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How a US airman was rescued behind enemy lines in Iran · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Good day on this Monday, April the 6th, 2026, and welcome to Denison Forum's Daily Article Podcast.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm near Raider, Chris Elkins, giving voice to today's Daily article, authored by Cultural Theologian Dr. Jim Denison.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Last Friday, an American F-15E fighter jet was hit by incoming fire and crashed inside Iran.
• 0:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: One of the two crew members was quickly rescued.
• 0:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to the Wall Street Journal, what came next was, quote, one of the most complex search and rescue efforts for the US Air Force in enemy territory in decades.
• 0:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: He second-airman, a weapon system officer, had ejected and sent a message over his radio saying, God is good.
• 0:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was injured, but hiked up a 7,000-foot mountain ridge line and hit in a crevice, and hit in a crevice.
• 0:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: While evading capture, he activated an emergency beacon that allowed U.S. forces to locate him.
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Iranian officials issued a public plea for locals to find him, offering a reward of $60,000, which is equivalent to a multi-million dollar salary in the U.S.
• 1:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Who confused Iranians in pursuit, CIA operatives spread a false message that both crew members of the downjet had been found.
• 1:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: US aircraft also dropped bombs on convoy's approaching the area where the airman was hiding.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sunday morning, President Trump announced that the highly respected Colonel had been rescued and is safe.
• 1:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Trump plans to speak to reporters about the operation today at 1 p.m. Eastern time.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why would the U.S. go to such links to recover a single pilot?
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: He answers as much about our nation's past and our collective future.
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Since Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine began, Russian forces have suffered nearly 1.2 million casualties.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Soldiers on the front lines must bribe officers who avoid being shot by drones or other soldiers,
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Pied to trees to freeze or denied medical care, any who refused to pay are tortured.
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: During its war with Iraq, Iran marched child soldiers into fields to clear minds and prepare the way for Iranian tanks.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: In 2016 alone, the Islamic State sent 1,112 Muslims to their deaths in suicide attacks.
• 2:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: During World War II, Japan ordered more than 3,800 pilots to fly kamikaze missions.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the Chinese Army killed at least 10,000 of their own citizens.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: By some estimates, Iranian authorities massacred more than 30,000 fellow Iranians in last January's protests.
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: By contrast, U.S. is founded on the cradle conviction that all men are created equal, and endowed by our creator with rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: In a world dominated by monarchies, dictatorships, and theocracies, this is a declaration never before embrace by nation.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: What was the source of this insistence on individual liberty?
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: My wife and I saw a movie, a greater awakening, last Friday, and highly recommended to you.
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: The film tells the story of the unlikely friendship between Deist, Benjamin Franklin, and Evangelist George Whitfield, a partnership that proved pivotal to America's founding.
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whitfield preached gospel messages all across the colonies, calling massive crowds to repentance and faith in Christ.
• 3:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Franklin printed at significant personal profit, Whitfield's sermons and other materials regarding his ministry.
• 3:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And according to Franklin, Whitfield's message changed the nation that America became.
• 3:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: In one sense, Franklin explains to a British general the colony's frustration with the crown, quote, across that ocean an entire generation of Americans have been awakened to belief that liberty is not a gift given to them by a king, but are right given to them by God, in quote, here's after American independence.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: As Franklin and his grandson are discussing
• 4:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Benjamin Franklin replied he was the revolution.
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: On this Monday after Easter Sunday, what was Jesus doing?
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Luke reports in Acts 1 verses 2 and 3 that until the day he was taken up to heaven, he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God, I many proofs can be translated by a great
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why did Jesus' followers need such persuasion?
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Matthew tells us in chapter 28 verse 17, when they saw the risen Christ, they worshiped him, but some doubted.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: This was because, as the brilliant theologian entity right noted, the concept of a body rising from the dead never to die again, was for and not only to Greek thinkers, but to the Jews as well.
• 5:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: As a result, even though Jesus frequently predicted his resurrection, noted in Matthew 16, 21, chapter 17, verse 23, and chapter 20, verse 19, none of his followers expect of it.
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: The women returned to the tomb Sunday morning to finish buried in Jesus' body as reported in Luke 24, verse 1.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: In verse 11, when they told the apostles that they had met the
• 5:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus delayed his return to paradise until his followers understood his resurrection to not be a myth, legend, or tradition, but a fact that changes everything.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Only when they knew him to be alive and experienced him personally as their Lord could they advance the global mission he intended for them.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the same is true today.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: George Whitfield reminded colonial Americans, quote, the fall of man is written in characters too legible not to be understood.
• 6:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those that deny it by their denying prove it.
• 6:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whitfield also observed the sinner can know more race himself from the deadness of sin than Lazarus who had been dead for four days until Jesus came.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: By contrast, Whitfield declared it is God alone who can subdue and govern the unruly wills of sinful men."
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: To return to the story with which we began, we are all trapped behind the lines of our spiritual enemy and cannot rescue ourselves as revealed in Romans 3 verse 23 and chapter 5 verse 12.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: This fact explains the urgency and grace of Easter.
• 6:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: If, like the early disciples, you doubt the reality of the resurrection, let me encourage you to examine the evidence for yourself.
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: If, however, you believe that Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, let me ask you,
• 6:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: When last, did you experience him as your living Lord?
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: If Jesus is alive in our lives, he can act in ways a dead teacher never could.
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: He can forgive our sins and save our souls.
• 7:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: He can heal our bodies and comfort us in our grief.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: He can empower us by his spirit and use us for eternal significance.
• 7:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: He can set our hearts at liberty and bring our nation to himself.
• 7:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: All Jesus has ever done, he can still do.
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: But he did through his followers, he can do through you and me this day.
• 7:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: But we must experience his risen presence if we are to be catalyst for the change our fallen culture needs so desperately.
• 7:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: George Whitfield was right.
• 7:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: We can preach the gospel of Christ, no further than we can experience the power of it in our own hearts.
• 7:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote,
• 7:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Have you experienced the power of the risen Christ yet today?