The Sanctity of Human Life
Who Has the Right to Take It?
Oct. 9, 2026
Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett
Guest: Dr. Gary Dull
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 10/09/26. 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:
Well, well, well, well. Thank you for tuning in. Welcome to this Friday program. And I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, and joining me today is Dr. Gary Dull, the pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and a very familiar voice for those of you who are longtime listeners. Gary has been a part of the American Pastors Network and Stand in the Gap Media since the beginning. And so many of you will recognize him, of course, immediately. And Gary has pastored faithfully for decades. Gary, I won’t say how many decades. You’re welcome to mention if you want. Pastor Dull is a father, a grandfather, and someone who has helped other ministers, pastored, giving help to other pastors, but also been very involved in government leaders and helping minister to those ministers. So Gary, thanks for being on the program with us today.
Gary Dull:
Well, Isaac, it’s great to be back. And of course I miss the opportunities of being on the program, but also I’m thankful that I’ve got freedom to do other things as well. But I want to say that not only am I a father and a grandfather, but a great grandfather. I’ll just add that to it. That’s added revelation in the event that you’re interested in that. And then in addition to that, the amount of years I’ve been in pastoral ministry is 53 years this year. And I’ve been here at the Faith Baptist Church for a little over 30 years. So that is the historical update to the Gary Dull story.
Isaac Crockett:
I like that historical update. I did not realize that you were a great grandfather. I mean, you could be a grandfather that does a great job, but now you are officially a great grandfather. So that adds a lot. And I thought it was over 50 years, hard to believe, but 53 years, wow, of that pastoral ministry. And that’s what I want to talk with you is that pastoral perspective. You have in those five decades, over five decades, you have seen enormous changes take place within our church, within our culture, within not just the country, but how churches operate. And you’ve been involved in missions. So you’re seeing this not just in America, but places like we were just talking about Nairobi, Kenya, and all over the world where Way of Truth Ministries is involved and you’ve been part of that and headed that up. And so I would just like to ask you, when you look at the state of our country here in America especially, as I think what happens in America then has a huge impact on the rest of the world, how concerned are you at this point of our nation about the direction that we are heading in?
Gary Dull:
Well, it’s interesting that you say today that our nation has a huge impact upon the rest of the world because I think it was Wednesday that Rubio, Marco Rubio was giving a speech over in Greece. Is that where he was? And he was talking about the fact that the United States has a great influence on the rest of the world. And that’s absolutely true in so many, many ways, whether we are looking at culturally or spiritually or governmentally, God raised up the United States of America in a very unique way. And ever since our inception, we have been a great influence around the world as we still are. And I might say that I’m thankful to be an American. Isaac, I’ve had the opportunity of visiting over 30 nations of the world. And though there are beautiful people and beautiful places in all of those nations, I’m always very, very thankful for the opportunity of getting back into our country.
As a matter of fact, I can remember as a child one day, I was playing out in the backyard of our home and it just hit me. Hey, I’m an American. And I can remember as a little boy just getting on my knees and saying, “Thank you, God, for allowing me to be an American.” I had no idea what the rest of the world was like, but I do thank the Lord that I am a citizen of the United States of America. But getting specifically back to your question, I’m very concerned about what’s going on in our country these days, Isaac. I think that in so many ways we are moving away from biblical truth. You can go back into the 1960s when there was prayer and Bible reading in the public schools, but that’s no more. As a matter of fact, I was visiting in a hospital unit earlier this week where I was not even allowed to take a Bible.
Think about that. They would not allow me to take the Bible in to have a visit with somebody that was in there from my church. And we are getting to that point today where in many ways the Bible and biblical truth is being removed from our nation. And in reality, we are moving away from the original intent of our founders. I think historically we can see that the United States of America was founded on biblical truth. When you read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, you can see biblical truth woven in and throughout those great documents. We’re getting away from that. And we are seeing the rise of socialism in our country today. And if we allow that to happen, they will take more and more biblical principles away from us. So I’m extremely concerned for the way that our nation is going today.
It’s a different nation today than what it was 74 years ago when I was born and brought into this country.
