250 Years of Freedom – More Than Fireworks – with Dr. James L. Garlow – [Ep. 286]

Linda J. Hansen:  Thank you for tuning in today. My name is Linda J. Hansen, your host of the Prosperity 101® Podcast, where we seek to unleash the power of employers to reclaim and preserve America by Connecting Boardroom to Breakroom® and policy to paycheck. Employers educating employees about public policy issues that affect their jobs can lead to greater employee loyalty, engagement, and retention, and to an increased awareness of the blessings and responsibilities of living in a free society. 

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So today I have a very special guest, someone who I have grown to respect so highly and I've learned so much from this man and his wife. And you'll appreciate learning about Jim Garlow, actually Dr. Jim Garlow, who is the founder and CEO of Well-Versed. It is a wonderful ministry working to bring biblical principles to governance, seeking to impact elected officials all around the world. Their ministry is not just US based, it is around the world.

It's non-partisan and it is about bringing these biblical principles to governance. And I so appreciate their broadcast that they have, the World Prayer Network, on Wednesday and Sunday evenings. I want you to be sure and tune into that, we'll tell you how to do it.

But you will learn so much about not just what's happening here in the US, but what's happening worldwide and how everything connects together. So Dr. Garlow has a rich career. He is an author, communicator, commentator, historian, cultural observer, and for most of his life, he was a pastor at Skyline Church in San Diego.

But he has an incredible ministry that spans the world and I'm truly honored to have him here today. So welcome, Dr. Jim Garlow.

Dr. James L. Garlow: Thank you. Good to be with you.

Linda J. Hansen: Now, I'm going to pull one of your lines. When you interview people, you say, in two minutes, I want you to tell me your life story.

Dr. James L. Garlow: That's exactly what I do. Okay, here it goes, I'll try to do it in two minutes. I was born in Kansas, I grew up on a farm in Kansas, went to a one-room country school. That's going to date me.

Went to a one-room little church, a little tiny church, never had more than 60, 70 people in it ever, but it produced 39 pastors and pastors' wives. I'm number 36 from that group.

I went to a very, very small Christian high school and then a small Christian college and then finally, I was in what is now today called Oklahoma Wesleyan University. Then to graduate with a bachelor's at Southern Nazarene University, did a master's in New Testament, went to Asbury Seminary, did what's called a masters of divinity there. 

In the meantime, I married a farm girl from Oklahoma and then I went on to Princeton Theological Seminary. She went to Westminster Choir College in Princeton. She was a classical music major. From there, I did a PhD in church history and historical theology in the New York City area in Morristown, near Madison, New Jersey, at Drew University.

We moved back to the Midwest. I taught at Oklahoma Wesleyan. We adopted four children along the way and then moved back eventually to Oklahoma City, finally on to Dallas-Fort Worth, planted a church, was there 13 years, loved it, and then came to Skyline Church, pastored there 23 years.

My kids grew up. They got married, had grandkids, and along the way, I have 14 grand...well, I got to back up here a bit. My wife, Carol, became ill with cancer. She died in 2013 after a six-year difficult battle. I went through a tough, tough time of struggling, then met Rosemary Schindler. She and I did not know each other, and we've been married now for 12 years. She had four children. So together, we have eight children, and together, we have 14 grandchildren. And as of this moment, the first great-grandbaby is being born.

And part of his name is...including his name is the name Israel, as a matter of fact. And a second great-grandbaby will be born. We have not seen either one of them because they've been safely in the womb, but another one will be born soon thereafter.

My wife has made 80 trips to Israel. I've made...well, her 80th is coming in just three days. I have made 28 trips to Israel thus far, and we're passionately committed to standing with the Jewish people in solidarity with Israel because we understand the nature of anti-Semitism, even if it's cloaked in certain ways.

Our passion for Well-Versed, which we launched a number of years ago, is to bring biblical principles of governance to government leaders and to the people who elect them. That's the story, and I went over my two minutes.

Linda J. Hansen: You were great. It's just great. Well, and the audience might be interested, Rosemary's last name is Schindler. So, if you could tell us the connection there, that would be wonderful.

