Refugees, Patriotism, And More – On Foundations Of Freedom: Is Isaiah 58:7 proof that America needs to take more refugees into our borders…even into our homes? Is the concept of patriotism in the Bible? What does the Bible say about praying for our leaders? Would Jesus wear a mask? Tune in to hear the answers to these questions and more!

Air Date: 05/13/2021

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:

You find you at the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live. This is the place where we look at all the issues of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. 

You can actually send your questions into us, send those to [email protected], [email protected] And this is the one day a week where we dive into those questions. We call it Foundations of Freedom Thursday. We’ll get to as many of those as we can.

But we’ve got more of that at our website, wallbuilderslive.com. Visit that website to get a list of the stations around the country where the program can be heard and also to get archives the program from previous weeks, and just a lot of great information there on the website, wallbuilderslive.com You can also make a one time or monthly contribution there. And that’s a great way to amplify our voice and reach more people with these truths. So I’m looking forward to our Foundations of Freedom Thursday today.

We’re here with David Barton, America’s premier historian, and our founder at WallBuilders, Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. My name is Rick Green. I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach. And guys, lots of good questions to get into, you all ready for the first one, because it’s coming from New York, no less?

Tim:

Let’s do it.

Rick:

Alright. Out of Brooklyn, New York, Sebastian asked this, “In a discussion on immigration, I made the case to a colleague that if he feels we should take in more undocumented people into our country as refugees to help them escape poverty, would he be willing to have them live with him?” Great question, Sebastian, you’re thinking, well, man. 

Isaiah 58:7

“And in his reply, he made the case having me read Isaiah 58:7 where it says, ‘Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter; when you see the naked, to clothe them and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?’”

Sebastian goes on to say, “I’ve never been challenged with this verse before as an argument for taking in refugees. Is the wanderer in these verses speaking to private Christian citizens to open their homes to refugees? 

And is it being an anti-biblical Christian to not want refugees residing in your private home with your family? I struggled responding to this, how would you guys have responded if there even is a biblical and historical way to respond to what appears to be a misapplication of this particular Bible verse. Thank you in advance, WallBuilders.”

First of all, I just want to say to Sebastian, thank you for thinking so clearly, and for thinking biblically and historically, as you have this conversation with your friend. I mean, this is exactly why we do WallBuilders Live. So guys, I love this. This is like apologetics 101 and our chance to really apply both the Bible and the Constitution to this important question.

David:

Now, Isaiah 58 is what Sebastian referenced there, and that’s exactly right. But to get the context, Sebastian, don’t just read verse 7, read all 14 verses of Isaiah 58, because all of it deals with the subject of fasting and who’s to do it and why you do it and what happens when you fast. So if you read it, and you see the context, it’s alright, you guys claim to be religious.

You claim to serve me, and you even are so religious that you have fasting; and you fast, but you don’t ever fast for the right reasons. Your fasting is to teach you to reach out, and here’s where it is, it’s not to teach the government to reach out and help. You as a believer supposed to be fasting so that you learn to reach out and help the poor, help the needy, help those.

What Does It Really Mean?

So the question I would ask your friend is okay, I agree with that verse. So have you invited these folks into your home? Now, I would even say that me saying that is out of context, because even in the verse that Sebastian sent us, which is 58:7, it says, I’ll just read it again:

 “Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter; when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood.” Oh, that doesn’t sound like an emigrant, if he’s saying my own flesh and blood.

So he’s quoting a verse, not even in context. God’s saying, you claim to be so religious, you’re not even taking care of your own people around you. This is not the government’s role. This is the individual’s role.

Tim:

Yeah. And even dad, as you pointed out from that verse, the poor and the wanderer, that has nothing to do with nationality. The poor in the wanderer are people who are living among them. So these are citizens. So if you’re in New York, these are New Yorkers, right. Go to New York City, you will see poor and wanderers all over New York City, who are actually US citizens, but they have great needs.

And this is part of what you see from Scripture is it really was helping take people’s focus off of themselves and look at others. And this is part of also the notion in Matthew 25, when there’s the separating of the sheep and the goats and the sheep on the right and the goats in the left, and come ye, blessed of my father, enter into all that I prepare for you: for I was hungry, and you gave me food.

