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Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend Jim Thorpe, it's Iron Sharpens Iron.
This is a radio platform in which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today. Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better. It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.
And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen.
Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 19th day of August 2024.
Before I introduce my guest and our topic for the day, I want to remind all men in ministry leadership that you are invited to the next free biannual Iron Sharpens Iron Radio pastors luncheon, which will be held Thursday, October 10th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania, which is in Perry County, Pennsylvania.
And we are featuring for the very first time ever our keynote speaker, Dr. Joe Boot, a world-renowned author, conference speaker, and the founder and president of the Ezra Institute. And not only is your admission free and your time to hear what will no doubt be a powerful and edifying message from Dr. Boot free, and your time of rest, relaxation, refreshment, fun, fellowship, and feasting all free, on top of all that, every man in attendance will receive a very heavy sack of free brand-new books personally selected by me and donated by generous publishers all over the United States and United Kingdom.
Everything is always free of charge at the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio free pastors luncheon. Nothing is ever for sale. There is never a hidden agenda or ulterior motive. So, if you would like to register for this free pastors luncheon, if you're a man in ministry leadership, and that would include elders, deacons, parachurch leaders, just send me an email to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com, and give me your name, the name of your church or parachurch ministry, and its location, and the number of men who will be joining you at the event.
So that's ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, and put pastors luncheon in the subject line. I hope to see you Thursday, October 10th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania.
Well, very few things make me feel older than interviewing someone whose parents I knew long before they were born and whose parents I knew before they were even married, and such is the case with my guest today.
Today we have a first-time guest who is a member of the church where I was formerly a member before moving to Pennsylvania, Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick, New York. His name is Stephen Totter, attorney at law.
He is a decorated veteran of the Iraq War, chairman of the deacon board at Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick, New York, chairman of the school board at Grace Christian Academy of Long Island, whose headmaster we've had on this program, Steve Schultz, and a reservist and lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard specializing in anti-terrorism in New York City.
Today we're going to be addressing the theme, One Christian in the Armed Services' Efforts to Keep America Safe from Terrorism, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the first time ever to Iron Sharpen Zion Radio, Stephen Totter.
Thank you so much, Chris. The honor and the privilege is all here.
Well, first of all, tell our listeners something about Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick, where your dad is one of the pastors.
Yeah, thank you, Chris. Appreciate that. Grace Reformed Baptist Church is just a body of like-minded believers. We're located in Merrick, New York. We're blessed to have a beautiful building and a wonderful place to meet, but the real blessing of Grace Reformed Baptist Church is, of course, its members.
We have just a wonderful, warm body of committed believers who are there, who make up the church. And, you know, we have three great pastors. I might be a little biased about my dad, but the other two are great as well, Pastor Bob Carson and Pastor Dan Mercado.
And, you know, it's just a very solid church where the word is preached every Sunday, where you can come and be ministered to. We have just a lively number of events, too, that the church participates in on a daily basis.
So it's just a great, warm, but very solid body of believers on Long Island.
And we cannot forget to mention the upcoming Courageous Marriage seminar or conference, which is coming up on Friday and Saturday, August 23rd and 24th, featuring your keynote speaker, bestselling author Dr. Joe Rigney.
What can you tell us about this conference coming up?
Yeah, I think every single one of your listeners who is in the geographical area to travel to this should definitely make an effort to attend. It's going to be just a wonderful, great conference. If you've seen the list of topics or you've listened to the episode of Iron Sharpens Iron, where Dr. Rigney detailed the things that he's going to be talking about, it's relevant especially to married believers or believers who are entering into marriage.
But really, anyone who wants to learn more about God and the Bible should make an effort to attend if they can. It's really going to be a time of blessing. The topics are going to be great. The price is set just so that we can encourage as many people as possible to attend.
And we've even put it out, and I'll put it out again on the show, that if anybody cannot afford to attend for any reason, just to get into contact with the church, we really want to make sure that as many people are blessed by this as possible.
So again, that's this Friday at 7 p .m., and also all day Saturday, too. And people can find out more about that by going to our website, and that is gracereformedbaptistchurch .org. And the first pop-up that comes up on that website will be for the conference to register.
Great, and we'll be repeating that website later on. And also, if anybody wants to listen to the two-hour interview I recently conducted—in fact, it was on August 2nd—I interviewed the keynote speaker at this Courageous Marriage Conference, Joe Rigney, for the first hour.
And I had Pastor Bob Carson, one of three pastors at Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick, New York, on for the second hour. And you can just type in Rigney, R-I-G-N-E-Y, into the search engine at irontreppanzionradio .com, and that link will come up where you can listen to that interview.
Well, it's hard to believe, when you get to be as old as I am, Stephen—I'm 62—time flies like a bullet. And I still can't really get over the fact that it seems like yesterday you were a goofy little kid wandering around at Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island, picking your nose and drooling on yourself.
And now you're a decorated veteran and helping keep America safe from terrorism. But we have a tradition on Iron Treppanzion Radio, whenever we have a first-time guest, we have that guest give a summary of their salvation testimony that would include the kind of religious atmosphere in which you were raised, which we've already explained, the kind of providential circumstances that our Sovereign Lord raised up in your life and drew you to Himself and saved you.
So we would love to hear a summary of your story.
Yeah, thanks for that, Chris. I appreciate that. I'm grateful to have been saved at an early age. I grew up, as you said, in a Christian household with two Christian parents that were dedicated to the Church and dedicated to the Lord.
And they attended Grace Reformed Baptist Church, which was Calvary Baptist probably at the time, most of the time that you were attending. And from an early age, I always believed in the existence of God and of hell and of heaven.
I can remember pretty distinctively crying out to the Lord several times as a pre-teenager. And through all my younger years, all the examples I remember of baptisms and testimonies that I would listen to often had some sort of a drastic before and after experience.
So as a pre-teen, I struggle with that a little bit because I remember believing in God and crying out to Him and not really feeling the same before and after experience I saw with many of the examples that were put before me.
And so I just struggled with discouragements in my early teenage years and confusion over the status of my own soul, feeling lack of assurance for my salvation and wondering if I was saved. And even if I was saved at the time, I certainly went through a period in my teenage years of not taking my sanctification seriously and doing things that typical teenagers do to fit in.
And I wish the simplicity of the gospel had been something that had stuck with me better. I'm sure many people did a great job, including my parents, of bringing that before me. And thankfully, I was preserved from a lot more serious sins, thanks to my parents.
But, you know, I certainly had opportunities because I started attending college much younger than most people did. And then at age 17, I joined the army. And during basic training, I cried out to the Lord once again.
And this time through reading the scriptures and praying, I was given a confidence in the Lord that He gave me an assurance that I was saved through confessing my sins and believing in Christ. And God still had a lot of sanctifying and growth for me in those early years.
And I was baptized not too long after I got back from basic training and I began serving in the church. And then not too many years after that, I was married, went through a combat deployment to Iraq, getting back, finishing law school, and then starting my career and having children.
But God has provided for me, though completely undeserving, many opportunities to serve in His church, first on the board of Grace Christian Academy and then as a deacon and now chairman of both those boards.
And it's just a testament to His grace from generation to generation in the way that He used His church. He used godly men around me who witnessed to me and who stuck with me and certainly my parents and my family.
And that's that's my story of how I came to the Lord.
Yeah.
And we want to thank your lovely wife, Melanie, for arranging this interview, for contacting me and and putting the bug in my ear to invite you on. And as soon as I found out what you are doing in the realm of terrorism prevention, I immediately knew that I wanted to have you on the show.
