Trump’s Assassination Attempt: How Would God Have Us Respond?
July 15, 2024
Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer
Guest: Marlene McMillan
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 7/15/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.
Sam Rohrer: Hello and welcome to this modified edition of Stand In the Gap today modified because today’s program focus and structure has been altered due to what we all know has happened over the weekend, the attempted assassination on the life of Donald Trump here in Western Pennsylvania on Saturday evening July 13. And while there are many questions that have arisen, continue to arise and require diligent investigation about which I could speculate and list out today, I believe there’s a far more urgent consideration of the event and that consideration is reflected in my title I’ve chosen for today’s program, and it’s this Trump’s assassination attempt. How would God have us respond due to the instantaneous global communications, the world, the whole world has watched and re-watched footage of that shooting. Perceptions are being shaped, literally being shaped as we speak about this event based on what we are seeing, hearing, being told and influenced by those around us.
Sam Rohrer: For the true believer us, most of you listening to this program is so critical to intentionally consider that how we respond is essential. The manipulated media has a goal. The political parties on both sides have their goals. Globalist antichrist leaders, they have their goals. The most serious consideration though should be what is God’s goal and his desire for our correct response. In such a time as this, within hours, millions of posts and opinions from average people flooded digital media, comments from foreign leaders have appeared on x old Twitter and other news feeds. This week’s media will be dominated by various aspects and implications of this act of evil as more speculation and distraction will appear. Tending to more confuse than clarify. I have thought and prayed much over the weekend and interacted with many people about how we should best respond. And as a result, I’ve produced a short list of questions rather than comments, but questions that I think all God-fearing people should ask themselves about this assassination attempt to help us stay focused.
Sam Rohrer: And I’ll share all of these all in segment four today and a couple prior to that. Now, I had previously scheduled Dr. Marlene McMillan to be with me today to consider what the Bible says about economics and liberty and economic prosperity since that is at the heart of the platforms of both political parties this election year, the matter of economics, believing that God has arranged though Dr. McMillan be with me for this day for a reason. I’ve asked her to continue to join me, although we’re not going to deal with that issue. We’ll put that off and together we’ll have and share some thoughts regarding how we should respond personally and nationally to what occurred there on Saturday evening. As far as the world goes, most politicians have condemned the shooting, including the political enemies of Donald Trump as well. They should, but from them I’ve heard no mention of God professing.
Sam Rohrer: Evangelical Christian leaders are in the process of weighing in while a very few, most notably, I’m going to call out one pastor Jack Hibbs from Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills, California. He actually changed his prepared sermon in the middle of the night on Saturday to deliver a clarion call to America and to his church yesterday morning and joining with a PN in our ongoing call to return to God. And though I was not able to get Jack to be with me live today, he’s been so busy, I’ll play portions of his sermon on this program today as I think it mirrors the same response I believe God would have us to embrace. And again, the title for today’s program is this Trump’s assassination attempt. How would God have us to respond? And with that, Dr. Marlene McMillan. Marlene, you’re on the phone there. Thanks so much for being with me. I’m just going to ask you just a moment here for your thoughts. This is a different program. It’s not what we had planned, but God had other plans. Can I just ask you personally, what was your first response to hearing of the shooting of Donald Trump and what is your considered response now?
Marlene McMillan: Okay, so Sam, first of all, thank you for having me. And I really stepped back and looked at what is really going on here. And I saw the great hand of mercy on our nation. I saw the hand of God really bring us mercy. This could have been a lot worse. So that’s the first point, but then what is the heart? It’s like an opportunity for people to show what’s in their heart and all the hatred that came out and all the, it was even some of it was a pumped up hatred. There wasn’t as much hatred as was being created. And so that saddens me. And so I think this was a wake up call. I think it’s an opportunity especially for the church of how the church is going to respond and I think that we’ll talk a lot more about that throughout this program.
