Will The Livestream - Will The US Get Involved in Iran? examines escalating conflict following surprise Israeli strikes on Iranian leadership and nuclear facilities, driven by existential threats and declining Western support. Hosts debate the validity of nuclear claims against Israel's ambiguous arsenal, noting US aid functions as a forgiven loan while questioning intelligence failures regarding October 7th attacks. With Trump reportedly refusing direct involvement unless Americans are targeted, the discussion highlights shifting public sentiment against global policing roles. Ultimately, the episode suggests potential US intervention remains unlikely without direct attacks, favoring surgical strikes over ground troops amidst fears of infinite downsides in a war with negligible benefits. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
Time
Text
Support Israel's Defense00:02:15
Leave us a five star review on your favorite podcast platform.
I get it.
It's annoying.
Everybody asks, but I'm going to tell you why.
When you give us a positive review, what that does is it triggers the algorithm so that our podcast shows up on more people's news feeds.
You and I both know that this ministry is willing to talk about things that most ministries aren't.
We need this content for the glory of God to reach more people's ears.
Over the weekend, you saw the headlines as Israel struck Iran.
In a surprise attack after negotiations over Iran's supposed nuclear program broke down.
For Israel, Iran poses an existential threat if they develop nuclear capabilities, while Iran views Israel as an illegitimate state and stands in solidarity with the Mohammedans occupying Palestine.
This conflict has been raging since 1979, and Friday's escalation is merely the next chapter in an ancient blood feud.
But more than Israel fears Iran's nuclear capabilities, Israel fears losing the support of the West.
Support for Israel has been on the decline since October 7, 2023.
Younger evangelicals are more indifferent, and nationalist sentiments against foreign aid have already stranded Ukraine just five months into Trump's presidency.
With the exception of their intelligence operations, Israel's military is relatively small.
And underpowered.
In short, they desperately need the US and the EU to see their war against Iran as justified and for them to join the fray.
And so, President Donald Trump is facing the most important test of his presidency thus far.
The Middle East is the graveyard of kingdoms.
Twenty years and three trillion dollars failed to achieve a stable government in Iraq.
If we are dragged into another war, The benefits will be practically negligible for us, and the downsides almost infinite.
Trump's Middle East Test00:14:59
Will Trump rip the bandaid off and make the U.S. finally be done playing international peacemaker?
This episode is brought to you by our premier sponsors, Armored Republic and Reese Fund, as well as our Patreon members and our generous donors.
You can join our Patreon by going to patreon.com forward slash right response ministries.
Or you can make a donation today by simply going to rightresponse ministries.com forward slash donate.
So tune in now as we discuss the most important developments in the Middle East since October seventh.
All right.
So, you know that this is an important issue.
Welcome back.
We just got back from the New Christendom Conference in Ogden, Utah, and that was a blessing.
Got to hang out with a lot of friends.
You guys are not allowed to leave again if this is the sort of thing that's going on.
Yeah, I know.
So, where are the conference happening?
The Carmelo Anthony thing.
That's right.
Yeah.
If it's conference weekend, it's right.
If it's conference weekend, you need to short, nothing ever happens.
Yeah, seriously.
Yeah, exactly.
If there is a conference happening from Right Response or New Christendom, then go ahead and put in some puts on the SP or the SPY or something like that.
So, yeah, so we were there having a good time hanging out with all of our Ogden buddies, and Andrew Risker was there, and CJ, and Dr. Wolf, and the gangs all there, and having a great time and meeting with a lot of you that support this ministry and have been friends to us.
And on Friday, boom, and boom is probably an accurate description.
That's clearly what happened.
Yeah, so Israel, you know, they launched missiles, and from, you know, it was all kind of in real time.
We're figuring out, you know, what's actually going on.
Uh, the more that we've discovered, it doesn't seem like they actually really targeted it, certainly not exclusively, nuclear operations in Iran.
Uh, what they were primarily targeting was the leadership in Iran.
Uh, so you know, so that the to make the argument or the justification that you know we're taking out you know Iran's you know nuclear missiles because it's a danger to us, but really, you know, we did you a favor, United States, it was a danger to you, and you were their true target, you know.
And it's kind of, I was telling Wes right before we started recording.
It's almost like Bibi Netanyahu is using Donald Trump's rhetoric that won him the 2016 election that he used with the American people.
Bibi is using it on Donald Trump himself.
So remember, you know, one of the most quintessential lines that Donald Trump used back in the day was the left, speaking of Democrats, the left, they're not coming after me, they're coming after you, American people, salt of the earth, blue collar people, and I just happen to be standing in the way.
And that's kind of the rhetoric, the line of reasoning that Netanyahu in Israel is using towards.
Trump in the United States.
Well, Iran, you know, they're not really coming after Israel.
They don't mind us.
We're peaceful people in the nation state of Israel.
They're really coming after you, all of the West.
Well, let's play this video from like two hours ago.
And we're just standing in the way.
And so we're taking out their nuclear missiles, doing you a favor, but really they're taking out the leadership and targeting them.
And the last thing I'm going to say real quick, and we'll watch the video, but I had, you know, it's an important topic when you can tweet two sentences and not even necessarily feel like it was, you know, your best.
Tweet as all viral tweets are, you know, you always feel like, ah, I don't even know if I fully agree with what I just said there.
I sent out a tweet that on Friday, just I wanted to say something, and then and then I, you know, just left my phone, wasn't paying attention, went to the conference.
You know, I'm shaking hands and kissing babies and meeting with all of you, having a grand old time, and then uh, just the next day, I look at it and it's I think now it's at like 2 million views, over 40,000 likes.
Uh, Daryl Cooper, martyr made, he retweeted Ian Carroll, of course, Ian Carroll retweeted, he was like.
Joel said something negative about Israel.
I'm retweeting.
Ian Carroll was probably awake 48 hours.
That's right.
He was all in his Twitter.
Every five seconds, that dude was cooking.
God bless him.
But, anyways, it's a really big deal.
And, yeah, Wes, let's go ahead and show that.
Let me just even show the president of Israel saying this.
Let's roll clip one.
It's Tel Aviv.
Tomorrow it's New York.
Look, I understand America first.
I don't understand America dead.
That's what these people want.
They chant death to America.
So, we're doing something that is in the service of mankind, of humanity.
And it's a battle of good against evil.
America does, should, and does stand with the good.
That's what President Trump is doing, and I deeply appreciate his support.
Counterpoint There's a 3,000 mile ocean between us and Iran, and they live in the Stone Age.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, they're going to nuke us.
We're talking about Muslims.
And I want to get this out there from the outset, just in case, because you guys know we give Israel a hard time.
And honestly, I feel like I'm always holding back and we're going soft.
Israel is not our ally.
They are not our friend.
That said, neither are Muslims.
Okay.
So I just want to set the record straight.
We have our problems with Judaism.
We have our problems with the nation state of Israel that we think in many ways was artificial and only exists because of the West.
And it's one thing if we help them get started, but now we'll take it from here.
They are literally, they've been propped up for 75 years by the West.
If we get out, they're done.
Right.
And so, any nation state, many people have said this, many guys who are more moderate than I am have made the comment, Michael, we were talking about this right before we hit record, but have made the comment if any nation, not just Israel, any nation for that matter, if its entire existence is Is completely dependent on another nation outside of itself, then it's not a legitimate nation state.
And so, all that being said, my point is yes, we have problems with Israel.
That's one of our problems.
Why are we forever perpetually bound to give them billions of dollars and fight their wars and all this kind of things when this is not a mutual relationship?
And we certainly have problems with the false religion of Judaism.
That said, we have massive problems with Muslims.
We are no fans of Islam.
We're no fan.
And they hate America.
He is correct that they change.
They do hate America.
To America.
Absolutely.
The Muslim perspective is America is the great Satan.
Right.
And Israel is the little Satan.
Yes.
Yep.
So there is absolutely some truth to that.
So I want to say that from the outset.
This is not a defense of Islam.
This is not a defense of Hamas.
You know, that's not our position.
Our position is like the Godzilla, King Kong kind of thing.
Let them fight.
You know, it's not our fight.
But here's the deal.
When.
When Bibi says, like, they hate America and I'm just standing in the way and protecting you, you know, I'm selfless and Israel's just looking out for you, America.
Yeah, right.
Because here's the deal.
Here's one of the things that I know to be true about Muslims.
You can study the Crusades, you can read into it.
It's like, oh, you know, well, this, the Turks or the Muslims or this group or that group, they had this incredible innovation.
They invented crossbows or this incredible military strategy.
Or look at the scientific discoveries that they made later.
Or look, one of their great philosophers, Literally, every time you talk about every single time, okay.
Well, this is every single time that applies to Muslims.
Every single time when you actually look into it, and there's some great Muslim philosopher from the 1300s oh, it actually was a Christian, or I got to be honest here, or a Jewish guy who was captured in one of their conquests and taken captive and forced to become a Muslim at the threat of the sword and then did incredible, intelligent things.
So that said, Muslims on their own, not talking about when Muslims capture Christians and make them their engineer by force or capture Jews.
Muslims themselves, apart from capturing Western people to do their dirty work for them, Muslims themselves, the 3,000 mile ocean, this is my whole point.
The reason why that's so significant is how far can you, audience listening, how far can you throw a rock?
Because that's what we're up against.
Right.
I don't buy it.
Oh, they're a nuclear powerhouse.
We have been told for years, even decades, that they are right on the cusp of it.
And I'm not saying there's no nuclear thing going on ever.
