Hi, my name is Rick Bloodworth. This is the Common Sense Christian Channel. And today is Tuesday. So we're going to be looking at things with a patriotic. And I specifically wanted to talk about the evidence that we have when we look back at our founding fathers, those righteous men and women who helped shape the nation into what it was. And the reason I say we want to look at the evidence for this is because so often we get mixed. Information on our founders and it's I think much of it is honest as far as people have heard one thing about the founders all Their life and that's what they believe and and that's what they're going to stick to Others go to different sources and they get different information But what I really want to encourage you to do is to go back to the original documents that we have the original sources the the writings of of the men and women who lived during this era so that you can see for yourself the things that they were thinking, not only as they approached the time where we entered into the Revolutionary War, but also at the time when they were, they were writing the Constitution. There are so many things that are written. Mm Prior to the constitution to give us a very clear understanding as to what they intended the constitution to be. And also as far as the guidance that they were convinced that they had to get from God and that they were beseeching. God to give them, not only through reading of his word and trying to figure out how it would best please him to form this nation, but also through prayers for guidance from him. And again, as you go back to the original document, some of the original writings of these men and women, you're going to find out that this was one of their clear intentions. was to make sure that they were designing a godly nation, not just a physical, worldly nation, but something that was going to be pleasing to God. And so what I wanted to start with talking about evidence is actually a passage from Romans chapter 1. And in Romans chapter 1, in verse 19, it says, What may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Well, now clearly the, the context that we're looking at here is proof and evidence for God. And in Romans chapter one, he talks about all sorts of sinful activities that men have engaged themselves in. And one of the things that I think you'll find that's common among men who desire to do the wrong thing is they've always got an excuse. And I believe that we look for those same excuses in many areas of our own life today, whether we're talking about our service to God or whether we're talking about our very nation and the way it was founded and the way it was intended to run. Because if you look At the founding times, and you look at our times, you can see a vast difference between the two. And in a prudent person, somebody who really is looking at the evidence, will have to admit that the way we're doing things now is not the way It was designed to be when America was formed as a nation. And certainly when we talk about religious matters, God is not at all going to condone wicked behavior from those who just are playing dumb. And, and by that, we've all seen people who have played dumb and we have very little patience for it. When I, when I worked at a restaurant and the manager would come in and say, I need the dishes washed before you go home. Well, if you thought you, you were clever, maybe you'd just do some of the dishes and then leave the rest. And then when he came back and said, I told you to do the dishes and you might say something like, well, I did some of the dishes. I didn't know you meant all of them. Well, either you knew better. And we're just playing dumb, or he probably shouldn't have been hired there in the first place. But, but we see people playing dumb all the time when it comes to things like our nation and our constitution. And we certainly see it when it comes to godly matters. We live in an era where more and more people who consider themselves intellectual are, focusing more upon science than upon God. And maybe a better way to put it is they're focusing more upon scientific theory than God, because God is the creator of science. And so true science and God have no argument. There's no inconsistencies between the scriptures. and true science. But we certainly find some variation between some of the scientific theories that we have now and what we read about in the Bible. In the Bible, we read of a creator, God. We read of intelligent design, a very thoughtful process in that creation. We see the creation occurring over a period of six days. It was a fixed time. When we look at scientific theory, we have all sorts of ideas. That the world is billions and billions of years old. That, that it somehow was formed not by the hand of an intelligent designer, but by some sort of a freakish cosmic accident. Somehow some gases that just were there exploded. And they created somehow the world. And, and created all sorts of primordial ooze that from which everything from slugs that crawl on the ground to redwood trees that grow up into the sky to men and women were all created from that same primordial ooze. That ain't made sense. And people who hold onto that type of a theory, I believe, if they're really looking at it, but they say, yeah, they still believe it. I, I think they're just playing dumb. I, I think they should know better. And this speaks to a problem that I believe we have to a, to a great extent in our society today. And that problem is that men are tending more and more to reasoning. less and less. They're just going by what they hear from different people. They're not using their own mind to consider, is this something that could really happen? They're not going back to the original sources and looking for themselves to see first and foremost, what God says within his word. And if that makes sense to them, as compared to some of the scientific theories that we have today, that when it comes right down to it, really aren't very scientific at all. We have a, we have a problem, I believe, with, with our ability to reason. I believe people have gotten lazy and they just don't want to think anymore. Now, this is a problem that has happened in every generation since the world has been