Ask Sam – Looking at Fraud and Hypocrisy Episode 81

Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett

Co-host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 4/24/26. 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.

Isaac Crockett:

Welcome to this program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett here, and I’m with the Honorable Sam Rohr, the president of the American Pastors Network and regular host of this program. And on this Friday edition, we want to take a little bit of time just to cover a few of the headline news topics, kind of catch up with some things as we get ready for the weekend. And Sam, we’ve seen just a lot of, and it kind of seems to go in spurts, but we’re in a time right now where a lot of political leaders, their careers seem to be getting derailed through some sort of serious accusation. And I’m not going to go into all, but probably the biggest one right now, the biggest name is probably Eric Swalwell. He was a California congressman. He was, I think, running for governor of California. And then all of a sudden, multiple women have come forward.

And I don’t know how many of these allegations have been out there for a while, but it got attention here. Just in the last few days, last few weeks, allegations of sexual misconduct, assault, even a former staffer claiming things. And so he’s had to kind of abruptly resign from things. Another similar, I think, surprising thing this week, a Democratic representative from Florida, Sheila McCormick. She just resigned from Congress days ago. I mean, just moments it seemed like right before she was supposed to stand before a House Ethics Committee hearing that could have led to her being expelled and there were accusations that she’s misused millions of dollars for federal disaster relief on herself. We could go on and on, Sam, throwing in different names of different people from high level places that are … These lights are being shown on some of what’s been going on.

But with some of this, like with Eric Swalwell, who when Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh was looking at appointment, he was trying to accuse Kavanaugh of all these things and saying, “We need to believe the women.” And now all of a sudden it seems like everything’s been flipped on him. And it just seems like we’re talking about fraud, but we’re talking about hypocrisy and deceit, propaganda. I guess Sam, maybe nothing new here, but could you take us back at the beginning of where we are right now before we get any deeper into the headline news, just some of the biblical principles that we need to be reminded of for ourselves every time that we see these headlines of some sort of hypocrisy being exposed.

Sam Rohrer:

Isaac, I can. And actually Constitutional Attorney David New and I yesterday on the program actually touched on a couple of those things as we went back and revisited some of the factors that were involved in the early adoption of our colonies or its constitutions and the US constitutions. And we anchor on the part that it was pastors and sermons that were preached from the word of God that were fundamental in directing the debate and ultimately that which we got. And that’s where I go on this. I have four things I just thought about that when I see these things, that goes through my mind. One is that unrestrained by a fear of God and the belief in the truth of being accountable to God, accountability, man will always reflect the aspirations of their depraved heart and nature. That is what we’re seeing. It is clear from scripture, that’s what we’ll see.

That’s one. Second, when I see these kind of things is that when the world and the world’s system, that the Bible says is controlled by the devil himself by Satan, there is no fear of God. Where there is no fear of God, more and more incidences of sin and evil will become known. God says that lawless will increase these kinds of things. We see corruption and bribery, unbridled passions of man’s heart, we will see that. And I also see this as well, that those impositions of power, civil authority, politic we’d say. They seem to be even worse because they’re more visible and there’s a tendency, and I’ve been in office, I know this temptation is there, that if we’re not restrained by the fear of God, that sense of power makes people prouder, more arrogant, more thinking that they are above the law and ultimately that maybe they are God themselves and it goes more and more.

Thirdly, when truth is indeed fallen in the street, and that’s something that talks about in Isaiah 59:14, there is no justice.

And when that happens, the Bible tells us that it’s fully set in the heart of man to do evil. So when there is not justice brought against corruption and sin and evil and no sense of accountability, you only get more and more of it. And I think that’s why we are seeing that, Isaac. And I think the last thing is that the Bible says that when a nation or a people walk away from God, he will allow the consequences of sinful choices to produce consequences that result in God’s judgment. And part of that is the fact that there is no restraint on sin and it only becomes more and more because man’s heart is depraved and sinful and man is naturally proud and arrogant. And when that happens, they lift themselves against the God of heaven. We are watching the humanity unrestrained by the fear of God.

