Every day we have our shorter "Morning Motivation" episodes and twice a week we have our longer "Politics by Faith" episodes. They are both available here on Locals without ads and with the transcript. Hope you enjoy!
Did Ukraine launch a drone attack against Putin? We'll never know. You can't believe anything you hear, or even see these days. How are we to have discernment between truth and lies? I'm inspired by Nehemiah, who in 500 BC saw right through the lies of his detractors and never wavered. Let's learn from him and vow to never be "jellyfish Christians".
Welcome to Politics by Faith. I'm Mike Slater. Thanks for joining me. If you're new to the podcast, what we do is we take the story of the day that causes anxiety. Anxiety is not good. I don't want it. So we take the story, we break it down, we then explain what's really happening. We lament the brokenness, and then we provide some historical perspective and then biblical peace, which helps the anxiety go away. Then we focus on something that is in your control, because anxiety is usually something that you have no control over.
0:00:35
So we find something that is in your control, and then we end with a nice parting thought to leave on. So that's the outline of the show, and there's plenty to talk about. Every day, more things causing a ton of anxiety. Today, we got word that there was a drone attack on the Kremlin in Moscow, an assassination attempt on the President of Russia. Ukraine says they didn't do it. And we got this very encouraging headline, Russia threatens nuclear retaliation after accusing Ukraine of trying to assassinate Putin with drone strike on Kremlin.
0:01:07
I'm being sarcastic. There's nothing encouraging about that at all. So we could talk about how this Ukraine-Russia war is just dragging on, there's no end in sight, and that's bad enough. But the real show today, the show is really about how I just can't believe anything from anyone anymore. I can only assume that everything is propaganda from everyone. And this story right here is a perfect example because we got word that it happened, and my first thought was like, well, I don't know, did it?
0:01:36
And maybe that's, there's like a healthy skepticism, but then it goes into unhealthy cynicism perhaps, and it's not, I just wish we weren't here. So I don't know, I don't know what happened. Was there a drone strike? I don't know, is it propaganda from Russia? Is it propaganda from Ukraine? Is it propaganda from the Pentagon? From our own federal government? I can't trust anything.
0:01:54
And with AI, you can't even trust what you see. So I saw a video of this, but like, I don't know, you can try the video. Now, I don't want to get sidetracked here, but the Democrats, just last week, led by the head of the Teachers Union, Randy Weingartner, said that the unions were always against shutting down schools. Are you kidding me? The left is going to rewrite the history books and say that Democrats were against lockdowns and Democrats were against masks and Democrats were against shutting down schools and Democrats were against shutting down churches and it was those evil Republicans who were for all those things. They're going to get away with it, which is wild because we all lived through COVID. We lived through the politics of it and your grandkids one day are going to ask you about COVID for their history report. They have to write and they'll say, Grandma, Grandpa, why did the Republicans want to shut down the churches?
0:02:55
Why did the Republicans want to shut down the entire country? Why would the Republicans do such a thing? And you'll say, what? What are you talking about? But that's what they'll have learned. That's what the history books will write. And that's very troubling. You can't trust anything, even the things we lived through, they're trying to rewrite. And I say, you know, I'm talking about, you know, your grandkids, but there will be people who lived through COVID, who will remember it, as the Democrats wanted to keep everything open. It's like, what are you talking about? Don't you remember? So you can't trust anything you see, you can't trust anything you hear. You can't trust the things you lived through yourself.
0:03:40
Back to the Kremlin. This is especially bad because Russia, in their desperation, I'm assuming they're losing this war. I don't even know if that's true. That's a bunch of propaganda. I don't know. That's just the news we get is that it's not going well. But this could be their Reichstag fire moment. This could be the Reichstag fire. We'll explain that coming up in a little bit.
0:04:00
They could have sabotaged their own Kremlin, attacked their own Kremlin, blame America for it, and then use that as the excuse to launch a nuclear weapon and say, well, we were attacked first. We're not gonna let you get away with trying to assassinate our president. So again, the real root of this story and of this episode today is you can't believe anything anymore. I promise, I don't promise, what am I saying?
0:04:22
I was gonna say I promise this is the last Tucker Carlson clip I don't promise that at all here is a Tucker Carlson clip I don't know if I played this one already or not I don't think I did but I have I think I played it somewhere I just forget where I don't know if it was here if I was on Breitbart on serious exam I don't know where I played it but it's worth playing again he says he can only trust things he smells the the material the physical things that you can smell those are the things that you can trust. Your spouse, your dogs, your children, especially your dogs, but you know, your actual friendships, your college roommates, people in person. As the world becomes more digitized and people live in this kind of, this realm that's disconnected from physical reality, I think the only way to stay sane is to cling more tightly to the things that you can smell.
