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. Hey everybody, welcome to the show. It's me, Matt Slick, and you're listening to Matt Slick Live. If you want to give me a call, it's easy, 877-207-2276. I had a good weekend. I did a lot of learning this weekend. I did some studies. I may share that with you on the radio here. It's actually kind of interesting, some of the stuff I've been studying recently. But if you want, you can give me an email. Send an email to me. That's easy. Just direct your email to info. info at karm.org, info at c-a-r-m dot o-r-g, and you can, let's put the subject line, radio comment, radio question, and then we can get to the stuff that we got. In fact, I don't know if Laura's putting in radio questions in there for today's date. I don't know, I'll look at that. And we have a lot of emails that people have sent us, so I get to do that as well. So I'll tell you a couple things. This weekend was interesting for me. As you know, I debate and kind of teach, slash debate, kind of engage, I don't know what the right word would be, with people in Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, etc. And something interesting occurred in one of the discussions that I had with some Roman Catholics. I'm going to get my notes out, because I'm sure that others have thought of this. I'm sure others have thought of this. But for me, it has been something I've been just kind of thinking about, just trying to put it together in words. In a good order to make it make sense and it did on I Think was Saturday night Saturday night Friday night. It doesn't matter and So we're having this discussion with Roman Catholics And I've been saying this for a while, this one thing, that the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, they both are so similar. Each, I'm talking about the Catholics this time, each have a false gospel, a false priesthood, and a false Mary. Now the false gospel I've talked about numerous times. A false Mary, I've talked about numerous times. But I hadn't talked about their false priesthood. And so I did. I had done an article where I was examining the issue of the Roman Catholic priesthood. And I found that, well, the Roman Catholic priesthood is not in the Bible. It's very simple, very easy to verify, but it's just not there. And so as I was talking to the Catholics, I said, look, there is no Roman Catholic style priesthood in the New Testament. It doesn't exist. It's just not there. There's no mention in the New Testament of the mass that is continually offered by Catholics and by the priests, by which they're then repeatedly cleansed. There's no New Testament priesthood that's passed down from the apostles. It's just not there. He said, if the repetitious offerings of the Mass is critical to salvation, why is it not found in the New Testament? Now, you've got to think about this, because the Roman Catholic priest offers the Mass regularly, and it only temporarily cleanses you of sin, just like the Old Testament animal sacrifices. And when you look in the New Testament, you don't find that. I'll go into it a little bit. You find something interesting, something quite different, actually. I was talking about this. How do I say this the right way? The Roman Catholic priesthood is modeled after the Old Testament covenant-style priesthood that involved repeated offerings of sacrifices where the priests mediated between God and man. And they had to do this because the, this is because the Old Covenant, their repeated sacrifices did not cleanse once and for all. And so they had to go through and offer us a repeated sacrifice. Now that's not what the New Testament says. It's not that way in the New Testament at all. And let me go through some of the verses that I was researching. I'm still putting a lot of it together, learning how to articulate it better. But something that's very interesting that I have to look at, and I saw this over the weekend, I was reading through Hebrews going, wait a minute, that is really interesting. And as Hebrews 8.4, now, if he, as Jesus, were on earth, he would not be a priest at all. And I have to figure out why that's the case. I think I have an idea. It has to do with the heavenly tabernacle, but I have to research it some more. And Hebrews 8.6 says Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant. The old covenant is when the priest had to continually offer sacrifices. In the new covenant, only one sacrifice is offered once. That's the sacrifice of Christ. So the New Testament priesthood is held by Jesus alone in heaven, and only one sacrifice was offered one time, the sacrifice of Christ. Yet the Roman Catholic priesthood, is celebrated repeatedly, and it only temporarily cleanses you of all your sins. It has to be offered over and over and over. This is the Old Testament priesthood. It's not the New Testament priesthood. Period. The Old Testament priesthood style is that of Roman Catholicism, which means they're back under the law. Because they do not have the single high priest sacrifice of Christ that cleanses once for all. Let me go through some more of these verses. This is the