created, but it just seems to be compounded today, doesn't it? Another problem that, that I believe we have is the desire for other people's approval. In grade school, in junior high, in high school, we call it peer pressure. It's the same thing as we become adults, isn't it? We don't want to fall out of favor with the in group, with the popular people. We don't want to have a different opinion from the majority of people because we don't want to stand out and somehow be, embarrassed because people will laugh at us for being different. And so that desire to conform, I believe is another contributor to that killing of reason where people just don't really think things out. They'd rather go along with the crowd than think for themselves. And, and the reason I bring this up on a discussion on patriotism is because If you look at the way that so many talk about those who founded this country, the righteous men and women who were trying to form something that was important and good and something that was pleasing to God. And again, I don't want to give the impression that these were perfect people because they were not. The people we read about in the Bible were not perfect people, but at least they were trying. to God. And I believe the majority of our founding men and women were very much trying to be pleasing to God. They were seeking a nation that would first and foremost be something that God would be, that God would approve of. Because they knew if God approved of it, it would be something that worked. And when you read things like the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, you read things where people freely acknowledge their belief in God. And, and you also read of, of things where they, where you can see they were truly seeking to do the things that he wanted them to do. One of my favorite stories occurred during the Constitutional Convention when, when representatives from different states were getting together and the arguments were so much that Benjamin Franklin said they, they, they could hardly agree on anything. And so he stood up within that body of, of legislate, legislators, and he reminded them that when they went into the Revolutionary War, That they had daily prayer, that they sought earnestly God's guidance. And Benjamin Franklin said that he believed those prayers, those entreaties were answered, but then he went on to say, do we think now all of a sudden that we don't need. The guiding hand of God. Well, Benjamin Franklin was pretty old at this time. Benjamin Franklin certainly was not a perfect man and everybody knew that, but he did make an impression upon them so much so that they actually adjourned the constitutional convention for several days and they either went to the churches within the, the, that town or they went back home if they were close enough and they, they met with their religious leaders and they met with other people and they prayed to God for guidance. And Benjamin Franklin said that when they got back together, there was such a spirit of felicity that, that it just seemed like it was a different group. And they very quickly were able to to agree on, on the parts of the constitution. Today, it is taught within our schools, within our universities, that the vast majority of our founding fathers and the righteous men and women who helped design this nation were not righteous at all. But they were just somehow a group of bigoted people who wanted to enslave everybody who was of a different race or a different color than them, that were only concerned in selfish pursuits and building up money at the cost of others. This was not the case at all, and if you read not only their writings, but the writings of those who were talking about them, even people who didn't approve and agree with everything they were doing, you'll get a much different picture of the people, and yet, when we talk about our founders today, the vast majority of people seem to think that they were evil, and, and that the, the nation and the Constitution that they left us is somehow evil and needs to be changed. When a jury is being picked in, in our legal system, one of, one of the very first things that the attorneys from both sides try to ascertain is, are they going to get a jury pool that is unbiased, that hasn't already made up their mind concerning a person's guilt or innocence, or hasn't made their mind available? Up on the outcome of the case, whatever that case may be, because they realize that those who have already made up their mind, who are so closed minded as they cannot look at the evidence and come to a reasonable conclusion, are absolutely worthless when it comes to serving as jurors. We want a fair and impartial trial, don't we, if we're being charged with something. And if we're innocent, we certainly want jurors to be selected who can look at the evidence and who can draw reasonable conclusions. We have far too many people today that look at the evidence. Well, maybe, let me back up. We have far too many people today who do not look at the evidence for an intelligent designer, a creator, The Holy God. They, they would much rather believe some set of theories that men have come up with, because if you can try and somehow divorce this world from any thought of there being a God to whom we'll be held accountable for, well, that just makes our, our lives so much more comfortable. Then we get to be our own gods at that point, don't we? And so a lot of people don't want to look at the evidence. And, and there's other people who are, are scared to death to look at the evidence because it might disagree with their peers, with what those, with what the majority might think at any given time, and they don't want to go against the majority. And then there are just those people who want to play dumb. They can look at this world and they can see that it couldn't have possibly just happened. But they play dumb and, and, and their whole plan is if there is a God, they can just go before him someday on judgment and just tell him, well, I couldn't help what I believed. Surely you won't punish me for that. But remember what God said here, since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse. You can conclude what you want about God. You can conclude what you want about