America’s 250th And A Courageous Church - with Craig Seibert

Something is shifting as America heads toward the 250th anniversary, and it is not just more history content online. We feel a real opening for renewal when faith and culture meet in everyday places: churches, city councils, youth groups, family conversations, and local celebrations. From David Barton’s story of speaking on the deck of the USS Midway to Tim Barton’s reminder to unplug from endless social media drama, we keep coming back to one point: there is a lot of reason to celebrate, and a lot we can do right now. 

Constitution coach Craig Seibert joins us with brand-new 250th resources designed to help pastors and citizens reclaim the spiritual and civic ideas that shaped the founding. We dig into “Courageous Pastors,” a collection of seven Revolutionary era sermons that helped ignite and sustain the American Revolution, including Jonathan Mayhew’s famous teaching on Romans 13. We also talk about divine providence, what the Declaration of Independence meant by that phrase, and why remembering God’s providential care in American history can strengthen courage and gratitude today. 

Then we get practical with clear action steps: simple 30 day devotionals on the faith of the signers, the faith of the framers, and the faith of the presidents, plus a strategy for bringing local proclamations to mayors and city councils. Craig also shares “Documents of Freedom,” a curated collection of founding texts like the Constitution, the Mayflower Compact, and George Washington’s Farewell Address, with historical context that helps families and churches teach American history and religious liberty with clarity. 

If you care about biblical citizenship, the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and a hopeful path toward America 250, hit play, share this with a friend, and then subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Links mentioned in this episode:

https://declarationofindependence250.org/

https://unitedstates250.org/

Transcript

Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the WallBuildes Show taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective This is the intersection of faith and culture, meaning that our faith influences everything in our life. The Lord is Lord over everything in life and the Bible has something to say about everything in her life and everything going on in our neighborhoods in our country and so we take a faith perspective on everything in the culture. You can learn more about us at wallbuilders.com and then if you've missed any programs recently you can pick those up at wallbuilders.show. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. Later in the program, Craig Seibert will be joining us. He's one of our Constitution Coaches, been following WallBuilders for decades and has some really cool tools that just came out for the 250th. So we'll be talking to him about some of those, David and Tim, of course, 250 that's just become everything we hoped it would be really. I mean, it's so many people are paying attention to it. So much great content, uh all the stuff coming out of the white house, PragerU, American Journey Experience, there's so many people involved, Moms for Liberty. I think, David, you were even at a Moms for Liberty event this weekend, I think again. So there's just a lot of cool stuff happening. 

David Barton [00:01:11] I as cool as right, bro. That's the first time I've ever spoken off the deck of an aircraft carrier, a World War II aircraft carrier. It was awesome. It's the longest serving aircraft carrier we've had in naval history. It's a first aircraft carrier in America that was too big to go through the Panama Canal. But they had this thing, it's named after the Battle Midway or after Midway, there were two battles in Midway the same day that the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor. They also hit the Philippines and they hit Midway. They were unable to take Midway that day. They came back six months later. We had this massive battle and without that win it would have been a much longer war, but it's just, it's a great ship. I mean, it went again, it came out at the end of World War II, but it went through Korea, went through Vietnam, it went through Desert Storm. It was just awesome to be on that ship and do a 250 event. And then to have fireworks off the tail of the ship, you know, and all these massive firework cannons lighten up the whole city of San Diego. It was awesome, brother. 

Rick Green [00:02:12] And Tim, you were, you are out and about this weekend, this past weekend as well, I know you were with Victor Marx and I appreciate, that he was willing to put you in a headlock after I sent him the text. What I didn't expect was for you to reverse it so quickly. Cause I got both pictures, one of you in the headlock with him. And then you had him down. So 

Tim Barton [00:02:30] It was really funny. We were eating dinner in a green room beside each other and we were just talking for a little bit. And I had said, hey, Rick Green, you know, said to tell you Hi, to be dangerous. And he looked down at his phone and was like, oh, okay, hang on just a second. And then he walked over and gave his phone to somebody. He's like, hey, take this picture. And, I'm like, okay. And puts me in a headlock. And I know enough that like this is not the guy you really want to fight with. And so I'm like, I'm just going to sit here and take it. And I was like, hey, this is fun. And he's like, all right, wait, wait. But now let me get in front and you put me in a headlock. And because I know he sent you the picture, I am just dumb, cheese grinning, like, hey, thumbs up almost kind of. Because I know how ridiculous this is in real life. But he's, like I'm going to send this to Rick so he can see that you choked me and I choked you. And I'm was like this is just so funny. But yes, not to digress.

