Tim Barton [00:00:07] Welcome to the WallBuilders Show. This is Tim Barton, joined by David Barton, where today we are diving into Good News Friday. Now, WallBuilders, on our show, we try to cover whatever's going on in the news from a biblical, a constitutional and a historic perspective. But every Friday, we do Good News Friday, where all we do is talk about good things happening around the nation because frankly, the media does not tell us very much good stuff going on. And there's always good stuff going on. God is always on the move. And there are warriors all over the nation fighting to restore biblical foundations, biblical truth, to restore constitutional principles, inalienable rights, all those great things. And we want to take time every Friday to let you know the good stuff going on. So that's what we're doing today. We are just going to go through some good news stories. So, Dad, I will pitch to you what is the first good news story you have. 

David Barton [00:01:00] Good news story, I'm gonna set it up by I guess my value system. And there's just some things that I consider absolutely insane, inexplicable, to be blunt, quite stupid. A and yet to the people doing them, it doesn't seem stupid to them at the time. And I I referenced back to a YouTube video I saw a while back where a guy was showing his courage and bravery, and he's not intimidated by things that scare normal people, and one of them was a rattlesnake. And so he grabbed this rattlesnake behind the head and he held it up and was gonna look at eye to eye, and the rattlesnake doesn't scare me, and it bit him several times in the face and he died. It it's just that's stupid. Why would you even put a rattlesnake up by your face? What are you trying to prove? And what you're trying to prove is how dumb you are. 

Tim Barton [00:01:46] It's one of those that just I might point out there are people that do work with rattlesnakes. And so they would be like, Oh, that guy was dumb. But I just know there's some snake enthusiasts out there, pet snakes, people, and they're like, hey, pet snakes aren't that dangerous. I think also we're seeing a little bit of your country bias that the way you handle snakes on the ranch is a little different than maybe some of the in touch with nature people. Growing up, it wasn't quite as extreme. And I'm saying quite, it mostly was that the only good snake was a dead snake. That definitely came from your wife, my mom. That the enmity between woman and snake was very real in our household, as God told Eve it would be. With that being said, yes, really, really dumb. Don't pick up a rattlesnake, don't put it in front of your face, don't kiss it, all that just super dumb. 

David Barton [00:02:40] It's super dumb. And and I I referenced back to the COVID era just a few years ago with it seemed like COVID and Antifa were kind of going at the same time and maybe Antifa leveraged itself during COVID to to make a splash. But at the same time, you have Antifa going through and destroying buildings and stores and burning s neighborhoods, cities. And the reaction, at least by the political leaders over the law enforcement was, oh no, we're we're not gonna stop that. And it's like wait a minute. It it's okay to destroy private property, it's okay to destroy businesses. And I remember out in California, the the DA out there said we're not gonna prosecute any shoplifting if it's below a thousand dollars or whatever it is, which is a license, go steal anything for nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars and and nothing's gonna happen to you. And it was just so illogical how we were tolerating and placating lawlessness, actually encouraging it, because when you don't put a stop to it, well, they know they can do it again and again and again. And so if you can burn down one city, why not burn down five cities or ten cities or twenty cities and whatever? And and so Trump gets in office and and one of the the early things he does is he says, okay, I am designating Antifa as a terrorist organization. And as a terror and it and I can't really think of anything that they did that wouldn't fit within that terrorist realm. You know, their way of expressing themselves wasn't using the First Amendment free speech. It wasn't using the right of petition, it was using destruction and violence and lawlessness. And so why not? Well, I mean, if you judge a tree by its fruits, as Jesus said in Matthew 7, it would certainly fit that. So he makes his terrorist designation of Antifa, and lo and behold, terrorist leaders of Antifa start moving out of the United States. You know, I would consider that to be good news that you have insurrectionists and they're going back to countries from which they came. I've got an article here, key figures linked to Antifa leave the U.S. After groups terrorist designation. And so one went back to Sweden and and another went went overseas as well. And it's like this is this is great for America because we're not having private property destruction, and by the way, they have insurance. Yeah, they do, but you know what? The rest of us have to pay insurance premiums when somebody else pays out. So all of our insurance premiums go up and having insurance is no no excuse for the terrorism is it's crazy stuff. 

