March 29, 2024 • 30 mins
episode 66
In this episode, dive into a riveting discussion on the 'God Bless the USA Bible.' This controversial Bible, endorsed by former President Donald Trump, merges the Holy Scriptures with significant American political documents, all wrapped in a cover emblazoned with the American flag. This fusion prompts a critical examination of the lines between theological authenticity and national identity, especially among conservative evangelical groups.
We explore how this special edition Bible blurs the boundaries between Christian faith and American nationalism. Our conversation seeks to defend the sanctity of the Bible and religious identity, urging a separation from national and political ties.
As we navigate the contentious intersection of Christianity and politics, we delve into the implications of merging religious texts with political ideology. The patriotic Bible raises pressing questions about the integrity of our faith and the potential shift in focus from its essence, underlining the significance of this discussion.
This episode challenges the elevation of worldly identities over our spiritual commitment as followers of Christ, advocating for a return to a pure focus on Jesus and His teachings. We strive to preserve our Christian identity, unadulterated by any additional labels.
We aim to spark thoughtful conversations that redirect us toward our spiritual essence rather than deepen divisions. Join us on this journey to navigate the complex terrain of faith, politics, and nationality, aiming for a righteous balance.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:56):
There are some interesting things going on in the world. Yes, there are. In general.
But there's one thing in particular that I would think most people listening
to this have probably heard of already by this point.
And we want to talk about that today. Yeah. Let's talk about it. It's the Bible.
Well, we talk about the Bible in every episode. Oh, we do. Yeah. Yeah.
(01:20):
But a specific Bible that has come out recently, and it is called the God Bless
the USA Bible. The God Bless the USA Bible.
Okay. Well, let's get into it. Let's not even beat around the bush.
What is the God Bless the USA Bible?
So the God Bless the USA Bible was really the brainchild of the singer Lee Greenwood,
(01:40):
who wrote that famous song, God Bless the USA. Right.
Which is a great song.
And he had this idea and worked with a company to make the God Bless the USA Bible, which is a Bible.
And on the front, it says God Bless the USA.
It has an American flag engraven on the outside. And on the inside,
(02:01):
it has the Bible, as you would expect. It's a King James Version.
But there are also a few other things in there. there's what he calls a handwritten
chorus of god bless the usa so the lyrics to his song he wrote written by his
hand written by his hand and then copied facsimile of it okay but then there is also,
the constitution of the united states the declaration of independence the pledge
(02:25):
of allegiance the bill of rights
so those are all included as part of this god bless the usa bible Now,
that's the Pledge of Allegiance to the Christian flag.
No, the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. Do you remember the Pledge
of Allegiance to the Christian flag? Yes.
I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and to the Savior for whose kingdom
(02:47):
it stands, one Savior crucified, risen, and coming again with life and liberty to all who believe.
And if you don't know, the Christian flag, it's an all-white flag with a field
of blue in the corner and then a cross in the middle of the field of blue.
There are a few different versions of the Pledge, but that's the one that I
learned as a child. Yeah.
So anyway, yes, the Pledge in this God Bless the USA Bible is the Pledge to the American Flag.
(03:12):
You know, I pledge allegiance to the flag. Right. We all know that.
So this God Bless the USA Bible came out actually a year ago,
and it didn't really get a lot of traction.
I think they mentioned it on a couple of different news stations and Lee Greenwood
was trying to kind of get it out there, but it didn't seem to get very much play.
(03:32):
The reason that it is in the news right now is because former President Donald
Trump has officially endorsed it.
And he is now kind of serving as an ambassador for this Bible.
So let's take apart a couple of issues that come up right off the bat. First of all.
We're not endorsing or rejecting Donald Trump by talking about this.
(03:54):
We want to talk about the association of politics and of national documents with the Bible.
That's the first thing I want to bring up. Yeah, make that clear.
These are really important.
Number two, we want to talk about some comparisons between this Bible,
and if you're against this, why aren't you against things like the John MacArthur
(04:14):
Study Bible, for instance?
Because you've seen people making that argument. Right. And then the next thing
we want to talk about as well is why the King James?
So let's actually start with why the King James? Why do you think that this
politically aligned patriotic Bible was done in the King James version?
(04:37):
There are three reasons, I think, personally. I think the one that makes the
most sense and is probably the reason is the fact that the King James is the
only Bible that is completely copyright free.
Nobody owns any rights to it. And so you can make a King James Bible and sell
it without having to pay any licensing fees or jump through any hoops.
(04:59):
So you end up actually being able to make a significantly more profit.
There's no altruistic purpose behind it. That there's no, we're just trying
to let the whole world know that the King James Version, nothing like that.
It's just- It's probably about the money.
Well, there's nothing more American than being considered the mighty dollar.
(05:20):
Say, secondarily, there's probably some sort of thought behind it that-
you know, type of people that would be interested in this type of a Bible would
tend to be maybe more traditional and might,
you know, just kind of like the King James Bible more, or that somehow the King
James Bible is representative of, you know, years gone by and American values. So kind of nostalgia.
(05:44):
Yeah. Nostalgia is probably the word I was thinking of. Which is weird because
if you really wanted to use a translation of the Bible that was actually especially
nostalgic, you would either use the Geneva translation, which was the Bible
the pilgrims brought over.
They rejected the King James because it was an Anglican translation,
or you would maybe use the revised version, which was kind of the American standard Bible.
(06:08):
I believe it was the revised that was made to be in all the schools in America.
Yes. Back when, because that was the reason for establishing public schools
in America was so that children could be rightly trained in the scriptures and
then how to be good citizens and all that.
So that's the answer to the first question that you said, which is,
okay, why do you think it's King James?
So no big conspiracy there. It just made the most sense probably monetarily.