And I know that you have three daughters and a fourth on the way in November. Congratulations. I do.
I do.
Yeah. Fourth daughter on the way in November. Praise God.
Well, praise God for that. And I'm going to give our listeners our email address right away in the event that they want to ask a question of their own. Chris Arnzen at Gmail dot com. Chris Arnzen at Gmail dot com.
As always, give us your first name, at least your city and state of residence and your country of residence. If you live outside the USA and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.
Well, before I even go into our topic, I wanted to give you an opportunity to explain what you do in the realm of real estate, because it's a unique niche with curious consulting.
Yeah, absolutely. So I never really intended to go into real estate. But, you know, over time, you start to realize that there's patterns. One of the patterns is that our country continues to accumulate debt and continues to kind of put everything on a giant credit card of printing more money.
And so when you look at how to wisely take care of your money and look at how to, you know, best, you know, be responsible for the funds that God has given you, you realize that, you know, if you if you leave your money in cash and you leave your money in savings, which should be the normal responsible thing to do, then unfortunately, a lot of that is depreciating because of the way that the government is using the funds that they're responsible for.
So, you know, about five years ago, I started to look into real estate and started very small and after a while began to scale and eventually had people coming on board and asking to invest through my different operational efforts.
So I started originally in North Carolina and kind of built out from there into New York and now largely have consolidated in the northeast, oftentimes investing in places like New Hampshire, where there's kind of a limited market and, you know, a lot more opportunity for risk management and for safe scaling of the real estate investments, my own portfolio and the portfolio of others.
I did a syndication recently in New Hampshire and was pleased that God worked through mostly Christians, in fact, all Christians coming on board for that syndication. So I continue to do that. I also do some mentorship as well with believers exclusively to try to help Christians to understand real estate a little bit better and continue to take on some partners in my real estate efforts.
But it's something that God has blessed. It's something I certainly never thought that I would be involved in in any way. I still have my full time job and obviously my other responsibilities, but God's helped me to see the value in it and to just give me a place where I can provide value to other Christians.
Well, if anybody wants to find out more details about what Stephen Totter has to offer, go to Consulting by Kyrgios, K-Y-R-I-O-S dot com. Consulting by Kyrgios dot com. And God willing, we'll remember to repeat that later on in the program.
Well, we are discussing an element of your life that is a vitally important element, and that is the protection of our nation from terrorist attacks. And let me say at the outset that because of the fact that my guest today is an active member of the Army National Guard and Homeland Security, that there are issues that are too sensitive for him to explain in detail.
And there may be times when I'm asking him a question or that my audience members may ask a question where he's going to have to decline answering it. So I hope that you understand that at the outset of the program and don't be overly disappointed knowing of the reasons why.
But first of all, how long after you were involved overseas in Iraq in the Iraq War did you get led into this duty where you are involved in New York City seeking to keep this nation safe from terrorist attacks?
So like a lot of National Guardsmen, you're mostly in a reserve capacity. For me, you know, I work as an attorney unless the National Guard calls me up. I typically will only do one week in a month of military duty and then maybe two weeks during the summer.
But the unique thing about the National Guard is that it kind of has a dual role. It can be used for overseas operations like Afghanistan or Iraq to fill in the gaps of the active duty military force.
There's many National Guardsmen who have more deployments than even some of the active duty service members. But the Guard also has another role in which they respond to their state as well. So when a natural disaster happens or a flood or a fire or a hurricane, the National Guard is called up to respond.
And that's true of acts of terrorism as well. We have a longstanding mission to guard New York City, for example, that was started after 9 -11. And about three years ago, I was activated to that mission.
So like many National Guardsmen, your civilian job goes on hold. And then in my particular case, I lead as an intelligence officer for that mission, providing the threat picture for service members who protect New York City.
And many people are surprised by the fact that the military has anything to do with New York City. But that's just because of the unique role that the National Guard plays with, you know, having this dual responsibility of responding and filling in for the active duty force, but also for meeting the needs of the governor of that state.
So I started that about three years ago when I was called up, and I've been working on that ever since.
Yeah, well, if anybody has visited New York City, they would very easily discover, at least the last time I was in New York City, which was not that long ago, there were many soldiers in uniform, armed, patrolling Penn Station and so on.
I'm assuming that is still a normal thing in the daily life of New York City residents and also those who work there and commute through there to see that.
Yeah, very much so, Chris. That's been an enduring mission since September 11th. So it's something that most New Yorkers have now gotten pretty used to seeing and find as a source of comfort that there's armed service members in New York City and other areas throughout the state where there's critical infrastructure.
Well, we're going to go through our first commercial break. If anybody does have a question, once again, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least. City and state and country of residence.
Don't go away. We're going to be right back with Stephen Todd.
I'm Pastor Keith Allen of Linbrook Baptist Church, a Christ-centered, gospel-driven church looking to spread the gospel in the southwest portion of Long Island, New York, and play our role in fulfilling the Great Commission, supporting and sending for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth.
We're delighted to be a part of Chris Arnzen's Iron Sharpens Iron radio advertising family. At Linbrook Baptist Church, we believe the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of God, inherent in the original writings, complete as the revelation of God's will for salvation and the supreme and final authority in all matters to which they speak.
We believe in salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This salvation is based upon the sovereign grace of God, was purchased by Christ on the cross, and is received through faith alone, apart from any human merit, works, or ritual.
Salvation in Christ also results in righteous living, good works, and appropriate respect and concern to all who bear God's image. If you live near Linbrook, Long Island, or if you're just passing through on the Lord's Day, we'd love to have you come and join us in worship.
For details, visit linbrookbaptist .org. That's L-Y-N-BrookBaptist .org. This is Pastor Keith Allen of Linbrook Baptist Church reminding you that by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not a result of words, so that no one may boast of the Lord's blessing and the knowledge of himself.
I'm Pastor Bill Shishko of The Haven, an Orthodox Presbyterian church in Comac, Long Island. I hold the Iron Sharpens Iron radio program hosted by my longtime friend and brother, Chris Arnzen, in the highest esteem, and I'm thrilled that you're listening today.
I'm also delighted that Iron Sharpens Iron is partnering with one of my favorite resources for Reformed Christian literature for decades now, Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service. Well, with the economic nightmare that we're all currently enduring, cvbbs .com, I want to enable you to build a wonderful personal library of the best literature that the Reformers, the Puritans, and the great Christian minds of today have to offer, and at affordable prices.
Not only does cvbbs .com offer up to 50 off retail prices, but you'll get an added 5 off orders of $50 or more by using promo code IRON, I-R-O-N, an added 5 off all of your orders of $50 or more from Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service.
That's cvbbs .com, making the joy of reading the finest in Christian literature more affordable. Oh, and make sure that you tell them you heard about them on Iron Sharpens Iron radio.
Armored Republic exists to equip free men with tools of liberty to defend God-given rights against the twin threats of tyranny and chaos. If you own a rifle to resist tyrants and criminals, then you should own body armor and a med kit for the same reasons.
A rifle stops evil, a body armor and a med kit keep you in the fight and preserve your life. Armored Republic is a body of free craftsmen united to create tools of liberty. We are honored to be your armorsmith of choice.
Civilian ownership of body armor is about increasing decentralized power, and by comparison, reducing the advantages of centralized power. The danger of centralized power is often represented by the word king.
As Americans, we hate the word king applied to any mere man. We are Armored Republic, and in a republic, there is no king but Christ. Arm yourself with tools of liberty at ArmoredRepublic .com. Greetings, this is Brian McLaughlin, president of the SecureComm Group and supporter of Chris Arnzen's Iron Shopping Zion radio program.
