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.

All right, everybody, welcome to the show. How are you doing out there? Hey, if you want to give me a call, all you have to do is dial 877-207-2276.

We have three open lines right now. You can also email me at info at CARM.org, info at CARM.org. And you can ask me a question there.

Just put in the subject line, radio comment, radio question, something like that. We often get to them. Now, tomorrow is Friday, that's when we kind of focus on those most, but we'll see. Anyway, like I said, if you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Let's just jump on.

Oh, today's date, that's right, August 15th. Do that for the podcasters and stuff like that because sometimes they need to know and for strategizations, strategery, I think it's called. All right, so hey, look, let's get to Kara from California. Kara, welcome, you're on the air. Hello.

I was the last caller two days ago and you didn't get enough time to answer the question that I had. The question is this. Why was a man's stone for carrying sticks on the Sabbath in Numbers 15 while Jesus' disciples were allowed to pick heads of grain on the Sabbath in Matthew 12? This is in Numbers 15, they were breaking the law, they're in their theocratic system there and are not to do any work. Heads of grain is not work, it is feeding and you're supposed to eat on the Sabbath.

But to carry sticks, according to the law, you could do it a certain distance, but not very far. The idea was not to do any work because the rest of the Sabbath ultimately represented Jesus Christ, his sacrifice and the rest that we have in him. And so to work in that context was to violate that principle of our salvation by grace alone through faith alone and what God has done in the person of Christ alone. So eating is not a work, it's not doing anything other than what is normal for every day of the week. Okay, that's all.

Okay. And it seems to be also a question of what necessity is. Jesus made it clear that acts of necessity and piety were allowed on the Sabbath and I was thinking, was it possible that the man carrying the sticks did so out of necessity or in contrast, did the disciples really need to pick heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath?

Well, they would need to eat heads of grain because they're eating. But the movement of sticks, if a stick falls and is going to hit somebody and you stop it and you move it and throw it away, that's not a work. Even the law says you can take a cattle, whatever it is, out of a ditch on the Sabbath.

It's a lot of work to do that, but it's to save life, it's to make things better. And so that's the idea. What the Jews did back then for that kind of thing is they turned it into a super detailed list of do's and don'ts of righteousness. So by the time Christ came along, even to pick a head of grain, oh, you're violating the Sabbath and they weren't violating the Sabbath. So it was what the Pharisees mistakenly concluded was that, it wasn't forbidden in the law.

Okay. The intention of the man carrying the sticks, it isn't specified in scripture. Right. In many commentaries, they state that he could have been intending to light a fire, which would have been a violation of scripture because in Exodus 35, three, it condemned, kindling a fire in one's dwelling place on the Sabbath. However, couldn't that be an act of necessity, like to warm himself or something?

Perhaps. But obviously the one who did that in Numbers 15 was breaking the law. A lot of people think that just if your intention is good, therefore it's okay.

That's not always the case. Now, it does matter in the issue of law and murder, killing people. If you accidentally kill somebody, you're not to be held responsible the same way. It was an intention of murder.

So intentionality does have a lot to do with this. In the instance in Numbers 15, an individual was breaking the law of God. Whether you, I lied about all this and that because I intended to do good. Well, you know, lying is not justified even in a condition like that. So we have to go with what the law of God says, particularly those people in the Old Testament had to. And so the man who was in that position was breaking the law.

So that's just what it was and he was in trouble. Okay. Alright. Okay. I think that's it. Okay. Here's a principle.

This is a principle. When you come across stuff like this in the Old Testament, put Jesus there. Put the crucifixion there and see what's going on. It's like in Second Chronicles 20. A bunch of people were coming down to destroy Israel in order to destroy Israel and God said that this battle is not yours.

This battle is mine. And he wiped out the bad guys. Well, why? Because if the bad guys had come down and destroyed Israel, then there would be no Messiah. So that makes sense. Oh, I get it. So God intervened on this because he wanted to make sure that the people of Israel would continue and the Messiah Jesus would be born and we could be saved. So then you go, Oh, I get it. And that's why he would say the battle is not yours.

This one's mine. When you put Christ in there in the Old Testament, when you have questions, you have doubts, put them in there and see if what is happening represents Christ. So if the man was carrying sticks, the violation on the Sabbath, because the Sabbath is a day that Jesus, excuse me, that God rested, because he created six days on the seventh he rested.