Isaac Crockett:
You brought up the word socialism, which is a hot topic right now as we’re getting very close to a midterm election where the Democratic Socialist Party, which I didn’t really even hardly hear of it, not too many years ago, seems to be having quite a few candidates that are getting a lot of news. And so I can remember in the 1990s growing up, there was still some concern about the Cold War and things and communism. Now you hear about socialism and it sounds like a lot of the same ideas as communism with these Marxist ideologies and philosophies. Do you see that as a legitimate concern? Should we take it seriously, these people claiming to be socialists? And if you think it’s a serious concern, what is it that concerns you the most about it?
Gary Dull:
Well, it does concern me. And socialism in all reality is communism. I mean, I heard somebody say the other day that it’s one step away from communism and I can understand what they are saying about that. But in all reality, when you look at communism, you see that it is socialism. So socialism is a very big part of communism and it concerns me greatly that we are going that direction. And it just seems like in the last six months, particularly when you look at individuals who are running for office, the socialistic, the communistic philosophies have been brought to the surface as it were, as it relates to discussion and some of the things that some of these new candidates want to see in the United States of America. I was just reading earlier this morning, Isaac, about the percentage of younger people who are supporting socialism or communism today.
And it really woke me up a little bit, and I’ll just share some of those statistics. I read this morning that 30% of the boomers are supportive of socialism. 34% of the Gen Xers are supportive of socialism. 70% of the millennials are supportive of socialism. And 49 to 50% of young adults, that’s up to the age of 50, are supportive of socialism. And so it’s quite a situation and it’s a great concern to me as to what’s going on in the country today. And I’ll tell you what, I firmly believe that the root of that is coming out, well, we could say from the pit of hell and from Satan and his workings. But back in, I think it was 2012 at the Democratic National Convention, they made a decision to take the word of God out of their platform. And you might remember that.
And from the time that they determined to take the word of God away from their platform, the Democratic Party has just been becoming more liberal, more secular, more sinful in my perspective. And I think that’s what’s led us to the rise in socialism in America today.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, we’ve started this out by looking at our country, looking at the conditions of it, talking with Gary about what’s happened over five decades. When we come back, I want to take one of the most difficult pro-life questions and ask Gary for a scriptural point of view on that. And that is, can you be pro-life and support capital punishment? Don’t go away. We’re going to hear from some of our partners. We’ll be right back on Stand in the Gap today right after this. Well, welcome back to this program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and I’m talking with Pastor Gary Dull. Gary, yesterday on the program, Sam Rohr was interviewing Patricia Englert from Answers in Genesis, and they were talking about some pro-life issues and even evolutionism and how that has maybe affected people’s view on taking the life of an unborn baby and whether a person is a baby in the womb, those sort of questions.
But today I do want to look at sanctity of human life, but from a little bit of different perspectives, different timelines, not just the abortion part. And I want to start with this idea, can you be pro-life, and that is against abortion, but also support the right of the government to take somebody’s life for certain reasons, what we call capital punishment. Where we’re going with this is there’s been a lot of very high profile capital punishment cases recently. Pete Hegseth seems to have given the go ahead for capital punishment by firing squad in the military. And then of course we have this lady in Tennessee who did not die by lethal injection even though it was given to her twice. But I want to look at a quote from Pope Leo and he has made it clear that he and Pope Francis were very clear that they do not believe in supporting capital punishment.
And so actually, Tim, could you go ahead and play this clip from Pope Leo and then Gary, I want to talk to you about it.
Pope Leo:
I understand the difficulty and the tensions, but I think as I myself have spoken in the past, it’s important to look at many issues that are related to what is the teaching of the church. Someone who says I’m against abortion, but says I’m in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life. So someone who says that I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life. So they’re very complex issues. I don’t know if anyone has all the truth on them, but I would ask first and foremost that there be greater respect for one another.
Isaac Crockett:
So Gary, he’s saying some interesting things there. It’s also interesting to me to hear a Pope with a Midwestern American accent, I guess because he’s from Chicago. It’s just kind of a funny thing for me, but he’s saying some things and we don’t have time to get into all of what he’s talking about, but that big one is that he doesn’t think it’s consistent to be pro-life and also support capital punishment. He can’t say I’m against abortion, but I’m in favor of the death penalty. That’s not really pro-life. Gary, that seems to be a very direct statement. Do you agree with Pope Leo? Do you think he’s right? Or I guess the question is can a Christian call himself pro-life, but also believe that capital punishment is morally acceptable and biblically justified?
