Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. If you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 877-207-2276. If you want to email me, you can.

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You could say how long you've been listening and what have you learned. You know, just stuff like that. And none of my friends can do that because they know me too well. So they'll say, I learned how big of a jerk you are. Well, that's true.

So you're right. I just hope you want to give me an email if you want to do that, info at karm.org. And I have questions, you can email me questions too. So a lot of fun, a lot of stuff, and I enjoy it. All right, now, oh boy, I got to put, probably tonight I'll do it on the, I keep forgetting too, I just got so much to do on the calendar. I'll be heading out to Indiana, Pennsylvania, the city of Indiana that's in the state of Pennsylvania. I'll be flying out there Friday. I'm going to be at a conference Friday night. I won't be speaking Friday night, but I will be, excuse me, sorry, good yawn there. I will be speaking twice on Saturday and then flying back probably around three ish or so, whatever it is on Sunday, getting back here.

So not a big deal. Looking forward to doing that. A lot of good people out there have talked to a few of them on the air or excuse me, on the phone. And just really great people.

They just love the Lord. And it's going to be a real pleasure to be with them and be a real blessing for me. All right, so there you go. Hey, we have, we have, let's see, three open lines, 877-207, 2276. Let's get to Jason from Arizona. Jason, welcome.

You're on the air. Hey, Matt, I appreciate you've been helping me grow in my reformed faith, answering all kinds of questions that I have. I have so many questions. But today I wanted to ask you about Romans 9 13, where God hated Esau and your take on, I know like Arminians and most Christians soften that blow. And they'll try to say, oh, he just loves them just a teeny weeny bit less than he loves the elect and so forth, ignoring the vessels of wrath and destruction and so forth. But can you give me your take on the reprobation of Esau and God's hatred towards Pharaoh and the unelect?

Wow. Well, so what you're asking for is those are fighting words for a lot of people. So what I'm going to do is just give the best answer that I understand. And people, in my opinion, generally speaking, don't understand the deeper things of God's revelation to us. Now, when I say that, I'm not saying, hey, you have to be smart like me and learn what I know and I have all the secrets.

I'm not saying that. The Bible does teach election, and it's clear that it does. But so many people just reject it. It does teach predestination and so many people reject it.

And the reason I believe they do is because they've been introduced to the blond-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian surfer Jesus. And so it's not a true representation. And I remember when I first started learning about this stuff, particularly out of Romans 9, I was just aghast by what it actually said. I said it can't mean what it actually says. It has to mean something different.

So I too softened it until I realized what I was doing. So when we get to the issue here of Jacob, I loved Esau, I hated, in Romans 9, 13, what it says is that Jacob, he loved and he hated Esau. That's what it says. And when people say, well, it just means he loved him less, well, there's a sense in which that's true because in Romans 5, 43 through 48, God loves everyone. But the kind of love that's being spoken of there is the providential love, that he lets the rain and the sun shine and fall upon the good and the bad and that they can enjoy life and things like that. However, if you read what Romans 9 says, starting in verse 9, at this time, people have a son and in verse 11, the twins were not yet born so that according to God's purpose, his choice, not because of works, but because of him who calls, it was said the older will serve the younger. So most people don't have a problem with verse 12 in that God ordained one to serve the other.

Well, okay, I can get that. It wasn't based on their works, not yet born, not anything good or bad, but according to God's choice. A lot of times, they want to go back to the Old Testament at this point and they want to read a context and then they want to import the context into here and say this is why God did what he did. What they don't realize what they're doing is they're saying that God shows favoritism. And favoritism is negated in Romans 2, 11 and James 2, 2 through 4. Favoritism is where God looks upon a person, seeing what quality he or she has and then bases his decision to save or not save based on what's in that person. Well, that's favoritism and God doesn't show favoritism. He doesn't display his kindness upon the unregenerate for how good they are and he knows what they'll do if he chooses them and saves them. And this is a very weak view of Trinitarian theology dealing with the immutability, the aseity, omniscience, omnipotence of God and his eternal decrees.

