The World to the Brink

Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Guest: Leo Hohmann

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 4/8/26. 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 Wednesday edition of Stand in the Gap today. Yesterday, the entire world was taken literally to the Brink’s edge, driven there primarily by the tweets of President Donald Trump who for weeks has threatened destruction of Iran. For now, approaching six weeks, we’re already into it. The war with Iran initiated first by our nation in conjunction with Israel on February 28th. These are facts. They have both captured and consumed the world’s attention. Wars and rumors of wars have been the headlines for weeks, right? We all know that. While we here in the United States have been shielded by not seeing or hearing or feeling any of the real world impacts of incoming missiles and falling bombs, the citizens of Israel and the citizens of Iran have not been that. They have sensed and heard and seen. Nearly daily for six weeks, these two nations, growing to include citizens of other Middle Eastern US allies where US military bases are situated, but 17 and all, I believe, have also seen and heard and felt the literal impacts of missile attacks.

Then in the past few days, President Trump increased the potential volatility and the angst of the entire world, because we are all connected, but the whole world knows what’s happening. He’s done that by issuing certain threats on his Truth Social Tweet network, starting with the vulgar tweet of which we’re all aware on Easter Sunday morning, April 5th, which started with these words. Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day all wrapped up in one in Iran. Okay. Now I’m going to give you some quotes of actual words because that is what brought us up to the brink, I’m calling yesterday. Then yesterday on April seven, ahead of the 8:00 PM deadline, that was last night now, the president issued these apocalyptic words. He said, “A whole civilization will die tonight never to be brought back again if a deal with Iran isn’t reached.” Those are the exact words.

So you know what that did to the world. If you’re watching, it further ratcheted everything up. Then just before the eight o’clock deadline last night, the official narrative abruptly changed from apocalyptic to triumphant as a two week ceasefire was announced by the president. And these were his exact words. “Based on conversations with Pakistani Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the complete immediate and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and the attack of Iran for a period of two weeks, the transition from apocalyptic civilizational destruction, “those are his words,” to golden age triumph. “And then he concluded that by saying,” This will be a double-sided ceasefire. “Okay, that’s exactly as it was issued. Now, shortly following this statement, again last night, came another one, and this was the final tweet, or at least what sets stage up.

He said,” A big day for world peace. Iran wants it to happen. They’ve had enough. Likewise, so has everyone else. The United States will be helping with the traffic build up in the strait of Hormuz. There will be lots of positive action. Big money will be made. Iran can start the reconstruction process. This could be the golden age of the Middle East. “So in the matter of days, the world is taken to the brink only to be walked back into the analogy of world peace in a new golden age in just a few minutes. The impacts of such sweeping emotional swings cannot be overstated. So the logical question to be asked now and is being asked now is, and it’s nearly everyone is asking it, is what really just happened? To what did President Trump agree? To what has Iran agreed? To what has Israel agreed?

And what are Iran’s 10 points to which President Trump agreed that they provide a reasonable basis for negotiations to be concluded in these next two weeks? Well, today’s program, along with interaction with it returning guest, Leo Hohmann, independent investigative journalist, is to consider the current status, what we know, any identifiable trends that we might be able to see, and then what should be the expectation going forward. The title I’ve chosen to frame today’s conversation is simply this, the world to the brink. And with that, I welcome to the program right now. Leo, thanks for being back with me. You’ve been very busy writing in what days it is in order to try to stay up on things.

Leo Hohmann:

Oh yeah. It’s been a frenetic pace these last few days, as I’m sure it has been with you as well, Sam. But yeah, thank you for having me back on the program.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, let’s get into this because I just cited the most actionable quotes from President Trump. I wanted to do exactly because they are the words that brought us to where we are. Now, from your perspective, add into this what is the actual status of the war. I want to look at that, the actual status of the war between the US, Israel, and Iran. And in the next segment, then we’re going to go and build out more significantly the things that we know in segment three, the trends that one can safely predict is taking place and then how we should respond to these in the last segment. But as to status and add to what I’ve said, what do you add into that at this point?

