Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network.

Today is July 21st, 2023 for the podcasters. If you want to join in and you want to give me a call, challenge me about something, disagree with something, hey, it's up to you. Or you just ask a question. Well, the number is 8772072276. And if you want, instead of calling, you can email me at info at karm dot org, info at karm dot org.

And I'm looking at it right now to see if anything's coming in. All right. OK, there we go.

Some questions, you know, people, they bring in questions a lot. So that's what I'm going to do is answer some of those radio questions and stuff like that. So if you want to give me a call, OK, 8772072276.

And just want to let you know that we stay on the air by your support. We're asking five dollars a month. Five dollars isn't very much. And it does help us.

You may, maybe you might think it really doesn't matter that much. Well, it does, because if we get 10 people at five dollars, that's 50 dollars and 50 dollars helps. And if we get 100, well, you know, you can see there's 100 people doing that. We could make more and support the guys and the missionaries like the guy Malawi we talked to today, the guy in Nigeria that we talked to today and the guy in Brazil and the guy in Colombia. And we support them.

So we support them and we need the support from you guys in order to support them. All right. All right. There you go. If you want to give me a call, 8772072276. All right.

Let's see. I got some e-mails because we have nobody waiting right now. And that happens on Fridays a lot. And normally what I've been doing for a long time is doing wacko mail. But, you know, the wacko mail has really gone down.

And I just wish that I had more. Maybe it's the guys who answer the e-mails when the wacko mail comes in, they just delete it or whatever. I love wacko mail. We do get some every now and then. And I always like hate mail. I enjoy hate mail. So for me, it's a lot of fun.

It just is. You know, when people say, man, you're an idiot. I go, OK, thank you. Tell me something new. You know, and I enjoy it. So anyway, and people often send in questions.

So let's see. When I sent this e-mail, I just I just heard it for the first time. Now, you see, look, when I sent this e-mail, I just heard it for the first time. You mean you just heard your own e-mail that you sent for the first time? I did not assume then that the entire denomination was doing this, but that of a lunatic fringe sect.

OK, I have no idea what this guy's talking about. Thanks, Matt, for all you do. The CARM staff are doing a pray for you all daily. Great job with the one minute videos. Thank you.

And may God keep you in his hands. I appreciate that. Now, sometimes what people do is they just continue an e-mail conversation with something from a few hours ago or days ago. And we can't follow the thread on that sometimes.

So there you go. Yes, I am doing one minute videos and I'm going to be working on those again this coming week. It takes a lot to do them. It takes a lot of effort.

And so I'll do three, four, five at a time, then take a break and do three, four, five at a time. And that's what I'll end up doing and working on another project, too, which I'll talk about some other time. All right. Let's see. Let's see. OK. Good. OK. That person got what they needed. And OK. Just want to say we're in a large. I'm not sure what that means. People, you know, people have to understand something when you write us e-mails is that don't assume we understand what you're saying to you.

It's clear. I suggest that you do this. Let the e-mails sit for a couple of three minutes and then reread it and see is the sufficient information and references there so that we understand it as a self-contained unit. And we have that problem a lot that people will will tell us. And I emailed a guy and said, I don't understand what you're asking. And then he responds back with something that I still can't understand what's going on because it's not being clear. You know, it happens. And that's another thing. You know, when people leave me a message on the phone, they'll they'll talk to me and they'll say, hey, can you call me back?

Thank you very much. I'm like, what was that? Drive by, you know, rapid fire phone number.

And then I can't figure out what the number is. I can't call them back. I don't.

I'm just whining. Hey, let's get to Luke from Washington, D.C. Luke, welcome. You're on the air. Hi, man.

This is Luke. How are you? I'm fine. I'm fine. So what do you got?

I have a question about Isaiah 47 verse 5. OK. Yes, I'm familiar with it. Yeah. Oh, you did that.

Yeah. That verse is evil or calamity. How do you explain that? Some people, some Bible says calamity. Some Bible don't. It's just evil. So evil or calamity?

It's actually calamity and I'll explain why. The word there is ra'ah and it occurs 665 times in the Old Testament. And it's rendered as evil, wicked, harm, displeased, bad, sad, ugly.

