WWUTT 2205 Q&A Discerning the Times, Trump's Near Miss, Who to Vote For

How can we be more discerning of current events? Was the near assassination of Donald Trump a sign that God is consecrating him?

And how can we know whom to vote for? The answers to these questions and others, when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the word, that we may be conformed to the image of Christ.

For more about our ministry, visit www .utt .com. Here once again is

Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Gracious, Becky. But a lot has happened in the world.

Oh, no joke. Since the last time you and I did a podcast. Yes. Which we'll talk about some of that.

It seems like quite a few of the questions we've had in the past few weeks have something to do with things that have been in the news in the past week.

Sure. But first, let's read from Proverbs. Yes. Proverbs chapter two. I'm going to begin in verse one.

My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, to make your ear pay attention to wisdom, incline your heart to discernment.

For if you call out for understanding, give your voice for discernment. If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of Yahweh and find the knowledge of God.

We'll just stop right there. That's five verses. But you see, if you do this, if you do this, then you will understand this.

If you receive my words, treasure my commandments. Now, of course, this is Solomon speaking to his son.

Right. But we're still reading here the word of God, right? It could every, every bit of this could just as well be

God, our father in heaven speaking to us and saying, if you receive my words and treasure my commandments, make your ear pay attention to wisdom, incline your heart to discernment.

If you call out for understanding, give your voice for discernment. So listen for discerning things.

Give voice to discerning things. Yeah. Listen to the commands of God. Do the commands of God.

Right. And this is speaking, of course, to believers wouldn't be said to unbelievers because they don't have the hearts to understand the word of God and do the word of God.

Right. Romans eight says those who are of the flesh cannot please God. They don't even have a desire to want to please

God. But to those who know the Lord and desire to hear his word and do it.

If you seek her as silver and search for her as hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of Yahweh.

At the very beginning of Proverbs, Proverbs one, seven, the fear of the

Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. What does that mean to fear God? Well, if you do all of these things, you'll understand it.

Yeah. You'll understand that when God commands something, when the God of the universe who created all things by speaking it into existence says something to you, you understand,

I better do that. Yeah. I better listen to that word and do it. Don't be Jonah. Trying to run away from God.

I'm going to go my own way. Didn't go well for him. It'll go worse for you. Yes, definitely.

And in this, you will also find the knowledge of God. Now, these are important things to keep in mind because you're going to hear that thematically even in the questions that we're going to have today.

So those very instructions are for each and every one of us to seek the

Lord in all things and do what he says. We are saved by grace through faith and not our works.

It is by the grace of God, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ by his death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead.

Faith is the vessel that God has chosen to transmit his grace to us.

When we believe in Jesus, then we receive all of the benefits of his grace. But you still have to work.

There are still things you must do. You're not saved by your obedience to God's commands, but a saved person will obey

God's commands. Right. So hear God's word and let's do what he says.

And therefore, in light of knowing what God has said in his word, we examine some of the things that are going on in the world that we may have a wise heart, a discerning heart, and we don't panic.

We understand the Lord is still in control of everything that happens. There's no reason to worry.

First Chronicles 1232 speaks of men of Issachar who had an understanding of the times to know what

Israel ought to do. And there are a lot of people out there who believe they are this.

Oh, yeah. We are these men of Issachar. We can read the times. We can tell you what it is that you ought to do.

And just because they have a lot of hot takes online or they might have a lot of followers or listeners or viewers or whatever else, that does not mean that they know the times and what you must do.

Yeah. There are plenty of people who are kind of the voices of our generation, the voices that will say things and people will listen to.

And just because they have that popularity does not mean that you should be listening to them.

Some of the most prominent voices out there are probably the biggest fools on the planet. Yeah. So we all have a responsibility to know

God's word and to test all things according to this word, not just listen to those who have their platforms.

Even I as a pastor should be tested by my congregation. And if I say something that is out of line, then those people that understand

God's word should confront it. Incidentally, I said something that was not correct the last time that we talked.

Last time we had a broadcast. And a friend of ours brought this to my attention. So we're going to go to the voicemail to correct me on something that I had wrong last time.

Are you ready for this? Sure. Do you even know what I said wrong? Not off the top of my head, no.

Well, here we go. Hey guys, it's your favorite anonymous cow. It's time for a little bovine intervention.

Nowhere in verses eight and nine of Galatians 1 will you find the word anathema.

Go look it up right now. It's not there. There is no anathema. Paul never says anathema in verses eight and nine of Galatians 1.

Now he does use the word anathema. So Gabe, I don't know where you're getting that second

N from, but it's pronounced anathema. And to us grammar

Nazis, you are anathema. Anyway, I just wanted to give you a hard time for your pronunciation.

It's a shame that an anonymous cow has to correct you on that. But hope you all are well and always enjoy the

Q &As. But it's anathema, Gabe. There's only one N in that word.

Come on, man. Do better. Love you. Oh, goodness.

Oh, and I don't know how many times I've done that, too. I say that all the time. Anathema. Yeah.

I don't say anathema. I don't ever figure out that that's what you said. Becky, see, see, this is the influence that a false teacher has over his audience that now

Becky's accepting this. That's right. It is true.

Oh, goodness. Yeah. Anathema. You know, and funny when I was listening to him do that, I was sitting here going, yes, he does.

That's exactly the word he uses in Galatians 1, 8, 9. Oh, funny. It was like, oh, anathema.

Yes. It's really a product of, it's not me not knowing the word.

It's a product of my lazy tongue. I just don't lift it up high enough. It's just anathema. That's just how it comes out.

That's the way that goes. Anyway, but I appreciate it, brother. Thank you for sending us that voicemail.

And by the way, if you want to send us a voicemail, go to www .utt .com.

You'll see the voicemail tab right there on the top. You can record it from your phone. Sounded like Anonymous was driving as he recorded that one.

You can send it from your phone, from your laptop. We would love to hear from you. If you have any questions you want to send to us that way.

