Matt Slick Live Broadcast of

The following program is recorded content created by us. and so it's the last day of January. All right, and tomorrow's February 1st. February 1st, and I'm gonna be out in Tennessee on the 20th, I'll fly out there on the 20th, and I get to speak at a conference, and I sent a newsletter out last night on that. So, I think we have it on the calendar, don't we?

Have it in the calendar? I don't know if we do or not, I hope so. Anyway, so we'll see, I'll get some more information up there and it'll be about an hour from Tennessee. So, I don't know, I forget which city it is, but anyway, it's Y Calvinism, that's what it is.

James White's gonna be there, and some others are gonna be there, it's gonna be a lot of fun. And there you go, and if you're in an area and you wanna stop by, it'd be great to meet ya. All right, hey, if you wanna give me a call, please do. Just dial 8772072276, and if you want to email me, you can email me a comment or a question.

Just direct your email to info at karm.org, info at karm.org, and in the subject line, just please put something like radio question or radio comment. And then what I can do is I can check them out. All right, just check them out, all right. All right, okay. So, all right, well, there we go, I got some stuff coming in, and what the, that was weird. Somebody just popped up my screen and disappeared back. That was strange, I only had a glance at it.

All right, so that's it, give me a call. Okay, and also, let's see, I sent a newsletter out last night, and I said, oh, man, look at this. I put a newsletter out there, and I said, I'm gonna be doing it at this conference, and someone actually wrote back, bro, Calvinism? Really, it's what you dedicated your final years to?

No, it's not, but I wish people would just, not overreact, but they do, they do. Oh, okay, well, look at that, man. There's so much stuff coming in. How to prepare for the tribulation. Oh, listen to that. I was in, listen to your radio show when I'm in the car at that time.

Thank you for your ministry. You recently mentioned that you have information, an information sheet on what we should do to prepare for the tribulation, such as how much food to store up, et cetera. Yeah, I haven't released it yet, so they wanna know if they have the information. I'm gonna have to work on that and develop it.

I wanna develop links and things like that. It'll probably take me a few hours to get it to go and to work, so I think I'm gonna work on that. Woo, there we go. Hey, let's get on the air with Brandon from North Carolina. Brandon, welcome. You are on the air. Thank you, sir. Big fan of yours, by the way. I've been trying to get on the call list for a while, but I've either been dialing the number wrong or just was too far back in the queue, but big fan, so thank you for having me on. Sure, no problem, man.

Thanks for calling. So I will be calling back with more questions after this question, but we'll do one thing at a time. Just wanted your opinion on basically gifts of the Spirit and whether you have a cessationist viewpoint or just what is scripturally accurate and what to look for, because it's obviously abused in certain places by certain people, but I just sort of wanted your goggles to view it through for lack of a better term. Well, I believe in the continuation of all of the gifts, and I don't see anything in Scripture that says that they're going to cease.

Just don't see it. So I don't affirm it, and I believe that all of the gifts are for today. I believe all the gifts are for the Christian church today as a whole, all right? Okay. Understood, understood. Can I ask you one more quick question? Sure, no problem, man.

Go ahead. You know, I've been encouraged to, I guess, pray in tongues, you know, during the quiet time and then, you know, pray for, you know, and then follow that and then praying for the interpretation after the fact, and I'm just curious on, you know, I'm like, does the Lord want me to pray in English, or I guess I'm just trying to determine when it's appropriate versus inappropriate. All right, well, since I do affirm that all the charismatic gifts are for today, and I have my reasons for it energetically, if anybody wants to call me, if we can talk about it, that's fine. But when people speak in tongues, that's fine. I've heard of many accounts of people doing that, where they speak in languages they don't understand in different evangelical contexts or missionary contexts, and people understood them, and they didn't understand what they were saying. And interpreters have said, this is what you said, and, you know, it's documented. So when you want to speak in tongues, I would say don't force it, because a lot of charismatics, you know, they want to say, you know, buy me a Honda, buy me a Honda, buy me a Honda, buy me a Honda, buy me a Honda, buy me a Honda, and then they say, you know, you're speaking in tongues.

And so, you know, I think that's what it is. So, you know, don't do that. If God wants you to speak in tongues, you will.