And so people who don't study those things, what they do, because they don't have those kinds of values in their theological box, they don't know how to deal with some of these issues as well. And so when it comes up to something like this, Jacob, I love you, so I hate it, they're going to say things just like he said. They're going to say, well, he loved him less. Well, it doesn't say that. It says he hated him.

And it's from, we have to understand it's an issue of actual hate. Meseto is the Greek word. Meseto means to hate, to an active will and in words in contact, a persecuting spirit.

It stands opposite to agapao, to love. And so we see that that's the case and we see that God loved one and hated the other based on his sovereign choice, not because of anything foreseen that they would do. And that's what Romans 9-11 says. Now, in light of that, some people say, well, no, God doesn't hate anybody.

And I have to correct them and say, yes, he does. Psalm 5-5, the boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all who do iniquity. When I show that to people, they're often shocked that God actually says that. The psalmist says that about God. You go to Psalm 11-5, the Lord tests the righteous and the wicked and the one who loves violence, his soul hates. So God hates those who love violence. He hates those who love iniquity and do these things.

And people are shocked by that. I say, well, that's what the scriptures say. And so the problem then becomes how do they incorporate the truths of God's word into their theological perspective? One of the ways I will do that is by going to Romans 9 and teach them and say, here's what it says. Jacob, I love thee, so I hate it. The older will serve the younger.

It wasn't based on any foreseen ability, anything in them. And then the test to see if you understand what is being said is in verse 14. What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be.

So wait a minute. If God's going to love one and hate another just because that's what he chooses to do, that's not fair. I guess it is fair.

That's what he says. And they say, well, there's no injustice with God. That means you're understanding what God's teaching. If you were to interpret the text, Jacob is a nation and Esau is a nation and they have freewill individuals within those nations and so those individuals were able to make choices and so God loved one nation more than another. Well, then why the objection that he says is not unjust with God? Well, that would be just, wouldn't it?

So the problem here is that a lot of times, let's just call them Arminians, they will soften stuff so much that they don't realize what they're doing. But Paul goes on to say, he says to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I have mercy and I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion. The word whom in the Greek is in the singular and it's an accusative singular form and so it's not talking about plurality. And he goes on and he says, it does not depend upon the man, that's in the singular also, who wills with the man who runs but upon God who has mercy. And then for the scripture it says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I raised you up. Pharaoh's an individual. And he says to demonstrate my power in you. And you've got to remember that Pharaoh at one point wanted to let people go and God hardened his heart so he wouldn't.

And there's reasons for that. Then verse 18, so he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires and the whom there is in the singular also. So it doesn't depend upon us for God's mercy, on our foreseen goodness, what we'll do, our sincerity of heart.

It doesn't depend on that. So then he has mercy on whom he desires, he hardens whom he desires. People are like, well that's not fair, that doesn't seem right. Well that means you're understanding the text of what is actually being taught here by Paul. And then Paul answers, well who will say to me why does he still find fault? Why does he resist his will? Verse 19, that's where the objection is. Well why does he still find fault? Because if he's having mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires, well then he still blames them because he's the one hardening them? And that's the natural objection. That's what you'd have to ask if you're understanding what he says. And then Paul doesn't give an explanation and justify it.

He just simply says, on the contrary, who are you, O man, who enters back to God? The thing, that's a singular, molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this? Or 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? Now I've done a research on the word vessel.

Whenever it's in reference to it's one vessel in reference to people, it's always individuals, it's people, individual people, individuals. So, or 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? What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? What people will do at this point is say, what if God did it? It didn't mean he did it. It doesn't mean he did. It means what if he wanted to?

Well let's work with that. Let's say he wanted to. Then what he's saying is, that's what he would do if he wanted to, right? He still would have the same objection because it means that this is what is right according to God's nature and according to his understanding. And the objection would still stand. But some people like to say, well what if?

He just thinks about it but wouldn't really do it. Really? Is that what's going on there? There's this softening again to make it fit their presuppositions. And he says that he endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.

