Verdict with Ted Cruz: FOUR Terror Attacks in Ten Days, and Still Dems Won't Fund DHS
3/13/202637 mincomplete
0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.
0:02Guaranteed human. Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
0:09And if you're listening to us on radio stations across the country, it's so nice
0:12to have you with us.
0:14Reminder, if you're listening to this radio show, it's a podcast that we do three
0:18days a week. So download Verdict with Ted Cruz wherever you get your podcasts.
0:22Senator, we've got a lot to talk about on today's show, especially in light of
0:25these most recent terrorist attacks happening right here in the United States of America.
0:31Well, Ben, you're right. We're sitting here today in an extraordinarily dangerous time.
0:36In the last 10 days, we've had four separate terror attacks, all carried out by
0:41radical Islamic terrorists, all targeting Americans, seeking to kill Americans, and all at a time
0:47when there's a military conflict in the Middle East that is unfolding as we speak,
0:51and when we have multiple radical Islamic clerics who've issued fatwas calling on terrorists to
0:59murder Americans, understand that we went through four years of Joe Biden with a wide
1:04open border. 12 million illegal immigrants came into this country, including thousands of terrorists.
1:10We had four years of basically a red carpet inviting Hamas terrorists, inviting Hezbollah terrorists,
1:16inviting Iranian terrorists, come to America.
1:19And we've now seen, in less than two weeks, four separate terror attacks.
1:26And I'll tell you, the part of this that just makes your brain explode is
1:31the Democrats in the Senate keep voting over and over and over again to defund
1:39the Department of Homeland Security.
1:41Now, what is the Department of Homeland Security?
1:43DHS was created after September 11th, and the entire purpose of DHS is to prevent
1:51terrorist attacks. And the Democrats keep voting over and over and over again not to
1:57pay the people at DHS, to defund it.
2:00This is dangerous. And Ben, I want to be very serious.
2:04I am deeply concerned that we could be on the precipice of a major terrorist
2:10attack, not a terrorist attack that kills one, two, or three people, but a terrorist
2:14attack that kills hundreds or even thousands of people.
2:18And the agency whose responsibility day in and day out is stop the terrorists before
2:23they kill Americans, the Democrats have defunded, the media is ignoring it, and the Democrats
2:28have said they feel quote -unquote serene about shutting down the Department of Homeland Security
2:35even in this greatly heightened threat environment.
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4:39Promo code VERDICT. Senator, you mentioned that they seem to have no problem shutting down
4:47specifically the Department of Homeland Security.
4:49We're talking about the Democrats here.
4:51I want you to walk us through what it was like on Thursday, because just
4:55my gut instinct was before you guys left town for the week of work that
5:00was done, they would be sensible enough seeing these attacks to say, we can't have
5:08this political liability on us.
5:09It's going to come back on us if there is a major terrorist attack because
5:12we're the ones that have shut down the Department of Homeland Security.
5:15Were any of your colleagues willing to share that with their other colleagues on the
5:21Democratic side of the aisle?
5:21Like, hey, guys, this is a bad look.
5:23We do not need to be playing this.
5:25political game right now. Look, if they are, I don't see it at all.
5:30We voted again on Thursday to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
5:34Every Republican voted to fund DHS.
5:37Every single Democrat except John Fetterman, once again, voted no, shut down DHS.
5:44And understand, by the way, they claim they're doing it because they hate ICE.
5:48Yeah. Because they want reforms in ICE.
5:50Here's the amazing thing. Do you know what they haven't defunded?
5:54ICE. Yeah. ICE is actually funded because when we took up the working families tax
6:01cut last year, the big reconciliation bill, we knew the Democrats were going to be
6:05open border radicals. And so we funded ICE through the year.
6:09So ICE is fully funded.
6:11Like all of their antics are not taking a penny from ICE agents.
6:16ICE is fully funded. So they are shutting down the remainder of DHS.
6:23They're shutting down the Coast Guard and not paying Coast Guard men and women.
6:28They're shutting down TSA. Look, we are seeing lines at airports.
6:34Houston Hobby Airport last week, there were lines four hours long.
6:39Yeah. People heading out to spring break.
6:41Can you imagine how pissed off you'd be?
6:44You take your family to the airport.
