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

Listen to Matt Slick live. If you want, you can give me a call. All you gotta do is dial 877-207-2276. And if you want, you can email me at info at karm.org.

Maybe you don't feel comfortable with calling in and stuff. That's okay. Hey, oh yeah, just email me a question or a comment and get to it over the air, I should say. We are on, let's see, we're on Clubhouse and we're also on Rumble. rumble.com forward slash, I think just karm.org is all you gotta do. C-A-R-M-O-R-G. You can sign up.

We do ask for people to sign up because it does help us. Oh, get a yawn. Oh boy, hello.

Hey, sorry about that. I always wonder how many people are yawning when I do that. You know, how many? Let's see. All right, look at this stuff, look at this stuff, look at this stuff, okay. Oh, there's a yawn coming up. Oh man, okay. Oh, why do I, all of a sudden. I need some coffee.

All right, we have nobody waiting if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. So, okay, so there has been a lot of attack lately on the deity of Christ. And so people have been talking about the phrase, you know, the Son of God.

So what I did, I started it this morning. I started doing an analysis of the term Son of God. That's it, just the term Son of God, how it's used. I've got every single instance of that term in the Bible. And I've got it in a table.

I have to go through and analyze them. I have to go through and look at what we're finding, you know, like Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is God with us. Jesus is the beloved Son of the Father. All these terms are related to it because people are saying that the term Son of God means he's not God. And, you know, it occurred to me to ask them, and I did this a few times, just to say, well, how do you know that? What makes you think that's the case?

Because, oh boy, I'm sorry. If the term Son of God means he's not God, then does the term Son of man mean he's not man? What does the term Son of God mean and why do they just impose a certain theological value in there?

So that's one of the things that I'll be examining. And I've already discovered a couple of things that I think are interesting, and I'm going to cross-pollinate them with the term Son of God and the term Son of man. Because sometimes it'll say the Son of God is the Son of man. Well, if that's the case, then what's true of the Son of man is true of the Son of God, right? We would certainly think so.

So anyway, I'll be doing some analysis of stuff like that, so that sounds good. And also, it reminds me, I was in this discussion debate with Sean Griffin or something like that. Well, he's really bad. He really was.

He was pretty bad. And so I did kind of an opening statement, which is a discussion thing, but I did an opening statement. He wasn't able, or I can't remember if he wasn't able or whatever, but he was not apparently able to refute the opening.

And that's the thing. If you don't believe in the Trinity, I'm curious if you can refute the idea of how the doctrine of the Trinity is arrived at. You can go to karm.org forward slash, I think it's Trinity hyphen table, just Trinity table.

You can go to Karm and you can type in Trinity table. All right. Now, you know, it's kind of an esoteric thing here. Most people are not interested in these kinds of minutiae, but I get into them. And it's what I do because, you know, I'm a Christian apologist and I like to look at these little things and see what God. Well, man, yawns all of a sudden and see what God has revealed. And so I've discovered things in the past that way and I will, I'm sure, discover more things for me. That's good. It's good.

I enjoy doing stuff like that. And if you don't believe Jesus is God, call me up. If you don't believe the Trinity is true, call me up. Let's talk right now.

We've got nobody waiting. You know, as long as you just, you know, don't try and dominate my show and say, no, no, listen, listen. You know, you tell me how to do my show. That's not going to work. But anyway. All right. Let's see.

Got some radio questions. We got nobody waiting right now. Let me just jump in. Let's see. Let's see.

Oh, you already got to that one. How about this? Your thoughts about women being deacons in the church, but not just deacons or married to a deacon, but women having the title deacon as a man does. Our church is considered in considering installing a woman as deacon. He's in the same title given male deacons, partly because the Phoebe title of deacon in the Greek being no different.

The male title. Any thoughts? Yeah, there is a thought on that. Oh, so let's do this.

Let's go. I think it's in First Timothy three and deacon. This is what the Bible says.

Deacons must be men of dignity, not double minded or addicted to much wine or fond of sordid gain. So that's what it says. All right. Let's see.

Here's some other stuff. These men must first be tested and let them serve as deacons if they're above reproach. Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful and all things. Deacons must be husbands of only one wife.

