Twin Cities Burning from the Fires of the Flesh

The Twin Cities are burning from the fires of the flesh. There's a topic we'll discuss today, right here on the Christian Worldview radio program. Where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ. And boy do we need that today.

I'm David Wheaton, the host, and our website is thechristianworldview.org. Romans 12 19 says, Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Now if you've been following at all the events that are taking place in this city, where we broadcast from Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Twin Cities, and now expanding to many other cities around the world, you'll know about what took place on Memorial Day here and what it's led to. For over five minutes, or actually more like eight or nine minutes that are excruciating to watch, a white Minneapolis police officer presses his knee into the back of the neck of a handcuffed, I believe he was handcuffed, black man lying face down on the street with the man pleading that he can't breathe and calling for his mother until the man eventually dies. Now, that image that video has been seen around the world and is being used as the animating force behind what I believe are now the worst riots in looting. This country has seen in at least decades, hundreds, and that's not an exaggeration, hundreds of buildings and businesses in Minneapolis and even in neighboring St. Paul have been damaged, have been looted, pilfered and burned to the ground, including the Minneapolis police station third precinct building, which the Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey ordered his police to abandon the other night. Now with the weekend upon us, we'll talk about what happened last night and Friday night, the Twin Cities and even the suburbs around the Twin Cities and cities around the nation are bracing for more of the same.

So today in the Christian worldview, we're going to examine several angles on what is a developing story all over this country right now, including right here in Minneapolis, our hometown, including how the quote justice being sought is far from the justice that actually God commends. Now, if you haven't been watching the story, and I've talked to a couple people about it yesterday, just as I interacted with and in passing, it was actually quite surprising how some people don't really follow the news. They had heard that there were some riots and but you know, some people don't want to watch the news, they want to look away, some people are involved in their own life for whatever reason, but I'm actually surprised that people even in this city weren't even aware of the extent of what is taking place. Now, part of the reason for that is, is that this level of violence and rioting is has been taking place after dark.

So some people go to bed, you know, I've been staying up till like, you know, midnight one in the morning and even goes beyond that. So people aren't seeing and secondly, the news media, many of the stations are reticent about even showing it. They don't want to portray their city as out of control. The police not doing anything or this particular community of rioters.

Show them in a bad light. I don't know. They're apoplectic on the television stations, not knowing what to make of it and how can this be happening and where the police and they're just they're all full of questions and everyone's got their their mouth wide open about what is taking place in here in Minnesota.

Nice as it's called up here, Minneapolis. So in case you haven't watched it, what happened was what led to this this arrest and then the knee in the back of the neck was a man named George, a black man named and that's important in this. I mentioned usually, you know, ethnicity means should mean nothing to a believer. God created us all equal one race, not many races.

We have different ethnicities, one race, the human race all came from Adam and Eve. But this is an animating part of this story. So I mentioned in a black man named George Floyd, what he tried to do was pass a twenty dollar forged bill to buy some, I believe, some cigarettes at a small market in Minneapolis. And one was one witness said he appeared to be drunk. So this whole thing started over a twenty dollar forged bill.

Think about the irony of that. So some at the store, whether it was the owner or one of the clerks, called the police, the police came, I believe they handcuffed him. We don't know how much he resisted arrest. There was some resisting of arrest. But apparently, according to reports, an officer pulled the gun to make the arrest and then something transpired so that one of the officers named Derek Chauvin Chauvin had the man, the suspect on his chest, lying down, prone, basically with his knee in the back of the neck, restraining him, which led to the man eventually becoming unconscious over the period of eight minutes.

And by the time the paramedics arrived, he had lost his pulse and they took him to the hospital and he was either dead on the way or dead on arrival. We don't know whether the the knee to the neck was the the the main contributing cause. It obviously looks like it was, but obviously there could be underlying health conditions. It could have been drugs involved.

