Assassination Attempts: What’s Next?

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good evening everyone. It is Tuesday, September seventeenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently eight forty eight pm. I almost said am. It is currently eight forty nine pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, I don't know why I said it's I almost said that it's am because my mind definitely knows it's not in the morning, it's in the evening. It's it's now nighttime, because that's kind of the mood I'm in. I think when I think, depending on the hour you're broadcasting, there's kind of a different vibe. There's a different mood. Right when you're broadcasting in the morning or broadcasting in the afternoon, I think there's a certain vibe, there's a certain mood. And when you start broadcasting later in the evening night, very late night, maybe very early in the morning, like one am or two AM, that's a completely different vibe and it usually really directs me in the subjects that I'm going to talk about. So it's fast approaching nine pm here in West Texas, and there's a certain kind of mood that I'm in right now, and it's it's not one that's very positive. It's not one that's very cheerful. It's not

1:35 one that's very joyful. It's one that's much more cynical, discouraged, depressed. Dare I say concerned? Dare I say maybe a little worried? I think I think that would be accurate. Now. To be fair, this is not a new development. It's not a new mood that just simply, you know, happened, you know, of the blue. This is something I've been kind of talking about since the end of twenty twenty three. I told everyone twenty twenty four, I was like, it's it's I was just telling you I felt that it was going to be difficult, it was going to be crazy, it was going to be even my own and personally for my church, just in the culture. I kind of just said, it's going to be it's going to get kind of dark in twenty twenty four. Maybe I did not elaborate as much as I could have. Maybe I should have even elaborated even more. Maybe I should have really doubled down on those feelings. But here we are September seventeenth, twenty twenty four, now, eight fifty one pm Central time, and well that feeling of man, I think it's not going to be a great year. I think it's going to be well. Now those feelings have become I think a reality, and you may be feeling some of those same things. I don't know if you are or aren't. But let me just ask it as a question.

3:02 When you heard the news that there was a second assassination attempt against the former president Donald Trump, how did you feel? Like? Now, what did you think? How did you feel in that moment? Depending maybe on your political perspective, maybe you felt anger, maybe you felt rage. I don't know what you felt. For me, I felt just it's unraveling, it's coming apart. There's literally nothing good that's going to come from this. That was kind of my feeling. My feeling was like, this is just what is going to happen? Where is this headed? I had some very negative feelings, in fact, almost very discouraged, almost depressed, Like what do I do? Like do you just turn on the microphone and just ignore it? Hey, there was a second assassination attempt against the former president Donald Trump even mention it at the beginning of one broadcast. Do I just mention it?

4:05 Do we talk about it? We talked a little bit about we talked about the first assassination attempt, we talked about some of the coverage, some of the things people were saying. We did talk about that one. And so do I talk about I don't really know. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. But I did talk about earlier today something that well, I think very much is a look into the future, and that's artificial intelligence and how it's going to play a role in the lives of Christians, in your life and my life, maybe in the life of the church and your spiritual development. So I kind of went back in time and looked at different technological advances as we would refer to them, and how that may have impacted my own Christian life. I wanted you to look at your own Christian life, and then just kind of we kind of just we looked at an example of artificial intelligence, writing a devote and all the things we could do with it, and we just kind of like, where is this headed? And I don't have any definitive answers, and that to me isn't necessarily that isn't it. I don't see it as a negative thing or a threat or dark as maybe some people see artificial intelligence. I think it's just an acknowledgement that, hey, this new technology is going to ultimately have a profound impact on Christianity in the church, and I think we can't ignore that. We need to start talking about it now. I know, sometimes not always, but sometimes I feel like, and because I've been broadcasting for so long, sometimes I feel like I

5:37 will turn on the microphone and start telling everyone we need to think about this, we need to focus on this. And sometimes I'm I feel like I'm so far ahead of all the other that nobody else is discussing it that people kind of look at me like, yeah, whatever, They just kind of they just kind of say they disregard and dismiss me as just that's some kick keys on right now. But I think time and time again it's proven to be like, hey see, I told you, I told you that, I told you I told you so. I mean, way back when I was warning that conspiratorial thinking was starting to creep into the church, and that it did not look good for the future. Well, I don't know if anyone could have predicted how bad conspiratorial thinking and political hijacking of American Christianity how bad it was going to get. But I think all of those warnings I gave years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years ago turned out to be much more accurate than I would have thought.

6:39 I'm not saying I'm always right. I try to always be very careful, not to be dogmatic, and just to say, hey, I think we need to be concerned. So I think, hey, AI is going to have an impact, and I think we need to discuss it. I don't have all the answers, but I think it needs to be discussed, so I try. I tried earlier today to throw out that discussion. Whether it was went well, I don't know whatever. You can judge it. It was definitely too long of a broadcast. I could probably criticize it from that perspective, but it is what it is. It's there, it's uploaded. I just have to live with whatever it is. But tonight, instead of looking at the future from the perspective of AI, I still want to look to the future, but I want to look to the future by asking you a question, and I really want you to just think about this.

