Trump and Manifest Destiny

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Wednesday, January the twenty second, twenty twenty five. It is currently ten thirty one am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now. Yesterday, I think a lot of people will miss what I actually did because they're going to get all caught up in my you could say, criticism of President Trump pardoning all the people involved in the January sixth riot, their attack on the Capitol Building. You can. You can a lot of people just hear my criticism and they just hear criticism of Trump, and then that's it. They're going to be all very upset with me and angry and mad.

0:57 And already there were some people not very happy with what I did and said I was being unfair. Okay, God, I understood that, because I mean, if you criticize Trump, there's a lot of people within the Christian world who are not going to like that because they are very much Trump's supporters. So you're you're always kind of walking into dangerous grounds or while you're swimming into dangerous waters when you do that. But I think what kind of frustrated me is they just heard criticism and they missed everything that I said, because I think I gave a very important prediction about twenty twenty five, right, I said, we're gonna see, We're gonna we're gonna see really two things happen. On one hand, we're going to see just this a more politicized church arising in twenty twenty five.

1:44 The church is going to be more politically hijacked. There's going to be this mixing in of Christian nationalism and it's just going to kind of grow and it's going to kind of spread. The church is going to see that they have a political ally. They're going to perceive that they have a political eyela ally in the White House, and they're going to look to move forward and try to get things done politically. It's going to be the church is. They're going to be looking to Washington for a lot of assistance and help to get their agenda pass and to try to quote unquote christianize America and bring back God and all the things they're going to do. But they're going to be very much wrapping that all in politics and passing legislation and that type of thing.

2:24 So you're going to see a politicized church, a Christian nationalism, whether it's called that or not, in infecting, influencing, spreading through the church, and many people are going to look around, going what just happened to my church? What is going on with Christianity? It seems to be very political, and I think that's going to just for the next four years. I think it's just going to get worse and worse and worse and worse. I think the church typically does better when they have no political allies. They have no they can't look to Washington, they can't look to the chariots, they can't look to the horses. That can only look to God. I think that's when the church does better, when they when they are stripped of any earthly ally and all they can do is lift their eyes towards God and focus on God. But when they've got what they perceive to be their spiritual allies in the White House, then the church tends to become very culture minded, culture war.

3:25 It just really get I think it becomes very distracted, That's my opinion, and that's where I think it's going to go. So that's one of my predictions. The church is going to be more politicized. Christian Nationalism is going to spread, It's going to infect all of Christianity, and Christianity is going to be very politically minded, and I think that's only going to get worse over the next four years. At the same time, there's going to be a minority. I don't know if we can specify percentage, but there will be a there will be a group that will try to push back against that Christian nationalism, against the politicizing of the church. And they and they may be very critical of Trump and very critical of some of the things Republicans are doing going to do, and they're going to try to fight it. But what's going to happen is they're going to be so preoccupied with that. You're going to have a politicized church. You're going to have its opposition. And guess what's going to happen, Well, where's where's going to be really the focus on the things of God. Where's going to be the focus on on on christian on real, true biblical Christianity. I think I think it's going to be it's going to be harder to find biblically minded Christianity, where your focus is on the Word of God, doctrine, theology, hermeneutics. It's going to be harder to find that because you're going to have these two competing forms of Christianity. Really the opposition to the politics, which is great, you want to oppose the political hijacking of the church. But if all you're

4:55 doing is counter countering it, correcting it, expose, well, you're not giving anyone actually Christianity. You may be fighting for biblical Christianity, but you're actually not giving anyone actually biblical Christianity because you're spending all of your time being distracted by the politicized church, and the politicized church is not giving people biblical Christianity because it's becoming more political. So you're going to have on one hand, the rise of the more politically hijacked church and Christian nationalism, and then you're going to have the rise of the opposition, and that's going to leave a lot of people going, well, where where do I turn now? There will be obviously plenty of churches out there who are going to try to avoid both of those extremes and hopefully try to offer people something different, and I think that those will be very much needed and should be greatly appreciated for attempting to do that. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. But I made those predictions. Now, so here I am today. Yesterday we talked about Trump and his pardoning of the January writer writers and even those who are involved in the violence of it, all right, So I was greatly bothered by it. I did try to bring us back to some scriptures. But okay, so I I and I made those predictions. So what should I do today? Well, the last thing I should do is go back to the whole Trump politics situation. Right.

6:21 I don't want to go there because I want to move us towards you know, let's focus on doctrine and theology, and that's where I want to go. But I feel like I have to talk about this today, all right, And and again I need you to listen to me carefully. I'm going to mention Trump. I'm going to mention him, but I'm only mentioning him because there were comments he made that brought this idea, this concept right back to the forefront, and we have to address it from a biblical and philological perspective. Okay, so understand, I'm only mentioning Trump to get to this other thing. It's always frustrating when you say, Okay, I'm gonna mention this, but it's really about this, and nobody ever gets to what it's really about because you mentioned Trump or you mentioned this, or you mentioned that, And if they are supporters of Trump or supporters of them maybe a specific philological system or a specific pastor if you offer any criticism, they can't get to what you're actually talking about because they get so defensive over their favorite preacher or their favorite theiological system or their favorite politician possibly being criticized. But here is simply this person mentioned this, so we need to talk about it, all right, So hopefully everyone can follow, right, I hope, So, I hope. So I want to avoid I definitely obviously you know, I'm in complete opposition of

