Ask Sam – Commerce, Crossings, and Conflict

Ask Sam – Commerce, Crossings, and Conflict

April 4, 2025

Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett

Co-host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 4/4/25. 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:

Well, hello and welcome to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and joining me today is the Honorable Sam Rohrer, the President of the American Pastors Network and the regular host of this program Stand In the Gap Today, and Sam, today being a Friday edition, I want to ask you some questions, but there are just so many news events happening just a couple of days ago. Tornadoes ripping through much of the middle states of America, some very, very close friends of mine in areas where I grew up had extreme damage done. I have some very good friends in Myanmar that all of a sudden there’s this unexpected earthquake and that has shaken their world. It’s just turned everything upside down. I’m getting reports from different people, some of them in countries where the persecution is happening, but of increased persecution and then we have tariffs going into effect.

This week we have immigration crackdowns getting sometimes more complicated in court, and we have growing conflicts in the Middle East, and so there’s just so many things and all of that in the first week of April. It almost feels like it’s some kind of cruel April fool’s joke, but it’s not. So we won’t be able to cover everything probably. But Sam, I do want to try to look at some of these things at Commerce crossings and conflict if we’re going to iterate it and look at some of these current events. But one of the things that caught my attention, one of the big buzz things kind of reminded me of one of our last times together, I think it was last week’s Ask Sam. We were talking about the Department of Government efficiency and some of the corruption and different things that were being uncovered.

And this past weekend, Elon Musk and one of his guys that works with Doge named Antonio Gracia, and he himself his Hispanic, his family immigrated from Spain. They revealed what seems to be major problems connecting the last administration, the Biden White House with their loose immigration and problems with social security. And they’re claiming even voting, I’m reading in this particular one, it’s from a Fox News article entitled Doge Volunteer Credits Trump for Unprecedented Effort to Curb Jaw Dropping Social Security Fraud. Here’s parts of that article, said Musk and SIUs revealed over the weekend during a Get Out the Vote rally in Wisconsin, that millions plural there, millions plural of non-citizens, received social security numbers during former President Joe Biden’s tenure. The pair shared a chart showing a steady year over year increase, reaching more than 2 million in the fiscal year of 2024, which ended on September 30th.

Also, the article went on to say, and I’m going to quote, and we tracked that through that through and found that they were on benefit programs. He noted, and just because he was curious, we then looked to see if they were on the voter rolls, and we found in a handful of cooperative states that there were thousands of them. This is illegal immigrants, thousands of them on the voter rolls, and that many of them had voted Sam last week. We said that the Department of Government Efficiency, we gave the good, the bad, the ugly on them gave some of our concerns about what might be happening and as maybe they’re using AI to try to turn things over, but there was a lot of things we appreciated about what they’re doing and the finding of justice and trying to eradicate things that are not efficient and corrupt. But I just want to ask you, I think had questions during the Biden administration about why were they allowing all these immigrants in, do these numbers make sense to you and do they draw a concern for you about our country even moving forward as a result of what happened during the last administration?

Sam Rohrer:

Well, I mean, yes, the answer is simply yes. And it’s not so much Isaac, the amount of money because once you get on the federal level, when you go from millions to billions to trillions, what is that for? Most of that are down there. Oh, it’s just another zero on the end, right? You can’t comprehend a trillion dollars. You can’t comprehend a billion dollars. So the size of this is shocking, I think to most people, and it is to me like is wow, it’s an amazing thing. But what you described and what that press conference, that interview type was about was the how extraordinarily linked interlinked like a web these things were. Now in reality, I look at that and I say in reality, it’s been known for years. Even going back to Obama, it’s certainly during, was that when individuals came across the border, everybody remembers that they were given a cell phone.

