Welcome to Theology.

Throwdown.

We, the Christian podcast community of podcasters.

Gather to discuss our theological differences with love and charity.

This is a ministry of striving for eternity.

Well, here we are for another Theology Throwdown.

This is where all the podcasters of the Christian podcast community are welcome to join.

Discuss our different theological views on different topics.

And tonight we're going to talk about.

Now, folks, you may not have known this, but recently in the United States of America, there was an election.

I know that surprises you.

None of you heard anything about it.

I happen to live in Pennsylvania, so I am so glad that election was over.

My phone can stop ringing.

My email is not full of junk, and I stopped getting text messages.

Yay.

We're going to talk about Trump won.

Now what?

And we're going to discuss what the election means biblically and spiritually.

We're hoping this will probably be the last of the election type or political topics that we'll do for a while, but this was one that we figured we would discuss.

I'm your host, Andrew Rapaport.

I am the.

I also have my podcasts is Andrew Rappaport's Rapp Report, which is a weekly podcast on biblical hermeneutics and applications to Christian life, and the Apologetics Live podcast.

Also with us tonight we have Eve Franklin, one of the administrators here at the Christian Podcast podcast community.

She is with the Just Watching podcast or are you just watching?

And it is a show that gives critical thinking to, well, secular movies mostly.

Very rarely they'll do a Christian movie, but help people to think critically about that.

We also have Derek, and Derek is with.

And I just went blank.

The truth response.

Yeah, truth response, because I'm thinking of Rooted Reason, which was the one that.

So we have Truth Response, where you get more of a conversational discussion.

And they just did a podcast on the election as well, so you could see truth Response.

And then we have.

And here's his first time here on a Theology Throwdown.

We also have Brandon, who is with Rooted Reason, which is one of the newer podcasts that we.

We have, has just joined us.

It is also his first time for Theology Throwdown.

We have a little bit of a smaller group where we decided not to do to record on election night because we figured, yeah, we had some people that couldn't be here because they were watching polls.

So tonight's topic, we're going to.

We want to talk about the fact that Trump won.

And this was something.

I will be honest with you guys.

I did not expect it.

I was hopeful.

I was surprised I did go to bed that night.

I was on Keith Fosky.

He has a podcast called you'd Calvinist.

And he had a bunch of us on doing election, you know, commentary.

But he's, he's more of a humorist.

So we had a lot of fun.

Everyone had to come with a political joke or a presidential joke.

I just came with trivia because, yeah, I didn't know any presidential jokes.

And so I went to bed like at 12:30, assuming that when I woke up in the morning there'd be, you know, ballot dumps in the middle of the night and Harris will have taken it and won.

I was shocked when that wasn't the case.

So let's, I want to go around and get each of your reactions just to the election.

Maybe you didn't vote for Trump or Harris.

Maybe you voted third party.

If you voted Harris, let me know so I can remove you.

No, but, no, you know, Eve, let me start with you.

What was your reaction to the election results?

Yeah, so I did vote for Trump and I was very excited to have him, for them to have actually called it.

I stayed up all night because, well, I stayed up till 3:30 watching political commentary, some of my favorite political podcast.

And it was a pretty elation, to be honest.

I was scared to go to bed because, like you the last election, I thought he was winning.

Went to bed, woke up the next morning to find out that Biden had won somehow in the middle of the night.

And so I stayed up, had this weird feeling like if I went to bed, something would happen.

And so I stayed up till Trump gave his victory speech and was elated.

And the night after, I was actually had probably my best night of sleep months.

So I didn't realize how anxious I was about the election.

But it's something that I have to keep reminding myself is that, you know, Trump is not a godly man.

We haven't elected a Christian to the presidency.

And this, you know, this is definitely a good topic to say, what next?

Because while we may have stopped some issues, I don't know that we're necessarily turning the country into the direction that we would want it to go as Christians.

And so we still have a lot of work to do.

But I do feel a great sense of relief that Kamala Harris didn't win because I had some severe issues with what would have happened to our country under her.

Well, under whoever runs hers control because she's just a puppet.

Yeah, I had to go to bed because 4 o'clock the next Morning I had to drive somewhere and I was going to drive through Trent, New Jersey.

And I will admit I was fearful.

I got up first thing in the morning and checked and when I saw that he won, I was like, okay, I have to drive through Trenton.

And I was expecting riots.

And I was glad that he won by such a majority that there.

It's been pretty quiet.

So Derek, your, your reaction.

What were your thoughts of the results?

Well, I mean, I got up early that morning and voted.

Was in line at like 6:45.

So that's the only reason I remembered that it was that day.

Be honest with you, I'm kind of a nerd.

So I was super looking forward to that night when I played Dungeons and Dragons at 8 o'clock.

So on the computer with a bunch of Christian, Christian friends.

And so we would, we were, we were watching a little bit here and there, but I had already, I mean, even at the beginning of all this, I just know that, you know, God's in control regardless.

So I had already resolved to give that up to him and, and it didn't matter as much to me because I mean, I did my part right.

Like that's, that's all I could do and there was nothing I could control after that.

So I really, I mean, I was happy that Kamala didn't win.

I mean, like that's, I, that's the best I could give it because, like, I don't know, I mean, I'm excited, I'm excited by who Trump has like surrounded himself with this time around.

I think that there's going to be some equal representation for, for all parties.

I think better, better so than, than I think either party has done in the past.

I'm hoping.

So that's kind of where I'm at.

I mean, like, I was excited that he, he won both the popular and the Electoral College because that says something about how our system is and that it's not just completely garbage as a lot of people think so.

Well, and if folks listen to truth response, you guys talked about that, that you were just kind of ignoring results, just playing some games and maybe we'll have to do a theology throw down on Dungeons and Dragons.

