Do You Trust God or The Government?- Part 1

Blessings to Israel presents Discerning the Times, a program committed to encouraging you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, please join us for today's program.

I want to ask you who are watching me today. With everything that's going on in the world today, with everything that's going on in America, the coronavirus, COVID-19, the response to the virus, there is marching going on, there are those who are ready to open up, there are those who say it is too soon, you know, and people are fighting each other, you know, the man who wants to open his business and being fought by the man who don't think he should open his business. My position is, if a man wants to open his business, let him.

If I don't want to go shop there, if I think it's too soon, I don't have to go, but I shouldn't stop him. But we're all divided. There's an uproar.

The media is invested in keeping you mad and some of us fall for it every time. But I want to know, with all this confusion that's going on, do you trust God? Where is your faith? Do you trust God to see you through, to see you through this time, this never-to-be-called new normal time in which we are dealing with? If you do, I encourage you today to make an affirmation of trust. Declare to the God of the Bible, our eyes are upon Thee. Welcome to the program.

So great to be with you once again this week. And as always, before we get into our message, I want to remind you that your eternal state is far more important than your current state. So if you have never received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I encourage you to do so today so that you might inherit eternal life.

Otherwise you will head to eternal damnation. But for those of us who have received Him, the best is yet to come. So come to Jesus Christ on today.

Well folks, that opening clip that you heard was the voice of Bishop Patrick Wooden, the pastor of the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, North Carolina. And that message was from 2020 in which he was speaking on this COVID-19 pandemic. So today we're going to take a look, a retrospective look at COVID-19. So I'm going to pull in my cohost, Dr. Bruce Logan. And Doc, we're going to dive into the deep end of the pool today.

So I hope you have your swimming gear on and ready to go. Yes, sir. I'm all ready. Let's get it.

All right. So again, that was Pastor Patrick Wooden in the opening clip. And one of the things that has troubled me so much during the past three years is we're going to look back again on this COVID-19 pandemic is we saw in which how little people trust God. And that was really, really troubling.

There are a lot of things about it that troubled me, but that was the thing that I think troubled me the most. But we're going to look back at things that he had to say from 2020. And then we're also going to look at some things that GBN news anchor Neil Oliver recently stated concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. So before we go further, let us listen to Neil Oliver and what he has said recently.

And then I'll, I'll bring your doc in and get your response. It's hard to think the unthinkable, but there comes a time when there's nothing else for it. People raised to trust the powers that be, who have assumed like I once did that the state, regardless of its political flavor at any given moment is essentially benevolent and well-meaning will naturally try and keep that assumption of benevolence in mind when trying to make sense of what's going on around them. People like us, you and me raised in the understanding that we are free, that we have inalienable rights and that the institutions of this country have our best interests at heart will tend to tie ourselves in knots rather than contemplate the idea those authorities might actually be working against us now. I took that thought of benevolent well-meaning authority for granted for most of my life.

God help me not to put too fine a point on it. I was as gullible as the next chump a couple of years ago. However, I began to think the unthinkable and with every passing day, it becomes more and more obvious to me that we are no longer being treated as individuals entitled to try and make the most of our lives.

But as a barn full of battery hens, just another product to be bought and sold, sold down the river. Let me put it another way. If you've been driving yourself almost demented in an effort to think the best of those in charge, those in senior positions in government, those in charge of the great institutions of state, those running the big corporations, but finding it increasingly impossible to do so, then the solution to the problem might be to turn your point of view through 180 degrees and accept however unwillingly that we are, how best to put this, being taken for a ride. When you find a stranger's hand on your wallet in the inside pocket of your jacket, rather than trying to persuade yourself he's only making sure it doesn't fall out, it might be more straightforward to draw the conclusion you're in the process of being robbed. Once the scales fall from a person's eyes, the resultant clarity of sight is briefly overwhelming.

