TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Trump Threatens Zuck with Life in Prison if Meta Meddles in 2024

Episode Date: August 30, 2024

Former President Donald Trump threatened to imprison Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg if the billionaire meddles in the 2024 presidential election. Data geek Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed this week he didn’t realize $400 million he spent on “getting out the vote” in the 2020 election benefitted one party over the other.      Rick Wiles, Doc Burkhart. Airdate 08/30/2024Join the leading community for Conservative Christians! https://www.FaithandValues.comIf you're a Faith & Values member, listen to today's show with other members here:https://members.faithandvalues.com/posts/aug-30-2024-trump-threatens-zuck-with-life-in-prison-if-meta-meddles-in-2024You can partner with us by visiting https://www.TruNews.com/donate, calling 1-800-576-2116, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961.Get high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves!https://www.AmericanReserves.comIt’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today!https://www.amazon.com/Final-Day-Characteristics-Second-Coming/dp/0578260816/Apple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books! https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/final-day-10-characteristics-of-the-second-coming/id1687129858Purchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today.https://www.sacrificingliberty.com/watchThe Fauci Elf is a hilarious gift guaranteed to make your friends laugh! Order yours today!https://tru.news/faucielf

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Because strength comes from smart preparation. American Reserves, your ally in emergency readiness. Visit our website and become prepared today. Former President Donald Trump threatened to imprison Meta's Mark Zuckerberg for life if the billionaire meddles in the 2024 presidential election. I'm Rick Wiles. This is True News for Friday, August 30, 2024. Let's begin our analysis and commentary of today's headlines with this New York Post report about Mr. Zuckerberg's involvement in the 2020 campaign. Then we'll tell you about Mr. Trump's threat to put Mr. Zuckerberg in prison if he does it again. So the New York Post reported that Data Geek, there's a new title, a Data Geek.

Yes. There's a new title, a data geek. Data geek, meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, claimed last week, or this week, he didn't realize that the $400 million he spent on getting out the vote in 2020 benefited the Democrats. He just figured it out. $400 million. Shazam, I spent $400 million. Shazam. I spent $400 million. Shazam. And I didn't know. It might influence the election. Why did you invest it then?

And then it, and just, I didn't even realize it was helping the Democrats. If I had known that, I would have cut back to $200 million. Golly, Sarge. Figure that out. But the Republicans, according to the New York Post, Republican sources are skeptical. A Facebook boss was unaware his so-called Zuck Bucks pledge to help finance fair local elections were spent unevenly after being given to two known left-wing organizations. Why would you even pretend that you're skeptical?

Say it. Say it. Just accuse him of it. Accuse him. Say it. Why pretend that you're skeptical? Now, Mr. Zuckerberg did send a letter to the House in relation to this, said that my goal in this letter that he wrote is to be neutral and not play a role one way or another or to even appear to be playing a role. So I don't plan on making a similar contribution this cycle.

Mr. Zuckerberg wrote in his letter to the House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan this week. So, Doc, this is the same Zuckerberg who last week said, you know, I wish I would not have allowed the U.S. government to pressure me to censor Facebook customers. Over what? COVID, over truth. And the laptop, the Biden laptop. Yes, I wish I would not have done it. Looking back in hindsight, that was wrong. I would not have done it. Looking back in hindsight, that was wrong. I shouldn't have done it. But you did it. But you did it. And now he's saying,

you know, looking back four years, I just didn't, it never occurred to me that spending $400 million and giving the money to two far left-wing organizations to spend the money that they would go out and spend it on Biden. Spend it on left-wing causes. Imagine that. He just trusted them to be fair, Doc. So who did he give the money to? Well, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, named after him and his wife, an organization led

by Zuckerberg's wife, Priscilla Chan, gave more, listen to this, more than $350 million to the Center for Technology and Civic Life, leftists, and Center for Election Innovation and Research, leftists, on the pretense of getting out the vote to everyone. But the administrators of those groups had deep ties to the left, researchers told The Post, including CDCL Chairman Tiana Epps Johnson, a former President Obama Foundation fellow. Based on this letter, he's either being disingenuous or he didn't do his due diligence on the people he gave money to. That's coming from Hayden Ludwig, director of research at Restoration News, speaking to The Post. The people who founded CTCL come from a defunct group called the New Organizing Institute, Ludwig notes.

And back in 2014, CNN quoted a GOP operative who called the New Organizing Institute the left's new death star. Everybody knew what it was. Sure they did. And it's just really the tip of the iceberg because how many other billionaires did it? Right.

And then you throw in AIPAC and all these other groups and the hundreds of millions of dollars they spend on each election. The system is rigged. Right. But we know the system's rigged. I mean, you and I know it. Most of the American public has it. But why not just go ahead and spend the money this cycle too? No one's going to say anything.

No one's going to stand up to it. Why not just go ahead and spend it? What's holding him back this time, Rick? Well, that would be Donald Trump's threat to put him in prison if Donald Trump gets in the White House. That's what it would be. So this article from the New York Post goes on to explain how this Zuckerberg, Chan Zuckerberg initiative, how they funded voter registration and get out the vote operations in swing states

like Georgia. Right. Where they spend a lot of money. And Biden won, supposedly, by 12,000 votes. Right. If the Zuckerberg money had not been spent there, would there have been enough votes to push it over the top for Biden? That's the meddling in the election. Right. for biden that's the meddling in the election right uh look if you if you have somebody out

there spending hundreds of millions of dollars to find voters for you and you got life made right this this is ballot this isn't ballot harvesting this is ballot chasing they were paying for people to go door to door and tell the people to vote by mail. Now, look, I just came through a campaign. We didn't have that kind of money. We didn't have any money. A very small amount. My opponent had $2.3 million.

When you're running against somebody that has millions of dollars to spend, what they can do is that they can hire people to go door to door. Yes. They actually put them on the payroll. Right. Now, we didn't have it. I don't think we had it in this case, in my case. But I'm just saying in a lot of races, there's so much money on one side that they're actually paying people full-time wages to work during the campaign, going door to door, either registering voters or telling them, here, sign this and you'll get a vote-by-mail document, whatever.

But they're chasing ballots. They're ballot chasing. And then they know who's going to vote which way. Now, I mean, to be honest with you, the way the climate is right now, I understand the ballot chasing and everything, but they're willing to spend up to $50 a voter. I mean, that's how much the CTCL was investing just in Green Bay, Wisconsin alone. It says, this is 1H for control, in Wisconsin, which previously voted for Trump, the CTCL spent $47 per voter in Green Bay, when normally the legislature spends about $7 per voter there and $4 in rural areas of the state.

And so both sides have the opportunity to do ballot chasing as it stands right now. But when you have – how much is this altogether here? $400 million being invested in ballot chasing? That's just one organization. That's right. One billionaire. So Donald Trump has a book coming out very soon, any day, like September 3rd.

And in the book, he makes the accusation that Mark Zuckerberg worked against him in 2020. And this is where Mr. Trump made the threat to put Zuckerberg in prison. So here you see the Politico article. Trump claims Zuckerberg plotted against him during the 2020 election in soon-to-be-released book. Politico saying former President Donald Trump writes in a new book set to be published next week that Mark Zuckerberg plotted against him during the 2020 election and said the meta chief executive would spend the rest of his life in prison if he did it again. So, Doc, we've reached a stage here in American politics. Somebody's going to go to prison in every election cycle. Yes. That's going to be a campaign promise moving forward here, isn't it?

But it also tells everybody you better count the cost. If you're going to get involved in a big way in a political campaign, you better count the cost. Because your opponents, if they win, may find a way to put you in prison. And so Donald Trump has made this threat. And the book is called Save America, a Trump-authored coffee table book. That means it's a big one. If it's a coffee table book, that's one of those big books with lots of pictures in it. It's being released.

I'm assuming. I mean, they're calling it a coffee table book. I think that's a way to denigrate it myself. You know, they're saying a coffee table book isn't a serious book. It's just a kind of a casual book. Oh, it has too many photographs of Trump on it. Right. It's something just to look at if you're not serious about anything. Well, that's true, Doc. That's a good point.

