March 10, 2021 Show with Senator Doug Mastriano PLUS Colonel Kevin Jarrard on “Standing Firm for Truth with Optimism in Dark Days”

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Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

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Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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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.

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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,

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Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

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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.

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Wednesday on this 10th day of March 2021, and I am thrilled to have both a first -time guest for the first hour and a returning guest for the second hour.

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They're both going to be addressing the same theme, standing firm for truth with optimism in dark days.

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My first guest will be Senator Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania's 33rd District.

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My second guest during the second hour will be Colonel Kevin Girard, Deputy Chief of Staff, Marine Forces, Southern Command, and an elder serving alongside

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Pastor Ray Rhodes of Grace Community Church of Dawsonville, Georgia, and providentially, it turns out,

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I didn't even know this when I first invited Colonel Girard to be on the program, he was a student of my first guest at the

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War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and let me give him a more formal introduction.

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Senator Doug Mastriano is a combat veteran and son -of -a -career

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U .S. Navy man who retired from the U .S. Army after 30 years of active duty as a colonel, a doctor of history with a

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Ph .D. and four master's degrees, author of Thunder in the Argonne, a

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New History of America's Greatest Battle, and Alvin York, a New Biography of the Hero of the

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Argonne, and co -editor of Pershing's Lieutenants, American Military Leadership in World War I, who has appeared on Tucker Carlson and numerous national radio programs.

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It's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Triple Zion Radio, Senator Doug Mastriano.

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Chris, thank you for having me on, and I look forward to our conversation. And let me give our listeners our email address right away if they have questions.

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Our email address is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

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Please give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the

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U .S .A., and please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

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We have a tradition here on Iron Triple Zion Radio, Senator Mastriano, whenever we have a first -time guest, we have that guest give a summary of their salvation testimony, including what kind of religious atmosphere you were raised in, if any, and what kind of providential circumstances our

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Sovereign Lord raised up in your life that drew you to Himself and saved you. So why don't we begin with that?

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You know, not a particularly religious person as a youth, my mom was, you know, fairly devout, my dad not at all, and he was raised really as nothing in most of his life, therefore you really don't have a preference, he'd show up at church for weddings and funerals kind of thing.

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But in high school, a classmate invited me to his youth group, and I went, and for the first time in my life

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I heard the gospel message, you know, the bad news is you're a sinner and you're headed to hell, but the good news is

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Jesus can save you. So I went up to the altar three or four weeks in a row, finally, the fourth week, the past week, you only have to do it once, but I'm like,

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I want to make sure it's six. It was kind of funny that they gave me,

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I forget, the Way Bible, remember the Way Bible? Yes, yes.

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It was back in 79, and they gave me a copy of that, and I'm like, where do I start? And they're like, start with John, read to the end, and then go back to the front and the open.

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I was like, okay. And it was a pretty amazing change in my life, it was, you know, the

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Lord came into my heart, and it was palpable, I could feel the change, I could feel hope and joy.

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I wasn't particularly, you know, quote -unquote a bad kid growing up, but I was a lost soul, as you can imagine, and this really changed everything in my life.

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And so there was a lot of conflict that came from that, though, as you can imagine, you know, not being in a strong Christian family household.

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And so, you know, my folks were a bit, you know, taken aback by the change in my life, and it was nothing but a positive thing.

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My athletics took off, my academics took off, I mean, everything was headed in the right direction, as you can imagine. You do the best you can.

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And our youth group was kind of interested in it. I know these days a lot of youth programs are focused on fun and, you know, social gathering and what have you, and there's a place for that.

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I'm not bashing it, but ours was more like, you know, church service for youth, the relevant issues.

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And the youth pastor, you know, he's preaching, you know, whatever you do in Word and Deed, do it unto the Lord and right out of the

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Scriptures. And he's like, so that means right now you're a student, or, you know, you need to be the best that you can be.

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Doesn't mean all A's, but it just means you do that. Glorify God. And so, really that's been sort of a driving force in a lot of my life.

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And that's the, you know, you read off those accomplishments, that's a testimony of what God can do through a life. Amen. And you have quite the illustrious career in the military.

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And I was planning on mentioning most of the, or at least a lot of the things that you have accomplished in the military, but if I had done that, we would be out of time before the actual interview started.

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But when in your life, and why and how in your life, did an interest in joining the military enter into your mind to begin with?

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Ever since I was five years old, I wanted to be in the Army. Wow. There was a lot of influence, obviously.

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My dad was a Navy man, and I remember one time at four or five years old, me and my brothers were out in the woods goofing off, and this helicopter came overhead about 100 feet above us, and my dad opened up the door, and he's like waving at us.

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He has a kid like that. He's a giant. He's my hero. But the idea of being on board a ship, for me, really didn't do much.

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And so a great influence in my life was my Uncle Joe Guba, this tough union, a

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Hungarian uncle of mine, and he was in Patton's 3rd Army. He was in the 4th Armored Division. So I just loved history, and I would sit at his feet and ask him questions.

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Normally, that generation didn't tell war stories, but he got this kid asking serious questions. Did you ever see a tiger tank, you know?

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And he's like, yeah, one of them almost killed me, and he'd tell me, you know, the stories during the Battle of the Bulge, when they're trying to relieve our guys trapped in Bastogne.

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He was one of the lead tanks. The tiger tank took out his tank, killed the entire crew except him.

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He survived because his hatch was open. He was a good driver, and it was kind of foggy, cold foggy, in mid -December, 1944.

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And I'm like, so what happened? He's like, I went flying out of the tank. Part of my abdomen got caught on the hatch or something, and he said he woke up sitting

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Indian -style in a puddle with his intestines floating in front of him. And I remember asking him, so what did you do? He's like, and his favorite comfort words were, you know what

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I mean, kind of a deep voice like that. And he's like, you know what I mean? And I took my intestines and put them back in my stomach, and went to the aid station.

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They patched me up, and I told them I'm going back to the front. They're like, wow. He just left. The doctors couldn't keep him, and he wanted to get back in the fight.

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That there, that's America. But his influence convinced me I want to be in the

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Army like Uncle Joe. So I did the full 30 years active duty. I ended up as a strategic intelligence officer, and we tap out at Curl.

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You can't go any further than that. And so about 7 % of our class makes it to that. And that's just a testimony.

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You know, 1 Corinthians 127, God uses the foolish to confound the wise, and the weak to confound the strong.

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And so he can do that with any life, and he gets the glory for all that. Praise God.

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And you already mentioned that you were a history buff, or at least began to love history as a very young child.

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How did that begin in your life, where it reached the point where you actually have earned a doctorate in the study of history?

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So as a kid, one of my first books, you know, when I was really serious, probably like 8 or 9 years old, was the

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Cactus Air Force, about the Marine Air Unit stationed on Guadalcanal. And it was a dark time in 42, 43

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Guadalcanal. The Japanese were constantly attacking the Marines on air, land, and sea, and it was a vicious battle.

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And then after that, I was turned on to Cornelius Ryan, who wrote A Bridge Too Far and The Longest Day, about D -Day, and, of course,

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Operation Market Garden, and these kind of stories with lots of vignettes of heroic people, but average people, but who rose up and did heroic deeds, really left an impression on me.

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So all my life, I just loved reading history. There used to be a series on that BBC had back in the 70s called

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The World at War, and it actually had the actual generals who fought in World War II, you know, and I'd interview them and interspice with the scenes, you know, from the battlefields around the world in the

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Second World War. So that interest grew. Eventually, much later,

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I shifted more over to the First World War, and sadly there's not a lot of historians in America, or many people in America that care about the

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First World War, but really the First World War was the beginning of the Second World War. In that, even the first Supreme Allied Commander was not

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Eisenhower, it was General Foch in 1918. He said when the war ended, the matter isn't over, and in 20 years, it's going to start again, and he's exactly right.

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Twenty years later, it did start again. Yeah, wow. Well, how did

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God use your experiences in the military to mold you and shape you and make you a better man to prepare you to serve him in a greater capacity?

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Yeah, so it's unfortunate that a lot of people think that the military is, you know, what they see in Spielberg's interpretation of that, you know, with Saving Private Ryan, where in every other word is a cuss word.

