Good News Friday And How To Share

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's Friday. I love Fridays. Good news Friday today. And what by the way, a lot more good news at our website, wallbuilders.show. If you missed any of the recent Friday programs, go back and catch up on some of that good news. A lot of things happening out there you probably didn't see on any of the major media, and maybe not even in your social media uh feed. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. David and Tim have been compiling good news stories from the last few weeks, and we're going to get through as many of those as we can today. But by the way, share the program with your friends and family. Make sure if you're listening on a podcast app, you find where that share link is on that app and send it to your friends and family. Or if you're listening directly on our website, wallbuilders.show, you can do the same thing that our main website, wallbuilders.com, for everything else, including that's the place to support us. You can make a contribution there and help us reach more people and uh even add stations and uh just get this program in the hands of as many people as we can every day. It's really good news here because even when it's bad news out there in the culture or it's ugly, we have a biblical, constitutional, historical perspective uh that uh allows you to stay optimistic about what's happening out there in the culture. All right, guys, lots of good news to get to. Uh let's see.

What Third Country Deportation Means

SPEAKER_01 1:16

David, first piece of good news today.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

I've got a question for you guys. Uh, this is something I hear about all the time. I haven't really thought it through to know what it was until I saw this article, and then I did some deep diving into it. Do you guys know what third country deportation is, what it means, and why it happens?

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Third country.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

So third country would be after you've gone through the first two, the third one says no, and they deport you.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Uh no, that is that is absolutely wrong. Rick, are you gonna take a shot?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

That almost sounded like a baseball answer there. It sounded like three strikes, you're out. You know, third country, strike three, you're out. Uh I don't.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

I I I I do want to go back and say I kind of want to defend this for a second because they come from their country, number one, through Mexico, number two, to the US number three, and we deport them. That's third country deportations. I feel like that's a kind of valid answer. There's logic there. You sound like a progressive liberal. You just make it up until it fits your narrative. Except that I'm in favor of deporting, uh, which then doesn't meet progressive liberals. So, other than my conservative tendencies, I see where you got there. So here's the real story.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Uh it's not the made of foot, it's the real one. So Trump has been doing a lot of what are called third country deportations, and federal judges have stopped him and said, Hey, you can't do that. A third country deportation is when someone here commits a crime or they're here illegally, and we try to deport them, and the country where they came from said, we don't want them back, we're not taking them back. You can't send them back to us. So we look for another country that's willing to take them. And as it turns out, if you come here and commit a crime, that the country where you came from, they don't want you back. They don't want you committing a crime there. So what kind of country would take someone who's committed a crime? It's probably going to be a country that's going to be really, really harsh on them. And that's what the argument has been as, oh, you're sending them to countries where it could be really rough on them. Well, number one, you broke the law to come here. Number two, you broke the law while you're here, and now you're complaining about having to pay a penalty for that.

Supreme Court Allows Deportations For Now

SPEAKER_00 3:28

So what happened, U.S. Supreme Court 6-3 said, no, Trump can continue with third country deportations. He can take people, and it's interesting, Mexico is willing to take a lot of people in third country deportations, not from Mexico. They're willing, America's been sending a lot of these people, and Mexico said, yeah, we'll take them. And I don't know quite why, but they do. But nonetheless, maybe they're trying to have good relations with America or whatever. But it's it's a really good thing, I think, to be able to get these people out of the United States. And if a country won't take them, the judges are saying, yeah, you can send them to a third country if that third country will take them.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Well, I think that I I would I would love to explore this more, Dad, because as as you're saying this, um, it's definitely ringing bells of hearing some of this before. And I do know, for example, uh that there were some uh criminals, that there were some other nations uh that said, hey, we'll hold some of these criminals in jail. Um, and we have paid some of those nations to hold some of those criminals in jail because it costs way less in those nations than it costs to put them in jail here. Yep. And and knowing knowing the burden and price tag that some of these uh illegal migrants have been on the the nation as a whole, it does make me wonder if if there is some financial incentive in this, even with Mexico saying, hey, we'll give you a thousand dollars for every one of these people you take back. I don't know what that number would be, but even if it was a thousand dollars, that would be saving tens of thousands of dollars for the American people on how much it would cost if they stayed. So I am curious if there is a financial incentive uh that might be encouraging Mexico too. Uh otherwise, it could be a financial incentive of trade deal or tariffs or whatever else. Uh, but that is that is really interesting to know and good that some of the uh bad players and bad individuals are uh being removed from the nation.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