Or the email address is when we understand the text at gmail .com. This is the

Friday edition when we take questions from the listeners. And as I said at the top of the program, some of these things have to do with events that have happened in just the past week, we recorded last week's episode on like a

Tuesday or Wednesday. Yeah, it was early. It was pretty early in the week. It was Saturday when

Trump was nearly assassinated. And I was in Texas at the time.

I was working on our house, our house in East Texas, which hasn't yet sold. Thank you for those who have been praying for us on that.

So Saturday, my son and I were just going to devote that day to working all day. And I had been kind of patching drywall.

And so I think it's what I was doing. I was in the garage. And then I just came in and sat down and I pulled my phone up.

And what was funny was I saw a comment from a friend of mine that just said all the comments said was, did

Trump just win the election? I didn't think anything of it that much. I was just like, okay, so he did something today.

Yeah. Caused attention. Yeah. Dropped a bomb or something, you know, some sort of slap to Biden. That's all

I thought. It was not a literal bomb for those of you who were worried. Yeah, right. He just owned

Biden with some comment or that's just kind of what I thought it was. Or maybe Biden did something stupid. Yeah.

And so I wasn't really paying that much attention. I just kind of was scrolling around and then started seeing the images of him on the ground of people picking him back up the image of the flag as he's standing there with his fist in the air and Secret Service agents holding on to him and blood on his face.

And I'm going, what just happened? Yeah. And then came to find that he was nearly killed and just by millimeters.

I mean, fractions of an inch was spared. That bullet that was shot at him and took off the top of his ear.

So praise God that he's okay. Amen. Yes. There has been a lot of crazy that has happened since then.

Of course, that event itself was crazy. People's reactions to it have been off the chain.

Yes. And we've got some questions about that. And I'm going to say some things here because the Republican National Convention was also this week.

Oh, yeah. And there were some ridiculous things that happened at the RNC. So I am going to say some things that will be fairly critical of that.

Okay. But then I'm also going to say some things about those people that are so overly critical of Trump that they cannot find anything positive about this at all.

So in case you are on one side of that divide and you hear me being critical and going,

I don't want to listen to this. Just hang on because we'll get to the other side. You've got complaints about both sides.

That's right. Well, and again, it's looking at this from a Christian worldview.

You don't just take things full value from the world. You have to always be on this side or always be on that side.

There will be some good things to find in stuff that happens in the world. And then there's the bad side of it, too.

And we have to react and respond to these things as discerning Christians that are discerning the times and desiring to honor

God in all that we say and do. So once again, the email address is whenweunderstandthetextatgmail .com.

This first email is actually a compliment. This comes from Ferdy. He says, good day,

Pastor Gabe and Becky. We thank God for your faithful teaching of the Bible. We listen to the podcast and I follow your series in Mark to lead our family in worship every night as we also work through the same book verse by verse.

We left the progressive charismatic church about five years ago to join a local reformed

Baptist church in South Africa. That's fantastic. That is wonderful. A church with a faithful pastor and elders.

So for the first time we get to be part of a biblical church body. Oh, praise the Lord. Now, in my sermon series on Sunday, I'm about to jump into Titus.

So we're really going to take some time as we go through Titus, too, to consider things like what does a biblical church look like, which we've considered going through 1st and 2nd

Timothy. But as I come back into the qualifications for elders in Titus 1, 5 through 9, we'll also talk about polity.

What's church polity? Right. What is a biblical view of polity? So be listening for that if you're interested in understanding, hey, how does a biblical church function?

We'll consider those things. That'll be in the sermon portion of the broadcast, which is on Sunday.

So Ferdie goes on to say, a couple of weeks ago on a Q &A, you did a piece on false miracles of healing and speaking in tongues.

In a particular instance, there was a translator who didn't interpret the babbling, which

Becky promptly pointed out. You remember this? Yes. Man, that had me in stitches for some time.

Here, an ordinary Christian of sound biblical understanding showed the error of their ways with fantastic discernment.

Logic in the Berean style. She compliments your own work very well, and you make an excellent team.

Oh, thank you. I agree. We do really good, too. We will continue to pray for you and your family.

And if God wills to enable you to continue faithfully. Sure. I sure appreciate that,

Ferdie. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Now you might want to plug your ears for this next part. I'm not sure, but we just passed.

We just passed 4 million downloads of the broadcast.

Oh yeah, I should have. I didn't know where you were going with that. We're talking politics.

We're talking churches. We're talking discernment. And then I just dropped that one on you. There you go.

Truth bomb. Well, I mean, that's wonderful. Yeah.

Thank you so very much. I don't want to think about how many people are hearing me.

And by the way, if you leave us a review, it helps other people to find the program as well.

And we just got a couple of new reviews. This one says it's from Jeff and he says great expositional

Bible study. No one is doing a Bible study podcast like Gabe. I don't know if that's true, but I, but I appreciate it.

I've listened to every single one from the very beginning. He gets to the author's intent in each book.

He goes through, uh, and engaging well in a well -studied manner. And the

Friday Q and a is a lot of fun, especially when his wife, Becky joins him. There's more to that comment, but that that's as far as I can read, at least on the thing that I copied down.

Okay. And then another person left a five -star review and said, exposing the truth verse by verse, never missing a beat.

Awesome podcast. Highly recommended. That's awesome. So whatever podcast app you use to listen to us, whether it's pod bean, which is the, it's the podcasting service that I use to host all of our podcasts or you use apple or you use

Spotify, whatever it is, leave us a five -star review. Keywords in there like Bible study and things like that will, will help other people find this particular broadcast.

Yes. So we thank you for listening and for telling other people about it. Cause that's how knowledge of our existence has spread.

It's just simply been by word of mouth far and wide now on the Thursday episode, which

I do an old Testament study. We just finished up Isaiah. I apologize for yesterday's

Isaiah study for being late, but it was a combination of a couple of things. Me being in East Texas, one of them.

And then the other that I really did not know what to do. So I, we just finished

Isaiah. I decided to answer a couple of questions at the end of that study.

So it was kind of like some closing remarks after having spent over a year in Isaiah. I don't just want to jump into Jeremiah.

Because that's another 52 chapters. Yeah. So we'll be in Jeremiah again, it'll be an old

Testament book that we'll be in for over a year. Okay. Not, not again. Again, I haven't done

Jeremiah. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. It's it will be another old Testament book that'll take more than a year.

