Authors and entrepreneurs David and Jason Benham share how Christians can transform their world by taking a stand like the prophet Daniel.
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Well, David and Jason
Benham are twin brothers
who have always stood
united in their faith, even
when it cost them their
own reality TV show.
Take a look.
NARRATOR: David And
Jason Benham are
twin brothers and successful
real estate entrepreneurs.
They're nationally known for
taking a stand for Christ.
After voicing their
faith based views
on abortion and gay marriage,
they lost their HGTV reality
show, "Flip it Forward."
There is an agenda that
seeks to silence men and women
of faith, who, if we
want to voice our beliefs
or voice our views, then we
shouldn't be afraid of losing
our livelihood.
NARRATOR: They say
current day America
is similar to ancient Babylon
where people who love God often
faced persecution.
In their new book,
"Living Among Lions,"
they share how Christians
can stand for their faith
daily, and even change the
world by living with conviction,
commitment, and courage.
Please welcome back to The 700
Club, David and Jason Benham.
Jason, in blue.
That's right.
And you were about
to say "Dason."
[LAUGHTER]
But that's OK.
It's happened before.
I'm David, the smarter--
You're David--
---one of the two.
---the smarter one of the two.
All right.
Well, what exactly happened
you guys back in 2014 when
your show-- was it called
"Flip it Forward"--
Yes.
--was about to go.
It's called "Flip it Forward."
And HGTV had given us a
straight-to-series reality
television show contract.
And it was a big contract,
no pilot or anything.
And they knew all about us.
They knew that we were pro-life.
They knew we were pro-marriage.
And unfortunately
though, there's
a narrative that's
out there now,
that if you believe
these things that's
bigoted, intolerant,
and hateful,
and all of these other things.
And HGTV was OK with
that, because they even
told us behind closed
doors, listen guys, that's
a narrative that's
been developed.
But we believe in you.
We believe in what you've done
in the real estate market.
We'd sold over 20,000 houses,
and we had just serviced
a lot of different families.
So as a result of many of
the activist groups that
were pressuring HGTV, they
finally caved and fired us
and let us go.
It was in the LGBT community.
It's a very loud voice, a very
small part of the population,
but a very loud voice.
And that was able to derail what
was going to be a great hit.
Yeah.
That's exactly right.
JASON: David actually isn't
very good for reality TV anyway.
So it's probably a good thing.
All right.
Well, the national
attention, it almost
cost you your day
jobs, your real jobs,
which is your very
successful real estate.
Developers?
Yeah.
Well, we started a real
estate company back in 2003.
It grew to 100
offices in 35 states.
And then of course,
the production company
came, and then the HGTV saga.
And then we wrote a book
called "Whatever the Cost."
It was detailing our story.
But then we wrote a second book
called "Living Among Lions,"
which is why we're here today.
To really help people today to
actually write their stories.
To how-- and it shows you how to
thrive like Daniel in the midst
of today's Babylon.
And here it is,
"Living Among Lions."
You know, I just interviewed
Anne Graham Lotz last week,
and she's got a book out about
Daniel, "Daniel's Prayer."
Daniel is making a big
comeback right now.
He was doing something.
He was-- I guess the parallels
between what he was going
through with being under all the
pressure from the Babylonians--
That's exactly right.
We're feeling that as
Christians in today's world,
aren't we?
That is exactly right.
Lesslie Newbigin, who was a
renowned British theologian,
once said, "America is not
shifting from Christian
to secular.
Today, she is shifting
from secular to pagan."
And that was written
several years ago.
And we're watching what's
happening in America.
Most people are
looking around saying,
you know what, America
is changing fast.
Morally and spiritually,
we're on the decline.
And so we have to
ask ourselves, how
do we live faithfully in
the midst of all of that.
And Daniel's life paints
a perfect picture.
And we outline how Daniel lived
with conviction and commitment.
And when the cultural
winds began to shift
and no longer favored his
convictions and commitments,
he stood with courage.
He was willing to
face the lions.
And we can do the same today.
And Jason, you also talk
a lot about reverence.
That's something we've
lost sight of a little bit
in the church.
Why is reverence so
important, and why was it
important to David?
Well, you look in--
WENDY: I mean--
--to Daniel.
DAVID: But David
is sitting here.
It's important to him, too.
But in our book, it was
important to Daniel.
Today in the Christian
world, we hear
a lot about the
term "relevance,"
but we need to be
focusing on reverence.
Because when you focus on
relevance, then oftentimes,
you begin to operate
strategically in the mind
and no longer
spiritually in the heart.
Daniel shows us that he focused
on reverence, which is always
focusing on the person of God.
And then relevance becomes
a byproduct of that.
You never have to focus
on being relevant.
You just focus on
reverence to God,
and then when the cultural storm
begins to surround around you,
you're going to be the most
relevant man on the planet
just like Noah was, who
was building an Ark.