Of course, they want a nuclear weapon.
Yes, of course they want it, right?
Just like once upon a time, they wanted crossbows.
Right.
And they had to get a Christian to invent it for them and take them captive because no Muslim was going to be able to invent a crossbow.
Why?
Well, that seems kind of rude.
No, because they're Muslims.
And Muslims.
Islam is a false religion and it denies the truth of God's world.
And when you deny the truth of God's world, guess what?
You're not very successful.
You're not very successful.
And so, no, I do not think that Iran is this huge global threat to someone 3,000 miles away like the United States.
So I don't buy it when Netanyahu says, I'm protecting you.
You know who does have an estimated 300 nuclear warheads and who has never actually signed a nuclear treaty to not increase or to transfer their weapons?
Like, does it with immunity?
Israel.
Yep.
Israel has.
The estimates are varied because they have.
You can put this quote up, Nate, if you can find it.
They're not supposed to have weapons.
There's this huge international treaty, like 191 nations have signed.
We'll get to this in a minute.
The goal of this episode is just to kind of inform you.
So as you're thinking about it, you have all of the pieces, all of the history, what's really going on, just so you can informedly speak to someone who says, no, I think we should support them.
So you can calmly, rationally, and factually explain, we don't have a lot of interest in the Middle East.
But going back to Israel, well, they could be on the cusp of nuclear warheads, this, that, or the other.
Well, there's someone who does have warheads in the Middle East.
Hundreds of them.
And we help pay for it.
And we help pay for it.
And they refuse to sign any treaty which bars them from transferring them, which bars them from increasing their stockpile.
And they even use it as a bargaining chip.
It's called the Samson option, where they're deliberately ambiguous about how much nuclear power they have.
We'll blow up the whole world.
That's what the Samson, so remember Samson in the Bible.
It's like one last time he's been captured by the Philistines, his eyes have been plucked out.
One last time he humbles himself and asks the Lord because the Philistines have this big party happening.
And they drag out Samson, you know, this hero of Israel that they've captured and conquered, to mock him and to make fun of him, throw tomatoes at him, and all that kind of stuff.
And so he comes out blind, eyes are plucked out, and he prays to the Lord, Give me strength one last time to defeat and crush my enemies.
And he puts his arms on the two pillars that are holding up this big plaza that all the Philistines are gathered underneath.
And God supernaturally gives him that strength one more time, and he pushes the pillars, and it kills him and everybody else.
That's the Samson option that Israel has.
Like what they're saying is if you don't defend us, And we get cornered where we can't win, then we take our ball and go home.
And when we say we take our ball, we're saying we take the whole planet.
The football, if we take the planet, represents the planet Earth.
Like we will hit nukes on everyone, on you, on everyone.
And so there's that the fact that they have impunity in terms of how they can use their nuclear operations, no accountability.
In addition to that, I said, you know, we help fund them.
But it's interesting that even the way that we fund them, and I know you guys are probably aware of this.
And others have done great work on this to uncover it and reveal it.
But the way that we fund them, we fund a lot of nations, but it's usually through some kind of form of charity.
But in the case of Israel, it actually comes in the form of a loan.
And the reason why is because whenever we give it as charity, then we reserve the right to know how it's spent.
But in the case of Israel, with our X amount of billions of dollars that we annually give to Israel, Israel takes that as a loan so that they can remain anonymous.
They don't have to report how it's being spent.
What they're developing.
And then, with that loan, what they do is they take a portion of it to develop their military and these kinds of things and weaponry, and then another portion and come right back around and buy US Treasury notes and then earn interest.
So, we're literally giving.
But then, the thing with America is they take it as a loan, but we forgive the loan.
So, we treat it in terms of financial liability.
There's no financial liability.
We give it as a loan so that they don't have to declare what they're spending it as, but then we forgive the loan.
So, it virtually is a charity, except we don't get the paper trail.
We don't get any intel on how they're spending it, and they take a portion of it that we gave them for free and buy our treasury notes and make interest off of our money.
That's the most Jewish thing I've ever heard.
It's incredible.
Let me get to uh, it's incredible two pieces of info here.
Nate, if you could pull up quote number four, I'll just start reading it.
Uh, this is from a 2001 book on Israel's nuclear opacity.
Israel refuses to confirm or deny it has nuclear weapons or to describe how it would use them.
A policy of deliberate ambiguity known as nuclear ambiguity or nuclear opacity.
This has made it difficult for anyone outside of the Israeli government to describe the country's true nuclear policy definitively while still allowing Israel to influence, this is key, influence the perceptions, strategies, and actions of other governments.
So they know they have nukes, they don't know how much, they use it as a bargaining chip.
However, over the years, some Israeli leaders have publicly acknowledged their country's nuclear capability.
And then let's pull up that last image that I sent just for a comparison of effectiveness and GDP.
So this is your map, just for the record, you know, in case, all right, you're talking about Iran, could you point it out on a map?
Here it is.
Huge country.
You've got two countries in between it right there, one of them being Iraq, one to the south being Afghanistan.
So you've got Iran over there.
You have Israel, much smaller.
As far as the GDP goes, just for some kind of context of comparability, Israel has about $500 billion annual GDP.
Iran has about $400 billion.
The size of the population, though, Iran is 10 times as populous.
So Iran has a population of around 91 million.
Israel has a population of close to 10 million.
The religious makeup obviously, Israel is majority Jewish, 74%.
21% Muslim, 5% others.
That's including about 5% Christians, Arab Christians.
Iran, 99% Muslim.
And then, even as far as total military personnel, Israel is smaller in this count.
We alluded to it in the cold open 634,000 active duty personnel compared to close to a million for Iran.
And so, Iran is bigger.
It has 10 times as many people.
And it is pretty much equivalent as far as its economic output, as far as its military personnel.
We are not dealing with a first world power.
Israel vs Iran Population00:03:46
Yeah, this is a poor country.
Right.
Yeah.
Let's get into some of the context of why Israel kind of maintains this defense.
Again, to give you kind of an idea of really the difficulty that they've encountered since declaring their independence in 1948.
You can pull that image right back up, Nate.
This is on the right what's called the axis of resistance.
And so the Muslims have not been happy with Israel since they were established.
And a big part of that is not necessarily anti Western sentiment, although that exists, but it's solidarity with the Mohammedans.
So this is with the Muslims that existed in Palestine, in the Gaza Strip, that existed prior to Israel buying lots of land, coming in.
I mean, Israel literally just showed up and they declared themselves a state.
They rolled in.
The UN, it was between Britain and the UN.
They basically kind of just said, well, we're relinquishing control of this plot of land.
Israel declared themselves.
They had a connection.
President Truman himself, minutes after Israel declared itself to be a state, he had US foreign policy.
They recognized President Truman, came out.
He said, I recognize the state of Israel.
So that's how it was born in 1948.
And what that engendered over the years, what's called the axis of resistance.
And so what you have here on the screen is just a graph of all of these different Really, they're all terrorist groups.
So, these are you have Hezbollah up in the north, Lebanese, you have Hamas, you have tons of other smaller ones we don't know much about, the Houthi rebels down there at the lower part of the canal, and then, of course, Iran, Hezbollah, and Afghanistan.
And so, Israel has been, since its inception, 1948, the modern state of Israel, the true Israel is, of course, the church, but the modern state of Israel that calls itself Israel, they have been surrounded by Muslims since their inception and fought at least eight major conflicts, some of them being some pretty big wars where they were attacked by Egypt, Syria combined.
And so, practically speaking, I absolutely recognize that Israel has a very vested interest in its military, in maintaining its borders, in maintaining a strong military presence.
If we're being honest, their intelligence operations are incredible.
You probably remember the pager incident from 2024.
Through the infiltrating the supply chain, planted explosive putty in tons of pagers.
This was Hezbollah, Lebanese terrorists, blew them all at the same time, I think killing more than 1,000 of them and just crippling communications.
Crippling, of course, their workforce, their command, all of that.
And so, that's what they did on Friday, also.
I mean, it like Iran couldn't really even mount a counter, not for a little while.
For a little while because they were just completely scrambled.
They cut all of their communications and everything.
Wes, Knowles today said that those groups that you mentioned, Hezbollah and the Houthi, are largely proxies for Iran.
Yep.
Would you agree with that?
I would certainly understand it to be.
So, Hamas that attacked Israel on October 7th.
It's understood to be the same thing, Iranian proxies.
So the funding, the weaponry, always coming through that.
And this has been since 1979.
And it's funny, we talked about it earlier today, but Iran was a constitutional monarchy up till 1979.
And they weren't Christian or anything like that.
And it was for sure authoritarian, as monarchs tend to be.
But it was actually in 1979 that there was an Islamic revolution, and that led to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
And that has literally been.
I'm sure we had nothing to do with that.
The CIA, I know, helped with a revolution in, I think it was 63.
And it's funny, there was a lot of, it was very clear even just researching that a lot of women were involved.
Like, this was a very pro right, pro expansion.
We're going to get an Islamic Republic.
But it's literally been since 79 that there has then been this hostility.
And if you go and read through the encounters, there's tons of different wars.
So once they shifted from monarchy to being a republic, then all of a sudden there's a ton of wars.
Tons of wars.
And you have to give billions of dollars to the wars.
Israel hates them.
That's at least with Iran, that's how it played out.
Carry the Crown00:02:55
So we'll hit our first commercial break.
When we come back, we're going to talk about Iran's nuclear capabilities and really what sparked all of this.
