SPEAKER_03 0:07

Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. Thanks for joining us on the Wall Builder Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. And a little later, our friend Jim Garlow is going to join us. Well versed is the name of the ministry now. Started as a book, now the name of the ministry. And wow, guys, I think we've done stuff with Garlo for 20, no, maybe 25 years. David, maybe longer than that for you.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

I I don't know why you asked me about long eight times. Ask somebody, ask Tim, ask you, why do you go to me with long dates?

Introducing Jim Garlow And Past Work

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Well, I don't remember what was happening in Wall Builders 20 plus whatever years ago when I was in college. Um, so it's gonna have to be. Uh now I do know, Dad, you and Garlow wrote a book back, I think it was leading into, was this leading into President Trump's first term as president in his election? When did y'all write that book together?

SPEAKER_00 1:05

I think it was 2016, thereabouts. Uh immigration was a big issue, Israel was a big issue. We had six big issues, and here we are now, eight years later, and those six issues are still still relevant. So that book was written at a point in time where that you had real decisions to make between where we wanted to head with those six issues, and those those decisions are still out there to be made today.

Rubio’s Speech And Policy Momentum

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Well, I was gonna say, it's it's not like those that's not still a relevant book because we're having so much of the same conversation. And had the advice from that book been followed back then, we wouldn't be having some of the problems we're having today. Although, guys, this is a side note, uh, although Jim would speak to this very well uh in addition, uh, but you know, navigating where we are today, again, dad, had we listened to had had more Americans read the book that you and Jim did uh and and followed that advice, we'd be better off. But I'm actually more encouraged of the trajectory given this week, uh, listening to Marco Rubio give some speeches and go, okay, this guy is so on point right now. And I think it's interesting that, you know, following President Trump having been over at uh get the Who, I don't know, wherever else he was, uh, but where he just was lighting people up and as President Trump often does, just telling you what he thinks and why you're dumb. And then Marco Rubio comes in with incredible polish and poise and gives one of the best policy explanations of what America needs to do and is going to do, and invites the rest of Europe and kind of the Western Hemisphere to join us in this journey. Just brilliant, what Marco Rubio has been explaining to the world and certainly even maybe to America over the last 24 or 48 hours.

Garlow’s Ministry And Global Outreach

SPEAKER_00 2:57

So let me take you back to ask you a question about Jim Garlow for a bit because Jim has got a perspective on this. We're going to talk about today. And by the way, let me interject right here the number 310. You got that? 310. Okay. Now, moving on, Jim Garlow. I mean, when I first met him, I was helping run the Republican Party of Texas. He was a local pastor in the Fort Worth, Dallas area, had a growing church. It was a very good church. Uh he saw the importance of weighing in with moral decisions and moral voice and politics, got involved in politics, his church became active, and they helped in a lot of city council races, et cetera. Jim moved on to become a very successful pastor in San Diego, a big megachurch out there, uh big voice in the Nazarene community, had a voice all over the nation for Nazarenes, really pointing them back to the Bible at a time when they were starting to drift. And then after he left that church, he really has had a global impact. Um, but he's done he's done so many books, and they're so Bible-centered, and they're so good. He is so good at taking any issue you can think of and putting the Bible to it and showing what public policy would look like with it. So Jim's a really, really informed pastor.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

I am stuck on 310. I'm thinking there was a movie called 310 to you. 300 Spartans is not 310. I'm betting it has something to do with Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

That's right, bro. We're already 55 days since last Christmas, man. We've only got 310 to go. We're we're on our way. We're we're wearing.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

There's nice things to say about Garlo, and my brain could not come back to what you were saying about Garlo because I was stuck on 310 trying to figure out is it Christmas? Is it is he gonna go? Did they do they have a new book coming out with 310 verses that support da-da-da-da-da-da? So now, and I do have to ask, David, was it well versed? Was that the book y'all did together? Because I can't even remember now, or was it one of the other ones?

