Caption transcript for “Letters and Faith of our Fathers preview”

• 00:01 ♪♪♪
• 00:04 David Hart: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots," with insightful
• 00:07 Bible teaching by Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
• 00:10 Today, we answer your letters and take a look at our new
• 00:13 series, "Faith of Our Fathers."
• 00:18 David: Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 00:20 I am David Hart.
• 00:22 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 00:23 Jeffrey Seif: Jeffrey Seif.
• 00:25 Kirsten: Part of my job with the whole ministry is reading
• 00:28 viewer mail.
• 00:30 You did it for years, didn't you?
• 00:32 Jeffrey: Yes, I did.
• 00:34 Kirsten: All that snail mail, I don't know if you've heard that
• 00:36 term, "snail mail" means it's slow like a snail.
• 00:38 Handwritten letters, we still get those.
• 00:40 We get e-mails.
• 00:41 All of you write into the ministry with some great
• 00:43 questions, and today we're gonna put you to the test, Dr. Seif.
• 00:47 Jeffrey: Oy.
• 00:49 Kirsten: These are some great questions that viewers have sent
• 00:52 in to the ministry, and since you're our resident theologian--
• 00:55 Jeffrey: Well, you're kind to say.
• 00:57 And, by the way, if I fumble, I haven't heard any of these.
• 00:59 David: Right.
• 01:00 Kirsten: He has not heard a thing.
• 01:02 Jeffrey: It's not rehearsed.
• 01:03 Kirsten: No.
• 01:05 David: I was gonna say that here.
• 01:06 So, okay, I've got a little smile on my face right now
• 01:08 because this first question, if you have the answer, I think you
• 01:10 could be a billionaire.
• 01:11 Are you ready?
• 01:12 Kirsten: I wanna be a billionaire.
• 01:14 David: Okay, here's the million-dollar question,
• 01:15 all right?
• 01:17 "Is there a way to fix America?
• 01:18 Or are we just destined to decline into chaos?
• 01:20 Besides proclaiming the Gospel, is there anything else we can
• 01:21 be doing?"
• 01:24 Jeffrey: Well, that question assumes someone a whole lot
• 01:29 smarter than me, and, you know, I'm no expert in America,
• 01:33 fixing America.
• 01:35 What I'm trained to do, you know, I've been a Bible college
• 01:37 and seminary professor.
• 01:38 I take people to the Bible.
• 01:40 I'm a graduate of the police academy.
• 01:42 I take people to jail.
• 01:44 My world is much simpler in terms of what America is
• 01:47 destined to become.
• 01:50 Now, it partly--the answer partly depends on what kind of
• 01:53 philosophical persuasion someone works with.
• 01:57 Some argue that the world is going to decay into despair and
• 02:02 disorientation, and then the Messiah comes to bring about a
• 02:07 great deliverance.
• 02:09 There's the taking away of the church, and then it just
• 02:11 plummets, and then he returns.
• 02:14 Others have different visions of what's ultimately going to
• 02:17 happen at the ragged edge of human experience.
• 02:20 For me, I think it's problematic to be fatalistic, that is, to
• 02:23 say, "Well, everything's in God's hands."
• 02:26 I think the burden should be on us, you, you, me, and you, all
• 02:30 of us, to do what we can to advocate for biblical faith and
• 02:34 virtue and vision in this particular culture.
• 02:38 Whatever it is, whatever our sphere of influence is, here I
• 02:40 have the opportunity 'cause you're gracious enough to not go
• 02:43 "click," you know, I have the opportunity to speak to you and
• 02:45 some others, but whatever the context is, God's people, we
• 02:49 wanna utilize our influence.
• 02:52 Ultimately, I live with the belief that the Word that goes
• 02:56 forth through me is going to pay dividends.
• 02:59 God's Word will pay dividends.
• 03:01 What ultimately happens in human history and American history, I
• 03:04 leave that to people that are smarter than me.
