Matt Slick Live

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at info at karm.org. Yesterday, someone asked me about the position on the rapture.

I threw an article together today and wrote it quickly. It's on the CARM homepage. If you were to go to the CARM homepage and just check it, what's CARM's position on the rapture? What I did, I stated in there that I believe pre- and post-trib rapture views are within orthodoxy. However, my personal position is I'm post-trib rapture.

I don't even know what the positions are of the people that work with me. I don't. They said, okay, whatever. I wrote this article on why I hold to post-trib rapture. We talked about it yesterday.

People were requesting it, so I did put that up. I'll polish it a little bit later, but I think it's a pretty strong argument because of what Jesus himself says. You can check it out, all right? Let me see what you think. You can argue with it. If you see any flaws in it, call me up, let me know, and I can polish it.

We'll see. All right, all right. Okay, 8772072276, let's get to Ebeneezer from California. Ebeneezer, welcome.

You are on the air. Hey, Matt, just one quick question. Is theosis biblical?

It depends on what is meant by theosis, but generally speaking, theosis in the Eastern orthodox view is the teaching that we become like God. Now, I've got notes. I think I actually do have my file open, so let me go to it and see if I can find some quotes from their view, and then we'll discuss if it's biblical or not. Let's see. Here we go.

Come on, let's get right to there. All right, by virtue, this is what it says. This is a quote from the orthodox way. By virtue of this distinction between the divine essence and the divine energies, we are able to affirm the possibility of a direct or mystical union between man and God with the Greek father's term, the theosis of man, his, quote, deification. Now, that's a problem, because in one sense, it says a union between man and God, and we do have that when God is indwelling us.

We have a kind of union, so loosely, okay. If they say that's what theosis is, is a union with us, with God, where Christ indwells us, I don't like the term, but I'd say okay. But when they say our deification, that's a problem. Deity is the quality of being God, so when they say our deification, what they're saying, and I've read some church fathers on this, what they're saying is that it's becoming more like Christ in a very, very real, internal way.

Now, that's worth a discussion, and there's some problems. So, here's another quote, a basic guide to eastern orthodox theology. It says, the forming of human children to be equivalent to God's is only possible because Christ has enabled believers to share in the divine life which he made incarnate.

Salvation understood as sharing in God's nature is explicit in many places in the Bible, such as 2 Peter 1 verses 3 through 4, which says that Jesus through his divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, that we may be partakers in the divine nature. So, you can see what's going on. It's a problem, the way they say this, what's going on with it. And when I talk to eastern orthodox people about theosis, they're not saying that we actually become God or become divine, but we become Christ-like, and then they want to say God-like. And they keep doing this. They keep having one foot in orthodoxy and one foot in heresy, and they kind of lean back and forth depending on what part of the conversation they want to get to. And I'm very uncomfortable with that. So, basically I would say, no, theosis, if it means becoming God-like ontologically, absolutely not.

If it means simply becoming Christ-like, becoming sanctified, then it's not a problem. But that does not seem how they appear to be using it. So, here's another quote. Go ahead. I'll quote you another one after.

Go ahead. So, you think they could be using that in a deceptive type of manner? No. They're not being deceptive. They're not intending to deceive anybody at all. So, let me read another quote, which hopefully will clarify some things. Theosis is not pantheism in which creation is equivalent to God. Nor is theosis borrowed from the eastern religions in which the individual human is expected to ultimately become absorbed into one impersonal cosmic reality. Nor does participation in the divine nature suggest that a created being can actually become divine.

So, that's what I've heard from them. We don't become divine. But then they go to 2 Peter 1, they talk about partaking the divine nature. And I can never get exactly what they mean by that. Because the Bible doesn't tell what that means, it doesn't say.

So, they say things, and I always get nervous when I'm talking about them. It's like, but guys, you're making it sound like you've become God. No, we're not becoming God, but we're becoming like God. What do you mean by becoming like God?

Well, by participating in the divine nature. What does that mean? And then they give me some ramblings. So, it's a tough one. But it depends on how they were to define it, okay? Yeah, I mean, that's the same feeling I got when I talked to them. And I felt the same way, so I just wanted to get you to, you know, have you clear it up for me real quick. Well, I don't think I did. I mean, I think you have the same realization that I do, that it's a bit confusing on how they're using the term.

