Rick Green

Welcome to the intersection of faith in the culture. Its WallBuilders were taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. My name is Rick Green, I am a former Texas legislator and America's Constitution Coach, normally here with David Barton. He's America's premier historian and our founder here at WallBuilders, and also Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. But you're actually going to hear from the three of us in a recorded program that we're going to play throughout the rest of this week. It's week eight of biblical citizenship. Now that might sound a little bit confusing that we're going to play week eight throughout this week. So let me explain. 

Biblical Citizenship is the course that absolutely has exploded across the nation. Thousands and thousands of coaches across the country have taken that course into their churches and into their homes. It is amazing what's happening in these communities that are doing the biblical citizenship in modern America course, people are running for office, people are getting active, people are getting engaged. Most importantly, they're finding hope. They're realizing they're not alone. They're realizing the principles of liberty still work when they're infused into the culture and they're, most importantly, realizing they can do something about it, that there are action steps that each of us can take. Well, that is an eight week course called biblical citizenship. It's a video course and you can get digital workbooks or physical workbooks, however you want to do it, and we give it away for free. So the digital version of the course, the videos, everything we give that away to churches and groups. All you got to do is sign up as a coach at biblicalcitizens.com. That's biblicalcitizens.com, but when we do the course it's an eight week course, so we get people to gather together once a week, say Sunday afternoon at your church after church, or maybe Monday nights or whenever it works out for you. You gather once a week for about two hours and you watch the video and you have discussion. You sit around and you talk about these things. You sharpen each other's accountants, applying the things that you learned in the videos, and the videos are chock full of great guests. I mean, Kirk Cameron does the thing on the monument. We got Tim Barton teaching on a response to the 1619 project. Of course, David Barton all over the course teaching about the Constitution, teaching about truth, all of these things. People like Rabbi Daniel Lappet and Congressman Barry Loudermilk, pastor Rob McCoy, pastor Jack Hibbs there's a lot of great folks in this thing. Jeremy Boring from the Daily Wire, you don't want to miss it. You want to enjoy biblical citizenship. Now, if you haven't gone through the whole course, or even if you have, this would be a great review. 

But for the rest of this week, on WallBuilders, we're going to be sharing with you week eight out of that eight week course. Now that might sound weird that we're starting with week eight. We're not actually starting with week eight. We've played week one and week two and, I think, week three and four, but we wanted to do week eight because that's the last week in the course and it's really the action week. This is the, this is what we really talk about. What can you now do in your community? What can you do to help change this on the federal level? Put the federal government back into its proper place? What can you do on the local level, the state level? That's what we're going to be talking about throughout the rest of this week here on WallBuilders. So hope you enjoy it, let's jump right in. 

This is Week 8 of Biblical Citizenship in Modern America. 

It's our last night together. Ah, okay, it doesn't. It doesn't have to be our last night together because we're going to start another class next week, right? All right, wherever you are, if you're having your class online, if you're having your class in a living room or in a church tonight, make sure they know when the start date is for the next class, because we're just going to keep rolling it over, getting more people educated on how to be good Biblical citizens. 

Now, this week we're going to wrap it all up by talking about the action steps that we can all take. It's not enough to just talk about this stuff. It's not enough to just believe on it. John Hancock said I urge you, by all that is honorable, by all that is dear, by all that is sacred, not only to pray but to act. We have got to put some works with that faith right. Faith without works is dead. 

So this week we're going to talk about some of those works. We're going to talk about how to make a difference in our communities, how to be the catalyst for a restoration of Biblical values and constitutional principles, some of those specific action steps. We've got a lot of great guests for tonight. We're going to have a panel up here. Live with our class here in Thousand Oaks, California. We're going to talk about what they've been doing to take action. We're also going to have a lot of great interviews that we bring in and examples of people that have been taking action in their communities and making a difference, and then we're going to challenge you to do the same at home. This week is all about the duty of citizens how to be salt and light in our communities not just in our church, but outside the four walls of our church and our final week together for Biblical citizenship in modern America. 

