Point of View April 25, 2024 : Millennial Round Table

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[00:00:05] Across America, Live, This is Point of View

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[00:00:17] And now your host for the Millennial Roundtable, Chelsea Yeoman.

[00:00:22] Welcome to Point of View on this beautiful Thursday afternoon.

[00:00:26] I am your host today for the Millennial Roundtable and I'm really looking forward to a show today talking about a whole range of issues that are happening in our world today.

[00:00:35] Maybe some interesting topics you haven't heard of before, we like to mix it up.

[00:00:39] I'm going to be taking full advantage of the fact that we have two pastors joining us today to ask all sorts of questions.

[00:00:47] First we have Josh Barnes, you know him as a pastor but also the host on the YouTube channel and show called The Bible Explained.

[00:00:56] Josh does an incredible job just bringing theology and biblical truth to all of our discussions so thank you for being with us today Josh.

[00:01:03] Yes it's great to be here Chelsea, thank you.

[00:01:06] Thanks for coming.

[00:01:08] We also have Holly today, she is an associate counsel with First Liberty Institute who of course is engaged as a nonprofit law firm on behalf of really all of us and our first amendment rights.

[00:01:20] They represent people of all faiths, all backgrounds on religious liberty issues across the country so thank you Holly for joining us.

[00:01:26] I plan on picking your brain as well today Holly.

[00:01:29] Happy to be here Chelsea.

[00:01:31] Well we're going to start off really with what's something that has been making news across this entire nation this week.

[00:01:38] Of course it started in Columbia at Columbia University last week and that is the pro Palestine I would call them pro Hamas protests.

[00:01:49] And that has spread into dozens and dozens of university protests by students who are pro Hamas, pro Palestine across our country and really that fuel turned into fire recently as of today I saw an article on CNN that discussed the fact that there have been hundreds of arrests.

[00:02:09] That these protests are more than just you know perhaps in Holly this is where we're going to really lean on you today.

[00:02:15] More than perhaps normal protest freedom of speech we all agree that protests are constitution constitutional part of our founding but these protests include people screaming what they call genocidal chance death to America.

[00:02:30] So there are threats to Jewish individuals and in Columbia specifically blocking Jewish professor from being able to enter the building harassment violent attacks of people who walk by and it's culminated not only in arrests but in a state like Texas I'm in Austin right now as we speak downtown there are what I would say almost

[00:02:51] several hundred protesters.

[00:02:54] Texas is not playing around they brought in the Texas troops, not on any horses but on Clydesdale's and so they've been making arrests downtown in Austin as well.

[00:03:05] So Holly I wanted to start with you because of course you know we are very very pro free speech pro freedom pro pro the Constitution and protection of all viewpoints even viewpoints that are important even viewpoints like the Westboro Baptist for instance their

[00:03:24] speech is protected at the highest level by our Supreme Court we have one of the most pro free speech Supreme Courts in United States history Holly.

[00:03:32] So what I'd love to get your breakdown on some where are some of these parameters we know that these these arrests are resulting in the release of a lot of these protesters by you know of course Democrat district attorneys prosecutors who aren't going to to prosecute these individuals but would love for your expertise to to weigh in here.

[00:03:52] There's a lot of gray area I think in these issues of public protests like you mentioned the Supreme Court right now and just even I mean not necessarily right now since the 1960s since you had the like a good old days of getting on a soapbox in front of the courthouse and making your piece

[00:04:07] the court has always been incredibly protective of First Amendment rights rights to protest rights to make political statements when I was in constitutional law my professor called the free speech First Amendment the monster because it just was like you know everything could be free speech

[00:04:22] but I do think what we're seeing right now is there is a line right like genocidal chance are going to fall into some of those exceptions that the courts have articulated to free speech you know if you're being threatening in a mirror where they think that you know action is imminent to cause harm to someone.

[00:04:41] The court is willing to say OK stop hold on maybe there's a reason that the government can regulate that kind of speech for the protection of citizens and so I think that's what you're seeing on these college campuses is it's escalating from just I'm a college student I have perhaps you know a radical opinion which is what college students are known

[00:05:00] for if you look in our free speech jurisprudence they're the ones having a lot of these protests and and you know I'm going to go sit in at my administration building or I'm going to make signs and we're going to go protest an event or you know we're going to do something

[00:05:13] sort of peacefully but we're going to make our opinions known and we're transforming that into you know I know the University of Texas in Austin had riot gear out from the DPS agents because they were worried about you know what that was going to be like and it's because you have this

[00:05:29] distorted view of the first amendment I know at University of Cal Berkeley you probably read his horn books Professor Chimerinsky Chelsea when you're in law school had a private dinner at his house where some pro Palestinian students came and broke it up and told like

[00:05:44] the man that writes constitutional law textbooks you need to learn the first amendment so we have this sort of public distortion of what the first amendment means and people are using it right now for like whole scale violent protest and that's just different than the broad protections that the first amendment does allow.

[00:06:01] Yeah that's that's absolutely correct when your speech turns into action physical violence threats of physical violence or even inciting violence there are there are parameters there for public safety.

[00:06:13] Even even for as I mentioned the most important speech which is what we're seeing is actual neo Nazis who are screaming for genocide of the Israeli Jewish people.

[00:06:23] You know for me the greatest hypocrisy and all of this is the fact that you know President Trump supporters in the Moga crowd have been decried for years and years as being you know all the most horrific things you can think of bigots racist all these horrible names neo Nazis and we in fact are seeing a party largely a blue progressive party completely inundated with anti Semitic actual anti Semite.

[00:06:53] And so we have a couple minutes before break Josh I'd love to get your vantage point on on what we're seeing at our universities across the United States.

[00:07:01] Well yeah I mean it's it's it's disgusting it's it's concerning it's something that is it's so opposed to the image that the left wants to portray of themselves they want to portray this anti racist image.

[00:07:18] And yet they are all on board with with chance of death to Israel and those sort of things they make Israel out to be colonizers when when literally their land was stolen for them from them 2000 years ago just all of this hypocrisy that's going on.

[00:07:37] Yeah when it comes down to to protest it's very difficult for me as a as a Christian pastor who you know if I'm going to go out for street preaching I need to know the laws and I need to know exactly what's allowed and what I can and can't but I can't stand and all those things.

[00:07:54] These are these are on private. As far as I know I don't know the details about all the different arrests that are made but you know these are private schools privately funded.

[00:08:05] I guess I suppose they're funded in large part by grants and stuff from the government but this should at least cause Christians to realize that their money shouldn't be going to these kinds of organizations if they haven't realized it yet they should definitely know it by now.

[00:08:19] You're absolutely right about that you know we spent years at First Liberty Institute Holly representing pastors just like Josh who have to get permits and jump through all sorts of hoops to even sometimes pose a sign that talks about their faith or belief system on university campuses.

[00:08:37] This is something we're going to continue to talk about after this short break so don't go anywhere.

[00:08:48] This is viewpoints with Kirby Anderson.

[00:09:02] Gene Twinge begins her essay by suggesting a thought experiment. Imagine that a company began mass producing a new toy. This was not a toy for little kids instead it appealed mostly to adolescents.

[00:09:15] The toy became wildly popular first with teens and eventually with younger children as well. The toy was so engaging that some teens stayed up until 2 a.m. just to play with it before long teens spent so much time using the toy that they cut back on socializing in person.

[00:09:30] As you can probably guess she's talking about the smartphone that began to change the lives of teenagers beginning around 2012. She argues that the growing popularity of smartphones and social media over the past decade and a half has fundamentally changed the lives of teenagers.

[00:09:45] I would encourage parents and grandparents to read her article linked to this commentary. She provides graphs showing in person socializing decreasing and increasing number of sleep deprived teens who are sleeping less than 7 hours a night.

[00:10:00] Their graph showing a significant increase in major depression and loneliness also she documents teens decrease in adult activities like getting a driver's license or going on a date.

[00:10:10] She also takes the time to eliminate some other possible explanations. Could the increase in depression be due to school shootings or the opioid crisis? She reminds us that these and other explanations are specific to the U.S.

[00:10:24] We see a similar uptick in other countries. She concludes with specific recommendations that might strike some as radical but she then explains the cost benefit analysis for keeping children and young teens off of social media.

[00:10:38] She makes a compelling case. I'm Kirby Anderson and that's my point of view.

[00:10:48] For a free copy of Kirby's booklet of Biblical View on Critical Race Theory go to viewpoints.info.cl

[00:10:59] You're listening to Point of View, your listener supported source for truth.

[00:11:05] Welcome back to the Millennial Roundtable where we are discussing the really nationwide protest, the Pro Hamas protest happening on university campuses that are resulting in a lot of arrests, hundreds of arrests.

[00:11:18] We were just discussing the fact that there is such a double standard in our society right now for Christian speech and you at the pastor being if you wanted to be a street preacher or go into public on a university campus all the absolute minutiae

[00:11:35] and hoops you would have to jump through in order to do that peacefully even but the double standard for people who are chanting really violent threats blocking entryway for Jewish individuals, Jewish students have been told at Columbia University to stay home for their own safety

[00:11:53] rather than really what I would say should be happening is clearing out these encampments.

