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, I want to ask you, how do military officers break the spell of mortal, irrational fear when men come under deadly fire in combat? I ask this question because the answer will go a long way to discovering how we may dispel the mortal, irrational fear that has gripped America in our current national crisis.

Military and social planners have long recognized that fear is the single most debilitating state into which a population may fall, whether that population is a platoon of soldiers or a city under quarantine. It makes them do dangerous, stupid things like run from the battlefield while under fire or even run from an invisible, amorphous virus about which they know nothing. Now, last week, we dealt extensively with this primal fear. That we called accurately the herd instinct, right? The definition of herd instinct is the obedience of the individual to the mass, blindly and without reflection.

All that describes the state of so many Americans today as they huddle in their homes and sequester themselves away from society. In excruciating detail, I showed how we are in this precise condition now. We obey the mass like the herd, blindly and without reflection. We don the mask, we cower in our apartments, we recoil in the horror of someone transgresses the six-foot bearer and we resolve never to shake hands again and eagerly long for the day when miracle worker Bill Gates will magically produce the cure-all, a vaccine. Fear, not common sense, drives each of these responses.

How can one meet the spell of mortal, irrational fear? Well, the U.S. Army inculcates three things in their officers. First of all, act. Number one, act. Do something.

Not random, but the right action. Under extreme fear and duress, men become paralyzed into inaction. If left in this state, they will most certainly die. Oh, one clear dramatic example is from the movie Saving Private Ryan in the opening scene on the beaches where Captain Miller says, men, if you stay on the beaches, you're dead men. And then he proceeds to get them off of the beaches.

Officers are trained first and foremost to act and that the right action to the circumstances. This is what the church needs to do today. Right now, we are frozen on the beaches, if you will, incapable of proper action because we, too, are paralyzed by fear. What is that right action then? Well, more below, more below.

But first of all, secondly, officers are taught to lead by example. Soldiers follow the example of their leaders. Caesar conquered Gaul not only because he was a brilliant military strategist, but because he led his men in the front of the battle every time. They saw him fight with fearless abandon, and they were inspired to do no less. We need those kinds of leaders in the church, not those that cower behind their pulpits, telling everybody just to remain calm and raid out the shutdown.

No, the church should be leading as an essential element of a crisis, not dismissed by the governor as non-essential and told to go stand in a corner until called. And it is the pastors who should be leading by example. Then, thirdly, there is training, training that determines action. Yes, under stress and fear, a soldier will act as he's been trained. He may do it haltingly and mechanically at first, but if it has been thoroughly ingrained in him, it will kick in.

Consequently, poor training equals poor response to stress and aggression. Perfect training makes a perfect response to stress and aggression. This is one reason why the U.S. military, at least, so strongly emphasizes training, training, training in its recruits. Unfortunately, this is the most glaring weak point for the average American Christian. We have not been trained in American history and civics like previous generations were.

We have not been trained about our role in politics and culture and society. Oh, one Baptist preacher I used to listen to on the radio was fond of saying the Christian is not to soil the garments of the gospel with politics. Oh, we shouldn't stoop to politics and culture and society. Oh, when in reality, the garments of the gospel, if you want to use that figure, the garments of the gospel are interwoven with a rich tapestry of the beautiful fabric of culture, politics, and society. As the gospel transforms everything it touches, and it was intended to do so.

Read a history book, and you'll see how the gospel in the past has transformed culture and society and, yay, politics. And others mindlessly wave their Bibles at me and exclaim, Romans 13, Romans 13, which upshot for the evangelical herd is obey the ruling authorities, for they have been instituted by God. This is one of the most abused texts in the Bible, however, and more on that later. So, action, that is the right action, led by pastors who see biblical training kick in in the lives of their people at the moment of crisis. This is how to dispel fear.

That's where we are today. Now for the action. What actions do we take? I have four of them to suggest for you. Number one, love your neighbor, love one another, brother and sister.

Yes, dear Christian, love your neighbor. In times of crisis, in times of depression, economic depression, in times of pestilence and war and famine, love your neighbor, love one another, fellow Christian. While it may seem obvious, it's not always as obvious as it may seem. When we inspect this a little closer, love your neighbor, love one another, brother. When a nation is rich and prosperous as we were, and everyone is fat and happy, we're tempted, since nobody is in dire need, we're tempted to be perhaps a bit more indulgent of our interests than those of others.

But in times like these, especially those that are coming, we are no longer looking for dark days. Dark days are here. It becomes imperative then to, as Paul says, look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. That day is here. One of the most interesting unintended consequences of the shutdown is that more and more of us are getting to know our actual neighbors.