I was thirsty, you gave me drink; I was naked, you clothed me; I was sick and you visit me; I was in prison and you comforted to me. All these things, when did we do that to you, Lord? Well, as much as you’ve done it to the least of these my brethren, you’ve done it unto me.

This was the idea is Jesus was telling them the way that we treat others, the way that we live our life looking out for others and doing good unto others, that is an expression of our love for God, is loving and caring for other people. Well, that is absolutely true. But we don’t have to say, well, no, no, the immigrant’s the only need to focus on right now. Let’s start by saying how about we take care of our neighborhood? 

Taking Care of Our Community

How about we take care of our community? And one of the most loving and caring things at times you can do for your neighborhood and community is to have a boundary up and not let your neighborhood and community be abused by outsiders. This is part of the role of government, is to protect their citizens.

And right now, with open immigration, the government is not protecting its citizens, which means that not only they’re not following part of the God-given responsibility they have in their duty role as government, they’re also not being very loving to their citizens, because now they’re making their citizens bear the burden of something that’s not their responsibility in the essence of–

This is when people are coming violating laws to get to America to then take the benefits of America without contributing to America, that does not help the citizens of America. And the goal of the government is to protect its citizens from any kind of outside source influence that would do them harm.

But if we’re going to talk about what the Bible says, certainly, we need to care for the poor and needy. James says, pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this, to look after widows and orphans in their time of need. We need to care for people, but that is an individual mandate. That’s not a government mandate. That is the individual it was talking to, not the government.

David:

I would also say that it’s good to look back at a previous program we did with Rabbi Lapin. Rabbi Lapin looked over these verses said, you know, he said English is the worst language in the world for translated into Hebrew, because there’s so many more words in Hebrew than there are in English, and we don’t have enough words to express it.

He said, for example, in Hebrew, the word for wanderer that is here in this verse, the word for strangers appears in other translations, he said, there are three words for that in Hebrew, you just have one word in English. And the three words in Hebrew, the primary one, it means, it translates in English, the best translation is a proselyte. 

So when you have a proselyte, who comes to your country, you treat them like you would treat yourself. Well, proselyte is one who wants to assimilate and be among you, wants to live by your laws, wants to be one of you. It’s not one who moves in for economic purposes and wants to send a check back home. Because that’s another Hebrew word that’s there, that’s different, but it’s not the one this verse is talking about.

Wanderers

So this verse, when it says, your own flesh and blood, it’s not saying every immigrant that comes in, is saying those who want to come here and be part of the country who want to assimilate, who want to be fully American, yeah, and as Tim, you said, there’s a lot of American citizens all over like New York City that are homeless, and wanderers and hungry, etc. And those are the ones you take care of first. 

So it’s not to say that we don’t take care of all humans, we do. But this Bible verse in context, I mean, I would look at your friends say, okay, you raised that Bible verse, do you do that in your home? Have you gone down to Time Square and picked up a bunch of immigrants from out of the country and taken them home and done exactly what you’re telling me to do?

Tim:

And maybe not even immigration from around the country, how about just normal New Yorkers who’re living on the street?

David:

That’s right.

Tim:

Right. Because again, the versus not about a cultural demographic of where somebody is from, the point is that you are helping meet people’s needs. And the idea of this verse, that you’re not just focusing on yourself, you’re focusing on other people. How can I help other people? But this is also one of things we’ve talked about many times is there is a very severe distinction, right, and by severe I mean, a very great disparity of distinction between the roles of the individual, of the family, of the church, and of the government.

And what God calls us to do as individuals, maybe even as families, and certainly, in some cases, even the church, those are mandates given to the individual, the family and the church, you will never see a mandate given to the federal government in Scripture where God tells the government in Scripture that is their job to take care of the poor and needy. 

The Role of Government

What you will always find in Scripture, the role of the government is to provide security, it is to punish the wicked and to reward the righteous: security, stability, justice in the courts, things that deal with a legal legislative process that deal with a military, but not things that deal with any kind of temporal needs or welfare as the case might be.

Rick:

Well, you guys got me really thinking, if I could do a follow up question real quick, I know, I’m not a listener, but I’m going to ask a follow up question. I mean, when it says not to turn away from your own flesh and blood, I mean, we really have culturally gotten in this habit of letting our parents culturally, at least, hopefully, we’re not all doing this in the church.

