1 00:00:02,830 --> 00:00:08,570 Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a 2 00:00:08,570 --> 00:00:13,929 moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And 3 00:00:13,929 --> 00:00:22,629 today, I want to have a George Patton Memorial Day. How about you? A George Patton Memorial Day. 4 00:00:22,629 --> 00:00:29,370 What do I mean by a George Patton Memorial Day? Oh, well, in the first place, George Patton 5 00:00:29,370 --> 00:00:37,609 never put his men's lives at risk unnecessarily, General George Patton. He only committed his 6 00:00:37,609 --> 00:00:43,030 troops when there was a possibility of victory, and his men loved him for this. He understood 7 00:00:43,030 --> 00:00:49,390 that dying was not the point of war, but rather living. He's famous for saying, and I quote, 8 00:00:49,390 --> 00:00:55,590 the object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other poor bastard die for his, 9 00:00:55,590 --> 00:01:05,329 unquote. General George Patton, who also felt that profanity was the essence of a soldier's 10 00:01:05,329 --> 00:01:12,750 language, eloquent profanity, he said. So that's why he says the object of war is not to die for your 11 00:01:12,750 --> 00:01:21,030 country, to make the other poor bastard die for his. This valuing the lives of his men extended 12 00:01:21,030 --> 00:01:28,689 especially to his strategy in battle. Patton also said, my motto in battle is go forward. 13 00:01:29,090 --> 00:01:37,230 That was his battle or his war philosophy, go forward. Forward movement, that is making a big 14 00:01:37,230 --> 00:01:42,650 relentless push until you achieved your objective, saved time and energy, and most importantly, 15 00:01:42,769 --> 00:01:50,189 reduced casualties. The more steadily you advanced, he taught, the more rapidly the enemy retreated, 16 00:01:50,189 --> 00:01:57,689 and the less fighting you had to do. There's an ineluctable logic to offense in war, according to 17 00:01:57,689 --> 00:02:03,450 Patton, and that is the shorter the exposure to combat, the shorter the duration of action, 18 00:02:03,450 --> 00:02:09,490 and the shorter the bloodshed. By constantly pressing forward, especially after victories, 19 00:02:09,810 --> 00:02:16,909 you kept the enemy from reorganizing to fight. After a series of victories in Germany, Patton said, 20 00:02:16,909 --> 00:02:22,189 and I quote, we destroyed two armies in one week with a handful of losses to ourselves, 21 00:02:22,189 --> 00:02:27,110 and I don't propose to give the bastards the chance to reorganize on the East Bank. 22 00:02:27,370 --> 00:02:37,349 I owe that to my men, he said. I owe that to my men. Yes, Patton was a great general, not only because 23 00:02:37,349 --> 00:02:43,909 he won great victories in the field, but because he never unnecessarily risked the lives of his 24 00:02:43,909 --> 00:02:51,729 soldiers. I owe that to my men, he was fond of saying. I owe that to my men could be the saying 25 00:02:51,729 --> 00:02:58,110 etched in stone on his memorial, for that matter. This is a principle anchored in the Bible, too, 26 00:02:58,229 --> 00:03:05,469 let me say. God treasured the lives of his people in times of war. For example, the following young men 27 00:03:05,469 --> 00:03:12,409 were exempted from having to serve in the army in the Bible. First of all, anyone having just built a 28 00:03:12,409 --> 00:03:19,590 house. Such a man was only beginning to establish a covenant household, so he didn't have to serve 29 00:03:19,590 --> 00:03:27,169 if he has just built a house or anyone having just planted a vineyard. God was merciful to the man who 30 00:03:27,169 --> 00:03:34,969 has just established a fruitful tract of land in the promised land. And then thirdly, anyone who has 31 00:03:34,969 --> 00:03:41,430 just betrothed their wife did not have to serve immediately in the army. God showed kindness to the 32 00:03:41,430 --> 00:03:48,449 man who has but just left his father and mother and become one flesh with his wife. God treasures the 33 00:03:48,449 --> 00:03:56,189 lives of his people in times of war. One of my favorite examples is the case of