The American Soul
The American Soul
God Must Be at the Center of Education and Government
America's spiritual foundation stands at a crossroads. Today we explore how our nation's educational system was built on explicitly Christian values and why returning to those roots might be our only path forward as a country.
The evidence is overwhelming when we examine historical documents like Harvard's 1642 Rules and Precepts, which required students to participate in prayer, maintain moral conduct, and face public accountability for violating God's laws. This wasn't unusual—106 out of the first 108 schools in America were founded on Christian principles. These institutions didn't view faith as optional but as the cornerstone upon which all learning rested.
Samuel Langdon's powerful 1775 sermon "Government Corrupted by Vice and Recovered by Righteousness" speaks with startling relevance to our current condition. While we readily point fingers at external corruption, we must also examine our own spiritual failings. Have we maintained the Christian values of our ancestors, or have we embraced "the cold, formal, fashionable religion" while allowing vices to flourish in our personal lives and communities?
Our daily priorities reveal much about our spiritual condition. Are we making time for God before anything else? For married listeners, is your spouse truly your second priority after God? The "honeymoon phase" doesn't have to end—it often does because we choose to place other things ahead of our relationships. True satisfaction in marriage comes when both partners offer themselves completely to each other while remaining faithful in all aspects.
The path forward requires individual repentance and renewed commitment to Christian principles—not just in rhetoric but in daily living. As John Adams noted, our constitutional system was designed for a moral and religious people and is "wholly inadequate for any other." Without spiritual revival, America risks a fall more catastrophic than Rome's. Turn to God, read His word, pray daily, and place Him at the center of everything. Our nation's future depends on it.
The American Soul Podcast
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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American soul podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are and whatever part of the day you're in, or to appreciate y'all joining me and giving me a little bit of your time, effort, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it'll give us all some extra tools for our toolbox. Hopefully it'll help draw us each closer, individually and as a nation, back to God and Jesus Christ. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast wherever y'all are around the world, thank you so much. For those of y'all who continue. You help it to grow. By the way, folks, when you tell people about it, there's nothing I can do other than hopefully produce a decent podcast that helps the podcast to grow as much as you telling somebody about it and encouraging them to listen to it and maybe listen to it with them. Right, community being around people instead of screens. You know, I know that this is not one of those, but I often think about the old radio broadcasts, the shows shows where they would do the. They would have all the different voices. I don't remember the genre of what they're really called, but they would do the plays on the radio. You know theater whatever, I'm sitting around and listening to it. Sitting around and listening to it. I have memories of sitting around the radio as a kid listening with my parents to Paul Harvey in the middle of the day. If you remember him, if you're old enough to remember him, and if you're not, he was just a radio broadcaster that would come on for a few minutes in the middle of each day. He had different things that he would talk about. One of his segments was the rest of the story. It was always real, interesting, some little tidbit, and always liked. I think a lot of people liked him because the advertisements that he did. As far as I know, he never promoted a product that he didn't use himself. So, at any rate, turn around and listen with somebody else to the podcast. Hopefully you'll both enjoy it and get something out of it.
Speaker 1:Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness. Thank you for the people that listen to the podcast. Father, thank you for the love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness. Thank you for the people that listen to the podcast, father. Thank you for the time to record it.
Speaker 1:Please be with them. Be with their families. Bless the marriages of those who are married. Be with the children of those who have children, comfort them, comfort them, ease any anxiety or fears that they're having. Ease any pain or suffering that they're going through.
Speaker 1:Draw close, father, please, to those of us who are brokenhearted, who are hurting. Help us to feel your presence. Help us to truly focus on you, not just with words and empty sounding things, but truly deeply, father, to know you better. Help us to truly love your son, jesus Christ, and therefore to follow his commands, father, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And help us to realize that loving our neighbors as ourselves, father, doesn't mean encouraging them in wrongdoing and sinning against you and your son. Fill us with your Holy Spirit, father. Help us to be attuned what he's telling us, counseling us the direction that he's guiding us. Help us to listen to you, for you, and not go our own way so often and so quickly that we don't or can't hear what you want us to hear.
Speaker 1:Be with children around the world, particularly Father and widows who are hurting, and be with those who are suffering because they follow your Son Jesus Christ, wherever they are China, north Korea, nigeria, syria, anywhere. Father, where they're suffering because they follow your Son Jesus Christ, help us to offer any relief that we're able to, father, to comfort them and care for them. And, god, my word to your Father, please, in the name of your Son, jesus Christ, we ask and pray Amen. You know, that's one thing. Well, have you made time for God, folks? That's always the important part. Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray? Are you really making him your top priority? And if you're married, is your spouse your second priority before you turn your phone on, before you work out, before you watch sports, and are they your priority throughout the day? This is how far we are off, folks. This is how bad a job we're doing. Is that some of us think we're doing a really good job when we set aside five or 10 minutes for our spouse each day? When we set aside five or 10 minutes for our spouse each day, your spouse ought to be your top priority every day, throughout the day, except for God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and what does that mean? There's a lady that I follow on X and she has a great little saying and it is whatever, whenever, wherever. And I've added, however often and eagerly to that but that ought to be our mentality for our spouse, and the only way you can execute that, folks, is if they truly are your second priority, if they're what you're thinking about.
