Point of View August 7, 2024 – Hour 2 : Unlimited, Take It Down Act

[00:00:00] Across America, Live, This is Point of View. I've spent some time now talking with Dr. Benny Tate and I might just mention that we will take kind of a break for a while from some of the issues in the news

[00:00:29] but before this hour is up, we will have a chance to talk with Senator Ted Cruz about that piece of legislation we've encouraged many of you to take action on

[00:00:37] but Dr. Benny Tate is a senior pastor of Rock Springs Church in Milner, Georgia. Under his leadership the congregation grew from 80 to 8,000 people. He has served as the president of the Congregational Methodist Denomination for 10 years. Also served as a chaplain of the United States Senate House of Representatives.

[00:00:56] He is the author of Defy the Odds, host of the Leeds Club podcast. This book which came out last year, Unlimited, Experiencing the Fullness of God's Power in Your Life, is one that I think would really help your Christian life.

[00:01:11] About 200 pages, lots of information. It could still be in the bookstores but if not we of course have a link so that you can get it there as well on our website at pointofview.net. Dr. Benny Tate, thank you for joining us today here on Point of View.

[00:01:27] Kirby, I'm honored. I've been looking forward to this and thank you so much for having me. Well it is good to have you on and we'll see if we can increase the audio there a little bit so we can hear you better.

[00:01:37] But I thought it was so interesting that as we are going to be talking about of course the Holy Spirit and we recognize that the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5 we hear,

[00:01:47] Do not be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life but instead be filled with the Holy Spirit.

[00:01:52] And you start out by telling us a story which I never knew and that is when your family makes a living selling whiskey illegally out of the back door of your house, there's no such thing as a good night's sleep.

[00:02:07] So when we talk about the Holy Spirit and we talk about alcohol, you have familiarity with both don't you? That's exactly right Kirby. I did not grow up in church.

[00:02:20] I was actually born out of a one night relationship with my mother and father and I was raised by a dysfunctional stepfather and we eventually got out of that environment and started kind of living anywhere we could.

[00:02:40] We did. We sold whiskey illegally. We made a living selling whiskey. So I didn't grow up in the church but God used my pain many times to help other people.

[00:02:53] And I just mentioned later on in the book I found out you hadn't met your father until 30 years later so there's some great stories there which we'll get to.

[00:03:01] But we're primarily going to really talk about a topic that doesn't get a lot of attention even inside the church and I was struck by the fact that a very wonderful introduction, a foreword by Ruth Graham of all people

[00:03:15] who even though she said I grew up in a Christian family, a rather prominent one indeed, went to Christian schools, went to Christian college, majored in Bible, but I really did not understand the Holy Spirit as a friend and guide

[00:03:29] and then takes us through even in her foreword a little bit of her own kind of attempt to try to understand what it means to have spirit-filled living and that's why you've written the book, isn't it?

[00:03:42] That's exactly right. You know I believe even the people that grew up in church, they heard a lot about God, they heard a lot about Jesus. But Jesus said that it's necessary that I go away so the Spirit can come.

[00:03:58] And you've got to understand the Holy Spirit is just as much God, He's God is God. He's just as much God as Jesus is God.

[00:04:05] And so we grew up in an environment where we heard a lot about God, a lot about Jesus, but not a lot about the Holy Spirit. And I think it's imperative. That's why I wrote the book. I mean it's literally 12 chapters and it's 12 chapters about the Holy Spirit.

[00:04:22] Again you have a section on the unlimited need, the unlimited presence, the unlimited power and unlimited purpose. Let's talk about that need and that is we have individuals, and I love your illustration, that are spiritually dehydrated

[00:04:37] and yet Jesus taught us that indeed in John 4 and other passages that He is living water. And it does seem to me that if Jesus has gone and the Holy Spirit is here, we should have this not only indwelling but filling of the Holy Spirit.

[00:04:57] Can you explain that? Well that's exactly right. What's amazing, Jesus said I'm going to go away. And here's what's so interesting Kirby. He said I want, he said to his church, you go to Jerusalem and you wait for 10 days until you be endued with power from on high.

