Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's The WallBuilders Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. We appreciate you joining us today. Be sure and visit our two websites, WallBuilders.Show, for any of the radio programs you might have missed the last few days, and then, of course, Wallbuilders.com. That's our main website. Lots of great information and tools available to you there. Check it out today. Wallbuilder.com David and Tim. All right you guys are still in DC. You got a tour last night and took people all through the Capitol and meetings with folks at the white house and the Bible museum. Did I see this right today or yesterday guys that Donald Trump giving his Bible to the Bible Museum and actually having all that attention on the Bible, I'm pinching myself over here. This is so good. 

David Barton [00:00:53] Yeah, you got it exactly right, Rick. That is exactly what happens and it was quite an interesting meeting, quite frankly. So let me back up, um, Bible Museum, we were there, we weren't invited. We were receiving invitations from the white house to go there because president Trump was going to make kind of a really big policy speech, and the reason was that the he has this religious liberty commission that he's put together, looking at all the attacks on faith in America. And they're going to come back to him with recommendations for legislation and executive orders and policies, things that he can do to really try to secure religious liberty. And so they were having their second meeting and a lot of our friends are there, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, a great friend. We've had him on the program before, Kelly Shackelford, Eric Metaxas, so many guys that we know and appreciate are part of that commission. And so as it's getting started, the president came in and he spoke for about an hour and he didn't have a teleprompter, but... I'm going to say 75, 80% of it was just off the cuff and he was speaking. And as he was there, he was looking around and, and asked for Steve Green. And Steve Green, of course, is one of the owners of Hobby Lobby. And he is the one who really put the money behind the Bible museum. 

Rick Green [00:02:07] No, no relation by the way. I'm just I just want to make sure the audience knows no relation Rick green is not a billionaire would like to be so if anybody can somehow create a trace or a connection so that I could be related to Steve Green that'd be great. Please send me that document. Okay, sorry 

David Barton [00:02:22] Rick, you should, you should let it go, bro. You should let just people think you didn't have to say anything, man. The connection was there. Yeah. So the president looked at Steve Green and said, hey, and just, I just gave you guys, and he announced that he took his, his Bible, that he's had in both inaugurations given to him by his mother it's a, it' a family precious Bible. And he said that he he's put there in the museum. It's going to be on display there in museum as part of the Bible museum. So. That's a big deal from him and a big deal to the Bible museum. And then he, he got into a lot of policy stuff as well and just frankly spoke very candidly, very pointedly. It was this, if he didn't care for me, he was in the room or not. He's just doing what he's been doing since he's had been president this time, just laying it out. And he was just blunt. And I think he made a statement that, that kind of, I think struck the tone for the whole time. He got into the, some of the transgender males playing as sports and how crazy that is and how he's fought that and he said, you know, they tell me that's an 80/20 issue. He said, but it's not, it's a 97/3 issue. And he really talked about it as if it was, and he talked with as much boldness as I've ever heard him use at any point in time on so many things. And it's like, he just has a point where he, he doesn't expect the media to get it right. He knows the people are going to get her right. And he just was really positivly,I mean, he spoke boldly in a very positive, upbeat way, and it was quite a day that we had with religious liberty stuff there at the Bible Museum with the Religious Liberty Commission and with President Trump. 

Rick Green [00:04:02] You know, it reminds me of when he went over to the, you know, walked across the street. They tried to burn down that church, that historic church there. And he held up the Bible and it was his way of saying, yeah, yeah. You remember we did a couple of shows on that back then and it was, you knew, he was basically saying, this is the foundation of America. This is what they're after. This is why they're trying to burn it down. And then here you got him doing this full press conference and everything at the Bible museum, bringing attention once again. I was trying to remember the name of that talk you used to give. I think it was Influence of the Bible in America. I don't know if we have that at the website or not, but it just seems like so much has, so many seeds have been planted over the last few decades by WallBuilders with regard to bringing that truth back. And now you gotta sit back and be saying, I mean, when you're sitting in that room, David, and you're hearing the president say these things and you were looking around the room, you gotta feel a little bit of like, man, we're getting to see the fruit. We didn't know if we'd get to see fruit from all those seeds that were planted all those years. 