Tim Barton [00:05:17] Yeah, having insurance is never justification for destroying, damaging, stealing someone else's property, right? That the same thing that we've heard people try to say justifying theft, especially for people they say, hey, minority groups, if there's theft there, maybe it's kind of like a reparation payback and there's insurances, so it's okay. Insurance is not a justification for bad behavior. And to pretend that those are moral equivalents means you have a broken moral compass. But along those lines, they had one of the guys you're talking about that went overseas. He was a college professor who wrote a book on anti-fascism. And in his book, and I think also even on some social media posts, he was laying out that sometimes you have to do damaging things to get people's attention, right? And he says, whether it's legal or not, sometimes you have to do those kind of things. So when you have a professor encouraging people to not follow the law, and and real quick important caveat. We, from a biblical perspective, would say the most important law you follow is God's law. And if man's law contradicts God's law, you follow God's law first. And that's part of the moral code, right? But this is also when you look at Daniel thrown in the lion's den, Shadrach and Myshach, and Abednego. And there are times that man's law will demand that you you go against God's law. And the biblical example for us is you follow God's law over man's law. But I bring that up to say that for those that might say, well, you don't think we should always follow the law either either. Yes, but it's because we believe in a higher moral standard. And if you're looking at Antifa, how do they determine right and wrong, right? Like what is their moral compass in the midst of this? Because to pretend and presume that their moral compass that calls for them to destroy someone else's property is a higher calling from the moral omniscient being that they look to. It doesn't make any sense. It's a subjective set of moral values. And by subjective set of moral values, meaning what they think is morally acceptable is a Machiavellian thought. The end justifies the means. We want destruction, we want chaos, we want the overthrow of the government. Those are not things that are healthy or beneficial for society. And this was a college professor who was promoting some of this. And now he's just the one that we know he posted on social media he was leaving. And taking his family with them for a year to try to get away from some of this chaos in America. There are other professors that are definitely supportive of Antifa that did not post on social media and were not leaving. So it hasn't gotten the same level of attention. But it it is again worth noting this is a college professor. And when we are thinking about where our kids are going and who they are learning from, most parents still have not come to realize to the full extent they should how many bad worldviews and how much bad philosophy is in higher levels of academia. And this is true from K through 12, but certainly true in the college university institutions. And this professor is just yet another example of someone that a lot of parents probably didn't know how radical this professor's views were. But we are finding out more and more about them as time goes on. So it's good that he's not at the university, but that is what's happening in the university. 

David Barton [00:08:47] And and the fact that we're now starting to focus on getting lawlessness out of the land is a good thing. And one of our friends, Tim, is Glenn Beck, and we've known him for years. And even going back to when he was top show on Fox, back at that point, one of the things that really kind of he staked out was his ability to research and and tie things together in a way that just kind of amazed people. And so what he did with with Soros, and here's Soros, and here's all the different groups he uses. Here's how Soros is subverting America and he he's funding this group and this group and this and the Tides Foundation, what Van Johnson was doing and others were doing, he's had this just unusual ability to research, to get the facts and to put them together, and you go, oh my goodness, look how it all fits together. I didn't know that's where it was coming from. And he's done the same thing with Antifa. He and his researchers, and he's got phenomenal researchers. They they dug deep into Antifa and and its roots and how to get in America and who in America is facilitating this. And and so he did a a program here, I guess, last week, showing Antifa and the roots and Operation America and and the Trump administration is so committed to getting this this stuff out of here that they actually went and sat out with Beck and said, Hey, show us your research. We want to know this stuff. We w we want to be able to apply this stuff. And so they sat down with the Glenn and his top researchers and Kash Patel tent sent his guys in. I mean, they really do want to get this lawlessness out of America and this anarchy and you know, the the anti fascists act more fascist than anything else out there, and they claim to be anti fascist and and so I just I I'm thrilled at the fact that we're trying to get lawless now. We're already seeing crime numbers plummet in America, but now to get some of this external force out of here that's more rev it's not just violence, it's revolutionary. And I think that getting that revolution type of seat out of America is really healthy for all of us. So that's great news. 

