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Welcome to Radio Luke Solicit. I'm your host Steve Matthews. Thanks for joining me today. This is episode 24. I'm gonna call this news of note week ending 12 8 2018 yes, I'm gonna try something new here for this week's podcast.
I want to try to do a sort of Weekly news wrap-up. That's not something that I've done before. He's not done recently now I've done some of that in years past. I've done some blog features. I've done a few Podcasts, I think that we're basically Weekly news sorts of Wrap-up shows, but this is something that I'm going to try to do Lord willing on a regular basis going forward.
We'll see. I've always been a bit of a news junkie. So actually following the news and commenting on it is Really something that comes pretty naturally to me. It's it's sort of a natural area of interest.
I think that it's a work pretty well in a in a podcast format. One of the things that's a challenge I find in going through the the news of the week is not Finding enough to talk about but finding too much to talk about there's just so much interesting stuff going on in the world.
It's really hard to sometimes focus in on the the things that that maybe are of most importance. Especially to those who are the listeners here. So anyway, we'll give it a shot and see how this goes and I may tweak the format a little bit going forward.
But we'll we'll see what happens. Okay, so the the first story that I want to talk about this week is The is the stock market and you may have if you follow finances at all. You may have noticed it's been kind of a rocky week on the stock market.
And I think this Headline this was actually taken from CNBC. This is from yesterday Friday, December the 7th. There's a headline here in CNBC and it says stocks could be set up for another violent week of selling now.
They're talking about the coming week. So I'm recording this on December 8th 2018. So this would be the the week the Monday beginning Monday December the 10th is what they're talking about here and just a few bullet points that they bring out in this article.
The author says that stocks are set up to test recent lows in the week ahead coming off one of the worst weeks of selling. This year the S &P 500 was just two points above its November low a key technical area.
And was down 4 .6 percent for the week so the S &P the Standard Poor's 500 that's probably the most widely watched Index stock index US stock index, I should say. Among investment professionals is the S &P 500.
Probably most people who are not financial professionals. They probably look at the Dow now. I don't know how much the Dow was down this week. It was down probably pretty close to that. I don't know exactly but I think probably 4 .6 percent is probably pretty close for the the weekly decline on the Dow Dungeon's astral average as well.
The article continues here analysts be watching retail sales and inflation data but the most important developments for markets would be in US China trade relations and Treasury yields continue to move lower after the biggest one-week move in the 10 years since 2015.
Okay. So, you know the stock market and I have argued this Before in some things that I've read and maybe some even some commentary that I've done. That in my opinion the stock market is way overvalued.
I mean if you look at historical measures that are used to devalue the stock market. The stock market is far too high and the reason for that is because interest rates are artificially held far too low.
The stock market and in interest rates tend to move in opposite directions. So when interest rates go low stock prices tend to go high where as stock price interest rates tend to move up stock prices tend to come down and Not only has the the Fed the Federal Reserve the US Central Bank.
Not only has the Fed been raising interest rates here over the past couple years. But other central banks other major central banks around the world have been raising interest rates. And this is starting to it appears that this is starting to have its effect upon the stock market.
There are some very gifted Analysts that I follow who are very much concerned about major drops in the stock market.
And.
One of the reasons that that's given them for that is not just the interest rates that that's one thing that I think is certainly Going on here, but the underlying economy appears not to be doing particularly well right now for example the International Business Daily or the excuse me the Investors Business Daily.
I get this straight the Investors Business Daily has a headline says GM layoffs. The tragedy caused by embracing government subsidies not markets and in this particular article They talked about General Motors has recently announced a decision to close four US plants and lay off fourteen thousand seven hundred workers.
Now according to this Investors Business Daily article, that's 15 of its domestic workforce. Now interestingly enough the Investors Business Daily blames the GM layoffs on GM's embracing of government subsidies, of course, they got bailed out during the last big financial crisis in 2008.
And that may be some of it. I'm not going to say that that's not that that's not necessarily true. But I don't know that that's necessarily the whole story either because Bloomberg business predicts or make has a headline that ran this past week that says this it says Morgan Stanley predicts Ford to cut 25 ,000 jobs and overhaul so Ford which did not Take a bailout during the 2008 crisis Ford famously did not both GM and Chrysler took a bailout but Ford did not take a bailout and Ford's talking about an 11 billion dollars restructuring that could cost 25 ,000 employees their jobs.
