Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. Thanks for joining us on this Monday, January 20th, the big day inauguration of Donald J. Trump for his second term. And a lot of excitement today, just as we've said for a long time, is coming and really excited about what's going to happen the day now. We're actually recording this a few hours before the inauguration, like 12 hours before the inauguration, because David and Tim are in Washington, D.C. And by the time you hear this on the air, I guess, guys, all of my ribbing of you guys going, you're going to be freezing while I'm sitting warm in the studio is no more since the inauguration been moved indoors. So I feel like I'm really missing out on an opportunity to give you a hard time. 

Tim Barton [00:00:46] Well, you're not going to miss out because you're going to do it either way. All right. Let's be fair. We're going to be on each other no matter what. But I am going to get out. We're going to watch it all on TV like everybody else. Well, we have friends right now. We're still seeing is going to be at the Capitol. There were some people thinking it was going to be the White House. I guess that could change over the next couple of hours. But I think it's very unlikely we have a bunch of friends that will be there and will give us updates and I definitely will get out tomorrow. And I'll walk around down on the mall, walk around the Capitol, all do some videos for social media and different things. And so I will be out in the cold. It's it's been a little snowy. It was rainy earlier on. Let me think. Sunday morning, I guess it was it was rainy. I started snow when I was out walking in the snow as it was coming down. We finished the church event we can come back to in a little bit the prayer meeting. And so I would expect with this freezing cold temperatures coming in, it is probably a little icy tomorrow. They are salting things down and getting the roads ready. So we'll definitely be out and about watching it all as it unfolds. So I will be out in the cold. I bet my dad is going to stay in on his computer working right. And working on probably the next American Story book or something in such nature. But definitely a lot of interesting things we'll see tomorrow. And in itself, we could talk about from the rally and even the prayer service we had today. 

Rick Green [00:02:09] Yes. So I guess everything started and, you know, I'm thinking inauguration. It all starts at noon on Monday the 20th. But there were a lot of festivities on Sunday. And you've got to be a part of some of the cool stuff it. Tell us about that church service you went to. 

David Barton [00:02:23] Yeah. Is this church service that, by the way, we did this eight years ago when Trump first came in office. I say we. Jim Garlow, Jim Garlow, who has the book Well, verse. We've had one problem several times. Jim's pastors all over the world, just really great stuff. But it really was about, hey, this is a political time, but this needs to be a spiritual event. And we all need to remember that this is a spiritual battle and that we've got things to pray for. And so it was a two hour prayer session this afternoon. Literally, there were probably about 20 different items that were prayed for that are coming up in the presidency, everything from military to to education to protection to, you know, anything you can think of. Prayer was offered offered overall that there was good worship in there, as well as some national worship leaders that would be very recognizable, Sean Foyt and others. And then there were also it was a good time, a prayer with for Israel with all the foreign relation. Thanks, Israel and China and Ukraine, all of these these issues that Trump's going to face. I actually had one of the members of Knesset there to just speak for a few minutes and also one of the members of the parliament in Ukraine as well. So the the event this afternoon really was focused on spiritual stuff. Yes, we're glad there is a president in the White House. It's a little different, but that's not the purpose of the prayer rally. 