Dr. James L. Garlow: Yeah, I sure will. Schindler, her first husband, he's also deceased. She was married to Walter Schindler, and he was related to Oskar Schindler.

Now, Oskar Schindler of Schindler's List didn't have any descendants, so it's through...it's kind of like an uncle. He's related to him, but more than just the relationship is that a spiritual anointing, we call it a Schindler anointing, came upon her. The Schindler family in the Czech Republic, they heard about her, and they sent to her, Oskar Schindler, the Schindler family's personal memorabilia, the Bible, the passports, and all this stuff from the Schindler family.

So, she lectures on that, and so she's really walking out a Schindler anointing. I should mention one more thing, too, that all your people listening have all gone through challenges. I referenced that a wife who passed away, the person who followed me is the pastor of Skyline Church, my son-in-law.

And so, his wife was my daughter, my firstborn, our oldest adopted child, and she passed away of cancer. One year ago, right now, and I say that for the benefit of those of you who are watching, this life has got some pretty big challenges, and we have to learn to be like Job, not Job's wife. When she gave advice, I'm going to curse God and die, or recommended that to Job, we resolved we're not going to do that.

We understand we're in a broken world, and we don't blame God for things. When a broken world is sin, heartache, sickness, disease, tears, weeping, is a result of what Lucifer did to this world, and when Adam and Eve sinned in this world, and what our cumulative sin has done to this world. So, we know where to put the blame and to continue to walk always in the praise and the glory of God.

I thought I would add that for somebody listening right now who's on the verge of trying to blame God for some things, and I hope this will bring you back from that error, and walk in the joy and the delight. Don't lose the joy of your salvation. Now, I've gone way over my two minutes.

Back to you.

Linda J. Hansen: No, that's so good. I appreciate that because while this podcast is typically aimed at business leaders, or people in the business world, the Christian marketplace, or the secular marketplace, but we never know where it goes. And I've heard from people all over the world, and it's so important because everyone struggles.

Everyone deals with sin, personal and that of others. Everyone deals with hardship or heartbreak, and that's not what this episode was meant to be about, but we know that someone listening may be going through that. And so if you are, I hope you'll stay listening and hear more because the hope that Dr. Garlow has is based in Jesus Christ. The hope that I have, I've been through a lot of hard things too. We've lost people we love. We've had heartbreaks, illness, things that– life can be a challenge.

And that doesn't mean God doesn't love you. It doesn't mean that we should blame God. It doesn't mean that He's not there for you, working all for good. Scripture tells us He works everything for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. So just give it to God. And I hope that the rest of this episode will also encourage you as we talk about so many things, but while this was not the focus of the episode, we know that there's somebody out there who needed to hear that today.

So whoever you are, don't be afraid to give your heart to Jesus. And if you hear this and you did, please reach out to us. Please reach out to us and let us know so we can pray for you. We can help you. 

So beyond that, now, part of the reason I wanted to have you on is because you are doing something very, very special as we move into the 250th anniversary of the birthday of our country. And, we often have fireworks on the 4th of July, there's wonderful celebrations all over America, and I think you're doing something so meaningful called More Than Fireworks.

So could you tell the audience what you mean by More Than Fireworks and what you'd like to see them take part in this year?

Dr. James L. Garlow: Thank you so much, Linda, for the opportunity to do that. Well, when 4th of July is over, we've just gone through a lot of firecrackers or watched a lot in the sky. If we're not careful, that's kind of it.

And I want to encourage us to really think of how to dedicate our lives from 4th of July up to the election, November the 3rd, so that when that election comes around, you are the most biblically literate person. You walk into the voting booth with a knowledge, a functional knowledge of what the bible says, about 90 political topics. 

I wrote a book a number of years ago called Well-Versed. Well-Versed is biblical answers to today's tough issues. This is a subcategory. There's 31 chapters where I address the biblical or scriptural foundations to all these political or governmental topics.

And then most recently, I wrote a book much thicker. This is a 500 page book. These are both encyclopedias. And this one is “ReVERSED: From Culturally Woke to Biblically Awake”. There's 60 different chapters. We cover a host of issues.

So my encouragement, when I put these two together, these two, this is part one and part two, I put them together. I would like you to know the basic biblical or scriptural underpinnings to all of these governmental issues and influence others in conversations you have. 

