MikeSlater
Politics • Spirituality/Belief • Culture
Pastor John MacArthur Interview
Politics By Faith, April 2, 2024
July 02, 2024

What an honor to talk to Pastor MacArthur. We talked about his new book "The War On Children" and also got into Joe Biden, Donald Trump, the only way we can save this country, and his choice words for Gavin Newsom.


Welcome to Politics by Faith, brought to you by the Patriot Gold Kurukwa. An honor it was to talk to the great Pastor John McArthur on the show this morning. That's on Breitbart News Daily. He doesn't do a lot of interviews, and the fact that he agreed to chat with us is just fantastic. So I wanted to put it over here for you so you can enjoy the entire interview. Pastor McArthur.

0:00:25
All right, let's get to the important stuff now. A man who has had an incredible influence in my life and my family's life. He's the pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, author of 150 books. Gty.org, grace2u.org is an incredible resource. Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, the MacArthur Study Bible, over a million sold his newest book the war on children providing refuge for your children hostile world pastor john mccarthur passes an honor to talk to you sir good morning

0:01:02
in my view mike my privilege

and and thank you for waking up early force what you know the wake-up time pastor

0:01:08
it's not five o'clock

0:01:12
Well, thank you. Thank you for doing it for us close, but close, but you missed it by about an hour. That's

0:01:17
Got a ton of questions for you, sir, but let's start with the book of course You've you've been through a lot of decades Which is a nice way of saying you're old sir, but you see you've seen a lot was as you look back Was there something that you can you can point to and you're like, ah, yes, yes, that, that was a turning point. Or that, I don't want to say the start of it all, because that goes back a long time, but that was a major acceleration of dissent at that time.

0:01:50
Yeah, it's a really perceptive question. I don't want to get wrapped up in too long an answer. But in the first chapter of Romans, the Apostle Paul writes that the wrath of God is revealed against the society when there's a sequence. And the first sequence is a sexual revolution. And three times the Bible says God gave them over. When there's a sexual revolution, and this is repeated through history, nation after nation after nation. When there's

0:02:29
a sexual revolution, it says God gave them up to immorality, followed by a homosexual revolution and God gave them up to the consequences of that behavior. And then it's followed by a third part that's basically a reprobate mind, a homosexual revolution, and a reprobate mind, meaning they don't think right. I used to wonder, what is that? Well, it might be when you try to turn a boy into a girl, or a girl into a boy.

0:03:06
I can't think of anything more insane than that. And you might mutilate them in the process. There's an insanity loose in our culture that is the exact sequence going from a sexual revolution, go back to the playboy era, the homosexual revolution which we all know very much about, which has taken over leading into the transgender, which is the insanity. And it's at that point that you can say, at least in Romans 1, God gave them over.

0:03:35
God gave them over. God takes his hand off at that point. And so there's a forfeiture by that culture of divine blessing. And they put themselves in a serious position before God. So I look at those kind of three sequential steps as the most defining, from a biblical standpoint, the most defining things as to why this culture is where it is.

0:03:59
Do you ever think that we would see a drag queen story hour for children in schools?

0:04:06
No, and that's part of that third insanity, the reprobate mind, when people don't even think straight. And then when your government and your president says his priority is to make sure that he elevates and honors and protects those people engaged in that kind of thing, the insanity has reached the highest level and they are the levers of power and from a civil standpoint there's no way back.

0:04:35
You mentioned Playboy a second ago. Hugh Hefner is such a fascinating study to me in our society. When he passed away how many years ago? Just heralded as this hero, this man among men and he's living every man's dream, but you actually look at his life and he was just miserable. Everything about his life was disgusting and the people around him, and even the mansion was filthy and wretched on the inside in every, even like physical way.

0:05:05
How did we get so wrapped up in all Hugh Hefner and the glamour of it all?

0:05:11
Well, because every human being is born in sin. Everyone who is born is born into the kingdom of darkness. Everyone who is born is basically a part of the family of Satan. And so when you sell the lust of the flesh, you're tracking with fallenness. I mean, that's... Why is it so hard to break pornography?

0:05:37
pornography. Why do I talk to a guy on his deathbed who's 80 years old who says to me, my greatest regret is that I hate the word pornography? What was that about? What was that about? I mean, that's powerful and that's in an unregenerate heart, transformed by the gospel. So, yeah, as it can possibly be, because there's an appetite for that.

0:06:08
Yeah. Talking with John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in LA. The new book is called The War on Children, Providing Refuge for Your Children in a Hostile World. Let me read this quote here, just on the point you just made. Our culture today is the product of centuries of vile and horrific sins.

0:06:24
It's been shaped by the wretched desires and wicked intentions of hell-bent hearts. It is a universal reality that each generation passes on to the next a more corrupt world than the one they inherited. In my lifetime alone, the world has rapidly grown more comfortable with sin and more eager to celebrate its pervasive influence. I shudder to think, should the Lord tarry, how future generations will sink further into

0:06:45
sin." is you go into important detail on the history of child sacrifice. And to me, that's always been my sort of made up rock bottom. I'll know we hit rock bottom when we do actual satanic ritualistic sacrifice. A million aborted babies is a horrific number. But like putting in front of the altars of Baal.

0:07:11
And it turns out the other day the president of el salvador talked about how ms thirteen gang members of the satanic rituals on children in anything well like we're here and you're going to really important detail on on the history of that why do you go into the detail of that and and is that rock bottom to you

0:07:31
you're absolutely right mike that i mean that's rock bottom you take basically the most defenseless, the most innocent, the most helpless of all humanity, and you murder them, or you maim them, or you mutilate them, or you pervert them. I mean, this is the worst of...

0:07:56
I mean, I guess the only thing worse than that is lying about things that are biblical, lying about the Bible. Maybe it's the very worst thing, but not too far off from that is being a phony healer who takes people who are sick, diseased, broken, handicapped, and promising them healing if they send you their money. But that's pretty close to low, but it doesn't reach the level of just outright using children as, yeah, as sacrifices to the God of self.

0:08:42
You're right, that's just sad.

0:08:46
It's been common, it's been common through all of human history.

0:08:50
Yes.

0:08:51
And I have a chapter in the book that basically delineates that. I mean, that even Israel got involved in sacrificing their children to Molech. And God said to them, even the pagans who sacrificed their children to Baal or Molech, those are my children. And Jesus said the same thing when he picked up a little child in his arms and said, allow this child to come to me for of such is the kingdom of heaven. There's a sense in which children belong to God

0:09:34
And, yes, society can't get more base than to take the most helpless, the most innocent, and the ones who are at that point under divine protection, even a part of the kingdom of God, and destroys them.

