Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central Podcast, making theology central. Good afternoon, everyone. It is Wednesday, October the 9th, 2024. It is currently 3.07 p.m. Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Make America Great Again! America First! God Bless America! Let's keep jobs here in the United States of America and not send them overseas. Let's not lose jobs to those who come across the border illegally. Let's protect America. Let's protect America's interests. Let's put America first. Let's make America great again. Have you heard politicians talk that way? Have you heard politicians speak that way? Have you heard politicians get elected for that very type of, of speech and that type of thinking? Well, obviously you have heard, and obviously you have seen, and obviously you know that a lot of that speech would come from someone by the name of Donald J. Trump. The entire movement is about make America great again. And as he continues to speak that way, continue to say things that way, there is at least a report that would seem to call into question maybe the sincerity of some of that, possibly. At least it would be a little bit, it would feel inconsistent. we have talked before about Donald Trump, well, selling a Bible for what, I think it's $59.99, I think it's $60, selling a Bible. And in the Bible, you have the, the, the, um, I think the declaration of independence. I think you have the constitution also in it. You, you have a lot of different things and they're mixing, you know, patriotism, politics with the scriptures. The Donald Trump we will refer to it as the Donald Trump Bible. And we've talked about it, and I talked about the ongoing political corruption of Christianity, the mixing of patriotism and politics with Christianity, and just, I've talked about it and talked about it and talked about it. So I try not to, you know, stay in that lane. I try not to, you know, if you look at the majority of our broadcast, we deal with politics here or there or political related issues. We deal, I mainly, you know, we'll talk about the political hijacking of American Christianity, but that's really not my lane. If you look at all the hours and hours of broadcasting, we're typically dealing with theological issues and trying to figure some things out. I think that's fair. I think that's an accurate way of understanding it. There's times you just like, I have to talk about this. So I'm going to talk about this news story that was put out by the Associated Press. Obviously, we need to do some verifying and making sure that this information is accurate. If this information proves to be accurate, I think it should bother people. Now, the reality is it won't, because what we have seen is those who support Trump, it doesn't matter what happens. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what he's found legally responsible for, guilty for, doesn't matter what he's charged with. It doesn't matter what he says. Doesn't matter what he does. It's just Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. And if you say anything, well, that's fake news. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. He's basically sinless. Okay. Maybe that's a little bit of hyperbole, but it's not far based on the way some Trump supporters just talk about it. we could discuss everything about it but I just want to give you basically this story and then you can you can tell me what maybe it doesn't bother you maybe it does I don't know I don't know if it you you can tell me what you think here's the headline Trump has long blasted trade practices of China. Trump has long blasted China's trade practices over and over and over, right? We need to put tariffs, China this, China that. He has definitely blasted China's trade practices. However, his God bless the USA Bibles appear to have been printed there. I want you to put that together in your mind. Trump has long blasted China's trade practices, but it appears, at least according to this report, that his God bless the USA Bibles were printed there. Hey, we're going to have a Bible, the God bless the United States America Bible, but we're going to have them printed in China? I mean, does that, I don't know. Does that, do you even care? Does that bother you? Thousands of copies of Donald Trump's God Bless the USA Bible were printed in a country that the former president has repeatedly accused of stealing American jobs and engaging in unfair trade practices. And that would be China. Global trade records reviewed by the Associated Press show a printing company in China shipped close to 120,000 of the Bibles to the United States between early February and late March. I want you to hear that again. Global trade records reviewed by the Associated Press show a printing company in China shipped close to 120,000 of the Bibles to the United States between early February and March. The estimated value of the three separate shipments were $342,000 or less than $3 per Bible, according to the database that used customs data to track exports and imports. The minimum price for the Trump-backed Bible is $59.99. So it looks like cost was about $3 a Bible. They're selling them for $60 a Bible. But hey, hey, I can't criticize that, right? No, no, no, no, no. Because Trump's name's on it, right? If Trump's associated with it, it has to be pure. It has to be right. It