This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally aired on June 15, 2020. To listen to the program, please click HERE.
Isaac Crockett: Hello, and thank you for listening, I’m Isaac Crockett. And joining me today is the honorable Sam Rohrer, the president of the American Pastors Network and Dr. Gary Dull, senior pastor of the Faith Baptist church in Altoona, Pennsylvania. And we’ll also have another pastor and a familiar voice to those of you who listen regularly, and that’s Dr. Joseph Green, good friend of American Pastors Network, a member and also he oftentimes is a cohost of this program. And today, we’re interviewing him, there’s so much going on, but Joe has had a lot of neat opportunities with the different ministries that he’s associated with and his church there at St. Paul’s Missionary Baptist church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as well as several other ministries that he’s been involved with starting at, he was not too long ago pointed there was a bipartisan move in the house and Senate to appoint a special commission called the 400 Year African History Commission and he was part of that. And this was actually signed into law by president Trump.
And not only was Joe asked to be on this commission that was created, but he was elected to be the chairman of this committee. And so, we’ll be talking with him in just a few moments about some of the things going on in our country right now, and especially talking to him about Juneteenth or June 19th, Freedom and Unity March, that Joe is involved with that he’s helped organize in Pennsylvania and just a lot of neat things for all of us, wherever you are.
And as I look at this discussion, the things that Joe is doing by bringing people together and working together, and these are things that we’ve been working with as American Pastors Network. Joe’s part of our group we have called Bridging the Gap where we’ve been working on this as well, by getting people face to face with each other and getting people together. And I think so much of the issues going on in our country right now are made worse, not only by the pandemic lockdown, but just by the fact that we oftentimes hide behind social media instead of face to face socializing.
I was reminded of this just a few days ago on Friday, I was driving down a rural highway in New York and I came across what I thought might be actually a dead body on the side of the road. I stopped, another person pulled over and this unconscious gentlemen actually revived. We started talking, took him out to get something to eat and had a really great conversation with somebody who was native American, grew up on a reservation. And we had a lot in common and a lot of differences and a great conversation that I normally wouldn’t have had, but the emergency situation of him having passed out from dehydration and heat caused an opportunity for us to talk.
And I think there’s a lot of really difficult things happening in our country right now, an emergency situation, but it’s helping us to come together then. And we can truly, as Christians, as Bible believers with a biblical worldview, we can come together and we can see the freedom that we have in the United States of America can actually bring unity rather than divisiveness like we see going around.
And so, real quickly, Sam, before Joe comes on, I just want to ask you about the freedoms that we have and the freedoms to protest or to peacefully assemble and to assemble to worship. Some of those have been questioned lately, but how important is it that we have that right to peaceably assemble?
Sam Rohrer: It’s absolutely critical, and that’s why in part, it’s the first amendment. I liken it to going back to our founders. You’re saying that we are endowed by our creator with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, private property, but those are all put together, the ability and they’re built on solid foundational ideas or concepts. The concept of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness is tied together with the expression of those ideas. And our founders knew that if you could not express those ideas, the foundation out of which comes the protecting of life, liberty, freedom, all of those things, and they put within that, obviously the freedom of not just assembly, but being able to worship. It’s all tied together with our concept and [inaudible 00:03:57] to express ideas.
So, when you vest that in the citizens and the people, if the people do not have the ability to express those ideas into the public square, those concepts, then in fact you have no liberty. So, expression, gathering, assembly is based on the expression of truth and peaceable assembly restrained. And that is all put together and it’s all a part of who and what we are in this nation, built right off the pages of scripture and guaranteed in the constitution. They are linked. You separate any of them, you really lose all of them.
Isaac Crockett: Thank you for that explanation, Sam. And Joe, as we build off of that then, so many people are out there right now and they’re assembling and maybe even it says it starts out peacefully. And I’ve seen, these news reports where you have a journalist sitting there and there’s a building on fire behind them and they’re saying, “This is a mostly peaceful protest.” Or, “At this peaceful protest, we only had five police cars burned.” And you’re thinking, how is that peaceful? But what you’re doing in Harrisburg is this Freedom and Unity March. And it actually says right on the flyers, that this is a time for prayer, praise and community building. You’re there to build community, not to tear it apart. So important, so necessary, especially at this time in our country. But Joe, can you explain the importance of the June 19th date, the Juneteenth and how recognizing that date can be something that can really help all of us have a better understanding of things as well as bring unity in our country.
