Join us on this special New Year’s edition of Washington Watch as we dive deep into the heart of America’s founding principles. This episode brings you compelling discussions from esteemed leaders and historians discussing the biblical and historical values that define America. As we look forward to celebrating 250 years of independence, learn how our nation’s exceptionalism is rooted in eternal truths and founding principles.
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from the heart of our nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation’s leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today’s host, Jody Heiss.
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This is an important time, a providential time for our country. We’re coming up on the 250th anniversary of the super centennial, as the president likes to call it, because it’s easier than saying the long version of what that really is. But we’re excited about that. And I think, and as I’ve shared with all of our friends here tonight, I think it really gives us a unique opportunity to talk about not just the temporal things, but the permanent things, the eternal things. Why is America the exceptional nation that it is? And we’re all given this grand opportunity going into this big celebration next year to talk about the founding principles, because that really is the seedbed of America’s exceptionalism.
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Well, that was House Speaker Mike Johnson speaking at FRC’s Watchman Pastors briefing late last year. Happy New Year to each of you and welcome to this January 1st edition of Washington Watch. I’m your host, Jody Heiss, filling in today for Tony Perkins. And thank you so much for tuning in. All right, we’re now in 2026, and this year is certainly not like any other year. This is the year that our nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of its independence. So on this edition of Washington Watch, We’re going to share some special content that addresses America’s 250th year. Among them will be Tony’s interview that he had with Speaker Johnson, which we teased just a moment ago. You saw a portion of. We’ll also share some of the discussions that we had during one of our panels at this past year’s 2025 Pray Vote Stand Summit.
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The idea of America was the idea that our rights don’t come from government. They come from our divine creator, right? And government’s main job is to protect those rights, and because that was the foundation of America, we’ve enjoyed over the last 250 years more freedom, more prosperity, more stability than any other nation anywhere in the world, and that should be celebrated.
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That was Tim Barton of WallBuilders, and that took place during our PrayVoteStand Summit. It was a panel entitled America at 250, an experiment worth celebrating. The panel also featured Dr. Kenan Curitan from Family Research Council, Dr. Mark David Hall from Regent University, and former Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, who actually moderated that particular panel. You’ll get to hear more from that discussion a little bit later on in the program. So we’ve got a lot coming your way today. And be sure, as always, if you happen to miss any part of it, our Web site is Tony Perkins dot com, where, of course, you can not only find this edition of Washington Watch, but many past editions as well. And of course, there are a lot of resources that are available for you also. So be sure to bookmark that page, tonyperkins.com. One more note before we dive into today’s program. With today being the first day of a brand new year, it’s also the first day of a new cycle for FRC’s Stand on the Word Bible reading plan. So I just want to encourage you. Make plans now to make the word of God a priority in your life this next coming year and join us to stand on the word together. This is an effort to strengthen your biblical worldview in 2026. And you can join right along with the FRC team and thousands of other believers across the country for this two year chronological journey through the entire Bible. And just think, 15 minutes a day, friends, spending time in God’s Word, just 15 minutes a day, can transform your year, can transform your life. So to get some more details, just visit frc.org slash Bible, or simply text the word Bible to 67742. And we certainly hope that you’ll join us on this particular journey through the Bible. Okay. Well, back in October during the government shutdown, in fact, Family Research Council held our Watchman Pastors Briefing at the Museum of the Bible here in Washington, D.C. Watchman on the Wall, by the way, is our ministry here at FRC to pastors. And we were honored to have House Speaker Mike Johnson join us for that event. And he spoke to the pastors there. It was an amazing time. And the speaker shared so much with those particular pastors. And obviously, we can’t get into everything he shared. But there was an interview that Tony had with Speaker Johnson, which was aired on their weekend program this week on Capitol Hill. So that’s what we want to do right now. Here’s a portion of that, and here’s how Tony got that started with Speaker Mike Johnson.
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Mr. Speaker, thanks so much for joining us here as we’re in front of a group of pastors from across the nation for a Watchman Pastors Conference. All right. So I think it’s fitting, Mr. Speaker, we’re here at the Museum of the Bible. You spoke to the group of pastors here, the Watchman Conference. We’re going into the 250th anniversary of our nation. You know, there’s a lot of talk about rediscovering the ancient paths, the biblical foundation of our nation. What are your hopes for the 250th anniversary?
