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 calm.org. When you have questions about Bible doctrines, turn to Matt Slick Live for answers. Taking your calls and responding to your questions at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, and welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick. Today's date is December 10th, 2025 for the podcasters. And if you want, as usual, all you're going to do is give me a call. Just dial 877-207-2276. And you can also email me. That's easy as well. All you have to do in that case is send an email to info at carm.org, info at c-a-r-m dot o-r-g, c-a-r-m dot org, and put in the subject line, rate of comment, rate of question. All right, a couple things. We don't have any college waiting right now, but I had an interesting encounter just a little bit ago with some Eastern Orthodox people. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. I've been cleaning and doing all kinds of stuff, considering the events of the past few weeks. So I was listening in just various rooms, and I'll tell you what happened there. I went to an Eastern Orthodox room. A very interesting conversation. Unfortunately, it was not a very good conversation because they did not develop arguments well at all. But nevertheless, there's that. And also I just want to let you know that we stay on the air by your support. And I understand that a lot of ministries all over the world well particularly United States are having difficulty making ends meet we're no different and this is not a begging plea and nothing like that I'm just saying that if you get fed here in the show and you want to support us please consider that you can go to karm.org it's easy to do karm.org I mean let me see we have a new website so if the Yeah, there it goes, forward slash donate. Anyway, CARM.org forward slash donate, and there's a link right there, you click it, and it takes you to where you can donate. And we would just ask that you do that, maybe $10 a month, hope that's not too much to ask. We're trying to get enough people to do that such that we, well, you know, we can make it. All right, so there you go for that. Now, I had this conversation, I was in, an Orthodox chat room and I was asking them, can Mary hear millions of prayers? And they said, define prayer. So I defined prayer as that communication we have with God, supposed to be with God, whereby we ask things, we petition, we seek him out. And he said, that's the wrong definition of prayer. He says, you don't know what that... I'm struggling to tell you what it is then. And he said, no, you need to tell me. And it went back and forth. These guys, they're kind of amateurish in their logic. And that is what prayer is. And I said, OK, so if that's not what the definition is of prayer, then please tell me what it is. And then this guy gets on and gives a definition. And the definition was what I said. And it was interesting. And I said, we can finally get on past this a little bit. And I asked, can Mary hear millions of prayers? And of all places to justify, they said yes. And they didn't want me to follow through with the questions that would follow with that. But they didn't want to hear that. and he went to Revelation 5.13, where every created thing in heaven and earth, John is there, says, and under the earth and the sea and all the things they heard saying to him who sits on the throne, the Lamb of God. He said, so isn't that them hearing everything? And first of all, it doesn't say it's prayer, that's one thing. The other thing, it could be that all people are saying the same thing, and these are hearing one voice. And third, I said to them, well, every created thing, does that mean the grasshoppers and the frogs? And they didn't go there. They didn't want to answer the question, because, well, it was just too intellectually difficult for them to actually address, because if they're going to use this as a verse to say that Mary can hear millions of prayers simultaneously spoken and thought in different languages all over the world, and this is where they want to go, then I'm going to ask them the question out of the text. Every created thing. Does that mean the paramecium? The amoeba? Does it mean the plants? Does it mean birds? Frogs? Snakes? Does it include them? And they just avoided it. They started accusing me that I wasn't being serious. Like, you brought this up! And it was pretty shameful on their end, how they were just not able to deal with the difficult questions. That's often the case with Eastern Orthodoxy. And one of the things I thought was interesting, I'll get to the caller here in a second, is he said, I lacked humility, and that I had presuppositions. And I just got a kick out of that. I lacked humility, and I had presuppositions. And I said, well, you have presuppositions. No, we don't. Interesting. But he said that basically he was being humble. Which I always thought was good. When someone knows they're being humble, I think it's good. They should pat themselves on the back for that. That's really interesting. And this was their kind of defense. And for me it was shameful entertainment. I somehow enjoy that kind of inane repertoire. And where inane persiflage is bantered back and forth and they can't argue the way out of a wet paper bag. That was the case with them. They weren't able to do it. Hopefully they're listening because I put in my URL of the radio show. Maybe they might call up and we can actually talk about the text without me being muted like they did more than once and over talking so I couldn't complete answers. Now, why would they