After the Pope criticised Trump's actions in Iran, the president said the Pope should focus more on being Pope and not a politician. What exactly was the Pope's criticism of Trump? And when the Pope referenced Isaiah 1, surely he wasn't suggesting Trump is anything like King Ahaz, right?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. It's where we take the news of the day, we bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with peace and perspective. There's new headlines every single day, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story, the story of the day. President Trump attacks the Pope. That's what all the headlines are saying today anyway. 

So let's chat about it. It all started back about a week ago when the president wrote A Whole Civilization. We'll die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. " He says, let me just keep reading. However, now that we have totally complete regime change where different, smarter, less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen. 

Who knows? We'll find out tonight. One of the most important moments in a long, complex history of the world. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end. God bless the people of Iran. Now, we know how the rest of that story ended. 

It was like, tonight at eight o 'clock and it never happened, right? And then the left criticized Trump for chickening out. We talked about this. But the Pope was commenting on the president's message there. When the president wrote that, it never crossed my mind that he was going to nuke the people of Iran. But people with TDS took that literally. 

They really thought Trump was going to kill them all. Have you not been paying attention for the last 11 years? Don't you know? What Trump does? Don't you know how he does it? And then maybe more importantly here, don't you know who he's talking to? 

He was talking to the insane mullahs of Iran in a way that only they, and I shouldn't say only, in a way that they understand. And it got them to the table. Now, the negotiating table didn't work, as we then found out with the negotiations with J . D. Vance in Pakistan. So nothing came of that, which leads to the blockade. 

Let me explain this blockade real quick. Why this blockade, the president's blockade of the straighter who moves is different than when Iran had a blockade of straighter who moves. When Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz, that stopped 20 -25 % of the world's oil from going to the rest of the world. About 20 -25 % of the world's oil goes through the Strait of Hormuz. When Trump blocks the Strait of Hormuz, he's only blocking Iranian ships. He's not blocking ships that want to go get oil from UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, anywhere else in that area. 

Iran is only about 4 % of the world's oil. So when Iran stopped 25 % of the world's oil, that's going to affect things. That's a problem. But when Trump stops 4 % of the world's oil, Iran's oil, and only Iran's oil, well, that's not a problem at all. We could pick that up everywhere else or maybe even in Texas. So that's the difference with that. 

But anyway, I never thought that Trump was going to nuke Iran, never even crossed my mind. It was like a couple of days later when I was like, oh, wait, people thought People thought he was going to nuke Iran. Like, what are we talking about? That's what all the Trump trained people were thinking and MSNBC and apparently the Pope were thinking. The Pope said today, as we all know, there was this threat against all the people of all the people of Iran. This is truly unacceptable. 

No, it wasn't to the people of to all the people of Iran. Trump, Trump, not only has he never said anything bad about the people of Iran, he repeatedly has talked over and over about how brave the people of Iran are and how they're not like their leaders and how they need to, when the time is right, stand up and take their country back. He is doing this all for the Iranian people in a way that the Iranian people could then take over their country and be a normal country. The idea that he was ever going to kill them all is insane. The president saying he wants to kill all the people of Iran, that's not even a threat against the leaders of Iran because the leaders of Iran are happy to kill all the people of Iran. 

As we saw with the most recent round of protests a couple months ago, they killed 30 ,000, I believe 30 ,000 of their own people. So if Trump says, Hey, you leaders in Iran, if you don't knock it off, I'm going to kill all the Iranians. They'd be like, whatever. We don't care. That's fine. 

Go ahead and do it. 

We'd love it. 

Actually. We'd like it. It would save us some bullets. So it clearly wasn't directed. He was never going to kill the people of Iran. It's the leadership. 

That's obviously what he was talking about. But the Pope said, there are certainly issues of international law here. So only international law only applies to us. It doesn't apply to when Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz. So we're the only ones who have to fight. But even more so a moral issue for the good of the whole entire population, the Pope said, I would like to invite everyone to truly think in their hearts about the many innocent people, so many children, so many elderly, completely innocent, who would also become victims of this escalation of a war that began from the very first days. 

This is Archbishop Paul Coakley. Tell me more. Tell me more about how you would stop the Iranians from getting a nuclear bomb, Archbishop. Talk. bomb. Pope Leo is weak on crime. 