We have we do not know that. So the bottom line is, whatever the case is, no one can see any justification for the officer using this level of force, a knee to the back of the neck for that long of a period of time, even if the man had been resisting arrest, especially after he was constrained with this one officer and three other officers around them. He was on the ground that just period of story. Something went wrong here by the officer making the decision to do this for so long when the man was already restrained. So we don't know why the officer used this level of force.

There's been officer, of course, is now arrested in jail. We don't know why the officer used this level of force. We don't know if it was ethnically motivated. We don't know if he had any animus toward black people.

That's what's being assumed, of course. That's why the cause of all these riots now is, they will say, because the police department and society is is racist against blacks. And this is just, quote, a yet another example of a police officer killing a black man. But we have no idea whether that had anything to do with this particular incident. All four officers were immediately fired without even due investigation from a standpoint of, you know, a protract. Usually when something like this happens, there is a they're put out, admit paid administrative leave for a time. It's fully investigated. And then and then they make a decision on it.

Well, this wasn't like that. They were immediately fired, I believe, even the same day or the next day. So either something was very, very clear to the police department or they wanted to get ahead of this and saw there's no justification for putting your knee in the back of a man's neck. I'm not sure what it was, but the fact is they were immediately fired. And and the one that had the knee in the back of the neck is now or has been arrested. I believe it was on yesterday he was arrested and he's in jail with charges of, I think, murder, second degree or manslaughter.

I can't remember exactly the charge, but the serious charges against him. So the first night after this, I think on Tuesday night after people begin to hear about this and the video began to be spread around, there was some unrest in the Twin Cities. But again, lots of people weren't paying quite full attention to this yet, but there was some unrest on Tuesday night. But then on Wednesday and Thursday nights in Minneapolis and then then St. Paul spread to St. Paul. The the level of rioting, burning, looting, destruction, damage, chaos, lawlessness is something that is rarely seen.

Not just I'm just not talking about Minneapolis here, I'm talking about across the entire country. Portions of this city look like a war zone has taken place. There was an 8 p.m. curfew as a result of this. There was an 8 p.m. curfew put in place on last night, Friday night, and it was completely not enforced. People just went out in the streets. Some are the agitators, the rioters.

Some are just onlookers. No curfew enforced. There has been almost a complete lack of police intervention in this. Last night we saw police marching in. Apparently nothing really happened.

We saw a watch on the news. Very, very little police intervention in this whole thing. There's an out of control, lawless situation on the streets of Minneapolis. Now this is as bad as any riots, as I mentioned, as we've seen in decades.

This is taking place right here in Minneapolis, about 25 to 30 minutes away from where we are broadcasting right now. The government and the police response has been pretty much almost nonexistent. The media has been apoplectic, like how can this be taking place? They just can't understand how people can behave so badly and how police can let it go. Now the mayor, perhaps the greatest example of how lawless it has become is that the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Fry, he told police, I believe it was on Thursday, all the nights are starting to run together now, but I believe it was Thursday night, that the third precinct police station in Minneapolis, he told the police there to stand down and leave the police station and let it be taken over. So the police are shown in the video, leaving, driving off in a line, fleeing, as the rioters burned the police station. Now just think about that, that the only thing holding society from devolving into chaos is law enforcement.

If you don't have law enforcement, you're going to have a society in chaos. You see that anywhere in the world where there's no authority, this is why you put locks on your doors, you need protection from the sin nature of man, and to give up, I mean that should be the last stand of, okay, you might be rioting the streets, we're going to do something about it, but we're not going to give up the police station, otherwise the rest of the citizens, no one has any protection, we have no home base. But that was the decision by our very leftist mayor of Minneapolis, there's a leftist mayor of St. Paul, our governor Tim Walz is very liberal at all, this is a perfect example of how a liberal worldview that sees the man's nature as inherently good, and those who behave badly must have been victimized and therefore are justified in inventing their rage and revenge, this is a perfect exhibit A of how that is taking place in our city and in our state right now. That is the shocking part, that these leaders empathize with these people who are creating complete destruction, saying they want justice for George Floyd, but this has nothing to do with justice, this has to do with the fires of the flesh.