And so we put together 91 short videos. Almost all of them are short. There were 11, 12 minutes, 13, 14, could be 15 minutes. Now a couple of them do get carried away and I go a little bit too far. I was over 20 some minutes, but most of them are really short for 91 of them. Well, if you look at the days between Monday, July 6, Monday through Friday, the weekdays, it's about 91 days. So Saturday and Sunday are either rest days or you catch up.

But I want to encourage people to listen to 91 short videos from 4th of July to the November 3 election. It's Monday through Friday every week, except the last weekend, the last Saturday and Sunday we have you listening. 

Finally, those last two– it comes to 91 and my goal is for people to take Jesus into the voting booth with them. My goal is for them to walk in with an understanding so they vote biblically literate. 

By the way, the early early people who occupied this place called the New World we now live in, the pastors would preach an election sermon. This was standard, an election sermon before the election. It was a three hour sermon. Now, not very many churches do that anymore, do they?

It was a three hour election sermon where the pastors would instruct people from the Bible on every issue governmentally. I mean, the government was debating digging canals. If you've lived on the East Coast, you know of the canals.

I went to school at Princeton Seminary and there were canals that were left over from the 1800s there. So they were debating canals. They had a theology of gas when they were debating building a transcontinental continental railway and a theology of railroads.

And there was a question: what are the biblical issues on this? When there was a horrific lightning storm, they had a whole whole doctrine on that. It was quite astounding. They preached on whatever the news was of that day and kept the people highly informed. These were so intelligent people, so highly informed that if we today had the average high school senior take a test that the average eighth grader used to have to pass back then, I won't even finish the sentence… I want us to be biblically literate.

So we put together a campaign: More Than Fireworks. You can go to a website called Well-VersedWorld.org. Our ministry is called Well Versed. The website is WellVersedWorld.org and you'll start the Monday after Fourth of July, July 6th. And one video each day. If you have time to read the chapters, most of the chapters are pretty short. Most of them are. There's only a couple of them– they're pretty long.

One of my buddies, the vice president at Liberty University, says it's worth the price of this book just for Chapter 17, the chapter on marriage. The only two chapters that are pretty similar in these two books are chapters on abortion and marriage. Virtually everything else is completely different.

So they're not repeated at all. But we encourage you to go to WellVersedWorld.org and sign up, be a part of that, to listen. We'll send you materials on how to formally sign up.

And then if you want to put a small group together, we have questions online. We have these short videos online and the short videos from here will be online. And we have questions you can, as a group, as you watch the short video, if you want to as a group.

We've had this done and members of Congress have done this and the United Nations and the Secretariat building. The Bible study is there where they watch the short video, then they go right online to all the questions and discuss them. You won't have to, you literally don't have to do any preparation. I mean, literally none. You just simply show the video and the questions there. 

So that's what it is, Linda. I so appreciate you giving me the opportunity to talk about More Than Fireworks, folks. Let's make this Fourth of July a commitment, the most spiritually meaningful time in your life in terms of personal growth. 

A 91 video series sounds like a lot. Well, just start the first 30, do the first five and get rolling on that. If you can read the book along a chapter a day, it doesn't take you very long to do that. And the good, you got Saturday and Sundays to catch up if you get behind.

Linda J. Hansen: Right. And it only takes 21 days to start a new habit. So it's a whole new habit. 

I really do appreciate this. And what would you say to the people who would say, oh, no, you're pushing church and Christianity on people by talking about reclaiming America or rededicating America to Christianity and to Christ?

You and I know that the founding fathers really sought out our maker. They sought out our maker. They sought divine providence. And our system of government is really based on the understanding that our rights come from God. Our government is only there to protect them. And our system of government and our culture really has been biblically based.

And we see the chaos we do now because of walking away from that, walking away from our God, our Savior, Jesus Christ. And that did not mean that other people couldn't have other religious faiths or anything, but our government and our culture were based in these Judeo-Christian beliefs and doctrines. And can you address that?

Because so many people now say if a Christian even speaks up in the marketplace or in business or something that we are interfering with the separation of church and state or we're imposing our views on others or we're being intolerant, all the things. So could you address that for those who might be thinking that as they're listening?

