QUESTIONS - Can Anything Good Come From Asbury？
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Summary
God is Sovereign over all things. God is sovereign over the universe, and therefore, all things can be saved by God. God does all things according to His purposes, and He does it in the best way that He sees fit.
Transcript
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All right, listen guys, I get it. Many of you are unable to financially support this ministry
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Elliot Cole, Elliot Cole, what good do you think could come from the Asbury revival, if any?
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Well, I think a lot of good can come because God is sovereign over all things. So let me parse that
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out for a moment. I believe that God is sovereign over every molecule in the universe. That's
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another Sproul quote, right? There's not one maverick molecule in all the universe. So I
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believe that God is not just sovereign over big things, but that God is meticulously sovereign
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over all things. I do believe in human culpability, in human liberty of the will,
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human will human agency um but not autonomous human freedom i believe that god is the only
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autonomous being right so if you think of definitions for free will for lack of a better
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phrase it's a bit played out and it's so misunderstood but if we look at different
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definitions there's a libertarian definition of free will there's the compatibilistic definition
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the deterministic definition, the Molinistic, Molinism definition of free will, and all these
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different ways. Basically, what they're all trying to define, the question they're all trying to
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answer is what is the nature of the relationship between the sovereignty of God and human agency
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or creaturely agency? I believe that man is culpable. He's morally responsible for the
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choices that he makes. I believe he's morally responsible because he is free. He makes choices
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freely. That's why he is responsible for those choices. But man is not free in such a way
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that God's true and ultimate autonomous freedom is limited. God is not limited by the choices of
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the creature. We start from the creator. We start from the top and work down to the creature. We
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don't start with the creature and say, well, what kind of choices, what's the limit of our freedom
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of choices? And then whatever's left over, we'll go ahead and give that to God. No, it starts with
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God as creator. What are the limits of his freedom? What does he have license over? Whatever's left,
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that's what's then given to the creature. The idea of man being morally responsible for the choices
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that he makes and God being meticulously sovereign over all things in the universe, these two things
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are both clearly, clearly displayed in the Bible. The Bible affirms both. And so there is some kind
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of relationship without going into too much depth. There is some kind of relationship to where man
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can be morally responsible for making free choices. And God is the only autonomously free
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being in all the universe. And therefore he is meticulously sovereign over all the affairs
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of his creation those things are both affirmed by the scripture or one of the classic texts would
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be in the book of genesis where joseph he says to his brothers right when they're reconciled and
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his brothers sold him into slavery in egypt and they're now being reconciled and joseph tells his
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brothers what you meant for evil god meant for good notice the wording there is not you meant
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meaning you planned something. You intended it. You had an intention, a motive. You planned this
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and did this and meant it for my harm, for my detriment, for evil. But God salvaged it for
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good. That's not what the Bible says. It's the same word, same Hebrew word is used. The brothers
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of Joseph, they planned and meant and intended something where they had the motive of doing
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harm to Joseph, of doing him evil. God didn't just salvage the evil intent of Joseph's brothers
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and turn it for good. It's not that Joseph's brothers threw lemons at him and God turned
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those lemons into lemonade. No, it's the same word. The brothers meant something for evil.
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God meant it. God planned it. God orchestrated it. God initiated it for good. Same as Romans chapter
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8. God works all things. He salvages those things. The word works in that context, it means
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he's orchestrating. He does, performs all things. God is not salvaging all things or turning all
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things or just redeeming all things, but God works. He does, ordains, orchestrates all things
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for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes. So God is sovereign
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over all things, and that includes sickness, suffering, and sin, even sin. God was sovereign
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over the sin of Joseph's brothers. What they did was evil, but God was meticulously sovereign even
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over their sin and use it for good. Think of the story of Job. Just in the first two chapters of
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job we see this council in eternity and the heavens and the sons of god are before him and
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in that reference the sons of god it's angels and it says satan was among them and god looks at
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satan he says to him from where have you come satan says from going to and fro over the earth
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and god says have you considered my servant job that there is none like him in all the earth
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righteous. He's a good man. And Satan says, well, he's good because you've blessed him.
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And God says, well, then you can take away his blessing. And I'm telling you right now that he's
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still going to serve me because it's not just tit for tat. It's not just quid pro quo. Job is
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actually righteous. He blesses me, honors me, worships me because I'm God, not just because
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I'm the one who gives him stuff and God then outlines for Satan the boundaries of what he's
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able to do he says you can do this you can do that but you cannot touch his flesh you can bring
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no harm to him and so then Satan goes and he ensures that all of his camel and livestock and
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even Job's own children are destroyed but Job's body is not harmed then we see the scene reconvene
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in heaven where satan comes before job or before god again and says well yeah he's still worshiping
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you he's still loyal to you even though these things happen but skin for skin a man will give
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everything he has for his flesh for his body his life so then god he changes the terms he now moves
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the boundaries of what satan is allowed to do he says now you can actually affect his flesh not
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just his livelihood, not just what he owns, his possessions, and not just other people's flesh
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that he has relationship with, intimate relationship like his children. But now you can
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touch Job's body, his own body, but you cannot take his life. And God etches out that boundary
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for Satan. And Satan goes and does that. And the point is this, the point is you see three different
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levels of agency. You see God ultimately at the top, sovereign over everything, saying this is
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what you can do and this is what you can't. You see Satan then with his will as a creature
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saying, well, okay, I'm going to take Job's camels then and I'm going to take this and I'm
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going to take his children. But then you see another agency, the Chaldeans. I believe it's
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the camels. Maybe it's the sheep. I can't remember. But one of the animals that Job
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owned, Satan fills the hearts of men. He uses men to steal that resource away from Job. So look,
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there's three levels of agency there. There's God saying, these are the ultimate boundaries
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of what you can do, what you can take and what you can't. God at the top. Then there's Satan,
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the choices that he's making, his agency, what he's doing. Then there's the Chaldeans on the
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human level what they're doing and stealing from job three different levels of agency the chaldeans
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are morally responsible for the choice that they made and stealing from job and killing his servants
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satan is morally responsible for his rebellion against god and god is ultimately meticulously
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sovereign over all of it as the only autonomous being in the universe as creator rather than
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creature all these things are simultaneously true and for those who say well i feel like that's a
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a paradox or I feel like that's an apparent contradiction. Well, the Bible clearly affirms
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both. How it's fleshed out in theological terms, philosophical terms is very complex. I admit
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it's difficult to understand God being sovereign over all and human beings being morally responsible
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for the choices they make simultaneously. I'm not sitting here saying, oh, this is easy. It's not
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easy, but it's true. The Bible affirms both. So Asbury revival, my point is arguing, making an
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argument from the lesser to the greater. Well, I mean, God has used, or from the greater to the
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lesser, God has used horrible sin like murder, the Chaldeans murdering people and stealing all
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of Job's livelihood. God has used that, been sovereign over that and brought about good.
