Fake History, How Do We Recognize It? Part One: Join us for this three-part series with Tim Barton sharing at the Profamily Legislators Conference. Everyone is talking about fake news but what about the fake history being taught in schools? How do we recognize it? How should we counter it? And how do we correct the record? Tune in now to learn more.

Air Date: 01/09/2018

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

This is WallBuilders Live where we’re talking about today’s hottest topics on policy, faith the culture and all of those things we’re looking at them from a biblical historical and constitutional perspective.

My name is Rick Green I’m a former Texas legislator. Normally, I’m here in the studio with David Barton America’s premier historian and Tim Barton national speaker and pastor. But today we’re going to take you out to the ProFamily Legislators Conference.
All week this week we’re bringing you some of the great information that’s been shared at that conference for those legislators. But we want you as a citizen also to be equipped with this information.

This presentation today tomorrow and the last of the week on Friday is going to come from Tim Barton. He was speaking at the Profamily Legislators Conference on fake history. How do we counter it? How do we recognize it? And how do we correct the record?

So we’re going to jump right back into the Profamily Legislators Conference today. It’s going to be Tim Barton speaking on fake history. It’ll take us three days to get the full presentation.

So make sure you go to our Website right there at walbuilderslive.com to get all three pieces and share them with your friends and family.

Here’s Tim Barton on fake history.

Summer Camps And Training Programs

Tim:

Part of what we want to cover is, I mentioned we do a lot of work with young people and in fact, during the summer that’s really all I do, I have 10 weeks of doing the camps.

Rick mentioned Patriot Academy. It’s one of the ones I’m very privileged to be able to go and be a leader, be a coach, be a speaker a teacher down there. We also work with a camp called High Point. It’s a high school camp actually Tim Brooks. They have a kids summer camp. One of the best ones I think ever around. They have a high school leadership camp, and the idea was to help high school students learn not just to be Christians but be leaders in their schools.

You know one of the things that so often kids hear you know Jesus or God and love and forgiveness, and that’s great, but we don’t learn how to be leaders and influence situations. And so that’s what the high school camps all about that the three weeks of that.

And then at WallBuilders, we do several weeks of leadership training programs for college students. We do a lot of apologetics so that part of what we’ll talk about is a little bit related to that. A verse that hopefully we are familiar with John 14:6. Jesus says, “€˜I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the Father except through me.”€™  It is worth noting that second sentence Jesus makes a claim of exclusivity.

He is the only way to the father. Why does it matter? Because more than 70 percent of Christians, today think you can get to heaven without believing in Jesus.

How? Well, we have a loving God, he wouldn’t send you to hell. Jesus makes this claim that he’s the only way to the father.

Truth Has Become So Subjective, We Can”€™t Define It As A Culture Anymore

Actually, I was on Facebook during lunch, and a guy that I grew up with who went to Bible college put two verses on Facebook, arguing that Jesus”€™ atoning work was done for all. Therefore, all people will be saved. They will be in heaven because God will not separate anybody from himself.

Like oh my gosh, what are we talking about. Right. But here’s the reality of even the culture we live in. And notice also the first sentence that Jesus says that he is the truth. Truth has become something so significant in culture because it’s become so pluralistic or subjective or relativistic that we can’t even define it anymore. Right.

We can’t even define what a gender is. Right. I mean it used to be like I was homeschooled. So like science was kind of iffy. Like part of my science was when we field dressed a deer. And my dad was like that’s the heart and those are lungs with holes in them. That’s where the bullet went. Like science was a little different. Right. For a country kid.

However, I’m pretty sure I learned about this X and Y kind of thing. But this is the reality is we have a culture that no longer accepts that there can be any objective standard of truth. Why does it even matter?

There Is Objective Truth

Well, obviously Jesus is truth. So from a Christian perspective truth matters. Also noticed Jesus says and John 8:32 that you know the truth and the truth makes you free. Not only does truth matter as an American or for me as a conservative as a Christian. You cannot be set free from truth you do not know or truth that is subjective or relativistic. Right.

I mean you have to understand there is objective truth. Even as a Christian, think about how much the Bible talks about this.

