God’s Decrees and the Trump Shooting

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Looking at our world from a theological
perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast,

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making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Monday, July the

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fifteenth, twenty twenty four. It
is currently ten oh nine am Central Time,

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and I am coming to you live
from the Theology Central studio located right

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here in Abilene, Texas. Now, I don't know how the average listener

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perceives or understands this podcast. In
fact, I feel that many people who

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listen they demonstrate by emails or comments
that they don't really understand what this podcast

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is about. Now, obviously the
name should at least give people a clue.

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Theology Central, right, I'm attempting
to make theology central to whatever issue

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we are discussing. Are looking at
things from a theological perspective, not a

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political perspective, not any other perspective. Theology is the perspective which I'm attempting

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to bring to light to whatever subject
we are referring to. And in that

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discussion of theology, we may cover
that. We may talk about the news,

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we may talk about a thiological issue, We may do Bible studies,

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we may do a devotional study,
whatever the case may be. Theology,

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obviously is a major part of it. That's why it's called Theology Central.

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But I think a lot of people
perceive this podcast more like maybe they would

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view other ministries, how they would
judge other ministries. And maybe there was

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a time that I approached broadcasting and
podcasting from that perspective, almost as if

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it was the broadcast was an extension
of a church, right, it was

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connected to very much connected to a
church, and there was true to that,

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or because it very much was,
and it was almost like an extension

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of that ministry. Here's what we
do on Sunday at the church. Here's

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what I do Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday Sunday.

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It was kind of of an extension. It was to hey, our

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ministry may be limited here, but
when I turn on the microphone, the

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ministry can reach around the world.
And I think that for a very long

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time that was very true. But
as I've moved forward, maybe I started

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noticing this in twenty twenty three,
but I know in twenty twenty four now

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I am very much aware that this
podcast has kind of taken on it's purpose.

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It's what I'm attempting to do really
has changed. Dramatically, and I

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don't know if people quite understand it. See the way I see this podcast

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now is this that I'm a Christian. I'm very much a sinner who has

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a microphone, and this microphone really
simply serves almost as my discipleship tool.

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Right Because now the way I kind
of see this, when I turn on

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the microphone and I go live,
really what you're hearing is just a Christian

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just working through his own Christian life
live on the air. If I'm if

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I'm listening to a sermon, well
I choose to listen with you, right,

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and you listen to a sermon with
you. If I'm doing a Bible

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study, well I choose to do
that live on the air with you.

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If I'm doing a devotional, I
choose to do that live on you.

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If a live on the air with
you. If I'm reading an article and

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on a Christian website or in a
sort of the Lord newspaper, well I

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like to share that with you.
If I'm struggling with some concept or idea

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or some philological thing, I just
share it with you. And a roundabout

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way all this this podcast really has
become more and I hope that this makes

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sense, this is really more about
me than it is you. And let

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me explain. It's not about me
in the sense of, Oh, I

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want to be a famous podcaster and
I want everyone to love me, and

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I want all of these numbers.
Now, yeah, I obviously have a

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certain perspective about how I would love
the podcast to go. But I mean

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a lot of that is not even
you know, not even realistic. But

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yeah, I have certain ideas,
but the reality is, whatever those ideas

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are, when I sit down in
this chair in front of this microphone and

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I go live, none of that
really matters. It's really just you're listening

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to a person in sitting in his
study slash studio where he's just trying to

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figure out the Christian life or right
along with you in real time. You're

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just listening to someone have their devotions
or or just work through theological issues in

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real time. I'm just I'm just
a Christian trying to figure it out.

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It's not so much even like this
is a ministry. This is just really

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you're just getting insight. You're just
a lot You're just watching someone's own discipleship

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unfold in real time. That's kind
of really what this has become. And

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I don't know if people quite understand
it. I tend to see it as

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hey, guys, welcome, Like
you know, hey, hey, welcome

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to my study. Welcome to my
studio. And it's not so much I'm

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here necessarily trying to teach you,
what I mean, I do hope you

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learn and there's value and you benefit. But it's more about me just struggling

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and processing and working through things in
real time. And obviously, if you've

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been paying any attention to this broadcast, in this podcast, you know that

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I've been trying to work through a
lot of emotions and philological concepts and feelings

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and just just dealing with a lot
since the assassination attend on President Trump,

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since he was shot and everything that
has happened since then. Well, I've

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been spending a lot of time just
trying to process it and trying to figure

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it out and real time. And
so well, here we are this morning,

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Monday, July the sixteenth, and
guess what, I'm still trying to

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process it and figure it out now. I challenged everyone. I challenged everyone

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July the fifteenth, not the sixteenth. I apologize if I said July the

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sixteenth is July the fifteenth, I
apologize, but as I've challenged everyone to,

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you know, pay attention to what
everyone is saying, to look carefully

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at what is happening, and you
know that part of twenty twenty four,

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one of the things I've tried to
get everyone to participate in is what we're

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calling the Sermons two point oh app
Sermon Challenge, the Sermon's two point oh

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app sermon Challenge, where you're supposed
to each day take the sermon's two point

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oh app and find random sermons and
then you're supposed to write down the title

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and then a summary of what the
sermon was about. That's been a major

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focus this year and again because I'm
trying to listen to sermons, I'm just

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having you participate right along with me
as I and you're just listening to me

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go, you know, work through
them and listen so as I. As

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I've been you know, telling everyone
to do that. One of the things

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I told you I was doing is
I've been trying to pay close attention to

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the sermons two point oh app since
the shooting of Donald Trump and just see

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what the responses would be. And
I've been trying to pay close attention to

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the Christian world, to see how
people would be responding to it, what

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they would be saying, whether I
found comfort in it, whether I got

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frustrated by it, and just try
to see how everyone is responding to it.

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I've already shared some of my initial
thoughts. We looked at at least

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one response. Well, this morning, I woke up and guess what.

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I grabbed my iPad and I went
to my sermons two point oh app feed

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and guess what I found. Well, I've found well, I found early

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I think I don't know, like
maybe four in the morning, five of

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the morning, I think I woke
up and grabbed the iPad and I found

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one, and then later on I
found a second one. The first one,

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I'm not going to uh, we're
not gonna talk about that one right

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now. We're going to talk about
one. The second one, only because

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of the name of the individual,
how well known he is, and because

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I told everyone you should be following
him on the sermon's two point oh app

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so that his content shows up in
your feed on a daily basis. And

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we're just gonna start listening to some
of this. I have only listened to

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maybe a minute, and he mentioned
a term that is a very important term

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in theology, and he's using this
term and light of the shooting of the

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assassination attempt against Donald Trump. So
we're we're gonna listen to this and we're

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gonna just really talk about some very
important theological concepts. And I, and

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while you're just gonna listen to me
in real time, struggle through these concepts.

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I struggle with these concepts, I
very much. I am aware of

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these concepts, have taught these concepts, and I believe these concepts in a

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theoretical way, right, and from
a theoretical standpoint, I can teach these

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concepts. In a practical way,
I struggle with these concepts. And again,

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I feel like that's one of the
things about this. I can say

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that in a podcast like you probably
couldn't say that. Well, I would

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say it in a church anyway,
But I know that, you know,

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people have certain expectations maybe in those
settings, but I tend to be very

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much more real and so I can
admit there are theological concepts that I may

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believe are true. I may truly
believe them theoretically, but when they come

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down to a practical level, I'm
a little bit like, you know,

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this actually makes no sense and I
struggle with it, and I'm okay admitting

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that, and I hope you're able
to admit that, right, I mean,

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hopefully you are. So what we're
going to do is look, listen

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to this, and then when we
get to those concepts I'm going to then

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we're gonna go to a very important
document written in the sixteen hundreds that you're

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probably very familiar with, and we're
gonna see how they articulated and defined these

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very important theological terms. And then
we're just gonna consider these theological terms and

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light of the shooting of Donald Trump. All right, that's where we're gonna

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go, and we'll just see where
this goes. Basically, I'm inviting you

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in as I'm sitting here trying to
still process and understand and figure out my

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thoughts and how this type of thing
and the shooting of Donald Trump is.

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Just because it's such big national news, right, global international news, it

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just makes it as an easy It
makes it simple to take this because everyone

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is talking about it. But then
we can pull it into the fill logical

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world, because that's what we do. That's what I do, right,

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whether I'm broadcasting, or if I'm
just sitting here, that's what I would

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be to whatever I'm looking at,
I'm going to see it and think of

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it from a theological perspective. That's
all I mean. I will never be

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able to stop doing that. I
mean all of my education, I mean

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my entire adult life, school after
school, after school, it's in theological

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studies. So I don't know how
not to think about things from a thiological

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perspective. It's just just the way
I operate. So even if I wasn't,

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even if I didn't have this microphone
on, I would basically be sitting

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here having this conversation with myself.
So why not turn on the microphone and

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see if it's benefit to other people? So that's what we're going to do.