Tim Barton [00:10:44] Well, that is good news. Anytime we can try to stem the tide of Antifa. And I know there are people out there who are defenders who say, wait a second, this is just anti-fascist. No, this is far closer to what would be known as projection, where you accuse the other side of what you yourself are doing when you are accusing Trump of being a fascist. But then if somebody speaks out against you, you cancel them, you assault them, you beat them. I mean, just so much going on. So it was really good news that President Trump labeled them for what they are because they are operating as a domestic terrorist organization. There's no doubt about it. My piece of good news is not exactly the same, but it actually has some very close ties. The headline says FBI cuts ties with far left Southern Poverty Law Center, famous for its hate map. And just a little bit of background on this. There's several things. It's a very long article, but there's several things the article highlights. Among them identifying that Kash Patel in an x post, he said that the any ties the FBI had to the SPLC have officially been terminated. The Southern Poverty Law Center long ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine. Their so-called hate map has been used to defame mainstream Americans and even inspired violence. Now, part of why he is totally justified in saying that they're attacking mainstream American inspiring violence is of the groups that have been listed in that hate map, there's definitely examples of some of them being targeted, not the least of which turning point USA was listed on the hate map as an anti-government general organization. And of course, Charlie Kirk was a leader of Turning Point USA. He was assassinated. Part of also this article that highlights SPLC showing this about turning point USA, just to clarify. They're sowing and exploiting fear that white Christian supremacy is under attack by nefarious actors, including immigrants, the LGBTQ plus community, and civil rights activists. They're saying that Turning Point USA was trying to target and stop all of this. They further accuse them of complicating feelings of insecurity and anxiety to manufacture rage and mobilize support to revive and maintain a white dominated male supremacist Christian social order and embracing an extreme authoritarian vision for the country that threatens the foundation of our democracy. Now that's what the SPLC said about Turning Point. Charlie Kirk back in May posted on X talking about the game plan of SPLC. He says they're labeling organizations as hate groups to scare financial institutions into debanking us, pressure schools to cancel us and demonize us so some unhinged lunatic feels justified in targeting us, which seems eerily prophetic of what actually happened. Because also worth noting, and Charlie Kirk pointed this out. He says, remember an SPLC inspired gunman went after the Family Research Council in 2012. He then continued, they'd love nothing more than to see turning point USA in the crosshairs. Now that's exactly what happened. Now we we can't say for sure that the guy who murdered Charlie Kirk was inspired by the SPLC hate map. However, what he did say is that when there are groups like SPLC that in that case, they were still working with the FBI back under the Biden administration. When they are targeting the turning point USA organization and they're demonizing them so that some lunatic feels justified and taking them out. But that's exactly what's happened. That's what Antifa has done, labeling the other side as the evils, the fascists, the Nazis, et cetera. That's what SPLC has done. So this is kind of a follow-up piece of good news to that. That not only is Trump labeled Antifa as a terrorist organization, the FBI has said we're done with SPLC because what they're doing is they're being politically motivated to target their political opponents and label them as hateful and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Which, of course, Dad, you've been part of being labeled by the SPLC at times. But many of our conservative friends, people that are not radical, they're not crazy. Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, James Dobson. Like we can go down the list of people the SPLC has targeted, and they targeted people who had the audacity to say things like marriages between a man and a woman and and gender is real and boys and girls are real things, et cetera. These are not radical things, these are mainstream things. But if you had a different political opinion, they targeted you, they labeled you. And so it's really great that the FBI has finally said, we're done with these guys. We're we're not gonna let them give guidance to the FBI. The article goes on to give many other examples, but ultimately it's good news the FBI is no longer working with the SPLC. With that being said, we're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back on the Wallbuilder Show. 

