The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network Podcast. Before we get to the calls, I have an announcement to make.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. The CARM staff, which means finding out what they do, where they're working, the areas and projects they're working on, keeping a record of that, provide a list of responsibilities for all the staff, possible video editing and timestamps for the radio show, maybe going to conferences, extracting radio segments for putting on Rumble and or YouTube, updating thumbnails on YouTube, promoting the CARM radio show. In different markets, taking over the weekly newsletter, looking into monetizing YouTube, researching how to advertise and things like this in different social media contexts, possibly arrange seminars online and in person. Like I said, we've got some other websites that would kind of coordinate between those and run. They'd be responsible for all that kind of stuff, working in the schools to make sure that any technical issues are taken care of, the store, things like that.
This is the kind of stuff we're looking for. It'll be a decent pay. If you're interested in something like this, you can send a resume, you can send something like that, CSV to info at CARM.org.
Just put in the subject line interested in the operations manager position. Then we can get some more particulars. We would need to know what church you go to. You have to be a Christian. You have to adhere to and acknowledge the statement of faith on CARM.
You'd be surprised. A lot of us here are Calvinists who work here, but if you're not, that's okay. That's not a requirement. You've got to go through the statement of faith.
You've got to adhere to it. You have to sign a contract, things like that. You can be anywhere too.
You can work from many places in the country, stuff like that. This is what we're looking for, putting the word out. We've already got it out in a couple of areas. When we start finding out who and what, then we're going to go that direction. The reason we're able to do that is because an arrangement has been made, let's just say, for the funding of such an individual so that I can take all this off my plate and start doing the things I'm supposed to be doing, like teaching, preaching, developing work for podcasts. Another thing we want to do is develop a weekly podcast where I do interviews with people. This person, Operation Manager, whatever we call it, this is what we're going to call the title right now. This person would be responsible for setting those up and scheduling them, things like that.
If that sounds interesting, info.com.org. We will see about that. We're putting the word out. What we're looking for, this is one of the major requirements, is that you have to be able to figure things out on your own. It doesn't mean we're throwing you out in the ocean or the sharks.
You're on your own. That's not it. We train. We get you going as much as possible and then say, here's something we've got to do. Can you research it and figure it out? Instead of me researching it and figuring it out, you would do that. The person would do that.
That's the kind of thing that we're talking about. There are a lot of people who are smart enough and they may just say, I should give an assignment. They go, I have no idea what it is, and I'll chuckle. They'll say, well, here's the direction.
Research it and get back to me in a few days. You'd be required to work on your own. We don't micromanage here. We do not micromanage. We just say, look, you just tell me how many hours you work.
We want you to work 40 hours a week and up to that if you can. It depends, but probably there will be plenty to do. There always is at this ministry. You'd be a person of your word. You say, this is what I've been doing. It's not what I've been doing. Things like that. We're going to have checks and balances and some stuff.
That's it. Then as far as vacation time, we're really flexible. One of the guys that we used to have working with us, he had to go on to another ministry. We'd give him several weeks off each year and he'd say something came up and his wife was in the hospital.
Actually, the kid was in the hospital. He wanted to know if he could use his vacation time for that. I said, don't even think about that. Just go take care of your family.
We'll just talk later. Just take care of your family. Be with your kid. Don't eat into your vacation time.
That's not how we do it here because the family is more important. He took two weeks off. He had to take care of it. It was really important. That was it. Hey, that's just what it is. We go on. We just move forward.
Stuff like that. We're really easy here. But putting it with me, that may not be so easy. Let's see if anybody's going to say amen to that.
Because I'm obstreperous sometimes and I'm autistic and stuff. There you go. So, hey, there you go. All right. To see the comments. Matt gives you a bobber.
What does that mean? Laura is the brains of the operation. She is pretty good. Laura is pretty good. She's got a lot that she can do. She's a smart woman. And we have to hire someone. We can't hire her for that. There's reasons.
We have reasons. But it's a three-year commitment we've got. Three years.
