Rick Green [00:00:07] This is the intersection of faith and culture. Thanks for joining us today. You're listening to the WallBuilders Show where we take on the hot topics of the day with a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. We're going to get all three of those perspectives about what happened just a couple of days ago in Washington, DC, incredible, incredible Rededication to God for America. Absolutely amazing. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton, who both were actually there. I was up in Idaho doing an event and couldn't, couldn't go, but man, guys, I so enjoyed the few clips I got to see online, the worship service. I can only imagine. In fact, Tim, I saw a couple of your videos that you made and wow. I mean, just the atmosphere came through on video. I can't imagine what the atmosphere was like actually being there. 

Tim Barton [00:00:48] Yeah, it was absolutely incredible. And, and as eventful as you might imagine, when you have, um, I'm guessing it was tens of thousands of people. I haven't seen a final number. Another has been speculation. I am sure at some point there'll be a better count that comes out. But I mean, just thousands upon thousands of people and it was hot. It was sunny most of the day. There were several people that passed out. I was actually getting ready to do an interview with Real American Voice. And there was a lady, the place we were doing the interview was elevated. There was a tent covering and there was a lady in the lawn behind us. And she kind of came toward the fence. Cause all of the media sections kind of blocked off. And as she came toward this little metal fence, she said, I need help. And, and we were not live at that point. So, one of the guys said, ma’am, what can I do for you? She said, I'm passing out. I'm fainting and she starts to collapse. So, I jumped down. He runs to go grab some water. So I'm on the ground with her helping hold her. It turns out she is a 77-year-old, a Marine veteran, who loves America, loves God, wanted to be there, but coming through the magnetometers. They, apparently, she had brought a water bottle in a metal container, which they didn't let you bring in. And they sold bottles of water there, but it was like $7 a bottle, and she couldn't bring herself to pay $7. And apparently, her Marine Strong mind, she was like, I don't need water for eight hours in 90 degrees heat. I'll be totally fine as a 77-year-old woman. And her body at some point was like that's incorrect. We're gonna make you lay down for a little bit. And so anyway. 

Rick Green [00:02:34] Wait, Tim, I'm just curious, $7 bottle of water.

David Barton [00:02:38] Well, she's definitely Marine tough. I mean, that sounds like a Marine at that point. 77, you're not gonna take me down. Love it! That's great!

Rick Green [00:02:49] So, so Tim got to be paramedic, you know, EMT guy and, and make all those videos you made. So that's, that's impressive, man. I didn't know you did that kind of stuff. 

Tim Barton [00:02:58] Yeah, so all of this to say is there was a lot more happening than most people even realized, things we didn't expect, but it was an incredible time to be there. Before we even get into some of the incredible speakers, pastors, political leaders, worship leaders, all of the parts of the event which we'll take some time to talk about, the fact that it's on the 250th anniversary of when the Second Continental Congress issued a Proclamation for a Day of Prayer and Fasting because the Founding Fathers fully recognized if we don't get God's assistance in what we're doing we're never going to succeed. And the fact that we got to be, 250 years later, in Washington DC in the nation's capital ultimately saying the same thing that if we don't give God's intervention this is never going work. And the fact that you had probably tens of thousands of people there in person and then certainly tens and hundreds of thousands of people watching online, live streams from all kinds of media outlets that were there. It was just so special to be able to be there in person, certainly for a lot of the spiritual significance, but then as people that love history, that's a pretty significant historical moment as well. 

David Barton [00:04:17] Yeah, and let me add to it that I talked to some of the White House people and they said that they were told by the park police that it was over 30,000. So at least that was what they told the officials in the thing, which was, you know, for a 90 degree day. Now as a Texan, I, man, I was looking for a jacket or something. It was pretty cool up there at 90 degrees. I was, I really fine with that. So 

Tim Barton [00:04:40] I would say the sunburn on your face in the back of your neck. If people were watching the video right now of you, they would recognize, sir, that was incorrect. 