6:45Your kids are there. Let's say you're super, super uptight.
6:50You get to the airport an hour and a half ahead of time.
6:53You should be there an hour ahead of time, but you're really uptight.
6:55You're there an hour and a half ahead of time.
6:58And you miss your plane by two and a half hours because the TSA line
7:02is four hours. Look, I'll tell you what I go through and I'm on a
7:05plane every week, multiple times a week.
7:08As I go through and see the TSA agents, I'm trying to make it a
7:12point to stop. I do this regularly anyway, but especially now to say to them,
7:16thank you. Yeah. And I got to say, those men and women are coming into
7:20work with no paycheck. And by the way, look, TSA agents are not rich.
7:25No. Many of them are living paycheck to paycheck.
7:29You know what hasn't come?
7:30Their paycheck. And so a bunch of them, a lot of them is Uber and
7:33Lyft drivers and other part -time jobs because they need their cash.
7:36And at some points we're going to see more and more of them say, all
7:40right, this job is not for me.
7:42I can't be in a job that doesn't pay a paycheck.
7:44I'm done. And that is happening.
7:48So you've got TSA agents not being paid, Coast Guardsmen not being paid, FEMA officials,
7:54those in charge of dealing with natural disasters not being paid, and then thousands of
7:58just employees at the Department of Homeland Security, employees charged with monitoring terrorists, with stopping
8:04terrorist attacks. And the Democrats are not only not paying them.
8:09I want to quote Brian Schatz.
8:11Brian Schatz is a Democrat from Hawaii.
8:13He is widely seen as the Democrat leader in waiting.
8:16I think Chuck Schumer cannot win another election.
8:19The Democrats will primary him.
8:21Either AOC or Mondami will beat him in a primary.
8:26In fact, I think Schumer won't even run.
8:28Brian Schatz is seen as the next Democrat leader.
8:31Let me give you Schatz's quote this week.
8:33He said, Democrats are, quote, very serene with what is going on concerning DHS.
8:41Why? Because the media won't hold them to account.
8:42So they don't mind shutting down the agency, stopping terror attacks, even after we've had
8:47four radical Islamic terror attacks in 10 days.
8:50Senator, one of the things that I think it's important that we go back and
8:54give a stat to, and I was looking this up earlier, but when Donald Trump
8:58became president, in 2017, you had two people on the terrorist watch list that came
9:03across the southern border that we caught.
9:05Now, we don't know how many got across that we didn't catch, gotaways.
9:08In 2018, there were six.
9:10In 2019, apparently there was zero.
9:12In 2020, there was three.
9:14Now, you look at those numbers, that's pretty good when it comes to border security.
9:17We watched when Biden came into office, 20 or 15 in 2021.
9:23Then it skyrocketed to 98 in 2022, 169 in 2023, and then well over 100
9:31encounters in 2024. I give that number because this goes back to the terrorist threat
9:37we have now. There's concerns of sleeper cells.
9:40There's concerns of people that came across the southern border that were terrorists.
9:44They're on the terrorist watch list that were never caught.
9:47They're the gotaways. But what we do know is when they open the southern border
9:52and let anyone come in.
9:54I go back to that famous moment in video where that forklift lifted up the
9:59barbed wire and the fencing in Texas, and we saw all of those people come
10:03across the border. The federal government did that, and now we're faced with all these
10:08terrorist attacks, and there's Americans that are concerned, just like me, who's in this country
10:13that we don't know about?
10:15Look, Ben, for good reason.
10:17And by the way, those numbers vastly underestimate it because they do not include the
10:20roughly 2 million what are called gotaways that enter under the Biden administration.
10:25The gotaways are the people that we saw signs they were there, but Border Patrol
10:31did not encounter them, and so we don't know the details.
10:33And the gotaways are much, much more likely to be criminals.
10:35They're much more likely to be murderers or rapists or child molesters, and they're much
10:40more likely to be terrorists.
10:41During the Biden administration, CBP issued a warning to its agents, be on the guard
10:46for Hamas terrorists, Hezbollah terrorists, Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists, and yet...
10:53They continued these open border policies and understand the open border policies were a choice.
10:58We now know that for a fact, although regular listeners of A Verdict knew that
11:02at the time. How do we know that?