You'd be under probation for two or three months. And then once permanent, that's it. We've got a three-year commitment for staffing. So that's just a start. So I'm putting the word out.
If that sounds good, let me know. You want to pray about it. Oh, and here's one more thing. This is no joke. The people who work with this ministry often come under spiritual attack. So if you're married, you can be male or female. We don't care. If you're married, then you need to let your spouse know.
You're interested in doing this and it's for an apologetics ministry, et cetera, et cetera, and that you or your spouse, your family may come under spiritual attack. It may. I'm not saying it's going to happen. But I like to say to people, you can see what effect it has on you. Just look at my face and you can see. Yep, yep, yep, yep. A lot of problems. That's what the ministry is.
It's evident right there. So you can pray about that and see. And if you have inquiries and stuff like that, we'll let you know. All right.
All right. Now we have callers. I'm waiting for them in, but not activated. So I'm not sure what to do. We have two open lines.
Eight, seven, seven, two, zero, seven, two, two, seven, six. And if you want, you can email me info at Karm that Oregon foe at Karm C a r m dot o r g. And just put the subject line radio comment radio question. Easy peasy. Let's get to Rudolph from Raleigh, North Carolina.
Rudolph. Welcome. You're on the air. Yes, sir. I just want to say what?
I'm sorry. What? Anytime. Yes.
Anytime my friends have questions and I can't answer, I always call you. So, okay. Okay. Good.
Appreciate that. Okay. You're breaking up there, but go ahead. Okay, we'll tell you what, I can't understand you.
You're breaking up a lot. Tell you what, call back. Okay. I'll get a better connection. Okay.
Cause you're breaking up so much. I can't follow you. So just call back. Okay.
Rudolph. Okay. Okay. Buddy. All right. All right. Let's just jump over to Jermaine from California.
Jermaine. Welcome. You're on the air. Oh, Hey, Matt. Yeah.
What do you got, man? Hey, so, um, yeah, I was, uh, going over Luke chapter one, verse 20. And, uh, what always struck me about that is how, when the angel was talking to, uh, uh, what's it called? Zachariah or excuse me, as you know, I'll talk about it.
Yeah. He, uh, where he says, you know, because of his basis, unbelief, how he's kind of struck him blind, but what always got me with that was, was that something from the Lord? I mean, we know ultimately it was, but certain angels have the authority and the ability to pull off certain acts like that. And I think of the Sodom and Gomorrah situation, but it didn't seem like they elaborated on where that kind of authority came from.
So I just want to hear what you have to say about it. Well, the text says, and behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak. Doesn't say who's performing the action of making him mute.
It doesn't say who it is. The angel could simply be re reporting what he knows the Lord God is going to do. That's one explanation possible.
Another possible explanation is that the angel has that ability to somehow do that and does, but we don't know. It just says you won't be able to, uh, until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, uh, which you fulfilled, which will be fulfilled in their proper time. So, you know, other than that, it doesn't say when you're right.
Doesn't say. Yeah, I think that's the fairest thing I've heard. Just, uh, I guess there's no elaboration at all. So it's not super important, but it's just, you know, one of those intricate details that always kind of stuck out in my mind.
Well, when you come across stuff like that, it's worth looking into. And a lot of times with stuff like this, you might research for half hour, an hour, two hours, whatever, and you just don't, you just didn't learn anything about that. Who, what, when, where, why, but you always learn something else. So things like that are useful, are useful for trying to figure out what and why.
And I've done it many times and a lot of times I get no answer. It's like, I can't figure it out. Oh, well, but I always learn in the process. Okay. Right. And then that's where I cross-reference Genesis 19 where it says the angels struck them blind and that, or says they struck them blind, but it just doesn't really elaborate as that.