Now it doesn't mean he was tired, it just means he rested. And the Sabbath ultimately points to Jesus because Jesus says, come to me, all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest, Matthew 11 28. And also in Genesis chapter five, there's a genealogy between Adam and Noah. When you put the names of the Hebrew names in English, you get a sentence, it's appointed mortal men, sorrow, the blessed God will come down.

When he dies, it will come bringing to the despairing hope or peace or rest. And so the, you can even see there that the gospel message is in the Old Testament encoded and the necessity of, of obeying the law was several reasons, but one of them was to show the holiness and separateness of the people of Israel compared to other nations. Another reason was to show that the law, it can't save us. This is why it says in Galatians 3 24, that the law is a tutor that leads us to Christ. The law is that thing that shows us we can't keep it. Deuteronomy 27 26 says that you could do everything in the law and the law is summarized and love God with everything you've got and love your neighbor as yourself.

I can't do those. So I can never fulfill that law and that that's the requirement of the law. It shows us that we can't make it by what he does, by what we do, only by what Christ does. So the law leads us to Jesus. It breaks us and it destroys us to show us that we need the gospel message, which is the euangelia in Greek, which is the good news, euangelia means good news. And so the good news is you don't have to keep the law to be saved.

You're justified by faith alone in Christ alone. So numbers 15, the man on the Sabbath is working. It's like saying, but he's not doing it, but it's like this, this typological thing that he's trying to earn his salvation by doing good works on the play in the place of the Sabbath, which requires none because it represents Christ's crucifixion ultimately.

And this is why he was in trouble. So when we have someone who gets something to eat on that Sabbath day for food, it's okay. You feed a sick, you help people. And that's okay because the intention there, the law and the aspects of what you do is not to thwart the issue of the rest in Christ ultimately, but to continue our life and do those things. Now, if someone has to move a pile of sticks to stop a fire, to stop something that's going to fall on somebody, that's permitted in the law, but it's not the issue of doing works and construction to make yourself better or whatever it is.

Make a home, make a bed, make whatever on that day. Not to do that. Okay. Okay.

That makes sense. All right. Well, good. Can I ask how old you are? Just curious.

I don't have to tell you, but I'm just curious. Yes. Thank you very much. Okay. All right then. All right.

God bless. Thank you. All right.

That was Kara and I enjoy those kinds of questions. Good stuff. Okay.

All right. Want to give me a call? 877-207-2276. Let's get to Peter from North Carolina. Peter, welcome.

You're on the air. Hi. How are you, Matt? Pleasure to meet you. Doing all right. Hey.

Nice to meet you. Yeah. Okay. Question.

I'll leave it with you. I really don't have an opinion one way or another. I'm just really curious from your biblical standpoint how to understand this.

I've been reading a book, Imagine Heaven, from John Burke, and it's been interesting about near-death experiences and just all the experiences folks have had, and I'm curious about your perspective on salvation, and it seems as though when they have these experiences, it contradicts biblically the idea of accepting Christ before your death as opposed to after your death, and it seems like many of them have some kind of conversion or some kind of experience after death. So I was just curious what your thoughts were on that, and I'll stay quiet and just listen to your answer if that's okay. Sure.

That's fine. First of all, there is a recorded NDE in the Bible, 2 Corinthians 12, 2 through 4. Paul says, I know a man in Christ who, 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know or out of the body I do not know, God knows such a man was caught up in the third heaven, and I know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the body, do not know, God knows, was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak. So it's biblical.

All right. So what do we do with these NDEs, where people, they meet Christ, they see things, they have demonic experiences, they have all kinds of things. What we do is we judge them by scripture. If they have an NDE and whatever state, condition they're in that says some entity says, oh, everything is okay, Jesus is just one of the ways to God, et cetera, then it's obviously a demonic influence upon that person. So we have lots of NDEs, and I've read a few books on them over the years, and the NDEs are very interesting. I like talking about them. They're very interesting to me, but I don't have any problem with them.

I do have a problem with, I should say this, I do have a problem with them when what anybody says contradicts scripture, then I know that they're wrong. Now what happens when you have someone who's an atheist, let's say, gets in a car accident, near-death experience, is attacked by demonic forces, whatever it is, and then he wakes up and he's alive, and he doesn't want anything to do with that, and he comes to Christ. Is that fair?

