U.S. Foreign Policy Analysis: Path to Prosperity OR Flight to Failure?

U.S. Foreign Policy Analysis: Path to Prosperity OR Flight to Failure?

Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Guest: J.R. McGee

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 8/3/26. 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 Monday edition of Stand in the Gap Today. And it’s also our first Monday of the month, which in way we do this, our focus on national security, international geopolitics and biblical prophecy. And joining me again today is returning guest J.R. McGee. He’s the founder and the CEO of Extreme Leadership Group. And he’s also a 33 year, probably way beyond that now, year counter-terrorism specialist who has trained some of our military’s finest, including Navy SEALs, Delta Force and spyware operators. Now, one of the most profound realities of our day in which we live is found in scripture. Jesus warned that those who fear God are not to be deceived. We talk about that a lot, but the applications of it are so broad. And we’re going to go in one of those directions today, but he says don’t be deceived because the days in which we live right now would be marked first and foremost by overwhelming deception.

And in a practical sense, people around the globe as well as right here in America are more confused today than perhaps ever. And of course, why is that? Well, in large part, because what they are hearing from political leaders, amplified by media enablers, controlled media, we might call it, and then I’m going to say often affirmed by false spiritual leaders. What they are hearing just simply does not align with what we are seeing in real life. And the consequence is greater confusion, anxiety, and distrust. And what does that do? Well, it produces the environment where some new leader who looks a little nicer, speaks a little more convincingly, and perhaps promises something better will be received. And from assurances of economic golden ages to declarations of global peace, objective eyes today, I believe, in truth seeking hearts see a very different reality on the ground.

And it’s this profound gap between, I’m going to say, rhetoric and reality that forms the foundation for today’s program. It’s our title, US Foreign Policy Analysis, Path to Prosperity or Flight to Failure. Now today, just a roadmap, we’re going to walk through the Ukraine-Russia conflict in more detail in segment two, the Middle East crisis in segment three. And then we’re going to anchor everything in the biblical perspective in segment four. Now with that, JR, I welcome you to the program. And to get us started here from a macro strategic perspective, not your area of expertise, particularly if we’re talking strategy, geopolitical, international, national security, that kind of thing. But while rapid peace in Ukraine was promised within 24 hours, and we’ll talk more about that in the next segment, and swift victory over Iran was assured, we were all told that, neither is true. And what we’re being told is not what any objective person is seeing.

So here’s the question. Why is this, I’m going to say severe contradiction happening? And why does it seem to be a recurring pattern in our nation’s history and foreign policy results? Not just today, but really back a long ways.

J.R. McGee:

Sam, it’s a very curious thing. And we’ve talked about this on previous shows, but it still remains true. In Ukraine and Russia in particular, Trump actually depended on his relationship with Putin to be able to help him influence that to come to a quick resolution. Well, it didn’t happen because Putin is absolutely committed toward his objectives. And the overall strategy the United States has been pursuing has been one where everybody wins, nobody loses. We’ve done that since the Korean War. We’ve talked about that. In Korea, that never came to a conclusion. In Vietnam, we walked away with an inconclusive result. In Iraq, we walked away with it being inconclusive. In Afghanistan, Bosnia, Herzegovina, inconclusive. I can keep going. We’re following that same pattern because for some reason we’ve decided we don’t want to win. We just want everybody to be happy. And in the history of warfare, there’s only peace when one side wins.

It might not be the right side, but when one side wins and the other side loses, then you can have a period of peace until the next war breaks out. But when there’s no resolution, you’re simply delaying the hostilities. And when they break out again, they’re almost always more severe than they were from the first case.