Here's what the mayor has had to say leading up to this time, Jacob Frey from Minneapolis. This is a question written conflict over last night is the result of so much built up anger and sadness, anger and sadness that has been ingrained in our black community, not just because of five minutes of horror, but because of the fact that our black community has lived through this. If you're feeling that sadness, that anger, it's not only understandable, it's right. It's a reflection of the truth that our black community has lived.

Understood by our non black communities to ignore it, to toss it out, would be to ignore the values we all claim to have. Now, is it making sense why things have completely gotten out of control? We understand why you're doing this.

OK, we get it more on the crystal real view coming next. People everywhere have anxiety about the coronavirus pandemic, what will happen to their health, their job, their finances, the future. There is also heightened spiritual awareness. Why is God doing this?

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Monthly partners can choose to receive resources throughout the year. Call 1-888-646-2233 or go to thechristianworldview.org. Thank you for your support. Whatever happened to the coronavirus? Wow, no one's talking about the coronavirus, at least here in the Twin Cities. Social distancing is not being enforced down in the, the riots taking place in our city right now.

I wonder why. Well, when society breaks down and there's anarchy and lawlessness on the streets, people aren't too worried about getting the coronavirus. They're worried about whether they're going to live to see the next day, whether their business is still going to be there, whether their children are going to be safe. It's amazing how priorities get reshuffled when, when all of a sudden lawlessness abounds on the street.

So I played that soundbite of Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, empathizing and understanding that there's been 400 years. This is a result of 400 years of oppression of black people that, oh, therefore it's, it's a legitimate expression of that, that the city can be burned down. And by the way, this isn't just black people. It might be a majority. Just from the news, anecdotally, Washington News looks like it's a majority of black people.

But there's a lot of whites involved in this, too, who sympathize with the Black Lives Matter cause. And interestingly enough, now the Minnesota governor last night has tried to say, well, there could be white supremacists now doing this, getting involved in this and so forth. So, you know, there's just so much information and misinformation going on.

It's, it's just very, very difficult to know what's taking place. But the governor basically said the same thing as Tim Walz, sorry, as Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis early in the week. Here's governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz. These are things that have been brewing in this country for 400 years. People who are concerned about that police presence of an overly armed camp in their neighborhoods, that is not seen in communities where children of people who look like me run to the police, others have to run from.

So I understand that that's out there. It just fans the flames of you're justified in doing whatever you like to do because there's been 400 years of oppression. And the incidents here are not coming from the death of a black man on Monday from which we don't even know why the death happened. We have no idea whether there's any racial connection to it at all. Maybe there is. Maybe there isn't. We don't know. Maybe these two knew each other. Maybe the policemen, you know, maybe there was more to the arrest than we didn't see. Maybe the officer temporarily just lost his mind, you know, in a high stress situation. We have no idea.

There's been no investigation. But there's just been fanning the flames of, well, we understand why you're burning out the buildings of the city. There's been 400 years of oppression and we're going to stand down so you can vent your rage. It is really hard to believe that our society has come to a place like this. And of course, the Christian community kind of jumps on with this narrative to the Gospel Coalition, who has become a there's an element of the Gospel Coalition. That's that's very much sympathizing with the the the whole social injustice narrative being pushed upon us in our society today.

A headline article. We need to be uncomfortable. A local pastor here in the Twin Cities wrote, honestly, my fear is that people will watch the video and be horrified, but then move on to the next thing. And this will be yet another tragedy where nothing ever changes.

We have to care about justice everywhere and for everyone, because as Martin Luther King Jr. once said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Yet another tragedy. I mean, these are going on all the time and we know that this was racially motivated against this.

We don't even know that yet. And even if it were, let's say there's been 10 of them in the last 10 years or 12 of them that have been racially motivated. And there's thousands and thousands and thousands of police contacts every year. Does this mean that there is a systemic racial animus by white police officers towards black people in the country? I mean, we're expecting that every single police officer is going to always do the right thing and has no racial animus as if they're perfect people.

