The American Soul
The American Soul
Soul of a Nation: God, Virtue, and American Liberty
The connection between liberty and Christianity forms the beating heart of America's founding principles, and in this thought-provoking episode, we examine why one simply cannot exist without the other.
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17). This scripture serves as both our foundation and our roadmap as we journey through the writings of America's founders who understood this truth with crystal clarity.
When Benjamin Rush wrote in 1798 that "without religion there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty," he wasn't expressing a mere personal preference, but articulating what was considered fundamental knowledge among those who shaped our nation. We explore Noah Webster's 1828 definition of liberty, revealing how our founders understood freedom not as unconstrained license, but as the ability to act without injuring others—a moral restraint that requires virtuous citizens.
The historical record speaks with unmistakable clarity: while America guarantees individual freedom of religion, our institutions, laws, and leadership were intentionally grounded in Christianity's general principles. As John Jay advised, Americans have a duty to elect leaders who "rule in fear of God." Looking to our Revolutionary past, we see how colonists coordinated between states to prepare for conflict—providing a blueprint for how Christians today might prepare for challenges to liberty.
Most powerfully, we examine sobering historical accounts of religious persecution that demonstrate what happens when totalitarian ideologies gain unchecked power. These warnings from history remind us why preserving America's Christian foundations isn't just about religious preference—it's about protecting the very liberty we cherish.
How can you use your sphere of influence to strengthen America's Christian foundations? Join us as we explore practical ways to share the Gospel and prepare for whatever storms may come.
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. I sure do appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and little piece of your day. I know you have other things that you could be spending it on, so I'm grateful that you're here. Hopefully it will give us all some extra tools for our toolbox and hopefully it'll draw us all a little bit closer to God and Jesus Christ, both as individuals and as a nation. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you very much, very, very grateful for your prayers.
Speaker 1:Need them, want them. So thank you Very, very grateful for your prayers. Need them, want them. So thank you, 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 of sins. Thank you for all your many blessings, father, that you bestow upon us, the ones we admit and the ones we don't. Forgive us our greed, our lust, our judgment of others, our vanity. Forgive us, our cowardice and our unbelief. Father, we do believe.
Speaker 1:Thank you for those who listen to the podcast. Father, please be with them. Be with their families, comfort them. Bless the marriages of those who are married, guide those who have children and raising them to know you and your son, jesus Christ. Comfort those who are brokenhearted, those who feel alone, and raising them to know you and your son, jesus Christ. Comfort those who are brokenhearted, those who feel alone and abandoned, father. Help us to care for them. Help us to fight back against the evils that we see so clearly today in our nation Abortion, feminism, sexual immorality of every kind, trafficking of little children and women. Show us what we can do in our little corner of the world and help us to do it. World, father, and help us to do it. Forgive us when we sink back. Be with our leaders, father. Help us to elect men who rule in fear of you. God, my words here, please, in your son's name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read the Bible? Have you made time to pray? Have you made time to listen? Still working on that one Myself.
Speaker 1:And if you're married, have you made time for your spouse? Do they know that they are your top priority each day, second only to God, or do they know that they're not a priority to you? It's pretty clear folks, pretty easy to tell and I'm being a little bit sarcastic it's extremely easy to tell whether our spouse is really our top priority each day, second only to God and Jesus Christ, or not. And it doesn't matter what we say, because our actions overwhelm our words. Like that quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, I believe your actions speak so loudly I cannot hear the words that you are saying.
Speaker 1:Think about that when you're going through. We need to think about that as we give, as we parcel out all the little sand that's in our hourglass, in our lives, and what we're parceling those little grains of sand, to what and who we're giving that to. Of sand, to what and who we're giving that to? 2 Corinthians 3,. Ministers of a New Covenant, Are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need as some letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men, being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have, through Christ, toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.
Speaker 1:But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For, indeed, what had glory in the case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more of that which remains is in glory. Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away, but their minds were hardened. For until this very day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because it is removed in Christ. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the spirit. So we're going to camp out on verse 17, which pretty much sums up the podcast, which pretty much sums up the podcast. Oh, and it sums up the podcast. For the last four plus years we've been doing it and it will sum up the podcast forever. That's the reason we do the podcast. It's called the American Soul.