Sam Rohrer: Thank you Marlene. Ladies and gentlemen, that ties in with, I’m going to share if I could the two points, but God laid on my heart, four premises stemming from matters of biblical truth and then to them then God later in my heart, the asking of questions. Now we can respond to this event in anger and there should be a part of righteous anger that is there, but more importantly the national perspective, the big picture perspective. How would God have us to look at it? I have a tendency in my life to learn over the years the most important place to go is the mirror. Look in the mirror first. Now here are two premises that I’m going to lay out to help. It’ll be kind of fleshed out in the program here today. The first one is this that came to my mind that God brought my mind is that there are ultimately only two ways to view all events and all of life only two ways.
Sam Rohrer: One is God’s way. We call a biblical worldview way, and the other is all other ways. In other ways there’s God’s way and then anything else is not God’s way. So there’s two ways to look at it. We need to be very careful that we’re looking at this event and all of life from God’s perspective. The second one is this, and I’ll build out these questions probably in segment four. The second one is this, God is sovereign. God alone raises up and puts down both nations and all individuals according to not man’s plan, but God’s greater plan of redemption as detailed in biblical prophecy. We spent so much time on that. But here’s application. God is sovereign. He alone raises up and puts down both nations and all individuals according to his greater plane of redemption as detailed in biblical prophecy. So while the world was shocked at what happened Saturday night, God was not, no he wasn’t.
Sam Rohrer: He is looking at this God’s way and secondly, understand God is sovereign. He puts down and he raises up. Let’s put that down as the foundation. We come back, discuss this a little bit more, then I’m going to play a first clip from Pastor Jack Hibbs from Chino Hills, California. If you’re just joining us today here on Monday, July 15th, this is a reordered program from the day from what I had originally planned. Dr. Marlene McMillan is my guest today. She’s not the focus of the program today. What is the focus of the program? Today is a consideration of what happened in the assassination attempt that the whole world knows about now with Donald Trump on Saturday evening. And in that regard, I’ve chosen to have this title today to Trump’s assassination attempt. How would God have us respond? How have you responded so far? How have you heard others respond?
Sam Rohrer: There are only two ways to respond God’s way through God’s perspective or frankly any other way. We’re trying to do it through God’s way. Now, as I have felt led to preach and refer often on this program, people listen, you know that for years I’ve referred often to the passing of Deuteronomy chapter 28 from which Pastor Jack Hibbs preached yesterday and it’s God’s universal declaration of national blessing or cursing. Fear God in keep his commandments produces national and individual blessings untold. That’s what God told Israel. Embrace pride, idolatry, covetousness and sexual immorality and God’s judgment will fall and all the blessings will be turned into cursings. So dramatic that no one, not one will be able to outrun the justice of God. This is the time of choice for America and Americans today. It’s been the neglected choice frankly for decades. God has called out over and over, he’s given clarion warnings on his trumpet into this moment.
Sam Rohrer: Our nation and our people have not fallen on their knees in humility or repented of our many sins. Instead, we’ve doubled down on the political processes our savior. We’ve identified the political enemies, but we left unrepentant sin, the true enemy of our souls firmly in place for all nations. There is a window of grace that will close. No nation lasts forever. Kae God’s kingdom will for America. It is not a window that might be closing, it is a window that is about shut. Listen now to a portion of Pastor Jack Hibbs sermon from yesterday regarding a window of opportunity for America including Donald Trump.
Jack Hibbs: And you might be a little bit surprised today to learn how what I believe God teaches why today should be proclaimed as a solemn day of prayer and of meditation as to what in the world is going on in our country. Because friends, believe it or not, it’s much more serious than what befalled Donald Trump yesterday, much more serious and un to us. If we do not recognize that with all due respect, and I get it and I would’ve done the same thing to stand and raise your fist after being shot in this culture, that’s a good thing. I get that. I get it. But in my opinion, what transpires from that moment to these following hours after this attempted assassination is up to Donald Trump to make a decision. He’s got, in my opinion, a very short window of time to take his raised fist. And I understand it was we will not be stopped. Victory, I’m okay. And I get it and I agree with that, but I would think that God would want to see the next shot, photo shot, image shot, camera shot. The next reel would be Trump on his knees with his hands lifted up to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Jack Hibbs: And so church this morning must be unscripted. I come to you asking for your grace, but I can tell you that my heart is full and before you and I do a lot of heavy lifting today, we do have it before us. I want to read this to you, Joel chapter two, verse 12 says, now therefore says the Lord, turn to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. So render your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and have great kindness. And he relents from doing harm. Who knows if he will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast call a sacred assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and the nursing babies.