0:05:15
And I've really gotten to the point where if I can't smell it, I'm not dealing with it. And I mean that. I love that idea, and I'm testing it out to see if that's true. But I do know I can't smell a news report about the Kremlin. I can't smell a Pentagon press conference about what's going on, so I don't trust it. Here's what I want. I want a discernment. I want a discernment that is finely tuned by the Holy Spirit, not just to smell political deceit, but all the lies from the devil.
0:05:46
I don't want to be deceived anymore. The great Oswald Chambers said, your part, your job, is to be so rightly related to God that His discernment comes through you all the time for the blessing of another soul. I want that discernment. I want to be so finely, so closely related to God, and so embedded in the Word, and so closely tuned to the Holy Spirit that I can have incredible discernment and not be tricked anymore by anything. Let's lament here for a minute. God, I hate so much that we are deceived. I hate that there's so much deceit, but Satan's called the great deceiver. 2 Corinthians 11 14 says, and no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. You know, people have this image of Satan as this big red monster or whatever. No, he's the angel of light. He'll look as slick and smooth and sharp-dressed and handsome as anyone you've ever seen.
0:06:53
John 8, 44, there is no truth in him, the devil. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 1 Peter 5, 8, be sober-minded and watchful. That's what I want to be, sober-minded and watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. I just hate it that when you turn on the TV, you can't even trust what you see. And soon you won't be able to trust anything you hear with AI voice technology. Remember the episode we did a couple weeks ago, I had COVID and I couldn't talk. So I uploaded one episode of this show into some AI program, and then typed out what I was gonna say, and the AI program used my voice to say it it was pretty darn close for Like 30 seconds of work if I wanted to really finally tune that you know like and you can't trust Yeah, you can't like it. So there's gonna be a very least with this AI voice Programming there's gonna be a lot of scams a lot of grandma scams, right?
0:07:54
Someone calls up grandma says Oh grandma. I need a thousand dollars I'm in a Tijuana prison send target gift cards or whatever is right and grandma won't be able to tell my grandma's not gonna be like I don't know it sounds a little tinny right it's like well yeah I'm in a Tijuana prison of course it'll be that good but that's just the very basic of fraud that's gonna happen it's gonna get a lot worse than just that Satan is deceitful and devious and cunning this is why we got to put on the full armor of God. That's right. So that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. That's what that says. It doesn't say put on the full armor of God so you look great or so you can combat bad guys. No, it's so that you can stand firm against the schemes of the devil. That armor is salvation, righteousness, faith, truth, peace, and the word of the spirit.
0:08:53
That's the armor, we gotta put it on. All right, I can't wait to tell the story of Nehemiah. We'll do that coming up in just one second, but first, Public Square. This is an incredible app. You can download it for free in the App Store. Start small like I did and hit just restaurants near me or coffee near me, and it'll show you restaurants that Share your values owned by people who share your values. It's a wonderful resource. We create a Parallel economy next to the woke economy. That is just getting worse I still don't think businesses will learn their lesson from Bud Light. I still don't think they will and Well, I mean a couple other companies have hired Dylan Mulvaney even still so This will continue because it's just who they are, and I don't want anything to do with them anymore.
0:09:42
I don't want anything to do with them. So start with restaurants near me, and then you can move on from there to every type of service near you, and then a bunch of businesses online as well. And anyone featured on this app agrees with the values that are on their website, publicsq.com, and they're like, I'll say extreme values, but it's a high bar. It's a high bar to get featured on this app.
0:10:03
PublicSQ.com, but those people are out there, those business owners are out there, and it's wonderful to do business with them. PublicSQ.com, you can scroll down and see the values yourself, and you can download the app for free in the App Store, Public Square, our first sponsor. I'm so grateful for them. Whether they're our sponsor or not, I'm grateful for them. It's a wonderful resource, we use them all the time in the Slater family.
0:10:24
So let's do the historical example of deceit first. I mean, how long you got? I mean, what are we doing? I just saw a picture today of Tiananmen Square in China, but not the one you're thinking of, right? The one that they always show is the one with the guy standing in front of the tank. That's the one they always show. But what they never show is the picture after the tank kept going and killed everyone in its path.
0:10:50
That picture is not allowed to be shown in China. And that's trippy to think that there are a billion people who have never seen that picture. And it makes you wonder, what have we never seen? But the short story I want to share here, I mentioned earlier, is the Reichstag fire. That's the classic example. February 1933, Berlin. This was four weeks after Hitler was sworn in as the Chancellor of Germany, when a communist agitator, you can see my air quotes here, a communist agitator, lit the parliament on fire.