That was my first impression. That's good. Yeah, that's a good analysis of it. So it's going to be released September 3rd. It includes an undated photograph of Trump meeting with Zuckerberg in the White House. Under the photo, Trump writes that Zuckerberg, quote, would come to the Oval Office to see me. Right. And he goes on to say he would bring his very nice wife to dinner, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting to install shameful lockboxes in a true plot against the president, Trump added, referring to a

$420 million contribution that Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, made during the 2020 election to fund election infrastructure. So, Dr. LeMans, why would you keep inviting Zuckerberg to dinner at the White House knowing the rascals plotting against you? I don't think he knew it at the time. So, I mean, think about it. I mean, he was bringing everybody in. You know, I don't agree with Donald Trump on everything, of course. But he was trying to build bridges and to talk to people, and he

was talking to execs at the highest levels, bringing them into the White House. But he did not realize that everybody that came brought a knife with them, and that knife was to stab Donald Trump, to kill Caesar. Well, it tells you a lot about the Zuckerbergs, doesn't it? Yes. They'll go in there and pretend that they're friends, and yet secretly plotting to take down Donald Trump. So he goes on here and he says, he told me there was nobody like Trump on Facebook. But at the same time, and for whatever reason, steered it against me.

We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time, and for whatever reason, steered it against me. We are watching him closely. And if he does anything illegal this time, he will spend the rest of his life in prison, as will others who cheat in the 2024 presidential election. So Mr. Trump is serving notice, if I win and I have evidence you cheated, the Trump Department of Justice is coming after you. So it's a, the threat is intended to put the fear in the Trump haters that if you're going to cheat, you better you better make sure you win. Because if you if you don't win and Trump's in the White House, you could end up in a federal prison. Now, with that said. Well, that depends on who's leading the Department of Justice, too, doesn't it?

Yeah. If he puts Mr. Barr back in, that's not going to happen. Or Sessions back in. Sessions who didn't do anything except go after folks on pot charges. That was his bailiwick there. And then you have Bill Barr too, whose dad also taught alongside Jeffrey Epstein's group. Hard Jeffrey Epstein. So anyway. So who is that AG going to be? We don't know.

But now in other politics news. Well, what if the Attorney General is Robert F. Kennedy? Because Robert F. Kennedy Sr. was Attorney General. Boy, that would be interesting. Or Donald Trump has offered Attorney General to Robert Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy could finish his life

following in the steps of his father there would be some poetic justice in that wouldn't there so I really would hadn't considered that before

and then after that Attorney General Robert Kennedy runs for the U.S. Senate in the state of New York. I don't know. I'm just throwing that out there. But on the other side of the Trump issue, some things I don't like here today. NBC News. Trump says he wants to make IVF treatments paid for by government or insurance companies who elect it. A lot of differences of opinion, even among conservatives IVF, for pregnancies. And Mr. Trump, what's happening here is that he is continuing his movement away from pro-life, and he is going towards what I guess his advisors would be saying is the center, politically the center.

And really, this issue hasn't been part of the conversation until the DNC meeting, and Waltz made a big deal about it. And then he was actually called on the carpet for his comments about did they really go through true IVF treatments. And so when I saw this article— Oh, Waltz,s have no idea because he lies about just about anything. But when I saw this by NBC, immediately my first response was this was a reactionary response to Waltz's comments. There was no plan in the Trump agenda or the Republican agenda to give a hoot about IVF. But now it's given them an opportunity to continue to shift what they would see toward the center and away from the far right. It appears that the removal of Joe Biden

and the nomination of Kamala Harris has caught Donald Trump by surprise and it has unnerved him. That's the impression I get. He was expecting the Democrats would keep Joe Biden on the ticket. His whole campaign, he had it designed to run against Sleepy Joe. Right. Suddenly, Kamala Harris is the nominee.

And on top of that, the media obviously is giving her a lot of free publicity, very positive publicity. If you believe the polls, she's doing well. And I think it has unnerved Donald Trump. And he's doing these knee jerk reactions. Right. And now he's trying to jettison the image that he's pro-life he wants to be pro-life light a little pro-abortion a little pro-life i'm in the middle we can kill some kids not all of them you know kind of the way it is with gaza If you're going to kill them, do it fast. Get it over with. But this is a major shift because it's not just that Donald Trump is, you know, showing

support for IVF treatments, but that he said the federal government should pay for them. Yes. Now, this is a big leap. So he goes beyond just endorsing. That's right. And we're is a big leap. So he goes beyond just endorsing. That's right. And we're not making this up. He said it himself in a stand-up interview that he did with an NBC correspondent. And he expresses his support for in vitro fertilization.

Watch this. IVF has been an issue that has become political. A lot of people talking about it. What's what's the Trump administration going to do when it comes to IVF if you get elected? Right. Well, as you know, I was always for IVF right from the beginning. As soon as we heard about it, it's fertilization and it's helping women and men and families, but it's helping women able to have a baby. Some have great difficulty, and a lot of them have been very happy with the results, as you know. And what we're doing, and we're doing this because we just think it's great,

and we need great children, beautiful children in our country. We actually need them. And we are going to be, under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment. So we are paying for that treatment. All Americans who want it? All Americans that get it. All Americans that need it.

So we're going to be paying for that treatment, or we're going to be mandating that the insurance company pay. Okay, so, Doc, I can't say I know a lot about IVF. I don't see anything wrong with it as far as it helping couples have children. I don't see a moral issue there. From what my understanding is, the pro-life concern is what happens to embryos that are discarded. Right. You've got embryos that are being tossed away.

Right. And these are living unborn children. Yes. And that's at the heart of the pro-life argument on this, that if you hold firm, and I believe it's biblically affirmed as well, that life begins at conception, then what's happening is through in vitro fertilization is we are actually creating living embryos. We're bringing egg and sperm together. We're creating embryos. And doctors are making the best decision on which of those embryos has the greatest

viability to be implanted in a woman's womb. This is really a backdoor into the abortion issue for the left. They've ran with it. They've said, and they've tried to make anyone that is opposed to in vitro fertilization on par with the devil. You know, you are denying families the right to have children and everything. But the true pro-life position should maintain that life begins at conception. And we should not be creating life just to throw it away, especially when we have the opportunity to –

there are hundreds of thousands of potential pregnancies that occur every year that result in abortion that don't have to in the first place. There's already viable embryos being produced. And to take it even a little bit further here is we are now deciding, I want that embryo, but not that embryo. We are making a decision, a godlike decision on life. Frankly, I don't want that responsibility. I wouldn't want my wife to have that responsibility. Do we have any idea how many IVF embryos are discarded?

Oh, I'm sure it's got to be in the hundreds of thousands, Rick. And when we say discard, what do we mean? Are they truly discarded or are they given over to other organizations for further experiments and everything? Like, let's say Planned Parenthood. It wouldn't be the first time we found out about something like that. How do we know that the discarded embryos have not been brought to full-term development? We don't know. And used for experiments. We really don't know.

And we don't know if their organs have been harvested. That's what I'm saying. Wouldn't that be a horrible nightmare to find out that they've been they they actually have like egg farms that they're raising embryos to full development right just to harvest them right because what they have in these ivf embryos is a perfect a perfect lab subject rick it will never cry out it will never protest. You can't do anything about it because you've given it up. You've given up that embryo. It no longer belongs to you. It becomes a scientific asset.

We already know Planned Parenthood buys aborted babies. Well, what's the difference? There is no difference, really. Right. They're being aborted. They could be buying discarded embryos. So for all the folks on the right side of the aisle, if you're a Christian, IVF treatments, don't be fooled. Don't be fooled by the shenanigans from the left. This is not – this isn't just helping families or anything like that.

You are killing human life. You are discarding human life. And ordering to get one. Yes. Some are dying so that you keep one. And, you know, let's not forget the cynical part of this. There's a profit motive in all of this. It costs a lot of money to do these IVF treatments. And there's continuing

money that has to be invested in implanting this embryo and the healthcare that's involved with it. And now if Mr. Trump says the government is going to pay for it, are we now financing a embryo harvesting industry? You got it, Rick. But you would see embryo farms, IVF farms as a result of this. Because what does the government, I mean, if the government hands out money, what do businesses do with that money? They spend it to expand. You are facilitating maybe even a greater holocaust of humanity than abortion itself in this.

Think about it. I mean, to me, this is, you know, like I said, I have a lot of disagreements with Donald Trump. This reactionary response to the Democrats and Tim Walz and everything, it just shows that he was not committed to pro-life issues in the first place. You can't say they're beautiful babies and kill them. Let's move on to the next thing that Mr. Trump said to NBC, because here in Florida, there are two issues you need to understand. Last year, Florida passed a bill, and it went into effect. Ron DeSantis, the governor, signed it.

