Cruz on Dangers to America

Is American democracy and freedom in peril? Find out with guest Rafael Cruz on television’s “Christ in Prophecy.”

Last aired on November 8, 2015.

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Transcript

Dr. Reagan: Is American democracy imperiled? Are some of our most precious freedoms being eroded? Is America shaking its fist at God? One of the most eloquent spokesmen on the scene today who is addressing these questions is a man named Rafael Cruz, the father of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. Stay tuned for an interview with him.

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Part 1

Dr. Reagan: Greetings in the name of Jesus, our Blessed Hope, and welcome to Christ in Prophecy. I am very excited to have as our special guest today, a very articulate man of God, Rafael Cruz, the father of one of the United States Senators from Texas, Ted Cruz. Mr. Cruz, welcome to the set. We are delighted to have you.

Rafael Cruz: Dr. Reagan it’s such a pleasure to be with you.

Dr. Reagan: Thank you. And also on the set with me today is my colleague, Nathan Jones, who serves as our Web Minister and Associate Evangelist. Nathan, glad to have you.

Nathan Jones: Great to be on sir.

Dr. Reagan: Why don’t you kick this thing off for us?

Nathan Jones: Sir, it is a great pleasure to have you on the show.

Rafael Cruz: Nathan, it is great to be with you too.

Nathan Jones: You have an incredible life story. I want to hear about how you escaped Cuba, living under two dictators, right?

Rafael Cruz: Well, you know I grew up under a very oppressive military dictatorship. And during the seven years Batista was dictator he killed over 20,000 people.

Nathan Jones: Wow.

Rafael Cruz: So the revolution started in the high schools and the universities. I remember during that time there was this young charismatic leader talking about hope and change. His name was Fidel Castro.

Dr. Reagan: Oh, I thought you were talking about someone else.

Rafael Cruz: And so I got involved in the Revolution and as a result of that I was captured, was imprisoned, was tortured.

Nathan Jones: Tortured?

Rafael Cruz: But you know even though I did not know God, He knew me. And by the grace of God I was able to leave Cuba legally on a student visa. Came to the University of Texas late 1957 still thinking that Castro was a good guy. Well 1959 when Castro took over I went back to Cuba at the end of the summer and did I have a great shock because this same man that had been talking about hope and change was now talking about how the rich were evil, about how they oppress the poor, and about the need to redistribute the wealth. They began confiscating private property. Began attacking freedom of the press. Began attacking freedom of religion. To give you an idea soldiers were coming to a kindergarten class and would say to the kids, “Alright kids, close your eyes and pray to God for candy. Where’s the candy? No candy.” Alright close your eyes again and pray to Fidel for candy.” While the kids had their eyes closed, very quietly they would place candy on all the desks. You know I mentioned this story a few years ago at a meeting and a lady from Romania told me, “Ceausescu did identically the same thing.” You see Communism, Socialism, Marxism it’s all the same let’s not get caught in the semantics. It needs for government to become your god. And in order to do that they must destroy the concept of God. That’s what’s behind all these attacks on Christianity that we are seeing today in America.

Dr. Reagan: Well as I was telling you before we went on the air I had the opportunity to go to Cuba a few years ago to teach at a seminary there. And I tell you I have been all over Eastern Europe, all over Russia before communism fell and I never saw a society so depressed as Cuba. Where people just felt like they had no hope. Where they were living in mass poverty. The middle class was destroyed by Castro.

Rafael Cruz: Absolutely.

Dr. Reagan: People don’t understand that when he came in he just confiscated everything.

Rafael Cruz: Absolutely. And you know most people don’t really understand this myth about everybody is equal in Communism.

Nathan Jones: They are all equally poor, right?

Rafael Cruz: That’s right. Well there are really three classes, you know the government they all live like millionaires because they confiscated everybody’s wealth. Then you have the army who are the enforcers. And then you have the people. And it is true Nathan, they are equal, they all equally starve.