7:51 the political hijacking of the church, and I'm completely in opposition to Christian nationalism. But I don't want this to fall into All I do is try to oppose that and address it. I want to get us to theology and doctrine. So that's what I'm going to try to do here. It just may seem like kind of a weird way to get there, right, But just stay with me. Hopefully this will make sense. President Donald Trump and voked the phrase manifest destiny during his inaugural address on January the twentieth, twenty twenty five. I want you to hear that again. President Donald Trump And voked the phrase manifest destiny during his inaugural address on January the twentieth, twenty twenty five. Now, I want you to write down that phrase, manifest destiny. Manifest destiny. Now, I don't know what that means to you. I mean, I mean anything to you. You may go I think I remember hearing about this in school.

8:57 You may even think, yes, America, manifest destiny. You may embrace the concept, You may embrace the philosophy completely. I obviously want us to consider the implications of this phrase. Look at it not only from a historical societal point of view, but then I want to look at it from a biblical and philological point of view. And I have some major issues with it. All right, So here's a little bit more about it. In his speech where he used the phrase manifest destiny, he outlined an expansionist vision for the United States, expressing interest and extending American influence to regions such as the Panama Canal and even Mars.

9:42 He declared the beginning of a Golden Age for America, emphasizing a return to a national greatness and unity. Additionally, Trump announced plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and to reclaim control of the Panama Canal, asserting that Panama has violent violated treaty conditions and accusing China of influencing canal operations. These statements reflect his administration's intent to revive the nineteenth century doctrine of manifest destiny to justify contemporary expansionist policies. Now, how Trump is going to revive this manifest destiny doctrine? Is he going to do that? Is that fair criticism? Is that hyperbole?

10:42 You can have that debate, that's where you get into more of the political side of it. But when I hear the term manifest destiny, I immediately like, whoa time out? We got to talk, all right? And what was kind of interesting is I've noticed on a couple of Christian websites where there's been different stories about things going on with Trump and the inauguration and different things and the executive orders. I have seen some Christians underneath some of these articles utilize the phrase manifest destiny, and I'm like, oh boy, here we go. So what I want to talk about is not Trump. What I want to talk about is not what his administration may or may not do.

11:26 I don't even want to talk about whether they're going to revive manifest destiny doctrine. I don't whether Christians are using it or not. What I want to do is talk about the concept of manifest destiny so that you because even if people never use the term, I want you to be so familiar with the concept that when you hear people almost put forth the philosophy, even without using the terminology, you can detect it, and you can hear it and you can recognize it. This is so important. This is true in philosophy. Philosophy a lot of times may be developed and defined and outlined, maybe in an academic setting. There's some philosopher somewhere and they put forth this philosophical concept, this philosophical idea. It may be they may write a book. You know, it's you know, giving their concept, you know, laying it out right, putting it forth, and it may be academic, it may be complicated, whatever the case may be. They they put forth, they they they they in a sense proclaim this philosophical idea. So for the average person that don't even know this is going on, they're not paying any attention, they don't care.

12:46 They're not sitting there reading, you know, academic journals or checking out the latest philosophy books that are coming out, and they're not paying any attention. But sometimes what happens is that philosophy in a sense breaks free from that academic setting, breaks free from all of that academic definition, and it begins to enter within popular culture. And then the philosophy kind of begins to spread, and it goes here, and it goes here, and it goes here, and it goes here, and it goes here and it goes here. And then people start picking up the philosophical concept without even knowing where it originated from or that it's even necessarily quote unquote a philosophy. They just kind of accept it.

13:26 And then people start thinking this way and they start saying it, and whether you like it or not, those people live in the world and they come to church and then the next thing, you know, the philosophy can enter inside the church. Same thing can happen from a thiological perspective. Someone puts forth a philological concept, a thiological idea, and then at first it may be in some seminary somewhere, maybe in a philological journal. The average person sitting in the church doesn't have a clue what's going on. Pastors pick it up, Bible teachers pick it up, they start expounding it. They may not use the terminology, they may not even say, oh, this is this or this is that, but it starts spreading, and next thing you know, Christians are picking up the idea having no idea where it originated, or they may not even know the actual technical name for it. That's how these see ideas once they are once they are formed, they may are always maybe formed in a much more complicated or academic way, but once the ideas break free, then they begin to spread. And in some ways I could we could go back to my discussion about lordship salvation and around about wait, when it was originally the idea was being put forth and shaped and discussed, the average person sitting in church may not even have any clue that this concept was out there spreading. But the next thing you know, they may be adopting some of the concept of lordship salvation. And I've never even read a book on it, don't even know what's called lordship salvation, but they are articulating that

14:56 concept without even knowing what's happened. Ideas and concepts spread. So what I want you to do is know the concept of manifest destiny so that when you hear it, even if your pastor is not using the phrase, you can be like, that sounds a lot like manifest destiny. What are you actually saying? Now you may agree with it, and that's particulars that's up to you, but I want to at least talk about it, all right, So we're going to try to outline summarize the origin, the meaning, and the implications of manifest destiny. So I'm going to try to We're going to try to outline summarize the origin, meaning, and implications of manifest destiny. All right. Let's start with the origin of manifest destiny when the term kind of really was coined. Now, the concept this is always important.