0:09:51
Yes.

0:09:52
Tell me, John MacArthur, new book, The War on Children, Providing Refuge for Your Children in a Hostile World. I think the most haunting part of all that other than it. He wrote, Mothers, according to Plutarch, as they would physically take this born child and put him in the fire, stood by without tears or sobs.

0:10:14
If they wept or sobbed, they lost the honor of the act, and their children were sacrificed nonwithstanding. That's such a haunting story about how profoundly the human soul can be seared and seared by culture or what? I don't even know what, like what is that? What causes that type of, that's not stoicism, that seared conscience.

0:10:35
Well, it goes back to that Romans 1 thing.

0:10:38
It's a descent. It starts out with immorality and then it becomes perverse sexuality in some form or another. You can see that in ancient history as well. And then you, there's only one more step and that's to insanity. And that's where you wind up mutilating children,

0:11:02
killing children, using children. You know when the gay lobby says, we're coming after your children. That's a warning from hell.

0:11:14
Yeah.

0:11:14
Or they're not your children.

0:11:16
Um, you talk about, yeah, they belong to the nation or they belong to the village.

0:11:21
Yeah.

Here's Joe Biden. Um, there's no such thing as someone else's child.

0:11:25
Our nation's children are all our children and Kamala, maybe our next president. That's from a man, that's from a man who obviously didn't know how to raise children. We all believe that when we talk about the children of our community they are children of the community says Kamala, which is funny but also because it's non-sequitur but hilarious but sad too. But that's what these people think, that's what these progressives have always thought. They're not yours,

0:11:55
Pastor MacArthur. Children are not ours, children are not a private

0:12:02
Now they're to be offered up for whatever purposes the culture wants if it's blood sacrifice. So be it if it's to change the nature of Society to change culture. I mean if you want to change the culture you go for the kids I mean we all have seen the literature that's come out on the arrival of the cell phone in 2010 and between 2010 and 2015 teenage suicides begin

0:12:31
to go up. Teenage girls become victims of discontent at a level they've never been at and now we're still reaping the suicidal effects of all of that. And that's all orchestrated, You know, your teenage, 14-year-old girl draws something down out of the internet, and the next thing you know, it's just a barrage of that coming at her, coming at her, until her whole approach to life is altered dramatically and powerfully by the instrument she holds in her hand.

0:13:05
How do you protect children from the worst in a society if they've got it in their hand? And the purveyors of all of that are after them.

0:13:17
Yes, yes, yes. And it's your book. We need to provide a refuge for our children. But you always hear this, Pastor, of, oh, we don't want to shield our children, or, you know, we don't want them to be weirdos and not acclimate, or not, what's the right word they use, assimilate to society or whatever. You know, we don't want to protect them too. We don't want to over protect them, Pastor.

0:13:38
Well, I have a fear of parents who often make their own choices. You know, that's a real, a big disaster. Parents don't prepare for the purpose of training children where they should go. They're not prepared. They're not going to depart from it. That's obvious. Child is a product of training. Some kind of training, even if it's minimal training or even it's training in bad things, the child is a product

0:14:13
of parental influence and the societal power. And in this society, the parents are left to really to fight the battle alone. And I think that's where the church has to step in and provide the social structure and the larger family to aid parents, because the culture is bent on the destruction of children.

0:14:38
Yes, that's right.

0:14:39
I mean, they're literally bent on it. It's a target. It's not incidental. It's a target. They want to sell everything that they have, economically and morally or immorally to the children. They're the least able to resist the impact. So parents have to take on a defense mode. You can go back 50 years in American culture, and the society would be helpful to parents

0:15:07
because there was honor in the society and integrity. And things were right, were clearly right. And things that were wrong were clearly wrong that's all been turned upside down inside out uh... to say uh... you know i will let my kid make his own decision in this environment

0:15:25
basically the most irresponsible thing a parent could do

0:15:29
uh... so much of your body moment ago uh... how do you in this political season and every political season how do you think about politics and Christianity and anxiety for the future and what's next and this is the most important election of our lifetime. How do you think about this stuff?

0:15:47
Well, I think about it two ways. Number one, I think about everything biblically. And God is sovereign and he is in charge and he controls everything. And that means that what's going on in our country, as bad as it is, and as satanic as it is, we have to remember that the devil is God's devil. And he's got limits and he's got boundaries.

0:16:15
So why is what's happening happening? Because when a society, again, turns to sexual immorality, homosexual immorality, and a reprobate mind, God gives them up. There's a sense in which God takes his hand of blessing off that society. And when he gives them up, it means he gives them up to the consequences of their choices. If you follow that pattern, what you get is Joe Biden, who is the epitome of all of those things that I just talked about. Immorality, rampant in his own family at an epic level, and in his own life, now that's been part of his life.

0:17:03
That's part of it. And then advocating for homosexuality, and then saying he supports all the transgender nonsense. get when you go down the Romans one path because this is in itself is a kind of divine judgment. Is there a way back? There is a way back if we return to the Word of God, if we proclaim the Gospel, if people

0:17:29
turn to Christ. You can't change a culture any other way than to change hearts, change hearts from the inside out. And that's where the church has to step in. And as a man who's been in the pastures virtually my whole adult life, I have to say the church has miserably failed. The church has worked so hard to look and sound like what people outside the church

0:18:00
want that it's lost its impact. It's virtually impossible to tell, I think, to a non-believing person, when he goes to a typical mega church service, the difference between that and a rock concert. Where is the church pointing out the sins of... The scripture makes so clear that bring about divine judgment. But the solution is not going to be Donald Trump. That's a huge move in the right direction.

0:18:39
And, you know, I think if God allows that to happen, that Trump becomes president, you could say that the Lord has kind of put the brakes on a little bit. But the train is moving so fast down the direction of having been abandoned by God that unless there's a huge spiritual turnaround, there's no way to stop this. And that falls to the church and Christian people. And that means that you... Obviously, we care about politics because we care about sin and righteousness, and we want to uphold righteousness, but Christian people also have to care a whole lot more about the gospel that alone can transform people's hearts.

