Your Questions On America in Bible Prophecy And More – On Foundations Of Freedom: Since Texas may turn blue, where else should Californian refugees go? Who is trending Texas blue? Is America In Bible Prophecy?  Should that make a difference in how Christians live? How does God want Christians in America to be living now? What makes a marriage valid? Tune in to hear the answers to these questions and more on this Foundations of Freedom program!

Air Date: 10/15/2020

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.

Faith and the Culture

President Thomas Jefferson said, “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society, but the people themselves. And if we think they’re not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.”

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. It’s WallBuilders Live, and we’re talking about today’s hottest topics on policy, faith and the culture, always from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. That conversation is with David Barton, America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders, Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders, and my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach.

You can check us out at wallbuilderslive.com and also wallbuilders.com, that’s our two websites, great information to both websites. The WallBuilders Live website has archives of the program, list of stations around the country where you can hear us. It also has the video series on quarantines and the Constitution, breaks down that issue for you constitutionally, historically. And then we are always looking at the subjects like that from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective so that we can analyze, especially today on Foundations of Freedom Thursday, those foundational principles that produce a good society and allow for freedom.

Well, let’s just dive right into those questions. Foundations of Freedom Thursday today, and the first one is coming out of California. Can you guys handle a question from California? Is that allowed here on our show?

From California to Texas?

David:

No. No, Is can California handle an answer from Texas? Is that right way to say.

Rick:

There we go. There we go. Alright. First question is this. “I discovered your show on the Blaze radio and now I’m a regular listener of the podcast. I love it and appreciate what you guys are doing. My question is, I was born and raised in California, but I’m ready to move due to everything that has and is taking place in this State. I am 37 and single, so very flexible.

In terms of where I could live and work, I’ve considered Texas as a place to move, but I’m concerned with so many other Californians moving to Texas that it will soon be a Blue State right where California is now. Are there any other States that are strongly conservative where fewer Californians and/or New Yorkers are moving to?” You know, guys, I’m kind of chuckling as I’m reading this. But this is a common question that we’re all getting. I mean, people are fleeing these Blue cities and Blue states.

David:

We got an answer, but we need not to broadcast this in Texas. We need to, kind of, maybe not keep this recorded, not let it go public. We need him. One of the things we saw in the election between Beto O’Rourke and Ted Cruz for US Senate was that Ted Cruz almost lost and really probably should have lost on election night, had it not been for middle Odessa outperforming what their normal turnout is, Ted Cruz would have lost.

And so analysis done after the election showed that those who were born and raised in Texas, native Texans voted for Beto O’Rourke against Ted Cruz by margin 51/49. But those who moved into Texas from other States, like California actually voted 57% for Ted Cruz. So Texas was kept Red and that election by not Texans, but by people who moved in from other States who want to get out of the craziness of California and wanted to come to a sane State. Well, it turns out our education system in Texas is not helping keep our State sane, but people moving in from out of State are.

From Blue States to Red

Tim:

Well, and there’s a lot of States that are seeing an influx of people coming in, whether it be States where there is a conservative base, like an Idaho is a conservative State, they’ve seen some people moving in. I guess, Utah…

David:

Utah has seen a lot.

Tim:

…probably is still fairly conservative. There are States like in Oklahoma, Arkansas that are very conservative States. They certainly have not seen the same level of population growth as a Texas just because of the economy and the industry in Texas is obviously more substantial than for Oklahoma or Arkansas.

But there are some very conservative other States out there that there is an influx of population coming in as well. But yes, for all the conservatives listening, we would love for you to come to Texas and continue to vote conservative. We would love to see Texas remain that way. And our current education system is not aligning itself with the same vision that we have to keep Texas conservative.

Rick:

Yeah, maybe we’ll just get conservatives from all over the country to move to Texas and it will remain the beacon of hope. We actually need to move further to those conservative principles and not just the Beto O’Rourke versus Ted Cruz race but our local races all across the State as well. So yeah, Jeremy, come on, man move to Texas.

Don’t Come to Texas If…

We welcome you with open arms as we do conservatives from across the nation. But if you’re leaving a Blue city or a Blue State, and you voted for the Blue power policies and the liberal policies that have caused the downfall of your city or State, then don’t come to Texas. We only want the ones that understand what makes a good society and culture and what destroys a good society and culture.