15:47 Once again, concepts usually exist before they're necessarily sometimes truly defined or called by a specific name. The idea is already out there, and then someone will kind of take the idea and then give it a name, kind of give it a term that will define it. Now the phrase, not the concept, but the phrase manifest destiny was first used by a journalist. His name was John L. O'Sullivan and eighteen forty five. Eighteen forty five John L. O'Sullivan and eighteen forty five in the United States magazine and Democratic Review. That's when the term was coined. Kind of manifest destiny. But you're going back to eighteen forty five.

16:32 The concept predates the term, right, So I mean that always happens. There's something there and then someone like, let's call that rock and roll. Well the concept mayor let's call that this, Let's call it this, let's call this grunge. I can use you know, when music genres are defined. The sound the music already is there, but someone has to give it. We're gonna call this this, We're gonna call this, We're gonna call this jazz or contemporary jazz. We're gonna call this, you know, post punk. Are we gonna call this pop punk? Whatever the case. Maybe I can just go through all kinds of music genres, someone has to give it a name. But the music's already there, someone has to define it. Same thing happens in kind of philosophy, someone has to give it a name. So eighteen forty five is where the phrase is termed manifest destiny.

17:25 Now it emerged the the kind of the context. It emerged during a time of American territorial expansion, including does anybody know the annexation of Texas eighteen forty five? Why did we? Who said that it annex Texas? What are you talking about? We are our own country. We don't need anybody else? What do you take your filthy hands off? Text? Okay, right, right? Never just just trying to add a little humor into a little bit of history. Right. So America is expanding, taking territory which includes the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Trail migrations. The Oregon Trail people are migrating, right.

18:14 It is rooted and the earlier ideas of exceptionalism and colonialism tied to a belief and divine providence guiding America's growth. So it's idea, hey, grow expand right, we are What we have to offer is exceptional. What we have to offer is better. Let's expand, let's take territory, and we're doing so because of divine providence, because this is what God wants. Basically, God is on our side. God likes our culture, he likes our identity, he likes our ideas, and he wants our identity, our culture to expand over any other thing that may be in our way. That may be an oversimplification, but you're getting the idea. But there's the history. So there's the origin. There's kind of the historical context. America is moving, expanding, growing, taking its ideas and moving them to other places. Now what's the philosophical basis, Well, it combines religious undertones God's will with nationalism and the belief in the superiority of American democracy and culture. Now, please know, here's the basis for it. Right, you have religion, you have nationalism. You see where this

19:47 is going. So what do you do. You take God's will, you mix it with nationalism, and you have this idea that America is superior, our democracy, our culture is superior or to anybody else's. And it's God's will that we move forward, that we expand we're great, We're great, terror we're the greatest, and it's God's will. Very nationalistic, but you bring in God because if you have God justifying what you're doing, then you can justify what we're gonna do this, or we're gonna take this, or we're gonna do this, and God's on our side. You see this very very much. And I think I mean just anytime America is involved in a military conflict, we just assume God is always on our side, right, God bless the troops, God bless our military effort. As if God is always on our side, no matter what we're doing. If we're invading a rock because they supposedly have weapons of mass destruction that they do not have, God is on our side.

20:57 Couldn't be on their side, couldn't be on their side. When we get involved in Vietnam, God is on our It's always God on our side. Always. God is always on America side because God is an American, right, I mean, basically it's that kind of concept. Now people of other countries may go, who wha, WHOA? When did God get on America side? When did God declare that America is best? When did God decide that American culture is better than our culture? When? Who made this determination. Now you may be America America, you may love America. But see the problem is is when you love America in America, America, America, America, and you're a patriot and you love patriotism and you want to wave the American flag. But when you somehow then bring God to justify your patriotism, oh, then that's where things get a little a little troubling. So there's the origin, there's kind of the historical context. There's the philosophs basis. Let me give you the philosophical basis again.

22:03 You take basically the religion and nationalism. You're going to mix it together. You're going to have a religious undertone of God's will. You're going to mix it with nationalism, and you're going to have the belief that America is superior in its democracy is superior, its culture is superior. Okay, now let's kind of go to the meaning. Now, the meaning of manifest destiny. I think I'm already kind of giving you a little bit of this, but let's kind of go to the meaning. So there was kind of the kind of the origins, the historical context, the philosophical basis. Let's kind of go to the meaning of manifest destiny.

22:44 Let's break down kind of what it means. Let's start with kind of a core definition of manifest destiny. I think I'm kind of already giving it to you, but let's repeat it. Manifest destiny if we want to kind of go with a core definition. It is the belief that the United States was dis destined by God to expand its territory and influence across the North American continent from sea to Shining Sea. We're destined by God to expand our territory, to expand our influence from sea to Shining Sea. God wants us to expand. God wants us to have this land. God the key components divine justification.

