RLL 131: Thomas Aquinas in Da House!

You're listening to radio looks elicit. I'm your host Steve Matthews. Thanks for joining me for episode 131 the title of this episode is

Thomas Aquinas in the house Yes, that's right. Thomas Aquinas. He paid a visit here to River City to Cincinnati here

Well sort of in a manner of speaking Actually, it was just a skull that that showed up and there's some interesting stuff

I want to talk about that, but but first before I get into that As I was preparing for tonight's show

There's been some big news come out of the Middle East here apparently the government of Syria has fallen to the

I guess they're al -qaeda sort of jihadist rebels and The the report is here and this is what's just kind of God been going through X and some of my

My foreign policy guys and see what they have to say and and there's a report here and this is from Patrick Henningston's Feet on axes he's quoting someone else, but he says there's no doubt that the rebels in Syria are creations of the

CIA and Israel It's an attempted attempt by the u .s Israel Turkey to overthrow the government in Damascus in order to block assistance flowing through Syria to Lebanon And that the site's a former

UK diplomat, I think it was in fact, I think it must be a Craig Murray Who's a guy that I've listened to and Craig Murray seems like a pretty reliable sensible fellow and I suspect he's right about that So yeah, that's that's kind of a big deal and they say this just happened

Bashar al -assad is out In fact, there's even reports at his airplane because he fled on a jet and there's some reports that it disappeared from radar

So nobody really quite knows what's going on. It's a pretty fluid situation right now And I'm sure we'll know more in the next next few days about that.

But I just wanted to at least mention that Yeah, and and yeah, I I think the u .s

is definitely involved in this which it shouldn't be but but it is and we've been continually involved in the

Middle East now for decades upon decades upon decades before I was born

I guess going back almost to the The creation of the state of Israel and We don't have any business being involved in that part of the world we shouldn't be involved in that part of the world and yet we are and I I think back in to some things that the

John Robbins wrote I want to go back and I'd like to read this a bit too because One of my very favorite essays and I've read this before when

I was on this podcast But I wanted to go back and touch base on this again because I just think with what

John Robbins said was so on point And I think it's something that the

Christians need to hear and this is from his essay the religious wars of the 21st century and Let's see here

He talks here about the 21st century the result of two centuries of irrationalism is the beginning of the 21st century

We are faced not with a hopeful prospect both an even more dismal prospect than our great -grandfathers faced a hundred years ago

And he goes on he talks about the the rise of these various non -christian religions. He talks here about medieval

Romanism And How medieval

Romanism has is influenced even many Protestants and he cites a couple of names here Norman Geisler and R .C.

Sproul He says many lesser -known Protestant theologians and philosophers As well

As well as disciples the official philosopher of the Roman Church State Thomas Aquinas So yeah, you know that that's actually going to be a good lead -in to what we're going to talk about here in just a minute

But it also ties in with with some things that going on in the Middle East I mean, you've got all of these non -christian influences that are pouring into the evangelical to the

Protestant Church One of them is Romanism. There's another strain of influence of Christian Zionism And fascination and adherence with the the nation -state of Israel Let's see.

He talks about Let's see about medieval Judaism And this is

John Robb. He says medieval Judaism with the establishment of the modern state of Israel He says that that's on the rise and that's true

He in Robbins continues. He says all three religions Romanism Islam and Judaism are false militant and violent

Devout members of each group hate oppose and plot against the members of the other two Well, yeah, you know and in one of the things we see

You know a lot of people think would not be surprised to hear well that that Islam's violent I mean, we've seen various types of of Islamic violence

So I think probably most Americans would say yeah, that's not a surprise But I think some people would be very surprised to find out how violent

Romanism and Judaism can be you know, Romanism has killed Many many people over the centuries

I was talking to a friend of mine here recently. He sent me an article And this particular gentleman that wrote this article

He had estimated 50 million deaths have been caused by the Roman Church State by the Roman Catholic Church over the centuries from very as a result of their various Persecutions and and what have you and of course, you know the violence of Judaism is you know of Zionism of Judaism has become very evident in the

Middle East here recently and of course Israel's knee -deep in this overthrow of the

Of the Assad government in in Syria as well but yes,

Judaism is extremely violent and And you know what ends up happening is that you know, there's so many

Christians have become Involved in supporting either Roman Catholicism or Judaism some of them support both.

In fact Donald Trump's Nominee for the

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth seems to draw on on on the Crusades as well as Christian Zionism So that's that's not a really a very very healthy

Con Combination I wouldn't think I wouldn't say so let's dive in a little bit more here

And this is this is Robbins and he says it's important to realize that the Christian has no dog in his fight He's talking about the the the religious wars of the

Muslims and the the Jews and the Catholics He says it's important to realize that the Christian is no dog in this fight neither

Romanism or Judaism or Islam as Christianity Yet many who profess to be Christian support either

Judaism or Romanism and in this is a lesson that The Protestant Church the

American Protestant Church needs to repent of this. You know, I've been doing I've had an opportunity to Study Revelation here recently and get into Dealing with some of the end times now in terms of my my approach to eschatology

I am a historicist which makes me kind of a dinosaur I realize that there aren't too many historicists out there.

