Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, the battle for the soul of America is first and foremost a spiritual battle. This reality is the neglected stepchild of the conservative family in the United States.

For a number of reasons, patriots, American patriots today, are fighting for their life and heritage with both hands tied behind their backs, attempting, in a manner of speaking, to defeat Goliath by kicking him to death, rather than having both hands free to at least sling a God-guided stone into the vitals of the pagan giant. And believe me, it is a spiritual battle. We need God-guided stones at the level of the human spirit, the invisible, to defeat the enemy before us.

But as long as we continue to neglect this unseen but indispensable component of our warfare, that is, the spiritual component of our warfare, if we continue to neglect this, we'll never experience true, supernatural victory over our enemies. And they are a demonic kind of progressivism. The progressive globalist. But, oh, just look about you, dear listener, and tell me it's not a spiritual battle. Did you see, for example, the clutch of Democrat faces at the State of the Union message?

Oh, if that didn't look demonic, I'd tell you nothing is. Have you seen Antifa at protests, for example? Or the counter-protesters at abortion clinics. They're demonic. They're devilish.

They claim to hail Satan. They claim, indeed, to abort their own babies. They claim to bathe in the blood of children. And on and on it goes. Hillary Clinton claims to be, well, she doesn't claim to be.

She is reputed to be at least a fourth-level coven witch herself. And on and on it goes. We are facing a spiritual reality here, my friends. And if we fail to acknowledge it, we will be defeated. The Bible is clear on this principle, too, from cover to cover, that our battle is indeed a spiritual one.

For example, the Apostle Paul says, We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. We wrestle against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. And this goes for every realm in which we exist, dear friend. And Paul also says, For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

Unquote. And those strongholds are spiritual strongholds, dear friends. And if we fight with both hands tied behind our backs, in a manner of speaking, for that's the net effect of neglecting the spiritual battle under which we wage warfare, then we will be defeated. The second we capitulate on this foundational truth, it becomes the moment we concede the ultimate victory to our enemies. We may win a battle here and there by perhaps electing Donald Trump or passing a piece of legislation, like a tax cut or an immigration bill, or perhaps we nominate a Supreme Court judge here and there.

But the war has already functionally been lost because we have agreed to lay down our spiritual arms and concede defeat on the most crucial of battlefields, that is the spirit of man. Job puts it this way, It is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. We are spiritual creatures. We straddle two realms simultaneously, the physical and the spiritual, dear listener. Do you know this?

We've been made to forget it over the last few generations of our nation's history, especially when we talk about our political lives together in the Constitution and our economic lives together under capitalism. Yes, your economic life is also a spiritual life, dear listener. But it is time that we were brought back to this all-important foundation that we are spiritual creatures. We have so many important features already in place, dear listener. Oh, let me just relish this for a minute.

We do have so many important features already in place on the political and physical realm. We have patriots and Americans have their fleshly weapons of warfare on the field already. It's not as if victory appears magically if we sprinkle enough fairy dust in the air. No, we must make real in the physical realm what is decreed in the spiritual realm. And in this regard, patriots have organized very effectively over the last few decades.

We have voices, for example. Patriot Americans have a voice. And over the last few decades, intelligent, articulate, committed Americans have arisen from every walk of life to speak. Now, I won't mention any specific voices by name, lest I seem to censure by omission a voice that you may favor. Let a thousand flowers bloom.

Suffice it to say that we have a full-throated voice that thunders conservative American principle if we have ears to hear. The Constitution and capitalism are clearly articulated across the American spectrum on radio, TV, and Internet. Many of the nuances of conservative life and morality are also articulated as corollaries to the vital principles of the Constitution for our political lives together and capitalism for our financial lives together. We also have grassroots organizations. Patriot America is not just a cacophony of individual voices calling in the night.

And we're organized, too, across a broad spectrum of fronts, from the National Rifle Association to the National Center for Constitutional Studies to the Heritage Foundation. And these are just three of my favorites. We have an embarrassment of riches, if you will, of organized, effective corporations. Even an evil conspiracy like that of Lois Lerner and the IRS in league with the Obama administration, they could not stop the flood tide of tax-exempt corporations from enlisting the American people for a concerted effort to transform America. We have grassroots organizations, don't we?

We also have elected representatives. We can relish this, too, a bit. Not enough yet, but we do have some. Because to the consternation of the smooth-running ecosystem in Washington, D.C., known as the swamp, and it is, isn't it, a political ecosystem in Washington, D.C., that President Trump has characterized as the swamp? And to their consternation, patriot Americans have begun sending Tea Party candidates to Congress to drain the swamp.

