Ask Sam – When Trials Come, No Longer Fear
August 2, 2024
Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett
Co-host: Hon. Sam Rohrer
Guest: Dr. Nathan Crockett
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 8/2/24. 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.
Isaac Crockett: Hello, I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and joining me today is the Honorable Sam Rohrer, who’s the president of the American Pastors Network and the regular host of this program Stand in the Gap Today, in this Friday edition, I have some questions for Sam, but we also have a special guest that I want to introduce in just a moment. But as we finish this week, we started this week letting you all know a prayer request for our radio family, our co-host, Dr. Dave Kistler, evangelist Dave Kistler and his wife Betsy, lost their son and their daughter-in-Law. When group of musicians that were headed out to meet the Gaithers for a homecoming cruise, their plane went down. And so we talked about that. Sam talked about that earlier this week. There’s a memorial coming up for them on August 10th, and our hearts are still broken coping with that.
Isaac Crockett: And there have been other things as a pastor, I’ve had several folks just last couple of weeks get some really bad medical news as part of a family time meeting with a doctor just yesterday. And we bear these trials and we see things coming our way. And it reminds me of a hymn. It’s a bit newer hymn by the Gettys, and the words of it start like this. When trials come, no longer fear for in the pain are God draws near to fire a faith worth more than gold. And there his faithfulness is told. Well, our special guest today is actually my brother, Dr. Nathan Crockett, who’s a professor at Bob Jones University. And the young people that you work with, Nathan, and that I see at church and different places many times, the fear, the pain, the trials, the anxiety that they’re going through to them seems overwhelming. Sam and I have talked about this. Nathan, our special guest, you and I have talked about this a lot, that young people in high school, even grade school, college, need a lot more emotional support and help in this generation than they have in other generations. And so we want to talk about that some today. But first, let me just say, Nathan, thank you. Welcome to the program and thank you for taking the time to be with us today.
Nathan Crockett: Yeah, yeah, it’s great to be on. Thanks so much for having me.
Isaac Crockett: Nathan. Let me start talking to you as a professor at a good Christian university with biblical worldview, one of the original anti woke universities before woke was even the term known for not giving into political correct pressures. You are a professor there. You’re also a father of five children, a businessman and different businesses, a church volunteer, church worker, work with other ministries, many things on your plate, but could you just speak to us as you see, again, you work with so many of the younger generation and you have kids in your home that span the range from very young children to that teenage and middle school age. Can you speak to us briefly about just this rise in anxiety and fears amongst younger people especially and how it might be tied to habits that we have, especially maybe different generational approaches to screen time?
Nathan Crockett: Yeah, Isaac, I think that’s a great question. And again, just in a sense, this would be somewhat anecdotally, just having taught now for 20 years at Bob Jones University and remembering what it was like when I came as a student in 1998. I feel like, I don’t know if I could say every year, but certainly every five or six years, I see the difference in students in lots of different ways. For instance, a little bit, I’ve seen increase in entitlement that some students think like, well, hey, I took your class, I deserve to pass. And I’ll say, well, you didn’t pass the test, but you can’t pass the class. But one of the things is students would seem to be easily triggered. And again, because Bob Jones speaks to offer a world-class education without woke indoctrination, we’re not talking about being triggered over use of pronouns or things like that, but just students who have really pretty significant seeing fears or will they can get triggered and go into some kind of shock or these sort of things that I feel like particularly probably after Covid seeing a lot more of that. But for some of them, even when I do group discussions in a classroom of let’s say 40 students and we divide up into eight groups of five, many of them love that, but there are some of them that seems like it’s actually almost hard for them to talk to someone face to face sometimes because they’re so used to their screen.