0:19:29
We can be concerned about temporal things like politics, but the reason we're in this world is to proclaim the saving gospel of Christ, the transformation that he brings can change a family and change a community and change a nation. Amen. I wonder, I have

0:19:48
to do another study on this, about Jonathan Edwards and what what the soil was like in the early 1700s in America where a revival or an awakening could take place and could that could something like that happen again? It has to, right? That's all I hope. But could something like that happen in the soil that we have today that is our culture? Yeah, if there's a

0:20:16
return to the Word of God. It falls to pastors. If we start preaching the Bible...

0:20:23
Yeah, it's a big if. Pastor, my last question for you before i uh... courage everyone to buy your fantastic book again if you were walking down the streets today pastor in the city streets of los angeles where you live and have called home for many many decades and you bumped into uh... one gavin newsom

0:20:42
used smacked right into him uh... the pastor what would you say to gavin newsom

0:20:48
well i did an interview with him and Larry King a few years back. You can check that out. It's pretty interesting. He told me he was a Christian. He was serious about that. And we were discussing the fact that he had basically opened San Francisco to gay marriage.

0:21:05
And I took issue with that. And he said, well, you know, I'm a Christian also. I said, oh, well, you must believe the Bible." And he stumbled and stammered and said, well, yes, I do. Well, if you believe the Bible, you couldn't possibly advocate same sex marriage. I would say to Gavin Newsom, you don't have the, you don't have, you don't, you put

0:21:36
yourself in a satanic position to represent the kingdom of darkness rather than the kingdom of God, you know better than this. You were taught better than this. You know what the Bible teaches about morality, even what it teaches about society, family, marriage, culture, even what the Bible teaches about economics. You know all of that, and you are blatantly fighting against God. And I'm concerned about your own soul to start with and the impact you're having on people that is disastrous.

0:22:20
My last question is, how do you, can you encourage us to speak... By the way, I wrote him a letter to that effect. Was that after the billboard that he put up quoting scripture to encourage people to get abortions? Yep I wrote him a letter. Have you heard back? No. I wonder if you read it. I didn't expect to hear back. I

0:22:42
wonder if you read it. I felt like I had a responsibility to tell him the truth. Yeah. Can you encourage us to speak with such boldness there because some are scared of confrontation Well that's if you're a Christian that's the reason you're here I

0:22:55
Mean that that's the reason you're here And if you if you made no enemies you look at your life and said you know I've made no enemies Then you've lived a coward's life If you've never stopped lying if you've never stopped lying, someone from lying, if you've never halted a

0:23:17
sinner in the path of his sin and therefore made at least initially an enemy, then you've lived a coward's life. You know, you've got to be bold and brave. Yeah, there's a price to pay. I mean, they crucified Jesus. They basically, So basically the religious culture killed all the Apostles if they weren't killed they were exiled Christians have been persecuted through all of human history. That's part of it but when

0:23:47
Right you Fish reward would be great Hmm indeed it will and I know yours will sir... the book the war on children providing refuge for your children and hostile world pastor john mccarthur pastor and on our sir thank you for so much time this morning and for your your lifetime of service to the lord what pleasure they haven't passed on the car they're my slated on locals dot com website, transcript no commercial myself no commercial myself dot locals

 

community logo
Join the MikeSlater Community
To read more articles like this, sign up and join my community today
0
What else you may like…
Videos
Podcasts
Posts
Articles
Fox & Friends

We were on Fox & Friends talking about all of the train robberies in CA. It's so bad the train company says they may have to ride right THROUGH Los Angeles entirely and never slow down lol. What a joke this state it.

https://archive.org/details/FOXNEWSW_20220122_110000_FOX_and_Friends_Saturday/start/5640/end/5700

That link is a bit odd, I've attached a short video to get the gist.

In short, The rich get richer, the poor get the handouts and the middle class gets out of town.

This causes these progressive politicians to get even more entrenched.

We haven't hit rock bottom yet.

00:00:32
Boys to men, girls to women

How do you do it? Advice please!

Dean Abbott,
"Why contemporary relations between the sexes are so messed up. The problem starts with men because men lead, the masculine pursues and initiates, and problems always start at the level of leadership.

Most men aren't taught that a relationship with a woman means accepting responsibility. No one tells us that a woman represents not only pleasure, but obligation.
The fact that having a relationship with a woman means responsibility and obligation never enters many men's minds.

When these men enter into a relationship with a woman, they are overwhelmed by her needs, her feminine communication style, and her emotions.
Moreover, he unconsciously resents her for having needs at all since he has been conditioned to see her solely as a source of pleasure.
When her anger and disappointment over his irresponsibility gets intense enough, he splits in search of another woman.
He mistakenly believes the problem wasn't his attitude nor that it is a ...

00:07:55
Surly this will be kicked off twitter eventually
00:06:34
Morning Motivation, April 21, 2023

I found a way to easily transcribe the podcasts, so I will post them here first before they go out to iTunes and the rest.

Good morning. Welcome to The Morning Motivation, brought to you by Public Square and Patriot Gold Group. I'm grateful you're here. I was reading a sermon by the great Puritan preacher John Owen in the mid-1600s. I'm so fascinated by this time period, 1600s, early 1700s. We focus a lot on our founding fathers. I think that the Tea Party movement and just conservatism in general has focused a lot on the founding fathers, and that's amazing, but I'm very fascinated by our founding grandfathers or great-grandfathers, the people who created the culture that our founding fathers were raised in.

0:00:44
Isn't that a fascinating era? We got like 1776, like that's great, I love it, I want to know more, I don't know nearly enough. But what about the 1720s? What was going on there? Or the late 1600s? What was going on in America at that time? And you know, we've all heard of the Puritans, but you ...

Morning Motivation, April 21, 2023
Inflation and ANGER

I am angry and frustrated. With our Rulers. For getting us in this terrible economy. It doesn't have to be this way.

How could they never learn from past mistakes! This is ANCIENT history, stop printing money...yet, after COVID, we never printed more. Amazing.

Please leave a 5-star review on Itunes. We have a ton of momentum, this is about to break through! Thank you!

Also, I haven't done any lives anywhere becauase we're hosting a daily TV show "Road to Misterms" on thefirsttv.com, and it's taken all of my extra time. And my wife is giving birth any day now, so...it's been a lot around here. But after the midterms, time will free up.

Inflation and ANGER
Politics by Faith: Parkland and the Death Penalty

I've gone back and forth on the death penalty many times over the years. I've recently come down on the other side.