first time I'm really saying this this way after doing some research. So in Hebrews 10.10, it said, by this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all. In Hebrews 10, 11, every priest stands daily ministering and offering time and time, time after time, excuse me, the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. Now, the Catholic might respond and say, well, the mass does take away sin, you know, just for up to that point. Then you got to take it again because you commit sins each time. So the Roman Catholic mass doesn't represent Christ's sacrifice. It does not represent Christ's sacrifice because Christ's sacrifice cleansed of all of our sin. So I'm going to write this down because it's important. Christ's sacrifice cleansed us permanently. once for all, and it was in Colossians 2.14 that he canceled the sin at the cross, not when you repeatedly get baptized or repeatedly take the mass. So this is really significant. So I'm going to apply this later to the Eastern Orthodox priesthood, because they do basically the same thing. For by one offering, Jesus has perfected for all time those who are sanctified." Now that's a critical verse. By one offering, he did it for all time. But yet in the Catholic Church, it's not for all time. That's critical. It's not for all time because they had to take the Mass regularly. And if they have to take it regularly, it's not sufficient to cleanse us all the time, is it? So this is really important stuff that I've been going through and thinking about and researching. And I think it's interesting. Anyway, so Hebrews 10, 16 says, 16, 17, 18, this is the covenant I will make with them. After those days, says the Lord, I'll put my laws upon their heart. on their mind, I will write them," he then says, and their sins, their lawless deeds, I'll remember no more. Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there's no longer any offering of sin. That is critical. There's no longer any offering for sin, but yet the Catholic Church offers it over and over again. So It's just ridiculous. So anyway, as I was coming through this, looking at this, so there's no Roman Catholic-style priesthood in the New Testament. There's no mention of the New Testament in the New Testament of the Mass that is continually offered. There is no priesthood that is passed down from the apostles, because a priesthood is the Old Testament economy. That's really important. And so I'm writing as I'm talking because sometimes when I talk, he says come out better than what i've written because it's how it works so that's why i brought this about this is how i learned you know i learned by teaching i learned by putting things together and i think it's really uh... really interesting to uh... to go through this i'm seeing more and more how the priesthood of the roman catholic and the east orthodox churches are just simply ungodly unbiblical and uh... They demonstrate the lack of conversion, and they are back under the Old Testament law. It's not a true priesthood. It is bad, bad, bad. Let's get to Chuck from North Carolina. Chuck, welcome, man. You're on the air. Good evening. I've never heard a Catholic sage that was the mass that gave them forgiveness. I was Catholic for about the first 28 years of my life. I'm now 82 and still recovering. But I heard a lot of those lies, and I looked up at what it actually said in the Bible, and I would love to sit down with the Pope and show him in the Bible where he's wrong. A Catholic priest actually says in the confessional, you come in and you say, Father, bless me for I have sinned. It's been so many weeks or months or whatever since my last confession. And you give a litany of your sins. He then says, I absolve you of all your sins, and here's your penance, and he tells you what to say. And the real abomination is one of the things they tell you to say is a rosary. And I don't know if you're familiar with a rosary, but a rosary has the crucifix and you say the Apostle's Creed of the crucifix. And then on the next thing you say a Lord's Prayer, three Hail Marys, another Lord's Prayer, and then you go 10 Hail Marys, a Lord's Prayer, 10. So you say a total of six Lord's Prayers and a total of 53 Hail Marys. And the Hail Mary starts off with the first part is a quote from the Bible. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. But then it goes, you know, and it says, blessed are thou among women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. But then the second part is a real abomination. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Pam, I'm loving this taking notes because you repeat that. I've not been never a Catholic, but you said 53 times they say the Hail Mary. Yeah. Fifty three times you say this Hail Mary. And it starts off with a quote, you know, when the angel appeared to Mary. But then it finishes up with Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now at the hour of our death. Amen. And they say that 53 times, the Lord's Prayer only five times, in the Apostle Creed, once. And that's what they call rosary. Okay, let me get this straight. The Lord's Prayer five times. So this is, is this after a confession? Oh, wait, hold on, I got a break. Hold on, Chuck. I want to get this down. I want you to tell me the steps again. I'm writing them down, because I want to get this down. I need to do research on this as well, because it's going to be related to it. So hold on, buddy. Hey, folks, if you want to give me a call, the number is 877-207-2276. I want to hear from you. We'll be right back after these messages. Please stay tuned. It's Matt Slick live, taking your calls at 877-207-2276. Here's Matt Slick. All right, and welcome back to the show. If you want to give me a call, the number is easy. 877-207-2276. Let's get back on with Chuck from North Carolina. Are you still there? Yes, sir. All right, so let me get this straight, okay? This is one of the things I've been wanting to see and to learn, but I can't go into a confessional and do all this stuff, so I have to take it from sources of people who've been there. Okay, so to be forgiven of your sins, you confess to a priest. That's the first thing, right? Right. And then he says, I absolve you of all your sins. And then he gives you this penance that you're supposed to say that supposed to compensate for the things you did wrong. I was never assigned to do a whole rosary. I suppose I wasn't real bad, but they might say, say five hour fathers and 10 Hail Marys. That's the sort of thing they tell you to do. And you're supposed to go out and sit in the church and say those prayers before you leave. And then you walk out totally clean record. Until next Saturday. Wow. Then you would count all your errors of the week again. OK. OK, so. So it can vary. So confess your sins to a priest. I know that if he absolves you of all of your sins because he's. Yeah. Right. And they give you something. You make that statement. What's that? Right. What was that? Yeah. What's that statement? What was that? But he actually says, I absolve you of all your sins. But then the penance is supposed to be your part and make it up for your sinning. Penance to do, now this is to make up for your sins? Right. Kind of paying the price for it, if you will. Right, with God, yes. I've heard them talk about this. There are different ways, and they have different ways of talking about it. So it might be something like five Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys. Right. But it could be more. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay, and so what's this praying the rosary 53 times? And what does it have? Well, the rosary, you know, it's a bunch of beads with a crucifix hanging down on a little extension for one. It's a circle and then has an extension about four inches long. And at the end of that, it's a crucifix, which is the cross with Christ still on it. And on that extension, there are two Our Fathers with three Hail Marys in between. And then as you go around the circle, there are 10 Hail Marys, one Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, one Our Father all the way around. That's a complete rosary. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to get one of those, just order one, just so I can have it and use it for illustrations. Um, yeah, I've heard that before out of the beads, the rosary, what it is. So yeah. Okay. Yeah. It was interesting because one of the neat things is the way the, the mess up their own thoughts. For example, they call her queen of heaven. And if they read a Ezekiel, In chapter seven, I think again in 21, they explain that the queen of heaven, that's their star. They talk about praying to the queen of heaven and he's telling them to quit praying to her and they say, Oh no, because the laws would give offerings to the queen of heaven. Everything goes well for us. And that the Catholics call Mary the queen of heaven. Don't even read the Bible. Oh no, they don't. Yeah. I had a Jeremiah seven. That's the problem. Yeah. When I was in, uh, In school, I went to Catholic schools all the way through 12 years, and we were told not to read the Bible. We were not smart enough to understand it properly. We were supposed to listen to the priests who had been educated on telling us what it said. But then when I got older and got a Bible and I started finding out it didn't say what they said, and they didn't say a lot of what it did say. So I started reading between the lines and I ended up teaching Sunday school for over 40 years, trying to undo the wrong that had been done to me. Teaching Sunday school where? Oh, I taught different Christian churches, three different churches. Last one, 35 years. I was retired because I lost my eyesight. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I do one every fifth Sunday on a topic I can research on my own. I use Alexa and I send notes to my wife and she writes it down so I could call on that for the class. Okay. You know, there's a trick for memorizing stuff. Did you know about it? It's called the link method. You ever heard of that? Called what? The link method. There's a, you're blind, but you have memories of a room, for example. Or you can put objects in a room, a certain order of things, like 20 objects. And you have to know those objects naturally, so that you've lived there, touched them, whatever. So that when you go in that room, you know exactly where everything is. It's just, that's the map. And then with number one, I guess. Okay, what we're teaching, this is what I do sometimes, is I'll do a link method, but you associate one concept with the first object, and then you move to the second object, and you associate something with it. And the more ridiculous the association is, the better it works. Yeah, easier to remember, sure. Right, like the queen of... I'll make another comment. No, I was going to say, you could use, like, the Queen of Heaven would be a crown, you know, on object one, you know, with Mary sitting there, you know, and sitting on the throne. And number two might be whatever. And then you could put verses with it. There's ways to memorize verses, too, by using numbers associated with objects, too. That's more complicated. But at any rate, go ahead. Right. Sorry. Well, I usually only do about 10 verses, and they're all associated, like, with faith. And then I have a discussion on it. Tell them my part, what I think it means. What I want to make a comment on, I turned on late one night last week, and I think you were talking about when Jesus on the cross said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Did you discuss that last week? Yes, we did. I have a very strong opinion on that. I think if you'll hear me out, Jesus was calling attention to Psalm 22. At the time that David wrote Psalm 22, he was in the depths of despair. And if you read through Psalm 22, you actually get a description of some of the scene of the crucifixion. And then as you get to the end of Psalm 22, he comes out of the dark end into a bright place and then go right on to Psalm 23. So if you read Psalm 22 and Psalm 23 together, to me it's clear that's what Jesus was saying, even though this is a horrible situation that I find myself in, when you find yourself in a similar situation, essentially remember there's light at the end of the tunnel. So I think he very deliberately called our attention to that Psalm so we would learn that lesson. Oh, I like that, thank you, that's good. Good. See? I love learning, I love being told new things. It's awesome. Told me too. creatures aren't any good anymore. They say silly stuff. They're in their entertainment, not enlightenment. Yes, I agree. Well, thank you, and may the Lord bless you, and I look forward to meeting you in heaven. Oh, me too. Thank you. God bless. Okay, God bless. All right. Well, that was an interesting call. I love that. I love that. I love when people who've been there can say, this is what happens. I love that. Now, there's the music. So we're going to take the break, and then we'll get back to Bob from Nebraska on Catholic Confession, and then Patrick from North Carolina, as well, on election. So 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. Alright everyone, welcome back to the show. We have two open lines if you want to give me a call. 877-207-2276. Let's get to Bob from Nebraska. Bob, welcome, you're on the air. Well, thanks, Matt. Thanks for having me. I was just interested in that last call that you had from the gentleman who says he's left the Catholic Church and wanted to talk a little bit about confession and stuff. So I thought I'd give you a call because I'm still in the Catholic Church and have probably a lot more recent experience with stuff like that than somebody who's left the church decades ago. Sure. Okay, so can I ask you questions then? Just tell me what you want. Yeah, I might ask you a few too, but yeah, go ahead. That's sure. That's fine. I know that's why you called to talk about questions. So to get your sins forgiven, you have to go to a Catholic priest in confession. Is that right? No, not not not for all sins, but for, you know, for the mortal sins, for the deadly sins, you certainly do need the sacrament of reconciliation. So this is for mortal sin, right? Yes. Yeah. So you confess to a priest, right? And he absolves you of all your sins. And, uh, well, it's really, it's really Christ doing the absolution. You know, the, the priest is just part of the sacrament process. Um, just the representative on earth. It was actually the power given to the priest clear back in John 21, 23, um, where Christ came into the upper room and, and gave the first bishops, the apostles, the authority to forgive sins on Christ's behalf. I've argued that countless times with Catholics. I have to set them straight on what the Greek actually says, but that's another topic. So then he gives you penance to do what? Dependence is just to kind of reorient yourself back toward God because you've come into, in order to make a good confession, you have to be sorry for your sins. and so you come in with a sorrowful request to be forgiven and Because these sins are serious and you can confess venial sins as well the non deadly sins as well but Any sin you confess or any sin you commit harms your relationship with God. It's kind of like just in our human relationships rupturing our relationship somebody else and