Fake History, How Should We Counter It? Part Two: 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: 01/10/2018

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:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live! We’re talking about today’s hottest topics on policy and faith in the culture, always doing that from a Biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.

My name is R1ick Green; I’m a former Texas legislator. I”€™m normally hosting the program here in studio with David Barton, America’s premier historian and our founder of WallBuilders, and Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor and our president at WallBuilders.  Today we’re actually going to go out to the ProFamily Legislators”€™ Conference; and, Tim Barton is going to be speaking on fake history and talking about how to counter that fake history and set the record straight.

Yesterday we began that presentation. We’re going to pick up today right where we left off yesterday, and then tomorrow we’ll get the conclusion. So, let’s head back to the the ProFamily Legislators”€™ Conference; here’s Tim Barton on fake history.

Fake History

Tim:

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. They did 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.

[indistinct answer]

Okay. The project actually started before that. Now they did finish it; it {stretched on} a long time.

When Did They Build the Wall?

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. It is interesting, because Israel also was attacked.

In fact, if you look at their terrorists–there are documents that actually date when this terrorist activity happened. And so, this is 1948 when they became a nation right here. So, terrorism is a low after they became a nation; and, that’s 2001; that’s 2002.

And, this is when there’s all kinds of suicide bombers. It’s when they have people machine gunning.

Israel has some very smart people, and they said, “€œWhere are all these attacks originating?”€ And, they found the city they were coming out of. And, they said, “€œWhat we should do is we should put roadblocks in place so before a van can come out, we inspect the van and make sure it’s not loaded with bombs before it leaves that city.”€ Novel idea.

So, they begin building a wall. Notice that as they put up roadblocks, it happens.This is when they begin putting perimeters around the city; over here is when they have the wall completed. Now, notice it”€™s largely resolved the problem.

I did think it was very interesting that the Pope came out and condemned Israel for having this wall or condemning America for wanting to build a wall, when–I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Vatican or the wall that goes around it.

Israel Didn”€™t Target an Ethnicity, a People Group  or a Religious Group

But, here’s what’s significant. Israel did not target an ethnicity; they didn’t target a people group or even some religious group. They targeted violence; and, they said, “€œWe’re just going to make sure that people that are trying to inflict violence, that we have inspected before they come out, to make sure they can’t do that harm to us or to the people who are trying to protect.”€

Now, that”€™s a pretty good idea. And, let me just back you up also. One of the things that is staggering with Americans is we know so little geography, that most Americans don’t even understand the Israel discussion, because we don’t know geography.

Israel is a really small little nation. They only have roughly 13 million people. They are surrounded by 14 Muslim nations.

Those 14 Muslim nations have 1.9 billion people. They are outnumbered 146 to 1. Part of the argument with Israel is “€œThey are against Muslims.”€

Or, by the way, Palestinians are Muslims, right? So, “€œWell, they’re against the Palestinians.”€ Here’s what’s so crazy to me.

A Ridiculous Two-State Solution

Even the two-state solution is kind of ridiculous on a lot of levels. But, even the two-state solution, if you’re a Muslim and you don’t want to live in a nation that’s not Muslim, and Israel is really easy. Walk about 20 miles in almost any direction, and you come into a Muslim nation and you can be in a Muslim nation. Like, easy solution.

Although the Palestinians, every time Israel’s offer the two-state solution, the Palestinians have turned it down; because, they’re not interested in having their own land. The Palestinians want all the land.

They don’t want their own nation but want Israel. Let’s keep going.

God”€™s Covenant Concerning Israel

So, Israel–obviously in a room like this, hopefully you are familiar with the Bible says. But, Israel starts with the covenant that God made with Abraham. In Genesis 12, God tells Abraham, “€œI will make you into a great nation. I’ll bless those who bless you; and, whoever curses you, I will curse, and all the peoples of the Earth will be blessed through you.”€

This is the origins of what we would call the nation of Israel, is the promise God made, part of the Abrahamic covenant. And, this is the origins of Israel.  Notice that everybody that blesses will bless; everybody that curses is cursed.

And, God says He makes a covenant with them. Now, Numbers 23:19 says, “€œGod is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?”€

So, if God said He’s going to do it, He’s going to do it. And also, it’s worth pointing out Psalms 105: “€œHe remembers His covenant forever, the word He’s commanded for a thousand generations.”€ So, this covenant is forever.

But, even if we said, “€œWell this is 1000 generations.”€ How many generations Biblically, historically speaking, how many generations has it been since Abraham? A little over 200.

That means there’s a whole lot of covenant left on the covenant, right? Well, this is what the Bible tells us, that God’s going to keep His word when he makes a covenant. Well, again geography.