[00:11:59] So these protesters have set up tents, they're sleeping overnight, there's hundreds of them, they're disrupting classes, now the classes have moved online.

[00:12:07] I thought that Mike Huckabee had a really great idea when he tweeted about this earlier this week when he said, you know, this is nearly $90,000 a year tuition that these students have paid to go get, you know, a premium progressive education.

[00:12:24] They should be asking for their money back.

[00:12:26] One of their top billionaire donors from Kraft is pulling his funding.

[00:12:31] And it's really this interesting dynamic because largely these are I would say people on the left from the party on the left who has a dichotomy here between a very pro Israel base and donor base and a high Jewish population demographic among Democrat voters juxtaposed with these pro Palestinian

[00:12:56] anti-Semitic base and you know this really shook out I thought in the Michigan election.

[00:13:02] I'm going at a little bit of a tangent here, Josh, but you know in the Michigan election the pro Palestinian demonstrators did a right in protest for their primary ballot in the Democrat Party primary.

[00:13:13] And that led to President Biden he only received like 70% of the votes which for an incumbent is very, very low.

[00:13:22] I'm just putting all this out there and would love for your commentary on really any of it, Josh.

[00:13:28] Yeah well my initial thoughts are I'm not sure where these tents are set up.

[00:13:33] I mean where they're set up on public property they need to be taken out.

[00:13:40] They need to be arrested, they need to be taken away, all that kind of thing because we're certainly seeing selective enforcement of laws where they would certainly enforce laws against Christians who would protest them.

[00:13:51] And protest in that way on public property wouldn't but they will enforce them against these students.

[00:13:57] But where they're set up on private property and I don't know what I'm seeing pictures of tents and all those things as well.

[00:14:04] I'm not sure how much of it is public and private, but where it's set up on private property we have to understand that that's being allowed by the school.

[00:14:12] And if there's a school that is allowing these kinds of vicious evil things to be said then we should let the free market work the way it should.

[00:14:24] That means that Christians should never be giving their money to a school like that and the United States of America shouldn't be giving any grants or money to schools if they're allowing chance like death to America.

[00:14:37] Which of course will never happen because the United States of America likes those types of chance.

[00:14:43] At least the left in our leadership does.

[00:14:47] But it should be that when a private organization has the free speech to have terrible views that people run away from those terrible views and the organization crumbles but it's being held up and propped up by special interests and leftists.

[00:15:04] And that's what really is disgusting to me.

[00:15:08] Yes, Josh you raised a really interesting point because I think sometimes it can be a bit daunting for us as maybe average citizens or Christians or believers to look around at this world of absolute almost anarchy right now.

[00:15:22] We saw Chaz if you remember out of I think that it was the Yaddle.

[00:15:27] They kind of had their own encampment.

[00:15:29] We're seeing complete chaos.

[00:15:31] We're seeing really what I would say is evil.

[00:15:34] There's no other thing to call this than evil to talk about genocide and eradicating any people group is reminiscent of so much horrific wars we've seen.

[00:15:46] World War II of course comes to mind but there are many ins.

[00:15:50] There was a genocide against the Armenians.

[00:15:52] There's genocides right now happening in Africa.

[00:15:54] You know this rise of evil and darkness that I think maybe has been below the surface for perhaps even decades but has risen to the top people.

[00:16:06] This evil feels very I would say courageous right now and willing to be at the forefront.

[00:16:12] We're seeing Satanist emblems and musicians and artists openly having wicken incantations in their music videos.

[00:16:21] There's such a rise of darkness and evil.

[00:16:24] I always say in the 90s when we as millennials were growing up it was really there was more of if you weren't a Christian then they were more like agnostic or atheist where we just don't believe in anything.

[00:16:35] But now that's really different with this younger generation.

[00:16:38] We've seen a rise in mysticism, a rise in astrology and a rise astronomy I should say.

[00:16:43] We arise in wicken practices and this almost like spirituality spirit guides from the universe which of course are demons.

[00:16:52] I'm saying all this to say this is connected and it can be a little bit daunting as we look at the world around us to really see the veil come down.

[00:17:00] But what you're alluding to is there are some things we can do outside of of course praying and discipleship and really being spiritually on guard and spreading the gospel as fast and as hard as we can.

[00:17:12] We're also consumers and we don't have a choice in what we put our money in and where we're shopping and what we're consuming and donating to.

[00:17:21] And Holly, I really want to turn to you and juxtapose what we're seeing the treatment and tolerance level for this evil with another article we have on point of view.net which is where the DOJ cleared and allowed the FBI to create essentially a domestic terrorist class for what they're calling

[00:17:41] the RADs, which is Radical Traditional Catholics.

[00:17:48] And I have also that there's a profile on pro-lifers.

[00:17:52] We know that dozens and dozens of pro-lifers are sitting in jail right now because of the Biden administration.

[00:17:58] He's arresting pro-lifers who go outside of abortion clinics and they've been slammed now by thankfully our Congressional Oversight Committee has gotten their hands on some of these documents.

[00:18:08] They're really looking into Catholic churches and traditional religious, what they're calling extremists, and they're using the, there's a list online of what they're calling hate groups.

[00:18:25] And for me to see the level of tolerance that these pro-Hamas protesters are getting while the FBI instead targets faithful Americans and churches is really, really hard for me to wrap my brain around Holly.

[00:18:39] So I'd love your input on that.

[00:18:41] It's equally hard for me to wrap my brain on.

[00:18:44] I mean, I think we've seen this for a long time.

[00:18:46] I remember when Amy Coney Barrett was being confirmed to the Supreme Court and everyone was like, oh my goodness, she's Catholic.

[00:18:52] It's like, well, you know, they, the, the left tried to make that a disqualifying characteristic for her service on the highest court in the United States.

[00:19:00] And at her confirmation hearing in an appellate court, she was sort of lambasted by a senator from California saying the dogma live loud within her.

[00:19:08] So it's, it's, there's been a target on the back of, you know, people that hold conservative Christian views for a long time.

[00:19:17] If you look at that list and you boil a lot of them down and Chelsea you alluded to this, it often comes toward defensive life.

[00:19:25] So it's kind of well known that really traditional Catholic groups are, you know, some of the strongest supporters for pro-life initiatives.

[00:19:35] And so that's the Biden administration being really afraid of, you know, people that are out here defending the rights of unborn children to live,

[00:19:43] which if that is somehow radical, I'm happy to have that moniker along with you, Chelsea and Jonathan, I'm sure.

[00:19:52] So, you know, it's I think we've known for a while that DOJ operates under a double standard.

[00:19:57] We saw it on all of the Hunter Biden prosecution stuff.

[00:20:01] And so I'm not surprisingly stressed that we're letting college students run around cheering on terrorist organizations, but we're stopping, you know,

[00:20:10] people that want to go outside an abortion facility and help and pray over women.

[00:20:15] So it's just typical DOJ behavior at this point.

[00:20:18] I don't know, maybe I'm a jaded lawyer, but I think that this is exactly what you'd expect from a Department of Justice run by the Biden administration,

[00:20:26] especially as they approach an election where he's presumably going to be running again and, you know, they kind of ramp up those kind of attacks just at this time.

[00:20:36] So not surprised DOJ cleared the FBI.

[00:20:38] The FBI has been shady for a while now, I think we could all say.

[00:20:43] But yeah, it's absolutely a double standard that they're operating under and we'll see what happens next.

[00:20:47] We'll see what they surprise us with next.

[00:20:50] Yes, I mean, we always say all the time that elections have consequences and what we're seeing is, you know, wielding the police state against political enemies is really,

[00:21:01] it's always happened, but it's at an all time high.

[00:21:04] And I'm hopeful, Holly, that, you know, First Liberty Institute and groups like yours, if you go to first liberty.org,

[00:21:09] you can learn more about their cases and work that them and there are some other groups who will represent individuals who become political enemies of the state.

[00:21:18] That type of viewpoint discrimination is illegal.

[00:21:21] So a few more ideas and suggestions I have when we get back after this break.

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[00:23:10] And now, here again, Chelsea Yeoman.

[00:23:14] Welcome back to the Millennial Roundtable today.

[00:23:17] Don't forget to go to Like Us on Facebook at Point of View Radio on Facebook or PointofView.net where you can read about all of our topics or more.

[00:23:26] We're rounding out our discussion today about two really different treatments of two different types of belief systems right now in the United States.

[00:23:35] The pro-Hamas, violent protesters who are granted all types of tolerance and peaceful Christian viewpoints that are pro-life or religious being categorized as domestic terrorists by the FBI.

[00:23:50] Holly and Josh, I just wanted to end this segment on this.

[00:23:53] We mentioned a little bit last segment so don't forget to go back and listen to it if you haven't been following with us.