But in the culture, our parents be cared for by the state and putting that burden on our neighbors, and our community and our nation instead of on ourselves, is that part of what this is speaking to?

Tim:

Well, that is a really good thought, Rick, and I’ll speak to this because I’m going to have to deal with that scenario here really soon. And…

David:

Why don’t you look at me when you said that?

Tim:

I mean, it’s possible on the feud. I’m kidding. I’m kidding. Maybe not. But the reality is one of the things that that we see in 1 Timothy 5:8, it says, if any man will not provide for his own family, he’s worse than an unbeliever. Part of providing for your own family does entail taking care of your parents. We know, and it’s for everybody, right, our parents took care of us when we were young. They fed us. They clothed us. They changed our diapers.

Well, the way the life cycle works, is when they get older, we get to help bathe them, clothe them, feed them, and change their diapers. That’s part of the process. And actually, the Bible even does give very specific guidance for kids to take care of their parents. And this is where, I mean, Rick, we’ve talked about it so much in the program. 

We’ve had so many interviews dealing with worldview and biblical understanding. These are things that actually are clear in the Bible. It’s just most people don’t know what the Bible says, or we don’t think it applies to us whatever the case might be. These are things that are very clear scripturally.

Jewis Culture

And so I think certainly, looking at the Jewish culture and tradition, right, Judaism is the foundation upon which Christianity built. So, America is part of the Judeo-Christian ethic is unfolded in America. Well, in Judaism, that’s absolutely the way it’s taught in Judaism is that the kids take care of their parents when they get old. 

But this is confirmed in the New Testament as well, that we see in Scripture that kids are supposed to take care of their parents when they get older. So it definitely does make sense that those are parallel things that we see in the Old Testament or New Testament when it comes to the idea of taking care of your family as they get older.

David:

And let me add to what Tim said, because he’s specifically quoted 1 Timothy 5:8, I’m going to quote 1 Timothy 5:4. It says that children are to, it says requite or requite, depends on how you want to pronounce it from King James, but to requite their parents, for that is good and acceptable before God. Now requite means repay.

And as Tim mentioned, how many years do parents put into their kids before their kids are independent now on their own? So what if parents have to move in with kids for that same amount of time their parents had to raise the kids at the beginning, now the kids have the parents? I mean, the whole notion here is you’re supposed to take care of parents like they took care of you. As Tim said, is that reverse cycle of life is on the other end.

And so we are so conscious about ourselves today. We think so much about ourselves. Wow, my parents will disrupt my enjoyment, whatever I’m doing. They’ll change my lifestyle. They’ll change my timing. No, the Bible is families take care of families. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be and that’s the way it should be. 

Caring For Our Families

And it’s a great question, Rick, for you to ask, because it does go along with this whole biblical notion of care, and what individuals should do with care and what government should do with care, etc. It’s all part of the same package.

Rick:

And to be blunt, it is actually a beautiful, beautiful thing. I mean, I and I know you all have experienced the same thing. I can remember, you know, 20 years ago, my dad bathing my grandfather in his final days, and just my dad and his sisters taking care of my grandma and grandpa, and setting that example for the next generation. And I know you guys have experienced the same thing, and many of our listeners have experienced the same thing.

And maybe that’s something that we need to talk more about in renewing that. I love how you just put it, David, just the idea that having your parents potentially be taken care of by you for the same amount of time that they took care of you, and frankly, it’s a whole lot less usually. 

So it is a great blessing that we are missing out on culturally, and something we should talk about renewing. And that’s why we talk about a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective on all of these questions.

We’re going to take a quick break. Sebastian, thank you for another great question today, you’ve got to be the winner for having the best questions to get through our sifting and screening and finding the best questions to bring to the audience. You’ve had many good questions over the years. So, thank you, keep sending them in. We’re going to take a quick break, we’ll be right back. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

The AMERICAN STORY

Hey, guys, we want to let you know about a new resource we have here at WallBuilders called The American Story. For years, people have been asking us to do a history book, and we finally done it. We start with Christopher Columbus and go roughly through Abraham Lincoln. And one of the things that that so often we hear today are about the imperfections of America, or how so many people in America that used to be celebrated or honored really aren’t good or honorable people.

One of the things we acknowledge quickly in the book is that the entire world is full of people who are sinful and need a savior, because the Bible even tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And yet what we see through history, and certainly is evident in America is how a perfect God uses imperfect people and does great things through them. 