Joe Green: Yeah, absolutely. Juneteenth is a celebration of the freeing of the slaves. So June 19th, 1865, the Union Army made it to Galveston, Texas by going through the slave states and notifying the slaves that they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. And we know that the Emancipation Proclamation was signed and went into effect January 1st, 1863, but then you had the Civil War, of course. And so, it was a very important date for African American history.
Now, the reason I think that this is so important, especially with what we’re dealing with right now is although July 4th, 1776 is the day that we celebrate the nation’s independence, but on that day that there was still slavery in America. And so even though we got up to a rocky start, I think that Juneteenth is a demonstration that the country moved towards trying to make things right and to right the wrongs of slavery and racism and all those other things. And so, especially now, as we recognize that date as a day of independence, for those who didn’t receive their independence initially, I think could be a place of healing, reconciliation, and also celebrating the good that this nation has done even in the midst of some of our tragic past.
Isaac Crockett: That is such a helpful statement that you’ve made there. There have been things that have happened in the past that are tragic and coming together and figuring these things out, that we have freedom to be together. The freedom should not be there to divide us, one person’s freedom shouldn’t be at the expense of another person’s. Something I’ve been trying to remind our listeners on the last few weeks is if you are listening to this program, your life is important. Your life matters. What you do with your life matters as well and your neighbor’s life is important. Your neighbor’s life matters.
And if you are a follower of God, if you’re a Christian, you need to be following after Christ and loving your neighbor even as yourself. And so we want to look at that in more detail, we’re going to take a brief time out. When we come back from this break, we want to look at some important terms. It’s so important to define the terms. We want to look at what’s going on in our nation, look at what is racism, what is maybe prejudice or bigotry? How are they different? And we’re going to take this time out and come back and talk with Dr. Joseph Green. I think you’ll find this very helpful.
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Welcome back. I’m Isaac Crockett, joined by Sam Rohrer and Gary Dull. And then also, Joe Green, who is sometimes our cohost. Today, we’re interviewing him about some of the issues going on today and some of the things he’s doing with his upcoming Juneteenth Freedom and Unity March, and some of what he’s had going on just with his position. He’s been appointed through the houses of Congress and the president to be the committee chairman of the 400 Year African History Commission. And so Joe, as we go through some of the things we need to talk about today, I think it’s important that we know what we’re talking about.
And unfortunately, there are many people in journalism who are throwing things out there like racism or systemic racism or talking about certain people in certain ways or stereotyping a whole group of people. And so then you have protests and you have counter protests and then there’s counter, counter protests. I mean, it’s just gotten chaotic and it’s gotten confusing. And some of this goes back to the root that maybe we’ve misidentified or misunderstood what we thought we knew. And so, before we go any further, let’s define some terms. Joe, could you maybe define some of the main terms that we’re struggling with today, things like racism versus bigotry or prejudice or so forth.
Joe Green: Yeah, and I think that that’s so important, Isaac, because we have painted with a broad stroke and called everything racism and everything isn’t racism. America has been racist, but it’s come a long way to combat that. So, racism is systematic and institutional, and you can combat racism with laws. Bigotry and prejudice are internal and they’re heart issues. And so, when we understand that in America slavery was legal and it was directed towards people of African descent, that’s racism. And so, you pass the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment that were meant to combat racism.
And then, you had other segretory laws. So now in the country, we have passed laws that makes it illegal to discriminate against people based on the color of their skin, their ethnicity, et cetera. That’s how you combat racism. But bigotry and prejudice, as I mentioned are internal, they’re heart issues. And you have to use other means to combat bigotry and prejudice and bias.