Yeah.
America is a country that was founded for the purpose of allowing Christians to do their duty before God and not to have their consciences ruled by the doctrines and commandments of men.
Reese Fund exists in order to see the Ten Commandments properly applied, not just as a plaque on the wall, but to actually be used in business as though they're commandments from God that we're supposed to obey.
Our goal is to find businesses and to buy them and to build them up.
We want to find manufacturing businesses and use them to make sure that we can maintain our capacity to do things here.
Reese Fund, Christian capital, boldly deployed.
At Kingsman Caps, we believe that every man is called to carry the crown, that is, to seek out and gain glory, and ultimately to give that glory to Christ.
Our hats aren't just apparel, they're a symbol of sacred duty.
We're forming a coalition of men who walk with conviction, courage, and humility, knowing the honor we bear is not ours to claim, but ours to carry.
Through Kingsman Caps, we are starting a brotherhood of men who live to honor Christ as King, and who will one day lay their crowns. at his feet.
Every Kingsman cap is crafted with premium materials, rugged construction, and timeless designs made to endure the burdens and battles of life.
We've just released our newest colorway, the Illumination, an all-white country fit featuring a bold five-panel design and a clean white-on-white logo.
It's built for those who walk in the light.
Join the Brotherhood and carry the crown.
And if you're building God's kingdom through your own business, brand, or venture, we now offer custom hats.
Orders with an easy process and a 100 hat minimum per style and color.
Step one go to kingsmancaps.com to contact us with your custom hat inquiry.
Step two send us your logo and brand colors.
Step three choose your hat style and details.
Step four we'll take care of the rest.
Carry the crown because Christ is King.
Go to kingsmancaps.com to get yours today and join the Brotherhood.
Running your business with purpose means looking beyond last month's numbers to next year's vision.
Kaylee Smith offers CFO level strategy scaled just for small businesses.
At Mid State Accounting, she takes care of your compliance, bookkeeping, and tax returns while providing holistic advisory and fractional CFO services to help you steward your resources with a distinctly Christian perspective.
Ready to align your finances with your future?
Running Business with Purpose00:15:18
Then call Kaylee Smith at 573 889 7278 for a free, no obligation consultation.
Mention the Right Response podcast to get 10% off your first three months.
Prefer to explore online?
Then you can visit midstateaccounting.net to learn more or schedule a call.
Again, that's midstateaccounting.net.
With midstate accounting, you'll plan for tomorrow while operating in faith today.
So, call Kaylee Smith at 573 889 7278.
Again, that's 573 889 7278.
So, Wes was saying just a little bit earlier before we went to our first commercial break that, in a nutshell, so when you look at Israel and Iran, Iran is 10 times the size in terms of the population, but pretty comparable, actually, a little bit lower in terms of their GDP, their wealth.
10% lower.
But then, in terms of their standing, active military, It's, you know, Iran, it looks like it's about 50% higher.
It's in the 900,000s, you know, close to a million.
And then Israel, you know, closer to like 500,000 or 693.
I thought it was 693.
Yeah, 693.
Yeah.
So maybe 40% higher on Iran's, you know, standing army.
But, you know, in a pinch, Iran obviously is going to be able to get a lot more foot soldiers because they just have more people.
But it really comes down to the wealth and how that translates to weaponry and intelligence, you know, and technology and those kinds of things.
And when it comes, you made a throwaway comment, but it's important, speaking about Israeli intelligence, that it really is, from the little bit that I've looked into it, the most superior in the world, rivaling our own.
And so that's where, and I'm going to throw this out not as a definitive statement because I don't know, but I'm curious just to hear what you guys think.
Obviously, October 7th was atrocious.
And I don't think that Israel did it.
I don't think that these are actually like Israeli spies coming in on hang gliders, slaughtering their own people.
I don't think that.
But I do struggle sometimes to believe knowing how advanced Israeli intelligence is.
Like, I mean, Israel, you know, somebody probably high up in Israel is listening to this podcast right now.
You know, they know everything.
I feel like they know everything.
And the fact that they didn't see that coming when literally, like, they're gliding at like 0.05 miles per hour, you know, like, I mean, you have just from spotting the gliders in the sky, you've got like a day and a half to get there, you know, to, you know, to stop it.
And you're talking again, the most sophisticated.
Sophisticated intelligence in the world.
I don't think they did it, but I do struggle to believe that they didn't have knowledge that this was happening.
And when we look at what's going on today, is that not the perfect moral justification to just go in and glass another country that you're worried about, you know, that might or might not be developing, you know, nuclear power, that they might turn those guns on you?
It's not going to get across.
They're not going to be able to mess with us 3,000 miles away.
But they can very much mess with Israel and Israel having this sense of urgency, like we want to take them down preemptively, you know, to beat them to the punch.
But we know that the rest of the world is watching and we need some moral justification to do this.
And we're not going to hurt our own people.
We're not devising this, but we have intel that they're going to come and hurt our people.
And we're just going to kind of sit this one out.
I have a perfect quote prepared.
There's an old saying never let a good tragedy go to waste.
Right.
Let me just read this as context.
And again, this is not making a definitive claim.
Like you're right.
They for sure did it, they knew about it.
But listen to this context in 2023, because as Americans, we don't pay attention to these things, maybe rightfully so.
This is quote number one Benjamin Netanyahu, so President Netanyahu, was unpopular and facing political challenges before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.
His coalition government, formed after the November 2022 election, was deeply divided due to its inclusion of ultra nationalist and ultra religious parties.
Large scale protests erupted in early 2023 against his judicial reform plan, which critics argued would undermine democracy by concentrating power in the government.
Polls indicated significant public dissatisfaction with his approval ratings, already battered by nearly a year of internal conflict over the reforms.
Additionally, Netanyahu faced ongoing corruption charges, including bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, further eroding his credibility.
While his coalition held a majority in the Knesset, his political atmosphere was volatile and the leadership was under scrutiny, though immediate ouster was not imminent, as it adapted from a New Yorker article.
So it is an objective statement of fact that prior to October 7th, so objective statement one, Israel's incredible intelligence operations.
Statement two, Benjamin Netanyahu was for sure, him and his coalition government on the fritz.
And so I for sure think.
And then statement number three Israel would like to take out Iran.
Yes, for sure.
They've always wanted a reason to do it.
And so.
And they needed a reasoning.
Planned it?
Maybe, probably not.
Probably not.
Knew about it?
I think almost 100%.
Because that has the title of that New Yorker article is.
How widening Israel's war saved Benjamin Netanyahu.
That event literally saved his presidency.
Yep.
Let's pause real quick.
I'm curious, Michael, what do you think?
I think there is very likely that that is the case.
You guys know me.
I like to speculate about nothing.
But I know that there are rumblings that this sort of thing has happened many times, even possibly like the US government knowing about the Pearl Harbor attacks before they happened.
And one thing I'm confident of is that people who know things will use what they know to further their cause or their war or whatever it is.
And so the only thing I want to add here is it's maybe sometimes more complicated.
I'm speaking in general terms here.
You have an intelligence asset that you don't want to give away how you know these things from future strategic.
Involvements or things like that.
I'm sure that they used that attack for the purpose of Netanyahu saving his presidency.
It's likely that they knew things.
I would be careful to say that it was because that's a very, I don't know, it's very cold hearted to say that I let, you know, 2,000 of my people be executed.
Yeah, it's a big statement.
Which is why we did caveat it by saying we're not definitively saying so, but it is a little bit, it's possible and it's a little bit fishy.
One thing I also want to ask both Michael and Wes, and I know you've got a lot, Wes, and we'll get to it in just one second, but I have heard some of the rumblings of people saying, you know what, this might be one of the times where Trump legitimately was playing some 40 chess.
Because what we had, part of the reason this was such a surprise, we were all surprised.
You know who was really surprised?
Iran.
They were definitely surprised.
They were really surprised.
That seems pretty clear.
And my point is part of the reason they were surprised.
Is because even in the global news cycle, we were all kind of led to believe that there were peace negotiations, they were going well, that Trump even kind of like was like standing up against Bibby, you know, and disagreeing with him and pushing back.
Because I like we did an episode, you know, where like their relationship seems to be a little bit fractured and we were white pilling, you know, we were like, yes, W's in the chat, W's in the chat, you know, Trump, who is a Zionist, might, you know, might be at least have a personal petty disagreement with Bibby and that would be a good thing.
You know, to at least get some distance between us and another country that doesn't have to do with us.
And, you know, so, but my point is, I have heard some people piecing together as a theory that, you know, that all that was kind of just a show.
And that what it really was, was Trump had, and Trump validated this a little bit.
They said, like, did you know, did you have a talk with Israel, you know, about blah, blah, blah?
And he was like, huh, yeah.
And so it seems as though it's at least possible.
That not only was Trump not pushing back against Israel, saying, stand down, stand by, stand down, stand by, but instead of saying, stand down and let me figure this out and achieve peace in the Middle East, which he's done in the past, it could be that he was just saying that so that all of us would think that, and especially Iran would think that, so that they wouldn't be on guard.
And then knowing that Israel had this plan to try to take out their leadership or maybe some nukes or whatever, allegedly.
And that Trump was kind of in on it.
What do you guys think about that?
I'll say two things about it.
Number one, Trump was talking about Iran and a nuclear weapon even back in 2015 in his presidential campaign, leading up to getting elected.
And so this has been something that he has been saying.
He said through his whole first term, he said it in his campaign against Biden, he's been saying it this entire time as a president.