Sam Rohrer: Alright, Nathan, boy, we could go so far on here, but you’ve identified a couple of things. My sense is that as I’ve had other guests on this program and we’ve talked about it, yes, the anxiety level seems to be measurable. You’ve mentioned a couple of them somehow, how you’re witnessing it in the classroom, but of those that you have seen, I mean the technology which produces communication without end, the smartphone, that kind of thing, it’s one family. We know the dysfunctional family is far different. It’s far greater than it is now than it was. If you were to look health, frankly, health factors, the covid piece in there. Have you been able to actually look and say of these factors that are driving these changes, these anxiety increases and have you been able to determine and rank and priority type thing, which ones are the greatest drivers of this?
Nathan Crockett: That’s a great question, Sam. My PhD is in theology, not sociology or something like that. So I don’t feel like I could say for sure. I do know, and again, I don’t want to, I’m not a Luddite or someone who says we shouldn’t use technology. So I use technology frequently and we use it for my businesses and so on, and I think there’s a lot of good that it can do. It’s a tool. But for many of these students, they’ve almost grown up with a cell phone and many of them basically almost like an appendage on their hand. Their cell phone is with them right by their bedstand. It’s there almost 24 7. And I think a lot of it, I think you could talk about what the screen itself is doing all the screen time before bed or people waking up at two in the morning to look at their screen to see if someone liked the post or whatever or watched their TikTok video.
Nathan Crockett: I think part of it is probably the screen itself. I think part of it too, particularly when you look at social media, again, I don’t want to bash social media. I mean for many, I think of my mom who’s a widow and Facebook helps her keep up with friends and so on. And so there’s some good, some mental health good that can come from social media with the community that can form. I enjoy posting things about really faith and family and finances on LinkedIn and have a following of more than 10,000 people on there. And so that’s a way for me to reach out to people all around the world, try to share the gospel with unbelievers, but keep up with 19,000. I think I’ve had 19,000 students through the year, so a way to keep up with many of them, but also what they’re seeing particularly with young people, but really people of any age is this idea of looking on social media and everyone else posting their best vacation pictures and the cutest pictures of their kids.
Nathan Crockett: And this idea, this comparison idea, like scripture talks about it not being wise to compare ourselves among ourselves, and that can lead to a lot of depression, suicidal thoughts, all that kind of thing. Because someone looks at their friend who’s in beautiful and she posts on TikTok and she has thousands of people commenting and in this book tries to kind of copy them or do a similar post. And so there’s certainly all those things. You mentioned, Sam, I think the decline of the nuclear family, sort of health crises maybe due to covid. I am not an expert on that for sure, but I have seen, I believe a clear rise in stress and depression and mental health issues.
Isaac Crockett: So as we see this fear rise, as we started out looking at when these trials come, we turn our fears to the Lord. We’re going to take a quick break. We’re going to come back with Dr. Nathan Crockett, my brother from Bob Jones University right after this break. Welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, joined by the honorable Sam Rohr on this Friday edition. As we ask Sam some questions, we’re actually right now asking my brother, Dr. Nathan Crockett, a professor at Bob Jones University, some questions about how he sees the young folks in his classrooms, as he mentioned, tens of thousands, almost 20,000 that he has seen come through his classroom in the last 20 or so years that he’s been teaching. What kind of difference has he seen, what kind of changes he’s been seeing? And we know that every generation, every person faces trials and hardships.
Isaac Crockett: And so we started out even talking about the trials that our own co-host, Dave Kistler, is going through losing his son and daughter-in-Law on this tragic plane accident this week. And so we’re looking at when trials come, no longer fear, but unfortunately there are many Christians, and you may be one right now that you are fearful and you are dealing with anxiety and we are looking at generations. In fact, the generation Z, the youngest generation that we talk about, many professionals, even those outside of the church and outside of Christian worldview are looking at them and saying, something needs to change. There are some problems here. One of the many factors that’s coming into play here is some of the technology, some of the same technology that can provide amazing resources, things that radio and TV and podcasts that we use here at the American Pastors Network and stand in the Gap media.