That’s what we’re saying.

Isaac Crockett:

And without the fear of God, it just comes down to every man doing what’s right in his own eyes, like the Book of Judges. And so you see people abusing things and misusing and all this propaganda out there in order to promote themselves, the arrogance, the thinking of themselves as God. We don’t have time to get into all of it in this segment, but we’re planning to get into it next segment, but maybe you could kind of open us up for this. The group, Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that you and especially Attorney David New have talked about on many programs, they’ve had some big accusations. Some have called it bombshell accusations happened this week. Could you maybe just kind of set us up for this and then we can get into it more in the next segment and talk about more of the details?

Sam Rohrer:

Okay. Yeah, I can. Just a little bit. We can go further into it, but the Southern Poverty Law Center now in the news founded in 1971, many would say that in fact, when they began, they were actually decent. They were a civil rights litigation firm targeting the KKK, Ku Klux Land, racial segregation, and unconstitutional prison conditions that were present at some point. In its early decades, history was on their website, reputation rested on court victories against violent white supremacist groups, but not religious controversies. They didn’t go that direction, Isaac. They were on these other areas that were clearly problem areas until around the late 1990s, and especially after 2010, according to their own materials, their influence expanded beyond the courtroom litigation into what they call hate map classification, media guidance, reputational labeling, and indirect policy influence through government agencies, educational groups and all that, where they began to use new definitions of hate and extremism definitions.

And that is the area in which they came and they were highly, well, highly effective from their own, from their own website. I mean, they talk about this. Their strongest influence is cultural. They made a shift, which began to include the original, I mean, the religious, cultural more than legal. We can talk more about that.

Isaac Crockett:

Cultural more than legal for a legal law center. Sam, those words right there are very telling and the indictments that have come out against them have been very interesting, raised a lot of awareness. So we want to look at that. We want to talk about that more. We also want to look at the Bible reading marathon that’s going on at the Capitol Hills, steps of Capitol Hill this week, but especially another Bible reading that’s going on and even President Trump involved with it, a lot to discuss when we come back from our partners. Welcome back to our Friday program. And on this Standing Gap Today program, I’m talking with Sam Rohr. We’re asking him questions about some of the headline news. And Sam, we started out with some of the headline news about fraud, hypocrisy, just kind of these scandals that have taken place. And the one skin I want to get into more is you were talking to us a little bit about the Southern Poverty Law Center and it’s an interesting case, this interesting scenario, but the indictment that has just come out against them, a federal grand jury has indicted them for a lawsuit.

And what they’re being indicted for is fraud, money laundering, wire, fraud, things like that. And there actually are accusations that they have been financially supporting some of these radical hate groups like the KKK, for example, that they are raising money to fight against. So it’s almost what appears to be going on, what the accusations appear to be is that they are raising millions, tens of hundreds of millions of dollars to fight hate groups. And it was interesting that you said that they are turning more cultural in what they consider hate groups. And you actually are mentioned on their website. I was surprised to see when I was searching their website, you and American Pastors Network are not on the official list of hate groups, but you are mentioned and a number of people that we are maybe connected to in some ways are officially mentioned.

But I guess what I’m interested here, you’ve worked for decades in politics and things, you’ve seen what goes on behind the scenes. In your experience, these backroom dealings that in this case they’re being accused of, is this unusual in politics and what are some of the situations that you’ve seen like this?

Sam Rohrer:

Isaac, it is the norm. All one has to do is remember and go back and watch the movie, Mr. Smith goes to Washington. And

Isaac Crockett:

That’s an old one, a really old one.

Sam Rohrer:

That’s an old one. And the point being, government under … That’s why I say to begin, when you ask me the principles, when we see all these things, what do we think of? I think what the Bible says. Man has a depraved heart and the more authority a person has with a depraved heart, the more they believe that they are God and they will do things that are completely unbiblical, which is why the word of God says, “Fear of God and keep my commandments and then blessing will come.” If you do not fear God and keep my commandments, then injustice will come, tyranny will be the result. Corruption will happen. Fraud is always a part of corruption because it means you buy people off, but when the fact that the Southern Poverty Law Center as a part of their indictment, that they’re guilty of fraud in taking money and using it for other purposes, I mean, let’s think about it.