Jack Hibbs: Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber and the bride from her dressing room. Let the priest who minister to the Lord weep before the porch of the altar. Let them say spare your people, oh Lord, and do not give your heritage to reproach that the nation should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations? Where is there God? Father, we pray God today that you would open the ears of America on this day, the Sunday following the attempt of this assassination. But Lord, how symbolic is that our culture has been attempting to assassinate you from our nation for a long time. And almighty God, we’ve looked to you. We call upon you to move in a way, father God that cannot be denied, that the righteous would rejoice and be humbled by your movement and that the wicked would be brought low and be brought to awe. And God, all those in power today would find out that they have no power but by almighty God. And so Father, we pray that you would shake this nation to righteousness. Lord, it is evident that we are in our last few moments. We are gasping for our breath as a nation and as the world looks on today to what will America do, America will accomplish nothing unless the church turns to you Almighty God. So father, we pray now in Jesus’ name and all God’s people said amen.
Sam Rohrer: Alright, Marlene, you heard that little bit from Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m going to go immediately to you because God has been speaking to America. I’ve been saying God is speaking to America. You have been saying God has spoken to America, yet we have not done real well in hearing. You’ve actually shared some thoughts in regard to, well, God’s speaking to America going all the way back to nine 11 frankly before, but share some of your thoughts coming out of that as it brings to bear on what we’re talking about now and what we just heard Pastor Jack Hibbs so eloquently say,
Marlene McMillan: Okay, so this is a call for repentance, a call to repentance. This can be an opportunity for the church at large to redeem, repent from and set the record straight from what happened after nine 11. Now I learn a lot more sometimes by paying attention to leftist sources or sources that you would say, why would you listen to them? Because they’ll tell you what they’re thinking. And one of those themes that came out of those leftist sources after nine 11 was that they paid attention to what the pulpits of America said. Now the masses flocked to the churches after it was the Sunday after nine 11 with two questions. The first one was, is this our fault? Is this the result of sin in our land and do we need to repent? Now, I know there were some churches who got it right, but most of the pulpits said, oh, we don’t need to repent that.
Marlene McMillan: Instead the message was, there’s nothing wrong with us. We are mighty and we will continue to be mighty. We are invincible and we will get whoever did this to us. The second point was people came asking, can we ever be safe again? Where do we find safety? And instead of saying safeties of the Lord, the pulpit said safety was in our civil government. It will keep us safe if we just give up a little bit more of our essential liberty for temporary safety we can trust. Basically we can trust the government to protect us instead of humbling ourselves before God and asking for his protection and knowing that our heart makes a difference. Yes, God turns the heart of the king, but a lot of that matters the condition of the heart of the people. Are we going to be humble or are we going to stand in rebellion and say, we can do it our way. We are going to do what we want to do. That’s not going to do us very well here. So this is a call dependence
Sam Rohrer: And ladies and gentlemen, those of you, if you’re older, you remember some of the younger folks don’t even remember nine 11. So when it happened, remember as Marlene said, everybody flocked to church. There was praying and there was in great involvement, but then it all disappeared and the movement was government keep us safe. Patriot act was passed, liberties forfeited because we did not return to God. Then we’ve had another awakening. What shall we do? When we come back, I’ll share some more about the call to repentance, but Pastor Jackson throughout scripture, God made crystal clear his requirements for national blessing. He specified in detail the full expression of his national judgment ranging from sickness to pandemic, collapsed economy, abundance of food to hunger, good weather, to destructive weather from security from the enemy without to threats from both the enemy within and the enemy without peace within to lawlessness within, from justice to injustice, from surplus to debt, from honor to disdain. That’s all In Deuteronomy chapter 28 and throughout scripture, God warned his people and to us yet from history we learn that very few heed God’s warning that is certainly America today. It’s the challenge before us today. Let me segue now back to the sermon from yesterday from Pastor Jack Hibbs as he calls his people and us and America, to the conclusion of that we need repentance and prayer. In a
