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Pray For Peace And Do Something

Truth Talk / Stu Epperson
The Truth Network Radio
October 9, 2024 6:17 pm

Pray For Peace And Do Something

Truth Talk / Stu Epperson

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October 9, 2024 6:17 pm

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Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk. A daily program powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together.

Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Glad to have you with us.

Happy Wednesday. How are you feeling? Everybody okay? We've got some major things happening in our country and around the world, particularly what's going on in Florida as we're watching Milton.

And if you were listening to this program, anywhere in that path, be sure to follow the instructions given. Most people are evacuating. And let's be sure to keep all of those affected by this and what's going on in North Carolina and South Carolina and Tennessee. All of this before the Lord in prayer with these folks. And I would encourage you to find the right organization that you can give to that would help get the aid to them as best as possible.

I can heartily recommend Samaritan's Purse. And if you are so inclined, and I would encourage you to do so, to give. It doesn't matter what the amount is to help these folks. It is a brutal journey that they're on. And these are our people. These are our citizens. These are our fellow Americans.

And they're hurting. And it's a tough thing. So let's be sure to do that. I want to delve into quite a bit today. I've got a very special guest at the bottom of the hour that you're not going to want to miss.

We just had the October 7th anniversary. And this is a man that I've interviewed for my podcast and my other radio program I do. And I wanted to have him on here with you all today. He survived the Holocaust. He's 92 years old. And you're going to be quite moved by his story.

But I want to start off with this. The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University had a new study out that shows approximately 104 million people under what they call the People of Faith umbrella are not expected to vote this election, including 41 million Christians and 32 million of whom regularly go to church. We've talked about this on this program. In fact, one caller got pretty upset with me about it because I'm pretty insistent on this, that we have a responsibility as believers, as salt and light. And I'm not going to just like, well, God's got it under control.

Well, God's got it under control. Do you still put on a seatbelt? God's sovereign whether you put a seatbelt on or not. But why do you put on a seatbelt?

It's the same kind of reasoning. Most of you know my story by now. I've been taking care of my wife for four decades with a horrific set of challenges.

And both legs amputated, 86 surgeries that I can count, 100 plus doctors, 13 different hospitals, and just an insane journey for the two of us that we've endured. And I've had people over the years that would come and say the most ridiculous things, and they're doing it dressed up as Christians. They're saying these things and pronouncing just stupid stuff. And I'm tired of it. We as Christians are better than this. We've got to be more studious with the Scriptures and understanding. And we have a responsibility for duty and to work and to participate and to let our light so shine.

And people have said it's the lesser of two evils for this election. I don't look at it that way. I look at it as what can I do to lessen the evil? And until Jesus comes back, and we've already heard this, and the Scripture says the government shall be on His shoulder. We know this. And we work towards that. I know that my wife will be healed, that she will mount up with wings like eagles and walk and not grow weary and run and not go faint. I know this. And until then, we trust Him, and we go about the business that He has for us, even with broken bodies, even with broken countries, even with broken election systems or broken candidates.

But we persevere and endure, and we put our shoulders to the wheel to help. And Lynn Munsell is the president of Arizona Christian University. He used to be a nominee for governor there. He said, I see two huge takeaways from this blockbuster report. First, that Christians should be the deciding factor in a bunch of federal and state races and are choosing not to be. And second, that they are longing for their local church to instruct them how to think biblically about policy and politics. Why are we not involved?

Are we content to let this just all fall down around us? How many get your oil changed onto your car? You're doing what is stewardship of the things that you need to live in this world. You show up to go to a job. You pay your bills. You paint your house. If you've got a leaky faucet, you fix it.

All of those things. Voting is no different. It's stewardship of where we are. We're not voting for a perfect candidate because we don't have one. It's like saying, I'm not going to go to church until I find a perfect church.

Well, don't go because you'll ruin it. That's not the way this works. If 32 million people are sitting out on this election, who's going to run this country?

I mean, think about it. Those are staggering numbers. Do we have a responsibility? You bet we do. Absolutely we do.

Each vote does make a difference. And we do have a responsibility to show up there. Scripture talks about these things. And we, you know, listen to this. Proverbs 29, 2. When the righteous increase, the people rejoice. But when a wicked man rules, people groan. Does that not spur you to action, to get involved?

Everybody has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We know this. But there are some people who bring a malevolence to the way they run a municipality, a city, a state, a federal government. We've seen this. We've seen this around the world. We've seen this in our country. We've seen tyrants with clipboards in our local places. You've seen what they do in school board meetings with people who are trying to protect children. If 32 million Christians sit out, who's going to be running all this stuff? We can't do it, folks.

