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 KARM.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick live.

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

You're listening to Matt Slick live. If you want, you can give me a call. The number is 877-207-2276. I want to hear from you. Give me a call. And, uh, let's see, everybody waiting right now. Hey, I just want to do a little kind of a personal thing here. If you looked at my wife in prayer, um, the Lord knows what it is.

It's health issues and things like that. That would be really appreciated. And, uh, there you go. So there's that. And, uh, boy, I'll tell you, uh, I was working on a lot of stuff, uh, on the computer.

I rebuilt my computer, which, uh, you know, I enjoy doing, but, uh, there's always a thousand little things that you forget to do. And I think I finished them. So, uh, not a big deal. All right. And so I guess it, okay. Now, uh, tonight I was going to be on, uh, discord and I was, we were planning, we've canceled it because I'm going to take my wife to the doctor and stuff, but, um, we're going to have a meeting where I was going to discuss some theology with some Eastern Orthodox people. They were going to, uh, just the lineup, so to speak, and they're going to ask questions and there's not a debate. It was, well, what's this, why this and, and the whole bit. And I was good.

I was going to take lots of notes. And so, um, that's, I'd rather cancel that tonight. So we're going to move it to another night.

Don't know what night will be, but I'll let you know when we do that. Cause you guys can go on discord and you can, um, you can check it out. And I've been doing a lot of research on the Eastern Orthodox church, which, uh, I, I, uh, consider to be just as apostate as the Roman Catholic church. Now, when I talk like that to people, uh, who are in those churches, well, I'll tell you, I guess some interesting reactions a lot of times, but more and more really what's happening is they just kind of roll with it and they, um, you just deal with it and not, not a big deal.

Yeah. So now some of them get very angry and start calling me, uh, you know, demon possessed and all this stuff because they're so loyal to their church. And I point them to Christ. I point them to salvation by grace through faith and they will always add works. And one of the things I found recently that they do is, uh, due to a particular theory on the atonement called the recapitulation theory of the atonement, the recapitulation theory. So I was going to talk about that a little bit.

I released an article today and I've been working on it for a few days and I'll end up modifying it. But, well, it looks like Joanne's calling. I'm going to get to that really quickly. Uh, let's see part of prayer team. Oh, I'm going to get to Joanne. She does our prayer team and I think she had some surgery, so she's out of commission and we'll get to her and then we'll, I'll tell you about this recapitulation thing.

Joanne, welcome. You're on the air. How are you doing? I just wanted to say hey to my family and I miss y'all and my voice is all messed up from the tube down my throat. Oh, okay. Okay.

We're, we're watching you on television and I'm just so thankful that carms not getting my memorials. I told you you're going to be fine. You just had shoulder surgery and I just told me like you're still coming out of a little bit of stuff, but that's okay. And so he, uh, during the surgery, my humorous fractured. Yeah.

No, never again. But I've had some complications, but I'm just thankful to be alive and I just wanted to say hey to everybody and my family and that I love y'all and thank you so much for the prayers. Good.

Well, praise God. And I knew you're going to go through it fine. Not a problem. And uh, there you go.

So you'll, you'll be back on the, in the saddle in no time. Okay. Okay.

I will as soon as I can. All right. God bless y'all. God bless.

Okay. Well folks, that's Joanne. She's a sweetie and a voice. I mean, I can tell she sees a little out of it and that's okay. Um, so, uh, oh yeah, she does the prayer team and, and uh, oh, she has a tender heart.

She's just a blessing in the ministry. Um, so she had shoulder surgery and just, you know, still in the hospital recovering from that. So there you go. Now someone was asking about the discord thing again. So I gotta let you know, that's where I canceled that for tonight because I'm going to take my wife to, uh, the doctor, uh, the hospital actually.

And she's gonna, they're probably gonna admit her and uh, she's getting ready, just doing a few things and after the show, so I'll be just taking off. So we're not going to do the discord research thing. That's going to be doing tonight with some Eastern Orthodox people.

That's just the way that goes. But I did want to talk about the recapitulation theory of the atonement that they hold to Eastern Orthodox church. And it's really an interesting, uh, idea and I'm confused about it.