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Are you ready? I hope all
of that makes sense, But yes,

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here we go. Let's listen,
and please once you I'm not going

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to do any more introduction. I'm
just going to play on this. As

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you hear this, and you hear
them introduce the podcast and their broadcast,

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please go follow it on the sermon's
two point oh app Please remember, I

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want you to find twenty broadcasters that
you really like that or even you dislike,

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but they challenge you and they make
you think. Sometimes you need a

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good balance of things you maybe agree
with and disagree with, so that you're

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constantly being challenged. But twenty broadcasters
that you're following, so that that feed

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section on the Sermons two point oh
app has new content, hopefully on a

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pretty regular and consistent basis. All
right, So, and of course one

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of those should be me. Now
I'm twenty others not twenty, not including

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me. I can be number twenty
one, twenty two, twenty five,

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but at least twenty. And because
I want you to have lots of different

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content, different perspectives, challenge that'll
make you more well rounded spiritually, and

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it'll give you plenty to think about
on a regular and consistent basis. But

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here's one I would highly recommend,
and we listen to it now. It's

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Monday, July fifteen, twenty twenty
four. I'm Albert Moehler, and this

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is a special edition of The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events

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from a Christian worldview. Human history
sometimes turns on a single date. Sometimes

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it seems to turn in a matter
of seconds. That's exactly how history looked

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on Saturday, when there was an
assassination attempt upon the former President of the

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United States, Donald Trump, as
he was campaigning in rural Pennsylvania. As

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a matter of fact, Americans and
then others around the world watched transfixed to

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the video in which the former president
and the man just about to pick up

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the twenty twenty four Republican presidential nomination
when he reached suddenly in the middle of

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a rally for his ear and obviously
then understood that he had been shot,

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falling to the ground and immediately covered
by American Secret Service agents. The rest

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of the story began to unfold as
America and as the WARLD watched, but

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the bottom line became very clear.
This was an assassination attempt upon Donald Trump,

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the forty fifth president of the United
States, and it was one that

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was undertaken in such a way that
it raises huge questions about the security detail

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around the former president and current presidential
candidate about to be nominee. Huge questions,

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of course, that lead to massive
worldview questions. Okay, now,

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first, that's doctor Albert Mohler.
That is the broadcast is called the Briefing.

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Please subscribe to it on the Sermon's
two point oh app and it is

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available on all the other podcasting apps. So I would definitely challenge you to

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subscribe to it so that you can
hear that Halpen He drops new episodes Monday

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through Friday. Definitely make it a
priority, a right, definitely listen to

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that. But let me just say
this as he says that this brings up

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serious questions about the security detail of
of Donald Trump. Yeah, okay,

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let me just say this right from
the start, because I've seen this on

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Christian websites, non Christian websites.
There is so much wild speculation flying around

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right, conspiratorial ideas, conspiratorial thinking, misinformation, disinformation, half truths,

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complete lies. However you want to
classify all of that's just swirling around as

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a Christian, do not add to
it, Do not contribute to that.

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You want to stand outside of that
noise as people are running around. You

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don't want to add to that.
We want to stand outside of that.

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We want to be the source where
people come to us and they hear truth,

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reason, logic, calm, humility, not wild speculation. Not acting

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like you're an expert about security details
unless you have true expertise in that area.

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Whether you know about setting a parameter
or not, whether you know anything

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about setting up a security detail or
not. Look, if you know something

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about it, then even then you
have to say, is it really my

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place to say something here? Am
I really going to add something to all

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of this noise? There'll be Christians
all over social media just saying the wildest

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craziest things. Look, are you
contributing or helping? Are you doing anything

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that's going to minister to anyone?
Are you simply just adding to the noise?

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Don't do that. I'm not saying
that's what doctor Albert Mohler is doing

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there. He's just simply saying.
It raises questions. It's okay, it

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can raise questions. When do we
jump into the conversation. When do we

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abstain? When do we demonstrate there
being wise as a serpent and harmless as

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a tough When are we realizing and
thinking, okay, wait a minute,

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when should I speak here? And
when should I not? And I think

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that sometimes in these situations, everyone
wants to speak quickly, loudly, and

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I think in many cases we all
ultimately demonstrates is how foolish we were when

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we first started speaking, Because because
things are going to change. Wait,

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Tell everyone to wait, Tell everyone
to be patient, Let the information come

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out slowly but surely, because so
many times I've seen Christians jump on some

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issue happening, making crazy comments,
and then slowly but surely, as information

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comes out, it proves that all
of those crazy comments were fraudulent, were

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wrong or incorrect. You' you know
what. I almost never see Christians come

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back and apologize for how wrong they
were, how they jumped to conclusions,

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how in many cases they bore false
witness, they gave fraudulent information. As

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Christians, we are not We're not
to bear false witness, We're not to

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be speaking lies. But truth,
that is something that we all have to

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I have to struggle with. We
all have to struggle with. And typically

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the best course of action is to
be slow in speaking, not being fast.

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It's sometimes it's good to have an
opinion. Sometimes it's better not to

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share set opinion. Okay, unless
you're just doing so privately. Right,

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There's always a time and place,
and so the wild speculation needs to be

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careful. But he says that this
brings up serious worldview issues. All right,

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Okay, I think I have no
problem using that term worldview. I

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did a lot of teaching on that
concept years ago, but I guess we

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ever went has a worldview the way
you view the world now. For a

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Christian, our worldview in theory,
theoretically is supposed to be one hundred percent

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defined our entire worldview, the way
we should see the world through the view

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of what it looks like through scripture. In other words, you can you

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can take a you can take a
picture of the earth. Right, there's

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a picture of the earth, and
what you hold up in front of that

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picture is a Bible, because you're
going to see the world through the pages

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of scripture. That's the way it's
supposed to work. Now, we say

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that in many cases, if we're
being honest, our culture, our ideas,

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our political views, so many other
things. Actually we see the scriptures

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through our world Sometimes our worldview actually
is not being driven from the scriptures,

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are coming from the scriptures. We're
reading the scriptures and light of our worldview.

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If you are born in a certain
part of the country, your culture,

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the way you were raised has more
to do with how you see scripture

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than how you see the world.
And it's very deceptive and people sometimes don't

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realize I'll be like, no,
I have a Christian worldview. No,

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you're imposing on the Bible your cultural
worldview. You sound like you are a

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Republican, you sound like or from
Texas, you sound like you're from the

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South, you sound like this or
that, and you're reading it into the

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Bible. When someone else is not
from the South or from Texas or a

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Republican, they will say things and
like they're reading their culture and their ideas

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into the scripture. The reality is
everything we think should be coming from the

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scriptures. We should not be imposing
it upon the scriptures. And people have

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a hard time with it. And
we see that all the time when it

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comes to political issues. Everyone will
say it comes from the Bible, or

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you're reading it into the Bible.
Which is it? So this worldview question,

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okay, I agree that the shooting, the assassination attempt on Donald Trump,

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it probably does have serious worldview implications, But I am more interested in

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looking at it from a theological perspective. Now, if you have a correct

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theological perspective, that should become your
worldview. But we'll just see which direction

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he goes here. He's going to
use the term and just to second it's

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a very important term in theology.
So see if you can, if you

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can hear it, if you can
find it, or here we go,

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and so let's turn to those.
The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump

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represents one of those moments when the
issues, when the truths fundamentally are absolutely

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clarified. Saturday's attack at President Trump's
rally in Pennsylvania shock the nation and the

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watching world. It instantly revealed so
many massive theological, moral essential truths,

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worldview dimensions. First, Okay,
now I love that, and he's absolutely

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right. This brings up so many
philological issues, so many theological issues.

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And when I hear Christians start talking
about it more from a political perspective,

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frum and that drives me crazy.
Stop looking at things from a political perspective.

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When your first words sound political,
when your first words sound cultural,

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when your first words sound everything other
than theilological, then you know your worldview

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has been compromised. From a Christian
it should sound biblical, it should sound

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philological, it should not sound like
anything else. And I've been yelling and

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screaming about this since the nineteen nineties. I mean, really, this is

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not a new thing with me.
I started getting concerned and worried in the

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nineteen nineties when I would go to
church and hear men talk. I don't

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know about the women, but if
I heard the men talk, this is

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where it became the most obvious.
The men sounded more like rush Limbaugh than

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they did Matthew Mark Luke and John. And when they would talk about issues,

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maybe overseas or cultural issues or military
issues or whatever the issue was,

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they sounded like they were a conservative
Republican, not like they were a biblical

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Christian. Now I know many will
argue, no, no, it's the

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same thing. No, it's not
okay. Political conservativism is not biblical Christianity.

