Trump Forces UN To Focus On Religious Liberty & Christian Persecution: This was a historic event that happened at the UN. Today, we will be interviewing Pastor Robert Jeffress on exactly what happened. Since this international organization’s beginning, President Trump was the first to address religious persecution to the world. This is an episode you won’t want to miss! Tune in now to learn more!

Air Date: 10/07/2019

Guest: Robert Jeffress

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 culture. That means we’re talking about things that intersect there when your faith has an impact on the culture or vice versa.

That’s what we’re going to be talking about here at WallBuilders Live. It’s any topic in the culture because there isn’t an area of your faith that shouldn’t influence your decisions and your perspective on whatever’s happening in the news today. That’s why we talk about the hottest topics of the day here on WallBuilders Live. 

It’s why we look at it from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective because when you take that biblical perspective; you’re applying your faith to whatever’s happening in the news, in your community. 

When you take that historical perspective, you’re trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t work, and there’s nothing new under the sun. We can take any issue of the day and learn from history on how to approach that issue. 

And of course, a constitutional perspective allows you to look at it from what’s the law of the land, how does the American system work, and how do we apply the issues of the day to our Constitution in a proper constitutional way. 

So, biblical historical constitutional perspective on whatever the issue of the day is. We do that here on WallBuilders Live every day Monday through Friday.

We do that with David Barden America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders, and also with Tim Barton. He’s a national speaker and pastor and President of WallBuilders. My name is Rick Green. I’m a former Texas legislator and thrilled to be a part of this team. It’s been an honor to serve with WallBuilders, and be a part of the Barton family for almost two decades now. Quite a privilege.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to host these guys and be a part of their program. 

David, Tim honored to serve with you and be a part of the program here at WallBuilders Live.

Robert Jeffers With Us Later Today

We’ve got always got an interesting interview later on today’s program. We’re gonna have Robert Jeffers with us. He’s going to be talking about what happened with President Trump at the U.N. recently. 

And of course, Pastor Jeffers, one of the guys that saw Trump being capable of doing the things that he’s done over the last three years long before we did. We got to admit that. 

Frankly, I was a little upset with him back then. But he was right. We see some incredible stuff. 

 Speaking of all of this at the United Nations, where typically the conversation is anti-American and way off the rails, President Trump had a special event to specifically bring attention to attacks on Christianity around the world and including here in the U.S. on religious liberty.

No U.S. President Has Ever Said We Have A Real Problem With Religious Persecution

David:

Yeah, it is a historic event that happened at the U.N. I’m going to say that almost one century the U.N., that’s not really accurate because it was the League of Nations that morphed into the U.N. Almost one century since this international organization has existed, no U.S. President has ever gone to the world and say guys we have a real problem with religious persecution around the world. 

Now, we’ve talked on this program of how there are more Christians being martyred today than in the history of the world. 

I mean, we’re having more martyrs now than at any time in history. And the numbers are just exceptionally high – really bad. 

The Nazarene Fund 

We’ve talked about groups like the Nazarene Fund that WallBuilders help support. We help persecuted Christians by taking them out of the Middle East, out of the hands of ISIS, etc. 

For those that want to help help save persecuted Christians and persecution the Middle East on WallBuilders website under ‘Donate,’ you have a specific button there for persecuted Christians. A hundred percent of it goes to the groups that get those guys out of there; we don’t keep any of it. 

Donate To WallBuilders To Help Continue Making A Positive Influence

Tim: 

Because we don’t keep any of that money, I also would encourage you to hit the other donate button because the reason we’re able to give money to these specific organizations when money comes in is that we try to take care of overhead expenses in other ways. 

When people are giving to WallBuilders, we try to be very good stewards; to be faithful and diligent with that money. We make it go as far as it can and do the most good that it can. Part of what we do is try to live on a very tight budget as much as possible. 

I’m sure every listener understands that we probably all had those days when we were living on some level of peanut butter sandwiches or ramen noodles or something. We get it. 

Even as an organization, we try to live as lean as possible, so we’re able to give money to these other places as much as we can. To help as many people as we can around the world, including many of these Christians who are being persecuted: who have had family members have been killed, who face death themselves. 