Rick Green [00:03:24] It made our weekend, man. The Green family chat was alive with pictures of you and Victor, it was cool. 

Tim Barton [00:03:31] It was so fun. 

Rick Green [00:03:32] Where were y'all? 

Tim Barton [00:03:33] So it was at Seth Gruber's event, The Last Stand, which he has a new film out. Oh yeah. Really, really well done. Showing, essentially, that in the history of Christendom, every time that Christians have followed the Bible, every time the church has stood up. Good, truth, morality, righteousness, has prevailed, been exalted, has made a difference in culture. And every time the church has been silent, when the church is failed to lead, the world gladly led, and it caused so many problems and heartache, et cetera. And so the challenge is that this could, for America, this could be our last stand. If the church doesn't stand up now, there might not be an America left to stand. And so it's challenging the church to stand, but just kind of along the themes that we've talked about many times with some of the thoughts of a revival or great awakening that we might be in now, another great awakening. All of that to say, it was super fun and good to hang out with a lot of friends. And then I took a red-eye Saturday night to fly to Washington, D.C. to be with our friends, Jaco Booyens and Landon Schott and Nate Schatzlein and so many friends at Mercy Culture. They were finishing up a weekend, so. This is stuff, and you, by the way, we're in D.C., we more or less passed en route. You were flying back to Texas. I was flying this direction. We've talked about it before, but God has opened so many cool doors. God is doing so many great things right now, and I wanna keep reiterating that. Because I think a lot of people, maybe see some of the problems in the culture in the drama and if you are locked in the social media and you are seeing more drama than you are positive I would encourage you turn your social media off, put your phone down for a while. Because God is doing so many cool things right now in this nation and there's a lot of reason to celebrate, which actually, part of our interview today is part of what people are doing to help celebrate and remind people of what America is really all about. 

Rick Green [00:05:33] This is going to be great. Craig Seibert with us when we come back from the break. Stay with us folks you're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:06:44] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Craig Seibert is with us, great Constitution Coach, man. You probably put, I bet you put thousands of people through Constitution classes, Biblical Citizenship, just a great patriot and love how you teach, man. Thanks for coming on today. 

Craig Seibert [00:06:58] You're welcome, and thank you for the tools to get it done, Rick. We're making a difference in the Southeast, and I know there's coaches like us all across the country advancing the cause. 

Rick Green [00:07:07] Well, now, speaking of tools, you've got some great new tools out for the 250th. Great time to do that. And then, of course, always trying to get people a way to walk through the Founding Fathers and the documents and all those things. And people are listening like never before. This is a great opportunity to put these things in front of them and then give them some action steps on things to do with this. You've got a great package of tools that just came out just a few weeks ago. God's Providence in the Affairs of Men and Nations: Celebrating the 250th Anniversary. It's just, I just think your timing is perfect, bro. And you've been in the trenches for, you know, well over a decade teaching these things and now to put this out in the 250th, just wanted to highlight it and let people know about it. So kind of walk us through, man, how you, how you ended up creating these specific tools for the 250th. 

Craig Seibert [00:07:56] Yeah. So, you and I both go back to David Barton and cassette tapes. So, David and then, Bill Federer, your friend and my friend have been early pioneers on this. So I've learned a lot. And as you're aware of some of the American, some of the, sermons from American history have been published over the years. And I've got some of those books. Obviously, WallBuilders has a lot of these sermons on their website. And what I began to think about is, I just wanted to master some of these more. And some of the sermons can be kind of long paragraphs, dense texts. And so I began this personal journey of getting some of sermons from archives and other places and kind of bullet pointing them, formatting them, just so I could master and understand them a little better. And so... What that ended up resulting in is selecting about seven sermons that actually are in a resource called Courageous Pastors, Seven Sermons of Spiritual Firepower that Ignited and Sustained the American Revolution. And these seven sermons kind of jumped out at me to kind of celebrate during this 250 period and then produce them in maybe a more accessible format that pastors today could see what pastors 250 years ago we're saying. And they might pick up that mantle again and feel courageous to preach on these topics again. 

Rick Green [00:09:20] All I, in fact, that's one of the titles. You've got; Courageous Pastors, Seven Sermons of Spiritual Fire Power that Ignited and Sustained the American Revolution. I love the title in and of itself, you know, and it, I forget that Bishop Galloway quote we use all the time, but it's something to the effect of God didn't need men. You know, that were, oh, what was it? Shaken by the, by the wind but, but hearty men of courage. So yeah, that what you highlight with those sermons. Who were some of the, who are some of the guys you use in that?