Doge, let’s go back to doge, all right? Everybody remembers doge, right? One of the things that they found was that all of the NGOs, foreign aid, was flowing into groups that were actually doing the opposite of what they were supposed to do. And they were actually creating enemies of the United States and were encouraging bad things. Matter of fact, a lot of the foreign aid, as an example that went out, was actually bringing in immigrants illegally from countries. They were enemies and many religious, many, some religious organizations that are a part of what you put in the category of faith type groups were actually the ones that were using government money to create a problem that has now become a government solution to try to get rid of people that were brought in by government money and supported by religious entities because they thought it was a nice thing to do.

In reality, they were being bought off. Okay. It happens, Isaac, sadly it happens all the time when people are unrestrained by a fear of God. But let me go back to the Southern Poverty Law Senate right now, because I made that statement and you commented on it. They shifted from that, which was legal, I mean, from pursuing legal jurisdictional things, and they shifted to trying to influence the culture, and they did it, and this is again from the website, by labeling certain religious arguments as hateful. Now, what did that do or what does that do? Well, it discourages public officials from referencing religious justifications, like for a politician to go back and say, “Well, back at the beginning of the country, there actually were election day sermons.” Now, let me tell you what so- and-so said, or that the Bible was referred to for the underpinnings of what is meant by justice, and the 10 commandments that were a part of our law and the basis for it, that actually was there.

No, no. The Southern Poverty Law Center had a way of saying that if you talked about any of those things, you were hateful. Now, were they hateful? No, they’re not hateful. Maybe they were, but citing history is not hateful, but what does it do? Well, it chills speech. It chills speech before it reaches the courts and it reframes theological claims as social threats or from a civic perspective. So the Southern Poverty Law Center would actually work somewhat on the outside in conjunction with like the American Civil Liberties Union or Americans United for Separation of Church and State or the Freedom From Religion Foundation, all of which are in the religious space trying to purge or scare anybody from talking about God, the Bible, how it has its role in government, all of that kind of thing. And that’s what they do and it became extraordinarily successful.

All you need to do is say, “You’re an extremist. You’re a hate group.” And all of a sudden the label sticks and then you take money and you promote that and all of a sudden people say, “Well, I don’t want to listen to you if you’re a hateful person or you’re an extremist.” And it’s a great way to stymie speech by avoiding going to the truth. That’s what they did, that’s what they did well. So the fact that they were using money inappropriately and involved in fraud and corruption, that’s no surprise.

Isaac Crockett:

So actually, let’s kind of go into these kind of twofold here that you’re bringing up. So they are able to, I guess you could say, attack those who have a different cultural view than them. To me, this is spiritual warfare and it’s their way of trying to attack those who have faith in God in some cases, not all the cases. So they have legitimate hate groups, legally definable type of situations with, these are the bad guys here. But what happens when they start sticking people who have a biblical worldview about marriage or pro- life or things like that start getting stuck on the page right next to truly racist groups and things. What we’re talking about is that that seems to have been done on purpose to try to bully or to slander somebody to quiet them. So I want you to … You’ve sort of brought that up, but maybe talk a little bit about that.

