Matt Slick Live Broadcast of

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. It's Matt Slick live. Matt is the founder and president of the Christian Apologetics Research Ministry, found online at KARM.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick live.

Francis taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick.

Here, listen to Matt Slick live. And today's date is February 1st, 2024. Let's see. All right. Whoo, I've got several things in my mind here. Birthdays this month for some people I know and maybe traveling.

Oh, I'll be going to Tennessee, maybe someplace else. It's got a lot going on. So I've been working hard. Hey, if you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 8772072276. We have nobody waiting right now, so I want to hear from you.

Give me a call. And I should, there we go, come in active and become active pretty quickly here and rumble. I guess everything's good. We'll find out.

I'm still working out stuff and picking up the pieces after some stuff last week and trying to work everything out. All right, I think that should do it. That should kick in here any second now.

Why doesn't that kick in? It'll just take longer than I think it does. I guess so. Anyway, there you go. If you want to call me, like I said, 8772072276.

You can also email me info at karm.org, info at karm.org. And all you have to do at that point is just put in the subject line radio question or radio comment. Sorry, I'm distracted because I'm trying to figure out why a certain something I set up isn't working. So I'm not so sure what's going on.

I'm not so sure why it's not working there. Oh, there, no? Well, yeah, there it is. Whew, it took like a whole minute. Okay, that's all right now. I know how to wait.

All right, so there you go. And might be going down to Austin, Texas next month. I've been down there for two, three, four days, just depending, haven't got it settled yet. I'd love to meet people down there. If there's anybody who wants to meet, you know, we'll see.

But Austin, Texas, that's another possibility, not in stone yet. They've got a lot of things going on in the past week or two and the next few weeks, got a lot more stuff going on. So that's just how it goes. All right, all right, all right. So we don't have anybody waiting, so I think I'm going to do, go to some radio questions and just get in.

Yeah, that's right. So the preparation stuff, that's one of the emails. I've got to work on that. I'm working on right now an hour-long video from one of the shows that I did last week, putting it together. That's taken me a long time, so that's slowing me down and some other things I've got to do as well. But just working it, just working it, and I'll get that going next.

I've got several articles I've got to write. In fact, something interesting this morning, every now and then, every now and then, I'll get an idea. And I go, that's wonderful. I wonder about that. And then I'll go, I wonder. And then I do a little bit of a check on it. And I wasn't planning on going too deeply in this, but I found a way to look at the word Spirit in the Old Testament, as in the Spirit of God, right, capital S. In the NASB, which is what I use, they capitalize those references.

The experts have done that. They're in reference to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. All right, and not just the Spirit and the man was weak, and it doesn't capitalize. So I exported like, I don't know, how many hundreds of references. And then I went through, I did a trick.

I exported it to Excel. Then I did a trick inside of Excel, long story short, and I was able to extract just those verses where it's talking about the Spirit, as in the Holy Spirit, the divine Spirit, Spirit of God, capital S. And so I extracted them. And then I go, I'll go a little bit further in this as I'm curious. I just wanted to see what I would learn because someone asked a while back about the Holy Spirit, and one of the questions who dealt with the issue of him in the Old Testament, that's what got me thinking about it. So I have discovered that the Holy Spirit is called several things.

I've not summarized it yet. I just have the table, the Spirit of God, my Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord, Spirit of the Lord God, the Spirit of the Lord, that's right, the Spirit of God, what's some other ones, the Spirit, the good Spirit. I thought that was interesting. And my Spirit, let's see, I'm just scanning through a bunch of them, okay. And so those are the terms that I found, the Spirit of grace, okay. So those are the terms that I found, and they're in reference to the Holy Spirit. And then what I did was I went through and I said, okay, what action is occurring? The Holy Spirit, this is all in the Old Testament, moves, strives, fills people, comes upon people.