David Barton [00:04:52] Well, I mean, I may got sunburned, but it didn't bother me. I didn't feel that hot. I was, I enjoyed the whole day. Even the rain that fell on us to make it nice and muggy. 

Rick Green [00:05:03] Of course, what we know, Tim, about David, is that with 90 or 100 degrees outside, he's still gonna be inside with a fireplace and the air conditioner going. 

Tim Barton [00:05:11] Listening to his Christmas music. That's exactly right. 

Rick Green [00:05:13] Listening to Christmas music, that's right. 

David Barton [00:05:16] That, that is exactly right, brother. I got that down for sure, but it was, it was significant in a lot of ways. And if I can take it back a little bit, about a month ago, we had the read through the Bible, America reads the Bible where that we went through literally the, um, for seven days, 12 hours a day, reading the Bible. And I was thinking about that Service of Rededication yesterday and I was looking in the scriptures just before we went on. And I found some real interesting kind of parallels, if you will, well, scripturally. Because if you go back to what I thought about when we did all the Bible reading back then is, hey, that's kind of like when they built the platform and they were rebuilding the walls in Jerusalem after having been in bondage for a while and they're getting God back in the center of the nation and they built that platform and they read the Word. And so, I was thinking about that's a parallel. But then when I looked, I just went through Nehemiah, chapter eight through chapter 13, and those six chapters, it really is fascinating to see the sequence. In Nehemiah 8, they built the platform and they read the word for seven days, which is interesting. It's exactly what we did on the America Reads the Bible, seven days 12 hours a day. And so that would be like their daylight hour. So pretty close to the same thing. And then it said the next thing that Nehemiah did was he reviewed the history of the nation. After that time of reading the Bible, he went back and remembered their history and recovered their history and went through the history. And then the next thing they did was renewed the covenant after having recalled their history. And, and that was one of the fascinating things. I think about what we had with the service this weekend was how many people, Mike, Mike Johnson, I mean, Mike Johnson just kind of went back. He in five minutes, he probably prayed five minutes and that prayer was a telling of American history from Columbus all the way up to the current time. He just kind of, he just went through history and there were so many who did that, take us back through our history and remember our beginnings and going all the through World War II and et cetera. And then it's interesting that Nehemiah 11, after they renewed the covenant, which is what happened this weekend, it said that Nehemiah spread the people out throughout the whole nation to reestablish their communities. They went from what had happened in Jerusalem, there, the capital of the nation, and they went back into all their communities, taking that with them. And they took that word with them and started reestablishing their own communities. And then it says in Nehemiah 12 and 13 that the people started following the scriptures and its principles. And so maybe that's what we're coming into, I sure hope it is. But it was interesting to me how closely the last several weeks have paralleled what we see in Nehemiah when they're trying to rebuild the nation, get God back in the center of the nation. And I don't think anybody was trying to duplicate that in any way, shape, fashion, or form. There was never a mention of that. Nobody ever acknowledged that. But it was just fascinating to me to see how closely that occurred. And so hopefully if that's accurate, right now we're in the place of taking it back to our states and getting our communities and other things of refocus and point in that right direction. 

Rick Green [00:08:36] Yeah, it had to feel like literally the rebuilding of the, you know, the foundations and, and of course, starting with that, that dedication, what was there, I mean, a lot of times there's a buildup to it, to an event like this. And, and, you're not sure is the Lord going to show up or, you know? I mean between the worship that I saw and some of the videos that I saw, it just seemed like it had a revival atmosphere to it. Did it feel like that? 