Speaker 1:You know, you hear so often like the honeymoon phase, right, and you hear people talk about oh yeah, that was great, it's sad that it ended, or whatever. Well, okay, so that's a little bit of Bravo Sierra. That's kind of a cop-out that people use. The only reason that the quote unquote honeymoon phase really ends for most people is because they start to put other things, not because they have to, but because they choose to put other things in front of their spouse. Because during that quote-unquote honeymoon phase, what made it the honeymoon phase, folks? Well, because there was nothing more important that we were going to do other than please our spouse each day. And you say, well, yeah, I got all these responsibilities. You had responsibilities then.
Speaker 1:A lot of y'all, when you were in that honeymoon phase, were still in school, college, university or you were just now working, you were learning a new job and you were having to work a lot at that new job to understand it, to execute it well, and you say, well, yeah, we've got kids now. Okay, well, you had different responsibilities, different things. I would imagine a lot of you. I know this for a fact because I know it's true of a lot of my friends. It's true of my wife and I. Before we had kids. We did a lot of extracurricular like softball leagues, extracurricular like softball leagues. She did some triathlons. There were other things that we did that took the place of children. As far as time and effort, it's not that we don't have the time and energy, it's just that we have decided we're going to give it to other things. That's why that honeymoon phase ends folks More often than not.
Speaker 1:Anyway, your priorities folks. Are you reading the Bible each day? Are you praying? Are you really talking to God? Are you listening to God? And then, with your spouse, what are you doing? You know, good Lord, if they want to go to the grocery store, go to the grocery store. If they want to go twice, go twice. If they want to go get coffee, go get coffee. If they want to go to the grocery store, go to the grocery store. If they want to go twice, go twice. If they want to go get coffee, go get coffee. If they want to go for a walk, go for a walk. If they want to have sex, have sex. If they want to sit on the porch, sit on the porch. If they want to cook together, cook together. And it doesn't matter how often folks, it doesn't matter what they want to do, just be there with your spouse and be happy to do that.
Speaker 1:Proverbs 5.19 talks about a husband being satisfied by his wife. And this is true both ways, folks, husband and wife. It's impossible whether you're talking physically, emotionally, it's impossible to satisfy or to be satisfied if satisfaction isn't offered. And the flip side of that is, if satisfaction is offered, if your spouse is offering all of themselves, then you have a responsibility to be satisfied by that and not go looking elsewhere. Again, it doesn't matter whether it's physically or emotionally. If your spouse is offering you their friendship, their undivided attention, their companionship, eagerly, you have a responsibility not to turn the sports game on, not to go hang out with the boys, not to turn to social media or YouTube or TikTok. And if your spouse is offering all of themselves physically, you have a responsibility not to go looking for other people and we have a responsibility to offer that satisfaction eagerly. Folks, if your spouse wants to do something, whatever it is, you have that privilege of fulfilling that, of meeting that need. It's not a burden, it's not oppressive, it's a privilege.
Speaker 1:I got way off on that, sorry. I had something else to talk about too and I don't even remember what it was anymore. So we're going to move on. Revelation, chapter 1. We're going to read through. I don't think remember what it was anymore, so we're going to move on. Revelation, chapter one we're going to read through. I don't think we've read through Revelation. I think we're going to get back into the gospels, one of the gospels after this.
Speaker 1:But Revelation of Jesus Christ. This is, yeah, chapter one. The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show to his bond servants. Yeah, chapter 1. Testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near.
Speaker 1:Two things One, remember that John had been put in a pot of boiling oil or water and tried to be killed at some point before he actually wrote this revelation, at some point before he actually wrote this revelation. And just remember again how much that all of these apostles and disciples, these followers of Christ, suffered for Jesus Christ. The other thing is, I'm not going to get into this with you about whether revelation is future, past, present, tribulation is pre-trib, post-trib, whatever all that nonsense. I don't even know it enough to really talk intelligently about it. What I will tell you is, at some point Jesus Christ is going to come back, and this book is a guide helping us get ready for that, just like the Bible as a whole really is a guide helping us get ready for Jesus Christ coming back. So, whether this is figuratively or literally, or both, happened in the past and it's going to happen in the future. You know, history repeats itself. Whatever opinion you have, this book is still good.