• 03:07 Kirsten: I do have a question.
• 03:09 I know you have more.
• 03:10 As it relates to the "fixing of America," everywhere, everyone
• 03:14 says, "If my people," probably you know this verse, "who are
• 03:18 called by my name will humble themselves and pray, then I will
• 03:20 hear from heaven," but here's a question.
• 03:25 "My people--"
• 03:27 A lot of people think that "my people" refers to America.
• 03:32 Jeffrey: Well, I like to listen to biblical literature.
• 03:36 I believe that there's a principle of "hermeneutics,"
• 03:40 which is a fancy word for "interpreting the Bible," and
• 03:43 I've served as a hermeneutics professor at a Bible college
• 03:45 and seminary.
• 03:47 The first interpretation of any text belongs to the original
• 03:50 hearers, and the text in Chronicles is speaking to
• 03:54 Judeans, and so principally there, he says, "If you will do
• 04:00 this, then I will come and heal your land."
• 04:04 Of course, if you look at the Old Testament economy, the
• 04:07 relationship between the Jewish people and the Jewish land
• 04:10 is intrinsic.
• 04:12 That is to say, it's part of the package.
• 04:13 Believers in Jesus, we don't have a Promised Land to
• 04:16 speak of.
• 04:18 That is to say, we're told that our commonwealth is in heaven,
• 04:21 and from it, we await a Savior.
• 04:23 Our promise is on the other side of the grave.
• 04:26 The Hebrew people in the world of the Chronicles and in the
• 04:28 world, this land that's vouchsafed on this side of the
• 04:31 grave, the land of Israel, I think the promise that, if they
• 04:35 turn, he will come and bring restoration in that
• 04:38 land applies.
• 04:41 We can derive principles from it.
• 04:43 I do believe that God hears prayer and blesses, but I think
• 04:48 that promise principally applies to those who first heard it, the
• 04:51 Hebrew people.
• 04:53 David: That's good.
• 04:54 Can I go back to you teaching policemen how to
• 04:56 become policemen?
• 04:57 So I think in the academy, or even policemen, they have
• 05:03 a chaplain.
• 05:06 Is that right?
• 05:08 Do you all have a chaplain in what you do?
• 05:11 Jeffrey: Well, police departments have chaplains.
• 05:13 I served as a chaplain, I still am one.
• 05:16 David: So even in secular world, they rely on God, I believe?
• 05:19 Jeffrey: Yes, and, of course, when people are thrown up
• 05:20 against death--that they tend to get a tad bit more religious,
• 05:24 and this is true in the police services and in the military
• 05:28 services as well.
• 05:30 They have chaplains because people are much more thrown up
• 05:33 against the precariousness of their own experience.
• 05:37 David: That's good.
• 05:38 Ready for another question?
• 05:40 I gotta put these on like yours.
• 05:42 "Does the United States equal New Babylon?
• 05:45 My mother and I have lively conversations on the
• 05:47 future Babylon.
• 05:49 She insists it was the USA, while I thought it was the
• 05:52 original location, Babylon.
• 05:54 From what I have read, the original Babylon has
• 05:57 been rebuilding.
• 05:59 High-tech wiring has been laid for future business conferences.
• 06:04 Kirsten: There's a lot in that, I know there's a lot.
• 06:07 Jeffrey: Well, to the question, Babylonia in antiquity, Jews
• 06:10 were--Judea was annexed as a Babylonian holding in 605 B.C.,
• 06:17 and Jews were spirited away off into captivity until the
• 06:21 Persians overran the Babylonians.
• 06:23 So Nineveh and Babylon was the place for all things wicked.
• 06:27 Now, in the newer testament, Babylon in Revelation,
• 06:30 specifically, is used as a buzzword.
• 06:33 You know, the great "whore of Babylon," and I'm not trying to
• 06:35 use nasty language on television.
• 06:37 It's just there in the literature.