[00:05:15] Here's what's so amazing. He said during these 10 days don't you preach. He didn't tell them to go preach. He didn't tell them to go witness. He didn't tell them to go teach, don't assimilate, don't do anything.

[00:05:25] Just go there and wait until you receive the Holy Spirit in your life. Now that message says to me Kirby that for us to try to do something without the Holy Spirit we're not going to accomplish it.

[00:05:41] He said don't you even try to do anything until you have the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. I love what Major Ian Thomas said. He said I cannot, you never said I could, you can, you always said you would.

[00:05:56] It's through the power of the Holy Spirit that we're able to do great things. And we desperately, I just would want our listeners to know that we desperately need Him. And when I say Him we need the person and we need a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit.

[00:06:15] Let's see if we can, maybe I'm jumping ahead a little bit. I love your story there, you know when I get to heaven I want to talk to Moses what it was like to stretch out your rod over the Red Sea.

[00:06:25] Noah what it was like to be in a boat for a year with all those animals and Daniel and on and on and on. And then all of a sudden they'll turn around and say Benny what was it like, you mean me,

[00:06:36] that after all you had the Holy Spirit living within you. Now if you've ever taught through the Old Testament, I know you have and I have, there are times when it talks about the Spirit came upon someone.

[00:06:48] But what we I think today in the New Testament if we're believers take for granted was completely unusual and very rare for people in the Old Testament. Oh that's exactly right, that's exactly right.

[00:07:04] The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament would come on people for certain tasks and then He would leave. But in the New Testament He lives within us. You know think about the children of Israel Kirby, they were led by a pillar of cloud,

[00:07:19] they were led by a pillar of fire and you think well that's wonderful. Look up in the sky there's a pillar of fire at night and you follow it and it directs you. And you think man that would be incredible. Well I'll teach something more incredible than that.

[00:07:34] God through the Holy Spirit lives inside of us and He leads us through God living inside of us. If you think about that Kirby that's just incredible. I mean that's just amazing that the Holy Spirit of God, God is inside of us. It's just amazing to me.

[00:07:59] Let's take a break and when we come back we're going to get into a little more of the detail. First of all what are the characteristics of the Holy Spirit? What's the difference between the infilling and filling of the Holy Spirit?

[00:08:10] It's all part of this book Unlimited as he pointed out, 12 chapters. But let me just mention for those of you that maybe teach a small group or Sunday school class or life fellowship.

[00:08:20] At the end of each chapter there are series of questions that you can use for reflection. And of course you can read through this book individually. But if you feel like I really don't know much about the Holy Spirit.

[00:08:33] The people that I'm ministering to don't know much about it either. Can I recommend this book because it's written in such a way that you could probably use it as a small group study as well. Let's continue our conversation with Benny Tate right after this.

[00:08:58] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. You've probably heard the phrase history does not repeat itself but it rhymes. You know that observation is true especially in economics. Investor Ray Dalio learned that lesson at a young age.

[00:09:12] Back in 1971 he was clerking the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. When President Nixon announced that paper currency could no longer be turned in for gold. He expected pandemonium on the floor as stocks took a dive. Instead the stock market jumped 4% as the dollar plummeted.

[00:09:28] He was surprised because he hadn't experienced a currency devaluation but would have known if he had studied history. This isn't the first time the U.S. has had to deal with significant inflation.

[00:09:38] In fact the current chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell vows that he won't make the mistake of Arthur Burns who was the Fed chairman back in 1970s. I recently read an article from an economics professor who was at the Federal Reserve back in those days.

[00:09:51] He said that Arthur Burns wanted to remove energy related products from the consumer price index because of the Yom Kippur War and the subsequent oil embargo. Blaming oil prices on a war. Does that sound familiar? Then came surging food prices.

[00:10:06] Arthur Burns argued that this was traceable to unusual weather. Especially an El Nino event that affected such things as fertilizers and feedstock prices. He therefore wanted to remove food prices from the CPI. Again does that sound familiar?

[00:10:20] By the time he was done only about 35% of the CPI was left. If you've been listening to my commentary for any length of time you know that we no longer measure CPI the way we did decades ago.

[00:10:32] So this isn't the first time America has had to deal with significant inflation. And we can learn some lessons from economic history about what we should do. I'm Kirby Anderson and that's my point of view.