David Barton [00:04:59] Well, you know, there's accounts in the Bible of people saying, here I am, I'm by myself. And the Lord says, no, no no, there is a whole host of people there and there's a whole horde. You just thought you're by yourself. And I really think that's what's happened. I, you, I was talking about stuff years ago and decades ago, but so were a lot of other people. And now it's just all over everywhere and God had all these people really, he was preparing and racing up for such a time as this. And it's the voice of a multitude, and that's the thing that really struck me in the book of Daniel when Daniel saw Christ and talked about him. He said his voice was the voice a multitude. And I've always thought that's a really strange description because he didn't say his voice was loud, his voice is roaring, his was powerful. He said it's a voice of multitude. And it struck me that when God starts speaking, you start hearing the same thing from a bunch of people at the same time. You know, you hear it from the grocer, you'll hear it form the barber, you will hear it on the news. You'll hear it from a friend, you'll hear from your grandmother. And suddenly you start hearing all sorts of people saying the same thing and you go, wow. And sure enough, it's the Lord doing something. And I think that's where we are now. His voice is the voice of a multitude and you hear from the president of the United States we heard it from, Scott Turner was there who's head over the housing urban development and president Trump has really kind of put him at the forefront of a national prayer initiative. And part of the 250th anniversary is, getting back to prayer. And everything was built and founded on prayer. And I would not have expected the president of the United States to be the one to put up a website about praying and calling people to prayer, make that part of the White House website and calling on people nationally to pray, calling on groups to pray and et cetera. And I mean, it's just, it's fascinating stuff that's going on right now. I would have not expected it in my lifetime. I didn't expect it five years ago. But what's happening right now is just absolutely remarkable. 

Rick Green [00:06:53] Yeah, and David, people can follow along and become a part of it. They can actually be a, you know, almost a partner organization in a way, by committing to getting people together to pray and, there's so many great resources there and I know you guys fed to the White House, all those dates and all those special times of prayer in America's history. They've even posted that there and made it available for people to have. So whitehouse.gov that's that, that main site where you get to all kinds of cool stuff from the White House, but whitehouse.gov/america250 so you're getting into that part of it for the next year for the 250th and then one more forward slash America dash praise so whitehouse.gov/america250/america/prays and that's PRAYS not PRAISE. I know I'm a country boy So you can't tell which one I'm saying. So anyway, really cool place for people to get involved 

Tim Barton [00:07:43] Well guys, it's also worth pointing out that this last weekend was a pretty significant anniversary regarding prayer because the very first time the Continental Congress ever met was September 6, 1774. The very first motion from the very first meeting was made by Thomas Cushing and the motion was that they would open with prayer. When they finally agreed to it, they called the local pastor, the Reverend Jacob Boucher. He showed up the next day. And the records of Congress, John Adams has a great letter about this to Abigail. There's multiple places you can go and find this, but what they identified was the Reverend Jacob Duche when he showed up on September 7th and led them in prayer, that opening prayer lasted for two hours, and it included studying four chapters of the Bible. So as we're talking about America prays and prayer and faith, the Bible being foundational to the nation, literally you can go back to the First Continental Congress, and just in those first two days, the first motion that was made was to prayer. They sent a word off to the pastor. He shows up the next day, and then the opening prayer is two hours and it includes four chapters of the bible they study. And this is where, of course, John Adams and one of his letters to Abigail says it was as if God himself had ordained that Psalm, Psalm 35 to be read that day. It goes on and describes some of the sentiments, some of what happened, a lot of really great historic bangs, but... You know, Dad, kind of to the point of what we're seeing with restoration in some degree. It really is a restoration of the foundation of America, where a lot of people today, because we've grown up with a really bad education system that has largely taught us secularism, that we shouldn't have God in government, that there's this quote unquote fabricating separation church of state, that the founding fathers never intended for God to be involved. We've been taught that they were largely irreligious. They were atheists and agnostics and deists and all of these narratives that have been out there for so long. If all we would do is go back and just look at the original documents, go back and read this story from the guys who were there, we would realize how incorrect the narrative has been and how the foundation of our nation really was a faith foundation more than anything else. Because you could argue there certainly were other influences as well. That at the time of the American Revolution, of course you had guys like John Locke, you're the two treasurer of government, that his writings were very influential with founding fathers in the formative days of the revolution. But no matter what outside influence you might point to, none of them was more fundamental, more impactful, or more referenced and quoted than the Bible. And you certainly, again, from the original writings, from all the records of what happened, faith was a foundation of this nation. And guys, we've talked about this and it's worth just repeating. In my mind, I'm celebrating this over and over and over that we are living in the time when we have a president that is more pro-faith pro-god pro-bible and pro-christian Than any president in our lifetime and and this is something we'd rejoice at anyway But the fact that God is using president Trump to do this is certainly not something most of us all coming which in my mind Is yet another reason that God should get a lot of credit for this because when God chooses to use what in man's eyes seems like the unlikely candidate and and God's doing amazing things, God definitely deserves a credit for this. And Rick, when you open a program. You mentioned we're up in D.C., and it's actually tonight is the night that we are doing the capital, the spiritual heritage capital tour, where we're going to take pastors and donors and some of our friends through and we're gonna show them a lot of the faith foundation of the nation. We're going show them some of the original prayer proclamations issued by some of the founding fathers. We're gonna to show them Bibles that founding fathers are largely responsible for, things these that are very evident historically, again, seeing the faith foundation of the nation. And so we've talked about it before, we've been invited to be part of a lot of upcoming celebrations from various agencies in the government, from the White House, we have a lot friends that are doing things. But in the midst of all the things we're invited to do, what's so cool is what people are asking us to come help show teach and connect the dots on is the faith foundation of America and, dad, the things that you were trying to help people understand starting really forty years ago when God kinda laid this this vision on your heart to some extent i'd certainly forty years you probably had no idea where god was gonna lead you what will be calm And certainly not the connections God has allowed us to have now and the open doors that God has given us But again going back to in my mind. It's so celebratory 