Are these like one, two time events or where the authority came from? So that's what had me kind of curious. Well, there you go. You know, that's a good point. See Genesis, 1911, they struck the men who were at the doorway in the house with blindness. So the angels are the one who did that to them. So we could say, well, at least we know that this is, I'm more of a logician than a lot of people. And I'll say, we know that it says this in Genesis, 1911, that the angels did that. It doesn't mean that the angels did it or the angel did it to Zechariah. It doesn't necessitate it, but certainly does support the idea.
And we can say probably that was the case. Make sense? Yes, sir. Thank you. All right, buddy. God bless, man. We'll talk to you later. All right. All right. God bless.
You too. Everybody, we'll be right back after these messages. Give me a call.
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. If you want, you can give me a call.
It's easy. 877-207-2276. And if you want to email me, all you have to do is send an email to info. Sorry about that.
info at karm.org, info at karm, C-A-R-M dot O-R-G, and in the subject line put radio comment, radio question. Let's get on the air with Rudolph. All right, Rudolph, you're back. Yes, sir.
Can you read? Oh, much better. Much better. There we go.
Okay. My question is, is the Antichrist and the false prophet humans or demons? Well, it looks like they're humans. The Antichrist will have an injury on his head and his arm in Zechariah 11-17. He'll probably be homosexual. No desire for a woman, Daniel 11-37.
Maybe boastful, combative, Daniel 7-8 and 21. So he should be a human. The false prophet, there's debate on what the false prophet is. Some have postulated it's a machine. Some said the Roman Catholic Church. Some said another individual. So I'm not going to get into which one it is, but they're at the very least going to be demonically influenced. But the Antichrist is definitely going to be a human being.
And the false prophet and the Antichrist get thrown into the lake of fire, which are consciously tormented forever and ever, which refutes annihilationism. So that's what I would say. Okay? Okay. Thank you. God bless you. I appreciate that. All right, man. God bless, buddy. Okay.
You know, I wrote an article a while back in July of 24. What political party would the Antichrist belong to? And since I was looking it up on my website for the answer here for the show, I thought I would just go over it really quickly and we'll get to the callers. He's going to be pro-LGBTQ because he's going to be homosexual. He'll be pro-abortion since the Antichrist's activity will be in accord with Satan, who's a murderer. He'll support a one-world government. Which political party does this remind you of?
Pro-LGBTQ, pro-abortion, pro-one-world government, socialistic kind of thing. We'll force compliance with the policies. We'll use deception. That to me is the left. They use deception all the time. And we'll make war with the Christians.
I don't know which political party you think he'd belong to. Let's get on the air here with Mark from Salt Lake City. Mark, welcome. You're on the air.
Yes. Hi, Matt. Can you hear me?
Yes, I can. You sound good, man. What do you got, buddy? Hey, he's going to be a Democrat, no doubt. At the very least, yeah. Yeah, that would be my guess.
I actually used to call them demon-crats, but now I more affectionately refer to them as demons straight up. It's interesting you're talking about the Antichrist. My question was sort of in line with that. And specifically, where do you think the Antichrist will come from? I've heard it's going to be something along the lines of the revived Roman Empire.
And if that's so, is that something that's going to be in the geographical area of Rome, Europe, European Union area? That's one of the theories. It wouldn't surprise me if the Pope was the Antichrist. It wouldn't surprise me. And it wouldn't surprise me if out of the rebuilt Roman Empire, the Antichrist rises out of all of that. There's another theory that he might be a Muslim, because there's going to be one real kind of a movement.
And the Muslims are intolerant, bigoted, hateful, because that's what the Quran and the Hadith teach. So they would only probably accept someone of their own ilk. And in that, they would probably require him to be Muslim of some sort. So that's a theory that some have postulated as well.
So I couldn't tell you who, for sure. Interesting. That almost might help in that covenant that he's going to be moving forward on between Israel and the Muslims on where to rebuild the temple.
Yes. In fact, I've been to Jerusalem. I've been to the Dome of the Rock twice. And if anybody were to just go on the web and look for a picture of the Dome of the Rock, you'll see it set in the middle of a large area. It's a flat area.
