Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central Podcast, making theology central. Good morning, everyone. It is Monday, July the 15th, 2024. It is currently 1009 a.m. Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, I don't know how the average listener perceives or understands this podcast. In fact, I feel that many people who listen, they demonstrate by emails or comments that they don't really understand what this podcast is about. Now, obviously the name should at least give people a clue. Theology Central, right? I'm attempting to make theology central to whatever issue we are discussing. We are looking at things from a theological perspective, not a political perspective, not any other perspective. Theology is the perspective which I'm attempting to bring to light to whatever subject we are referring to. And in that discussion of theology, we may talk about the news. We may talk about a theological issue. We may do Bible studies. We may do a devotional study. Whatever the case may be, theology obviously is a major part of it. That's why it's called Theology Central. But I think a lot of people perceive this podcast more like maybe they would view other ministries. they would judge other ministries. And maybe there was a time that I approached broadcasting and podcasting from that perspective, almost as if the broadcast was an extension of a church, right? It was very much connected to a church. And there was truth to that, because it very much was. And it was almost like an extension of that ministry. Here's what we do on Sunday at the church. Here's what I do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It was kind of an extension. It was to, hey, our ministry may be limited here, but when I turn on the microphone, the ministry can reach around the world. And I think that for a very long time, that was very true. But as I've moved forward, maybe I started noticing this in 2023, but I know in 2024 now, I am very much aware that this podcast has kind of taken on its purpose. What I'm attempting to do really has changed dramatically, and I don't know if people quite understand it. See, the way I see this podcast now is this, that I'm a Christian, I'm very much a sinner who has a microphone. And this microphone really simply serves almost as my discipleship tool, right? Because now the way I kind of see this, when I turn on the microphone and I go live, really what you're hearing is just a Christian just working through his own Christian life live on the air. If I'm If I'm listening to a sermon, well, I choose to listen with you, right? And you listen to a sermon with you. If I'm doing a Bible study, well, I choose to do that live on the air with you. If I'm doing a devotional, I choose to do that live on the air with you. If I'm reading an article on a Christian website or in a Sword of the Lord newspaper, well, I like to share that with you. If I'm struggling with some concept or idea or some theological thing, I just share it with you. In a roundabout way, this podcast really has become more, and I hope this makes sense, this is really more about me than it is you. Let me explain. It's not about me in the sense of, oh, I want to be a famous podcaster, and I want everyone to love me, and I want all of these numbers. Now, yeah, I obviously have a certain perspective about how I would love the podcast to go, but a lot of that is not even realistic. But yeah, I have certain ideas, but the reality is whatever those ideas are, When I sit down in this chair in front of this microphone and I go live, none of that really matters. It's really just you're listening to a person in a sense sitting in his study slash studio where he's just trying to figure out the Christian life right along with you in real time. You're just listening to someone have their devotions or just work through theological issues in real time. I'm just a Christian trying to figure it out. It's not so much even like This is a ministry. This is just really, you're just getting insight. You're just watching someone's own discipleship unfold in real time. That's kind of really what this has become. And I don't know if people quite understand it. I tend to see it as, hey guys, welcome. Like, you know, hey, hey, welcome to my study. Welcome to my studio. And it's not so much I'm here necessarily trying to teach you what, I mean, I do hope you learn and there's value and you benefit, but it's more about me just struggling and processing and working through things in real time. And obviously, if you've been paying any attention to this broadcast and this podcast, you know that I've been trying to work through a lot of emotions and theological concepts and feelings and just dealing with a lot since the assassination attempt on President Trump. Since he was shot and everything that has happened since then, well, I've been spending a lot of time just trying to process it and trying to figure it out in real time. And, and so, well, here we are this morning, Monday, July the 16th, and guess what? I'm still trying to process it and figure it out. Now I challenged everyone. I challenged everyone, July the 15th, not the 16th, I apologize. If I said July the 16th, it's July the 15th, I apologize. But as I've challenged everyone to pay attention to what everyone is saying, to look carefully at what is happening. And you know that part of 2024, one of the things I've tried to get everyone to participate in is what we're calling the Sermons 2.0. App Sermon Challenge, the Sermons 2.0 App Sermon Challenge, where you're supposed to each day take the Sermons 2.0 app and find random sermons. And then you're supposed to write down the title and then a summary of what the sermon was about. That's been a major focus this year. And again, because I'm trying to listen to sermons, I'm just having you participate right along with me. And you're just listening to me. Go work through them and listen. So as I've been telling everyone to do that, one of the things I told you I was doing is I've been trying to pay close attention to the Sermons 2.0 app since the shooting of Donald Trump and just see what the responses would be. And I've been trying to pay close attention to the Christian world to see how people would be responding to it, what they would be saying, whether I found comfort in it, whether I got frustrated by it, and just try to see how everyone is responding to it. I've already shared some of my initial thoughts. We looked at at least one response. Well, this morning I woke up and guess what? I grabbed my iPad and I went to my Sermons 2.0 app feed and guess what I found? Well, I found early, I think, I don't know, like maybe four in the morning, five in the morning, I think I woke up and grabbed the iPad and I found one. And then later on, I found a second one. The first one, I'm not going to, we're not gonna talk about that one right now. We're gonna talk about one, the second one, only because of the name of the individual, how well known he is, and because I told everyone you should be following