Certainly, it’s something worth giving to “€” lots of incredible testimonies. We’ve had people on the show before dealing with this, but part of how we’re able to do that is because there are other people who donate to help keep what we do going.

 So, WallBuilders.com and Wallbuilderslive.com, the radio program. We are listener-supported, as Rick often mentions. 

It’s true. We would love to have your support to help us continue doing what we are doing to make a difference because there’s a lot of things that are happening “€” a lot of positive influence and a lot of difference that is being made.

There Was Not Much Coverage On President Trump’s Speech

David: 

A lot of things are happening because a lot of negative things are happening across the world. That’s why we give to help stop Christian persecution because there’s so much of it.

President Trump went to call the attention of the world to this issue. They get focused and fixated on all sorts of stuff, but we’ve never had a U.S. President go make religious liberty and religious freedom a higher profile as he did.

Now, I’ve got to say that I listen to some of the network media coverage Live when he was given that speech. 

If you follow much network media coverage, you may not even know the speech happen because there was such a blackout on it. 

News Article From UPI

So, I’m actually going to take one article from the mainstream; just read a couple of sentences out’s article to describe what happened. This happens to be from UPI. 

It says President Donald Trump told the United Nations that stopping religious persecution around the world is one of his highest priorities. 

The event marked the first time a U.S. President has called a U.N. summit on religious freedom. Speaking before a crowd of world leaders, U.S. business owners, and survivors of religious persecution, he cited instances of state-sponsored religious persecution and attacks by individuals terrorists and criminals. 

He said eighty percent of the world’s population lives in places where religious freedom is banned, restricted, or threatened. 

Now, that really is a good summary of his speech. That’s what he talked about. 

CBS Said His Speech Was About Immigration And Nationalism

I happen to be listening to CBS at the time, and CBS said that his speech was about immigration and nationalism. That’s a real stretch. 

Come on, guys. I mean, there was nationalism in the sense that you nations need to stop this religious persecution. It was about immigration in the sense that we have so much religious persecution that people are fleeing to other nations.

Somehow they take all that and turn it into nationalization and immigration. 

Tim: 

 Even what he said about nationalism is to help make your nation strong. Make your nation great. Help make your nation something where you’ve rooted out corruption, where you’ve built up the structure where people want to be in your nation. 

Immigration certainly was mentioned. Nationalism certainly was mentioned.

They Failed To Highlight Something That Has Not Been Talked About Before

But the fact that you can look at the speech and not highlight something that’s never been said at the U.N.? 

Have people talked about nationalism in U.N. speeches before? Well, sure they have. Immigration? Sure, they have. 

Religious liberty? 

He’s actually the first President of the United States, arguably one of the first world leaders ever at the U.N. to bring up this topic. Certainly, when you are arguably the leader of the free world, the President United States, bringing up this topic – this is the big news story. 

Although very few people covered it.

Pastor Robert Jeffress From First Baptist, Dallas

David:

But one of the people who saw this, as an eyewitness, was Pastor Robert Jeffress. He is a pastor at First Baptist in Dallas.

He’s been on President Trump’s religious advisory board from the very beginning. One of the earliest pastors to see the potential in Trump that we’re now all seeing and enjoying as a nation. 

He was there at the U.N. and watched this historic speech.

So, we thought it’d be fun to get an eyewitness perspective of what occurred. 

Rick: 

Pastor Robert Jeffress when we return. Stay with us. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

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Check out RickGreen.com today to join us on this Front Sight trip for both your constitutional and handgun defense training. 

Pastor Robert Jeffress Back With Us

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks so much for staying with us. 

Our good friend Pastor Robert Jeffress back with us. Always good to have you, pastor. Thanks for your time this morning. 

Robert:

Thanks for having me, Rick.

Rick:

Hey, I’m very excited to see (this). Because you called it way before David and Tim and I realized how good Trump was going to be for our nation. 

You, of course, I’m sure enjoyed watching him be the first President that I know of to actually host a meeting at the United Nations on religious freedom.

President Trump Decides To Convene His Own Summit 

Robert: 

Well, it was and I was honored to be his guest for the gathering, last Monday at the U.N. You know it’s really interesting that instead of attending the Global Climate Summit about some imaginary problem (of) global warming, he decides to convene his own summit on a very real issue, and that’s the persecution of Christians and other faiths around the world. I mean, talk about guts. 