Some people think that's the Christians can't do that.

So that could be a fun topic.

It would be.

Yeah, I.

So Brandon, how about you?

Yeah, so I was kind of, I mean, I've been following it, I've been keeping up with it a little more.

Probably would have had more fun if I'd played Dungeons and Dragons.

Instead of watching all the political commentary stuff tonight.

But I do remember like in 2020, I didn't think Biden had a shot in the world.

So I wasn't really that nervous about it then of course, you know, you got the, all this stuff that happened overnight.

And so this time I'd say I was a little more maybe nervous.

I guess go to put it, I was hopeful that Trump would win, but I kind of figured similar to 2020, something strange would happen and they'd have some crazy 20 million more people show up than any other year.

You know, all that magic that took place.

Yeah.

So it was, it was, I was very happy.

I went to bed probably 11:30ish, but I've kind of been fighting a cough a little bit.

And so I think I woke up like at 2 and checked some results and slept much better after about that 2, 2:30 time because it, by then they pretty much had decided he, he had wrapped it up and there wasn't anyway.

And I was, I kind of told people that day that if he was going to win, he was going to need to win the popular vote.

And I buy more like a landslide that way.

There was, if it was close, I'm not, I wouldn't say there'd be shenanigans, but I think if it's close, it's easier for some manipulation to happen.

And so I was happy that it was a wide enough margin that it was, it's too big to, to mess with, I guess maybe the safest way to put that.

Yeah.

As Trump was saying, to make it too big to rig.

So.

Yeah, yeah.

But you know, I think so the reason I thought this is a topic, you know, Trump won now what.

Because I just, I think that what I end up seeing is a lot of people now start to be complacent.

It's like, okay, we, we got our guy in the, the left is not going to be complacent.

They're already kind of ramping up.

The Marxists are saying, well, you know, they're doubling down.

You know, Kamala didn't win because everyone's against women and you know, they're all racists.

And it's kind of funny because it's all the, you know, Trump got more black and Hispanic, so he's racist.

You know, it's all the racist blacks and Hispanics and you know, people against women, including the Hispanic women that voted overwhelmingly for.

So I was kind of glad to see that.

But I think that people can be complacent now.

So as Christians, the question I have for us is what do we do now?

Do we.

I mean, I'll word it this way.

I think far too many Christians during election times get far too political.

That seems to be like all they discuss.

So part of me is glad the election's over so we could start talking spiritual things again.

But I really see the Marxists and I had predicted that had Harris won, I was afraid that just looking at history, she was running on an anti Christian platform, so she would have to stay with that anti Christian platform because what you get in office with, you stay in office with.

So I was fearful of attacks on Christianity.

Now that Trump won, do we just back off?

Do we say, good, we have a reprieve?

I mean, we're, we kind of seem to have a slight reprieve against the Marxism, but as Christians, do we just say, good, that's over.

Let's wait for four more years.

Derek, what are your thoughts from Derek from Truth Response Podcast?

Well, I'll say the same thing I said on, on our episode is that the thing that we, I believe as Christians are called to do, and we should have been doing it the whole time is we need to acknowledge the, the real feelings of the people that, that are on that, that frustrated, sad, you know, upset side of this coin.

We need to listen to their hearts and love them like Jesus would and then try to, like.

I think, I think that there's room for compromise in a lot of things that can be a hot take depending on the issue.

But I think that, I think there is a lot of compromise to be had because if you look at the way that our, our nation is, we've got major cities where there are certain needs and we have rural areas with other needs, and both are equally valid needs.

But a lot of times they can be conflicting.

And I think that, I think that we just need to listen to one another in this time and just be here to be quick to love each other, quick to listen and slow to speak.

Brandon, what are your, what are your thoughts?

Yeah, so I appreciate that.

Obviously, Derek, I think I've kind of over the last week, he spent the last four years for sure, then really eight years, being not directly, but being associated with.

Well, if I'm going to support Trump in any way, that means at best I'm supporting a Nazi, a fascist, transphobic person, all the horrible things they said about Trump.

So at best, by proxy, I'm supporting that.

And at worst, I'm being told that's, that's what I am.

Like, I'M I'm a racist and a Nazi, those things.

And so I, I can appreciate their perspective of, you know, we should, we have to.

Obviously we want Christ's love to shine through us and I don't think we should go out and gloat and, and be mean or rude or those things.

But there is a little bit at least.

And maybe it's the wrong perspective to have on my point.

There's a part of me that's kind of happy that we will now see hopefully the next four years that all of those things were obvious lies and falsehoods.

I mean even like the, there's good people on both sides, you know, they keep bringing that up, but it didn't, that's not what he said.

It doesn't really matter.

The media is going to spin it how they want.

But I'm, I'm kind of looking forward to the next four years of.

First of all, as these things happen and it just more and more evidence that he is not all those things that people said and those things that I was then associated with for supporting him obviously come out as not true.

They see that, oh no, he's just a normal person.

A, but then B, I think to your question you talk about, okay, so he won.

So now what?

I think the church, and I agree with what you had said, I think the church is going to see over the next few years, four years less pushback than they would have under a Harris administration.

I think we would have seen a lot of her anti Christian policy, I guess, or whatever she was running on really start to push the church back.

And so I think that the church now needs to take advantage of the mercy God has shown us by honestly, we probably deserve terrorists in this country.

And he graciously did not give us that as a president.

And so I think we should take advantage of the mercy he's shown us.

And the church needs to get very active, not in a political sense of now we're going to overly push politics, but I think the church is going to see some freedom and some ability to promote the kingdom of God and push the mission of the church without as much pushback as we would have gotten under a different administration.