So then, in order to rebuild that relationship, we need to get back into prayer, and so it's just basically re-earning. Your sins are already forgiven. You don't have to do the penance to get the sins forgiven, but it's something that is healthy to do, is to return to prayer. Then why is penance given? for that reason so that it says, okay, you know, your sins and actually the sins are forgiven before you do the penance. Um, but then it's, it's this reminder to you. So you can't just walk out of here and act like none of this ever happened. Um, you need to make sure that you, uh, go back in and start repairing your relationship. Um, and actually it's repairing your own heart cause God loves you just as much as he did before you committed the sins. But, um, but it's really repairing your own heart. So isn't that penance though, paragraph 1446, offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification, right, by your penance, right? Yeah, so it's, yeah, it's that conversion, it's that process of conversion that follows the forgiveness of sins. So the penance, the things that you do, helps recover the grace of justification, so you get that grace back through penance, right? It naturally, because of our human condition. I mean, so for instance, if I went to confession and felt like all I had to do was, you know, just go in there and say, here's what I've done, give me my forgiveness so I can go out and basically continue the life the way that I was leading it that caused me to fall into sin, then you know, that would fall probably into the nuisance of presumption, but, um, but it wouldn't do you any good. So, and it's actually be harmful. So this act of penance, um, which is usually a couple of prayers, to be honest with you. And in my experience, most priests, um, we'll just have you say, you know, they are a father or meditate on scripture, or maybe a couple of hail Marys or something like that is, is pretty standard for most priests. In confession, so it's very minimal, but it's just that you know just getting you back facing toward God working toward him okay, and then you have to do the Say Hail Mary's is that what the priest gives you to do to? It depends on the priest. So some priests will say, OK, now go back and say two Hail Marys, two Our Fathers or something like that. Some will do things like, you know, like if you make the confession right before a mass, they'll ask you to meditate on the gospel or one of the readings or something like that sometimes and to offer the mass for the people who you sinned against. So you might offer up your mass for, you know, Somebody that you offended in committing that sin if it was against another person and so it really the penance can be a Lot of different things and oftentimes it's specific to the type of things that you just confessed So So interesting. I'm not trying to argue too much with you because I certainly could, but, uh, just trying to get to lose, but go ahead. You know? Oh, what a nice challenge. Well, let me ask you some questions then, right? Jesus is God, right? He sure is. Does he have all authority in heaven and earth? He does. He's, did he say in John 14, 14, ask me anything in my name and I will do it. Yep. So if you were to ask Jesus to forgive you of all of your sins, and you meant it, you're sincere, will he forgive you of all of your sins? I believe he will, yeah. Then why do you need a priest to absolve you of your sins if you can go straight to Christ? Who's the one mediator of 1 Timothy 2.5? Because in John 21 through 23, or excuse me, John 21, 19 through 23, Christ specifically laid out the sacrament of reconciliation. And so he's given us a specific mechanism in scripture to follow, that if you wish to avail yourself of it, you're wise to do so. Because I take God on His word and do His will. And when I don't, I've got the sacrament of confession to come back to. Yeah, you're mistaken about John 20, 23. Have you ever looked at it in the Greek to see what it actually says? Well, in fact, I have, because I've heard your explanation of it before, and it doesn't jive. It doesn't make sense. So is it the case that it says, if you forgive the sins of any, that it's in the aorist, active voice? Is it or isn't it? Is the whole thing, is all of You know, that's all at 19 through 23. Is it all in the aorist form? No, I didn't ask that. I said, if you forgive the sins of any, you forgive as the aorist with past tense, right? Well, you know, the Greek, I don't. OK, it is. And then they have been forgiven. Your sins have been forgiven as he switches from aorist active to path to perfect passive, which is OK, a past continued action of the present that you receive the action of. OK, so it's like saying if you forgive the sins of it, if you if you did, if you forgave them, their sins already have been forgiven because it's in the past. Let me ask you a question. If a priest, let's say in his authority, because he has the authority of God as you guys say, and he, not on purpose, but you know, he's a human, he makes mistakes, he mistakenly offers forgiveness to someone who really in this case shouldn't