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In some cases that might be true, but my experience going into the Army in the early 80s is a bit interesting.

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We had a new Chief of Staff, and the Army had just come out of a really rough period after Vietnam, and General Wickham, who was our

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Chief of Staff, he actually said, look, we need to be disciplined in word and deed. He went back to George Washington, who also tried to get his

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Army to speak without profanity, and I remember when I was at Airborne School in 1944 in Fort Benning, Georgia, you know, somebody dropped the

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F -bomb in formation, and the instructors, they had black hats on with Airborne wings on, so we called them black hats.

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And so when they heard the F -bomb, they ran over, you can't say fire truck, that's not allowed.

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I was just like, wow, this is my kind of Army. So whenever I was at a unit in charge of men and women,

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I would ask them to try to be disciplined in word and deed, and try to sharpen their character muscle and strive for these ideals that the

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Army tells us to strive for. And the Army held up a lot of Christian models, even today, ironically, like Alvin York, the great hero of the

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First World War who captured 132 Germans, but who entered the fight that day in 1918, 8

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October, as a conscientious objector. And obviously he was ridiculed and mocked in his unit.

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He changed history, and strong Christian man, where Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of Gettysburg, a little round pop, who had a severe stuttering problem most of his life, and was transformed and blessed by God, was a gift of becoming one of our greatest orators, and someone who was mocked and told never to mouth anything, saving the

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United States of America on 2 July 1863. So I would use these vignettes advocated by the

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Army, even today in our leadership manuals, as a way to say, look, these are the models that we're told to strive for, and this is how they made a difference, by every day striving to do what is right and noble.

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And that made them brave and heroic in their hearts, and they built their character muscle, as I call that.

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And so when we see Alvin York and Colonel Chamberlain on the battlefield, that's merely an outward manifestation of the men they chose to become.

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Yeah, you, speaking of Alvin York, it just reminded me of the

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Army medic Desmond Doss, who was a World War II medic, and I don't know if you saw the movie

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Hacksaw Ridge, but apparently it was a very true -to -life depiction of what he experienced in battle, and the heroics that God used him to perform.

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Amazing heroics, bordering on the miraculous, because at the end of the program, they had his actual comrades in arms, who were still living, giving the testimony of what he had done for them.

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And he vowed not to ever carry a gun on the battlefield, but he insisted, in fact, on going into battle, because he did not want to leave others to do this without the aid of a medic.

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And he turned out to be, just like Alvin York, after being mocked and even beaten up for being a coward and a weakling and a sissy and on and on we could go, he turns out to be one of the greatest heroes of World War II.

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That was moving at the end, when actually his company commander, as an old man, was talking about him, and how he rushed a judgment on this guy here, and thought he was a coward, and turns out he was the bravest man he ever met in his life, and the guy just started crying.

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Yeah. Because you just see, God chooses to use those that seem weak or foolish in the eyes of the world, because obviously then he gets the glory.

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And so, you know, when we make his story our story, we can change history. And he did that through Doc, York, and Chamberlain.

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Now, before I go into some of your role, your fairly new role as a senator,

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I wanted to ask you about some of your books here. Why did you choose to write about the

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Argonne? The specific title is Thunder in the Argonne, A New History of America's Greatest Battle.

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Were there things about that battle that were not yet recorded in a published work, or perhaps not on a popular reading level, or what have you?

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What was the catalyst that made you write about that specific battle?

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So the first book was, of course, Alvin York, A New History of the Hero of the Argonne. And it won four book awards.

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I mean, it was just well -received. And Alvin York is just one of over a million American soldiers that fought in the

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Muse Argonne campaign, America's largest ever battle, if I can say that. You know, campaign has many battles, but we won't get into rhetoric on that.

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And so after how well the York book was received, I thought I needed to tell the rest of the story.

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And I wasn't particularly impressed or happy with many of the There's like probably a dozen volumes out there that have been written across.

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It's not a lot, actually, for something like this. That discusses the Muse Argonne campaign in a big picture.

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And so I'm like, well, let me contribute to the information on this here and tell the story in an understandable way and also tell the story of the men who fought there.

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And we put it together. I spent 100 days or so in the Argonne altogether in France.

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And you know it's bad when you're reading a history book on the Muse Argonne, and I'm getting lost. I have to pull out maps trying to figure out what they're talking about.

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And that was one of my frustrations. So my book is designed to make it easy for the reader to understand, but also dive deep as well and tell stories.

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And I put together the book. And I was just captivated by some of the stories there. There's a major from Missouri.

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His name was James Rieger. And they're mobilized for war in 1918.

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You know, he ships over to France. His commander hates him because of his Christian faith.

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And they're trying to fire him. And James Rieger is running a very successful Sunday school program, trying to give the men something wholesome to do other than just getting in trouble downtown.

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They're training in Texas at the time. And the brigadier general,

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Barry, tried to fire him, but had no cause other than just not liking his faith, thought it was making him weak and making the men weak.

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And so out of frustration, General Barry told Major Rieger, you basically will never mount anything. You're altogether worthless and useless.

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Okay, fast forward about six months later. They're in the Argonne of France. They're part of the 35th

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Division. They're pressing the attack. Things aren't going so well. And Rieger goes on to liberate three

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French villages, does all these heroic deeds, gets the Distinguished Service Crosses labeled by the French as the hero of the

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Argonne. And meanwhile, Barry is fired. General Barry is fired for, you know, incompetence.

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He's the artillery commander by then. And he has his guns even firing at the Americans in the line.

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And so it's just the irony. So dark for James Rieger. It looks like his time in the Army is going to be cut short.

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And thankfully it wasn't. Thankfully he had defenders out there. And in the end, he ended up saving a lot of lives there and helping the

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Americans continue to push north in the Argonne. And your latest work that you co -edited,

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Pershing's Lieutenants, American Military Leadership in World War I, what was the inspiration for getting involved in that project?

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So Major General Lebecki, I'll call him the lead editor, it was his book idea. And he's published probably about 17 books, all very serious, historic books, very good writer, excellent writer.

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And he's like, hey, you know, I've written so many books, and I've had this idea in my heart

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I want to give it to you. And I'm like, hey, sir, can we, and even though we're both civilians, he's a general, so I call him sir.

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I'm like, hey, sir, how about we both sign up for this here because you have all the experience.

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I'll do a good chunk of the nug work, although he did a lot of the nug work as well. And he's like, okay.

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So we went through a list of topics. And the purpose of that book is to show how

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Pershing's leadership affected the generation of leaders then in combat and then the next generation of leaders, which be the

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Second World War leaders like Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and many others. And so we lay out, you know, the good, the bad, and the ugly of Pershing's leadership style and how that affected the commands underneath him and those that try to emulate him and those that thought his style was not so good.

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And it's a good book. It's good in a lot of ways, but mostly

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I would say because there's nothing like this on the First World War and a study of leadership. I think somebody diving into that could look at it and say, yeah,

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I like this style, and I don't like that style, and maybe help them improve in their own life. Wow. Well, I know that all of these books are available on Amazon.

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Is there anywhere else that you want to recommend where our listeners can get a hold of them? Yeah, Amazon's the best for those three.

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Just type in Mastriano, and they even undersell. You know, my author's discount. I don't know how they do it.

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They must do bulk or something, but that's where you get a good deal. And you are, as I already announced in my introduction of you, you are a senator in Pennsylvania's 33rd

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District. First of all, what would be the responsibilities and roles of a senator?

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So obviously in our General Assembly, the Senate and the House in Pennsylvania is bicameral and co -equal.

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So, you know, we both have equal powers, but the difference is House reps. There's 203 in Pennsylvania.

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They represent between 50 and 60 ,000 citizens in the state. State senators, 50 of us, and we have about a quarter million.

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And so basically I represent a quarter million people. And to be their voice and to, you know, metaphorically fight for the things that we value in this part of Pennsylvania.

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Now my area is the 33rd District, and so it includes part of Franklin County, all of Adams County, part of your county,

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Cumberland, and part of York. And I like to tell people that are unfamiliar with the state, basically Shippensburg, Chambersburg, Gettysburg, and Hanover.

