Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's a while over show. We appreciate you joining us today. I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution co-chair with David Barton, America's premiere historian and our founder at WallBuilders, and Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. All three of us, you can learn more at wallbuilders.com It's January 1st, guys. New Year's Day going into 2025 You know nothing big happened in 2024 or just one of those boring years. No big headlines. No big shifts in the culture. No big Well okay. Maybe there were a few things that probably should at least be talked about because they might change the trajectory of the future. Yeah. What a year? 2024. How in the world do we recap 2024 in our 30 minutes together? 

Tim Barton [00:00:48] Well, it certainly was one of the busier years we've had in many years. Every presidential election tends to be busy for us as we are on the road doing a lot of events, a lot of speaking, helping, doing a lot of coaching and teaching along the way with some of the ground game, a lot of educational things and recognizing how important this election was. You know, we've talked about this a lot over the last couple of years where people often say this is the most important election of your lifetime or of whatever, right. Century, whatever you're going to kind of throw in there. And it seems to be exaggeration. It seems to be extreme hyperbole, whatever it is. This time it was like, no, I really think it is. If President Trump had not won that election, which that definitely by the grace of God, we should give Wright all the credit. And thanks to God's intervention and all that was going on and so many things that happened along the way. But had President Trump not been elected, America would be taking a very significant step and a very socialist, communist Marxist direction, and America would be going the way that every other nation historically has gone before, where the major powerhouse nations in the history of the world, the average length is 250 years. 2026 is America's 250 anniversary since 1776 Declaration of Independence. And so it looked like we were we were on the precipice of doing what every other major nation has done and committing suicide and destroying itself by removing the foundation, which certainly going back to Scripture, where the Bible tells us if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The founding Fathers clearly explained the most important part the fabric of our society, the foundation upon which the nation was built, was religion and morality. And if we don't restore that, then there's no reason to expect that we will continue on to be this strong, powerful nation in the future. But God has given us a respite. And guys, I mean, there there's so many things we could talk about what God did, what God allowed us to be a part of in 2020 for some of the events, some of the places you guys having a new campus now in Fredericksburg that's open classes happening. So much has happened for you guys at WallBuilders. Some of the things that God allowed us to do, some of the artifacts we're able to get, I mean, really actually getting the C so be the Mill Ten Commandments from the movie The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston. I mean, just some of the stuff that that gods allowed us to be a part of, acquire and do over 2024 was remarkable that our legislators conference, it was the biggest legislators conference we've had in our history of doing this year. We had our 20th year and we had 35 states represented. We had over 350 individuals there, and that's legislators and spouses. And then there were some state policy directors that were there. There were some staffers that were there, but it's the biggest one we've had. And there's so many ideas people took from it going forward with things that just just educating them from our side of of things they can do constitutionally to advance and restore some of that religion of morality that's been intentionally removed from culture over the last many decades. So there's a lot we can talk about. But big picture, me and I'm I am praising God that in the midst of one of the busiest years we had and a dad I know we mentioned this on air before, but you and Chad Connally those couple of months before the election, y'all, we're doing 10 to 15 events a week, four months leading into the election. And those were every event virtually was in a different city. And then every day or two, it seems like you were maybe three days. You were in a different state as y'all were doing these events. So, I mean, really, we were all over the place like crazy. But looking back, me praise God for all that God did and we can dive in so many places. But big picture, look, busiest year we've had in a lot of years and man, how cool is it to look back and see what God did? 