And I did a lot of research on it and I don't see how it's efficacious. So let me explain what it is and we can, you know, go through it. So basically what it is, it says that, that Adam messed up everything. And so Jesus, what he did, when he came to the earth, he lived a perfect life and in his life, death and resurrection, he recapitulated or he summed up, brought together, lived all of human experience, yet he did it without sinning. So therefore, by that, he restored the, the life that Adam lost to us. He restored human life into what is supposed to be. And so it's not focused on the atoning sacrifice. It's not focused on Jesus being becoming sin and bearing our sin, though they do admit that occurred.

No, the real issue here is that he lived a life sufficiently to enable us to live a life as well. And then by that whole atoning process, we can become saved. And this makes sense inside of Eastern Orthodoxy because in Eastern Orthodox theology, um, there is no, uh, instant forgiveness of sins when you believe. Um, so I was discussing this with, uh, some Eastern Orthodox people. And one gentleman, uh, was discussing, and I had this question for him.

I said, is it the case that all your sins are forgiven right now or is it not the case that all your sins are forgiven right now? And, uh, the, most of the people in the room said it was a false dichotomy. Didn't represent their position in the whole bit. And I had, I'd really tried to teach them basic logic.

They didn't understand it and get it that, uh, you know, it took 20 minutes to say, look, no, no, no, no. This is a true dichotomy. And it is a valid question to ask you. And when they explained their position recapitulation theory, along with sacramental salvation, which means that their salvation occurs to the participation of the sacraments. So I said, look, gentlemen, I said, it's either the case that all your sins are forgiven right now, or it's not the case that all your sins are forgiven right now. And it is, it, what is true is it's not the case. I said, that's what you answer. This is not hard, but I really find interesting a lot is when I deal with people in the cults and false religions is I'm intrigued by the lack of critical thinking that is so common among them.

Uh, it's really amazing. In fact, here, let me explain something else. Look at this. This is John, not John, uh, James two 14. Now James two is a great pericope James two 14 through 26 where he talks about faith that works is dead. And so I'm gonna give an example of something. So what the cults will often do and Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, they'll go to this section of scripture and they'll say that what's being talked about here is salvation before God.

Now I'm going to go through a little bit and just kind of just kind of, you know, do two things at once. I'm going to teach on what this section of scripture means and you know, weave in the issues of false religious systems and what they do. But verse 14 it starts off as particularly interesting.

I'll tell you what happened when I was talking with somebody. Uh, it says, what use is it my brethren if someone says he has faith, can that faith save him? And, uh, this person I was talking to, uh, is a Mormon and he knows Greek pretty well and he does. And, um, he says that the word that is not in the Greek and he says, can faith save him? And I went and looked at the Greek.

I was driving when we were having this discussion. I got home and I got on my computer, I was able to look at the Greek and it says the faith. And I said, you got that wrong. I said, it doesn't say that, you know, so us, it says, uh, Hey, which is the definite article feminine. And I said, so this is a word that can the faith save him? The faith being the faith that's under discussion. So here's the thing. Check this out. All right.

So what use is it? My brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works, can that or the faith save him? Can the faith that he's discussing, can it save you? Now, I'm going to tell you what happened because this is exegesis. This is learning how to read scripture.

This is an, and I'm going to give you an example of the mistake that this person made. So before I do that, I'm going to read, um, the different versions on the last, uh, last part of that verse. Can that faith save him out of James 2 14.

That's what the NESB says. The ESV says, can that faith save him? Uh, the King James says, can faith save him? The LEB says that faith is not able to save him. The CSB says, can such faith save him? Uh, and the ASV says, can that faith save him? So obviously what's going on is the translators understand that the issue is called, can the faith that he's being spoken of here, the faith that has no works, can it save you?

That's a topic. So this is now having said all of that, what this guy was doing was saying, it's not about faith. It's about salvation.

The topic is about salvation. And I said, no, it's about faith. The true faith, there's true faith and false faith. And the true faith is the faith that saves the topic is faith.

And the, uh, indirect object, I said, it's not really an indirect object, but I said the indirect part, there is the issue of salvation. The main thing that he's talking about here is faith. And the guy said, no, it's a salvation and faith is the secondary thing. So here's what he says, what it says again, what use is it? My brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works, can that faith save him?

