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, what will it be, war or revival? Mr. and Mrs. America, what will it be, war or revival? It's a stark choice that we face.

Both phenomena are present in our world today, war and revival. One represents humanity's way to God, the other man's way to death and destruction. At important junctures in history, God always places before humanity's vision two stark choices, God and his ways found in the scriptures, or number two, man and his ways found in the perversion of his own nature. We have arrived at such a juncture. Let's look clearly to our choices in war or revival.

First of all, war. The evil incompetent administration in Washington, D.C. has perpetuated upon the American people a cataclysmic conflict that they trumpet as a war for the freedom and territorial integrity of Ukraine. What a farce. There are several devastating features of this war, which make it a surefire end of world scenario. First of all, there's the endless mindless propaganda.

The American people have been fed a steady stream of lies and propaganda meant to gin up hatred for Russia, who is the devil incarnate himself, that is Vladimir Putin, and unconditional love for Ukraine. Zelensky, who is the George Washington of Ukraine, as I heard one commentator put it. Well, Ukrainians are ostensibly like us in this scenario, only lovers of liberty who only want to be free from the domination of a power mad dictator. Therefore, we must shovel billions of dollars in support and other billions in war material without question or scrutiny.

Not even Rand Paul's amendment to one of the spending bills to audit the billions being spent could be passed. All of this in order to support these so-called brothers in the cause of liberty and justice. And we hear it from everyone. Every time we turn on the TV or the radio or click a website, Nancy Pelosi calls Zelensky, the new St. Patrick. Sean Penn is filming a fawning, slobbering documentary of Zelensky and the war.

And one critic puts it this way. He says, and I quote, Sean Penn's Zelensky documentary substitutes bromance for storytelling. Bromance for storytelling. And every major news outlet has their correspondence supporting the war, likening Ukrainians to the patriots of 1776. And most Americans swallow this diet of pablum direct from the spoon of mainstream media as if it were gospel truth.

Yet for no more than the effort of turning a page, the mildly curious American can find out these simple facts. First of all, Zelensky himself is a damnable dictator, persecuting the Russian Orthodox Church, for example. Excuse me, the Russian Orthodox Church, although 60 percent of Ukrainians belong to it. And the church condemned Russia's invasion, too. And he throws his political enemies in jails.

He censors the media. He appropriates millions of aid to his own personal bank accounts. And he's always beating the war drums incessantly with NATO and the United States of America to attack, attack, attack. And when missiles crashed into Poland last year, he hysterically called for an outright declaration of war by the United States and a nuclear reprisal until it was determined by the trajectory of those missiles that they were launched within Ukraine. And then the bumbling, grinning B actor.

Did you know that Zelensky was an actor before he became president of Ukraine? Well, he promptly went on to something else. Well, another fact. Ignorant zealots for Ukraine label Putin, for example, as a Nazi, when in reality, for a brief reading of a bit of World War II history, one will discover that Ukraine was a Nazi stronghold during World War II and still is. When Hitler invaded Ukraine in Operation Barbarossa in June of 1941, much of Ukraine welcomed the Nazi troops and tanks as deliverers, deliverers from Stalin, who had persecuted and killed millions of Ukrainians over the space of decades.

In fact, in remembrance of those days, Nazi groups have existed ever since 1945. And most recently, they are called Azov battalions. Azov battalions, excuse me. And they are brutal. The Azov battalions terrorize their fellow citizens.

Who will not join them? They torture and maim and kill fellow Ukrainians by the tens of thousands. And perhaps you saw the video of Azov troops torturing Russian prisoners early in the war. We have video of whole platoons of Azov soldiers heiling Hitler, their arms held high, before Nazi paraphernalia and swastika festooned flags. And yet, our politicians and media treat the real Nazis in this drama as if they were Minutemen or Navy SEALs or the greatest generation of World War II.