So I'm going to do Hosea. Okay. That's where I'm going to go next. Awesome. I decide maybe I'll intersperse some minor prophets in between doing the, the major prophets, which there's not technically major and minor prophets.

They're all just the prophets, but nonetheless, I'll go to some of the shorter prophetic books and we'll kind of pepper those in between.

Some of them are a little bit more wordy. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. A little more to them. Jeremiah and Ezekiel, or they're both going to take us a long time to get through.

Yeah. And after Jeremiah, I'll do lamentations. That's a little bit shorter. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. Great books. Of course. I mean, God wrote them. What are you going to say?

I don't really care for this one so much. Yeah. Some are harder to understand, but still all great books and whatever one

I'm studying at the time, that's my favorite book. Yes. So loving Mark right now, loving that I'm getting to jump back into Titus with my church too.

I was thinking about this while I was driving, while I was coming back from Texas, I was listening to several introductory messages to Titus.

So John MacArthur, oh my goodness. He's his series on Titus, I think is maybe a year.

He has, he's going through like a verse and a half at a time through this series.

So yeah, it takes way longer. And then I listened to several others pastors you probably wouldn't recognize, but, but listen to introductions to Titus and maybe through like the first few verses or something like that.

And I was thinking about it while I was listening to all that kind of preparing in my head to what my outline is going to look like when

I do my introduction to Titus on Sunday. I've taught in this book more than any other book of the

Bible, Titus. Yeah. So I've preached, I've got so many notes in my Bible. Oh, okay.

Yeah. Like you get to Titus and you're like, okay, Gabe has done this one a few times. Yeah. I've actually, um, I put the year on which

I'd be curious to see different color. Becky's journaling

Bible's full. We now have to get her another journaling Bible just to do Titus. But I've co -preached through it twice.

So with another pastor, he and I doing it two times, this will be my third time to do it myself.

And I've done several other Bible studies in Titus where I've led groups doing it.

I remember this would have been about 10 years ago, but I had, uh, led a middle and high school group through Titus in Jetmore, Kansas.

Oh yeah. Look that went up. Yeah. See if you can find Jetmore on a map.

I was, uh, it was while I was a pastor. Gotta zoom in. Little bit. I, uh,

I was still a pastor in Junction City at the time. And the gal that was kind of leading those groups of teens had called me up and said,

Hey, we want to, we want to do something for our teens. Can you come and teach us? And what would you do? And I did

Titus. So we did, uh, three big sections or three big sessions rather, where we went through a chapter of Titus at a time.

Last year, I led a revival at a church. They were calling it a revival, but it was just like intensive teaching for a week or something like that.

And Titus was the book that we ended up going through. We preached through, uh, Tom and I preached through it last year at FBC.

So anyway, yeah, I've been through Titus a lot. So this is great.

I'm going to finish Titus. I'm going to, it takes a little bit of time, but not a whole lot. I'm not going to drag it out because we do want to get to Romans this fall.

So we'll spend a few weeks in Titus looking forward to that. And yeah, like I said, you'll get, uh, you'll get some stuff in there too, about church polity and eldership and, and, and in addition to all of the other instruction that comes with having sound doctrine, because if there's any theme to the book, it is that your doctrine in your life go together, whatever you believe, whatever teaching that you're listening to, it is going to affect your life in the way that you live.

And that's what Titus is about. These instructions that Paul gives to his servant Titus on the island of Crete.

Well, that's it. And that's adding into all the other Bible studies that we're doing still continuing Mark, which will be on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Yes. All right. Let's get to some of these, uh, more current event kinds of emails that we got. This one comes from Tash.

In fact, what Tash sent to me, you sent to me a couple of days, a couple of days after this assassination attempt.

Incidentally, uh, here's a fun little bit of trivia for you. William Shakespeare invented the word assassination.

Oh, really? Yeah. Use that one at your next Jeopardy party. So the, uh, this is why

I don't play trivia with you. I love you. I don't want to play trivia.

So you had sent me this a few days after the assassination attempt, there were just all kinds of weird

Bible twisting that was going on. Of course you got to figure there were false prophets that came out.

Yeah. Some people were trying to claim that they had predicted this and all different kinds of things. So this one from Tash says the following.

I saw several versions of this, but it, but this is the one that was circulating on Facebook. This is the one that Tash sent to me anyway.

He says, my brother sent me this and asked for my opinion. I sent him my opinion and also was wondering yours. I'm hoping that you can read and reply on your

Friday edition so that I can forward him your podcast for a response. You can also, uh, respond to this email if you like.

Okay. So here we go. This is from a, well, a name I cannot pronounce, but he says the following in the

Bible, the concept of blood on the right ear, Leviticus 8, 22 to 24 and 1428 serves as a visible mark of consecration signifying that the person is dedicated to God's service and has been set apart for a specific purpose.

This act represents a physical and spiritual transformation, preparing the individual for their sacred role.

Here's a breakdown of the significance. Okay. So before getting to this, as you understand it, President Trump had just barely moved his head when the shooter tried to take his head off.

And because of that small gesture, moving his head a span of two to three inches saved his life.

Yeah. The bullet nicks the top of his ear. He goes down. There were people in the stands behind where Trump was, or at least to his left that ended up getting hit by those shots.

Two people were injured. One person died. Yeah. And incidentally, Matthew Everhard, who is a

Presbyterian minister, I've interacted with him on Twitter slash X a few times.

He posted something just a day or two ago in that someone sent him a note on Facebook about how his church had been reviewed by Corey Compertory, who was the man who died from a bullet meant for Trump and hit him instead.

And incidentally, Corey jumped up and shielded his family. He was a fireman and he died protecting his family.

And so he attended Matthew Everhard's church a few years ago. This was shortly after COVID.

And he wrote the following review online. If you have read my post last week, searching for a church that COVID -19 hasn't destroyed,

I was led to one from the comments in which I visited today. Gospel Fellowship, PCA, Presbyterian Church of America.