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It is something other. It's different. And so many cases you would

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hear men who claim to be Christians, who who believed in God, who

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knew knew the Bible. But so
many times when they talked about issues,

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You're like, that sounds like what
rush Limbaugh was saying on Tuesday. And

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then later on some Christians started sounding
sound more like Alex Jones than they did

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Matthew Mark Luke or John. And
then they started sounding like Sean Hennity more

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than Matthew Mark Luke and John,
they started sounding like Fox News more than

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Matthew, Mark Luke and John.
You get the idea, that's a problem.

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So whatever the issue is, we
should see the philological side of it.

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Now, he's going to start outlining
some key points. Here writ some

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key points. Let's listen. I
think he's about to say. First.

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I know I kind of cut him
off in the middle, in the middle

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of him speaking, but he's gonna
say, first, what is the first

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thing he's going to bring up here? First of all, if nothing else,

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demonstrated to us immediately that life and
death can come down to the matter

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of seconds and to a matter of
a millimeter. And that is one of

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the most striking realizations when you consider
this assassination attempt upon the former president of

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the United States. Clearly, a
man was able to get on the roof

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of a neighboring building that raises itself
so many questions, was able to have

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a direct line of fire at the
former president of the United States, was

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able to discharge several rounds, one
of them grazed the President's ear, and

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even as the president grabbed his right
ear, and even as blood began to

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flow, and as those now iconic
photographs began to emerge. It was very

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clear that had that round, had
that bullet just moved slightly, ever so

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slightly, in the direction of the
president, it would have not hit his

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ear. It would have ended his
life. And so there's a sobering realization

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and it points to something, and
that something has to be explained. It

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has to be explained in worldview terms. Is this just an accident? Was

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it luck? Was it fate?
Here's where Christians understand that we have nowhere

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to go but the doctrine of providence. Okay, so two major important concepts.

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Just how in a sense fragile life
is. Life can end just like

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that in a second, and just
a small distance, right, a few

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inches less than that, and then
your life can be over. Life is

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fragile. We do not know how
long we have look the frail TiAl life,

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how fragile life is, how frail
we are, how mortal we are,

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how quickly we are here and quickly
we are gone. The brevity of

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life that we should definitely definitely not
forget that. In this we should definitely

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be reminded to number our days,
to be aware that our end is coming,

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that we do not have for ever
on this earth. We have a

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limited amount of time, and then
we are gone. So then what what

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should we be focused on? What
should we be consumed with? What should

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we be bothered by? What should
we be fighting for? Fight or not

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fight? When should we speak?
When should we not speak? I think

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a lot of things that should control. That is, Hey, redeem the

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time, number your days, know
the brevity of life. Know how fragile

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your life is. Know how frail
in a sense we are, that we

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can be gone and literally a second. Right, So I think that that

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is a very profound point there,
and we could spend much time with that.

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But did you hear the philological term? Okay, so this shooting,

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how do we understand it? Was
this just a matter of luck? Coincidence?

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Was it fate? Why? Why? Why? Did why did Trump

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live? How come the bullet just
barely missed? Was it just incompetence?

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Or are just unfortunate that the shooter
from hit from the shooters? Unfortunate that

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he just wasn't a very good shot? Fortunate for Trump that he wasn't a

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not a good shot? Is it
something like just that? Is it?

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How How do we how do you
understand it? Like? Do you just

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see it as fate, luck or
do you see it as something else?

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And he mentioned providence. He mentioned
providence. Now up to this point,

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there's something he hasn't mentioned. Now
we're we're gonna have to listen to the

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rest to see if he mentions it. But he just mentioned providence, all

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right, So let me ask you
to do this, right, let me

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ask you to do this. If
you have a notebook, I want you

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to write down the word providence.
Now, if you're not listening to me

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live at this point, I want
you to hit pause, and I want

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you to write down your definition of
providence. I want you to write down

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your definition of providence. What is
it? I want you to write down

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the word decrees. Providence and decrees. These are two terms I want you

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to write down, and I want
you to seek to do your best to

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define them on your own. Just
try to define them on your own.

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What is your current understanding of these
two terms, providence and decrees? And

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when we see something like the shooting
of Donald Trump and the bullet just just

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you know, over just a little
bit and his life is finished, is

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that just luckish? It's just fate? Is it? Incompetence? Is it

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just fortunate for Donald Trump if you're
the shooter, unfortunate because it didn't do

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what you wanted it to do.
Who gets to make the decision? Who's

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really in control? Is what controls
that situation? Is the competence or the

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ability of the shooter is the is
what's in control? The wind and distance

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is what is in control? There
just mindless chance? Or is there something

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else in control? Now? Wait, now, please, I know some

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of you immediately going, well,
obviously God is in control. I know

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we say that, but I want
we're gonna work through this, and I'm

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gonna work through it in real time
with you, because this raises serious questions,

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all right, because like there's something
he still hasn't mentioned in all of

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this, and we'll see if we
can get to it in a minute.

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But let's do this. Let's start
with some definitions, all right. I'm

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going to pull off this the sixteen
eighty nine London Baptist Confession of Faith,

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the sixteen eighty nine London Baptist Confession
of Faith. Every Christian should look up

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the London Baptist Confession of Faith today
and you should look at the chapter,

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the chapters dealing with God's decrees and
God's providence. God's decrees and God's providence,

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and this should be required reading.
All of this week should be on

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God's decrees and God's providence, and
light of the shooting of Donald Trump.

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Now, we could take any event, whether good or bad, whether someone

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dies or someone lives, whether the
storm misses or whether the storm hits,

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whether the cancer never shows up or
the cancer takes someone's life, whether cancer

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00:30:27.960 --> 00:30:33.400
shows up and goes into remission or
the cancer spreads, whatever the issue is,

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we every issue can be understood or
at least seen, or to be

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dealt with in the light of God's
decrees and God's providence. So let's start

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with God's decrees. Are you ready? Chapter three, paragraph one of the

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London Baptist Confession of Faith. God
hath to creed in himself from all eternity

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by the most wise and holy counsel
of his own will. So God has

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decreed in himself from all eternity by
the most wise and holy counsel of his

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own will. That's the only determinate
factor here is his own free will.

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Listen, are you ready freely and
unchangeably all things whatsoever comes to pass?

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God decrees from all eternity, according
to his own free will, freely and

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unchangeably all things, whatsoever comes to
pass. Do you believe that God decrees

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whatsoever comes to pass? Do you
truly believe? Theoretically? Say, for

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00:32:00.079 --> 00:32:02.200
my in my mind, I can
say, well, theoretically, yeah,

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God is sovereign. God is eternal, God is omniscient, immutable. All

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I could go through, all of
his attributes. God decrees everything that comes

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to pass. Amen. Well,
when a situation where the bullet barely create,

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you know, basically just barely hits
the ear right, no, no

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00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:30.079
serious injury, no death, Donald
Trump walks away, you can say God's

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00:32:30.200 --> 00:32:35.079
decree. God, God is in
charge. God decreed that that bullet would

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00:32:35.119 --> 00:32:39.680
not strike him. See, had
nothing to do with the how fortunate Donald

403
00:32:39.720 --> 00:32:44.359
Trump was or how unfortunate the shooter
was. Had nothing to do with fortune,

404
00:32:44.440 --> 00:32:45.720
had nothing to do with fate,
had nothing to do with chance,

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00:32:45.880 --> 00:32:49.720
had nothing to do with ability,
had nothing to do with the gun,

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00:32:49.920 --> 00:32:52.119
had nothing to do it, had
nothing to do with distance. It only

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had to do with God's decree.
And we could say God decreed that Donald

408
00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:01.759
Trump would not be killed on that
day. And everybody may say, hey,

409
00:33:02.519 --> 00:33:08.079
man, just keep keep that in
mind though, because because there's a

410
00:33:08.160 --> 00:33:12.599
there's another side of this that won't
be so pleasant. But well, we'll

411
00:33:12.839 --> 00:33:16.480
see if this even gets discussed right
now, continuing in the Londin Baptist Confession

412
00:33:16.640 --> 00:33:21.880
Confission of faith. Yet so as
thereby is God neither the author of sin,

413
00:33:22.119 --> 00:33:25.119
nor hath fellowship with any therein,
nor does violence offered to the will

414
00:33:25.160 --> 00:33:30.559
of the creature. Nor yet is
the liberty or contingency of second cause taken

415
00:33:30.599 --> 00:33:35.200
away, but rather established, and
which appears his wisdom and disposing all things

416
00:33:35.440 --> 00:33:38.400
and power, power and faithfulness,
and accomplishing his decree. Now we can

417
00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:44.720
get into a philosophical argument about this
idea of what's called uh second causes.