And the law says that there cannot be any abortions after the unborn child is older than six weeks. Right. So it's a very, very tight, strict law. You can still abort babies in Florida under six weeks. Yes. But obviously the abortion industry is furious about it. So that's issue number one. They want to get rid of that law.

But the other issue here in Florida, which is really serious, is that there is a constitutional amendment ballot issue that will be on the ballot in Florida in November. It's called proposition 4 It will eliminate all abortion restrictions in the state of Florida automatically if it passes if it becomes a Constitutional amendment and it will forbid the state of Florida from passing any law or regulation. Yes. In any manner whatsoever, Doc, it is so broad that it will truly be the wild, wild west for abortion.

Literally, beauticians could be an abortionist. Yes. The state would not even be allowed to regulate who does the abortion. Right. You would have more regulation for barbershops than you would for those practicing abortions. Under this amendment, there can be no regulations. Not less regulations. No regulations.

This is what I'm saying. It is the wild, wild west for abortion. The legislature will not be able to pass any laws whatsoever. No health agency in the state could pass any regulations. There could not be any inspections of abortion clinics. Nothing. Now, with that said, every single Florida resident who is pro-life knows that he or she must vote no on proposition four right no on four keep that in mind no actually in florida no means pro right if you're pro-life you vote no yes this is what mr

trump told nbc because he's a florida resident and they ask him how are you going to vote? Listen for yourself. The state that you are a resident of, there's an abortion-related amendment on the ballot to overturn the six-week ban in Florida. How are you going to vote on that? Well, I think the six-week is too short. It has to be more time. And so that's, and I've told them that I want more weeks. So you'll vote in favor of the amendment?

I'm voting that, I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks. Look, just so you understand, everybody wanted Roe v Wade terminated for years, 52 years. I got it done, they wanted to go back to the states. Exceptions are very important for me, for Ronald Reagan, for others that have navigated this very, very interesting and difficult path. Our country's been torn apart

by Roe v. Wade for years, for years. And if you go back 10 years, 15 years, all they wanted to do is they wanted it back in the states. They didn't want it to be in the federal government. I was able to do that. I believe in exceptions for life of the mother. If you look, incest rape. Doc, the issue for Florida voters is not, do you want to repeal the six-week ban? Right. That's not the ballot issue. The ballot issue is, do you want to eliminate all restrictions on abortion forever? Right. Either Mr. Trump doesn't understand it.

No, I don't believe that. I believe he understands it. Well, then he needs, if he's pro-life, he needs to say, I will absolutely vote no on four and encourage every Trump supporter in the state to vote no on four. Well, what makes you think he's pro-life, Rick? Well, that's what I'm trying to say here. That's what I mean. What makes you think that Donald Trump is pro-life? He was a Democrat for decades, just became a Republican. So you know what we're going to have if Mr. Trump wins? We're going to

have a moderate Democrat administration. Yes. That's where he's going. His second term, he's going to be a moderate Democrat. That's where we're headed. Yes. He will propose gun control.

I'm predicting it right now. Donald Trump will propose gun control. We can't have these guns killing people. He will propose a federal ban on semi-automatics. That'll be his first. He will propose a universal background check, even on private transactions, that I

would not be able to give my son a gun that's been in my family for a hundred years. He will go in that direction. He will be a moderate Democrat. That's my prediction. And the conservative Republicans will keep their mouths shut.

And he's going pro-abortion, and the conservative Christians are keeping their mouths shut. And even so-called pro-life J.D. Vance is saying, you know, I'm okay with IVF treatments. You know, I'm okay with what Florida is, you know is keeping their van in place. So even J.D. Vance, who is considered far right on the spectrum there, has moved toward the center here. Why? Because they're under the perception that that is going to get them elected. Yes. Which means Mr. Trump will say anything he's got to say to win this election. And when a politician will say anything he's got to say to get elected, you can't trust anything he says.

And that's the unfortunate side of this. It means he has no principles. There are no guiding principles. I'm just telling you the way it is. I didn't put these words in his mouth. I haven't changed. I've been pro-life since I got saved. I haven't changed, Doc.

Yeah. Yeah. Same here. I'm still pro-life. Killing babies is wrong. Killing babies in the womb is wrong. Killing babies in Gaza is wrong. Yes.

And the ironic thing about this is that the evangelicals are standing firm with Donald Trump as he walks down murder row here. Nobody's going to Mar-a-Lago and say, oh, wait, wait, oh, Mr. Trump, you can't do this, or we're not coming out to vote. No, they know.

The Trump campaign knows. They're not going to go anywhere. They're not going to go anywhere, because they not going to go anywhere because they don't have any backbone. They could endorse abortion all the way up to birth. As long as he stands with Israel. That's right. That's the only thing that matters.

They're doing post-birth abortions in Gaza. The only way the evangelical Christians in this country would turn in Gaza. The only way the evangelical Christians in this country would turn against Donald Trump would be if he did something against the state of Israel.

Then they would dump him. That's it. It's the only thing that matters to them. The state of Israel. Unborn babies don't matter. Born babies don't matter. You got it by the way doc I noticed something the other day

in one of the Jewish papers I was reading and I noticed that there's a trend I see where they're going with it watch for this to start appearing that the word genocide has been hijacked by anti-semitic people oh really and now if you use the word genocide has been hijacked by anti-Semitic people. Oh, really? And now if you use the word genocide, that's a code word.

That's a dog whistle for hating Jews. That's where they're going with it. That genocide used to be a good word that meant you can't slaughter people. But Jew haters have taken over genocide. And made it a bad word. And made can't slaughter people. But Jew haters have taken over genocide. And made it a bad word. And made it a bad word. And now, anybody who talks about genocide is actually

saying they hate Jews. I'm telling you, I saw the trend. It's starting to appear in Jewish papers. And watch over the coming weeks. Well, just keep in mind, whoever controls words controls the narrative.

They do. All right. Kamala Harris gave her first interview to CNN. And of course, as expected, as you see New York Post, conservatives tear apart

Kamala Harris's performance in first interview since Biden's exit. So incompetent. But you don't see anything. Conservatives tear apart Donald Trump's endorsement of abortion. No. You don't see that. See, I am consistent.

Yeah. I don't favor one over the other. I favor Jesus Christ. I'm consistent. Hey, keep in mind, Rick, conservatives have their own transvestites now. They do. They appear at their conservative conventions. That's right.

They have their own podcast. Yeah, that's right. But in the Harris interview here, of course, conservatives are going to say that. But New York Post here uh this is uh from them vice president harris has no regrets defending president biden's fitness for office offers too much information about phone call with president during cnn interview now we'll show you a short clip here and uh remember politics is all theater here and everything, folks. So what she has to do in response to this question is to distance herself from Joe Biden and yet embrace Joe Biden as the greatest thing to happen to America since Wonder Bread. Let's watch this clip.

This is Kamala Harris from her interview with CNN last night. I'll give you a little too much information. Go for it. There's no such thing, Madam Vice President. My family was staying with us, including my baby nieces. And we had just had pancakes and, you know, Auntie, can I have more bacon? Yes, I'll make you more bacon.

And then we were sitting down to do a puzzle. And the phone rang, and it was Joe Biden. And he told me what he had decided to do. And I asked him, are you sure? And he said yes. And that's how I learned about it. Almost in tears there, Rick. That's not exactly the way I read it.

Hey, I'm going to say this again. I know a lot of conservatives are saying Kamala Harris's laughter is going to cost her votes. I'm going to be the conservative that says it's going to get her votes. You're underestimating this woman's personality. Yes. Okay. You're underestimating Tim Walz's personality. I'm not talking about their – there's policies and there's personalities.

Bill Clinton had an awesome personality. Right. I never met the man, but I read comments of people who said – You wanted to like him even if you didn't like him. Right. I read comments back when he was in the White House. People said they had never met a more likable person. They had never met a person who would make you feel like you're part of the family than

Bill Clinton. Okay. It's his policies. Right. I didn't like it. And actually, a lot of his policies were actually pretty good. It was his, let's say, his behavior that I didn't like. Okay.

Right. His behavior. Kamala Harris, I don't like a lot of her policies, but I'm telling you, her personality is going to win her votes because Donald Trump is going to come across as a mean, nasty, negative man. Right. Because that's the way the media is going to portray him. Right.