That that's a impossibly high standard that no one should hold upon someone else. But the fact is, there is not the data shows there is not a a racial disparity on white police officers targeting black men. As a matter of fact, I pulled up two recent studies and there's lots of studies.

You just go online and find the studies, one from the Michigan State University. The truth behind racial disparities and fatal police shootings is this was what this one is about. It says white police officers are not are not not more likely to have shot minority citizens than nonwhite officers. Quote, There are so many examples of people saying that when black citizens are shot by police, it's white officers shooting them. In fact, our fighting show no support that black citizens are more likely to be shot by white officers.

We found that the race of the officer doesn't matter when it comes to predicting whether black or white citizens are shot. Quote, If anything, black citizens are more likely to have been shot by black officers. Heather McDonald from the Manhattan Institute has written extensively on this as for interracial violence. Generally, blacks disproportionately committed between 2012 and 2015. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were over six hundred thousand violent interracial victimization. So interracial violence, white toward black or during different ethnicities, excluding homicide.

Blacks who make up 13 percent of the U.S. population committed 85 percent of these victimizations of interracial violence, while whites, 61 percent of the population committing 14 percent. Regarding threats to blacks from the police, the article goes on, a police officer is 18 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer. So the problem here is people are believing a lie. When you believe a lie, it has really severe consequences to believe the lie that white police officers are going around targeting black men. And this is a systemic problem within police departments is a terrible lie to believe.

It's not only a lie, you're believing a falsehood. But then it leads to what has been taking place in the Twin Cities. Real biblical justice here would be to have an investigation of this officer and his partners who are on the situation to do a fair investigation of this. Gathering of facts, if it warrants being arrested, it would be arrested in a trial before a jury of his peers. And if he was sentenced of a crime, he was convicted of a crime. You'd be sentenced proportionate to the crime for the main officer and perhaps his partner for not intervening. But there's no evidence that the police department or the businesses or broader society had anything to do with what the officer did.

The justice would be directed at the person who actually perpetrated the crime. But that's not what's taking place here. It's being being pushed into this broader narrative that is a false narrative. It's a believing a lie. Like I said earlier in the Bible, don't believe the lie.

It's a lie. And it's led to damage and destruction all over our society. Of course, there are going to be a tiny percentage of police who do the wrong thing, just like there's a tiny percentage of other people in other sectors who do the wrong thing, who who embezzle from their companies, who pull out politicians who are corrupt. Of course, I think the police are immune from doing that. There's I'm sure there's some police across the country who are racist towards whites and black police officers who are racist towards blacks and vice versa. I mean, that that's that's the story of it. But to make the draw the conclusion before we actually know the facts about this case and then to draw the conclusion that this is a bigger systemic problem in our society.

The certainly you can think that, but the data is it doesn't support what you are believing. And so a whole group of people, blacks and then those who support them, whites who support them, get unnecessarily bitter, embittered and enraged. And then the police stop enforcing policing effectively.

Society gets further divided and society breaks down like we've been seeing in the Twin Cities. You know, this country is built upon the presumption of innocence until proven guilty by a court of law, by a jury of your peers. No matter how obvious things seem on a video and the video seems there's no justification. OK, well, then let's justice take its course. Man should be arrested. He should be tried by a jury of his peers and he should be punished if in fact he broke the law. But to then make this gigantic leap, non sequitur leap that justice is going to be about burning down buildings and destroying people's livelihoods and lawlessness on the street. That's not justice at all. If we don't have the kind of justice this country is found founded upon, equal justice under the law, fair prosecution before a trial by a jury of your peers.

We really don't have a country anymore. You know, there should be a gathering of the facts. There should be a sentence proportionate to the crime. You know, and if there is a miscarriage of earthly justice, if someone gets off that they shouldn't, then protest.