418
00:33:45.480 --> 00:33:52.799
I'm not a big fan of this
because it feels like almost like here's what

419
00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:55.480
happens. Once you say God decrees
everything, what's whoever comes to pass,

420
00:33:57.119 --> 00:34:00.880
then immediately the issue is well,
then God's the author of So we got

421
00:34:00.920 --> 00:34:02.440
to get in a sense, get
God off the hook, right, So

422
00:34:02.480 --> 00:34:07.839
then we come in secondary causes.
See, God's not the primary cause.

423
00:34:07.880 --> 00:34:12.559
So since God is not the primary
cause, the secondary causes they're the cause.

424
00:34:12.760 --> 00:34:15.079
Therefore God is off the hook.
Even though he decrees everything that comes

425
00:34:15.119 --> 00:34:19.559
to past. He cannot be considered
the author of sin. So in a

426
00:34:19.599 --> 00:34:22.039
sense, we kind of get God
off the hook, or we attempt to

427
00:34:22.039 --> 00:34:24.239
do. It's a philosophical attempt to
get God off the hook. Well,

428
00:34:24.320 --> 00:34:27.760
let me just remind you, no
matter how much you try to get God

429
00:34:27.960 --> 00:34:32.320
off the hook, right, you're
going to find yourself in some really difficult

430
00:34:32.360 --> 00:34:37.559
situations because when you go all the
way back in the beginning, God,

431
00:34:37.960 --> 00:34:43.880
that God is all knowing. He
knows everything that's going to happen. And

432
00:34:43.920 --> 00:34:46.719
who does he create. He creates
an angelic being that we refer to as

433
00:34:46.920 --> 00:34:52.519
Lucifer or Satan. He knows that
angelic being is going to rebel. He

434
00:34:52.639 --> 00:34:55.840
rebels, He does not destroy him, He does not bind him away from

435
00:34:55.960 --> 00:35:00.880
all of creation. No, he
allows that fallen creature to come to earth.

436
00:35:00.920 --> 00:35:06.800
He knows exactly what he's going to
do, that that fallen angelic being

437
00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:09.519
is going to go after his creation. When he created Adam and Eve,

438
00:35:09.639 --> 00:35:14.519
he knew exactly what they were going
to do. Not only does God not

439
00:35:14.639 --> 00:35:19.960
stop Satan, he allows Satan to
enter into the garden and tempt the woman

440
00:35:20.280 --> 00:35:24.000
and tempt ultimately tempting the woman,
and the woman then obviously brings her husband

441
00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:29.360
into the entire situation, and then
they sin. Now God knows immediately that

442
00:35:29.360 --> 00:35:31.280
they were going to do it,
and he does nothing to stop it.

443
00:35:31.519 --> 00:35:37.039
He does nothing to prohibit it,
He does nothing to prevent it. Okay,

444
00:35:37.079 --> 00:35:38.440
well you can say, well,
see God is not the primary cause.

445
00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:42.920
Satan is the secondary cause. So
that gets God off the hook.

446
00:35:43.079 --> 00:35:45.000
God is the one who knew it
was all going to happen. And then

447
00:35:45.039 --> 00:35:49.199
even after they fall, what does
he do? Does he He could just

448
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:51.719
get rid of at him and he'd
get rid of Satan and stop it,

449
00:35:51.760 --> 00:35:54.519
But no, he allows them.
He removes them from the garden, allows

450
00:35:54.559 --> 00:35:58.760
them to produce children, knowing they're
going to be born with a sinful nature.

451
00:35:58.920 --> 00:36:01.320
And then all you watch is the
result of that sinful nature play out

452
00:36:01.320 --> 00:36:07.519
over and over and over and over. Sometimes God intervenes in very dramatic and

453
00:36:07.639 --> 00:36:12.039
supernatural ways, and other times he's
nowhere to be found. Now, you

454
00:36:12.039 --> 00:36:15.760
can try to get God off the
hook all day, but he's the one

455
00:36:15.760 --> 00:36:20.920
who created the entire situation, knowing
exactly how it was all going to come

456
00:36:20.960 --> 00:36:23.840
to pass. He knows every sin
you're ever going to commit. He could

457
00:36:23.880 --> 00:36:28.559
either intervene, he could remove your
sinful nature. There's a million things he

458
00:36:28.599 --> 00:36:32.519
could do. So when we say
God decrees everything that comes to pass,

459
00:36:32.840 --> 00:36:37.000
we've got to be willing to embrace
all of these very difficult questions. And

460
00:36:37.199 --> 00:36:42.239
they're going to get very practical in
the case of the shooting of Donald Trump.

461
00:36:42.239 --> 00:36:46.320
We'll see here in a minute.
The second paragraph reads this way,

462
00:36:46.639 --> 00:36:52.000
although God knoweth whatsoever may or can
come to pass upon all supposed conditions,

463
00:36:52.039 --> 00:36:57.639
Yet hath he not decreed anything because
he foresaw it as future, or is

464
00:36:57.679 --> 00:37:00.840
that which would come to pass upon
such conditions? God's decrees. He's not

465
00:37:00.920 --> 00:37:07.679
decreeing something because he sees something.
He decrees something, and that's the reason

466
00:37:07.760 --> 00:37:10.599
it is. He doesn't look to
see what's going to happen, then decrease

467
00:37:10.639 --> 00:37:15.039
it. No, he decrees it. That's why it happens the way it

468
00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:20.559
happens. Right, So once again
God is in control. God is the

469
00:37:20.559 --> 00:37:27.199
one controlling everything by the decree of
God for the manifestation of his glory.

470
00:37:27.400 --> 00:37:30.199
Some men and angels are predestined or
fordainned to eternal life through Jesus Christ,

471
00:37:30.199 --> 00:37:34.719
to the praise of his glorious grace, others being left to the act and

472
00:37:34.760 --> 00:37:38.679
their own sin, to their just
condemnation, to the praise of His glorious

473
00:37:39.199 --> 00:37:44.000
justice. Now that gets into the
doctrine of oh, well, God predestined

474
00:37:44.199 --> 00:37:47.559
or decreased some to be saved and
others are not predestined or decreed to be

475
00:37:47.599 --> 00:37:52.199
saved. Now, immediately people are
going to get upset about that. They're

476
00:37:52.199 --> 00:37:53.840
going to get mad about that.
But you, now, this is the

477
00:37:53.840 --> 00:37:58.320
weird thing. Some people want to
believe God is in charge of everything,

478
00:37:59.280 --> 00:38:02.320
God's decree, everything that comes to
pass, He controls it, and God

479
00:38:02.360 --> 00:38:06.960
has a purpose in everything. But
then there'll be the exact same people who

480
00:38:07.039 --> 00:38:13.679
will reject god decree and predetermining who
will be saved and who will not be

481
00:38:13.760 --> 00:38:16.920
saved. So it's just really weird, Like some people, well they never

482
00:38:16.960 --> 00:38:22.519
think these things through logically. Next, so then it talks about angels and

483
00:38:23.239 --> 00:38:29.199
it kind of continues on to more
about the idea of predestination and those types

484
00:38:29.239 --> 00:38:31.679
of things. All right, and
much of this is about God's predestination,

485
00:38:31.920 --> 00:38:36.119
So those are God's decree. So
the real issue, the real thing you

486
00:38:36.159 --> 00:38:38.440
want to write down is and you
can put it in a question for him.

487
00:38:38.920 --> 00:38:49.079
Has God decreed from all eternity whatsoever
comes to pass? Has God decreed

488
00:38:49.719 --> 00:38:55.400
from all eternity, whatsoever comes to
pass, whatever comes to pass? God

489
00:38:55.559 --> 00:39:00.679
decreed it. Do you accep up
that or do you reject it? Now?

490
00:39:00.719 --> 00:39:05.360
If you reject it, then you
have things happening that God did not

491
00:39:05.480 --> 00:39:10.039
decree. So then is God not
in control? Or is God just stepping

492
00:39:10.079 --> 00:39:15.119
back watching it all unfold? And
so therefore then what determines what happens?