Alright, well, who was paying for that? What was that cell phone all about? What was it for the federal government giving a cell phone to an illegal alien? We know that they were being put on planes and shipped to different parts of the country for years, even before Biden, I knew talking to some of our own pastors that we’d worked with in different states, Tennessee and other places that you wouldn’t think they were moving these people in the federal government would move in, the illegals, give them homes, and they would move them into specific sections that were very conservative. And of course the question was, why are you doing that? Well, so the point being the linking to benefits, Medicaid, Medicare, social security, give them a cell phone, give them some lodging, give them some free education, all of those kinds of things, these linkages, Isaac were known.

The real amazement to me is how many previous congresses Republicans and Democrats knew that these things were happening, but nobody seemed to even take enough initiative. The appropriations committee, the finance committee, and the Congress, the ones who were supposed to never thought about maybe going a little bit further and digging out how much this was. So what Doge has done is actually focused some light on a very, very known problem. Nobody down there was able to say, in my opinion, having served in the appropriations in Pennsylvania legislature, I can guarantee you no one can ever stand up if they ever went before a court and say, well, they could say, well, I didn’t know, but they could not ever say, I could have known or I didn’t know because I couldn’t have known. They could know. So all of this is just really, yes, it’s uncovering an extraordinarily in every word, evil consideration of building a web, all of which has a couple things in common, not justice, it’s all theft because it’s all giving in away and stealing things from the American public. This is a big deal and I hope that we can in fact get some of it cleaned up.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, we’re getting close to a break, but what you’re talking about there actually reminds me too that many of the people caught up in this who came over illegally, I believe, and I know a number of people that I’ve gotten to know over the years that got caught up in things and were trafficked over here, but many times they are the ones being used. They’re being used as pawns and somebody else’s hand, whether it’s the cartels, the coyotes that are bringing them over, or in this case it sounds like even political establishment trying to use them for things and nobody’s actually looking out to help them, it feels like. And then the other side of it is shedding light on the truth, but will we do anything to fix these things? Can anything be done? A lot of questions. Well, when we come back, we want to look at a question that’s probably on all of our minds.

What’s going to happen with the tariffs going into effect? They’re just barely getting started. Will this be good long-term? Will this be bad short-term? A lot to think about, and we want to talk about it historically and constitutionally when we come back from this quick timeout to hear from some of our partners and come back with our Ask Sam Today program. Welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and I’m joined by the Honorable Sam Rohrer. As we ask Sam questions on this Friday edition of Stand in the Gap, today and this week, the beginning of April, we had of course April Fool’s Day, and it’s just a good reminder that you can’t believe everything on the internet as there were all kinds of crazy April Fools pranks going on, but it’s also been a very busy Newsweek with things all over the country and all over the world.

But one of the things that has sent some concern into the stock market and is on the topic in all of the news media and something many people are worried about is are we going to see rising prices or automobile prices and food prices and all these things going to go through the roof because of the new tariffs that President Donald Trump is putting on imports from other countries, at least 10% and in some cases higher. In some cases, he’s matching the tariffs that the other country is putting on our goods, and in many cases he has upped the tariffs, but they’re nowhere close to as big as the tariffs put on our goods. And so there’s positive, negative ideas on this. Some people say it’ll be hard short term, it’ll be good. So Sam, I want to talk to you about this. I want to talk to you about are there positives, are there negatives? But I also want to dig into the history and constitutional part of it. I want to look at the product that will come from it possibly or that President Trump hopes to see, as well as the process. Does he have the authority to do it this way? But we won’t get into all those questions at once. We’ll see how much time we have. But let’s start with, do you see positive reasons for these reciprocating tariffs that are being put in and maybe along with that, any historical or constitutional context for tariffs?

Sam Rohrer:

The answer is absolutely yes. Lemme just go here and just give a couple of basis’ for it. You and I talked about earlier, Isaac, I can’t think of anything, a biblical example of a tariff per se. As we’re talking, however, we know from scripture that its government as instituted by God, has the ability to enact taxes. So that’s there. So it’s not an unbiblical thing for taxes. Number two, constitution, what about the Constitution? Well, there is a, actually in our Constitution, article one, section eight, it says the Congress. The Congress. Now we’ll talk about that, but the Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, impulses, and excises. That’s within that is the meaning of tariff. In Article one, section eight of the Constitution, it also prohibits states, individual states from setting their own tariffs on goods with some exception. So the Constitution viewed the concept of lang taxes, which is what it is, duties imposed.