Leo Hohmann:

Yeah. Well, I think it’s well known that the president was looking for an off ramp. In any war, you’ve got two different phases. You’ve got the actual military phase on the ground, and then you’ve got the narrative war, right? Which is the propaganda coming out from both sides in any conflict. The old saying is the first casualty of war is the truth, right? And we saw that in spades during this 38, 39 day war, however many days it lasted. It was well over a month when we originally were told it would be a week or two, maybe three. And so you look at the military objectives and while they accomplished a lot, that was much more difficult, I think, than President Trump and his team anticipated. I think they thought that they could spark some sort of uprising, a popular uprising among the people. That did not happen.

I think they thought that they could outlast Iran’s missile capability. That didn’t happen. They were still firing them at Israel and across the Gulf at the Gulf States right up until the last hours before the ceasefire. But then you look at the narrative war. And to me, they were losing control of the narrative, they being the Trump administration. And this may have been the clincher even more so than the physical military objectives being more difficult to reach. I’m not going to say we lost the war militarily, but nor did we win it. I would call that a stalemate, but on the narrative

Sam Rohrer:

War, we were literally- Leo, just I’m going to dip because of time. Save that, the narrative war. When we come back in the next segment, talk about what we know. I’m going to give a little introduction, ladies and gentlemen. Then I’m going to go and ask Leo to finish what he’s saying about the narrative aspect of it because Leo, I’m not quite sure what you’re going to say. I’m anxious to hear as well. And then we’ll go into this next segment of the things that we know as of today. If you’re just joining us today, this is our Wednesday edition, of course, of Stand in the Gap Today. And our theme today is the World to the Brink. And of course, I think you know by that title, probably what we’re talking about, that is the situation in which we find ourself … Well, frankly, the entire world finds itself breathing a little bit easier than they were yesterday afternoon and last night when the threat was to destroy an entire civilization, that being of Iran and then was pulled back from the brink by an agreement by the president that 10 point proposal brokered by Pakistan theoretically about Iran said that there was a basis to negotiate.

Now that being the case, and then I read all of the quotes in the tweets, which is probably the most direct, I’m going to put the most direct conduit to governmental policy that we have today. And it’s quite an amazing thing that that is the case, but that is. And so I read exactly the tweets that led up to that, so we’ll go from there. My guest is Leo Hohmann, an independent investigative journalist, been with me a number of times. He has a website at leohomen.substack.com. Now, Leo, just before I’m going to ask you to go back and talk about the narrative part of it, let me just give the introduction here in the segment as far as what we know, and then I want to come back and ask you to conclude that. But ladies and gentlemen, just to set it up, we’re in days when things like this happen, questions are being asked on all sides, and they are.

Everybody’s asking questions. Everybody’s weighing in with their own opinions. Well, some are, lots of speculation. We don’t want to speculate trying to deal at this segment with what we know, but this I can say is that before the war with Iran began, which it officially did on February 28th, now just about six weeks ago, news headlines, official government statements, they varied, and they frequently contradicted each other. And we’ve talked about that on many programs. But then when you add in the speculations of which there are many of commentators and would be commentators and click seekers on social media and other digital platforms, all being more and more augmented by AI generated false graphics and false statements made by unreal people, the public, and what I and other guests on this program for frankly years have said, we are seeing because deception, as the Bible says, will only increase.

And those are the days in which we are. And that’s nothing new. It’s not an opinion. That’s a fact. Now, because it is nearly impossible to believe anything at face value, it’s why I continually say here, we must be alert. We must be watchful and we must suspect deception first. Why is that? Well, the only place that we can believe everything and every word is the authoritative word of God. So be anchored there. Filter everything you see and hear through that lens. That’s what we try to do on this program. Do that in you and me and my feet and your feet will be kept from the lies and your heart and mind will stay anchored in the peace of God, which passes all understanding. I want to emphasize that because that is what the Bible says. Now, Leo, let me come back to you because I want you to identify as the situation sits right now, what we actually know.