That's the topic. It's a faith. Now, this guy was a Mormon, and he was in the room with me and some other Eastern Orthodox people. And the Eastern Orthodox people were saying that he was correct and it's obvious he was not correct, but they had to say that because, simply because they hold to the recapitulation theory of the atonement, which necessitates that you earn your salvation, not by faith in Christ. You don't earn it when you have faith. It's not by faith in Christ that you're justified before God.

No. What happens is that you live a good life and that in the process of the atoning sacrifice, you can then participate in the energies and the true faith with the works will save you. And because of that, they would read all that into the text and they got it wrong. They got it wrong.

Anyway, that's what happens a lot with false religious systems. And hey, there's the music. 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. If you want to give me a call, it is easy. Just, uh, direct your, your, uh, phone, their number to 877-207-2276. And, and if you want, you can easily just give me an email, send an email to info at karm.org, info at karm.org. And in the subject line, just please put in radio comment, radio question, and we can get to it from there. No big deal.

So we'd have nobody waiting right now. So what I was trying to say is on the issue of, um, of how theology is interrelated. You see, when you have a bad soteriology, you can have a bad doctrine of something else. Now, if you have a bad atonement theory, then it's going to lead to other things.

How is it that, uh, yeah, yeah, uh, how is it that, um, a couple of things going on. If Jesus just lived a sinless life and he lived a good life, how does that save you? See this issue in, it's called PSA, penal substitutionary atonement. Penal means law, a penal colony, you know, things like that prison, the legality of the place of Christ being under the law, uh, um, canceling the sin debt, uh, equating sin with legal debt. He did all of this and then he paid a legal, uh, the requirements of the law. So this is clearly a substitutionary work that he did. Isaiah 53 four through six talks about that. He bore our sin and his body and the cross first Peter two 24.

Now he did this. So these are issues that are clear. It wasn't his life that saves us per se. It's the place of the sacrifice where Christ bore our sin and his body on the cross. And it was there, he atoned for our sins and it was there that he was the propitiatory sacrifice. All right, so we could then in the PSA, uh, idea, we could say, okay, I get how it works, how we're saved. You see, Jesus bore our sins, canceled the sin debt. And what we do is by faith that righteousness that belongs to Christ is imputed to us and he removed that sin debt. And so this is all received by faith so we can then connect the dots. But in the, uh, uh, recapitulation theory of the atonement, RTA, recapitulation theory of the atonement in RTA, how does that work? Because I, I, I have yet to find in the, the research that there's an imputation of righteousness that's occurs by faith. That's critical because if it's not a righteousness imputed by faith, then it must be righteousness by some other means, not by faith in Christ, but by what you do. So it would, this makes sense now, uh, more so to me in that the RTA along with the system of works that the East Orthodox Church espouses, the system of, of, uh, the sacraments that you have to participate in sacraments and do good works, keep the law and various things in order to be saved.

So this is the stuff that I have been dealing with with these guys for a long time and discussing them. And it's really interesting to me how people are so, I don't know how to put it, brainwashed, how they, I guess I said, I don't know what else to say. It's like in my mind, I see them as being brainwashed because they can't see just simply what the scriptures are saying, you know, and I show them scriptures like, like this thing of, of James too.

And we know what it uses my brethren. If someone says he has faith, can that faith save him? And it's that faith that is a topic and the result of good faith is salvation. But they said, no, no, no, it's about salvation, not about faith. And it's just not what the text says. But they have to say that because their theology is more important than the word of God. And it goes on, the text says, if a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and be filled. And yet you did not give them what is necessary for their body.

What use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works as dead being by itself. And of course we would agree as Protestants, yeah, if you have faith, let's see the works that are accompanying that true faith. If you say you have faith, let's see it. If you say you really believe in God, let's see the proof of it. And if you say you have faith and you're fornicating, you're out watching bad stuff you shouldn't be watching.

You're living with a boyfriend, girlfriend situation. You're out doing the bad stuff. Don't call yourself a Christian because that's dead faith. You know, if you're doing all these things, there's no conviction. There's no anything. That's, that's it. You can't say you're a Christian and then live like you're the devil and you know, just don't do it. And so this is what James is talking about here.

And then it goes on verse 18, which is really critical and I've focused on verse 18 a lot with them and they've still refused. Now, now I'm going to introduce a concept. You tell me which one this is or, you know, answer yourself there. Is this the vertical or the horizontal? Now the vertical is between God and man.