him on the Sermons 2.0 app so that his content shows up in your feed on a daily basis. And we're just gonna start listening to some of this. I have only listened to maybe a minute, he mentioned a term that is a very important term in theology, and he's using this term in light of the shooting of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. So we're going to listen to this, and we're going to just really talk about some very important theological concepts. And while you're just going to listen to me in real time, struggle through these concepts. I struggle with these concepts. I very much am aware of these concepts, have taught these concepts, and I believe these concepts and a theoretical way, right? From a theoretical standpoint, I can teach these concepts. In a practical way, I struggle with these concepts. And again, I feel like that's one of the things about this. I can say that in a podcast. You probably couldn't say that, well, I would say it in a church anyway, but I know that people have certain expectations maybe in those settings, but I tend to be very much more real. And so I can admit There are theological concepts that I may believe are true. I may truly believe them theoretically, but when they come down to a practical level, I'm a little bit like, you know, this actually makes no sense, and I struggle with it. And I'm okay admitting that, and I hope you're able to admit that, right? I mean, hopefully you are. So what we're going to do is listen to this, and then when we get to those concepts, we're going to go to a very important document written in the 1600s that you're probably very familiar with, and we're going to see how they articulated and defined these very important theological terms, and then we're just going to consider these theological terms in light of the shooting of Donald Trump. That's where we're going to go and we'll just see where this goes. Basically, I'm inviting you in as I'm sitting here trying to still process and understand and figure out my thoughts and how this type of thing and the shooting of Donald Trump is just Because it's such big national news, global, international news, it just makes it simple to take this because everyone is talking about it, but then we can pull it into the theological world because that's what we do. That's what I do. Whether I'm broadcasting or if I'm just sitting here, that's what I would be doing. Whatever I'm looking at, I'm going to see it and think of it from a theological perspective. I will never be able to stop doing that. I mean, all of my education, I mean, my entire adult life, school after school after school, it's in theological studies. So I don't know how not to think about things from a theological perspective. It's just the way I operate. So even if I didn't have this microphone on, I would basically be sitting here having this conversation with myself. So why not turn on the microphone and see if it's a benefit to other people? So that's what we're going to do. Are you ready? I hope all of that makes sense. But yes. Here we go. Let's listen, and please, once you... I'm not going to do any more introduction, I'm just going to hit play on this. As you hear this, and you hear them introduce the podcast and their broadcast, please go follow it on the Sermons 2.0 app, please. Remember, I want you to find 20 broadcasters that you really like or even you dislike, but they challenge you and they make you think. Sometimes you need a good balance of things you maybe agree with and disagree with so that you're constantly being challenged. But 20 broadcasters that you're following so that that feed section on the Sermons 2.0 app has new content, hopefully on a pretty regular and consistent basis. All right. So and of course, one of those should be me. Now, I'm 20 others, not 20, not including me. I can be number 21, 22, 25, but at least 20. And because I want you to have lots of different content, different perspectives, challenge that'll make you more well-rounded spiritually, and it'll give you plenty to think about on a regular and consistent basis. But here's one I would highly recommend. And we listen to it now. It's Monday, July 15, 2024. I'm Albert Moeller, and this is a special edition of The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. Human history sometimes turns on a single date. Sometimes it seems to turn in a matter of seconds. That's exactly how history looked on Saturday when there was an assassination attempt upon the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, as he was campaigning in rural Pennsylvania. As a matter of fact, Americans and then others around the world watched transfixed to the video in which the former president and the man just about to pick up the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, when he reached suddenly in the middle of a rally for his ear and obviously then understood that he had been shot falling to the ground and immediately covered by American Secret Service agents. the rest of the story began to unfold as America and as the world watched. But the bottom line became very clear. This was an assassination attempt upon Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States. And it was one that was undertaken in such a way that it raises huge questions about the security detail around the former president and current presidential candidate about to be nominee. Huge questions, of course, that lead to massive worldview questions. Okay, now first, that's Dr. Albert Moeller. The broadcast is called The Briefing. Please subscribe to it on the Sermons 2.0 app, and it is available on all the other podcasting apps. So I would definitely challenge you to subscribe to it so that you can hear that. He drops new episodes Monday through Friday. Definitely make it a priority, all right? Definitely listen to that. Let me just say this, as he says that this brings up serious questions about the security detail of Donald Trump. Yeah, okay. Let me just say this right from the start, because I've seen this on Christian websites, non-Christian websites. There is so much wild speculation flying around, right? Conspiratorial ideas, conspiratorial thinking, misinformation, disinformation, half-truths, complete lies, however you want to classify it. All of that's just swirling around. As a Christian, do not add to it. Do not contribute to that. You want to stand outside of that noise as people are running around. You don't want to add to that. We want to stand outside of that. We want to be the source where people come to us and they hear truth, reason, logic, calm, humility, not wild speculation, not acting like you're an expert about security details unless you have true expertise in that area, whether you know about setting a parameter or not, whether you know anything about setting up a security detail or not. Look, if you know something about it, then even then you have to say, is it really my place to say something here? Am I really going to add something to all of this noise? There'll be Christians all over