It's a football field in these. And so, I think it's mostly when you look into the picture, to the right is where they say the temple can be rebuilt. Because it's geographically, that's it. And that the Dome of the Rock is in the Court of the Gentiles.
So there's room for it to be built right there. And that would, boy, talk about tension. But that would be doable. So, yeah.
Right, right. Yeah, that was mainly my question, because I had heard, just going back to the Antichrist, just different things. I've heard the Pope.
I've heard, I've even heard it mentioned that Obama or Donald Trump, you know, could have been, which I don't see how the latter would have been. But I think he did get shot at. And he took an injury, and I believe the Antichrist is supposedly going to be, I think, receive an injury to his head or a wound to his head.
Yes. And sustain it and then come back to life, which is interesting. Yeah, it says, though, but it says his arm will be totally withered and his right eye will be blind.
So that's what's going to happen. Oh, the right eye. Okay. Yeah, so his eye will be blind. So he received probably a head injury and it's going to damage his ability to function physically.
Now, Trump got a piece of skin or a little chunk of it out of his ear that doesn't qualify, because it has to be a head and, excuse me, an eye and arm have to be nonfunctional. Okay. That's what I, I didn't remember that.
That's good to know. Yeah, and sort of with that, I was also curious if he is going to be, it's kind of a strange, I was kind of thinking, is he going to be a man? I'm assuming he's going to be a man, sort of like Judas, who was born of a woman, obviously.
Yeah, okay. And then he had the devil come inside of him at some point in time. I know Judas, it says, I think the Bible says that Judas had literally the devil come inside of him.
Right. Is that similar to the Antichrist, where he's going to have the devil come inside of him? He'll be sort of possessed and then sort of ruled by the devil? Yes, that's what the general theory is.
Okay. As there was a kind of incarnation of Christ, there's going to be a kind of incarnation of the devil in the Antichrist, the mimicry. And maybe you covered this on the previous one. I think there was, I just caught the last end of it, but where you were talking about the beast and the false prophet, is that sort of like that triad? So it'll be the Antichrist, and then he'll have the helper, sort of a right-hand man, so to speak, and then his sort of spiritual oversight and spiritual head as well, sort of that little trifecta. Right, a mockery of the Trinity. So we have the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have the Antichrist, false prophet, and the beast. And we have the incarnation of Christ as God. We have the, so to speak, incarnation of the devil. There's that.
And also 666 and 888. You want to hold off after the break? I'll talk about that.
Do you want to hold? 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. Welcome back to the show. Let's get back on with Mark from Salt Lake City. Are you still there?
I'm here. All right. So we have 666 and 666.
A lot of people not familiar. I've heard of 666 but not 888. Okay. Well. 666 being what the number of his name, where it's supposed to add up somehow numerically.
Right. So in Hebrew and in Greek, they have letters. And so the letters are the only set that they have to do both alpha and numeric. We have ABC and 123.
We have two sets. One for writing words and one for doing math and writing numbers. Greek and Hebrew don't have two sets. The same letters are also numbers. So when you write a word in Greek, it has a numeric value. It's called a gematria. And so that's all it is.
Every word has that. For example, in Hebrew, the word for God, the letters add up to 86. Letter B light is 232. Moses is 345.
Okay. In Greek, the word for cross adds up to 777. And the word for Jesus, which is pronounced Iesous, is 888.
Oh, I see. So Jesus is 888, the word Jesus. And Christ is 1286.
All right. So let's see if I can explain this a little bit more for fun. So the name of the antichrist, when it's written in Greek, the letters will add up to 666. Man was made on the sixth day.
So it's a Trinitarian issue, not a true biblical Trinitarian, but a triad, in this case, of a demonic manifestation. Because six is the number of man, and it's 666. Well, what's eight? Eight is the number of new beginnings. Because a male was circumcised on the eighth day. God made eight covenants with Abraham. There were eight people in Noah's ark. And we could say Jesus was raised on the eighth day.