[00:10:44] For a free booklet on a biblical view of Israel go to viewpoints.info.com You're listening to Point of View. Your listener supported source for truth. We have with us today Benny Tate who is the senior pastor of Rock Springs Church in Milner, Georgia.

[00:11:09] Individual that has served as the chaplain for the United States Senate as well as for the House of Representatives. Talking about his book Unlimited Experiencing the Fullness of God's Power in Your Life.

[00:11:20] If you'd like to know more about the book you can certainly find it in your local bookstore. But we also have a link so you can get it in paperback or Kindle. And Benny let's if we can talk about the characteristics of the Holy Spirit.

[00:11:31] When I've taught about that I talk about the fact that he's sometimes referred to as an encourager, a comforter or as a counselor. But the Holy Spirit has a will. The Holy Spirit has an emotion.

[00:11:41] So it's not like electricity. It is a person. It's one person in the Godhead. True? That's exactly right. Many times when you think speak of the Holy Spirit people think of the Holy Spirit as a force, as energy, as enthusiasm.

[00:11:59] But you've got to understand he is a person. He is a person with a mind, a will, emotions. He is a person that can be grieved. He is a person that can be quenched. He is a person that can be offended.

[00:12:15] He's a person and you've got to realize that. To really understand you've got to deem and understand you need a relationship with this person the Holy Spirit. Let's talk about the filling of the Holy Spirit because that's where the confusion comes.

[00:12:30] And I have benefited years ago, I mean decades ago, I saw a little blue book that was produced at that time by Campus Crusade but read about it other places in which you have this very helpful chapter and section chart

[00:12:44] in which on the one hand receiving the Holy Spirit happens once. Being filled with the Holy Spirit can happen any time. Receiving the Holy Spirit happens at salvation. Being filled with the Holy Spirit happens at surrender.

[00:12:57] And so you take us through all the different characteristics because if people were paying attention you just talked about the fact that you could quench the Holy Spirit. You could certainly be grieving the Holy Spirit. There are some places where the scriptures talk about that.

[00:13:12] So even though we can say we have the Holy Spirit within us at the moment of conversion the filling of the Holy Spirit is something that you talk about in one of the very key chapters in your book.

[00:13:25] Well it's very biblical because in Ephesians 1 and 1 the Bible is very clear that the book of Ephesians was written to the church at Ephesus. It actually says to the saints at Ephesus. So the saints. But he said in Ephesians 5.18

[00:13:42] Be not drunk with wine when in success but be you filled with the Spirit. So this wasn't pagan Greeks he was saying this to Kirby. He was saying this to the Christians. He was saying this to the church. He was saying this to the local church.

[00:13:57] You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So you know it's certainly as I say when we come to know Christ the Holy Spirit comes into our lives. The Bible is very clear in Romans 8 and 9 that we receive the Holy Spirit. But that happens one time.

[00:14:17] But being filled with the Holy Spirit happens over and over and over. And I think that's paramount for our listeners to understand. And I dig into that in the book and explain how that happens. Let me again mention that this book goes on for about 200 pages, 12 chapters.

[00:14:35] And I'll just keep moving because I want to cover some other points. And one is in this idea of unlimited presence. And you've got some great illustrations. And one of those I appreciate about the book was the all access pass.

[00:14:48] In other words you really have to decide to allow the Holy Spirit access to every room. That simply isn't a one time decision but a daily practice. And there are other ways to look at that in terms of the fact that we are a living sacrifice.

[00:15:05] And Benny one of the problems with a living sacrifice is they get back off the altar. But the same thing you can have the Holy Spirit living within you. But if you don't give them and give the Holy Spirit in this case complete access,

[00:15:18] then you're never really going to live the fulfilled Christian life. That's exactly right. As simple as this sounds, the only way to experience more of God is to give God more of you. See when you receive Christ, the Holy Spirit becomes a resident in your life.

[00:15:39] But He wants to be more than resident, a resident. He wants to be president. He wants total surrender. Total surrender of your life. That He can lead and guide and direct your life.

[00:15:54] That's why Jesus said look here, He said in John 14 and 12, He said the works I do you're going to do greater works. It's not because we have more faith than the Lord.