So to me, I think the next four years are going to be a time for the church to really step up, be bold, to love as Christ loves, like you point out Derek, for sure, but maybe lose a little bit of the winsomeness we've had for the last few decades and be a little more bold in the gospel proclamation and I mean, the gospel is offensive enough on its own, and I think sometimes we're.

We're too winsome to the point of trying to be too friendly, and we water down the gospel sometimes.

I don't think that's what, you know, maybe on this page is saying at all.

But I just.

It seems like the church in general has a tendency to water things down, to be winsome and kind of, you know, more loving.

And I think the next four years, we really need to step up and be bold and speak the truth and love in a.

In a Christ like way.

And I think we're going to see the kingdom of God across this country really start to spread.

And I think you're going to.

I'm hoping we'll see some revival.

I know with COVID a lot of people were.

I think we saw a lot of churches start to die off because there's a lot of people that were just hanging out.

It's like a social club.

And a lot of the Christians that are people that probably weren't really committed to Christ just took all of that is a reason to stop going and to disengage.

And so I'm hopeful we'll see a revival of people that are really affected by the gospel and changed by God's grace over the next few years.

Well, Brandon, just an interesting fact for you, referring to Trump and his followers as Hitler.

Do you realize that every Republican president since Gary, since Goldwater has been referred to as Hitler except for George H.

Bush?

I didn't know that.

Every Republican except for George H.

Bush since Barry Goldwater has been.

And their followers are been referred to as Hitler.

So the, the first, so the first election I really kind of followed, I think was Romney Obama, 2008.

Yeah.

I think whenever a year I was able.

Finally old enough to vote.

And I do remember at that time, I do remember they even attacked Mitt Romney and he's about the most.

Yeah.

Vanilla milk, toast person.

And he was horrible.

And so I, Yeah, I totally believe that that has been the playbook.

If they could call Romney Hitler for Trump.

Yeah, if they're gonna call Romney Hitler, they could call anyone Hitler.

Yeah.

Eve, what do you think is next for.

For Christians then?

Well, I do believe that.

Well, as I said earlier, we need to make sure that we're not putting it out that we think Trump is our savior.

And I think that there's so much relief going about in the conservative.

I won't necessarily say in the Christian community, but the conservative community that we won this election not Only did we win the presidency, but they did declare that we won the House today, and we already run the Senate last week.

So we have the trifecta of government right now.

And, well, we as conservatives do, but as Christians, we really don't.

Because through the decades, government has gotten more and more and more secular here in the United States.

And so even as the Republican Party seems to slide to the left and with it, a lot of Christians seem to be sliding to the left, too, you know, believing even in our churches that we have to leave politics out of our gospel and what we stand, you know, even not preaching from the pulpit on political matters and that kind of thing.

So I think that, number one, we have to realize we are not citizens.

We are citizens of this country, but our dominant citizenship is of heaven.

Christ is our Savior, not Trump.

And we have to continue to fight the fight for pro life agenda because Trump is not as pro life as we would like him to be.

But as Christians, we have to maintain our position on that.

And I saw, I heard a commentator on this issue.

I'm trying to remember where it was, but somebody who was asked a question about, you know, Trump isn't pro life.

Why are.

Why are Christians supporting him?

And he made the comment that he thought that as Christians, we needed to regain the trust of the society on our position on pro life that we've gotten so, I guess, adamant and mean about, you know, that we don't seem to present compassion to the world in, you know, the things that lead women to commit abortion or the way they are misled and the propaganda they're exposed to, and that we've lost so much on the abortion agenda here in the country because we've either been spun wrong or we have just lost the confidence of, of the culture in hearing us speak on these matters.

So as Christians, we need to continue to put forth the love of God and give every opportunity we have to speak into politics from a Christian perspective, bring Christ into politics, and not.

And not always make it.

You know, I'm trying to think it's like we don't want to make politics something that we only address every four years when there's a big election.

That is something that we speak into from a Christian perspective and a Christian worldview always and all the time.

And I agree with all of you gentlemen that we need to take advantage of the time we have to present the gospel and hopefully bring about revival.

But, you know, revival is a stirring of the spirit.

It's not something that we can manufacture.

God has to be in it.

And I feel like that, you know, if God wants revival, he's going to bring it.

And I think sometimes the church revives better under persecution than it does under freedom.

And so we have to make sure that we don't become more complacent as we feel relief and not necessarily being having a government that's openly persecuting us.

The open persecution might have actually been good for the Western church because we have become so compromised.

Yeah, I shared something on social media, on Facebook where someone had posted something saying, you know, basically addressing the fact, and I'll paraphrase it, that, you know, the fact that we don't talk politics in society anymore now people don't know how to talk about it without taking it personal, without fighting.

So you, you mentioned the church kind of doesn't says, oh, we don't talk politics, but we should and we should teach people how to discuss it with civility.

But you know, one thing son Brandon said I recently put out on on X, you know, dear.

I said basically, dear Christian, the Democrats are not our enemies.

Their policies are.

And this is the thing I think for the what's next for Christians is we have to recognize Democrats are not our enemies.

They're our mission field.

And this kind of gets into Eve, what you wanted to discuss tonight is what, what the election means biblically and spiritually.

To me, what it means is, as you guys all mentioned, we got a reprieve from the Marxist agenda for a bit.

We got someone who is very much wanting to fight that he's talking about, you know, we need religion in, in the country again.

That, that's good.

I don't know that I agree with the religion he wants to bring in with, you know, Cat Kerr and the other wackadoos that he calls Christians, that anyone who knows Cat Kerr, she's the one with the pink hair that was his advisor.

She thinks she can control the weather.

It always there, there always seems to be hurricanes by her.

She's not too good at keeping the weather, you know, those hurricanes away.

I don't know.

I think what she does is get in her private jet and she, she commands that.

That hurricane away as she flies away.

I think that's what she means when she says she can control the weather.

