Israel’s Sovereignty, Energy, Cabinet Bible Study And More On – Good News Friday: Join us today as we review good news in media today. President Trump recognising Isreal’s sovereignty, his economic reforms that impacting our nation, and bible study in the cabinet.  Stay tuned to find out more!

Air Date: 01/24/2020

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.

Good News Friday

Rick:

You”€™ve found your way to the Intersection of Faith in the culture. It’s WallBuilders Live. We love talking about the hottest topics of the day. We always do that from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Here with us is David Barton, America’s premier historian and the founder of WallBuilders. Tim Barton is with us, national speaker, pastor and president of WallBuilders. My name is Rick Green. I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s constitution coach.

We’re thrilled you’re with us today and looking forward to getting in some good news today. This is a Friday so we get good news from around the nation, sometimes around the world. David and Tim scour all the news and articles out there and bring as much of it as we can get into one program on a Friday.

And listen, if you enjoy having an optimistic view on what’s happening, if you enjoy it, and I don’t mean a Pollyanna kind of fake “€˜we’re excited”€™ or fake “€˜we feel good.”€™ I’m talking about just realistically looking at things with a providential point of view that recognizes that there’s nothing new under the sun. And then in the context of history, you can see patterns in cultures and societies. And that if we just hit them head on, if we look at that constitutional, biblical and historical perspective, we can have an optimistic view, first of all, because our attitude is not determined by what’s happening politically, our joy is based on whose we are, not where we are. And we are given so much freedom to participate in improving the process and having the freedom to enjoy this talent of freedom that God has given us, that we should all be optimistic and excited and willing to do our part.

And we know if you’re listening to WallBuilders Live, that’s you. And we appreciate the opportunity to encourage you a little bit today, as we share some of the victories out there and some of the positive things that are happening. This doesn’t mean we’re ignoring the tough stuff, believe me, we tackle those throughout the week as well. But today’s our day to look at some of those bright spots, and we’re going to dive right into those right now. And we’re going to start with David Barton. He’s got the first piece of good news. David?

North Texas And Canada

David:

I’m going to start by offering a scenario. I hope it’s an absurd scenario. But I’m going to say that here we are, we’re in North Texas. And where we are right here, they have recently just a few years ago approved a house in addition, it’s a former ranch and the ranch was sold and they took it as envelopment. And on that ranch, they’ve approved now 50,000 homes on that ranch. They’ve approved 13 public schools on that ranch. This is a massive piece of holding. And it’s in a very nice part of the state, very pretty, some rolling hills out here, nice little lakes and nice trees. And it’s really nice.

And that whole development was blocked because Canada complained. Canada said it really liked that land and it really wanted that land for itself. And so now we’re not able to build on that land because Canada wants it. Now if I told you that scenario, what would your response be?

Rick:

I would say bring out the old Texas flag that says come and take it. And all of us Texans will be waiting on you Canadians.

David:

That’s right. [Laughter] That’s essentially what’s been going on in Israel. In the midst of Israel and really kind of the heartland of Israel… I guess the heartland United States is not Texas be more like Nebraska.

Rick:

It depends on who you ask. If you ask a Texan, they would tell you it’s Texas.

Judea And Samaria

David:

We would say it’s the heart of the land. We wouldn’t just say the heartland, we are the heart of the United States. So if you look at Israel, the heart or the central part of that country is what the Bible calls Judea and Samaria. That is right in the middle of Israel. It is Israeli land, it’s been Israeli land since back at the time of Abraham, if you will. I mean, you”€™ve got to go all the way back to the beginning of Israel. And yet because the Palestinians object to Israel building there, they say that’s the land we want. That’s the part of the nation of Israel that we want for ourselves.

And so Judea and Samaria is where the media says, well, that’s the settlements and that’s the West Bank area and that’s the disputed area. Well, I’m sorry if it’s Israel’s land. You know what, Israel has a right to build houses on its own land. Just because Canada was part of Texas doesn’t mean it can stop us from building houses.

Pressure On Israel To Give Up Their Land

What’s happened is Mike Pompeo with the Department of State has announced that they no longer oppose Israel building homes on their own land. You know, imagine that, but that is directly contradictory to what the UN is demanding and what the EU is demanding, the European Union.

They both say that Israel has no right to build homes on its own land that they need to give all that land to the Palestinians and let the Palestinians have it, which is a ridiculous position. No European Union nation would be willing to give up their land. Germany didn’t want to give up its land to Poland and Poland wouldn’t give up his land to Hungary anybody else but they’re all demanding Israel give up this land.

