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. Today, why is America involved in war and conflict across the globe? There is, for example, our profoundly evil involvement in Ukraine. Now, I've documented extensively the utter, complete evil nature of the war in Ukraine.

I've done it in previous broadcasts, and I urge you to check those out at our website, americastruths.org. We do have a website where we catalog our podcasts and radio broadcasts, and that's at americastruths. That's all one word, americastruths.org. You'll find an entire catalog of our podcasts that stretch back to 2016, really.

But in there, you will also find several spots that deal specifically with the tragic, unnecessary, cynical war propagated by evil actors in the United States State Department, evil actors like Victoria Nuland or Anthony Blinken, and then over 500,000 Ukrainian men, an entire generation of potential husbands, fathers, and sons have been sacrificed on the altar of American greed. Over $113 billion has gone into that war, and most of it has been funneled into the pockets of politicians, not Ukrainian patriots and citizens. If you stand with Ukraine, you have fallen for a lie. Or there is our debacle in the Middle East.

Our handling of the situation in the Middle East has been like the firefighter who mistakes gasoline for water and pours it on the fire, inflaming it even further. Diplomatically, excuse me, the United States is the bull in the china shop. We're careless, clumsy, and clueless, and we are operating from a position of weakness, not strength. Or there are other smaller conflicts, which rarely make the evening news. They fly under the radar, if you will, like the slow-burning conflict in Syria.

We've been fighting ISIS in Syria since 2011, but it's come to a boiling point in 2014 and has been simmering ever since. But you don't hear much about it, do you? ISIS has been attacking American bases in Syria consistently since 2023, and American soldiers are still fighting there. And a case can be made that the Obama administration played a large part in creating ISIS in order to overthrow the Assad regime and mire Russia in a foreign war. But behold, look who gets mired down in this endless conflict.

What else can you call, as well, what's happening at our southern border? But a war. And I've documented this, as well, recently in our series on the southern border called Bordering on Extinction, which you will also find on that website, americastruths.org. And I urge you to check that out. Well, there's an age-old truth in geopolitics that applies here, and that is weakness invites aggression.

Weakness invites aggression. That's why we are being attacked, and we are in conflict around the globe. America is weak and has thus invited her enemies to aggress against her. Either this corrupt administration is naively unaware of this geopolitical truth, or else has cynically capitulated to it altogether. Which might it be, dear listener, you decide, but only after considering these facts.

Number one, consider this. Weakness invites aggression. That is abundantly borne out in Scripture. That weakness invites aggression is abundantly borne out in Scripture. Israel, for example, was strong when she trusted in God, weak when she trusted in her own powers.

The people of God are constantly exhorted to trust in God rather than force of arms. For example, the book of Judges chronicles how Israel conquered and triumphed while Joshua was alive, and she served the Lord faithfully. But what happened when Joshua died? The text tells us the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals, and they provoked the Lord to anger. The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, and he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.

The hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and they were in terrible distress. Unquote. From Judges chapter 2. Weakness invites aggression. Do you trust in alliances with other countries like NATO?

That's in the headlines recently, right? With Ukraine attempting to join NATO. Do you trust in alliances with other countries for your strength? Ah, Psalm 146 says, put not your trust in princes, in the son of man, in whom there is no salvation. Unquote.

Or how about trusting your overwhelming military strength, huh? Is that what you trust? Oh, the Bible tells us Isaiah warns Israel. He says, woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses who trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen, because they are very strong. But do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or consult the Lord.

Oh, Psalm 20 also says this, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Oh, there are many luminous examples of how God goes ahead of his people in battle when they are in a right relationship with him. And one of my favorites is when King Jehoshaphat set out to fight Israel's enemy, Moab and Ammon in the wilderness. Oh, instead of horses and chariots leading the army, Jehoshaphat put the temple choir in front to lead Israel into battle, the temple choir. Ah, 2 Chronicles chapter 20 puts it this way.

When he, that is Jehoshaphat, had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire as they went before the army and say, give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever. And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah so that they were routed, unquote. Oh, yes. And then of course, there's the favorite of David and Goliath. This is a trial by combat that indeed God has the victory, doesn't he?