7:28 I've already posed the question once, Well, let me state it again. How did you feel when you heard the news about the second assassination attempt against the former president Donald Trump? How did you feel? How do you feel today right now? How do you feel this evening? And I think sometimes nighttime is the best time to have these conversations because I think sometimes at night people have a tendency to be a little bit more introspective, to really look inside, right, I think sometimes, at least for me, I just think that sometimes people are more in tune with their feelings and their thoughts at night than at the rest of the day, where they can just kind of be distracted from their feelings and their thoughts by so many other things. But at night, you start winding down, and so then that inner voice that you don't listen to becomes louder. Right, So, how do you feel about the state of affairs? How do you How do you feel about the current situation that we are facing as a nation. And I'm speaking primarily here, obviously to Americans and about the United States. I don't know how you feel about your particular part of the world. But I think no matter where you live or now, I think everyone is a little have some concerns. Now, the thing you don't want to do is you can take these concerns.

8:46 You can take these concerns and you can just basically then utilize it for you know, fear broadcasting, fear programming, a lot of a lot of a lot of programs. That's how they make that's how they build their own audience. Hey, you know, breaking news alert. The end of the world is here, this is it's all over. We're gonna all be you know, And this has been going on within Christianity forever. You know, we're all gonna be Muslims, and the Bible's gonna be outlawed. Then they're gonna take our guns, and we're gonna be locked up in FEMA cams and we're gonna be micro chipped. I mean, I mean, that kind of concept is very prevalent within Christian history. And I'm not a fan of that right now, There's been times in my Christian life I kind of got pulled into it. You're not, oh man, this is big, this is big. Everybody needs to know this, oh, this, oh, this is the next big thing, and then you kind of find out everyone just hypes something up because that's how you get your audience, and you just keep going and if nothing happens with that thing, you just move on to the next thing, and then you move on to the next thing, and then you move on to the next thing, right, I mean, I can talk about people who used to broadcast on sermon audio who was saying absolutely insane things and all of these predictions and this going to happen, and that the flu vaccine was giving us the mark of the beast. And then that same individual, you know, went on even he stopped broadcasting on cermonnadio way where I think they removed him, but then he went on to continue to broadcast on the Internet saying things that the COVID vaccine was putting nanobots

10:19 into our body and when five G was turned on, then the nanobots would activate and then it would destroy our will and we would all submit to the Antichrist. Well, of course, you know, yeah, it's just these are the kinds of thing. Now, not everyone is that extreme, but it's very easy to turn on the microphone going hey, the end is here. It's bad. It's really bad. What I want to do is just for us to acknowledge the feeling and then at least be concern about where things are going, because well, there's some people who have some concerns. Here's a news article that was today September seventeenth, twenty twenty four, at twelve thirty eight pm Central time.

11:07 Twelve thirty eight pm Central time is from the Los Angeles Times. I saw it earlier today and saved it. Headline, Trump assassination attempts are just the beginning. Imagine what is coming after the election. That's the headline. Again, let me read the entire thing. The Trump assassination attempts are just the beginning. Imagine what is coming after the election. So the headline there was saying, hey, if you think it's bad now, if you're concerned, now, wait till after the election.

11:53 It's going to be even worse. And I'm like, wait, that's this. No, no, no, no, no no no. I want us to consider this perspective. I am not saying this perspective is right. I just want you to hear it, and then we're going to try to figure out what are we supposed to do right think of it this way. Earlier today, I turned on this microphone and I wanted you to consider and think about how as Christians we should respond and understand the impact artificial intelligence is going to have on the life of the church, the life of Christian teaching, preaching, and the life of the individual Christian.

12:35 I think we need to formulate it's going to have an impact. So what do we do? How do we respond to the rise of artificial intelligence and how it's going to impact us? We have to have that discussion. Well, here's what I want you to do. How as a Christian, as Christians, as the church, how should we respond to everything that's currently happening in the culture. This divisiveness, this division, the threats, the crazy language that's being uh that's being used, the dehumanizing of our political enemies, the rhetoric that's being used that everyone is viewed as a as an existential threat to our very survival. And when you continue to talk the way in many churches and Christians talk that way from the pulpit, it only flames. It just adds fuel it, it doesn't fan the flames. It it's literally just setting off fires everywhere. Well as it continues and the election happens, what what's going to occur? Well, let's consider what what is at least thought of thoughts going to occur from this article. But then we'll ask ourselves what, well, what should we do? How should we respond as believers as the church? So let's read this article again. Trump assassination attempts are just the beginning. Imagine what's coming after

14:06 the election. The article begins with this paragraph. Last week, we gathered with other scholars at Ground zero for a summit on terrorism and political violence. The mood was somber, not only because of reflections on nine to eleven, but also because of pained predictions of violence to come. It would have surprised nobody and attendance had they been told another assassination attempt against the former president would occur days later. So all of these scholars meet and they come away their meeting is very somber, and they're like violence is coming, And they would not even have been surprised or shocked if you said another assassination attempt is going to occur.