Horizontal is between people. And when I went into this text, it was really interesting. The mental linguistic gymnastics that the Mormon went through who knows Greek pretty well, who was aided and abetted by the Eastern Orthodox.

And I want to ask these EO guys, do you think this guy's helping you? I think he's a Christian because you know, God gave him another planet and all this stuff and Mormonism. And uh, uh, that's a whole nother story.

So anyway, they haven't answered that. I haven't asked the question, but I'm going to answer, ask him because I think it's interesting that the Mormons and the Eastern Orthodox work together when it comes to the doctrine of salvation and the same, the same view, that true faith will have true works and the combination of your true faith and your true works with God's grace will manifest in, in forgiveness of sins. That's what it, that's what they teach is false doctrine. So anyway, here's what it says in verse, uh, in James 2 18, someone may well say you have faith and I have worked, show me your faith without the works and I'll show you my faith by my works. And I said, that's the horizontal, it's between people, between people, right? It says, uh, someone, someone, I said, someone it's a person, right? It's not, not, not an angel. It's not God, right? Some of them may well say you have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith without the works. I said, is it, is it God? And they said, no.

Is it an angel? No. Well then who is it? It's hypothetical. It's hypothetical.

Yeah. It's a hypothetical someone. Was it a human being? It doesn't say just hypothetical someone. It says, well, well, it says up there in verse 14, my brethren. So who's he talking to? Okay. And, uh, someone may well say is a hypothetical human being. It doesn't say, it's just, they can't, they can't give an inch. Okay. They can't give an inch because it, because they don't want the horizontal to be the fact here.

They want their false demonic doctrine of they have to do good works in order to be saved. So, uh, you know, I said, so someone may well say, you have faith. I have works. Who's the, you, it's a, we don't know who it is. It's just a rhetorical individual who it just, it doesn't really have any specific existence. And I said, okay. Uh, so is it talking about angels hypothetically? No. Well then who was it talking about?

And it was really kind of dumb because, uh, because, uh, it was interesting. And so, uh, this is how it went. And then they, they, they claim victory. Yeah. That guy beat you up so bad. I'm laughing. I said, well, okay.

That's what you guys think. You know, it's all right. But, uh, it was really bad, you know?

And so, uh, this is the kind of thing that I have to deal with on a regular basis. Oh man. And then they claim victory and that's okay.

They can claim victory, you know, whatever, but they do it so arrogantly and they do it with such confidence and they do it when they can't, they couldn't argue the way out of a wet paper bag. Oh, it's bad news. Hey, there's the music again.

So I can barely hear it, but there it is. Hey, we'll be right back after these messages. So please stay tuned.

We have a Patrick from Charlotte, North Carolina. Uh, please stay tuned. We'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick.

Everybody. Welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, the number is 877-207-2276. Let's get to Patrick from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Patrick, welcome. You're on the air. Hey man, how are you doing? Doing all right, brother.

Hanging in there, hanging in there, man. That's good. Um, my question is about, uh, you know, John one 14, the word became flesh. Now that was Jesus when he was born, right? Yes.

That's the word became flesh union. The two natures, the divine and the human is what we call the person of Christ. And that's who Jesus is that that occurred 2000 years ago. Yes.

Okay. But, um, in the old Testament, was Jesus in the flesh? Not incarnate.

He may have appeared in a fleshly form and I can show you where, like in Genesis three, the sound of the Lord walking in the garden and, uh, Exodus 24, nine through 11, Exodus six, two and three varying verses. But he was not incarnate. There's a difference between what's called a manifestation or an appearance and an incarnation. The incarnation is permanent. Christ will always be man. He will always have two distinct natures.

That's from, from 2000 years ago on for eternity. But in the old Testament economy, the pre incarnate Christ appeared because it was never the father per John six, 46. And so he appeared, but not as an incarnate form. It looks like he just appeared as, um, manifestation.

Okay. And you like, uh, you know, you always ask people, is Jesus in the flesh today? So Jesus is in the flesh today.

Yes, he is. He died on the cross. He prophesied in John two, 19 through 21, that he would raise up his own body in the Greek as a Giro, which is the future active indicative, which means that he performed the action of his own resurrection. And yet the father and son also raised him.