President Ronald Reagan once said freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. That statement is more true now than ever before. 

Speaker 

Well, and so many Christians are confused because they're being told things from different people such as oh Christians shouldn't do anything in government, Stay out of that. That's not what the Bible says. In fact, we're called to be Biblical citizens. 

David Barton

Biblical principles are what produce freedom in society. But you won't have Biblical principles in society in which you don't have citizens with a Biblical worldview. 

Speaker 

The truth of the matter is, most Americans don't have a Biblical worldview, which means that they have to draw on, or they've chosen to draw on, other worldviews that are available to them. 

Tim Barton

The further we move away from Biblical principles, the further we move away from liberty and freedom.

 Speaker 

Remember, in the Old Testament, after the Scripture had been hidden for so long and it was brought out, and it was read before the people. The people wept with joy because there's freedom in law. 

Speaker 

I found over the years that the only really reliable matrix to reality is the Biblical blueprints. 

Speaker 

We've relegated to say look, politics is dirty. That's what pastors say Politics is dirty. I don't do politics, Well, the church is dirty. What's your point? 

Speaker

There are so many people today that educated at institutions where they come out as secular humanists, and so there's no fear of God. 

Speaker 

If you're a Christian, a person of faith, you must care about what's happening in our culture. You must get involved in voting. 

Speaker

The Constitution is so unique. It is the only Constitution that actually limits government. 

Speaker 2

So, in other words, if you put bad people into a broken structure, you're going to get bad results. If you have a bad system, you elect good people to go into a bad system you're still going to get a bad result. 

Speaker 8

The Founders knew this nation was already very diverse, and federalism allows that diversity to flourish. 

Speaker

And you begin to love what God loves and hate what he hates in the scriptures, because your heart is lining up with the heart of God, because of the gospel. 

Speaker 4

It is astounding to me how many people in America have been indoctrinated into a condition of complete ignorance. 

Speaker 7

I think biblical citizenship as a Christian would be stewardship that God has given us this republic to be stewards over. 

Speaker 4

In terms of actually having a biblical perspective on things, even in terms of believing that the Bible is a trustworthy document to give them guidance for their future. Most Americans are not in that place. 

Rick Green

As people are experiencing tyranny, they're asking why, what has happened? And there's just this feeling of being lost right now and not knowing where to turn. And you just gave us the foundation. This is truth. 

Speaker 

And it struck me right then and there that this is really what it comes down to. All of this matters the fight for life, the fight for basic biological standards, the fight for school choice, the fight for taxes, the fight for sovereignty, the fight for borders. However, if we don't recognize this as a spiritual war, first and foremost, that they are fighting for the abolition of a belief in the divine, then we're just arguing X's and O's when there's a much bigger picture at play here. Because as soon as you get a college leftist especially, to admit that there is a God, a ubiquitous and omniscient God that has power over them, that has granted the rights to you, all of a sudden maybe government doesn't matter as much. All of a sudden, that clump of cells that they think is in that they call a fetus actually might be a life, if you admit there's a God. All of a sudden, right and wrong are not an opinion anymore. 

Speaker 7

I think a lot of people today want to talk about authenticity and us being relatable, and yet we're missing it. Our nation was founded upon the pulpits that were ablaze Alexa de Tocqueville talked about that where pastors spoke to the issues of the day and that caught the attention of the people. Instead of us trying to make our ministry relevant today, all we need to do is rely upon the word of God and speak the word of God into the issues of life. That makes us relevant. The Holy Spirit, the Bible, is relevant, and I think we've lost that in the last 60 to 80 years in America. If we get back to doing that, I think we'll see our nation recover, both in our cultural awareness and certainly our biblical relatability. Where Christians are speaking into the culture truth People resonate to truth if they're hungry for it. They need to see it. 