0:11:19
And that's what Hitler used as the pretext to claim, oh, the communists are plotting against the German government. And this is proof. This is proof, Mr. President, why you need to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree. It is officially called the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State. A Reich just means era. Like, it means realm, technically, but it's like a time period. So this is the actual decree.
0:11:51
And it's just amazing that they were this blunt back then and got away with it. Today, our politicians are much more sneaky about what they do, and they hide it in colorful language they did not hear. It says, articles, and then it lists a bunch, of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. It is therefore permissible to restrict the rights of personal freedom, that's habeas corpus, the freedom of expression, including freedom of the press, the freedom to organize and assemble, the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations, as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.
0:12:38
Isn't that amazing how blunt that is? You know if the Democrats came up with that today, they would say the opposite words. But they would do the same thing, but they would say the opposite and they would trick everyone. Thousands of people were thrown in prison the next day. It's believed that within two weeks, 10,000 people were thrown in jail and they just got rid of all the civil liberties of everyone in Germany. And all of this was based off of the deceit of this, this false flag operation and the people, well, I was going to say the people didn't see through it. I don't know, maybe they did, but they were powerless to stop it. Is that what's happening in Russia today at the Kremlin? Probably.
0:13:20
Could that ever happen here in America? Well, sure. But I want to get to this biblical story because I love this story so much. So we're around 500 BC. It's the story of Ezra and Nehemiah. The Babylonians, which is present-day Iraq, conquered Jerusalem and took a bunch of Israelites back to Babylon. Many years went by, and the king of Babylon let a lot of these exiles go back. And there are three people in particular that the book of Ezra and then Nehemiah go back. Zerubbabel's mission was to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Ezra's mission was to teach the people the Torah and then Nehemiah's mission was to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem. Now, one of the reasons I started this podcast was to encourage people to read the Bible. And these are two wonderful books in the Bible to read. There's nothing new under the sun. It's all there.
0:14:35
Everything we need to know is in the Bible. And that's just one of the things like that's if I we take a political story, and no matter what it is related to something that has already happened in the Bible, I just find that incredibly fascinating. And here it is. There's nothing new under the sun. And if you read Ezra and Nehemiah, you're like, oh, yeah, like I get that. So Zerubbabel's mission was to rebuild and rededicate the temple to God, and he did. And there was this big old dedication ceremony. Everyone was so excited because they expected God to do this big thing, and he didn't. And they were all very disappointed.
0:15:08
They were thinking, well, maybe we need more than just a new temple. Maybe we got to get the people back to the Torah. That's what we need. That'll make God happy. So that was Ezra's mission, to reteach the Torah to the Israelites. And it didn't go well. Well people, they talked a good talk, but they didn't really change their lives. Their hearts were not changed in any profound way. So then enter Nehemiah 1, those who survived the exile and are back in the providence are in great trouble and disgrace.
0:15:44
The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire. So when you have a big city with no walls around it, well you know what's going on at our border, your city is going to be attacked. It's going to be attacked by animals and enemies. And a wall-less city is a shamed city. It's a defeated city. The Jews who returned to their homeland were humiliated at their city, how it was never properly rebuilt. Nehemiah 2.17, he told the Jewish leaders, You see the trouble we are in.
0:16:18
Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. It's great, but here's what happened. As he was rebuilding the wall, actually he was almost done. Jeremiah, or Nehemiah 6 is a fun chapter because there's a lot of crazy names and it's easy to give up, but if you just focus and power through, it's actually a really easy chapter to understand.
0:16:42
So, Nehemiah 6, 1. Now it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall. So I'm already checked out. Who are these cats? Who's Sambalat, Geshem the Arab? What's going on? These are the regional governors who served the Persian king. They hated Nehemiah.
0:17:05
They did everything they could to try and stop him from rebuilding this wall. That's what we need to know about him. All right, so they were there and the rest of the enemies I heard that I rebuilt the wall, and that there were no brakes left in it, though at that time I had not hung the doors and the gates. And some Balot and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me harm. So I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?
0:17:40
But they sent me this message four times and I answered them in the same manner. I love that so much. So he was almost done. There were no gaps in the walls, but the gates weren't put up. So he was almost there. So these guys, these bad guys, knew that they had to pull out all the stops to try to get him to stop. So they go, Hey, Nehemiah, let's go. Let's go celebrate. Oh yeah, you've been doing such a great job building the wall.