social media just saying the wildest, craziest things. Look, are you contributing or helping? Are you doing anything that's going to minister to anyone? Are you simply just adding to the noise? Don't do that. I'm not saying that's what Dr. Albert Moeller is doing there. He's just simply saying it raises questions. It's okay. It can raise questions. When do we jump into the conversation? When do we abstain? When do we demonstrate they're being wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove? When are we realizing and thinking, okay, wait a minute, when should I speak here and when should I not? And I think that sometimes in these situations, everyone wants to speak quickly, loudly, and I think in many cases, all it ultimately demonstrates is how foolish we were when we first started speaking because things are going to change. Wait, tell everyone to wait. Tell everyone to be patient. Let the information come out, slowly but surely, because so many times I've seen Christians jump on some issue happening, making crazy comments, and then slowly but surely, as information comes out, it proves that all of those crazy comments were fraudulent, were wrong, or incorrect. You know what I almost never see? Christians come back and apologize for how wrong they were, how they jumped to conclusions, how in many cases they bore false witness. They gave fraudulent information. As Christians, we're not to bear false witness. We're not to be speaking lies but truth. That is something that we all have to, I have to struggle with, we all have to struggle with. And typically the best course of action is to be slow in speaking, not being fast. Sometimes it's good to have an opinion. Sometimes it's better not to share said opinion, okay? Unless you're just doing so privately, right? There's always a time and place. And so the wild speculation needs to be careful. But he says that this brings up serious worldview issues, all right? Okay, I have no problem using that term worldview. I did a lot of teaching on that concept years ago. But yes, everyone has a worldview, the way you view the world. Now, for a Christian, our worldview, in theory, theoretically, is supposed to be 100% defined our entire worldview the way we should see the world through the view of what it looks like through Scripture. In other words, you can take a picture of the earth, right? There's a picture of the earth, and what you hold up in front of that picture is a Bible, because you're going to see the world through the pages of Scripture. That's the way it's supposed to work. Now, we say that In many cases, if we're being honest, our culture, our ideas, our political views, so many other things, actually we see the scriptures through our world. Sometimes our worldview actually is not being driven from the scriptures or coming from the scriptures. We're reading the scriptures in light of our worldview. If you were born in a certain part of the country, your culture, where you were raised, has more to do with how you see Scripture than how you see the world. And it's very deceptive, and people sometimes don't realize. They'll be like, no, I have a Christian worldview. No, you're imposing on the Bible your cultural worldview. You sound like you are a Republican. You sound like you're from Texas. You sound like you're from the South. You sound like this or that. And you're reading it into the Bible. When someone else is not from the South or from Texas or a Republican, they will say things like they're reading their culture and their ideas into the scripture. The reality is everything we think should be coming from the scriptures, we should not be imposing it upon the scriptures. and people have a hard time with it. And we see that all the time when it comes to political issues. Everyone will say, it comes from the Bible or you're reading it into the Bible. Which is it? So this worldview question, okay, I agree that the shooting, the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, It probably does have serious worldview implications, but I am more interested in looking at it from a theological perspective. Now, if you have a correct theological perspective, that should become your worldview, but we'll just see which direction he goes here. He's going to use the term in just a second. It's a very important term in theology, so see if you can hear it and if you can find it. Here we go. And so let's turn to those. The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump represents one of those moments when the issues, when the truths fundamentally are absolutely clarified. Saturday's attack at President Trump's rally in Pennsylvania shocked the nation and the watching world. It instantly revealed so many massive theological, moral, essential truths worldview dimensions. Okay, now I love that, and he's absolutely right. This brings up so many theological issues, so many theological issues. And when I hear Christians start talking about it more from a political perspective, that drives me crazy. Stop looking at things from a political perspective. When your first words sound political, when your first words sound cultural, when your first words sound everything other than theological, then you know your worldview has been compromised. From a Christian, it should sound Biblical. It should sound theological. It should not sound like anything else. And I've been yelling and screaming about this since the 1990s. I mean, really, this is not a new thing with me. I started getting concerned and worried in the 1990s when I would go to church and hear men talk. I don't know about the women, but if I heard the men talk, this is where it became the most obvious. The men sounded more like Rush Limbaugh than they did Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And when they would talk about issues, maybe overseas or cultural issues or military issues or whatever the issue was, they sounded like they were a conservative Republican, not like they were a biblical Christian. Now, I know many will argue, no, no, it's the same thing. No, it's not. Okay, political conservatism is not biblical Christianity. It is something other. It's different. And so many cases you would hear men who claim to be Christians, who believed in God, who knew the Bible, but so many times when they talked about issues, you're like, That sounds like what Rush Limbaugh was saying on Tuesday. And then later on, some Christians started sounding more like Alex Jones than they did Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. And then they started sounding like Sean Hannity more than Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They started sounding like Fox News more than Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You get the idea. That's a problem. So whatever the issue is, we should see the theological side of it. Now, he's going to start outlining some key points here, right? Some key points. Let's listen. I think he's about to say first. I know I kind of cut him off in the middle of him speaking, but he's going to say