As I've documented ad nauseum here and elsewhere, the Democrat and Republican system, and it is a system, a mutually supporting system, not an implicitly anti-party system in Democrat-Republicans in Washington, D.C., an adversarial system. I mean, it's not. The way it has gotten so cozy over the decades that there's little more than paper-thin distance between Republican and Democrat on any given issue. Rhino-Republicans, in particular, preached one thing on the campaign trail but then voted for their own advantage once they got to Congress. When we sent Republicans like George Bush and John McCain and Lindsey Graham to D.C., little changed.

But when we began to send people like Ted Cruz and Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Donald Trump to Washington, D.C., it began to upset the deep state apple cart that has been selling the American people rotten, worm-infested apples for decades. We've still got a long way to go. But the swamp is being drained, and America is set right. We also have a well-articulated, thought-out philosophy, don't we, in the conservative patriot movement. The progressive globalists like to flatter themselves that they're the smart ones who hold an intellectual superiority over the poor, benighted conservatives and patriots.

Dear listener, but that false characterization no longer holds any water. However, the term principled conservative now stands for a conservative who has thought through a consistent position that's in line with the Constitution and economic policy based upon sound capital as principles. We have many luminous examples, don't we? Ron Paul, the National Center for Constitutional Studies, the Heritage Foundation I've mentioned already. One of my other favorites is the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Google them. There are a very concise and well-thought-out public policy center, mostly for Michigan, but they have national implications. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy. These are all examples that have given us an intellectual and political tradition and foundation upon which to base sound policy. So, all of this must be acknowledged and granted.

Well done, patriot. But is it sufficient in and of itself to win the war? I submit no, it is not. There is a side to our fight to which we must not be blind or ignorant. Observe with me.

For example, for example, progressives already have their spiritual weapons of warfare deployed, and they've been shelling us, if you will, artillery-wise for decades. This principle may seem counterintuitive at first glance. How can a movement so anti-Christian as progressivism, Marxist-globalist progressivism, how can this be characterized as spiritual in any way, shape, or form? But it is one of the most overlooked components of our enemy's arsenal by us. We correspondingly refuse to match it as well in this field of battle.

For example, let me point out to you that secularism is the universal spirit that's meant to destroy and overlay and suffocate all of America's religious faith. Secularism, ingenious and clever, isn't it? The progressive globalist Marxist has been at war in the spiritual realm now for over a century, unbeknownst, unseen, unfelt by most patriot Americans. And this is because the spiritual warfare is disguised as something other than it is. What has been held out to us over the last century or so is that America was founded as a secular nation.

That is one that favors no religion, but is rather neutral, concerned only with the non-religious issues of the state, right? Ostensibly, secularism. Once again, as I have detailed over and over, this is one of the major lies propagated by the Marxist progressive globalists. Until it is believed without question. But it is a lie, precisely because its premises are flawed.

First, there is no spiritual neutrality when it comes to God and the Christian faith. There is no secularism as a philosophy. The Marxist globalist progressive hates the Christian faith and seeks to stomp it out wherever Christianity seeks to assert its influence. We know this by now. So, oh, yes, secularism is a religion of hate, hate for God and his people, hate for all for which Christianity stands.

And at the spiritual level, it seeks to diminish, detract, and destroy Christ and his gospel wherever and when ever possible. And secondly, let me point out to you concerning secularism, America was founded as a Christian nation in principle. And this, too, I document for you again and again, broadcast after broadcast. Oh, again and again, let me point out for you, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court said in 1892, and I quote, Our laws and institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise.

The Supreme Court goes on to say in 1892, in this sense and to this extent, our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian. Yes, our institutions are and our civilization is emphatically Christian, according to the Supreme Court in 1892. Secularism is the anti-American religion that seeks to neutralize and suppress the source of our liberty. We must take the spiritual battlefield again and reassert that we are a Christian nation. This is why I contrast secularism with Christ for our spiritual lives together.

They are mutually exclusive, secularism and Christianity. They are incompatible for a free people. It is time we stop being bullied and silenced by the enemies of liberty who seek to enslave us with secularism, statism and socialism, the three S's, rather than Christ, constitution and capitalism, the three C's. Also, we must admit and observe that spiritually speaking, our enemies have already taken the spiritual field while we are still climbing out of bed at revelry, the spiritual revelry. For example, Islam is seen already now as compatible with the spirit of America.

How this has been shoehorned on the foot of the American people, Islam seen as compatible with the spirit of America. If you still think, if you still think, dear American, that Islam is compatible with liberty, as understood under our constitution, then I submit it is too late for you. You've been bamboozled. You've been brainwashed. You are already a child toady of the left.

