Rick Green: 0:06
Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. It is the WallBuilders Show with David Barton, Tim Barton and myself. Rick Green, I'm a former Texas legislator and America's Constitution coach, honored to serve along these two guys. David Barton everybody knows him as America's premier historian. If you haven't read one of his books or watched one of his videos, you're missing out. He brings history to life and I think in that head of his is more knowledge about the founding fathers, not only just quotes of what they said, but how they thought, why they did the things that they did, what they had been studying. That would cause them to put in place these principles that produce the greatest nation in the history of mankind All of the things that you want in a culture. I mean the most powerful, the wealthiest, the most free, the most benevolent nation in the history of mankind. Something had to produce that. That would be a cause for that effect. And of course, David's done an incredible job of bringing those things to life over the years. We're so thankful for him. That's why we call him America's premier historian. And then Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders a younger I almost said better looking version. I don't think that's fair. I don't anyway. No, Tim is just a fantastic teacher. You really, if you haven't had him come speak at your church or in your community, you need to put in a request. It's hard to get him because, like David, he does this several hundred times a year. And if you can get him, I'm telling you, young and old alike, they're going to be blessed. He's just got a gift and I'm just so thankful. He comes to Patriot Academy every summer and speaks to our students and our coaches and military veterans. We enjoy it every time and, speaking of that, we're going to have Tim actually do the next couple of days. Last week, if you were listening, last week, on Thursday and Friday, we had a presentation that Tim did at the Pro Famine Legislators Conference a few weeks ago, and he did another presentation at the end of the conference. That is remarkable and we want to share that with you as well, and so we're going to do that today, tomorrow and Wednesday. So this is going to be rapid fire, a wealth of information from Tim's live presentation. So buckle up, get out your pen and paper or, if you're listening in the car, don't do that, unless somebody else is driving, of course but definitely make mental notes to all of the wealth of information that you're about to learn. Let's join Tim Barton at the ProFamily Legislators Conference.

Tim Barton: 2:19
I'm going to start with a couple of Bible verses and then we're going to come back and I want to give you guys a few more minutes to share we. It encourages all of us to hear some of what God has spoken to you, what God's doing, how you're motivated. But I want to start with a verse that hopefully, I think all of us know John 14, 6,. You just said I'm the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. This is the ultimate battle we are dealing with in culture is what is truth, right? And just as Rabbi Lapha talked about, the big picture battle we are seeing is not just a battle of Islam versus the Jews right, or terrorists versus the Jews. It's a battle for civilization, something much more significant. Well, it goes back to Jesus when he said that he was truth. We have never seen a time in American history where truth was maybe more debated than it is right now. Right, because there's never been a time when we were confused in society about what was a boy and what was a girl. That this is not confusing, but ultimately it's not a battle just over gender ideology or whether we're sexualizing kids. It's a battle over what's true and the reason this is significant for us as Christians to engage like never before. What did Jesus say? Truth did he said you would know the truth and the truth will set you free. Truth brings freedom, just as we were pointing out from George Barna's talk. Right, that if kids knew who God was, they wouldn't have all these mental health issues. Right, not that there wouldn't be challenges in their life anymore, but they have a solid foundation to build on. Truth brings freedom to people and there's a reason why you go back to the very beginning of Genesis, right? What was the very first thing that the devil does to trip up humanity? Did God really say it was a challenge on truth, right? Don't believe that. That's not true. This is what's true. It was redefining what truth was, redefining morality, redefining right and wrong, and this is something that, as we spend time, I want to start with that foundation, knowing where the big picture battle is, because, as we spend so much time with American history, it is very easy to recognize that we're changing the narrative on almost everything in culture, and when we talk about what's true, we're certainly telling lies about our history. We're not telling the truth anymore, and it reminds me a lot. George Orwell wrote a book back in 1950, right, nobody knew how prophetic this book was going to be when he wrote it 1984, if you've never read it, mind boggling, right, the things he was saying the government's going to do and the way they changed things and manipulated and coerced. But here's part of what he wrote in that book who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. What he acknowledged is the government understood If they could control this, they would change everything. Well, notice what he pointed out Whoever controls the present controls the past. The people in charge of the academic institutions, right of the curriculum, the people in Georgia schools right now, they are controlling the narrative about who America is, about America being fundamentally evil and built on slavery and racism, and et cetera, et cetera. Why does that matter? Because, as he pointed out, whoever controls the past controls the future. If you think America was fundamentally evil and terrible and awful, then you are going to want to morally justified change everything. And if you're told the constitution is racist, then what should we do? Right? If capitalism, the free market, is racist, what should we do? This is why it matters, because your perception of what that was changes the direction of the future you go. There's a reason. For the last 60 years the founding fathers have been villainized, and if you pay attention, think about this In the 60s and 70s. A leading accusation against the founding fathers is they were sexually immoral individuals. They fathered illegitimate children. They had all these affairs. You can come to the 80s and 90s. The leading accusations is that they were secularists. They didn't like God. They were atheists, agnostics and deists. They wanted a separation of church and state. And then you come to the 2000s. At the present we hear that there are these racist, bigoted slave holders. For 60 years they've been villainized. Why? Because the Marxists understood that you can never overthrow the constitution unless first you can demonize the founding fathers.