Gary Dull:
Well, and I hear the Pope saying that, and of course I heard him say it earlier this week as well, I’m reminded that the Pope does not know his Bible, nor does he know the truth, nor is he interpreting the Bible properly, nor does he maintain a biblical worldview. Now I know I said a lot right there, and of course we could probably examine every one of those things if you wanted to, but we don’t have the time to do it. But the Pope does not understand biblical truth. Certainly as Christians, we are pro-life because the Bible tells us that it is God who gives life, it is God who sustains life, and it is God also who takes life. We have many scriptures that prove that, maybe we’ll get into some of those later on. But keep in mind that as it relates to life, as it relates to capital punishment, capital punishment is a punishment that is to be rendered out by government, not by vigilante and not by an individual person, but rather government.
Capital punishment is that which government is to conduct whenever a life is taken. And understand that life, what is life? Well, it’s that which God gives. And so when somebody takes that which God gives, then there must be a punishment for it. And God establishes that in his word. We find that way back in the book of Genesis chapter nine, and we find it throughout the pages of scripture that if somebody takes somebody’s life in murder, then God requires the life of that individual. Exodus chapter 21 and verse 12 says, “Anyone who strikes and kills another man must surely be put to death.” But you see, capital punishment is in the realm of the government. It’s the government’s responsibility to maintain that as a punishment. As individuals, we are to do everything that we can to support life. God certainly is pro-life. And by virtue of the fact, Isaac, that God is pro-life when somebody kills somebody else who is innocent, then certainly the punishment that comes upon them, which is directed from God is the concept of capital punishment.
So it’s not a contradiction of terms, it’s just understanding the context of the word of God. You go out and you kill somebody who’s innocent, then you certainly are held accountable before God. And it’s the government that has the responsibility to hold us accountable because the government is doing the work of the Lord here now. And of course, God does require government to establish a capital punishment. Keep in mind that capital punishment was first given back in Genesis chapter nine when Noah came out of the ark, and that was the beginning of the dispensation of human government. And so God’s government was put into the hands of human beings at that time. And a part of that was capital punishment was to be given to those who innocently take somebody else’s life who’s very innocent.
Isaac Crockett:
Gary, I like these passages you’re bringing up all the way in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis nine, we see this pattern for government. In the New Testament, Paul, in writing to the Romans, Romans 13, a classic passage about government and church together, how they deal with each other, it talks about the government bearing the sword and things like that. So you’ve brought this up. Could you maybe give us a little distinguishment here between murder or the taking of innocent human life and won’t get into self-defense, that’s a whole nother part what we’ve talked about before, but let’s talk about when the civil government then has somebody who has murdered their authority then to take that life, that taking that life, capital punishment, is not the same as murder. And again, a lot of times people will quote the 10 commandments, thou shalt not kill, which is we could say thou shalt not murder.
Again, kind of help us out here. Distinguish these, you’ve already brought it up, maybe kind of help us understand that better.
Gary Dull:
Well, again, keep in mind that capital punishment is the responsibility of government, not the responsibility of the individual Christian or the individual citizen, I should say. We are not to get even with people in that basis. But when you look at Romans chapter 13, which of course we realize outlines the concept of civil government, which is one of God’s three institutions along with the home, the church, and then of course civil government, it teaches us in there. Well, let me just read verse four of Romans 13 that lays the foundation for governmental activity. It says in reference to those who are rulers in government, it says, “He is the minister of God to thee for good, but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he bereth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” Now to do evil, or I should say to take somebody else’s life is an evil act.
When you just go out and kill an innocent person, that is an evil act because you are killing an individual who is made in the image and the likeness of God. It is the responsibility of the government to punish that individual. And the punishment that is given according to the scripture for somebody who takes innocent life is the idea of capital punishment. And that’s the authority of government to see that that is fulfilled. And only the authorities have the right and the responsibility to enact that judgment. It’s not into the hands of the individual. It’s the responsibility of the government before almighty God to do so.
Isaac Crockett:
Have a couple minutes before next break, but you live in Pennsylvania, you pastor in Pennsylvania. Lawmakers there from the articles I’ve been reading seem to be considering whether the death penalty should be abolished in the state of Pennsylvania. As a Pennsylvania pastor, what biblical principles would you urge lawmakers to keep in mind when they’re considering whether or not the government has legitimate authority for capital punishment?