OK, so unless you're woke and you're part of the alphabet mob, then that wouldn't apply. So what do we do about Phoebe in Romans 16? Romans 16 one is I commend you to our sister Phoebe, who is a servant in the church.

The word servant there is deaconess. And so what I'm going to do right now is it's number twelve forty nine. What I can do, I've already written an article on this, but I'm just doing this right here on twelve forty nine. And what it says, it comes up seven results. No, did I do that right? No, I didn't do that right. I got the wrong one. Hold on a second.

Servant. It's twelve. Yeah, it is twelve forty nine. I guess I typed it in wrong or something.

Let's see. Oh, I know what I did. Put it in Hebrew, not the Greek thing. All right.

So why is it not working? Call forty nine. OK. Well, I'll try it again because I typed seventy nine.

Yeah, I'm going to do this. All right. So we have the word occurring twenty nine times. The word is it means servant. Matthew ten, twenty six. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant or shall be your deacon. That's the word deacon.

Now, I'm going to do this for a bit because I want to make a point. You can understand something here with the people want to do when they try and twist God's word to make it suit the political needs. Mark nine thirty five. If anyone wants to be first, he shall be called the servant of all deacon of all.

Let's see. John twelve twenty six. If anyone serves me, he must follow me where I am. I am there. My deacon will also be.

No, my servant will be also. OK. Romans thirteen four. This is about government.

OK. So the Bible says there, it says the government is a minister of God to you. It is a deacon of God to you. That's what it says.

That's what the word is. Deacon. OK. From the diaconess. All right.

And I'll do a few more. So. So then the word minister here is the word deacon.

So watch this. But this is Galatians two seventeen. But if while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners. Is Christ any minister of sin?

May never be. Is Christ and a deacon of sin? OK.

The point is, the word deaconess, which means servant or minister or whatever, has many different meanings in different contexts. So what a lot of times people will do, and it makes me mad. It does make me mad.

I actually get upset about this. Is that people look for whatever excuse they can find in scripture to suit their error. Now, what's an error?

What's an example of this kind of an error? An example of this kind of error would be women pastors, women elders, women deacons. Now, a lot of you may just roll your eyes and say you don't buy into that. Well, that's OK. Then if you don't, I have a suggestion for you. If you don't like what I'm saying, you know, about deacons being husbands of one wife.

It's what it what it says. OK. If you don't like that, then I can tell you what verses to go to the Bible and cross them out.

It's really easy to do. See, deacons must likewise be men of dignity. OK. So you don't have a deacon woman in the church.

Well, you can't follow first Timothy 3-8. Come on. You know, just get rid of it. OK. And just cross it out. You can take, I think you get those magic markers, those black markers. You can just mark it out. It's OK. You can mark out God's word if it doesn't suit you.

Or how about this? This is 1st Timothy 3-12. Deacons must be husbands of one wife. OK. Husbands of one wife.

Andres mias gonaikas in the Greek. Deacons must be husbands of one wife. Well, obviously that is chauvinistic and pagan and platonic philosophy and out of context, whatever.

They come up with all kinds of stuff. I would just suggest that take your marker and just cross out 1st Timothy 3-12 if you want deacons to be women in your church. And while we're at it, you know, you can also get rid of, you know, the verse 1st Timothy 3-2.

Overseer, which is a bishop, must be the husband of one wife. I would suggest that you can, you know, just get rid of that verse, too, if you don't like the idea of women not being as elders. OK. And let's see. We go to Titus.

I'm going to do this and I'll give you some more advice. How to get rid of stuff in the Bible doesn't suit you. All right. For this reason, this is Titus 1-5. I left you in Crete. It said in order what remains. And point elders in every city as it directed you. Now, in English, elders doesn't tell you if it's masculine or feminine, but in the Greek it's masculine. But anyway, if any man is above reproach the husband of one wife, OK, that's Titus 1-6, so you have to cross that out, too, in your Bible. You should do that, OK, if you don't like the idea of women being in their place in the church and men being in their place in the church. You know, men are supposed to be pastors and elders and deacons, not women. This is what it says.

