Rebuilding Liberty For America’s 250th

A lot of people are making plans for America’s 250th anniversary and I’m excited for the celebrations. But I don’t want the 250th to be all fireworks and hot dogs with no understanding of the Declaration of Independence, unalienable rights, or why government exists in the first place. That’s the heart of this WallBuilders message: civic literacy is the missing ingredient, and this next season is a rare chance to rebuild liberty from the ground up in our families, churches, workplaces, and communities.

We talk through a simple but demanding framework: answer real cultural questions with biblical clarity, then connect those answers to history and the Constitution. The Declaration’s logic matters here, from “truths… self-evident” to rights endowed by a Creator and government’s purpose to secure those rights. We also tackle the line that makes people nervous “it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it” and explain what bold, constitutional course correction can look like without throwing society into chaos.

We also reflect on the shock and aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and why attempts to silence truth can end up multiplying it. The stories and quotes we share point to a passing-of-the-mantle moment, with young people stepping forward and saying they won’t stay quiet anymore. To make that momentum practical, we lay out clear next steps: the Rebuilding Liberty course, Biblical Citizenship in Modern America, and simple tools that let you host a class and invite others with minimal friction.

If you want the 250th to leave a real legacy, listen now, share this with a friend, and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next. After you listen, will you tell us one concrete thing you’ll do before July 4th?

Transcript

Arlin and AnnaBeth Green [00:00:09] Welcome to WallBuilders! 

Arlin Green [00:00:13] I'm Arlin Green. 

AnnaBeth Green [00:00:15] I'm AnnaBeth Green. And our Poppy's Rick Green. Today we're gonna celebrate America! 

Arlin Green [00:00:22] So here's a presentation from our Poppy, Rick Green. 

Rick Green [00:00:28] I just want to give you some encouragement. You are on the front lines all over this country in an amazing inflection point in history. This is such an amazing opportunity for us. Not just the timing of the 250th and everybody talking about the principles and the Declaration and all those things that we talked about last year as we were getting ready to launch into the 250th. But of course, now there is this renewed interest in the principles of liberty. And the reaction to Charlie's assassination has been absolutely phenomenal. But I just want to point out something that Charlie was doing that every single one of us can do. To the untrained ear Charlie talked a lot of politics, but to a person that knows the Word of God, you know that every time he was asked a question, every time he was on a panel, every time he was giving a speech he was discipling. He was giving a biblical answer to whatever the social issue was. Now nothing was off the table. You could ask him about sexuality about taxes about property rights, I mean whatever the issue was, you could ask him and he would do his best to come at it from a biblical perspective. And last year we were talking about the fact that, you know, WallBuilders has been at this for decades and we had finally reached the point in the second chapter of Nehemiah where we have permission to go rebuild. We hadn't actually been rebuilding the walls yet. We'd been working on the king, man. We've been trying to convince the king to let us go rebuild the walls. Then we finally got permission through the election last year. And now with this resurgence and this interest, a lot of people are asking, okay, I want to rebuild the walls, but I don't know how to do that. I don't know what the bricks are that I'm supposed to be using. I don't know the right mortar to use. I'm not sure what these cultural indicators are that I need to be looking for. And so that's where you have such an incredible opportunity as a leader in your state over the next year and a half. And thankfully David pointed out to me that the 250th does not end on July 4th. 2026, it really begins. So, we have a whole year of the 250th from that point. So, we actually have between now and July 4th, 2027 to really make the most of this moment, to really seize this opportunity. Where these kids are actually, I don't know if you noticed the difference, I know Patriot Academy and WallBuilders we've had an absolute flood an influx of interest. Young people wanting to get engaged, wanting to be a part of the solution. And so, we're just trying to meet that demand. Of course, Turning Point with the 50, 60,000 requests for chapters and all the Turning Point Faith chapters now opening across the country. There's a tremendous, tremendous opportunity. And you're right there at the heart of it in your legislative district and in your state. And so, I'm gonna encourage you to make the most of this and use the tools that WallBuilders is making available to you throughout the year. Use our new Rebuilding Liberty Course, use Biblical Citizenship in Modern America. Take these courses into your districts and raise the civic literacy of your constituency and that's going to help build an army of people that are willing to stand for these principles Not only over the next year and a half for the 250th, but way beyond that 

Arlin Greeen [00:03:38] We have to interrupt Poppy's presentation to take a break. We will be right back on The WallBuilders Show. 

AnnaBeth Green [00:04:56] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show! 