She can, you know, fly away in her private jet.

But you know, the, the thing is, is I think as, as Christians, as you guys mentioned, this is our opportunity now.

Do we really want to see a revival?

Because anyone who thinks the Marxists are not going to come back in force is crazy.

I mean, history just doesn't support it.

So as Christians, I think, I personally think this is a time we need to be out sharing the gospel.

We need to look at people who voted for Harris and very upset.

And instead of arguing politics, we need to share the gospel.

Hey, I understand that you're, you're feeling bad.

I understand that you're unhappy that your candidate lost.

I know what that feels like.

We felt that way in 2020, but we made it through.

The country will make it through.

You'll make it through.

But most importantly is where we spend eternity.

Right?

I mean, that's coming alongside not not being, you know, Brandon, not not being, you know, milquetoast type of person, but being clear on what the gospel is coming alongside and kind of maybe putting an arm around them, you know, understand trying to sympathize and empathize with them, but for the purpose of the gospel.

So, you know, Derek, what do you think now the election's over?

What does this mean for us biblically and spiritually?

Well, I, I don't think that.

I think that it means we just keep doing what we've been supposed to be doing.

Like, truly, I think that nothing, there's positive things, right?

Like you guys have mentioned a lot of the positive things that are hopefully right, we hope are going to come from it.

But biblically speaking, there's no different call.

It's, it's the same.

But we, we're supposed to be Christians.

Whether we are in a free country or, you know, we're not, whether we get persecuted to the point of death or we are persecuted by the point of laughed at, like it doesn't matter where we are.

Like, Paul talks about whether I have a lot or I have none, whether I'm free or whether I'm locked up.

Like, it doesn't, none of that matters.

Whether I've got good health or bad health.

It's.

It's all about Christ.

And, and none of that changes anything.

So for me, like, I've got a co worker who, who is like die hard opposition when it comes to all of the political things that I think, and he is like, this is over.

Like the country is done.

And, and it's one of those, one of those situations where I just, I know, I know enough to just keep my mouth shut and just love on him.

Like I have been this whole time.

Like, I don't need to, I don't need to correct him at every little bit.

I'll correct him when he steps out of line.

You know, when it comes to misquoting or misrepresenting the Bible or whatnot, but when it comes to like all the politics stuff, I mean, just go for it, you know, rant and rave all you want to.

I'm just gonna be here to help you out when you need it.

And I'm.

I'm here to love on you.

And I think the important for first myself at the very least, is that that never changes.

So as far as all that goes, like, I agree with what you guys are saying about it's time for us to not.

I mean, obviously we need to be bold, right?

We need, we need to step up and, and fight for what we believe in.

But why, why should that have been any different than what we were doing?

Right?

So, like, I, I think that what is supposed to happen shouldn't change.

Like, we, we have been supposed to be doing the same thing the whole time.

And so I, I don't know.

I don't know how to answer that in any other way than, than I say.

We, we step up to what we're called to.

We set the example as, as Paul tells Timothy.

And I think that.

I think that we are to renounce a little more boldly whenever people who proclaim Christ are doing things that are against Christ any, any which way we can.

I think that the church has been for too long sitting on their hands whenever that happens.

And so the, the world looks at those people as though they're Christians.

And, and I'm.

It's not up to me to say that someone's not a Christian, but it is up to me to say they're not acting like one.

And so I think that we as Christians need to step up and start.

Start calling a spade a spade.

That's a good way of putting it.

It's not for us to say they're not a Christian, but it's.

It is for us to say they're not acting like one.

I like that.

Eve, how about you?

What?

You were the one that asked this question for us for tonight.

So what do you think the election means to us biblically and spiritually?

Well, I, actually, when I picked this topic, I was thinking more of the election of the Christian.

What it means, like what the actual word means from a biblical standpoint.

Not necessarily what, but from the standpoint of being proper citizens.

What being allowed as citizens of a country to elect our government.

I think it is definitely our position as Christians to do our duty in a government that we have a say in.

So we should definitely be Participating.

I know we kind of dealt with this on some of our other theology throwdowns as to whether it's proper for a Christian to not vote.

And I think that if we have the opportunity to participate in our government, we should do so.

And.

But beyond the election, I definitely do believe that we should be caring to those who are in the opposition.

I have several Democratic friends that I'm friends with on Facebook and I have not gloated this election.

They haven't posted anything about being happy about the election because I don't want to rub it into their faces.

And a lot of them are very depressed and some of them are talking about leaving the country because they're really scared.

And I think that with the temperature in our country where there's so much propaganda, so much fear mongering, and it happens on both sides because we were all up in arms about what would happen if Kamala became president.

She may have ended up being a powerless puppet and things.

The status quo may have been maintained for four years.

We just, you know, we really honestly don't know.

But the amount of fear that has been ramped up for the people on the other side, the people who thought that, you know, if Trump was elected, the world is going to end for them, and now they're, they're stuck in this, this loop of complete and utter terror of what's going to happen in January when he actually becomes president.

And we just have to be super compassionate about that with these people and try to speak into their fear, try to get them to calm down and then make sure that they understand that even if our side had lost, that we have a hope that surpasses what happens in our government and try to share that hope with them.

I, A long time ago, many years ago now, I think it was when Obama was still president, I had an interaction with a secular person who actually reached out to me because of my podcast.

She was trying to start her own podcast and she was a secular, atheistic sort of person who had the idea of crossing the aisle and talking to people that she disagreed with.

And I.

She ended up.

Her podcast never got off the ground, but I did an interview with her and just that interaction with her, she was really surprised because she had a stereotype of what she thought I was going to, what I was going to be.

And I blew the stereotype out of the water.