Is it workable? Sure, no problem, because he has not passed over permanently to that position, that state. We don't know exactly how it works with people who are dying. The brain can be alive for minutes after breathing stops. You can be decapitated, your brain can still function for a while until the oxygen destroys the brain, or lack of, I should say. So we don't understand exactly the spiritual nature of how it all works, so what we have to do is just go with what is observed. And so, if a person dies, he's not permanently dead, any more than 2 Corinthians 12, 2-4, the person was permanently dead.

So in that sense, comes back, receives Christ, and then he dies. I don't have a problem with that, and we have a break coming up, so hold on, and then we'll get your comments after the break, okay? Hey folks, if you want, you can give me a call. All I have to do is dial 877-207-2276. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, everyone, welcome back to the show. I guess we lost that caller, and that's all right. If you want to give me a call, the number is 877-207-2276. Real easy to do.

We have wide open lines. So about NDEs, I enjoy all kinds of things, and I don't enjoy sports. I don't watch sports.

I don't care about that stuff. I like documentaries and science fiction. I'm kind of nerdy. And one of the things I'll do is read different kinds of books on different topics and philosophy and quantum physics. I like near-death experiences. I'll read about the occult, UFOs.

To me, that's kind of fun. All right, so these NDEs, I've read varying stories of them, and were people who have died or technically dead on the operating table or whatever situation, and they somehow make it back. And sometimes they'll talk about what happened. And I talked to a man in Salt Lake City years ago, I forgot his name, and we met when I was down there once, and he talked about how he was shot and how he encountered things in the afterlife with God.

He's a Christian. And he survived, of course, and we were talking about it. It was really an interesting story.

It was the only one I've ever met in person who's had such an experience like that. He says, oh, yeah, it's all real. It's there, and Jesus is real. And so, NDEs, so like I said, it's in Corinthians 12, two through four, where Paul says, I know a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know.

So this is an interesting thing. This theology or this scripture deals with a couple of topics, near-death experiences, but also with something else called substance dualism versus property dualism. Property dualism is basically what materialists hold to. It is the teaching that the physical brain produces the mind. So when the physical brain ceases, the mind ceases. So each is tied to the other, and the mind exists because of the physical brain. So that's called property dualism, which means that a mind of a person is a property of the construct of the physical brain. Now, this is a problem, and I'll explain why. I'm getting into other stuff.

I'll just talk because there's nobody calling right now. The other view is called substance dualism, and that's what Christians hold to, substance dualism. That's the view that the mind, the soul, the mind, whatever that thing we are, is separate from the body so that when the physical brain ceases to function and dies, we continue on afterwards because we're a different substance, called substance dual to dualism.

Property dualism is simply the view that the physical brain produces the mind, and so when the physical brain ceases, the mind ceases. Now, there's a problem with that. So one of the things I'll do with atheists is I'll ask them questions, and they're getting more savvy about this stuff, and they don't want to fall into intellectual and logical traps. So what I'll do is I'll say, you're an atheist, right? And I'll say, yeah, that's okay. Do you believe in anything supernatural? And then they'll say, well, no, there's no God, no spirits, no angels.

I'll say, okay. So then does everything operate under the laws of physics in the entire universe? Chemistry, physics, motion, matter, all that, they say yes.

Then I got them. Okay, and I'll show you how. So then that would mean, I will say to them, because now we're talking property dualism, that would mean then that the physical brain produces the mind, right? They'll say yes, and it means the physical brain must operate under the laws of physics and chemistry, right? Can it violate those laws?

No, it cannot. So then what you're saying is that one chemical state in the brain that leads to another chemical state in the brain produces, well, your thoughts, your intentions, right? Okay, here's a question. How does one chemical state that leads to another chemical state in your brain produce proper logical inference, logical thought? Now, at this point, they come up with all kinds of things, and all I have to do is wait and say, well, your chemicals in your brain made you say that.

It doesn't mean it's true. Let me give an illustration of something. Let's say we're in a big laboratory with a gigantically long table, and we have all kinds of chemicals and wires, electricity, and diodes or whatever, not diodes, but chemicals and wires and stuff like that, let's do that.

And we have a source of current electricity. And then we take two chemicals and put them together. Does that produce logic? Well, of course not.

Well, let's say that we have 50 chemicals. We put wires between them. Does that produce logic?

Well, no. When does logic occur in such a construction? Because that's what the brain is, is a set of chemicals that are interconnected, a set of neurons and electrical relationships that occur. How does it produce logic? How does it produce truth?