14:54 Meaning that's pretty that's a pretty discouraged outlook. That's a pretty depressing outlook from these scholars. Next paragraph. This, of course, was not merely the second assassination attempt against Donald Trump. There have been more plots over the past several years aimed at politicians of all stripes that never reached the point of gunfire being exchanged. The plots are indicative of a broader zeitgeist. We are under we are under heightened threat. So we read it this, we read this again. The plots are indicative of a broader zeitgeist. Right, So, the zeitgeist of the culture, the zeitgeist of the time, is this, we are under heightened threat of political violence. If you want to describe the culture right now. We live in this heightened threat of political violence. That is the zeitgeist that we live in. That's where the church is right now.

15:51 The church is in this political storm where everyone's being tossed to and fro with political claims and accusations and threats and dehumanizing your opponent and all of this just very exaggerated language at times, maybe not even even connected to reality. Well, and this is a heightened threat of political violence. And then here's the church. Here's the church. Now, where is the church? And this analogy, are we on the water? Are we being tossed all over the place. Are we on the beach? Do we have a lighthouse?

16:32 Saying no, no, no, Okay, the beach is right here. Don't crash into the beach, but come here for safety. If you can get here. There's safety, there's shelter, there's hope, there's stability, there's rationality, there's peace. Does the church have anything to offer or is the church just right there in the midst of all of this heightened craziness. The article continues. For instance, recent Republican rhetoric against a community of Haitian migrants and Springfield, Ohio led to dozens of bomb threats against that community, closing schools and hospitals. Now what I have seen, I saw study today that most Republicans are buying in to the whole narrative against the Haitian immigrants. They're buying into the lies that they're eating our dogs or eating our cats, and that kind of language is putting people's lives at risk. Where should the church be in that? Where should the church be well? One, The church should be yelling and screaming for truth, not lies, not bearing false witness, not half truths, misinformation, disinformation, And the church should be trying to protect people. But wait.

17:56 In October twenty twenty two, a man attacked the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, during an attempted attempt to kidnap her, and twenty twenty authorities foiled a plot to kidnap democratic governor of Michigan. There is a distinct there is a distinct and frightening possibility of a violent wave of assassination attempts and domestic terrorism now breaking not only against the former president, but also against Democratic officials and groups Trump's scapegoats and Trump's supporters. So they're saying there's a distinct possibility, a frightening possibility of a violent wave of assassination attempts and domestic terrorism now breaking against people of all of both political sides. Now again, what's the church. Where's the church in this? Now? While many in the church is going to take a political side, see many in the church, she's going to say I'm on team Trump, or I'm on team Harris, or I'm on team Republican, or I'm on team Democrat. And I constantly say the church, don't take a political side, step back and say we are on the side of Christ, we are not of this world. We are pilgrims here, we are strangers here. We want to offer something better than a political battle and fight. We want to offer you the reality of their of a God, our creator, the sovereign of the universe. There's salvation, there's hope, there's peace,

19:30 there's a hope of any eternity. Like, we want to offer something better, but I be to fill. The Church just gets caught up in the political fighting and we just become we pulled into it. And so many when they think of Christians, they just think of Trump supporters, or they just think of Republicans. And that's the last thing. When someone here's that I'm a Christian, I want them to know that I believe in Christ, I believe in the Gospel, not that I'm a Republican. I don't want them to even know what I think about certain cultural issues. I want them to to know what I think about the Gospel, how I understand the distinct proper distinction between law and gospel, how I understand scripture. That's what I want them to know. Christianity for not anything political, but everything philologically and biblically. Next paragraph. During the presidential election Now this is very important. Both Democrats and Republicans are framing the other side as an existential threat to the country, and so unstable individuals are being inundated with messages that have exasperated an already volatile situation. This feeds violence before election day, but that won't be the end. Imagine what could happen following the election. Now, I want you to hear this paragraph again. All right, Democrats and Republicans are framing the other side as an existential threat to the country.

20:58 So I want you to hear that you're in and inundated. You're just drowning, and this man existential threat. There will be no country left, there's not going to and you hear it from both sides. If this person is elected, we will not have a country. The country will cease to exist. I've heard Christians say this, Pastors say this, It's going to be the end, as if the entire future of the country is depended upon a political election and not upon the sovereign hand of the creator. Do we believe that the elections determine the future of the country, or do we believe God determines the future of the country. It's my hope and an election or as my hope in God. Now, if you don't believe God is sovereign and you don't believe God is in control, then yeah, you better panic and you better go vote who you think is going to supposedly save our country. But I've heard Christians say this. I heard it over and over.