So that's quite a bit more employees that may lose me lose their jobs at Ford. Which didn't take a bailout then is then Then are losing their jobs at GM which did take a bailout. So I'm not sure necessarily that the headline and Investors Business Daily really tells the whole story or maybe is completely accurate.
But the reason that I bring up those two stories. This is the fact that right there you're talking about very nearly 40 ,000 well-paying jobs, you know, these are not jobs, you know, this isn't low-wage type of jobs.
These are I think what you would call breadwinner type jobs. Well paying jobs for people and and these are appear to be on the brink of going away. We're talking about 40 ,000 of those now and of course when Ford and GM lay off 40 ,000 workers that's also going to have knock-on effects and Their suppliers and other supporting businesses that support those plans are also going to close down so there's gonna be a lot more than just 40 ,000 people losing their jobs.
And again, we're talking about jobs that pay well jobs that you can support a family on so the underlying economy appears not to be doing all that well and One of my favorite market analysts is a gentleman by the name of Dave Kranzler.
I think he does really good work. And and this is what he says. He says irrespective of the trade war the dollar index level interest rates and the price of gold. The stock market is headed much lower.
This is because notwithstanding the incessant propaganda which purports a quote booming economy in a quote. The economy is starting to collapse. The housing stocks foreshadowed this just like they did in 2005 2006 and he goes on he talks about how the Stock values the of the in the construction industry the home construction industry are going down.
So anyway, it appears that we are looking at a pretty significant slowdown in the economy. I take a look for instance at GE stock. I mean GE was not that many years ago is the most valuable company in the United States.
I Think right now Microsoft just took that title from Apple. But you know GE isn't even close to either one of those companies right now. And the stock is trading at I Think less than 25 of what it did maybe a year and a half ago is around a $30 stock.
It's down around $7 a share right now, and there's some talk about GE maybe going bankrupt.
Or.
At least you know having further declines in the stock value and G's having a hard time accessing credit. Lenders don't want to lend money to GE right now because it's really perceived as being pretty high-risk GE of all places.
I mean, we're not talking about some some small little company. This was a company that was one of the original components in the Dow Industrial Average going back to 1896. And they just got booted out of the Dow so they're no longer included in the the the Dow Index one of the most famous companies one of the really iconic industrial companies in in American history and In GE is in serious trouble right now, you know, we hope that that they're able to to write the ship.
But so here we go. We have GM for GE three major, you know historic American manufacturing companies all of them in Having some very serious difficulties right now. And it's kind of hard to look at those companies having those sorts of problems and say yeah, we get a booming economy.
Yeah, I don't think that we do. And well, this is something we'll watch a little bit closer. But I wanted to at least bring up a few of those things here for you to consider, you know. It's it's one of the things to you know.
If you've got this is something that concerns all of us because you know probably most of us or many of us anyway have some kind of stock investments whether it's something we own in a brokerage account or Maybe something in our 401k plans or other type of retirement account and when you see reports like this.
It's enough to make you kind of consider. You know possibly Maybe looking at something that's a little bit safer and I know that it certainly has made me rethink some things as I watch the. As I watch some of the struggles of some of these big companies and the struggles of the market overall at any rate.
That's enough of that for right now. Now moving on ahead another story that I wanted to talk about here and that is the.
UN.
Climate meeting in Poland. There was a Was an interesting article I found on on Breitbart From this past week. This is from December the 4th and it has a headline and it says Vatican stresses great sense of urgency to battle climate change and.
It goes on and it talks about an attitude of denial the perils of climate change must not prevail if mankind is to Successfully combat global warming. The Vatican's Secretary of State Warren Tuesday in his message on behalf of Pope Francis to participants in the UN's COP24 climate meeting in Katowice Poland, I guess I'm saying that right.
Katowice Poland Cardinal Pietro Parolin said that information from the UN's most recent climate change report is quote even more worrying given the current commitments Made by states to migrate mitigate and adapt to climate change are not sufficient to achieve the objectives set by the Paris Agreement in quote.