[00:16:06] But when Christ was here, if He was in Jerusalem, He couldn't be five miles away in Bethlehem. But through the Holy Spirit, He can be everywhere. Because He lives in believers. I love what A.W. Tozer said.

[00:16:25] He said if the Holy Spirit left the average church in his day, keep in mind that was in his day. If the Holy Spirit left the average church in his day, 95% of what they were doing would continue.

[00:16:44] But he said if the Holy Spirit had left the New Testament church, 95% of what they were doing would be shut down. It was shut down because they were totally, totally led by the Holy Spirit. We've tried everything Kirby. We've tried everything.

[00:17:07] But what's going to, here's what I would say. I agree with the great preacher of old Charles Fittie. He said the Holy Spirit inside of our churches will draw the world in.

[00:17:22] But he said if we don't have the Holy Spirit inside of our churches, the world, the world will draw the church members out. And I think that's exactly correct.

[00:17:37] You know one of the things you're talking about here is of course having access to every room in your life. But you also have to be willing to hear His call. And you talk about the fact that we don't necessarily ask for direction and guidance.

[00:17:52] And yet we've all had those, if we've been a Christian for a long time, spiritual appointments that were directed by the Holy Spirit, don't we? Without a doubt, without a doubt, the Holy Spirit is directing us.

[00:18:05] I talk about some illustrations in the book when I was sensitive to the Holy Spirit. And then I talk about times when I wasn't. And how I learned from that and how I've learned it's best to be led, to walk in the Spirit.

[00:18:23] You know people will say to me, Pastor, I've got this struggle, I've got this vice, I've got this problem. I can't overcome it. You can't on your own. But you can through the power of the Holy Spirit.

[00:18:38] I want people to understand that through the power of the Holy Spirit, it's amazing what can happen in our lives. Because it's the way God meant for it to be. Let's talk about the fruit of the Spirit because after all that is another very important aspect of that.

[00:18:55] I might also mention near the end of the book there is a place where you can even get a spiritual gifts test. But if again you talk about the world being drawn to the church.

[00:19:06] Again if you've been a Christian for a long period of time, you probably had some non-Christian come up and say, Okay I can't figure you out. But you seem to have joy, you seem to have peace. Everybody's falling apart and you're not. What is it about you?

[00:19:19] And it seems to me that the fruit of the Spirit can be a great opportunity for evangelism. What are your thoughts? That's exactly right. Galatians 5, 22 and 23 talks about the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy and peace. People are drawn to that. See, people are drawn to that.

[00:19:40] The Christian should motivate people to want to be like that. And how we do that is through the Holy Spirit living inside of us. He gives love, He gives joy, He gives peace. He's long suffering.

[00:20:01] And certainly through the fruit of the Spirit, people can see Jesus Christ in our lives. Let's take a break and when we come back we'll talk a little bit about the positive. What about the negative?

[00:20:13] And that is we live in a world, the world, the flesh and the devil. And what is our defense against that? And how can maybe we use this to live free and to break the chains and things of that on our lives?

[00:20:27] And then just talk about how this can give us boldness and even divine direction. It's all part of this book, Unlimited. Benny Tate is the author. He's been with us and will be with us for another segment before we end that particular interview.

[00:20:40] If you're interested in the book, Unlimited, Experiencing the Fullness of God's Power in Your Life, it is, as I said before, 12 chapters broken down into four particular areas. The unlimited need, unlimited presence, His unlimited power and your unlimited purpose,

[00:20:58] as well as some great material, even a prayer for salvation at the end and information about a spiritual gifts inventory and much more. So again, if you're interested in the book, we have information about it on the website.

[00:21:10] You can also look for it at your local bookstore as well. But if you can't find it there, written by Benny Tate, forward by Ruth Graham, a veritable who's who of people that have endorsed the book.

[00:21:21] And we'll take a break and continue our conversation with Benny Tate right after this. At Point of View, we believe there is power in prayer. And that is why we have relaunched our Pray for America campaign,

[00:21:40] a series of weekly emails to unite Americans in prayer for our nation. Imagine if hundreds of thousands of Americans started praying intentionally together on a weekly basis. You can help make that a reality by subscribing to our Pray for America emails.