There seems to be an inconsistency. So, you know, what I wish I could have access to is access to an expert in Eastern theology, Eastern Orthodox theology, who could then, I could say, here's the question, and then we go through and ask very detailed questions. Is there any transference of the divine nature into the divine nature of man? Does the divine nature of man, I mean, does the nature of man, excuse me, does there any transfer of the divine nature of God into the nature of man?

If so, does the nature of man become deified in the sense that its ontos, its essence, is then God-like? And I don't mean God-like, but in the ontos. They have to know what I'm talking about. And these are the kinds of questions I have to ask. I really need to get very detailed.

What's the name? Also, because I've seen that in the catechism, Catholic catechism as well, you think it's the same way for that as well? Yeah, there's something to that as well. In fact, let me open up my file on Catholicism. It'll take 10 seconds, but it's a huge file. And I think it's in paragraph 460. I'll have to find it when I get it open here.

It talks about becoming gods. And the thing, the concern, come on, open up here. Boy, it's taken a long time. Yeah, let's just do it this way. It didn't open up. It should open up. Oh, there it goes. Okay. Yeah, it's just a big file.

I have a fast computer, too. All right, so there's this phrase, paragraph 460, that's right. Okay, so this is what it says.

I'm going to read the whole thing. The word became flesh. Oh, and before I do this, what this paragraph is in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 460, is a series of quotes. The quotes, it looks like, are taken out of the Church Fathers.

And I wrote an article on this. When the paragraph is given, nothing before and nothing after it, like paragraph 461 or 459, neither one of those says, we're not teaching, you've actually become a god. They don't do that, which is really concerning for me, because this is what paragraph 460 of the Catholic Catechism says. The word became flesh to make us partakers of the divine nature. That's a quote. Here's another quote.

This is all in the paragraph, one after another. Quote, for this is why the word became man and the son of God became the son of man, so that man, by entering into communion with the word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God. Close quote. Here's another quote in this paragraph. One after another, these quotes.

For the son of God became man so that we might become God. Close quote. There's another quote. The only begotten son of God wanting to make us sharers in his divinity assumed our nature so that he, made man, might make men gods. Close quote. So that, of course, is heresy.

And the next paragraph you'd think, when so and so says might make men gods, it is not in the sense of actually becoming divine in our nature, but becoming like God in the quality of our sanctification. If they said something like that, at least that would excuse what's going on. But they don't. They just go on to something else. So I have a theory about this. I just have a small theory. And I'm not saying it's going to happen, but when the Antichrist comes and the apostasy of the Christian church has already occurred, I can't help wonder if this paragraph in the Catechism of the Catholic Church might be used to justify the idea of our deification and thereby promote even more heresy in the Roman Catholic Church. As the Antichrist comes in, because there has to be a great apostasy, according to 2 Thessalonians 2-3.

So I just wonder that. Furthermore, in the Eastern Orthodox, at least I find statements that say we don't become divine ontologically. Ontological means by the nature and the essence of something. So ontologically I'm a human. Ontologically I am not a tree. And as a human I have arms, legs, I can see, I can hear. But not all people who are human have arms, legs, can see and can hear. But so humanity is something different than tree-ness. And so this is what the ontos is. It's the essence of what something is. So we are not divine by essence. Could it be, though, that the Eastern Orthodox Church is, I think, a little bit more orthodox in this position in that it says, or it seems to say, ontologically we don't become God.

But I have had some Eastern Orthodox people say that it is the case. Now you can't trust where one says I need official documents as much as possible and it's hard to find this stuff. It takes a lot of research to find the right quotes. So that's what's going on. I don't know if that helps any. Okay. Okay. Yeah, it did.

It did. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Matt. All right. You're welcome. All right. God bless. Okay. All right. Well, that's perfect timing.

There's the break. If you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 8772072276. You have nobody waiting on line right now. Why don't you give me a call? I want to hear from you.

I want to hear from you. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 8772072276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, you can.

It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 8772072276. All right. So, last night, or yesterday's show, we've got nobody waiting, so I'm going to ramble a little bit, fill some time here. I'm going to irritate people, because here it goes. So, yesterday, someone called up and talked about the rapture, pre, post, mid, all that kind of stuff. And, oh, I just saw I made a mistake in one of the, in something.