Jack Hibbs: Return, God what will become of America? Only God knows, but this we know if we will turn and seek his face, repent of our sins and humble ourselves. God says, I will heal your land. I don’t know what that means, but I know it’s good. But with all due respect, we have to qualify that that’s a condition. Did you know that? Well, I thought salvation was free. I’m not talking about salvation. By the way. Salvation is free, but not to God. It cost him everything. Thus it’s free to us. He doesn’t accept our currency. But regarding this country, there’s a qualifier. If my people, let’s be honest, have you been weeping? Have you been sick to your stomach? Have you been unable to eat? Are you watching the systematic rise of those manifestations that the Bible says is of demonic activity? Then you know this, we call it mental illness. There is mental illness, but I’m not buying that. Everything that’s going on is of mental illness. First of all, if it is mental illness, where’s all that coming from? I think the mental illness that we do have is certainly a result of spending 40 hours a week playing video games and never seeing the light of the day
Jack Hibbs: And having Pepsi and donuts for breakfast. That stuff will kill you. The brokenness of family, we read it today, that will destroy you, the attempted banning of preaching of the gospel so that young people think that there were nothing but a successful exit out of a primordial mud hole of evolution. And then somebody grabs a rifle and shoots up a classroom and we are all in shock. What a bunch of hypocrites. We tell people they’re a derivative of an animal and a monkey, and then we expect them to act like angels in the classroom or on the streets. What a bunch of hypocrites our nation needs to turn back to God. Listen, when it says nation, don’t wait for Barack Obama or Donald Trump or Gavin Newsom or anybody else. It’s not going to happen until I turn back to God. It’s not going to happen unless you turn back to God. Don’t leave this service today and saying, you know, those people need to return back to God. No, it’s us. America is in its last twilight gleaming. I do not know what’s going to unfold in these next few months leading up to November
Jack Hibbs: Only God knows. But do you realize that if we got on our knees and prayed, God might do something? Can we get on our knees in pray? For those of you who don’t care to remain seated, some of you cannot physically get on your knees. Actually, it’s too tight, isn’t it? You want to stand? Can you get on your knee? Okay, let’s do it. Let’s get on our knees. Yep. You can be part of Newsweek’s headlines, pastor forces, people at Sharpie pinpoint to get on their knees. Father, we come before you right now and we ask you, Lord God, that Donald Trump right now would be overwhelmingly preoccupied with his right ear. May it be sore, may it be ringing. I don’t know. May it be constantly having to have his attention that you might speak in that moment. How many times have we stubbed our toe and God has spoken to us? And by your providence Almighty God, that bullet that was destined for his temple hit cartilage
Jack Hibbs: Of an ear. And would you say to President Trump today, are you hearing? Are you listening? Did you hear that? And we pray for his soul today. We prayed, dear God, that President Trump would come to know you as Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, that he wouldn’t know God, but he would know. He wouldn’t talk about God, but he would talk to God. We pray, Lord, for ourselves as a people, almighty God, we pray right now that unless you watch the gate, the watchmen watches it in vain. God, our nation has been torn open. Our borders have been destroyed. Our economy is imploding. Our children are exposed to the violence of the streets. We are in debt. We have forsaken Almighty God. And we ask you Lord in Jesus’ name, that you would awaken the United States of America for no other reason, but to bring you glory. God wake us up to the reality. This nation has not won a war since World War ii and we live off of hype showmanship. So much of it, perception. We have been hollowed out because you are no longer the epicenter of this nation.