So these these Vatican ites are very much pushing hard for for climate control and One of the things that you have to understand it may be a question that you need to ask yourself is why? You know, why is the Vatican so interested in in climate change?
Why are they so interested in supporting?
The.
The Paris climate agreement. Well, the simple answer to that is this world government that is it's the same reason that they push immigration migration and refugee resettlement the way this is often stated as they say that the climate change is a global problem that requires a global solution and Of course the Vatican is very quick to pick up on that because the Vatican is all about creating world government.
The Vatican these guys are the original globalists and I've said this before I'm gonna say this again here one of the great frustrations that I have with media coverage of the Vatican when I say Media coverage.
I'm not just talking about the mainstream media, you know, the ABC CBS is NBC's Time magazine's Washington Post's New York Times. I'm not just talking about this. I'm also talking about even the the alternate press we're talking here about the Bloggers and youtubers and podcasters things of this sort.
You very rarely ever hear direct criticism of the Vatican. You very rarely ever hear them pointed out as being the ultimate globalists. I mean you hear some of these guys these these independent journalists.
Yeah, they're there talk a lot about the Council on foreign relations their talk a great deal about George Soros. They're talk about the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds. There were some of these other groups or people individuals that push globalism.
I'm not saying that those people aren't globalists. I think they're bad actors. But the ultimate bad actor in globalism I think the ultimate force behind this is the Vatican. These guys are just amazing and they parade their globalism around in broad daylight in nobody seems to ever want to Actually call them out to point out their desire for world government.
I want to read you something here and I want to do this will show to you the close connection between the Vatican support For the Paris climate agreement and world government. I'm gonna read for you a little bit of an extended quote.
This is from Pope Francis recent papal encyclical Encyclical Laudato Si. I believe this came out in 2015 so I'm gonna read this quote to you here and I think you'll get a sense of just how much the Vatican views climate change issues and world government as As being one thing.
So here we go quote the same mindset which stands in the way of making radical decisions to reverse the trend of global warming. Also stands in the way of achieving the goal of eliminating poverty a more responsible overall approach is needed to deal with both problems the reduction of pollution in the development of poor countries and regions.
The 21st century while maintaining systems of governance inherited from the past is witnessing a weakening of the power of nation-states. Chiefly because the economic and financial sectors being transnational tends to prevail over the political Given the situation.
It is essential to devise stronger and more efficiently organized international institutions with functionaries who are appointed fairly by agreement among national governments and empowered to promote imposed sanctions as Benedict the 16th has affirmed in continuity with the social teaching of the church and here Pope Francis is going to quote Benedict To manage the global economy to revive economies hit by the crisis to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis.
And the greater imbalances that would result to bring about integral and timely disarmament Food security and peace to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration. For all this there is urgent need of a true world political authority as my predecessor blessed John the 23rd indicated some years ago and.
Quote.
So there you have one Antichrist quoting a prior Antichrist who actually cited a prior Antichrist. So here's Pope Francis quoting Pope Benedict the 16th who was working in some concepts put out by Pope John the 23rd, but I want to read that the very sort of the end of that to you again.
This is again Pope Francis quoting Benedict the 16th in Pope Francis Encyclical of the auto see this is what what he quotes. This is what Francis says there is urgent need of a true world political authority.
That's global government folks. That's world government and these Vaticanites these guys parade this stuff around. And they don't even try to hide it. That's the thing. That's really amazing about it.
When you talk about the Vatican and global government a Lot of people seem to think oh, you know, that's just conspiracy theory, you know, blah blah blah. Well, no I mean these guys actually come right out and call for world government and everybody just kind of applaud and says yeah.
Yeah, that's really awesome stuff. And it doesn't seem like very often very many people are willing to actually point out the fact of what these people are really saying.
I.
Mean this is this is stock and trade of the teaching of the Roman Church State. This is the kind of thing that the Antichrist pushes now. I know not everybody wants to sit down and read a papal document.
Quite frankly reading papal documents are painful. So see this is my service to the body of Christ every papal documents and explain them so you don't have to read them. Although I would encourage actually I would encourage Christians to read them.