We can't. We're going to talk more about this when we come back. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Truth Talk Live, 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live.

This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to have you with us here. 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884.

This segment brought to you by a wonderful sponsor called Peelaways. Now, you know I do a radio program for caregivers. I write books for caregivers.

I are one. Four decades I've been doing this. What have I learned through it? Well, I've learned a couple of things. One of them is I don't like to do laundry. I just don't. And I've learned that I have to do sometimes laundry in the middle of the night.

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PeterRosenberger.com. We're talking about voting today. And our responsibility. How many days we got out before the election here? We got a month. Right at a month, I guess. And less than a month. It's going to be November 8th, isn't it?

Yeah, so less than a month. What's this going to look like? What's this country going to look like? I was watching an amazing interview with Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk. And, you know, you don't have to agree with people to learn from them. Okay? I'm not asking you to. Acceptance doesn't mean agreement. You don't have to agree with everything. The only person I'm going to agree with is Christ.

And I don't agree with him enough. And that's why he had to die for my sins. So, you know, I don't trust my own opinion. My mind is a dangerous place to go into unaccompanied. But Scripture tells me these things. And that's where truth is anchored. But along the way I can learn from a lot of different people. And there's a great interview that Tucker was doing with Elon.

And Elon is a very smart guy. He builds rockets in Starlink. In fact, I'm talking to you now because of Starlink. I'm in Montana. I'm in the Rocky Mountains. I'm 10 miles from a paved road and I'm using Starlink. Starlink is what's helping these people in North Carolina.

This is Elon Musk. And all the things he's doing, he said, look, if this election, if Trump doesn't win this election, we're not going to have another one. It's going to be a one-state party just like California is. And they just passed a law in California saying that you can't ask for voter ID. Well, why would anybody ban voter ID? We have to have ID to do everything. I mean, you truly have to have ID to do just about anything in this country and yet accept to vote.

And why? Other than to cover up, perpetuate voter fraud. Does that bother you? It sure bothers me. And I'm all about election integrity.

And I am not trusting the systems we have in place. We've seen it before. And so if 32 million Christians, people who call themselves Christian, 32 million of them are sitting this thing out. Well, what do you think about that? How do you think that's going to play out?

What's our responsibility here? Isaiah 126 says, then I will restore your judges as at the first and your counselors as at the beginning. And after that, you will be called the city of righteousness, a faithful city. God will, you know, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, then I will hear from heaven.

I mean, if we're going to proclaim the name of Christ as Christians, do we not have a responsibility to stand up and make our voices heard? Otherwise, we can expect more of what we've had for the last several years. We can expect more crackdowns on what can be taught to our children, what we're allowed to say, what we're allowed to preach from pulpits. Are you ready for that?

Are you ready to start seeing that? Because it's already happening in Europe. You know, are you going to be able to preach the whole counsel of God in a totalitarian regime?

Is this something that we can envision here in the United States of America? Folks, that's the end game for these folks. That's what they want. If you don't think so, listen to them in their own words. You know, Hillary Clinton was all over the news this week talking about that very thing.

John Kerry, who by the way served in Vietnam, he was out there talking about the First Amendment needs to go. You got Tim Walts is out there saying we need to abolish the Electoral College and have just the popular vote and then they're going to stack the Supreme Court. In other words, they want to be California. How's that look?

How's California looking? What are our responsibilities? And if we call ourselves Christians and we sit it out, well, we got nobody to blame but ourselves. And guess what happens when people don't do those kinds of things?

I've got a guest coming on at the bottom of the hour who lived through that kind of stuff and is an extraordinary man. And if we are not willing to stand up and say no and make our voices heard, you say, well, Peter, I'm just one vote. You're one vote, okay?

You're one vote. But all of us together, and this is what the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian was saying. Wow, 32 million that regularly go to church, 41 million who identify as Christians are sitting it out. Do you think that would change the course of this country? Do you like what you're seeing in your cities? Do you like what you're seeing paraded out on your media and all these kinds of things that you're watching on the news and you're seeing how can this be happening? It may not be happening in your neighborhood, but how long until it does? What are your kids being taught in school? You know, I mean, have we lost the public school system in this country? If so, why?

And I'll tell you why. If that many Christians are sitting out, their voice is not being heard, and we're allowing marginal people to get in with nefarious agendas. And it's not but a couple of steps away before they start imposing those things on you and me. We have a responsibility. Let's go vote.