How does it produce true moral values? And they can't answer it, because it's just a necessity of chemicals reacting. That's all it is, if it's the brain's under the laws of chemistry. Now, this means then that you can't know from that perspective. You cannot know if that position is true, if property dualism is true, which is materialism. Materialism necessitates property dualism. Materialism is that the material world is all there is. There's no God. There's nothing, et cetera.

Okay. So then, if the physical brain is nothing more than a reaction of stimulus, to stimulus, like sight, sound, taste, et cetera. And your brain is connected to the senses. The senses produce chemical reactions in the brain.

Those chemical reactions are just chemically necessary. How do you get truth out of all of that? How do you get logic out of all of that? They can't justify it. This means that position casts doubt on itself, because you can't trust that your conclusions are true under such a perspective.

And so, therefore, when you have a position that refutes itself, the position is not true, hence property dualism is not true, materialism is not true. Simple. That's what I do.

And I have fun talking to atheists about it, and you should see how they squirm. Let's get to Corey from South Carolina. Corey, welcome.

You are on the air. Corey, are you there? Corey?

Corey? Okay, I'm waiting for you. Waiting for you to say something.

I hear a little bit of noise, so I think you might be struggling there to do something. Maybe you can get me... Hello? There you go. All right. Okay. Hey, how you doing? I'm doing all right, man. I'm doing all right.

So what do you got? I wanted you to break down the difference for me between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes, as far as why they didn't really like Jesus that much. Well, different people can have different reasons for that, why they wouldn't like Jesus. But let's go over the differences between them. A scribe is basically, his job is to copy the law.

They're scholars, generally, because they're in the law constantly. And we've got a break coming up, so let's take the break. We'll get back and do this again afterwards, okay? So hold on, buddy. All right?

Okay. 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, and welcome back to the show. All right, let's get back on with Corey from South Carolina. Corey, welcome. All right, let's start this over again.

Go ahead. I was trying to get into the difference between the Pharisees, the scribes, and the Sadducees. And what happened to them?

I know they don't exist anymore, but what happened to them? Well, they were doing very well, popularly speaking, during the time of Christ. Then the Jews rejected the Messiah, and then in 70 AD, there was an uprising against the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire then sent in a lot of people in an army and wiped out Jerusalem and basically destroyed much of what Israel was.

So the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, at that point, then were dispersed and the offices were kind of wiped out a little bit, even though there were still some who adhered to certain principles as they scattered, okay? I got you. Okay. All right. Anything else? All right.

Yeah? No, we good, man. We good. Thank you very much. All right, brother. God bless, man. All right. Okay, all right, now, let's see, next longest waiting is Rebecca from Salt Lake City.

Welcome. You are on the air. Rebecca, you there? Hello, Rebecca. We're waiting for you. Waiting for you, Rebecca.

Hi, Matt. How are you today? I'm doing all right. Doing all right. So what have you got? I've got, well, I've got a couple of things. I can't recall, it was perhaps a month ago, and I told you about my near-death experience where I hit a semi and I was taking out McJaw's life and I died periodically for about a half hour.

Okay. So my brain, you can see my brain, that part of it fell out, whatever, so I have extensive memory loss, but I told you at that time that when I came back, I didn't see anything, and if I did see anything with my memory, I don't know, but I just came back with almost a smile on my face and it felt very peaceful, a peacefulness I've never experienced before and have not, so I don't know. Yeah, I remember. So what do you say about that? Well, it's common.

People very often don't recall anything. I've talked to people who, you know, and that's normal. It's within the realm of what happens. Some say they see things, some say they don't, okay? Okay. All right.

I thought props, I was missing something, but anyway, I mean, it's true. Another thing that's kind of bothering my heart is when God, he gives certain people faith, and other people, he grants faith, and other people he doesn't, and I know he's a fair and just and holy God, but to me that seems unfair. Can you clarify that for me? Well, if it seems unfair, I can understand why you'd say that, but we have to have a standard of what is fair and not fair. The standard has to rest with God, and so when people, I talk to them and they'll say, you know, God, it's not right for God to do that. Really? Who said?

Where do you get your standard from? So if it doesn't seem to be right, then you have to ask yourself, well, where am I getting this intuition from? Because intuition is subjective.

People can have varying degrees of intuitional awareness, and you know, my wife and I, we've been married 36 years, and she might see something a little bit differently than I do, and Well, I have a lot of intuition, and I can see things that are going to happen before they don't, and my mother had it, and some of my sisters do as well. Yeah, that's, I'm familiar with that as well. Their voices, some call it, and then words of knowledge, words of wisdom, but yes, I understand. Okay. Okay. All right.