23:29 Expansion was considered preordained by God. See is preordained by God for us to go there and take that land. I mean, too bad if someone's already living there, that's not our problem. God wants us to have it. It's God who wants us to have it. You just use God as the justification to do basically whatever you want to do. Yeah. Cultural superiority. This is another key component, a belief in the superiority of American values, governance, and civilization. Over indigenous people and others. See when you are moving forward, God wants me to move forward, and you're like, no, no, no, no. Our way is superior. Our our values are more superior than your values. Our way of governance is more superior than your way of governance. Our civilization is greater and better than those indigenous people and your culture, Indigenous people in your culture, No, you're not away, are superior, and God wants us here, So your culture has to be wiped out so our culture can be established. There's kind of a missionary impulse, a perceived duty to spread democracy, Christianity, and civilization. Hey, we're going to spread democracy you we want you to have democracy. We don't care if you really want it, but we we just know that you want it. It's this idea, Hey, hey, we're going to go to the mid Least and we're gonna we're just

25:01 gonna give them democracy because we know that's what they We know that's what the people in Afghanistan want. We know that's what the people here. Why And so many times we just it's this arrogance that we think everyone wants our system of government. They may not. They want our culture, they may not because we just perceive that our way is the better way, and we don't care about their culture or what they want. And we may say that God is the one who wants us to expand it. So there's the core definition. There's the key components. Let me go through the key to core definition, the belief that the United States was destined by God to expand its territory and influence across the North American continent from sea to Shining Sea. The key components is a divine justification, a feeling of cultural superiority, and a missionary impulse. Now, what are the implications of manifest destiny? What are the implications of it? Well, I think we know the first one, especially if you go back in history territorial expansion. I mean, clearly, that's a major implication of manifest destiny is territorial expansion.

26:15 And that fueled some of the following things. The Louisiana Purchase in eighteen oh three, the annexation of Texas eighteen forty five, the Oregon Trail Settlement eighteen forty six, the Mexican American War eighteen forty six to eighteen forty eight, leading to the treaty leading to a treaty which added California, Arizona, New Mexico, and more to US territory. I think as a treaty of Guadaloupe Hildago. I believe I could be wrong there, so don't quote me on that. But you see, it's it acquires, it takes, it obtains more land, more area for what purpose? To then expand our culture, our values, our ideas. Now what was the impact on native populations, Well, it forced displacement. That's how you get to the trail of tears. If you don't know about that, look that up.

27:15 You end up with violent conflict with indigenous tribes. I mean they're forced to be displaced because our way is superior to our way. God wants us to have this. This is our destiny, it's manifest destiny. You have to go and it leads to cultural erasures and widespread loss of native lands. You just wipe out the culture, you take their lands, and then you use God as the justification and you use the idea that we are superior.

27:55 It leads to conflict with other nations, strained relations with Mexico, Mexico American War, tensions with Britain over the Oregon territory leads to economic growth, expanded agriculture and resource based economies. I mean, yeah, you take more land, you have more places to grow agriculture. So it is going to possibly help the economy, and it boosts infrastructure and development. You're gonna boost infrastructure because we're gonna build a railroad. But we don't own that land. Oh yes we do. We're gonna take it now. It also led new territories, intensified debates over the extension of slavery, contributing to a sectionalism and eventually the Civil War. It did lead to debates over slavery. I mean you could you could probably again with anything, once you kind of bring God into what you're doing, you can you can use God to justify slavery.

28:53 You could try to use God to argue against it. So that's what happens in politics. Everyone that happens in war happens in Everyone wants to use God as justification for what they do because God is always on their side. And not only is God on their side, God then wants to do this and it doesn't matter if it impacts you negatively. God is on our side. God doesn't want you to read that book God doesn't want you to do this. God, we're gonna take this. We're gonna do this. We're gonna do it because God is always on our side. And then God is used again to justify actions that impact other people. So those are some of the implications of manifest destiny. How about some of the legacy of manifest Destiny. Well, it did, you could argue, and some people will definitely state this as a positive.

29:45 It solidified America's self image as a nation of pioneers and innovators, kind of give a national identity. We have a national identity, right, and people and most Americans are very strong about that. If you come over to America, you must be assimilated into our culture. You must accept our culture. Right, if you're going to come here, you must be an American. You must. And it's like your culture is subservient to ours. Ours is superior. But and I can understand why, because if everyone has a national identity, some would say that leads to less division, and well you can you can see all the arguments for that, and you hear this in politics all the time. Now, some of the criticism Modern interpret interpretations criticize manifest Destiny for its role in justifying imperialism, racism, and human rights abuses. Yeah, you see another race. Your culture is not superior to our culture. Our culture is superior to your culture. Your culture doesn't matter because we're the best. That's oh man, all right, Now, the continued influence, So that's kind of the criticism. Is it. Basically manifest destiny has its role in justifying imperialism, racism, and human rights abuses. It's influence.