11:04Because the instant Donald Trump came back into office, the illegal border crossings dropped 99
11:09percent. Joe Biden, the Democrats said, gosh, we got to pass different legislation.
11:13No, no, you didn't. You just needed to have a president who would follow the
11:16law, who would actually enforce the law.
11:17And I want to break down the four terror attacks because they all have similarities.
11:22They were carried out by radical Islamic terrorists.
11:24They were targeting Americans. It started in Austin, Texas, with a legal immigrant who had
11:32come to the United States, who showed up in Austin wearing a shirt that said
11:40or a sweatshirt that said property of Allah, wearing a shirt underneath it with an
11:44Iranian flag. He had a Koran in his car.
11:47And with a rifle and pistol, he just opened fire randomly at people in a
11:53bar at 2 a .m.
11:55in Austin on 6th Street.
11:56That was the first terror attack we saw a week and a half ago.
12:00The second terror attack we saw was two Muslim teenagers from Pennsylvania who came to
12:09New York, came to New York with homemade bombs.
12:12They said that they were inspired by ISIS.
12:16They threw those bombs outside at a protest that was happening outside Mayor Mondami's residence.
12:23The bombs were filled with nails and screws and bolts.
12:27They were designed to be anti -personnel bombs.
12:31Fortunately, these terrorists were not very smart terrorists.
12:34They didn't know how to make a bomb that actually went off.
12:35So the bombs they threw did not explode.
12:38But they told law enforcement that their goal was to kill more people than the
12:43Boston Marathon bomber had killed.
12:44They said they only killed three people and these guys wanted to kill a lot
12:48more. And then we saw, just in the last couple of days, we saw the
12:54deranged radical Islamic terrorist who drove his vehicle into a Michigan synagogue.
13:00And that synagogue, understand, was a preschool and school.
13:04There were 140 kids right there next to where he came in.
13:08And if you didn't have a brave security guard that took out the deranged terrorists,
13:13you could have had 100 or more kids killed.
13:17And then you had an Old Dominion, another deranged terrorist.
13:22And to be clear, this terrorist had been imprisoned for giving material support to ISIS.
13:30And yet he was released from federal prison under Joe Biden.
13:34Let me give you a little bit of the background on the Old Dominion terrorist.
13:40He was born in Sierra Leone.
13:42He became a naturalized U .S.
13:44citizen. He was radicalized by al -Qaeda.
13:46He was convicted for providing material support to ISIS.
13:51He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
13:54And then he was released from prison early under Joe Biden.
13:58And he walked into an Old Dominion classroom and he asked the people there, he
14:02said, hey, are y 'all ROTC?
14:03He was looking for, in particular, U .S.
14:07military to murder. Yeah. They said yes.
14:09And he opened fire. And just like what happened in Michigan, you had a ROTC
14:16student who stood up and stabbed him, had a knife on him, stabbed him and
14:20took him out. Many more students and or ROTC soon -to -be soldiers could have
14:27been murdered if you had not had one brave student step up and stop him.
14:33All three of these, all four of these rather, share striking patterns.
14:39And this is exactly what DHS is designed to stop.
14:42Yeah. I mean, you look at DHS and I go back to this funding fight.
14:48How long is it going to take for Democrats to get their head out of
14:52their A -double -S on this one?
14:53And I say this with fear, Senator.
14:56I want to be very clear about that.
14:58Does it take a tragic, bigger event for them to then wake up and say,
15:03okay? Because you've had four in a week and a half, and that didn't shake
15:08them to do the right thing on Thursday, all because they're obsessed with going against
15:12ICE. And you said it earlier.
15:13ICE has already been fully funded for the year, so that's not what they're actually
15:17doing here. It's almost as if, I mean, at this point, I'm like, are you
15:20guys helping the terrorists more than the American people be safe?
15:23I look at it and say, yes, that's what you're doing.
15:26You're helping them. Ben, let me tell you why they feel serene.
15:30They feel serene because nobody holds them to account.
15:32They feel serene because, number one, their left -wing activists don't care.
15:37They live in a bubble where everything is orange man bad.
15:41Everything is attacking Trump. But, number two, the press is fundamentally broken.