Sam Rohrer: Joe, I appreciate very much the fact that you’ve taken the time to give the distinction in those particular terms. And this is one of the things I think that we are facing in America today because the mainstream constantly misdiagnose situations particularly as it relates to cultural situations in our country today. When that happens, what is the outcome?
Joe Green: Well, when you misdiagnose the problem, you never come to a resolution, and usually it makes people more frustrated than ever before. And so, we have African Americans that have become more and more frustrated to a certain degree because we have been misdiagnosing the problem. And so, one example I like to use for instance is years ago, the governor of Alabama, George Wallace stood on the steps of the University of Alabama and he said that no black person can attend the University of Alabama, right? So, they passed laws making that illegal. And so now, because we have allow people to brand the nation as racist, when there’s bigotry and prejudice and bias, you can’t legislate people internally, you have to use a different approach.
And so now we see this heightened level of frustration, animosity, anger, and like anything, when you misdiagnose the problem, then you never come to a solution. If you have a headache and you just keep taking medicine for a headache, but you find out you had high blood pressure, you never solve the problem. And it gets progressively worse because you’re trying to solve the wrong problem that wasn’t properly misdiagnosed.
Sam Rohrer: And Joe, that’s a great place to go. So let me follow up and ask you this because these are some difficult questions here. It seems like for instance, in this culture we are right now, there is a narrative, that narrative utilizes the words Black Lives Matter. Now you, as a Christian, as a pastor, us are in the same category, we know biblically that God says all lives matter. We’re all equal in value. And that’s a distinctively biblical Christian perspective, and it’s true. It really is true. But in this culture, which we’re living right now, it appears that no one can actually stand up and connect and say, yes, black lives are important, but all lives are important, whether they are black or white or any color. How do you respond to that challenge and that seemingly impossible position that’s tended to create itself here?
Joe Green: Well, and that’s a great question, Sam. So, what I always like to look at is we all agree with the sentiment of the phrase Black Lives Matter, but I believe that there’s underlying issues that we have to be careful of because the media, which they make their money off of basically shock value. And so they constantly put in our faces this image for instance of George Floyd dying at the hands of a police officer. They continue to promote the idea as though there’s this open season on white cops just hunting down black people. And so, because of it, it puts us in a perpetual state of anguish, of heightened sense of frustration, of fear and all those types of things.
And so, we have to focus on the fact that from as spiritual beings, in the natural, we probably would deal with this on a different level. But as spiritual beings, we have to look at the larger picture, which is the same problem. For instance, the question I always ask people if George Floyd was white and the cop was black, or if the cop was white and George Floyd was white, would we have the same level of animosity and anger that’s being displayed throughout the country?
And so as Christians, those who have the word of God, we have to elevate beyond looking at things from, in our carnal mind, in our flesh. And when trauma is not dealt with which I like to talk a lot about, generational trauma, when trauma is not dealt with, what we do is we connect the image of the black man with the white cop, with the past, with the segregation of the past, with the symbols of the civil rights movement and the dogs and the fire hoses down in the Southern States. And so, it’s important that we define properly the terms, that we look at things from a spiritual standpoint, and that the church takes the lead to make it a point to deal with these underlying issues in a way that allows us to grow together and to unify and to love each other like God intends for us to do.
Sam Rohrer: And Joe, let me follow up with you on that, because in that context of defining terms and the question that you just asked, it appears to me that the terms Black Lives Matter, which is what we’re talking about in that one part, is almost held as the only three words that can be stated that if you say really black lives are important, it does not work. You have to say Black Lives Matter. But Black Lives Matter, we know is an organization that wraps its arms around many, many, many things, obviously that have not in the interest of any person, including the innocent black families and others who have their businesses burned down. What recommendation do you have for how to identify and say, yes, all lives are important in God’s sight, including black and white and yellow, without having to say Black Lives Matter? Are we stuck and we [inaudible 00:15:39] have to use those words as an example? What do you say?