SecureComm provides the highest level of security systems for residential buildings, municipalities, churches, commercial properties, and much more. We can be reached at SecureCommGroup .com. That's SecureCommGroup .com.
But today, I want to introduce you to my senior pastor, Doug McMasters of New High Park Baptist Church on Long Island.
Doug McMasters here, former director of pastoral correspondence at Grace to You, the radio ministry of John MacArthur. In the film Chariots of Fire, the Olympic gold medalist runner Eric Liddell remarked that he felt God's pleasure when he ran.
He knew his efforts sprang from the gifts and calling of God. I sense that same God-given pleasure when ministering the word and helping others gain a deeper knowledge and love for God. That love starts with the wonderful news that the Lord Jesus Christ is a savior who died for sinners, and that God forgives all who come to him in repentance, trusting solely in Christ to deliver them.
I would be delighted to have the honor and privilege of ministering to you if you live In the Long Island area, or Queens, or Brooklyn, or the Bronx, in New York City. For details on New High Park Baptist Church, visit nhpbc .com.
That's nhpbc .com. You can also call us at 516 -352 -9672. That's 516 -352 -9672. That's New High Park Baptist Church. A congregation in love with each other, passionate for Christ, committed to learning and being shaped by God's word, and delighting in the gospel of God's sovereign grace.
Here at Iron Sharpen's Iron Radio, praise God for the generous monthly financial support of Royal Diadem Jewelers, educated by and affiliated with the American Gem Society, Jewelers of America, and the Gemological Institute of America.
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So go to royaldiadem .com today and mention Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. And we are now back with my guest today, Stephen Totter, who is a decorated veteran from the war of Iraq or the Iraq War, and he is a reservist and lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard specializing in anti-terrorism, and we are discussing one Christian in the armed services efforts to keep America safe from terrorism.
Our e-mail address with questions is chrisarnson at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence. And we do already have a listener in Oceanside, Long Island, New York, Vicky.
Vicky wants to know, since 9 -11, has the threats of terrorism reduced in our nation, especially in New York City, or have they increased and we just don't know about it?
That's a great question, Vicky. I will say before I begin to discuss anything that I just give the usual disclaimer that my views are my own and not that of my employer, whether that be state or federal.
I just have to give that little disclaimer before I begin discussing anything publicly. I would say on the one hand, our efforts at preventing acts of terrorism have greatly improved. So the risk to the average New Yorker or even just citizen of the country has probably reduced greatly over the years, just thanks to those efforts.
But certainly the threat is still there. And since the years since 9 -11, New York City has been the most featured city in terrorist propaganda, encouraging people to conduct attacks on it. And considering that it was already not only a victim of large-scale terror attacks, but was certainly something that was identified by almost every terrorist worldwide as a potential target, the threat still remains.
So in terms of the number of people who have New York City within the crosshairs, it has probably increased throughout the years. But fortunately, the efforts to protect New York and to protect the United States as a whole have gotten better over the years and have improved.
Well, thank you, Vicky. And one question I'd like to ask you is I'm assuming that the vast majority, if not all, of the terrorist attacks that you're aware of behind the scenes that may be squelched and brought to an abrupt halt, or not so abrupt halt, but a halt nonetheless, that we may never know about.
I'm assuming that these are primarily the attempts of Islamic extremists, and the reason why I say that is that there have been voices on the left who have made what I would say are insane claims that the most existential threat to the safety of the United States next to global warming are the threats of terrorism by white supremacists.
Now, maybe your answer will surprise me, but if you could answer that to the best of your ability.
Yeah, so like a lot of things, it depends on how you categorize the data. If you're looking at the number of victims, or you're looking at the number of overall attacks, or how you add definitions into this greatly matters.
I would say the threat of Islamic terrorism is certainly still there and very active. It's certainly one of the main things that we are on the lookout for. But a lot of the terrorist attacks, potential terrorist attacks, threats that are out there are also the work of people who are mentally unstable.
And the reason that they give for why they are going to conduct an attack or the particular ideological issue that they latch onto are almost secondary. So certainly, when you talk about acts of terrorism, somebody who has mental issues, such that they're unstable, and the people who conduct terrorist attacks, that Venn diagram has a lot of crossover.
So it's hard sometimes to pin down, is this somebody who's mentally unwell, who just latched onto this ideology? Or is this somebody with an ideology who's intent on conducting an act of terrorism? So I would say Islamic terrorism is still an enormous issue.
And we tend to see that a lot more as a kind of guiding philosophy behind why somebody wants to conduct an attack. So certainly for my foxhole, that still continues to be the major issue that we're dealing with.
But there's just a wide variety of reasons that people give. And sometimes even finding out the motive for these things is very challenging. So if an attack happens and then they find Facebook postings or social media attribution from that particular person, again, it's very difficult to nail down exactly what the motives were in many of these cases.
So you can kind of have fun if you're somebody who's ideologically guided by saying that a majority of the attacks happened for this reason or that reason and kind of play with the data. I can really only say what I'm seeing from my end of things.
Islamic terrorism continues to be a major issue. And at the same time, a lot of these attacks are guided by people who are just severely mentally unwell and who are triggered by something that they see in the news.
Certainly we talk about terrorism and acts of terrorism a lot. On the news as a country. So a lot of people are triggered by that and unfortunately wake up and decide to commit an act of violence.
Now, can you explain, I know that some of these things are secret, can you explain how plots of terrorism are brought to your attention? I know that there may be many, many different ways, but could you perhaps describe some of these ways?
And what is specifically done to bring an end to these threats?
Yeah, that's a great question, Chris. And I think that's an area where there's a lot of just confusion or mystique about it in the general public. Here at Stateside, a lot of the efforts to prevent terrorism are done through normal criminal investigations.
And that's done by the usual means that you would discover a conspiracy to conduct a bank robbery, let's say. So there's a lot of ground level intelligence that's conducted by civilian tips that are given, people making reports to different agencies to try to bring to light something suspicious that they saw.
The see something, say something efforts that the city has gone through and certainly our country has gone through have yielded a lot of results. There's also, of course, social media. But a lot of these things end up in civilian criminal investigations.
And fortunately, you can head off a lot of these things before they get more serious. Sometimes somebody who is plotting an act of terrorism, they vocalize that in some way. What really scares us is the amount of people who are out there who you just don't know about because they don't post online and they don't have any formal communication with an outside terrorist organization.
And they maybe just have seen something on the internet or read something and that has become the catalyst for them to turn violent. So many times it's fortunately civilians speaking up and saying something to even just their local police department and saying, hey, this didn't look right.
Or I saw something online and it looks like somebody's using some threatening rhetoric online. And so that continues to be one of the main ways in which we thwart these events. Fortunately, there's also oftentimes indicators that you see beforehand of people conducting surveillance ahead of a terrorist attack.
So that can be another way that it's prevented. But all the usual ways that we would stop a crime in general can also be applied to acts of terrorism as well. And the vigilance of New Yorkers has helped out the efforts of anti-terrorism many a time and resulted in an investigation and ultimately a prosecution.
And that has made the city a lot safer.
You know, I should have asked you this in the very beginning, but it may seem like a no-brainer, but it may not be when you get involved in the technicalities of semantics. What legitimately can be categorized as a threat of terrorism and perhaps even define terrorism?
Yeah, so terrorism would be an act of violence that is perpetrated usually for ideological or political ends. Now, whether that title is applied to a prosecution can vary based on the prosecutor and their discretion of what they decide to bring, what kind of charges they use when they bring a prosecution towards somebody.