The story of America is not the story of perfect people. But you see time and time again how God got involved in the process and use these imperfect people to do great things that impacted the entire world from America. To find out more, go to wallbuilders.com and check out The American Story.

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us on this Foundations of Freedom Thursday. Diving into your questions, send them in to [email protected], [email protected].

Patriotism in the Bible

Kenneth’s got the next one, and it’s about our founding. And he said “Hi David, Tim, and Rick, this comment question. I was reading through scripture on Sunday night and reflecting we as Christians are called to be set apart to live differently than the world does. We are called to be holy for the Lord God is holy. We as a country began differently than other countries and we did it the Lord’s Way. 

Also, David, I was trying to find the verse in Jeremiah that you spoke about on praying for our leaders and I can’t find it. I have a difficult time praying for our corrupt leaders. However, I want to be obedient to the Lord. Where is it in Jeremiah? I shared your broadcast with a friend of mine, she’s a Christian and never heard a WallBuilders. She just bought the Founders’ Bible and she can’t wait to begin reading it. Thank you, guys.”

Well, Kenneth, thank you for being a force multiplier. So your friend that you told about WallBuilders that now has the Founders’ Bible is going to get equipped as she reads through that Founders’ Bible, and then she’s going to talk about it and then that’ll multiply to more people. So you started a great thing right there, brother. Appreciate it. Alright, guys, so the question is about Jeremiah and the idea of praying for our leaders.  

David:

Now, we talked about the book of Jeremiah a lot. A lot of things come out of the book of Jeremiah, we’ve seen even how the concept, we’ve covered in the Constitution how that what we call the attainder, or the Bill of attainder comes out of the concept of Jeremiah that that’s a bad deal, you don’t want that. Also talked about how that John Adams pointed to Jeremiah 17:9 as the basis of separation of powers, etc. I don’t know specifically the verse that talks about praying for your country, but I think this might be it.

In Jeremiah 29:7, the Lord told Jeremiah to tell the people, he says, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you; pray the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. And so this was the time of the exile, the Jews are being hauled out of Jerusalem, they go into Babylon. 

And he says, you pray for wherever I send you, whatever country you’re in, whatever city you’re in, you pray for it, because if you do, if it prospers, you’re going to prosper as well.

And by the way, this is one of the verses that undergirds the concept of patriotism; that when you love your country, you’ll seek the best for your country. And if you do, then if your country gets what’s really good, then everybody benefits from that. 

Praying for Our Leaders

And so the concept to tear down a country because you want to cancel it, because it’s had flaws, no, no. If it’s had flaws, try to heal those flaws. Don’t try to tear it down. Seek the good, seek the greatness of it, because that’s a benefit for you. You don’t benefit by having a country torn down.

Tim:

And what you’re saying is if there’s problems, you want to fix those problems, right, you don’t just burn the whole thing down. Now, with that being said, that is a verse from Jeremiah that talks about praying for the nation in which you live. In addition to that, there’s also verses like at 1 Timothy 2:1&2, which is I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercession, giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, for all that are in authority that we may live quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty.

So there is another verses specifically says you need to pray for all government leaders. And so certainly, this is a pretty consistent theme you see throughout Scripture. And even you know, backing up, dad as you’re mentioning this notion of patriotism, and this is not something that’s uniquely American. This is something that should be for every nation, and we’ve talked about it before. This is something that, it doesn’t matter where I live.

If I live in Japan, I’m going to be praying for Japan, I’m working the best I can to help Japan be the most godly nation it can be. I want to restore righteousness in Japan. I’m going to promote those values. And one of the things that America was very unique, and that America, more so than arguably, any other nation outside of Israel, said, we want to follow God’s ways. Go back to, even some of the colonies who did not do a good job.

Jamestown, when they started off in 1607, they were an Anglican colony. And they said that they wanted to pursue God and Christianity and evangelism among the natives. And they didn’t follow the Bible real well. But you go to Plymouth and the Pilgrims were very clear. 

They wanted to be the shining city on a hill. And that’s part of what happened, when the Puritans come over and 1630 and all this idea, it was very clear for many in early America that they were pursuing God and made America unique and different.

But that uniqueness and difference arguably came because of much of God’s blessing on the nation. And God’s blessing was not reserved simply because we were Americans. God’s blessings are one of the outgrowth of doing things God’s way. And any nation can choose to do things God’s way. 