[00:23:59] But we've talked about elections have consequences, which is a little term we hear all the time.

[00:24:04] But I want to flesh out with that to meet on the bones for that a little bit.

[00:24:08] When I'm talking about elections have consequences, I also want to be honest about the fact that cleaning house at the FBI and the DOJ,

[00:24:19] is something that should have really been done for the last decade.

[00:24:23] And President Trump had the opportunity for four years to gut these issues.

[00:24:29] These issues were there at the time.

[00:24:31] The FBI is notoriously becoming increasingly a police state against Christians.

[00:24:37] And even some Jewish members, I remember when I was at First Liberty Institute, there are issues that have been with the politicization of the FBI for a very long time now.

[00:24:51] The CIA as well and the opportunity to have cleaned house happened.

[00:24:56] And President Trump by some standards did not do enough that he said he would do to clean out that swamp.

[00:25:02] And so I wanted to put that before you guys because there are things that in the next administration, I think we as voters should be asking candidates to do.

[00:25:12] We should be holding President Biden to a certain standard for not discriminating against the American public who they actually should be charged with protecting.

[00:25:21] And you can hold that accountability through things like lawsuits if you've been arrested by the FBI, voting for people in Congress who will have oversight in the oversight committee.

[00:25:32] But then again, maybe as voters, if you have a candidate like President Trump is the candidate you're going to support, making it well known that your expectation is higher than it was his last administration to actually do something about this.

[00:25:46] And I wanted to see, we'll start with you Josh, if you had any other ideas for us as citizens or even just believers on this front.

[00:25:54] Yeah, well first of all, I would say that it's not a surprise, I think Holly even mentioned this.

[00:26:01] It's really not a surprise that Christian groups are being, traditionally Christian groups are being labeled as hate groups.

[00:26:09] This is something that we've seen coming from a long way away. It's now finally here, which is depressing and sad, but it's not a surprise.

[00:26:17] It's what has been going on for thousands of years, the longest Christianity has existed. The Roman Empire was calling Christians hate groups and calling them terrorists.

[00:26:27] It has always been the case. So this is something new in America. It's not something new in general.

[00:26:34] But yeah, I share your frustration with Donald Trump, even though I fully intend to be a Trump voter this year, because the greatest thing about Trump is also the worst about Trump and that is in my opinion that he is very populist,

[00:26:52] meaning that he's going to do the things that he thinks the majority of the common people want.

[00:26:58] And I feel that last, in his last term, he thought that it would look badly because he was being investigated, so he didn't want to actually fire a bunch of people in the FBI when he absolutely should have done that.

[00:27:11] What we really need is a president who's willing to do what is right no matter what. And unfortunately I don't think we'll have that with Trump, although he'll be far better than any alternative we have.

[00:27:22] But what we need to do, I think the greatest thing we can do, and it sounds cliche, but the fact that it sounds cliche, I think means that it needs to be said and that is pray.

[00:27:32] Because this is what Paul told Timothy to do in the Roman Empire when there was no chance they couldn't do anything about the leaders that they had.

[00:27:40] So he said in 1 Timothy 2, pray for them that we would have leaders that would let us lead a godly and peaceable life in godliness and honesty.

[00:27:49] A quiet and peaceable life in godliness and honesty. And that is our biggest job. It's our responsibility as Christians. And I think that's the biggest thing we can do.

[00:27:59] Wow. What an incredible way to end this segment, Josh. I'm not even going to add to it because I think you've left us with so much wisdom to think about and discern.

[00:28:09] I am going to turn, Josh, though, to a topic that I am dying to pick your brain about. I've been looking at this issue for about a month now, and it is honestly words I never thought I would say ever really but especially on Point of View Radio, which is let's talk about the red heifers.

[00:28:26] So if you know what's coming, I hope you're prepared. If not, I've done some research to help.

[00:28:34] This is, if you've heard of this, then this might just be a review for you. But if you're like me and you've never really heard about in Jewish religious tradition 2,000 years ago the sacrifices of the red heifer in the second temple and then before that even sacrifices of the sacred red heifer in Israel in the first temple.

[00:28:57] This was not only a history lesson for me, a heritage, religious and cultural lesson for me on Judaism. But it has relevance and the reason I really wanted to talk about it, I'm going to tell you now, is it has so much

[00:29:11] relevance with the war in Israel and the terrorist groups of Hamas's attacks in Israel in January. And I think I've mentioned this before that it's really, really important for us to not view international events or events in not just another culture but in Eastern Europe or around the world in Russia through the lens of our western ideals and understanding because I don't think that's a correct assessment of what's going on.

[00:29:41] And so we've talked about this before, how millennials and this is why I'll say it for myself. The woke white girls for instance have it all wrong. These pro-Palestinian protesters in America when the Americans are protesting they are using words like it's about colonization of Gaza or territory, let Palestine have a free state.

[00:30:00] And that really ignores history and actual cultural issues at hand in the Middle East. And that is because of course the Palestinians had a chance for a Palestinian state and denied it in the 90s under the Clinton administration when it was offered.

[00:30:14] So having an accurate lens is really important and I found on Al Jazeera.com, this is the, you guys bear with me, that's my, that was where some of this started but that's, I wanted you guys to have a glimpse into some of the viewpoints coming out of the Middle East.

[00:30:29] Really what was the precipice for the January attacks in Israel and what one of the Hamas military leaders said at the time in a live interview at press conference he said it was because Israel had shipped red heifers to do their ceremonial sacrifice and that they viewed it as an attack on their holy site on the Temple Mount, on the Muslim holy site which of course we all know is right there, the dome on the Temple Mount.

[00:30:59] It's a Muslim holy site competing with the Jewish holy site and that was one of the reasons for the attack. Well so I started looking into this, what was he talking about? And a little bit of history and then I'm going to turn to you Josh to help.

[00:31:13] Essentially there is a very among very very traditional Jewish followers and adherents. The Temple Institute they want to rebuild the third temple which may be more broadly most Jews do.

[00:31:26] In order to do that the Temple Mount has to be cleansed through ceremonial sacrifices and some ceremony and that ceremony includes the sacrifice of a perfect red heifer cow.

[00:31:38] And for 2000 years those sacrifices have not happened, they obviously have not had a temple. They believe by building this temple it will usher in the Messiah who we as believers know is to be Jesus.

[00:31:50] But this is relevant to us as Christians as well because these sacrifices will take place according to the New Testament before Jesus's return. There will be sacrifices happening in Jerusalem at that time.

[00:32:05] And so kind of all eyes are on this. Well what happened is for the first time in 2000 years they found the red heifers, these perfect red cows.

[00:32:13] They found three in Texas and two at other ranches. They've traveled the world for decades. They've been searching for these cows and they finally found some and they shipped five to Israel.

[00:32:24] And the Department of Agriculture in Israel has partnered with this Temple Institute for the first time. They're starting to be some formalized Israeli government backing for this concept.

[00:32:36] Now the other thing that's relevant to this timeline which Hamas mentioned is the fact that these cows have to be sacrificed before their third birthday and that will be in the next year.

[00:32:46] And so Josh, I know that was quite the intro. I want to turn to you now for a few minutes. What's your take on this? Am I way off? Do you have any historical context or scriptural context for us?

[00:32:57] Oh man. Okay so there's so much to say. Well let me just say real quick this because I know we're probably going to run out of time here but I think first of all I like to tell people when people ask me this that this is not so much a subject of biblical interpretation.

[00:33:18] I think there is some of that obviously a pre-millennial who looks at the return of Christ is going to see that there's going to be sacrifices. There's going to be another temple before the return of Christ that the Antichrist is going to walk into in Dec.

[00:33:32] But I'll have to say more later.

[00:33:34] Okay, we'll be back after this segment so stay tuned. Josh will give us his insight in a minute.

[00:33:49] You're listening to Point of View, your listener supported source for truth.

[00:34:04] Well welcome back to the Millennial Roundtable. We are turning to Josh for his expertise on what we can make of the fact that Israel has found five heifers that qualify.

[00:34:14] I think only four now qualify out of the five for this new sacrifice on the Temple Mount to cleanse it in preparation to rebuild the temple.

[00:34:23] The Department of Agriculture in Israel is working with them which is an official act by the Israeli government and that that led to what Hamas admitted was fear that they're going to destroy parts of sacred, quote unquote, Muslim ground there on the Temple Mount in order to build the temple.

[00:34:42] And that was part of the reason they created all these horrific terrorist attacks against Israel. That's the background. But Josh was going to give us his perception and expertise as a biblical scholar that he is on this topic.

[00:34:58] Yeah, thanks, Joe. So my field is mainly in biblical interpretation and so when I'm looking at this from the perspective of what the Bible says, it's interesting to note that the Bible only mentioned the red heifer one time, one time in numbers 19.

[00:35:18] And it's just saying that a single red heifer would be offered, it would have to be perfect and it hasn't been used for any pulling plows or anything. It'd have to be perfect, it'd have to be offered.