And, and I think we need to try to do that kind of interaction more and more with people is to try and let them actually see us instead of the stereotype that has been built so that they understand that people who are on the other side of politics, or even on the other side of religion or whatever that side is, that we are actually people that care about them and that they don't have to be scared of us.

Yeah.

And I think we can, we can communicate truth without gloating.

I saw someone, a Democrat on X, who was very upset because he basically saying, hey, Democrats, what are you doing?

You're going to do a peaceful transfer of power to someone who's going to destroy the country to tyrant, to Hitler.

How could you do such a thing?

I responded and said, because they don't actually believe it.

It's just rhetoric that they say.

And I mentioned they have called every Republican since Goldwater Hitler except for George H.

Bush.

So it's just something every four years.

They do.

They don't mean it.

They just want to get people ramped up to vote.

And I don't know which one you guys said it, but both sides do that.

Have you heard about the women who are saying that they are swearing off sex?

So I did do children.

Yeah.

I did a quick response video to that this weekend.

People can go to on YouTube, just look up Striving for Eternity.

You'll find it.

Short video.

But basically they're, they're going to try to teach conservatives a lesson by swearing off sex.

So, like, men are going to be, you know, you men, you're not going to be able to have sex with us because we can't have abortions.

And my response was, good, good, keep it up.

Like, keep that protest up.

Continue abstinence until marriage.

We Christians support you.

You know, like, did you really think we would, like, as conservative Christians, we're going to go, oh, no, we're afraid.

Let's go for abortion.

Because, you know, no, no, that's not what Christians are going to do.

Keith, Keith, Keith Hasley has come in and so has a.m.

brewster.

So let me introduce them and I'll get them weighing in.

So Keith first.

And Keith has a number of podcasts, but only one that he does with, with us.

And, and his is called Quest for Truth.

And it is a little bit harder to describe because his show does a couple different things.

He does like some old school, like, like the old radio dramas, things like that, and they have some sermons.

So a more creative podcast he has.

So Keith, let me ask you first, and I'll go to Aaron.

You know, the questions we're asking is, you know, now that Trump won, what, what should Christians be doing?

What what do you think this means as Christians, biblically, spiritually, how should we now move forward?

All right, well, can you hear me okay?

Yep.

Oh, yeah, I hear you fine.

We hear you.

Microphone on.

Oh, I think he can't hear us.

I think he can't hear us.

Can you hear me all right?

Oh, yeah, we can hear you.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, but last time I had trouble on microphone.

This time I wasn't sure.

Yep, we hear you just fine.

Go ahead.

All right.

Yeah.

This is Keith Hartley with the Quest for Truth.

I have a co host, Nathan Caldwell.

And we mainly our flagship thing we do is Quest for Truth.

We talk about God, the Bible, faith, and, you know, just living in our world and other world views.

Sometimes we'll examine that.

We do have a couple other things, as Andrew said.

We have an audio drama, actually two of them right now we're working on.

There should be some episodes coming out with that, hopefully soon.

Once a month we try to take a deep dive.

We've been going through the Book of John and it's taken us almost six years.

We're up to chapter 19.

So we go slow with that.

I'd rather go deep and slow than speed through it.

Yeah.

So.

So for the topic tonight, what, what are your thoughts?

How should Christians move forward?

Well, with, with Donald Trump being president, I mean, pray for the guy, pray for the government in general.

I think his policies are the right direction for the country.

I think I heard somebody trying to get logged in earlier mentioned that, you know, Democrats are not the enemies.

They, I mean, they're no more enemy nor friend, just like the Republicans aren't.

They're armored government.

There are people in them who worry me.

And we should of course treat them as people.

But their policies are definitely have gone off the cliff in the last few decades.

And the more that we can support America and return to its constitutional republic values, then I think that would be the direction and I would like to see a Democrat party return to that as well.

Yeah.

A.m.

brewster, you are the host of.

He hosts two podcasts with the Christian podcast community.

One is his flagship, which is Truth Love Parent.

And I think it speaks for itself, what it is about.

And then his second one is the celebration of God, which is more interesting one because he goes through the calendar year looking at different holidays celebrating God and having some having a better view of celebrating God through holidays.

But with that, having introduced your podcast, what is your position now that Trump has won, how should we as Christians move forward?

Well, I want to start with I reposted Something on X today that Scott Annual posted.

He had three lines.

The first line, it just said this.

It says, I'm happy Trump won.

That's it.

No caveats, no qualifications.

I'm happy Trump won.

And I think it's.

I shared that, and I love that little statement because in many ways, a lot of what I'm about to say and probably a lot of what we've already said here, Trump is not our savior.

Trump is not the great white knight.

Right.

And in some ways, we can feel very apologetic that, you know, he's not the president we wish he could be.

He's not the man we might want him to be.

He's not the person that we would aspire to be if we were in his position.

Right.

But that's not to say that we can't be very happy that Trump won.

No caveats, no qualifications.

I'm very glad he was the guy and she was not the girl.

So I start with that.

And yet we can still be balanced and we can still appropriately be able to say, which I think the left doesn't do this.

Well, in fact, I will say definitively the left doesn't do this as well.

Their nominees and their candidates, they, in their.

As they talk about them and interact with them, they're perfect.

They can do nothing wrong.

And, you know, obviously the other side is the Antichrist or Hitler.

Whereas we as Christians need to be able to biblically say, this is really great and good and these things here are bad.

And so if we're consistent with that, I think that's how we need to move forward.

We need to be consistently speaking truth and love.

So, yes, we're happy that Trump won.

We're happy that Kamala didn't.

But there will be things that Trump is going to do and things that he is going to say where we can't just toe the company line at that point and be like, well, it's Trump, so we're just going to.

No, no, no.

If he's saying something that's wrong and doing something that's wrong, then we need to be able to be again, speak truth and love, be honest, be biblical.

