Latest / Brandon Fogal Evolution / #225 - Analyzing Rhett & Alex O’Connor: Are They Misrepresenting Christian Nationalists?

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#225 - Analyzing Rhett & Alex O’Connor: Are They Misrepresenting Christian Nationalists? · Brandon Fogal Evolution

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  We're going to be talking tonight about Rhett McLaughlin, Rhett McLaughlin.
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  If that's how you say his name, it's either that. It looks like McLaughlin,
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  but Rhett McLaughlin, I think that is how it's actually pronounced.
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  He had another sit down with Alex O'Connor, and I talked about him a little while back.
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  He's a very interesting cat, I would say, most notably because he is well known
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  for having departed from the Christian faith. He is no longer a Christian.
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  He does not claim that name.
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  But he is still extremely obsessed with Jesus.
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  You know, Alex O'Connor, he's extremely obsessed with Jesus.
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  Once you've talked about Jesus, once you've learned about Jesus.
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  Read about Jesus, you can't think of anything other than Jesus.
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  There's nothing more fun or entertaining than Jesus.
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  And Rhett McLaughlin is just the same way. He's always talking about him.
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  He can't, and he's made videos about, at once upon a time, married to Jesus,
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  it's hard to divorce from Jesus.
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  Once you've learned about Jesus, once you were married to him,
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  it's hard to actually stop talking about him.
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  You're, you're this kind of this crazy ex, you know, that just keeps talking
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  about him. You can't let him go.
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  And I don't want him to let him go. You know, I am a Christian.
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  I, I want him to be a Christian again.
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  You know, I would love, I would love that to be, but it's, you know,
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  it's not just an, oh, we're not going to go into all that. We're going to actually dive into this.
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  What he talked about with Alex O'Connor, Christian nationalists have betrayed Jesus.
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  To me, this is pretty wild considering the state of the current American church,
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  because there's a lot going on here theologically, of course,
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  but the one opportunity that.
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  Jesus has to make a commentary about embracing political power over the kingdom
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  or the kingdoms of this world is presented as a temptation of Satan.
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  This is presented as a temptation of Satan. He's talking about where Jesus goes
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  out to the wilderness, is tempted for 40 days and 40 nights.
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  He brings this up because Satan did take, he did tempt Jesus with certain things.
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  And he said, he showed him all the kingdoms of this world.
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  And he said, I can give them all to you if you will just bow down to me.
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  That temptation for him was very specific because it was a temptation to avoid
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  the cross because Jesus is birthright.
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  His inheritance is this world.
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  You know, that's why he was born into this world. He was to become a king.
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  And Satan's trying to say, let's skip that whole cross thing.
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  Let's skip that whole dying for people.
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  And let's actually just, I can give it to you now. I can give you the goods now, Jesus.
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  Jesus is a little smarter than that, being the son of God, you know,
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  God in human flesh. So he doesn't bite on that.
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  But does it apply equivalently to us as just regular Christians?
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  Does that temptation and does that like that whole proposition,
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  is it the same thing towards us Christians today?
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  To fall for this, we've got to be in control of the kingdoms of the world.
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  Does Jesus say, well, okay, maybe you're in charge right now,
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  but you just wait until a few of my followers are in government or you wait until we're in charge.
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  Again, he says, it's not about that. We are operating on a different plane.
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  He's got the talking points down. He knows them.
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  Yes, that's exactly right. 100% right.
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  Our kingdom as Christians ultimately is not of this world.
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  It is of another world, a world to come, a future, the kingdom and like the
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  atmosphere, the realm that God inhabits, that is our kingdom.
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  You know, that one day we'll come down to this earth. So we get that.
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  But for the here and now, we are here and now, we are to occupy territory and
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  space and to rule and reign, exercise our dominion.
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  Just because when Jesus came, everything didn't flat out change. It didn't.
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  And that's what we, because most people, all they do is read is the New Testament.
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  They don't understand what we call the Old Testament. So they're just,
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  they're reading into things that Jesus never changed. And they're just making
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  those things that that's all that we have.
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  Rather, the whole foundation that Jesus lived on, the apostles lived on,
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  was the what was called the law, was the first five books of Moses and the entire Old Testament.
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  It was built on that. That's all they had. They didn't have a Bible app and
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  they didn't have the New Testament at the time.
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  They were living and breathing on the word of God, which is the Old Testament.
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  And it just blows my mind that we've gotten to this place where this seems to
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  be the way that the kingdom of God is going to be established is by infiltrating
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  and taking over the government.
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  And I'm not just saying that it's not. It's not, though.
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  I see him as creating straw men. He's building these straw men.
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  We're not saying that we're bringing the kingdom of God by trying to run our government properly.
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  That is not ushering in the kingdom of God if we're running it good and imposing
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  the biblical morality in our society and way of life. That is not bringing in the kingdom of God.
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  So it's false to begin with, with what he is saying.
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  So it's not like we're doing it good, we're doing it right. The kingdom of God is going to come sooner.
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  The kingdom of God is out there. The kingdom of God is where God's reign is
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  happening. So it's out there. But how do we get that to get here?
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  That's not the question that we're driving at. That's not what we're going towards.
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  So he's just conflating things that are not what Christians are doing.
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  A good idea from a Christian perspective. I'm saying it is forbidden.
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  I'm saying that it is explicitly called out as something that will take you
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  away from actually doing the work of God.
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  And I think it's interesting. I think it's worth noting that the more that Christians
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  have embraced this pursuit of political power, the more they have embraced political
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  leadership that looks a lot less
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  like Jesus and a lot more like the devil himself. Is that not crazy? Yeah.