Rick Green [00:12:31] And it was amazing to him that that happened when he was only six years old. I mean, 40 years ago, he was six, right? Is that? Sorry, bro. You were so celebratory and I totally interrupted you. Go ahead. 

Tim Barton [00:12:41] Well, no, it's interesting how the pendulum swings because I feel like it was maybe just yesterday, maybe last week that we were talking about my dad being old enough that he was hanging out with George Washington. And now like we've swung the pendulum to like, no he's actually only 45 years old. Well, okay. Somewhere in the middle of that, but never telling. It's, it really is guys, such a celebratory time. The things that we are seeing happen up here in Washington DC, The thing is that God is allowing us to be part of to help reteach and retell the American story with that biblical Foundation and that we're seeing that biblical foundation being promoted once again in education Ten commandments being put up in public schools a Bible and prayer returning it is so incredible. What's happening right now 

David Barton [00:13:27] And, you know, even with this thing, we were talking a minute ago about America praise, it's up on the website. Uh, actually wall builders is on the White House website is one of the prayer partners with the white house. And who would have thought that the white House would have had a list of prayer partners up on its, on its website, but nonetheless, there it is. And significantly what, uh, secretary Turner has called for as part of what the white houses wanting is they're asking for people to get with 10 friends every week and spend one hour praying for America. Now I've been to a lot of churches. I don't know the last time that I had a church leader encouraged me to spend an hour a week in prayer and get 10 of my friends together. And yet this is what's coming out of the White House for the America praise plan from now all the way through the two 50th, they're asking for people to find 10 people a week and spent an hour praying for American. What a healthy, healthy thing. Not just for the country, but for all the believers in the country to start praying like that. 

Tim Barton [00:14:29] Well, and dad, maybe to echo on the point. When you said you don't know many pastors that would do this, I think in fairness, we know a lot of pastors that that would share that sentiment that would say, man, we want people praying with your friends and pray. And yet, most churches don't have it on their website as a strategy plan, right? That we believe in prayer so much, pray an hour a week, get 10 of your friends together, encourage them to pray. This is the US government, the White House, doing something more bold than what I've seen on most church websites. It's absolutely incredible. 

Rick Green [00:15:02] And it's actually, I guess, you know, you guys have that amazing collection of all the prayer proclamations in the kind of Congress, presidents, governors, all that kind of stuff. I mean, guys, so this is a essentially a prayer proclamation, but not for one day, this is you're talking, you're taking for almost a year, essentially saying, let's make sure that we have recurring prayer in the country. This could be the greatest prayer prolamation ever in the country's history. 

David Barton [00:15:26] Yeah, essentially you're talking for a year and a half because I mean, we're going, well, I guess, what is it till next July? And then it's 12 months after that. So we're eight, we were seven, we 11 where that's 23 months at times four. So you're taking about 90 prayer proclamations. They've issued on the website to, to go all the way through. They got one a week all the through the, the, the year two at 2026, the 250th anniversary. 