(06:32):
And then, you know, branding wise, marketing wise was probably the best choice for them.
And you're going to include the most people because anybody that's not King
James only in their viewpoint is going to be okay with the King James.
That's fine. It's because it is beautiful language.
I mean, it's, I think the King James language represents, and we agree on this,
That's the highest form of English language that will probably ever exist.
(06:56):
Right. But so you're going to include the most number of people and you're going
to turn you're not going to turn away that King James only crowd who are probably
mostly among the people who are going to want to buy your your cool patriotic Bible.
Right. OK, so now the next thing is, why would somebody have a problem with
this Trump? I keep saying Trump, it's the patriotic Bible, and not have a problem
(07:21):
with, let's say, the John MacArthur.
Study Bible. Okay. So first of all, the John MacArthur Study Bible or any other
study Bible is really just a Bible that includes commentary on what the Bible says.
John MacArthur, you know, love him, hate him, whatever, is not claiming that
(07:43):
his writings are on par with scripture or are in any way divinely inspired or God-breathed.
He's saying, you know, I'm a scholar are in this area. I'm a pastor.
Here are my thoughts and interpretations on these passages.
Right. So like, for instance, if I, over the years of my life,
write notes in the margins of my Bible, and then I take, and I have those formalized,
(08:06):
and then there's, you know, we always say everything above the line,
Bible, everything below the line, Bible.
And so when you have like an introduction to James or an introduction to Hebrews,
or you have commentary below that line, at the bottom of the page in your Bible.
None of that's Bible. That's all commentary.
And so like we use John MacArthur's example, John MacArthur's study Bible.
(08:27):
Only because it's the most prominent study Bible and the one that everybody
keeps talking about. Right, because there's tons of study Bibles.
So a study Bible is not a kind of translation.
It's just saying there's study notes in the Bible. So there's the student Bible
and there's an NIV student Bible and an ESV student Bible, different translations,
But they're all just notes at the bottom of the page from scholars.
(08:51):
And I think the big point being, it's all consistently directed back toward the scripture.
The end, the purpose is to get a deeper understanding of the Bible.
Okay, so putting the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution or the
Pledge of Allegiance together.
In the Bible, even though you're not putting it above the line,
(09:13):
they're not trying to say it is Bible. They're not saying this,
you know, this is part of the Bible.
You know, they're not saying that. That's a problem because those things aren't
necessarily pointing to the Bible.
Now, we know in the beginning of the Declaration of Independence,
it says that, you know, that all of our rights come from God.
Right. And it acknowledges God as the creator of everything. So those are positives.
(09:37):
That does point towards the Bible, but the large part of the document does not. It's not Bible.
Because they are innately political documents.
They're not religious documents. They're not biblical documents.
They are political documents, for better or for worse.
They're not theonoustoi. They're not God-breathed. Well, certainly not,
(09:58):
because the only thing that is is the actual Bible, right?
But that's really the core issue here, is that you're putting in political documents with the Bible.
Mm-hmm.
(10:41):
Documents and intermingle them with something that is sacred scripture and God's word.
So you might say the word holy in Holy Bible, because holy means set apart, right?
So these are really holy documents.
They are really set apart and they should not be enmeshed with something else.
(11:05):
Absolutely. The only exception to that might be like the Message Bible,
Bible, which is, we call that a Biblementary.
That's Maddie's phrase she came up with.
And it's basically, it's a Bible with commentary kind of built in.
So where the Bible is straightforward, it's straightforward.
And where it needs a little bit of explanation, according to Eugene Peterson
(11:26):
and his personal views and his theology, then that's what he did.
And so he doesn't claim for it to be on par with the Bible.
No, and he very clearly states this is a paraphrase. Yes.
So we just don't want to mix that in because you think about it.
This is, I don't want to use this. How much motor oil do you want to put in
(11:48):
your water before your water is not, you don't want to drink it? One drop? Yeah.
Or how much, you know, toxin, how much, go get your- You mean arsenic, right?
Arsenic. It takes a little bit. How much Roundup out of your garden? You want how many?
That's clear. How many drops do you want to put in your glass of water before it's not safe to drink?
How about no drops? How about no drops?
(12:09):
And so we don't want to mix that together. I mean, you think about the Old Testament laws.
People like to bring these up when they're talking about, when they're trying
to make arguments against our faith.
Faith, but mixing the penalties for mixing two different, weaving two different
kinds of cloth together, or the penalties for touching pigs or eating pigs,
(12:32):
things like that. Those laws are about holiness.
They're about being a holy people, a people separated unto God.
And we seem to have lost that. I'm not saying that we're to take up the Old
Testament, those Old Testament rules and regulations.
What I am saying is we are definitely to take up the mantle of holiness,
(12:53):
because by the blood of Jesus, we have taken on his righteousness and we have become a holy people.
Positionally, we are completely holy. Practically, we are becoming holy through sanctification.
And so as a holy people, we need to make sure that we are not allowing that mixture.
Now, Now, someone might say, well, you want to be in the world, but not of the world.
(13:15):
So you've got to be in the world. That's right. I need to be in the world,
but I'm not mixing my beliefs.
I'm not mixing my theology. I'm not mixing my behaviors or my morality with the worlds.
Exactly. Right. So you could be a piece of wool with a piece of silk on top
of it, but you don't want to be those two woven together.
(13:38):
Because at that point, then you lose your identity as a piece of wool.
And I think that this issue of putting these political documents in with the
Bible and the issue with putting the American flag on the front of the Bible
and calling it the God bless the USA Bible,
it's revelatory of a bigger issue, which is that so many Christians and specifically
(14:02):
evangelical Christians,
and I'm speaking as an evangelical here, many evangelical Christians have made the mistake of,
of weaving together their American identity and their Christian identity to
the point that they cannot be separated.