[00:35:31] And the ashes of the heifer, the blood is used to cleanse the sanctuary and the ashes are used for purifying rituals later on in the sanctuary.

[00:35:42] So most of what people think, oh, there's a prophecy about a red heifer, there's no prophecy about a red heifer, that's not in the Bible.

[00:35:50] And most of what people believe about the red heifer and the five and all the things, that's all just things that the Jewish people have developed over time that aren't actually commands of God.

[00:36:02] So that's important to remember. Now, what is interesting though is that the Jewish people do seem, if all these reports are true and I can't confirm them,

[00:36:10] but if it's true that they are gathering red heifers and all this, then they probably believe that they're going to be able to have their sacrifices in that mountain, maybe even rebuild their temple.

[00:36:23] And if that's the case, that certainly could be a reason for the Muslims around there to be angry.

[00:36:31] Although, you know, the, you are correct to notice that if the majority opinion in prophetic interpretation is the premillennial position, which is a very literal view of what the Bible says about what's coming.

[00:36:48] And that's my position.

[00:36:50] And in a premillennial view, Jesus is going to return but before he returns there's going to be an antichrist, there's going to be a temple that the antichrist walks into and claims to be God.

[00:37:00] So there has to be a temple rebuilt and we could be seeing the scenario of events that might lead towards them rebuilding their temple.

[00:37:09] But I would caution people, first of all we should be looking for Christ to return anytime. He could come anytime, we should keep that in mind.

[00:37:18] But we should not think that just because the temple is rebuilt he's going to come tomorrow or he's going to come next year.

[00:37:25] It could be another hundred years after the temple is rebuilt that he comes. We're just trusting him and his timing.

[00:37:32] Well that's well said and I just appreciate your perspective on that because we're living in times where it just feels like so much is happening.

[00:37:44] If you look at Ezekiel 38 and 39 which is something I was reading recently as I ran Attack to Israel even in the most recent weeks.

[00:37:52] There are predictions of these wars that perhaps we are seeing unveiling right in front of us and there is so much to make of it.

[00:38:03] One of the interesting thoughts to me Josh I was going to ask you is it appears that as with all religions there are different almost denominations or I would say sects of the religions,

[00:38:18] there are separations between them. This temple institute demographic of the Jewish population they are the ones that are considered,

[00:38:30] this article calls them French but the article is Al Jazeera so I want to take it with a grain of salt because I don't actually know in Israel how many Orthodox Jews would adhere to this

[00:38:42] but it is very much their belief system. I even saw the video of the cows and someone went to interview them on the ranch and these are ancient, ancient Jewish passed down traditions.

[00:38:53] You're right in that the Bible only spoke about it once in numbers of course but they still have remnants of the ashes originally from 2000 years ago supposedly that they would mix with the newest sacrifice.

[00:39:06] It's just really interesting for me to see as these women who are caretakers for the animals the hope that they have.

[00:39:15] In hoping if we could get these sacrifices and we could cleanse the temple mound then we get to rebuild our temple and that will usher in the Messiah and these hope in a Messiah and in salvation

[00:39:28] in the midst of all this darkness and Ezekiel 38 and 39 reminded me in the midst of warfare and everything the death and destruction we're seeing God says it is for the purpose of glorifying him.

[00:39:43] That all this will turn the hearts and minds of he was talking about the Jewish people back towards him and the hope that they have in salvation hopefully being put in the true savior Jesus Christ who has already come.

[00:39:57] I think that's something we can be praying for at the very least as believers.

[00:40:02] That's the glorious promise of Romans chapter 11 that by the time it's all said and done so there will be a lot of darkness between now and then that the Jewish people as a nation will accept their Messiah and will realize that Christ is their Messiah at his return.

[00:40:20] That's wonderful but part of it that is them getting past all this ritual stuff because one of the things they've done is they've taken the Old Testament and added a bunch to it and said all these rituals and think these rituals make them holy.

[00:40:33] Of course that was never the point of the law was to make them holy through rituals and Christ has fulfilled those.

[00:40:40] So when they come to the realization that Christ has fulfilled these sacrifices that's where they need to be.

[00:40:47] They're not there yet but God has promised they will be there eventually.

[00:40:51] Well Josh I know we only have a few more minutes left with you so I definitely wanted to finish picking your brain about this topic before the end of the hour but did you have any last thoughts for us on you mentioned your pre-millennial and I mean that not in the sense that we're all a bunch of millennials trying to break down this world around what we live in.

[00:41:09] But pre-millennial let's have some fun with the end times.

[00:41:13] Go there I love to hear your perspective on it.

[00:41:15] I have a little bit of fun with it thinking about this idea of we know that there will be some type of sacrifice at least occurring at a temple in the end times and what do you make of any of the things we're seeing in the world around us related to the scripture?

[00:41:32] I could talk for the next 24 hours on this but there's three views of the end times are pre-millennial, all-millennial and post-millennial.

[00:41:42] The pre-millennial looks at the book of Revelation and says all that's going to be fulfilled in a rather straightforward way where a post-millennial and an all-millennial says well these are just kind of expressing ideas they're kind of figurative they've been being fulfilled sort of spiritually there's no actual real fulfillment of these things.

[00:42:01] So the majority view is the pre-millennial and the pre-millennial looks at that and says okay wow there's got to be a temple, there's going to be these terrible judgments that are happening before Christ returns, there's going to be this anti-Christ all this kind of stuff.

[00:42:14] So that's to the view that I take, I think I can defend it but not in the time we have.

[00:42:19] But it's very interesting and what we have then is we have really a seven-year time period between Christ, between the kickoff time and when Christ returns and the kickoff a lot of people will say will be the rapture, I think there's a good argument for that.

[00:42:34] So I think that's why you've said however you look at it, you've got a seven-year period of time in the middle of that seven years, three and a half years before Christ returns there has to be a temple.

[00:42:42] So at least by three and a half years before Jesus returns there's a temple because that's when the mark of the beast starts and everyone is committed to worship the anti-Christ and he walks into the temple and claims to be God.

[00:42:53] So from that perspective which I think is correct, yeah you do have to have a temple before the return of Christ.

[00:42:59] So interesting, thank you as always Josh. Don't forget to go to the Bible Explained, his YouTube channel to hear more from his expertise and I'm sure we'll have him back to talk a little bit more about the end times.

[00:43:09] Don't go anywhere, Josh Teague is joining us in just a few minutes.

[00:43:30] I don't know about you but I find these numbers extremely troubling. It really is a crisis of truth and that crisis has consequences.

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[00:44:29] Point of View will continue after this.

[00:44:41] Across America, live this is Point of View.

[00:44:54] And now your host for the Millennial Roundtable, Chelsea Yeoman.

[00:44:59] Well welcome back to the Millennial Roundtable. I am joined today by Holly Randall.

[00:45:04] You know her as Counsel and Attorney extraordinaire from First Liberty Institute.

[00:45:09] And we are rounding out really what's been such a dynamic discussion the last hour.

[00:45:14] We've covered everything from the pro-Palestinian protests across our country to right now we're discussing the fact that for the first time in 2000 years there are five red heifers, you heard me right, cows in Israel that are supposedly being prepared for the first sacrifice into the

[00:45:35] 2000 years with the hopes of ultimately being able to build the temple, the third Jewish temple.

[00:45:41] And so we've had this discussion if you haven't been listening please go back, don't forget to listen to the last hour on Point of View Radio on Facebook or PointofView.net.

[00:45:50] But I wanted to turn to Holly now. We've been discussing the fact that part of the precipice for Hamas attacking innocent Jewish people in January of this year is they cited this concept.

[00:46:04] They've identified these cows that they believe they're going to be pushed out of their own Muslim holy site on the Temple Mound at the Dome of the Rock.

[00:46:14] And that that was actually part of the reason they were citing for attacking Israel.

[00:46:18] So I just wanted to get your take Holly. I know we heard a lot from Josh Barnes last hour and wanted to hear from you.

[00:46:24] Yeah, I think I've never been more thankful to be on Point of View and have a pastor to go to.

[00:46:28] That was definitely his area of expertise. I was sitting here thinking, OK, what's the legal spin on this?

[00:46:33] And I was coming up empty. But you know, I think I agree with you Chelsea and that whatever the source of the attack, you know, whatever the motivation was, it was abhorrent and wrong.

[00:46:45] And, you know, I'm happy to see that Israel is standing up for itself and fighting back and encouraged that the United States has been really supportive save for, you know, the protests going on on college campuses.

[00:46:58] Hopefully the positive voices and our actual United States dollar is not influenced by, you know, what's going on in those places.

[00:47:07] So motivations aside from, you know, what Hamas thought was going to happen or what people are planning.

[00:47:14] I think it's truly a shame what's happened Israel over, you know, what's been, you know, six months now.

[00:47:20] And so I'm encouraged to see them fighting back and continuing to stand up for themselves.

[00:47:25] Yes, you know, God definitely goes before his people in Israel and with Iran and their most recent missile attack with being knowing that the dome iron dome protected Israel.