Write letters, vote, march, maybe even maybe have a nonviolent protest. But what is taking place in Minneapolis the last four nights and around the country is anything but justice. It is simmering bitterness. It is resentment being fanned by political leaders, even even church leaders.

It's believing a lie that there's a systemic animus by white police officers toward blacks. It boils to a rage. It turns into revenge and violence and is the fire of the flesh. The fire is burning in Minneapolis are fires of the flesh that greatly divides people. It doesn't it doesn't heal anything.

It makes the situation so much worse. OK, we'll take a break here on the Christian Rule View. We'll come back. I think we're going to take a few phone calls today. We'll also get into what biblical justice look like and why the greatest injustice in the history of mankind, the crucifixion of the son of God, Jesus Christ. The response to that by his followers look nothing like the response of what's taken place in Minneapolis. We have much more coming up today here on the Christian Rule View radio program.

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Your e-mail and mailing address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time. Call 1-888-646-2233 or visit theChristianworldview.org. Back on the Christian World View we're talking today about the Twin Cities riots that are burning not from a biblical pursuit of justice but from the fires of the flesh. That's really what's taking place here in the Twin Cities where our city has been changed, has been altered for the worse going forward for the unforeseeable future.

The extent of the damage is like a war zone in many places and now this has spread to other cities but it's been nowhere worse than right here in the Twin Cities. Galatians 5.19 says, Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, so you can see them. Here's what they are, their immorality, their impurity, their sensuality, the sexual kinds of deeds of the flesh. Then there's idolatry and there's sorcery and then it gets into these kinds of relational conflicts, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness and crowsing. And things like these of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. And as you see what's going on in the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul, that's what you see.

You see the fires of the flesh. People just out of control, their flesh is out of control, it's rage, it's revenge, it's whatever it is, but it's not justice. It's not a pursuit of justice for the perpetrator of any crime that was committed. We don't even know all the details of what took place yet, but there's a rush to rage, basically, fueled by the political leaders in this city who are unwilling to tamp down on this early. Now, like the governor said last night, they'd had a press conference, the governor and the mayor of Minneapolis, both on the left, had a press conference saying that it's just we can't control, it's out of our control, it's too big, our police can't do it.

Really? You mean the police? We don't have enough law enforcement? We can't have a society under control?

You mean we're just on our own? I mean, it's a stunning admission that you're overwhelmed, and you've been seeing this happen night after night after night. You have a curfew last night that wasn't enforced and you let the police station, I mean, you're letting the asylum be run by inmates? Is that what you're admitting? That the rest of us who are law-abiding citizens have to just have to, you know, go it alone here and just defend ourselves?

Well, that's the way I'm taking that. So we'll have to make preparations to be able to do that, apparently, because the police aren't willing to do it. You know, destroying the livelihoods of people who own these hundreds of businesses that have been burned from banks to post offices to pizza parlors to bars to liquor stores to office stores. Destroying their livelihoods and endangering the people in their neighborhoods who are not related to this incident in any way. If you want to talk about injustice, what about the injustice done against them? See, the rioters don't care about that injustice.

They say they want, quote, justice for George Floyd. We talked about how this is not the pursuit of justice. Justice is is a orderly trial before a jury of your peers in a court of law, OK, and letting the higher authority of society meet out the punishment.

This is not this is this is just rage and revenge. This has nothing to do with pursuing real justice. Otherwise, it'd be focused on the person or persons who actually perpetrated the act, not the police department or businesses or people of the city. Now, I just sit here and watch the television tonight wondering why no one cares about the injustice, the actual injustice being done.

To our cities and our people in our city. And why is there so much selective outrage? There were 10 people, I believe they're all black over the weekend, they were killed in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend. Why is there no outrage, a similar kind of outrage about all those deaths that took place over the weekend in Chicago?

Why isn't Chicago a flame on the injustice of yet again, yet another case of dozens and dozens of people being killed in these black communities? But just to say the conclusion to it, there's no resolving this in the way that it's going on right now. There's only going to be more destruction. I'm actually surprised there hasn't been more death. And hopefully there won't be that. There's been plenty of destruction, but not a lot of death yet. Hopefully that will not be the case.