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Thanks, Tony. It’s a great question and great to be with such an esteemed group. You’ve got pastors from all around the country, and the Watchman ministry is something I’ve always supported. I’m so glad that FRC is digging in and doing it again. This is an important time, a providential time for our country. We’re coming up on the 250th anniversary of the super centennial, as the president likes to call it. because it’s easier than saying the long version of what that really is. But we’re excited about that. And I think, and as I’ve shared with all of our friends here tonight, I think it really gives us a unique opportunity to talk about not just the temporal things, but the permanent things, the eternal things. Why is America the exceptional nation that it is? And we’re all given this grand opportunity going into this big celebration next year to talk about the founding principles, because that really is the seedbed of America’s exceptionalism. Have those been lost? I think they have. I mean, I think in recent generations, beginning as you and I have documented so well back in really like the mid 60s, there was several decades there where we drifted further and further away from the moorings, so to speak. And we went out kind of adrift on the sea of secularism and the denial of God and his involvement in our society, the founding of our country and our lives today. And I think there’s great peril in forgetting that the founders were very clear about this. We discussed it tonight. You know, their admonition was to stay close to that.
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I know we’re a nation divided in many ways, but is there an awakening of sorts as people recognize that we have strayed from that and the consequences are more than we’re willing to accept?
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I do think that we are on the verge of a of a turnaround. Maybe it’s a revival. I mean, many people have been praying for this for a long time. But you do see a resurgence of faith, of the interest in that. There are a lot of reasons for it, I think. I mean, I think the generations behind us, they followed that completely empty and hopeless worldview that says that there is no God and that you have no meaning and that the old ideas are out of date somehow. And they came to the very end of that philosophy and they realized how empty and desolate it was. And so they’re they’re they’re grasping for something that is true and eternal. And and the truth never changes. It’s always been the same since the founding of the country two and a half centuries ago. It has always been the same. And the founders reminded us As we talked about tonight, Washington, the father of our country, said of all the dispositions and habits which will lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. And John Adams, our second president, said our Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. That’s what we get to talk about all next year.
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Let me ask you about that, Mr. Speaker, because. You you’ve laid out the problem. We’ve kind of forgotten those foundational elements. They’re needed. There’s a sense that we’ve lost something and there’s an attempt to rediscover. You’re also a constitutional attorney, religious freedom attorney. What would you recommend to to pastors and to others as we enter this 250th anniversary about talking about these things and celebrating these things and bringing them back into the public square?
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As our good friend, the Reverend Gene Mills, Louisiana Family Forum always used to say, it’s a great time to be alive if you have the answers. And we have the answers, and now we have this grand platform and opportunity to discuss it. And so for all those with a sphere of influence, certainly pastors in the churches, but everyone listening to the sounds of our voices, if that passion burns in your heart, then you’re called to go out and be an evangelist to this truth as well. And so I would encourage everybody, Talk to young people in particular, but every public venue that you can to share the simple truths. Why we’re the most exceptional nation in the world. And I’ve been giving advice everywhere I’ve spoken to just use the simplest tool that’s available to everybody on every smartphone. Pull up the nation’s birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence, and begin with the second paragraph. And just unpack that with people and talk to them about what it means. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and that God is the one that gives us our rights, not the government. Start there and you will spark conversation and people will dig in a little deeper to understand what it is that makes us so great. So, Mr. Speaker, what do you say to your friends in the media who say separation of church and state? It’s ridiculous. Okay, you’re talking about the founding documents of the country and the First Amendment is intended to allow that dialogue to flourish. I mean, religious freedom is the first liberty, truly, literally the first freedom given to us, listed in the Bill of Rights. And what the founders intended and what their advice was to us is that faith would flourish in the public square, that you should certainly go out and talk about these things, because they thought it was essential to maintain and keep the republic. If somebody tells you that’s against the Constitution, they do not understand what they were talking about. And call the Speaker of the House, and I’ll represent you for free, okay? In every public square, you should be able to go out and share your faith. That is a quintessential thing about being not just a human being, but being American. Right. And that’s what we protect. And we should not shy away from it. In fact, you should use the the anniversary of the country to be more bold and verbose about it than you ever have before.
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As you mentioned, the founders warned them further. We moved away from these foundational elements and truths that there would be a price to pay. Are we paying that price today?
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Well, you know, we have. I mean, obviously you see. suicide rates and you see the crime that’s infested the country and all these problems that we face i mean the root of all those problems is the lack of religion and morality which is why the father of our country said those were the indispensable supports and we do well to shore up those foundations i’m always reminded of psalm 11 3 if the foundations be destroyed what would the righteous do i mean it is a a question for not just communities but whole nations and and it’s it’s not a rhetorical one for us we have to answer it But the beauty of this, of living in a free country, is we still have the freedom to defend those things and to pass them on to the next generation. Remember what Reagan reminded us, freedom is not inherited in the bloodstream, right? It’s got to be fought for, protected, and taught, or it will be taken away.
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Mr. Speaker, we just have about 30 seconds left. I know we’re midweek recording this. The weekend’s coming up. What would you leave us to pray about?