• 06:40 Babylon was used kind of a buzzword for the Roman Empire,
• 06:43 the place of all things vile and wicked.
• 06:46 For me, you know, people look at the literature, and, you know,
• 06:50 some people can make an application that America with
• 06:53 licentiousness and disregard for value, virtue, and vision, that
• 07:01 there can be applications to the Babylon that's noted, but I
• 07:06 prefer to let the story tell its story in its own context and say
• 07:10 we may wish to infer certain applications, but to your
• 07:13 question, I look at the literature literally, and when
• 07:17 he speaks of Babylon in the literature, he is speaking of
• 07:21 Babylon, and when he speaks of Babylon in the newer testament,
• 07:25 we know it's Rome because it's used interchangeably in Jewish
• 07:29 literature where Babylon is referred to as Rome, the city
• 07:32 that sits amongst the seven hills, et cetera, which is where
• 07:36 Rome was.
• 07:38 Kirsten: So we need to be really careful to take how we apply
• 07:42 especially the prophetic Scriptures to our time now, and
• 07:46 if I can just say, Dr. Seif just did a whole series, a wonderful
• 07:50 series all about Revelation.
• 07:53 If that's something that is interesting to you, Jeff took it
• 07:56 chapter by chapter.
• 07:58 We have that available as resource also.
• 08:01 But we can't just go, "Okay, Babylon covers all of this."
• 08:05 Jeffrey: Well, here you go, and to that end, yes, I did do a
• 08:08 walk-through with Revelation, and some were disappointed
• 08:11 because I don't get out and make these outlandish claims that are
• 08:16 very interesting for television moments.
• 08:20 "Wow, the spectacular."
• 08:22 I'm rather boring and pedestrian at one level.
• 08:25 A lot of these people, that make these claims about this equals
• 08:26 that, and they write a book, the books aren't worth the paper
• 08:30 they're written on, ten years later, and, for me, you know,
• 08:33 I've been a Bible professor for 30 years.
• 08:35 I'm not looking just to have 30 minutes in the sun, you know?
• 08:38 I wanna be able to go with what I construe to be credible, and
• 08:42 I'm not particularly impressed by a lot of what I hear in the
• 08:46 name of special insights into the end of the world in the way
• 08:50 different people interpret Revelation, and I know people
• 08:52 can be disappointed in that.
• 08:55 I know that some of you can be disappointed in that because you
• 08:57 wanna hear answers.
• 09:00 You wanna connect the dots, and those that can confidently
• 09:03 assert those connections, well, they can enjoy your confidence.
• 09:08 Maybe enjoy your confidence today, but you might be
• 09:10 dispirited tomorrow when you find out it doesn't happen
• 09:14 that way.
• 09:16 I would rather be a little bit more sedate in the way that I
• 09:19 look at the way people are managing their understanding of
• 09:22 the end of the world.
• 09:24 David: That's good.
• 09:26 We've got more questions, we'll be back after this.
• 09:27 ♪♪♪
• 09:33 announcer: Our offer on this program, the eight-part series
• 09:36 "Sar Shalom: Prince of Peace," on two DVDs.
• 09:41 What does it mean to walk in the footsteps of Israel's Messiah?
• 09:46 To search out an answer, Dr. Jeffrey Seif takes viewers
• 09:48 to the Galilee region of Northern Israel, where our Lord
• 09:51 delivered his magnificent Sermon on the Mount.
• 09:55 Eight half-hour programs include on-location reenactments, all
• 09:59 performed by Hebrew-speaking Israelis.
• 10:02 Authentic teaching, authentic drama, the authentic Word.
• 10:07 Ask for "Sar Shalom: Prince of Peace."
• 10:13 David: Join us right now for additional content that is only
• 10:15 available on our social media sites Facebook, YouTube,
• 10:19 and Twitter.
• 10:21 David: Visit our website, levitt.com, for the current and
• 10:23 past programs, the television schedule, tour information, and
• 10:27 our free monthly newsletter, which is full of insightful
• 10:30 articles and news commentary.