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And were you surprised that you won? There are comparative few outspoken, very conservative, born -again believers that I am personally aware of anyway in politics.

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And I know that you despise calling yourself a politician. Thank you.

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But there are many who call themselves Christian. But I have my doubts about many,

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I'm not going to mention them obviously, but I have my doubts about even many conservatives in the Republican Party who identify themselves as Christian because of things that they wind up saying or doing that makes me scratch my head.

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But were you expecting to win your Senate race? So I don't know if we have time to go through the odyssey.

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I'll go through it quickly. So I'm retired from the Army November 2017, and I am just really broken up that I'm handing over the country to my son and his generation, you know, less free, less secure, less prosperous than how

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I got it from my dad's generation. And I was really having a hard time with that, you know, wrestling with the deployments, the sacrifices, you know, but this time with my family and all that.

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And as I was complaining about it, a young man basically said,

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Well, Colonel, do something about it. And it's like a month before I retired. So, you know, Rebbi and I are praying, and of course, usually you get the sweet offer of staying in the federal service because you have a lot of credentials, you have a lot of experience, it's profitable and good for the federal government to retain people, you know, like me, to keep doing strategy or whatever expertise is.

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And sure enough, I had that offer come. But, you know, the dilemma was that you just ride off to the sunset like so many colonels and generals do, or do you try to do something to make a difference?

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Take the pay cut and put yourself in a line of fire and, you know, not kind of ride off quietly off to the

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West. And a few weeks after my retirement, the previous senator announced,

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I'm sorry, the previous congressman announced his retirement. And it was a family feat, you know, it's 47 years of him and his dad.

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And we ran. I knew I was going to win because, you know, it felt like we had a calling to do this.

24:55

But I came in fourth of eight candidates. And I'm kind of like, I didn't really struggle with it. I was kind of like, well, I don't know what that was about,

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God. So then I applied for a bunch of other jobs. And it looked like something was coming my way back in the federal government.

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You know, I'm doing stuff that I love. And the announcement for that job with the federal government was delayed by about a month.

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So I called, and they kind of winked and nodded. It sounded like I'd probably get it. It's the announcement come in a few days.

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Well, that night, I get a call from the previous senator saying he's resigning because basically, you know, he had it up to here with the politics.

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And he said, you know, people love you. They know your name because you ran for Congress. Now you see God's perfect plan. And so we had a special election, the conferee, they call it.

25:41

And usually, you know, the quote -unquote establishment, usually they pick somebody.

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And so it's unusual to have an outsider to win a special election. And then I won my reelection, of course, in November.

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My wife and I, for the special election, there's delegates that pick the person you're going to represent the

26:02

Republican and Democrat parties. So we met with, I'd say, about two -thirds of the delegates.

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And they'd ask us questions. We'd tell them the honest truth. And after we got done meeting with people personally, we knew they were going to win the conferee in the first round.

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And that was a blessing from God. Praise God. Well, we have to go to our first station break.

26:23

If anybody has a question for Senator Doug Mastriano, send it to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

26:32

Give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the USA. Don't go away.

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We'll be right back with Senator Doug Mastriano after these messages. When Iron Sharpens Iron Radio first launched in 2005, the publishers of the

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Are you tired of looking for the silver bullet when it comes to health and wellness? Are you frustrated with the medical status quo which masks symptoms and doesn't treat the root problem of sickness?

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Give the gift of health and don't be a dead end to truth. Welcome back. This is Chris Arnzen. If you just tuned us in, our guest for the first hour is

32:45

Senator Doug Mastriano. He and the second guest, who happened to be a student of his at the

32:53

War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Colonel Kevin Girard, they are both discussing standing firm for truth with optimism in dark days.

33:03

If you have a question, send it to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

33:12

And as always, give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the

33:18

USA. I probably don't have to tell you, Senator Mastriano, that many of your fellow

33:26

Christians and other conservatives are weighed down with pessimism due to the unexpected results from the recent presidential election.

33:36

They believe the presidency was stolen. They doubt the next election will be free from fraud as well.

33:45

Do you see any reasons, tangible ones, realistic ones, for optimism, that we will have an honest election that we can trust in four years?

33:56

Well, one thing I do know is that if we don't get out and vote, then it's going to be a foregone conclusion that nothing's going to happen except continue a downward spiral.

34:05

As far as last year, clearly, I looked at every legal and constitutional way to try to get to the bottom of what happened in Pennsylvania.

34:15

I'll just focus on my own state. All we wanted was transparency. All we wanted was an audit.

34:21

And, of course, because Governor Wolf liked the outcome, he told us with his Secretary of State, who has since resigned in shame, that it was a perfect election.

34:30

Just basically sit down, color, and shut up. Why can't we have transparency, especially from a governor who promised to be the most transparent governor in Pennsylvania?

34:40

Which, obviously, that hasn't been the case, sadly. And that doesn't help things here.

34:45

We need leadership in Pennsylvania that's going to represent all the people, not just the people in this party or narrow interest groups here.

34:53

And that if there's an election, and if there's concerns about the integrity of the vote, what's the harm in just opening the books?

35:01

I mean, the governor has no problem throwing money around. So the excuse he had is going to cost a lot of money. It's just nonsense, because this is very important that people have trust in our election process.

35:11

And if they don't, the republic can't survive. On the other side here, yes, the House and Senate were trying to find ways to shore up the election.

35:20

The thing was sabotaged. The idea of conservatives and some

35:27

Republicans, these perfect Republicans, they look in the mirror and that's the only perfect Republican they see, that this is as a result of any failure of the

35:35

House and Senate in Pennsylvania is just utter nonsense, because the election law was rewritten by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on 17

35:42

September. Facts are stubborn things. They changed the law as we voted on and passed. That's why we needed the

35:48

U .S. Supreme Court to actually look at the case, which they didn't. And, of course, it was further undermined on the 23rd of October.

35:54

Facts are stubborn things by Secretary of State Bookbinder. Wolf, Secretary of State, changed some of the safeguards as well, and then more changes were made the night before the election, at 10 o 'clock at night.

36:04

And so the House and Senate were trying to get our arms around what happened. The House is doing fantastic hearings on trying to figure out what happened, what went wrong, what went right, and what we need to do.

36:15

I'm sponsoring legislation with Pat Stefano out of Somerset County. He's the lead on it.

36:22

And to just undo this no -excuse voting scheme that's been undermined by our court, and, of course, the governor, and then those reforms as well by Senator Judy Ward that she's introducing.

36:33

So, yes, we have to get out and vote. Will corrections be made before the primary in May?

36:39

No, because the hearings aren't going to be done until April or May. And the report will come out after that.

36:46

But that's a primary, and that won't be corrupted. But more importantly, this

36:51

May 18, Pennsylvania, you get to decide if any future governor can have emergency powers that last beyond 21 days.

36:59

And you can decide if Pennsylvania and the governor should be able to self -renew or have to get the authority from the

37:05

House and Senate. So you have to get out and vote this May here and have your voices be heard. Otherwise, we'll have another

37:10

COVID outbreak of some sort and live in this bondage as we are now. Well, we have a listener that you know who has submitted a question.

37:23

He is actually or has been a guest of mine here on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio a number of times, most recently to discuss a book that he co -authored with two doctors.

37:36

One of them is my new general practitioner, Dr. Joel Yeager, in Newmanstown, Pennsylvania, of Heritage Family Health.

37:44

I thank God for Ernie Springer, who is our questioner from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because without providentially interviewing

37:55

Ernie on this book that he co -authored with Dr. Yeager and Dr. Daniel O 'Rourke,

38:00

I never would have known of Dr. Yeager. And he actually got me off insulin and told me that I never should have been prescribed insulin to begin with.

38:10

So that was quite a shock and a pleasant shock, but still disturbing that I was prescribed this drug unnecessarily.

38:18

But that's not the topic of our discussion today. Ernie Springer, co -author of The Coronavirus and the

38:26

Leadership of the Christian Church is Sacred Trust Broken, has a question for you.