be like that if they have the truth and are so confident in it? Let's get to John from Colorado. John, welcome. You are on the air. Hey, Matt. Um, John's not my real name, by the way, everybody. That's okay. That's all right. So, uh, they brought the verse I'm talking about. I see the listing of Luke, uh, 21, uh, 34 to 36. Yeah. Yes. Okay. So wondering what that means. Well, let's read it and see, uh, it says beyond guards. Could that be me? Could it be you? Well, why don't we read it to see what it says first? Okay? How about that? Do that? All right. Be on guard so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on suddenly like a trap, for it will come upon those who dwell in the face of the earth, but keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place this time before the Son of Man. Okay? So I can't tell you if you mean does it apply to you? Are you are you worried about this? Well when I read scripture I see these warnings, okay, and this is one of them there are many others Yes, it makes me uncomfortable good, okay Now what makes you uncomfortable now, what do we do? Why are you in Matt why am I watching? Why am I watching? I don't think you're going to happen either way. Okay. Um, so, uh, do you have a specific question? How about that? Well, it's the context of this verse. You've got to be ready. The return of Christ. You have to prepare. You must prepare yourself. Yes. And we should. So I'm not, I'm not good enough. I haven't been a believer. It just says prepare. That's all it does. It doesn't say you are good enough or not good enough or anything. It doesn't address that. It says be prepared. Get ready. So why do I have to get ready if everything's okay? Because Jesus says be on guard. Because you're supposed to be on guard against lies, like false teachings of varying religions like Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnesses or Islam or Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Atheism, Evolution, you know. Be on guard. It's a generic statement that Jesus gave. Young guard. Okay. So let me ask you, do you believe in the Doctor of the Trinity? Yes. Is Jesus Christ God in flesh? Yes. All right. Are we justified before God by faith alone in Christ alone? I'm not sure about that. OK, well, then we need to talk about that because it's why all these. It's one of the essentials of the Christian faith. And if you're worried about things, maybe it's because you don't know what the faith really is in some areas. I'm not trying to get on you. I'm just saying that's a possibility, which is why I test people and say, well, what do you know? Where are you at? And if you're not sure that you're saved by grace through faith or justified by faith alone, then we need to talk about that, because it's one of the basic essential doctors of the Christian faith. So if I'm justified by faith alone, why all these warnings? Because this is not a statement to any individual, elect individual. It's a statement to covenant Israel. Because the new covenant is ratified with the death of Christ, Hebrews 9, 15 through 16. And there he's speaking to Israel because he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 15, 24. So he's speaking to Israel, the people under the covenant, and he's warning them about things to come. Generically speaking, he's saying, you need to pay attention to what's going on, people of Israel. That's what's going on. So, be on guard, he's speaking to covenant Israel. Now, the question then becomes, does this apply to us, who are not covenant Israel, but Gentiles grafted in by faith? and it does and it doesn't depending on what aspects you want to to look at. So we are generically to be on guard. This is a general principle for all people, not just Israel. They'll be weighted down with these things. It says, will come upon those who do on the face of the earth. This is in regard to the return of Christ. So therefore, it carries the weight of all people. So generically speaking, be on guard. But if you are on guard, you're okay. So the part where it says, like a trap, what does that mean? A trap is something that you're not aware of, that springs upon you and injures you, captures you, or kills you. And so don't be deceived, don't be lackadaisical, don't be so blind that the trap of evil and all these bad things comes upon you and captures you. beware jesus is saying study know the truth is study his word study the scriptures okay a trap would be something like mormonism eastern orthodoxy roman catholicism atheism alright islam these are among other traps among other things these are traps of the devil alright okay okay All right, brother. Thank you. All right. All right. OK. All right. Now let's get to Dave from Charlotte, North Carolina. Dave, welcome. You're on the air. I'm at. Good evening. I got a question about in the book of Job, where where Satan tells God that Job only loves him because of the hedge of protection that God puts around him. And then God limited the things that Satan could do to Joe. Does that imply that God is able to bridle Satan or has control over only what Satan will allow? That's exactly correct. That's correct. God only, nobody or anybody or anything could do anything other than what God either directly influences and causes and works them to do something or permits them to do. He works all things after the cancel of his will. Ephesians one 11. All right. Okay. Okay. And, um, I was thinking about the nature of God. Why would God need to show Satan that, to prove him wrong? Could you help me with that? A lot of times what is going on when God reveals, like the book