I am NOT a dispensationalist. I am NOT a preterist I'm certainly not a

Christian Zionist and Yet, I mean that's the majority report among Christians.

I mean there there are Christians I've really and I would use the term brainwashed and maybe some people would be offended by that Into thinking that they have this obligation before God to support the nation -state of Israel.

They do not there is zero obligation on the part of the United States of America To to give one dime of support to the nation -state of Israel, but that's very difficult to convince people of So yeah, we don't have a dog in that fight

But Robinson continues. He says the so -called Christian right in the United States influenced by Romanism dispensationalism and reconstruction ism

Has been a supporter of Israel Judaism and Rome for decades The principal figures in the American conservative movement have been

Romanist though Their source of funds has largely been Protestant the principal figures of the so -called neo -conservatives are

Jews The US government in violation of the US Constitution has taken tens If not hundreds of billions of dollars from American taxpayers and given them to the government of Israel over the past 50 years

That's a really important point that John Robbins makes right there and I would even add to it

I was watching a an interview with Nothing. Maybe I've mentioned it before on the podcast, but as with a

Gentleman, he's a economics professor at Columbia University Jeffrey Sachs, and he was actually putting the figure at trillions of dollars

That the US has given to Israel not now These were trillions of dollars of cash donations but what he was talking about is the wars that the

US has fought in the Middle East have been on the behalf of Israel and The bill for all of these wars whether it's the first Gulf War the second

Gulf War Whether it's this thing that's going on over in Syria right now means

I mean United States has occupied 25 % of Syria Since the the

Iraq war back in 2003. The United States has never left Syria. A lot of people don't know that and Apparently was involved very deeply in this this ouster of Bashar al -assad

Now which they've been trying which the US has been trying to do for over a decade as well So yeah

I mean all of these wars that we have fought on behalf of the the nation -state of Israel and on the path of Zionism have come to the term come to the cost of probably trillions of dollars to the

United States taxpayer In addition to all the cash awards and various things that we give

Have given to the the Israeli government over the over the decades So it's it's an enormous cost and I'm just talking about dollars here,

I'm not even talking about the loss of lives and and those other things which which need to be considered although it's it's harder to put a

Dollar value on something like that. But I mean the destruction that's going on in the Middle East As a result of the actions of the

United States and in Israel are Is is just it's off the charts And yet there are many

Christians that are Happy about this or that they think that this is somehow required of us by God, which it is not in fact,

I would say that that lending support to to the Zionists and and Essentially to to support the false religion of Judaism is sinful and it's something that Christians need to repent of And yet that's

That doesn't seem that reckoning doesn't seem to be becoming anytime soon perhaps by God's grace it will but people need to repent of their false eschatology and and their

And the false ideas that are leading them to support the nation -state of Israel Unquestionably, you know a lot of people say you have to support

Israel. No questions asked Well, I think this is a perfectly good reason for America's ask questions about this

In fact, I think not to ask questions again is foolish dangerous and I would even say it's sinful

But anyway, I don't want to get too far off on to that I didn't want to talk about as I said

There's an interesting headline that I saw in the local paper here kind of changing gears Yeah, I'm gonna

I'm gonna get this I'm gonna do a screen share here, let's see what do we got

Get this here in front of us Yeah, here we go This was a headline in Fox News.

My mom sent this to me earlier this week It says skull of st. Thomas Aquinas arrives in u .s.

Offers rare chance to view first -class relic It's a ten -city tour. It says this is in Fox News Says ten city tour that began in Washington DC continues through December 18th

So Let's read through this a little bit here It says the skull of st. Thomas Aquinas has been a three -week tour of the eastern

United States offering a rare chance for Americans to view a first -class relic of the 13th century Saint Quote the visit of a major relic of st.

Thomas Aquinas to the United States is a great blessing It is especially meaningful this year when we are celebrating 750 years since the entrance of st.

Thomas into heaven Father Ambrose little Opie, I guess Yeah, I should know what

Opie is. I don't know what that is offhand I didn't look that up. But father

Ambrose little Opie told Fox News digital Little a Catholic priest and Dominican friar is the assistant director of the

Thomistic Institute of Washington DC the mystic Institute is an academic Institute of the pontifical faculty of the

Dominican House of Studies according to its website and It goes on here and it shows

I Guess the relics are normally kept in Toulouse France, but I've been traveling through Europe for the last year

It's part of the celebration of milestone anniversaries in the life of the saint The little acknowledges concept of relics might seem off -putting to some yes

It is off -putting and it it shows here. This is a reliquary which is where they keep the skull and it's got several people several of them children

Gathering around some of them kneeling Before this thing. So I guess they they worship it now.