And so, I'm always finding stuff I do. Hey, what about that? So, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to share my screen, and I'm going to go through the article that I did, and I'm going to try and show you guys out there, very simply, why the pre-chib rapture is not true. Oh, no, can't be. And, I know that a lot of people believe it is true, and I think that's okay if they want to believe that. It's within orthodoxy. It is. It's within orthodoxy.

But, I don't believe it's true. I believe that we are going to go through the tribulation period. I believe we're going to suffer.

I believe it's going to be tough, and I believe a lot of people are going to be very surprised by what's happening. So, I'm going to do something else here, too. I've got so many things I have to do. I've got to clear the cache, and so there we go. So, okay, I'm going to share my screen. I've got to redo this. I'm going to go through this.

I've got a lot of windows open. I'm going to go through them, and I'm going to read the article. Now, you can go, if you want, you can go to the site, karne.org, and you can look up, or go to the home page, and it'll say, what is Karne's position on the rapture?

For your post. And so what I'm going to do is go through what I have written, and we'll get to it here as soon as I get all this stuff going. And I'm going to tell you why we are going to go through the tribulation period, why it's going to be bad, and the reason I think it's important for us to understand this is because we want to make sure that we are not deceived, that we are not unprepared when things get bad. We don't want to be unprepared now, do we? All right, so let's do this. So if you're looking with me, I've got plenty of time for people to do that, to look. What I'm going to do is go here, go this, and make that bigger. There we go.

All right, so here we go. I deny the pre-trib rapture, and I affirm post-trib rapture because of what Jesus said. In Matthew 24, 3, they ask the disciples, or the disciples ask Jesus, what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? And Jesus tells them that preceding his return, there will be turmoil, including wars, famines, tribulation, false prophets, lawlessness, et cetera. That's Matthew 24, verses 4 through 14. He warned people to flee when they see all this stuff and the abomination of desolation.

That's Matthew 24, verses 15 to 20. So the Christians, or some people, have to be there to see the abomination. Now, some people, what they'll say is, they're going to say, well, you see, really what's happening is the rapture occurs at the pre-trib.

I'm going to show you why that doesn't work later. It's pre-trib rapture, and then the people who are alive and they see the abomination, that's what it's talking about. Then you've got to flee. They say, so far, there's no problem.

I go, okay, all right, we'll get to it. But Jesus says there will be a great tribulation in Matthew 24, 21 through 22. He warns people to watch out for the false Christs and false prophets. He says his return.

Now, here's the key. His return is a single return. Sometimes the pre-trib rapture people, what they'll do is they'll say it's a partial return. He kind of comes halfway and he meets us in the clouds and he goes back to where he is.

That's foreign to scripture. It's just not there. There is no half return. He meets us in the clouds and then goes back. It doesn't look like that.

It doesn't happen. So he says this. He says that return will be just as lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west. That's what he says.

So will the coming of the Son of Man be. That's what he says. He states that after the tribulation of those days, he will return with a great trumpet.

That's what he says. After the tribulation of those days, he'll return with a great trumpet. Now, this is important because in Acts 1, 9-11, the two angels prophesied. When Jesus ascended into heaven, they said he's going to come back just the same way you saw him, in the heavens with the sky and the clouds. So the angels say he's going to return this way. This is how he's going to return. Well, he's going to return mostly, as in mostly return.

It's not going to happen like that. It's just one return. Christ comes back once. In Matthew 24, 29-31, Jesus says that his return will be after the tribulation. He specifically says, but immediately after the tribulation of those days, the Son will be darkened. And then the trumpet will go forth, and he will bring forth his people. Now, when you go to 1 Thessalonians 4, starting at verse 16 through chapter 5, verse 2, Paul the Apostle tells us that Christ's, his return, a single return, will be with the trumpet of God, and that's when the rapture occurs. Now, you've got to get this understood, because Jesus said in Matthew 24, after the tribulation is when the rapture occurs. He says that's when the people and the trumpet will be sounded, and the people will be, they'll meet them in the clouds.

Okay? So, the summary is this. There's only one return of Christ, not a partial return, and that's Acts 1, 9-11, and Matthew 24, 27. Jesus' return is after the tribulation, Matthew 24, 29-31, and Jesus' return is when the rapture occurs, 1 Thessalonians 4, 16 through 5, 2. That's what it is.