Speaker 

When we look at biblical worldview development, what we hear from pastors, four out of five of them say they're doing either an excellent or very good job of helping people to develop a biblical worldview within their churches, and most of them say that the majority of the people in their church have a biblical worldview. The only problem with that is when we then went back to their congregations and evaluated what's going on. We found that more than four out of five of the people in those congregations do not have a biblical worldview. So there's a real problem between what they say is happening and what's actually happening, which says we need to change the process. What we're doing isn't working. 

Speaker 

I don't know if America's lost or not, but what I know is God doesn't need me to do the work of saving America. God unfolds history according to His own design, according to His own purpose, and all we can do is live our lives in faith. All we can do is take the steps that are right in front of us. You know, at the daily wire we fight hard, but we know that we're not ultimately responsible for the outcomes. That's up to a higher power than us, and so I guess I stayed joyful by just not carrying the burden of feeling like it's up to us, and instead I focus on living a life of meaning, living a life of fulfillment, living a life of faith and living a life of happiness 

Speaker 

80% of the people in the nation are exasperated with Washington. 

They have no voice. There's no efficiency, no effectiveness, no accountability of government, and they trust the people in the States. They have more access to the people in the States. Their voice matters more in the States. That's exactly what the design was meant to do. So if we want our voice back, if we want more accountability in government, we want more effective government, we need to follow that original recipe. It's time to repaint the lines on the field. It's time to understand that we've got an issue with that machine, that bike. It's not about having a stronger rider yanking the bike to the left or the right. We've got to balance those tires out, and it's up to the States. It's up to the States. We have to pull. We don't have to pull hard, but we have to pull always. We have to pull together and clearly we can do what the founders have laid out. 

Rick Green

This is our final chapter, our final time together, which means we're gonna talk about what to do with all this knowledge. So we go in and study the Constitution, we talk about what the Founding Father's intended, but then what do we do about it? What is our job as citizens and what do we see in the Constitution as our role? You know, in our first time at Philadelphia, I talked about going through the Constitution and saying where do we see ourselves? We always complain about the public servants, but what about we, the people, and doing our duty.

David Barton

And there's a lot we can do and, by the way, there's a lot of low-hanging fruit out there and you're gonna cover some of the things we need to do. I'll just throw some other things out. If you go back to the notion of what we had at the beginning, that you're supposed to teach the rising generation, you know federal law stipulates that on every September the 17th, which is the day they signed the Constitution, every September the 17th, every public school in America is to set aside day time to study and read the Constitution. Go over it and, according to the Department of Education and federal agencies, 90% of public schools do not follow that law, 

Rick Green

don't follow that law?

David Barton

 don't follow the law. So, even though that's federal law, that we're gonna teach the Constitution 90% of public schools. 

Rick Green

So what can I do about that in my community? 

David Barton

Here's what you do you go say hey, can I come in to a fifth grade class and give a 30-minute presentation on the Constitution? I've just learned 10 lessons here and I wanna go through and I wanna show you what Article One is. Article Two is Article. I wanna show you the success of America in comparison to every other nation. I wanna show you why we've been successful. I wanna show you our freedom. I'm sorry. I wanna show you the Declaration, the Sixth Press, the. 

Rick Green

Declaration. Are you suggesting that we could actually produce ambassadors for the Constitution all over the country, in the local school districts?

David Barton

And you know what I'll bet you can go to the local businesses around, go to the auto supply shop, go to the restaurants, go to folks and say, hey, will you guys contribute? We want to leave a copy of the Constitution with every fifth grader in every school around us. Because, you can get those things for cheap. They're relatively cheap. And get that and go do a 30-minute presentation on how great the Constitution is and you need to do this, you're supposed to do it in the Constitution and the Declaration. 

Rick Green

Declaration Get them in your local school district and post that in the district. 

David Barton

Give those to your history teacher. Say, hey, put this in the. There's so many things we can do, this low hanging fruit, but you know what you teach? The rising in generation. That's right. Well, we don't have to have. 