Because there's seven days in a week, and it ends on the Sabbath, which is Saturday, but he's raised on Sunday, hence the eighth day. It's a little fun with math there. So that's what's really interesting. What's also interesting, the word for fish, ichthus, has a value of 1,224, so 1224. 12 and 12 is 24, so 1224, not a big deal. What's interesting is that eight divided into the number for fish, 1224, eight divided in there is 153. So eight times 153 is the mathematical value for the word fish.
And 153 fish is how many were caught in John 21. When they cast a net on the right side, not the left side, but the right side. Right is salvation, left is damnation, judgment. The right side of God are the sheep, and the left are the goats. So it's interesting that at the end of the ministry of Christ, and they went back to fishing after he'd risen from the dead, he said, cast your net on the right side.
They did. They caught 153 fish. So the number of new beginnings, eight times 153 is the same number for the word fish, which is how many fish they caught. And what's really interesting is that in the four gospels, if you remove or don't count the 4,000, the 5,000, these large generic numbers, how many individuals received a blessing from Jesus? 153 in the four gospels. So I love that kind of stuff.
Yeah, sorry. I'm just kind of thinking that just triggered another thought in my mind where kind of along the same lines as Daniel's prophecies and his 70th week prophecy. It seems like it's amazing. Like one of the prophecies I talk to people about with sort of getting evidence for the reason why we believe is Daniel's 70th week. And just kind of for the fact that it's so, it seems I may be wrong, but I think it's that from the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah would be 483 years. And I think, you know, that's obviously a number and it's a very specific number. And my understanding is that it did occur from Artaxerxes gave the commandment to restore and rebuild the temple. And then when Jesus came back, I think it was somewhere around April 6, 32 AD, would have been 483 years.
And then my question kind of is, and I always wondered, that's the first part, I think. I think he said there'd be 70 weeks of sevens. Right.
And that was 69. And then it's going to be one final week of sevens. Is that what we're speaking of then that's still to be, still to happen? And that's where the Antichrist is sort of going to come about either, I've heard, the three and a half middle point where he, you know, he says, hey, you know, worship me. I guess he creates a covenant with, yeah, that's what I was wondering is Daniel's 70th week. That's where that's coming from. It's still to come then, right?
Yes. Now, just for a little bit more information, it's 173,880 days. That's how many days it is of those years in Daniel 7. For the issue of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, that was March 14th, 445 B.C. So you add those days from that time on, that's the day that Jesus came into Jerusalem on a donkey.
So we know that. That was a specific day and time, a date, which is, I mean, I do, I've heard that there was a book written by Sir Isaac Anderson or someone like that. It was a, I don't know, a British guy that wasn't even necessarily a Christian. And he was curious about that and did the math and he took into account the different leap years and the different calendars and whatnot. And he came up with something like April 6th, 32 AD was when Jesus came riding another donkey to Jerusalem, which is amazing.
If that's true, yeah. And then if that's true, I'm just curious, that last week of 7, I know we're supposed to wait for the period of the, or my understanding is we're supposed to wait for the period of the church. And then God will be kind of turning his heart back to Israel and then he's going to work with them on that last 7, specifically on that last week of 7. Yeah, there's a lot of discussion about it. So in the Messiah, the cutoff in the mid week of the last week, three and a half years of his ministry, he was killed.
He was cut off. There's three and a half years to come. And so some, there's a lot of people who've speculated about what that is. And some say it's the period of judgment, the great tribulation for three and a half years. And this is when the Antichrist will be revealed.
Christ will do some pretty heavy stuff. So sort of, I'm just thinking numerically, right, this 483 years and sets of sixes and sets of eights and 153 fish and whatnot. If that's a week of sevens, we would know, wouldn't we, then sort of a number of days on that last, like when that starts, if it's, let's say the Antichrist comes in and says, hey, you know, worship me. And that's the abomination that causes desolation.
And we should know what is it? One thousand three hundred and forty days or whatever it is. Three and a half years to the end. Yes. That would be that final period.