Speaker 1:There is no liberty, folks, there is no liberty Without God and Jesus Christ. And there's two quotes that I think well, one in particular we need to go through. This is from Benjamin Rush on the mode of education proper in a republic from 1798. 1798. I proceed in the next place to inquire what mode of education we shall adopt so as to secure to the state all the advantages that are to be derived from the proper instruction of youth. And here I beg leave to remark that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and the life of all Republican governments. You cannot have liberty without God and Jesus Christ. We have tried to separate it over the last 80 years in every way possible, folks, and it simply isn't possible. It simply isn't possible. You go back again to this quote by Robert Winthrop that we talked about recently, who was Speaker of the House. I think it may do for other countries and other governments to talk about the state supporting religion. Here, under our own free institutions, it is religion which must support the state. If we don't have, if our institutions, our constitutions, our laws, our courts, if they are not founded on the principles of Jesus Christ, the general principles, not any one particular denomination, but the general principles of Christ as laid out in Scripture, then we are not going to have liberty Right. What is liberty really, by the way, we go back here to Webster's 1828 Dictionary.
Speaker 1:Liberty. The first definition freedom from restraint, in a general sense and applicable to the body or to the will or mind. The body is at liberty when not confined. The will or mind is at liberty when not checked or controlled. A man enjoys liberty when no physical force operates to restrain his actions or volitions. Two natural liberty consists in the power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control except from the laws of nature. And what are the laws of nature and of nature's God? We've talked about that from William Blackstone, right the English commentaries that our founders used so much, that's God, the Father of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, right. That's the reference to the laws of nature and of nature's God are the laws that God, the Father of Jesus Christ, christ the Son and the Holy Spirit set up.
Speaker 1:It is a state of exemption from control of others and from positive laws and the institutions of social life. This liberty is abridged by the establishment of government. Third, civil liberty is the liberty of men in a state of society or natural liberty, so far only abridged and restrained as is necessary and expedient for the safety and interests of the society, state or nation. A restraint of natural liberty not necessary or expedient for the public is tyranny or oppression. Civil liberty is an exemption from the arbitrary will of others, which exemption is secured by established laws which restrain every man from injuring or controlling another. Hence the restraints of law are essential to civil liberty.
Speaker 1:I think the way I've said it on the podcast, maybe this will make a little more sense. It does, in my own mind at least. Liberty is freedom by what is safe, or what includes the safety for others, right From injuring or controlling another. You saw, in that definition there of civil liberty, freedom is the ability, or liberty is the ability, to act and live and do as we see fit, so long as it doesn't injure or control others.
Speaker 1:You can't have liberty. You cannot have that if you don't have God and Jesus Christ at the foundation. Because if you don't have people and you go back again to this quote by Winthrop if you don't have people that are controlled, that can control themselves right, he says, the less they have of stringent state government, the more they must have of individual self-government, the less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely an individual self-government, the less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. If we want liberty, if we want less state government, then we have to have individual self-government. Where do you get that control? Where do you get that discipline? Where do you get that restraint? You get it from the principles of Christ, and it doesn't matter whether you're talking about somebody that follows Hinduism or Islam or Buddhism or atheism or anything else. Any principle within those faiths that actually does good and leads toward discipline and self-restraint is in line with the principles of Jesus Christ, because that's the basis, that's the source of truth. What I'm trying to get at is is any of those other religions or faiths or ideologies that stumble across the truth from time to time and almost all of them have a little bit of truth and I'm somewhere all they're really doing is poorly reflecting the principles of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:It's it's like a professional athlete. You don't want to aim for less than perfection, for less than greatness. You don't want to aim for mediocrity. You don't want to aim for if your goal is to become a professional athlete, you don't want to aim for a 7th or 8th grader playing junior high sports. You want to aim for the very, very best in whatever that professional sport, whoever that is or whatever position you're playing, or whatever sport you're playing, whoever that is or whatever position you're playing, or whatever sport you're playing In America, you don't want to aim for any of the imposters. That are just poor reflections. You want to aim for Jesus Christ, you want to aim for Christianity. Those are the principles that you want to put in the core of the country. That's why one of the reasons John Jay tells us that we have a responsibility, a duty, to elect Christian rulers. As individuals in America, we have the ability to choose to follow God and Jesus Christ or not. But when we choose leaders, we have a responsibility to choose those men who follow God and Jesus Christ, who are aiming for that perfect standard, who rule in fear of God.