Isaac Crockett: There are some negative sides of that too. So let me just welcome back all of you to our Stand in the Gap Today program and to welcome back my brother Nathan Crockett, and we talk about some of these fears and anxieties, Nathan, over these last 20 years that you’ve been a teacher. And again, like you said, just under maybe 20,000 students, 19,000 students that have come through your classroom. You’ve talked about some of these changes that you’ve seen going on, but let’s focus in on the technology that has evolved. Internet, you were good at computers when we were younger. You got into that personal computer as it came out in the late eighties, early nineties, the internet. I know Al Gore claims he started the internet. People joke about that sometimes, but the dial up internet with the funny noises and the long wait times is no longer something we deal with now. We have these little glass devices that we call phones or smartphones and they deliver all the internet and much, much more than we ever thought possible to us all the time. Could you just kind of talk about what you’ve seen as a professor, how that has changed maybe the classroom or the attention span of those you’re trying to teach?
Nathan Crockett: Yeah, I think that’s a great question. And I think we often find in terms of there’s so many evil things on the internet and then things that are good and things that aren’t necessarily evil or good. So obviously if people are getting on their smartphone to look at pornography or to listen to music that would, or to learn about atheism or something, we think anyone probably listening to this radio station would realize that’s problematic. But then we tend to think probably the things we do if we’re just scrolling mindlessly through TikTok or watching YouTube videos that there’s nothing wrong with that. But what we don’t realize probably so much is that it starts to rewire our brain. And when they say that the average American is spending five to six hours a day on their phone, that’s doing something to us. And from the time kids are young, so we’ll probably talk about it later, but there’s even recent books that have come out that have really studied this by people who aren’t even necessarily Christians.
Nathan Crockett: They’re just saying to put the world in a kid’s hand from the time they’re very, very young is really dangerous and unhealthy and does things to their brain. And we need a lot more things like unstructured free playtime like many of us had as kids. If you talk to someone who’s 40 or older, they remember playing neighborhood basketball or pickup game of kickball and so on. And now we are seeing a lot of the effects. I mean, I know in the classroom I, for instance, limit screen. So if someone feels like they have to use their computer for some reason, they can sit in the front row of a lecture class. But for everyone else, I have them take notes the old fashioned way. And at first I think that’s really hard for them, but if they’re trying to take notes on their computer or their tablet or their smartphone, they’re going to have constant interference.
Nathan Crockett: Things just popping up, popping up, popping up. There’s been studies to show people in the workplace become a lot less productive if they just constantly are getting dinged by notifications and so on. And there are things you can do. You can remove notifications from your phone, you can turn your phone black and white. There’s a whole movement going on right now of people to brick their smartphone. You can Google that. That’s pretty interesting. Turn your smartphone into a dumb phone. Distracting. Yeah, I’m definitely seeing it with college students and I know it’s opportune University. We’re trying to do things to counteract that. We want people to be critical thinkers to spend time in God’s creation and not just be consumed by the device in their hand.
Isaac Crockett: Alright, I’ll let Sam ask you another question. It’s funny, we’re talking about smartphones and I was trying to use my smartphone to send a message to Sam, but my smartphone is actually messing up. It’s like somehow it heard this conversation and decided to quit on me.
Sam Rohrer: That is the interesting thing, isn’t it, Isaac? Because we’re using that technology now and Nathan, you do in your classroom and you put together things. I mean we do, but let’s go over that technology part and what you see. I mean, we know, and as you say, it’s not just Christian people, it’s secular psychologists and sociologists and medical doctors and all that that are finding phenomenons with our young people. But in your classroom when you see them coming in, I’m just kind of curious, is the dependency that you see on the phone in the linkage, as you said, almost an appendage and it really, it is. It’s almost an appendage for our young people and a lot of adults as well. But are you finding communication skills being most impacted, thinking skills, perhaps not able to think logically? I mean, when TV first came out years ago when my children were young, they were saying then that the way the flashing of the scenery and all that on the TV was making organic chemistry changes within the brain, leading to not being able to actually think logically. So there’s a lot of factors, but where are you seeing that technology dependency put it that way, most obvious?