That to be a Christian is to be an American and to be an American is to be a Christian.
(14:25):
And to go one step further, I would say that not only have they woven it to
an American identity, but they have added a third strand in there,
which is a conservative American identity. Yes. Very true.
(15:07):
Of three strands is not easily broken and we need jesus
and we need conservatives and we need liberal broken into
a court of three strands yeah because we
have to understand that the the world system
is against us you know and this is an easy way to understand this and i want
(15:27):
to and why this this bible topic is important when the fall of man took place
everything was broken Nothing works the way it's supposed to work.
So our very nature was broken and nature outside the creation is broken.
Nothing works the way it's supposed to work.
It's all defective in some way. And so when the earth itself is so broken and
(15:55):
so corrupted that when it sees Jesus,
when it sees Jesus, its creator,
it rejects it and wants to push it out.
Sees him as a foreign substance. Because he's a foreign substance to his very
creation because of its brokenness.
And so we have to recognize that it's easy for us, because we're not perfect,
(16:17):
to embrace, to bring in, to hold on to truths,
doctrines, ideas that are not in line with Christ. They're more in line with the world.
And if they feel really easy and the world's not pushing back on them really
hard, it's a good sign that we may be embracing something that's not right.
That's a good point. And there's a lot of folks who feel really positive about
(16:40):
this patriotic Bible, but maybe they're feeling bad about it because it's associated
with Donald Trump, or maybe they're embracing it because it's associated with Donald Trump.
But I really worry with and I really worry about us, the slippery slope of infusing
things outside of the Bible into the Bible.
(17:00):
That's really the core issue, because it's not about, you know,
politics in terms of where do you fall on political issues, because it could
just as well be, you know, the Green Party.
And, you know, okay, we're going to have our main person as the spokesperson
for this Bible, and we're going to have all of our founding documents of our
(17:24):
Green Party intermixed with the Bible.
And that would be just as bad, just as problematic,
because mixing any sort of political
documents or any sort of national identity in
with christianity is a
problem because i mean
(17:45):
honestly when i see people making christianity to be this american thing i find
it kind of funny because most christians don't live in america and some of the
strongest christians the one that the ones that are enduring persecution,
living under severe restriction, they're not in America.
(18:10):
And we also know that Jesus, newsflash, guys, was not an American.
Okay, I'm stopping the podcast right here. There are lies, and there are stinking
filthy lies, and that's a stinking— I'm sorry to anybody who that is a shock to.
He came to the Americas after he resurrected, right? No, that's the Book of Mormon.
(18:31):
Oh. So if your church is teaching that, you should— Oh. —get a new place to go. Okay.
Glad you straightened it out for me. Yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome.
A little bit of doctrine gets corrupted and then all the next thing you know,
that slippery slope when you're going into all kinds of crazy town stuff.
I think we really need to look at this idea of Christianity getting intermixed
with other things and say,
(18:52):
okay, we know that we're going to
be persecuted, but we're supposed to be persecuted for Jesus's namesake.
And when you take your Christianity and you turn it into a political thing,
whether it's leftist ideology or conservative ideology,
whatever it is, then when you are getting pushback, it's not for Jesus's namesake.
(19:18):
It's because those people who are pushing back against you are just against
your politics. So again, the Bible is true.
Blessed are you when people persecute you, say all kinds of evil against you
because of me, Jesus speaking.
Yes. So it's not just because you're an idiot or you're mean or you're controversial
or you're edgy because of Jesus.
(19:38):
It's because of Jesus. It's when we were persecuted for his namesake that the
reason people are pushing back against you is because you believe in him,
you're following him, you're seeking to become more like him.
Yeah, but how am I going to get interactions on Facebook if I don't say edgy things?
Well, I couldn't tell you. By the way, I'm not on Facebook. And neither am I.
I'm not even on social media. So I don't have any advice for you there, unfortunately.
(20:02):
Okay. So then what we're recommending, I don't like to give things of not to
do without giving things to do.
So first of all, I do want to say a positive.
I don't know that this is going to happen, but if somebody buys their Patriot
God Bless America Bible, okay, and they get it home and, I hope they read it.
(20:26):
I hope they read the Bible and don't read Revelation first.
I read, you know, if you're talking to someone, encourage them to read John or Mark first.
But I hope they read it. And I hope that there are some people that get saved
because any Bible is a good Bible.
As long as it's, you know, translated, you know, it's the real Bible.
And send us the King James Version. It's not some weird, messed up cult version.
(20:50):
It's the actual Bible, right? Exactly.
But my concern is that people are only buying this Bible as a way to make an
outward expression of their patriotic Christian views or their Christian nationalistic views.
That's called virtue signaling. It's a virtue signal. Thank you.
You always have the words I don't have. Yeah.
(21:12):
The virtue signaling and that those Bibles are going to wind up sitting on a
shelf 10 years from now, 20 years from now, you're going to see them at Goodwill.
Maybe they'll get some readings done then. I don't know.
Hey, maybe we'll be able to buy them for pennies in the dollar and rip all of
the stuff out that's not Bible and then just redistribute them as regular King James Bibles.
(21:32):
By the way, if you want a King James Bible, good grief, you can go to ChristianBooks.com.
They have them on sale all the time. You can buy nice ones with nice covers,
nice commentary in them for a very good price.
For a really cheap price. And also, you can find multiple King James Bibles
at any thrift store for literally, you know, 25 cents sometimes or a couple
(21:55):
bucks or whatever. You can read it free online.
And if you're not a Christian and you're hearing this, or maybe you're really
broke and you're hearing this and you need a Bible, go to a church, ask them for a Bible.
If they don't give you a Bible, go to the next church. Somebody will give you a Bible.