And I said this back when Obama became president.

I say I kind of pick out Obama because it was an interesting point in my life and ministry at that time, and I was speaking to a classroom full of sixth graders.

I said, I did not vote for the man, but I will encourage him and speak well of him when he does right, and I will point out what he does wrong.

And I feel the Exact same way about Trump as I did about Obama.

That's a good point.

You know, I wanted to bring this question up for us because I don't know.

You know, a couple of you mentioned how you, how you voted, at least it sounds like everyone here is more in favor of Trump, but not all Christians were.

And so many Christians voted third party.

They, as we, as we previously discussed.

Right.

He's not.

Trump may be the most pro life president we've ever had, but he's not, he wouldn't, he definitely wouldn't be what we'd call, you know, an abolitionist.

Right.

He's, he is pro life, but he's not as pro life as we would like.

And so a lot of people couldn't bring themselves to vote for him.

And I can understand that.

But so we've kind of focused so far in the show, you know, on, on the Democrats.

I do want to focus on those that, that may still be upset with those people who voted for Trump because there is some division there within the Christian body.

And, you know, so the last question I have for us tonight is, you know, how do we move forward with our brothers and sisters who, if, if you voted for Trump, they're very upset with you for voting for Trump.

How could you do such?

No Christian could vote for a man like that.

And then maybe you, you voted, you know, third party and, you know, then how do you get along with someone who voted for Trump?

You know, Brandon, I'll start with you this time.

Yeah, I think that's a, I think it's a good question, because I think it's something we're probably going to face quite a bit.

I think part of that.

And Eve, you kind of mentioned it, even with the way some of the, like, Democratic people are talking about leaving the country, those kinds of things.

I think a lot of the pushback I've received personally from good fellow brothers and sisters in Christ about supporting Trump, a lot of it comes from just how the media has spun how horrible he is.

I don't think he lives up to the horrible evilness that is talked about so often.

Obviously, as you pointed out, Brewster, that there's lots of things that I disagree with Trump.

I wish he was more consistently pro life.

I like that he's the most pro life president we've had.

I do also wish he was more consistent.

And part of my prayer is that he will get good Christian men and women around him that will help steer him the right direction.

So there's definitely things about him that I don't agree with.

He definitely has a lot of rough edges that I'm hoping will be shaved off by good counsel around him.

Probably praying for him.

But I think for me, the initial, I guess my initial response would be to hear out kind of why they question how I square my Christian convictions with voting for Trump.

Because my assumption would be many of the things they think about Trump that would, that would disqualify him from a candidate for a Christian vote for probably are not true in the sense of it's just, it's how the media spun some things he said and left out other parts of kind of like I mentioned earlier, the whole thing about there's good people on both sides.

And then the very next words of his mouth was, I'm not talking about white nationalists and neo Nazis, but they leave that part off and they just say, see, he's racist.

And so I think initially my, that conversation would go, okay, well give me some detail on why you think that there's a, that I can't square that circle as far as being a Christian and voting for him.

Because my guess is it's probably misinformation on what they think Trump represents.

But then the other half of that is going to be okay.

Now, when he, when he is not consistently pro life, when those rough edges do show themselves, and they will, he's going to say things that I don't agree with, that I'm disappointed that he's going to say, I know it's coming.

And so, yeah, just being prepared to understand that we were voting for a president and not a pastor.

I think there's definitely, there's qualifications for a pastor that Trump does not meet any way, shape or form and he would not be qualified to lead a church.

But we weren't picking somebody to lead a church or to do that aspect.

We're, I want to say, victims of, but we're participants in a political system that we have in this country and he was the candidate that was.

I actually didn't vote for him in the primary.

I voted for somebody else in the primary.

But he won the primary.

And so he became the candidate that I thought had a chance to win and that I think most of his policies line up more with my Christian convictions.

And I'm hoping he can be swayed to become more consistent.

And yeah, and through prayer, I'm going to be praying for him in that way.

And so, yeah, it's going to be a good conversation to have with people.

Again, I think most of it's going to be misinformation on what he actually said or believes and then the things that are, that are legitimate, then, yeah, there's going to be some.

He's got rough edges and I'm not happy, I'm not proud of that point of it.

And this is.

Yeah, that's the candidate we had.

So, yeah, let me, before we go to Derek, I know he's going to have to go shortly, but just let me recommend for folks, if you haven't been listening to Truth Espresso, another one of the podcasts at the Christian podcast community, Daniel Minick has dealt with the claims of, you know, like, you referred to the good people on both sides and he puts the context and plays the clip so that we can see.

Because, you know, a lot of the things people say about Trump, you know, about his morals and all, are from like 30, 40 years ago.

I mean, he's, he's a family man today.

I mean, even his, his ex wives all kept good relations with him.

He wasn't morally.

We wouldn't say morally.

Well, in his younger years, but, you know, so I'd recommend checking out Daniel Minick's Truthspresso.

He dealt with a lot of those arguments that people make.

Derek, I know you gotta get going and I know we're gonna, you know, do a shorter episode this week, but for you, I want to give you a chance to answer that before you take off.

And then I'll also just say if there's anything you want to promote about what you're doing, podcast wise, before you go.

Yeah, I'm gonna end up sounding like a broken record, man.

Like I, I really am.

Okay, then you could just say, hey, ditto.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, with what I've said, with what you guys have said, I don't disagree with anything you guys are saying.

I think that it is just, just really important to remember that going forward, it's about loving others and loving them regardless of the situation.

It can be one of the hardest things that we can do as Christians is to love somebody who hates you.

I mean, but that's what we're called to do.

So regardless of the situation, regardless of the situation that we're in, I would say just love them anyways.

Super important.

So as far as what we've got going on, we are getting ready to launch a Patreon here pretty soon.

