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Dr. Jim Garlow is a lifelong pastor who most recently served in San Diego, California, and now leads Well Versed, a ministry dedicated to bringing biblical
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Rejecting Persecuted Christians 0:22 Welcome to the fourth video as we walk through the book, This Precarious Moment, 6 Urgent Steps That Will Save You, Your Family, and Our Country. I0:34 had the privilege of co authoring this book with David Barton, and he was such an enormous contributor and writer of it. And I'm just using these videos to fire questions at this guy. He is0:46 a wealth of information, a portable encyclopedia. So thank you, Dave, for what you know and what you're sharing with us. I'm gonna jump back in to the topic of immigration. We already talked about that in the first0:57 session, but let's take a little bit further. We have about 11000000. We we use the word either undocumented or ill illegal, in this country. It's about 3, 3 and a half percent approximately of our society.1:09 He has been very interesting, particularly under the Obama administration, when it came to Christians or Muslims coming into the country, where who was allowed in and who wasn't?1:21 Let me kinda put a personal perspective on this if I can. I'm chairman of the board of an organization that was founded to help persecuted Christians in the Middle East following what was called the Arab1:33 Spring. That Arab Spring saw the explosion of ISIS. They started killing Christians across that part of the region. There were some estimates that about 80 percent of Christians were removed from the1:45 Middle East region since the 1960s. The extermination of Christians was was massive. As Isis would come into traditional Christian communities, some of which date back to the time of Christ, they still speak1:57 Aramaic, which was the language that Jesus spoke. As they would come in, if they saw a Christian home, they they had the scouts that were going first for ISIS. And as they went in, if they found where a Christian lived,2:09 they would mark the sign of the Nazarene on the side of it, and that told the following ISIS troops, when you get here, kill these people. So they were impaled, they were beheaded, they were, I mean, just the atrocities2:21 were unbelievable. Parents killed in front of children, children in front of parents. And so as a result, an organization called the Nazarene Fund was started, and the symbol on that was the2:33 Nazarene mark that they used to identify Christians. And so in a relatively short period of time, we raised millions and millions and millions of dollars to help get Christians out of the Middle East to safety.2:45 And it was interesting that we could send them to Australia, we sent them to Slovakia, we sent them to Brazil, to Canada, we couldn't send them to the United States. The United States would not take them. And so we were2:55 unable to get persecuted Christians to safety in the U. S, but we could send them virtually anywhere else in the world. And we literally, had guys on the ground, the Kurds particularly, who hate ISIS, they would3:07 actually go in and rescue enslaved Christians, bring them out, having to fight ISIS to do so. So the organization we started has now helped more persecuted3:19 Christians in the last 3 years than any group in the world, hands down, thousands, tens of thousands. And so that changed with the Trump administration. Now, under the Obama administration,3:31 about 1 percent of those immigrants coming3:33 in from3:33 the Middle East were Christians, 99 percent were Muslims. Repeat that. That is so staggering. Under the Obama administration, they were taking refugees in from the Middle East. 99 percent were Muslim.3:45 1 percent were Christian.3:46 And what's amazing is when you consider the Christians who were trying to get out had nowhere to go.3:51 Now, see, that's that's the significant part is you have Muslim nations3:57 all over the Middle East. 23 years old.3:59 23, 26 that were willing to accept other Muslims, but America's accepting them. The Christians and Jews had nowhere to go in the Middle East for for protection. America4:11 could protect them, but America wouldn't receive them. So America, our heritage is so much more Judeo Christian. It is more of the the Bible, the Old and New Testament, and that's4:23 not the faith of Muslims. So it's harder for them to assimilate, whereas the Christians who were being persecuted, much easier for them to assimilate in America and actually were a refugee status people. I mean, they4:34 were the ones that were in danger. They were the ones being killed. It was not the Muslims being killed, although ISIS would kill moderate Muslims, secular Muslims would kill them as well, but not the same percentage. So4:45 our policy on immigration was we'll take Muslims