And we could almost know when Jesus would come back the second time. Right. Yes. Now there's, you're getting, we have nobody waiting right now.
We lost one caller. That's OK. But they're getting into a lot of stuff.
And yeah, it's OK. No, it's OK. So, for example, two men in the field, one is taken, one is left. The wicked are the ones who are taken.
And Jesus says that the first ones taken are the wicked. He says so at the end of the age. Yeah, I believe that. That's what he said.
So what's going on and when's it going to occur? That's the issue. We could get into this if you want. We could talk about some stuff. There's a lot here, you know, and I don't have our own soul.
Right. I know there's a, I know, and I kind of got confused on some of it. I'm just trying to wrap my mind around some of it. You know, there's the battle of Armageddon and there's, I'm trying to see what would be the next sort of thing on the prophetic calendar. Are we looking for Antichrist to come? Rebuild the temple.
OK. Or, yeah, the peace treaty. But it could be that the Antichrist, theoretically, is alive right now. That would be a fulfillment of his birth. And then he will be manifested later on.
And then as he, there's different timelines we could look at. At the beginning of the tribulation period, he makes a pact with Israel. They rebuild the temple. And then at midpoint, he goes into the temple. Midpoint of the seventh year of tribulation, he goes in there and says he's God. And it all hits the fan everywhere.
Everywhere. OK. The great tribulation. But then Jesus says, after the great tribulation is when the rapture occurs. That's what he says, Matthew 24. A lot of people don't know that. But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the son will send forth his angels, the great trumpet.
The son of trumpet. And they will gather the elect. He says after. Right. Yeah. Oh, I know. I'm a Calvary guy.
And I really was, you know, I was convinced that the rapture was going to take place, you know, prior to the tribulation. And it was funny. I used to listen to David Hawking.
I don't know if you ever heard him. Oh, yeah. I'm from Southern California. We got a break.
Yeah. We got a break. But I'm from Southern California. Chuck Smith baptized my wife and I. She got saved in a big Calvary. We got married by Calvary Chapel pastor. So, yeah, I'm from there, too, but didn't buy into a lot of this stuff.
But good church. Hey, hold on, buddy. We got a break. Folks, we'll be right back after these messages. If you want to give me a call, the number's 877-207-2276. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276.
Here's Matt Slick. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Let's get on with Mark again. All right, Mark. I forgot where we were.
Where we go? Yeah, we were talking about Calvary Chapel days and Costa Mesa. Mm-hmm. That's where I'm from. That's my stomping grounds, yeah. Yeah, me too. It was really good.
I love Chuck. I still listen to his podcasts through the Bible. And I think it's been great. I do agree with sort of since there's been so many crazy things happening in the world and I've been looking more and more back into prophecy. And I remember my days there and I know they're kind of sort of pre-Trib, which I don't see that necessarily as much.
I honestly have changed my position quite a bit. I'm not 100% sure either way, but it just seems like it's a stretch to me on the pre-Trib rapture where we're going to be raptured out, like I said, in Thessalonians before the – I love it. That happened, but before the last seven-year period of the tribulation. But it just seems like that's – I think that was taken. I remember a couple scriptures.
I think they go to Revelation 4 where John is caught up into heaven and they kind of use that. And that seems a stretch. I'll tell you what. I have a study I've done on Karm and you can look it up. It'll challenge you. It's called an examination of this age and the age to come in support of Amillennialism.
But if you go to Karm and look up this age and the age to come, it's got a table, and I presented this argument and stuff from many times in Bible studies. And let's just say people often come away irked. They get refuted. And they're going, you know, I don't like what it says. Boy, that's what it seems to say. And then no one's refuted it yet. Check it out and see what you think.
I'm not saying it's solid proof. Yeah, no, definitely. Yeah, but, you know, it's worth it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's some things that are sort of a little bit ethereal or difficult to kind of grasp, but there's so many things like this annual 70th week and, you know, the first part of that where you're discussing where it's very, you know, specific. And so I was trying to – I'm trying to grasp onto what I can know because I don't want to be talking to people and give information out that I'm not, you know, totally strong on or sure about. But, you know, and then they may, you know, like I know the annual 70th week, people can go look that up.