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For God’s wisdom and guidance as we try to govern this ungovernable people, as is said in Scripture. Look, we do live in a great nation. We can’t take it for granted, and we have to be good stewards of this responsibility we’re given. And we need to get past all the bitter partisanship. We need to get the government open and do the basic responsibility that we’re given by God. I think we will. I’m optimistic, Tony. I believe our best days are ahead of us.
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Mr. Speaker, thanks so much for joining us here at the Museum of the Bible and speaking to the Watchman pastors here for our Watchman Conference.
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Well, that was Tony’s interview with House Speaker Mike Johnson. It took place late October during our Watchman Pastors briefing. You’re tuning in to this special New Year’s edition of Washington Watch. By the way, that interview did take place in the middle of the government shutdown, which Speaker Johnson made mention of at the end of that interview. And thankfully, it was about two weeks after that particular interview that the government reopened. So we were all grateful for that as well. All right. Stay tuned. We’ve got a lot more of this special edition of Washington Watch coming your way after the break. We’re going to continue highlighting this special 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence. And we’re going to shift gears to a panel discussion that we had at our most recent Pray Vote Stand Summit, on this particular issue, a summit that was made up of some incredible historians and experts on not only America’s founding, but our Christian heritage in it all. So you don’t want to miss any of it. It’s all coming your way right after the break. So stick with us.
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The book of Hebrews says that the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Stand on the Word is Family Research Council’s journey through the living and active Word of God. Follow the plan starting today. Spend 10 to 15 minutes a day reading God’s Word, and over the course of two years, discover that the Bible is one big story, a story of many words pointing to the Word, the one who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. because the Word is alive and His name is Jesus. Find our Bible reading plan and daily devotionals from Tony Perkins at frc.org slash Bible. Join us as we stand on the Word.
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At Family Research Council, we believe religious freedom is a fundamental human right that all governments must protect. For years, Islamist militants in Nigeria have targeted Christians and other religious minority groups with brutal violence. Since 2009, 52,000 Christians have been slaughtered, a staggering 89% of Christian martyrs in the world today are from Nigeria. The first Trump administration declared Nigeria a country of particular concern, a designation reserved for countries whose governments engage in or tolerate religious freedom violations. However, this designation of Nigeria was quickly reversed by the Biden administration. Following consistent calls from FRC President Tony Perkins and other religious leaders across the US, President Donald Trump has responded.
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Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands and thousands of Christians are being killed. I am hereby making Nigeria a country of particular concern.
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This is a huge step forward for the protection of Christians in Nigeria, as well as religious freedom across the world. While this opens the door for the US government to pressure Nigerian leaders to protect vulnerable Christians, it is only the beginning. We must continue to pray diligently, work strategically, and stand firm for the protection of religious liberty across the globe.
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Looking for a trusted source of news that shares your Christian values? Turn to The Washington Stand, your ultimate destination for informed, faith-centered reporting. Our dedicated team goes beyond the headlines, delivering stories that matter most to believers. From breaking events to cultural insights, we provide clear, compassionate coverage through a biblical lens. Discover news you can trust at The Washington Stand, where faith and facts meet every day.
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Well, Happy New Year. Welcome back to this special edition of Washington Watch. I’m your host, Jody Heiss. An honor today to be sitting in for Tony. And thank you so much for joining us. All right. For the rest of the program today, we want to bring you some very special content from our most recent PrayVote Stand Summit. It took place in Chino, California. If you’re not aware, by the way, the PrayVote Stand Summit is our annual event. that literally draws Christian voters from all across America. It’s an incredible time of prayer and inspiration, as well as action. And the summit addresses, as you can imagine, a host of different issues, things like religious freedom, the church’s call to engage our culture, the need to stand with Israel, the crisis over parental rights and education, the dangers of things like chemical abortion. how to communicate effectively in a hostile world, God’s design for sexuality, and a host of other topics. It’s literally an incredible event, encouraging and very instructive. Well, one of the sessions that we had at our 2025 summit was a panel that discussed this year’s 250th anniversary of America’s independence. The panel was titled America at 250, an experiment worth celebrating. That title says it all, but the panel itself was powerful. It featured Tim Barton from Wall Builders, Dr. Kenan Curitan from right here at the Family Research Council, Dr. Mark David Hall from Regent University. And the panel was moderated by none other than former Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann. Now, obviously, we won’t have time to share the entire panel, but we do want to share some of the excerpts from it. By the way, if you would like to catch all of it, you can do so if you have the Stand Firm app. if you don’t already have that app go to the your google play or your app store and get it or you can simply text the word app app to six seven seven four two and you get to stand firm you get a ton of information along with not only this right here but a host of other things but let’s go back to this particular panel on america at 250. here’s how it all got started
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Many of you in this audience may understand the greatness of America and our heritage. This current generation almost feels like generations. They don’t understand that we’re a great nation. They don’t understand why. They don’t have the history. And so these three understand it. And so, Tim, could you start us out this morning and share something about America’s heritage that you want everyone here and online to know to make sure as we go into this 250th year?