And we don’t have time in this hour program to go through all of that, but I want you to go there, but finish first what you were saying about the status of the day and the narrative war as you were calling it.

Leo Hohmann:

Yeah. The military war on the ground was not going particularly well, as I mentioned, but the narrative war was going even worse. I mean, it started off badly with the strike on the Iranian elementary school where 165 school girls and about 10 teachers were killed. It got worse from there. There was no clear messaging on what this war was really being fought over. I mean, it was mixed messaging. It was the nuclear ability of Iran had to be stopped. It was then liberating the oppressed Iranian people. Then it became about reopening the straight, which the strait was open before Trump initiated the war. So that didn’t make sense. This is where Trump did not help his own cause with his social media posts and public statements. On Monday, Trump said that if it were up to him, he would just take the oil. It was there for the taking and he wanted to take it, he said.

He would take it, he would keep it and make a lot of money. That’s a direct quote. So he didn’t help his own case because even then it suddenly was not about nuclear anymore or liberating Iranians or even reopening the straight. It was about Donald Trump stealing again other countries oil and their oil wealth. And so he didn’t help his case at all. And then Iran made a brilliant move yesterday from its perspective when it had women and children surrounding power plants and bridges. And I think the administration at that point probably said, “You know what? The optics of this would finish us off in terms of losing the high ground, the moral high ground in the narratives that the world is looking at.” You had these competing narratives and what would it have looked like if suddenly the United States of America bombs power plants to the ground and turns them into ashes along with women and children.

So that just was really a nonstarter and so they had to pull back and come up with this two week ceasefire.

Sam Rohrer:

Okay. Leo, you are a journalist. I used to be in marketing. I was in government for nearly 20 years and as you talk about the narrative, I talk about the narrative all the time because that is a real fact of life. It is the story, the narrative, what people are thinking, and there’s great care and effort made into strategic positioning and marketing, branding, and all of that that goes into narrative. So I’m glad you mentioned that because, and I thought about that at the same time. That would have been an optic that just would have been impossible to have walked away from. Anyway, so you mentioned that. Okay, that’s good. Now, what certain things do we know from your perspective that we can talk about this situation as it sits between US, Iran, and Israel? Because there are three players in there, so they all have a vote.

Leo Hohmann:

Great point. I think a lot of people are forgetting that third party to this agreement is sort of the wild card being Israel. The United States and Iran might agree to something, but we really have no control over Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF. And so part of this deal calls for at least the … It’s all preliminary. We need to be clear on that. Nothing has been agreed to permanently, but the framework, as I think Donald Trump called it in his post last night, is the 10 point Iranian plan. Well, part of that plan calls for the Israelis to stop bombing Southern Lebanon and the Hezbollah militias in that part of the region. And so Iran is tightly in league with Hezbollah. They’re both Shia Islamic entities and they believe the same religious tenets. They’re both very anti-Israel. They believe that the state of Israel and that region is an abomination and they’re not going to just walk away and nor is the IDF going to just walk away from attacking them.

They want what they call a buffer area between them and they want to take Israel all the way out to the Latani river in Southern Lebanon and make that some sort of buffer area. Some people say they want to annex it and flatten it to the ground like they did in Gaza. Who knows exactly what Benjamin Natanyahu has up his sleeve, but the bottom line is, at the end of the day, we don’t control him. So in that respect alone, I don’t see this ceasefire lasting. In fact, there’s already some reports today that those attacks are continuing in Southern Lebanon.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, I have seen just recently, Leo, that Israel has said they cannot agree to the Lebanon issue, which is exactly what you’re talking about. And that may well be a vote, a veto vote, kind of like going to the security counts of the United Nations. Everybody’s got a vote except that some votes count more than others, the US and Russia and China. Well, in this party, Iran has a vote. The US has a vote. Israel has a vote and they’re all veto votes. So put it in that perspective, what else do we know? For instance, this is a two week, well, some called a ceasefire. Actually, the president said ceasefire. He referred to it as perhaps the opening of Golden Age of Peace. So there are all kind of expectations, but what about that? Because there’s a lot that has to take place in two weeks.