Yes. Or walk out in the middle of the street and say, does anybody in my neighborhood
have a Bible I can have? I'm sure somebody's got a Bible you could have.
(22:17):
We live in this country where we're so blessed with so many scriptures and we're
not like the persecuted church where they have to hide their Bibles or they're hard to get.
We have an abundance of availability and so much access because that's not even
talking about the fact that you can read any translation of scripture in its
entirety online for free.
Well, you know, I think this Bible is actually a representation of the great
(22:43):
abundance we have with scriptures.
Because you remember when you were a kid, and I did this when I was a kid,
we used to make necklaces out of what?
Bark. Well, what about the macaroni necklaces? A little macaroni.
Bark. Barking up the wrong tree with that answer.
Yeah. We would make them with macaroni or we'd make art, right?
We'd glue it to the pages and stuff. with green macaroni on there or pop or
(23:06):
unpopped popcorn you make do art with that i want you to think about how absurd
that must seem to somebody who's starving wow you're making art with food.
You're taking something edible and making it inedible by painting it or putting glue on it.
So in a way, they're taking the word of God, the food, the true food,
(23:27):
and they're literally, you know, our manna from heaven, and they're making it
into an art project. Wow.
That's a great illustration. And not only that, when you tie,
you know, I love my country.
I feel blessed to be born in America. I served in the military.
So I'm not an anti-patriotic guy of any stripe.
(23:53):
But I want you to think about this. I think we tend to get things in the wrong order of priorities.
You know, it's like that old illustration where the guy comes in and he puts
some, a bunch of big rocks in a jar.
And then he's like, I've got, and then he tries to put in some smaller rocks
and then he tries to, excuse me, he puts them, he was trying to fill a jar.
(24:16):
He puts in the sand, all his little, and then he puts in some smaller rocks
and then there's no room for his big rocks.
Right. They don't fit in the jar. But if he puts the big rocks in first and
then puts the medium or the small rocks in and shakes it up real good,
they settle in. And then he pours the sand in and settles in.
Then he can even pour water in and that settles in.
(24:36):
And you have way more in this jar than you could put in if you put the water and the sand in first.
So you have to have your priorities right in order to really get where you're trying to go.
And I think as Americans, we have to have our priorities right.
And it has to be kingdom first.
The Lord established his kingdom. He said the kingdom of God is here.
(24:58):
He established his kingdom. And when we're born again.
In 1 Peter, Peter tells us that we are a new nation. Yes.
And if you look at the words used there in that 1 Peter verses 2 through 9,
there's the word ethnos and the word genos.
So the word ethnos is like we're a new ethnicity.
(25:19):
And genos, like we have a new genealogy.
So that's what's being implied there is you're completely new.
You've been ripped out of your culture, ripped out of your genealogy,
ripped out of your ethnicity, and you've been stuck into this new one.
And you're held in there, I guess you could say, by the blood of Jesus.
(25:40):
And this kingdom of God, this kingdom of heaven is so foreign to our way of
thinking, our way of processing information, that when the Lord describes it, he has to use parables.
The kingdom of God is like.
Right? Because we can't even understand it. It's kind of like you're trying
to describe what it's like to be weightless in outer space.
(26:02):
Well, it's like, but until you've done it, you really don't know.
And we can do a lot better job of describing being weightless in outer space
than the kingdom of God can be described. Nevertheless, we're a part of that
kingdom and we have a king.
We are part of a monarchy and we're ambassadors of that kingdom.
And we're ambassadors in the place and in the culture and in the time where the Lord has chosen.
(26:26):
Scripture tells us he chose the times and seasons and appoints us to be born where we're born.
And so we're to be ambassadors to that place.
So we're blessed to be born with the prosperity and the freedom that comes with
being an American, but we have to recognize that we have chosen and been chosen
to be part of the kingdom and it's kingdom first.
(26:49):
The living water, water goes in before the sand, and then the sand is America.
And that's where we need to put that second.
And then third, maybe that's being a missionary in the nations around us.
And maybe fourth is being a missionary to the whole world, but recognizing that
we are kingdom people first, kingdom ambassadors second, and then down the list we're Americans.
(27:12):
And then down the list we belong to our state and to our city.
And then I think we need to think differently about that.
And so we get all excited about, folks get all excited pro or con this patriotic
Bible, but it's, am I holy?
Am I being holy? Am I recognizing I'm a a kingdom person? Am I doing my kingdom
(27:34):
work and representing my king well?
That's the main thing. That is the main thing. So it's not about who do you
want to vote for for president or are you a patriotic person or are you not?
It's not about any of that.
It's about giving the Bible its rightful place in your faith and in your life.
It's about choosing to be holy, to be set apart,
(27:58):
and not allowing yourself to get caught up in all of this political mumbo jumbo
and the identity politics and any of these things, but saying,
no, my identity is in Christ.
First and foremost, before anything else, I am a Christian, point blank, period.
It's not a place to add those adjectives before Christian, right? Right.
(28:20):
Any adjective. Any adjectives. Your politics.
If you're like conservative Christian, liberal Christian, you've got a problem.
You've got a priority problem. And we really want to be Jesus-first people,
living Jesus-first lives and putting His Word first.
(28:42):
Absolutely. And that's why we wanted to talk about this with you guys this week,
because it is a big topic in the news and online right now.
And we thought it would be important to take the time to speak about this and
to really encourage you all to continually direct your minds and your hearts
back toward Jesus and his word and not towards any of these other things that
are going on right now. Yeah, so do us a favor.
(29:03):
If you have some thoughts or comments on this, share them. If you listen to
this and you think, wow, this is good, share it on your social media,
share it with your friends, get the message out there, and help people get an
opportunity to hear something that directs them back to Jesus and back to the Scripture,
rather than directing them into an argument or into a fight or into a position.
