Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. Today is September 19, 2023. We're live. So I started a program, a doctorate program, and there's a schedule conflict on Mondays.

I want to see if I can work it out because it might only be a half hour of stuff. So anyway, hopefully everything will work out. Everything's fine on that.

That should be working. So I don't know if you can hear me. Well, I'll work on it because all the settings are right, Charlie. So wait a second. Except for one thing.

There's always one thing. There we go. That should work now. There we go. One switch.

Just one. Oh, I got so much to do. So hey, if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276.

Sorry I missed you guys yesterday. Had some good discussions last week and hope for some follow-up on that. So we do have some radio questions. If you have some and you want to ask me a question, all you've got to do is just email me at info at karm.org.

info at karm.org. And just put in the subject line radio question or radio comment or whatever it is, and I can get to them. And I've got several, so I can do that. I've also got some hate mail. And I got an email from somebody who loves the way I do hate mail.

He goes, man, I sure enjoy that hate mail. So I enjoy it. I really enjoy the hate mail. I get a big kick out of it. For me, it's a lot of fun.

And I don't know what it is. I just love it. I love it when people just email me and insult me, tell me how stupid I am. And I just get the biggest kick out of it. I really do.

I got one email. Somebody was talking to me. Say, I forgot where it is, but how evil I was at misleading everybody in the planet. It was like, man, that's pretty good.

So I was enjoying that. Well, anyway, hey, look, why don't you give me a call? All right, we have five open lines. 877-207-2276.

Let's just get on to some radio questions. I'm at the most private and focused place I've found to pray is in the shower. Curious your thoughts about this prayer.

It's served me well for decades. Yeah, there's something about the flow of water and relaxing. And I talk to God in the shower all the time. I pray almost every time I'm in the shower too. I get that.

I don't know what it is. I like water. I don't know how many of you out there like water. I like rain. I love the ocean. I used to have aquariums. I wanted to be an oceanographer when I was younger.

I used to go body surfing, boogie boarding all the time. I just love water. So getting in the shower and just praying, it's just so relaxing.

I just think it's great. One of the things I like to do also while I'm working is I have a 12-hour video thing on YouTube of just rain. Just rain.

I just play it and put the bass up on it and put it down nice and low. It's just subtle in the background. I love rain.

It's so refreshing. So there you go with that. All right, so I think that's fine. And hold on, I'm going to cough here. Hold on one sec. All right, cleared my throat. All right. Hi, Reverend Matt. Wasn't it God's mistaken?

Wow. When he repented of having created humans according to Genesis 6-6, I know God is perfect in his good intentions. Is he as well perfect in all his actions or is it possible that he still has a ground for experimentation in this bubble of time? This is something that the open theists like to bring up. Open theism says that God does not know the future and so he can make mistakes. And so they'll take verses like this where God repented that he made a man. What's happening here is that it's called an anthropomorphism. God is communicating to us in means and ways that we would understand.

That's what's happening. Now the introduction of this is simply in the scriptures themselves in our language we can understand them. But think about this. God as the pre-incarnate Christ in the garden walked with Adam and Eve and he spoke with them. And so this was an anthropomorphism, a manifestation, not an incarnation, but a manifestation of God before people. And that's how God communicates. It's how he works. And so there's going to be these things where God says, look, now I know, now I see this, I see that.

He's just speaking in such a way that we understand that he is cooperating for us and with us in our time reference, our time frame. That's all that's going on there. So I've written on this a lot.

Not a big deal. All right, let's get another one here. Let's see, oh yeah, I already got through that. So hey, I think we're out of questions.

Unless, let me see, I haven't checked the email today. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate the article you published on your website about Joseph Smith and the First Vision. The Q&A was with an active member of the LDS faith. This is a brilliant way to show the false teachings of Joseph Smith in modern day LDS church. Great job for exposing the truth that there's only one God. Hey, praise God. I appreciate that, Steve.

Radio question. What can a woman do when her husband enables adult children financially and doesn't require them to mature? We're going into debt because my spouse keeps giving our adult son money to pay rent.

We have our own mortgage and no savings. Three weeks ago he gave her son some money. It was done behind my back.

I just found out today. If your husband is a Christian, you need to go to the elders of the church and it needs to be talked about. Because there's always circumstances that need to be understood and examined and cross-examined. Does this adult child have mental difficulties? Does the adult child have a physical difficulty? Maybe he's in an accident recovering.