31:11 The echoes of manifest destiny persist in modern American foreign policies, expansionist rhetoric, often framed as American exceptionalism. I don't know if you've ever listened to a lot of conservative talk show hosts. They love to talk about American exceptionalism. You hear it sometimes Fox News, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck. Oh, they love these concepts, These concepts of basically a manifest destiny at least influenced philosophy, you hear it. And many Christians just buy into this concept now. By promoting expansion as both a right and a divine mission, and manifest destiny shaped US history and left a lasting impact on its national kind of identity. It's territorial boundaries and its interactions with other cultures and nations. Now again, now that's kind of just an overview of manifest destiny. Now, some of you will be trying to defend some of it, some of you may try to criticize some of it.

32:24 I just want you to be able to identify it. You can determine if you want it or don't want it right. You can determine if you agree with it or disagree with it right. And I think a lot of it's going to come down to how do you view it? Right? I mean, if you just remove God? Well, is the only problem is you can't really remove God from manifest destiny because it includes God. Right, So this is where it gets kind of convoluted. Right the minute you bring God into it, then I think you have to look at it from a God perspective, because God didn't you know, we just It's almost like we just said, okay, God, you're on our side and you think we're better than everyone. But did God say any of that? Are we just speaking for God? I think manifest destiny is a lot of where people can we dare say we Manifest destiny is where a nation creates a God in the image of their nation. I think it's almost a form of building your own golden calf. We're going to build a God to go before us, and that God's going to wear an American flag. That God is going to wear a hat that says make America great again. That God is going to go forth and preach American exceptionalism. That God, and so we create an American God that justifies our wars, justifies whatever we do. I think that that's a problem.

33:47 So I was gonna say, if you if you remove, if you remove the god portion of quote unquote, well we wouldn't even call it a manifest destiny. Then if we just called it something else that we believe just a full blown is the best. America is great, and every other culture is trash compared to us, We're the best. And you just look at it from an atheist agnostic way, then you're just making an argument that you're better than everyone else. But manifest destiny invokes God and creates a American flag waving golden calf. And you see a lot of churches with all its patriotism, especially certain times of the year, American flags. That's why look for me, I would I in my church. There has never been, nor will there ever be an American flag within the sanctuary.

34:38 As long as I'm there, there will not be an American flag anywhere on the property. Because we are at church. We lift up the cross, not a flag. We lift up the cross, not national identity. We preach Christ for all cultures, not just America. We're not pro America. We are supposed to be pro God doesn't mean we have to be antime Erica either. It just means that we are. We are not shaped by a national identity. We are shaped by our identity in Christ. I can't stand that when I walk into the church and there's a big American flag, What is that? What is that? You're not here to preach America, You're here to preach Christ. But so, we really can't remove God from manifest destiny because he's essential to it. But I think the God that's essential to a manifest destiny is a guy to whom we created and wrapped in an American flag. So now let's try to look at manifest destiny more from a biblical and philological point of view. How about biblical foundations and misapplications.

35:50 Is there a biblical foundation. Is there misapplication going on with this concept of manifest destiny? Well, let's talk about divine sovereignty and national destiny. The idea of manifest destiny rest on the belief that God pre ordains a specific nation's expansion and influence. Now, let's just make sure remember, a nation can expand, a nation can have great influence, doesn't always mean that that nation is right or doing things perfectly. Because God used even wrong nations to expand and take territory, but not because He loved them or thought they were wonderful. We can see that with the Babylonians we could see that, than the Persians, we could see that it's all complicated. Just because something goes a certain way, we immediately say, well, God's doing God's on our side. If something goes back, God is against us.

36:48 And that's very difficult in how we we can't always perceive what God is doing right, We don't know. We love to assume, but unless God tells us, we don't know. Just consider it this. We do believe God is sovereign. We do believe God works in and through nations, but we don't always know exactly why He's doing what He's doing. That was some of the confusion even in the Old Testament, like wait, God, why the Babylonians, what are you doing? Why them? Right? Why are you sending me here to preach to these people? Them? Really? And you see some of that in the Bible. So here's kind of a critique. Now, Scripture does show God's sovereign control over nations. I think we can see this in Daniel two in Acts seventeen.

37:35 But it does not. The Bible does not endorse the idea that any one nation apart from Israel. Let's make that very clear, all right. It does not endorse the idea that any one nation apart from Israel, has a unique divine mandate to rule or expand. Israel had divine mandates go in, take that land, kill everyone, man, woman, boy, girl, child. Now that's disturbing for us to read, but that's God gave that to Israel. You can't go hijack what God told Israel, say we can do it as America. We're not Israel. This is why I think you've got to maintain a proper distinction between Israel and America, Israel and the Church, and Israel and everything else. Because God gave specific things to Israel that if any other nation adapts, well, they're gonna be killing all. This gonna be full blown genocide.

38:35 You've got to maintain that distinction. Now, when you get to the New Testament, it shifts the focus from earthly kingdoms to spiritual kingdoms. There is a major shift. I'm gonna, I think if we look at hand, I'm gonna look at two scriptures here, just to see if they do what I think they do. Yeah, Matthew six thirty three. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. Seek first the Kingdom of God. I think we also have. Is it John eighteen? I think it's John eighteen, verse thirty six. Jesus, this is Jesus words. My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not?