David:

Well, actually, we’ve seen that in other States. I mean, we saw in Boston where taxes were so high, and it was such a press of regulations that so many Bostonians moved out and moved north into New Hampshire. And as a result, New Hampshire has gone from a very reliable red State to a very purple State, sometimes Blue State.

We’ve seen that in Arizona as well. Arizona used to be reliably red. Oh, my gosh, Barry Goldwater, you know, was the senator back there, and ran in the 60s. And now, that is one of the battleground States. It’s a very purple State.

And so we do see definitely that there are places where the people move in out of Blue States and bring their “Blue philosophy” with them. I think a lot of the people that moved into Texas out of Blue States went to Houston and Dallas. Those areas, Austin, they have gone so much more hardcore, progressive Blue, I mean, really hard Blue. And it’s the rural areas that continue to be more of the same constitutional, common sense thinking area. So we definitely see it going both ways.

But generally, in Texas, the majority of those moving in have tended to be more conservative than liberal, and that’s really what’s kind of kept Texas Red although Texas is right on the verge of becoming purple, within only nine seats of losing the state legislature out of Republican hands. So it’s becoming more and more Blue, it’s trending Blue in the last few elections. Hopefully, that’ll get turned around. Jeremy, come move in and be one of the Red guys in Texas, we could use you.

“Power is Inherent in the People”

Rick:

Love it. Quick break, guys, we got more questions coming up. It’s Foundations of Freedom Thursday here on WallBuilders Live.

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Thomas Jefferson said, “The Constitution of most of our States and of the United States assert that all power is inherent in the people that they may exercise it by themselves. That is their right and duty to be at all times armed, that they are entitled to freedom of person; freedom of religion; freedom of property; and freedom of press.”

The Founders’ Bible

The Founding Fathers of America made a habit of reading through the Bible once a year. There’s no better source of wisdom and it is applicable to every issue in our lives. What a great time for us as American citizens to take this time. If you’ve got extra time at home now, if you’re quarantined at home and you’re looking for something to do, what better thing could there be to do than to read through the Bible, maybe for the first time in your life?

I tried to make this a habit several years ago and I had a new tool to start doing that with and it was called the Founders’ Bible. It gave me a chance not only to read through the Bible once a year, but also to learn history while I was doing that. And what I love about the Founders’ Bible is that as I’m reading that Scripture, then all of a sudden, there’ll be an article inserted right there by that Scripture about what the Founding Fathers learned from that specific verse or chapter and how they applied it to launch our new.

It’s a really fun way to learn. It’s incredibly empowering and it has answers for today. The Bible is full of all the right answers for today, in fact, it’s the only source that has all the right answers.

So, if you haven’t read through the Founders’ Bible, I challenge you and encourage you get a copy of the Founders’ Bible today, it’s available at wallbuilders.com. And we even have a digital version, so you can do this on your phone or iPad or computer. Check out the Founders’ Bible today, make it a part of your regular reading throughout the year. But right now, is a great opportunity to redo the Founders’ Bible. Check it out today at WallBuilders.com.

America in Bible Prophecy

President Calvin Coolidge said, “The more I study the Constitution, the more I realized that no other document devised by the hand of man has brought so much progress and happiness to humanity. To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.”

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live, Foundations of Freedom Thursday today. Your chance to ask questions, send them into rad[email protected]. Kurt sent one in from Seattle, Washington.

And he said “America in Bible prophecies”, he’s asking about that. He said “My understanding is that America is not in Bible prophecy. This means that God’s plan does not include America in what we refer to as the last days. Does this mean that we’re interfering with God’s plan by trying to save America? Or should we follow the example in Genesis 18 and try to change God’s mind?”

Interesting question, guys. So yeah, I mean, the one thing I think of when he asked this question is that we’re told there’ll be no one to defend Israel. So does that mean America is either gone against Israel or doesn’t exist anymore? But other than that, I mean, we don’t have a specific mention of America. What do you guys think on this?

Tim:

Well, there’s a lot of nations that are mentioned in Revelation that are not actual nations today. Now, the geographic location is there and those nations have now become new nations with different names. And certainly, when you look in Revelation, there is no mention of America, there’s no mention of this land across the ocean, etc.

What Difference Does it Make?

With that being said, there’s a lot of things the Bible, it doesn’t mention doesn’t mean they don’t exist as well. What is very, very clear is that there will be nations that turn against Israel, and Israel will have this crazy fight, etc, etc, etc. There’s a lot of in time thought and speculation.