I gotta scan because I don't have it all summarized yet. Stirs people, comes upon people, got a whole bunch of those. The Holy Spirit departed from Saul, and the Holy Spirit speaks in the Old Testament. And then there's a vision, there's a vision aspect where he moves people in a vision and grants them things in vision. So grants them visions and instructs and admonishes and rests upon and is poured out upon and gathers people. And let's see, it could be sent, the Holy Spirit is sent from God.

And what else? Is grieved, okay, I'm scanning through these, I've got all these this morning. And the Holy Spirit entered a person, gave his people rest, and then lifted a person in a vision, let's see, entered a person and speaks again, indwells people, poured upon, poured upon, that is, is in the Holy Spirit to be impatient. Is the Lord of the Spirit, is the Spirit of the Lord impatient? That's what it says in the verse.

Abides in the midst of people, and the law was sent by his Spirit. So what I'm gonna do is codify those, I'm not codifying, I'm gonna put them in an outline and then say, in the outline, you know, all the references where he's called the Spirit of God, put all those references, and then where the Holy Spirit moves, and put those all alphabetical. That's what I did this morning for about an hour and a half, two hours. For some reason, I like doing that. I think the reason I like doing that is because I discover stuff that way. I just discover things that I think are interesting. And I don't know what I'm gonna discover, like, let's go. And I've never done a study like that before.

And so I found these varying things that the Holy Spirit does in the Old Testament. And I thought that was interesting. And so I have it in a table, and I haven't released it yet, along with a whole bunch of other stuff I've not yet released. So I gotta do that. Oh, man, oh, there we go.

Well, that's a nice yawn. If you wanna give me a call, 877-207-2276. All right. So I think what I'll do right now is go to some questions. Again, go to my radio comments and questions. And after I do the spirit thing, I think I'll work on preparing kind of a prepper's list.

Because the Bible says, you know, the ant prepares in the summer for the winter. So the concept of getting prepared, prepping a little bit is good. And I think we should because if you watch the news, you'll see there's stuff that's not good that's coming. And so, obviously, our government, the Biden administration, is horrible. I mean, just letting people flood into our nation, un-vetted. I mean, you know that there's bad people coming in, and then you know they're gonna do stuff. There's people who hate America. You can't just let people just flood into your country by the millions. That's a recipe for disaster. And plus, since Biden has not emptied, but he sold a lot of our oil reserves and got rid of those, and I read an article, I don't know if anything has changed, I read an article within two years because of what Biden has done, the diesel fuel is gonna be gone or run out or gonna be into rationing it.

If that happens, then truckers are gonna, not gonna work, and when truckers stop, the economy's gonna fail, okay? And there's just stuff like this. So I've been paying attention and thinking, okay, all right, I just need to make sure I got, you know, just the basics just for a while, food and water and things like that. All right, so having said that, why don't we get on to, look at this, it's kind of in the same line of thought, Buxman from Ohio, welcome, you're on the air. Hey, it's always great talking to you, Matt. Yes, I was just wondering, I just heard the opening of your program. What is a Christian's position, what should a Christian's position be on what's happening in Texas and what's happening on our southern border there? Matt, I would love your answer on that, sir.

Well, I'm not exactly sure. We gotta, let's talk a little bit more. I can't watch the news without getting very angry because I see what the government is doing in order to destroy our country, to hinder it and injure it, and it's so obvious to me, I have a great deal of difficulty dealing with it.

So I can't watch it for very long because I just get angry and I'm not the only one I know who has the same issue, I just get very upset. So why don't you fill me in, I know that Texas has started putting up Chainlink and some other stuff to get the border secure and that the federal government in its incredible wisdom, notice the sarcasm there, has started with, sued Texas to stop them from doing that. Now, is there more than that?

Are you there? That I don't know other than it's complete chaos. There's NGOs, non-governmental organizations that are assisting the federal government in these illegals coming across the southern border and Christians are finding out that these are Catholic organizations and there's quite possibly Protestant organizations. I for one, Matt, know of a missionary group that came to the church that I was attending once and said, we are going to the McAllen, Texas to assist the federal government in processing these illegal aliens coming across the border and they claimed they were going to do Christ's work and I was, I commented to them, Matt, I said, brother, sister, can you go to their home countries and share the gospel with them there instead of waiting until they illegally cross into our country?