493
00:39:15.400 --> 00:39:21.440
Is it then just chance? Is
it just well again on the perspective,

494
00:39:21.719 --> 00:39:24.920
well, if you're Donald Trump,
well I'm fortunate that it just barely nicked

495
00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:30.400
my ear. If you're the shooter, very unfortunate, because not only did

496
00:39:30.480 --> 00:39:35.920
I not accomplish my purpose while I
ended up dead. Is it just a

497
00:39:35.920 --> 00:39:39.400
matter of who's fortunate who's unfortunate?
Is it just a matter of chance,

498
00:39:39.800 --> 00:39:46.039
just a matter of quote unquote luck, or do you believe God decreed whatsoever

499
00:39:46.079 --> 00:39:52.440
comes to past? Now? If
you embrace the doctrine of God's eternal decree

500
00:39:52.480 --> 00:39:55.559
determining whats whoever comes to pass,
you've got to embrace it, and you've

501
00:39:55.559 --> 00:40:00.480
got to embrace both sides of it. And we haven't spoken of the side

502
00:40:00.519 --> 00:40:05.639
of it. Yet, so there's
God's decree. Now we're going to go

503
00:40:05.679 --> 00:40:09.159
to the very word that he just
mentioned, which is God's providence or of

504
00:40:09.360 --> 00:40:14.360
Divine providence, and the London Baptist
Confession of Faith. This is chapter five

505
00:40:14.519 --> 00:40:19.000
again today this week, I want
you to spend all week just reading over

506
00:40:19.039 --> 00:40:22.800
and over and over chapter three the
London Baptist Confession of Faith, of God's

507
00:40:22.800 --> 00:40:28.360
decrees, and then chapter five of
Divine Providence. This is how this section

508
00:40:28.519 --> 00:40:34.760
begins. Chapter five, Paragraph one. God, the good creator of all

509
00:40:34.800 --> 00:40:42.679
things, and his infinite power and
wisdom, does uphold, direct, dispose,

510
00:40:43.599 --> 00:40:52.360
and govern all creatures and things,
from the greatest even to the least,

511
00:40:52.239 --> 00:40:57.400
by his most wise and holy providence, to the end for which they

512
00:40:57.400 --> 00:41:02.480
were created, according on to his
infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel

513
00:41:02.559 --> 00:41:07.360
of his own will, to the
praise glory of His wisdom, power,

514
00:41:07.519 --> 00:41:13.480
justice, infinite goodness and mercy.
So do you believe God has, based

515
00:41:13.519 --> 00:41:16.960
on his eternal decrease, he has
decreed whatsoever comes to pass? Do you

516
00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:22.599
believe God has decreed from all eternity
whatsoever comes to pass? I want you

517
00:41:22.679 --> 00:41:29.000
to write that question down. And
Second, do you believe that God that

518
00:41:29.079 --> 00:41:38.599
God upholds, directs, disposes,
and governs all creatures and things from the

519
00:41:38.679 --> 00:41:57.199
greatest even to the least. Do
you believe He decrees whatsoever comes to pass

520
00:41:57.880 --> 00:42:00.519
and he upholds. I'm gonna go
through those again, and I want you

521
00:42:00.559 --> 00:42:06.559
to make sure you write down,
he upholds, directs, dispose, governs

522
00:42:06.639 --> 00:42:09.519
all creatures and things from the greatest
even to the least. Do you believe

523
00:42:09.519 --> 00:42:19.119
that? Do you do? We
see the shooting of Donald Trump from this

524
00:42:19.280 --> 00:42:25.599
perspective of God's eternal decree and God's
providence. Now, that would mean God

525
00:42:25.679 --> 00:42:30.320
was controlling the entire situation, and
no matter what the shooter's intent was,

526
00:42:31.320 --> 00:42:37.599
what was God controlling? Was God
decreeing that that person at that particular time

527
00:42:37.639 --> 00:42:42.639
would attempt to shoot Donald Trump?
But then God decreed and upheld and directed

528
00:42:42.679 --> 00:42:50.599
and governed everything so that the bullet
would just barely barely hit him with that

529
00:42:50.800 --> 00:42:55.239
all God's plan and decree. Now, if you see it that way,

530
00:42:55.559 --> 00:43:00.360
then how do you understand it?
How do you understand how does that impact

531
00:43:00.400 --> 00:43:07.760
the way you see the shooting?
Now just keep that in mind, all

532
00:43:07.800 --> 00:43:12.880
right, I'm just presenting these things
to you. I'm very familiar with the

533
00:43:12.920 --> 00:43:15.760
London Baptist Confession of Faith. The
London Babtist Confession of Faith is very much

534
00:43:16.360 --> 00:43:22.880
directs and governs my theological understanding and
almost most issues. There may be some

535
00:43:22.920 --> 00:43:25.559
small details, but for the most
part I hold to the London Baptist Confession

536
00:43:25.559 --> 00:43:31.320
of Faith. So, come on, what do we do with that?

537
00:43:32.480 --> 00:43:38.320
Remember I said theoretically I can understand
these concepts. Practically, I'm getting ready

538
00:43:38.360 --> 00:43:44.159
to have a few problems. Let's
see what doctor Albert Mueller does. Now.

539
00:43:44.199 --> 00:43:45.880
He says, one of the things
we have to look at. This

540
00:43:45.159 --> 00:43:49.440
is God's providence. Let's see what
he does with this at this point.

541
00:43:49.519 --> 00:43:53.760
Let's see what he does. And
that's because it is a part of the

542
00:43:53.760 --> 00:43:59.639
theological house that we occupy. It
is a part of Biblical Christianity. It

543
00:43:59.800 --> 00:44:04.320
is essential to our Christian understanding of
the world. Our understanding of the world

544
00:44:04.400 --> 00:44:08.480
begins with a self existent, sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient God who created the

545
00:44:08.599 --> 00:44:14.639
entire cosmos and fills it with his
glory and rules over it as sovereign Lord.

546
00:44:15.039 --> 00:44:16.480
You either believe that or you don't. But if you do believe it,

547
00:44:16.960 --> 00:44:22.360
then you have nowhere to go in
this theological house other than the affirmation

548
00:44:22.480 --> 00:44:25.159
of the providence of God. That
is not to say, by the way,

549
00:44:25.400 --> 00:44:30.159
that there's no distinction between good and
evil, because God himself makes that

550
00:44:30.400 --> 00:44:34.840
very clear, and he is the
author of good, he knows no evil.

551
00:44:35.480 --> 00:44:39.239
But in his providential care over the
entire universe, he rules through all

552
00:44:39.360 --> 00:44:45.000
of these things in such a way
that we are left with a worldview that

553
00:44:45.119 --> 00:44:49.440
tells us nothing happens by accident.
Nothing is mere luck, nothing is mere

554
00:44:49.599 --> 00:44:53.440
chance. The universe is not an
accident. We are not just animated dust.

555
00:44:53.880 --> 00:44:58.639
And at the end of the day, the ultimate explanation for why things

556
00:44:58.719 --> 00:45:06.719
happen as they happen includes an approximate
sense oftentimes recourse to natural law, recourse

557
00:45:06.800 --> 00:45:12.920
to material objects, recourse to human
moral activity and responsibility. But ultimately it

558
00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:16.840
is within the context in the biblical
worldview of the sovereignty of God and the

559
00:45:16.880 --> 00:45:23.280
operations of God's providence. Just the
slightest deviation in that ammunition round, and

560
00:45:23.400 --> 00:45:27.840
we wouldn't be talking about the bleeding
ear of a former president. We would

561
00:45:27.840 --> 00:45:30.760
be talking about a dead former president. And that would take place even as

562
00:45:30.800 --> 00:45:36.000
Donald Trump is just days from his
official nomination as the Republican candidate for the

563
00:45:36.079 --> 00:45:39.199
upcoming election for the office of President
of the United States. The stakes in

564
00:45:39.239 --> 00:45:44.000
this sense could not be higher.
How can human life be so fragile as

565
00:45:44.039 --> 00:45:47.079
that? But it is. The
fragility of life is essential to our understanding

566
00:45:47.119 --> 00:45:51.239
of the gift of life. In
a world of sin and in a world

567
00:45:51.239 --> 00:45:54.079
of evil, a world of assassins
and a world of pathogens, every breath

568
00:45:54.119 --> 00:45:58.599
we take is a gift, and
at some point a single breath will be

569
00:45:58.679 --> 00:46:02.800
our last. What we must recognize
is that on Saturday, that final breath

570
00:46:02.920 --> 00:46:07.239
was very very close for the former
President of the United States, or Donald

571
00:46:07.280 --> 00:46:12.800
Trump, and it was videocast broadcast
to the entire world. Now, I'm

572
00:46:12.880 --> 00:46:15.239
very thankful that was not the case. But you know that means if we're