In fact, in Philippians 4:8 when Paul talks about that we should think or meditate on certain things right. Finally, brothers sisters whatever true whatever is noble and excellent and praiseworthy of good report go through the list. Think about these things, but he says what’s true. Well here’s the question in culture is: how do we determine what is true anymore?

Do We Have A Critical Method To Judge Truth

Now I’m saying this hopefully for us, we have a critical method that we use right. We have an objective standard of measurement, but we have a culture that doesn’t know what that is anymore. And so this is where if we don’t help those around us.

Right, our staffers even for that matter right. The young people that work in volunteers, are dog walkers and are door knockers. We have to help them think differently, and I think one of the best examples: Thomas Jefferson in 1787.

He was over in Europe, and this is when we’re doing the Constitution in America, and a lot of people attribute Jefferson the Constitution and because they don’t know history. He had nothing to do with that. Even the idea of the first amendment, the separation of church and state. He wasn’t here for any of that when it was written.

He was in Europe, but he had a nephew. His nephew is Peter Carr. Peter card lost his father. And so Jefferson felt a responsibility that he wants to pour in the Peter Carr.

So while he’s over in Europe, he writes Peter Carr a letter, and there’s four main things he addresses one of them is religion and then the section on religion he says something that I think is fascinating especially in the sense of being critical thinkers for us.

Ask Questions So That You Know It Is True

He says, question with boldness even the existence of a God because of there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. Now Jefferson’s not telling him not to believe in God but what he does point out I think is fascinating.

He says you shouldn’t believe in God just because somebody told you to. Right, don’t believe something just because everybody around you believes it. Believe it because you ask questions in pursuit of truth and you discovered it was true. And if it’s not true, you shouldn’t believe it.

Now I don’t even have a problem saying we should ask that question because I look at examples like Lee Strobel or C.S. Lewis or Josh Megh Darrick. God is not scared of us asking questions about him.

Bring A Speaker To Your Area

Tim:

Hey, this is Tim Barton with WallBuilders.  And as you’ve had the opportunity to listen to WallBuilders Live, you’ve probably heard a wealth of information about our nation, about our spiritual heritage, about the religious liberties, and about all the things that make America exceptional.

And you might be thinking, “€œAs incredible as this information is, I wish there was a way that I could get one of the WallBuilders guys to come to my area and share with my group.”€

Whether it be a church, whether it be a Christian school, or public school, or some political event, or activity, if you’re interested in having a WallBuilders speaker come to your area, you can get on our website at www.WallBuilders.com, and there’s a tab for scheduling.

If you click on that tab, you’ll notice there’s a list of information from speakers bio’s, to events that are already going on.

And there’s a section where you can request an event, to bring this information about who we are, where we came from, our religious liberties, and freedoms. Go to the WallBuilders website and Bring a speaker to your area.

Ask Questions, Pursue Truth

Pursue truth, and you will discover truth if you pursue it. But this is part of asking questions. We have a culture that no longer questions and a pursuit of truth. Right. It’s I mean, it’s what we battle in the media all the time.

When the media comes out with the story. Right. That’s why the hashtag fake news. There’s many things about President Trump that don’t excite me when he tweets. But one thing I have so appreciated is even the idea of bringing the exposure to even the notion that title of fake news has led people to think this might not all be true. But that probably should have been our starting point.

But I’m glad at least at some level we’re arriving at this place and know what’s true. And here’s what’s so often people forget in culture, right. Now obviously as elected officials you know this because you’ve had things run against you. You’ve had slogans against you. Mailouts against you. You’ve seen it all.

Sensational News – Why Do They Do That?

But here’s the reality: is news outlets want to promote what is sensational not which is true. I mean, right.

Is this accurate? Right. Why? And think about this: why do they do that? Well, why do people tell the stories they tell? Right, when we’re gathered around a dinner table, we’re doing things or on social media. Why do we post where they post? Everything people do right? Is to get the likes, is to get the attention, to get the clicks, to get the follows.

This is what media does. They want people to follow and see. Right. God bless Jim Acosta’s heart. Right. Like this poor guy. Why. Why is he so obnoxious? Right because of the attention. I mean this is the reality of what we’re dealing with. But again, the reason this matters is because we can look at this from a critical perspective.

The culture around us doesn’t, and not even all reporters understand this concept. Right. When we start backing up.