And the gentleman didn't give me a very good answer to be honest with you. So I'm wondering, Matt, what is the average Christian supposed, how are they supposed to react or to what I would say respond as a Christian man or a woman that lives legally inside of the United States of America and that includes not just us natural born citizens like myself, Matt, but anyone who has legally come to America to become American from their home country? What are we Christians to do?

Well, for the legal people, we're to treat everybody honestly and with respect and such and there's no problem there, but the ones who are illegals, well, they've broken the law and they've come across the country and they're a drain on our society and ultimately it will lead to the destruction of our country, which is horrible. So we've got a break, so hold on, we'll talk about that a little bit, a little bit more. And folks, we'll be right back after these messages, please stay tuned, 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 and let's get back on with Buxman, Buxman, that's right, or Buxman. Yes, thanks again Matt, it's always great being on your program, sir. Alright so, in Romans 13 it says submit to the government and we're supposed to do that, however the reformed church fathers developed something called the doctrine of the lesser magistrate and it's worth looking into, the doctrine of the lesser magistrate, I've written a book on it. Pastor Matt Truella, is that correct, Pastor Matt Truella wrote that?

It might be, I just don't remember the name, but you know, I read it, in fact if you look here, maybe I can find it, if I have Kindle, my stuff in Kindle, I could have everything in Kindle because I have so many books now. Let's see, Lesser, let's see if it comes up, Doctor of the Lesser Magistrate by Truella, and that's what it is, Truella, that's the one that I have. Well anyway, the point is, and I agree, that when the government at large is doing those things which are counter biblical, then we are to resist the government and so it's called the doctrine of the lesser magistrate. So what Abbott is doing in Texas, in my opinion, is falling under that doctrine of the lesser magistrate and he's rightfully resisting the unbiblical and unlawful work of the Biden administration that has allowed our country to be invaded.

Migration is what it is, it's not just legal migration because that was already in place. If the Biden administration is consistent, it would uphold the laws that were already present and now it has just said everybody come in and this is dangerous, it's dangerous by default and so we're being invaded by people that we don't know. And so an illustration of this is my home, my wife and I live in my home, our home, and we have alarms, we have let's just say defense mechanisms and stuff, I like to say, very general, I take care of my house before I go to bed, I check windows, I turn an alarm on, I check doors, I check everything, I have a routine I go through.

And so if anything happens, I'm quite able and quite quickly able to take care of what needs to be done. Now that's just an illustration of what if the government says, Matt, you have to now take into your home illegals, people that we've decided to let you have to house them in your house. I don't know who they are, I don't agree with that, it's risky, it's wrong, and I would say to them, I will not do that, I will not allow that to occur in my home, I will resist because I'm obligated to resist, to protect my home, protect my wife. And this is what we are supposed to be doing as Christians, resisting the tyranny of the unrighteous government that is headed up. And you know that the Democrats and a lot of Republicans are not moving in the best interest of the country, but are leftist wackos who are doing woke-ism, promoting homosexuality, promoting the killing of the unborn, promoting the rise of socialism, they are working to undermine the constitution, and they are opening up the borders, selling away our assets, letting foreign entities come in and buy up land and corporations, they're doing the very thing that undermines the strength and security of our country. Therefore the lesser magistrates, the governors, are obligated to resist them. And the Declaration of Independence talks about this kind of thing. So this is what needs to be done, they need to be resisted, because the Biden administration is not doing what they're supposed to be doing, so Abbott in Texas is doing the right thing, and then the government goes to work against them.

He needs to resist, and they ought to resist. One final thing, the Republic of Texas, that's what it is, it's a republic. From what I understand, it has within its laws the ability to withdraw from the nation and make its own country. If it did that, I would want to move there so that it could have its own currency, its own government, its own military, its own everything. And Texas is about the size of France.