David Barton [00:05:08] Yeah, you know, looking at it, it was really, really busy. And I think the right question I've been thinking about this since is what now? What do we do now? And one thing we don't do is we don't rest. That's right. This is not the time for resting at all. This is a time for doubling down. We have the opportunity and we talked about this before the election. This is an opportunity to maybe change the direction of the nation. It's certainly an opportunity to stop the destruction. And now that that has been done, we can't look and say, well, we got Trump on there. He's going to get things fixed. That's just not the way it's going to happen. Because one thing we know is you get healthy from the bottom up. Now, from the top down, Trump has has. Been kind of a stopgap to give us an opportunity. And so I just want to throw out some thoughts. We can talk about these, but here's. If our say, what do we do now? I think there's a few things that every single American citizen needs to double down and do at this point in time. And I'm going to go back to something we have used from in all the time that we've learned decades ago. And it goes to George Washington's farewell address. And that's kind of like the grandfatherly advice if you want this nation to keep working. Right. Here's my advice for you. Here's my parting. In a 45 years I've been helping lead this nation. Here's here's my grandfather advice. And I think the most significant phrase in his farewell address is when he said, of all the habits and dispositions that lead to political prosperity. And I think every one of us want political prosperity because we've had it when it hasn't been prosperous. We had it, you know, under Biden for the last four years. That was not political prosperity. We've seen the weaponization of government. We've seen government come in after all of us in ways that we can't even imagine anymore. And so if we want political prosperity, why, she said religion and morality are indispensable supports. So if we use his formula, if this thing is going to work for the next four years, it has to be based on religion, morality. And that's not with Trump and that's not with Congress. That's with every single one of us. So the first thing I would start with is if we're really interested in getting America healthy again, everybody right now make a commitment that right starting now, I'm going to spend time in the Bible. I'm going to get a one year Bible. I'm going to get an app. I'm going to get something and I'm going to spend a little bit of time in the Bible every day. The scripture says in Matthew four four, You don't live by bread alone. You live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. And just like we do our three meals a day because we know we need it, we need to have a spiritual meal every day. And so people just just take the time to do it, get a devotional, get whatever it takes, get, get some word time in every day, gets get some word, just get it's got to happen. It's got to. That's the only way you have political prosperity. So do that and then find time to pray every day. If it's 30s. If it's a minute, if it's two minutes. If you want to download a prayer book and read a prayer, do it. But start with your own spiritual life. The second thing that I would say pass that is find someone that you can impart that information into. Find someone that you can help, mentor and help teach. And if that's a political person of his, a person from a different generation, either older, up or down, whatever, you've got to be able to pour into other people. You can't just keep it for yourself. So as you start growing, you've got to help other people understand that and so help them come along spiritually. And the third thing I would point to is we definitely want political change to still happen. So start looking right now around you and start finding people to recruit for office. Start realizing that nine months from now we're going to have elections for school boards or city council or whatever. Who do I want to be? My mayor nine months from now in my town? Who do I want to be? The sheriff next election? Start looking for people right now. Don't wait till the election. Start looking for and training and recruiting the right people. That's going to be the stuff that'll keep us going down the road in the right direction for the next several years. That's where I would start for recommendations for this year for everybody. 

Rick Green [00:09:08] Let me just repeat those real quick. So I wrote down so number one spiritual foundation. And like you said in God's Word, reading through the one year Bible, I highly recommend doing founder's Bible because then you get the history and the and the sort of the application of the word to what's going on in the culture. And you get these historical examples. I love doing that. Every year we've got our scholars on the campus doing that. Everybody needs to read through the Founder's Bible every year. 

Tim Barton [00:09:29] And Rick let me throw out one thought to you mention the one year Bible, which is a great Bible for those that don't know. It will lay out on day one. Read this portion for you, so you should read those like 3 or 4 pages. But it'll have something from the Old Testament, Psalms, Proverbs, New Testament. And I'm saying this because it's laid out to go through in one year. And the joke I want to add is that I have many friends that have have done the one year Bible on a two year program. And so I don't feel like. Right. That that you have to get it all right now. The old adage of you eat an elephant one bite at a time. You don't have to eat the whole thing at once, but you need a start on it. And so that one, your Bible is a really great program to get you through the Bible. There's also chronological Bibles. There's a lot of good ones. And Rick, as you mentioned, the Founder's Bible, it's got hundreds of article inserts by specific passages where we have writings encroach on founding fathers about specific areas of the Bible. We put some of those quotes and writings by those versus are, as you're going through reading the Bible. You'll then see. But what did George Washington say about this verse? Where to John Adams, he said he uses verse to do what? And we put that some of those quotes and I'm saying some of. Because there's way more than. We put their we put those by the quotes so that as you go through the Bible, you actually can see how the Bible shaped the men that shaped America. And I didn't mean to derail, to just follow the founder's Bible other than to say when you hear things like the one year Bible, don't feel overwhelmed that you have to do this all in one year, although you can. It's not that hard. But if you need a two year, three year program for the one year Bible, that's okay. The important part is spending time in God's word. 