573
00:46:15.239 --> 00:46:20.239
thankful, that we are thankful to
God in terms of the operation of his

574
00:46:20.360 --> 00:46:25.639
providence. Okay, so God is
the one controlling, God is the one

575
00:46:25.880 --> 00:46:30.360
doing so. So what we should
be is we're thankful that God, because

576
00:46:30.400 --> 00:46:37.559
of his eternal decree and providence governed, controlled everything to only allow Donald Trump

577
00:46:37.079 --> 00:46:43.360
to have the bullet barely hit his
ear. Now, at the same time,

578
00:46:43.400 --> 00:46:45.400
you can say But then why wouldn't
God. Well, if God is

579
00:46:45.440 --> 00:46:50.280
guiding and controlling in his decree,
why even decree the event to happened in

580
00:46:50.280 --> 00:46:52.719
the first place. He could have
stopped that man from ever even getting access

581
00:46:53.000 --> 00:46:58.199
to the place he was at to
even fire the shot. He could have

582
00:46:58.280 --> 00:47:00.800
caused the gun not to work.
There's a million things he could have done

583
00:47:01.000 --> 00:47:06.599
to stop it, but he did
not stop any of it. So why,

584
00:47:07.559 --> 00:47:12.599
Oh, there's a bigger question here. I'm hoping Albert Mohler is going

585
00:47:12.639 --> 00:47:15.559
to mention it. He hasn't mentioned
it yet. Does anybody know what he

586
00:47:15.599 --> 00:47:20.119
hasn't mentioned yet? All? Right, Well, on your paper. Remember,

587
00:47:20.119 --> 00:47:22.320
I wanted you to write down your
definition of providence and decree, and

588
00:47:22.320 --> 00:47:25.880
then I wanted you to write down
basically those two questions. Right, does

589
00:47:27.480 --> 00:47:31.519
do you believe that God from all
eternity decrees whatsoever comes to pass? And

590
00:47:31.559 --> 00:47:38.840
do you believe God upholds, directs, guides, leads, disposes ever what

591
00:47:39.280 --> 00:47:44.880
all people from the greatest to the
least. I know I'm paraphrasing that,

592
00:47:44.880 --> 00:47:46.639
but you're getting the basic idea.
I want you to have those things written

593
00:47:46.679 --> 00:47:51.119
on paper. There's going to be
something else you need to write on paper.

594
00:47:51.400 --> 00:47:54.159
I am hoping Albert Mohler mentions it, because there's no way we can

595
00:47:54.199 --> 00:48:00.280
be talking about God's decree and providence
and light of this shooting and not mention

596
00:48:00.440 --> 00:48:04.079
one other thing. But I think
this other thing keeps well. This other

597
00:48:04.360 --> 00:48:07.079
it's not I'll refer to it as
a thing. Now, it's not a

598
00:48:07.079 --> 00:48:09.960
thing, but it's something that must
be spoken of. And you probably maybe

599
00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:13.360
you know what I'm referring to.
We will see here in a minute if

600
00:48:13.400 --> 00:48:15.800
I'm gonna give doctor Albert Mueller the
opportunity to mention it, because if he

601
00:48:15.880 --> 00:48:20.000
doesn't, then this is, Oh, this is where I'm going to be

602
00:48:20.119 --> 00:48:23.159
very bothered by much of the Christian
response. But let's see where this goes.

603
00:48:24.800 --> 00:48:29.920
Those who hold to a purely materialistic
and naturalistic worldview have no answer but

604
00:48:30.039 --> 00:48:34.119
luck, which is a major doctrine
of the secular worldview. But Donald Trump

605
00:48:34.159 --> 00:48:37.280
and the watching world as well,
must surely know in his heart that's something

606
00:48:37.320 --> 00:48:40.599
greater than luck preserved his life.
I found it very interesting that, speaking

607
00:48:40.639 --> 00:48:45.599
to the press on Sunday, Senator
Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina,

608
00:48:45.199 --> 00:48:51.559
acknowledge that hairline distance the separated life
and death in the assassination attempt, and

609
00:48:51.639 --> 00:48:54.840
he stated, just very simply,
Fate stepped in. Well, you understand

610
00:48:54.880 --> 00:48:59.639
what he means, but we also
understand his Christians, we have no recourse

611
00:48:59.679 --> 00:49:04.400
to fame. Interestingly, I think
very significantly, it was President Trump himself

612
00:49:04.400 --> 00:49:09.039
who clarified the issue, rightly posting
on truth Social that it was God alone

613
00:49:09.360 --> 00:49:14.840
who prevented the unthinkable from happening.
Indeed, it was God and God alone,

614
00:49:14.920 --> 00:49:19.599
for God alone is the sovereign ruler
of the cosmos. A second realization

615
00:49:19.760 --> 00:49:24.119
comes. Okay, so let's go
ahead and be let's say we believe God's

616
00:49:24.320 --> 00:49:29.760
decree. So he decreed it.
God's providence, guided, directed, controlled

617
00:49:29.760 --> 00:49:35.519
the entire situation everyone involved. So
God is the one who prevented Donald Trump

618
00:49:35.559 --> 00:49:42.280
from being shot. God stepped in, prevented it, and saved his life.

619
00:49:43.760 --> 00:49:46.880
Sounds good. Everybody will be like, Amen, My God is sovereign,

620
00:49:47.119 --> 00:49:52.360
My God controls. Amen. Now
something has yet to be mentioned here,

621
00:49:52.559 --> 00:49:57.920
Something is being left out. Do
you know what it is? Do

622
00:49:58.000 --> 00:50:00.800
you know what it is? Well? See, if doctor Albert Muller mentions

623
00:50:00.840 --> 00:50:07.119
it down to the reality of moral
evil and the necessity of moral responsibility,

624
00:50:07.440 --> 00:50:13.880
those were instantly clarified on Saturday,
no one observing these events could say that

625
00:50:13.960 --> 00:50:20.480
there is no objective moral order.
The entire viewership basically all saying. People

626
00:50:20.559 --> 00:50:24.159
responded to the situation Saturday in the
language of right and wrong, the language

627
00:50:24.159 --> 00:50:28.599
of good and evil. Why because
it's indispensable. Now, as Christians,

628
00:50:28.599 --> 00:50:30.960
we also want to say, it's
because we are made in the image of

629
00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:35.440
God, and one dimension of the
imago day is a moral consciousness and moral

630
00:50:35.480 --> 00:50:39.239
knowledge that we cannot not know.
But we are living in a time when

631
00:50:39.320 --> 00:50:44.239
so many people, especially on the
ideological left, have tried to argue that

632
00:50:44.760 --> 00:50:50.880
morality is nothing more. Now he
just moved on. Hey, now left

633
00:50:50.920 --> 00:50:54.559
the idea of God's providence, of
God's decree. He only spoke of God's

634
00:50:54.599 --> 00:51:00.599
providence and decree and the fact that
Donald Trump was not killed. What did

635
00:51:00.639 --> 00:51:07.840
he leave out? Everyone? I
want you to write down two words.

636
00:51:08.559 --> 00:51:15.039
The first one is the name Corey
co o r e Y. I want

637
00:51:15.039 --> 00:51:16.519
you to write this down. I
want you to write it down. I

638
00:51:16.519 --> 00:51:22.760
want you to put it on your
refrigerator today, Corey co r e Y.

639
00:51:22.519 --> 00:51:32.320
And I'll spell his last name co
m p e r A t O

640
00:51:32.960 --> 00:51:45.559
r E c O M p E
R A T O R E. All

641
00:51:45.639 --> 00:51:50.519
right, Corey Comparatoire. I want
you to write that name down. I

642
00:51:50.559 --> 00:51:54.320
want you to say that name frequently
today, Corey Comparatour, because I've heard

643
00:51:54.360 --> 00:52:00.760
so many people talk about God's providence, God's decree, God's sovereign, God

644
00:52:00.880 --> 00:52:06.320
intervening, God saving, God preserving
Donald Trump. Our. God is a

645
00:52:06.320 --> 00:52:09.679
great God. He is sovereign,
and even though someone wanted to kill Donald

646
00:52:09.679 --> 00:52:14.559
Trump, God would not allow it
to happen. Because God controls, He

647
00:52:14.679 --> 00:52:17.480
decrees, he disposes, He controls
things from the greatest to the least.

648
00:52:17.599 --> 00:52:21.920
And everybody's like amen, Amen,
Amen Amen. But for someone by the

649
00:52:22.000 --> 00:52:32.559
name of Corey Coppretour, he God
did not spare his life. He died.

