Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm not going to hide behind the map, talk about it.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
It's all programmed to create chaos.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Fifty five KRZ eighth six fifty five KRCD talk station.
You heard the voice of my guest in studio empower
You sevenar to night, seven pm. You can either log
on empower Youoamerica dot org or show up in person.
Two twenty five Northland Boulevard formerly Framed, USA, where the
empower You America's seminar, or rather studio still exists. Thank
(00:29):
you as always to Dan Ragnell for the original concept
for these wonderful learning opportunities and educational opportunities and dedication
of the space to have these in studio. Mark Burrell,
he is an author, talked to him before his book
Rediscovering the American Covenant Roadmap to Restore America, which was
published a couple of years ago, argues that American Declaration
(00:49):
of Independence functions as our national founding covenant, following a
Biblical template for establishing community or nation. It's aimed at
pastors and church leaders, although you can feel free to
enjoy it yourself. Today and tonight we'll be diving in
a little bit to his new book, The Duty Is Ours.
It's a concise overview of what God desires for nations,
at least as he perceives it, including how to establish
(01:10):
a governation that in a way that honors God. Discusses
biblical responses for Christians out there who when governed justly
or unjustly, offering a framework for guiding a wayward nation
back to God. He has a podcast, check it out
Liberty Talk Podcast, where he analyzes curve events through the
biblical lens. He also cool enjoys restoring antique cars. I
(01:34):
think that's an awesome hobby. Welcome and thanks for coming
to the studio. Mark Barrell, it's great to see you again.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Brian. How did you get involved with this? I know
you have an engineering backworn you were a background you
worked at Procter and Gamble and a whole bunch of
different roles in manufacturing, engineering, et cetera. But how did
you get involved in your biblical analysis, not only in
rediscovering the American Covenant, but The Duty is Ours? The
book we have I have in my hand here and
thanks for the copy.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yeah, so it started about thirty years ago. I really
had a lot of questions about my faith and having
an engineering and a science background, I felt like there
ought to be some reasonable answers to a lot of
the questions that I had, and so I started trying
to find people get answered those questions. And I was
fortunate enough to find a mentor who was strong in theology,
(02:20):
and when I started sharing some of the questions I had,
he said, well, you just need systematic theology. I'll take
you through it. And so systematic theology is essentially applying
the scientific method to the Bible. So if you have
a question on what does God say about prayer? Or
who is God? What is he like? What are his
nature and attributes? Basically the approaches just go through the Bible,
(02:43):
pull out all the verses that seem to talk about that,
arrange them, and figure out what the interpretation is that
seems to answer that question. And if you do that faithfully,
you'll find that the Bible does provide a pretty coherent
answer to most of the questions of life. So that's
how I got started in really understanding the Bible.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Okay, now walk me through how this works. Because my
approach to the Morning Show is now and has always been.
I have never said out loud what religion. I am,
Everything I utter, my principles are based purely on logic
and reason and are supported regardless of what religion you
follow Islam, Judaism, Christianity. You know, there's a bottom line principle,
(03:26):
government's going to work or it's not. Two and two
is always four. It doesn't matter what you believe in.
And I can make my arguments to any person of
any faith. Now from that approach, does your scientific approach
to looking at the Bible apply logically and reasonably to
people who may not carry a faith or maybe of
a different faith than Christianity To understand where I'm coming
(03:49):
from on that.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, So I think the question is if you look
at all the facts, I mean, you can look at
how does what does the Bible say about all these things?