So this is not a new thing for him.
Whether or not the threat is real and urgent, It has been something Trump's been saying.
It is something that Trump has been saying for a while.
Secondly, I don't know if you guys heard this, but there was a news conference and the reporter asked something about the fact of, you know, if the U.S. was involved.
And Trump didn't say they were, but he said something to the effect of, well, we gave them 60 days to negotiate.
And on day 61, their whole leadership, the nuclear program leadership was blown up.
Right.
And then the reporter asked, well, were you like, was that intentional or something like that?
And Trump said, well, they didn't die of the flu.
Right.
You know?
So I don't know.
There's another 4D aspect to this where Trump has been worried about this for a while and maybe he played Bibby.
Yeah.
You know?
I don't know.
I see.
Nope.
What do you think?
The messaging from the White House has been honestly schizophrenic.
So, this is just 20 minutes ago from I 24 News.
It's a Middle Eastern news outlet.
US planning to join Israel's campaign against Iran, according to US official.
And then another headline Preparations are reportedly being made to allow the US to join the attack if Trump gives the green light, again, according to I 24 News.
Now, that's one of probably 10 other headlines that have read something similar.
And then you've heard him say, like, this isn't our war.
We need to stay out of it.
And that is a tactic.
To say, I'm going to say one thing, I'm going to say another thing.
You do not have to.
If you are asked, did you and just top, top, top, top secret officials carefully collude on a plan?
You have no obligation to be like, well, I need to be forthcoming and transparent.
So he will say whatever.
What really matters is what we do.
But the second we have U.S. fighters and the second, especially U.S. troops, boots on the ground, I mean, all of that is dispelled anyway.
Until it happens, we are not in the war, at least on paper, objectively, in the eyes of the public.
And hopefully we never are.
Yeah, and hopefully we never are.
But objectively, it does look like we appear to have some involvement in it.
Let's get to why we need to be involved.
So, the big concern has been Iran's nuclear program.
This has been something since I think around the 90s.
You're not saying why we should be involved in the war, right?
This is the case for it.
This is why we're having this conversation in the first place.
So, there's an agency called the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA.
And, like I said, 191 nations.
This was inaugurated in, I think, 1970.
And it's been renewed since.
It's fully in effect.
And there is a treaty in there called the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty.
And so basically, countries that have nukes get to keep them.
So this is not saying, like, yep, if you had nukes at that point when you signed on, we're not here to come take them away.
But what you agree is not to expand and not to transfer them around.
And then if nations don't have nuclear capability, they have an agreement.
This is important for Iran.
They have an agreement not to develop new nuclear capability.
So it's kind of aimed at let's all decrease our stockpile, let's not build anymore.
And this occupies.
First world countries, the big superpowers.
We all have kind of this, we're hedging our bets just a little bit, watch and see what everyone does.
But so far, it's been abided by.
But the thing that broke on June 12th, the straw that broke the camel's back, was that the International Atomic Energy Agency declared Iran in breach of its obligations under the policy.
And this was the first time in almost 20 years that the Board of Governors made such a decision.
And so they essentially said since 2019, Iran has not been forthcoming, Iran has not been clear, they've not been complying.
We're finding radioactive traces of uranium, suggesting that they're enriching it.
They're not telling us why.
They're not telling us what it's from.
And so we have declared them in breach, essentially saying, we think that they're developing nuclear capabilities.
Not saying they have it, just saying it seems like they have been doing it in circumvention of the treaty.
Exactly.
And what they'll say, so this is Iran's side of things, so you can hear the propaganda.
So they'll say, yes, we have all these things, but we're developing them for non nuclear weapons.
And so they have been enriching weapons grade uranium, but they're insisting, like, okay, yeah, we've been doing that.
But it's not for this.
And so then this agency and the Western world is coming in and saying, we know what you're going to do with that.
Like, oh, don't mind me.
I'm putting all the pieces for a bomb.
No, this is just for a submarine.
This is nuclear for just some type of nuclear power program.
But practically speaking, if I'm being honest, I think Iran is building nukes.
Now, will they get there?
On what timeframe?
How good will they be?
How many will they have?
Will they use them?
Those are all questions into the future.
But practically speaking, they have about five sites where they're doing the type of activity that could absolutely support the creation of nuclear weapons.
Nate, could you pull up that map that shows those five sites?
You mentioned and alluded to this earlier, Joel.
The strikes that happened over the weekend mostly happened in Tehran.
So, this is the capital of Iran.
It was strikes on their military leadership, military brass.
They've also threatened to assassinate.
It's called the Aitola, the prime minister, the president of Iran.
And then you have these five sites here, and they hit two of them.
But if you look especially at Fordeaux and the Tans, these sites are deep underground.
There is no way Israel does not have the technology.
To actually destroy them.
Bunker busting.
Exactly.
So, for Doe in particular, it's an enrichment site dug into the side of a mountain.
Practically speaking, Israel does not have the technology, as good as they are, to get in there and actually blow it up.
So, they bombed the civilians in Tehran.
It's about 200 to 300 casualties.
These are civilians, women, children that have been reported at this point.
But of these five sites here, they haven't been able to take any of them out.
Deep Underground Sites00:05:31
Listen to this quote.
This is incredible.
Who could?
It's a flag with some stripes and some stars.
Listen to this quote.
This is quote number three, Nathan.
From the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, he says this.
This is just publicly the Israeli Air Force doesn't have the power to prevent a nuclear bomb from Iran, and Israel does not have the military capability to penetrate the depths of Iranian bunkers.
Israel can only target roads or bridges, but lacks the actual equipment and ammunition to affect its nuclear program.
And so, what you need to know, if you're thinking about this, you're weighing it, maybe even debating, be it with family members, I don't think we have a role there.
Israel is at the behest.
Of the West to actually destroy Iran's capabilities.
And so the decision, and we'll get to this in the last section, the decision is up to us whether we want to be involved or not.
Practically, they are probably building a bomb and they're probably going to build it.
That is a perfectly legitimate outcome.
So I'm not sitting here like, you know, George W. Bush, weapons of mass destruction.
I don't think there's anything there.
And there are some good parallels that we can get to in a minute.
But practically speaking, the only one who could do something about it is the US.
And that's such an important piece of it to know.
This is not about surgical targeted strike because we have just we're almost certain that they've got uranium there, they're building bombs, they actually can't do anything about it.
Israel can't do anything about it, so they need us.
The other thing to it's under the heading of why we care, but it's not the military question.
And Wes, correct me if I'm wrong because you did more research on this episode.
Um, but from what I can tell, the um, the mullahs.
Who are the kind of religious rulers in Iran are somewhat in opposition to maybe some of the more secular Iranian leadership.
And the mullahs are aligned politically with China, Russia, Venezuela, North Korea, whereas some of the more secular ones are allied more with some of the Western, like Jordan.
Jordan is very Western in a lot of ways, an ally of the West.
And so there's another.
If you get into the question of whether or not America is an empire, there is an imperial game going on as well, with elements of the Iranian leadership very much in cahoots with Russia, China, Venezuela, things like this, and others who are more allied with Western nations that are our allies.
And so there's a question of how non interventionist an imperial power can afford to be.
And that's really the question that we.
Are seen playing out all over the world in real time, you know, for a long time, really.
And in the Cold War, Iran, one of their sites, if you read it carefully there, they're using Russian fuel to fuel their enrichment activities, their nuclear activities.
Iran was most certainly not siding with the West.
They were behind the Iron Curtain.
They were allied with communists.
They had many, it was in the 90s, your tanks, your weapons, everything supplied by Russia as a proxy war.
So, absolutely, to your point, that's what's difficult about this you have Russia and you have China allied with some elements in Iran.
And I argued with Dr. Joe Boot a little bit on X because he was like, no, this is about America and this is protecting our way of life.
And one of his arguments was that if Iran had nuclear weapons, Russia could provide them with the supersonic conventional means to deliver them internationally.
But practically, Russia already has them.
So it's not as though, like, all the whole, you could call it the Eastern world or the old kind of Soviet bloc, the old Cold War allies, they're all just watching the countdown as Iran builds nuclear weapons.
They're like, no way, they're the first to do it.
Russia has that capability.
If they wanted to use Iran as a proxy, they already would.
You're saying they would just give it to them?
Practically speaking, it's not as though Iran would be the only ones to possess this capability.
They would be the last ones to possess this capability because Russia has a whole nuclear arsenal from the Cold War.
Iran's beef, and this goes back to how Israel was founded, they hate Israel because they stand against, they're opposed to, many of the Mohammedans that just occupy Palestine and the Gaza Strip.
And they're close.
It's not a super complicated calculus of exegesis of the Quran, which, for the record, like, In the tears of heretical religious books, the Quran is it's some slut, it's not the Talmud, but I mean, like, uh, the Book of Mormon that is fine literature compared to the Quran, right?
Imagine, uh, imagine 800 pages of terribly written Psalms from sand people, right?
It's not a narrative, like, if anyone's never picked one up, it's not a narrative, it's not systemic, it's not structured, yeah, it's just garbage.
So, anyway, Israel's hate or Iran's hatred for Israel, their hatred for the West.
It's not complicated.
It's not diplomatic.
It isn't based on these complicated geopolitical arrangements.
They hate Israel because Israel hates Muslims.
They hate America because America supports Israel.
And their allies historically have been the Russias and the Chinas of the world that have backed them through the Cold War.
And New Kid on the Glock points out, and I did read this, New Kid.