That is, the ones that live next door or on our block, and not just the hypothetical neighbor that may live across town or cross country. One of our families in our church recently participated in a shutdown block party. That's kind of creative. A shutdown block party where everyone on their block came out into their own yards and they'd walk up and down sidewalks and they would chat and exchange food and beverages, maintaining all of the social distancing, though. And it was a smash hit with everyone.

And one of their neighbors, who lived a few doors up the street from them, came over and introduced themselves and apologized for not coming over and welcoming, welcoming, excuse me, welcoming them to the neighborhood when they first moved in. And that was three years before. Finally, after three years, they met these neighbors and they're now becoming good friends. One of the unintended consequences of the shutdown. And my wife and I have experienced the same phenomena.

We recently reconnected with a neighbor we hadn't seen in years. To work out some possible cooperation if things got really bad. We also begin to check in regularly on an older gentleman who has health issues, a neighbor. We are also beginning to network with several farms in our valley to provide food to needy families. Ah, brother and sister, hard times are good times for Christians to show the gospel.

And the times are going to get harder before they get better. Love your neighbor. Love one another. If you're breathing a sigh of relief that the shutdown is being lifted and it will end all of our troubles and we can just finally get back to normal, then you will be sadly disillusioned very soon. Your government controllers are going to see to it that any lifting of the shutdown will be partial, ready to hand, to impose all over again.

Oh, Dr. Faustus has already indicated. I know his name is Fauci. I call him Dr. Faustus. He is ready then to indicate that these shutdowns will be more of a rolling shutdown as new viruses appear. And shutdowns may even become an annual occurrence as the flu season approaches.

Additionally, as I laid out for you last week and check our message from April 19th. As I indicated there, our economy is suffering monumental consequences that are only beginning to appear. Right now, the United States is experiencing the Elmer Fudd effect. And that is the phenomenon in the cartoon world, the Elmer Fudd effect, where a character unwittingly runs off a cliff and stands momentarily suspended in the air until he suddenly knows where he is and poof, falls off the screen to land as a puff of smoke, right? We as a country are in that Elmer Fudd moment suspended in midair, but not for long.

If economic forecasters are right, our economy will come crashing down soon and we will have opportunity to practice what Hebrews exhorts is the duty of every Christian. And that is do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Ample opportunity in the near future to practice this. The early church father, Tertullian, who lived during the second century, wrote an essay to the emperor at the time to inform him of Christians and how they lived so that he would stop persecuting them.

And as the emperor himself was beginning to learn, Christians were gaining a reputation as good people, good citizens of the empire. And as Tertullian says, and I quote him, but it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another, that is the pagans, but for themselves, that is the pagans, they are animated by mutual hatred. And how the pagans say, how they, that is the Christians, are ready even to die for one another. For they themselves, that is the pagans, will sooner put to death.

Right? What a contrast. And he ends by saying, one in mind and soul, we, that is Christians, do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another. Unquote. Oh, brother and sister, the early church grew explosively because of witness to the gospel like this.

And we now have opportunity in our day to live just like them. Well, secondly, the second thing we must do as the church is to practice Yankee ingenuity. Practice Yankee ingenuity. In the 19th century, the world became familiar with the endless energy, the savvy and creative approach to capitalism and business, and the boundless capacity for invention in America, like Thomas Edison and his light bulb, Robert Fulton, his steamboat, or Alexander Graham Bell and his telephone. No people on the face of the earth have had the resilience and the nimbleness on their collective feet and the ability to adapt to difficult circumstances like Americans.

Oh, do we still have it? Have we still got it, dear listener? Perhaps we do. Perhaps. But it will take a Herculean effort, given the desperate straits of our land in the wake of this stupid shutdown.

We will have to be inventive and creative in finding new ways to provide for ourselves and our families. Many of us will not have our old jobs to go back to when the shutdown ends. For others, it may be a while before that restaurant traffic of old customers comes back, or that hair stylist sees clients return, or a car salesman maybe sees buyers willing to commit to this major purchase. We need Yankee ingenuity. Practice it.

I urge all Americans to begin to think creatively outside the box, as the cliche goes, as to how they might potentially bring in resources for themselves and their families. Maybe you're a fitness instructor whose clients have moved on to home gyms and home fitness. That's me. I have moved on to home gyms and fitness. No more fitness instructors for me.

But maybe as a fitness instructor, you also have a knack for repairing things at home. We're swiftly entering a barter system of exchange, and your skills will have value on that market. Or you may be an investment advisor whose entire world has or is about to come crashing down around your ears and go belly up. But you are a kind of gunsmith on the side, maybe, as a hobby. I have a friend like this.