Speaker 1:I feel like I'm not doing a very good job of explaining this today, so I'm going to go ahead and move on. Just because I stumbled across this quote when I was looking for the other one, I'll leave you with this from Benjamin Rush, contemplating merely the political institutions of the United States I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them. We profess to be Republicans little are folks and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our Republican forms of government, that is, the universal education of our youth and the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible, for this divine book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws and all those sober and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of republicanism. We go back to virtue over and over and over again, folks, patrick Henry, practice virtue yourselves and encourage it in others. I maintain that we need to be doing everything we can right now to coordinate between conservative Christian schools, towns, churches, communities, states and building up our law enforcement, firefighters, ems, state militias, training with arms, training with arms, but the only all of those things may be necessary, but the only hope we really have of saving America is to turn back to God and Jesus Christ. And so, most of all, most of all, we need to be doing everything we can to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, particularly to children. Anywhere you get the chance, folks, to exemplify the life of Christ, to illustrate Christ to others, to show others just a little bit of Christ, children in particular, you need to take it. Anytime you get the chance to share Scripture, to talk about scripture, particularly again with children. You get to show others the love of Christ, to show others those commands of Christ, to show others scriptures, to share the Bible. We need to take it, folks. Medal of Honor let's see what we've got today. Well, that's not going to work, all right. Raymond O Oof Badoin? I'm not sure that's right. Raymond Olivia Badooin, first Lieutenant World War II Fox Company, 119th Infantry, 30th Infantry Division, us Army, april 6, 1945, hamelin, germany.
Speaker 1:He was leading the 2nd Platoon of Company F over flat, open terrain to Hamelin, germany, when the enemy went into action with machine guns and automatic weapons, laying down a devastating curtain of fire which pinned his unit to the ground. By rotating men in firing positions, he made it possible for his entire platoon to dig in, defying all the while the murderous enemy fire to encourage his men and to distribute ammunition. He then dug in himself at the most advanced position where he kept up a steady fire, killing six hostile soldiers and directing his men and inflicting heavy casualties on the numerically superior opposing force. Despite these defensive measures, however, the position of the platoon became more precarious, for the enemy had brought up strong reinforcements and was preparing a counterattack, three men, sent back at intervals to obtain ammunition and reinforcements, were killed by sniper fire. To relieve his command from the desperate situation, 1st Lieutenant Baudoin decided to make a one-man attack on the most damaging enemy sniper nest, 90 yards to the right flank. He thereby and thereby divert attention from the runner who would attempt to pierce the enemy's barrier of bullets and secure help. Crawling over completely exposed ground, he relentlessly advanced, undeterred by eight rounds of bazooka fire which threw mud and stones over him, or by rifle fire which ripped his uniform. Ten yards from the enemy position, he stood up and charged At point-blank range. He shot and killed two occupants of the nest, a third, who tried to bayonet him, he overpowered and killed with the butt of his carbine, and the fourth adversary was cut down by the platoon's rifle fire as he attempted to flee. He continued his attack by running toward a dugout, but there he was struck and killed by a burst from a machine gun. By his intrepidity, great fighting skill and supreme devotion to his responsibility for the well-being of his platoon, first Lieutenant Bedoin single-handedly accomplished a mission that enabled a messenger to secure help, which saved the stricken unit and made possible the decisive defeat of the German forces Accredited to Hulke-Hamden County, massachusetts, awarded posthumously.
Speaker 1:Born July 15, 1918, hulke-hamden County, massachusetts, died April 6, 1945,. Germany. Buried Notre Dame Cemetery, sea-tac 327, hadley, 1945,. Germany Buried Notre Dame Cemetery, sea TAC 327, hadley, south Massachusetts, united States. Raymond Olivia and I'm going to spell it this time B-E-A-U-D-O-I-N. For those of y'all that know Just another name. We need to remember folks. All right, we'll move on.
Speaker 1:Get back into Ezra Stiles and his sermon before the Connecticut General Assembly and the Commander-in-Chief, jonathan Trumbull. God be thanked. We have lived to see peace restored to this bleeding land, at least a general secession of hostilities among the belligerent powers. And on this occasion does it not become us to reflect how wonderful, how gracious, how glorious has been the good hand of our God upon us in carrying us through so tremendous a warfare. We have sustained a force brought against us which might have made any empire on earth to tremble, and yet our bow has abode in strength and, having attained help of God, we continue into this day, forced unto the last solemn appeal.
