you, and that's okay. All right. We'll let you know. All right. We appreciate it, Matt. I'm getting ready to go to church, but I will be in touch. All right, brother.

Sounds good, brother. All right. God bless. All right.

God bless, Matt. Okay. So, folks, I don't mention it very often, but we do have three online schools that we do charge, and we do because it helps pay the bills. You have to do radio, it costs money to do radio, it costs money for the hosting. That's several hundred dollars a month. It costs money to pay for the missionaries and things like that.

I mean, just what it is. I hate to say this is a business, but it is. It's a ministry, but, you know, we've got to pay bills.

So that's one of the ways we do that. And so I want to just let you know that we do have these schools out there. The schools you can go to, I believe it's schools. Is it plural or just schools.karm.org? Let me check. I haven't been there in a while. I wrote them and then kind of forgot about them.

School.karm.org is it, and you can sign up. And if, is that right? That's not right. No, it's learn. Oh, my thinking, I should know this. But I'm the president. Learn.karm.org, there it is.

So if you go there and you want to sign up and you want to learn theology, apologetics, some low-level critical thinking stuff that you can apply, that's where you can go. And I'll say it again. If you can't afford it, all you've got to do is ask us and we just give it to you.

Just say, hey, I can't afford it. Can I have them? And that's it.

We'll give them to you for free. And if you are able to sign up and help us out, please do, because it does help us. And it took me six months to write the theology school, six months to write the apologetics school, and four months to write the critical thinking one.

That's not eight hours a day every day, but it took a while. So just let me know. There's a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge in there. And it's done nicely. You can check it out.

Learn.karm.org. All right. All right. All right. All right.

And so rumble.com.org forward slash user karm.org forward slash live, all that information. Hey, we have four open lines. Give me a call. 877-207-2276. I forgot to ask Travis about that. We'll call him again tomorrow.

Talk to him some other time. Ed from Virginia. Welcome. You're on the air. Hey, how you doing?

Doing all right. Oh, there's a break. There's a break, man. I'm sorry for the bad timing. So hold on. All right. We'll be right back. Okay.

Sorry about that. Hey, folks, four open lines. 877-207-2276.

You can also email me at info at karm.org. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, buddy. Welcome back to the show. Let's get back on the air with Ed from Virginia. Sorry about that timing there, but hey, you're back on.

No problem. I heard a preacher today, and he was talking about how his grandmother passed away, and now she looks like an 18-year-old, and I thought, what? I was thinking the other day, my wife passed away at 48.

If I live another 30 years, I'm going to be 90 and wrinkled, so am I going to look different than her when I get there? That's a good question. We don't have an answer for it, and so I can only offer conjecture. The Bible doesn't tell us. It doesn't say how we're going to look, what age we're going to be. So here's my conjecture. It's just that.

It's that Jesus was crucified at 33, resurrected at 33, and so because of that, I think we might just look like we're at 33. So am I right? Well, my wife's going to be in shock. She's going to be in shock?

Why is that? My wife's going to be in shock when I get there. I'm going to be looking different. You're going to look so much better than me. Well, yeah, my wife's like that, too.

My wife's really good looking, and I look like a bag of logs rolling down a hill. So, you know, that's okay. So for me to be good and have it be an improvement, people say I've got a face for radio.

But anyway, as far as, I don't know. I can't tell you because the Bible doesn't tell us, and I just like to think we'll be like Christ. He was 33. That's the mark.

Beauty, mark, beauty stage. We'll be 33. I could be way off, but I just don't know. So, you know? Yeah, I mean, I just don't know where the guy got that.

His grandmother's going to look 18, you know. It's just, yeah, I was like, eh, a little skeptic there. Yeah, I would be too.

Yeah, I'd be skeptical, too. Yeah. But, you know, it's okay.

It's all right. But I like the idea of being younger. I mean, I'm 66, and for a 66-year-old, I'm in really good shape. So a lot of people have all kinds of problems right now. I'm in great shape.

But, boy, I'll tell you, not like I was at 19 or even 33. Right, right. You know? Hey, just a side note.

I was listening to you the other day, and I heard you two were on mill, and I'm pretty milling. You know what? It doesn't matter. You know, we shouldn't be arguing over that stuff.

That's right. There's more important things to argue about. You know, I expect your view. I think you've got a good argument there. Bottom line is, you know, can we be 100 percent sure? I don't know.

You know? Well, I'm with you. In light of where we are today in this world, it's not important. Yeah, I think it has importance in the issue of teaching and possibilities, but I know what you're saying.

