Episode 147

As of fall of 2023, Donald J. Trump is the only serious republican candidate for the presidency of the United States in the elections of 2024, though hobbled and battered by an onslaught of lawfare that the majority of the country deems is political. His MAGA slogan, borrowed from Reagan’s campaign in the ’80s, has deeply resonated with much of the country in the face of an open southern border, a bad economy, wars in Ukraine and Israel, and an impaired incumbent president with deeply unpopular policies. What made America great in the first place? The slogan implies that America is no longer great, but how did the decline happen? Can the country be restored, or is all lost? We sit down with recurring guest MD to discuss these issues and more.

[MD]

Yeah, I think that makes it pretty clear what it will really take to make America great again. And I happen to be a fan of President Trump. I think it would be great if President Trump were our President again, but that’s not gonna solve the problem.

[Jay]

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay and I’m MCG. And we’re attempting to remove barriers so we can all have a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

This is episode 147 of the removing barriers. Podcasts, and in this episode, we will be breaking down the viral phrase made popular by the former President Ronald Reagan, and then revived by former President Donald Trump. Make America great again. And our co-host for this episode is no stranger to the Removing Barriers Podcast MD. Welcome back and thank you for joining us.

[MD]

Thank you. Appreciate the invitation.

[MCG]

Great.

[Jay]

Hi, this is Jay. MCG and I would like for you to help us remove barriers by going to removingbarriers.net and subscribing to receive all things removing barrier. If you’d like to take your efforts a bit further and help us keep the mics on, consider donating at removingbarriers.net/donate, removing barriers, a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

All right, MD, we’re going to be breaking down the viral phrase, make America great again. But before we even go into that, I think it’s important that we define what great means. In this phrase, how would you define create in this?

[MD]

Phrase well, I suppose the simplest way to define it would be to go back to what when I was a kid made me think America was great. We had freedom of religion, towns that I lived in as a child. My father was a Baptist preacher and we got along with everyone. It didn’t matter if they were Catholic. It didn’t matter if they were, Luther didn’t matter if they were Jewish, they could be Muslim. It didn’t matter. We got along when we had a potluck dinner at our church. People of all faiths would come to visit. They didn’t feel like they were intimate. And we would tell them the gospel. There didn’t seem to be any bitterness about that because we had a freedom. We knew we had a freedom even as a child. I knew I had the freedom to believe what I wanted to believe, to speak what I wanted to speak. I’m not sure we do that anymore, but I believe that makes America great. As I got a little older and the classes I took began to deal with the history of the United States and the founding fathers, I found many, many, many quotes from the founding fathers. Discussing that we could not even survive as a nation without relying on God. But they didn’t say you have to be a Baptist. They didn’t say you have to be a Catholic. They didn’t say. You have to. Be a Lutheran, you say to be a Jew, you don’t. To be a Muslim, you didn’t have to be a. Buddhist they only said we have. To rely. On God for guidance. And I think one of the things that gave our nation great underpinnings was that those men who founded. Our nation followed the tenets of what the Bible has to say. Some of them may not have believed in the God we believe in. He may have believed in God the way we believe in God, but they followed the tenets of the Bible, so it was the founding document for our nation. A lot of people told me it’s not a lot of people have argued that our laws didn’t come from the Bible. One thing that has always stopped people when they come to that is I ask them, well, if we’re not a nation whose laws come from the Bible, then who says it’s wrong to kill the guy next door to you? Who says something you don’t? Want him to say?

[Jay]

Where that come from?

[MD]

Because without some. Higher authority to give us moral guidance. I’ve too often seen people in America and in other nations where I’ve lived go completely away from any moral guidance at all. There has to be higher authority. So I think one of the things that makes America great is the understanding that there is a higher authority to whom we are all responsible, no matter who we are. And yet. We are free to make choices about what we do, what we think, how we speak. And equally, we are free. To pay the consequences of those choices.

[MCG]

Right before I go into my definition of what I think great means or what he should mean in that statement. What about those who would say, well, what authority there is that say that I shouldn’t kill someone? One person? Tell me society another person might say. You know the English common law. But I’ve been at the door where one lady told me it’s society. Society tells me what’s wrong and what’s right.

[MD]

I would suggest to that that society is too changeable for me to want to live the 69 years I’ve lived and understand that the society in which I live tells me what’s right and. Wrong. I’ve seen too many changes already. I’ve seen too many cycles going both ways, swinging to 1 extreme and back to another when the one that we went to didn’t work.

[MCG]

That’s a good point. What I did said to her when she said that to me was so why is it that you’re telling me that what not Korea is doing in this society is wrong? Because if society did takes it, then you can’t. They take not Korean society, nor can they. They take ours. They believe that this is right. This is morally right, and you might believe it’s moral. Wrong but.

[MD]

Carry that to an extreme and think about Pol Pot in Cambodia near the end of the Indochinese War, Vietnam War. I don’t know what the last numbers were, but it was around 8.5 million Cambodians that he murdered by his direct authority. Was that right or wrong? It was his society.

[MCG]

Alright, so my definition for greed and I want to have like maybe like a working definition so that we can piggy off of it and go back. So I would say it means basically it stood out among the rest. No, I don’t mean that it’s perfect. I don’t mean that it’s without blemish. But I mean that if you. Take some markers and I have a bunch of them listed here that we probably going to go through. Stuff like economic opportunities and freedoms and I think you mentioned that founding values, military might global influence, justice system, educational. Cities using those markers, I’m sure we can come up with more as well. Does America stand out among the rest in terms of the nation? Maybe we can say, is it in the top five top three to top five of nations that you look at that nation you say you know what? If you go to that country, you can have economical opportunities. You’re going to have. Educational opportunities. You’re going to have freedoms and stuff like that using those markers again, we don’t mean without blemish. We don’t mean that is perfect, but we mean that among the rest, when you compare it, it stands. What do you think about that definition?

[MD]

I think it’s a good working definition. Mm-hmm. I don’t know if we live up to it any longer, but only because I don’t know whether we’re in three to 5% of the top. I don’t know whether we’re in 15 percent, 20%. I was thinking on my way down here about if we’re not still great in at least some minds, why is there such a flood of people coming in from South and Central America over an? Open border, yeah. Why do I have so many friends who were born and raised in Vietnam and lived through the takeover of Vietnam by the? 4th and are now here and have served in the military here, and our citizens of the United States and happy to be Citizens United States. Why is my family here? I’m only a third generation American. My family were Germans, had my parents not been here, my father probably would have wound up serving Nazism. Not by choice. Instead, he served in U.S. military here. I think we still are a great nation in that sense, but the question is how great.