Uriah. Uriah was the 34 00:03:56,189 --> 00:04:03,650 husband of Bathsheba, with whom King David had an affair after spotting her bathing on her roof from his 35 00:04:03,650 --> 00:04:11,509 roof, his royal residence in Jerusalem. Now, the narrative of this incident is a rollicking good 36 00:04:11,509 --> 00:04:18,629 tale, and it clearly indicates that Uriah was a more honorable man than King David. And we see this 37 00:04:18,629 --> 00:04:24,370 truth reflected in several ways, and they're all centered on the conduct of warfare. For example, 38 00:04:24,870 --> 00:04:32,430 David lingers in Jerusalem in his palace, as chapter 11 of 2 Samuel opens up by saying, 39 00:04:32,430 --> 00:04:39,810 in the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle. Well, instead of personally leading 40 00:04:39,810 --> 00:04:47,709 the troops, as he had in the past, well, David sends out General Joab and his servants with him 41 00:04:47,709 --> 00:04:56,649 and all Israel, as the text says. Where was the king? Living at ease in his palace. And we also see 42 00:04:56,649 --> 00:05:04,029 this reflected in his indulging this moment of decadence. David slides further into decadence 43 00:05:04,029 --> 00:05:12,069 when he observes Bathsheba, and he lusts after her and takes steps to bring her into his palace and sleep 44 00:05:12,069 --> 00:05:20,269 with her. And then, surprise, surprise, when she becomes pregnant, David concocts a plan to cover his 45 00:05:20,269 --> 00:05:29,350 tracks and to avoid scandal. He brings back Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, from the front lines for a few days of 46 00:05:29,350 --> 00:05:37,129 R&R, and lets him sleep with her so that it seems he is the father of the child conceived. Certainly, David 47 00:05:37,129 --> 00:05:42,829 must have rationalized Uriah, like me, will avail himself of a few days of luxury in the midst of the 48 00:05:42,829 --> 00:05:52,470 deprivations of war. Well, what does Uriah actually do? His conscience will not allow him to be at ease 49 00:05:52,470 --> 00:06:00,670 as long as his brothers are in the field. He says to David's face, the ark of Israel and Judah dwell 50 00:06:00,670 --> 00:06:07,850 in booths as my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go 51 00:06:07,850 --> 00:06:14,870 to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do 52 00:06:14,870 --> 00:06:23,189 this thing, unquote. Uriah speaking directly to King David. And so, instead of going home, he sleeps with 53 00:06:23,189 --> 00:06:31,850 the troops that remain in Jerusalem. Well, exasperated, David devises another plan. Instead of repenting, 54 00:06:31,850 --> 00:06:39,110 any godly man would have repented of his sin right then and there. But when Uriah turns to the war, 55 00:06:39,310 --> 00:06:45,769 returns to the war, excuse me, David arranges through Joab to have Uriah put in the front lines in the 56 00:06:45,769 --> 00:06:52,730 hottest part of fighting where, predictably, he is killed. Voila, problem solved. David can now take 57 00:06:52,730 --> 00:07:01,850 this poor widow Bathsheba into his harem as his own. Oh, can you see the callous disregard for the 58 00:07:01,850 --> 00:07:09,410 lives of his men, David displays here? They are but pawns for his own aggrandizement. David must have, 59 00:07:09,550 --> 00:07:15,290 must have his appetite sated, but preserve the appearance of being a righteous king. Oh, 60 00:07:15,529 --> 00:07:20,430 if that means sacrificing the life of one of his finest soldiers, then so be it. 61 00:07:20,430 --> 00:07:29,310 This is but a small vignette, dear listener, of what evil, powerful rulers do with their soldiers. 