Dr. Reagan: Well when I was at the seminary I looked across the street and I noticed there was a little grocery store and next to the grocery store there was a sign on a door that talked about this was the neighborhood watch, something I don’t remember the title of it. I asked somebody and they said, “Oh, that is where the person has his office who watches our neighborhood. And they watch everything in the neighborhood.” He said, “So all of Cuba is divided into these. And if they see anything that changes, anything that looks like people have some money that they shouldn’t have they report this and they get rewarded for it.” So you’ve got somebody watching you all the time.

Rafael Cruz: Absolutely they have a person on every block who is the spy for that block. And then every six blocks they have one guy watching those six guys. And it’s all that way. And a matter of fact they even have a food police. You see everything is rationed in Cuba. To give you an idea meat, rationed to a half a pound per person per month. We eat a half a pound of meat in one sitting that is the monthly ration. Now you still have to buy it but what happens is people hoard food, or they trade food and so forth. And if they catch you with additional food you’d be put in jail. They call that hoarding.

Dr. Reagan: Hoarding.

Nathan Jones: In jail for food.

Dr. Reagan: Yes. Well one of your comments that you make over and over and I’ve read this many time is “I am standing up against certain dangerous trends in America, because if America goes the way of Cuba there’s no place to flee to.”

Rafael Cruz: Absolutely. I must have told my son that a dozen times. You know Ted when I lost my freedom in Cuba I had a place to come to. If we lose our freedoms here where are we going to go? There is no place to go.

Dr. Reagan: And where is there a place like the country you came to at that time, where you an immigrant who arrives with what $100? And you start going to school and you are given all of the opportunities that you’ve had. And then you have a son running for President of the United States. I mean this is unbelievable.

Rafael Cruz: Well that is the greatness of America. You know America is the greatest country on the face of the earth. How dare our President say this is not an exceptional country! This is the most exceptional country on the face of the earth.

Dr. Reagan: Well he’s spend most of his time going around the world apologizing to everybody in the world for America. And you know we are the ones in World War II defeated the Nazis.

Rafael Cruz: Absolutely.

Dr. Reagan: And yet we are apologizing?

Rafael Cruz: And you know I love America so much. You know this is the only country on the face of the earth founded on the Word of God.

Dr. Reagan: Yes.

Rafael Cruz: Founded by men and women seeking the freedom to serve God. And yet, and we’ve seen how God has used America. America has evangelized the rest of the world.

Dr. Reagan: Yes, that’s right. Yes. Well let’s take a break here, just a brief break. And well come back and I want to have you address some of the questions that I raised at the beginning of the program. Some of the dangers that exist in America today.

Part 2

Nathan Jones: Welcome back to Christ in Prophecy with our interview of Rafael Cruz the father of Senator Ted Cruz.

Dr. Reagan: Mr. Cruz I’d like to get into this by mentioning the fact as you just told us that you lived under two dictatorships. One is a fascist dictatorship like Batista, and the other communist dictatorship like Castro. So you know first-hand about tyranny. Now based on that knowledge what warnings would you give to the American people today about dangerous trends in America?

Rafael Cruz: Well you know in a sense you could say I was fortunate in that I saw my freedoms taken away just like that. Here in America our freedoms are being eroded a little at a time. It’s like the old story of the frog, you know. You put a frog in a pot of hot water he’ll jump right out. But you put in in a pot of cold water and put it on the stove and you can boil that frog to death. And that is what is happening to us. Our freedoms are being taken away a little at the time. And we keep taking it. I remember in the late 70’s I saw a country here in America, I saw a government begin to institute policies that reminded me of that bearded dictator in Cuba.

Dr. Reagan: Like what?

Rafael Cruz: You remember the Carter years, 22% interest rates, double digit inflation, double digit unemployment. A government so weak in foreign policy that Iran had captured 52 Americans and kept them hostage for 444 days.