Sometimes it's very clear-cut. Somebody has had communication with an outside terrorist organization. They're giving materials of support to terrorism. Perhaps they've even, you know, pledged their allegiance to an organization like ISIS.
And in those cases, it would be pretty clear-cut. Other times, as I expressed before, it can be a little bit challenging to find out what somebody's motivation is. You know, is this somebody who, you know, woke up one day with severe mental illness and decided to conduct some sort of a knifing or a stabbing attack or use their vehicle to run down some civilians?
And, you know, it can be challenging when there's no paper trail as to whether, you know, they had terrorist motivations or not. So really, it depends ultimately on what charges are brought and what motivations can be found out about the attackers.
Some cases are very clear-cut, and other ones are just a little bit more puzzling, and you have to do a little bit more work to find out if there indeed was an ideological terroristic intent.
Okay, and we have another listener. Guillermo in Corona, Queens, New York. Guillermo wants to know, earlier Chris Arnzen mentioned what he described as the ridiculous notion of white supremacist terrorist threats.
Have you ever heard of any of these kind of threats being realistic?
Oh, yes, certainly. I would say so. Especially in New York State, which is just a vast state in terms of, you know, people's ideological views and...
Especially in New York?
No, no, I wouldn't say especially in New York. No, New York isn't especially prone to that compared to other areas, but it has most certainly happened within New York State, and it's something that we have to continue to keep an eye on.
So it's not a non-existent issue. I wouldn't say it's the primary reason behind somebody's terroristic intent. But we do see it, especially in the areas of northern New York State where you have some militia groups or some racially motivated extremists.
And people need to remember, too, New York City is just unimaginably complex in terms of the different groups that are operating in it. You just have such a large population that you have people motivated by all sorts of reasons.
So I wouldn't say it's one of the main ones that we see on a daily basis, but it's certainly one that's at play. And, you know, even within recent memory, there's been people motivated by racial extremism.
Again, you can decide to emphasize that more or less than other things that might be more relevant, but it is something that's certainly at play. I will say that.
That's interesting. Why is it, in your opinion, that at least I have never heard of a single specific white supremacist threat of terrorism in recent history? The last thing I can even remember that would resemble something similar to that was what was going on in response to the Waco tragedy where the military got involved with the suppression of the Branch Davidian cult and through tanks and so forth a fire occurred and there were many people who died as a result.
And there was a response to that by, you know, independent militia kind of folk. But I haven't heard of anything, you know, more or anything at all, to be perfectly honest, since then. So why is it that we don't hear about those kind of things, especially when you have people who are politically motivated to highlight and exaggerate those things?
Yeah, I think part of it goes to a lot of people who are motivated by, you know, racial hatred. They're not very sophisticated in terms of their plots or in terms of their communication. And that's a good thing, fortunately, for law enforcement.
But many times these things are able to be discovered and headed off way before they become a lethal event where the attack actually is conducted. So that's a good thing, fortunately, that, you know, we don't hear too many of those cases and they're solved, essentially, by an arrest and by taking someone to court.
You know, a lot of the statistics on these and a lot of the arrests that are made are, you know, public knowledge. You can go to, you know, even the FBI's website to go look at their press releases on the types of events that have been happening.
You know, you do see some plots to attack, for example, you know, parts of the power grid or the utilities by racially motivated extremists who are seeking to, you know, bring to fruition some sort of a race war in their mind.
But fortunately, a lot of these actors just are themselves mentally unwell and are not sophisticated. So they'll talk about these things and will give indicators that they're going to conduct an attack.
And fortunately, they're able to be headed off. You know, I often am puzzled myself at the rhyme or reason behind why some things get publicized and some things don't get as much attention. You know, so I can't give a clear reason for why they're not publicized as much.
But I can only speak to, you know, what I see in terms of the investigations, in terms of the tips and the things that come across our desk, that, you know, it is a factor. I wouldn't say it's a major threat group that, you know, we come into contact with on a daily basis, but it certainly is something that's existed.
Yeah, the thing that was in my 62-year-old brain that was having a momentary lapse was remembering it was Timothy McVeigh that I was trying to specifically remember who blew up or caused the explosion at the federal building in downtown Oklahoma City where even children were killed.
Well, we have Kerry, who is located in West District County, New York. And Kerry wants to know, is there something that the average citizen can do to better prepare their homes, their businesses, their schools, and their churches from the attacks of terrorists?
That's a great question. I think your reaction and your preparations always should be proportional to the risk. And largely speaking, most homes are not at risk of an attack from terrorism. I think churches should have, and certainly our church has had discussions about, at the leadership level, how to best protect your church, how to remain vigilant, even, you know, some ways of hardening the church buildings in certain ways and having certain members of the congregation that are prepared to respond should something happen.
I think, you know, on a personal level, the average citizen really does not have an enormous risk of being subject to a terrorist attack. So, you know, if you talk about preparation and things that you should be doing to prepare ahead of time, they're similar to things that you should do in response to the threat that you face from even things like weather events, like hurricanes and floods and things of that nature.
So having a certain amount of days worth of food supply in your house, having access to cash, having a plan in terms of your utilities, if they should go down for an extended period of time, just even things like being physically fit.
We don't think of that in terms of preparation for a terrorist attack. But, you know, the things that you really should be doing anyway, because they will help you against all other types of risk in your life, you should be doing in response to things that you see on the news for acts of terrorism.
So I would say, you know, that you don't want to get too carried away because the risk at a personal level for most people is relatively low. A risk to your home is almost non-existent in terms of terrorism.
But the things that you can do to help harden the places that you care about and also your own person are things that you should be doing anyway in response to even just, you know, acts of criminality and, you know, things for your own personal health as well.
So I mentioned a couple of things right there that you can do that are easy to take care of. You know, having food supply in your house and being prepared for even just natural disasters. But certainly one of the most important things that you can do is being a member of your local church and being an active part of making the culture of your local church.
There's strength in numbers. There's strength in being able to respond to things. You know, I think that there's more done in the prevention of terrorism at the average prayer meeting than there is at many of the planning sessions that we have at higher governmental levels.
So, you know, being an active part of your local church and contributing to that and making a culture where people are looking out for each other and people are holding each other accountable and seeking to serve God is probably one of the most underrated ways that you could prepare yourself against all sorts of threats.
I'm assuming that an individual's home would be possibly a target for terrorism if they were a well-known person that had controversial political views or something. Or even, you know, a person who is very well-known in the media.
Unlike me, who has three listeners. But I'm assuming that that would definitely contribute to a person's home. And we've even heard about how leftists harassed Tucker Carlson, for instance, at his own home and things like that that have happened.
Yeah, sure. We look and evaluate things and try to do it as objectively as possible even when we're looking at, you know, large-scale infrastructure and whether that would possibly be a target of terrorism.
So it's important to look at how a terrorist would look at that as a potential target. You want to look at it objectively. And yes, certainly something that has come up in the media a lot or a person, if they're a personality that has come up in the media a lot, that certainly raises your risk profile.
So if you are somebody who has been the recipient of a lot of media attention or maybe unexpectedly even, that might be something that you might want to take into consideration and maybe escalate your preparations accordingly.
You know, if you've taken perhaps a large, you know, well-publicized stance on, you know, on Islam or, you know, a particular political issue, yeah, certainly in that case, your home would be more of a threat to terrorism than somebody else.
But for the average citizen, I think I would focus on the things that I spoke about before.