Dr. James L. Garlow: Well, first of all, it's God who first thought of government. The idea of government comes from God. It's written in the fabric of Scripture, the first books of the Bible, Moses, the books of Torah, the teaching.

They lay out the principles of civil governance. See, the average Christian understands the Bible speaks to the personal issues of life. That's called personal government self-restraint.

The average Christian understands that the Bible speaks to the family issues of life. They get that. The average Christian understands the Bible speaks to the third category of church life or congregational life. They get that. 

What is not understood by the average Christian is that the Bible speaks to civil governance. Even if you're not a Christ follower, you do want communities that are peaceful. You want a nation that is calm and not a constant chaos. And the biblical principles that are outlined in the Scripture are precisely what bring that. 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. So it's God who thought of government. It's God who establishes nations. God loves the nations.

Now, for one who's inclined to say, well, the separation of church and state, I remember talking to a man one day and he brought this up to me. I said, well, where is that in the Declaration of Independence? He said, well, I don't know, but I know it's in there. So no, it's not. He said, well, I know it's in the Constitution. I said, where?

He said, well, I don't know, but I know it's in there. No, sir, it's not. So I know it's in there in one of them, as is not in our birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence, as nowhere is it actually in the Constitution.

It doesn't exist. Where most astute people know it comes from the writings of Thomas Jefferson. And it comes in a letter on January the 1st, 1802. He was writing to the Danbury Baptist in Connecticut, and they were asking, is the federal government going to crowd in on our lives and control church life?

They were concerned about that because the Baptists had had to flee persecution in a number of other locations. Are we going to have some freedom or not? And he wrote the phrase the wall of separation.

And what did he mean by the wall of separation? He went on to explain that the wall of separation means that the government has no right of intrusion of the church, but the church has full right of operating within the government. 

How do we know that this man is responsible for the writings of our most foundational documents? He was the one who attended weekly worship services in the U.S. Capitol building, which started in 1800 and went to 1869. The worship was provided by a band. The band was the Marine Corps band, the equivalent thereof.

So the worship was provided by the federal government in a building built by the federal government in what is today Statuary Hall. At that time, there was no rotunda. There was the House wing and the Senate wing, but they had not connected it with the rotunda.

At that time, they met in the Statuary Hall, which was really the House chambers. And there they had their worship service every Sunday. Jefferson rode his horse down Pennsylvania Avenue, before the days of protection of presence like we have today, with a Bible tucked under his arm and attended those weekly worship services where the Christian gospel was presented weekly. He never saw any complication with that at all. It was not anti-constitutional. And if anybody knows the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson did by all means.

So that right there is evidence that our founding fathers valued the biblical understanding of governance. In fact, when you add up all the founding fathers, we have 56 signers declaration, but then we have others who signed the Constitution, you have others who are leaders. So you have about 200 people who comprise the circle of founding fathers.

When you look at their writings and analyze their writings, the one source they quoted from the most by far was the Bible. 34% of the cited sources of the 100% of cited sources, 34 percent – over a third – they cited the Bible.

The next highest that they cited was 8%. So the Bible was cited four times what any other common source was cited. In fact, it's been said that the second source technically was them citing other people who cited the Bible.

So they saw this as foundational. That's why you go into the House of Representatives and you look at the relief figures around the chamber of the House of Representatives. The one that is front and center that the speaker of the House is looking at is not a half relief, half bust on one side or the other, but a full by relief of his face is Moses, the lawgiver. Everything is founded on the Ten Commandments. And from that, the case studies go to work out the rest of our laws.

Now, people try to buck up against that and say, oh, you're being a Christian nationalist. Really? I say, what is a Christian nationalist? Define that for me. Well, you're trying to force religion down our throat. No, no.

I just want people to know the Bible and to vote. I'm imitating a conversation with somebody who's not a believer in any of this. You have a right to go into the voting booth and vote with whatever worldview you have. It's pagan, whatever it is. You have a right, whatever your worldview is. You have the right legally to vote accordingly. And so do I. I have the right to vote.  However, my worldview, which happens to be Christian. 