but not Christians, and there's Christians that needed help. That's why we had to send them across the world to other places. So it's a reverse now. President Trump4:57 has announced we're going to take more Christians than we take Muslims, and that has been a real change in policy, and so we now are able to see a different way of helping these people.5:09 And ISIS now also has pretty much been beat back in many of those areas. They only have about, they still maintain about 20 percent of the Syria Iraq area5:20 that they're there, but so much smaller than they had been. So we don't have the same refugee problem, but at least America now is willing to take in these Christians, which really have no other place to go unless we5:31 send them to to Australia and to Brazil and elsewhere.5:35 I I live in San Diego, and the part of San Diego, what's called East County. Where I live, there's, about 80000 Chaldeans. And so these are Iraqis.5:47 Mhmm. And, of course, rich biblical area. Abraham came from Chaldea. And so they're they're not they're not Muslims. They're Chaldean Catholics. Yeah. And so they knew so5:58 many, particularly like when Nineveh fell, the ancient city of of Nineveh. They knew so many that they were trying desperately to get their relatives out. Mhmm. And 1 that I talked to and then6:10 the the the bishop of the Calabian Catholic Church for most of the states east of the east of the Mississippi, lives lived in our community. And so I brought him to our church, and I I went over to, their Catholic church6:22 to speak and try to support and encourage them in the struggle that they were in. And 1 of the leaders, I won't give names, but well known in our community, actually met with the president on this issue twice6:34 by the president I'm referring back when Obama was president. And, I think he said 3 times with the vice president, Joe Biden, pleading for help to bring them in as Christians.6:46 And he knew he'd named about 15 different countries where they could go. You just you just did. And he was pleading with them. And he tells me the story. I won't say which 1 of these political leaders, but leaned over to6:57 him and simply said when when he said, sir, you can have a legacy of saving the Christians in the Middle East from extinction, from being killed off. And he just leaned over and says, the7:09 Muslims have a hard time too. And that was that was the response. And the result was, he had a list, they they felt like it was a clean list of 80000 people7:21 who were in harm's way. The next time I ran into him, I said, how are those people doing? I think it was 12 or 13000 of them had been killed. These are people they Yeah. They talked on cell phones to, their7:32 relatives over there. So this is not a minor issue.7:36 And where these other countries would receive the Muslims, the Christians literally had virtually no place to flee. They didn't. And the other thing that's interesting to what we did is because we were sending them to7:46 other nations, we wanted to make sure we did not send a sleeper to those other nations to kill people in Australia or7:53 Explain a sleeper.7:54 A sleeper is is someone from ISIS who works their way into the group and says, I'm a refugee. I'm fleeing. And they get brought over on refugee status and then they commit crimes and terrorism.8:03 Called sleeper because they lay low for a long time and then they suddenly rise up.8:07 That's right. And and so we did what before it was even called this by by President Trump, we did what was called extreme vetting. We took former CIA folks, former FBI folks, and we would investigate8:19 every single person going over. We had to have a recommendation from their priest or their Catholic leader, whoever. Yes, I've known these people. They've been in my church 20 years. And we found a number of ISIS guys8:31 trying to get to these other countries through and we wouldn't send it. So we got that heightened vetting going long before. It was very easy to do, simple questions that could be asked, and so when the critics came out8:43 and said, You can't do heightened vetting. Yes, you can. And we made sure that we did not send any terrorist person as a refugee, posing as refugee to any foreign nation because we didn't want that coming back saying,8:54 Hey, we sent in a refugee that blew up an elementary school of 150 kids. So it was very easy to do and it can still be done today. It's not a hard thing, and it's it it is not more racist.9:05 You're not no. You're just making sure that you're keeping vast security out of your country. You don't want to invite a murderer into your home where your kids are asleep. That's not what you're after. And so it can be9:16 done very well, very easily. It's not a hard thing to do, and we're starting to see it now be done. And under President Trump, they have gone to that heightened extreme