With all of that being said, one of the things that one of our good friends he’s a pastor, the question he always asks when it comes to, end times thoughts, end times prophecy, his question is always, what difference does it make? And specifically, what he wants to know is, how does that have any bearing on how we live our life?

Because you’re supposed to live your life in such a way, right, that Jesus taught a parable of these 10 virgins, and then there were five wise and five foolish because five were ready for the return of Christ and five weren’t and no man knows the day or the hour when he returns. We should be living our life in such a way that no matter when he returns, we are ready and not to worry ourselves with things beyond what is in the spectrum of what God’s given us to control and deal with.

And God has put us in a place where we are stewards of the place where God has given us, and that could entail with our relationships in our family, in our kids or our jobs. We have accountability based on what God has entrusted to us. And part of where we are, as Americans, we are in a nation where we’ve been entrusted with a nation and we have the ability and capacity to vote because we’re in a Republican system, and so we can choose our leaders? And so we want to do a really good job choosing those leaders.

But we should be living life in such a way that if we are seeing a nation, like we are now in America that is rejecting righteous as well as Christians in general, we should be fighting and promoting righteousness so strongly and boldly, not thinking end times necessarily, but at least thinking far enough down the line of if we lose biblical morality, if we lose biblical standards, which are already largely under attack, and being really eroded from culture in many ways, if we lose the foundations upon which our nation was built, our nation won’t stand.

Where’s America Going to Be for Our Kids?

And beyond the fact of where’s American in end time prophecy, is the reality of where’s America going to be for our kids and our grandkids? What kind of stewardship are we for our family, for the next generation? Have we preserve freedom, have we promoted those things, or allowed that to prevail?

And even in the midst of this, this is not a uniquely American thought. Because I can tell you as, as someone who reads and studies the Bible, if God said, hey, Tim, I want you to pack up and I want you to move Japan, I would have the exact same sentiments in Japan than I would in America, that I would go man, I want Japan to promote righteousness and godliness, because I want Japan to do things that God can bless, and I’m now living in Japan, and so I’m part of this culture. And so I would be fighting as strongly for whatever nation I was in.

And this is part of what God even tells Jeremiah when Jeremiah was taken into Babylonian captivity. And God says to Jeremiah, pray for the peace in the land in which you are now dwelling, for when it goes well with the land, it will go well with you. That you should pray for whatever nation you are in, because the better the nation does, the more benefits you get from that. So even for Jeremiah, who was a slave in another nation, you pray for the nation you’re in?

Well, this is the reality as Christians, that we should be praying and fighting as strong and as hard as we can for whatever nation we are in to promote godliness and biblical values. And this is not because of where a nation is going to be in end time or not end times, this is the fact that no nation lasts forever. And there’s rise and fall for every nation.

The Bible talks about that the times the seasons, the boundaries are appointed for every nation. There is something that God has planned for a nation, but we also don’t want to be the ones who we didn’t get involved in the process and so righteousness was removed, that the foundation eroded and the nation crumbled because of our lack of diligence. This is part of being a good steward.

Faithful Stewards

And at the end of the parables, when Jesus talks about the master leaves, and he leaves the stewards in charge, when he returns, everyone gives an account. And we want to be the ones that hear “Well done, good and faithful”, because we’ve been the faithful stewards fighting for and promoting righteousness.

David:

And echoing that same theme, if we accept that many say that America is not in end time prophecy, what that means is, it’s a choice of self-determination, we get to choose. But that’s what Tim has pointed out. We should be choosing anyway as a nation. We should be choosing that we’re going to choose our destiny, we’re going to choose being on the right side, not the wrong side.

And to that end, even end time kind of stuff is to me, it’s very dubious, not in the sense of the Bible didn’t talk about it, but in the sense of our ability to understand it. Now, I’ll just point out that at the time of Christopher Columbus, the writings of his day, he talks about the fact that all the theologians agree that Christ will be back within 155 years, he believed he was living in the end times. That was a motivation for him. I can point to the right is a Sam Adams where he says I’ve talked with the theologians, they believe Christ will be back by 1800. Each generation points to the fact that prophecies have been fulfilled.

I bought a book just recently from the 1800s that said, there’s not a single prophecy left be fulfilled before the return of Christ. They believed it was happening then, the Millrise believes is going to happen in the 1840s. Every generation sees end time prophecy from their own viewpoint, and seeing that you can’t let that change the way you act or behave.