[00:22:00] Just go to pointofview.net and click on the Pray for America banner that's right there on the homepage. Each week you'll receive a brief news update, a specific prayer guide and a free resource to equip you in further action.

[00:22:18] We encourage you to not only pray with us each week, but to share these prayers and the resources with others in your life. Join the movement today. Visit pointofview.net and click on the banner Pray for America right there at the top. That's pointofview.net.

[00:22:40] Let's pray together for God to make a difference in our land. Point of View will continue after this. You are listening to Point of View. The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of the station.

[00:23:09] And now, here again is Kirby Anderson. Continuing our conversation today with Benny Tate. Again, he is the senior pastor of Rock Springs Church in Milner, Georgia. We're talking about his book, Unlimited, Experiencing the Fullness of God's Power in Your Life.

[00:23:25] And Benny, for just a few minutes, let's talk about the negative. We've talked about the positive of having the Holy Spirit in our lives, but we face spiritual attacks. And you have a whole section here on defense and the strongest defense.

[00:23:40] And it does seem to me that we sometimes, again, want to fight spiritual battles in the flesh. And the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but divinely powerful.

[00:23:51] So how do we begin to, again, implement some of the aspects of the Holy Spirit in our lives to defend against these spiritual attacks? Well, I love what you said, first of all, Kirby, when you said that we have attacks.

[00:24:08] You know, Jonathan Edwards said, he said, when the church is revived, so is the devil. When the church is revived, so is the devil. And so certainly we are in a warfare. We're in a spiritual battle that most people don't realize.

[00:24:27] And what I want people to realize is we win these battles through the power of the Holy Spirit. There was one time that Moses, Moses was battling Malachi. And he was up on the mountain. And Joshua was down in the valley and warfare was taking place.

[00:24:52] And as long as Moses had his hands lifted up, well, you know the story, you're a Bible man. They were winning the battle. But when his hands dropped, they lost. And that's when Aaron and Hur came along, and they lifted his hands up.

[00:25:07] Well, you know, we've got to understand something. We're in a battle down here. But the battle is won up there. It's a spiritual battle. It's through the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what the Bible says in the book of Isaiah.

[00:25:24] When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit shall lift up a standard against him. I am convinced that we are no match for the enemy. And the only way we're a match for the enemy is through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

[00:25:43] That's why Galatians 5 and 16 says, How do you overcome something? It's not in your own strength. It's in the strength of the Holy Spirit inside of you. Because the Scripture says, And you know what's amazing to me, Kirby?

[00:26:07] God, how did, you know, somebody talks about probably the greatest battle story in the Bible is David and Goliath. This little old Jewish boy overcoming this giant that was almost 10 feet tall. How do you do it? Well, we fail to realize in 1 Samuel 16, 13, before that battle took place,

[00:26:28] Samuel came down. He took a horn of oil. He anointed David. And the Bible says, And you know, David defeated the giant. But it was after the Spirit of God came upon him. And I just want our listeners to know that it's just not in our strength.

[00:26:50] I think God uses the unlikely, the unlikely that will submit to a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Well, that brings us to another point because you talk about later on in the book, living with purpose, but also living with boldness.

[00:27:05] And if you go back to David, I mean, he's standing before Goliath and he's really bold. I mean, he is convinced that he's going to win. And it isn't even a question.

[00:27:16] And it does seem to me that when the Spirit came upon him or when the Spirit is in us, that we can live boldly as you talk about in your book. Well, think about Peter.

[00:27:28] Here Peter was and they asked him and they said a young lady asked him, Are you with Jesus? He was intimidated by this young lady. He said, No, no, I don't even know him.

[00:27:39] And we all know the story about three times he denied the Lord and the caught crew on him. But what's so amazing, after Pentecost, he's able to look the most powerful court.

[00:27:52] He's able to look the most powerful court in the eye and say, you know, you stiff neck and uncircumcised individuals. You've crucified the Son of God. What gave him that boldness? The Scripture says in Acts 4 and 13 that Peter and John were just ignorant and unlearned men.

[00:28:13] But they had been with the Lord. It's the power of the Holy Spirit that gives us the boldness. I pastor a church in Milner, Georgia. Our population literally is a little over 700 people. But I mean, I think Easter we had 13,400 people. 13,400. I mean, it's Milner.