21:55 If Obama gets elected, there will be the end of America. Churches will be closed down, Bibles will be in FEMA camps. It'll be the end. And we survived all over the of Obama being president. And guess what. No one told me what to preach. No one came for my Bible, no one came for the guns some people I know who own guns. Nobody was locked up in a FEMA camp. We did not become Muslim, or nobody shut our church down. I mean all the things that were happened because we allow these politicians, and we allow many people podcasters and in the media to throw out these crazy, exaggerated threats, and because fear sells. Fear is the way you build an audience. You got to tell everyone the end is near.

22:45 The end is near. I remember, and I probably down in my closet where I have my TV I've got books there that I bought way back, years and years ago that because you know, these were books that were saying the economy is going to crash, We're all gonna be in poverty, like uh, and nothing happened that this was going to happen. All these books making all of these streams and claims, and guess what, all of it turned out to be fraudulent. And I would tell people, no, I don't buy into any of this, and you're so wrong. You're gonna be sorry. You're gonna have to apologize. I didn't have to apologize to anything because it didn't happen. But all the people who told me what was going to happen, they don't come back and apologize. So you allow yourself to get played. You Look, look, the think of it this way. The product being sold is fear, and you're the one buying the fear by your subscriptions or you're are you giving money or whatever the or buying the books or whatever the case may be. You're getting played. They sell fear you. You usually end up you give money or whatever you do, you're supported in some way, shape or form, and then when nothing turns, nothing becomes of it because they've already moved on to the next and the next threat, and you just go from threat to threat, living in a perpetual state of anxiety, worry, and fear because they've got to keep it going. Thought.

24:15 All the news, much of the news media operates in the same way. They got to give you the next big Oh, this is the next big thing, This is the next big threat, because I got to keep you going, keep you going. So the politicians, why do they have to constantly be saying that that our opponent is an existential threat? Our country will not survive because guess what? They sell? Fear and what and you're you're the consumer, And how do you purchase their fear by voting for them? And guess what? They get power, they get positioned and they get paid, and you get nothing and you buy into it. Oh, we gotta vote, we gotta vote the country, Oh the country. Oh you're just being played. They sell fear to get you to vote. Now, am I not?

25:08 I'm not saying that there aren't important issues, but in many cases it's the way the issues are framed. There's an invasion and our country is no longer going to survive. Well, I gotta do something. I gotta do something, And then you're going to throw in everything you can your time, life, money, time, effort, vote, whatever, and in many cases, very little is actually going to change. But you'll be convinced if your team wins, you'll be convinced everything now is perfect, even though it clearly isn't.

25:49 So just think what happens if you constantly pay everything is an existential threat and that the country is no lie and people are inundated with these kinds of messaging. Well, there's always going to be some people out there thinking and I've got to do something, I've got to do something, I've got to stop this. I'm gonna do it. And next thing, you know, violence becomes the answer. You know, give an example. They stole the election. The election was stolen. Your vote didn't count. They stole the election. It was all fraud. They took it from you. You need to fight or we're not gonna have a country left. While what happens January the sixth, and there's still people out there yelling and screaming that the election was stolen, no matter how many court cases, no matter how no evidence, no matter the attorneys themselves flipping the changing their story and all the people in trouble, and it doesn't matter.

26:39 People will just keep continuing to believe the lie, believe the lie, And well, guess what, how many times do you need to hear that the election is stolen? You no longer have a country, Your vote doesn't even count, so you can't fix this politically? How much? How many times can you keep saying that before someone's going to say that I'm taking matters into my own hands. Even Christian radio we talked about this going way back around the time of the COVID pandemic. American Family Radio, at the end of one of their programs basically not only insinuated, they basically explicitly said that we may be fast approaching the time that we need to take up arms guns because of the spread of the LGBTQ movement. I could not believe that was promoted on Christian radio, because it's it's gonna be the end of our country. We're not gonna be able to survive. So what we're in White people like like that, that's insane, insanity. And then I reported that to the Roy's Report, and then they wrote a story about it and tried to and it was.

27:48 It was just I was involved in that entire kind of situation because I could not believe what I was hearing on Christian radio. Even Christian radio gets into this. A lot of Christian radio. Look Christian radio, I very much remember Christianity's role, Christian radio's role into the great Satanic Fear of the nineteen eighties. It was it was a focus on the family that promoted and aired Mike Warnkey, the author of The Satan Seller, where he claimed to be a former high priest and he was a Satanist and we'll come to find out his entire story was made up. It was all a lie. But they promoted him, and they were like, you know's there's Satanist everywhere. And I remember, you know, the fear that was going around and at least at least in West Texas in the eighties, it was, oh, that's his it. Satanists are everywhere. Don't send your kids out trick or treating. They're gonna be kidnapped and offered as a Satanic sacrifice at midnight. They're everywhere.

28:45 This is the end, this is the and and look, it got so bad that even around here back then, I can remember at least one Halloween, they put a curfew that nobody could go out to go trick or treating because there was possible teams of Satanist out to kidnap every It was crazy. It's like it's like just widespread panic, very similar to kind of what happened in Salem during the witch trials. You just sell fear, you sell disaster coming. You get people who are going to act in crazy ways because they've been inundated with these lives. Because sometimes people don't have the ability to go, wait, maybe I'm maybe they're selling something and I'm buying it.