Don't push it, don't worry about it. It says in 1 Corinthians 14, if you speak in a tongue, your mind is not edified. And he said he'd rather speak, you know, so that you could understand.

So I wouldn't worry about it, I wouldn't seek it. I would just say that, Lord, if you want me to do this, then go ahead, put it upon my heart to do it, and manifest it at the right time. And if not, no big deal, don't seek those gifts. Now, actually, I need to make a correction, okay? Let me go to 1 Corinthians 14, all right?

Come on, hold on a sec, there we go. 1 Corinthians 14, it says, pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts. Now, the word spiritual there is numatica, not charismatic. So it's saying pursue the spirituals, but especially that you may prophesy.

Now, that is a charismatic gift. So we can say the spiritual gifts, you know, you're saying pursue them. You know, if one speaks in a tongue, doesn't speak to men, but to God, you know, who understands. And to his spirit, he speaks mysteries. And it goes on, and you should read 1 Corinthians 14.

And so my concern is that people want to experience these things, and that's the goal. I say experience God, and if he wants you to move some way like that, then he'll work it upon you and within you to do that. And don't seek necessarily the gift above Christ.

And that's the thing, a lot of people do that. And so don't force anything. And also, generally speaking, speaking in tongues is not something I'd recommend people do in a church, unless that church is open to it, and they have a designated time and situation in which they open the body of Christ up to the spirituals, the charismatic stuff. And even then, it should be done in order, you know, speaking in tongues with interpretation, otherwise remain silent. So that's it, and that's what I would say to start with, okay? Yeah, no, that was exactly what I was hoping you were gonna say, perfect, okay, well good. And then I will be calling you back later this week with looking for your favorite talking point against Catholicism. I'm working on my family right now.

We have nobody waiting right now, it's not a problem, okay? All right, perfect. Yeah, so Catholicism is not Christian. Catholicism is apostate, it's not a true Christian church.

And the reason is because it preaches a false gospel and it promotes idolatry. So that's what I say regularly, and it's the case. And I'm looking, so I get my file, there it is, open up. My file on Catholicism is 198 pages. That's my word document. So I really do study that.

Is that on, is that on CARM, that, okay. No, no, but a lot of the articles, I've written about 140 articles or something like that on Catholicism, and you can go there and check it out. What I'm probably gonna end up doing is converting a lot of what I've written here into further articles so that there'll be between 200 to 250 articles on Catholicism.

I just work on stuff all the time. Okay, so here's the thing. I've developed a few things talking to Catholics that I think are effective and very simple. And non-offensive at the same time, because I'm not there to offend them, okay? I want them to believe the truth of the gospel. And I'll say to them, and this is something you should, I don't know if you're writing this down or not, but you should study Romans chapter four, verse. I am writing it down right now. All right, so you need to study Romans four, one through five, okay?

Let me explain what's going on with that. Romans four, one through five is absolutely critical. This is what it says. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified, that's the word we're gonna be focusing on. If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does this scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. So what I do is I stop the Catholic and I say, according to the scriptures here, what was credited to him as righteousness?

And they give me different answers, and I say, let me read the text again. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. So what was credited as righteousness? And finally, they'll say, well, his belief. But his belief had to have works. I say, Paul's not saying that, is he?

You're saying that. You're adding to the word to make it fit your theology. Just believe what it says, and I just focus on it, right? So Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. So believing is credited as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but what is due? This is verse five, this is a killer verse. But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

Woo, notice what it says here. But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. So that's what justification is, the crediting of righteousness.

It's right there in the text, so that's point one. You go through the Bible with them, Romans four, one through five, and you show that the crediting of righteousness is what justification is. Now, and I'll say, notice what it says in verse five, but to the one who does not work, but believes. I say, there's two things here it has spoken of, works and belief. And one is removed, works, therefore belief is by itself, it's belief alone.

When it does not work, but believes, that means by faith alone, believe in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. That's what the text is saying. Now we get back in the break here, I'll share some more with you, okay, so hold on. Hey folks, if you wanna give me a call, 877-207-2276. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right everyone, welcome back to the show. All right, Brandon, are you still there? Yes, sir. All right, now I was doing emails, answering emails in the break during the break, so I forgot what we were talking about and what I left off with, oh, sorry about that. Oh, I remember now, come on. Sorry about that, oh, I remember now, Catholicism. Yes, I remember. Yes.