• 10:33 View it online, or we can ship it directly to your mailbox
• 10:35 every month.
• 10:37 Also on our website is the online store.
• 10:40 There, you can order this week's resource, or you can always give
• 10:43 us a call at 1-800-WONDERS.
• 10:47 David: Your donations to Our Jewish Roots help us to support
• 10:50 these organizations as they bless Israel.
• 10:53 ♪♪♪
• 11:00 David: For many, a trip to the Holy Land is the dream of
• 11:02 a lifetime.
• 11:05 The Bible truly comes alive as you see the sites where so many
• 11:09 biblical events happened.
• 11:12 Come on a Zola tour to see Israel and Petra.
• 11:16 ♪♪♪
• 11:18 David: See the land of the Bible for yourself.
• 11:22 Contact us to reserve your dream of a lifetime.
• 11:26 ♪♪♪
• 11:31 Kirsten: Our upcoming series is titled "Faith of Our Fathers."
• 11:34 We're gonna be looking at the foundations of biblical fathers
• 11:38 in the Bible and also the foundations of our fathers of
• 11:42 America, and something that's just kind of neat--I love this
• 11:46 when we take tours and you, too, gone to Israel umpteen times,
• 11:51 we've gone 10, 11 times--is we get to go where historically or
• 11:59 traditionally the beginning of time started.
• 12:03 There's a tradition, I believe, that Mount Moriah is where the
• 12:07 Garden of Eden was.
• 12:09 You've heard that, yes?
• 12:11 It's fascinating.
• 12:13 Jeffrey: Yes, and no.
• 12:15 Yes, in that arguably, there's a very cogent argument that Eden
• 12:20 in antiquity is where Israel is in modernity.
• 12:26 I did a series on that, by the way, "Back to Eden."
• 12:29 There's a very responsible argument that that was the
• 12:31 place, and, of course, because Moriah is located in there.
• 12:34 It certainly is a central high place there, but Eden arguably
• 12:39 in antiquity is where Israel is today.
• 12:43 David: And all of these series too, the dramatic reenactments
• 12:46 are just incredible.
• 12:48 Kirsten: That are coming up in our brand-new series, yes.
• 12:50 David: Yes, and we could not do any of this without your
• 12:52 financial support, so we just wanna say thank you for
• 12:53 that also.
• 12:56 Kirsten: Thank you, and we would love to take you to Mount
• 12:58 Moriah, where, really, our freedom of faith started that
• 13:04 Christ redeemed the world, and it's just there's so much in an
• 13:08 Israel tour.
• 13:10 We'd love for you to go with us.
• 13:12 Jeffrey: And if I can speak to that, please, I think part of
• 13:14 the allure--if you look at the biblical drama, they were cast
• 13:17 out of Eden, and then there's this story of Abram beckoned to
• 13:23 this Promised Land, and it's like the land is sacred and
• 13:27 mysterious, and there's this wanting to get back to the land.
• 13:32 Those stirrings that people feel to go visit Israel, it comes
• 13:39 from that, that is to say, arguably, Israel is Eden.
• 13:46 There's, you know, God's people wanting to get back to the
• 13:48 center of the drama.
• 13:51 Kirsten: To the foundation of our faith.
• 13:53 And the new series that's coming up, you came up with the whole
• 13:56 idea, the "Faith of Our Fathers" kind of to, not parallel, but
• 14:00 side by side, the faith of our biblical fathers with the faith
• 14:03 of our Founding Fathers.
• 14:06 Jeffrey: Well, I contributed to the biblical perspective on it.
• 14:11 Our producer--and all of us.
• 14:13 It's more of a team effort.
• 14:15 You know, it says, "Our Jewish Roots with Dr. Jeffrey Seif,"
• 14:18 so--but I don't wanna assume more ownership of it than
• 14:20 I deserve.
• 14:22 No one gives me a script.