God’s Ways Work

And the more godly that nation is, the more biblical that nation is, the more they follow those biblical principles, the more blessed they will become. And that’s part of the legacy of America, which has been a very unique legacy.

It’s also one of the things we are definitely seeing rejected and thrown aside today, which is part of why WallBuilders exists, to help preserve that forgotten history and heroes that emphasis on the moral heritage of our nation. We’ve forgotten a lot of that. But this is not unique to America. 

So even as people listen and they might hear oh, you guys think America is so special. Well, America is special, but America doesn’t have to be alone in its uniqueness and specialness, because ultimately, any nation can choose to follow godliness and biblical principles. And if you do it God’s ways, God’s ways work every single time.

Rick:

Yeah, you know, Zig Ziglar used to say this way, he’d say “God’s best blessings are found within his boundaries.” And when a nation follows his boundaries, really is just his instruction manual, since he made us, he knows how we’re going to operate best, we get those great blessings and it just makes sense. So we got time for another question, guys. You all ready for one more?

Tim:

An Upset Listener

Rick:

“I was a regular listener till I heard you guys making ridiculous assertions about this virus only being responsible for 10% of the deaths reported. That’s a shame because you guys absolutely were given a responsibility by God to protect people. Instead, you’re misinforming tens of thousands of people and I believe this is costing more lives. I’m a staunch Republican, but I’m a human first. I’m human first.” I got to let that one sink in, guys. Okay…

David:

Can you name any Republicans that aren’t humans?

Tim:

I mean, there’s an elephant, right, there’s an elephant?

David:

Yeah. Okay.

Rick:

And there are some Republicans that don’t act like humans, but anyway, and Democrats too. Anyway, “I don’t need to support an organization that claims to save lives while simultaneously leading common folks into destruction. Why don’t you allow listeners to make educated decisions instead of making wild claims that COVID is some conspiracy and it’s just a couple of people having the sniffles? 

When will you guys stop this? Or are you so far out of touch with reality that it’s too late? By the way, I do know the Lord. He told me to tell you guys and gals, if he were here today, he’d wear a mask.”

Tim:

That would wear a mask?

Rick:

God would wear a mask. You’d think that’s ridiculous?

David:

I’m glad God told him to tell us that. I would not have done that if he hadn’t told me that.

Did We Say That?

Rick:

“You’ve probably think that’s ridiculous because he blew galaxies into existence with a breath. He led by the example of peace, love, and a servant’s heart. Go and learn this. He desires mercy, not sacrifice.” Man, guys, there’s so many things in this that are inaccurate about what we have said. But I don’t even know where to start in response. So I’m just going to throw it out there to you guys.

Tim:

Yeah, let’s first of all point out for all the listeners, this is not totally unusual for us to get these kind of thoughts coming in. And actually, the nature of and everybody listening right now, you know, this in the middle of a cancel culture, anytime you stand up for a position, and you stand up with moral clarity on the position, it’s going to offend people. And there are people who don’t want to deal with that.

 And we have to be okay with the fact that we are standing up for what we think is morally right, what is biblically, constitutionally, historically accurate, then we can’t be deterred by negative things that are thrown your way. So that is something is important for all of us to remember.

Now, with that being said, this is certainly not the worst thing somebody has written to us. But it was one of the things that we thought this would be really fun to talk about on air for a few minutes. Because there’s so many ridiculous statements in the midst of the frustration with what this guy is expressing. So let’s jump into this a minute.

David:

First off, we didn’t say that only 10% of reported COVID deaths are COVID. We gave a medical report where the medical people went back and examined the death certificates and other things and they said that. That wasn’t us.

Tim:

Yes, specifically, what they said is if the person had COVID, and no other underlying conditions or no other circumstances, right. So it wasn’t like you had a motorcycle accident, and you broke your neck and you died of COVID.

We Reported Facts

David:

And by the way, that’s not sarcastic, that happened in our county. The guy had a motorcycle accident…

Tim:

Also, in Colorado, right, there’s more than one example of this, where there were gunshot victims, and a person with three gunshots in the chest, in the lungs, and they died of COVID. So the point is that these medical professionals said that when they examined all the data, they only found roughly and of course, using extreme examples, other underlying conditions they had were obesity and diabetes.