Speaker 1:America watched for the first blood. This was shed by Britons on the 19th of April 1775, which instantly sprung an army of 20,000 into spontaneous existence, with the enterprising and daring, if imprudent, resolution of entering Boston and forcibly disburdening it of its bloody legions, every patriot trembled till we had proved our armor, till it could be seen whether this hasty concourse was susceptible of execratal arrangement and could face the enemy with firmness. They early gave us the decided proof of this in the memorable Battle of Bunker Hill, june 17, 1775. We are satisfied. This instantly convinced us and for the first time convinced Britons themselves, that Americans both would and could fight with great effect. Whereupon Congress put at the head of this spirited army the only man on whom the eyes of all Israel were placed.
Speaker 1:Posterity, I apprehend, in the world itself, inconsiderate and incredulous as they may be, of the dominion of heaven, will yet do so much justice to the divine moral judgment as to acknowledge that this American Joshua was raised up by God and divinely formed by a peculiar influence of the sovereign of the universe for the great work of leading the armies of this American Joseph, now separated from his brethren, and conducting this people through the severe, the arduous conflict, the liberty and independence. Surprising was it, the liberty and independence. Surprising was it with what instant clarity men ascended and rose into generals and officers of every subordination formed chiefly by the preparatory discipline of only the preceding year, 1774, when the ardor and spirit of military discipline was, by heaven and without concert, sent through the continent like lightning. Surprising was it how soon the army was organized, took its formation and rose into firm system and impregnable arrangement. To think of withstanding and encountering Britain by land was bold, and much more bold and daring by sea. Yet we immediately began a navy and built ships of war with an unexampled expedition and built ships of war with an unexampled expedition. It is presumed never was a 35-gun ship before built quicker than that well-built, noble ship, the Riley, which was finished from the kill and equipped for sea in a few months. Soon had we got, though small, a very gallant initial navy which fought gallantly and wanted nothing but number of ships for successful operations against that superior naval force before which we fell. We have, however, exhibited proof to posterity in the world that a powerful navy may be originated, built and equipped for service in a much shorter period than was before imagined. The British navy has been many centuries growing and France, holland, the Baltic powers or any of the powers of this age in twenty years may build navies of equal magnitude, if necessary for dominion, commerce or ornament.
Speaker 1:Go back and read this first part again. God be thanked. We have lived to see peace restored to this bleeding land, at least a general secession of hostilities among the belligerent powers. And on this occasion does it not become us to reflect how wonderful, how gracious, how glorious has been the good hand of our God upon us in carrying us through so tremendous a warfare. We have sustained a force brought against us which might have made any empire on earth to tremble. And, jesus Christ, they don't know history when they tell you that. You've got to remember that this is a preacher who was also the president of Yale, giving a sermon before a body assembled as a political body. This was a pastor preaching to the Connecticut General Assembly and the commander-in-chief, assembled as not as individuals that went to church on Sunday, but assembled specifically as the body.
Speaker 1:And you can't do it with a particular denomination of Christianity. You have to do it with the general principles of Jesus Christ as laid out in Scripture. You can't do it based on the doctrine of Methodists or Baptists or Roman Catholics or Greek Orthodox. You have to do it based on the Bible, based on Scripture, and you certainly can't do it with Islam, hinduism, buddhism. The fact that we have men in office in our states who have taken the oath of office on the Koran on something other than the Bible is appalling on the Koran, on something other than the Bible, as a Pauline, because we're thumbing our nose at God and we're turning toward false gods Demons, some would say. Maybe they are. It's certainly the work, the handiwork of the devil and his minions to get us to turn away from God, the guiding hand of providence, who carried us through so much. And yet here we are, pretending that it doesn't matter, saying that worshiping false gods is equally important, equally worthy as worshiping the one true God, the Father of Jesus Christ, and assuming that we're just going to keep going like normal. Live and let live. Everybody gets to do what they want. It doesn't work that way, folks. You can't have liberty away from God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Let's see, yeah, we'll move on. We'll get back into Mercy.