What are some other ones? Unpleasant, wrong, trouble. So there's a lot of different meanings to it. And so, well, what then is the meaning? Because some people will say, well, because it says the one forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity.

I am the Lord who does all these things. And some translators say creating evil. Well, what's meant by the word evil in that context?

Well, I just say, look at the context, what it says. And notice the comparison, the juxtaposition. It says the one forming light and creating darkness. What's the opposite of light? It's darkness. And then it goes on, causing well-being and creating, so what's the opposite of well-being? Calamity.

Okay. So that's just what we're looking at from the context, creating light and darkness, what's contrasting. So the first part of the verse tells us the style that we're to understand the rest of it.

The one forming light, creating darkness, causing well-being, creating calamity. That's what's going on. And the word ra'ah just means what it means in different contexts at different times. It can also mean sorrow. So there's just a lot there. Adversity, wretchedness.

I'm looking at all these injuries. Look at that. So it has lots of different meanings.

Okay? So in that verse, I create evil. That means somebody, God is creating evil.

Believe that, God's creating evil. So that verse says, I create. I create light. I make light. I create evil. That's confusing me to understand.

I create evil, somebody has to create. So I got you. I got you.

Let me jump in. I got you. Okay?

I got you. The word evil. This is why you shouldn't use the King James. The King James causes problems. All right? I say to people, stay away from the King James if you're going to do serious study. Unless you're very qualified to know exactly where all the problems are and you can look at the original languages and you do that regularly.

Other than that, stay away from it because it causes problems like this. Okay? So like I said, the word is ra'ah and it has different meanings. That's all I'm telling you. And so like the ESV says calamity. The King James, 1900. The New King James says calamity. The RSV says woe. The LEB says create evil. The NIV says disaster.

So you see the different translations, the different translations render it differently. Okay? All right? Okay. Okay.

Luke 113. What's that? I'm sorry.

What? I'm sorry. No, no. Wait, wait. Okay.

Sorry. What are you saying? What? What?

Another word. Papa Cook 113. Luke 113? Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Luke 113. The Angel of the Lord?

Yes? No, no. Not Luke. It's the Old Testament. Habakkuk. Oh, Habakkuk.

The way I pronounce it. Yeah. His eyes are too pure to look upon evil. Yes. Uh-huh. Okay. How do you explain that word? Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, and thou cast not look on wickedness with the favor.

And same thing like Deuteronomy 32.4. Okay. Hold. Okay, look. You're jumping all over the place, okay? I'm not sure we... No, no. The thing is, he's not approving the evil. The other place... Okay.

I have to put him on hold because he's not letting me get a word out edgewise. I'm not sure what he's trying to get at, but let me look at Habakkuk 113. All that's going on there is it says your eyes are too pure to approve evil. When we go to the King James in Habakkuk 113, it says to behold evil.

Again, I just want to tell people this. If you want to do apologetics and serious study, stay away from the King James. Because the translations like this, with the old style of speaking, the old style, words have changed their meanings from four or five hundred years ago to now. And so what you're doing, if you go to the King James, is you're using something from 1611 and slightly modified into more current words and terminology, but it still has a lot of these acronystic terms, and it causes problems. You know, I'm saying that the King James, it's a good Bible for the most part, but unless you're able to go in and take a look at the Greek and do a study and look at the Hebrew and do a study, then you're going to have problems like this. I'm just telling you, if people were to stay away from the King James and go to the NESV or the ESV, you'll just do a lot better. So what's going on in Hebrews 113, it says the issue is not to behold evil, to look on it with favor.

God doesn't do that, and that's what's going on in Habakkuk 113. Okay, Luke? Okay, thank you. All right.

Got anything else? That's it for today. Okay, thanks. All right, sorry about the lack of audio coming in at a certain time. There's just so many things I've got to switch and do. I'm going to have to make a list of things to make sure I get all done. All right, so hey, look, if you want to give me a call, 8772072276. All right, so what we'll do now is I'm going to get into some more of the radio questions.