• 14:23 There's nothing I say that I don't say from my own heart and
• 14:25 head, so no one owns me like that.
• 14:27 I'm not on anybody's leash, but this just comes out of decades
• 14:31 of working with the Jesus story and the Jewish story and
• 14:35 contemporary moments, and there's a lot of brain trust in
• 14:38 this ministry for all those decades, and it came from that
• 14:41 collective more than me as an individual.
• 14:44 Kirsten: Well, we're excited to bring that to all of you.
• 14:47 That new series starts next week.
• 14:49 We have a preview coming up, but now we're gonna jump back into
• 14:52 some of our e-mails and snail mails that all of you have sent
• 14:56 in to the ministry.
• 14:58 David: Yes.
• 14:59 Kirsten: Have another one?
• 15:01 David: All right, Dr. Seif, you ready?
• 15:02 "How will we be able to recognize the spirit of Ahab and
• 15:05 Jezebel in our midst?
• 15:08 There's a warning in Revelation 2:18-29, which shows the results
• 15:12 of allowing them to function in our midst."
• 15:17 Jeffrey: Well, I'll tell ya, Ahab and any Jewish king that
• 15:19 marries a woman with Baal in the name as in Jez-Baal, you
• 15:25 know he's not thinking clearly.
• 15:27 Certainly, there's stupidity, there's foolishness, there's
• 15:29 wickedness, licentiousness.
• 15:31 How do we recognize it?
• 15:33 It's a reasonable question.
• 15:36 You know, it's around us so much we get inoculated to it,
• 15:38 you know?
• 15:40 Kirsten: You know, that's really good because, in the evangelical
• 15:42 Christian world, especially on social media, you have so many
• 15:44 people saying, "So-and-So has a Jezebel spirit.
• 15:47 There's a Jezebel spirit."
• 15:49 What is that?
• 15:51 Can you define exactly what that is?
• 15:53 Jeffrey: Well, by application, I think what they mean is wild,
• 15:56 wooly, manipulative, crafty, deceitful, underhanded,
• 15:59 destructive, you know, all of the above.
• 16:02 I think that's using biblical language to describe what they
• 16:04 perceive to be at play in and through an individual.
• 16:08 Kirsten: Do you think we have the authority to call that out
• 16:11 in someone else?
• 16:13 Jeffrey: Well, there's a gift called discerning of spirits,
• 16:15 and I don't know whether someone saying it--that's just their
• 16:17 opinion, and they're using religious language.
• 16:19 Someone else would just say, "That's a real deceitful blah,
• 16:21 blah, blah," but if you have biblical vision in your mind,
• 16:24 then you would tag it with a biblical text.
• 16:27 I'll leave it to God to be the ultimate judge of people.
• 16:30 David: Ooh, that's good.
• 16:31 Jeffrey: Certainly, you can say they're acting poorly and
• 16:33 manipulatively, but to say, "You are so-and-so," I'm disinclined
• 16:36 to do that personally, and I tell people it's not good
• 16:38 to blame.
• 16:40 It's not good to put tags.
• 16:42 I think the only person that has a right to blame--two classes
• 16:45 of people==well, not two classes.
• 16:48 Children have a right to blame, to my way of thinking, and God
• 16:50 has a right to blame.
• 16:52 Children can blame because they're too foolish and don't
• 16:54 know any better.
• 16:55 God can blame because he knows all the facts.
• 16:57 Those of us that are somewhere between God and children that
• 16:59 don't have everything, I think we should be a little
• 17:01 more humbly.
• 17:03 We can say, "Well, I think So-and-So has such-and-such,"
• 17:05 but God's the ultimate judge.
• 17:07 He knows everything we don't.
• 17:09 David: You have a lot of titles.
• 17:10 You're a policeman.
• 17:12 I would think you have to discern when people are doing
• 17:13 right or wrong.
• 17:15 Jeffrey: Yes, you know, but I, as a police officer--and less
• 17:17 that now.