650
00:52:36.360 --> 00:52:43.760
Corey Compretour, identified as a firefighter, died a hero. Friends and

651
00:52:43.800 --> 00:52:50.079
neighbors are remembering firefighter Corey Compretour,
the man who shot and killed the man

652
00:52:50.239 --> 00:52:53.400
shot and killed during the attempted assassination
of former President Donald Trump, as a

653
00:52:53.440 --> 00:52:58.320
family man who served his community and
was quick to help friends and need.

654
00:52:58.599 --> 00:53:01.440
Comparatour is one of the thousand people
who attended the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania

655
00:53:01.519 --> 00:53:08.239
as part of Trump's twenty twenty four
reelection effort. He died trying to protect

656
00:53:08.840 --> 00:53:23.000
his family for some weird reason.
He's just being left out many of these

657
00:53:23.039 --> 00:53:31.440
discussions. He's just being forgotten.
Now, if you're gonna talk about God's

658
00:53:31.440 --> 00:53:35.920
decree, are you're gonna talk about
God's providence, you can't leave out the

659
00:53:36.000 --> 00:53:43.960
fact that's so one person spared,
the other person dies. Now you can

660
00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:46.519
be cold and heartless. See,
well, God's providence, God's decree.

661
00:53:47.320 --> 00:53:51.960
Yeah, it's easy for you to
say, sitting in your room or or

662
00:53:52.039 --> 00:53:54.760
standing in the sanctuary at church,
talking all big and bad like you've got

663
00:53:54.800 --> 00:53:59.400
it all figured out. It should
bother you greatly. One man spared,

664
00:53:59.440 --> 00:54:01.719
another man dies, and then we
could even just talk about all the other

665
00:54:01.800 --> 00:54:07.119
people who suffered and died. On
the exact same day Donald Trump was shot,

666
00:54:08.119 --> 00:54:13.360
other people were suffering and dying of
cancer. Children were being molested,

667
00:54:13.480 --> 00:54:16.320
women were being raped, people were
stealing, people were being killed, people

668
00:54:16.400 --> 00:54:22.400
were being beaten, people were suffering
from all kinds of horrible diseases. People

669
00:54:22.440 --> 00:54:27.559
were suffering and war torn areas around
this world and Ukraine or suffering in Gaza,

670
00:54:27.800 --> 00:54:30.800
or wherever the case you want to
look at Wait a minute, Wait

671
00:54:30.800 --> 00:54:36.519
a minute, wait a minute,
God decrees whatsoever comes to pass. God's

672
00:54:36.840 --> 00:54:38.920
and his providence. I mean,
go back and read directly the words from

673
00:54:38.960 --> 00:54:43.719
the London Baptist Confession of Faith.
God, the Good creator of all things,

674
00:54:43.760 --> 00:54:47.639
and his infinite power and wisdom,
does uphold, direct, dispose,

675
00:54:49.159 --> 00:54:57.480
and governing all creatures and things,
from the greatest even to the least.

676
00:54:57.920 --> 00:55:05.159
It is good to believe this from
a theoretical standpoint. The practical outworking of

677
00:55:05.199 --> 00:55:12.000
it is very difficult. And I
get and doctor Albert Mueller, everything there

678
00:55:12.119 --> 00:55:15.559
was about God's providence, God's decrees, and God is the one. It

679
00:55:15.599 --> 00:55:20.719
wasn't fate, it wasn't luck,
it wasn't good fortune, bad fortune,

680
00:55:20.880 --> 00:55:24.760
it wasn't anything at all. It
was God who intervened and did not allow

681
00:55:24.840 --> 00:55:30.320
Donald Trump to be killed. But
it was that same God who allowed Corey

682
00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:36.159
Comparatour, if I can see his
name correctly, Comparatour to die trying to

683
00:55:36.280 --> 00:55:45.559
save and protect his family. The
same God who, in his providence and

684
00:55:45.599 --> 00:55:50.719
his eternal decree, decreeing whatsoever comes
to pass. That's the same God who

685
00:55:50.760 --> 00:55:57.400
did not intervene to stop this or
this or this or this or this from

686
00:55:57.480 --> 00:56:12.599
happening families who've had their children kidnapped
and murdered. God does not step in.

687
00:56:14.199 --> 00:56:20.519
Does he decree whatsoever comes to pass? See, we quickly run to

688
00:56:20.639 --> 00:56:27.079
God's decree and providence when we look
at something that turns out in a positive

689
00:56:27.079 --> 00:56:31.719
way. Wow, it's a miraculous
Donald Trump. That bullet came so close,

690
00:56:32.079 --> 00:56:36.360
just a little bit over and he
would be dead. Oh wow,

691
00:56:36.400 --> 00:56:39.760
Okay, God's providence. That's amazing. Well yeah, but Corey compretour.

692
00:56:54.519 --> 00:56:58.440
Now it gets uncomfortable, doesn't Is
that what you're feeling? Are you feeling

693
00:56:58.440 --> 00:57:02.199
how uncomfortable it is? I'm feeling
it. So I want you to I

694
00:57:02.199 --> 00:57:06.519
want you to write down that question. Does God decree whatsoever comes to pass?

695
00:57:06.599 --> 00:57:10.840
And I want you to write down
do you believe that God upholds,

696
00:57:12.039 --> 00:57:16.760
directs, disposes and governs all creatures
and things from the greatest even to the

697
00:57:16.880 --> 00:57:20.880
least. Do you believe that?
I want you to write it down.

698
00:57:20.960 --> 00:57:22.840
I want you to put it on
your refrigerator. And then underneath that,

699
00:57:23.000 --> 00:57:27.639
I want you to write Donald Trump. And then I want you to write

700
00:57:27.920 --> 00:57:44.199
Corey comprotour because that that and really
brings together the struggle with these theological concepts

701
00:57:44.360 --> 00:57:49.840
being played out in real life.
Those two men the exact same location,

702
00:57:50.960 --> 00:57:57.000
one spared, the other, one
dies, and this would be Look,

703
00:57:57.159 --> 00:57:59.920
this would be very difficult for you. I don't know about your life,

704
00:58:00.559 --> 00:58:02.760
but for some of us, depending
on the things you've gone through, this

705
00:58:02.800 --> 00:58:07.360
can be a very difficult concept to
reconcile. There are those There are those

706
00:58:07.639 --> 00:58:14.880
who were born in families where there
was no sexual abuse, no physical abuse,

707
00:58:15.480 --> 00:58:17.880
There were raised and loving homes.
They were provided for, They had

708
00:58:17.960 --> 00:58:22.840
so many opportunities, maybe in a
wealthy home where they had all kinds of

709
00:58:22.880 --> 00:58:27.559
things. They had this opportunity and
this opportunity, and this provided for him,

710
00:58:27.599 --> 00:58:30.480
and this provided form. Where there
are others of us not born in

711
00:58:30.519 --> 00:58:37.920
a rich family with intense, severe, crazy, mental, emotional, and

712
00:58:37.920 --> 00:58:45.360
physical abuse, where none of those
opportunities were afforded to us, zero none,

713
00:58:45.800 --> 00:58:50.840
pain, suffering, and trauma.
Some of us didn't even have.

714
00:58:51.199 --> 00:58:55.480
I have lived my life far longer
without a mom than I did with a

715
00:58:55.559 --> 00:59:04.360
mom, because my mother passed away
before the age of my father suffered and

716
00:59:04.400 --> 00:59:12.760
died from cancer. While other people's
parents are still alive today, their parents

717
00:59:12.800 --> 00:59:15.800
are in their seventies and they get
to see them and talk to them.

718
00:59:19.679 --> 00:59:22.719
Other people have family all around them. They got all of this, They

719
00:59:22.719 --> 00:59:27.800
got a wonderful things, and nobody
in their family is suffering from any disease.

720
00:59:27.880 --> 00:59:30.840
There's no pain, there's no suffering. Everything is great, everything is

721
00:59:30.880 --> 00:59:36.920
everyone's healthy. Their life is great. They got everything, while other people

722
00:59:37.159 --> 00:59:40.079
all of that's taken care of.
They're watching someone suffer, they're watching someone

723
00:59:40.119 --> 00:59:44.400
die, They're dealing with the side
effects of this or this or this.