Rick Green

I mean we want to go for some of these big wins, yes, but you don't just focus on that one big Hail Mary pass. There's a bunch of this blocking and tackling. If you will, we can go out there and do it

David Barton

 Exactly right 

Rick Green

and make a big difference

David Barton

That's what the founding fathers believe, that incrementalism. And, by the way, that's also a biblical principle that comes out in Deuteronomy 7, exodus 23. God says I'm going to give it to you, but only little by little. 

Rick Green

All right time out, folks. We've got to take a quick break. We'll be right back. You’re listening to WallBuilders 

Tim Barton

Hey guys, it's Tim Barton and I want to tell you about our new book, the American Story Building the Republic. We start with George Washington as president, and we've already become a nation, so really now it's how do we function as a nation? And if we look back in American history, the stability, the prosperity, success we enjoyed as Americans is because of the foundation that our early presidents laid, because the examples they set. How do we live in America under the Constitution? What is the role of federal government? And really, what part did each one of these early presidents play? We go to the first seven presidents and a lot of people probably know the names Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison. Very few people know about Monroe or John Quincy Adams or Andrew Jackson. Now, we might know some of their names, we really don't know their stories. We want you to relearn, rediscover American history and see how it applies to today. Go to Wallbuilders.com and get your copy of the American Story Building the Republic. 

Rick Green

Welcome back to WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us today. We're going to dive right back in where we left off. You're listening to Biblical Citizenship in Modern America. It's the eighth week of the eight-week course and we're sharing it with you all throughout this week on WallBuilders. Let's jump back in. 

David Barton

Any football team that goes for a Hail Mary pass, every play, we'll lose a game. They'll connect about one out of 50. But if you go for three yards here and four yards here and I lost, two yards here but I gained seven on the next one. If you go for those short games, that's where you start winning games and that's the way we need to approach this thing with the Constitution. I don't know, maybe there's only 25 kids in that fifth grade class. What's that? That's 25 kids who didn't know anything until you got there. 

Rick Green

That's right, and one of those kids may someday be the mayor of the town, 

David Barton

Maybe the president of the United States, and so there are so many things we need to think outside the box. So I'm saying, ok, I've got to find a way to share this. And I've just gone through this great course Constitutional Alive who can I tell what's work? And you get that kind of mentality and so in this lesson, as you go through responsibility of citizens, start thinking how do I apply? Where can I put this into practice? What can I do? I've got to find three people to talk to. Whatever it is, just start sitting low goals and start doing that and it will make a difference. 

Rick Green

Yeah, no doubt about it. 

Well, there's something everybody can do. Nobody could possibly say I have nothing I can do to make a difference on this. I love what you just said about thinking outside the box. It's almost like a free market competition thing. Get out there and find ways to make a difference in your community. We're going to go back to Philadelphia, to Independence Hall, one more time and talk about the duty of citizens, what we can do to save the Constitution, 

our final section on doing our duty. 

Because the question is now that we've gone through the Constitution, now we have a better idea of the quick start guide, of where to plug everything into. What do we do as citizens? Now, how do we turn this thing on? How do we actually participate in our government in the right way? What do we do? Well, right off the bat, we talked about in the Constitution, we're looking for the things we're supposed to do. Let's flip back real quick to the very first part, article 1, section 1. Actually, the first place that we see a responsibility for we, the people, is section two, so the very first word. What is the first word in the Constitution? Not including the preamble, we're into the part that has the force of law, the first word in the Constitution where we, the people, have a responsibility. Chosen by the CHOSEN! Who said that? You go girl! That's it! Chosen, that is the word. So the House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people. So that's the first place we see our job. So, even in article one, section two, right there, voting, that's our job. That's the first place we have a responsibility. 