And by the way, folks, I want to recommend you listen to a two-part interview I conducted on two separate days with Ron Aguiar, A-G-U-I-A-R, on his book, Keeping Your Church Safe. He, Ron, is an expert on church safety and security who has more than 30 years of experience in private security, law enforcement, and church security.
And I thought the interviews were utterly fascinating and very important for your church to be even more prepared to prevent terrorist attacks and even just attacks by lunatics and so on, predators, and on we could go.
But type in the search engine of irontrapandzioneradio .com Ron Aguiar, A-G-U-I-A-R, and you will see both links for the two different interviews come up on Keeping Your Church Safe. We have to go to our midway break right now.
Please use this time wisely. Please contact as many of our advertisers as you can, keeping in mind that the funding that comes in through our advertisers is what keeps Iron Sharpens Iron Radio on the air.
And also, send in your questions to Stephen Totter on protecting our nation from terrorism. Our email address is chrisarnson at gmail dot com. Chrisarnson at gmail dot com. Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.
We'll be right back. It's such a blessing to hear from Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listeners.
From all over the world.
Here's Joe Riley, a listener in Ireland who wants you to know about a guest on the show he really loves hearing interviewed, Dr. Joe Moorcraft.
I'm Joe Riley, a faithful Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listener here in Atai, in County Kildare, Ireland. Going back to 2005. One of my very favorite guests on Iron Sharpens Iron is Dr. Joe Moorcraft. If you've been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Dr. Moorcraft and Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia are largely to thank since they are one of the program's largest financial supporters.
Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming is in Forsyth County, a part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Heritage is a thoroughly biblical church unwaveringly committed to Westminster standards. And Dr. Joe Moorcraft is the author of an eight-volume commentary on the larger catechism.
Heritage is a member of the Hanover Presbytery built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, and tracing its roots and heritage back to the great Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
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For more details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com. That's HeritagePresbyterianChurch .com or call 678 -954 -7831. That's 678 -954 -7831. If you visit, have them Joe Roydigan, Iron Sharpens Iron Radio listener from Ottawa in County Kildare, Ireland, send you.
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I'm Dr. Joseph Piper, President Emeritus and Professor of Systematic and Applied Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Every Christian who's serious about the Deformed Faith and the Westminster Standards should have and use the eight-volume commentary on the theology and ethics of the Westminster Larger Catechism titled Authentic Christianity by Dr. Joseph Morecraft.
It is much more than an exposition of the Larger Catechism. It is a thoroughly researched work that utilizes biblical exegesis as well as historical and systematic theology. Dr. Morecraft is Pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, and I urge everyone looking for a biblically faithful church in that area to visit that fine congregation.
For details on the eight-volume commentary, go to westminstercommentary .com westminstercommentary .com. For details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit heritagepresbyterianchurch .com heritagepresbyterianchurch .com.
Please tell Dr. Morecraft and the saints at Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia that Dr. Joseph Piper of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary sends you.
Hello, my name is Anthony Uvino, and I'm one of the pastors at Hope Reform Baptist Church.
In Corum, New York,.
And also the host of the reformrookie .com website. I want you to know that if you enjoy listening to the Iron Sharpens Iron radio show like I do, you can now find it on the Apple's iTunes app by typing Iron Sharpens Iron radio in the search bar.
You no longer have to worry about missing a show or a special guest because you're in your car or still at work. Just subscribe on the iTunes app and listen to the Iron Sharpens Iron radio show at any time, day or night.
Please be sure to also give it a good review and pass it along to anyone who would benefit from the teaching and the many solidly reformed guests that Chris Arnzen has on the show. Truth is so hard to come by these days, so don't waste your time with fluff or fake news.
Subscribe to the Iron Sharpens Iron radio podcast right now. And while you're at it, you can also sign up for the reformrookie .com podcast and visit our website and the YouTube page. We are dedicated to teaching Christian theology from a Reformed Baptist perspective to beginners in the faith as well as seasoned believers.
From Keech's Catechism and the Doctrines of Grace to the Olivet Discourse and the Book of Leviticus, the Reform Rookie podcast and YouTube channel is sure to have something to offer everyone seeking Biblical truth.
And finally, if you're looking to worship in a Reformed church that holds to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, please join us at Hope Reformed Baptist Church in Corham, New York. Again, I'm Pastor Anthony Avino, and thanks for listening.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own.
You need to read. Solid Ground Christian Books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the Prince of Preachers to heart. The mission of Solid Ground Christian Books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to Christians in the present and future and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world.
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And one book of the many, many books on the wide spectrum of topics and authors that I highly recommend that you purchase from solid-ground-books .com is a book by my very dear friend, Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries, What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Quran.
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So please visit solid-ground-books .com frequently, purchase generously. Always mention that you heard about them from Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Before I return to my guest today, Stephen Totter, as we continue our conversation on keeping America safe from terrorist attacks, I have some important reminders for you.
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Go to ironsharpensironradio .com, click support, then click, click to donate now. Last but not least, if you are not a member of a Christ-honoring, biblically faithful, doctrinally sound, theologically solid church, no matter where in the world you live, I have extensive lists spanning the globe of biblically faithful churches like Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island and Merrick, New York, and I've helped many people in our audience in all parts of the world find churches that are biblically faithful.
Sometimes they're even just a couple of minutes from where these folks live, and that could be you too if you are spiritually homeless, you do not have a biblically faithful church home, no matter where you live in the world, if that's the case, send me an email to chrisorrenson at gmail .com and put I need a church in the subject line.
That's also the email address where you can send questions to Stephen Totter on keeping America safe from terrorist attacks. That's chrisorrenson at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence.
Let's see here, we do have Stanford in Mahopac Falls, New York, who says do you see a correlation between the millions of people who have illegally crossed our borders to the rise in the threats.
Of terrorism? Yeah, that's certainly one of the major challenges looking forward is that you see there's a lot of destabilizing events across the globe, a lot of people motivated by different factors for why they're leaving their country, and sometimes they're relatively benign for economic reasons.
Other times it's because they ended up on a watch list in that particular country. So yeah, that definitely adds to the challenge. You know, and certainly New York City is no stranger to that. When you think about just what a complex population environment is in New York City, different people with different motivations, different groups from all across the world, it definitely adds to the challenge of preventing acts of terrorism.
And yeah, that's definitely a factor in all this. It can't be denied.
Well, thank you, Stanford. And by the way, I want to let all our listeners know, if you are a first-time questioner, please let us know because we always ship out to our first-time questioners a free New American Standard Bible, compliments of our friends at nasbible .com, who sponsor this program.
And can you get revealed to our listeners more about the nuts and bolts and the specific daily activities that you are personally involved in this task to keep America safe from terrorism?
Sure. So you know, as the intelligence officer for the task force that oversees the efforts of the National Guard to guard areas like New York City and other critical infrastructure throughout New York State, I have several responsibilities.
One is to make sure that those service members know the threats that they're facing. So that involves liaising with other organizations within the state and certainly within the city to make sure that we're getting our service members just the absolute most current and best information possible to make sure that they're safe, but also to make sure that they're well positioned so that where we end up operating correlates to where we see the most risk.
So that's one element of what I do. Another, as the anti-terrorism officer for that same task force, is to look at our individual positions and to make sure that the places where we station these service members is given just a really good review to make sure that those are best protected as much as you possibly can, that we're keeping all the principles of anti-terrorism in mind when we put a service member potentially in harm's way.
And then also, I look at the sites where we operate out of and the places where we store military equipment, and as a physical security officer, make sure that those places are inspected and that they're staying safe and up to the highest levels of protection for those locations as well.