That's Trinitarian theology. And first Corinthians 15, uh, 35 through 45 talks about the resurrected body being the glorified body. And furthermore, Jesus retained the crucifixion wounds when he appeared to a doubting Thomas in John 20, 25 through 28 says, put your hand into my side, your finger into my hand. So he retained the crucifixion wounds. And, uh, um, so that's who he is.

Okay. Well, um, could it be that, uh, Jesus resurrected back to being the word of God? It's not an issue of back to the word of God.

He is the word of God. He always at the incarnation, he's the word of God today, but, uh, like flesh and blood cannot go into heaven. So how can he be in as a fleshly body in heaven? Flesh and blood is an idiomatic term used of the sinful kind of self. Flesh and blood did not reveal us to you. Jesus had to pick Peter, but my father who's in heaven. So Jesus, if you'll notice, he says, a spirit does not have flesh and bones.

As you see, I have, I think it's Luke 24 39. So the issue here is that the blood of Christ was drained out. It was the means by which we are cleansed of our sin.

Leviticus 17 11 and Hebrews 9 22. So these, the sin offering of his blood was drained down on the cross. He has open wounds after his resurrection, no functioning blood in his system, but so it's flesh and bones is what he referred to himself as not flesh and blood. Okay.

Okay. I just still don't understand how he, why wouldn't he be in flesh in the old Testament if he, um, you know, resurrected in a, a glorified body, why wasn't he in that same body in the old Testament? Because he hadn't been born. He wasn't born in the old Testament. That's the reason I say that Jesus can't be in the old Testament because he was born in the new Testament because that's kind of oxymoron to think that Jesus, the word of God was in the old Testament.

That's right. That's why I say, I do not say Jesus was in the old Testament. I don't say that. I say the pre incarnate Christ, because Jesus, by definition came into existence 2000 years ago. Now, the word, the divine nature is eternal second person of the Trinity, but the union of the divine and human natures did not occur until 2000 years ago. And the attributes of both natures are ascribed to the single person that's called the communicatio idiomatum, the communication of the properties. So Jesus has the properties of both nature, divine and human.

That's who he is. That began that union, the two natures in the one person began 2000 years ago. But before that, I just say it's the pre incarnate Christ, second person of the Trinity normally speaking.

Okay. Well, you know, like you say 2000 years ago, but the old Testament is older than that. So when the word became flesh, it was when Jesus was born, but the word was still in the old Testament. So couldn't it be the one who was in the garden, I guess, is the old, is the word.

Yes. The pre incarnate Christ. That's who was walking with Adam and Eve.

Yeah. And the reason we say that, because the Holy Spirit that never is said to appear in a anthropomorphic form and a form of a man, of a human being, it's always wind or fire being poured and things like that. And Jesus says in John 6 46, not that anyone has seen the father except the one who's from God.

He has seen the father. And then first Timothy 6 16 is speaking of the father, the context who was an unapproachable light who no man has seen or can see. Stephen says in Acts seven, two, that they, the God of, uh, the God, uh, that God appeared to, to, uh, people in the old Testament and to Abraham. And it says this in many places and, uh, Genesis 17 one, Genesis 18 one, Exodus six, two and three XS 24, nine through 11 numbers, 12, six through eight, where, uh, God appears, but Jesus has not the father.

So I ask people who is God almighty who appeared in the old Testament, who's not God, the father, pre incarnate Christ. That's the answer. Yeah.

It would be the word of God because it's impossible for Jesus himself to be in the old Testament. In that sense. Yeah. In that sense, even you admit to that, that he came about 2000 years ago.

Right. The incarnation occurred 2000 years ago. The union of the two natures occurred 2000 years ago.

The union had not occurred in the old Testament time. So it's the pre incarnate Christ, the second person of the Trinity, the word who became, who, uh, was manifested. Yeah. But that would be simpler to describe. As you say the word was in the old Testament. Jesus was born of a woman and he was on earth, but, uh, that's why I believe Jesus can't be God on earth because, uh, he was born of a woman.

And, uh, when he resurrected, he goes back to being the word of God, which he is today, which makes it easier. Explain this. I think. No, no, no, no, no, no. Patrick, we've had this discussion before. All right.