But wait, there's more. See, Jesus said that at his return, there will be two men in the field, and one will be taken, one will be left. That's Matthew 24, 40. But that's not the rapture. He says, for as the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah, for in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage till the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood, excuse me, they did not understand until the flood came in, took them all away. So will the coming of the Son of Man be. There will be two men in the field, one will be taken, one will be left. This is typically said to be the rapture, and it absolutely is not.

Absolutely it's not. In Luke 17, 26-27, check this out. You'll see the parallel, why. And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Who were the ones who were destroyed? The ones eating, drinking, marrying, being given in marriage, right? Until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them. Let me go back to Matthew 24. Yes, it was in the days of Noah, right?

They were eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage until when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and took them all away. That's the wicked who were taken. Then it says two men will be in the field, one is taken, one is left. Who's taken? The wicked. It's not the good.

Oh, but it gets even worse. So we can see that the ones taken are the wicked. Now the first one's taken, what Jesus says. We'll get to Matthew 13 here and we'll talk about that after the break. And I'll show you. And you guys can call me up and you can say, man, you're wrong. And I hope I am. But hey, we'll be right back, folks. After these messages, please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody, welcome back to the show, bottom of the hour. I hope you're enjoying what I'm telling you, even if you don't agree. But I'm going to finish this up and then we'll talk about this a little bit and why it's so important. All right, now, this is something I discovered years ago, and I know that others have taught it. And it took me two years, literally it took me two years, before I would confidently say over the radio, this is what I believe.

The reason it took me two years was because I didn't study it all the time. I just read this one. Yeah, it's interesting. And occasionally I would look around to see if anybody else had a similar view, the wicked are the ones taken first when Christ returns, and I'll show you why I believe that. And I just couldn't find anybody else who said it, and that concerned me a great deal because I'm just a guy.

I study a lot, but it doesn't mean I'm right. And so I thought, okay, I need to find somebody else who has the same view, and I couldn't find anybody. And this is what caused me to think, well, I've got to be missing something. But when I would read the text, but that's what it says. And so I just kind of sat on it for a little while.

And then finally one day I just said, sorry, but this is what I hold to, and this is it. So the interesting thing is that we know that in two men in the field, one is taken, one is left, that's the wicked. Well, they ask Jesus, they actually ask him, where are they taken?

And he answers the question. Jesus tells us that the wicked are taken. In Luke 17, 37, in answering, he said to them, Where, Lord? And he said, Where the body is, the vultures will also be gathered. So Jesus is telling us that the ones who were taken, two men that are in the field, one is taken, one is left, where are they taken?

He answers the question. He answers the question, where the body is, the vultures will be gathered. Now, what really bothers me a great deal is that of all the churches I've been to and all the preachers I've heard, I've not once, ever, in over 40 years, ever heard any preacher or teacher say that the ones who are taken are the wicked and they go to a place of destruction.

Not one. I have heard people say, well, two men in the field, one is taken, one is left. That's the rapture.

And I know for a fact it is not. So why is it this really bothers me? Why is it that people who hold to those verses being the rapture, you know, two men in the field, one is taken, one is left, when it's obviously not, when you read the context, it's just not. Why is it they can't figure that out? That bothers me a great deal.

I've thought about it over the years and I'm thinking maybe it's because they're loyal to their denominations, they're loyal to something, they don't really dig deep, and maybe if they find something that doesn't fit, they just dismiss it going to something else. I don't know. But it really bothered me a great deal because this is what the Bible teaches. So when Jesus talks about the parable of the wheat and the tares, he says, you know, they said, should we tear up the tares?

He said, no. In Matthew 13, 30, allow both to grow together until the harvest. In the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, first gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them. Now remember, there's only one return of Christ, and when he comes is after the tribulation, and that's when the trumpet blows, and the trumpet blows is when the rapture occurs. 1 Thessalonians 4. So this has to be that it's all the return of Christ.

And at the return of Christ, the first ones taken are the wicked, not the good. That took me a long time to start admitting, but that's my position. And maybe I'm wrong. I'm not saying, hey, I've got it all figured out, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe someone can come along and say, Matt, you missed something very significant. If they show me, I'll go, you know what? You're right. Hey, thank you. And I'll just retract what I'm saying. I've got a problem.

I don't mind being wrong. But this is what he says. The first ones gathered are the tares. And then he goes on 10 verses later in Matthew 13, verse 40, just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. I'm not going to get into the end of the age thing.