Now Christian nationalism, what is it? I know what being a Christian is. I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, unabashedly so. So I know what that was. What is nationalism to you? In my imaginary conversation, I ask, is it desiring the best for my nation? Well, if that's the case, I've traveled to about– I'm not sure how many, maybe 40 countries.

And in Bolivia, I want the Bolivian leadership to put Bolivia first. I want in Brazil. I have to care deeply about those two countries. I love them. Hungary. I care about that country a great deal. The countries I go to, I just fall in love with them. And I want their leadership to put their country first for their people. What would that mean?

We'll do exactly what the scripture says. What's the purpose of government? Put a stop to those who do evil, encourage good and put a stop to evil. I would want them to put their country first and to do exactly that. So when Donald Trump says, I put America first, doesn't mean that America is the only one in the whole world. There's 193, well, almost 200 nations.

And so I would want the leader of every country to put their country first. And in so doing, understand that blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Want the nation blessed? The reverse of that is cursed is the nation whose God is not the Lord. I want their country to be blessed on that peace. I don't want killings, murder, slaughter, starvation. Can't get clean drinking water. 

In fact, show me a nation that will follow the biblical principles of government. I'll show you a place where human poverty, pain and suffering is decreasing. Show me a country where they're violating the biblical principles of governance. And I'll show you a country where human pain, suffering and poverty is increasing. I want human pain and suffering and poverty to come to closure.

The best way I know that is walking in the biblical principles of governance. And when that happens, that nation starts to be profoundly blessed. What makes America unique and exceptional is that exceptionalism is not our work ethic.

It's not our rugged individualism. It's not our resources, our staggering resources as a nation. It's not the ingenuity or entrepreneurial spirit of our people. All those are factors. They're very important factors and are extremely important factors.

But what makes America exceptional compared to every other country is that we are the first country, and only country outside of Israel itself, where it’s declared that our rights come from God, all rights come from God. And once we acknowledge that all rights come from God, that means we the people have these rights that are given by God. So we respect it.

We're stewards of something. It's not ours. If I borrow your car, I'm going to be very careful how I drive it because I'm a steward of that, which is not mine. So I'm a steward of a right that comes from God. It's not mine. So I steward it carefully. I put it on temporary loan to elected officials. That's why we have constitutional limits, limits on government. We're a Republic and they represent me.

So I give these, that's been given from God to we, the people, I temporarily loan it for two years at a time or six years at a time or four years at a time to elected officials so that they represent this God who gave us these rights in the beginning. That's a long answer to a very short question.

Linda J. Hansen: It's very good though. And I would say too, our nation has always allowed other people or other religions, they've allowed people to believe freely as they choose. However, when those religions interfere with the rule of law in America, like now we have Sharia law being promoted and we have the Islamification of America happening and people are promoting Sharia law, which is absolutely against the constitution.

So when we say we're against that, we're not necessarily against a freedom of religion for people, but we are against anything that goes against our rule of law and our constitution in the United States. That constitution is there to protect our rights. And when we have something that interferes with that or denies that, that's when we really need to step up.

And like you said too, that really came from a heart cry, understanding that our rights come from God and it's our duty to.

Dr. James L. Garlow: Well, our objection with Islam is not religion. Our objection with Islam is tyranny and terrorism. Yes, it's political. It's a political philosophy that's incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.

Linda J. Hansen: Absolutely incompatible, and for people who want to learn more about that– I know that you've had many episodes on Well-Versed, on the World Prayer Network they can look at. You've had teachings on that, so I won't go into more of that. But I know I told you at the beginning we were going to discuss one question. And that is, if you were going to tell employers why it's important for them to educate their employees on these issues. Like, why it's important for them to get there to share More Than Fireworks with their employees. Why it's important for them to talk about policy issues that affect their paychecks, which is what I tried to do. But, why is it important for these employers to share with employees these principles that you were discussing?

Dr. James L. Garlow: Boy this is… it actually introduces another book that I don't have here in front of me. A book I wrote years ago called Partners in Ministry. If I were the owner of a company I would encourage my employees to understand their unique standing before God. What is that unique standing before God?

Now let me just freeze-frame that question right there. We're going to come back to it. I'm going to take us to a broader historical question people have tried to understand.