I know they'd say they venerate it, but you know As Tim Kaufman has explained

I know I talked to him about this in an interview one time He he said really the difference is is just who it's directed at I mean if you listen to the language that Roman Catholics use when talking about Mary This is the way

Tim explained it to me as you you could have have somebody say venerate Mary or or maybe maybe the skull of St.

Thomas maybe they do the same thing and you know, they they would they would talk to Mary Oh Mary, you're queen of heaven.

Oh Mary, you're you're awesome and amazing incredible and and you do all these wonderful things and they say well

That's not worship because it's directed it at Mary But on on the other hand, they could turn around somebody could say well, you know

Jesus. Yeah, he's pretty good I like him and they say well that's worship because it's directed at Jesus even though all of the words that are used to describe

Mary or Maybe much more superlative than anything. Somebody would say about Jesus And that's how they maintain this this artificial distinction

I mean these people in a posture of nearing that that is a kneeling there. That is the that is a posture of prayer

That they are doing here And they're kneeling before a skull of a dead man.

He's been dead for 750 years But what's even but what's maybe even a little bit more interesting is if you scroll down to the bottom this article is interesting

If you're me and you live in the area why I do in the Cincinnati area You scroll down here and it talks about they've got a tour.

So this is like this is like a rock band or something This the skull is touring the eastern United States And if you scroll down here, it says the remaining tour dates include

December 6th, st. Gregory Priory, Cincinnati Right here in River City. So actually this was yesterday.

So st. Thomas his skull paid a city here to To Cincinnati yesterday.

That's why I said st. Thomas in the house Sort of in a manner of speaking. Well, his his skull was in the house,

I guess and now it's passed on It's gonna be up in in Columbus. It's gonna spend two days in Columbus, which

I don't know You know, they I guess they get a double blessing and it's going to Louisville, Kentucky and it's gonna go to Springfield, Kentucky So there's two places there and in Kentucky that are getting this and it's back to New York City in Philadelphia Now, I guess it goes.

Oh, and then it goes to Baltimore, which isn't a big surprise But yeah, so we we had this this great this great opportunity and what's interesting

I went to The st. Gertrude Church website. That's the the church here in Cincinnati and you can see they've got a thing here

It says revivals and relics. It says join us for the once -in -a -lifetime Opportunity to venerate the relic is the relic of the skull of st.

Thomas Aquinas now St. Thomas Aquinas, you know, I've talked a lot on on this podcast or written a lot on my blog about the the

Roman Catholic influence in the the immigrant invasion of the United States of America all these illegal aliens that are pouring into the country the the

Roman Catholic Church is the There are a number of organizations that that promote this but chief among them the the 800 -pound gorilla in the room if you want to use the

That's the way one of someone from the Heritage Foundation. That's a conservative think -tank

That's the way someone from the the Heritage Foundation described the role of of the

Roman Catholic Church and Catholic Charities have described them as the 800 -pound gorilla of the illegal alien invasion

Because they're the the chief organization that promotes this well one of the the intellectual underpinnings

In fact, I guess what I put it this way you can if if you you don't like the illegal alien invasion blame

Thomas Aquinas Because he's one of the chief intellectual architects of this I mean he was one of the people who promoted this idea of called the universal destination of all goods and universal destination of all goods says when somebody needs something he has the right to take it and it's no sin and that is is one of the the primary

Ideas that undergirds Rome's Rome's invasion of the United States of America.

They think it's a righteous thing because Rome claims that all these people need this Need need to come to the

United States and they have need of all these goods and services And so they have a right to take them Now they don't quite phrase it that bluntly but that is what there are that that's their argument

I'm just making their argument very explicit of the argument of the Roman Church state So yeah, if you don't like the illegal alien invasion blame

Thomas Aquinas I'm not he's not the only one that that caused this but he is one of the chief intellectual architects of it

No question about it So anyway this st. Gertrude Church, they say the you know, the relics available for veneration from 7 a .m.

To 6 30 p .m so almost a full that's eleven and a half hours of veneration and Let's see.

They've got some some masses. They've got confessions. They've got a revivals and relics event so there's some preaching and oh and Over here.

It's got a few bullet points. It says you will You will also learn about this great

Eucharistic Saint Discover the connection between st. Thomas and st. Nicholas be inspired to grow in holiness through Eucharistic devotion that is idolatry of Worshipping the communion wafer and then finally it says receive a plenary indulgence.

So see if you go and you venerate the The the skull of st.

Thomas you also get a plenary indulgence, which I look that up and you know

What a plenary indulgence is this is from the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh And it says even though confessed and forgiven sins will not set a person to hell

Consequences may to be paid on earth or in purgatory indulgence frees the recipient from those consequences

So it's kind of like a I get out of jail free card and and in this goes This is actually one of the things that kicked off the

Protestant Reformation It's one of the things that got got Martin Luther all worked up as there was this guy what what happened at the time of the

Reformation is Rome had started building st. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, but they ran out of money and The work was stalled and and they were taught and I've read about you know

How they were weeds sprouting up out of the unfinished foundation and the columns and this type of thing and you know

Well, what's a Pope to do? well, they decided to have this great big indulgence sale and One of their chief salesmen probably there.