(29:26):
Because we know divisions and factions are not of the Lord, but the Lord desires
for us to be united in Him as one church.
And that's when the world is going to know that He loves us and we belong to Him.
Well, listen, God bless you guys. Thanks for being with us. And join us next
week as we continue along the harder way.
Yes, we will see you guys next week. Thanks for being here.
(29:49):
Thank you for listening to the Harder Way podcast. If you were encouraged by
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Until next time, remember the words of Christ. Blessed are those who are persecuted
(30:09):
for righteousness' sake. For theirs.
Music.
Music.
(00:56):
There are some interesting things going on in the world. Yes, there are. In general.
But there's one thing in particular that I would think most people listening
to this have probably heard of already by this point.
And we want to talk about that today. Yeah. Let's talk about it. It's the Bible.
Well, we talk about the Bible in every episode. Oh, we do. Yeah. Yeah.
(01:20):
But a specific Bible that has come out recently, and it is called the God Bless
the USA Bible. The God Bless the USA Bible.
Okay. Well, let's get into it. Let's not even beat around the bush.
What is the God Bless the USA Bible?
So the God Bless the USA Bible was really the brainchild of the singer Lee Greenwood,
(01:40):
who wrote that famous song, God Bless the USA. Right.
Which is a great song.
And he had this idea and worked with a company to make the God Bless the USA Bible, which is a Bible.
And on the front, it says God Bless the USA.
It has an American flag engraven on the outside. And on the inside,
(02:01):
it has the Bible, as you would expect. It's a King James Version.
But there are also a few other things in there. there's what he calls a handwritten
chorus of god bless the usa so the lyrics to his song he wrote written by his
hand written by his hand and then copied facsimile of it okay but then there is also,
the constitution of the united states the declaration of independence the pledge
(02:25):
of allegiance the bill of rights
so those are all included as part of this god bless the usa bible Now,
that's the Pledge of Allegiance to the Christian flag.
No, the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. Do you remember the Pledge
of Allegiance to the Christian flag? Yes.
I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and to the Savior for whose kingdom
(02:47):
it stands, one Savior crucified, risen, and coming again with life and liberty to all who believe.
And if you don't know, the Christian flag, it's an all-white flag with a field
of blue in the corner and then a cross in the middle of the field of blue.
There are a few different versions of the Pledge, but that's the one that I
learned as a child. Yeah.
So anyway, yes, the Pledge in this God Bless the USA Bible is the Pledge to the American Flag.
(03:12):
You know, I pledge allegiance to the flag. Right. We all know that.
So this God Bless the USA Bible came out actually a year ago,
and it didn't really get a lot of traction.
I think they mentioned it on a couple of different news stations and Lee Greenwood
was trying to kind of get it out there, but it didn't seem to get very much play.
(03:32):
The reason that it is in the news right now is because former President Donald
Trump has officially endorsed it.
And he is now kind of serving as an ambassador for this Bible.
So let's take apart a couple of issues that come up right off the bat. First of all.
We're not endorsing or rejecting Donald Trump by talking about this.
(03:54):
We want to talk about the association of politics and of national documents with the Bible.
That's the first thing I want to bring up. Yeah, make that clear.
These are really important.
Number two, we want to talk about some comparisons between this Bible,
and if you're against this, why aren't you against things like the John MacArthur
(04:14):
Study Bible, for instance?
Because you've seen people making that argument. Right. And then the next thing
we want to talk about as well is why the King James?
So let's actually start with why the King James? Why do you think that this
politically aligned patriotic Bible was done in the King James version?
(04:37):
There are three reasons, I think, personally. I think the one that makes the
most sense and is probably the reason is the fact that the King James is the
only Bible that is completely copyright free.
Nobody owns any rights to it. And so you can make a King James Bible and sell
it without having to pay any licensing fees or jump through any hoops.
(04:59):
So you end up actually being able to make a significantly more profit.
There's no altruistic purpose behind it. That there's no, we're just trying
to let the whole world know that the King James Version, nothing like that.
It's just- It's probably about the money.
Well, there's nothing more American than being considered the mighty dollar.
(05:20):
Say, secondarily, there's probably some sort of thought behind it that-
you know, type of people that would be interested in this type of a Bible would
tend to be maybe more traditional and might,
you know, just kind of like the King James Bible more, or that somehow the King
James Bible is representative of, you know, years gone by and American values. So kind of nostalgia.
(05:44):
Yeah. Nostalgia is probably the word I was thinking of. Which is weird because
if you really wanted to use a translation of the Bible that was actually especially
nostalgic, you would either use the Geneva translation, which was the Bible
the pilgrims brought over.
They rejected the King James because it was an Anglican translation,
or you would maybe use the revised version, which was kind of the American standard Bible.
(06:08):
I believe it was the revised that was made to be in all the schools in America.
Yes. Back when, because that was the reason for establishing public schools
in America was so that children could be rightly trained in the scriptures and
then how to be good citizens and all that.
So that's the answer to the first question that you said, which is,
okay, why do you think it's King James?
So no big conspiracy there. It just made the most sense probably monetarily.
(06:32):
And then, you know, branding wise, marketing wise was probably the best choice for them.
And you're going to include the most people because anybody that's not King
James only in their viewpoint is going to be okay with the King James.
That's fine. It's because it is beautiful language.
I mean, it's, I think the King James language represents, and we agree on this,
That's the highest form of English language that will probably ever exist.
(06:56):
Right. But so you're going to include the most number of people and you're going
to turn you're not going to turn away that King James only crowd who are probably
mostly among the people who are going to want to buy your your cool patriotic Bible.
Right. OK, so now the next thing is, why would somebody have a problem with
this Trump? I keep saying Trump, it's the patriotic Bible, and not have a problem
(07:21):
with, let's say, the John MacArthur.