If you don't like it, well, not my problem. You can do what you want, right? You can rebel against God's word. You can attend a church where they violate God's word in this area. They have women pastors, women elders, women deacons. You can go to a church and you can give your money to them.

You can support them. You can give what God has granted you responsibility in, in your tithing, in your responsibility, your attendance, your support, and you can go to a church that violates God's word. It's OK. Don't worry about it, because remember, Jesus is the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian surfer dude dressed in a woman's nightgown. And all of this is just a bunch of cultural stuff, OK?

That's all it is. That's what you do. If you don't like marking your Bible up, you know, crossing out verses, you think it's a little bit too much, well, then I can give you things you can say to change the meaning of the text, if you want. That way, you can make yourself feel better about God's word. Or, what you can do is submit to what the word of God says instead of submitting it to your preferences.

And the pastors and the teachers and the elders who approval the pastors, elders, and deacons are out of line and they need to repent. 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 to the show. If you want to give me a call, you can, 877-207-2276. Now, I know what I said earlier a lot of people won't like. I guess that's one of the advantages of my autism and having Asperger's is I don't care. If you don't like it, that's not my problem. You've got to just deal with it before God. And if you disagree with what I said, call me up and tell me why I'm wrong, if you can, from Scripture. And let's talk about God's Word.

And then here's a question. Is the Word of God the final authority in everything it addresses? If it is, then you need to submit to the Word of God. This doesn't just apply to the issues of elders, pastors, et cetera. This applies to everything in your life. Because I know that there are a lot of so-called Christians who go around watching porn, who are living with their girlfriend's boyfriend, sleeping with them and things like that, saying it's OK. No, it's not OK. This is the problem of compromise, the compromise of truth.

Let me tell you something here. Let's see, I know where I'm going to go with this, but I'm going to just do this. This is what it says here in John 1.17. The law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus says in John 14.6, he is the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the creator of the universe who became one of us under the law and suffered under the penalties that people gave upon him with lies.

He suffered and died and rose from the dead. And you don't have the right to judge Christ or to judge his word. You have the obligation to sit under the truth of Christ because Jesus is the way, the truth, and grace and truth are realized through him, John 1.17. And he has given the authority to the apostles to write what they did about the word of God. And as I was reading this stuff from scriptures and going in, I was trying to illustrate the idea of the people who are themselves intolerant of God's absolute truth.

They don't like it. They want to be their own gods. The issue here is that Paul was saying that he was giving instruction on how to behave in the household of God, 1 Timothy 3.15. So this is what the Bible says, and I know a lot of people don't like what the Bible says. And if you're a Christian, if you claim to be a Christian, and you disagree with me, well, you better make sure that what I'm saying is not biblical.

Because that's the only way that you have a valid disagreement. If what I'm saying is biblical, then you're disagreeing with the word of God. Now, granted, I'm just a guy on the radio.

Last name's slick. You can't trust me. But the thing is, you've got to take everything I say and compare it with the word of God. And as I was reading the scriptures, I'm just reading them.

If you disagree with me and you don't like what the word says, then that is your problem. You're the one judging God's word, and you're the one in sin and rebellion against him. And you need to repent, not only on the issue of deacons and pastors and elders. And you should not attend a church that has a woman pastor and elder. You should not. You should leave.

You should stop supporting them. And why is this important? Because it's what the word of God teaches. The word of God teaches us, Paul says, that do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain silent, for Adam was first created. He ties it into the created order in 1 Timothy 2, 12, and 13. And he says, in the pastoral epistles, as he's giving instruction to the household of God in 1 Peter 3, 15, he's the one who gives instruction, that he says that elders are to be men of one woman, husband of one wife. Women can't fit that bill.

Sorry, you just can't. Why is this so important? Because there's something you've got to understand. Masculinity is under heavy attack in our country. And men are the ones who build the highways, build the skyscrapers, put the power lines up, do the hard work to keep the society running. And what's happening is that the issue of masculinity is said to be toxic and harmful.

This is an attack from the devil himself. You've got to realize that men have a prominent place in society, and they ought to have a prominent place in the family. And you women need to know what the Bible says about men. I'm just rambling here, and I like doing this every now and then. I'm going to read something to you.