They're most famous in the best sales was was this one guy? Wise I'm having a senior moment.

I can't think of his name right now But he was this Oh Johannes Tetzel. Yeah, Johannes Tetzel and Tetzel had this little

Jingles little ditty that he would would use. I mean if he was alive today, he'd probably be this really successful Madison Avenue Advertiser because he had this little clever

Jingle that he would use it. He would say as soon as the coin in the coffer rings a soul from Purgatory Springs so if you went and you purchased these

These indulgences that you know and you put your money in the coffer You you get your your dear departed relatives out of Purgatory soul from Purgatory Springs well, so so this is kind of this thing if you go and you worship the

Skull of st. Thomas supposedly, I guess it helps you or maybe help somebody else.

I I don't know I don't know if you can do it on somebody else's behalf or not but it it helps get people out of Purgatory faster, so That's that's what we're told

That's what the plenary indulgence does is it gets it it I guess apparently it wipes out the penalty at least for certain sins

Let's see, how do they say this here an indulgence a Partial indulgence covers part of the punishment due for sins a plenary indulgence removes all of it

Both kinds of indulgence come from the merits of Jesus the Blessed Mother and the Saints Now, of course all this is in contradiction to the

Bible. There's no purgatory When we die we are judged and we are

Either either going to heaven or we are going to hell and there's not any anything Subsequent to to that that's going to change what our destination is and the only way to get into heaven is through faith in Christ Jesus alone

Through his righteousness being imputed to us a scribe to us credit to our account

Now we're considered by God as never as is not having sinned Not on our own merits not because we've done anything great but because of what

Jesus did because of his great work his perfect work His perfect cross where I had a professor one time when

I was in seminary my brief stay in seminary I was thinking of Robert Raymond and he used to always talk about the cross work of Christ and I think that's good language

I always appreciated that and I was appreciated. Dr. Raymond. He was a was a good man and a fine teacher and someone who loved the

Lord and he loved teaching and I Had Opportunity to learn a lot from him, even though I was only study with him for a brief time

And I'm thankful for having that But anyway, yeah, this is this is all a lot of nonsense but this is one of the things and I wanted to highlight this because you know, sometimes

I talk to people about Roman Catholicism and You know what what ends up happening is is a lot of people tend not to believe that this stuff actually goes on But it does

I mean this stuff goes on to this very day. This is what Rome teaches I mean, this is right from the website.

You see this right now this thing I've got up is a st. Gertrude Church right here in Cincinnati. It's not too far away from where I live and it

Yeah, I mean you can see what they're pushing. I mean, they they've never stopped pushing this kind of thing

You know, and I think it's actually pretty ghoulish to send a skull around and tell people to kneel before it

It's it's an affront to God and it will not It's not something that will help anybody standing before the

Lord Anyway, so there's that going on now, let's see what else do we have here?

This is kind of a kind of an odd week. There's just a lot of there's a lot of different unrelated things going on Here's one.

I want to at least briefly mention now. This is a column by Let's see who wrote this column, this is

Jonathan Turley and he's got a headline here says the pocket pardon strategy in the final corruption of Of the

Biden administration and this was a column he wrote earlier in the week Just talking about all these pardons that have been done by by Joe Biden now

This was like the most obvious thing in the world That you could see coming. I mean everybody knew this was coming

Everybody knew that Joe would pardon Biden or the Joe would pardon his son Hunter Biden and in effect really what he did is he pardoned himself because there was a ton of Of incriminating evidence on that that laptop that that Hunter left behind by accident very serious

Things on there that they're really implicated Joe and influence peddling bribery and Apparently, I guess

Hunter Biden was the guy that that was doing the deals and and he had to give 10 % or something like This to his dad and I guess

Hunter Biden even griped about all the money He had he had to send to the quote the big guy and and everybody knew this pardon was coming

But there were lots and lots of people who you know on legacy me that would go out there and say oh no

No, no, no, no, no, no, Joe Biden will never pardon his son. Well, why not? Well, because Joe Biden said he wouldn't do it.

Well, I mean that was that was a lie. It was always a lie And anybody with any sense about him knew full well that that was a lie

And so yeah, he came out this past week. I guess it was last Sunday and and pardoned his son

Now one of the things that's interesting here. If you look at Jonathan Turley's Article here you look over to the side.

He's got his ex feet over here and Here's one comment from X he says today

More names were added to the list for White House for for white knight pardons including retired general

Mark Milley and Alejandro Mayorkas Some call for hundreds even thousands to be included pardon envy is sweeping over,

Washington And let's see Even links to another article here.