first. What is the first thing he's going to bring up here? First of all, if nothing else, it demonstrated to us immediately that life and death can come down to the matter of seconds and to a matter of a millimeter. And that is one of the most striking realizations when you consider this assassination attempt upon the former President of the United States. clearly a man was able to get on the roof of a neighboring building, that raises itself so many questions, was able to have a direct line of fire at the former president of the United States, was able to discharge several rounds, one of them grazed the president's ear. And even as the president grabbed his right ear, and even as blood began to flow, and as those now iconic photographs began to emerge, it was very clear that had that round, had that bullet, just moved slightly, ever so slightly, in the direction of the president, it would have not hit his ear, it would have ended his life. And so there's a sobering realization, and it points to something, and that something has to be explained. It has to be explained in worldview terms. Was this just an accident? Was it luck? Was it fate? Here's where Christians understand that we have nowhere to go but the doctrine of providence. Okay, so two major important concepts. Just how in a sense, fragile life is. Life can end just like that, in a second, or in just a small distance, right? A few inches, less than that, and then your life can be over. Life is fragile. We do not know how long we have. Look, the frailty of life, how fragile life is, how frail we are, how mortal we are, how quickly we are here and quickly we are gone, the brevity of life, that we should definitely definitely not forget that in this. We should definitely be reminded to number our days, to be aware that our end is coming, that we do not have forever on this earth. We have a limited amount of time and then we are gone. So then what What should we be focused on? What should we be consumed with? What should we be bothered by? What should we be fighting for or not fighting? When should we speak? When should we not speak? I think a lot of things that should control that is, hey, redeem the time. Number your days. Know the brevity of life. Know how fragile your life is. Know how frail, in a sense, we are, that we can be gone in literally a second. So, I think that that is a very profound point there, and we could spend much time with that. But did you hear the theological term? Okay, so this shooting, how do we understand it? Was this just a matter of luck, a coincidence? Was it fate? Why did Trump live? How come the bullet just barely missed? Was it just incompetence or just unfortunate that the shooter, from the shooter's perspective, unfortunate that he just wasn't a very good shot? Fortunate for Trump that he wasn't not a good shot? Is it something like just that? How do we, how do you understand it? Like, do you just see it as fate, luck, or do you see it as something else? And he mentioned providence. He mentioned providence. Now up to this point, there's something he hasn't mentioned. Now we're gonna have to listen to the rest to see if he mentions it, but he just mentioned providence. All right, so let me ask you to do this. Let me ask you to do this. If you have a notebook, I want you to write down the word providence. Now, if you're not listening to me live at this point, I want you to hit pause and I want you to write down your definition of providence. I want you to write down your definition of providence. What is it? I want you to write down the word decrees. Providence and decrees. These are two terms I want you to write down and I want you to seek to do your best to define them. your own. Just try to define them on your own. What is your current understanding of these two terms, providence and decrees? And when we see something like the shooting of Donald Trump and the bullet just over just a little bit and his life is finished, is that just luck? Is it just fate? Is it incompetence? Is it just fortunate for Donald Trump. If you're the shooter unfortunate because it didn't do what you wanted it to do, who gets to make the decision? Who's really in control? Is what controls that situation the competence or the ability of the shooter? Is what's in control the wind and distance? Is what is in control there just mindless chance, or is there something else in control? Now, wait, now, please, I know some of you immediately going, well, obviously God is in control. I know we say that, but I want, we're going to work through this, and I'm going to work through it in real time with you, because this raises serious questions, all right? Because, like, there's something he still hasn't mentioned in all of this, and we'll see if we can get to it in a minute. But let's do this. Let's start with some definitions, all right? I'm gonna pull up the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. Every Christian should look up the London Baptist Confession of Faith today, and you should look at the chapter. The chapter's dealing with God's decrees and God's providence. God's decrees and God's providence. And this should be required reading. All of this week should be on God's decrees and God's providence in light of the shooting of Donald Trump. Now we could take any event, whether good or bad, whether someone dies or someone lives, whether the storm misses or whether the storm hits, whether the cancer never shows up or the cancer takes someone's life, whether the cancer shows up and goes into remission or the cancer spreads. Whatever the issue is, every issue can be understood or at least seen or to be dealt with in light of God's decrees and God's providence. So let's start with God's decrees. Are you ready? Chapter three, paragraph one of the London Baptist Confession of Faith. God hath decreed in himself from all eternity by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, So God has decreed in himself from all eternity by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will. That's the only determinant factor here is his own free will. Listen, are you ready? Freely and unchangeably all things whatsoever comes to pass. God decrees from all eternity according to his own free will. freely and unchangeably all things whatsoever comes to pass. Do you believe that God decrees whatsoever comes to pass? Do you truly believe? Theoretically. See, in my mind, I can say, well, theoretically, yeah, God is sovereign. God is eternal. God is omniscient, immutable. I can go through all of his attributes. God decrees everything that comes to pass. Amen. Well, when a situation where the bullet barely, you know, basically just barely hits the ear, right? No serious injury, no death, The Donald Trump walks away, you can say God's decree. God is in charge. God decreed that that bullet would not strike him. See, it had nothing to do with the, how fortunate Donald Trump was or how unfortunate the shooter was. Had nothing to do with fortune. It had nothing to do with fate. Had nothing to do with chance. Had