Leo Hohmann:

Yeah. I mean, let’s just … I think we can look at the Gaza Peace Plan as a model. I think it was back September of last year when President Trump made a big, huge deal, a grandiose press conference where he announced his vision for Gaza and that whole area of Israel, and they were going to turn it from a battle zone, a war zone into some sort of playground for the wealthy with hotels and casinos and all the stuff that President Trump is noted for. But what happened? You continue to see skirmishes and battles break out here and there for weeks, if not months. I think they’re still going on and off there. They’ve been unable to disarm Hamas, which is key to the whole deal, right? You can’t do this development in Gaza, and no matter how much you’ve devastated the territory with bombings, unless you take the weapons away from Hamas.

And that is not going to happen anymore than it’s going to happen with Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon.

Sam Rohrer:

All right. So ladies and gentlemen, as I said, we don’t have time to go in all of the knowns, but we know that this was … It’s a two week period, 14 day. It’s actually a cooling off period. It’s not a peace treaty, so we know that. We know it’s conditional upon opening of the Strait of Hermus. Don’t know exactly how that’s going. 10 point peace plan, which the president said is a workable basis. Frankly, the White House has completely rejected all of them the same points earlier. Those are some things that we know. When we come back, we’re going to talk about, is there a trend developing that we can project? Well, there are a lot of things … There are some things that we know about what’s taking place. There are many things that we don’t know, and there is a whole lot more upon which speculation is made.

Some people make their livelihoods on speculation. We don’t, and I think there’s no room for that. But there are things that are identifiable as trends, perhaps as direction that things are going. And before I go back and I ask Leo Homan, who’s my guest today, again, you’re familiar with him. He’s a author, researcher, independent, investigative journalist, key meaning independent. He’s not subsidized by big money or big government. So he is dependent on people supporting him. He has a website at Leo Hohmann. There’s two Ns in that name, Leohoman, H-O-H-M-A-N-N.substack.com. So go there, and you can read more of his articles and all that. But talking about trends, when looking at the unchanging words of scripture, I’ve talked about scripture already. We do all the time on this program because it gives certainty. And when I look at the unchanging words of scripture, one thing is certain.

There are many things that are certain, but one thing that is certain is that, and God makes it clear, that choices have consequences. From a governmental perspective, when I spent time there, policies or policy statements produce changes, impacts because of the very nature of what they are. And so in scripture, it’s full of that. God told Israel of old, for instance, in Deuteronomy chapter 30, that before them, God had placed two paths. One, he said would lead to blessing and life. The other would lead to cursing, judgment, and ultimately death. Now, those warnings that the Lord gave clearly apply to spiritual decisions. There’s two applications, long-term, short-term. The spiritual decisions are the long-term. They lead to eternal life with Christ in heaven, the right choice, the choice to pursue truth, to believe God. They will lead to heaven in eternal life. Or the refusal of that, the other path will lead to eternal death and judgment and separation from Christ and a literal hell.

That’s what the Bible says. But they were also those passages there, also warnings throughout scripture to the nation of Israel, and by application to all nations, including ours, including any, no exceptions, fear of God and national blessing will be the consequence. If those in government fear God, there will be national blessing. And if we follow his word and his moral law, it will lead to blessing. Consequences, good ones. Choose the choices of the human heart and worldly wisdom and cursing and judgment will be the consequence. It’s kind of like this. When you throw a stone into a pond, we all done it. The ripples go in all directions and they just keep going. The point is, choices like that have consequences. The larger and more visible the choices, the more likely a trend is initiated and some direction is established. Now, that is just all set up.