What other President in history would have the guts to snub the U.N. and say we’re going to talk about what’s really important. 

I just think one of the great ironies of history is going to be when people look back that it was a secular real estate tycoon from New York City, Donald J Trump, who became the most pro-life and pro-religious liberty President in the history of our country.

Rick:

I think you’re so right. Even the way you described that right off the bat – the fact that most Presidents and certainly most other world leaders are spending all of their time pontificating about, as you said, an imaginary problem.  

He’s Shining A Light On A Real Problem Here

He’s shining a light on a real problem here. I don’t know any other way to say it, pastor, that moral clarity that he has exhibited throughout his presidency has shocked me. 

On issue after issue, whether it’s Israel or abortion, you name it. 

It’s just like immediately God speaks to his heart, and gives him the wisdom to know right from wrong and in the right direction to take on that major issue.

It Is An Eternal Battle Between Good And Evil

Robert:

Well, and that is why the left absolutely hates him. 

I mean those of us who are Christians, believe that there is a real war, an invisible war but a real war, going on not between Republicans and Democrats; not even between the left and the right. 

It is an eternal battle between good and evil. 

I don’t think it is any accident that the same week you’ve got the President addressing the persecution of believers around the world. You have him pushing back against the international push on abortion. He’s pushing back on that. 

These two key issues that unleashed this attack against him to try to remove him from office. That’s no coincidence.

Rick:

Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right. As you said, who would have thought that this would be the guy to do it, but he has it’s been used as an instrument, I believe, by God in a mighty way already in just a few short years. 

The President Is Very Aware Of The Attempt To Marginalize Faith

Let’s talk about what he was shining a spotlight on, and the fact that he was willing to bring attention to this Christians are being persecuted around the world. 

We’ve got a pretty good here in America, and we don’t realize how bad it is for our –

Robert:

You know, it’s interesting, Rick. He didn’t just talk about globally. He divided the speech into two parts. He did talk about religious liberty in our own country as well. 

The President is very aware of the attempt to marginalize faith. 

He made a very insightful line when he said, those in our country who are arguing for inclusiveness are willing to exclude people who don’t share their beliefs. 

That’s why he had Wilbur Ross there and other business leaders to urge them to form a task force that would help preserve religious liberty in the marketplace here in America, which I think is very key.

Religious Freedom Is Gifted By God

Rick:

And to those things, and I think I’ve heard you point this out as well, he made this the statement in the speech that was the same thing Reagan said 30, 40 years ago that religious freedom isn’t granted by government, it’s gifted by God. That’s something that we don’t acknowledge enough.

Robert:

That’s right. And I mean he says that every word. This isn’t something he just latched on to in the last few months. This has been a part of his campaign since day one. 

It was some of our earliest discussions in Trump Tower. 

Again, he realizes that faith is being marginalized in America, and he doesn’t think that is a good thing for our country. 

It’s just amazing the clarity that he speaks on this issue. 

We hosted a religious freedom rally at the Kennedy Center in Washington a couple of years ago. He came and spoke. And I think that’s the very first if not the first time he used that phrase, ‘religious liberty is not granted by government, it is gifted from God.’

Judge A Politician By His Fruit

Rick:

You know Pastor David has often taught me that that that you don’t judge by labels you judge by fruit. I would say that should be the case with politicians, wouldn’t you?

Robert:

Oh, I do. I would too. President Trump is the first person to say he’s not perfect, but you know God has a way of using and choosing imperfect vessels to do his will. 

I mean, after all, he chose me, he chose you. We’re all imperfect, and I think they’re just some sanctimonious Christians who think maybe they’re a little holier than they really are.

Look At The Fruit Over The Last Few Years

Rick:

Well, and when I say fruit, I’m talking about the fruit that we’ve seen in the last three years. 

Look at the fruit that we have got, whether it’s from the judicial appointments over 150 now that are absolutely stellar. I mean, these are religious liberty warriors.

The guys that have been on our side for years in the trenches fighting these battles are now the federal judges appointed by President Trump. 

The two great wins we got on the Supreme Court. 

You go down the list on the court side but then examples like this of highlighting religious persecution and highlighting the need for religious liberty. The things you said on life. That’s the fruit. We’re getting real policy. We’re getting real results right here.