This is the president's response to Bob. Pope Leo is weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy. He talks about fear of the Trump administration, but doesn't mention the fear that the Catholic church and all other Christian organizations had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else for holding church services, even when going outside and even being 10 and even 12 feet apart. I like his brother Louis much better than I like him because Louis is all MAGA. I forgot about him. I forgot about Bob's brother. 

He gets it and Leo doesn't. I don't want a pope who thinks it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I don't want a pope who thinks... I don't want a pope who thinks it's terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a country that was spending massive amounts of drugs in the United States and even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers in our country. And I don't want a pope who criticizes the president of the United States because I'm doing exactly what I was elected in the landslide to do, setting record low numbers in crime and creating the greatest stock market in history. The US should be thankful because as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise. 

He wasn't on any list to be pope and was only put there by the church because he was an American and they thought that it would be the best way to deal with President Trump. I don't think that's wrong. If I wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican. Unfortunately, Leo's weak on crime, weak on nuclear weapons, does not sit well with me, nor does the fact that he meets with Obama sympathizers like David Axelrod, a loser from the left who is one of those who want churchgoers and clerics to be arrested. Leo should get his act together as Pope, use common sense, stop catering to the radical left, and focus on being a great leader. not a politician. 

It's hurting him very badly, and more importantly, it's hurting the Catholic Church, President Donald J. Trump. " Okay, so what do we do with this? First, we must address the war concept here from the Pope. We can never fight a war ever. That's clearly not what the Bible says. We've talked about a lot of Old Testament examples of war. Just last week, we did a couple episodes on that. But even in the future, I'll use a Catholic saint, Thomas Aquinas, to prove that war is not always sinful. Aquinas said three things need be present. You should be in a position where you can declare war, like, for instance, a commander -in -chief. As the care of the common wheel, wheel is like welfare, is committed to those who are in authority, it is their business to watch over the common welfare of the city, kingdom, and province subject to them. says Trump, and just as it is lawful for them to have recourse to the sword in defending the common welfare against internal disturbances when they punish evildoers according to the words of the Apostle, Romans 13, 4, which says, But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer." So you have to be in a position to wage the war, which this president is. Second, a just cause is required. Namely, that those who are attacked should be attacked because they deserve it on account of some fault. Anyone want to question 47 years of Iran and the terrorism? 

that they've brought upon the world and their desire to have nuclear weapons. Thirdly, says Aquinas, it is necessary that the belligerents should have a rightful intention so that they intend the advancement of good or the avoidance of evil. True religion looks upon as peaceful those wars that are waged not for motives of aggrandizement or cruelty, but with the object of security. securing peace, of punishing evildoers, and of uplifting the good." " Absolutely 100 % believe that that is this president's intent. I don't know what Pope Leo thinks about those points from Thomas Aquinas, but I would be curious what he believes. Now, let's go into a different direction here. So Pope Leo, what he quoted in critique of the president is Isaiah 115. Isaiah 115 says, when you spread out your hands in prayer, this is God talking through Isaiah. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood. So this was written about, was written by again, Isaiah through Isaiah. Let me just quote verse one. This is the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. So these kings each had their problems. Ahaz was the worst, which we'll get to in a minute. So Isaiah had this prophecy. The Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me, people of Judah. The ox knows its owner. The donkey is a master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not consider. So we have a sinful nation here. A people laden with iniquity. A brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked to anger." This is not good. 

Why should you be stricken again? Okay, so God wants the people to repent here. Why are you doing this? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faints. the sole of the foot, even to the head. 

The more people rebel, the more bad things happen. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land and your presence and is a desolate, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city, unless the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant. We would have become like Sodom. 

We would have become like Gomorrah. So Judah was attacked by a bunch of other kingdoms. We're talking mostly about King Ahaz. But even then, God showed mercy to the point where in Sodom and Gomorrah, there were no survivors. Right. So unless the Lord of Hosts left us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom. 

We would have been made like Gomorrah. No one made it out as a lot and his family. But that's it. There are no survivors, Sodom and Gomorrah. And here's Isaiah saying that we should have been just like them. That's how bad they were. 

All right. So here's the part that the Pope quoted. We're getting to verse 15 here. I hear the word of the Lord. You rulers of Sodom give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? 

This is God talking. Says the Lord, I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or the lamb of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices. Incense is an abomination to me. 