Speaker 1:Otis Warren. The History of the Rise, progress and Termination of the American Revolution, chapter 6. And we were just talking about the fact that on the previous podcast, our choices are very much like those of the colonists. The alternative was bold and vigorous resistance or abject submission to the ignoble terms, and the people throughout the continent and Ms Ward says the whole people here, but from what I've read it was a pretty small percentage in the beginning Seemed determined to resist in blood rather than become slaves to arbitrary power. That's a good thing to remember too, folks, if we get into a third civil war, just because the percentage of people seem small at the beginning. The point is to trust God, pray to God, make sure that we're doing his will above all else, fearing him rather than men, making sure we're on his side, because his side is always the right side, and then, as John Quincy Adams said, just to do our duty and let God deal with the results.
Speaker 1:Happily for America, the inhabitants in general possess not only the virtues of native courage and a spirit of enterprise, but minds generally devoted to the best affections. Many of them retained the character, this character, to the end of the conflict, by the dereliction of interest and the costly sacrifices of health, fortune and life. Perhaps the truth of the observation that a national force is best formed where numbers of men are used to equality and where the meanest citizen may consider himself destined to command as well as to obey was never more conspicuous than in the brave resistance of Americans to the potent and conquering arm of Great Britain who, in conjunction with her colonies, had long taught the nations to tremble at her strength. Abigail Adams talks about this. Folks I don't have the quote in front of me but talked about the fact that we took it as our honor To take Husbandman Farmers, everyday laborers, and reward them based on their merit, meritocracy, make them generals, senators, representatives, judges, lawyers, based on their abilities and their willingness to work. And we need to do that again today.
Speaker 1:We've forgotten that in America, the participation trophy era has decimated us. Not everybody makes a team. Not everybody gets straight A's, nor should they. There ought to be a hierarchy of achievement. If you will, not, because there needs to be. If everybody went out and made straight A's, that would be great. If everybody went out and had the ability to serve in the military, that would be great. If everybody went out and had the ability to make a team, that would be great. But we don't. We've all been given different talents, different abilities by God and they're all important to the functioning of the whole. And they're all important to the functioning of the whole, but we need to reward accordingly to their merit and their work ethic individuals. And we are not today. We don't. We champion shared mediocrity and all that does is destroy the incentive for those who have ability to use that ability.
Speaker 1:But the painful period hastened on when the connection which nature and interest had long maintained between Great Britain and the colonies must be broken off, the sword drawn and the scabbard thrown down the gulf of time. We must now pursue the progress of a war enkindled by avarice, wedded by ambition and blown up into a thirst for revenge by repeated disappointment. Not the splendor of a diadem, the purple of princes or the pride of power can ever sanction the deeds of cruelty perpetuated on the western side of the Atlantic, and not infrequently by men whose crimes, emblazoned by title, will enhance the infamy of their injustice and barbarism when the tragic tale is faithfully related. We have already observed you got to go back, folks. I can't help here, but you look back at.
Speaker 1:Benghazi is the example the most recent? Well, it's not as recent as abandoning Afghanistan and those Marines and sailors that we lost in that debacle. But Benghazi always strikes me because we have a president and a secretary of state that are still out walking free when they should be in prison for the rest of their life based on their treason, based on abandoning Americans to die when help could have been sent, americans to die when help could have been sent. This wasn't an example where we wanted to save the Americans but we couldn't because we were in a state of war and we just didn't have that ability. This was an example where we very clearly, easily, could have sent help to Ambassador Stevens and those men and we are leaders decided not to, and then they lied about it, and then they pretended that the sufferings of those families who lost those men didn't matter.
Speaker 1:You read this right those people who have power, who have command and control in times of war, in times of upheaval, in times of conflict, and who use it cruelly instead of for justice and mercy and liberty. When the tale is finally told, those names go down in history and infamy, and that will be the case again somewhere, somehow, someday. Folks, those people, those generals and admirals in the military over the last several decades, those senators and representatives and judges, those politicians over the last several decades presidents, cabinet members, all the way down to local police chiefs, fire chiefs, mayors, city council, school boards, superintendents and did nothing, or who went along with and encouraged and supported the evil that we've seen over the last century in America, slowly eroding that's picked up pace in the last couple decades Destroying our relationship with God, destroying the family, destroying lives literally through separation of God and state, feminism, abortion, LGBTQ lifestyles, illegal immigration those people History at some point whether it takes a decade or a century, will come to show those people in the light of truth. And it won't be pretty folks Just like at some point. And where you see places where the truth is still taught Stalin and Mao, hitler, those people, they went down horribly but it's the people that should have stood with liberty inside those nations that went along with it when they shouldn't have. Those are the ones that really go down in history horribly. And you go back and you look at Mercy, miss Warren talking about the 70 in the House of Commons, or these men like the Earl of Beppingham that we've talked about. Those are the men that history shows in a bright light because they went against the tide and they followed the side of right, god's side. We have already observed, on the supplicatory address everywhere offered to the old government and the rebuffs attending them, the obstruction of legal debate and the best possible regulations made by the colonies in their circumstance, under the new modes established by themselves.