Or is he just lazy? He's trying to find a job but he can't. There's all kinds of factors that need to be put in place. I'm reminded of a situation in our family arena. We have someone who isn't very responsible and doesn't seem to do what's necessary. Recommendations go forth about how to deal with such a person. Because we do want them to mature and become responsible.

Sometimes what you have to do is take the safety net out from underneath them so that they learn. That's what has to happen sometimes. Hey Keith, I see two callers it looks like but I can't access them. I don't know if there's something up with the X screen. Just letting you know.

I see that we have a Kansas City call or something but I don't know what's going on with it. I haven't done your thing that you do with it all yet. Let's see.

Clubhouse audio is really bad. I hope it's better now I turn the thing on. Let's see.

Hopefully that's good and let me know. Let's see. We've got all kinds of stuff.

There's AI stuff that's coming up a lot. Someone says here it's about another topic all together but it says hi and join your website. I've been wondering how many Jews didn't follow Jesus after Jesus' death and resurrection. I don't know. That's a good question.

I have no idea. I do know that a lot of Jews are becoming Christians today. I have a friend, Trevor, and he is extremely knowledgeable on the issue of Judaism. What he does is his ministry is to work with them. That's what he does. He works with the Jews and he has ministry outreaches to them and things like that. He's telling me that there's more Jews converting to Christianity now than ever before in history, except for maybe the first century.

It's unprecedented. That's really good. There we go. Let's see if we can get to Dave from Kansas City. Dave, welcome. You're on the air.

Thank you for taking my call, Matt. We are doing a men's Bible study and I just discovered that the Bible study was a little bit emotional centered. I didn't realize it when I bought the material, but it's actually made by a woman. Is it okay for a woman to teach in that manner where she's written the curriculum material?

Yeah, I don't really have a problem with that as long as it's good material. If she's a pastor or an elder, as she does that, I wouldn't listen to her because she can't understand scripture properly, at least in an important area, so I can't trust her for anything else. That would be my... No, she's not even in the church.

It's from a national ministry. That's okay. Yeah, tell me who it is. I can't take her name. I'm sorry, I just drew a blank on the name now. Kristen something. Kristen Schmucker or something. Sounds like Schmucker. I don't know. Kristen Schmucker. Kristen Schmucker. Yeah, I don't know.

Okay, I don't know that name. I'm not sure what to tell you, but just because she's a woman doesn't mean she can't write good stuff or understand theology or write a curriculum, and so I don't see why not. Okay, so it's not teaching a man then. Well, the issue here of teaching a man is in the church context, and that's the gray area we have to work through because the only way they understood it back then was in a synagogue, in a church gathering, a church at home. A woman wasn't to be in teaching authority, that kind of a thing. So we know that's a fact.

Okay, good. So there are not to be women pastors and elders, and that's just how that is. So what about a woman teaching in a seminary? Could she do that? I would say yes. I don't see why a woman couldn't teach in seminary, teach a bunch of men who are going into the pastorate as long as she's qualified, agreed, whatever it is.

So why can't she have a curriculum that she would write, and then people learn from it as well? So it sounds okay to me. Okay.

No, thanks for clearing it up. Okay. All right. Thanks a lot. God bless. All right. Let's see if we can get to Grant from Ogden, but why don't you guys give me a call, 877-207-2276.

I almost did my habit. Hey, Grant, welcome. You're on the air. Yeah, Mr. Slick. Help me understand or help those understand this diverse God desires all to come. There's 1 Timothy 2, 4. Yeah.

In 1 Timothy 2, 4, he desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, and then there's 2 Peter 3, 9 that talks about that too. Uh-huh. So, okay, and there's different ways it could be understood, so you could go over them if you want.

Can you explain it in the Reform way and not the Arminian way? Well, yeah. Okay, we can have God desire one thing and arrange another.

We can, and that's revealed in Scripture, and I've got articles on this where God, for example, he wanted Pharaoh to release the Israelites with their captivity, and he was going to, and then God hardened his heart so that he wouldn't for some other reason. So there's that kind of a thing that's prevalent. But, hey, hold on. We'll be right back after these messages, okay?

Okay. Hey, folks, 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, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Let's get back on the air with, uh, I can't access Grant. I don't know what's up. Maybe, uh, I don't know. Keith, if you could activate it. I don't know what's going on.