All right. So the pre incarnate Christ, the word, the word is, God is in the old Testament. That's right. The word of God.

Yes. So this, when you say pre incarnate Christ, that's a wrong statement. No, it's not. Cause that's not in the Bible.

No, it's okay. When you go to John one 18, okay. It says, no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God in the bosom of the father, he has explained him. He's revealed him.

He's the one that you look to. He's executed him. So that's what the, uh, the, uh, the Greek is exegetis exegetis auto. So we have to understand that the Trinity is true. One God in three distinct simultaneous persons, the father, the son, the Holy spirit, the father, the word, the Holy spirit, the pre incarnate Christ is the word in the old Testament in the new Testament is the incarnation of the word where the union of the divine and human natures occurred and the properties of both natures are ascribed to the single person. Therefore we call him Jesus. Jesus died on the cross and three days later rose from the dead. And he still is the union of the divine and human natures.

And he will be like that for forever. All right. That's orthodoxy. That's biblical truth. Okay.

Yeah. But in revelations, 1913, it says, um, uh, his name will be the word of God speaking of Jesus. So Jesus died on the cross, the human, but, uh, he resurrected to the word of God, which I'm just trying to say that it's easier to explain than to try to say Jesus was in the old Testament. No, I didn't say that you had it right for a bit. Now you're, you're changing the words.

Okay. So it's a pre-incarnate Christ. Second person of the Trinity was manifesting in anthropomorphic form in the old Testament. That's who that was. It was never the father. The father has never been seen. Jesus is comprised of two natures, divine and human. He is that and still is that for ever.

Yeah. But the hypostatic union, Mary didn't give birth to a hypostatic union. She gave birth to a human. No, she gave birth to a hypostatic union. She gave birth to Jesus. She gave birth to God, which is not a true statement. No, we don't say that she gave birth to God because it depends on how you define God. At this point, she gave birth to the union of the divine and human nature, the word and the human nature, because it says in the beginning was the word. The word was with God.

The word was God and the word became flesh verse 14 where it became flesh. Right. It changed.

That's still what you have to understand. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It didn't change.

No, no, no. You can't say that if you say it changed that it's no longer what it was. I see an issue called continuity. When something exists, it continues to exist. If it stops existing, it doesn't exist anymore. Period.

So God always existed and the word God became flesh and continued and still continues. Okay. Hey, we got to go. I just want to say that.

I think, I don't believe in Trinity. I'll just tell you that. I know. I know. I know. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Hey folks, we'll be right back. It's Matt Slick live. Taking your calls at 877-207-2276.

Here's Matt Slick. All right. Welcome back to the show. Hope you enjoyed the previous conversation. Um, so it's interesting because, uh, how people cannot see things and how they refuse to see things that our eyes are blinded and we can only ask that God would be gracious to them and open up their other hearts, their minds as either truth and, uh, to not submit the word of God to their own, uh, theological perspectives. And I've talked with him before in many different contexts or several contexts, not many, but several.

And it's been the same thing. I can show him something and demonstrate something biblically. And then, uh, he just refuses to believe it. It's like the Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, uh, atheists. And I'm not saying I'm smarter than them.

Nope. I'm saying that, that by God's grace, he's given me the ability to see, to be saved. And that's all. So we can only ask that God would see fit to, uh, to do that with them as well, that he would be merciful to them as well.

So I can only hope that God would show that mercy to them and that he would save them. All right. So, um, we don't have any callers waiting right now. So what I'm going to do is get to the, uh, get to the questions that have come in from people who have sent them into info at karm.org, info at carm.org. You can check that out. And it's easy to do. Uh, just put the subject line, radio comment, radio question, and that'd be good. All right.

So here's one. I would like to know what the Bible says about cremation of the deceased. I'm asking because Bible tells us that the day will come when the believers in the faith will have regenerated bodies. So if that's the case, will this still happen if the body's been cremated?

Yes, it will occur. The cremated body does not incapacitate God's ability to resurrect us. Now think about people who died, say 6,000 years ago, their bodies are dissolved completely. The result of, of, um, the result of the, just the, the thousands of years of decay compared to a very quick fire burning. The result is the same in that the, the elements and properties of their physical body are gone. They're wiped away. One takes a long time.

