Matt Slick Live

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 CARM.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. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick.

You're listening to Matt Slick live. Nice coincidence there. And if you want, you can give me a call as usual.

And today's date is May 24th, 2024. So, the number is 877-207-2276. You can also email me. And Fridays, we do a lot of sometimes hate mail. I love hate mail. I love it. And some of the wacko mail, which I like also. We do some Q&A, some questions from email and stuff like that on certain days.

Friday, that is. So, if you want to call, like I said, 877-207-2276. Also, you can email me info at CARM.org, info at CARM.org. And just put in the subject line, radio comment, radio question. You can get to me and we can blab.

See, blabbing is good. All right. Let's get on the air here with Alan from Virginia. Alan, welcome. You're on the air. Okay.

Hi, Matt. How are you doing? Doing all right. Hanging in there, man. Hanging in there.

What do you got? Well, first thing before my question, I was looking up sin nature stuff. And I looked up, are we punished for Adam's sin, your article on that. And I think in there, it says Romans 5, 12 to 23.

But I can't find 22 and 23. Do you know if that's like a different translation or just like a typo? Romans 5, 22. Oh, yeah. It must be a typo then. Yeah.

What article is it? And I'll fix it. It is, are we punished for Adam's sin? Okay. Should be just, there it is. Comes up. So, let's see.

Did we get punished for what Adam did? That's weird. Okay. Anyway, I'll find it and then just fix a typo. It does happen.

You know, we do get typos in there. So, what's up, man? What do you got? Okay. So, can the ability to sin also be a potential property of other natures rather than just a central property of the sin nature? Other natures, like the nature of a rock?

What do you mean? Yes. So, my understanding, I guess, of it is there's like essential and potential natures of something. So, like a bowling ball, you know, it can't breathe. And whatnot, an essential nature, it can't breathe. But a potential nature would be, it can be red or it can be blue. Yeah.

Those are... No, no, no. Those are properties. Properties emanate out of the ontos, out of the nature, okay?

All right? So, sin, in order for a person or sin to occur, apparently, we need to have sentience. We need to have the ability to be able to rebel against God. And I would just say that, you know, a rock can't do that and an arm can't do that. It has to be in the issue and the condition of personhood to be able to do that.

So, by the way, I fixed the article. So, persons sin and angels have personhood. Now, we're not saying person as you and me, you know, body, flesh, and bones person, but the idea of having a will, self-awareness, sentience, and things like this, and angels have that. So, they can sin, and many have, and people can sin. But I don't see how animals could sin or rocks or whatever. Okay?

Okay. So, I'm trying to get confirmation or not. So, can you have sin without a sin nature? Or can something sin without a sin?

Well, yes and no. Adam did not have a sin nature, and he sinned. But at his sin, his nature fell. So, then we have the issue of which comes first, the chicken or the egg. Did his nature fall the same time he sinned, and so they're concomitant and simultaneous, or did the nature follow a few seconds later, which doesn't really make sense to me. But these are the kinds of questions, and I don't think we could really answer them very well. So, I would say that technically speaking, since the fall, sin natures are required in order to sin.

And the fact of Adam, who did not have a sin nature, was able to sin, would then cause us to wonder about that. Okay? Yeah.

I was looking at Romans 5.13 with the NASB 95, where it says, for until the law of sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law, which I'm assuming imputed here means that a punishment, basically. No, no. Is that right?

No, no. Imputation is different than punishment. To impute, think of a legal action. So, I can impute to you $5 by writing you a check, and it's imputed to your account.

My $5 is imputed to your account. So, imputation is a legal transference. And so, sin is a legal problem. 1 John 3.4, it's breaking the law of God. And so, Jesus bore our sin in his body on the cross.