But then on the other hand of this, how then they are getting … Again, the allegations seem to show that George Soros himself and others funneled money to this group, that they are getting now millions and millions and millions of dollars. One of the big things that people are focusing on is this whole Charlottesville thing that went on that President Biden said was one of the reasons that caused him to throw his hat into the ring again, that since that supposed Charlottesville, racist march, whatever, they have gained tons of money since then. So could you kind of talk about the two hands, but one, they’re raising money for themselves off of this from people like George Soros. On the other hand, a conservative Bible believing group that gets put on there, how it can hurt them, everything from a bank to their videos being shown online.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, it happens a lot. Now I want to put it’s not just the Southern Poverty Law Center, it’s a tactic that the tactic of discrediting a person by calling them, labeling them extremist or hateful. Okay. We can say, all right, that’s in the category of clearly anti-God groups, like Southern Popular Law Senate as an example, but I’m going to suggest that it’s not limited to them. Government itself does it. For instance, here’s one way it does it. How long have we been hearing the whole, “Well, that’s a conspiracy.” “Oh, you’re just a conspiratorialist. Who came up with that? “Well, that was the government. Why? Well, anybody who says the government official narrative, well, you know what? I think there may be something else connected that, ” Oh, you’re just a conspiratorialist. “It’s the same way, Isaac. I think it’s been done from the beginning because when I go to scripture and I look at Jesus’ ministry, what did the Pharisees do?

The Pharisees, when Jesus was casting out demons and doing miracles that only God could do, the religious leaders, the Pharisee establishment, the reception of that day, they came to Jesus and rather than dealing with the authority, oh, they said,” Oh, well, you must be for doing this by Beelzebub because only Beelzebub above the prince of demons by this Jesus can cast out demons. “So what did they do? They said,” You are of the devil or you are a hate entity, or you are an extremist. “They don’t go to the matter of the truth. And it’s a tactic, Isaac, that’s been used for a long time. And when that happens, there can be no discussion of true policy, there can be no discussion of truth. And if you are not allowed to quote the Bible because you’re a hate type person, or then you’re automatically on the side of these types of groups who can avoid the real discussion by just putting people to the margins.

And that’s what we’ve seen for a long time. And it’s been a tactic. It’s a tactic of the devil. I mean, frankly, Eve back in the garden, what did the devil do? He questioned God in the truth instead of asking going right to the heart, he just said,” Oh, God can’t be true. “This is what we’re seeing. It’s been very effective, but as believers, we cannot be intimidated by it. We must understand the tactic and go beyond.

Isaac Crockett:

That’s very helpful, Sam. We want to understand these tactics and we cannot be intimidated. We’re going to take a quick time out, hear from some of our partners, and then we want to come back and talk about a very powerful Bible passage that the President of the United States just read this week. What all is going on with that? We’ll unpack that when we come back from hearing from our partners in this time out. Well, welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, and on this Friday edition, I’m talking with Sam Rohr about some of the headline news, and we looked at some of the fraudulent and hypocritical things going on, Sam, and we need to be aware. We need to be aware of the tactics of this world, of the supposed wisdom of this world. But Sam, I want to talk about something that happened this week.

It’s going on right now. There are some Bible reading groups going on. Our good friend of Angela Dave Kissler has been talking about the Bibles that he was handing out, the original Atkins Bible that he’s been handing out to members of Congress, as well as the start of their Bible reading marathon on the steps of the Capitol. And it’s a neat event that we’ve talked about. You can look that up. And in fact, any of you that have a smartphone or an iPad or something like that, I would encourage you to get our Stand in the Gap app so you can look these things up. You can listen to this program again or search some of the topics we’re talking about. Sam and I have done other programs on TV or radio interviews on this. So all of that is available in our archives on the Stand in the Gap app.

But there’s another group going on, America reads the Bible and that group we actually this week saw President Trump reading in that group, reading a very interesting passage. I’m going to ask Tim, our producer, if he could go ahead and play part of this passage, it’s where President Trump read for about three minutes, two Chronicles chapter seven, and they had him read verses 11 through 22, a very, very powerful part. We’re not going to hear the whole clip, but Tim, if you could roll just a portion of that clip for us to talk about now.

President Trump:

And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain or if I command the locust to devour the land or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes shall be open and my ears attend to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house that my name may be there forever and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.”