38:31

And he asks, would the senator please explain how his Christian faith governs his decisions and actions as he seeks to serve the people of the

38:42

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania? Well, Ernie from Lancaster, love you, brother, and thanks for bringing

38:48

Chris and I together. What a small world. Yeah. You know, obviously the left, when they hear somebody's a

38:55

Christian, they come at them, you need to put your faith on a shelf, you need to leave it home. But notice they never have to leave their belief system behind.

39:04

It's kind of ironic, the pushback comes against, you know, whether it's a Catholic Supreme Court justice going through the ringer, or just any

39:12

Christian, you know, running for public office here. Now, we're Americans, and you should be able to live your life as you see fit, as you want.

39:20

Okay, so for the Christians, any worldview, but for the Christians, our worldview drives who we are.

39:25

And so if you believe in the biblical concepts, that means you support the ideals of our founding fathers, you know, the right to life, liberty, the happiness.

39:34

And the right to life is probably the most important issue of our generation. I know in a generation from now, they're going to look back and be appalled at the barbarity of America with 60 -some million abortions since 1974.

39:49

The extremes we've gone, and how politicized it is, and how science -denying it is. And so it drives your ideals, so you fight metaphorically for the right to life.

40:02

You try to conduct your life with integrity and honor. You strive for those ideals that George Washington upheld and Abraham Lincoln lived out.

40:11

And so it's really at the core of everything you do. It should guide and direct any of your major decisions.

40:16

And obviously, those decisions often come, you know, through prayer and engagement with your constituents.

40:23

Yeah, I can vividly remember President Bill Clinton being interviewed by a young woman, college student on NBC, who identified herself as an evangelical

40:42

Christian. And she asked President Clinton what role the

40:49

Bible played in his life. And President Clinton said how much he loved the

40:57

Bible, that the Bible is his favorite book, he reads the Bible every day. And on and on we could go with the high praises for the

41:08

Bible that President Clinton gave. And he said, just because I believe in the

41:13

Bible and love the Bible does not mean I have to have the Bible drive and determine my policies as president.

41:23

I thought that was the most moronic and ridiculous answer to that question, because if you do love the

41:31

Bible, you must believe it's true. So therefore, why wouldn't you want to have that as your source for decisions you make in the highest office in the free world?

41:41

That doesn't make any sense. That's a politician talking. That's another reason why I like to be called a politician, because that's icky.

41:48

It's not honest. It plays both sides of the fence. It's not consistent. It's not logical. And so that's why

41:54

I prefer to be called an elected official. And it's not rhetoric or hyperbole or anything. I think there's a key distinction.

42:00

Someone who's serving the people or somebody who's serving themselves, I won't say whatever, takes the winner's seat. You know, if you believe in these concepts of our founding, our founding fathers, you know, news alert.

42:11

They got these ideas of all men are created equal from a Judeo -Christian faith, from Christianity, from the

42:18

Bible. What other worldview has this? We take it for granted that our ideals have been exported around the world.

42:24

Thanks to the United States and other Western countries, we take a lot. This is stuff you can't talk about. Facts are, though, you know, like in India when a

42:31

British, you know, sadly colonized, there was a tradition that when a husband died, you know, the wife had to throw herself on the pyre, on the fire.

42:39

And these Christian ideals changed that. William Wilberforth saw the disgusting non -Christian -based approach of enslaving men and women and families from Africa.

42:50

An evangelical Christian minister of parliament in England, 17 and 1800, dedicated his life, who led to the

42:56

Lord, by the way, by John Newton, who wrote amazing graves, former slave ship captain. And he poured his heart and soul as an elected official to end slavery in the

43:07

British Empire. It took him 20 -some years before he had his first legislative victory and 40 -some years to have a complete victory.

43:14

That determination, that disgust and anguish about slavery was driven by his

43:21

Christian faith. He knew it was inconsistent with biblical worldview and biblical values, and that's why he poured his heart into fighting it politically, and he changed history.

43:29

So, if you really do believe it, you're going to live by it. If you really don't believe it, then it's otherwise just an interesting book.

43:36

Yeah, you were saying that the left can, with impunity, boast of their deeply held religious faith.

43:50

We have Nancy Pelosi doing that on an ongoing basis, declaring that she is a faithful Roman Catholic.

43:59

You have Raphael Warnock, who pastors the church formerly pastored by Martin Luther King Jr.,

44:10

currently a junior United States senator from Georgia. Obviously, being unashamed about his cherished faith and using biblical allegories when speaking about problems in the

44:27

United States, and might I add, I think, twisting them in such a way that they are rendered heretical and blasphemous.

44:36

But it's interesting how it is completely acceptable for them to declare their allegiance to their religion when they are on the left, and yet it is a pariah, it is considered a dangerous step towards a theocracy and religious tyranny when the right does the same.

44:57

And even when we are speaking of those that claim their ideology comes purely from secular thought, isn't that not true?

45:09

When you passionately believe in things that do have religious ramifications, and when you believe in them religiously and you're devoted to them, for instance, whenever you believe something is right and good and celebratory, like murdering unborn children, like the attempts of changing one's gender, even though we know that cannot really happen, and things like that, you are taking a religious position, whether you declare that or not, because you are saying

45:42

God is a liar. You are saying the word of God is a liar, or the word of God is false, and it's not really the word of God at all.

45:51

So isn't this rhetoric and the ideology that we hear from the left, can we not accurately label it as religion, and that they really have no business saying that we can't mix or should not mix politics and religion when they are in reality doing that very thing, even if they refuse to call it religion?

46:13

I am sickened and disgusted by the double standard and inconsistency of the left and the media, and you're absolutely right, they hold one measure for people they like ideologically and completely opposite, and the ironic and sad and pathetic and disgusting thing to me is they can't even see they have a cognitive bias, and sometimes a confirmation bias, that they can't even see that they're being inconsistent.

46:37

They'll celebrate Buttigieg, he did a couple of years in the reserve, almost like some kind of great war hero, but then you have a 30 -year veteran like me, and I'm like villainized, like what?

46:49

So if you're going to go in the public office, don't expect the praise and laud and respect, as I have had and continue to have against me, outright lies perpetuated by the media, outright lies perpetuated by the

47:03

Democrat party, vicious militia attacks, and they just keep repeating these things over and over, hoping they'll get traction, but it's based off of lies, so you're not going to be popular.

47:13

The media is not going to laud your praise unless you vote their way, and then they'll temporarily wrench you into a good -bye

47:19

Democrat. We have had terrible tragedy in Pennsylvania this past year, and the drama in New York, we have the same here in Pennsylvania.

47:28

Cuomo actually, in a lot of ways, looked like Wolf mimicked and followed Cuomo's lead, but in the case of sending the science -denying, ridiculous policy of taking

47:39

COVID positives from a hospital and sending them back to eldercare facilities, that was actually a

47:44

Wolf -led by week. That policy came into effect 18 March, almost a year ago, and unleashed a plague in over 12 ,200 of our loved ones, dead as a result of that failed policy.

47:54

And the media, if they were honest and decent people, I know there's good ones out there, but overwhelmingly, where were they?

48:02

Did they do stories? Did they show Levine as somebody incompetent who had policies that were destructive?

48:10

Did they show Levine as a sort of villain who knew the danger and risk that Levine created, and save Levine's own mom from the eldercare facility and drop mom off at a hotel and come out like a decent human being and say,

48:22

Hey, Pennsylvania, save your loved ones, save them. We got a problem. We made some mistakes. But instead of doing investigative journalism, turning over every rock, which would have saved lives, by the way, would have mattered, because this policy was still in effect as late as November, as far as I heard, they lauded and praised

48:41

Levine as the steady hand in the crisis of Pennsylvania, and Levine got a promotion for it. Just tell me, convince me, that if this was a

48:50

Republican governor, that there would be this much love and praise for destructive policies that materially and factually killed 12 ,200 people.

48:57

This could completely be different. We had rallies on the steps of Harrisburg in September.

49:04

I recall a rally, a gathering to honor those who died as a result of this failed policy, and it was mostly family members there.

49:10

And nobody from the media showed up. They didn't care. If it was a Republican governor, though, you could imagine every camera would have been there. They would have had microphones in the face of a loved one.

49:17

They would have been in a breathless reporting of the catastrophe and the sorrow and sadness. So we can't.

49:24

It's frustrating. I got a reporter that's been looking under every rock over the past month or two.