[MCG]

Well, that’s true. All right. So I’m gonna get you these. These are some that, say, looked up. So in terms of economic opportunities, according to the World Economic Forum, not the best group to get data from, but according to them, the top five countries that have the largest new business. Formation growth year over year and this was in 2020 is the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Germany and Canada. According to U.S. news, the best countries to start a career, the top five will be Germany, Canada, United States, Japan and Switzerland. And according to U.S. news, again the country with the best job market top five again is Germany, Canada, United States, United Kingdom and Australia. So economic opportunities, the US is in the top five, not number one in any of them, but in the top five. And I think you made a good point there. Why is it that immigrants are coming across the border? Well, immigrant myself and when I left my country for the US for college, I remember saying to myself I would never live in the United. States, but I can honestly say I stayed only for economic opportunities because I was dating a young lady. And that’s probably more the reason why I stay more than anything else, but the honest truth is I would not be able to have the career I have in the Caribbean that I. Of here. Just being a software developer or whatever the case may. Be so definitely career economic opportunities is definitely big there.

[Jay]

What were their metrics for measuring that? Is there any information on how they determined what country would be the best to start a business or to?

[MCG]

No, I didn’t go in all the details. Most of it was more of like what legal barriers have to go through and stuff like that either starting. The business either.

[Jay]

I guess suppose that would make sense because China certainly is a growing economy, but the restrictions and the requirements to be. Somehow married to or tight to the CCP would make it very difficult to have a thriving business there. So. I suppose that’s.

[MCG]

And for other understand, China is 80% Communist, 20% capitalist. But the 20% that are capitalist produced 80% of their.

[Jay]

Of the wealth in the country. So communism with Chinese characteristics is what? They call it.

[MCG]

Yeah, I guess, alright. In terms of freedom and this one is interesting because it’s kind of hard to get the definition what they mean by freedom. I’m not sure how they measure this one either. I guess if I use a freedom you have to also look at the importance of owning firearms and being able to own and use firearms, and most countries are not. the US definitely is in the top at #1 able to come to that firm ownership, but it was very hard to find a ranking according to one ranking years was ranked 58. And freedoms.

[Jay]

What? No, I don’t agree with that. Bald on its face.

[MCG]

There’s a lot of countries that were ahead of the US in terms of.

[MD]

Freedom. Well, again, it has to be a definition of what is freedom. I don’t know where they would put, for example, the UK in terms of definitions of. Freedom. But I spent a total of four weeks in the UK, two weeks twice and had conversations with bobbies, the police and I found that if, for example, I had a pocket knife that a Bobby laid over the palm of his hand, which is not a valid way to measure it, he’s got a small hand. It’s going to be a big knife, but he told me and it was agreed to. If I say your knife is too big, I’ll take it away from you. And you can’t do anything about it, I said. What if I protest? He said. You’ll go to. Then you’ll stand before a judge in the Old Bailey, and he’ll stand with me. Where is the freedom? I know that in my work when I was in the Navy, we had a lot of things we could not say because they were classified, had many things we could say because they weren’t classified. But in England during the Second World War and since when they invoked the official secrets. The government says to you, you cannot say. And it doesn’t have to be anything of clear strategic importance. It has to be only what a politician says. I don’t want him saying. You don’t have that. And yet, many people say that the UK is free. That’s not freedom. It’s been said by a lot of people here in America that the Second Amendment to the Constitution is what keeps the 1st amendment viable. Our government should be afraid of the power of the people. I don’t think it is. Very much, but it should. And if it is, we will have the freedom to speak. When it doesn’t care about the power of the people because we have none, we’ll be just like UK. You’re not allowed to talk about that and you’ll put you in jail if you do. So I I don’t know where they put the UK in that list, but I think it’s critical when you talk about freedom to understand what they term freedom. And if I could take us back for a moment, one of the countries that. Was listed, I think listed as number. Either two or four, because I believe the US was #3 in terms of business opportunity rather of startups of new businesses was Australia. I don’t know if you’re aware or not, but you cannot move to Australia without financial means in hand, which you can demonstrate to the government in perpetuity. In other words, you go to Australia, you have to bring a business with. You it might be a good place to start a business, but not when just to go there. You have to take a business. With you.

[MCG]

Yeah, I hear immigration in Australia is very.

[MD]

Tough, but there’s a lot of people who want to go there and I understand that too, because I know people who live in Australia. I used to work with a fellow who chose to live in Australia, even though when he answered a contract call from our company here in the United States, he had seven days to call in. Choose to take the contract and be here, but he lived in Australia with his family. He came to the United States probably 7 or 8 times. That’s an expense that’s wearing on your body. But he loved Australia, so I’ve never been there, but I guess it’s a really nice place to live if the conditions there are. What you want them to be? So I’m not putting Australia down by any means. I’m just saying that I think these metrics that are listed, I think Jay is right, it’s really important to know how do they. Come to those metrics.

[MCG]

Well, most of it, of course, Sir. You see, I got something from the World Economic Forum. So you know, these metrics are probably more left wing kind of metrics, but I want to use them just to show. You know what would people find if they just do Internet search and check and say, hey, how does America ranking these things? These are the results that are going to come up. So in terms of freedom, that was a little bit hard. But I did find a report as I said, and they ranked the US at 58. But again, if you’re not gonna take firearm. Ownership as a mark of. And that might be a thing against the US because we have the Second Amendment, because most of the countries in Europe and all these countries are ranked in terms of freedom ahead of the US and as you just said, a lot of those countries, you can’t own firearms, the lot of those countries. So are they really free, as you say?

[Jay]

Well, they’re only as free as the government will allow them to be.

[MD]

And that leads me to the thought that maybe they’re free today, but that’s temporal. I mean, we’ve seen here with our government. I’m going to. Probably I don’t want to say this too loud because I don’t want to go to jail. For saying it. Nowadays, you surely can. Never mind that you can argue it in court and get out, but it only if you’re rich. We’ve seen our government go from a government that believes our Constitution, that staunchly supports our Constitution, that has that as a framework of right and wrong in less than four years to a government where. If you’re rich, if you’re powerful, if you’re wealthy, if you’re politically connected, you’re above any reproach from the law at all. And if you’re not, you don’t have to do anything wrong to be thrown under the jail.

[MCG]

No, that’s true. And I think that’s the a marker of. Losing our freedoms, and I believe so, I guess also losing the greatness that America was founded upon.

[MD]

I believe that too.

