PRÉCIS ON AN AMERICA GONE WILD: ANOTHER SHOOT, NEW PASSPORTS, & OTHER STRANGE TALES AS GOD BECOMES OUR ONLY SAFE HARBOR (WITH VIDEO)

SCRIPTURE. “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present outcome, that many people would be kept alive [as they are this day]…And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes ALL THINGS to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.” – GENESIS 50:20; ROMANS 8:28, AMP

BULLETIN (Sat. April 25, Washington, DC). “A gunman opened fire while trying to force entry to the White House Correspondence Association (WHCA) dinner on Saturday evening, forcing President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet to be rushed off the stage by Secret Service. The Washington Metropolitan Police Department said the suspect charged a security checkpoint at 8.36 p.m. carrying a ‘shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives.’ He then shot at a Secret Service agent before he was subdued and arrested.

The gunman was identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of California, by two law enforcement officials to The Associated Press. A photograph of the suspect, face down on the ground after being detained, appeared to match social media profiles for Allen.” – Richard Hall, Editor, Time, Apr. 26, 2026; edited

QUOTATION. “When people say they can’t believe in God because He has not shown Himself, they are overlooking a critical fact: This is exactly what He has done. The Problem is not a lack of visible evidence; the Problem is an unwillingness to see.” ― DAVID A. NOEBEL, Understanding the Times: A Survey of Competing Worldviews, 2016; edited

COMMENTARY. “To believe that Romans 8:28 indicates that everything happens for a reason would be misinformed and perhaps reading one’s own predispositions into the text. Rather than saying that ‘Everything happens for a reason,’ Scripture tells us ‘God gives Reason to everything that happens.’

Can you see the difference in these statements? By believing this trope, there is an assertion of Cause, suggesting God to be the cause of evil and sin. In reality, God is not the cause of evil, sin, or misfortune. Our own sinfulness and fumbling through life is. To say that everything happens for a reason suddenly depicts God as an inaccurate caricature, leading us to believe that He is a Tyrant who doles out suffering for suffering’s sake. To believe that everything happens for a reason makes malice out of God’s grace and makes suffering a plague rather than a blessing.

But to say that God gives Reason [i.e., Divine Purpose] to everything that happens testifies of God’s Deliverance and Providence. Instead of booby-trapping our lives, God providentially our lives. He gives reason to the absurdity of life. He makes the nonsensical have a tangible, eternal impact on our souls. He sees the evil, injustice, and suffering and says, ‘I am going to use that.’ He Purposes the bad things in our lives for our own benefit. He takes what the world makes so wrong and he rights it, not just making things ok but making things ‘Good.’” – SARAH MORRISON, “The Wrong Way to Read Romans 8:28,” Daily Grace Co., Sep.1, 2019; edited

WHAT WE KNOW. On this “News Development Wednesday,” let me begin by doing a simple FACT CHECK UPDATE of what we know about what took place at the Correspondence Dinner on Saturday April 25. This is taken from a thorough New York Times pool report of several journalists published on Monday April 27, 2026(4 pm Eastern; edited).

• CHARGES.  The Justice Department formally charged a California man, Cole Tomas Allen, with attempting to assassinate President Trump on Monday, two days after investigators said he broke past a security perimeter and fired a gun during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington on Saturday April 25, 2026.

• WEAPONS. Todd Blanche, the Acting Attorney General, said a black pump-action shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol and a number of knives were confiscated. Further, a spent shotgun shell found inside the gunman’s weapon indicated that it was fired during the incident. “We do believe that, as the complaint lays out, that the defendant fired out of his shotgun,” Blanche said. He added that the Secret Service Agent, initials V.G., was shot once in the chest in the incident and fired five shots at the suspect but did not hit him.

• MANIFESTO. Officials cited a Manifesto allegedly written by Allen in which he called himself a “Friendly Federal Assassin” and said he was targeting Trump administration officials “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.” The note says, “I don’t expect forgiveness, but if I could have seen any other way to get this close, I would have taken it.”

• EMAIL. The Federal Affidavit says that Allen sent an email to family members and a former employer warning them what he was about to do. The Email, the affidavit said, also listed Allen’s targets. Investigators claimed to have obtained a copy of the Email, in which Allen said that administration officials — aside from the F.B.I. Director, Kash Patel — were “targets only if necessary, and to be incapacitated nonlethally if possible.”

• COURT. Cole Tomas Allen, the man officials say was arrested in connection with the attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, is now before a judge and sitting next to his lawyers, Eugene Ohm and Tezira Abe. He has identified himself, stated his age and added that he holds a Master’s in Computer Science. Wearing a neon blue jumpsuit, he is now going over his rights with Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh.