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Yeah, I think there’s so many things that we could spend time talking about, but looking at America and maybe why it should be celebrated, I think it’s ironic that today there’s a No Kings rally. And if we’re talking about the foundation of America, Kind of similar to some of the foundation, the difference was it wasn’t that we believed there was no king. One of the mottos and rallies in the revolution was no king but King Jesus. And the idea of America was the idea that our rights don’t come from government. They come from our divine creator, right? And government’s main job is to protect those rights. And because that was the foundation of America, we’ve enjoyed over the last 250 years more freedom, more prosperity, more stability than any other nation anywhere in the world. And that should be celebrated.
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Thank you. Dr. Mark David Hall, I would ask you the same question. What would you like this audience to know about the greatness of America and our foundation?
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So religious liberty has been called the first freedom or the sacred right of conscience. And yet for 1600 years, it basically did not exist in the Western world. Even religious toleration didn’t. Now, if you read the literature on this, you’ll see two main stories. One is there’s religious oppression and then people get tired of killing each other over religion. And so they say, OK, let’s live and let live. The second story is there’s religious oppression and then the Enlightenment comes along and saves us and we become rational creatures. One of the things I’ve argued and become convinced of is both of these narratives are not the whole story and actually not much of the story. Really what we see is godly, pious men making biblical and theological arguments. People like Roger Williams, William Penn, Elisha Williams, John Leland, Isaac Backus are making Christian arguments for the importance of religious first toleration and then religious liberty. And by the time we get to the founding era, everyone is convinced that this is an important right Not a right to worship, but a right to the free exercise of religion. And not only that, but it’s right for everyone. So one of my favorite letters is George Washington’s letter to the Hebrew congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. There were only about 1,500 Jews in America at the time, but George Washington makes it clear, you all have the same right to the free exercise of religion as any of us Christians. It’s a beautiful thing, and it’s a right we need to continue to support and protect today.
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Amen. Thank you, Mark. Kenan, you’re an extremely important part of Family Research Council for obvious reasons. So please tell our audience what you want them to not forget about America’s founding.
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I’m just going to go off of what Dr. Hall said and refer to that letter. One verse that George Washington quotes in that letter is Micah 4.4. Go look it up. You know, he’s talking about every man living in security under his vine and fig tree. You know, he quoted that verse 50 times, 50 times in his letters. So I would point you to the fact that America is founded on the word of God.
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Amen.
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I mean, when you look at the biblical principles that they used to build and construct the government that we have, and you look at the scripture-soaked culture that they lived in, and, you know, they’re quoting the scripture. Now we don’t even know it anymore to even know they’re quoting it. But that’s what I would tell you is that it’s all founded on the word of God. Tony began this morning with stand on the word. We need to get back in the word of God because that is the foundation that made America great.
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Well, that was a portion of the panel that we had during our PrayVote Stand Summit 2025, all about America’s 250th anniversary. You’re tuned into this special edition of Washington Watch. Thank you for joining us. All right. Again, if you would like to see the entire panel or so much of the entire conference, for that matter, as well as a host of other things, then you need to have our Stand Firm app. If you do not already have that, friends, you want to start this new year by having Stand Firm app readily available. And you can get it easily. go to the apple store or google play wherever it is that you get your apps or to make it simple you can simply text the word app app text app to six seven seven four two and start the year off with having a host of information readily available at your hand all right we’ve got much more that we want to cover and we’ll do so when we get back from the break specifically We want to have some more from our panel. We want to highlight the patriot pastors, patriot pastors who literally laid the foundation, not only of our founding fathers, they laid the foundation of our country. A powerful part of the panel is coming up next after the break. So stay with us. We’ll be right back.
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For over 4,000 years, the Jewish people have had legal, historical, and biblical ties to the land of Israel, especially the heartland of Israel, Judea and Samaria, which much of the world still calls the West Bank. To Israelis, Judea and Samaria is far more than a name. It’s the center of their ancestral homeland, where nearly 80% of the Bible’s events took place. Abraham purchased property in Hebron, Jacob in Shechem. Joshua made an altar on Mount Ebal and led the Israelites into a covenant before God. On Mount Gerizim, overlooking Shechem, Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman at the well about worshiping neither on Mount Gerizim nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit and in truth. Judea and Samaria is nearly a quarter of Israel’s current land mass, not a small strip of land on the Jordan River, but a vital and strategic part of the nation’s identity. The October 7th massacre, launched from Gaza, shattered the illusion that giving away territory brings peace. Gaza, which was once seen as the cornerstone of a two-state solution, became a launchpad for terror. Today, only 21% of Israelis support a Palestinian state. Trust in a two-state solution has all but collapsed. The Middle East is changing. Iran’s grip is weakening. New alliances are forming. But Western countries and some US officials still chase the mirage of a two-state solution. History speaks clearly. The 2005 Gaza withdrawal, backed by the US, led not to peace, but to a terrorist regime. Judea and Samaria are 24 times larger than Gaza. deeply woven into Israel’s geographic and spiritual fabric. To surrender them would not bring peace. It would invite conflict and existential danger. Family Research Council stands with Israel’s rightful claim to sovereignty. It’s time for America to do the same for history, for justice, and for lasting security in the Middle East.
