Welcome And Weekend Hot Topics

SPEAKER_03 0:07

This is the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's the Wall Builder Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. There's a lot of hot topics to cover today, and we'll try to hit all three of those perspectives while we take on the list. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. Websites are wallbuilders.show and wallbuilders.com. I give them out every day, so I'm not going to go into any more detail. Guys, we got a lot to cover. So let's jump right in. Obviously, we got the Iran situation. We had, you know, going back to the moon this weekend. It was Easter. So a lot of great stuff and a lot of challenging stuff. Let's cover as much as we can. What do you guys want to hit first?

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Well, let's go back to Easter. I mean, obviously we had we had the kind of Monday after Easter uh yesterday. And so now looking back at Easter, actually over the weekend some really good stuff came out that's worth commenting about, and it doesn't hurt us at all to look back and remember Easter again. That's something you want to remember all year long, not just celebrate once a year, just remember the the life and resurrection of Jesus and all it means. So actually, Trump came out with really good Easter and a Passover message, and then there was an amazing Easter message from the the crew on the Artemis. And so we thought, you know, for people who may not have heard that, it's worth hearing. If you have heard it, it's worth hearing again because the content's so good. So let's start with Trump's Easter message.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

This holy week I'm proud to join with Christians across the country and around the world to celebrate the most glorious miracle in all of time, the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In his life, Christ displayed true humility. In his death, he modeled true love. And in his resurrection from the tomb, he proved that even death itself will not silence those who place their trust in Almighty God. As it says in the Gospel of John, for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, for whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Eternal life, such beautiful words. This Easter, millions of Christians all over the globe will be reminded that because of what Jesus did on the cross, all of us can live every day with hope in God's promise, knowing that in the end, evil and wickedness will not prevail. In the spirit of joy and renewal this Easter, we also celebrate the extraordinary resurrection of faith and religion in America. As I have often said, to be a great nation, you must have religion and you must have God. In churches across the nation on Sunday, the pews will be fuller, younger, and more faithful than they have at any time in many, many years. Religion is growing again in our country for the first time in decades. Happy Easter to all. May God bless you. May God bless the United States of America. Our country is doing so well like never before. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

So, guys, I'll tell you, I have not heard an Easter message that strong from a president in a really, really, really, really long time. Uh I I think maybe that I recall that maybe uh George Bush had one in his presidency, but we're still talking decades, and that's that's a phenomenal message from Trump.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

I think that I think, David, what you what you meant to say is there was a message stronger than people have ever heard before.

SPEAKER_04 3:36

Yeah, that's exactly what I meant to say. What'd you go, Rick? I I thought so. Yeah. I'm just curious though, why the Godfather was saying that.

SPEAKER_03 3:42

I don't that's the best I can do, man. I'm terrible at impersonations. The Godfather just comes out naturally. I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse. Any other ones, I'm not very good at them. All right, sorry. Go ahead, Dave.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Well, there was also a message he did that because this is also a Jewish high holiday for Passover, and I also did a really great Passover message as well, which would really be worth hearing. So let's listen to that Passover message from the president now.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

To our wonderful Jewish American community and to Jews celebrating in Israel and around the world this week, I want to wish you a very happy Passover. Over 3,000 years ago, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob delivered the ancient Israelites out of slavery and brought them into the Promised Land. It was an amazing period of time, just like today we have an amazing period of time. The journey started with faith in God's word and it ended with a miraculous march through the Red Sea and an astounding exodus out of Egypt. The world has never been the same. This week we recall this ancient proof of God's faithfulness and are reminded that with true faith, eternal hope, and the power of prayer, nothing can stop the people of God. As Jewish families and loved ones gather together for Seder dinner, we ask that God will continue to watch over the Jewish people and that he may continue to preserve and protect the United States of America for generations to come. Our country is doing better than it has ever done. I am very happy to report. Happy Passover.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

So that's Passover, and then we mentioned there was one other clip that was really worth hearing, and that's the Artemis crew on the way to the moon over Easter, of course. Now they're there encircling, um, soon beheaded back. But here was a message that came. Tim, I it may have been the pilot, I think, that gave the message. They all had something to say, but it was a really awesome message. I think it was from the pilot of the crew, but here's that message.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