Craig Seibert [00:09:46] Really terrific. Cause you and David and Tim have highlighted some of these, but, the, the sermon that John Adams called the Morning Gun of the American Revolution was preached by Jonathan May. You know his name and you know this. What's remarkable is it was preached in 1750 when he was 29 years old and ten years before the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence. And so, just like John Wise, they were republishing his sermon 25 years later to be some spiritual fuel for the American Revolution. And honestly-. 

Rick Green [00:10:24] And Adams said the morning gun? I love that. 

Craig Seibert [00:10:27] Yeah, fire it off. And he's teaching on Romans 13 and is the best sermon on Romans13 that I've heard in generations. Some other highlights in here you can appreciate. Jacob Douche of the pastor that prayed at the First Continental Congress. There's two sermons in there for him by him. One of them's to the militia in Philadelphia. Another's at the Second Continental Congress's day of fasting and prayer. And then, Jonas Clark, our battle of Lexington pastor. I know you've stood at his desk and I've stood at that desk in Lexington and imagined him  preaching on what took place on Lexington Green. 

Rick Green [00:11:09] Yeah. 

Craig Seibert [00:11:09] And then, notably, The last two, which ties into this other resource, The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men, kind of how we started this little radio interview, that was preached by John Witherspoon, as you know, signer of the Declaration of Independence, the only pastor to have signed it. And we just celebrated the 250 year anniversary of that sermon just May 17th of this year. You recall this small event taking place in Washington, Rededicate 250?

Rick Green [00:11:37] Yeah, yeah 

Craig Seibert [00:11:39] People observed that that was on the anniversary of day of prayer and fasting. But what was lost in history a little bit is the fact that John Witherspoon preached this remarkable sermon on that day. Last sermon in this book is on a Reverend named Stoughton who a memorial sermon for Jefferson and Adam's passing. On the 50th Jubilee year of the Declaration of Independence. And as you always articulate, both these men passed on the same day, kind of stamping God's providence on American history. So great book to give to pastors, to motivate them and give them to preach these things today. 

Rick Green [00:12:23] I love that idea too, just, you know, everybody's listening. I mean, this is a fantastic gift to give to your pastor. And as Craig said, you at the top of the interview, it will show them what pastors were doing in the Revolutionary period and what the things were that they were speaking on, the fire with which they were speak, the courage that they had. And of course, that courage is contagious. So that was called Courageous Pastors, Seven Sermons of Spiritual Firepower. 

Craig Seibert [00:12:48] Then this ties into the title that you began the show with, Rick, God's Providences over the Affairs of Men and Nations. I just mentioned John Witherspoon's sermon to that end. One of the motivations for this book was to take that sermon specifically as well as three additional sermons from 250 years ago where preachers preached on God's providences. And then it made sense to, in this book, include what I called 22 of the most notable providences during the revolutionary war period. 

Rick Green [00:13:22] So acts of providence, where God intervened. 

Craig Seibert [00:13:24] And this is where, this is just in your sweet spot because you guys talk about this all the time and David and Tim were an early pioneer on this. You know, Bulletproof George Washington, the Fortification of Dorchester Heights and the amazing fog and moonlight that allowed them to do that, Squanto coming into the Pilgrim's Camp, the Great Awakening, the Battle of Lexington, the Gunboat Philadelphia. And so there's little two-page articulation of each of these 22 providences along with four historic sermons on God's providences. And again, just topics that we don't really address in the church today, God providentially acting in the affairs of men. 

Rick Green [00:14:09] Love it. And it has life applications for today. So you literally go through, you know, you're saying these things happen then but hey, look at what this means for us today and what we can do with 

Craig Seibert [00:14:17] Yeah, and I like this 1828 dictionary; the care and superintendents which God exercise over his creatures Divine Providence is often understood to be God Himself. So when they use Divine Providence in the Declaration of Independence and spoke about it in those days They were literally talking about God's presence in their midst. Such a cool thought. 

Rick Green [00:14:44] Mm-hmm, man Powerful, powerful. You have also, Craig, specific books on different categories of Founders and highlighting their face. You have one on the faith of the Signers of the Declaration, faith of the Framers of the Constitution, faith of the Presidents. How do you recommend people tackle the information? It's like there's so much good stuff here. Where do you start and kind of what order do you recommend people go in? 