I'm going to go and read something. I've done this before teaching about this topic, and I'm telling you, it's caused a lot of people to be upset, a lot of women particularly. This is what it says in 1 Peter 3, In the same way you wives be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives. That verse right there, I know a lot of women would like to cross that out of their Bible, be submissive to your husband, say, you mean be a slave? No, it says be submissive. Submission is a willing thing. And what you're doing is you're submitting to his position. I'm going to show you something in Scripture here.

This is out of 1 Peter 3. That they may be won as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. See, respectful behavior to a man is huge, huge. If you're disrespectful to your man, you're working against God. And I actually know of couples, and I know that there are women who speak down to their Christian husbands, their Christian women, and speak down to them in condescending tones. Don't you know this? Listen to me. I told you.

Never speak to your husband like that. The adornment of the woman must not be external, braided hair, wearing gold jewelry, putting on dresses. Let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit. Woman, if a woman cannot be that, then she's in rebellion against God. The imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit. If you are a woman and you're not like that in your Christian marriage, then you're in sin, aren't you?

The imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit. Are you gentle to your husband? Are you? Are you quiet? Now that doesn't mean you don't say anything, okay? That's not what's going on there, okay? And the word quiet there is hessokia. And it means just, you know, you can still talk, you can do all that stuff. It just means you have a gentle attitude in word and tone. I'll tell you, that is a beautiful thing when you can see it in a woman. Oh, it's great.

Hey, trust me, I'm going someplace with this. For in the same way in former times, the holy women also who hoped in God. These are holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves in this way, being submissive to their own husbands. What the heck is going on?

What the heck? You mean a woman's not supposed to be a pastor and an elder? Nope, she's not because the Bible says that.

But there's something else she's supposed to be. And most women today don't want anything to do with it. In fact, I heard statistic recently that more and more American men are looking for women, for wives, by leaving the country and going out and finding women from other countries because they don't want to deal with the baggage that comes along with self-righteousness and you owe me and don't talk to me like that. You know, all this crap that comes along. And they're not godly in their attitude. Oh, I know this is not something women want to hear very often. Oh, man, that's for sure.

Check this out. For in the same way in former times, holy women also who hoped in God used to adorn themselves being submissive to their own husbands. Submissive does not mean slavery. Okay, folks? Just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.

And you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear. What? Don't be frightened. Let me tell you.

I could talk about this so much. I use this verse. This is out of 1 Peter 3.

6. Look, would you ever call your husband Lord? And every time I've asked this of women, of course not. Then why does Peter use it as an example of a godly woman?

And they don't know what to do with that. He's not Lord the way Jesus is, Lord. He's Lord of your house because of his position of being a man, of being a leader in the home. And that's what you're to honor. You're to honor that. And after the break, I'll tell you why.

I'll tell you two reasons why it's important. We'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. All right, everybody. Welcome to the show. Welcome back.

I'm going to give you the two things. I could talk about this for so long. It's so important, but we've got callers coming in now. Why is it important for the ladies to understand the lordship of the husband in the home?

For one thing, it's because that's what God has designed in the home. And for you to rebel against it is to rebel against God. And furthermore, you've got to understand something. And I'll give you an example.

It'll take about a minute here. I've taught Bible studies and I've taught this topic every now and then. Maybe often, but you know. I've ever won a particular instance where I'm talking to the ladies and it just happened to be that the ladies were on one side of the room and the other men were on the other.

The husbands and wives. It's just one of those things that can happen one night. And it was kind of fun. And I started teaching on this because they asked me about a certain topic.

So I went in and started teaching. Okay. And I said to the ladies, I said, would you call your husband Lord? And they said, of course not.

All of them. Of course not. I said, well, it's right there in the Bible. Why won't you do that? And they just scoffed. Well, cause he's not worth it. I said, okay. Are you worth being loved?

And you know, what are they going to say? Of course I'm worth being loved. No, the obligation of the husband is to love his wife. Whether you're lovable or not.

Whether it's a good day or bad day. That's his obligation. You have no problem requiring that of him.