So there's also an element of this where I'm making sure to inform our various staff functions, our commander, and people who are on the staff of that organization to make sure as they do their jobs, whether that be making sure that we have enough personnel or that we have adequate supply or that we're planning our operations, that we're doing all those things in accordance with the information that we have at hand.
So that's about as much detail as I can give because some of the areas of that job obviously just get a little bit more secure and are not things that I can talk about in public, but in broad strokes, that's what I'm doing on a daily basis is making sure that we get the best information through our local partner organizations and we bring that back to the service members and to the decision makers.
And that can be organizations at the federal level, at the state level, but even just the local level at the NYPD and Port Authority PD who oftentimes have some of the best information that you could possibly have about the security situation where we end up ultimately stationing soldiers and airmen.
Okay, we have Treat in Searcy, Arkansas and Treat says forgive me if you've already said this I'm listening late but was there anything specifically about your history and gifts and talents and training where you were selected specifically to be a part of this anti-terrorism activity?
Yeah, that's a great question. So in the military you have what's called branches especially the Army. So officers in the military will tend to specialize in a particular branch. There's sometimes officers who will switch branches mid-career but generally speaking, officers specialize in a particular branch.
I was enlisted in the infantry when I first joined at the height of the Iraq War in 2006, but then when I commissioned to become an officer in 2009, I selected military intelligence as my branch. So from that point, I also participated at the battalion, the brigade and even at the division level in anti-terrorism activities and so that was the reason likely had a lot to do with why I was selected to be at the current position where I am today and I've always loved intelligence.
I've had as somebody who has a law degree and practices law, I've had the option of switching over to become a JAG officer, but I've never done it because I really do enjoy the act of providing intelligence support to service members and so I've kept up that throughout my career and that particular set of experiences has really been something that when other people look at that and they look at the things I've been involved in over now an 18-year career, they can see where that relates to the current mission that I was activated for about three years ago.
Okay. We have Lily in Lubbock, Texas and Lily in Lubbock, Texas asks, have you read Pete Hegseth's book, The War on Warriors, that Chris Arnzen focused on in an interview with Pete Hegseth. And what is the answer to the same question that Chris asked Pete Hegseth, would you recommend your own children to enter into the military in light of so much leftist infiltration into the armed services?
Yeah, that's a great question. I do know and am familiar with Pete Hegseth, he was the keynote speaker a few years ago.
For Grace Christian Academy. That's right, I was the emcee that night.
That's right, Chris was there for that and our last one as the emcee so yeah, I'm familiar with Pete Hegseth's work. I haven't read that particular book but obviously that's something that you see on the ground just from an everyday perspective.
In my particular case, I have four daughters so that's not something that I would recommend but apart from that, if a brother came to me who was part of my church and who was seeking counsel of the military and whether to join it themselves I would have a lot of questions for them.
I would want to know what area of the military they wanted to go into. The military is an enormously vast organization. It would be up there with the top probably five employers in the country if you include contractors as well.
There's an enormous variety in terms of missions, in terms of deployability, in terms of particular situations so I would certainly ask a lot of questions and it wouldn't I'll say this, it wouldn't be a cut and dry yes, definitely join the same way you would have maybe 60 or 70 years ago if you were talking to a young man who was looking for a career and to mature, you'd have to use a lot of wisdom as somebody who's giving that counsel and so I would certainly not recommend it to anybody without taking counsel from somebody who is in that branch that they intend to go into.
Fortunately, within a state, you can certainly reach out to other Christians who are involved in the military and likely within that very branch that the young person is seeking to apply into so it wouldn't be an easy answer.
You would have to know that person very well in order to give that counsel. I would want to know also their maturity level as a Christian too if they were a believer. That would have a lot to do with my decision as to whether to give counsel for them to join or not.
I think it is a different environment than it was even 20 years ago when I joined and so those are the things on the deacon side that I would want to think about as I'm deciding whether to give somebody counsel to join or not join the military.
Great. Let's see here. We have Terrence in Freeport, Long Island, New York. Terrence wants to know, have you been updated on the reasons for the assassination attempt by that young man who was killed by the Secret Service that we may not know about?
Yeah, that's an ongoing investigation that I can't talk to unfortunately and I know that's disappointing for your listeners. We do receive updates on events in the news like that. I would say that that's not a particular area of emphasis for my job and my current position where that's something that I interact with on a daily basis but being that that's an ongoing investigation, unfortunately that's something that I can't talk to on the show.
And so you can't even say whether or not it was that all the facts so far point to just the decision of one young man's disturbed mind. You can't say it goes beyond any of that even if you knew.
Yeah, no, I wouldn't be able to speak to that if I did know but it just happens to be the case also that that's not an area of emphasis that I work with so on both ends unfortunately I can't give too much insight into that.
Now, are you exclusively involved in anti-terrorism activities in New York City and nowhere else?
No, we also protect critical infrastructure in other areas of the state. We have pre-positioned forces in Westchester County and even up in Albany. We've responded as a task force to disasters and other events throughout New York State in virtually every single county that's in our very large and complex state.
So yeah, we've been involved in many places in New York State other than New York City but New York City is obviously one of the main priorities because it's just such a complex operating environment.
It probably can't be overstated what a challenge New York City is from a protection standpoint. You just think of the population first and foremost, the number of tourists, the number of visitors, the number of people who live there, the number of people who commute into New York City, the number of buildings and docks and events and mass gatherings that take place.
It just is an unimaginably challenging operating environment from a security perspective. And then you add into the fact as we said before it's been the victim of several large scale terrorist attacks and has also been very prominently featured in terrorist propaganda in a way that no other city has and continues to be even up to this day.
So when you take all that into consideration it definitely is the main focal point from anti-terrorism activities but you know we've been activated, even our task force to respond to natural disasters, fires, floods and other things that have happened across the state.
And let's see here. Oh one thing I was going to say is I probably should have said New York State rather than New York City. So assuming from what you said as your answer that it is restricted, your activities are restricted to New York.
State. That is the case. Yeah so you know there are times when the New York Army National Guard is called to participate with other states and called outside of our state from time to time. Like I mentioned before also we can be asked to deploy in support of contingency operations overseas like you know it has happened in the last 20 years in Afghanistan and Iraq.
So I've participated in those things and been called to train in other states but generally speaking on a day to day basis for this mission my work largely is in regards to New York City and at times outside of that to New York State.
Okay we have Boyle in Aquabog, Long Island, New York and Boyle asks are there any things that you can point to that are the primary culprits where politicians in our country have failed that brought about an increase in terrorist plots and what you suggest be done to prevent these things and even cause them to decrease to the point of near elimination in our future other than the aforementioned illegal immigration that we have already mentioned.
Yeah I would say again this is just my own personal opinion and not the opinion of my employers at all but I would say by far the largest contributor to the terrorist threats that we receive as a country has been the overseas interventions that have taken place in the last 20 years and even before that.
You know I think our priority as a country should be the benefit of its citizens and our own country putting America first. Sorry. Go ahead Chris.
I just said hallelujah.
So you know when you look at how those interventions overseas have ended up contributing to acts of terrorism even here at home you know it's I think a solid conclusion to say that you know they have been counterproductive so to say the least.
And so you know yeah I think anybody who's looking at events in the Middle East and is really itching to get into another conflict over there you know you'd probably want to get their head checked because the objective evidence of that has been that it has contributed to just an unsafe environment for Americans abroad and at home.
And destabilizing these various countries with the end goal of making those countries safe for democracy has just to say the least not proven out to be a sound.