Recognizing Israel’s Sovereignty

So the fact that Mike Pompeo for the Department of State, Head of Department of State for the Trump administration came out and said we have no objections, now a bill is moving through the Knesset over Israel that will allow the reintroduction of homes back into that area. They’ve always been there, it’s just the Palestinians didn’t want them there. They wanted that for themselves. So that is a major, major, major policy change. And that is a big deal and America’s relation with Israel. I mean, this goes right along with moving the embassy to Jerusalem. It’s that kind of deal, because it’s recognizing sovereignty over Israel’s own land.

And by the way, President Trump also recognize the sovereignty of Israel over the Golan Heights, and the Golan Heights used to be part of Israel but then Syria came in and took it away back when Israel was fighting for statehood back in 48. And then Syria kept launching attacks against Israel from Israel’s former land. Israel took it back in the six days war, and they’ve had it since 1968. Well, the Trump administration said, “€œNo, no, that’s Israel’s land that was Israel’s land just because Syria took it doesn’t mean it’s Syrian land.”€ And so they recognize the sovereignty of the Golan Heights, and so there are so many things happening with Trump administration.

The Recognition Of Golan Heights

And one more I’ll point out is because of what’s changed with the Trump administration, with the recognition of Golan Heights and the embassy in Jerusalem and what’s now happened with Judea and Samaria, I think it’s significant that Netanyahu came out with a really strong statement. And he says, “€œWe have no better friends than our Christian friends.”€ Yep, that’s exactly right. You know, we have that same Bible that the way you treat Israel will determine how God treats you. And it’s interesting that Israel has become so stable and so productive and so beneficial that so many of the moderate Arab states are now friends with Israel. And there are a lot of friendships going with Israel that weren’t there even 15 or 20 years ago. So it’s a real turn around.

The Jewish People

I’ll close with this quote from Netanyahu that I thought was really, really good. He was reading out of a book called Bible in the Sword. And it says this, he says, “€œThe Jewish people are the only people in the world who live in the same land, speak the same language, have the same capital and have the same religion and with the same name, they had 3,000 years ago. Jerusalem is a city where the Jewish kings ruled, where the Jewish prophets preached and where the people of Israel prayed, and the people of Israel continue to pray. If I forget the old Jerusalem, which according to Bible verse, well, we never forgot, and we came back.”€

I thought that’s a great statement for Israel. They’ve had that land for 3000 years, and folks have been trying to take it from them. But the Trump administration has done a great job in recognizing that Judea and Samaria, actually as part of Israel.

The Israel Flag

Rick:

So I think we should give these Israelis a gift. I think we should come together and make some come and take it flags, maybe instead of the cannon. I don’t know what else you’d put on it, but what language would you put it in? And we’d make these flags, let’s send them over and they can take and put those up just like we would do here in Texas.

David:

They already fly that flag. It’s called the Israeli flag. That’s the “€˜come and take it”€™ flag. Everybody’s tried to come and take it; nobody’s done it yet. So I think that Israeli flag fairly much fits that early Texas flag.

Rick:

Well, we”€™ll use the [mono lavae 07:53]. So we’ll be back guys with more good news when we come back. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

A Moment From American History

Tim: This is Tim Burton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Too often today history education excludes great black heroes from the American founding, such as Lamuel Haynes. Haynes, abandoned as a baby pioneer churches across upper New England. He became the first black American to pastor a white congregation to receive an honorary master’s degree and to be ordained by mainstream Christian denomination, The Congregationalists. He was a soldier during the American Revolution and in his Churchon George Washington’s birthday, he regularly preached sermons honoring George Washington. Even late in his life, he expressed his willingness to go back to battle necessary to protect America, which he called a sacred arc. American history is filled with numerous examples of black heroes who are largely ignored by mainstream education today. For more information about pastoral Lamuel Haynes and other colonial patriots, go to WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back on WallBuilders Live, Good News Friday today, we’ve got a lot of good news left in today’s program. And Tim’s got the next piece of good news. Go ahead, Bro.

We’re Paying Less For Gas

Tim:

All right, guys. This one is especially good news if you don’t live in one of the major cities on the coast. But the headline says we’re paying less for gas at the pump as America becomes an energy production powerhouse. Now, I say it’s really good news if you don’t live in one of the major cities on the coast because generally, it’s still super expensive there. We were recently with some friends from California and they were telling us they were paying four and a half dollars a gallon.

Rick:

Oh!

Tim:

Which is crazy. I saw it just actually a week or so ago, here in Texas for $1.99 a gallon. And even though you have three-quarters of a tank, just out of principle, when you see it below $2, you stop and you fill up.