Gary Dull:
In my perspective, as I understand the scripture, the Bible is very, very clear that anyone who kills another man must surely be put to death according to Exodus 21:12. And that concept of capital punishment can be seen all throughout the scriptures. And so I think that what we need today is to see people who are in positions of authority to understand the Bible, to take the biblical worldview and to rightly divide the word of God to see where capital punishment is absolutely called for from the scripture and where the killing of innocent blood or the taking of an innocent life is absolutely condemned in the scripture. The scripture is not contradicting itself. It’s just putting all the pieces of the puzzle together and understanding the Bible from the biblical worldview as God has given it to us.
Isaac Crockett:
That scripture’s not contradicting. And again, it’s about the protection of innocent life. And we’re talking about these people who have been convicted of premeditated cold blood murder and we’re looking at, oh, their lives being taken by the state. I think too many times the victim, the innocent life, the murder is forgotten about. And so this is a very hot topic right now. Gary, I’m thankful for pastors like you that are willing to weigh in on this and take a biblical worldview because unfortunately, too many people are misunderstanding this and things like what the Pope are saying, they get out there and it’s confusing to people. And the Bible isn’t confusing on this. It’s the protection of innocent life and it’s the punishment of those who do evil, even to the point of situations where capital punishment is needed. Well, we’ve talked about when the government can take the life for capital punishment.
When we come back, I want to talk about what happens when a person wants to intentionally end his or her life with the care of a doctor, what we sometimes call euthanasia or doctor-assisted suicide. So Gary, that’s another loaded question coming your way. Please stay tuned. We’re going to come back after hearing from some of our partners. Be right back.
All right. Well, again, thank you for listening to this Friday edition of Stand in the Gap Today. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. I’ve been talking with Pastor Gary Dull about a lot of different things, but especially looking at the sanctity of human life and asking a very important question, who has the right to take a life? But before we go back into those questions and go into some other hot topics for Pastor Gary Dull to discuss with us, I want to go to our program director, Tim Schneider. And Tim is the one who tries to keep us from going off the rails and to keep us everything running smoothly. And so Tim, if you’re able to step away from the controls and things, we’d love to get some updates from you on opportunities that we have going on here at the American Pastors Network.
Tim Schneider:
Well, sure, Isaac. I can go ahead and do that. Good afternoon to everybody. Hopefully you are doing well. Hope you’re having a great afternoon. And I’m trying to once again keep everything in line. I just tell these guys often that I just help them to hopefully sound good. That’s what the purpose of what I do here and what my role is here as a producer behind the scenes is. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes not so easy, but we try to do what we can. But anyway, I want to let you know about some things that we have going on here at the American Pastors Network, some things that you might hopefully find valuable. I hope that if you would like to, you can check them out. Have you checked out our YouTube channels? We are on YouTube. We have three great YouTube channels, American Pastors Network, Stand in the Gap TV and Stand in the Gap Radio.
And if you would go over there right now to some of those channels, you would see a lot of our stuff that’s there, our archives and the content being posted. We had some recently, some shows about when the righteous are in authority, who are the righteous shows about the righteous with Dr. Renton Rathbun of BJU Press, also a show about the Law and Love, Sermon on the Mound series that continues running. We got lots of other stuff also over on our YouTube channels. So subscribe to our YouTube channels by searching for American Pastors Network, Stand in the Gap Radio and/or Stand in the Gap TV. There are three of them. Search and subscribe to these channels and you’ll be notified whenever new content is posted. Also, we encourage you to please be praying for this ministry. A lot happens and we need your prayers and we encourage them and we covered them.
So please pray for this ministry and all that we’ve got going on and thank you in advance for that. Also, if you’re blessed by this ministry, please consider giving financially. No amount too big, no amount too small is too much. Whatever the Lord will put on your heart, please consider giving so that we can continue to do the things that need to be done. So those are some things. I’ve got Isaac behind the scenes here and I will go ahead and send it on back to you and Pastor Gary.