I think that it's important to understand and see how these Popes talk and. These guys are mega globalists and you cannot ignore this. I mean this stuff is in your face. So what the Roman Catholic Church sees in the environmental movement is a way for them to promote global government.
I don't think these guys really care about climate change. But it's a useful tool for them to advance their agenda of world government with the course Rome itself. Sitting at the top, you know the the woman wants to ride the beast.
Now I think it's kind of interesting to that over the the past week here. We've seen Riots in Paris. You've probably seen some of this stuff on the news. There's this group. They call themselves the yellow vests or or the yellow the yellow jackets and.
What they're doing is they're protesting.
Policy. The French government I guess to impose taxes on Gasoline which have really raised the price of gasoline in in France and apparently the motive behind doing this was to Bring the country into I guess lower the the carbon emissions in France and sort of bring the country into to Compliance with the the parents Paris climate agreement.
I'm going to quote here to you a piece from a gentleman by the name of James Corbett. Now some of you may not be familiar with James Corbett. If you haven't ever seen his stuff I would really recommend it to you and let me read this his quote here to you.
I think he does some very good work. This is a again a little bit of an extended quote here quote.
Yes.
It was just three scant years ago that we were treated to all the ballyhoo and tosh about the Paris agreement and how I was Going to save the world. Who could forget those scenes of the UN bureaucrats holding hands with the political fat cats.
Congratulating themselves for having saved the world by making the bold decision to control the world's temperature. Yes, the politicians that not elected UN bureaucrats can do anything they want cried the masses.
There are rulers after all. But how exactly do they intend to do this? Why. By appeasing the weather gods, of course came the response and it turns out the weather gods can only be appeased by giving more money to the government.
So dutifully mackerel and his government went about raising carbon taxes sending already sky-high gasoline prices in France rocketing into the stratosphere. There's just one problem with all this the people have decided that on the whole.
They'd rather not pay seven dollars and six cents good grief seven dollars and six cents per gallon gasoline per gallon of gasoline to appease those weather gods. In fact Levin had projected eight billion euro per year tax on a workforce already complaining about high unemployment and high taxes in order to Reduce global emissions of the life-giving carbon dioxide in a country that accounts for less than 1 of global carbon dioxide emissions.
Anyway, might just be a teensy-weensy bit unproductive. Endquote, so that's that's James Corbett. I really like James Corbett's work. I think he's one of the best researchers I've come across on the web now.
I don't think he's a Christian at least I've never heard him come out and say that he is. In following his work over the years I get a sense if I had to describe his politics and his thinking he's he's a libertarian.
But all that but for all that I mean as a libertarian, he's very much for for small government. He's very much for For liberty personal liberty and he's also very dogged in pursuing the truth you know, he's someone who has done some deep research into some things that a lot of people would consider to be conspiracy theory.
But if you read his work, you'll find that he does a really good job Substantiating what he has to say. He's not a hack journalist. He's a real journalist and he's one of the best most gifted researchers.
I've seen he does a lot of writing. He does typically at least one video a week and from time to time he will produce a series of Longer videos maybe things that are about an hour long or so. On a particular topic.
He's just recently released a series of videos. I think there's at least two that are out right now on World War one. It's really brilliant stuff and very nicely produced and I would recommend that you you check out his website.
It's called the Corbett report. And again, his name is James Corbett. And I've enjoyed his work over the years and I find that the more that I read him the more I really appreciate. Just what a what a brilliant guy he is and I think what a remarkable researcher he is and so as a Christian.
You know, I don't have any problem recommending reading his work To you, even though I as I said, I don't think he necessarily is a Christian. But I think he does really top-notch work. So again, I don't have a problem Recommending checking out his site.
So please do if you get a chance check out that's James Corbett at the Corbett report calm. Now another area of interest here this past week is Some some things regarding related to immigration, of course I've been writing quite a bit about that in particular things having to do with the Caravan that's been coming up from Mexico here over the past few months and is now sort of parked on the border.
It's been out of the headlines a little bit this past week I think it's kind of interesting. Of course how how stories can be like the most important thing on in the history of the world one week and we can and then Completely vanish the next week.