And they went through multiple things where there was preexisting underlying conditions: they said, when you remove any kind of major medical preexisting underlying condition, we only find about 10% of these deaths that have been caused from purely COVID only. 

And we actually read that on air. That wasn’t something that we just said on air. We actually read part of that study in that report on air. So yes, dad, you’re right. First of all, that was not our claim; we were reading what doctors had said about it.

David:

Next is we think truth is more important than anything that’s out there. And we try to be as truthful as we can, and that’s why we’re saying this, pointing to our sources. We try to have sources. Having said that, I think it’s really, really important that you embrace truth, wherever you find it.

Right now, the truth is that a young person like in high school is more likely to die from a lightning strike than from COVID, that someone under 50 is more likely to die from murder than from COVID, that 99% of those who do get COVID, which is not by any means, it’s a great part of the nation, it’s a sizable chunk, but 99% recover. I mean, running in fear and slapping a mask on because I’m in fear of somebody getting something, that’s not facts.

Live Not By Lies

Tim:

And we’ve said the whole time too, that we have known people that have been severely affected by COVID. We’ve known people who have lost their life to COVID. We know this is serious. We haven’t tried to downplay it. But you always factor in what’s the risk reward ratio. And what we’ve talked the most about is that we believe in the rights of individuals to have a conscience and a choice. So if you choose to get a vaccine, we respect your choice to get a vaccine. If you choose not to, we respect your choice not to.

With all that being said, what we’ve also been very clear on is, it’s not the government’s job to mandate for individuals, because the government thinks that they are the zookeeper, and we are the animals in their zoo who are too dumb to make decisions for ourselves. The best thing you do is you give people the most accurate data and information that you can give them and then let them be mature adults and make mature decisions. 

And if people that want to mask from here to kingdom come, let them mask from here to kingdom come. If there’s people that don’t want to mask, they shouldn’t be forced to mask by the government. That’s largely been our position.

And we’ve just pointed out that the science has not been consistent with where oftentimes governors or in this case, the President or the CDC has been. There’s been a lot of hypocrisy. By the way, go back and look at President Joe Biden taking a picture with former President Jimmy Carter, where they’re not wearing masks in a room together and then he steps outside with his wife where they’re socially just as everybody else and Joe Biden, his wife put their masks back on when they’re back outside. All of that is against the CDC guidelines. 

We’re pointing out there’s levels of hypocrisy that don’t make sense, they’re not following the science. And that’s what we’ve been more consistently saying.

Rick:

And it does harm people. Whenever you live by lies and you bear false witness, you end up with a girl and attract meat wearing a mask and passing out as she passes the finish line, and you end up with all the psychological damage and all those things. So we’re just saying don’t live by lies, you know, don’t bear false witness. Let’s be honest about these things.

Would Jesus Wear a Mask?

And I realize it’s hard if you’ve worn a mask for a year, you don’t want to admit that maybe you didn’t need to. But hey, you know, I admitted this on Victory Channel the other day. I wore parachute pants in the 80s, and I shouldn’t have. It was horrible. It was the worst fashion decision of my life, but I got over it. And I’m not going to keep wearing them for the rest of my life just because I don’t want to admit that it was a bad fashion decision.

David:

And by the way, I’d point out to that just based on Matthew 8, I don’t think Jesus would be wearing masks because he did not follow the medical mandates of his day. The medical mandates say when you see a leper, you run from them, you keep distance, you turn the other way. And…

Refugees, Patriotism, And More – On Foundations Of Freedom

Tim:

Or more specifically, the lepers are supposed to stay away from you, right. But there’s supposed to be a separation, social distancing, for sure, you don’t touch a leper. You stay away from the lepers.

David:

And yet, Jesus went and touched lepers and healed lepers. He did not follow the medical mandate because he’s above that: a virus doesn’t bother him and he’s not going to create or instill or promote fear and a culture. And that’s what so many people want to do with masks. They run out of fear, rather than out of confidence knowing that the Lord is their creator, and he’s willing to touch lepers. He’s not that scared of the virus.

Rick:

We’re out of time for today. We’ve got a lot of other great questions we’d love to get to, but we’ll have to do that next Thursday on Foundations of Freedom Thursday. We appreciate you the listener for joining us. Be sure to send your questions into [email protected]