Rick Green: 6:25
Our folks quick break today. Stay with us. You're listening to the WallBuilders show. We're sharing a presentation from Tim Barton at the profamic legislators conference. We'll be right back.

Tim Barton: 6:43
This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. The Reverend James Caldwell was a famous minister during the American War for Independence. His sermons taught liberty and God's opposition to tyranny. The British hated him and tried to kill him, so for his own protection, he would actually take loaded pistols with him into the pulpit and lay them beside his Bible as he preached. In the 1780 Battle of Springfield, the Americans ran out of wadding for their guns, which was like having no ammunition. Pastor Caldwell ran inside a nearby church and returned with an armload of watts himinals, the pages of which would provide the much needed Wadding. He took this great Bible based himinal, raised it in the air and shouted to the troops now put watts into them, boys. This pastor's ingenuity saved the day for the Americans. For more information on pastor James Caldwell and other colonial Patriots, go to WallBuilderscom.

Rick Green: 7:43
Welcome back to the WallBuilders show. We're listening to Tim Barton teaching at the pro family legislators conference. We're going to jump right back in.

Tim Barton: 7:50
You can demonize the founding fathers, then you can make the argument that the Constitution is the fruit of the poisonous tree and therefore, if they were evil, the Constitution is bad, let's get rid all of it. This is part of what we're seeing happen. This is part of a Marxist Ideology, a an agenda moving forward, and so it's also not surprising that when you look at some of the leading texts being used today in university you know the AP US history course is largely based off Howard Zinn's book from 1980 called the history of the people's history, united States. In this book in 1980 and also, to be very clear, this has been one of the most largely discredited history books by historians all over the spectrum where they've acknowledged this is totally like kind of like the 1619 project, widely discredited by historians saying is not accurate history. That's what they did to his, because he said let's start with Columbus and let's go through and George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and he named all of the people that we would think were kind of heroic people, people that we Celebrated, we honored on some level in America, and he said they were all evil, they were all terrible. Everything you think you know about them was wrong, all they did were bad things, and he taught this notion About how evil and racist and terrible these people were. Well, this is also what became known as deconstruction that you have to tear down what is there so you can build something else back in its place. That is still the primary, the primary source, being used in AP history courses and public schools to this day. It is still being used in colleges and universities to this day. This is where kids are learning their history, and what they're learning is how evil and racist America is, even though historians have identified this is one of the most inaccurate history books there is. But kids don't know that and they're just believing what they get. And so what happens is and we have a generation of Americans who know so little about American history and yet they think America's fundamentally racist and evil. Every summer, I really enjoy these videos. Every summer there are people that go out and do man on the street interviews and I remember growing up we we didn't going to watch a lot of this, but every now and then I got a sneak in and and and Jay let oh used to do it was called Jay walking right and he would go on the streets and ask people questions, if you remember, and the questions were always easy and I remember the kid thinking that's so easy. But then I was realistic enough to go. But I I hope he never asked me a question, right, because I don't want to be the dumb person on camera, doesn't know this. But then there was will with from Prager University there's Jesse waters did waters world. There's a lot of people that have done these and just to give you a taste of where American culture is, let me show you an interview from just a couple years ago. Around 4th of July time, people are Celebrating America. Right there we're getting ready for all these parties. This is how those interviews went. What country famously broke away from England to start their own country in the?