I can see those ones, but not him. I don't know if there's a glitch or not, but I'm sure he's going to be working on it here. So here we go, and let's just, while we're waiting, let's get to Ed from Charlotte, North Carolina. Ed, welcome.

You're on the air. Thank you, Matt. Thanks for taking my call. First of all, before I ask the question, thank you for telling me not to go see Oppenheimer. I didn't, I watched another story on that that was very good, but you did say go watch Nefarious.

Didn't even know it existed, and recommended it to a lot of people, so thank you for that. Good, good, good, good. Praise God.

All right. So my question is, how do you make sense of Hitler exterminating six million Jews from a Christian perspective? In the sovereign plan of God, he has ordained all things that should be passed. It does not mean he directly causes evil, but that within his sovereign plan, he allows evil to arise, and he uses it to carry out his covenant faithfulness to people and his sovereign plan that he will work. So because of the Holocaust, the Jews were gathered into their nation.

May 14th, 1948, they became a nation. Now if you go back to the gospels, I forgot the exact reference, but the Jews said in reference to the crucifixion of Christ, let his blood be on our hands and our children's hands. So what about the curse that would go, and they said let it be on our children.

Now this is at a theological point because of the doctrine of federal headship, that the male represented descendants, and the Jews were then putting curses upon their own children in their federal headship role, and the Jews had been persecuted throughout the centuries. So that's one theological possibility why that would be the case. So God uses this and other things, and if you think about it, killing six million Jews is horrible, but also as horrible are the murders that are occurring around the world and child trafficking. And these things also occur, and they're not spoken of as much. So the general question is why isn't God stopping this stuff? And then it's called the issue of theodicy, the problem of evil in the world or the study of evil in the world. Why is it that God lets these things go? Personally I think it's double in that it's to prove how bad man is and how true God is.

That's one of the reasons I think. That's a super short way of saying it. But the other is to bring about the crucifixion, which is the greatest act of love. And the greatest event in the universe. So that's where God himself became one of us and died and rose from the dead.

So without sin in the world, we could almost say there can't be the access to the greatest act of love, which is what Jesus said in John 15, 13, to lay your life down. So there's a mosaic of reasons that we could offer and then kind of rearrange them in relationship to each other to see how they relate to each other because it's a complicated question. But it's also a good question, if that makes sense. Well, you know, you made me think. We've had, what, 70 million abortions in this country over the past 20 years or 30 years, whatever it is. So that's allowed to happen.

I'm just always curious about these were the Jews, his people. Anyway, well, thank you, Matt. Appreciate it. You're welcome. Well, God bless. God bless you. Bye-bye. Thanks. Okay, now let's get back on with Grant from Ogden.

Grant, are you still there? Yeah, we were talking about the verse God would like to be saved. And the reason why I'm asking, because I talk to a lot of Christians and they always say, see, God wants all to be saved. I'm like, no, that's not what it means because of the limited atonement.

Well, there are different possibilities. One is, as I said, that God can desire all men to be saved but yet doesn't arrange it. So in 1 Timothy 2, 3, and 4 talks about that in 2 Peter 3, 9.

Not wishing for anyone to perish but for all to come to repentance. And so when I talk about this with people, I'll say, okay, so I agree that's what the text says. Now, I have difficulty with it, understanding it, because, for example, of Mark 4, 10 through 12, where Jesus says that he speaks in parables so that people will not be saved. And then I say, okay, so now I have to harmonize those. How is it that God can desire all people to be saved but yet also speak in such a way so that not all people will be saved?

How do we harmonize those? Now, most people, when I raise this, get very upset. And they say, you're setting scripture against scripture. I say, no, I'm not. I say, this is what it says, and I'm not saying one refutes the other. I'm saying, how do we harmonize them? And there's ways to do this.

And so that's one of the issues. And I raise it up, you know, in Romans 11, 8, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day. So why is it that God is hiding stuff from people if he wants every individual to be saved?

That's just a question. So it could be, one answer is that he could desire all men to be saved but not arrange that all men are saved. I can desire certain things from my family but not arrange those things. I can desire that my kids stay up all night instead of going to school in the morning.