Study Bible. Okay. So first of all, the John MacArthur Study Bible or any other
study Bible is really just a Bible that includes commentary on what the Bible says.
John MacArthur, you know, love him, hate him, whatever, is not claiming that
(07:43):
his writings are on par with scripture or are in any way divinely inspired or God-breathed.
He's saying, you know, I'm a scholar are in this area. I'm a pastor.
Here are my thoughts and interpretations on these passages.
Right. So like, for instance, if I, over the years of my life,
write notes in the margins of my Bible, and then I take, and I have those formalized,
(08:06):
and then there's, you know, we always say everything above the line,
Bible, everything below the line, Bible.
And so when you have like an introduction to James or an introduction to Hebrews,
or you have commentary below that line, at the bottom of the page in your Bible.
None of that's Bible. That's all commentary.
And so like we use John MacArthur's example, John MacArthur's study Bible.
(08:27):
Only because it's the most prominent study Bible and the one that everybody
keeps talking about. Right, because there's tons of study Bibles.
So a study Bible is not a kind of translation.
It's just saying there's study notes in the Bible. So there's the student Bible
and there's an NIV student Bible and an ESV student Bible, different translations,
But they're all just notes at the bottom of the page from scholars.
(08:51):
And I think the big point being, it's all consistently directed back toward the scripture.
The end, the purpose is to get a deeper understanding of the Bible.
Okay, so putting the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution or the
Pledge of Allegiance together.
In the Bible, even though you're not putting it above the line,
(09:13):
they're not trying to say it is Bible. They're not saying this,
you know, this is part of the Bible.
You know, they're not saying that. That's a problem because those things aren't
necessarily pointing to the Bible.
Now, we know in the beginning of the Declaration of Independence,
it says that, you know, that all of our rights come from God.
Right. And it acknowledges God as the creator of everything. So those are positives.
(09:37):
That does point towards the Bible, but the large part of the document does not. It's not Bible.
Because they are innately political documents.
They're not religious documents. They're not biblical documents.
They are political documents, for better or for worse.
They're not theonoustoi. They're not God-breathed. Well, certainly not,
(09:58):
because the only thing that is is the actual Bible, right?
But that's really the core issue here, is that you're putting in political documents with the Bible.
Mm-hmm.
(10:41):
Documents and intermingle them with something that is sacred scripture and God's word.
So you might say the word holy in Holy Bible, because holy means set apart, right?
So these are really holy documents.
They are really set apart and they should not be enmeshed with something else.
(11:05):
Absolutely. The only exception to that might be like the Message Bible,
Bible, which is, we call that a Biblementary.
That's Maddie's phrase she came up with.
And it's basically, it's a Bible with commentary kind of built in.
So where the Bible is straightforward, it's straightforward.
And where it needs a little bit of explanation, according to Eugene Peterson
(11:26):
and his personal views and his theology, then that's what he did.
And so he doesn't claim for it to be on par with the Bible.
No, and he very clearly states this is a paraphrase. Yes.
So we just don't want to mix that in because you think about it.
This is, I don't want to use this. How much motor oil do you want to put in
(11:48):
your water before your water is not, you don't want to drink it? One drop? Yeah.
Or how much, you know, toxin, how much, go get your- You mean arsenic, right?
Arsenic. It takes a little bit. How much Roundup out of your garden? You want how many?
That's clear. How many drops do you want to put in your glass of water before it's not safe to drink?
How about no drops? How about no drops?
(12:09):
And so we don't want to mix that together. I mean, you think about the Old Testament laws.
People like to bring these up when they're talking about, when they're trying
to make arguments against our faith.
Faith, but mixing the penalties for mixing two different, weaving two different
kinds of cloth together, or the penalties for touching pigs or eating pigs,
(12:32):
things like that. Those laws are about holiness.
They're about being a holy people, a people separated unto God.
And we seem to have lost that. I'm not saying that we're to take up the Old
Testament, those Old Testament rules and regulations.
What I am saying is we are definitely to take up the mantle of holiness,
(12:53):
because by the blood of Jesus, we have taken on his righteousness and we have become a holy people.
Positionally, we are completely holy. Practically, we are becoming holy through sanctification.
And so as a holy people, we need to make sure that we are not allowing that mixture.
Now, Now, someone might say, well, you want to be in the world, but not of the world.
(13:15):
So you've got to be in the world. That's right. I need to be in the world,
but I'm not mixing my beliefs.
I'm not mixing my theology. I'm not mixing my behaviors or my morality with the worlds.
Exactly. Right. So you could be a piece of wool with a piece of silk on top
of it, but you don't want to be those two woven together.
(13:38):
Because at that point, then you lose your identity as a piece of wool.
And I think that this issue of putting these political documents in with the
Bible and the issue with putting the American flag on the front of the Bible
and calling it the God bless the USA Bible,
it's revelatory of a bigger issue, which is that so many Christians and specifically
(14:02):
evangelical Christians,
and I'm speaking as an evangelical here, many evangelical Christians have made the mistake of,
of weaving together their American identity and their Christian identity to
the point that they cannot be separated.
That to be a Christian is to be an American and to be an American is to be a Christian.
(14:25):
And to go one step further, I would say that not only have they woven it to
an American identity, but they have added a third strand in there,
which is a conservative American identity. Yes. Very true.
(15:07):
Of three strands is not easily broken and we need jesus
and we need conservatives and we need liberal broken into
a court of three strands yeah because we
have to understand that the the world system
is against us you know and this is an easy way to understand this and i want
(15:27):
to and why this this bible topic is important when the fall of man took place
everything was broken Nothing works the way it's supposed to work.
So our very nature was broken and nature outside the creation is broken.
Nothing works the way it's supposed to work.