Nathan Crockett: Yeah, that’s a great question. A few things that stand out. I mean, one would be the decreased attention span that in the 20 years I’ve been teaching, I feel like I have to just frequently ask more questions, tell more stories to hold their attention, to get someone to sit for several minutes and follow a sustained argument or practice critical thinking is becoming more difficult. I think it’s because it even went from YouTube and you could watch a 10 or 15 minute video to explaining something to now you have Instagram reels in 90 seconds and TikTok, all the short form stuff where they’re used to almost just scrolling through a hundred or 200 videos an hour. And so I’m seeing that decreased attention span. Also, I’ll give you an example, a couple, I guess three or four weeks ago, I was in Utah preaching at Pioneer Bible Camp.
Nathan Crockett: Great group of teenagers with the teens and their counselors and all, probably about a hundred people I got to preach to twice a day. I mean really sharp kids, sophomores, seniors, and I always have them fill out a three by five card where I ask questions, what can I pray for you about? What’s your favorite hobby? Just all these different things. And I noticed something, and it was nothing about people in Utah or anything like that because I’ve been noticing this almost every year. There were a number of those. I had a really difficult time even reading what they wrote on their three by five card. And again, these are 10th graders, 11th graders, 12th graders, but in many cases, their handwriting was so bad it was really difficult to read. And I think that’s because, yeah, I think there’s a growing number of young people that can’t write in cursive, for instance, because they’re not writing things.
Nathan Crockett: And again, well, maybe they’re sending everything on a text. Some of these things are not inherently bad, like you said. I mean, I’m talking to you on a smartphone right now. I’m not trying to say this thing itself is bad. Just like I wouldn’t say, oh, all guns are bad. Guns have a great purpose, especially when you think about national defense. A gun is a tool, but it can be used for bad. And you have to recognize the ways that we’re using it and the ways it’s affecting us. And also think of safe ways to use a gun. And I think for instance, as a parent, you need to think of safe ways for your kids to use technology. I don’t think we have to throw all technology out the window. It can be a great tool, but I think we need to use it in a proper way and we need to recognize the effect it’s having.
Isaac Crockett: Well, with that, Nathan, and there have been a lot of books about this. There was one that just came out this summer called The Anxious Generation, I think, by psychologist, Jonathan Ha. But could you maybe just give us, we only have a minute and a half or something left, but some of your takeaways from some of these books and just some of what you have been seeing, some takeaways of things that we maybe could focus on, especially as parents, grandparents, family, with the younger generation that’s facing this kind of anxiety because of maybe the smartphone and other things.
Nathan Crockett: Yeah, it’s a great question. And if people wanted a lot more, because I know our time is limited, they could follow me on LinkedIn or looked on my LinkedIn post. I recently did a thing about Eaton College that has band all smartphones for their incoming freshmen and a lot of things going on even in secular places right now, recognizing the problems here. I think the anxious generation, that was it. Very interesting book for a non-Christian to write, but he talks particularly about the decline of freeplay and the rise of smartphones and then also omnipresent social media and how he really talks about the importance of unstructured play, limiting screen time. He talks a lot about to face interaction for people. One thing he encourages for kids and adults is to embrace boredom that sometimes our kids say, oh, I’m bored, as if that’s a horrible, horrible thing, but they should be able to sit and be bored. And creativity is born out of that. He talked about being physical with your kids, wrestle with them goes for ROMs in the woods. We did a probably five hour hike yesterday in the mountains of North Carolina where we are right now with our kids. I know Isaac, last week we were with your family and our other brothers up in the Shenandoah Valley and
Speaker 4: Did a lot of physical things and do at any given time, have these spin these and things like that. But that’s not a bad thing you want ’em to be at.
