America the What?

[0:00] anniversary of the terrorist attack on America in 2001. I felt it the better part of wisdom to commemorate that and to remember that event.

[0:16] So we are temporarily interrupting the regular study that we have been engaged in, for which I promised you a Q&A in connection with that today.

[0:28] But we will still have a Q&A, except it will be in connection with the material we're going to be presenting now. So if you have comments or questions that you would like to add to what I share with you, then feel free to do so. You'll be given an opportunity.

[0:46] I have but one verse of Scripture for a Scripture reading, and it comes from Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 34.

[0:58] Which reads as follows, Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

[1:09] Today, September 11 marks the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attack by Muslim radicals that took nearly 3,000 innocent American lives.

[1:24] But in the eyes of those who killed them, the 3,000 were not innocent at all. They were viewed as guilty by the perpetrators.

[1:37] Guilty of not being Muslims. Guilty of not embracing Islam and the Koran. In their eyes, any non-Muslim or infidel is fair game for doing away with.

[1:54] Americans have been targeted by Muslims since the early 1800s, when the then newly founded United States Marine Corps had to battle the Islamic Barbary Coast pirates on the shores of Tripoli in Libya.

[2:13] Marines to this day remember that history when the Marine Corps hymn is sung and includes the phrase, From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, we will fight our nation's battles on the land and on the sea.

[2:32] The Marines and other U.S. forces are still fighting Islamic radicals on land and sea. But it has only been for about the past 40 or 50 years that radical Islamists have greatly stepped up their attacks, not only on Americans, but often upon other countries in the Western world as well.

[3:00] Why is this? What has provided the impetus for their hostility against the West? The question, as we mentioned earlier, has been oft repeated.

[3:13] What did we do to deserve this? What makes them hate us so much that they would be willing to give their own lives in suicide just in order to kill Americans?

[3:26] There are two major reasons, two realities that have driven radical Islamists, driven some, even to the extent of suicide, to carry out their mission.

[3:41] First, Muslims who take the Koran seriously know it teaches that Muslims have a sacred responsibility, according to the Koran, to make the entire world an Islamic world that worships Allah and follows the dictates of the Koran.

[4:05] Most Muslims have, for centuries, only half-heartedly taken this teaching to actually mean what it said. Many Muslims have adopted, and many still do, a live-and-let-live policy as regards non-Muslims in the rest of the world.

[4:26] Most Muslims would never have considered flying a plane into the World Trade Center or anywhere else in a self-destructive way so as to kill many non-Muslims.

[4:38] Yet, there is that element that has been successfully preaching this very thing. They are the Muslim imams or Muslim clerics who preach fiery rhetoric against all infidels, that is, against all non-Muslims.

[5:00] They seek to recruit others and have succeeded in radicalizing moderate Muslims to their views. We all know how they have used the Internet and the teachings in their mosques right here in the USA urging their people to act aggressively toward infidels and kill as many as they can.

[5:24] Of course, not all mosques are like that, but there are radical mosques that are, and in those so-called moderate mosques, there are radicals very well positioned sometimes who seek to infiltrate the standard run-of-the-mill Muslims and radicalize them, and many have been successful in doing that.

[5:50] This was the basis for the army doctor gunning down fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in Texas, as well as the couple who murdered so many in the gay bar in San Bernardino and radicals did likewise in Paris, France recently.

[6:08] These all had absorbed the radical teachings of the militant imams. The Koran makes it clear that Islam is to conquer the entire world, and Muslims who are faithful and truly dedicated to the Koran and Allah will set about making that happen however they can.

[6:33] They are to do this by conversion, by teaching, by preaching, by trying to convince non-Muslims of the value of Islam, and for those who cannot be convinced or will not be convinced, they are to engage in terrorizing infidels and intimidate them into submission and into converting to Islam in order to avoid death.

[7:04] examples are to be made of those who are unwilling to convert by publicizing their executions through beheadings, crucifixion, or other forms of execution.

[7:18] This constitutes the ideological basis for the war of Islam against the infidel world, particularly the United States and Europe.

[7:31] Many do not realize it, many Christians do not realize that God's ultimate goal is for the kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God to come to this earth wherein Jesus Christ will personally establish his throne and his kingdom in Jerusalem and rule and reign from there during that millennial period of 1,000 years.