• SECURITY. Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, told reporters that there would be a meeting early this week with Homeland Security officials to discuss potential changes to security protocols around events involving the President, particularly those taking place off the White House grounds. ‘Leavitt is calling on the Nation — and particularly Democrats — to “tone down the rhetoric” that she says is encouraging “mentally disturbed individuals” to try to target President Trump.’

• ICE. Leavitt says the shooting at the Press Gala in Washington was a reminder of how important it is to: “Fund the Department of Homeland Security.” Secret Service agents, as well as other law enforcement officers at the Homeland Security Department, have continued to be paid throughout the funding shutdown of the Agency. Even so, Leavitt still says the funding fight has amounted to a security risk.

• ACCUSATION. Leavitt also singled out the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for a skit last week about the First Lady, aired days before the dinner, in which he joked that she had a “glow like an expectant widow.” Following the First Lady’s earlier condemnation of Kimmel, Leavitt said that people “are inspired to commit violence because of those words.”

• BLAME. ‘Leavitt is also using her time at a media briefing today to blame the President’s Political Opponents and some members of the News Media, people she says are responsible for creating the country’s worsening problem of political violence.’ She attributed the violence to a “Left Wing Cult of Hatred against the President and all of those who support him and work for him.”

• FAMILY. Paul Thompson, a neighbor of the suspect, said he rarely saw Allen, who lived with his parents in Torrance, Calif. “I never saw him talk to anybody,” Thompson said. “He rarely made eye contact.” Thompson said that the Allen family was religious, and that Allen’s father would often reference his church, where he held a leadership role. “It’s a big part of his life,” Thompson said.

• CHECKPOINT. The gunman who sprinted through a Security Checkpoint on Saturday night at the Washington Hilton believed that the Secret Service was poorly prepared to guard top administration officials against him, according to writing he left behind. Agents, in turn, stopped him in a matter of seconds. ‘The Episode raised fresh questions about whether the Secret Service was sufficiently prepared to protect the president in an age of rising threats and spasms of political violence.’ But officials insisted that the security measures had worked as intended.

• NOTE. The Washington Hilton Hotel, where gunfire broke out Saturday night during a White House correspondents’ dinner attended by President Trump, was also the site of an attempted assassination that left President Ronald Reagan seriously wounded in 1981. Forty-five years ago, Mr. Reagan was shot on the sidewalk just outside the  hotel as he walked toward his limousine after a labor meeting inside.

WHAT WE SUSPECT. I want to go on record officially that I have not in the past 50 years as an academic, nor 45 as a Christian, nor do I now nor shall ever consider “Conspiracy Theories” as legitimate fare for serious researchers or theologians.

Ahem: ‘However.’

After watching no more than two brief newsfeeds of the alleged assassination attempt, I shook my head and turned off the telecast. Why? You already know. There were so many ‘mitigating variables’ (as we used to say in grad school) that I found the entire matter almost clownish.

To help me toward some degree of objectivity, I we now consider a commentary by the UK’s Telegraph writer, ED CUMMING, senior feature writer. His piece is titled: “How the Trump Assassination Attempt Sparked a Ballroom-Sized Conspiracy Theory”(April 27, 2026; edited).

The very title gives away the punch line. Here are his MAIN IDEAS.

• OPEN. “On Saturday night [April 25, 2026], Donald Trump was not to be deterred by an assassination attempt. With gunshots still ringing in the ears of journalists, security staff and senior officials who had attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel, the US President returned to one of his favourite recent topics: Interior Decoration.”

• AGENDA. “Just hours after an armed assailant, later named as Cole Tomas Allen, was arrested by the Secret Service as he tried to storm the event, Trump attended a press conference in the West Wing to use the shooting as further justification for the controversial $400m (£295m) gilded ballroom he wants to build at the White House. ‘I didn’t want to say this,’ Trump said, ‘But this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House. It’s actually a larger room, and it’s a much more secure [sic]. It’s got – it’s drone-proof, it’s bulletproof glass.”’

• BALLROOM. The Ballroom, which would be big enough for 1,000 guests, has been a priority for Trump in his Second Term. He has long argued that the existing event spaces at the White House, particularly the previous formal space in the East Room, which can seat 200 people, are inadequate. ‘In October [2025], the Old East Wing was torn down to make room for Trump’s vision, which will feature full-length windows, GILT DETAILING and a SUBTERRANEAN BUNKER.’ But since then, the Project has run into difficulties, having been repeatedly opposed by heritage organisations.”