He has a difficult time being likable. Right. Although I hear and I've read that people say when you're with him alone at Mar-a-Lago in the White House, that he has a tremendously friendly demeanor about himself. But in public, he comes across as gruff and tough. And you know what's going to happen in the debate? He was just mean. He was unfair.

He's a big bully. He's beating on a woman. Beating on a woman. That's exactly what's going on. Even though they can't define what a woman is. It doesn't matter. She's going to play the role of victim in the debates. And so we see this kind of in this next setup here that we have.

Donald Trump made a comment here a few days ago. I agree with it, that it just recently that Kamala Harris has embraced herself being black. And so Dana Bash asked Vice President Harris about these comments that Donald Trump made, and you expected to have a response to this. But let's see what her response was to this. I want to ask you about your opponent, Donald Trump. I was a little bit surprised. People might be surprised to hear that you have never interacted with him, met him face-to-face. That's going to change soon. But what I want to ask you about is what he said last month.

He suggested that you happened to turn black recently for political purposes, questioning a core part of your identity. Same old tired playbook. Next question, please. That's it? That's it. You're not going to answer that question? I mean. I hate, I detest anybody talking about somebody's race as a qualification for whether you vote for a person or not. One way or the other.

The Democrats play race all the time. Right. And Kamala Harris has played that, too. I don't care if she... Was it her father was Jamaican and her mother was Indian, right? Right. I don't care. Right.

I mean, it shouldn't make a difference. Barack Obama's father was African, Kenyan, and his mother was an American. I don't care. Barack Obama was as much white as he was black. He was not the first black president. He was the first biracial president. Right.

And that's a wonderful thing. Right. That we could be advanced. It was a wonderful thing. You know, that's a great thing. Why do we have these conversations? I thought we settled this stuff decades ago. Because there are people within our society that benefit from class and racial division.

I know why they're doing it. But Kamala Harris, now, she's made an issue of this in the past. She's distanced herself from the blackness side. I don't know the best way to put it. All she had to do last night is go, look, I've always been a mixture of black and Indian. That's me. Yes, I identify as Indian, but I also identify as Jamaican. That's me.

That's who I am. Right. That's all she had to who I am. That's all she had to say. I don't know why she didn't say it. It would have been to her favor. I would think so, too. It would be to her favor. I don't get it. I don't understand.

What do you... Are you embarrassed? I mean, I don't get it. I don't understand.. I don't understand. Just be who you are. And if you want to identify as a Martian in our new society. Yeah, you can be a Martian. You can be a Martian according to them.

That race can be chosen. You can choose your race according to them. I mean, you can choose your gender. Right. And you can choose genders that don't exist. Yes. So you could make up a race. You could be a Klingon.

Oh, wow. That opens up a whole new world of possibilities for me. You could become a Klingon. But I don't care. I honestly don't care. And I honestly resent the media constantly bringing race up. But they benefit from that, too. Of course they do. It's all part of the game.

So this next clip, tell me what we have. Are we looking at... Number 12? Yeah. So Dana Bash asked Kamala Harris, you know, what will this new Harris-Waltz administration look like starting on day one of the administration? Assuming – I like how Dana Bash assumes that Kamala Harris is going to win the election in the fall. Listen to Vice President Harris's response here. If you are elected, what would you do on day one in the White House? Well, there are a number of things. I will tell you, first and foremost, one of my highest priorities is to do what we can to support and strengthen the middle class. When I look at the aspirations, the goals, the ambitions of the American people, I think

that people are ready for a new way forward in a way that generations of Americans have been fueled by hope and by optimism. I think, sadly, in the last decade, we have had in the former president someone who has really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans, really dividing our nation. And I think people are ready to turn the page on that.

So what would you do day one? Day one, it's going to be about, one, implementing my plan for what I call an opportunity economy. I've already laid out a number of proposals in that regard, which include what we're going to do to bring down the cost of everyday goods, what we're going to do to invest in America's small businesses, what we're going to do to bring down the cost of everyday goods, what we're going to do to invest in America's small businesses, what we're going to do to invest in families,

for example, extending the child tax credit to $6,000 for families for the first year of their child's life to help them buy a car seat, to help them buy baby clothes, a crib. There's the work that we're going to do that is about investing in the American family around affordable housing, a big issue in our country right now. So there are a number of things on day one. Tell you what they're going to do from day one is they plan on spending a lot of money. A lot of money.

That's what they plan on doing. And don't you find it ironic that they're giving out the $6,000 child tax credit, you know, because they realize, hey, we've got to have more babies. And yet, on the other hand, they're out there having mobile vans out in front of the DNC killing babies. So, but there's other issues, too. It sounded like, though, in the first half of her comments there that she wasn't quite on her footing and that Dana Bash had to bring her back. So, but on day one, what would you do? And she doesn't know what her proposals are. Right. She really doesn't. Just lay it out. Just like one, two, three. This is what I do day one. Well, then she was asked about her role as border czar. Right. All right. What has she

done about illegal immigrants coming across the border? Let's watch. During the Biden-Harris administration, there were record numbers of illegal border crossings. Why did the Biden-Harris administration wait three and a half years to implement sweeping asylum restrictions? Well, first of all, the root causes work that I did as vice president that I was asked to do by the president has actually resulted in a number of benefits, including historic investments by American businesses in that region. The number of immigrants coming from that region has actually reduced since we began that work. But I will say this, that Joe Biden and I and our administration worked with members of the United States Congress on an immigration issue that is very significant to the American people and to our security, which is the border. And through bipartisan work,

including some of the most conservative members of the United States Congress, a bill was crafted, which we supported, which I support. And Donald Trump got word of this bill that would have contributed to securing our border. And because he believes that it would not have helped him politically, he told his folks in Congress, don't put it forward. He killed the bill. A border security bill that would have put 1,500 more agents on the border. And let me tell you something. The Border Patrol endorsed the bill.

And I'm sure in large part because they knew they were working around the clock and 1,500 more agents would help them. That bill would have allowed us to increase seizures of fentanyl. Ask any community in America that has been devastated by fentanyl what passing that bill would have done to address their concern and pain that they've experienced. So you would push that legislation again? Not only push it, I will make sure that it comes to my desk and I would sign it. Just one other question. So it's Donald Trump's fault.

Yes. Well, he did tell the Republicans to vote against it. But there were reasons. There were political reasons for it. I understand that. But they're in power. Yes. Biden was in power.

Harris was in power. I mean, if they couldn't get it that way, then they'd figure out another way. I mean, if the goal is to reduce illegal immigration, but that was never the goal. The real goal was to make money off illegal immigration. And you'll be able to pick up on that on the very next clip that we have when she was asked about, are you going to make it illegal to cross the border illegally? How does that? Am I going to make it illegal to cross the border illegally. How's that? Am I going to make it illegal to cross the border illegally? That sounds dumb in itself. Let's watch.

You raised your hand when asked whether or not the border should be decriminalized. Do you still believe that? I believe there should be consequence. We have laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally. And there should be consequence. And let's be clear in this race. I'm the only person who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations who trafficking guns, drugs and human beings. I'm the only person in this race who actually served a border state as Attorney General to enforce our laws, and I would enforce our laws as President going forward. I recognize the problem. We just have to choose which ones we're going to enforce. She didn't recognize it for the past four years, but she does recognize it now. What about Bidenomics? Does she stand behind the Biden economic history? Let's watch. You maintain Bidenomics is a success. I maintain that when we do the work of bringing down prescription medication for the American people, including

capping the cost of the annual cost of prescription medication for seniors at $2,000. When we do what we did in the first year of being in office to extend the child tax credit so that we cut child poverty in America by over 50 percent, when we do what we have done to invest in the American people in bringing manufacturing back to the United States so that we created over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs, bringing business back to America, what we have done to improve the supply chain so we're not relying on foreign governments to supply American families with their basic needs, I'll say that that's good work. Then Tim Walz. Yes. Tim Walz was asked about the controversy regarding his service in the military. And I've not seen this.

I'm curious to see how he answered the question. The country is just starting to get to know you. I want to ask you a question about how you've described your service in the National Guard. You said that you carried weapons in war, but you have never deployed actually in a war zone. A campaign official said that you misspoke. Did you? Well, first of all, I'm incredibly proud. I've done 24 years of wearing the uniform of this country. Equally proud of my service in a public school classroom, whether it's Congress or the governor. My record speaks for itself, but I think people are coming here to know me. I speak like they do. I speak candidly. I wear my emotions on my

sleeves. And I speak especially passionately about our children being shot in schools and around guns. So I think people know me. They know who I am. They know where my heart is. And again, my record has been out there for over 40 years, to speak for itself. And the idea that you said that you were in war, did you misspeak, as the campaign has said? Yeah, I said we were talking about, in this case,

this was after a school shooting, the ideas of carrying these weapons of war. And my wife, the English, she she taught my grammar is not always correct. But again, if it's not this, it's an attack on my children for showing love for me, or it's an attack on my dog, I'm not going to do that. And the one thing I'll never do is I'll never demean another member's service. All right. So I also served in the National Guard.