I don't know if you've ever noticed that but that seems to be the way it it often works well, anyway a few things that Came to my notice here this past week one of them was a story and this isn't exactly about the caravan, but it's more generally about the Immigration the whole topic of immigration.
This is something that appeared in the Washington Examiner.
There was a study done. In fact, I think this was the the US Census Bureau Census Bureau That where this information comes from the headline reads this it says census confirmed 63 of non-citizens on welfare 4 .4 4 .6 million households.
I'm reading through the article and I'll just quote from it here quote. Majority of non-citizens including those with legal green card rights are tapping into the welfare program set up to help poor and Alien Americans.
A Census Bureau finding that bolsters President Trump's concern about immigrants costing the nation in a new analysis of the latest numbers from 2014 63 of non-citizens are using a welfare program now, that's that's.
This is a real problem because one of the things we've been told about Immigration in the United States at any rate is that we have to have all these immigrants to come in because if we don't why they we won't be able to afford all the the Social Security benefits who's gonna pay for them the The retirement benefits of all these Americans who you know, these baby boomers and in people of this sort.
You know, we have to bring in all these immigrants, but yet we bring in these people and 63 of them are on welfare. Well, they're not in a position to support anybody. I mean they themselves are dependents and.
That 63 is after they've been in the country for five years. And it doesn't get any better because what it says here according to the these numbers from the US Census Bureau that the the percentage actually goes up to 70 for those who here ten years and more ten years or more and The the article goes on it says that that confirms Another concern that once immigrants tap in the welfare.
They don't get off of it. In quote. So that's a real problem. And of course, it's you know, the the problem is that the real problem here is the fact that it's just a welfare state. One of the biggest factors when we talk about immigration.
There's a there's an awful lot of ink that's been spilt. I know I've talked a lot about immigration myself, but one of the biggest problems is the fact that we have a welfare state here. I think it was.
Who was that those Milton Friedman, you know the Nobel winning Nobel Prize winning economist American economist Milton Friedman. He there's a quote I found by him a while back and it says it's just obvious that you can't have a welfare state and open immigration.
And I would agree with Milton Friedman. It's pretty obvious that you can't have that. Because I mean essentially what this is. It's just this giant magnet for people to come and go on welfare and get their you know.
That's a pretty sweet deal, especially if you're coming from some country. That's Maybe a third world country that has a very low income. You can come here and live on the welfare state and probably live better than you could in your home country.
You know and why not do that? I mean, that's really a problem. With the the system that we have set up in this country of welfare in my opinion as a Christian. As a scripturalist as someone who believes that the Bible is controlling the Bible has a monopoly on truth.
You know the Apostle Paul says, you know, the huge you will not work. Let him not eat. You know, there was no place in the Bible for the welfare state. There's no support in Scripture for socialism. And I don't say that to be mean.
You know, I don't think Americans should be on welfare. I don't think Americans should be on welfare. I don't think we should have a welfare state and completely disagree with that as a Christian. I mean one of the implications if you believe the Bible is you have to reject the welfare state but one of the implications when you bring when you add the welfare state is That you're there's a very good chance.
You're gonna get a lot of welfare immigration and This article really underscores that and again, it kind of refutes one of the main points that you often hear about immigration. Oh, well these people we need to have these people because they're gonna come in and they're supporting the economy.
And they're paying taxes and they're paying in the Social Security system and all this other stuff. Well, no, I mean it would appear that a pretty large percent of these people are actually in that drain.
So that does it does shoot a lot of it does shoot a great big hole in the argument. That are advanced by people who want to continue to defend the current immigration system that we have in this country.
Now for my part, you know, I'm someone who believes in In open immigration, but you can't have that when you have this massive welfare state, so I mean it's one or the other but the thing is some of these these liberal social justice warrior types and Certainly the people at the Roman Catholic Church and certainly some of these very foolish people at the evangelical immigration table seem to think that you can have mass immigration and.
Mass welfare and everything's gonna be great. It's a disaster. It's going to lead to a bigger disaster and this stuff has to stop. Another story that was in the news this past week had to do with this has to do specifically with the caravan and It's actually intersection of of a number of problems here.
There's a headline.
From.