Rick Green [00:05:04] All right, folks, we're back on the WallBuilders show. And yes, that's my grandkids, Arlin and AnnaBeth, that have been welcoming you to the program today and introducing my presentation from the Pro Family Legislators Conference. And of course, as you know, we, if you're a longtime listener, you know we do the legislators conference every year, and then we take a lot of the presentations that are given at the conference and we share them with our WallBuilders audience. And so, we've been sharing some great presentations from Kevin Freeman and others over the last few weeks. And I thought it would be good to learn a little bit more about all the things happening in the 250th and not just the things that other people are doing, lots of great things happening. You know, David and Tim are in DC this week doing America Reads the Bible. There's all kinds of celebrations happening in federal agencies up and down. I mean, every agency you can think of is doing something for the 250th, most states, most communities. But the real question is what are you going to do for the 250th? What activities do you have planned for your family? What activities you have plan for your church? And for your community. And that's why we wanted to bring you this presentation to talk about some of the things that are happening coming up in the 250th. Let's get back to it. Here we are at the Pro Family Legislators Conference. 

Rick Green [00:06:16] The new course that we've put together since our last time together last November, Rebuilding Liberty, is shorter than Biblical Citizenship. It's about four weeks. Actually, it is four weeks, and it's a little less than an hour each week. So, this is a much faster class. Most of you have been through Biblical citizenship. That's an eight-week class. It takes about two hours each night for eight weeks in a row, eight nights throughout eight weeks in a row. This one's only four and our goal is to put about four million people through this thing over the course of these next two years as we celebrate the 250th. And if they do the course they're going to get an understanding of the Declaration of Independence. We're just backstage talking about you know, this is not complicated. We hold these truths to be self-evident. We need to be talking about truth and giving people a hunger for truth That all men are created equal, that God's in the equation, that they're endowed by their Creator with these unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that government's whole purpose, the whole reason you guys are all in office is to secure these rights. That's the whole reason we created government and developed government and the only power that that government has comes from the consent of the people. Now, the line after that is the one that I think we're going to be living out over the next couple of years. And that's the I want to leave you with. This one is the line that some people get a little nervous about because they think it means, you know, you have to completely throw off your government. It's not what it means. But Jefferson says in the next line, he says that when any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, the ends are life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, the truths, the ability to give or refuse consent, so your election system and all of those things. If government is destroying, if it's destructive of this ends, then Jefferson said it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. Now, we are not at all suggesting that we abolish all government, but definitely we should abolish the Federal Department of Education. Anybody agree with that? Okay. We should abolish the Center for Demented Confusion. Perhaps should be aptly named. Maybe Mary could carry a bill to rename it. This, you know, this the Center for Disease Creation. Anyway, there's a lot of things. I the numbers are staggering right now. People are being exposed to how much of the budget and how much waste is going into health care, none of which is constitutional. There's zero constitutional authority for the federal government to be involved in health care at all. So, we should be getting rid of that half of the federal budget tonight. Right? That those are the types of alter or abolish moves. And I, and I'm going to challenge you to think boldly, not to just tinker around with the system. Man, I remember, you know, when I came into the legislature, of course, we had a Democrat majority in Texas and Phil King and I came in together. And I mean, we were happy if we could just get a little bitty sliver of a sort of pro-life piece of legislation that, you know, might do some good in certain scenarios. Right. We now get to take huge steps towards restoring the principles of liberty. You now are in control in so many of these states where you can think boldly and actually get things done that we only dreamed about 25 or 30 years ago. So, I'm going to challenge you to do that and make the most of this and help us at WallBuilders and Patriot Academy to bring these young people along. When I say they're hungry, I'm not kidding you. We went from, we do this thing called Patriot Institute now. I don't know if y'all have heard of this. Most of you are familiar with our Patriot Academy that we do in state capitals around the country. That's one week. Well, now we do the Patriot Institute at the Patriots Academy campus in Constitution City, Texas. Which by the way, if you want to study the Constitution in a mock-up of Independence Hall in Constitution city, Texas, tell me that's not poetic. But we've got these kids now that are coming and staying with us for a whole year. So, they're spending one year at the Patriot Institute getting grounded in these things. And we doubled in our students right after Charlie was assassinated. The number of people that are now reaching out and saying, man, I'm not going to be quiet anymore. You watch these videos of these kids and they're saying, I was always embarrassed to talk about my faith or about my conservative values. Never again will I be silent. From now on, I am going to speak up. And they're going down the discipleship path. You know, people might think that there was an effort to silence Charlie Kirk's voice. In truth, they were trying to silence the voice of truth, not Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk was a vessel for the voice of truth, just like you are and just like I am. And fortunately for us, instead of silencing him, they actually magnified his voice. So now because of technology, you've got a thousand times more people being discipled by all these Charlie Kirk videos in his death than even in his life. 