He has this skill. And you know how to service a wide range of firearms. Do you realize the value of your skills when the grid goes down, for example? Or maybe you're in the hotel resort industry, which has tanked completely right over the span of the shutdown. But maybe you are a skilled gardener with several acres of land at your disposal.

Farmers' markets are considered essential. And the food sold there will be in great demand this summer, I guarantee. This is a source of income for you during this period. Well, on and on we could go. Our entire economy is about to be transformed.

Your 401K is about to become worthless. Wall Street is about to be transformed into skid row. Cash is soon to be worth more as toilet paper than a medium of exchange. It's gold, silver, and goods and services for barter. This will become the new medium of exchange.

I'll trade you ammo for a repair on my plumbing. I have eggs to trade for gasoline. You want some of my fresh sweet milk for your baby? Give me that pair of truck tires in your yard. On and on we could go.

But get used to it, dear listener. You are going to have to learn to be creative in the coming economy. Learn a new skill that will be valuable. You know, stock up on items you know that people will value in times of crisis and hardship. Things like ammunition, strike anywhere matches, duct tape, wool socks, heritage, vegetable seeds, even whiskey.

It's a valuable source of relief in hard times. Even if you don't drink it, buy a couple bottles and you'll be able to trade. Well, dear listener, what has driven us to these straits? What has driven us to these straits? In part, it is corrupt government.

Corrupt government. So, I want to recommend to you also to act by transforming corrupt government. Number three, transform corrupt government. We must be about this if we're ever going to bounce back. We no longer live in a constitutional republic, but rather now in a medical tyranny.

A soft coup has replaced President Trump with Dr. Faustus. I know that's not his real name, Dr. Fauci, but I call him Dr. Faustus. This has been obvious throughout this breathtaking final toppling of what once was a representative republic. Government has broken covenant with the governed.

Now, if you think this smacks of conspiracy theory, well, you're nothing but a conspiracy theorist, Pastor, and shake your head in self-satisfaction, well, then I suggest if I am a conspiracy theorist, you may well be a naive, brainwashed Pollyanna who has not bothered to do his homework, preferring rather to live a virtual life on Facebook, ESPN, and Zoom, condescendingly throwing around the epithet conspiracy theorist. It is evidence of a worldview subject to a Jedi mind trick and a lazy excuse for going along to get along and not have to face a potential reality that is uncomfortable and unsettling.

So, before even talking to me or responding personally to me, I would ask that you do several things, dear naive brainwashed Pollyanna. First of all, look at the history of the expression conspiracy theory. Secondly, listen to my sermon on Romans 13 on our church website, which outlines our covenant submission to civil authority. And then finally, learn about God's organizing principle of the world, and that is covenant. God's economy is a covenant economy.

And if you don't know covenant, you don't know God. Well, until then, you are forbidden from listening to the remainder of this program. I want to have a little fun with this. And until then, Mr. Brainwashed Pollyanna, you are forbidden from listening to the remainder of this program. Turn to the channel right now.

Go find a program selling Dr. Whizbang's Bowel Cleanser and Skin Enhancer and come back when you have woken up from your sleep. But for the rest of us, if you're still with us, for the rest of us, know that I am operating on the assumption that one of the sane actions that we need to be acting upon in our country right now is the transformation of corrupt government along the model of a Christian constitutional republic. That's part of our civil duty as Christians. And now, as many of you know, I've been laying out a rationale and a program for the construction of a Christian constitutional republic.

And I've been doing it on this radio program in weeks previous to this acceleration of tyranny with the onset of the Wuhan virus pandemic. And I hope to return to that subject in weeks to come. And it's founded. The Christian constitutional republic is founded not on some novel idea of my own, but on principles and aspirations that stretch back to the tribal republic of Israel or to Charlemagne, to the cantons of Switzerland, to the Reformation, and to Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, right down to our own constitutional republic. And there are good people in government who know these principles, and they're acting on them now.

I have hope because God has placed these men and women in positions of power and responsibility. And so, we must call upon them, that is, legitimate government authority, to use their power to transform the corrupt deep state into United States deep. United States deep. Deep in constitutional principles and the Christian faith. Transform the deep state into United States deep, who are deep in constitutional principles and the Christian faith.

This is very important to highlight, dear listener. Revolution, revolution is legitimate when undertaken by legitimate authority for legitimate cause. Revolution disconnected from legitimate authority is anarchy. It's not order. Revolution disconnected from legitimate authority is a violation of the principle in Romans 13, let every person be subject to the governing authorities.