Jack Hibbs: Lord, we invite you to come back to this country with mercy, come back to this country. God, we plead, we ask upon you and we plead upon you, almighty God, to forgive us of our sins, expose the pornographers, expose Lord the drunkenness, expose Lord the evil, expose the aberrant sexuality, expose the robbery, expose Lord the idolatry, expose the things that have ravaged this nation all the while you have been targeting our ears all along and saying, church, will you hear me? Church, listen. And Father, I pray today that instead of President Trump raising his fist and victory, which I understand any political photo of that, I mean that is a poster, no doubt about it. That’s a commercial clip. No doubt about it. I pray that you would just dissolve that thinking and that there would be the going to the knees. Father God, we pray now and we ask in Jesus’ name for you to do a miracle in our midst. Start with California. If you’re going to start with California, start with us. But dear God in heaven, may we not wave a flag all over the place without the Holy Spirit being pleased with our conduct. Lord, the only answer is going to come from God’s house and we pray, Lord God, in Jesus’ name and all God’s people said, amen. Amen.
Sam Rohrer: And to that, I say amen. And ladies and gentlemen, I hope that you followed along with that imploring to repentance, to return to God. As I said, how do we respond to events like this? Well, we either respond one of two ways, God’s way or in every other way. The world is doing every other way. But will God’s people, if you’re among them, how are you responding? We respond by looking in the mirror and humbling our ourself in the sight of God. That’s God’s way for then He shall lift up those who humble themselves. But God resist the proud from individuals to nations as a nation. We are idolatrous, we are proud, and God is spoken and God is speaking. So after Trump’s assassination attempt, how would God have us respond? Hopefully be responding with humility to come back? I’ll give all four points of how I think we should respond God’s way and questions to ask.
Sam Rohrer: Well, in the previous segment, pastor Jack Hibbs from Chino Hills, California, many of you know him or have heard him before. I was made aware of his sermon from a friend and I listened to it last evening and it was after I had put together, after the Lord had led me, put together the four premises and questions I’ll present. It was stricken with the fact of how similar they were. But I believe if we approach things of this type from God’s perspective, first of all, rather than an emotional perspective or something that is driven by the world around us, we’re going to end up very much in the same place. Matter of fact, we are going to end up in the same place if we go to God’s word because he has one way. Now, in that previous segment, you heard Pastor Jack Hibbs call his church to a solemn assembly in prayer he called Donald Trump to repentance in God above.
Sam Rohrer: As I said at the beginning of this program, there are many responses to this event people can have and you see them all over. But there are only two ways to view all circumstances of life. Yeah, one is God’s way. I’ve talked about that. The other is every other way. So without a doubt, it is on one hand the responsibility of government officials before God. Romans 13, to pursue the truth, to punish the evil doer and to enact justice for the protection on behalf of the good. That’s what Romans and Peter talks about in the epistle Peter. And we should pray for that. Absolutely hope you are. But the reality is justice has fallen in the streets of America and it’s been fallen and trampled for a long time. There is no reason at all that truth or justice can be expected in this matter as it has not been executed or seen in scores of matters known to frankly everybody in position in federal government, Congress and the courts and all, or that reside in cases before our judges in the courts.
Sam Rohrer: Now, for which nothing has been done, we have not seen anything that remotely looks like God’s definition of justice. Have we? So personally, I’ve not discussed today all the speculations and all of the obvious questions that surround the shooting. For instance, how the shooter was able to get into position, why the secret service did not do anything about it, and so much more that’s out there. You’re hearing that and that needs to be addressed. Other people can do that though. But the big picture that is important, but it doesn’t accomplish very little of eternal value. But in the end, God will enact justice if not in this life, in the judgment to follow. But from my perspective and a personal perspective, lemme complete what God has laid in my heart to share with God’s people. And you’ll find this. You can get this online and this entire program and transcript form on the website afterward, and I would encourage you to do that.