62 00:07:30,009 --> 00:07:38,389 Memorial Day is not for them. Throughout history, evil rulers use war for their own glory and their 63 00:07:38,389 --> 00:07:45,029 troops be damned, right? God hates this kind of warfare. Ironically, before David sunk to the depth 64 00:07:45,029 --> 00:07:53,110 of depravity we see here in his treatment of Uriah, David composed this in one of his Psalms where he 65 00:07:53,110 --> 00:08:02,370 says in Psalm 68, trample underfoot those who lust after tribute, scatter the peoples who delight in 66 00:08:02,370 --> 00:08:08,930 war. Oh, if he would have stuck to that principle, he would have been better off. Trample underfoot 67 00:08:08,930 --> 00:08:21,750 such men, such rulers who love the prophets that come from war. That's what lusting after tribute 68 00:08:21,750 --> 00:08:28,649 means. They are to be trampled underfoot. Well, if that's the case, there goes most of Congress and 69 00:08:28,649 --> 00:08:36,210 certainly all of those in the White House. This is how corrupt rulers come to contemptuously use the 70 00:08:36,210 --> 00:08:43,669 lives of their men to become rich. That is gearing up the engines of war, driving those engines 71 00:08:43,669 --> 00:08:53,090 relentlessly. If you are not familiar, dear listener, if you're not yet familiar with Smedley Butler and his 72 00:08:53,090 --> 00:09:00,669 should-be famous speech, War is a Racket. Go out and find it. Smedley Butler was a Marine Corps 73 00:09:00,669 --> 00:09:07,990 major general and twice awarded Medal of Honor recipient, who came to see that a few politicians 74 00:09:07,990 --> 00:09:15,429 and corporations tended to make huge fortunes from mass human suffering when they engaged in war. 75 00:09:15,610 --> 00:09:21,690 He says in his speech, and I quote, War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, 76 00:09:21,970 --> 00:09:29,190 easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. 77 00:09:29,190 --> 00:09:36,110 It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. 78 00:09:36,470 --> 00:09:44,029 Unquote. War is a racket by Smedley Butler. Butler goes on to chronicle how he, to his regret, 79 00:09:44,389 --> 00:09:51,490 helped to enrich a number of corporate interests around the world during World War I. As the American 80 00:09:51,490 --> 00:09:57,230 military fought ostensibly for America's defense, on the one hand, in the freedom of people in the 81 00:09:57,230 --> 00:10:03,350 nations we conquered on the other. But in reality, what was motivating our leaders behind all of the 82 00:10:03,350 --> 00:10:12,610 noble rhetoric was greed, pure and simple. And not only are the loss of lives calculated in terms of 83 00:10:12,610 --> 00:10:18,629 the peoples that armies slaughter, where they take their warfare, but also in terms of the soldiers 84 00:10:18,629 --> 00:10:27,950 of our own forces. Yes. On the backs and in the blood of our men at arms, a few cynical men in power become 85 00:10:27,950 --> 00:10:38,009 rich. Those who lust after tribute draft armies of Uriahs to die. That is what the modern, or the ancient 86 00:10:38,009 --> 00:10:47,269 term for a lust for profits and profiting off of war is lust after tribute. Oh, and those who lust after 87 00:10:47,269 --> 00:10:54,509 tribute. They draft whole armies of Uriahs to die for them and their wealth. We the people go to war for flag 88 00:10:54,509 --> 00:11:02,330 and country. They the bankers send to war for cash and profits. This is not why we honor the fallen on 89 00:11:02,330 --> 00:11:11,169 Memorial Day, is it? It's not the purpose of Memorial Day. First observed on May 30, 1868. Memorial Day, which 90 00:11:11,169 --> 00:11:19,269 was called Decoration Day originally, Memorial Day was originally intended to honor those who died in 91 00:11:19,269 --> 00:11:25,110 the Civil War in the Union Army. And later it was expanded to include the Confederate dead. And 92 00:11:25,110 --> 00:11:30,570 eventually, of course, it came to encompass the remembrance of all those who died in service to 93 00:11:30,570 --> 00:11:38,090 our country in all of our wars. And I remember growing up and for many, many years, I always saw 94 00:11:38,090 --> 00:11:44,409 Memorial Day as a sacred time when we honored and remembered those who died in the defense of our 95 00:11:44,409 --> 00:11:52,590 nation. How many American young men, dear listener, how many American young men have perished on a far 96 00:11:52,590 --> 00:12:00,269 away field or in a trench or foxhole or on some distant ocean, never to see mom and dad again or 97 00:12:00,269 --> 00:12:06,750 become a mom or