It's big, they could do it. So there's some comments, okay? Okay, now I've heard Christians on my end, Matt, say things like quoting what's on the Statue of Liberty, bring us our poor, you're needy, bring us your... And their stance is, is Christ would receive all, so why not the Christians? Who says so? Where do they get this Christ would receive all?

Where do they get that? Show me that in the Bible. Show it to me.

Right. People, they speak for Jesus. That's their ideology.

It is, but show it to me. Is open to all, shouldn't people on a linear plane have that same perspective towards humanity? Well, first of all, when they start speaking for Jesus, and then they start making doctrines based on things that Jesus didn't say, that upsets me. And so Jesus did say, I think it was in Matthew 10, he sent the disciples out, he says, don't go to the Gentiles, only go to the Jews.

That's what he said, only, yeah, I'm trying to find it, but I know he did say it. I was sent, yeah, he said he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And so he said, yeah, in Matthew 10, five through six, he says, do not go in the way the Gentiles did not enter any city of the Samaritans, but go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Now, wait a minute. Jesus wants everyone. And why did he instruct the disciples only to go to the people of Israel? Because covenantally, that's what he was obligated to do.

They broke the covenant where the Gentiles are grafted in, so he draws all people. But nothing in there says that what the government is supposed to do now is open its borders up to potential terrorists to come into the country to risk the lives and the safety of the entire nation. Is that what Jesus would say to do?

Of course not. He said to the centurion, do your job well. He said, pay the taxes, go get the fish and get the denarii out of his mouth, submit to the government. But he said, keep those laws. So when these people tell me this, that Jesus would say, just let them all come in. No, he wouldn't. Or, well, I can't say, no, he wouldn't, but say, show me that in scripture.

I guess I'm tired of amateur theologians speaking for the Lord God. And then the other thing they used to is they allow people in. And my response is, well, didn't Jerusalem have a wall around it? And what was the reason for that wall? Is that a good argument, Matt?

Yes. To keep the bad people out. To keep them out. We don't ask these people. Do you want murderers and terrorists to come into our country and get free food, free this and free that? Is that what you want?

Just ask them. You want terrorists to come in or do you think we should be trying to make sure that those kinds of evil people don't come into our country and then harm us? Would you agree with that?

Yes, you do. Oh, then why are you saying open borders? Why are you helping do the opposite of what you say should be done?

This gets me mad. I know what's happening. I know there's a demonic movement and the Democratic Party is just leading the way. The Republican Party isn't too far behind. They're destroying our country.

They're destroying it. Christian men need to stand up. Hold on, I got another break. Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. 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 see if we get Buxman back on as soon as the producer clicks him on. There we go. Hey, are you still there? I am still here, Matt.

All right. I forgot where we were, but you know, during the break I went and did a little bit of research and in Nehemiah is where they were instructed to build a wall, to protect and so that there would not be a reproach of other nations, and that's in Nehemiah 2, verse 17 in particular. So biblical government is supposed to have the right to do with their properties, they desire, I have all the references for this, have a representative form of government with their self-governance, property rights, the liberty to act freely, the right to bear arms, practice capitalist principles where the law requires a fair trial with witnesses, not have foreigners rule over you, the right of taxation in support of the government and secure borders, along with free speech. So this is what biblical government is.

So these Christians, they call themselves Christians, I don't know if they are because they're Catholics, a lot of them, and they go down and say, we're just doing what Jesus would want. Yeah. Show me that in the scripture. I'm not saying reject people.

We want to love people, but it should be done according to the law and we've got to protect ourselves. Okay. So there you go. This was my final idea, Matt, and I'll hang up from here. I was thinking, wouldn't it, would, how about some, some signs posted along our borders and at these, uh, stations where they're processing all these people written in their own language, appealing to their faith, because some of them claim that they're, that they're Christian or they're Catholic. And I'm thinking if we wrote in Spanish or Swahili or Haitian, um, does God or Arabic write does God approve of you being here and try to appeal to them on the conscience level?