Speaker 1:What does verse three say?
Speaker 1:Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near.
Speaker 1:Whatever, whatever happens, folks, god's telling us it's a good thing to read this and it's a good thing to hear it, for the time is near. Message to the seven churches, john, to the seven churches that are in Asia. Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth, To him who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood and he has made us to be a kingdom Priest to his God and father. To him be the kingdom priests to his God and Father. To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierce him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. So it is to be Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord, says the Lord, god who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty, the Patmos Vision. I, john, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation, and the kingdom and the perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos.
Speaker 1:Because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, like the sound of a trumpet, saying write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatria and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatria and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Lacedonia, laodicea, sorry. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me and, having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe and reaching to the feet and girded across his chest with a golden sack. His head and his hair were white like wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man and he placed his right hand on me, saying Do not be afraid, I am the first and the last and the living one and I was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Therefore, write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after these things. As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in and the things which are and the things which will take place after these things, as for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches Things here that are kind of I don't know.
Speaker 1:Maybe they're inconsequential, maybe they mean a lot that I thought about reading this one is something my father has said for so long, whose brain does a great deal better grasping things like physics and time than my own. But he says you know, god's outside of time and that's hard for us to really grasp, but God's not restricted by time, and one day when we go to heaven or hell, folks, if you end up going there, one day we will no longer be restricted by time when we get to heaven, because of Jesus Christ. Thank you Lord, there won't be time anymore. It just will cease to exist. And that's really hard to get my brain around and maybe for some of y'all too. It's just an interesting little tidbit. And the other thing is angels and again, I'm stealing from my own parents here.
Speaker 1:But, folks, if you really believe in true good in the world, then you have to understand logically that there's the counterpart. And vice versa. If you really believe in true evil out in the world, which it's hard to see how anybody could not, then you have to believe in true good, pure good, which would be God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. The other thing is angels. The Bible is perfectly clear, folks, that there are spiritual beings out there, angels and demons. There's a spiritual war going on around us that we can't see, but we would do well to remember that.
Speaker 1:All right, I wanted to get back in. We started yesterday. Before we go into Medal of Honors, I want to finish these Harvard rules and precepts. Just, folks, as a reminder because of these colleges in particular and the news lately Harvard and Columbia and some of the others and just how far we've fallen in this idea that we were not founded, that our education system was not founded on the principles of Christ. It's just not historically true, and that was both before and after the founding of our nation.
Speaker 1:Folks, without God and Jesus Christ at the center of our education system, it's going to continue to fail. It doesn't matter who you hire as your superintendent or principal or counselor, it doesn't matter what the school board is, it doesn't matter what great policies you enact, what great testing requirements you set up, how great your curriculum director is, if you don't have God and Jesus Christ and the Bible at the center of your education, it's not going to be helpful to America as a nation, it's going to be destructive and that education system is going to fail. It's going to have an Achilles heel. Maybe it'll fail soon, maybe it'll fail soon, maybe it'll fail later, but it's impossible for it not to fail ultimately when you don't have education centered around, and this is really true for any nation.
Speaker 1:Folks, I'm picking on America because we owe God so much. No people has more responsibility to thank God Almighty than we do, and we're doing a pretty good job of thumbing our nose at him about as much as anybody else, and we ought to be terrified of that. Let's see, I think we were on four. This is Rules and Precepts from Harvard, 26 September 1642. And just a little reminder again it's 106 out of the first 108 schools here in America were founded on the principles of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Four, that they eschewing all profanation of God's name, attributes, word ordinances, all profanation of God's name attributes, word ordinances and times of worships. Do study with good conscience, carefully to retain God and the love of his truth in their minds. Else, let them know that, notwithstanding their learning, god may give them up to strong delusions and in the end, to a reprobate mind. 2 Thessalonians 2, 11 and 12 and Romans 1, 28. It doesn't matter how bright you are, folks, how much learning you have, if you reject God, if you reject truth. Therefore, in Jesus Christ, at some point there's a real good chance God's going to give you up to delusions and to a pretty nasty mind.
Speaker 1:Five, that they studiously, studiously redeem their time, observe the general hours, diligently, attend the lectures without any disturbance by word or gesture. Good Lord, folks, if we kicked all the kids out today that disturbed by word or gesture. A our schools would be so much smaller and B they would function so much more smoothly. But we're not allowed to do that. You can't possibly have consequences for actions in America today among students. That would be outrageous. Nobody wants that. Everybody deserves a participation trophy. Everybody deserves a high school diploma six.