Dr. Reagan: And our response was to say we won’t participate with you in the Olympics.

Rafael Cruz: And anyway it was because I saw this the socialism in Jimmy Carter’s time that I became very involved in an organization called The Religious Roundtable.

Dr. Reagan: Ok.

Rafael Cruz: Religious Roundtable was a Judeo-Christian organization that together with Moral Majority, that was Jerry Falwell’s organization we mobilized millions of Christians in America to help elect whom I consider the greatest President since Abraham Lincoln, President Ronald Reagan. So, I would say my son was nine years old. Our conversation around the dinner table everyday was as to why we have to get rid of this socialist, progressive Jimmy Carter and replace him with a Christian Constitutional Conservative like Ronald Reagan. So my son got a dose of conservative politics from a Christian worldview every day for a year when he was nine years old.

Dr. Reagan: And what you said there is so important, a Christian worldview.

Rafael Cruz: Absolutely.

Dr. Reagan: I find most Christians don’t even know what a worldview is much less what a Christian worldview is. How would you define a Christian worldview?

Rafael Cruz: Well you know the Bible says if our foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do? You know the wonderful thing about America is America was founded on the foundation of the Word of God.

Nathan Jones: Yes.

Rafael Cruz: As a matter of fact I submit to you that the reason our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence have lasted over two centuries is because those documents were forged on the knees of the framers.

Dr. Reagan: They were. And they recognized fully the nature of man. Our Constitution recognizes the true nature of man, that man cannot be trusted there has to be checks, there has to be balances. And our Founding Fathers did not trust man because they were men stepped in the Scriptures. And the Scriptures say man is basically evil.

Rafael Cruz: Absolutely.

Dr. Reagan: Humanists say, oh, no, no basically good, you know and can be trusted. Most of these men were very wealthy men and it’s amazing they didn’t found an oligarchy or something of that nature. But no they didn’t even trust themselves. It was based upon Christian viewpoint.

Rafael Cruz: As a matter of fact one of my favorite quotes from Jefferson he said, “The Constitution is like chains to bind the mischief of government.”

Nathan Jones: Yes. Well that’s why we have the Second Amendment. A lot of people think that gun control will stop crime. But isn’t actually the Second Amendment more to protect American’s from their own government?

Rafael Cruz: Absolutely. And as a matter of fact if we look at history. You know Santa Ana once said, “If we fail to learn the lessons of history we are doomed to repeat it.”

Dr. Reagan: That’s right.

Rafael Cruz: Look at all the tinhorn dictators that have taken guns away. Stalin took the guns away, killed 20 million people. Mao took the guns away killed like 50 million people. So did Pol Pot, so did Castro.

Dr. Reagan: So did Hitler.

Rafael Cruz: Every dictator has taken guns away has used them against the population.

Dr. Reagan: That’s right. Well I’d like for us to take a look at a little brief video that was done by a renowned professor at the Business School at Harvard University and get your response to it.

Rafael Cruz: Sure.

Video: Clay Christensen, Professor at the Harvard Business School

Clay Christensen: Some time ago, I had a conversation with a Marxist economist from China. He was coming to the end of a Fulbright Fellowship here in Boston. And I asked him if he had learned anything that was surprising or unexpected. “And without any hesitation, he said, “Yeah. I had no idea how critical religion is to the functioning of democracy. The reason why democracy works,” he said, “is not because the government was designed to oversee what everybody does, but rather democracy works because most people, most of the time, voluntarily choose to obey the law. And in your past, most Americans attended a church or synagogue every week, and they were taught there by people who they respected.” My friend went on to say that “Americans follow these rules because they had come to believe that they weren’t just accountable to society, they were accountable to God.” My Chinese friend heightened a vague but nagging concern I’ve harbored inside that as religion loses its influence over the lives of Americans, what will happen to our democracy? Where are the institutions that are going to teach the next generation of Americans that they, too, need to voluntarily choose to obey the laws? Because if you take away religion, you can’t hire enough police.