We were greeted by a friendly and welcoming man at the door with a handshake and a bulletin and a few kind words, then a young woman named

Kelly recognized a few new faces and came over to introduce herself and welcome us, also with an extended hand.

She explained to us the choir singing at the time and welcomed us to join if we so chose. There were ushers for the collection and we were served communion as it is meant to be received.

Because remember this was when COVID was going on, so people were doing like weird restrictions with communion and stuff like this.

Or not doing it at all. Right. Yeah. It was refreshing to finally attend a church service in that way again.

I have missed that greatly. So thank you to Gospel Fellowship, PCA. I would also like to continue visiting some of the churches that people have invited us to in my last post here.

Matthew Everhard went back to his files and he found the visitor card that Corey and his family had filled out when they came in November of 2021.

Now, my understanding was Corey was a Christian man. He was a believer. He gave his life, literally gave his life for his family to use his body to shield his family from getting shot and gave his life as a result.

So may the Lord bless that family and his sacrifice. And I pray that the gospel message is able to be preached in his memory.

They've already had a memorial service and everything like that for him. Tragic that this attempt on Trump's life did end up taking somebody else's life.

But we pray that the gospel of Jesus Christ continues to be spoken even in the midst of such a tragedy.

Amen. Now I've deviated from the email here, but that is to say that the rest of what we're going to read here is not the gospel.

It is a twisting of scripture. Right. So being aware of some of these things that are going on.

And then in addition to this, after looking at this, I want to look at some of the other ways that scripture has been twisted following this assassination attempt.

Well, to be clear, I have not read through this. I just saw brief about it and where it was going, and I just screenshot it and sent it to you.

So I am completely in ignorance over this. Well, Christian friends of ours are sharing this.

Yes. And it just makes me want to go, guys, come on. You know, you got to know.

Yeah, I'm just praying that they're sharing it in like a look at this kind of thing.

You know, like this is ridiculous. Not as an. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Like they're sharing it because it's absurd. Right. Right. Not because they believe it. Right. I'm hoping.

So Trump has a bloody ear because the bullet had just barely missed his head, nicked him on the ear.

There's a picture of him being led away by secret service where he's got blood on his ear and on part of his face as well.

And so this person is talking about here's what blood on the ear, according to Leviticus eight and 14, represents right ear.

The right ear represents hearing and obedience. In ancient times, the right ear was considered the most important ear as it was the ear that heard the words of God blood.

Blood represents life, sacrifice and atonement. In this context, the blood is a symbol of purification and consecration.

Consecration means to set something or someone apart for a specific purpose, making it holy and dedicated to God.

In this case, the blood on the right ear signifies that the person is being set apart for a sacred task or role. Priestly consecration in Leviticus eight, the blood is applied to the right ear of Aaron and his sons, consecrating them as priests.

This act sets them apart as mediators between God and the people. Purification in Leviticus 14, the blood is applied to the right ear of the person being cleansed, symbolizing their purification and restoration to the community.

All right, let's go to Leviticus eight verses 22 through 24.

Then he brought near the second ram, the ram of ordination and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram and Moses slaughtered it and took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.

He also brought Aaron's sons near and Moses put some of the blood on the lobe of their right ear and on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot.

Moses then splashed the rest of the blood around on the altar. OK, what is this representing here?

Blood that is put on the lobe of Aaron's right ear. It is correct what is being said in this circulated post that the ear is supposed to represent that Aaron would hear the word of God and would do what

God's word says. So there's blood, the consecrating blood. And of course, the spilling of blood is for the forgiveness of sins.

Right. There is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood. And so the blood is spilled.

Of course, it's pointing to a greater sacrifice, which is Christ, because as said in Hebrews, the blood of bulls and goats didn't have the power to forgive anybody of their sins anyway.

Right. So the blood is taken from the from the ram. It is put on Aaron's right ear, consecrating his ear, symbolizing that he would be one who would commit himself to God and listen to his word and do what it says.

He would also have blood put on the thumb of his right hand. And that symbolized that the works that he did, what he committed his hands to would be done in service to God.

Even his works would be of God. And then on the big toe of his right foot, symbolizing that he would walk in God's ways and obey his statutes and do all that God had told him to do.

So you have blood on the ear, blood on the thumb, blood on the right foot. OK, this is the way that the priest, the way that Aaron and his sons were consecrated and put into service in the tabernacle of God.

Later on, the reference to Leviticus 14, that had to do with somebody who was being cleansed, having previously been announced as being unclean.

And now that they are clean, there was the same blood marking that symbolized that they were clean.

OK, how does this apply to Trump at all? Well, I mean, wasn't it Aaron who made the golden calf?

OK, not where my mind went on that at all. But yes, it was him.

That was before this, though, awfully red. Yeah, that was before this consecration act.

Yeah, that was OK. So now that that's over and done and whatever. Yeah. So now he's marked holy.

Yes. OK. He's set apart now for the service that is going to be done in the tabernacle. Yeah, nothing.

I got nothing. Yeah. It doesn't have anything to do with Trump. Yeah. Do you know what the blood on Trump's ear signifies? That he was shot.

Yeah, exactly. That he just barely missed being killed by a sniper. Yeah, that's what he was still shot.

That's what his bloody ear represents. Yes. He still got shot. He did. It just wasn't a mortal wound.

Right. It wasn't something that crippling. Yeah. I mean, the again, the slight gesture that he makes when you see the video renderings that people have done, like there's been a version of looking at Trump's head from the top down.

And somebody did this on a computer and it was like following every gesture that he makes as he's talking.

And they draw a line of the bullet's trajectory. The shooter had him.

He was dead. And it was right as he was pulling the trigger that Trump just moved his head down and to the right and in moving his head down this direction, looking this way, moves out of the trajectory of the bullet, which ends up getting his ear instead of going through his head and killing him.

I mean, all of this by the providence of God. Oh, amen. God's hand over this to protect him and really preventing what would have happened in this country if the shooter had been successful?

What would the what would the aftermath and the response to that have been? Oh, it would have been awful. It would have been chaos.

Yeah. Some people are chaos. Some people are saying, you know, we were like inches away from a civil war.