Islam is by its very nature a theocracy, whereby Allah rules the Ummah, that is the people of Islam. And he does this by his chosen caliph under the system of law known as Sharia, which is derived directly from the holy book of the Quran. And under Islam, there's no room for compromise. Tolerance for others is not an option. And if you doubt this, look to the nations of the earth where Islam reigns supreme, and you will see the level of tolerance tolerated.

You cannot, for example, bring a Bible into Saudi Arabia if you are coming in to visit. And you can go to prison for sharing your Christian faith with a Muslim in Saudi Arabia. This is exactly the kind of tyranny Muslims wish to bring to America if they can establish a large enough majority to bring it off. Yet progressive Marxist globalists make nice, and they try to level the playing field by saying it's just another world religion that can get along in America. Oh, dear listener, look to Europe, which has sued its people with the same lie, and tell me that it's true.

Well, the progressive Marxist globalist is actively warring in the realm of the spirit already, and we refuse to wake up. We refuse to take the field. Almost any other worldview and religion under the progressive Marxist globalist is acceptable, just so that that worldview and religion is not that of Christianity, biblical Christianity. It is okay to hail Satan at pro-abortion rallies, or teach Islam in public schools as cultural enlightenment, or it's okay to promulgate atheism in science courses, or advocate Hinduism as part of world literature in public schools.

But these same progressive Marxist globalists will recoil in horror, and they'll report you to the authorities for saying Merry Christmas or pledging allegiance to the flag under God. One, progressive Marxist globalism is indeed the cosmic power, as Paul says, the cosmic power over this present darkness, the spiritual force of evil in the heavenly places. Oh, dear listener, Patriot America, Patriot Christian America is ignorant of, and there's silence concerning the necessity of deploying their own spiritual weapons. Our mouths have been gagged. Our eyes have been blinded.

Our ears no longer hear in the realm of the spirit when we come, then, to our own national state, to our own political situation. We believe the lies that there's a separation between church and state, for example. I go over this time and time again. You can check these out in our radio broadcast, that the lie of the separation between church and state. And there's also been a historical blackout about our history, too.

A classic brainwashing technique, the idea of historical blackout, where a subject is deliberately deprived or cut off from his or her history and past so that they lose continuity with their past and can be more easily shaped by new information provided by the propagandist. This is a spiritual tool as well. Our Christian spiritual heritage has been lost because of the historical blackout that we have experienced. Well, dear listener, know that our battle for the soul of America, if America still has a soul, the battle for our soul, dear Christian, is first and foremost a spiritual battle.

Everything you see around you has its corresponding spiritual component to it because we are spiritual creatures. Oh, Genesis tells us that our first father, Adam, was formed from the dust of the ground. And consequently, we are physical beings, are we not? That's what that text is telling us, that we are physical beings formed from the dust of the ground. But then also, the Genesis account tells us that the Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living being.

That is, we are spiritual creatures as well. What other creature in all the universe, dear friend, straddles the true realms of the spiritual and the physical? The angels indeed dwell in and inhabit heaven. Indeed, the animals of the earth, the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, they indeed inhabit the physical realm. But we, sons of Adam, made in the image of God, we straddle both those realms.

You, presently, as you're listening to me, you straddle two realms. You live in both a spiritual realm with spiritual consequences and the physical realm with physical consequences. So everything that we touch, everything that we come to, dear listener, has its physical and spiritual consequences. Every issue we face. Let me just take a couple, for example, for you.

For example, the issue of gun control. Sensitive, in the forefront after these recent shootings in Florida. The issue of gun control is not about transforming America, for example, into a gunless society, but about transforming the heart of man into one of godliness, not gunlessness. Oh, transform the heart of man into one of godliness and wisdom such that he knows the difference between good and evil and the when and where and against whom a gun should be used. This is the issue.

The issue is one, not one of gunlessness, but of godliness. The operator of the machine is always the one responsible for the results of his work, isn't he? Whether he uses a knife or a tractor or a bus or a drill press or a lathe or a gun. Indeed, the gun is nothing more than a machine. And the results depends upon the hand of the operator.

And if the operator doesn't have a gun, then the evil operator will use a knife, as we've seen in the past, or a bus, even as the radical Islamists have done. Gun is nothing more than a machine. Guns are not evil in and of themselves, are they? It is the hand of the operator, the machine, that determines whether evil or good is done. Amending the Constitution to get rid of guns will change nothing.