The new moons, the Sabbath and the calling of assemblies. I cannot endure iniquity in the sacred meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. They are trouble to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes to you from you. Even though you make many prayers. 

will not hear your hands are full of blood that's what the Pope was talking about so this makes sense right so he's saying God is saying that a has here in this case it's just like you guys like Sodom and Gomorrah and you're doing these religious ceremonies but what's the point you're not you're not even close I'll hide my eyes from you and I won't even hear you as you quote -unquote pray so I don't know if the Pope was intending or explicitly compared Trump to King Ahaz. Ahaz was as bad as you get. So give me some proof. He burned his own children as a form of child sacrifice to Baal. That's bad. He built pagan altars across Judah. 

When Ahaz was attacked by Syria, Ahaz went to Damascus to meet with the king there. And he made offerings to their pagan gods because he's like, well, if they beat me, then their gods must be better than my God. Like that's a problem. Second Chronicles 28, 23, for he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, because the gods of the king of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him and all of Israel. Then he replaced the altar, which God gave Moses the instructions to build and built his own altar and then made sacrifices to that. 

Like he's as bad as you can get. Now, this was at a time when the people of Judah were in such a horrible state, they should have turned to God. But they didn't. They went deeper. Because of Ahaz's horrific leadership, they went deeper in their sin and their pagan idolatry. There's a point here to be made about rock bottom. 

We hear a lot about rock bottom. I think we put rock bottom on a pedestal, if you will. We bank too much on rock bottom. We're like, oh, well, things will get better when they hit rock bottom. Then when they hit rock bottom, then they'll trust God. Not necessarily. 

Didn't happen with Ahaz. Now, I don't know if Bob Pope here was saying that Trump is like King Ahaz, therefore God doesn't listen to him. I hope not. I hope that's not what he was doing. That's a horrifically inaccurate comparison. But I'll end on a positive note. 

What is true is that And I do believe this is a positive note. What is true is that our nation needs to repent for our sins. Forget about Trump. Forget about the Pope. We're talking about us and this country, our nations, our founders and the pilgrims. They talked about all the time, repenting for our sins. 

They talked about supplication. Supplication means you confess your sin, you admit your weakness, you ask for forgiveness, and then you ask for God's blessing. If we go continue to go down this road of Ahaz, we're only going to become more pagan. And I don't know how much God's mercy will last. The only way to be more blessed by God, the only way for God to show more mercy than he already has is for us to put him back in the center of our lives as individuals. And therefore, as a result of him being in the center of more individuals' lives, he'll be the center of our civic life as well. 

That's what I get from this drama is, oh, hey, let's not be anything like King Ahas or the people of Israel. who kept getting worse and worse and worse. And then when they hit rock bottom, kept going. We need to turn youtube . com slash at politics by faith.

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It's been an open secret among Democrats that women should stay away from Congressman Eric Swalwell. So why are all of these accusations coming out now? And what can we learn from Numbers 17?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so that we can all walk away with peace and perspective. There's new headlines every day, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story, story of the day. Eric Swalwell thrown under the bus. Here's what happened. 

Eric Swalwell, Congressman of California, San Francisco, since 2012, first gained national prominence when he was found to be sleeping with a Chinese spy, Fang Fang. And he was kicked off, that's her name, Fang Fang. And he was kicked off the Intel Committee at the time for that. What a dope. That was in 2020 or so. More recently, he's made a name for himself as a leader of the Never Trump Movement. 

He's totally shameless and a total political hack. I don't know how full blown his TDS actually is, but he comes across as the most TDS person there can be on MSNBC and all the rest. He's a San Francisco Democrat. That's been the last couple of years. But now he's in the news because he's running for the governor of California. Now, here's the noteworthy thing that you got to understand about this situation. 

The primary for governors on November or June 2nd or 3rd. I forget. It's coming up in June. And it's an open primary, which means all the Democrats and all the Republicans run together on one big, giant primary ballot. The top two move on to the next and final round. It didn't used to be this way. 

California voters in 2010 voted for this as Prop 14. It barely passed. I was there when it happened. I don't think people knew what it was. But anyway, so that's what they do in California now for a bunch of these races. The Democrats did this and they manipulated people into voting for this because they obviously 

completely controlled the state and they were sick of having to run in general elections and spend a bunch of money so they said well let's what if we could come up with a system where no republicans make it to the general election so they said oh let's do this top two primary system where they just get two democrats to make it to the finals so whoever wins democrats win does that make sense So it used to be the Democrats have a primary and the Republicans have a primary, and then the top Republican and the top Democrat go on to the general. But now they just have all do one giant primary and then two Democrats always make it to the next round. So Democrats win already. That's it for them. It's great for them. It's been. 