29:28 Maybe maybe this is more about them making money. Mike Warky made up a story. He sold I don't know how many copies of the Satan Seller he spoke at, you know, all over the United States of America. He was the Christian celebrity of the time selling the panic. Then we had. Remember there were two individuals who claimed that they were raised as Jehoattiest you know, Muslims who who were taught to hate America, and they became apologist and network speaking in church after church after church about how we should respond to Islam. Come to find out there's at least one of them. Their story was completely made up and fraudulent. I remember when that happened years ago.

30:09 Because people know if they've got if they can crab. So if the fear is Islam, then you sell that fear and you supposedly have the answer. If it's Satanism, you sell that fear. Christianity buys it. Christianity loves to sell fear. Politicians love to sell fear. Stop buying it. Stop being manipulated, stop being played, Stop being a consumer that continues to get ripped off. It's a scam, it's a scheme. Now, I'm not saying there are issues to be concerned about. I'm not saying there are any issues to be bothered by, but you have to look at them in a much more calm, cool, collecistive, realistic way.

31:01 But that doesn't sell. You can have a podcast that sells fear. They'll have fifty thousand subscribers and make money, and you have someone else to be like, hey, hey, hey, hey hey no no, no, no, no, let's not exaggerate this, let's be much more. They'll have two hundred subscribers and won't make a dime. Well, what are you going to do? If you want to make money from podcasting, sell fear. I remember when Christians were promoting the Sandy Hook conspiracy theory that no children actually died, and there were crisis actors. Alex Jones was promoting that, and there were people on sermon audio at the time promoting that, and I was like, hey, guys, we got to stop this. We got to keep this conspiratorial stuff out of Christianity. The Prophecy Club was a radio program. It's still I think it still airs if you look for it. I don't know what it sounds like today. It probably sounds like Alex Jones. But the Prophecy Club in the nineties, I mean it was black helicopters and the New World Order and you know, basically, you know aliens, and I mean it sounded like coast to coast am But from a Christian perspective, it was insanity.

32:23 And they made all these predictions. At the end was near that it was all and all their threats and all the things they claim did not come to pass. They were selling fear and Christians were buying it. So you continue to just start the fires an existential threat, You're not going to have a country. They're going to steal the election, and so, well, what do you do? Well, so you get more and you get buy more into politics, and you're going to fight them from a political perspective, and then it turns into a fleshly fight. And the same thing happened with COVID. It oh, oh, this is not true and this is not true. And so Christians just started arguing and fighting about COVID instead of saying, wait, wait, wait, how should the church respond to all of this? How can we just focus on being the church? How can we just focus on utilizing this very difficult time instead of getting into this is not true and this is not true and arguing, hey, how can we minister? How can we provide comfort and peace? How can we get the gospel? How can we evangelize? How can we disciple? No, no, we've got to prove a point. We've got to do this.

33:30 We got to do this, and it's and it became about winning an argument than it did about well, how can we minister in the midst of a difficult time? How can we show that we are not We're not going to make the problem worse. We want to be a voice of calm and peace and reason. So it says that these messages exactly aspirate an already violent situation, a volatile situation, and this feeds violence before the election day then, but it's not going to end. Imagine what could happen following the election. If Vice President Kamala Harris wins election in November, there is serious concern over violence waged by Trump supporters who may believe that the election was rigged or stolen, as Trump claimed in twenty twenty after he lost the popular vote in Electoral College, leading to stop the Still movement, fuelling the January sixth, twenty twenty one Capital insurrection. Now see, I'm gonna immediately get Christians say it wasn't an insurrection. What about these protests?

34:38 And so once again they'll just start fighting the culture war and said, wehlla, wait, wait a minute, you're right. We don't want to as a church, we don't want to get into that, right because who determined? Like does Christians no longer believe that God is the one who ultimately determined who's in charge. Many Christians seem to completely forget that. If Trump is elected, many expect a visceral reaction from segments of the far left, including some who may resort to violence. Trump's election could also embolden any followers prone to violence, which could fuel more terrorism against immigrants, people of color, women, LGBTQ plus people, and others. If he continues to praise the January sixth terrorists and even pardons them who were convicted, Trump would be inviting continued, continued vigilantean it, vigilantientism if I can say the word right, people basically acting like a vigilante. Because we have witnessed two assassination attempts against Trump in the past two months, some Republicans are wondering how to reverse the apparent threat their right to call for the lowering of the political temperature, and they should reflect on their own party's role in promoting violent rhetoric, the creeping normalization of extremely violent political speech, which some have called mainstreaming extremism. Trump himself not only dubbed the January sixth defendants, hostages, political prisoners, martyrs, and warriors,

36:09 but also reacted to the assault of Paul Pelosi with a jest and a campaign appearance. Well well, stand up crazy Nancy Pelosi, who ruined San Francisco house her husband doing anyone know. He publicly told members of one far right white supremacist group to stand back and to stand by in response to the latest assassination attempt. Vice presidential candidate j. D. Vance Muse the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months. His analysis simply put is outright wrong. For instance, in West Virginia, sixty six year old man was arrested for threatening Harris. His social media hosts included warning ar fifteen, locked and loaded.