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God used the evil of Joseph's brothers selling him into slavery in Egypt for good.
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Joseph goes on and says, not just what you meant for evil, God meant for good, but he
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goes further and says to bring about salvation, to bring about salvation for a great many
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Because remember, Joseph is sold into slavery in Egypt, but then God exalts Joseph sovereignly
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to the right hand of Pharaoh as viceroy of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself because
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God gives Pharaoh dreams of what's going to happen, not only in Egypt, but in the known
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world at that time in regards to seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine.
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And then he gives Joseph the ability to interpret the dream, what's going to take place and
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endows Joseph with wisdom in how to prepare so that the whole world, Egypt, everybody,
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the nation of Israel, which is just really a large family at this point, Jacob and his
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12 sons and the grandchildren, 72 persons in all, they would have starved. Everyone would have died.
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They were saved through Joseph and Joseph being strategically positioned in Egypt. And how did
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he get there? The sin of his brothers, their betrayal. So God used that. And the best example,
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the argument from the greater to the lesser, this would be from the greatest to the lesser,
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the greatest example is the sin against jesus i mean that's what the book of acts says i believe
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it's chapter two peter mentions it at pentecost but then also acts chapter four for for certain
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what we find in the scripture and regarding what happened with jesus his wrongful execution
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being crucified as it says that it says that um all over there were gathered together both jews
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and Gentiles and Pontius Pilate to do to Jesus, that is to crucify him, whatever your hand and
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your plan had determined to take place. So what's being said is these people were gathered together
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to do wicked things, evil things to Jesus, namely wrongfully putting him to death,
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bearing false witnesses, producing false testimonies against Jesus, holding a mock trial
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in the middle of the night, handing him over to Pontius Pilate, calling for his execution,
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crucifixion, even though he did not deserve that form of death. All these different things,
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all these evils, lies, wickednesses, and ultimately the murder of a truly innocent man,
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all these things were sin. Sin done towards the only truly innocent person who ever
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walked the face of the earth, the righteous one, the God-man, Christ Jesus himself.
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The greatest injustice that has ever happened in human history was the crucifixion of Christ.
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And the Bible says that all that happened because people made choices that they're really
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responsible for and because God's hand and plan predetermined for it to come about, predestined
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And out of the wickedness done to Christ, we have spiritual salvation for the world.
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out of the wickedness done to joseph as a type of christ you had physical salvation for the world
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so what good can come out of asbury well my prayer is um salvation that salvation would
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come out of it but there's a difference in saying that salvation is happening at asbury
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because the gospel is being faithfully preached versus salvation retroactively later on in the
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province of God coming about out of the mishaps and negligence and foolishness at Asbury. So I
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think what good can come out of it? I would say a lot of good, so much good in fact, the greatest
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good could come out of it, the good of thousands of people coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
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You know how many people have come to faith in Jesus Christ through Benny Hinn?
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but not through his faithfulness, but through his faithlessness, what he meant for evil.
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God has used Benny Hinn and then used other faithful individuals like Justin Peters and
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John MacArthur and all these different things to shed light on that. So Benny Hinn attracts a bunch
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of people and then in God's providence and mercy, those people, it's like fish in a barrel. They're
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attracted to Benny Hinn in the prosperity gospel. But then out of that, guys like Benny Hinn's own
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nephew, Kosti Hinn, preached the true gospel and people's eyes are opened by grace alone,
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regeneration by the Holy Spirit and people pour into the kingdom. So what good could come out of
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it? Immense good. But there's a distinction in God meaning something for good as man means
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something for evil versus God meaning something for good and using faithful men who also mean it
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for good. There's a difference in God bringing about good despite you versus God bringing about
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good through you. I'll say that again. There is a difference in the sovereignty of God and the way
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he works in the world, God bringing about good despite you versus God bringing about good
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through you. I think that God is and will bring about great good despite Asbury. But so far,
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I cannot with any shred of confidence say that he is bringing about great good, true good,
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according to the Bible's definition of good, eternal good, salvific good through Asbury.
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I cannot make that argument. Can I be frank with you for just a second right here at the end?
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Look, some of you guys, you're financially supporting this ministry, and from the bottom
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However, some of you, you just, you can't afford it.
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I mean, we're living in Joe Biden's ridiculous economy.
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Our nation and our totalitarian political elites lost their minds over the last three
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years due to COVID. We have written checks that we simply cannot cash. It doesn't matter if people
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change the definition of a recession. We are living in a recession right now regardless.
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Some of you are struggling to afford a carton of eggs at the grocery store. You cannot support
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