Strategy. Yeah in fact these efforts these failed efforts whether they have been launched by Democrat or Republican leaders and presidents they very often and you can correct me if I'm wrong especially when you're talking about Islamic countries when we have intervened in foreign conflicts that are primarily involving secular Islamic states that are not under Sharia law or theocracies but nonetheless governed by nominal Muslims or at least more nominal Muslims albeit dictators and albeit ruthless dictators very often when these people are toppled who do move into power are the strident very zealous and passionate Islamic extremists.
Am I right on that?
Yeah that's absolutely the case and you know again we have to look out for the benefit of our own country and not put another country or another state ahead of our own in terms of security because when you look at the case studies of time after time after time after time of our interventions and overthrowing these various dictators the outcome inevitably is that those countries destabilize and become a less secure situation for us in the United States.
So that's my own take on the situation. I think you know if you rationally objectively look at what has happened in Libya and Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan and just you know look at it with a clear lens I think you'd arrive at that conclusion as well.
Well let me ask you something related to that and I know that you are only speaking for yourself. The thing that we hear from fellow conservatives who very often are neocons and I know that there are some I'm imagining they all hate to be called that or categorized that way.
I don't think anybody openly identifies themselves voluntarily as a neocon but those that are more accurately described as war hawks and things like that very often the excuse is that if you want to keep America safe you can't wait until they are moments away from attacking our shores before you stop them.
You've got to stop them earlier on before they begin to conquer neighboring countries and grow in their power and ability to pose a direct threat onto the United States. How do you respond to that kind of logic?
Yeah I think there's certainly a case to be made for preemptive action. I think it'd be silly to say that you want to wait until the exact minute that somebody forms a terrorist state to decide to engage with that on a military level but if you look at the idea of nation building that we're going to overthrow these countries in order to achieve that I would just say look at the results and you tell me is Libya a safer place in terms of exporting terror?
Is Syria much better for being destabilized in that regard. Or even if you look at Afghanistan probably one of the best examples where we took a problem from September 11th and now can look back on the results of those decades of nation building there and you can just see as an effort who benefited from it and what was the end result?
I think the conclusions are pretty obvious.
Okay we have Coral in Cooperstown, New York. Coral wants to know is the anti-Semitic activity that sometimes reached the point of violence being conducted by college age leftists all over the country primarily in major cities considered terrorism?
I mean it can be is the answer and I don't mean to be evasive in that but you know you certainly after October 7th did have some incidents of where people were acting in a terroristic way were committing acts of violence.
I would say the vast vast majority of it is you know people who are just exercising their First Amendment rights to go out and make you know a lot of noise. Some of that has bled over into being you know acts of civil disobedience and rioting and things of that nature.
There have certainly also been you know terrorist organizations that were very excited by the events that had happened. So you have everything on the spectrum. You have people who certainly decided because of the conflict to engage in acts of terrorism to step up their efforts.
We certainly saw a lot of international terrorist organizations encouraging things like that. But then you have everything all the way down to just you know somebody protesting that which is their their right.
And so you know you have lots of things on the spectrum.
I would say. Okay we have Pierre in Danbury, Connecticut and Pierre. Pierre says I continually get more and more aggravated by the constant claim of left-leaning individuals in the media who call what occurred on January 6th an act of terror and yet none of those involved on the conservative side of the things were armed.
What is your opinion on this?
Yeah I see very little from that that could be classified as terrorism. Certainly. I haven't seen anything in any charging documents that say that you know anybody's being prosecuted for terrorism so I would disagree with that entirely.
Where you have people who assaulted police officers obviously that's one thing but no I would not primarily classify that as an act of terrorism.
And I just breathed a very loud sigh of relief that you that you have that view because I join our listener Pierre in my disgust over that constant drumbeat which not only comes from Democrats but even more liberal Republicans.
And it's just insane it's just utterly insane. And let's see here. Well this is. I don't know why I find this humorous. I don't mean to belittle the questioner because it's a very good question but this kind of thing has been asked for decades now ever since the assassination of John F. Kennedy and we have Wolf who is located in Hoboken New Jersey and Wolf wants to know.
Do you believe that the Kennedy assassination was an act of terrorism and not the result of a lone gunman?
Oh that's a great question.
Wolf.
I would say first and foremost I have no special insight on that you know it's not. Even there's some people who really do a lot of reading on the Kennedy assassination. Certainly there's more there than meets the eye in my opinion just looking at it as a historical event.
I don't think it's cut and dry the same way that you know the government initially characterized the event. But I definitely have no special knowledge on the Kennedy assassination. And you know I have plenty of questions I think just like everybody else but that isn't an area that I've studied very well and could speak to.
No it is. It has always been revealing to me that there's more than what we've been told since Jack Ruby assassinated Lee Harvey Oswald before he even went to trial over this. But would let's say this was a mob hit.
Perhaps it had something to do with the sense of betrayal of the Kennedys against the mob who I think it's been fairly well documented that they were primarily responsible for the election of John F. Kennedy through the tampering of the votes in Chicago.
Especially would that be considered an act of terrorism if that was if those were the culprits and those were the motivations.
Perhaps I think you know usually with acts of terrorism you have somebody seeking actually to take credit for it and to say hey this is what we did. And this is why usually that's a telltale sign that something is characterized more as a as an act of terrorism.
Yeah you know it could be. You know unfortunately there's still a lot of secrecy that surrounds that event. I think you know hopefully at some point more details will come out about it. I do hope that happens within my lifetime but the government seems pretty committed to keeping the that happened a secret.
And you know you continue to see that go on to this day. But yeah you know potentially but I would say typically you would see if there was some sort of a ideological terrorist motivation you know you would see somebody try to take credit for it in some way and use that for that purpose.
It doesn't rule it out but that's just my initial thoughts on that.
Well we have to go to our final break. Folks if you want to have your own question asked and answered please submit your question immediately because we're rapidly running out of time. Chrisarnson at gmail .com.
Chrisarnson at gmail .com. Don't go away we're going to be right back.
Greetings, this is Brian McLaughlin president of the SecureComm group and supporter of Chris Arnson's Iron Shopping Zion radio program. SecureComm provides the highest level of security systems for residential buildings, municipalities.
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But today I want to introduce you to my senior pastor Doug McMasters of New High Park Baptist Church on Long Island.
Doug McMasters here former director of pastoral correspondence at Grace to You, the radio ministry of John MacArthur in the film Chariots of Fire. Olympic gold medalist runner Eric Liddell remarked that he felt God's pleasure when he ran.
He knew his efforts sprang from the gifts and calling of God. I sensed that same God-given pleasure when ministering the word and helping others gain a deeper knowledge and love for God. That love starts with the wonderful news that the Lord Jesus Christ is a savior who died for sinners and that God forgives all who come to him in repentance trusting solely in Christ to deliver them.
I would be delighted to have the honor and privilege of ministering to you if you live in the Long Island area or Queens or Brooklyn or the Bronx in New York City. For details on New High Park Baptist Church visit nhpbc .com that's nhpbc .com.
You can also call us at 516 -352 -9672 that's 516 -352 -9672. That's New High Park Baptist Church. A congregation in love with each other, passionate for Christ committed to learning and being shaped by God's word and delighting in the gospel of God's sovereign grace.
I'm Dr. Tony Costa professor of apologetics and Islam at Toronto Baptist Seminary. I'm thrilled to introduce to you a church where I've been invited to speak and have grown to love Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram, Long Island, New York pastored by Rich Jansen and Christopher McDowell.