That's what they're prepared for. And he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy which he prepared beforehand for glory. So what Paul's teaching in Romans 9, 9-23 is God's sovereign right to do with his creation as he desires. Humanism is the philosophy that human factors, human sensibilities, human standards are what we're going to judge scripture by and God by.

It's a normal thing that people do but it's all refuted by Romans 9, 9-23. Alright, we've got a break so please hold on and we'll be right back. We'll get back on with your phone here with you after the break. Please stay tuned everybody. We'll be right back after these messages. Alright everybody welcome back to the show.

If you want to call me it's 877-207-2276. Now before we get back to Jason I can see the callers and the producer. He writes in who what and the next caller was going to talk about Justin Peters. I say what about him?

I have a question about him. Well I know Justin so I texted him during the break. Hey Justin there's a caller. He wants me to talk about you on the air. He says if you want to listen here come here. And so did I look back on and he hung up.

I'm like oh man. So hey if you're out there listening and you want to call up about Justin please call back. Anyway let's get back on the air with Jason.

Hey Jason you're back on. Hey Matt I appreciated a wonderful explanation. I know it's a tough text for most people to take in because they only view God as only loving but we know that hell exists and we know that election exists. So I always when I talk to Arminian people I say even if it means that Esau was loved a little teeny weeny bit less that little bit less means he wasn't elected.

God did not regenerate him and the wrath of God remains upon him. So I'm not going to stick my head in the sand like an ostrich and ignore the text. And I appreciate your further explanation. Yeah it's one of my favorite texts in the scriptures of all things that. Romans 9, 19, 23, Colossians 2, 14, Romans 5, 18, Ephesians 1, 4. And the reason those are my favorite sections of scripture is because they reveal to me the greatness of God. You know when I was in seminary I went to Westminster Seminary and I still remember this and I've said it so many times over the radio over the years but I remember where I was sitting I remember the classroom I remember the white board and the you know the different colored markers the professor could use and in the class he said gentlemen and with no ladies in the class at the time and there were female students there and that was great but in this class I remember any women and so he said gentlemen I'm going to tell you one of the most important things you're ever going to learn here in seminary.

I remember being intrigued. This is exactly what I'm here to seminary to learn. On the board there is a God you are not him.

I remember being disappointed because I said well of course. And over the years since I've graduated I've come to learn how important that statement is and one of the things I've learned over the years is that the more I learn about God the more I learn about the distance between God and myself aside from Christ. I mean Christ he brings us together in fellowship and intimacy. But without Christ without the mediator the high priest the distance between myself and God is just infinite.

It's not like God will look upon me because I am I have a sincere heart or I can be used because I'm pretty nice. No none of that exists in me because God is the standard of righteousness not me and as I've learned that over the years I've learned how great he is and I've grown to appreciate. I just thought of something. I've grown to appreciate his greatness.

In fact you know I'm going to say something here. Years ago I remember back in the 80s I worked at a big company in Fullerton, California and I remember walking the halls daily and I remember at a certain point in time praying and asking God to renew in me that initial baptism of the spirit that I'd received where it was an insatiable desire for God. And he had done that to me. God had. Where I was reading the Bible four to six hours a day and going to Bible studies six nights a week and it was just insatiable and it was a blessing from God.

It lasted for a couple of years, a couple, three, four years I guess. And I'd grown through it and I found myself coveting it and wanting it and desiring it and looking for that experience again and again and that initial experience of my first conversion, my first conversion. My conversion at 17 when I was first converted to the very presence of God himself and the holiness and the power and I wanted it again and it's never come back to me.

And over the years as I compare that almost idolatrous desire for that experience again because that's how much I wanted it. I've kind of matured and come to understand that the reason I believe, the reason he's not given that to me again is because he wanted me to learn and build a teach and to not look to an experience but to learn about him. He's given me so much in his presence, he's given to all of us but he also wants us to press on to more mature things and to leave the elementary principles behind and be renewed by the renewing of our mind and these are the things as I grow older and I'm 66 now that I look and I say it's a pleasure to learn more about God. I want to experience him of course but I've learned so much and I'm seeing that as a great thing and it exposes light upon my heart and my soul and shows me how great his grace is and he's wonderful. And those are the reasons I love those kinds of verses.