Should the Parkland murderer have gotten the death penalty or life in prison?

Please leave a review on iTunes! We need to get to 1k :-)
www.thefirsttv.com/mikeslater

Btw, we're getting the momentum we need, more downloads every day, THANK YOU!

Politics by Faith: Parkland and the Death Penalty

This is spot on Mike! We have become dehumanized! You can not read a persons real needs on a screen nor text! A job or passion offers human interaction and I pray these stay at home on our tax dollars find that truth. We have lost our way… People need hugs and love and someone to listen. If we do not have that face to face interaction we will become nothing more than those who can not deal with lives issues.
Our politicians need to stop thinking about themselves and their agenda and think of the country as a whole. My suggestion today is go out and make someone’s life a little better than it is and not with money! And if it is only leave a space better than you found it -imagine if everyone left every place better than they found it. If you did one thing to make another human beings life better and told them you loved them. If we did this every day- what a great world we would have again! Time to get back to this countries MOTTO… if you do not know the counties motto it is ...

Good morning @MikeSlater and all my fellow Slater Crusaders! I've been following Mike for years and after having MANY one way conversations with the radio or podcast, have finally joined the community here on locals.com. I can't wait for the chance to share thoughts and ideas with you all. Thank you Mike for creating this place. I hope we can help inform each other about our world and support growing our relationship and faith in Jesus.

Hi @Mike Slater! Are you coming back to locals? Haven’t seen any posts in some time.

Los Angeles and The Curse Of Insurrection
Politics By Faith, June 9, 2025

Deuteronomy 28 has a list of curses that will come upon the Israelites if they turn from God. They're horrific, unthinkable evils. One of them looks a lot like what's happening in Los Angeles.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here.

I'm talking about what's happening in Los Angeles right now. And I don't know if I could see this ending pretty soon or I could see this going on for a long time being worse than even what happened there in 92. So some things to know as you take in more content about what's happening there. This is the background that's most important to know. We know of two exact locations, and I heard there was a third, but we don't know the details

of that one, but two ICE operations to remove criminal illegal aliens. Here's who they detained.

This was on Friday, June 7th.

Excuse me, June 6th. We have a citizen of Peru who has previously been convicted of robbery and given a 10 year prison sentence. It's quite a robbery to give 10 years. Citizen of Indonesia, convictions for narcotics driving under the influence, any legal entry.

Citizen of Honduras, who's been arrested for distribution of heroin, cocaine, and domestic violence. Citizen of Mexico, who's been arrested for grand theft, larceny, and possession of a prohibited weapon. A citizen of Vietnam,

who's been arrested for second degree murder. He was sentenced 15 years to life. Don't know how he was back on the streets, but he was until Friday. And then a citizen of the Philippines who's been arrested for theft, assault, burglary, and rape. That is who all of this is about. Right? This is who the ICE raid picked up. So when you see Newsom and Karen Bass and all the rest

talking about our community and the fear that's in our community and we're so distraught and upset and disturbed and you see all the rioting going on, it's about ICE operations that picked up these people.

It's the first thing to know. aspirations that picked up these people.

That's the first thing to know. Second thing, the demographics of California is plurality Hispanic. Last time, the most recent numbers we have, 40% Hispanic, California's 40% Hispanic, 34% white, 16% Asian, only about 6% black. LA, the most recent numbers, I saw 47% Hispanic,

Mayor Bass just yesterday said over 50% Hispanic. So we'll call it 50%. There are parts of Hispanic, excuse me, there are parts of LA that are 100% Hispanic. And not just, well, my ancestors are from Mexico, but no, like California used to be Mexico and should be again.

That type of Hispanic people who talk about me, gente, my people, my familia, la raza, the race. That's like the big activist group from for Hispanics is the race. People who can talk like that. You can't do that in America. Americans can't talk about my people, my blood.

The head of our 250th anniversary for America, Rosie Rios, there's speeches where she's gone to Mexico and talked about my people, my blood, how California should still be Mexico. How the Mexican, my people, they're the greatest people, they're so passionate.

These are the Hispanics that are in Los Angeles. They're also very poor. East LA has a poverty rate of 20%. Poverty for a family of four is $32,000. That's 20% of East LA. $32,000 for a family of four in LA,

you're in a bad place. And that's 20%. You know, you up the income for family four to $40,000 and now you're at 30% make that, right? So it goes higher, like it's poor. And in LA, 54% of people speak a language other than English at home. So this is the demographic background

of what we're talking about here. Talking about in these neighborhoods, 100% Hispanic, very poor, don't speak English. It's also a lawless place, California. LA is just the pinnacle of steal whatever you want, homeless everywhere, businesses shutting down,

filth on the streets, neighborhoods overrun. It's horrible. Also, no one can read. There's a, this home, so there are two raids. One is somewhere in the Garment District and then another one at a Home Depot in Westlake.

Westlake, there's a high school right nearby called Miguel Contreras Learning Complex. 9% science proficiency, 11% math proficiency, somehow a 44% reading proficiency, but I doubt that. I doubt that very highly. And the school inside this complex

is the Los Angeles School of Global Studies. It's a specifically, and deliberately, it's a social justice school, they call it that. It's like the school of social justice. So we're talking super Hispanic, poor,

don't speak English, can't read. And Westlake, again where that Home Depot is, So, we're talking super Hispanic, poor,

don't speak English, can't read. And Westlake, again where that Home Depot is, used to be a quintessential old Hollywood. There's this beautiful Westlake Theater three blocks away from the Home Depot and it's like this beautiful gold ornate, like top Hollywood theater.

And now it's Bonito's Swap Shop and New Life Immigration Services. You would never go to this part of town. It is a slum beyond slum. It's the whole sidewalk. I think it's 7th Ave.