[00:47:36] So much. It's certainly something we need to continue to be prayerful for and hopeful for Israel and our allies there.

[00:47:43] But also, you know, to make sure that our elected officials when they're passing these budgets, making sure our number one ally in history, which is the UK and Israel have the backing that they need over Ukraine is something that I think we as voters can definitely make our voices known about.

[00:48:02] You know, another issue that I wanted to talk about today is something else that has really divided, I would say the party on the right.

[00:48:11] And we all know we've been living in real time the reversal of Roe, the absolute chaos from the left, these ballot initiatives as a referendum passing in very pro-life states which constitutionalize a right to abortion,

[00:48:26] not just which is what Roe would have allowed up to viability, but even third trimester abortion.

[00:48:31] So really horrific things across our nation happening.

[00:48:34] I mean, in the last few weeks there was a huge development from one of our presidential candidates, of course, from President Donald Trump where he really had previously we've always said he's been one of the most pro-life presidents on record.

[00:48:48] He has an incredible legacy as a president, not only was he responsible for appointing the pro-life justices who ultimately reversed Roe but he also did things like speak at the March for Life in January which no president had ever done before.

[00:49:05] And he used his administration in very pro-life ways, which is something that Mike Pence, his former vice president has this opinion piece drafted in New York Times is mentioning, right?

[00:49:17] That President Trump has the opportunity here to almost be the Lincoln of the pro-life movement.

[00:49:24] He has the opportunity here to create a legacy where he says, regardless of the popularity of the issue at the state level, I in my courageous who if anyone can do it it is him and his courage and his willingness to do the hard thing and the right thing no matter the cost.

[00:49:41] And it's tenacity that he has which he approaches every issue he does as President Trump has to say I'm going to channel all of that towards protecting unborn children in the womb, the most vulnerable in our society from violent death by abortion.

[00:49:56] And he had previously committed to thinking through a federal 15 week ban and unfortunately Holly he reneged on all of that. President Trump did two weeks ago and said I'm no longer going to consider a federal solution here.

[00:50:08] I did my job basically leave me alone pro-life groups and of course as someone who is deeply pro-life and I work you know I work at human coalition where we're serving pregnant women in need.

[00:50:18] It was particularly disappointing to see you know we want to see him step into this moment instead of saying leave it to the states which a lot of people are saying on either side of the aisle in my mind Holly that's like saying let's leave slavery to the states or leave mass genocide to the states.

[00:50:36] It's okay for you know children to die in Colorado which they are and New Mexico which they are but you know maybe children in Texas will be a little bit more lucky.

[00:50:47] That's not a principled approach it's a really disappointing approach so I wanted to get your take on that Holly.

[00:50:53] Yeah I think in some ways Trump's legacy you know as it will be going forward on the pro-life issue will sort of always be the Dobs Court.

[00:51:02] You know we don't get the decision and Dobs without his appointment of Gorsuch Barrett and Kavanaugh and so that is sort of a critical piece of the equation but what I fear is that he thinks that he has that and he could be done on the pro-life issue.

[00:51:17] And you know elections are coming up I think unfortunately we've seen pro-life issues be unpopular in states and that's a shame I can't understand why but I'm afraid he's sort of latching on to that idea that's being touted that you know pro-life issues may be sort of unsuccessful for candidates to attach themselves to.

[00:51:37] And so I suspect that's where the sudden change is coming from.

[00:51:43] He thinks he's cemented his legacy with the court members and you know he can now move forward and throw off the 15 week abortion ban.

[00:51:52] There are sort of constitutional reasons why leaving abortion to the states is seen as advantageous by some people.

[00:52:01] And then I think like you said there's a crowd that absolutely is cheering on a 15 week abortion ban at the federal level and I know that's something that they were asking in the debates.

[00:52:11] I know Nikki Haley had certain opinions on it that were a little wishy washy and I wasn't surprised to see that from her but I think you know we never got to see Trump in any of the debates and he never faced those questions where someone like Mike Pence got the chance to defend pro-life stances and defend that 15 week ban.

[00:52:27] And so Trump now having this change of heart from his first administration I guess is sort of his natural progression and showing some of his true colors maybe on the issue.

[00:52:38] Right. And next segment we'll get into this a little bit on what the voters actually want and are pulling at but I do think it's worth noting you know what you mentioned which is this idea of what can he do constitutionally as the president.

[00:52:49] And the answer is don't believe the lie that the president of the United States can't do anything about life.

[00:52:54] He can wield the entire federal government he can get the FDA to quit illegally and criminally mailing mail order abortion drugs into states.

[00:53:03] He can defund a billion dollars from Planned Parenthood which the federal government is using our taxpayer to give money to give them.

[00:53:11] We talked about this last segment he can quit arresting pro-lifers to the FBI.

[00:53:14] So there are things he can do more options when we get back after this break.

[00:53:35] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson.

[00:53:39] Gene Toinge begins her essay by suggesting a thought experiment.

[00:53:45] Imagine that a company began mass producing a new toy.

[00:53:49] This was not a toy for little kids instead it appealed mostly to adolescents.

[00:53:53] The toy became wildly popular first with teens and eventually with younger children as well.

[00:53:58] The toy was so engaging that some teens stayed up until 2 a.m. just to play with it before long teens spent so much time using the toy that they cut back on socializing in person.

[00:54:08] As you can probably guess she's talking about the smartphone that began to change the lives of teenagers beginning around 2012.

[00:54:14] She argues that the growing popularity of smartphones and social media over the past decade and a half has fundamentally changed the lives of teenagers.

[00:54:23] I would encourage parents and grandparents to read her article linked to this commentary.

[00:54:27] She provides graphs showing in person socializing decreasing and increasing number of sleep deprived teens who are sleeping less than 7 hours a night.

[00:54:37] There are graphs showing a significant increase in major depression and loneliness.

[00:54:41] Also she documents teens decrease in adult activities like getting a driver's license or going on a date.

[00:54:48] She also takes the time to eliminate some other possible explanations.

[00:54:52] Could the increase in depression be due to school shootings or the opioid crisis?

[00:54:57] It reminds us that these and other explanations are specific to the U.S.

[00:55:02] We see a similar uptick in other countries.

[00:55:05] She concludes with specific recommendations that might strike some as radical but she then explains the cost benefit analysis for keeping children and young teens off of social media.

[00:55:16] She makes a compelling case.

[00:55:18] I'm Kirby Anderson and that's my point of view.

[00:55:21] For a free copy of Kirby's booklet, A Biblical View on Critical Race Theory, go to viewpoints.info.cl

[00:55:35] You're listening to Point of View, your listener supported source for truth.

[00:55:42] Welcome back to the Millennial Roundtable.

[00:55:45] We are joined now by Jonathan Teague. He is the pastor at Preston Wood Baptist Church.

[00:55:50] Thanks for joining us, Jonathan.

[00:55:52] Hey Chelsea, good to be with you.

[00:55:54] It's good to have you.

[00:55:56] Well, Jonathan, we've just been talking about President Trump and really the fact that in the last two weeks he's really taken a full turnaround essentially and reversed course on his views of doing anything on the issue of protecting children in the womb from abortion at the federal level.

[00:56:14] He's saying now that that's a state issue and we've discussed, you know, what a travesty, travesty that that is not only for children in the womb but how this could have been an opportune moment for him to really claim what I would view as his rightful legacy as one of the most pro-life presidents in history.

[00:56:33] And the fact that you could say that really mass genocide should just be allowed to be a state issue is really devastating.

[00:56:40] But we ended the segment talking about what he could do.

[00:56:42] So if he doesn't want to do a federal ban, and it's unlikely anyways by the way that we could have the votes in Congress to pass something like that.

[00:56:50] There are so many things that he can do through his executive position, things like not allowing the FDA to remove all safety protocols before a woman takes the abortion pill, which is what they've done.

[00:57:00] Or they're mass mailing, allowing the mass mail order of the pills, which is really a violation of the federal Comstock law.

[00:57:05] He could enforce the federal Comstock law, which says you cannot mail abortion materials and we know that the abortion pill is being mailed by the thousands into every single state.

[00:57:17] 63% of all abortions are now the abortion pills.

[00:57:21] So if you're unfamiliar with that, definitely go to humancollection.org and learn more about that where my organization deals with women who get the pill every single day.

[00:57:31] And some are ectopic. Some have really horrific experiences and we of course want them to choose life, but this reversal has been a disappointment to say the least.

[00:57:41] I think maybe a call to action for some things he can do like defunding Planned Parenthood if he were to get into office.

[00:57:48] Those are all be really wins that he could do with the powers that he has as the chief executive, right, Jonathan?

[00:57:58] Well, you know, certainly it's it points us back to the reality that at the end of the day Chelsea and by the way, thank you for all the work that you do in this space.

[00:58:07] I know your passion for it and certainly the pro life movement is never going to be defined by by any one voice.