Or it's like being handed a skeleton key that opens every locked door or access to a Rosetta Stone that translates every word into a language instantly understood. So Doc, Neil Oliver here again of GBN News. He's asking the question, do authorities have our best interests at heart? What are your thoughts? Well, if anything has taught us the answer to that question, it was the, what has gone on since 20, since March of 2020, with these whole response to the coronavirus pandemic. And I want to just make a few points in that regard, because actually the original clip that you played of Bishop Wooden actually ties into or connects to the clip that you played from Neil Oliver. And they both pointed out how the government or the controlling institutions that really govern us or influence us, the question is, do they have our best interests at heart?

And the answer is absolutely no, they do not. And one of the things that I've learned, and I've felt this way from the very beginning of the pandemic, but one of the observations that I've gotten out of it and the research that I've done is that everything that happened was part of a bigger plot. It was part of a more sinister and a more nefarious plan that involved governments of the world or from around the world that's hell-bent on, and I mean that literally, hell-bent on forming a globalist agenda, a globalist government, which is of course a direct result of the spirit of Antichrist. In other words, a lot of what's happening in the world or what happened, this past, since 2020, March of 2020, so that would be three years now, is part of a globalist agenda, part of a one-world government agenda.

And it's all happening just as the Bible described. And I just want to say this, that when we listen to the news, the bishop wouldn't put it perfectly because the news media is really, I mean, they get their jollies off by making everybody upset and angry, keeping everyone stirred up. And basically what that is, however, is they're keeping us distracted.

And this is an important point that the listeners need to keep in mind. Most of what happened was the narrative was to keep us distracted from paying attention and observing what was really happening or what their actual plan was. And all of this falls into, and in fact, we talked about this a few times on previous broadcast when we talked about the rate reset or the World Economic Forum agenda. And all of these dots are connecting. Everything that took place over the past three years was all orchestrated.

None of this was accidental or random or just coincidental. It was all targeted, all specifically designed and specifically strategized. And we'll talk later about their purpose and their ultimate goal. But to put it succinctly in a nutshell that everything that happened, they would tell us it was about saving lives, for an example.

But that is absolutely not true. It was not about saving lives. It was about gaining power and control and establishing a precedent, which is a key word that will be reoccurring as we go through this discussion. They were establishing the precedent for when the time comes for the One World 666 government or program or agenda can become fully realized.

And I'll just close with or finish this point with this one last statement. If you remember something that we talked about on last week's episode when we were dealing with the question and answer, and one of the things we talked about was that all of the technology that we now see is in place, all the dots are connected for the One World government to, I mean, it could literally take place tomorrow because all of the technology is in place. And not only is the technology in place, but, and here's the key, the precedent for using a crisis like, let's say, the rapture in order to calm world citizens' nerves and establishing a One World economic system.

Because you got to remember when the thing that was hurt the most from a globalist standpoint was the disruption in the economic systems around the world. And when the rapture takes place, that's going to make coronavirus seems like an afternoon walk in the park by comparison. And so there's going to be a need for someone, some powerful entity to come along and kind of calm the fears of the world, of the world's citizens. And this idea of coming together, acting what they love using the word acting, we have to act, right? We have to do something. We have to act. And this whole idea of doing a One World economic system is going to seem like the perfect solution.

And people are going to abrogate their individual sovereignty without even thinking about it because that's exactly what happened during the coronavirus lockdown scenario that citizens around the world just willingly stayed home, just willingly closed their churches down, willingly closed their businesses down without even giving it any thought. So that sets a precedent for what we can look forward to when the rapture occurs. And I like to call it what we saw, and I'm going to close with this. I like to call it what we experienced or what the enemy was putting before us was a dry run, a test run for how he's going to be able to establish the One World government during the end times.

And the precedent has been set and established. And that I believe along with this whole idea of power and control. So they'll tell us things like it's about saving lives. It's about saving the climate. It's about all this different rhetoric out of saving children when it comes to this gay agenda, this gender identity crisis, so-called. They invented and created a crisis. And then now this put the government in position in order to, quote unquote, act in order to solve the crisis of gender identity among young people. And it's all part of the same umbrella, the same overall agenda, which is to have power and control from a centralized governmental entity, which is going to establish or set the stage for the 666 or the coming of the Antichrist.