Sorry. All right, so. And we just went through Romans four, yeah. Romans four, verse five. To the one who does not work, but believes. It's an important part, okay. It's an important point, I should say. And you ask them, if you only have two things here and one's removed, is the other by itself?

And the answer is, well, yeah. Now they won't like that because they're trained by their false religion leaders to always believe in works, always believe in works, always believe in works. Old James two says, and we'll talk about that in a minute. So, and when they do that, when they jump to a little scripture to contradict this one, they say, well, we can look at that, but you're not supposed to use scripture to contradict scripture. It's not, that means there's a problem there, okay? That is a good point.

That's what they do all the time. Well, the Bible says over here, to the contrary, are you saying the Bible contradicts itself? Because if I'm saying, if I'm just reading this to you and you go to another place that contradicts that, why are you doing that? Don't you understand what it says here and what it says over there?

No, we'll go to James two a little bit. All right, so, now write this down. Philippians 1, 29, Philippians 1, 29 and John 6, 29, okay? And along with Romans 5, 1.

So here's the key. So you go to Romans four, one through five, Romans 5, one, Philippians 1, 29, John 6, 29, I'll explain how to use them, and it's good. So we've gone through Romans four and we've shown how justification's by faith. Romans 5, one says, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so I ask him, does the text here say, does this verse say we're justified by faith? And they have to say yes, but yes, the faith has to have works. And I say, you're right, that's what James is talking about, but this isn't here. Now see now, in Philippians 1, 29, it says God is granted that we have faith.

That's what it says. To you it has been granted to believe. And in John 6, 29, Jesus says, this is the work of God that you believe on him in whom he has sent. So the work of God is in favor. AKA divine sovereignty and election.

No, no, no, no, just hold on. So the work of God is that you believe on whom he has sent. That's God's work, you believe on Jesus. Now you ask this question, there's two questions.

There's two questions. Is the faith that God grants to us that's in Jesus, is that enough to justify us? Okay, simple. Is the faith that God grants to us, that faith that's in Jesus, is that faith that comes from God, is that what comes from God enough to justify us as the Bible says, we're justified by faith?

That's it. And then you can also ask this question. Does the Bible say we're justified by faith? They'll have to say yes. And you say, are we justified by faith when we have faith? Because they wanna say, you're justified by faith when you get baptized, you're justified by faith when you take communion or the Eucharist, you're justified by faith when you go to the priest or when you get baptized, whatever it is. And I say, if you're justified by faith, are you justified by faith when you have faith? If they say yes, then they don't need all the Catholic stuff. If they say no, they're disagreeing with scripture. Okay? All right? Now, James 2, I'm gonna show you something.

Go through it, all right? What uses, verse 14, James 2, 14, everything's about context. What uses a brethren if they're not in the Bible for context, what uses a brethren if someone says he has faith but he has no works, can that faith save him? What faith is he talking about? A faith that is dead. Is the faith that God grants to us a dead faith? Philippians 1, 29?

They can't say it is. Now you see why this gets powerful, okay? And James says, if a brother or sisters without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to them, peace, be warmed and be filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith if it has no works is dead, being by itself.

And we agree, and you say, yeah, we agree. True faith comes from God, and it always has works with it, doesn't it? False faith is not from God, right? Verse 18, someone may well say, you have faith and I have works, show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works.

This is horizontal. You show me your faith by your works, I'll show you mine by my works. But Romans 4 is the vertical. Because Romans 4, what then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, court of the flesh is found, for if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. Not before God, that vertical, justification before God.

James 2 is justification before people, that's the horizontal. And he goes on to verse 19, you believe that God is one, you do well, the demons also believe and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, oh, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

That's what we're saying. Those of us who believe in justification by faith alone in Christ alone, we believe. If you're really a believer, you're gonna have works that manifest.

It's not the works that save you. But he goes on, but are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was Abraham, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?