They’re all kind of in there together. Congress has the ability to do that, alright? That’s number one. States do not. Number two, tariffs were controversial. I’m going to say from the very beginning, 17 89, 17 76 is when our nation came into existence. 1789. There were debates when the first major law was passed by Congress 1789, permitting tariffs. In fact, a couple names that people know. Alexander Hamilton as an example, he was in favor and he foresaw that tariffs was an excellent source of revenue for federal government. James Madison, on the other hand, was adamantly opposed, and he predicted a trade war with trade reciprocity, as he talked about then with Great Britain and other nations. And he said, if we put this into place, we being a struggling little nation at this point, we’re going to be killed by these others. Don’t even go down that road. But Hamilton said, no, no, no, no.

This is a good thing. Okay. Third thing, tariffs and tariff revenue was the primary source of our US federal government money, their revenue stream, all the way up into the Civil War. And it was only then for just a short period of time during the Civil War stopped, and some other taxes were put into place at that point. But after the Civil War, tariffs were fully reinstated in 1894. At that point is when the talk of a permanent federal income tax came forward. So people said, Hey, we need more money, perhaps. And so all of that, the federal income tax then became a permanent tax in 1913 with the passage of the 16th Amendment. And in that regard, the sense was then after that, it came up into the Trade Act of 1973, signed into law by President Richard Nixon. Through that process, there were things moving back and forth.

More effort was put on income taxes. That’s when the IRS came into being and all of that kind of thing. Theoretically, it was so that tariffs would not be as great, but in reality, tariffs were kept and income tax was kept, which is always the way it happens. I’ve never seen a tax be killed. Totally. It’s always kept in place by government. And then the one other point that was, anyway, so that is the history. It’s been there. It’s a part of our nation. So when the president gets up and says tariffs can generate revenue, he is right. The fact that it has been done absolutely over history, more times tariff was our main function of revenue than the income tax, but there is a basis for it. So he’s not out cooking up something that never happened.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, now let’s talk about potential negative consequences. And again, a lot of people are seeing this as a short-term difficulty. Now, one of the things you’re bringing up though, is the revenue that our nation needs because we have this huge, multi, multi-trillion dollar deficit. That’s the debt that we carry because we’re not meeting our budget the right way. So that is something I think we don’t talk about enough that needs to factor into all of what we’re doing, especially with the Department of Government efficiency and all of that is if we can’t pay our own bills, why are we doing some of the things we do? But do you see negative consequences from the tariffs even politically for the conservatives? Is this potentially kind of a trap for them that this could be very difficult to get more Congress conservative people elected to Congress in two years and something you’ve kind of talked about, but as a potential negative, some people are saying the president doesn’t have the right to put these tariffs on there. Is this a constitutional process that Trump is doing that maybe is unconstitutional?

Sam Rohrer:

Okay, well you’ve asked a lot of questions there, Isaac. Number one. Number one, could there be some short-term problems? Absolutely. The whole world by these actions are being put kind of on notice by what the President is doing. It’s causing everybody to shift what’s run. I’m looking right now, the Thursday, yesterday Thursday at about the time of this program as it’s being heard today was down the market was down about 1200 points. It was down 1500 points upon the announcement, the president of these things being imposed. So there are some short term adjustments and we can talk more about that, but I don’t see that as a major problem. I really don’t. There’s too much fat in Wall Street. Anyways, there’s an adjustment been needed for a long time. We could adjust probably 10 or 15% and it would still be within the realm of whatever.