SPEAKER_00 4:51

No, we did this precarious moment. We look at the precarious moment. Yes. Um, it was youth and and so many other issues we looked at at the time that are still relevant today. It's still a great book.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Well, and dad, as you mentioned, Jim has done so many books. The one that has just come out, we wanted to have him on a talk about, he actually went through President Trump's executive orders to analyze them with how well they line up with the Bible. One of the things, guys, that we've talked about a lot is we have never in our lifetime had a more pro-life president, had a more pro-religious liberty president, and arguably one of the most biblically supportive presidents in so many ways of any president we've had in our lifetime. And this is not to say that he hasn't made mistakes, but when you compare him to all of the other presidents, he has been one of the most vocal advocates, at least his ministration and minimum has. And and Jim has actually gone through the executive orders to show, hey, here's what it says compared to the Bible, which is the metric, the standard we should always use in analyzing good and bad behavior, good and and bad decisions, right and wrong direction. And so this is something I'm very interested to hear the breakdown. He's actually given all of us a copy. And so we will be able to go through that and and read it for ourselves. But I'm excited to have Jim on to walk us through what he found out going through President Trump's executive orders from 2025.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

So good, man. Such an important topic, and great to be able to apply biblical wisdom to these very important issues that President Trump obviously thought were important enough to do executive orders. So we'll talk with Jim Garlow about it when we come back. Stay with us, folks. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

This is Tim Barton from Wall Builders with another moment from American history. Alexia Togeville, a political official from France, traveled to the United States in 1831 and pinned his observations in the now famous book Democracy in America. Being from France, what he found in America was completely unexpected to him. He reported, upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention. And the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this. In France, I'd almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America, I found that they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country. De Tocqueville recognized that it was biblical Christianity and the morals it produced that made America great. For more information about Alexei de Tocqueville and the positive influence of Christianity in early America, go to wallbuilders.com.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

Welcome back to the Wallbuilder Show. Thanks for staying with us. Our good friend Jim Garlow back with us. Jim, always good to have you, brother. Thanks for coming on, man. Good being on with you, my friend. 27 books? Is that have I got the is my note right on that? 27 books? When are you not writing a book?

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Yeah, but I know a lot of people have written a lot more than I have.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

Yeah, I joked with our mutual friend Bill Federer the other night. We had a panel here on Sharia at the campus for Patriot Academy. And I uh, you know, I pulled the Tony Perkins because Tony did this to him on a panel at CMP one time. I said, uh uh Bill Federer, I don't know how many books, but uh by the end of this panel, he will probably have written another one. So I'll say the same thing here. Jim Garlow, 27 books. By the end of the show today, he'll probably have another one. Uh, but actually, well versed went from a book to a ministry, you know, now in DC and ministering to congressmen and catch us up on that, and then we'll jump into the new book about executive orders.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Well, well verse brings biblical principles of governance and government leaders. Uh, we travel the globe. Uh, we've been in a bunch of countries. We meet with heads of state if when the door opens, we've met with 14 so far, as if they then members of Congress or members of parliament, whatever the country is. And my goal is very, very simple. I try to call out that the word of God gives the foundation for all of government. And if we'll follow that, a nation will be blessed. And then also we call it a spirit of repentance and then honoring, honoring Israel, the nation of Israel. So that's kind of our goal when we meet with with whoever we can. We've been just got back from Taiwan. We were in Armenia before that. We're heading to Brazil, heading to Kurdistan, bunch of countries, and uh got to go with some neat doors.

What Executive Orders Actually Are

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Wow, man. Incredible. Well, and and that's in generally speaking, like you just speak to all the issues uh that that that government touches. Um this one, you're this new book, you're diving specifically into executive orders by the president and you know the what's legal, what's not, and then what are some of these issues, why is he using these? So this is a great way to educate our our people. You know, Christians need to know, and frankly, any citizen of America needs to know how this works. So it's called the Executive Orders of President Donald J. Trump: A Biblical Perspective. Um, let's just hit real quick. We we've covered this some on on uh a wall builders, of course, but but people need to be reminded what is an executive order and and how far does it go in terms of having the rule of law?

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Executive order simply uh is how to implement existing law. It cannot make new law. Uh it can be um uh countered by the the following president, but it has to be within conformity of law because Congress only has the authority to make law. Um members of uh, I mean, the presidency over the years, uh every president has made an executive order, uh, with the exception of uh one one man who was just in the office for one month and then died. But every president used this phenomenon called executive orders. Uh FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, did the most. He did 3,700 of them, way more than anybody else. Of course, he was in office longer. Um Truman did about a thousand. Eisenhower did about 500. Then from then on, they're roughly 150 to about 300 executive orders for each president, though they were all in office the same length of time. Donald Trump did 220 in his uh first four years. He's already in his first year done over 200. And our book examines uh the 200 that he did initial part of 2025 uh from a biblical perspective.