And then you can look at life and say what
can I observe about all these things? And if you
look at the two my experience has been that you
can see a match, but everyone's going on their own
personal faith journey. And that's really the key behind the
(04:12):
phrase pursuit of happiness and a declaration of independence that
Framers actually meant that they wanted to respect everyone's liberty
to go through their own personal faith journey up to
an including choosing not to follow God.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
That's why we don't have a theocracy. They lived through
the Church of England. They saw what happened when you
have a religion that is well governments supported or mandated
taxes are paid to support the English Church. You may
be getting a message by the way, right, you may
be getting a message you don't believe in, but you're
stuck with it because your government is ed to a
specific religion. Our framers knew that.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Yep, they did. In fact, one of the things Jefferson
is accused of is being anti church. But one of
the things he was pushing when they were disestablishing the church,
for instance in Virginia in the seventeen seventies, is he
was arguing that the state should not be paying for
the churches. The churches should be on their own right,
which is the model we adopted in America. Which is
(05:11):
the right model.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
It's the capitalist method for you got to do. You
have to proselytize, You have to convince people why they
should be following your specific faith. You have to weigh,
you know, other faiths against the one that you're pushing
and show why your faith is the right way to go.
It's better for you as a human being. It'll help
you grow and thrive and survive. And as I go
to prayer, you know, I'm a prayerful man, and the
(05:34):
reason is it because it helps me be introspective. I
don't believe that I'm praying to a God that is
going to help me win the lottery. I believe I
am speaking to someone who is all seeing, all knowing being,
so I can't lie. If I got a problem in
my life, I have to understand that that problem may
be my responsibility. And the point of prayer for me
(05:56):
is to walk through that I'm having this problem. God,
you know, can you help me find a solution? Okay,
let's walk through why I am where I am with
any given problem. Maybe it is my fault. Maybe it's
the fault of something completely out of my hands. But
I don't I'm thinking. I'm never ever saying God, can
you please help me win the lottery? Or God, can
you help the Bengals win this weekend. I believe God
(06:17):
has a hands off approach about that. Otherwise we would
have plague, pestilence, war, famine, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean the whole intent of prayer
is to communicate with God and listen and try and
be introspective about the things that are going on in
your life and what can you do about those?
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So yeah, absolutely, And you get that's very helpful to
someone as long as they're willing to put down that
idea that you know, God is the hand or out
of holiday treats. That's the importance of prayer for me.
Now walking through your scientific approach, is there any can
you give an illustration of how that works on any
given area of government for me this morning for my list,
(06:55):
So I'm going to talk about that, I know in depth.
I don't want to click overview.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Would be So, for instance, does God care about the nations?
If you look around the world today, I mean, the
nations are in a mess. It would be easy for
someone to conclude that God doesn't care about the nations.
We're sort of on our own. Yet if you look
start in Genesis, actually Genesis one twenty eight, he says,
I want the nations to be fruitful, increase in number,
(07:20):
and fill the earth. It's very simple. And then after
the flood he says the same thing. I want the
nations to be fruitful, increase in number, and phill the earth.
And then he adds one thing, because remember the question
after the flood is what's going to be different going forward?
We just wiped out mankind because of the rampant violence
and the rampant evil. So what's going to be different?
(07:42):
And in Genesis nine, verses five and six, he says,
I demand an accounting for the shedding of innocent blood.
And he says it three times. And that is where
the institution of civil government actually comes from in the Bible.
So you can start to piece together. Okay, God desires
nations to be fruitful, he wants nations to govern justly.
(08:04):
Then the next question is, well, how do you start
a nation? And how do you govern justly? And so
that's what I'll be talking about tonight.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I always had this vision along those lines. When you
think about Moses going up on the mount and bringing
down the Ten commandments. He went up there, it happened,
by the way, Yeah, he was, he was. He was
being very contemplative. He's speaking with God. Maybe maybe God
delivered them physically to him, or maybe he was rebeing
reflective about the state of the world and analyzing where
(08:34):
all the problems come from looking down at the masses
and fighting and sleeping with each other and covetying and
andret Where are the where what are the core reasons
for our disfunction and our inability to get along with
each other? And by analyzing those you come up with
I think the Ten Commandments are a wonderful, non necessary
and doesn't even have to be religious based. Even believing
(08:57):
in a God is important because it's humble to man.