vetting, which is able to identify those that9:27 should not be brought in. They are terror risks, They're security risks. You don't want those people in the country.Border Crisis Exposed 9:32 Why does this happen? Why do we have a problem with immigration in our country, particularly coming across the southern border? My contention would be very simple. Democrats and Republicans refuse to solve it Yeah.9:42 Because overwhelmingly, Democrats see a way to get quick votes Mhmm. And many Republicans see a way to get cheap labor. They do not want to pay for the goods and services we get at normal price.9:54 And so consequently, we have a government that won't clamp down. I went to, down to what's called border school. A 3 day school down on the border. And and and it was taught by there's 21 I believe it's 2110:06 counties, contiguous counties along the southwest border starting from California going all the way to Texas. And a man named Ziggy Gonzalez, you may know him, he was chairman of of the, Southwest Border10:18 Sheriff's Association. And a man named, from Hudspeth County, Arvin West was he was also met with us. And they took us out to the Rio Grande and showed us and demonstrate what was going on. These individuals,10:29 along with numbers of others who care deeply about the horrific, horrible things going on aboard. In fact, some of the stories I heard and they they showed us several hundred photographs were some of the worst atrocities10:41 of 1 human done to another. Yeah. I've ever heard of some of the things I wish I could get out of my mind that I heard about happening down on the on on the border. The cartel group and what they what they the schemes10:52 that they go on there. And and so the the sheriff's association would go and plead with, a Republican president. I won't say the name. And later, a Democratic president11:04 and could not get any help. And they literally this the sheriff were backed up in certain places 5 miles into sovereign US territory trying to kinda defend it there. They're not sheriff's departments are not made Oh, no.11:15 For holding off They're not. And the federal government at that time at that time, completely different than Trump, would not do anything. And it it is it's completely irresponsible11:27 for them to violate the first rule of government. The first rule of government is the task to protect the citizenry, and we're completely unwilling to do that. Then we went to, I won't say name the11:39 city, but a a large federal building enclave where guys were not on the streets working as there were guys in suits and ties and air conditions, and they met with us. And they showed us electronic and stuff, And11:51 it kept saying, oh, everything's under control. We have no problems down there. No problems. But we had all just met for days with all these people working the actual border themselves and knew quite a different thing.12:03 It it would seem to us that it's virtually impossible to get this solved. There there's let me take you 1 more step on the on the government issue, Dave, that really, really bothers me. The government has to12:15 take responsibility on this. There's a word, this lawsuit. This lawsuit means when a law is in existence, but it's not enforced, it ceases to be a law. Mhmm. And and and so the12:27 not enforcing a law over a long span of time means that everybody ignores it and they just run rough shot. We have thousands of laws in our various at various states and federal government that12:39 nobody enforces anymore. They should be cleaned up, taken off, or enforced or taken off. Right?12:44 Well, you have the Ecclesiastes that says when a law is when justice is not executed speedily on a law, lawbreakers are encouraged to do wrong. And we know that if your speed limit is 55 and they12:56 never stop and give a ticket to anybody, everybody's gonna drive 85 through there. If you ignore a law, you encourage people to keep breaking the law and that's what you're talking about. If you're not gonna enforce the13:05 border laws, get rid of the laws or enforce them, and and the best thing for the citizens is to enforce them.13:11 Well, part of the problem is it's not enforced long enough and so it's it's consistently violated by everybody. Then the government's in a position where it can't say, okay, you 11000000, we're gonna we're gonna haul you13:22 all out right now and your families. That's not an option. Either way, it it it's bad. Ignoring it or at the same time, just doing amnesty. Now when Reagan did amnesty, what, 19 86, I believe it was, almost13:34 3000000, and they said, this will be the end. We're gonna13:36 That's it. We won't have any more.13:38 There'll never be a problem again.13:39 We're gonna enforce the laws. From now on wait a minute. 