He points out that whatever smokestreens are going on, the reports are saying that what Israel did actually did significantly hamper the nuclear development program.
Hatred Explained Simply00:04:14
Yep.
So.
If that was their stated goal, it seems like that goal, at least, who knows what other goals behind the scenes are going on, but that actually likely did do a number on their development.
The reports I read, they damaged on the ground side of things.
So, any enrichment facility, you're going to have a high ground facing infrastructure, which they did strike.
Now, the majority of the stuff is going to be.
And they knocked out a bunch of the leadership in that department.
Yep, absolutely.
Let's go to our last commercial break.
But when we come back, we're going to land the plane, some concluding thoughts, a little bit more information that Wesley has for us.
But we also want to deal with your questions.
I saw one really good question in the chat already.
But we are just full disclosure we're going to prioritize super chats.
So, if you send us a super chat, then that greatly increases your chances of us being able to get to your question.
If we're able to, we'll get to all the questions, whether it's a super chat or not.
But the super chat gives you a better chance because we usually run out of time.
All right.
So, start sending your questions.
Send it with a super chat if you're willing to do so.
We'll go to our last commercial.
We'll come back and we'll get some landing the plane thoughts, a little bit more information, and then we'll deal with the questions.
Sounds good?
What if your family's financial strategy was built on more than just numbers?
What if it was built on scripture?
At Private Family Banking, we believe managing wealth is more than just good planning.
It's a God-given privilege and responsibility.
In Genesis and Deuteronomy and all the way into the New Testament, God calls us to be fruitful, wise, and faithful with what he provides.
We help Christian individuals, families, and small businesses grow, protect, and pass on wealth anchored in timeless biblical principles to the glory of God and the advancement of his kingdom.
Schedule your free discovery call today at liberationeconomy.com.
I'd like to introduce you to a book called On Ruling.
It's a book written by a group of guys who live down here in Texas.
Now, the subtitle reads this An Everyday Guide for Christian Patriarchs.
And that's precisely what this book is.
Now, I'll tell you what this book is not.
It's not a Bible study, it's not a devotional, and it's not a boring retread book about leadership or leveling up.
No, this book is designed to get you thinking about how to seize more ground and then bring it under good governance.
Now, most men are not aware that our mandate is to build civilization right where we are, with a winning culture.
We tend to want to outsource that responsibility, or just try to get more comfortable.
But that is not what our lives are to be about, gentlemen.
Regardless of how many talents our master gave us, we should be making moves to see an increase in all spheres of our lives.
One day, he will return and ask for our reports.
So, this book is about all that.
It's about governing your heart, household, and enterprise so that the kingdom of God advances.
On Ruling is a great book for group study with you and your fellow men, or perhaps even something that you can read in the deer stand.
So, go and get On Ruling now from Western Front Books at the link below.
That's www.westernfrontbooks.com.
Heaven's Harvest takes pride in providing you with the best.
Freeze dried emergency survival food kits on the market.
Their kits stand out because they prioritize serving sizes and calories that will sustain you for the long haul.
No gimmicks, no fillers, just a diverse array of nutritious options that will pleasantly surprise you.
But they're more than just emergency food, they're advocates for sustainable preparedness.
Their heirloom seed kits include heirloom, non GMO, non hybrid, Open pollinated seeds, ensuring that your garden produces the same quality and variety year after year.
Heaven's Harvest Kits00:15:11
Packaged in high grade Mylar foil, their seeds have a 10 year shelf life.
So get 10% off your Heaven's Harvest order by using our special discount code RRM at checkout or by clicking the link in the description below.
Made in the USA and free shipping on orders above $99 for the US only.
All right, we got breaking news.
So, I 20 25 minutes ago or so, I said that there were reports.
This was from I 24 that uh that Trump was getting ready, they were getting ready to be prepared to go to war on behalf of Israel.
New breaking news came out 15 minutes ago.
We're so back.
Breaking Trump administration tells allies it will not get involved in the war against Iran unless Iran attacks Americans.
So, this is still the Trump administration, not Trump himself on True Social.
This report comes out as rumors are spreading.
Trump greenlit the U.S. joining the campaign.
Against Iran.
There's nothing that suggests he's doing this.
So praise God.
My brother doesn't have to die for Israel.
My brother's still active duty army.
I mean, those are the type of people that would be going to make sure Tel Aviv can have its pride parade.
And I personally don't care.
I don't think that's worth it.
But please continue to pray that that's the case.
I think the best resolution is no ground war.
And this fizzles out.
This happened about a year ago.
There was an exchange of missiles between the two.
A couple hundred people died.
And honestly, that was that.
And so I think on both sides, there's Christians in Israel.
For sure, about 5% Christian Arabs.
You have Christians in Israel, true Israel.
You have some, a very small persecuted church in Iran.
5% true Israel inside of fake Israel.
Inside of 100% fake Israel.
But no, my first and foremost care there isn't any of those countries because they're not at all my people.
I have no relation to them.
I've never lived there.
None of my ancestors did.
But as far as the Christians that are there, our care for the Christians' family, we don't want to see war and destruction come upon them.
And so pray that that's the case.
And let me get to why I think we talked about this over the weekend, Joel, why Israel did it, like struck these sites, struck the capital, took out the entire military brass.
And it really does seem that support for Israel, especially in the wake of October 7th, and some of that is the brutality with which they leveled the Gaza Strip.
So, none of this is necessarily all theological, as if Americans are just waking up, they're getting rid of the dispensational theology.
But practically speaking, since October 7th, and you can pull one of these, the first chart up, Nate, the support for Israel has been on the decline.
It's been on decline among Democrats for sure.
We'll talk about in a couple of days.
Always has been.
How the revolutionaries very quickly, you know, they catch on to something and then they will go.
Rare Democrat W. Rare Democrat W.
So, this is a chart.
This is feelings towards Israel from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
This is a survey.
From April just of this year, April 2025.
And you can literally see right there at 2023, the peak of about 58% overall.
So overall support for Israel, rate your feelings towards them, 100 being the highest, zero being the lowest, 58, high watermark, only topped by 59 in about 2012, down to 50.
So in two years, an 8% drop.
Democrats, 51 to 41.
Republicans, 69 to 63.
Those are all drops in about 7 to 10%.
Of public support for Israel.
Let's go now to evangelicals because evangelicals, practically speaking, are some of the biggest supporters.
And if you look at this poll, so this is from, I'm bearing 2015 and 2018, it's a little bit older, University of Maryland, Brookings.
18 to 34 is one age group, 35 is the other.
So 18 to 34, that's your blue if you're looking at this screen.
And then 35 and up, that's your orange if you're looking at this screen.
The older crowd, by about 10%, a little bit higher, especially in 2018.
They're much more likely to lean towards Israel.
So 22% of 18 to 34 year olds, 32% of 35 year olds.
And that's 2015.
And that's 2015.
In 2018, so 22% supported them in 2015, 16%, 18 to 34, 32%.
This is individuals 35 and older, 32% in 2015, 29% in your 2018.
Increased by about 4% in the younger group of support for the Palestinians.
From 5% to 9%, from 1% to 3% in older individuals.
And so I think by every metric you have, whether it's Democrat, Republican, whether it's evangelicals, non evangelicals, young versus old, every single group, we're just, and I think this, sure, there's the theological points about Israel and Judaism, but it's also just the return of nationalism.
We're done caring about Ukraine.
We're done caring about the last bar was don't prefer either way, right?
That was the biggest bar.
Yep.
The biggest bar was I don't really care.
No, Wes is right.
So like theologically, Is dispensationalism on the decline?
Yes, praise God.
But what we're looking at these numbers is the nation as a whole.
This is a lot more than just the dispes starting to get cold feet about their doctrine.
What this represents is not just a theological shift, as important as that is, that just doesn't represent enough people.
This is the nation as a whole.
Not just dispes, but not even just Christians or evangelicals or Catholics.
This is the nation as a whole.
Secular people, people who observe other religions, the whole country, America as a whole.
Is saying, no, we're tired of being the global police at the cost of our tax dollars.
So, well, what's changed?
Well, what's changed is people in our country can't afford to live.
They can't afford to, like, when you can't get a house, then you're not going to be pro any country.
Like, I don't want to send billions of dollars anywhere.
I don't want to do it.
And so there really is, with America, and not just America, but El Salvador and Hungary and all these places, there really is kind of like this global return to nationalism that's not first and foremost theological.
We kind of wish it was because there's a lot of theological reasoning behind that.
The Bible, I think, esteems nationalism.
But.
People are returning to nationalism, I think, because of God's second book, first book, special revelation, the Bible, his written word.
Second book, nature.
God, you know, things about God and his will and even his own nature can be clearly seen by what he has made in not just special revelation, his word, but in natural revelation or general revelation.
And right now, that second book of God's word, natural revelation, general revelation, is kind of, it's always there, it's always speaking, but it seems like these last.
A couple of years it's been screaming because there's been such a rebellion against it from gay furries to boys being girls to you know the clump of cells that you can murder with impunity, all the way up to nine months and maybe even after, depending on how democratic you know your governor might be.
The left has so overplayed its hand, and its hand, if we were to sum it up in a word, is unnatural or two words against nature.
That there's been this whiplash, you know, the rubber band snapping back towards nature.
Right?
What is natural?
And that's been happening in America, but it's been happening in the world as a whole.
And as there's this return to nature, one natural law kind of principle is national sovereignty, national identity.
My people, the Ordo Amoris.
America for America.