Rick Green: 10:37
late 1700s. I have no idea, man, I don't know what are we celebrating? On the 4th of July.

Tim Barton: 10:45
Our independence.

Rick Green: 10:47
What are more specific?

Tim Barton: 10:49
It's the day that we overtook the South and it's the day that our independence. That's why we have the Fund From the South, from the South exactly. So it was the victory of the Civil War. Yes 4th of July.

Rick Green: 11:02
Yes, the Declaration of Independence was signed by who?

Tim Barton: 11:12
I don't know, just name one person Um Abraham Lincoln. Oh no, Alright. What year was that Declaration?

Rick Green: 11:24
of Independence 1964.

Tim Barton: 11:27
1984., 1984., 1984., oh, no, no 1864. 1864. I don't know this country. You know one of this country is in trouble. Okay, what country did we declare our independence from? Calpe man? Nope, just you. You're on your own. California, California.

Rick Green: 11:52
From, oh, from. We declared independence from a certain country, which is why we celebrate 4th of July. What country was that?

Tim Barton: 12:03
I'm mad man. You're going to be celebrating, though, yes.

Rick Green: 12:08
But you don't know what you're celebrating. You're right.

Tim Barton: 12:12
That's tonight's homework. Okay, wow, right, but this is the reality of America, right, every 4th of July, the majority of Americans are going to be celebrating. Native Americans are like we're going to celebrate America because everybody loves fireworks Right, we love food and fellowship and hanging out. But the reality is we know so little. And here's what's crazy is as much as students are learning how bad America is. Every year, I have a chance to travel and I get to speak in universities, I get to speak in high schools. Every summer, we do summer programs. In fact, this next week I'll be speaking at Samford University on Thursday night and I will show a picture like this and I travel with $10 Chick-fil-A gift cards and I'll pull out a $10 Chick-fil-A gift card and I'm like all right, I have a little trivia question, right, and of course, everybody Chick-fil-A, we're in. I want a $10 Chick-fil-A gift card and I'm like, if you can name five of the people in this painting, you can have a $10 Chick-fil-A gift card. I had the same gift card for eight years, okay, and I gave the first gift card away this summer at Patriot Academy, and it was only because when I gave the talk oh, not just because it was home school. No, no, no, it's because I gave the talk and this kid got it. And I was like I'm so impressed. And he was like he named a few that I feel like are a little more obscure, most people wouldn't know. And I was like, how did you know this? He said I heard you do this talk in my high school a couple of years ago and I determined if I ever heard you again. I was going to get that gift card and I was like, okay, I'm proud of you, but I don't know if this really counts. Right, but this is the reality. We hear about how bad and evil America is and we don't even know who the founding fathers were. We don't know the history of America and, to go even further, right the idea that we have people that don't know we separated from England, that America become with her own nation, that King George III like we don't know these basic ideas. In fact, if you even look at the Declaration of Independence, we have people that have no idea what the Declaration of Independence is about. None. You ask high school students today what's the Declaration of Independence? They're like I don't know. This should be one of the easiest things to understand ever. Why? Because this was the greatest breakup letter ever written.

Rick Green: 14:27
Quick break, everybody. We'll be right back. You're listening to the WallBuilders Show.

Tim Barton: 14:32
Hi, friends, this is Tim Barton of WallBuilders. This is a time when most Americans don't know much about American history or even heroes of the faith, and I know oftentimes for parents we're trying to find good content for our kids to read and if you remember, back to the Bible, to the book of Hebrews, it has the Faith Hall of Fame where they outlined the leaders of faith that had gone before them. Well, this is something that, as Americans, we really want to go back and outline some of these heroes, not just of American history, but heroes of Christianity and our faith as well. I want to let you know about some biographical sketches we have available on our website. One is called the Courageous Leaders Collection and this collection includes people like Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Francis Scott Key, George Washington Carver, Susanna Wesley, even the Wright Brothers, and there's a second collection called Heroes of History. In this collection you'll read about people like Benjamin Franklin or Christopher Columbus, Daniel Boone, George Washington, Harriet Tubman, friends the list goes on and on. This is a great collection for your young person to have and read and it's a providential view of American and Christian history. This is available at WallBuilders.com that's www.WallBuilders.com.