dad themselves, to have all of their hopes and dreams cut short by an enemy bullet 98 00:12:06,750 --> 00:12:14,590 defending you and I. Celebrating Memorial Day properly demands a measure of empathy where we 99 00:12:14,590 --> 00:12:22,049 can place ourselves in the combat boots of another man who no less than us has a family he loves and 100 00:12:22,049 --> 00:12:28,529 dreams he wishes to make reality and fruits of labor he longs to enjoy. Do you think he doesn't 101 00:12:28,529 --> 00:12:33,730 enjoy that as much as you? You want to wake up tomorrow and make that happen, don't you? Well, so does 102 00:12:33,730 --> 00:12:41,490 only he has been drafted or possibly volunteer to pick up a weapon and go and risk his life and all 103 00:12:41,490 --> 00:12:48,750 that we have mentioned to defend us. The true soldier doesn't fight because he hates what's in 104 00:12:48,750 --> 00:12:55,529 front of him, G.K. Chesterton says, but because he loves what is behind him. G.K. Chesterton. What a 105 00:12:55,529 --> 00:13:00,509 great saying. The true soldier doesn't fight because he hates what's in front of him, but because he loves 106 00:13:00,509 --> 00:13:06,649 what's behind him. That kind of service is deserving of honor and it should not be treated lightly or 107 00:13:06,649 --> 00:13:12,950 used cynically by those responsible for sending us to war. What can we say of those presently in 108 00:13:12,950 --> 00:13:18,570 charge of our Defense Department and Congress? Oh, dear listener, at the top of the list is the 109 00:13:18,570 --> 00:13:25,710 Commander-in-Chief Joe Biden. He has shown himself to be a man incapable of the least bit of empathy 110 00:13:25,710 --> 00:13:31,870 for the men under his charge, unless he can make it self-referential in bringing up a false past 111 00:13:31,870 --> 00:13:38,789 about his son, for example. This is classic behavior of the narcissist. Nothing is important 112 00:13:38,789 --> 00:13:44,370 unless it can be made to highlight himself, and Biden has done this. Biden claims that his son, 113 00:13:44,490 --> 00:13:50,870 Beau, lost his life in Iraq and won the Bronze Star and Distinguished Service Cross and died in Iraq. 114 00:13:50,870 --> 00:13:58,750 None of this is true. This is called stolen valor. In his botched, shameful evacuation of Afghanistan 115 00:13:58,750 --> 00:14:06,529 in 2021 as well, Biden was responsible for the deaths of 13 American servicemen at the hands of 116 00:14:06,529 --> 00:14:12,970 a terrorist. And then, to top it all off, when the remains of those servicemen returned at Dover 117 00:14:12,970 --> 00:14:20,789 Air Force Base in a formal dignified return service, Biden shows his callous impatience towards 118 00:14:20,789 --> 00:14:26,149 the memory of those men by checking his watch as those bodies came off the transport. 119 00:14:26,590 --> 00:14:32,289 Thousands of other American servicemen and civilians have been left behind in the evacuation of 120 00:14:32,289 --> 00:14:40,090 Afghanistan. It cannot possibly be called a retreat either, because army doctrine calls for planning and 121 00:14:40,090 --> 00:14:46,789 order and the protection of life when men and materiel are taken off a war zone. That's retreat. 122 00:14:46,789 --> 00:14:52,830 All Biden did was get out as fast as he could, with no regard for human life or the plight of 123 00:14:52,830 --> 00:14:58,789 Afghanis, for example, who helped us while we were there. His minions lie about it to this day, 124 00:14:59,090 --> 00:15:05,889 insisting it was well managed, but the facts belie their lies. And of course, there is the well-financed 125 00:15:05,889 --> 00:15:12,850 slaughterhouse of Ukraine, where a generation of Ukrainian men have been systematically marched 126 00:15:12,850 --> 00:15:19,450 off into eternity, while Ukrainian oligarchs and American politicians and arms manufacturers 127 00:15:19,450 --> 00:15:28,110 have grown fat and rich in the process. Oh, dear listener, Bob Dylan sings in his song from his 128 00:15:28,110 --> 00:15:35,049 early career, Masters of War. He sings, come you masters of war, you that build all the guns, 129 00:15:35,450 --> 00:15:41,110 you that build the death planes, you that build the big bombs, you that hide behind walls, 130 00:15:41,110 --> 00:15:48,090 you that hide behind desks. I just want you to know I can see through your masks. Unquote. Oh, 131 00:15:48,529 --> 00:15:56,210 that song, Masters of War, was written at the height of the Vietnam War, but it still rings true today. 