Isaac Crockett:

Sam, anytime I hear the president of the United States quoting or reading scripture, there’s something in me that gets very excited about that. And I think most of, if not all of our modern presidents have done some reading or quoting of scripture, but this is maybe unique and I’d like to get your thoughts on this kind of historical context. Here we have a sitting president reading with this group that’s reading through the whole Bible and he’s reading two Chronicles chapter seven, verses 11 through 22. I’m not sure if that’s ever been done before or other similar things have ever been done before, but I’d just like to get, what did you think about this as far as this, is this something unique as it appears to me that it might be kind of a unique thing going on.

Sam Rohrer:

I’ll start Isaac with what you said first. It is always impactful when someone in a position of authority reads God’s word because God has said, as you and I’ve talked about before, there’s something that happens when God’s word is read that the spirit of God, even though it may not be present in the heart of the person reading it, the Holy Spirit of God will take that wording of that reading of his word and he will make it have impact in the hearts of those who have ears to hear. And that is the amazing thing. The scripture is spiritually discerned. That means the Holy Spirit has to reveal it, but it’s powerful when a president or someone in a position of authority stands publicly and reads the Bible. And I share that with you 100%. Now, is it unique? No, it’s not really unique, believe it or not.

Many, many US presidents have publicly read the Bible going all the way back to Washington, Lincoln and Grant and Kinley, both Roosevelt’s, Reagan, Carter. So the President’s 2026 reading actually does fit within a very long tradition in our nation’s history, although, and here’s the distinction, although this is being done in a more modern, media specific, what I’d say, perhaps choreographed forum. And so what stands out is the format, but not the fact of reading scripture, if that makes sense.

Isaac Crockett:

Okay. And again, this is different than what our friend Dave Kissler and Gary Dahl, and even you have participated in with these capital reading marathons that go on, I think 24 hours a day and such. This, as you said, the word choreographed and planned ahead, picked … And with this particular group, America reads the Bible. A number of friends of ours, I think we could say people who have been on this program before have been a part of it. But also as I’m looking at those who have read or are scheduled to read, there have been people who we’ve maybe discussed on this program and not so positive of light that are also a part of it. And it’s an interesting conglomeration of people from different types of backgrounds going on here. Just out of curiosity, Sam, as you said, this format is unique, this idea of him being a part of reading the whole Bible and I’m impressed that he’s reading such a big part of chapter seven because so many times just verse 14 can get kind of ripped out of context, but what are your thoughts on the format that he’s a part of?

This America reads the Bible, this group that’s putting this on.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, I think we will see because of slices of the reading of the Bible is utilized to drive clicks or to raise money or to accomplish some other agenda, then it becomes a means to an end and that is not something that God will bless. He will bless the reading of his word because that will always happen. The Bible reading marathon, as an example you talked about where Dave’s been a part, I’ve been a part of it. I haven’t known that group, which has really done for a long, long time. Their goal is read through the scripture, right from the beginning of Genesis one: one to the end of Revelation. And it’s for the fact of the reading of the word, every word of God’s word, rain or shine, someone is reading and they go to beginning to the end. The goal of that entity, because I know the folks who started that at that point, has not been to ever capitalize or do anything off of for personal glory, but to bring glory to God just through the reading of his word.

I do not know America reads the Bible group to be able to comment on that part. I don’t know. But if we see that slices are cut and sliced and diced as a promotion for someone who did it or whatever, then to me that says, All right, that’s a problem because now glory’s going to man or glory is going to an organization that’s participating rather than singularly on the power of God’s word and the glory to God. That’s what I will observe.

Isaac Crockett:

Now, I want to get into the actual passage, two Chronicles chapter seven, but we’ll get into that in our final segment. But right now, as we just look at, this is a very powerful passage, especially the verses that President Trump read. And then as soon as he was done, actually Ben Carson started reading the next passage and then his wife Candy and Ben and Candy have worked with us at the American Pastors Network on things. Ben’s been on our program before, but a very, very powerful passage being put together. And I think President Trump really had the most impactful part. For right now, what do you hope does come from this event, from all these events of the entire Bible being read in DC right now, but where the President of the United States, as he’s in power, in office, he actually reads this very, very powerful passage in the full context in a very public way.