[00:28:35] Our zip code is EIEIO. There's no explanation. We're so far in the country, Kirby, the June bugs don't show up until August. But here's what I want you to understand. God has done exploits. And there's no explanation other than the Holy Spirit on this place.

[00:28:56] And what I would say to pastors, and I'm sure some are listening, pastors, somebody said we've got to design our services to attract people. I disagree with that. We have to design our services to attract the Holy Spirit.

[00:29:11] And when we attract the Holy Spirit, we will attract people. People will be drawn to the presence of the Holy Spirit. I'm sorry for getting a little preachy, Kirby. We expect that from preachers, so that works out just fine.

[00:29:28] So what attracts – then we ask the question, what attracts the Holy Spirit? Well, that's pretty simple. Jesus literally – Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men to me. And then in John 15 and 26, the Bible says the Holy Spirit came to glorify Jesus.

[00:29:59] Hey, in my simple vernacular, he didn't come to toot his own horn. He came to brag on Jesus. So our church services should not focus on a denomination. They should not focus on a personality. They should not focus on a church. They should focus on exalting Jesus Christ.

[00:30:25] And if you do that, if you do that, that will attract the Holy Spirit. You know, you were talking to pastors, and let's just add to that Sunday school teachers and small group leaders and everything. How can they use this book?

[00:30:38] Because it seems to me that, as I pointed out a minute ago, anybody can read through this individually, and there are questions for reflection at the end. But you put it together in such a way that it actually could be a small group study.

[00:30:50] It could even be a sermon series. What about that? Let me tell you. Hundreds, maybe thousands of – well, certainly thousands – churches are using this in their life groups. They're using it. Pastors are preaching through it.

[00:31:05] What's so amazing about this book and when I wrote this book, Ruth Graham, as you know, she wrote the foreword. She's a dear friend of mine and my wife's. But we've got people endorsing our book, like people like Jensen Franklin, you know, who pastors Free Chapel Church.

[00:31:22] We've got Jim Simbala, who pastors the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church. We've got different – for lack of a better word – we've got different tribes that have endorsed this book.

[00:31:32] I wanted to write a book that the Pentecostal Church could use in their life groups and the Presbyterian Church could use in their life groups. You know, when we think about Ruth Graham, you know, Billy was a Southern – her daddy was a Southern Baptist evangelist.

[00:31:50] But what most people don't know, her mother was a Presbyterian, and she raised the children Presbyterian their entire lives. So what I'm trying to say, no matter what your denominational background, the Holy Spirit is – He is for you.

[00:32:05] And if I can say one more thing on that, the first person that you read about in the entire Word of God that was filled with the Holy Spirit – you say, oh, Pastor, that's got to be Moses, that's got to be David. No, no, no.

[00:32:21] Let me tell you, the first person, the Bible says, was filled with the Holy Spirit. His name was Bezalel. Where's he mentioned? He's mentioned in Exodus 31, verses 1 through 4. He wasn't ordained. He was a craftsman. He worked with wood. He worked with stone.

[00:32:38] But he was filled with the Holy Spirit. So what I want our listeners to hear today, many times when we talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit, we think of that guy who's teaching Sunday school, that pastor, that worship leader.

[00:32:51] No, being filled with the Holy Spirit is for everybody, Kirby. And that's the best news I know. Again, the book is entitled Unlimited, Benny Tate. I might also mention endorsed by Michael Yosef as well as Will Graham and Jim Cimbala, and of course the forward by Ruth Graham.

[00:33:08] So, Benny, thank you for being with us, and thank you for writing the book. Kirby, it was an honor and privilege. And thank you, listen, thank you for the great work that you all are doing and the difference you're making in America. Well, thank you.

[00:33:23] We're going to take a break, and when we come back, just for a few minutes with Senator Ted Cruz. As you might remember, we have encouraged you to contact members of Congress about the Take It Down Act. We'll talk with him about that.

[00:33:35] I'm sure he's got a few thoughts about this upcoming presidential campaign as well as his own. We'll talk about all that right after this. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:34:01] As you know, for the last couple of weeks we've encouraged you to contact your two United States senators about the Take It Down Act. And we, of course, have given a great deal of credit to Senator Ted Cruz for that.