Let's see what we've got here. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so they'll believe the lie. 2 Thessalonians 2, 11. If God is loving and doesn't want people to go to hell, how can he allow this? All right, now I'm going to ask a question, and this is what I do with all kinds of people. I read what they say, listen to what they say, and then ask a question on their most basic assumption.

And I'll do this, and I'm going to do it here. So it says, if God is loving, I'm going to ask, is God loving? And the answer we could say is, well, yeah, and how do we know that? Well, for example, God so loved the world he gave, John 3, 16. Okay, God is love, 1 John 4, 8.

Okay, so we can establish that. And doesn't want people to go to hell. Okay, how do we know that's true, that he doesn't want people to go to hell? And people say, well, of course he doesn't. Well, I'm going to ask, well, how do you know?

Is there anybody that he wants to go to hell? I'm just asking the question. And I do this, and I'll talk about this after the break, I don't want people to just assume something and say, that's how it works.

Maybe it is, maybe it's not. This is what we need to do when we do apologetics. We'll get back from the break. I'll give you a little bit more information on this. We'll be right back after these messages. All right, everybody, welcome back to the show.

If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. All right. So I was going through that email, and this is a bit of an issue of logic. A lot of people are not prepared to do this kind of exercise, where you take a premise and you challenge the premise. Now, this is necessary when we have something that's difficult to understand. We have a supposed contradiction. And so if we have a supposed contradiction, then the difficulty is with us, not with the truth of God's word. Contradictions often occur when people have an assumption that they think is right, but is not right, okay?

All right, so people keep mentioning Joyce Meyer in the text in Clubhouse, and every time I see the word, it distracts me. Because I'm always tuned to heresy. She's full of heresy.

So anyway, get back on this. So Second Thessalonians 2, 11, God, if he doesn't want anybody to go to hell, well, who says that? Where does it say that in the Bible?

And I would ask that question. Now, you may be listening and say, well, man, that's ridiculous. He doesn't want anybody to go to hell.

Well, then I'm going to ask a question. Have you looked at Proverbs 16, 4? It says this, the Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked, for the day of evil.

Wait a minute. You know, that's what it says. This is Proverbs 16, 4. It says, the Lord has made, I'm going to close down the, stop looking at the clubhouse.

There we go. The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil. So the day of evil, even the wicked, God makes the wicked for this purpose, the day of evil. Well, then is he making them for the purpose of damnation? I'm not saying he is.

I'm not saying he isn't. What I'm saying is that when we look at verses like this, when we see stuff like this, that we have to be careful and that we don't want to just assume a certain position and build a case on it. And we don't find that. Now, people will say, well, Matt, it does say that he wants all to be saved.

Well, then we have other questions we're going to ask. You know, he wants all men to be saved. Okay, 2 Peter 3.9 doesn't, you know.

And let me go into that and I'll read it to you and I'll show you something here. 2 Peter 3.9. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowest, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. So one of the questions I'll ask people is, and this is difficult stuff because you're not used to thinking like this, is I'll ask him, he wants all to come to repentance, right?

Yes. So that means every individual who ever lived will say yes. Well, then, if that's the case, why does Jesus speak in parables in Mark 4, 10 through 12? And he says he speaks in parables so that people will not be saved.

I'm just asking the questions because a lot of times what people do is they look at a single verse and that's all they look at in a particular topic. And that's it. That's what it means. For example, he wants all to come to repentance. Well, that means predestination can't be true and election can't be true because he wants everybody to be saved. See, we just solved that one. And they don't realize that in the ocean of possibility it's weighted up to their ankles and now they're making a judgment.

And they don't know that the word all has different meanings, that the word all can be in reference to only the elect, and I can show you where that's the case. And then we have another question. Can God desire one thing and arrange another?

Now, you know, I have to ask the question. You know, 1 Timothy 2, 3 through 4, he desires all men to be saved. 2 Peter 3, 9, he wants all to come to repentance. But then I've already shown in Mark 4, 10 through 12 where Jesus speaks in parables so people will not be saved.

That's what he's talking about there. He goes on, he says, who makes the man's mouth? Who makes them dumb or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? That's Exodus 4, 11. He says, and I've already read Proverbs 16, 4, where he makes everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil. So what he's talking about here is that God does things. And he says, for example, don't harden your hearts, but then God hardens his hearts.