And yet the Lordship of his position in the home, you don't want to submit to and you're obligated to do that whether you want to or not. And you know, the women weren't, they were not used to being addressed like that. Just matter of factly, you know, this was loving, this patient. And I said, now, look, I'm going to, I'm going to show you ladies something.

Watch this. I said, I'm going to ask the men a question. Watch their reaction. And I'm going to say, um, let's see the ladies. Let's just say that hypothetically that you hear me talking like this and that you have a discussion with your husband. And I said, you're going to call him Lord every now and then when no one's around.

It's not to be making fun of, but it's just simply a theological submission to his position as head of the house. Let's say you do that. I look over the men and I said, men, what would you do? Would you like it if you come home one day and your wife means it in a theologically submissive sense, the Lordship of your position at the home?

And she calls you that. What would be your reaction? And instantly all of them shook their head. They wouldn't like it. And I'm smiling because I know why. And I said to the women, do you have any idea why the men don't want to, don't like this? And they're confused. It's because they don't understand men. And I said, let me tell you why. And I just, well, I said, I'll have them tell you.

And I just put my hand out, palm up. Why is it guys? And they said, because then we've got to act like it. You see women, you don't, you don't understand how men work sometimes. If you treat them as a king in your house and the Lord of your house, you watch your house change. You treat them like crap. They're going to withdraw from you.

They'll just do the minimum to get by. You won't be happy with that. If you do that, you know, you need to repent. And if you recognize their Lordship, you'd be surprised what'll happen. Now, what do we do with these guys are jerks. That's another topic. You want to serve God first after jerk guys.

Well, we could talk about that another time, but this is the basics of what needs to be understood at least in a Christian home. Boy, I tell you, I think rambling, you know, just kind of get around to different topics. Let's get to Martin from Virginia. Martin, welcome. You're on the air. Hi, Matt. Hey, thanks for your ministry.

Hey, praise God. So long time listener. Um, I know you had that, that one lady call in a couple of times recently, and I think she wanted, she wasn't really challenging for debate. She was kind of asking you for a debate. I just hope that if you ever set something off that you kind of announced ahead of time, Hey, here's, here's the time.

Here's the channel. I actually like her. Uh, I like that kind of thing, that kind of personality when you're, you're right there and you've got an idea. Oh, uh, there she is. Um, I just checked an email. Oh, she gave me her phone number and everything.

And I won't of course say it. Sounds like, sounds like it's going to be on then. Yeah.

I'd be glad to do that. Um, uh, let's see. Uh, yeah, but, uh, we know what's interesting is, uh, how much, uh, attack the person of Christ is coming under. And it really, I've really noticed in the past few months, it's just draft dramatically increased.

It has incredibly. Yeah. Yeah.

Incredible. Even if you look in the last couple of years and then you look back and you try to try to distill things from the last five years, you know, things are biblically kind of unfolding. So you kind of expect some of this. Oh yeah.

Yeah. We'll see personal question for sure. So if you, if you could draw your timeline of your life, you know, you know, right to left typical timeline and you could delineate one spot. Some people can pick the day.

Some people can even pick the hour, maybe a week, but you can put a dot on your life timeline. Where would you say that you might consider yourself to be safe? What was it that triggered that? It was a 17 when I went up front in a church and, uh, the Lord, let's just say the Lord came down, uh, manifested in incredible power.

Yeah. You were in the church or outside the church? I was in it physically in a church. You probably never heard my testimony, what happened, but, um, the brief version is of it. And I sometimes when people ask me about it, I'll tell them, I say, uh, I don't mean to trigger anybody about losing a child, but I, I have and my wife and I, uh, Jacob was born and then he died shortly afterwards in our arms and we had to have a funeral and this happened about 28 years ago and it was horrible, just flat out horrible. And I say, uh, you can imagine how hard, you know, a parent would cry and suffer through that. Nothing I want on anybody.

And if anybody is triggered by this because of something, I apologize, but this is a teaching moment here. And I use that. That's a pain of zero to 10. That's a 10.

You know, you can't get anymore. I'll use that as a, uh, Mark kind of just a standard because when I went up front at this church, I got kind of got tricked to go up front and it was who, you know, who wouldn't mind knowing more about Jesus after a film was, you know, and I raised my hand, but a few other sufferers raised their hand, went up forward. And, um, I still remember looking at the exit sign thinking I can get out of here.