0:18:03
Come on, take a break for a while. You deserve it." But Nehemiah saw right through the deceit. And that's what I want to be. I want to be a person who sees through the deceit, who sees through the tricks. Alan Redpath, pastor, mid-1990s, he says, whether you be a pastor or a teacher or an evangelist or a Sunday school teacher or whatever your position may be in Christian leadership, let me say that there will always be those who are friendly to your face, but plan your downfall behind your back. Beware of the fawning, flattering Christian who's always fluttering around you, and who behind your back will be the first to rejoice when you go down.
0:18:40
That's these guys. That's Sam Ballett, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab. But Nehemiah had discernment to see who these men really were, and to see what they were really up to. And he didn't hesitate with it, he knew exactly. And he didn't look at the outward appearance, he didn't listen to just the words they said. First Samuel 16, seven says, "'The Lord does not see as man sees, "'for man looks at the outward appearance, "'but the Lord looks at the heart.' Nehemiah had such discernment, he was able to look at the heart.
0:19:10
Way too often people, and myself included, are deceived by the smooth talkers. That's what Joe Biden was. That's all Joe Biden was in his heyday. He was a smooth talker. He was a liar. He had to drop out of the 1988 presidential race because it came out that he plagiarized his law school test and he lied about his exams. Like he's a giant liar.
0:19:32
He always has been. And that the, I got the book right. Clarence Thomas, the Clarence Thomas autobiography talks all about how Joe Biden lied to his face during his confirmation. He's a giant liar, but he was a very smooth and slick talking politician. But that shouldn't matter to us because if we have the Holy Spirit we can have discernment. Someone without discernment would say, oh wow, look this person wants to take me out to lunch, how wonderful! Someone out without discernment will watch the news and believe it. Someone without discernment will listen to the Kremlin or Ukraine or the Pentagon lying to you again. We're just so quick to believe people who should not be trusted anymore.
0:20:17
Who do not deserve your trust. And I love how Nehemiah said, I'm busy. I'm doing God's work. I can't come. I've got stuff to do. And maybe that's the trick. If you know you're doing God's work, it's much less likely you'll ever be distracted by the devil's schemes. He said, why would the work cease when I leave and go down to you? I've got stuff to do.
0:20:40
But they tried four times. Here's the key I wanted to share. This is why I share this whole story. Nehemiah 6, starting at 5. Then Sanballat sent his servant to me, as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand in it was written it is reported among the nations that's a great way that's that's like the old timey way of that's the 500 BC way of saying everyone's saying the gossip it everyone around town rumor has it everyone's saying that you and the Jews plan to rebel therefore according to these rumors you are rebuilt rebuilding the wall that you may be their king and you've also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem saying there's a king in Judah now these matters will be reported to the king so come therefore and let us consult together right so the claim is hey you name I you're doing this just for yourself for your own glory quite an insult to name I name I and it was all again to try to get him to stop building to insult his motive and how did he respond?
0:21:38
Then I sent to him saying no such things as you say are being done But you invent them in your own heart That's it. That's all you need But what a beautiful rebuke No No such thing as you say is being done. You invented in your own heart. I love this, not even in your head, you're not inventing it in your head, you invented it out of your wicked heart. I'm adding the wicked there, but that's the intent here, that's the implication. You invented them out of your own wicked heart. But I love how concise, crisp, clean, concise, no such thing as you say are being done, no such things as you say are being done, you invent them in your own heart. That's beautiful.
0:22:21
That's the line. How many things today are invented out of people's own wicked hearts from rewriting COVID history to what's going on in the Kremlin to any economic spin about the economy, you name it, the debt ceiling, whatever you see on the news today, it's all invented in people's own head and hearts. Why? Well, here's what my success for they're all trying to make us afraid. Isn't that it? Just trying to make you afraid. Whether that's for political reasons or maybe, you know, economic reasons, right? To get you to watch the news, make you afraid, so you turn on the news the next day, like that's it. That's their goal, make you afraid. So check out this conclusion. This is in the Bible.
0:23:05
For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, their hands will be weakened in the work. So if we make them afraid, then their hands will be weakened in the work and it will not be done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands." It's amazing. So all the deceivers are saying, oh we got to spread these rumors or do whatever we can to get them to stop building. And if we do, if we if we say these terrible things about them and if we scare them, if we make them afraid, then their hands will be weakened in the work and they won't finish the wall. And And Nehemiah said, God, strengthen my hands. Strengthen my resolve. Beautiful.