God sent it to living influences. We're going into 2 Thessalonians 2, 11. In Exodus 4, 21, God hardens the heart of Pharaoh so that he'll not let his people go, even though God wanted Pharaoh to let his people go.

Now, when I show people this, they're like, wait a minute, what? I say, look, what gets me is a lot of times in Bible studies and pulpits, the ones delivering the messages aren't getting very deep into the logic and the issues. Sometimes it's necessary to take five minutes out in a sermon or a study and go through something like this and explain it, because this is what the scriptures teach.

A lot of times people don't want to do the heavy work of lifting. But anyway, so God says in Exodus that he wants Pharaoh to let the people go, but he says, and the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I put in your power. This is already, Moses had told Pharaoh, let people go. But God says, but I'll harden his heart so he'll not let them go. Well, then God desires one thing and he arranges another. This is not hypocrisy or inconsistency. It's just a theological perspective.

Check this out. This is Deuteronomy 2.30, but Sihon, king of Heshbon, was not willing for us to pass through his land. For the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate in order to deliver him into your hand. Wait a minute, doesn't he want everybody delivered and healed and better? Then why did God make his heart obstinate, the king of Heshbon, Sihon, king of Heshbon?

Well, so he could deliver him into your hand to be destroyed. Or how about Joshua 11.20, for it was of the Lord to harden their hearts to meet Israel in battle in order that he might utterly destroy them, that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them just as the Lord has commanded Moses. Now, that's what it says. Now, I know that a lot of people are listening going, what?

This is what it says. I teach these kinds of things in Bible studies. When we get to this kind of topic, I open up my notes and I go through it. I say, let's look at a bunch of stuff.

We're going to take a half hour to an hour here. I'm going to show you things in Scripture and I'm going to break up this cement foundation that you've had of certain areas that Jesus is the blonde haired blue-eyed Caucasian surfer dude, or God wants everybody to be saved. It's just up to you and your wisdom and God just begging for you. I'll break that in half. Just disrupt it because humanist philosophy has crept into the Christian church.

Now, check this out. Revelation 17 verses 16 to 17. And the ten horns which you saw and the beast which will hate the harlot will make her desolate naked and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to execute his purpose by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled. He put it in their hearts so that they would do something in order to be destroyed. Well, God says, you know, people said he doesn't take any pleasure in the death of the wicked.

They say that. And Ezekiel 18, 32, God says, I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord. Therefore, repent and live.

Okay? Because it takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And Ezekiel 33, 11.

However, check this out. This is Deuteronomy 28, 63. And it shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you and multiply you, so the Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you.

And in 1 Samuel 2, 25, the Lord desired to put them to death. And the word is pleased. What does it all mean? We'll get back and I'll teach a little bit more. We'll get back from the break. Give me a call. 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. All right, everybody, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276, if you want to give me a call. You can also email me at info at karm.org, info at karm.org.

Please give me a call or email me there. All right, so what are we to make about this? Now, this is generated out of the idea, the assumption that God just wants everyone to be saved and that he doesn't want anybody to go to hell.

I know this is a common sense kind of assumption, but is it true? A lot of people don't, like I said, a lot of people just don't really dig very deeply into the text of God's word. I learned years ago that if you really want to study, you really want to get into God's word, that what you have to do is dig deep. You have to get into the word of God.

You've got to start studying and asking questions. If you can't ask questions, you can't deal with it, then don't assume too much just to do it. So look, what do we make with this idea that God talks about one thing but arranges something to the contrary? It's not that he's being contradictory. It's just that he can say, for example, I don't want to discipline you, but I'm going to.

It's like that. I can have my children and I can say to them, I don't want to discipline you. I don't want to cause you discomfort, but I must because for a greater good, I need to do that. Think of that in the term of what God is doing. He can desire people to be saved but not arrange or grant them repentance for everybody. This is a very deep topic, and it is a very deep topic.

I'm not even going to get into the really weighting into the heavy stuff. So we have this issue of God's will and decrees and awareness and ultimate purpose, and all these things are there. So what people are obligated to do is follow the truth of who God is and what he says.