America first.
Yeah.
And so as that's happening, it's not just the shift in theology with dispensationalism, but it's this shift back to nature for everyone, whether they're Christian or not, that is, I think, you know, because we could look at the same stats and pull up.
Ukraine, and it'd be the same thing, probably even more extreme.
It'd probably be like Ukraine is plummeted to zero.
Like, I feel like, these days, I feel like if you say Ukraine, people are like, What's that?
Yeah, right.
You know, like the last six months, all the flags disappeared.
Except my neighbor, uh, blocked down.
Everybody's fine with the Moscow mules now.
You know, yeah, we're you know, it's it's back on the minions.
Nature is healing.
Nature is healing.
Yep, I like Austin Holcomb, and I'll sum it up this way, and then we'll get to the super chats and the questions.
He said, if I tried to oversimplify it, is your position that Israel's action is likely justified?
The U.S. involvement would not be perfect.
And I think that's perfectly fair.
If I was a tiny nation surrounded by violent people to the north, to the south that hated me and they were building nukes, and these people, if they got a working nuke, the very first one, they would literally put it on their backs to haul it to my border and detonate it.
Yeah, I would probably strike them.
But the U.S. has no business there.
But it's not our monkeys, not our circus.
Yeah, Austin, it's like he's saying, Sam, people.
But it really is, I feel like an accurate way you can describe it is if I'm a dignified Christ hater surrounded by sand people Christ haters, they're all Christ haters.
The Middle East has Christians by the grace of God, but it is the minority report.
And there are some Christians in Israel being spit on by Jews.
And there are some Christians in Palestine losing their heads.
And in Iran.
And in Iran.
And so there are some Christians, but it's the minority report.
So you're talking about God haters, the true triune God.
On both sides of the fence.
But this is, again, this isn't a special revelation.
This is baked into nature.
Everyone, except for people of European descent in the West, apparently, but everyone else has this natural instinct that God baked into us, which is what?
It's called survival.
People want to live, they want to survive.
And so, yeah, so if as much as I have problems with Israel, if I'm Israel, yeah, I'm going to want to take out nukes that are close by, you know, with people who hate me.
And I'm going to want to try to draw the United States into the fray.
You know, because they're bigger and richer and more powerful, and you need their so I don't even fault them on that level.
I fault them for plenty of things, but not so much this particular thing.
However, I'm not in Israel, I am not a Jew.
I am a Christian who lives in America, and I'm an American heritage American, and this is not in my interest whatsoever.
And I think a lot of people, whether they're Christian or not, are coming to see that.
Like, you know, JD Vancey's like.
I don't want this person in my country.
And I think a lot of Americans, most Americans agree with me.
And I would say the same thing.
This has nothing to do with my country.
And I think most Americans agree with me, Margaret.
Right.
And by God's grace, I think that's true.
Speaking of surviving, and this is not the topic for today, so we'll have to hit it some other time.
But did you see New York's passing an assisted suicide bill?
It's on the governor's desk today.
God forbid.
Anyway, have mercy, Lord.
Okay, let's do super chats first.
There's one from Pierre Vargas.
It's not a super chat, so I won't do it.
And I'm just kidding.
I'm going to do my best to get to that one.
But I do, it's just on principle, those who we love you all, but if you are being generous and trying to support this ministry, then I feel like it's the least we could do to show you a deference.
So let's do the super chats first.
But I want to handle the Pierre one.
So maybe Michael and Wes, you can alternate on the super chats.
Go ahead, Wes.
All right.
Ben Hofstetter, super chat, $100 from Ben.
Oh, my goodness.
We got to get to that one.
Thank you, Ben.
We did.
Wonderful, godly guy.
Wonderful guy.
Looking forward to just.
Continue to know him over the years, also making a transition to a new community.
And so if you think of him, pray for that transition.
I know we certainly are.
Ben asked this What superpower wins in this?
China?
As in, so you have Iran, you have that kind of axis there, so that the Islam, Muslim side of things, opposed to Israel, more broadly opposed to the West.
You have Russia.
We're not on great speaking terms right now.
The BRICS thing, right?
China.
Kind of that coalition.
Yep.
Kind of pretty much.
The East versus the West.
Yep.
I. I'm bullish on Russia, bearish on China.
China's one child policy.
They are almost out of time.
They're running out of time.
I think time is ticking for China.
So, on the military side of things, it's incredible.
They have so many more people, but still they don't match our productivity and GDP.
Even with a centralized government whose literal only goal, like we will build apartments on the bodies of our citizens, they would not care if that would get them ahead.
They still can't match our ingenuity.
So, on China, I think population, time is ticking.
Technologically, it's probably pretty close.
They are a threat.
There's no denying it.
Probably a bigger military threat than Israel.
But practically, I think we outlast them.
Russia, on the other hand, I mean, they've banned LGBT groups as terrorism.
They've gotten rid of a lot of Western propaganda.
So, your McDonald's, your porn hood.
They're following the nationalists.
And they're nationalists.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yeah.
They're an Eastern Orthodox Christian country.
Their birth rate is recovering.
So, I do think Russia, if I'm looking 30, 40, 50 years, who's doing good?
Who's having children?
Who's protecting their borders?
Who's resisting liberal propaganda that allows you to devalue your heritage, devalue your home, bullish on Russia?
As far as the West goes, we'll talk about it here in a couple days.
But like Britain, there's no Trump figure that's rising.
No.
Yeah.
I just cannot put enough puts on Britain.
Yeah.
The US, I'm hopeful by God's grace, but I'm hopeful for the US.
Those are the winners and the losers.
I'm super bullish on Russia, one, because they're Christian.
And I get this.
I'm not going to be like, why aren't we best friends with Russia?
I'm aware that there's a bit of a history there.
Like, I'm aware, like, there's a history.
But Tucker Carlson has even said this, and I think he's right.
I think it'd be naive to just think that it's all just going to be swept under the rug and that this will happen tomorrow.
But long term, so I'm not saying tomorrow.
But long term, yeah, I would like to see Russia be a little bit more welcomed by the Christian West.
They are Christian brothers.
They also have fairly similar natural descent in terms of speaking of nations, nationhood, and ancestry.
So there's a similar ancestry, there's a similar religion, devotion to the triune God, the Trinity.
Their army recruits.
Army ads at the Bible for Russia and for God, yeah.
Like, why did you join?
So, I understand that it's probably not going to happen tomorrow.
The cold war was not great, it was cold, it lasted, it was cold, you know.
So, there's a lot of loving tenderness that is not currently there.
Uh, but one day I would like to see that uh, restored, yep.
Um, okay, all right, Javier Flores, thanks very much.
Um, he said $50 is very generous.
He says, make sure you check on your dispy friends today.
Um, enjoyed spending this last Lord's Day with you guys from San Antonio, and yep, Javier, I.
I do remember chatting with you.
It was great to meet you and your family and talk to you guys for a little bit.
Nationalistic Appeal00:14:49
Awesome.
All right.
Caleb Visser, super chat, Canadian $20.
I don't know if that's more than 10 US dollars.
It's Canadian?
If it's Canadian, it's less.
I have to say, it's probably about $1.50.
It's still probably more than $10 from CoolD.
It's more than $10.
Yeah.
All right.
Caleb says this Thank you, Caleb.
Hey, guys.
Great show.
I'm wondering what your advice would be on moving to the USA.
I currently live in Canada.
My wife is American, but I grew up in Canada.
We have a great reformed church to be attended.
Your ministry has impacted.
He followed on.
We are looking to move to Tennessee or Ohio, Middleton and Drayton area.
Your ministry has been a big impact on my life and how I am a father and a husband.
For one, that's super encouraging to hear.
We have a number, I think I can say it this simply we have a number of families in our church from Canada.
And they would all say it's one of the best decisions that they ever made.
They left during the height of COVID, so things are a little bit worse.
And they've gotten their green cards.
They've gotten their green cards quickly, rather quickly.
Yeah, honestly, like I would have to think behind the scenes, our foreign policy is more favorable to green cards.
Yeah, I think it's Canada that's because of the Trump administration because they were here before Trump won.
Yeah, and there was not a lot of traction.
No, but when the administration changed, and I don't think it's just because, you know, Trump is going to let anybody come, but I think he's saying, oh, well, these are Canadians, and that's different than third world.
Did you see the video today where this Canadian lady was proposing that Canadians need to start applying for refugee status in the US?
Yeah, I would support it.
And when we say, like, There's a lot of families who have made the decision.
It's been a good decision.
They would do it again in a heartbeat if they could.
There is absolutely some loss there.
So there is a real sense in which I'm leaving the land of my fathers, but it has been destroyed by wicked people.
So this is how you'll move American citizenship, it sounds like.
Yep.
And that actually makes it easier.
He said, My wife's American, but she grew up in Canada.
That helps tremendously.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yeah.
But even there, you're going back to your wife's homeland.
Maybe you have family.
Like it is still a sad thing.
Yeah, you're going to be sad.
There won't be loss.
But to say that one of the spouses, half, Of your children's ancestry is rooted and citizens in America.
To me, that pushes it.
If it was a question, that for me would push it over the edge to like, let's work in that direction and God will decide by way of product.
Practically, the demographics of how much immigration Canada has allowed over the last five years, I think that's why I would say you should, because that does not just get reversed tomorrow.
There's a revival.
Hey, things are on the up and up again.
This is going to be a battle probably generations long.
I don't know if it does.
Yeah.
Come on, guys.
You got to look more on the bright side than that.