This is Peter Rosenberger, PeterRosenberger.com, 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884. We'll be right back. Truth Talk Live! You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com Welcome to Truth Talk Live! We are back.

Peter Rosenberger here, 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH, if you want to be on the program. And this section is brought to you, by the way, by Standing with Hope. Standing with Hope is the ministry that my wife envisioned after giving up both of her legs. And she wanted to put limbs, prosthetic limbs, on her fellow amputees. And for more than 20 years, we've been doing that now.

Well, right about 20 years, yeah, 20 years. We've been doing this in West Africa and other places, primarily in West Africa and Ghana. And we teach and equip local workers how to build limbs for their own people so that they are standing with hope.

This is something she wanted to do, and it's extraordinary. We have inmates at a prison that help us. We collect used limbs from all over the country. And they go to this prison run by CoreCivic, a great group out of Nashville, Tennessee. And inmates volunteer to disassemble them so we can recycle some of those parts. We buy new materials and purchase them here and ship them, or we can buy some of their in-country in Africa. And it's extraordinary work. And she wanted to do this to be able to tell people about Jesus and get them walking and leaping and praising God.

And they do. StandingWithHope.com if you want to find out more, and I hope you will take a look and see what we're doing. I had a great conversation recently with a wonderful man, and it's on the long form of my podcast and out at my Substack page as well, the video. His name is Jack Werfel, Jochen Werfel.

The nickname is Jack, and he is 92 years old. This week we celebrated, not celebrated, we commemorated the one-year anniversary of what happened on October 7. Just this horrific event.

And we're watching right now as Israel prepares to deal with Iran now after this ridiculous assault that Iran has done on Israel that went nowhere, and Israel is about to retaliate and take care of business. This man knows the horror of the Holocaust. He survived it.

He's been through this. And he has some amazing thoughts. He's written a book called My Two Lives. And he was born in 1932 in Germany to a Jewish mother and Catholic father, and lived in Austria until 1936. His father was a political prisoner. I'm going to give you the background on it because he'll be calling in here in a second.

We had him on here and we lost him for just a second. And Jack and his brother Peter moved from Austria to Germany to live with their Jewish grandparents in Berlin. And then the grandparents sent them to a summer camp to get away. The mother went into exile. She ended up going to a concentration camp where she was executed. And over a series of events, and it's a powerful story and I want you to hear the long form of it, Jack was eventually able to come to America.

This became his adopted country. And Jack, I'm just so grateful to have you here with us today. Welcome back. It's good to talk to you again. And thank you for being here.

We were talking about in the first half of this program, I was talking about the importance of voting and our civic responsibility. And I just wonder, how are you feeling today, Jack? I can try it again. Well, I hear you. I hear you, Jack. Jack, I hear you.

Well, we're having some connectivity problems. He'll be with us in just a moment. Jack is 92. And when he came to America, he ended up getting drafted into the military here in the United States. He had to endure some terrific, horrific things in Germany. And he had to join the Hitler Youth. He couldn't tell anybody he was Jewish. His father had baptized him as Catholic.

And because of that, he was able to participate in school and not be sent to a concentration camp, had anybody known, because his mother was Jewish. So Jack, are you with me right now? Peter, we cannot hear you. I can hear you. Such is the miracle. It's totally quiet.

It's totally quiet. Well, I can hear you. You might want to help with – I tell you what, I'm going to put it on hold and let Nick work and see if we can get you the – Can you help with that, Nick? And Nick's going to try to work with him, see if he can get that patched through, because I wanted you to hear his story. He had to join the Hitler Youth because people were saying, you know, what are we going to do with these kids? Who are these kids? Why aren't they in the Hitler Youth? And so they had to join it and they had to sing songs about how evil the Jews were and Hitler and, you know, how much they loved Germany and all that kind of stuff. And it was a horrific event for he and his brother. And they were forced into this world where family members kept disappearing. They'd go to concentration camps. They were being killed. And he and his brother were the only ones that survived. And he came to this country and learned how to speak English and so forth.

And the United States military ended up drafting him and sent him to Germany. Are you there with me now, Jack? Jack, can you hear me now? I hear you, Jack. I can hear Dana.

Well, I don't know that we're going to be able to pull this off. And now that it's gone, too. Jack? No. It just went a little dark. That's all. You're still in there. Don't hang up. Jack, are you with me?

Well, they're not telling. Well, I have to. Nick, if you'll work on that a little bit more. His daughter's name is Dana and she can help with that.