The Left Cannot Stand What He Is Doing

Robert:

That’s right. That is why there is this absolute insane effort to try to remove this President from office. 

The left cannot stand what he is doing. And I said on Fox and Friends Sunday that they couldn’t beat him in 2016 legitimately. They are increasingly aware of the fact that they’re not going to win in 2020. Impeachment is their only tool they’ve got left to get rid of him.

How Does Your Congregation Respond?

Rick:

Pastor, I got to ask before we go, on a personal level for you, because you have been so bold and spoken so much truth here in our home state of Texas, and across the country.

Tell me about back home at your home church. 

How does your congregation respond? Do you get much of that, oh you’re just supposed to be kind of what Frederick Augustus said to his brother John Peter back in the Revolutionary War? You’re just supposed to preach the Gospel don’t get involved in all that stuff.

 They seem to be totally behind you, and your church continues to do well. Give me a little personal response to being in the trenches so much for three years.

Robert:

Well, I’m never under the illusion that 100 percent of the people agree with me, even my wife doesn’t even agree with me on everything.

We Are United On The Effort To Take A Stand For Truth

But by and large, our church is absolutely united on the effort that we have to take a stand for truth. 

They realize that Christians are not supposed to remain in their holy huddle. Jesus is called us to be salt and light. 

For salt to preserve meat, it’s got to penetrate the meat. It can’t stay in the salt shaker. For life to confront the darkness, it can’t stay in the bedroom drawer. You’ve got to confront the darkness, you’ve got to penetrate the meat, and that is what we’re doing at First Baptist Dallas.

 Yes, we know revival won’t come from Washington D.C. that comes from the Church of Jesus Christ, but we do have a responsibility to push back against evil unless it engulfs our country. 

We are supposed to be pushing back. We’re doing that, and I’m so proud of the leaders and the members of First Baptist Dallas who support me and doing this. 

Rick:

Well, we love you and appreciate you. It’s a blessing to the entire country. And also thankful for your congregation for their continued support of you speaking boldly and speaking truth. 

That’s Pastor Robert Jeffress. Stay with us, folks. We’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

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, “As incredible as this information is, I wish there was a way that I could get one of the WallBuilders guys to come to my area and share with my group.”

Whether it be a church, whether it be a Christian school, or public school, or some political event, or activity, if you’re interested in having a WallBuilders speaker come to your area, you can get on our website at www.WallBuilders.com, and there’s a tab for scheduling. If you click on that tab, you’ll notice there’s a list of information from speakers’ bio’s, to events that are already going on. And, there’s a section where you can request an event, to bring this information about who we are, where we came from, our religious liberties, and freedoms. Go to the WallBuilders website and Bring a speaker to your area.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Special thanks to Pastor Robert Jeffress for joining us today as well. We’re back with David and Tim Barton now.

Guys, always enjoy having Pastor Jeffers on. Talk about a bold pastor and so appreciate his relationship with the President and the positive influence that he has on the President. 

One of the reasons we get so many good policies out of this President is because he’s got guys like Pastor Robert Jeffers, and Jerry Falwell Jr. and some of these other wise Christian leaders out there that are giving him advice on many of these subjects.

He Listens To these Guys

David:

I would go further than that, Rick. I would say it’s not because he has these guys. I would say it’s because he listens to these guys.

Because all Presidents have had some degree of religious affiliation around them, some guys around them that they can point to is their religious counsel. 

But to actually listen to them, now that’s something else. I give Trump huge credit for that. 

Just listening to Pastor Jeffress, there’s so much he said that if you’re not aware of what President Trump has actually done; if you’re only watching CNN and if you’re only watching the reports about the tweets and whatever else, you will not know. 

To hear Pastor Jeffress say that Trump has more moral clarity on major issues than most Christians do today; you would almost think that sacrilegious.

Look At What He Has Actually Done

However, if you look at what he has literally done, what he’s done policy-wise to give religious expression more protection than we’ve seen in America. To stand up against religious persecution. To stand for Israel at a level that we’ve seen no other President since Harry Truman. To be stronger pro-life than even George W. Bush was and so much else.

 If you see all of that and if you know the policies, then what Robert Jeffress said does not seem all that strange. 