of Job, he said, why do we need to know about this conversation between the evil one and the holy one? Why do we need to know about this? Well, it's because we need to know. God is a sovereign king. We need to know that whether you have health or sickness is irrelevant to the truth of who God is and that you are obligated to follow God and praise him no matter what. This is the kind of thing that is illustrated in the Book of Job. So hold on, buddy. We've got a break, so hold on, all right? OK. Hey, folks, we'll be right back after these messages. If you want to give me a call, we have three open lines, 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, and welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, it is easy. Just dial 877-207-2276. Let's get back on with Dave from Charlotte, North Carolina. Hey, man, you're back on the air. Now, where were we? Okay, you were explaining about why Satan and God's capacity to control Satan and why these things need to be done. I think that's where you were headed. Yes, usually it's for our benefit. Now, you know, I know my theology very well, but there are just questions that I can't answer. I don't believe any theologian can answer. God is so great in his work, in his decrees from eternity past, that he Undoubtedly, no, no, Satan would rebel and yet permitted it. And this means that even the rebellion of the evil one was within what we call the permissive will of God. He permitted it. It was his will to permit it. Why? One of the reasons is that it then enables the crucifixion because sin had to be in the world in order for such an evil to occur by which we can be redeemed and the greatest act of love, the greatest act of mercy can be demonstrated out of God's character. So there's an integration of concepts, possibilities, probabilities that we could work together and say that God who understands all of them then will allow writers to describe or recount certain spiritual realms and certain events. So why is it that God would say to Satan, do you see him? How good he is? Ah, you're just, you know, Satan accuses God, accuses him. And God gives him permission to harm him. Now, people may not like that, but hey, God's God. He can do what he wants. Which is the case at the end of the last few chapters. Where were you? Are you the one who created this? Are you the one who did this? God's giving his celestial rebuke. And so we are to benefit from these things. And the issue here becomes the reality of us being made in his image, who have that freedom, we are actually truthfully really influenced by what the scriptures say. We can make decisions accordingly, and these things are for our benefit. And we're responsible for what we see in scripture and how we apply it. And so what's written and what's permitted there is for our benefit. And one of the things we can learn, many things we can learn, but we can learn, well, God's sovereign even over the evil one. And if something bad happens to us, as we like to call it bad, it's by God's permission. But why is God doing this? Let me get into the theology of that. But we have to understand God permits it, okay? Right. Another thing that helps me is I think when we look at things, we have to remember we have a finite human understanding and God has an all-knowing, infinite understanding. That's right. That's right. One of the illustrations I used to give, not very often anymore, but I don't know why, is there's a ceiling. You're looking up at a ceiling and you see a thread that dips down from above the ceiling and it dips down where we can see it. It travels a few feet and goes back up into the ceiling. We can't see what's there. And it does this, and we can see only parts of the threat of life, the threat of God's will revealed to us. And we don't know all that's behind the scenes. And so this is why we need to trust. Back in seminary, one of the things that the professor got up and said, he goes, gentlemen, I'm going to teach you one of the most important things you're ever going to learn in seminary. I remember this moment. I thought, this is good. All this wisdom. He's got more degrees than a thermometer. This guy's great. And he wrote two sentences on the board. There is a God. You are not him. And it's one of the things I remember from seminary, very clearly. I went, of course, that's true. But it is very true. It's not only true, it's very true. Right, when you think back even to the beginning of man, as you correctly stated, God knew, He knew the serpent was coming. And the guard, he knew that. He knew he was going to be tempted. He did not call off guard. He's an amazing God. Yes. He's not surprised. He is not surprised by anything. And he permits things. And you know, my wife, she passed away recently and she had a great deal of pain and suffering in the past few weeks preceding her passing. Right. Why did God allow it? I don't have an answer. Why did God let her go through so much pain? And I'm serious, a great deal. I don't know. And I don't, I'm not mad at God. I'm not questioning his wisdom. I'm not raising my fist in the air at him. It's just, Lord, I don't understand, but I know you do. And now my wife's with him and maybe, you know, it's theories, you know, maybe because she suffered so much for so long, that had never denied Christ and still praised him, that her reward in heaven is just tremendously great. I don't know. So, you know, we can just look and think and wonder, but we need to trust him all the time. Right. Right. That's right. Thank you for that. That's spot on. And it gave me a lot to think about. I appreciate it. And