But it might backfire in this governor's race. There are so many Democrats running that there is a world where each Democrat gets 12 % of the vote. And the two Republicans who are running, Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco, they each split the Republican vote and get 15 % of the vote. Now, I will grant you that this is a bit of a Republican pipe dream, but as we will share in a moment, not that much because they threw Swalwell under the bus. So you can call it a pipe dream, but it's enough that they had to get rid of Swalwell. So What if the two Republicans get about 15 % of the vote each? 

That's about 30 % overall, which makes sense. In California, if Republicans get about 30 % of the vote overall, maybe it's a little more. Maybe they get 35 % of the vote overall, right? So maybe it's like 17. They each get 17 % of the vote, something like that. They could do that, and all the other Democrats get 12, 13, 14 % of the vote, and then two Republicans make it to the top two to go into the next round. 

That background is important. That possibility is important because the Democrats need to start taking each other out now. in order to consolidate their vote because none of the Democrats are dropping out on their own. The top Democrats are Tom Steyer. He's a billionaire environmentalist guy. He's been funding tons of California stuff for decades. 

And he's like, well, I'm just going to run now. Then Congressman Katie Porter, who's a terrible person, just one of the all time worst people ever. And then Eric Swalwell, Those are the big three, but there's also the mayor of San Jose is running, also Antonio Villara Garosa, whose real name is Tony Villar, the former mayor of Los Angeles. These guys, you know, former mayors, they got enough name recognition where they are and they're gonna help split up the vote for the Democrats, and none of them are dropping them. So the Democratic machine got together and they said, all right, well, we gotta get rid of someone. And they said, well, let's get rid of Swalwell. 

So a woman came out and claimed, any kids listening, kids mourning for a moment. Woman came out and said she was... Actually, I don't even know if she used the r -word. She may have just said sexually assaulted. Just. But you know what I mean. 

By Suomo. We don't need to go over the details here. It sounds like a classic Me Too. It looks like where he got him alone and then asked him for stuff and they felt pressured to say yes because he's the superior and they're the intern and they were all very inebriated and it was all regrettable but there was a power imbalance and there's all that stuff. I don't know what happened. I wasn't there. 

But it's enough. that members of Congress, granted, even further left people, are calling for him to resign and even be expelled from Congress, get kicked out entirely because of his relations with a subordinate. They want him gone. I think four women have come forward so far, but now a bunch of other people saying that they've known this for decades, an open secret. Swalwell is on his second wife. He's been married to this woman's second wife. 

He's also now, just because they got to get rid of him. So he's also accused of violating immigration and employment laws by keeping his Brazilian, I guess, illegal alien nanny, live -in nanny, who doesn't have work authorizations. I guess that she's legal, right? And he paid her with campaign funds. So they're doing everything they can to try to get him out. By the way, that illegal alien thing, that harkens back, Meg Whitman, Meg Whitman in the 2010 governor's race, which she was doing well as a Republican. 

California wasn't completely gone then. And then it came out that she had an illegal alien housekeeper for many years. So Swalwell has an illegal alien living handy too. All right, so that's the story, right? It's a Me Too throwing them under the bus, but you understand why they're throwing them under the bus? 

Right. 

So that's that's my what's broken section for today's episode is obviously the infidelity and the sexual assault. That's horrible. But the political broken and I should say and also the political brokenness of this, because the only reason why the Democrats and the media are are turning on Fang Fang's lover is because of the California governor's race and because of the recent polling. There's no other reason. They obviously would have kept all of this going forever if there was no reason to throw him under the bus. But now they're more than happy to throw them under the bus. 

This is John Nolte, he said, this is the corporate media doing what the corporate media always does. If you want to understand how the media operate, whenever you see the media do something, anything, ask yourself one question, how does this benefit Democrats? So if they can take one of the top three out, in this case, Swalwell, divvy up his 15 points, hand them out to the other couple of Democrats, and maybe now they can take out one of the Republicans. And if they can take out one of the Republicans and just get, even if it's just one Democrat making it to the general, then of course, I shouldn't say of course, but you know, more than likely the Democrat will win the governor's race. So the chance to win this race for Republicans is now, and the Democrats know that, which is why they're throwing Swalwell under the bus. 