That's a whole other thing. The Son of Man will send forth his angels that gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness. So Jesus tells us the wicked are taken to a place of destruction in Luke 17, 37.

Two men in a field, one is taken, one is left. That's the wicked who were taken and are taken to a place of destruction, and it happens at the end of the age. That's the harvest at the return of Christ. There's only one return.

So here's a summation. There's only one return of Christ, not a partial return. That's out of Acts 1, 9 through 11, Matthew 24, 27. Jesus' return is after the great tribulation, Matthew 24, 29 through 31. Jesus' return is when the rapture occurs, 1 Thessalonians 4, 16 through chapter 5, verse 2. Two men in a field and one is taken is about the wicked. That's Matthew 27, 37 through 40 with Luke 17, 26 through 27. The wicked are taken first, Matthew 13, 24 through 30, and Matthew 13, 40 and 41, and the wicked are taken to a place of destruction, Luke 17, 37. So what I'm going to do is go through this article again.

I'm going to expand it a little bit more, polish it a little bit more, because I wanted to get it out today, and I spent about two hours on it and put it together. So I'm always checking, always learning, and if you have comments or questions about it, please email me, let me know. The reason this is so important is because if the pre-tribulation rapture's view is false, if it is, and people are putting their hopes in that, what's going to happen when the Antichrist is there? Is their faith going to be destroyed?

I don't know. What is their faith in? What is their hope in? This is something I'm concerned about because the Christians are not going to get taken out of here.

We need to be in the world. What's really interesting is that Jesus says that the wicked are taken out of his kingdom. That means his kingdom must exist for the wicked to be taken out of, which means, since there's only one return of Christ, and at the return of Christ the first was taken out of the wicked to a place of destruction, that it means that's his kingdom. It means we're in the kingdom. That means we need to be acting like we are in the kingdom of God right now. People say, well, how come the kingdom of God is full of all these troubles?

Because we're not doing our job. Jesus is ruling in our hearts among the people that are his, and we're to behave like that, but we're not doing it as a whole. I firmly believe that the Christian church, if it were to humble itself before God and do whatever is necessary before God, to the risk of death, loss of job, family, and everything for the sake of Christ, if Christians started doing this all over everywhere, the world would be changed in just a couple, three, four decades.

I believe it would happen, and we would see an incredible improvement in everything everywhere. But Christians aren't doing it, and because there's going to be an apostasy, the Christians aren't doing their job, the Antichrist will come forth. And Jesus says if those days be not cut short, no flesh will be left. I've got so much more I could talk about, but there you go. I teach what's called depressed gutology.

Eschatology is a study of end times. Depressed gutology. Let's get to Jermaine. Hey, Jermaine, welcome. You're on the air.

Oh, hey, Matt. You know, I have to speak on that topic on another call, but I agree with you. Just real quick, I think part of the reason people hold to that theology is because they want to kind of cover their tail and not have to suffer a little bit, but that's another subject. But my question was dreams. It came up during a Bible study I participated in yesterday, and a lot of people are heavy on dreams, and I do believe that God can speak to us through those, but it just seems like a lot of people are very loose and liberal with every dream being from God all the time, and then when it doesn't happen, you know, they tend to be quiet. The least people I know say, hey, what happened to your prophecy? Nothing, but how do you properly interpret dreams, whether they're from God or whether they're just from your own flesh? Well, that's a good question. So people are very eager to have dreams and visions and experience and to feel special, to feel in control, to feel privileged, to have hope because a dream can give them hope, and in the process what they're doing is taking their eyes off of Christ a lot of times and the Word of God and what it says.

I'm not saying all people do this. I do believe that God can give us visions and dreams, and I believe that because of what the Scriptures teach. You see, we go to, for example, Acts 2.17, I believe it is. It shall be in the last days, God says, that I'll pour forth My Spirit on all mankind. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams, et cetera.

All right, so since we're going to be having dreams, and it says old men, does it literally just mean old men? Well, maybe, but for now what we'll leave is that this kind of thing can happen, and if it does, then how are we to judge them? That's the question you're getting at.

The issue is, is it biblical? That's the issue that we need to deal with, so hopefully we'll get to that after the break, okay? Please stay tuned, folks. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. I hope you're having a good time listening. Let's get back to Jermaine. Hey, Jermaine, are you still there? Oh, yes, I am. All right. Okay, so I've not written an article on Karm on that, but I'm going to.