Sam Rohrer: Pass it along to a friend. May God adjust all of our thinking so it aligns biblically and may we encourage others to do the same thing. It’s very important. So here it is. Premise number one. I stated at the beginning, there are ultimately only two ways to view all events in all of life. It’s a fact, it’s a premise. One is God’s way and the other is all other ways. Now, here are two questions to ask. And again, you don’t have time to write ’em down, but hear them go back and pick it up off the website. Question one, am I intentionally pursuing the viewing of this event in light of God’s will, God’s way and according to God’s word? So ask yourself that. Are you intentionally viewing this event? Secondly, what Bible principles can I identify? Can you identify personally, which are shaping your thoughts and attitudes and responses right now, if we do not do this intentionally, it will not reflect God’s thinking.
Sam Rohrer: It’ll reflect the world. Okay? Premise number two, God is sovereign. God alone raises up and puts down both nations and all individuals according to his greater plan of redemption as detailed in biblical prophecy. That’s what scripture’s all about. That’s why we spent so much time, alright, a question ask ourselves, am I truly trusting and putting my hope in God, seeking his kingdom first, living my life in all holiness, in fear of God, in light of biblical prophecy in Christ soon coming? Or am I actually trusting more in the current political process in the people currently involved? Second question. Which of my attitudes and comments or actions confirm my belief in Christ soon coming and his broader plan of redemption? Premise number three, throughout scripture, God makes it clear that he speaks through many means to express his blessing or judgment on nations. Here’s the question.
Sam Rohrer: Have I asked God or encouraged others to ask God this question at this point? In light of the event Saturday night attempt assassination, what response God do you want me to have? What do you want me to think and to say, which of my attitudes need to become more like yours? Another question, are my responses, oh God, Christ-like are they unifying within the fellowship of believers? If so, how am I seeking to promote biblical unity at this time? A fourth premise in the midst of judgment, God still extends an invitation for repentance and salvation. There’s a question. Have I prayed that Donald Trump and those around him would be awakened to the necessity of repentance and true salvation? Jack Gibbs prayed that it’s what we ought to pray. How about this? Have I prayed that people would be moved not to violence and anger and fury, but first to humility, to the awareness of the shortness of life and the sin of pride?
Sam Rohrer: Third question in this one, have I prayed and urged others to place their greatest emphasis on their vertical relationship with God and holy living as our greatest priority versus our horizontal relationships and an addiction to the political process or any other human endeavor? I’m not going to repeat those, but I will ask you to go back to the website, pick this up. The entire transcript will be available. Take and printed out. Look at it. Pass the program along to others. If we respond this way, God will bless that I know. But if we do not respond this way, but reflect the world and turn God off as we have for so long, the next steps are also as predictable. Marlene, there’s only two minutes left here. Any final comment that you might have as we’re talking about looking in the mirror first and that kind of thing as we wrap this program up?
Marlene McMillan: Yes. We have been talking about this being a call to repentance. Well, what does that mean? I have written the book years ago that’s as timely today as ever called Declaration of Dependence because when we declared our independence from England, we did not declare our independence from God. We declared our dependence upon God. The subheading of that book is How to Heal Our Nation through Prayer. And the cover has a Liberty Bell with a plumb line coming right down through the middle. The plumb line is the clapper, or the clapper is a plumb line, whichever way you say that. But it says that we do not have the left right paradigm. We’re not going to get ourselves all hung up in the frenzy. What do we really need to repent from? And this book explains that. And so they find that@whylibertymatters.com and it. Okay.
Sam Rohrer: Okay. Thank you so much, Dr. Marlin. Why Liberty matters.com for that focus at the end. Ladies and gentlemen, what is it about? It’s God’s will. God’s Way according to God’s Word. Is that your commitment? That is my commitment. I hope that it is yours responding to this event. God’s way will determine the next steps for you and us and America.
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