If Swalwell was polling at 40 % then or 30 % or even in second place, they wouldn't do this and they would continue to cover up who he was forever. But now he's a threat to the party and he's a threat to the Democrats, maybe losing the governor of California's race. So they don't care. He's dead to them. Let's get to the Bible. So quick, like what, what could the, how do we put the Bible in this? 

A quick little backstory here. When preparing for this podcast, it goes both ways. Sometimes I'll come across a news story, and in my researching it or talking about it on the radio, a Bible story will come to mind. Sometimes it goes the opposite way, where I'm reading the Bible, and then it reminds me of something that's happening in the news, and either way, it all works out. This one's a little bit different, and I thought maybe worth sharing real quick. I was in Bible class before church today, as I record this, and my pen was in my Bible, and it was very early in the Old Testament. 

It was like in the beginning of the book, and I was like, oh, I don't remember reading that recently. I wonder why my pen's there. Was I reading something there? I just put the pen there for, I don't know. So I opened it up. I was like, I wonder if I read this. 

And it was Numbers 17 about Aaron's staff blossoming. I said, no, I didn't. I haven't read that. Just random pen dropping in the Bible. So we have class and then I go and I get the kids in the hallway after their class. And Johnny walks out of his room and he hands me a piece of paper that he colored, which is about what he learned about in church, the Bible class before church. 

And it was a piece of paper. that he drew of Aaron's staff blossoming. What? So today we're gonna talk about Aaron's staff blossoming. We just gotta go with it. We're gonna keep going here. 

It's a wonderful story. Numbers 17. So God was choosing the priesthood over all the other tribes of Israel. And there was a lot of grumbling going on. So God's like, all right, we're gonna put this to bed once and for all for everyone. Check out number 16, you want to read about Korah and all the grumbling about Moses and Aaron. 

So God said, all right, everyone, take a staff, a dead stick from each tribe, write a name above it, put it in the tabernacle. OK, let me pick up from here. Verse eight. So number 17, verse eight. On the next day, Moses went into the tent of the testimony and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms and bore ripe almonds. Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the people of Israel. 

And they looked and each man took his staff. And the Lord said to Moses, put back the staff of Aaron before the testimony tabernacle to be kept as a sign for the rebels that you may make an end of their grumblings against me, lest they die. Thus did Moses, as the Lord commanded him. So he did. So a wonderful little story. And the point of this story, one of the things that stood out to me about this was, of course, this dead stick coming to life. 

But it didn't just have a leaf. That would be enough. I've just had one little leaf sticking out of there. It had all the seasons. It had leaves. It had blossoms. 

It had ripe almonds already. And this stood out to me because I love the concept of fruit. Karpos in the Bible, in the Greek. The fruit of your actions. The fruits of the Holy Spirit. Fruit is the 

outward expression of power working inwardly. You have inwardly stuff happening. Okay, well, what's the fruit? And I came across this commentary from F . B. Meyer, maybe it was a hundred years ago. 

He said the rod, this dead stick, had spring, summer, and autumn all at once. The bud of spring, he said, there's a perennial... And this is us too, right? So we have this dead stick, which is us, And we should have all three of these seasons represented in our lives as well, is F . 

B. 

Meyer's point. So first, the bud of spring. There is a perennial freshness in the true saint, a perennial freshness, an always existing freshness in the true saint. He may be old in years, but his leaf is green with vernal tenderness. And there are always budding promises of richer and better things that he has yet attained. 

The outward man decayeth, but the inward renews his youth forever. 

like an eagle's. So we should all, no matter how we're getting, you see my beard, a gray beard, that old. I think a gray beard old, but I guess I'm four kids old. You should always have this freshness of spirit like spring. He also mentioned the blossom of early summer. He said there's an exquisite beauty in the blossom of orchard and garden. 

No painters ever yet learned God's secret of mixing his colors, such as the beauty of the character of the believer. Men will say involuntarily how attractive, how beautiful. And then the fruit of autumn. That we should bear fruit, ripe almonds, not just almonds, but ripe almonds, is the end of Christ in our redemption and discipline. We can only do it in fellowship with himself. He must bear it through us. 

From me is thy fruit found. I've chosen you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain. " That's John 15, 16. So God brought forth life from this dead stick. To be clear, we're all dead sticks, but with God's power and Jesus's resurrection and with the Holy Spirit, our lives can produce fruit. And if you are not those things, then your life will produce very different fruit. 