Speaker 1:The authority of congresses and committees of correspondence and the spirit which pervaded the United Colonies in the preparations for war during the last six months previous to the commencement of hostilities, bore such a resemblance that the detail of the transactions of one province is an epitome of the story of all, her epitome of the story of all, no epitome. The particular resentment of Great Britain leveled at Massachusetts made it necessary for that province to act, a more decided part that they might be in some readiness to repel the storm which, it appeared probable, would first burst upon them. Their provincial Congress was sitting when the news first arrived that all hope of reconciliation was precluded by the hostile resolutions of Parliament. This rather quickened than retarded the important step which was then the subject of their deliberations, persuaded that the unhappy contest could not terminate without bloodshed. Persuaded that the unhappy contest could not terminate without bloodshed, they were consulting on the expediency of raising an army of observation from the four new england governments that they might be prepared for defense in case of an attack. Before the continental congress could again meet and make proper arrangements for further operations. They proceeded their operations. They proceeded to name their own commanding officers and appointed delegates to confer with New Hampshire, connecticut, rhode Island and the proportion of men they would furnish with their quota of expense for the equipment of such an armament.
Speaker 1:Connecticut and New Hampshire readily acceded to the proposal, but in Rhode Island several embarrassments were thrown in the way. Though the people in that colony were in general as ready to enter warmly and to measure for the common safety as any of the others, nor had they less reason, they had long been exasperated by the insolence and rapacity of the officers of a part of the Navy stationed there to watch their trade. These had, without color of right, frequently robbed Newport and plundered the adjacent islands. They had seized the little skiffs in which a number of poor people had gained a scanty substance, and insulated, embarrassed and abused the inhabitants in various ways. Through the I think we'll stop there for the day, at least.
Speaker 1:For this Pretty good though, folks example of what we really need to be doing, you see them working amongst the states, building up, naming commanding officers, appointed delegates to confer with other states, just trying to get ready to be prepared for defense in case of an attack, before the Continental Congress can meet again, right To be ready for whatever that storm whenever it broke, for whatever that storm whenever it broke, and between local churches and communities, cities, schools, fire departments, police departments, ems services, states. Again, we ought to be doing the same thing on the conservative Christian side and making sure that we're as prepared as we can be for whatever storm is coming. Whatever your sphere of influence is right, folks, you have one and we need to use it this book of the Martyrs and we're just talking about the Duke of Savoy and the persecutions in the 17th century in the valleys of Piedmont and he just put out this edict, or the edicts that he had been putting out to persecute the Protestants were for the preservation of the papal authority, that the church livings may be all under one mode of government, to make union among all parties and in honor of all the saints and for the ceremonies of the church of Rome. Again, none of that stuff has anything to do with Jesus. Christ, which is theoretically the point of any church, any denomination, is to follow the commands of Christ.
Speaker 1:This severe edict was followed by a most cruel order published on January 25th AD 1655, under the Duke's sanction, by Andrew Gestaldo, director of civil laws. This order set forth that every head of a family or the individuals of that family, of the reformed religion, of what rank, degree or condition soever, none excepted inhabiting and possessing estates in Lucene, saint Giovanni, bubania oh, there's a bunch of them, folks, and I can't pronounce any of them so should, within three days after the publication thereof, withdraw and depart and be withdrawn out of the said places and translated into places and limits tolerated by His Highness during His pleasure, particularly Bobio and Angrigona, valerio Rarata and the County of Bonetti, county of Bonetti. And all this to be done on pain of death and confiscation of house and goods unless, within the limited time, they turned Roman Catholics. So either turn Roman Catholic, not follow Christ, even although that wouldn't be any better if you were trying to torture people into following Christ. That's not following Christ, but in this case, not even to follow Christ, but turn Roman Catholic or we're going to steal everything you got and torture you and kill you, which is pretty much what we to America, where they couldn't be tortured simply for not being Anglican or Roman Catholic or whatever it was, whatever church denomination was associated with a particular state, so they could worship God and Jesus Christ freely.