[7:54] Scriptures make that very, very clear. This is what God has in mind and this is where this world is headed. There is a counterpart to that in Islam. Islamists believe and the Quran teaches that the whole world is going to one day succumb to Islam and that Muhammad will be the prophet and that the 12th Imam who is like a counterpart to the Christian Messiah or the Christian Christ will rule and reign and the entire world will be under the dominion of Islam.

[8:27] So there is a kind of counterpart to the Christian idea. However, the greatest difference is and it is a very significant difference is that Christians who are seeking to Christianize people through winning them to faith in Jesus Christ we do so through preaching, through teaching, through beseeching, through imploring, always keeping in mind that the individual target who is not a believer has a personal volition which must be honored.

[9:10] That means Christians are not able or should not be able and should never consider trying to make anyone convert to Christianity out of force, threat, intimidation, or anything else.

[9:25] We must respect the freedom of the individual conscience even though we may not agree with it. So, we are limited in our efforts to simply inviting people to put their faith and trust in the Savior Jesus Christ.

[9:42] We are not permitted to engage in arm twisting, intimidation, or force of any kind. We must recognize the free will and volition that God has given to individuals because that individual is going to be responsible for it.

[9:58] It is not so with Islam. Islam and the Quran does not recognize the validity of the freedom of the individual conscience.

[10:10] They are within their perfect right in accordance with the Quran to force anyone who will not come compliantly to Islam to force them to submit to Islam.

[10:26] And, of course, part of the rationale is they are only doing it for their own good. When it comes to the issue of evangelization, the Muslims have their evangelists as well.

[10:45] And they are all over the internet and they are promoting the benefits, etc., of Islam and trying to win recruits.

[10:56] And, to a certain degree, they have been very successful. Matter of fact, one wonders if they have not been more successful with their methodology of bringing people into the folds of Islam than what Christians have been on the internet, bringing people into the folds of Christianity.

[11:14] Christianity. That's something perhaps that only time will tell. However, there is yet something else that fuels their hatred of the United States and the Western world.

[11:26] And this is something that all too many Americans do not understand. Probably, our own government doesn't understand it. we, as Americans and as people who live in what we would refer to as the Western world, thinking in terms of the U.S.

[11:47] and Canada and Western Europe, we constitute an actual threat to the Islamic way of life. Now, I know this is a difficult concept for a lot of Americans to consider because the tendency would be to say, who, us?

[12:10] You've got to be kidding. We haven't bombed any of their villages. We haven't done anything like that. Why would they, how do we, we constitute a threat to their way of life?

[12:23] I don't get it. How can that be? It has become possible because of a shrinking world and the explosion in communications.

[12:38] There was a time when America and the rest of the world, I guess we could say the old world in particular, thinking primarily of Europe and East Asia, were separated by two automatic formidable barriers.

[12:57] The barriers were a vast ocean on our east coast coast, and another ocean on our west coast. But these no longer constitute the formable barriers they once did.

[13:12] Both our new world, so-called, and the old worlds of Europe and Asia are now intimately connected, especially by instant communications.

[13:24] Both can now freely and immediately export and import our respective ideologies, values, and cultural differences.

[13:36] America has been more prolific in doing this than has any other nation. While there has been give and take among all nations with satellites, the internet, and other vehicles of communication, America has been a sender more than a receiver.

[14:00] American ideology and values that make up our culture have been effectively exported worldwide. Much of this has to do with increasing American markets for everything abroad.

[14:16] So, to a certain extent, this has been economically fueled by business interests. Included in all of those nations of receivers of what America has been sending are countries dominated by Islam.

[14:34] And when these, in particular, Islamic nations, see American ideals and values displayed in their own living rooms, they constitute a viable threat among the Muslims.

[14:51] And the threat is their temptation to adopt American or Western values as their own. And therein lies the problem.

[15:04] American television, and all that accompanies it, was making a very real impression upon Islamic people, even to the extent of their wearing Western fashions and embracing the morals and attitudes consistently reflected on American television.

[15:25] Especially, especially, especially, the role of women as was being played out on American television.

[15:42] Some are probably thinking, well, what does that have to do with anything? The answer is, everything. The women's liberation movement in America and its effects terrifies the Muslim leadership like nothing else.

[16:08] I thought, how ironic. we think of jetliners fully loaded with a supply of fuel flying into the world trade system and the Pentagon, that field in Pennsylvania.