It is secondary to everything else, and you have the right attitude. Right. It's like, I'm on mill. You're pre-mill. I'm like, okay, now what? That's great. Let's go witness together.

That's what it's supposed to be. You should be in a church that's on mill, and I should be in a church that's pre-mill, and we have unity, you know. Yeah, but actually, the church I was attending was pre-mill, pre-trib rapture, and I'm on mill, post-trib rapture, so I don't care. Well, you know, depending on what the church's stance is on us teaching our view, you know? Right. Like, our church had an on-mill guy, and our church is pre-mill, but he was like, you know, I'm not going to make that an issue on the mission field. Right.

So I think, you know, make Christ the issue. So, yeah. Anyway, thank you so much for sharing your show. Hey, well, thank you very much. I appreciate you, appreciate it. Well, good.

God bless you. That means you're not tired of me yet, so that's good. That's good. That means what?

It means you're not tired of me yet, because you haven't heard any really bad stuff, I guess, if I listen a little while. So, well, that's good. I appreciate it. You know, you're a true biblicist, and stand for the truth, and that's what's important.

That's right. You know, there's minor things we can do, and we don't have all the answers to, and we don't need to die on those pedestals. Amen. You have a good attitude.

Seriously, you have a really good attitude. Praise God. All right.

Praise God. God bless you. Thank you. All right. God bless, man. God bless. All right.

Ed from Virginia. I like that. Good head on his shoulders. We can have differences of opinion on debatable issues, and this should just be a loving disagreement. We're all going to be corrected when we get to heaven. That's how it should be. Our attitude should be here.

So, you know, I have people that work with me in the ministry here, and I'm not even sure what their views are eschatologically. Okay. That's how important it is. You know, it's like, well, okay. Yeah. Let's move on.

Hey, for Open Lines, if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Let's get to Guy from Virginia. Hey, Guy. Welcome. You are on the air. Hey, Matt. How's it going? You're doing an outstanding job. I just started listening to your show a couple months ago. Thank you for the work that you do. Praise God, man.

Yes, sir. I just had a question about the Old Testament. You know, the heroes of the Bible, like Abraham, David, Solomon, multiple wives, some had concubines. Was that something that God was okay with back then?

It's hard to see these giants of the Bible just have all these wives. Was it okay at that time? Well, it was permitted. So that's what I like to tell people is God permitted it. He permits people to lie, to steal. He permits a polygamy as well.

But not to say that doctrine is made through experience, but there is something to consider. One of the reasons polygamy was prevalent was because the culture and the economy of places were such that, let's look at the economic reasons first, that women were not considered property, but were often sometimes treated as property. They were very valued and were the child bearers, of course. But in that culture at the time, they were under the authority of the males in the family, and they weren't allowed really to go out by themselves generally.

They could, but they had to have male escorts and things generally. So the issue of their protection was important, and their virginity was highly regarded. And so when they would marry, the proof of virginity, et cetera, was necessary and was highly prized. And so women, it's interesting how they were treated and viewed in a lot of ways. So it's almost as though they were objects, but they weren't.

The Bible talks about the woman going out in Proverbs 31 buying a field and negotiating this and that and being very productive in the home. So they had that as well as part of the women and the attitude about them. So they weren't really working in groups. A group of men could go out and work, but a group of women wouldn't go out and work in the field unless there was a condition in which they could be protected, where you knew it was safe in this field because there would be family members nearby to protect them to whatever.

This is how it was. So let's say one nation goes against another nation. Who's going to fight? It's going to be the men.

The young men, the older men, but it's going to be the men. And so often in a war, the male population would be devastated. Now you have women that would be the survivors in a certain situation. So sometimes what would happen is the victorious nation would then take the women as spoil and marry them.

They were treated well, they were treated properly, but they would marry them and they would become part of the house. It was not a little something to think about. It was often understood that the woman's body was the place where you put a seed that would grow, like a seed in the ground. And the seed was what was important.

Not the ground, but the seed. So you could put the seed over there, you could put the seed over there or over here, and it would grow. So women, they didn't understand genetics, of course. This is why, for example, Abraham went into Hagar and had a son that was his wife, the servant, because it was his seed. So women could be taken and they could be the seed houses, trying to be the generic kids around and say this nicely, and raise up children.