be, okay? Is God obligated to forgive him because the priest did? I'm not sure if you understand the sacrament well enough to ask that question, because the priest cannot make a mistake. It's the person who is making the confession that has to come in with a contrite heart, be sorry for their sins, and firmly intend not to commit those sins again. If the person comes in with that on their heart and that in their will, then the you know, the forgiveness is, is from God and it's done. The priest is simply a conduit there. Now the priest really can't make a mistake in that situation because God knows what's on the person's heart. So if the person comes in and secretly say is not sorry for their sins, but says, you know, has the demeanor of somebody that, that is and says it, um, the priest as a human being doesn't know, um, you know, if that person, um, is in that case deceiving him, then that person has robbed themselves of the forgiveness because God knows their heart. Does that make sense? Yes. If the person is not sorry for their sins, the priest forgiving them doesn't occur, right? That's right. And if the priest knows that they're sorry for their sins, because sometimes a person will come in and say, I'm sorry for this father, then the priest won't forgive them. This is what Catholics do a lot. When I ask this very direct question, they go on and on and on in different directions. I notice this a lot. They won't explain it. I was just responding to what you said, but go ahead. No, no, you didn't. It's just a simple answer. It's a simple question. You see, if the person is not sorry for the sins, the priest forgiving them, the forgiveness does not occur. That's correct. Right? Yeah. Yep. That's right. So then how is the priest forgiving them out of his authority? Because you go back to John 20, 21 through 23. And so let's look at that a little closer. We're looking at it. Music's going here. Now think about this before we get back to the break. You said he has the authority to forgive. Aorist active means he's doing the action of forgiving. That's what the Greek is saying. If you forgive, Aorist active voice, he's doing the forgiving. So then you're saying when he does the forgiving, he's not doing the forgiving if the person isn't right. Hold on, 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, everybody, welcome back to the show. Let's get back on with Bob. Bob, you still there? I am, Matt. So I have a question for you. So you want to talk about basically the first half of verse 23, which is in John 20. If you forgive the sins of any there, forgiven. So you're saying that those sins that they will forgive were already forgiven back on the cross. So Christ is just saying you're acknowledging the forgiveness of sins. Good job. Is that kind of your interpretation of that? Yes, because Jesus canceled the certificate of debt at the cross, Colossians 2.14. Not when you make confession, not when you get baptized. Yeah, but you also need to read the rest of that sentence then, which says, if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. So what sins were retained by Christ? None were retained. That's right. So did he just misspeak there in the second half of that sentence? So no, if you look from your perspective, that would be a problem. From the Protestant perspective, it's not a problem. It is a problem from the Protestant perspective, because you're saying, because of the way you interpret Greek, the first half of that sentence says they're already forgiven. So he's not really given the apostles the authority to do anything for him, they're just acknowledging that he's already forgiven the sins under your theology. Well, then you have to apply that same to the second half of that sentence, and it takes the legs out from your interpretation under your theology. It's not what I said, though. You didn't listen. I specifically used a different word, but you didn't pick up on it. Colossians 2.14 says the sin debt is canceled. I didn't say they were or weren't forgiven. Sin debt's canceled. We're justified when we believe. Forgiveness is something that is a now and not yet issue theologically. I don't know if you know what that is. But let's take a look at this. I'll show you. Just look at it. 21 through 23, it can be a now. Let's look at it. But unfortunately, Protestants don't believe in that, and so they walk around potentially with serious sin on their hearts. Let's look at it. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven. So you already said, if a priest forgives them, but you said a priest can't make mistakes, make any mistake about this, which is ridiculous. Because then you're saying, let me finish. You're misstating what I said. Let me finish. Hold on. Let me finish. Let me finish. Make a point. Jesus is a standard based on a false premise. Look, why don't you be polite and wait till I'm done with the statement and deal with the statement instead of constantly interrupting. Can I say something right before you say your next word then? Because you have misstated what I said earlier. I didn't say the priests cannot make mistakes. I said that in the confessional, there's a specific, understanding of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which you as a Protestant justifiably don't fully grasp. Okay, so he can't make a mistake in the confessional. Okay? He can, but he cannot mistakenly forgive a sin in the confessional. Oh, he cannot mistakenly forgive a sin. That's right. He cannot mistakenly forgive a sin. So then it's not possible for him to make a mistake. in this you know that's isn't that isn't that a logical fallacy when you when you take something that is a specific statement and paint it with a broad brush Bob Bob I'm going with what you're saying I'm taking notes literally I type very quickly I'm taking what you say the priest cannot make they'd go back and read your notes from the papers Bob Bob Bob Bob Bob You're just being very rude. Maybe you're not doing what the Bible says, to be patient when wronged. But General is correcting those who are in opposition, Colossians 4, 5, and 6. Maybe you're committing a venial sin here. Maybe you're just a little bit. You never know because of your rudeness. So I'll apply the law to you. You said the priest cannot... You're chastising, yeah, good job. Yeah, you need it. The priest cannot mistakenly forgive someone of their sins in the confessional, right? Yeah, I think that's more accurate of what I earlier said, yeah. Then, oh, that's fine, that's fine. Then is he acting on the equal level as Jesus? Well, I don't think so. He's been given the authority to forgive sins, but it's Christ who is forgiving the sins. So that's not what I'm asking. See, keeping the law, people say they can keep the law. God says, love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, right? And people will say they do that, but, jeesh, man, you have problems here. You can't let me finish a sentence. You know, people are listening, okay? You're representing Catholicism to them. I was just acknowledging that you had referenced the Shema prayer from the Old Testament. Good job. So that was Shema, Deuteronomy 6.5. So here's the thing. Is Jesus the standard of keeping that law, or is the human being the standard? Which is it, Jesus or the human being? What do you mean by the standard? Jesus is a standard of righteousness. Jesus keeps the law perfectly. We can never do it because we're sinners by nature. So Jesus is a standard of what is right. So if you're going to say the priest cannot mistakenly forgive someone of their sins in the confessional, then you're saying he's acting on the same level and perfection as Jesus himself. No, that wouldn't be a good analogy. So what I would say is the priest is simply acting as a conduit for Christ in the sacrament. And it's God who knows what's on the person's heart. So if the person is speaking and behaving in a way that leads the priest to genuinely believe the person is contrite and intends not to commit that sin again and is asking forgiveness, then the priest will absolve the person of their sins, but only because of the authority given to him in ordination that stems clear back to John 20, 21 through 23. You know, if the priest believes a person is contrite, which is, it's possible that the priest could make a mistake and believe that he was contrite when he was not. Is that possible? Oh, I don't know if the priest would be making a mistake, but the priest could be misled by the person because, you know, as a human being, we can only go on the information that we're provided, right? So he could be misled by a person. Could Jesus be misled by a person? No, no. So that's why sin cannot be forgiven in the conventional. So then the priest is not acting on the same level of excellence and perfection as Jesus. So therefore, you cannot say the priest cannot mistakenly forgive someone of their sins. Okay, you're saying, in order to say that, it never happens. You have to say he's on the same level of Jesus, that no mistakes are made. This is the arrogance of people who say that, yeah, it's arrogance. Okay. Now, I asked you earlier about, oh, let me go back to John 20, 23. If you forgive the sins of any of their sins have been forgiven, they already are forgiven. If you retain them, they have been retained. It's the same thing. Yeah, so the priest is not the one. Hold on. The priest is not doing the authority thing of his own, and that by him he's forgiving. Because if that's the case, then God the Father is obligated to follow suit and forgive. But if it's not the case that the Father is obligated to forgive, then it's not the priest pronouncing actual forgiveness out of his authority, but out of his authorities of pronouncing what God has already done to the confessor. That's all that's happening. Right? I think you're tying yourself in knots with that. No, I'm not. You don't understand. Let me explain it again. Let me explain it again. I'm introducing you to Protestant theology. Well, I'm introducing you to the truth of Scripture. No, you're not. No, you don't. You don't know the truth of Scripture. You just recited it exactly how I know that you think you have to recite it, which is saying that both parts of that sentence say, This has