Donald Trump and the theological implications of his 2025 Easter proclamation versus Biden's Transgender Day of Visibility define this episode. The hosts critique Rabbi Yehuda Kaplan's appointment to lead the anti-Semitism taskforce, fearing IHRA definitions could criminalize biblical speech about Jesus. They argue that celebrating Passover without Christ rejects His sufficiency, while analyzing how corporate pressure might silence traditional views. Ultimately, the discussion suggests that state-promoted gospel aligns with Christian nationalism, raising concerns about deporting believers for theological beliefs rather than actions. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Easter Story of Rebellious People00:02:18
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Last year, we did an entire live stream on how the Biden administration chose to celebrate Easter.
Most notably by declaring March 31st, Easter Day, as Transgender Day of Visibility.
It was the inauguration of really a new religion, but one that in God's grace appears to have been short lived.
A mere year later, with Trump now in office, we got a robust theological celebration of Easter from the highest office in the land.
Not just well wishes or platitudes about God's love for all of us, but an assertion of how in the life, death, And the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have redemption and forgiveness for our sins and the hope of eternal life.
Now, in the midst of every we're so back, is an inevitable it's so over moment.
This year, while the threat to Easter is certainly not as pronounced and obvious as under the Biden presidency, a new and perhaps really an old plan of the enemy is being run.
See, the story of Easter is in part the story of a rebellious people.
In one sense, we are.
That rebellious people, turning everyone to our own way and needing the death of the spotless Lamb of God to atone for our own sin.
But it is also a historical story in which Christ came to his own and his own received him not.
Christ was offered up to death by the Jews, and they have opposed him, the apostles, and mankind ever since, telling the story of Easter without the sober warning.
Of the destruction awaiting those who reject Christ is not to tell the story of Easter at all.
Dividing Truth of Our Generation00:13:26
Now, that simple statement that I just made may very soon become a very, very costly statement for any of us to make.
This week, Trump also appointed a Jewish rabbi to lead the special envoy to monitor and combat anti Semitism.
The most commonly used definition of anti Semitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
Explicitly asserts that claiming the Jews killed Jesus is, in fact, anti Semitic.
This may be the dividing truth of our generation.
Will you stand for what the Bible says, including when it is inconvenient and possibly even illegal?
Or was all that talk for these past decades about infallibility, inerrancy, and sufficiency of the Scripture really just talk after all?
This episode is brought to you by our premier sponsors, Armored Republic.
And Reese Fund, as well as our Patreon members and our faithful donors.
You can join our Patreon by going to patreon.com forward slash right response ministries, or you can donate by going to right response ministries.com forward slash donate.
Join us for this discussion now.
All right.
I got to be honest, guys.
I am struggling to trust the plan.
I think that.
Is there a plan?
Yeah.
Well, I just, I feel like the economy, I believe in the tariffs.
I don't have a problem with that.
I think the economy will probably experience a shallow recession, but I do think that we will be so back and better than ever before economically.
But I'm just wondering, you know, what's the weather like this time of year in El Salvador?
Because we're going.
Right.
Exactly.
Like the fact that.
On vacation?
Yeah.
The fact that all of you are going to have a better economy and a golden age in America, that's great for you.
I'm sincerely, I really am.
I'm sincere.
I'm sincerely happy for you.
But for all those anti Semites, I'm struggling to trust the plan.
I feel like, all right, well, you know, if America is doing well, it doesn't really matter because I'm going to be in El Salvador.
That said, deportations, another element that I'm struggling to trust the plan a little bit with.
But that one is a simple solution.
All we have to do is convince Trump that about 40 million people who shouldn't be here are anti Semitic.
There we go.
They'll immediately be gone.
Like, faster than, I mean, it'll be natural born citizens.
You're out.
You know, this person's out.
Everybody's out.
So that's a good way to get rid of a lot of them are Catholics.
So they hold, you know, the Catholic position on Israel, which is to say, you know, just the historic Christian position.
So, yeah, we'll see.
And that's the thing is like, honestly, it's difficult.
You guys know that we've gotten a lot of flack as we have dared to broach such a controversial subject, you know, that all of Christendom has been pretty unified for a very long time.
But really, it's only controversial as we've dared to breach it because of our particular wing of Christianity, which I'm almost at this point ashamed to say, but it is true.
And I'm convicted and I hold these truths.
Protestant.
Among Protestants, we're the ones who are getting flack.
Catholics, not so much.
Eastern Orthodox, not so much.
When Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox say, yeah, you know what, Jews are made in the image of God and can be saved, and we do the work of an evangelist, and we love them and wish them a very pleasant conversion to Christianity.
But aside from that, Judaism is a pernicious evil.
There has been much subversive involvement in other countries' governments over the course of centuries, and we're not going to pretend that that's not a thing.
And also, you know, the Jews killed the Lord Jesus and persecuted the apostles and opposed all mankind.
They're Catholics in EO, they're perfectly comfortable with quoting scripture.
It's only Protestants.
And I think, you know, maybe it's because of dispensationalism and Schofield and all those kinds of things.
I certainly think that's part of it.
But Protestants, it's just like every time I'm talking to another Protestant Christian, they're like, well, you know, don't just tell me what you're against, you know, feminism and anti Semitism, you know, or like, well, I'm not against it, but like Zionism, you know, whatever.
But tell me a positive vision.
And the best way I can explain it to my fellow Protestant brothers is I say, all the things that you've been taught from the womb to hold dear and to cherish and desire and pray for and work for for the country of Israel, I just want that for America.
Right.
Right?
That's the best way I can explain the positive vision is like all these things of like to have people and place and a heritage and home and to not have that disrupted by, you know, flooding in the third world and like all the things that you desire for Israel, all the things that, I mean, like when Owen Strand is, you know, like I've been banned off of, I've been banned off of, imagine this, I've been banned off of X for being too supportive of Israel.
He literally thought that.
He actually said that.
He's entertaining.
It's not even that.
It's not even that.
It's a good criticism anymore for me of him.
Yeah, it's a great follow.
So, you know, he's like, hey guys, I've been gone for a while.
You know, I really was upsetting the overlords by being too supportive of Israel.
It's just hilarious.
But then, you know, as soon as he got that out of the way, in all seriousness, no joking whatsoever, then immediately followed it up, you know, with like, I, you know, I'll be persecuted with Israel, stand for Israel, suffer with Israel.
Not to Israel's Jews.
Jews.
He's like, I'll suffer with Jews if necessary.
Be persecuted with Jews, and if necessary, die with Jews.
And I was like, and here's the thing, like in terms of a positive vision, it's like, so what's your positive vision, Joel?
You know, it's just the things you're against.
And like, is there anything that you're for?
Yes, I'm for that, right?
You just picture the meme, the guy who's by the whiteboard, you know, he's like, guys, this, and you hold up an Owen Strand tweet, but for Christians in America.
For Americans.
For Americans.
Yep.
And predominantly Christians.
Like, that's all I want.
I want Owen Strand's vision, except for my people, spiritually, Christians, and naturally.
Americans, heritage Americans.
That's it.
I want everything that every Protestant wants, except they want it for another group.
And they want it for another group that, historically speaking, has been very subversive towards the doctrine and teaching and beauty of Christ.
So they literally, what my Protestant brothers want for their enemies, I want for my people.
That's my positive vision.
So, struggling to trust the plan.
I think Trump, you know, economy, I know it's tough right now.