SPEAKER_03 10:53

I I you know, I I thought, I'll be honest, Jim, I thought when Trump got elected in 2016, in fact, I remember you and I in the primary, man, we were we were trying to figure out, man, who do we support? What do we do? It was just like, you know, we you we were uh you knew Newt well, and we were talking about Newt Gingrich and Help and Newt, and then we're and it was Rick Perry, and there was all these people. And when Trump got it, I genuinely thought, I thought this guy is gonna come in and basically on the right do what Obama did and say, I've got a phone and a pen, I'm just gonna do everything through executive orders. And I thought he was gonna go totally unconstitutional. I was shocked, genuinely shocked that he's he told the line. I mean, I I I I tried to I didn't watch all of them, and that's why I'm so glad you you're doing this book, and I can't wait to read it. Um I I tried to pay attention to him and I could not find unconstitutional moves. I thought he, man, that whoever's advising him, and he in the second term even better, but I mean, he had a team that really made sure they gave the history on why it was constitutional, they had examples. I mean, anyway, I were you as surprised as I was. I mean, did you expect the same kind of this guy's a business guy, he's gonna do whatever it takes to get the job done, but yet he towed the line, he stayed within the constitution, from what I could tell.

Why Analyze Orders Biblically

SPEAKER_01 12:04

The the four years in between, when uh so-called Biden was so-called president, uh uh Trump and a team of people really uh got an awareness of what it was gonna take. And uh they they laid out a strategy. Uh the America First Group uh was leaders of that, and they laid out a game plan and they had executive orders ready to go the first day. And they also knew what it's like being drugged into court every two weeks. And so consequently, they were savvy and made sure they crossed every T, they dotted every I, they were legally defensible, so they wouldn't be going to the Supreme Court constantly on every one of these. So they he's written well within compliance. There's there's there's there's been a 14,000 executive orders in the history of the U.S., well over 14,000 now. The first it's interesting, the first 2,400 of them were not numbered from 1789 to 1907, Teddy Roosevelt. Then in 1908, during Teddy Roosevelt, they started numbering. I wish they'd gone back and numbered the 24. They did, they just left them there. They started numbering at that point. So when Trump started in second term, it was 14,147, I think it is. Uh, that's the numbers. And and now he's up in the uh 14,300s, I think, I think it is right now. But he has his executive orders are very much on target legally because he knows what it is to be taken to the court constantly.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

Yeah, it it it it's been it's been impressive, man, because it's not and and it's not only the you know, just staying within whatever that law is that he's actually executing, which of course is you know, he's supposed to execute the laws. That's that's the administration's job. Um, but I love when they go back and and show history on it and say, well, you know, this was being done in 1790, whatever. You know, it just helps to uh make it clear that he's not just making this up as he goes, he's literally executing the law. What drew you to this? Like, why why executive orders? You you're involved with all of government, federal, state, the whole thing. What made you decide to zero in and invest the time and energy into doing a book just on this topic?

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Well, uh set you set me up for a commercial. Thanks, Rick. I'd written a book called Well First, right here, and it laid out the biblical foundations of 30 political topics. You're very familiar with that book. And then I wrote the book Reverse from culturally awoke to biblically awake, which lays out the biblical foundations to 60, almost 60 political issues. Because I want people to learn to think biblically when they think in government. Everybody knows that the Bible speaks to the personal issues of life, the family issues of life, congregational or church life. But the average American Christian does not understand the Bible speaks to the actual civil governance issue. And to the extent we'll follow the scriptures, to that extent we'll reduce human pain, suffering, and poverty. To the extent we violate biblical principles of governance, we increase human pain, suffering, and poverty. So I wanted to take a look at the executive orders. Everybody kind of knows what they are, but they don't really follow them all that very closely. I want to do an analysis of them from a biblical perspective and see how Trump stacked up. And by the way, we we examined 200 of them so far, and in those 200, he he gets he gets very, very high marks. We laid out the scriptural principles, and just to make the book less intimidating, the book is the book's not a big book like my other ones. It's only 224 pages. Uh I really originally wrote it, Rick, you'll chuckle at this, for the people inside the Beltway. Because just last week we had teams go in and we gave a copy of this book to every uh uh uh to 218 members of Congress and 53 members of the Senate. I didn't give it to the Democrats because I thought when they saw Trump on the front they would just simply throw it away. And I kind of want to waste a book. And then we we gave it to some people to give to the president, to give to some of the members of the cabinet as such. So my my goal was, even though I knew most of them would not read it, I wanted to think, ah, biblical perspective? How about that? To get them conditioned to think, hey, I wonder if what we're proposing now is a biblical has a biblical perspective to it. So I was thinking inside the beltway to encourage those there. But a lot of godly people in government today. People don't realize, but there's some good, godly, sacrificial people who work in our government. I'm proud of them. But when I got the book, um it it was more readable than I expected. It wasn't as geeky nerdy as I thought it was gonna be. And by that I mean instead of instead of going to 200 executive orders, listing them and giving a commentary on them, we take those those and we put them in clusters of forty topics. So there's only forty topics we go through, and they're alphabetically arranged. It's like border or DEI or alphabetically, every one of the executive orders uh in forty different categories. And then we just simply okay, here's the five executive orders that address that category. Here's the five executive. But then we go through and explain, based upon that topic, what are the biblical issues you look for to be within the compliance of scripture. So I was so encouraged it was more readable, user-friendly for everybody. And so we we're offering it at our at our website, wellversedworld.org, and they can pick up a copy there.