Another fact that's often overlooked when it comes to Ukraine is that we are being drawn into a region where we have absolutely no security interests whatsoever. The interest we do have, I will mention, under corruption. But let it be known that we are being drawn into a region where we have absolutely no security interests whatsoever. Despite the impression trying to be foisted on us, Ukraine is not a member of the military security pact NATO, which is North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

NATO was erected right after World War II in order to check the potential advance of the Soviet Union into the rest of Europe, like, for example, a very vulnerable Poland at the time. But since the fall of the Soviet Union, NATO has outlived its usefulness to the point where it becomes difficult to justify our remaining in it at all as we spend billions of dollars there while the participating nations spend nothing, ostensibly, for their own defense, right? Additionally, ignorant Americans are clueless as to the long history of conflict in this region.

Another fact that indeed is being propagandized is the playing down of the long history of conflict in this region. For example, the strategic region of Crimea, which juts out into the Black Sea, has been fought over for centuries, and most notably, the war between the Ottoman Empire and Russia right there in Crimea in 1853. And it was hotly contested as well during the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. And in reality, truth be told, Crimea has been a contested piece of real estate from time immemorial. One scholar calls the current Ukraine war just another in a long line of wars in a perpetual Slavic civil war.

He calls the battle between Ukraine and Russia and all of those elements a perpetual Slavic civil war. That is what we are sticking our hand into a virtual wood chipper set on high. Would you willingly stick your hand into a spinning wood chipper? Why then are we getting involved in a vicious civil war in which we have no business and no security interests? Well, secondly, we must also note the decades of manipulation and provocation that have existed in Ukraine.

American diplomacy did not wake up in February of 2022 and exclaim, oh, Ukraine, look at you, poor, freedom-loving, small country. You know how that cackling Kamala Harris, our vice president, characterized Ukraine in her puerile comparison. This freedom-loving, small country, small country being suddenly invaded by a big country, right? No, America did not wake up to that in February of 2022. America has been clandestinely meddling in Ukrainian politics for decades.

Ukraine has been a pawn in the West's chess game with Russia since the fall of the Soviet Empire in 1991. We guaranteed Ukraine security. If she would give up her nuclear weapons, we assured Mikhail Gorbachev that Ukraine would never become a member of NATO. And yet we are now looking with that, who me look, when Russia today accuses us of stampeding Ukraine towards NATO membership, which is exactly what we are doing in violating our agreements.

Perhaps the most egregious example that we, the United States of America, have been interfering in Ukrainian politics for decades now, is that despite the clear terms of the Minsk Accords, excuse me, the Minsk Accords, M-I-N-S-K, signed in 2014, American agents like Victoria Nuland, who was at the time the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, she worked to destabilize the democratically elected President Yanukovych and setting up a puppet president friendly to us. That is the United States in the West. That is Poroshenko. And this all transpired back in 2014, the overthrow of a legitimately elected president.

Additionally, we have been secretly training Ukrainian military forces, arming them long before the outbreak of this war. Now, there is more to this sordid tale of manipulation and provocation, which makes us liable and guilty of provoking Russia, not acting as peacemakers, including the building of 46 bioweapons labs throughout Ukraine. On and on we could go. The larger point is that we are like the conniving sibling who pokes and pinches and provokes his brother until that brother hits back in self-defense and we go running to mommy, crying foul. No one should listen to such a brat.

And likewise, no one should listen to the corrupt, warmongering American diplomats and politicians when they spew their war rhetoric. America is the sibling brat in the larger human family. And then C, we should also note the decades of corruption, the decades of corruption. Once more, what few Americans have either the time or the inclination to look into is that Ukraine has become a giant money laundering machine since the fall of the Soviet empire.

Do you remember that famous piece of film where then Vice President Biden boasted that he had personally got the Ukrainian special prosecutor looking into Hunter Biden's corrupt financial dealings? He got this prosecutor fired by threatening to withhold billions in U.S. aid. That was just the tip of the iceberg. Like the Bidens, others like utterly corrupt Senator Mitt Romney set up dummy corporations. This is the way you do it.

You set up a dummy corporation in Ukraine and you staff it with corrupt Ukrainians into which corporations then money from the United States taxpayer ostensibly targeted for aid to the Ukrainian people. That money is then funneled into that dummy corporation. Then that money is paid out to the officers of that corporation. Ironically enough, men like Hunter and Joe Biden and Mitt Romney.