Tim Barton [00:08:59] It definitely was something that felt spiritually impactful. Certainly throughout the, the length of the day, when you're fighting dehydration and trying not to get sunburned, there definitely were moments in the midst of something that is so long where you're kind of going, okay, I need a little bit of a break right now. But ultimately there were so many moments throughout it that it was very clear whether it was someone like a, a Jensen Franklin or Dad, as you mentioned, a Mike Johnson, Marco Rubio's speech video recorded, but still it was incredible. There were so many people along the way that were very impactful. But I mean, guys, to me, honestly, I felt like closer to the end. And that's also Mike Johnson was a little closer to the end, closer to the end of the program is where it started to feel a little bit more spiritually in depth, there were, there were parts of the program that felt, knowing this was supposed to be a rededication event, which should focus on prayer. Certainly, there's going to be some people that give some speeches that focus on the history and remind us. And we're at WallBuilders we are certainly not against the idea of teaching history, reminding people from whence they came, but there were moments where it felt a little more performative driven than prayer oriented. That they were trying to do a program or a production. And even though there were spiritual tones in it, like going to church service where the choirs, everybody sit down and listen to the choir, sing this song. Now there were some of those moments that there were still spiritual realities in the words of their singing, but it felt more performative than participation with what we would hope for in a moment, maybe for some more prayer time. But I say all of that in context, all of it was good. The later you got in the last couple of hours, it felt to me like it really turned a lot more towards we're gonna take time and pray. And there were times when at that point, whether it be like a Lou Engel who's encouraging people, everybody that's get down on their knees and let's cry out to God, let's confess our sins. There were people like that, they were challenging and calling on. And then Hillsong Young and Free came and did some worship. Chris Tomlin. And, and I would say those were moments that felt far more of the pursuit of kind of God and maybe more of the prayer service that you would hope and think was happening. So I would it ended on the highest of notes that you could have possibly wanted. And one of the cool things, Chris Tomlin is the, the worship leader who closed the whole program. And he was also the worship leader who at Charlie Kirk's memorial, he has an incredible song called Holy Forever. I would encourage everybody, YouTube it, Spotify, iTunes, wherever you listen, just that's a song you can put on repeat. To me, it is one of my favorites right now. It's so powerful, but he talked about it on a podcast after having sung that song led that worship song at Charlie Kirk's memorial there's a point in the song when it talks about that all Thrones and Dominions are Yours and he said I was singing that song looking around and Seeing the President of the United States, the Vice President, all of these cabinet members and these senators, and right you have the Elon Musks and all these incredible business leaders, and world leaders and we're singing this song there in front of them And he talked about that for him, it was this really cool revelation that literally kind of the heart of the song, that's what's happening right now. All of these leaders are engaged in a worship service that is elevating the ultimate, the Name that is above every name. All of that to say when he took the stage, Holy Forever is basically how we ended his, his worship set. And he came to the microphone and there were so many of his great songs that he led in worship that people are the crowd was super engaged with and it was an emotional connecting time of worship but when he got to Holy Forever he stepped up to the microphone and he looked out and said I've been waiting all day just to be able to sing this song in this place. And he's on the stage. That the Washington Monument is behind him and he's looking forward at the Capitol, looking at thousands of people on the lawn in front of him and leads him in worship of Holy Forever. And that was just such a powerful, profound way to end it. So, I would say absolutely the whole thing was phenomenal. The parts that might have felt a little slower than others. It's very arguable that there was some heat fatigue and dehydration involved. But I would say the way it finished. Was everything you would have hoped and prayed for from the outside that would have been taking place there on the lawn in front of the Capitol, the Mall. People were literally crying out to God, repenting, beseeching God's intervention on behalf of the nation, and then lifting up the name of Jesus. So it was just absolutely incredible! 

Rick Green [00:14:19] Love it. Love it, man. That was one of the clips that I got to see was that song. It was just so, so powerful. I'm going to have a question for David about what George Whitfield has to do with what happened on Sunday. Yeah. Yeah. You can wonder for a minute. We'll be right back. You're listening to the WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:15:42] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Yes, David. Okay. You're the one that taught me about George Whitefield and all the 18,000 sermons and all that going up and how he could speak to thousands and thousands of people. And I think it was Franklin that said, you know, 25,000 maybe was what he mapped out as he counted the people. So if there were 30,000 people out there, did you at any point in this long hot day when you were dehydrated out of water, you know just imagine that George Whitefield was up on stage without a microphone? So all these other guys had microphones, right? I mean, they got microphones, musical instruments. Whitefield would have done that many people without a microphone. Did that occur to you at all during the day? I'm just curious. 