1 Peter 2.24. And in Colossians 2.14, he canceled the certificate of debt, the choreography. And so, it looks like it's the sin debt. The legal aspect of the law was fulfilled in Christ. We broke the law, and so we have a sin debt. But what he's saying here, sin is not imputed when there is no law. Because sin is breaking the law of God. So, if there is no law, how can you have an imputation of sin? Law itself is also legal. So, if there is no law, you can't have sin. But there is law from the very beginning.

Adam and Eve were in the garden with a tree, and God said, don't eat of this. That's the first law that was revealed. They broke that law, and so sin was in the world because of it. Okay. That's one thing too. So, sin entered the world through Adam, yet sin was in the world before the law.

No. The law... How does that... When you say the law, you can mean different things.

Like the codified law, the Ten Commandments and other things with Moses and stuff like that. But in the garden, God gave a law. Don't eat of this tree because if you do, you will die.

So, I'm going to go to Genesis 2.17. It says, from the tree, the knowledge of the good needle, you may not eat. For the day that you eat, you shall die. So, there's a statement with a consequence. That's the power of the law. A law that has no consequence is a slogan.

It's a slogan. But the reason we have laws is if you break the law, you're speeding, you get a fine because that's the consequence of the law. So, the first law given was given by God, and we know it's a law because there's a consequence. Right from the very beginning, even before they sinned, the law was in effect.

Not the whole law, but that law right there. Okay? Okay.

I'm probably going to have to take some time to look over what you said to kind of get an understanding. It's all right. But do you mind if I ask a few more questions? Sure. Go ahead. Okay. Was Eve specifically commanded by God to not eat of the tree or the knowledge of good and evil?

No. So, we don't see anything in Genesis 1 through 3 that says that God spoke to Eve. What we see is God telling Adam what's going on. Then, the presupposition is that Adam then informed Eve.

We know that this is probably the case because of what's called federal headship, that the male represents the descendants, not the female. So, they were in the garden. She sinned first, but sin entered the world through Adam, Romans 5-12. And when they were hiding, the pre-incarnate Christ came and said, to the man, where are you?

Not Eve, what have you done, Adam and Eve, but to the man. So, the issue here... Oh, man, I forgot your question. What was your question again? Oh, I hate it when I do that. It's all good. I was...

I remember reading in the Bible that I couldn't find it where Eve was commanded by God. It was that she knew... Right. Kind of knew others. Yeah. So, the...

Thank you. The issue here is that she was logically told by Adam. He was the head, the one who was informed. And so, what she said, when Satan said in Genesis 3, 1, you know, did God really say they don't eat from the tree? That's doubting the word of God. And what she did was she added it. She modified the word, don't eat or touch it.

And when that is done, then Satan was free to contradict the word. So, she modified. But anyway, the presupposition is that Adam told her. Okay.

Okay. Would you also affirm that she's considered a descendant of Adam? She's not a... Well, not in a descendant the way we normally think of being a descendant, but made equal out of him. So, I wouldn't say descendant in that sense, no. But she was made out of his side, as God did. You know? I could tell you where it's like woman, womb, like womb of Adam, I guess.

If you want to consider it that. Where she was from Adam. The womb of Adam? Out of that, I wouldn't use that. That's just an English kind of coincidence in pronunciation of terms and stuff like that. It doesn't exist in the Hebrew like that. So, I would just say that, no, she's not his descendant, because we understand descendants to mean marriage, copulation, birth, as a descendant.

That's not the case with Eve. Okay? Okay. Can I ask one more question? Yes, you can, because we're going to get, just so Pastor George knows, we'll get to you after the break. So, you talk a little bit longer. So, go ahead.

We've got two minutes or so before the next break. So, what do you got? Go ahead. So, is the serpent in the garden of Eden the devil? Yes. Okay. Are there any scriptures that support this? Yes, you can go to Revelation 20, it says, I saw an angel come down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss, a great chain, and laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan.

Revelation 20 verse 2. Okay? Well, there you go.

That's what it says. I appreciate it so much, Matt. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, no problem, man.

God bless. No sweat. You too. All right. Bye.