Tim Barton [00:03:41] When that I don't know if if Jim, as he put this on or of course, I. Jim Garlow, as you mentioned, the friend, the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, they were the Tony Perkins Family Research Council and Jim Garlow, full verse. They co-hosted together. They had a lot of speakers come, different people to come and lead a different topics of prayer. And I don't know if you talk to Jim, if Jim was strategic on this or not, because as you mentioned, this happened eight years ago. But it struck me today I was doing a social media video outside. And I'm saying today, right, it's a middle of the night. So, you know, it could be I don't know how we need to identify what day it is. This is airing on Monday. We're kind of the wee hours of Monday. We've been up since Sunday morning. So hopefully people are confused when we're talking about what day it is. But the Sunday prayer service went from 2 to 4, and I was just again, doing a social media video outside the church. And it struck me that when the Congress very first assembled, John Adams identified and this was September 6th, 1774, the very first motion made at the very first Congress in May by Thomas Christians in Massachusetts. And he made the motion that they should open with prayer. They discussed it. They had some debate surrounding it. What would it look like? Who would they bring in? How would it work? Could they all get along? And they finally agreed to bring in the Reverend Jacob Shay. He came the next morning and the records of that proceeding identify that they then prayed for the nextt wo hours. And it just struck me that as we add this to our prayer services about to happen, this was really following a lot of the true history, the foundation of our nation that our nation was started. I mean, when the first motion of the first meeting is prayer and then it goes for two hours. That's a significant way to start the nation. And so even having some. Some different faith and religious leaders getting together to have a two hour prayer service seemed very and I don't imagine this was intentional, that this kind of is a question of led to know. If you talk with Jim about this, I don't know if this was intentional, but it did seem very, very cool that we were following somewhat of a similar motto, not motto. A similar pattern of what the founding fathers had done. You can tell we're tired as the words are coming out totally right, but really cool to be part of that to our prayer meeting with so many incredible faith leaders and people that are interested. You can find this online. You got a well versed and they'll have a link. You can watch the whole thing that as you mention machine for there were some some powerful times of worship and then some some really great moments in prayer as well if people want to find out more. But let me back up analysis Question Have you and Jim ever talked about it being two hours? Was this just something he said, Hey, I think people can handle two hours. You know, if it's more than that, it might be too much of this prayer and fasting time. Was was that intentional from a historical standpoint or did was that just kind of what he came up with? 

David Barton [00:06:31] I think it ends up you could say it's providential, but there was no in our discussions, there was no deliberate intent to make it look like the very first Congress. But as you point out, it had the same kind of feel and emphasis. So while there was no intent, I think it was a great tone to bring in this new administration. 

Rick Green [00:06:51] Well, then after the after the prayer service, I guess most of the afternoon, there was a big rally, lots of speakers. I my my phone was kind of blown up with people texting about how good the rally was. I did not get to see it. What did you guys get to watch much of it or hear much about it or even go? 

David Barton [00:07:06] Rick, I can tell you firsthand, we got to see a whole lot before it started. Where where we were the church we were attending a traditional black Baptist church, and that's where we had the service. It was within about a block and a half of the arena where Trump was holding the rally. And so we arrived a couple of hours before the church service started, which is about three hours before Trump started. And we could not or at least I could not access the church. The plans that they laid out last night for for plans got changed. And so I walked around 51 minutes trying to find a way inside the security zone to go to church. 

Tim Barton [00:07:42] Well, and that even, as you mentioned, it being three hours before Trump started, really it was three hours before they opened the doors for the event. Right. Because Trump didn't come on for hours just so that people even understand like that line waiting to get in was thousands upon thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people, miles of people lined up waiting to get in just just before the doors open. And so I was coming over for people that might be familiar with D.C. And if not, that's fine. I have a hotel over by Union Station. And so I was walking from your station to about 20 minutes how to navigate. There was law enforcement all over the place, National Guard all over the place. So you definitely felt like there is this really strong presence that there could be somebody dumb trying to do something dumb. But it wasn't going to they weren't going to get away with it very long before they were stopped, put down whatever had to happen in that crowd to get in. That, as you mentioned, was incredible, just how many people were there. It also was interesting. You know, we've talked about where oftentimes some of the rallies that we've been a part of or events we've been a part of where it's a different it's a different kind of gathering. And so they're they respond differently than a lot of gatherings. And the reason I bring this up, I was I was standing by a lady. She was taking off her gloves to get out her phone and take a picture. And she dropped a little hot hand pack out of her gloves. And as she was walking on his own. Ma'am. Excuse me. How do you drop these hot hands? And she said, my goodness. Thank you so much. She came over, picked it up. Should I don't need these any more anyway, because she was did not have tickets to the rally but was taking pictures. She was about to go leave. So she went over and threw her trash away. And I just thought, you know, there's there's so many times where you have large groups of people and they leave and it's trash and just, you know, the destruction and chaos they leave behind is so evident. Whereas it's it is a very different feel of a group that is far more well mannered, that wants to take care of things that did a much better job picking up trash, cleaning up whatever else. And so it just again, a very different feel of a crowd, but a large crowd. And when I got to that church and I was waiting for you and mom, we were going to meet at like 1215 Eastern time and you guys showed up at 106. And y'all have been working the whole time just to find roads that weren't close that you could get on and walk around. It was an eventful day. But that Trump rally we did not go to, but we definitely were seeing a lot of clips. I watched some streaming on X and so we definitely saw parts of it. I've been watching different clips people have posted and guys, there's some really interesting things that Trump brought up there. Some of the stuff we've talked about before, what he really followed through with it, like releasing some of the files on the JFK assassination. And he said not only JFK, but even Robert the brother, and then even MLK, He said, there are many more we released. And so it will be interesting to see. I think the words he used was we've over classified far too many things, just like some of them talk about we over criminalize things and sometimes people are charged far higher than they should be for silly things. And then some people that should be charged with more aren't just like we. We could talk about an overcriminalization problem in some areas, Trump said. We've been over classified areas and we're going to let the American people know far more, which is so great. I'm Rick. One of the things we talked about a lot, even during the election season, is that people just want the transparency. We would have more trust in the system if there was more transparency, although you know that the skeptic says, well, the reason they're not being transparent in some of this election process is they're they're trying to cover things up. They're trying to hide things. And that's the problem. So having a president that recognizes transparency, that's recognizing what has been the depths of the deep state and how unhealthy it has been, how anti-American it's been, that was one of many things that that struck my attention that was encouraging, that he's still going to follow through with this because we heard different people address why there could be challenges or concerns and things. Kash Patel, who on one of the different podcasts was addressing. The challenge is not what immediately surrounded like, for example, the JFK assassination. It would be that it could impact some some different people and unintended ways in the modern kind of era. And climate would just say no. But it was encouraging to see Trump say that we're going to get more transparency to the American people, which I think is so healthy for America. 