nothing to do with ability. Had nothing to do with the gun. Had nothing to do, had nothing to do with distance. It only had to do with God's decree. And we can say, God decreed that Donald Trump would not be killed on that day. And everybody say, amen. Just keep that in mind, though, because there's another side of this that won't be so pleasant. But we'll see if this even gets discussed. All right, now, continuing in the London Baptist Confession of Faith, Yet, so as thereby is God neither the author of sin, nor hath fellowship with any therein, nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second cause taken away, but rather established, and which appears his wisdom in disposing all things, and power in faithfulness, and accomplishing his decree." Now, we can get into a philosophical argument about this idea of what's called second causes. I'm not a big fan of this because it feels like almost like Here's what happens. Once you say God decrees everything whatsoever comes to pass, then immediately the issue is, well, then God's the author of sin. So we got to get, in a sense, get God off the hook, right? So then we come in. Secondary causes. See, God's not the primary cause. So since God is not the primary cause, the secondary causes, they're the cause. Therefore, God is off the hook. Even though he decrees everything that comes to pass, he cannot be considered the author of sin. So in a sense, we kind of get God off the hook, or we attempt to do. It's a philosophical attempt to get God off the hook. But let me just remind you, no matter how much you try to get God off the hook, you're going to find yourself in some really difficult situations. Because when you go all the way back in the beginning God, that God is all-knowing. He knows everything that's going to happen. And who does he create? He creates an angelic being that we refer to as Lucifer or Satan. He knows that angelic being is going to rebel. He rebels. He does not destroy him. He does not bind him away from all of creation. No, he allows that fallen creature to come to earth. He knows exactly what he's going to do. That that fallen angelic being is going to go after his creation. When he created Adam and Eve, He knew exactly what they were going to do. Not only does God not stop Satan, He allows Satan to enter into the garden and tempt the woman, ultimately tempting the woman, and the woman then obviously brings her husband into the entire situation, and then they sin. Now God knows immediately that they were going to do it, and He does nothing to stop it. He does nothing to prohibit it. He does nothing to prevent it. OK, well, you can say, well, see, God is not the primary cause. Satan is the is the secondary cause. So that gets God off the hook. God is the one who knew it was all going to happen. And then even after they fall, what does he do? Does he he could just get rid of Adam and Eve, get rid of Satan and stop it. But no, he allows them. He removes them from the garden, allows them to produce children, knowing they're going to be born with a sinful nature. And then all you watch is the result of that sinful nature play out over and over and over and over. Sometimes God intervenes and very dramatic and supernatural ways and other times he's nowhere to be found. Now you can try to get God off the hook all day, but he's the one who created the entire situation knowing exactly how it was all going to come to pass. He knows every sin you're ever going to commit. He could either intervene, he could remove your sinful nature, there's a million things he could do. So when we say God decrees everything that comes to pass, we've got to be willing to embrace all of these very difficult questions. And they're going to get very practical in the case of the shooting of Donald Trump. We'll see here in a minute. The second paragraph reads it this way. Although God knoweth whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions, yet hath he not decreed anything because he foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions. Meaning, God's decrees, he's not decreeing something because he sees something. He decrees something, and that's the reason it is. He doesn't look to see what's going to happen, then decrees it. No, he decrees it. That's why it happens the way it happens. So once again, God is in control. God is the one controlling everything. By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestined or ordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ, to the praise of His glorious grace, others being left to the act in their own sin, to their just condemnation, to the praise of His glorious justice." Now that gets into the doctrine of, well, God predestines or decrees some to be saved, and others are not predestined or decreed to be saved. Now, immediately people are going to get upset about that. They're going to get mad about that. But if you—now, this is the weird thing. Some people want to believe God is in charge of everything. God's decreeing everything that comes to pass. He controls it. And God has a purpose in everything. But then there'll be the exact same people who will reject God's decree and predetermining who will be saved. who will not be saved. So it's just really weird. Some people, well, they never think these things through logically. Next. So then it talks about angels, and it kind of continues on to more about the idea of predestination and those types of things. Much of this is about God's predestination. So those are God's decree. So the real issue, the real thing you want to write down is, and you can put it in a question form, Has God decreed from all eternity whatsoever comes to pass? Has God decreed from all eternity whatsoever comes to pass? Whatever comes to pass, God decreed it. Do you accept that or do you reject it? Now, if you reject it, then you have things happening that God did not decree. So then is God not in control? Or is God just stepping back, watching it all unfold? And so therefore then, what determines what happens? Is it then just chance? Is it just, well, again, on the perspective? Well, if you're Donald Trump, well, I'm fortunate that it just barely nicked my ear. If you're the shooter, very unfortunate because not only did I not accomplish my purpose, well, I ended up dead. Is it just a matter of who's fortunate, who's unfortunate? Is it just a matter of chance? Just a matter of quote unquote luck? Or do you believe God decreed whatsoever comes to pass? Now, if you embrace the doctrine of God's eternal decree determining whatsoever comes to pass, you've got to embrace it and you've got to embrace both sides of it. And we haven't spoken of the other side of it yet. So there's God's decree. Now, we're gonna go to the very word that he just mentioned, which is God's providence, or of divine providence, in the London Baptist Confession of Faith. This is chapter five. Again, this week, I want you to spend all week just reading over and over and over chapter three, the London Baptist Confession of Faith, of God's decrees, and