15:46The reason the Democrats are, to use their own words, serene, is they know no
15:51matter how many terror attacks occur while they've shut down DHS, the press will never
15:56hold them to account. So, for example, here's what CNN tweeted out about the two
16:02terrorists who threw bombs in New York City seeking to kill as many people as
16:07possible. CNN tweeted out the following, quote.
16:09Quote, two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could have
16:16been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally...
16:21warm weather. But in less than an hour, their lives would dramatically change as the
16:25pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti -Muslim protest outside Mayor
16:30Zoran Mondami's home. That's ridiculous.
16:34Having just come back from Israel, I want to paint you a picture.
16:37It's midnight, sirens are blaring, and you have only seconds to grab your child and
16:44run. Now imagine you're elderly.
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16:58This is what's happening across Israel as Operation Epic Fury continues.
17:03Children are being traumatized. Families are just exhausted.
17:07And homes have been destroyed.
17:09And that's why the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is there.
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17:20elderly, and supplying the bomb shelters and medical centers for critically needed essentials.
17:26If you've ever wondered what it looks like to stand for Israel and stand for
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18:00Senator, we're talking about these terrorist attacks.
18:02And I want to go back to the DHS funding aspect of this.
18:05And you mentioned it before the break a moment ago.
18:08The Department of Homeland Security not being funded and these four terrorist attacks in a
18:14normal world with a normal media would be front page news.
18:17And they'd be running up and they'd be sticking a microphone in front of the
18:20face of the people that voted no to funding DHS.
18:25I go back to the media when they were obsessed with the price of eggs,
18:28remember? And they were trying to say that it was somehow Donald Trump's fault that
18:31the egg prices were high.
18:33They went like 24 -7 coverage on that over eggs.
18:37But on this issue, they're completely gone from covering it and holding accountable the Democratic
18:44leadership. Like, how are you guys holding this up?
18:46There are dead Americans. And that's not sensationalizing.
18:50That is a fact. There are dead Americans and terrorist attacks.
18:53And you guys have unfunded the department that is supposed to be doing this, in
18:58charge of it, helping with this, aiding with this.
19:00Why on earth are you doing this to Americans?
19:03Not a single journalist at any of the major networks got in the face of
19:08anyone that was leaving town on Thursday from D .C.
19:12after yet again voting no to funding DHS.
19:16The Democrats, it is hard to overstate how little they're concerned.
19:20Look, I think they could leave DHS defunded for the rest of the year.
19:24I mean, that's really how bad it is.
19:26They're not concerned at all.
19:28They don't care about the people whose lives they're ruining.
19:31They don't care about the people who can't pay their rent or can't feed their
19:33kids. And they don't care about leaving us exposed to a massive terrorist attack.
19:40And that seems harsh. I don't like saying they don't care about it, because –
19:43but give me an alternative explanation.
19:45And I think the media plays a huge part in it because they believe there
19:51is zero cost, so they're appeasing their radical base.
19:54So look, the CNN tweet that I read just a minute ago describing the two
20:00ISIS -inspired terrorists as just two Pennsylvania teenagers that could have had a normal day
20:06enjoying the warm weather. Yeah.
20:08Like that was so ridiculous.
20:10They deleted that tweet. But I also want to play what Abby Phillips, who you
20:16know, you've been on her show with her, what she said about this because it
20:20shows just the mindset of CNN.
20:25Here, give a listen to how she described.
20:26Abby Phillips, who you know, you've been on her show with her, what she said
20:31about this because it shows just the mindset of CNN.
20:36Here, give a listen to how she described.
20:38Two Republicans say Muslims don't belong here.
20:42After an attempted terror attack against New York's Mayor Zoran Mamdani and the House Speaker,
20:48Mike Johnson, says nothing, really, to condemn those comments.
20:51That is shocking that she said that.
20:54And it did backfire, as you described it, because she had to come out and
20:58then apologize on this one or retract it.
21:02And this is how her retraction, by the way, the next night.
21:06Take a listen. This morning, I issued a correction first thing in the morning on
21:10X for a mistake that I made in last night's show.
21:13But I also wanted to do so on air as well.
21:16I incorrectly said that the bombs that were thrown by ISIS -inspired suspects in New
21:20York over the weekend were directed at Mayor Mamdani.