[MCG]

The next one I have is founding ideals or beliefs. So of course this one, they can’t get any stat in it. But correct me if you think I’m wrong, but I think defining ideas or beliefs for America would be making a more perfect union. All men are created equal. We the people, determine the government a lasting constitution, Democratic Republic and the judeo-christian heritage found in ideals. That make America great.

[MD]

I like that. As a summary, I agree with.

[Jay]

In addition to those things that you mentioned, there are a lot of other influences that we can say played some role in some small way or another in the founding of the nation. We can never really get away from the fact that this nation. Is a derivative of or came from England, and so all of the things that were laid down in that country beforehand had some slight role to play. Let’s say the Magna Carta, for example. So I mean, I’m not saying that we weren’t established on a biblical foundation. I’m just saying that it wasn’t just.

[MCG]

Right.

[Jay]

A biblical foundation because there was influence from the French Revolution as well. Rousseau had quite the influence as well, so there’s more to it. Maybe perhaps that’s a little bit of the yeast that has come to fruition that perhaps in some ways has contributed to some of the decay that we see in our institutions and in our country. Today, but those founding beliefs, it’s going to be hard to try and determine which countries have the best ones, because I can’t think of a country that has a completely pure, singular set of beliefs or set of. Well, yeah, I would just keep it that beliefs because it could be determined that to be so many different things as their sole founding principle, the only one that I could think of is. Perhaps China, and look at them, we wouldn’t want to be like them or perhaps North Korea, where it’s all based on the lie that the Kim. Wrong. Is it the that entire family? The Kim family is somehow deity in that country and that’s the entire founding principle of the country. I suppose it depends. In our case, it’s undeniable of the influence of biblical authority and our laws and our institutions and our structures in our people. But at the same time, we can also say that there was yeast in the bread if you would, that now I think we’re coming to see. The fruit of it in our day, and it’s probably not really good fruit.

Speaker

Right.

[MD]

I’ve been memorizing the book of Exodus and. It’s interesting that when the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, it says the children of Israel left Egypt and a great mixed multitude. So the first day out of Egypt, God tells them to encamp near Pier Kairos before end. Getty Between Migdal and the sea, I looked up what those names. Mean and basically what he was telling them was over in these cliffs where the land behind you is the torturous canyons, the ocean in front of you, and Egypt’s gonna come right up the same path you followed. You’re going to be stuck. They’re gonna think you’re stuck. It’s gonna let me show me. God show my greatness. So they got there and the children of Israel were told by Moses. Turn. Encamp, PA. Karas, the whole thing. Here’s the plan. Here’s what Pharaohs gonna say. Here’s what God’s gonna say in the Bible says. And they did so of Israel. The very next verses talks about when they saw. Pharaoh coming the children of Israel cried to the Lord. The mixed multitude started talking about you brought us out here to die. We’d have been better in Egypt. We need to go back. We need to give up. We. There’s your yeast. There’s your leavening. They didn’t win, the leavening didn’t win. And perhaps that’s the biggest problem we have now is that we spend way too much time listening. To a lot of people who are not even able to come to 1 voice, think about it. If you tried today to follow all of the progressives arguments about everything, the progressives would eat themselves because they can’t agree, Republicans aren’t doing any better. Not. Now, conservatives aren’t doing any better. Not now, but it used to be that at least the Conservatives would come to 1 voice. Hmm.

[Jay]

Aren’t you gonna have that, though in any country? Where there’s a. Plurality. You’re gonna have that right, like even if the country were 50% Christian, 50% Muslim, they would begin at a peaceful perhaps. Maybe at a peaceful. Standing. But then, as time goes on, the vectors would differentiate from each other so greatly that ultimately we’d end up. Perhaps going head to head. So if you have a group of people that don’t have the same theological or spiritual underpin. Meaning ultimately, isn’t that what’s going to happen?

[MD]

Yeah, if you establish clearly in the beginning before there’s any battles, what the rules are that we’re all going to. Live by right? And then you hold to those. They’re in writing. They’re the standard. They’re what we do. And if I deviate, you pull me back. If you deviate, I pull you back. We all follow those rules. They don’t have to. Be a narrow, narrow hedge. They don’t have to be a narrow Canyon. In our lives. But we can’t get too far off. Line if we get the point where we hate someone so much, we’re willing to kill them. We’re way. Offline, there’s no question and I think that’s probably why America has lasted as long as it has, because if you look back at our earliest history coming off of those boats where people from every nation under the sun fleeing from everything under the sun, from illness to monarchies that had gone bad. To monarchies that were good but the people wanted freedom to people who wanted religious. Freedom coming off those boats was every kind of people. Under the Sun and they got along even though they disagreed. Go back and look at the Plymouth colony where for a period it was run by a very narrow sect of people. Everyone else suffered if they didn’t toe the line, but that’s not the rules we live by. That’s not the allowances of freedom. So once we establish the freedom. We’ve been as a nation, what 250 years now, pretty close coming up on.

[MCG]

It. Yeah, but the argument could be made where you just said, you know, if you have a document, the argument could be made-up. We had a document. We have a document, the Constitution, but yet we have a Supreme Court that you can basically predict how they’re going to rule and. The prediction is not based upon the Constitution. The prediction is based upon their politics, or who appoints them. So we do have the document, but we have a problem because then one thing we all would agree English is ambiguous. You know you there’s so much things you can say in English that you can have double or triple meaning of unless you clearly explain yourself over and over and over and over the constitution of the United States is a very, very short. Document compared to even the constitution of my country, where it’s probably almost 100 pages or more, the constitution of the United States is very, very. But and I agree that it’s very powerful, but I wonder if that’s the problem because it didn’t. Breakdown the definitions of many, many things it says, and again, maybe they couldn’t predict that we could have the Internet and have all kind of lunatics on their same things, but I don’t know.

[MD]

Do you know what the biggest argument was in the US Congress against writing the Bill of Rights? Right. If you enumerate the Bill of Rights, if you list, this is a right. This is a right. This is down the line. Someone will find a way to say ah, but in between those that’s not a. Right, yeah.

[MCG]

And what the problem? We had a little over a year ago, abortion.

[MD]

Sure, found a previously unknown clause in the Constitution. It’s not there. Well, what about separation of church and state? It’s the separation according to the Constitution of the church, from the authority of the state. It is not the separation that kicks the church out of the state, and yet what a society said, so I agree. But my point about the Bill of Rights was if you take a simple document and you proceed to try to.

[MCG]

Right.

[MD]

Explain it. I think you’re much more likely to create bigger and bigger and deeper and deeper holes for people who are just looking for a hole to push you into to.