This is another Jonathan Turley article pardon envy Democrats vied to make the

Biden pardon list He writes liberal pundits and press in Washington are facing a growing nightmare in Washington No It's not the victory of president -elect

Donald Trump or the Democrats loss of both houses of Congress the popular vote in this election it is a possibility that democracy may not collapse as predicted and Trump might even might not even round up his opponents en masse and Yeah, he just he just goes on to talk about how there's this expansion of The possible pardons and he named some individuals who he says the

White House is reportedly exploring giving preemptive pardons Preemptive, you know, this is something

I didn't know you could do that I thought you had to be charged with something to be pardoned, but apparently I guess this is some novel legal theory

I guess it's a new thing. I've never heard of this before So I'm I'm thinking this must be like a new legal approach where you give preemptive pardons

Preemptive pardon haven't been charged yet with anything, but I'm gonna give it free I'm gonna give you I want a preemptive pardon in case

I am charged with something then I might get a jail -free card.

But yeah, he named some names. Let's see. It just happened here It says yeah, the

White House is reportedly exploring giving preemptive pardons to figures ranging from. Dr. Anthony Fauci Senator -elect

Adam Schiff and a former representative Liz Cheney Cheney previously declared that this quote may well be the last real vote you ever get to cast end quote

A pardon would preserve her persona as a modern -day Joan of Arc who avoided being burnt at stake only by the grace of a

Biden pardon I detect a little sarcasm there from from Jonathan Turley and yeah this stuff it's just Just amazing

Let's see here Yeah, Jennifer Rubin of the

Washington Post. She's all worked up that some people might be left off Not really terribly interested what

Jennifer Rubin has to say she's a very very odd individual Anyway, I'm not gonna read through all of that but yeah, yeah, it's it's really something to see how how

You know the pardon mania it seems to be be sweeping sweeping

Washington DC everybody Yeah, nobody wants to have to answer for all the lies and the crimes that they have committed

Here over the past few years Personally, I'm of the opinion that some people need to be held accountable

You know Alejandro Mayorkas who wants to get a pardon Alejandro Mayorkas as far as I'm concerned has committed treason against the

United States of America He was one of the he is I guess you would call him Maybe the chief architect in the

Biden regime of the the migrant invasion of the United States Now how

Alejandro Mayorkas is is is a very as far as I'm concerned He's an evil man. And and yes, he has

I Believe he's committed certainly treasonous acts in in promoting the the illegal alien invasion of the

United States of America It would be hard to really calculate how much damage that man has actually done extraordinary stuff

Another thing that it's kind of interesting going on here is There's been a lot of a talk.

Maybe you follow this Donald Trump's appointee For Secretary of Defense is this fellow named

Pete Hegseth. He's a former Fox News commentator I guess he's a former military guy and I found an interesting article here in the

New York Times I know saying you might say oh, it's the New York Times. I don't pay attention to New York Times You know, it's just all these flame liberals

Well, yeah, the New York Times is pretty bad in a lot of ways But sometimes they do have some articles that that actually are worth reading

I know that's kind of kind of surprising now now, of course to to be sure They're not very friendly to Pete Hegseth.

I wouldn't expect that they would be however, I you know Editorial stance

Aside, I think there's some interesting things in here that that are worth talking about.

So here's a headline It says Pete Hegseth in his battle cry for a new Christian crusade The veteran picked to lead the

Defense Department has praised the brutal religious military campaigns of the past and has called for a Christian approach to governing

I Sorry about that. I had to cough a little bit there. I Tried to turn the turn the volume down on the microphone here

Let's see here. So in his book American crusade Pete Hegseth wrote we don't want to fight but like our fellow

Christians 1 ,000 years ago we must So the article starts off it says before Donald J Trump picked him to lead the

Department of Defense Pete Hegseth spoke often about a medieval military campaign They saw as a model for today the

Crusades in which Christian warriors from Western Europe embarked in a ruthless missions to wrest control of Jerusalem and other areas under Muslim rule and I This Pete Hegseth fellow.

He's got lots of tattoos and one of them he has on his I think one of his forearms It's it says deus vult deus vult deus vult which means

God wills or God wills it and that was a battle cry of the of the

Crusaders In fact, they even reference it here It says on his army is a tattoo with the words deus vult which he has described as a battle cry of the

Crusades So yeah, that's that's exactly right and Voting is a weapon, but it's not enough.

He wrote in a book American Crusade published in May 2020 quote We don't want to fight but like our fellow

Christians 1 ,000 years ago. We must end quote and I guess there have been various charges brought against him and some people say well, he may not make it as Secretary of Defense I don't know right now

Let's go continue on through here. It says the issue of mr. Hegseth religious expressions has come up in the past He said he was barred from participating in the military security detail for President Biden's inauguration in 2021

Because of a tattoo on his chest depicting a Jerusalem cross a religious emblem that was also a symbol used by Crusaders Reuters and others reported his tattoos including the deus vult motto that has been used by white supremacists

Prompted a fellow service member to flag Hegseth as a potential insider threat Mr.