Like, oh, GDP, oh, you know, like the stock market, the SP 500, the NASDAQ.
So much of that has been inflated, like with PE ratios of like 90, you know, on some of the big tech stocks and all this.
Like, that was going to have to, you can't get out of the mess we've made without repentance is always costly, right?
So if you're repenting, you're changing courses, then it's going to cost a little bit.
But you know what's more costly than repentance?
Continuing in sin.
Right.
That's always more costly.
So, it's hurting your portfolio a little bit, but by and large, I think it's absolutely going to be better for us and certainly better for the next generation, for our sons, that they could actually be gainfully employed and all these things if it sticks, if it works.
So, there's your We're So Back and then the Easter post from the White House.
We're going to get into that.
We're So Back.
So, I mean, from transgender visibility day to the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins, like, oh my goodness.
And just one year, that's a We're So Back moment.
So, I'm like, We're so back.
You're like the stock market.
We're so back with the economy.
You know, all these things.
And I really am.
I don't want to minimize it.
I'm not being sarcastic.
I really am grateful to the Lord, first and foremost.
And I'm grateful to President Trump.
And I'm grateful to all the normie evangelicals who helped get him into office because it wouldn't have happened without a bunch of Zionist, dispy evangelicals, the salt of the earth.
These are people.
I like how Tucker and Andrew said it.
They're like, they bifurcated the ideology from the people.
You're talking about some of the most precious people on the planet.
Oh, yeah.
You know, so like salt of the earth people who, yes, they love them some Israel, but they don't know any better.
That's all they've ever been taught.
They're just trying to be faithful to the scripture.
But you bet your bottom dollar they went and they casted their vote for Donald Trump.
They block walked for their local state representative.
That's a Christian.
And that got us from Transgender Visibility Day to the life, death, and burial.
The Proclamation.
You know, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So super excited about all those things.
But I have to be honest.
We want to be the channel.
I'll leave it with this, and I'm going to throw it to Wes, and we'll talk about all this kind of stuff.
We'll talk about one at a time.
I'm just fired from the hip.
But this is what I want to say.
We want to be the channel that you can tune into that's not just shilling for Trump, right?
But also does not have Trump derangement syndrome.
And it's just like, oh, you want a middle way, Joel?
No, I don't want a third way.
Call it something else, anything else besides that.
But we want to be honest because there's a lot of guys right now who are like, oh, so like we're going to have anti Semitism laws and appointing, you know, like chiefs of staff to, you know, to crack down on anti Semitism.
And we've got guys like guys that we love, guys that we're friends with who are co belligerents, and they're like, trust the plan.
It's 4D chess.
No, dude, he's just a Zionist.
He's just a Zionist, my guy.
Like, you taught me some of these things.
I'm sorry.
Like, wake up.
He's a Zionist.
And I'll argue that's more, especially in the second segment, a more recent evolution, which is kind of encouraging.
Yes.
He got a lot of money and a lot of support and a lot of, we want to get behind you for this second, technically third election, you know, being successfully.
So it feels like a more recent thing.
But that is undeniable right now.
Right.
So we need to be honest about that.
Like, no, there really are some problems.
And you think, oh, this is just some niche fringe.
It's not.
I really do believe that this may be one of the biggest issues of our generation.
I really do.
This issue of cracking down on anti Semitism and there being legal consequences for free speech and free speech that is biblical speech.
And I've said it before, but I'll say it again because people just tune in for one podcast and they won't see the other things that I've said.
So here it is right here in this context.
The Bible teaches us that the death of Jesus happened because one, your sin, my sin.
Why did Jesus die?
Who killed Jesus?
I did by my sin.
Number two, the Father killed Jesus.
He was pleased to crush him before the foundations of the world were laid, it was his ordained plan.
Number three, Jesus killed Jesus.
No one takes my life from me, but I freely lay it down.
Right?
When they come to arrest him, the Gospel of John says, they literally, he says, I am he.
Right, I am He, and they fall back as though dead.
Like nobody could touch Him unless He gave Himself up.
He said, I could call down legions of Ayahuasca any moment.
He's God, He's the second member of the Godhead.
So, God the Father, by His ordination, by His plan, you and I, by our sin, which made His death necessary, Jesus, by His voluntary willingness to go to the cross in obedience to the Father, to ransom for Himself a people and who would be spotless and without blemish and washed by His blood.
And then Pilate, Pilate washed his hands.
I'm not responsible.
No, He was.
He was.
He was up for re election.
He gave in to the people.
He was a typical compromising politician and he's responsible.
Many of Jesus.
Yep.
And then also the Romans, in the sense that the Romans were the ones who literally, those particular soldiers, they're the ones who literally nailed the nails through his hands, through his feet, stabbed him with a spear in his side on the next day, checking if he was dead.
So they, in a literal physical sense, killed Jesus.
Also, the Jews killed Jesus.
They made a mock kangaroo trial in the middle of the night, produced false witnesses.
In order to find him guilty, and then went and stirred up the crowd to give them to give to them a murderer, take him out of prison, let him come, Barabbas, right?
Let Carmella, I mean, Barabbas, give him out of prison, we'll take him.
And then Jesus, we want him to stay guilty.
And then Pilate's like, what do we do with him?
Again, the Jewish religious leaders stir up the crowd and say, crucify him.
And Pilate said, I don't even find him guilty.
And they say, that's okay, let his blood be on us and our children.
You can't read the scripture.
And then you go to 1 Thessalonians, and it says, The Jews who killed the Lord Jesus, drove out the apostles, persecuted the church, and are opponents of all mankind.
Pilate and the Crucifixion Crowd00:07:47
So you cannot, it matters because what we're talking about is we're talking about making whole swaths of the scripture, the word of God, not just you and me and our own free speech.
We're talking about taking passages of scripture and making them illegal, and making them illegal in America, not China.
But in America, illegal in many ways, especially in a societally enforced sense.
So, there's kind of definitely an American spirit of free speech.
And I don't think Trump, for all his faults, will ever get to the point where he's locking up people for necessarily saying that.
But we have to understand there are huge, powerful ways now that you can take someone and you can punish them that are not formal legal sense.
And if anything, those are actually more powerful.
They are more powerful.
So, speech against like the LGBTQ community, for example, there's never been laws in the books against, you know, speaking out against it, criticizing all of those things, aside from, of course, you.
Like, literally threatening or something like that.
So, as long as it's in the critical side, you're always allowed to do it.
But we experienced for eight years, you wouldn't even get to keep, I don't know, like a little bakery if at some point you had a disagreement that went public.
So, it's not even necessarily like, will we ever see laws in the books against us?
I don't know.
And we maybe could, or those would be categories of discrimination.
But in a more powerful sense, societally, job market, big corporations, all of those throwing their weight behind it and it being something that you just can't say, right?
It's like, we can't legislate an action.
Actual law, and you'll never go to jail.
Well, because that would.
We're not worried about that.
We're just going to make sure you can't feed your kids and they starve.
That's right.
Right.
Right.
You won't be in jail.
Have no fear.
It's too obvious to do it the former way, at least initially.
But those are things that we're actually facing.
So I do not trust the plan.
Let me go on record and say, I do not trust the plan.
And also, I voted for Trump and do not regret it.
Yep.
Well, Michael, you had a really good time.
I've never met someone like me.
I want to get into the white pill.
Yeah.
But I love what you said about the need to pray for Trump.
Because I don't know how much of this, like I said, is like, For 30 years, he's been like, We have got to get that third temple in.