then chapter five, of divine providence. This is how this section begins. Chapter five, paragraph one. God, the Good Creator of all things, and His infinite power and wisdom, does uphold." Direct! dispose and govern all creatures and things from the greatest even to the least by his most wise and holy providence to the end for which they were created according unto his infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his own will to the praise glory of his wisdom power justice infinite goodness and mercy so so do you believe god Based on his eternal decrees, he has decreed whatsoever comes to pass. Do you believe God has decreed from all eternity whatsoever comes to pass? I want you to write that question down. And second, do you believe that God upholds, directs, disposes and governs all creatures and things from the greatest even to the least. Do you believe he decrees whatsoever comes to pass he upholds, I'm going to go through those again, I want you to make sure you write down, he upholds, directs, disposed, governs all creatures and things from the greatest even to the least. Do you believe that? Do you? Do we see the shooting of Donald Trump from this perspective of God's eternal decree and God's providence? Now that would mean God was controlling the entire situation. And no matter what the shooter's intent was, was God controlling? Was God decreeing that that person at that particular time would attempt to shoot Donald Trump, but then God decreed and upheld and directed and governed everything so that the bullet would just barely, barely hit him? Was that all God's plan and decree? Now, if you see it that way, then how do you understand it? How do you understand? How does that impact the way you see the shooting? Now, just keep that in mind, all right? I'm just presenting these things to you. I'm very familiar with the London Baptist Confession of Faith. The London Baptist Confession of Faith very much directs and governs my theological understanding on almost most issues. There may be some small details, but for the most part, I hold to the London Baptist Confession of Faith. So come on, what do we do with that? Remember, I said theoretically I can understand these concepts. Practically, I'm getting ready to have a few problems. Let's see what Dr. Albert Moeller does. He says, one of the things we have to look at this is God's providence. Let's see what he does with this at this point. Let's see what he does. And that's because it is a part of the theological house that we occupy. It is a part of biblical Christianity. It is essential to our Christian understanding of the world. Our understanding of the world begins with a self-existent, sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient God who created the entire cosmos and fills it with His glory and rules over it as sovereign Lord. You either believe that or you don't, but if you do believe it, then you have nowhere to go in this theological house other than the affirmation of the providence of God. That is not to say, by the way, that there's no distinction between good and evil, because God himself makes that very clear, and he is the author of good. He knows no evil. But in his providential care over the entire universe, he rules through all of these things in such a way that we are left with a worldview that tells us nothing happens by accident, nothing is mere luck, nothing is mere chance. The universe is not an accident. We are not just animated dust, and at the end of the day, the ultimate explanation for why things happen as they happen includes an approximate sense, oftentimes recourse to natural law, recourse to material objects, recourse to human moral activity and responsibility, but ultimately it is within the context in the biblical worldview of the sovereignty of God and the operations of God's providence. just the slightest deviation in that ammunition round, and we wouldn't be talking about the bleeding ear of a former president, we would be talking about a dead former president, and that would take place even as Donald Trump is just days from his official nomination as the Republican candidate for the upcoming election for the office of President of the United States. The stakes in this sense could not be higher. How can human life be so fragile as that? But it is. The fragility of life is essential to our understanding of the gift of life. In a world of sin and in a world of evil, a world of assassins and a world of pathogens, every breath we take is a gift. And at some point, a single breath will be our last. What we must recognize is that on Saturday, that final breath was very, very close for the former president of the United States, for Donald Trump. And it was videocast, broadcast to the entire world. Now, I'm very thankful that was not the case, but you know, that means if we're thankful that we are thankful to God in terms of the operation of his providence. Okay, so God is the one controlling. God is the one doing so. So what we should be is we're thankful that God, because of his eternal decree and providence, governed, controlled everything to only allow Donald Trump to have the bullet barely hit his ear. Now, at the same time, you can say, but then why wouldn't God, well, if God is guiding and controlling in his decree, why even decree the event to happen in the first place? He could have stopped that man from ever even getting access to the place he was at to even fire the shot. He could have caused the gun not to work. There's a million things he could have done to stop it, but he did not stop any of it. Oh, there's a bigger question here. I'm hoping Albert Moeller is going to mention it. He hasn't mentioned it yet. Does anybody know what he hasn't mentioned yet? Well, on your paper, remember I wanted you to write down your definition of providence and decree, and then I wanted you to write down basically those two questions, right? Do you believe that God, from all eternity, decrees whatsoever comes to pass? And do you believe God upholds, directs, guides, leads, disposes all people from the greatest to the least? I know I'm paraphrasing that, but you're getting the basic idea. I want you to have those things written on paper. There's going to be something else you need to write on paper. I am hoping Albert Moeller mentions it, because there's no way we can be talking about God's decree and providence in light of this shooting and not mention one other thing. But I think this other thing keeps, well, this other, it's not, I'll refer to it as a thing now. It's not a thing, but it's something that must be spoken of. And you probably, maybe you know what I'm referring to. We will see here in a minute. I'm going to give Dr. Albert Moeller the opportunity to mention it, because if he doesn't, then this is where I'm going to be very bothered by much of the Christian response. But let's see where this goes. Those who hold to a purely materialistic and naturalistic worldview have no answer but luck, which is a major doctrine of the secular worldview. But Donald