Rick Green: 15:41
Welcome back to the Wall Blotter Show. We're in the middle of a three-part series with Tim Barton teaching and speaking at the Pro Family Legislators Conference. Let's jump right back in.

Tim Barton: 15:51
We're like, hey, it's not really working out anymore and it's not us, it's all you, here's all your problems. Like this is the greatest right that this should be super easy to understand and we know so little about it today. But if you think about it the declaration, the primary author there was Committee of Five, but the primary author was Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old when he did this and I remember as a kid when my peers were in their 30s and I was like they are so old. I mean, I remember as a kid when 30s were old and then we grew up a little bit and I'm 41 now and what I realized is, first of all, 33 is not very old, it's a perspective right. But also, you're not inherently brilliant as a 33 year old. So for Thomas Jefferson to be able to articulate the political philosophy of this nation in such a profound manner, I mean this is remarkable. And think about it. In the declaration, in the second paragraph, the phrase we know the best. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. That they're endowed by their creator with certain enable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights. Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the extent of the government. This used to be a phrase that we would memorize, right? I mean, most of us remember in school. We memorize this. It's the reason most of us still know it today. Notice the significant details of this. What do they start with? We hold these truths to be self-evident Because if you studied the founding fathers one of the things that would quickly come to your attention as you study some of their writings and proceedings they disagreed about a lot. They argued and debated all I mean. Imagine, right, if all of we had 35 different states, if we had to come together and come up with some unique ideas for a new government, there'd be a lot of debates Because, well, that's not going to work in Nebraska. Well, that's not going to work in Iowa, that's not going to work in South Carolina. There'd be some debate. But what's significant is, they said there's certain truths we can unify around, because we all of us we hold these truths, these truths, to be self-evident, and the idea that it's self-evident means all of us agree that these are the obvious truths, right, like these truths really aren't debatable. What are the obvious truths? That we were created equal, that we have an inable rights that come from our creator, from God, that that government exists to protect those God-given rights. These are the obvious truths. And yet we now have public schools in America that are saying that students should not read the Declaration of Independence because it's racist. How the argument goes? Because when it says created equal, that's a racist statement. And again I'm like how Right. And they say well, because the founding fathers own slaves and therefore they were only talking about equality for white people. This is the accusation. This is where I will point out, as people that study history. This is why original documents matter so much. Why Go back to the original draft of the Declaration, in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, you actually can find it online. Now we actually happen to own one of the very first printings of the original draft. It's quite remarkable, actually, if you guys went to AGE, right, if you all got to go to that tour, you might have seen it up on the wall. It's amazing, absolutely incredible, right. But as you go through the first page where Jefferson lays out his political philosophy second paragraph we owe these truths. That's all in the first page. Second page, he starts listing all the grievances. Third page, he's listing more grievances. Fourth page he wraps up his political philosophy and what is worth noting. In the original draft there were 24 grievances. The last grievance is by far the largest grievance. It took up nearly half of the page. What grievance was so significant that it took up half of the third page? It was a grievance against the slave trade, and let me break it down Now. By the way, it's enlarged to your student kind of seat If you start up here. It says he has waged cruel war against human nature itself. But I'm going to put the text up. As I put the text up, I would encourage you. You need to find this online and you ought to just read the whole thing. And you can find the text online, but I like being able to read it in Jefferson's handwriting because we can confirm that is literally what he wrote. But here's what it says. It says he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating his most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating them and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. Now I'm just going to pause because it's very clear. We're talking about the slave trade and this was a grievance against the king. This is the largest grievance. This is the reason we are separating from the king. Right, the biggest grievance we have, according to Jefferson and his own writings, is we are not a fan of this slave trade, we're totally against it. But let's keep going. He says this piratical warfare, the appropriate of infidel powers. Let's pause. What is piratical warfare? That's piracy, right, the appropriate of infidel powers. Infidel is a non-believer. Actually, the Bible talks about infidels who were non-Christians, right now. Muslims were called infidels, non-believers. But ultimately, in this context, it is the non-Christians who were the non-Christian pirates, the Barbary pirates of North Africa, who are the ones who started the North Atlantic African slave trade. Also pretty significant why? Because notice what he says. He says the appointment of Infidel Powers is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. The word Christian Now you see Infidel underlined, the word Christian underlined. Both those are underlined in the original draft, but the word Christian is the first word in the original draft. That is not in cursive, it was printed and underlined.