Sam Rohrer:

Okay. And that’s interesting, JR. And again, as you say, we have talked about this before because it has existed within history. Let’s bring that back here to this because as we’re saying, the concept US foreign policy has been actually not winning. That’s what you say, actually not winning. Come to some kind of a political truce or whatever. But that was repudiated when candidate Donald Trump was running and he blamed wars on, well, the weakness of Joe Biden. And we’ve talked about that on this program or Barack Obama. And the strategy worked well in the candidate Donald Trump’s election tactic because it was. But what you’re saying and what we’re seeing now is that it’s still happening and it’s happening again now. So the point being, this is something that’s happened over administration after administration. It has preceded Donald Trump, but it continues into Donald Trump from a strategy perspective.

How would you explain this approach to foreign policy? But do it through the lens of a biblical worldview. Something is happening more than just the words of a particular president at some particular point in time.

J.R. McGee:

You can go back to Daniel chapter 4:17. He says, “The most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and set it up over it the basest of men.” Now you can say that Putin is the basest of men or Saddam Hussein is the basest of men. You can say clearly that the Khomeini in Iran was the basest of men. The Lord uses people to fulfill his plan even when we don’t see that. I can go back and look at George W. Bush in the first Iraq war. He stopped Norman Schwarzkoff after a hundred hours when we clearly could have proceeded straight on through and taken Saddam right then and been done with it. We stopped in Afghanistan. Every time we’ve had a clear path to victory, we have chosen to stop that in order to give “diplomacy” a chance.

And diplomacy doesn’t provide peace. Diplomacy simply provides paper. And that’s incredibly dangerous, Sam. I don’t think that we can allow this same pattern to continue to repeat because it’s proven over and over and over again that it doesn’t work, but people don’t see that.

Sam Rohrer:

You know they don’t. Ladies and gentlemen, stay with us because whether you look at what’s happening through, well, a military strategy perspective such as our guest J.R. McGee today is doing, or one would take an economic lens through which they look at it. Ultimately, until you look at it through a biblical worldview lens, does it all make sense? Now what we’re trying to do today, again, our theme, if you’re just joining, it’s this, US foreign policy analysis. That’s what we’re doing today. Path to prosperity. Is that the path we’re on? Or are we on a flight to failure? We’ll put all these pieces together. Stay with us until the very end. Well, welcome back to Stand in the Gap Today. And today we’re analyzing the clear disparity between, well, repeated, I’m going to put it this way, political promises and rhetoric that we hear. Literally about everything from the economy to the future.

We hear it all around us. Today though, we’re focusing on the application on US foreign policy and whether what we are hearing today is actually placing us on what I would call a path to prosperity, which we’re said is happening, or is perhaps a flight to failure because both aren’t possible. In one Thessalonians chapter five and verse three, the Apostle Paul there says this. He said, “For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not escape.” Now obviously he’s talking about the days in which we live right now because that sudden destruction and travail as a woman upon child is what Jesus talks about as leading it into the tribulation period. So we’re at that door. Now in this segment right here, segment two, we’re going to turn to an application of this biblical warning and the current example and tie it into what’s happening in Ukraine.

Now from a historical perspective, just to refresh a little bit, back in March of 2023, so over three years ago, candidate Donald Trump then first declared on Fox News in regard to the war in Ukraine. He said this, “There’s a very easy negotiation to take place. I will have it solved within a day, a peace between them, Ukraine and Russia.” He then repeated, as we all remember, that 24 hour peace promise throughout the entirety of that campaign. And it continued into the current term. Yet when pressed in a 2025, two years later approximately, interview on full measure, then President Trump walked that back by admitting, and he said this, “Well, I was being a little bit sarcastic when I said that.” Okay. Now the point here is this. The contrast between I will guarantee in 24 hours to, well, I didn’t really mean that, sets up the core struggle of our day.

Political assurances of rapid peace versus the reality of brutal industrial, I’m going to say growing warfare. Slogans promise swift resolution, but the facts on the ground reveal a grinding conflict pulling in Ukraine pulling in NATO and frankly, the entire globe into a much deeper, longer term commitment. Now, JR, I wanted to establish that basis to tie it in biblically because we’re going to look through that lens, but actually what’s happening on the ground. So let’s just go now to Ukraine because you and I have talked about Ukraine and Russia a lot. But when political promises clash so directly with military facts on the ground, what I just tried to do, what does an objective strategic analysis actually tell us about what’s actually happening there in that war between US foreign policy in Ukraine? Where’s that actually heading? Where are we? And what’s it tell us?