So he's obligated to do that. And in one sense, he says he wants people to be saved. But in the other sense, he doesn't arrange it. In fact, he even speaks and arranges things to the contrary. He sends deluding influences. He speaks in parables so they'll not be saved. So we have to ask the question, if he does that, is he then saying to those individuals for whom he's hiding the truth, does he desire that they be damned?

Well, people don't like the idea of that because what they understand God to be is the ever-loving being who simply wants everyone to be saved, and it may be the case, but it may not be the case. Now, I know what I'm saying here is difficult for a lot of people, but this is something you have to face, particularly when we go here. I'm going to tell you about this. I'm just trying to shake up your foundation a little bit.

I want people to start looking and digging because people don't want to do that. He says, on the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this?

Will it? Does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? Would have God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory. So this was Romans 9, verses 21 through 23. These are difficult verses, and they are so difficult for a lot of people in Christianity and churches that they don't want to hear them, and they will interpret them in a way to make themselves feel good because they want God to be a certain way. This is why I will say sometimes on the air, don't follow the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian surfer Jesus dressed in a woman's nightgown who's standing at the door of your heart asking permission for you to let him in. That's not the Jesus of the Bible. He doesn't wait at the door of your heart waiting for you and your wisdom to come in, to open him up and say, Well, I need you. It's up to me. It's not how it works. The sovereignty and the majesty and the infinite holiness of God are just not taught enough in churches. The majesty of his character. No, Matt, are you saying God makes people for the purpose of destruction?

Yes, I am. Because that's what Proverbs 16 says, God makes all things, even the wicked for the day of evil. And he says here in Romans 9, 21-23 that he makes one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use. That's what it says. Now, some of you may not like that. Well, when I first read it, I didn't like it. When I read it, I didn't like it.

Honestly, I didn't like it. I said, That's not fair. But then, really, it's not fair?

How do I know what fair is? Do I have some universal standard of righteousness by which I can then say, This is what God ought to do or not do? This is what the Bible should or shouldn't say. Because it's a humanistic philosophy. It's humanism to say, I know what God ought to do. That's pure humanism.

That I am the standard of righteousness, my common sense, my heart, my understanding. That's how I know what God won't do. It's a form of idolatry, and it certainly is arrogant, and it's foolish. But yet it's rampant in the Christian church.

So what we're supposed to do as Christians is submit ourselves to the Word of God. If there's a topic that comes up, study all of the topic. Don't just study one aspect of it. Study all of it. Because when you do that, and I've done this so many times, it's the privilege, the privilege of studying the Word of God more than pastors.

Unless they got better, nothing like that. Because pastors, you know, they're out there dealing with counseling and taking care of meetings and prepping Bible studies and doing good stuff. But I get to do apologetics. I get to answer these difficult questions.

I get to sit here and go, What is that? And I don't have anybody knocking on my door saying that they need marriage counseling. I'm not complaining about that.

Pastors praise God that they do that. I'm just saying I have this privilege of being able to get in and really explore these things for a long time. I'm not saying get all the answers. But there's a difference here, and I've learned over the years not to make assumptions. You know, it's like the same thing when people say, Two men in the field, one is taken, one is left. I was always taught that was the rapture. Well, when I look at the context, it's not the rapture. It's the wicked who were taken. And for those of you whose eyebrows just shot up, read the context of Matthew 24 and the parallel of Luke 17 because it's the wicked who were clearly taken.

And 100% of the time when I've shown people this, 100%, without exception, they've said, Yep, you're right. It's the wicked who were taken. And so the rapture occurs at a different location. But those verses aren't about the rapture.

Why am I bringing it up? It's a good example of how some things are just taught from the pulpit and people just believe them and they don't examine them. And a lot of times the pastors don't even examine them. And I'm not saying that, you know, I got my doctrine down perfectly. I don't. I'm always looking and I'm always learning and seeking to be changed.

But this issue here, this issue here, is it God's will that I'll be saved? I wrote this article on this back, I don't know, I'm thinking 25 years ago. And I remember the intense study.