I think these observances are important, and as we are so far from Earth and looking at, you know, the beauty of creation, I think the for me, one of the really important personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing. And you know, when I read the Bible and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us who were created, it's you know you you have this amazing place, this spaceship. You guys are talking to us because we're in a spaceship really far from Earth, but you're on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe, in the cosmos. Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we're doing is special, but we're the same distance from you, and I'm trying to tell you, just trust me, you are special in all of this emptiness. This is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe. You have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together. I think as we go into Easter Sunday thinking about, you know, all the cultures all around the world, whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not, um, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing and that we got to get through this together.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

Oh wow, David, and that and that guy, I mean, he also, before they even took off, they were trying to bait him into you're the first black this or black that. And he was like, no, no, no. We're human beings. We're not gonna be separated into these colors and skin cut. It was great, man. I mean, he was he's he's something else. I'd never heard of him until this, until this launch.

Flawed People God Still Uses

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Yeah, it was it was really a strong weekend for people having a lot of boldness and a lot of faith. And you know, we've been seeing this in athletics too. A lot more people are outspoken about their faith, and politics are outspoken. There's something really good and really healthy going on right now in America, and we sure saw it this weekend.

SPEAKER_04 7:33

Well, guys, several things to note uh uh of great significance as we're talking about some of this Christian message coming out. President Trump also uh highlighting that we were able to rescue that second American who had been shot down in Iran, the the colonel who uh what was his role? He wasn't uh a navigator, he was some kind of he's a weapon system analyst, he's the backseater in that F-15. Well, one of the things I I saw some uh conservatives and Christians post about is President Trump, um kind of the last couple of days dealing with the Iran scenario, has not used always the prettiest, most uh sanctified language on some of his posts. And and I've seen some some Christians uh saying, you know, how dare you guys defend that President Trump being a Christian president, et cetera, et cetera. And and I do want to point out, we have talked about this for a while. President Trump has done more to promote and advance Christianity, religious liberty, defending that than any president in our lifetime. It doesn't mean he is the most godly sanctified person that we would have as a pastor of a church. And again, we've said this many times. I just want to reiterate when you look at who God used in the Bible, go to Hebrews chapter 11, the Faith Hall of Fame. If you look at the people in the Faith Hall of Fame, those are not people that are probably leading at somebody's church, they're probably not on staff at somebody's church. And yet, the people that God so frequently chose to use, the examples we have in the Bible, are of people that are incredibly flawed, that are not always fully sanctified, and yet God uses them in remarkable ways. And I'm saying this because multiple things can be true at once. That I'm not suggesting President Trump is a pastor. However, Dad, to your point, when he's delivering an Easter message that is more pro-Christ and more Bible centered than any president virtually in our lifetime, it is worthy of appreciation, it is worthy of acknowledging, but it doesn't mean that there are not things that he says that we don't disagree with, that there's not times he posts something we're like, ooh, those are not the right words I think you should use. But again, this is where I think in the midst of all of the positive stuff going on, there's a lot of Christians that are getting sidetracked or confused, going, wait a second, Samson said something that wasn't nice. Well, God didn't choose Samson because he was the most moral, ethical, nicest guy. God chose him to crush an enemy that was against God's people. And and I think Samson, whether uh that's maybe totally reflective of President Trump or maybe a J Hugh is better representative of Trump, uh, President Trump, and this is not to disparage President Trump because God is using him in significant ways, but it is to remind people that might go, you know what, I don't like President Trump. And I'm not saying that even right now we have to agree with all of his policies when it comes to uh people that are frustrated with the Iran scenario and that maybe there might be boots on the ground, although there was at least a hundred pairs of boots on the ground recently rescuing one of the Americans. I understand there can be frustration, but I think we have to be careful because after Easter, there was a couple of posts by President Trump that I saw some Christian conservatives just going crazy over. How dare he use this language, how dare he say those things, or how dare you guys defend him as being a Christian president. And I again, I think we need to be careful that we don't confuse God often uses people that are not the most sanctified, but that are incredibly useful instruments in God's hand for his purposes and for his good.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

And I'm gonna add some more commentary in there because this uh a lot of that is a distinction of how you were raised and the era in which you're raised. I'm gonna go back to when I was raised as a kid in our churches, our pastors told us that if we said things like, oh rats or oh shoot, that that was profanity. We were not allowed to use words like that because that was considered profanity at the time. Now, nobody's gonna trip over that today to speak of. They trip over some of the words Trump uses, but if you've been raised your whole life, not having someone in your ear saying, hey, that's profanity. I mean, it's like military guys, when you get a you get around a drill sergeant, they communicate with only four or five words, but they can say them 85 different ways. And most of those four or five words we would call profanity, but they communicate, and it's not I think you have to go to the intent of the heart, not just the words that necessarily are spoken, because they can change over time, but the intent of the heart is what really matters.