I've got a plan.
I'm going to run for office.
I'm going to lose.
I think he's genuinely caught in the middle.
What do you think?
Yeah, I think I don't have any, I can't point to like a statistical chart or something like that.
But it seems like the whole thing with, because he has been more outspoken against Israel in terms of like, Look, we've given you more money than I certainly would have given you.
You remember that interview?
He's like, Well, good deal for you guys.
Like, we're bound by it legally, $3 million a year.
We have to give it.
Three billion.
The tariffs.
Yep.
The tariffs.
He's been outspoken against Israel.
He has been really critical in some cases of Bibi Netanyahu.
And then on the other hand, he's coming out and appointing someone, which, Wes, you're going to get into later.
He didn't do this until the very end of his first term.
Now, within the first six months or first four months of his second term, he's appointing this kind of liaison or whatever to oversee the task force on anti Semitism.
And so when I look at that, I say he's saying one thing over here, he's saying another thing over there.
I don't think he's ideological on this issue.
I think he's threading the political needle.
He made promises to certain donors.
He's got people in his cabinet who say things certain ways.
And what that tells me, I'm eternally looking for the silver lining.
It's maybe not great.
But what that tells me is all it takes is the influence one way or the other that's going to tip this thing.
I don't think he's going to take an ideological stance on this issue.
And so that's why I said we really do need to pray that God would send him reasonable but strong people who will if they can't win him with the argument, we'll apply enough of the language that he speaks, which is the deal, the pressure to tip him in the favor that we're arguing for.
Yep.
I think our best hope is this, honestly.
And here's the thing.
Ultimately, we're not trusting Trump.
We're trusting the Lord.
God's sovereign.
He's the one who guides the heart of a king like many waters in whatever direction he wants it to go.
So God is in control.
And in terms of human agency and means, God works through means.
Trump's actually pretty easy.
I mean, God, he's sovereign.
So there's no real concept of this.
This person would be hard for God and his sovereignty to control.
And this person would be easy.
But in the natural human means sense, Trump is super easy.
It's not ideological for Trump.
Trump, it's who does he like, aka who likes him?
And two, who does he not like?
Who didn't like it?
And here's the deal this is the best thing we have going for us.
It's Israel.
Israel is great at ticking people off.
Netanyahu, are you kidding me?
This guy, it's just a matter of time.
Trump's going to be like, that guy's a jerk.
There's an incredible story.
And he just wants to use America.
For his own people and doesn't actually care about us.
Like, you're talking about.
This incredible story from 2015.
Him and his wife, the Washington Post reported, would Trump, Bibby Netanyahu, bring their dirty laundry to the White House for their dry cleaning service.
Literally would haul in their laundry when they came to the White House.
He's like, guys, we got free dry cleaning.
Oh, my word.
This is an old story, but I remember looking in the Washington Post and being like, this can't be real.
And I regret to inform you.
The tunnels in New York in between that story.
It's like, well, you know, sometimes stereotypes exist for a reason.
But I'm serious in the sense that I really do think that if I had to predict, if I'm putting on my Nostradamus cap for a moment, I would not be surprised if Trump, who I think is a Zionist, not by ideology, but just like we already established through relationships.
It's just the water he swims in.
Like most Americans.
He has so much political money and power.
Plus, who's his faith captain, general, whatever.
Yeah, exactly.
Prosperity, gospel, evangelicals, they love them some Israel.
They're giving money to Israel so that they'll get money back, whatever.
So that's, I mean, that's just, that's who he's with.
That's what's going to shape him and influence him.
I don't think it's like this true conviction or ideology.
That said, I would not be surprised at all if I'm trying to predict a little bit of the future here.
If Trump just gets, if something happens, knowing Israel, knowing Bibi, knowing these guys, they're going to do something.
They won't be able to help themselves.
Oh, right.
Like kind of the scorpion kind of scenario.
Like they won't be able to help themselves.
They're going to do something slimy.
And I think Trump's going to get angry.
Because they're desperate for the U.S. backing in the type of Middle East engagements that they want.
Like they understand that practically speaking, they need the weapons, the munitions, the armament.
They don't need necessarily our troops as far as troops on the ground.
But they really have wanted for a long time, please, in anything we do, give us the carte blanche.
You'll be with us.
You'll fund us.
You'll support us.
So that's what they want.
And you overplay your hand or you get a little bit, you know, you're the guest in the house and you start helping yourself.
And the host says, get the heck out.
I was one thing.
You know, to break out the good steak, it's another thing you're going into my private pantry and pulling out the hundred dollar bottle of wine.
So, watch for something like that to happen and Trump be like, No, come on, there's a limit.
We saw Trump have the same realization with Zelensky, like, from what I can tell, that meeting was not scheduled to go that way, right?
They were supposed to have a deal, but then he showed up and got mad, yes.
And he was like, Oh, you dressed up really nice, yeah, you know, and it all started like right there, but no, you're right, like, it was like that.
I don't think that was staged, I really don't.
And Trump is a showman, I mean, the guy could, I'm not saying he's not capable of.
Staging something or that he wouldn't do it based off of some moral compass or wanting to be authentic.
Like, no, I don't think he could stage it, but I don't think he was.
I think it was just, he showed up, Zelensky showed up, and he had finally pushed one too many times.
And Trump and Vance were like, say thank you.
Trump's Showman Nature Revealed00:04:30
Have you ever said thank you once?
And threw him out on his butt.
And honestly, I could absolutely see that happening to Bibby.
He's like, you owe us $50.
He's throwing out, you know, he's like, you owe us $70.
And take your dry cleaning with you.
And take your dry cleaning with you.
Don't fall in a tunnel on your way home.
That's it.
We're done.
That's absolutely possible.
So let's go to our first commercial break.
What we're going to do is we're going to come back.
And we're going to start with the good.
All right.
So that's kind of just, I just wanted to just fly by the seat of my pants for a little bit, give you some quality entertainment.
Hopefully, we learned a couple of things along the way and it wasn't terribly uninformed.
I think it's all true.
But entertaining, flying by the seat of the pants.
Let's get out there, firing on all cylinders.
When we come back, we're going to slow it down just a little bit.
And we're going to go with the Easter statement from the White House, white pill.
And we're going to go with that.
And then we'll get in a little bit more of some of the anti-Semitism, Um, potential dangers on the horizon.
We'll discuss that.
Here we go.
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Our goal is to find businesses and to buy them and to build them up.
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All right.
So I'll play my hand.
I think one of the greatest marks is someone that's intellectually honest.
I'm looking at different commentators and different men is when they can say, I don't like so and so.
I strongly disagree with them on a whole range of topics.
But here's the deal on this, they actually make a good point.
So we've got a lot of people that are very critical of us supporting Trump.
But guys, I'm going to read these two statements.
So this is a comparison from Joseph Biden, the President Biden of the time.
This is last year, March 31st.
March 31st, Easter, the day it happened to fall on, and President Trump.
And even as critical as you are of him, as you may be, I want you to see this and say, as Paul would say in Philippians chapter one, whether in pretense or in truth, whatever it is, Christ and his gospel are being proclaimed.
So I'm going to read press release.
This is the first one from 2023.
I'm going to go right on and read Trump's 2024.
This one's 2023 on the left.
Oh, okay, okay.
And then 2025 from Trump.
2023.
Now, therefore, I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 31, 2023, Easter Sunday, as Transgender Day of Visibility.