Isaac Crockett:
Well, thank you so much, Tim. And thank you, Tim, for the work you do to make these resources available. I mean, it’s not just the program that you’re producing, but it’s then putting that content into all sorts of available formats. And if you’re just listening on the radio, there are all these other formats and maybe it may not be your thing, but YouTube and things, it’s easy to share with people. And so you could share it with maybe a relative or a friend or a neighbor, somebody you go to church with. And maybe you’re listening right now in a digital way. Maybe you’re listening through a website or something. Thank you for that. And I want to give a big thank you to all the station managers on the hundreds of radio stations that are carrying this program, choosing to do that, and Tim, for doing all the work he does to make this available.
So thank you. All right. Well, Gary, let’s get back into some other hot topics here. We’re talking about our nation. We’re talking about, as you pointed out, that as we have gotten further away from God, the greater the confusion, the greater the sin, and the greater the concern of yourself and other Christians, other pastors especially, who are very concerned about the direction that parts of our country or all of our country may be headed in. And we want to look at this idea of who has the right to take life. And you just talked us through the importance of protecting innocent life and that those who shed innocent blood, those who murder, they are to be held accountable all the way up to capital punishment. But another part of this I want to talk about is pro-life. And a lot of times we say pro-life, we’re talking about abortion, protecting the baby in the womb.
Yesterday, Sam talked about that on the program with his guests from Answers in Genesis, but increasingly our culture is wrestling with another part of pro-life, another pro-life issue that’s on the opposite end of life. That’s this physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia. Gary, what is a genuine biblical view that takes into account that God created us in his image and that life extends from the womb to the tomb, as they say, that life is precious even at the end of life? What does the Bible teach us on that?
Gary Dull:
Well, again, just for the sense of clarification, keep in mind that God certainly is pro-life because every life is made in the image of God. And capital punishment is the punishment that God establishes in his word given to government to take the life of one who has violated God and has taken the life of somebody else in the sense of punishment who has killed an innocent person. And we are very pro-life simply because of the fact that we believe, as you said, that life is that which begins in the womb and goes onto the tomb, and we’ve got the responsibility to maintain innocent life. As it relates to certain things such as medical aid and dying and death with dignity and physician assisted suicide and euthanasia and things like that, I want to make it clear that I think the Bible teaches, I know the Bible teaches, that apart from the use of capital punishment when somebody has committed murder, we are to support life in every area.
Whether we are talking about euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, we are not to be involved in that, but rather we are to support the concept of life and do everything that we can to protect and preserve that life. And as a pastor down through the years, I visited people in the hospital who had some particular disease and they were dying and they were in pain. And maybe the concept of just pulling the plug and letting them die came into the discussion. And I’ve often said that it’s important to do what we can to maintain that life and to maintain the comfort of that life until God takes them home. We need to understand that as we study the scripture, that the time of death is in God’s hands. In Psalm 139 in verse 16, it says that our days are ordained, are ordered by God. In Job 14: five, it even talks about the fact that our days and our months are determined by God.
And in one Samuel chapter two and verse six, it says, “The Lord kills and makes alive.” And so it’s important that we encourage people to trust God for his timing. And even when the person becomes older or physically ailing or whatever the case may be, our responsibility is to pray that God will provide comfortable treatment for those who are terminal patients, but it is not our responsibility to do something that will shorten their life. That’s playing God. And anytime we do that, then I think that we are going to answer to God for it.
Isaac Crockett:
You just used some terms, medical aid in dying as if it’s medicine to kill them, death with dignity. These are terms that are being used so that this doctor-assisted suicide sounds compassionate, sounds like the compassionate alternative. If somebody is suffering, why would you want them to continue suffering? How can Christians deal with that argument with biblical truth and show that we do have compassion for those who are sick and dying? How do we show that biblical worldview and yet keep it morally correct as you were just talking about?
Gary Dull:
Well, like I said, do what you can in that case to keep the patient as comfortable as possible. And it’s possible with some of the medication and treatments that are given in the hospital today to keep a person going on for a long period of time, even though as it were, their body functions are not there. And what I’ve often said to people who had family members in that condition, go ahead and continue. This is my though now. This is the Gary Dull that you’re talking to speaking. And my thought based upon my understanding of scripture is that if there are some of those artificial methods that are keeping people alive, then perhaps it’s proper to remove those artificial methods. But one thing I’ve often encouraged people to do is don’t pull out the food line. In other words, continue to feed them intravenously so that even as they may be dying, that they are comfortable in the sense of receiving nourishment.