So, we have one open line. We've got a break coming up in a minute now. And if you want to give me a call, all you got to do is dial 877-207-2276.

You can also give me an email, send it to info at karm.org, and just put a subject line radio comment or radio question, Pastor George, hey, you're on the air. Hello. How are you, brother? I'm good, brother. How are you? Very good and blessed.

Yeah. Now, let me introduce you to people, okay, because I don't know if you've ever called me before, but everybody, look, this is Pastor George, George Sig, and he speaks Arabic. He has a ministry to Muslims.

He'll tell you more about that after the break. And he's a great guy. He's a humble man. I've seen him witness in Arabic, and I'll never forget it. We're in Seattle together, watching him speak to someone in Arabic, a Muslim, and the compassion was just coming through.

You could just see it. He's a great guy, and I had him called today because there's going to be a conference in a certain area. So there's a bit of an intro, all's in your park. So just talk.

Tell us about your ministry before we get to the break, and then we'll talk about the conference. Okay. Sure.

Yes. We are M2M Network or Ministry to Muslims Network. I was born in Sudan, I grew up in Sudan, where we had no freedom to share the gospel with Muslims. And Muslims had no freedom to change their faith. Praise God for this great country.

So far we still have that freedom to share the gospel with Muslims, and for Muslims to have the decision to change their religion if they want to, which is an awesome opportunity for us here to share the gospel with them. Good. Now there's the music, so there's the break. We'll get right back with you after the break, and then we'll talk about the conference and stuff like that, and how to get ahold of you. Hey folks, we'll be right back after these messages. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. Well, Robert, welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, the number is 877-207-2276. Let's get back on with Pastor George. Okay, George, brother, you're back on the air. Yes.

Okay. Yeah, as we said a few minutes ago that we reach out to Muslims across the country, and we want to see that everybody in the church to be engaged with Muslims, because the task is too big for one organization or one group of people or one team to reach out to every Muslim in America. We have millions of them in this country, where our desire to see the church is equipped to reach out to Muslims, and that's why we're hosting different conferences across the country, and one of them will be in North Carolina area, sorry, September, I'm rushing, May 31st and June 1st, we're having today's conference in Kannapolis area, next to Concord, like 30 minutes from Charlotte, not that far from Charlotte, and we're having amazing speakers. I wish if we have you with us, Matt, maybe next time, that we're having Samuel Green all the way from Australia, we're having Reverend Anthony Rogers, one of the top scholars that we have today defending the Christian faith and challenging Islam. I know, Matt, you debated for us before Shabir Ali, right?

Not Shabir Ali, sorry, Shadid Lewis, you debated on two topics, I think, yeah, but we did also quite a few debates with Anthony, at least six, seven debates with Shabir Ali from Canada, and we host a lot of public debates, because it's really great to learn from public debates, I encourage you to watch some of these debates, I believe, in CARM as well, and your website, I encourage people to watch debates, because that's a great way of learning how Muslims goes about it, and last Sunday, when do we have last Sunday with Medhi Rahmat? So okay, you have a website now, right? Yes, ministry2tomuslims.com, ministry2, which is T O Muslims, with the S in the end, dot com. And when you go there right in the homepage, you're going to find our strong tower East Coast, you can click on it, and it will take you right away to the registration page. And if you use the word faith, if you use the word faith as a discount code, you will get 95% off, all you're going to pay like $2 for a great conference with great speakers, and it can be a really awesome time to connect with other people that have the same heart that want to reach out to Muslims as well.

That's right. And I was looking at the flyer that you sent me, and there's some really good speakers there, and for those who are listening, if you're in the area and you want to know, these guys know their stuff, they really do, and they're godly and compassionate and insightful, and I can't guarantee you won't be disappointed, but I don't see how you could be disappointed. They are really good, and I've studied Islam for a long time, and when I listen to these guys and I talk to these guys, I'm always learning, and they have insights, they have the ability to really make things sound very good, very concise, and very accurate regarding the problems and the serious issues of Islam, and it's worth going. Check it out.