I want that for them, but it's not what I arrange because I know what's better. And so there's ways that that can be the case. And so what we say is that, and I could give you instances, okay? For example, in Deuteronomy 2, 30, but Sihon, king of Heshbon, was not willing for us to pass for this land, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate in order to deliver him. And in Joshua 11, 20, it was of the Lord to harden our hearts that he might utterly destroy them. Well, wait a minute, doesn't God love everybody? God loves the world. That means he loves every individual equally, right? So why would he want to destroy them?

That's bad. That means he loved them less. And what people often do is they don't go very deep into the theological issues here. They don't look at them. They don't study them. And so they come up with meandering kind of insufficient answers. Like, God just loves them less. It's just ridiculous.

So we see, I'm going to do a couple more. God says in Ezekiel 18, 32, he says, I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies. And then Ezekiel 33, 11, he says, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, right? And yet it says in Deuteronomy 28, 63, the Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you. The Lord desired to put them to death, 1 Samuel 2, 25. And that's the same word when he desired is the word took pleasure and desired, okay, in Hebrew. Okay, so what does it all mean? Well, this is one of the areas we could look at.

And it means that God can have a desire in his heart for people to be saved, but not arrange that everyone be saved because of their sin, their rebellion, and for greater plan. That's one of the options. Another option. And here's another option, which I'll have to get back to after the break.

And there's something I've found in Scripture, and I'll tell you what it is about this as well. All right, so hold on. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages 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. Everybody, welcome back to the show.

Bottom of the hour, we have two open lines, 877-207-2276. All right, Grant, you still there? Yes, sir.

All right, so here's something else, and I'll go through this quickly. The word all is very interesting when God uses it through the apostles. And people may say, well, you know, all means all. Well, it means what it means in its context. You know, all the world was taxed.

It doesn't mean every individual was taxed in the whole world. So what does the word all mean? Well, when I look at Romans 5.18, which says that through one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men, so also through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men. The same word all occurs twice, but they have different meanings in the same verse, because the first all is everybody.

The second all is not everybody. You see the same kind of a thing in 1 Corinthians 15.22, where God says, in Adam all die, in Christ all shall be made alive. Well, the phrase shall be made alive is only in reference to believers.

So there's another instance. Furthermore, only Christians have died with Christ. And you find this all over the scriptures, okay, Romans 6.6, Romans 6.8, Colossians 3, I think it is, and others, it says we've died with Christ.

All right. Well, here's a really interesting verse. It's 2 Corinthians 5.14, which says the love of Christ controls us. Have you concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died?

Well, wait a minute. Who's the all who died? Theologically, that can only be the believers. So the word all, when we look at how God uses it in relationship to salvation, I can make it very easy, and I can make a good, strong case that the word all can just mean the elect. And when we go to John 6.37, Jesus says, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and the ones who come to me I certainly will not cast out, for this is the will of my Father who sent me, that of all that he's given me I lose none. So there we see, even in that, that the all is a limited group. So that's why I'm saying that that's another possibility for 1 Timothy 2.4 and 2 Peter 3.9.

I agree. I just wanted you to explain it to those that are listening, because I agree with what you're saying. I've come across a lot of Christians, they always say, see, all, all, all. No, that's not what it means. You've got to look up the all. And they just think it's everybody.

Yeah. They're not taught theology. And most pastors aren't teaching theology from the pulpit, they're just teaching low-level stuff. And they need to teach a little bit deeper.

And they need to have studies and stuff like this. But when people say the word all, then just do this. Just remember Mark 4, 10 through 12. And you say, so if God wants every individual to be saved, would he ever speak in such a way so they don't get saved?

Well, of course not. You take them to the words of Jesus. Mark 4, 10 through 12, where he speaks in parables so they'll not be saved. And you say, now we have to harmonize these. And then you have to do some Bible study.

But if they quit at that point, they're going to remain ignorant about the possibilities of what it is. But it could be also that the case that God wants all to be saved, doesn't arrange for all to be saved. Because you can have that.

As I showed from scripture, you can desire one thing and arrange another. Okay? So it's there. Absolutely. All right. Amen.

Praise the Lord. Thank you. All right, Grant. God bless, buddy. All right. Hey, let's get on the phones with Ed from Virginia.

Ed, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Slick. How are you doing? I'm doing all right. Hanging in there, man. So what do you got?

I'm so disappointed because I just bought another vehicle for work. And I cannot get you, I can't get the station that has you on there. What you can do is go on your phone and go to the app. They have an app for Truth Radio.

And you can listen there. Yeah, yeah, I got that. Yeah, but I've got my GPS running while I'm trying to deliver, so I can't really do that.