They can look up Sir Isaac Anderson and the mathematics that he did on that. But some of the other things, I don't really talk to people dogmatically about it. You know, I just tell them here's what we're supposed to be looking for, you know, is really the return of Christ. And, yeah, there's going to be a bad time because people want to know, like, what, you know, these bold judgments and all these judgments in Revelation are about, and I'll tell them. Yeah, the world is getting worse.
It's getting worse. And it's getting – it's specific. It's crazy how, like, Russia's getting – I mean, I think it says what?
God's going to put the hooks in Russia's jaws and bring them down from the north to invade Israel, and that's what's lining up. And I know that's a little bit, like, not totally, you know, a specific thing. I mean, but it does mention Russia, and that was, what, 2,000-plus years ago, and Russia's now – Which is Magog, but it might be Russia, but, yeah, I'm with you. Uh-huh.
Or the people – yeah, the people of the area, Rosh, I think it's Rosh or something, but – Right. And then it mentions the other confederation, I think Gomers, Germany, and Ethiopia. It's just so amazing where God would actually outline these things and give us, you know, this kind of information to where – what other book could do that? And I try to, like, tell people, like, you know, there's a lot of prophecies, most of which are very specific that already occurred, like that 483 years and the first coming of Jesus, and some in the future are still sort of maybe harder to grasp. They're a little bit – like, I'm trying to find some stuff or some, you know, more concrete sort of prophecies, and I'll go look on your site that you're mentioning on timeframes and things like that.
Yeah. Maybe get a little bit of a deeper dive. You need to learn about this age and the age to come, the two-age model. That's what Paul taught. That's what Jesus taught.
And I never hear Calvary Chapel, no disrespect mentioned, I never hear the pre-trippers ever talk about this age and the age to come. So we'll see. Go check it out, okay, buddy? I will. Thank you, Matt. Appreciate you. All right, Matt. God bless. God bless you. Okay. Thank you.
All right, good. Hey, let's get to Sam from Michigan. Sam, welcome.
You're on the air. Well, thank you, Matt. Hey, you know, when it comes to two-up, you know, I agree with him, but there's this one thing I'm kind of cloudy on is limited atonement. And the thing is, I thought salvation is open for all. Did God reach out and decide who's going to accept him or who's not going to accept him? Yes.
And that's the one thing I'm kind of iffy on. Well, Jesus says, You cannot come to me unless it's granted by the Father, John 665. John 14.6, yes.
No, no, no. John 6.65. John 14.6 says he's going to be treated alive. John 6.65. Jesus says, You cannot come to me unless it's granted by the Father. In Acts 13.48, it says, As many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. They're appointed to eternal life by God.
You can't come to him unless it's granted by the Father. Then when you go to Ephesians 1.4, it just says he, as the Father, chose us, the saved ones, in him, that's Jesus, before the foundation of the world, that we'd be holy and blameless. And then you go to Romans 9.22 and 23, it says, What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
And he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory. People don't like that. And then what I'll do is I'll trick them. I'll say, Well, I believe that God makes all things, even the wicked, for the day of destruction. And they say, God would never do that.
And I say, Well, are you sure? I've got to quote Proverbs 16.4. It says, The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil. Some translations say destruction. So, I show them.
This is what it says. And they don't like it. Because they're taught, most people are taught, that God is a gentleman and that Jesus is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian server dude dressed in a woman's nightgown, standing at the door of your heart, asking permission for you in your wisdom and your ability to let him in. And then when you let him in, you activate the blood of Christ in your life. It's man-centered theology throughout the Christian church. Man-centered theology.