Who was he justified before? God? God granted him faith. And Romans 4, 3 is a quote from Genesis 15, 6. And Genesis 15, 6, it says he was credited as righteous. He believed that, and it wasn't till Genesis 22 when he offered up Isaac.

He was already justified before he offered up Isaac. You're willing to recognize faith without works is useless? Was not our father Abraham justified by works? Not before God, Romans 4 tells us that. And he was already justified by faith, Genesis 15, 6. When he offered up Isaac, Genesis 22. You see, faith was working with his works, and as a result of his works, his faith was perfected. And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, and Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned in his righteousness. And I ask him, what does James say was reckoned in his righteousness? His belief, not his works. The justification by works that he's talking about in verse 21 is before people.

Because verse 18 says some people you know, you show me your works, I'll show you mine. That's the context, that's what's going on, okay? Yeah, and I feel like a lot of the back and forth is always a horizontal comparison, as opposed to like you were saying, vertical. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Right, all right, does that make sense? Yes. It's okay, buddy.

Yes, thank you. All right. Thank you, thank you, I'll be calling back again soon, I appreciate it. Please do. Please do, and if you call back even later today in the show, I'll show you some stuff that Catholicism says that is horrible. It's just horrible.

And I read it to Catholics, and they, oh, oh, it's bad. All right, brother, we'll see you, God bless. Hey folks, there is the music. We've got a break coming up if you wanna give me a call.

It's 877-207-2276, we'll be right back. All right, everybody, welcome back to the show. Let's get on the air with Emmanuel from Wisconsin.

Welcome, you're on the air. Hey brother, I'm from Wisconsin, but I'm working in Atlanta right now, and I'm on a trip, and there's Jehovah's Witness like everywhere, and so I wanted to know what are some good discussions to have with them, not necessarily like gotcha verses, but something to start a conversation with them and carry on the conversation with them? Well, it's gonna be a tough one because Jehovah's Witnesses, they deny the Trinity, the deity of Christ, justification by faith.

They deny his resurrection, and they teach that when you die, you don't exist anymore. So it's really difficult to just tell somebody over the radio, hey, just do this. And say, hey, here's how you do it.

But I can give you some pointers, okay? So I would recommend that you don't just jump in necessarily and try and show the Trinity. But I happen to know some stuff that's really interesting. And if you want, you can mess them up by using their own Bible, and I can show you how to do that, and there's verses where I just have them read it out of their Bible, and they go, they usually say, are you trying to show me the Trinity? And I say, you got the Trinity out of that?

And it really is a lot of fun to see their expressions. And one of them that I go to, I'm gonna do this because I think they've altered it, is Exodus, oh my goodness, just Exodus 1924, or Genesis 1924, Genesis. Man, I get so many verses in my head sometimes that I have to sort through them. So what I'm gonna do is, I'm on the Jehovah's Witness website right now, and I believe that they have changed that verse, so I don't talk about the J-dubs too much anymore. So here we go, I'm gonna go to their so-called online Bible, and I'm gonna go to their study edition online, and I'm gonna go to Genesis 19, and come on, you can do it, come on, you can do it, it's slow, and verse 24. What it actually says in the Hebrew is, Yahweh rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah from Yahweh. That's what it says. What they've done is this, then Jehovah made it rain sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah.

It came from Jehovah, from the heavens. But see, what they routinely do is alter the translations to make it fit what they want. So if they have an older version of their stuff, it works in the 1984 version, and where it says Jehovah rained fire and brimstone from Jehovah, and that is a problem for them. And so that's why I would say you would need a 1984 version of their New World Translation.

It's not a translation, it's a corruption. So one of the things I will do is, with that, I will go to Amos 4, 10 and 11. This is what God is saying. I sent among you a pestilence like that of Egypt, which has sorta killed your young men and captured your horses. I made this statue of your camp rise up in your nostrils, yet you have not returned to me, declares Jehovah. I cause an overthrow among you, like God's overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now that can get them thinking, because why is Jehovah saying he did something like God did? And that throws them, particularly with Genesis 19, 24, thrown in. Okay, that's one thing. Here's something else. Is that Amos 4, is that also gonna be in the older Bible?

Or is that? Yes, it's good, it works in their older version. They keep changing it when they find that there's problems, though they change the Bible to make it fit what they want, okay?