Rick Green [00:11:14] Well, one of the things I'll say about the founder's Bible is the way that those articles are written. It really does teach you what, David, what you should start to teach would be 25 years ago when I first came on board with you. You know, this this positive approach, no matter how good or bad things are going culturally, no matter what elections, you're winning or losing that positive approach and staying in the fight and just doing your duty no matter what. Those articles really help keep that attitude because you get these examples of when times were really, really tough and somebody did exactly that and God turned it around. And I have noticed, guys, I'm sure you have as well. I mean, not just three months ago before the election, people that were telling me it's all over, we're done for. I don't know why you're doing all this still. America's too far gone. Very same people three days after the election. Wow. There really is hope we could change this thing, you know? But I just I want to thank you guys for having that consistent attitude and that consistent. And it's not just like positive as in, you know, empty, shallow, you know, positivity that that that's not based on truth. It's actually just having a positive outlook because it's based on truth, because we're solid. It's like feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, right? We we have peace and knowing we're standing on firm ground because of that truth. And you don't get that. You don't have that attitude and that joy and that peace in the tough times without being in God's word. So I think that's so good, David, that you mentioned that is the first thing. And for our listeners, no, we didn't talk about which things we were going to mention. So David just gave the list and I'm just piling on because it is exactly what people need in the good times as well. So I want to add that. So, so you come out of this election now, everybody's going, okay, yeah, we can say the nation. Well, guess what? It's just as important to be in God's word because now what do we do in this window of opportunity that we've been given? So again, to recap for what David just said, spiritual foundation, personally, make sure you're in God's word, whether you do like you read to the whole Bible this year, are Tim saying take a couple of years, but make sure you're in it every day and then pour into others. Find somebody that you can pass that on to be a force multiplier and then start thinking about candidates. A lot of states are, you know, would be like Texas. A lot of our cities will have their city elections or school board elections in May. And so some states do that as well. Or maybe you're already thinking about this coming November in the off year elections or even next year, but already be thinking about applying those things. Really, really good list, right, guys? Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. It's New Year's Day. Happy New Year to everybody. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:14:51] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. New Year's Day. So we kind of been recapping 2020 for a lot of a lot of things that happened then. David's been talking about some of the key things we can do going into 2025. Of course, guys. And just what are we, you know, two and a half, three, almost three weeks from Inauguration Day, 20 days from today. And Tim, you mentioned it earlier, man, that two 50th is three. No, wait. I'm sorry, 500, 549 days from today will be our two 50th birthday. And we've been talking about this for years, but it's the first time in a long time that we felt like, you know, we probably are going to be celebrating on the 50th instead of curled up in the fetal position. You know, so I mean, it is a hopeful, hopeful time, guys. And this is an opportunity for us to give that spiritual foundation, but also to remind people what made America great in the first place, What an opportunity we have in 2025 to teach people those principles and get them that foundation. WallBuilders is perfectly positioned for this. This been, you know, what, 30 years now since you founded it, David? Is it 34? How many years? 

Tim Barton [00:15:54] Closer to 40? 

Rick Green [00:15:55] Yeah, closer to 40 already. Okay. A lot of decades, I'll say that. And I think God put WallBuilders in this for all. All those four decades. For this moment right now, more than ever. I mean, we're at the base of the hill, and we are now ready to charge that hill and rebuild those walls in America. So it's just I'm just thrilled to be with you guys and looking forward to 20, 25. We got a lot of walls to rebuild that foundation. Tim, you were talking about if it's destroyed or David, when he said that it was almost destroyed, guys, we were that close. But now we have an opportunity to actually lay the bricks that will make America strong. 

Tim Barton [00:16:27] Yeah. And one of the things to one of the verses that we I use a lot in presentations is going to say we I don't know if everybody else did. I use it a lot in presentations leading up to the election. Is is from Jeremiah 29 where most people know Jeremiah 29:11 in front of the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you not to harm you plants, to give you hope and a future. And it's this verse that, you know, growing up in the 80s and 90s, this is the kind of stuff you would see hanging on somebody's wall as somebody as this, you know, stitched on the pillow. 