Website called Patriot fire. Here's the headlines from December 5th. It says caravan woman gives birth to first anchor baby in u .s. And reading through the story quote a pregnant woman who spent Weeks traveling with a caravan of migrants gave birth in San Diego after crossing illegally into the United States to seek asylum.
Mary Uri was more than seven months pregnant when she left Honduras with her husband Miguel and their three-year-old son. The family spent weeks traveling north on foot and by bus until they arrived in Tijuana.
He was born here in San Diego Mary Uri said holding her eight-day-old daughter a US citizen by birth in an interview with Telemundo 20. Okay, so we've got several at least three major issues here a Sort of a nexus sort of a collection of three major problems with the welfare system or with the immigration system.
First of all, we have a problem with the asylum system. Donald Trump wanted to revise one of actually Did sign an executive order requiring those who were seeking asylum to come in through a u .s. Port of entry.
And I think that's a very reasonable idea. In other words, they couldn't just sneak into the country violate our immigration laws and say oh, hey, I'm an asylee but that's exactly what this woman and her family did they came into the country illegally and Then immediately they claimed asylum.
That's a problem. And I think that Trump's executive order was very reasonable in light of that. But what ended up happening? This is a second problem. And that is we have a judiciary that seems to really actually have Americans worst interest at heart because Trump's executive order requiring asylum seekers to legally come into the country.
Was overturned was yeah, it was overturned by the Ninth Circuit Court. I Said no, no, no.
No.
You can't do that If if somebody wants to just if they want to crash the border if they they come here illegally However, they choose to get here. Those people can claim asylum. Well, that's an abuse of the system.
You know is an American I'm glad that people feel that they can come to the United States and seek asylum but number one they need to do it in a legal fashion and number two they have no right to go on welfare and.
Of course, that's immediately what this woman did. She came here. She gave birth In San Diego, and I'm making an assumption here. The article doesn't specifically say this.
But.
I'm sure that that birth was probably charged the American charge of the taxpayers. You know when she went to San Diego went to the hospital to give birth. I don't think she probably paid for that. I'm sure that that the taxpayers paid for that and not only that.
But as an American citizen this child that was born. The parents can request welfare on her behalf and I'm sure that they that they will do so if they have not already done so. That is a major problem.
So you've got the issue of welfare. You've got the issue of the legal system really actually being against the American people. And then you have the issue of birthright citizenship and. And this whole idea of birthright citizenship is one of the most frustrating things there is.
For me there is no.
Logical moral.
Biblical sound reason why someone should be able to sneak in the United States have a baby a taxpayer expense and have that child declared an American citizen. Now I've covered some of this in in some of my writing some of my blog posts.
I don't think I've talked about this though in in any sort of a.
A.
Podcast or a video format. So in in in. Researching and thinking about the whole issue of birthright citizenship. I Think the guide that we really want to use again. We can go back to Scripture.
Now.
I'm gonna put on my Presbyterian cap here for a moment as I am a Presbyterian and and I believe. What the the Westminster Confession of Faith teaches about? Church and about how the church is defined in the Westminster Confession defines the church as adult believers together with their.
Children.
That's the definition of the church and in the the Westminster standards it talks about. There I asked the question that's in the longer catechism. That's the question about you know to whom is baptism to be administered and It indicates that Baptism is to be administered to Adults who give a profession of faith and to the children at least one of whom are both Parents one of whose or both parents are our church members.
So as long as either the mother the father is a church member that child is to be baptized so you've got two categories adults make profession of faith children are believers and If you apply that concept to national government and I believe that you can I mean think about this.
Civil government and church government were both created by whom and those are both created by God. And we find both of those institutions being set up in the scriptures so we can apply what the Bible teaches about.
Quote citizenship in the church if you will to also national citizenship, I believe the two are the same thing. Now I know some of my Baptist brethren are probably ready to throw rotten tomatoes at me.
And I know I'm arguing like a Presbyterian. But I do believe this and I think that you can make a very good argument for this. I'm my point here isn't to pan all of that out at this point. But maybe to throw this out to give you something to think about.
The whole idea of birthright citizenship is a farce. It's a scam. And it's something that costs American taxpayers a fortune and I believe as Christians I believe we can look to the Bible for a solution to that.