So when you feel so patriotic, you put in your sticker on your window of the Ukrainian flag and you post it on your website and on your Facebook page and you feel so patriotic knowing that your billions in tax dollars are going to support the poor downtrodden Ukrainian people in their striving for freedom just like us. Buying weapons to help fight the Russians and food to feed the hungry and medicine to heal the sick. Just know, feeling so proud that you're doing so good, know that behind the scenes, your corrupt government is scamming you, using soaring rhetoric to put money in their own pockets. And Ukraine is their prize golden goose.

D, we must also note the imminence of nuclear annihilation. Oh, this keeps me up at night. We must be especially wary of the deep state when it begins beating the war drums of nuclear war. The reckless political Lilliputians in D.C. have backed Russia's Vladimir Putin into a nuclear corner. He has put Russia on its highest state of alert.

The only command remaining is launch. But his situation is not one which came about in a vacuum. He has been provoked. For example, the discretionless Senator Roger Wicker, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee and should know better, said that the U.S. could rain destruction on Russia with nuclear weapons if Russia invaded Ukraine. Well, Mr. Wicker, Russia has invaded Ukraine.

What now? And in response, the Kremlin said that Russia could turn the United States into radioactive ash if she were attacked. And of course, with Russia now on high alert, this is not just empty bluster, at least on Putin's part. And additionally, the deep state lackey Congressman Adam Kinzinger called for a no-fly zone over Ukraine enforced by NATO and the United States, which tactic has always been seen as an act of war and would certainly invite retaliation from Russia, perhaps with tactical nuclear weapons and, God forbid, strategic nuclear weapons on the United States.

Now, this is just a small sample of the rash, foolish talk that has come from deep state progressives concerning nuclear war with Russia. All of them are clueless as to the terrible consequences of even one nuclear explosion over America, much less a full-scale war with multiple warheads igniting in every major city and military target in America. What would be left, I ask you? Einstein, when asked about the kind of weapons that would be used in World War III, responded, and I quote, I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones, Albert Einstein.

A state of war, it must be said, only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. There are no sober statesmen to govern us anymore, but only shallow, feckless political hacks who no longer think deeply, but are only parrots repeating the party line. And we must always remember what Alexander Solzhenitsyn said about a state of war. He said, a state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. And that's what's being perpetrated on us.

The resistance of Ukraine has no reasonable chance of success, despite the bravery of the Ukrainians. I do not mean to demean them, but rather, our participation has only escalated the conflict to the brink of nuclear war. And the ignorant, careless fools in the Biden administration and the lackey Republicans who go along with them, who keep sending further billions to Ukraine, are only provoking arguably the most heavily armed nuclear power on the planet.

Do you, who blindly follow Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and General Milley and Lindsey Graham and Adam Kinzinger and all the rest, do you mean to tell me that these evil, incompetent leaders, who, everyone else, you as well, freely admit, have destroyed our economy, we all know that, who have sickened our culture with their perversions, and who have cynically imposed tyranny on us, do you now mean to tell me that magically, they are suddenly righteous patriots, who will successfully prosecute an honorable war? Oh, give me a break. Consistent with their character, they will only lead us to defeat and destruction.

If you stand with Ukraine, dear listener, if you stand with Ukraine, you have fallen for a lie. Well, not only is war going on in America, but also revival is going on in America, and this is our hope. Number two, not only war, but there is revival. At the opposite pole of this infestation of evil is spiritual revival. War or revival.

In early February of this year, students at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky gathered to worship and pray and sing, and they continued around the clock for two weeks. Thousands came to join them. One of the ministers who preached the sermon, he closed it with this, and I quote him, do not leave here before you learn about the love of God. Experience the love of God, so that you can pour it out. Ah, Asbury, he goes on to say, that is the college.

Asbury, and the world needs this kind of love, unquote. Thousands of students at that time were transformed. That characterizes revivals, dear listener. I'm a student of history, and that characterizes revivals of the past, and God being faithful will characterize this revival too. I hope so.

Many at this revival at Asbury College, many came to know the Savior, confessing their sin, committing their eternal souls to Jesus. People could be found in groups praying for one another, or just listening to the stories of their fellow students, perhaps hearing them as never before, although knowing them on campus previously. Many of the participants remarked on a palpable presence of the Holy Spirit, not in a frantic, excited way, but with peace and strength and love. It was compelling and enduring. It was nothing any clever promoter or charismatic preacher could hype up, but rather something unplanned for, powerful, and unstoppable.