17:18

Now I know some people say my vote doesn't count, it's not going to make any difference. Look, if you think your vote doesn't count, living proof is standing before you right now. When I ran for the legislature in 1998, back in Texas, 30,000 people voted in my race 30,000, I lost by 20 votes. 20 votes I don't know about in your state where I live. 20 votes, man, that's an average size homeschool family right there. Okay, that's just one average homeschool family, 20 votes. In fact, you probably heard of 19 kids and counting. You know the Duggers? I called Jim Bob that night and said, man, if you just lived in my district, I would have won. I mean one family, could have taken care of it. Right, look, everybody can make a difference. In fact, the guy standing next to me when they told me I lost by 20 votes. He said 20 votes. He said, Rick, I could have got you 20 more votes, to which I wanted to lay hands on him without prayer. You know that was not a good time to tell me 20 votes. Anyway, we had a recount in my particular election and I ended up winning by 36 votes. So I lost by 20, we recount, the vote switches and I win by 36. We found some hanging chats and so I ended up winning by 36. 

18:14

And then now this was 1998. All right, 2000 hadn't happened. Remember the Florida election and all the chaos and all that. So that had 1998. I went on a recount. Nobody knows what a recount is, or hanging, I mean it was. It was news. 

18:24

I get this call the day after the election. Now, who is governor of Texas in 1998? George Bush. I get this phone. I said Representative Rick Green, we have Governor Bush on the phone, can you take the call? What would you say? Take that call, man. All right, he gets on the phone. He said Rick, boy that was close. He said I'm officially dubbing you Landslide Green. He laughed, man. He thought that was funny in 1998. Wasn't so funny in 2000, was it kind of had his own little recount to deal with. You know what I mean. So he has a recount. Now think about it. 

18:58

Presidential election 1998. I mean in 2000,. President of the United States by 537 votes. 537 votes determine president of the United States. Don't ever tell me your vote doesn't count. Every chance you get, let your voice be heard and your values counted. Every vote counts, no question about it. And here we have, in Article 1, our choice. That's what's going to determine what our Congress looks like. How many, how many quotes did we already talk about last night? James Garfield talking about it's up to us, it's up to the people. 

19:27

John Francis Mercer from the Constitutional Convention, saying it's not the document that's going to govern us, it's the men we put into the government that will govern us. So it's our choice. We got to choose wisely. It's not just showing up and whatever name sounds good, or are they in the right party, and all those things that sometimes influence us too much. We got to know who the person is, what they stand for, what their voting record is, what they're going to do. So here's some advice for you. 

19:50

This comes from Noah Webster, one of our founding fathers. 

Great guy, great educator as well. 

He said when you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands for you to choose for your rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. 

The preservation of our government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty. If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office now listen to this this is like a prophecy of where we are today. He said if we place, if we neglect our duty, what we're supposed to do under Article 1, he said, and we place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted. Laws will be made not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes. Anybody say bridge to nowhere? Corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws and the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men and the right of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. If our government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands and elect bad men to make it administer the laws. What's he saying? It's up to us. 

Tim Barton

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders, with another moment from American History. The Second Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees to every individual the right to keep and bear arms, has been targeted for years now by those who are determined to dismantle the individual right to self-protection. Opponents argue that only the militia, the military and law enforcement are to have and use firearms. But those who wrote the Second Amendment strenuously disagreed, including Founding Father Richard Henry Lee, a signer of the Declaration, a president of the Continental Congress and one of those who actually framed the Second Amendment. He declared to preserve liberty. It is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught a like, especially when young, how to use them. For more information about Richard Henry Lee and the history of the Second Amendment, go to wallbuilders.com. 

Rick Green

Article 1, right there, says it's our job to choose those leaders. The Good Book says when the righteous rule, the people rejoice. When the wicked rule, the people groan. In our nation we get to choose. That is a right that most people who ever lived on the planet did not have. We get to choose our leaders. We forget how special this system is. Most people that ever lived on the planet, they only knew tyranny and oppression. We get to choose our leaders. Folks, let's make sure we're choosing wisely. 

You know, what happens is if we're not involved, we see these bad results in our economy or in our nation or in our culture. Those bad results didn't just happen. Those bad results were the result of bad policy. That bad policy comes from a certain group of people. I used to call them foolish politicians. My wife said that wasn't nice. So now I say ill-advised officials. That sounds like a little… I'm being touchy-feely, I guess. Anyway, these ill-advised officials, where do we get them? From us right Choice of the people. 