Fruits you don't want. 

Rotten fruit. And maybe you'll be of a political party or in a position of power or influence where other people will cover for your rotten fruit, but you will know it. Eventually it will come out. You will know it always. And God, of course, will too. I'll end with Matthew 7, 16, because we live in a culture where you're told not to judge. 

Don't ever judge. Jesus says you will recognize them by, by what? Their fruits. 

Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? 

Of course not. Let's pray for the Holy Spirit to work so that we can be people who produce good fruit always. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. If you could subscribe over there, that'd be awesome. It's free, of course, and it helps with the algorithm and it helps us spread the word. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith.

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If the president says he's going to bomb Iran, the left says he's a war criminal. When he doesn't bomb Iran, the left says he's a coward and always chickens out. You can't help the Trump deranged. But we can learn from 1 Samuel 15 on the importance of following God's Word completely. 

Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible. So you can walk away with peace and perspective. There's new headlines every day, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story, the story of the day. Donald Trump chickens out. 

It's very funny if the left says that, well, let's say Trump says he wants to drop a bomb, right? Oh, he's committing a war crime. And then Trump doesn't drop the bomb. Oh, he's a chicken, a coward. You cannot win with the Trump deranged, which is fine. The very short of the story, Trump talked, he spoke loudly and carries a big stick. 

He talked a big game in a way that the people he was talking to, Muslim lunatics in Iran, would understand. They came to the negotiating table at the last minute because, again, the big stick part, he's used it. They know he will. So they negotiated and they agreed, Iran agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz. So Trump didn't attack. Great news. 

Now we'll see if they open up the Strait. That's all we want at this point is open up the Strait of Hormuz. If they do that, then we're probably done in Iran. It kind of depends who rises from the ashes. And if the people there can rise up and run their country, we'll see what they're able to do. But this is possible that we're done in Iran at this point, if they open up the Now, if you lived online when this all happened, it was a dark and weird place, even more than usual. 

People very anxious about what was going to happen by the Trump administration. very anxious or confused when it didn't happen. And then people saying we lost the war and Trump showed weakness and it was all very bizarre and weird. Now on the Iran one part, there are a lot of people. First of all, there are a lot of people on MSNBC. Apparently, I didn't even think that people really thought this never even crossed my mind. 

When Trump said there will be a civilizational erasure, people on MSNBC were thinking that Trump was going to kill 90 million people. And Iran just bombed them all. 

What? 

He's been doing this for 11 years, guys. You still don't know his MO? You don't know how this works? 

Geez. 

Now, people even afterwards said that Trump lost and Iran is winning. Iran won. Iran came out ahead. They're the ones winning. So someone said, all right, let's flip it. Let's flip the script here for a second. 

Imagine Iran killed Trump in the first five minutes of the war. established air superiority over the U . 

S. 

mainland, wiped out the entire U . 

S. 

Air Force, U . S. Navy, killed half the cabinet, flattened the U . S. military -industrial complex, then started building runways in Missouri to land Iranian troops without losing any casualties. Would you say that it was a U . 

S. victory if America managed to keep the Panama Canal closed for a couple weeks? I don't think anyone would say that that was a U . S. victory, so how on earth could you say this is an Iranian victory? Now, before we get to the biblical story of the day, I have two frustrations that I would like to share. 

Let me try to do this quick. So, number one, it's very frustrating that we are unable as a country to talk about what is good and right and proper without having to run it through the prism or framework that is the midterms. We've got the midterms coming up eight months from now. we have an election. So we can't talk about if it's good to do anything. It always has to be, well, how is it going to affect the midterms? 

Okay, well, what are these midterms? Well, this is when the people vote. On what? Gas prices. That's it. Just gas prices. 

That's the only thing people vote on, apparently, is gas prices. Okay, so what happens if gas prices are $3 .20 a gallon? They vote for Republicans. 

All right. 

What if gas is $3 .86? Oh, Democrats. Hold on. Democrats want gas to be $10 a gallon. That's what they want. And you're going to vote because gas is a little too high for your liking. 

You're going to vote for the Democrats who want it even worse. If that makes sense. And then you're like, all right, fine. The election's about gas prices. Okay. Well, who sets the gas prices? 