has to be godly. There can be no criticism ever thrown in his way. Well, this is the stuff that gets me crazy. Now again, politically, I don't care what he does. I really don't. I've said before, you keep politics out of the church, you keep politics from influencing and impacting and hijacking Christianity, I don't really care. This is not my world, I'm a stranger here, I'm passing through, whatever. My focus should be on Christianity and what it calls me to do, not this political hybrid of mixing Christianity with it. And typically it's just politicians using Christians so that they can get power. But now you have a Bible involved. Now you have a Bible from someone who's constantly preaching America, America, America, America, America, where the Bibles appear to be made in China, and they are for about $3 per Bible, and then you're selling them for $59.99. It sounds like, do you really want the Bible into the hands of people, or you just need a way to bring in some more money? The whole thing just seems questionable. The Trump's Bible's connection to China, which has not been previously reported, reveals a deep divide between the former president's harsh anti-China rhetoric and his rush to cash in while campaigning. The Trump campaign did not respond to emails and calls seeking comment. Trump says his Bible would help America. His Bible is going to help America because other Bibles just won't help. His Bible will help America, not the Bible I have here in front of me because it doesn't have Donald Trump's name on it. It doesn't have the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution or a Lee Greenwood song or anything else that's in the supposed Trump Bible. No, I just have a Bible. The largest and most recent load of 70,000 copies of Trump's Bible arrived by container vessel at the port of Los Angeles on March the 28th, two days after Trump announced in a video posted on his Truth Social platform that he'd partner with country singer Lee Greenwood to hawk the Bibles. In the video, Trump blended religion with his campaign message as he urged viewers to buy the Bible inspired by the Greenwoods Ballot, God Bless the USA. The Bible includes copies of the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Pledge of Allegiance. I forgot some of those other things. I got the Constitution, Declaration of Independence. I forgot the Bill of Rights and the Pledge of Allegiance. The Bible is a reminder that the biggest thing we have to bring back in America and to make America great again is our religion," Trump said. Judeo-Christian values, he added, are under attack and perhaps as never before. Trump didn't say where the God Bless the U.S. Bibles are printed or what they cost. A copy hand signed by the former president sells for $1,000. Trump also doesn't disclose how much he earns per cell. So you can get a Trump-signed Bible. Just wrap your mind around it. You have the Word of God signed by Donald Trump and you can buy that for $1,000, ladies and gentlemen. Come on! A version of the $59.99 Bible memorializes the July 13th assassination attempt on the former president of Pennsylvania. Trump's name is on the cover above the phrase, the day God intervened. The wording appears to have been stamped on after the Bible was produced. Trump said Saturday his would-be assassin did not succeed by the hand of providence and the grace of God. The Bibles are sold exclusively through our website that states it is not affiliated with any political campaign, nor is owned or controlled by Trump. A photo posted on the website shows Trump sitting at a desk in the Oval Office with Greenwood standing beside him in another photo. The former president smiles broadly while holding a copy of the Bible. Trump's names and images are licensed. The website states that Trump's name and images are under a paid license. Trump reported owning, in his most recent financial disclosure, from CIC Ventures, a company Trump reported owning, in his most recent financial disclosure. CSE Ventures earned $300,000 in Bible sales royalties according to the disclosure. It's unclear what period that covers or how much Trump received in additional payments since the disclosure was released in August. The Associated Press received no response to questions sent to the email on the Bible website and to a publisher for Greenwood. In other words, no one's going to answer any questions. For years, Trump went after Beijing as an obstacle to America's economic success, slapping heavy tariffs on Chinese imports while president and threatening even more stringent measures if he's elected again. He blamed China for COVID-19 outbreak and recently suggested without evidence that thousands of Chinese immigrants are flooding the U.S. to build an army to attack America. But Trump also has an eye on his personal finances. Pitching Bibles is one of the dizzying number of for-profit ventures he's launched. That's the website, hang on here. That's the yahoo.com website where I'm reading this news article deciding to play an ad in the middle of this. So he's doing all these things to try to raise money. He's selling Bibles. He's been selling diamond encrusted watches, sneakers, photo books, cryptocurrency, and digital trading cards. The web of enterprises has stroked conflict of interest concerns. Selling products at prices that exceed their value may be considered a campaign