I don’t know, but that’s that. So yes, there could be some short-term things issues, however long-term, my own sense is, is that it will take us to a much better place, particularly if as the results of Doge and finding what they’re finding with the fraud and corruption, that in fact spending is reduced by Congress. And I think the verdict, frankly is still out by that. If Congress continues to spend at the level that it is, it doesn’t make any difference whether you put a hundred percent tariff on and raise income tax, you’re still going to upend the ship. So that’s going to have to happen. And right now, I don’t know that that will now will. Is it the same thing as a tax? Some people are saying politically, look, this is a tax. Everybody’s going to get hurt because of this imposition of tariffs, and therefore they’re going to try and link the President to taxing the poor and everybody else.

I’m not so sure. Here’s one way to look at it. Walmart as an example, is probably the biggest importer of products from China of any national retailer. They’ve all been about China. China products. You go into Walmart, you’re going to say China products, you can’t find anything that’s not right. So suppose there’s a tariff of 10% put on a product from China that suppose it’s a thousand dollars. Now, Walmart has to buy a product from China that is now instead of a thousand dollars, $1,100. Alright, well who’s going to pay for that? Well, is Walmart likely to pass along that increase in prices to their people? Chances are no. So what will they do? Walmart will tell their suppliers in China, Hey guys, we can’t sell your products anymore unless you cut the price. So they say, unless you sell us the product at $900 to absorb the 10% tariff, we’re not going to buy from you anymore. Now what will happen? China’s going to cut the price. That’s what I think. That’s been the history. So they cut the price of what happens. Well, the United States gets a hundred dollars in tariff revenue, which is very good. And the American consumer is not worse off. They’re not worse off than they were because Walmart told China, we’re not going to buy anything more from you unless you cut your prices. That is how it could go. And that could be a very good scenario.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, there’s a lot to be looking at then and a lot of people concerned because the last few years, the increase of prices, but also I think we have to be looking at the bottom line and the revenue for the nation. So a lot going on there. A lot to look at. Thank you for those explanations. When we come back, we want to look at some conflicts going on in the Middle East. Talk to you about what that means for us and how to pray for this world that we live in. Please stay tuned. We’re going to be right back on Stand in the Gap today. Welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and on this Friday edition of Stand In the Gap, today I’m asking questions to my co-host, the Honorable Sam Rohrer and Sam. There’s a lot going on here at the American Pastors Network and at Stand in the Gap Media, and we are so thankful for those who help us financially, who pray for us, all of our supporters, all of those who listen to our programs and share our programs, and who listen to our partners and visit their sites and participate in things.

But I would just love to give you a chance, Sam, to talk about some of the things we have going on here, maybe ways that people could give or support us financially as well as the Easter Devotional that’s coming up and some of these different topics and themes that are going on through the American Pastor’s Network.

Sam Rohrer:

Yeah, Isaac, thanks so much. We’ll take just briefly again, you and I talk a lot and we on this program share often about how important it is. And I want to say that to all of you who are listening to us right now, it is so very, very, very important that you understand that your participation is so vitally essential in the continuance of this program. Our Stand in the Gap weekend program, the minute program or TV program which has heard across the country and how God has taken and expanded all of this, Isaac, it’s been really an amazing story. And that’s not here to tell you about that story, but God has done tremendous things. But for all of you listening, you play a critical role because we do not have in this ministry, like most ministries, we do not have a deep pocket, a well that has water.

You can just keep pumping out and pumping out. We daily pray and ask for God’s leading and for his direction and for his provision. You, and you’re listening as you’re listening to this program, if God is blessing you through this program, consider that you are a potential means of both providing the things that we need most. Prayer can you pray, you can pray every day for us? Is that important? It’s critically important. You can also consider sharing and partnering with us financially. Some can do a lot, some can do little whatever it is that’s a part of God’s plan. And I would say out there for those considering that you also consider that when you give to a ministry like this and stand in a gap, if God’s blessing you through it, that you permit us to continue to do what’s being done. And that by we know from scriptural perspective is also laying up treasure in heaven.