So there's some basic principles, okay? In Acts 2.17, it says in the last days, many people will prophesy, see visions, and have dreams. So what should Christians do with those dreams that they think might be from God? The first thing is that they must make sure that anything they dream aligns with Scripture. If it doesn't, then disregard any dream. Also, make sure that any careful interpretation or any interpretation is done carefully, careful interpretation.

Be careful of it, okay? You see, it's God who gives the ability to interpret dreams since they come from him. This is what happened with Joseph in the Old Testament. With Pharaoh, he had the dream. God gave him the ability to interpret. Because if the dream is from God, then God should give the interpretation.

Let me write this down. And also, it might be that there are people who might be gifted with the ability to interpret dreams. So we've got to be careful about that because in this kind of a thing, it's easy to get a little bit too prideful, look at me, I'm gifted, etc. Be wary of people who claim this kind of a thing. The way to be more sure about them is what's their attitude. Attitude is incredibly important when dealing with people who have gifts. Are they humble? Or are they boastful?

We've got to be careful. I have this gift. You tell me, I'll tell you. The attitude should be something like, well, you know, tell me the dream and let's see. And I hope by God's grace I can help you understand it. Maybe I can't.

This kind of a difference. We should also pray and ask God to give us an interpretation. And once received, we should run the interpretation by other Christians to test it. So I think these are the basics of what we need to do about that, okay? Okay. Sounds good to me. Okay. Okay.

Anything else? All right, well, thanks a lot, Matt. Appreciate you. No, no, I think that was good.

That was pretty solid. But, yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. God bless. All right, man. Me too. God bless.

Thanks. I have dreams, at least I remember. Usually the dreams I have, I don't want to remember them.

But maybe some of you out there have had dreams where they've come to pass. And I have no problem with that. I know a lot of people in the Reformed camp have a lot of problem with that. All the gifts have ceased.

You can't do this. It doesn't happen anymore. I don't buy that. Now, I do say, though, that these kinds of charismatic things we've got to be careful of. We've got to be really careful because we don't want to go overboard with them, abuse anything. We should be very, very cautious, very, very careful. It takes time, in my opinion, for a person who might thus be gifted of God to learn how to humbly, in service of the body of Christ to the glory of God, use that gifting.

And it should be careful. And those kind of gifts are different than my gifts, for example. My wife says I have two gifts, actually. I can teach. I'm a good teacher.

And I'm obnoxious. She says I'm gifted in both areas. Praise God.

I'm going to work on them both, get them better. So my kind of gifting and being able to teach is something different because it's intended specifically for others. But dreams and prophecies usually are intended for individuals. And sometimes they can be for the body of Christ. But if it's going to be for the body of Christ, you had better have laid down a good foundation.

And it better be something special. You've just got to be careful. There's a lot.

It's a bit subjective in some areas. And that reminds me. That reminds me. I also have written another article on what is the gift of the Holy Spirit. And I worked on that.

And so it'll be released on the 7th. I have articles scheduled to be released every other day on Karm. I did one today. And so I have up through the 9th and stuff like that.

Because there's a lot to do to try and get one going every other day. So I'm writing a lot. I'm doing a lot of research. Well, the reason I'm talking about this, what is the gift of the Holy Spirit, because I remember a few months ago I was reading through Acts 2-38 when people were talking about being baptized in order to be saved. And I've had these arguments about this and stuff. Anyway, so I was looking at the gift of the Holy Spirit. And it occurred to me one day, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit, it seems to be the charismatic movement. I wonder if that's correct. So I started looking.

And guess what I found? I found that the phrase gift of the Holy Spirit only occurs two times in the Bible, at least in the NASB. And that's in Acts 2-38 and Acts 10-45.

And in both of them, both cases, the context is dealing with the movement of the gifts, both times. And in Acts 11-17, it says, therefore, if God gave to them the same gift as he gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus, who was I that I could stand in God's way? Now, the context of that is that Peter is reporting to Jerusalem about what happened in the city of Joppa. Then Peter quotes the words of Christ when he says, John, baptized with water, you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit is poured out on the people in the upper room. They spoke with tongues.