Summer Article – Claimed Rape Was A Lie

OK so wait a second, so let”€™s just, if we’re going to have an objective perspective let me give you an article that came out this summer: former college student who claimed rape now admits it was a lie.

In the midst of a Me Too Movement. When someone makes a claim what are we supposed to do? Believe all women.

Right. Now, now here’s what’s interesting. OK, so the facts come out. Actually, it was in court that she admitted she lied about the accusations because these guys from the football team took her to court, said we did not do that. Now, it was consensual apparently what happened. I won’t go into details because there are a few youngins in the room.

However, why in the world did she come out and say that she was raped? There’s only one reason – because we’ve given a new elevated status to the victim. Right.

Because now if you claim to be the victim, oh my gosh we have to stop right these evil men and then whatever. This is the reality.

We Should Probably Walk Through Due Process First

We don’t look to say, wait a second obviously what happened it’s terrible, and it never should have happened. And I’m totally as anybody who does it ever, but we probably should walk through due process first. Right. Like Judge Kavana prime example of that. When the main accusation you have has not one single bit of corroboration on any level. Well, then we probably shouldn’t just burn them because he’s a witch. Like maybe we should walk this due process and culture doesn’t seem to understand this notion.

And let me point out it, doesn’t matter what news organization you watch. I mean literally, it doesn’t matter because all of them want to promote what’s sensational.

We Ought To Ask, Is This True?

And so here’s the reality:  is the first thing we ought to be asking any headline is, is it true and it doesn’t matter who it is. I can point to every outlet that said things that weren’t sure. Right. And. I don’t even blame them necessarily for being dishonest because what if they thought it was true? It’s still on me for what I chose to believe without doing the research to confirm right.

Reagan had this really great statement trust but verify. There are some outlets I might trust a little bit more, but until I verified it, I’m not running with it.

By the way, at WallBuilders we do a lot of research trying to document historical evidence for all of this. Right, so we don’t want to put anything unless we verified it.

But this is the reality is, we should ask, is it true or is there more to the story because sometimes police officer shots an armed person maybe, but maybe there’s more to the story. And I don’t defend all police officers because I know all of sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and they’re not all good people. But I also don’t go the other way and say they’re all evil right.

Let’s just let’s get the rest of the story before we make a decision on this. And this is where, when we look at culture what our culture does not do is get all the facts before we form opinions. Now again, why does this matter? Because the people that you work with, I mean. Please lead a Sunday School class at your church and just teach people at your church. Right, let’s just pursue truth.

Right so, pastor says the Bible says. How do we know what the Bible says? And so until we’ve looked it up and verified it, you probably shouldn’t believe it.

And it’s not because we don’t love pastors because we should be people that pursue truth. This should be the most fundamental thing we do in education.

This Precarious Moment Book

David:

This is David Barton. I want to let about a brand new book we have called This Precarious Moment: Six Urgent Steps That Will Save You, Your family, and Our Country. Jim Garlow and I have co-authored this book, and we take six issues that are hot in the culture right now.

Issues that we’re dealing with, issues such as immigration, race relations, our relationship with Israel, the rising generation Millennials, and the absence of the church in the culture wars, and where American heritage is our godly heritage. We look at all six of those issues right now that are under attack, and we give you both Biblical and historical perspective on those issues that provide solutions on what each of us can do right now to make a difference.

These are all problems that are solvable if we’ll get involved. So you can grab the book This Precarious Moment and find out what you can do to make a difference. This Precarious Moment is available at WallBuilders.com.

We Should Be Teaching Our Children How to Pursue Truth And Understanding Truth

Tim:

One of the things I really appreciated about being homeschooled is I didn’t have the opportunity to take all these high-level classes. I didn’t take any AP classes, I didn”€™t write these things kids take, I didn’t have any of that. In fact, when I got to college, I had never taken chemistry in high school. Never. So I take chemistry in college and the kids starting in this chemistry class already know so much more than I do.

But the one thing I did learn being homeschooled, was to work really hard, was to be a critical thinker and to not quit when it gets hard.And so guess what I ended up with an A in class when most of the rest of the class didn’t.

Right and this is not because I have a better fundamental understanding chemistry right. No, it’s because there are some things that we ought to be teaching in education at least as far as pursuing truth and understanding truth.