I call upon all Americans to join us in lifting up the lives and voices of transgender people throughout our nation and to work towards eliminating violence and discrimination against all transgender, gender nonconforming, and non binary people.
And to be clear, I hate it.
Don't love it.
Thanks.
I hate it.
To be clear, they did issue a happy Easter that was, if anything, I think like 50% shorter than this.
But I mean, the bulk of the news was transgender days as well.
And it was like happy Easter.
Yep.
So think about that like happy Easter.
Love and best wishes to you.
Here's from over this weekend.
During this sacred week, we, that is the White House, acknowledge that the glory of Easter Sunday cannot come without the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross.
Christ Did Not Die for State00:15:10
In his final hours on earth, Christ willingly endured excruciating pain, torture, and execution on the cross out of a deep and abiding love for all of his creation.
Through his suffering, we have redemption.
Through his death, we are forgiven of our sins.
Through his resurrection, we have hope of eternal life.
On Easter morning, the stone is rolled away.
The tomb is empty and light prevails over darkness, signaling that death does not have the final word.
Amen.
Amen.
That's great.
And that is glorifying to God.
And we talk a ton about the state, right?
Like, well, the state's involved in a religion.
And people get mad when we say the state has a role that they should promote what is true.
And what is true if not God, his law, his word, his testimony, his gospel.
And this right here, when we talk about Christian nationalism, it sounds so scary.
It sounds so sinister.
Guys, that's Christian nationalism in action.
That is.
Yep.
Yep.
The government speaking, the state being distinctly Christian.
Right?
People are like, oh, separation of church and state.
Okay.
I hear what you're saying.
That's actually a debate.
We won't get into it.
We can talk about that some other time.
We've already done work on that.
But here's what we could all agree on.
If you're actually a Christian, you should be able to agree on this.
No separation of God and state, right?
Christ is the head of the church, but Christ is also head of the state.
No, no, no, no.
Yes, Ephesians chapter 1.
I believe it's either verse 21 or verse 22, where it says, And God has appointed him as head of all things.
All things, not just head of the church, but head of all things to the church.
So what's being said there is that because of the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, to him has been given a name above all other names.
Not the name of Jesus.
It's so that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.
What's the name that's above all other names?
It's the name Lord, Kyrios.
That he is Lord of Lords and he is King of Kings.
So God has exalted him above all things, all peoples, as Lord of all, and appointed him as head of all things, not just head exclusively of the church.
This is the way to say it theologically.
Christ is not exclusively head of the church, he is uniquely head of the church, meaning that his headship, in particular over the church, is unique in the sense that the church is the only institution for which he died.
So he's uniquely, he is head of the church in a way that his headship over all other things is different.
Christ didn't die for the state.
Christ didn't die for media.
Christ didn't die for the arts.
Christ didn't die for it.
But he's head of all realms of human society.
And not just human society, he's head of Mars and Pluto and other galaxies.
He is head of all things.
He is head of all things.
And so Ephesians 1 22, when it says that God has appointed him head of all things to the church, what it's saying is that Jesus, in terms of not that he died for all things, he died for the church.
That's unique.
But he is head, and speaking of his authority, he's been placed in supreme authority over all things, and that authoritative headship is to the benefit of the church.
Christ, being head of all things, including the state, is all for the ultimate and eternal benefit of his people, the church.
That's what it's saying.
So, separation of church and state, okay.
Separation of Christ and state, no.
And so, what is Christian nationalism?
Well, that's one case study.
This tweet out of the White House, I'm not saying that we're there yet.
We're so back and we have a perfect.
No, there's a lot of work to be done.
But that would actually be an example of Christian nationalism.
The idea that the state is religiously silent or neutral is a misnomer.
No, the state should be promoting the Christian truth.
It should.
I'm not saying the state comes into churches and administers the sacraments.
Or preaches on the Lord's.
I'm not saying that, but what I am saying is that the state, as the state within its realm, within its God given jurisdiction, part of its role is to punish bad guys according to the Christian morals, the Bible, what is actually crime, what's actually immoral, but then also to praise the good and promote.
I would argue, promote the good.
That means when it's Easter, the White House puts out a statement talking about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and doesn't say, Anything about transgender visibility day.
And that's a good thing.
Watch this comparison because you say, like, well, the state could or it could not acknowledge God, like Christ or whatever it is as Lord.
On that transgender day of visibility, what is the story of transgenderism?
The death and the rebirth of something.
Now, it's not the death and the rebirth of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is a macabre, dark, twisted death of one thing raised again, dead naming.
Someone dies in a metaphor, physical sense, and they come back on the other side.
But they're not raised to eternal life.
Gehardis Voss, in commentating in the Old Testament in the sermon, he draws out the contrast between the two trees that are pictured.
And the tree of life, the tree of God, the tree of true religion is full of fruit.
It's vibrant.
Versus the asher pole.
Versus the pole that is sterile and barren.
And an individual that has died and been buried in a Joe Biden type of sense comes back on the other side, barren, dead, lifeless, never to have fruit again, even if they were to be saved.
That's been taken off, it's been done.
It's been done.
The transgender tree.
And so on Easter Sunday, the United States, for the last couple of years, at least here and now, has proclaimed the message of a tree, the message of a death, and the message of a resurrection.
It's just a question of which one.
And I love how Trump's announcement, too, he said, and his resurrection and eternal life.
Because there's lots of people that would say, or they would even, if they had to talk about it publicly, yes, Jesus died out of love, kind of that first part of the message.
He died out of love, and it's a wonderful story.
Of sacrifice, all of these things.
The moral example.
It's exactly a moral example of sacrificial love.
For this reason, a man would give his life.
Love has no one greater than this that a man would lay down his life for his friends.
And so that is true.
The moral example, that is one element of the atonement, but that's not the whole enchilada.
That was also, he died as atonement, paying the penalty for sin so that those who trust in him might have eternal life.
So the moral example.
Of sacrificial love doesn't get you to eternal life.
When you put eternal life in your post, coming out of the White House, the resurrection and eternal life.
And now you're talking about Christmas Victor, you're talking about penal substitutionary atonement, you're talking gospel.
That fact of history, I mean, that's what we've been dealing with for 2,000 years.
A man came back from the dead, and from the highest office on our land, the president came out.
I mean, guys, it's, we'll get to the black people in a minute, but a man saying that, like approving it and saying, hey, it's Easter.
And Jesus died.
There's forgiveness of sins.
And did he say forgiveness or repentance?
Forgiveness.
He said forgiveness.
There was one other term he added to it.
We have forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life.
For a minute there, I felt like I was reading the Apostles' Creed, the confession of the Christian faith.
And so, whether he truly is regenerate or not, this is an incredible proclamation.
And millions and millions and millions of people, by virtue of this, by virtue of us talking about it, everyone else got to hear the message of the gospel from not the minister, not the pulpit, not family worship, from the state.
And it goes back to Boniface in the chat.
He says, and we're not trusting the plan?
Let's go.
I'll tell you what.
Believe it or not, based off of that, Uh, that is an Andrew Isker top guy right there.
Um, he's trusting the plan in line with his guy, Andrew Isker.
God bless him.
Uh, no, this is right response ministries where we uh partially trust the plan.
Hold on, hold on.
I've got one more.
I also know we're going to go to Joe Frantz.
I said one other white pill in here.
So, this statement actually, the connection between Christian nationalism and what the statement says is more uh profound and the statement is more based than we realize.
Uh, because he says, or the statement says, um.