• ACCOUTREMENT. “‘The Conspiracy Theorists have also seized on various pieces of footage and supposed “Incongruities” from Saturday evening, including Trump’s unusual presence at the event and the weakened security measures, to bolster their claims.’ Speaking on George Galloway’s Mother of All Talk Shows, former CIA agent and blogger, Larry Johnson, noted that it was JD Vance, the Vice-President, rather than Trump, who was the first person the Secret Service removed from the stage, against protocol.”

• DISTRACTION. Apart from the Ballroom Theory, other accounts have suggested that Trump could have staged the attacks to distract from his low approval ratings or the US-Israeli War on Iran. ‘A lot of people are saying they think the WHCD [White House Correspondents’ Dinner] shooting was staged, as a way to change the Narrative from his abysmal approval ratings and his bumbling of the Iran War,’ wrote Majid Padellan, a social media personality known online as ‘Brooklyn Dad,’ who has 1.3 million followers, on X.

• TRUMP. “What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE. This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough! While beautiful, it has every highest level security feature there is plus, there are no rooms sitting on top for unsecured people to pour in, and is inside the gates of the most secure building in the World, The White House. The ridiculous Ballroom lawsuit, brought by a woman walking her dog, who has absolutely No Standing to bring such a suit, must be dropped, immediately. Nothing should be allowed to interfere with with its construction, which is on budget and substantially ahead of schedule!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP” (Truth Social, April 26, 2026, 1;46 pm)

PATHOLOGICAL PRETENSION. “Refers to an extreme, persistent, and irrational tendency to make False or Highly Exaggerated Claims about one’s own importance, intelligence, skills, or status. It goes beyond typical vanity or social climbing, acting as a Compulsive Behavior that is often detached from Reality.” – AI Overview, ret. Apr. 28, 2026; edited

There is undeniable and quite bizarre PRECEDENT for these possibilities by a man who is far beyond normal human confines for rational or ethical behavior. Several news sources confirm, for example, that throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, Donald Trump frequently ‘Pretended’ to be his own public relations representative—using the Alter Egos “John Miller” or “John Barron” (sometimes spelled Baron)—to call New York City reporters and television news desks. These calls were aimed at boasting about his financial successes, managing his public image, or placing stories about his romantic life.

 THE LOSS OF TRUTH. Early in my journey with Christ, though I cannot name a specific time or event, I came to hold a deep and most profound affection for the Idea of Truth. After being appointed as Founding Director of Regent University’s Institute of Public Affairs Journalism in 1984, that high regard for Truth would deepen even further.

We would often quote the thoughts of the brilliant Christian polemicist JOHN MILTON, from whose classic Areopagitica (1644) in defense of a Free Press would propose this. “Let her [Truth] and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter? Her confuting is the best and surest suppressing.”

Another profound Christian thinker back in those formative days come to my close attention was DR. CARL F.H. HENRY, renown Evangelical theologian who similarly wrote eloquently about Truth, and what takes place when it is abandoned.

“More is sacrificed by defecting from the Truth of Revelation than simply the Truth about God and Man and the World; Loss of the Truth and Word of God plunges into Darkness the very Truth of truth, the Meaning of meaning, and even the Significance of Language. ‘To sever the concerns of Reason and Life from the Revelation of God as the Final Ground and Source of Truth and The Good accommodates and accelerates the contemporary drift to NIHILISM [Philosophical Viewpoint that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of Human Existence, such as Objective Truth, Knowledge, Morality, Values, or Meaning].Itis not merely Christianity that stands or falls with the Reality of Revelation. ‘To avert a Nihilistic Loss of Enduring Truth and Good, only the RECOVERY OF REVELATION will suffice.’” ―  God, Revelation and Authority, 1983; edited

KELLY’S THESIS. To the extent therefore that America has largely Abandoned God and Truth: (1) Led by the great majority of their Pastors, the White Evangelical Church in America has abandoned Christ and Canon for a Strong Man leader and a false politicized gospel. (2) Consequently, the Church has Rejected the full Gospel Truth of Christ beginning in 2016, again in 2020, and a third time in 2024 in three National Referenda. And (3) She has thus condemned herself to a sustained Rebellion Against the God of Truth, the result of which is an ongoing and rapidly accelerating National Suicide that will centrifugally force us toward Collapse by the End of the Decade in the year 2030.

Under this Great Cloud of Apostasy, I confess at times I cry out: “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope” (Princess Leia Organa in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977). And I confess further that in Moments of Pique, I offer to the Lord that very metaphorical plea:

“Help us, Lord; you are, ‘OUR ONLY HOPE!’”