Speaker 1:None shall frequent the company and society of such men as lead an unfit and dissolute life. Nor shall any, without his tutors, leave or, without the call of parents or guardians, go abroad to other towns. This for whatever reason. This strikes me so much as we don't have a right to do whatever the heck we want to do, folks, for example, there's no right to serve in the military just because you want to serve in the military or law enforcement or firefighters or EMS yeah, and I'm talking about women mostly, but there's some guys out there too you don't have a right to serve. You don't have a right to serve. You don't have a right to vote. That was never part of our original republic, and every universal suffrage is what goes to democracy. It's a path that leads to hell, leads to destruction.
Speaker 1:Folks, if you want to come in and act like an idiot in a school, you don't have a right to stay. That school has a right to kick you out and get rid of you If you're going to come in and you're not going to study and you're not going to work hard, that school absolutely has a right and the standard ought to be a heck of a lot higher than it is today. If you're not going to come in and work hard, you don't have a right to be there. And if that messes up your parents' perfect little dual income world, that's a problem on us as parents, that's not a problem for the school board folks. That's what I tell people so often.
Speaker 1:Our school day remains too long and our school year too long, not because it's what's best for the kids. What's best for the kids is so far down the totem pole of the education priority list in America today. It's just almost at the bottom. That is not the driving force of education today in America, for the vast majority is what's best for the kids, and one of the ways you see this is the school day is way too long and if you talk to any teacher that's honest they'll tell you. If you start school at eight, by the time you get to about 12, 30, 1, 1, 30 at the very latest, very latest those kids are done. They're shut down. We waste way too much time in public school today, even in a lot of private schools. Why? Why do we have the kids there that long? You talk to the kids? They're tired of it. The teachers know that they're tired of it. The teachers know that they're not getting near as much in those last three or four hours, so why do we do it for two or three hours?
Speaker 1:The parents, folks. If the parents immediately demanded that we shorten the day and really focused on teaching the kids, it would happen in a heartbeat. But that's not what the parents want. The parents want to drop their kids off at daycare so that they don't have to deal with their kids and go about their merry little lives chasing whatever dreams they want to chase. And yeah, it's primarily women, because they would primarily be the ones that stayed at home. And we want our dual income society. And you can say well, everybody has to have two incomes today because that's the only way we can survive. Okay, maybe let's pretend for a minute that I give you that even a little bit. For the last six to seven years. That hasn't been true for the last 30 or 40 years, and we've been going this direction for a long time. Now. Folks, this didn't just happen. Also, out of six, none shall frequent the company and society of such men as lead unfit and dissolute life. Who you hang around folks, determines your own character. What you take in books, music, tv, video games, people, what you take in determines your character.
Speaker 1:Seven every scholar shall be present in his tutor's chamber at the seventh hour in the morning, immediately after the sound of the bell, at his opening, the scripture in prayer, and so also at the fifth hour at night, and then give account of his own private reading. But if any shall absent himself from prayer or lectures he shall be liable to admonition. If he offended above once a week, don't skip. They're going to get you at Harvard in 1642 if you skip prayer or lectures. Eight if any scholar shall be found to transgress any of the laws of God or the school, he may be admonished at the public monthly act. Man, good luck. Can you imagine if we admonished students publicly when they broke the laws of the school or of God? Can you imagine how much time that would take, how many kids that would affect and their parents? But also can you imagine how much time that would take, how many kids that would affect and their parents? But also can you imagine how much better the schools would run and how much less of the bad stuff you would have in schools if you really made a public scene about kids breaking the school's rules or God's laws.
Speaker 1:There's a story that I've been told a couple times. This is I don't even know how many decades ago now. One, two, three, four, so probably 40 years ago. There was a teacher at a school in our area and I was talking to one of the kids that had this teacher. They're not kids anymore, right, they're grown adults halfway through their lives. But they were telling me a story about. They were coming in and I think it was the first day of class with this teacher and they hadn't had them before. And there were a couple kids in this class, of which they were one. These happened to be boys and they were goofing around and the teacher came in and asked everybody to settle down. And everybody did, except for these two or three boys, and they just didn't really care what the teacher said.
Speaker 1:And so the teacher and this was within the first five minutes of a you know 40 minute period he stopped the class and he told the boys to stand up on top of their desk. You remember those old desks where the chair was attached. I guess they still have a lot of these in classrooms, but it was one of those heavy desks where the chair is attached to the writing surface. He told them to stand up on top of the desk and at that point, you know, you still, even begrudgingly, did what the teacher said most of the time not like a lot today and so these boys stood up on the desk this this guy I was talking to, said. He said and we stood there for the next 35 minutes. He taught class. He never said anything else to us.
Speaker 1:This guy I was talking to said. He said and we stood there for the next 35 minutes. He taught class. He never said anything else to us, never looked at us, he just left us standing up there and he said you know, at first we thought it was pretty funny and we were kind of making a show of it, but then he kept teaching and so the kids stopped paying attention to us and they were paying attention to him and you know we couldn't write any notes. And he said it got kind of uncomfortable up there after a while and then by the end of the class, we felt like complete idiots and he said we never did that again. As soon as that teacher told us to calm down the entire rest of the year. We did, and so you look at this last rule and precept out of Harvard.