I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, with some of the people and how passionate they're reacting right now.

Yeah. Like it would be some serious there'd be consequences like serious consequences.

Now, there there has been some neat patriotic response. Mark Zuckerberg, who is the founder and owner of Facebook.

OK, there was an interview that I saw with him in which he said, when you see that image of Trump standing up with his fist in the air and the

American flag over him, even Mark Zuckerberg said, it's really hard not to get into the spirit of that moment.

Yeah. I mean, there that is American patriotism. Yeah. And it's something that we kind of felt like we were all losing.

Yes. Desperately. And then Trump recovering from this and standing up and putting his fist in the air like that, it is it gives you the feels, you know, it gives you that chill of like, see, this this was the patriotism that we loved in America, that we felt like we were losing and recaptured in this very moment.

And even in that day, there was a man who gave his life to protect the people that he loved. And so the moments like this can be celebrated in a way that's healthy and good and energizing for a country.

But there's also a religious fervor that has been stirred as a result of this that has led to some very unhealthy interpretations.

And this Leviticus 8 interpretation is one such example. But there have been some others.

Oh, there have. Oh, there have been more than this. OK, now listen to you. Do you want to explain any more to that Leviticus?

No, that's it. We'll be done with the Leviticus. OK, just check. Right. The before we moved on,

I wanted to make sure we wrapped it up. So I mean, it's almost like the way that people will interpret these kinds of things. If Trump had blood on him anywhere, they would have found something.

They would have found a reference in the Bible to it. And to see this is says right here in the Bible. Yeah, that is not how we interpret these passages.

No, that's pure eisegesis, which is when you impose your meaning onto the text.

Right. You're not drawing the meaning out of the text. You're imposing onto the text what you want it to mean. Yeah, it's kind of like, oh,

I want it to say, I think the Bible makes me feel like it says this.

Let me find a verse that says something close to that and then I can make it that. Right. Now, listen,

I am thankful that Trump is OK. I am thankful that he did not die.

And as you've heard me say on this podcast in previous weeks, I hope he beats

Biden. Yes, he would be a better president than Biden has been, most certainly.

But that does not mean doesn't mean I think Trump's a Christian. We have not seen anything after the assassination that has indicated that he's repented of sin, that he's put in his trust more fully in Christ.

Nothing has been indicated that way. In fact, at the Republican National Convention this past week, there was a a

Sikh prayer that was lifted up to their demon god, who is not the god of the Bible, even though the

Sikhs claim that they worship one god. That one god is is an incarnation or believes in incarnation that we would be incarnate reincarnated into other creatures.

OK, it's reincarnation, not incarnation. We believe in the incarnate God who is

Jesus Christ. Reincarnation is coming back to life as other beings or creatures. So this is not the

God of the Bible. And this was a prayer that was offered at the RNC. I made a comment about it on X.

There was also the the woman, Amber Rose, who is an atheist.

She's a feminist pro abortion. And she has an organization that I won't even say the name of on this broadcast.

But it celebrates sexual immorality. And this woman was platformed at the

RNC to give an endorsement of Trump. Wait, what? Now she can be a Republican if she wants.

She can cast a vote for Trump if she wants. But to platform an individual like that, as if this is somebody credible that should be listened to.

Right. We and of course, we know from the Republican platform that was put out a little over a week ago, they are now softening their position on abortion.

Mm hmm. They have softened their position on gay marriage. Yeah. And from what I understand,

Trump's speech on Thursday night did not even mention gay marriage or abortion.

Like they didn't they they're not even making those platform issue. Yeah. Wow. They're not making those platform issues anymore.

So we're seeing the Republican Party go more liberal.

Even more. Yeah. There is nothing here to indicate that Trump has some sort of consecrated hand upon him that is setting him apart for some holy work, which is what the blood on the ear and the thumb and the toe represented for the priest in Leviticus eight.

Well, I've told you in the past that every time there's a presidential election that year, people just go berserk.

Of course. Like they just lose their minds completely. And I don't get it. Like we're still under God, first and foremost.

So and he has control over everything and he will win no matter what happens.

Amen. So even if we are going to be disciplined during this time of rebellion, then we're going to have to deal with the consequences of us being disciplined during this time, unfortunately, whenever he gives us over to our depraved minds and whatnot.

And yeah. And speaking us in the general sense, not you and I. Yes. General general U .S.

Not the church. Entire United States that can vote for presidential election. So, yeah.

But people just go just bonkers. It's like a religious experience.

He is seen as being a savior like figure. Yes. Even though, you know, it's election or both times.

Well, three times, three times, three times. But was he the that first time he's been running for president for like more than three?

Yeah. Well, over 12 years. OK. But the first time that he was elected president in 2016.

Yeah. So in 2015 and 16, I was saying then Trump is not the blessing of God on this nation.

He's a judgment. This man was never pro -life.

Right. Just by the grace of God, he kept a campaign promise that he was going to elect justices to the

Supreme Court that we're going to overturn Roe v. Wade. And that happened. I did not vote for him in 2016.

I thought the whole thing was just a complete con, like a sham. This man who had been friends with the

Clintons for years. Oh, yeah. Was running against Hillary Clinton. Yeah. And I'm like this.

It's like we're getting the same person on the Republican ticket or the Democratic. Yeah. So I didn't vote for him in 2016.

I did a write in now in 2020. I did. And it was because I saw that he was keeping his campaign promises.

I saw that those four years were better than I thought they were going to be. And so he was better than Biden.

And so you and I both voted for Trump. It was like the the second to last day that we were in Kansas.

Yeah. We went voting. That was our date. That was our date night. We went out and voted and then we moved to Texas.

And there were jokes about, you know, you could vote again. That would be voter fraud. We didn't do that. We did not. So but anyway, yeah, we did vote when our last couple of days when we were citizens in Kansas, before we ended up moving to to Texas.

I did vote for him then. And then if you if you know from the Saturday special that I did a couple of weeks ago,

I made an argument for why a Christian can vote for Trump with a clear conscience.