I served in the National Guard for 11 years. And I can tell you, I have a Gulf War service ribbon, but I've never went to the Gulf, okay? That's the honest truth. All right. He is saying that he went, and he didn't just do it one time. He did it multiple times. He did it on record. He used it in his his campaign literature he had it in videos over the years and there have been numerous people that he served alongside that said he used this for political gain well another one doc it just came out today or maybe yesterday the governor of maryland yes more democrat uh governor westmore uh here's the new york times westmore and the The governor of Maryland, Wes Moore. Democrat Governor Wes Moore. Here's the New York Times.

Wes Moore and the bronze star he claimed but never received. There's another Democrat who told the voters of Maryland that he had received a bronze star. Turns out it's not true. What is it with these guys? Yeah, and he did it on multiple occasions. Governor Moore did this on multiple occasions, used it in campaign literature. Now he's head to backtrack

and said, well, he basically is talking to his former superior, throwing him under the bus, saying, well, he said that he had submitted the application and that's as good as having the Bronze Star. No, it's not as good. That's right. It's a Bronze Star. No, it's not as good. That's right. It's a Bronze Star.

It's a big thing. But these Democrats keep – I guess it's not limited to Democrats. These guys exaggerate. They lie about their military service. If you didn't receive a Bronze Star, don't say you did. If you didn't serve in the military, don't say you did. Right. All right? If you didn't want to go to war, just say it.

I had a crisis of conscience, whatever it might have been. Just be truthful. Now, talking about being truthful, look at this headline from USA Today. Firefighter union boos J.D. Vance during speech at event in Boston. Do you see that? What's the impression you get? Oh, that they hated him. You know, that they didn't like J.D. Vance.

They stood on their chairs. Yes. Boo! Boo on you! Threw tomatoes at him and cabbages. Okay. I'm going to show you a video of J.D. Vance being welcomed at the Firefighter Union Convention. Tell me what you see. Watch this.

They were booing with their hands. Yeah, standing up and booing with their hands. Standing, standing up and booing with their hands. Standing up and clapping, booing with hand claps. Okay, when you see these headlines... Dig. It's just a headline. They get the propaganda in the headline. All right, so we're going to take a break.

Morning Manor's coming up. Monday is Labor Day. We'll have a repeat for Monday. We'll be back on Tuesday. You're listening to WWCR, International Shortwave Radio. You can find True News on frequency 12.160 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern and on frequency 4.840 from 10 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern. Connect with us on Rumble, Facebook, X, and Getter.

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Try my favorite America-loving brand, American Reserves, for your emergency food supply needs. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Morning Manna. This is your weekday Bible study sponsored by Faith and Values Fellowship in Vero Beach, Florida. And we welcome you, and we hope you come back every day. You can find us at faithandvalues.com. The class meets in real time at 8 a.m. Monday through Friday, faithandvalues.com. We are moving towards the conclusion of Chapter 21. We'll probably finish it up on Monday or Tuesday and today we're looking at verses 23 and 27 chapter 21 the gospel according to st. Matthew let's pray and. Workhart will read the Word of God, and then we will begin our study.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we are blessed to be alive and to be sons and daughters in your kingdom. We glorify you and praise you. Father, we have come to your breakfast table to be fed. And we are desiring the Holy Spirit to spoon feed us from your precious word. And then at the end of today's lesson, we will sit down at your table again for the Lord's Supper. And so, Father, this is a good day, a nourishing day. And we will be stronger one hour from now than we are right now. Praise God. And we thank you for it.

In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. And as Rick mentioned, we will be having communion at the end of our lesson today. So have the elements of bread and either grape juice or red wine prepared for that. And so that will be as we finish our lesson today. We are reading verses 23 through 27. I'm reading from the King James this morning. This is chapter 21 as we continue our journey during this week as we're heading toward Jerusalem.

That's where Jesus has his eyes set. And along the way, we have these various lessons. Verse 23, And when he was coming to the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching and said, By what authority dost thou these things? And who gave thee this authority? Jesus answered and said unto them, i also ask you one thing which if you tell me i and likewise will tell you by what authority i do these things

the baptism of john whence was it from heaven or of men they reasoned with themselves saying if we shall say from heaven we will say unto us why did ye not then believe him but if we shall say of men we fear the people for all hold john as a prophet and they answered jesus and said we cannot tell and he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. Praise God. Okay. Verse 23, when he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?

So let's take a look at the scene. The scene has changed from our last lesson. This scene occurs as Jesus enters the temple, likely the inner court. And this is following his cursing of the fig tree on his way to the temple and his conversation with the disciples so it the scene has jesus being approached in the temple by the chief priest, the elders, the scribes, representing the Sanhedrin, which is the highest religious authority in those days in Jerusalem, in Judaism. So obviously, Jesus' cleansing of the temple was viewed as disruptive behavior by the religious authorities and this this term they ask him by what authority do you do these things these things encompassed

all the actions and teachings jesus had performed up to that point in Jerusalem. The gospel, the miracles, the cleansing of the temple, his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. I think, did I mention the cleansing of the temple right all these things are embodied in this term these things who gave you the authority to do these things so his teachings were always accompanied by miracles. And his teaching in the temple was the proclamation of the kingdom of heaven the forgiveness of sins the call to righteousness and then he would validate that message by performing miracles right and so the religious elite are saying by whose authority do

you do these things and again that that included the the cleansing of the temple um they wanted to maintain control and authority over religious matters especially within the temple which was the the center of Jewish religious life. So they wanted to maintain control of the activities in Judaism, and they wanted to maintain control of the narrative in Judaism. And Jesus was confronting both. I mean, you're dealing with a guy

who just turned over tables. Right. For the second time, mind you. The second time, extremely disruptive behavior. Go into church this Sunday and flip over tables and see what kind of reaction you get. Well, Eric, when we talk about authority there, obviously these gentlemen thought they had authority, the chief priests and elders.

But where did they think their authority came from? Themselves. That's right. I learned something new in studying for this. I had never heard this, that back in those days and Bible days and everything, there were different teachers that had different you know groups of students that they were teaching when you advanced to a certain level you were granted a key okay i don't know what door it opened but you were granted a key and that was the key of authority that was granted to see in other words you've graduated you passed the class but in that you weren't given to the poem or anything you were given a key

and it's interesting that jesus mentions keys of authority in the kingdom as well when he's talking to peter a couple chapters earlier there uh but i had so then peter before before. Then Peter understood the significance of the keys. Right. So when Jesus said, I give you the keys of the kingdom, Peter understood that the

keys meant the spiritual ability to open and lock doors. Right. And so the chief priests and elders here, they're asking, where's your key? What's your key? Who granted you your key? Who is it?

It's interesting that keys are also used in Masonic symbolism. I think that's kind of maybe mocking a little bit there. But still, they're asking him, by what authority are you doing it? Who's your teacher? Who taught you these things? Who granted you the key to teach? Who said you could be a rabbi? Don't they do the same thing kind of today, Rick?

Who has credentialed you? By what authority do you speak? That's right. It continues today by the Pharisees. So we take a look at this scene. Jesus had been teaching in the temple he's back in the temple that day the people were very attentive to his words they were astonished by his pure doctrines and just completely amazed by the miracles and so the question from the the pharisees and the scribes

is not merely a request for information but there's a deeper motive. Right. They wanted to undermine Jesus' authority and they wanted to find legal grounds to accuse him. Yes. They really weren't interested in the

answer. That's important to understand. They had no interest in the answer. That's important to understand. They had no interest in the answer. And I would say they already knew the answer. They knew the answer. Yes, they knew the answer. So on the surface level, the religious rulers were expressing skepticism about Jesus's background and his training. Because in Jewish tradition, the authority to teach in the synagogues and in the temple

was conferred by recognized rabbis and scholars through a formal process. And you're right, Doc. The graduation was symbolized by the giving of a key, which represented, the key was a token of rights of interpretation. Today, we would have a diploma. But in those days, they had a key. The key was your diploma. So they challenged the source of his authority to teach because Jesus had not undergone formal training for rabbis.