And so how do they get to that again? Yes, thank you so much, Matt. The website again is ministry2tomuslims.com, ministry2tomuslims.com, and we would love to hear from you. Thank you so much, brother. Sure. Anytime.

If you want to call again, or I can remind people about it as well, but ministry2muslims.com, and you can check it out. And I can vouch for George. How long have we known each other? It's been a few years, 10 years, I'm thinking. I don't know.

I know it's past 10 years, yes. Okay. Yes, it's a joy to work with you in Seattle, in California, and other places. Well, you're very welcome, and thank you for what you do for the Lord and how many people you've reached for the Lord Jesus inside of Islam. You do what a lot of people can't do, so I do hope that they go to the conference. I'll be mentioning it, and just praise God for you and for everybody at the conference there. So God bless you, brother. Thank you, man. God bless.

All right. So I've worked with George many times and done stuff with him. He even came up to this area once and was at a conference, and I was able to drive out and been down to Southern California when he was there. Now he's out on the East Coast. I've been to the East Coast, too, did a debate with Sadeed Lewis, did two.

I believe it was two. And so the Muslims really do need competent evangelists because, ladies and gentlemen, they're on their way to hell for believing in a false god and a false prophet and a false gospel, and we don't want that. They can be reached, and if you think you don't have what it takes to be able to talk with them, not so.

You can go and check out the conference, and if you're interested in it, just go to Ministry to Muslims dot com, all one word, and there will be Reverend Anthony Rogers, who I've talked to many times, and then Samuel Green. I haven't talked to her. I think I've talked to him. I've talked to Laura Powell, I believe, and then there's Tony Cost. I've talked to him. And then Owen Gables, I haven't talked to.

Eddie Delcore, I've talked to him. And some others, anyway, so I'm looking at the thing there. So check it out. There's a lot of good guys there, and they're godly men and women, and so may the Lord bless that effort. All right, having said all that, let's get on the air now with Christopher from Raleigh, North Carolina. Christopher, welcome. You're on the air.

Hey, Matt. How you doing today? Oh, hanging in there, man. Hanging in there.

What do you got, buddy? Praise God. So, I know you believe in the gifts of spirits, but do you believe in, I have two questions, but the first one is, do you believe in modern day apostles and prophets?

No. The law and the prophets were intelligent, Luke 16, 16. That's talked about the division of the Old Testament, law and the prophets, but the prophets of the sense that it's being spoken of were intelligent on the Baptist.

There's no more unto him. He's the greatest of the prophets, because he was a precursor to Christ prophesied in Isaiah 40, verse 3. Now, apostles, one of the qualifications of being an apostle, according to Acts chapter 1, I forget the exact verses, 21, 22, 23 range, is that in order to be apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, they had to have been with them at the beginning of the ministry to replace Judas, and so they picked Matthias. Paul the apostle, he was called an apostle because he justifies it by saying in 1 Corinthians 9, 1, that he has seen the risen Lord. Am I not an apostle?

Have I not seen the risen Lord? So these seem to be the biblical qualifications for apostleship that cannot be met today. Okay. Interesting.

Well, what about in Ephesians, I think it's Ephesians 4, yeah, Ephesians 4 says he gave some to be apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, and evangelists until, you know, the perfecting the same. When we get back from the break, we'll tackle it. When we get back from the break, we'll tackle it. Okay. Okay, buddy.

Sweet. So hold on, man. We'll be right back. Hey, folks, please stay tuned. We'll be right back after these messages. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Let's get back on here with Christopher.

Christopher, welcome. You're back on. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. So where were we? Ephesians 4 talks about, yeah, but it does talk about like in the following verse until we come to, I think, the full knowledge of the full maturity of believers and I guess like what you're saying is that has that already happened?

Okay. So there's different ways to interpret this as you talked about Ephesians 4-11. He gave some as apostles. Now in the Greek, it's actually the apostles. He gave some as the apostles and some as the prophets and some as the evangelists and some as the pastors and teachers.