Do you think that's a good idea, man? No, it might work for some, but, uh, I remember, I remember some instances when I was working in San Diego at a hospital emergency room, speaking Spanish and helping people. And I get it, you know, but let me just tell you, a lot of the illegals are coming here, taking advantage of our system and not putting anything back in and, um, get them getting their friends to come over and more family members to come over and they'll be here for years.

Won't even learn the language. And that's not a joke. And so this is a problem. It's a strain on our, on our system. And furthermore, their attitude is, is self preservation.

And I get that. I mean, certainly I don't blame them. It was a better place to go than where they're at, but this is because of the crappy governments that are there. And a lot of those from the South are heavily influenced by Catholicism. And there's, there's a lot of problems in that, which relates to government, but, uh, cause it breeds sin. But um, uh, appealing to their conscience now, I suspect that what's happening is the same thing that was happening when they, when Florida was being invaded from Cuba, the Cuban government just emptied out his jails and sent a lot of the bad people here to Florida. I'm sure they're doing the same thing, saying, get out of jail here.

You can go up North and go to America. This is the kind of thing that is happening. And we know that Muslims are coming in and all they got to do is wait for a coordinated time attack and it'll bring America to its knees.

It's easy. A lot of stuff is happening that's really bad in America. I live here in the Boise, Idaho area and 10 years or so ago, I can't remember the exact date, but the people of Idaho said no, because the stupid government here was willing to sell 50 square miles to China and it would be sovereign Chinese territory on our own soil.

A communist regime on our own soil, their sovereign land. I mean, it's insane. It's insane what's going on. And you know, is our fix, Matt, is our fix just voting Republicans, sir?

That's what I hear a lot too. Well, it looks like we just got to go out and vote. That's the only way to stop all this is if we go out and vote.

I don't think that'll do it. My opinion is that more than voting needs to be done. More than voting. See, what the left does is it organizes and protests and shuts things down. I think the conservatives need to do the same thing. The conservative needs to become the court systems. Yes, they do. And they need to do the same thing.

You just sue the bejeebers out of people. They need to become aggressive. And the Christians need to stop with this idea of, we're going to get out in the pre-tribulation rapture, so don't worry about it.

That's got to stop. And then they misunderstand, turn the other cheek. It means don't do anything. That's not what Jesus said. He said that to turn the other cheek meant, in the context of an insult, turn the other cheek was after you were struck.

They pulled a beard, they'd spit on you, then they would slap you. That's the last level of an escalation of violence. Then you don't strike back with violence.

That's what he's talking about. It doesn't mean sit down and do nothing, but we, as Christian men, are obligated to defend the helpless. That's what we're obligated to do. And Jesus said in Luke 22, 36, buy a sword. I'm not saying become violent, but we have the right of self-defense.

This passive crud that's being taught is not biblical. We are to be aggressive. Go out and make disciples of all nations. Go out there and do it.

He says, go out and do it. And he said to the disciples, you have a sword? No, you have two cloaks.

Sell a cloak and buy a sword. Jesus said this. And so it's easier to teach from the pulpit, don't do anything. We'll be pre-raptured out of here. It's easier to see that then.

You need to start discipling each other and learning from the word of Christ and learning what it means to pick up your cross and go out there and petition and go out there and make phone calls and do emails and go out there and join people and risk being assaulted, risk being arrested even. This is what it means. And Christians today are just taught hammock theology. God wants you. It's your best life now. And what you need to do is just name it and claim it, confess it, because he wants you wealthy and healthy. That's what God wants for you. And people just suck this up because their ears are tickling and they're chuckling all the way.

They're laughing so hard because they're so tickled that they can't even hear what the truth of the gospel is, the cost of discipleship. And so it's frustrating to me. It's frustrating because I know what's happening to our country.