Joe Green: I think one of the things that’s important Sam is that we do have conversations. It’s important, we have conversations, cross cultural and conversations of, why do people feel a certain way in order for us to properly get to the root of the problem. But, we have to be careful because, again, when you use the term Black Lives Matter, a lot of times the underlying thought process may be, well, why do we need to say that, there must be something else that’s occurring. It’s almost like saying, don’t look at the pink elephant in the corner. Obviously when you do that, you draw more attention to it.
But I do believe that we have a great opportunity to have these conversations, to see why is there a certain level of anger and animosity in the black community and in a way that we elevate beyond that, because we all know from really looking at it at a deeper level that Black Lives Matter, their agenda isn’t necessarily in alignment with what the churches’ mission is, which is to unify, unite and to reconcile across cultural and racial lines.
Isaac Crockett: And Joe, we just have a few moments here before break, but talk about that. Reconciliation is the goal, but unfortunately when things like racism are misdiagnosed and misrepresented in the media, what is the generational effect when this happens for not just once or twice, but for decades and throughout several generations of families sometimes?
Joe Green: Well, I always like to talk about trauma and the images. So the media is very good at promoting images that invoke certain responses. And so, and I always like to say that when we look at things from a logical spiritual standpoint, we should see that statistically speaking, what happened to George Floyd is not the rule, but the exception to the rule. We’ve come a long way, in the past that has been the case. And so, what the media has been doing very effectively is bridging from the situation of seeing George Floyd on the ground begging for his life, with the images of the past, when there was a time where that would have been much more prevalent.
And so again, we have to frame the narrative in a way that isolates that situation and says that George Floyd’s death is a tragedy. Those police officers need to be brought to justice, but let’s not paint with a broad stroke and connect that with the larger narrative of white police are hunting down black males. It’s important that we look at it from that standpoint, logically, spiritually, statistically, historically, and all those various components in a way that brings healing, brings reconciliation while valuing all humanity and not dividing us or separating us.
Isaac Crockett: Joe, that is great. We need to frame that narrative correctly. When we come back, we want to talk to you more about that and talk about false narratives that come up in our media and other places, other groups today, groups that want to tear people apart rather than build our nation back together.
Isaac Crockett: Joe, I want to go back to this idea. I mean, we talk about it in every program about getting back to the real truth. Jesus says, he’s the way, the truth, the life. We have to go back to what is true to have anything done the right way.
And you have said that unfortunately, many people who are influencing our society today, they have not been framing the narrative correctly. And they’re saying things, they’ve misdiagnosed situations, for example, George Floyd, we look at that and they misdiagnosed what that was. And therefore they continue to push things from an emotional, a fear-mongering way that brings about anger without giving the real context. And you said, as a pastor, what you see them doing is they’re feeding the flesh and not the spirit. I want to talk a little bit about that, could you maybe talk to us how important it is that we have a right narrative, because we are seeing a false narrative playing out in the media right now, even as we look at events like COVID-19 deaths, or especially in the situation of the George Floyd murder. Could you just talk to us again about why it’s important that we frame these correctly and the damage that is done with a false narrative?
Joe Green: Yeah, absolutely. And that’s a great question. So, the first thing I like to point out is the media has become more pushing an agenda than basic journalists. So in journalism, you’re supposed to report facts, report the news as it stands. So in America, when you look at it statistically, more white people get killed by police officers than black people. Now, it’s disproportionate, but there’s a larger number of white people that get killed by police officers, but yet in the media and CNN and mainstream media, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the images of a white person that got killed by police. So, the only thing I ever see is a black person that gets killed by police, then obviously my subconscious mind is telling me that that is the norm.
And so, it puts me in a state of fear. I’ve heard people say they’re afraid for their sons and their brothers and all these other things. And so, obviously the media is not trying to promote truth and true journalism, but they’re promoting this idea of the overwhelming prejudice or bias of the police officers. And that’s what is deemed as racism, because it seems like all police are in on this, white police officers versus black males. And so, we have to get and start to look at things and isolate them and say, if you find a police officer that is a bigot or prejudice or bias, he shouldn’t be a police officer first of all. He has to be brought to justice and police forces have to do a job of exposing them so that we don’t have this false sense of white cop.