[00:58:14] It's going to be defined by a movement of people who understand that the right to life for the unborn and by the way, a philosophy and approach to a whole life policy.

[00:58:27] If you will, almost from a church and a Christ following perspective is what's most essential.

[00:58:33] And I think it too it reveals the reminder that, you know, certainly President Trump, you can't argue that he was by far and away, certainly the most prolific leader in the pro life space that obviously crescendoed in the the road decision that we're not turning 50.

[00:58:50] Of course, he was already out of office at that point.

[00:58:52] But you know, obviously the place in the Supreme Court justices which which I think we can't ever discount the significance of that.

[00:58:58] And so, you know, I think Chelsea, the road to the White House in the fall, it's still a long road.

[00:59:02] There's a long way to go.

[00:59:04] I think there'll be a lot more rhetoric that comes out of both campaigns.

[00:59:07] And I suspect that President Trump will have much more to say on this.

[00:59:11] I hope and I'm sure he will.

[00:59:14] I think we should always contrast it and remind the listeners of sadly the Biden administration's continuing doubling and tripling and quadrupling down on full and unfettered access to every layer of abortion.

[00:59:29] I think that's far more tragic than anything else that we've been hearing.

[00:59:34] You know, here's what I'd say too.

[00:59:35] I'm glad that the states are going to have a chance now to parse the issue, which really that's what we're all saying for years is that row tied to high ends of the states for being able to deal with this like we want to.

[00:59:48] And I think it's equally an opportunity for churches and evangelicals across the country to step in and really prove how pro life we really are.

[00:59:55] And so, you know, elections matter, voting matters.

[00:59:58] I still believe at the end of the day that any alternative to Joe Biden's rhetoric and the Democratic Party's rhetoric around the issue of abortion and life and so called choice.

[01:00:10] Any alternative in this particular issue is better than what we currently have in the White House candidate.

[01:00:17] Yes, I certainly hope so.

[01:00:19] I think if we Holly, you alluded to this a little bit earlier in the last segment, which is that we've talked now about the principle of his position or lack thereof, I would say.

[01:00:29] But it's for political expediency, which is we have seen this time and time again where, you know, I think that their team is deeply concerned about the loss of suburban women votes and that that is a demographic.

[01:00:45] Politically, they're trying to appease.

[01:00:48] You know, when I compare that though to the evangelical vote, which make up his base, right?

[01:00:53] I almost think that the millennial woman suburban woman vote is a foregone conclusion on this.

[01:00:59] I don't think him, you know, turning tail and running on the issue of life is at all going to gain him any votes.

[01:01:04] If anything, the media is never going to let up.

[01:01:06] They're going to continue to perpetuate this lie that life is a losing issue.

[01:01:10] And it's not.

[01:01:11] I think it's been said very, very well.

[01:01:13] And I have an op-ed on this, I believe in Town Hall from a year or two ago that that's a lie.

[01:01:18] This headline that life is a losing issue.

[01:01:20] In fact, voters in higher margins almost than ever voted to keep Governor Abbott to Governor DeWine, Governors DeSantis out of Florida, one by the largest margin in state history for a Republican, literally in the years after they passed the most landmark life protecting legislation.

[01:01:41] And so if anything, I think there are very strong political arguments to make to motivate your base to show up.

[01:01:46] But I'm not just saying that as a talking head.

[01:01:48] I'm saying this is someone who read recently the most recent evangelical top issue survey.

[01:01:55] And so we talk about this before Holly where on the left when surveyed Democrats are not typically mobilized.

[01:02:02] That means getting up going to the voting polls and voting by the issue of abortion.

[01:02:08] They're not excited about it.

[01:02:09] It's kind of a sad thing.

[01:02:11] It's something that traditionally they view as a necessary evil.

[01:02:14] On the other hand, evangelical voters are highly mobilized and willing to get up and go vote based on this issue alone.

[01:02:21] So Trump needs to make the calculation politically.

[01:02:24] I hope that his base and voters actually he needs to give them red meat to show up to vote for.

[01:02:29] And this poll mentioned out of all the issues on the list, the top three issues were one, 56% said immigration is their number one issue.

[01:02:36] Two, 33% said American sovereignty.

[01:02:40] And then three, abortion at 32%, wanting that issue to be addressed by a conservative Republican who wants to protect life.

[01:02:50] Holly, was that telling to you?

[01:02:52] I thought it really was.

[01:02:54] And maybe I'm going to take this on a bit of a tangent, a little legal third tangent is that abortion being the third on that list.

[01:03:00] We're going to get two decisions from the Supreme Court this summer that may really change the landscape of abortion and how it works even across states.

[01:03:09] So the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine Decision is evaluating the prolific availability of chemical abortions.

[01:03:17] And the Supreme Court's decision on their approval of that medication is really getting defect how prevalent these drugs are available across the United States.

[01:03:25] And so that's going to make a huge issue for the candidates to have to deal with come June.

[01:03:31] And then also there was just yesterday argued a decision in the case referring to someone, something called EMTALA, which is our federal ER legislation essentially saying that emergency room departments have to take care of indigent people that come in that are in emergency situations.

[01:03:48] And pro-abortion activists are using that legislation in states like Texas and Florida that have passed these bans.

[01:03:56] Idaho was the state involved here to say that this federal legislation requires that emergency rooms, even in states that have outlawed abortion are performed as sort of emergency procedure.

[01:04:07] So it's interesting I wanted to flag at least those two things coming up in June for people that are listening because the decisions by both of those by the Supreme Court,

[01:04:17] and elected body are really going to influence the discussion how it comes in June as we lead up to the election in November.

[01:04:25] And what the candidates are saying about this because it's going to affect how states can regulate.

[01:04:29] And I think it's going to either move abortion up or down on that list depending on the outcome of those.

[01:04:35] And we just won't know probably until the very last day of June, I would suspect to see those decisions.

[01:04:40] Yes, those are certainly the most impactful abortion cases that the court is considering since Roe was overturned.

[01:04:48] Something we can all be prayerful about.

[01:04:50] I mostly want to encourage us as a pro-life community or panelists or even if you're listening this and not really sure where you fall on that issue itself that it is always a worthy and good cause to protect innocent humans from dying in any context, especially the most vulnerable innocent humans like children.

[01:05:08] And if you have questions about that, don't forget to go to humancollection.org where we're serving pregnant women in need.

[01:05:15] Jonathan, you mentioned so accurately that pro-life movement needs to show how pro-family and women that they are and as much as groups like ours are serving women as fast and as hard as we can.

[01:05:26] Unfortunately, the abortion rate was up the highest it's been in 12 years last year, the year after Roe.

[01:05:31] And so if that's indication of where the culture is, I don't know what is.

[01:05:36] Abortion is increasing after Roe and more popular than ever.

[01:05:41] We as believers have a duty to continue to engage in our communities on this to serve women and families around us and to really continue, I think, to expect our candidates to be as pro-life as we are at the very least.

[01:05:56] But we're going to pick Jonathan's brain on these evangelical political issues when we get back after this short break.

[01:06:09] In 19th century London, two towering historical figures did battle, not with guns and bombs but words and ideas.

[01:06:18] London was home to Karl Marx, the father of communism and legendary Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon.

[01:06:26] London was in many ways the center of the world economically, militarily and intellectually.

[01:06:32] Marx sought to destroy religion, the family and everything the Bible supports.

[01:06:38] Spurgeon stood against him, warning of socialism's dangers.

[01:06:42] Spurgeon understood Christianity is not just religious truth, it is truth for all of life.

[01:06:49] Where do you find men with that kind of wisdom to stand against darkness today?

[01:06:54] Get the light you need on today's most pressing issues delivered to your inbox when you sign up for the Viewpoints commentary at PointOfView.net.

[01:07:05] Every weekday in less than two minutes, you'll learn how to be a person of light to stand against darkness in our time.

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[01:07:18] PointOfView.net.

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[01:07:48] And now, here again, Chelsea Yeoman.

[01:07:52] Well, I'm your host today for the Millennial Roundtable and Jonathan Teague and Holly Randall are both with me

[01:07:59] and we're really breaking down this list that came out on the ChristianPost.com.

[01:08:06] It was a survey done by an evangelical group who surveys essentially evangelical voters

[01:08:14] and says what are your top issues from a Christian perspective as a voter?

[01:08:18] What are the things you care about?

[01:08:20] Of course, you can find this article and more at PointOfView.net.

[01:08:23] Don't forget to like us on Facebook at PointOfView. Radio.

[01:08:26] We're turning now, though, to the top issues that were cited.

[01:08:30] Really, it was interesting to me but a little bit predictable that evangelical voters are a little bit tried and true

[01:08:38] in what appears to be things that mobilize them to vote.

[01:08:41] The first issue, 56, presided immigration and growing concern about the border protection

[01:08:47] with 300,000 immigrants crossing the border in December alone

[01:08:52] and 1.34 million immigrants estimated to have entered illegally in the U.S. just half of this year.

[01:09:03] That's just between in 2024, 1.34 million.