Tim Barton [00:16:52] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. This is Tim Barton, joined by David Barton. Our third amigo is on the road right now. He's up in the mountains somewhere, chasing after some elk, practicing, bugling, doing something. I'm not really sure. He doesn't have signals. So we are running the show today without him. On Good News Friday, we are highlighting some of the good stories, the good things happening around the nation. Dad, it is your turn. What is your piece of good news? 

David Barton [00:17:18] I want to start with an article that involves Elon Musk and Elon Musk, of course, was real key early months of the Trump administration, what he did with Doge and other things, and he has not really been a professing Christian in any way, shape, fashion, or form. He was baptized as an Anglican when he was young, but he's not really been what you would call a a strong, devout Christian anyway, but he's had a journey that's starting to move that way. And it's interesting to see, I'm I'm gonna go back to 2022. And then back in 2022, in a post on X, somebody urged him to confess a creator, and he said, Thank you anyway, but I'm okay going to hell. And if that's my destination, that's where the vast majority of all humans are gonna be, and I'll be there with all these others. So back in 2022, when urged to confess the creator, he he didn't move that direction. And then in 2024, in an interview with Jordan Peterson, he says, you know, I I'm not a particularly religious person, but I do believe that the teachings of Jesus are good and wise, and that there's tremendous wisdom in turning the other cheek. He said, I'm a big believer in the principles of Christianity because they're very good. And then he added to that, he he said that the principles Jesus advocated about forgiveness and treating people as you wish to be treated, they're really good, and I agree with those. And so he's making more and more positive con comments over the last few years, and he's actually described himself as a cultural Christian. And that's interesting because if you look at Richard Dawkins, who's the famous British atheist, he he I mean, he is such a strident atheist, but he calls himself a cultural Christian. I disagree with the theology. I don't think there's a God, but you know, the things they teach are really good for all of us, and we need to live those Christian teachings, whether there's a God or Jesus is real or anything else, and that's where you see Musk kind of moving. And then after the death of Charlie at Turning Point, when Charlie was saying, Hey, people need to go to church, and and so Erika's been urging people to go to church as Charlie did, and and lo and behold, Musk takes and he he reposts that that this is a good thing, and he puts it out there. And it's significant that just in the last few days, come across an account that's really interesting. Is there is a a pastor in I think Ohio, and he got a he's in a tweet thread, and in that tweet thread, somebody tweeted and said, hey, anybody know a a pastor in Waco, Texas. And he said, Well, I just trained a guy who started church in Waco. What's up? And he he talked about this this pastor, he said he had a young nephew who rejected God when he was really, really young, ten or twelve years old, whatever. And as time went on, he became more and more anti-God. He actually tattooed 666 on his forehead, and he actually tattooed an upside down cross above each eyebrow. So he was real anti-Christian, anti-God, etc. And and what happened was he texted his his uncle who has the church who's the pastor, and he said, Hey,  I've been listening to Charlie, and Charlie's talking about God, and he said, so I went and had surgically removed that tattoos off my forehead, they're gone. I went out and bought a Bible because Charlie said we need to have the Bible. And he said, Charlie said I need to go to church. And I don't know any churches in Waco, and that's where I am. Do you know a church in Waco? And so they connected him with the church, and last Sunday, Devon gave his life to Christ at church, just a remarkable thing because here here they're tweeting, we need to go to, you need to go to church. And this atheist kid did, and lo and behold, what a change. 