And so there’s something very significant about being a part of that. So I put that out there. Now, one thing that I would call people’s attention to, Easter’s coming up just not too far off, and we have a special item that you can obtain. It’s online, we’re doing it. If you’re on the mailing list, you’ll be getting information email list from it. But on the website, if you go to the American Pastors network.net website, you’ll find as a banner that goes across the top. It’s called The Emotions of Easter. It’s an eight day passion week devotional. We’re calling it our own doctor, Jamie Metro who co-hosts on this program as well, put this together. And it’s really a short devotional. You walk it through, it’s like the highs and the lows of the walk of Christ to the crucifixion and ultimately to the resurrection. It’s beautifully put together. It’s lovely. You can quickly download it. It’s for free. Take advantage of it. And maybe a tool of even evangelism Isaac, for people to take and share with a friend of theirs. It’s that good. So I’ll just stop right there. But these things are available. American pastors network.net, the emotions of Easter eight day Passion week devotional, you can obtain for free, use it, walk through that. And that’s just something we want to extend an offer to all who are listening. And again, it’s for free. Just access it.

Isaac Crockett:

What a great opportunity. And I love these different resources, free opportunities, free resources from the American Pastors Network, and even speaking as a father, looking for things to use for our, what I call family altar, just a time of devotional thought process. Usually at the end of the day after supper where we just get our hearts together as a family. Usually that involves scripture, hymns, maybe catechism and a passage from devotional or the scriptures. And you could use this just with your spouse or if you have children or maybe you have grandchildren or nieces and nephews that come around, you could do family devotions, time with them and use this also in our culture. It’s kind of in the DNA. Some of these holidays are holy days, so Easter or is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s the highest holy day. And so using this as an opportunity, great timing for that.

Well Sam, I want to talk about what’s going on in the Middle East. And I know that you’ve talked to some experts even here on this program this week about it. I was looking at an article yesterday, Thursday of this week in Reuters, and the title of it kind of gives away the topic. It says, Russia says US threats of military strikes against Iran are unacceptable. And it goes on. And Russia is basically warning Trump and his administration not to take any actions against the nuclear program going on in Iran, that our government fears that they’re ramping up nuclear weapons. In this article by Reuters, the Russia’s deputy foreign Minister is quoted as saying this in Life magazine, and I’m going to give his quote, the consequences of this, especially if there are strikes on the nuclear infrastructure, could be catastrophic for the entire region. And then it goes on in this article to quote another Russian spokesperson talking about threats from the us. And she says that they will inevitably lead to an irreversible global catastrophe. Sam, could you talk to us more about what is going on in this precarious situation? They’re saying that we are on the verge of an irreversible global catastrophe. What is happening?

Sam Rohrer:

Well, what is happening, and again, I’ll have to keep this very short because of time, is that I believe prophetically Isaac, the world has been in the process of being pulled ever increasingly to Israel in the Middle East. The Bible tells us that ultimately Jerusalem or what we’re told is a troublesome stone, a heavy burden God draws the nations toward the Middle East. That’s been happening. God has used our own Donald Trump to further that attention when he moves, recognizes the embassy there and even did what he did on the Gaza, which did not turn out well. By the way, it’s actually encouraged the enemies of Israel to hate Israel more. When the President said he was going to take over the Gaza. That was not a good move, but it put focus of attention there. Now, this matter that’s happening with the Houthis, a proxy of Iran attacking ships in the Gulf, limiting trade is an economic issue where their bombing Yemen and the President has said, we’re going to annihilate you.

That’s a big and bold statement. Wow. And he’s also said to Iran, anything that your proxy, the Houthis fire off, we’re going to hold you responsible. Alright, well that’s a big deal. He’s also told the Iranians, you let us come in and inspect your nuclear and you stop what you’re doing or we’re going to bomb you like you have never seen ever. Okay, so now the whole world is watching. The president has threatened three naval carriers are now aircraft carriers are either on their way or in the Middle East are B one bombers are on an island there owned by the uk, the United States ready to go into action there. All of these things are being set preparator. And that is what Russia said. You do anything to Iran that’s going to be catastrophic. Now what else is involved? Well, what else is involved is that Russia and Iran are in coalition together, but so is China and so is North Korea.

