MS Top 6 #52

This is the Truth Network. Monday through Friday, Matt takes calls from all around the world on his radio show. We've compiled this week's best, Matt Slick's Top 6.

Number six. I have a question about mediums. How are they able to connect with people who have passed on?

They don't. They are what's called familiar spirits, and they're demonic forces that imitate past people. The mediums are actually in contact with demonic forces, and they're called familiar spirits, like I said, and they can imitate, and they have information. Because of the spiritual realm, they're very powerful, very knowledgeable, and that's all that's going on.

Number five. Is it possible for someone to be, call themselves Catholic and go to Mass, but be saved? I believe it is possible. When I say possible, I don't mean probable, but can there be individuals in their ignorance who are doing this and still be saved? Yes. I believe the Holy Spirit will gradually bring them out. Anyone who believes official Roman Catholic theology and then dies when they die will go to hell, because it teaches a false gospel.

Absolutely. But try this with your family, trying to get them to see, because they're very enculturated within the Italian culture. They probably speak Italian.

The statues marry the pomp and everything. So just ask them, do they believe Jesus is God? They're going to have to say yes. Can Jesus hear every prayer that we offer because he's God? Yes. If you ask Jesus to forgive you of all of your sins, will he forgive you of all of your sins? That's the question. Some Catholics will say yes, some will say no. If they say yes, say, no, then why do you need anybody else? Why do you need a priest?

Number four. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing right at the door. But what the text is saying is don't complain, brethren, against one another. You're in a sense judging one another when you complain against them. And there are different levels of judgment that you can give or levels of complaints.

You can complain, I don't like that guy's shirt. That's different than I don't like that guy's doctrine on the rapture, whatever it might be. Or this person hasn't been very nice. And so you continue to complain about that person, which becomes not gossip, but it's a lack of forgiveness, a lack of love and humility. And he says, so that you yourself will not be judged. And so the idea of judgment here is not of salvation. We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and have our works judged. And these are works.

See, we're justified by faith alone in Christ alone, but everything we do is going to be judged. So how are you talking to your wife or your friend? How did you litter that day?

And no one knew, but you threw something out the car window. Things that you don't think are going to be an issue are going to be an issue. Everything we do is moral. Number three, how should we treat gambling occasionally or not at all?

That's a tough one. Gambling is a form of seeking chance for benefit. And that's unbiblical because God is a sovereign King. And as he says, you cast a lot.

He's the one who causes it to go where he desires. So we have to make sure that what we're not doing is looking to any form of gambling for safety or for provision, because that's a waste of the providential provisions that God has given us. But then again, what do you do if you buy one lotto ticket a week or one lotto ticket a month? Is that gambling? Yes, it is. But is it frivolous? Well, no, it's not.

Is it out of control? No, it's not. And so I can't say, for example, that buying a lotto ticket is sinful. I can't say it's not because the Bible doesn't really talk about things like that in that way. We don't want to use those kinds of things as the means by which we're to be provided for.

We need to trust God. Number two, you challenge me to a debate. Let me explain.

You say, I want to beat you. I want to debate. I want the Trinity. Okay.

What's the Trinity? You don't even know. And that's funny. That's why you should tell me.

Well, why not if you take a person? If the Trinity is supposed to be the gospel, why don't you come back and say something? The Trinity is not the gospel. Okay. You're making all kinds of mistakes.

It's not the gospel truth. Okay. Oh, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Stop. Stop. Stop.

Jerry. Go ahead. I'll stop. Calm down.

Yeah. The thing is when people ask me to debate them, I want to know if they're qualified to debate me. It's not because I'm arrogant or prideful. Sometimes people want to debate me. They have no clue what the issue is.

I've done this for years. Okay. So I have to ask them, oh, but you want to debate the Trinity? Well, what is the Trinity?

And you said you didn't even know. Now the question then becomes, how can you debate the Trinity if you don't even know what it is? So is the Bible the final authority then?

No. What is the final authority? Truth is whatever that may be, whether we can or cannot discern it at any given moment in time or any place. Can you define what truth is? Truth is the actual or real state of a matter. And how do you know that definition is accurate? Just as well as you know that the Bible is inerrant.

No, no, no. I'll ask you this question. How do you know that definition is the right one?

How do you know it's proper? I'll give you an argument from the impossibility to the contrary. If that wasn't the right answer, then truth wouldn't actually have any meaning. It wouldn't be true all the time.

And therefore everything would be relative, which is itself logically inconsistent, as you well know. And you beg the question there. Do you believe God exists? Yes, I do believe God. Yes. Does he know everything? Absolutely.

All the time. Then wouldn't truth be that which corresponds to the mind of God? Were those two things mutually exclusive? Was the definition that I gave and the definition that you gave mutually exclusive? Because we are not. My definition rests in the heart and mind of God. Yours is in philosophy.

You guys give up or you're thirsty for more. I always trust a guy named Matt Slick on the radio. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of Matt Slick's Top 6. For more on Matt and his live syndicated call-in radio show, go to TruthNetwork.com. Got a question? Matt Slick has your answer. This is the Truth Network.