132 00:15:56,370 --> 00:16:05,250 Doesn't it, dear listener? Before we go on, I'd like to remind you that you can take this broadcast 133 00:16:05,250 --> 00:16:11,389 as a podcast as a podcast as well. And I just urge you to do that option, and you will be notified 134 00:16:11,389 --> 00:16:20,490 before this podcast drops. But we have a catalog of all of our broadcasts and podcasts at our website, 135 00:16:21,230 --> 00:16:29,669 americastruths.org, americastruths.org. And there you'll find years of our broadcast cataloged, 136 00:16:29,669 --> 00:16:35,909 and you can research by topic. You can research by date. Perhaps there's a broadcast you remember 137 00:16:35,909 --> 00:16:41,950 from the past that you wish you may have heard again or may have access to. Well, you can find 138 00:16:41,950 --> 00:16:48,610 those at our website, americastruths.org. And I urge you to go ahead and check those out. This one 139 00:16:48,610 --> 00:16:57,429 will be up there pretty soon. Well, going on, the five biggest arms dealers, as we look at the lust 140 00:16:57,429 --> 00:17:04,509 for tribute, right, profit from warfare, the five biggest arms dealers, and they are Lockheed Martin, 141 00:17:04,910 --> 00:17:11,609 Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Energies, and General Dynamics. They are the third largest 142 00:17:11,609 --> 00:17:16,710 contributors to politicians right behind the pharmaceutical industry and the Silicon Valley 143 00:17:16,710 --> 00:17:24,869 giants. The arms dealers, those five big ones, doled out some $60 million in campaign contributions 144 00:17:24,869 --> 00:17:33,289 in the election of 2020, and they're scheduled to influence this 2024 election with, with how much? 145 00:17:33,509 --> 00:17:41,269 Who knows how much they will contribute? We'll see afterwards. Well, in biblical times, the profiting 146 00:17:41,269 --> 00:17:48,950 from war, as we have seen, was called a lust after tribute because kings would conquer land after land, 147 00:17:48,950 --> 00:17:55,029 people after people, so they could accumulate plunder from the storehouses and then strap them down 148 00:17:55,029 --> 00:18:00,470 economically with taxes. The story of the Roman Empire can be encapsulated in the phrase 149 00:18:00,470 --> 00:18:09,269 lust after tribute. It was greed without regard, greed without regard, without regard to the lives of 150 00:18:09,269 --> 00:18:15,829 soldiers or civilians. Today, it is simply what President Eisenhower called the military-industrial 151 00:18:15,829 --> 00:18:22,509 complex. The integration of arms and manufacturers. That's the idea of military-industrial complex. 152 00:18:22,950 --> 00:18:30,230 It's the integration of arms manufacturers with government policy makers, such that foreign policy 153 00:18:30,230 --> 00:18:36,910 is determined in large part by what benefits that military-industrial complex, or what has come to be 154 00:18:36,910 --> 00:18:42,369 known as well as the deep state, as I have covered in previous broadcasts, and you can find those 155 00:18:42,369 --> 00:18:51,329 on americastrues.org. Previous broadcasts, a major component of that deep state complex is the gradual 156 00:18:51,329 --> 00:18:59,049 encroachment of the alphabet agencies. That is, the intelligence community, the senile intelligence 157 00:18:59,049 --> 00:19:07,210 agency, the Federal Bureau of Intimidation, or the NSA, right? On and on we could go. The gradual 158 00:19:07,210 --> 00:19:15,450 encroachment of these intelligence agencies into our way of governance, such that many now call it the 159 00:19:15,450 --> 00:19:22,289 fourth branch of government. The deep state now uses the loyalty and patriotism of the American people 160 00:19:22,289 --> 00:19:30,950 