Now, if you feel like because of the RNC's position on abortion now, or that they're accepting of gay marriage, if you have a problem now with the fact that the

RNC has become the DNC, it's just it's two versions of Democrats, one just slightly more conservative than the other one.

So if you're feeling such conviction over that, that you don't think that you can vote with a clear conscience, then don't vote.

Yeah. You don't go the other way, though, and vote Democrat. Right. And every time

I've made a criticism about voting for Trump and saying like you, Christians need to understand that there are some people that are not comfortable voting for Trump.

And you just need to accept that. Whenever I've said something like that, don't cause division over this. Right. The response that I'll get back will be, well, what are they supposed to do?

Vote Democrat? No, I've never said anything about voting Democrat. Absolutely not. There are other options there.

And there are plenty of other offices that we need to be voting for.

There are other things that are going on. Yes. There might be certain bills in your state that might have to do with abortion or marriage or something else.

And you need to be aware of what's going on locally so you know how to vote in that election. It's more than just the president.

That's just what gets all the attention. Right. But if a person cannot vote for. Trump with a clear conscience,

I mean, you just need to accept that. And again, not cause division over that. And I have this coming up as a question here, and it's like I'm responding to it already before we get to that question.

Well, why don't you go ahead and read it? We're a little all over the place. We are. But continuing on with some of these things that where people are like twisting the

Bible. OK, yeah. Into, hey, look, this this was the Bible said something about this assassination attempt or whatever.

And we listen to this. This is from a pastor whose name I don't have. But listen to what he says about about what happened.

Did you know that President Trump was shot on 6 -11?

And do you know that Ephesians chapter number six, verse number 11 says, be strong in the

Lord and in his mighty power. That was at the

Republican National Convention. What? And again, I missed that pastor's name.

But what he said, he said that he was shot on 6 -11. It was the time was 6 -11.

It was at 6 -11. It was when he was shot. And that just didn't sound right. Right. So Ephesians 6 -11 says, put on the full armor of God so that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

OK. And he's trying to attach that as a yeah, as like a sign of Trump being saved from the bullet.

But the verse goes on to say, Ephesians 6 -12. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm.

And then you have the armor of God. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

In addition to all, having taken up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Also receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times with all prayer and petition in the spirit.

And to this end, being on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.

Does any of that sound like it has anything to do with what happened with President Trump?

No. And this is not a man who demonstrates putting on the shield of faith or the helmet of salvation or girding his loins with truth, even though he owns

Truth Social, the social media account that he started. Oh, funny. Just because he has a social media website called

Truth Social doesn't mean the man is fully devoted to truth and putting on the breastplate of righteousness, having the gospel of peace on his feet.

These things do not describe Trump. And this is a twisting of the word. It's it's like using the

Bible as a fortune cookie. Yeah, definitely. Or just finding the little verse that goes with our little situation.

And oh, look, the Bible said something about that at 6 -11. He was shot. And so what is

Ephesians 6 -11 say? Well, why Ephesians 6 -11? Why not Genesis 6 -11? Because I don't think anything else matched up well enough.

Well, Genesis 6 -11 says now the earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence. Oh, well, there you go.

That would be more accurate. Or how about Ecclesiastes 6 -11?

For there are many words which increase vanity, like these people who take these

Bible verses and attach them to this assassination attempt. Galatians 6 -11, the

Apostle Paul saying, see what large letters that I write this letter with. Really doesn't have anything to do with that.

Chapters and verses in the Bible are not divinely inspired. No, they were added much later.

They've only been around for a few hundred years. So you can't be looking at a number and think, oh, yeah, look at the coincidentally or by the providence of God, these things just happen to line up.

And it's not the chapter and verse numbers don't speak to anything. They're used as reference markers.

Right. So that you can find your place where you're reading or studying from in your

Bible. That's the whole purpose. That's the reason why they're there. But when the Apostle Paul wrote to the

Ephesians, he didn't mark the sections of his letter into six chapters and all the different verses that go along with that.

Right. Like here's chapter one, Timothy. Yeah, right. Now, another one that has been going around is that God moved the bullet and even some reformed brethren.

Some friends of mine who would say that their soteriology is reformed might even be on the side of cessationist.

Even they're saying God moved the bullet and saved Trump. Well, why

God moved the bullet and not Trump moved his head? And that can still be by the providence of God.

Yeah, that Trump moved his head. God determined the course of all of these things before the foundation of the world.

Right. But that's not as fun to say that that doesn't wow you. It's not as romantic to the moment.

No, we got it. We got to have something that just gives you the feels. Because God, it does the impossible.

Right. God's divine intervention right in the middle of that was he just he just nudged that bullet over a little bit to keep

Trump from being hit. There would be no way to substantiate that whatsoever. Yeah.

God doesn't move the bullet. Trump moves his head. But again, that's not as it doesn't feel as divine.

Right. It's God's hand being over that whole situation to say that Trump moved his head. So instead, it's

God moved the bullet, not the wind blew the bullet slightly off course or anything like that.

There there has to be some sort of divine intervention to it because we that sounds cooler.

That's that's what they want it to be. Yeah. And then there was another guy who believes that Trump is the

Antichrist and that this assassination attempt actually verifies that that prediction that he's the

Antichrist, because in Revelation, you can't destroy him or something.

No, no, no. Is because in Revelation, it says that the Antichrist suffers a mortal wound to his head.

That was not mortal. It wasn't a mortal wound. Right. So Revelation 13, three, one of its heads talking about the beast that rises out of the sea seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.

But yeah, this this wasn't a mortal wound. No. So that doesn't even apply.

And in that sense, either could have been, but it wasn't right. So I've seen that one, too, going the complete other way.

Not that God saved Trump. But no, this this really verifies that he's the Antichrist. And then there's all other manner of weirdness, too, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who claimed that she saw an angel in the

American flag or hang on. I'm not going to be able to say this right. Let me let me play the clip.

OK, you can hear her say it. OK, here we go. All right. Seems like God's hand is on his shoulder. I believe it.

I believe we all witnessed a miracle, literally from, you know, before it happened.

The flag above got blown in the wind and it got tied into literally what looked like an angel.