One takes a short time. So that's all the difference really is there. And God is certainly able to recapitulate the, um, recapitulate the, um, the bodies, by gathering the atoms together, either bring that body back or, and here's an interesting concept, or what he can do is just create a body in which he then places the person's soul. And that would be one way to look at it because it's the body isn't the person. What is us is, uh, our, our ability to have a will to think, to know, things like that. And that's what we are and we can exist apart from the physical body. So it wouldn't be anything at all for God to be able to, um, just put our souls in a body.

Uh, in fact, think about this too. Our physical bodies change. When we're babies, we're still that soul. And when we grow and get old, we're still that same soul, that same person. It's the body that changes.

And it doesn't, it does not restrict or alter the ability of, um, of God to be able to, uh, to just make us be with him and in a resurrected glorified body. Okay. There's that one. Let's see. Let's see.

Let's go to another one here. Who are some of your professors that meant the most to you that you liked the most and why? Uh, the two ones that stick out in my mind, actually there's three, believe it or not. When I was in high school, my Spanish professor and he taught me Spanish. Uh, he was a great teacher and he's one of the teachers of my high school that I did at six out because we're going to Spanish class and he was just a fantastic teacher communicator and had come out thinking in Spanish sometimes because of him.

And so I still use my Spanish because of that. And the other one was in college was Rod Rosenblatt. Rod Rosenblatt, he's since passed away. He was in the Lutheran church, Missouri Synod, a very good teacher and very knowledgeable. And I took all his classes in the Lutheran college I went to and benefited from his expertise a great deal. And then another professor I really enjoyed in seminary was John Frame. I really enjoyed John Frame's presentations. He was brilliant. And I wish I had paid more attention to him back when I was in seminary at that time because, uh, I didn't know how much he knew until I got out of seminary and I started studying stuff, reading his books afterwards when, wait a minute, he was way ahead of a lot of this stuff.

So he was really good. And that was that. All right, here's another, uh, let me get to another, uh, we don't have any callers coming in.

So, Hey Matt, I'm a teen listener and I have a question regarding my best friend who is also a teenager. All right. She asked me once how to know for sure if she was saved. Ooh, that's a good question. So I told her if she believes in her heart and confesses that her mouth and Jesus, the son of God died for our sins that she saved. Very good answer.

Very good answer. She definitely meets that criteria. However, she is Catholic.

All right. I don't know what that means for her. She is definitely a baby Christian, but surety wise, only her mom is not, uh, and her mom is not an atheist and is a Catholic. Anyway, but not particularly committed to that. They really go to mass and there's, and there is fruit that would point to her mom being a baby Christian as well.

All right. So yeah, the Catholic church is not a Christian church. Uh, it is on its outside, but it's not on the inside. It's not a true Christian representation because it has a false gospel, a false Mary and a false priesthood and official Roman Catholic theology prevents people from going to heaven, prevents them from being saved. And because it adds work to salvation says sacraments are the means of grace that's infused into your soul that you then keep yourself right with God by that kind of a thing. So someone, here's the thing on a, on one level you can ask someone, do you believe this, this, you know, one, two, three, four.

And they say, yes, yes, yes. And, uh, you say, okay, well it appears you're a Christian. And then later on you find out that they teach something else that's in addition, like you didn't think about asking initially, like maybe they say, no, you have to do good works in order to go to heaven. And that's what God looks at.

He looks at your faith and your good works to go to heaven. In that case, you say, I'm sorry, that's, you're not a true, I wouldn't say they're not a true Christian because sometimes people can just be ignorant. I'd say, no, that's not true Christian doctrine. That's not true Christian teaching. Let's go over this in scripture and see if that person would repent and come to a true knowledge that they do less because they're saved. But if they tend not to do that and still hold on to false teachings in a very serious area, then that's when you say, basically you say, well, you're probably not a Christian. Okay. So I'm not saying it's definitive all the time.

We don't want to just jump the gun, but it's these kinds of things that we have to be careful about and, and, uh, stuff like that. And then give them the whole of the gospel because even Eastern Orthodox and, and, um, Roman Catholics will believe in the Trinity and the deity of Christ's death, veil, resurrection, and they'll believe in those things, but they have a false gospel. So believing in those other things doesn't mean that they're true Christians. It means that they are false converts because they don't have a true gospel.