David:

Well, wait a minute, if it”€™s $1.99 a gallon, about $0.55 of that is taxes. So if California has basically $4.50, that probably means in the vicinity of three bucks of that is taxes, state taxes. Oh my gosh, how tough would that be?

Tim:

Right. So, I”€™m not a fan of some of the taxes and some of the way that different leaders have run some of those different places on the coast. And actually, I’m saying coast, you can pick other major cities as well. Nonetheless, in this highlights back in 2018, America broke and surpassed all kinds of records, domestic supply levels that hadn’t been seen in decades.

In fact, September 2018, the United States became the world’s largest crude oil producer. We surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia, which is a huge thing because we certainly looked at those two nations and think, “€œYeah, well, that’s where you get a lot of the oils, right, you get a lot of this energy production.”€ Nope, America has surpassed them. The article highlights America’s energy revolution is a remarkable story that demonstrates the rewards of human ingenuity and entrepreneurial passion because we’ve come up with some really unique ways that we are harvesting some of these resources.

The US Remains The Most Attractive Place In The World

But what I’m going to finish this thought with on this one is the American Chemistry Council President, Cal Dooley said because of what’s happening, right, all the money that now has been going towards some of these fossil fuels toward crude oil. He says the US remains the most attractive place in the world, which is an interesting thought, most attractive place in the world to invest in chemical manufacturing.

Now, I would argue that probably five years ago, we were not the most attractive place in the world. And it’s not where you want it to invest money if you’re looking to do any kind of chemical manufacturing. And this is something that we have often talked about the positive things that have happened under President Trump. This is something that is so encouraging, that has happened under President Trump.

The Cabinet Bible Study

Another thing happening under President Trump, the next article I have in the stack, it says that a cabinet Bible study praised by Rick Perry, also called the most influential Bible study info world by the New York Times. This is something that’s been reported on before; I think we’ve actually talked about on the show over the last couple of years about how Bible studies have now started again in the different cabinet levels at the White House different places.

Ralph Drollinger, Founder Of Capitol Ministries

One of the guys who was leading the White House cabinet Bible study is Ralph Drollinger, who’s the president, founder of Capitol Ministries. Since 2017, he’s been leading this. He also leads Bible studies for US senators and for congressman for representatives. So there’s more good news than just for the different admins and cabinet-level people. But among this, you have people like Betsy Devos, and Ben Carson and Rick Perry and names that we would recognize who are attending this weekly Bible study.

In fact, Rick Perry, in this article came out and he thinks Sonny Perdue, who is the US Secretary of Agriculture, because Sonny Perdue is the one that provides the room where they have the weekly Bible study, they meet at 7am on Wednesday mornings. The article says it’s perhaps the most influential small group Bible study in the world.

You know, guys I don’t recall”€”and this is not a slider slam on this anybody, but I don’t recall talks of Bible studies with cabinet leaders under President Obama, or President Bush, or President Clinton or President Bush or President Reagan.

First Time In 100 years

David:

Well, when we first reported this, it was reported that it was the first time in 100 years that they had cabinet Bible studies at the White House.

Tim:

And the article does say that, it says that this is believed to be the first time in 100 years, but saying it”€™s believed to be, maybe it’s happened, but this is the point is, I’ve never heard about this, of any other administration doing this. And we’re talking about a guy, President Trump, who not known for being the most moral person in his personal life. And yet at least”€¦

David:

And the years leading up to it.

Tim:

Yeah, we would argue that certainly, it seems that his life has changed and he surrounded himself with a different kind of people and, and things are just different. And this is one of the things when we might call it instead of a good news Friday, praise the Lord report, right.

We’re thanking God for what’s going on. But this is something that under the Trump administration, we are seeing some significant changes, both on the spirit level, on the economic level the production level when it comes to crude oil. There’s a lot of really cool stories out there. And these are just two of them on good news Friday.

Rick:

Man, so much good news there and he that those are huge things just like you’re saying I mean even in 100 years and again nothing against some of those folks that have been there before but to see this happening with a guy that we did not expect it to happen with. His is really excited to see quick break, guys, we got more good news when we come back. Stay with us, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Share Your Veteran Story

Rick:

Hey, friends, if you’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live for very long at all, you know how much we respect our veterans and how appreciative we are of the sacrifice they make to make our freedoms possible.

One of the ways that we love to honor those veterans is to tell their stories here on WallBuilders Live. Once in a while we get an opportunity to interview veterans that have served on those front lines that have made incredible sacrifices have amazing stories that we want to share with the American people.