36:50 This is just one of countless threats and plots that most investigated by the Secret Service are not publicly disclosed. So but the point is, why would you make that kind of comment. This is just all fueling the fire and a sense and almost starting new fire, spreading the fire from both sides. It has to stop, but it's not. I don't expect the world to stop. I don't expect the world to figure it out. I expect the world to just continue to unravel and get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. What I'm concerned is where is the church in all of this. You'll hear Christian man on Christian man on a Sunday in the sanctuary of your church or somewhere in the building talking about what did you hear about so and so? Whatever you know hare is this and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, and just stop talking. You don't sound like Christians. You sound like Fox News Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck. Stop it.

37:49 But nobody wants to stand up and tell those Christian men stop acting like kids on a playground, talking all big and tough. How about sound like Christian men and say hey, hey, hey, let's turn down this pool political rhetoric and let's try to speak like men of God and seat of political hacks. See that that would offend people. Pastors don't want to necessarily call people out from the pulpit saying it, saying hey, I've seen some of your social media posts. You all sound like you sound ridiculous. This needs to stop. Pastors don't want to do that. They'll lose half their church. But I've heard Christian men talk after some of these things. It's always ridiculous. Bravado, Just stop politicians have contributed to the violent uptick, not only with their rhetoric, but also with their actions and and action in recent decades on gun policy, bringing us to the moment when assault weapons are widely available to any single individual with a grievance. Now, I know that then the conservative Christians gonna say, Oh, you're not gonna take my gun out of my hands. You're gonna have to pride out of my dead hand, all of just the pro bravado gun whatever. Okay, again, how should the church approach this? The fact is the United States remains in the eye of a perfect storm, a highly polarized political climate in which extreme rhetoric is prized over moderation, a country a wash in weaponry and subceptible to disinformation and digital manipulation. Combating the threat of political violence is

39:21 the duty of every American, but it is also the responsibility of our elected officials to tamp down the violent rhetoric. It will be difficult to navigate the crisis, and doing so effectively requires bipartisan condemnation of political violence from across the ideological spectrum. Now, the person who who wrote this is a research fellow at the Council on foreign relations where he studies domestic and international terrorism and counterin terrorism. So this is what this person studies. So what do we do? What do we do? Now? I've been really really the reports about all of this, the whole thing about they're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats, that already just kind of made me. I'm just gonna be honest with you, it just made me want to just say, you know what it, I just give up. I just give up. I'm done. I'm just done with all of this.

40:26 I just forget it. Like the Church has lost its mind, Christians have lost their minds, the world has lost because I saw comments under on Christian websites where they talked about the eating the dogs, aim of the threats, and just hear Christians on Christian websites say some of the most insane things in the history of mankind, promoting promoting the concept, and just nothing sounded like Christianity. It's just I look at them like none. In fact, I wanted to turn on the microphone and just read some of the comments. It's like, none of this is Christianity. I don't fit into this. This is insanity, this is ridiculous. I'm done. And then now we have a second assassination attempt, and now there's all these thoughts that it's just going to get worse, and I don't know, like there's gotta be someone out there's got to be Christians out there, and that says, hey, over here, now we did have the positive. Now my email box demonstrates nobody really cared.

41:22 When I told everyone about that new Confession of Faith put together by over three hundred pastors, I said, we got to stop the political idolatry, we got to stop all of this, and I sent out the link to the Confession of Faith. It's almost silence. Nobody really cares because I wasn't selling. If I sold, we gotta fight this, and I just bought into the controversy and this conspiracy. See then I would I could get big numbers. But see I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no, we got to stop all of that. And everybody's like, well, I'm going to go listen to a podcast at'll really get into it and give me my side. And so then you're just like, I'm wasting my time. I'm wasting it does not matter. So what do we do? What can we do? Do we have any approach in here do we have any When facing concerns about political violence and chaos and uncertainty, Christians, I feel, are called to respond not with fear or anxiety, but with trust in God and the peace that comes from His sovereignty. I believe a biblical and phiological approach for Christians in such times as these can be framed around maybe several key themes, maybe a few themes you can decide. I think the first one is Christians should believe that God is sovereign over all nations, rulers, and events. The Bible reminds us

42:53 that nothing happens outside of God's knowledge and plant do we trust in God's sovereignty? Do we really trust God? Sum? I will say, the Church talks a big game sometimes about God being all powerful, God being omniscient, He is omni omni present. We say the philological words, we may have a praise song, but when it comes down to it, we're like, Yoh, we gotta we gotta, we gotta vote, we gotta vote, we gotta do something, we gotta we gotta, we gotta fight this culture war, we gotta boycott, we gotta do this, we gotta do this. Oh, just stop it. Do you believe in God sovereignty or not? Now, I'm gonna read a verse as soon as I read it, because we saw this in the pandemic. During the pandemic, all of a sudden, Romans thirteen one no longer said what it had said and meant my entire Christian life.