Rick Green [00:12:28] And there's so many areas like that that, you know, people may not see an immediate effect because they're not necessarily watching that part, but it's just an overall restoring trust in the institutions and in our society itself that it's going to take time. But it's really good to see. And by the way, just for the record, because you did say I was going to rib you no matter what, you know, and not that I like hearing about the crowds and the and the difficulty, but I just wanted you to know that it was fairly easy for me to walk right into the studio this afternoon in Fredericksburg. We're not in Fredericksburg, Texas. Not Fredericksburg, Virginia. So obviously no crowd here. I just want to rub that in a little bit. Okay. We're in a quick break. We'll be right back. We're actually since we're doing this, you know, 12 hours before the inauguration, we cannot yet comment on executive orders that are going to be done day one, all those kind of things. But we will have a program for you tomorrow, on Tuesday, that will be a recap of much of what happens on Monday. And we'll, of course, have some commentary regarding those things then. But stay with us. We'll be right back. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:14:34] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. We're talking about Inauguration day, January 20th. Donald J. Trump headed into a second term. And guys, we've been talking a little bit about the logistics and you guys being right there on the ground. Let's talk a little bit about just inaugurations and, you know, presidents coming in and that sort of thing. I mean, David, you brought to life the, you know, the first presidents of our country more than anybody in our lifetimes. And so you've studied even the swearing in on the Bible and that sort of thing. And I saw that President Trump is going to be sworn in once again on his Bible that he received as a kid and on Lincoln's Bible, which is the same thing he did back in 2016. What's the significance of that and kind of the symbolism of the Bible and its importance in America and why the president takes that oath on a Bible? 

David Barton [00:15:19] You know, it's not required by the Constitution, but it's required by the spirit of the Constitution. That is by the atmosphere of the day. When the Constitution is written, there are five oath clauses in the Constitution. And those who wrote those oath clauses like Rufus King was a part of the constitutional version, talks about how that an oath is actually taken. An oath is a religious activity. You take an oath because the Bible talked about God says, I have taken an oath. When you take an oath, you raise your right hand because God has said, I swore with my right hand. When you take an oath, you say, So help me God, because God says you shall take oath in my name. Deuteronomy ten. And so there's so many parts of the oath taking process that were clearly biblical. A number of founding fathers talked about how that is a religious activity. It is significant that when the Democrats had the last two years, they stopped the oath taking process the way it has been. They no longer required you to say so help me God or take an oath in God's name, which was a new thing. But I mean just the oath itself that was considered a religious activity they are taking. 