One of the very special things we get to do is Interview World War Two veterans. You’ve heard those interviews here on WallBuilders Live from folks that were in the Band of Brothers to folks like Edgar Harrell that survived being in Indianapolis. There’s so many other great stories you’ve heard on WallBuilders Live. You have friends and family that also serve.

If you have World War Two veterans in your family that you would like to have their stories shared here on WallBuilders Live, please email us at [email protected] Give us a brief summary of the story and we’ll set up an interview. Thanks so much for sharing here on WallBuilders Live

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live, Good News Friday. Today we”€™ve got two more segments of good news. So a lot left to cover. David Barton’s got this one, David?

Operation Kayla Mueller 

David:

This is a new story. That’s good news, but it really surrounds something that happened a few months ago. Do you remember Al Baghdadi?

Tim.

Yes, bad guy.

David:

The bad guy was the head of ISIS; got taken out a few months ago. There’s some bad

Tim:

I think there was a hero dog involved in that.

David:

Yeah, that”€™s right too, there was. And the backstory of this had been fairly interesting. I was not aware of it. But Al Baghdadi had kidnapped and a number of folks, they were coming out of Doctors Without Borders hospital and so a number were kidnapped and they were in prison and they were held captive. And some of them later were freed, actually quite a while later, and they told of what happened with one of their fellow captives.

There’s a lady named Kayla Mueller who was 26, she’s a Christian lady, and when ISIS had her she was just repeatedly beat and raped and etc. She was put under the control of the British ISIS guy known as Jihadi John, who was just a brutal guy. And there were several other British-born ISIS terrorists there at the compound. And there were three of them that they, well, actually four of them, and they call them the Beatles, which is kind of interesting throwback, but that’s what the British people name them, was the Beatles.

And they would parade these captives in front of the others and try to threaten intimidate and they would bring Kayla out. And they would say, “€œShe’s converted to Islam.”€ And she looked at them say, “€œNo, I haven”€™t,”€ which was really dangerous. And it resulted in her getting tortured and whipped and beaten everything else.

And her father, apparently from Phoenix in the newspaper there reported what happened to her. She was in prison. She’s in solitary confinement. She was tortured, she’s intimidated. She was raped by Al Baghdadi himself. So it was just brutal what she went through, and they never found her. So she was killed by Al Baghdadi.

A Courageous Lady Who Did Not Back Down

And so when this operation happened a few months ago to take out Al Baghdadi, I didn’t know this, but they named the operation after this Christian lady. So the operation to take him out was named Kayla Mueller. And I thought that’s a really significant tribute to a really courageous lady who would not back down from her faith, the other captives that were with her talked about her courage and how she stood and how she would not back down.

So a terrific head nod, if you will, from the US military and in in naming that operation after one of the victims that he had taken down and it was really, if you will, it was due justice imposed on him for what he had done to so many others.

Rick:

Interesting story, I had not heard that. You know, growing up even, I remember we often talk in the church of stories of what would you do if the gun was to your head and they asked you to deny your faith, and that’s very much what she was facing. Guys, let’s take a quick break. We”€™ve got one more segment of good news. Stay with us. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

This Precarious Moment

David:

Hi, this is David Barton. I want to let you know about a brand new book we have out 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 and race relations, and our relationship with Israel and the rising generation millennials and the absence of the church and 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.

Rick:

We’re back to our final segment of Good News Today. Tim’s going to start us down the segment. Go ahead, Bro.

Christianity booming, Atheism Declining Around the World

Tim:

All right guys, that the headline of this one says “Christianity booming, Atheism Declining Around the World.”€ And what the study found was 2019 the status of global Christianity reported that there were 2.5 billion Christians in the world as of mid-2019. This is up from 1.98 million Christians in 2000. And this 2.5 million is more than double the number of Christians from 1970, which was 1.2 billions. Christianity is growing worldwide at a rate of 1.27% each year, which is outpacing population growth. And it’s booming, and Africa, Asia, Latin America all over the world.

By comparison, there were 138 million atheists around mid-2019, slightly more than 137 and 2000. But it’s less than 165 million in 1970. And its growth rate is .04%, which is less than that of the population. So because the number of the population is expanding faster than those that are becoming atheists, it’s actually declining by percentage of people that are professing atheism, which is really a kind of a cool thought understanding that Christianity now as”€” we’ve talked about on the show before, even though in America we don’t always see the signs of Christianity growing because the Christian Church in America, it doesn’t always represent what the rest of the world does.

Unique Transformation From Some Very Notable Names

However, the rest of the world, growing at an incredible rate”€¦ There are lots of other things in this study as well, some Pew Research from American Adults, etc. But one of the things I’m going to shift to recognizing Christianity is growing. One of the things we have seen in America over the last couple of years is some really unique transformation, some of them from some very notable names.