49:30

I don't know who's paying this guy here. I don't know how he has so much time. And eventually stories are going to come out that are full of lies and deceit.

49:37

When you see this kind of stuff about a Republican you like or trust, you just ask yourself, is that the

49:43

Doug Mastriano I know? And who is this reporter? Did he do any reports on Levine or Wolf last year when it really mattered during COVID and these heavy -handed shutdown policies that were just science -denying?

49:53

It's all about control. And so this is the thing that drives me crazy. We can't grow weary doing good.

49:58

It is frustrating. I do agree we have to call it out. We have to point it out so we can educate the next generation and maybe get some journals that actually, you know, they'll see that they need to be consistent.

50:09

Because otherwise, when we do have a Republican governor in two years, why should we take them seriously when they're asking questions? And I take that First Amendment more seriously than they do because I've actually served the country most of my adult life in uniform to defend that right to free press.

50:22

And it is essential to a republic that we have a press that cares enough to hold powerful figures accountable on both sides of the aisle and not just work for one side.

50:31

Well, Senator Mastriano, if you could in a minute, summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today before you leave the program.

50:40

And I hope the next time you come back on the program, God willing, that you stay with us for two hours.

50:47

But if you could, just summarize what you most want our audience to remember today. Just remember who we are.

50:54

Remember, you know, in Joshua chapter 4, when the children of Israel cross over the promised land, the Jordan River, when

50:59

God dried it up, and he said each tribe take a stone and pile on the other side, you know, on the Israeli side.

51:05

So when you and your children pass by, you'll remember what the Lord your God did for you. So remember, Pennsylvania, that we were founded by William Penn, a

51:12

Quaker in England who was tossed in jail for his Christian faith several times. And he wanted this, and he prophesied that Pennsylvania would be a seed of a nation, a holy experiment.

51:23

And a generation after his passing, that happened in 1776. The Light of Liberty was lit in Philadelphia, and it changed everything.

51:30

We take this for granted, but the Light of Liberty, anywhere there's freedom, it goes back to that, from a political perspective.

51:36

And then, of course, it's always on fish business. 1863, new birth of freedom in my district of Gettysburg.

51:43

And then 2001, Todd Beamer, Flight 93 on 9 -11. Terrorists took over his plane, headed for the

51:49

U .S. Capitol. And him and other heroes rose up and said, let's roll. So let's remember those who went before us here.

51:56

Let's not grow weary doing good. If we face much darker times, let's stick together, be active, find candidates that you believe in and support, get behind them.

52:05

And if you're not satisfied, then maybe you should run for office yourself. But just don't stand aside.

52:11

Be involved. This republic needs you. As Benjamin Franklin was leaving Constitution Hall in the 1780s, during the

52:19

Constitutional Convention, he was asked by Mrs. Powell, do we have a monarchy or a republic? And he said, a republic, if you can keep it.

52:25

Will you keep it? It's up to us now. Amen. And, folks, if you want to learn more about Senator Doug Mastriano, go to SenatorMastriano .com,

52:37

SenatorMastriano .com. Thank you so much for being such an excellent guest, Senator Mastriano, and I look forward to your return to Iron Trump and Zion Radio.

52:46

Thank you. God bless you all. Bye -bye. Bye -bye now. And don't go away, folks, because we are going to be returning with our second guest,

52:56

Colonel Kevin Girard, who is continuing the same theme. This is a longer -than -normal break.

53:02

Please be patient with us. And if you could please send us questions to ChrisOrenson at gmail .com,

53:10

for Colonel Kevin Girard, and also use this time to write down the information provided by our advertisers so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize them.

53:21

We need our advertisers to exist. Even if you just respond to our advertisers by saying, thank you for sponsoring

53:27

Iron Trump and Zion Radio, that will go a long way. Don't go away. We'll be right back after these messages. Getting a driver's license, running a cash register, flipping burgers, passing sixth grade.

53:40

Do you know what they all have in common? They all require training, assessments, and certifications. But do you know what requires no training at all?

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Becoming a parent. My name is A .M. Brewster. I'm the president of Truth, Love, Parent, and host of its award -winning podcast.

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I've been a biblical family counselor since the early 2000s. And what I've discovered is that the majority of Christian parents have never been biblically equipped to do the work of the ministry in their homes.

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That's why Truth, Love, Parent exists. We serve God by equipping dads and moms to be the ambassador parents

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God called and created them to be. We produce free parenting resources, train church leaders, and offer biblical counseling so that the next generation of dads and moms can use the scriptures to parent their children for life and godliness.

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Please visit us at TruthLoveParent .com. I'm James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries.

54:41

My friend Chris Arnson, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and I are headed down to Atlanta, Georgia once again for the

54:48

G3 Conference. This year's G3 will be held Thursday, September 30th, through Saturday, October 2nd on the theme,

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Christ is Supreme Over All. I'll be joined by over 20 other speakers and musicians to lead in the worship of God through preaching, teaching, and singing, including

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John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Conrad M. Bayway, Daryl Bernard Harrison, and Virgil Walker.

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For details, visit G3Conference .com. That's G3Conference .com. Chris Arnson and I hope to see you

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September 30th through October 2nd at G321. This is James White reminding you that Christ is supreme over all.

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio As host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations.

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A church I've been strongly recommending as far back as the 1980s is Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey, pastored by Alan Dunn.

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Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes it's God's prerogative to determine how he shall be worshiped and how he shall be represented in the world.

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They believe churches need to turn to the Bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship

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God in spirit and truth. Grace Covenant Baptist Church endeavors to maintain a

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Or call them at 908 -996 -7654 That's 908 -996 -7654

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Tell Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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Hello, my name is Anthony Eugenio, and I'm one of the pastors at Hope Reform Baptist Church in Corn, New York, and also the host of the reformrookie .com

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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

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Just subscribe on the iTunes app and listen to the Iron Sharpens Iron Radio show at any time, day or night.

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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

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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.

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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

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podcast and visit our website and the YouTube page. We are dedicated to teaching Christian theology from a

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Again, I'm Pastor Anthony Invinio, and thanks for listening. Iron Sharpens Iron Radio Here's what

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Gary DeMar, president of American Vision, had to say about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio recently.

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Good to be back, Chris. I always enjoy our time here. I have to tell you, you're one of the better interviewers out there, and I've been doing this for 30, more than 30 years.

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Wow, that's some compliment. How much do I owe you for that? You don't have to owe me anything.

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We're in good shape. I'm glad you said it on the air, so I don't have to brag about myself.

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Tell your friends and loved ones about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, airing live Monday through Friday, 4 to 6 p .m.

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Eastern Time, at IronSharpensIronRadio .com James White of Alpha Omega Ministries here.

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01:11:07

Before we return to our program, and before I introduce my second guest,

01:11:13

Colonel Kevin Girard, we just have a couple of important announcements to make. First of all, if you love this show and you don't want it to disappear from the airwaves, folks, please go to ironsharpensironradio .com

01:11:25

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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 local biblically faithful,

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Bible -believing church, or you need to get a church or recommend a church for somebody that you love who is without a church home, or you are going on vacation somewhere and you want a good, biblically sound church to visit, no matter where you are living on the planet

01:14:09

Earth or no matter where your friends and family and loved ones live on the planet Earth or no matter where you are vacationing on the planet

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Earth, I have lists of biblically faithful churches all over the globe and I may be able to help you find a church sometimes right around the corner from where you live.

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I've helped people all over the world find churches that they didn't even know existed within minutes from their own home or they knew the churches were there but they didn't know that they were biblically sound.

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So send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com and put I need a church in the subject line. That's chrisarnson at gmail .com

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I need a church in the subject line and I will do what

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I can to help you find a church no matter where on the globe you live. That's also the email address where you can send in a question to Colonel Kevin Girard.

01:14:56

That's chrisarnson at gmail .com chrisarnson at gmail .com We are continuing the theme that we began with our first guest,

01:15:04

Senator Doug Mastriano, standing firm for truth with optimism in dark days and it is my honor and privilege to welcome back to the program after a long absence,

01:15:16

Colonel Kevin Girard, a Deputy Chief of Staff, Marine Forces Southern Command and an elder serving alongside

01:15:24

Pastor Ray Rhodes of Grace Community Church of Dawsonville, Georgia. It's great to have you back on the program,

01:15:31

Colonel Kevin Girard. Chris, thank you so much for the invitation to participate today.