Well, forget the deliveries. Just listen. You know, it's not a problem. Oh, boy. Nothing tickles me more than you getting tickled by hate mail. When your funny phone is tickled, you laugh.

It just cracks me up when you start laughing out of nowhere. I know. I love it.

Lots of people have told me that. What is it? You're doing graffiti to the word of God, or I can't remember what the word was, but that was pretty funny. Yeah, love it. So I got a kick out of it. A lot of people said they were really entertained. But go ahead.

Okay, sorry. You had a caller call in about Kristin Schmucker. And I believe it's the aileygracio.com, and she's a mom, and she does, it even says on her website she's trying to encourage and build up women. And I think my wife used her website along with the Proverbs 31 woman.

So there are some good ones out there. But my question for you is what is your view on cessationism? Is it 100% cessationist? I believe the Holy Spirit does speak to us today.

Yeah, he does. I believe all the charismatic gifts are still for today. But they're not in the apostolic form where an apostle could go along and say, I have the gift of this, and bang, bang, bang, and they do this, like so many charlatans do today.

God can certainly work through people, heal people, prophesy through them, interpret tongues, speak in tongues. I don't have any problem with any of that for present day. So I don't think it's necessarily normative, and I don't believe in this idiocy that you're in a church and 50 people are speaking in tongues at once, jumping up and down, swinging from the chandelier.

That's all ridiculous. Okay. So defining terms, when you say someone in church prophesying, are they just giving scripture or are they giving revelation of the future? What is your definition of prophesy?

Future, uh-huh, yep. So you think someone can give revelation of the future? Yes, and I hate to bring this up, but it happened to me once.

I did it once, just once, and I remember it very well. I can tell the details, and I remember I told the story hundreds of times over the years, but I prophesied over a girl, and it came to pass. So I'm not using that as proof of anything, but it's not contradicting scripture because the Bible says that you're not lacking any charisma, any charismatic gift like waiting for the return of Christ, and that's 1 Corinthians 1.7.

And so I don't have any problem with all the gifts for today, but they need to be done with order and not for sensationalism. And if God so chooses to reveal himself in such a charismatic way in a church, it needs to be with great caution and with responsibility. But normally speaking, these things occur in areas where the ground is being broken for the Lord Jesus Christ and where people will have words of knowledge, and it does happen. I've heard so many counts of miraculous things occurring in that context. Right, I know in Muslim countries there's a dream speak to people a lot.

I know a story of a guy who came to Christ because of a dream he had. He was from Iran or Iraq. I remember I met him in Thailand. And how did you end up in Thailand?

It was a big story, and it was a dream. But yeah, so anyway, I just wanted to call and say hi. I haven't talked to you in a while, and I hate it.

I can't get, you know, I'm working usually around six, and I don't know why that band will not get 101.5. I just don't get it. Well, sorry about that.

I miss my slick fix. I wish my wife said that. Anyway, but I appreciate that. So good for you, brother. All right. You have a good evening, sir. God bless you. Okay, God bless.

All right, all right. Now let's get over here to Andrew from Ohio. Hey, Andrew, welcome.

You're on the air. Hey, Matt, how are you doing? I haven't talked to you in a while.

I met you a long time ago. We went and had dinner together where they sorted the gland and can a little bit. Okay.

So a couple of things. First thing is just in case the COVID thing comes back, I went off to med school and late in life, and I also, now I'm a physician, and there was, you know, they were mandating the COVID vaccine, and there was a couple. I just basically submitted the exemption request and just was very brief about why, but it was basically just the materials used in the production or the testing of the vaccines. And then also I said I didn't want to participate in something that kind of contributes to a government mandate of identification for economic viability or something like that.

I can email it to you and let you know what I wrote. Sure. But just so people know out there that I'm a doctor, and I went through med school, and I was like the only one probably that wasn't vaccinated, and it was just, you know, it was a difficult time because they were hounding me about it, but I just stay honest. Hold on, man. We've got a break. I want to hear more, okay? We've got a break, but good for you.

Good for you. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. Music It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Everybody welcome back to the show.

Well, hey, you know what? We're having this issue with Keith. If you could activate Andrew there again. I don't know what's going on, but there we go.

Hmm, interesting. Andrew. Okay, you're back. Okay, buddy. Yeah. How's it going? It's going. All right, so you said you were going to go.