[16:27] We think of those as being acts of terror that have been committed against the United States. But who in the world would have ever imagined that women's liberationists constitute a terrorist threat to Islamic nations?

[16:50] How can that be? It's very real, I assure you. The way the role of women is played out on American television and in our culture constituted an immediate clash between the deeply entrenched way the Muslim world views women as opposed to the way the American world was portraying women.

[17:21] That women's liberation movement and its effects terrifies the Muslim leadership like nothing else. In this, they feel profoundly threatened.

[17:33] And it's all the fault of the great Satan, men, the U.S. of A. Under Islam, women are relegated to a definitely inferior status, far from what anyone would call equal.

[17:51] Muslim women as taught from earliest childhood that their main objective in life is to please their husband, have babies, and keep your husband happy.

[18:05] And, if your husband wishes, you may have up to three other women to help you do that. All are also wives of your husband, if he so desires to have four wives.

[18:20] This is an Islamic tradition embedded in Islam since the eighth century. this represents the heartbeat, the very core of Islamic life.

[18:38] And Americans have little or no appreciation for that at all. You have heard me say, in times past and I still believe it, that the women's liberation movement has done an enormous disservice to our whole culture.

[18:54] but there is no one to blame for that but men. It is the masculine component of the United States of America that has been largely responsible for the existence and the activities of the women's liberation movement.

[19:20] And that was due to the fact that for so long men in this country have treated women so shabbily, so unfairly, that they brought the liberation movement on themselves.

[19:37] It simply took a handful of spunky women to get up the nerve and say we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore. And the women's liberation movement was founded.

[19:50] Objective might have been good but like every corrective, it tends to fly six miles past the objective. And of course, it's gone to extremes and it has done a lot of damage.

[20:02] I don't know if it can be undone or not. Women have been treated as second-class citizens in this nation for a long time and you realize that up until the early 1900s, women weren't even allowed to vote?

[20:16] Where's the equality in that? Of course, there isn't any. And finally, as I said, it simply took enough time and enough women to really get up ahead of steam and say, we're going to fight this thing.

[20:29] I don't know what in the world burning bras had to do with it, but that was part of the deal. And they did everything they could to show their displeasure against masculinity.

[20:41] And they used to say things like, a woman needs a man, like, what was it, a chicken needs a bicycle, or something like that. And the idea is it's a women's liberation, it's a women's independent thing.

[20:53] And a lot of this came into focus during World War II with women working in the defense forces and defense factories, because so many men were in uniform and off fighting the war, and women were pulled into the workplace, and they did an absolutely incredible job.

[21:18] They kept this nation afloat, and they provided war materials, the likes of which we could have never done without, and never would have won the war without. So, what was her name, Susie the Riveter, or Rosie, yeah, Rosie the Riveter.

[21:34] Rosie the Riveter came to our rescue, and I tell you, in more ways than one, she was the salvation of this nation, but Rosie the Riveter tasted a degree of independence that women were not accustomed to having.

[21:50] And you know, I can remember, when I was a kid growing up, a woman had about three options for her occupation. She could be a nurse, she could be a secretary, or she could be a teacher.

[22:03] And that was about it. You know, I mean, women just did not apply and were not utilized in other fields. Of course, there were exceptions, but by and large, those were the areas and women weren't all that welcome in other areas.

[22:17] And truth be told, probably many of them were considered to be incapable. But we all know that femininity has demonstrated over the past few decades that they have equal degrees of competence and ability, so they don't have the upper body strength that males have.

[22:40] But that's about the only way in which there is any inequity. And someone has said that a woman is inferior to a man in the same way that a string of pearls is inferior to an iron chain.

[23:00] That says it pretty well. So femininity has pretty much come into its own, but has also shot about six miles past the moon in over correction. And when people in Islamic countries who are in positions of authority see the gains and the activities of modern women now in the western world, it really scares them.

[23:30] It scares them because they may be facing unrest among the feminine portion in their countries. And women in these Muslim countries may get up ahead of steam and be difficult and hard to manage and cause unrest in the family and strive for equality and all the rest of it.

[23:52] And you know as well as I that there are certain Muslim countries where a woman, just because she's a woman, not even allowed to drive an automobile. And all other kinds of ways are imposed upon her that make her realize that she is definitely a second class citizen.