J.R. McGee:

You can look at the facts as opposed to the rhetoric, and you can see that Russia is struggling terribly. They though that they could win a war of attrition, but Ukraine’s doing far better than anyone ever thought that they would to the point to where the United States has actually begun to cut off some of our support because Ukraine was doing too well. And for some reasons, we don’t want Ukraine to defeat Russia. We would prefer to have a negotiated settlement where nobody wins like we talked about in the last segment. But Ukraine is doing extremely well, but yet we know the Bible tells us that Russia is going to come out of this very, very strongly. So even though they’re suffering militarily, and Ukraine has now destroyed close to 40% of Russia’s oil producing and refining capabilities, that’s a dramatic impact. They’ve inflicted terrible losses on the Russian army and the military and the Air Force to include strategic bombers that Russia can’t replace.

But yet all of the talk is towards finding a way to simply stop the atrocities and the aggression and not solve the aggression. And that goes back to that pattern to where we don’t want anyone to win. We don’t want to win, but we don’t want anyone else to win either. We simply want people to find a way to just get along. It’s kind of the Rodney King strategy for military success. And it’s not successful, Sam. We’re seeing that it simply drags out delays and defers greater conflict in the future. And we’re seeing that playing out in real time.

Ukraine has actually developed a strong technological capability for drone warfare that exceeds anyone out there with the exception of Israel. And they’re now beginning to export that. They’ve offered it to the United States in fact. And Trump said, “The last thing we want is help from Zelensky.” Now, I don’t know why anyone would say, “I don’t want help from someone who could provide us with help.” But that’s the situation we find ourselves in. And it doesn’t make sense strategically. It doesn’t always make sense politically, but it does make sense if you look at it through the lens of finding a way to simply make people stop doing what they’re doing. And frankly, all of this is in alignment with it precisely what God has told us through his word is going to occur. Even a blind person using braille should be able to see this.

Sam Rohrer:

J.R., we’re going to go further into that. Ladies and gentlemen, stay with us because all this leads up to that. But what’s happening in real time though is that the entire world is producing more, putting more money into military budgets and greater weaponry. So that’s happening. Alignments of nations are changing. All of these things are happening. And yet political leaders think if they can control the process, that they are more in control. And that’s where we’re going to go. We’ll talk about that at the end. They’re not. Now, Jared, what’s going on here throughout American history? I’m going to talk about this matter of peace and war and where we’re going. And just a little bit of research. Woodrow Wilson called for a peace without victory, an organized common peace, just supporting exactly what he said, at peace without victory. Dwight Eisenhower admitted, “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived at Cannes.

Our basic purpose has been to keep the peace.” He was all about peace. Richard Nixon said, “The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker.” That’s what he wanted for himself. Ronald Reagan. “We don’t want a phony peace or a frail peace. We want real peace. “He was at peace talking about that. Jimmy Carter, he talked about wants to be remembered because he kept peace when I was president. Then Donald Trump himself, very clearly we all know in his second inauguration,” I want to be remembered as a man of peace. And he has stopped eight wars, “he has told us. So all right, now all that being stated, looking across history and looking at current president today, because that’s the time in which we’re living. What do you think drives, well, now Donald Trump, or maybe comment on others in the past if you want to, when it comes to wanting to be known as a leader of peace?

And how does that personal drive tie into, well, I’m going to say the creation of the board of peace, very unique, but created to manage and oversee the post-war reconstruction of Gaza, which will take us to the Middle East in the next segment. But lay that out. What do you think?