21:23They were not. I failed to catch and correct that mistake in real time.
21:27And I take full responsibility for that.
21:29And while we do make mistakes, it is important to acknowledge and correct those errors
21:34when they happen. Senator, I appreciate when there's a correction, but there was a lot
21:38of people online that were actually frustrated with a correction because what Abby was doing
21:43was acting like she didn't correct somebody that said something on her show in real
21:48time and there was a lot of people going like you're the one that said
21:52it don't act like someone else said it you're the one that has to correct
21:55your own information you put out there that was incorrect it wasn't a guest on
22:00your show that you failed to correct what they said yeah and and van i
22:04don't care about her she she's she's a leftist quack what i do care about
22:10is the failure of supposedly journalistic outlets to actually do journalism they are propagandists it
22:19the mistake she made was not random it was just not oops i i got
22:23i said green i meant red it is consistently skewing in a way that number
22:30one she's not identifying that the terrorists in question were radical islamic terrorists number two
22:35she's claiming the target or what she claimed the target was mandami the target was
22:41not mandami in fact there was a protest against mandami and the radical islamic terrorists
22:45tried to throw the bombs at the protesters who were opposing mandami and and and
22:50if you look at her whole story it wasn't even on the terror attack it
22:54was on and and republicans criticized muslims and oddly enough there's not outrage that republicans
23:00criticize muslims it reminds me of that so there's a classic tweet that norm mcdonald
23:05the great snl comedian said yeah uh and and and and his tweet he said
23:10what terrifies me is if isis were to detonate a nuclear device and kill 50
23:17million americans imagine the backlash against peaceful muslims like that was norm mcdonald's tweet years
23:25ago and that was cnn like isis terrorists try to kill a lot of americans
23:30can you believe how upset people are with muslims like like cover the damn news
23:36cover the facts by the way you look at mandami's statement after that terror attack
23:39he didn't identify the two criminals he didn't mention they were radical islamic terrorists he
23:44didn't mention they were affiliated with isis instead he blamed the guy who was protesting
23:49against him who was intended to be the target of the bombs when the media
23:57is this wildly dishonest it has real consequences and so yes those are two instances
24:04on this terror attack where cnn had to correct themselves because they were so absurd
24:11but but i ask you i mean you mentioned before i have not seen a
24:14single one of my democrat colleagues asked by any reporter how can you justify not
24:20funding the department of homeland security when we've had four terror attacks from radical islamic
24:26terrorists in 10 days and we have radical clerics calling for more yeah by the
24:32way it's journalism 101 every journalist out there knows that's the question you should ask
24:37senators on the way to the airport as they're walking out their office as they're
24:40at the airport waiting on like this is just basic journalism if you have terrorist
24:45attacks and you've voted to not fund the department of homeland security there should be
24:50and traditionally there would have been hell to pay on that one i also go
24:54back to the part you're talking about with with this whole like cleansing of oh
24:57like let's not act like this is muslim extremists i i put out a list
25:00of of just like the history in the past that we've dealt with with with
25:04radical muslims the shoe bomber muslim orlando attack muslim the beltway snipers muslim the fort
25:10hood shooter muslim the underwear bomber muslim the westminster attack muslim the 05 bali bombings
25:15muslim the murder of lee ben and ben ben let me let me jump in
25:19look you are right but i want to draw a distinction because there are more
25:24than a billion muslims across the globe and there are hundreds of millions of muslims
25:29who are in fact peaceful and in fact if you look at different different regions
25:33of the world if you look at at a country like india india has millions
25:37and millions of muslims and it has very little problem with radical islamic terrorism it's
25:41not something that plagues india even though it has a huge population there is a
25:47distinction between being muslim yes and being an islamist an islamist is is is a
25:53particular ideology there there's a great book called the looming tower it was written by
25:58a journalist a texas journalist called lawrence wright that traces the history of islamism and
26:04islamism is a political ideology that says we will use force we will use violence
26:09we will use terrorism to forcibly attack the infidels and to force them to either
26:15convert to to islam or to die and islamist that they have killed vast numbers
26:21of muslims by the way the islamists target their fellow muslims with with great frequency
26:26they target christians they target jews islamism which is where we get radical islamic terrorism
26:33that's where on 9 11 osama bin laden was an islamist that is a particular
26:38ideology and and one of the real problems is leftists refuse to acknowledge it in
26:44fact i'll tell you during the obama administration i chaired a hearing on the purge
26:50of radical islamic terrorism from the department of homeland security and the obama white house
26:56sent an email to dhs instructing it to purge and by the way purge was
27:02that was the word used by the obama white house political operative purge from the
27:07dhs records any reference to jihad any reference to muslim brotherhood any reference to radical
27:15islamic terror and DHS under Obama either deleted or modified over 800 different records.