It's all like a flea market. It's a constant 24-7 flea market with umbrellas covering the whole sidewalk. I put it up on my Twitter, Slater Radio. You can see just this place is absolutely disgusting and It didn't used to be that way

But now we're enriched I'm so enriched by by so many people from Mexico waving the Mexican flag, which by the way you like They love Mexico so much, but if you threaten to send them there They'll tell you how their life is over and how that's horrible and you can't, how dare you send someone to this place whose flag I'm waving on the streets. So that's the scene. Now we can go over all the details of what happened this weekend,

but more and more are going to be coming out and more and more things are going to happen here. So I just want you to know this first background things about the demographics and the situation in LA and where this is all coming out of. Okay, let's turn to the Bible here. Let's talk about Proverbs 28 and I want to start by reading it and you tell me if this is relevant to us or not. Deuteronomy 28, but it shall come to pass if you do not obey the voice of the Lord

your God, to observe carefully all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. This is all conditional and it is in many cases around the Bible. 1 Kings 2 which we quoted last week says, if your sons take heed to their way to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel. There's a lot of ifs and here's a big one in Deuteronomy 28. If you, in this

case, if you do not obey, then these are the terrible things are going to happen. May I read the list here? Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the country. So it's everywhere. There's no escaping it. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. So everywhere, your homes, farms, kitchen, everywhere you'll be cursed. "'Cursed shall be the fruit of your body

and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Cursed shall be you when you come in and cursed shall be you when you go out. The Lord will send on you cursing,

confusion and rebuke in all that you set your hands to do until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly." You're starting to get the picture here because of the will. Israel, like this is what God said in Israel, like, if you don't obey here's what will happen. "...because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken me. The Lord will make the plague cling to you until he has consumed you from the land which you have forsaken me. The Lord will make the plague cling to you

until he has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. You will have no health. The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, with mildew.

They shall pursue you until you perish. And your heavens, which are over your head, shall be bronze, and the earth, which is under you, shall be iron. The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust. From the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them." So you're not going to win in any war. "'You shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. Everyone's gonna hate you. Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air

and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. The Lord will strike you with all the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. madness and blindness and confusion of heart. Ooh, madness, blindness, confusion of heart. You shall grope at noonday as a blind man gropes in

darkness. You shall not prosper in your ways. You shall only be oppressed and plundered continually and no one shall save you. We haven't gotten to the relevant one here yet, although all this is true in ways already. You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes.

Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. See, it's unjust, just unjust, horrible things. Your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies and you shall have no one to rescue them. Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people and your eyes shall look and fall, fail with longing

for them all day long. And there shall be no strength in your hand. A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually." Think of the Israelites, like, all right we get it, we'll obey. So you shall be driven mad, they didn't by the way, you should be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head." We're getting closer.

"'The Lord will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, and you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you an astonishment is like Like confusion more more like the confusion of the mind You shall carry much seed out of the field but gather little in it for the locusts shall consume it

You shall plant vineyards and tend them But you shall neither drink of that wine nor gather the grapes for the worm shall eat them You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity. Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land." All right, here we go. You ready? The alien...

Congratulations if you made it this far through Deuteronomy 28. The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you but you shall not lend to him. Why not? Because he's wealthier, he's richer, he has all the power. He shall be the head. You shall be the tail. Moreover, all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed because you did not obey the voice of

the Lord, your God to keep his commandments and his statutes, which he commanded you.

Okay.

So what, what do we do with this? Well practically we do what John Nolte on the radio today said, which is Trump just needs to follow the law. Follow the law and he'll be fine. Don't worry about the optics of things from your perspective. Just do what is right and the law is correct.

And as Trump said, if they spit, we hit. So if they cross a line of assault, then you arrest them and that's it. Just follow the law and you'll be fine. Here politically. Spiritually this is a curse upon our nation. Is to have a nation where foreigners come in and overtake us.

And don't obey the laws.

And it's okay to be a nation that has laws and to enforce those laws. Also know spiritually that we are foreigners in this world. And we have to obey God's law when we're here too.

And if you don't, among many curses that God will reign upon us is to be overtaken by the alien, not as an invading army, but the alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher. By the way, that's only half of Deuteronomy 28. There's a whole bunch more curses to go. You should read all of them, but I just wanted to build to that one because as you read, and one of them is you're gonna eat your babies and that ended up happening. We've talked about that before in this podcast. There's a siege of Jerusalem and mothers ate their

children in desperation, cannibalism. This is among the curses. So among these horrible curses, this is one of them. The alien among you shall rise higher and higher above you. Now I'll just end on a political point, I usually don't, but it's amazing that Mexicans are allowed to love Mexico. They can love it, love, love, love, love,

wave the Mexican flag on top of a burning car in our country, they can love it. The chair of America's 250 can talk about mi gente, mi familia, la raza, and all that. They can love Mexico. They don't want to be there obviously, but they can love it. And I love America. And I want it to be America again. And I'm not gonna pretend or act like I'm the bad guy for to be America again. And I'm not gonna pretend or act like I'm the bad guy for wanting that anymore. MikeSlater.Locals.com. Transcript commercial free on the website Mike Slater, dot Locals, dot com.

 

Read full Article
The Trump and Elon Battle and The Bible
Politics By Faith, June 6, 2025

The Trump and Elon Battle and The Bible There is trouble in paradise, it seems. The Bible has advice for them and all of us.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you very much for being here. So we're going to talk about this Elon Trump battle that's going on. It's going to change minute to minute. So let's just get caught up here and then we'll bring it to the Bible here. Where to start? Let's just start here. Elon Musk doesn't like the big beautiful bill because it doesn't cut enough spending. And he's right about that,

doesn't cut nearly enough spending. Trump, his argument is we're dealing with the realities on the ground here with the Congress that we have. And in this one big beautiful bill are all these things that we would never get done otherwise, all these campaign promises that we're actually delivering on

and we should pass it for all those reasons. And Elon says, it doesn't cut enough spending. And there is no country if we keep going down this road of debts, of deficits and debt. So Elon wrote, so Trump said in this, in the Oval Office, he was with the Chancellor from Germany

and he was asked about it. And he said that Elon doesn't support this bill because they take out the subsidies for electric vehicles. So Elon wrote on Twitter, I'm going to try to do this best I can real time like as this happened over an hour period on Twitter yesterday, Elon said, whatever, keep the electric vehicle solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil and gas subsidies are touched, very unfair, but ditch the mountain of disgusting pork in the bill.

In the entire history of civilization, there's never been legislation that is both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this. Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill.

Slim and beautiful is the way. As I'm reading that, I am remembering that there's another Elon tweet that I probably should have started with. Here it is. This was two days ago.

Elon said, I can't keep it in anymore. He said, I'm sorry, I can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. He said, shame on those who voted for it. You know you did wrong.

You know it. So that was the start of it. That was two days ago. Okay. So then Trump responded. Then Elon gave the response.