Dr. Reagan: Well, he ends that video with the statement, “If you take away religion, you cannot hire enough police.” What is your response to that?

Rafael Cruz: Well absolutely. You know what happens is when you destroy I would say Christianity more than religion what takes its place is another religion which is called Secular Humanism. And Secular Humanism basically says there is no God, you are your own God. So on that premise there are no moral absolutes. As a matter of fact their mantra is if it feels good do it.

Dr. Reagan: Do it.

Rafael Cruz: So, you see a lot of chaos, a lot of immorality, a lot of corruption. And it is a situation that deteriorates more, and more, and more, that’s what we see in America today.

Dr. Reagan: Well I was just going to say you are of the age where we have witnessed in our lifetime the deterioration of America. When I was a kid growing up we did Bible readings in school, we prayed in school. Our English Reader was made up of Bible stories.

Rafael Cruz: Absolutely.

Dr. Reagan: We were taught morality. In 1956 when I graduated from Waco High School on any given day there were 100 pickup trucks in the parking lot and every pickup truck had a gun rack and there was a deer rifle, and there was a shotgun, and there was a 22 rifle, and usually a pistol in the glove compartment, nobody was worried about that. Today we have moral pigmies killing each other over tennis shoes.

Rafael Cruz: Yes. Yes.

Dr. Reagan: Now it has to do with the fact that we have simply eroded our Christian standards. And as that has happened we have violence in the schools. We have violence in society. We see society as falling apart. What I can’t understand is why people who are non-Christians cannot recognize the connection here.

Rafael Cruz: Well, of course what has happened is this. This so called religion of Secular Humanism started as far back as 1933. There was a document printed in America in 1933 it was called the Humanist Manifesto.

Dr. Reagan: Yes.

Rafael Cruz: As a matter of fact one of the principle authors was John Dewey considered the Father of American Education. He was a member of the American Communist Party. That is so called our top educator. And then in ’62, prayer is removed from school, ’63 the Bible is removed from schools. The consequence of those two, those two abominable decisions of the Supreme Court, teen pregnancy skyrocketed over 500%, and so did violent crime. But the sad thing Dr. Reagan is the Church remained silent. They called it a political issues. How can you call prayer a political issue? How can you call Bible study a political issues?

Dr. Reagan: Well I remember under the military dictatorship in Poland at one point they decided they were going to take the crucifixes out of every classroom in Poland, every classroom had a crucifix. And the people went into the streets and said you will do that over our dead bodies. And the communist regime said, “Well ok. We’ll back off of that.” But we didn’t stand up. We didn’t speak out. As you say it has happened over a long period of time. And you talk about those decisions the one just infuriates me is when the Supreme Court threw the Ten Commandments out and said, “You can’t even have the Ten Commandments on the walls of the schools of America.” And they said the reason is because the children might read them and decide to obey them. They actual said that in the decision.

Nathan Jones: Oklahoma City in the middle of the night they snuck the Ten Commandments monument off of the Capital Building.

Rafael Cruz: Yes, it just happened as a matter of fact this last week. But you know again it is–the thing that amazes me if these Atheist say they don’t believe in God, why are they so afraid of the Cross? Why are they so afraid of the Ten Commandments?

Nathan Jones: Because they know.

Rafael Cruz: I mean there is power in the cross and they know it.

Dr. Reagan: Absolutely, absolutely there is power in the cross. Well, it’s really strange the way things have developed in this nation, a nation that was founded on Christian principles. A nation that has been blessed like no other nation since ancient Judah. And yet we have turned our back on God, we are shaking our fist at God. And I think we are just begging for the destruction of God.