[24:12] And listen, here's where this thing really starts. It starts in a teaching in the Islamic families when these women are but tiny little girls growing up.

[24:25] They are brainwashed from the outset that they are to be subservient to males in every way that they have no rights. A Muslim woman, she cannot divorce her husband.

[24:38] He can beat her. He can thrash her within an inch of her life. And there is no court that is going. In fact, the Koran even encourages that. And there is no court in Islamic court, Sharia law, that will find the man guilty of that or sentence him.

[24:56] It just does not happen. And a woman's word in court is not as valid as a man's in Islamic countries. All kinds of inequities are just incredible.

[25:08] And yet, as these women who have been taught from childhood what their role is to be in society and how they are to stay in their place, which is inferior to the males, they keep getting this input from these other countries through the television programs and through the internet and all of this stuff.

[25:27] You think they are going to start looking at things and say, why can't we do that? Why do we have to live this way? Look at how these women do. They even wear Levi jeans.

[25:41] Why can't we do that? Why do we have to wear these burkas? Why do we have to keep our faces covered? Why do we have to keep our hair covered? This is, I'll tell you why. Because it's been that way since the 8th century A.D.

[25:55] It's been that way for 1200 years. It has been a totally paternalistic culture and society where nobody's view counts unless you are a male.

[26:13] That's the way it is. Now when they get all of this stuff from the USA and other western countries exported into Islam, you better believe it is a threat to their way of life.

[26:27] And the World Trade Centers is just one way of their retaliating. Fight back is what they're doing.

[26:46] Try to destroy the great Satan to please Allah and preserve the Islamic way of life. because the Islamic way of life is the way that they are deeply entrenched in and insist on maintaining.

[27:01] They don't want to be dragged into the 21st century. They don't want modern culture. They want their way. And what we've got is a clash between the East and the West.

[27:17] And there is a war going on. We call it the war of terrorism. It's taking place right now in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and pockets of it in other parts of the world, particularly in North Africa.

[27:30] And there's no reason to believe it is going to subside as long as they consider this threat. And by the way, how many American women are willing to say, oh, gee, we didn't realize that we were such an offense to these countries.

[27:44] We're going to pull back and let's see if we can't reduce femininity back to what it was in 1900. how likely is that to happen? Not very, nor should it.

[27:58] But apparently that's what it would take to please these people, if that. Question is, will they be able to overcome the USA whom they consider to be the great Satan?

[28:18] well, they're working on it. And you know something? Something that disturbs me as an American a whole lot more than the Islamic efforts to terrorize the United States, something that disturbs me even more than that, is the way our nation seems bent on finding ways to help them.

[28:52] That is completely perplexing. We just seem bent on trying to find ways to make ourselves a more susceptible target and to enable them to carry it out.

[29:07] here's where we are. Over the past 20, 30 years, we have been a nation that is in decline morally and spiritually.

[29:30] And yes, insofar as our status is concerned worldwide, we've been in decline also. we have been weakening ourselves.

[29:43] We have been making ourselves more vulnerable by our culture and our behavior within this culture. The moral spiritual decline has taken a toll.

[29:58] And it is only an informed and spiritually morally healthy Christian community that can serve as a great deterrent and defense against the threat of Islamic terrorism.

[30:13] And I'm not at all sure that we have that anymore. We were talking about this in the nine o'clock class this morning. For the first time in the history of this nation, nation, and I'm talking about the first time since 1620 and the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock for the first time since then, we do not have a Christian consensus in this nation.

[30:42] and to say that the United States of America is a Christian nation is complete nonsense anyway, unless, of course, you want to define Christian with very loose general terms and include anyone who says, yes, I'm a Christian, or include anyone who shows up in church once every five years and calls himself a Christian or whatever, but I'm talking about a Christian consensus.

[31:08] And you know the big difference that separates us now from earlier is that there was a time, not too long ago, maybe no more than 20, 30 years ago, when those who constituted what we would call real biblical Christianity, not just church people, I'm not talking about churchianity, I'm talking about people who are born again and have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and are seeking to live for him, these people have always been in a distinct minority.