David Barton [00:16:19] You know, that is a great question. It did not. And I should have thought about that because that would have been the right size crowd for Whitfield with some of the stuff he had, but interestingly, I thought somebody, I thought about Thomas Jefferson and I thought about Thomas Jefferson for a very different reason. Part of it was what Tim was saying about how that at the, toward the end as things started coming together and you've had all this, this, we were there about eight hours total for, for what we were there. And you had, in the start of the day, it was kind of like getting engaged and listening to people. And there was a lot of music. I just went through and marked some of the stuff, the U.S. Armed Forces Trumpets, Liberty University Worship Collective, Grand Canyon Christian University, their Choral Society, Hillsdale College. Here's the Marine Band, the Marine band, the Marine Band, Adeline King, Liberty University Praise. I mean, all these different groups. And it wasn't it was all Christian music but what really got me was toward the last and talking about Chris Tomlin, I guess maybe a half hour before that last part, maybe an hour before, the Marine Corps band came back out and the Marine Corp band is known as the President's Own and that goes back to Thomas Jefferson. The Marine Corps band, Jefferson's the first one to have a full term in the White House and the Marine Corps Band got the name President's Own under Jefferson. And it was Marine Corps band that Jefferson had playing the worship services in the church that met at the U.S. Capitol. And Jefferson's one of the ones who started that church at the Capitol. So on Sunday, they had the Marine Corps band come play the worship service at church on Sunday. And then eventually they thought, well, that's a little ostentatious. You know, maybe the brass is too much or whatever. And so they moved kind of back toward traditional choir kind of music. But I watched the Marine Corps Band when they were doing that, that worship set there about an hour out. And I just watched those guys and they weren't performing. The guy who, who played the guitar and was kind of the lead for the, the, they had a smaller group of six. I mean, he and the black lady that was singing with them, they were, they literally were worshiping. They weren't just performing and they had their eyes closed, hands raised. And I thought, how cool is that? To have one of the best bands in the nation there, and they're engaged in what's actively going on. They're not just performing. And I thought that was a really, to me that was really impressive to see the level of engagement of so many that were there. Even the political people that spoke, it was not like they were speaking to a state or a national Republican convention or something. I mean, they really had some stuff to say. And so it was it was It was quite amazing in my opinion, just to see all the folks that there, but especially to watch the, the Air Force and the Marine and the Navy, they had the branches, all they're doing bands and man, they just did a stellar job. 

Rick Green [00:19:29] Well, I had not thought about Jefferson because I and I do remember, I do remember the first time I went on a Capitol tour with you and we were talking about the churches that had met at the Capitol and that was the first time I had heard about Jefferson and the Marine Corps Band but I didn't think about that for Sunday. So very very good. So, what do you guys think for the people that were there what do they take home with them from that from an event like that? 