Execution on the cross out of a deep and abiding love for all his creation.
Okay, and Joel, earlier you quoted Ephesians, but Colossians is kind of a parallel book to Ephesians.
And Colossians, um, chapter 1, 19 and 20 says this For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him in Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things.
That's really important.
And then, how whether things in on earth or things in heaven by making peace through the blood of his cross, the death.
Of Christ, the blood of the cross is primarily responsible for the reconciliation of sinners to Christ.
But this and other texts in the Bible indicate that the redemption of the entire world, all created things, whether in heaven or above, will be accomplished also by the blood of Christ.
That it's a blood bought world.
That's correct.
That sentiment is true that God, by the death of his son Jesus and his sacrifice, is actually redeeming the church, his elect people, maybe tribe, tongue, and language, but also.
That he's also restoring and redeeming all the cosmos, created order.
Which would include the nations, the kings, the rulers.
Yep.
And I looked it up too.
The second part I was looking for is redemption and forgiveness of sins.
I mean, that's even better than a lot of pastors who wouldn't mention necessarily sin on the cross.
Like, well, it was out of his broken creation, this side or the other.
Like, no, it was the forgiveness of sins.
One more point on this because this past weekend, it also happened to be Passover in the Jewish sense.
So those that would be ethnically Jewish.
We're celebrating Passover.
Don't lie.
As well as, let's be fair here, wasn't just them.
Wow.
Also, a ton of Christians who are absolutely ridiculous and think that somehow they should be celebrating Passover.
Apparently, it's a trend of them celebrating a cedar meal.
A cedar meal.
Very, and that's very recent.
You would not go to John Calvin's home the week before Easter.
John Calvin would be like, So glad for you to join us.
Hey, we're actually having our Passover.
We're having our special cedar meal.
He'd be like, The hell you are.
You're actually going to jail and maybe jail.
Yeah, yeah, maybe to help.
No, so, but very recent.
And there was, of course, I mean, from Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister of the UK, from Speaker Mike Johnson, many of them like, oh, our deepest, well wishes for the wonderful season of Passover.
But the GOP account.
So, in all of this constellation, you have a number of factions within the Republican Party.
Believe me, the Republican Party, we're not big fans.
But you have some good parts of it, and you have other parts that are, of course, as we saw at the RNC, just fully captured.
But the GOP account, it went out there and it did its happy Passover, whatever.
But it cited the New Testament.
And many pointed this out and said, whoever's behind the social media, like at a certain level, you just have to post what comes down from the top.
We're a very multicultural, multi religious type of place.
And so it's, you know, well wishes to everyone, to the Sikhs, to the Jews, to whatever.
But it was very interesting that that account said, hmm, on Passover, what we're not actually going to do is invoke some of the language, the imagery, this, that.
Happy Passover.
And here's the citation for Passover from the New Testament.
That's funny.
Christ is our Passover.
Our Passover land.
And so, to the Jews who are celebrating Passover, we wish you a very happy Passover looking to Christ.
A very happy Passover and a very pleasant conversion to Christianity.
Very pleasant conversion.
And for the record, like why Christians don't celebrate it, and you shouldn't, and you should tell people not to Passover was always looking forward to Christ.
It was intended to be this temporary structure, just like circumcision.
It was training, it was molding, and it was shaping, not as the final object.
Like the final goal of Passover is Passover.
No, what, I don't know, what event, an angel of death, death passing over a person because they were good and they performed?
No, because there was blood that already signified a death had been had.
What could that be looking forward to?
Oh, death passing over us as Christians for the sake of Christ.
So, Passover, Hebrews is all about this.
The old is done away, Passover is over.
That was a temporary, you use this imagery, Joel, the scaffolding, the structure, to teach, but now it's gone.
And to go back and celebrate it is to act as if.
We haven't had Christ yet.
We're still looking for that true and final blood.
It's actually worse than that.
It's like, Joel, I remember when you preached to this in Hebrews a couple of years ago and it all just clicked.
Like, that's actually quite offensive to Christ.
It's not just like we don't have to celebrate it anymore, but take it or leave it.
No, it's actually quite offensive to say to Christ, actually, I'm going to go celebrate something that you have perfectly fulfilled as though you had not perfectly fulfilled it.
Right.
It really calls into question the completeness and the totality.
Of Christ's sacrifice.
It denies the sufficiency of Christ.
It's hedging your bets.
That's what the whole book of Hebrews is about.
Don't go back.
Don't go back.
Don't hedge your bets.
Don't go back to, in a physical sense, it's like, don't go back to the priestly sacrificial system.
You know, don't go, because all that is centered geographically, the focal point is Jerusalem.
And I, you know, I take it that I believe Hebrews was written probably around 8067, 68, 69, right before the destruction that took place in 8070.
So he says there's a fiery judgment that awaits you.
You see this in Hebrews chapter 6, you see it in Hebrews chapter 10.
All these warning passages, and as a partial preterist, I take that to mean that there literally was a temporal earthly destruction that was coming for the center of the geographic center of Judaism.
So, don't go back because these were Christians who had been fleeing from that geographic center because of the intense persecution from the Jews.
And so, they had converted to Christianity and they had actually physically moved out of there and were worshiping in Christian churches, but they were tempted to go back because they're like, Well, but.
But shouldn't I hedge my bets a little bit?
Shouldn't I offer a little bit of a sacrifice?
Just one a week.
Yeah, just one a week.
A little bit of sacrifice, a little bit of synagogue, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.
And the apostle, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is saying, don't go back.
And I think it's twofold.
In the eternal, ultimate sense, in terms of their soul, he's saying, don't go back because that signifies hedging your bets, which means that your full hope and trust and faith, we're saved by faith, is not actually in Christ.
And so the fire judgment will be the eternal fire.
But also, if you go back to this system, the Judaizing, it requires you geographically to go back to this region where it takes place in Jerusalem.
And that place is about to be literally on fire, it's about to be destroyed.
And so there's both an earthly, temporal judgment that also is a type and shadow pointing towards the heavenly and, well, in this case, hellish and ultimate eternal judgment.
Preparing Hearts for Jesus' Coming00:04:01
And so, yeah, so to do this, you can't celebrate the shadow without rejecting, at least in part, the substance.
You can't.
To celebrate the shadow, to pay some tribute to the shadow, is to engage in some measure of rejection of the substance.
The substance is now here.
It would be like a little kid and his dad's on, you know, in the military, he's on deployment and he's got a picture of dad.
And for the last nine months, he's been sleeping with the picture and all this.
And then dad actually comes home and walks through the front door and is so excited to see his son, but he's grown so attached to the picture.
He's like, you know, dad, you're distracting me.
I'm having, you know, my quality time right now looking at your photo.
That would be ridiculous.
We'd all say, no, no, no, the photo was just the type, the shadow, the symbol that points towards the real thing.
And the real thing just walked through the door.
Put the photo down and go and hug your dad.
And to do anything less would not only be illogical and foolish, but it also would be absolutely devastating and hurtful to his dad, who's standing there ready to embrace him.
It is a rejection of Christ, and it is absolutely offensive to Christ, and he will not take that offense lightly.
Yep.
Last thing before we go to our second commercial break speaking of tradition, and I'll give you a good one to celebrate instead the liturgical calendar.
For thousands of years, Christians across the world.
They've observed different periods of time, different months for one, the season of Advent.
It wasn't just like, well, it happens to be Advent, we do a special Christmas season.