Pray for that. The only resolving of this, this believing of the lie that's created this animosity to our people. When I say believe the lie, I'm not saying believe the lie that there was no oppression of blacks in the past. I'm saying believing the lie that white police officers systemically across this country target black people. That's a lie.

According to the data, you can look at many studies. Not to say that one or two or three or 10 police officers in a country of 300 million don't have racial animus. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying there's not a systemic injustice by white police officers, according to black men, according to the data that I'm reading.

Maybe if you have other data that shows different, please send it to me. But this will never be resolved when people's hearts aren't changed. This doesn't change any people's hearts. This divides people even more. Riding and looting doesn't change anyone's heart.

It's just rage and retribution. So just imagine for a moment, you know, to borrow a line from John Lennon's song. Imagine not his lyrics to his song, but imagine if people responded like Romans 12 says, never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men, if possible, so far as it depends on you. Be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy, consider this, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. And if he is thirsty, give him a drink for him.

And if so do it, you will heap burning holes on his head. And finally, Romans 12 concludes with this particular passage. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Imagine if the response to this was that. We have been in a very, very different situation right now. And earlier, the greatest injustice, if in fact this was a, let's say, a racially motivated killing of this George Floyd, this black man by a white police officer, it's not the greatest injustice of all time. It's a terrible injustice.

It absolutely is. But the greatest injustice of all time was the killing of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the one who had created the entire world, created you and me. And for those who were created by him to crucify him when he had done no crime, nor was any deceit found in his mouth, that was the greatest injustice in the history of mankind and will continue to be the greatest injustice ever. How did Jesus and his followers respond to that particular injustice? Did they riot in the streets? Did they burn down buildings? Did they try to kill the Roman authorities? Maybe one or two did, but that certainly wasn't what Jesus wanted them to do or told them to do or actually evidence that they actually did. Jesus didn't even resist arrest. He told Peter to put away his sword. His disciples didn't riot after he was crucified and rose from the dead.

You know what they did? They went on preaching the gospel because they knew that that ultimately, the conversion of the heart, the supernatural transformation that takes place when someone understands their own sinfulness, when someone understands that they have alienated themselves from God, that they have shaken their fist at God and saying, I will rule, not you, and that the wages of that sin is death, both physical death and eternal separation from God and hell, when they realize that they're going to be accountable to their Creator someday, and when they cry out for mercy, and they put their trust, their faith in the gracious gift that God offered us so that we could be right with him. He didn't have to do anything for us to be right with him, but he did. He sent his only son, the son he loved, to come to earth and live a perfect life and to die unjustly on that cross for crimes he did not commit. But God accounted that sacrifice of his son as being the payment for the penalty that we deserve to pay for our sin. We put our trust in that, in who Jesus is, the Son of God, and what he did for us on the cross.

A supernatural conversion, transformation takes place inside of us. And we're able to respond to the very real injustices that do happen in the world, not with rage and revenge and burning it down, the fires of the flesh, but we're able to respond as that passage in Romans 12 says, never pay back evil for evil to anyone. But that doesn't mean that there shouldn't be consequences for people who commit crimes. If this police officer is found to have committed a crime, it's earthly justice for him to pay the penalty for that crime he committed. But the rage and revenge doesn't pursue that form of justice, biblical justice. Okay, I'm going to leave the entire fourth segment of the program open today to phone calls. And the question I have is, what has happened here in the Twin Cities and around the country? How is this, in fact, justice?

Anything to do related to justice with what the Bible says should be justice. Or if you have another comment on the situation, somehow we've missed an angle on it today, and you have something you'd like to say, I'm going to keep your comments, please, short. There will probably be quite a few people who want to get in on this.