Legitimate charge, legitimate change, excuse me, has always come through legitimate authority. In redemptive history, sometimes change is as slight as the addition of a bike lane on your street, all the way to the other end, to our beloved American revolution, for example, replete with blood and steel. Revolution is legitimate when undertaken by legitimate authority for legitimate cause. The French Revolution had a legitimate cause, that is, a broken covenant, but illegitimate authority. And that was the anarchist rabble, the mob on the street.

And thus, you get the reign of terror. The Spanish Civil War had a legitimate authority, that was several factions within the established government, but it had an illegitimate cause, that is, proxy goals from the outside. Nazi Germany and the USSR, fascism versus communism, an illegitimate cause. Now, the American Revolution had both a legitimate cause, that is, a broken covenant with England, and a legitimate authority, that is, representatives from the colonial legislatures.

In weeks and months, even years to come, this is our task, dear listener, to destroy the deep state that has brought us this tyranny, and to establish, then, a United States deep, from a deep state to a United States deep, deep in constitutional principles and the Christian faith. Well, fourthly, then, the fourth link thing, the fourth action, excuse me, that we must take is, trust the triumph of Christ and his church. Trust the triumph of Christ and his church. Christ will triumph. Since Christ's resurrection and ascension, he has been about establishing his kingdom throughout creation.

The Apostle John, so much of Revelation is about this topic. The Apostle John witnesses this phenomenon in heaven. As the church proclaims in Revelation, we give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. Christ has taken his great power, and he has already begun to reign. Revelation is about Christ's dominion in his inheritance of all of creation, what that dominion is and how it was obtained, that is, at the cross, how it has been taken, that is, with the bowls and the seals and the trumpets and what it will look like when it comes to full fruition.

That is, the city coming down from heaven like a bride prepared for his bridegroom, yes. In short, dominion is our destiny, dear listener. As for me, God says in Psalm 2, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. You are my son. Today I have begotten you.

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Dear listener, Christ is about doing that now. Not in some supposed literal thousand-year period after a pre-trib rapture and seven-year great tribulation, reign of Antichrist, and Gog and May Gog in the battle of Armageddon. Dear futurist, dear dispensational pre-millennialist, the trouble with shoveling all of Christ's kingdom into the future is that it robs the past of its power and the present of its possibilities.

As Paul says, we are heirs, co-heirs of Christ, and like Israel under Joshua, we conquer with the new Joshua, Christ. Only the weapons of our warfare, they're not carnal, but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. Things like the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony, as Revelation says, and worship and sacrament and the means of grace, prayer and scripture. These are our weapons. Chairman Mao said political power comes out of the barrel of a gun.

The Bible says spiritual power comes from the blood of the cross. This redemptive history teaches us as well, that Christ is indeed conquering precisely as Revelation tells us. Christ's kingdom began as a small mustard seed in Palestine, as the parable tells us with 12 weak, fallible apostles, but has grown throughout the centuries, throughout the earth into a mighty tree, and it's still growing. And the gospel transforms whatever it touches. It changes individuals, doesn't it?

When one is born again in Christ, he becomes a new creature transformed by the gospel. But pick up a history book and you will see how that same gospel changes not only individuals, but entire cultures and societies and civilizations. And it's meant to. We were meant to be change agents of all of creation. We're not here exclusively to win creatures.

We are here to win all of creation. Whatever happens in the coming Holocaust in this overblown reaction to the pandemic, once again, the virus is real. It does make sick and even kill some. But nevertheless, it's being used by government to stampede us into the corrals of our homes and the will of the deep state. Whatever happens, though, know that we will be there.

We Christians who know that dominion is our destiny, we will be there to pick up the pieces and rebuild. By the power and spirit of God, many will be converted in this maelstrom. Christ and his gospel will be victorious. And it will be the church that will build Christ's kingdom a little further, taking a little more dominion, erecting upon the ashes of what has become a demonic deep state. We will erect a Christian constitutional republic, which, in league with other Christian constitutional republics around the world, will become a congress of Christian constitutional republics.

One of my favorite authors, Gary North, said, there will be a world government. It might as well be Christian. I love that. There will be a world government. There is one coming, dear listener.

And it might as well be Christian. Now, you may laugh. You may scoff. You may gnash your teeth at it. Some people hate to hear something like that.

But that's okay. Go back to sleep, if that's how you feel. So, dream your empty dreams about a pre-trib rapture while great tribulation boils around you. It will be those of us who trust the triumph of Christ. Trust the triumph of Christ.

We will be the ones who will bring change. That's the way it's been throughout redemptive history. And it is indeed precisely the way it will be until we see, as John says, the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. Oh, may that day come. I long for that day.

I work for that day. May we all see it together. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We are meeting now on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Come and join us and give me a call for feedback or information at area code 208-523-0196. Area code 208-523-0196.