Why is it that within the framework of capitalism there is such entrepreneurship? Whereas socialism fails every time. Communism fails every time. Fascism– all the other government structures fail every time, economically and otherwise. And the answer is found in the post-reformation period going across Europe. In the post-reformation period, that means after 1517, there was a flourishing– the people tried to understand, and even secular historians. When they tried to analyze what happened, let's say across Europe, in contrast to the new world as it expanded into South America versus North America.

It was what is called the Protestant work ethic. What is the Protestant work ethic? It's an understanding that everything I do matters to God. There is a God and I'm not him. I am created by God. I'm created by God for a purpose. I'm here on this earth for a purpose. Everything I do, Paul wrote in the New Testament, I do under the glory of God. Now if I'm created in the image of God, the Imago Dei, if I'm created in that image, that means I become a Co-creator with God continuing the creation process. The creation story from Genesis chapter 1 and 2. I am made in his image. I have a whole 16-17 minute teaching on this that I won't go into right now because we don't have the time for that. But, I'll just simply say that when I'm creating the image of God, it means a part of what I do– He is a creator, so I become a creator. Even the institution of marriage is a husband and wife coming together. They're pro-creators. 

Literally nobody can explain scientifically, why a human life is created out of a sperm and an egg. A person, a human, thinking. How could that be? We know mechanically what happens, scientifically. But we don't understand how it is that the spirit of a human being comes forth in that particular way. And so we're co-creators, in this case through procreation. But it's called the doctrine of vocatio. In Latin vocatio– vocations. Vocation does not mean oh, I choose to be a medical doctor. I'm gonna be a lawyer. I'm gonna be a carpenter. I'm gonna work in the construction trades. That doesn't mean the vocation. 

Vocatio in Latin, in the 1500s meant that I am called by God to glorify Him through the job that I do. Now just let me let me help us understand. This is so important– show me a carpenter who can hang a door straight but he hangs it crooked, and I'll show you a man who experiences a lack of fulfillment and anger, even a self-anger because he's functioning below the level of his ability or what he was created for. And the purposes for what he was created because he was created. 

The doctor vocatio, he was created for the purpose of doing all he does to the glory of God that includes more than just simply living a life being a husband, a father as such. But even in my occupation, I live out my vocation. That's why somebody, let's stay with a carpenter theme, that's why somebody who's a carpenter is as called of God as I am as a preacher. The calling to ministry is as real to the man who's working in construction as to the preacher who's preaching behind the pulpit. 

Now, we don't do the same thing. I'm called to preaching, he's not. But, we're both called to a ministry. My ministry is through preaching ,his ministry is by building homes, providing housing for people who need it. The person who works in that factory and in that assembly line building automobiles– if he sees it properly, he will do it under the glory of God. He's providing Transportation that's a ministerial calling.

Once an employee understands that they are called by God to participate in the ongoing creation process of making new things, the maid who's making the bed at the hotel right now, that she is participating in the creation process. Once you understand that you're to do all to the glory of God– your productivity increases substantially. So, now instead of putting out X number of widgets a week, you're putting up X plus because you're doing it under the glory of God. You're not trying to just draw a wage. 

In fact, the person who does it for just drawing a wage, one person said, is more of a slave than a free man. That's not a good way to live. The original trade unions were founded not to beat up on managers and owners– the original trade unions were founded by Followers of John Wesley, in the 1700s in England, to improve the working conditions. Because they knew their calling was unto the Lord ultimately. 

Now there's another dynamic. Let's take a guy, let's say he's– I'm gonna go back to Detroit, back when Detroit was the big automotive factory. He's working in the factory, let's say Ford back in the day and he's a heavy drinker, and he's drinking up his salary every weekend. Every time he gets paid– he's living with a woman. He's had two babies with her. And he goes to work– he hates work. He's there putting in time so he can get some more alcohol for the weekend. He's not a happy guy. But he goes to a small little tiny church nearby some Sunday ‘cause of somebody. 