SPEAKER_04 11:58

And this is also not to defend and say every intent of his heart has always been good as well, or that what he's saying isn't profanity, but that I think to your point that sometimes we need to look a little bit deeper and recognize that God uses incredibly flawed people, which by the way, all of us in this program praise God for, because if God didn't, none of us could be used by God, none of us are perfect, and that's kind of the whole point of what we remember at Easter, is that Jesus uh bled for our sins, and the reason he came is because God knew we would never be good enough, and so we shouldn't have faulty expectations, and this is not to say that we we shouldn't long for a time that we have a president that doesn't use profanity. We it's not to say we shouldn't long that we have a president that is more sanctified, but with that being said, again, we have a president right now that is being a better defender and promoter of Christianity than what we've had in I arguably, again, any of our lifetimes. And so I do think we need to be careful that we don't get tripped up on things that we go, you know what, that's not quite right. We can acknowledge that's not quite right and still appreciate that on Easter he was acknowledging what truly mattered and who truly mattered Jesus, his life, death, burial, and resurrection. And that's really impressive for a president or even an astronaut to do, focusing on the really important parts and not to get sidetracked on things that, although might be true, don't negate the good things that President Trump has been saying and doing.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

Yeah, and you know, Tim, I was thinking about even from a I mean, you could say from a secular perspective, it wouldn't matter. If you were, if your family had been captured by a bunch of terrorists and all of a sudden the spec op guys come in to save you and they're cussing up us uh up a stream, are you gonna say, Oh, sorry guys, we only want people that come in to rescue us that, you know, can speak nicely. No, you're gonna be like, praise the Lord, somebody's God sent somebody. My guess is Arta Xerxes probably said some things that weren't very acceptable to other people, but yet, you know, we're glad that he funded Nehemiah and sent him to rebuild the walls. I mean, your point is so well taken, and we do get so caught up in, you know, not that they don't matter at all, but they're just so small compared to the big issues that we have. And the nation, frankly, has been kidnapped and been, you know, under a spell of of liberalism and Marxism for a long time. And this guy has come in and broken the spell and and God has used him as the instrument of very positive change. I bet Churchill probably had a few choice words to say as well back in the day.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

Uh, not only Churchill, but also Eisenhower, also Patton, also a whole lot of other people who got some good stuff done. And and quite frankly, this this reminds me literally of a story I remember growing up where the uh a guy took a preacher with him to a guy on death row. And this guy had been ministering on death row for years, and he finally got a guy that got saved on death row, and he took the preacher there. He was so excited, he said, Come meet this guy, he got saved, death row. And so the preacher went there and met with the guy and they talked, and driving back on, the preacher was just completely quiet. And the the guy who led the the the guy on death row to the Lord was excited to say, Well, what'd you think? He said, Man, he said, He sure cussed a lot. He said, Hey, look, uh you're concerned about his cussing. I'm concerned about him not killing people. Well, when you look, the guy is making progress. He's on death row, you know, he he's not used to this, he didn't grow up in this, and so trying to teach him a new lifestyle. And that's kind of like where Trump is. Trump didn't grow up in church, he didn't grow up with the stuff that we're used to, he didn't have the people around him that we're used to having around. And but he's making progress. And so give him that. I mean, he has made so much more progress. There may not be a better friend in America willing to fight for Christianity than Trump, even though he's got rough edges. Let him keep growing. None of us got there in one day, and we see so much good that that's being done. So I hope people just keep the bigger picture in mind. Not that you give him a complete pass, but you don't beat the beat his brains out when he's doing good stuff. You just encourage him. Uh as we saw with even Franklin Graham this week, and Trump posted it. Franklin said, Hey, you're doing all this good stuff for Christians, but you really need to personally know Jesus. I mean, that's a bold step for Franklin and for Trump to even post that letter challenging him to come to a personal relationship with Christ. Now, I think he has said the sinner's prayer, and I think he's he's made that decision from what I'm told of people around him, but it just takes discipleship to get there, and it takes a little while for people to get there, and everybody needs to realize and recognize that.