It's weeks of preparation of the heart and of prayer, the reading of certain scriptures, looking forward to and inculcating an expectation and hope for the coming of Jesus.
The one, of course, that already happened in his incarnation, looking forward to him coming again.
But as we move into Holy Week, for everyone who's watching here on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, it is a great and wonderful thing to celebrate Monday, Thursday, Good Friday, to read the passages.
That's what I'm going to do with my family this week.
Read the gospel of John through Jesus and his Passover, his death, the looking forward to, and then his resurrection.
Those are great practices that we have practiced and we have done for hundreds of years of church history, and we tended to lose them.
And then it's like, well, what's special about Easter?
And much love to our covenanter brothers and sisters who would just say, like, the Lord's Day is only holiday.
Totally fair view.
We would disagree.
We celebrate Easter.
But whatever it may be, this is a great week to rethink about the cross, but not just the cross, not just his suffering, but also his resurrection.
Amen.
All right, let's go to our final commercial break and then we'll come back and we're going to start.
We'll deal with the fact that we're all going to be in prison soon for anti anti Semitism laws, but we'll also go ahead and start taking questions from the chat.
So if you have a question, make it clear.
Say, this is a question.
Question.
That's the good one, Zara.
Da You know, whatever.
Nathan is our tech guy.
He's going to start bifurcating that, make our own list there.
We're going to deal with as many of the questions as we can.
And then the last thing I was going to say is subscribe to the channel on YouTube.
If you haven't already, click the bell so that you'll be notified with all of our content as it comes out.
Also, like this video.
We need more likes.
I think we have 56 likes.
That's an abomination.
If you don't like this particular video, then it's the same as.
You're coming to El Salvador with us.
You're coming to El Salvador.
You're not going to the beach, though.
If you haven't liked this video yet, then I know for a fact that you had a cedar meal.
And it's a very non Christian thing to do.
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Deporting People Based on Beliefs00:15:31
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All right, so welcome back.
We're at the point there is the plan goes off the rails.
So we had a we're so back moment, we did, and now it's time for a we're so that was I think it was Saturday that Trump said that the Thursday prior.
So this is April 10th.
Donald J. Trump, all his social media accounts.
Here he goes.
I am proud to nominate Yehuda Kaplan as the United States.
Oh, sorry, rabbi.
Yehuda.
That's right.
It's not in his post, but that's who he is.
That's who he is.
As United States Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti Semitism, Ambassador at Large, Yehuda is a successful businessman and a staunch advocate for the Jewish faith and the rights of his people to live and worship free from persecution.
With anti Semitism dangerously on the rise, Yehuda will be the strongest representative for Americans and Jews across the globe and promote peace.
Congratulations, Yehuda.
Don't love it.
So, this envoy, the envoy to monitor and combat anti Semitism, It started in 2004.
It was established by George W. Bush, which I mean, that's just shocking.
Common George W. Bush.
L right there.
The most common of L's.
Most George W. Bush.
Yep.
So, but it really was a very underfunded position.
And in many ways, it often looks externally.
So it's looking outward to other nations, to other Americans.
Yep, around the world.
So it's externally focused.
Its funding was under $500,000 a year.
These are funds that are appropriated by Congress, very small budget.
During his first term, this is very interesting, for three years, Trump didn't appoint an ambassador at large to the position.
Do you know if the subsequent presidents to George W. Bush did continue to appoint someone?
Obama appointed someone.
He lasted all the way there until 2017.
But Trump didn't do it for three years.
And Congress was actually getting on him for it.
So they were like, why aren't you going to appoint someone?
He also didn't appoint, it was like a Jewish envoy or ensign, a liaison to the White House.
He was really pretty indifferent to these things.
I mean, a president has thousands of roles to fill.
So there's definitely lots of things where it's not a priority.
Obviously, Secretary of State is a priority, but like, You know, the ministry to, you know, like Southern Texas food banks.
Like those are positions that'll sometimes go unfilled.
So he left it unfilled for three years.
It was Secretary of State.
It's not Rubio, who was the Secretary of State during Trump's first term.
He ended up just appointing someone to it.
And it was under the Biden administration.
They appointed someone to it and they increased the budget to $1.5 million.
And now we're here today and we're three months into the campaign, not the campaign, into the term.
So January 20th, February 20th, March 20th, April 20th would be the three month marks.
We're not even quite there.
And he has got someone in there and they have already gotten to work.
So if you go to the website now, this is a big term.
You got to be aware of it.
You got to put it in your mind.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
A lot of these different groups, what they do is they adopt a term used by this IHRL group.
And this is the one that we talk about when we say, like, making it illegal or making it societally uncognizable to critique or to say the biblical message that the Jews killed Jesus.
This is in their category.
So they go about, like, how do we define anti Semitism?
This group, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance group, has gone on and said this type of blood libel, this type of saying the Jews killed Jesus, defines anti Semitism.
And this definition has been ported over right now.
You can find it on the White House website at the office of this, under the leadership of this new rabbi, to where that is the definition that they are going to be using.
Now, what will that practically look like?
How will it be implemented?
Some of that we're already seeing students that are on foreign visas that have been critical of Israel, Columbia, Harvard, other places.
They're getting deported.
But what we're kind of saying is, okay, sure.
So right now, you know, you have.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
You know, gender studies student, she's going back for criticizing Israel.
And in a sense, yes.
Amen.
Great.
We love it.
Don't love the reason.
Because with that definition and with funding and with the right ear, there's really concerning groups of people out there.
This is on the rise.
Trump even said in his announcement with all of these going on, we've got to do something about it.
And we've kind of set the precedent up.
We were talking about it a little bit ago.
Kind of set the precedent up for deporting people for beliefs.
Not for actions that they've done, like drugs or felonies or other things, but for beliefs, for certain advocacy and speech.
So we've established a very dangerous precedent.
Now, again, I think our American ethos of free speech, I mean, it's just in our bones at this point, sometimes almost to our detriment that it's like, you will not live at me.
You know, you will not censor my speech.
I don't think that American spirit is going to be quashed by police going door to door to door the way we see in Britain with, you know, like social media laws.
That might not happen here in that formal sense.
But this is the start 100% of an informal societal, and when you think of big corporations, they have a ton of power.
I mean, they can debank you.
Like Andrew Torba's wife can't open a MasterCard.
What do you do when you can't run a bank account?
What do you do when you can't open a credit card, when you can't get a home loan?
There are very powerful ways of attacking citizens of the United States without technically breaking any laws, without technically Congress being involved, invoking definitions.
Offices, departments exactly like this one.
Yep.
So that's what we're looking at.
Don't love it.
And definitely be talking about more in the coming months.
RFK Jr., though, I think will be a stalwart defender of free speech.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Yeah.
And the Department of Health.
RFK Jr. teaming up with Rabbi Shmuley.
We're in safe hands.
I will share my silver lining here, and it's not mine.
It was Knowles.
I mentioned to you guys before the show.
But what we actually have witnessed with the deportation of the The people who are protesting Israel, the pro Hamas, pro Palestine deportation that we saw, was we now have on record, Wes, you mentioned precedent.
Precedent matters.
We now have a precedent where we have deported someone from this country for a belief that he held.
And in that sense, I'll take that precedent.
We could wield that.
We could wield that if we can get it.
I love what they just opened up for us.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That precedent could have potential that's positive in the future, but as it's currently being used, I don't know about you guys, but I'm in trouble.
All right.
All right.
Questions?
I'll hit Bane Mahler's question here.