J.R. McGee:

I hate to say this, but I think a lot of this is being driven by ego. Donald Trump took it extremely personal when other people were given the Nobel Peace Prize for very little results. And yet he got some results and was totally snubbed. And he’s never going to get a Nobel Peace Prize. It doesn’t matter what he does. So he has become obsessed with racking up, “The number of peace treaties.” But some of those things that they’re taking credit for, the administration’s taking credit for, have not been very successful. Now, in the past, I’ve been critical of administrations. I was critical of George H. W. Bush. I was critical of Barack Obama. I was critical of Joe Biden. And where this administration is not doing correctly, I’m going to be critical of them too. I don’t come onto this show to promote an administration or to criticize an administration.

I just want to talk about the facts. But in the India-Pakistan peace agreement, the America administration took credit for that. But the Indian government said the talks regarding the cessation of military action were held directly between India and Pakistan under existing channels established between both militaries. The United States had very little to do with this. And then an agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, they’re still fighting this going on. So if ceasefire has never really existed, even though there’s a piece of paper that says that there has. And then you look at Ethiopia and Egypt, we took credit for that one. But there’s been no formal deal that’s been reached between Egypt and Ethiopia involving the water or the war or the military strikes that are going on. I can keep going with Serbia and Kosovo like we talked about in segment one.

They signed the normalization agreement, but they weren’t at war at the time that they signed that. That was purely an economic agreement. So what’s driving a lot of this is an obsession towards trying to prove that he deserves that recognition as a man of peace when the world’s not going to give that to him.

Sam Rohrer:

And ladies and gentlemen, again, bear in mind, there will be an increasing discussion and promise of peace as we approach the days in which we live. We are seeing that happen. And the current president is not the first one to talk about peace. He is talking a lot about peace, but the talk of peace is increasing. However, again, that will fill in the cracks. When we come back, we’re going to talk about Iran and Israel war and whether or not we’re leading to peace or leading to failure. Well, as we continue in our program here today now, the theme, again, if you’re just perhaps joining us, and I know that on radio, that’s what often happens. My guest today is J.R. McGee. Generally on the first Monday of the month, we’ve tried to do this for a long time where we focus on the issues of national security, international geopolitics and biblical prophecy.

And why did we do that? Well, because those three together are a very unique niche. But most of what we see in here in media up today all has to do with public policy of some type. It’s something some politician is saying, some government decision that’s being made. And that has implications at home domestically as well as overseas, internationally, the geopolitics of the world. That’s why we talk a lot about the Middle East and everything that’s happening there. But why in the end of the day, you cannot make sense out of any of it unless you look through and until you look through the lens of biblical prophecy of scripture, a biblical worldview. So that’s why we bring these together. So if you’re just joining us, we’re in the middle of that. Our theme today is this, US foreign policy analysis, path to prosperity or flight to failure.

And we’re building that out. So as we continue now in our analysis of US foreign policy, and we’re going to shift here from Eastern Europe, primarily Ukraine, Russia, what’s happening there, which we talked about in the last segment, to the matter of the Middle East. Now in the last segment, we looked at how sweeping political promises regarding Ukraine, that is that war going on, we can get it fixed in 24 hours, collides with the harsh realities that that’s not true. And in fact, we have a very prolonged industrial war going on. Not lessening, deepening. Now here in this segment, we see the same tension playing out across Israel, Iran, and the broader Middle East that’s bringing in all of those Arab countries. Frankly, throw in Turkey, you can throw in China, you can throw in Russia. Very broad. But while the public is repeatedly assured that strategic deterrence is working, we hear that all the time, that regional stability is being restored.

We hear that all the time. And that a deal is on the cusp or that historic peace structures like the newly established board of peace, which is tasked with overseeing post-war Gaza and Hamas and all that’s there because it’s going to bring about a secure order. It shouts something totally different. Escalating strikes, multi-front proxy warfare in the Middle East, direct confrontations with Iran, and threats to global shipping lanes to demonstrate that true peace remains very elusive. Once again in the scripture, one Thessalonians five: three, quote that in the last segment, “When they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them.” JR, when we look at the Middle East and what’s taking place there through an objective military and strategic lens, which is the lens through which you are looking. Is US foreign policy actually establishing real deterrence and stability? Or are these diplomatic declarations creating a dangerous, false sense of peace while the region moves ever closer to a wider scale escalation and war?