[00:34:12] And I thought we might chat with him for a minute about that. An individual, of course, that was elected to the United States Senate, was sworn in in 2013, has been a passionate fighter for limited government, economic growth, and national security.

[00:34:26] I wanted to get his thoughts about the Take It Down Act, and I'm sure he's got some thoughts about the Minnesota governor that is the presumptive vice presidential nominee. Ted Cruz, welcome back to Point of View. Kirby, great to be with you. Thanks for having me.

[00:34:40] Let's see if we can talk about this act for just a minute, then I'll get into some of the other issues in the news because we saw the press conference you did in Aledo, Texas.

[00:34:48] This is a piece of legislation to address this issue of deep, fake revenge porn. Can you tell us more? Yeah. Well, sure. We're seeing a growing pattern of teenagers and in particular teenage girls targeted. And we're seeing a pattern across the country of non-consensual intimate images,

[00:35:08] both real images that are sometimes taken, say, in the course of a relationship, and there's a breakup and someone gets mad and posts images or videos, intimate images without the consent of the individual.

[00:35:21] But we're also seeing a new pattern that is growing exponentially of people using artificial intelligence, AI, to create deep, fake images. And they can take a perfectly innocuous photograph of someone from social media,

[00:35:38] and they can use AI to create a deep, fake that appears to be either a naked photograph or it can be even worse. It can be a video of their engaging in lewd acts. And for someone viewing it, it appears to be entirely genuine and real.

[00:35:54] And we're seeing this pattern over and over again. Over 90% of the people targeted by this are women or teenage girls. And you mentioned Aledo, Texas. I chaired a hearing recently, a field hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee in North Texas,

[00:36:10] and we had as one of the witnesses, Elliston Berry, who was a 15-year-old girl. She was a freshman in high school, and she woke up one morning, and a classmate of hers, another teenage boy, had taken an image from social media,

[00:36:25] had used AI to create deep fakes of her that appeared to be naked images, and sent it to all her classmates. And it was just an absolute nightmare, and we're seeing this happening all over the country.

[00:36:37] The Take It Down Act is bipartisan legislation that I drafted that, number one, would make it a crime, make it a felony to post nonconsensual intimate images. But number two, and every bit as important, it creates a right for a victim.

[00:36:54] If you're victimized by this, that the big tech platform must take down the images within 48 hours of being notified by a victim because for many of these victims, these images stay out there forever, and they can't get a response from big tech.

[00:37:10] This bill will force them to take it down. Let me just mention too, and then we'll move on to some other topics, that we have a press release from your office and one from the Conference Committee of the United States Senate, and it is bipartisan.

[00:37:24] I mean, half are Democrats, half are Republicans, more than a dozen individuals, co-sponsors, and we've had individuals that have certainly taken the time because of our website to click on the button,

[00:37:36] learn a little bit more about the Take It Down Act, and to contact their United States senators. So first of all, I wanted to give you high praise for that, and to recognize that with this artificial intelligence, these deep fakes can get very ugly

[00:37:51] in terms of the lives of the individuals, and more importantly, you've just had so much difficulty getting the various social media platforms to really take it down. But I'd be remiss if I didn't get some thoughts from Ted Cruz about the fact that we now know

[00:38:06] who both the presidential and the vice presidential ticket will be for the Democrats, and probably you know a little bit about Tim Walz, who's the Minnesota governor. Can you explain who he is to us? Well, I do, and I will say this is, without exaggeration,

[00:38:22] the most radical presidential and vice presidential ticket to ever run in our country. Kamala Harris I know very well. She and I served together in the Senate for many years. She's now vice president, so I continue to work with Kamala.

[00:38:35] She was in 2019, she was ranked by a nonpartisan ranking site as the single most liberal United States senator in the entire Senate, to the left of Bernie Sanders, to the left of Elizabeth Warren. That's who Kamala is.

[00:38:51] She's been a loud voice for open borders, for higher taxes, for debt, for out-of-control spending. She has been a vocal opponent of law enforcement. We've seen over the last four years Kamala Harris supports, and she's a true believer.