[01:09:08] The failure of the federal government to do anything about that, bordering states like Texas and Arizona

[01:09:14] and California have declared states of emergency.

[01:09:16] They have state guards, sometimes national guard, guard from other states coming in to help them with this influx.

[01:09:22] That's something that voters are paying attention to.

[01:09:24] Other items on the list we already discussed was 33% had abortion as their top issue,

[01:09:30] which should be something I think all candidates wanting to get an evangelical vote should be paying attention

[01:09:35] to the fact that evangelicals do still care about protecting babies.

[01:09:38] We already talked about that, though, so I'm moving on.

[01:09:41] 33% cared about American sovereignty and, of course, religious freedom.

[01:09:45] Holly, shout out to you. 24% viewed that as one of their top five issues.

[01:09:49] One statistic, Holly, about that that really stood out to me was the fact that how many in the survey mentioned

[01:09:58] that they had been personally attacked or impacted or experienced what they said, verbal or physical abuse, bias,

[01:10:07] or bias because of their faith in Jesus Christ or Christian viewpoints.

[01:10:12] That was 68% of the respondents.

[01:10:15] That's a huge increase even in the last decade from when I was doing First Amendment religious liberty work

[01:10:22] and bias against Christian worldviews.

[01:10:24] Did that surprise you, Holly?

[01:10:26] I think it did.

[01:10:28] We have a request for legal help at firstlibriety.org, and we hear stuff pretty consistently.

[01:10:33] It's kind of our ears on the ground of what's going on.

[01:10:36] But even with that, I do think the number 68%, I had that statistic pulled up as well.

[01:10:40] I think that's pretty shocking.

[01:10:43] I think hearing the candidates talk about religious liberty is going to be really important to me.

[01:10:48] I think that was something I was really listening for in the debates when they were going on.

[01:10:51] But, yeah, I think in a country where you know we live with a free exercise clause and establishment clause

[01:10:57] and freedom of speech, I think it's disheartening to hear 68%, almost 70% of people that are worshiping

[01:11:03] as evangelical Christians in this country feel like they have been sort of accosted for their faith.

[01:11:11] I guess my response to them is call me, perhaps.

[01:11:15] Seek out help.

[01:11:17] If something is happening to you, if you're being told to do something in your workplace

[01:11:22] that you disagree with and you feel like you're forced between a choice of your faith and your job,

[01:11:26] or if you're being silenced at school for whatever reason, you're trying to speak about your faith.

[01:11:33] Those are the kind of things that we love to help out with at First Celebrity.

[01:11:38] So yes, those 68% of you please give us a call.

[01:11:42] We're happy to help.

[01:11:44] We're happy to educate on these issues.

[01:11:46] We have resources online that can help you.

[01:11:48] But so much of making progress for other people in this country relies on those of us standing up for

[01:11:56] ourselves in those situations and saying, you know, it's not right that you're making me use pronouns

[01:12:01] that I disagree with.

[01:12:03] I need a religious accommodation and that's exactly in line with what we can help with at First Celebrity Institute.

[01:12:08] Well, I love it.

[01:12:10] Thank you so much for giving us something tangible that we can do.

[01:12:13] And I know also that First Celebrity doesn't only represent Christians.

[01:12:16] They represent, in my time at First Celebrity, I represented a mosque.

[01:12:20] I represented multiple synagogues.

[01:12:23] Lots of synagogues.

[01:12:24] Anti-Semitism is on the rise.

[01:12:27] So if you're listening to this and you're not a Christian but you have another faith belief system,

[01:12:33] your beliefs are protected every bit as much.

[01:12:36] Jonathan, I want to turn to you now.

[01:12:38] You know, getting back to these survey results, what stood out to you not only as a pastor,

[01:12:42] but about, you know, these are essentially your congregants and their viewpoints on what matters to them at the polls

[01:12:49] and would love to hear your thoughts.

[01:12:50] Yeah, I think it's interesting the order or I suppose the percentage breakdown of where people are, what they care about.

[01:12:58] And you know, in many ways Chelsea, I think, you know, the winds of politics, they blow.

[01:13:02] This is the season for it.

[01:13:04] And I think people are going to care about the things that impact them most directly on a day-to-day basis.

[01:13:10] We've always known that.

[01:13:12] But I think it's evangelicals as believers.

[01:13:14] One of the things that was just said a moment ago that this nation and living in the kind of country that we do

[01:13:20] and why we advocate so strongly for religious liberty and we should, is because it allows us to be able to not just vent in the public space,

[01:13:29] public square but drive change.

[01:13:32] And for faithful local churches and pastors and believers and communities and schools and school boards

[01:13:38] and so many different places in our communities where truth matters and needs to matter more and more.

[01:13:43] I think certainly we've got to be responsive to where people are at,

[01:13:45] but at the same time churches have also and believers have also got to drive change within culture with, you know, obviously as we spoke about a moment ago,

[01:13:54] you know, whether it's being pro-life and pregnancy centers and advocating in the foster and adoption space,

[01:13:59] which our church just got finished with a huge nationwide conference highlighting that called the Chosen Conference.

[01:14:04] Those are just examples where the church has an opportunity to set the pace and set the temperature of the moment

[01:14:10] by helping people really focus their attention and priorities around the stuff that really does matter.

[01:14:13] And so, yeah, of course there's going to be so many things that drive what people are interested in and what they're serious to, to be honest.

[01:14:20] But I think in the culture we have an interesting moment with so much obvious division.

[01:14:25] There is within that I think Chelsea an opportunity to create more clarity around what's true and what's most needed in our communities.

[01:14:33] And so whether it's caring for children and families and this, this, this place people on and on and on.

[01:14:39] I just, for me as a pastor, I look at it through that lens.

[01:14:43] I don't just look at it as a political reactionary.

[01:14:46] You kind of alluded to this in the previous segment.

[01:14:48] Yes, we can react to different things that we see in here, but I think it also presents an interesting cultural moment.

[01:14:53] When we look at our Ivy League campuses, they're exploding with violence and protests over, my goodness, you know, pro-Hamas rhetoric.

[01:15:00] And we just, it's like we're leaving the plot and the culture and all this.

[01:15:02] And I think it's a unique moment for Christians to bring us back to truth and biblical worldview and to use that as kind of our clarion call in the day that we live.

[01:15:12] You know, I love what you're saying.

[01:15:14] I also think that there's a connection.

[01:15:16] You know, they always say that the law is downstream of politics, which is downstream of culture.

[01:15:22] And I think one thing that's been really apparent to me as you say after a row is overturned is how much, I mean, if you look around the culture as a church,

[01:15:32] it's like the church is lost, right?

[01:15:34] And I can't help but wonder what your thoughts are on not just the church's role in serving our communities and sharing the gospel, but also a level of discipleship within the church of believers on these issues.

[01:15:46] You know, because I do think that we're the most biblically statistically, we're the most biblically illiterate churchgoing people that have ever been.

[01:15:54] I think it's over like 70% of believers aren't reading their Bible anymore and not to call anyone out, but open your Bible today.

[01:16:00] There's peace to be found there.

[01:16:02] Some really crazy stories, but I love your thoughts on the discipleship component in your last few minutes here.

[01:16:08] Yeah, of course.

[01:16:09] And I mean, that's the whole at the end of the day that that was the final commission and commandment to the church directly from the mouth of Jesus himself is to go and make disciples.

[01:16:17] He didn't just call us to go and make converts.

[01:16:20] He didn't call us to go and even build constituencies if you'll forgive the term there.

[01:16:24] But it's apropos to the day.

[01:16:25] I think in the midst of such intensifying political rhetoric and in such divisive days and they are, and if people aren't paying attention, they need to see there.

[01:16:35] This is a divisive moment in our nation.

[01:16:38] And I just think Chelsea that when the church of the Lord Jesus gets intentional on teaching truth, modeling truth, giving people opportunity to live out and flush out truth.

[01:16:49] That's where the rubber meets the road in Christian living because it's one thing for us to say again, we're pro life or you know, we're for this kind of, you know, family environment.

[01:16:59] We support marriage and we do.

[01:17:02] There's no question about what do we derive that from?

[01:17:04] We derive it from the scripture.

[01:17:06] We derive it from a biblical worldview.

[01:17:08] And so churches and pastors that are committed to faithfully preaching and teaching the scripture.

[01:17:13] I think those guys are going to be the craziest guys in town and the most interesting and the most unique because they're going to draw such a clear distinction between life and darkness, truth and lies.

[01:17:23] And then you get the unique and distinct privilege of helping people to understand what the scripture means.

[01:17:29] So if the Bible is not the fundamental tool of your local church, then you're missing it.

[01:17:33] And now we see Chelsea, the statistics tell us we've got more unmarried people than married people for the first time in our culture.

[01:17:40] That's significant.

[01:17:42] And so we have more unmarried people attending with diminished regularity in churches.

[01:17:47] That's significant.