[31:46] We ought not to expect anything else, and I don't dispute that, and I think that's just human nature being the way it is, that's the way it is. But even those people who were not part of that solid Christian community, we would say were unbelievers on the outside, maybe moral people, maybe good, honest, decent people, but not in Christ, but even they were often eager to point their finger to the Christians and say, you know, that's the right way, there, those folks are right, I'm not, I don't consider myself one of them, I'm not, you know, but I believe they're right, I believe they've got the, that's a Christian consensus, so that even those who were not Christians basically and generally agreed with those who were and the principles that they held, no longer, that's not true anymore, no, and along with that, we've got a new category, previously, surveys would be taken and people would be asking questions like, please check one of these columns, are you

[33:00] Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, or other, and the other provided something for Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists to check, because they were in a real tiny minority in this country, now there has been a fourth category added, and it's called the nuns, the nuns, and I'm not talking about Roman Catholic sisters, spelled N-U-N, I'm talking about N-O-N-E, nuns, and you would be surprised how many people are checking that block, none, I'm not any of those, I am nothing, I am a nun, we've got an increasing supply of nuns, and along with that, we've got a surging religious pluralism that takes all of those others who are not nuns, and equates them, and puts them all in the same plane, and makes each and every one of them equally viable, equally right, and equally true, even though they are completely contradictory to each other, that makes no difference, they're all valid, and they're all the same, that's what religious pluralism does, and then you couple that with political correctness, and you know something,

[34:34] I'm surprised we're even still here, we've got a lot of things, a lot of things militating against us, a lot of things, and it's increasing, almost daily, and all too many Americans are completely oblivious to what's happening, some are so oblivious and so unknowing, they don't even bother to vote, they don't even register, much less vote, that's how out of it they are, and their excuse is, oh, I'm just so fed up with politics, I don't want anything to do it, and what they're doing is handing us over to the enemy, and they don't even know it, that's going on more and more with every election, if a solid

[35:36] Christian base is not in place for a number of Americans, and I'm talking about a greater number than we have now, we will be a pushover for Islam when it becomes more formidable here in the United States, we are now experiencing a huge decline in all things Christian, received one of the most sobering letters I've ever read, just a couple of days ago from Ken Ham, you probably got one too, many of you did, and it is stunning what is recorded in that, and it is not Ken Ham's opinion, it's just plain old facts that are happening right before our very eyes, we are now experiencing a huge decline in all things Christian, just look here, we've got a decline in interest, a decline in involvement, a decline in membership, a decline in attendance, and so does just about every other church and every other pastor I talk to, and about the only ones are thriving, are the ones that primarily play games and have a lot of hoopla and make sure that everybody has fun, and they've got a lot of people, but for the most part, churches like ours are dying out, some of the denominational churches, and I'm talking Lutheran,

[37:07] Methodist, Presbyterian, closed their buildings, merged with others because they don't have enough people in the congregation to pay for the utilities, Oakland Prez, Oakland Prez out on East High Street was within six months of celebrating their 100th anniversary, and closed their doors because the four or five widow women that they had left just couldn't keep up utilities anymore.

[37:37] It's a beautiful old church, a great history, back in the days when Presbyterians stood for something. Now, it's gone. It's gone.

[37:49] Several Methodists, Lutheran churches have merged or closed their doors because people just aren't supporting them.

[37:59] They aren't there anymore. And where they are, most of them are gray heads. Look around here. Look around here. We relish, we cherish every warm body that comes in here that's under 40 or 50 years of age because we're all growing older and maturing.

[38:19] And I can't tell you how many pastors I've talked to and they all seem to lament the same thing. There is a real lack of interested young people.

[38:30] And they are the church of tomorrow. So what's happening? What's going on? And what has taken place in Europe, in particular England, whom we usually follow about 50 years later.

[38:44] And it is incredible what's happening in Europe, what the church attendance is like. And beautiful, beautiful old cathedrals that might have taken 200 years to build are being converted into super mansions for the wealthy and others converted into business places and so on.

[39:08] people in a culture with no spiritual convictions have nothing to defend or fight for.

[39:25] Because so many are already in a state of what you could call neutrality. No convictions regarding any kind of religious thought.

[39:37] they're just kind of up in the air. They are the nuns. And they will be easy prey for an ideology to be forced upon them, especially when their life is at stake.

[39:52] While fending off Islam is no proper motivation for evangelism, it is true, nonetheless, that a solid and intelligent embrace of Christianity would have that consequential effect.

[40:07] But because the modern day brand of Christianity in the United States, as we now know it, is so weak, so anemic, so uncommitted, you would not find but a tiny percentage of those who call themselves Christians would be really ready and willing to stand up and be counted for that faith.