Speaker 1:A flight with such speed in the midst of winter may be conceived as no agreeable task, especially in a country almost surrounded by mountains. The sudden order affected all, and things which would have been scarcely noticed at another time now appeared in the most conspicuous light. Women with child or women just laying in were not objects of pity on this order for sudden removal, or women just laying in were not objects of pity on this order for sudden removal, for all were included in the command, and it unfortunately happened that the winter was remarkably severe and rigorous. The papists, however, drove the people from their habitations at the time appointed, without even suffering them to have sufficient clothes to cover them, and many perished in the mountains through the severity of the weather or for want of food. Some, however, who remained behind after the decree was published, met with a severest treatment, being murdered by the Popish inhabitants or shot by the troops, who were quartered in the valleys. A particular description of these cruelties is given in a letter written by a Protestant who was upon the spot and who happily escaped the carnage. The army says he, having got footing, became very numerous by the addition of a multitude of the neighboring Popish inhabitants who, finding we were destined prey of the plunderers, fell upon us with impudence, fury, exclusive of the Duke of Savoy's troops and the Popish inhabitants. There were several regiments of French auxiliaries, some companies belonging to the Irish brigades and several bands formed of outlaws, smugglers and prisoners who had been promised pardon and liberty in this world and absolution in the next, for assisting to exterminate the Protestants from Piedmont.
Speaker 1:This armed multitude, being encouraged by the Roman Catholic bishops and monks, fell upon the Protestants in a most furious manner. Nothing was now seen but the face of horror and despair. Blood stained the floors of the houses, dead bodies bestrewed the streets. Groans and cries were heard from all parts. Some armed themselves and skirmished with the troops, and many, with their families, fled to the streets. Groans and cries were heard from all parts. Some armed themselves and skirmished with the troops, and many, with their families, fled to the mountains. In one village they cruelly tormented 150 women and children after the men were fled, beheading the women and dashing out the brains of the children In the towns of Valerio and Bobbio, most of these who refused to go to mass, who were upwards of 15 years of age, they crucified with their heads downwards, and the greatest number of those who were Goodness gracious folks and you want to be part of a denomination that claims infallibility.
Speaker 1:And you look here and you see there's a couple of really important points, the multitude being encouraged by the Roman Catholic bishops and monks. This wasn't something that the church wasn't aware of. This wasn't something that was hidden from the pope or priests or monks or bishops or cardinals. This was something that they were encouraging, that they were driving Men who were supposed to be followers of Jesus Christ. You, just you, cannot reconcile those two things, folks. It's impossible. There's no possible justification For reconciling, even if, even if the goal had been which it wasn't, if the goal had been to force people to be Christian in the general sense, there's no justification for it. But certainly, but that wasn't the point the point was to make them Roman Catholics, not even Christians, to make them part of one particular denomination.
Speaker 1:The other thing that jumped out at me here, that we've talked about in the past folks, is where the Papists, however, drove the people from their habitations at the time appointed, without even suffering them to have sufficient clothes to cover them, and many perished in the mountains through the severity of the weather or for want of food. Whenever I read that earlier. Folks just throughout the 20th century. Anytime you see communists, socialists, leftists, muslims and this is just the 20th century alone Anytime you see them in total power. Anyone who doesn't go along with their ideology or their imposter faith is treated absolutely cruelly and without mercy. You can see it today. Actually, there's families in Syria that are being systematically executed because they're Christian and not Muslim, and folks just like every other time in history.
Speaker 1:If you think that something like this is happening in one little corner of the world and it could never happen here in America, please, please, don't make that mistake that if the Muslims or the leftists or the socialist, communists right, all kind of, they're all. They all go together folks in some form or fashion. They all serve evil in some form or fashion. If you think for one second that if they got total power in the United States, they wouldn't do the exact same things, you're wrong and it should terrify you and it should make you concerned at the increase of citizens inside the United States who follow those evils and it should change your actions and encourage you to encourage others around you, to make whatever preparations for whatever coming storm there is and, most of all to spread the gospel, to spread the Bible as much as possible.
Speaker 1:It happens every time that people who follow evil get total power. There is no respite or mercy given to those who refuse to follow evil. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Folks, we'll talk to y'all again real soon, looking forward to it.