You know, I can just walk home, whatever friends had brought me. Right. Wasn't interested. And, uh, this guy had gotten out of the, uh, the, the, uh, uh, congregation when a few of us walked up and each person kind of was matched by somebody. Anyway, I was like, Oh crud.

He had a big Bible, lots of ribbons and gold leaf letters on the cat. Sheesh. And, uh, okay, let's kneel down. So I did all this stuff and I'm not a follower. I don't follow the crowd. I don't, I've never done drugs.

I just don't follow anybody. You know, I just don't do that. And, uh, so I'm like, whatever, I'm going to just stick it out, just see what happens. Cause Hey, you know, it's not going to hurt me. And, uh, so this guy, you know, started talking to me and people to my right who'd come up or started crying. I go, I get it.

My turn to cry when they come up, you know, my turn to cry. That's my attitude. Just finally, this guy said, um, you want to receive Jesus as your savior. And I figured, well, might as well give him a try. Cause if he's real, it's not going to hurt me.

And I'll only win if he's real and give him a shot. That was my attitude for real. And I thought, okay, well, but if I'm going to do this, I'll try and be sincere.

I think that's fair. I'll try and be sincere. So I said, yeah, sure.

Third plan. And all I can tell you is the Holy Spirit himself, suddenly like a deluge, like a force just manifested like a gigantic waterfall. It just flowed from above into my soul. And instantly, instantly, I was made aware of my sin in the presence of incredible holiness. And I threw my face to the ground and moaned out and agonizing tears because I was in the presence of incredible holiness and I was completely undone. And I just kept my face to the ground, wailing harder than the day I buried my son. I wailed completely and totally from down deep the presence of God himself and the form in the person of the Holy Spirit. It was just overwhelming.

And the only thing I could do was just almost yell out and moan out and cough out and snot out everything. I still remember looking through the tears into the multicolored carpet as light refracting through tears and you get to see that blurry kind of rainbow that's disjointed. I remember it. And then all I can tell you is, in a moment, the Lord Jesus was to my left and just behind me. I don't know how I knew.

I don't know. But it was him. I still remember it. I remember his concern. I remember everything, his attention. And I remember being afraid. I remember being expectant, stunned, surprised, waiting. And he took a step. He moved into me. I had a physical sensation of my sin leaving.

It was just gone. Would you say that's when you were accepting Jesus at that time? Maybe not vocally out loud, but internally? Yeah. Yeah, it was him doing the work.

It wasn't me, that's for sure. Hold on, we've got to break, OK? Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned.

... Welcome back to the last segment of the show. Let's get back on with Martin. OK, Martin, there we go.

Oh, hey, Matt. Thanks for that testimony. I recall you now talking about that a few times. You really went into detail this time that I didn't recall.

But that's, you know, excellent. You know, the second before you walk into that church, you probably don't consider yourself safe looking back now. The second that you accepted Jesus as your savior, there it was. You know, it wasn't me accepting him. It didn't happen like that. It was him saving me, his presence. It was a natural thing.

It was whatever he wants is what's going to happen. That's how it was. And I was changed. And people get saved different ways, you know?

Well, you're right. Yeah, people do get saved. But I think, you know, you had a big desire somehow to be where you were. And certainly, you know, God and Jesus, they use us in a lot of, you know, in their ways. So I'm certain that, you know, Jesus is using you in the ways that he feels that, you know, is needed. Yeah. I think I had that testimony and that experience because of what I do for a living. Because I'd be so involved with false stuff that I had to, I just had to, I don't know how to describe it, I just had to be strong.

And that's what it is. Yeah. Now, I got to clarify something. You said, now, it's my misunderstanding maybe, but you said that you hadn't done drugs, but I thought maybe you had dabbled, and it's not the Hunter Biden crack pipe stuff, but maybe I thought you dabbled with hallucinogens or something like that. I've never done any drugs in my entire life, ever.

Not even smoked pot, nothing. Okay. Okay. I know you did the cold stuff, but... Yes, I did that.