Rick Green: 21:43
Why he's drawing your attention to it, our folks, one more break today. Stay with us. Welcome back to the Wall. Builders Show.

Tim Barton: 21:56
Hey, this is Tim Barton, with WallBuilders, and, as you've had the opportunity to listen to WallBuilders Live, you've probably heard the wealth of information about our nation, about our spiritual heritage, about the religious liberties, about all the things that makes 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 and if you'll click on that tab, you'll notice there's a list of information from speakers, bios 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's website and bring a speaker to your area.

Rick Green: 22:55
The WallBuilders Show. Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. We are listening to Tim Barton teaching at the Pro Family Legislators Conference. Let's jump right back in with him.

Tim Barton: 23:06
He says this Christian king is doing what the Muslim pirates are doing and he's claiming to be a Christian. Let's keep going. He says the term to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, the word men in here it is not only fully capitalized, it is fully capitalized and printed. It is again the only thing fully capitalized. Now this is the second word that is printed. The only thing fully capitalized in the declaration was the title United States of America at the beginning, and then the word men. When Jefferson wrote in the sacred paragraph that all men were created equal, he actually clarified who was included in that. You know who was included Everybody, even the people being enslaved from Africa. They're men too. Why? Because we understood that what makes a man a man is the fact they were created in God's image. It has nothing to do with race, ethnicity, nationality. That's not what it was. Well, the grievance actually keeps going. He said he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt. What does it mean to suppress a legislative attempt? It's where the governor vetoes it, right, that's where the king vetoes it. There were multiple states 73, 74. I can go through several years where there were several states. In each of those years that passed laws against the slave trade and ultimately even some were going against slavery and the king vetoed all of those laws. Now, to give you even a better example of this, if you look at Benjamin Franklin, in 1773, he wrote a letter to the Reverend Dean Woodward where he laid this out. And then this letter to the Reverend Dean Woodward, he explained a disposition to abolish slavery prevails in North America, that many of Pennsylvanians have said they're slaves at liberty and that even the Virginia assembly and I just appreciate this as thanking a Franklin and a guy from Pennsylvania when he's like even Virginians, like they're getting on board right, like this kind of a movement right now Even the Virginia assembly have petitioned the king for permission to make a law for preventing the importation of more into that colony. In Pennsylvania there are. This is 1773. He says we're already setting our slaves free. This is before the declaration that this movement is already going. He says we're setting our slaves free. In Pennsylvania, Virginia, they're actually trying to stop the slave trade. Now what happens? He continues the next sentence. This request, however, will probably not be granted, as their former laws of that kind have always been repealed. Former laws always been repealed. This is not the first time they tried it. This is not the first time the king vetoed it. Why does that matter? Because most people, most students, especially today, they're learning nothing of the anti-slavery movement or momentum that was happening. That led to the largest grievance in the original draft. Now that did not make it into the final version. Why? Because in the final version of the declaration John Hancock, who was the president of Congress, said they would only include in the final version what was unanimously agreed to. He said because if we put things in there where there's disagreement, the king might be able to come in and pull us apart by our own local, separate interests. So it has to be unanimous.

Rick Green: 26:10
Alright folks, out of time for today. Don't forget tomorrow and the next day you'll get the rest of this presentation from Tim at the ProFamily Legislators Conference. So make sure you tune in then and if, for some reason, you missed any of those, you can get them at our website, which has changed, by the way. So you probably noticed. The music has changed here on the WallBuilders Show. Also the website it's now WallBuilders.Show. Yeah, I know, original, WallBuilders.Show. So check it out there and you can get archives of the program. You can listen if you missed any over the last few days and of course, you'll be able to get this entire presentation. But we'll pick up on it tomorrow. Make sure you're listening to the WallBuilders Show.