Oil futures markets, which is based off of what people think gas will cost later. Okay. That's not, I'm not going to analyze a thing, war in Iran, or deporting the U . S. or whatever the thing is. I'm not going to analyze that through the prism of the midterms, which is decided by voters who only care about gas prices, which are determined by future oils markets of predictions of what, like that's not happening. And Trump doesn't either. 

Trump only cares about what is right and he's going to do it now. He doesn't worry about timing. Maybe he'll worry a little bit about the timing, he'll tend to drop bombs on Fridays, but that's only because he doesn't want people in the stock market to freak out unnecessarily. Give it two days, he'll know, and people will be fine about it on Monday. But big picture timing, Trump doesn't care, just does what is right. And I am frustrated that we, every time we're faced with something like this, 

it through the midterm matrix. All right, second frustration. This perception or this opinion, I hear it a lot. Matt Walsh articulates it well. I love Matt Walsh, big fan. He said, Americans are suffering. 

It's way too expensive out there to live for most families. Our cities are not safe. Our country's being transformed every day by foreign migration. Our elections are not secure. The SAVE Act was not passed and won't be passed. Okay, I agree with all those problems. 

Then he says, it's time to end this war on Iran and focus on our country, our people, our future. Far too much of Trump's second term has been spent on foreign adventures. It has to end, turn the attention back home. Matt Walsh and I, same team, not a criticism of him at all. First of all, MAGA does not mean non -intervention. It does not mean isolationist. 

It means what's in America's best interest, and that may sometimes involve foreign adventures. That's the first thing. Second, the economy, the country doesn't work. where something only happens if Trump is staring at it, and if Trump's not staring at it, then the thing does, everything else stops. The best example I can think about this, to make this clear, is let's say the Memphis Safe Task Force. Matt Walsh talked about our cities aren't safe. 

Memphis Safe Task Force. It's not like because Trump is looking at Iran right now, at the moment, he's staring at it, that the Memphis Safe Task Force over here is just at a standstill. We can't do anything, we're stuck. Why not? 

Why can't you guys do anything? 

Well, Trump's not staring at us at the moment. We have to wait till Trump's staring. Well, can't you just do what you told you to do? No, we can't do anything. We can't. We have to stop here. 

Oh, wait, he's looking at us now. Okay, back to work, everyone. And then for like a couple hours, Trump's looking at us. at that. And then he got to stop his work. He's back on Iran. 

He tweeted about Iran. We're done. We can't do anything anymore. All these things still happen. Trump, Trump's the CEO. So he has, I don't know how many buildings he ever had, like 50 buildings. 

Maybe he doesn't. It's not like when he's working on one building, all the other buildings are like, ah, we're closed. No, you can't stay here, can't golf here. Sorry, Trump's not staring at us at the moment. No, Trump says, you go fix the thing. You're in charge of that building. 

You're in charge of that building. Go get it done. So there's just this frustration that people have about the Iran war, again, not looking at it objectively. And you could be against Iran or what Trump's doing in Iran. You could be against it. But I don't think it's a fair or wise argument to be against it because, well, we have other stuff at home to focus on. 

Like, yeah, of course we do. Those things are still being done. A couple weeks ago, we talked to a guy who's running a mine for rare earth metals in Arkansas. He's still doing that. They're still mining for rare earths in Arkansas. It's not like he's like, ah, president's not paying attention to me at the very moment. 

I guess I'll just sit at home and do nothing. Like things are still going on. Berta wrote me a note. She said, as for things not getting done, if Trump's not looking directly at them, I have a way to dumb it down. If you load your dishwasher and turn it on, you don't have to stand over for two hours while it runs. Oh, Berta, that's so good. 

It's the same with the washing machine and dryer. If you hire someone to do a job repairing a car or your house, you can go about your business while the job gets done by someone else. Trump hires competent people and delegates jobs and they usually get it done. Well done, Berta. Perfect. Okay. 

That really had nothing to do with this so much as I just wanted to get those. Alright, what's broken about the current moment? People are very anxious about war. That's what I want to talk about here. People are very anxious about war. I want to tell a story. 

1 Samuel 15. So you've got the prophet Samuel and you've got the king of Israel Saul. We'll start in verse 3. God told Samuel to tell Saul, now go and strike Amalek and devote, like a town, a city, and devote to destruction all they have. Do not spare them, God says, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. I want to share this because people get very uneasy about the scripture. 