01:15:40

Just hearing Colonel Mastriano, Senator Mastriano's name brings back warm memories.

01:15:47

One of my very favorite professors during my time at the Army War College and of course just hearing from you brings back good memories of our sojourn in Carlisle at Grace Baptist Church there and the

01:16:02

Lord blessed us mightily during our year in Carlisle so it's good to be with you, brother.

01:16:07

It's great to have you back and I hope that you are able to at some point while I'm there in the

01:16:16

Atlanta area, actually in Atlanta from September 30th through October 2nd for this year's

01:16:24

G3 Conference. I hope that you have some time to either attend that conference or at least to have lunch with me or breakfast or dinner with me while I am in Atlanta.

01:16:34

Well, we look forward to it, Chris. Folks in our church provide some technical support to the

01:16:40

G3 Conference and a number of our members. We encourage everyone to attend the

01:16:46

G3 Conference so I hope to make it down this year myself and look forward to seeing you, brother. Amen.

01:16:53

Well, let me repeat our email address if anybody has questions for our guest, Colonel Kevin Girard.

01:16:59

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. Give us your first name, at least your city and state and country of residence.

01:17:05

Before we go into a continuation of the theme, Standing Firm for Truth with Optimism in Dark Days, the theme that we began during the first hour with Senator Mastriano.

01:17:17

Tell our listeners about Grace Community Church of Dawsonville, Georgia. What a wonderful group of folks there,

01:17:25

Chris. Our lead, Pastor Ray Rhodes, you've had on your program. He's a prolific author,

01:17:33

Charles Spurgeon Scholar. His first book about Susanna, Susie, and then a subsequent book about their marriage.

01:17:43

So Pastor Ray cares for us well and faithfully. Fifteen years our church has been in existence and the

01:17:50

Lord has blessed us, steadily grown over those years. The way I describe our church to folks is we read

01:17:57

Scripture, we pray Scripture, we sing Scripture, and we hear

01:18:02

Scripture faithfully preached from our pulpit. And that's what we pray will be done there for generations to come.

01:18:10

So a faithful church there in Dawsonville, Georgia. And I'm so very thankful for the godly people that are part of that fellowship.

01:18:21

And your church firmly stands upon the doctrines of sovereign grace, do you not?

01:18:27

That's absolutely right. We believe in the doctrines of grace and really that begins with our theology of God, right?

01:18:37

As Dr. Spruill used to say, theology proper. A high view of God, of course, leads you to the inevitable conclusion that the doctrines of grace are a biblical foundation on which to stand.

01:18:52

And so we love God's Word and we're thankful that He has brought us together in that local manifestation of the body of Christ there.

01:19:03

Well, if anybody wants to find out more about Grace Community Church of Dawsonville, Georgia, go to gracechurchdawsonville .org

01:19:13

gracechurchdawsonville .org And Dawsonville is spelled D -A -W -S -O -N -V -I -L gracechurchdawsonville .org

01:19:22

Well, providentially it seems when I asked you to participate in this program, number one,

01:19:29

I didn't know that you were a student of Senator Doug Mastriano at the

01:19:35

War College here in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. And number two, I didn't know that you were in the midst of studying

01:19:42

Scripture that very much lends itself to speaking on the subject that we have today,

01:19:48

Standing Firm for Truth with Optimism in Dark Days. If you could explain. Sure, Chris.

01:19:55

When I heard that theme, I immediately, my thoughts ran to the gospel of Habakkuk, as I like to call it.

01:20:05

It's our practice in our church as we read through the Old Testament as part of our weekly worship services.

01:20:13

We're in the book of Habakkuk, and I can't think of a more appropriate text that matches up to your theme of standing firm with optimism in the midst of dark times.

01:20:28

Scripture is always to be taken in its immediate context, so the immediate application of Habakkuk, of course, is the pending invasion of Judea by the

01:20:39

Babylonians, but we can certainly draw lessons to our own day, and I just think of how that book opens.

01:20:48

Habakkuk's complaint, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear?

01:20:55

Destruction and violence are before me. Strife and contention arise.

01:21:01

So the law is paralyzed and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted.

01:21:12

That's a pretty good description, Chris, for much of what we see all around us in our day.

01:21:19

As we say, the foundation, the boundary stones haven't just been moved.

01:21:25

They've been pounded into dust and blown to the winds. So if Habakkuk faced similar circumstances, then his conclusion,

01:21:38

I think, gives us hope in our day as well. The beautiful hymn of Habakkuk that concludes that little book.

01:21:48

Though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food.

01:21:57

The flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the

01:22:04

Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God the

01:22:10

Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on my high places.

01:22:17

What a message for us in our day in America in 2021,

01:22:24

Chris. Amen. I would like to ask you the same question

01:22:30

I asked Senator Mastriano about how the Lord used your own military experience to help further mold and shape you and prepare you to be a servant of Christ in greater ways than you might have been able to serve otherwise.

01:22:49

Sure. I'm thankful whenever someone thanks me for my service.

01:22:56

My response is always the same. It's a privilege to serve. I have enjoyed my decades now in uniformed services and I think the

01:23:07

Lord has used that to discipline my mind and my body and then to place me in situations and experiences that have deepened my faith in Christ.

01:23:20

Anytime we're faced with our mortality and certainly being at war brings us up against the reality of our mortality.

01:23:32

It helps us to increasingly place our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. As one of my favorite authors,

01:23:42

Paul Tripp, is fond of saying we are eternity amnesiacs.

01:23:50

It's easy for us to lose our eternal perspective, but I find that life in uniform, constantly up against the reality of our mortality, keeps that thought fresh in our minds that today my life may be required of me.

01:24:10

Am I prepared? And so that and I think,

01:24:16

Chris, the camaraderie of uniformed service. You've heard it said there's no atheist in foxholes.

01:24:25

That has been my experience as well. I have often been able to pray with young Marines and sailors in various environments as they have expressed their fear of what we were facing.

01:24:41

My response was always the same. Well, let's pray. And whenever I'm praying with Marines and sailors, the two

01:24:52

Psalms, the two warrior Psalms, the 91st and the 27th are ever in my mind.

01:24:59

And so I'm thankful to the Lord for the opportunity I've had to serve our country and to serve the

01:25:05

Lord Christ as a Christian. We're in the cloth of our country. Praise God.

01:25:13

And we have Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania, who has a question for you.

01:25:19

He wants to know if you have any anecdotes to share with the listeners about fellow comrades in arms who came to Christ while you were serving with them in the military, either on the battlefield or otherwise.

01:25:37

Yes, Arnie, thank you for that question. My thoughts go back to one of my tours in Iraq.

01:25:46

I was there several times, but 2007 and 2008, I had a particularly hardened

01:25:54

Marine noncommissioned officer who very worldly by any measurement and serving alongside him in those days.

01:26:06

And I would say not primarily through my influence, maybe my example perhaps, but primarily through the influence of other believers in his immediate unit.

01:26:18

We saw him come to Christ in a dramatic fashion.

01:26:23

And what a joy it is to see a man walking in one direction and then to, as scripture says, the repentance to turn and walk and follow

01:26:38

Christ and the transformation of his life was a memory that I cherish.

01:26:44

And again, I would attribute that primarily to the other believers in his immediate vicinity.

01:26:53

But he has continued to walk faithfully with the Lord in the years since.

01:26:58

And so I am very thankful for his conversion and thankful that I was able to witness that sort of conversion.

01:27:06

Thank you, Arnie. One of the major aspects of our theme today is optimism, maintaining optimism as we stand firm for truth in dark days.

01:27:20

That can be very difficult because we have a problem as human beings very often, seeing beyond those things that are occurring all around us.

01:27:34

We tend to become very pessimistic. I even know post -millennialists who can be very pessimistic and down and depressed and aggravated and frustrated and furious.

01:27:48

How do we maintain that optimism without at the same time being self -deluded, even appearing delusional to others around us, perhaps unrealistic expectations that we may have, that kind of a thing?