724
00:59:44.559 --> 00:59:58.800
They got their own issues. They
have nothing. Now. I don't know

725
00:59:58.880 --> 01:00:04.719
how. I don't know how to
process. Don't I don't That's the difficulty

726
01:00:04.800 --> 01:00:07.880
here. See, when we we
always frame in many Kate, I'm not

727
01:00:07.880 --> 01:00:09.800
saying, Look, I have not
listened to the rest of that. So

728
01:00:09.880 --> 01:00:14.519
doctor Albert Muller may get to it
and his discussion about evil, he may

729
01:00:14.519 --> 01:00:16.840
get to the fact that this man
died, but the discussion of that man's

730
01:00:16.880 --> 01:00:22.440
death, of Corey's death, shouldn't
been placed in the context of God's providence

731
01:00:22.679 --> 01:00:32.679
and God's decree. That's because that's
where it belongs. God decrees whatsoever comes

732
01:00:32.719 --> 01:00:39.039
to pass except term of the eleventh
two thousand and one. God decrees what's

733
01:00:39.039 --> 01:00:52.039
whoever comes to pass sandy hook.
Now what some will do is like push

734
01:00:52.079 --> 01:00:54.039
back and go bup. Okay,
God may be sovereign, God may decree.

735
01:00:54.079 --> 01:00:58.239
God may have providence where he's controlling
whatever, you know, from the

736
01:00:58.239 --> 01:01:00.519
greatest to the least. But but, but, but but man has free

737
01:01:00.559 --> 01:01:06.039
will, and God will not impose
anything upon man's free will. That's usually

738
01:01:06.119 --> 01:01:07.320
the way around it. Okay,
but then God is the one who knows

739
01:01:07.360 --> 01:01:10.000
exactly what those people are going to
do with free will. And you're saying

740
01:01:10.039 --> 01:01:15.880
God never intervenes in the Bible against
people's free will. Where he intervenes and

741
01:01:15.920 --> 01:01:21.079
helps wipe out entire armies, I
think God's imposing his will upon other people.

742
01:01:23.679 --> 01:01:29.079
So does God never impose or only
some time? And free will just

743
01:01:30.920 --> 01:01:32.920
it still falls on God. God
knows exactly what they're going to do with

744
01:01:34.000 --> 01:01:36.320
it. He knew from the beginning. Then, so then some people come

745
01:01:36.320 --> 01:01:39.840
with kind of an open theistic idea
and destroy God's omniscience. So you either

746
01:01:39.920 --> 01:01:45.599
destroy God's sovereignty. God is not
controlling everything. He created everything, and

747
01:01:45.639 --> 01:01:49.599
then he stepped back and letting everyone's
own free will run its course. But

748
01:01:49.719 --> 01:01:52.719
the will, to say, the
will is free, you see, then

749
01:01:52.880 --> 01:01:57.480
you end up in another theological dilemma. To say the will is free,

750
01:01:57.760 --> 01:02:02.039
then you will have to return to
police or semi pallagianism, where you can't

751
01:02:02.039 --> 01:02:06.159
say people are totally depraved or have
a sinful nature, because then the sinful

752
01:02:06.239 --> 01:02:08.760
nature doesn't have any impact upon man's
will. Well, if the sinful nature

753
01:02:08.760 --> 01:02:14.320
doesn't have any packed upon in any
impact upon man's will, therefore the will

754
01:02:14.400 --> 01:02:19.280
is free, then people freely could
choose to never sin. Well, Christians

755
01:02:19.280 --> 01:02:22.480
can't even pull that off, obviously, non Christians can't pull that off.

756
01:02:22.559 --> 01:02:27.800
So that you would, And even
Pelagius was willing to acknowledge that perfect people

757
01:02:27.840 --> 01:02:31.039
can't exist even without redemption because their
will is free. Well, we don't

758
01:02:31.039 --> 01:02:36.159
believe the will is completely free.
We believe that we are depraved sinners,

759
01:02:36.159 --> 01:02:38.960
which impacts the will all right,
So then you so free will falls apart

760
01:02:39.039 --> 01:02:43.440
in all kinds of other theological ways. Well, you don't want to destroy

761
01:02:43.480 --> 01:02:45.880
the omniscience of God. So now
you have a God who doesn't even know

762
01:02:45.960 --> 01:02:51.480
all things. That's disturbing. If
you're not careful, you destroy the sovereignty

763
01:02:51.480 --> 01:02:53.480
of God. So you have a
God who's not sovereign, a God who's

764
01:02:53.519 --> 01:02:58.559
not omniscient. Okay, well,
you just running into all kinds of theological

765
01:02:58.599 --> 01:03:12.800
problems. These are issue choose that
should keep you up at night. On

766
01:03:12.960 --> 01:03:23.519
Saturday, a shooter attempts to assassinate
President Donald Trump, and he just barely

767
01:03:23.679 --> 01:03:34.119
misses accomplishing his goal. The bullet
just just barely hits Donald Trump's ear.

768
01:03:34.559 --> 01:03:38.840
It misses. You know, obviously, any any major part of the body

769
01:03:38.880 --> 01:03:44.599
that would create would would have caused
possible death or serious harm, or or

770
01:03:44.639 --> 01:03:52.079
something other horrible consequence. He was
He's okay, he's fine, he's moved

771
01:03:52.119 --> 01:04:00.119
on. And so we say God's
providence, God's decree, God's protection at

772
01:04:00.119 --> 01:04:11.199
that very same event, on the
very same day, in the very same

773
01:04:11.360 --> 01:04:15.840
location, where God was decreating,
guiding, directing, protecting, whatever words

774
01:04:15.880 --> 01:04:33.239
you want to use, Donald Trump, God did not protect Corey comprotour or

775
01:04:33.280 --> 01:04:40.360
you can just look up all the
other horrible things that happened on Saturday in

776
01:04:40.440 --> 01:04:57.000
the world. This is what we
struggle with as Christians. Philological concepts that

777
01:04:57.199 --> 01:05:05.320
sound good in some circumstances, that
are great theoretically, when put into real

778
01:05:05.400 --> 01:05:13.400
life application, looking at both positive
and negative, they're not always so easy

779
01:05:13.440 --> 01:05:27.559
to process. Today. It's very
simple. I want you to ponder,

780
01:05:28.159 --> 01:05:34.719
discuss amongst your family, friends,
spouse, the question, does God decree?

781
01:05:35.239 --> 01:05:42.239
Does God from all eternity decree whatsoever
comes to pass? And does God

782
01:05:43.880 --> 01:05:47.000
uphold, direct, dispose, and
govern all creatures and things from the greatest

783
01:05:47.039 --> 01:05:53.039
even to the least. How do
you answer those? If you reject those,

784
01:05:53.199 --> 01:05:55.960
what do you put in its place? Don't just say free will because

785
01:05:56.280 --> 01:05:59.559
I've already that it's just going to
lead to all kinds of other issues.

786
01:05:59.920 --> 01:06:03.199
That's not a solution. Everyone thinks
it's a solution. It's not. Don't

787
01:06:03.239 --> 01:06:06.679
go with open theism or because you
begin to destroy who God is, don't

788
01:06:06.679 --> 01:06:11.320
throw into out God's sovereignty. You're
gonna end up with it a non god

789
01:06:11.440 --> 01:06:14.719
God. Your God's not going to
be really a God. So, but

790
01:06:15.039 --> 01:06:18.079
we struggle with that. Then I
want you to write down Donald Trump's name,

791
01:06:18.119 --> 01:06:23.000
and then underneath that, I want
you to write down Corey Compretour,

792
01:06:24.239 --> 01:06:30.639
and I want you to just see
the difference there. As many are referring

793
01:06:30.639 --> 01:06:38.800
to Donald Trump not dying a miracle, God intervene God's providence, God's decrees.

794
01:06:39.039 --> 01:06:51.960
Corey Compretour, shhhh, sh let's
not mention his name. You can

795
01:06:53.000 --> 01:06:58.119
email me news I F at yahoo
dot com. News I F at yahoo

796
01:06:58.159 --> 01:07:02.320
dot com. That's news at yahoo
dot com. At the beginning, I

797
01:07:02.360 --> 01:07:06.760
think I refer to this as Monday, July the sixteenth. I was obviously

798
01:07:06.840 --> 01:07:15.840
greatly incorrect. It is Monday July
the fifteenth, twenty twenty four. Thank

799
01:07:15.880 --> 01:07:23.800
you for listening. May God bless
you as you struggle with these concepts and

800
01:07:23.920 --> 01:07:31.199
struggling with these concepts does not make
you weak in faith. Struggling and questioning

801
01:07:31.239 --> 01:07:40.119
these concepts is what a strong faith
does, because it's willing to embrace these

802
01:07:40.239 --> 01:07:47.360
very complex and difficult questions that maybe
in church we pretend they don't exist,

803
01:07:48.000 --> 01:07:51.679
but we need to pretend. We
don't need to pretend anything. We need

804
01:07:51.760 --> 01:07:56.679
to face the reality that they do. God bless