43:46 All of a sudden, I heard Christian after Christ. Well, Romans thirteen doesn't really say that. And we don't have to follow any of their stinking rules because we can do what we want because we're Christians, and we don't have to listen to anybody, and we're gonna do what we want, like like little kid throwing a fit because they got told to have to go home at ten pm versus midnight. Let every soul Romans thirteen one. You know where I'm going be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. You can run. They stole the election. They stole it from God. They stole it from God. Was God sovereign or not? It says, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Now you may not understand why God put that person in power. You may not like it. Either you believe that or you don't believe that. Even either you don't believe God is sovereignly in charge or you do. If you don't, then that's okay, then that's your THEOLO. But then don't run around and talk about the sovereignty of God and God is this and God is that. Because your God is not sovereign, your God is obviously not all powerful, and your God is obviously not doing anything. Well, then that's fine. Then go, I guess and do whatever you think you can do if that's the way you want to live your Christian life.

45:17 But just maybe maybe do this, Just leave Christianity and just say I'm a Patriot and I'm an American, and I'm a Republican, and I'm going to fight for the country. Will you go do that? Just stop using the name of God. Whoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. Now you gotta deal with that. You may not like it, but you gotta deal with it. Another passage that would be somewhat close to this, I could read more in Rome.

46:00 It's thirteen We could start trying to exeget it and talk about it, but I'm just trying to give some basic concepts here Isaiah forty six nine through ten. Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring from from or declaring the end, from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure. Do you believe God is in charge? Do you really believe that? So we have to trust in God's sovereignty. Now people will ask, well, what about this situation? Sometimes they will ask about hypothetical situation.

46:48 Sometimes they will ask about things in the past. Well, what should a Christian should have done at that time? There's not always easy answers nobody, there's no there's never simple, but there is. But there is an approach. There's an attempt for us to go, wait a minute, let's let's let's struggle to at least see how we can put this into practice and how we can live according to it. That, to me is what all Christians should be striving to do. God is sovereign, His good pleasure will be accomplished. He's the one who decides. Well, let's trust his sovereignty. We may not understand it, we may not like it. Number two, Peace over fear. Jesus calls us as his followers to peace in the face of turmoil, regardless of political or social chaos. Christians are encouraged to place their hope and confidence in God rather than worldly events. Can we find peace in face of oh and in the midst of fear, in the midst of chaos? Can we have peace over fear?

47:57 Can we find it? Now? The peace? Is it? Well? Hey, you get all because again they sell fear. Stop buying fear and take the peace that's been given to you. You don't have to buy peace. It's been given to you in Christ. Grab on to that peace and don't buy the fear that everyone sells you. John sixteen. Now some of these, of course, these have very much textual and historical context, so you can look that up. But here we go Jesus speaking to his disciples who are gonna be facing some difficult situations coming up. These things.

48:41 Have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world. You shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Hey, you're gonna have tribulation. It's gonna get crazy, it's gonna get chaotic. But in me there's peace. We look, we grab on to the peace we have in Christ, and we try to not buy into and sell what we have for fear. Philippians chapter four. You know these passages, you know, you know them. We all forget them. I forget them. Philippians four to six. Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer, supplication, with thanksgiving, Let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passed the fall understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds.

49:28 And Christ Jesus what see God, it's his peace that his peace will keep us, not in our attempts to win the next culture war, and to keep buying into the fear being sold to you by many, many within Christianity and even those outside of Christianity. Again, just listen to some Christian broadcast. It's fear. They sell fear, they sell fear, they sell fear, they sell fear. The end is near, this is happening, This is happening, This is happening. It's over. Hey, I remember when they were selling it. Look, look, your kids are buying music, and if you play that music backwards, there's messages from Satan and they're gonna be possessed by demons. Oh my goodness, burn the records. It's always the next, next big fear, the next big thing.

50:24 Trust in God's sovereignty, Peace over fear. Here's one. I'm not going through all the things I have written down here. Trust in God's sovereignty, peace over fear. I know this one. Nobody believes in this one anymore. But I say, unto you, love your enemies, Bless them that curse you, Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father, which is in heaven. For he maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and send a thrain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? Love your enemies. Now, we're never going to do any of these things perfectly right. Obviously, sometimes you know what's going to happen. We're not going to trust in God's sovereignty. We're going to be so we're going to see the circumstances and become almost blind and oblivious to the God in whom we cannot see. That's why we've got to constantly try to see the God in whom we cannot see, or at least trust in the God in whom we cannot see, no matter if the circumstances we can't see screams that there is no God.

