Q: You recently released the new book, Hope for This Present Crisis. What inspired you to write this book?
A: Since the 1960’s we have seen some of these same issues on the rise, but it’s getting worse and worse and worse and worse. I believe it is time for the Christian community to wake up! I think the Christian community is being misled. Many of them have bought into a popular way of thinking that they don’t understand is actually a Marxist ideology.
Q: We are currently living in a “feelings” driven world. How did we end up on this path, and why is it so dangerous?
A: Timothy Leary started this line of thought back in the 60’s. He taught “trust your feelings, don’t trust your mind.” And today the boomers who bought into this philosophy have kids and grandkids, and they have taken it a step further. We’re totally trusting our feelings. But the truth is your feelings are untrustworthy because they are mercurial, they go up and down. And so, once you are deprived of thinking, you are deprived of the truth.
Q: How has a decline in a biblical worldview contributed to our present crisis?
A: Sadly, this decline started in the church. When we cease to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and begin to preach other gospels, whatever gospel it may be, it’s not the truth. And once you depart from the truth, you get in a muddle! As goes the pulpit, so goes the pews. As go the pews, so goes the culture. And so the real issue is a lack of commitment to the absolute biblical truth. Today, you have less than 17% of Christians in America have a biblical world view. Every statistic, not just one. Every statistic: 17% of the believers really have a biblical world view.
Q: Talk about the issues that arise when truth becomes relativistic. How are we seeing its effects today?
A: When absolute truth is removed, we are let with any truth… Your truth is truth. My truth is truth. Everybody’s truth is truth. Inevitably, these “truths” are going to conflict with each other, and they’re going to create the chaos, which is what they want. We’re seeing this right now in the discussion on gender – the idea that a person’s biological gender is not absolute. They’re being militant about it, they want to enforce it and ram it down our kids’ throats. And they want the parents excluded, and so they can get hold of the kids and confuse them. And once you have a confused generation, you have a collapsed country. It’s no longer going to exist. A whole be like the Roman Empire, we’re going to collapse from the inside.
Q: What does the term “woke” mean and why is it an issue for believers?
A: It means that you have awakened to the fact that the world is basically made into two kinds of people – the oppressors and the oppressed. And by implication, all white people are oppressors, and all black people are oppressed. Now, I was born in Africa and have many African friends. The fact is that this is a lie. It is not the truth. Not every white is an oppressor and not every black is oppressed. This ideology was started way back by a professor who used to be at Harvard by the name of Howard Zinn. He wrote a book filled with lies that has been taught in universities for many years. All of us in academia thought it would stay there, but now it’s in the streets! It’s a Marxist ideology. The idea is if you create a division, in their case between the rich and poor, and you keep hammering away at that, you have a collapse of society and you build your socialist utopia after that. He said in America all the oppressed are the black people and all the oppressors are the white people, therefore we need to hammer away at the division. Who is the author of division? Satan.
Q: Many Americans have no idea what it’s like to live under an oppressive government. Tell us about your experience, and what warning do you have for those who seem to want more government power over them?
A: I was born in Egypt in the 1940’s. At that time, Egypt was literally the breadbasket of that whole region. And then, in 1952, they had a socialist revolution by Gamal Abdel Nasser under the same cry – social justice. So he started nationalizing companies, banks, people’s land; they started taking this and that. And in a matter of ten years, it became a basket case. I tell people I was an American before I came to America. As a teenager, I would read books about the freedom of religion and I said, “My goodness. If a place like this exists, that’s where I want to be.”
It’s so interested how many rich kids are really taken with the idea of socialism because they’ve never really experienced anything but being spoiled. So, they’re feeling guilty and out of that guilt, they accept this so-called socialism. Doing the fair share, dividing the wealth, and so on. But this is absolutely the most devastating thing that cold happen to this country.
Q: Many people are battling fear in the face of all this uncertainty. How would you encourage them?
A: For the person who knows Jesus, you must know that fear is not of God. Fear is of Satan. He wants you to live in fear. God has given us a spirit of courage and self-control. I believe with all my heart, as you fill your mind with the praises and the character of God, with the power of God, remembering that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world, all fear will be gone. Whether we live or die, either way, we win. So, you are a winner! We have read the last chapter of the book and it says we win!
Q: What are some ways that believers can actively work to transform our culture?
A: I’m calling upon all those who love Jesus to rise up and uphold the truth! Paul said, “I am not ashamed fo the Gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation.” The power is in the Gospel! Let’s hold onto the Gospel truth, because that’s what’s going to change our country and the world.
Q: Conflict between Israel and Gaza is once again making headlines. What troubles you the most about what we’re seeing take place in the Middle East?
A: The more troubling part is not what’s happening in Israel, it is what’s happening in Europe and America and that is the anti-Semitism that has arisen in such an incredible way.
Q: What is different about the anti-Semitism that we’re seeing today?
A: There is a unity between the secularists and against anything that’s to do with God, period. Look at Black Lives Matter and anti-Semitism and all the Marxist ideology that is now permeating. We even find that that the Islamists in America – including those who are members of Congress – are together with the Marxist ideologists. They’re all coming now as one block opposing Israel, Christians, and Jews.
Q: Many think “land for peace” or a “two-state solution” is still the answer. How is this recent conflict further proof that’s not the case?
A: When Yasser Arafat met with Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak in Camp David, Barak offered him 97% of what he was asking for and he turned it down. That doesn’t sound like somebody who’s really interested in making any peace. They just want to continue that state of war because that’s how they get money from Europe and the United States and further they’re own interests. You see, I have sympathy for the Palestinians because they are victims of these dreadful leaders. In fact, the Palestinians in Israel say Israel is better to them than their own leaders.