Ephesians 1-4, Colossians 2-14, Romans 5-18, Romans 9-23 because they're about him and his greatness and not mine and that's what I say. Anyway, you just got me thinking. Amen. Well, thank you very much, Matt. Have a great afternoon. And thank you for that question.

It's got me musing and thinking and I appreciate it. God bless, buddy. Thanks a lot. Take care. Okay.

All right. Hey, folks. You want to give me a call?

It's 772072276. Let's get to Luis from Youngville, North Carolina. Luis, welcome.

You're on the air. Hey, Matt. It's actually Luis. I get that a lot.

Luis. Yes, sir. Hey, it's Youngville.

We're just about 20 minutes north of Raleigh in North Carolina. Thank you for taking my call. So the gentleman before me, if I heard the conversation correctly, was describing Esau as being loved less or whatever, and I really appreciated what you had to say on Romans 9.

That was very edifying, so thank you again for that. So my question, we usually think of hell as not a loving thing, but is it, it's just something I've been thinking about, and maybe I'm totally off base in this, but isn't God judging sinners in hell a loving thing because he's not allowing them to continue in the notion that it isn't okay to sin and violate his holiness? Let's take a look at that. You see, God's attributes are love, goodness, mercy. He has personhood. He hates.

He loves. He can be grieved. We can deal with the impassibility of God and things like that. We'll get into that right now. And so I like to tell people that God works through all of his characteristics. Let's just use a broad term. Right.

All at the same time. His love, his justice, his mercy, all of his characteristics are equally present in who and what he is as he relates to us. So when we get back to the break, we'll talk about hell and we'll talk about stuff. And by the way, everybody, Justin Peters is not listening, so if you know who he is, he's listening. So hey, Justin, how you doing? So we'll be right back, folks, after these messages.

Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show.

If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. And I'm chatting with Justin on the phone text, but in the break. So Justin Peters. For those of you who don't know who Justin Peters is, I'm just going to give a plug for him. Justin is a great guy. And I forgot what his issue is.

Treble palsy? No, I forgot. At any rate, he's wheelchair bound and he goes all over the place preaching and teaching the gospel. He does great work in exposing the Word of Faith NAR people. He's really good. And he has Justin Peters Ministries. I should have him on sometime just to talk.

We've done stuff together before and spoken at conferences and things like that. So he's a great guy. And so someone was going to be on the air asking about him. I thought, hell, just text him.

And he actually was listening or paying attention. So he doesn't have a rumble account. So he can't get in there with you guys. But there he goes. He says, oh, cerebral palsy.

Thanks. That's what he has. And he's a good guy. So I just told him in the text area, in the chat, they're loving on him. He goes, ah. So there you go.

Love me some Justin Peters Ministry. That's what Mr. Kidd says. Yeah, it's great.

It's a lot of fun. All right. Let's get back on the phone here with, oh, and thanks, Mr. Kidd, for the $12 rumble rant.

I really appreciate it. And praise God. Let's get on with Luis, right? No, Luis. Louis. Louis. Darn.

Man, Louis. OK. I should know that. There's not a D on there. It's OK.

They mess it up in Chick-fil-A every time I go through their drive-through. Same thing, huh? Yeah. OK. If they spell it phonetically, it's fine.

I think Luis is with an E on the end, so I got to pay attention. All right, man. So what do you got, buddy? Well, yes. So I was just asking you about hell and it being like a loving response to unrepentant scent, right? Like God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden because it wouldn't have been a loving thing to have allowed them to stay in the garden, partake of the tree of eternal life, and then live forever that way. And so I was just wondering, like, is that like a legitimate thought?

Like, how might you go about articulating that if you agree with the sentiment? It's just something I've been wrestling with lately because so frequently hell gets pictured as this unloving, you know, thing. And so if God, who is love, is acting out of his love and holiness, it seems like then hell might be then a loving response to sin if we're not going to repent of it. Wow. Generally, discipline, loving discipline, is for the act of correction to bring people to a place of repentance, but this isn't the case with damnation.