Israel can and the state of Texas 32 times. So, it’s not a very big nation. If you read the Bible and see what God promised Israel, as far as her birth borders were concerned, Israel was promised a lot. What Israel has today is not nearly what God told her that she would have.

And again, this is where it matters. If you don’t know geography or history, you’re going to come up with some bad ideas when it comes to the nation of Israel. But, Israel again is accused of this apartheid.

The Palestinian Argument on College Campuses

Or in this case, “€œWell all this; Israel is occupying “€˜Palestinian land.”€™”€ Do you know that one of the leading college arguments, the Palestinian argument on college campuses, this is what they display, and they say, “€œThe blue is Jews.”€ So, they say, “€œIf you go back to 1917, notice there were barely any Jews in Israel, and it was Palestinian land. Today, look how many there are; we should go back to like it was in 1917.”€

And, I feel like if we want to go back in time, like this was the Jews”€™ long before you were around. And also, you know Palestinians by history are not Middle Easterners. They’re Greeks.

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”€™ll 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.

TIM:

So, even the modern Palestinians are not the historic Palestinians. It was actually, right, the king that conquered, and they changed the name because we’re actually naming after the Philistines who were the Greeks who came. There’s a lot of interesting history to this.

Fake History is Being Proclaimed

But, the point is we hear so many things today that are absolutely fake. The problem is we never are told the other part of the story. This is one of the things the Bible tells us in Proverbs 18:17, “€œThe first to speak in court sounds right until the cross-examination begins.”€

There is a reason that we let both sides speak. Well, the news media generally is more interested in telling you what is sensational, or their opinion, or what they think, instead of actually what is true.  Let’s dig a little deeper.

And again, this is where we are. Even if you look at America and the way we even teach history. And, this is where we spent a lot of time is with history, and this is what I want to spend a little more time talking about as we finish up this afternoon.

When it comes to history, we’ve become a very gullible culture. So, one of the things we tell young people is that no matter who you talk to, if anybody tells you anything, there are four basic questions you need to ask; and, it doesn’t matter who it is and what they tell you. If anybody tells you”€”if my pastor told me something, I’d ask these questions.

Four Questions to Ask Before Believing

Here’s the first question you should ask, no matter who tells you what. The first question you want to ask is How do you know? Right?

I mean think about Paul when in Acts, he”€™s talking to the Bereans. Right? And, the Bereans are like, “€œOkay, hold up, Paul; I’m not sure we can trust you. How do we know that’s true? Somebody go get a scroll bring the scroll out; we’re going to make sure this guy is not lying.”€

This ought to be a fundamental question for all of us. How do I know what you’re saying is true? And if I haven’t verified it, it”€™s not worth believing.

Well, a follow up question to that is What’s your source? Where did you get your information from? “€œWell, I saw this on Facebook.”€ Oh, okay; so, really credentialed well.

Or, “Wikipedia.”€

Some say, “CNN.”€

“€œWell, Fox.”€

This is the reality. Most Americans form their opinions not just online; it’s actually worse. It’s from stuff like this.

Now, George Washington did say, “€œIf it was on the Internet, then it must be true;”€ so, at least there’s some credibility for believing everything we see on the Internet. Right? Abraham Lincoln said, “€œDon’t believe everything you read on the Internet just because there’s a picture where the quote next to it.”€ I think is really good advice from Lincoln, right? That’s  a really wise statement: I shouldn’t believe it just because there”€™s picture and a quote.

How many of our constituents or church members”€”right”€”like, we believe the dumbest things all the time. Why? Because we never try to validate is it true or not.

If it lines up with what we like and what we believe, we want to believe it. If it confirms what I already feel, then I but it must be true; because that’s how I feel. Instead of saying, “€œWell, what’s actually true about this?”€

Context Matters

Let me give you another question: What is the context? Why does this matter? Let’s just”€”again, as a Christian–Why does this matter?

Because, what if we talked about the apostle Paul, and I said, “€œYou know, actually, Paul said, “€˜I hate Christians, and all Christians should die.”€™”€ He said that probably lots and lots of times to lots of people, right?

But, what’s the full context? See, if you don’t know the context of the statement or the context of life in which they made that statement, you can reach wrong conclusions. Right?

Thomas Jefferson, he’s the one that said, “€œSeparation of Church and State.”€ Yes. What’s the context?

Right. Let’s read that letter; because, when you read the letter, you realize Oh, that’s not what he meant. He meant something totally different.

Context matters; and, not just for the statement, also sometimes for their life.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, at the end of their life, they actually began to question several doctrines of Christianity. They questioned the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus. There were several things they questioned.