Well, I just want to let people know that, you know, it's doable. You know, you don't really have to. They make it seem like it's mandatory, but in some cases it's not. They tried to fire my brother from his job and he, because he stood his ground, but he went with a philosophical exemptions that are religious and that doesn't usually hold up. And he but he actually got a job somewhere else. He got poached and he got double the salary. So that was a good move.

And they didn't they didn't require it. But I just wanted people to know that there are options if it happens again. But I do have a question. My kids' youth group, they're doing apologetics and they're studying like Mormon, Islam, you know, like the religious things like that. I was wondering a couple of things. Like, have you are you going around?

Have you ever gone around to youth groups and taught? Somebody pays your plane tickets? First thing. And the second thing is, what do you think about. Let's do the first one. Let's do one at a time. So have I what? You went so fast on that. I was like, what?

Something I didn't quite get. Do you teach do you teach youth groups? I know you go around and do debates and stuff, but do you ever like teach to like teenage youth groups about apologetics? No, I've spoken to youth groups, but never talked on apologetics. OK.

I'm aware of that. OK. And then what do you think about kids in that age range learning like apologetics when they're having to, I guess, you know, study other books or think or just other beliefs and as far as the foundation that they already have not being super strong. And, you know, I kind of knew believers.

What do you think about how you should teach kids apologetics? But I have to run. That was my main question for you. You want to talk about that for a little while? I appreciate it. And I'll send an email about the exemptions. Sure. Sounds good. Appreciate it. Good talking. I'm glad you're still on.

Take care. OK. So teaching the youth, that would be interesting. What I would like to do if I were to write a program for the youth is to actually interview a lot of youth people. Youth people?

Wow. Introduce, man, here we go. Interview a lot of youth just to see the issues that are going through and the style of presentation that would be good for them. And that would be something I would like to be able to do. And I'd do it, you know, if I could. I have an idea for a book I've been playing around with for years that would help kids in school deal with various issues.

But I haven't gotten to it because I'm so busy. So, yeah, it's something worth discussing, something worth looking into. I could think about it.

I have been thinking about this book, actually, for quite a while, but thinking about it more recently. And one of the things that I do have a concern for is that the youth are just so ill-equipped to survive secular school. The school is tough, but I think I could teach them a technique that could be very powerful in school, that they could use an outline form of approach in different classes. And the idea is to explore presuppositions. Teachers have a lot of facts that they can quote and a lot of references.

Well, we don't have, any particular student wouldn't have that same level of knowledge that they would have. So what I find is useful is to, it's hard to explain, in a class when a professor would say something such as true, I'd say, well, do you have a documentation for that, or is it a theory, or is it being presented as being truth? Questions like that and statements like that are the kinds of things that cause a teacher to sharpen their own sword, because they're so used to so many students not challenging anything and not asking difficult questions that they just don't do their homework. And I've got examples of when I was in college and how I gave the teachers a hard time, and it wasn't me being difficult on purpose, I wasn't being malicious. It's just, hey, I was very astute, I was listening, and they would say things, and I'd go research it, and they'd come back, and I'd say, what about this, what about that? And so I had some teachers, one teacher change his mind, another teacher wouldn't want to talk to me after I was done exposing just the bad stuff that the teacher was saying. It's not hard to do.

It's not the goal, but the idea here is that if Christians were to learn this kind of a thing, they could really up their ability to defend the faith. But then they have to face the consequences, because a lot of times teachers, they're not fair. And what they'll do is they'll just give you a bad grade because they didn't like what you said. And do not think for a second that college is a place of fairness. Just don't go there. It is not. It's more and more, it's just a place of indoctrination. That's all it is.

Not all, but a lot of it is just indoctrination. All right, now let's get on the air with Dave from Virginia. Dave, welcome, you're on the air, buddy. Are you there?

They have no idea what they've been saying. Hey, Dave. Dave's not here. Dave, are you there? Dave. Yes, sir. Are you there, Dave? Yes, hello. You're on the air. You're good, man.

Okay. So, first, let me say I'm a first time listener. I've been listening for like a month. I love your show. It's awesome.

I see you doing great work out there. I don't know how to address you. Pastor Slick?

Reverend Slick? I guess that word is Matt, I suppose. Matt is fine. Okay, how are you, sir?