Hegseth's interest in the Crusades campaigns have followed so many atrocities that many Christian leaders today view them as a shameful stain on a

Religion's history is linked both his Christian beliefs and world and world view well, you know the

Crusade, you know, the Crusades were not a Christian undertaking the Crusades were a Roman Catholic undertaking and You know, in fact, there was something you know,

I I should have gotten this night. You know, I don't think that I did unfortunately, let me see about the

Crusades and about this This Pope the speech that Pope Urban there was an urban the second gave

You know, it dates back to the I think it was in the 12th century I may be getting my dates mixed up I'm going by memory here, but it was this speech at this

Pope gave this this Antichrist Pope gave and It got everybody all fired up and for the next hundred and fifty years.

There was just there were several Crusades that were launched to the Middle East and You know, there were were many many deaths

I mean the amount of blood that was spilled the amount of treasure that was was wasted is is again, it's it's hard to calculate and it this article here this

New York Times talks about some of the the deaths of Of Muslims and Jews they don't talk about The deaths of Christians that were put

Christians who were put to death by Rome, you know the albigen sees for example That was a group that stood outside the

Roman Catholic Church They were slaughtered By the Roman Catholics, I think then it was

I think it was a an army There's returning from the Middle East did the slaughter. So so Rome used used the crusaded crusading armies

Against its enemies in Europe as well Some of whom were

Christians. Yeah, I had and I remember a few years ago, too.

There was something I saw there's a guy There's a name you may have heard of he's a fella.

Oh he's a pastor of a Of a megachurch in Dallas, he's a Baptist I think probably a

Southern Pact was Tim Jeffress. Yeah, Jeffress Is his name and and he spoke at Trump's first inauguration in 2016

But he was on the Bill O 'Reilly show. I want to say maybe back This is when Bill O 'Reilly was still on Fox.

He was on the Bill O 'Reilly show. Oh Maybe back in 2014 2015 about 10 years ago or so and Barack Obama had spoken a national prayer breakfast

And he had made some negative comments about the Crusades and this Baptist minister goes on The Bill O 'Reilly show he actually defends the

Crusades for Pete's sake. I couldn't believe I've never thought in my life I'd ever hear a Baptist minister defending the

Crusades I mean in what he should have said is yeah, the Crusades were awful. A lot of people were murdered by these crusading armies it was not a

Christian enterprise and You know, it's just one more example of the brutality of the

Roman Church State And that's what he should have said but instead he got out there and actually defended he said well

You know, there really weren't that many people that were killed Or no, you know what, I'm sorry, you know,

I'm actually mixing things up It wasn't the Crusades that Jeffress was defending. It was it was the

Spanish Inquisition That's what it was. It was a Spanish Inquisition.

He says well, you know Spanish Inquisition. That wasn't really all that bad Well, actually it was really horrible And you know

Christians should not be defending. I mean if you're a Protestant if you're Saved believer in the

Lord Jesus Christ, you're saved by grace through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not defend the

Crusades Use that as an example to point out the brutality and the murderous nature of the

Roman Church State That's what you need to be doing. That's what we as Christians need to be doing not defending this stuff

You know and and what's interesting here is this this Hexeth fellow you read down through it

Let's see. It says Hexeth grew up in a Christian home Even so he told a

Christian magazine in Asheville last year that he underwent a religious transformation 2018 in his late 30s when he and his current wife

Jennifer Hexeth began attending Colts Neck Community Church in New Jersey The church's pastor

Chris Durkin remains close to Mr. Hexeth and recently recorded a video supporting his nomination Describing him as a genuine patriot who loves

God. Mr. Hexeth and his family moved to Nashville area about two years ago Decision he said was based on a desire to send their children to Jonathan Edwards Classical Academy Christian school founded in 2009

Classical education in which classrooms focused primarily on the Western Canon has become a fast -growing movement among conservatives who are wary of secular public schools

In Tennessee the Hexeth family joined Pilgrim Road Reformed Fellowship a small church opened in 2021 as part of the growing communion of Reformed Evangelical churches

The denomination was co -founded by Doug Wilson a pastor based in Moscow, Idaho his religious

Empire now includes a college a classical school network a publishing house a Podcast network and multiple churches among other entities.

Well, Doug Wilson is a notorious heretic He's somebody who has consistently attacked the doctrine of justification by faith alone and he's continually pushed a lot of the

A Lot of false doctrine. I know it's something that the John Robbins wrote quite extensively about About Doug Wilson.

I don't know probably, you know 15 or 20 years ago Late the say the late 90s early 2000s

There's a number of articles of Trinity Foundation website about Doug Wilson. Doug Wilson is not a trustworthy character.

I know he claims to have repented to some of those things, but you know, he's I Don't trust him and I don't think there's any good reason to trust him

But this Hexeth fellow belongs to a church that's associated with With Doug Wilson Now, I mean if somebody is a actually a reformed

Christian, you know, somebody's a Calvinist, you know, that is You know you you shouldn't be involved in in pushing the

Crusades I Would also say this to Hexeth is also a big Christian Zionist huge support of Israel.

In fact, there's a a video out and and I don't know if I Talked about this in a previous episode or not, but it shows him and he was actually giving a talk in Israel and he was talking about rebuilding the or building the third temple

So not only does he get sucked into? Roman Catholic supporting

Roman Roman Catholicism, he actually gets sucked into supporting Judaism as well as well as the the false eschatology of Dispensationalism and Christian Zionism.