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  They're doing the work of Satan. I wish he would dive into this a little bit
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  more because he's bringing his own morality.
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  I have the inkling, the most curious inkling in my mind that he's referring
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  to Donald Trump because that's probably what he is seeing.
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  And he's seeing that that person, because he's not living out perfect morality
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  or what we would say is perfect Christian morality, which I don't know.
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  People have messed up. Everyone. Are you a person that has lived a perfect life?
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  No one could look in the mirror and say that they have
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  no one's a perfect human i think it's
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  i think it's true but it's also it's also maybe it's very
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  easy to say like you know that if you pursue political power you begin sort
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  of betray christian principles and some people will listen to this and i think
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  there are two things which people will say in response to this one thing is
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  they'll say okay but if you look at the old testament you know god is constantly
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  installing literal political king there are at least some contexts in which
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  god thought that it was necessary to have you know His rule is on earth. Exactly. Exactly.
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  The beginning of the Old Testament, which God, he showed us how we are supposed to live this out.
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  And really it is concentrated upon Israel, that specific people,
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  but those principles can apply universally.
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  It doesn't mean that there was a special, unique place that Israel had and has,
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  I believe, and will have in the future.
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  But it's still general principles that God has laid out, the right way to live.
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  And if nations want to take that and run with it, as in God's divine law,
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  even though God didn't make that covenant specifically with all the nations
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  of the world, he made it only with the nation of Israel.
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  But it's not to say that Christians, a part of other nations,
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  can't take God's law and infuse it into their political way of life and thought
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  structure and everything that permeates everything of our lifestyles.
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  And because somebody is going to create morality and somebody is going to legislate morality.
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  And I think what Red is doing, he's discounting Christians from having even
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  the possibility to insert themselves into the political framework and way of life and thought,
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  like almost like trying to chop them off at the knees and saying,
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  you can't if you're getting involved in politics, he.
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  I think begrudgingly says, oh, you can vote, I guess.
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  But I mean, if you really try to really get involved, you're kind of like turning
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  your back on your religion, on your faith.
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  You can't do both at the same time. You can't have a relationship with Christ
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  and also have political leadership and have input in how we do our politics.
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  Because politics is just power. It's influence.
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  And somebody's going to wield it. Somebody's going to run with it.
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  And somebody's going to have it, why not the correct way?
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  Why not the best way as in the way that Christ has given us?
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  And I think that's what Christians are trying to do.
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  We want to exercise our vote and our abilities as much as we can to have the
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  world see Christianity lived out.
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  And that's all we're doing. We're not trying to do anything further.
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  We're not trying to overstep our bounds.
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  And God has given Christians, he's given, like, everything belongs to Christians.
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  At the end of the day, everything belongs to the people of God.
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  This world and the future world to come, everything belongs to us. You know, he's the king.
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  God is the king. He's our father. He rules all. He reigns over all.
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  So, Christians, you own everything. Everything belongs to you.
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  Everything. So, Why not carry the rules, I guess the house rules,
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  the way of life, the thoughts of our father? Why not bring them into this world as much as possible?
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  I think I know what I would say in response to that. I wonder what you would
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  say. And the second thing is then, okay, I'm a Christian. I'm sat at home.
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  I'm listening to this. Don't clip that.
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  And I would like to know what to do then because I care about what's happening
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  in my country and I want to vote for somebody who shares my values.
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  But am I supposed to look at anybody who says, I'm a Christian and I'm running
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  on Christian motivations and say, no, no, no, I'm not going to vote for you
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  because that can't be true. Whereas I feel like I want someone who's Christian to.
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  What can they actually do? Alex is so good at that because he's heard both sides so much.
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  He knows what's going on.
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  Alex knows what's going on. And I would say Rhett does for the most part as well.
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  But this is what Alex has lived and breathed for so long.
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  He's had so many conversations with Christians, people of faith.
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  So he knows the answers he'll get to any question.
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  So he can represent both sides very equally well. Yeah.
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  And I think that's a premier and pristine point that he made because we,
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  like I said, we want to bring, we want to as much as possible reflect the kingdom
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  that is out there, the kingdom that is the kingdom of God.
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  Us trying to do our best in this world, us trying to legislate God's morality
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  in this world is not going to bring that kingdom here. And it's not,
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  and nobody is claiming that.
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  Nobody's claiming that. And maybe, maybe some loons are claiming that.
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  I don't know. But I mean, the real Christianity is not about that.
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  You know, real Christianity is we understand we are pilgrims. We are passing through.
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  We are strangers in this world. But if we have the ability to take this world
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  by the reins and run it and run it as God's kingdom would be,
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  heck yeah, we should do that. Why not?
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  Why not? Seriously.
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  Seriously. Somebody's going to be doing it. It's not saying the apostles back
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  in the day when they were doing their thing, they did not, they weren't like
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  going after politics or anything like that. But I mean, really think about it.
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  It was a Roman government and it was, there was a Caesar, an empire in place.
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  They were concerned about spreading the message of the gospel.
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  But it's like, so their predicament, their situation doesn't,
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  it's not, it doesn't equate to where we are today.
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  If we have the ability to take the kingdom and run with it and reflect Jesus
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  Christ in this world, why not?
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  Why not? You know? So I think we should, as Christians, just do as much as we can.
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  If we have the ability and the reach to bring God's kingdom here on earth as
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  a mirror, a reflection of it, why not do it?
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  So I think, Rhett, he builds straw men and he's, I think he's missing the point in a lot of things.
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  He's taking questions to Jesus and applying it to us when it's not,
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  it doesn't equate. So, all right, we'll leave it at that.
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  Follow me on X and Instagram at Brandon Fogle and have a great weekend.