Only amending the heart of man so that he responsibly uses guns will change anything. Amend the heart, not the Constitution, dear listener. Amend the heart, not the Constitution. It begins and ends in the realm of the spirit. Take up your spiritual arms as well, dear listeners, and fight this fight.

Right now, with all of the mass shootings and false flags, we can see before us in the streets of America that our hearts are evil. The hearts of America are evil, and they're full of hatred and sickness and soullessness. It is the heart that must change. Amend the heart, not the Constitution, and you will see a transformation. Not only in the hearts of men, but in the use of guns, gun control, and the Second Amendment.

They are spiritual issues too, dear listener, and it's time to take up our spiritual weapons and fight a spiritual battle on this issue. Well, secondly, too, the issue of immigration, for example, it's not just a political issue. It is a spiritual issue as well. And we have spiritual issues at stake. The Bible tells us, the Old Testament tells us in particular, you shall not oppress a sojourner, Deuteronomy says.

You know the heart of a sojourner, for you are sojourners in the land of Egypt. Oh, yes, Israel was exhorted indeed to show compassion for and understanding of the sojourner. Deuteronomy also tells us there shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you, that is the immigrant. One law. Israel was supposed to be a nation of laws, even as America was a nation of laws at one time.

There was not to be a two-tiered system, either two-tiered in the sense that it is the citizen who has one level of justice and the sojourner another lower level, or as it is today in some of these sanctuary cities and sanctuary states where the stranger and sojourner, the immigrant, has favorable laws, whereas the rest of us live under another set of laws. So there is supposed to be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you. Indeed, there is to be equality under the law for all.

But there was also a corresponding reciprocal responsibility and a desire by the immigrant to obey that law and to embrace with love and full integrity the customs and ways of the land to which he sojourned. This was the corresponding response of the immigrant. For example, the Ten Commandments says, The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates, that is, the immigrant.

They were to embrace with reciprocal responsibility the law and the love and integrity of the customs of the ways of the land to which they sojourned. It was true of other issues too, like circumcision. The sojourner was to be circumcised along with his family. Also the payment of wages. He was to receive equal wages and do equal work.

All of these things. And Exhibit A for me is Ruth the Moabitess in the Bible. Ruth, who immigrated to Israel with her mother-in-law Naomi and her attitude as an immigrant. It should characterize every immigrant who comes to America too. She said, for example, when Naomi suggested that she return to Moab, she said, Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you.

For where you go, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried.

May the Lord do so to me and more so also if anything but death parts me from you. Unquote. Oh, dear listener. This, the attitude of Ruth the Moabitess, should be the attitude of every immigrant who comes to America. These reasons, we must see the issue of immigration.

Whether it's legal or illegal, it is a spiritual issue, first and foremost. Dear listener, we are spiritual creatures as well as physical creatures. And every issue we see on the horizon in America has its spiritual component, a seen and unseen feature to it. It is up to you to speak with wisdom, to understand with wisdom all of these issues. Our first father, Adam, was formed from the dust of the ground.

We're physical beings. And then the Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living being. So we are also spiritual creatures. We straddle these two realms, dear listener. As Job says, it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty that makes him understand.

Oh, dear listener, you and I must pray in days to come, because that is a spiritual response to every one of these issues. We should be as much in prayer as we are in writing letters, as we are in organizing, as we are in lobbying, as we are in voting, as we are in trekking to the capitals of our states and our nation, indeed, to vote and to express ourselves. We should be praying as much as we do anything, because that is the effective means of grace in the realm of the Spirit, by which we change things. Pray, dear listener, because it is your spiritual responsibility and it is your spiritual power.

We should also be laboring unapologetically in the spiritual realm for the spiritual good of our nation. Dear listener, make America spiritual again, if I can adopt the phrase. If indeed our president says we should make America great again, I say to you, we should make America spiritual again and win in this realm of the Spirit. Labor yourself to become more and more a spiritual person, more and more spiritually attuned. Sharpen your spiritual eyes of faith and embrace the tools that you have at hand.

The Word of God, prayer, and indeed the armor of God, as the Apostle Paul outlines for us. And you should be more and more a spiritual creature in all of these things. Well, dear listener, this has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church exhorting you to these things. Now, New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And I exhort you to come visit us.

It really is time to come out and just stop nodding in the dark, agreeing to things to which you give no support. It is time to come out of the shadows, take your place in a public church. If it's not ours, another. But we need you. We exhort you to come and visit us, see who we are, check us out.

And we meet for holy worship once again at 10 a.m. on Sunday at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can give us some feedback by calling us, too, leaving a message, or maybe I'll answer directly at 208-523-0196. That's area code 208-523-0196. We'll see you next time.