39:29 From Hence we listen. Our idea is we are speak seeking the Kingdom of God. His kingdom is not of this world. We're speaking, we're seeking a spiritual kingdom. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are foreigners, we are strangers here. We are pilgrims. Here, we are moving to a heavenly Jerusalem. Per se. Now, do we believe God may establish an earthly kingdom? If he does, he will do that, not us. The sky will split apart, he will come on a horse with a sword. He will defeat his enemies. He will establish a kingdom. Now, whether you believe that or you don't believe that, if it happens, he'll be the one doing it. Whether you believe it, he doesn't need your help to do it. He will do it. If you don't believe it, well, if he does it, it's not going to matter because He's going to do it.

40:17 But the New Testament focuses not America. America. America is ordained by God. That is nowhere in the New Testament. Obviously America is not even mentioned. But it calls us to be pursuing to cet our affections on things above love, not the world, neither the things that are in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life that seak first the Kingdom of God, over and over. Your citizenship is in heaven. You're a pilgrim, You're a stranger here. Sorry, that's the focus. Wait, this is not our home, so manifest destiny is all about here.

41:01 So that's a major critique of it, now, the misuse of divine will. Advocates of manifest destiny often cite passages like Genesis one twenty eight, the dominion Mandate, or Psalm two eight to justify territorial conquest. Hey, go make dominion. We are cold ordained by God to go make dominion, and we are gonna make We're gonna put everything under our feet. That's not that's not for America. These verses speak to humanity, stewardship, and the ultimate reign of Christ, not a specific nation's right to dominate others. And if you want to say, if any nation ever had a right to supposedly dominate others, it would have been Israel telling you to go in take the land, killing everyone.

41:50 They would have been, but no one else was given that. So what happens is you end up misinterpreting scripture to justify expansion. As it's a form of isa Jesus. You're reading into the text rather than Exejesus drawing meaning from the text. And that's what happens all the time. Isa Jesus Why do I get so frustrated when we listen to sermons and they read us into the text where in Isaiah they read you into it, they read the church into it. No, stop it. When you start reading us into it, how you're just one step away from reading America into it. Now you start reading America, you start reading nationalism into passages that are not about America.

42:33 Stop reading yourself into a passage where you don't belong. Stop reading America into passages where you don't belong. That's not the way to you're doing isa Jesus, that's what you're doing. So there's kind of a biblical foundation and a look at the misapplications and critiques of how it's looked at from a biblical perspective. How about philological concerns with manifest destiny. Well, I think a first one would be pride and nationalism. Manifest destiny often conflates national identity with divine approval, fostering a sense of superiority over nations and people. They we're Americans. God approves of us. God's always on our side. Scripture condemns pride and arrogance and emphasizes humility before God. It leads to a sense of pride and arrogance that we're somehow better than everyone else.

43:39 God's concern for all nations and people's is evident throughout the Bible, challenging any ethnocentric view of divine favor unless you're going to have Israel right. God's favor upon Israel is definitely different than anything else. But everywhere else, I mean, even Israel is told how to treat the strange, the foreigner, the immigrant who comes into their land. They're given specific instructions how to treat them. What's the basis, Well, you were a stranger in Egypt. Now you treat the strangers in your land in a specific way. So even though in some ways that we're called to go in and do some things that are hard to understand, even then we're giving how to treat other people and other nations.

44:26 So we have pride and nationalism, which are problems. I think. We also end up with the idea of the kingdom of God versus earthly kingdoms. Manifest destiny prioritizes the growth of an earthly kingdom over the spiritual mission of God's kingdom. Jesus taught that his kingdom is not of this world and emphasizes making disciples of all nations, not conquering them. We're to go make nations where to go, make disciples, not conquering. The Great Commission is about spreading the Gospel, not cultural or political dominance. Spread the gospel, don't spread your culture, don't spread your politics. Spread the gospel. But we so conflate our culture with the gospel. That's why you get like you have a Christianity that sounds very Texan or very Southern, versus a Gospel that sounds very Northern, or or it sounds very Boston, or it sounds very Pennsylvania.

45:31 That shouldn't be that way. Keep your culture out of the Gospel. We love to bring our culture to the Bible and say, well, the Bible justifage this. But that's what people did with slavery, that people did with racism, that people did with bigotry. They used the Bible to justify their own cultural prejudices or their own cultural ideas. Parents love to do this with the Bible. Oh, you can't listen to this music because it's worldly, it's ungodly. Well they go and then watch a television show. Go, well, that would be just as ungodly and just as worldly as the music you're condemning. You're using the Bible to condemn that which you do not like because you just don't like it. Stop using the Bible to justify your own prejudice and your own likes and dislikes. How about use the Bible to look at yourself instead of using it to shut someone else up, or silence someone else, or take something away from someone else. I know I'm going to take off a lot of parents, man, I guess so sick of that God won't like your music.

46:37 And you're like, did you what are you watching on television? For crying out loud? Look at yourself. I've got a million stories on the hypocrisy there. But see, the Bible is always this. It's it's a weapon, and we can use it to justify our culture. If you're pro gun, you use the Bible to justify being pro gun. If you're not pro gun, you use the Bible to Everyone can use the Bible to justify it if you If you are against illegal immigration, you use the Bible. If you're for it, you use the Bible. If you're for this, you use the Everyone uses the Bible for every cultural thing you can think of. I can't stand that we go to the Bible. You know what, we all see.