Tim Barton [00:21:03] Well, it is good news, and certainly there has been a lot of positive things that have come from people watching those Charlie Kirk videos. And man, incredible that Elon Musk is reposting the encouragement to go to church. God's on the move. Something's happening. And speaking of that, on college campuses, it seems like almost every Good News Friday for a while. And maybe not, but it I've seen so many stories, it feels like every Friday we are talking about student revivals on college campuses. This is one, I might have mentioned it already because it happened earlier this month, but I haven't read this article. So I'm going to read this article just to highlight it. 8,000 students gather for Unite Us Revival at University of Tennessee. 500 make decision for Christ. And kind of the bottom line of this is 8,000 students filled the Thompson Bowling Arena at the Food City Center Tuesday night for Uniting Us. What's really cool about this is Tennessee's basketball coach Rick Barnes actually encouraged students to go and participate in this, which is amazing. And then 500 students commit their lives to Christ, according to the organizers, what the article says. Many of them were baptized outside the arena and portable tanks while other peers looked on and celebrated. There's actually students that posted about this. They have some of those posts in the article as well. One student said hundreds. We witnessed hundreds get baptized tonight. Another one said in a video clip, we witnessed thousands changed for the name of Jesus. There is a new thing coming to this generation, and unite us is a big part of it. So just like incredible what we've seen God do since the murder of Charlie, even to the extent of guys like Elon Musk. I mean, Elon Musk, we we've talked about it. He was in that room for the eight-hour church service. He heard the gospel repeated multiple times, even by some of the Trump administration, the Trump cabinet. Just it's it's so clear God is on the move, and especially in Gen Z, the rising generation. So just so much good stuff happening. Dad, I think we have time that you can squeeze one more in. 

David Barton [00:23:16] Well, this goes to another kind of unlikely source that is defending Christianity. You know, Elon Musk is certainly moving in a great direction. But Bill Meyer, the American comedian, he's been known as an atheist for a long time, very clearly anti-God, anti religious. But recently he had on his program someone who was talking about persecution, and he went off on the fact that people are ignoring the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. And Bill Maher probably gave a better apologetic and better call to get involved in saving Christians in Nigeria than anyone I've heard in in recent weeks or months. He went off on it. He said, you know, Nigeria, the fact that this issue, the the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria has not gotten on people's radar. He said it's pretty amazing. He said, if you don't know what's going on in Nigeria, your media sources suck. You're in a bubble. He said, I'm not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They've killed over a hundred thousand since two thousand nine. They've burned eighteen thousand churches. These are the Islamists. These this is Boko Haram. He said, This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what's going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country. He said, Where are the kids who are protesting this? And he went on to talk about how bad it is that this is not in the news. This has not been brought up. You know, where's the college protest on this? They were there for Gaza. Where are they for the Christians? And so it's it's interesting that we talked, I think a week or two back about the out of a hundred and ninety-eight nations on the earth right now, a hundred and ninety-two are openly persecuting Christians. And so as you look at a hundred and ninety-two nations persecuting Christians, it's interesting that last year nearly seventy percent of all Christians killed for for their faith were killed in Nigeria. That's how bad Nigeria is. So instead of having, you know, two or three percent spread among the hundred and ninety-two nations, they've got seventy percent of all Christians. And significantly, out of the hundred and out of that hundred and ninety-two nations that are persecution Christians, they're number seven on the list. So they're way up in the top ten. So that's great news that someone like Bill Maher is actually calling attention to the persecution of Christians worldwide. And by the way, we've said this before, but if you want to help with that, go to the Nazarenefund.com and you can you can contribute there to help in the rescue of persecuted Christians in Nigeria. 

Tim Barton [00:25:45] Yeah, it's really good news when even guys like Bill Maher, who is not a religious individual, makes fun of Christians openly, mocks, ridicules, criticizes Christians. But when even he recognizes it, and he's calling out mainstream media for their ignoring things. And as he points out, if you don't know about this, it's because your media sources are terrible. And he used lots of other words that we don't use in this program. But he's right. And it's so great to see a resurgence in Christianity happening all over the nation, people being drawn to Jesus. We talked about this is where we need discipleship now more than ever. And if people want to find out more about even the Christian foundation of this nation, we encourage you to go to wallbuilders.com. We have so many resources, so much information. And we're all over social media. You can find us, follow us. We do video bits every week, given some moments and details from history. And of course, always you're gonna listen to the WallBuilder Show. Keep listening. We will see you guys next week. Have a great weekend.