We just don’t do a very good job. In fact, if I just take a few examples. This would be easy to talk about and point to.

So, for example, when we look at what happened on the southern border right. And the news went out, well Trump is separating families at the border. I mean obviously, this was a huge deal. And. A lot of stuff breaks on the news, and we”€™re asked to talk on it right.

You’re going to have reporters call you. Hey, so you’re a Republican, what do you think about this? OK, so you support Trump. We’re going to have to understand, so what do I say? How do I say in these moments? In fact, this is what Daily News came out of the left as a callous soulless Craven Trump. Because they are all synonyms right. That’s who Trump is: he’s a monster.

Did You Notice The Leg There?

Well, come to find out the picture they’re using, you actually did you notice that leg there? There was actually some editing done when we said Trump separated families because the photo that they were using to show Trump separated families was not accurate. So all these reports are coming out at least from conservatives.

Now, mind you all kinds of media and liberal elites are sharing this is saying, Trump is separating these families and I’m going wait a second, who”€™s leg is that? Right, oh that’s actually her mom’s. And guess who is never separated in that encounter? The child and her mom.

Now, that’s interesting because we’re told they’re all separated.

Who”€™s Being Seperated, Why Are They Being Seperated?

Well, so in pursuit of truth, I want to know are families actually being separated at the border.

Yes, some families are being separated but who’s being separated and why are they being separated?

Right. I think many know, at least Texas legislatures could actually speak to this because many of them have visited the border. They’ve seen what was going on.

In fact, I think my recollection is more than 300 sex traffickers had been caught. I think it was this year alone trying to bring kids across the borders.

What they want to do is make sure like hey is this is this actually your family that you’re with or somebody else, and so they did.

Now in the midst of this also, if you’ve entered somewhere illegally what happens if you go somewhere illegally? Well, if you enter somewhere illegally, a lot of times if you do something illegal you get arrested.

Well, when you look at the conditions, like this is not a situation you probably want to put little girls or children in. Now, also if you look at those situations, every one of us would acknowledge those are terrible living conditions. And that’s that’s not how we want to treat humans or people.

Do You Know When Those Pictures Were Taken?

In fact, that’s what the media did. They said look how terrible this is except the funny thing. Do you know when those pictures were taken?

Yeah, they were taken in 2014. Guess who was not president in 2014. Right. So actually this was happening under the Obama administration. And guess who didn’t say anything. The news.

Why? Because it didn’t fit their narrative and agenda. Right. I mean this is again this is the reality of what we’re dealing with in fact the New York Times did a piece where they talked about how detestable things that were under President Obama and yet nobody wanted to talk about it. Because no.

This is our savior, right. The Chosen One. He will take us to the promised land. We cannot forsake him. So this is how the media treated the situation. Now, it would also be disingenuous if we just blamed Obama because Obama’s not the one that started this process.

Actually, you can back up, and this was done under George W. Bush and under Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton’s the one that first started some of this notion, and I’m not even against this idea of saying, hey let’s make sure we verify who they are before they come in. It’s just taken a couple of weeks to do it. But why is it taking weeks to do because of the process and what’s like. I get it right. I get what’s going on.

You Cannot Blame Trump Because He Inherited The Problem

But the reality is, you can’t just blame Trump for everything that’s happening because he’s not the one that originated or started to put these policies in place. However, if you are now the leader what does that mean. I mean the buck stops here.

Right. So I can’t say well I’m not the one that did this. I’m just following the law. So I mean obviously yes you didn’t originate this, but it is your problem now.

So the question is: do we have a problem that needs to be solved? Yes, we have a problem needs to be solved.

Let”€™s Be Accurate About Where The Problem Came From

But that’s a different conversation than just saying Trump did this.

Which is what the media did.

Instead of saying hey we’ve had a problem for decades, we should try to resolve this. I’m down. Let’s resolve the problem. But at least let’s be accurate about where this problem came from and how it originated and where this happened. There is a problem needs to be resolved right.

But the idea that Trump did this, well this is kind of this narrative the fake news. And if we don’t ask what’s true or is there more to the story. A lot of times we don’t come up with the factual information. And this again is where media outlets just want to promote what’s sensational because that’s what sells, what gets clicks. It’s why people read their website. Let me give you another prime example what’s happened even this year looking at Israel.