But he forces him to go and it's just he goes, so he goes. So I'll go and get it out of my way. But he hears the gospel and he comes under the authority of Lord Jesus Christ, and he repents of his sin. Part of his repenting of sin as he makes Jesus the Lord of his life– he's just living with this woman and having babies by her and hes, “I've not been responsible– I'm gonna marry her and become the husband, become the provider, I'm supposed to be. I’ve got kids, I'm responsible for them. I'm gonna raise them up in good things.” He won't know to use this language, but he's raising up in holiness and righteousness to be good productive human beings and citizens. 

He, now instead of being a grouser and complainer going to work or with a hangover, every time frustrated, he now goes with the joy of the Lord in his step. He says, you know, I want to bless my– in the first writings of the Bible, and by the time you get to Leviticus– there's contractual arrangements between the employer and the employee. These are very important constructs where the employer has certain responsibilities to that worker and that worker has certain responsibilities. But if they see themselves right with the proper attitude, they’re under the Lord, both of them. The employer will treat the employee in a special way.

I grew up on a farm. My dad paid over the minimum wage. He paid over because they wanted to bless his guys who wanted to work for him. They loved working for my dad. They'd come back after they were gonna go off somewhere else. They'd come back to visit my dad all the time. They loved him. 

That's the same way with Hobby Lobby– I've been with Steve Green. I told him I refer to him, in this book here, I talk about what Hobby Lobby has done or maybe I can't remember which book it was. Maybe it's this one. I said– hey I talked about Hobby Lobby, you pay over and you work all these kind of extra beyond the normative benefits. When an employer views their employers the way that Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy– the Torah, uses the teaching of them. Then the employers view their workers the way, their employers will want to bless the company. They want it to exceed. They want it to do well. The employer will have a level of honesty, integrity. If he's got a faulty product, he'll pull it immediately. He doesn't have to be told by the government.

You don't want to harm people because he's under the authority of God. This changes the whole economic system. The Bible is filled with more verses about economics and that topic. God cares about this– economic freedom. We care about the freedom to operate.

What is economic freedom? Religious freedom, religious liberty, and political freedom all rise and fall together. When one rises it will oftentimes pull the other two with it– when one plummets, it'll pull the other two down sometimes. Oftentimes it will be that those three rise together. So these economic principles are written in the fabric of Scripture and so as an employer you want to make sure you're functioning within the framework of what the Pentateuch, that's the first five books in the Bible, and the rest of Scripture says. Just read what Paul wrote in Philemon regarding Onesimus.

This is read, how you treat someone and how they respond back and then employees you respond in a way of understanding all you do– do to the glory of God. So as you're creating that widget, you're not doing it for a paycheck. That's a poor reason for doing. You're creating something that actually makes a substantive difference in people's lives. 

I'm talking over a microphone right now. If it wasn't for this microphone, I couldn't talk. Somebody somewhere made this, some company made this, they had employees and there was an employee there and they had to work together to make this happen. And, whatever I paid for it– if they didn't follow the biblical principles how they relate employer-employee relationship, I paid too much for it, I paid more than what I have to, if the guy who built this only did it for a paycheck. I'm assuring you he operated at low productivity and he didn't produce the quality I need and he didn't produce it for the price that I ought to be paying for it. So it affects all of culture when people come under the authority of Jesus Christ.

They act differently, they treat their employers much better. Employers treat their employees much better because they're under the authority. They're held accountable by God Himself. But the key thing, all I do– I do under the glory of God. There's a piece of paper right here, a tablet somebody made, that even something as small as a pen– the complexity of what it took to make all these items, all these items I have in front of me, somebody made them. And I hope they did it for the glory of God because when they made this they blessed me. I can read. I have to use these reading glasses. Somebody helped contribute to society when they made these. Every worker ought to understand that when they work, they do it to the glory of God and they're creating something. It's a blessing. That's a calling to a ministry. Somebody had the ministry of making reading glasses and they blessed me hugely because of it

Linda J. Hansen: It's so good and I really want to have you back because I'd like to explore from your perspective capitalism versus socialism and communism. These things that are permeating the culture now. I often tell people who are promoting socialism or different forms of government and who criticize capitalism– I say to people who criticize capitalism, if they have glasses, I remind them that capitalism gave them their glasses. If they drove in a car, there's so many things that somebody made. There's a company for that. 