3000000 then, 11000000 now. I don't think they've been enforcing the laws.13:47 The government lied, and it's happened under both Republicans and Democrats. Mhmm. And a major factor for Trump's election was he said enough is we're gonna actually enforce some laws. Let13:59 me ask the question. If if we're following together here on chapter 22, we're up to page 80, why should we have borders at all? Why have them?14:08 We we have that because of the concept of private property. We're told, for example, that you're to protect your private property. You're not to allow someone else to take it. Part of the 10 Commandments is don't take14:18 someone's private property, don't want it. That private property starts with individuals. It goes to families. It goes to churches, and it goes to nations. We're told in Acts that He is the 1 who draws the lines of14:28 nations. He's the 1 who sets the boundaries of nations. If He thinks boundaries are important, He set them. I mean, He he does think they're important. He could have set no boundaries anywhere in the world. Everybody's14:38 free to move everywhere they want. That's not what he did. He drew the lines around nations. And we see throughout the Scriptures that it talks about nations, and in the end days there are nations, and he's the 1 who14:48 establishes nations and he sets up kings and pulls down nations is a big deal to God. There's just no question about it. So that's why you have border enforcement because it's a concept of protecting15:00 the nation's private property, and that is the goal of the government is to protect the righteous, reward the righteous, to punish the law breaker, and to punish the wicked doer. So just as individuals have private15:12 property to be protected, just as families do and churches do, so does the nation, and that's why borders are important. What about sanctuary cities? Sanctuary cities is a problem because,15:23 again, you're not upholding the law, and and you're not even following the even though sanctuary city people like to quote that Leviticus Bible verse we talked about last session and say, oh, that's a stranger, take them15:35 in. That's not the proper meaning of that verse. We covered that in the in the previous video lesson. You can go back and watch that if if you didn't see what that verse means. But sanctuary cities, what you're doing is15:45 allowing lawbreakers to get away with no punishment at all. So you're you're rewarding lawbreakers, which will only increase the law breaking and it will bring people in who will be the wrong influence. And15:57 we've seen how many crimes have been committed by people in sanctuary cities, and including California where you're from, sanctuary cities because they would not enforce, the criminal16:09 laws against illegal aliens who were criminal illegal alien. Not just illegal aliens, but who had criminal records, and they wouldn't even enforce the laws against them.A Three-Step Solution 16:17 Let's, talk about a solution here. We're I'm gonna follow through with, what's on page 82, 3 step solution. Mhmm. Number 1, legitimacy16:30 of a country to have borders. We already talked about the fact that all the people seem to don't want borders, sure have borders around their house Mhmm. And their doors locked, their windows are locked, and some of them16:40 have compounds, literally wealthy Hollywood elites and even political figures, etcetera. But the legitimacy of wall building16:49 is, in the name of your organization, is very legitimate scripturally. It is legitimate scripturally. And again, cities had when you had a walled city, you had a sound city. Anytime the17:01 wall was torn down, there was no defense for that city, it lost its identity, it could belong to anyone. Anyone could have it and take it. So, and it's very striking. If you'll travel Europe and look at castles around17:12 Europe, and there's 708 hundred castles in Europe, The ones that had the walls around them were the ones that were strong. That's where you had prosperity in the community. That's where you had protection from17:22 lawbreakers. When the walls got torn down, that's what you do, attack a castle. You try to get the walls down because once the walls were down, you could get in and and ravage everything and take it and make it your own.17:32 So if you do not have walls, if you do not have protection, whether it is in medieval times, whether it is in the Bible, anywhere else, if you don't have that, that means of protection. You lose your identity, you lose17:42 your possessions, and you lose your freedoms.17:44 The second step that we list here I think is a critical 1, and it sounds very unrealistic to most people, but that is for the government to admit it's wrong, what it's done wrong, whether they're Democrats or17:55 Republicans. Now we're trying to come up with a solution, And it may that may seem very unlikely. My my my wife was involved, with the State Department at the point when they brought together a