It's all defective in some way. And so when the earth itself is so broken and
(15:55):
so corrupted that when it sees Jesus,
when it sees Jesus, its creator,
it rejects it and wants to push it out.
Sees him as a foreign substance. Because he's a foreign substance to his very
creation because of its brokenness.
And so we have to recognize that it's easy for us, because we're not perfect,
(16:17):
to embrace, to bring in, to hold on to truths,
doctrines, ideas that are not in line with Christ. They're more in line with the world.
And if they feel really easy and the world's not pushing back on them really
hard, it's a good sign that we may be embracing something that's not right.
That's a good point. And there's a lot of folks who feel really positive about
(16:40):
this patriotic Bible, but maybe they're feeling bad about it because it's associated
with Donald Trump, or maybe they're embracing it because it's associated with Donald Trump.
But I really worry with and I really worry about us, the slippery slope of infusing
things outside of the Bible into the Bible.
(17:00):
That's really the core issue, because it's not about, you know,
politics in terms of where do you fall on political issues, because it could
just as well be, you know, the Green Party.
And, you know, okay, we're going to have our main person as the spokesperson
for this Bible, and we're going to have all of our founding documents of our
(17:24):
Green Party intermixed with the Bible.
And that would be just as bad, just as problematic,
because mixing any sort of political
documents or any sort of national identity in
with christianity is a
problem because i mean
(17:45):
honestly when i see people making christianity to be this american thing i find
it kind of funny because most christians don't live in america and some of the
strongest christians the one that the ones that are enduring persecution,
living under severe restriction, they're not in America.
(18:10):
And we also know that Jesus, newsflash, guys, was not an American.
Okay, I'm stopping the podcast right here. There are lies, and there are stinking
filthy lies, and that's a stinking— I'm sorry to anybody who that is a shock to.
He came to the Americas after he resurrected, right? No, that's the Book of Mormon.
(18:31):
Oh. So if your church is teaching that, you should— Oh. —get a new place to go. Okay.
Glad you straightened it out for me. Yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome.
A little bit of doctrine gets corrupted and then all the next thing you know,
that slippery slope when you're going into all kinds of crazy town stuff.
I think we really need to look at this idea of Christianity getting intermixed
with other things and say,
(18:52):
okay, we know that we're going to
be persecuted, but we're supposed to be persecuted for Jesus's namesake.
And when you take your Christianity and you turn it into a political thing,
whether it's leftist ideology or conservative ideology,
whatever it is, then when you are getting pushback, it's not for Jesus's namesake.
(19:18):
It's because those people who are pushing back against you are just against
your politics. So again, the Bible is true.
Blessed are you when people persecute you, say all kinds of evil against you
because of me, Jesus speaking.
Yes. So it's not just because you're an idiot or you're mean or you're controversial
or you're edgy because of Jesus.
(19:38):
It's because of Jesus. It's when we were persecuted for his namesake that the
reason people are pushing back against you is because you believe in him,
you're following him, you're seeking to become more like him.
Yeah, but how am I going to get interactions on Facebook if I don't say edgy things?
Well, I couldn't tell you. By the way, I'm not on Facebook. And neither am I.
I'm not even on social media. So I don't have any advice for you there, unfortunately.
(20:02):
Okay. So then what we're recommending, I don't like to give things of not to
do without giving things to do.
So first of all, I do want to say a positive.
I don't know that this is going to happen, but if somebody buys their Patriot
God Bless America Bible, okay, and they get it home and, I hope they read it.
(20:26):
I hope they read the Bible and don't read Revelation first.
I read, you know, if you're talking to someone, encourage them to read John or Mark first.
But I hope they read it. And I hope that there are some people that get saved
because any Bible is a good Bible.
As long as it's, you know, translated, you know, it's the real Bible.
And send us the King James Version. It's not some weird, messed up cult version.
(20:50):
It's the actual Bible, right? Exactly.
But my concern is that people are only buying this Bible as a way to make an
outward expression of their patriotic Christian views or their Christian nationalistic views.
That's called virtue signaling. It's a virtue signal. Thank you.
You always have the words I don't have. Yeah.
(21:12):
The virtue signaling and that those Bibles are going to wind up sitting on a
shelf 10 years from now, 20 years from now, you're going to see them at Goodwill.
Maybe they'll get some readings done then. I don't know.
Hey, maybe we'll be able to buy them for pennies in the dollar and rip all of
the stuff out that's not Bible and then just redistribute them as regular King James Bibles.
(21:32):
By the way, if you want a King James Bible, good grief, you can go to ChristianBooks.com.
They have them on sale all the time. You can buy nice ones with nice covers,
nice commentary in them for a very good price.
For a really cheap price. And also, you can find multiple King James Bibles
at any thrift store for literally, you know, 25 cents sometimes or a couple
(21:55):
bucks or whatever. You can read it free online.
And if you're not a Christian and you're hearing this, or maybe you're really
broke and you're hearing this and you need a Bible, go to a church, ask them for a Bible.
If they don't give you a Bible, go to the next church. Somebody will give you a Bible.
Yes. Or walk out in the middle of the street and say, does anybody in my neighborhood
have a Bible I can have? I'm sure somebody's got a Bible you could have.
(22:17):
We live in this country where we're so blessed with so many scriptures and we're
not like the persecuted church where they have to hide their Bibles or they're hard to get.
We have an abundance of availability and so much access because that's not even
talking about the fact that you can read any translation of scripture in its
entirety online for free.
Well, you know, I think this Bible is actually a representation of the great
(22:43):
abundance we have with scriptures.
Because you remember when you were a kid, and I did this when I was a kid,
we used to make necklaces out of what?
Bark. Well, what about the macaroni necklaces? A little macaroni.
Bark. Barking up the wrong tree with that answer.