And they were respected and guarded as well. But this would be one of the situations during war or a famine, because the men would be the one out working and the men would be the one who would die first. Well, then what happens if a nation is very much devastated in a war or a plague, most of the men are gone and the women are still in their geographical area. Well, then the men would often take different women in addition to their initial wife as wives into the home, because they couldn't take a woman into the home and live, if she was of marrying age and childbearing age, without propriety, because there'd be fornication. So marriage was the way to guarantee that that fornication wouldn't occur, and it meant that the women were then protected and under the headship of a family. So other men would know that woman over there is part of that household. And so this is how the culture was and the economics and stuff like that was that really fomented and supported the idea and almost, I should say, dare I say, the necessity of polygamy. And these were necessities there too strictly, but very loose sense.

And God permitted this kind of marriage largely for practical reasons, to help protect women. Okay? So hold on, we've got a break coming up, we can feed back on that.

Okay, wow, large explanation, but that's just part of the history there. Hey, if you want to 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, welcome back everybody, we're at the last segment of the hour, the hour's going by quickly.

Let's get back on the air with Guy from Virginia. Guy, now you asked me a question, I gave you a long answer, but I hope that helped. To some degree. It did, that blew my mind, I had no idea about that background and it makes complete sense. Thank you so much for answering that question. That's good. You read that and you're just like, that's really weird, but now it makes sense, so I thank you for that. Okay.

Yeah, culture and context, you put flesh and blood on something and a lot of things make sense, nothing is necessarily excusable, but the culture of things really helps us understand certain things, in particular when you come to the parables, and I like to explain those every now and then. But yeah, so there you go, okay? Perfect. Thank you sir, you're doing a great job, keep up the great work. All right, well hey man, God bless, you're welcome. All right. God bless, bye.

So we don't have anybody waiting right now, if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Yeah, let's see. All right, so someone emailed me and is asking if I could exegete a certain verse, 2 Corinthians 5.19. Namely that God was in Christ reconciled in the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, but he has committed us to the word of reconciliation. Can you elaborate on the scripture please? Now, the heading of the email says unlimited atonement, and you'll notice that the atonement is not mentioned in 2 Corinthians 5.19. It's unfortunate that sometimes people will go to verses like this. I'm not knocking the email guy, but the reason I'm saying this is because I had a debate with somebody who went to Colossians 1.20, and I'll get to, you know, 2 Corinthians 5.19 also, and threw him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace with the blood of the cross. Now that verse could be used to deal with the issue of the atoning sacrifice. The issue here, it says in Colossians 1.20, reconcile all things. Well, what does the all things mean? If we mean the all things includes the demonic realm, then it means the demonic realm is saved potentially. And so there's some problems just by a real low-level examination. So nevertheless, 2 Corinthians 5.19, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Now that's an interesting statement.

We could look at it, and we could say, let me look at the context here. I'm going to go through this slowly. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. 2 Corinthians 5.17, I love that verse. Verse 18, now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. So if we look at verse 18, which precedes verse 19, of course, that he reconciled us to himself through Christ. What we could glean from this is that those who are saved have been reconciled. And we then have to ask, what does the word reconcile mean? And the word, let me see how many times it occurs in the New Testament.

It occurs six times. Romans 5.10, for if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. 2 Corinthians 7.11, but if she does not leave, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. 2 Corinthians 5.18 and 19, which we're looking at. And then also verse 20, where it talks about on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. So it looks like he's talking about in the pericope of 2 Corinthians 5.18 and 19 and 20, the reconciliation is dealing with those who are believers. And so that God was in Christ, that's the Father was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. Now, when we look at the word world, then what's the word world mean?

Because a lot of people think that, like John 3.16, God shall love the world. That means every individual, not necessarily. It's a possibility that it could mean that, but it's not necessary that that's what it means. Now, when I talk like this, I try and teach people how to ask better questions about texts because a lot of people, what they'll do is they'll look at a text and they will just say, this is what it means, and they go on.

I like to ask more questions. So John 3.16 is a very common verse, God shall love the world. Some people say it means every individual who ever lived. Some people say the world means the thing, the round globe with trees and wind and people.

Some people say the word world means all the nation groups, not just the Israelites. So there's a different sense in which the world could be understood. And we don't want to transfer the word world meaning from one place to another context, nor do we want to take the word reconcile from one place and transfer it to another place. But what we do want to do is see how God uses the term reconcile in the different cases, and so it occurs six times. And in each place, it looks like to be brought into a proper relationship.

That's a very broad way of saying it. We're reconciled to God, brought to a proper relationship, but in that sense, in the redemptive sense. And in the married sense, we reconciled that the problems that they had are not there anymore. And reconcile from God reconciled us to himself. We're looking at that reconciling the world to himself and be reconciled to God. So it looks like what he's talking about here, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. Now we look at the word world, and it says not counting their trespasses. It looks like the word world is talking about people. The world not counting their trespasses against them.