Every Generation Has Thought…

Tim:

And by the way, I hope that we are living in time, and I hope Jesus comes back like today, tomorrow while we’re talking? Yes, I hope He returns right now. And then our problems are solved for us because we know where we’re going. I hope the end times are this very moment and then we are soon going to be up in heaven.

With that being said, we should always live our life as if the times won’t be for another several hundred years, that way we are being the faithful stewards we’ve been called to be, as opposed to getting in a hammock and sitting out laying under a tree and just looking out, waiting and hoping to see the twinkling of an eye and the sounding trumpets. No, no, we’re not sitting around waiting for Christ’s return. We are being active participants, and being good stewards of what God has given us.

And, you know, to this point, every generation since the disciples thought they would see Jesus return, and it’s been now a couple thousand years. Well, clearly, we are much closer to his return now, then they were 2000 years ago, because that’s just the way math and time works, that we are getting closer to the end if we’re not at the end right now.

Again, with that being said, where America is or isn’t the prophecies, I know, some people will argue that America is certain places in prophecies. I think you might have to read into that a little bit. But, the point is, it really doesn’t matter for the way we live our life–where we see America in that prophecy or not.

Because we already know what God has called us as Christians and us as individuals to do. We know what we’ve been called to do as husbands, as wives, as fathers, as mothers, as sons, as daughters. We’ve been called to live a certain way, regardless of where America ends up. And end time prophecy, we’re going to be found faithful because we’re doing and promoting righteousness.

What Good Does it Do for Our Life Right Now?

Rick:

Well, as we know, no man knows the day. And how did you put it, Tim, that the end time prophecies or any of those things, how does it affect my life, what was the question?

Tim:

Yeah, it was what difference does it make for me, right? How does it change how I live?

Rick:

Yeah, how does it change how I live? That’s a great way to look at, I mean, what difference does this make? Because we can do the whole, I forget the phrase, but it’s you know, how many angels on the end of a point?

I mean, what good does that do for our life right now? There’s so many pressing issues and so many biblical commands that we should be paying attention to. We can get lost in this philosophy, is kind of like conspiracy theory. You can go down these rabbit trails and just spend all your time talking about that and getting caught up in that and it paralyzes you.

David:

Let me add one thought to that. Because one of the things I see a lot of times with end time prophecy is we look at what He’s doing, not what we’re supposed to be doing. So we look at when is He returning? What are the signs? That’s up to him. You know, Jesus said, I don’t even know the time and it will be when the Father tells me. Well, if He doesn’t know the time, we sure don’t know the time. But what He does is not our concern. It’s what we do that we’re accountable for.

Should it Affect Us?

And so looking at end time prophecy should never affect the way that we behave. Oh, wow, it’s right now, so I need to focus on… No, you need to be focused on whatever you should be focused on all the time, every day. And you know, the question.

You and Tim both asked, what difference does it make? It shouldn’t make any difference. We’re told him both Luke and Matthew, Jesus says, “Blessed are those servants that when I return, I find so doing.” In other words, when I come back, they’re busy doing what I’ve told him to do.

That’s the blessed servant. And that should be our focus, not what his role is but what is our role.

Rick:

Quick break, guys, we got time for one more Foundations of Freedom Thursday question when we return on WallBuilders Live.

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Thomas Jefferson said, “In questions of power, then let no more be heard of confidence in man that bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”

Share Your Vets Story

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 sacrifices 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 Indianapolis to so many other great stories you’ve heard on WallBuilders Live. You have friends and family that also served.

If you have World War Two veterans in your family that you would like to have their story shared here on WallBuilders Live, please email us at [email protected], [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.

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Samuel Adams said, “The liberties of our country and the freedom of our civil constitution are worth defending against all hazards and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.”

What Makes a Marriage Valid?

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live, Foundation to Freedom Thursday today. And the next question is simple. “I was in a conversation with someone recently discussing what makes a marriage valid.” There’s your question.

Is it public ceremony or can a private confession of love between husband and wife be recognized marriage before God without the presence of any guest? Is the private marriage where solely husband and wife confessing before God their oath to remain together for life is an invalid due to no guests being present?

This is quite a challenging subject for me, and I wanted to hear a biblical and historical perspective to this issue so I can be better equipped to discuss this with a colleague of mine in the future. Thank you so much in advance for your responses. They always cure my ignorance. Like Thomas Jefferson said, “Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of a body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of the day.”