I'm going to keep hearing prayers. Me and my wife have been married 10 years, and I can imagine how difficult it would be if she passed. She's a believer as well, but I'm just going to keep praying for you and know that God will be a comfort to you in this difficult time. Well, he has been, and it's a very difficult thing to go through, and I am learning from it because I want to know how I can better minister to others through it. That's one of the things, you know, and it's taught me a great deal. But, you know, our life here is for the glory of God, and we don't have the right to complain to him. And we need to praise him and then enter into his presence. And he's glorified. It's hard. It's not easy sometimes, but that's what we got to do. Okay. All right. I thank you for your time and answer my questions. And I thank you for all you do. Have a good evening. You too, brother. Well, God bless. Appreciate it. Okay. All right. Well, that was interesting and it was good. I like that conversation. If you want to give me a call, you can. All you have to do is dial 877-207-2276. You can also email me. info at karm.org, info at C-A-R-M dot O-R-G. And you can put the subject line, radio comment, radio question, one of those, and we can maybe get to them. Let's try Justin from California. Justin, welcome. You're on the air. Hey, Matt. I had a question about Christmas coming up. I have a family member who is very She's not a believer. She's very manipulative, narcissistic. And my pastor wants me to invite her to church specifically for the Christmas service. And I'm kind of wrestling with that because I've told them about how manipulative this person is and how she will pretend to be a Christian just to gain something from people. What would be your advice? Should I submit to my elders for that? Wow, good question. Hey, and there's a break, so let's get back for the break. We'll talk about that, okay? So please hold on. Hey folks, you're going to give me a call. The number is 877-207-2276. Be right back. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, and welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Let's get to Justin from California. All right. So interesting question. Now, first of all, are you still there? Yeah. Okay. So, should you submit to the elders? Yeah, you should always submit to the elders as long as they're steering you biblically. Now, inviting her to church is a good thing, and all sinners, even narcissists, need to hear the Word of God. And inviting her is just something you do. And you're done. If you've already warned the pastor and anybody else who might be there, well, okay, you've done your part. And what she does is on her, and you never know. Perhaps the word of God will sink into her heart and change her. So it's not that big a deal, okay? Okay, my concern on that was she's taken advantage of people in churches. She'll play the, I'm interested in God, until all of a sudden she's now squatting in your house for a year, and it goes away. That was my fear for the church. Obviously, Christians, you want to help, especially someone that says, I'm interested. But then, I mean, she's 40 years old, and she just told me yesterday, I don't like working. I'm going to go find a rich guy to live off of. because her ex husband's in jail and all this stuff. So it's kind of like a repeated pattern, you know? So, but you're saying since I already gave the warning, it's kind of washing my hands off of it. Yeah. It's that kind of a thing. Now there are instances where the Bible says not to be involved with people and don't, don't help them. And for the person, for example, and, uh, those who won't work, they don't want to meet. those who cause division, those who are disorderly. Excuse me. and false teachers and deceivers. So there are instances where God says, don't help them, just let them go. So if you think your sister is in that realm where she is a deceiver and she's not willing to work or to eat, to work on her own, then you have nothing to do with her in a generic sense. You know, don't talk, you know, you never talk to her again, that, but you really have to be that tough love kind of thing. So if the pastor says, you know, enjoy out of the church as long as he knows and stuff, and you, you, you, you guard him because he's then his job is to guard the church and the flock against a narcissistic abuser. So it's tough, but you know, okay. Okay. No, that makes sense. Um, it's like second, second Timothy three about avoiding those that are abusive and it's like a big list. Yes. Yeah, a lot of people are... I'm thinking about writing an article on this as well, that what kinds of people we're told not to support, not to help in scripture, and to avoid them. And we are. We're told that. So, I think I'm going to write an article on that. Of course, I haven't written for a while. So much is going on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep, that's right. Okay. Thank you so much. Um, can I ask one more question? Sure. Go ahead. We have nobody waiting. I don't know if you're a, someone already asked this, but what do you think about the recent, uh, Kirk Cameron? The denial of eternal hell? Yeah, I've talked to Kurt before, and I texted him, and right when I found out, I haven't heard from him. So, oops, hold on, let me get my phone to see if anything had come in. Come on, there we go. So, uh, and, uh, no, nothing. So, what I'm going to probably do is, uh, next is try and contact him a different way. Because it could be a different, you know, old phone number. It was a few years ago I talked to him. So, it's a problem. Annihilationism is not true, and it doesn't make someone a non-believer, but it does weaken the righteous judgment of God. It doesn't help. It's problematic. In fact, a few years ago, I started a little bit of a section, a little section on karma, on annihilationism. And one thing led to another, led to another. I started doing word studies and I started analyzing every occurrence of each word, like destruction or punishment or whatever it would be. In the Old Testament, the New Testament, because I have skills on the computer with Bible program stuff and all this stuff and I move stuff into Excel and I would categorize, I would do all this stuff. I wrote 182 articles. 