I read an article from someone who brought this issue up and brought some of these verses up. And it intrigued me so much that I just started studying. I studied for like two weeks. And I remember being at work going to the cafeteria and bringing my Bible and bringing some notes and just going through and studying. Because I was really intrigued to get home and go study. And I loved doing it. And I did. I learned a lot. And one of the things I learned is do not just make a direct assumption. Just don't do that.

Don't do it. Okay? And so God is in control.

And he is the one who says what he wants but he arranges stuff. Let's get on the air to Martin. Martin from Virginia, welcome, you're on the air.

Hey, Matt. Thanks for your ministry and all. Sure. One question and one comment.

I'll start with a comment first. I think you need to tagline Matthew McConaughey does that all right, all right, all right thing. I think it would suit you very well if you did the amen, amen, amen type thing. You know, when you come back from a break, you're like amen, amen, amen, welcome back, let's get to whoever was going to call or whatever, you know.

I think that would kind of, you know, jazz it up a little. Well, you know, my wife might say I don't need to jazz it up. I'm pretty irritating sometimes as it goes. I call people obstreperous twits sometimes but not very often. I try to be nice and not call them, you know, pejoratives.

But sometimes I get a little excited I do that. Matt, you've been fairly nice to me. You've been fairly fair. You've cut me off a couple of times. We've ended some calls but you've never condemned me.

So that was good. I remember you. You're an atheist, right? Are you an atheist? Oh, no. Oh, heck no.

No, no. What are you? I'm sorry. I'm trying to remember. What? I'm sorry?

Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord and I 100% believe in the resurrection and Trinity. If I cut you off, then what's the reason? So we, it was a couple of years ago, we kind of got into it with adding the scripture, believe in the scripture. I don't want to, we don't have to rehash it. Okay. It was a couple of years ago. All right. Okay, no biggie.

It was. But, yeah, you know, I think things are good. You know, if you're not against us, you're for us, right? So, you know, the scripture is, you know. Okay. And so one comment, you know, as a caller, I often listen all the time and I hear people say things like, hey, Matt, how are you doing? And I know Matt, I know Matt Flick likes to get, hey, I'm here for answering questions. Let's cut the chit chat.

So what kind of callers do you get? We got a break. Things kind of irritate me. We got a break. We got a break. Okay, hold on. Okay.

Because we got a break. All right. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages. Four open lines, 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Flick live.

Taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Flick. All right, everybody, welcome back to the show. All right, let's get back on the air here with Martin. Martin, you're on the air.

Yeah. Hey, Matt. I was just going to ask you, as a host, sometimes you get a handful of callers, sometimes you get a lot of callers and you want to get them through real quick. And I know some of the callers sometimes will say, hey, Matt, how are you doing today?

And they could probably be asked of you maybe four or five times on a shelf. Does that, I mean, what kind of things annoy you that a caller, I mean, I know the background bugs you, so I'm not going to turn my turn signal on as I'm turning right now. What kind of things? What kind of things annoy me?

Because I'm autistic, clicks and sounds in the background and I have trouble focusing with it, okay? That's one thing. When people do verbal carpet bombing and then demand an answer, like what? Like it happened on Wednesday night, some guy got on and spoke for like a full minute at 80 miles an hour, getting all kinds of concepts and says, now respond to that. Like what? What did you say? That kind of stuff is annoying when people are deceptive.

You know, they pretend to be interested in one thing when they're actually being deceptive and a liar. So, yeah, there's things like that. Is that the kind of stuff you were asking about? Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I call them like the David Webb show or Mark Levain and it seems like sometimes they get a little short with people that keep saying, hey, how you doing?

And then you get some kind of like, we're burning daylight here. What's your question? Yes. Yeah, and that's another thing people will do sometimes. You know, God bless them. You know, they'll call up and they have a large context they want to get out before they ask a question.

And I'm listening and, you know, I understand people want to lay a foundation down so they can ask a question. And sometimes they don't need to. They don't realize they don't need to. Sometimes people are just frustrated.

They're going to vent. And I get it. You know, I try and wade through that and do a balance and sometimes I do it well and sometimes I don't do it well. But when it happens a lot, I'm like, well, you got a question, you know, and just, you know, getting there and stuff like that. Oh, right.