All right, now here's something that will work. This is, I'm gonna read out of their New World Translation online, says, and God's speaking in verse two. God said to Moses, I am Jehovah.

And I'll ask him, was that an angel? Well, no, because the text says God spoke and said I am Jehovah. No Jehovah, I mean, no angel would say I am Jehovah, right?

That's correct, okay. And I used to appear to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but regard his name, he did not make himself known to them. So I asked the Jehovah's Witness, I said, did God Almighty appear? And if they, whatever they say, I won't accept it until they admit, the text says that God spoke and Jehovah, it says I am Jehovah. That's why I ask them, will an angel say, quote unquote, I am Jehovah?

No, so it's not an angel, because they wanna say that. They say, it says God appeared, right? Then they might go to John 1.18. If they go to John 1.18, I'm just giving you a lot of stuff I know, this takes, talking to J. Dubs isn't as easy as a lot of people think.

You have to know a little bit more. In John 1.18, it says no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who's in the Father's side is the one who explained him. They might go to that verse. If they do, you say, yeah, Jesus is the only begotten God, isn't he?

Don't go anywhere with it, just leave it at that. And so, no man's ever seen God at any time. But they were seeing God Almighty, right? Because he just went to Exodus 6, two and three. Now they're gonna get a little confused. So now what you do is you go to John chapter six, verse 46.

And I'm gonna get that and go to it here, let's see. 46, this is what Jesus said. Not that any man has seen the Father, except the one who is from God, he has seen the Father.

He's talking about himself, right? Now see, so Jesus said no man's ever seen the Father. But in Exodus 6, two and three, they were seeing God Almighty. Who is God Almighty, who's not God the Father? That's the question.

And I literally had one Jehovah's Witness girl say, well, that was Jesus, and then she, oh my goodness, and then she closed her Bible and she just got out of there as fast as she could. So that's just, that's one of the, that's another thing you can do, okay? Let's try and show a little thing.

So one of the things you can do is just say, thank you and et cetera, et cetera, and you can say this. You know, I've studied the word and I have questions. I'm always learning, maybe you could help me. Maybe you might know something, which is true. You know, I've learned stuff from Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, I mean, I don't know everything. I'll say, okay, and they'll say, sure, can I use your Bible? And you go to Exodus 6, two and three. And I said, is it God Almighty who's being seen?

Yes. They go to John 6, 46, wasn't the Father. Who are they seeing who's God Almighty who's not the Father?

That's the toughie, okay? You see that? So Exodus 6, two verse three, and John 6. Two and three, Exodus 6, verses two and three. Two and three, uh-huh, and John 6, 46.

Yes, okay, and let me just add this to that one right there. You go to 1 Timothy, chapter six, verse 16. And I'm looking at what they say online, with their false Bible, but this is what it says there. It's talking about God and Jesus. And in verse 15, it says, which the happy and only potentate will show in its own appointed times. He is the King of kings, the King of those who rule as the kings and Lord of those who rule as lords, the one alone having immortality who dwells in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can see.

And I ask him, who's he talking about? Well, it's God the Father. So who are they seeing in Exodus 6, two and three?

He's God Almighty. And also, just so you know, there's, along with that, there's Genesis 17, one and 18, one. And Genesis 17, one, it says, in the J-Dub Bible, it says, when Abram was 99 years old, Jehovah appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty.

Okay, and then, let's see, go to 18. What's the typical response to that, to who they're seeing? The confusion. Sometimes they'll say it's an angel, the Lord, and stuff like that, or it's a vision or a dream, okay? And in Genesis 18, one, it says, after Jehovah appeared to him among the big trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent during the hottest part of the day. I've actually been talking about this the other day, I've actually been to Mamre.

I've been to that location in Israel. So it says, Jehovah appeared to him. And then I say, no, I just make it worse for him. Here's another one, you can, I have all these memorized, you know, I've been doing this for so long. So this is Numbers 12, starting at verse 6, which I'll read to you after we get back to the break, okay? And I'll show you some stuff, I'll show you some more stuff, okay? So hold on, buddy. Stay tuned. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Alright, everybody, welcome back to the show.

Hope you're enjoying the show. And if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Alright.