And so, there”€™s–I know some secular groups; I even know Christians that will use this against them and say, “€œSee, they didn’t believe in God.”€ No, you’re right; the last eight years of their life, they said some crazy things. But, as a general rule of thumb, I don’t go to the nursing home and talk to people in the last eight years of their life and say, “€œThat must be what they believed their whole life.”€ I mean, I believe that”€™s a good principle.

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.

Tim:

Franklin Graham would not allow his father to speak nearly the last 20 years of his life.

Do you know why? Franklin actually explained, and I think it’s very brilliant.

Franklin said, “€œI’m afraid that my father would say something in his old age that people would use to discredit his entire life’s ministry.”€ He’s right; they would have. This is a brilliant thought from him.

But, the point is, even the context of their life makes a difference, right? Now, I’m not saying that Jefferson and Adams weren’t lucid at the end of their life. I don’t know if they were or not.

But, it’s worth understanding they didn’t say that until the last eight years of their life. It makes a difference; because, that’s not when they were doing the Declaration. It’s not in the era of the Constitution or even the era of them being President; but it was after all of that. That’s significant.

Last question: Is that all he said about the issue? That is also significant; because, I probably could show you some quotes from Adolf Hitler where it might seem like he’s a good guy. Or, you might see a quote from Billy Graham that seems like he’s a bad guy. That’s not all they said though, right?

This also makes a difference when it comes to especially history or faith in our nation. The faith of our nation, America’s godly heritage, is the kind of stuff  where a lot of times people will take one quote and use it to say, “€œNone of our Founding Fathers were Christians.”€ Well, that’s all they said; or, maybe you’re just choosing the one exception to the rule.

Bonus Questions

And actually, so here these are bonus questions. I tell the kids: Are they making generalizations or are giving specific examples?

I had a kid text me last week. He said, “€œMy professor just said that none of the Founding Fathers were Christians.”€ Now, that’s  significant because that’s a generalization. So, I told the kid; I said, “€œYou need to ask if your professor can name all the people all the Founding Fathers that he knows were not Christian.”€

Why? Because anybody can make a generalization. Right?

There were 56 guys who signed the Declaration; there were 55 guys that wrote the Constitution, 90 who framed the Bill of Rights. You have early Major Generals; you have early governors. There are a lot of Founding Fathers.

So, you’re saying none of them were. Who do you know that weren’t? Because, right now all you’ve done is made your generalization. And, if all you can do is name two people or no people, as the case might be, then you don’t know what you are talking about; and, you revealed to me you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Here’s another question: Are the people they are quoting consistent with the other Founding Fathers? The Freedom From Religion Foundation, their favorite two people to quote: number one is Thomas Paine.

Thomas Paine is the only person that’s considered a Founding Father, at least the only one that’s quoted much, who actually hated Christianity. He thought it was stupid; he believed in God. Paine was not an atheist, not an agnostic. He might have been closer to a deist; but, he believed there was a God who created everything; but, he thought Christianity was stupid.

Well, he’s the one that gets quoted the most. The second one is quoted a lot is John Adams from the Treaty of Tripoli where he says, “€œAmerica is in no means founded on the Christian religion;”€ and, they actually don’t quote the full sentence; because, that would change even the context of what they’re quoting. But, they quote Thomas Paine the most.

Well, was he consistent with the other Founding Fathers? No. In fact, the other Founding Fathers fought with him a lot when they found out that he was not someone who supported Christianity.

A Question of Contradiction

Here’s the last question. Do those quotes contradict other times in their lives?

Again, looking at guys like Jefferson or a guy like John Adams, they did say things in their life; but, that’s not consistent to who they were their whole life. Why this m

matters is you hear accusations today, and if we would ask questions, we would come up with really good solutions to this.

So, “€œThe Founding Fathers weren”€™t Christians;”€ and, when I have young people, it’s always, “€œWhat questions should we ask?”€ How do you know? It”€™s a great place to start, right?

How do we know they weren”€™t Christians? And, when we start asking questions, we realize something very different. In fact, if you go back to the Declaration, our founding document, the Declaration was written by a 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson.

And, I remember as a kid thinking that 33-year-olds were really old and probably mature and smart. I’m 36; I realize 33 is not that old, nor are they necessarily that smart.

Our Nation Was Not Built on a Subjective Thought

So, what Jefferson did with the Declaration is actually very significant, the ideas he put forward. And, there were 45 words I know that we recognize; we’ve talked about them before: “€œWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. And, among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men.”€

Jefferson lays out our philosophy in the Declaration brilliantly. And, let me start off pointing out that he says, “€œWe hold these truths to be self-evident.”€ Our nation was built not on a subjective thought. It was built on something that all 56 guys agreed was truth; because, the Declaration was unanimous consent of the 13 United States of America; everybody agreed this is true.