Yeah. No, I hear that a lot. Sometimes people will start to, I don't, you know, the speech or a preach, you know, what's the question? You know, you definitely give a lot of people a lot of rope. You're a patient guy when it's allowed. People tell me I'm patient. But, you know, I think I'm impatient a lot of times, to be honest. There are issues of my own heart. I get impatient and I wait. And so you guys don't see what I'm going through, the frustrations that I go through sometimes. But I think every radio host does.

I've talked to radio hosts and they get frustrated, too. We're just people. And you just got to work through things like that. But most of the time, most of the time it's fine and people are good. You know, it's no big deal. Most of the time. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

Well, amen, amen, amen, Matt. Thank you. I hope you have a good weekend. You too, man.

God bless. Okay. All right.

Okay. Well, speaking of things that are annoying, I have different rooms open, different things and venues open. I have four monitors. I glance around my screens to see what's going on. I'm constantly monitoring. And sometimes people will try and distract me and do jokes that they know will distract me.

And that upsets me because they don't realize what it's like to be on the air and have to manage three or four things simultaneously. And so I was in Clubhouse. I just shut it down. I just left because I actually said to them, I said, don't put Joyce Meyer's name in there. It causes me to pay attention to what's going on because he's a heretic. And then someone said, well, what about this name?

Okay, fine, we're done. And so I just don't want to play with it. And stuff like this, it can be difficult just because he brought it up. But doing radio sometimes can be challenging. It can be. And I've done it for 18 years, five days a week, and two years, one day a week before that.

So I've done 20 years of radio. And it's a lot of fun. And a lot of times it's really good. But sometimes, sometimes, you know, you just want to gently slap somebody upside the head. But that's okay because we're dealing with people, a lot of people. And sometimes there are people who want to challenge and they're aggressive and, you know, but I'm less patient here in the radio than I am in other venues too. If I'm in Clubhouse, for example, or Discord and I'm having discussions with somebody and they're really being difficult, I just wait because it's not on the air. And when I'm on the air with somebody, I will be a little bit more restrictive about what I want or will allow to be said and stated out over the air because, you know, there's children around in cars sometimes and at home listening.

And so I guard it a little bit more and try and be good about that and try and be fair and all of that. But anyway, it's an interesting call. I've never been asked that before.

How about that? I have never been asked that question before about the radio stuff, so I appreciate that. Anyway, so the guy who asked about 2 Thessalonians 2, 11, and God, you know, sending people to hell and things like that, I hope that answered the question.

There's a lot I could teach on that and go through it, but it's really interesting. Okay, good evening, Matt. My question, can you explain why it is wrong for a pastor to say that he got a revelation from God? He said, God told him that 70% of the congregation would stay behind if Jesus would come that day. Isn't that salvation by works?

Okay. So there's different stuff there. So is it wrong for a pastor to say he got a revelation from God? I would say, yeah, you don't find this in scripture. I got a revelation from God. When I hear pastors say this kind of a thing, you know, the Lord told me, really? Really? Okay. So he told you? Was it an audible voice?

You know, I've actually heard clips of where so-called pastors say they had a conversation with God. Well, God, what about this? What about that? What about this? What about that? Okay.

All right. I'll tell them. I've seen videos where people have said, or no, I've read stuff where people have said that they discuss something with God and God told them to tell him. Okay, I'll tell them. Like it's a casual thing that they're so close to God that they could just talk to him. And it's foolishness.

And people who don't study the scriptures and go to church will believe these morons and they'll believe in them. So when someone says, God told me, or I had a revelation from God, if I had a revelation from God, you know, something like that ever happened to me, I would, let's just say hypothetically that I thought something came from the Lord specifically and it was a powerful message or something. What I would do first is pray and say, God, was that you? Second, I'd go to my wife and I'd tell her, I'd say, what do you think about this?

Because I want her opinion on it. Then I would go to my close friends that I could talk to about and say, what do you think about this? And if need be, I'd go to a pastor friend or two and ask about it before I'd ever dare mentioning it publicly. Because this kind of stuff needs to be taken very, very seriously. And that's a good verse.