So I mean he's really a A mix a mix of all kinds of bad ideas

Then you throw in Doug Wilson on top of that So, I mean this is intellectually the you know, these are the sort of the ideas that are out there among some of Trump's at least some of Trump's Nominees for high position.

I mean he's he's been nominated Hexeth has for Secretary of Defense So, I mean that's a substantial and significant position

Let's see. It's talking here and this goes on talks about Doug Wilson says he referring to Doug Wilson has written prolifically for years, but his profile within conservatism has risen in the

Trump era. That's true He was interviewed on Tucker Carlson's podcast that is also true and was invited to speak at the

National Conservatism Conference a Community of Reformed Evangelical Churches expanded recently to include about 150 congregation

Congregations including mr. Heg Seth's in Tennessee Now here's this is interesting here says the governing documents of the communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches include a statement that women should not be

Mustard for combat. Yeah. Well, that's true. Now that that's I would agree with that. That that's a good statement I'm not saying that I think that Doug Wilson is a good is a good teacher that he's somebody who

Christian should follow but sometimes people with You know, John Robbins called him an atrocious theologian

I think accurately so and one of his his pieces on on Wilson Sometimes even people that have really bad set of ideas can get some things right and yes, that's true

You know women should not be involved in combat the church reserves leadership position for men and asserts that men are the heads of a household if you shared by many

Theologically conservative churches. Well, yes, that's also true You know pastor elder deacon,

I mean those are the You know the the offices especially I mean If you talk from a

Presbyterian standpoint, you know Presbyterians have elders and deacons Most Presbyterian churches make a distinction between teaching elder and ruling elder.

I do not make that distinction I don't think that that can be supported biblically The way you rule in the church is to teach

So that's in my opinion. It's a that's an incorrect division But there are I think some

Presbyterians who would just say there are two offices But very clearly the offices of elder and deacon are

To be held exclusively by men. I mean, that's what the New Testament teaches and men are to be heads of their household

In fact, one of the ways in which you qualify to be an elder and deacon is to be a head of your household to Rule your household.

Well, you know as the Apostle Paul asks, I think it's Sin first Timothy, I think it is but he he asked a rhetorical question if a man does not rule his household

Well, how he take care of the Church of God? Well, the answer is well, he won't I mean, that's that's the the

The answer to it to Paul's rhetorical question. He won't so yes you have to be head of your men aren't called to be heads of their household and And if they want to be considered for a role as a church officer, they need to do a good job of it

Let's see an interview on Wednesday, mr. Wilson said he had never met or communicated with mr Hegseth but expressed enthusiasm about the prospect of his leadership of the

Defense Department So Doug Wilson is in the the corner of mr.

Hegseth. You know, I think a better pick for Secretary of Defense would be Douglas McGregor.

Yes, Douglas McGregor. I had someone that I follow on on X quite a bit who

I think is He he is a genuine American first guy he's not a not an

Israel first guy he's not a guy that That Thinks that America has this command from from God to unquestionably support the nation -state of Israel now, he's a genuine

American first fellow with a With with a real appreciation for the original

Foreign policy of the United States of America, which is strategic independence that is to say not getting ourselves in entangled in all kinds of foreign wars

That's Douglas McGregor stance and I think he would be an excellent Secretary of Defense. He's a retired colonel

So he certainly knows a lot about About about the military his personal experience it

I believe he's a combat veteran as well So he would make a great choice, I think he'd be much better choice say then

Then Pete Hegseth, but I'm not the the one making the call so anyway, that was that interesting article from the

New York Times and Anyway, let's see how we doing on time here just want to take a look here.

We're about that 45 minutes Want to talk a little bit here about Immigration just touch base and I haven't talked about that for a little while here on the podcast

So here's our this is an article from the New York Post. So New York City is now home to over 58 ,000

Criminal migrants including more than 1 ,000 gang members. This is according to to ice The immigration and customs enforcement.

That's what that that stands for ice And it says here there are over 58 ,000 illegal migrants who are convicted felons are facing criminal charges roaming,

New York City and close to 670 ,000 across the country startling new data obtained by the post shows the 759 ,218 illegal border crossers living in the

Big Apple the feds will wear as of November 17th a draw dropping 58 ,626 7 .7

% were either previously convicted of crimes or had criminal charges pending according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement data agency, so yeah the

Biden regime Alejandro Mayorkas, etc. The Roman Catholic Church they have been fully supportive of flooding the

United States of America with foreign criminals who have no business being in the United States and They're preying on our citizens

See it says representative Nicole Malliotakis Republican Staten Island Brooklyn pointing blame for the studying stats on soft on crime and lacks border control policies pushed by President Biden other

Democrats. Well, yeah, that's true Yeah, that's definitely true Quote, it's shocking that Democrats have gone so far out of their way to harbor gang members drug traffickers and other criminals who are in Our country illegally says