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Once again, Happy New Year to you and your family, and welcome to Washington Watch in this very, very special edition. I’m your host today, Jody Heiss, filling in for Tony. Glad to have you with us. Today, as you know by now, we are broadcasting some very special content from our 2025 PrayVote Stand Summit. And in the last segment, we shared a portion of a panel discussion regarding America’s 250th anniversary. It was moderated by former Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann and featured some heavyweight leaders and historians such as Tim Barton from Wall Builders, Dr. Kenan Curitan from right here at the Family Research Council, and Dr. Mark David Hall from Regent University. Now, in this next part, We want to continue that panel discussion, but we want to start with Dr. Curitan’s response to this very important question. The question was, who is an individual from any time in America’s founding who inspires you the most from that era? A fascinating question. I remember sitting on the front row wondering to myself, what are they going to talk about? Who are they going to mention? Well, it was fascinating. And here’s how Dr. Curitan responded to that question.
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Well, I want to talk about the guys that were behind the founding fathers that laid the foundation for the founding fathers, and that was the patriot pastors. The patriot pastors, they were preaching, man, 10 years before the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord. They were laying down the principles of good and godly government and railing against British tyranny all the way back to the Stamp Act in 1765, all the way forward to the time that You know, British Governor Gage locked up the town of Boston, basically put it under martial law. And that’s when these patriot pastors went into overdrive in their preaching. And, man, you go back and you look at some of the things that were said about these guys. John Adams wrote his wife, Abigail, the clergy of every denomination thunder and lighten every Sabbath. Against the impression that was going on. And the British, they were in agreement. These guys were rabble-rousers. British Brigadier General Hugh Earl Percy said this, no body of men are so extremely injurious to peace and tranquility as the clergy. They preach sedition openly from their pulpits. And then there was another British sympathizer. You know this guy, Peter Oliver. He’s the guy that coined the phrase Black Regiment. You know, Jack just told me backstage, he’s got a black robe back there. He’s one of the black robe regiment, right? But these guys were feared by the British and hated. And, you know, a couple of the guys specifically, I can’t talk about one without talking about the other because Lexington Concord, anybody know the shot heard around the world? We just celebrated the 250th anniversary of Lexington Concord, April 19, 1775. You got Pastor Jonas Clark. who was in Lexington, and he preached sermons like this, the importance of military skill, measures for defense, and a martial spirit in a time of peace. They trained a militia and housed the gunpowder and the ammo in the church, okay? And in the town resolves, he said, we should be ready to sacrifice our estates and everything in life and self in support of the common cause. Of the eight men who died, on April 19, on Lexington Green, seven of those guys were members of his church. That’s the guy, Jonas Clark, where John Hancock and Sam Adams were hiding out on the night of Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride to come warn him that the British are Coming, right? So Jonas Clark is somebody we don’t even know about anymore, right? And yet, the first to sacrifice their lives on the altar of liberty were members of his church. The second guy is Reverend William Emerson. He was in Concord. We know his more famous grandson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the poet. But he was preaching sermons like this. Behold, God is with us for a captain from 2 Chronicles 13. And in that sermon, he said, put on the whole armor of God. It’s an additional honor to the best man and the brightest Christian, especially in this our day, that he is a good soldier. And so they trained militia, and he talks about it in his diary. Great day for warlike preparations, he put in there. And when the alarm bell rang that the British were coming on April 19, he was the first man to muster with his musket in hand. And when the attack of the British came at the Old North Bridge in Concord, he was right there with those guys. And when the battle commenced, he said this, let us stand our ground. If we die, let us die here. So to me, you can’t tell the story of America without talking about these patriot pastors. They may not have literally fired the shots heard around the world, but their sermons loaded the guns.
SPEAKER 04 :
Amen. Amen.
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And they filled the heads and the hearts of those who fought and stood up against the British with biblical faith.