If you can do that, Nick, that would be great to make sure they can hear because I can hear them. And anyway, I apologize for the technical difficulties, but I wanted to give you as much of his story because he has some strong thoughts, as you can imagine, about patriotism and about this country and the freedoms. And he's watching what's going on in the world today and on our college campuses and everything else. It's not going to get any better unless we stand up and say something. It's not going to get any better unless we're willing to make some bold changes.

They're going to get worse. And Jack understands that. He's been there. And he told the story of having to listen in secret to the BBC of the invasion of Normandy. And they were just praying and hoping for the Allies to make it so that they could be free of this thing. I mean, they were forced to work in the Hitler Youth for no money, just for the good of the war, quote unquote. And so these are the kind of things that we need to remember and understand that if we don't do anything, how long before people who really love to get in there and tell people how to live their lives start doing it?

How long before we escape that? And Nick is going to work with them and hopefully we'll be able to get him in pretty soon because I want you to hear it in his own words. It's not every day you hear somebody who has survived this. There was another Holocaust survivor who was very important to my family and intersected both Gracie and I. The same summer we both met her. And that was Corrie Tim Boone. I didn't know Gracie at the time. She's a couple of years apart, but I met Corrie in Georgia and Gracie met her in Florida.

And it was Corrie Tim Boone who pointed Gracie to Jesus and told her about Jesus. And who had survived the Holocaust herself and lost her sister, her father. And as they were standing up to hide Jews away from the Nazis, they paid dearly for it. What about us? Are we willing to do such a bold thing? Are we willing to stand up for the people who are being maligned right now in our college campuses?

I was watching these things and I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that this was happening in America. And yet it's here. Are we willing to say something? Are you willing to even vote? Are we willing to say, no, we're not going to allow this anymore? And we are going to protect our elections and make sure that they're free and fair.

And that we're not going to teach this woke, parasitic mind virus that is infecting this country with all these things. So Nick, do we have everybody here? Well, I apologize again for the delay, but it'll be worth it just to hear his voice. Not every day you get to talk to somebody who had that kind of life. And the book is called, by the way, My Two Lives. I told Jack the other day that he ought to make his third act, My Three Lives, because now he's on this.

He didn't write the book until he was 90. And to tell this amazing journey that he's had and the life he's had here in America. So are we willing to do this ourselves? And that's what the point of this program is. This broadcast is Truth Talk Live. The truth is we are in a very dangerous place in this country.

Where we have the risk of having things corrupting us as a nation irreversibly if we don't stand up. That's not just me saying it. That was Elon Musk.

Say what you will. That's an extraordinary voice to be saying that. The richest man in the world is saying, we're in danger. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Truth Talk Live. We'll be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. This is Peter Rosenberger. Glad to have you with us.

866-348-7884. I think we got everybody. And Nick has been working tirelessly on this. Jack, are you with me? Yes, I am.

Oh, look at that. Well, Jack, how are you feeling? I feel fine. Thank you. I've been sharing a little bit of your story to set this up. And of course, I want folks to go out to my podcast at PeterRosenberger.com. They can hear the whole story that we did.

You and I, the conversation we had the other day, we talked for about an hour. But I just want, on this show today, I've been talking about the importance of us standing up. I saw a report the other day that said 104 million people of faith, all different kinds of faith, and particularly 41 million who identify as Christians, are not voting. And as somebody who came from, who escaped barely from a totalitarian regime like you did, you and your brother did, what are your thoughts on the civic responsibilities we have as voters of this country and how much you love this country?

Share a little bit about that. Yeah, Peter, absolutely. You know, I think it's our duty as citizens of this wonderful country to vote and to be familiar with what's going on politically, at least to some extent. And we definitely have to have to vote. And I always knew that in this country people vote, which is wonderful. It's a free country.

And that's the way it should be. And I'm just, you know, disappointed if there are that many people that don't vote. It's absolutely your duty as a citizen of the United States to vote during election time. Do you, what was the first election that you voted in when you became an American citizen? Oh, that was, I believe it was Eisenhower, I think. Gosh, that's a long time ago, you know. I came to this country in 1950. I was a citizen and came to this country in 1954 as a citizen coming out of the Army. That would have been Eisenhower's second election.

Okay. And I was right. That's what it was, yeah. How did you feel the first time you voted as an American citizen? Oh, I was so proud, you know, that I had the right to do that, that I had the right to vote as to who is going to be the leader of this wonderful country. I was so proud, you know.