I found interesting in particular the thoughts of Professor Stephen Siemens, who was a senior back in 1970 on this very campus when another revival sprang up. He's since returned to teach at the school. Siemens said it will take 30 years or so to discern exactly what happened here during this time. Revivals, he explained, begin with an awakening inside a Christian community. It always starts in the church, dear listener.

And Siemens goes on to say, that's stage one. It begins in the church. Siemens goes on to say, true revivals throughout history have led to evangelism and missions and reformation of society and culture at the national and global levels. Siemens closes by saying, it's also clear that this Asbury revival is about Gen Z and its hunger for genuine worship, unquote. Now, researchers note that record numbers of young people, the Gen Z generation, if you will, record numbers of young people are religiously unaffiliated and or have doubts about God.

And also, signs of anxiety and depression are rising. With a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report noting that 42% of high school students experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and 22% of them seriously considered attempting suicide. Dear listener, I submit to you that war will only exacerbate this circumstance, will only drive America and Americans deeper into despair. But revival will begin the healing. Revival will begin the healing.

Now, it must be noted that revival is not the end-all be-all to our problems. No, no, no, no. It is only the beginning. Historically, it is a beginning. We see this in the history of revivals and reformation.

The First Great Awakening, for example, brought the revolutionary generation out of frontier despair and alcoholism to spiritual life, and in addition to the making of the American Republic. Many people do not realize that without the First Great Awakening, there would be no American Republic. There would be no Revolutionary War and our Constitution. And there was also then what's known as the Second Great Awakening, historically based, historically reasoned. We can see what revival does.

Yes, the Second Great Awakening brought the Civil War generation out of greed and expansion and slavery and alcoholism. It's funny how alcoholism is a persistent theme in American history, isn't it? Yes, the Second Great Awakening brought the Civil War generation out of greed and racial slavery and alcoholism, brought it then to the ending of that slavery and a recommitment to biblical principles. And so, dear listener, as conditions worsen in a land, this is also historically demonstrable.

As conditions worsen in any given land, with things like moral degeneracy and poverty and wars and strife and despair, when all of this grips a people, oh, God always moves to answer the prayers of His people by granting revival and reformation, too. Yes, we see this being repeated historically, something I've been praying for for decades. And time will tell. We may be seeing the beginnings of this phenomena again in our own day. Oh, the prophet Isaiah, he puts it this way, for thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, whose name is holy.

He says, I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Unquote. Isaiah 57, verse 15. Yes, God is with you indeed. If you have a humble and contrite spirit, if you know who you are in relation to God and you've confessed your sin, understand indeed that you're a sinful creature in need of salvation and redemption.

That's what it means to be contrite and humble. Well, the promise is that He is there. He is there for you to revive your spirits and to revive of the hearts of the contrite ones. Dear listener, there is a stark choice facing us. War or revival, which will prevail?

For which do you long and pray? Dear listener, it will begin with you. Our Lord dwells with one of a contrite and humble spirits. Humble yourself today. With such a one, He revives their spirit and hearts.

How many Americans? I dare say practically every man, Jack, one of us needs that revival in our spirit and our heart. And hopefully God is moving in such a direction. I pray that He does. I pray that He moves not only in my heart, but in your hearts and in the heart of all of those around us in this greater Snake River Valley.

I pray that revival will then begin, but not end. That revival will only then bring on further reformation of our morals and our manners and our way of life, that we might conform it to the will of God, that we might indeed see a reformation of all things towards God. He loves us. He beckons us to Him. And I pray that you will respond to this revival of the spirit, to the revival of the heart of a contrite one.

Only then will we be saved. And only then will the church rise to her calling in this land. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Come and join us, cross our threshold, and see if indeed your heart and spirit might not be revived a bit by worshiping with us, by fellowshipping with us.

You will find a warm welcome and hopefully an opportunity to worship in spirit and in truth. But in any case, we would love to have you. We encourage you to visit New Geneva. We meet for holy worship at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information or feedback at 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.