Thank you for putting that up. 2 Peter 3 16-18, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guards that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace of the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There are unprincipled people out there who will say things like, God told me, and I'm going to tell you, I forgot who it was, it was a woman preacher. And he said that she had a conversation with God and God instructed her to tell the congregation this thing. Okay, I'll tell them. If I was in the congregation and I heard that from somebody up there, God, man, it's a moron alert.

And I would, I'd be, that's what I'd be thinking. Because when people encounter God in the scriptures, they're undone. It's not a casual conversation, okay, I'll tell them, God, okay, let me know, okay.

You wave, your friend drives down the street, see you later, it was nice talking to you on that level. Give me a break. There's a lot of charlatans out there. If someone has had an experience of God's presence, and I mean really had the experience of God's presence, and they say it's a revelation from God, oh, man, it better alter you. And if it's a casual kind of a thing that you just say willy-nilly, I got a revelation from God, give me a break, it's not scriptural.

Love your show, such a humor on your website, thanks for your service, I'm concerned about my small community church, I think I read, a lot of these are duplicates. Yeah, okay, we'll get to that one. Let's see, let's see, question, how to approach a family member, how do you approach a family member who is denying the Trinity? I'm emailing to ask a question about how to respond to a family member who is denying the Trinity. I asked, and several questions get to the source of the argument, but I'm not really able to understand it, so I hope you don't mind if this is a long email, first he keeps mentioning a person named Alberto Rivera, I've heard that name and it's a warning flag.

I haven't found much on him, but Jesuit anti-Catholic activist who is heavily promoted by Jack Chick. Let's see, yeah, oh, thanks, that's right, Charlie keeps putting good stuff in there, how to witness to friends and family, there's an article on Karm about this, how to witness to friends and family, just look it up. So there are principles that I will go through, and the principles are asking the foundational questions to find out what the underlying assumptions are. This is such a simple thing to state, but not so simple to do, but it's also not that hard to do. Picture a young child, and you're explaining something to this very young child, and the child says, well, why, and then you explain the answer of the why that, and he says, well, why, how do you know, why, and you answer that question, and you keep going why, why, why, you've probably had that happen a few times, I did with my children when I was growing up at that very young age, love that age, it was such a blessing. But it's your strategy in that for the adult, it's not that you want to just say why, why, why until they throw something at you and walk out, that's not what it is, it's to find out the basic, thanks, Alberto Rivera has been debunked by all sorts of reputable ministries for years, thanks, good, and what you want to do is you want to find the basics of what someone is holding to, and then discover whether or not what they're holding to is actually true or not. It's a basic principle, like I did earlier, when the guy said that God won't make anybody go to hell, right, is it true or is it not true, let's examine it, let's look at what the scriptures say, and so it leads us into a broader conversation, that's what you've got to do with people, is to ask them questions and find out where they are, and I do recommend this, first of all, you find out where they're at, and you will want to get to the place where you're going to define your terms, and you're going to ask them what do you mean by a term, what do you mean by this, what do you think this means, don't assume that their understanding of a term or a concept is the same as yours, I've talked to people who say they deny the trinity, and I say, what is a trinity then, what do you think it is, oh it's three separate gods, I say, that's not what it is, they go yes it is, and they say no it's not, it's one god, three persons, not three gods, and they say what, and I've had to assume, or work with them, and the thing is, don't assume that they understand the exact same thing you do, this is why you ask for definitions, and you listen carefully to definitions, and then what you do is you work with them, and you use logic, and use scripture to validate or invalidate the statements, you do it patiently and you do it kindly, this is what I do, I've done this so many times over the years, and you just be patient with them and ask them more diagnostic questions, and affirm what they're saying, okay I get what you're saying, you're saying this and this and that, now I get you, now I understand why you're saying that, but have you thought of this, and that's what I'll do sometimes as well, because you don't want to just get someone emotionally upset with you, and that they put up a roadblock, you don't want to do that, but anyway there's, I could say a lot about this, but we're out of time, because the music should be starting any second, it's a nice Friday, and we're gonna have a great weekend, I hope that you out there do have a good weekend, may the Lord bless you, and by his grace, we'll be back on air on Monday, and we'll talk to you then, God bless everybody, see you later, bye.