[MCG]

Go ahead and push you into. Well, that’s true. And even other countries like I mentioned mine with 100 pages constitution, they’re not better off anyway. So and if it continues.

[MD]

You probably learned to read a little earlier than with the Constitution. Like that cause it takes you longer to get through.

[MCG]

It When you’re a kid, right? Well, I’ve never read it. Well, I’ve. Read part of it. I’ve never read it the entire team. So military might another thing that will make our country great military might, and of course the US is in the top five, at least US is that number one in this one US you have Russia, you have China, you have India, which surprised me and then you have the United Kingdom. Well, I think India is because of they have so many people, but those are the top five. Countries, when it come to military might.

[Jay]

So it’s not just military might in the sense of weaponry and vehicles and aircraft, it’s also manpower.

[MCG]

And that’s what I’m guessing because India is at 4, China is at three, I think China and India has to do with the amount of people that they they have in the military, they probably double the US in terms of personnel, Russia I believe is probably partly technology and partly than most of people they have but of. This I think the US is number one in military because you have the best toys, but you guys have from a military. So you could tell me.

[MD]

But I’m not sure that military might is what makes US number one in the military is the fact that the military stands ready.

[Jay]

It do you think it is?

[MD]

To defend the country against enemies foreign and domestic, according to our oath and is not willing, the military is not willing, has an absolute edict against overthrowing our government. Rather, the military is the servant of the government. And clearly, so we’re taught that from day one of military service that’s drilled into us, it’s drummed into us. We are the servants of you who’ve never been in the military. That’s our job. And we know it. And I think that probably makes more difference. If you don’t have the technology, if you don’t have the people willing to use the technology and knowing how to use it and the people who are trained, if you don’t have all of those things that make a mighty military. You’re gonna lose the first time you come up against a determined enemy. There’s no question. But if your country says this, we will do this. We will not do. And another country says Ohh you are going to do what you just said. You won’t do. And. The military says you want. To bet a powerful military gives your country the willingness and the ability to stand up to the world. And say we go this far and no further. If you look at what’s going on over in Israel. Right now, Hamas attacked Israel. Isis wants to get involved. Hezbollah wants to get involved. All the other nations want to get involved, but every time they’ve gotten involved, Israel has come back. Now Israel has a mighty, mighty God who said these are my chosen people. And I’m protecting him. That’s a God. I wouldn’t want to go up against no matter what. But if you think about it, Israel has a military willing as a body of even civilians to take up arms and defend. And anybody silly enough to take that on is good. Emperor Hirohito in Japan, Second World War. Was told by his advisers after Pearl Harbor we were still at great loss. Great risk of losing in the Pacific entirely against Japan, and Emperor Hirohito was told by his advisers. We told you don’t wake that sleeping Dog. Japan is not a military might today. There’s a lot of U.S. military in Japan and the Japanese people are happy to have them there for the. Most part, but they’re not a military bite. And they were willing to take on the whole world. So again, having a powerful military does not make your military great. It’s what drives your military.

[Jay]

Yep. So then the United States is in trouble now then, because from what I understand, a lot of the DEI inclusivity type ideologies have crept into the officer ranks. We’re talking at war. College. So the principles that make the American military great are beginning to crumble. Recruitment numbers are down. We see in a lot of our military leaders preoccupation with will guide ideology, making sure. Or that genders are represented even in its advertising. That’s what they’re championing now. So according to what you say about what makes a military great, America sounds like it’s a little bit in trouble there.

[MD]

Do you know one of the biggest reasons we were in trouble when the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor? The fact that so much of our military leadership had never been to war, they’d lost track of what a military is about, and so they were politicians. They were about improving the world. They were about. It wasn’t about transgenderism, we know. That, but they were. So distracted by so many things that had nothing to do with. Fighting the war now. What officers do we remember best from the? Second World War, who became? Those leading the battles that were most decisive, Patton MacArthur can’t remember who was it went back to the Philippines, he said. I’ll be back. And he was. Pick the ones who were assigned to replace those who didn’t know how to fight a war. So we’re in that same situation. Now the question is, would we be quick enough to move them out and get rid of them? And I think under our current regime, our current leadership, we would not I.

[Jay]

Don’t think we would let me ask you this, though. Then we have been in a constant state of war since Vietnam. And you could make an argument against the industrial military machine. If we’ve been in a constant state of war since Vietnam, why is it the caliber, the quality of our leadership has declined in so many years? Is it a demoralization? Is it because the nation as a whole has turned away from the biblical principles? What do you think is happening there?

[MD]

I think it could be a large part that we’ve turned away from biblical principles, but I think it also is that when you say we’re in a state of war, are we really? If so, bring it, bring it down, bring it down to your.

[Jay]

Nation building type war.

[MD]

Neighborhood. If you have a disagreement with one neighbor who is just not willing to be a nice person, is that a state of war? No, not really. It’s a conflict, but it’s not a state of war. What leadership do you have to have as a family to rise up to that exactly what you have. You don’t have to have someone. Who’s been to war? Who knows how to use weapons of war? Who knows tactics and battlefields? Who knows what the enemy can? You to him together. You two are very well able to deal with that on a daily basis and just continue on it. That’s not war conflict. Yes, but not war. War is when the entire nation becomes involved or large portions of the nation. Think about Vietnam. How long did it take for us as a nation to start talking about? Vietnam, as the Vietnam War rather than the Vietnam conflict, the Vietnam disagreement, it was called that when I was a teenager, it was they would nobody would call it a war. Nobody even called a conflict. It was a disagreement and. An entire nation was at risk, and when the north overran the South, that entire nation was lost. But it wasn’t our nation. It wasn’t on our shores. It wasn’t us. So it was never a war. So when MacArthur was put in place, when Stillwell was put in place. In China, when you know all those different soldiers, those different leadership. Who were very powerful, who were looked at, who guided who, when they were put in place. It was because we were facing a war with Germany overrunning people we respected and had promised to care for. We were facing a war with Japan. I don’t know if you knew it or not, but we were facing a war with Mexico because Japan. He intercepted messages between Japan and Maximilian in Mexico, who was a trumped up president. I don’t mean President Trump trumped up. I mean, he jumped himself into. Nation Japan told Maximilian if you will open a third front against the South of the United States, we will give you everything South of Louisiana and Texas and Oklahoma and all the way across the country. Who knows where they would have done it or not. But he was certainly willing to try it. He’s. Certainly willing to take it on until we told him through diplomatic channels. Ohh, by the way, we read your mail and you ain’t doing it. And you don’t wanna face us if you think you’re gonna do it cause you’re a lot closer to us than Japan is, you’re gonna feel it a lot quicker than they are. But I mean, the point is we were as a nation at war, we haven’t been even in Vietnam. We really weren’t as a nation at war.