We want to keep that freedom for us to serve the Lord in our vocations, in our occupations, in our families. If you're a stay-at-home mom or a dad, I mean that is a calling, it is a ministry. So while not everyone will choose to be a Christian, those of us who do, and hopefully we can have a positive impact– we will have a positive impact on the culture and the society. If we have these cultural principles that we promote. We want people to be protected by the rule of law. We want people to be able to be safe as we take regard for the Ten Commandments. 

You know, we don't murder. We don't lie. We don't cheat. We don't steal. All these things that make for a safe and orderly society, and that's true in the workplace as well. So there's so much more– I could listen to you for hours, and I always learn from you. 

So do you have any closing comments before we give all of the information for how people can not only sign up for More Than Fireworks, but how they can get your books? I know they can hear you on pray.com and on your website. So I want to make sure people have that, but any other closing comments before we do that?

Dr. James L. Garlow: No, we just live in a unique moment where every person counts. You, the leadership you can provide to your circle of influence is significant. Don't underestimate that. You may say, well I'm not a leader, nobody knows me, I'm not on TV… It makes no difference.

You have a sphere of influence. Somebody that you can impact and your life counts. So I encourage you to keep growing, keep knowing– if reading comes hard for you, then listen to the videos. Find ways to keep stretching, keep growing, and keep influencing those within your sphere. Because every person makes a difference. 

What's at stake is truth and holiness and righteousness. We want to stand for that in our culture. See our culture and our nation redeemed and operate within that way. So I can't emphasize enough– your life counts. Do not let the enemy, who is the accuser of their brethren, discount you and say that well, you haven't done this, you haven't done that. You're not this beautiful. You're not this good. You're overweight. You're old. You're whatever… whatever. You're young. You're too young. You're not educated.

Don't buy any of that– you were created by God. And God gave you a mind and you can process information and articulate that. And, I thank God for your life. So stand tall, stand firm, God loves you and cares for you. You can make a difference today.

As far as the websites and all, once again, that's wellversedworld.org and the world prayer network, that's every Wednesday night and every Sunday night 5 p.m. Here on the West Coast where I am. But it's 8 p.m. on the East Coast. So 8 p.m. on the East Coast and you can go to worldprayernetwork.org and we're there as I indicated Wednesday nights and Sunday nights interviewing all kinds of people.

Linda's been on there and been interviewed, I think more than once, if I'm not mistaken. And so we encourage you to go there as well. And then pray.com is new for us pray.com has over a hundred some ministries on it and over 25 million downloads. So it's a major, major site: pray.com/DrJimGarlow and go there. We're loading up a lot of stuff there. I encourage you to watch us there as well. We're on Tuesday nights, a special broadcast there, Tuesday nights at 8 p.m West Coast time it's 11 o'clock on the East Coast and you're gonna want to stay up that late to watch it.

Linda J. Hansen: Wonderful and I know that your material on pray.com you want to provide free for people.

Dr. James L. Garlow: Thanks for pointing that out. If you go there and they're trying to charge you for something, if you want to pay for the extras you can– for premium. That's fine do that, but my materials are all free. So you don't have to pay for any of it. Go download the app pray.com and there you can get all my material for free.

Linda J. Hansen: Well, and I'd also like to say that well versed has an app you can get that's where I always tune in to the World Prayer Network Broadcast all the time.

So I listen on Wednesdays and Sundays and I might be out running. I might be doing dishes, whatever it is, we try to listen to every single episode. And so audience, you will be amazed at the topics and what you learn about and I'm so honored to be interviewed by you, Dr. Garlow and to be among those who were. But I've learned so much from every guest and so much about what God is doing all around the world and how we can impact, like you said through our sphere of influence, and what we can do to bring positive change to our nation and our world.

So thank you so much. I look forward to having you back. We could dive into a hundred different subjects and spend hours. But for now, this will be it, but thank you so much.

Dr. James L. Garlow: Thank you so much Linda good being with you

Linda J. Hansen: Thank you again for tuning in to this episode of the Prosperity 101 podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please, subscribe, share, and give us a great review. Don’t forget to visit Prosperity101.com to sign our Employers Unleashed™ pledge, to access our entire podcast library, or to discover resources for use in your workplace. Let us know how we can serve you. Contact us today at Prosperity101.com.