182 related to the issue of annihilationism. A lot of them were just research. This article, I put them up, you know, so people could look at how these words are used. Like Apollumi, and one of the words about destruction. And, you know, I learned things. And, like, one of the principles I learned is something very simple, I'm just boiling it down, is that punishment is experienced. If eternal punishment is non-existence, then that's not punishment in scripture, because punishment's experienced, always. So if you're punished by non-existence, then that's not punishment. Simple. It's one of the things. It seems that that's more a doctrine for more liberal theologians would lean that way. So is that, do you feel like a warning? Yes, it is a warning. That's just what he spoke about publicly, so what does he believe in secret? Right, and I wish I knew him well enough to be able to talk to him about it. Is it also tied with soul sleep? Because usually those go hand in hand. Yes it does, because, let me say it generically, not all annihilationists affirm soul sleep. Now soul sleep, there are variations of that as well. Soul sleep is, in one view, it is that the person continues to exist in an unconscious, inactive state. in the afterlife. But there's logical problems with that. How do you have an inactive existence? Because you have a problem with what's called continuity. And I can get into the logic problem with that. So there's problems there. And then we apply this to Christ, because if soul sleep is true for the human, now think about this. This is a very serious challenge to the soul sleep position for those who hold to the Trinity and that Jesus Christ is God in flesh, because Jesus has two natures. divine nature and human nature. It's called the hypostatic union. All right, so this is very, very critical for us to understand at this point. I'm going to go through this slowly and show you why soul sleep is potentially a damnable heresy. Potentially. It's a big statement, so let me explain why. Potentially. So, the hypostatic union is the teaching that Jesus has, and presently has, and still has, two natures, a divine nature and a human nature, called the hypostatic union. The doctrine called the communication of the properties, in Latin it's the communicatio That means that the attributes or the properties of those two natures are ascribed to the single person. So Jesus would say, I am thirsty, human property, I'll be with you always, divine property. The person of Christ is comprised of the totality of the properties of both natures. So Jesus came into existence 2,000 years ago, because that's when the union of the divine and human natures occurred, along with the attribution or the communication of the properties of both natures to the one person. So the one person could say, I am thirsty, I'll be with you always, even at the end of the earth. The one person claimed the attributes of humanity as well as divinity. OK, having laid this out, if soul sleep is true, And if the notion that the human nature then ceases to be active or is in a state of unconsciousness, then to what degree are the properties of humanity still being attributed to the single person of Christ in the interim between his death and resurrection? Because death for the human is soul sleep, and the soul then in that position becomes inactive, which means the properties of self-awareness, having a will, are not attributed to Christ during those three days, and that destroys the personhood of Christ, who's by definition the sum of the attributes of both natures. So if those attributes are there and they're just asleep, and there's no activity and no energy being dispensed, because I ask these technical questions, I get way technical than I'm saying here, then how do you know and how can you defend the continuity of the person of Christ? This is a serious, serious, serious issue. Mm-hmm. Okay, so and also the scriptures that plainly say like after in a body present with the Lord and today you'll be with me in paradise So it seems like hell is just such a clear doctrine that it seems just to go blatantly against The Word of God. It's not like a no, it's like right. It's it's very concerning that someone would deny the eternal reality of hell Because that's what Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists do. Right. Now, generally speaking, no heresy is alone. no heresies by itself. This is why I would like to get on the phone with Kirk and just talk to him and see if he would want to do that. I can go through, maybe through Ray Comfort and talk to him. I'll offer it, but he may or may not. So there it is. And there's the music, Butter. Okay? All right, Butter. Thanks, Matt. Appreciate it. All right, man. God bless. Hey folks, if you want to give me a call, we have four open lines, 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, buddy. Welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, it's