And so they challenged Jesus' legitimacy as a teacher by saying he did not have the proper credentials, nor did he have endorsements from recognized rabbis, and he had not gone through any apprenticeship. And therefore, he was an illegitimate teacher. That's where they're moving with this argument. But I'm in agreement with Doc. Privately, they knew who he was. Secretly, they knew who he was.

They're not doing this out of ignorance. They knew the Son of God had arrived. So, again, on the surface level, they questioned his right to interpret the prophets and the law. They questioned his right to perform miracles. They questioned his right to take control of temple activities. They question his authority to expel money changers. They ask him two questions. What kind of authority do you have? And second one who gave you the authority it's a two-part

question you go back and look at it by what authority do you do these things and who gave you this authority? They are asking, we don't even recognize this authority that you have. And where did it come from? Tell us who granted this authority to you. Well, despite witnessing numerous miracles and signs and wonders performed by Jesus,

these Jewish religious leaders pretended that they had ignorance and doubts regarding his authority. You know, earlier they tried not bringing up the the the demon involvement saying well he does these by the powers of demons now they're just saying we don't know we don't know where he gets this authority please tell us jesus what is this authority and where did you get it and at the same it's it's really kind of ironic by asking that they're they're acknowledging that he does have authority yes yes you got it doc 40 by what

authority they they they're saying you have authority we recognize it but what kind of authority is it? That's right, and who gave it to you? Their questions are driven by their unwillingness to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, despite ample evidence that he was the Messiah. Their questions wasn't a pursuit of truth. Their questioning was to deny the truth. That's right. They had already started plotting against Jesus. They were seeking ways to destroy him but they were their plots were slowed down because of Jesus's growing popularity among the people and so

they're still maneuvering looking for a crafty way to to convict him of a crime every other attempt had failed so this question about Jesus's authority was strategic it was aimed at entrapping him into making a statement that could be used against him to accuse him of blasphemy or to challenge his legitimacy as a religious leader. Because that would be the second thing. Okay, maybe what he's teaching is truth, but he's not credentialed yet to teach it. Right. One way or the other, they were going to bring a charge against him.

So they aim to trap Jesus in a dilemma. If he claims divine authority, they accuse him of blasphemy. If he claims human authority, they can deny his legitimacy and accuse him of being a religious usurper. It's a trap. So then we get to verses 24 and and 25 the first half of 25 and jesus answered them i also will ask you one question which if you tell me i likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John. Where was it from?

From heaven or from men? You got to hand it to Jesus on this one. This is a great question. He's brilliant. He's absolutely brilliant. He's the source of brilliance. He's more than brilliant. He's the source of brilliance is more than brilliant he's the source of brilliance he brilliantly chose not to directly answer the question posed by the chief priests and elders recognizing that his demonstrations of divine power

should have been more than enough evidence of his authority. He had performed miracles in their presence and throughout Judea. He provided them with ample proof of his divine mission. So, Rick, why did he bring the whole discussion of John the Baptist into this? What was the purpose of this? It was strategic. It was a strategic move. His decision not to engage directly with their question reflected his awareness of their hardened hearts right and their resistance to accepting him so his response demonstrates

that he does not endorse arrogance or deceit in defending truth and that's an important lesson for us he perceived their ulterior motives he refused to get down on their level it was not going to allow them to bring them bring him down to their level so he as was often his method he responded to their question with a question he avoided their trap while still asserting his authority in a subtle but powerful manner right and his his response was a counter question they asked him a question he said hey I'll answer your question if you answer this question but he knew that they couldn't answer the question because if they answered the question they would validate that he was theiah or suffer the wrath of the crowd or suffer the wrath of crowd

so his counter question highlights that jesus's awareness of the of the religious leaders motives and their attempts to entrap him. And his counter question also showcases his skill in turning the tables on his interrogators and exposing their hypocrisy. Notice how he calmly maintained his own divine authority, while at the same time, he calmly confronted the challenges from those in positions of worldly religious power.

He did it with calmness. Yes. He remained in position of power and authority authority but he did it with calmness i mean how would we respond we'd be throwing up our hands raising our voices who are you to question me i'll tell you something i have my rights. Yeah. So how did he do it? He challenged their authority to interrogate him by asking about their response to John the Baptist's authority. He's saying, if you won't answer this question, you have no right to question me. So Jesus implies that their failure to question John's authority or to admit their ignorance about it undermines their own credibility.

To question Jesus' authority. So he's implying that they should already know by what authority he acts, given the miracles he has performed. So Jesus anticipates their dilemma. If they affirm John's authority is divine, they would logically have to accept jesus's authority and the reason for that is because john testified of jesus and so if john truly is a prophet of god and he's saying this is he this is the messiah jesus is it then if you uh disagree with that you're disagreeing with the prophet of God.

But then again, if you say that John is of men, and most of the people were like, no, John the Baptist is obviously a prophet. They've trapped themselves. That's right, because they alienate the people and turn the people against them. Because the Jewish people overwhelmingly accepted John the Baptist as a prophet. So Jesus had them between a rock and a hard place. And they knew it. He did it to him again by asking a question they could not answer yet they knew the answer yes they John was from God they

knew it they went out same they traveled out to the middle of nowhere to go seem why because God was testifying to them this is the messenger this is the forerunner this is Elijah this is the Prophet he is telling of the coming Messiah and once again I'm just convinced that the religious leaders knew who Jesus was too they knew John knew who John the Baptist was, but they knew who Jesus was, too. That's why they sought to take his inheritance from him. Right. So John the Baptist, his ministry, as the doctor said,

was focused on repentance, preparing the way for the coming Messiah, declaring that the kingdom of heaven was near and so the refusal of the jewish religious leaders to acknowledge john's authority ultimately reflected on their inability to accept Jesus as the Messiah. Because, as Doc said, John said, this is he. John pointed to him. And the people knew it. there's also a spiritual law in this scene that we have talked about in the past

the principle that to him that which is given from him that not is taken away it means that rejecting the truth could cost you to lose the opportunity to receive further truth.

We studied that in previous chapters of Matthew. But Jesus said hey the one that has little it'll be taken away from him it wasn't about redistribution of wealth it was about saying those who don't want to know truth will lose the little bit of truth that they have. And no more truth will be given to them. That's where the Pharisees were at spiritually. They're about to be cut off completely by God, which happened in 70 AD. Completely cut off.

The fig tree is cursed. That's right. And it did not read it was not born again right so we talked about yesterday that fig tree was cursed it withered up and it died okay verse 25 this part 2 of verse 25 and verse 26 they reason with themselves saying if we say from heaven he will ask us

why then did you not believe him but if we shall say of men we fear the people for all hold John as a prophet so Jesus cleverly entrapped them in their own logic by making them consider the source of John's authority and he presented them with two options from God or from men and by framing the question this way Jesus forced the chief priests and elders to

confront their own beliefs their hypocrisy their motives. So Jesus asked the religious leaders whether John's authority came from heaven, divine authority, or from men, human authority. And again, it's strategically crafted because their response will reveal their true beliefs and intentions if they acknowledge that john's authority came from heaven they would logically have

to accept jesus's authority as well because john testified about jesus being the messiah but the opposite is true if they claim John's authority was merely human, they risk alienating the people who revered John as a prophet. So what do they do? The chief priests and the elders engaged in in a huddle they had they deliberated they went into a huddle and they're whispering to each other reasoning among themselves

how to respond to Jesus' question they were not seeking a divine truth. They were seeking a crafty political response that would serve their own self-interest. Their deliberation was driven by self-interest rather than a sincere search for the correct answer to Jesus' question. They knew the correct answer. They weren't in a huddle deliberating how to evade the correct answer if you've ever been in a courtroom there will there will be moments when the judge

will grant to attorneys a moment to converse among themselves and the judge will push a button and turn on white noise in the courtroom they'll be static to drown out the voices of the lawyers who are deliberating how to respond to a question. That's what they were doing. If they could have had white noise in the background, they would have done it. They were whispering, if we say this, he's going to say that. How about just speak the truth? No, they couldn't speak the truth.

They couldn't speak the truth because they were liars and deceivers. Their father is the devil. If you can't tell the truth, then Satan has dominion over you. So like politicians, they reasoned among themselves, anticipating the consequences of each possible response. If we say this, this might happen. But if we say this, that might happen. How are we going to answer?