And I’ve heard people say this in mainstream, the cops are literally gunning down or hunting down black people. And so, we have to be careful of this narrative that the media is promoting over and over again. Why did they have to show George Floyd, his image over and over and over again? I saw one that they showed the whole eight minutes of the interaction when the police officer is on him. And of course the only thing that does is that it incites anger and bitterness and fear in people. And so, we have to be very careful and to sort through that and get to real truth in order for us to properly address some of the issues in society.
Gary Dull: Joe, yesterday in my message here at Faith Baptist Church of Altoona, it’s interesting, we were talking about this subject today, because I spoke on racism and I gave a number of observations in racism as well as some biblical principles for overcoming racism. And one of the things that I included in my message is that it’s the Christian, the Bible believing Christian, who has the ability to bring a cure to racism. And that of course, is through the living out of the biblical worldview and living out the teaching of the scriptures God’s word.
But I ended that particular message yesterday by emphasizing the importance of personal evangelism, the importance of the great commission, because when we see people come to Christ, old things pass away, behold, all things become new. And yes, even though I would believe that there are Christians who would have some racism within them, the fact of the matter is when one comes to Christ and the spirit of God enters into their life, that is the first step toward overcoming racism. And so, the great commission is very, very important. But my question to you is, we recognize that the great commission is our calling and how have we however overlooked that in reaching people who are close to us geographically, but maybe are of different culture. Because there are people of different cultures who live around us in so many ways, and yet, we miss out on reaching them with the message of Christ. How does that happen and why does that happen?
Joe Green: Well, I think, and that’s a great question and I deal with this a lot because the church has to do a better job at being proactive in that regard. The Bible says, preach the gospel to all nations. That word in the Greek comes from the word ethnos, which means ethnicity. And so, we’ve had this mindset that, actually go to China or Africa or South America to preach, but ultimately what God was saying is that we should look at all the various ethnicities and be proactive in reaching across cultural and ethnic lines as a way to unify the message of the gospel.
The day of Pentecost, wasn’t just about the supernatural power of the Holy spirit falling, but they were amazed, the Bible says, because God began to unify them. They began to understand each other’s languages and every nation on the earth was there represented. And we also know in revelation chapter seven, it says, every tribe and every tongue come together and to worship the lamb. And so we have to do a better job at being proactive at that. And many times, and myself included, we have said, well, it’s going to happen, or I’m not prejudice or whatever, but if we’re not proactive in reaching across those lines and trying to learn of each other, because God made us different and unique, culturally there’s differences, but different doesn’t mean good or bad. It just means different. And we have to do a better job at reaching across those lines.
And what a lot of people in the African American community have, whether it’s right or falsely have believed since there’s not more of a proactive reaching out, that people don’t care about what’s going on in some of their communities. But, me and Sam have talked about this in detail. A lot of times you don’t know what you don’t know, and so the onus on both sides is that we have to be proactive in learning of each other, reaching out of each other and to care about what is happening with someone else’s community and their churches.
Sam Rohrer: Joe, let me come back to you, because we want you to talk about the march perhaps on Friday and how this comes together, but I’d like you to build that if you could just a little bit more, the difference of the word. Isaac started out with definitions, you drew a distinction between racism and bigotry and prejudice. Should we, as people who understand the difference, should we be careful in what we say and not use the word racism when in fact we should be talking about bigotry and prejudice, which come out of the heart rather than an institutionalized matter of law that you’ve rightly said have really by and large been addressed in the past?
Joe Green: Absolutely Sam, and I think it is so important because of the fact that a lot of people can say, hey, I’m not racist. And I could say, I’m not racist because I’ve never done anything specifically against someone of a different race. But, a lot of us have bigotry and biases and prejudices, whether we recognize it or not. I had a friend, I used to always deal with this even before I was a pastor. I had a friend who was white and at one point he says, “I don’t even consider you as black.” And I said, although I understand that that was a compliment, but that’s not actually a compliment because that is my reality. I am black.