[00:39:09] And we just saw Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, announced as a vice presidential nominee. His record is very much the same. It is an extreme left-wing view.

[00:39:20] You know, you think back a few years ago to when we had Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots all across the country, and the city of Minneapolis was on fire. It was burning. The mobs were terrorizing shopkeepers, looting stores, firebombing police cars, assaulting police officers and innocent citizens.

[00:39:39] And Tim Walz is the governor. He refused to stop it. He effectively sided with the rioters, and Tim Walz in a very real sense let Minneapolis burn. And then what did Kamala Harris do?

[00:39:53] Kamala Harris came in and raised bail money to bail out the rioters who were burning the city. It's an extreme agenda. You also have Tim Walz's record on things like transgender extremism, where among other things he signed legislation mandating that boys' bathrooms in schools must have tampons.

[00:40:16] Look, that's an example of just how out of touch and how extreme he is. He said in another interview, he said one person's socialism is another person's neighborliness. Neighborliness, yes. No, it's not. And you know what?

[00:40:32] Harris and Walz, they are both coming from the same spot on the spectrum, which is the radical left. I only have about two minutes left, but I also would be remiss if I didn't ask you how your campaign is going.

[00:40:43] Obviously, you're in a car and going to another event. Well, I am. We're in the midst of a very serious re-election fight. I'm on the ballot this year. Chuck Schumer has made clear I'm his number one target in the country, and he's spending millions of dollars against me.

[00:41:00] George Soros is spending millions of dollars against me. And so, look, I'd encourage your listeners, go to our website. It's tedcruze.org, tedcruze.org. Go to our website and support us. Make a contribution. Give $25 or $50 or $100 at tedcruze.org because we've got millions coming in against us.

[00:41:19] We've had three polls in the last month that show this just as a three-point race. And if you want to see the senator from Texas fighting to secure our border, to support law enforcement, to support religious liberty and free speech in the Second Amendment and the Constitution,

[00:41:34] fighting for sanity, then I need your help. And so I would encourage your listeners, please lift me up in prayer, number one. And number two, come to our website, tedcruze.org. Sign up, volunteer, and contribute because it is a very real fight.

[00:41:48] And Chuck Schumer desperately wants to flip Texas and turn the entire country. Senator Ted Cruz, always great to have you on the program again. High praise for your Take It Down Act. I would encourage our listeners to take action if they haven't done so already.

[00:42:03] And I'll certainly speed you on to your next campaign event. Thank you for being with us today here on Point of View. Thank you, Kirby. God bless. We're going to take a break, and tomorrow we'll get back into some other issues in the news.

[00:42:15] We're going to talk about finances. I think you're really going to enjoy that book. And, of course, the economic issues are big issues, so we will talk about that. If you find yourself saying, well, I'm still trying to figure out how to vote and everything,

[00:42:26] the piece by John Stone Street just reminds us of some biblical principles about the idea that we certainly are citizens of heaven, but we're also citizens of earth. And St. Augustine said the best citizens in society are the ones who actually indeed are involved in the community.

[00:42:44] And certainly that is our responsibility here as well. It's all part of the material we've posted on our website in our Election Central. Of course, we have our Pray for America, my viewpoints commentary on inflation.

[00:42:56] And if you'd like to find out a little bit more about this piece by Ted Cruz, it's available on the website as well as a press release. I want to thank Megan for help engineering the program. Steve, thank you for producing the program.

[00:43:06] See you back here tomorrow right here on Point of View. It almost seems like we live in a different world from many people in positions of authority. They say men can be women and women men. People are prosecuted differently or not at all depending on their politics.

[00:43:24] Criminals are more valued and rewarded than law-abiding citizens. It's so overwhelming, so demoralizing. You feel like giving up, but we can't. We shouldn't. We must not. As Winston Churchill said to Britain in the darkest days of World War II, never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never.

[00:43:46] Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. And that's what we say to you today. This is not a time to give in, but to step up and join Point of View in providing clarity in the chaos.

[00:44:02] We can't do it alone, but together with God's help we will overcome the darkness. Invest in Biblical Clarity today at PointofView.net or call 1-800-347-5151. PointofView.net and 800-347-5151. Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.