group of individuals18:07 who were survivors from the 19 39 Saint Louis ship. This was a group of about 2100 Jews, men, women, and children, who were turned away at gunpoint in 19 39, first from Cuba, but then18:19 from Miami. They were fleeing Hitler. They wanted just somebody to live. Came to Miami. The coast guard turned them away at gunpoint. Once Hitler heard that in 19 39, he recognized America will not receive18:31 them. Now I can do what's called the final solution that was to slaughter and try to kill all the Jews on the earth. And they they went back. They were they were separated about 4 different countries, and many of them18:41 ended up in the gas chambers, ended up dead. There were some survivors, particularly some young children who are still still alive. They're very elderly now. And my wife has worked with them. When they brought them to18:51 Washington DC, I wanna pick her occasion, 1 of the anniversaries. And the the, the bureaucrats would simply acknowledge and said, this was our worst fiasco in handling the immigration crisis, and we should never19:03 do this again. But my that's not good enough for my wife. My wife took the microphone and said, we ask your forgiveness for what we did. We ask forgiveness as Americans that we would do this to you.19:15 And it cost many of your family members their their their lives. So there had there is a precedence for the government19:23 When you look at what the government has done in previous years let me just read this list real quick. In 19 48, the US issued an apology to Mexico for allowing farm laborers to cross the Texas border illegally. In 1919:34 83, the US issued an apology to France for helping Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie escape to South America to avoid prosecution. In 19 88, the United States issued an apology for the detainment of19:45 Japanese Americans in World War 2. In 19 97, an apology for deliberately infecting black men with syphilis to study the effects of the disease. In 2005, an apology for never having passed a19:57 federal anti lynching law. In 2008, 2009, an apology for slavery and Jim Crow laws. The United States government has apologized on a number of occasions for not doing the right thing with its20:09 laws, for not upholding the laws, or for violating its own laws. So we have a precedent here. It would be a really good thing for the United States to say, you know, we have not upheld the laws. We said we were20:20 going to back in 19 86. We've not done that. Our bad. We're we're talking solution here. We're talking gut felt solution. Well, imagine if Congress passed something and the president of Congress participated20:32 in in a repudiation of what the US has done, and and actually asked forgiveness for harming Americans and harming other people and saying, we're not gonna force this law to you if you get here, and then we're gonna throw20:44 you out if you get here. Those those are not options for for a country like ours. We also the third step is the acknowledge the acknowledgment of the government, the acknowledgment of those people who broke the law.20:56 And so what will be the result? David, take us through his list. We all together.20:59 Those who came here, it's gonna be hard to argue that that a lot of people did not come to America illegally knowing that they were here illegally. They knew there were border laws and many of them crossed. Now granted,21:10 they knew the laws were not being upheld, but they also knew that the laws existed. And so there's there should be no surprise that if they are caught and prosecuted that, yeah, that was a risk they took.21:22 But if you came here illegally, and know that you came here illegally, you shouldn't be rewarded for that. And and 1 of the solutions proposed here is instead of being able to get a green card, get maybe what's called an21:33 amber card. Because a green card, you come here and you work and you can become a citizen. You become a naturalized citizen. But an Ambrick card says, you know, you can come here and work and contribute, but, you know,21:42 you can't be a naturalized citizen because you broke the law first thing you did when you got here.21:48 But it is a legalization. It means they're no longer illegals. They're no longer illegal. And that that That's right. The Hispanics that, I know of in I've been a pastor almost my life and has22:00 Hispanic congregation. There'd be many who'd be ecstatic That's right. To have legalization. Citizenship is not that's a that's a bridge too far right now. Yeah. But they'd be thrilled to take the pressure off of the22:12 illegality. They've been here for quite a long duration of time. We suggest such things as if you're wanna look at the bottom of page 83, small manageable fines paid. That's not that's not amnesty. Back22:23 taxes paid. It is not to break them economically, but to recognize