Isaac Crockett: So parents, maybe you’re at the end of the summer or during school year, your kids might say, I’m bored, as if that’s some sort of horrible thing. Sometimes embracing that and working together, working through it, but understanding too that the anxiety, the pressures that your children are facing. Well, I want to thank my brother, Dr. Nathan Crockett from Bob Jones University for taking time to be with us. Thank you so much for that insight. Sam and I are going to be right back after this time out to hear from our partners with More to talk about. Welcome back to Stand in the Gap today. I’m Isaac Crockett and I’m joined by the honorable Sam Rohr, the president of the American Pastors Network, and on this Friday edition Ask Sam edition. I’ve got some questions for Sam, but we did have an opportunity to talk to one of my brothers, Dr.
Isaac Crockett: Nathan Crockett, professor at Bob Jones University, a little bit about some of the anxieties and fears that are going on in the generation of young people that are students right now. And he as a father and as a professor who’s taught tens of thousands of students over the last couple of decades has noticed these different things that are happening and some of it we can say are tied into our smartphones, some of it maybe to other things going on, as Nathan pointed out, and it seems to have increased since the Covid shutdown, so there’s a lot going on there, but there are a lot of fears and things, but it goes beyond just smartphones. For some of you, maybe it’s just even listening to the news on the radio or watching the news on cable television this week. We have seen all sorts of things going on, just a lot of things.
Isaac Crockett: But Sam, I want to talk to you in particular about what has been happening with some of the enemies of Israel, and I want to discuss the good, the bad and the ugly, what all you think is going on. We’ve seen this week, two major enemies taken out then today or within the last 48 hours or so, an announcement that another major enemy was already taken out back in July and they were just this week able to confirm it and just almost every day. And some are saying that’s really good, some are saying that’s really bad. Some are saying that’s really scary and we all ought to be worried. And as Christians, we know that God is in control and that we can cast our cares upon him. So I want to talk to you about that, Sam, but let me just start out with Israel.
Isaac Crockett: Can you tell us biblically why they have the right to defend themselves and to take out some of these bad guys? And then also if you could speak to what does this say about Israel and their ability to defend themselves that they have taken out a top Hezbollah leader, two top Hamas leaders, this is that they actually took, I don’t think I’m saying that name right, but they actually took him out in Tehran capital of Iran at the big inauguration time that he was there with their new president. So maybe talk to us, do they have that right to do that and what does that say about their capabilities?
Sam Rohrer: Well, a couple of things, Isaac, even under the concept of United Nations, which is extraordinarily hostile to Israel, it is always within the concept of sovereign nations that they can protect themselves against those outside aggressors. So from that perspective, we’ve seen even in the case of like Joe Biden, who’s had a flip-flop relationship with Israel supports you, but then they work behind the scenes to oppose them, that kind of thing. What have they said over and over again? Israel has a right to defend herself. Why? Because it’s not just Israel. Every sovereign nation has a right to protect themselves that’s recognized under international law. So that is why now in the case of what’s happening with Israel, they find themselves in a position almost like no other nation in the world does. And that is that everybody around them, all of the neighbors around them not only don’t like them as we’ve heard, they want to eliminate them completely.
Sam Rohrer: So that is driven by Muslim Islamic thought. So Iran wants to destroy them completely. They call them the small Satan, they call the United States, the great Satan. They’ve said, we will destroy you both Iran’s proxies, Hezbollah to the north, Hamas to the west in the Gaza or the Houthis to the South or any of these other little, these countries that may have a relationship that somewhat, like for instance, Egypt have fought wars with Israel, but they have a temporary agreement with them right now. Saudi Arabia where Mecca is located, Islamic different flavor, their Sunnis as compared to Iranian Shia, they’re actually giving flyover ability to Israel right now because in the end they fear Iran too. It’s a complex thing. I’ve traveled a lot to the Middle East and the one thing, everybody who goes there here is when you talk to the people, they say Everything here’s complicated.