[01:17:49] And so I think we need to feel and sense the urgency of this in our own homes and in our own pulpits in our own churches.

[01:17:55] Well said.

[01:17:57] Well said, Jonathan.

[01:17:59] This is why they pay you the big bucks as a senior associate pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church.

[01:18:03] I know we're both laughing at that.

[01:18:05] But I do so appreciate your wisdom and insight and discernment.

[01:18:09] I know that you'll be leaving, but don't go anywhere because Holly and I have a few more topics to discuss after this break.

[01:18:16] Music playing

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[01:18:34] You're listening to Point of View, your listener supported source for truth.

[01:18:41] Welcome back to the Millennial Roundtable.

[01:18:43] I'm Chelsea Yeoman, and I have Holly Randall with me here today in our last few minutes of a show that's been really jam-packed full of everything that you could imagine from talking about the FBI targeting Christians and Catholics as domestic terrorists to abortion.

[01:19:01] And President Trump's stance to even the red heifers in Israel and what that role had to play in the war with Hamas.

[01:19:10] So very interesting topics today.

[01:19:13] Go back and listen at pointofview.net, and don't forget to like us on Facebook at Point of View Radio.

[01:19:18] Holly, I wanted to turn to you now.

[01:19:20] I know you mentioned a few cases this hour already, but I would love to get an update from you on whatever is happening currently at First Liberty Institute with your clients and your cases.

[01:19:31] Really, what's top of mind for you on the religious liberty front as you are after all on those front lines?

[01:19:36] Yeah, we actually had one that's been a lot of fun.

[01:19:41] You would think, you know, a lot of our viewers know Coach Kennedy.

[01:19:45] He's from the Bermerton, Washington area, and you would think the whole state of Washington would get the message.

[01:19:51] But recently we got in contact with a sweet little, I think she's 11-year-old girl, Laura Walker.

[01:19:58] And she is about 45 minutes down the road from where Coach Kennedy was fired.

[01:20:03] And she is being told by her elementary school that she cannot have an interfaith prayer club.

[01:20:10] So the school, Asakwa Elementary School said, you know, it's just fine that we can have a pride club, but you sweet little Laura,

[01:20:20] you want to gather with your, you know, members of your school and let them have just time to pray to whoever they want to pray to.

[01:20:26] She lives in an incredibly diverse area and realizes that, you know, us gathering together to pray is a way for me to,

[01:20:34] you know, share my own light with people that may not have the same faith background as me.

[01:20:38] And so that's what she wanted to do.

[01:20:40] She was told by the school, no, we have a process.

[01:20:44] You have to go through it.

[01:20:46] They basically tried to turn, you know, an 11-year-old girl into public school bureaucratic paper filling, you know, nonsense.

[01:20:53] And she just said, I just want to pray and the pride club didn't have to go through that process as you can imagine.

[01:21:00] I know we've talked a lot about that type of issue here today.

[01:21:03] But so we're fighting for her ability to gather with her fellow classmates and have this organization, this club before the school year ends.

[01:21:11] Well, thank you so much for telling us about that case.

[01:21:14] I mean, I think it's something we, as we talked about on the show today, just how much there's been an increase in, you know, not just bias but action against believers publicly.

[01:21:28] And the school is a huge part of that.

[01:21:31] You know, we have this survey on evangelical issues that they care about in the election and parental rights related to their children in school is on that list as a top priority as it should be because schools are supposed to be a big part of that.

[01:21:44] They should be protecting our children and certainly not boxing out their parents and, you know, doing things like helping them transition to an entirely different gender without their parents knowing it.

[01:21:56] And so when you look at the school systems, it's really devastating to think that there are school systems that are not just doing all that other activity on the parental rights front but also just actively blocking Christians from being able to participate in their right to participate in school.

[01:22:14] So, I think that's a great case at right now.

[01:22:16] So in that case, we have sent a letter to the school district and we are hoping they're receptive to our issues that we raise.

[01:22:24] You know, we're prayerfully anticipating that they understand how the first amendment works.

[01:22:27] And it's interesting that what you raised about schools, there was also big news this week out of the Biden administration regarding Title IX.

[01:22:33] So the Title IX, as you know, our viewers will remember, protects gender and sex-based rights in schools.

[01:22:42] And the Biden administration sort of got a little creative and redefined the word sex in that statute and through the regulations to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

[01:22:54] So this is now going to sort of transform the landscape of what schools are able to do regarding things like single sex bathrooms and sexual assault allegations.

[01:23:05] And this is something that we've been anticipating in the religious liberty world for a long time.

[01:23:10] Title IX does have a religious exemption, but it's going to have trickle-down ramifications, right?

[01:23:14] And so about two years ago, the Biden administration said, hey, we're thinking about doing this and they invited comment from people.

[01:23:22] And there was such an uproar it took them two years to respond to all the concerns raised in what they were planning to do with changing this definition.

[01:23:32] And you know, it's really, it's exactly what the people articulated in that survey that things like sex and gender, those issues are incredibly prevalent in schools right now.

[01:23:42] They're things that, you know, kids from young ages to high school to college, this affects them.

[01:23:49] And so it'll be interesting to see what happens with this Title IX change.

[01:23:53] I think that's going to be something that, you know, people that listen to point of view may want to pay attention to.

[01:23:58] I'm sure we'll be discussing it a lot going forward because this has already made news and it's going to continue to make news.

[01:24:04] Yes, it is.

[01:24:05] And Wendy, we've discussed a lot on this show too is the rise of anti-Semitism in our country.

[01:24:11] Are you guys seeing an influx in cases or requests for help with any from the Jewish community?

[01:24:17] We are probably representing more synagogues now.

[01:24:21] I would just say if you look at our caseload, you know, in percentage of cases that are Jewish congregations, it's probably at its highest rate that it's ever been.

[01:24:30] Just because it seems like we get contacted so consistently of just horrible attacks.

[01:24:38] And it's, you know, a lot of times in our cases, lawyers have to go through this really incredibly boring process called discovery where you read a bunch of people's emails that they shouldn't have sent and look for evidence.

[01:24:49] And a lot of times cities are really creative when they're going to engage in religious discrimination and they, you know, kind of don't quite put it in, you know, material that they think could one day end up discoverable in a lawsuit.

[01:25:03] But it's horrible to see in these cases involving anti-Semitism the absolute blatant verbiage that's willing to be used in emails.

[01:25:12] I mean allusions to the Holocaust by city officials and the horror that that was and how, you know, they don't want Jewish people in their community.

[01:25:22] They're just willing to outright say it.

[01:25:24] And so that's been shocking really to see.

[01:25:27] I mean, I know you litigated for a number of years.

[01:25:29] You probably did plenty of discovery doc review and thought, oh my goodness, where's the smoking gun?

[01:25:34] And that's kind of the thing they teach new lawyers is it's usually not there.

[01:25:38] Usually people cover it up.

[01:25:40] What we're seeing right now in a lot of our cases involving Jewish people that there is, you know, stuff being said that's just outright blatant anti-Semitism by elected officials.

[01:25:52] Wow.

[01:25:53] It's something I think we're not surprised by, you know, when we look at the things being said on public streets at our universities and it's something that has been inundated in this culture.

[01:26:04] Unlike ever before.

[01:26:06] But I'm so grateful for First Liberty Institute where you guys are on the front lines defending people standing in the gap.

[01:26:13] And I remember thinking when I was an attorney there, how much how courageous really your clients are because if it weren't for your clients willing to take a stand and willing to deal with the public ridicule and then ridicule among their own communities or in their own school districts, wherever they are.

[01:26:30] If it wasn't for their courage, then really the rights would be chipped away at.

[01:26:35] Isn't that right, Holly?

[01:26:36] Absolutely.

[01:26:37] And you're so right about the courage.

[01:26:38] I mean we have, you know, an 11-year-old girl that is going to appear on Fox News on Friday night, you know, talking about how she's pursuing legal action against her school and she walks through the doors on Monday morning to her classmates.

[01:26:51] And that's just an example to me of, you know, if Laura Walker in Isakwa, Washington can do it, then I think any of us can stand up for what we believe and understand that it's important to do so.

[01:27:04] It's important to draw a line.

[01:27:05] There's people out there.

[01:27:06] There's lawyers out there that can help.

[01:27:08] And, you know, we don't always just have to sort of give in to when the government says, you must do this.

[01:27:13] You know, there's definitely limits to their power and we want to protect you from those at First Liberty Institute.

[01:27:16] Yes, it just reminds me of that saying, you know, we are little but we are mighty.

[01:27:20] And I think as believers in this world, continuing to just stand firm in our commitment to our faith, to exercising our faith, to prayer.

[01:27:28] And then to, as Jonathan mentioned so eloquently earlier on this show, just to commit to discipling and the culture as best as we can.

[01:27:39] So thank you so much for your time, Holly.

[01:27:41] Don't forget to go to FirstLiberty.org to learn more about how you can support them or HumanCoalition.org to learn how you can support mothers who are seeking abortion and with alternatives.

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