Tim Barton [00:19:54] I think one of the things that we should look at and celebrate is similar to anything that we can point to in the Founding era when they had days of prayer and fasting. One of the modern criticisms of early America is, but these weren't perfect guys and you know, some of them were, they all were really flawed, but some were like really, really flawed. This is the modern telling the modern narrative. And of course, we would want to have some wisdom and some biblical worldview perspective. And we would want to say guys that's not the whole story there's more of the story. But one of the things that i was able to, if anybody saw us doing interviews uh my dad and I both had a lot of interviews and we actually just went to participate. So, I was wearing a t-shirt and a hat. My dad was wearing one of this throw back 1990s short sleeve patriotic button-ups, it was awesome everybody loved it. But we, we were just going to be there. So, we, most of the people that were doing interviews and were really like leading and, and participating in some of these, higher level activities, they're there in their suits and whatnot. So, all of that to say is we were expecting to participate, but one of the things I kept reminding people in these interviews is what we are doing now is probably far more similar to things that happened for decades, if not hundreds of years in early American history, where they would literally have days set aside. And I point out virtually every Founding Father that was a governor or was a president, they issued prayer proclamations, calling either their state or the nation to times of prayer. And, and if you go back and say, okay, so what happened on those days? Well, it probably was very similar to what we did. Where they would have time set aside where somebody probably comes in and they give a word, and there's some Bible study, there's some prayer time, there's some worship. So, this is probably far more reflective of what we used to do in America. And I say that because one of the things that we should take away Is we should begin to normalize faith and Christianity in America again. One of the things that I hope we take away is that we need to be more bold and courageous in our faith. And even just letting people know that we are people of faith, but also one of the things that is very clear throughout the Bible, it's one of the things, that there were several moments that there was encouragement from speakers to, to be introspective and reflective to say, if there's sin in our life, we need to repent. And this is kind of where it starts. If we don't, if we don't first confess our sins, then we can't hope for the nation to find forgiveness of sins and really to leave that sin. And so I would say that In the midst of us being more bold and courageous and normalizing Christianity and our faith, we also ought to be more intentional about being repentant. President Trump's video that was played, it was the same video that was played from America Reads the Bible, where he's reading from Chronicles 7:14, that right at the time when there's not rain and there's a drought and there're all these problems, then if My people who are called by My name would humble themselves, would pray, would seek My face, would confess their sins and turn from their wicked ways... This is what he read. And that was a theme that was repeated. And I would say one of the things that in the midst of us being able to identify a lot of sins and problems and evils that are occurring in the nation, that we need to start with ourselves first. And then we need to be more bold and proactive in our faith. Because America certainly needs a political change in a lot what we are doing. But we also have to recognize that a political change is not gonna come the way we want it if we don't first have a spiritual change. So, we need a Great Awakening before we can have a political transformation. 

David Barton [00:23:49] You know, going with that, this day was called on the 250th anniversary of the May 17th Proclamation by Congress, and it was for, Tim, as you pointed out, it was a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer. It was all about everybody individually on their own, humbling themselves, fasting and praying. And here's what it says in the proclamation, that we may with united hearts, confess and be well our manifold sins and transgressions and by sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease His righteousness pleasure and through the merits of Jesus Christ obtained His pardon and forgiveness, humbly imploring His assistance to frustrate the cruel purposes of our enemies and on it goes, but it's the same tone, Tim, that you're talking about. And that was what this whole day was based on. And that's a good thing for us, definitely all to remember, is that it starts with that individual, every one of us humbly fasting and praying is a good thing to do if you haven't done that that's a good practice to use. And the Bible supports that practice. Our history supports that. There's been, you know, we pointed out more than 1,400 government-issued calls to prayer by 1815 and about half of those were for fasting, humiliation and prayer. And so it's significant that we all do that. So it's a good thing to remember for sure. 

Rick Green [00:25:13] I was thinking as, as you were saying that, and, and Tim, as you were laying out, you know, it starts personal, I wish I could remember the pastor, I just remember like, this really, when I first started going out for you, David and speaking for wall builders, and I was doing my presentation called Is America One Nation Under God? And this pastor, after I, after I finished, he came up to do the altar call and he, and he had, I mean, he was so good. He said, if we're going to be a nation under God, we got to be individuals under God. And he just started talking about exactly what you just said, Tim, and it is so critical because we get so caught up in the policy or the politics side of it and who's winning an election and that sort of thing. But it's like we always say, it's not as important. It is important what happens in the White House and the State House, but it's not as what happens at the White House and State House as it is what happens at your house. And are we actually living these things out ourselves teaching our children and our grandchildren to do the same. 

David Barton [00:25:59] And Rick, something else that's really important, at least to me, 219. 

Rick Green [00:26:07] 219 days, I'm guessing till Christmas. 

[00:26:11] Exactly right, bro. 

[00:26:13] So... Everybody, as soon as we sign off here, David's going to go start the fire, turn on the air conditioner, turn it up high, put on some Christmas music and maybe we'll have to share some Christmas before the week's out. Well, what a great, great week, rededicating the nation to God. So thankful for a president that has an administration doing that. So thankful that David and Tim got to be there Sunday. There's so many people came in from across the nation and that we once again have that heart posture that is right. Everything else will flow from that. Thanks so much for listening. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show.