OK. It's an eternal judgment. So I wouldn't say that it's a loving discipline upon them. I would say that it is a righteous judgment. I don't want to separate all of God's attributes as love and stand it against his judgment and stuff like that, but we have to talk about them episodically, you know, between one with another and contrast them and compare them. So we know that God is loving, and I believe that there is a sadness to a degree within God's heart about those who don't come to him. He desires all to be saved. Right. I certainly do not know how all of it works. Now, I think I've got some answers in some areas, but, you know, I'm going to be corrected when I get to heaven.

Sure. He is judging them. All of us are. Oh, yeah.

I'm going to be corrected, that's for sure. And so I would say that what he's doing, because it says in Psalm 5-5, Psalm 11-5, he hates those who do iniquity and gives people over to the depravity of their heart and their mind, Romans 1, 24 through 32. He judges them, and there's a hatred upon them for that sin and their love for evil. And that's Romans 5-5 and Romans, I mean, excuse me, not Romans 5-5, but Romans 11-5.

Let me try this again. Psalm 5-5 and Psalm 11-5. Yes, sir.

Thanks for that. So I would say, I get what you're saying, but I wouldn't apply it that way. I would keep it, just me, I would say more simply, he has hated them and he has judged them, and they are judged for their sin. I would also say that there is, probably is, I wouldn't be surprised if there is, let's put it that way, a grief in God's heart for their rejection of him and the damnation that's necessary. So I don't want to say it's all up to the individual, because God works all things after the counsel of his will, Ephesians 1-11, and beginning with the show, Romans 9-23, and then there's Proverbs 16-4, which says, God makes all things, even the wicked for the day of judgment, for the day of evil. So it's like, man, how does that all fit? So, generically, God loves everybody, Romans 5, 43 through 48, but there are the elect whom he loves salvifically, and then there's the non-elect, what some call the reprobate, those are the ones he lets his holy justice fall upon, and there's hatred for those who love iniquity and who love sin, and so all of those blend in together.

God hasn't told us how it works, but those are just the truths revealed in Scripture, and so what I like to say is, that's about as far as I can go, I don't know how to make it all work perfectly. Right. Okay. Appreciate it.

Just wanted to say thank you for what you do, I really enjoy your show and have been very blessed by it for a number of years now. I heard you mention recently, within the last couple of months, and you'll forgive me, I've slept since I heard it, but I know you had sparked a conversation about baptism and why you feel like sprinkling is more in line with than full immersion, and so I don't know if you've talked about that since I heard you kind of broached the subject. Have you? Yeah, I can talk about it, and it's something that you should call it. Well no, you have talked about it, I didn't want to take anybody else's space, I just didn't know if it was written on it, I know there are a lot of articles on farm and I haven't had an opportunity to search for it, and I figured since I got through, when we were listening to the break, I was like, oh, let me ask about that before I get off the phone. Well, the basic view I hold is that Jesus was sprinkled and not immersed, and the reason I say that, and this isn't proof, but this is what I lean towards, is because of him having to fulfill Levitical law to enter into the priesthood, and one of the requirements was a sprinkling of water on him. And I've written on this, I've talked about it many, many times. And then there's the issue of how the Holy Spirit is prophesied in the Old Testament as being poured, and that's how he's spoken of it, being poured upon, poured, poured. And then when you go to Acts 1 and 2, we talked about the pouring of the Holy Spirit, or the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it has to be the Holy Spirit being poured. And so, and it's talked about with baptism. So I can see places where sprinkle and pouring are in reference to the word baptism.

Furthermore, if you go to Hebrews 9 and 10, it talks about various washings, and the washings that are mentioned are sprinklings in the temples and things like that, and sacrifices and blood, and the word washings is baptismois. So, it's like, when I see this, I'm like, oh wow, you know, and people say, well, Jesus went into the water, he came up out of the water, and then what I do as a response to that is, you go to the last three verses of Acts 8, and it says that the Ethiopian eunuch and Philip both went into the water, and after they both came up out of the water. Well, to come out of the water, if it means immersed, then if they both went into the water, then they were both immersed, but that doesn't make sense. So, it would make sense as to say they both walked into the water, I don't know how deep, up in their hips, whatever, and then maybe dunked him underwater.