51:53 We talked about this in Psalm eighty three, number two. We need peace, so for fear, grab onto the peace that's been provided to you in Christ, and stop buying the fear. We need to love our enemies. Now I've got more here that I could give, but I'm not. I am going to do this. I'll end with this, and I wanted to break this one down far greater detail. Let's go to Psalm forty six. Psalm forty six, Verse one.

52:39 God is our refuge and strength, the very present help in trouble. God is your refuge. God is your strength. He's the present help in trouble, not the Republican Party, not the outcome of an election, not winning some you know, culture war. Therefore, will not we fear God is our refuge and strength, the very present help and trouble. Because of that, we're not going to fear though the earth being removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, even though if the whole world physically is crumbling and falling apart around us, We're not going to fear because we're going to trust that God is sovereign and we're gonna trust in Him. Now. I know some of this has maybe specific promises for Israel.

53:26 We could get into that, but there's still an element of this that we have to as Christians, either we believe in God or we don't. Though the waters therefore roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling there thereof, so we're gonna trust in God. We're not going to fear even though the waters are roaring and troubling, even if the mountains are sliding off into the ocean, even if everything seems to be coming apart, even physically, we are going to trust there is a river, the streams thereof shall make glad. The City of God, the holy place of the Tabernacle of the Most High God, is in the midst of her She shall not be moved. God shall help her. And that right early the heathen rage, the kingdom's removed. He uttered his voice and the earth melted.

54:10 It's trusting God. Now this guy again has historical context, maybe very covenantal promises made to Israel. There's very specifics, but we do know ultimately there is God. He is on the throne and nothing moves him because he is immovable. He's immutable, he's unchangeable, he is omnipotent. He is sovereign. He is the ruler of all. So we trust in him. Now, things may crumble all around us, things may fall apart. Circumstances may get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse, and we say, where is God? And maybe it all comes to a crashing end, But then we will be forever in His presence, and all things will be made right. Things I don't think are going to get better. I think things are going to get worse.

55:09 And how things are going to look between September seventeenth, twenty twenty four and the end of twenty twenty four, I'm just going to be honest. I don't have any warm feelings about it. I have feelings of dread, of despair, of despondency, discouragement, depression. I am cynical. I just feel like it's not going to be good and the world is going to get all caught up in it. There's going to be yelling and fighting and divisiveness and disputes. And the sad part is we've allowed that into the church. In the church, I shouldn't see Republican or Democrat. I should see brother, sister and the Lord. I don't care their political party. I don't care. And what I need to call them to do is not to change the way they vote. I don't need to worry about that.

56:06 I don't need to worry about their stance on cultural issues. What I need to do is try to say, hey, hey, hey, hey, let's get into the scriptures. Let's meditate on them, Let's not buy into the fear. Let's trust them to the trust and the sovereignty of God. Let's love our enemies, Let's let's focus, let's put away lying, let's speak the truth, let's not bear false witness. Let's not engage in slander, and let's not engage and gossip. Let's let's seek to live this out this way. But so some Christians do is they want to fight politics, and they want to label everyone as a Republican or a Democrat. And then some will say, if you're a Democrat or vote Democrat, you can't even be a Christian. I don't even know how many times I've heard that preached. That's that's destroying the Church. The Bible doesn't use language to describe people as Republican or Democrat. Brothers and sisters in the Lord, and there can be massive disagreements among brothers and sisters in the Lord, not only biblically and philologically. I don't know if you realize that we've been yelling and fighting.

57:12 We can't even as Christians agree on how to interpret basic things in scripture. We don't agree on baptism. We don't agree on the Lord's Supper. We don't agree on salvation. We don't agree on the word repentance for crying out lot. We don't even agree on the word baptism. Christians can't even agree on the Bible, but we demand almost a unified locked arm conformity to political views. Why would there be conformity and political views in the Body of Christ when there cannot even be unity when it comes to basic theology and how to read the Bible. Stop worrying about people's political allegiance and focus on our allegiance to Christ and his word, and let's focus on that. Well, the world is burning. They need to have someplace to say, hey can go there and get away from all of this.

58:05 But they're like, Nope, not going there. Church. They don't see a church as a place that worships and follows Christ. For many, they see the church as a place that worships and follows Trump. Because how many of evangelical Christians put Trump in the White House the first time he received over eighty something percent of the evangelical vote. And then what happened. Pastors yell and scream and say if you vote Democrat, you basically are a demon, and get out of my church. You're not even a Christian. And I'm not making that up. I've literally heard those messages that destroys the church, that destroys what we're supposed to be. Now, I started this and it was like eight forty five, eight forty six, eight forty seven, and I almost said, am, well, it's now nine forty seven pm, so it's been almost an hour We've discussed a lot of things. I don't have any definitive answers. Things are not going to get better.

59:26 From my estimation, it's only going to get worse. What is the church going to do? Thanks for listening, God bless