Speaker 1:How many of these kids would we be helping if, when they did something really stupid, we made a public spectacle of it, whether it was breaking the laws of school or breaking the laws of God? You know you have so many of these kids today that get so much trouble with the phones, whether you're talking about death threats and if you don't realize that folks, if you don't realize that a lot of these kids, that there's death threats that go on in the schools via the phones, you need to go find a teacher or counselor or administrator that's honest, that'll talk to you. You've got to make sure they're honest, though, that they're not going to try and prop up a public school and downplay the seriousness of it, or the kids that share naked pictures of themselves on the phones. You know what if, when a kid did that, which is obviously breaking the commands either one of those two cases of both God and the school what if that kid was brought in the auditorium and put up on a stage in front of all the kids and the principal came out and said hey, we just want all of you to know that so-and-so here has decided that it's okay to send death threats around, and so these are the consequences that they're going to have to suffer. But we also just wanted to put them in front of the entire student body, of whatever you have at your school 100, 200, 300, 400, 800, a thousand kids, or you bring them up and you say, hey, this is so-and-so, and they thought it was a really good idea. You know, you bring up both the boy and the girl that are involved in the exchange of naked pictures and put them up on stage. They really thought that this was a good idea, thought that it was okay to do that, think that you would get a pretty good change in actions. All right, we'll move on. We're going to get into Medal of Honor. Remember that, though, folks. Anybody that says that our education system wasn't founded almost universally on the principles of Jesus Christ, they just they don't know what they're talking about. Alright, we're going to get back into this sermon Government corrupted by vice and recovered by righteousness.
Speaker 1:A sermon preached before the Honorable Congress of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, assembled at Watertown on Wednesday, the 31st day of May 1775, assembled at Watertown on Wednesday, the 31st day of May 1775. Being the anniversary fixed by charter for the election of counselors by Samuel Langdon DD, president of Harvard College in Cambridge. As a roaring lion and raging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people, proverbs 28, 15. Watertown, printed and sold by Benjamin Eads, and we'll pick up where we left off.
Speaker 1:A Jewish nation could not but see and feel the unhappy consequences of so great corruption of the state. Doubtless they complained much of men in power and very heartily and liberally reproached them for their notorious misconduct. The public greatly suffered and the people groaned and wished for better rulers and better management, but in vain. They hoped for a change of men and measures and better times when the spirit of religion was gone and the infection of vice was become universal. The whole body being so corrupted, there could be no rational prospect of any great reformation in the state, but rather of its ruin, which accordingly came on in Jeremiah's time. Yet if a general reformation of religion and morals had taken place and they had turned to God from all their sins, if they had again recovered the true spirit of their religion, god by the gracious interpositions of his providence, would soon have found out methods to restore the former virtue of the state and again have given them men of wisdom and integrity, according to their utmost wish to be counselors and judges. This was verified, in fact, after the nation had been purged by a long captivity and returned to their own land, humbled and filled with zeal for God and his law.
Speaker 1:By all this we may be led to consider the true cause of the present remarkable troubles which have come upon Great Britain and these colonies, and the only effectual remedy. This is us, folks, and this is exactly the only solution and the main problem, and that is we've turned away from God. We have, for the last 80 years, pretended that we can separate God not only from our civic, from our laws and institutions, but we can separate him out of our personal lives, our family lives, with no consequences. And that's history doesn't show that, and it may be too late. We may be at a point like the Israelis were, like the Jews were before they went into captivity to Babylon, but it might not, you don't know.
Speaker 1:It's the same comment that I make about slavery and the civil or the revolutionary war. We have no idea what would have happened if the founders demanded an end to slavery? Right then, there's a lot of people who think that they're really bright, who think that they know exactly what would have happened, but they don't, because we didn't try it and they weren't there. We have no idea what's going to happen If we turn back to God and truly repent of our sins, in our individual lives first and foremost, and then in our nation as a whole, truly repent and seek reconciliation with God and Jesus Christ. But there's no doubt what's going to happen if we continue down the path of celebrating sin, pride Month, abortion, feminism. We know exactly what that outcome is. It may take different forms, folks, but it's, in the end, slavery, tyranny, despotism, chaos, death.