Okay. So can you clarify that a little bit more, why he would give some people faith and others not again, so I can really understand it? He does so to some and not to others because of what his desire is, and he doesn't tell us.

That's it. Okay, so it's just unknown to us, and it's a mystery. Yeah, he doesn't tell us why, because the Bible says he grants that we believe. Why doesn't he grant it to everybody? People will say, well, God won't violate our free will.

That's not true. You go to Psalm, I mean, Proverbs 21, 1, where it says, God moves the heart of the king where he wishes it to go. And so people that they very often do is impose on God a value they think is true. This is a very serious problem that's in the Christian church, so we have to judge what God says. So God does according to his will, and you can read this in Romans 9, 9-23, but it doesn't mean God's arbitrary or he's mean or he doesn't want people to get saved over there. He has reasons that we just don't understand, and so what we need to do is just submit to it and say, well, I don't get it, you know, because think about it, he appeared to Paul the apostle. He saved him.

I just need to do it to everybody. Right. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, and he has like just through biblical history, he selected only certain people like Esther and the prophets, you know, they were all very special people, and I think Paul was too.

Gee, he wrote a lot in the Bible. Yeah. God chose Israel over other nations. Well why didn't he choose the other ones? Exactly. That's his choice.

If people don't have any problem with that, but they don't like it when God chooses one person for salvation or to grant faith because they want God to do something differently according to what their system of thought is, and this is, this needs to be addressed in the church and rejected in the church. Okay? Okay, I understand a lot more.

Thank you for clarifying that for me because I know he is a God of mystery, yes indeed. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, you have a blessed day. Thank you. You too. God bless. Okay.

All right. Let's see, Glenn from Virginia. Glenn, welcome. You're on the air.

Yes, Matt. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Yes, I can. My question is, in the first five books, how is it connected to Jesus? Very easy.

I'll show you. So, what we can do is go to Genesis 1 and John 1, all right, and we can see the connection right there. So, if we go to Genesis 1, verse 1, all right, I'll do this right here, I'm going to read it to you, and I'm going to go to John 1, this New Testament, right?

Okay. So, it says, in Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In John 1, 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It says in verse 2 of Genesis, and the earth was formless and void, and the darkness was over the deep, and this deep, the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. God said, let there be light, and there was light.

Now, let's go back to John. He, the Word, was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness is not comprehended. So we go back to Genesis chapter 3 and continue to read, it says, God said, let there be light, there was light. Verse 4, God saw the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. So you can see right away that the Gospel of John, the beginning, ties Christ himself to Genesis chapter 1 and created order, okay? Now, I got one more question, and how does, okay, now, in the first five books, the people that I talk to, they say that when Jesus died, it didn't line up with, you know, the time didn't line up to how, you know, the Sabbath and the, his resurrection lined up, he said it didn't line up.

So how does that line up? Well, when people say this, but it didn't line up, I'll tell you, show me the documentation. Don't just assume that what they're saying is true.

Right. I don't assume it, and I've talked to them, you know, yeah, okay, go ahead. Ask them to prove it. Show me the verse. I'll do this all the time. Show me the scriptures, and let's see, don't assume that people who hear things down the gossip line, and they repeat it to you, now you've got to answer it and refute it.

No, just go, show me where it says that, show me this, show me that, show me the verses, show me the scriptures, let's talk, and if you don't have that ability to show me what it is, then you're just essentially, you're spreading gossip, and you don't want to do that. That's what I'll do. Gotcha. Okay? All right? All right.

I'll go with that. All right. All right, Matt. Appreciate you. God bless.

God bless. All right. Okay. Let's see. Let's get to Jose.

Yeah. Jose from Texas. Jose, welcome. You are on the air. Hey, Matt. How you doing? Doing all right. Hanging in there, man. Hanging in there.

That's good. There's a break. Sorry about that.

There's a break music, so hold on, brother, okay? We'll be right back. All right.

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.

This is Matt Slick. All right. Welcome back to the show. Let's get back with Jose. Sorry about that.

Break timing there. All right, man. What do you got, buddy? All right. Hey, Matt.

Hey, man. Just a quick question. I know this is a pretty heated subject. With the upcoming election, should Christians encourage the body of Christ to take a stand or to vote against the Democratic Party? Now with me saying this, I'm not endorsing Trump. I'm not saying Trump is a Christian, nothing of that nature. But broadly known is that Trump is not on that side of that agenda. So I don't know. What do you think about that?