And so, instead of trying to make me not black or more like him, maybe learn about my culture, my background, some of my experiences as a way that we can grow together. And so in the churches, we should understand that there are differences culturally between us and communities. And it’s not a bad thing, it can be a good thing. And it can also be a place that if I go to learn about your culture, Sam, then I demonstrate that I really care about you and I love you. And it helps to build bridges between the cultures, between the communities in a way that Christ would love us to do.
And because God makes a distinction throughout the scripture, that there are many nations, right? Many ethnicities, and it’s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing. And it’s a way that we can grow in our Agape love that God has put inside of us to say, we care about other people. We want to learn about their culture and to know about what happens in their community.
Isaac Crockett: Joe, that is great information there. And, you said earlier that sometimes we’re trying to solve the wrong problem, and that’s why we appreciate things that are going on.
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Isaac Crockett: But it’s hard to believe that we’re already at our last segment of this hour long program, Dr. Joseph Green is with us. He’s the pastor at St. Paul’s Missionary Baptist Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, involved with many other ministries that he’s helped us start. And it’s been a real privilege talking with you, you’re a very close friend of ours. One of our cohost, you’re part of our American Pastors Network and our Bridging the Gap group.
Time has really flown by today. And so, as we wrap things up, Joe, I don’t know if you have any last advice for our listeners, advice that maybe could be shared with pastors and ministry leaders on how we can bring folks in the community together, how we as church people or Christians, those with a biblical worldview, how we can be part of uniting using our freedom to unite rather than divide. And I think you’re doing exactly that, you and David Rosen, a Messianic Rabbi, getting together and facilitating this Freedom and Unity March on June 19th, the Juneteenth Freedom and Unity March. So maybe you could say something about that as well as just anything to help us as we wrap this program up to walk away with some helpful and encouraging tidbits that we can use in our real life.
Joe Green: Yeah, absolutely. So the first thing I always suggest is we have open and honest conversations. It’s important for us to understand history and understand some of the things that have happened because, there’s old saying that those who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. And also the fact that these are meaningful things to the African American community, and when people ignore those things that have happened, then it doesn’t allow us to bring together to bridge the gap, so to speak. And so, we have to have open and honest conversations.
I do a lot of what is known as cultural intelligence training. So, multicultural and cross cultural training is very important so that we begin to look at people and understand them better because a lot of miscommunication comes when there’s a cultural divide and real quick story. I was in India ministering years ago, and I was in the Hindu village and I know they didn’t really care much for the Christian message, but at the end of the meeting, I’m standing on stage, a gentleman comes up to me that knows the Hindu, he’s from India. And as he’s talking to me, he’s getting close, I don’t understand his language. And he’s moving his head side to side. Now in America, when we affirm someone, when you’re talking, you move your head, usually forward up and down. But in India, culturally, they have a different head movement. And because I didn’t understand his language and I didn’t understand culturally how he was expressing himself, I got a little fearful that there was going to be a negative interaction.
So, I called over the translator, the translator comes over. He says, “He’s asking you to pray for him.” And I said, “Okay.” I said, “Well, tell him in my culture that when you move your head the way he is, that it’s not a positive message.” So, I say all that to say that I learned culturally, how he expressed himself in a way that helped us to bridge the gap. If I didn’t understand him, we could have had a negative interaction. And so, we have to have open and honest conversations.
We have to learn to understand that culture is a part of a person’s makeup. It is a part of their identity. And ultimately I believe that that helps us to bridge gaps so that we can fulfill the great commission, which is to preach the gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and the Holy spirit. And we are literally pushing the agenda of the kingdom of God when we do that. And it has to be something that we take the lead in, and that we’re proactive in fulfilling what God’s desire is for humanity.
Isaac Crockett: Wonderful Joe, and before the program started, I know sometimes I almost wish we could let our listeners listen in on our personal conversations we have getting ready for the program. But one of the things I was asking you, how you balance so much with your church and different ministries you’re involved with, and just so many different things happening right now. I was thanking you for making the time to be on with us, and you made the comment that it has caused you to go to your knees in prayer even more, because there’s no way you can get everything done. And so it’s brought you to your knees even more. When we think about open and honest conversation, it starts even with our prayer life to the Lord, that we want to be open and honest and ask the Holy spirit to direct us, to guide us and to have a kingdom mindset. And you keep referring to that. And this is just so helpful. So powerful. Would you lead us in prayer as we get ready to close this program, Joe?