Did you feel like... I liked Eisenhower very much, you know. Did you feel that your vote mattered? Absolutely.

Absolutely. Every vote mattered. You know, I love your story, Jack, and I love the conversation we had. And I, as we celebrated, not celebrated, I keep saying celebrated, I'm sorry for that. As we commemorated this one-year anniversary, this very sad anniversary of what happened on October 7th.

You and I talked last week. What were your thoughts this week on October 7th? Well, I certainly remembered what happened one year ago, which was one of the most terrible things I've ever seen. You know, it was the worst kind of thing that happened to the Jewish people since the Holocaust. And what Hamas did, I think, was just a terrible, terrible, terrible thing. And it's just unfortunate what happened since then, that we have a major war here right now in the Middle East.

This is all as a result of that. Hamas started the war, and whatever Israel did since then is just to defend themselves. And Israel has got to defend itself, you know. It's the first time that we as Jewish people have our own country. And that all happened after the Holocaust.

I believe it was in 1948, I believe, that the United Nations voted to have Israel a country of the Jewish people at that time. And it's the first time we ever had our own country, and we're not going to give it up. And I believe that our people will fight to the very last. And even though the Arab countries keep saying that they're going to destroy us and send us all into the Mediterranean Sea and drown us, I think that we will continue to fight, and I believe that Israel is going to win their freedom to continue for us to have our own country. I believe so too, Jack, and I look back at the steps that got us here when the United Nations set this forth, but I don't know that Israel has a lot of friends in the United Nations right now. No, we don't.

No, unfortunately. I think it was Bibi Netanyahu or Golda Meir, I cannot remember, but it was said that if the terrorists lay down their arms, there'd be no more war. If Israel laid down its arms, there'd be no more Israel. Yes. And pivoting to this, and you see what's happening in our country, now you've lived through this. I mean, you watched what happens when people with unfettered power, with evil agendas, what they would do. They killed your mother, they killed your grandparents, they killed your cousins and your family.

Yes. And the life that you've built here in this country because of the freedoms that we have, and I would really encourage you to listen to the entire interview. I mean, Jack was conscripted by his commanding officer to be the color guard, and he was able to march with the colors carrying the United States flag at Normandy, at the 10-year anniversary of Normandy, and he was listening on the BBC 10 years earlier in secret because they couldn't rejoice that the Allies were coming. They heard about Normandy, they heard what was going on, and they couldn't rejoice.

They couldn't tell anybody. They were excited because they knew that freedom was on its way. When you see the flag now, Jack, and I know it gave you tremendous pride and deep feelings when you carried the flag there at Normandy in front of thousands and thousands of people. When you see our flag now, it's a bit tattered, but do you still – what are your thoughts when you see the American flag now?

I still love it. I love our flag, and I think our flag will continue to be our flag. I am just very, very sure that somehow this is going to continue, although, you know, it's a very dangerous situation, what's going on in this country right now. In a way, it's somewhat like what happened during the Holocaust in Germany, where it all started, and it was a wonderful country to live in for the Jewish people, and the Jewish people did very well, and they were very, very German. My grandfather, you know, he fought in the First World War for Germany and was awarded the cross for bravery, and it was a terrible thing, and I just hope that nothing like this is going to happen in this country. And this anti-Semitism is really difficult to understand, and it's been going on for so many, many, many years. And why? I think the Jewish people, wherever they lived, they worked very hard.

I think they did well. They supported the country they lived in and the governments they lived in, and I think the same is going on in this country, and for any of our people here in this country to be against Israel now, I think it's just, it's almost unbelievable, you know. It's unconscionable, isn't it? It is.

It is. You know, and I want to go back to what you said about your grandfather. We're about at the last 30 seconds here, but your grandfather was Jewish, and he served in the Great War, World War I, and he was awarded medals for bravery and all this. He was a decorated vet, and then within a very short amount of time, within just a few decades, he was persecuted as a Jew, and then your family was killed. I mean, that's how fast it turned.

That's how fast it turned. You said something on a podcast, and it's at PeterRosenberger.com. Please go take a listen to it at the podcast. But you said something at the end, Jack, and I'll leave it with this. You said, Pray for peace and do something. Those are great words, Jack. Great words.

Yes. That's the way I truly feel. Thank you for being with us, Jack Werfel. The book is called My Two Lives, and I am honored to be able to talk with you, sir.

It is just such a treat. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Truth Talk Live. Pray for peace and do something.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-10-09 20:29:52 / 2024-10-09 20:44:00 / 14

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