[MCG]

Hmm. Alright, so the next one I have in terms of. Pointers that US has to be in the top five, top three, top five to make it great is global influence and I think this one was hard to find. Any clear data on, but this one is a no brainer as well. I think the US is the one country that export most of its influence and its politics and most of its culture to the rest. Of the world. Growing up outside of the US and then now living in the US, most Americans don’t know swat about the rest of the world. But the rest of the world know a lot more about America than America know about the rest of the world. And of course, we also have the phrase that America sneeze the Caribbean. We catch the cold. I think we see. That the entire W public has the cold when the US needs as well. So I think that’s a no brainer. Of course we have black life matters. Well that basically US social issues basically spread.

[Jay]

Become global.

[MD]

Very quickly, yeah.

[MCG]

So we see definitely that the US comes to global influence for good or for bad. the US definitely spread their politics and their culture justice system. This one was interested the US again did not rank in the top five when it comes to justice. Still, according to nomad capitalists, Denmark is at #1, Norway, #2, Finland, #3, Sweden at four and the Netherlands at 5:00. When it comes to the justice system.

[MD]

Five of the arguably least influential and weakest nations in the.

[Jay]

World and homogeneous. Nations in the world too.

[MD]

That also yes. Yeah, absolutely.

[MCG]

But this one, according to the legal scoops, the countries with the most well developed legal system. So this one is the one who have the best legal system, the one with the the most well developed legal system will be the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and #4 would be the United States and then Canada.

[Jay]

I sure would like to know how they. Came about those those.

[MD]

I would too. I wouldn’t. Yeah. Personally, I wouldn’t necessarily argue that the positions are wrong, but I would like to know what their rationale was.

[MCG]

I don’t know if the positions are wrong either, but I think when it comes to legal and of course the first one was according to know about capitalist if you want to look it up. Second one is by by the legal. Scoops I think when they talk about the best legal system I’m imagining they’re talking about, you know, how much people are in prison, how easy it is to be defended and all that stuff, and then when they’re talking about the most well developed legal system, it has to do with processes. I guess in terms of in the US, you know? This is you’re innocent until proven guilty, and I would imagine is the same for the United Kingdom. They have United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and then the United States and in Canada, as the well, most developed. And of course, those nations are probably older too. So they probably have a lot of time to. Hone their legal system. So anyways, US was not in the top five for the best, but in the top five for the most developed educational opportunities. I was surprised US is ranked number one in this one countries with the highest rank according to World Population Review. It’s a with the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada. And France?

[Jay]

Why were you?

[MCG]

I thought China would be in there and I thought the US would not be at #1. I’m saying that the US has. A good educational. System, but I didn’t expect China not to be in there, especially with some data I’ve seen coming out in terms of math schools and stuff like that. China without enough. But I guess even break it down by subjects the US might be lower in certain areas, but if you just say educational opportunities.

[MD]

At the risk of sounding at least disingenuous considering China sending so many students to the United States to study. I’m not sure. I’m surprised that the United States is ranked higher than China for educational opportunity, but. Particularly if one of the questions asked to come to that conclusion is from whence to whence do students travel? China sends a huge number of students to the United States. There are a lot of students, Chinese students in the United States who are here because they want to. Be not because the Communist Party sent.

[MCG]

Them right.

[MD]

Now how much authority the Communist Party can now exert over them? I don’t know, but I suspect it’s pretty considerable. But the question would have to be OK if China were indeed a better educational system, why would we not go there, and why would? They come here.

[MCG]

Well, one is I guess he could go back to freedom and two, English is a lot easier to learn than Chinese or Mandarin or whatever they speak.

[MD]

I wouldn’t argue that I’ve never tried to learn Chinese. I had a friend who did and he was incredibly good at languages.

[MCG]

But think about it though, I think the language that is most widely spoken is Mandarin or Chinese or whatever it is. And then next one will be Spanish, but their language that is mostly learn I think is English.

[Jay]

English is the language of commerce, isn’t it?

[MD]

I was going to say, but I think that’s the worldwide influence America has had for so many decades, maybe centuries.

[MCG]

But not only that, how much of the world did the UK analyze more than half?

[Jay]

Yeah, they did say that the sun doesn’t set on the British Empire.

[MD]

They did, but then since the people that we know in the UK joke about two nations separated by a common language, you know, we both speak English, but we don’t speak at the same. Way, why would worldwide every air traffic controller around the entire world all air traffic business is conducted in American English.

[MCG]

Well, I don’t know if you’ve got like, American English, but.

[MD]

Well, I I can tell you that it is. I used to work for the FAA and I did a lot of software testing for the FAA.

[Jay]

And it’s because aircraft technology originated here.

[MCG]

I would say English definitely.

[Jay]

Maybe that’s why. The Wright brothers? Maybe it’s because aircraft technology originated here.

[MD]

Well, but think about, but think about blurrier. Who was French? Think about there were some English inventors. The thing is, we tend to think that we invented it first. Maybe we did by moments, but there were people all around the world who surely wanted to have wings and they were working on it. So maybe that’s true. And maybe it’s that we perfected commercialism in aircraft first, I don’t know. If something to have be looked into to be able to make a decision about that. Before I take an opinion on it.

[MCG]

I would say though, I think most of the world don’t speak American English like I would say I don’t. Speak American English. But this is something I observe because a lot of countries that you will say even a lot of countries in Africa, you will say, hey, what language do? You speak. Most of them, will speak their native language, the native dialects, but a lot of them. Also, along with that also speak English because they were formally colonized by the British, but the Americans to look at them and say, hey, yeah, they don’t speak English, even India. A lot of people in India speak English, yeah, because they were formally colonized by the British.

[MD]

But Japan was never colonized by the British or America, right. But almost every Japanese person I have ever met in my life either speaks or is learning to speak English. And as a matter of fact, they learn it in their grade schools. Now, 50 years ago, when we were in Japan. We taught English and the interesting thing is that someone who could sit and just monitor the Japanese people discussing something in English and correct their discussion could make the equivalent at the time of $15 per student per hour, and they didn’t want your class to be 10 people. They wanted your class to be 30 people.

[MCG]

Ohh wow.

[MD]

If you’re in the military, you couldn’t convert those yen to American dollars, so it wasn’t as good as it might sound. But you could buy nearly anything in Japan for the amount of money you could make with a few hours.