47:30 We're all guilty, We're all sinners. That should humble us and not necessarily make us want to pick up the Bible to use it simply to justify our own cultural identity. It's supposed to destroy our cultural identity and give us an identity in Christ. So the Bible perspective is, Hey, this kingdom is not of this world. We are to make disciples, not conquer. And the Great Commission is about spreading the Gospel, not cultural or political dominance. And I think another problem is manifest destiny led to wars, the displacement of Indigenous people, and the justification of systemic injustices.

48:14 I mean, there's no way to get around it. Manifest destiny led to war, displacement of Indigenous people, and the justification for systemic injustice. That is wrong. The Bible abhors violence and injustice. Right, Hey, we're to do justice. We're to love mercy. We're to walk humbly with our God. We're to love our enemy, We're to love our neighbor. Now, what are some of the implications of manifest destiny. Well, many advocates framed manifest destiny as a way to spread Christianity.

49:01 It often prioritized cultural imperialism over genuine evangelism. Hey, we're going to evangelize now, you're actually going to spread your cultural identity upon other people to make them into your image. When someone becomes a Christian, they are not made into your image or your cultural identity. They have become there to become more like Christ, not become more like Oh well, I got saved in a Southern Baptist church in West Texas, so you know what I have to be. I got to be a Republican. I gotta own three guns, I gotta go hunt. I gotta know when they become a Christian, they don't have to become like you in West Texas.

49:51 They become like Christ, not like you. But so many times when you become a Christian and a church, you're expected to to adapt their cultural leanings, their political leanings, their cultural leanings, their ideas about music, or their ideas about which books you can and can't read, what you can and can't do, where you can and can't go. Now that will use the Bible to justify every single thing that they they don't like this kind. They love Southern gospel, but that rap music is out of control. I can't stand that rap music. It's not even music, it's ungodly. But they'll justify the music they like. It's not so much about God, it's about their own culture.

50:34 That's great. You love Southern gospel, great, but don't act like it's somehow morally superior, because in so many cases you can demonstrate is it really that great. Sometimes Southern gospel has some of the worst theology in the history of humankind. Or if they like a country music, well now they're listening to secular country music, but they're condemning anyone else who listens to secular music. It's so ridiculous. I remember, because I always felt bad for teenagers raised in Christian homes. I always felt bad for them. I always did. I always like man, and sometimes they would voice their frustrations and their irritations and they're sick tired of this. And there was this one family who was just going off on the kids about you can't listen to this music, and you can't listen to this, and you can't listen to this, and you can't listen to this, and I think they were moving, So we went to help them one Saturday to move, and I of course saw the music. And I went and looked at the parents' music, and I'm like, huh, the kids can't go listen to this, But I guess the parents can listen to a lot of Garth Brooks and not convenient kids music are wrong, but Garth Brooks is good to go.

51:39 Come on now, it's just so ridiculous, so ridiculous. I've told the story about the pastor's son who got in my car. He was furious, he was mad. His dad found out that he had the Rocky three soundtrack and so his dad burned it. But guess what they could have in the house movie. You could own the movie, but you couldn't own the soundtrack. See that's preferences. That's that's that's where you use your preference and you and then the pastor would justify that the music is worldly. Well, it comes from the movie, so the movie, by implication, we'd have to be worldly. I'll never forget that. I because I was in the Bible Institute, I was forbidden, condemned, like I would have been kicked out of the Bible Institute if I listened to any contemporary Christian music. I was not allowed to listen to contemporary Christian music. Ladies and gentlemen. I could not listen to contemporary Christian music because it was worldly and it was ungodly. Well, we happened to be over the pastor's house and we noticed that they had the movie JFK. I think by what Oliver Stone was the director, and so we were like, me and a friend were like, wait, what gives So we can't listen to Petra just pulling an old Christian band out. We can't listen to Jars of Clay, we can't.

53:01 I can just name all kinds of Christian bands. We can't listen to DC Talk, but we can watch JFK. So we took the movie JFK and we wrote down every time they use the F word in the movie. I'm like, so I can watch a movie that uses the F word. I think it was like one hundred and twenty eight hundred and thirty I don't remember the exact number. I'm like, so listening to watching a movie that uses the F word one hundred and thirty eight times good? Listening to Petra. I'll get kicked out of the Bible Institute. Yeah, okay, yeah, See what are you doing. You're taking your preference. You're taking what you like based off your call. Hey you don't like that rock music, you don't like you hate it? Okay, well great, that's you.

53:42 But now you're using God to justify it while you do something of equal or even greater sin than what you're condemning. You see this all the time in Christianity. Now that's not a perfect example of manifest destiny, but what I want you to see is manifest destiny is all about spreading a culture and that that culture is superior to any other culture. And so what do you do. You mixture Christianity with your culture. And now Christianity supposedly supports your culture and your culture, and Christianity becomes merged that when you become a Christian you have to accept that culture. And this is what would happen to many indigenous people who would be quote unquote Christianized, and they would have to not just be a Christian now, they would have to dress and act like civilized folk. Yeah, that's the problem with all of this. So it prioritizes cultural imperialism over genuine evangelism. True evangelism is based on the message of Christ, not coercion or cultural superiority. Paul's ministry demonstrated respect for different cultures while focusing on the Gospel.