Did you see that video? I didn't see it. Oh, my gosh. You guys have to find that. It was it was it was truly it was like an angel coming down.

It was the American flag tied. They had to bring it down. And all the people in the stands helped unravel it.

And it was literally before he came out on the stage. I mean, everything in this is it's a sign from God.

Oh, OK. Even a miraculous angel appearing in the form of an

American flag. Pretty sure that would have been on the news. That might be one that would have stood out to people a little bit more.

Yeah, like more so than Trump getting shot. Yeah, right. Seriously. I mean, everybody in the

Bible, they see an angel and they bow down or they fall down. Yeah, right, right. They're they're falling down in fear.

Yeah. Yes. Absolutely terrified. There would nothing be like, oh, pretty, you know, or anything like that.

They're definitely not looking up going, oh, this angel got tangled up in this American flag and pull that down. Let's get this angel out.

Yeah, no, no. Or whatever she said. I don't I wasn't even following the train of thought.

And I didn't follow it at all. Well, another email on this.

This is from Alex Gaben, Becky. Good afternoon. Thank you for the podcast. My name is Alex from Des Moines, Iowa.

I've been listening since 2020 when covid started. I appreciate the expository teaching that you do.

I have a quick question to ask with the upcoming election at hand. It is obvious that a

Christian cannot vote Democrat. There are too many issues that they support that are not in line with Christianity.

One of the main topics that I have been trying to base how I vote is on abortion.

I have joined an abolitionist group here in Iowa, and we are able to do a March for Life event here in Des Moines recently.

Back to my question. During the debate, former President Donald Trump said that he would not ban the abortion pill.

Also, with the recent speakers that they have had at the RNC, I feel as though the Republican Party has started to soften its stance on many things that don't align with Christianity.

With the current climate and the fact that both parties are not far from one another. How would you decide who to vote for?

Are there other topics that should come into mind? I'm just looking for some assistance. I appreciate all that you do.

Well, again, Alex, like I said, I believe that Trump is a judgment on this nation showing that even the so -called conservatives are not really conservative.

Right. And people have shifted their values and really are not holding to the values that they claim that they had before.

The value of life and the value of marriage is no longer a party platform issue for the

Republicans. Yeah. And so how can you even call them conservative? If you're not conserving life, you can serve nothing.

Right. Yeah. When you consider the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, it says we hold these truths to be self -evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.

And among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Life among these are life.

Yeah. And the Republican Party is not even protecting that anymore. We know that the Democrats were not.

And even though we've had presidential candidates that were not truly pro -life, they did some pro -life things.

They certainly weren't Democrats. But they were they were still kind of wishy washy on the subject. Sure. And I'm thinking of George W.

Bush was that way. Even Reagan nominated to the Supreme Court Sandra Day O 'Connor.

And at the time that he appointed Sandra Day O 'Connor, there were people that were not really sure where she was, but there was still a general understanding that she was going to be a conservative voice on the bench.

But then when Planned Parenthood versus Casey happened, she sided with Planned Parenthood and turned out to not be that conservative voice on the bench that could have potentially overturned

Roe v. Wade. It doesn't happen until several presidents later when Trump comes along. Trump is the one that does it.

Yeah. But again, that's by the grace of God, because Trump's value system has never been to be pro -life.

Right. The Lord worked that out even though Trump was not there.

And so we praise God for that. And now you're seeing the fruit of that, that Trump is not truly devoted to the life in the womb.

Yeah. And so that even he and Vance, his his running mate now, the senator from Ohio, J .D.

Vance and Trump are both on the side of allowing for the abortion pill. Neither one of them will oppose it.

So it's abortion at home. And we will still have thousands of unborn children murdered each day in America.

And under Trump, that's still going to happen. The numbers won't have changed. It's just even more closeted and more secret than it was before.

May not be happening at a butcher's hands in an abortion clinic, but it's still happening.

And the Republican Party is even now of the opinion, the whole party is of the opinion. That this is not a a platform issue for them anymore.

Now, I say the whole party. I've got friends that are Republicans that serve in public office and are are ardently pro -life.

Yes. Even though the public platform has changed. Right. But what has taken place is that those

Bible believing Christians that are still Republicans and still working in positions of government, they've been relegated to the kids table.

It's like they can't sit now with the big boys. You are now ostracized and off to the side.

If you really want to be a part of this thing that we're doing, you're going to have to set those values aside. Wow.

And that's the way that the majority of the Republican Party is is acting with these things now.

That is terrible. Right. So, again, you need to vote your conscience. That's something that's been said for years.

You probably have heard a lot of pastors say that. Vote your conscience. Your conscience needs needs to be guided by Scripture.

If it would be a problem for you to vote for Trump because you know what his position is now.

I mean, he was he was pro gay marriage even when he won office in 2016. Right.

As I've said many times, he is the first president in American history to enter office in favor of gay marriage.

Yeah. Obama, when he first entered office, was opposed to it. He had said that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

He was in favor of civic unions, but he was opposed to making marriage between a man and a man.

Even Bill Clinton had the whole don't ask, don't tell policy.

Yes. And he and Hillary were both opposed to gay marriage at one point. Trump is the first president and he's the conservative.

He was the conservative candidate. Quote, unquote. Yeah, quote, unquote. But the first president to enter office in favor of gay marriage was

Donald Trump. And again, if those things bother you and there's no way with a clear conscience you can vote for somebody like that,

I would never pass judgment on you for that. Then that's fine. Like I said, I am able to discern the use of my vote toward a candidate that is the lesser of two evils.

I mean, it's absurd to say, yeah, because you're still voting for evil. Yeah. But your vote doesn't have to be an endorsement.

It's just preventing the other guy from getting it. And when you really sit down and think about it, that's most people's votes.

The vote they cast is against the other guy. More than it's for the guy you're voting for.

You're voting against the guy. You don't want to have it. And if you can see your vote that way, if you can read it that way and you can still vote for a clear conscience, it would be better to have

Trump than it would be to have Biden then cast your vote for Trump. Yeah. But if again, you still feel like there's no way that I can do that because Trump doesn't really value life.