That's always good news. Now, there is a kind of a caveat to this in that the court ruled six to three that that can continue while this is being tried in the lower courts below. The lower courts have all said you can't do this. Supreme Court said, yeah, he can do it, and you guys go ahead and try the trial. So generally, when the court weighs in like that, that tells you what they're going to do when it finally reaches them. They usually don't weigh in something opposite of what they're willing to do later. So this is not a final decision yet. It's still going through lower courts, but pretty much the Supreme Court has kind of told the lower courts what it's what it's going to do when it gets to them. So that's kind of like a Supreme Court decision that's final, but it's not final. But I think it probably will be at some point in the direction the court has has pointed with this decision. So that's good news.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

So if I understand right, what we just said is two strikes you're out, and we send you to the third country. Yeah, yeah. You know, playoffs are starting. I can't help it. That's where my brain went. Uh, but yeah, yeah, good news. And and man, I I don't know, you you guys probably have a whole list of them, but oh, so many of these lower court decisions that are just crazy, these federal judges that keep stepping in and stopping good things that the administration is doing. But usually when we get it all the way up uh to the Supreme Court, uh he's he's winning. You know, the administration is winning. But uh but here's an example of at least being stayed long enough that he can he can do this while it works it works its way through the court. So definitely good news. Tim, how about you, man? Where are we going today? We're

Gen Z Faith Data And Revival Signs

SPEAKER_01 6:54

going to church.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Uh, which uh there could be lots of good news we could talk about. The good news you hear at church, all of that stuff. But this one is identifying really who's going to church the most. We've talked about this a lot. This is yet another article highlighting this. Came out earlier this week. It says Gen Z most likely to identify as religious, engage in spiritual activities, poll finds. Now, engaging in spiritual activities includes going to church, and and one of the things that is quite remarkable, as and again, we have talked about this so many times, but it's worth celebrating every time you see more polls coming out, more people covering it. Uh, the the fact that only 19% of Gen Z adults consider themselves neither religious nor spiritual, uh, 20% of millennials, 21% of Gen X, and 23% of boomers say they're not spiritual. Uh that number is far lower among Gen Z, where they are the ones that identify the most as being spiritual individuals and wanting to do spiritual things. So it's it is again encouraging to see the fun stuff of young men coming back to church. And I'm hearing more and more pastors talk about this. I was up in Washington State earlier this week, uh, talking with some pastors up there. Uh a good buddy Josh McPherson and History Church, Grace City Church is up there. Uh, they were doing a a pastor's uh conference, might be a little too strong of a word. I think it was more like a kind of a round table. Uh, there were a couple dozen pastors there, and they were trying to talk through strategies, engagement for what they can do in Washington State. And it's one of these places where there is a lot of of obviously darkness, uh, spiritual warfare kind of stuff in some of these states. That's very true in Washington. But when we are seeing so many pastors waking up, young people, young men specifically, flocking back to church, it's so evident that God is on the move. There's a new rising generation that's the ones doing this, and I think we've talked about it some before beyond the Gen Z coming back to church, the young men coming to church. The fact that so often, when you look at the early revivals, I mean George Whitfield, Charles, sorry, I was gonna say Charles Finney, but no, no, let me back up. John and Charles Wesley first. Um, I mean, these were guys in their 20s and their early 30s when they're doing major Great Awakening ministry. You look at Charles Finney, another guy, he's in his 20s and 30s, when he starts doing major second Great Awakening ministry. It's interesting to see that God is bringing so many young people, drawing them to him. They're going to church. And when you look at some of the most significant revivals and awakenings in the nation's history, it really has been about young people coming to the faith. And that is exactly what we are seeing right now. So that this is just a longer article by the Christian Post highlighting a lot of the data, a lot of percentages uh of the Gen Z compared to all the other generations and why Gen Z is leading the way. But ultimately, it's just more encouraging good news of the reality that we believe that there is another revival happening, and that revival very well could turn into a great awakening. And there is yet again polls and data to confirm that this rising generation, the young men specifically, are being drawn to faith, to religious and spiritual things, and to the church, and that's really good news.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Well, since David started with a question for us, I'm going to turn around and ask David a question. You always have said you don't really know you're in a revival till years later you go back and look at the data. And of course, that's in the past where we didn't have all these constant polling and data available while things were going on. Do you think this one will be different where the data can help us monitor and see? Because like right here, we're seeing the young men, we're seeing all these incredible statistics and and responses. Um, you know, this time, do you can can we possibly know that we're in a third grade awakening while it's happening?