Avalon Project

Tim:

Hey, guys, this is Tim Barton with WallBuilders. I know you hear my dad and Rick talk a lot about our Founding Fathers about the original intent of our nation, a constitutional heritage that we have. And really we’ve seen how far we slipped away from that. And I know a lot of us as we hear my dad and Rick talk think, “€œI wish there was a place that I could go where I could see these documents and I could read and learn about the Founding Fathers firsthand.  See the things they did.”€

I want to give you some websites today that can help you accomplish that very thing. If you get online, you can go to places like Library of Congress, and you can look under their century of lawmaking or historical documents. You can go to the Avalon Project, to the Founders Constitution, Google Books, or even the internet archives.  

Or you can just go to WallBuilders.com. We have a section for our WallBuilders Library. And under that section, we have different subgroups for historical documents, historical writings, even a place where you can get helpful links to find out more information about other websites.  Where you can do research for yourself and find the truth for yourself. Friends, this is the time that we need to know who we are and where we came from. WallBuilders.com is a great place to go.

Moment From American History

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment in American history. America is a special and unique nation. The average length for a constitution in other countries is only 17 years. But we’ve had ours for over two centuries. Our 4 percent of the world’s population produces 24 percent of the world’s gross domestic product and every year we produce more inventions and technology than the other 96 percent of the world combined.

In 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville of France came to America, traveled the country, and in his famous book, “€œDemocracy in America” reported,  “€œThe position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional. It may be believed that no Democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one.”€

This is the origin of the phrase “€œAmerican exceptionalism”€ and affirms that America is unique because of the distinctive ideas on which we’ve been based. Including in inalienable rights, individuals, and limited government, and the importance of religion, and morality. For more information about American exceptionalism go to WallBuilders.com.

President Trump’s Position On Israel

Tim:

Now. I am so grateful for President Trump’s position on Israel. However, the U.N. takes it a little bit of a different position.

If you have not and thank God for Nikki Haley on so many levels when it came to this. But the U.N., this is crazy. They said Israel is the world’s number one human rights violator.

Now it also would be worth noting that people are, the nations rather that were part of those committees because China was. Right, you start looking at some of these nations and nations from Africa that have had these civil wars that have had these murders and communist nations. And but Israel’s the number one violator of rights, really.

Well the U.N. came out to condemn them. I thought it was fascinating that the U.N. wanted to condemn Israel and yet they seemed remarkably silent when it came to Hamas or ISIS. Interesting. Why don’t we condemn people that are actually posting videos on Youtube of their murders, like that should be an easy decision to make.

But no, so it’s Israel’s fault. And so Israel is the one that is blamed.

Israel Is Accused of Apartheid

In fact, one of the things that largely they get blamed for is because of violence that happens on the Gaza Strip, violence happens on the West Bank. And when you start looking at these details one of the things that they’re largely accused of is apartheid.

And apartheid was an idea of segregated racism or racism that led to segregation. And so people are saying Israel is racist because they’re segregating. And how do we know they’re segregating? Because they’ve built a wall and they’ve told the Palestinians to stay in that wall.

It’s not exactly what happened, right? Now, certainly they did put a wall around some Palestinian areas, but not all Palestinians are behind that wall. In fact, there’s Palestinians that are elected officials, there are Palestinians in the military. But they did build the wall.

When Did They Build The Wall?

Here’s worth a question worth asking when did they build the wall?

Phil King, do you know? You are my only hope for someone actually knowing this. The project actually started before that. Now they did finish it, it was stretched over a long time.

The project actually started around the same time we had some problems. They had problems, by the way. There is part of the wall, but they had problems around the same time we did. September 11 sticks out in our mind for terrorist attacks against us.

What we often don’t talk about is the fact that we were not the only nation attacked.

Rick:

Well, friends, we are out of time for today’s program of WallBuilders Live. You’ve been listening to Tim Barton teaching on fake history. Talking about how to counter that fake history. He was speaking at the Profamily Legislators Conference.

And tomorrow, we’ll pick up right where we left off today. Then we’ll get the conclusion on the third day. All of that available at Wallbuilderslive.com. Thanks so much for listening today to WallBuilders Live.