Now, notice what they agreed to: “€œWe”€™re created equal. We have inalienable rights that come from God; government secures those rights.”€ Here’s what’s interesting also. He says, “€œThose truths are self-evident;”€ what does that mean?

It means they are obvious. Do you think it’s obvious to people in North Korea or Saudi Arabia or India or Mexico or Venezuela or Guatemala? Like, who is this obvious to?

Because, if we talk about “€œcreated equal,”€ do you know, for example, in India, large Hindu population. Hindu population or Hindu religion believes in reincarnation; and actually, in reincarnation, you can come back in different classes or levels of people.

If you are in the lower classes because you did a bad job in your first life, therefore this is punishment for your last life. But, that also means that people who are in the upper classes are allowed to intentionally abuse the people in the lower class, because it’s part of the punishment they should receive, even legal to urinate and defecate on lower classes, because they deserve anything that happens to them. They don’t believe in equality.

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 from American history. Alexis
De Tocqueville, a political official from France, traveled to the United States
in 1831 and penned his observations in the now famous book, “€œDemocracy In
America.”€

Being from
France, what he found in America was completely unexpected to him. He reported,
“€œUpon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was
the first thing that struck my attention. And the longer I stayed there the
more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this. In
France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of
freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found that they were
intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country.”€

Did
Tocqueville recognized that it was Biblical Christianity and the morals it
produced that made America great? For more information about Alexis Tocqueville
and the positive influence of Christianity in early America go to
WallBuilders.com.

The World Does Not Believe in Equality

Tim:

Saudi Arabia this summer, passed a pretty interesting law. They said, “€œWomen can now get driver’s licenses.”€ Equality.

“€œMe Too”€ has finally met Saudi Arabia. Well done.

Except, how many licenses have they issued? They have issued some. How many they issued? Nine.

And, the women are only legally allowed to drive if their husband is in the front seat beside them giving them directions. Interesting, okay? Not going to touch it; it”€™s just interesting.

Notice the rest of the world doesn’t believe in equality like we do in America, okay? Or, the idea that we have rights that come from God. I mean, do you think people in North Korea believe rights come from God or Kim Jong Un?

Or, in China, do they come from God or from the communist governments? The world does not believe that we have rights that come from God or the idea that government’s job is to protect our rights.

Who Believes Government”€™s Job is to Protect Our Rights?

I was on a mission trip in Guatemala a couple of summers ago; and, we were building an orphanage, a new facility, and so we’re doing plumbing. And so, the guy who’s in charge of the orphanage gives me some money and said, “€œI want you to run down the hardware store, pick up supplies, and come back.”€ He said, “€œI want you to put the five-dollar bill in your pocket and put the rest of the money in your sock. That way, when you’re going, when you get robbed, you just hand them the five-dollar bill, and then you go on to the store and buy what we need; you come back.”€

And I said, “€œWait a second. Let’s back up. You said, “€˜When you get robbed.”€™”€

He said, “€œOh yes. If you’re walking down the streets, and a police officer or the military see you, they will recognize you’re not from here; and, our government is so corrupt, that many of the police officers and many of our military, their families are having a very hard time getting food to eat. So, what they do is they rob all the tourists.

“€œSo, they’re going to say, “€˜Give me all the money in your pocket, and I won’t take you to jail.”€™ So, you have to show them your pockets are empty; if you put all the money in there, you”€™re going to lose all our money. So, put the rest in your sock; give them the money and keep going.”€

They don’t believe Governor Chavez protect our rights. See, it’s crazy when I started thinking about this. Jefferson said that this is self-evident.

Well, it wasn’t self-evident to the king, which is why we had to separate. So, who are these rights self-evident to? And, here’s what’s a fascinating discovery.

They are only self-evident to people that actually know what the Bible teaches. Think about the idea that we have equality. Where do we get that idea even from the Bible?

Let’s go to Genesis where God makes male and female in His image. Fascinating thought about Adam and Eve: the Bible does not tell us what shape, size, or color they were.

Why? Because that has nothing to do with value.

Don”€™t Miss Part 2 to Learn How to Counter Fake History

Rick:

Well, friends, we are out of time for today. That was Tim Barton speaking on fake history at the ProFamily Legislators Conference, talking about how to counter that fake history. Tomorrow we’re going to pick up right where we left off today, and we’ll get the conclusion of that presentation.

So, be sure to tune in tomorrow to WallBuilders Live!