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Yeah, I think so this time. I think because of the data and the instant information we have, but I also think this data is helpful for some some pastors and some church leaders to say, hey, I I need to target this this group more. I need to do more to focus on this group, I need to do more to equip this group. Um, of course, that also goes with a spiritual awakening or a revival. There's a desire to disciple a little more, but I think that that helps bring it to consciousness. And I think that when you get people who are doing that, like a Josh Howard and somebody else, now you're hearing about them and other groups across the nation, and they start saying, Hey, I can do that too. I I I can do, you know, what's being done in these other churches. I didn't know they were doing that. Well, I can do that. Now I think it to answer your question, Rick, I think the answer is yes, and I think it can help.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Well, I Dan, I would add too, one of the things that you've talked about for a long time is if you go back to the revival in the Bible of King Josiah, who was the young child king, uh, right, his men are cleaning out the temple, they find the old scrolls, they bring it out, they read it, and they go, What in the world? We have not been following God's ways. We have to change our ways, it leads to revival in the land. And the reason it's significant is as you've pointed out, a lot of times when people relearn their history, it brings revival. And I think one of the incredible things we're seeing with so many of these young men is not just that they are are finding Christ independent from the idea that we should have godly values in the nation. I think for many situations and and cases, they were looking for the right value structure for the nation and they're recognizing it's it's Christianity and they're seeing that historic connection. So I think there's a lot of uh a lot of things we can look at in the midst of what God is doing, which completely is independent of anybody studying history. God is doing something, but I think one of the cool things to see some of the connections of what God is doing is that a lot of people are are finding God in the midst of rediscovering their history, and sometimes that's even helping them have a deeper connection in their faith and and even in their worldview understanding of biblical application and culture. So I I would say, you know, dad, what you've been doing for nearly 40 years at George Barna helping DuPolling and Dad, and I say this, and y'all are not the only two, but y'all are certainly two leaders in this arena. I say this because so many of uh my pastor buddies, so many of the of the friends uh that I listen to their their podcasts, they are talking about the history of revivals and awakenings uh and you know what God has faithfully done, roughly, I mean, really, almost every 50 years in this nation. Which I was listening at uh uh one of Josh Howarton's podcasts this week, and he had some other pastor friends on, and they pointed out, you know, the the 50-year thing, if you look in America, it's we would maybe on our side say it was arguably more than every 50 years, but at least every 50 years there's been a major pouring out. And one of the pastors said, you know, it sounds like the year of Jubilee that God's bringing liberty to the captives. Like it sounds like maybe there's there's a deeper spiritual connection with it. All of this to say it is fun that we are seeing people begin to recognize the historic realities of God's faithfulness, of the biblical foundation, and I think that is helping fuel some of the move of what God is doing in this nation right now.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

You know, just to kind of add on to that, pile on to that, I was um doing

History Fuels Awakening And Hope

SPEAKER_00 14:23

some scripture reading the other night, and I was going through Romans, and I was in Romans 15, and I hit a verse that I had memorized some time back, and I I guess I just had not thought about it or refreshed myself on it in in a while. But let me just read the verse because Tim, it goes specifically to what you're talking about, but it it says, um, for everything that was written in the past, history, was written to teach us that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we can have hope. And it just struck me, there it is again that everything in the past is written for us right now today to give us encouragement and hope and forward direction, just kind of like what you mentioned with Josiah, finding the scroll in the temple. And this was just another Bible verse that kind of re-emphasizes that when you find that history and find that past, it gives you stuff that you need right now to be able to go forward, which I'm back to the same um song, the 878th verse of this song. That's why history is so important in education. That's why we have to teach history in schools. We've mentioned the only course in public education doesn't have end-of-course test, which means you don't test to it, or you you don't teach the course because you don't test the course. Teachers get merit pay on how students do, so if you don't test, you don't worry about it. We've got to get back to having history be really, really important. And I think that's really true also, Tim, as you pointed out, even for something like spiritual that's going on, awakening revival, whatever this is gonna turn out to be.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Man, I'm telling you guys, I know we have none of the three of us have anything to do, so I'm just gonna throw another thing onto our plate because you know, we're not busy at all right now. I hope people can hear the sarcasm in my voice. Um, but Tim, the first time you said Josiah, and then David, you just said it again. Immediately I thought about, you know, we we we called the Joshua Generation for the longest time. Uh, I think HSLDA uh homeschool legal defense organization or association started uh even started an organization called Joshua Generation, what decade and a half or two decades ago. Uh but as you guys were describing that, I'm like, okay, maybe we have a Josiah generation. Come on. Maybe, maybe, maybe we need to capture that phrase. Uh so let's just go write a book, guys. We've got nothing else to do. Let's go write a book, Josiah Generation, and uh and let's make that a clearing call. It does feel like that though, because I think what I heard you saying is that from reading the history, they're even getting revival. So just by studying what the founders said and what they did, and and and even the history of the revivals throughout history and everything, it's waking people up, it's inspiring people. And I know all three of us see that in audiences when we talk about these things. You can see the light bulb coming on. We certainly see it with the young people when we teach them that. So they really are a Josiah generation. They are experiencing exactly what Josiah did. Wow, that's who we were. That's what made us, you know, uh God's chosen generation and all that. And wow, let's let's live up to it. We haven't been living up to it. So I think we are experiencing that Josiah generation.