J.R. McGee:

And as they say in TV, that sir, is the $64,000 question. Donald Trump has said probably close to 50 times now that the Iranians want a deal and we’re on the cusp of having a deal. And we’ve actually stopped Israel from accomplishing her objectives to provide peace and safety to her citizens. All of these things that we’ve done, we stopped Israel from annihilating Hamas. And we’ve set up this peace board that you’ve referred to. We’ve stopped Israel from annihilating Hezbollah. We actually stopped Israel from continuing to bomb the leadership of Iran. We’ve taken all of these actions and we’ve stopped short of the goal line. And every time something big comes up, we hear these grand promises that we’re going to go in bigger than World War II. And yet at the very last moment, there’s always a cease fire in order to have more negotiations with a country that has proven they don’t want a peace treaty.

They don’t want anything other than survival. They will say anything, do anything in order to survive. They have no intentions of keeping any agreement that they make. They’ve proven that for the last 47 years. They’ve got an objective and they’re pursuing that. Donald Trump is violating his own rules in his book, The Art of the Deal. You have to know when to walk away from a negotiation that’s not going well. He’s chasing this and that’s putting us in a distinct disadvantage. And every time we say we’re going to do something and then we call it off, we destroy our credibility yet a little bit more. It’s –

Sam Rohrer:

Okay. JR, did you leave me? All right. For some reason, have to call back in there again, or Tim, perhaps get him. Okay, you’re back with me, JR. Go ahead. We lost you for a minute. Go ahead.

J.R. McGee:

I am. And I had a great answer that we completely lost there. I didn’t realize I was not on the air. For some reason, Donald Trump has been pursuing this initiative to stop Israel. He stopped Israel from attacking Hamas and finalizing that conflict. He stopped Israel from pursuing Hezbollah and finalizing that conflict. He stopped Israel from finalizing the attack on the leadership of Iran. At every stage, we have pursued the cessation of hostilities, not the winning of the activity. And we keep coming up to these initiatives where we say, “Oh, we’re going to have the biggest attack since World War II.” This has happened over and over again. And at the last minute, we always stop and say, “Oh, well, they won a deal. We’re going to talk.” That’s destroying our credibility when it happens over and over and over again. It puts us in a position of weakness.

It’s destroying our leverage because Iran wants nothing but to survive. They will not honor any agreement that they sign up with. They proved that for the last 47 years. They have no intentions of stopping their pursuit of nuclear weapons as long as the current leadership remains in place. And for some reason, the America administration is dedicated towards leaving the current leadership position in Iran. Even after for 47 years, they have been the sole source of terrorism and chaos throughout not just the Middle East, but through Europe, North America, throughout the world. And it’s inexplicable, Sam,

Sam Rohrer:

And it’s

J.R. McGee:

Not a pathway to victory.

Sam Rohrer:

Okay. And that’s going to ties right into my next question about path to prosperity or a flight to failure. Let me add this into that and get your comments on this. The president has placed significant personal emphasis on being remembered as a peacemaker. I gave some of those comments. He’s not the first president, but he is the current one. Even creating, and this is distinct, creating and chairing the multinational board of peace, the Gaza Board of Peace. And it’s distinct, and you and I have talked about it much, but it’s distinct because it alone, as a legal entity, has been empowered by the UN Security Council. The President has been placed as chairman for life, either him or his appointee. And every time we’re going down this process, I look for ways that he introduces the Abrahamic Accord, Board of Peace, or however, to somehow try to bring people into some kind of a deal.