[40:33] Nuns have nothing to contend for. They'll just go whichever way the wind blows. all of the New Testament commends those who are believers in Jesus Christ to not only live the faith, but to contend for the faith.

[40:53] And we are to contend for the faith without being contentious or nasty or demanding, but we are nonetheless to stand for the faith and what we know to be true.

[41:09] There are fewer and fewer Americans who seem to be willing to do that. Well, I'm not finished, but I quit.

[41:23] So we'll use the last few moments for comments or questions that you may have, and you are perfectly welcome to agree, to disagree, or whatever.

[41:36] I'd like to hear from you. Anyone with comments or questions? Okay, right up here. Lois? How does the Bible speak to all of this?

[41:57] How does the Bible speak to all of this? Well, it speaks to it that Christians are to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

[42:08] that means that we are to defend the faith. We are to promote the faith. We are to preach the faith. We are to keep the faith. It speaks to all of these things, Old and New Testament.

[42:20] You know, error has always been around, and the nation of Israel had to contend with idolatry. In fact, so many times, as an entire nation, Israel itself, followers of the one true God, slipped into idolatry.

[42:38] And God would raise up prophets to warn them and call them back to himself. And these prophets were names you're familiar with. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and so on. And they all, John the Baptist, they all were men of God that were put on the scene to call the people out of darkness into light.

[42:58] And every one of them paid a significant price for doing so because people don't like to be told that they're wrong and that they need to change.

[43:09] You're suggesting I'm not okay as I am. I find that offensive. And you're just being judgmental. And that's the response that the prophets got. That's the response that a lot of us get today.

[43:24] And then for women starting out, there were six things that women could do besides the three you mentioned. Of course, the homemaker, the teacher, a waitress, a secretary, and prostitution one doctor told me was the oldest.

[43:44] Well, I remember David Ben-Gurion. I'll go get excommunicated. David Ben-Gurion, who was the first president of Israel, kind of like the George Washington of Israel, David Ben-Gurion.

[44:02] and he had Golda Meir, who eventually would become prime minister herself. And she was in his cabinet at the time.

[44:13] And he had a particularly ticklish and difficult situation diplomatically that he had to attend to. And he appointed Golda Meir to be his representative.

[44:27] and when someone asked him, why did you select Golda Meir? And he said, because she was the best man I had. So, hats off to the ladies.

[44:41] Honey, you've had a long time to wait for your, to get your due, but you're getting it. And womanhood that is revered and appreciated as it ought to be and protected and loved sacrificially as husbands are to love them.

[45:02] We'll find in those women a complete kind of respect and compliance and support.

[45:14] You know, all a woman needs, all a wife needs to be the kind of woman she needs to be is to be loved sacrificially. And if her husband loves her sacrificially, she'll go to hell and back for that man.

[45:32] Other comments or questions? Anyone? Pam has a question over here. Comment? I think it's ironic today on 9-11 where we were 15 years ago when it happened and you saw the Congress and the Senate on the steps of the Capitol singing God Bless America.

[45:57] So who is it we go to when these things happen and how far we've come in just 15 years? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We are on it and I, you know, I would much rather be an upbeat optimist and everything is rosy and the future is wonderful and everything.

[46:15] But, you know, you've got to look at facts. You can't stick your head in the sand and try to just slough off things. We need to read the writing on the wall and folks, there is writing on the wall and we need to acknowledge we are a nation that's in trouble.

[46:34] And I don't care who you vote for come November. As I've said before, there is no political solution that is going to save this country.

[46:48] No political solution is going to suffice. We need a moral, spiritual solution and that comes only through spiritual content and response to it.

[47:00] Yes. Okay. I guess I have a comment. You mentioned women's lib being kind of the beginning of this. I wonder if it didn't go back all the way to Abraham with the two brothers Isaac and Ishmael.

[47:18] Had Abraham believed God and not had the son by the handmaiden? Isn't that where all this started?

[47:29] Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So maybe his unbelief was the root of all this. Well, you know, it's hard to deny that and yet we can always pose the hypotheticals and the what ifs.

[47:45] We all wonder about what if. And there's no question but what that was the beginning.

[47:55] And you know you know something? These old wounds are still there. You know, you may find this hard to believe but I've read it in black and white from good source and good authorities.