Immigration Through A Biblical Lens

SPEAKER_03 17:08

I uh what a tool, what a great tool. Um because Jim, you know, and you probably say this at the in in the book, but so much of the of the good that happened in the first year of this second term for Trump was through the executive orders. I mean, there's been some congressional victories and you know, some things there, but and it's so much of it is the is being done through the executive orders, which makes it temporary for the most part. Like another president can reverse it, obviously, and you probably addressed that in the book, but at least it gives us air cover and gets us started in the right in the right direction. We need to know what those things are and how it was done. So I'm I'm looking forward to having it as as a tool to use as well. I'm so glad you did it. Give us a couple of, let's do a couple of just examples in our in our last few minutes. I mean, you mentioned the border, so there's been have there been multiple executive orders on the border, or is there one specifically you could give us an example on and how it works?

SPEAKER_01 17:59

There's a lot. Uh on the when we come to the page on the covering borders, there's, I don't know, 15, 16, 17 or so. I can't remember the number, maybe 20 executive orders. And they're all listed there by number. They're listed at the top of each page. We get, for example, here's uh on Dodge, Doge, Department of Governmental Efficiency, and on Doge, we list all the executive orders first, and then we go into explanation. Let's talk about the border first. Uh we we have these people who who really advocate no border. Well, if you had no border, you have no nation. If you have no nation, you have globalism, and globalism is always a bad thing. You look at the Tower of Babel. The only globalism I support is when one world government is when Jesus rules. But between now and then, I'm gonna stay with God's plan, which is nations. Now now He God establishes nations and he establishes government. Here's what's is overlooked by people when you see uh left-wing woke liberals uh trying to milk us as uh Christians evangelicals say, well, Jesus was an immigrant. No, Jesus was not an immigrant. He didn't flee to Egypt crossing boundaries, he went from one territory to another territory within the Roman Empire. Uh and then he was there for a duration and then promptly left. Was never violing the laws with Joseph and Mary taking him as a baby they talk about. There are three Hebrew words, key Hebrew words for a stranger or sojourner or foreigner in your land. One is geir. The word gear is one who comes legally, abides by the rules of the law, and functions within the framework and the values of that country. That's a good immigrant. The second one is Nakar. Nakar is one who comes for a short duration, more like a sojourner. They come through, or they're there for a while. In our contemporary culture, that'd be a student visa, or that would be somebody on a work visa. They come, they obey the laws, and they leave when they're supposed to leave. They're within laws of uh uh legality. And then there's the last one, czar, and that one is comes with nefarious intent. It can't be a squatter, it can be a person who simply comes in with plans to destroy, they they come illegally, they don't plan to embrace the culture, etc. So we're well within our biblical rights to deport people who are not in conformity with gear number one, who come legally with full intent of obeying the laws, the values, the structures of that culture. So that would be a key example on the border one.

SPEAKER_03 20:27

Wow, Jim, you just gave that that was the best biblical description of immigration I've ever heard. That was so good. And that and you did that, that was basically, you know, what, 120 seconds. We've got to teach that. Man, we got to tell everybody what you just shared because so many Christians are buying into this simple treat the sojourner the same and not distinguishing between the types of sojourners like what you just described, and and gave it the perfect analogy to the three types that come here even now. Uh, that is and and that part, that description that you just gave is in the book when when you go to the executive orders.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Absolutely is.