He’s pressuring Saudi Arabia now to join the Abrahamic Accords in exchange for giving them nuclear ability. Just declared Hamas has agreed to disarm, but both the Saudis and Hamas have made their agreement tied to a Palestinian state. That places an incredible degree of pressure on Israel. All right. Now here, what kind of peace is this going to lead to? Prosperity or a flight to failure?

J.R. McGee:

It’s clearly a flight to failure, Sam, because let’s look at what just was announced recently. Hamas says they’re going to give up their weapons. Well, the reality is Hamas is going to form the new government in Gaza. So they’re going to give up their weapons to the new government, which is Hamas. The weapons will stay in Gaza. So it’s simply changing the name of the organization and leaving all of the capability still in place. That doesn’t provide peace and safety for anybody to include the Gazans. The Israeli spokesperson, Doron Spielman, who is Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson, he said this morning that the Board of Peace agreement that has been put out in public does not reflect what the Israelis have agreed upon. And the Israel has not agreed to withdraw out of Gaza. They have not agreed to stop a target Hamas terrorists who directly threatened Israeli citizens.

And so there’s a situation where this is setting things up for yet more conflicts. I think as you look at how these things are all unfolding, once again, we’re delaying and deferring the end game for the hostilities. And we’re simply making things worse in the long run. Where people look at this and say there’s progress. Yes, there’s progress. But is it progress in the right direction? And will it result

In what we’re truly looking for? And that is everybody getting along and living in peace. And I would submit to you, what is being put into place right now is simply setting the stage for a much greater conflict in the near future.

Sam Rohrer:

And ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to talk about that in the next segment. We’re going to conclude with this biblical perspective, the final perspective. And with this theme, everybody thinks they’re in control. Every earthly leader thinks they are in control, but are they? The president says Iran has agreed to a deal. Iran says, no, we haven’t. We hear that Israel has agreed to a deal with Hamas. Israel comes back and says, no, we haven’t. This is the issue. This is the point of our discussion. They stay with us. We’ll come back and wrap this up here in the next segment.

Well, as we enter into our final segment here today, I trust that you’ve been able to be with us from the beginning of this program, our theme of which today has been US Foreign Policy Analysis, Path to Prosperity or Flight to Failure. And special guest again today is J.R. McGee. We generally try to, the first Monday of the month, focus on the types of things we’re talking about here today, national security issues, international geopolitics, but always within that, a biblical lens through which we live. And you cannot talk about these things, and particularly the Middle East, without bringing in the prophetical aspect of what God says about all of this. And so that’s the important part that we try to link in because only when that happens does anything really make sense. And that is the one piece that is totally missing from anyone in the media.

Frankly, even many that would say they are religious type media, do not guide themselves according to what the scripture actually says. And without that, there is confusion. But that’s what Jesus said. Be careful of all this because if you don’t, you will be deceived. And that is, again, what we’ve woven into this program here. So with that in mind, segments one, two, and three, we examine, we say the alarming disconnect between official messaging that which we are hearing and being told is happening with, I’m going to say truth on the ground reality. And we saw how political assurances regarding Ukraine and the Middle East fall short, very short, under objective scrutiny, strategy, military analysis as JR is doing, and how human peace initiatives, including very grand diplomatic alliances and global boards are actually placing intense pressure, particularly on Israel, while at the same time failing to bring true security.

Again, false pieces of what we’re talking about. Every modern president or ruler thinks that they alone are in control. They convince themselves that from Washington DC and our current president to Russia and Vladimir Putin, to China and President Z, or those who are running modern day Iran, or I’m going to say Israel themselves. Every one of them, the political entity that runs them, each of them operates under the belief that they’re smarter than the others and they ultimately will prevail and they’re in control. But as believers, we know that geopolitical events do not occur in a vacuum, nor are they ultimately dictated by some earthly ruler. Psalm 33 says this, “The Lord bringeth the council of the heathen to not. He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. But the council of the Lord stands forever.” And when human leaders make promises they cannot keep and they build structures that cannot hold, the Bible gives us the only true framework to understand what is actually taking place.