David says to Goliath, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head, unquote. Strapping youth, indeed battling Goliath. Well, it must be a first principle for all nations. It must be a first principle for all nations.

The Lord is my strength and my shield. In him, my heart trusts and I am helped, unquote. That is from Psalm 28 by David himself. Indeed, that may have been uppermost in his mind as he fought Goliath. The Lord is my strength and my shield.

In him, my heart trusts and I am helped. Oh, when this is not a first principle, well, nations do go astray. They become weak no matter what they try to do in their own strength. For example, take the case of the Samaritan princes, Sanballat and Tobiah, who tried to prevent the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem during Nehemiah's days, trying to subvert his whole administration as it attempted to reestablish God's people in the land. Well, they tried.

Sanballat and Tobiah tried all the political tactics that we see being used today in Washington, D.C. For example, they lied to the Persian king that Nehemiah was leading an insurrection against Persia. There were false insurrections even back in biblical times, right? And when that didn't work, they planned a military ambush against Nehemiah and those working on the wall. And Sanballat and Tobiah mocked and taunted the Jews of Jerusalem unceasingly. They tried to lure Nehemiah out of the city in order to assassinate him.

Yes, political assassinations are not new, dear listener. They also hired a false prophet, a living, walking, mainstream media outlet, if you will, to prophesy against Jerusalem, trying to discourage the people. They also wrote letters full of lies back to Persia, trying to turn the heart of the king away from Nehemiah. But none of it worked because God was with Nehemiah. The Samaritans were weak.

They practiced deceit and evil. They were opposed to God and his purposes. Well, pride as well is often at the root of weakness, isn't it? For example, when envoys from Babylon came to visit Hezekiah in Jerusalem, he gave them a show-off tour of his palace and the temple. As 2 Kings chapter 20 puts it, Hezekiah welcomed them and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses.

There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. Hear the word of the Lord, was in response then to Hezekiah. The Lord says, Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and that which your fathers had stored up until this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord, and some of your own sons shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Indeed, the weakness of Hezekiah in boastfully displaying his wealth, most of that wealth too accumulated under Solomon, not him.

Well, he invited the aggression of the Babylonians. Weakness invites aggression, dear listener. Weakness invites aggression. Well, in the end, we must affirm with David, the Lord is my strength and my shield. In him, my heart trusts and I am helped.

We see these principles throughout the Bible, don't we? We must also secondly note, number two, that weakness invites aggression is abundantly borne out in history as well. That weakness invites aggression is abundantly borne out in history. Nations true to those founding principles that made them strong, oh, they will not fall. Nations who abandon their founding principles become weak and fall.

Yes. Rome, for example, Rome, when she abandoned the founding principles which made her strong, she became weak and fell. Now, Rome began as a republic. She had three branches, much as modern republics do. An executive branch made up of two consuls, a legislative branch made up of two houses, that is, the patricians and the plebes, and a judiciary.

That was six judges elected every two years. A republic. And it took a good deal of time and strife and war to get there. But by about 500 BC, Rome had a functioning republic which made her strong. Our founding fathers modeled our republic in some senses along the same lines of the Roman republic.

And then also, Roman society was also strong because it was structured on the family. Loyalty to one's family was considered the core foundation of Roman society. In the early years of Roman society, no man could advance in any field if he was not a devoted family man with a wife, many children, and a host of servants to tend to the needs of his family. And then, Roman society was also strong because it had a moral ethic by which every citizen was expected to live. For instance, they had nine virtues to which every Roman must aspire.

For example, dignitas, that is dignity, a sense of self-worth. Gravitas, that is importance, weighty judgment. Pietas, that is piety or devotion, a sense of duty. And veritas, that is truthfulness and honesty. Or humanitas, that is refinement and learning, culture.

We get our word humanities from that word. Then there is also nobilitas, a sense of nobility, of noble action. There is liberalitas, that is generosity, open-mindedness. Fermitas, that is tenacity, strength of mind, a kind of stick-to-itiveness. And then there was finally comitas, that is humor or ease of manner, a friendly attitude.

Well, that's just a brief sketch of the core elements which made Rome great. Sure, she had powerful armies, great generals, many famous men and women, but there was something that made them this way. And it was the above founding principles that helped shape them into such people. And without them, Rome would have been just another footnote in the history books, appearing for a shining moment and then disappearing. As it was, we can trace her fall to the weakening of these principles and thus to an invitation to aggression.