So this gets me thinking. I'm just going to think out loud, write a Romans, think out loud, that we're justified by faith, Romans 5-1. The Holy Spirit, God, the Trinity, everybody, they live in us. We're born again. We're entwelt by God. John 14-23.

Okay, the Father and Son live in us. Okay, no problem. And so the Holy Spirit is there, and I can't help but wonder if, as in the wedding feast on earth, gifts were always given to the bride, and they were for that bride to use. I can't help but wonder if the gifts of the Christian church, the speaking in tongues, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, prophecy, that they are for today.

I believe they're for today. As a Calvinist, I mean, I'll tell you, like 1% of Calvinists hold my position, and I can for sure make a Calvinist get tweaked. Yeah, I believe in the charismatic gifts.

I go, and they get a little, so it's fun, too, when I do that, and I watch their eyebrows go up, and then you can see them fidget, and I start talking about this stuff. At any rate, aside from that, I'm starting to believe more and more that, I don't know how to say this the right way, because I'm not sure how to say it the right way, that we Christians are endowed and gifted with some great things from God himself, because we've been redeemed, we've been cleansed by the blood of Christ. And he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, and the spiritual blessings also are those movements of the Spirit in us. But in order to utilize those gifts, in order to be in those gifts, we can't be seeking money, we can't be seeking our own glory. We have to be humbly seeking the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith walking, going out into the world, spreading the word, spreading the gospel, teaching people about Jesus and what he's done. And in complete dependence upon Christ and what he has done, the Spirit of God will move through us and bring us to that place and give us the ability to use those charismatic gifts for his glory, for the accomplishing of his purpose.

That's what I believe. And I also believe that today we see so many wackos in church, they're speaking in tongues, telling jokes in tongues, the foolishness of such pomposity, and that so many people disregard all of it because of that, that kind of a thing. I'm going to say something. If you think you have a gift, a charismatic gift, prophecy, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, tongues, interpretation of tongues, discernment of spirits, if you think you have them, I want you to ask yourself, are you being humble about it? I'm not saying you're bad or good.

I'm just saying, are you being humble? And are you trying to seek that, because God actually says in 1 Corinthians 14, 1, to seek the spiritual gifts. So, if we're to do that, I'd like to hear from you, but you've got to take risks sometimes. Take risks with people you trust. If you think you have this gift, to see how to use it, to see how it might be for the glory of God, not for yourself. Because if it is for your own glory, forget it. That's not how it works.

It's for the glory of Christ, for the edification of the body, for the furthering of the gospel, the expansion of the kingdom of God. If, in your heart, those are the things, and you think you might be gifted, you think maybe, you're not sure, that's okay. I'd recommend that you find some friends you can trust and talk to them about it, and then see if you can try exercising those gifts in their presence or report to them. And if it turns out you're messing up pretty badly and getting a lot of things wrong, that's okay.

There's no shame in that, because this stuff is not easy. This stuff is difficult, and how do we use those gifts for the glory of God? They're there.

They are there. Because at Pentecost, when the Spirit came upon the people, they spoke in tongues. In Acts 10, they glorified God. The gift of the Holy Spirit isn't just his presence.

I believe it's more. I believe it's the gifting that he has for each one of us for the furthering of the gospel. Because the gospel is a supernatural thing. It's the power of God to salvation, Romans 1 and 16, and it needs the power of God behind it. And I believe that we, if we are humble before him, seeking, trusting, and moving forward, that God might very well bless us with certain instances and times where we move that way for his glory, for the benefit of others. I think that's what we need to be looking at. Yeah, I do believe in the charismatic gifts. I believe in all of them.

I believe they're for today. And maybe I'm wrong. That's what I think.

That's what I believe, and that's why. So anyway, there you go. Hey, just want to remind you that we stay on the air by your support. Please consider supporting us. Just go to karm.org, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G forward slash donate. If you don't want to, that's fine. But check out the website, karm.org.

We have a lot of articles there. And one last thing. I will not be on the air all next week. I've got some errands to do and some stuff to do, so I'm going to take all that week off and do some other things too. And I'll be back after that. But tomorrow I'll be online, Lord willing.

Hopefully we'll talk to them. May the Lord bless you. And oh, by his grace, we'll see you. I'm going to be on strivingforeternity.org. Strivingforeternity.org tonight, talking about the end of Christ and stuff like that. And we'll talk to you later. God bless. Bye. Another program powered by the Truth Network.