Sam Rohrer: It’s this complicated. Everything here’s complicated. But now back to your point, because Israel is so small, smaller than the state of New Jersey, unbelievable. And those around them want them destroyed and they’ve now been a country since 19 48, 75 years here, and they have attempted to work with those around them. But every time they do, then their enemies develop themselves. And so you have an October 7th Hamas attack, then you have the Hezbollah thing. So Israel is forced to actually declare war, which they did against Hamas, which is legitimate. But now that puts them in a mode and I think this is what we are seeing. They’ve now the leadership and the people have come to the point where they say, we can no longer trust anything anybody says around us. We have fought wars already as a nation, and every time we grant these people who swear to kill us an opportunity, they only strengthen themselves to come at us again.
Sam Rohrer: So they literally are right now in survival mode. So as the world looks at them, the United Nations, the nations of the world, almost without exception, would like to see Israel taken off the map that goes to the heart of what is so they are now desperate. They are sensing a desperation. They sense that the enemies around them because they have manifested themself, Hamas, Iran’s already attacked them once. Hezbollah is about to go full blown Turkey justice. Last Sunday, Turkey’s Ottawa Erdogan, the president, said that he is going to move Turkey at some point into with his military to actually invade Israel. It is mounting. The result of that Isaac is that Israel being so small and everyone around them saying, we want you eliminated, are in a mode right now that I think we’ve never seen them in since 1948, since they became a nation again. And so they are having to be very wise, very selective, very surgical, which is part of what the assassination attempt, very surgical, because they just simply do not have the people. They do not have the population. They cannot win by attrition. They have to be very, very wise. And there are some there. And of course, as we as believers look and say, we also know that God is behind them. So there’s a supernatural element that also goes into this.
Isaac Crockett: Sam, I know we’re boiling a lot down into a little bit, but the reactions to this, and I don’t know today if they have started up again or not, but some of the airlines from America, I think American Airlines United ceased flights into Tel Aviv, into Israel because they’re scared of what the response is going to be. So there’s fear they use, it’s complicated. And for a lot of people it’s scary. But could you talk just real briefly here, the two options. Some people say this is horrible, they shouldn’t do this. They’re going to stop the peace deals from happening. Other people say, this is how you find peace, you show your strength.
Sam Rohrer: Two things, Isaac. Two things. The Islamic neighbors do not want peace. The Palestinians do not want peace. Hezbollah do not want peace. Iran does not want peace. What they have repeatedly said is we want you destroyed. Who wants peace? Well, Israel would love to have peace. We are to praise Christians for the peace of Jerusalem. There will be no peace there. We know biblically. Alright, so they must and they are in this matter of a fight. Now how we know biblically Isaac, where it’s going to go, it’s going to be major, major conflicts there. Ezekiel 38, 39, Psalm 83 war is probably going to happen before that way down the road in the tribulation period, the battle of Armageddon. But the world we know is moving in hostility against Israel, which is what Psalm chapter two talks about. anti-Christian two, it’s all there moving together. We just happen to be a time when we’re seeing them do this.
Sam Rohrer: So when they go in and surgically remove the leaders, and they took out Hamas leader right in Tran the other day, they took out the second leading Hezbollah commander in Beirut, and then they take out a Islamic guard individual in Damascus. These are messages that Israel is sending to their enemy saying, from a human perspective, we can reach you where you are. That is a message. That is a message that should put fear and generally it does into the Middle East mindset who always refers and goes to the strongest one. So Israel is saying, we can reach you where you are. That’s one thing. And number two, from a logical perspective, if you take the head off the snake, the snake won’t be able to bite you. Taking out these leaders as they’re doing helps to give some time for those under them because they can’t operate without a leader. So I can make a really good case as Israel’s making a case that taking out these leaders accomplishes a whole lot more than it does necessarily to provoke the enemy to do something which they’ve already said they’re going to do and they want to destroy Israel. So it’s a boiling pot is all I can say, but it’s legitimate and under strategies of war, under any significance, it is justifiable. And boy, is it sending a message as we can tell.