Rick Green [00:16:56] You know, it's on the throw over the couch. Yup. 

Tim Barton [00:16:59] Exactly right. Well, it's sometimes we take verses a little out of context of like, what it was because he's writing this to a people that have been conquered. They're captured. They're like, in despair. And he's reminding them God hasn't forgotten you. Right. Like take. Take hope. Take heart in this moment. But what he says at the beginning of 29 is it's so impactful to me, I think so powerful where he he reminds them, don't abandon who God called you to be or what God called you to do. He said, Don't, don't stop getting married. Don't stop having kids and raising families. Don't stop growing in the fields and harvesting. And he gets to verse seven and he says, Seek the peace and prosperity of the land to which I've carried you into exile, prayed to the Lord for it, for. And it goes well with that land. It will go well with you. And what I tried to help communicate in these presentations with these different events I was speaking at leading the election. Is that one of the biblical examples we have other like this biblical mandate kind of thought is that wherever God plants us, we should seek the best for the place where God has us. And this is not an unbiblical thought to say, man, we want America to succeed. Because the reality is, if I was in China, I would say, man, I want China to succeed. If I live in Japan or Germany or Ukraine or Russia, I mean, you pick a nation, you as a Christian should be seeking the best for the place where God has planned you. And the reason we bring this up is because as we look in America going forward, one of the things that I think we have so lacking right now, there's a lot of issues inside of Christianity. And I think many of those issues come from people not knowing the Bible. So that like, back to your point, we we should just start like getting people back in God's word. But part of the follow up, you said that, you know, find somebody you can impart share with. Well, that's what we would usually know is discipleship, where Jesus told his disciples, go and make disciples of all nations. And the church for a long time has focused more on making converts and making disciples. And I think he's very reflective in what we see around us. And the reason I bring it up is because part of how is believers we seek the best for the place where God has us planted. Discipleship is part of that process, but in the discipleship process, it includes helping people understand some basic biblical foundation of how life works, of how relationships and marriage. And I mean, you can go down this fairly long list, although it doesn't have to be that long because it's not that complicated. It shouldn't be. But there's a lot of Americans, a lot of Christians who don't know some basic principles. And as the example, I will point out that even though President Trump won the popular vote, he won the electoral vote. Right. Really great. The reality is he only won by a couple of million and there were 70 plus whatever million it was that voted for Kamala Harris. And there's a lot of a lot of polling now where people are looking back. And some of the analysts are saying, you know, I think really the reason President Trump won is because there were such a depression among Democrat turnout, because there were people that weren't really excited about Kamala, that weren't excited about Joe Biden. But it wasn't that maybe the whole nation is shifted toward being pro the Republican and conservative President Trump, whatever else. And not that I'm encouraging us to disciple people to be pro President Trump, but understanding that where we are is maybe not as solid of a foundation as a nation as I think maybe some people are feeling after the election like no other side wins. We're good. Well, we might be good, but it might be a short lived victory on some level unless we start being far more intentional about discipline. And I think we're going to have some incredible opportunities over the next four years because finally, having a president that is pro-America, that loves America, where people are are now is we're going to be celebrating 250 years and people are now going to be telling more stories. There's going to be a lot of controversies coming up. And so there will be a lot of opportunities to help disciple people and biblical truth, but even help to mentor and teach people the truth of American history and what that foundation is. Why is America been one of the most stable, one of the most successful, prosperous nations, one of those free nations in the history of the world, if not like the winner in those areas were the top in all those categories. Why have we been so strong? It's because of that moral, religious, that Christian foundation. And so part of the challenge for us going forward is not to rest in any kind of victory, but that, as you're mentioning, to make sure that we are deepening ourselves, that we are growing ourselves, that we are discipling those around us, and then we are making converts not just inside of Christianity, although obviously we want to help people know more about Jesus, but even making converts when it comes to political ideology, where we're know we don't want to be pro socialist capitalism, the free market way better. We need to help disciple people in lots of areas to help the nation going forward. And that's part of it. Let me back up and finish this by tie a bow on this. That's part of the Jeremiah thought. This is part of how we seek the best for the place where God has us is by investing in disabling those around us and especially the rising generations. 