Rafael Cruz: Absolutely. But you know something I am still very, very encouraged. I think America’s best days are still ahead. Because you know there is a point where the people of God are going to say, “I can’t take it anymore.” I think the decision on June 26th to legalize homosexual marriage, I think the Devil overplayed his hand. Because all of a sudden we have a frontal attack on the family.

Dr. Reagan: That’s right.

Rafael Cruz: And the family is the fundamental unit of society; it is the very first institution that God created. And as the family goes so goes the nation.

Dr. Reagan: Yes.

Nathan Jones: Mr. Cruz what do you think about Christianity in the way of limiting our freedom to worship. I hear President Obama all the time saying that we have the freedom to worship, but he never says freedom of religion. There is a big difference.

Rafael Cruz: Oh, there is a huge difference. You see every communist country around the world has freedom of worship. And the way they define worship, worship is what you do inside of the house of worship. You see Dr. Reagan you just went to Cuba. Inside of a church in Cuba you can worship, you can evangelize inside of the Church. Of course they have spies there monitoring what you’re saying.

Dr. Reagan: One thing you can’t do is get up and deliver a sermon that criticizes the government.

Rafael Cruz: No, you can not criticize that is why they have spies there. But if you share the Gospel in the streets you are put in prison. And you see it is very, very, purposeful that the government, this administration talks about freedom of worship. Under freedom of worship you may even be put in jail if you have a Bible study in your home.

Dr. Reagan: That’s right. It sounds so good. Oh, our President says over and over, “I believe in freedom of worship.” But that’s not what the Constitution says. The Constitution says we have the freedom to exercise our religion and that means taking it into the marketplace, it means taking it where you work. It means that you don’t keep it inside a building.

Rafael Cruz: Absolutely.

Dr. Reagan: And yet that’s what were–

Rafael Cruz: As a matter of fact Jesus says, “You are the light of the world.” But you know light is worthless unless you point at the darkness. So we’ve got to take it out of the four walls of the church and take it out into the marketplace.

Dr. Reagan: That’s so true. Yes, we had at our annual conference this year one of our speakers was Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association.

Rafael Cruz: Oh, I know him well.

Dr. Reagan: And Tim made the comment he said, “There are so many Christians who think it is improper to get involved in politics in anyway because it is such a dirty thing. But he said, “Isn’t it amazing that we as Christians say, “As good Christians we must obey the law but we’ll let pagans make the law.”

Nathan Jones: Yes.

Rafael Cruz: Well, you know Proverbs 29:2 says, “When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice.

Dr. Reagan: Yes.

Rafael Cruz: When the wicked beareth rule, people mourn.” What happens is this, if the righteous are not running for office. If the righteous are not even voting, what is left? The wicked electing the wicked. And we get what we deserve.

Dr. Reagan: Well I want to talk to you about that in just a moment. We are going to have another brief break and we are going to come back and ask you about guidelines for voting, because you have actual made the statement that the Bible tells you how to vote.

Rafael Cruz: Exactly.

Part 3

Dr. Reagan: Welcome back to Christ in Prophecy and our discussion with Rafael Cruz the father of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.

Nathan Jones: Mr. Cruz I was reading in the “Wall Street Journal” that you made this quote and it goes, “The Bible tells you exactly who to vote for.” Is that correct? Where did you get that?

Rafael Cruz: Absolutely. Let me put it in context.

Nathan Jones: Ok.

Rafael Cruz: Moses has just crossed the Red Sea and now Moses is in the wilderness trying to govern over a million people. Moses is going bananas. Here comes his father-in-law Jethro and he says, “Moses what are you doing trying to judge people from morning to night. What you are doing is not good.” And in Exodus 18:21 God speaks to Moses through Jethro and God says, “You select from among the people.” Now note, Nathan, He doesn’t say, “I will appoint.” “No, no, no you select which.” It is the same as you elect. You go to Deuteronomy 1:13 and he says, “You choose leaders from among your people from the different tribes and I will make them rulers of you.” So you elect. And then God gives four qualifications: able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness. Able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness. Let’s take them one at a time.