to profit from war. Cynically uses the loyalty and patriotism of the American people to profit from war. 161 00:19:30,950 --> 00:19:38,049 The rallying cry of feeding the meat grinder, the meat grinder, excuse me, of war in Ukraine, 162 00:19:38,210 --> 00:19:45,250 for example, has been protect the integrity of Ukrainian borders, and such things like the liberty 163 00:19:45,250 --> 00:19:51,170 and freedoms of Ukrainians are threatened by Russia. Well, this would be laughable, dear listener, 164 00:19:51,670 --> 00:19:58,630 if so much blood was not at stake. But it is. Those same politicians and corporate shills 165 00:19:58,630 --> 00:20:04,730 care not a whit about the integrity of our own borders, and they're actively destroying the 166 00:20:04,730 --> 00:20:12,130 liberties of Americans. Do you know how hollow your rhetoric sounds, deep state? Many of us are 167 00:20:12,130 --> 00:20:18,630 blindly conditioned to salute when a patriotic war is paraded before our eyes. It's wrapped in a flag, 168 00:20:18,869 --> 00:20:25,470 it's lavished with emotional tributes, and it's baptized with tears. The manipulators of this war 169 00:20:25,470 --> 00:20:32,210 have cynically shed the blood of over 500,000 Ukrainians. And that's a conservative estimate 170 00:20:32,210 --> 00:20:39,009 without caring one bit. And they stand ready to sacrifice the lives of hundreds of thousands more 171 00:20:39,009 --> 00:20:48,410 Americans and Europeans if NATO joins the fray. Dear deep state, dearest, dearest deep state, 172 00:20:48,410 --> 00:20:56,069 please don't insult our intelligence anymore with appeal to principle when it is profit that you seek. 173 00:20:56,490 --> 00:21:03,910 Please, dear deep state, don't tell us you cherish and honor the lives and sacrifices of our soldiers 174 00:21:03,910 --> 00:21:10,569 when you put them at risk in foreign escapades, while our own homeland is threatened from within 175 00:21:10,569 --> 00:21:17,289 by foreign actors and terrorists. And dear deep state, please don't tell us you will not risk 176 00:21:17,289 --> 00:21:25,369 lives unnecessarily when you destroy unit cohesion by recruiting transgender into our military. 177 00:21:25,369 --> 00:21:33,450 Oh, the combined armed services fell short of recruitment goals by 25% last year, a record low. 178 00:21:33,750 --> 00:21:41,769 Despite excuses made by politicians, researchers know why. And this is what Thomas Spore, who is a 179 00:21:41,769 --> 00:21:47,269 research historian at Heritage Foundation, what he says about this issue. He says, and I quote, 180 00:21:47,289 --> 00:21:55,589 the largest threat by far to our current military is the weakening of its fabric by radical progressive 181 00:21:55,589 --> 00:22:03,250 or woke policies being imposed, not by a rising generation of slackers, but by the very leaders 182 00:22:03,250 --> 00:22:10,950 charged with ensuring their readiness. Wokeness in the military is being imposed by elected and 183 00:22:10,950 --> 00:22:16,490 appointed leaders in the White House, Congress and the Pentagon, who have little understanding of the 184 00:22:16,490 --> 00:22:23,230 purpose, character, traditions, and requirements of the institution they are trying to change. 185 00:22:24,230 --> 00:22:32,109 Succinctly put, Mr. Spore, Memorial Day is designed to honor those who have fallen, soldiers whose 186 00:22:32,109 --> 00:22:38,890 memories are held dear and whose lives were ostensibly held with value and honor by those who sent them into 187 00:22:38,890 --> 00:22:45,210 battle. That can no longer be said of our government nor of the very deep state structure that comprises our 188 00:22:45,210 --> 00:22:52,589 military industrial complex. They don't care. They use your lives for their own selfish purposes, not for the 189 00:22:52,589 --> 00:22:58,769 good of the country. America is waking up to this reality, though, and that's why recruitment is falling. 