So, I mean if if if the church counts as members either adults who make a profession of faith or the children of Believers, I believe the same a concept applies to national citizenship. All right. So if you have at least one, so the child of at least one American parent is an American citizen in like fashion an adult who takes an oath of Loyalty to the US Constitution is also a citizen.
And those are the only two ways Legitimate ways that someone can become a citizen of the United States or any other country. It was either take a citizenship oath or be born to at least one parent who is a citizen you know this nonsense about coming into the Sneaking into the country illegally having a child a taxpayer expense and then presto change.
Oh instant American citizen for whom you can request all the welfare benefits Is ridiculous. There's a gross abuse of American citizenship. There's a gross abuse of the American people and it needs to stop.
Now Donald Trump talked a little bit about that when he was running for president. He hinted at it a little bit. But there was never really much follow-through and I also remember the week before the congressional elections.
This was back about a month ago leading up to the the the midterm elections. He also mentioned it again. Right before those elections now, I haven't heard anything about it since then. I don't know if there's really anything serious going on whether that was something he just threw out as Election fodder.
I don't know. But this is an issue that needs to be looked at and in my view any sort of immigration reform Has to include that if it doesn't include that it's a fraud. So that's about all I wanted to say about immigration for right now.
Moving on to maybe the final topic of the week was the the funeral for George HW Bush now I'm going to admit I'm not a big fan of the Bush's and I'm certainly not a big fan of George HW Bush. You know, he was he was a consummate deep stater and he was a CIA director.
I didn't really realize I didn't think that much about that back then. I voted for him back in 1988 and It's only been within the last few years that I've really come to. To appreciate the idea of the deep state the idea of the globalists.
I mean, of course, it was George W HW Bush who introduced Americans to the term New World Order. Interestingly enough I was looking at that this week and I found that the actual speech that he gave. Well, he talked about the New World Order was on September 11th.
It was on 9 11 1991. So it was 10 years to the day before 9 11 when the of course the The attacks on the the World Trade Center and the Pentagon took place so. Yeah, he's not one of my favorite guys he was a globalist.
He also lost his reelection and a lot of people will will talk about because he lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton. George Bush. George HW Bush 41 he was. He was a one-term president. He was was not reelected for a second term and most people think the reason he lost and I think this is probably a fair assessment is the fact that he reneged on his promise not to raise taxes during the Campaign in 1988.
He said he famously said read my lips no new taxes. And then he went and he added new taxes. Then he got voted out, which I thought was pretty fair. So no, I'm not a big fan of George HW Bush. And I'm not a fan of the Bush's in general.
I have to admit that and I'm a Republican. But anyway One of the things I wanted to comment on About that funeral was kind of a little an interesting dust-up with Donald Trump. There was During the the funeral that was held at the National Cathedral there was a recitation of the Apostles Creed and The cameras noticed that all of the people sitting around Donald Trump and I think that that was the the Obamas.
The Clintons all the people sitting around him went in and recited the Apostles Creed. While Donald Trump and Melania Trump didn't and here's a sort of a typical headline. I found this. This is from the Daily Mail.
This is your Christian evangelical president. Trump is slammed for not reciting the Apostles Creed during George HW Bush's funeral. It lists out some some just quick bullet points here. Donald and Melania Trump did not recite the Apostles Creed during George HW Bush's funeral on Wednesday.
Video showed the first couple standing silent alongside three former presidents and first ladies as they all recited the creed. Ivanka Trump also read the prayer despite having converted to Judaism. The Apostles Creed is considered Christianity's most core statement outlining the heart of Christian beliefs.
Trump has said he's a Presbyterian and grew up in going to a Presbyterian Church. Social media users pointed out the scene with some calling Trump a hypocrite for betraying himself as a devout evangelical Christian.
Okay.
So there are a lot of people who are upset. That Trump on the one hand says that he's a Christian and on the other hand did not recite the Apostles Creed.
So.
Here's my take on the Apostles Creed. I don't recite the Apostles Creed either and I don't refuse to cite the Apostles Creed because I'm not a Christian. I refuse to recite the Apostles Creed because I am a Christian.