But if you don’t know that, and if you’re only getting kind of the media side of it, that’s a really strange thing he said. By the way, I haven’t thought about this, but I think he’s exactly right – this is why the left thinks he needs to be removed from office. 

The 2020 Election

Look what he’s actually getting done. All the stuff he’s getting done is the stuff that in the Democrat Party platform they’re pretty clearly against. 

His point about look: they don’t think they can beat him in the election of 2020. I think that’s accurate. I think that that’s what most insiders actually believe. 

They’ve got a real uphill road. 

And if they can’t beat him in 2020, how do you stop this forward motion happening in all these areas? Get the guy to office. Let’s impeach him. 

President Trump Is The First to Go To The U.N. And Stand Up For Religious Liberty Worldwide

I had not thought about it, but from a tactical standpoint, that is a very feasible explanation of why they would have the fervor to get him out before the next election. Because if you don’t think you can beat him, how do you stop this policy? How do you stop the 150 judges he’s appointed? How do you keep more judges from going much so that the left is even losing in the ninth circuit now, which I can’t say that’s ever happened in my lifetime. 

It really is interesting to hear that perspective, but it goes back to the point that President Trump has had moral clarity to the point where he is now the first, so far the only, President to go to the U.N. and stand up for religious liberty worldwide. What an amazing thing.

We Are Constantly Surprised

Rick:

We’re almost at three years of kind of pinching ourselves and saying I can’t believe this is happening. At some point, I guess we’re gonna stop doing that and say oh he’s right; we’re close to getting tired of winning. No, I’m not getting tired of winning, but I am constantly surprised.

He’s On Our List of Best Presidents, Certainly In The Last Century

Here’s another thing that we didn’t even see President Reagan do. We’ve said this on the program before shockingly that if he keeps this up, he’s going to actually move ahead of Reagan on our list of best Presidents and certainly best Presidents the last century. 

This Real Estate Mogul Is Doing Something We Haven’t Seen Before 

Tim:

I totally agree with you. 

One of the things that I think was interesting that Pastor Jeffress pointed out in the interview was that you have this billionaire whatever, this real estate mogul and all that kind of adjectives that you can throw on him, who certainly had moral failings at many places in his life – who now is in a position that is doing something that arguably we haven’t had any President do in the last decades, if not maybe even the last century. 

And this came from one of the unlikeliest places ever. 

We’ve talked about it some before. President Trump is someone that when you look at some of the biblical leaders that God chose, he is one of the most biblical leaders that we have had in Presidents in a long time. 

God Didn’t Use The Most Moral Person

In the sense of when you will look at the people that God chose like King David, who was an adulterer and a murderer and a terrible father. Or you look in Hebrews chapter 11, our faith hall of fame, and all the liars, and all the issues you can go through all these people had. God didn’t always use the most moral person, the most upright, the most upstanding person – but God used people who didn’t seem to be necessarily the best on their own. But when God used them, he did something great through them. 

Donald Trump certainly is somebody we can look at and go; it definitely seems like God is using him to do something even though he’s not the guy we would have chosen.

In fact, we didn’t choose him in the primary. I did vote for him once it was him and Hillary. It’s just interesting how even Pastor Jeffress pointed out that this is somebody doing something really special. 

It doesn’t even seem like he has a background for this, which is why we think even more that God is doing something through him because this doesn’t seem to be the tradition of his character and what he’s has been in the past. 

He’s Somebody Different Doing Something Really Special

But he’s somebody different now doing something really special.

Rick:

Definitely having a huge impact on our nation and the world. He is going to impact generations to come.

We should be very, very thankful for that.

We’ve Got Tools That You Can Use To Fulfill Your Role As A Citizen

Then we should do our part. Every single one of us has a role to play. We’ve got a lot of tools that you can use to fulfill your role as a citizen. Get you educated, equipped, and inspired. It’s all there at WallBuilders.com. 

Great opportunities for you to participate and be a part of the solution. 

It’s incumbent upon all of us to not just enjoy the blessings of liberty but to also bear the burden. And as Thomas Paine said, to undergo the fatigues of supporting the freedom that we want to enjoy. So let’s all do our part. 

Support WallBuilders

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We appreciate you coming alongside us. Appreciate you being a part of the solution and preserving freedom for future generations. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.