Arlin Green [00:11:04] We have to enter up Poppy's presentation to take a break. We will be right back on The WallBuilders Show. 

AnnaBeth Green [00:13:28] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Here's more from our Poppy, Rick Green. 

Rick Green [00:13:36] The important thing for us this morning is to recognize that we have a vessel and that no matter whether you're the legislator, you're on staff, you are volunteering for campaigns, you're a pastor, whatever the role is that God's given you, you've got a realm of influence. There are people that will listen to your voice, so get plugged into these efforts that we're making over the next year and a half and force multiply in your community. I'm gonna leave you with two quotes I went and looked this one up because it struck me the night that Charlie was killed, 31 years old. The first thing that came to mind was of course MLK in his 30s, you know, RFK, JFK in his early 40s. You go through those, but then you think back to the founding era and you get Dr. Joseph Warren, the Charlie Kirk of the revolution, 34 years old when the British cut him down at Bunker Hill. And the greatest orator would have been the greatest Orator of the Revolution had I've been killed so soon. But he gave those great orations on the anniversary of the Boston massacre twice. He did two of the five that they did there at the old South median house. And the last one he did just a few weeks before they killed him. The words that he said, I think fit so well with what the opportunity is that we've been given in the wake of a horrible tragedy, but that God has turned into a movement where the wind is at our back if we will seize this moment. Here's what he said at the very end of that speech. He said, "you then, who nobly have espoused your country's cause, that's all of you, who generously have sacrificed wealth and ease, who have forsaken the downy pillow to keep your vigils by the midnight lamp for the salvation of your invaded country. You, then will reap that harvest of renown, which you so justly have deserved." This one I think really applies to Charlie. "Your country shall pay her grateful tribute of applause. Even the children of your most inveterate enemies, ashamed to tell from whom they sprang, while they in secret cursed their stupid, cruel parents, shall join the general voice of gratitude to those who broke the fetters which their fathers forged." Now listen carefully to this last line. "Having redeemed your country and secured the blessing to future generations, who fired by your example." There is a generation right now on fire and they're on fire because of Charlie's example. "And so many of you fired by your example shall emulate your virtues." So, they're being discipled in the virtues of Christ and in the discipleship of the Gospel to live it out in every area of their lives "and learn from you the heavenly art of making millions happy with heartfelt joy, which transports all your own. You cry the glorious work is done. Then drop the mantle to some young Elisha and take your seats with kindred spirits in your native skies." A lot of people say there'll never be another Charlie Kirk. Rob McCoy and I disagree with that. We said that the first week when this happened. There'll be an Elisha that gets a double portion. There'll a ton of others that pick up that mantle and go forth. And I don't mean just the people that already have platforms and radio programs and all. I'm talking about these kids right now that are being fired by his example. And are emulating his virtues. So be encouraged and know there is a harvest right there in your backyard. Look for ways to work that harvest and bring those people into the fold. This is actually from one of my students, okay? This is a 19 year old girl doing the Patriot Institute. She said, I've been thinking all day about the words of Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg address. We are now engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we can not hollow this ground. The brave men living in dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor longer remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work, which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead, we take increased devotion to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. That's what I'm asking you to do. Take increased devotion to the cause. Think about those young people in your life. There might be a Dr. Joseph Warren, who was 33 when he gave the speech, 34 when he died. There might a Charlie Kirk at 31. Jefferson was 33 when he wrote the Declaration. Catherine Lee Bates was 33 when she wrote the America the Beautiful. I mean, you think about the young people, we need to bring them in and be thinking about how you can rebuild liberty in your community. God bless you. 

Arlin Green [00:18:22] We'll be right back on WallBuilders.  

Arlin Green [00:20:40] Welcome back to WallBuilders. 

AnnaBeth Green [00:20:43] Here's more of our Poppy, Rick Green. 