contribution." We can get into whether that's legal or not legal, and I do not know why the Yahoo website is doing that, but it's driving me crazy. All right, so they go on to say, They go through all the different possible conflict of interest. The first delivery of Trump Bibles was labeled God Bless USA, according to the information. And the other two were described as Bibles. All the books were shipped by New Aid Cultural Media, a printing company in China that describes itself as a custom Bible book manufacturer. They were sent to Freedom Park Design, a company in Alabama. That database identifies as the importer of the Bibles. All right. Hang on here. Yeah, so they seem to have confirmation that these Bibles were printed on a press near a city in China. They go on. And then, well, they go on and say a little bit more about some of the critics, those who have criticized the Bible for various reasons. But you can decide for yourself, is it a problem? Is it an issue? Now, many Christians would say, hey, look, you know, whenever you buy a Bible, I know sometimes it's hard to know where it was printed, but it's probably important to look to see where it's printed. because China seems to have such opposition to Christianity, in many cases cracking down, you could even argue persecuting Christians within China, stopping the spread of the gospel. So why would you want to buy a Bible printed in that country? Why would you want to support their industry? Now you could get into an argument that others will say, look, you know, I'm not going to sit there and worry where the Bible was printed. And you can have all kinds of different ideas about it. But if you are a presidential candidate running around saying, America first, America first, America first, we've got to stop the, the jobs being lost to overseas companies. And then your name is on a Bible that's printed overseas. I don't know. I think that's a little bit disingenuous and maybe not even honest and maybe just a little bit hypocritical, but you can draw your own conclusion. And I am sorry that Yahoo kept playing that ad over and over and over and over and over. I just wanted to read the news article. It drives me crazy when it does that. But the point is, and the only reason I didn't read the rest of the article is because I didn't want that ad to continue playing. You can look it up. Just look up for the article entitled, are you ready? Trump has long blasted China's trade practices. His God bless the USA Bibles were printed there. I'll try to send a link out to the article via the ChurchOne app notices, and I'll also, if you go to the Sermon Audio website, look for Theology Central and go to articles, I'll try to get it posted there as well. Now, nobody seems to care about this story. The original story was put out on Um, it was updated today. I don't know when it was originally put out, but nobody seems to care. Nobody seems to care. Nobody. And I don't think anyone's going to care. It's not going to really matter. It's pretty insignificant in the eyes of most people. They don't care. But I think, I think it needs to at least be known. Now you may have already bought three or four of the Trump Bibles and you may have them, you know, put somewhere in your home and want everyone to see that you own a Trump Bible. Okay. fine. Just thank you for your support to China and to people in China having jobs. You're doing a very good job in helping them. So you may not want to just run around yelling and screaming about people taking American jobs since you're supporting jobs in another country while you claim to be make America first, right? Make America great again, America first. So, I don't know. I don't know how you reconcile it. Maybe you don't care. Maybe you do. You know, I was just looking here at the Bibles I have. The one I have right here in front of me is printed in India. I think I'm going to look down here. The one I have here, if I can find it. this one is a huge bible oh see this one yep i don't even know when i got this one or how i got this one this is the kjv kjv study bible hallman guess where it's printed china right so there's one printed in china um here's my schofield my schofield bible it's printed in korea well you what you'll note none of them are printed in the united states That's what you know now. I'm not saying there aren't any that are printed in the United States I'm just looking around just for all the Bibles. I have right here. I don't hang on I have hang on do I have any others? Across the room here's another one to see where is this printed this printed at are you ready? this is printed in where where where Printed in China. Yeah, there's another one printed in China. And when you get ready to buy a Bible, a lot of times you're not paying attention to that. I would have to look on Amazon and other websites to see if it even tells you where it's printed. I don't think in many cases you know. Maybe it does, but I don't think in many cases you even know until you purchase the Bible and you open it up. But I'm just saying that for Trump to be involved with this, and if it's connected to a company he owns, then he has to know where they're printed. Or at least he could say, hey, look, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're going to print these things right here in the United States of America. We're going to help build