Malliotakis the lone Republican representing the left -leaning Big Apple That's gonna say I think you could count on one and a number of Republicans in office and in New York City And apparently she's the only one so so yeah, that's not

Not particularly surprising there So, yeah, you've you've got I mean they've just turned

New York City into to a complete joke, you know and and you know Here's some, you know, one of the things

I think with With this stuff is is the mayor of New York Mayor Adams Yeah, he's actually come out and he said some good things to say about Donald Trump But he's had some good things to say about wanting to to deal with this migrant crisis

That that is good that's going on there and you know, he

Yeah, he it was interesting. You know last year. This was about a year ago. So he gave this speech it was at some some town

New York City Town Hall, and I guess somehow the question about the

The migrant crisis in New York came up and he says this is going to destroy New York City And he went on for some time.

He talked about you know, never in my career Have I ever faced a crisis where there wasn't a solution and and he just kept saying this is gonna destroy

New York City and it was interesting. It was wasn't but a few months later. He ended up getting

They they opened up some investigation on him, you know, is there a relationship between those two things? Well, maybe

Maybe I wanted to see if I could find something here since we were talking Let's see if I can find this because I I saved this article and it was actually fairly

Recent pieces in the last I don't know a couple weeks or so. It was just talking about you know, how

How Adams was really kind of changed his tune? after Trump was elected and He seems to at least be willing to work with Donald Trump on cleaning up some of the worst abuses that are going on In New York City, I think that's certainly a good thing.

I'm glad to hear that. He's doing that Yeah, here we go. This is this article. This was originally an article from Zero head at least that's where I found it.

Anyway, so yeah, here we go New York City mayor ends food vouchers for illegals ready to work with Trump and It says here facing an influx of illegal immigrants the

Democratic Democratic New York City mayor Eric Adams said he'd be happy To share ideas on the crisis with president -elect

Donald Trump at a post -election press conference Adams said New York now hosts 220 ,000 illegal immigrants and received negligible support from federal government

I want to see the federal government fix a federal problem This is a federal problem and said when they asked what help he would like to see

Well, you know, he's right about that. It is it is principally a federal problem Of course, it's also partially in New York City problem too because they have this ridiculous sanctuary city law that they have in place

The article goes on it says it's estimated that feeding the housing the illegal immigrants for three years would cost the city ten billion dollars

New York governor Kathy Hochul is allocated 2 .4 billion this year Which is perhaps why the

New York City mayor said the city will phase out a program that gave prepaid debit cards to migrant families And city funded hotels to purchase their own meals and essentials according to CBS News New York The program will provide migrant families with debit cards until the end of the year after that city will deliver food directly to migrants

Well, how about not just you know How about not putting these people in the dole at all and putting them on an airplane and sending them back whence they came?

That's what needs to happen and that that that's the only there has to be deportions.

There has to be mass deportions deportations This is something that has to happen

I know there's going to be a lot of weeping and wailing and carrying on and you know And the Catholic bishops are gonna be out there crying and and you're gonna have all these various liberals out there crying and wailing

And carrying on this has to happen And this is an existential issue, you know, and sometimes you have people throw on that term existential very commonly that existential simply means when you say something is an existential crisis what that means is it threatens the very existence of of the country and And that is what's going on with with this

With this immigration crisis, especially it's been kicked off since the Biden regime got in it got in place

This is an existential crisis to the United States of America and either we deal with this thing or we are history

These people cannot be allowed to hang around the United States. They need to go back and you know that You know leaving on a jet plane, you know, there's that old hippie song leaving on a jet plane well,

I mean, maybe that needs to be the theme of the Trump administration these folks need to be leaving on a jet plane and And they need to stay and and they need to permanently stay away

Yeah, I I think that you know, it's just it's it's so upsetting to watch this go on and to watch my country just be overrun

By this illegal alien migrant horde. It's eating out our substance, you know We've talked some about you know things that are going on in in Springfield, Ohio even right here in Cincinnati There's all these maritaines have flooded into a small community here in Cincinnati And It's it's nationwide and this stuff has to stop and not only does it have to stop the invasion has to stop it has to be reversed

This needs to happen You know, it's not something we could pay lip service to it actually needs to happen it needs to be done and we can pray that the the

Lord would Would allow that to happen that he would grant success to the incoming president

Trump that he would Would address this situation Humanely, but also aggressively this stuff it needs to be done

The people of the United States do not Have any obligation to support tens of millions of the illegal aliens with their tax dollars

That is it's a form of theft And there are a lot of people like to see this continue

But but it you know this this nonsense needs to come to an end and I pray that it does Well, I think that's probably a pretty good place to stop here been going for about an hour.

So anyway I'm going to say thanks to everybody who's watching the live stream. Really appreciate that. It's great to have you here and Also wish everybody a blessed

Lord's Day tomorrow. I guess that's a little bit later today We're in the Sunday morning already here. So I better wrap this thing up.

I got to get to bed But anyway until next time we talk May the spirit of truth guide you in all truth as you read and study