Manuel, you still there? Yes, sir. Alright, so, let's see, again, I'm always doing stuff during breaks, so I showed you, okay, Genesis 17-1 and 18-1, and here is Numbers 12, 6 through 8. This is God talking. He said, If there's a prophet of Jehovah among you, this is from their false translation, that's why I'm reading from it, okay? If there's a prophet among you, I would make myself known to him in a vision. I would speak to him in a dream.

But it is not that way with my servant Moses. He's being entrusted with all my house face to face. I speak to him openly, and the appearance of Jehovah is what he sees. Whoa. Well, wait a minute, Mr. Jehovah's Witness, did he see him or not? He has to say yes.

Right? And then you can go to Exodus 24, 9-11. Moses and Aaron, and 70 of the elders of Israel, they went up, they saw the God of Israel.

Under his feet was what seemed a sapphire pavement, and it was as pure as the heavens themselves. He did not harm the distinguished men of Israel, and they saw a vision of the true God, and they ate and they drank. Jehovah now said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain and stay here. So he's talking to Moses. We already know he doesn't appear in a vision or dream. He beholds his very form, and it says here that a bunch of people saw the vision of the true God.

They saw a vision of the true God. That's not what it says. It does not say vision. So you don't want to use that one because they've altered it now, just seeing that.

They saw the vision. Okay, don't go there. All right, it doesn't matter. So now you can see with those that you really have something to work with, and you can do this by asking them questions.

You know, I'm really curious. Could you help me out with this? Okay. Now here's something else. We already went through Romans 4, 1 through 5. I cannot tell you how important that section of scripture is. This is what it says in the Watchtower, excuse me, in the New World Translation. On the other hand, to the one who does not work but puts faith in the one who declares the ungodly one righteous, his faith is counted as righteousness. His faith is counted as righteousness. Do you agree with that?

Because they're taught the contrary. This is Watchtower, February 15, 1983, page 12. You're not going to be able to remember this. But you can find it on CARM. And it's the Watchtower, February 15, 1983, page 12.

It's February 15, 1983, page 12. Quote, Many have found the second requirement in the biblical, how to get saved. It is to obey God's laws, yes, to conform one's life to the moral requirements that are in the Bible. So, now you have to obey God's laws, right, Mr. Jehovah's Witness?

Yes. Why does your translation say the one who does not work? Which is it? At this point, sometimes what they'll do is they don't want to talk to you anymore. They want to leave. They're not interested in the truth. To them, the truth is not Jesus. The truth is the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. That's what the truth is. So they will say they are in the truth. And this is what false religious systems do. We're in the true church. We're in the truth. What they do. Our church is the true church.

It's all about the church, not about the person and work of Christ. So, these are things that you can use. There's a lot more, but those are things you can use. Alright. Alright, I've got a lot of stuff on my plate. Thanks, brother. I appreciate it. Alright, man. No problem, buddy. God bless. God bless. Alright. Well, we had somebody coming in, I think, David from North Carolina.

We'll get to him in a little bit. And I just want to remind you guys out there, we stay on the air by your support. If you like what you're here and you want more, please consider supporting us in this radio ministry.

All you have to do is go to karm.org. C-A-R-M dot O-R-G forward slash donate and everything you need is right there. We really appreciate it.

We ask $5 or $10 a month because that helps us do budgets. That's what we like. Okay, let's get to Dave from North Carolina. Dave, welcome. Hey, Matt. How are you doing? Oh, I'm hanging in there.

What do you got, buddy? Well, I called you last week. I'm a polytheist.

And I want to call back today to see if you know of a theologian, a well-known theologian who knows his stuff that has put together a website refuting polytheism. Good. Okay. What's this guy's name?

What's the website? You're asking me. I don't know. I thought I was going to ask you if you knew of any well-known theologian who has put together a website refuting polytheism.

No, I don't know. But polytheism is something biblical. So what is the refutation? Is it from Scripture?

Because the Scripture clearly refutes polytheism. But we can also do it philosophically. Because a real basic concept is if you are outside and you see a bunch of trees, trees are in the category of tree. Of tree-ness. So trees, what you see, are a subset of a concept called tree-ness. If you have many gods, then they are by definition a subset of something greater.