the Bible as to whether it's God's word or not, but you better be using your reason to do so. Because playing dumb, the only thing that's going to get you on the day of judgment is, is revealing that you're without excuse. When it comes to what our nation was meant to be, this isn't quite as serious as our eternal salvation, but it's pretty serious when it comes to what our nation was intended to be, how it was designed to be. by those righteous men and women who are very concerned about about forming a nation that would be in fact one nation under God. A nation that was guided by his principles is found within the word. The reason that's so important is because we've gotten so far away from the word from the word of God within our society that that society is just coming apart at the seams. I heard of a case just in the last week where a New York judge informed a defendant that the Second Amendment did not apply within her courtroom. Well, how does a judge decide whether, whether any part of the Constitution can be voided or not? Obviously, her decisions will be overturned. We haven't come, I hope, haven't come to the point now where we just ignore The Constitution, but you can see the problem. There are people in positions of power that are there not because of their ability to reason, but because of their political allegiance, their political alliances. What those who have put them in those positions of power think they're going to get from them. And because of that, because of the way that we have made a mockery of, of the, of the rule of law. Because there is no longer one one body of justice now, but, but justice is going to be exercised depending on who you are and how much money you have and how you vote. We're, we're getting farther and farther away and, and again, our, our, our society is crumbling. Our, our big cities are just being overcome with criminals. They're also being overcome with people who are not intending to be criminals, but, but, but they are overwhelming the system. And because people have ceased to reason, because people just want to go along with popular opinion, because people want to play dumb, as long as playing dumb will get them the goodies that they hope to get, we're in a serious situation. One of the reasons on Tuesdays I wanted to go back and look at the Patriots who helped found this nation is because I believe the principles with which this nation was founded are still something that will work today. But we've given up so many of them. First and foremost, because we've abandoned God, and once you abandon God, then you start abandoning every principle that smacks of godliness. It's not too late, I don't believe, for our nation, but I do believe we're going to have to go back and try and figure out what was working. We're going to try and have to restore the original foundation and the original structure of this nation, and the only way we can do that is to go back to the beginning and find out what was intended. And then we're going to have to use our minds. We're going to have to stop playing dumb. We're going to have to stop being lazy and we're going to have to see what our constitution is designed for and how it's to be used. And even before that, we're going to have to go back to the word of God and we're going to have to see what God expects of us and how he expects us to live and how he expects us to act in this world. I want to say again, I don't believe it's too late to save the nation, but if it is, it's not too late to save your soul and it's not too late to save the souls of those that you love and those who you can influence who you may not even know yet, but you've got to get back to the idea of using the fine mind that God has given you to be able to reason as to what he expects of you from you. the examination of the scriptures, and then the application of the truths found within them. And then, once we've got our lives right with God, then we can start going back to our founding of this nation. We can go back to our constitution, and we can start applying those principles to the world. And we can start using our minds to reason what was intended and we can start putting this nation back to where it was intended to be in the first place. It's not going to be easy. And I'm not sure that everything that we'd like to see is going to be possible. But isn't it reasonable to try to see if we can't rescue what can be rescued? God said that those who don't believe in him are without excuse. The evidence is too overwhelming. We can also say that those who do not believe that the Founding Fathers were trying to do the right thing are probably just as much without excuse. And for the same reason, they're refusing to look at the evidence and then draw reasonable conclusions. I believe this is something that's so important in our lives for every, every, every aspect of our lives. But we got to start doing it. We got to stop playing dumb. We got to stop going along with the crowd when the crowd is wrong, and we've got to stop judging things based upon our wishes and desires rather than upon the evidence. Once we start doing that, we can go about to setting what's wrong in this nation right again. But before we can do that, We've got to start setting what's wrong with our own lives and our own relationship with God right again. And then we can start the, the important work of taking care of everything else. Well, that's the lesson for today. I hope it's something that will give you something to think about. I hope it will inspire you to go back to some of our original documents and really start looking in to the way our nation was founded and what it's intended to be. But even more than that, I pray that it will inspire you to go back to the word of God and to look at the evidence that we have within that and use your reason to find out and determine what it is that you need to be doing before God. If we can do that, life's going to be pretty good. And then there'll be heaven someday. But if we can't, well, We're seeing the results of that right now, aren't we? Hope it gives you something to think about. I appreciate your tuning in today. And as always, I pray that God will richly bless you as you seek to serve him to the very best of your ability.