So some say there's a five-fold ministry and others say it's a four-fold ministry because the word the occurs only four times, not five, but it's just trivial. Since we know that the Word of God is sufficient for us and it tells us what's going on, as I said before the break that apostles seem to be described the way they are as having certain requirements, it doesn't seem possible that today they can be met. So what do we do with Ephesians 4-11, some as apostles and some as prophets?

Well, the word apostolo in Greek means to send. So an apostle is someone who's sent. Well, if I send my wife to the store to get me something, is she then an apostle?

Well, no, he wouldn't say that. Generally speaking, when we talk about apostles, we talk about those who are with Christ, who knew Christ, who were called by Christ specifically. Some will say that people today can be apostles because they are called by Christ specifically. Well, if that's the case, then I'm an apostle because I'm called to do what I do. Well, am I going to say I'm an apostle?

Of course not. So when we use the word apostle, we have to be very, very careful here. What often happens with the idea of someone saying apostle so-and-so will be at the church on Tuesday, well, then he's elevating himself to a certain level of superiority. Apostles are above prophets. And so when we get in the NAR, the New Apostolic Reformation, then what they're doing is they're having a hierarchical structure of authority of apostles that go to different churches and tell you what you're supposed to be believing and doing. Well, that's a problem because now they're usurping the authority.

So this stuff is just all over the place. One of the theories about Ephesians 4-11 is that the apostles and the prophets were already laid there for us. We had the apostles, Paul's one, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, and the prophets of the Old Testament.

And we no longer need that, but they were there as foundational work, as one of the theories. And then he gave some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers. However, since it talks about the evangelists and pastors and teachers, which seems to be the present tense, some could then say, well, it's the apostles and prophets are present for today. If they were to go that way, then the apostles that are present for that time when that was going on would be the apostles like Paul the apostle. And the prophets, now we have another issue because in 1 Corinthians 14, we have prophecy. So when a prophet gets up to speak and to prophesy, well, does that mean then that he has the office of prophet like the Old Testament?

The answer is no. So you see, this gets to be complicated and there's a lot of different avenues to go down to talk about this. Long story short, no, I don't believe there's apostles, certainly not like they were in the New Testament, because those apostles, not all of them, could write scripture. And they were authoritative. So if someone comes to me and says, look, I'm the apostle so-and-so, Matt, I need you to listen to me. I'm going to say, excuse me, who are you? How do I know you're called by God?

Because you said so? I mean, what are you, Muhammad? And Muhammad calls himself an apostle. I mean, he's a false teacher, but you see, there's just problems. And it's just not easy to get to. What I do say, even though I do believe in all the charismatic gifts for today, I say, look, don't trust these modern day apostles and prophets, prophets so-and-so, you know, we'll be here on, like I said, on Tuesday with apostles so-and-so.

Come and hear what God has for you. That's a problem. That's abuse. That's misuse of the charismatic gifts and the offices that were decreed in scripture.

Okay? Interesting, do you have any, because me personally, I don't honestly like, you know, I came from a charismatic church. I don't want anything to do with charismatic anymore. I believe in the gifts of the spirits, but I don't want to have anything to do with the charismatic church anymore, to be honest. Anyway, one thing that I'm, I guess, because I'm really rethinking a lot in my, not deconstructing because I think that's falling away from the faith. I'm more so really rethinking what scripture says, and my question was actually how should apostles and prophets conduct themselves, but what you're saying, there's no modern day, and I've heard that, and honestly, like, I've heard what you're saying, like, the scripture about, like, they had this risen Lord, and I don't know, maybe I have to study it some more and really pray for revelation, but do you have an article?