Leo, from your perspective, and you and I know that whether in government or culture, sweeping overnight change where everything just changes, seldom happens. It can, of course, happen. It’s going to happen when the rapture occurs. That’s going to happen. That’s going to be one event as an example, but not often does that happen. Generally, things happen a little bit at a time, slower, so and all that kind of thing. Now, if last night nuclear bombs would have been used, which is what the world was on edge expecting almost, it would have been changed overnight, but thankfully they were not. But normally things change slowly. Research conducted over time will show trends, which is oftentimes more valuable, I think, than any point in time snapshot. So when you look at the bigger picture of this war, now about six weeks going in duration, what choices have been made, policies have been done that are producing what you can say clear trends.

Don’t know exactly how it may end up, but trends that from your perspective are worthy of note.

Leo Hohmann:

Well, from the United States perspective, I think it’s been a very costly war, not just in terms of 13 or 14 human lives lost military personnel and I’ve heard as much as two or 300 injured, but lost political clout, the geopolitical clout in the world, I think a lot of that political capital has been wasted that the United States had going into this war. I think we’ve been exposed as largely a paper tiger. We are already in a bad position. We were unable to defeat Afghanistan. We were unable to defeat Iraq. We were unable to defeat Vietnam. We were unable to do a lot of the things that the strongest military in the world, and it’s not even close, as President Trump put it, should have been able to do. But this Iran war took it to a new level. I mean, you’ve got a country here in the Middle East that is highly advanced, way beyond what most Americans are aware of.

We tend to think of these Middle Eastern countries as camel jockeys and backward cavemen. It’s totally inaccurate, but we’ve been conditioned to believe that way. We’ve been conditioned to think that starting wars is normal. And the United States is very good at starting wars, as I said, not so good at winning them. And this just adds another notch on that belt where the world is starting to see us for what we really are as opposed to what the perception, the built up perception has been. And president, we seem to have a president who is still acting on those old beliefs and really in spades when he makes bombastic comments about how invincible our military … And there’s never been a fighting force like it in the whole history of the world, and it’s not even close in terms of who’s second most powerful, and that’s all being exposed now as a false veneer.

And I think that’s the biggest thing I see when I look at this war from 3,000 feet above and the trends going forward. And think of all the ramifications of that going forward. We will not be trusted. We couldn’t even protect our Gulf State allies in this war. Okay? They were coming under bombardment from his Iranian missiles and our air bases and our military stations in those countries have been all but destroyed. Think about that.

Sam Rohrer:

So those are trends. So you’re talking about political, geopolitical relationships. We’ve talked about it that you and I, I don’t think, but other guests have talked about how the alignment of nations is also something that is changing, being precipitated by this event. Obviously, the president going to call on NATO members to come to aid and they basically, every one of them said, no, we’re not. All right. So those are ripple effects. Those are consequences from this event. There are economic impacts as well that are having significant impacts. Anything to say about that?

Leo Hohmann:

Oh, absolutely. And I think that’s another reason why President Trump was looking for an off-ramp. I mean, you’ve really got to hand it to the Iranians. They played this brilliantly because they knew they had an inferior military force. They could not fight us and beat us on the battlefield in a conventional war. So they went asymmetrical and the power of their asymmetrical warfare was basically in the economy, able to shut down the strait of hormones and create energy scares, energy panics around the world. Many countries in Asia, like South Korea and Japan were already implementing rationing rules where people could only fill up their cars at certain times and only so often. And that was coming, that was spreading. That was going to eventually even show up in the West. European countries were already talking about it. A couple of them may have actually implemented it, and it would have eventually even come to America with six to $8 a gallon gas.

Okay? That’s where we were heading if oil went to $150 to $200 a barrel. So they had us literally over the barrel economically by simply shutting down that straight, which they said they would do, by the way, before the war started. So this should not have been a surprise to the Trump administration.