Rick Green [00:15:52] Well, actually, that's typical Trump form, right? I mean, it's gotta be huge. It's gotta, he can't just get impeached once. He's gotta get impeach twice so that it's more than any other president. He can't do just a prayer proclamation. He's gonna do a prayer year and a half or whatever you just said, do you? 

David Barton [00:16:08] Now, I got to tell you the next part of that, because today, as he was talking, Eric Metaxas is one of the individuals I mentioned that's on the commission. 

Tim Barton [00:16:17] Hang on a second, I want to hear what Eric Metaxas said, but help me do the math, because if we take the rest of this year, because you said 90 weeks, if you take the rest of the year, we know in 2026 there's 52 weeks. And so I'm the only way I come to 90 is you're going into like July of 2027, which I think in most people's minds is way past the 250th. But even even if we just had 52 weeks next year, and however many weeks are left this year, I think is where the math is coming from. Am I right on that? Yeah, what happened? 

David Barton [00:16:49] Is our birthday starts on July the 4th of 2026 and we have a year celebration going that year. So it will go all the way to July the 3rd of 2027. So from July of 20 26 to 27 that's 52 weeks and then here we are early September and we're going until next we start this thing in July this coming year so that's what 10 months and let's say 40 40 weeks. So that kind of my 90, just without using a calculator real quick, what's remaining from now to the 26 and then the, the 20, 26 to 20, 27, essentially when the celebrations over work, looking at about 90 weeks now, that's a lot of prayer proclamations. Okay. And that's like one a week he's asking for. So this Eric tax was just kind of, I'm telling you, it was such an interesting meeting and it was just kinda casual back and forth at the What do they call this thing officially? Is this the semi sesquicentennial? What is this thing they're calling the 250th? 

Rick Green [00:17:51] Semi-quincentennial. 

David Barton [00:17:53] All right. And so Metaxas has just looked at the president and said, Mr. President, just call it the super centennial. And Trump goes, I like that. He said, that's easy. Everybody gets that. We'll just call this a super centenial. So for the rest of the day, he was calling it the super centennial, so maybe we're going to have 90 proclamations essentially one a week. You know, with a call to prayer, it's a fun time. 

Rick Green [00:18:18] That's funny. You mentioned Metaxas on that because I was at an event with him when,  like two or three months ago and I, and I'm not kidding that I, you know, people might think this funny or they might think I'm really stupid, but, I practiced saying semi-quincentennial, like, you, you really practiced it so that when I was giving my speech, which was after Eric's speech and Eric and I give each other a hard time. Cause I'm the country boy and he's the Yale guy, right? And he's always in the fancy suits and I mean, uh T-shirt half the time. And anyway, so he got done. I did my speech and he'd already left. And so I. When I got to semi-quincentennial, I stopped and I said, I want everybody in the room to be impressed because I finished in that half of the class that made the top half possible. And I just gave you a seven syllable word, semi-quincentennial. And you just heard from the Yale guy, Eric Metaxas, and he's never said semi-Quincentenial in his whole life. And so now David, you just put an exclamation point on it. He didn't even say it to the president. He just said super quintentennial. So I'm going to pick on him next time we're together. Thank you for giving me that ammunition. 

David Barton [00:19:13] It was a fun day and it was that kind of a day. And you know, here it is on national TV and, and it was, it was so cool. By the way, the other thing that Trump announced today that, that needs to be out there. 

Rick Green [00:19:25] Hold that announcement, but I want to know what President Trump said as well. We'll be right back to take a quick break. You got to wait for the break to know what President said or what the second announcement was yesterday. Stay with us. You're listening to The Wallbuilder Show.  Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. David and Tim Barton here with Rick Green, and we're getting an update on yesterday, President Trump at the Museum of the Bible, and David, right when we were, I interrupted you for the break, sorry about that, you were about to tell us another one of Trump's announcements yesterday. 