Well, okay, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, because you said something. Pray for revelation. Now, I know what you mean by that, but I would ask that you consider saying, you know, before God, say, you pray that God will open your heart and your mind to understand the scripture so that you can discern what the truth is about this issue. But isn't that revelation because it's revealed? It can be, but you see how this revelation thing, pray for God's revelation. The issue is that in some circles, of too many of them, revelation, well, God told me, you know, so and so's in the pulpit, and I prayed for revelation, and I got a revelation from God. Let me tell you what God said. This is abuse.

This is problematic. If we get a revelation, so to speak, that God tells us something, then we need to make sure we've checked it with scripture and others whom we trust to verify that it might be from God, because 1 Corinthians 14 talks about speaking in tongues, a word of wisdom, word of knowledge, prophecy. These are also, as you could say in a broad sense, forms of revelation that come from God. Well, if that's the case, even those were checked by God and in the body of Christ. So anyway, people say, I'm going to pray for revelation, and then they get something from God. Then that becomes the authority, and that's the danger, okay?

I see. Okay, well, I don't want to take too much time, I'm sure you have other callers, because I know people who say, oh, I'm a prophet, one of my best friends is like, oh, I'm a prophet, and like, this guy has told me stuff that has come true, and I'm like, oh, dang. I'm a prophet, which I do believe, and disagree with it, obviously, but I believe he does get things from God, but the church that he goes to is very questionable, I'll be honest. They're associated with Bethel, which I'm just like, dude, where's the disservice at, man? People are shaking and convulsing, I'm like, don't you see this?

But anyway, how can that be justified? I know that there's gifts of prophecy, and whatnot, so ultimately, how do you rectify that when it's like, okay, this person is giving a prophetic word that is legitimate, that he's not a prophet, but he has a gift of prophecy? The elders of the church, the body of Christ, need to check it out. So I would read 1 Corinthians 14, and it says, if anyone has a revelation, a tongue, an interpretation, let all things be done for edification, and this is 1 Corinthians 14, 26, and this is, in my opinion, something that's ignored in churches today. Each one is a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, interpretation, but all to be done for the edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, each in turn, and one must interpret. If there is no interpreter, keep quiet, and let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. If a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent, for you can all prophesy one by one so that all may learn and all may be exhorted, and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. God's not an author of confusion. So what he's saying here is that if this is to be done, then you need to do it in a very specific order so there's no confusion, and for the edification of the body. It's critical, because what if someone gets up and says, I'm prophet so and so, let me tell you what God's telling me, and he gets up and he's strutting and walking and moonwalking and he points at people, hey, and I'm obviously exaggerating, but the issue here is that, well, hey, wait a minute, he's exalting himself. If anything comes from God through a person, then that person should be very cautious and very wary, because it's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of God's discipline when you have a gift that he's given you and you're misusing it, or you pretend you have a gift from God and you're standing up.

So people who have these, so to speak, callings and giftings need to be very, very cautious, and they need to be exalted, not exalted, but the body of Christ needs to encourage them, not themselves. Okay? Okay, there's the music, gotta go buddy. All right? All right. All right, man.

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, everyone, welcome back to the show. Let's get back, or get on with Rick, been waiting a long time. Rick, welcome.

You're on the air. And I have a question for you, are reptiles considered evil because, you know, God used considered or referred to Satan as the serpent? No, it's just that that's what was manifested by the evil one. It doesn't mean that all of them are just evil, okay?

That's all. So, like, if we have reptiles, are we evil because we like reptiles? I mean, is that being evil? No, it doesn't mean you're evil any more than having doves means you're good, because the Holy Spirit was represented by a dove, you know, as a dove. So, no, you're okay to have reptiles, okay? Okay. Just, I hear people say, you know, they're supposed to, like one guy was saying, they're supposed to kill all of any kind of snakes because it says in the Bible, a crusher, you're going to kill, you know, he'll crush his heel and it refers, I know it refers to Jesus and the serpent, the devil, but I, you know, I just hear a lot of people like saying snakes are evil and reptiles are evil because, you know, the Bible refers to the devil as a serpent, you know?