There is something beyond you which keeps you down a
little bit in terms of your cockiness. But all the
other ones simply don't kill anybody, covet if you could
wipe out any sin and I don't want to, you know,
label them in terms of priority. But if people were
just no longer envious, covetous and greedy, they wouldn't look
(09:20):
at someone every day and go, you've got more than me,
I deserve more? Why how come you got? You know what,
when somebody has more than me, I'm I'm happy for them,
bully for you. Right, you did something the right way
which allowed you to be successful. So anyway we'll possible
bring we'll bring him back. Mark Burrew gonna be doing
the seminar tonight again, putting do an RSVP at a
(09:42):
power you America dot org say they are, You're gonna
show up either in person or when you log on
a power you America dot org. Will pause, take a
quick break and allow me to mention affordable imaging services,
because imaging can be affordable. Last image, I got my
CT scan. You know I didn't go to the hospital
to get it. I went to affordable imaging services and
you know what, my doctor said, Fine, you can go
where you want. I know I can go where I went.
(10:03):
You know why I went there. CT scans can set
you back five grand at a hospital, and I sure
as hell didn't want to pay for that kind of nonsense.
After the processing with insurance, I still would have been
left with probably one thousand plus dollars out of my pocket.
Affordable imaging services there for MRI, CT scans, echo cardigrams, ultrasounds,
all of them come on the board certified radiologists report
(10:25):
my doctor got. The report looked great. I mean in
terms of being able to compare it to my prior
CT scan. It was a fine report, totally acceptable, dotted
all the eyes and crossed all the t so I
can vouch for that as well. No hidden costs. They
use the same high quality equipment as most hospitals. The
difference is the very very low price, where that CT
scan will cost you four hundred and fifty dollars. Yeah,
(10:49):
a little more with the contrast, but ultrasound average costs
two grand. At Affordable Imaging Services, it's two hundred and
fifty bucks. Get the idea, you have a choice, exercise
it like I did. Very very low overhead, Yeah, very
low overhead. But it's again professionals with the same equipment
five one three seven, five three eight thousand, five one
three seven five three eight thousand online Affordable Medimaging dot
(11:12):
com fifty five KRC.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Just high.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Time for the weather, uh sunny day for the most parts,
sixty two for the high clear ofver night down to
thirty seven. Got a sunny day tomorrow with the highest
sixty eight clear overy night down to forty and a
sunny Saturday for the Bengals came or Bearcats game. Rather,
it's gonna be a highest seventy two right now thirty
six traffic time Chuck Ingram.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
From the use of how Tramphing Center mammogram. Say vibes
called five one three, five to eight four pink to
schedule your annual mammogram with uc Health SAX pred team.
That's five one three, five to eight four pink. Cruise
continue to work. With an accident involving four northbound two
seventy five at Ohio Pike, only the left lane gets by.
Tramfik is backing up towards five mile for an extra
(11:57):
thirty minutes south beound seventy five slows through walk on northbound.
That's Ereck near Cowbirth backing tramping through Saint Bernard King
bram On fifty five KRC, The talk station.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Hey twenty here fifty five KRC, The talk station Brian
Thomas with Mark Burrell. How are you seminar tonight? You
should check it out online. You can watch comfortably from
your own home and the power you America dot org,
just RSVP and stream the video connection or show up
at two twenty five Northland Boulevard. Should be a fascinating
conversation on the biblical connections. Biblical principles to shape and
(12:33):
how they shape the Declaration of Independence, but how they
are a guide for well, maybe writing the ship that
is the current disaster we find ourselves in right now,
my words, not yours, Mark, before we dive back into it,
because I know you have an anecdote or two you
want to pass along. But you also teamed up with
Building Blocks for Liberty, Jim Lewis's group, and they're doing
the sixteen nineteen project film.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
They're doing that this Saturday, ten o'clock at the Freedom Church,
So show up a little early so you can sign.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Up, but we'd love to see you there ten am,
ten am the Freedom Church. Wonderful. Now moving over, what
is the rule of the church insofar as the election
is concerned or government generally speaking. I'm on record I've
said a gazillion times. If you're in the congregation and
the guy or gow in the front of the room
(13:18):
is telling you to vote for some huge social welfare
program through government, then they are abdicating the responsibility as
let's say a Christian, because it's the Christian individual's obligation
to help out one's fellow man, not the state. Right,
those are two separate obligations. State got its own, people
have their own, but off roading that is really removing one.