SPEAKER 1 :
Amen.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, that was Family Research Council’s very own Dr. Kenan Curitan speaking at the 2025 PrayVote Stand Summit that took place back in October of last year. And you’re tuned into this special edition of Washington Watch. Again, if you missed that summit or you’d like to go back and see more details of it, you can do so if you have the Stand Firm app. You can get that, again, at your App Store or Google Play, wherever you get your apps, or you can text the word APP, A-P-P. to 67742. OK, now after the break, we’re going to share the rest of that panel discussion on America’s 250th anniversary. Much more extremely important and insightful information is coming your way, and you don’t want to miss what’s before you. Thank you again for joining us today on this special edition of Washington Watch as we zero in on this special year in our country celebrating our 250th anniversary. Much more coming your way on the other side of the break. Stick with us. We’ll be back in just a moment.
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Should a Christian support Israel? That question has become one of the most emotionally charged issues of our time, both in the world and within the church. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins offers a clear biblical and prophetic answer in his latest book, He examines Israel’s past, present, and future through the lens of Scripture, revealing why support for Israel is not rooted in politics, partisanship, or cultural sentiment, but in the unchanging promises of God. Drawing from Genesis to Revelation, Tony Perkins demonstrates that the ultimate rationale for a Christian’s support for Israel is spiritual. Should a Christian support Israel invites believers to see beyond headlines and ideologies returning to the foundation of God’s Word to understand His heart for His chosen people and the blessings that flow when we stand with what He has established forever. Text the word Israel to 67742 for more information.
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SPEAKER 06 :
Happy New Year to you. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony. Thank you so much for joining us for this very, very special edition. We’ve been sharing some of the highlights of our 2025 Pray Vote Stand Summit. Hope you’ve been enjoying what we’ve been bringing your way today. And now we want to close out this special edition. We’re going to finish up with a panel discussing America’s 250th anniversary. And here specifically, our panelists and moderator highlight some of the miracles that took place in America’s history. We’ll start with what Tim Barton from Wall Builders had to share. And here it is.
SPEAKER 12 :
There are so many examples. There’s an example I wanna point to and then a letter I wanna reference. So first of all, it’s super easy and there’s like really low hanging fruit, but there’s so many writings that highlight this. So you have, for example, the Battle of Long Island happens the end of August, 1776. So it’s a month and a half plus after the declaration. And at the Battle of Long Island, the British have shown up with 30,000 troops. Washington is there with 9,000 troops. They are pinned on the edge of the island, the rivers behind them. At this point, the British… are holding for a little bit, partly because they learned from the Battle of Bunker Hill that once the Americans have time to entrench themselves, they’re a little harder to oust without maybe causing loss of life. And so there’s speculation why they’re holding and not just overwhelming them with force. But one of the reasons is because the Navy later that day comes, and they’ve been there now a day and a half, two days, whatever it was, the Navy comes up the river behind them and they’re gonna fully encircle and enclose them. And once that happens, Washington and his troops, there’s no escape, right? They’re all gonna be captured. Washington’s gonna be executed for treason against the king. It’s over for these guys. And the records identified, it was a clear day. And as the naval vessels start coming in, clouds are forming and a storm breaks out. And it turns into this raging storm and the wind is not blowing from the water on the land. The wind is blowing down the river back into the larger Bay Ocean area. And it actually starts blowing the British ships back down the river enough so that the British… navy is concerned they don’t want their ships to run aground so they call for a retreat to get their boats out of there now that seems great in the moment washington’s still stuck there so they have to find a way to get off this island what are they going to do washington sends word to find anything that floats and they’re going to try to evacuate that night so under cover of darkness they begin the evacuation they find canoes these flat bottom boats well there’s 9 000 men And there’s only so many people you can get on a canoe at a time. It’s a mile across and a mile back. So all night long, they’re working this evacuation. As the dawn, like the gray of the next morning is coming, there’s more than a thousand troops left. And George Washington is still there because George Washington made the commitment that he’s going to be the last one off the island. He’s going to get his men to safety and then he’ll go. And so now it’s going to be 30,000 against a thousand. As soon as light appears, the British are going to realize what they’re doing. They’re going to advance. They’re going to capture all the troops. Washington at this point for sure is going to be executed. And the records of the men who were there identified that before the gray, before the light of the first dawn or the dawn appeared, a fog lifted off the river. Not surprising, but the fog blew and it stopped between both camps. And the fog stayed there as they continued the evacuation. And as they loaded the last three boats, the last three boats got to the middle of the river and the fog lifts. And the British look and realize the camp is empty. They charge the British identified When they got to the edge of the river, they saw three boats arrive on the other side and they saw men unload from those last three boats, which also keep in mind, Washington was gonna be the last guy off the island. So likely they’re seeing Washington get out of a boat on the other side of the river and they identified the Americans had escaped to fight another day. And when people looked at this, you can imagine, right? There might be some going, we’re the luckiest team in the world, but some were like, okay, so what do you think the odds are? right clear sunny day navy coming in a storm comes in the storms blowing against like normal tradition where the storm would have been blowing off the water like no it’s blowing the opposite direction that seems unusual and then like they’re processing all of this right a fog comes in and it occurred to them you know i think god’s helping us it was it was so clear they talked about the hand of divine providence in what had happened. And to make this illustration even stronger, George Washington in 1778 wrote to General Thomas Nelson Jr., a signer of the Declaration from Virginia who then joined and became a major general in the army throughout the Revolution. But he was talking about some of these battles and these moments and these unlikely things that kept happening in the midst of the battle. And he said, if anyone looks at this And they can’t see the hand of providence. They must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge their obligations. So Washington says, right, if anybody looks at these battles, if they can’t see the hand of God, it’s because either they’re not a Christian or they’re just wicked to not acknowledge because this is how clear it was to the guys who were there. Just open your eyes and look. There’s no way this happens unless God was part of it. And the Battle of Long Island is an easy example for that.