It's such a joy to witness and experience fellowship with people of God like the dear saints at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Coram who have an intensely passionate desire to continue digging deeper and deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ in his holy word and to enthusiastically proclaim Christ Jesus the King and his doctrines of sovereign grace in Suffolk County Long Island and beyond.
I hope you also have the privilege of discovering this precious congregation and receive the blessing of being showered by their love as I have. For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church go to hopereformedli .net that's hopereformedli .net or call 631 -696 -5711 631 -696 -5711.
631 -696 -5711.
Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Coram, Long Island, New York that you heard about them from Tony Costa on Iron Sharpens Iron.
This is Pastor Bill Sousa of Grace Church at Franklin here in the beautiful state of Tennessee. Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support Iron Sharpens Iron radio financially.
Grace Church at Franklin is an independent autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture through the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And of course the end for which we strive is the glory of God. If you live near Franklin, Tennessee and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes or you are visiting this area or you have friends and loved ones nearby we hope you will join us some Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior.
Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin. Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org. That's gracechurchatfranklin .org.
This is.
Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our Sovereign Lord God, Savior and King Jesus Christ today and always.
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If you're the victim of a very serious personal injury or medical malpractice anywhere in the United States please call my long time very dear friend Daniel P. Buttafuoco, attorney at law at 1 -800-NOW-HURT 1 -800-NOW-HURT or visit his website 1 -800-NOW-HURT .COM 1 -800-NOW-HURT .COM.
Please tell Daniel P. Buttafuoco attorney at law that you heard about his law firm Buttafuoco and Associates from Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. And let me once again repeat that you are invited to the Courageous Marriage Seminar which will be held this Friday and Saturday August 23rd and 24th at Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Long Island in Merrick, New York featuring award winning best selling author Dr. Joe Rigney as the keynote speaker.
If you want more details and you want to register, go to GraceReformedBaptistChurch .org GraceReformedBaptistChurch .org GraceReformedBaptistChurch .org. Stephen, before we get into any final listener questions I really want to make sure that you are uninterrupted for as long as it takes you to highlight those areas of preventing terrorism in America that you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today.
Yeah, I would really if there was one big takeaway that I could have the listeners of your show really emphasize in their own lives, it would be more spiritual preparedness and personal preparedness than worrying about the grand kind of geopolitical events in the world.
You want to really not only gear your preparation towards the risk itself, but also towards what you can have influence over. If you spend your time watching TV or arguing on social media you can really get sucked into a lot of things that are just beyond your level of control.
And so that's some people's calling some people are called to really emphasize and specialize in the areas of geopolitics but for most people they should be focusing on the things that are really going to impact them in their own personal lives, especially spiritually making sure that you are spiritually ready.
Obviously, if you're not saved you have a lot bigger problems than terrorism and you need to go and see Christ. But if you are saved making sure that you're growing with fellow believers, that you're taking charge of the things in your life that God has called you to for men in the audience for being leaders of your home and making sure that your home is better prepared that is going to be so much more important than so many of the things that people focus on.
If anybody could take something away from that, hopefully that's what I would emphasize, is make sure that you're spiritually prepared and also beyond that that you're being physically fit and being a good leader in your home being part of an active growing church body and contributing to that culture, making your church stronger, making your community stronger through that.
So I would emphasize that for the vast majority of the audience as opposed to some sort of preparation for an actual act of terrorism.
All right. We have Whitaker in Rathdrum, Idaho hope I'm pronouncing that correctly and Whitaker asks are you optimistic or pessimistic in regard to the state of terror vulnerability in the United States?
Oh, that's a good question. Overall, I'm optimistic because I know that God's controlling everything and that he's guiding things according to his purpose and even things that are scary that like acts of terrorism and like the destabilizing effects of terrorism at home and abroad these things are certainly a challenge and the things that we should be at some level concerned about are ultimately optimistic as I know that God's working everything out for his purposes and yeah, I think if we're in the near term, if we're talking just about the impact of terrorism and how we're going to see that continue for our country in the future it's certainly not going away.
As the military's capacity grows to deal with its enemies on the battlefield the temptation for individual idealistic and ideological actors to use acts of terrorism to gain an outsized influence and be able to impact other countries is only going to continue to grow.
So, it is unfortunately an area that is going to be with us for probably as long as I can foresee but hopefully that answers the question as best as possible.
Okay. Sinclair in Bading Hollow, Long Island, New York wants to know are you available for public speaking events at churches, schools, and other places?
Yeah, in terms of at a private capacity, yeah, feel free to reach.
Out.
And yeah, I've done that before I taught for three years as a civilian preparedness instructor helping schools and churches and buildings to get better prepared for acts of terrorism but also disaster and crime and you know, individual acts of malice.
So, you know, yeah, I'd be more than happy to help if a church had that need or even just a business or something along those lines.
Okay, great. Well, I think that before I remind our listeners of your websites and contact information and so forth, that you should conclude with those things that you most want our listeners to remember before we go off the air.
Yes, absolutely. So the big takeaway is for this weekend, Grace Formed Baptist Church and also I would be remiss if I didn't mention we're co-sponsoring this with Hope Reformed Baptist Church, that wonderful church in Corb, New York.
Together we are hosting this marriage conference and I just cannot overstate how good of a conference we think this is going to be. The wonderful work that Dr. Rigney has already put into preparing for this, you are really going to miss out if you're not there at that conference and we've priced the conference so that there's really no reason to.
It's $20 a person and then you get to bring your spouse for free. There's free childcare on Saturday. There's a free lunch that we're putting on and we're catering for Saturday. So if you are in the area to be able to attend that event, please make sure to go to our website and to sign up for that.
You're not going to regret it.
Now, how do you convince people to attend who might be saying, well, I'm not married. I'm single or whatever. I'm divorced. How do you want to pitch them the benefits of attending this?
Yeah, absolutely. So I think God calls us to speak also to give good counsel to married people in our lives so everybody knows somebody who's married who might be in need of advice and certainly as Christians we should be prepared to strengthen those families as a building block of our church.
But you're not going to only walk away with good advice for those who are married but you're going to have a better understanding of scripture at the end of this conference. And that's why two very solid churches on Long Island are coming together to put this conference on.
Dr. Rigney recently wrote the book Leadership and Emotional Sabotage and a lot of the advice and elements from that book are also going to be on display as it particularly applies to marriage but the principles of that can really be applied to any sort of relationships and to leadership in general and so you're not going to walk away empty handed even if you're not currently married.
Is there going to be, and forgive me if you've already said this, a Q &A session or sessions plural?
Yeah, there's going to be one large Q &A session. We've blocked off an hour of time and so during the course of the marriage conference people are going to be able to write down their questions and submit them and we're going to try to work through those questions during the last period which is going to be a question and answer time.
And also I should state too that it's going to be a wonderful time of fellowship. We built in some fellowship into these into the sessions and also singing of hymns. So you're going to get together with a body of believers there and also people who have traveled from outside of our church to come to this event and to be just really enriched by the Word of God.
Amen, and don't forget you can register at gracereformedbaptistchurch .org gracereformedbaptistchurch .org and don't forget about the personal website of Stephen Totter consultingbykirios that's K-Y-R-I-O-S dot com consultingbykirios .com.
I want to thank you so much Stephen for being such a superb guest. I have really been extremely impressed by how sharp and knowledgeable you are. I guess it actually proves that sometimes the apple does fall far very very far from the tree.
I'm only kidding. I know that your dad has enough of a sense of humor to not be offended by that but anyway I would look forward to seeing you in person and my next visit to Long Island that I get to do so.
Thanks Chris, appreciate you having me on.
I want to thank everybody who listened and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are. A sinner.