I just gave you, okay. Then Elon said, without me, Trump would have lost the election. "'Dems would control the house "'and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. "'Such ingratitude.'" Then Elon said,

"'The easiest way to save money in our budget, "'billions and billions of dollars, "'is to terminate Elon's governmental subsidies "'and contracts. "'I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it. He later said, Elon was wearing thin. I asked him to leave.

I took away his EV mandate that forced everyone to buy electric cars that nobody else wanted. That he knew for months I was gonna do and he just went crazy. Elon then responded, time to drop the really big bomb. Trump is in the Epstein files.

That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT. Trump then said, I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the greatest bills ever presented to Congress and he gives all the reasons why. Then Elon said that Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him.

Then he said the Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year. Okay. That's the latest as of now. So you got the back and forth. Super. I don't know how much we should talk about Elon here. Let me just, and I've said all these things at different points, but I'll put them all together here. When it comes to cutting spending and doge, I've all in, it's incredible, amazing, it's total support of Elon.

When it comes to creating, innovating and inventing and going to space and running these companies, no one's like him, he's brilliant and genius and the way he runs his companies with efficiencies he does and all the companies he runs, it's remarkable and he's the great inventor of our era. He also is not a Christian at all and you see it in many different ways that he

has a very unbiblical worldview. And he doesn't claim to be a Christian so it's fine but and you can look at it with his fathering. It's an abomination what he's doing with these kids. He just he has this belief that we don't have enough people in the world and we're not making enough kids. I used to agree with this I used to make that argument but I'm kind of thinking maybe that's not entirely true. I don't know. I got to think more about that, but he thinks there needs to be more people in the world.

He's very much taking it upon himself and he just fathers children and then abandons them. And he has a ton of money. So he got plenty of money. They're taking care of. He's like a compound in Texas that they all like live in

or I don't know, but it's just weird. He's not a father. He's not a proper father. One of his kids, and this is one of the reasons why he supported Trump, one of his kids that he abandoned is transgender. And clearly this is a result of dad abandoning this child. And this boy, now he sees a girl and that's all Elon's fault. So he's a terrible dad.

Just by, listen, if an NFL player did this, and many of them do, I'd be critical of him. And I have been, and Elon's the same thing. Also, he has this Neuralink company that puts computer chips in people's brains. I hope that thing fails.

So I wish only the worst on that company because where that is going to lead and no one seems to care at all when everyone just puts a computer chip in their brain. And Elon, if the great military advice of the world is you wanna gain the high ground,

Elon with all of his satellites is the owner of the high ground. He has the ultimate high ground. And I don't know how wise that is, especially with someone who has a worldview that is not good and very antithetical to the Bible.

That's for sure.

Again, Doge, efficiency, government waste, total agreement. Everything else, nope. Not in any way. Now, is it better if these two are getting along and agreeing on Government getting rid of government waste I think so maybe not I mean we'll see how things pan out Is this the end of MAGA? No, this is the end of the world. No, we told the story this morning of

Ben Frank, excuse me, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and they were best friends best friends they wrote the Declaration of Independence together Adam Jefferson wrote it, but Adams consulted a lot. And they were great fellow patriots. And then they hated each other. And they hated each other their whole lives. And at the end of their life, they died on the same day.

Happened to be the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Isn't that incredible? July 4th, 1826, they both died on the same day, and when Adams died, his final words were, Thomas Jefferson survives. And he did not know that Thomas Jefferson

died just a couple hours earlier. What is that story? So we'd like to look back and think, oh, they were best friends. They weren't, they hated each other. They didn't start that way.

But we could still look back on him and be like, Oh, they were awesome. Thomas Jefferson was awesome. And it was Thomas Jefferson wanted a small limited government with states rights. And John Adams wanted a larger central government. And they're still both amazing patriots and we can love them for the great things that each of them did. And we do the same thing with Elon and Trump moving forward.

None of that ever changes. And MAG is not going anywhere. And Trump is the CEO and Elon was an employee and now he's not anymore. And that's that. So I think it's going to be okay and get alpha males going at it and it's not a big deal. Now we got some Bible lessons to learn from this. You have two people here who are not Christians and we see what happens when that is the case. I want to talk about gossip and how to confront people.

First on the gossip Elon said that Trump's pedophile. That's what that was with the always in the Epstein files Now I don't think it's true Maybe he's mentioned there once because he was Jeffrey Epstein was a member of Mar-a-Lago for a while before Trump kicked him out but I can't believe that Trump was in the Epstein files and the Democrats just sat on

that like they hid that from the American people. The Democrats did? I don't think so. So this is, at best, gossip. Leviticus 19 says, you shall not go about as a tail bearer among your people. What's a tail bearer among your people. What's a tail bearer?

Adam Clark, Bible commentaries in the 1790s, he says, the person who, a tail bearer is the person who travels about dealing in scandal and calumny. Calumny is making false defamation statements about someone, slander, slander, calumny, slander. Getting the secrets of every person and family and retelling them wherever he goes. A more despicable character exists.

Not such a person is a pest to society and should be exiled from the inhabitations from the habitations of man. Do not be a tailbearer among your people. I spread gossip the other day. Actually, let me show this first. I was talking to a friend the other day and they were just talking about how much

they're working on not gossiping. And they have a conviction against gossip, as we all should. I gossiped the other day and it felt so wrong, so, oh, it was disgusting. I told my wife about someone who I heard from someone else cheated on their wife and I told her,

I felt so dirty about it. It was weird, because I heard it a while ago and I was like, ah, I don't know, I can't tell. And then it just came out, it was like ridiculous. It was like so disgraceful. And I felt so dirty because I have no idea if it's even true.

But it made my wife's impression of this person bad and for what? What was the point of that? I don't even know what happened. I just added to the net negative impression of this other person. I feel awful about it. So I mean, all I can do is vow to never do that again.

Just keep it to yourself. Don't be a tail bearer, God says. And it's all throughout the Bible. Proverbs 20, 19, a gossip betrays a confidence, so avoid anyone who talks too much. Proverbs 11, 13, a gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret. So don't gossip.

And just a great overall one, Ephesians 4.29, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may also benefit those who listen. Do not put people on blast on Twitter. It's not that, Bob didn't say that exactly, but that's, that's the idea. Now what about confronting people? Christians should confront people differently

than people in the world. Matthew 18, moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, and if you guys come to an agreement here, then you've gained your brother. So if someone sins against you, you have two options.