As Rome expanded her territory to encompass the whole Mediterranean basin, virtually the entire known world, the less efficient government of a republic, gradually gave way to that of an empire ruled by one man, an emperor. Julius Caesar was the first of a long line of emperors in Rome's later history, right up to her fall. Tyranny, corruption, and injustice characterized Roman rule under the emperors and made her weak. The barbarian tribes on the outer edges of the empire saw this weakness and launched their series of invasions as a consequence. The breakdown of the Roman family also made her weak.

In the days of the empire especially, Roman leaders, emperors, senators, generals, leading citizens often had a family as a front for appearances, but in reality, they spent their days in the brothels of Rome or had gay lovers as their primary relationship, or they cycled through lover after lover, wife after wife, until a man had a hard time recognizing his own children. The family became weak, and much as we see in our own day, the weakened family led to plummeting birth rates, increased crime, poverty in the major population centers of the empire.

As the Roman commentator Juvenal wrote of Roman family life, he says, Rome's fathers were whoremongers, her wives were adulteresses, and her children bastards, unquote. And during the latter days of the empire, the old Roman virtues, the old Roman virtues were seen as quaint and old-fashioned. New progressive ideas became fashionable. Does that sound familiar? As one can imagine, the breakdown of Roman character led to moral and spiritual weakness, which found its way into every facet of Roman life.

Immorality, cowardice, dishonesty, vice, and ignorance do not serve as pillars of a successful culture and society. But this was Rome, in the third and fourth centuries especially. And the barbarians saw it, and they took note, and they acted. In fact, once again, Juvenal also notes, and I quote him, we make light of the barbarian and look down on him as uncultured. But in light of the beasts in the palaces of Rome, we must ask sincerely, who are the barbarians, really?

Weakness invites aggression, dear listener. Weakness invites aggression. Rome was weak, and the barbarians in Germany and Gaul saw it, and invaded their former invaders. Rome fell, not for a failure of military strength, but for a failure of moral and spiritual strength. Weakness invites aggression.

Well, lastly, we must also note that in America's own case, weakness invites aggression. Weakness invites aggression, and that is borne out in America's recent history. America's recent history bears out that weakness invites aggression. When America cleaves to founding principles as embodied in her founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, while she is strong and victorious, when she deviates from them, she is weak and defeated. What we can say about the United States is that she is weak and at war.

The Biden policies have seriously weakened us all over the world. We have the leftover leading from behind strategy of Barack Obama. Yes, the leading from behind strategy of Barack Obama. Many have rightly identified the current Biden administration as the third term of Barack Obama. The policies of Biden are indistinguishable from Obama's, and Biden's administration is stocked with the same losers and incompetence as in the Obama White House.

The leading from behind doctrine is fundamentally one of doing nothing. That is, of following the trend of events as they happen and try to influence them after they have happened. That was true of America's policy in Libya, the so-called Russian reset. Remember Hillary Clinton with her big red button? Or the failure to broker a peace deal in the Middle East and China's cynical ignoring of when Biden speaks of the independence of Taiwan, for example.

On we could go. The leaders of the world have nothing but contempt for this weak, spineless doctrine towards world power leading from behind, and rightly so. The leading from behind strategy is really nothing more than getting kicked in the behind by the rest of the world. Dear listener, weakness invites aggression. Oh, and then we see also the complete debacle of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

The complete debacle of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Our enemies know that we are weak when we abandon a so-called ally as we did in Afghanistan in 2021. Instead of taking the sound advice of his generals and advisors and make a strategic withdrawal over time, Biden precipitously withdrew from Afghanistan in haste. In doing so, he left behind many thousands of Americans from whom we still have not heard. Additionally, tens of thousands of allies who we promised we would not leave behind to be punished by the Taliban for cooperating with us while these were all left to their own devices.

And since then, what was threatened has been carried out. Vengeance against those who cooperated with the Americans. And there's the Islamic scourge of oppression of women and girls and the rise of jihadists who spread their violence across the region. And perhaps you remember the 13 servicemen who lost their lives to a suicide bomber during the withdrawal. Perhaps you also remember Biden disrespectfully checking his watch as the ceremony in Dover where the bodies were received by waiting family members, right?