David Barton [00:20:58] Yeah, and it really is a big announcement. And it's something that, you know, over the, the years and even recent months and recent weeks, we've talked about how that the court just really scrubbed any kind of religious acknowledgement out of public education back in the sixties had no basis for doing so. And the president recognizes that where we are now is not where the founders wanted us to be. It's where, and as he pointed out, he said nearly everything that's gone wrong. With this has been because of the Supreme Court in the last several decades. And he's right. All the progressives, they started doing education in the law schools and got progressive people in the courts and we don't need the constitution. We'll tell you what to do. And so his, and it's not, and I'm not even going to say initiative. It's not an initiative. He says prayer belongs in public schools and he's got the, the department of education and department of justice, both working and, and Pam Bondi was there today, attorney general. He's got them both working on guidance on praying in public schools, protecting prayer and public schools. So that's the big initiative is prayers going back into public schools and it's not asking permission. It's you can do it and here's the protection for you being able to do that. And so again, another huge, major, major major thing coming out and he just talked about it casually and here's what we're going to do. This is. This is coming and I've got, I've got the cabinet level departments working on it. And they'll give you the guidance of how you can do this. And so there's just a lot of things changing very rapidly in America. And again, it is a result of this last election for sure. And leadership does make a difference, but it's, this is something we've been waiting for for 60 years. Yeah, it's 60 years back to 62 when they took career out of schools. 

Tim Barton [00:22:47] Well guys, it strikes me as something that only somebody outside the system. Could do, because I feel like people inside the system would have been so used to the narrative, the status quo, right? Well, wait, there's separation church and state and there's all these things because he hasn't been part of the system. He hasn't heard those narratives so long. It's not ingrained in his mind. He's looking going, this is crazy. We shouldn't be doing this. We should do what we used to do. That was the right thing. Let's go back and do that again and it's just so fun seeing how God is using someone that is so different than the mold of what people thought a political leader should look like and God very well at the end of President Trump his second term part of his legacy which I mean I'm gonna speak this prayerfully faithfully but I would pinch myself right wake up if this if this is the reality which in well could be that that faith, Christianity and the Bible return not just to the public square, but even to the classroom under the leadership of Donald Trump. And I also think in the midst of this, it would just be... Uh, a very sad irony that I think there would be a lot of Christians at that point who thought he wasn't Christian enough to be president who would then oppose him for violating separation of church and state to get the Bible back in schools. And I say that maybe a little jaded because at times some of the biggest opposition we get are from, uh, people that identify as Christian from religious leaders that feel like we Christians shouldn't be involved in government, you know, kind of check the boxes, X, Y, Z, go down the list. But I do think it's interesting. That we might have some of the biggest religious restoration in education, in schools, and in culture under one of the least likely candidates that we've ever seen in our lifetime, but look what God is doing. 

David Barton [00:24:45] So Tim, what you're just talking about, but about the president just doing the right thing, I was so convicted listening to it because I was thinking, I've been thinking through, all right, what do we have to do to get a case back to the Supreme court to give them opportunity to overturn their bad decision and how long will it take to get that? And how can we set it up to get back? And he just went and said, no, what the court did is wrong. We're just going to do it's right. And it's like, Oh yeah, just do it right. And I was saying that they're all the process and all the logistics and all this stuff, and he just said, No, they got it wrong. And we're just gonna do what's right And it was like, yeah, that that's right. It was so Tim, as you said, somebody just completely outside the system, just thinking through and we're just going to do what's right, that's what the constitution allows us to do. This is what we did for the better part of two and a half centuries before and after the constitution, both. And it's just, it's, it just the right thing to do 

Rick Green [00:25:34] Well, and I got to tell you guys, I'm thinking a lot about what David said in 2016 when I was so not happy that Donald Trump was the nominee and I was, you know, Ted Cruz guy and I'm so mad that he had said so many mean things about Ted and David, you said on the air, you say, Rick, we had Godly candidates that we viewed as godly candidates in the primary, they didn't win and we, God loves to confound our wisdom. I remember you saying that and, uh and surprise us with who he uses. And God's up to something here and we don't know yet what it's going to be, but we'll see. And so here we are almost 10 years later, seeing so much fruit from God's plan being better than our plan. So really, really cool. A great day,  just to celebrate where we are in the, and obviously a lot of work to still do folks, but the cool thing is that with what the White House is doing and all these different efforts, it gives you opportunity to make a big difference over the next 90 weeks. So get involved in it, do your part locally. Make sure that you're hosting some of our Constitution classes, doing Rebuild Liberty, and doing these prayer programs and everything else. There's a lot you can do. Find those steps that for you, you can make a difference in your community. Thanks for listening today to The WallBuilder Show.