190 00:22:59,410 --> 00:23:07,410 We, the people, remember yet. We recall the purpose of military service and the honor attached to it, which you, 191 00:23:07,410 --> 00:23:13,670 deep state, do not. May God deliver us from you, deep state. Psalm 140 says, 192 00:23:14,170 --> 00:23:20,309 Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men. Preserve me from violent men who plan evil things in their heart 193 00:23:20,309 --> 00:23:28,289 and stir up wars continually. That says it all, doesn't it? Deliver us, O Lord, from evil men. 194 00:23:28,630 --> 00:23:34,049 Preserve us from violent men who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars continually. 195 00:23:34,049 --> 00:23:40,509 These are those who rule us now. Your government is filled with evil men who lust after tribute 196 00:23:40,509 --> 00:23:47,430 and cynically use your tax dollars and the blood of your sons to acquire it. They care no more for your 197 00:23:47,430 --> 00:23:54,190 lives than does the narcissist commander-in-chief who cannot even control his selfishness long enough to 198 00:23:54,190 --> 00:23:59,910 refrain from checking his watch for a moment of solemn remembrance. Oh, Smedley Butler, in his piece, 199 00:23:59,910 --> 00:24:06,390 war is a racket, had a good partial solution to this desecration of Memorial Day. He said, and I quote, 200 00:24:06,750 --> 00:24:11,630 let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories 201 00:24:11,630 --> 00:24:18,150 and our steel companies and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and 202 00:24:18,150 --> 00:24:24,170 the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in wartime, as well as the bankers and 203 00:24:24,170 --> 00:24:31,910 the speculators. Let them be conscripted to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches 204 00:24:31,910 --> 00:24:40,609 get. Unquote. A good first step. Sounds like it to me. That might start to curb the lust for tribute, 205 00:24:40,609 --> 00:24:46,829 which God so thoroughly condemns. He says, trample underfoot those who lust after tribute. 206 00:24:46,829 --> 00:24:54,589 Scatter the peoples who delight in war. And eventually, the wicked men and women who shed 207 00:24:54,589 --> 00:25:01,470 rivers of blood will be engulfed by their own wickedness too. Solomon, in observing the practice 208 00:25:01,470 --> 00:25:07,730 of the evil men who conspire and plot to ensnare the righteous in wickedness and war, Solomon assures 209 00:25:07,730 --> 00:25:13,390 us that they cannot be delivered from the effects of war themselves by their wickedness. He says in 210 00:25:13,390 --> 00:25:19,789 Ecclesiastes, there is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to war. 211 00:25:20,269 --> 00:25:26,990 Unquote. No, their own wickedness cannot deliver them from those who are given to war. Dear listener, 212 00:25:27,470 --> 00:25:35,049 aspire with me to have a George Patton Memorial Day where we remember soldiers like him, he who was 213 00:25:35,049 --> 00:25:41,730 not afraid to fight, but who would not risk unnecessarily the lives of his men for worthless causes. 214 00:25:41,730 --> 00:25:49,910 I owe that to my men, Patton would say. I owe that to my men. Pray that this becomes the motto of a new 215 00:25:49,910 --> 00:25:57,109 generation of military leaders and that we might wake up and declare unequivocally, deliver me, O Lord, 216 00:25:57,250 --> 00:26:03,329 from evil men. Preserve me from violent men who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars 217 00:26:03,329 --> 00:26:11,069 continually. Let us be for peace under the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Pastor David Bass 218 00:26:11,069 --> 00:26:18,009 at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and I urge you to check out once again our broadcasts, 219 00:26:18,009 --> 00:26:27,470 which are chronicled and archived at our website, americastruths.org. And you can also join us for 220 00:26:27,470 --> 00:26:34,390 holy worship on Sundays. We invite you to that. We worship at New Geneva on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 221 00:26:34,390 --> 00:26:39,809 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call me for more feedback or more 222 00:26:39,809 --> 00:26:50,349 information as well at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.