54:54 The legacy of Manifest Destiny includes historical injustices towards indigenous people and minorities. Christians are called to seek justice and reconciliation, acknowledging wrongs, and working towards healing. Now, what should we do well. I think we have to acknowledge when where manifest destiny distorted biblical truth and caused harm, We have to acknowledge it. We have to acknowledge some of this just basically creating a God and our image and then telling everyone that our culture and our cultural identity and our cultural preferences are superior to everyone else because God is on our side. So you've got to be like me.

55:39 We need to repent, We need to confess. We need to just say that manifest destiny has hurt a lot of people. Manifest Destiny highlights the danger of conflating national identity with divine mission. Christians should focus under heavenly citizenship and avoid placing ultimate hope and earthly and an earthly nation government the church's mission is to advocate God's kingdom characterized by love, justice, peace, rather than seeking earthly power. So, in summary, and I had Ai do this. From a biblical and philological standpoint, manifest destiny reflects a distortion of scriptural principles. It conflates divine providence with national ambition. It prioritizes political and territorial expansion over the spiritual mission of God's kingdom, and often leads to pride in justice and violence.

56:34 Christians are called to critique such ideologies, seek repentance for their consequences, and focus on advancing the true Kingdom of God. That is how Ai summarized it. Now, there was a lot there. I went fifty six minutes. This is not about Trump. This is about the concept of manifest destiny and how you hear it. Even if no one uses the term all over the place, you hear it in conservative talk radio. And I guarantee I said this going back to the nineties when I would notice that Christian men started sounding like rush Linball, and I'm like, where's Matthew, Mark Luke, and John Where where's the Bible? Stop talking like your rush Limball? Stop talking like you You all you do is watch Fox News, stop talking like you listen to Tucker Carlson or Alex Jones. How about sound like scripture for crying out loud. But this American exceptionalism, America, make America great again, America, America, America. This, uh, this all creeps in and so now it all merges together, and you get, even if you don't want to call it manifest destiny, even if you don't want to call it Christian nationalism, you get this nationalistic, politically hijacked form of Christianity. And that is dangerous. That is dangerous when

58:10 that starts happening. And then you use God to justify, like use God to justify going into a rock and people being killed, murdered for weapons of mass destruction they did not have. I mean, that's just one example. Going over to a country and saying we're gonna, we're gonna make you a we're gonna put a democracy here. Maybe they don't want it, well God wants. If you use God to justify it, that's where the manifest destiny, where the Church almost creates that. You know, to become a Christian, well you've got to be a Republican. You've got to be pro America. You No, you don't. You don't have to be any of those things. You just have to believe in Christ. You have to be a follower of Christ.

58:57 You have to. You have to hopefully move towards becoming a disciple of Christ, learning, following, studying, sinning, falling, confessing, struggling. It's not about a cultural identity. Your identity is in Christ. I always struggled with that myself, because I became a Christian in you know, middle of West Texas, and it was almost this idea that now you're a Christian. Who wha, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. I'm not. I don't want to do that. I don't know. I don't like that. No, none of that is me. And to be a Christian isn't about any of that stuff, or at least I didn't think it was. But y'all have taken a West Texas cultural kind of identity merged it with Christianity, and it's almost like, if you're a Christian, you're this. No, I'm not. I don't have to be any of that. Shocking. I know.

59:55 You don't even have to be pro American to be a Christian. You can be anti iman American and be a Christian. I know that shocking. You don't have to be a capitalist, you don't have to be you can have lots of different ideas. I know that shocking. But Christianity is not where you pledge allegiance to America. You pledge allegiance to Christ. Now, whether you like America, dislike America, whether you're a Republican, whatever, we do know one thing. As a Christian, you are to be obviously a good citizen, and we are to try to respect, honor, and obey the authority placed over us because we believe it was put there by God. Doesn't mean we believe that everything that government does is right or have to agree with everything.

1:00:45 There's a balance in all of this, all right, manifest Destiny. I hope that that was a lot there. I hope that was helpful. We went through history, through its philosophy, through its origin, we went through theology looking at it. I know I could have broken it down a little bit better, but it's when you have that much content, it's hard to keep it all nice and organized. But hopefully it was beneficial. So again, if you're done with this and you're like he h Trump, Trump used the term manifest destiny. I want to take the phrase manifest destiny and I want you to consider it from a theological and biblical perspective. I know a lot of you probably have been influenced by manifest destiny thinking probably probably a lot more than you even want to admit. A lot of your churches have been probably influenced with it more than you want to admit. And if you love it, that's great. I'm offered a counter perspective. As for me, no way know how am I going with that idea.

1:01:47 I reject it completely, outrightly completely, I reject it. If anyone wants to believe in any form of manifest destiny, better be Israel and nobody else. And that's why I'm strongly suggested separating Israel from everyone else and not conflating them. All right, thanks for listening everyone, of a great day, God bless