That's what's going on. All right. So, uh, and yes, the email goes on that Catholics can be born again. Yes, they can in spite of Catholic theology and stuff, but yes, they can.

Yes, they can. With all that being said, my question is that she's already saved. Is it imperative that she leaves the Catholic church or could she be okay as a Catholic? No, she should leave the Catholic church.

Yeah. Uh, what business has light with darkness and idols and idolatry in the church and false teachings and works righteousness. Uh, that's not a place for a true Christian. Uh, so as a peer help disciple her to disciple her just slowly, just show her what the faith is.

Don't have to be too heady and too strong. Uh, just say, well, let's go study. Let's go study with salvation. Yes. And go to Romans chapter three, chapter four and chapter five.

So did those three chapters. Let's get to Jake from North Carolina. Jake, welcome.

You're on the air. Hey, what's your story? How are you doing? Oh, I'm hanging in there. I'm hanging in there.

Hey buddy. Uh, my question is, so you know, how law that Jewish people were really good at their genealogy and they knew the son of, yeah. Do they continue that? I mean, does that, does that still on?

Like we can say, Oh, I'm related to Moses and I'm related to, you know, Dave, you know, but yes, I know. So you think there are people still alive? Yes. Yes. Uh, that's pretty cool. Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, there are Jews who have kept their lineage going. They, they know from which, which tribe that they're from.

Now, some don't because different things have happened, but, uh, they do. Okay. For you. All right. All right. Well, I appreciate it. Sure. No problem at all, man. God bless. Yes, sir.

You too. Okay. Well, we have nobody waiting. We have about, uh, three minutes left in the show. Let's see if we can get to another email.

How about, uh, something mysterious mysterious is happening to cattle in North America, but what is behind these attacks, et cetera? She's okay. Uh, I, yeah, I can't get into that right now. Let's go to another one. Hey, Matt, um, can you read this question on the radio? Uh, how should a Christian respond to Robbie Zacharias?

Man, it's a, that's a, that's an old one. Um, let's just say, uh, Robbie Zacharias, who apparently blew it with a woman not married to that was, that was, that's what was purported as being the case and that's what I had heard of her from different sources. So I didn't mind saying it. The others were saying it, not that we follow the crowd, but reputable sources said this was the case.

All right. And then I had lunch last year, literally with a guy who knew him personally and this guy said that that never happened. It was just blown out of proportion. It never happened.

He says, he knows for a fact, Robbie never did anything wrong. So, okay. All I can say is, uh, I don't know what the actual facts are about. All of it.

Uh, I wish that someone would do an expose on that and find out for sure. So I'm not sure how to respond to all that. You sick. Here's another one. You, uh, insignificant. Oh, look at this. Uh, you insignificant piece of cheese born on the Island of ignorance. How dare you have the audacity to insinuate your articulations are greater than or equal to an imbecile. Uh, and I am comprehensively appalled at your inanity.

Your candor is subpar and your personality is as deficient as the aesthetics of your captain. I could tell that someone's kidding around. They're saying this, I'm enjoying it.

Um, the very fact that you have celebrated nuptials is the penultimate evidence that leads one to conclude there's, there is a God and he is indeed merciful. He wrote, just kidding. Love ya. So I get a kick out of that. That was nice. Good stuff. All right, let's see. We have about a 40 seconds left on the show. Let me just tell you that, uh, by God's grace, we're back on there tomorrow and just want to let you know that we stay on the air by your support.

Uh, if you like the show, I want to see it continue. All you have to do is go to, uh, karm.org c-a-r-m dot o-r-g and just a forward slash donate. That's all. And whatever you give, we ask five or $10 a month. That's all.

Not very much. It really does help us. We can budget, we can do things. We want to make sure that the radio show is, uh, is supporting itself. That's how we know we need to continue that area. When it no longer supports itself, it's time to move on.

That means the listeners aren't supporting, aren't interested. And that's how God tells us trying to move on. So if you'd like to show where to stay, let us know, support us. If you don't, maybe we'll move along.

Who knows? But for now, I'll just let you know. May the Lord bless you and by his grace back on there tomorrow. And we'll talk to you then. So God bless everybody. Bye. Another program powered by the truth network.