Yeah. We would make them with macaroni or we'd make art, right?
We'd glue it to the pages and stuff. with green macaroni on there or pop or
(23:06):
unpopped popcorn you make do art with that i want you to think about how absurd
that must seem to somebody who's starving wow you're making art with food.
You're taking something edible and making it inedible by painting it or putting glue on it.
So in a way, they're taking the word of God, the food, the true food,
(23:27):
and they're literally, you know, our manna from heaven, and they're making it
into an art project. Wow.
That's a great illustration. And not only that, when you tie,
you know, I love my country.
I feel blessed to be born in America. I served in the military.
So I'm not an anti-patriotic guy of any stripe.
(23:53):
But I want you to think about this. I think we tend to get things in the wrong order of priorities.
You know, it's like that old illustration where the guy comes in and he puts
some, a bunch of big rocks in a jar.
And then he's like, I've got, and then he tries to put in some smaller rocks
and then he tries to, excuse me, he puts them, he was trying to fill a jar.
(24:16):
He puts in the sand, all his little, and then he puts in some smaller rocks
and then there's no room for his big rocks.
Right. They don't fit in the jar. But if he puts the big rocks in first and
then puts the medium or the small rocks in and shakes it up real good,
they settle in. And then he pours the sand in and settles in.
Then he can even pour water in and that settles in.
(24:36):
And you have way more in this jar than you could put in if you put the water and the sand in first.
So you have to have your priorities right in order to really get where you're trying to go.
And I think as Americans, we have to have our priorities right.
And it has to be kingdom first.
The Lord established his kingdom. He said the kingdom of God is here.
(24:58):
He established his kingdom. And when we're born again.
In 1 Peter, Peter tells us that we are a new nation. Yes.
And if you look at the words used there in that 1 Peter verses 2 through 9,
there's the word ethnos and the word genos.
So the word ethnos is like we're a new ethnicity.
(25:19):
And genos, like we have a new genealogy.
So that's what's being implied there is you're completely new.
You've been ripped out of your culture, ripped out of your genealogy,
ripped out of your ethnicity, and you've been stuck into this new one.
And you're held in there, I guess you could say, by the blood of Jesus.
(25:40):
And this kingdom of God, this kingdom of heaven is so foreign to our way of
thinking, our way of processing information, that when the Lord describes it, he has to use parables.
The kingdom of God is like.
Right? Because we can't even understand it. It's kind of like you're trying
to describe what it's like to be weightless in outer space.
(26:02):
Well, it's like, but until you've done it, you really don't know.
And we can do a lot better job of describing being weightless in outer space
than the kingdom of God can be described. Nevertheless, we're a part of that
kingdom and we have a king.
We are part of a monarchy and we're ambassadors of that kingdom.
And we're ambassadors in the place and in the culture and in the time where the Lord has chosen.
(26:26):
Scripture tells us he chose the times and seasons and appoints us to be born where we're born.
And so we're to be ambassadors to that place.
So we're blessed to be born with the prosperity and the freedom that comes with
being an American, but we have to recognize that we have chosen and been chosen
to be part of the kingdom and it's kingdom first.
(26:49):
The living water, water goes in before the sand, and then the sand is America.
And that's where we need to put that second.
And then third, maybe that's being a missionary in the nations around us.
And maybe fourth is being a missionary to the whole world, but recognizing that
we are kingdom people first, kingdom ambassadors second, and then down the list we're Americans.
(27:12):
And then down the list we belong to our state and to our city.
And then I think we need to think differently about that.
And so we get all excited about, folks get all excited pro or con this patriotic
Bible, but it's, am I holy?
Am I being holy? Am I recognizing I'm a a kingdom person? Am I doing my kingdom
(27:34):
work and representing my king well?
That's the main thing. That is the main thing. So it's not about who do you
want to vote for for president or are you a patriotic person or are you not?
It's not about any of that.
It's about giving the Bible its rightful place in your faith and in your life.
It's about choosing to be holy, to be set apart,
(27:58):
and not allowing yourself to get caught up in all of this political mumbo jumbo
and the identity politics and any of these things, but saying,
no, my identity is in Christ.
First and foremost, before anything else, I am a Christian, point blank, period.
It's not a place to add those adjectives before Christian, right? Right.
(28:20):
Any adjective. Any adjectives. Your politics.
If you're like conservative Christian, liberal Christian, you've got a problem.
You've got a priority problem. And we really want to be Jesus-first people,
living Jesus-first lives and putting His Word first.
(28:42):
Absolutely. And that's why we wanted to talk about this with you guys this week,
because it is a big topic in the news and online right now.
And we thought it would be important to take the time to speak about this and
to really encourage you all to continually direct your minds and your hearts
back toward Jesus and his word and not towards any of these other things that
are going on right now. Yeah, so do us a favor.
(29:03):
If you have some thoughts or comments on this, share them. If you listen to
this and you think, wow, this is good, share it on your social media,
share it with your friends, get the message out there, and help people get an
opportunity to hear something that directs them back to Jesus and back to the Scripture,
rather than directing them into an argument or into a fight or into a position.
(29:26):
Because we know divisions and factions are not of the Lord, but the Lord desires
for us to be united in Him as one church.
And that's when the world is going to know that He loves us and we belong to Him.
Well, listen, God bless you guys. Thanks for being with us. And join us next
week as we continue along the harder way.
Yes, we will see you guys next week. Thanks for being here.
(29:49):
Thank you for listening to the Harder Way podcast. If you were encouraged by
this episode, Please consider sharing it with a friend or leaving us a review.
To be the first to know when we publish new episodes, subscribe to the Harder
Way podcast on your favorite platform.
Until next time, remember the words of Christ. Blessed are those who are persecuted
(30:09):
for righteousness' sake. For theirs.
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