Isaac Crockett: Well, yeah, it’s sending a message and it is taking out these top leaders. And again, it’s just, what was it a little over a week ago? I think the Houthis that they went after for the attack that came now Hezbollah attacked citizens out there doing nothing wrong. And they said, okay, if you’re going to come after our people, and Benjamin Netanyahu, just as of yesterday, Thursday, was making some very, very strong statements saying, if you come after us, we will do just what you were saying, Tim, we will get you where you’re at. So very interesting information. I want to wrap up this whole week. We’re going to take another time out to hear from our partners, but Sam, I want to have you wrap up this whole week of what we’ve been talking about, starting with Michelle Bachman and the need to pray for Jerusalem and the Jerusalem prayer breakfast to midweek with Carl Brogue, talking about the prophecies being filled.
Isaac Crockett: So much more to talk about when we come back. Well, welcome back to this program. This is our Friday edition of Staying in the Gap and Ask Sam program. And the title I’ve kind of been working off of in this Ask Sam program is When trials come, no Longer Fear. And we talked about actually a book we referenced, but the Anxious Generation. But we’ve talked about how the younger generations are dealing with fear so differently and it seems to be insurmountable to some of them and emotionally difficult and draining. And part of that is because of the smartphones, the internet technology, social media, not just the things like bad things like pornography and violence, but just the pressures of it being there nonstop 24 hours a day, not being able to take a break from things building up. But there are so many other trials, and we’ve been talking about it from the very beginning of our programs this week about our dear friends, the Kissler, Dave Kissler, losing his son and daughter-in-Law in this plane crash, but also the very first program this week.
Isaac Crockett: Sam, you interviewed the Honorable Michelle Bachman and we talked about the trials that Israel is facing, having no idea on Monday, all the news that would unfold of the different people that they would take out or tell us from the past recent weeks they’ve taken out. And then you talked with Carl Brogue and wins, but I want to go back to Monday’s program. Sam, can you just talk to us again about the importance of what you and Michelle Bachman were talking about of praying for the peace of Jerusalem and the importance of this September Jerusalem prayer breakfast that’s going to happen just outside of the United Nations right before very important meeting there.
Sam Rohrer: Absolutely, Isaac. The scripture we’re told to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We know biblically that God has chosen Abraham, Isaac, and Jake. He’s chosen a people for his name, Israel being Jews, a nation for his people, Israel, the people, Jews and a city. God’s city is called in scripture Jerusalem. So the reason to focus on Israel, the Jews, Jerusalem is because God focuses on them and God has made promises to them, to Isaac, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that God would work through them for the fulfillment of his plan of redemption. That was Jesus Christ and his first coming, the Messiah and then coming soon, right? Unfolding before us is the second coming of Christ. But the world will focus on Israel, the Jews and Jerusalem just like we are seeing happen now. But we’re told in books like Zechariah that Jerusalem and behalf of Israel and all would become a burdensome stone would become a troubling thing for the nations because the nations of the world wouldn’t know what to do with them very much like we’re seeing today.
Sam Rohrer: They don’t know what to do with Israel. They can’t stand them underneath. They want to destroy them. Three quarters of all the resolutions passed by the United Nations are in opposition to Israel. It’s unbelievable what they are facing, but they can’t get rid of ’em. So the enemies, the 87 War, six day war, I mean there’s been wars, but God has stepped in those previous cases and brought to not what those enemies were intending. And Israel has continued to flourish. So they watch, they admire on one hand, but they can’t stand it on the other end. They’ve tried to get rid of them, but they can’t get rid of them. All that is in the middle of what God says in his word will happen. So we’re commanded to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Eight years ago, the arm of Michel Bachman mentioned she and one of the members of the Knesset and a couple of others said, you know what?