David Barton [00:22:24] And I would add to that that the example you use there of Jeremiah, I would go back also to Nehemiah, and particularly one of the verses that's really always been strong verse out of Nehemiah 2:17, where that Nehemiah gathered all the people together. And these weren't the professional experts. These were just average, ordinary people who were willing to try to do something. And he said, Come, let's rebuild. So that will no longer be a reproach. And that's a good challenge. Find something around you to rebuild. Maybe it is a person or an individual. Maybe it is something in your local community. Maybe, you know, who knows what it. But find something that you can restore and rebuild. Look for something around you that's been torn down. And that's easy to find. Over the last 2 or 3 decades, stuff been collapsing all around us morally and spiritually and physically and everything else. But find something that you can pour yourself into as a project. Find something to rebuild and Nehemiah 2:17 come, let's rebuild. So that will no longer be a reproach. So even as you do the spiritual stuff and as Tim said, you're looking out and wanting to get the positive things going, like that verse out of that Jeremiah gave in the same way, find a project for rebuild it and that may be discipling someone. Just pour in yourself and does somebody that's got a rough relationship or a tough home life and maybe you can bring some stability to them or maybe even help them understand about debt and economics, which is something the schools don't cover much anymore, which is key. Are you just in any kind of thing to help rebuild? Anything you can find to help rebuild will help move this nation forward. And that was what was so cool about the book of Nehemiah was when everybody did a little bit of something, they got the whole nation rebuilt and they were all shocked at how fast it went up. They didn't think it would go up. They thought it was beyond repair. But when everybody did something, it goes back up. And so that'll be my challenge as well. Find something that's a project for you and get into rebuilding something. Restoring something. If it's a personal relationship, a neighbor, if it's if it's your local school, if a teacher, a teacher, whatever it is. Find something that you can rebuild. 

Rick Green [00:24:32] Yeah, I'm convinced that's the theme in 2025. And guys, I didn't even know that we were so on the same page on this. I mean, I kind of did because at the conference, at the at the legislators conference, we were all talking that same language. And of course, people may think, Well, yeah, y'all are all builders. You're always talking about rebuilding, but it just seems to really be coming in and into clarity. And I'm actually working on a book and and calling it Rebuild Liberty. And then I got your Impact report for WallBuilders yesterday in the mail. And right there on the front page of the the impact report rebuild period And I was like, well confirmation. That's exactly what we're going to be doing in 2025 is rebuilding the principles of liberty, rebuilding these foundations. David, you started with it today talking about George Washington's quote. I mean, that that foundation, those pillars that the strength that makes a nation strong, that part two, to Tim's point, is not strong right now. Right? The culture rot is real. And so even though this election was won and we feel this tide turning and more pastors are getting involved and all these positive things are happening, cleaning out that rot and renewing the nation, renewing the mind of the nation, renewing the thinking of the nation and getting those principles back. And that's going to take some time. It's going to take hard work. But what a great opportunity to do that. People are willing to listen now more than ever before. We've got a great opportunity to teach people so that. David, second point for all of us as action items, going home, finding somebody to teach the windows there for that, people are hungry for that. There's probably a young person, as you're listening to this program right now, is probably a young person in your life that is hungry right now to know truth and you have the answers. You can bring them God's word if you're doing step one that David gave us, which is being in God's Word, then you could turn around and teach those things, especially if you're reading the Founder's Bible and getting that application of culture. Teach somebody else that thing and then be thinking about those candidates, thinking about those folks we can recruit to put into office good public servants. And of course, so no doubt of the Patrick Cademy campus and have them go through the training so they are solid, good candidates. And then when they get elected to the legislature, they need to come to the WallBuilders Pro-family Legislators Conference that, as Tim said earlier, was our biggest one we've ever had. So what a great year in 2020 for looking forward to a wonderful year in 2025. Thank you for being a part of the WallBuilders program. As our audience, thanks for listening to the WallBuilders Show.