Tim Barton [00:16:24] And that I would go even just adding one thought to that, the fact that they even allow things to be done by oath or affirmation is further evidence of the influence of the Bible and what they did, because there were people like Quakers that said, Hey, we don't believe in taking oath, said that violates our conscience. And so they said, okay. And there's there's reason to argue for both sides. For those that from a biblical standpoint, say you need oaths and then there maybe for some they're saying, wait a second. Right. Jesus said don't swear by anything. Just let your yes, yes or no be no. And that was part of the Quaker position. But what's interesting is that both sides of the oath or affirmation come from the direct influence of the Bible. And as you mentioned, it's so evident in their writings. 

David Barton [00:17:09] You know, the other thing about an oath that is kind of different from today is it was so solemn, such a solemn event that there's records of people literally taking time in prayer before they take an oath to search their heart. Because an oath is an affirmation to God. You're not swearing to the government. Government's not going to know if you tell a lie or not. I mean, they may eventually find out, but God knows. And when you take that oath as tween you and God. And so there are times when people would literally pray before that ceremony to search their hearts, say, God, will I keep my word? I'm taking an oath to do this? Am I going to be prepared to keep my word? And this is Thomas Jefferson has said his favorite Bible verse was out of Psalm 15, and it was about the integrity of keeping your word and the integrity of keeping your word was such a big deal. And that's the Bible verse, he recalled. A young man recommended young men when they wanted to know, you know, what he would recommend. He would say Psalm 15. And so that concept of keeping your word really is a super big deal. And the Democrats taking God out of it, that that completely violates constitutional constitutional history and violates all the oath books. And it violated federal law, which requires by federal law that you add, so help me God. And that was not in the Constitution or federal law not been passed. When Washington took the oath Washington ad, and so help me God, because it was a religious ceremony. And then after that, by federal law, we said every oath has to say, so help me God. And so for the Democrats aside, we're not doing that, as is typical of them deciding which laws they will follow. If they don't want to follow the law, find repeal it, pass a new law, replace it, go through the debate process, but don't just ignore the law. So that's why oath taking is such a big part of previous ceremonies. I hope it becomes a big part again. Of all that all the ceremonies we do, that oath taking really is a religious obligation, which is why they take notes on the Bible. 

Rick Green [00:19:01] Hey, one of the question on the on the logistical side of things, we know, of course, the inauguration being moved inside. You know, Ronald Reagan, same thing in 85 for his second term. And it was so cold, they moved that inside. Of course, you know, we're hearing rumblings that, you know, is also security threats. Right. And I mean, obviously, we as we know already two assassination attempts we know about. And, you know, a lot of concern. There are a lot of folks praying all over the world, you know, for Trump's protection. We prayed at our church on Sunday morning specifically for that. The pastor led that from from the pulpit. So is that are y'all hearing much about that? Is that is that you think that's more of the reason? And are there any concerns beyond that? 

Tim Barton [00:19:42] Rick, from what we're hearing up here, it's a little bit of a mixed bag. There's nobody coming out and saying, hey, you know, we're doing this for security reasons, although I don't think they would say it even if that's why they were moving it. I think it's very reasonable that it could be nothing more than weather. As you mentioned, this is not historically unprecedented. Ronald Reagan in 1985, a second term, I think it was looking back when we were doing a little research on it, it was seven degrees outside. There was a wind chill of -24 or something crazy whole, I bet. And so they said, hey, we need to move this aside. So it's not unprecedented to do that. And even the idea of where a president would take their oath, where that inauguration process might be, historically, there have been a lot of presidents that have been sworn in in various locations. Oftentimes when they were the vice president and a president died or was assassinated. And then they might be sworn in somewhere differently and sometimes there would be a formal inauguration appearance. But again, like this is not historically unprecedented. With that being said, I think there are a couple of factors that that certainly we could look at. The idea that you have a lot of people that certainly are more elderly, not the least of which President Trump, but certainly Biden, Supreme Court justices, people that it would not be great for them to be out in really cold and miserable weather, especially when you consider that historically we've had a moment where there was a president who got up in terrible conditions and gave a very long speech and then got sick and died, and that was at the end of his presidency. And so I think there's some practical reasons, some health reasons, cold, let's not be crazy. Put people through these bad conditions. Well, then on the other side, I think it's also it's also reasonable to ask the question, could there be security concerns when we know there's already been multiple assassination attempts? We know they have heightened security to the highest levels I've ever seen in any kind of presidential activity up here in D.C.. And we also know that there are some unknown things with China and Iran having drones. You know, there's still the question marks what happened off New Jersey we don't know about? There's people, military guys that came out, even a guy that was on I think Shawn Ryan's podcast was talking about drone technology and maybe they were analyzing what somebody had released that that guy who died in and the cybertruck out in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, I guess what he released. And so I don't even know if that's accurate or not, but it does stand to reason that whatever our military has and maybe even whatever China has is probably several years in front of what civilian population has. So we don't know how good drones are or aren't. And I've heard military guys talk about payload capacities of drones, what they can do with bombs. And so like all of this to say there could be legitimate security concerns where they say we want a enclosed location where we can control things a lot better and weather could certainly be part of what they're using to cover up for it. But whether it might be all that it actually is. So we're hearing people speculate about what it is, but we've heard no definite answer of what it really is. 