Getting The Book Into DC

SPEAKER_03 21:06

So good. So good. Okay, before we do the last one, uh give me the website again. It's well versed.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Well versedworld.org. Well versedworld.org, and then go there. And uh the book is available if you want to buy one book. We're gonna have it available where you can buy at a very reduced price a case of 20 of them and get them out to your friends, your pastor, your children, your grandchildren, etc. So you'll have two options there, and then we're gonna offer another one, and that's the this is the hardback edition here of the book. And I have this specially made for the president to get to him. He likes gold. I put gold on it. Nice and gave it to a friend to give it to the president. And uh on this one, we have a spec for those who want to make a donation to Wellverse Ministry, we have the special, the presidential version of the book on our website as well.

SPEAKER_03 21:59

I love it. I love it. I I I wanted to do DEI, but we're we're out of time, man. I I d the people have to get the book to to do that when there's so many other issues there. Um Wellversedworld.org. Wellversedworld.org. Uh Jim, I'm gonna be uh doing that case uh purchase for my scholars at the Patriot Academy campus. They they they will love this and and and and we'll take them through it. This will be a fantastic study because it's not it's not just you know Trump executive orders, how it affects us right now. It's it's literally gonna teach you the Bible on all of these different issues that that are that are hit with these executive orders.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Yeah, the reason for my book is to drive people to the book. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 22:40

I love it. Jim Garlow, man, you're such a national treasure. I love you, brother. Appreciate you. Thank you for coming on Wall Builders. It's a joy of being with you, Rick. Blessings on you, my brother. Stay with us, folks. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

This is Tim Barton from Wall Builders with another moment from American history. America is a special and unique nation. The average length for a constitution in other countries is only 17 years. But we've had ours for over two centuries, and our 4% of the world's population produces 24% of the world's gross domestic product, and every year we produce more inventions and technology than the other 96% of the world combined. In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville of France came to America, traveled the country, and in his famous book, Democracy in America, reported, the position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one. This is the origin of the phrase American exceptionalism, and affirms that America is unique because of the distinctive ideas on which we have been based, including inalienable rights, individualism, limited government, and the importance of religion and morality. For more information about American exceptionalism, go to wallbuilders.com.

How The Book Is Structured

SPEAKER_03 23:59

Welcome back to the Wallboard Show. Thanks to Jim Garlow for joining us and just for the books, for everything that he's doing, of course, the ministry in DC now. I'm excited about this, guys. This is I'm a little bit of a nerd when it comes to these executive orders and just being, oh, I don't know, really wanting to know is this thing going to be constitutional or not? How far do they go? And as I was telling Jim, and of course we've talked about it here on the program, President Trump's done a phenomenal job of helping to give the history, not just say this needs to be done, but actually give the history and the legal reasoning behind why he's doing it.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

Yeah, he's been through so many hundreds of cases now that they know exactly what's coming at him and what the criticism is going to be. And so he's had a lot of experience in laying down the groundwork, and that's why he he's winning like 90% of the cases in court so far when they get through on appeals. Now he's losing the lower level, but as they go to appeals, the argument is so strong and so good that it's there. But what's so good about this whole approach is Jim is not telling you what to think about the executive orders. The executive order is standing for themselves. He's taking and saying, what are the principles out there that might apply? What is the Bible saying principles? And he gives you the principles by which you can really it's kind of like a lighthouse. It's something by which you can look at which you can look and know the direction you should be headed. And so taking those 200 executive orders and going through and saying, okay, as he said, you know, here's a whole bunch on immigration. And by the way, what he did with that section on immigration and the three Hebrew words uh for for Leviticus 1934, which is what the left loves to use to abuse what the Bible says, but because they don't speak Hebrew and don't know Hebrew, they don't know what those words actually mean. They just kind of make it their own language. Jim did such a great job of taking what the Bible says that you do have three types of immigrants in the country, the the ones that they become naturalized from citizens, the the legal ones and the illegal ones. That's in the Bible. And so as he looked at all those, was it 16, 17 different executive orders on immigration? Here's what the Bible says. And so this is such a good book to help us think right. It doesn't tell you what to think, it gives you the biblical principles, and that is so important. And that's what I appreciate Jim for doing, is he does a good job of laying out those biblical principles that apply to every aspect of life.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

And the book, once again, the executive orders of President Donald J. Trump, a biblical view, which of course is everything we're about here at Wallboard. A biblical perspective on all the hot topics of the day, as we say at the top of the program, getting a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective, and our friend Jim Garlow putting all that into book form on at least the first year of this second term and the executive orders that President Trump has done. So you got to get the book, and we'll probably be talking more about it uh throughout the year because there's gonna be more executive orders, I'm sure. Thanks so much for listening. You've been listening to the Wall Point Show.