Yeah, I hear you. And no, okay, so Balaam had a donkey that talked to him, so does that mean all donkeys talk? Of course not, so, and they caught 153 fish in John 21, does it mean that all fish had to be caught in groups of 153?

So no, don't worry about it, you're okay, all right? The other question I have is why did he choose, why did God choose the serpent as a symbol for the devil? I mean, like, why did he pick that animal? It was the devil who manifested as a serpent. So we don't say that God did that, yeah, it was the serpent who did that, okay?

So that's what you would say. You're awesome, I love your show and your blessing and hopefully, I do need prayer, hopefully you can keep me in your prayers, I'm having to go through some health issues right now, and yeah, anyway. Well, you can email us at prayer at karme.org. Oh, you're awesome brother.

And then we have a prayer team, and Joanne runs it, and it's great, okay? You're awesome, I appreciate your, appreciate you and I love your show, God bless you. Well God bless you, and God gets all the glory. All right brother. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Okay.

All right, next longest waiting is Weddle from Fort Worth, I hope you got your name right. Welcome. Hey man, how you doing? God bless.

Hanging in there man, doing okay, what do you got buddy? Good, good. I send in a prayer for my wife who was critically ill, and your prayer team emailed me back and they prayed for her, she's healed eternally, God sent God, allowed her to come home on the 14th of April, she's with the Lord now, but I am thankful that your ministry of prayer contacted us and let us know that they had prayed for her, they were, I guess they were somewhat, not disturbed, that's not a good word, they were shocked maybe or concerned that she had passed, but she's in God's hands and I thank your prayer ministry for praying for her, that's number one, thank you so much for that. Praise God. Number two, Rick Renner, R-e-n-n-e-r, made a statement concerning the event that took place in the Garden of Gethsemane, there was, I think it's in the book of Mark, in fact I'm sure it's in the book of Mark, the Gospel of Mark, where there was a young man that was following them in a linen cloth, I had a linen wrapped around it, he suggests that when Jesus said, according to the book of John, I am he, and the soldiers all fell down, that power went from Jesus and also touched that young man who had recently died. He said that young man is a resurrected being, or a, I don't know, maybe not resurrected, but that might be the wrong word, he said that young man came out of the grave because of the power of Jesus' word when he said I am.

Rick Renner, I think he's off on that, but I don't want to challenge it unless I talk to the authority which is you. What do you think about that statement, do you think that that was a resurrected young brother? I had to look at that, because I don't want to automatically dismiss it, but it sounds suspicious to me. So the conjecture that I've heard about the man who ran away naked was that it was John the Apostle.

I don't know if it is or not, but these are some of the things I've heard over the years. And so, let's see, it's John, let's see, John 18-6. John 18, that part of it, in the garden, John 18, but I think it's Mark chapter 14, when there is an event that takes place, okay, John, excuse me, Mark 14-51, now a certain man wearing nothing but a leather cloth. Yes, and so they don't know who it was, it doesn't say. Right, it doesn't say. So you can't say who it is.

You can say here's one theory, another one, and another one, which one seems to fit best. I lean towards the idea that it was John the Apostle. I could be wrong, because John was very close to Jesus and it would make sense that he was following him through the trial, through all this stuff, up to the cross and a whole bit, and then pretty good, he ran, I mean, you know, normal human being, it makes sense. But can I prove it?

No, not at all. Uh-huh, uh-huh. So we can't say with authority, like Rick Renner does, that this is a person who had recently died, a boy that had recently died, and when Jesus said, I am the power, knowing that he knocked down the soldiers, but it also raised this young boy from the dead. Well, see that's John 18, 6, so when he said, I am, he drew back, they drew back, fell to the ground. Right. And said, to whom do you seek?

Well, this is him, let's see, this is him in the garden. Right. So what this guy you're quoting to would be saying then that in the garden, and I've been to the garden, you know, gone to Israel.

Yeah, I have too. Uh. Well, praise God. Well, where was this guy resurrected from?