You often hear people who are not Christian criticize Christians for this story right here. Now I skipped over the first part. Let's go to first Samuel 15 verse two. Thus says the Lord of hosts. I have noted because you think, well, why, why, why, why, why kill everything and everyone in Amalek? What's up? 

Well, God says, I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up from Egypt. This was a total judgment against the Amalekites. because of something they did centuries prior. They were the first people to attack the Israelites when they left Egypt. Bible talks about this a couple of times. Exodus 17, 14. 

Then the Lord said to Moses, write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it. The Lord is my banner saying a hand upon the throne of the Lord. The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. Jeez, what are the... What did they do again? 

What did the Amalekites do to the Israelites, to God's people? Here's Deuteronomy 25. on the way when you were faint and weary and cut off your tail, like the back of the caravan, those who were lagging behind. And he did not fear God. Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you and the land of the Lord your God has given you for the inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget. 

" So here we are. The Israelites are, time has passed, and this is the time to do it. The Amalekites, to do what? Enact God's judgment. The Amalekites attacked the weakest of the Israelites, the youngest, for no reason. They just killed them. 

God hates it when the strong take cruel advantage over the weak. So let's go back to 1 Samuel 15, verse four. So Saul summoned the people and numbered them, 200 ,000 men on foot, 10 ,000 men in Judah. Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites, go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showered kindness to all the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt. 

So the Canaanites departed away from the Amalekites. So this is great. So the Canaanites, Saul says, Hey, we're not, we're not going to attack you. You go, go get out of the way. Because the Israelites, they don't want war for war's sake. And if I may, neither does Donald Trump. 

He doesn't want war. And the Israelites didn't want war here. They're like, you people go, get out of the way. Verse seven, and Saul defeated the Amalekites. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive, and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword, but saw in the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and the fattened calves, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction. 

" Uh -oh. 

Saul did not obey God. He did not destroy the Amalekites. He spared the king. I don't know why exactly, but he didn't. The armies back then were paid by plunder, but God said, destroy everything. They didn't. 

They destroyed the things they didn't want. They destroyed the useless things, the worthless things, but they kept the best of everything. They kept what they wanted. That's true for us too. We all have no problem obeying God's commands that are easy. But what about the commands that cost us something? 

That's when most fail. God said, I regret making Saul king. And because Saul did not kill all the Amalekites, they kept popping up in the Bible. They kept having to fight him over and over again. 1 Samuel 30 in your Bible might be entitled, David destroys the Amalekites. He had to fight them all over. 

And in 2 Samuel 1, this is the story of Saul's death. The man who pushed that sword in the final blow to kill King Saul was an Amalekite who Saul was supposed to take care of already, but he disobeyed God. So one point that people make here is that if you don't obey God completely, what you don't take care of will come back to haunt you. But I want to share this story here because people have a tough time with God calling on a people to wipe out an entire group of other people. It's God committing genocide. How could your good God do such a good thing? 

It's very simple because they were a wicked people. So I would advise everyone who has a tough time with this scripture to take note of what God can do to a wicked people. I don't want to follow any God who could do... Okay, but he can. That's God's judgment. You're going to question his judgment. 

I would advise you to not. Now on judgment, when Samuel did kill Agag, he said, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless. God hates wanton killing. Now what actually is shocking is not God's wrath. That's not shocking at all. What's shocking is his love for us. 

God said the wages of sin is death. There should be no surprises there. But the fact that we can be made alive in Jesus, that's the absolute miracle. But back to the questioning of, of God's judgment. I think of Job 38, I recommend you read it all often 38, 39, 40. And the gist of it is God saying, who are you to question me, Job? 

Starts off, where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? And it just goes on beautifully to describe all these other things that prove that God is God. And it ends with, shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer. Go ahead, your turn, Job. Humans have, you know, I say partial knowledge, not zero knowledge, basically. 

The faintest amount. God has complete total knowledge and authority. Who are we to question him? The story of the Amalekites and his judgment. Now today, I know war is anxiety inducing, but we must trust that God has it under control. We must pray, but know that nothing thwarts God. 

No evil will get in God's way. I'll end with Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage? So the kings all gather up. They're like, Oh, let's, let's do this against God saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. Okay. 

What's God's response? I've set my king on Zion, my holy hill. If that God is, sounds like a mean God that you, uh, I recommend you worship him. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. YouTube . 

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