Trump, and the watching world as well, must surely know in his heart that something greater than luck preserved his life. I found it very interesting that speaking to the press on Sunday, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, acknowledged that hairline distance that separated life and death in the assassination attempt, and he stated, just very simply, fate stepped in. in. But we understand what he means, but we also understand as Christians we have no recourse to fate. Interestingly, I think very significantly, it was President Trump himself who clarified the issue, rightly posting on Truth Social that it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. Indeed, it was God and God alone, for God alone is the sovereign ruler of the cosmos. A second realization comes to Okay, so let's go ahead and let's say we believe God's decree. So he decreed it, God's providence guided, directed, controlled the entire situation, everyone involved. So God is the one who prevented Donald Trump from being shot. God stepped in, prevented it, and saved his life. Sounds good! Everybody will be like, Amen! My God is sovereign! My God controls! Amen! Now, something is yet to be mentioned here. Something is being left out. Do you know what it is? Do you know what it is? Well, we'll see if Dr. Albert Mueller mentions it. down to the reality of moral evil and the necessity of moral responsibility. Those were instantly clarified on Saturday. No one observing these events could say that there is no objective moral order. The entire viewership, basically all sane people, responded to the situation Saturday in the language of right and wrong, the language of good and evil. Why? Because it's indispensable. Now, as Christians, we also want to say it's because we are made in the image of God. And one dimension of the Imago Dei is a moral consciousness, a moral knowledge that we cannot not know. But we are living in a time when so many people, especially on the ideological left, have tried to argue that morality is nothing more. Now, he just moved on. He now left the idea of God's providence, of God's decree. He only spoke of God's providence and decree in the fact that Donald Trump was not killed. What did he leave out, everyone? I want you to write down two words. The first one is the name Corey, C-O-R-E-Y. I want you to write this down. I want you to write it down. I want you to put it on your refrigerator today. Corey, C-O-R-E-Y, and I'll spell his last name, C-O-M-P-E-R, A-T-O-R-E C-O-M-P-E-R A-T-O-R-E Cory Compratore. I want you to write that name down. I want you to say that name frequently today. Cory Compratore. Because I've heard so many people talk about God's providence, God's decree, God's sovereignty, God intervening, God saving, God preserving Donald Trump. Our God is a great God. He is sovereign. And even though someone wanted to kill Donald Trump, God would not allow it to happen because God controls. He decrees. He disposes. He controls things from the greatest to the least. And everybody's like, amen, amen, amen, amen. But for someone by the name of Cory Coppertor, he, God, did not spare his life. He died. Cory Coppertor identified as a firefighter, died a hero. Friends and neighbors are remembering firefighter Corey Compertor, the man who shot and killed during the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, as a family man who served his community and was quick to help friends in need. Compertor is one of the thousands of people who attended the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as part of Trump's 2024 re-election effort. He died trying to protect his family. For some weird reason, he's just being left out in many of these discussions. He's just being forgotten. Now, if you're gonna talk about God's decree, if you're gonna talk about God's providence, you can't leave out the fact that so one person spared, the other person dies. Now, you can be cold and heartless and say, well, God's providence, God's decree. Yeah, it's easy for you to say sitting in your room or standing in the sanctuary at church talking all big and bad like you've got it all figured out. It should bother you greatly. One man spared, another man dies. And then we could even just talk about all the other people who suffered and died on the exact same day Donald Trump was shot. Other people were suffering and dying of cancer. Children were being molested. Women were being raped. People were stealing. People were being killed. People were being beaten. People were suffering from all kinds of horrible diseases. People were suffering in war-torn areas around this world, in Ukraine, or suffering in Gaza, or wherever the case you want to look at. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. God decrees whatsoever comes to pass. God's and his providence. Let me go back and read directly the words from the London Baptist Confession of Faith. God the good creator of all things and his infinite power and wisdom does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things from the greatest even to the least. It is good to believe this from a theoretical standpoint. The practical outworking of it is very difficult. And Dr. Albert Mueller, everything there was about God's providence, God's decrees. And God is the one, it wasn't fate, it wasn't luck, it wasn't good fortune, bad fortune, it wasn't anything at all. It was God who intervened and did not allow Donald Trump to be killed. But it was that same God who allowed Cory Coppertor, if I can say his name correctly, Coppertor, to die trying to save and protect his family. The same God who in his providence and his eternal decree, decreeing whatsoever comes to pass, that's the same God who did not intervene to stop this or this or this or this or this from happening. families who've had their children kidnapped and murdered. God does not step in. Does he decree whatsoever comes to pass? See, we quickly run to God's decree and providence when we look at something that turns out in a positive way. Wow, it's miraculous. Donald Trump, that bullet came so close, just a little bit over and he would be dead. Oh wow, okay. God's providence, that's amazing. Oh yeah, but Corey Compratore? See, now it gets uncomfortable, doesn't it? Is that what you're feeling? Are you feeling how uncomfortable it is? I'm feeling it. So I want you to write down that question, does God decree whatsoever comes to pass? And I want you to write down, do you believe that God upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures and things from the greatest even to the least. Do you believe that? I want you to write it down. I want you to put it on your refrigerator. And then underneath that, I want you to write Donald Trump. And then I want you to write Cory Komprator. Because that, that and it really brings together the struggle with these theological concepts being played out in real life. Those two men, the exact same location, one spared, the other one dies. And this would be very difficult for you. I don't know about your life, But for