easy. 877-207-2276. Let's get to Matt from North Carolina. Matt, welcome. This call will be recorded. Interesting. How are you, man? How you doing? I'm all right. So what do you got? I hear a lot on social media about this whole anti-Paul movement. Paul teaches one theology, one type of message, and Jesus teaches another. I'm sure you've heard this before. I was going to see if you could just elaborate on it a little bit, and I'm going to hang up because I'm driving. Okay, sure, no problem. Yeah, I've heard this before. And I've never seen any contradictions between what Paul taught and what Jesus taught. So what I asked them to show me are any examples. Now, I've written an article years ago. I wrote it in 2008. Did Jesus and Paul teach the same thing? And I'm looking at the article right now on the website, karm.org, my site. Both taught access to God the Father through Jesus. Both taught that the all are given to Christ. Both taught that the authority, Jesus has all authority. Both taught that they bear witness of Jesus. Both said beware of the false teachers. And that people are chosen for salvation. That people are predestined. communion supper, both taught the same on eternal destruction, eternal life is through Jesus. False teachers will arise and deceive people. Both taught to follow Christ, that God the Father is not seen. Both taught humility, indwelling of the believer by Jesus, indwelling of the believer by the Holy Spirit, Jesus at the right hand of the Father, judgment, you'll be judged the way you judge, justification by faith alone. Law is not removed but fulfilled to love people. Persecution will come to the believers. Repentance turning from sin. Resurrection of Jesus bodily. Resurrection of people by Jesus. The return of Jesus is with the angels. Sacrifice, Jesus is the sacrifice, excuse me. Salvation is by faith, not by works. They both taught sanctification, avoiding sin. They both appealed to scripture in the Old Testament and present then at the time. Both taught that sin is a legal debt and the sinful nature of man. These are the 31 things that I discovered by looking through Paul and Peter's teachings that they do teach the same thing. When people tell me, oh, they contradict each other, I say, show me. Show me if they're gonna make an assertion like that. Please show it to me I want to see and this is what motivated me, you know back in 2008 to check and to ask and to look and I wrote it on December. Oh, how about that? Tomorrow tomorrow First read the article December 11th 2008 So there you go And that's what I would do. Now, this here's a general principle. When people ask things like this, or they make a statement, we don't want to be too obnoxious about it, but just generally say, okay, can you give me an example? I want to know. And, you know, so they often fail. They often fail to produce any real contradiction. So, I just ask them. And if you want, you can go to my website, karm.org, and you can look up the article, did Jesus and Paul teach the same thing? And the answer is yes. And so I'll turn them on to the article. I'll say, well, I did my homework. Have you done yours? What's the context of these supposed contradictions? If you have something, show it to me. I want to know. And that's what I do, and that's how I handle them, OK? All right, so we have wide open lines, 10 minutes left in the show. If you want to give me a call, 877-207-2276. Now, I said earlier, a little bit ago, that there are people that the Bible tells us to avoid. So, during the break, I started doing some research, and I have a lot of tools. I can do pretty quick research, I can find things, I know tricks. Plus, I just know some verses, too, that I just memorized, and things like that. So, the kinds of people to, and I mentioned on the earlier call, one of them is, people to avoid, is those who won't work. Let them not eat, okay? Here's one that a lot of people don't realize is the case, those who cause division in the body of Christ. If you cause division, the Bible says avoid them. If you don't want to entertain or support those who cause division in the body of Christ. Now this is a serious one. And the reason is, I'm gonna just say that a lot of times people who are Christians will attack varying aspects of Christian thought within orthodoxy, like Arminianism. or Calvinism, or pre-trib rapture, post-trib rapture. And it's okay to say we disagree, and here's why, but you've got to be careful that you don't cause division in the body of Christ in so doing, and that's the problem. So we want to avoid those who cause such major, serious division. We want to avoid that. Let's get to Steve from Utah. Steve, welcome. You're on the air. I heard you talking, I believe it was last week, about the word Elohim. And I remember somewhere along the lines, and I don't know if this is a true statement or not, that the word Elohim is plural. And I remember hearing it or reading it someplace, and when you were talking about Elohim, could the Elohim be referring to the Trinity if the word Elohim is plural? And is it plural? Yes, it is plural. It's plural in its form, Elohim, and the word in Hebrew for face, you know, our face, our eyes, nose, and mouth, is panim. It's also plural. So just because it's plural doesn't prove Trinitarianism. It lends a support to it. So, the way we would look at Trinitarianism and the plurality of God is, you know, you could look at the word Elohim, okay, it's interesting, you know, and there's singular forms of the word God, too, in Hebrew, like El. And the word Elohim, incidentally, let me see, I want to