I don't have any problem with that. I think it's possible. I think it could have taken his hands and taken water in his hands and poured it over his head. I don't have a problem with that, and I think it's possible it could have taken a hyssop branch, because that was kind of typically how it was done in the Old Testament, take a hyssop branch, dip it in things, and sprinkle it on the thing.

So, it's possible, even though I don't lean that way linguistically and logically, biblically, it's possible that that was a method that was done. But people will say, no, baptism always means immersion. No, it doesn't.

It certainly can. But I've shown people repeatedly over the years that it can have these different meanings and different contexts, and they go, well, you're right. That's what it says. And that's all. In fact, when I baptize people, the only one, I'll tell you this, the only one I've ever poured or sprinkled poured combo on was my son when he was born, and he was dying in our arms. He had a birth defect, and he was dying, and so I took water and poured it in my hands over his forehead and baptized him.

Aside from that, every baptism I've ever done is by immersion. And I just prefer immersion. I think it's cool, you know, the totality of it. I like it. And so, you know, that's the short version. Quick and slick, how's that? What's that?

I'm sorry? Well, you can trademark that. No, I was saying you can see where sprinkling or pouring would obviously be legitimate options as well then, right? Yeah, I think I can make the case for the legitimacy, and I know for a lot of people this is really foreign to their ears and they've been taught certain ways, certain times.

And it took me three to five years before I started saying, you know what, I'm just going to realize and say this over the air that, yeah, here's some options, and I show this to people and people are just very interested. And if they disagree, that's okay. I'm not going to die on that hill. And that's it. Okay?

You know, when I had a church history class and we talked about pouring and like in the baptistry or the ancient church, I thought it was just like a really neat picture too of like you're symbolizing yourself dying with Christ. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Hey, everybody.

Welcome back to the show. I've been texting with Justin Peters during the show, and I'm going to see if I can get him to get on here in a week or two and stuff like that. But it kind of just came up, a spontaneous thing, justinpeters.org. Just check out justinpeters.org. He does apologetics.

He does a different kind of a way than I do. And he really exposes the heresies of the false teachers out there within the Christian context. It's a lot of good information. It's just jaw-dropping.

In fact, I remember this. When I was at a seminar, I was speaking, he was speaking, and Andrew Appelport was speaking someplace out there. And I've seen it all.

I've heard it all, more or less. But man, I couldn't believe what I was hearing when Justin Peters was showing stuff. I was like, are you kidding me? I was shocked.

It's amazing stuff. We'll see if we can get him on here. All right, all right, so let's get to Sean from Lexington, Winston, Salem.

Sean, welcome here on the air. Hey, I've been reading Revelations, and I can't figure out where these people are coming from on the new earth after God creates it, because I know we're not going to be given in marriage and all that. So where are these people coming from? The new earth, okay. So you talk about Revelation. Revelation, yep, God creates the new heaven and the new earth, and he brings the new Jerusalem down from heaven, right. So, you know, we're going to be there forever and ever, so the earth is going to be populated, but where are these people coming from?

Well, one of the theories is that there's not going to be any proclamations. There's not going to be any procreation, but one of the theories is that we who are resurrected will be able to be on the earth with this new city. If it's a literal city, we don't know, because it's talking about new Jerusalem, and it's humongous, you know, it's a 1,500-mile cube kind of a thing. So are the numbers representative of something? Is it literally a new city?

We don't know, but there's different theories about it. So let's just say that it was literal. It might be a 1,500-cube-mile thing, literal. I wouldn't think that's literal.

I think that the idea of a city that's coming out is interesting. I don't know, 1,500 cubed is 1,500 times 1,500. Yeah, it'd have to be really big earth. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it could be, and maybe the flat-earthers would like that one. They could use that and say, if it's flat, if it's really big, it would work.