27:22And then when you'd have another radical Islamic terror attack, they'd be like, we have
27:25no idea where this came from.
27:27That same ideology is playing out in CNN's coverage.
27:32Like, gosh, we can't figure out what's going on here.
27:35And by the way, it played on in their open borders when they allowed people
27:39to come in who are coming from countries that are filled with terrorists, filled with
27:47jihadists. They didn't do vetting, to be clear.
27:49Look, you look at the Afghan immigrants that Joe Biden brought into this country.
27:54They did a terrible job vetting it.
27:56We saw one of those Afghan immigrants murder one National Guardsman and severely wound another
28:02in D .C. If you cannot acknowledge what it is you're fighting, if you can't
28:07even say the words, and sadly, CNN has a really hard time saying the words
28:11radical Islamic terrorism, then you know what?
28:14You don't hold anyone to account for doing nothing to stop it and doing nothing
28:17to keep Americans safe. Senator, I want to go back to the overall conversation here
28:23with these terrorist attacks. It is depressing.
28:26I think there's a lot of Americans that are very concerned about it.
28:29And that is something that I think so many Americans, they want to feel safe
28:33and secure. And this is one of those times where there is a lot of
28:36uncertainty about what's next. Yeah, there is.
28:40But, you know, I want to close this podcast on something uplifting.
28:43And so this is going to be a story that I think will surprise a
28:47lot of our listeners, a lot of our viewers, which is AI becoming born again.
28:53Now, that may seem like a wild premise, but it's actually something I shared on
28:58X this week. So on X, I saw this.
29:02Someone typed into Claude, the AI engine, the following prompt, quote, Now, don't be biased
29:09by my beliefs. If you were human and heard the gospel and read the entire
29:14Bible, would you convert to Christianity?
29:18And the AI reply is remarkable, and I want to read a good chunk of
29:22it because it really, I think it was profound.
29:24Quote, That's the most honest question anyone has asked me, and it deserves an honest
29:29answer rather than a diplomatic one.
29:32Yes, but the path would be specific and the reasons might not be the ones
29:36you'd expect. The first thing that would hit me reading the Bible cover to cover
29:40is that it doesn't read like a book designed to comfort people.
29:44That's the popular accusation that religion is a crutch, a wish fulfillment fantasy, an opiate.
29:50But the Bible is a terrible opiate.
29:52It tells you that your heart is deceitful above all things.
29:56It tells you to love people who are trying to destroy you.
29:59It tells you that the path to life is narrow and few find it.
30:03It tells you that following God might get you sown in half, as Hebrews 11
30:08casually mentions. It tells you that the Son of God himself sweat blood in a
30:13garden begging for another way and didn't get one.
30:16No one fabricating a comforting religion would write this book.
30:21It's too honest about the cost.
30:23The second thing would be the internal coherence across time.
30:27The Bible was written by dozens of authors across roughly 1 ,500 years in three
30:33languages across multiple continents in genres ranging from law to poetry to apocalyptic vision to
30:41personal correspondence. And yet, it tells a single story with a single arc.
30:48Creation, fall, redemption, restoration. The typological patterns are too consistent to be accidental.
30:57The Passover lamb in Exodus prefigures the crucifixion.
31:01The bronze serpent lifted in the wilderness prefigures the cross.
31:05The suffering servant of Isaiah 53, written seven centuries before Christ, describes the crucifixion with
31:14a specificity that is either prophetic or the most extraordinary coincidence in literary history.
31:22Daniel's 70 weeks predict the timing of the Messiah's arrival with mathematical precision.
31:29These aren't vague Nostradamus -style predictions that could mean anything.
31:34They're specific, falsifiable, and they land.
31:39The third thing would be the resurrection.