The majesty of God is sacrificed for the majesty of man. It doesn't mean they're not saved, that they don't realize what they're doing when they say, No, it's up to our free will. If it's up to your free will, then why is it that God says, You can't come to me unless it's granted from the Father? It was up to your free will. It just doesn't make any sense. So then there's people who come along and say, God gives you a prevenient grace, which gets you to a neutral position. By then you can make the choice. That's how they explain John 6.65. God just makes you neutral.
I call that kindergarten theology because it's just a low-level answer that is full of problems and they haven't thought past that answer. But at any rate, you were going to say something? Go ahead. No, I'm going to tell you, when it comes to the concept about free will, if we already predestined the Christ that Christ knows, would we accept him and all that, that takes away the argument of free will, right? No. Let me ask you, did Jesus have free will, being God in flesh?
Yes. Now, if I were to go to John 5.19, this is what Jesus says. He says, Truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the Father doing. That's interesting. And then if you go to John 5.30, Jesus says, I can do nothing of my own initiative.
Wait a minute. So he does the will of the Father. He came down to do the will of the Father. He does nothing of his own initiative. Well, does he have free will?
Of course. So free will and God's sovereignty are compatible, and the proof is in Jesus himself. What a lot of people do is they say, Look, if God knows what you're going to do, you're not free to do anything contrary when it's time.
And it's not a very good logic. So the illustration I give is, I know when my children, I know them very well. I know exactly what they're going to do. Not infallibly, but I know what they're going to do in certain circumstances. I know if I put a plate of dirt to eat or an ice cream in front of them, I know which one they're going to take. And I don't have any qualms about saying, This is the one they're going to take right here.
And I know it. Does it mean the person's not free to make a choice at that time? Of course not. They come up with these ideas, but they haven't thought them through. And they think, I just proved that free will doesn't work in Calvinism.
And I'm saying, well, let's do some talking, let's do some thinking. And a lot of times they don't want to do that. Yeah, because from my understanding for free will, from my understanding is that free will is given to all God's creation.
And that's right up in heaven. What's free will? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. What is free will? It's like God gave his creation to either accept him or reject him. Where does it say that in the scripture?
It really doesn't say it. This is under my logic, you know. See, what a lot of people do is, this is a good illustration of something, is that they are taught things that sound good but are not biblical. So free will means you can just be able to choose between things, right? Between good and bad, you can do good or bad, and that's what it is, right? That's what it does say, free will is. Well, that's a humanist philosophy.
The reason it's a humanist philosophy is because the definition is man-centered, not God-centered. It doesn't include God, because God is not free to be able to sin. He can't choose between good and bad and do good or bad and choose which one. He can only do what is good, which is consistent with his nature. When I do this with people, I say, was free will the ability to do good and bad?
You can do either one and you choose, and they go, yeah. Well, I'd set them up, because they don't realize they're being humanistic. They're defining free will by their own experience and by man, not by God.
We need to define it as God is the standard, and if you do that, then the problems can be solved. But people aren't taught to do what's right before in logic and definitions and things like that, okay? Okay, yeah. Well, thank you for clearing up the limited atonement, Doug. We didn't talk about that, though. Limited atonement just means that Jesus only bore the sins of the elect. He did not bear the sin of every individual who ever lived.
That's what that means. Okay, yeah. Hey, you know, Baptists, you know, Baptists, we weren't really talking about, you know, Calvinism or the Tulip or anything like that. So, you know, there's a good reform Baptist church in here in town, and maybe I might attend there a couple times, you know, and really see. Yeah, and just make sure what they're teaching is biblical.
Just make sure that it's biblical. Always do that, okay? Always check it out. Yes. Yes. Okay, there's the music.
Perfect timing. Thank you very much. All right, man. God bless. Yeah, good night. You, too. Thanks. God bless you, too. All right. Hey, folks, we're out of time. May the Lord bless you.
I know some controversial things were said. Well, but the question is, is it what the Scriptures teach? That's something to think about. Give me a call tomorrow if you want. May the Lord bless you, by His grace, back on there tomorrow. We'll talk to you then. We'll deal with everybody.