God-ness. This is a little bit over my head. I don't understand your tramp out on that, but I'm anxious to learn.

I'm willing to go online and do some reading and researching. But I just can't carry on a philosophical discussion over the phone. Philosophy is very difficult for me. I'm not learning at all.

I got a high school graduation. But I need time to assimilate something I read. I'm much better at reading than I am at talking.

And so what I would really need is to have something I could go to my laptop, print out, and then read at my leisure. I obtain a lot of knowledge by reading, but I don't obtain that much knowledge by talking. I'm a little slow, and it's hard for me to follow when someone's talking. Whereas when you read it, you can pause and reflect and then continue reading.

I got you. I got something for you to read. But you don't know anything at all for me to read, right? I said I've got something for you to read.

Okay? In the Bible. In the Bible, there's three chapters. Isaiah 43, 44, and 45. Isaiah 43 to 45. That's what they call 2nd Isaiah, right?

No, I know about that. Deuteronomy, 2nd Isaiah, no, it doesn't work like that. Because Jesus attributed both the sections of 1st and 2nd Isaiah to the same author, Isaiah.

You understand if I'm a polytheist, I don't buy totally into Jesus's deity. I'm just telling you what you can read. Just read.

First thing is just read. Read Isaiah 43, 44, and 45. Because there's lots in there in those three chapters that teach monotheism and deny polytheism.

Yeah. I know that there are some places that deny polytheism. But I told you last week where Jehovah said I shall have no other gods before me.

And Paul in one location says there are many gods but to us there is one god. And I can't remember where that is. And it was I have a lot of reading.

Hold on, hold on. Let me explain. So what you're talking about was 1st Corinthians 8, 5, and 6. And this is what it says. It says for even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or in earth indeed there are many gods and many lords that are just simply called that. Yet for us there's but one god, the Father. So he's saying there's lots that are called gods but they're not really gods. And then if you go to Galatians 4, 8 it says however at that time when you did not know God you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you've come to know God or rather be known by God, and it goes on. So Paul is saying there are gods out there, there are false gods, they're not really existing. But they're called gods. You understand, you understand naturally that I don't take the Bible as the final authority of being a polytheist.

I wouldn't. I'm interested in reading because I have never read anything against polytheism. Only what I was taught growing up in church that there was only one god. And other than that I've never studied an article that refutes polytheism.

Yes I can write philosophically refuting polytheism. Because you can't ground universals in that. You can't ground the universal laws of logic. And then it has to do with categories and how you have gods as a category of something else. And something else is greater than you which is the ultimate.

I know you can't get that, but I can do that. I can show you from the scriptures God's self-revelation where he says there aren't any. He doesn't even know of any other.

So those are the two main ways. Okay. But you understand about my handicap not being able to trust the Bible.

Right? Well it is a handicap. But the Bible, let me tell you we only have a little bit, let me tell you something. The Hebrew in the Old Testament and the Greek in the New Testament are letters. The alphabet are letters. But the letters are also numbers. When the Hebrews would write, when the Jews would write the Hebrew text they're writing letters but the letters are also numbers.

They only had one set for both. The same with the Greek. The reason this is important is because the Jews and the Jews were Christians. They became Christians. They believed the Word of God was supreme.

You do not alter it in any way. You have the judgment of God coming upon you. That's what they believed. When they made copies of this they were incredibly careful. The scribes when they would write and copy, when they came to the name of God would go clean themselves change clothes, come back, write the name of God, then go back and change clothes and clean themselves again and then continue to write.

Each time they came to the name of God. The reason I'm telling you this is to show you something. The Bible is accurately transmitted from then to now.

It is very accurately transmitted. They didn't screw around with it and change all this stuff. It's what it actually says. So when you read it in the English you're getting what it actually was. From the original.

But you still understand that doesn't change my view on the Hebrew or Greek scriptures. Just one thing at a time. That's all.

And there's the music. We've got to go. So tell you what.

Just go ahead and check it out and then call me up and tell me what you think and we can talk a little bit more. Right, Bud? Alright. Well there you go folks. Hope you enjoyed the show. May the Lord bless you and by His grace we're back on there tomorrow. We'll talk to you then.