Which is precisely where America and I daresay the entire World of Nations have arrived: CHOOSE CHRIST! For there is no longer any other Hope for Mankind. At the now inarguable End of the Age, ‘He is all we have.’

TIME FOR REVEILLE. “A bugle or trumpet call to wake military personnel at sunrise.” Literally from the French term, Réveille [Re-vay], an exclamatory word translated; “WAKE UP!”

So as I begin to close out our discussion, I combed the Scriptures to look at passages related to Waking Up a Dying Church. After pondering a number pof old standbys, I was somewhat surprised to be very firmly led to one of the Seven Churches Jesus addressed that I have never before considered. I shall refer to it as:

THE CHURCH THAT KILLED GOD.“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: Who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?” – FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, The Gay Science, 1882; edited

When the German first published this provocative idea, most of the Christian World presupposed him to be a rank atheist, but I disagree. My reread of some of his work was that he was in some ways ‘Lamenting the Death of Truth at the hands of German Nihilists and Ultranationalists who had slain the Abrahamic God and His Precepts.’

Thus I turn our final attention to the CHURCH AT SARDIS, that has been given the label, “The Dead Church.” I will cite the entire passage spoken by Jesus Christ in fervent remonstrance to this body, and end with a few applications to the American Church in 2026 – “The Year of the Beast.”

“To the angel (divine messenger) of the church in Sardis write: ‘These are the words of Him who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars:

‘I know your deeds; you have a name (reputation) that you are alive, but [in reality] YOU ARE DEAD. Wake up, and strengthen and reaffirm what remains [of your faithful commitment to Me], which is about to die; for I have not found [any of] your deeds completed in the sight of My God or meeting His requirements. So remember and take to heart the lessons you have received and heard. Keep and obey them, and REPENT [change your sinful way of thinking, and demonstrate your repentance with new behavior that proves a conscious decision to turn away from sin]. 

So then, if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. But you [still] have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes [that is, contaminated their character and personal integrity with sin]; and they will walk with Me [dressed] in white, because they are worthy (righteous). 

He who overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God] will accordingly be dressed in white clothing; and I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, and I will confess and openly acknowledge his name before My Father and before His angels [saying that he is one of Mine]. 

He who has an ear, let him hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches.’” – REVELATION 3:1-6, AMP

LESSONS FOR THE AMERICAN CHURCH. This is what I hear the King of kings saying to us all in this Late Hour of human history.

1. UNALIVE. Those who’ve become Nominalistsrather than True Disciples of Christ, His in form only, not in Spirit, Truth and Obedience. Such are Spiritually Dead [‘Nekros’ [εκρὸς]– ‘Deceased, become a corpse with no works’]. The Spirit has vacated the Church and is no longer present in the preaching, the worship, nor the outreaches.

• UNAWAKE. Thus does Jesus (likely in a loud voice) Command these Church members living in a spiritual coma to: ”WAKE UP!” From the Greek, ‘Grégoreó!’ [γρηγορῶν], meaning, “Watch! Become vigilant again! Pay attention to unfolding eventsl!” In other words, get back up on that Wall and become Christ’s Light to all the encroaching Darkness.

• UNEREPENTANT. The Messiah then gives the Church what constitutes His FINAL WARNING: “Repent!” From, ‘Metanoeó’! [μετανόησον]: “To think and act differently in accordance with Divine Truth; i.e., OBEDIENCE!” Once again, the Lord attends to the False Teaching of “Once Saved Always Saved’ (OSAS), since these rebellious Christians can have their names “blotted out” [‘Exaleiphó, ’ἐξαλείψω-‘obliterated, erased forever’] from the Book of Life.

CODA. At a time when Trump’s Angry Visage shall appear on our own Passports, when King Charles had to quote the Magna Carta (1215) to the American President, we must finally understand this, beloved:

‘The Nation and the Church are effectively MORIBUND, but individual lives and a few congregations can be Restored to Christ, Truth, and Courageous Witness.’ 

Therefore, God says:

“But you, beloved, BUILD YOURSELVES UP on [the foundation of] your most holy faith [continually progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher], PRAY in the Holy Spirit, and keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously and looking forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ [which will bring you] to eternal life. 

And HAVE MERCY on some, who are doubting; SAVE OTHERS, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy but with fear, loathing even the clothing spotted and polluted by their shameless immoral freedom.” – JUDE 1:20-23, AMP

These are the ‘Words of Iron,’ as our Native friends might say it, of the Lord to the Last of Us on this disintegrating Earth. So let’s get on with it! “While it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.

Selah.

MEDIA

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/65JqK96GHvw