How about just answer the question, speak the truth? They couldn't speak the truth because if they spoke the truth they'd have to say we bow down before you Jesus Christ the Messiah and they weren't going to do it so the hesitation to answer the question revealed their inability to provide a satisfactory answer without implicating themselves. It exposed their political maneuvering. It exposed their absolute disregard for truth. They wanted to discredit Jesus while at the same time not losing public support. And so verse 27, and they answered Jesus and said, we cannot tell. And he said unto them, neither shall I, you, by what authority I do these things.

So when they came out of the huddle, they decided to lie. That was the decision. In the huddle, they decided to lie. The lie was pretending not to know the answer. When they said we cannot tell, that wasn't true the response we cannot tell was not an admission of ignorance but it was a strategic evasion of the question motivated by fear and motivated by acknowledging the truth. It was an outright lie. To avoid lying, the Jewish leaders should have said, we will not tell. Look, if you say to a judge, I will not answer the question, that's different than saying, I don't know the answer. Okay, so what do we do in the American judicial system?

We take the Fifth Amendment. I will not incriminate myself. I will not answer any questions. I plead the Fifth Amendment. I'm not going to incriminate myself. I will not answer any questions. I plead the Fifth Amendment. I'm not going to incriminate myself. That's what these guys should have done. They should have taken the Fifth Amendment. Instead, they lied because lying was normal to them.

They did. They did it all day long. They did. They did it all day long. They lied. They lied because they were unwilling to speak the truth due to their own pride, their vested interest, their fear of the people, and their opposition to the truth. That was more than anything else.

They were an enemy of the truth. That was more than anything else. They were an enemy of the truth. Their opposition to the truth was the strongest driving factor in refusing to answer the question knowing the truth and refusing to admit it is driven by their pride okay so their pride can't allow them to say we know the truth they can't say we know the truth because they had a vested interest in maintaining the lie. That's true. If there's a Messiah, well, why do you need the Sanhedrin? If you got a king from heaven, why do you need religious rulers? Yes. Now you understand why he was a threat the arrival of the messiah eliminated

their jobs did you ever think about this that the the religious elite the phares, the scribes, the Sadducees, all those guys, their jobs were threatened by the Messiah. Yes. They knew he was the Messiah, but they knew they were going to be out of work. Because the Messiah would run Israel. That's right. He'd be the king. As long as there was no Messiah and no king, they were in charge. And they were still employed.

So they pretended to be ignorant and said, we don't know. We'd tell you if we knew, Jesus,, we don't know. We tell you if we knew, Jesus, but we don't know. So Jesus, in return, refused to answer their question about his authority. He's asserting, hey, since you're not providing me with an answer to my question, I am not obligated to answer your question. So he got out of answering their question because they wouldn't answer his question. And all that did was expose the weakness of their position and reaffirm his own authority. That's right.

And that's essential there. Through this, he actually establishes his authority. My authority is just like John's authority. Where did John get his authority? Who gave John the Baptist his key? Okay. Where did John the Baptist's authority? Well, they had to recognize that John the Baptist his key? Okay. Where did John the Baptist's authority? Well, they had to recognize that John the Baptist's authority came from heaven,

came from God himself. He was a prophet. They had to recognize that. And so Jesus is just, once again, he's without coming right out and saying that, he's saying, that's the same authority I have that John the Baptist had. It comes down from heaven. It's not granted by men. It's not granted by you.

You're not the gatekeepers to God's anointing. Isn't that what they were saying? You've got to have our approval to say that you're anointed of God. You've got to have the key that we grant you that says, you say the things that we agree with. So, Doc, Jesus's rejection of their non-answer was based not only on his awareness that they knew the truth, but it was because they were against the truth yes religiously proud people claim to know everything or they feign ignorance depending on which response better serves their interests.

It's a common behavior among people filled with religious pride. They will resort to lies when they are confronted with truth. I mean, there's only truth and lies there's nothing else and so if you're lying it's because you don't want the truth yes and if you if you want the truth, you won't lie. So there are spiritual consequences of rejecting the truth. And God may allow those who persist

in rejecting it to eventually be blinded by their own pride and ignorance. If you continue in that attitude long enough, the Lord may permanently blind your spiritual eyes. Because you choose to believe a lie. It's a conscious decision. You want to believe a lie.

This is where we are in this country. Millions of people want to believe lies. Yes. They get upset when you tell them the truth. They want to believe the lies. They like the lies. And they'll turn

on you if you show them that they're believing a lie. Because they don't want to admit, I like the lie. I want to believe it. Doug, let's take the next 10 minutes before we go to the Lord's Supper here. Let's talk about some of the spiritual lessons, the practical lessons for us today that are in these verses. The first one I would say is, you don't have to answer your critics' questions. You don't have to allow your critics to control the conversation.

Correct. You can learn from Jesus how to handle critics and enemies. Because we can learn from Jesus' example in discerning when and how to engage with those who oppose us. Right. and how to engage with those who oppose us right and to recognize when further debate may not be productive in changing their minds right or when they're just frivolous arguments and accusations and how to respond to those uh you don't have to get into an argument with an idiot because that just means that two idiots are arguing men and so

yeah you need to recognize that there are people seeking to entrap uh entrap you that's what satan does he steals kills and destroys and he uses people to do it and so uh since we're in public ministry rick with the god cast and everything else that we do we kind of cut on the cutting edge of that we received some of the uh sharpest blows on that not trying to put anything on us or anything like that but that's just the reality of the thing of the situation we're out there jesus was out there in public ministry he you know and if you're in public ministry you're going to have a public confrontation by the devil for what purpose to undermine your authority and your effectiveness right so and that's the same thing they do with our type of

ministry too and folks that are online here, you've probably observed this. What do they do? They're questioning the authority. Now, we're not Jesus, okay, but we speak the words of Christ. We base what we believe and what we say about the things that are going on in the world, the sin that's in the world, the judgment that's already upon the world, the judgment that's coming upon the world, the judgment that's coming upon the world is based on the Word of God. By what authority? By the authority of the Word of God. That's the authority that

we have, and that's the authority every believer has. Not just Doc and Rick, but every believer has that authority to use the Word of God as your defense. That is it. The Word of of god that's our authority so you know uh obviously we get a lot of emails and a lot of social media messages and

so forth we can't answer all of them i just it's overwhelming um we'd have to double our workforce just to answer daily comments. Right. And it bothers me that a lot of them go unanswered. But I'll tell you this, I'll give you some advice here. The people who send messages and they are sharp and nasty and critical, you're not going to get an answer. I promise you, you're not going to get an answer. I promise you, you're not going to get an answer. Yeah. I am not going to be drawn into that kind of sinkhole. Right.

Because that's just going to get deeper and deeper, and there's no point where you can reason with them. They're not going to change their mind, Rick. Right. So that's what we learn here from Jesus' example, because he could discern when and how to engage with people who opposed him. And he recognized when further debate would not be productive. Right.

Jesus could have come right out and said, by what authority? By the authority that I'm the king. I'm the Messiah. Who granted you this authority? My Father in heaven. He could have just directly said it out loud, but it wouldn't have done any good at all they were actually they actually doc they that's all they needed at that point to

charge him with blasphemy right so that the truth would have gotten him crucified they were hoping he would tell the truth they They wanted him to say he was the Messiah. They knew he was the Messiah, and they wanted him to say it so that they could execute him. So learn the principle from Jesus that you do not have to answer your critics' questions. And learn his example that sometimes the most effective thing that you can do is to ask your critic a question that they can't answer because they don't want to speak the truth.

Right. You've got to hand it to Jesus. Yes. He discerned people who had hardened hearts and he was unwilling to waste his time engaging in arguments with people who didn't want the truth and he knew the pharisees weren't seeking truth I'm not going to take three or four minutes here and talk about denominational credentials I'm not opposed to them you need some type of order in churches and and denomin. I'm talking about the credentialing of ministers. So on one end, you have to have some type of structure,

some type of order. But on the other extreme, you can't say just because somebody has papers from a denomination, that means that they are anointed by God. And you can't say this because somebody doesn't have papers, that they're not anointed. The credentialing paper from a church or denomination is actually, it should be a statement that says, this organization recognizes the calling of God on this man or woman. Right.