Perhaps what are your hopes, maybe perhaps with the president himself, that this would sink into him personally, as well as for our nation as this has been done and now people can go back and watch it on YouTube or whatever.

Sam Rohrer:

Isaac, it would be that this passage, and again, it’s been done by other presidents before, and I’ve actually done some research onto why this passage is used. And here’s a couple of reasons. This is why you It’s uniquely national in tone. It speaks to collective repentance and public prayer and the healing of a sick land. It offers a clear cause and effect, I would say, moral framework. Humility with prayer that leads to repentance, produces a divine response. And then from that comes national healing. It was actually the reading and the focus on that in the government fashion was actually instituted in the National Day of Prayer in 1950 when that passage was read for that purpose. And it’s for those primary things. And Isaac, the real key is if when it is read, and what I pray for is that there is a serious consideration by every person who hears and reads, because that passage follows the section of the chapter that goes before where God is going to bring judgment on the nation.

And right before, and the president read it, where it says, “If I shut up heaven, that there be no reign, or I command the locust to devour the land, or I send pestilence among my people. ” It’s the fact that God sends a notice to a nation of his judgment. If that is heard and recognized, and the response is one of two Chronicles 7:14, then God will hear. But if we just read it because it makes us feel good, there’ll be no response. I pray that people read and heed. Well,

Isaac Crockett:

Let’s all pray. Right now, even we’re going to take a quick break and come back, but let’s be praying for our nation. Let’s be praying for our president and for every leader down from there, that we will see a renewed heart, that we will see a return to God. And please keep the radio right here. Don’t go away. We’ll be back to finish up right after this. All right. Well, welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. We’ve been talking with Sam Rohr about some of the headline news of the day. And Sam, we’ve been talking about this passage, two Chronicles chapter seven. And there’s especially one verse there, verse 14 that oftentimes gets used. And so we saw President Trump actually reading in context as they’re reading through the entire Bible. They gave him this portion from chapter seven, verses 11 through 22.

And here he read right there from the Oval Office, this powerful, powerful passage. And we’ve talked about this on other programs. In fact, I’m going to try to make sure that if it’s not already on our Facebook, we’ll have maybe a link to one of the TV programs where you’ve talked about this in much more detail, Sam, and had more time to talk about it. But two Chronicles chapter seven, you’ve talked about it saying that if we’re not careful, parts of it like verse 14 can be taken out of context and used like a lucky rabbit’s foot. You’ve also said that it’s powerful, but you said, “I think often misunderstood.” Can you give us a little bit of the context? I know we don’t have very much time. We’re coming down to the last moments of the program, but can you give us a little bit of the context that this passage is talking about that President Trump read this week?

Sam Rohrer:

Isaac, I think it’s a great question because oftentimes, I mean, it’s easy to select a verse or a passage and not to put it and you use the word in context. And I think it’s what’s important about Chronicles 7:14, because this is a follow-up. 7:13 is where it begins, where God is actually speaking, and he is the one who says, “If I shut up heaven,” and then he says, “If my people who are called by my name and so forth,” that’s God speaking at that point, but the context is he is answering a prayer, a lengthy prayer by King Solomon in two Chronicles chapter six. And if somebody reads two Chronicles chapter six, it’s a prophetic passage in which Solomon is building the temple and he’s really asking, he’s asking the question, “God, is it possible that you, the creator of the world will actually come and your presence will fill this building made with man’s hands?” It’s a great question.

And then he anticipates, and there’s like seven prayers, he anticipates examples of where the people of Israel who had a tendency to walk away from God, and he knew that Solomon knew that. And he prayed and said, “If they do this, but they repent and come back, will you accept them?” And then if they do this and you send a judgment, and every one of them are associated with a judgment from God, but if they repent, will you accept them? And he walks down through and ultimately the last one is where a nation comes in because they have refused to heed the warnings of God.