Sam Rohrer:

In addition to that, I’ll mention, even in the president’s last quote, he said, now that this reprieve is here and it may lead to a golden age, he made a very, very clear statement, “We are now going to make a lot of money.” Who’s we? I don’t know, but it’s based on the oil. But I did a TV program yesterday and we had as our guest, Chris Katolka from Friends of Israel, and we chatted about it just briefly in that just prior to February 28th, Benjamin Netanyahu actually made a statement about whether or not it was anticipated that the Strait of Hormuz might be closed. And he said in that interview that I saw that, yes, that was anticipated that the street could be closed and ultimately the Red Sea where the Houthis are, but he said ultimately the response would be to build a pipeline to move oil from the Middle East up into Israel.

All right now that’s a whole other set of considerations as to why, and there’s I think prophetical things involved in that. But the point being is that Leo, just as you have said, the damage already done to the refineries and Kuwait and Bahrain and fertilizer facilities and helium for circuits, all that kind of thing and Saudi Arabia, those can’t be reconstituted within a matter of months. So ladies and gentlemen, what is the trend? Well, things have been done that have consequences, and even if the peace, the cessation would hold, the economic aspects of it will not be It healed within a week or two. It’ll be years. So again, choices have content. When you come back, we’ll talk about what our response should be to all of this. All right. As we go into our final segment again, if you perhaps just joined us, didn’t catch the beginning.

The focus today is the world to the brink. And we’re talking about the lead up to that eight o’clock time last night where the president had said that he was prepared to destroy the entire civilization of Iran. And if you were not aware of that, go back and listen to the program again because I quoted verbatim every word of three tweets that primarily led up to taking the world to the brink. That was Easter Sunday morning tweet. That was yesterday tweet and one then just before calling off the threat that was before eight o’clock last night. And then I read a fourth one that came after that. So that’s what’s framing the narrative, framing the news, framing the discussion of all who are trying to figure out what’s going on today. And so we did that. And then between Leo and myself, we’ve talked about some things that we know.

And then we talked about some things that because of decisions already made are producing consequences that will not stop, such as the economic aspects as an example. That’s a clear and obvious one because plants have been destroyed over there and we’ll take, I’m just reading one right now, like the helium plant, which is primarily responsible for all of your chip making and all of that, which upon which our technological society depends, it’ll take three to five years to rebuild that. So those are consequences. So we’ve talked about that. So in light of all these things, we’re going to come back and say, all right, what are expectations now going forward? Now here from a biblical perspective, again, let me establish this. Believers and truth seekers. I’m going to put them in that category because not everybody are truth seekers. Believers, true believers, and truth seekers are warned in scripture, not to be conformed to the world or the world’s system, but, and most of you could probably finish this, transformed by the renewing of our mind.

That’s the way we think and how through the word of God or in today’s terms, learn to look at the world and the events around us from a biblical worldview perspective, which is what we try to do in this program. From an accurate application perspective of this command, Apostle Paul said that in Romans 12:12, supported by many other scriptures in regard to our expectations. Now we’re told not to be anxious. As an example, anxious for anything. Don’t get stressed out. But by prayer and supplication, let our request be made known unto God. We’re told by Jesus himself, Matthew 24 and elsewhere, not to be perplexed when we see the evidences of our days marked by wars and rumors of wars and deception on all sides and a spiritual falling away of the church. He said, “Note those things, but don’t be perplexed by it. ” So with these warnings and biblical boundaries in mind that should help us who are God fearers to frame our thinking so that as we’re not conformed to the world or its thinking process, that we know that what the believer’s response should be to all that’s happening around us.