01:28:13

Well, we see all these horrific things. I mean, there are new developments every day in the news about all kinds of things involving the abomination of homosexuality and transgenderism, so -called, and the loss of rights on and on and on.

01:28:35

Every day it seems that Bible -believing Christians are either losing rights legally or having cherished rights threatened to be removed.

01:28:48

Tell us, how can we maintain this idea of optimism, this attitude of optimism?

01:28:54

Yeah, I think that's a very pertinent question, Chris. I'm reminded of John 16.

01:29:03

Christ is speaking to the disciples there, and he says, be of good cheer.

01:29:10

I have overcome the world. That's a command, right?

01:29:15

It's not an exhortation. He's commanding us. And so I like to say cheerfulness is our duty as Christians.

01:29:26

But in the context of that passage, John 16 .33, that's certainly not a prosperity gospel, name it and claim it, heretical sort of cheerfulness.

01:29:41

Immediately previous to that, he says, in the world you will have not health and riches and happily ever after.

01:29:49

He says, in the world you will have tribulation. So Christ promises that we will suffer.

01:29:56

But the command is, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

01:30:02

So I think there's a sense in that we must be happy warriors, Chris. And the key to that,

01:30:09

I think, is to have an eternal perspective, right? We are pilgrims.

01:30:15

We are sojourners. And while we are called to fight the good fight here on life under the sun, none of us should imagine that this is the ultimate reality, right?

01:30:30

We are bound for a better city. Our sights are set on something better.

01:30:38

And so whatever we encounter, we should take seriously Christ's command for us to be of good cheer.

01:30:46

But I think the norm for believers in history is to face opposition and tribulation.

01:30:54

What Christians in America have experienced over a relatively short period of history is an anomaly, right?

01:31:01

That where there was some social capital in being a believer or being labeled a believer, that's not been the norm throughout history.

01:31:11

And so I think the norm is that we should expect tribulation. What Christ has promised us.

01:31:17

So how do we maintain our cheerfulness in the face of adversity? That's the real question for believers, right?

01:31:26

Amen. And we have Ronald in Eastern Suffolk County, New York, who says,

01:31:33

Sometimes people wrongly think that if you have an optimistic outlook, that you are lacking in your concern or your compassion for those around you who are suffering, or you have a flippant attitude towards a crisis or trial that those around you are experiencing.

01:31:54

How are we able to maintain optimism without giving that false message to those that know and love us?

01:32:02

Right. I think there is something to the idea that Christians, another command of Scripture is for us to be sober -minded.

01:32:12

We're to not be Pollyannish about our view of the world around us or of the suffering and injustice that we see.

01:32:22

There is a time for us to weep and lament. There is a time for us to be angry in a righteous sense, to be indignant about the evil that we see in the world around us.

01:32:37

But undergirding those, I think, must be a relentless fixation on eternity.

01:32:46

That every pain, when I wake up in the morning, every pain, every fever, every cancer, all of that should loosen our grip on this world, and we should be more spiritually minded.

01:33:03

I think, Chris, we expect too much of a world that can never deliver.

01:33:10

Why do we see the skyrocketing rates of depression and suicide and mental illness?

01:33:18

Because the world promises people what it cannot possibly deliver, and so they become disillusioned and despair.

01:33:29

Believers, we're looking beyond the momentary passing trifles of this world, and we must have a relentless focus on the prize, which, of course, is to hear our

01:33:45

Lord Jesus say, Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into my rest.

01:33:53

Amen. Amen. We have Susan Margaret in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, who asks,

01:34:00

What scriptural texts do you return to again and again when you are in the midst of a crisis or trial?

01:34:11

Well, you might find this strange coming from a marine, Chris, but I'm more fearful as I get older.

01:34:20

I guess the more you see, the more there is to be afraid of. So there's one of the most precious promises,

01:34:30

Isaiah 41 .10, which is also the second verse, I think, of how firm a foundation.

01:34:37

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, for I am thy God and will still give thee aid.

01:34:44

I'll strengthen thee and help thee and cause thee to stand upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

01:34:53

One of my duties as a marine is from time to time I'm called on to jump out of an airplane with a parachute.

01:35:00

And on one of my jumps not too long ago, one of the sergeants who was helping me out of the aircraft, he noticed that my lips were moving.

01:35:09

You can't hear anything in there. It's too loud. But he was asking me when we got on the ground, sir, were you rehearsing to yourself your jump procedures and emergency procedures?

01:35:21

And I said, oh, no, no, no, sergeant. What I was saying was, fear not, I am with thee,

01:35:26

O be not dismayed. Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed. Amen. So that and then,

01:35:35

Chris, the other scripture that comes to mind is from a book, Lamentations.

01:35:41

You know, everybody remembers verse 23 of chapter 3, that great is thy faithfulness.

01:35:50

But, you know, the verses preceding that are despairing in somewhat many ways, up through verse 20.

01:35:59

And then the turn comes in verse 21. But this I call to mind, therefore

01:36:06

I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

01:36:11

His mercies never come to an end. So there is Jeremiah on the verge of utter despair.

01:36:19

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. And as it ever should be for God's people, when we are at the end of ourselves, we are to call to mind not some mystical strength that comes from within ourselves, but the

01:36:37

Lord's promises that His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.

01:36:44

Great is thy faithfulness. Amen. I have repeated this verse many times on this program, and I know that just like many things that are true, they can sometimes be turned into trite placards, if you will.

01:37:03

They may be spoken to people with insensitivity, devoid of compassion and feeling.

01:37:12

They're just hurled at people sometimes when they're going through the midst of a trial. But that doesn't make the scriptural statement any less true.

01:37:20

And I'm talking about Romans 8 .28. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love

01:37:31

God, to those who are called according to His purpose. A lot of people quote the first half of that.

01:37:39

They stop at God causes all things to work together for good, period.

01:37:45

No, it's to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

01:37:50

Don't we have to, if we really want to put our money where our mouth is, as the saying goes, if we really want to believe in the scriptures where the rubber meets the road, another cliche, we have to even say the election of Joe Biden is going to work together for our good.

01:38:14

I don't mean everybody in the nation or the world. I mean everybody who is truly regenerate in Christ's church.

01:38:21

Everything that is occurring around us, that even is nightmarishly horrific, mind -bogglingly satanic, and on and on we could go.

01:38:35

We have to constantly remind ourselves that this too or these too will work together for good for those who love

01:38:43

God to those who are called according to His purpose. Don't we have to remind ourselves of that constantly? Absolutely, Chris.

01:38:52

God was not surprised by the election of Mr. Biden to the presidency of the

01:38:58

United States of America. The scriptures clearly tell us that the heart of the king is like a river of water.

01:39:07

He turns it which so ever way he will. And any student of biblical history sees how the

01:39:14

Lord raised up various pagan kings throughout history to be employed according to His purposes.

01:39:23

Nebuchadnezzar was an instrument of God's wrath poured out on the ungodliness of the

01:39:29

Israelites. So we can rest assured that there are no, again,

01:39:36

I quote Dr. Sproul again, there's no maverick molecules in the universe. Certainly there are no maverick world leaders that rise to a position of power.

01:39:49

And so we can rest assured that God is not surprised. God is not shaken.

01:39:55

His sovereignty is not called into question by the election of an ungodly leader.

01:40:01

And so God's people must view this as an opportunity for us.

01:40:07

As the darkness gets darker, light shines ever more brighter.

01:40:14

So I'm thankful that we have godly people who are willing to take a stand in the midst of increasing darkness.

01:40:23

May the Lord bless the light that shines. Amen. We have to go to our final break right now.

01:40:29

And if you have a question to ask, send it in immediately because we're rapidly running out of time. This is a shorter than normal break.

01:40:37

So send in your email to chrisarnson at gmail .com. chrisarnson at gmail .com. Don't go away.

01:40:43

We'll be right back with Colonel Kevin Gerard. Hello, dear ones.