You can do a lot of things, believe it or not.
You blackmail us with your AI app.
Episode.
I think that was a black pain episode when you have the will to do it.
So I was as negative as Wes on that one.
Yeah, I was feeling discouraged.
All right, this is Dapper Dan.
Michael, you want to read it?
Yeah, thanks, Dapper.
Although we have a few at the top.
So, Nate, after this one, let's go back up to the top.
How do we lead fellow evangelicals away from this mindless support of Israel, claiming it's from some divine mandate?
This is tricky.
You likely are not going to win with a well written five page essay.
Yep.
I would say if they are Christians of goodwill and intellectual honesty, having them read some of the things that I know has been effective in some of my circles has been just exposing them to, first of all, the idea that the Christian faith is much older than just the 1800s.
Yes.
And that a lot of the views about a lot of things, and a lot of people came into Calvinism or Calvinistic soteriology with a similar, oh, this is not what the church has always taught about these things.
And so I almost think it's not so much about.
Israel off the bat.
It is that there is a much deeper, much, really the last, what, 200 years have been an outlier in a lot of ways in Christian doctrine.
And starting there might be a good approach, I would say.
And then the other, I hesitate to say this because it can red pill people real quick and lead them to like really being very, very angry in a not helpful way.
But just if they can start seeing some of the damage that our alliance to Israel has caused.
Just in a nationalistic, like loving your own country first, that might be an appeal.
So, those would be the two things that I would say.
I agree.
Yep.
This is from Cool Dude.
He gave us $10.
Thanks, Cool Dude.
I think we, I'm pretty sure I met him also at the conference.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Was he cool?
Oh, yeah.
He was the coolest person I've ever met.
So, he said, Tucker has been going hard against the warmongers.
Much respect to him.
Great show as always.
Right response ministries.
Thank you.
We appreciate it.
And you're right.
I think that Tucker has.
We don't agree with everything, but I think Tucker, in terms of like mainstream that size platform, he's probably one of the best at that level.
And he has done a great job of just taking the neocons to task and saying, Stop it.
Like, seriously, you're in the Senate drooling on the floor, salivating over the war in the Middle East.
You know, you got an Israel flag outside your office, Senator Rick Scott.
Yeah, like show some dignity, have some self respect.
Tucker's also someone who has.
You know, admitted, hey, I drank the Kool Aid with Bush and the WMDs.
He did a good job kind of owning his mistakes.
That always speaks a lot to me when someone says, I didn't always hold this view.
I was wrong.
Cool dude had a follow up.
So let's hit that one.
Okay.
Do you guys think if the U.S. gets dragged into this debacle, seems likely it will become a massive war against Iran or maybe just some surgical strikes?
Both are bad, but the former is much worse.
I'm going to go with the nothing ever happens bros on this one.
I'm all in.
Actually, I really am.
I think, especially even with that post that Wes.
Read, it was breaking, and Cool Dude might have asked this question before I read that on the stream.
But I don't think we're going to get involved.
Praise God.
I mean, maybe we do, but I actually think that I just think that you will blink and we'll be at the midterms.
And so I think both economically, in terms of terrorists, and then also passing this bill, you know, and getting some deportations and then also staying out of a war are all in the best interest of Republicans right now.
Yep.
I definitely agree.
That was one of the brilliant things.
I was deployed in the Middle East in 2016, and that was when ISIS was a huge force, but we always avoided the direct confrontation because all that does is.
Engender more opposition, and so again and again, we carried out surgical strikes which demoralized, and eventually it literally worked.
You don't hear about ISIS anymore.
And so, in the same way, if we were to get involved, Lord willing, I strongly don't think, um, it's I'm strongly opinionated, I don't think we would put boots in the ground.
I don't think people are tired of that.
I think we're not going to see an Iraq level invasion.
Real quick, Nathan, go to Jesse.
Uh, you were on it, Jesse S.
He said, I just thought it was funny.
He said, Write response ministries.
I wonder if New Christendom Press will post your talk from their conference.
It was based, but if they post it, it will certainly shadow ban their channel.
I think that that's probably true.
Probably.
I just had to read it live on the air because if nothing else, it'll pique some interest.
You know, and everybody listening will be like, what did he say?
I want to check it out.
All right.
So this is the last one now, I believe.
Right, Nathan?
Last one, Pierre?
Yep.
All right.
Pierre Vargas.
His question is a good one.
Simple, but good.
He said, I have noticed you, probably predominantly me and probably also Wes and probably less Michael, but you collectively in some sense.
Y'all.
It's the plural you.
So I've noticed you guys, that's how the Californians would say it, talk to you.
No, they would say folks, by the way.
California would say folks?
Guys is sexist.
Oh, you're right.
Yeah, you're right.
So I've noticed y'all talk here frequently about monarchy not being a bad thing as opposed to democracy.
And I appreciate that point.
That is a lot of our, we're saying monarchy comparatively to what we currently have right now.
Which is supposed to be a constitutional republic, but in terms of how we actually function, is basically a mob rule, raw democracy with elements of oligarchy.
That's what I was saying.
Because we've given a vote to everyone.
Because of universal suffrage.
To women, to like, there's nothing that could disqualify you from voting.
Correct.
We've given a vote to everyone, but we know that figures like Taylor Swift will control like 15% of the population.
And that's the oligarchy piece.
And our founders actually said that.
Aristotle even said that.
They said if you have a democracy that embraces universal suffrage, so everybody has a vote and they all have an equal vote.
Then it does not take long.
So, first it's the people, then it's the oligarchs, the elites that become oligarchs.
It will not take long for the people to realize that they can vote for stuff.
They can vote their way into cash, into benefits, into stipends, into this, into that, universal health care, universal income, you know, like whatever.
So, as soon as you devolve from a republic, representative government, all the way down, even to the level of the household, to just a raw democracy with universal suffrage, everybody gets a vote, it does not take long for them to realize they can vote their way into stuff.
And as soon as they start voting their way into stuff, then the elites come in with promises of stuff.
And that's where you get an oligarchy.
So I appreciate Pierre Vargas recognizing that it's not just a in a vacuum conversation that we're having and saying that all things being equal in every scenario, at all times, no matter the country, no matter the place, no matter the people, monarchy is the quintessential God's desire.
That's not our position.
I think I can speak for.
Definitely myself.
I think, Wes, I think, Michael, you feel free to correct me if you nuance it a little bit differently.
But my position is I don't believe that the Bible, I believe the Bible gives us principles, moral principles of justice, and that we can derive a judicial code in terms of our laws.
However, I do not believe that the Bible explicitly prescribes a form of government.
And so I believe forms of government should be fitting to the people.
Now, all that within reason, I'll give that disclaimer.
So I do think that there are some forms of government.
Like communism, for instance, that I think actually go against clear, explicit scriptural principles.
So there's never a case where it's like, well, the people at this particular time just really need communism.
No, the people never need communism.
And so I feel like I can go on record saying that.
But in terms of constitutional republic versus an aristocracy, I don't feel like, well, the Bible mandates constitutional republic.
And it's Exodus 18.
That's what Exodus 18 was all about.
A constitutional, Exodus 18, you know, corporate needs you to tell the difference between these two pictures.
Here's the Constitution, the US Constitution.
Here's Exodus 18.
It's the same picture.
I don't think so.
I don't buy it.
I think that's an autistic, wooden version of theonomy that I think is too stringent and is far fetched.
So, that being said, I think forms of government should follow the people.
And currently, when I look at it, and this is what our founder said, right?
John Adams, you know, that this constitutional republic is only suitable to a religious and morally upright people.
I don't think we have those people.
Even Benjamin Franklin, what did you give us, Franklin Republic, if you can keep it?
Well, the verdicts come back in.
We did not keep it.
And I think that we're currently not suitable for it.
So then I'm going to be looking at what other forms of government are within the bounds of biblical permissibility, right?
So communism is out, but there's a few other ones I think that are on the table.
And I'm looking at, okay, what kind of people do we have?
Oh, well, we have a bunch of degenerate people, heritage Americans that are degenerate.
And then A ton of foreigners.
And so for me right now, monarchy looks a little good.
So I'm not seeing monarchy in all places in all times.
And just for the record, it was like, but the principle, maybe not constitutional republic, Joel, but representative government, I think that that is a biblical principle.
And I would say, I agree.
I need you now to convince me or show me, prove to me, how monarchy somehow gets rid of any possibility of any form of representative government.
You can have, in addition to monarchy, a parliament, or you can have lords that are representative.
Of their vassals and report to the king, but also represent their people.
There are ways of doing representative government within a monarchy framework.
A republic is not the only method of having the representative peace.
So, finally, finishing the question now.
So, I've noticed that you talk here frequently about monarchy not being a bad thing as compared to democracy.
The difference between striving for that now versus.
So, now he's asking, but what's the difference?
All right.
If you're saying that the monarchy democracy, sure, go ahead.
The title on a lot of these can often be very superfluous.
Right now, Charles III is the king of England.
The dude probably does not have the authority to change the toilet paper in the bathroom from two ply to three ply.
That's right.
President Bucheli in El Salvador is an authoritarian tyrant.
That dude's a king.
Who his people love.
Like, why are people saying right now, all the libs, what's their campaign right now?
Right.
No king.
No kings.
Well, we don't have a king, but they're saying Trump is behaving like one.
And I'm saying, Lord, make Trump the man, half the man, that my enemies don't live.
Let him put a crown on his own libs.
Right.
But that's a great point.