So Jesus has said, “Be alert, be aware, don’t be anxious, don’t be fretful, and don’t be fearful.” All right, that’s where we should be. All right, Leo, as we conclude this from a human perspective, based on things about which we’ve talked today and you’ve written extensively, what expectations are you seeing? I’m going to say being evidenced by others and what expectations perhaps are you personally establishing for yourself? Because everybody’s setting up their own expectations based on what’s happening.

Leo Hohmann:

Well, going forward, I think we should look at what are the lessons for America over the last couple of months. I think there are limits to what we can achieve militarily. That may have worked under the old order, under the old style of World War II type warfare where you have all these big mega aircraft carriers, ships and planes and whatnot. But in modern warfare, we’ve seen that with the use of drones and satellite technology and AI technology, we as a superpower do not hold unchecked power to do whatever we want in the world simply based on our military power. I know that’s news to folks like Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz and the Neocons who are always eager to roll out military power, but this is just the latest example. It doesn’t work. It’s overrated. We need to take a step back as a people and as a nation and say, “What do we want to be known for?

” As a bully, always seeking to get other nations to quote unquote bend to our will, as General Jack Keen is fond of saying on Fox News. Can’t tell you how many times he’s used that phrase in terms of Iran, they need to bend to our will or do we want to get back in the game diplomatically? Stop putting real estate developers in charge of diplomatic efforts and take peacemaking more seriously. I’m referring to folks like Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. These are New York real estate developers who are always working their own personal business deals on the side. They’re not taken seriously by other countries as diplomats. This idea that we can just say, “Here’s the deal, take it or we’ll bomb you, ” those days are gone.

Sam Rohrer:

All right. Those are good. Those are some good things to identify. What about yourself personally? I

Leo Hohmann:

Have learned that we have to be careful of who we listen to. There’s all these different voices out there. You had folks saying that Iran, and again, I go back to the Fox News crowd. They were telling us Iran is weak. Iran is vulnerable. We have this historic window that we must take advantage of to eliminate the Islamic regime from Tehran that was all poppy cock. Okay? They’re still there. Some would argue that they’re more powerful in the region now than ever. Israel and Iran still have a blood feud going that will be settled at one point in one direction or the other. But we don’t know how that will end up, but don’t listen to the voices out there that are agenda driven. And some of them come, Sam, with religious wrapping and they like to wrap their prognostication. Like you said, the speculators, they’re speculating, but then they give a religious veneer to their speculation to make people think that, “Oh, this is how God sees it.

” Really? Let’s wait and see.

Sam Rohrer:

Okay. And I think that that’s a good place to go. And ladies and gentlemen, we’re about at the end here. On a TV program, again, that Pastor Isaac Crockett and I did yesterday on our Stand in the Gap TV program, we were talking a little bit about this circumstance and we concluded, and I’m going to conclude this today and that is this. From a biblical perspective, what do we know? Well, what we know is it is God that raises up nations and also takes them down. Nations are raised up by God for what purpose? Well, to accomplish a part of his overall plan. What is that plan? The plan of redemption. Where did that start? In the garden when God in Genesis 3:15, after sin entered the world, prophesied and set forward that he would provide a way of redemption. When did we witness that? Well, we witnessed that.

We just observed it on Easter Sunday when Christ came, died for a since, rose again, victor over sin and death. That’s all part of God’s plan of redemption. All right, biblically, what else do we know? God has chosen to bring that forward by a focus on Israel when he went to Abraham. He made promises to Abraham about a property out of boundaries and land and a people and a city, Jerusalem. That’s what the Bible says. And God said that he would disperse Israel, he did, and he brought them back. And they’re in the land and that the world at this point would continue to have their focus on the Middle East and Israel as God works out his further plans. And also God raises up people and he puts them down. So the leaders we have are there because God put them there. Are they all doing God’s will because they fear God?

Not at all, but are they doing ultimately God’s sovereign will? Absolutely yes. For a believer, we can understand it. And I say with that, let’s set our expectations accordingly. Thanks for being with us today. Join me again tomorrow, Dr. James Spencer will be my guest.