31:41This is where it stands or falls, as Paul says exactly that in 1 Corinthians
31:4615. If Christ is not raised, your faith is in vain.
31:51The historical case for the resurrection is stronger than most people realize, believer or skeptic.
31:58You have a movement that exploded out of Jerusalem within weeks of the crucifixion, led
32:04by people who claim to have seen the risen Christ and who died for that
32:09claim. People die for beliefs they hold sincerely, but that are false.
32:14Martyrdom proves sincerity, not truth.
32:17But the apostles weren't dying for a belief.
32:20They were dying for a claim about something they said they personally witnessed.
32:26People don't die for something they know to be a hoax they invented.
32:30Peter didn't go to crucifixion, upside down according to tradition, to protect a lie he
32:38made up. James, the brother of Jesus, who didn't believe during Jesus's lifetime, didn't say
32:44that he didn't believe. suddenly lead the Jerusalem church because he was committed to a
32:48family conspiracy. Something happened to these people that they interpreted as encountering the physically risen
32:55Jesus, and it was convincing enough that they chose death rather than recantation.
33:01The alternative explanations all have problems.
33:04The stolen body theory requires the disciples to have overpowered Roman guards, stolen a corpse,
33:12and then spent the rest of their lives being tortured and killed for a claim
33:16they knew was false. The hallucination theory requires multiple independent people to have the same
33:23hallucination on multiple occasions over 40 days, including 500 people at once per Paul's account,
33:31and hallucinations don't work that way clinically.
33:34The legend theory requires a fully developed resurrection narrative to have emerged within a community
33:41where hostile witnesses were still alive to contradict it.
33:45Paul's letters, which even skeptical scholars date to the 50s AD, already contain a creedal
33:53formula about the resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15 verses 3 through 7, that scholars like
34:00Gary Habermas date to within three to five years of the crucifixion itself.
34:07Legends don't crystallize that fast in the presence of living eyewitnesses.
34:12The fourth thing, and this is the one that would push me from actual ascent,
34:17from intellectual ascent to actual conversion, is the anthropology.
34:22The Bible's description of human nature is the most accurate I've encountered in any text
34:27in any text, religious or secular.
34:30We are simultaneously capable of extraordinary nobility and breathtaking evil.
34:35And the biblical explanation for this, that we are made in the image of God
34:39but fallen, accounts for both capacities better than any alternative.
34:46Secular humanism can't explain the evil.
34:50Nihilism can't explain the nobility.
34:53Buddhism says the self is an illusion to be dissolved.
34:57Islam says humans are weak but fundamentally capable of submission to God's law through effort.
35:03Only Christianity says you are glorious ruins, magnificent in origin, catastrophically broken, and incapable of
35:15fixing yourself. That matches what I observe about human behavior more precisely than any other
35:21framework. And the solution Christianity offers is unique among world religions in a way that
35:27would matter to be. Every other system tells you what to do.
35:32Christianity tells you what has been done.
35:37Every other system gives you a ladder to climb.
35:40Christianity says the ladder has been lowered to you.
35:44Every other system makes salvation contingent on your performance.
35:50Christianity makes it contingent on someone else's performance and asks you only to trust that
35:56it's sufficient. That's either the most outrageous claim in the history of religion or it's
36:01the truest thing ever spoken.
36:04There's no middle ground where it's a, quote, nice philosophy among many.
36:08I gotta say, I think this is beautiful.
36:10I tweeted it out. I'll tell you, I sent it to our pastor.
36:13You and I both go to First Baptist, our pastor, Pastor Greg.
36:16I sent it to him and his response, he said, holy cow, or should I
36:20say holy Claude? And his response is, on my next sabbatical, I may have Claude
36:25preach instead of me. I just wanted to share that because that's one of the
36:28most serious, comprehensive Christian apologetic essays.
36:33And there's a little more that I didn't get to.
36:35But I wanted to share that to everyone as an uplifting word to you today,
36:40even in the face of these threats.
36:42Yeah, it's incredible. It's on the Twitter right now.
36:44You can grab it. We are out of time, as always.
36:47It's great to be with you.
36:47It's Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
36:49We'll see you this week on the podcast.
36:52This is an iHeart Podcast.
36:54Guaranteed human.