David Barton [00:23:03] I will add that of all the inaugurations I've been to, this by far is the calmest inauguration on the day before. So going through Sunday, usually the protest groups are in town, they're getting lined up, they're getting geared up, they're getting rock up. And I mean, eight years ago when this happened, man, all the pink hatted women that were crazies all over the place. I saw nothing today. I saw nothing. And the demeanor of the place, I saw nothing and the crowds. And we were in several places across town. There was just nothing except pure calmness. The traffic wasn't crazy. The cabbies weren't crazy. The people were crazy. It was exceptional. It's calmer than it usually is when we come to D.C., So I don't know what's going on, but I don't you know, there may be some security stuff, but so far, at least leading up to inauguration, this would've been an exceptionally calm time. 

Tim Barton [00:23:52] And Deb, we did hear somebody telling us today that there were reports that there might be some organized protest in various cities across the nation. And so it's very possible that maybe we're not seeing it here in D.C., But certainly we think about, you know, just a couple of years ago, the summer of the riots and everything else, where there's so much craziness going on. And there were Democrat governors and mayors that allowed it to happen. That certainly could be something that happens. But to your point, we've seen no signs of any accumulation of protesters here in D.C., which certainly would be a place you might expect them to be. But what of one of the ad, the shirts that you joked about for years you wanted to find you. You'd seen it a decade or two ago and you kind of regretted that you didn't buy it then. And you joked about. A little bit since then. But up in North Dakota, you saw a T-shirt that said 40 below keeps the riffraff out. And. Right. What is really bad conditions? You know, some of these crazy people don't want to be there because they don't know what the craziness. With that being said, I think that, you know, a lot of these protesters, they're not heroes. They're not really brave. And so when you have this huge law enforcement presence, when you have a president who's willing to lock every one of these sorry suckers up, he's going to do bad things. I think it's discouraged significantly. And then on top of the fact when conditions are miserable, I think all that factors in together to be the discouragement needed maybe to keep things out of D.C., although it will be interesting to watch around the rest of the nation and see if there really are organized protests or if having the different leadership makes that much difference. 

Rick Green [00:25:36] Alright guys we've got less than a minute, but I'd love for one of you to comment on the Israeli hostages released on Sunday evening. Three have been released so far. I know it's a fragile kind of peace deal between Israel and Hamas. It is reminiscent of Reagan's first term, of course, when the Iranian hostages were released right before the swearing in. But, you know, do you guys have hope that more than the three will be released? 

David Barton [00:25:55] Well, that's some of the issue. And I mean, that's going back and forth even now, because they said we're releasing. Wait a minute, we're not releasing. Wait a minute. We are releasing. And so they go back and forth on that and we're going to release one third and they're going to release all. But nonetheless, Trump has put the word out there that when I'm sworn in, you better have them all released. And it looks like they're trying to scramble and do something. We'll see what that is. 

Rick Green [00:26:20] Alright folks out of time for today. Tomorrow, don't forget, we're get what we're going to do is tomorrow we'll have a recap of the inauguration, the executive orders, all the different things that are happening on the 20th. This recording that we're just sharing with you about 12 hours before the inauguration. So we'll tomorrow have a show for you. That's 12 hours after the inauguration. So should be fun. Anyway, a lot to cover. Thanks for listening. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show.