He said he or she explained that Sheldon Adelson and his wife being one of his mega donors and top visitors to the White House.
Exactly.
Big Zionist Jewish donors like the Adelson family have been very instrumental in getting Trump back in power a second time.
And I brought up the point of him pointing someone to that task force much earlier on this time versus last time as some of the proof that there are interests present today that very likely were not earlier on.
But that's also encouraging because that means this isn't something that for 25 years, again, Trump has been like, I just, there has to be a way to build a third temple.
Yeah, it's not a deeply held ideology.
This isn't who Trump always has been and his, you know, his genuine bona fide conviction.
Well, kind of it is because he's a deal maker.
He takes care of the people that take care of him.
That's true.
Yeah.
That's true.
But it doesn't have a long history.
Yeah.
It's a recent development with this term that wasn't really there in the first term.
And it's because one of the takeaways, I think, like a principle that we can glean from this is yeah, like it pays to have the king for a friend.
That's right.
Right.
You know, like there's something that, you know, that we could learn from this as, you know, Christians is, you know, saying like, okay, like maybe it wasn't.
Maybe it was, you know, all the insufferable Christians that were never Trumpers, you know, and had nothing, you know, nothing positive that they could ever say about him.
Maybe that wasn't the best strategy because the people who were for him, like the Adelson family, are now going to receive a lot of kickbacks.
And the kickbacks, like, how, so how are they going to use the favor of the president of the free world to punish their enemies?
And who are their enemies?
It's us.
Right.
We're their enemies.
And so maybe a little lesson we can learn for next time.
We'll do a little friend enemy distinction.
And we'll just finish off.
You touched on Michael's comment, not Michael Belch, Michael's comment.
What are your thoughts on Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kenney Jr., anti Semitism task force?
My wife was excited for him.
I was excited for him.
But I was thinking more like, I don't know, like fluoride out of the water, dyes out of the food, no more seed oils.
And it comes out and it's like, I got something way better than all of that combined.
Anti Semitism task force.
Wait a minute.
That's not what I signed up for.
Could you get rid of seed oils?
Best I can do is anti Semitism task force.
So many have theorized.
People might have dirt on him.
I think so.
Yeah.
I think he's not.
RFK Jr. is a.
He sleeps around.
Yep.
Not like that's a bad part of his character.
And so he may have dirt on him, and it's like, we need you to look into this.
Yeah.
What are you going to do?
I mean, I don't know for sure.
That's speculation, but.
Where it seems so obvious.
I'll say allegedly because I, you know, yeah.
There's a debate, but it seems so obvious that through Israeli intelligence and all like with the, you know, the JFK files and all these things that came out, it's like.
Dude, you would have more reasons than most to not work towards an anti Semitism task force.
Right.
And so, in his case particularly, it's like, what do they have on health and human services?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cancer, diabetes.
Right.
No, something worse.
Yeah.
They have something.
All right.
Some more questions.
Did we do Victorian Christ?
We did not.
Go ahead.
Victorian Christ, super chat $5.
Thank you, Victorian Christ.
We appreciate it.
He says, are you willing to have a discussion with a full preterist?
Don K. Preston or Zach Davis make great points.
Glad dispensationalism is dying.
Last part glad that dispensationalism is dying.
We're with you 100%.
In terms of having somebody on the show to do, we probably wouldn't do a debate, but a discussion, you know, going back and forth with a full preterist.
I'm open to it.
We can talk about it and discuss it.
That's, to me, it's not when I think of, you know, top 10 things that I'm concerned about and need to be.
Need to be dealt with, you know, that doesn't really make the list for me.
So I'd be willing to talk to somebody like that.
Even like Gary DeMar, I'd be willing to talk to him.
Entropy follows up on that to just to close the $2 super chat.
$2.
Thanks.
Entropy says, yeah, I think full preterism deserves a discussion.
So if we have enough guys in the chat and enough of our followers who would benefit from that discussion or actually interested in it, I'm willing to have it.
Really, my hesitancy isn't that I'm unwilling to talk to.
With people who disagree with me because that's not a thing.
I'm perfectly willing to do that.
And I think it can be.
Quite helpful.
And I think, you know, when it comes to politically and culturally and some of these wars and battles that we're facing, co-belliteracy is, I think, vital and necessary.
So, in terms of just the concept of talking to somebody who holds a different theological position from myself, am I willing to do it?
Absolutely.
My only hesitancy is that this particular topic of full preterism tends to be rather niche.
I've tried to do some of the reading on it and it is very dense.
And there's just not a ton of guys.
So the guys who are on board are, I mean, they're on board.
So they're very, you know, they're loud, they're enthusiastic.
So you'll see them like we're seeing in the chat.
And I'm not casting any shade.
But the guys who are excited about it are very excited.
But, you know, there's like 17 of them.
Right.
So I would want to, if we're going to breach that topic, I would want to know that there's enough interest and that that episode would actually be helpful to more than 17 people.
I'm not aware of a seminal series.
Scholarly work on it either.
Like David Chilton, it's alleged that he became a full preterist before he died, but he never wrote on it.
I'm not aware.
Gary DeMar has touched on it briefly.
So his statements in his book would be interpreted to be full preterist, but he has not written like a 600 page book either, explicating and arranging the system of thought.
So even there, most certainly to the credit of the guys that he mentioned, I'm sure they've done videos, for example, and done some writing on it.
But we're talking about like a work that, for 30 years, has kind of been the foundation of the system of thought that's pointed to as the origin of all this.
I'm not aware of one of those existing.
Yeah, right.
Super chat from Evan Davies.
Thank you very much for the five pounds, Evan.
He says the modern Passover points to the Israelites' experience in Egypt.
It purposefully overlooks Christ as rabbinical Judaism always does.
And that's exactly the point.
And I think what a lot of Christians and I didn't realize this until recently.
So I think we all have to just say, like, it's not like we have believed this for decades, but the idea that we've said before that modern day Judaism is not just a carbon copy of what was being practiced in the Old Testament, right?
It has departed the same way Christianity.
Moved on with the New Testament, modern day Judaism moving on through the Talmud.
And so many Christians would probably think, oh, a Passover meal, this is exactly what the Jews of the Old Testament were doing.
It's the same emphasis, it's the same symbology.
It's not any of that because it completely skips over Christ.
And so the super chat is very well stated and the point is well taken.
Cool.
Victory in Christ, he just followed up with another $5 super chat.
Thank you.
We appreciate it.
He says, I can get you in discussion with any of those individuals that we just mentioned and I'd be happy to pay for the episode in case it only goes out to 17 people.
Laughing emoji.
They'd love to have a healthy discussion.
So we appreciate that.
And if you want to send us an email, you're welcome to do so.
You can email me at Joel at Right Response Ministries.com and send us an email, kind of your idea, what you're thinking.
And like I said, if we get enough interest, then we'll just do it.
But if we don't have enough interest, then we probably won't do it, even if you're willing to pay for the episode.
But I'm willing to have a discussion.
So thank you.
I'll hit Washington Hound's question.
Question from Washington Hound Do you believe dispensational Christians fall into the category discussed in Hebrews 6, 4 through 6, those who would turn away and be considered apostate, specifically those who celebrate the Jewish holidays, seek to rebuild the temple in Israel, etc.?
Certainly in the first century, you would say that's what it's speaking about in Hebrews 6, those who tasted of the heavenly gifts, they experienced baptism.
So, in one sense, they experienced.
Fell away.