get in, oh, I've got the wrong thing here. I'm going to tell you how many times the word Elohim occurs in the Old Testament, and that is number 430, and it occurs 2,599 times. It's no big deal. So the thing is, what are the contexts of them? And even the unrighteous judges are called Elohim in Psalm 82. So anyway, it has a broad meaning. Okay. So when we come to the plurality of God, the word Elohim is plural, and we can learn from that, and it's just a launching point, but it doesn't prove the Trinity. It just is the word God. But it's like the word face is panim. Does it mean we have plural faces? No. So just because something's plural in its nature, in its form, isn't the best argument to go to. It's just a supportive argument, okay? Okay, well is there a singular form to that word Elohim? Yeah, I believe it's just the word El, okay? Oh, okay. All right, well yeah, it was just an interesting thought that came to mind. So I just thought I'd bring it up and see what your thoughts were. Oh yeah, I'm aware of it and used it many times that way. And in other words, I was going to say, I wasn't sure, but I just checked, but Eloah is the singular form of Elohim. But I've seen the word El, but it's Eloah and Elohim is the plural form. So yeah, okay. All right, Matt. Well, hey, I really appreciate it. Thank you. Sure. No problem at all. All right. Well, God bless. OK. God bless you. Bye. Thanks. All right. Let's get to Bradley from North Carolina. Bradley, welcome. You're on the air. OK, I had a question about the singing hymns and songs in church worship music, you know. And I run across a video on YouTube and it said that, um, that if you sing the wrong songs and you know, the wrong hymns in church, it has put a lot of people in, into hell is, you know, they've lost their salvation because of that. Um, Oh, that's, that's from the, uh, that's that, that teaches for the book, uh, second hysterectomy. Okay. Yeah, it's not a biblical teaching. Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice, and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish. And that's John 10, 27. And in John 3, 16, God said, Love the world. He gave his only begotten Son. Whoever would believe in him would never perish, but have eternal life. Jesus equates eternal life with never perishing. Singing a wrong song doesn't make you saved or not saved. Okay? Yeah, that's what I was thinking. It might be just a sin just like the rest of the sins that we commit, right? But we're forgiven for those, right? Yes, and we are. And it doesn't mean it's okay to sin, but we need to be careful what it is that we sing. And most hymns are godly. But I remember back when I was doing pulpit supply, I can't remember which particular hymns, but we'd go to different churches in Southern California. I must have preached in 30, 40, 50 churches, I don't know, just a lot of churches. And I remember a couple of instances singing a hymn that they had chosen, and a member of the lyrics went, that's not biblical. That's not good theology, but he didn't say anything because I had to preach and stuff like that. So it happens. It happens with hymns, with praise songs. One of the praise songs I loathe is, I've got it someplace, but it says, the lyrics are, I give you permission. The person is giving God permission to work in their life. What arrogant foolishness that such a lyric is. Foolishness. It's stupidity. But if you sing that, does it mean you're not Christian? No, it just means you're singing a stupid, heretical song. Lord, give you permission. No, give me a break. Give me God permission. So, you know, it just means, oops, like, just like you said, the hundred other things that we're doing all the time, okay? God still loves us. Okay, well, I'm going to get off of here and let somebody else on, but I appreciate it a lot. Hey, no problem at all. Thank you. Bye-bye. We have nobody waiting. So let me just kind of just talk about this a little bit We got a couple minutes left in the show Ladies and gentlemen, do you believe you can lose your salvation if you are concerned about losing your salvation? That's one of the signs that you are saved dead men Don't struggle But those who are alive struggle against their sin, and it's one of the signs that they're alive in Christ. Now, can you lose your salvation? It's a debated topic within Christianity. And though I have met many people who believe you can lose your salvation, I have not said that they're not believers. unless they then say that you keep your salvation by how good you are. Now that's a problem, but aside from that, can we lose our salvation? I don't believe it's possible. The reason is because in John 6, 37 through 40, when I read what Jesus says, he talks about, he says, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will not cast out. I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. This is the will of Him who sent me, that of all that He's given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. The will of God the Father is that Jesus not lose any. If Jesus loses some, then He's failed to do the will of the Father, which is impossible. Now, some people say, well, you're gonna lose yourself. But that's not what the issue is, Jesus says, if he can lose them. You don't lose yourself any more than you save yourself. Your salvation and security is in Christ's work, not your own. So rest in him. There's the music, I gotta go. May the Lord bless you by his grace. We'll be back on here tomorrow, more dwelling, and we'll talk to you then. Have a great evening, everyone. God bless. Another program powered by the Truth Network.