It's going to have some exclusive content, including some video for our men's and women's podcast that we do.

But that's really it.

I mean, that's, that's what we got going.

So.

All right.

And that is Truth Response Podcast.

So you can check them out at the Christian podcast community.

Just go to ChristianPodcastCommunity.org and you'll find all of our podcasts there.

So thanks for coming on, Derek.

Let me just open it up to anyone that wants to answer that last question.

Anyone want to.

How do we, how do we respond to the.

If, if you voted for Trump, how do you respond to the Christian brother sister who, who didn't?

And if you didn't vote for Trump, how do you respond to the Christian brother sister who did?

Anyone want to.

I think I'll chime in here.

I mean, this is, this is always difficult to hear from the person who, quote, unquote, wonderful.

Right?

Well, your candidate won.

So it's easy for you to say, and it's easy for that person as well to claim.

Well, I believe I would have had the same response had Kamala won.

Right.

But really, when it comes right down to it, we as Christians are responsible to put our faith and trust in God.

We are to recognize that he uses wicked men to be in power to accomplish his will in this world.

And so ultimately, we need to not be putting our joy and our satisfaction and our trust in anybody.

And I would, I hope that by God's grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, that were Harris to have become president, that I would still be able to say that same thing.

Now, if I'm talking, you know, to an unbeliever, that's not where I'm going.

But if I'm talking to a professing believer, I mean, I would really, I would, I would hope that we could have a conversation about God's will and his sovereignty in this situation.

But I'll also say, to Derek's point specifically, what does loving them look like right now?

The left is really pushing this.

Cut all Republicans, cut all conservatives out of your life.

Everyone is saying these things.

Talk show hosts, news people, talking heads all over the place.

It's like, just cut them out of your life.

They don't deserve to anything like that.

Well, as we are loving people, we're interacting with them.

We're not cutting them out of our lives.

They're engaging with them.

I mean, so I have people I'm spending Thanksgiving with who disagree with my politics.

How much should that really change my time with them praising God and fellowshiping with them over that holiday?

It shouldn't.

I mean, that doesn't mean we can't have a conversation and we can't Politely in Christ, honoringly disagree degree.

But I should still be loving them.

I should still be investing in them.

I should still be caring for their needs.

So I think that's.

We want to, we want to A, as to answer the first question about the professing believers who can't believe what we've done.

We really need to make it about God and his purposes in this world.

And then B, whether it's the unbeliever or the believer, we can't, we must not just cut them off our lives because they disagree with us.

We actually need to be the loving, tolerant, in a biblical sense, tolerant ones.

They preach tolerance and then they kick us out the moment we don't agree with them.

We need to actually be the tolerant ones from the perspective of biblical love.

Keith or Eve, do you either of you want to it sound like you want to tackle this?

Go for it.

Well, I just think it's important that when you're with other Christians that you dwell on the topics that are important to that relationship.

And if politics is going to be divisive, then sometimes it's a topic that shouldn't be brought up unless they bring it up.

And then you need to respond, but you respond in love.

If they don't bring it up, then as Christians brothers, Christian brothers and sisters, we have a whole lot other, a lot other things that we can be talking about that have nothing to do with politics.

So I think that that is, I just think that it's just something that we have to be sensitive to when we're with family as well.

I know that I saw something that a lot of the, that there's certain psychologists out there that are telling Democrats to actually avoid family and friends who voted for Trump.

And I think we should not be those people.

And if they're going to avoid us, we need to be reaching out to them, not let them, you know, lock us out of their lives.

And when we reach out to them, we don't make it about politics.

We make it about our relationship and what our relationships are based on, whether they're family, then, you know, our relationships are based on family.

But we should always be representing Christ whenever possible.

And if they're Christian brothers and sisters who are mad at us for whatever reason, then we find the points of connections that are important.

And as Christians, that should be Christian.

And we, and we emphasize those.

Yeah.

I mean, because for, as Christians, it, for us, especially if we're talking unsafe family, the more important issue is the gospel, not the politics.

And you know, to your what you just said, eve, why is it that the leftists are saying, hey, avoid anyone who's conservative.

They just got a shellacking because of their views, because of their policies.

And so.

And they lost a lot.

I mean, the fact that Trump got almost half of the Hispanic vote and 20% of the black vote is monumental.

And I think why they're saying, hey, stop talking to any conservatives because we need you in the camp type of thing.

So you're right, we should reach out even more.

I mean, I did have a really good point.

I had thought about that.

That's a good point.

Yeah.

I mean, the most loving thing we could do for them is to help, is to protect them against people that want to divide and conquer, you know?

Right.

They want to, they want to keep.

It's like they're in a cult.

And these people are now taking the control, saying, no, the part of a cult is isolation.

Right.

Keep you from hearing anything else.

So it's even more of a reason, instead of making it political, we should reach out and make them feel bad that they are trying to pull away from us.

Just love them so much that they feel like guilt.

Right.

And I, I had a colleague, I help organize a, a software conference, as my background is software, and a major conference on software.

And way back when he, he was like, he, we got into talking, we usually is the first time we ever talked politics, and he made the comment that Trump, there's no way Trump has any, any hope of beating Biden.

And so I left it alone.

We got into the discussion then, but I left it alone.

We had a meeting the day after the election.

The end of the meeting, he says, you know, you guys should all be really, really proud of how I'm, you know, I'm conducting myself after that tragic loss last night.

And I, in a joking way, and I made it, that was joking.

But I said, I laughed, I said, you know, it's kind of funny, you know, you brought it up.

I'll just say you said that Trump had no chance against Biden.

Biden never even made it, you know, and Harris had no chance against them.

And he goes, well, where were all the voters?

What happened to all those vote, you know, all these millions of voters.

I said, they never existed in the first place.