01:40:53

My name is Justin Peters, and my friend Chris Arnson, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, and I are frequently blessed to share great times of fellowship with one another at conferences all over the

01:41:05

United States. We'll both be enjoying more fellowship together at the G3 conference in Atlanta, Georgia Thursday, September 30th through Saturday, October 2nd on the theme,

01:41:17

Christ is supreme over all. I'll be speaking there along with over 20 other speakers including

01:41:24

John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Votie Balcom, Joel Beakey, and James White.

01:41:29

For details, visit g3conference .com. That's g3conference .com.

01:41:38

Please join Chris Arnson and me September 30th through October 2nd at G3 2021.

01:41:45

This is Justin Peters reminding you that Christ is supreme over all. My name is

01:41:59

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01:43:25

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01:45:10

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01:45:48

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01:46:27

The mission of HBS is the preservation and public display of ancient scripture, dissemination of scripture, to provide tools equipping believers and Christian apologetics with evidence for the

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Since 2004, HBS has toured schools and churches throughout the Northeast United States, reaching thousands of people and thousands of believers and nonbelievers alike who are hungry for knowledge of the

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historicalbiblesociety .org. Make sure you tell them that you heard about them from Chris Arnzen on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

01:48:29

Colonel Kevin Girard, before we take any additional listener questions, I really want you to summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today on this theme that we have been discussing throughout the entirety of the program,

01:48:44

Standing Firm for Truth with Optimism in Dark Days. What do you want most etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners about that today?

01:48:52

I think, Chris, the key to that is reminding ourselves as believers that we are to be eternally minded, that any time we start to depend upon the things of this world to deliver ultimate satisfaction, ultimate joy, we're going to be disillusioned ourselves.

01:49:15

And so we can't fall into the trap of worldliness, which leads us to despair.

01:49:23

We must fix our gaze on the celestial city. And so with that thought in mind, right, believers are to remember that this is not our home.

01:49:36

We are pilgrims, sojourners, and that our joy is always to be viewed in the sense of ultimate joy.

01:49:45

I like to contrast happiness with joy, right? Too often,

01:49:51

Christians are fixated on happiness, the idea that we take satisfaction from the things around us.

01:49:58

Now, praise be to God that He provides good food and good friends and many things that might make us happy, but our circumstances should never affect our joy.

01:50:11

And so Christ's command, I think, is very appropriate. Be of good cheer.

01:50:17

I have overcome the world. We have an anonymous listener who has a question for you.

01:50:26

During these dark days that we live in, do you recommend and encourage people that you know to enlist in the military?

01:50:34

It seems, though, that the military is taking some official positions that are anti -Christian, anti -Scripture, a lot of it driven by intersectionality and the social justice warrior movement and critical race theory.

01:50:51

What do you have to say about this? And if you do still encourage people to enlist in the military, how do you do that?

01:50:59

Yeah, that's a great question. All of those evils, and they are most assuredly evils.

01:51:07

Intersectionality, critical race theory, critical theory in general. It's beyond just race.

01:51:13

It's critical theory in general, which is at root a Marxist idea.

01:51:20

And, of course, Marx himself, fascinated with Satanism of all sorts.

01:51:31

I just listened to one of Dr. Moeller's programs, Thinking in Public, about the devil and Karl Marx, a new book that's been published.

01:51:40

But to the immediate question, I think really it goes beyond should you enlist in the military.

01:51:48

Those challenges are going to face Americans in every vocation, not just military service.

01:51:56

I mean, you're going to be faced with similar challenges in law, in medicine, and in business.

01:52:03

And so the question for believers is, and the way I have approached this as a service member is,

01:52:09

I live out my faith very openly. I seek to be a good servant of those in authority over me.

01:52:17

And thus far, I've never been forced to say anything or do anything that is contrary to my values, my closely held convictions as a

01:52:31

Christian. And as long as I'm able to live out my faith vibrantly as a member of the armed services, then

01:52:39

I intend to continue my service. Now, I think for any person in uniform, should the time come when we must choose this day who we will serve, right?

01:52:52

Our choice is crystal clear. If our country reaches the point where it says you cannot be a

01:53:00

Biblical Christian, you cannot hold Biblical convictions and continue to hold any position of service in our government, then the choice for Christians will be crystal clear.

01:53:11

We choose the Lord Christ. Thankfully, those sorts of choices have not been placed in such stark terms yet.

01:53:24

Now, that day may come, Chris. You know, the stages of revolution is that which was formerly celebrated must be condemned, that which was condemned must be celebrated, and anyone who doesn't celebrate must then be condemned.

01:53:42

Now, we're not at that final stage throughout American civic life yet, but that day may very well come.

01:53:53

How much freedom do truly Bible -believing evangelical Protestant chaplains have in the military today?

01:54:01

How much liberty do they have to speak freely what their convictions are? Yeah, that's a great question.

01:54:08

I think it varies greatly. Chris, my experience has been the closer service members and chaplains are to interpersonal violence, to war, to killing or be killed, the more vibrant is the evangelical witness, right?

01:54:29

When you're faced with ultimate realities of life and death, many of the fairy tales of worldliness and false religion fade away, right?

01:54:42

Now, the further removed you are in the armed services from interpersonal violence, from killing or be killed, then

01:54:51

I think the more you see false religion flourishing and the more hostility there is to the gospel.

01:54:59

That's been my experience. To date, I have served alongside wonderful evangelical chaplains who feel very comfortable in sharing their faith, preaching and teaching the truths of the

01:55:17

Bible. Now, we have seen and we may continue to increasingly see those sorts of beliefs being challenged by those in authority over us.

01:55:29

My experience has been very positive. I've served with chaplains who are faithful biblical preachers and teachers, but I, of course, have read reports and seen that that's not universally the case throughout the armed services.

01:55:47

I suppose that my career as an infantryman, as an infantry officer, has led me closer to the idea of kill or be killed, and so there's not as much tolerance for foolishness when you're faced with those ultimate realities.

01:56:07

Now, there is an irony that is currently taking place those who are in leadership in godless, atheistic, communist

01:56:18

China, those involved in the highest positions of government there, have become highly alarmed about the feminizing of men in China.

01:56:34

Isn't it remarkable that in this land that we live in, where religious liberty still exists, that is based on Judeo -Christian belief and ethic, we have come to celebrate the feminizing of men.

01:56:55

Do you see this as being just as much a danger as the communist Chinese do? Yes, Chris.

01:57:03

As biblical Christians, we celebrate the differences between men and women.

01:57:08

We praise God for those differences, not better or worse, not weaker or stronger, but just simply differences.

01:57:19

And so I think what we'll see, it'll be interesting, even the Chinese communists acknowledge reality.

01:57:30

They're seeing it with their very eyes. And so I think that here in America, we're going to face increasingly, we're going to come up against reality that there are real differences between men and women.

01:57:48

And how do we wrestle with that? How do we reconcile that as a culture? I think the fairy tale that there are no differences between men and women,

01:57:59

I can't help but believe that still a majority of Americans would embrace that reality, despite the revolutionary push to abolish gender, right?

01:58:14

It's not gender assigned at birth. It's the gender recognized, right?

01:58:19

A doctor doesn't assign a gender. He looks at the anatomy and recognizes what's there.

01:58:26

And so I don't even like the idea of gender assigned at birth. It's the gender acknowledged at birth.

01:58:34

So we've got some major challenges in America. But I think reality in the end will triumph.

01:58:43

I have listened to those who call the transgender movement the transgender moment, because there's the hope that reality will trump this illusion that there are no differences between male and female.

01:59:01

That's a biblical truth, and no amount of revolutionary fervor will trump reality.

01:59:08

Amen. And we're out of time. I want to repeat your church website, GraceChurchDawsonville .org.

01:59:16

GraceChurchDawsonville .org. That's for Grace Community Church of Dawsonville, Georgia. GraceChurchDawsonville .org.

01:59:24

And let's not forget about a website of your lead pastor there,

01:59:29

Ray Rhodes, Jr., who is also an author. Go to RayRhodesJr .com.

01:59:38

RayRhodesJr .com. I want to thank you so much for being such a superb guest once again, Colonel Gerard.

01:59:44

I look forward to your return, and I hope that you all always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater

01:59:51

Savior than you are a sinner. Amen. Thank you, Brother Chris. Always a pleasure. Thank you, brother.