(13:41):
Are the points of the church, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Yeah, the Church is to be the conscience of society
and Christians are to be adopting a Judeo Christian moral
and ethical framework. Let me say it that perfect and
the moral and ethical framework should guide not only your
personal actions, but also how you live your life with
your family, but also how you live in community. And
(14:06):
so when you're governing authorities are governing unjustly or they're
proposing policies and laws that do not match with moral
and ethical behavior, this is when Christians need to speak up.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Going back to my point on being covetous, and that's
class warfare, brother, right there, that's Marxism.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, and you're spot on with the covetous thing. If
there is one that is like a dark horse on
the list, it's that one. It is and progressive us
that in order to get people to get upset and
you know, storm the gates and get some of these
laws passed that are really unethical, they shouldn't be passed.
But the point of the church is that we're supposed
(14:48):
to be the conscience of society, and the way Christians
do that is by at a minimum, is by voting.
And they should be voting their conscience, and their conscience
should be informed by biblical principles. And this is really
the target audience that I have for my ministry and
the books that I've been writing. Because when I started
(15:08):
this journey about twenty years ago, thirty years ago, I
had lots of questions. I didn't understand how the revolution
could have been biblically justifiable if Jesus said you should
pay her taxes and supposedly it was all about taxation
without representation. For me, that was a conflict. So I
understand that there's lots of questions about the founding and
whether or not it violated Romans thirteen, or it's in
(15:31):
conflict with evangelism. All those topics I had to work
through and I put them in. The first book has
all of it. It's very detailed. The second book is
a quicker read for the general congregation, and that's really
my target audience. Brian. I'm trying to get the church
to realize that they have a citizenship duty and we
need to step up and we need to get involved
(15:52):
in politics at a minimum by voting.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
So your first book was for all the pastors, ministers, rabbis.
I'm mom what I have read this and advance these
principles to your congregation. This book is when you're in
church where they're not doing that for the congregation to
stand up and say, hey, pastor Rabbi, I'm aut whatever,
this is what we need to do, and you are
misdirecting the conversation by pushing this, say covetous proposal, or
(16:19):
however you want to characterize it.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Yeah, the way I would say it is that book
when you're holding up the duty is ours is a
cliff note biblical defense for the fact that Christians should
be engaged and in fact, in America's case, our declaration
of independence is actually our national founding Covenant. And the
punchline at the end of the seminar tonight is to
(16:42):
the biblical roadmap to restore America is that we need
to revisit our national founding Covenant and recommit like our
founders did.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Well, I'll tell you what it's going to be a
fascinating conversation. Mark. I've really enjoyed our conversation this morning,
Mark Burrell tonight seven PM and Poweroamerica dot org makes
sure you RSVP is shown up in person or streaming
it live. Tell your friends about that one too. I
think everyone will get some great enlightenment at it and
enlightenment out of it. And you can also get his
books while you are there at two twenty five Northland Boulevard.
(17:10):
He's going to have his books right there or Amazon
dot com. You know what, Mark, I'll have Joe add
your links to Amazon dot com on my blog page
fifty five KRC dot com. Folks, stick around, I heart me.
The aviation expert Jay Rattle's going to join the program
right after the break. I'll be right back when we
win this election. Here's what we're going to do about it.
(17:31):
As months turn two weeks. Day one was fourteen hundred
days ago. What have you been doing? The countdown is on.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
I fully intend to win this election. She's an extreme
radical left lunatic.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
And our future is fast approaching.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
He is a fight for our future and a vision
of our future.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
The twenty twenty four election happens here.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Her vision Socialist on fifty five KRC