So, once been enlightened, I take that as indicative of baptism, tasted of the heavenly gift, I take that as indicative of.
The Lord's Supper, shared in the Holy Spirit.
I take that simply as being a part of the visible church, worshiping on the Lord's day and stirring one another up to love and good works as the church does.
Dispensationalists Love Systems Over Christ00:08:52
So I take this as they're all different signs and elements of New Testament Christian church worship, Christian worship, New Testament Christian worship.
And he's saying it's impossible for those, should they fall away, to be brought back to repentance.
And so this gets into, you know, some people say, well, is this what Jesus was maybe referring to as an unforgivable sin?
You know, something like, because, you know, typically, biblically, and, you know, in terms of Christian theology, like you, you know, we all sin, and even as Christians, we continue to sin, but there's, you know, there's confession and repentance and forgiveness of sin.
But he says, you know, if you were to fall away, that you could not be brought back to repentance.
And I take that to mean the way that I would explain that is I take that to mean that he's actually referencing this impending earthly temporal judgment that is literally, I think, was probably right around the corner.
And what he's saying is that you would go and you would actually be cut off and physically die in your sin.
You would go back to, by going back to Judaism, you would geographically, physically be going back to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem's about to get sacked.
And it would be sacked with you there, and you would perish in a state of sin.
And the reason why you couldn't repent isn't because it's the unforgivable sin, but because your life in a flash would end and you would die in that rebellion.
So that's first century Christians that go back to those holidays, back to the temple.
Yes.
Dispensationalist Christians today, there are certainly some that I think would just, their love is not for Christ, but it's for a system and all of those things.
But I will say, there's a guy I know, he used to come to the church in San Diego for a while.
This dude loves him some Israel.
And I remember a couple years ago, he literally said, like, well, I felt like the missing thing was in my Christian walk, like going back and celebrating the different feasts and all of that.
Like, I mean, this guy is top tier.
But as far as evangelism goes, I mean, this is a guy who loves to tell people about Jesus.
I think, I don't know his heart.
I'll see this guy, Daniel, in heaven.
And when he gets up there, Jesus will be like, that was really dumb.
You shouldn't have done it.
But there are many who love Jesus, have a heart for him, and they're doing silly things like that.
But we're not talking about, and I've placed my faith in my Passover cedar meal.
My faith is still in Jesus.
These things, they're wrong.
They're going back.
They send the wrong message.
There's a difference in I'm confused and I have bad theology.
And it's like your conviction.
Which does matter.
Which does matter.
But at the end of the day, we've talked about this, Wes and Michael, we've talked about this, but like, are we saved by faith alone or are we saved by having, you know, holding to and affirming every doctrinal iota of believing that we're saved by, like, we're not saved by believing in the five solas.
We're not.
I believe that we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the scripture alone, and to the glory of God alone.
I believe that that is how God saves.
That is how God saves.
But you affirming each of those doctrinal tenets and being able to explain them.
Proficiently, if that's what saves, then you're actually saved by works.
That's a work.
You attaining to some kind of theological benchmark and an ability to articulate the theological benchmark that you've attained is a work.
And so, to put it plainly, no, I don't believe that people go to hell for having imperfect theology.
There are going to be many, many, there are.
Currently, many, many, many Christians, millions and millions of Christians who theologically are a little wacky, theologically are a little anemic, but they believe in the Lord Jesus that he died for their sin and was raised from the dead.
And they're hoping and trusting in him.
And that's last time I checked.
You know, like people, they can affirm the Apostles' Creed.
If we're not careful, this is cultish.
This is what gets, it's not trying to be ecumenical for ecumenicalism's sake.
But we have historic creeds for a reason, we have them for a reason.
And so for me, the Apostles' Creed, it means something.
The Nicene Creed means something.
And when someone says, I affirm these historic creeds that have been in existence for 1700 years, to me, that means something.
And if it doesn't mean something, and just with each generation, we're constantly adding, we're raising the benchmark, not just for what we think would be helpful, but for salvation.
Then I think we're adding to the gospel.
We're actually adding, yeah, we're adding to the gospel.
And what we're adding is a work, whether it's an intellectual work, a theological work, but it's still in the category of work.
Yeah, I think a bunch of dispensationalists will be in heaven.
However, I agree with what Wes was articulating in the sense that I do think that, you know, and ultimately God sees the heart and it's for him to decide.
Man looks at the outward appearance, God sees the heart.
But I do think that there are some dispensationalists, and I'm not going to sit here and name them because, again, I think a lot of this is internal and I don't want to impute motives.
But I think there are dispensationalists that just have bad theology but really love Jesus.
And I think there are other dispensationalists.
That are actually another religion, that it's not Christian.
They're Judeo Christians.
They're Judeo Christians, which is not Christianity.
And it's the tail wagging the dog.
The Christian portion of their theology only exists to serve the Judeo portion.
So all of their Christianese and their Christian language, it's literally all of it exists to.
It's no different than the Biden administration wanting to make Americans a tax farm for Ukraine.
And for them, they just want to make their churches and their proselytes a tax farm for Israel.
But that's up to the Lord.
So, can you be a dispensationalist and have bad theology, but really be trusting in Christ for salvation and love the Lord?
Yes.
But could you also be a dispensationalist and your actual motives and where your trust really lies is not Christianity, but Judeo Christianity?
And the Christian piece is the tail actually wagging the dog, and the dog is.
Is actually Judaism and everything is just shilling for Israel and trying to rebuild Israel, and all that.
Then, yeah, that's at that point, it's not just bad theology.
In my assessment, at that point, the Lord determines the heart and whether or not you're at that point.
But if that's the point, then that's something altogether separate from Christian faith.
Yep, that's my opinion.
Great.
Any other questions we want to hit?
MBE just gave a $2 super chat, so thank you very much.
Oh, nice.
Thank you.
Okay, any other ones?
Scrolling through the chat.
Did we do Neville?
No, we didn't do that one from earlier.
Yeah, go up, Nate.
Go up.
No, I want to hit this other one.
There's one up above.
Oh, okay.
Do you think Trump is consistent America first, consistent in his America first ethos because he views Israel as an arm, an extension of the United States, hence proposing things such as a purchase of Gaza?
What do you guys think?
I think that's a bit of a stretch.
Because his buying Gaza was kind of this is where it goes back to the comment that I made earlier.
It was kind of poking Netanyahu in the eye, right?
It was like, I'm going to get it.
Like, you guys haven't been able to get it.
I'm going to come in there and we're going to take it and it's not going to be yours.
So, I don't necessarily see the link there.
It's part of the way we viewed ourselves, especially with communism.
Like that, really, we've centered ourselves into many areas of the globe and ever since have kind of maintained that global peacekeeper mentality.
And so, I don't think it's necessarily a violation of America first because America's always had interests abroad.
Yeah.
I understand there could be tactical reasons, especially going back to we were talking about this earlier.
An ally, it's one thing in the 70s and the 80s, in the 90s, you had Kuwait, you had communism, but also our interest in oil.
There's different times and different reasons to support that the problem not necessarily being international involvement, although that could be the problem being more so strategically, we're getting ourselves involved in an ethnic feud that goes back a long time and doesn't have a great way out of it.
That's more my problem with the Gaza thing than necessarily the well, it's not America first to be involved internationally.
Right.
All right.
Well, that's going to be it for our episode.
We got to cut it short.
We actually have some projects we're working on, but Lord willing, we will be with you guys on Wednesday.