already happened, the sin has already been retained. Do you know what the perfect tense means in the Greek? It's critical. Look, aorist is like this, I walked. Perfect tense is I have walked. Pluperfect is I had walked. Perfect tense is a past action with continuing action in the present. The aorist is not indefinite like that. So what Jesus does is he switches from the aorist to the perfect. If it's done in the past, aorist, to the effects of the past forgiveness are continuing into the present. He said if you forget this got some time with this verse then Matt because because you are You're defeating your own argument by applying that to both halves of that There's a semicolon Bob and Bob you're saying this is what I'm saying Christ retained sins on the cross under your theology, which is flawed, but go ahead. Bob, you don't even let me finish my sentences. You interrupt out of your ignorance. I've only discussed this about a thousand times with Catholics, John 20, 23. I've written on it quite a bit. Don't tell me I don't know what it says. I know. I go to the Greek and I look at it in the Greek. I'm telling you. And just tell me, I need to go study it. Are you kidding? You don't even know what tenses that they are if you say that you've heard this argument before from me. And you say you've gone through and looked. You don't even know what the perfect tense is and how critical it is. Don't give me this stuff. And I asked you, if the priest is the one doing this forgiveness, is God obligated to forgive? Well, he says no. Well, then welcome to Protestant theology. Because what we say is, and this isn't about priesthood authority, because there is no New Testament priesthood like the Catholic Church has. It doesn't exist. I heard you mention that a little bit ago too. It's not there. Pointing back at just that verse 23 and you can't interrupt me either Matt. Okay. I know that this is your radio show But you you complain about me interrupting you and then you interrupt me You should you should play fairly and by saying do it excessively while I'm talking is Interrupting me Matt. So you need to play by the rules that you yourself want to hold others to make your point sure so my point is you need to go back and read verse 23 in light of the Catholic teaching on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And you will see that the way that you're trying to interpret that sentence defeats your argument, because the way that you read it, if you forgive the sins of any, they are already forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are already retained. And when you say the first part, you're saying that all the sins were forgiven by Christ on the cross. Now, as Catholics, we believe that... No, I didn't say that. Well, as a non-Catholic, you believe that all of your sins, past, present, and future, were forgiven by Christ on the cross, correct? No, I never said that. I never say that. You don't understand my position. So what do you say? How do you explain? How do you explain what the sins you commit today that you can't confess because you're you can't go to a confessional? who apparently, what the position is, I teach. Okay, Colossians 2, this is what we need to do. I do this with Catholics all the time, I teach them theology. We have to go through, we have to take some back steps here. So what it says here, Jesus canceled out the certificate of debt, this is Colossians 2.14. Consisting of decrees which is hostile to us, he took it out of the way, having nailed to the cross. You got less than a minute here. What's the certificate of debt that Jesus canceled at the cross? you know this and if you don't know you don't know it's okay you can look at it called the moral it's a dissent it's also a good so and it's been good that syndicates specially original sin no this original sin it says in the previous version and that he says having forgiven us all our transgressions first thirteen having canceled out the certificate of debt it's all transgressions dot original son you have to alter the word of god to make it fit your theology tell you what we're going to original sin is one of them but go ahead Well, yeah, but that's not the only thing. The Catholics always do this. They reduce certain words to certain categories of a broader scope, and then they say that's what it really represents, and that's eisegesis. We're out of time, so I'll tell you what. Yeah, it is, but it's true. I've done it with hundreds and hundreds of type of Catholics. I've seen it. So look at Colossians 2.14. We're out of time. We're losing music. Look, Colossians 2.14, go look at it. If you want, call back tomorrow, and I'll teach you what the position is. 2 Corinthians 5.18 as well, and James 5.14-15. I know that stuff, I've done it a hundred times. So look, Colossians 2.14, check it out. Call back tomorrow, okay? We gotta go, buddy. I might be able to, we'll see. Okay, thanks a lot. Well, that was interesting. Oh, yeah. You know, we have little time to get in there or like this. We're out of time. The Lord bless you. Talk to you tomorrow. Another program powered by the Truth Network.