Yeah. And there is so much evidence that points to this thing being planned and orchestrated, as you said. That's why a lot of people call it the plandemic. You know, it's interesting to look back on things. And I agree with you and Bishop Woodin that the media, they really took advantage of the situation to stir people up, to strike fear in a lot of people.

And that is what I was stating in the opening. What troubled me is the lack of trust that so many have in God. You saw the panic and you saw the fear.

And so I want to go back to Bishop Woodin once again. He was talking about that very thing when he was speaking of how he was preparing for what he thought at the time was his mother's impending death, which was about a year before the COVID-19 pandemic. As all mom was talking about, my mother was no help, none whatsoever. All I could hear for her is, Pat, I'm ready to go home. I want to go see my mother.

I've got a son over there. I want to see Jesus. And I really knew it was over because she told me, I want to go see all of the people that we've been preaching about. I said, oh man, this is it. I mean, none of this stuff and nothing wrong with it, but none of this pray for me that I hold out another day.

No, son. I've never seen a person so excited about dying before in my life. And yet it blessed me. It blessed me because what it said to me was, is that her relationship with God is stronger than death. Glory to God.

Glory to God. And I pray that when my day comes, God let me die the death of the righteous and let my end be likened to his. I don't want to go afraid of going. Since I've been saying it all my saved life, I want to go where Jesus is. Well, when that time comes, I want to still have that same mind.

That's what it's all about, doc. And we saw it on display when this pandemic came about or plandemic, however you want to say it, that a lot of people who claim they want to be with Jesus, they want to go to heaven and they're looking forward to being with Jesus. You saw this fear come over them. They really let you know that their relationship with God was not stronger than death. As Bishop wooden said about his mother, he said it let him know that her relationship with the Lord was stronger than death. And so she was ready.

She was looking forward to it, but you didn't see that from a lot of people during this pandemic. Well, one of the things that we can always learn about ourselves is that you can really gauge your commitment to the Lord by when a crisis hits. I mean, nothing will gauge or determine or measure our true identity or our true commitment to the Lord more so than a crisis. And I've felt that for years, ever since I've gotten saved, that our lives are really the example of how we live. We talk about it in church. We have all the rhetoric. We sing all the songs, say all the testimonies.

But when a crisis actually hit, how do we think about it, how do we respond? And it kind of reminds me when you played a clip about Bishop wooden's mom, it kind of reminded me somewhat of the apostle Paul, who was likewise looking forward to death. But only in Paul's case.

I mean, he came right out and said, in order to die is gain. He said, it's to be with Christ, but it might be better for your sake that I hang around for a while. And I put it in my own terms, but when it became Paul's actual time to go in his final address to Timothy, he says, I'm ready. I kept the faith. Remember, I kept the faith. I've finished my course and now I'm ready to be offered up, he said. And so, I just felt like that was a perfect really example and testimony.

And then I want to just say one other thing, because this is actually pertinent to the society and the state of preaching in our current culture. You and I, we're talking about such things as the plot behind the COVID-19. And I love the term that you that you pull it a number of times called a plandemic.

I get a big grin that comes over my face every time you say that. But because that's exactly what it was. It was a plandemic. It was not random.

I mean, it was not arbitrary. It was planned. We can get into the minutia of how we can say it was planned.

We can do a whole couple episodes on that. But for this particular conversation, one of the biggest issues that I've had is the fact that how believers, how Christians have reacted to this plandemic. And that was one of the more frustrating things because believers, you almost couldn't tell.

I mean, when you listen to believers talk about it and pastors shutting churches down, as Bishop Wooden mentioned, you almost couldn't tell a difference between the world view or the opinion or the position that believers were taking than the positions that people in the world were taking. And there was almost like no difference whatsoever. We just, as a church body, we just went along with the government's recommendations or mandates, which put a better term to it. And we just went along and didn't even bother to question it.