It looks like it's people. Some might make the case that it would be the angelic realm also. I'm not going to go there.

I wouldn't agree with that. But this is just what some people might be able to do if they are universalists, for example, and use that. But nevertheless, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. Well, the only ones who are in the group that is not having their trespasses counted against them would be the saved. So this is what I do in my head when I go through all these verses. I think about it.

I go through all these iterations. So God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. The word world, it would seem to mean people, people groups, not counting their trespasses.

Okay. Well, then that would mean that of the people groups, it's a subgroup of them, meaning the saved, not counting their trespasses against them. So now we could say that the word world in the context means the saved people.

And we could. Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. If someone wants to say that the word world means every individual who ever lived, then that will be universalism, not counting their trespasses against them. So the word world here can't mean every individual who ever lived.

It just can't mean that. Otherwise you have universalism and that's just simply a false teaching from other reasons in scripture. So the word world here is this is a tough one because of the context and the immediate note, not counting their trespasses against them. That's the forgiven ones. So God was in Christ reconciling the world, the forgiven ones. Now does the word world there mean the forgiven ones? Or as what he's saying is generically that what he's doing is reconciling all kinds of people to himself that exist all over everywhere, not counting their trespasses to them. In that case, the reconciliation would imply forgiveness and he's committed us to the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. And that verse right there really speaks to me.

Second Corinthians five twenty. We are ambassadors for Christ. Wow. As though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God.

Wow. That really speaks to me. I'm going to study that one. You know how you read verses sometimes and they kind of stick out? That's what's happening to me right now with second Corinthians five twenty. I'm going to be studying that. And then he goes on in verse twenty one, he made him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Federal headship there, imputation, justification, we won't get into that. So that emails about second Corinthians five nineteen. So what I'm doing is I'm just thinking out loud. This is how I examine texts. This is what I do. I think about these things. And then I start taking notes. Here's the possibility, here's the possibility, here's the possibility. And then what I'll do is I'll narrow it down.

And so as I'm doing this out loud, just maybe you guys can learn from this procedure, I mean whatever, is I'm asking questions about it to learn about it. If someone wants to say reconciling the world means that Jesus died for everyone, then it means that it requires universalism. Because if that's the case, that God was in Christ, he died for everyone, not counting their trespasses against them. Then that would mean that the people he died for, which was everyone, all have to go to heaven. And that would be universalism and that can't be the case of the text.

Because we know from Mark three twenty nine, ninety twenty five, forty six, et cetera, people go to hell. So that sense of interpretation can't be consistent with the whole of scripture, so therefore we have a problem with that interpretation. So we say Christ reconciling the world to himself, now what we can say is the word world probably means all people groups. Now I like to say that, I lean towards that myself because Jesus says in Matthew fifteen twenty four that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He was not sent to the whole world.

People don't know that. Jesus was not sent to the whole world. Matthew fifteen twenty four, he said he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So what he's saying there is that covenantally he was sent to Israel, but Israel rejected the Messiah, so we the Gentiles are grafted in. That's why it says Jesus' propitiation only for our sins but the sins of the whole world. Now that's another related topic because propitiation means a sacrifice that turns away wrath. This is out of first John two two, propitiation only for our sins but the sins of the whole world.

Some people think well the word whole world means every individual, but you've got to be careful. Because a propitiation is not something that makes salvation or forgiveness or, I should back up. To propitiate means the sacrifice that removes wrath. It doesn't make the removal possible.

It doesn't make it conditional. It's actually done. So when the high priest would go into the temple and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat, then they were propitiated. The wrath of God for that year was now removed.

It was done. So if he's a propitiation for our sins, not only for us but the whole world, then the phrase whole world means all the people groups and their specific individuals within that. Which seems to be consistent with how Paul's using it too. That Christ was in the world, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against him. So we can't say the word world here means every individual because it means that they'd all go to heaven because their trespasses are not counted against them.

So the word world here again has to mean a generic kind of people groups all over the place. And that's how I would exegete that verse. That's what I go through when I work through stuff. I think about things like that. For some people, like my wife, she'll ask me a question. Well let's examine it.

She's like, I'm out of here. But it works for exegesis. It works for exegesis. So there you go. Hope you enjoyed that. Hey, we are out of time. May the Lord bless you. By his grace, we'll be back on there tomorrow.

I'll be on, Lord willing, in two hours from now, nine o'clock Eastern. Time will be on, what is it? The phone thing. I can't remember. Oh man, I want to say Cloudflare. I can't remember. Club deck and club on the phone. Anyway, I'll be there tonight teaching. Hey folks, God bless.