Well, it's a difficult thing. So in my opinion, I don't see how any knowledgeable Christian could be a Democrat if they know what the Democratic Party stands for. Because it's the party of pro-slavery back in the 1800s, KKK. Also in the early 1900s, it was the KKK and Jim Crow laws. And I talked to Democrats about, well, we've changed. Well, the slavery issue is still in effect with them because they enslave people through giving them money, welfare. And they're now dependent upon the state, the master, to take care of them. And that bothers me. Plus, welfare is okay for the people who need it. I'm not knocking it, it's just there's way too much and they need to get off of it and work, whenever possible.

I get that. But also the issue of killing the unborn. This is ungodly. Pro-homosexuality, pro-LGBTQ, pro-woke, all this stuff is insane. How could anybody who's a true Christian, true Christian, ever support the Democratic Party? I don't get it. Well, is the Republican Party that much better?

Well, it is a bit much better, but it's still problematic. They're compromising. We have a problem. Now you've got Trump.

What do you do? Well, Trump, okay, he's got some problems, but we look at Biden and Harris, oh my goodness, these guys are socialist Marxists and they want to promote killing the unborn and the promotion of LGBTQ and the attack on Christianity and Christians and so many things. So what we have to do is balance our needs with what they are presenting and with scripture.

I offer this to people. What if you had an atheist, an atheist who's running for office and this atheist guy or girl, call him a guy for now, let's say he believes in the constitution. He does not believe in shoving the LGBTQ, the alphabet mob mentality down everybody's throats. You let the states decide. I'd be like, yeah, who is this guy?

You know, and I would have no problem voting for an atheist if he holds to the constitution. But you see, it's the whole thing is tough. It's just a tough thing. Yeah.

No. Yeah. I understand that.

I've seen a lot of like questions, especially my friends, they're very unbiased when it comes to, you know, like politics and church. I understand, right? You can't mix two things together, but then we're thinking, we're also thinking about the future of our generation with this party coming. I think this party, I think Kamala Harris is more, more liberal than Biden.

She's horrible. Yeah. So anyways, I don't know, maybe I was thinking, how can we encourage the body of Christ? Cause I know in my church, people are not too, they don't really vote, right? They believe in, you know, they're more of like, we're Christ centered. We don't belong to no party, you know, we're Christ centered. And then, and then again, they complain about these, you know, groceries going up, but I'm like, Hey, well you have to also vote against that too.

So anyways, I just kind of want to see what, what's your point, what's your opinion on, how can we encourage, I guess, how can we encourage the Christians, the body, the price of voting against the evil and democratic party? Definitely it is. I mean, and I used to be a Democrat too, to be honest with you, man, I used to be a Democrat, but you know, um, but now I see, you know, it's, it's a anti-Christian organization.

Oh, it is. It's a horrible, horrible party. And I liken it to a, you know, a soft terrorist organization. You think about what the Democrats have proposed, the hypocrisy, I need to write a paragraph out about this, but what they've done is overall, not every single Democrat, but when they're people are rioting and burning the cities, you know, Kamala Harris is bailing the people out who are destroying, who are burning, who are, uh, looting, and she would raise money to get them out of jail.

What, why would you do that? And the democratic party doesn't seem to mind when violence is there to serve their purpose. And have you seen the videos of the Democrats who hate Trump? You can tell it, and they don't have any problem with, with lying, with stealing, with destroying property. They don't have any problem with violence. They don't have any problem with it. And the Republicans don't want violence. And so the it's like the Muslims, they know that if they're violent, they'll get what they want. And you can't write violent, but we can that attitude. And so the democratic party is really bad.

Really really bad. Yeah. All right, well, hey, I'm going to do this so that we can take the other call. But anyway, thanks for entering my call and we'll, I'll do your call next time. All right, man. Well, God bless, buddy. All right. I love that. All right.

All right. See, I have no problem talking about politics on this. And if I was preaching, I'd have no problem talking about it too. Some people say politics should never be in the pulpit. That is wrong.

It should be in the pulpit because politics deals with morality and God is the sovereign king of all areas of our lives, not just Sunday morning, of all areas. We all need to be talking about it. Maureen from Raleigh, North Carolina. Welcome. You are on the air. Hi.