SPEAKER 04 :
Amen. Thank you for sharing that miracle story. Do you have… So Tim is with wallbuilders.com. As I said, he’s the president of it, and you have a lot of different products. So I’m going to do a commercial for you. Do you have any products that tell the miracle stories?
SPEAKER 12 :
A lot of them are in the American story, The Beginnings, where we do tell several of those stories.
SPEAKER 04 :
Is that a book? Is that a video?
SPEAKER 12 :
It is. It is a book. It’s available all over the place. Walblers.com. It’s digital, but it’s primarily a book. But we do tell lots of stories. So they can also go to any of our social media or YouTube channel and hear us telling some of those stories.
SPEAKER 04 :
Check out their materials. I bought a lot of their materials when our children were young, when we were homeschooling. It’s the most inspiring materials, and thank you for producing them. Mark, do you have a miracle you could share?
SPEAKER 01 :
I have what I think is a nice follow-up to that. So there’s a cottage industry of people debating whether the war for American independence was a just war or not. Most people come down on the side that it was not. Eric Patterson, the former dean of the Robertson School of Government, and I come down on the affirmative that it was just. In one encounter, I was debating it. a colonel from the U.S. Air Force Academy, and he was arguing it was not a just war. Now, in order for a war to be just, there has to be a just cause, it has to be declared by the legitimate authority, and there has to be a reasonable chance of success. And this colonel from the U.S. Air Force Academy said there was no reasonable chance of success. Now, it may seem obvious that there was since the Patriot side won, but his point was if you look back at it, The patriots are, you know, these scattered Americans. Almost none of them have serious military training coming up against the greatest empire the world had seen to date with the ability to hire mercenaries from Germany. And, of course, the British Army was far better trained than the Navy was far superior in almost every respect. And yet the American side won. The patriots won. It’s hard for me to explain how that could happen other than… God’s miraculous intervention.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. Do you want to talk about a David and Goliath encounter between an army that had no money? At one time at Valley Forge, you remember the stories how they were barefoot and they were trying to tie their feet up with rags because they were bloody. They had absolutely nothing and yet they won and they persevered. To me, the miracle is that they persevered. Despite losing battle after battle, they persevered and then God pulled it out One thing in our time that is left, I think it’s important also to talk about the precursor to the revolutionary period, and that really is the pilgrims. That’s the pilgrims and the Puritans when they came over. And again, that was suffering. It was religious persecution that drove the pilgrims to leave England. They were severely persecuted to the point of death. And they left and they went to what was called the Lowlands, the Netherlands. They sojourned there for a while. And they believed that the Holy Spirit spoke to them and their church group, very small group, and that they were to go to this new land called the United States. The very first settlement, as you know, the first English and permanent settlement was at Jamestown. So Mark and I are at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. That’s where the first settlement landed, at Virginia Beach, Virginia, in Cape Henry. And the first thing they did is they had three days of prayer and fasting on the ship. because the Anglican priest that was with them saw the men, they were breaking out in fisticuffs, they were drinking, they were looking forward to getting onto the land, and he said, hold it, we are not going to go on this land, America, as barbarians. We’re going to fast and pray, we’re going to confess our sins, and they had a cross on board the ship, and they came out, and we know the exact prayer that Robert Hunt prayed that day from the Anglican prayer book. They put the cross into the sand at Cape Henry. We have a replica of that cross on the campus at Regent University. And then they prayed the prayer. And the prayer was so unusual. This is a miracle. And the prayer from the Anglican prayer book is that we are dedicating this land today to God, to Almighty God, to his service, and that the gospel of Jesus Christ would go across that whole land. They had no idea of the length and breadth of the land that they were landing on, but also that it would go to the whole world. Now imagine, here you have a bunch of drunken sailors on a boat, and Robert Hunt is praying that the gospel will go forth, a faith-inspired prayer to the whole land, but from that land to the whole earth. Now here’s the miracle that I would share with you. One of the priest Anglican Anglican priest Robert Hunt’s linear descendants years later was a man named Pat Robertson. He had the 700 Club, and he started the Christian Broadcasting Network. Exactly there. But he wasn’t living there. He was up in New York City. He was a very well-to-do lawyer on Wall Street, drinking a lot. And then he met Jesus Christ. And he gave it all up. And he said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And the Lord told him, buy a broken-down TV station in Portsmouth, Virginia. And