Yeah, right. So if there is a new city of some construction, then we'll be able to be in it. Remember, we are going to have our resurrected glorified bodies, and we don't know what that's going to entail. We don't know where we're going to be.

We don't know how it's all going to work. I believe we're going to be able to be in the presence of God directly in heaven. We'll be able to be here on earth, in the new heavens and new earth, because that's where we were made to be, and I think that I suspect this. Since 98% of all species I've ever lived are now extinct, I suspect that what's going to happen, this is just a suspicion in a good way, that God is going to restore all of the life forms that have been there, that he created, and we're going to just be able to see a whole bunch of stuff. And just as Jesus was able to move at will, apparently, appear here and appear there, I'm hoping that's what we can do too. We don't have to eat, though you can eat. We'll be able to enjoy the earth and its pleasures, the fruits and if you want to eat and the fellowship of one another.

I suspect these kind of things are going to be there. The greatest pleasure, of course, would be in the presence of God himself. And I personally hope that I'll be able to travel the universe and look at the creation of God. And that reminds me, some people say, well, why would God create the entire universe so big if it's just one planet with life on it? Why do the whole thing? Well, maybe that's one of the reasons.

Well, to show his great glory, his great power. But also, I mean, there's quadrillions of galaxies out there, billions and billions and billions of them. So maybe we'll be able to just go to them and look around. I don't know. To me, that sounds awesome.

You can go hopping on the moon. I'm just smiling. Who knows what it's going to be. But nevertheless, back to your topic here.

So there's been different offerings of explanations for those things. It's spiritual. I don't know exactly how it's going to be. And it'll be wonderful either way. Well, because it says that the rivers will flow from the throne of God out to the earth and the tree of life will be on each side and the leaves are for the healing of the nations. And it says that in the Lamb's Book of Life, if your name's not written there, you're not allowed into the city, which is suggesting to me that there's going to be people who are populating forever on this planet and we're ruling over them.

There's going to be nations, economies, and so forth. Seems like it. It could be. Could be.

But then for the healing of the nations, you eat something for that? It's very symbolic. So it's not something I've gone into very much in depth. But it would be great if someone out there has studied this as one of their main focuses for years.

I'd like to talk to somebody as well. Here's one of the theories. Here's one of the things we see.

I don't know anybody like that. Me too because the cube reaches out to about 250 miles into space on this earth. So the new work to contain that would have to be real big. So it's a really interesting study, and I'm trying to find materials for that as well.

So I'm kind of hoping I'll find some. Yeah, it's humongous, and I've got to find out where that is. It's been so long since I've studied it. But it's a good question, and there's just a lot of symbolism there, so I don't know exactly how it would work. I just don't. I don't. Okay.

Sorry about that, but I wish I did. If I wasn't on the road, I'd have it looked up for you on the Bible app, but I don't have it looked up right now. All right, well, thanks, Matt. I appreciate it. Hey, you're welcome. Well, God bless. All right. Yes, sir. Well, that was Sean from Lexington, and if you want to give me a call, we have wide open lines, 877-207-2276.

So now in the chat, we have nobody waiting, so I'm going to go a little bit chat. In the chat, someone says, I always thought Matt was from a distant planet, and now he admitted it. So there you go. I think Matt Slick would be raptured by a UFO.

Thanks a lot. At any rate, we do have fun. If you guys want to watch and participate, you can go to rumble.com forward slash mattslicklive. All one word, and you can join in. All right, since we don't have anybody. Oh, there's someone coming in right now from Ogden.

We'll get to that person here in a little bit. Let me just remind you that we stand here by your support, if you'd be so kind, is to consider supporting us by just going to karm.org forward slash donate. You can do that.

And also, there's another way to support us. You can buy the schools and get something. You can get a lot of information in the online schools.

What you can do is go to learn.karm.org, L-E-A-R, and just learn.karm.org. And we have these three schools for $33 each, or all three for $75. And they're schools that I've written. They took me months and months and months to write. There's a lot of information in there. A lot of people have really said some positive things about it.