Speaker 1:Every single time any of those bucket of isms have gotten in total power leftism, socialism, communism, nazism, fascism or Islam which goes hand in glove with them that has been the outcome every single time, without exception. There's not one single time you can look and find a place in history where one of those has not had total power, where that hasn't been the result has not had total power. Where that hasn't been the result, we have rebelled against God. We have lost the true spirit of Christianity, though we retain the outward profession and form of it. We have neglected and set light by the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy commands and institutions. I lost my place. I'm sorry. The worship of many is but mere compliment to the deity, while their hearts are far from him. By many, the gospel is corrupted into a superficial system of moral philosophy little better than ancient Platonism. And after all the pretended refinements of moderns in the theory of Christianity, very little of the pure practice of it is to be found among those who once stood foremost in the profession of the gospel.
Speaker 1:In a general view of the present moral state of Great Britain, it may be said there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery Hosanna 4, one and two. No, that's not right. Got to look that up. I don't want to mispronounce it and I will if I don't look it up, I'm sorry, hosea. By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery Hosea 4, 1 and 2. Their wickedness breaks out and one murder after another is committed under the conveyance or covenant, connivance and encouragement even of that authority by which such crimes ought to be punished, that the purposes of oppression and despotism may be answered. As they have increased, so have they sinned. Therefore, god is changing their glory into shame. The general prevalence of vice has changed the whole face of things in the British government".
Speaker 1:Again, folks I mean that's us. We've rebelled against God, we've ignored him, as Lincoln said. We imagine in the vanity of our own hearts that we did all this and that we don't need God and that there is no, just God and we don't have to worry. It's the song right and the arrogant, prideful person who says there's no God, there's nobody to see what I'm doing. We think we can do what we want in the shadows and darkness of our own home, in a corner, and nobody's watching us. Somebody's always watching folks. Often it's a real person, it's always God. You don't know when you're hiding in the corner looking at something on TV or on your phone that you shouldn't be looking at, whether your kids are going to see that someday or not they might, or your spouse. You don't know whether you're doing something shady at work when somebody's going to find out about it Financial, sexual, whatever else it is. We've pretended that we don't need God. Sound a lot like Mr Langdon is describing Britain right here, and Israel sounds like us.
Speaker 1:The excellency of the Constitution has been the boast of Great Britain and the envy of neighboring nations. In former times, the great departments of the state and the various places of trust and authority were filled with men of wisdom, honesty and religion who employed all their powers and were ready to risk their fortunes and their lives for the public good. They were faithful counselors to kings, directed their authority and majesty to the happiness of the nation and opposed every step by which despotism endeavored to advance. They were fathers of the people and sought the welfare and the prosperity of the whole body. They did not exhaust the national wealth by luxury or bribery or convert it to their own private benefit for the maintenance of idle, useless officers and dependents, but improved it faithfully for the proper purposes, for the necessary support of government and the defense of the kingdom. Their laws were dictated by wisdom and equity, and justice was administered with impartiality. Religion discovered its general influence among all ranks and kept out great corruptions from places of power.
Speaker 1:But in what does the British nation now glory? In a mere shadow of its ancient political system, in titles of dignity without virtue and vast public treasures, continually lavished in corruption till every fund is exhausted, notwithstanding the mighty streams perpetually flowing in and the many artifices to stretch the prerogatives of the crown beyond all constitutional bounds and make the king an absolute monarch, while the people are deluded with a mere phantom of liberty? What idea must we entertain of that government if such a one can be found which pretends to have made an exact counterbalance of power between the sovereign, the nobles and the commons, so that the three branches shall be an effectual check upon each other and the united wisdom of the whole shall conspire to promote the national felicity, but which, in reality, is reduced to such a situation that it may be managed at the sole will of one court favorite? What difference is there between betwixt one man's choosing at his own pleasure, by his single vote, the majority of those who are to represent the people and his purchasing in such a majority, according to his own nomination, with money out of the public treasury or other effectual methods of influencing elections? And what shall we say if, in the same manner, by places, pensions and other bribes, same manner, by places, pensions and other bribes, a minister of state can at any time gain over a noble majority likewise, to be entirely subservient to his purposes and, moreover, persuade his royal master to resign himself up wholly to the direction of his counsels.
Speaker 1:To the direction of his counsels. If this should be the case of any nation, from one seven years end to another, the bargain and sell being made sure for such a period, would they still have reason to boast of their excellent constitution? Ought they not rather to think, at high time to restore their corrupted, dying state to its original perfection? I will apply this to the Roman Senate under Julius Caesar, which retained all its ancient formalities but voted always only as Caesar dictated. If the decrees of such a Senate were urged on the Romans as fraught with all the blessings of Roman liberty, we must suppose them strangely deluded if they were persuaded to believe it. Pretty much us folks.