A gradual, a gradual strategic withdrawal. And our armed forces, they know how to do these things, right? A gradual, a strategic withdrawal would also have retrieved the billions of dollars of weapons and equipment which had accumulated there. But instead, it was left to be used by our enemies and against our own troops in the future. Biden has proven himself, excuse me, not just weak.

Biden is not just weak. He is actively, dangerously, maliciously incompetent at best. What could he have done? Ask yourself this. What could he have done differently if he had planned to hand our enemies a victory?

And he had actively sought to bring defeat to our troops? What could he have done differently? Oh, weakness invites aggression, dear listener. And we are bringing on ourselves a hellish day of vengeance by our weakness. Then there was also the capitulation to Iran.

The capitulation to Iran. Trump had the savvy to pull out of the disastrous treaty with Iran that would supposedly limit Iran's nuclear development. Well, that treaty was originally negotiated by Obama, but roundly criticized by experts as merely a fig leaf to let Iran do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. That is, in enriching uranium and developing intercontinental missile programs. Well, Biden has returned to that treaty now.

And in addition, Biden sent some six billion dollars to Iran in exchange for five prisoners, money that was used in part by Iran to help finance the October 7 attack on Israel. Iran has rightly perceived that America is weak and incompetent in her handling of affairs in the Middle East. And that does not bode well for the United States and her allies. Weakness invites aggression, dear listener. And we are bringing on ourselves a hellish day of vengeance by our weakness.

And then there is also the craven, obsequious behavior towards China and Chairman Xi. The Oriental juggernaut that is China correctly perceives America is weak. We have ceded our once formidable industrial base to Mexico and China and have let the Chinese plunder our intellectual property as a condition for corporations to do business in China. And over the last few decades, China has quietly, patiently bought all of the significant politicians and businessmen who have anything to say about policy. And I have documented this phenomenon as well in previous broadcasts.

And I also recommend the books of Peter Schweitzer. They have powerfully exposed the corruption in Washington, D.C. Just three of his books I recommend to you. First of all, Blood Money with the subtitle, Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans. Book number two, Red Handed, How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win. And finally, book number three, Profiles in Corruption, Abuse of Power by America's Progressive Elite.

All three of these books I recommend to you. And those titles, they alone tell the tale of corruption and weakness, don't they? Weakness invites aggression, dear listener. And we are bringing on ourselves a hellish day of vengeance by our weakness. And then there is also, of course, as we previously mentioned, the foolish provocation of Russia in Ukraine.

Yes, the foolish provocation of Russia in Ukraine. America is weak, dear listener. America is weak, essentially, because she has abandoned founding principles. That is, those principles ensconced in the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. And that goes to the heart of the issue.

That is character. A constitution is only as good as the people who live it. A constitution, a declaration of independence, is only a series of words on paper until it is taken up into the words and deeds, into the heads and hearts of the people who abide by it, and the people who make it real in the world. Oh, John Adams puts it this way. He says, this constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.

It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other, unquote. Profoundly said, Mr. Adams. That takes us back to where we began. Our founding fathers took as a basic presupposition that the morality and religion of the American people was the Christian religion. Our strength was in the God of the Bible and its principles.

And it must, therefore, be a first principle for all nations. As David said, the Lord is my strength and my shield. In him, my heart trusts, and I am helped. Excuse me. So, dear listener, when God is our strength, we will be strong.

When our trust is in men or other gods, we will be weak. And weakness invites aggression, as we see played out for us on the world stage, even today. Let us return, rather, to this first principle for all nations, and that is, the Lord is my strength and my shield. In him, my heart trusts, and I am helped. This has been 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. And I invite you once again to check out our website where we have posted a catalog, going back all the way to 2016, a catalog of our podcasts and radio broadcasts. And you can graze amongst them and see what strikes your fancy and see if you can perhaps be a little better informed. And we also then invite you to call us for more feedback, if you'd like, or some more information on our church. And you can call us at area code 208-523-0196. We meet for worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. 101 4th Street, and you can call us at 208-523-0196.