I guess the caller's not coming in now. And so that way you can support the ministry, and you get something, and it's very useful to you, and it's very useful to us to be able to keep the lights on. If you want to look into that, learn.karm.org. And also, please pray, because we do need the prayers. This ministry is a tough one. And a lot of ministries are coming under attack now, even more and more. They're coming under attack.

In fact, that reminds me. I have my notes here. I'm going to show you something here. Not a big deal. I've been collecting stuff.

So when I finally want to get together and do this, little things. In fact, if you want to, you can email me at info.karm.org. You can email me headlines of persecution of Christians and things like that. So a Christian teacher loses a job refusing to deceive parents about kids' gender transition. So he told the parents, this kid's going through a transition, you should know about this, your own child, and he got fired for it.

Now, this is insane. Let's see, California school board president faces backlash calling Christ-centered parents to get involved in curriculum. So if you support Christianity, you're penalized. This is the stuff that's going on. I have a lot of headlines like that. And so if you guys want to send me some, let's find Christian coach fired for stating views on obvious sex differences.

Let's see, UN report suggests LGBT theology should take precedence over religious freedom. So, folks, hey, you got stuff like that, send them to me. Just give me the entire URL. That means H-T-T-O-W-W-W-God, whatever it is. That way I can go check it out.

And just enter the info at karm.org. Steve from Utah. Steve, welcome here on the earth.

Hi, Matt. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. I can.

So what do you got? Yeah, I just wanted to ask you what your thoughts on cremation is because it's something I'm considering just so I don't because it's so much cheaper for family burden and everything like that. And I'm a Christian, and I'm hoping that I am saved.

I believe that I am. And if I was cremated, how does that resurrection piece work? I understand God created man from dust, and ashes are dust, so he can put the ashes back together, I guess.

Of course he can. So he's the one who can put our bodies back in a resurrected body. So what do you do with people who, like the space shuttle, that were burned up on re-entry, what do you do with people burned in fires, extremely hot fires? How about people that died 5,000 years ago and there's nothing left of them? So the result of cremation and just very slow decay is the same. Nothing's left. And God is certainly able to work through all of those. Cremation is a viable option.

If it's easier on the family, I would consider that as well. And that's it. So there you go. Yeah, and it was mostly just the burden it puts on the family and the financial burden it puts on everybody. And I didn't think that it was an issue. Biblically, is it an issue?

No, it's not. The Bible doesn't say how we're supposed to be buried. It just says we're buried. People were buried in open caves and it's sealed off.

That's the tune. They're buried that way. So what are your thoughts on it? Do you think, I mean, is it something you'd actually consider even? Yeah, I would not prefer cremation. I just prefer the burial of a body. I don't know why. Maybe it's just what I'm totally accustomed to. I'm not accustomed to the other. Yeah, you understand where I'm coming from, the financial burden that it puts on the family. Absolutely. And I don't want to have that be a burden on the family.

I don't want to actually consider it having that done. That's right. In fact, somebody just put something in, and I should have thought of this.

Humbled Clay thinks humbled for saying that. Martyrs were burned at stake, burned alive. They were consumed. Right. So is there nothing wrong with, I wouldn't say anything wrong at all with being cremated. People buried at sea and if they're going to be in space, it's going to happen where they're going to bury people on the moon. They're going to bury them out in space. They set them out in the space, you know. So I don't see a problem with it.

Do it, go for it, you know. Okay, Matt. Yeah, I figured it was, yeah, I wanted to make sure they drained all the blood from my body before they put me in the oven in case I might be still alive. I understand that's one of the reasons they embalm people because that used to be that there were people who were buried and they came back to life in their coffins.

There's reports of that. Right. Anyway, there's the music. Okay, well, I knew I didn't have much time, so I just wanted to ask quick questions. All right, man.

Thanks a lot. Hey, we're out of time, but there's the end of it. All right, God bless. Hey, everybody. We'll be back on air tomorrow. God bless. Bye. Another program powered by the Truth Network.