Where To Listen And Spread The Show

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. I think David's up next with the next piece of good news. Stay with us. You're listening to the Wadd Boulder Show. Hey friends, Rick Green from the Wild Boulder Show. Encouraging you to share the program with friends and family and listen to it on the podcasts that are out there. There's so many options out there for you to listen to in the car or from home or while you're working out. You got Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Cast Box. I mean, there's so many options, and we just want to make sure you know we've worked hard to get it out there and make it available for you on all those different apps. Everybody's got their favorite app, so choose your particular app. And if it's not on there yet, email us, radio at wallbuilders.com and let us know about your favorite podcast app, and we'll make sure Wallbuilders Radio is listed there. But you can listen and most importantly, share it with your friends and family. That's how the program grows. That's how we get more truth in the hands of as many people as possible. And then, of course, wallbuilders.show, super easy place uh to find all of those podcast apps and to just download right there from that website as well as be able to share it with your friends and family. So check it out today, wall builders.show, or just go directly to your favorite podcast app, listen to the Wallboulder Show, and share it with as many people as you possibly can. Welcome back to the Wallboulder Show, punting back over to David for our next piece of good news.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Well, you know, one thing that does go through revival is common sense. You see a lot of common sense application, and I'm just seeing more stories now that are good news simply because they're common sense. They shouldn't be extraordinary, but they are extraordinary because common sense in a time of stupidity is really uncommon. And so that's some of the stories I've got is good news that's common sense.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

Well, Dad, one of the things that worth pointing out and clarifying, we have mentioned this many times. Common sense used to be just biblical sense. And the Bible's sense was so prevalent it was common. So common sense was biblical truth, uh, understanding wisdom from the Bible was common sense. Today we've lost some of those notions. Like that, why do people not see this? Because we're far more biblically illiterate, we are not as wise as we used to be, which ultimately wisdom we know comes from the fear of the Lord, is what it tells us in Proverbs. I'm saying all of that because to reiterate, as you're connecting the dots of revival and common sense. Well, if there is a direct connection, it's because in revival, hopefully, people are turning not just to Jesus, which is the number one place to turn, but hopefully now they're opening their Bible in the midst of that. And for people that turn to Jesus that begin studying their Bible, they should start living life differently, which could be viewed historically as having more common sense in the way they are living their life. So I do see a very deep connection to common sense and biblical truth, and hopefully revivals are maybe specifically great awakenings. Not to digress, I see some connections. Please continue.