• 17:19 I'm more administrative than anything.
• 17:20 I have the rank of commander, and I'm involved in the police
• 17:22 academy so--but, you know, I mentioned in training officers,
• 17:26 I say, "Look, I have over 20 years a police officer.
• 17:29 How many guilty people do you think I've taken to jail?"
• 17:31 And they give a number, and I say, "None, absolutely none."
• 17:36 "What do you mean you haven't taken guilty people to jail?"
• 17:38 No, everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
• 17:41 I'll take someone to jail if I have specific and articulable
• 17:44 facts that would lead a reasonable person to believe
• 17:47 that the crime was committed, and they're responsible, but
• 17:50 they have an opportunity to tell their story, and those facts can
• 17:54 get tried, and we don't always get it right, and which is one
• 17:57 of the reasons why, even when you learn to look at things more
• 18:01 discerning, more disciplined, you talk to individuals, and you
• 18:05 make an arrest or you secure a warrant, even then, they're
• 18:08 innocent until proven to be guilty.
• 18:11 Here, I think we just talk too much: "She has a Jezebel spirit,
• 18:13 this and that."
• 18:15 We talk about people we don't know.
• 18:17 We talk about circumstances.
• 18:19 We don't have the full picture.
• 18:21 Kirsten: No, I think that's very wise and especially that it also
• 18:23 applies to the new series, "Faith of Our Fathers."
• 18:26 We're looking at some of the fathers of our nation, and there
• 18:31 are some things that we could pick out and go, "Well, you had
• 18:33 this, and they did this.
• 18:34 George Washington owned slaves.
• 18:37 He was horrible."
• 18:39 And, again, we don't have the chance to know them personally
• 18:41 and to know their life story, and we actually will learn more
• 18:44 about George Washington in the upcoming series.
• 18:47 What a man of faith.
• 18:49 Jeffrey: Yes, in fact, in his day, you couldn't free slaves.
• 18:52 What's interesting is that he paid slaves.
• 18:54 He treated them more as employees.
• 18:56 Again, we make decisions and talk about people.
• 18:59 We don't know the facts.
• 19:01 Now, up North, by the way, in the northern colonies, they
• 19:03 didn't have it at all--that it was disallowed from the get-go,
• 19:07 but before we had United States, before these colonies federated,
• 19:12 you know, whether it's Virginia or South Carolina or
• 19:15 Massachusetts, they all had their own regulations, and
• 19:18 they differed.
• 19:20 Up North, slavery was not allowed.
• 19:22 In the South it couldn't be disallowed.
• 19:24 And, again, one of the things that I like about our guest in
• 19:27 that series, David Barton, is that he's expert in the primary
• 19:30 sources to take us on a trip down memory lane to take a new
• 19:34 look at the old story.
• 19:36 Kirsten: He is an expert, and I promise you, you do not wanna
• 19:39 miss one episode of this new series.
• 19:43 Even gather your kids around.
• 19:46 They will learn American history, and they will learn
• 19:48 Bible history.
• 19:50 It's a two-for-one coming up and everything that you've
• 19:52 brought us.
• 19:54 And speaking of the new series, you want a sneak peek?
• 19:56 Here we go.
• 19:58 David: The Word of God has given us examples of faith that have
• 20:02 shaped virtually every aspect of the believer's life today.
• 20:07 Where would we be without the examples of Noah, Abraham and
• 20:12 Isaac, David, and ultimately that of Yeshua, Jesus?
• 20:18 Faith is woven into the fabric of America as well.
• 20:22 From the pilgrims to John Adams, to Patrick Henry and
• 20:26 George Washington.
• 20:28 God's providential hand remained highly esteemed and honored
• 20:32 above all.
• 20:34 Faith unshakeable, faith unstoppable, "Faith of
• 20:38 Our Fathers."
• 20:43 Jeffrey: I differentiate faith from theology.