[MCG]

Of work in a week as an English teacher. Yeah. So I think that’s one of the reason why maybe the Chinese are coming, because it’s way easier for the Chinese, as you said, they Start learning it as a kid, English. Most of Americans are not trying to learn Mandarin or Chinese or anything.

[MD]

Well, no. And I was also going to say when we were in Japan, I had a friend who was he studied for the ministry here in the United States. In fact, he spent eight years, who’s from Okinawa in Okinawa. Native. But he spent eight years studying here in various courses in college before he became a pastor over in. Pan and I was talking to Tommy O once about Kanji, which is the pictorial language in Japan, and he said that no one ever learns congee. They learn words, they learn pictograms, they learn sentences in congee. But Kanji is constantly changing continually. It never settles down. So I asked him, well, how many characters are there in Kanji and he said the last I heard was about four years ago. And there. Around 95,000 Wow kanji. They don’t use the same name for it in China, but it is a common language between the two nations that always mean the same thing. And the weird thing is that as complex and convoluted as congi is, I can actually read a little bit of Congo. Because it makes sense. It’s logical, but yeah, I would say that makes it one of the hardest languages in the whole world to learn.

[Jay]

Right. Yeah. I’m surprised, though, when you were reading what position the United States was for all of these different markers, I was expecting the US to be #1 number one, number one, number one. But it sounds like by any measure, Germany could be the greatest nation in the world too, or whatever other country that was listed too. So then using those definitions, in what ways is America great?

[MCG]

Yeah. What I think about it because as you mentioned, global influence. Definitely. You see, the US is at #1 economic opportunities, top five education opportunity is top five. So the era of justice system, military might, founding ideals and beliefs, but in some others the US is not even in the top 10. So you know, but again we have to have some sort of objectable measurement to say. For our definition of great, because if we want to make America great again, the term again. Implies that is no longer and then the also implies that at one point it was also great. So I guess you can.

[MD]

So let’s think about one other thing. When I was a kid and I’m still not very diplomatic, but when I was a kid, I was known for not being diplomatic. I said many things that really irritated people. And one of the things I said was that America was the absolute greatest. And all those other nations that did. Think so? Who cares about their opinions?

[MCG]

So I think it’s a criticism.

[MD]

No, I think I’m probably a little more diplomatic than that. Now. I do care what they think, but I do believe that when we say America is great, we say make America great again. We say America was great.

[MCG]

So when was it great?

[MD]

It’s our view from here in America because I know German people, people in Germany, that I’ve talked to, friends of mine, family, that we still have over there. Who are just irritated out the ears by us always thinking America is so great because they think Germany is the greatest. I suspect their reactions to those poll numbers you were listing would probably be very similar to ours. No, we’re in #1 everywhere. We’re in number. Well, OK, because that’s your country. You love your country. I think that’s probably one of the things. That makes America great.

[MCG]

So when was it great though?

[MD]

When was it great?

[MCG]

Yeah, because if this phrase is make America great again, it’s no longer great. So we want to return to that. So when was America great?

[MD]

Well, it doesn’t flow off the lips as well, but I would say make America as great again. Yeah, it’s. What is that, MAGA? Like I said, it doesn’t flow off the lips as well. I still think America is great. OK, I personally do. But isn’t that one of the wonderful things about America? You might not agree with me and. It’s OK we don’t have to come to fisticuffs over, we have to yell at each other about it. We just. Disagree. If we want to disagree and I’m not saying you don’t think it is, I’m just saying. You have that right, if you.

[MCG]

Do right. But The thing is, when you look at the phrase and I think a lot of people were taken aback by the phrase when Donald Trump had it in back in 2016 and now in 2023, he’s running on it again, we’re just going off the obvious questions. When would you say America? Was great because that’s what the phrase is implying that America was a great at one point, and Donald Trump is saying I can make it great again.

[Jay]

And that it’s not now, right?

[MD]

If we take it as an absolute, I think America was great until 12 years ago.

[MCG]

So before the Obama administration.

[MD]

We started going downhill. You know, I’m not being diplomatic. I’m not being nice. I’m certainly not being. But yes, on the other hand, I’m 69 years old. I’ve seen a lot of presidents. I’ve seen a lot of administrations go by, and I can tell you there were a lot of them that I thought were absolutely ludicrous, ridiculous, stupid, bad. There were more of them than I thought were absolutely wonderful. But honestly, until the last 12 years, I thought. Probably Jimmy Carter was one of the worst, most ineffectual presidents we ever had.

[MCG]

I would actually who have taken this place.

[MD]

We all know, like I said before, the last 12 years. And I don’t even really know who the president is right now. I don’t believe Mr. Biden is running the.

[MCG]

White House. Alright, we’ll take a break. I’ll be right back. You’re listening to the Remove embarrassed podcast. We’re sitting down with MD and we’re talking about the viral phrase. Make America great again. We’ll be right back.

[Jay]

Do you have the desire to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints? Answers in Genesis can help. They provide biblically sound books, CD’s, DVD’s, homeschooling, materials VS materials, online courses, digital downloads. And the answers magazine and more. Plus tickets to the Creation Museum and Ark encounter go to the answers bookstore by clicking the link in the description section below, so you too can be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks the reason of the hope that is in you.

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OK, if America was once great, was it only great for some and not all, or was it great for everyone? What’s your thought on that?

[MD]

I absolutely think there have always been dichotomies between those for whom it was great and for those for whom it was not. I grew up in California before California went crazy, and one of the things we had to study in order to graduate 8th grade in California was an entire year of detailed history of California. This and all anybody ever heard the term Chinese laundry, they were all over California in the old days, in the days of the frontier West in the days of the. Gold miners, the. Gold rush? You couldn’t get your laundry done by anybody but the Chinese, but the Chinese could not get any other job. Is that segregation? Sure it is. Anybody heard this from your cousin Jack?

[MCG]

Now we find these terms.

[MD]

Every railroad operation laying rail. Had someone a Welshman from the mines named Jack, he was the cousin of the guy who was on the team before him, so every Welshman who came over the horizon and was looking for work on a railroad laying job always asked the foreman. Hey, you got room for my cousin Jack. That was the joke. But you wanted to see people who lived a rough life, who lived a really deprived life, railroad people, Welshman. Almost. Yeah, it’s always been. There have always been people who had to work up from the bottom to get anywhere, always it. It hasn’t always been. Yeah, you can start there and rise. Sometimes it was. You can start there and stay right there forever. It’s not right. It’s wrong. But as one of my sons said, when he was about 15 years old and he and I were having one of our. This debates about politics. Politics is great. For running the country, it’s the people that mess it up. Out of the mouths of babes.