Yeah, I did that. That was pretty bad. Yeah, I'm sorry, but... Well, yeah, but... All right. No, I appreciate it, Matt. Thanks much for your ministry, and you can get to the other callers. Praise God, man.

Praise God. All right, buddy. Yeah, bye. Okay.

All right. Let's get to Janet from California. Janet, welcome. You're on the air. Hi. How are you? Today is my first day of listening to you. Oh, well, good.

I'm glad I found you. Where are you in California? Because I'm from California.

Where are you from? Oh, San Juan Capistrano. Oh, I love that.

Or take a highway over there. Yeah. Exactly.

Oh, yeah. Love it here. I think it's heaven. It's heaven on earth. It is. I'm envious. I'm up here in Idaho now. But, yeah, I'm envious.

That's a great area. Yeah, it sure is. Well, you were talking about the Trinity earlier, and it reminded me of a conversation I had with another pastor, talking to him about how a lot of churches, in fact, I think the majority, described the Trinity as you did earlier, as three persons. And I've read a lot of churches' websites just to see what different churches say. And I noticed more of them are not saying persons. They'll say beings or such, manifestations, something like that.

In my personal opinion, I don't want to use the word person. And the main reason I'll tell you is I see the Holy Spirit being presented in the Bible not as a person. We don't see him that way. I mean, there is a verse in Romans 8, 26, where it says, The Spirit himself intercede for us. But that's still really a reference to God the Father, because God is spirit.

So I see the Holy Spirit in different ways, you know, the dove or the flame. So I personally don't want to use the word person. And I was wondering if you thought there might be a better way. And the reason I would like to see that thing is because in today's world, people are so picky about everything that comes out of everybody's mouth.

They're so picky on every word, right? So I would love to see something a little bit more exacting, if that was possible. Sure. Hey, let me ask you, have you been to my website, karm.org? Have you ever heard of it? I just found it as I was listening to you and knew I was going to come in. Then I looked it up. Yeah, I've been working on this site.

I've written about 5,000 articles in over 27 years. In fact, in Escondido, down south, that's where I got my Masters of Divinity. I used to live in Buena Park and Anaheim and Fullerton and all that kind of stuff. In fact, I'll be down there next month. I've got to go to Newport Beach for a memorial service. I'll be up in Temecula also. But nevertheless, that's where I'm from.

My wife and I met down there and grew up in Southern California, so we're SoCalites, but now we're in Idaho. Okay, the reason the word person is used is because it's a theologically significant phrase. The word comes from, let me just focus here and tell you, the word comes from persona in Latin, which was a mask that was used in acting back in the days when only the men acted. They could play women. They could play old people, young people. They would have a persona.

They would have a stick with a mask on it. That's called a persona. So the theologians borrowed that term and hence the word person. We use the word person now to describe the three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The reason we say the Holy Spirit is a person is not like a person like you or me.

What it means theologically and in the context of the Trinity, it has a special meaning. People just don't know that. Most pastors don't know how to defend the Trinity. Most pastors are not that adept at it. Okay, because I study this stuff all the time.

They're busy being pastors. So here's the thing. Someone who has personhood can think, can speak, can say you and yours and me and mine, has a will, can love. Those are the characteristics of personhood. The Father exhibits it, the Son exhibits that, and the Holy Spirit exhibits it, and I'll show you.

Absolutely, yeah. So they're all three called God, but there's only one God. So that's why we say one God in three persons, okay?

Okay. So the Holy Spirit has a will, 1 Corinthians 12 and 11, can love, Romans 15 and 30, speaks, Acts 8 and 13. He's omnipresent, Psalm 139. He can be lied to, Acts 5 and 3.

You can grieve him, Ephesians 4 and 30. So these are attributes of personhood. Exactly, exactly.

They are, and I do see that and I agree with what you're saying. I just wish there was a way to, because as you're saying, you described it in words that make sense to me, certainly. I'd never heard that before, the persona Latin, I think you said, that meant a mass. So the theologian borrows that term you were saying. So the way I put it, without knowing what you just said, I always said, well, they just use the word person because it's a term we can relate to, which is really in a way what you just said. Yeah, it's not it.