• 20:46 Actually, theological constructs come from a Latin dictum "fides
• 20:51 quaerens intellectum," which translates as "faith in search
• 20:55 of understanding."
• 20:57 That is to say, someone has something resonating within
• 21:01 them, and then they go into the biblical story to try and
• 21:03 ascertain it and figure it out, and they come up with theology.
• 21:07 Today, when we think of faith, we think of
• 21:09 theological constructions.
• 21:11 When I look in the biblical text, faith, when I think of
• 21:13 Abraham, I think of someone that has a vision of a future.
• 21:17 It's not reduced or translated into dogma, into doctrine.
• 21:22 So it is today, when we think of faith, we think of
• 21:24 philosophical systems.
• 21:27 I think that's problematic, personally, not that I have
• 21:28 anything against theology, per se, but faith is
• 21:31 something different.
• 21:34 Faith is something that lives more in the breast than lives in
• 21:36 the head.
• 21:38 It's not to say there's no residency there, but faith
• 21:40 sometimes prompts people to do things that don't make sense in
• 21:44 the head.
• 21:45 In fact, we look at it early in the game in the book Bereshit,
• 21:48 in Genesis, where it makes no sense at one level.
• 21:52 Avram, Abram, is such an older man, and his wife isn't much
• 21:54 younger, and he is concerned that he doesn't have a future
• 22:00 'cause he doesn't have a son, but he goes out for a walk, goes
• 22:04 out, takes a look at the evening sky, and we're told that he
• 22:07 looks up at the stars in chapter 15.
• 22:12 He hears the voice before that, in verse 5, that "Your
• 22:15 descendants will be akin to the multitude."
• 22:20 He says, "So shall your seed be," subsequent to which, in
• 22:24 verse 6, we're told that "Avraham believed God."
• 22:28 ♪♪♪
• 22:40 Betsy: Good day, sir.
• 22:42 Thank you for coming.
• 22:43 male: Good day, Betsy.
• 22:45 It's my pleasure.
• 22:46 It seems you've been given a godly task.
• 22:48 Betsy: Must be, sir, I feel so unworthy.
• 22:51 I'm good with needle and thread, and I cut well with scissors,
• 22:54 but this is all so new to me.
• 22:58 male: I believe Mr. Paine has said it well: "These are the
• 23:01 times that try men's souls."
• 23:04 It's new to all of us, giving birth to a new nation.
• 23:07 It's not just you.
• 23:10 We're all feeling dependent on God's providential hand as we
• 23:13 consider the blessings and the consequences that await us.
• 23:19 Betsy: When the congressional committee called upon me, I knew
• 23:21 this would be a noble effort.
• 23:24 I've gathered the cloth that I believe would be suitable.
• 23:27 The white will offset the red nicely, I believe.
• 23:30 It speaks so well of purity.
• 23:33 male: Is this your design?
• 23:36 Betsy: No, sir, it was actually given to me by the committee.
• 23:39 It is actually much like the Continental flag, but the 13
• 23:42 colonies will be represented by white stars against a field
• 23:45 of blue.
• 23:47 ♪♪♪
• 23:52 David Barton: There's so much in the American founding that
• 23:54 points back to really the Jewish heritage in history.
• 23:58 Our Founding Fathers extensively quoted Old Testament passages.
• 24:02 They even modeled the American Republic after the Hebrew
• 24:05 Republic, so there's a lot of camaraderie there.
• 24:08 Jeffrey: So you're a guy that's really dug into
• 24:10 principal sources.
• 24:12 You've been interested in that as an individual.
• 24:14 I'm interested in the first two centuries of the Christian era.
• 24:16 You're interested in 200 years back, and digging around
• 24:19 that world.
• 24:21 But out of that inquiry of your own has developed a ministry,
• 24:26 WallBuilders, correct?
• 24:27 What's that all about?
• 24:29 David: WallBuilders is a name taken from the Bible book of
• 24:31 Nehemiah, and it talks about how the people rebuilt things that
• 24:34 have been torn down in their nation.