But the way it's done is, the credentialing is to say, the calling is from this denomination. Right. So what have you encountered, Doc? Well, just in my experience, and I've been in two denominations, the Assemblies of God and Pentecostal Church of God, and sometimes ordination and licensing is used as a sword rather than a yeah you know a point of recognizing authority in people's lives and I understand the need to do that you know does someone have the sufficient

knowledge to teach I mean you we should be examined honestly we should be examined i i you know i i don't we as groups of believers we don't want to find out later on that someone was teaching uh the unity view of god when they should be teaching the trinity and the only way we do that is by examining people okay and saying we we say to the people of God, we've examined this individual. We find that he teaches correct doctrine. He has a life of good character.

And that, you know, he has our recognition, our blessing to continue in this ministry. But I've often encountered, and it's not all the time they're outliers that uh credentialing has been used as a way to control people to uh bring people uh into line if you will especially yeah to punish people especially if you challenge

uh i wouldn't say uh doctrine but if you challenge tradition and authority. I know people who have lost their ministerial credentials because they told denominational authorities they no longer could teach the rapture and Christian Zionism, and they lost their credentials. Right. Well, the symbols of God is one of them. When I was credentialed with the symbols of God, I had deep doubts about the rapture and second coming. So they credentialed me, but with the understanding I was not allowed to teach an alternative point of view. You could have it, but you couldn't tell anybody. Right. I could have it, but I couldn't tell anybody.

And so I lived within that for a number of years because I honestly, in my early years of ministry, I just didn't know. I wasn't convinced. Something in my heart just did not settle right with me about the rapture. And so rather than say, I believe it when I really didn't, or say I didn't believe it when I just didn't know,

I was hoping and praying, well, maybe if I'm in the ministry for a few years, I'll find somebody that can teach me the truth on this and get me in line because I'm just not there yet. But that's one thing. I'm looking at the comments here on on the chat and wendy said wisdom is knowing the difference between credentials and anointing yes absolutely correct credentialing is supposed to validate anointing right not the other way around. So there are people who believe that because they

have credentials from a denomination, they are anointed. And they're as dead as a dead fish on a riverbank. They have no spiritual anointing. And I know people who are highly anointed, who have no credentials. Right. But I also think it's appropriate to question someone who claims to have an anointing or someone's reputation for anointing. Absolutely. One way we do that is through the credentialing process. Do you have an anointing for Christian leadership and everything? So it's not, you've got to be careful not to throw the baby out of the bathwater

because the Plymouth Brethren and Church of Christ they they don't say we don't have a clergy right and yet on the other hand they'll recognize people as leaders yes essentially clergy and so uh it's sort of like the son of God we're not a denomination we're a fellowship well you walk like a duck you quack like a duck swim like a duck you're a duck uh you know but there's i i if someone claims to be a prophet claims to be someone with uh you know an evangelist i think they their anointing should should be. It should be weighed. People need to be discerning about people and who they claim to be. That's one of the problems that goes on in charismatic circles,

is that everybody's a prophet. Everybody's an apostle. Everybody's a global apostle and super apostle. Well, who granted you that authority? I would ask that of these Pharise Well, who granted you that authority? I would ask that of these Pharisees. Who granted you that authority? All right. I'll tell you a quick story here.

I'll tell you a true story here. This happened, oh, way back, I guess, in the late 80s. And I had come to realize that there was a calling on my life. And at that point, I thought I absolutely have to have, you know, I've got to have a denomination. I had that mindset. I can't serve God until I get a denomination to validate me. That's the other trap you can get into. Yes. Okay. So anyhow, the church that we were attending, so I, you know, I was in my, I was in my thirties and, you know, I had no ministerial training no seminary or anything

but the church we were attending we had a a wonderful pastor and he recognized the call of God on my life and he he sincerely tried to mentor me to get me started and there were people in that church that came against me and I didn't understand it doc I couldn't understand what was happening and I remember one Sunday and what the pastor would do is that you know when he was praying for people at the at the altar he would he would ask me to come up and help him. You know, sometimes there would be 30, 40 people seeking prayer.

And he would motion, come up and help me, okay? And so I remember this one particular Sunday and you could feel the presence of God. Prayers were being answered. There was a strong presence of God. Prayers were being answered. There was a strong presence of God there. You could feel the Holy Spirit. And I kept seeing, as I'm laying hands on people and I'm praying,

I kept seeing flashes of light. And I'm thinking, wow, this is the most anointed service I've been in. Lights are popping in my eyes. Man, this is the most anointed service I've been in lights are popping in my eyes man this is this is amazing so after church I told the pastor I said I kept seeing lights popping in my eyes and he goes Rick that wasn't angels I said well I don't know what it was he goes well it wasn't angels I said then what was it he goes well that was old brother 11 dusky and he had his camera taking pictures of you and back then you know in the 80s you had the flash bulbs on the cameras i said he was taking pictures of me praying for people he goes yes

he was in front of your face snapping pictures i said why why would he want pictures of me praying for people i couldn't understand he says rick he's going to take them to the state overseer and charge me the pastor with allowing an uncredentialed man to serve at the altar. And sure enough, Doc, that's what he did. That's exactly what that old rascal did. He wanted to get that pastor in trouble and he wanted to keep me from ever praying for people in that church. See, that's a dead old religious spirit.

Yes. And it's in a lot of churches. Hey, we got to go to the Lord's table. Let's wrap it up and we'll have communion. Yes, so if you've got the elements of communion, get those ready right now. I'm going to ask Rick, if you would, to

pray for us that the Lord would search our hearts. Let not any wicked way be found in us as we enter into the Lord's Supper here today, that the Lord would search our hearts and that we would bring before him, confess to him anything that would stand between us and a clear conscience in receiving the elements of the Lord's table.

Rick, would you pray for us this morning? Yes. Dear gracious Father, Father, we come to you desiring the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, our minds, and reveal to us things that we have done or said in the past week things that do not please you. And we ask you in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, to cleanse us with his blood and wash away everything in our lives at this moment, Father, that should not be in us. We ask this in the name of jesus christ amen amen if you have the elements of communion let's pray over those right now as we enter into this most blessed of sacraments don't take this lightly folks it's it's very important jesus commanded us to do this and

it causes us in my mind it's a great reset every time we do it. As often as you do it, Jesus implied that we should do it often. As often as you do it, do it in remembrance of Him. So let's pray right now for these elements of communion. Almighty God, in your tender mercy, you gave your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption. He offered Himself and made once for all time a perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. And he instituted this remembrance of his passion and death, which he commanded

us to continue until he comes again. And so, Father, we ask you to bless and sanctify with your word and Holy Spirit these gifts of bread and wine that we may partake of his most blessed body and blood. Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed once for all upon the cross. Therefore let us keep the feast. Alleluia. On the night that he was betrayed our Lord Jesus took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and he gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat. This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for you, preserve your body and soul to everlasting life.

This is the bread of heaven. Take and eat in remembrance that Christ died for you. After supper, Jesus took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink this, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it do this in remembrance of me praise god hallelujah glory to god the blood of our lord jesus christ

which is shed for you preserve your body and soul to everlasting life drink the cup of salvation in remembrance that Christ's blood was shed for you and be thankful. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold him who takes away the sins of the world and blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. This sacrament is the gift of God for the people of God. Feed on him by faith with thanksgiving that Christ died for you. Amen and amen. Amen. And I'm just, I get amazed at how many people that this is their first time

or maybe first time in a long time they've received communion and what a blessing they received by participating in. So we encourage walk in that blessing today. Walk in that blessing that He's manifest in your life today. Praise God. All right.

We'll be back here Monday morning. Well, will we? It's Monday's Labor Day. Oh, that's right. I'm glad you remembered. Monday is Labor Day. day and so if you're if you're outside of america labor day is a national holiday where we celebrate labor and we celebrate it by not working wrap your mind around that folks

praise god i'll just go along with it so we will not be here on monday okay we'll be back on tuesday thanks doc here on Monday. We'll be back on Tuesday. Thanks, Doc. I forgot about that. We'll be back on Tuesday. All right. Well, folks, no matter where you're at this weekend, find time to spend with the Lord. And worship Him. Sit outside.

Listen to Him a little bit. Read the Word. Find some good teachers to speak into your life this weekend. And we'll be back again here Tuesday morning for Morning Manna. God bless you. to WWCR, International Shortwave Radio. You can find True News on frequency 12.160 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern and on frequency 4.840 from 10 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern. Connect with us on Rumble, Facebook, X, and Getter.