Hello reader.  Just a note before you and I begin this post.  I’m right now in the middle of several series at one time.  Who knows which one I’ll continue next?  I’m writing this to tell you that I am preparing, Lord-willing, to keep working until I finish all those.  Here they are, part one of each, hopefully in reverse order.

Zero Social Gospel in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Part One), If You Want to Lose Men in and from a Church (Part One),  and The Greek Text Underlying the NKJV Is Different Than the KJV (Part One).  Part two of these series will come in the next few months.  I’ve started these series and I want to finish them.  Stay tuned.

*******************************************

The Assassination Attempt

At 6:11pm on July 13, 2024 in Butler County, Pennsylvania, a twenty year old young man, Thomas Matthew Crooks, attempted to assassinate the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.  Corey Comperatore, a firefighter, died that night from a head wound sustained during the same shooting, attempting to shield his daughters and wife from the attack.  Others received injuries.  Crooks missed Trump and the bullets flew into the crowd behind him.

The events of July 13, 2024 kept moving.  The circumstances began to manifest themselves.  Now we know a lot of detail.  The young man, this assassin, climbed the building with his rifle on to the closest building (outside the perimeter) to the stage where the former President would give his speech.  Several people saw him.  They even reported it more than once.

The building used by this wannabe sniper stood 160 yards from his target.  He laid down on a slightly sloped roof top and alone there pointed that rifle toward the former President and began pulling the trigger.  He fired eight rounds before counter-snipers shot back and killed him.

The Oddities

Apparently the Secret Service, who the nation charges to protect Presidents and former Presidents, sets up a perimeter.  This idea of a perimeter sounds familiar.  They don’t allow any weapons inside it.  On the outside, they look for favorable places for a shooter with a long gun.  They occupy those or shut them down.  Several questions arise.

Why wasn’t the roof of the building cleared or kept clear?
Why was there no drone to watch the high points outside of the perimeter, ones preferred by snipers?
Shouldn’t the police officer who confronted the shooter have relayed that information to the counter snipers?
With a clear vantage point to the roof top, why didn’t the counter snipers right away shoot a man with a rifle upon seeing him?

Many, many more questions exist.  I think it is odd what happened.  Others I’ve read said that it was either extreme negligence or malice.  Malice means these weren’t mistakes made.  Someone on the inside wanted him shot.  People purposefully allowed or caused this event to occur.  It’s so odd, that I would call it at least, very fishy.  The circumstances around this shooting are so strange, that they beg the kind of questions I and others are asking.

A Question of Negligence or Malice

To be clear, I’m not saying it was malice.  I don’t mind holding off with mere negligence.  It is very suspicious though.  Very.  It is highly implausible that the Secret Service could allow this to occur, considering all the circumstances.

In the past, I’ve concealed my own bad behavior.  In many, many cases through my life, I’ve seen others hide or obscure something they did wrong.  Decades ago, our church treasurer stole money for months without detection.  I’ve too witnessed many covertly hide an evil act to evade apprehension.  This all happens very often.  Many crimes are committed across the country every day.  These are motivated in many different ways. The assailant is dead, so we can’t ask him.

The Discussion

I was watching a panel discussion in which the moderator or host said that the circumstances of the assassination attempt were very odd.  When he did, two very vocal leftist panelists both called him a “conspiracy theorist.”  They also took three standard, different directions with name calling.  One, the host was a crazy loon.  Two, he was divisive and slanderous.  These two contradict one another, but they’re both still used in a scorched earth method.  This serves to deter further questions or investigation.

Finally, third, the two leftist panelists admonished that no one really knows what happened.  If you weren’t there, you can’t speculate.  All speculation counts as misinformation.  Only a caste of experts, and there are experts, can tell you.

All three varied protestations came with the appropriate condemnatory tone.  They attempt to shame the interrogator.  This corresponds to an identical spirit that permeates everything and every institution.  Anything declared by anyone other than an elite person in an approved position is misinformation or disinformation.

One segment of our country expects us not to see anything unusual with the assassination attempt.  Someone might say, “Don’t believe your lying eyes.”  What they mean is, “Disregard the obvious truth.”

Detecting False Prophets by Fruit

In Matthew 7:15, Jesus commanded, “Beware of false prophets.”  These are the people directing victims down the broad road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14).  Jesus explains how that you know if someone is a false teacher.  You know him by his fruits.

I point out to you an orange tree.  You see it, and it’s an orange tree.  This you know by its fruit.  Yet, I call it an apple tree.  You know that’s not true.  Someone can surely judge that.  It’s obvious.  You would say, “No, it’s not an apple tree; those are oranges on that tree.”

So many oddities exist in the assassination attempt of former President Trump, that I don’t know how someone could not think something malicious occurred.  By the fruits of this event, you can know this.  It rises above the level of merely negligence.  If it is negligence, that’s scary or frightening too.  But this seems like something different.

Disregard the Obvious

Our present world expects people to disregard the obviousness like that of fruit on a tree.  This is seen in the acceptance of many different false teachings.  Even if teaching or preaching contradicts, this contradiction is to be disregarded.  Move along, nothing there.  Doctrine just doesn’t matter.  Many obvious false teachings are accepted today.  The ones in trouble are those who notice and point out the contradiction or error.

The requirement to believe everything is fine in the face of obvious evidence otherwise is the new normal.  This is everywhere now.  Good is called evil and evil is called good, just like prophecy of Isaiah 5:20.  A famous metaphor for this is “the emperor wearing no clothes.”  Apparently his subjects walk around like and say that he is wearing clothes, when in fact he isn’t.

The Requirement to Judge the Obvious

I know as a pastor that people expect me to ignore many things people in the church do that violate scripture.  No one needs to be too serious about what scripture says.  It really doesn’t matter if someone actually does what is preached.

Why would Jesus need to tell someone to inspect and judge fruit?  Don’t people just do that?  Probably not any more, speaking of Jesus’ day.  False prophets abound because people stopped doing that.  They don’t make obvious judgments.  People let them go, perhaps because they don’t want to face the reaction of making those kinds of judgments.

Upholding the truth requires judging fruit.  The illustration of Jesus says, judge the obvious.  Fruit is obvious.  It’s right there in front of your face.  Don’t let people stop you from judging fruit.