So here's what I want to challenge you to do, instead of just showing up in November and complaining about the options. How often do we do that? I mean, it's easy to show up at the party and look at all the desserts out there on the table and say, well, I don't like any of those. Where's my gooey chewy chocolate chip or whatever? You know we complain about what's there Takes a little work to show up a little early and get in the kitchen. Right, we need to show up early, get in the kitchen and be part of mixing up the ingredients that will provide for the options when everybody else shows up. So that's what I'm asking you to do Get inside the mixing bowl of our process that these guys created. Don't just show up in November. Get involved long before that. Here's the three ingredients in our mixing bowl that you and I can impact as citizens. 

Number one is the knowledge of the people. We've got to start there. We've got to start with the education of the people so that we know what the principles are, what these guys put in place, and then we can take those principles and we can measure the candidates by the principles. But if we don't know the plumb line, we don't know what to look for. If we get educated about the principles, then we can go to the next step and that's the pool of candidates. So we can get the knowledge of the people. That's what we're doing with our class. That's what we do back home. That's why I want you to take this class and open up your home and have people come over and watch the DVDs. Do it in your Sunday school classes, in your schools, wherever you want to do it. 

Educate the people about what happened here in this room with the founding fathers and then influence the pool of candidates. Maybe you in this room running, maybe asking some people that you know that have been good leaders in business or education or in church or whatever it might be. If they've shown leadership skills, ask them to run for school board or the legislature or Congress or whatever it might be. So we improve the pool of candidates and then the actions of the citizens. That means us impacting the political process. We'll knock it on the doors, making the phone calls, contributing to candidates, giving of our time. If we'll do those three things knowledge of the people, pool of the candidates and actions of the citizens you get in that mixing bowl that will create a better choice for the people. So now the options when you show up are going to be better if we're involved back in the primaries. We're involved in helping to recruit people to run. Educate people about that. 

Not just voting in November, but voting in the primary. Your influence in your primary back home in your state. It's going to be about 10 times your influence in the general, because so few people show up in the primary. You're going to have much greater influence. You're one voter. Your efforts in influencing that vote out there. If you do that, we'll get a better choice in November. 

Then you'll have statesmen and patriots at all levels of government instead of politicians. You know the difference between a patriot and a politician, right? A politician is only thinking about the next election. A patriot like these guys is thinking about the next generation. These guys thought generationally. They didn't do things for themselves. They made their decisions thinking okay, I need to be thinking 30 years down the road, 100 years down the road. 

What did Ben Franklin tell us? He said he gave us a Republic if we could keep it. Well, we've got a great system, but it's our job to keep it. We get those statesmen and patriots, we'll get good policy. That will give us the good results. It's easy to agree on what the good policy is. The hard part is getting into the system and working in the system. So there's your three ingredients. 

You know what I'm really asking you to do. I'm asking you to give of your lives, your fortunes and your sacred honor, just like these guys did when they came forward and signed beneath that amazing final sentence and they pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor. They gave it. I'm asking you to give of your life, your time. Your life is your time. I'm asking you to give a few hours a week to help work the system, because the system will work. What they created will work if we'll work it. Your fortunes, given of your money. 

The good causes out there, good candidates out there, that will be good government and sacred honor. That's the willingness for all of us to stand up and speak the truth. Don't be afraid of. You know, let the chips fall where they may. People gonna call me they do call me Aal kinds of names. You know what they're not shooting at me. I mean these guys that served and were willing to give their lives and have bullets whizz past their heads. That's sacrifice, man. It's easy for me to stand up and speak the truth and let people call me whatever I want. That's sacred honor. Lives, fortunes and sacred honor. Give of it. Invest in those three areas. Our friends, we're out of time for today. We'll pick it up right where we left off today. So tomorrow we'll be diving right back into biblical citizenship in modern America. Thanks so much for listening to WallBuilders