0:23:43
So, what's in my control? Well, first thing, don't be afraid. The bad enemies here, what they were doing was saying stuff to get Nehemiah afraid. So you don't be afraid. Deuteronomy 31, 6, be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you he will not leave you or forsake you that's number one don't be afraid number two read the Bible you got to read his words you got to be deep in his word every single day number three pray for discernment pray for that discernment Oh God strengthen my hands strengthen my resolve strengthen my discernment and number And number four, don't be a jellyfish.
0:24:27
What do you mean? I don't get it. I came across this from the great J.C. Ryle, 19th century British pastor. He was giving a sermon about compromise, lacking conviction. Nehemiah did not. He did not compromise. He did not lack conviction. And here's what uh JC Ryle says. The consequence of this widespread dislike to dogma. Dislike, dogma today is a bad word. It's a pejorative. And he's like, no, that's just conviction. So, the consequence of this widespread dislike to dogma are very serious in the present day. Whether we like to allow it in or not, it is an epidemic which is now doing great harm and especially among young people. It produces what I must venture to call, if I may coin the phrase, a jellyfish Christian. That is a Christianity without bone or muscle or power. This is so good. A jellyfish is a pretty and graceful object when it floats in the sea, contracting and expanding like a little delicate transparent umbrella.
0:25:36
Yet the same jellyfish when cast on the shore, is a mere helpless lump, without capacity for movement, self-defense, or self-preservation. Alas, it is a vivid type of much of the religion of this day, in which the leading principle is no dogma, no distinct tenets, no positive doctrine. We have hundreds of jellyfish clergymen who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity. They have not definite opinions, they belong to no school or party, they're so afraid of extreme views that they have no views at all. We have thousands of jellyfish sermons preached every year, sermons without an edge or a point or a corner, smooth as billiard balls, awakening no sinner and edifying no saint. We have legions of jellyfish young men annually turned up from our universities, armed with a few scraps of second-hand philosophy, who think it's a mark of cleverness and intellect to have no decided opinions about anything in religion.
0:26:34
That's so good. If someone's like, well, I don't know, I'm a, what's the word, not atheist, but agnostic, oh, you think you're clever. And to be utterly unable to make up their minds as to what is Christian truth. They live apparently in a state of suspense, hanging between heaven and earth. Their only creed is to be sure and positive about nothing. And last and worst of all, we have myriads of jellyfish worshippers, respectable churchgoing people who have no distinct and definite views about any point in theology. They cannot discern things that differ any more than colorblind people can distinguish colors.
0:27:11
They think everybody is right and nobody is wrong, everything is true and nothing is false. All sermons are good and none are bad. Every clergyman is sound and no clergyman is unsound. They're tossed to and fro like children by every wind of doctrine. Often carried away by any new excitement and sensational movement. Ever ready for new things because they have no firm grasp on the old and are utterly unable to render a reason of the hope that is in them. Wow, it's worth rewinding and hearing that all again. Isn't that our day today? Everybody's right, nobody's wrong, everything's true, nothing's false, and that is absolutely seeped into the church. Never was it so important for laymen, that's us, to hold systematic views of truth and for ordained ministers to enunciate dogma very clearly and distinctly in their teaching. And I guarantee you when they do, this is me talking. Now, when they do, we will all be much more finely tuned to God, finely tuned to the Holy Spirit, and have much more discernment against the devil, against the liars, and for the truth. So, what should we think about? What's our final thought? What should we meditate on? In this new world of AI that we have you can't believe anything you see and People are gonna get really messed up about this That this is really gonna throw everyone for a loop and everyone's gonna be frantic and have no idea what to do But not us not us first John 4 13 by this I I mean, he's talking about loving others.
0:28:47
By loving others, we know that we abide in him and he in us. See, no one else has any abiding, so they're just totally tossed to and fro and have no clue what to do or what to grab onto because nothing is real. But not us. By this, by loving others, we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us his spirit. spirit of discernment. Patriot, gold, group. See if this is something that makes sense for you and your family.
0:29:16
Gold, owning gold. I don't know, I don't trust the Fed. Do you trust the Fed? Do you like how things are going? As I am recording this now, the Fed just raised rates for the 10th time. They got it under control. This is the same people who said that inflation wouldn't even happen in the first place while we spent more money than the 13 most expensive wars in American history adjusted for inflation combined in a year.
0:29:50
Well, that won't cause inflation. I just don't trust these people. I don't trust their systems. I don't trust the dollar. So, I don't know, I bought gold. So and I bought it from Patriot Gold Group. And if you want to learn more, 1-888-617-6122 for a free investor guide. You may be eligible for a no fee for life IRA and qualifying rollovers. So you can get your IRA or 401k in physical gold and silver as well. Whether or not it's the best, it's a good idea for you, that's totally up to you.
0:30:27
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