And he's like, oh, you're one of those.

And, and we dropped it.

And, you know, we could still talk, but we're not, I'm not going to bring up politics with him because he needs the gospel.

That's more of the issue that you know, I want to raise.

So, you know, as we wrap up, you know, we're talking about things we could do.

Well, Keith, real quick.

Yeah, sorry I missed you.

Yeah, sorry.

This would be really simple.

Whenever I, I actually do have a couple of relatives and a friend who.

Or devoted Democrat and they're, I haven't talked to the, the ones that realize.

But the friend, I know she's very upset because very frustrated and I haven't had a chance to really speak with her yet.

But the intention is just to say, well, why do you feel that way?

What is it about Trump you don't like?

I know what she'll say.

Pull up all.

He always lies.

He can't trust him.

He's easily debunked and basically pull out all the CNN standard headline topics.

But then he say, well, but why do you say that?

Why do you think?

Because he doesn't lie any more than, than any other politician he can.

They can all be easily debunked as well.

And in fact, Trump has done some counter debunking of his own, proven himself.

Right.

So is it causes they lie?

Well, all politicians lie.

Is it just because you don't like him?

Well, I'm not a particular fan of him personally.

I'm not a fan of too many politicians out there, but I, I look at their policies and I, I think that would be the direction to go, but I would just, just let them talk and listen and say, well, why do you think that?

What, what makes you, you say that about this person?

That's a really good point, Keith.

Questions and, and let them, you know, try to convince me.

You try to sell me on why you like that candidate.

Yeah, because you're trying to get them thinking, Keith, you're trying to reason with them, which is a good thing.

Get, you know, get them just to think through the issues.

That's good.

Yeah.

Well, you know, as we, as we wrap up, you know, we're talking about what we could, you know, as Christians helping one another and for the sake of embarrassment here, I'll embarrass them.

But for folks who may not know, if you're listening to this, one of the, one of the people here in this, in this podcast tonight is the episode does need some help.

We have, you know, there was a hurricane that came through, you know, North South Carolina, and it affected a.m.

brewster.

He lost.

Well, his son was living, he lives with his parents.

His son was living in the RV that they had on the property that, that got filled with water.

Cars were filled with Water.

The basement was filled with water.

The house, they lost a bunch of their storage.

Their H Vac went out that, that we raised money that his H Vac was able to be replaced.

But now he's dealing with things like mold in the house and his family is, is sick and they, they are having to deal with unexpected expenses.

They don't have insurance.

And for folks to know, Aaron is one of the speakers at Striving Fraternity.

That is the ministry that supports the Christian podcast community.

And, and Aaron has chosen to live a very meager lifestyle so that he could be in full time ministry.

And so when something like this happens and he doesn't have insurance, well, that means he does without a lot of things right now struggling with having family members that can't stay in a house where there's mold.

And not to get too graphic, but he was explaining to me how when the water comes in, it's not just like the water from the lake, it's the water from the sewage going through your house.

So just think about that picture.

And that's what he had to be cleaning out and deal with and dealing with all of that we're trying to raise to cover all his needs.

We have raised 20% of the goal right now.

I'm asking if those of you who maybe with the anticipation of a great economy coming, you could say, hey, maybe I can do more now.

Or you just say there's a fellow brother in need.

Maybe you heard how FEMA went around and if you had a trump sign outside your house, they ignored giving you help.

In Aaron's case, you know, it wouldn't have mattered because he would have needed electricity for his computer to work work and WI fi to connect to the Internet to, to get a computer to work so he could sign up for the $750 that they were willing to offer as a loan because they gave all the money to illegals.

So if you guys would consider, if you can help a fellow brother in Christ out, someone who has dedicated his life to serving the Lord.

We have a Give Send Go campaign and you could just go to give send.

The SFE stands for Striving for Eternity.

So it's give sendgo.com SFE not asking you to do anything I didn't personally do myself.

So if you guys can support him, I'm asking that you would consider doing that because he could use your help.

Aaron, you're, I know you're here.

I don't want to put you on the spot.

You don't have to give any update.

If you want to just give a quick update.

If not, just say thank you.

Well, definitely I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to you and anyone else who has sacrificially given to this or will give to this.

By God's grace.

We do have our H Vac up and running.

However, we are kind of a standstill.

There is so much work to be done in the state of now at North Carolina that getting professionals in to do the mold remediation and everything that needs to be done on the bottom level for us to be able to take our personal possessions out of the backyard for once and finally put it back where they belong and things like that.

We are just kind of stuck on that.

So you can pray to that end, but then also the amount of money that it costs to do that step, everything that has been raised by striving for eternity so far could easily just simply be invested on that one step and nothing and it wouldn't touch anything else.

It's just a very expensive thing.

So that's kind of where we are right now in a waiting pattern and also still praying in those funds to be able to take care of it.

Yeah, the money we raised so far went toward paying for the H Vac as before, the knowledge of all the work for the mold remediation and water and and all that.

So if you guys can do that any help give sendgo.com SFE is the site and just as a note so you realize your donation will be a tax denote tax deductible gift because striving fraternity is a 501c3 organization and Aaron is one of our speakers.

So any gifts that we receive, you can receive a tax donation for that.

So givesengo.comsfe and I thank everyone for coming in and that I think we'll have a new topic next month.

We ask that if you guys, if you guys really liked this, if you got something out of it, would you mind maybe sharing this, sharing it with others, say hey, you know, here's, here's something we see.

Some people have a really good view of how to deal with these topics.

We're glad you listened to Theology Throwdown.

Not much of disagreement tonight, but this is a ministry of striving for eternity.

We do hope that you will be educated, that we exalted Christ well, that we educate and equip the saints and evangelize the lost.

We'll look forward to seeing you next time on the Theology Throw down.