Patriot Academy Leadership Invitation

Iran Deadline And Next Moves

SPEAKER_03 16:23

Yeah, yeah, amen. And I'm just so thankful to have the the gospel message being spoken from the highest office in the land. And and uh, like Tim said, we're all flawed jars of clay, right? We're all vessels that are imperfect, and uh, we could we could, you know, zero in on the spec in everybody's eyes. So anyway, good stuff, guys. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We've got some more news items to hit. You're listening to the Wallboulder Show. Have you noticed the vacuum of leadership in America? We're looking around for leaders of principle to step up, and too often, no one is there. God is raising up a generation of young leaders with a passion for impacting the world around them. They're crying out for the mentorship and leadership training they need. Patriot Academy was created to meet that need. Patriot Academy graduates now serve in state capitals around America, in the halls of Congress, in business, in the film industry, in the pulpit, and every area of the culture. They're leading effectively and impacting the world around them. Patriot Academy is now expanding across the nation, and now's your chance to experience this life-changing week that trains champions to change the world. Visit PatriotAcademy.com for dates and locations. Our core program is still for young leaders, 16 to 25 years old, but we also now have a Citizen Track for Adults. So visit the website today to learn more. Help us fill the void of leadership in America. Join us in training champions to change the world at Patriotacademy.com. Welcome back to the Wallbooter Show. Thanks for staying with us, catching up on some of the news from over the weekend. Incredible Easter weekend. And of course, we we talked about the uh Artemis uh takeoff and the uh Easter message that came. Um what about just Iran in in in general, guys? You alluded to this earlier, David, but um, you know, the the president, of course, had his Easter messages, but he also had uh some messages to Iran uh and apparently some deadlines. In fact, by the time our program airs, uh some of those things will have potentially passed. What what is it exactly that the president is, you know, what is the gauntlet that he's thrown down in terms of this deadline?

The Rescue And No One Left

SPEAKER_02 18:30

So the deadline Trump gave was today at six. So that's and if they haven't met that, he's gonna open up on bridges, on infrastructure, on taking out all all the stuff that they've got that helps them preserve what they have. He will bomb them back into the dark ages. He's already taken out one major bridge because they're moving missiles across that bridge. And and just on yesterday's response, um, they came back with their own counter-offer of of 10 points that Iran wanted. Uh Trump did not accept them. Uh he said that's progress, but they do not want to agree to a ceasefire in Iran. They want the war over. And Trump's not willing to do that. He wants to make sure that he has the capacity for to follow through and make sure that they're doing all they promised to do. So he's he's talking a ceasefire as a starting place. And as of yesterday, it's interesting that with the initial response that Iran gave back to the president, uh, Israel started ramping up more military operations because they don't think the president's going to accept the deal. Trump on his on his face said yesterday he's he's not agreeing to it, but it's progress. They they're moving the right direction. So there may be some more counter proposals, but as of today at 6 o'clock is is the deadline on that. So both Israel and by the way, um America started moving more troops in yesterday as well, including some ground troops, and people are speculating, or are we going on to the ground? Well, not necessarily. He just wants all the options there. So as of yesterday, the response of Iran was not adequate, uh, although it is a step in the right direction. So negotiators, the uh Pakistanis particular, will carry that message back and we'll see what happens. Um but if this thing goes to where that he takes out all that infrastructure, and part of it uh, by the way, is is not only uh that they don't want a ceasefire, they want complete sovereign control over the Straits of Hormuz, and he's not necessarily willing to let them have that and decide who and what doesn't go through the straits. So those are two big key points now that are not agreed to between the two sides that are really big for Trump. But again, whether that means anything, we'll see. But if it does, if he starts going after, and there's been what, 17,000 sorties now uh and and bombings uh of Iran, and that has not been their infrastructure, that's been their military structure. And and so their military structure is now severely incapacitated, but he did take out that big bridge on which they're moving missiles. And and so now if he starts taking out all the other bridges, they've got no way of moving within the country themselves, even domestically. I mean, they are getting bombed back into the dark ages when there weren't the roads that you have, and you had to ride a donkey across the ravine and down into the ravine and across the ravine and up the other side. I mean, it it is a i if he takes out their communication lines and their transportation lines, it it will sit them back. They probably will not be a world power again in the next 50 to 80 years.