Now, I know that that may sound contradictory to some people, but I think that that’s a part of trying to maintain a comfort in the body of the individual dying, even though you might remove from that person some of the artificial things that will be keeping them alive. Is that making any sense to you, Isaac?
Isaac Crockett:
That makes sense. We’re about to come up on a break, but just real fast, I was just talking with somebody and she’s been given a terminal diagnosis and she says, “Look, I don’t need to try to extend my life. I know that I’m going to heaven. I want to be comfortable and I want to have time with my loved one. So I’m going to not do some radiation and chemotherapy that might extend my life by a little bit. But that I would say is different than taking a drug than taking basically a lethal injection drug to put myself down.” Is that something that you see?
Gary Dull:
That’s what I’m trying to communicate. And I think, of course, that is something that is up to the family to make the decision on, not to the doctor or the nurses, but that’s something that the family and the individual must work out.
Isaac Crockett:
And I know Somebody not too long ago that I was dealing with lived in Pennsylvania. He’s since died of natural causes, but was in a lot of pain from terminal illness. And he kept talking about the doctor-assisted suicide. And I don’t know how, and I don’t know that it was legal, but somehow he got his hands on a concoction, a shot from a doctor, a medical doctor in another state that he claimed he could give to himself or take some pills or something, I forget what it was, and it would kill him. And I talked with him, I said, look, I understand if you don’t want to be resuscitated or if you don’t want to go through difficult chemotherapy, but don’t kill yourself. And so Gary, I like how you’ve taken us again back to what God has done, what God has said on this.
We have a few more things to talk about before we wrap this program up, but these are some interesting questions, questions that all of us as Christians are hearing about and that shouldn’t lead us to despair. But when we get to this final segment, Gary, I want to talk to you about prayer, about upcoming elections, about a lot of things to try to fit in before we close the program because God is at work and we want to keep being faithful to him until the end. We’ll be right back on Stand in the Gap Today.
Well, welcome back to our final segment on Stand in the Gap Today on this Friday edition. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. I’m joined by Dr. Gary Dull, the pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Altoona, Pennsylvania and a very, very well known voice on this program. So Gary, we’ve been talking a lot. We started with just your concerns about our nation, some of the confusion that’s coming out as we’ve gotten further away from what does the Bible say, what does God lay out for us to do? We’ve looked at some sobering issues, especially around the issue of sanctity of human life and that the Christian response in our country shouldn’t just be to go with the culture or to get scared and to hide from it or to say, “Oh, I don’t know what to do,” but to open the Bible and to turn and say, “Well, what does the Bible say for me to do?” And you’ve done that for us.
You’ve helped us see that the Bible talks about protecting innocent life. And so therefore when innocent blood is shed, the government, not vigilante justice, not individuals, but the government is to bear the sword for that sort of thing, to punish evil and reward the good. And so we saw how that applied to capital punishment. And then we talked about this idea of “doctor-assisted suicide.” And again, how even at the end of life, we respect that God gives life and our days are numbered by God and it’s not for us to take someone’s life. We should not take innocent life, including even our own. And so we’ve worked through that. But Gary, you’ve been so concerned for our nation and we have a very, very important midterm. Every election is very important, but this midterm election, a lot of things are hanging in the balance because of who all are running.
And there’s a lot of states like Pennsylvania, New York, different ones where governors are running. Gary, you’ve been working on a special call to prayer. I think it’s October 28th, but I’ll let you say more about that. Could you just tell us what you’re planning and what prompted you to plan this special call to prayer for such a time as this?
Gary Dull:
Well, Isaac, actually, it’s October the 29th. It’s Thursday, October the 29th. And what we are doing is asking people to set that aside as a day of prayer for our nation. Down through the years as a pastor, when we’ve come up against a crucial election, I’ve often called for a day of prayer for the election. And that’s what we were doing on the 29th of October as well. And just asking Christians all over to go together and to go to God’s throne of grace and to pray and ask that God will be honored and glorified through the election. We’ve got some people running. We talked in the earlier segment of the program today about the democratic socialist movement here in the United States of America. And in all reality, that’s a movement away from biblical truth and from God. And that concerns me. And it just seems like in the past six months, we’ve seen people coming out from the bushes, as it were, who are claiming to be democratic socialists.