We put this in the book.
And he was building an Ark.
He was the most irrelevant
man on the planet at that time
because rain had never--
nobody knew what rain was.
And so he's building an Ark,
but he stood in reverence.
And when that first
drop or rain hit,
he was the most relevant
man on the planet.
Both of you can
answer this second--
what's the key to having the
courage that both of you had?
And you didn't get
bitter at HGTV.
And God has promoted you.
More people probably
know you now
than if you'd had
that show on HGTV.
But what's the key to having
that courage to stand?
Well, it all starts with
conviction and our identity
in Christ.
And we have two chapters on
identity, knowing your identity
and thinking your identity.
But we have to
understand, as Christians
we have the lion of the
tribe of Judah inside of us.
We are the light of the world.
The problem today is not
the presence of darkness.
It's the absence of light.
We don't go to bed at night
and flip the darkness on.
You actually turn the light off.
Darkness only prevails when
the light is turned off.
And so we have to understand who
we are as Christians, that we
have the light of Jesus
Christ inside of us,
and flip it on, and
walk in that identity,
and we'll be
incredibly courageous.
Can I follow that up
with one quick statement?
Sure.
And what you'll find
in the life of Daniel,
as well as the life of David
and so many other warriors
in the Bible, is that boldness
precedes the miraculous.
WENDY: Wow.
I like that.
And when you turn and face your
fear, God takes over the fight.
So now is our time.
WENDY: I'm going to tweet that.
All right.
Boldness precedes
the miraculous.
OK.
Well, what's your focus today?
What are you guys doing?
You wrote a new book.
This is your second book.
Yes, that's right.
And we were flying--
He's not going to let
me answer that question.
No, I want to answer this.
I was going--
We were flying through the
Dallas-Fort Worth airport.
And several folks
have noticed us now.
And this one man was
looking over both shoulders.
And he walked up,
and he whispered ,
are you guys the
Benham brothers.
And we said, yeah.
And he looked over his
left and his right.
And he said, thanks for
your stand and then just
took off the other way.
And we know there are
millions of Christians
just like that man
in the airport.
So our focus is to
strengthen that man.
And the same rising tide of
evil that makes cowards run,
makes champions rise.
Now I'm going to follow that
up again, because I always
have to make it better.
But what we're telling
people today, as Christians,
is we need to be the
chocolate chips in the cookie
dough of culture.
We mix in.
We don't blend in.
We keep our distinct form,
even when put into a furnace.
WENDY: Now I want a
chocolate chip cookie.
Is that your second tweet?
(LAUGHING) That's
my second tweet.
She's not tweeting
anything you say.
Whatever.
Have you guys thought about
taking this show on the road?
You know, this is pretty good.
Well, what about your day jobs.
Are you still in real
estate, you still doing that?
Yes, ma'am.
And it's still
going great, right?
Yes ma'am.
We have multiple companies.
We have nonprofits.
We actually have an
organization in the Philippines
that we started that we call
our "missioneering" concept.
But God has really blessed
us, and we just really want
to encourage Christians.
Hey look, first let's wake up.
Then let's get on our knees,
and then let's stand strong.
And can I say
something now that I
need to make that even better.
A lot of people--
Jason and I, we
have taken a stand in Charlotte
against the radical bathroom
bills and all this stuff
that's happening, especially
with the Supreme Court now
striking down the Texas law.
WENDY: Because you're
from North Carolina.
That's right.
And we're watching now--
with life, and marriage,
and human sexuality, and these
stronghold issues-- and Jason
and I have been
speaking and trying
to speak with both
courage and compassion.
And that's what
God calls us to be,
is courageous
against the agenda,
but compassionate
with the people.
People are saying, well, you're
going to lose your business.
Your business is
going to go down.
Our business is thriving.
God is taking care
of our business.
And you know what, even
if our business goes down,
we still have an
obligation to stand up.
Right now in America, we
still have religious freedom.
We still have the
freedom of speech.
Let's be salty
Christians and stop
worrying about what
we're going to lose
and watch Jesus Christ transform
this nation once again.
Although, I think Jason
wants to be a sweet Christian
with a chocolate chip.
So we can be that.
He can't stop eating them.
Yeah, I know.
Listen, guy's, we could
be-- this is tough.
These guys are hilarious.
They're amazing.
All right, the Benham's book
is called "Living Among Lions."
It's available wherever
books are sold.
And for behind the scenes
footage with David and Jason,
you can go to our Facebook
page that's on your screen.
Facebook-- I can't read.
You guys have got
me all flustered.
You're so handsome,
and you're so amazing.
So anyway, God bless you.
Thanks so much for being here.
Thank you for having us.
WENDY: We just really
appreciate both of you
and what you're doing
and your stand for Jesus.
We appreciate it.
Now we can go knock
out some push ups.