[MCG]

I think one other thing is I was going to offer some accusation that Donald Trump got with this phrase, even though if you dug into history, he was the original to him. He basically stole Ronald Reagan phrase. I think Ronald Reagan said.

[Jay]

Said let’s make America great again.

[MCG]

Right. And then Donald Trump dropped the lips and said make America great again. And one of the backlash she got it was that, yeah. Was it only great for some, but also a lot of black folks looking so well. America has never been great for me, which of course I disagree with, but. They look back and say, OK, well, if you go back to the 18th, we had celebration. We had Jim Crow redlining the 17th. Pretty much the same, the 60s we had LBJ and all this stuff that he basically divorced her husband and married the state. And again, if you look at the stats, because of course, if you had Larry Elder and the stats that you always give. Before the 60s, the marriage weight and the rate of birth into a married household for black. Kids were about 75%. Now it flipped is 75% or plus that are married without being into a household with a father and a mother and married. But a lot of black folks, especially those on the left, would argue that America has never been great for them. They have never been able to be equal in their country and that’s why they take exception to the. Freeze. Make America great again, because when he asked them when was America great? A lot of folks would point. Back to the 50s and the 60s and stuff like that. And if you look at it, I normally watch old television shows, so I’ll watch something like the Andy Griffith Show or Gomer Pyle, USMC or stuff like that. And if you look at just the acting and the shows back then compared to what they are today. I guess an argument can be made even morally, even though those shows I won’t necessarily hold them up for their morality. But if you look at them compared to what we’re seeing on TV today. There were some semblance of if you want to call it greatness, that we don’t see anymore because today it’s outright vulgarity on the TV compared to what you will see in the black and white shows of the Andy Griffith. And if you want to come to the 70s and the early 80s, the latter house and the Perry type shows, we don’t have those today. A lot of questions will even. Look at those issues and say, well, yeah, they’re not clean, but when you compare them to, you know, I don’t watch TV, but when you compare them to what we’re seeing today, you know, let’s call it, keeping up with the Kardashians, you know?

[MD]

Yeah. Eastern Shore. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know. It’s interesting to bring that up because I was in a giant grocery store today and they were playing Motown, but they’re also playing Creedence to water revival, which if you’re old enough, you remember what that was. They were really in vogue when I was in high school. They were playing a lot of those things that were 70s. And I looked over and 15 feet from me, there was a. The black lady my age, she worked in the store and she was singing along. And I started singing along. We had a great conversation. You were boogieing. No, just singing. I wasn’t boogieing. Neither was she, really. Although she was doing a little more moving. Than I was. But we were was singing songs that we knew from one, and it was really interesting because whole view of her life history, same age mine those times you’re talking about. Was by and large, pretty positive, but she had a moral upbringing, and she had a moral view. She had a view of a God who provides. And a world that’s not perfect, but because her God is in charge, she doesn’t have to worry about that.

[MCG]

Yeah. So let me ask what happened, because now if you say, make America great again, it was great once what happened?

[MD]

I think we started downhill clear back in the 60s and 70s when we started saying, well-being married isn’t important. Being faithful to your mate isn’t important. If it feels good, do it. What if you could do with drugs how to do with illicit sex and would do with immorality? And I don’t think it even really started in the 60s because my mother was working with Army wives when my father was being shipped overseas in 193738. But she had already been working with them when they were first in the ministry when he was what it was like 19. 2728. And she would never tell us as kids what the things were that she heard in the ladies rooms when they were talking. But she said I gotta tell you, the conversations you hear in school today, they’re earlier. They’re younger in life, but they’re not different than what these 17 and 18 and 19 year old women were talking about in the 20s in the 30s. So I think what happened was the morality has always been an issue, and the pushback and trying to push the boundaries and trying to. Like the it’s always been. An issue, but it became much more open when we as a society began to accept it as, yeah, talk about it all you want. Yeah, it’s OK. Even in polite society. Yeah. Sticker sticker. Sticker. It’s OK. Well, I mean, after a while, you get the.

[MCG]

Point where you don’t care anymore. Yeah, when it’s not become accepted, you know, especially the rise of the Internet.

[MD]

It accelerated the whole mess. It really.

[MCG]

Did. Yeah, when I think about what happened, though, I think about judges, Chapter 2, verse 10, where the Bible says, and also all that generation were gathered onto their fathers. And dear arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor did the works which he had done for Israel. You asked what happened. I think they arose a generation that you just said they did not know the Lord. If you go back to all the stuff you talk about there, you know they were talking about that.

[MD]

Which knew not God.

[MCG]

The lady should be shame faced. I think the King James further used. Hmm. I guess their definition days being easily. Dreamed, in other words, somewhat shy or somewhat reserve the kind of thing I don’t want to read into.

[MD]

The Bible, but whose beauty let it not be in the broading of their hair or their jewelry. Yeah. So their beauty is in their morality. Their beauty is in their emotional stability in the face of morality.

[MCG]

Right. Right. But also. Is the fact that they wouldn’t do anything to be ashamed, but today I think we have. Loss. That morality lost, that sense of. Being ashamed of certain things, people put any everything on the Internet. They will say anything in polite company. Look at the file that’s out there today.

[MD]

I know, yeah, yeah.

[MCG]

You’re no longer a shame of these things. Well.

[MD]

And go back to the Old Testament and the language the Old Testament, where it says that you are not to uncover your father’s nakedness, not to uncover your mother’s nakedness, the nakedness of your father’s sister. I looked up what that meant. I thought, uncover their nakedness. I mean, they’re dress. Well, actually it’s to bring them shame. Uncovering their nakedness is uncovering that which would bring them shame.

[MCG]

Yeah, we have lost that completely. Absolutely. They have ruled the generation did not know the Lord will no longer shame of saying we no longer ashame of the felt that thought there a generation that does not know the Lord. I like what I think. This was a French philosopher and his name Alexey D Tocqueville. And he says well.

[MD]

De Tocqueville, yeah.