He doesn't even really value marriage. There's no option for me in terms of president. We're going to be going down no matter who gets elected.

The judgment of God would still be upon this nation. And to that, I would say, yeah, you're right. That's true. You're absolutely right.

But if you can still vote with a clear conscience, then do so. If you can't vote for either one of these candidates, then continue to look at some of the stuff that's going on locally because your vote still probably needed there.

Yes. And pray, pray, pray for all the politicians. Yes. That they if they're not saved, that they will be saved.

And if they are saved, that they would be heard and respected. Yeah. Praying for all politicians, including

Biden. Yes. Because remember Paul's instruction in First Timothy two. I exhort you that petitions and prayers, requests and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men. The man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all the witness for this proper time.

Christ is still on his throne. He is still mediating for us between God and man.

Amen. Nothing is shocking God off of his throne. He's not up for reelection. He will hold his rule no matter what happens down here.

And all those things are happening by his hand as well. So we trust God in the midst of these situations.

Yes. The only thing that is going to save America is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Make America great again.

Make America great in any capacity. The only way that is going to happen is if the gospel is proclaimed.

Our elected officials are not going to do it. That is responsibility for the church to be out there preaching the gospel of Christ, warning people that the judgment of God is coming upon this sinful and wicked generation.

And every person individually who loves sin and rebels against God, God's judgment is upon them.

The only way to be saved is to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Put your faith and trust in him who died on the cross for us, who rose again from the dead so that all who believe in Jesus will not perish, but have everlasting life.

And the kingdom that we are looking toward is not a kingdom of this world, but it is the imperishable kingdom that awaits us in glory.

Philippians 320, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a savior, the

Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

Amen. Amen to that. Well, that is that's it. We think we've chatted here now for over an hour.

I've got one more question, but we'll save that for next time. OK. And the last time that we did this, too, there was a question that I had at the end that I said

I wasn't going to answer this time. That's right. I was going to save until another time. Well, we were mostly thematically talking about stuff here that has politics.

Right. Yeah. Current events. Current events. There you go. Less politics, more current events.

Although there's been political things that have happened as current events. So I'll still hold on to that.

I've got another question regarding Trump here as well. It has to do with, you know, some liberal things that some other preachers have said, but we'll get to that another time.

Yeah. There will still be plenty to talk about between now and November. Yes. And hopefully not as eventful.

Well, yeah, I get the distinct feeling this is going to amp up. This is the tip of the iceberg. Yeah, that's not good.

Pray for us. Pray for our country. For those of you who are outside of the United States, pray.

Yes, please. For us, we have a lot of great listeners from around the world.

We read that email from South Africa. Yeah. We were trending just recently in the Philippines, which we have been pretty consistently.

Yay. Japan, Australia, Great Britain, Singapore. There was one on there that I saw that I've never seen before.

It's never popped up trending before. Hang on. Let me see if I can find it. Oh, it was Ghana. But I think

I have seen Ghana before in the in the trending. So, you know, country in Africa.

Yeah. So we've had South Africa today and we've also had Ghana. That's awesome. And then Mexico was the other one.

Oh, neat. That was recent. We were recently trending in Mexico. So appreciate our international listeners as well.

Thanks for bearing with us as we. I mean, you've surely seen in the news, no matter where you live.

Yeah, probably. I've seen videos like animated videos that people have made in other countries.

There was a video that was circulating in Japan where somebody had made an animation of Trump stopping the bullet before it hit him, you know, in that that wacky anime style.

It's just like over the top. You know, yeah, it looked like that. But it's still pretty slick. It was interesting to see how other people in the world were kind of reacting to the events that happened over here.

But I mean, like I said in the beginning about the, you know, the patriotic spirit that kind of gets stirred in the midst of that, it's contagious.

And there are other people in the world that see that and go, man, see, that's cool. Yeah, I wish we had that here or something like that.

But praying that it would happen in a way that is honoring of God and we use the freedoms that are afforded to us here to share the gospel of Christ.

Yes, because again, that's the only way that anybody is going to be saved. Even the United States of America is going to perish one day.

But only those who have faith in Jesus Christ will be saved. Amen. Let's finish there with prayer.

Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this time that we have together to consider these things, events that are happening in the world and read your word.

And may we be conformed. Our thinking would be conformed to your thoughts, your mind, having the mind of Christ and having wisdom that we would seek after wisdom, as we read from Proverbs chapter two at the very beginning, so that we can discern these things that happen in the world like this.

See where you are in the midst of it and how even in the midst of this situation, we don't lose sight of what's important.

And we can use these current events to grab people's attention, to recognize that Christ is the answer.

It's not going to be a political figure that will rise up on our behalf. That's going to save us from all of our woes.

Our greatest concern is our sin and the death. That is the wages of sin.

And the only way that we can be saved from that is to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, Christ, who is seated on his throne, seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And all the things that we need will be added to us as well. Lord, I do want to pray for our nation's leaders here in the

United States. President Biden, who is still president of the U .S. and Trump, who is running for reelection to that particular spot.

I pray that you would keep both men safe and that you would turn both of their minds and hearts to the

Lord Jesus Christ, that they would lead people in an understanding of the gospel and this nation's need for repentance, mourning over our sin and the blood that is on the hands of America.

And we would turn from the wickedness that America has so cherished and loved and turn instead to the righteousness of Christ that is proclaimed for us in your word.

May the the gospel of Christ stretch across this nation and even reach the world in an amazing way.

We know that sin is going to continue. It's going to grow. Evil will continue until the day of Christ.

Jesus even talks about this in Revelation 22. But we nonetheless see the importance and the present day of sharing the gospel and that we would all understand our responsibility in doing so.

Strengthen your churches. The gospel would be loved in the church. Christians are convicted in their own hearts to do away with worldliness and to seek first the kingdom of God.

And you grow a love for sound doctrine in our churches and that the gospel permeates our hearts and even our communities through the work that is being done in your church.

May we continue to be faithful in these things, seeking holiness and righteousness in our present day.

Forgive us our sins and lead us in paths of righteousness. For your name's sake. May the name of Christ abound.

in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.