And at that point, then God sends in a foreign nation and hauls them off, which ultimately happened when Babylon came down into Israel and hauled them off into captivity. So what happened? So God answers Solomon and that’s when he says, “If I shut up heaven, that there’d be no rain.” What God’s saying there is that I control the weather. When you have fires in your land, when the ground shakes because of earthquakes, when there’s not enough food, when health pestilences occur, God says, “I’m allowing that to cause you to look to me. ” And then that’s when God says, “If,” he says, “When, if I shut up heaven,” then he says, basically, “If my people, then if you hear this, if you see these things and you understand that all that’s going on has a direct relationship to me, the God of heaven, and you come back to me on my terms, then in fact I will hear.” So why I say oftentimes is that reason it’s a rabbit’s foot is that nationally, and as it been in our country, it’s a familiar passage to read because it speaks to a nation, it speaks to a nation in need, and it speaks and it offers hope of healing to a nation.

But what is not emphasized is that we have to come to back to God on his terms. So as God said, “You fear me and you keep my commandments. You’re not God, I am God.” You just don’t pray, you pray to me. And it’s not just feeling sorry for your sins, it’s a repenting and a turning around. In reality, what happened out of here, Israel did not do 7:14. They did not come back to God even at that point, and so they were hauled off, but it is a truth that can be applied to our nation that was founded pretty much in a pattern to Israel of old. We talked about that yesterday, David and you and I did on the program that our early founders actually compared the early America to the beginning of Israel and said, “There’s a connection here between fearing God and keeping his commandments.” You see, I would love for a president or those in office today to say, “You know what?

This is a powerful passage, but are we doing it? Are we talking about sin? Are we talking about how pride destroys a nation?” And every person who reads this passage or hears it, thinks about looking in the mirror and saying, “Am I proud? Who am I worshiping? Am I looking to Washington to make America great again? Because if I am, I’m idolatrous because only God can make an America great again. Am I fearing God? If so, how? How’s that manifested? Am I keeping his commandments? Do I even know what God commands? Am I reading God’s word?” Those are the questions Isaac. If that were to be done, God would hear even at this point. So it’s powerful.

Isaac Crockett:

That is very powerful. And I think that’s why it’s such a powerful passage and a powerful verse, but it’s even greater and more impactful when we see the whole context. And that’s why I love talking about it. And I hope that you can think about it, read it. And again, this is one of the prayers is that this will be used by our president, having read this, that this will now be discussed and hopefully something that he thinks about and that he meditates on and to others around him. Sam, we are coming to the very end of our program and I want to leave time for you to close us in prayer, but as you get ready, as you close us in prayer, I just want to open it up for you. If you have any final thoughts or words of encouragement before we close this program out today.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, even as we talked about yesterday in the program, David and you and I did, Isaac, that looking back is something that God instructs his people to do all through the Old Testament. We’re approaching a 250th anniversary of our nation. The White House is building towards that. Well, looking back is good. If we recall what God has done, if we look back and say, “Well, God really blessed this nation, but why?” As long as we give attendance to God, he did it all.

Isaac Crockett:

Amen.

Sam Rohrer:

Not us. He could do it again, but not if we think that we’re going to do it again. This is an element that today and the political sector of the nation in which we find Isaac must, must start with humility before God, looking back and looking to the God of heaven saying, “It’s not me. It’s not about me at all. It’s about you, Lord. No closing prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for your word that you’ve given us. It tells us all about you. It gives us the history of nations past, and it gives us the model for nation today and what will come about. And Lord, we know one thing for sure. You resist the proud and you give grace to the humble. And we also know, Lord, that all glory is do you and you share your glory with no one, not anyone.

And Lord, may we think of that as we go from this day forward. In Jesus’ name, we pray.

Isaac Crockett:

Amen. Amen. Thank you for that, Sam. Thank you for this whole program for helping walk us through these issues and thank you for listening. I know many of you are listening on radio, others on other digital formats. Thank you so much for listening. Please pray for us. Please share this program with others. And until next time, please stand in a gap for truth wherever you are today.