Great question from Sebastian in New York, and guys, man, I said simple question. But today since marriage is up for grabs, it means anything anybody wants it to mean. This is a very legit question for people to answer. What’s necessary for it to be a marriage recognized by God?

Tim:

Well, this is important that we have already defined what kind of recognition we’re looking for. Because if it’s defined by God, then you go back to the Bible for examples, and if you look at the Bible for examples, certainly if you look at the New Testament, Jesus first miracle, the miracle of Cana where He turned the water into wine, it was at a wedding feast.

Marriage in the Bible and Beyond

Okay, so apparently, it’s at some point along the line, these weddings became a ceremony, became a celebration of what was going on. But if you back up further in time, right, if you go back to the very first man and woman, Adam and Eve, there’s no ceremony or celebration necessarily that we see.

And even as you go forward with, if you talk about Cain and Abel, or obviously, we know that game murders Abel, and then Cain goes off, but Cain goes off and he gets married and goes and moves with other people and they start a community, and we know Seth is married, and we see that they have descendants. But the Bible never gives us an explanation of marriage as far as ceremony, process, procedure that repeat vows, well, here’s the ring.

And if you start looking historically, you see that there was a lot of growth to what became part of the ceremony, because it was something that we wanted to celebrate this eternal union. That was a covenant that was made between a man and woman in front of God, because God had created this institution, we have done a lot of manmade contrivances to make it a ceremony. It’s just interesting you can see that progression even throughout Scripture. But to see where it started with Adam and Eve, even to where it wasn’t the time of Jesus, there’s a pretty big growth of what happened.

David:

One of the things I like to look at in the Bible is when Isaac and Rebecca come together. When they get together, the Bible says that Isaac took Rebecca into his tent, and they were man and wife, they were married. That’s the extent of the ceremony. They went into attend together, then they live together thereafter. It’s a permanent relationship.

So it’s interesting to me that when you get to early America, and you take someone like the Puritans, and the Puritans were absolutely focused on following what the Bible said. I mean, that was the essence of their living. That’s what they did in their civil laws.

Government and Marriage

They would quote Bible verses for criminal procedure, for civil procedure, whatever. They were big into the Bible. And the Puritans did not believe in marriages performed in church is like we have now. They thought, well, it’s for civil registry, so go before Judge, get married, he’ll keep a record of it, but you guys are married.

And so it was not the big ceremony we have now, and that was not considered a church ordinance in the way that we do it. It was a church ordinance and that is a lifelong union of a man and a woman, Isaac took Rebecca into his tent. But it’s not the process we see today.

Tim:

And even arguably, if it wasn’t for tax status, it wouldn’t be a government thing either, right, which is one of the arguments that whether you are a strict originalist with constitution, or even I hear a lot of libertarians make is that the government has no role in marriage. Well, I would totally agree with that. That’s not government’s job to define marriage necessarily.

Now, certainly, I think government can promote marriages between a man and woman because strong families make strong societies which strengthen the government. So government should promote things that strengthen itself that helped the nation. If its role is to help a nation and defend the nation, then it makes sense that government officials would encourage and promote marriage.

With that being said, the idea that marriage is defined by government is utterly silly. Marriage was not created by government. Marriage was created by God and only after marriages existed, and then families existed only after this institution of family and families are growing, and their society, then government was created.

Your Questions On America in Bible Prophecy And More – On Foundations Of Freedom

And this is where even you can go back to the Founding Fathers recognizing that our rights came from God, not from government. Well, marriage is something else that was created by God, not by government. So when government comes in and tries to dictate or regulate something that was an institution by God, government has overstepped their bounds in what they’ve done.

And again, a lot of this was done for tax purposes, among other things, and it’s silly that we’re going to tax people and marriage may be differently than something else. In fact, even today, sometimes tax rates are higher for married couples, then for individuals who are just living together cohabitating doesn’t make any sense.

But if you look at the biblical definition of marriage, which is really what the question was all about, God’s idea of marriage was a sacred covenant between two individuals, pledging a lifelong union together, and this was done before God and that was the idea of marriage.

Rick:

We are out of time for today, folks. Thanks for joining us on this Foundations of Freedom Thursday. You can get more at our website wallbuilderslive.com. And don’t forget to go to constitutioncoach.com today as well, start getting educated on the Constitution and helping others to do the same, become a part of the solution and become a force multiplier. Thanks for listening to WallBuilders Live.

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Abraham Lincoln said. “We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts; not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”