And only a couple of weeks ago, China and Russia and Iran were all in joint maneuvers with each other confirming their alliance with each other. And I’m looking at a picture now here of a Chinese ship with Iranians on the Chinese ship saluting China. So here’s the point. They are in alliance Alliances have treaties. Treaties is if you attack one, we all come to your aid. That now exists with Iran. So when Russia says you tamper with Iran, we’re going to get involved even though China has not said we are going to get involved. I believe they will because of their agreement. But at the same time this is happening, China has been threatening Taiwan with exercises of the highest level in the last couple of days. China could easily make a move against Taiwan if the United States does anything against Iran. And lo and behold, the whole world’s involved in something. But I think Isaac prophetically, we have a circumstance scripturally, whether it be Psalm 83 or Ezekiel 38, 39, these nations of the world that are involved are going to come down. And we know there’s going to be conflict in the Middle East. It’s just that things are moving now so quickly that it’s hard to stay up on all of them.

Isaac Crockett:

It doesn’t sound like a vain threat then that it will lead inevitably to irreversible global catastrophe. And all of this with our biblical worldview, we see it as yes, inevitable at some point, but maybe not today, maybe not this week, maybe not in this situation, but all eyes are on the Middle East, especially looking and praying for peace in Jerusalem and so much going on. Well, we want to take another break. We will listen from our partners again and come back and we want to wrap things up and go into our solutions for what’s going on. Talk about praying for our world, praying for our world leaders and preparing our hearts for the Lord, preparing for his return, but most importantly, praying to live daily for him and to seek first his kingdom and the call of his kingdom above everything else that comes to us to distract us from that throughout the day.

So thank you for listening. We’ll be right back on Stand in the gap today. Welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and I’m joined by the honorable Sam Rohrer. We’ve been asking Sam questions on this Friday edition, and we’ve been looking at commerce crossings and conflict, all sorts of things really going on, not just in our country but across the world. And all of this helps us to know where we stand and know our part and know how to respond, how to act, how to make decisions, how to pray by looking at these things through the lens of the scripture, by looking at these also with historical context and constitutional authority and context as well. So Sam, thank you for all the information that you’ve been giving us on these questions of current events. But as we close out and as we want to wrap up in prayer and praying for this world that we live in, we have seen some major, major natural disasters, for lack of better term.

We’ve seen these huge earthquakes in Myanmar and Thailand have friends over in Myanmar, and it’s just been very, very sad to see the death tolls rising as well as we’ve seen horrible storms in many of the United States, kind of Middle Western and southern states. Again, I have friends that have been affected dearly by this where I grew up in Indiana has been affected. Some blame this on things like global warming, climate change. But Sam, when we look at these things through the lens of a biblical worldview, how should we see these, what the world calls natural disasters?

Sam Rohrer:

Well, Isaac, one of the things that I think we should, believers should be very, very careful about is that when they hear a narrative coming from, whether we call it the controlled media or government generally in these days or whatever, to initially view it as suspect, like you and I were talking the day and I talked to yesterday on a program that with our guest on it that what we want more than anything and what believers need to do is take everything that they hear and everything that we see and look at it through the lens of scripture. We call it a biblical worldview, but literally the pages of scripture, that is the only thing that can keep our feet anchored in these days when there is so much confusion and so much increasing lawlessness and so many lies and deception. Alright, now why do I say that?