Nathan Jones: Ok.

Rafael Cruz: Able men, and women of course what does that mean? Well that simply means elect men and women who are capable of doing the job. Let’s stop electing the village idiot.

Nathan Jones: Qualification.

Rafael Cruz: Qualification. Number two, such as fears God. Well if you fear God, you obeys God’s commands. We call that in America Judeo-Christianity. Well what is Judeo-Christianity? Well first of all it is a moral code of conduct depicted by the last six commandments in the Decalogue, the horizontal commandments, and it is honesty, integrity, hard-work, individual responsibility, the rule of law, and yes, free enterprise and limited government. And the Bible speaks a lot about all of those. Number three men of truth. Let me ask you this: Aren’t you sick and tired of men and women of lies in government?

Dr. Reagan: Yes. Amen.

Nathan Jones: All the time yes.

Rafael Cruz: I mean they tell you one lie, to cover up the previous lie. Whether it is Fast and Furious, or the IRS, or the NSA, or Ebola, or missing e-mails, or money from foreign governments, or Planned Parenthood is lies, upon lies, upon lies. Let me ask you another question. Have you come across a candidate for public office, telling you all these wonderful things that they are going to do, only to get elected and do exactly the opposite?

Nathan Jones: We see that again, and again don’t well.

Rafael Cruz: Now, that one is easy to fix if you just follow this rule. Stop listening to their rhetoric and start looking at their record.

Dr. Reagan: Their actions, yes.

Rafael Cruz: Stop looking at what they say. Start looking at what they do, and what they have done. Jesus put it this way, “Ye shall know them by their fruit.” It is about time we do some fruit checking. So able men, such as fear God, men of truth, number four hating covetousness.

Dr. Reagan: Yes.

Rafael Cruz: Something very interesting about covetousness in government it is not really about money it is about power and control. Politicians covet power, and they covet the control that power gives them over we the people. That’s why we have politicians in Washington that have been there for 30 years and they want to be there another 20, they don’t want to relinquish that power.

Dr. Reagan: Well, Brother I tell you you’re advice there is wonderful, it is so desperately needed in the Church today. I have been so upset over the fact that professing Christians decide how they are going to vote on the basis of the race of the person. On the basis of the party affiliation. On the basis of anything in the world except biblical principles: Where do they stand on abortion? Where do they stand on homosexuality? Where do they stand on Israel? The biblical principles.

Rafael Cruz: Absolutely.

Dr. Reagan: And I’ve–I wish had the time to go into detail but I know of a church in the Dallas area where the pastor got up during this last election and said, “I want to tell you how to vote.” He didn’t tell who to vote for he just said, “You need to vote for people according to these principles.” And as they are walking out one of the deacons of the church says in a very load voice in the lobby, “Well I’ll tell you what I’m going to vote for who my Union Leader says to vote for.”

Rafael Cruz: That’s sad.

Dr. Reagan: That’s why this nation is in the condition it’s in.

Rafael Cruz: Isn’t that sad.

Dr. Reagan: Vote for godly men. Yes.

Rafael Cruz: We need to vote conviction, instead of voting tradition.

Dr. Reagan: Good, that is a good way to end this particular discussion.

Nathan Jones: Good quote.

Dr. Reagan: Mr. Cruz you have blessed us so much.

Nathan Jones: Yes.

Dr. Reagan: Taking time out from your very busy schedule.

Rafael Cruz: Thank you Dr. Reagan. So great to be with you, Nathan.

Dr. Reagan: We appreciate you coming here and I pray that God will continue to anoint you as you speak all across this nation about the dangers to America. Folks that is our program for this week. I hope you’ll be back with us next week the Lord willing. Until then this is Dave Reagan speaking for Lamb & Lion Ministries’ saying, “Look up, be watchful, for our redemption is drawing near.”

End of Program

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