I've seen it. I'm 67 years old and I've been around for those many years and I've seen what happens over the decades and the degradation that's going on. Our country is being dismantled.

It's being destroyed from the inside. And the Christian men aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing as a whole. Now, there are good men out there, but they're teaching mamby-pamby theology from the pulpits instead of standing up and saying, this is what we're called to do as Christians, to make disciples of all nations. And what does that mean? Well, for most people, it means, well, I go to church, I pay a tithe every now and then.

Now let's go to a restaurant, I gotta get, I'm hungry, gotta get fed. That's what discipleship is. What would you tell all pastors, Matt, that's listening to you right now? What would you say to all the pastors in America right now?

I'd say, make sure that what you're preaching is out of the word of God, that you're equipping the Christians for the work of ministry, as Ephesians 4 says, because that's what they're called to do. And I'll read this to you. This is what it says. It says in Ephesians 4, I'm gonna get to it, I'm gonna read it, it's out of the NASB. It says that in verse 11, he gave some as apostles and some as prophets, some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers.

And this is what's interesting. It says in Greek, some he gave as the apostles. In Greek, it says that. The apostles and some as the prophets, okay? And some as the evangelists and some as the pastors and teachers. So there's five things, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, but four definite articles, the.

The is a definite article, the four of them. The apostles, the prophets, the evangelists and the pastors and teachers. The pastors and teachers is the same office. For the equipping of the saints, for the work of service to the building of the body of Christ.

And it goes on, for the equipping of the saints, are they being equipped? If they're being equipped by the church as a whole, then why is it they're teaching? Why is it that we have successful false teachers like Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland? Why do we have these false teachers out there teaching stuff that they shouldn't be teaching?

And so we are called to be salt in the world, and this saltiness is not pleasant sometimes. But, you know, not to toot my own horn, but look, you know, I've got Asperger's and all I've done is just say, God, I don't care what it takes, where you send me, just use me. And so he's taken a broken vessel and he's done good things with the broken vessel. I'm not claiming any credit, but look what he can do. Look what he can do.

I mean, there's Justin Peters. He's got cerebral palsy. He's being used greatly by God. Christians need to submit themselves to God, and pastors need to make sure that they're teaching that to God, to the people of God, and not just look for how many numbers are coming in.

What are they teaching faithfully? That's what needs to happen. We've got to go, buddy. All right. Amen. Thanks for calling.

Here's a break. Talk to you later. God bless. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. 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 on with Jesse from Nevada.

Jesse, welcome. You're on the air. How's it going, Matt? It's going. Sorry, man. You had a long wait there, but what do you got, buddy?

What's up? Question. So my question is, you know, when it comes to finding a good church, I've been to several churches here in Vegas, and I want to maybe see if maybe I'm looking at it in the wrong perspective, but how should one as a Christian, how should the experience be like when you're in church? Because I do feel like sometimes some of the churches I have attended, I feel like it's always like super positive, motivational, you know, feel there, like, you know, I don't really know if that's how it's supposed to be or should you leave like challenge to want to change because I noticed that you never feel, I never, when I go there, I never feel that way. And I do notice that other people there don't feel that way.

Like I've walked out of church and I hear people saying, Hey, we're going to go out to that. Okay. Gotcha.

Okay. Let me just, let me jump in here a little bit. So let me ask you, these churches, are you feeling when you listen to a sermon, are they equipping you for the work of service or they just making it feel good? Um, I, I think more of the, the feel good, but now, now that I'm more aware of it, I'm kind of just trying to get little, little pieces and try to take the good out of it. You know?

Yes. So what's happening in a lot of churches is you go in and everything, everything's good, comfortable, clean, nice, well organized. Those are all good things. And it seems to be that the goal is to get as many people into the church, make them as comfortable as they want, as it can be. Well, is that bad in itself?