You either drop it, move on, or if you can't do that, you go to them. Not Twitter. Go to them. Charles Spurgeon, he said, we must not let trespass rankle in our bosom. So if someone sends against you and it's like eating away at you, that's not, don't do that.

But he said, nor, I mean, like don't keep it in, if you can't move on, nor may we go and publish the matter abroad. But also don't go tell it ever. We must seek out the offender and tell him, him, his fault as if he were not aware of it as perhaps he may not be that happens a lot of time to like oh hey you said this like what I didn't oh my gosh I'm so sorry and and you'll find a brother meaning the matter gets cleared up

hopefully and brings you together that the irony is not lost that Trump and Elon their division here is over a bill called reconciliation so so maybe one maybe if they, they're supposed to have a phone call today, so maybe they will reconcile. There will be reconciliation over reconciliation.

But if you have this one-on-one conversation with a person, you clear things up, you gain a brother. Also, you've prevented, or you're not sinning by gossiping all over town. So got lots of wins here. But if he will not hear,

take with you one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear then tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

Just wise advice. Don't call people pedophiles on Twitter. It's not the most biblical course of action. Now Trump and Elon are different, but we should take advice from the Bible and do what the Bible says. Don't gossip, and if you have a problem with someone, go confront them directly, ending

Don't gossip, and if you have a problem with someone, go confront them directly, ending love. And if you have a problem with someone, go confront them directly and do more.

 

Read full Article
Ben Franklin and The Big Beautiful Bill
Politics By Faith, June 5, 2025

Can we be surprised that Congress wasted money when frugality among We The People is no longer a virtue? 

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you so much for being here. Yesterday we talked about Pride Month and we talked about lack of self-control and read some proverbs about pride and about sexual morality and self-control and lust and watching out for the adulterous woman. Today I want to talk about another aspect of self-control and that is with money.

Now this is a perfect timing because of the debate going back and forth about the one big beautiful bill. So the very short of it is this bill passed the house barely and now it's in the Senate and the senators, there's enough senators that are saying this thing stinks, it needs to cut way, way, way more spending. People like Rand Paul saying, I'm not going to vote to raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion. That's crazy. We're supposed to be the people against

raising the debt ceiling and against spending money we don't have. That's nuts. So there's a debate going back and forth and I hope, because that's all I can do right now is, and just have a good attitude, that it will result in a better bill. But they have three weeks to get this done, until the 4th of July, so I guess maybe a little less than four weeks to get this done and see what they can pull together. But now we also got a lot of Elon coming out and saying some very dramatic things against

Trump and now Trump is, ah, it's a whole thing. I don't wanna focus on that. I wanna focus on us. Made the argument this morning that spending is a moral issue. As Andrew Breitbart said, politics is downstream of culture.

And so culture comes first. What is culture? Culture is just a collection of people that have shared values and virtues. We have the Congress that I believe best reflects we the people. We are a people for the most part, who do not have a biblical view of work or spending. And therefore we have a government that reflects that.

Ben Franklin said, rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt. He said if you know how to spend less than you get you have the philosopher's stone. Our Congress does not have the philosopher's stone but either do the American people in their own lives at this point. We have more debt now than ever before. I mean, personal debt, like people have more debt. So how can we be a people that have more debt than ever before? And be like, oh, congress can't believe you have so much debt. That's really, really

unacceptable. Like, what did you think? Politics is downstream of culture.

It is a sin to be a sluggard.

It is a sin to be a profligate, waster, spender, waster of money, materialism. All these things are sinful. So ideally, you have a culture that does the opposite of these things are sinful. So ideally you have a culture that does the opposite of these things and calls them virtues. Okay, well the opposite of being a sluggard is being a hard worker.

The opposite of being wasteful is being frugal. So we had a culture that, and we have one, the opposite of being irresponsible is being responsible, personal responsibility. So we had a culture that, and we have one of the opposite of being irresponsible is being responsible, personal responsibility. So we had a culture that built up these three things. Like think about it.

Like, all right. So the Bible says you shouldn't be a sluggard, which means that it's people's natural instinct to be a sluggard, which means it takes a lot of effort to not be a sluggard. That effort we call virtue, that concerted, directed, intentional effort we call virtue. Effort to be something that one is naturally not, right? To do the opposite of sin, it's virtue. So we had a culture for a long time that celebrated the opposite of those sins. We

had a culture for a long time that celebrated virtues. Makes sense. Here's a list of sins. What are the opposite of those things? Great. Let's do those. Let's honor those. Let's celebrate those. Let's value those. And then we'll have better lives and better families and a stronger country.

We haven't done that in a long time on our personal lives, on a personal level, on an individual level. We are now a culture of laziness. We're a culture of no responsibility, we're a culture of materialism, we're a culture of wasting money and going into debt and that is reflected in Congress. So it's hard to say, oh Congress are wasting so

much, spending so much money, we don't have when the American people are billions of dollars in debt. Let me look this up here. Credit card debt. We go again, it's a podcast later, you can press pause. I thought I was gonna say tens of billions. And I was like, man, it's not that much.

The American people currently hold $1.18 trillion in credit card debt. 1.1 trillion. And we're we're like Congress how dare you be 37 trillion in it. What did you think? New Jersey has an average balance of $10,000 per cardholder. Come on. This is a reflection of America. Congress is. So if we want to fix Congress it's not gonna happen by like raving about it. It's

gonna happen by changing the American people in our culture first. Okay, before we get to the Bible, I wanna share what I did again this morning because it's so good. It's Ben Franklin.

Ben Franklin wrote a wonderful work of art called The Way to Wealth, 1758. And he broke it down into three points. It's a beautiful story where there's these guys complaining about taxes outside of a business, and then this old man comes up,

this wise old man comes up and just starts giving advice. And it's beautiful. Let me cut to the point here. He has three sections, one on industry, hard work, one on responsibility, not being dependent on other people, and one on being frugal.

Let's jump right to the frugal one. Actually, I take that back. Let me share this one first on being industrious. He says, industry need not wish, is the wise man, as poor Richard says, and he that lives upon hope will die fasting. There are no gains without pains.

That was my teacher when I was like 12. Poor Richard says at the working man's house, hunger looks in, but dares not enter. Diligence is the mother of good luck,

and God gives all things to industry.

Then plow deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep. Work while it's called today, for you know not how much you will be hindered tomorrow. One today is worth two tomorrows. If you were a servant, would you not be ashamed that a good master should catch you idle? Marr, you then, your own master, be ashamed to catch yourself idle.