he started the first Christian broadcasting station in America. And then from there, the Christian Broadcasting Network. But here’s what’s unbelievable. That prayer that Robert Hunt gave was on April 29th, 1607. On April 29th, 1979, the very first satellite was launched into space and it broadcast the gospel of from Jerusalem, Pat Robertson was in Jerusalem, and the gospel went around the world for the first time, April 29th, 1979, and it’s been broadcast uninterrupted since then in answer to the prayer given by faith that was said on that piece of land at Cape Henry. That’s not coincidence. That’s the Holy Spirit of God. And so throughout our heritage, these are the stories our young people need to know. That America is not an accident. America is not evil. America is God’s design and destiny. We should thank him. We should praise him for this. And we should exalt his holy name for what he has given to us to steward for the next 250 years. So… Keenan, I won’t be able to ask for your miracle, but we have about a little over a minute. What I would like to do is ask for a resource that everyone here online could go and purchase or avail themselves of or check out of the library so that you can celebrate this 250th year. Let me give you mine first. Mine is Governor Bradford from when the Pilgrims landed. He has an absolute treasure of a book. It’s called Of Plymouth Plantation. And I urge all of you to get a new copy of that book and read it or listen to it on Audible. As I was flying out here, I listened to this book all the time because it shows that the people were steeped in the Word of God. Everything they did was by faith, trying to be obedient to God, willing to give their lives if need be to found this country. So William Bradford of Plymouth Plantation, either the book or on audio. So go ahead, Kenan.
SPEAKER 05 :
Any of the books these guys have written, I would say markdavidhall.com. Go to his website. You’ll find his books. Amazing. Wallbuilders.com. Tim and David have tag team on two that you really need to get, and that’s the American story. And then also I would just say, look at what the White House is trying to produce with the videos that they’re putting out there in collaboration with Hillsdale and with Prager, and they’re doing a lot of stuff on the founding era and the founding fathers in particular. And so if you want to do some activities, maybe take one founder a week. Maybe take, you know, One of the signers of the decoration a week. And look at the biographies by Sanderson or Goodrich or Lossing. I think you guys published Lossing. Anyway, look at those once a week with your family and just thank God for what he did through those founding fathers to lay that biblical foundation. on which God has built the greatest nation on the face of the earth.
SPEAKER 04 :
Amen. Colonel John Idsmo has written a book on each of the founders that you could get as well. And Mark David Hall has done one of the videos for the White House on the 250th anniversary. So Mark, suggest one of your own books. Tell them which one to buy.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, that’s very kind of you.
SPEAKER 04 :
He’s humble. He’s an Anglican. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
I wasn’t going to do that in an effort to appear humble, but I do have a book that Did America Have a Christian Founding, which was my first book written for the general reading public. Everything else I did before that was dry and academic. Hopefully it has some value, but this really should be a very accessible book.
SPEAKER 04 :
Repeat the name of that title.
SPEAKER 01 :
Did America Have a Christian Founding with a question mark. And I’ll give you a hint. The answer is yes, it did.
SPEAKER 04 :
And what about you?
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, I would encourage all of us are going to be doing things during the 250th and we will all have releases coming out. So I would say check all the websites. So familyresearchcouncil.org. I know Kenan and Tony are working on things. Mark David Hall is. We are a wall builder. So I would say just stay tuned to this because we are going to try to amplify what has been left out in culture. And that is the biblical foundation of America. We’re doing collab things together as well. So just follow along because there will be lots of really good books and resources coming out in the near future.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is about revival fires, and we want to revive in the hearts of our young people the love for our country because it’s our biblical heritage. Give yourselves some applause, and for those of our wonderful panelists, thank you.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, I’m Jody Heiss, and thank you so much for joining us today for this special edition of Washington Watch. What you’ve just heard was a panel discussion on America’s 250th anniversary. It was all part of our 2025 PrayVote Stand Summit. Hope you’ve enjoyed these excerpts. Unfortunately, that’s all the time we have today. But once again, Happy New Year to you and your family. And we hope you’ll join us again tomorrow right here on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 10 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council. To support our efforts to advance faith, family, and freedom, please text GIVE to 67742. That’s GIVE to 67742. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information, please visit TonyPerkins.com.