• 24:36 Old Testament history, if you didn't have a wall around your
• 24:39 city, if you were un-walled, you had no protection.
• 24:42 You had no strength.
• 24:43 You had no significant name.
• 24:46 And so we see, in the book of Nehemiah, that after the walls
• 24:48 had been torn down by the Babylonians, 70 years later,
• 24:51 Nehemiah comes back and said, "Let's rebuild so that we'll no
• 24:53 longer be a reproach."
• 24:55 And, in our case, we look at what we don't know about
• 24:57 American heritage, what we don't know about the American
• 25:00 Constitution, American faith, and we said, "That needs to
• 25:03 be rebuilt."
• 25:05 So our mantra is that we present America's forgotten history and
• 25:08 heroes with an emphasis on our moral, religious, and
• 25:11 constitutional heritage.
• 25:13 Jeffrey: Hey, I'm all for that.
• 25:15 Nehemiah, "Nechemyah," in Hebrew, means "God comforts."
• 25:18 A lot of people have been discomforted by this revisionist
• 25:22 approach to history that wants to ferret out biblical
• 25:26 references and orientation.
• 25:29 ♪♪♪
• 25:33 David: Our series that we start next week, "Faith of Our
• 25:35 Fathers," is a very important series.
• 25:38 Dr. Seif, can you give us a little overview of what
• 25:40 will happen?
• 25:42 Jeffrey: Well, quintessentially, when you boil it down to its
• 25:44 essence, you know, "Faith of Our Fathers" is something that we
• 25:47 need--you know, mothers and fathers need today.
• 25:49 I mean, we look at our culture, and we see how biblical vision
• 25:53 and value was intrinsic therein, and principally, we do it 'cause
• 25:57 we wanna stimulate faith for today, for you, the viewer, for
• 26:01 us, because we need it.
• 26:04 You know, there's darkness.
• 26:05 We roll the dice against an uncertain future, and faith
• 26:07 prompts us to believe God and walk forward still in
• 26:10 anticipation of good things to come because we serve a good
• 26:12 God, and that's important yesterday with the founding of
• 26:16 our country.
• 26:18 It's important today as we look to build our lives on
• 26:20 biblical foundations.
• 26:22 Kirsten: It is, and I appreciate you taking your time to, kind
• 26:25 of, popcorn-answer these questions that we have.
• 26:29 We so love you writing into our ministry.
• 26:33 Of course, we like the kind words also, but send your
• 26:36 questions in.
• 26:37 We wanna do more of these programs.
• 26:39 If you appreciated Dr. Seif's insight into viewer questions,
• 26:43 send more in to the ministry.
• 26:45 The information is right there for you, and we'll do some more
• 26:48 of these programs.
• 26:50 Jeffrey: And if I can add, if you don't like it, write too.
• 26:52 We can fight, you know, that, you know, I've been known to be
• 26:55 wrong on one or two occasions, and I don't claim I'm God,
• 26:58 you know.
• 27:00 If I'm asked a direct question, I give a direct answer.
• 27:02 I've been around for a while, but I don't know everything.
• 27:04 You may be displeased by my answer to something, and it
• 27:08 could be because you're lacking something or I'm lacking
• 27:10 something, but let's keep the conversation going.
• 27:14 David: It's been good.
• 27:15 We always leave our program with a song from our founder,
• 27:18 Zola Levitt.
• 27:20 Jeffrey: And a tradition of the biblical text.
• 27:22 Shaalu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:24 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 27:27 ♪ Chosen of God ♪
• 27:30 ♪ Chosen for me ♪
• 27:34 ♪ Homeland forever ♪
• 27:37 ♪ Land of Messiah ♪
• 27:41 ♪ Israel my love ♪
• 27:50 ♪ How God watches thee ♪
• 28:05 ♪♪♪
• 28:15 ♪♪♪
• 28:25 ♪♪♪