And if they get into office, they are certainly not going to be leading the country or the state or the county or the city or whatever it may be in a biblical direction. And so I think it’s very, very important for us to really gather together. And we’ve set aside Thursday, October the 29th as a day of prayer that number one, God will motivate Christians to go out and vote biblically and the Christians will do that. And then secondly, that God will put into office people who will uphold biblical truth and constitutional values as we go forward.
Dave Kissler, and of course you know Dave and our listeners know Dave Kissler and his voice and so forth. He and I have been friends for over 30 years, probably 35 or 40 years. And we’ve often talked about the fact that the current election is the most important election in our lifetime. And I think that probably every election has been that. But the one that’s coming up upon us now here in a couple of weeks is extremely significant because it could be that people would be put into office that will take away from biblical truth, that will take away from the constitutional values and the founding that our nation was established upon, and it concerns me greatly. And so I’m asking people to pray for our nation, not only on October the 29th, but also continuously between now and election day that we will see God glorified in putting into office people who uphold biblical truth in every level.
Isaac Crockett:
Gary, at our church, we have a prayer service once a week and in it we have a prayer bulletin, I guess you could call it, that we go through. And we rotate different government leaders all the way from the president all the way down to local leaders that we pray for. Actually, we pray for leaders in two different states because my church is right on the border of Pennsylvania and New York. And the Bible tells us in one Timothy chapter two to pray for those in high positions over us for kings and those in authority. With these extremely important elections coming our way, what specifically would you encourage our listeners to pray for when they’re praying for our leaders as well as praying for the elections? There’ll be righteous elections, that cheating won’t be allowed and things, but praying for our leaders, praying for our elections, and then even our churches and community when the election is over, because there’s a lot of division going on in many communities right now.
What would you encourage us to pray?
Gary Dull:
Well, it’s an interesting question and you brought the concept of the church into that view. And the church is in the world as a light. We are here as ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ and we are to reflect Jesus Christ in everything. And I think first and foremost, I want to encourage every Christian under the sound of our voices today, Isaac, to go to the Lord and specifically ask him who he would have them to vote for when the election day rolls around. I think it’s absolutely important that we seek God’s direction and ask him who we should be voting for and then go out and vote and vote biblically because there are so many concerns before us today, whether we are talking about the nation of Israel and more and more today we see that there are people turning away from the nation of Israel.
We must never do that. The moment that our nation turns away from the nation of Israel, we can expect our judgment from God. Just go back to Genesis chapter 12 verses one, two, and three where God’s nation Israel is blessed. God will bless that nation or those people who are blessing Israel. So we need to pray that our nation will continue to support Israel. We need to pray that our nation will continue to support life. We’ve talked about that on this program today. And a lot of people who are running for office today are not pro-life and that should concern us very, very much. And then I think that we need to pray for the continuation of our freedoms in our country. There are many people who are doing what they can to take away freedoms. The other day, I think I was telling you about this maybe before we were on the air.
I don’t think we talked about it on the program, but the other day I went into a particular hospital in our area to make a visit and I was not allowed to take my Bible. Think of that. I was not allowed to take my Bible. I had to keep my Bible. Actually, I had to put it in the shelf before I went in to visit the individual. We are losing our freedoms. And I think that we need to pray that God will raise up men and women to serve in government who yes, will support Israel, who will support biblical truth, who will support our freedoms because I think all of those things are really becoming an issue today. And then we need to pray for a revival in morality in our nation. Morals are really down in so many, many ways. So often today you hear about the sex and the drugs and the crimes and the things that’s going on out in the world today, and all of that contributes to weakening our nation.
And so we need to pray for a moral and a spiritual revival in our country. And it’s up to those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ to render these prayers. And the more we do that and the more we do that earnestly, the more we will be able to see God work.
Isaac Crockett:
Amen. Amen to that, Gary. Dear Heavenly Father, I do pray for that. I just pray right now for our nation, for those in leadership and those running for leadership that you would raise up righteous leaders for this nation that we would return to you. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen. Well, Gary Dull, thank you so much for being on this program, for your wisdom and biblical knowledge that you’ve shared with us. And thank you for listening. Until next time, I pray that you will stand in the gap for truth wherever you are today.
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