Rick Green [00:20:46] Yes, that's right. Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. And of course this is the place we take on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Thanks to my grandkids, Arlen and Anna for helping out today. I want to encourage you to be making your plans for the 250th and, and not just waiting for July 4th. We've only got a couple of months left. I mean, we're down to less than 80 days at this point. I want encourage you start studying, take our Rebuilding Liberty course at PatriotAcademy.com get a Biblical Citizenship in Modern America class going at your church or in your living room, you can get that right there at WallBoulders.com. There's lots of ways that you can be getting people educated in your circle. So, you've got people that are friends, family, people in your church, people at work. In fact, we even have a lunch break version of Biblical Citizenship in Modern America. That'd be a great one to do between now and the 250th. It's just five episodes, about 45, 50 minutes each. And what a lot of employers are doing is they're saying, hey, we're going to do our lunch break together this week. Monday through Friday, sometimes the company will even provide the lunch or they just say bring lunch. And each day, Monday through Friday, you watch the Biblical Citizenship in Modern America lunch break version, and in those five days, you get a really good foundation in what it is that we're going to be celebrating for the 250th. What we don't want is for people to just have these, you know, pomp and circumstance, lots of, lots of fireworks and hot dogs and parties, but no real understanding of what we're celebrating. It's not just a birthday. It's not just a- something to mark time. The Bible tells us to remember the former days, to look at what God was doing in our history. Ronald Reagan warned us, he said, if we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. He said, I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that would lead to an erosion of the America spirit. So, we know that's what's happened and he told us the solution is civic ritual. So, as we were sharing that in this presentation and talking about some of the things we can do, it was a perfect opportunity. And I just want to let you know there's lots of tools you don't have to. There's not just one way to do the 250th. There's a lot of options, and I recommend that you look at all those options and you do something that fits for you and your family or for your church, your particular community. Find a night of the week that makes sense to invite people over, find a, you know, maybe in your church it's a potluck dinner every Sunday for eight weeks in a row to do the big the full Biblical Citizenship class or maybe, you know, just the lunch break version in five weeks, whatever works for you. We make it super easy for you if you want all of these tools at your fingertips. Then go to PatriotAcademy.com, click on Constitution Coach, and under that link, you'll be able to sign up for free as a host of all of our different classes, and it'll put you, literally give you Rebuilding Liberty, Biblical Citizenship, Constitution Alive, Constitutional Defense, Kirk Cameron's American Campfire Revival. I mean, all these different courses are free for you when you sign up to be a host or a coach right there at Patriot Academy. There are some paid options if you want to get a bunch of the books to be able to hand out and you don't want people don't just the digital workbook or if you wanna get some of the other supplies you can do that but getting the class is totally for free. Being a coach and getting access to all of those things in your dashboard free you get all the promo videos you get all the access to set up the class. One of the coolest things we did several years ago when we created this this coach program was, we created his coach dashboard where you could actually, with just a couple of clicks, just a couple of things that you fill out, the date you want to have your class, where you want it, it'll create for you your own landing page. And so then you have an advertisement, a landing page that you can send out to all your friends and family, post it on your social media, and people will click on that registration button at that landing page, and our coach dashboard will keep up with all of that for you. It puts them all in the class, sends them reminders about class, allows you to quickly and easily see who signed up for your class, send emails to them. If a room changes at the church where you're going to meet or whatever, we make it super, super easy. And then the promo videos, the things that will make people want to sign up for the class, all of it available for you right there in that dashboard. And it's free. So, check that out today at PatriotAcademy.com. It's your opportunity to do your part to celebrate America's 250th with more than just the parties. But actually, getting an understanding of what we're celebrating because then it will last. Then you can actually rebuild the walls like we're doing at WallBuilders. You can actually lay the right bricks, use the right mortar to make your community strong. I've said it for a long time, each and every citizen can be the catalyst for a restoration of biblical values and constitutional principles if you'll just step up and volunteer your time. It's basically two hours a week to do this. I do recommend you start thinking about giving not only your life, two hours a week, your time, but your fortune, some of your fortune. Two percent of your fortune to some organization or candidates or your church or whoever. Add two percent of what you donate this year in the two fiftieth to invest in freedom and then your sacred honor. That's your reputation. So, spend at least at least two times a week. Spend a few minutes sharing a post from Tim Barton or David Barton or myself, Rick Green or somebody else in this space. And yes, it's going to put your reputation on the line. Some people aren't going to like that you're talking about the Founding Fathers and the Bible and the truth of what made our nation great. That's OK. Put your sacred honor on the lines. So, your life is your fortune. I mean, your life is your time as two hours a week we're asking for your fortune, yes, two percent of your income or savings or whatever given to freedom for the 250th and then two times a week your sacred honor. Two, two, two. Lives, fortunes, sacred honor. Every single one of us can do something to save this country. All right, you kids want to close this out? 

Arlin Green [00:26:34] We're out of time for today. 

AnnaBeth Green [00:26:36] Thanks for listening to Wall Builders.