there is a price There's a penalty. Official official, papers filed, English language classes attended. That's not to22:35 penalize them. That's to help them economically be assimilation. That that's what22:39 immigration is. To be a contributing person in in this country, you have to be able to assimilate and language is the key thing.22:46 US history and citizenship classes, we we22:49 all require that of our22:50 own kids going to school. No joke. And there's some other possible things. But what Dave said a moment ago, whereas a green card, you can work here, and and it's really you're kinda working your way potentially towards23:01 citizenship. And we're calling it the amber card. We just created that. Yeah. An amber card where we recognize that somebody's been here a long time by virtue of the government not enforcing the law, a lot of different23:11 factors, but let's at least bring them out of hiding and get rid of the fear. They cannot become a citizen and they cannot vote, but they can be welcomed in this place and be totally litical legal. That is not23:23 amnesty, but it is working out of a tough situation. We think it's a plan that has merit would work. We're not the first to come up with some, although we may have created the Amber card idea. But, we may not we're not23:34 the first to come up with this number of even Hispanic groups23:37 That's right.23:38 That are totally solidly23:40 That's right.23:41 Behind what we're talking about. We're gonna cap off with this, the greatest opportunity we have. Let's just talk about the Hispanics coming across our border from the south right now. We're working on other borderEvangelism Opportunity for the Church 23:50 issues or immigration issues, but let's talk talk just specifically about the issue of, of the Hispanics coming across. It is the greatest opportunity almost the church has ever had because Hispanics24:02 respond well to the gospel.24:04 And let's let's be real clear. We talked earlier about jurisdictions. It is not the jurisdiction or the authority of the church to uphold or enforce civil law. That's not its goal. That's not our authority. God doesn't24:15 call us to do that. We would be out of bounds if we did that. What we're called to do is take care of folks spiritually, Wherever they come from, whether they're native born, whether they come across the border, whatever24:27 they are, we've got a spiritual focus in the church. And that is a huge, huge opportunity. All the folks who are coming across the border, whether they be illegal or illegal, there are spiritual needs that need to be24:39 met. And the church needs to step up and really focus on that because again you're looking at up to 11000000 people, and if there's no spiritual attention focused on that, man, what an opportunity the church has missed.24:51 And and for the most part, they're they're they're not only vulnerable, but they're they're very open to being loved. That's right. And and careful. And and our particular congregation that that I have pastored, we we25:02 had along with worship services in in Spanish, we also had an attorney, immigration attorney, who by the way helped us on this book and her name's in the front of the book. And she would she would come and help them25:14 and assist them and understand what are their options were and what they what they were facing. But the opportunity evangelistically is absolutely staggering. They're needy. They're25:25 frightened. They're many times very scared Mhmm. And and which makes them very susceptible to the gospel. If we're talking about just primary Hispanics or Mexicans, as you and I know, they are overwhelmingly pro family.25:37 They are. They have values. They have a healthy reverence for God. Have a hard work ethic. The work ethic is staggering. Phenomenal. The work ethic is I've said to my kids a number of times, watch this25:49 1. I said, look look at him. Look look at her. Mhmm. Learn from what what what they do. So the evangelistic opportunity for the church is unbelievable. Lord, help us to seize that. I'm gonna close this with the26:01 prayer. It's on page 86. And at each of these sections, we close with a prayer. And here is our prayer. Lord, we confess that the issue of immigration seems to have26:13 become complex, but we believe you are the god of order. There's a principled way to work through the confusion and chaos that has reigned over this26:24 issue. We ask for solutions that honor justice, love, righteousness, and order. Show us the solutions you desire. Amen. Well,26:36 thanks for being a part of us. Video number 4, and we will look forward to seeing you as we start a brand new topic, Israel, in video 5.In this video 0:00 Rejecting Persecuted Christians9:32 Border Crisis Exposed16:17 A Three-Step Solution23:45 Evangelism Opportunity for the Church
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