Craig Seibert [00:15:07] Yeah, so the sermon, the highlight of sermons, Courageous Pastors, great gift for pastors, as you said. Providence Over the Affairs of Men and Nations, again, a pastor's gift, a church gift. The three items that you just mentioned, the faith of the Signers, the faith in the Framers, and the faith and the Presidents. You know, David and Tim have done such good work on this. And as you've already noted, they've got new book coming out on the 56 Signers and so that's so important. But these three books that are a little more slender have a one page biographical sketches on the Signers in the case of the Declaration, the Framers in the case of the Constitution. And then for the presidents, not every president was a person of faith, but it has biographical stretches in there. And I have an associate in the Southeast named Scott Saunders that conceived of this idea of, could you take 30 days, and in the case of the Signers, the month of July, the case to the Framers, the month September and the case of the presidents during February. And during those 30 days cobble together a 30 day devotional on the faith of the Signers, the Framer, and the presidents. And then he took it a step further and this really ties into the Rebuilding Liberty Curriculum, Rick, and the 222 and even with some of Andrea Justice's work and Kelly Shackleford's work with First Liberty. The concept is, let's in our local communities have proclamations of faith, proclamation of faith of the Signers, or the proclamation to faith of the Framers, or the presidents. And so during the month of July or September or February, have youth groups, have Trail Life groups, have American Heritage Girl groups, study this history, but then go down to their local city council and say, You know, we'd like the sponsor a proclamation for our mayor and our city council, to declare these things in our town. And so these, each of these little resources has a nice little proclamation associated with it. As well as the church strategy that's associated with it. 

Rick Green [00:17:15] Oh, man. I love it. I love it. 

Craig Seibert [00:17:17] Yeah. So to your question, those items could be kind of just picked up and be used as a little church strategy. So  

Rick Green [00:17:25] You've thought really basically almost like I mean, this is not just an immediate thing This is over the next year as we as we really live out the 250th all the way through July 4th, 2027 There are different ways to use each of these tools and then action items where they can plug in that will make a difference In their communities for decades to come if they go take those actions 

Craig Seibert [00:17:44] Yeah, yeah, and one last item if we've got a minute,. 

Rick Green [00:17:48] Yeah go for it. 

Craig Seibert [00:17:48] Yeah, the Documents of Freedom is the probably last resource we'll talk about today. And again, one of the purposes for these is for us to all advanced Liberty together and particularly get in the stream of what Patriot Academy is doing and what First Liberty is doing You know as you've had Kelly Shackelford on so many times and talked about First Liberty's victories at the Supreme Court. And now with the Kennedy case giving us so much more freedom in the public sphere to kind of advance the original principles of our founding, Andrew Justice specifically has been working on this Foundations of American Law and Government project, which also kind of ties into the Ten Commandments project as far as getting a more public display of either the Ten Commandments or our founding document. And so there are resources over the years called Documents of Freedom that are out there on the internet that typically would include the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, but I could not find any that tied together the atmosphere that all these documents were produced in. So the last item that would kind of advance our cause that ties nicely into this idea of advancing these documents of freedom in a public way is called: Documents of Freedom the American Way of Life and Liberty. And in that it includes the full text of things like the Constitution, the Declaration but it also includes George Washington's Farewell Address that Thomas Jefferson said was one of the top four things that should be studied to understand American history. It includes the complete Mayflower Compact, the complete George Washington's Inaugural Address, but also woven in there are such things as a summary of the Great Awakening, a piece on the pulpit of the American Revolution. One of the items I like the most is John Robinson's Letter to the Pilgrims and how to get along as they form this new civil body. And one of the main things he highlighted was don't be offended. Don't take up an offense. And then one last thing on this that's kind of getting elevated to the surface is this whole 1607 project where first landing in Virginia,. 

Rick Green [00:20:20] Yeah. 

Craig Seibert [00:20:22] Robert Hunt planet a cross and said we do hereby dedicate this land and ourselves to reach the people within these shores with the gospel of Jesus Christ and raise up godly generations after us. And David Barton and Glenn Beck and Bill Federer all spoke in an event at First Landing two years ago. So a lot of good stuff here and resources that I hope can help us advance our cause. 

Rick Green [00:20:46] Man, so good. So good. I, you know, it's just a, it just the perfect time to do it. And people are looking for more and more resources. Of course we got a lot of great stuff at Patriot Academy and WallBuilders and all that, but we love highlighting other folks that are doing this and you've been a great coach for, for Patriot academies, constitution classes, and I'm just glad to see these, these additional tools out there. I know you've got the Christiancivicstraining.org site. Is that, is that where you want to send people to get these resources? Or do you want them to go straight to Amazon? What's the best place to get these? 