Didn't bother to sit back and ask questions. So, wait a minute, does this make sense? And I used to think of things like, because Bishop Wooden also hit on it, like this idea of masking, for an example, was such a hot thing. And this hot issue, when businesses that were open, people were getting in fights if somebody came in without a mask. So, you're harming everybody when you come amongst other people with a mask.

And immediately my brain, the way my brain works, I would think of things like, I mean, it would automatically come to me, okay, if you have a mask on and I don't, if masks work, how am I a threat to you if masks work? And then when the vaccine came, it was the same thing. Are you vaxxed? And I ran into people literally that were vaxxed and masked and still were having problems if I didn't have a mask on. They were giving me grief because for not having, I mean, I'm talking church people were giving me grief for not having a mask on. And they were masked and vaxxed. So, if you're masked and vaxxed and I'm not, if the mask and the vaxx work, then how am I a threat to you?

What is their condition? I mean, so what that told me that amongst believers, amongst Christians, there was a tremendous lack of discernment. And that's a key word. Like a Bishop wouldn't talk about trust and we trust in God and which was an awesome point. But I also would like to add to that, that there was a lack of trust, but there was even a more lack of discernment, lack of discernment amongst Christians. And I know I took up a little bit of the time, but I just have a verse of scripture that I will love to quote. And I won't quote it all because of time, but in 1 Corinthians chapter two, and listeners can look this up. I will only read a few verses, but chapter two, verses five through eight and verses 13 through 16.

And then I'll just go through that. It says that your face should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. So that kind of connects with what Bishop wouldn't say. And also with the idea of having the lack of discernment because our face should stand not in the wisdom of men, not in the world or the media narrative, but in the power or the word of God. And I jumped down to verse seven and said, for we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom was God ordained before the foundation of the world. And down to verse 14, it says, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them. So not only can a natural or carnal man receive the things of God, but he can't even know them because they're foolishness to him because he's walking in the flesh. And also then Paul closes that verse out and says the reason why they can't know them, because these things are spiritually discerned, spiritually discerned. And so again, when it came to the believers, and then I'm going to just jump down to verse 16 real quick, because I did highlight this. It says for who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we as believers have the mind of Christ. And so I just, I wanted to just connect that passage of scripture, because basically it's describing to wisdom, the wisdom of man versus the wisdom of God. And there is, and discerning the difference, and there seems what was exposed during this past two years was a tremendous lack of discernment amongst God's people.

And that should be very concerning. You know, man, I agree with you 100%, because you know, doc, we expect the world to respond a certain way. We expect the world to not have discernment and to be in panic and fear. But as you said, the church, that is just what troubles me. The way the church was so easily manipulated by the media, just buying into the things that the media, people who obviously are not godly and just going along with it. And as you talked about shutting down churches, Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25 says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another. And so much the more as you see the day approaching and the day is capital D. So we know that's talking about as you see the day of the Lord approaching, but here's the thing, we don't see any exception clause there that says, unless there's a pandemic, unless there's this, or unless there's that it says, do not forsake the assembly.

And doc, here we are with three years later now from when COVID first came on the scene COVID-19. And I still know of churches that have not yet gone back to indoor in-person service out of a fear of this pandemic. So yeah, the church violated so many scriptures in response to this, this pandemic. And I was just listening earlier today to David Fiorazzo, a radio host and author, and he wrote a book, he authored a book and he had a question in there for one chapter that he says, did the church pass the COVID tests? And so, and he stays obviously, no, the church failed miserably when it came to the response to COVID. But what we've seen over the last few years, as you said, there are a lot of people who have been using this thing to their advantage for agendas that they want to push forward.

And it just extends into so many areas. All right, doc was always good talking with you, looking forward to being back with you again next week and to our audience. Thank you for tuning in. And we look forward to being with you also once again. So until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. Thank you for tuning in to Discerning the Times. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God. Discerning the Times is presented by blessings to Israel.