[MCG]

You know that he might not be the one who said it, but it’s mostly attributed to him, he said. I thought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbours and her ample reverse, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in our fertile fields and boundless forests, and it was not dear I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her rich minds and her vast world comers, and it was not dear I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her public school system and her institution of learning. And it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in a Democratic Congress, on her matchless constitution, and it was not, dear. Not until I went into the Churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with right. Did I understand the secret of her genius and power? America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. And I think detox covill hit the nail on the head right there, because what happened, as we say in here, I think that the churches, the Christians. Have lost that flame. We are not evangelizing the way we should and all those things and because of that, the greatness of America is winning. And I willfully let the spiritual aspect out of when I will go to the list of possible things that could make America great, because you’re not going to find statistics on that. The worldly Internet is not going to. Tell you stuff like that. And I didn’t want to put that in. But when I think about what happened and you look at from generation to generation generation, I think Ken Ham has to start out there and this every generation attends church less. You want to go, you are the baby boomer, then you have generation X and then you have the millennials and they have Gen. C then they have. Alpha all the generations after that, your. And it’s probably the last generation that have majority of their folks that grew up in church that are still in Church, Gen. X millennials, Gen. Z, all of them have less than 50% and Gen. ZI think it’s like 20% of them that are in churches. Mm-hmm. So what’s going to happen with my kids? Generation being generation alpha, if what we are. Seeing today with the Gen. Z’s. We’re a high percentage of them are classifying themselves, are being some member of the two S LGBTQI movement. It’s going to be even smaller for generation alpha if something doesn’t happen, and Alexei Deterville said, hey, she’s great because she’s good. Mm-hmm. So what happened?

[MD]

The thing I noticed in hearing what he had to say. Was the parallel to Ecclesiastes. As King, he sought for so many things, and it was never the thing that was right. It was never thing that was good and ultimately came to the conclusion that the sole job of man, the sole goal of man, has to. To please God.

[MCG]

Yep, let us hear the conclusion on whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandment. Yep, for that is the whole duty of man.

[MD]

And then in the New Testament, there’s reference to Christians as the salt of the earth. And then there’s the statement. If the salt have lost his saltness of what good is it? Well, so there you have the salt has lost his saltness.

[MCG]

Yep, John Calvin. I don’t think any of us are Calvinists, but he said when God wants to judge a nation, he gives them wicked. Rulers, you can take that.

[MD]

Back to proverbs. Because proverbs speak specifically of that. Yeah, I think that makes it pretty clear what it will really take to make America. Right again and I happen to be a fan of President Trump. I think it would be great if President Trump were our President again, but that’s not gonna solve the.

[MCG]

Problem. Yeah, that’s not gonna make America great.

[MD]

Choose any politician, any body of politicians, no matter where they stand, no matter what they are. Even if they stand for God as a body, the politicians aren’t gonna make America great again. Yeah, it’s going to be. Well, what does the Bible say? But if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, I will heal their land. Where do we go from there? If we want America to be great again, and I believe America. That’s great. It’s gonna take prayer. It’s gonna take standing firm in the light of pushback. It’s going to take being willing to say this far. No farther. You have your right to your opinion, but you can’t force nor make me embrace. Your opinion? Yeah. If it goes against God’s.

[MCG]

Word. Yeah. And I’m glad you caught that first because you know, that’s second chronicles 7, verse 14, but a friend of mine, when I was thinking about this topic, I reached out to him just to find out why he. Thinks about it, and he preached a message from second Chronicles 713 and 14, and he entitled the Baroness of the Land. And I’m just going to read second Chronicles 713 and 14, he says if I shut up heaven and there be no rain, or if I command the locals to devour the land, or if I send. Pestilence among my people, then verse 14. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my faith and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sins, and will heal their land. And the friend said, hey the Baron. Most of the land. His premise, and I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but he seemed like he was saying here that before we’re gonna fall to our knees and pray and seek God’s face. The Lord allowed them to see the Baroness of the land in terms of the locus. No rain. The pestilence that come. I wonder if right now the Lord is saying hey. Christians look at the barrenness of the land. Because America, we tend to be caught up in the fact that, hey, we are great is the best country in the world to live. And whether you believe that or not, if you don’t see the Baroness of the land and that’s why we do so many episodes based on cultural issues. Because if you look at what is going on in our schools, the rise of the LGBTQIA, what’s going on in our government, the corruption in this country. If we don’t see the Baroness of the land and realize. Hey, we need to fall on our knees and seek the Lord. Faith. America is not going to be great again. I’m with you because.

[MD]

I said earlier that I’m memorizing the book of Exodus. It’s really interesting, you know, I always get a much clearer vision of what the book is actually saying when I’m going through it, verse by verse by verse, and memorizing it. It’s a process. And it takes a lot of time, but I understand so much more than I ever understood. And one of the things that’s really fascinating. Thing is Moses standing in front of Pharaoh early on, but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully anymore in not letting the people go to worship the Lord. OK, well, that was early on because not long after that Moses realizes that ain’t happening. This guy’s a serial liar. He’s going to keep lying and it’s up to God to do the work. And he can see it in the way Moses steals. So you look at Pharaoh and you realize that the first things that happened to Pharaoh were just kind of demonstrations of what God could do. They didn’t really fit, didn’t really bother him all that much. They weren’t all that big a deal when he got down to the locust, seating up everything in the land, he said, I have sinned against you and against your God. His is good. And treat the Lord and it’ll take away from me this death only. And he was beginning to feel it. In a pinch, it took all the way until the first born of every man and animal in the nation of Egypt died. Died in one night before Pharaoh finally said. Whoops. Now I know we don’t. Have his excuse. He was a Pagan. He thought he was God. We don’t think we’re God. I hope we don’t. I know you two don’t. I know I don’t. We don’t have his excuse. You’re absolutely right. I think what it’s going to come down to is at some point. We are finally going to see it barren enough because it’s going to affect us enough as a nation. They’re gonna turn around. We’re gonna say what have we wrought yet?

[MCG]

Yeah. I also we have lost several generation at that point. Another verse there was a generation that did not know the Lord. I think at this point there are generations in the US that do not know the Lord and I’m going back and I said I think the last generation you can see on a whole is probably your generation generation X millennial. And general? And that, I will say on a whole, because I think the 1st is talking to the nation of Israel and not individual itself on a whole. We have lost several generations and I think it’s a beckoned call for Christians to evangelize, to call the and to reach your Jerusalem, right in the corner that you are in because. If you haven’t seen the Baroness of the land at this point, I would say probably not going to see it ever, because at this point we are Baron. Mm-hmm. Anyways, MD. Thank you so much for joining us on the removing barriers.

[MD]

Podcast. Thank you for inviting me. As always, it’s been very enjoyable.

[Jay]

Hey, thanks so much for listening to the Removing Barriers podcast. Did you know that you could find us on Twitter, Gab Parlor, Facebook and Reddit? Go to removingbarriers.net/contact and like and follow us on social media, removing barriers, a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

Thank you for listening. To get a hold of us to support this podcast or to learn more about removing barriers. Go to: removingbarriers.net. This has been the removing Barriers podcast we attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clear view of the cross.