So just have a very to the point, think about what you want to say, not venting on this, not making unsubstantiated, unfounded comments as well. But our phone number is 1-877-655-6755. That's 1-877-655-6755. If you have to call, if you have a comment that you think will be helpful in this particular discussion on what's taking place, the lawlessness that's taking place in the streets of Minneapolis and around the country, 1-877-655-6755. Your phone calls in this final segment of the day coming up on the Christian Real View.

I'm David Wheaton. I invite you to enter into the story and its tapestry of relationships with Ben, my aging parents, with a childhood friend I would finally marry, and ultimately with God, who caused all things, even the hard things, to work together for good. Order the book for your friend who needs to hear about God's grace and the gospel, or the one who has gone through a difficult trial or loss, or just a dog lover in your life. Signed and personalized copies are only available at myboyben.com or by calling 1-888-646-2233.

That's 1-888-646-2233 or myboyben.com. People everywhere have anxiety about the coronavirus pandemic. What will happen to their health, their job, their finances, the future? There is also heightened spiritual awareness. Why is God doing this?

Am I right with him? We encourage you to order Ray Comfort's 20-page booklet, How to Be Free from the Fear of Death, which explains how one can have peace with God and a confident hope for this life and the next through the good news of the gospel. If you have never contacted the Christian Real View, request the booklet How to Be Free from the Fear of Death for free by calling us at 1-888-646-2233.

For everyone else, you can order as many as you'd like for 50 cents per booklet, perfect for sharing with others. To order, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233. That's thechristianworldview.org. Again, to repeat the important point of the day that what is taking place in the Twin Cities around the country is not a pursuit of justice. The Twin Cities fires are fires of the flesh. Again, justice process is the gathering of facts, patient gathering of all the facts. It's a trial before a jury. It's a sentence proportionate to the crime to the actual perpetrators of the crime. It's not this leap of, well, therefore, society must be burned down because society is systemically unjust toward us and the police department is the same way.

That is believing a lie. One of the paradoxes before we get to our phone call, one of the paradoxes in this is that this mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, just about a week ago, put an order out that people had to wear masks indoors in the city of Minneapolis. And if they don't, if they didn't, he's going to he's going to you know, there's going to be consequences, fines and everything else. And with the governor, with opening up churches early, there was there was an underlying threat that if you break the law here, there's going to be consequences to pay.

Now, a week later, we're in the midst of this. And these two men are understanding and empathetic with what is taking place and think they have a right to to vent the rioters. I haven't heard of one person. I think there have been a couple of arrests, but there's been I mean, night after night and there's been hardly minimal. I'm not even sure of any arrests. I'm sure there have been some, but I'm not aware of any large scale arrests of anyone being done for these violent criminal acts that have taken place all over our city. It's like the they're ruling like they have a child who has a tantrum and is saying, oh, they're there. I understand why you're up so upset and kind of backing off and just kind of watching them just rage. That's what they're doing in this situation on a much more broader scale instead of saying we understand that there could have been an injustice going on.

It looks like very much there is. And those particular people who committed this injustice, if it was that, will be brought to justice. But the extension of now burning down the city. No, that will not be tolerated. And there will be a strong tamp down on this.

So other people don't have injustices caused against them because their businesses against their homes and against their family, against their city. That's what should have taken place. Let's go first to Pat in Illinois.

Pat, welcome to the Christian Rule. View your thoughts on the situation going on across the country. Thanks for covering this this morning. My only comment is this, and it goes out to the black community. I want to know what Barack Obama, who was black, did for you in eight years of office.

Just before this COVID thing hit, I saw blacks working everywhere. It was wonderful to see. I was so tickled for them. Loved it. Loved it. And I just I get so angry that I don't think the Democrats care at all about them.

I want them to at least know that if they get in again, those jobs that are left will be gone because they want, you know, they want this world view. I just I'm just so upset over this thing. It made me sick. I can't even watch the film. I can't even see it on TV. A lot of people can't watch it. People couldn't watch.