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Well, speaking of all of those sorties and how many planes have have flown over, Tim, you gotta tell the story of the rescue because I mean they that they made a big deal out of this, and I think in a in a good way, right? How much we risked to rescue this guy. Um the story of him evading for 48. I mean, this is a pretty cool story. This this is gonna be a movie someday, no doubt.

SPEAKER_04 21:51

It is unquestionably going to be a movie. Uh it's uh it's also cool that part of how this and again, we don't know all the details, we're gonna find out more. More uh probably in the coming days. But one of the things that it does appear is that some Iranian civilians actually helped the down US airmen uh to be able to survive and evade and to navigate. And so the fact that even Iranian civilians were helping in this maybe does indicate that they're kind of supportive of the Americans. Uh, maybe America isn't as bad as what the current media or even some of the uh anti-Trump conservatives are arguing. But with that being said, yeah, when you have uh what we are hearing right now is at least a hundred uh individuals of some kind of special force operation that go in. Uh, when they touch down, their planes uh are somehow disabled, and so they have to destroy the planes. They have to that they make the rescue, but they come back, they got to have this different LZ now because they have to destroy the planes that are there not working, and so now they have new birds coming to get them. There are so many details to this, and again, we're finding out more today than we did yesterday. We will know more later this week than what is known now. Certainly, this is something that is is praiseworthy, and it's also a little funny that uh that there have been some viral posts from uh Europeans as an example questioning why in the world would America would spend millions and of dollars and put all these other servicemen in harm's way for what's going on to rescue one person, and that's when it was great the comment section just was lighting these people up, going, Man, you don't understand at all what the American spirit is and how these people think and how they operate. The fact that they're not gonna leave a man behind. This is a defining moment showing how Trump's administration is different than the prior Democrats that were there because it's not that long ago under uh Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when the Benghazi stuff went down under President Obama and they did not send in extra troops. They they allowed Americans to stay there and ultimately to lose their lives when they could have been rescued. President Trump has shown going the exact opposite direction as part of the core of who he is, that he is gonna make sure Americans get rescued, that they are taken care of, and he's gonna spend money. And and and again, like even these servicemen to say that he's willing to send these servicemen in, you gotta know. And and we all do because we have a lot of friends in the military. We have a lot of friends that have been special forces. Every one of those special forces guys has been training their entire life for this very moment, going, please let us go. Let us go get this guy. We will take out the bad guys, we will rescue this guy, we will bring him back. This is why God made us, right? This is why we were created. Let us be the warriors we want to be. And that's part of how that story unfolded. Again, we will know more details later this week uh than we know right now. We know more today than we did yesterday. Certainly, this is an incredible and impressive rescue operation.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

You know, the other thing is really interesting is the guys that have been through the military, including our our two sons, talk about how that the most valuable part of the training is the sear training, the search, evasion, and rescue. And several of the guys they interviewed after this this guy had disappeared, they rescued the pilot. They didn't get the weapon system analyst, said, Hey, look, he's going for the roughest ground he can find. He's going for the highest ground. And the fact that he climbed 7,000 feet up in the mountains and was hiding in ledges and finding little caves and animal burrows and things to get into, uh that's exactly what they predicted. So they were really confident the guy was going to be okay. And then when you send in a force the size that we sent in and they were undetected, uh just got in the way that they they got in and got him out. I think it said speaks a whole lot to how well the military is trained, that those guys who had been through SEER training knew what it was going to do for this guy and that it would save his life.

What Is Coming Up Next

SPEAKER_03 26:04

Remarkable, remarkable story. Uh in fact, the president took what an hour yesterday in in terms of press conference and uh Pete Heggseth, and and uh it was it was it was really, really uh amazing to see, and uh certainly can't wait for that uh story to be told and and repeated. People need to know uh that uh that America values life, that we value our servicemen and women, that we're gonna do whatever it takes to protect them and rescue them. Really, really cool story. So a great weekend and uh just catching up on it on Tuesday. But uh tomorrow we've got another great interview for you. And of course, don't forget for Thursday will be Foundations of Freedom Thursday. So send your questions into radio at wallboulders.com and then Friday we'll have some more good news for you. Thanks so much for listening to the WallBulder Show.