But practically, so like the United States, I don't think we will ever have, and this is so and so, the king of the United States.
But what I would most certainly advocate for is that the executive branch, and this is certainly somewhat of how it's understood to be, has the strength to do what needs to be done.
And the fundamental problem.
We would say that the Constitution, we wouldn't even have to change it.
The Constitution historically does actually afford the executive branch.
Incredible powers, yeah.
Like, so when people say this is unconstitutional, I'll tell you what's unconstitutional random local judges, yeah, being able to thwart, right?
Um, the president of the United States, uh, when it comes to a full scale invasion of foreigners at our southern border, that's actually unconstitutional.
Suspicion of Monarchy00:11:11
The system got you to where it is now, right?
Of what use was the system?
That's what I would kind of say.
What use was the rule, yeah.
And all that being said, the point is you have to have a branch of the government, whether you call him the monarch, you call him a president, you call him prime minister.
That is strong enough to do what needs to be done.
That he has the actual authority to leverage your taxes, the actual authority to spend money, to shore up the military, to declare war, such that the people can say whether they elect him, whether he inherits power, that the right thing can be done.
Because practically, what happens then is it'll restrict, for example, Trump's first term.
He wants to do this.
He wants the deportations.
Can't get them done because the people elected retarded representatives.
Then Joe Biden gets into office and did he let any of that stop him?
No.
No, sir.
So practically, whatever you call it, We're saying, are you vesting a lot of power in one person or are you distributing tiny amounts of power in a managerial class demographically?
Many of them you didn't even elect.
They're three letter agents.
Well, because we have the fourth branch of government, which is now the most powerful, which is the bureaucracy.
Right.
And Michael, when you said, yeah, I agree with you on that.
I think I know what you're getting at.
And I know what you're getting at, too, Wes.
But if the system brought you here, then of what use was the system?
And I would actually, on this part, I'll be a little bit of a lib here, but I would argue that it was us.
Shirking the system that brought us here.
Because when, like, I read, you know, even in my New Christendom talk at the conference, some of the quotes from the founders, like George Washington, where he, like, even commandeered, you know, private property.
Right.
And the quote from, I think it's Jefferson, where he talks about meticulous, or he uses the word scrupulous observance to the written law or letter of the law at the point where it absolves and actually counteracts the spirit of the law, the purpose of the law in the first place.
Is actually not American.
That's actually not what our founders envisioned.
And so I would say that, like, the original system, the original constitution, actually does afford to the executive branch kingly powers.
Certainly more power than a current king, like King Charles, who can't even change the ply on the toilet paper.
And I would just say the counter to the counter.
I think monarchy would have gotten us a good 200 years, too.
So the Constitutional Republic, for sure, in God's grace, because the caliber people gave us an incredible, I mean, 97% of America was Christian in 1900.
So, you've got 200 years that way.
That's technically like 125.
But I think you get that same amount with the monarch or the constitutional republic because of the caliber of the people.
The caliber of the people is huge.
I would just say, you know, I think Washington could have become a king.
I think they would have made him a king.
I think he could have established a royal line.
And at that point, there was no constitutional amendment on the number of presidential terms.
I will concede that the American Revolution was not primarily against the idea of a monarchy.
It was against the fact that we have no representation for the king.
Now, what we did and what Washington left behind was very like right there at the beginning, they said, we're not going to be a monarchy.
So I think, I think there's something in the American spirit that is suspicious of monarchy.
But I will a hundred percent agree.
Here I can find common ground that the executive power needs to somehow be, and you say you'd be given back.
That's never going to happen.
But the executive has power to do the things that it needs to do.
And, and really one of the things that.
Somehow, we need to get around.
We've done a whole episode on this Marbury versus Madison, which established the concept of judicial review.
Because while maybe good for really big-level things, I would argue maybe it wasn't.
But now that's why we get DC court judges who feel like they can countermand the president's orders.
And so to the people who want a monarchy, I sympathize with the desire.
I would just say, I think it would be more work.
To get to a monarchy than to restore the power that the executive branch ought to have.
Yep.
Okay.
So let me finish the question.
And I think we got one more super chat that just came in.
So I've noticed you talk a lot about, you know, maybe monarchy being better as opposed to democracy.
But what's the difference?
If that's your position, here's the follow up the question What's the difference between striving for a monarchy now versus the Israelites back in the day wanting a king?
Right?
Give us a king.
Give us a king.
And you know, the Bible's pretty clear on that point that that was not a good desire.
I would say the key difference is this, Pierre.
In Israel's case, when they were asking Samuel, they were asking the Lord through Samuel to give them a point for them a king, they were not currently in a democracy.
So they were not saying, We currently have a democracy, but we'd like a king.
And then God speaks through Samuel and gives this answer I'll give you a king, but let it be written down on record that this was a bad decision to ask for a king because what you currently had, aka democracy, Is morally superior to a monarchy.
That's not the lay of the land.
When Israel is asking for a king, what they're actually moving away from is being ruled in multiple facets.
But one of them is that God was actually ruling by divine fiat through the prophet Samuel speaking to Israel.
So notice what God says specifically through Samuel as a response to Israel when they ask for a king.
Is he says, he doesn't say, I'm heartbroken because you've rejected our sacred democracy for a monarchy.
No, he says, I'm heartbroken because you've rejected monarchy for monarchy.
But which kind?
You've rejected monarchy with me as king for a human king.
I'm your king.
So God doesn't say, I'm sad because you're choosing monarchy over democracy.
They already had monarchy.
But who was the king?
It was God speaking through his vassal, Samuel, the prophet.
And the people are saying, We'd rather have a human king.
And they even tell God why.
They say, so that we might be like all the other nations.
So they're saying, we already have a king and we know it.
We have a monarchy, we have a king, and the king is the Lord.
But we want an inferior king simply so that we can be like all these other surrounding pagan nations.
That's what God doesn't like.
Yeah.
But to use that text to say, monarchy is always, that's a poor use of the term.
I've looked into that text some, and it seems pretty likely that.
Because one of the main characteristics of a king back then was raising an army, conquering, defending.
And so, really, what they're saying largely is we are tired of being afraid of instability.
We are tired of relying on you, God, to defend us for our enemies.
And so, it's not just the who's going to, like, is it Samuel who's going to be giving us the divine law or is it some king?
No, it's we don't trust you, God.
We don't trust that you have our best interest at heart and will protect us if we follow you.
And really, what it is, is the way of getting out from having to follow God.
We will be able to defend ourselves from foreign enemies because God said, if we don't follow him, Foreign enemies are going to come and capture us.
But if we get a king, then we can stop following God, but we can still have an army to defend ourselves.
Yeah, we can eat our cake and have it too.
We can have the idolatry and the protection.
You're right.
The last thing to point out there, because people will bring it up, is in the law, it does talk about the king writing a copy of the law, right?
And so it does seem that in God's mind, at some point, he did intend to give Israel a king.
I think so.
And probably, you know, the Messiah, the king, the prophet, priest, and king.
That would have been.
The idea.
So God Himself indicates that His people would be ruled by a king one day.
Yep.
Yep.
Okay, let's go down to the bottom.
I think we have one more super chat.
There it is.
So this is from Enigmandius.
Is that how you say it?
I think so.
Enigmandius.
Okay, super chat, $10 and these are US dollars, right?
So they're a little worthless, but not nearly as worthless as Canadian dollars.
Okay, word.
He says, or she says, I'm not quite sure.
Uh, thank you for your Christian service to our people.
In your opinion, uh, our people, I think in this case, is talking about fellow Christians, but also Americans.
Um, in your opinion, how likely is it that American men are drafted to go to war in Israel?
No American should die to defend the star of Rephim.
And we would say yes and amen a thousand times.
And this probably came in before we already started addressing some of these things, but just in case you missed it, uh, Enigmandius, um, we don't know, we don't have a crystal ball, we're not going to pretend omniscience, but if we had to bet, um, By the grace of God and the grace of God alone, we would say it seems unlikely, especially with the report from the Trump administration that just happened, you know, 30 minutes ago, a half an hour ago or so.
I really don't think anyone in America wants boots on the ground.
And I think that Trump, like we established earlier, we were pre recording something for later on, and we said that Trump, for better or for worse, actually does kind of listen.
And he is a populist figure who listens to the people.
And And I think the overarching consensus right now from Americans is no more endless wars in the Middle East.
Sometimes people ask me, did the post war consensus give us anything good?
And I do think it did give us one good thing, and that's never again, not to the other things, but never again will we just slaughter millions of people, really over not that much territorial feuds.
So I think there is a sense of like we are disgusted by war and disgusted by violence and a huge aversion, especially to a draft, to getting involved.
Unnecessarily, I mean, like World War One sparked over less than this assassinations, you know, conflicts, troops on the ground.
A whole world war sparked over less than there was a very cavalier attitude towards war.
Yep, then is, I think, what you're saying.
Yep, exactly.
And I think we got that out of our system.
Praise God.
Okay, well, thanks for tuning in.
This has been, uh, I think a great episode and hopefully, if we do say so ourselves, yeah, we do say so ourselves.
Uh, I think informative, um, you know, there's theological pieces, but there was also, I think, a lot of good geopolitical and some breaking news moments, you know, and graphs and the whole nine yards.
So, hopefully.
If you've kind of been in the dark and didn't really understand what happened on Friday, where Israel attacked Iran, hopefully at this point you feel like, all right, I know what's going on and I'm ready to argue with my dispensationalist grandma.