In the garden, or some other place? You know, a quarter mile, half a mile, a mile, two miles away, maybe, I don't know. But if that's the case, then how would they know it was him at that time? The only way to know for sure is if the scripture just clearly says it, okay? Okay. And it doesn't.

I'm buying to that 100%. The scripture didn't say it, and I'm not going to expound on it anymore. That's right. That's fine.

That's fine. Wonderful theories, wonderful talk, something to have coffee over and chew the fat over, but as far as I see it, I do know this though, that before, you know, as we saw, as you and I probably have seen in the Garden of Gethsemane, how small it is now, uh, it was huge back in Jesus's day, um, it literally took over a lot of the Mount of Olives. So they said there were people who had been buried in that area, et cetera, and so forth. Don't know that for sure, because I wasn't there, I didn't see it.

But some of those persons who were quote unquote archeologist type people and biblical scholars said that it was quite large, but of course now today we're quite small, considerably smaller. But again, thank you for hearing my, answering my question and praise God, Matt, for your prayer ministry. Sure. Thank you for your prayer team.

Hey, no problem. And one thing before you go, you also know that near the Garden of Gethsemane is that grave site down the hill. Uh huh. Remember that? So that's not too far from there either.

All of the, where all of the bodies are right now waiting to be supposedly waiting, he's going to judge over Jerusalem first? Well, no, it's the physically there at the garden nearby is the, when you walk down the hill, down the road, as you're walking down the left is that humongous graveyard with all those. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You're right.

There's proximity to it. Uh huh. Yeah. One other question, why do the Jews put rocks on the graves, uh, on top of the, on top of the grave? Have you ever asked, have you ever wondered about that? I don't know.

Who put rocks? Okay. I don't know.

All right. That's a good question. I guess we'll have to find a Jewish brother and ask him. That's right.

I know a guy who's Jewish. Who can ask? Yeah. All right.

But I don't know. Thank you, Matt. All right.

You'll have a blessed weekend. You too, man. God bless. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

Next longest waiting is Matt from San Francisco. Matt, welcome. You're on the air.

Sorry about that. You know what? I got to pull over in a moment.

I think you can hear some Matt pulling over right now. So yeah. I know you're not real fond of the guy Leighton Flowers, the ex-Calvinist, but we have a program, it's called Exoteriology 101. Yeah. His exegesis, in my opinion, is wanting.

Yeah. So, yeah, well, I get frustrated that he doesn't seem to tackle the predestination issue. So the Bible clearly talks about predestination, but it doesn't really expound upon it. I know your position, the Calvinist position and his position, but it seems like the Bible is saying two different things. It seems like there's plenty of scripture that he can use for his point of view, but then you have scripture that you're offering up for your point of view. And I'm split. I'm like, I can't move beyond to a place where I'm like convinced one way or the other. As to what is actually the case. Would you believe scripture?

I do. I'm going to go to Ephesians 1, 4 and 5. Just as he, the Father, that's who it is, chose us, that's the elect, chose us in him, that's the theology I can get into, we don't have time right now. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us to adoption as sons. So would you agree that God predestined us to adoption as sons?

Yes. Ephesians 1, 11, we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will. Would you say then, we also have obtained an inheritance having been predestined? Would you say that we've been predestined to have that inheritance? Yes, but is it, is it like, is it dependent upon... Well, we don't have time to get into it, because we're almost out of time, but let me go to one more, okay? Those who before knew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son.

So he predestined or conformed to the image of his son. Predestination is in the Bible. Okay. We don't have time to go over it. We're going to wrap up on Tuesday, because we're not going to be live on Monday, okay, buddy? We got to go.

Or stay in after showroom talk. Folks, sorry about that. That's a good topic. That's what the Bible teaches. I say, there it is.

I believe it. You should too. May the Lord bless you. Bye, it's graceful. Back on the air next week on Tuesday. Have a great one. Bye. Another program powered by the Truth Network.