a Bible printing, you know, industry here in the United States of America to try to get all Bible publishers to have their Bibles printed in the United States. But if they're printed in the United States, guess what? They don't have that markup. If the Bibles can arrive from China, basically costing you $3 and you can sell it for $60, that's a lot more profit. If you have them made in America, they're not going to cost you $3 per Bible. They're going to cost you more. Therefore, you either have to raise the price of the Bible or you have to go without making so much profit. So you can decide. I just find it interesting that he yells and screams about China and then the Bible with his name on it, that he's hawking, that he's selling. It's literally made in China. So you're like, what, what are you talking? Like, that's, that's just insane to me. That's just insane. I think, I think for many Christians, there is, I think, I think many Christians do struggle with that. Well, China is cracking down on, you know, all the different things that they've done, house churches and different Christian groups. And you're like, man, do we want to get our, the word of God being printed there? Now, on one hand, I guess you could argue, well, if they're printing the—but there's printing the Bible. They don't care what it says. So, you know, it's not like, well, maybe that's a good thing, right? Yeah, I just know I would never—there's someone who listens to the program, and he will sometimes send me information about books or Bibles or something, and I think he's the first one who I think really, really pointed out about Bibles being printed in China. Sometimes I've given it thought, other times I don't, but I think most of the time when I get ready to buy a Bible, what I'm looking at is, oh, what, let's see, does it have, which print does it have? Like this, I think right here I have the, I think it's called the Thomas Nelson, is it called Comfort Print? And I love that font. I love everything about it. So I look for that, right? I think the first time I saw the Thomas Nelson Comfort Print, I can't remember what Bible it was. I was like, whoa, I like the way this looks. It's easy to read. And so I'm looking for that, not for where it's printed. Or you're looking for maybe, does it have notes? Does it have cross-references? You're looking for all those kinds of things. And I don't think typically we're looking at where it's printed, but, well, obviously a lot of them are printed in China, including the Trump Bible. While he walks around yelling about China. I don't know. All right. I will send out the article. You can look at the article. You can decide if it bothers you, doesn't bother you. Do you find it inconsistent? Do you not find it inconsistent? And again, I apologize for that stupid ad playing. So unprofessional, but what can I do about it, right? I had no idea it was getting ready. I've had the article open for half the day and it's not probably played one time and all of a sudden I'm live on the air and it plays twice back to back. Alright, so I will send the article out. You can read everything there about it and you can draw your own conclusions. Now, to me, I'm not buying the Bible. I wouldn't buy the Bible, one, because Trump is associated with it. I don't want a politician associated with the Word of God. Two, I don't want the Word of God sitting there being surrounded by the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Pledge of Allegiance, and a Lee Greenwood song, or the Constitution, or any other American documents. The Bible is not pro-America. The Bible is not pro-patriotism. The Bible is not pro-Republican. The Bible is not pro-Trump. The Bible is the Word of God, and I want the Word of God. I don't even like Bibles that have the MacArthur Study Bible or any man's name on it. It's the Word of God. I want the Word of God. That's what I want, right? Look, I'm enough of a problem. I don't need other people who are a problem with their names all over the Word of God. Can we just get to the Bible and get away from celebrities? Right? Now, at the same time, don't get me wrong. I've owned MacArthur Study Bibles. Don't get me wrong. I've owned them. I have, but if you look at all the Bibles I have around me, I have a Schofield, so there you go, there's someone's name associated with it, see? I don't like that either. If MacArthur or Schofield wants to write notes to the Bible, they should be sold in a separate book, and then you buy the Bible, and you can come with it. MacArthur's notes, or Schofield's notes, and a separate book. And you can sell them as a package deal. The Bible, King James, or whichever translation, and then the notes are outside of it. That's where the Bible is the Bible, and we separate men's words from the Word of God. That's my thought, and nobody's ever going to go along with that, because, well... Look, if you can become popular enough and get a big enough audience, you can get your name on a Bible. I don't know how to even interpret that. All right, thank you for listening. I will send that article out. Church One app, it'll go out there probably first, because it's easier to do, and then I'll get the article ready to go. And that'll be on the Sermon Audio website. Just look up Theology Central and you'll find it. All right, I got a phone call coming in. Thanks for listening. God bless.