No, no. I mean, we didn't want to make them uncomfortable. We don't want to be yelling and screaming at them of course, but what it comes down to is the preaching and the teaching of the word of God is the word being compromised by the preacher.

And it should be no women pastors and elders. That's unbiblical. Okay.

Period. And so are they then making you feel good and that's what's going on. God has a wonderful plan and that's just basically what's taught. And so people are encouraged, they come in.

If that's the case, then that's a warning flag. There are bad churches everywhere, but they should be focusing on the word of God for the work of the equipping of the saints. The equipping of the saints means to prepare them, to train them for the work of ministry.

That's what they're supposed to be doing. Now, are the churches doing that? That's the question for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry.

That's what's supposed to happen. So if they're not doing that for the work of service to God, then they're failing to do what their pastors are supposed to be doing. As I read earlier, it says that God gave someone's apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers. The pastors are like shepherds, but they're teachers also teaching the word of truth because when you go to 1 Timothy 3 and it says they should be able to teach, the overseer must be able to teach in 1 Timothy 3. This is Paul's instruction to the church. And Titus chapter 1 likewise talks about being able to teach. He says that these elders are supposed to be, and these are the people, pastors are by default elders. They must be hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, right, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching so that they will be able to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict. That's the qualifications of an elder and a pastor. So the pastors are supposed to be equipping the Christians for the work of ministry, which means in part that they are to teach them sound doctrine and teach them how to refute those who contradict.

So if I were to go to some random church that you're talking about where they are, you know, the nice lights, the nice music, the nice welcome, everything, everything's nice and fine and go in there and say, hey, I'm only going to ask questions of the people who have been here for a year or longer, okay? By show of hands, let me put up a little slide show. Here's a trinity, definition 1, definition 2, definition 3. You know, the trinity is one God in three distinct, simultaneous, go eternal persons. The trinity is the Father, Son, Holy Spirit in three forms.

The trinity is three separate gods, and just say which one do you hold to one? How many to two? How many to three? How many to three?

How many to three? Can we lose our salvation? What do we do to keep ourselves right if we can lose our salvation? Is Jesus a man right now? Why was he baptized? All these things, I bet you we'd find out that the average Christian in these churches that have been going to these churches doesn't know jack squat hardly at all about what the truth the Christian doctrines are. I bet you that would be the case.

Right. It's a sad thing that's happening in a Christian church. And then you go to these churches and too many times they open up with a nice story.

It's story time. And then they get to the word and then they skim over the depth. There's so much riches. And sometimes you've got to skim, I get that. But when that's what it is, this skimming part, you know, churches, I've been to so many where the music is loud and so loud, I've had to literally sit in the back with my ears, fingers in my ears.

It's just so stinking loud. And then they get up and it is a great day. Oh, well, aren't we all having a great time?

It's a, it's a, it's a pep rally. And then they talk about it. Oh, this is so great.

This is great. We're going to be here, everything's so wonderful. And I'm like, oh man. And then open the word. Well, you know, well, let's get to John 3 16, but before we do that, I got a story to tell you.

And everybody's just smiling and clapping because they're being fed peplem, you know. Yeah, that's very true that as you were saying it, I was just actually thinking about that. It is like that it's like a concert and then it's, you know, this person came here two years ago and this happened or, you know, just stuff like that. And then maybe three or four verses and that's it. I went to one church here in the Boise, Idaho area, I'm not going to name what it was.

And I was appalled after a while. It was about the church. They would have videos that they would show at the beginning of a sermon of how great the church was, how people were helped by the church. And so until here, this church, when they came to be this church, it should be, it should be, it should be the, the teaching about the Lord Jesus and the truth of God's word has been monumental in my life. And I'm so grateful that we've come to a church where the truth of God's word is taught.