Thank you for your call, Pat. People couldn't watch. It was difficult to watch the police officer with his knee on the back of the neck of this man. This man eventually means horrible, excruciating to watch. And if a if a jury, if his peers finds him that he did wrong, he should be convicted. But again, the leap to what's taken place in the allowance of it is now creating more injustice and more division.

Let's go next down to Texas and Bobby. Welcome to the Christian Rule of you, Bobby. What are your thoughts on this? Well, they're not thoughts.

That's what I know. And I want everyone out there to know the great book of Luke says find the root of the problem, pick an ax up, cut it out by the roof. As Christian men, we need to see that Satan is trying to destroy the family. We've all been believing a lie. We've been lied to our own lives. And we've lost the ability to communicate with the father because this agape love that the father has is is not being communicated correctly.

And I lay this problem right at the feet of all of us Christian men, because every one of us have said, I'm going to make it easier on my kids. And I had it in a five year old goes up, take the trash out. Why? Well, because I said so. Well, that's the wrong answer. The right answer is because I'm going to answer for your upbringing to God. So the child knows it's not your authority that he's taking the trash out. We've lost this ability to tell our kids the truth that we need to pick the ax up and cut this problem out by the roof, because that's what the problem was.

Thank you very much for your call, Bobby. Yeah, that's it's a very, very good point that this obviously this whole situation hasn't arisen just as a result of this this police incident, this police killing here in the Twin Cities. There's there's a simmering resentment. There's a world view issue that underlies this whole thing. Like I said, this isn't only blacks. There's lots of whites who find common cause with this with this movement, this believing a lie of the systemic injustice of this society, which is done more to overcome the past of this country than anything else. Even thinking that the people of today, the white people of today are in some way culpable for what people did 200 or 150 years ago. Again, a non sequitur there that that's not justice either. Justice is always impartial. It doesn't sow partiality to a particular group of people.

It actually deals with and prosecutes and convicts the people who actually commit the crimes, not people generations hence from when crimes were committed. That is a believing a lie. We only have a couple of minutes left here in the program today. I would just encourage you to stay connected with this particular story and watch as it envelops. There's a lot of lessons to be learned from a a worldview standpoint here. You know, one thing I've noticed is the left is very unwilling to have consequences for people's actions. And it's based on the worldview that people are inherently good. If you put them in the right environment, you give them the right kind of education, the right kind of money, they're going to behave better. And that is just, again, believing a lie. That is not not the case at all. The Bible repeatedly says, just back to the example of disciplining your children, discipline your son while there is still hope.

You know, you spare the rod basically and spoil the child when there aren't consequences for, in this case, criminal actions, whether for the police officer or whether now for all the rights that take place. People will take more. They'll go further.

They'll get worse. We need the discipline in our life to restrain the fires of the flesh that can so easily inflame inside of us. That is what's taking place in Minneapolis right now, at least, I believe, from a Christian worldview standpoint. We do live in a changing and challenging America.

There's no question. We've gone from the coronavirus now to lawlessness on the streets of our city. We need to pray that somehow the gospel can be made clear that people's hearts can be changed, that civil leadership's hearts can be changed, because if not, things are only going to diverge and descend even worse. So until next time, everyone, think biblically and live accordingly. We hope today's broadcast turned your heart toward God, His Word, and His Son. To order a CD copy of today's program, or sign up for our free weekly email, or to find out how you can be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, go to our website, thechristianworldview.org, or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233. The Christian World View is a weekly one-hour radio program that is furnished by the Overcomer Foundation and is supported by listeners and sponsors.

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That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Thanks for listening to The Christian World View. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly. The best way to stay connected to The Christian World View is to sign up for our free weekly email and annual print letter. The weekly email is delivered to your inbox each Friday and contains the preview for the weekend radio program along with links and resources associated with it. Upcoming events and the previous week's program are also included. The annual print letter is delivered to your mailbox in November and contains a column on a current topic and our catalog of resources. Both of these free resources will keep you up to date and sharpen your world view. To receive the weekly email or the annual print letter, go to thechristianworldview.org, or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233.

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