Good evening, Matt. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Yes, I can.

Thanks for calling. Okay. I'm having a hard time hearing you, but, um, um, I, in the past, I listened to your reasoning on baptism in terms of sprinkling versus submersion, um, and I thought it was very interesting, um, and, um, led me to think more, more about baptism. And I was wondering if there are any words that are supposed to be said over someone when they're being baptized. Well, it appears to be that the words that are spoken are something along the lines of I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's what, uh, when I baptize someone, that's what I do. Okay. Alright.

That, that's, that's, that's, that's part of the, part of the practice is, is that those words have to be said. Well, it seems to be because what Jesus says in Matthew 28, 19, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So to do that, when you baptize them in the name of the Father, Holy Spirit, when we go, for example, to Acts 4, 7, and we see what's happening there in, uh, Acts 4, 7, the, uh, the Christians are being brought up on charges and being challenged by the, uh, the, the legalists.

Okay. And, uh, by the high priest says, and in what name have you done these things? Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said, rulers, you know, we helped us that we held us that, uh, that by the name of Jesus Christ, whom you crucified by this name, this man stands here.

You know, we've done good, good health. So they're speaking, they're speaking in the name of Jesus, et cetera, et cetera. So this idea of speaking relates to the word of God, who is in a sense, the speech, the word. And so we bind ourselves by our word and there's power in our word, not in the positive confession, heresy stuff from Kenneth Copeland and, and Hagen and Joyce Meyer and stuff like that. So what we would normally do and how it's been done through the centuries is when a baptism occurs, baptize you in the name of the father, son, and Holy Spirit.

That's how I've done baptisms. Okay. Okay. That's helpful.

Thank you so much for your time. All right. We've got any more questions.

We've got nobody waiting. So you got any more questions about baptism or anything? Um, not, not particularly. Um, you know, I suppose that that's, that's logical. Um, a logical conclusion, um, and, um, you know, I don't have any, no, no argument. Um, but, uh, I'll call back with, with another call that I have another time. I wanted to formulate the question better, um, but I do appreciate your show. Okay. Well, good. Do you believe that, that, uh, I'm just curious, uh, should we baptize in the name of Jesus or in the name of the father, son, Holy Spirit as a formula? What do you think?

Me personally? Yeah. Um, well, I, I mean, you know, when I've been baptized, I, I was baptized and somebody baptized me by pastor at the time and said in the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit, which is recorded in the Bible, which, which is fine. Um, and I just was wondering if you had anything, um, that, you know, that was more dogmatic about the procedure of baptizing again, I found that your, your reasoning about sprinkling versus submersion and the volume of the number of people was, was so great that they probably could not have been, uh, immersed in water and that it was likely sprinkling. Um, I haven't really talked to many people about that, but, uh, you know, it's, it's logical. It's logical. Yeah. So when I presented to people, they're really intrigued by it and a lot of people are annoyed by it.

And so was I when I first heard it, like, wait a minute, it's always been this way. And then you start asking these questions, you go, wait a minute, that makes a lot of sense. And so, uh, yeah, yeah, it's an issue.

And, um, I'm not trying to cause people problems, but I want them to think I want Christians to think. Okay. All right.

Yeah, absolutely. Sounds good. Thank you so very much. You're welcome.

God bless. Okay. Okay. You too. All right.

All right, folks. Finally, I do not quote church fathers or various things like that because they are not authoritative. They are not scripture.

However, what I'm going to do here just in the last minute or so of the show is go to what's called the Didache. That's the teaching. And this was written, the Didache was written by, uh, there's different views on it, but some say between 65 and 80 AD when the disciples, many of them were still alive. Let's look at what it says in baptism and just consider this. That's all. It's just, uh, what it says, but concerning baptism, thus baptize, having first recited all these precepts, baptized in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit in running water. But if you don't have running water, baptize in some other water. And if you can not baptize in cold, then in warm water.

But if you have neither, pour water three times on the head in the name of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. But before the baptism, let he who baptizes and him who is baptized fast previously and any others who may be able and you shall command him who was baptized to fast one or two days before. Oh, isn't that interesting? Well, this was, uh, considered a practice within the first century.

Is it the right way? I can't say it is or isn't because I judge it by scripture that did our case and interesting insights. An interesting look into information procedures and they varied anyway. There you go. May the Lord bless you by his grace with back on here tomorrow. And hopefully we'll talk to you then the Lord bless you. Another program powered by the truth network.