When there is much to be done for yourself, your family, your country, be up by the peep of day. Let not the sun look down and say say in glorious here he lies. That's like beautiful, like unbelievably awesome American Ben Franklin stuff right there. All right. Now the saving. So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business,

personal responsibility and other section of this letter. But to the but to these, we must add frugality. If we would make our industry more certainly successful. The Indies have not made Spain rich because her outages are greater than her incomes. Away then with your expensive follies. You may think that perhaps a little tea or a little punch now and then, a diet a little more costly, clothes a little finer, and a little entertainment now and then. Diet a little more costly, clothes a little finer,

and a little entertainment now and then can be no great matter. But remember what poor Richard says, many a little makes a nickel. Nickel, or for a lot. So many a little makes a lot.

And farther, beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship. Here you are, all get together at this venue of fineries and knickknacks. You call them goods, but if you do not take care, they will prove evils to some of you. Remember what poor Richard says, Buy what thou hast no need of, and before long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.

That's just perfect. Perfect, we are so broke in government, in our country, we're so broke from all the wasteful spending. Well, listen, it goes both ways. But to be real, on an individual level,

we spend so much money on things we don't need, and then when an important expense comes up, we don't need. And then when an important expense comes up, we don't have the money. Broke, can't afford it, why not? And at the federal level, it's the same thing. Oh, can't afford to educate our kids, just we have no more money.

Like what, why not? Wow, we just blew it all over here. They won't admit that, but that's what it is. We had a guy, wrote me a note, So you just work in the military and I said like the Air Force or whoever will ask for a billion dollars And the first thing they do is spend it on a golf course And then they come back like oh we need more money. We don't have enough money for an airplane hanger and a runway We're out. We're out of money. What would you spend it on?

You know

More and more of our budget today is just interest of the debt. Money we can't spend on the things we need. The waste is killing us. We are drowning. We are drowning in the shiny stuff. Here's what Ben Franklin said, these are not the necessaries of life.

They can scarcely be called the conveniences and yet only because they look pretty, how many want to have them? The artificial wants of mankind thus become more numerous than the natural, meaning the important things." Now here's a little bit that I did not share on the radio today because I still feel bad about, I think it was like Monday's episode, yeah Monday because of the Swim Meet, I had to go early, it was a very short episode. So we'll go a little longer. He talks about borrowing money to pay for things.

He says, but what madness must it be to run a debt for these superfluities? Superfluities, superfluities, superfluities. We are offered by terms of this store, six months credit. And that perhaps has induced some of us to attend it because we cannot spare the ready money and hope now to be fine without it.

But ah, think what you do when you run in debt. You give to another power over your liberty. If you cannot pay at the time, you will be ashamed to see your creditor. You will be in fear when you speak to him. You will make poor pitiful sneaking excuses

and by degrees come to lose your veracity and sink into base downright lying. For as poor Richard says, the second vice is lying, the first is running a debt. And again to the same purpose, lying rides upon debts back. Whereas a freeborn Englishman, again this is 1758, a freeborn Englishman ought not to be ashamed or afraid to see or speak to any man living, but poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue.

It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright, as poor Richard truly says. Now my favorite part of this, oh, I have two favorite parts of this letter. Let me do the Christian one first. Ben Franklin says, he talks about hard work, talks about personal responsibility, frugality,

all these virtues. And he ends with this, this doctrine, my friends is reason and wisdom. But after all, in the end, do not depend too much upon your own industry and frugality and prudence. That's the word I've been looking for. Prudence instead of personal responsibility. Same idea. Though excellent things, like these are great. Industry, frugality, prudence are great.

For they may all be blasted without the blessing of heaven. And therefore ask that blessing humbly and be not uncharitable to those that at present seem to want it but comfort and help them. Remember Job suffered and was afterwards prosperous." Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin, our atheist founding father. Here's my other favorite part of this letter, of this story. So again there's a bunch of people outside of the store about to go buy stuff and they're complaining about taxes.

And the first part of the letter, this old man comes up and he's like, listen, you guys complain about your taxes, but you waste even more being with your laziness, you waste even more with your silliness, your foolishness, your bad decisions.

Waste way more than you pay in taxes. the taxes were like 10% not 50%. So I don't know, poor Richard would have a different take today, but the old man comes and he gives this great speech to these people and here's the end of the letter. Thus the old gentleman ended his harangue. The people heard it and approved the doctrine and immediately practiced the contrary. For the store opened and they began to buy extravagantly,

notwithstanding all his cautions. It didn't matter. Everyone agreed with it. Everyone knew it was the right thing. Everything knew this guy was right. And they immediately did the exact opposite. And Ben Franklin says, I resolved to be the better for having heard this story. And though I had at first determined to buy stuff for a new coat, I went away resolved to wear my old one a little longer. Reader, if thou will do the same, thy profit will

be as great as mine." We lack the moral and biblical understanding of money and of hard work and frugality and prudence. So of course, our elected representatives will lack those virtues as well. And it's even harder for them to have those virtues because they don't feel the consequences of them wasting money, our money.

Right, at least when you, if someone doesn't work hard and waste their money, they feel the consequences of it. When Congress doesn't work hard and waste their money, waste our money, then they get reelected. So they even even grew. We need to have so much of this virtue. It's such an abundance of it that the people we elect can even overcome the

inherent structures that make it even harder for someone to be industrious and frugal. We have a long way to go for that to happen. Let me just wrap up with a couple scriptures here, a couple Proverbs. First on being a sluggard, just because I love that word. Proverbs 6, go to the ant you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise. How long will you lie there you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? Proverbs 34 for the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,

but the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. Proverbs 19, 24, a sluggard buries his hand in his dish. He will not even bring it back to his mouth. I was like, can't even can't be like, it's so lazy. I can't even put the fork to my face. Proverbs 26, 14 14 as a door turns on its hinges so does the sluggard on the bed. It's back and forth, back and forth. Won't even get up. Proverbs 21 20 a wise man on money, a wise man saves for the future, but a foolish man spends whatever he gets and a foolish government spends two trillion dollars more than they steal from the American people. from the American people. Mike Slater dot Locals dot com.

 

Read full Article
See More
Available on mobile and TV devices
google store google store app store app store
google store google store app tv store app tv store amazon store amazon store roku store roku store
Powered by Locals