[48:10] There are Muslims today who are convinced that David who slew Goliath was the real terrorist and that Goliath was the one who got the short end of the stick and that today the Philistines are the modern day in the Gaza strip.

[48:38] they are the roles are reversed. That Israel Israel is a nation is today's Goliath and they are the Davids.

[48:52] And you'd be surprised how many of them believe that. And it's it goes way way back and not only to Hagar and Sarah and Isaac and Ishmael but it also goes back to Esau and Jacob because virtually all the descendants of Esau are present day Jordanians and they of course are Muslims.

[49:15] Herod the king who ordered the massacre of the innocents brutal tyrant he was an Edomite. He was a direct descendant of Esau. And you look at Esau being the twin brother of Jacob and you try to put that together and say how in the world can this be?

[49:35] How can they be so diverse? Well, those of you who have had multiple children know that there can be a whole bunch of difference between your kids in the way they think and act and everything.

[49:47] So what else is new? Yes. One final thing. Everybody who has checked none in O&E, that is increasing but doesn't that just mean that the fields are ripe for harvest?

[50:02] True. Have we as Christians forgotten how to go out and Absolutely. There is a positive aspect to it as well. And this is one reason why at the 9 o'clock hour we've been emphasizing the ideas of apologetics and that every believer is supposed to sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts and be ready always to give an answer to anyone who asks us a reason for the hope that is within us.

[50:28] And we are to do so with kindness and with patience and gentleness. But we are to do so. And all too many Christians are not able to do that. I would venture to say there's just a tiny percentage of Christians who are actually willing to engage an unbeliever in a conversation because they're scared to death that they'll be asked a question that they can't answer or that they won't say the right thing and we just dummy up.

[50:52] We don't say anything. And it's too bad because we are supposed to have that capability and is there any reason why we shouldn't be able to tell someone else why we are a Christian?

[51:07] I mean good grief if you can't do that that's pretty pathetic. Each of us ought to be able to tell someone the simple story of our own faith and how we came to Christ and why we came to him.

[51:21] Shouldn't be that hard but we're reluctant to do it because so many of us don't feel qualified you know and that's why we teach apologetics. Someone else before we dismiss.

[51:32] Anyone? A couple things. One is that I'm reading a book.

[51:45] It's not that new. Contagious Christianity and what they're talking about in there is unfortunately sometimes we want to you know how the old method was to go knock on doors and say hey do you know the Lord?

[52:01] You don't know you don't even know this person's name and you're invading their territory and I think what happens as Christians especially all of us that are older Christians all of our friends are Christians and if we don't mingle with non Christians then they don't know us as people therefore they don't have any respect for what we've got to say.

[52:23] So I think we have to remember that to be friendly to those people who we suspect don't know the Lord. You know the clerk at the store where you always go to or if you're still working you know your co-worker or whatever to be friends before you jump on them and say hey do you know the Lord?

[52:44] I think we're kind of all guilty of that. I'm sure that that's true in many many cases. You know Christians tend to hang out with Christians.

[52:55] Why? Because that's who we're comfortable with. We don't like getting out of our comfort zone. We don't care to be all that much in the company of unbelievers because we just feel like we don't fit in.

[53:08] But you know what? You don't fit in. You're not supposed to fit in. But you're still supposed to reach out. We're still supposed to approach them with kindness, with compassion, with love, with concern, simply because there was a time when you were in the same position as they were.

[53:25] And somebody, somebody probably got out of their comfort zone to talk to you. And aren't you glad? Well, would you stand please?

[53:43] Father, we believe that you have made available to us all of the resources that are necessary. we have but to implement them. And we pray for enlightenment and understanding as regarding how best to do that.

[53:56] Because in many of these things, we are at a loss. We have never been here before. We've never faced the kind of situations that we're facing now. And our dependency upon you is greater than it has ever been.

[54:09] We feel a sense of weakness, a sense of incompetence, a sense of being overwhelmed with what is happening in our world. And yet we know greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world, and that you have already provided for us all that is necessary to live godly and peaceably in this present world.

[54:30] We just look to you for insight and wisdom to best how we may apply that to our own lives individually, and as a church, how we may be effective or more effective in reaching out to the others, including the nuns, and those who do not begin to understand or appreciate the wonderful relationship we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[54:55] We look to you to supply the wisdom we know we do not have, and we pray it earnestly in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[55:06] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.