Well, because that’s what Jesus says to do, and I think that’s the important thing. So when we see the kinds of things that are happening, these increasing earthquakes, as you talked about, the big one that’s there, and I mean that happened in Myanmar, a 7.9 I think is what it ended up being on the Richter skirts, an incredible thing that there in the straits that would impact Philippines, Japan. I was just reading in connection with this as well, that the best experts are saying there’s a 90% plus chance, which is pretty high for a major shift in the tectonic plates under the ground there. That would be in the 60 60 sometimes more powerful than that one that was just there in Myanmar. It would be like a nine point something or rather. Alright, well that’s interesting, but here’s the point. The of it Scripture tells us, and Jesus himself said in Matthew 24 that these wars and rumors of wars, we just talked about the Middle East as an example, the fact that there would be famines and pestilence that covers a wide variety of different things that are happening around the world right now that fall in that category, earthquakes in various places.

We’re talking about that now with earthquakes also comes volcanic action because they’re connected. Jesus says they’re going to happen in an increasing fashion and he compares it to birth pangs.

He said, prophetically, that is going to happen. We also know from places like Romans chapter eight verse 22, the ESV says it this way for we know that the entire creation, the whole creation, the whole world has been groaning or groans together in the pains of childbirth until now, since the curse way back in the garden. Isaac, as we’ve talked many times in her biblical worldview, we know that sin came into the world and people began to die spiritually. They died and they began to die physically. And that’s what redemption is all about. Jesus Christ coming and Easter coming up is all about the Lord addressing that need so that we can become back into communication and fellowship with him. But there was also a curse placed on the entire earth. The earth itself has been groaning. So there are tornadoes, the hurricanes, all of these things fall into one or two categories, a natural result of the curse where the earth is looking forward to the Lord judging as will happen in the days of tribulation.

And at the end of the millennial kingdom, there’ll be judgment then a new heaven and new earth. That’s what it’s waiting for that’s going to take place down the road. It’s not now, but these things will happen. So it’s one, the earth is groaning because of the curse of sin and prophecy. God says it will happen and they will increase and converge. And the second thing is that God uses judgment, uses weather, reserves, weather, the withholding of rain, the giving of rain, the shaking of the ground, all of those kinds of things God does as methods of having people look to him. That’s judgment that God uses. And that’s why through the tribulation period, these things will only further increase. And back to your question in this, what believers should do when we see these things happen is look to scripture and says, how should we be responding as to what God said would happen?

The devil in these times of deception, which we live would like us to think and discount God’s hand in anything, blame it on global warming, blame it on something else because it takes us a hundred percent away from understanding that there is a God who’s doing this, who’s involved, and I should be responding to him in repentance and all of that. So this is how I would say things are increasing. We either look to God and fall on our knees and do what the scripture says, or we blame it on God or we blame it on something else and God is not even in our thoughts.

Isaac Crockett:

Well Sam, thank you. That is so helpful. And as we are getting ready to close this program, my hope every time we look at the crazy things going on in the news or the scary or fearful things in the news is that it draws us to our needs, that it draws us closer to our creator and to our savior, and that we seek first his kingdom above everything as a result. I want to give you time to hopefully close our program in prayer here in a moment and maybe even give us some points to pray for when we see these things happening. But any final thoughts and then maybe ways we can pray and then if time, if you could close this in prayer, Sam.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, Isaac, just very quickly I know from scripture what scripture tells us that as these days continue to unfold, these end days and the world continues to focus on Israel and the Middle East and war does happen because that’s what God says will happen. All of that is preparatory for the time of tribulation, when ultimately God exerts his justice and judgment, righteous judgment against the God rejecting of the world. That will happen, that has to happen because of the nature of God, but it’s not God’s desire that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and some will trust in the Lord even in these days. And some are, but we know unfortunately, the bulk of the world lifts their fists against the God of heaven and they get even angrier because they’ve rejected the truth as they have known it. Now, I would just say pray that we are not among that number that rejects the truth when we see it.

Isaac Crockett:

Amen. Amen. Well, thank you for that, Sam. Thank you for listening. If you’ve listened to part of this program and would like to listen to all of it, I would encourage you to go back, listen to it, share it, use the facts that we’re talking about and above all, look up to the Lord, look for great things from him and pray. And until next time, please stand in the gap for the Lord wherever you are.