Craig Seibert [00:21:13] Yeah, so I can amplify that for you a little bit. Yeah, christiancivicstraining.org would be a good place, and it's got a lot of on-demand, three-to-five-minute video trainings that I often use to compliment some of the Patriot Academy teaching I'm doing. They can get them on Amazon. But we actually have created two websites that really highlight what Patriot Academy is doing, plus these resources, and I think you're gonna like these, UnitedStates250.org highlights Patriot Academy and all the work that we're doing nationally and has these resources there. 

Rick Green [00:21:48] Oh cool. You've got a countdown on the on the page, too nice. 

Craig Seibert [00:21:53] And similarly declarationofindependence250.org some similar content, but again highlighting what Patriot Academy is doing in highlighting these resources So those might be more memorable names where people can kind of just drop in yeah take a look, see what Patriot Academy's doing. And see what these resources look like. 

Rick Green [00:22:14] Love it, man. UnitedStates250.org, UnitedState250.org. We'll have a link today at our wallbuilders.show website as well. Keep up the great work. We'll help get the word out and let's make the most of this 250th. 

Craig Seibert [00:22:28] Thank you, Rick. Keep contending. Love you, guys. 

Rick Green [00:22:31] That was Craig Seibert, folks. You can get the books at Amazon. We'll be back in a moment with David and Tim Barton. 

Rick Green [00:23:43] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Craig Seibert for not only being on the program, but man, taking the ball and running with it. I mean, what a great handoff guys to, to one of the folks that that's, you know, followed WallBuilders for years, been out there on his own, you know, ginning up  people to do classes and teaching the Constitution. Then became a Constitution Coach and ran with it and put thousands and thousands of people through it and now has these great materials. We love seeing this is good stuff. 

David Barton [00:24:07] And you know, this is so healthy. This is part of what makes me really hopeful for what Tim was talking about, that God's doing stuff right now. Because when you see it going in regions, I mean, we think about a national great awakening, but national great awakening is really local revivals that happen all over the country. And if you remember the book of Nehemiah where they rebuilt the walls. It's because everybody did their part on their part of the wall. It was not a national huge effort. It was a bunch of local efforts, a bunch of small efforts that made a national movement. And I love what Craig is doing because he's taken and given resources. I mean, all he's been doing the Constitution coaching, but this is what everybody needs to do. You just take and rebuild what you can in your area. What's right around you. Song of Solomon 8:13 says, Hey, your friends listen to your voice. So speak. I mean, it literally is as important as just talking to those that are around you and getting them trained. And these kinds of sermons are so awesome, not only for average Christians, but for pastors to see as well. 

Tim Barton [00:25:09] Well guys, as we are coming up closer to the 4th of July, obviously our social media, we're gonna be doing a lot of things. They're gonna telling stories. We'll talk about new products and things we have available. And Dad, you and I are gonna be in Washington, DC for the week of the 4rd of July. A lot of stuff happening up here. But Rick, I'm just curious, if there's people going, man, where can I find a really good party for the 4th of July? And I'm willing to like drive to Fredericksburg. Is there anywhere you can think of where there might be another really cool party going on? 

Rick Green [00:25:41] I heard a rumor. I heard a rumor that there was going to be a really cool party at the Patriot Academy campus. And I know this; Flash Point's paying for the fireworks. So I was able to do a lot more fireworks than I would have been other able to otherwise. So we're going to have a massive fireworks show. Ben Franklin's going to there. George Washington is giving a speech. It's going be awesome, man. And we actually, Tim, we, we installed part of our Independence Hall interior that we were able to build out last year. We installed that in the chamber. So it's going to be like you get to walk up and sign the Declaration, you know, and it feels like you're in the room. And anyway, it's gonna be cool, man. We're gonna have a great time. Yeah, yeah. July 4th and Patriotacademy.com/250th. If people want to find out more, it is not too late to come and join us. Thank you for mentioning that. So many great opportunities, though, if people host your own Fourth of July party at your house, your church. I love seeing the churches be the epicenter of the community on something like this, but read the declaration at your party and make sure everybody goes through the entire Declarations gonna be a great year guys. Thanks for listening folks. We'll have more for you tomorrow. You've been listening to the WallBuilders Show