Speaker 1:He's saying it better than I could ever say it. He's saying it better than I could ever say it. I'll just add the fact that when you look at the actions of Congress and the president certainly the past president, or a couple of the past presidents and you look at the Supreme court, you see what he's describing here people that are not concerned for the welfare of the nation, of the people as a whole, and you see that the liberty that we enjoy or think we do as everyday men and women is really just a phantom of true liberty and that we don't really have a lot to boast of anymore. We're living on the crumbling framework of those who have come before us, the work that they've done, the blood and tears that they've spilled, but we don't really have anything to truly glory in today, ourselves Supporting that constitution, being willing to risk our lives and our fortunes for our relationship with God and Jesus Christ, both civically and individually. Go back and reread that part again. It's a great sermon, but in general we'll probably read it more than once.
Speaker 1:The pretense for taxing America has been that the nation contracted an immense debt for the defense of the American colonies and that, as they are now able to contribute some proportion towards the discharge of this debt and must be considered as part of the nation, it is reasonable they should be taxed and the Parliament has a right to tax and govern them in all cases, whatever, by its own supreme authority. Enough has already been published on this grand controversy, which now threatens a final separation of the colonies from Great Britain. But can the amazing national debt be paid by a little trifling sum squeezed from year to year out of America, which is continually drained of all its cash by a restricted trade with the parent country and which in this way is taxed to the government of Britain in a very large proportion? Would it not be much superior wisdom and sounder policy for a distressed kingdom to retrench the vast unnecessary expenses continually incurred by its enormous vices, expenses continually incurred by its enormous vices? To stop the prodigious sums paid in pensions and to numberless officers without the least advantage to the public, to reduce the number of devouring servants in the great family, to turn their minds from the pursuit of pleasure and the boundless luxuries of life to the important interests of their country and the salvation of their commonwealth? Would not a reverent regard to the authority of divine revelation, a hearty belief of the gospel and the grace of God, and a general reformation of all those vices which bring misery and ruin upon individuals, families and kingdoms and which have provoked heaven to bring the nation into such perplexed and dangerous circumstances, be the surest way to recover the sinking state and make it rich again, rich and flourishing? Millions might annually be saved if the kingdom were generally and thoroughly reformed and the public debt, great as it is, might, in a few years, be cancelled by a growing revenue, which now amounts to full ten millions per annum, without laying additional burdens on any of the subjects, but the demands of corruption are constantly increasing and will forever exceed all the resources of wealth which the wit of man can invent or tyranny, tyranny, impose.
Speaker 1:Okay, first of all, we have the exact same we're S we don't have a taxation problem in the sense that we're not being taxed enough, folks. We have a spending problem, which is driven by vice and corruption. We have way too many. The federal government, and the state governments typically are way too large for what is really required of a government, which is what it's external defense and internal justice, and that's it. That's it. Everything else is extra, it's stuff that's not needed, particularly at the federal level, and so you see the exact same problems here. We have all of these people wanting these pensions to live this life of luxury, while they're draining the very life out of the citizens who are working to make the money.
Speaker 1:Also, though, you see us as individual citizens clinging to our vices and our corruptions. Right? The thing that automatically pops into my head is you look at actors and actresses and professional sports and a lot of us like to talk about how tight things are effort to entertainment, movies, hulu, amazon, youtube, instagram, x, facebook, et cetera, et cetera. Professional football, baseball, softball, volleyball, tennis, golf, college the same, it's turning into the same thing. We give all this money to these vices of ourselves and then we complain about not having money, and part of that complaint is legitimate, that the government's misspending it, folks. But how much are we misspending our own money today? And the only way, the only way to turn that around is another great awakening, a third great awakening, a reformation turning back to God and Jesus Christ and the gospel of Christ. But again, that's the only solution.
Speaker 1:And to what fatal policy has the nation been impelled by its public vices? To wage a cruel war with its own children in these colonies, only to gratify the lust of power and the demands of extravagance. May God, in his great mercy, recover Great Britain from this fatal infatuation, show them their errors and give them a spirit of reformation before it is too late to avert impending destruction. Same here, folks, same today in America. May the eyes of the king be open to see the ruinous tendency of the measures into which he has been led and his heart inclined, to treat his American subjects with justice and clemency, instead of forcing them still farther, to the last extremities, to effect a happy reconciliation so that the colonies may again enjoy the protection of their sovereign, with perfect security of all their natural rights and civil and religious liberties.
Speaker 1:One thing about that previous paragraph, folks again, is you see the disingenuousness, if that's the right way to say that. But you see how upset people got when Elon Musk and his team came in and started to try and get rid of the extraneous stuff, the fluff, the just ludicrous spending. And so what does that show you? It shows you that there's a lot of people that don't want that stopped. They want that money spigot turned on. They want that money flowing to them from squeezing it out of the people, and that's really the biggest thing.