Now one of them we’ve already talked about on the show before, and it’s somebody who is certainly a huge name in America, and it”€™s Kanye West. And Kanye West, we talked about, we were so excited. We wanted to be a little hesitant. We obviously wanted to pray for him and that this was genuine and sincere. You know, we’re not going to follow his theology yet, but we’re praying that God was doing something real and it does look absolutely real. Just several weeks ago, he was at Joel Osteen”€™s church. Just so many cool things that were happening.

Kanye West

Well, among the things where you look at kind of the fruit of what Kanye West has done”€” and the Bible always tells us you judge a tree by the fruit so you should measure the fruit to consider is this genuine, is this sincere, what’s going on? One of the things that some of you might have seen this because when it came out, this was kind of a big deal, because nobody had ever done this. But Kanye was putting his kind of team together when he did his Jesus is King album, when it came out, it was an incredible success. Every single one of the songs became part of the top 100.

It was a number one album on all these different charts. It did very, very well but the team that he was using to do Jesus is King, the team that he now has done some traveling with it. They’ve done these different church services kind of revival things. One of the things he’s put on them was he banned them from any pre-marital sex, which, when you think about the culture, where formerly was a leader in this kind of very much rap kind of culture, they’re not really known for abstinence, right? It’s not really what they promote in their music or in their songs. And for him to tell people that, “€œGuys, part of what we’re going to do is we’re going to honor God.

We’re going to follow biblical principles. And this is what God wants, this what the Bible teaches. So this is what we are going to do as long as we’re doing this album, as long as we’re doing this tour, this is what I expect of you,”€ that’s a higher standard than then what many Christian organizations would expect of their employees.

That’s A Higher Standard

David:

That’s a higher standard than what a lot of youth groups have, what a lot of youth pastors have.

Tim: It’s very interesting that as we’re talking about even the expansion of Christianity around the nation, it does seem”€¦We can look at the world and go, “€œOkay, it seems like God is doing something.”€ And yet in America, we don’t always see the same signs, the same evidence and maybe is happening somewhere around the world.

But when you look at the last couple of years, it seems unquestionable to me that God is doing something in this nation, when you can look at somebody like a Justin Bieber, when you look at how God is using Donald Trump. And Donald Trump, it seems that his vocabulary, his character, he’s had some changes in his life, Kanye West, who’s now outspoken about Jesus and Christianity. I think not only is the good news that Christianity is expanding, that Kanye West is now someone who was following Jesus who is upholding global standards for his group.

Some Kind Of Revival Is Starting To Happen In America

But I think it’s really encouraging to see that maybe there is some kind of revival starting to happen in America. And this is part of what we’re just seeing from some of these articles here on Good News Friday.

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian

Rick:

You know, Tim, I”€™ve got to add this. I was like you, you know, I was like, not necessarily sceptical as much as. I just really was observant of this and we’ll see what happens. But what you just mentioned combined with the fact that I mean, who would have thought that you’d have Kim Kardashian going public now and saying because of what Kanye is going through and what he’s asked of her that she’s going to change the way she dresses and what she promotes on social media.

I mean, who would have thought this would come from Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. And I don’t mean that to be disparaging, I’m just saying, it’s just like with Trump, we never think of the people that God can use. We never think he can use certain people, let’s put it that way, including ourselves. And then he turns around and just I mean, major cultural changes. Our family is calling the Saul to Paul thing.

I mean, it’s really exciting to see it. I’m glad you brought that one up. And I think people should be excited about this. And let’s just see where this goes, man and what other cultural leaders this is going to cause to come to the Lord and become champions for the cause of Christ. This is really, really exciting to watch in our culture.

Contribute To WallBuilders Live

What great news you guys had for us today. Thanks so much for digging in and finding that stuff and, and we’ll have more for you next Friday. And then of course throughout the week, great interviews, and an opportunity to learn more about that biblical constitutional historical perspective on all those issues out there.

Be sure to visit the website today, WallBuilderslive.com, click on that contribute button, make that one time or monthly contribution. That’s your chance to come alongside us here at the program. You know, it’s doing what the founding fathers said to do; give of your live fortunes and sacred honor. That means we got to invest some of our time. Yes, some of our finances, and certainly the willingness to stand up and speak the truth. You know, if you listen to Wall Builders Live, we speak the truth every day here at WallBuilders Live and we need your help to spread that truth as far and wide as possible. Make that contribution. It’s your way of coming alongside us and becoming a force multiplier for freedom. Thanks for listening. You’ve been listening to Wall Builders Live.