How are you doing, man? Okay, so my question is this. I've been getting back into the Bible, you know, school, so I think it's been so busy, and I don't want to put Jesus Christ on the side.

That's just a bad idea. So my question is in Revelations where it talks about how the ones that will be saved will go to heaven, and then the ones that will not be saved will go to hell. Now, it's a bit intense, and I don't mean to sound like a box of rocks here, but it says for all eternity. So suppose a thousand years from now, you know, heaven and the saints will all be there, all rejoicing and all that, so hell will still be there, too. So the entity of hell will still be wherever it is, you know? How would that work?

I don't know how it works. I just know that's what it is, that God will— No, well, yeah, I'm saying because God, in a sense, he's basically like he's omnipresent, so he probably can't be in hell because of his— Well, let me jump in and help you out. Destroy everything, but— Let me jump in and kind of clarify that very issue, okay, because it's a common issue, okay?

Okay. By necessity, God is everywhere all the time. That cannot be lessened. God cannot just simply choose not to be in an area because it's not his nature. He's everywhere. So the idea of him being aware of hell is certainly something that will be extant forever. But there is a sense in which God's presence can be in one place and not another. What we mean by that is his personal focus, attention, presence in a place.

He can do that. And we might want to— We can entertain the idea that that won't be the case in hell, that they are just simply gone out of God's presence. But in his nature of everywhere all the time, that's just part of the necessary aspect of his existence, okay?

Yeah, so there lies the question. So being that he's a god of mercy and him being aware of hell, wouldn't he be suffering because he sees his children burning in hell for all eternity? I mean, we might not be aware of it because we're in heaven eating cheeseburgers, but— Hold on, you're asking a question, then you go on.

I want to answer your question. There's a doctrine called the impassibility of God. He is not deterred or negatively affected in his being and his emotions by our sin. He always has ordained, whichever shall come to pass, even hell's existence, which is for the devil and his angels. So people will be in that place.

It's justice that they are there, and God's justice and holiness are met upon them because they have rejected the Messiah. So does God—I don't want to get too far into God's emotions, but I'll leave it there, okay? Because there's a lot more that can be said, but I don't want to get open too much. But what was your other question? It goes on and on. I could probably—because I was just thinking about what that must be like, you know, for God.

Which? God? I mean, yeah.

We don't know. We can't imagine that. No, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, he's completely different than we are.

Just curious, I thought that maybe you could probably enlighten me a bit. Like I said, I love your show. And I just moved to Virginia, and the only Christian show that I was able to get was 101.5, and it's great so far. Yeah, it's a good network. It's a good group of people. I've met the station owner a few times. He's a great guy. He's Drew Epperson. And he's a man of God, loves the Lord, the people and the staff. I know Keith, we've talked so many times, hundreds of times. He's a great guy.

There's a lot of great people involved with that ministry and the radio network. Oh, no, it seems that way. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

I feel that. All right. Thank you, man. All right, brother. God bless you. You too, God bless. All right, let's see.

Next longest waiting is Barbara from Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome to the show you're on. Hey, thank you. The reason I'm calling is, you know, I'm a Christian, I believe in God and everything. But I feel like I'm not, you know, like at the end of times or whatever, I just want to know how do I know that God knows me? Like how do I know how people want to go to heaven and God's like, well, I didn't even know you. I want to have that personal relationship with God and I don't know how to do that. Your relationship has to be with the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? We're called into fellowship with Jesus. That's 1 Corinthians 1-9. So what I'd recommend you do, you know, if you're a Christian, you've trusted in Christ, I assume, and have received him as this sacrifice that removes your sin. He died and the cross rose from the dead. He's God in flesh. Now, I've got to hurry because we're almost out of time.

We've got 30 seconds. What you need to do is spend time with him. Read the Word, that's him talking to you, and you pray to him that's you talking to him.

And in a fellowship relationship like that, you'll grow closer to him and the presence of his very love will slowly move upon you and will increase, okay? Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I wish, out of time, I'd give you more. We could talk about it. But if you want, call back tomorrow.

We could talk about it some more, okay? Thank you. Spend time with him. Thank you very much. And pray to him and read.

And just talk to him, okay? Okay, we've got to go. We've got it. Thank you. Okay, bye-bye. God bless. Hey, Ed from Texas, Mike from Utah. Sorry, we're out of time. May the Lord bless you. Call back tomorrow. We'll talk to you then, everybody. Bye-bye.