Speaker 1:But within that too, you see a lot of ignorance on the part of us that claim to be or maybe apathy is the better word on the part of those of us who claim to be patriots, the love America. Because it's not like this just happened in a vacuum overnight. This has been going on for decades and we've just kind of continued to allow it, just like we allowed what's even worse, which is separation of God and state. We just kind of went along with it. The Supreme Court said this is what we have to do and we said OK, even though it's blatantly wrong. Same thing with homosexuality and transgenderism, same thing with feminism. We just went along with it, said okay, well, you men, you must know a lot better than God does, so we're just going to go along with it peacefully.
Speaker 1:And, of course, the problem is when you have a people that are not virtuous, that are not Christian, then our form of government doesn't work, as John Adams told us so long ago. And that is the problem. We can't have America with liberty, with a people that are corrupt, that are immoral, that are anti-Christ Christ. But, alas, have not the sins of America, and of New England in particular, had a hand in bringing down upon us the righteous judgments of heaven? This is the part where we talk about ourselves, folks, those of us that claim to love America and her founding faith and principles based on the teachings of Christ, Because you can't love America truly if you don't love her founding faith and principles, and those are the principles of Jesus Christ. And so, if you really do love America, then you really do love the principles of Christ. That's why Teddy Roosevelt I think the quote we just read that said the true Christian is the true citizen, or the true citizen is the true Christian. Right.
Speaker 1:But alas, have not the sins of America, and of New England in particular, had a hand in bringing down upon us the righteous judgments of heaven? Wherefore is all this evil come upon us? Is it not because we have forsaken the Lord? Yes, that's true of us, folks, that's exactly it. Can we say we are innocent of crimes against God? No, surely it becomes us to humble ourselves under his mighty hand that he may exalt us in due time. However unjustly and cruelly we have been treated by man, we certainly deserve, at the hand of God, all the calamities in which we are now involved.
Speaker 1:Have we not lost much of the spirit of genuine Christianity which so remarkably appeared in our ancestors, for which God distinguished them with the signal favors of providence when they fled from tyranny and persecution into this western desert? Folks, that's exactly us today. Have we not departed from their virtues, though I hope and am confident that as much true religion agreeable to the purity and simplicity of the gospel remains among us as among any people in the world. Yet, in the midst of the present great apostasy of the nations professing Christianity, have not we likewise been guilty of departing from the living God? Have we not made light of the gospel of salvation and too much affected the cold, formal, fashionable religion of countries grown old and vice and overspread with infidelity?
Speaker 1:Do not our follies and iniquities testify against us? Have we not, especially in our seaports, gone much too far into the pride and luxuries of life? Is it not a fact open to common observation that profaneness, intemperance, unchastity, the love of pleasure, fraud, avarice and other vices are increasing among us from year to year? And have not even these young governments been in some measure infected with the corruptions of European courts? Has there been no flattery, no bribery, no artifices practiced to get into places of honor and profit to carry a vote to serve a particular interest, without regard to right or wrong? Have our statesmen always acted with integrity and every judge with impartiality, in the fear of God? In short, have all ranks of men showed regard to the divine commands and joined to promote the Redeemer's kingdom and the public welfare?
Speaker 1:I wish we could more fully justify ourselves in all these respects. If such sins have not been so notorious among us as in older countries, we must nevertheless remember that the sins of a people who have been remarkable for the profession of godliness are more aggravated by all the advantages and favors they have enjoyed and will receive more speedy and signal punishment, as God says, of Israel, you only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore, will I punish you for all your iniquities, amos 3.2. We've been blessed more than any other country. Your inequities, amos 3.2. We've been blessed more than any other country in the world, folks. And so our fall, if we continue to fall, is going to be greater than anything the world has ever seen. We will make Rome falling look like a joke, and we will make Rome falling look like a joke, and we will go back in to at least a thousand years of darkness. I think Reagan was the one that made that quote and I'm sure a number of others have. It's not that God can raise up a light for himself anywhere in the world and he may but our fall will be horrific.
Speaker 1:The other thing you look at here, folks, we like to point the finger at the left, at communists, socialists, nazis, fascists, muslims, muslims, but those of us that profess Christianity, have we? Have we been without corruption? Do we not see that the love of pleasure, fraud, avarice and other vices are increasing among us from year to year? Is there no flattery, bribery, trickery practiced in order to get into places of honor and profit or carry a boat to serve a particular interest, regardless of what's right or wrong? Do we act with integrity in each part of our lives? You understand Langdon's comment here that he wishes we could more fully justify ourselves. On the side, the people that claim to love America, are we really suffering anything that we don't justly deserve at the hand of God because we've turned away from Him and His commands while claiming an outward appearance to practice them? The only hope we have, folks, is to turn back to God and Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Truly A great sermon, and we'll get back into it. We'll try to, I hope, finish it up in the next podcast, but we'll see it's going to be close. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages If you're married. God bless America. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages If you're married. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, we'll talk to y'all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.