Sam Rohrer: That scripture is important. Israel’s under the gun back then eight years ago. They’re really under the gun now. We ought to do something the scripture says to do. How can we facilitate an effort to pray for government leaders of and of Israel specifically? Out of that came to Jerusalem prayer breakfast. Now they’ve been held all over the country. I’ve been able to be there several times in Jerusalem with my wife Ruthanne, 800 people or so from around the world. Pretty amazing things in the, and you’re meeting with Netanyahu and you’re talking with members of the Knesset and you’re praying for them. And though most of them do not know Jesus and accepting him as Messiah, they know that true Bible believing Christians are their very best friends. And so there’s a working, there’s a connection there. And so we pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Sam Rohrer: Now coming up here in September, September 15th and 16th, the Jerusalem prayer breakfast effort that was started eight years ago will be held in New York City at the beginning of the United Nations fall meeting. So it’s strategically placed because we know already that the United Nations as they gather in part, will be some very negative and harsh things that they are planning to try to do against Israel. So it’s a time to pray. Now, in the simple terms, I’ll finish with this. Why do we pray for the peace of Jerusalem? Well, a lot of times people don’t even know what that means and interpret a different way. But when I pray for the peace of Jerusalem, part of that absolutely means pray that the Jews, Israel’s a nation will come to understand the prince of peace and come to understand that Jesus was the Messiah, Yeshua the Son of God, and that he’s not coming the first time, he’s coming back the second time as their redeemer praying for that. But in the midst of that all at the same time, that all people, as they’re drawn into further confusion and emotional stress, as we’re seeing the world happen, that we pray that people come to Jesus Christ who is the prince of peace, who alone can give eternal peace. And so that is really the prayer. But that’s what we talked about on Monday. And if there’s ever an important time to pray for this in that larger part, Warren just talked about it is now.
Isaac Crockett: That’s right. Well, on Wednesday then on setting the gap today, you were talking with Dr. Carl Broey, a pastor friend of ours. The program was things we must not ignore. And you talked about looking at the events going on in the Middle East, going on with Israel, going on with their common enemies that are ganging up on them that were described in Ezekiel 38. And you walked us through this to see God, a reverence for God and his sovereignty for his providence, how he predicted these things to happen and more to come that are happening. Can you in a nutshell tell us why we as Christians should not fear when trials come, no longer fear as we’ve been talking about why we shouldn’t fear, but instead we should go to our knees in prayer and thanksgiving and in witnessing to our neighbors?
Sam Rohrer: Yeah, absolutely Isaac. And the first place I would go is the reason that we should not fear the reason that we should not like the rest of the world, be so anxious that we cannot go to sleep or befuddled in our minds that what’s going to happen is because Jesus said specifically not to in Matthew 24, the disciples asked, Jesus, give us some indication of what it’s going to look like in the days prior to your return, beginning of that tribulation period. And he told them wars, rumors of wars and earthquakes and famines, all of the things that people listening to me and watching right now probably would know. But Jesus prefaced that by saying, first, do not be deceived. Number one, a lot of false prophets, a lot of false information. And he said, do not be perplexed. Don’t be moved. Don’t be shaken because these things must come to pass.
Sam Rohrer: And that is the whole purpose that God gives us, prophecy and scripture to give us an indication of his plan of redemption. How it has happened came to fruition, how it is happening right now. Description, all these things, we’re talking about the nations of Israel aligning around them by name as named in scripture and the difficulties coming to Israel. And all of this is the Lord has given and told us this, and he gave us these things not to scare his people, but to prepare his people. Not to drive us to consternation and perplex, but to drive us in our knees in confidence to the word of God. Because if we understand what God’s word are saying, we are witnessing the hand of God moving in a sovereign way with his nation soon with us as believers when he raptures us out. All of these things should cause great hope and a greater motivation to share the gospel with boldness than ever before.
Isaac Crockett: Well, thank you for that, Sam, and one of the sayings that you say a lot that I really like you just said, it’s not to scare his people, but it is to prepare his people. I hope you’re prepared and I hope you are doing what God has called you to do, even now standing in the gap for truth. On behalf of everybody here behind the scenes and everybody here talking to you today, thank you for listening and join us next time. Until then, stand in the gap for truth wherever you are.
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