I think there's some very good reasons not to recite the Apostles Creed and that's not big and by the way, it's not because I have an aversion of the concept of creeds or Confessions, you know as a Presbyterian.
I subscribe to the Westminster Standards. I Think they're wonderful. So I don't have a problem with the idea of having doctrine written down. A summary of doctrine written down. My problem is with the Apostles Creed itself.
I think there's some very good reasons for not reciting it now. I don't know why Trump didn't recite it. I Don't know that I've seen an explanation for that. So it's hard to say exactly what his his thinking was why he he didn't go along with saying that but I think there are Some very good reasons not to recite the Apostles Creed and and I'm gonna cite here.
Just gonna read a few bullet points from an article. This is something was published by the Trinity Foundation. Back in. Wow, I think it was maybe 2003. Yeah, it was April 2003. It's a a Trinity Review titled rethinking the Apostles Creed.
It's written by a gentleman named Clifton R Laux, I think I'm saying his his name correctly but the Apostles Creed. He actually gives a very devastating critique of the Creed and I want to read through for you just maybe a few of the the reasons that he gives.
Why this is a problem. He actually lists out 13 of them. But I'll read through three through these briefly. Number one the Creed is silent on Christ's satisfaction of the Father's justice. The term and concept of propitiation are absent.
The Creed is silent on Christ's substitutionary death. The term and concept of atonement are absent. The Creed is silent on the purpose of Christ's death. His death is mentioned but as in historical event without an explanation of its meaning.
Is not a Christian confession. The Pharisees also believe Christ died. Christians must confess Christ died for our sins. The Creed is silent on Scripture. In his summary of the gospel Paul wrote Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
How can a creed derive its authority from Scripture if it does not even mention it? Perhaps this is one reason why the Pope can confess the Apostles Creed to belief in Scripture is omitted. But belief in the Holy Catholic Church is included.
The Creed is silent on the inspiration of Scripture the authority of Scripture the sufficiency of Scripture the necessity of Scripture the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture the Purposcuity that is the clarity of Scripture the power of Scripture the coherence of Scripture, etc.
The Apostles Creed describes the Catholic Church is holy, but not the Word of God. The Creed is silent on the Trinity. Although all three persons are mentioned the unity of the Godhead is not expressed.
And only one person is confessed as God. The Creed is so vague that its confessors may believe in three gods. But that only God the Father is God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are lesser beings.
The Creed is silent on the gospel. The term and concept are absent. It makes no reference to the method and means of salvation. Salvation by the God's grace alone is not mentioned. The Creed is silent on justification by faith in Christ alone.
One would think that a creed would say something about justification and faith. The Apostles Creed does not. The Creed is silent on predestination and election. It contains not even a hint of an eternal divine plan for the salvation of God's people.
The Creed is silent on regeneration and sanctification the new birth and the Christian life. The Creed is silent on confession of sin to God and offers no definition of sin. The Creed mentions Pontius Pilate but silence on the person of the Holy Spirit.
I believe in the Holy Ghost not express much of anything. Would any listener figure out who he is or what he does. The Apostles Creed does not even say that the Holy Ghost is God. Amazing. Isn't it? I say amazing.
I meant appalling. The Creed implies that only the Father's Creator John says quote all things are made by him. The Logos End quote Job and the Psalms proclaimed the Spirit made the heavens and all the hosts of them.
So those were 13 reasons that Clifton Laux gave for or 13 serious Problems the Clifton Laux raised With the Apostles Creed and there was actually some other ones. But those are some nice bullet points that he provided for the readers.
I would really encourage you to read this article again. The title of this is rethinking the Apostles Creed. It's by Clifton R. Laux. His last name is spelled Loucks, it's available on the Trinity Foundation website, and I really recommend that you read through that.
I think it might give you a whole new Might make you see the Apostles Creed in a whole new light. Well that about wraps it up for this week. I want to say thanks very much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this podcast.
If you do, please let me know. I always enjoy Joy listener feedback. So hopefully like I say this format Lord will it'll be something that I can use moving forward in weeks ahead. Again, thanks very much for listening.
I really appreciate that and join me again next time for the next episode of radio looks lucid. Until then may the Spirit of truth guide you in all truth as you read and study God's Word.