Student Loans Tied To Earnings

SPEAKER_00 19:55

This common sense comes out of the U.S. Department of Education. Now that's real possible because we've got good leaders up there now, and and what's happening with Secretary McMahon and others is really good. So the here here's the story. What we have is right now $1.7 trillion in student debt that is outstanding. So we've got a bunch of debt that's there, and the federal government just keeps racking it up because they keep making all these loans for students, et cetera. Well, they've now come out with a new policy, and here's where common sense comes in. The federal government will no longer give you a loan in your major if that major is not proven to bring in more income than what your loan was. In other words, we do this at banks all the time. You don't get a loan on a house if you can't pay the loan back, but the federal government's giving loans to anybody on everything they want. And so now here's the bottom line. Bachelor's programs now have to be required to prove that the graduates from their programs earn higher median annual earnings than the average high school graduate. And if you have a master's program, you have to prove that your graduates earn higher than the annual earnings of the bachelor's recipient. So if you can't show that stepping up an education gets you more income, we're not gonna fund that. Now, what that means. I love that I love the sarcasm of this article. This means no more underwater lesbian basket weaving loans. It means no more intersectional dance theory or microaggressions. We've been funding all this stupid stuff that's out there, and this is gonna force universities to start dropping a bunch of this stuff because they're not gonna have the funding to do it. It certainly is not gonna be something that's productive for society. It's nothing the free market wants. So I think this is absolutely great. It's applying common sense to things that are common, but it's now uncommon to do common sense, which is why it's good news. Those were real courses, too, David.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Like those are they did crazy stuff like that on college campuses all over. And of course, you know, for decades it's been now. Uh what, two thirds of college graduates end up doing something that has nothing to do with the degree that they spent all that money on, so they create all That debt for no reason whatsoever. So that is, you're right. Commons. I I was yeah, I almost tuned you out when you said common sense at Department of Education because it caused my brain to fry. I was like, uh those wires don't work. But but but you're exactly right. I mean, it is a totally different administration and and they're uh you know phenomenal. That's just really good common sense. Tim, go ahead, man.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

All

Mass Baptisms And The Discipleship Call

SPEAKER_02 22:19

right. Well, this one is again uh going to church, uh, but this one is dealing with a church in North Carolina. Uh specifically, there was a baptismal service for this church in North Carolina, and the headline says 458 baptized in one day, setting record for 137-year-old North Carolina church. Now, this is one of literally dozens of examples uh that we could probably point to of what's happening in the midst of church culture and world right now, that so many people are coming to faith, so many people are being baptized, it's incredible. This one is fun though, uh, because the church every year they go down to a lake, uh lake in Fletcher, North Carolina, and they and the church is from Biltmore, North Carolina. Uh, and so they take people down that are profess or have a profession of Christ, and they take them down to be baptized, and and they didn't know how many people were gonna be there, and I guess they didn't have to sign up because they're going to the lake. So just show up at the lake and be baptized, and it says, to their surprise, a total of 458 people entered the water, the most the church had ever baptized in a single day, eclipsing the previous year record of 389. So the year last year they set an all-time high for baptizing people in the lake of 389. This year, more than the approximately 60. No, it is it's almost 70 more people got baptized this year, 458 people got baptized this year, and this guy is one again of dozens, if not hundreds, of examples that we could point to where people are radically being converted and being baptized. Uh, the pastor is Lee Pastor Bruce Frank. Uh, he estimated that the event drew 4,000 people, which was also family and friends of those who were baptized. Uh, he told the biblical recorder that staff went into the event believing maybe 400 would be baptized. And then we're pleasantly surprised when dozens more continued to show up ready to make their faith public. Guys, we have have talked, uh I feel like for years about the fact that there is some kind of stirring and awakening happening, and I am so encouraged that it's becoming so obvious and evident that you have to be really ignorant to at this point ignore it or quite intentional to say, no, we don't want to talk about the fact that there is a faith stirring. And by the way, that this is also really important because anytime there is a movement of light, uh the the the darkness tries to overcome the light. Anytime God is on the move, there's always going to be spiritual opposition. So I don't think we should be surprised in the midst of God pouring out his spirit that you see things that are so concerning about wait a second, what about the like Islamicization of the nation in Texas, right? Well, what about this concern in Texas? Like you have this James Tallerico character against Ken Paxton? Well, what about the Marxist move and the Democrat socials of America? There are a lot of things that we should be very concerned about and we should take very seriously, and we should actually get involved to try to stop the spreading of all of these things that would promote evil, that would reject biblical truth. But in the midst of it, we also need to be able to reflect and rejoice that God is on the move, that things are happening, and that as these people are coming to Christ, as they're being baptized ultimately, they need to be discipled. But we we need more Christians who know the word of God, who believe it, and then will do what it says. But right now, we have a really good start with more and more people coming to faith and more and more people being baptized all over the nation, and that's really good news.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

Well, and you said the key right there, too, for the next step is that discipleship, and it's got to be in all areas of life. So, what an opportunity for the church. What an opportunity for each and every one of us as believers. It's our job, not just the church in general, each of us specifically to disciple uh the people in our life. And so, man, we can all uh be a part of that, even just being ready to answer on the on the tough questions out there, which is why you should listen to Wall Builders every day, because every day you're gonna learn something about how to apply a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective to the questions people are asking. Have a great weekend. Thanks for listening. You've been listening to the Wall Builder Show.