Joe Green: Absolutely. I want to pray a little bit of the prayer of forgiveness that we have developed for the 2019 Movement. So father, we just thank you and we praise you, we bless you for this time. We thank you for your grace and your mercy and your love. Father, we acknowledge that slavery was a horrible and inexcusable institution that was perpetrated on people of color. We acknowledge that after slavery was abolished there were years of issues between racial lines, families were destroyed, communities devastated. However, in this season, father, we choose to forgive. We choose forgiveness over hatred, and father we break the spirit of anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness.
Where there is pain, we speak joy. Where there’s hate, we speak unity, where there’s fear, we speak love. And we curse the bitter root of any negative emotions that have stem from racial injustice, prejudice, and bias. We no longer give these spirits power in our lives as individuals, as families and as a people, but more importantly, as children of God made in your image and created in your likeness, we choose to forgive and we break the power of the enemy in our lives this day and forever. We choose forgiveness over hatred.
Isaac Crockett: Amen. Choosing forgiveness over hatred. This is where if we biblically want to bridge the gap of things that divide us as a nation or as a church, or just as people, as communities, we need to be able to do that. And Dr. Joseph Green, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. What a great opportunity. If you live around central Pennsylvania, or maybe you’ve been thinking of traveling somewhere, you’re seeing all these different protests and you say, I wish I could stand up for something. That’s right. It’s going to be this Friday, June 19th Freedom and Unity March. This is something facilitated by Joseph Green and Messianic Rabbi David Rosen. It’s going to start at 11:00 AM and end around 1:00 PM starting at the West end of the market street bridge and going all the way to the other side to John Harris grave site at the John Harris Mansion in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Joe, it’s great having you on. Thanks for all that you do. And thanks for all this information. Sam, I’m going to go to you for some final thoughts, advice, encouragement to our listeners, and then Sam, if you could also close our program in prayer.
Sam Rohrer: Absolutely Isaac, and brother Joe, thank you so much for your comments. It just makes me just bear down even more of that as we talk about standing in the gap for truth here, we talk about the biblical worldview. We talk about God, sin, the fall, redemption through Jesus Christ, the hope of eternal life and healing, that that’s really what it’s all about. And Joe you’ve laid it out so clearly. And I would just encourage all of those who are listening today, if you know Jesus Christ as your savior, then you know regardless of your color, it makes no difference, we’ve all been in bondage to sin. That’s what Christ came to set free. And Jesus Christ the only one who can provide freedom, spiritually from the bondage of sin, and with that, that is what brings us to the foot of the cross, where we are all equal in God’s sight.
What an amazing, amazing thing. And Joe, it’s wonderful to call you my brother in Christ. And all of those who are listening right now, if you know Jesus Christ, we’re brothers and sisters in Christ, what an amazing thing, only Jesus Christ can do. The great healer, the great redeemer of all mankind. Heavenly father, we recognize our needs as individuals. We all fall short, but you’ve come to heal and to make complete through redemption in Jesus Christ. And we thank you for that hope that you’ve offered. It changes hard. It alone has the ability to change biases and prejudices and to knock down pride and to establish Agape love in our lives for each other.
Lord, it’s what we need in our country. It’s the only thing. No law can fix it. No judge’s ruling can fix what is before us, only the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ can heal and can redeem. And Lord, we ask that that would be done, that people would open their hearts to what you alone can do. We pray for brother Joe as he speaks out, bless his message and ours here on Stand in the Gap, today. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.
Isaac Crockett: Amen. You’ve been listening to Stand in the Gap today. I’m Isaac Crockett on behalf of Sam Rohrer, Gary Dull and all the folks behind the scenes, and for our guests and cohost Dr. Joseph Green today, thank you for listening.
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