So JR, as we step back from the human military strategy, look at the world through the lens of God’s word, why is it so critical for believers to realize that peace built on political compromise, which we illustrated today in a program, where a human strength is ultimately an illusion? And how does scripture prepare us for the widespread deception marking the days in which we live and who really is in control?

J.R. McGee:

Sam, I have to go back to Daniel. I referenced Daniel chapter 4:17 earlier, but also in Daniel, the prophet said that God sets kings up and he brings kings down. He controls ultimately what goes on in the affairs of men. Everything that happens is part of God’s plan. To include Satan, we can see Satan moving through all of this. I believe in Satan with all my heart, just like I believe in Jesus. Satan is a real being and he’s at work in all of this. And Satan believes he’s in control. Even though I believe he’s read the back of the book and he knows he’s got to lose, but he still thinks he’s in control. That also is part of God’s plan. Everything that’s happening. All of these presidents, all of these prime ministers, all these government officials, they make foreign policy decisions. But that illusion of control is so powerful.

We want to believe that. We want to believe that we’re making a difference and that we control our own destiny. But yet God remains sovereign over the outcome. God is in control of everything. And regardless of what we do, our actions follow God’s plan to the letter. He is never one minute early and he’s never one second late. God, he cannot lie. He cannot be wrong. And he will not allow things to happen without his control. And as you look at what’s happening in the Middle East, we see these people coming in saying that they’re going to set up this peace board. I’m all for peace.

Dwight Eisenhower had it correct when he said, “Only a soldier can truly hate war. You’ve got to experience it to truly hate it. You can be afraid of it. You can be afraid to not go, but only people who have lived through it can hate it. And no one who’s lived through that wants any more war. But the only way to establish real peace is through some type of form of control and dominance to where one side wins and one side surrenders. Without that, there’s not going to be peace. There’s only going to be the delay. I’m sorry, the delay of future hostilities. In order for this to work, people have got to finally realize they’re not in control, but they’ve got to work together in order to survive. Now, as you look at all of these things, the deception is running rampant and it’s becoming so blatant.

Everybody can see it. And that’s what’s creating a tremendous amount of frustration, not just in the US with voters, but among our Christian community. In overseas communities, everybody’s frustrated. And I believe that’s also part of God’s plan. The Bible tells us that when the antichrist comes on the scene, he’s going to offer to establish real peace. He’s going to say, “I have the plan. I can do this. I can make this happen.” And people have become so frustrated with the lack of peace and the constant hostilities that the moment somebody comes on the scene that promises they can make it stop, they will jump all over that. Even the very elect, even Christians will be attracted to that because we’re so fed up with this constant theme of warfare. We’ve had war from the beginning. In fact, there’s very few years in human history where there’s not been war.

War is the common denominator throughout human history, but yet we all desire peace. We all desire to live in safety. And when somebody promises that and they appear to be able to deliver it, that’s when the antichrist is going to come on the scene.

That is when he’s going to speak up and people are going to fall all over themselves to get behind that. If you can’t see that, you’re not looking. I think that if you look at everything that’s going on, pay attention to what the Bible says. Everybody’s wanting to read the Book of Revelation, and there’s a lot of value in that. Eschatology is my passion, as you and I have talked about. Prophecy. I love prophecy. But you’ve got to read Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. You have to read Daniel. You have to read Matthew chapter 24. You’ve got to read the book of Thessalonians. You’ve got to put all of it in a context.

It’s all laid out. Everything in there is clearly identified as to what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen, how it’s going to happen. And the Bible’s been accurate throughout history, and I believe it’s going to be accurate in the future.

Sam Rohrer:

And JR, we’re out of time. And ladies and gentlemen, I hope that you know the prince of peace. There’s going to be a lot of promises for false peace, but there is only one prince of peace. Peace is found in trust in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. And I hope and pray that you have done that. Thanks for being with us today. JR, thanks for being on the program. Ladies and gentlemen, join us again tomorrow on the balance of the week.