It's not it. So let me tell you, I'm 66 and I've been defending the Christian faith since 1980, so I've been doing this a long time. I've literally had thousands and thousands and thousands of discussions. I just do this all the time. I love doing this. I do this full time. This is my job. I'm one of the most blessed people on the planet.

I get to do exactly what I love to do. So the word person and Trinitarianism is extremely important. And I'll go so far as to say, if anyone denies a trinity, they can't make sense of anything. That's a big statement.

That takes a while to unpack, but that's the case. And the word person is a theologically significant term, and that's why we say that, because God is three simultaneous and distinct persons. The idea of manifestations of persons, that's a heresy. That's in oneness, Pentecostal. God's one person who manifests in three different ways, and that's false. Then there's a cult called the Jehovah's Witnesses, and they're Arian, and they teach God's only one person, and Jesus is the first created thing, and the Holy Spirit is a force. So there's all kinds of stuff like this. I think the problem with, certainly with my brain, is it's hard to just comprehend all that and just break it down into the very symptoms that you just stated.

But I think for the average person on the planet who's a Christian, I think if they want to say they're three persons, if they wanted to say three essences, if they wanted to say three spirits even, I think, or three forces, I honestly think they would probably all be thinking relatively the same thing, enough to say they're all believers, and they really would be. In other words, it wouldn't be worth arguing over for me. It is. It is. It's worth correcting.

Yes, absolutely. And you don't know this, and I'm not knocking you at all, but you just don't know this, but I've done this so many times, so many different angles, I know why all of this is so important. I know what it leads to if you don't have precision. Now, the average Christian doesn't need to know all this stuff, doesn't need to know about the economic trinity, the ontological trinity, or the perichoretic relationship, or the divine simplicity of the Godhead, or the immutability, or the aseity.

These are all terms that I'm very familiar with, and I know what they mean, but the average Christian doesn't have any clue about them. Right. I never even heard that one word. You just said aseity. Aseity. A-S-E-I-T-Y. And it means the eternal non-contingency and self-sufficiency of God. He is a-say.

A-S-E-I. He is a-say, because he has aseity. It's part of his nature and his essence. So he has always been and never was not.

His nature never changes. That's why we call it immutability. And Jesus is God in flesh, the second person of the trinity, who became in union with a human nature. That's called the Incarnation.

Absolutely. And he's a man right now. Did you know that? That Jesus is a man right now still.

Oh, okay. I'm glad you said that, because I actually, while I was thinking of getting ready to talk to you, I thought, so, is he a man right now, or is he what in heaven? Yes, he is. He's either not the right hand or the Father right now, but do we think he's a man right now? Absolutely. You go to my website.

You only have about two minutes left in the show. You can go to my website and type in, is Jesus a man? It's an article I've written, and there's all the references.

Not all, but there's a lot of references. But yeah, he's a man right now. And the reason he was baptized, let me do this quickly. The reason he was baptized was to enter into the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek by fulfilling the Old Testament law. That's why. To fulfill all righteousness.

And I have an article on that. You can type in, why was Jesus baptized? This is important because he's a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, out of Hebrews 6 and 7. If he's not a man, he can't be a high priest. If he's not a high priest, we don't have an intercessor. Furthermore, if he's not a man, then he's still dead.

But the prophecy is that he would raise himself, John 2 19-21. I can go on. We're out of time.

I can teach on this for a long time. Thank you, Carter. And remember, my last name really is Slick. So you've got to be careful. Don't trust what a guy on the radio named Slick says.

Check everything with scripture. All right? Yeah, that's right. Reverend Slick, it just does not sound good.

But that's what it is. Okay. Thank you so much. God bless you. You too. God bless. All right. Well, there we go.

Now, James from Utah. Sorry, Van, you're going to have to call back. We just don't have enough time to get to you. What does repentance does not save you mean? It means turning from sin isn't what saves you.

Turning to Christ is what saves you, but you should repent. We can talk about that and expand on it if you want, James. All right. Thanks for your time. May the Lord bless you by His grace. Look back on your tomorrow. We'll talk to you then. God bless everybody. Bye. Another program powered by the Truth Network.