That's what it's supposed to be. It's just, you know, I know I get like this every now and then on the radio, but I get so tired of, of seeing the weakness of the Christian church. We have Jesus Christ, the creator of the universe on our side. And what are we doing? We're behaving as though Jesus is the blonde haired, black location surfer to dress the Romans nightgown instead of the one who's overturned the temple tables and made a cord of a whip of cords and drove them out and said, you know, you're your father, the devil. He's not a convenient Jesus when he's like that, the convenient Jesus, even for the believers is the one that urges you to sit down and relax, turn your other cheek. You'll get free raptured out of here.

Don't worry about it because God wants you healthy and wealthy. Just put in your money. This is what's going on. And the pastors who teach like this are going to have to face God for this, but I would love to be a pastor again and teach for the, to equip, to equip them and have men who'd say, say, look, we'll do everything in the church. Get it ready. You just teach us.

I'd say, now you got to deal, don't worry about anything. Just let me work on sermons and pray and get up on Sunday and teach and then teach people how to teach and say, this is what the word of God says and find ways to implement the word of God around us in our homes, in society, but that's costly and it's difficult and people don't want it. They want hammock theology. Make me feel good. Coochie coo, Diberinian theology, make me feel good.

And when the pastor start treating adults like children, that's what they're going to get. Okay. Anyway. All right.

Sorry, man. Hey, look, I have an article on CARM, have an article on CARM. What things should we look for in a church? Just look it up on CARM.

What things should we look for in a church or just type that in CARM, put my name in that slick. You'll find the article. Okay. Got it. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right, man.

God bless. All right. All right. Let's get, get to Mike.

Mike from Ohio. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I've got a hot minute. So, uh, I've been listening for a long time.

I appreciate everything that you do. I agree with mostly everything you say, but I think when we get on politics, I don't know. I, you, you call out Democrats specifically and I'm right there with you.

I believe they are demoncrats, but then we have the Republicans, which you say aren't far behind. And I, I feel like that these people believing that the conservative party still represents us and I don't believe they do. I don't believe there's anything left in this broken system. I don't believe that we can go through the courts. I believe the courts have been corrupted. I've been reading Deuteronomy just today, uh, about how the judges were supposed to not be respected as a person to receive gifts.

And we know that, I mean, I'm, I'm what would used to be considered lower middle class, but I'd say I'm in the new class of, uh, upper lower class. Uh, if I were to go to court for some of the things that, uh, Hunter Biden or, or some of the Donald Trump, uh, you just take them from either side, really. If I were facing any of the allegations that either of them were, I'd be in prison indefinitely. And so I just, I don't want a group of Christians to be misled, to believe that there is any hope and a political system that has been broken for as far as I can tell, as long as I've been alive and I'm 45. I'm with you. I don't trust the Democrats or the Republicans. I think both, well, I believe that the demon crats are, they're gone and the Republican party, I, I can't watch politics anymore without me wanting to throw something at the TV that the Republicans, what I've seen, and there's some good ones in there. That's why I say that, but they're not doing anything.

You're compromising. And so we need a big change. We need a huge change. And the things that are doing to Trump, no, go ahead, you go ahead, go ahead.

I believe they're all under the influence of, of the, the heads of the world economic forum, the, the unelected officials that, that pulled the strings of, of the super PACs that get them into the position to be elected. I mean, that's, that's where we're at. We're, we're, we're dealing with a group of people who want an ecumenical religion.

If they want any religion at all, they want to, they want to burn out the word of God and they want to make some new AI generated Bible that everybody can all hold hands and sing Kumbaya around their, their money sign. That's right. And if we as Christian men don't stand up and put a stop to it, then the, the landslide of evil is going to overcome us. There's the music. I agree with that. And I agree. It's prayer.

It's all prayer. You're right. And we get to call back tomorrow. Let's talk about it some more. This is important. And Laura from Raleigh, North Carolina, please call back tomorrow.

Sorry, ran out of time and Mike from North Carolina, call back. Let's talk about this stuff some more. It's important and it's biblical for us to address these issues of politics. We write back.

No, he won't. Well, tomorrow we back. The Lord bless you. Have a good evening. I'm Laura Howard by the truth network.