some of us, depending on the things you've gone through, this can be a very difficult concept to reconcile. There are those who were born in families where there was no sexual abuse. No physical abuse. They were raised in loving homes. They were provided for. They had so many opportunities, maybe in a wealthy home where they had all kinds of things. They had this opportunity and this opportunity and this provided for them and this provided for them, where there are others of us not born in a rich family with intense, severe, crazy, mental, emotional, and physical abuse. where none of those opportunities were afforded to us. Zero. None. Pain, suffering, and trauma. Some of us didn't even have... I have lived my life far longer without a mom than I did with a mom because my mother passed away before the age of 40. My father suffered and died from cancer. while other people's parents are still alive today. Their parents are in their 70s and they get to see them and talk to them. Other people have family all around them. They got all of this. They got wonderful things. And nobody in their family is suffering from any disease. There's no pain. There's no suffering. Everything is great. Everyone's healthy. Their life is great. They got everything. While other people, all of that's taken care of. They're watching someone suffer. They're watching someone die. They're dealing with the side effects of this or this or this. They got their own issues. They have nothing. Now, I don't know how, I don't know how to process, I don't, I don't, that's the difficulty here. See, when we, we always frame in many cases, I'm not, look, I have not listened to the rest of that. So Dr. Albert Muller may get to it in his discussion about evil. He may get to the fact that this man died, but the discussion of that man's death, of Corey's death, should've been placed in the context of God's providence and God's decree. That's because that's where it belongs. God decrees whatsoever comes to pass. September the 11th, 2001. God decrees whatsoever comes to pass. Sandy Hook. Now, what some will do is like push back and go, okay, God may be sovereign, God may decree, God may have providence where he's controlling whatever, you know, from the greatest to the least, but man has free will and God will not impose anything upon man's free will. That's usually the way around it. Okay, but then God is the one who knows exactly what those people are going to do with free will. And you're saying God never intervenes in the Bible against people's free will, where he intervenes and helps wipe out entire armies? I think God's imposing his will upon other people. So does God never impose or only sometime? And free will, just, You're still, it still falls on God. God knows exactly what they're going to do with it. He knew from the beginning of the end. So then some people come with kind of an open theistic idea and destroy God's omniscience. So you either destroy God's sovereignty. God is not controlling everything. He created everything and then he stepped back and letting everyone's own free will run its course. But the will, to say the will is free, you see, then you end up in another theological dilemma. to say the will is free, then you have to return to Pelagianism or Semi-Pelagianism, where you can't say people are totally depraved or have a sinful nature, because then the sinful nature doesn't have any impact upon man's will. Well, if the sinful nature doesn't have any impact upon man's will, therefore the will is free, then people freely could choose to never sin. Well, Christians can't even pull that off. Obviously, non-Christians can't pull that off. And even Pelagius was willing to acknowledge that perfect people can exist even without redemption because their will is free. Well, we don't believe the will is completely free. We believe that we are depraved sinners, which impacts the will. So free will falls apart in all kinds of other theological ways. Well, you don't want to destroy the omniscience of God, so now you have a God who doesn't even know all things? That's disturbing. If you're not careful, you destroy the sovereignty of God, so you have a God who's not sovereign, a God who's not omniscient. Okay, you're just running into all kinds of theological problems. These are issues that should keep you up at night. On Saturday, a shooter attempts to assassinate President Donald Trump and he just barely misses accomplishing his goal. The bullet just just barely hits Donald Trump's ear. It misses obviously any major part of the body that would have caused possible death or serious harm or something other horrible consequence. He's okay, he's fine, he's moved on. And so we say God's providence, God's decree, God's protection, at that very same event, on the very same day, in the very same location where God was decreeing, guiding, directing, protecting, whatever words you want to use, Donald Trump, God did not protect Cory Kumprator. or you can just look up all the other horrible things that happened on Saturday in the world. This is what we struggle with as Christians. Theological concepts that sound good in some circumstances, that are great theoretically, when put into real life application, looking at both positive and negative, they're not always so easy to process. Today, it's very simple. I want you to ponder, discuss amongst your family, friends, spouse, The question, does God decree, does God from all eternity decree whatsoever comes to pass? And does God uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things from the greatest even to the least? How do you answer those? If you reject those, what do you put in its place? Don't just say free will because I've already, that's just going to lead to all kinds of other issues. That's not a solution. Everyone thinks it's a solution. It's not. Don't go with open theism because you begin to destroy who God is. Don't throw into out God's sovereignty. You're going to end up with a non-God God. Your God's not going to be really a God. So, but we struggle with that. Then I want you to write down Donald Trump's name. And then underneath that, I want you to write down Cory Comptor. And I want you to just see the difference there. As many are referring to Donald Trump not dying, a miracle. God intervened, God's providence, God's decrees. Cory Komprator? Shh. Shh. Let's not mention his name. You can email me, newsifatyahoo.com. Newsifatyahoo.com. That's newsifatyahoo.com. At the beginning, I think I referred to this as Monday, July the 16th. I was obviously greatly incorrect. It is Monday, July the 15th, 2024. Thank you for listening. May God bless you as you struggle with these concepts and struggling with these concepts does not make you weak in faith. Struggling and questioning these concepts is what a strong faith does because it's willing to embrace these very complex and difficult questions that maybe in church we pretend they don't exist. we need to pretend. We don't need to pretend anything. We need to face the reality that they do. God bless.